“Taking slavery seriously in American history is not anti-American. The story of slavery in the U.S. is about an ancient institution that…thrived here, and [then was destroyed]...The destruction of slavery is one of the great American achievements,” says Sean Wilentz, a historian at Princeton

James Fallows on administration lies about El Paso incident: "Aviation safety depends on ruthless honesty. To put it in terms Donald Trump prefers: In aviation you learn the danger of lies the easy way, or you learn it the hard way. Team MAGA seems determined to keep teaching us the hard way."

Good long read on Democrats’ challenges, and hopes. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

“To sympathetic ears, [Stephen] Miller [saying the world is governed by force] sounded refreshingly unsentimental and cleareyed. But the “niceties” he disparaged…are the values of Christianity, the faith the Trump administration purports to defend and uphold.” -Leighton Woodhouse in NY Times

“Progressives often [oppose transit] fare gates…[based on] the idea that eliminating society’s rules serves as a…welfare benefit for marginalized people. But…[the poor] are the chief victims of the tiny number of chaotic individuals who…make public spaces and public services unusable.” -Noah Smith

"Trump’s entire political career — from his embrace of birtherism to his hatred of birthright citizenship — cannot be understood outside the context of his bitter, deep-seated racism." -Jamelle Bouie

"[Trump] is an unhinged bottom feeder...It’s time for John Thune, Mike Johnson, and Republicans to denounce this serial fraudster, who’s sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue pretending to be the president of the United States.” -Hakeem Jeffries

"[Trump’s] rule [will] strip civil service protections from about 50,000 federal employees, enabling the administration to replace nonpartisan civil servants...with loyalists...The United States has had a nonpartisan civil service since 1883...94% of 40,000 public comments opposed the change." -HCR

"the growing coalition of Americans from all walks of life standing against MAGA and defending American democracy is the United States of America at its best, and that coalition is absolutely a threat to the cabal trying to seize the assets of the nation for itself." -Heather Cox Richardson

The US has always been a multiracial country. There’s no way Stephen Miller can undo that. And: “There are far too few White Protestants to form an electoral majority in America, no matter how many people ICE deports or how many visa-seekers and refugees Trump turns away.” -Noah Smith

“The United States is a nation of moderates ruled by a fringe of extremists. The extremists rule because they are more engaged than the moderates — they spend more time thinking about politics and doing political activism.” -Noah Smith

“Democrats, playing by a rulebook that’s been incinerated, come across as neutered…In private, [Republicans] say Trump is a threat to American democracy; in public….praising the president no matter what he says or does...Congress is…nominally important but functionally irrelevant.” -Scott Galloway

“I spoke to people of various different backgrounds, sort of moderate, suburban, elderly people, not at all activists. I think there’s a widespread sense that whatever one’s political beliefs, the way that ICE is behaving is just unacceptable and un-American.” -Robert Worth in The Atlantic

“Democrats aren’t just trying to…cultivate some goodwill among their base by demonstrating their willingness to fight… ICE is terrorizing America’s streets right now. Democrats have the ability and the leverage to play hardball for some of these reforms right now.” -Andrew Egger in The Bulwark

My new one @slate.com : I Wrote a Book in Support of Nationalizing Elections. Trump Changed My Mind. slate.com/news-and-pol...

The President's FY 2027 budget "should include an actionable plan for getting [to] ...a responsible fiscal target like reducing deficits to...3% of GDP, rely on realistic economic forecasts...and put forward specific tax and spending policies that put debt on a sustainable path. - CRFB.org

“Pretti and Good aren’t dead because of [Trump being given] bad advice. They’re dead because of bad men acting out the script that a bad president wrote for them.” -Frank Bruni

Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: “Statutory PAYGO is one of the smartest tools we have in place, yet Congress never abides by it... Yesterday’s [OMB] report [shows] that policymakers keep adding to the debt and skirting the rules meant to support fiscal responsibility.” One more failure.

“Courts must…[support] the rights of states to run elections…without federal interference…While we don’t yet know [the basis for] the Fulton County search warrant,…it [may have] contained misstatements. Judges cannot act as rubber stamps [for] interference in our elections.” - Marc Elias

“… the left’s prioritization of social…justice over good governance has been a huge mistake. The left must unreservedly commit to good, efficient governance and social order over its various ideological commitments and NGO ties or voters will not take them seriously going forward.” -Ruy Texeira

“A fast-growth economy provides more opportunities for upward mobility… and, as Benjamin Friedman has argued, has positive “moral consequences” by orienting citizens toward generosity, tolerance, and collective advance. Slow growth has the opposite effects.” -Ruy Texeira

"There was never any doubt that America in 2026 would commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Revolution. The surprise is that the Trump administration has chosen to do so by playing the role of Britain’s occupying army." -Harold Meyerson

“At a time of elite cowardice and little national leadership, the spontaneous actions of brave men and women in the Twin Cities have made a difference.” -William Kristol Now we need some bravery and leadership from the elites, starting with Senate Democrats.

Feels like Trump is pretty much unconditionally surrendering as support collapses

The President of the United States appears to have begun a journey toward deciding that federal thugs murdering innocent people does not make the great TV he assumed it would. I wish we did not live in a world in which this counts as encouraging news, but it does.

“ICE and…other components of DHS are neither military nor police...ICE agents [are] dressing like soldiers, maneuvering like assault teams,…engaging civilians as if they are hostile forces...this is not policing and it is not military service. It is something dangerously undefined.” - Mark Hertling

Two weeks ago this guy announced he was providing legal help to the agent who shot Renee Good. That's how quickly the winds are shifting.

“the way to honor Pretti…is to end the lawless occupation that took his life...to free his fellow citizens…from attacks by masked, trigger-happy government agents. It’s…to end the grotesque mass deportation campaign that has led to so much inhumanity, cruelty, and violence...” -William Kristol

“For the U.S., the big problem is the MAGA ideology, which refuses to respect the law or interface with reality on many fronts.” - Noah Smith

“In 1999, [at Davos] …President Clinton gave a speech about cooperation, competition, and consumerism. Now [Trump] …gave a speech about chaos and coercion and corruption. The tone and the vibe of 1999 was more optimistic. Now everyone’s sort of like, I hope it doesn’t get worse.” -Scott Galloway

Hey CNN, this far into the Trump admin, the fact that you lead with the blatantly false claims made by the administration is a *you* problem. If you refuse to do actual journalism, and only want to be a mouthpiece of the state, just say so and stop pretending to be journalists.

Reminder: All it would take to end the murder of American citizens by an untrained government goon squad is 16 Republicans in Congress voting with Dems to defund ICE (or 23 to impeach and remove Trump — 3 in House & 20 in Senate). That’s it. 23 Americans can vote for the public and end all of this.

The official policy of the government of the United States of America is that they will murder anyone they want, that they will tell any lie necessary to justify that murder, and that no one who resists them has any rights they are bound to respect. /1

Wise words from WEB DuBois to gird us today: "It would be shame and cowardice to surrender this glorious land and its opportunities for civilization and humanity to the thugs and lynchers, the mobs and profiteers, the monopolists & gamblers who today choke its soul and steal its resources."

“.. People take part in a rally on the day of a general strike to protest U.S. President Donald Trump's deployment of thousands of immigration enforcement officers on the streets of Minneapolis, Minnesota.” @reuters.com

Anti-ICE protesters fill the streets of downtown Minneapolis during an "ICE Out" rally on Jan. 23. 📷️ Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune Continuing coverage: bit.ly/3ZsrBxQ

Cannot see the end of it.

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🔵 This week's Tom the Dancing Bug - A BUSY, BUSY ICE ENFORCEMENT OPERATION with apologies to Richard Scarry - Brought to you by the rough and ready Inner Hive, including long-time member Brady Marsh and new member SquirrelSaver7. ( bit.ly/theInnerHive ) - READ IT RIGHT HERE👇

NEW: MN judges continue to reject arrest warrants in ICE protests. Sources tell @ms.now feds aren’t providing evidence that protestors are committing the crimes of which they’re accused. First byline with the great @carolleonnig.bsky.social and Alex Tabet. www.ms.now/news/minneso...

“I have been actively involved in protest movements for 24 years. I have never seen anything…this scale. Minneapolis is not accepting what's happening here. ICE…murdered a woman for participating in this, and all that did is bring out more people, from more walks of life.” -Margaret Killjoy

“Trials are designed to focus jurors on provable facts. In an election, it’s a lot easier to drown out facts by spewing propaganda. That’s why Trump lost his only criminal trial in 2024 but won the election.” -Will Saletan in The Bulwark

“Throughout their shambolic rampage through the Twin Cities, DHS has been both clownishly incompetent and eager to lie and spin to cover up their overreaches and mistakes. …It’s a Keystone Cops operation—but as Renee Good’s death attests, that hasn’t made it any less dangerous.” -Andrew Egger

“We are in the middle of at least four unravelings: The unraveling of the postwar international order. The unraveling of domestic tranquillity [by ICE]... The further unraveling of the democratic order, with…trumped-up prosecutions…Finally, the unraveling of President Trump’s mind.” -David Brooks

Wrote down some thoughts I had while staring at a Dodge Durango full of Border Patrol dudes. www.minnpost.com/cityscape/20...

Ff you want to do something to help occupied Minnesota, no matter where you live, here's a good place to start: www.standwithminnesota.com

"Trump’s manner [at Davos] suggested to the rest of the world...that they should be grateful he’s decided not to start a war of aggression against a harmless island, or to blow apart a 76-year-old NATO alliance, or to destabilize the international order." -Matt Labash

”For a decade, Americans have looked at the fantastic prosperity they enjoy and assumed that it was their natural right...That they could elect an aspiring authoritarian,…endorse the embrace of America’s enemies and betrayal of its allies—and there would be no consequences. -JV Last, The Bulwark