There were conflicting reports overnight on X regarding Donald Trump’s (and elected-to-nothing Stephen Miller’s) designs on Greenland. It is not clear how much is real and how much is posturing. Social media are spreading a sketchy item from a British tabloid claiming that Trump has ordered U.S. Special Forces to draft a plan for invading Greenland.
At this moment, I see no credible news sources confirming that tale. I’m inclined to believe that distributers of propaganda are spreading bogus stories about Britain or Germany sending forces or ships to Greenland to further boost tensions within NATO.
British officials have met with counterparts from countries including Germany and France in recent days to start the preparations.
Trump is playing “chicken” with NATO and WWIII.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) is not standing for Trump-Miller’s imperialist designs against a NATO ally.
Dear @usairforce, @USNavy, @USArmy@USMC: Greenland is part of Denmark, a NATO ally. If Trump orders the military to attack Greenland without congressional approval, that would be an illegal order. You will disobey the illegal order.
No doubt FBI Director Kash Patel will launch a sedition investigation of Lieu after returning from his Saturday night date with Alexis Wilkins.
I can't believe I'm posting this video – but we actually have to have a conversation about the real world implications of America going to war over Greenland.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) lays out the stakes of Trump invading Greenland. It means going to war with NATO. For brevity, Murphy reduced the matter to “war between the United States and Europe.” It also means going to war with Canada. Over Greenland.
Whitaker last week did his Trumpy duty by reinforcing the Trump-Miller line on the U.S. needing Greenland for national security reasons.
Greenland is strategically located, critical to U.S. national security and the security of our NATO Allies. The Arctic region is vital to deterring our adversaries and to monitoring the evolving threat picture. pic.twitter.com/BB0oreIfmn
With so many Greenland stories sounding like Trumpish (or perhaps Russsianish) narrative-building exercises, I went to the expert: Elon Musk’s Grok AI.
Grok, When was the last time Denmark denied a U.S. request for a new or expanded base in Greenland?
[N]o explicit denial of a specific “new or expanded base” request has occurred in recent years (post-2019) based on available records.
The U.S. maintains its only current military facility in Greenland at Pituffik Space Base (formerly Thule Air Base), established under the 1951 Greenland Defense Agreement. This agreement already grants the U.S. broad rights to establish, expand, or operate military facilities across Greenland with Danish (and increasingly Greenlandic) consent, as part of NATO frameworks. Recent sources emphasize that Denmark has repeatedly offered or signaled willingness to discuss expansions or increased U.S. presence under existing treaties, rather than denying such requests.
If Trump was that concerned about having a greater U.S. security presence in Greenland (there were once 17 U.S. bases there), he might just ask Denmark nicely. But asking nicely is not Trump’s idiom, is it? Threats are. His transparent strong-arming of NATO allies — Nice alliance ya got there. Be a shame if anything happened to it — informs the world that national security is not why he really wants to possess the entire island. Avarice is. More crudely, Trump wants to mark his territory.
Someone send the toddler to bed without his Big Mac and fries before his whims get anyone else killed.
Also, whatever happened to that trove of Epstein files?
It seems like a good time to re-post this one. Ocean waves, Bob. -D.H.
(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on February 4, 2023)
Dee: Jane, do you ever feel like you are just this far from being completely hysterical twenty-four hours a day?
Jane: Half the people I know feel that way. The lucky ones feel that way. The rest of the people ARE hysterical twenty-four hours a day.
— from Grand Canyon, screenplay by Lawrence and Meg Kasdan
HAL 9000: Look Dave, I can see you’re really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over.
— from 2001: A Space Odyssey, screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke
George Fields: [to Dorothy/Michael] I BEGGED you to get therapy!
