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Nothing Like Professional Law Enforcement

Published by Tom Sullivan on November 1, 2025

Like cruelty, that is the point

The Nazis were meticulous about their record-keeping. Not so Donald Trump. He famously absconded with hundreds of classified government records and stored them in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom. He demolished the East Wing of the White House without so much as a “by your leave” from officials entrusted with caretaking our national historic landmarks. Dotting i’s and crossing t’s is not exactly Trump’s idiom. Neither is professional law enforcement.

Secretary Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and her Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) goons are nothing like professional law enforcement. From the bad-faith criminal indictment of Democratic officials in Chicago; to the indiscriminate firing of tear gas and pepper bullets into crowds; to the arresting of anyone agents spot with brown skin (including U.S. citizens); to arrest threats against Americans legally monitoring ICE in their neighborhoods; to tricking out masked ICE agents in green camouflage and military tactical gear instead of DHS uniforms; law enforcement is not the point of DHS actions. Nor is obeying the law they purport to uphold. Terrorizing the civilian population is.

ICE disappeared woman from Utah airport—a mother of 4 legally in U.S. with work permit."I have my papers!" she cries out. "Help me please, my papers!"Other travelers just stand by watching agents drag her away—despite the kidnappers not wearing uniforms or ID of any kind.Salt Lake City, Utah

— LongTime🤓FirstTime👨‍💻 (@longtimehistory.bsky.social) 2025-10-31T01:46:40.315Z

The Washington Post:

Federal immigration officers are using chemical irritants to disperse protesters in ways that violate American policing norms and are testing the boundaries of use-of-force laws, video footage from Chicago shows, in some cases hitting demonstrators directly with the munitions.

Since September,

… federal officers have thrown chemical agents out of vehicles on city streets, creating a hazard for motorists. They have thrown tear-gas canisters near stores and schools, exposing children, pregnant women and older people to the noxious gas. And on numerous occasions federal officers have fired pepper balls directly at protesters — in one case, striking a pastor in the head.

The use of tear gas has persisted in recent days despite a court order forbidding officers from using chemical agents against demonstrators and journalists unless they pose a safety threat. Last week, Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol official leading the Chicago operation, was videotaped throwing a tear-gas canister into a crowd. In another incident, immigration officers deployed tear gas as families were walking to a Halloween parade.

The big-numbers-obsessed Donald Trump and white nationalist, deportation tsar Stephen Miller are more interested in sweeping up and out as many warm, brown bodies as possible as quickly as possible. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights be damned. Splitting up families and traumatizing children be damned. Humane treatment be damned. Professional law enforcement norms (and proper vetting and training) be damned.

The New Republic:

The through line here is an intimidation campaign being carried out in front of our kids, or even targeting our kids. Maybe you missed it in the crush of other horrific headlines, but earlier this week, after federal authorities released tear gas just before a parade on the city’s Northwest Side, a U.S. district court had to declare to our federal government that children should not be tear-gassed for the crime of showing up to holiday celebrations: “Kids dressed in Halloween costumes walking to a parade do not pose an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer,” U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis told Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino, a man who hates Halloween for children but loves to cosplay for work every day, in a hearing Tuesday. “You can’t use riot-control weapons against them,” she continued. “These kids, you can imagine their sense of safety was shattered on Saturday. And it’s going to take a long time for that to come back, if ever.”

Federal judges be damned too.

This post by David Bier of the Cato Institute grabbed me by the throat this week.

Right up front: I am not an attorney.

The agent makes sure to cite 18 USC 111 not once but twice as intimidation. He’s counting on the woman to not know what it says. That code section requires that an offender must have “forcibly” impeded, intimidated, or interfered with the federal agent. “Forcibly” is the first word in subsection 1. The DOJ’s Criminal Resource Manual on 18 USC 111 emphasizes that “the element of force” or “a threat of force” is “an essential element of the crime.” Or there is no crime. The agents above are making an empty threat to get her to stop filming them.

Here’s another example.

These are not uniformed law enforcement professionals as much as unqualified, undertrained administration thugs preparing Americans for seeing troops in the street as soon as Trump can concoct a semi-plausible excuse for invoking the Insurrection Act and putting active duty troops in the streets. (See update below.)

When someone suggests that this is what Americans voted for last November, show them these.

