#joycevance — Public Fediverse posts

USA - US-Juristin: Trump versucht, uns leere Versprechen anzudrehen

Die USA mache einen schrecklichen Job bei der Bildung der Zivilgesellschaft, sagt Juristin Vance – und zieht Zusammenhänge zur zweiten Amtszeit Trumps.#DonaldTrump #JoyceVance #USA #Amerika #Demokratie
„Die Republikaner im Kongress haben enttäuscht“: US-Juristin über Trump und seine Partei

USA - US-Juristin: Trump versucht, uns leere Versprechen anzudrehen

Die USA mache einen schrecklichen Job bei der Bildung der Zivilgesellschaft, sagt Juristin Vance – und zieht Zusammenhänge zur zweiten Amtszeit Trumps.#DonaldTrump #JoyceVance #USA #Amerika #Demokratie
„Die Republikaner im Kongress haben enttäuscht“: US-Juristin über Trump und seine Partei

#joyceVance #brennanSuesTrump Lawsuits like this one rarely make it into the daily headlines with the context they deserve. It’s easier to reduce it to “Brennan sues Trump” and move on. But studying the complaint, as we do tonight, tells a more precise story than a headline can. That precision is the whole point. It’s the difference between knowing something happened and understanding why it matters.

Civil Discourse exists to give you that second thing. Not commentary for its own sake, but the legal literacy that comes with decades of experience to look at a complaint like Brennan’s and understand exactly what he’s asking for, why, and what it reveals about how this Justice Department is operating. That kind of understanding is important, regardless of what you can afford, which is why this newsletter stays free. Clarity shouldn’t be a privilege reserved for those who can pay for it.

#joyceVance #brennanSuesTrump Lawsuits like this one rarely make it into the daily headlines with the context they deserve. It’s easier to reduce it to “Brennan sues Trump” and move on. But studying the complaint, as we do tonight, tells a more precise story than a headline can. That precision is the whole point. It’s the difference between knowing something happened and understanding why it matters.

Civil Discourse exists to give you that second thing. Not commentary for its own sake, but the legal literacy that comes with decades of experience to look at a complaint like Brennan’s and understand exactly what he’s asking for, why, and what it reveals about how this Justice Department is operating. That kind of understanding is important, regardless of what you can afford, which is why this newsletter stays free. Clarity shouldn’t be a privilege reserved for those who can pay for it.

Nice Supreme Court opinion (not our current one, of course) from #joyceVance The United States Attorney is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done.

@AkaSci note also as #joycevance points out that many of the pleaded guilty and those that didn’t were CONVICTED BY A JURY OF THEIR PEERS!

@AkaSci note also as #joycevance points out that many of the pleaded guilty and those that didn’t were CONVICTED BY A JURY OF THEIR PEERS!

Wednesday Reads: Loss of a Good Guy and Trump’s Staggering Corruption

Good Day!!

I’ll get to the depressing news from Trump world, but first, we’ve lost one of the good guys.

Former Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank has died at 86. It was expected; he’s been in hospice care, but still it’s a sad day.

He was the opposite of Trump: he was good humored, funny, honest as the day is long, and he truly cared about our country and its people.

I’m devoting the remainder of this post to the incredibly corrupt bargain Trump has struck with his own “justice” department and IRS.

Kathryn O. Seelye at The New York Times: Barney Frank, Gay Pioneer and Liberal Stalwart in Congress, Dies at 86.

Barney Frank, the brassy, lightning-quick former Massachusetts representative who for decades was the most prominent gay politician in the country and who was an author of the most significant overhaul of the nation’s financial regulations since the Great Depression, died on Tuesday at his home in Ogunquit, Maine. He was 86.

His friend James Segel confirmed the death. Mr. Frank said last month that he had entered hospice care with congestive heart failure.

Mr. Frank, a liberal Democrat who represented a diverse suburban Boston district for 32 years, starting in 1981, was the first gay member of the House to come out voluntarily; others had been outed in scandals. His public declaration of his sexual orientation in 1987 — spurred by a fear of being outed, by the death of a closeted colleague and by his own determination to show that homosexuality was nothing to be ashamed of — helped normalize being openly gay in public life.

“Prejudice is based on ignorance,” Mr. Frank told The Boston Globe in 2011, as he prepared to retire. “And the best way to counterbalance it is with a living example, with reality.”

A Harvard-trained lawyer, Mr. Frank bristled with intellectual firepower, acidic turns of phrase and a zest for verbal combat.

Barney Frank

His shivs were often cloaked in wit. Referring to the Moral Majority, the conservative Christian organization that opposed abortion but also opposed child nutrition programs and day care, Mr. Frank said in 1981: “From their perspective, life begins at conception and ends at birth.” Of the flawed intelligence behind the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that led to nearly a decade of combat, he said the problem “is not so much the intelligence as the stupidity.”

In Washingtonian magazine’s annual poll of Capitol Hill staffers, he was frequently voted the “brainiest,” “funniest” and “most eloquent” member of the House.

His most significant legislative achievement was in the realm of financial regulation. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which he sponsored with Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, tightened rules on the financial industry as part of the government’s response to the housing crisis of 2007 and the global financial meltdown the next year.

Signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010, the measure sought to prevent the nation’s biggest banks from engaging in excessively risky behavior and to protect consumers from unfair practices by banks and lenders. Congress watered it down in 2018, chiefly by exempting smaller and midsize banks from stricter oversight, but it remained largely intact.

Mr. Frank was also known for championing gay rights, civil rights and women’s rights. He did so by force of personality and by example. He insisted that his male partner be invited to all events to which the spouses of other representatives were invited. In 2012, at age 72, he married Jim Ready and became the first sitting member of Congress to wed someone of the same sex.

He also worked quietly behind the scenes to advance his causes. In one of many examples, according to his memoir, “Frank: A Life in Politics From the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage” (2015), he helped persuade President Bill Clinton not to appoint Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia as secretary of state because of his track record of homophobia.

One more on Barney Frank by Daniel Arkin at NBC News: Former Rep. Barney Frank, champion of Wall Street reform and LGBTQ trailblazer, dies at 86.

Barney Frank, the quick-witted Massachusetts congressman and liberal lion who helped overhaul Wall Street regulations after the 2008 financial crisis and made history as one of the first openly gay members of Congress, died Wednesday, his sister confirmed to NBC Boston.

He was 86. He had entered hospice care at his home in Maine last month.

“He was, above all else, a wonderful brother. I was lucky to be his sister,” Frank’s sister Doris Breay told NBC Boston.

Frank represented southern Massachusetts in the House for 32 years and established himself as a leading voice in debates over banking, affordable housing and LGBTQ rights. He chaired the Financial Services Committee amid the 2008 meltdown and co-authored the milestone Dodd-Frank Act, a sweeping law that sought to put Wall Street firms under tougher scrutiny.

He blazed a trail for other openly gay American elected officials, and in 2012, he became the first member of Congress to enter into a same-sex marriage, tying the knot with his longtime partner, Jim Ready.

“It was life-changing, lifesaving for me,” Frank told NBC News in a phone interview in last month.

“I think the key to our having made the enormous progress we made in defeating anti-gay prejudice had to do with us all coming out and people discovering the gap between our reality and the way we were painted,” he added.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the former House speaker, who served with Frank for more than 25 years, described him as progressive and an idealist in an interview with NBC News last month.

“He has been about idealism and pragmatism to get the job done,” said Pelosi, who was speaker when Frank shepherded Dodd-Frank through Congress. Frank called Pelosi last month to inform her that he was receiving hospice care, she said.

“He was a real mentor to so many of us here,” Pelosi said. “I was with him” on the Banking Committee “in the beginning. I learned so much.”

What a contrast he was to the bunch of crooks we’re dealing with today.

A couple of days ago, the White House announced a “settlement” of Trump’s $10 million lawsuit against his own IRS. He created an “anti-weaponization fund” to pay out reparations to the thugs who attacked the Capital on January 6, as well as anyone who thinks they were wrongly prosecuted during Joe Biden’s presidency. Then yesterday we learned that, as part of the “settlement,” Trump and his entire family are forever exempt from past IRS investigations. This is obviously illegal, unconstitutional and most likely an impeachable offense, but so what? Trump does whatever he wants.

Ray Brescia at MSNOW on the “settlement”: Trump’s nearly $1.8 billion ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ is simply indefensible.

After filing a highly unusual lawsuit in which President Donald Trump sued his own administration’s Internal Revenue Service, he settled it through his acting attorney general — also his former personal lawyer, Todd Blanche — setting up a team of “volunteers” to dole out nearly $1.8 billion in taxpayer money out of what the Department of Justice calls “The Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

The president did so in a way to avoid any judicial oversight of his or the Justice Department’s actions. It is hard to imagine a situation more susceptible to fraud, grift, corruption and abuse. And the lawsuit itself was probably unconstitutional to begin with.

The lawsuit came after a report from The New York Times revealed that Trump had only paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017. The complaint against the IRS, filed by Trump, two of his adult sons and the Trump Organization, said the leak caused the plaintiffs “reputational and financial harm” and “public embarrassment.”

Judge Kathleen Williams

The judge assigned in the case, Kathleen Williams of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, issued an order last month pointing out the strange nature of the lawsuit and expressing fear that it did not exhibit the type of “adversity” that is typically an essential ingredient of any federal lawsuit, a requirement of the U.S. Constitution.

Citing relevant and consistent precedent on this point, she wrote that a “key characteristic of the case or controversy requirement” in the Constitution “is the existence of adverseness, or ‘a dispute between parties who face each other in an adversary proceeding.’” She noted that there must be an “‘an honest and actual antagonistic assertion of rights by one individual against another, which is neither feigned nor collusive.’” She added: “It is unclear to this Court whether the Parties are sufficiently adverse to each other so as to satisfy Article III’s case or controversy requirement.” [….]

…Judge Williams asked the parties to submit their written arguments to the court by May 20, 2026, and indicated she would hold a hearing on this question on May 27, 2026.

Whether this means the settlement will not face legal challenge remains to be seen. For now, the administration appears poised to create a nearly $1.8 billion slush fund set up by the administration and capitalized with taxpayer dollars. It will be administered by individuals chosen only by the administration, outside any sort of review.

Politico’s Josh Gerstein and Danny Nguyen on the latest outrage: Justice Department expands Trump settlement to cover his tax audits.

The Justice Department on Tuesday expanded the just-announced settlement of President Donald Trump’s lawsuit over the leaking of his tax returns to include a pledge that the IRS will no longer pursue any claims it may have against Trump, his family members and his companies over unpaid taxes.

The nine-page settlement agreement DOJ released Monday, setting up a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of alleged weaponization of law enforcement, did not mention any resolution of disputes over Trump’s tax returns, which he has repeatedly claimed were under protracted audits by the IRS.

However, a one-page document posted on the DOJ website early Tuesday includes a sweeping release under which the IRS is “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing “examinations” of Trump, “related or affiliated individuals,” and related trusts and businesses.

The waiver specifically encompasses “tax returns filed before the effective date” of the settlement, which was Monday.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed the addendum, dated Tuesday. It does not bear the signature of any representative of the IRS or any current Trump lawyers. Metadata attached to the document indicates it was prepared or scanned at 7:50 a.m. Tuesday.

Blanche did not sign the original settlement agreement, which was signed by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, IRS CEO Frank Bisignano and Trump attorney Daniel Epstein….

“This is only with respect to existing audits, not future,” the DOJ statement added.

John Koskinen, the former IRS commissioner from 2013 to 2017, said the expanded settlement set a “terrible precedent” that could effectively generate a windfall for Trump.“It makes you wonder what the President has to hide in those tax returns. He’s apparently been actively trading in the stock market and, since he knows a lot more about situations than the average investor, he’s probably generated significant taxable earnings,” he said in an emailed statement. “Not auditing his returns is the same as giving him an easy way to, in effect, receive money from the government.”

Danny Werfel, the former IRS commissioner from 2023 to 2025, said he was “unaware of a single precedent where the IRS has agreed in advance to permanently forgo examination of previously filed tax returns for a specific person or business.”

There is corruption. And then there is the second Trump administration.

Monday night I wrote to you about kleptocracy. This evening, we pick up the same thread. It has to do with the $1.776 billion slush fund we discussed last night (get it? so cute that number, 1776; such an homage to the Founding Fathers). That fund, the money that Trump is trying to “give” to his most vociferous, even violent, supporters, was created to settle the lawsuit he brought against the IRS. Today, there is more news about the terms of that settlement. Kleptocracy. Corruption.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche

Todd Blanche, the acting Attorney General, testified before the Senate today. In one remarkable exchange, Delaware Senator Chris Coons asked Blanche:

“Has it ever happened that a sitting president sued his own government for $10 billion dollars and then directed the settlement of the case and the establishment of a payout fund?”

Blanche responded: “No, but there’s a lot of things that President Trump is the first of.”

Another one of those firsts happened today. Not a good one. Without fanfare, DOJ posted a settlement document on its website in the case. It was unexpected, because we’d already seen a settlement agreement in this case, the one we looked at last night. There was no reason to expect anything additional would be forthcoming. When it showed up, the addendum came without any title, just a date at the top….

It’s a pardon on steroids for Trump, Trump’s family, and Trump businesses. The government agrees in this document, signed by Blanche, that it will never prosecute or pursue any civil claims against any of the Trumps, “whether presently known or unknown” that could have been brought as of the date of the settlement agreement. That date is yesterday. The IRS is “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing “examinations” of Trump, “related or affiliated individuals,” and related trusts and businesses. Any proceeding over “tax returns filed before the effective date” of the settlement is now off limits. Any crimes committed before Monday, whether prosecutors were aware of them or not, are off the table. It’s a virtual get-out-of-jail-free card, and also a get-out-of-debt one.

I’ve seen a lot of settlement agreements, but never one like this where the government is giving the store away and getting nothing in return. As we discussed last night, the underlying lawsuit was on life support, most likely about to be dismissed because of legal flaws. Now, it’s become a vehicle for protecting Trump from all problems, criminal and civil, and not just tax matters—the subject of the lawsuit—but all matters. Any sins he may have committed or debts he owed but didn’t pay before now are forgiven.

You can read the rest along with the previous post at Civil Discourse.

Alan Feuer at The New York Times: Prison to Pardons to Payouts: Jan. 6 Rioters Are Elated at Trump’s $1.8 Billion Fund.

Antony Vo was at a friend’s house on Monday morning when a fellow pardoned Jan. 6 rioter sent a message: The Trump administration had just created a fund to benefit people who believed they had been wronged by the federal government — including those, like him, who had stormed the Capitol five years ago.

Mr. Vo, who briefly fled the country to avoid his prison sentence stemming from the riot, said he did not know at first that the fund had come about as part of a larger deal by President Trump to withdraw an extraordinary lawsuit filed against the Internal Revenue Service. But the origins of the fund, he said, were less important than how it made him feel: surprised, relieved and grateful all at once.

“I’m glad it turned into something,” he explained, “that could help people who have been hurting for quite a while now.”

That reaction, it turns out, appeared typical among the so-called Jan. 6ers who have long joined Mr. Trump in claiming that the efforts to hold them accountable for disrupting the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election amounted to mistreatment by the criminal justice system.

Some felt that the fund validated their self-image as victims of the government. Others felt elated — albeit somewhat stunned — at the prospect of a payout. And not a few felt a bit confused at how the process of filing claims and receiving checks could play out.

“So many questions,” said Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the far-right Proud Boys who was sentenced to 22 years on a seditious conspiracy conviction arising from the riot. “But it’s a good direction.” [….]

The possibility that people who ransacked the Capitol, smashing windows and fighting with the police, could get money from the same federal government they attacked was the latest head-spinning twist in the effort to rewrite the history of Jan. 6. At a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, did not rule out violent rioters receiving payouts from the fund.

It has not been lost on many Jan. 6ers that by deeming them worthy of reparations, the most powerful officials in the country have effectively validated their claims of having been wronged by the federal government — claims that, in many instances, were roundly rejected by the judges of both parties who oversaw their cases.

“This is the UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE acknowledging the possibility that Americans were targeted through political abuse of government power,” Tommy Tatum, a Mississippi man who was charged with civil disorder for interfering with the police on Jan. 6, wrote on Monday in a post on social media. “That is historic.”

It’s obvious at this point. Trump is going to pay these people to do it again. He has no intention of leaving in 2029. If the second insurrection doesn’t work, then he’ll barricade himself in the basement of his precious ballroom.

Are Congressional Republicans just going accept this monumental level of corruption from Trump? Hailey Fuchs, Jordain Carney and Josh Gerstein at Politico: Trump’s $1.8 billion ‘lawfare’ fund is making Republicans nervous.

Senate Republicans are greeting the Justice Department’s announcement of a new “Anti-Weaponization Fund” with concern, confusion and questions — and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is offering up little clarity on how it will work.

At a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing Tuesday morning, Blanche fielded queries from members of both parties about the logistics of the $1.8 billion account, who would have oversight and whether it could function as a “slush fund” for individuals who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Democrats are, predictably, enraged by the terms of the settlement for President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the government for the leak of his tax information, which resulted in the creation of this account to benefit targets of “weaponization and lawfare.”

“There is no level below which these folks will not go,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I) said in an interview. “It is just disgusting, having come off Law Enforcement Week, to have set up a slush fund to pay off people who attack police officers.”

But Republicans are also signaling deep discomfort with the arrangement, as well as frustration that they weren’t given the answers they were looking for.

“I’ve got more questions than I’ve heard answers for, and … I didn’t hear anything that gave me certainty in terms of how this all comes together,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), after attending the hearing with Blanche. “Can the president just say $1.87 billion? … I don’t know enough about it to feel comfortable.”

Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Jerry Moran of Kansas — the top Republicans on the full Appropriations committee and the panel that oversees DOJ funding, respectively — both pressed Blanche at the hearing to explain how payouts from the fund would be managed and who might receive them.

If Democrats can manage to win he House and Senate, the first order of business must be to impeach and remove Trump. We can’t allow him to remain in office for the rest of his term, or we’ll never get rid of him.

There has already been some pushback. Ryan J. Reilly at NBC News: John Adams quote projected on DOJ building in protest of $1.8B fund.

Opponents of a $1.776 billion taxpayer-backed “anti-weaponization” fund projected a quotation from one of the Founding Fathers onto the Justice Department building in protest.

“A government of laws, not of men,” read the quotation from John Adams, the second president.

The quotation was shown over one of the large banners of President Donald Trump that were set up in February at the Justice Department headquarters, known as “Main Justice.”

Stacey Young, a former Justice Department employee who founded the group Justice Connection, which projected the phrase onto the building, told NBC News that the “$1.8 billion slush fund” was “appalling.”

“We are standing up for department’s integrity and the rule of law,” Young said outside the building. The Justice Department is operating “as an arm of the White House” and doing Trump’s bidding by protecting his allies and going after his enemies, she said.

“That is an extraordinary abuse of power, and it’s a sign that the rule of law is crumbling before our eyes,” Young said.

Justice Connection said the Trump administration “shifted the country away from a system of laws and toward an era of lawlessness,” citing the firing of prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases and “cash payments” to Capitol riot defendants it expects the Trump administration to pay out.

One more from Josh Gerstein at Politico: Jan. 6 police officers sue to block Trump’s ‘anti-weaponization fund.’ 

Police officers who came under attack by rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to halt President Donald Trump’s plan to set up a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of “weaponization” and “lawfare.”

In the new lawsuit, former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel Hodges contend that Trump intends to use the massive bankroll to pay people who organized and participated in the riot.

“Dunn and Hodges did not back down on January 6. Instead, they held the line to defend democracy and the rule of law. They bring this case to do so once again,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Washington, argues that the fund violates the 14th Amendment’s prohibition on use of federal money to “pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States.”

The officers’ complaint also alleges that the Justice Department has no legal authority to create the fund, announced Monday as part of a settlement of a lawsuit Trump filed over the leak of his tax returns during his first term..

The Justice Department will likely argue that the officers don’t have standing to bring the suit. The complaint contends that Dunn and Hodges have faced ongoing harassment, including death threats, from participants in the riot. The officers allege that they have a personal stake in the dispute over the fund because it will be used to provide financial support that is likely to fuel that sort of harassment in the future.

That’s all I have for today. What’s on your mind?

Wednesday Reads: Loss of a Good Guy and Trump’s Staggering Corruption

Good Day!!

I’ll get to the depressing news from Trump world, but first, we’ve lost one of the good guys.

Former Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank has died at 86. It was expected; he’s been in hospice care, but still it’s a sad day.

He was the opposite of Trump: he was good humored, funny, honest as the day is long, and he truly cared about our country and its people.

I’m devoting the remainder of this post to the incredibly corrupt bargain Trump has struck with his own “justice” department and IRS.

Kathryn O. Seelye at The New York Times: Barney Frank, Gay Pioneer and Liberal Stalwart in Congress, Dies at 86.

Barney Frank, the brassy, lightning-quick former Massachusetts representative who for decades was the most prominent gay politician in the country and who was an author of the most significant overhaul of the nation’s financial regulations since the Great Depression, died on Tuesday at his home in Ogunquit, Maine. He was 86.

His friend James Segel confirmed the death. Mr. Frank said last month that he had entered hospice care with congestive heart failure.

Mr. Frank, a liberal Democrat who represented a diverse suburban Boston district for 32 years, starting in 1981, was the first gay member of the House to come out voluntarily; others had been outed in scandals. His public declaration of his sexual orientation in 1987 — spurred by a fear of being outed, by the death of a closeted colleague and by his own determination to show that homosexuality was nothing to be ashamed of — helped normalize being openly gay in public life.

“Prejudice is based on ignorance,” Mr. Frank told The Boston Globe in 2011, as he prepared to retire. “And the best way to counterbalance it is with a living example, with reality.”

A Harvard-trained lawyer, Mr. Frank bristled with intellectual firepower, acidic turns of phrase and a zest for verbal combat.