— from Tootsie, screenplay by Murray Schisgal
As if the mid-winter blues weren’t enough, there’s been an odd confluence of celestial events recently – a close encounter with a hurtling asteroid, an eerie green comet lighting up the night skies, and the mysterious appearance of a high altitude “spy balloon” the size of three metro buses that has the conspiracy nuts twisting themselves into pretzels. Not that I believe in heavenly portents, but I am feeling the need for some “cinema therapy” right about now.
With that in mind, here are 12 films I’ve watched an unhealthy number of times; the ones I’m most likely to reach for when I’m depressed, anxious, uncertain about the future…or all the above. These films, like my oldest and dearest friends, have never, ever let me down. Take one or two before bedtime; cocktail optional.
Black Orpheus – Marcel Camus directed this mesmerizing 1959 film, a modern spin on a classic Greek myth. Fueled by the pulsing rhythms of Rio’s Carnaval and tempered by the gentle sway of Luiz Bonfa and Antonio Carlos Jobim’s samba soundtrack, Black Orpheus fully engages the senses. Camus and Jacques Viot adapted the screenplay from the play by Vinicius de Moraes.
Handsome tram operator Orfeo (Breno Mello) is engaged to vivacious Mira (Lourdes de Olivera) but gets hit by the thunderbolt when he meets sweet, innocent Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn). As in most romantic triangles, things get complicated, especially when Mr. Death (Ademar da Silva) starts lurking about the place.
You may be scratching your head as to why I’m “comforted” by a story based on a Greek tragedy; but Black Orpheus is graced by one of the most beautiful, life-affirming denouements in cinema; which always assures me that everything is going to be alright.
The Dish – This 2000 Australian sleeper dramatizes the story behind the live televised images of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon in 1969. The worldwide broadcast was facilitated by a tracking station located on a sheep farm in New South Wales.
Quirky characters abound in Rob Sitch’s culture-clash comedy (reminiscent of Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero). It’s not all played for yucks; the re-enactment of the telecast is genuinely stirring. Sam Neill heads a fine cast. Director Sitch and co-writers Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner, and Jane Kennedy also collaborated on the charming 1997 dramedy The Castle (recommended!).
Diva – Jean-Jacques Beineix’s 1981 cult fave kicked off a sub-genre labelled Cinéma du look (e.g. Beineix’s Betty Blue, and Luc Besson’s Subway, La Femme Nikita, and Leon the Professional).
Our unlikely antihero is mild-mannered postman Jules (Frédéric Andréi), a 20-something opera fan obsessed with a Garbo-like diva (American soprano Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez). She has never recorded a studio album and stipulates that her live performances are never to be taped and/or reproduced in any medium.
An enraptured Jules attends one of her concerts and makes a high-quality recording, for his own edification. By pure chance, a pair of nefarious underworld characters witness Jules bootlegging the concert, sparking a chain of events that turns his life upside down.
Diva is an entertaining pop-art mélange of neo-noir, action-thriller, and comic-book fantasy. Chockablock with quirky characters, from a pair of hipster hit men (Gérard Darmon and Dominique Pinon) to a Zen-like international man of mystery named Gorodish (Richard Bohringer) who is currently “going through his cool period” as his girlfriend (Thuy Ann Luu) confides to Jules. Slick, stylish and thoroughly engaging.
A Hard Day’s Night – This 1964 masterpiece has been often copied, but never equaled. Shot in a semi-documentary style, the film follows a “day in the life” of John, Paul, George and Ringo at the height of their youthful exuberance and charismatic powers. Thanks to the wonderfully inventive direction of Richard Lester and Alun Owen’s clever script, the essence of what made the Beatles “the Beatles” has been captured for posterity.
Although it’s meticulously constructed, Lester’s film has an improvisational feel; and feels as fresh and innovative as when it first hit theaters all those years ago. I still catch subtle gags that surprise me (like John snorting the Coke bottle). Music highlights: “I Should Have Known Better”, “All My Loving”, “Don’t Bother Me”, “Can’t Buy Me Love”, and the fab title song.
