ICE is out of control

Hello! It’s Wednesday, Jan. 14. It’s National Dress Up Your Pet Day as well as Cesarean Section Day and I think we all know which we’d rather do.

It’s that time of year when everything in your house can be bone-dry, including your body. So The Old Farmer’s Almanac suggests all sorts of things to massage into your dry hair, including coconut oil, mayonnaise, avocado, powdered brewer’s yeast, apple cider vinegar, and baking soda. Throw in some flour and you’ll have a hair cake.

🌧 What’s it like outside? Warming a bit, but it looks like we’re in for some rainy, foggy weather the next day or so. Watch for light snow over the weekend.

🏈 Hey, sport: The victory over the Chargers last Sunday was the Patriots’ first playoff win since 2019 — and that win was over the Rams in Super Bowl LIII, the team’s 6th and last championship with Tom Brady. This Sunday they’ll face C.J. Stroud and the Texans at Gillette. Here’s the weekend lineup of division playoff games:

Saturday

AFC: No. 6 seed Buffalo Bills at No. 1 seed Denver Broncos at 4:30 p.m. on CBS

NFC: No. 6 seed SF 49ers at No. 1 seed Seattle Seahawks at 8 p.m. on Fox

Sunday

AFC: No. 5 seed Houston Texans at No. 2 seed NE Patriots at 3 p.m. on ESPN

NFC: No. 5 seed LA Rams at No. 2 seed Chicago Bears at 6:30 p.m. on NBC

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🎲 ICE doubles down

You would think that a federal agency with an employee who shot a woman in the face, killing her, followed by all sorts of law enforcement and military veterans declaring it was not a justified action, would take a pause, take a step back, take a deep breath. Tell its employees to go easy for awhile. And then bring in an independent organization to investigate the shooting.

You would be wrong.

Instead, Trump and his immigration thugs have turned Minneapolis into a war zone. Homeland Security has dispatched 1,000 more federal agents to Minneapolis to join the 2,000 already there.

I believe it’s all in service of one goal: Trump knows that good-hearted people simply cannot stand by while their friends and neighbors are assaulted, dragged, and driven off to parts unknown. He’ll gleefully take advantage of their compassion and goad them to take to the streets, where his thugs can assault them, too.

At the very least, these tactics could keep voters away from the polls this fall. If ICE is grabbing even US citizens with brown or black skin and making them disappear, who’s to say that those federal thugs won’t set up shop outside polling places in mixed-race neighborhoods?

And then there’s this: Trump would dearly love to use today’s clashes as an excuse for what he really wants: Martial law in Democratic cities. And maybe even an excuse to cancel the 2026 midterms.

I know, I know. Some think that’s a stretch. But look at what’s happening:

Countless videos by residents and protesters show ICE and Border Patrol agents attacking residents who have brown or black skin, smashing their car windows, dragging them out of their vehicles, pinning them to the ground (sometimes kneeling on their neck), handcuffing them, and throwing them into unmarked vehicles that then spirit them away.

They do the same to volunteers who follow them in vehicles so the volunteers can track where the agents are going next and warn the neighborhoods. Once on scene, the agents fire tear gas, pepper bombs, and less lethal bullets at protesters, I guess for the fun of it. One protester in California was blinded.

And in conversations with either protesters or those arrested, agents have called the slain Renee Good “that lesbian bitch” who got what she deserved, and ominously taunt residents, asking if they have “learned a lesson” from Good’s killing.

What’s the lesson? Shut up or die.

It’s all about intimidation. Protesters are being detained left and right, thrown in a cell for hours, only to be released without being charged because they didn’t do anything to merit being grabbed. Here’s a video of one detained protester who was released without being charged, and what ICE agents said to her.

The same is happening at anti-ICE protests around the country. Here are a few videos:

They grab people who are pumping gas. They barge into homes and stores and hospitals. They tackle people walking down the street. All likely in violation of the Fourth Amendment’s guarantee of protection from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.

Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has essentially told the agents that they have free rein to do whatever they want.

Let’s stop for a moment here to acknowledge the courage of the volunteers tracking these out-of-control federal agents and the protesters who refuse to allow them to conduct their violent raids unseen or under the cover of darkness. Those volunteers and protesters now know that they are putting their lives on the line. But they persist.

What’s happening in the federal bureaucracy is just as outrageous as what’s occurring on the street. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division decided there is no need to investigate the shooting, leading at least six top lawyers in the criminal section — including the chief of the section, the principal deputy chief, the deputy chief, and the acting deputy chief – to resign early.

According to MS NOW, it’s standard procedure for that group to investigate any fatal shooting by a law enforcement officer. It specializes in examining potential or alleged abuse or improper use of force by law enforcement.

The FBI and ICE itself are allegedly investigating, which gives me about as much confidence as having RFK Jr. in charge of public health.

And in the US attorney’s office in Minnesota, NBC News reported, at least six prosecutors have resigned for two reasons: Pressure from D.C. to investigate Good’s widow, and the feds’ decision to exclude Minnesota officials from the federal investigation, a very unusual move.

It’s distressing to see the good guys (and women) leave. It feels like a capitulation, and an opportunity for unscrupulous attorneys to replace them. What happens when everyone with integrity departs?

But Liz Oyer, the former pardons attorney for the Justice Department, says that sometimes it’s simply too difficult for people of conscience to stay as part of a corrupt system.

You may remember that Oyer was fired by Trump’s bootlickers when she refused to recommend that actor Mel Gibson, a Trump buddy, be allowed to own a firearm again even though he had been convicted of domestic violence. “I simply didn’t have enough information to conclude that Mr. Gibson is somebody who could safely own a firearm,” she told the Center for Investigative Reporting on its Reveal podcast.

As for the mass resignations? “We need smart, principled people in these