Barney Frank

His shivs were often cloaked in wit. Referring to the Moral Majority, the conservative Christian organization that opposed abortion but also opposed child nutrition programs and day care, Mr. Frank said in 1981: “From their perspective, life begins at conception and ends at birth.” Of the flawed intelligence behind the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that led to nearly a decade of combat, he said the problem “is not so much the intelligence as the stupidity.”

In Washingtonian magazine’s annual poll of Capitol Hill staffers, he was frequently voted the “brainiest,” “funniest” and “most eloquent” member of the House.

His most significant legislative achievement was in the realm of financial regulation. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which he sponsored with Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, tightened rules on the financial industry as part of the government’s response to the housing crisis of 2007 and the global financial meltdown the next year.

Signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010, the measure sought to prevent the nation’s biggest banks from engaging in excessively risky behavior and to protect consumers from unfair practices by banks and lenders. Congress watered it down in 2018, chiefly by exempting smaller and midsize banks from stricter oversight, but it remained largely intact.

Mr. Frank was also known for championing gay rights, civil rights and women’s rights. He did so by force of personality and by example. He insisted that his male partner be invited to all events to which the spouses of other representatives were invited. In 2012, at age 72, he married Jim Ready and became the first sitting member of Congress to wed someone of the same sex.

He also worked quietly behind the scenes to advance his causes. In one of many examples, according to his memoir, “Frank: A Life in Politics From the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage” (2015), he helped persuade President Bill Clinton not to appoint Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia as secretary of state because of his track record of homophobia.

One more on Barney Frank by Daniel Arkin at NBC News: Former Rep. Barney Frank, champion of Wall Street reform and LGBTQ trailblazer, dies at 86.

Barney Frank, the quick-witted Massachusetts congressman and liberal lion who helped overhaul Wall Street regulations after the 2008 financial crisis and made history as one of the first openly gay members of Congress, died Wednesday, his sister confirmed to NBC Boston.

He was 86. He had entered hospice care at his home in Maine last month.

“He was, above all else, a wonderful brother. I was lucky to be his sister,” Frank’s sister Doris Breay told NBC Boston.

Frank represented southern Massachusetts in the House for 32 years and established himself as a leading voice in debates over banking, affordable housing and LGBTQ rights. He chaired the Financial Services Committee amid the 2008 meltdown and co-authored the milestone Dodd-Frank Act, a sweeping law that sought to put Wall Street firms under tougher scrutiny.

He blazed a trail for other openly gay American elected officials, and in 2012, he became the first member of Congress to enter into a same-sex marriage, tying the knot with his longtime partner, Jim Ready.

“It was life-changing, lifesaving for me,” Frank told NBC News in a phone interview in last month.

“I think the key to our having made the enormous progress we made in defeating anti-gay prejudice had to do with us all coming out and people discovering the gap between our reality and the way we were painted,” he added.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the former House speaker, who served with Frank for more than 25 years, described him as progressive and an idealist in an interview with NBC News last month.

“He has been about idealism and pragmatism to get the job done,” said Pelosi, who was speaker when Frank shepherded Dodd-Frank through Congress. Frank called Pelosi last month to inform her that he was receiving hospice care, she said.

“He was a real mentor to so many of us here,” Pelosi said. “I was with him” on the Banking Committee “in the beginning. I learned so much.”

What a contrast he was to the bunch of crooks we’re dealing with today.

A couple of days ago, the White House announced a “settlement” of Trump’s $10 million lawsuit against his own IRS. He created an “anti-weaponization fund” to pay out reparations to the thugs who attacked the Capital on January 6, as well as anyone who thinks they were wrongly prosecuted during Joe Biden’s presidency. Then yesterday we learned that, as part of the “settlement,” Trump and his entire family are forever exempt from past IRS investigations. This is obviously illegal, unconstitutional and most likely an impeachable offense, but so what? Trump does whatever he wants.

Ray Brescia at MSNOW on the “settlement”: Trump’s nearly $1.8 billion ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ is simply indefensible.

After filing a highly unusual lawsuit in which President Donald Trump sued his own administration’s Internal Revenue Service, he settled it through his acting attorney general — also his former personal lawyer, Todd Blanche — setting up a team of “volunteers” to dole out nearly $1.8 billion in taxpayer money out of what the Department of Justice calls “The Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

The president did so in a way to avoid any judicial oversight of his or the Justice Department’s actions. It is hard to imagine a situation more susceptible to fraud, grift, corruption and abuse. And the lawsuit itself was probably unconstitutional to begin with.

The lawsuit came after a report from The New York Times revealed that Trump had only paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017. The complaint against the IRS, filed by Trump, two of his adult sons and the Trump Organization, said the leak caused the plaintiffs “reputational and financial harm” and “public embarrassment.”

Judge Kathleen Williams

The judge assigned in the case, Kathleen Williams of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, issued an order last month pointing out the strange nature of the lawsuit and expressing fear that it did not exhibit the type of “adversity” that is typically an essential ingredient of any federal lawsuit, a requirement of the U.S. Constitution.

Citing relevant and consistent precedent on this point, she wrote that a “key characteristic of the case or controversy requirement” in the Constitution “is the existence of adverseness, or ‘a dispute between parties who face each other in an adversary proceeding.’” She noted that there must be an “‘an honest and actual antagonistic assertion of rights by one individual against another, which is neither feigned nor collusive.’” She added: “It is unclear to this Court whether the Parties are sufficiently adverse to each other so as to satisfy Article III’s case or controversy requirement.” [….]

…Judge Williams asked the parties to submit their written arguments to the court by May 20, 2026, and indicated she would hold a hearing on this question on May 27, 2026.

Whether this means the settlement will not face legal challenge remains to be seen. For now, the administration appears poised to create a nearly $1.8 billion slush fund set up by the administration and capitalized with taxpayer dollars. It will be administered by individuals chosen only by the administration, outside any sort of review.

Politico’s Josh Gerstein and Danny Nguyen on the latest outrage: Justice Department expands Trump settlement to cover his tax audits.

The Justice Department on Tuesday expanded the just-announced settlement of President Donald Trump’s lawsuit over the leaking of his tax returns to include a pledge that the IRS will no longer pursue any claims it may have against Trump, his family members and his companies over unpaid taxes.

The nine-page settlement agreement DOJ released Monday, setting up a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of alleged weaponization of law enforcement, did not mention any resolution of disputes over Trump’s tax returns, which he has repeatedly claimed were under protracted audits by the IRS.

However, a one-page document posted on the DOJ website early Tuesday includes a sweeping release under which the IRS is “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing “examinations” of Trump, “related or affiliated individuals,” and related trusts and businesses.

The waiver specifically encompasses “tax returns filed before the effective date” of the settlement, which was Monday.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed the addendum, dated Tuesday. It does not bear the signature of any representative of the IRS or any current Trump lawyers. Metadata attached to the document indicates it was prepared or scanned at 7:50 a.m. Tuesday.

Blanche did not sign the original settlement agreement, which was signed by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, IRS CEO Frank Bisignano and Trump attorney Daniel Epstein….

“This is only with respect to existing audits, not future,” the DOJ statement added.

John Koskinen, the former IRS commissioner from 2013 to 2017, said the expanded settlement set a “terrible precedent” that could effectively generate a windfall for Trump.“It makes you wonder what the President has to hide in those tax returns. He’s apparently been actively trading in the stock market and, since he knows a lot more about situations than the average investor, he’s probably generated significant taxable earnings,” he said in an emailed statement. “Not auditing his returns is the same as giving him an easy way to, in effect, receive money from the government.”

Danny Werfel, the former IRS commissioner from 2023 to 2025, said he was “unaware of a single precedent where the IRS has agreed in advance to permanently forgo examination of previously filed tax returns for a specific person or business.”

There is corruption. And then there is the second Trump administration.

Monday night I wrote to you about kleptocracy. This evening, we pick up the same thread. It has to do with the $1.776 billion slush fund we discussed last night (get it? so cute that number, 1776; such an homage to the Founding Fathers). That fund, the money that Trump is trying to “give” to his most vociferous, even violent, supporters, was created to settle the lawsuit he brought against the IRS. Today, there is more news about the terms of that settlement. Kleptocracy. Corruption.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche

Todd Blanche, the acting Attorney General, testified before the Senate today. In one remarkable exchange, Delaware Senator Chris Coons asked Blanche:

“Has it ever happened that a sitting president sued his own government for $10 billion dollars and then directed the settlement of the case and the establishment of a payout fund?”

Blanche responded: “No, but there’s a lot of things that President Trump is the first of.”

Another one of those firsts happened today. Not a good one. Without fanfare, DOJ posted a settlement document on its website in the case. It was unexpected, because we’d already seen a settlement agreement in this case, the one we looked at last night. There was no reason to expect anything additional would be forthcoming. When it showed up, the addendum came without any title, just a date at the top….

It’s a pardon on steroids for Trump, Trump’s family, and Trump businesses. The government agrees in this document, signed by Blanche, that it will never prosecute or pursue any civil claims against any of the Trumps, “whether presently known or unknown” that could have been brought as of the date of the settlement agreement. That date is yesterday. The IRS is “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing “examinations” of Trump, “related or affiliated individuals,” and related trusts and businesses. Any proceeding over “tax returns filed before the effective date” of the settlement is now off limits. Any crimes committed before Monday, whether prosecutors were aware of them or not, are off the table. It’s a virtual get-out-of-jail-free card, and also a get-out-of-debt one.

I’ve seen a lot of settlement agreements, but never one like this where the government is giving the store away and getting nothing in return. As we discussed last night, the underlying lawsuit was on life support, most likely about to be dismissed because of legal flaws. Now, it’s become a vehicle for protecting Trump from all problems, criminal and civil, and not just tax matters—the subject of the lawsuit—but all matters. Any sins he may have committed or debts he owed but didn’t pay before now are forgiven.

You can read the rest along with the previous post at Civil Discourse.

Alan Feuer at The New York Times: Prison to Pardons to Payouts: Jan. 6 Rioters Are Elated at Trump’s $1.8 Billion Fund.

Antony Vo was at a friend’s house on Monday morning when a fellow pardoned Jan. 6 rioter sent a message: The Trump administration had just created a fund to benefit people who believed they had been wronged by the federal government — including those, like him, who had stormed the Capitol five years ago.

Mr. Vo, who briefly fled the country to avoid his prison sentence stemming from the riot, said he did not know at first that the fund had come about as part of a larger deal by President Trump to withdraw an extraordinary lawsuit filed against the Internal Revenue Service. But the origins of the fund, he said, were less important than how it made him feel: surprised, relieved and grateful all at once.

“I’m glad it turned into something,” he explained, “that could help people who have been hurting for quite a while now.”

That reaction, it turns out, appeared typical among the so-called Jan. 6ers who have long joined Mr. Trump in claiming that the efforts to hold them accountable for disrupting the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election amounted to mistreatment by the criminal justice system.

Some felt that the fund validated their self-image as victims of the government. Others felt elated — albeit somewhat stunned — at the prospect of a payout. And not a few felt a bit confused at how the process of filing claims and receiving checks could play out.

“So many questions,” said Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the far-right Proud Boys who was sentenced to 22 years on a seditious conspiracy conviction arising from the riot. “But it’s a good direction.” [….]

The possibility that people who ransacked the Capitol, smashing windows and fighting with the police, could get money from the same federal government they attacked was the latest head-spinning twist in the effort to rewrite the history of Jan. 6. At a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, did not rule out violent rioters receiving payouts from the fund.

It has not been lost on many Jan. 6ers that by deeming them worthy of reparations, the most powerful officials in the country have effectively validated their claims of having been wronged by the federal government — claims that, in many instances, were roundly rejected by the judges of both parties who oversaw their cases.

“This is the UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE acknowledging the possibility that Americans were targeted through political abuse of government power,” Tommy Tatum, a Mississippi man who was charged with civil disorder for interfering with the police on Jan. 6, wrote on Monday in a post on social media. “That is historic.”

It’s obvious at this point. Trump is going to pay these people to do it again. He has no intention of leaving in 2029. If the second insurrection doesn’t work, then he’ll barricade himself in the basement of his precious ballroom.

Are Congressional Republicans just going accept this monumental level of corruption from Trump? Hailey Fuchs, Jordain Carney and Josh Gerstein at Politico: Trump’s $1.8 billion ‘lawfare’ fund is making Republicans nervous.

Senate Republicans are greeting the Justice Department’s announcement of a new “Anti-Weaponization Fund” with concern, confusion and questions — and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is offering up little clarity on how it will work.

At a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing Tuesday morning, Blanche fielded queries from members of both parties about the logistics of the $1.8 billion account, who would have oversight and whether it could function as a “slush fund” for individuals who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Democrats are, predictably, enraged by the terms of the settlement for President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the government for the leak of his tax information, which resulted in the creation of this account to benefit targets of “weaponization and lawfare.”

“There is no level below which these folks will not go,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I) said in an interview. “It is just disgusting, having come off Law Enforcement Week, to have set up a slush fund to pay off people who attack police officers.”

But Republicans are also signaling deep discomfort with the arrangement, as well as frustration that they weren’t given the answers they were looking for.

“I’ve got more questions than I’ve heard answers for, and … I didn’t hear anything that gave me certainty in terms of how this all comes together,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), after attending the hearing with Blanche. “Can the president just say $1.87 billion? … I don’t know enough about it to feel comfortable.”

Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Jerry Moran of Kansas — the top Republicans on the full Appropriations committee and the panel that oversees DOJ funding, respectively — both pressed Blanche at the hearing to explain how payouts from the fund would be managed and who might receive them.

If Democrats can manage to win he House and Senate, the first order of business must be to impeach and remove Trump. We can’t allow him to remain in office for the rest of his term, or we’ll never get rid of him.

There has already been some pushback. Ryan J. Reilly at NBC News: John Adams quote projected on DOJ building in protest of $1.8B fund.

Opponents of a $1.776 billion taxpayer-backed “anti-weaponization” fund projected a quotation from one of the Founding Fathers onto the Justice Department building in protest.

“A government of laws, not of men,” read the quotation from John Adams, the second president.

The quotation was shown over one of the large banners of President Donald Trump that were set up in February at the Justice Department headquarters, known as “Main Justice.”

Stacey Young, a former Justice Department employee who founded the group Justice Connection, which projected the phrase onto the building, told NBC News that the “$1.8 billion slush fund” was “appalling.”

“We are standing up for department’s integrity and the rule of law,” Young said outside the building. The Justice Department is operating “as an arm of the White House” and doing Trump’s bidding by protecting his allies and going after his enemies, she said.

“That is an extraordinary abuse of power, and it’s a sign that the rule of law is crumbling before our eyes,” Young said.

Justice Connection said the Trump administration “shifted the country away from a system of laws and toward an era of lawlessness,” citing the firing of prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases and “cash payments” to Capitol riot defendants it expects the Trump administration to pay out.

One more from Josh Gerstein at Politico: Jan. 6 police officers sue to block Trump’s ‘anti-weaponization fund.’ 

Police officers who came under attack by rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to halt President Donald Trump’s plan to set up a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of “weaponization” and “lawfare.”

In the new lawsuit, former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel Hodges contend that Trump intends to use the massive bankroll to pay people who organized and participated in the riot.

“Dunn and Hodges did not back down on January 6. Instead, they held the line to defend democracy and the rule of law. They bring this case to do so once again,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Washington, argues that the fund violates the 14th Amendment’s prohibition on use of federal money to “pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States.”

The officers’ complaint also alleges that the Justice Department has no legal authority to create the fund, announced Monday as part of a settlement of a lawsuit Trump filed over the leak of his tax returns during his first term..

The Justice Department will likely argue that the officers don’t have standing to bring the suit. The complaint contends that Dunn and Hodges have faced ongoing harassment, including death threats, from participants in the riot. The officers allege that they have a personal stake in the dispute over the fund because it will be used to provide financial support that is likely to fuel that sort of harassment in the future.

That’s all I have for today. What’s on your mind?

#joycevance great explainer of trumps biggest grift yet. The handwriting was on the wall. The amici wrote, “With respect to these Defendants specifically, the President’s capacity for control is extraordinary.” Because a lawsuit must involve two parties on opposing sides, and this one increasingly gave every appearance of being a pretext to pay Trump damages, it became clear to everyone, including Trump’s lawyers, that it was very likely that his pitch for $10 billion in taxpayer money was going to get dismissed.

#joycevance When Alabama elected Doug Jones to the Senate, it was a marker for who the state thought it could be. It was Jones who brought the men responsible for killing four girls preparing for worship services at the 16th Street Church to justice as a prosecutor. It meant something for the state to elect him. It also means something when Alabama’s House Speaker stands for using racially discriminatory maps to intentionally do away with Black electoral representation.

#joycevance When Alabama elected Doug Jones to the Senate, it was a marker for who the state thought it could be. It was Jones who brought the men responsible for killing four girls preparing for worship services at the 16th Street Church to justice as a prosecutor. It meant something for the state to elect him. It also means something when Alabama’s House Speaker stands for using racially discriminatory maps to intentionally do away with Black electoral representation.

#joycevance There is an enormous amount of misinformation circulating about former Special Counsel Bob Mueller’s investigation into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. election and the effort to obstruct that investigation following his death. Tweets honoring Mueller’s life of service to his country are now knee-deep in trolls and MAGA comments that have no relationship to the well-documented facts.

So, let’s go back to contemporary sources and make sure we have a clear picture of what investigators found and what the Report said about Donald Trump. We’ll also look at why Mueller, nonetheless, didn’t indict Trump or even weigh in on whether he should be indicted. That decision drew a lot of criticism.🧵

#joycevance There is an enormous amount of misinformation circulating about former Special Counsel Bob Mueller’s investigation into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. election and the effort to obstruct that investigation following his death. Tweets honoring Mueller’s life of service to his country are now knee-deep in trolls and MAGA comments that have no relationship to the well-documented facts.

So, let’s go back to contemporary sources and make sure we have a clear picture of what investigators found and what the Report said about Donald Trump. We’ll also look at why Mueller, nonetheless, didn’t indict Trump or even weigh in on whether he should be indicted. That decision drew a lot of criticism.🧵

From #joycevance #fultoncounty #votingisaright Fulton County did not mince words in its amended response to the government’s motion to quash.

A motion to quash is an attempt to prevent a witness from testifying. Here, the federal government wants to keep the FBI agent who signed the affidavit that persuaded a federal magistrate judge that the government had probable cause to seize Fulton County’s ballots and other election records off the witness stand. Fulton County has requested the agent’s testimony at the hearing on its motion to return those records, a motion we discussed most recently earlier this week.🧵

From #joycevance #fultoncounty #votingisaright Fulton County did not mince words in its amended response to the government’s motion to quash.

A motion to quash is an attempt to prevent a witness from testifying. Here, the federal government wants to keep the FBI agent who signed the affidavit that persuaded a federal magistrate judge that the government had probable cause to seize Fulton County’s ballots and other election records off the witness stand. Fulton County has requested the agent’s testimony at the hearing on its motion to return those records, a motion we discussed most recently earlier this week.🧵

From the invaluable #joycevance For example, the complaint against Bank of America alleges: “Rather than merely providing routine banking services to Epstein, Bank of America went far beyond what a non-complicit bank would have done and instead assisted Epstein in setting up the necessary financial structure to operate his sex-trafficking venture.”

From the invaluable #joycevance For example, the complaint against Bank of America alleges: “Rather than merely providing routine banking services to Epstein, Bank of America went far beyond what a non-complicit bank would have done and instead assisted Epstein in setting up the necessary financial structure to operate his sex-trafficking venture.”

Civil Discourse – Two Days On The Hill: ICE & Pam Bondi – Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Two Days On The Hill: ICE & Pam Bondi

By Joyce Vance, Feb 11, 2026

Writing this newsletter isn’t always easy. But it feels important to me, every day. If my work resonates with you and you want to support it, subscribing to Civil Discourse makes it possible for me to devote the time and resources it takes. Either way, I’m grateful that you’re here. Democracy is a participatory sport, and none of us can sit on the sidelines right now. Being well educated about what’s transpiring and sharing that knowledge with others is one of the most important things we can do.

Democrats in Congress are trying to get their branch of government to do its constitutional duty. As Congress continues to try and lumber to its feet, with just a few Republicans crossing over to work with Democrats on key issues—that’s how we got the Epstein Files Transparency Act in the first place—there is some good news to report.

Tuesday:

Asked if his agency had hired any pardoned January 6 defendants, ICE’s acting Director Todd Lyons was shockingly unprepared. He said he didn’t have “that information” in front of him but would get it.

Given how obvious it was that the question was coming, the lack of preparation seems deliberate. But Lyons’ follow-on comment was intriguing: He said that ICE takes assaults on law enforcement seriously, and he doubted anyone who did that on Jan 6 could pass a background check. Apparently, ICE takes assaults on law enforcement more seriously than the President, who pardoned the January 6 defendants.

New York Congressman Dan Goldman, a former federal prosecutor and good friend, wasn’t having any of the justifications and efforts to ignore, or at least walk past, what’s been happening on the ground in Minneapolis and elsewhere.

“If you don’t want to be called a fascist regime or secret police, then stop acting like one.”

“It’s long past time that you rein in your out-of-control agency and start following the law and the Constitution.”

Goldman asked Lyons about the guidance agents are given about asking people walking on American streets to show proof of citizenship. Lyons claimed that his agents conduct “targeted intelligence driven operations,” and that they “don’t walk around in the streets asking people about their American citizenship.”

Goldman was skeptical. “Really?” he responded. “So all of those individual American citizens who have been randomly asked are lying? Is that what you’re saying?”

That exchange prompted the Congressman to ask Lyons if he knew what other 20th Century regimes required people to show proof of citizenship in similar circumstances. Lyons responded that he did. “Sir, there has been various nefarious regimes that did that,” He told Goldman.

Goldman: Is Nazi Germany one?

