Joe Rogan: “Are we really gonna be the gestapo?”
Violent gangs of masked thugs are terrorizing American cities. It’s all on video. That would be fodder for weeks of breathless Fox News punditry if they weren’t issued badges and guns by the Trump administration, or if they were marching north in Mexico toward the U.S. border. Anti-ICE protesters set alight a Waymo in Los Angeles and the EXISTENTIAL THREAT claxons go off on the American right. But DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s bumbling stormtroopers triple-tap a Minneapolis mother, killing her, or send a child who’s stopped breathing to the hospital, or put out a protester’s eye, and American fascists get all moist between the thighs.
“Politically idiosyncratic” bro-caster Joe Rogan has become a huge critic of the Trump administration’s ethnic cleansing/retribution efforts.
“You don’t want militarized people in the streets just roaming around, snatching up people, many of which turn out to be U.S. citizens that just don’t have their papers on them,” Rogan said. “Are we really gonna be the gestapo?” Rogan asked. “Where’s your papers—is that what we’ve come to?”
Why, yes. Yes, we have.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that on Thursday outside the White House (via Daily Beast, “ICE Barbie Warns Americans Must Be Prepared to Prove Citizenship”):
“In every situation, we are doing targeted enforcement. If we are on a target and doing an operation, there may be individuals surrounding that criminal that we may be asking who they are and why they’re there and validate their identity,” Noem claimed. “That’s what we’ve always done in asking people who they are so that we know who’s in those surroundings.”
She said if they are breaking the law, they will be detained them, “until we’ve run that processing.”
The least our American Gestapo can do is make the demand using the accent. (Yes, I know this guy is SS):
More than 80 House Democrats have signed articles of impeachment against Noem.
“Utterly dystopian. If I had accused Republicans of wanting this world 5 years ago, I’d have been accused of lying and exaggerating,” tweeted Cato’s David Bier.
Renee Good was not the first to die after an encounter with Noem’s secret police. Here is a slide show of others who died in ICE custody.
The death in Texas of one of those people, Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, could soon be under investigation as a homicide (The Washington Post):
An employee of El Paso County’s Office of the Medical Examiner told Lunas Campos’s daughter this week that, subject to results of a toxicology report, the office is likely to classify the death as a homicide, according to a recording of the conversation.
In the recording, which the daughter shared with The Washington Post, the employee said a doctor there “is listing the preliminary cause of death as asphyxia due to neck and chest compression,” which means Lunas Campos did not get enough oxygen because of pressure on his neck and chest. Pending the results of a toxicology report, the staffer said on the recording, “our doctor is believing that we’re going to be listing the manner of death as homicide.”
A 55-year-old Cuban immigrant, Lunas Campos died following a struggle with detention staff, according to an eyewitness account and an internal ICE document reviewed by The Post.
Tricia McLaughlin, DHS spokesliar and Karoline Leavitt wannabe, claims…. What she claims is not worth repeating.
ICE detain 50-year-old permanent resident—threaten to arrest son when he tries to hand over legal documents.
"Even pointed a gun at me," he said. "For showing up with paperwork."
Mother was followed going to work and put in handcuffs.
"If I hadn't been 10 minutes away she… pic.twitter.com/HTav1n8Rrx
— LongTime🤓FirstTime👨💻 (@LongTimeHistory) January 16, 2026
Lunas Campos’s record is not clean, but did not merit a death sentence:
Court records show Lunas Campos was convicted of several crimes, including for aggravated assault with a weapon and, in 2003, first-degree sexual abuse involving a child under 11 years old. ICE arrested Lunas Campos in a “planned enforcement operation” in July, saying in a news release that his criminal record spanned from at least 1997 through 2015 and that “his luck has finally run out.
The Post indicates that recent events have “raised questions” about the recruitment and training of ICE agents. We’ve seen this week that their vetting efforts are slipshod at best. Virtually nonexistent. What’s more, ICE is explicitly targeting men who, put colloquially want to get their rocks off knocking heads (The Guardian):
“They’re aiming for that sweet spot of people who’ve got something to prove, who want to have that power, under the guise of patriotism,” Americus Reed, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, told the Post.
ICE’s controversial ads have leaned heavily on American symbolism – Uncle Sam, George Washington, Lady Liberty – while casting immigrants as bad actors to convince potential deportation officers to apply.
Heidi Beirich, a co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, sees neo-Nazi and white supremacist memes and symbology in government recruitment materials (The Guardian):
“It’s absolutely shocking to see such images being deployed by this administration,” said Beirich. “The idea appeals to racists and white supremacists who think only white people should be in positions of power.”
Recently, DHS recruitment posters have been likened to Third Reich propaganda, while Elon Musk – a onetime government worker during his reign as the head of the so-called “department of government efficiency” – has outright race-baited Somali Americans, who are the main target of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in the Twin Cities.
“I’m not sure if this is trolling or distraction, but there certainly have been more of them,” said Beirich, referring to the onslaught of Maga posting. “More worrisome, especially when it comes to DHS recruitment messages, is that they perhaps are trying to attract far-right extremists to join ICE.”
This is why this week I shifted from more anodyne messages to urging action … now.
HAVE Y’ALL HAD ENUF?
AND YOU’RE DOING??
(h/t DJ)