✋ Former USG war crimes lawyer here. Apropos of SecDef's remarks this morning: Denial of quarter—even the declaration of no quarter—is a war crime. And recognized as such by the US Government. From DoD's Manual for Military Commissions.

A lot of campaigns close with the spouse to humanize the candidate a bit after the rough and tumble of the campaign. If you need to humanize before the campaign even starts, that's a bad sign. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv5e...

'UNIMAGINABLE CRUELTY': Judge Gary Brown, a Trump appointeee from NY, thrashes DHS' treatment of a man who came to the US at 9 as an abuse/neglect victim, has no criminal record and became a college grad. "The laws of decency condemn such villainy." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Please read this article to the end. Even before ICE got involved, this started because this *blind man who speaks no English and uses a curtain rod as a walking stick* got lost on a walk and some Karen called the police on him and they tasered and beat him bc he didn’t drop the rod. WTF

Literally the most sincerely insincere person you could possibly conjure.

Everyone, regardless of where you stand or what you believe in, is welcome — so come on out and join the United Free Republic of E Street Nation for an American spring of Rock 'n' Rebellion! I’ll see you there!

OSU Assistant Professor of Assault Luke Perez wrote an essay calling for people to "draw divine love into our hearts" and "love our neighbor as ourselves." providencemag.com/2021/01/brie...

I don’t really know what I expect in posting this, but maybe some people see it and can learn from it. I’ll call it “lessons from an unwilling immigration attorney.” 1/

He will be the next shoe to drop. Going to be amazing to compare his version of events told police to the tape!

One of Christopher Green's academic areas of expertise is, ahem, "protection from violence"

This is the aftermath of an ICE kidnapping a few blocks from my home in St. Paul—an hour ago. A quiet street full of broken glass and at least three wrecked cars. The target of the kidnapping was taken away by ambulance. He was on a stretcher and covered by a sheet, though a cop said he was alive.

Tomorrow on The Rooster: A visit to Ohio State’s Right-Wing Free Speech Centers ends with a vicious assault from an … assistant professor?!?!

Bodie could certainly explain the Constitutional ramifications of contrapment to Johnson.

Some shit. Yes, the Republic is burning and people of good will all suffer with that. But at least we have constitutional commentary in the patois of Bodie and Nicky Sobotka. Thanks for that.

If this is their line of defense, it runs straight through DeWine and Husted. Hard to see how they avoid taking the stand www.cleveland.com/court-justic...

Talking The 25th Amendment today on Cincinnati Edition. Join us at noon. www.wvxu.org/show/cincinn...

Reading an analyis of the prosecutor's office in Hamilton County under the leadership of Joe Deters, now a justice on the Ohio Supreme Court...it's not pretty

Interesting to consider that Governor DeWine signed House Bill 6 into law -- the corrupt production of which sent Speaker Householder to federal prison. Apparently that does not rank as his biggest regret.

FYI - There are currently 3 GOP bills in Ohio to force cities & counties to cooperate w/ICE - HB 26, HB 200 & SB 172. The latter two include requirements to hold some immigrants in jail for ICE...even after they are otherwise legally free to go.

My favorite line is "ICE is not the Gestapo." Anytime you find yourself having to assert that something you love is not the NAZI secret police, you might want to take a step back and consider where your life went wrong.

Seen in Los Angeles (Credit: Zurita Carpio)

This is 10th-grader Arnoldo Bazan. A citizen. Immigration agents grabbed him and put him in a chokehold. "We're from the United States bro!' he screamed. Agents took and sold his phone And when he finally got home hours later, his shirt was ripped, he neck had angry, red welts, and he sobbed.

O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe.

West Virginia passed a law to stop Becky Pepper-Jackson from playing a sport. The law has been applied to exactly one person. If the West Virginia legislature cranks out a new law every day to stop one person from doing one thing, it will take them about 5,000 years to get to everybody.

Howard Wilkinson asked for my thoughts on Ohio's Lt. Gov. candidates...“The pick suggests the possibility that, one way or the other, after the election Matt Huffman will continue to run Ohio.” www.wvxu.org/politics/202...

That sidewalk was agitating.

WSJ investigation: In the past 6 months ICE agents have fired at vehicles 13 times, leading to: * 8 people shot * 5 of which were U.S. citizens * 2 died * no victims drew a weapon The playbook: Agents box in a vehicle, block attempts to flee, then fire www.wsj.com/us-news/vide...

They’re back…..

The woman killed by ICE was Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year old who was the mother of a 4-year old child whose father already died a few years ago. The Star Tribune talked to her mother. www.startribune.com/she-was-an-a...

From The Federalist Papers, there's rhetoric about the improbability of any single faction taking the reins across 3 branches of the federal govt, and across state and federal. But the improbable becomes pretty dang probable if there are only two actors vying for control.

"Things do not happen. Things are made to happen" - JFK

On the other hand, if Ohio Republicans got out of the 'solution to a non-existent problem' business, there would be nothing left of their legislative agenda.

LBJ remarks when signing law naming the Kennedy Center: "President Kennedy was...a man of a very inquiring mind, a distinguished historian, a master of language, and a lover of excellence wherever it appeared." www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/re...

I highly recommend watching this segment, not just because the CBS News execs and the White House didn’t want you to, but because these men were tortured and they deserved to have their voices heard.

The body cam footage from Beker’s arrest has been released. “Hey, this is Officer Hingiss with the Whitefish Police Department. Just out with a male that only speaks Spanish, wondering if you want to check him?” flatheadbeacon.com/2025/12/19/c...

"We take great pride in seeing our student-athletes achieve their goals both in competition and in the classroom." With a 98 percent graduation success rate, Colgate student-athletes are ranked among the nation's best, according to the NCAA's latest report. bit.ly/44cj9Wv

They're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.

I'm not exaggerating when I say following @boltsmag.org rn will unlock money for our journalism. A generous reader, @russ41.bsky.social, has offered to donate $1 for every 1-person increase to our follower count. If you're not following @boltsmag.org yet, it'll directly help fund our reporting!

Here's something joyous to do today. Some online toy drive shopping for Legos or whatnot, or you can just make a donation.

Concluding the semester in Ohio Politics with the state's official forecast of Ohio's population in the coming decades. First sentence reads right out of a dystopian novel.

A 6-year-old boy is missing after ICE arrested him and his dad in NYC last week and shipped them off to separate facilities. www.thecity.nyc/2025/12/02/i... @thecity.nyc @gwynnefitz.bsky.social

No matter where you're from, Happy Thanksgiving from all of us on E Street to everyone who calls this land home!

Words of JFK: "If more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place in which to live."

Why are we punishing voters for the speed of the mail delivery system? SB 293 has passed the Ohio House and Ohio Senate, and is on its way to be signed by Gov. Mike DeWine. 🚨Take action NOW: https://action.aclu.org/send-message/stop-sb-293-protect-ohio-voters-0

NEW: Using his clemency power, Trump has undone prosecutions made by his own DOJ during his first term. Experts say the actions show a broad contempt for the justice system: “He’s rejecting ... the work of people he appointed but didn’t fully control.” By @jeremykohler.bsky.social

My thanks to @kentsmith.bsky.social for visiting my Ohio Politics class today for a discussion of energy policy, corruption, and all things Ohio.

A majority of the days the government has ever been shut down, Donald Trump was president. www.howtoreadthisch.art/red-versus-b...

Senate Bill 293 would require absentee ballots to arrive by Election Day, eliminating the current window that allowed nearly 9,500 late-arriving votes to count in 2024.

Pretty good artistic representation of the state of the Republican Party in New Jersey today