Lyons: Yes. But I—

Goldman: Is the Soviet Union one?

Lyons: I-

Goldman: I’m asking the questions. Is the Soviet Union one?

Lyons: Yes sir, but I’m, I’m totally…this is the wrong type of questioning.

Goldman: I’ll tell you what the wrong type of questioning. Reclaiming my time.

Lyons: It’s not the men and women of ICE that are out there doing it every day. So to say that the men and women of ICE are Gestapos. Wrong.

After more back and forth, Goldman schooled the acting Director of ICE:

“The problem is, you have it backwards sir. People are simply making valid observations about your tactics, which are un-American and outright fascist. So I have a simple suggestion. If you don’t want to be called a fascist regime or secret police, then stop acting like one. People are simply just observing what they are seeing. And that’s why people are making those comments.

…I was a prosecutor for ten years, prosecuted mob bosses, organized crime, violent criminals, the actual “worst of the worst.” Not a single criminal law enforcement agent that I worked with wore a mask to conceal their identity. But your department, which is a civil law enforcement agency, is defending the use of masks by your agents because of a so-called rise in threats and assaults against your officers.”

…Now, why is that a problem Mr. Lyons? It’s a problem because the explanation that your agents are wearing masks because of fear of assaults or doxxing is outright bogus. You and your untrained, unqualified, unvetted, unidentified agents are intentionally terrorizing our cities and communities all over this country to avoid accountability for their excessive force and their lawless actions. That is why you’re wearing masks, so no one can hold you accountable and you know that the FBI is not going to because notwithstanding all the investigations all of you say are going on, the Department of Justice and the FBI has stated they are not investigating those two murders.

This is not the America I know and love. This is not the America my immigrant [family] came to and it’s long past time that you rein in your out-of-control agency and start following the law and the Constitution.”

There are some members of Congress who seem to have the knack for representing all of us, regardless of where we live. Dan Goldman is one of them.

Wednesday:

Today it was Pam Bondi’s turn. This was her first appearance before the House Judiciary Committee for an oversight hearing, which in and of itself tells you a lot about her respect for the Article I branch of government, 13 months into this administration. Bondi adopted a Trumpian persona, polite, sometimes veering into smarmy with Republicans; dismissive, rude, and downright insulting with Democrats.

But politicians signed up for this. Victims and survivors of horrific crimes didn’t. Washington state Representative Pramila Jayapal was first up for Democrats, and she brought the Epstein survivors with her. She joined me for a Substack Live earlier this evening—I’ll post our full conversation where she explains what she did and how she views Bondi’s approach to the hearing later tonight when the video is ready.

One of Bondi’s lowest moments, besides her use of a “burn book” of insults that she hurled at Democratic members of Congress, was the response to questions about why she hasn’t indicted anyone else who was involved in sex trafficking with Jeffrey Epstein. Her response? “The Dow is over 50,000 dollars.”

A judge would strike a response like that during witness testimony in court as non-responsive. And certainly the AG isn’t taking responsibility for the economy? It’s just so classically Trumpian that it would be laughable except that, because of the context, it isn’t. If you listen to her this bit, there’s a moment where she takes a swipe at Maryland’s Jamie Raskin, saying, “I don’t know why you’re laughing, I hear you’re a great stock trader, Raskin,” and then half swallowing a little chortle at her own cleverness, which came off to the room as intentional disrespect.

Early on, Bondi referred to herself as a career prosecutor. She said that she cares about victims and called Epstein “that monster.” Then she urged victims to come forward. But the irony, and as a prosecutor who handled these kinds of cases, she has to know it, is that victims won’t come forward to talk with the FBI, having seen how Epstein victims are being treated. Asked to acknowledge them repeatedly in today’s hearing, Bondi refused to apologize and arrange interviews with DOJ, something the survivors all signaled they’ve requested but have never been granted. She wouldn’t even turn around to look them in the eyes, to acknowledge and respect their presence.

Bondi compounded it by saying, later, that victims whose names weren’t redacted should contact DOJ to fix it. But their names & information shouldn’t have been exposed in the first place. It’s outrageous that Bondi thinks the burden should be on the survivors to let DOJ know it made a mistake and to get it fixed. DOJ is a massive, well-resourced law firm and it had a legal obligation to protect the victims. It was even provided with a list of names that needed to be redacted, and in some cases, they redacted one or a few, but not all of the victims’ names. It’s so careless that it’s hard to attribute it to mere negligence. Repeated errors of this magnitude, over time, take on the appearance of intentionality. And these are the kind of errors that make it clear to victims that if they come forward with information about the wrong people, their personal safety could be compromised.

Bondi’s Justice Department works for one client above all others, Donald Trump.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Two Days On The Hill: ICE & Pam Bondi

Civil Discourse – Two Days On The Hill: ICE & Pam Bondi – Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Two Days On The Hill: ICE & Pam Bondi

By Joyce Vance, Feb 11, 2026

Writing this newsletter isn’t always easy. But it feels important to me, every day. If my work resonates with you and you want to support it, subscribing to Civil Discourse makes it possible for me to devote the time and resources it takes. Either way, I’m grateful that you’re here. Democracy is a participatory sport, and none of us can sit on the sidelines right now. Being well educated about what’s transpiring and sharing that knowledge with others is one of the most important things we can do.

Democrats in Congress are trying to get their branch of government to do its constitutional duty. As Congress continues to try and lumber to its feet, with just a few Republicans crossing over to work with Democrats on key issues—that’s how we got the Epstein Files Transparency Act in the first place—there is some good news to report.

Tuesday:

Asked if his agency had hired any pardoned January 6 defendants, ICE’s acting Director Todd Lyons was shockingly unprepared. He said he didn’t have “that information” in front of him but would get it.

Given how obvious it was that the question was coming, the lack of preparation seems deliberate. But Lyons’ follow-on comment was intriguing: He said that ICE takes assaults on law enforcement seriously, and he doubted anyone who did that on Jan 6 could pass a background check. Apparently, ICE takes assaults on law enforcement more seriously than the President, who pardoned the January 6 defendants.

New York Congressman Dan Goldman, a former federal prosecutor and good friend, wasn’t having any of the justifications and efforts to ignore, or at least walk past, what’s been happening on the ground in Minneapolis and elsewhere.

“If you don’t want to be called a fascist regime or secret police, then stop acting like one.”

“It’s long past time that you rein in your out-of-control agency and start following the law and the Constitution.”

Goldman asked Lyons about the guidance agents are given about asking people walking on American streets to show proof of citizenship. Lyons claimed that his agents conduct “targeted intelligence driven operations,” and that they “don’t walk around in the streets asking people about their American citizenship.”

Goldman was skeptical. “Really?” he responded. “So all of those individual American citizens who have been randomly asked are lying? Is that what you’re saying?”

That exchange prompted the Congressman to ask Lyons if he knew what other 20th Century regimes required people to show proof of citizenship in similar circumstances. Lyons responded that he did. “Sir, there has been various nefarious regimes that did that,” He told Goldman.

Goldman: Is Nazi Germany one?

Lyons: Yes. But I—

Goldman: Is the Soviet Union one?

Lyons: I-

Goldman: I’m asking the questions. Is the Soviet Union one?

Lyons: Yes sir, but I’m, I’m totally…this is the wrong type of questioning.

Goldman: I’ll tell you what the wrong type of questioning. Reclaiming my time.

Lyons: It’s not the men and women of ICE that are out there doing it every day. So to say that the men and women of ICE are Gestapos. Wrong.

After more back and forth, Goldman schooled the acting Director of ICE:

“The problem is, you have it backwards sir. People are simply making valid observations about your tactics, which are un-American and outright fascist. So I have a simple suggestion. If you don’t want to be called a fascist regime or secret police, then stop acting like one. People are simply just observing what they are seeing. And that’s why people are making those comments.

…I was a prosecutor for ten years, prosecuted mob bosses, organized crime, violent criminals, the actual “worst of the worst.” Not a single criminal law enforcement agent that I worked with wore a mask to conceal their identity. But your department, which is a civil law enforcement agency, is defending the use of masks by your agents because of a so-called rise in threats and assaults against your officers.”

…Now, why is that a problem Mr. Lyons? It’s a problem because the explanation that your agents are wearing masks because of fear of assaults or doxxing is outright bogus. You and your untrained, unqualified, unvetted, unidentified agents are intentionally terrorizing our cities and communities all over this country to avoid accountability for their excessive force and their lawless actions. That is why you’re wearing masks, so no one can hold you accountable and you know that the FBI is not going to because notwithstanding all the investigations all of you say are going on, the Department of Justice and the FBI has stated they are not investigating those two murders.

This is not the America I know and love. This is not the America my immigrant [family] came to and it’s long past time that you rein in your out-of-control agency and start following the law and the Constitution.”

There are some members of Congress who seem to have the knack for representing all of us, regardless of where we live. Dan Goldman is one of them.

Wednesday:

Today it was Pam Bondi’s turn. This was her first appearance before the House Judiciary Committee for an oversight hearing, which in and of itself tells you a lot about her respect for the Article I branch of government, 13 months into this administration. Bondi adopted a Trumpian persona, polite, sometimes veering into smarmy with Republicans; dismissive, rude, and downright insulting with Democrats.

But politicians signed up for this. Victims and survivors of horrific crimes didn’t. Washington state Representative Pramila Jayapal was first up for Democrats, and she brought the Epstein survivors with her. She joined me for a Substack Live earlier this evening—I’ll post our full conversation where she explains what she did and how she views Bondi’s approach to the hearing later tonight when the video is ready.

One of Bondi’s lowest moments, besides her use of a “burn book” of insults that she hurled at Democratic members of Congress, was the response to questions about why she hasn’t indicted anyone else who was involved in sex trafficking with Jeffrey Epstein. Her response? “The Dow is over 50,000 dollars.”

A judge would strike a response like that during witness testimony in court as non-responsive. And certainly the AG isn’t taking responsibility for the economy? It’s just so classically Trumpian that it would be laughable except that, because of the context, it isn’t. If you listen to her this bit, there’s a moment where she takes a swipe at Maryland’s Jamie Raskin, saying, “I don’t know why you’re laughing, I hear you’re a great stock trader, Raskin,” and then half swallowing a little chortle at her own cleverness, which came off to the room as intentional disrespect.

Early on, Bondi referred to herself as a career prosecutor. She said that she cares about victims and called Epstein “that monster.” Then she urged victims to come forward. But the irony, and as a prosecutor who handled these kinds of cases, she has to know it, is that victims won’t come forward to talk with the FBI, having seen how Epstein victims are being treated. Asked to acknowledge them repeatedly in today’s hearing, Bondi refused to apologize and arrange interviews with DOJ, something the survivors all signaled they’ve requested but have never been granted. She wouldn’t even turn around to look them in the eyes, to acknowledge and respect their presence.

Bondi compounded it by saying, later, that victims whose names weren’t redacted should contact DOJ to fix it. But their names & information shouldn’t have been exposed in the first place. It’s outrageous that Bondi thinks the burden should be on the survivors to let DOJ know it made a mistake and to get it fixed. DOJ is a massive, well-resourced law firm and it had a legal obligation to protect the victims. It was even provided with a list of names that needed to be redacted, and in some cases, they redacted one or a few, but not all of the victims’ names. It’s so careless that it’s hard to attribute it to mere negligence. Repeated errors of this magnitude, over time, take on the appearance of intentionality. And these are the kind of errors that make it clear to victims that if they come forward with information about the wrong people, their personal safety could be compromised.

Bondi’s Justice Department works for one client above all others, Donald Trump.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Two Days On The Hill: ICE & Pam Bondi

Civil Discourse – Two Days On The Hill: ICE & Pam Bondi – Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Two Days On The Hill: ICE & Pam Bondi

By Joyce Vance, Feb 11, 2026

Writing this newsletter isn’t always easy. But it feels important to me, every day. If my work resonates with you and you want to support it, subscribing to Civil Discourse makes it possible for me to devote the time and resources it takes. Either way, I’m grateful that you’re here. Democracy is a participatory sport, and none of us can sit on the sidelines right now. Being well educated about what’s transpiring and sharing that knowledge with others is one of the most important things we can do.

Democrats in Congress are trying to get their branch of government to do its constitutional duty. As Congress continues to try and lumber to its feet, with just a few Republicans crossing over to work with Democrats on key issues—that’s how we got the Epstein Files Transparency Act in the first place—there is some good news to report.

Tuesday:

Asked if his agency had hired any pardoned January 6 defendants, ICE’s acting Director Todd Lyons was shockingly unprepared. He said he didn’t have “that information” in front of him but would get it.

Given how obvious it was that the question was coming, the lack of preparation seems deliberate. But Lyons’ follow-on comment was intriguing: He said that ICE takes assaults on law enforcement seriously, and he doubted anyone who did that on Jan 6 could pass a background check. Apparently, ICE takes assaults on law enforcement more seriously than the President, who pardoned the January 6 defendants.

New York Congressman Dan Goldman, a former federal prosecutor and good friend, wasn’t having any of the justifications and efforts to ignore, or at least walk past, what’s been happening on the ground in Minneapolis and elsewhere.

“If you don’t want to be called a fascist regime or secret police, then stop acting like one.”

“It’s long past time that you rein in your out-of-control agency and start following the law and the Constitution.”

Goldman asked Lyons about the guidance agents are given about asking people walking on American streets to show proof of citizenship. Lyons claimed that his agents conduct “targeted intelligence driven operations,” and that they “don’t walk around in the streets asking people about their American citizenship.”

Goldman was skeptical. “Really?” he responded. “So all of those individual American citizens who have been randomly asked are lying? Is that what you’re saying?”

That exchange prompted the Congressman to ask Lyons if he knew what other 20th Century regimes required people to show proof of citizenship in similar circumstances. Lyons responded that he did. “Sir, there has been various nefarious regimes that did that,” He told Goldman.

Goldman: Is Nazi Germany one?

Lyons: Yes. But I—

Goldman: Is the Soviet Union one?

Lyons: I-

Goldman: I’m asking the questions. Is the Soviet Union one?

Lyons: Yes sir, but I’m, I’m totally…this is the wrong type of questioning.

Goldman: I’ll tell you what the wrong type of questioning. Reclaiming my time.

Lyons: It’s not the men and women of ICE that are out there doing it every day. So to say that the men and women of ICE are Gestapos. Wrong.

After more back and forth, Goldman schooled the acting Director of ICE:

“The problem is, you have it backwards sir. People are simply making valid observations about your tactics, which are un-American and outright fascist. So I have a simple suggestion. If you don’t want to be called a fascist regime or secret police, then stop acting like one. People are simply just observing what they are seeing. And that’s why people are making those comments.

…I was a prosecutor for ten years, prosecuted mob bosses, organized crime, violent criminals, the actual “worst of the worst.” Not a single criminal law enforcement agent that I worked with wore a mask to conceal their identity. But your department, which is a civil law enforcement agency, is defending the use of masks by your agents because of a so-called rise in threats and assaults against your officers.”

…Now, why is that a problem Mr. Lyons? It’s a problem because the explanation that your agents are wearing masks because of fear of assaults or doxxing is outright bogus. You and your untrained, unqualified, unvetted, unidentified agents are intentionally terrorizing our cities and communities all over this country to avoid accountability for their excessive force and their lawless actions. That is why you’re wearing masks, so no one can hold you accountable and you know that the FBI is not going to because notwithstanding all the investigations all of you say are going on, the Department of Justice and the FBI has stated they are not investigating those two murders.

This is not the America I know and love. This is not the America my immigrant [family] came to and it’s long past time that you rein in your out-of-control agency and start following the law and the Constitution.”

There are some members of Congress who seem to have the knack for representing all of us, regardless of where we live. Dan Goldman is one of them.

Wednesday:

Today it was Pam Bondi’s turn. This was her first appearance before the House Judiciary Committee for an oversight hearing, which in and of itself tells you a lot about her respect for the Article I branch of government, 13 months into this administration. Bondi adopted a Trumpian persona, polite, sometimes veering into smarmy with Republicans; dismissive, rude, and downright insulting with Democrats.

But politicians signed up for this. Victims and survivors of horrific crimes didn’t. Washington state Representative Pramila Jayapal was first up for Democrats, and she brought the Epstein survivors with her. She joined me for a Substack Live earlier this evening—I’ll post our full conversation where she explains what she did and how she views Bondi’s approach to the hearing later tonight when the video is ready.

One of Bondi’s lowest moments, besides her use of a “burn book” of insults that she hurled at Democratic members of Congress, was the response to questions about why she hasn’t indicted anyone else who was involved in sex trafficking with Jeffrey Epstein. Her response? “The Dow is over 50,000 dollars.”

A judge would strike a response like that during witness testimony in court as non-responsive. And certainly the AG isn’t taking responsibility for the economy? It’s just so classically Trumpian that it would be laughable except that, because of the context, it isn’t. If you listen to her this bit, there’s a moment where she takes a swipe at Maryland’s Jamie Raskin, saying, “I don’t know why you’re laughing, I hear you’re a great stock trader, Raskin,” and then half swallowing a little chortle at her own cleverness, which came off to the room as intentional disrespect.

Early on, Bondi referred to herself as a career prosecutor. She said that she cares about victims and called Epstein “that monster.” Then she urged victims to come forward. But the irony, and as a prosecutor who handled these kinds of cases, she has to know it, is that victims won’t come forward to talk with the FBI, having seen how Epstein victims are being treated. Asked to acknowledge them repeatedly in today’s hearing, Bondi refused to apologize and arrange interviews with DOJ, something the survivors all signaled they’ve requested but have never been granted. She wouldn’t even turn around to look them in the eyes, to acknowledge and respect their presence.

Bondi compounded it by saying, later, that victims whose names weren’t redacted should contact DOJ to fix it. But their names & information shouldn’t have been exposed in the first place. It’s outrageous that Bondi thinks the burden should be on the survivors to let DOJ know it made a mistake and to get it fixed. DOJ is a massive, well-resourced law firm and it had a legal obligation to protect the victims. It was even provided with a list of names that needed to be redacted, and in some cases, they redacted one or a few, but not all of the victims’ names. It’s so careless that it’s hard to attribute it to mere negligence. Repeated errors of this magnitude, over time, take on the appearance of intentionality. And these are the kind of errors that make it clear to victims that if they come forward with information about the wrong people, their personal safety could be compromised.

Bondi’s Justice Department works for one client above all others, Donald Trump.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Two Days On The Hill: ICE & Pam Bondi

Civil Discourse – Two Days On The Hill: ICE & Pam Bondi – Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Two Days On The Hill: ICE & Pam Bondi

By Joyce Vance, Feb 11, 2026

Writing this newsletter isn’t always easy. But it feels important to me, every day. If my work resonates with you and you want to support it, subscribing to Civil Discourse makes it possible for me to devote the time and resources it takes. Either way, I’m grateful that you’re here. Democracy is a participatory sport, and none of us can sit on the sidelines right now. Being well educated about what’s transpiring and sharing that knowledge with others is one of the most important things we can do.

Democrats in Congress are trying to get their branch of government to do its constitutional duty. As Congress continues to try and lumber to its feet, with just a few Republicans crossing over to work with Democrats on key issues—that’s how we got the Epstein Files Transparency Act in the first place—there is some good news to report.

Tuesday:

Asked if his agency had hired any pardoned January 6 defendants, ICE’s acting Director Todd Lyons was shockingly unprepared. He said he didn’t have “that information” in front of him but would get it.

Given how obvious it was that the question was coming, the lack of preparation seems deliberate. But Lyons’ follow-on comment was intriguing: He said that ICE takes assaults on law enforcement seriously, and he doubted anyone who did that on Jan 6 could pass a background check. Apparently, ICE takes assaults on law enforcement more seriously than the President, who pardoned the January 6 defendants.

New York Congressman Dan Goldman, a former federal prosecutor and good friend, wasn’t having any of the justifications and efforts to ignore, or at least walk past, what’s been happening on the ground in Minneapolis and elsewhere.

“If you don’t want to be called a fascist regime or secret police, then stop acting like one.”

“It’s long past time that you rein in your out-of-control agency and start following the law and the Constitution.”

Goldman asked Lyons about the guidance agents are given about asking people walking on American streets to show proof of citizenship. Lyons claimed that his agents conduct “targeted intelligence driven operations,” and that they “don’t walk around in the streets asking people about their American citizenship.”

Goldman was skeptical. “Really?” he responded. “So all of those individual American citizens who have been randomly asked are lying? Is that what you’re saying?”

That exchange prompted the Congressman to ask Lyons if he knew what other 20th Century regimes required people to show proof of citizenship in similar circumstances. Lyons responded that he did. “Sir, there has been various nefarious regimes that did that,” He told Goldman.

Goldman: Is Nazi Germany one?

Lyons: Yes. But I—

Goldman: Is the Soviet Union one?

Lyons: I-

Goldman: I’m asking the questions. Is the Soviet Union one?

Lyons: Yes sir, but I’m, I’m totally…this is the wrong type of questioning.

Goldman: I’ll tell you what the wrong type of questioning. Reclaiming my time.

Lyons: It’s not the men and women of ICE that are out there doing it every day. So to say that the men and women of ICE are Gestapos. Wrong.

After more back and forth, Goldman schooled the acting Director of ICE:

“The problem is, you have it backwards sir. People are simply making valid observations about your tactics, which are un-American and outright fascist. So I have a simple suggestion. If you don’t want to be called a fascist regime or secret police, then stop acting like one. People are simply just observing what they are seeing. And that’s why people are making those comments.

…I was a prosecutor for ten years, prosecuted mob bosses, organized crime, violent criminals, the actual “worst of the worst.” Not a single criminal law enforcement agent that I worked with wore a mask to conceal their identity. But your department, which is a civil law enforcement agency, is defending the use of masks by your agents because of a so-called rise in threats and assaults against your officers.”

