Sometimes moving forward requires reckoning with uncomfortable realities. My latest. open.substack.com/pub/davidrot...

Sort of gives away the lie that they're arresting hardened criminals who are drags on society when they're setting up traps to lure in Good Samaritans

Part 2

CCTV footage appears to show DHS agents posing as people having car trouble in order to lure a target out of his house before arresting them. The target comes out and starts helping them before 3 vehicles surround the scene. The car "experiencing" trouble then drives off with them.

This is your regular reminder that the idea that Christianity is a thing uniform beliefs that everyone within “Western Civilization” believed and agreed on is a fiction that just ignores centuries of Christians killing each other and fighting literal wars over their different beliefs.

Trump’s Director of Election Security Is an Election Denier www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/u...

Utterly unacceptable in a democracy. In a sane world, House Republicans would be drafting impeachment articles today and Senate Republicans would be preparing for a trial to convict and remove him from office

Courts have ruled 4,400 times that ICE jailed people illegally. It hasn’t stopped. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

"officers abruptly used physical or chemical force. DHS seemed to apply these tactics with little discretion, whether protests were peaceful or violent, large or small."

Because it’s not really about trying to get troops to vote Republican-that would be bad enough. It’s about conditioning the military to obey a man and not their oath to the Constitution. It’s why Hegseth & Trump were so adamant about prosecuting the 6 Dems who spoke up about it.

I realize media doesn’t think it’s a big deal that Trump, Vance & Hegseth continue to give partisan political speeches to troops, evidenced by the fact that they are never asked about it nor are members of Congress, but it is one of the most dangerous things happening right now.

Glad this is getting covered, but also… Completely surreal to read the NYT report on this as recently disclosed info, and just an allegation. This happened to every observer I know! It happened to me twice! I have it on video both times! www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/u...

“it’s election subversion, not cancellation, that is the real authoritarian move. The goal is to keep elections going but without unseating those in power.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/o...

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: "For example: targeting Somalis...We’re saying, 'We’re going to single out an ethnic group for different treatment in immigration court.' That’s the level of bureaucratic attacks on due process for the mass deportation campaign." youtube.com/shorts/Ox-id...

🚨ICE just got access to one of its biggest private detention center operators last night, thanks to a Navy contract. The move lets ICE bypass normal contracting processes to tap GEO Group to operate its detention centers as they race to buy detention sites to house 92,000 detainees nationwide.

Quite the chart

A Trump ally who helped spread lies about the 2020 election in hopes of overturning the verdict of the voters is now Trump's "director of election security and integrity." @shawnmccreesh.bsky.social @alexandraberzon.bsky.social @nytnickc.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/u...

Yesterday morning kids were sent running from their bus stop in panic because ICE showed up. This guy at today’s ICE Out of Lindenwold protest is a must watch 😭. @maddow.bsky.social

Republican state attorneys general pressured the agency that advises the U.S. Supreme Court and federal judges on scientific and technical matters to withdraw all of its content on climate change from an authoritative reference manual. By @abrahm.bsky.social

White House stands by State Department nominee who complains that "white Americans are increasingly second-class citizens," warns of "white erasure" and says "the Jews love to see themselves as oppressed." @camcgrady.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/u...

Jeffries: "The Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures has been part of our fabric since the very beginning of our constitutional republic. It's incredible to us that Republicans have decided to draw a hard line in the sand. Judicial warrants should be required."

Jeffries: "Republicans have clearly come to the conclusion they cannot win fair elections, so they've adopted voter suppression as a strategy. Which is one of the reasons we're making sure there's a clear separation between DHS & ability for state officials to ensure there are free & fair elections"

Democracy is when voters choose their leaders. Autocracy is when leaders choose their voters.

Kristi Noem: "When it gets to Election Day, we've been proactive to make sure we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country."

