The US immigrant population generated more in taxes than they received in benefits from all levels of government every year from 1994 to 2023. The Cato study provides the first-ever 30-year analysis of the fiscal effects of immigration on government budgets. https://ow.ly/jy8a50Y8kM3

KAITLAN COLLINS: What would say to Epstein survivo--- TRUMP: You are so bad. You are the worst report. No wonder CNN has no ratings. She's a young woman. I don't think I've ever seen you smile. They should be ashamed of you.

New Yorker’s Dexter Filkins says Rubio is capable of “a Boy Scouts earnest charm”. (?!?!) Was any of that charm on display today at his hearing?🤔

more from George PAcker at @theatlantic.com :"The federal government has never declared itself immune to the law and the Constitution while explicitly denying protection to peaceful opponents, until now."

From George Packer at the @theatlantic.com "Authoritarianism doesn’t disappear with the news cycle. The administration’s automatic lies about the killings and slander of the victims are less a cover-up of facts than a display of utter contempt for them. "

The biggest risk in this moment is something sociologists call “symbolic compliance.” That’s when an institution that is violating civil rights gives the public just enough symbolic victories that accountability efforts lose steam before there has been any meaningful change.

important read www.thebulwark.com/p/honor-pret...

Vance on Jan. 8: "You have a federal law enforcement official engaging in federal law enforcement action. That's a federal issue. That guy's protected by absolute immunity." Vance today: "I didn't say that officers who engaged in wrongdoing would enjoy immunity. That's absurd."

BREAKING: Immigration officers are asserting sweeping power to enter homes without a judge’s warrant, a memo obtained by AP says.

damn -- CNN put together a video of Kristi Noem claiming ICE officers are "highly trained and skilled" and "gifted" alongside to a clip of them beating someone nearly to death in Minneapolis

Thanks @hereandnow.bsky.social for the Googoosh interview-she's always been one of my favorite singers.

good read apnews.com/article/delc...

Time to stop wondering/analyzing about how Trump’s actions square with his America First talk. Here’s what he told the Atlantic last year: “America First” is whatever he says it is: “Considering that the term wasn’t used until I came along, I think I’m the one that decides that.”

POTUS to the Atlantic: “We do need Greenland, absolutely,” he said, describing the island—a part of Denmark, a NATO ally—as “surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships.”

We cannot become numb to the outrage of this. The wife of the President’s Senior Advisor threatens a sovereign nation.

🟡 NEW: The New York Times and Washington Post learned of a secret US raid on Venezuela soon before it was scheduled to begin Friday night — but held off publishing what they knew to avoid endangering US troops. www.semafor.com/article/01/0...

People are arguing with @radiofreetom.bsky.social , it must be the weekend.😆

This is your Senate Majority leader, Indiana.🤨

2019: President Trump said in a statement Saturday that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has been defeated. Today: …after two U.S. service members and one American civilian were killed in an attack in Syria that the United States blames on the Islamic State group.

The White House is promising to announce a new healthcare plan "very soon." We've heard that one before...

From Heather Cox Richardson today: “The Trump administration is replacing American democracy with a kleptocracy, a system of corruption in which a network of ruling elites use the institutions of government to steal public assets for their own private gain.”

Why did it take several days for Trump’s “Quiet, Piggy” insult of a female reporter to gain traction in news coverage? Because it happened on a Friday night, when many journalists had started their weekend. And because, sadly, he's trained the media to think accepting his insults is part of the job.

NEW: Epstein survivors release the most powerful PSA I have ever seen. Make this go viral so every member of the House of Representatives sees it.

From @monacharen.bsky.social today: A president who pulled every lever, jiggled every handle, and applied every kind of pressure he could think of, up to and including inciting a riot, to prevent his successor from taking office deserves no benefit of the doubt about what he might attempt in 2026.

Hope y'all have started to cut back on your caloric intake. Remember we're expected to lose about 395lbs. each by the midterms.

The #Trump team carries out its #deportation blitz in Democratic-led #Illinois in the name of fighting crime. But Republican-led states have higher murder and violent crime rates—and faster-growing populations of unauthorized #immigrants. @wbez.org @chicago.suntimes.com www.wbez.org/immigration/...

This is horrible. #Thugs

ICE guy Bovino during a CBS News interview: "Inner city residents absolutely love the fact that we are in their neighborhoods arresting illegal aliens, because those are the people that don't have a voice. We've got their back."

GOP Representative Clay Higgins—who, like most congressmen, receives up to $79 per day in meal comps—thinks SNAP recipients should shut up, stop complaining, and stop smoking crack. trib.al/KyL2VOE

America right now needs its Fela Kuti

The Trump administration is adamant that people not take or share photos of the White House destruction, so please keep this photo amongst us. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

During a shutdown workers are furloughed not fired. GOP owns this- it's what the administration (Vought) wanted. So as they begin to blame democrats remember the facts: workers DID NOT have to be fired-it's what the administration wanted.

This is terrifying! ICE breaks into this woman’s car in the pick-up line at West Loop Elementary school in Chicago and detains her before she can pick her kids up from school. (They were eventually let go after showing their documents) This is Trump’s America.

The Chicago Marathon is this weekend- it attracts runners from around the world. Will ICE be a disruptor? Are out of the country runners nervous and concerned for their safety?

Here’s the CBS News report about ICE making bogus 911 calls and filing false police reports in Chicago. ht: @mikenellis.bsky.social

ICE unleashed tear gas on the street in Chicago’s Logan Square today and I tried to find meaning among the fog and my own anger about, well, everything. dansinker.com/posts/202…

ICE agent aint got no humanity

Trump: "The ones that are run by radical left Democrats -- what they've done to San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles. They're very unsafe places & we're gonna straighten them out one by one. This is gonna be a major part for some people in this room. That's a war too. It's war from within"

his monologue (press conference) reminds me of a teacher who would tell us it doesn't matter how many words you write if in the end you're not saying much.

“Citizens will be on their best behavior, because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that is going on,” Ellison said in an hour-long Q&A during Oracle’s Financial Analyst Meeting last week. wtf.

@timothysnyder.bsky.social is an American historian of Europe and a public intellectual on both continents. snyder.substack.com/p/trumps-ter...

The latest news re: Kimmel as reported by Variety :” the company (Sinclair) is demanding that Kimmel apologize to Kirk’s family and send “a meaningful personal donation” to them as well as Turning Point USA…”

Congrats to my bud and former colleague @claymasters.bsky.social on becoming the new @mprnews.org ATC host. Way to go Claymation!

From Pew 0814- 59% of Americans say they are not confident that Trump can make wise decisions about the Russia-Ukraine war.

A good read radleybalko.substack.com/p/breaking-d...

Out of the blue, Trump called the Norwegian finance minister to ask when he would get the Nobel prize suggesting he would impose tariffs if he did not www.dn.no/politikk/fre...

Trump on undocumented farm workers: "People that live in the inner city are not doing that work. They've tried, we've tried, everybody tried. They don't do it. These people do it naturally. Naturally ... they don't get a bad back, because if they get a bad back, they die."

Ghislane Maxwell IS NOT a victim.

from the @thebulwark.com today "The very idea that Trump’s former personal lawyers would play a role, much less a potentially decisive role, in determining whether he was complicit in any of Epstein’s misdeeds is an insult to our criminal justice system."

RIP