…Now, why is that a problem Mr. Lyons? It’s a problem because the explanation that your agents are wearing masks because of fear of assaults or doxxing is outright bogus. You and your untrained, unqualified, unvetted, unidentified agents are intentionally terrorizing our cities and communities all over this country to avoid accountability for their excessive force and their lawless actions. That is why you’re wearing masks, so no one can hold you accountable and you know that the FBI is not going to because notwithstanding all the investigations all of you say are going on, the Department of Justice and the FBI has stated they are not investigating those two murders.

This is not the America I know and love. This is not the America my immigrant [family] came to and it’s long past time that you rein in your out-of-control agency and start following the law and the Constitution.”

There are some members of Congress who seem to have the knack for representing all of us, regardless of where we live. Dan Goldman is one of them.

Wednesday:

Today it was Pam Bondi’s turn. This was her first appearance before the House Judiciary Committee for an oversight hearing, which in and of itself tells you a lot about her respect for the Article I branch of government, 13 months into this administration. Bondi adopted a Trumpian persona, polite, sometimes veering into smarmy with Republicans; dismissive, rude, and downright insulting with Democrats.

But politicians signed up for this. Victims and survivors of horrific crimes didn’t. Washington state Representative Pramila Jayapal was first up for Democrats, and she brought the Epstein survivors with her. She joined me for a Substack Live earlier this evening—I’ll post our full conversation where she explains what she did and how she views Bondi’s approach to the hearing later tonight when the video is ready.

One of Bondi’s lowest moments, besides her use of a “burn book” of insults that she hurled at Democratic members of Congress, was the response to questions about why she hasn’t indicted anyone else who was involved in sex trafficking with Jeffrey Epstein. Her response? “The Dow is over 50,000 dollars.”

A judge would strike a response like that during witness testimony in court as non-responsive. And certainly the AG isn’t taking responsibility for the economy? It’s just so classically Trumpian that it would be laughable except that, because of the context, it isn’t. If you listen to her this bit, there’s a moment where she takes a swipe at Maryland’s Jamie Raskin, saying, “I don’t know why you’re laughing, I hear you’re a great stock trader, Raskin,” and then half swallowing a little chortle at her own cleverness, which came off to the room as intentional disrespect.

Early on, Bondi referred to herself as a career prosecutor. She said that she cares about victims and called Epstein “that monster.” Then she urged victims to come forward. But the irony, and as a prosecutor who handled these kinds of cases, she has to know it, is that victims won’t come forward to talk with the FBI, having seen how Epstein victims are being treated. Asked to acknowledge them repeatedly in today’s hearing, Bondi refused to apologize and arrange interviews with DOJ, something the survivors all signaled they’ve requested but have never been granted. She wouldn’t even turn around to look them in the eyes, to acknowledge and respect their presence.

Bondi compounded it by saying, later, that victims whose names weren’t redacted should contact DOJ to fix it. But their names & information shouldn’t have been exposed in the first place. It’s outrageous that Bondi thinks the burden should be on the survivors to let DOJ know it made a mistake and to get it fixed. DOJ is a massive, well-resourced law firm and it had a legal obligation to protect the victims. It was even provided with a list of names that needed to be redacted, and in some cases, they redacted one or a few, but not all of the victims’ names. It’s so careless that it’s hard to attribute it to mere negligence. Repeated errors of this magnitude, over time, take on the appearance of intentionality. And these are the kind of errors that make it clear to victims that if they come forward with information about the wrong people, their personal safety could be compromised.

Bondi’s Justice Department works for one client above all others, Donald Trump.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Two Days On The Hill: ICE & Pam Bondi

Civil Discourse – Two Days On The Hill: ICE & Pam Bondi – Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Two Days On The Hill: ICE & Pam Bondi

By Joyce Vance, Feb 11, 2026

Writing this newsletter isn’t always easy. But it feels important to me, every day. If my work resonates with you and you want to support it, subscribing to Civil Discourse makes it possible for me to devote the time and resources it takes. Either way, I’m grateful that you’re here. Democracy is a participatory sport, and none of us can sit on the sidelines right now. Being well educated about what’s transpiring and sharing that knowledge with others is one of the most important things we can do.

Democrats in Congress are trying to get their branch of government to do its constitutional duty. As Congress continues to try and lumber to its feet, with just a few Republicans crossing over to work with Democrats on key issues—that’s how we got the Epstein Files Transparency Act in the first place—there is some good news to report.

Tuesday:

Asked if his agency had hired any pardoned January 6 defendants, ICE’s acting Director Todd Lyons was shockingly unprepared. He said he didn’t have “that information” in front of him but would get it.

Given how obvious it was that the question was coming, the lack of preparation seems deliberate. But Lyons’ follow-on comment was intriguing: He said that ICE takes assaults on law enforcement seriously, and he doubted anyone who did that on Jan 6 could pass a background check. Apparently, ICE takes assaults on law enforcement more seriously than the President, who pardoned the January 6 defendants.

New York Congressman Dan Goldman, a former federal prosecutor and good friend, wasn’t having any of the justifications and efforts to ignore, or at least walk past, what’s been happening on the ground in Minneapolis and elsewhere.

“If you don’t want to be called a fascist regime or secret police, then stop acting like one.”

“It’s long past time that you rein in your out-of-control agency and start following the law and the Constitution.”

Goldman asked Lyons about the guidance agents are given about asking people walking on American streets to show proof of citizenship. Lyons claimed that his agents conduct “targeted intelligence driven operations,” and that they “don’t walk around in the streets asking people about their American citizenship.”

Goldman was skeptical. “Really?” he responded. “So all of those individual American citizens who have been randomly asked are lying? Is that what you’re saying?”

That exchange prompted the Congressman to ask Lyons if he knew what other 20th Century regimes required people to show proof of citizenship in similar circumstances. Lyons responded that he did. “Sir, there has been various nefarious regimes that did that,” He told Goldman.

Goldman: Is Nazi Germany one?

Lyons: Yes. But I—

Goldman: Is the Soviet Union one?

Lyons: I-

Goldman: I’m asking the questions. Is the Soviet Union one?

Lyons: Yes sir, but I’m, I’m totally…this is the wrong type of questioning.

Goldman: I’ll tell you what the wrong type of questioning. Reclaiming my time.

Lyons: It’s not the men and women of ICE that are out there doing it every day. So to say that the men and women of ICE are Gestapos. Wrong.

After more back and forth, Goldman schooled the acting Director of ICE:

“The problem is, you have it backwards sir. People are simply making valid observations about your tactics, which are un-American and outright fascist. So I have a simple suggestion. If you don’t want to be called a fascist regime or secret police, then stop acting like one. People are simply just observing what they are seeing. And that’s why people are making those comments.

…I was a prosecutor for ten years, prosecuted mob bosses, organized crime, violent criminals, the actual “worst of the worst.” Not a single criminal law enforcement agent that I worked with wore a mask to conceal their identity. But your department, which is a civil law enforcement agency, is defending the use of masks by your agents because of a so-called rise in threats and assaults against your officers.”

…Now, why is that a problem Mr. Lyons? It’s a problem because the explanation that your agents are wearing masks because of fear of assaults or doxxing is outright bogus. You and your untrained, unqualified, unvetted, unidentified agents are intentionally terrorizing our cities and communities all over this country to avoid accountability for their excessive force and their lawless actions. That is why you’re wearing masks, so no one can hold you accountable and you know that the FBI is not going to because notwithstanding all the investigations all of you say are going on, the Department of Justice and the FBI has stated they are not investigating those two murders.

This is not the America I know and love. This is not the America my immigrant [family] came to and it’s long past time that you rein in your out-of-control agency and start following the law and the Constitution.”

There are some members of Congress who seem to have the knack for representing all of us, regardless of where we live. Dan Goldman is one of them.

Wednesday:

Today it was Pam Bondi’s turn. This was her first appearance before the House Judiciary Committee for an oversight hearing, which in and of itself tells you a lot about her respect for the Article I branch of government, 13 months into this administration. Bondi adopted a Trumpian persona, polite, sometimes veering into smarmy with Republicans; dismissive, rude, and downright insulting with Democrats.

But politicians signed up for this. Victims and survivors of horrific crimes didn’t. Washington state Representative Pramila Jayapal was first up for Democrats, and she brought the Epstein survivors with her. She joined me for a Substack Live earlier this evening—I’ll post our full conversation where she explains what she did and how she views Bondi’s approach to the hearing later tonight when the video is ready.

One of Bondi’s lowest moments, besides her use of a “burn book” of insults that she hurled at Democratic members of Congress, was the response to questions about why she hasn’t indicted anyone else who was involved in sex trafficking with Jeffrey Epstein. Her response? “The Dow is over 50,000 dollars.”

A judge would strike a response like that during witness testimony in court as non-responsive. And certainly the AG isn’t taking responsibility for the economy? It’s just so classically Trumpian that it would be laughable except that, because of the context, it isn’t. If you listen to her this bit, there’s a moment where she takes a swipe at Maryland’s Jamie Raskin, saying, “I don’t know why you’re laughing, I hear you’re a great stock trader, Raskin,” and then half swallowing a little chortle at her own cleverness, which came off to the room as intentional disrespect.

Early on, Bondi referred to herself as a career prosecutor. She said that she cares about victims and called Epstein “that monster.” Then she urged victims to come forward. But the irony, and as a prosecutor who handled these kinds of cases, she has to know it, is that victims won’t come forward to talk with the FBI, having seen how Epstein victims are being treated. Asked to acknowledge them repeatedly in today’s hearing, Bondi refused to apologize and arrange interviews with DOJ, something the survivors all signaled they’ve requested but have never been granted. She wouldn’t even turn around to look them in the eyes, to acknowledge and respect their presence.

Bondi compounded it by saying, later, that victims whose names weren’t redacted should contact DOJ to fix it. But their names & information shouldn’t have been exposed in the first place. It’s outrageous that Bondi thinks the burden should be on the survivors to let DOJ know it made a mistake and to get it fixed. DOJ is a massive, well-resourced law firm and it had a legal obligation to protect the victims. It was even provided with a list of names that needed to be redacted, and in some cases, they redacted one or a few, but not all of the victims’ names. It’s so careless that it’s hard to attribute it to mere negligence. Repeated errors of this magnitude, over time, take on the appearance of intentionality. And these are the kind of errors that make it clear to victims that if they come forward with information about the wrong people, their personal safety could be compromised.

Bondi’s Justice Department works for one client above all others, Donald Trump.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Two Days On The Hill: ICE & Pam Bondi

We are not Nazis. – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

We are not Nazis.

Also: No Kings, No Dictators.

By Joyce Vance, Feb 05, 2026

I wrote this piece, titled “Are We The Nazis Now?” back in October last year. There were so many awful things happening, mostly to immigrants, but by then, some Americans had started to protest their treatment. I was reminded of Anne Frank’s words:

“Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. They’re allowed to take only a knapsack and a little cash with them, and even then, they’re robbed of these possessions on the way. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared. Women return from shopping to find their houses sealed, their families gone.”

–Anne Frank

For anyone who had ever wondered how the Germans turned a blind eye to the Holocaust, we are living through the answer. We watched it start in real time. “Trump promised he’d deport violent criminals,” I wrote last October. “Instead, ICE is going after legal residents and terrorizing children. The message: if you’re an American citizen, don’t exercise your First Amendment rights unless you want to become a target too.” Unfortunately, those words proved correct.

I hope you’ll go back and reread the entire piece from October, because it traces what the administration and ICE were doing back then, and although it seems impossible we could ever forget any of it, so much has happened that some of the details get lost. That recent history is essential, because it gives us such a clear picture of the trajectory that has brought us to this moment. In October, ICE had just raided a Chicago apartment building, taking people including kids, outside, some zip tied, in the middle of the night. Immigrants were treated in dehumanizing ways. The administration’s gamble was that not enough Americans would care. It was just “illegals.”

But Americans were already under fire too. There was the ambulance driver who ICE agents threatened to arrest and to kill, claiming he tried to weaponize his vehicle against them, when he was just there to do his job. The administration was already warming up the engines. There was a long runway before ICE shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

In my piece, I asked, “We aren’t even better off in the ways Trump promised. Deporting school kids doesn’t make us safer. Americans don’t want the jobs that aren’t being done in immigrants’ absence. The Labor Department warned in ‘an obscure document filed with the Federal Register last week that the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens’ is threatening ‘the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.’

But beyond the absence of benefits from this administration’s mass deportations, it’s the absence of humanity we see around us that threatens us the most. People who aren’t criminals are thrown to the ground. People are treated with a lack of respect for their basic human dignity. Many of them are hard-working folks who want to be able to love this country and give back because of the opportunity it gives them and their families. Instead, a president who is the son of immigrants and has been married twice to immigrants has become the face of nationalism, using hate and horror to expand his control over people, both American citizens and immigrants, on American soil. Are we the Nazis now?”

There’s an answer to that question. We are not the Nazis. Definitely not. We’re proud of that. We want people to know.

From the massive rallies in freezing temperatures in Minneapolis to smaller ones across the country, like the below one in Maine, Americans are giving their answer to that question. We will not turn a blind eye, we will not acquiesce. We will not be Nazis.

Last Saturday, ABC reported, “Intensive care nurses immediately doubted the word of federal immigration officers when they arrived at a Minneapolis hospital with a Mexican immigrant who had broken bones in his face and skull.” Agents told hospital personnel the man, Alberto Castañeda Mondragón, had tried to flee and had run into a brick wall on purpose. But hospital personnel said his injuries were inconsistent with what ICE claimed.

Prior to his arrest, the man was fine. Four hours later, he was taken to a hospital emergency room. He had “swelling and bruising around his right eye and bleeding. A CT scan revealed at least eight skull fractures and life-threatening hemorrhages in at least five areas of his brain.” The reporter asked a board-certified forensic pathologist who worked as a medical examiner in Minnesota for more than 30 years whether she agreed with hospital employees’ conclusions the injuries weren’t the result of an intentional run at a wall. She responded, “one doesn’t have to be a physician to conclude that a person can’t get skull fractures on both the right and left sides of their head and from front to back by running themselves into a wall.”

One agent subsequently admitted to hospital employees that Castañeda Mondragón, who was arrested the day after Renee Good was killed, “got his (expletive) rocked” after they arrested him.

When he was first admitted to the hospital, Castañeda Mondragón was reportedly “alert and speaking, telling staff he was ‘dragged and mistreated by federal agents.’” But his condition deteriorated rapidly. By the following week, his condition was described as “minimally responsive and communicative, disoriented and heavily sedated.” Nonetheless, ICE agents insisted on shackling Castañeda Mondragón’s ankles to his bed with handcuffs to keep him from escaping. That despite the fact that he “was so disoriented he did not know what year it was and could not recall how he was injured.”

Castañeda Mondragón entered the country legally in 2022. He has no criminal history and started a company in Minnesota. Agents only became aware after they arrested him that he had overstayed his visa. A judge ordered his release and he is no longer in ICE custody, but his friends told the reporter he could no longer work and was at, perhaps, 20% of what he had been before. Hospital employees were surprised he was no longer receiving care.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment on his injuries.

That’s one more human being, damaged by this administration’s insistence of pursuing quotas and treating people like cattle. What started as a slow trickle is now a gusher, too many people impacted to tell all of their stories. But we should still share the ones we know and counter what the administration is trying to do: Normalize treating people as less than human just because they don’t have legal immigration status in the U.S.

We are not the Nazis. That means we have an obligation to say watchful and keep protesting. We have to loudly reject the people who are trying to take us there.

In October I wrote, “What’s certain is this: No matter where Donald Trump wants to take this country, you and I are not going along for the ride. On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that the No Kings rally on Saturday was a “hate-America” rally. He said the people attending would be “the pro-Hamas wing” and “the antifa people.” He’s wrong. We are, in the best tradition of America’s Greatest Generation, truly anti-fascist. And in 2025, anti-fascism begins at home, because we love this country and we believe in democracy. We’re ready.”

On March 28, the third No Kings rally will happen. You can sign up for updates here. Until then, we will continue to let Donald Trump know that we have no intention of letting him turn us into Nazis, that we will block his efforts to take the country there. That’s our job.

Editor’s Note: Here’s Joyce Vance’s October column, embedded below. –DrWeb

Are We the Nazis Now? by Joyce Vance

How do we meet this moment?

Continue/Read Original Article Here: We are not Nazis. – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

We are not Nazis. – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

We are not Nazis.

Also: No Kings, No Dictators.

By Joyce Vance, Feb 05, 2026

I wrote this piece, titled “Are We The Nazis Now?” back in October last year. There were so many awful things happening, mostly to immigrants, but by then, some Americans had started to protest their treatment. I was reminded of Anne Frank’s words:

“Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. They’re allowed to take only a knapsack and a little cash with them, and even then, they’re robbed of these possessions on the way. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared. Women return from shopping to find their houses sealed, their families gone.”

–Anne Frank

For anyone who had ever wondered how the Germans turned a blind eye to the Holocaust, we are living through the answer. We watched it start in real time. “Trump promised he’d deport violent criminals,” I wrote last October. “Instead, ICE is going after legal residents and terrorizing children. The message: if you’re an American citizen, don’t exercise your First Amendment rights unless you want to become a target too.” Unfortunately, those words proved correct.

I hope you’ll go back and reread the entire piece from October, because it traces what the administration and ICE were doing back then, and although it seems impossible we could ever forget any of it, so much has happened that some of the details get lost. That recent history is essential, because it gives us such a clear picture of the trajectory that has brought us to this moment. In October, ICE had just raided a Chicago apartment building, taking people including kids, outside, some zip tied, in the middle of the night. Immigrants were treated in dehumanizing ways. The administration’s gamble was that not enough Americans would care. It was just “illegals.”

But Americans were already under fire too. There was the ambulance driver who ICE agents threatened to arrest and to kill, claiming he tried to weaponize his vehicle against them, when he was just there to do his job. The administration was already warming up the engines. There was a long runway before ICE shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

In my piece, I asked, “We aren’t even better off in the ways Trump promised. Deporting school kids doesn’t make us safer. Americans don’t want the jobs that aren’t being done in immigrants’ absence. The Labor Department warned in ‘an obscure document filed with the Federal Register last week that the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens’ is threatening ‘the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.’

But beyond the absence of benefits from this administration’s mass deportations, it’s the absence of humanity we see around us that threatens us the most. People who aren’t criminals are thrown to the ground. People are treated with a lack of respect for their basic human dignity. Many of them are hard-working folks who want to be able to love this country and give back because of the opportunity it gives them and their families. Instead, a president who is the son of immigrants and has been married twice to immigrants has become the face of nationalism, using hate and horror to expand his control over people, both American citizens and immigrants, on American soil. Are we the Nazis now?”

There’s an answer to that question. We are not the Nazis. Definitely not. We’re proud of that. We want people to know.

From the massive rallies in freezing temperatures in Minneapolis to smaller ones across the country, like the below one in Maine, Americans are giving their answer to that question. We will not turn a blind eye, we will not acquiesce. We will not be Nazis.

Last Saturday, ABC reported, “Intensive care nurses immediately doubted the word of federal immigration officers when they arrived at a Minneapolis hospital with a Mexican immigrant who had broken bones in his face and skull.” Agents told hospital personnel the man, Alberto Castañeda Mondragón, had tried to flee and had run into a brick wall on purpose. But hospital personnel said his injuries were inconsistent with what ICE claimed.

Prior to his arrest, the man was fine. Four hours later, he was taken to a hospital emergency room. He had “swelling and bruising around his right eye and bleeding. A CT scan revealed at least eight skull fractures and life-threatening hemorrhages in at least five areas of his brain.” The reporter asked a board-certified forensic pathologist who worked as a medical examiner in Minnesota for more than 30 years whether she agreed with hospital employees’ conclusions the injuries weren’t the result of an intentional run at a wall. She responded, “one doesn’t have to be a physician to conclude that a person can’t get skull fractures on both the right and left sides of their head and from front to back by running themselves into a wall.”

One agent subsequently admitted to hospital employees that Castañeda Mondragón, who was arrested the day after Renee Good was killed, “got his (expletive) rocked” after they arrested him.

When he was first admitted to the hospital, Castañeda Mondragón was reportedly “alert and speaking, telling staff he was ‘dragged and mistreated by federal agents.’” But his condition deteriorated rapidly. By the following week, his condition was described as “minimally responsive and communicative, disoriented and heavily sedated.” Nonetheless, ICE agents insisted on shackling Castañeda Mondragón’s ankles to his bed with handcuffs to keep him from escaping. That despite the fact that he “was so disoriented he did not know what year it was and could not recall how he was injured.”

Castañeda Mondragón entered the country legally in 2022. He has no criminal history and started a company in Minnesota. Agents only became aware after they arrested him that he had overstayed his visa. A judge ordered his release and he is no longer in ICE custody, but his friends told the reporter he could no longer work and was at, perhaps, 20% of what he had been before. Hospital employees were surprised he was no longer receiving care.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment on his injuries.

That’s one more human being, damaged by this administration’s insistence of pursuing quotas and treating people like cattle. What started as a slow trickle is now a gusher, too many people impacted to tell all of their stories. But we should still share the ones we know and counter what the administration is trying to do: Normalize treating people as less than human just because they don’t have legal immigration status in the U.S.

We are not the Nazis. That means we have an obligation to say watchful and keep protesting. We have to loudly reject the people who are trying to take us there.

In October I wrote, “What’s certain is this: No matter where Donald Trump wants to take this country, you and I are not going along for the ride. On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that the No Kings rally on Saturday was a “hate-America” rally. He said the people attending would be “the pro-Hamas wing” and “the antifa people.” He’s wrong. We are, in the best tradition of America’s Greatest Generation, truly anti-fascist. And in 2025, anti-fascism begins at home, because we love this country and we believe in democracy. We’re ready.”

On March 28, the third No Kings rally will happen. You can sign up for updates here. Until then, we will continue to let Donald Trump know that we have no intention of letting him turn us into Nazis, that we will block his efforts to take the country there. That’s our job.