Harold and Maude – Harold loves Maude. And Maude loves Harold. It’s a match made in heaven-if only society would agree. Because Harold (Bud Cort) is a teenager, and Maude (Ruth Gordon) is just shy of 80. Falling in love with a woman old enough to be his great-grandmother is the least of Harold’s quirks. He’s a chronically depressed trustafarian who amuses himself by staging fake suicides to freak out his patrician mother (wonderfully droll Vivian Pickles). He also “enjoys” funerals-which is where Harold and Maude Meet Cute.
The effervescent Maude is Harold’s polar opposite; while he wallows in morbid speculation how any day could be your last, she seizes each day as if it actually were. Obviously, she has something to teach him. Despite dark undertones, this is one “midnight movie” that manages to be life-affirming. Hal Ashby directed, and Colin Higgins (who would later write and direct Foul Play and 9 to 5) wrote the screenplay. Outstanding soundtrack by Cat Stevens.
Local Hero – This low-key, observant 1983 social satire from Scottish writer-director Bill Forsyth stars Peter Reigert as Macintyre, a Texas-based executive who is assigned by the head of “Knox Oil & Gas” (Burt Lancaster) to scope out a sleepy Scottish hamlet that sits on an oil-rich bay. He is to negotiate with local property owners and essentially buy out the town so that the company can build a huge refinery.
While he considers himself “more of a Telex man”, who would prefer to knock out such an assignment “in an afternoon”, Mac sees the overseas trip as a possible fast track for a promotion within the corporation. As this quintessential 80s Yuppie works to ingratiate himself with the unhurried locals, a “fish out of water” transformation ensues. It’s the kindest and gentlest Ugly American tale you’ll ever see.
Man on the Train – There are a only a handful of films I have become emotionally attached to, usually for reasons I can’t completely fathom. This 2002 drama is one of them. Best described as an “existential noir”, Patrice LeConte’s relatively simple tale of two men in their twilight years with disparate life paths (a retired poetry teacher and a career felon) forming an unexpected deep bond turns into a transcendent film experience. French pop star Johnny Hallyday and screen veteran Jean Rochefort deliver mesmerizing performances. I feel an urge to watch it right now.
My Neighbor Totoro – While this 1988 film was anime master’s Hayao Miyazaki’s fourth feature, it was one of his (and Studio Ghibli’s) first international hits.
It’s a lovely tale about a young professor and his two daughters settling into their new country house while Mom convalesces at a nearby hospital. The rambunctious 4 year-old goes exploring and stumbles into the verdant court of a “king” nestled within the roots of a gargantuan camphor tree. This king rules with a gentle hand; a benign forest spirit named Totoro (an amalgam of every plush toy you ever cuddled with as a child).
Granted, it’s Miyazaki’s most simplistic and kid-friendly tale…but that’s not a put down. Miyazaki’s usual themes remain intact; the animation is breathtaking, the fantasy elements magical, yet the human characters are down-to-earth and universally relatable. A charmer.
Sherman’s March – Filmmaker Ross McElwee is one of America’s hidden treasures. McElwee, a genteel Southern neurotic (Woody Allen meets Tennessee Williams) has been compulsively documenting his personal life since the mid 70’s and managed to turn the footage into some of the most hilarious, moving and thought-provoking films most people have never seen.
Audiences weaned on “reality TV” may wonder “what’s the big deal about one more schmuck making glorified home movies?” but they would be missing an enriching glimpse into the human condition. Sherman’s March began as a project to retrace the Union general’s path of destruction through the South, but ended up as rumination on the eternal human quest for love and acceptance, filtered through McElwee’s search for the perfect mate.
Despite its 3 hour length, I’ve found myself returning to this film for repeat viewings, and enjoying it just as much as the first time. The unofficial “sequel”, Time Indefinite, is also worth a peek.