ICE jumps out of car while still in motion—points gun directly at 2 unarmed women volunteers. Agent pulls gun from his pants front belt loop—not a government issued holster. This particular agent is well known to put tape over his license plate numbers to avoid detection.

— LongTime🤓FirstTime👨‍💻 (@longtimehistory.bsky.social) 2025-10-27T15:28:38.092Z
 
View on Threads

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This is America on Trump.

 
View on Threads

On October 30, 2025, in Chicago, Illinois, ICE GOONS Backs into a U.S. citizen’s car and subsequently arrests her for documenting their actions.

— Raider (@iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social) 2025-10-31T01:31:45.508Z

ICE detain mother taking daughter to elementary school—one agent alone dressed in plain clothes."The man had no uniform and didn't show ID," said family. "Of course she tried to run away from being kidnapped."Surveillance cameras caught the violent arrest in Houston, Texas.

— LongTime🤓FirstTime👨‍💻 (@longtimehistory.bsky.social) 2025-11-01T01:34:12.478Z

UPDATE: Via Jason Satler. Here’s the full speech.

I've given my new Senator a lot of shit on here. But I don't think anyone with power has laid out the stakes of what we're facing as clearly as she does right here. And if she's saying this, it's because she feels she must.

— 🗽LOLGOP🗽 (@thefarce.org) 2025-11-01T10:05:15.184Z

* * * * *

Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?

No King’s One Million Rising movement 
50501 
May Day Strong
Freedom Over Fascism Toolkit
The Resistance Lab
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink 
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense

The Great Graftsby

Published by Tom Sullivan on November 1, 2025

“A Little Party Never Killed Nobody”

Two federal judges on Friday afternoon ordered the Donald Trump administration to continue funding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits that expired at midnight. Both found that the administration acted unlawfully in refusing to tap emergency funds reserved for such a situation.

But this is Donald Trump. He’s made a practice of sniffing at court orders (New York Times):

Late on Friday, President Trump said that the administration would provide the funding for food stamps in November once a federal court could clarify “how we can legally” supply the money. But he indicated that a delay was inevitable.

“It is already delayed enough due to the Democrats keeping the Government closed through the monthly payment date,” he wrote on social media, “and, even if we get immediate guidance, it will unfortunately be delayed while states get the money out.”

Trump just discovered the word groceries early last year. Only a lunatic would appeal the court orders and further delay 40 million hungry Americans from buying them. But we’ll see.

Fresh off of demolishing the East Wing of the White House to erect a garish, 90,000 sq-ft ballroom funded by billionaires and megacorporations, Trump jetted off to Mar-a-Lago for an opulent, Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party for more rich friends. Associated Press White House Correspondent Danny Kemp posted a photo reporting “Official theme is Gatsby and ‘a little party never killed nobody’,” a song from the 2013 film The Great Gatsby.

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”

― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Do you think anyone will notice? Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) did: “The way he rubs his inhumanity in Americans’ face never ceases to stun me.”

Daily Beast noticed: Trump Gathers MAGA Pals for Tone-Deaf ‘Gatsby’ Theme Party

Hours before more than 40 million Americans were due to lose their SNAP benefits, the president and his court of cronies banqueted in style.

The Irish Star noticed: Trump seen at Mar-a-Lago Halloween party with dubious theme before SNAP aid ends

The president threw an opulent party at his Mar-a-Lago resort as more than 40 million low-income Americans faced losing SNAP aid.

Newsbreak: Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Gatsby Bash Hits a Nerve as SNAP Benefits Hang by a Thread

Only Donald Trump could throw a party that looks like a scene from The Great Gatsby  while millions of Americans’ food aid is vanishing.

The Daily Mirror: Donald Trump spotted at Mar-a-Lago Halloween party with questionable theme hours before SNAP aid ends

Mediaite: Trump Rants About Paying Food Stamps ‘If’ He Gets ‘Appropriate’ Guidance From Court — As He Throws Great Gatsby Blowout

President Donald Trump attacked Democrats in a rant about being forced to pay SNAP benefits during the government shutdown — even as he threw a glitzy Great Gatsby-themed party at Mar-a-lago.

Retweet these every chance you get today. Make sure everyone sees.

I want to know who this guy is sitting to Trump’s right. Anyone know? Rubio is to his left.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc8-bkqlwCw

* * * * *

Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?