Editor’s Note: Here’s Joyce Vance’s October column, embedded below. –DrWeb

Are We the Nazis Now? by Joyce Vance

How do we meet this moment?

Continue/Read Original Article Here: We are not Nazis. – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

We are not Nazis. – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

We are not Nazis.

Also: No Kings, No Dictators.

By Joyce Vance, Feb 05, 2026

I wrote this piece, titled “Are We The Nazis Now?” back in October last year. There were so many awful things happening, mostly to immigrants, but by then, some Americans had started to protest their treatment. I was reminded of Anne Frank’s words:

“Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. They’re allowed to take only a knapsack and a little cash with them, and even then, they’re robbed of these possessions on the way. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared. Women return from shopping to find their houses sealed, their families gone.”

–Anne Frank

For anyone who had ever wondered how the Germans turned a blind eye to the Holocaust, we are living through the answer. We watched it start in real time. “Trump promised he’d deport violent criminals,” I wrote last October. “Instead, ICE is going after legal residents and terrorizing children. The message: if you’re an American citizen, don’t exercise your First Amendment rights unless you want to become a target too.” Unfortunately, those words proved correct.

I hope you’ll go back and reread the entire piece from October, because it traces what the administration and ICE were doing back then, and although it seems impossible we could ever forget any of it, so much has happened that some of the details get lost. That recent history is essential, because it gives us such a clear picture of the trajectory that has brought us to this moment. In October, ICE had just raided a Chicago apartment building, taking people including kids, outside, some zip tied, in the middle of the night. Immigrants were treated in dehumanizing ways. The administration’s gamble was that not enough Americans would care. It was just “illegals.”

But Americans were already under fire too. There was the ambulance driver who ICE agents threatened to arrest and to kill, claiming he tried to weaponize his vehicle against them, when he was just there to do his job. The administration was already warming up the engines. There was a long runway before ICE shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

In my piece, I asked, “We aren’t even better off in the ways Trump promised. Deporting school kids doesn’t make us safer. Americans don’t want the jobs that aren’t being done in immigrants’ absence. The Labor Department warned in ‘an obscure document filed with the Federal Register last week that the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens’ is threatening ‘the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.’

But beyond the absence of benefits from this administration’s mass deportations, it’s the absence of humanity we see around us that threatens us the most. People who aren’t criminals are thrown to the ground. People are treated with a lack of respect for their basic human dignity. Many of them are hard-working folks who want to be able to love this country and give back because of the opportunity it gives them and their families. Instead, a president who is the son of immigrants and has been married twice to immigrants has become the face of nationalism, using hate and horror to expand his control over people, both American citizens and immigrants, on American soil. Are we the Nazis now?”

There’s an answer to that question. We are not the Nazis. Definitely not. We’re proud of that. We want people to know.

From the massive rallies in freezing temperatures in Minneapolis to smaller ones across the country, like the below one in Maine, Americans are giving their answer to that question. We will not turn a blind eye, we will not acquiesce. We will not be Nazis.

Last Saturday, ABC reported, “Intensive care nurses immediately doubted the word of federal immigration officers when they arrived at a Minneapolis hospital with a Mexican immigrant who had broken bones in his face and skull.” Agents told hospital personnel the man, Alberto Castañeda Mondragón, had tried to flee and had run into a brick wall on purpose. But hospital personnel said his injuries were inconsistent with what ICE claimed.

Prior to his arrest, the man was fine. Four hours later, he was taken to a hospital emergency room. He had “swelling and bruising around his right eye and bleeding. A CT scan revealed at least eight skull fractures and life-threatening hemorrhages in at least five areas of his brain.” The reporter asked a board-certified forensic pathologist who worked as a medical examiner in Minnesota for more than 30 years whether she agreed with hospital employees’ conclusions the injuries weren’t the result of an intentional run at a wall. She responded, “one doesn’t have to be a physician to conclude that a person can’t get skull fractures on both the right and left sides of their head and from front to back by running themselves into a wall.”

One agent subsequently admitted to hospital employees that Castañeda Mondragón, who was arrested the day after Renee Good was killed, “got his (expletive) rocked” after they arrested him.

When he was first admitted to the hospital, Castañeda Mondragón was reportedly “alert and speaking, telling staff he was ‘dragged and mistreated by federal agents.’” But his condition deteriorated rapidly. By the following week, his condition was described as “minimally responsive and communicative, disoriented and heavily sedated.” Nonetheless, ICE agents insisted on shackling Castañeda Mondragón’s ankles to his bed with handcuffs to keep him from escaping. That despite the fact that he “was so disoriented he did not know what year it was and could not recall how he was injured.”

Castañeda Mondragón entered the country legally in 2022. He has no criminal history and started a company in Minnesota. Agents only became aware after they arrested him that he had overstayed his visa. A judge ordered his release and he is no longer in ICE custody, but his friends told the reporter he could no longer work and was at, perhaps, 20% of what he had been before. Hospital employees were surprised he was no longer receiving care.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment on his injuries.

That’s one more human being, damaged by this administration’s insistence of pursuing quotas and treating people like cattle. What started as a slow trickle is now a gusher, too many people impacted to tell all of their stories. But we should still share the ones we know and counter what the administration is trying to do: Normalize treating people as less than human just because they don’t have legal immigration status in the U.S.

We are not the Nazis. That means we have an obligation to say watchful and keep protesting. We have to loudly reject the people who are trying to take us there.

In October I wrote, “What’s certain is this: No matter where Donald Trump wants to take this country, you and I are not going along for the ride. On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that the No Kings rally on Saturday was a “hate-America” rally. He said the people attending would be “the pro-Hamas wing” and “the antifa people.” He’s wrong. We are, in the best tradition of America’s Greatest Generation, truly anti-fascist. And in 2025, anti-fascism begins at home, because we love this country and we believe in democracy. We’re ready.”

On March 28, the third No Kings rally will happen. You can sign up for updates here. Until then, we will continue to let Donald Trump know that we have no intention of letting him turn us into Nazis, that we will block his efforts to take the country there. That’s our job.

Editor’s Note: Here’s Joyce Vance’s October column, embedded below. –DrWeb

Are We the Nazis Now? by Joyce Vance

How do we meet this moment?

Continue/Read Original Article Here: We are not Nazis. – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

We are not Nazis. – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

We are not Nazis.

Also: No Kings, No Dictators.

By Joyce Vance, Feb 05, 2026

I wrote this piece, titled “Are We The Nazis Now?” back in October last year. There were so many awful things happening, mostly to immigrants, but by then, some Americans had started to protest their treatment. I was reminded of Anne Frank’s words:

“Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. They’re allowed to take only a knapsack and a little cash with them, and even then, they’re robbed of these possessions on the way. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared. Women return from shopping to find their houses sealed, their families gone.”

–Anne Frank

For anyone who had ever wondered how the Germans turned a blind eye to the Holocaust, we are living through the answer. We watched it start in real time. “Trump promised he’d deport violent criminals,” I wrote last October. “Instead, ICE is going after legal residents and terrorizing children. The message: if you’re an American citizen, don’t exercise your First Amendment rights unless you want to become a target too.” Unfortunately, those words proved correct.

I hope you’ll go back and reread the entire piece from October, because it traces what the administration and ICE were doing back then, and although it seems impossible we could ever forget any of it, so much has happened that some of the details get lost. That recent history is essential, because it gives us such a clear picture of the trajectory that has brought us to this moment. In October, ICE had just raided a Chicago apartment building, taking people including kids, outside, some zip tied, in the middle of the night. Immigrants were treated in dehumanizing ways. The administration’s gamble was that not enough Americans would care. It was just “illegals.”

But Americans were already under fire too. There was the ambulance driver who ICE agents threatened to arrest and to kill, claiming he tried to weaponize his vehicle against them, when he was just there to do his job. The administration was already warming up the engines. There was a long runway before ICE shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

In my piece, I asked, “We aren’t even better off in the ways Trump promised. Deporting school kids doesn’t make us safer. Americans don’t want the jobs that aren’t being done in immigrants’ absence. The Labor Department warned in ‘an obscure document filed with the Federal Register last week that the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens’ is threatening ‘the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.’

But beyond the absence of benefits from this administration’s mass deportations, it’s the absence of humanity we see around us that threatens us the most. People who aren’t criminals are thrown to the ground. People are treated with a lack of respect for their basic human dignity. Many of them are hard-working folks who want to be able to love this country and give back because of the opportunity it gives them and their families. Instead, a president who is the son of immigrants and has been married twice to immigrants has become the face of nationalism, using hate and horror to expand his control over people, both American citizens and immigrants, on American soil. Are we the Nazis now?”

There’s an answer to that question. We are not the Nazis. Definitely not. We’re proud of that. We want people to know.

From the massive rallies in freezing temperatures in Minneapolis to smaller ones across the country, like the below one in Maine, Americans are giving their answer to that question. We will not turn a blind eye, we will not acquiesce. We will not be Nazis.

Last Saturday, ABC reported, “Intensive care nurses immediately doubted the word of federal immigration officers when they arrived at a Minneapolis hospital with a Mexican immigrant who had broken bones in his face and skull.” Agents told hospital personnel the man, Alberto Castañeda Mondragón, had tried to flee and had run into a brick wall on purpose. But hospital personnel said his injuries were inconsistent with what ICE claimed.

Prior to his arrest, the man was fine. Four hours later, he was taken to a hospital emergency room. He had “swelling and bruising around his right eye and bleeding. A CT scan revealed at least eight skull fractures and life-threatening hemorrhages in at least five areas of his brain.” The reporter asked a board-certified forensic pathologist who worked as a medical examiner in Minnesota for more than 30 years whether she agreed with hospital employees’ conclusions the injuries weren’t the result of an intentional run at a wall. She responded, “one doesn’t have to be a physician to conclude that a person can’t get skull fractures on both the right and left sides of their head and from front to back by running themselves into a wall.”

One agent subsequently admitted to hospital employees that Castañeda Mondragón, who was arrested the day after Renee Good was killed, “got his (expletive) rocked” after they arrested him.

When he was first admitted to the hospital, Castañeda Mondragón was reportedly “alert and speaking, telling staff he was ‘dragged and mistreated by federal agents.’” But his condition deteriorated rapidly. By the following week, his condition was described as “minimally responsive and communicative, disoriented and heavily sedated.” Nonetheless, ICE agents insisted on shackling Castañeda Mondragón’s ankles to his bed with handcuffs to keep him from escaping. That despite the fact that he “was so disoriented he did not know what year it was and could not recall how he was injured.”

Castañeda Mondragón entered the country legally in 2022. He has no criminal history and started a company in Minnesota. Agents only became aware after they arrested him that he had overstayed his visa. A judge ordered his release and he is no longer in ICE custody, but his friends told the reporter he could no longer work and was at, perhaps, 20% of what he had been before. Hospital employees were surprised he was no longer receiving care.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment on his injuries.

That’s one more human being, damaged by this administration’s insistence of pursuing quotas and treating people like cattle. What started as a slow trickle is now a gusher, too many people impacted to tell all of their stories. But we should still share the ones we know and counter what the administration is trying to do: Normalize treating people as less than human just because they don’t have legal immigration status in the U.S.

We are not the Nazis. That means we have an obligation to say watchful and keep protesting. We have to loudly reject the people who are trying to take us there.

In October I wrote, “What’s certain is this: No matter where Donald Trump wants to take this country, you and I are not going along for the ride. On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that the No Kings rally on Saturday was a “hate-America” rally. He said the people attending would be “the pro-Hamas wing” and “the antifa people.” He’s wrong. We are, in the best tradition of America’s Greatest Generation, truly anti-fascist. And in 2025, anti-fascism begins at home, because we love this country and we believe in democracy. We’re ready.”

On March 28, the third No Kings rally will happen. You can sign up for updates here. Until then, we will continue to let Donald Trump know that we have no intention of letting him turn us into Nazis, that we will block his efforts to take the country there. That’s our job.

Editor’s Note: Here’s Joyce Vance’s October column, embedded below. –DrWeb

Are We the Nazis Now? by Joyce Vance

How do we meet this moment?

Continue/Read Original Article Here: We are not Nazis. – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

We are not Nazis. – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

We are not Nazis.

Also: No Kings, No Dictators.

By Joyce Vance, Feb 05, 2026

I wrote this piece, titled “Are We The Nazis Now?” back in October last year. There were so many awful things happening, mostly to immigrants, but by then, some Americans had started to protest their treatment. I was reminded of Anne Frank’s words:

“Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. They’re allowed to take only a knapsack and a little cash with them, and even then, they’re robbed of these possessions on the way. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared. Women return from shopping to find their houses sealed, their families gone.”

–Anne Frank

For anyone who had ever wondered how the Germans turned a blind eye to the Holocaust, we are living through the answer. We watched it start in real time. “Trump promised he’d deport violent criminals,” I wrote last October. “Instead, ICE is going after legal residents and terrorizing children. The message: if you’re an American citizen, don’t exercise your First Amendment rights unless you want to become a target too.” Unfortunately, those words proved correct.

I hope you’ll go back and reread the entire piece from October, because it traces what the administration and ICE were doing back then, and although it seems impossible we could ever forget any of it, so much has happened that some of the details get lost. That recent history is essential, because it gives us such a clear picture of the trajectory that has brought us to this moment. In October, ICE had just raided a Chicago apartment building, taking people including kids, outside, some zip tied, in the middle of the night. Immigrants were treated in dehumanizing ways. The administration’s gamble was that not enough Americans would care. It was just “illegals.”

But Americans were already under fire too. There was the ambulance driver who ICE agents threatened to arrest and to kill, claiming he tried to weaponize his vehicle against them, when he was just there to do his job. The administration was already warming up the engines. There was a long runway before ICE shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

In my piece, I asked, “We aren’t even better off in the ways Trump promised. Deporting school kids doesn’t make us safer. Americans don’t want the jobs that aren’t being done in immigrants’ absence. The Labor Department warned in ‘an obscure document filed with the Federal Register last week that the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens’ is threatening ‘the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.’

But beyond the absence of benefits from this administration’s mass deportations, it’s the absence of humanity we see around us that threatens us the most. People who aren’t criminals are thrown to the ground. People are treated with a lack of respect for their basic human dignity. Many of them are hard-working folks who want to be able to love this country and give back because of the opportunity it gives them and their families. Instead, a president who is the son of immigrants and has been married twice to immigrants has become the face of nationalism, using hate and horror to expand his control over people, both American citizens and immigrants, on American soil. Are we the Nazis now?”

There’s an answer to that question. We are not the Nazis. Definitely not. We’re proud of that. We want people to know.

From the massive rallies in freezing temperatures in Minneapolis to smaller ones across the country, like the below one in Maine, Americans are giving their answer to that question. We will not turn a blind eye, we will not acquiesce. We will not be Nazis.

Last Saturday, ABC reported, “Intensive care nurses immediately doubted the word of federal immigration officers when they arrived at a Minneapolis hospital with a Mexican immigrant who had broken bones in his face and skull.” Agents told hospital personnel the man, Alberto Castañeda Mondragón, had tried to flee and had run into a brick wall on purpose. But hospital personnel said his injuries were inconsistent with what ICE claimed.

Prior to his arrest, the man was fine. Four hours later, he was taken to a hospital emergency room. He had “swelling and bruising around his right eye and bleeding. A CT scan revealed at least eight skull fractures and life-threatening hemorrhages in at least five areas of his brain.” The reporter asked a board-certified forensic pathologist who worked as a medical examiner in Minnesota for more than 30 years whether she agreed with hospital employees’ conclusions the injuries weren’t the result of an intentional run at a wall. She responded, “one doesn’t have to be a physician to conclude that a person can’t get skull fractures on both the right and left sides of their head and from front to back by running themselves into a wall.”

One agent subsequently admitted to hospital employees that Castañeda Mondragón, who was arrested the day after Renee Good was killed, “got his (expletive) rocked” after they arrested him.

When he was first admitted to the hospital, Castañeda Mondragón was reportedly “alert and speaking, telling staff he was ‘dragged and mistreated by federal agents.’” But his condition deteriorated rapidly. By the following week, his condition was described as “minimally responsive and communicative, disoriented and heavily sedated.” Nonetheless, ICE agents insisted on shackling Castañeda Mondragón’s ankles to his bed with handcuffs to keep him from escaping. That despite the fact that he “was so disoriented he did not know what year it was and could not recall how he was injured.”

Castañeda Mondragón entered the country legally in 2022. He has no criminal history and started a company in Minnesota. Agents only became aware after they arrested him that he had overstayed his visa. A judge ordered his release and he is no longer in ICE custody, but his friends told the reporter he could no longer work and was at, perhaps, 20% of what he had been before. Hospital employees were surprised he was no longer receiving care.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment on his injuries.

That’s one more human being, damaged by this administration’s insistence of pursuing quotas and treating people like cattle. What started as a slow trickle is now a gusher, too many people impacted to tell all of their stories. But we should still share the ones we know and counter what the administration is trying to do: Normalize treating people as less than human just because they don’t have legal immigration status in the U.S.

We are not the Nazis. That means we have an obligation to say watchful and keep protesting. We have to loudly reject the people who are trying to take us there.

In October I wrote, “What’s certain is this: No matter where Donald Trump wants to take this country, you and I are not going along for the ride. On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that the No Kings rally on Saturday was a “hate-America” rally. He said the people attending would be “the pro-Hamas wing” and “the antifa people.” He’s wrong. We are, in the best tradition of America’s Greatest Generation, truly anti-fascist. And in 2025, anti-fascism begins at home, because we love this country and we believe in democracy. We’re ready.”

On March 28, the third No Kings rally will happen. You can sign up for updates here. Until then, we will continue to let Donald Trump know that we have no intention of letting him turn us into Nazis, that we will block his efforts to take the country there. That’s our job.

Editor’s Note: Here’s Joyce Vance’s October column, embedded below. –DrWeb

Are We the Nazis Now? by Joyce Vance

How do we meet this moment?

Continue/Read Original Article Here: We are not Nazis. – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

We are not Nazis. – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

We are not Nazis.

Also: No Kings, No Dictators.

By Joyce Vance, Feb 05, 2026

I wrote this piece, titled “Are We The Nazis Now?” back in October last year. There were so many awful things happening, mostly to immigrants, but by then, some Americans had started to protest their treatment. I was reminded of Anne Frank’s words:

“Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. They’re allowed to take only a knapsack and a little cash with them, and even then, they’re robbed of these possessions on the way. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared. Women return from shopping to find their houses sealed, their families gone.”

–Anne Frank

For anyone who had ever wondered how the Germans turned a blind eye to the Holocaust, we are living through the answer. We watched it start in real time. “Trump promised he’d deport violent criminals,” I wrote last October. “Instead, ICE is going after legal residents and terrorizing children. The message: if you’re an American citizen, don’t exercise your First Amendment rights unless you want to become a target too.” Unfortunately, those words proved correct.

I hope you’ll go back and reread the entire piece from October, because it traces what the administration and ICE were doing back then, and although it seems impossible we could ever forget any of it, so much has happened that some of the details get lost. That recent history is essential, because it gives us such a clear picture of the trajectory that has brought us to this moment. In October, ICE had just raided a Chicago apartment building, taking people including kids, outside, some zip tied, in the middle of the night. Immigrants were treated in dehumanizing ways. The administration’s gamble was that not enough Americans would care. It was just “illegals.”

But Americans were already under fire too. There was the ambulance driver who ICE agents threatened to arrest and to kill, claiming he tried to weaponize his vehicle against them, when he was just there to do his job. The administration was already warming up the engines. There was a long runway before ICE shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

In my piece, I asked, “We aren’t even better off in the ways Trump promised. Deporting school kids doesn’t make us safer. Americans don’t want the jobs that aren’t being done in immigrants’ absence. The Labor Department warned in ‘an obscure document filed with the Federal Register last week that the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens’ is threatening ‘the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.’

But beyond the absence of benefits from this administration’s mass deportations, it’s the absence of humanity we see around us that threatens us the most. People who aren’t criminals are thrown to the ground. People are treated with a lack of respect for their basic human dignity. Many of them are hard-working folks who want to be able to love this country and give back because of the opportunity it gives them and their families. Instead, a president who is the son of immigrants and has been married twice to immigrants has become the face of nationalism, using hate and horror to expand his control over people, both American citizens and immigrants, on American soil. Are we the Nazis now?”

There’s an answer to that question. We are not the Nazis. Definitely not. We’re proud of that. We want people to know.

From the massive rallies in freezing temperatures in Minneapolis to smaller ones across the country, like the below one in Maine, Americans are giving their answer to that question. We will not turn a blind eye, we will not acquiesce. We will not be Nazis.

Last Saturday, ABC reported, “Intensive care nurses immediately doubted the word of federal immigration officers when they arrived at a Minneapolis hospital with a Mexican immigrant who had broken bones in his face and skull.” Agents told hospital personnel the man, Alberto Castañeda Mondragón, had tried to flee and had run into a brick wall on purpose. But hospital personnel said his injuries were inconsistent with what ICE claimed.

Prior to his arrest, the man was fine. Four hours later, he was taken to a hospital emergency room. He had “swelling and bruising around his right eye and bleeding. A CT scan revealed at least eight skull fractures and life-threatening hemorrhages in at least five areas of his brain.” The reporter asked a board-certified forensic pathologist who worked as a medical examiner in Minnesota for more than 30 years whether she agreed with hospital employees’ conclusions the injuries weren’t the result of an intentional run at a wall. She responded, “one doesn’t have to be a physician to conclude that a person can’t get skull fractures on both the right and left sides of their head and from front to back by running themselves into a wall.”

One agent subsequently admitted to hospital employees that Castañeda Mondragón, who was arrested the day after Renee Good was killed, “got his (expletive) rocked” after they arrested him.