“I have a challenge to all the patriots out there who fly “Don’t Tread on Me” flags and talk about upholding the Constitution. This is your moment. You’ve spent your entire lives talking about resisting tyranny. Now it is happening right before your eyes.” thehill.com/opinion/civi...

The Trump administration spent more than $40 million last year to send hundreds of migrants to at least two-dozen countries they weren’t from, a tactic Senate Democrats described as a costly strategy aimed at sowing fear and intimidation. https://wapo.st/4rhbvDJ

NEW: We’re publishing a full list of the 373 federal judges who have ruled against ICE’s mass detention policy and the 28 who have endorsed it — as well as links to key rulings by each. Trump appointees have split 44 against/ 20 for the policy. www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

Not to worry, friends, it’s only many of the best universities in the country.

Does Ro Khanna not have staff that can research this stuff for him? Because this sloppiness undermines everything.

The more we learn about the attack on Marimar Martinez, the worse it gets: Greg Bovino actually THANKED the agent who shot a U.S. citizen five times. This agency is rotten from top to bottom and should absolutely be held accountable.

The Education Department abruptly canceled a federal program that helped underserved students, affecting programs in 11 states and D.C., because the grantees had mentioned DEI in their applications.

AOC: "I think we have to recognize that we are in a new day and in a new time. But that does not mean that the majority of Americans are ready to walk away from a rules-based order, and that we're ready to walk away from our commitment to democracy."

Former Institute of Museum and Library Services leaders from both political parties expressed concern that the agency’s new grant guidelines could fund projects that encourage a more constrained or distorted view of American history.

NEW: A federal tool meant to find noncitizens on voter rolls is consistently marking citizens as noncitizens, especially if they were born outside the U.S., causing chaos as election clerks try not to disenfranchise voters, @zachdespart.bsky.social and I found. 🧵 www.propublica.org/article/save...

I’m just going to leave this here

Here’s a gift link that explains more: www.wsj.com/politics/nat...

Sanders: The American people do not want this country to be an authoritarian society or an oligarchy. We have our differences, that’s what democracy is about—we argue it out. We don’t throw people who disagree in jail. We don’t intimidate the media. We don’t send ICE agents to shoot people.

The corruption of this administration is beyond understanding. Would not want to be on the side supporting them.

Top federal prosecutor in Minnesota gets judge to dismiss charges against two protesters, one of whom was shot by a federal immigration officer, after video revealed that officers gave false accounts of what happened. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/u...

Sanders: The other day, Trump said, “We are living in the best economy in the history of the world.” Well, he’s right — for him and his billionaire friends, he’s exactly right. But not for ordinary Americans.

He. Just. Lies.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: “I was literally begging the agent who was holding me back to let me do CPR,” she told The Intercept.

"Focusing on the harmlessness of the target obscures the deeper issue: Why was this weapon employed without the discipline that governs every legitimate use of force in the military?" @markhertling.bsky.social on the El Paso balloon incident: lnk.thebulwark.com/4659MsH

Donald Trump is a wholly owned subsidiary of Big Oil and Big Coal. He's literally stopping coal plants from shutting down after receiving nearly half a billion dollars from the industry during the 2024 campaign.

DHS is shutting down because it refuses to obey the law. They are tear-gassing schools, killing American citizens, and disappearing legal immigrants. Democrats shouldn’t fund an out of control ICE.

You can't... repeal... a scientific finding. At that point it's just called lying about it.

AOC: "Extreme level of wealth inequality leads to social instability and drives authoritarianism, right-wing populism, and really dangerous domestic internal politics. That is a direct outcome of the failure of democracies over decades to deliver."

This is the white nationalist and pusher of antisemitism that the Trump administration is trying to get confirmed right now in the Senate. Shameful sick stuff:

1/ SCOOP: The process that led to the FBI’s seizure of 2020 election materials from GA has been going on longer than previously known – with meetings among top Trump administration lawyers about election integrity dating back to at least last fall. www.propublica.org/article/thom...