No King’s One Million Rising movement 
50501 
May Day Strong
Freedom Over Fascism Toolkit
The Resistance Lab
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink 
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense

Friday Night Soother

Published by digby on October 31, 2025

Spooky beauty:

The genetic anomaly testifies to the good progress of the Lynx pardinus conservation plans in the two countries of the Iberian Peninsula, after releases began in 2011 when the species was on the verge of extinction.

The white ghost of the Mediterranean forest. This is how Ángel Hidalgo, an amateur nature photographer, has described his latest find while reviewing the images from one of his photo-trapping cameras, placed in the depths of one of Jaén’s mountain ranges in southern Spain.

Hidalgo has managed to record an Iberian lynx with leucism, a genetic condition that causes a partial or total lack of pigmentation in its skin, although not in the eyes, as would occur in the case of albino animals.

According to local media ‘Ahora Jaén’, this unprecedented discovery took place on 22 October in the province of Jaén.

The place where this specimen of ‘Lynx pardinus’ has been recorded in the wild, as attested by the absence of a tracking collar, is kept secret. The Iberian lynx, despite the conservation efforts of the Spanish and Portuguese authorities, is still listed as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

It’s a sign. Of what I don’t know, but it is. There’s someone in that cat and it’s bringing us a message.

Also:

As one wag said: “I don’t believe in certain coincidences bc that’s two rare animal sightings in a short time.”

My BFF and I were once in a very small town in central Pennsylvania during hunting season eating breakfast in a diner right out of a David Lynch fever dream. Suddenly everyone got up and ran to the window to watch an albino buck run through the town and disappear through the heavy fog hanging over the cemetery and disappear. I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it. It wasn’t Halloween but I’ve often thought about it on this day.

Happy Halloween everyone.

A New MAGA Partnership

Published by digby on October 31, 2025

In the last couple of days we’ve seen Vance saying that it’s understandable that people don’t want to live next door to foreigners and confessing that his wife is not a Hindu as we’ve been told but rather an agnostic which is actually even worse in the eyes of the Christian Right. And he expressed hope that she would come to her senses and convert to Christianity, reassuring the audience at Turning Point that at least he’s training his children to be Catholic.

Now this.

What a partnership that would be. The Christian influencer widow and the shape-shifting opportunist. I can’t see why the MAGA faithful would object. Trump’s been divorced twice and has kids with three different women and they worship him. It might even be a selling point for JD who isn’t exactly known as a ladies man which they seem to like in their leaders both religious and political. I think it could work.

Same Old, Same Old

Published by digby on October 31, 2025

Aaaaah, we’re back to the welfare queen bullshit:

Oopsie:

Much to the chagrin of Republican leadership, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins delivered a rare level-headed missive Friday for Americans struggling with expiring SNAP benefits.

“My message to America is first, the fact that your government is failing you right now,” Rollins told reporters. “That poverty is not red or blue, it is not a Democrat or Republican issue. Doesn’t matter who you voted for or even if you voted. That if you are in a position where you can’t feed your family, and you’re relying on that $187 dollars a month for an average family in the SNAP program, that we have failed you.”

Yes, and Republicans control all three branches of the government. Nice to see a Republican be honest for once.

However:

But that was a politically unsavory appeal for House Speaker Mike Johnson, who immediately jumped into recovery mode, attempting to twist Rollins’s words to fit the party message.

“And it’s, um, clarified that when she says, ‘We have failed you,’ she means, ‘We the Democrats,’ OK?” Johnson said.

Lol.

Here’s the reality:

  • SNAP targets those in greatest need. Among those participating in the program, most are children, elderly persons, or individuals with a disability. In fact, 86 percent of all SNAP benefits go to households that include a child, elderly person, or person with disabilities. In addition, about 92 percent of all SNAP benefits go to households with income at or below the federal poverty line.
  • SNAP recipients represent different races and/or ethnicities. White: about 37 percent; African American: 26 percent; Hispanic: 16 percent; Asian: 3 percent; and Native American: about 2 percent. (About 16 percent of participants are categorized as “race unknown.”)
  • Many SNAP households have earned income. Almost one-third of SNAP households have earned income, though only 20 percent of households have gross monthly income above the federal poverty line. The average SNAP household’s monthly gross income is $872 and net income is $398.