When he was first admitted to the hospital, Castañeda Mondragón was reportedly “alert and speaking, telling staff he was ‘dragged and mistreated by federal agents.’” But his condition deteriorated rapidly. By the following week, his condition was described as “minimally responsive and communicative, disoriented and heavily sedated.” Nonetheless, ICE agents insisted on shackling Castañeda Mondragón’s ankles to his bed with handcuffs to keep him from escaping. That despite the fact that he “was so disoriented he did not know what year it was and could not recall how he was injured.”

Castañeda Mondragón entered the country legally in 2022. He has no criminal history and started a company in Minnesota. Agents only became aware after they arrested him that he had overstayed his visa. A judge ordered his release and he is no longer in ICE custody, but his friends told the reporter he could no longer work and was at, perhaps, 20% of what he had been before. Hospital employees were surprised he was no longer receiving care.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment on his injuries.

That’s one more human being, damaged by this administration’s insistence of pursuing quotas and treating people like cattle. What started as a slow trickle is now a gusher, too many people impacted to tell all of their stories. But we should still share the ones we know and counter what the administration is trying to do: Normalize treating people as less than human just because they don’t have legal immigration status in the U.S.

We are not the Nazis. That means we have an obligation to say watchful and keep protesting. We have to loudly reject the people who are trying to take us there.

In October I wrote, “What’s certain is this: No matter where Donald Trump wants to take this country, you and I are not going along for the ride. On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that the No Kings rally on Saturday was a “hate-America” rally. He said the people attending would be “the pro-Hamas wing” and “the antifa people.” He’s wrong. We are, in the best tradition of America’s Greatest Generation, truly anti-fascist. And in 2025, anti-fascism begins at home, because we love this country and we believe in democracy. We’re ready.”

On March 28, the third No Kings rally will happen. You can sign up for updates here. Until then, we will continue to let Donald Trump know that we have no intention of letting him turn us into Nazis, that we will block his efforts to take the country there. That’s our job.

Editor’s Note: Here’s Joyce Vance’s October column, embedded below. –DrWeb

Are We the Nazis Now? by Joyce Vance

How do we meet this moment?

Continue/Read Original Article Here: We are not Nazis. – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

We are not Nazis. – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

We are not Nazis.

Also: No Kings, No Dictators.

By Joyce Vance, Feb 05, 2026

I wrote this piece, titled “Are We The Nazis Now?” back in October last year. There were so many awful things happening, mostly to immigrants, but by then, some Americans had started to protest their treatment. I was reminded of Anne Frank’s words:

“Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. They’re allowed to take only a knapsack and a little cash with them, and even then, they’re robbed of these possessions on the way. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared. Women return from shopping to find their houses sealed, their families gone.”

–Anne Frank

For anyone who had ever wondered how the Germans turned a blind eye to the Holocaust, we are living through the answer. We watched it start in real time. “Trump promised he’d deport violent criminals,” I wrote last October. “Instead, ICE is going after legal residents and terrorizing children. The message: if you’re an American citizen, don’t exercise your First Amendment rights unless you want to become a target too.” Unfortunately, those words proved correct.

I hope you’ll go back and reread the entire piece from October, because it traces what the administration and ICE were doing back then, and although it seems impossible we could ever forget any of it, so much has happened that some of the details get lost. That recent history is essential, because it gives us such a clear picture of the trajectory that has brought us to this moment. In October, ICE had just raided a Chicago apartment building, taking people including kids, outside, some zip tied, in the middle of the night. Immigrants were treated in dehumanizing ways. The administration’s gamble was that not enough Americans would care. It was just “illegals.”

But Americans were already under fire too. There was the ambulance driver who ICE agents threatened to arrest and to kill, claiming he tried to weaponize his vehicle against them, when he was just there to do his job. The administration was already warming up the engines. There was a long runway before ICE shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

In my piece, I asked, “We aren’t even better off in the ways Trump promised. Deporting school kids doesn’t make us safer. Americans don’t want the jobs that aren’t being done in immigrants’ absence. The Labor Department warned in ‘an obscure document filed with the Federal Register last week that the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens’ is threatening ‘the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.’

But beyond the absence of benefits from this administration’s mass deportations, it’s the absence of humanity we see around us that threatens us the most. People who aren’t criminals are thrown to the ground. People are treated with a lack of respect for their basic human dignity. Many of them are hard-working folks who want to be able to love this country and give back because of the opportunity it gives them and their families. Instead, a president who is the son of immigrants and has been married twice to immigrants has become the face of nationalism, using hate and horror to expand his control over people, both American citizens and immigrants, on American soil. Are we the Nazis now?”

There’s an answer to that question. We are not the Nazis. Definitely not. We’re proud of that. We want people to know.

From the massive rallies in freezing temperatures in Minneapolis to smaller ones across the country, like the below one in Maine, Americans are giving their answer to that question. We will not turn a blind eye, we will not acquiesce. We will not be Nazis.

Last Saturday, ABC reported, “Intensive care nurses immediately doubted the word of federal immigration officers when they arrived at a Minneapolis hospital with a Mexican immigrant who had broken bones in his face and skull.” Agents told hospital personnel the man, Alberto Castañeda Mondragón, had tried to flee and had run into a brick wall on purpose. But hospital personnel said his injuries were inconsistent with what ICE claimed.

Prior to his arrest, the man was fine. Four hours later, he was taken to a hospital emergency room. He had “swelling and bruising around his right eye and bleeding. A CT scan revealed at least eight skull fractures and life-threatening hemorrhages in at least five areas of his brain.” The reporter asked a board-certified forensic pathologist who worked as a medical examiner in Minnesota for more than 30 years whether she agreed with hospital employees’ conclusions the injuries weren’t the result of an intentional run at a wall. She responded, “one doesn’t have to be a physician to conclude that a person can’t get skull fractures on both the right and left sides of their head and from front to back by running themselves into a wall.”

One agent subsequently admitted to hospital employees that Castañeda Mondragón, who was arrested the day after Renee Good was killed, “got his (expletive) rocked” after they arrested him.

When he was first admitted to the hospital, Castañeda Mondragón was reportedly “alert and speaking, telling staff he was ‘dragged and mistreated by federal agents.’” But his condition deteriorated rapidly. By the following week, his condition was described as “minimally responsive and communicative, disoriented and heavily sedated.” Nonetheless, ICE agents insisted on shackling Castañeda Mondragón’s ankles to his bed with handcuffs to keep him from escaping. That despite the fact that he “was so disoriented he did not know what year it was and could not recall how he was injured.”

Castañeda Mondragón entered the country legally in 2022. He has no criminal history and started a company in Minnesota. Agents only became aware after they arrested him that he had overstayed his visa. A judge ordered his release and he is no longer in ICE custody, but his friends told the reporter he could no longer work and was at, perhaps, 20% of what he had been before. Hospital employees were surprised he was no longer receiving care.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment on his injuries.

That’s one more human being, damaged by this administration’s insistence of pursuing quotas and treating people like cattle. What started as a slow trickle is now a gusher, too many people impacted to tell all of their stories. But we should still share the ones we know and counter what the administration is trying to do: Normalize treating people as less than human just because they don’t have legal immigration status in the U.S.

We are not the Nazis. That means we have an obligation to say watchful and keep protesting. We have to loudly reject the people who are trying to take us there.

In October I wrote, “What’s certain is this: No matter where Donald Trump wants to take this country, you and I are not going along for the ride. On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that the No Kings rally on Saturday was a “hate-America” rally. He said the people attending would be “the pro-Hamas wing” and “the antifa people.” He’s wrong. We are, in the best tradition of America’s Greatest Generation, truly anti-fascist. And in 2025, anti-fascism begins at home, because we love this country and we believe in democracy. We’re ready.”

On March 28, the third No Kings rally will happen. You can sign up for updates here. Until then, we will continue to let Donald Trump know that we have no intention of letting him turn us into Nazis, that we will block his efforts to take the country there. That’s our job.

Editor’s Note: Here’s Joyce Vance’s October column, embedded below. –DrWeb

Are We the Nazis Now? by Joyce Vance

How do we meet this moment?

Continue/Read Original Article Here: We are not Nazis. – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

We are not Nazis. – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

We are not Nazis.

Also: No Kings, No Dictators.

By Joyce Vance, Feb 05, 2026

I wrote this piece, titled “Are We The Nazis Now?” back in October last year. There were so many awful things happening, mostly to immigrants, but by then, some Americans had started to protest their treatment. I was reminded of Anne Frank’s words:

“Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. They’re allowed to take only a knapsack and a little cash with them, and even then, they’re robbed of these possessions on the way. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared. Women return from shopping to find their houses sealed, their families gone.”

–Anne Frank

For anyone who had ever wondered how the Germans turned a blind eye to the Holocaust, we are living through the answer. We watched it start in real time. “Trump promised he’d deport violent criminals,” I wrote last October. “Instead, ICE is going after legal residents and terrorizing children. The message: if you’re an American citizen, don’t exercise your First Amendment rights unless you want to become a target too.” Unfortunately, those words proved correct.

I hope you’ll go back and reread the entire piece from October, because it traces what the administration and ICE were doing back then, and although it seems impossible we could ever forget any of it, so much has happened that some of the details get lost. That recent history is essential, because it gives us such a clear picture of the trajectory that has brought us to this moment. In October, ICE had just raided a Chicago apartment building, taking people including kids, outside, some zip tied, in the middle of the night. Immigrants were treated in dehumanizing ways. The administration’s gamble was that not enough Americans would care. It was just “illegals.”

But Americans were already under fire too. There was the ambulance driver who ICE agents threatened to arrest and to kill, claiming he tried to weaponize his vehicle against them, when he was just there to do his job. The administration was already warming up the engines. There was a long runway before ICE shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

In my piece, I asked, “We aren’t even better off in the ways Trump promised. Deporting school kids doesn’t make us safer. Americans don’t want the jobs that aren’t being done in immigrants’ absence. The Labor Department warned in ‘an obscure document filed with the Federal Register last week that the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens’ is threatening ‘the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.’

But beyond the absence of benefits from this administration’s mass deportations, it’s the absence of humanity we see around us that threatens us the most. People who aren’t criminals are thrown to the ground. People are treated with a lack of respect for their basic human dignity. Many of them are hard-working folks who want to be able to love this country and give back because of the opportunity it gives them and their families. Instead, a president who is the son of immigrants and has been married twice to immigrants has become the face of nationalism, using hate and horror to expand his control over people, both American citizens and immigrants, on American soil. Are we the Nazis now?”

There’s an answer to that question. We are not the Nazis. Definitely not. We’re proud of that. We want people to know.

From the massive rallies in freezing temperatures in Minneapolis to smaller ones across the country, like the below one in Maine, Americans are giving their answer to that question. We will not turn a blind eye, we will not acquiesce. We will not be Nazis.

Last Saturday, ABC reported, “Intensive care nurses immediately doubted the word of federal immigration officers when they arrived at a Minneapolis hospital with a Mexican immigrant who had broken bones in his face and skull.” Agents told hospital personnel the man, Alberto Castañeda Mondragón, had tried to flee and had run into a brick wall on purpose. But hospital personnel said his injuries were inconsistent with what ICE claimed.

Prior to his arrest, the man was fine. Four hours later, he was taken to a hospital emergency room. He had “swelling and bruising around his right eye and bleeding. A CT scan revealed at least eight skull fractures and life-threatening hemorrhages in at least five areas of his brain.” The reporter asked a board-certified forensic pathologist who worked as a medical examiner in Minnesota for more than 30 years whether she agreed with hospital employees’ conclusions the injuries weren’t the result of an intentional run at a wall. She responded, “one doesn’t have to be a physician to conclude that a person can’t get skull fractures on both the right and left sides of their head and from front to back by running themselves into a wall.”

One agent subsequently admitted to hospital employees that Castañeda Mondragón, who was arrested the day after Renee Good was killed, “got his (expletive) rocked” after they arrested him.

When he was first admitted to the hospital, Castañeda Mondragón was reportedly “alert and speaking, telling staff he was ‘dragged and mistreated by federal agents.’” But his condition deteriorated rapidly. By the following week, his condition was described as “minimally responsive and communicative, disoriented and heavily sedated.” Nonetheless, ICE agents insisted on shackling Castañeda Mondragón’s ankles to his bed with handcuffs to keep him from escaping. That despite the fact that he “was so disoriented he did not know what year it was and could not recall how he was injured.”

Castañeda Mondragón entered the country legally in 2022. He has no criminal history and started a company in Minnesota. Agents only became aware after they arrested him that he had overstayed his visa. A judge ordered his release and he is no longer in ICE custody, but his friends told the reporter he could no longer work and was at, perhaps, 20% of what he had been before. Hospital employees were surprised he was no longer receiving care.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment on his injuries.

That’s one more human being, damaged by this administration’s insistence of pursuing quotas and treating people like cattle. What started as a slow trickle is now a gusher, too many people impacted to tell all of their stories. But we should still share the ones we know and counter what the administration is trying to do: Normalize treating people as less than human just because they don’t have legal immigration status in the U.S.

We are not the Nazis. That means we have an obligation to say watchful and keep protesting. We have to loudly reject the people who are trying to take us there.

In October I wrote, “What’s certain is this: No matter where Donald Trump wants to take this country, you and I are not going along for the ride. On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that the No Kings rally on Saturday was a “hate-America” rally. He said the people attending would be “the pro-Hamas wing” and “the antifa people.” He’s wrong. We are, in the best tradition of America’s Greatest Generation, truly anti-fascist. And in 2025, anti-fascism begins at home, because we love this country and we believe in democracy. We’re ready.”

On March 28, the third No Kings rally will happen. You can sign up for updates here. Until then, we will continue to let Donald Trump know that we have no intention of letting him turn us into Nazis, that we will block his efforts to take the country there. That’s our job.

Editor’s Note: Here’s Joyce Vance’s October column, embedded below. –DrWeb

Are We the Nazis Now? by Joyce Vance

How do we meet this moment?

Continue/Read Original Article Here: We are not Nazis. – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

We are not Nazis. – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

We are not Nazis.

Also: No Kings, No Dictators.

By Joyce Vance, Feb 05, 2026

I wrote this piece, titled “Are We The Nazis Now?” back in October last year. There were so many awful things happening, mostly to immigrants, but by then, some Americans had started to protest their treatment. I was reminded of Anne Frank’s words:

“Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. They’re allowed to take only a knapsack and a little cash with them, and even then, they’re robbed of these possessions on the way. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared. Women return from shopping to find their houses sealed, their families gone.”

–Anne Frank

For anyone who had ever wondered how the Germans turned a blind eye to the Holocaust, we are living through the answer. We watched it start in real time. “Trump promised he’d deport violent criminals,” I wrote last October. “Instead, ICE is going after legal residents and terrorizing children. The message: if you’re an American citizen, don’t exercise your First Amendment rights unless you want to become a target too.” Unfortunately, those words proved correct.

I hope you’ll go back and reread the entire piece from October, because it traces what the administration and ICE were doing back then, and although it seems impossible we could ever forget any of it, so much has happened that some of the details get lost. That recent history is essential, because it gives us such a clear picture of the trajectory that has brought us to this moment. In October, ICE had just raided a Chicago apartment building, taking people including kids, outside, some zip tied, in the middle of the night. Immigrants were treated in dehumanizing ways. The administration’s gamble was that not enough Americans would care. It was just “illegals.”

But Americans were already under fire too. There was the ambulance driver who ICE agents threatened to arrest and to kill, claiming he tried to weaponize his vehicle against them, when he was just there to do his job. The administration was already warming up the engines. There was a long runway before ICE shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

In my piece, I asked, “We aren’t even better off in the ways Trump promised. Deporting school kids doesn’t make us safer. Americans don’t want the jobs that aren’t being done in immigrants’ absence. The Labor Department warned in ‘an obscure document filed with the Federal Register last week that the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens’ is threatening ‘the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.’

But beyond the absence of benefits from this administration’s mass deportations, it’s the absence of humanity we see around us that threatens us the most. People who aren’t criminals are thrown to the ground. People are treated with a lack of respect for their basic human dignity. Many of them are hard-working folks who want to be able to love this country and give back because of the opportunity it gives them and their families. Instead, a president who is the son of immigrants and has been married twice to immigrants has become the face of nationalism, using hate and horror to expand his control over people, both American citizens and immigrants, on American soil. Are we the Nazis now?”

There’s an answer to that question. We are not the Nazis. Definitely not. We’re proud of that. We want people to know.

From the massive rallies in freezing temperatures in Minneapolis to smaller ones across the country, like the below one in Maine, Americans are giving their answer to that question. We will not turn a blind eye, we will not acquiesce. We will not be Nazis.

Last Saturday, ABC reported, “Intensive care nurses immediately doubted the word of federal immigration officers when they arrived at a Minneapolis hospital with a Mexican immigrant who had broken bones in his face and skull.” Agents told hospital personnel the man, Alberto Castañeda Mondragón, had tried to flee and had run into a brick wall on purpose. But hospital personnel said his injuries were inconsistent with what ICE claimed.

Prior to his arrest, the man was fine. Four hours later, he was taken to a hospital emergency room. He had “swelling and bruising around his right eye and bleeding. A CT scan revealed at least eight skull fractures and life-threatening hemorrhages in at least five areas of his brain.” The reporter asked a board-certified forensic pathologist who worked as a medical examiner in Minnesota for more than 30 years whether she agreed with hospital employees’ conclusions the injuries weren’t the result of an intentional run at a wall. She responded, “one doesn’t have to be a physician to conclude that a person can’t get skull fractures on both the right and left sides of their head and from front to back by running themselves into a wall.”

One agent subsequently admitted to hospital employees that Castañeda Mondragón, who was arrested the day after Renee Good was killed, “got his (expletive) rocked” after they arrested him.

When he was first admitted to the hospital, Castañeda Mondragón was reportedly “alert and speaking, telling staff he was ‘dragged and mistreated by federal agents.’” But his condition deteriorated rapidly. By the following week, his condition was described as “minimally responsive and communicative, disoriented and heavily sedated.” Nonetheless, ICE agents insisted on shackling Castañeda Mondragón’s ankles to his bed with handcuffs to keep him from escaping. That despite the fact that he “was so disoriented he did not know what year it was and could not recall how he was injured.”

Castañeda Mondragón entered the country legally in 2022. He has no criminal history and started a company in Minnesota. Agents only became aware after they arrested him that he had overstayed his visa. A judge ordered his release and he is no longer in ICE custody, but his friends told the reporter he could no longer work and was at, perhaps, 20% of what he had been before. Hospital employees were surprised he was no longer receiving care.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment on his injuries.

That’s one more human being, damaged by this administration’s insistence of pursuing quotas and treating people like cattle. What started as a slow trickle is now a gusher, too many people impacted to tell all of their stories. But we should still share the ones we know and counter what the administration is trying to do: Normalize treating people as less than human just because they don’t have legal immigration status in the U.S.

We are not the Nazis. That means we have an obligation to say watchful and keep protesting. We have to loudly reject the people who are trying to take us there.

In October I wrote, “What’s certain is this: No matter where Donald Trump wants to take this country, you and I are not going along for the ride. On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that the No Kings rally on Saturday was a “hate-America” rally. He said the people attending would be “the pro-Hamas wing” and “the antifa people.” He’s wrong. We are, in the best tradition of America’s Greatest Generation, truly anti-fascist. And in 2025, anti-fascism begins at home, because we love this country and we believe in democracy. We’re ready.”

On March 28, the third No Kings rally will happen. You can sign up for updates here. Until then, we will continue to let Donald Trump know that we have no intention of letting him turn us into Nazis, that we will block his efforts to take the country there. That’s our job.

Editor’s Note: Here’s Joyce Vance’s October column, embedded below. –DrWeb

Are We the Nazis Now? by Joyce Vance

How do we meet this moment?

Continue/Read Original Article Here: We are not Nazis. – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

We are not Nazis. – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

We are not Nazis.

Also: No Kings, No Dictators.

By Joyce Vance, Feb 05, 2026

I wrote this piece, titled “Are We The Nazis Now?” back in October last year. There were so many awful things happening, mostly to immigrants, but by then, some Americans had started to protest their treatment. I was reminded of Anne Frank’s words:

“Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. They’re allowed to take only a knapsack and a little cash with them, and even then, they’re robbed of these possessions on the way. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared. Women return from shopping to find their houses sealed, their families gone.”

–Anne Frank

For anyone who had ever wondered how the Germans turned a blind eye to the Holocaust, we are living through the answer. We watched it start in real time. “Trump promised he’d deport violent criminals,” I wrote last October. “Instead, ICE is going after legal residents and terrorizing children. The message: if you’re an American citizen, don’t exercise your First Amendment rights unless you want to become a target too.” Unfortunately, those words proved correct.

I hope you’ll go back and reread the entire piece from October, because it traces what the administration and ICE were doing back then, and although it seems impossible we could ever forget any of it, so much has happened that some of the details get lost. That recent history is essential, because it gives us such a clear picture of the trajectory that has brought us to this moment. In October, ICE had just raided a Chicago apartment building, taking people including kids, outside, some zip tied, in the middle of the night. Immigrants were treated in dehumanizing ways. The administration’s gamble was that not enough Americans would care. It was just “illegals.”

But Americans were already under fire too. There was the ambulance driver who ICE agents threatened to arrest and to kill, claiming he tried to weaponize his vehicle against them, when he was just there to do his job. The administration was already warming up the engines. There was a long runway before ICE shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

In my piece, I asked, “We aren’t even better off in the ways Trump promised. Deporting school kids doesn’t make us safer. Americans don’t want the jobs that aren’t being done in immigrants’ absence. The Labor Department warned in ‘an obscure document filed with the Federal Register last week that the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens’ is threatening ‘the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.’

But beyond the absence of benefits from this administration’s mass deportations, it’s the absence of humanity we see around us that threatens us the most. People who aren’t criminals are thrown to the ground. People are treated with a lack of respect for their basic human dignity. Many of them are hard-working folks who want to be able to love this country and give back because of the opportunity it gives them and their families. Instead, a president who is the son of immigrants and has been married twice to immigrants has become the face of nationalism, using hate and horror to expand his control over people, both American citizens and immigrants, on American soil. Are we the Nazis now?”