The Thin Man – W.S. Van Dyke’s delightful mix of screwball comedy and murder mystery (adapted from Dashiell Hammett’s novel by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich) never gets old for me. Story takes a backseat to the repartee between private investigator (and perpetually tipsy socialite) Nick Charles (William Powell) and his wisecracking wife Nora (sexy Myrna Loy). Top it off with a scene-stealing wire fox terrier (Asta!) and you’ve got a winning formula that has spawned countless imitations; particularly a bevy of sleuthing TV couples (Hart to Hart, McMillan and Wife, Moonlighting, Remington Steele, et.al.).
True Stories – Musician/raconteur David Byrne enters the Lone Star state of mind with his subtly satirical Texas travelogue from 1986. Not easy to pigeonhole; part social satire, long-form music video, and mockumentary. The vignettes about the quirky but generally likable inhabitants of sleepy Virgil, Texas should hold your fascination once you buy into “tour-guide” Byrne’s bemused anthropological detachment. Among the town’s residents: John Goodman, “Pops” Staples, Swoosie Kurtz and the late Spalding Gray. The outstanding cinematography is by Edward Lachman. Byrne’s fellow Heads have cameos performing “Wild Wild Life”.
Wings of Desire – I’ve never attempted to compile a Top 10 list of my all-time favorite films (I’ve just seen too many damn movies…I’d be staring at an empty page for weeks, if my head didn’t explode first) but I’m certain Wim Wenders’ 1987 stunner would be a shoo-in. Now, attempting to describe this film is something else altogether.
If I told you it’s about an angel (Bruno Ganz) who hovers over Berlin in a trench coat, monitoring people’s thoughts and taking notes, who spots a beautiful trapeze artist (Solveig Dommartin) and follows her home, wallows in her deepest longings, watches her undress, then falls in love and decides to chuck the mantle of immortality and become human…you’d probably say “That sounds like a story about a creepy stalker.” And if I told you it features Peter Falk, playing himself, you’d laugh nervously and say, “Oh, look at the time.” Of course, there is more to it-about life, the universe, and everything.
BONUS!
If you really want to go all out for movie night (which is pretty much every night for me), you have to watch a cartoon before the movie, right? Here’s my 2011 review of a Blu-ray box set always guaranteed to lift your spirits. Keep it handy, right next to the first aid kit.
The Looney Tunes Platinum Collection, Vol. 1– During those long, dark nights of my soul, when all seems hopeless and futile, there’s one thought that never fails to bring me back to the light. It’s that feeling that somewhere, out there in the ether, there’s a frog, with a top hat and a cane, waiting for his chance to pop out of a box and sing:
Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal
Send me a kiss by wire, baby my heart’s on fire…
If you don’t know what I’m
talking about, just go ahead and skip to the next review now.
The rest of you might want to
check out this fabulous 3-disc collection, which features 50 classic animated
shorts (and 18 rarities) from the Warner Brothers vaults. Deep catalog Looney
Tunes geeks may quibble until the cows come home about what’s not here (Warner
has previously released six similar DVD collections in standard definition),
but for the casual fans (like yours truly) there is plenty to please. I’m just
happy to have “One Froggy Evening”, “I Love to Singa”, “Rabbit of Seville”,
“Duck Amuck”, “Leghorn Lovelorn”, “Three Little Bops” and “What’s Opera Doc?”
in one place. The selections cover all eras, from the 1940s onward.
One thing that does become clear, as you watch these restored gems in gorgeous hi-def (especially those from the pre-TV era) is that these are not “cartoons”, they are 7 ½ minute films, every bit as artful as anything else cinema has to offer. Extras include a trio of excellent documentaries about the studio’s star director, the legendary Chuck Jones. The real diamond among the rarities is The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics (directed by Jones for MGM), which won the 1965 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.
Vance: You have a woman who aimed her car at a law enforcement officer and pressed on the accelerator. Nobody debates that. I believe it was a tragedy—a tragedy of her own making. pic.twitter.com/GHv3fFsPGL
On the other hand, a YouGov poll taken before the killing of Renee Good showed that 52% disapproved of the way ICE is conducting itself. It will be interesting to see if that has changed. I know what I hope has happened but frankly, no matter what, I’m still horrified that so many Americans support this violence. Obviously, I should have known.
Jeffrey Goldberg has a good piece about January 6th in the Atlantic and makes this important point that I think we should all make sure we make whenever we talk about this regime:
[I]n brief: Trump has dismantled America’s foreign-aid infrastructure and gutted a program, built by an earlier Republican president, that saved the lives of Africans infected with HIV; he has encouraged the United States military to commit war crimes; he has instituted radical cuts to U.S. science and medical funding and abetted a crusade against vaccines; he has appointed conspiracists, alcoholics, and idiots to key positions in his administration; he has destroyed the independence of the Justice Department; he has waged pitiless war on prosecutors, FBI agents, and others who previously investigated him, his family, and his friends; he has cast near-fatal doubt on America’s willingness to fulfill its treaty obligations to its democratic allies; he has applauded Vladimir Putin for his barbarism and castigated Ukraine for its unwillingness to commit suicide; he has led racist attacks on various groups of immigrants; he has employed unusually cruel tactics in pursuit of undocumented immigrants, most of whom have committed only one crime—illegally seeking refuge in a country that they believed represented the dream of a better life.
Those are some of the actions Trump has taken. Here are a few of the things he has said since returning to office: He has referred to immigrants as “garbage”; he has called a female reporter “piggy” and other reporters “ugly,” “stupid,” “terrible,” and “nasty”; he has suggested that the murder of a Saudi journalist by his country’s government was justified; he has labeled a sitting governor “seriously retarded”; he has blamed the murder of Rob Reiner on the director’s anti-Trump politics; he has called the Democrats the party of “evil.”
Yet, even when weighed against this stunning record of degeneracy, the pardoning by Trump of his cop-beating foot soldiers represents the lowest moment of this presidency so far, because it was an act not only of naked despotism but also of outlandish hypocrisy. By pardoning these criminals, he exposed a foundational lie of MAGA ideology: that it stands with the police and as a guarantor of law and order. The truth is the opposite.
The power to pardon is a vestige of America’s pre-independence past. It is an unchecked monarchical power, an awesome power, and therefore it should be bestowed only on leaders blessed with self-restraint, civic-mindedness, and, most important, basic decency.
We have been watching indecency triumph in the public sphere on and off for more than 10 years now, since the moment Trump insulted John McCain’s war record. For reasons that are quite possibly too unbearable to contemplate, a large group of American voters was not repulsed by such slander—they were actually aroused by it—and our politics have not been the same. Much has been said, including by me, about Trump’s narcissism, his autocratic inclinations, his disconnection from reality, but not nearly enough has been said about his fundamental indecency, the characteristic that undergirds everything he says and does.
I’m pretty sure the pussy grabbing should have closed the case but your mileage may vary.
I harken back to the Brian Beutler piece I posted about yesterday. I know that we have always had indecent leaders. It’s no excuse, but in the past they did at least go to some trouble to preserve at least the facade of our stated ideals, mostly because they assumed that Americans were fundamentally decent and would reject them if they just let their violent freak flags fly.
It does occur to me that it’s possible the ICE thugs wearing masks may be the last vestige of that idea. They say they are afraid of being doxed by the vicious leftist antifa monsters. But are they really? They’re spending their days brutalizing gardeners and nannies and intimidating women with whistles and cameras. (When they’re not gunning them down.) They aren’t afraid of the left. They’re afraid of being exposed to the decent people of America doing their grotesque work.
On the other hand, maybe they just like idiotic cos-playing like special forces Ninjas and know that tens of millions of Americans aren’t actually fundamentally decent and have their backs if they open fire. Among them are the president, vice-president and the official Republican establishment.
Maybe the pussy grabbing spoke to a deeper problem?
They really, really hate women… “Don’t make a bad mistake today and ruin your life.” https://t.co/dA3423zPkf
Look at how that “agent” is dressed. It would be hilarious if they didn’t have a license to kill.
BTW: Shannon Watts is right.
In his 1971 book, “Kent State: What Happened and Why,” James Michener concluded the ultimate explanation for why the Ohio National Guard shot and killed multiple students is that the working class males in the Guard couldn’t handle disrespect, esp. from *coeds*.
COLLINS: Minnesota officials say the FBI isn't sharing evidence with them. Do you believe the FBI should do that?
TRUMP: Well normally I would, but they're crooked officials. Minneapolis and Minnesota are being destroyed. I feel that I won Minnesota all three times. I won… pic.twitter.com/fNfsEzdEBj
Trump: "I'm a fan of Denmark too. They've been very nice to me. But the fact that they had a boat land there [Greenland] 500 years ago doesn't mean they own the land. I'm sure we had lots of boats go there also." pic.twitter.com/mwDAPKFkiV
COLLINS: People are saying you posted the jobs data early when you're not supposed to share it until the next morning
TRUMP: I said post them whenever you get a chance. I don't know. They gave me some numbers. When people give me things, I post them. pic.twitter.com/iq5ZGMnTnG
Trump: "We are going to do something on Greenland whether they like it or not because if we don't, Russia or China will take over Greenland. If we don't do it the easy way we're gonna do it the hard way." pic.twitter.com/Pb29UqBzCC
It has been a tough week. As Donald Trump set about looting Venezuela, Trumpists are working double-hard on their ethnic cleansing operations at home. Not only to increase their capture numbers but, apparently, to grind down public opposition through fear and mental exhaustion.
The press is still tiptoeing around reporting what is happening before our eyes. In the wake of the snap execution of Renee Nicole Good this week in Minneapolis by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, Jim Stewartson over at MindWar is blunt:
A word often used to describe Trump is authoritarian. But this is insufficient. Authority is the recognized right to control outcomes within a set of constraints accepted as binding—familial, religious, cultural, moral or legal.
The U.S. federal government is deliberately destroying the idea of any authority being legitimate except the ability to project coercive violence. We are living in the “might makes right” world of neo-Nazi ideology, a kratocracy.
William Montague defined kratocracy as: a government by those strong enough to seize control through violence or deceit.
What we are seeing is a rejection of law itself, supplanted by the “capability and willingness to commit violence.”
At least twice in the last 48 hours, the Vice President has said that ICE is going “door to door” to hunt for “illegal aliens.”
That is, this administration considers null and void a fundamental right for which American colonists fought a revolution.
Trump and his second, J.D. Vance, Stewartson argues, are “trying to replace constitutional authority with power, legal authority with violence, and truth with state propaganda.”
A friend observes that the propaganda issued on the DHS X feed and home page increasingly resembles statements from the former Nazi site, Stormfront. What must they be saying in private?
DHS is looking to pay racist bullies to get drunk on power. It has a $1 million campaign to recruit thousands more agents from “gun rights supporters and military enthusiasts” (read: militias) as part of a “wartime recruitment” strategy.
That war is against you. DHA recruits need not have a college degree. They are undertrained, undisciplined, armed, and the sorriest excuse for professional law enforcement since Strother Martin in Cool Hand Luke. Trump 2.0 is not recruiting law enforcement. They are building Trump’s personal army of armed thugs.
This system has another name, Stewartson argues: totalitarianism.
The goal of an “authoritarian” like Trump is not to gain authority through coercion and violence, but to replace authority with pure power—enforced by constant threat of violence. This is more totalitarian than authoritarian, something even more extreme than dictators like Putin and Orban, who try in superficial ways to pretend they have the legal right to abuse power.
The sheer speed of Trump’s rapid descent into a totalitarian, personalist dictatorship is inseparable from several factors, in my opinion:
People around him weaponizing his decline—especially Miller and Vance, ideologues jockeying for power in a post-Trump regime
Paranoia about the midterms and what it means for the regime’s ability to continue its crackdown
Today, Venezuela and Minnesota. Tomorrow Greenland:
Trump said on Friday morning: “It may be a choice” between the United States staying in NATO, and Denmark handing over their sovereign territory—meaning that Trump will use military force, and destroy our most powerful alliance, if his demands aren’t met. Violence, not authority.
Reporters caught former Minnesota governor, Jesse Ventura, outside his former high school after immigration raiders deployed chemical irritants against students hours after Good’s killing.
(DHS claims the man they chased to the school a man who allegedly “rammed” a DHS vehicle. Note that the only visible damage to the suspect’s car in the video is a crumpled passenger-side door.)
Ventura condemned Republicans for ignoring the Constitution.
“We’re a third-world country now,” Ventura argued. “Because in third-world countries they have the military doing their police work in the cities … That’s what happens in a dictatorship,” Ventura continued. What happened in 1930s Germany is happening here, he warned.
The jingoistic lesson, of course, illustrated with images of air combat, was that the Allies eventually defeated fascism because, as Abraham Lincoln proclaimed at the end of his Cooper Union address, right makes might.
LET US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT, AND IN THAT FAITH, LET US, TO THE END, DARE TO DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDERSTAND IT.
DHS and the Trump dictatorship mean to send a message to all who would resist. If it was not explicit in Chicago, it is in Minneapolis: Obey or die.
Renee Nicole Good smiled at federal immigration raider Jonathan Ross this week, saying, “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.” Moments later he shot her multiple times in the face and killed her.
Trump has not dispatched immigration agents. He’s loosed undisciplined, armed enforcers. Like Ross, they are trigger-happy. More people will die.
“JD Vance has to come out and clean up for ICE Barbie….Noem is lawless. This administration is not following any laws in our country.” @repangiecraig.bsky.social slams Republican rhetoric on the fatal shooting in Minneapolis. She also details a push for the DHS secretary’s impeachment.
Kind of wild there has been almost no coverage of the fact that the federal government unleashed chemical weapons against literal kids *at school*.workdaymagazine.org/minneapolis-…
“All of us, citizens and immigrants alike, are being ruled by people who think life is a privilege bestowed by authority, and death is a fair penalty for disobedience,” wrote Michelle Goldberg this week.
“Have y’all not learned?”
Behold:
An ICE agent in Minnesota showing their current mentality
If you’ve ever seen tourists invade a town when their ship has docked for an afternoon of shopping, it pretty much looks like that:
About 50 wayward sheep broke off from their flock and stormed a discount supermarket in a German town, startling and delighting customers as the animals rushed to explore the aisles before being escorted from the premises.
The woolly incursion occurred on Monday during a routine seasonal migration of the sheep in the Bavarian municipality of Burgsinn. A few dozen of the sheep had other ideas about the route and made their way into a store of the Penny retail chain.
“It was impossible to tell whether the sheep were looking for something particular on offer or just wanted to warm up,” the company said in a statement, noting that the flock seemed particularly fond of the checkout area where shoppers and staff were present.
Witnesses said that while the animals resisted the urge to nibble their way through the fresh produce on display, their foray into the store left a path of destruction in the drinks section as their bustling knocked glass bottles and other products from the shelves.
After about 20 minutes, the sheep were coaxed out the door and rejoined their flock.
The German embassy in London couldn’t resist a pun-filled post about the fluffy new mascots. “50 runaway sheep ram-paged through a German supermarket in rural Baa-varia, causing shear mania on Monday morning,” it posted on X. “After breaking away from their 500-strong herd, the brazen sheep spent 20mins milling around in the Penny supermarket before ewe-turning and seeing themselves out.”
Stiehler dismissed speculation that Penny planned to bill their shepherd for the damage or cleaning costs, with the company instead seizing on the nationwide media attention and viral posts to say it wanted to sponsor feed for the 50 runaways for a year.