And:

While the SNAP cutoff will reverberate from coast to coast, red states may feel it more acutely. In the 30 states that Trump carried last year, 25 of them were more reliant on SNAP than the national average. While the national average of SNAP recipients stands at 12%, an analysis from the Center for Policy and Budget Priorities shows that deep-red states like Louisiana—home to House Speaker Mike Johnson—surpass that with 18%.

He’s happy to see the children in his district go hungry. He’s a big Christian, dontcha know?

Trump Gets A Big Talk To The Hand

Published by digby on October 31, 2025

From the GOP Congress!

Apparently, they do have the capacity to say no to Dear Leader. Who knew? Trump posted this last night on Truth Social:

“BECAUSE OF THE FACT THAT THE DEMOCRATS HAVE GONE STONE COLD ‘CRAZY,’ THE CHOICE IS CLEAR — INITIATE THE ‘NUCLEAR OPTION,’ GET RID OF THE FILIBUSTER AND, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

He posted again shortly after:

Majority Leader John Thune, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, are doing a GREAT job, but the Democrats are Crazed Lunatics that have lost all sense of WISDOM and REALITY. It is a sick form of the now “legendary” Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) that only comes from losing too much. They want Trillions of Dollars to be taken from our Healthcare System and given to others, who are not deserving — People who have come into our Country illegally, many from prisons and mental institutions. This will hurt American citizens, and Republicans will not let it happen. It is now time for the Republicans to play their “TRUMP CARD,” and go for what is called the Nuclear Option — Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!

Just a short while ago, the Democrats, while in power, fought for three years to do this, but were unable to pull it off because of Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Never have the Democrats fought so hard to do something because they knew the tremendous strength that terminating the Filibuster would give them. They want to substantially expand (PACK!) the United States Supreme Court, make Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico States (Thereby automatically picking up 4 Senate seats, many House seats, and at least 8 Electoral Votes!), and many other highly destructive things.

Well, now WE are in power, and if we did what we should be doing, it would IMMEDIATELY end this ridiculous, Country destroying “SHUT DOWN.” If the Democrats ever came back into power, which would be made easier for them if the Republicans are not using the Great Strength and Policies made available to us by ending the Filibuster, the Democrats will exercise their rights, and it will be done in the first day they take office, regardless of whether or not we do it. In addition to all of the other things we would get, such as the best Judges, the best U.S. Attorneys, the best of everything, this was a concept from years ago of then President Barack Hussein Obama and former Majority Leader Harry Reid in order to take advantage of the Republicans. Now I want to do it in order to take advantage of the Democrats….

Yeah well,

GOP leaders believed Thursday they were on track to reopen agencies as soon as next week. Then Trump threw a fresh complication into their laps overnight when he revived calls for Republicans to invoke the “nuclear option” and eliminate the 60-vote threshold for passing most legislation. Without it, Republican senators could reopen the government on their own.

But many GOP senators have vocally defended the filibuster, including Majority Leader John Thune, calling the 60-vote rule a fundamental feature of the Senate and one that works to conservatives’ benefit in the long run.

It does benefit Republicans in the long run although I’m frankly surprised they’re holding fast on this. I have to assume that they either see the specter of losing the Senate soon and/or they really don’t want to pass all the daft, unpopular ideas for which Trump would like to force them to share responsibility. They’ve made peace with the idea that Trump is destroying the country all on his own with the eager complicity of the Supreme Court majority while they sit back like a bunch of broken down robots and let it happen. I guess that’s how they live with themselves.

This little brouhaha does show that Trump’s starting to get impatient. He wants to celebrate his golden bathroom renovations, war in Venezuela and world peace. This whole legislating thing is of little interest to him until he can hold one of those signing ceremonies with everyone standing around grinning like jack-0-lanterns telling him how great he is. “Negotiating” is of no interest because he isn’t interested in mundane details about boring programs that benefit losers, doesn’t have the slightest clue what the issues are and doesn’t care to find out.

Trump Antoinette Watch

Published by digby on October 31, 2025

Actually, while the White House did have indoor plumbing in 1860, it would not have been marble. Not even close. It would likely have looked something like this:

Trump’s thinking of his muse The Sun King, who had a red marble bath filled with perfume:

According to historical receipts from the palace stonemasons, the 3 meter wide and 1 meter deep bath, “la vasque royale”, would have cost the modern day equivalent of $235,000. The entire bathroom, over $5 million.

Commissioned by Louis XIV in 1674, it was first installed in the storied “apartment of the baths”, a space covered in the rarest marble, outfitted with intricately carved basins, gold statues; an obscene show of wealth.

The king was crazy about the odeur de Nerolie, a floral essence produced from the blossom of the bitter orange tree, first introduced as a fashionable fragrance in the 17th century by an Italian princess, who was using it to perfume her gloves and bath. But Louis took it a step further by replacing his bath water entirely with the most delicate of fragrances. While Europe was trying to rid itself of the plague, bathing in natural water was considered a great risk. Paddling around in a pool of perfume was not only guaranteed to have him smelling like an orange blossom for his next appearance at court, but it was also just a safe bet in the dark ages of medicine.

Sounds like Trump.

Update: More priorities

By the way:

Nearly nine months after Trump became chair of the center andmore than a month into its main season, ticket sales for the Kennedy Center’s three largest performance venues are the worst they’ve been in years, according to a Washington Post analysis of ticketing data from dozens of recent shows as well as past seasons. Tens of thousands of seats have been left empty.

Since early September, 43 percent of tickets remained unsold for the typical production. That means that, at most, 57 percent of tickets were sold for the typical production — and some tickets may have been “comps,” which are given away, often to staff members or the press. That compares with 93 percent sold or comped in fall 2024 and 80 percent in fall 2023.

Bye, Bye Ronnie

Published by digby on October 31, 2025

Hello Donnie

President Donald Trump is worried. Besides the recent concerns he expressed about the state of his soul, he fears the Supreme Court will strip him of his tariff privileges. We know this because he had a temper tantrum upon hearing that Ontario had produced a television advertisement featuring President Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs — a response that was revealing, both about his mindset and strategy, and about how MAGA has turned away from Reagan’s once-mythic legacy.

The commercial itself was simple and effective. Against bucolic and urban images of industry and humanity, Reagan begins in his unmistakable voice, “When someone says ‘Let’s impose tariffs on foreign imports,’ it looks like they’re doing the patriotic thing.” For a certain swath of Americans old enough to remember his optimism and storytelling — and to ignore the extensive damage he did to the country — hearing his voice doubtless carries them back to a gentler time. Excerpted from a 1987 radio address, the remarks warn against protectionism broadly. (In the full five-minute address, Reagan also condemns pending congressional trade legislation aimed at Japan.) 

Trump, a master of modern media, must have immediately recognized the ad’s power. He took to Truth Social, accusing Ontario — and Canada more broadly — of “cheating” and “trying to illegally influence the United States Supreme Court in one of the most important rulings in the history of our Country.” He continued, “They  fraudulently took a big buy ad saying that Ronald Reagan did not like Tariffs, when actually he LOVED TARIFFS FOR OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS NATIONAL SECURITY.” Trump was so mad that he slapped an additional 10% tariff on Canadian goods, which came on top of the 35% he had already imposed. He also declared the bilateral trade talks over. 

The high court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case brought by some small businesses and other groups who claim the president exceeded his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) in imposing tariffs. In August, the administration lost the case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, but they temporarily stayed the decision pending the Supreme Court appeal, which was accepted by the justices with lightning speed. 

Trump’s notion that, without Ontario’s ad, the Supreme Court justices wouldn’t know about Reagan’s free trade philosophy is unintentionally hilarious. Chief Justice John Roberts, as well as Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, worked in the Reagan administration. Justice Neil Gorsuch’s mother was an infamous member of his cabinet. All of the court’s conservatives were schooled in the Reagan Revolution philosophy of free markets. They don’t need the premier of Ontario to instruct them on the subject. 

The court’s decision will have massive effects on the American — and the world — economy. So far, it’s relatively unclear if the conservative majority will follow their usual pattern of rubber stamping anything the president wants to do. Since Trump began erratically imposing tariffs, the markets have held steady, and businesses have more or less been in a holding pattern, waiting to see if his chaotic tariff regime will remain in place, or if the court will end it. (On a more cynical level, it’s likely that some of the justices’ wealthy friends and benefactors are not enamored of Trump’s policies.) 

You do have to wonder if they might be persuaded that Trump should not have this unilateral power, having shuttered trade talks and imposed tariffs just because he was mad about an advertisement. Likewise, the president’s tariffs on Brazil over its own Supreme Court ruling against his buddy, former president Jair Bolsonaro, might strike some of them as a bit unseemly. It certainly appeared to hit the Senate that way; this week, the body unexpectedly voted on a bipartisan basis to block the tariffs. Both of those examples, among dozens of others, showcase Trump’s capricious use of tariffs as a tool of petty manipulation and revenge — and they make a compelling argument to the justices of the need to deny him unilateral power to reorder the world economy according to his whims. 

Trump is well aware of how Reagan was long held up as something of a god among Republicans, and Trump himself went to great lengths to suck up to him when he was president, albeit to little avail. In 1987, Trump had a big idea about foreign policy and trade, and he took out full page ads stating what is now his stale, familiar refrain about other countries ripping off the United States and laughing at us. You have to wonder if Reagan might have been talking about him when he said this in his address congratulating Canadians on their election in 1988:

We should beware of the demagogues who are ready to declare a trade war against our friends — weakening our economy, our national security, and the entire free world — all while cynically waving the American flag. The expansion of the international economy is not a foreign invasion; it is an American triumph, one we worked hard to achieve, and something central to our vision of a peaceful and prosperous world of freedom.

Imagine what Trump would do if someone were to let it be known that Reagan was also a big fan of immigration and free trade agreements. As historian Rick Perlstein pointed out in his book “Reaganland,” Reagan even dreamed of open borders for people and commerce alike. 

The Canadian ad seems to have come to Trump’s attention from the Reagan Foundation, which oversees the former president’s library. You would think that they, of all people, would be so protective of Reagan’s legacy and insist upon his beliefs being portrayed truthfully. Instead the foundation raised a big stink, saying they hadn’t given permission to the admakers to use excerpts of the speech — which was in the public domain, so they had no say in the matter — and insisting that it misrepresented him. In fact, the ad was true to Reagan’s views and, according to a New York Times analysis, “faithfully reproduces [his] words.”

The foundation’s reaction was startling. Either its board has gone so MAGA that they have been deluded into believing the man they purport to honor and defend was a big tariff-lover, or they are so terrified of Trump that they betrayed Reagan’s legacy in hopes of appeasing the president. Whatever the case, it now appears that most of Trump’s followers have left Ronald Reagan and what he stood for behind. They no longer have any interest in or loyalty to the conservative movement he helped create. Its remains are mere artifacts of what has come to seem like an ancient civilization. 

The politicians, activists and thinkers who built that movement in the wake of World War II and the anti-communist fervor that swept the country spent many decades educating their followers in the ideology and dogma of conservative thought. They worked in the shadow of what scholars and commentators called “the liberal consensus” that was formed around the New Deal and, later, the civil rights revolution. Slowly but surely, these conservatives accumulated influence and allies, and they finally reached the zenith of their political power with Reagan’s 1980 election as president. 

After he was gone, they worked to secure the movement’s enduring power by consciously turning Reagan into a mythic figure whose ideas would live on in perpetuity. They set out to name as many schools, roads, bridges, buildings and even airports after him as they could. They put up statues and encouraged every Republican politician to evoke his name at any opportunity. 

Now, less than a decade after Trump was first inaugurated president in 2017, most of it is lying in rubble. 

Many of the staunch Reaganites who once believed in free markets, small government, private enterprise, international institutions and the “Pax Americana” guarantor of global security are now MAGA aficionados, enthusiastically endorsing every scheme Trump comes up with, from state capitalism to trade wars. Unlike the movement Reagan represented, there’s no long term education project, no underlying ideology, no commitment to principles. One day the administration is full force America First isolationism, and the next finds it blowing up boats full of civilians in international waters, with the president proclaiming “to the victors go the spoils.”

Does that erratic philosophy sound like something that can last? If the conservative movement that endured for decades can be stripped, virtually overnight, of everything but the ugly underbelly of crude racism and revanchist anger that fueled it, what are the chances that MAGA will outlive Trump?

Seeing a movement that was as vibrant as the conservative movement toppled so quickly by a shallow demagogue should give those who love democracy and human progress hope. If Ronald Reagan couldn’t go the distance, Donald Trump certainly can’t.

“They can’t possibly do this”

Published by Tom Sullivan on October 31, 2025

Bracing for REDMAP 2.0

2010 United States state legislative elections

I could have sworn Politico’s landing page earlier framed this story as about REDMAP 2.0. If so, it’s gone. Now the sidebar reads, “GOP risks losing redistricting war if they ignore state races, group warns.” It’s about this new memo from the Republican State Leadership Committee.

“The legislative level truly holds the key to the federal level,” Edith Jorge-Tuñón, president of the Republican State Leadership Committee, said in an interview.

In the Friday memo — which is being shared with GOP donors — Jorge-Tuñón repeatedly hits Democrats for gerrymandering blue states, arguing that they will continue to stretch their margins as much as possible. Republicans, too, have drawn increasingly favorable maps — and fired the first shot in this year’s battle with Texas — shrinking the number of swing House seats that ultimately determine control of the chamber.

State races are a battleground too many armchair progressives shun for higher-profile federal contests. I get it. For some who don’t live this stuff 24/7/365, local races may feel like the kiddie table. The RSLC is not so naive.

Democrats were famously caught flatfooted in state legislative races ahead of the 2010 census. Republicans’ pioneering REDMAP program helped the party flip chambers across the country, all done with the explicit goal of getting a leg up in redistricting. And while Democrats weren’t caught as unprepared this decade, a strong legislative year for Republicans in 2020 also gave the GOP an edge for the post-2020 redistricting.

The architect of REDMAP in 2010, “gerrymandering on steroids,” was from North Carolina. (So is Cleta Mitchell.) And after that, the late Thomas Hofeller suggested that Republicans rig the 2020 census.

The new warning from the RSLC comes as their Democratic counterpart has similarly ramped up its messaging on redistricting as a reason to prioritize legislative races.

“To have a shot at winning and maintaining a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives moving forward, Democrats must reassess our failed federal-first strategy and get serious about winning state legislatures ahead of redistricting,” wrote Heather Williams, the head of Democrats legislative campaign arm, in a July memo obtained by POLITICO.

For readers in states that elect judges, and for those who don’t, ProPublica offers a study of the nationwide shadow N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby (R) has cast with his maneuvering on redistricting. Newby’s early 2023 decision leveraged a newly seated Republican majority to overturn the previous court’s 2022 ruling that partisan gerrymandering violated North Carolina’s constitution. That court ordered an independent redraw of congressional districts that yielded a 7D-7R delegation after the 2022 election. Until Newby’s conservative majority overturned the precedent:

“We were like, they can’t possibly do this,” said Jeff Loperfido, the chief counsel for voting rights at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. “Can they revisit their opinions when the ink is barely dry?”

Yes, they can. And yes, they did. Newby handed the U.S. House majority to Republicans, to Speaker Mike Johnson, and to Donald Trump. The N.C. delegation after the 2024 elections split 10R-4D. The GOP-dominated N.C. legislature just last week enacted a new congressional district map aimed at making that 11R-3D.

ProPublica explains:

Few beyond North Carolina’s borders grasp the outsize role Newby, 70, has played in transforming the state’s top court from a relatively harmonious judicial backwater to a front-line partisan battleground since his election in 2004.

Under North Carolina’s constitution, Supreme Court justices are charged with upholding the independence and impartiality of the courts, applying laws fairly and ensuring all citizens get treated equally.

Yet for years, his critics charge, Newby has worked to erode barriers to politicization.

He pushed to make judicial elections in North Carolina — once a national leader in minimizing political influence on judges — explicitly partisan and to get rid of public financing, leaving candidates more dependent on dark money. Since Newby’s allies in the legislature shepherded through laws enacting those changes, judicial campaigns have become vicious, high-dollar gunfights that have produced an increasingly polarized court dominated by hard-right conservatives. 

As chief justice, he and courts under him have consistently backed initiatives by Republican lawmakers to strip power away from North Carolina’s governor, thwarting the will of voters who have chosen Democrats to lead the state since 2016. He’s also used his extensive executive authority to transform the court system according to his political views, such as by doing away with diversity initiatives. Under his leadership, some liberal and LGBTQ+ employees have been replaced with conservatives. A devout Christian and church leader, he speaks openly about how his faith has shaped his jurisprudence and administration of the courts.

According to former justices, judges and Republicans seeking to be judicial candidates, Newby acts more like a political operator than an independent jurist. He’s packed higher and lower courts with former clerks and mentees whom he’s cultivated at his Bible study, prayer breakfasts and similar events. His political muscle is backed by his family’s: His wife is a major GOP donor, and one of his daughters, who is head of finance for the state Republican Party, has managed judicial campaigns.

Etc., etc. “Newby declined multiple interview requests from ProPublica and even had a reporter escorted out of a judicial conference to avoid questions.”

When ProPublica emailed questions to Newby’s daughter, the North Carolina Republican Party’s communications director, Matt Mercer, replied with a threat:

“I’m sure you’re aware of our connections with the Trump Administration and I’m sure they would be interested in this matter,” Mercer said in his email. “I would strongly suggest dropping this story.” 

Democrats here control the governor’s mansion and several council of state positions, but the GOP legislature after the election handed control of our elections board to the GOP state auditor:

Former North Carolina Republican Party executive director Dallas Woodhouse will oversee county boards of elections in a new role with the State Auditor’s Office, Auditor Dave Boliek announced in an email to county board chairs.

Yeah, local elections matter. The smarmy Woodhouse is an old adversary. We’re bracing for impact.

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As Far As You Can Throw Them

Published by Tom Sullivan on October 31, 2025

Credibility has a value Trump will never understand

The Donald Trump administration does not know who it is murdering on small boats in the Caribbean, Defense officials told lawmakers in a classified House briefing on Thursday. Military lawyers were removed before the briefing. Democrats were excluded from a similar Senate briefing the day before, Politico reports:

“[The department officials] said that they do not need to positively identify individuals on these vessels to do the strikes, they just need to prove a connection to a designated terrorist organization or affiliate,” said Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.). “When we tried to get more information, we did not get satisfactory answers.”

GOP lawmakers did not answer reporters’ questions.

To date, the U.S. has killed at least 61 alleged drug runners that we know of. Burned and mangled corpses missing limbs are washing ashore on Trinidad.

While White House officials have repeatedly referenced the threat posed by fentanyl being smuggled into the United States — it accounted for roughly 70 percent of overdose deaths nationwide in 2023, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse — officials at Thursday’s briefing said the boats hit so far were primarily transporting cocaine.

“They argued that cocaine is a facilitating drug of fentanyl, but that was not a satisfactory answer for most of us,” said Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.).

Last week the New York Times reported:

Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, over the weekend accused the United States of murdering a Colombian fisherman in an attack on a boat that the American authorities claimed had been carrying drugs. President Trump responded by halting aid to Colombia and saying that Mr. Petro, a leftist, had a “fresh mouth toward America.”

“Fresh mouth” is a phrase you haven’t heard since the 1960s. But then, consider the source: President Arrested Development.

The killings have spread fear across the Caribbean. Fishermen stay close to shore and fear working at night. Legal analysts believe the strikes in Trump’s self-proclaimed “war” against drug cartels (from one specific country, mind you) violate U.S. law and international law:

“The strikes are disturbing because they’re obviously extrajudicial strikes that are not supported by any legal framework whatsoever,” former attorney general Garvin Nicholas told The Washington Post. “It should not be that the government encourages extrajudicial killings.”

Digby on Monday referenced the “golden shield” that go-ahead rulings from the Office of Legal Counsel provide for such actions. A kind of advance pardon, they “insulate executive officials from future criminal liability through legal advice.” Readers will recall the infamous torture memos from the Bush II administration that blessed prisoner torture post-Sept. 11.

Playing devil’s advocate for a moment, in an actual war the military rarely has faces and names attached to the enemies it targets. But this is not an actual war. Trump invented it out of whole cloth. Perhaps he means to prosecute a real one of regime change against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Or perhaps he needs yet another distraction from the pending release of the Epstein files or inflation or his falling poll numbers. These boat strikes are simply murders.

Digby on Thursday posted about the creepy DHS spokesman video. The Washington Post found inaccurate and deceptive editing throughout the white nationalist propaganda videos DHS churns out. Trump has operated his entire life on the theory that you can fool some of the people all of the time, enough to rip them off, line his pockets, and get away with it. If they complain, he sues them into bankruptcy.

This supposed master dealmaker places a high value on the Trump brand. What’s striking is how little value he and his entire administration of lies sets on credibility, on trustworthiness. That’s a key, ephemeral element of any brand, i.e., “the brand you trust.” Trump must have skipped class to get laid the day they discussed that at Wharton.

The Trump administration is one you can’t trust farther than you can throw it. Now, neither is the United States of America.

Update: Added Sen. Mark Warner’s statement above.

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