There’s an answer to that question. We are not the Nazis. Definitely not. We’re proud of that. We want people to know.

From the massive rallies in freezing temperatures in Minneapolis to smaller ones across the country, like the below one in Maine, Americans are giving their answer to that question. We will not turn a blind eye, we will not acquiesce. We will not be Nazis.

Last Saturday, ABC reported, “Intensive care nurses immediately doubted the word of federal immigration officers when they arrived at a Minneapolis hospital with a Mexican immigrant who had broken bones in his face and skull.” Agents told hospital personnel the man, Alberto Castañeda Mondragón, had tried to flee and had run into a brick wall on purpose. But hospital personnel said his injuries were inconsistent with what ICE claimed.

Prior to his arrest, the man was fine. Four hours later, he was taken to a hospital emergency room. He had “swelling and bruising around his right eye and bleeding. A CT scan revealed at least eight skull fractures and life-threatening hemorrhages in at least five areas of his brain.” The reporter asked a board-certified forensic pathologist who worked as a medical examiner in Minnesota for more than 30 years whether she agreed with hospital employees’ conclusions the injuries weren’t the result of an intentional run at a wall. She responded, “one doesn’t have to be a physician to conclude that a person can’t get skull fractures on both the right and left sides of their head and from front to back by running themselves into a wall.”

One agent subsequently admitted to hospital employees that Castañeda Mondragón, who was arrested the day after Renee Good was killed, “got his (expletive) rocked” after they arrested him.

When he was first admitted to the hospital, Castañeda Mondragón was reportedly “alert and speaking, telling staff he was ‘dragged and mistreated by federal agents.’” But his condition deteriorated rapidly. By the following week, his condition was described as “minimally responsive and communicative, disoriented and heavily sedated.” Nonetheless, ICE agents insisted on shackling Castañeda Mondragón’s ankles to his bed with handcuffs to keep him from escaping. That despite the fact that he “was so disoriented he did not know what year it was and could not recall how he was injured.”

Castañeda Mondragón entered the country legally in 2022. He has no criminal history and started a company in Minnesota. Agents only became aware after they arrested him that he had overstayed his visa. A judge ordered his release and he is no longer in ICE custody, but his friends told the reporter he could no longer work and was at, perhaps, 20% of what he had been before. Hospital employees were surprised he was no longer receiving care.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment on his injuries.

That’s one more human being, damaged by this administration’s insistence of pursuing quotas and treating people like cattle. What started as a slow trickle is now a gusher, too many people impacted to tell all of their stories. But we should still share the ones we know and counter what the administration is trying to do: Normalize treating people as less than human just because they don’t have legal immigration status in the U.S.

We are not the Nazis. That means we have an obligation to say watchful and keep protesting. We have to loudly reject the people who are trying to take us there.

In October I wrote, “What’s certain is this: No matter where Donald Trump wants to take this country, you and I are not going along for the ride. On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that the No Kings rally on Saturday was a “hate-America” rally. He said the people attending would be “the pro-Hamas wing” and “the antifa people.” He’s wrong. We are, in the best tradition of America’s Greatest Generation, truly anti-fascist. And in 2025, anti-fascism begins at home, because we love this country and we believe in democracy. We’re ready.”

On March 28, the third No Kings rally will happen. You can sign up for updates here. Until then, we will continue to let Donald Trump know that we have no intention of letting him turn us into Nazis, that we will block his efforts to take the country there. That’s our job.

Editor’s Note: Here’s Joyce Vance’s October column, embedded below. –DrWeb

Are We the Nazis Now? by Joyce Vance

How do we meet this moment?

Continue/Read Original Article Here: We are not Nazis. – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

#joycevance This morning, Judge Schiltz … savaged ICE, justifiably, for how the agency has conducted itself, just in the last month and just in his court….:

“Attached to this order is an appendix that identifies 96 court orders that ICE has violated in 74 cases. The extent of ICE’s noncompliance is almost certainly substantially understated. This list is confined to orders issued since January 1, 2026, and the list was hurriedly compiled by extraordinarily busy judges. Undoubtedly, mistakes were made, and orders that should have appeared on this list were omitted. This list should give pause to anyone—no matter his or her political beliefs—who cares about the rule of law. ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence…ICE is not a law unto itself. ICE has every right to challenge the orders of this Court, but, like any litigant, ICE must follow those orders unless and until they are overturned or vacated.”

#joycevance This morning, Judge Schiltz … savaged ICE, justifiably, for how the agency has conducted itself, just in the last month and just in his court….:

“Attached to this order is an appendix that identifies 96 court orders that ICE has violated in 74 cases. The extent of ICE’s noncompliance is almost certainly substantially understated. This list is confined to orders issued since January 1, 2026, and the list was hurriedly compiled by extraordinarily busy judges. Undoubtedly, mistakes were made, and orders that should have appeared on this list were omitted. This list should give pause to anyone—no matter his or her political beliefs—who cares about the rule of law. ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence…ICE is not a law unto itself. ICE has every right to challenge the orders of this Court, but, like any litigant, ICE must follow those orders unless and until they are overturned or vacated.”

Civil Discourse – Alex Pretti – Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Alex Pretti

Add his name to Renee Good’s.

By Joyce Vance, Jan 26, 2026

After a long, difficult weekend, following the murder of Alex Pretti on Saturday in Minneapolis, which followed the murder of Renee Good earlier in the month, there is more evidence that when we protest against this administration and stay the course, we prevail. We cannot give up, and Americans don’t look like they intend to. Instead, with a lot of grit, they are staying the course.

There is more I want to write about the death of Alex Pretti once I finish processing everything that happened this weekend. I think we’re all still processing, but also, it’s a moment that demands action, so we have to be able to do both of those things at once. We saw the shameless, untrue, demeaning propaganda DHS spouted about Pretti. There is the failure to acknowledge a tragic mistake, to show empathy for his family, to take steps to take the temperature down—all things this administration must be held accountable for at the highest levels. But today, I want to write about the little bit of light shining through the dark.

Trump is backing down.

His Attorney General Pam Bondi’s offensive offer—give us your voter files, she said to Minnesota, and ICE will leave—was called into question by Judges in Oregon and Minnesota. It was clear the judges had questions, but they weren’t alone.

In the wake of the administration’s lies about Pretti, protests erupted across the country. Americans called for an unbiased investigation after reporting emerged that ICE refused to let state and local investigators onto the scene at first, and then abandoned it without securing it, which compromised other agencies’ ability to gather evidence. With protests ongoing across the country, the administration is slowly backing away.

On the Sunday shows, in addition to Democrats, Oklahoma’s Republican Kevin Stitt said Trump needed to answer questions about pulling ICE out of Minnesota and opined “He’s getting bad advice right now.” On Monday, Texas Governor Greg Abbot said on a local radio show that “They, being the White House, need to recalibrate on what needs to be done to make sure that respect is going to be reinstilled,” and that they had a plan to do that. Congressional Republicans, including Representative Michael McCaul of Texas and Senators Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, called, in varying degrees, for more investigation. That’s about as much backbone as we’ve seen from Republicans in the past year.

It was clear to Republicans that Americans had no intention of letting this go.

Tonight, it appears that the days of Gregory Bovino strutting around Minneapolis streets in his greatcoat may be over. The Atlantic reported earlier tonight, “Greg Bovino Loses His Job.” They wrote that he had “been removed from his role as Border Patrol ‘commander at large’ and will return to his former job in El Centro, California, where he is expected to retire soon, according to a DHS official and two people with knowledge of the change.”

DHS is denying that the report is true.

But as Adam Klasfeld of All Rise News posted, “Nothing in this carefully worded statement by DHS denies the crux of the reporting that Bovino was demoted to his previous job, lost social media access, will leave Minnesota and may retire soon.”

Of course, removing Bovino alone is not the answer, but it’s a start. And we the people did that. We cannot let up, we have to keep going. As I wrote to you last week on Martin Luther King Day, peaceful protest is the answer. “Bull Connor’s ghost is walking the streets of America in the guise of Donald Trump and others around him, Kristi Noem and Thomas Homan, people who reject country and Constitution. People who have no appreciation for our system of government or our rule of law, but who think only of themselves. We don’t talk enough about how not-normal this is. We all know it, it’s become an accepted truth. Let’s honor the legacy of peaceful protest by speaking that truth to power. Because we love our country. And we intend to take it back in this election year.”

This week, Americans did just that: we spoke truth to power.

In the immediate wake of Pretti’s death, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and others, including the President, tried to demean his character and call him a terrorist. But it quickly became apparent that Pretti was holding a phone, not a gun, and was trying to save another protestor, a woman, who was being attacked by an agent. He wasn’t there to massacre law enforcement. He was a VA ICU nurse. He was there to help. As Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy tweeted, “It should freak the American people out that Trump, Noem and Bovino lie so enthusiastically. He wasn’t ‘brandishing a weapon’. He wasn’t attending a ‘riot’ or ‘interfering in a crime scene’. He was an ICU nurse exercising his constitutional rights.”

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Alex Pretti – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Civil Discoure – ICE Says It Doesn’t Need A Judicial Warrant – Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

ICE Says It Doesn’t Need A Judicial Warrant

By Joyce Vance, Jan 21, 2026

It’s been a long time since we took a night off. I honestly can’t remember the last time. But tonight I’m going to turn in early, after a long day. Before I do that, I wanted to flag one development with ICE for you.

I also want to leave you with some reason for optimism. You may have seen the news that ICE has now surged agents to Maine, predominantly to the cities of Portland and Lewiston, where there are large Somali immigrant communities. This is an echo of the focus on the Somali community in Minnesota.

Tonight, close to 1,000 people joined the mighty Maine ACLU for training on their legal rights and non-violent protest. It was an honor to get to participate in it. When we talk about community building and supporting democracy, this is what it’s all about: people committed to standing up for their rights and for their neighbors’ rights. There is training across the country that you can participate in to better educate yourself about your right to protest peacefully.

Now, the development: The Associated Press is reporting that it has seen a memo ICE is using for internal agent training that asserts “sweeping power to forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant.” The Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable search and seizure, has always been understood to require a warrant signed by a judge, not an administrative warrant signed by a DHS employee to enter a private residence or private areas of a business.

This new policy stance might explain some of the incidents that have been reported in Minnesota, where agents have made forcible entry into homes to remove people and put them into deportation proceedings without a judicial warrant. This sounds like what might have been at work when agents forcibly entered the home of a Hmong man in Minnesota who has been an American citizen for decades, and according to his statement, declined to produce a warrant and claimed he was subject to removal before forcing him out into the freezing cold in his underwear. It turned out that they got it wrong and were forced to release him a few hours later.

The AP reported that they witnessed ICE officers ramming through the front door of the home of a Liberian man in Minneapolis on Jan. 11 with only an administrative warrant, wearing heavy tactical gear and with their rifles drawn, which could also be a result of the new policy.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: ICE Says It Doesn’t Need A Judicial Warrant

Civil Discoure – ICE Says It Doesn’t Need A Judicial Warrant – Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

ICE Says It Doesn’t Need A Judicial Warrant

By Joyce Vance, Jan 21, 2026

It’s been a long time since we took a night off. I honestly can’t remember the last time. But tonight I’m going to turn in early, after a long day. Before I do that, I wanted to flag one development with ICE for you.

I also want to leave you with some reason for optimism. You may have seen the news that ICE has now surged agents to Maine, predominantly to the cities of Portland and Lewiston, where there are large Somali immigrant communities. This is an echo of the focus on the Somali community in Minnesota.

Tonight, close to 1,000 people joined the mighty Maine ACLU for training on their legal rights and non-violent protest. It was an honor to get to participate in it. When we talk about community building and supporting democracy, this is what it’s all about: people committed to standing up for their rights and for their neighbors’ rights. There is training across the country that you can participate in to better educate yourself about your right to protest peacefully.

Now, the development: The Associated Press is reporting that it has seen a memo ICE is using for internal agent training that asserts “sweeping power to forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant.” The Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable search and seizure, has always been understood to require a warrant signed by a judge, not an administrative warrant signed by a DHS employee to enter a private residence or private areas of a business.

This new policy stance might explain some of the incidents that have been reported in Minnesota, where agents have made forcible entry into homes to remove people and put them into deportation proceedings without a judicial warrant. This sounds like what might have been at work when agents forcibly entered the home of a Hmong man in Minnesota who has been an American citizen for decades, and according to his statement, declined to produce a warrant and claimed he was subject to removal before forcing him out into the freezing cold in his underwear. It turned out that they got it wrong and were forced to release him a few hours later.

The AP reported that they witnessed ICE officers ramming through the front door of the home of a Liberian man in Minneapolis on Jan. 11 with only an administrative warrant, wearing heavy tactical gear and with their rifles drawn, which could also be a result of the new policy.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: ICE Says It Doesn’t Need A Judicial Warrant

Civil Discoure – ICE Says It Doesn’t Need A Judicial Warrant – Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

ICE Says It Doesn’t Need A Judicial Warrant

By Joyce Vance, Jan 21, 2026

It’s been a long time since we took a night off. I honestly can’t remember the last time. But tonight I’m going to turn in early, after a long day. Before I do that, I wanted to flag one development with ICE for you.

I also want to leave you with some reason for optimism. You may have seen the news that ICE has now surged agents to Maine, predominantly to the cities of Portland and Lewiston, where there are large Somali immigrant communities. This is an echo of the focus on the Somali community in Minnesota.

Tonight, close to 1,000 people joined the mighty Maine ACLU for training on their legal rights and non-violent protest. It was an honor to get to participate in it. When we talk about community building and supporting democracy, this is what it’s all about: people committed to standing up for their rights and for their neighbors’ rights. There is training across the country that you can participate in to better educate yourself about your right to protest peacefully.

Now, the development: The Associated Press is reporting that it has seen a memo ICE is using for internal agent training that asserts “sweeping power to forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant.” The Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable search and seizure, has always been understood to require a warrant signed by a judge, not an administrative warrant signed by a DHS employee to enter a private residence or private areas of a business.

This new policy stance might explain some of the incidents that have been reported in Minnesota, where agents have made forcible entry into homes to remove people and put them into deportation proceedings without a judicial warrant. This sounds like what might have been at work when agents forcibly entered the home of a Hmong man in Minnesota who has been an American citizen for decades, and according to his statement, declined to produce a warrant and claimed he was subject to removal before forcing him out into the freezing cold in his underwear. It turned out that they got it wrong and were forced to release him a few hours later.

The AP reported that they witnessed ICE officers ramming through the front door of the home of a Liberian man in Minneapolis on Jan. 11 with only an administrative warrant, wearing heavy tactical gear and with their rifles drawn, which could also be a result of the new policy.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: ICE Says It Doesn’t Need A Judicial Warrant

Civil Discoure – ICE Says It Doesn’t Need A Judicial Warrant – Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

ICE Says It Doesn’t Need A Judicial Warrant

By Joyce Vance, Jan 21, 2026

It’s been a long time since we took a night off. I honestly can’t remember the last time. But tonight I’m going to turn in early, after a long day. Before I do that, I wanted to flag one development with ICE for you.

I also want to leave you with some reason for optimism. You may have seen the news that ICE has now surged agents to Maine, predominantly to the cities of Portland and Lewiston, where there are large Somali immigrant communities. This is an echo of the focus on the Somali community in Minnesota.

Tonight, close to 1,000 people joined the mighty Maine ACLU for training on their legal rights and non-violent protest. It was an honor to get to participate in it. When we talk about community building and supporting democracy, this is what it’s all about: people committed to standing up for their rights and for their neighbors’ rights. There is training across the country that you can participate in to better educate yourself about your right to protest peacefully.

Now, the development: The Associated Press is reporting that it has seen a memo ICE is using for internal agent training that asserts “sweeping power to forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant.” The Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable search and seizure, has always been understood to require a warrant signed by a judge, not an administrative warrant signed by a DHS employee to enter a private residence or private areas of a business.

This new policy stance might explain some of the incidents that have been reported in Minnesota, where agents have made forcible entry into homes to remove people and put them into deportation proceedings without a judicial warrant. This sounds like what might have been at work when agents forcibly entered the home of a Hmong man in Minnesota who has been an American citizen for decades, and according to his statement, declined to produce a warrant and claimed he was subject to removal before forcing him out into the freezing cold in his underwear. It turned out that they got it wrong and were forced to release him a few hours later.

The AP reported that they witnessed ICE officers ramming through the front door of the home of a Liberian man in Minneapolis on Jan. 11 with only an administrative warrant, wearing heavy tactical gear and with their rifles drawn, which could also be a result of the new policy.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: ICE Says It Doesn’t Need A Judicial Warrant

Civil Discourse – It’s The Cynicism – Joyce Vance

It’s The Cynicism

By Joyce Vance, Jan 17, 2026

It seems to be everywhere you look, across the political spectrum. Far too many people don’t believe in anything anymore. They’ve lost faith in everything: our institutions, our values, and even each other. We’ve become a country of cynics.

One of the first posts I saw this morning on social media was about a well-documented instance where a Minnesota family’s six children were hospitalized after their minivan filled with smoke and tear gas fired by federal agents. Below the news report, someone had dismissed it in the comments: “I don’t believe it.” That was it. No explanation, nothing that cast doubt on the reporting. Just a rejection.

A little bit further down, someone had written about diminishing confidence in the Justice Department. A commentator wrote, “Did anyone believe in that anyway?”

We have become a nation of skeptics, of cynics. We are jaded. It’s all around us.

In her essay, Truth and Politics, Hannah Arendt wrote, “The result of a consistent and total substitution of lies for factual truth is not that the lie will now be accepted as truth and truth be defamed as a lie, but that the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world—and the category of truth versus falsehood is among the mental means to this end—is being destroyed.”

The President spews lies so constantly and so casually that it’s easy to understand how people can lose their bearings. It’s an assumption that Trump lies, not something unusual. That’s the President of the United States!

One manifestation of the lies we’ve become so inured to is the destruction of confidence in our elections. Trump has lied for so long about voter fraud, about non-citizens voting (the evidence does not back that claim up), about voting machines, about stolen elections, that it has permeated the national consciousness and even when people see through the lies, a miasma of distrust for the entire process remains. And of course, it’s not just elections.

Who benefits from a loss of faith in our institutions and in our ability to come out on the other end of this national nightmare with an intact republic? It’s not hard to see. It’s the man who enjoys upsetting the balance of power guarded by NATO because he wants to own Greenland. The man who tears down the East Wing. The man who won’t release the Epstein Files.

At this stage, Trump no longer cares if people believe his lies. He just needs the chaos they generate and the absence of shared truths, shared facts, in our country. People who can no longer discern what’s true from what’s false lose their moral compasses, like the agents who are now shooting at the people they took an oath to protect and serve. It all benefits a leader who wants to take authoritarian control of a democracy.

Giving up your belief in how things should be is dangerous.

I’m not suggesting everyone should have blind faith in our institutions, far from it at this point. But we need to be aware of what’s broken and needs mending without getting stuck on it. Instead of succumbing to cynicism, let’s stay focused on what we can do, even the small things.

Be kind, share joy. Register to vote and make sure everyone around you does, too. We know what this is going to take, but we have to stop the spread of cynicism around us. We’ve come too far in the last year to accept Trump’s success as inevitable.

In the coming week, we will mark the one-year anniversary of the second Trump administration. Find your own way to protest it. Donate to a food bank. Help a neighbor out, or help someone you’ve never met but have empathy for. Sign up to work at a polling place, or decide to run for office. There is so much that we can do. What we cannot afford to do is to let a man who thinks of no one but himself win.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: It’s The Cynicism – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

It’s The Cynicism by Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse – It’s The Cynicism – Joyce Vance

It’s The Cynicism

By Joyce Vance, Jan 17, 2026

It seems to be everywhere you look, across the political spectrum. Far too many people don’t believe in anything anymore. They’ve lost faith in everything: our institutions, our values, and even each other. We’ve become a country of cynics.

One of the first posts I saw this morning on social media was about a well-documented instance where a Minnesota family’s six children were hospitalized after their minivan filled with smoke and tear gas fired by federal agents. Below the news report, someone had dismissed it in the comments: “I don’t believe it.” That was it. No explanation, nothing that cast doubt on the reporting. Just a rejection.

A little bit further down, someone had written about diminishing confidence in the Justice Department. A commentator wrote, “Did anyone believe in that anyway?”

We have become a nation of skeptics, of cynics. We are jaded. It’s all around us.

In her essay, Truth and Politics, Hannah Arendt wrote, “The result of a consistent and total substitution of lies for factual truth is not that the lie will now be accepted as truth and truth be defamed as a lie, but that the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world—and the category of truth versus falsehood is among the mental means to this end—is being destroyed.”

The President spews lies so constantly and so casually that it’s easy to understand how people can lose their bearings. It’s an assumption that Trump lies, not something unusual. That’s the President of the United States!

One manifestation of the lies we’ve become so inured to is the destruction of confidence in our elections. Trump has lied for so long about voter fraud, about non-citizens voting (the evidence does not back that claim up), about voting machines, about stolen elections, that it has permeated the national consciousness and even when people see through the lies, a miasma of distrust for the entire process remains. And of course, it’s not just elections.

Who benefits from a loss of faith in our institutions and in our ability to come out on the other end of this national nightmare with an intact republic? It’s not hard to see. It’s the man who enjoys upsetting the balance of power guarded by NATO because he wants to own Greenland. The man who tears down the East Wing. The man who won’t release the Epstein Files.

At this stage, Trump no longer cares if people believe his lies. He just needs the chaos they generate and the absence of shared truths, shared facts, in our country. People who can no longer discern what’s true from what’s false lose their moral compasses, like the agents who are now shooting at the people they took an oath to protect and serve. It all benefits a leader who wants to take authoritarian control of a democracy.

Giving up your belief in how things should be is dangerous.

I’m not suggesting everyone should have blind faith in our institutions, far from it at this point. But we need to be aware of what’s broken and needs mending without getting stuck on it. Instead of succumbing to cynicism, let’s stay focused on what we can do, even the small things.

Be kind, share joy. Register to vote and make sure everyone around you does, too. We know what this is going to take, but we have to stop the spread of cynicism around us. We’ve come too far in the last year to accept Trump’s success as inevitable.

In the coming week, we will mark the one-year anniversary of the second Trump administration. Find your own way to protest it. Donate to a food bank. Help a neighbor out, or help someone you’ve never met but have empathy for. Sign up to work at a polling place, or decide to run for office. There is so much that we can do. What we cannot afford to do is to let a man who thinks of no one but himself win.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: It’s The Cynicism – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

It’s The Cynicism by Joyce Vance

"Instead of succumbing to cynicism, let’s stay focused on what we can do, even the small things."
-- Joyce Vance

https://open.substack.com/pub/joycevance/p/its-the-cynicism

#FuckTrump #Resist #JoyceVance

"Instead of succumbing to cynicism, let’s stay focused on what we can do, even the small things."
-- Joyce Vance

https://open.substack.com/pub/joycevance/p/its-the-cynicism

#FuckTrump #Resist #JoyceVance

Civil Discourse – Don’t Take the Bait – Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Don’t Take the Bait

By Joyce Vance, Jan 15, 2026

In the time of Trump, “Don’t take the bait” is a rule that’s almost as important as “Do not obey in advance.”

Following the shooting death of Renee Good and other incidents where agents played fast and loose with the rights of both American citizens and immigrants, ICE seems to be doing everything it can to be an accelerant to the tensions. Wednesday evening, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said that federal agents were trying to arrest a man from Venezuela who was in the country illegally, when he fled from agents. She said he “began to resist and violently assault the officer,” and was joined by two other men who attacked the agent with a snow shovel and broom handle. McLaughlin said the agent feared for his life and shot the man they’d been trying to arrest in the leg.

There are obviously questions about this scenario, including how an agent ended up alone and whether a reasonable agent would have thought his life was at risk. As The New York Times put it, “The federal government’s narrative could not immediately be verified.” A crowd of about 200 people gathered after the shooting, and according to the police chief, engaged in illegal acts, including throwing fireworks at police. After agents from ICE’s sister agency, CBP, showed up in what the Times called a large, military-style vehicle, protesters “swarmed the vehicle and yelled and threw snowballs at agents.” Retreating agents fired tear gas-type canisters, and agents who arrived subsequently sprayed chemical agents against the protestors who moved toward them. A protester lobbed fireworks toward the agents as they left.

Agents could have de-escalated the tension at any point in these developments, but did not. That forces us to ask why—is there a deliberate effort to provoke protestors into acts of violence? We don’t know the answer to that question for certain, but a social media post by the president this morning gave some hint.

Trump threatened to use the “INSURRECTION ACT” due to attacks on “the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job.”

No surprise. We’ve always known he was looking for an excuse to do this. We’ve discussed insurrection act here before. I wrote to you about it back in April, in a piece that also discusses the importance and effectiveness of peaceful protest. “Trump might try to take advantage of minor incidents, or even plants who engage in violence, to impose the Insurrection Act and use the military to put a halt to Americans who are out on the streets exercising their First Amendment rights.”

So as difficult as it may become to show restraint, it’s essential that we don’t take Trump’s bait as we protest. If he’s going to impose the Insurrection Act, as he likely will at some point, we don’t want to give him any cover for it. Each of us can help by sharing this message with those around us and making sure they share it forward.

Here’s what you need to know about the Insurrection Act:

• Normally, the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement. It explicitly outlaws using the armed forces to enforce the law within our borders, unless that action is expressly authorized by the Constitution or an act of Congress.
• Enter the Insurrection Act, which permits a president to deploy the military in American cities and on our streets in very narrow circumstances involving insurrection, rebellion, or extreme civil unrest.
• Even in those circumstances, the military can only be used for “emergency needs” towards the goal of reestablishing civilian control as quickly as possible. This is where lawsuits may come in, especially since governors and local leaders are not only not asking for federal intervention, but in the case of Minnesota, explicitly asking the feds to leave.
• Typically, the Act is only used at a Governor and/or local officials’ request. The exceptions to that are 60 years ago and come from the heart of the civil rights era, when presidents sent troops to states like Mississippi and Alabama to protect people’s lives and liberty, like college students integrating state universities, not sending troops in to traumatize a civilian population trying to peacefully exercise its First Amendment rights.
• But the Act’s language is broad and gives presidents plenty of discretion to, for instance, use the military to arrest American citizens engaged in protest, if a president calls what’s going on an insurrection, rebellion, or civil unrest. And in an 1827 case, Martin v. Mott, the Supreme Court ruled that it is up to the president to decide whether the Insurrection Act should be invoked and that the courts may not review his decision. Although more recently, courts have intimated that a president’s assessment needs to pass the smell test, we should still expect to see them give broad deference to his decisions.

There are reports that federal agents are unrepentant following Good’s death at the hands of one of their number. Minnesotan Patty O’Keefe, an American citizen, was arrested and detained by ICE. While they were transporting her, she says one of the agents said to her, “You’ve gotta stop obstructing us. That’s why that lesbian bitch is dead.”

NBC is reporting that in its rush to hire, ICE is deploying new agents to the field without adequate training. An AI program they were using flagged new hires with no law enforcement experience as trained agents and surged them out to offices. The article says this was the case with “many” of them. The president directed ICE to hire 10,000 new officers by the end of 2025 and offered new recruits $50,000 signing bonuses using money allocated to the agency by Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” DHS says those agents have been identified and are receiving training in the field.

It’s not just Minnesota. Geraldo Lunas Campos died at an ICE detention center in El Paso, Texas, on January 3. The Washington Post reports it has listened to a recording of a call between a staffer in the coroner’s office and Mr. Campos’ daughter, where she is told that pending the results of a toxicology report, “our doctor is believing that we’re going to be listing the manner of death as homicide.” At the time of his death, the agency said “staff observed him in distress,” but did not offer a cause of death. The Post reports that “a fellow detainee says he witnessed … Campos being choked to death by guards.” The El Paso facility is described as “a colossal makeshift tent encampment on the Mexican border.” Not only have the people being housed there reported “substandard conditions and physical abuse,” ICE inspectors found over 60 violations of federal standards for detaining migrants in just 50 days dating back to last September.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Don’t Take the Bait – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse – Don’t Take the Bait – Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Don’t Take the Bait

By Joyce Vance, Jan 15, 2026

In the time of Trump, “Don’t take the bait” is a rule that’s almost as important as “Do not obey in advance.”

Following the shooting death of Renee Good and other incidents where agents played fast and loose with the rights of both American citizens and immigrants, ICE seems to be doing everything it can to be an accelerant to the tensions. Wednesday evening, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said that federal agents were trying to arrest a man from Venezuela who was in the country illegally, when he fled from agents. She said he “began to resist and violently assault the officer,” and was joined by two other men who attacked the agent with a snow shovel and broom handle. McLaughlin said the agent feared for his life and shot the man they’d been trying to arrest in the leg.

There are obviously questions about this scenario, including how an agent ended up alone and whether a reasonable agent would have thought his life was at risk. As The New York Times put it, “The federal government’s narrative could not immediately be verified.” A crowd of about 200 people gathered after the shooting, and according to the police chief, engaged in illegal acts, including throwing fireworks at police. After agents from ICE’s sister agency, CBP, showed up in what the Times called a large, military-style vehicle, protesters “swarmed the vehicle and yelled and threw snowballs at agents.” Retreating agents fired tear gas-type canisters, and agents who arrived subsequently sprayed chemical agents against the protestors who moved toward them. A protester lobbed fireworks toward the agents as they left.

Agents could have de-escalated the tension at any point in these developments, but did not. That forces us to ask why—is there a deliberate effort to provoke protestors into acts of violence? We don’t know the answer to that question for certain, but a social media post by the president this morning gave some hint.

Trump threatened to use the “INSURRECTION ACT” due to attacks on “the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job.”

No surprise. We’ve always known he was looking for an excuse to do this. We’ve discussed insurrection act here before. I wrote to you about it back in April, in a piece that also discusses the importance and effectiveness of peaceful protest. “Trump might try to take advantage of minor incidents, or even plants who engage in violence, to impose the Insurrection Act and use the military to put a halt to Americans who are out on the streets exercising their First Amendment rights.”

So as difficult as it may become to show restraint, it’s essential that we don’t take Trump’s bait as we protest. If he’s going to impose the Insurrection Act, as he likely will at some point, we don’t want to give him any cover for it. Each of us can help by sharing this message with those around us and making sure they share it forward.

Here’s what you need to know about the Insurrection Act:

• Normally, the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement. It explicitly outlaws using the armed forces to enforce the law within our borders, unless that action is expressly authorized by the Constitution or an act of Congress.
• Enter the Insurrection Act, which permits a president to deploy the military in American cities and on our streets in very narrow circumstances involving insurrection, rebellion, or extreme civil unrest.
• Even in those circumstances, the military can only be used for “emergency needs” towards the goal of reestablishing civilian control as quickly as possible. This is where lawsuits may come in, especially since governors and local leaders are not only not asking for federal intervention, but in the case of Minnesota, explicitly asking the feds to leave.
• Typically, the Act is only used at a Governor and/or local officials’ request. The exceptions to that are 60 years ago and come from the heart of the civil rights era, when presidents sent troops to states like Mississippi and Alabama to protect people’s lives and liberty, like college students integrating state universities, not sending troops in to traumatize a civilian population trying to peacefully exercise its First Amendment rights.
• But the Act’s language is broad and gives presidents plenty of discretion to, for instance, use the military to arrest American citizens engaged in protest, if a president calls what’s going on an insurrection, rebellion, or civil unrest. And in an 1827 case, Martin v. Mott, the Supreme Court ruled that it is up to the president to decide whether the Insurrection Act should be invoked and that the courts may not review his decision. Although more recently, courts have intimated that a president’s assessment needs to pass the smell test, we should still expect to see them give broad deference to his decisions.

There are reports that federal agents are unrepentant following Good’s death at the hands of one of their number. Minnesotan Patty O’Keefe, an American citizen, was arrested and detained by ICE. While they were transporting her, she says one of the agents said to her, “You’ve gotta stop obstructing us. That’s why that lesbian bitch is dead.”

NBC is reporting that in its rush to hire, ICE is deploying new agents to the field without adequate training. An AI program they were using flagged new hires with no law enforcement experience as trained agents and surged them out to offices. The article says this was the case with “many” of them. The president directed ICE to hire 10,000 new officers by the end of 2025 and offered new recruits $50,000 signing bonuses using money allocated to the agency by Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” DHS says those agents have been identified and are receiving training in the field.

It’s not just Minnesota. Geraldo Lunas Campos died at an ICE detention center in El Paso, Texas, on January 3. The Washington Post reports it has listened to a recording of a call between a staffer in the coroner’s office and Mr. Campos’ daughter, where she is told that pending the results of a toxicology report, “our doctor is believing that we’re going to be listing the manner of death as homicide.” At the time of his death, the agency said “staff observed him in distress,” but did not offer a cause of death. The Post reports that “a fellow detainee says he witnessed … Campos being choked to death by guards.” The El Paso facility is described as “a colossal makeshift tent encampment on the Mexican border.” Not only have the people being housed there reported “substandard conditions and physical abuse,” ICE inspectors found over 60 violations of federal standards for detaining migrants in just 50 days dating back to last September.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Don’t Take the Bait – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse – Don’t Take the Bait – Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Don’t Take the Bait

By Joyce Vance, Jan 15, 2026

In the time of Trump, “Don’t take the bait” is a rule that’s almost as important as “Do not obey in advance.”

Following the shooting death of Renee Good and other incidents where agents played fast and loose with the rights of both American citizens and immigrants, ICE seems to be doing everything it can to be an accelerant to the tensions. Wednesday evening, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said that federal agents were trying to arrest a man from Venezuela who was in the country illegally, when he fled from agents. She said he “began to resist and violently assault the officer,” and was joined by two other men who attacked the agent with a snow shovel and broom handle. McLaughlin said the agent feared for his life and shot the man they’d been trying to arrest in the leg.

There are obviously questions about this scenario, including how an agent ended up alone and whether a reasonable agent would have thought his life was at risk. As The New York Times put it, “The federal government’s narrative could not immediately be verified.” A crowd of about 200 people gathered after the shooting, and according to the police chief, engaged in illegal acts, including throwing fireworks at police. After agents from ICE’s sister agency, CBP, showed up in what the Times called a large, military-style vehicle, protesters “swarmed the vehicle and yelled and threw snowballs at agents.” Retreating agents fired tear gas-type canisters, and agents who arrived subsequently sprayed chemical agents against the protestors who moved toward them. A protester lobbed fireworks toward the agents as they left.

Agents could have de-escalated the tension at any point in these developments, but did not. That forces us to ask why—is there a deliberate effort to provoke protestors into acts of violence? We don’t know the answer to that question for certain, but a social media post by the president this morning gave some hint.

Trump threatened to use the “INSURRECTION ACT” due to attacks on “the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job.”

No surprise. We’ve always known he was looking for an excuse to do this. We’ve discussed insurrection act here before. I wrote to you about it back in April, in a piece that also discusses the importance and effectiveness of peaceful protest. “Trump might try to take advantage of minor incidents, or even plants who engage in violence, to impose the Insurrection Act and use the military to put a halt to Americans who are out on the streets exercising their First Amendment rights.”

So as difficult as it may become to show restraint, it’s essential that we don’t take Trump’s bait as we protest. If he’s going to impose the Insurrection Act, as he likely will at some point, we don’t want to give him any cover for it. Each of us can help by sharing this message with those around us and making sure they share it forward.

Here’s what you need to know about the Insurrection Act:

• Normally, the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement. It explicitly outlaws using the armed forces to enforce the law within our borders, unless that action is expressly authorized by the Constitution or an act of Congress.
• Enter the Insurrection Act, which permits a president to deploy the military in American cities and on our streets in very narrow circumstances involving insurrection, rebellion, or extreme civil unrest.
• Even in those circumstances, the military can only be used for “emergency needs” towards the goal of reestablishing civilian control as quickly as possible. This is where lawsuits may come in, especially since governors and local leaders are not only not asking for federal intervention, but in the case of Minnesota, explicitly asking the feds to leave.
• Typically, the Act is only used at a Governor and/or local officials’ request. The exceptions to that are 60 years ago and come from the heart of the civil rights era, when presidents sent troops to states like Mississippi and Alabama to protect people’s lives and liberty, like college students integrating state universities, not sending troops in to traumatize a civilian population trying to peacefully exercise its First Amendment rights.
• But the Act’s language is broad and gives presidents plenty of discretion to, for instance, use the military to arrest American citizens engaged in protest, if a president calls what’s going on an insurrection, rebellion, or civil unrest. And in an 1827 case, Martin v. Mott, the Supreme Court ruled that it is up to the president to decide whether the Insurrection Act should be invoked and that the courts may not review his decision. Although more recently, courts have intimated that a president’s assessment needs to pass the smell test, we should still expect to see them give broad deference to his decisions.

There are reports that federal agents are unrepentant following Good’s death at the hands of one of their number. Minnesotan Patty O’Keefe, an American citizen, was arrested and detained by ICE. While they were transporting her, she says one of the agents said to her, “You’ve gotta stop obstructing us. That’s why that lesbian bitch is dead.”

NBC is reporting that in its rush to hire, ICE is deploying new agents to the field without adequate training. An AI program they were using flagged new hires with no law enforcement experience as trained agents and surged them out to offices. The article says this was the case with “many” of them. The president directed ICE to hire 10,000 new officers by the end of 2025 and offered new recruits $50,000 signing bonuses using money allocated to the agency by Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” DHS says those agents have been identified and are receiving training in the field.

It’s not just Minnesota. Geraldo Lunas Campos died at an ICE detention center in El Paso, Texas, on January 3. The Washington Post reports it has listened to a recording of a call between a staffer in the coroner’s office and Mr. Campos’ daughter, where she is told that pending the results of a toxicology report, “our doctor is believing that we’re going to be listing the manner of death as homicide.” At the time of his death, the agency said “staff observed him in distress,” but did not offer a cause of death. The Post reports that “a fellow detainee says he witnessed … Campos being choked to death by guards.” The El Paso facility is described as “a colossal makeshift tent encampment on the Mexican border.” Not only have the people being housed there reported “substandard conditions and physical abuse,” ICE inspectors found over 60 violations of federal standards for detaining migrants in just 50 days dating back to last September.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Don’t Take the Bait – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse – Don’t Take the Bait – Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Don’t Take the Bait

By Joyce Vance, Jan 15, 2026

In the time of Trump, “Don’t take the bait” is a rule that’s almost as important as “Do not obey in advance.”

Following the shooting death of Renee Good and other incidents where agents played fast and loose with the rights of both American citizens and immigrants, ICE seems to be doing everything it can to be an accelerant to the tensions. Wednesday evening, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said that federal agents were trying to arrest a man from Venezuela who was in the country illegally, when he fled from agents. She said he “began to resist and violently assault the officer,” and was joined by two other men who attacked the agent with a snow shovel and broom handle. McLaughlin said the agent feared for his life and shot the man they’d been trying to arrest in the leg.

There are obviously questions about this scenario, including how an agent ended up alone and whether a reasonable agent would have thought his life was at risk. As The New York Times put it, “The federal government’s narrative could not immediately be verified.” A crowd of about 200 people gathered after the shooting, and according to the police chief, engaged in illegal acts, including throwing fireworks at police. After agents from ICE’s sister agency, CBP, showed up in what the Times called a large, military-style vehicle, protesters “swarmed the vehicle and yelled and threw snowballs at agents.” Retreating agents fired tear gas-type canisters, and agents who arrived subsequently sprayed chemical agents against the protestors who moved toward them. A protester lobbed fireworks toward the agents as they left.

Agents could have de-escalated the tension at any point in these developments, but did not. That forces us to ask why—is there a deliberate effort to provoke protestors into acts of violence? We don’t know the answer to that question for certain, but a social media post by the president this morning gave some hint.

Trump threatened to use the “INSURRECTION ACT” due to attacks on “the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job.”

No surprise. We’ve always known he was looking for an excuse to do this. We’ve discussed insurrection act here before. I wrote to you about it back in April, in a piece that also discusses the importance and effectiveness of peaceful protest. “Trump might try to take advantage of minor incidents, or even plants who engage in violence, to impose the Insurrection Act and use the military to put a halt to Americans who are out on the streets exercising their First Amendment rights.”

So as difficult as it may become to show restraint, it’s essential that we don’t take Trump’s bait as we protest. If he’s going to impose the Insurrection Act, as he likely will at some point, we don’t want to give him any cover for it. Each of us can help by sharing this message with those around us and making sure they share it forward.

Here’s what you need to know about the Insurrection Act:

• Normally, the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement. It explicitly outlaws using the armed forces to enforce the law within our borders, unless that action is expressly authorized by the Constitution or an act of Congress.
• Enter the Insurrection Act, which permits a president to deploy the military in American cities and on our streets in very narrow circumstances involving insurrection, rebellion, or extreme civil unrest.
• Even in those circumstances, the military can only be used for “emergency needs” towards the goal of reestablishing civilian control as quickly as possible. This is where lawsuits may come in, especially since governors and local leaders are not only not asking for federal intervention, but in the case of Minnesota, explicitly asking the feds to leave.
• Typically, the Act is only used at a Governor and/or local officials’ request. The exceptions to that are 60 years ago and come from the heart of the civil rights era, when presidents sent troops to states like Mississippi and Alabama to protect people’s lives and liberty, like college students integrating state universities, not sending troops in to traumatize a civilian population trying to peacefully exercise its First Amendment rights.
• But the Act’s language is broad and gives presidents plenty of discretion to, for instance, use the military to arrest American citizens engaged in protest, if a president calls what’s going on an insurrection, rebellion, or civil unrest. And in an 1827 case, Martin v. Mott, the Supreme Court ruled that it is up to the president to decide whether the Insurrection Act should be invoked and that the courts may not review his decision. Although more recently, courts have intimated that a president’s assessment needs to pass the smell test, we should still expect to see them give broad deference to his decisions.

There are reports that federal agents are unrepentant following Good’s death at the hands of one of their number. Minnesotan Patty O’Keefe, an American citizen, was arrested and detained by ICE. While they were transporting her, she says one of the agents said to her, “You’ve gotta stop obstructing us. That’s why that lesbian bitch is dead.”

NBC is reporting that in its rush to hire, ICE is deploying new agents to the field without adequate training. An AI program they were using flagged new hires with no law enforcement experience as trained agents and surged them out to offices. The article says this was the case with “many” of them. The president directed ICE to hire 10,000 new officers by the end of 2025 and offered new recruits $50,000 signing bonuses using money allocated to the agency by Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” DHS says those agents have been identified and are receiving training in the field.

It’s not just Minnesota. Geraldo Lunas Campos died at an ICE detention center in El Paso, Texas, on January 3. The Washington Post reports it has listened to a recording of a call between a staffer in the coroner’s office and Mr. Campos’ daughter, where she is told that pending the results of a toxicology report, “our doctor is believing that we’re going to be listing the manner of death as homicide.” At the time of his death, the agency said “staff observed him in distress,” but did not offer a cause of death. The Post reports that “a fellow detainee says he witnessed … Campos being choked to death by guards.” The El Paso facility is described as “a colossal makeshift tent encampment on the Mexican border.” Not only have the people being housed there reported “substandard conditions and physical abuse,” ICE inspectors found over 60 violations of federal standards for detaining migrants in just 50 days dating back to last September.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Don’t Take the Bait – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance