Steve Raft

Habeas cases filed by immigrants claiming their detention is illegal have taken off to levels we have never seen before. Just look at that chart. www.propublica.org/article/habe...

We’re keeping tabs this rise and will be updating a tracker regularly with new case data: projects.propublica.org/habeas-track...

NEW: Huge cheers earlier for the Ukrainian athletes at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony. Then huge BOOS as JD Vance comes on the big screen in the stadium. Even the commentators can’t hide it…

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest allows the public to vote for their favorite images from this year’s competition. See some of the entries:

Stupidity trumps criminality, at least in this case. Good riddance to this creep

NEW: This isn't about "training." The two agents who murdered Alex Pretti - Jesus Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez - have been with Border Patrol for 8 and 12 years respectively. You can't reform CBP. Abolish ICE/CBP. www.propublica.org/article/alex...

Democrats notched another victory in special elections, flipping a seat in the Texas state Senate that President Trump won by 17 points in 2024. Taylor Rehmet will defeat Trump-backed Leigh Wambsganss in a runoff for the Fort Worth-area 9th District, CNN projects: https://cnn.it/4apv06V

US Senate passes bill to fund government amid battle over ICE tactics ft.trib.al/M658mkd

🚨TONIGHT’S PROTEST IN MINNEAPOLIS IS INSANE: CNN is STUNNED. Share this widely! “I've covered many protests… I've not seen a crowd like this before.” It’s 8 degrees. “It is freezing, but nothing, nothing is stopping these people.” This isn’t a rally. It’s a movement. @calltoactivism.bsky.social

OK, so Musk was planning to go to Epstein's island, but it's not like he went there with the intent to go to a wild party or something, it was probably just some business. Excuse me, an email just came in. *Reads:* "What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?"

Champagne wishes, caviar dreams, statutory rape, and murder, it seems.

Gift link so everybody can understand the scale at which they're about to build concentration camps www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Don't forget that us black folk are the ORIGINAL victims! Yall are just covering our style just like Eric Clapton did with the blues.

Our community overwhelmingly said they would avoid travelling to the US under the current administration, citing safety, privacy, and political concerns

Where we are: 1. With the action in GA, the FBI has been mobilized as part of the plan to steal the 2028 election. And the DNI being on the scene is beyond ominous. 2. After bring chaos and illegality and killings to MN, the ICE assault on that city and others will continue with minimal changes.

More than a million fewer people have signed up for Affordable Care Act coverage for 2026, according to federal data released Wednesday. The drop comes after the expiration of the enhanced federal premium subsidies caused monthly payments to skyrocket for many enrollees. https://cnn.it/3LQUwst

oops

So my connect the dots here is that there will be some allegation that there was foreign interference in the voting — Hugo Chavez, Italian satellites, etc. — (hence why DNI is involved), making it a nat sec issue that they will use to justify doing something crazy/illegal in Nov

Things that make you go “hmmm.”

Science is an iterative process; it modifies conclusions through hypothesis testing in order to more closely model reality. MAGA is a cult. See how they might not get along well?

Bovino is just the patsy - a noxious and odious fall guy. Stephen Miller is the architect and prime mover of the whole thing. Everything they do is at his direction - often after his threats. As long as he runs policy in the WH, nothing will change no matter how many Bovinos come and go.

I interviewed over half a dozen ICE and Border Patrol agents who describe an agency that sounds like Reno 911! “I thought federal agents were supposed to be clean cut but some of them pass around a flask as we are watching a suspect,” one told me: www.kenklippenstein.com/p/ice-unloads

Easy to be cynical but this seems like it’s heading in the right direction

The technical failure coincided with TikTok’s ownership transition, leading users to question whether videos criticizing ICE raids in Minnesota were being intentionally censored. www.wired.com/story/tiktok...

Precision vs. Accuracy. Sometimes you have to actually do the experiment/investigation.

An A-Hole has led America into an epistemological K-Hole

There was no protest. Armed, masked federal agents were just harassing people as usual. He was not a protester and not protesting. They killed him anyway. bsky.app/profile/atru...

Seen in Los Angeles (Credit: Zurita Carpio)

Claremonters, Paleos, and Accelerationists, oh my! Laura K. Field’s deep dive, to keep your friends close and your adversaries closer

Beautiful, despite it all

This morning, I recorded a video on TikTok about why DHS’s arguments for the power to enter homes without judicial warrants in immigration cases are bunk. Nine hours later, TikTok still says my video is “under review,” and can’t be shared. Well, here’s a link: georgetown.box.com/v/Vladeck-IC...

National Park Service workers across the U.S. are removing materials about slavery, climate change and labor history to comply with an order from President Trump. In some of the first legal pushback, the city of Philadelphia sued the Trump administration on Thursday. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/23/c...

If what they do in public is obscene, imagine what’s up behind closed doors

well, well, well. mmm, mmm, mmm. Second degree murder? Or, did they go out that morning with the intention to take down a citizen. You know, to blunt the effects of the previous days’ massive protests. You can’t underestimate the immorality of this administration

The Washington Post published a clear video of federal agents removing Alex Pretti's handgun moments before he was fatally shot. There's nothing in the video to suggest Pretti even reached for his weapon. wapo.st/49Zqv1L

The killing of Alex Pretti is a heartbreaking tragedy. It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.

Really feels like a tipping point now, with lots of the familiar centrist Dems and even MAGA Silicon Valley types calling out Trump (and Stephen Miller) for harsh immigration policy. Dem leadership has moved to no funding for DHS, and R senators are calling for investigations (weak but notable).

MAHA - Moderating Americans’ Health-status, Always

I always say send an armed militia to investigate white collar crimes while simultaneously firing the actual white collar crimes prosecutors

This lawless administration is now operating under the “what are you gonna do about it” doctrine. A John Roberts creation.

“Ice has become Trump’s private militia. It must be abolished” Re-upping this piece of mine from last year, when things weren’t even half as bad as they are now.

open.substack.com/pub/harrylit...

The nurses are pissed

The director of the FBI just reiterated the Trump uber-message: We can kill you. Alex Pretti was not attacking the agents. If he was resisting as he was being assaulted by them, under no law enforcement protocol is that alone cause for a summary execution. This is police-state tactics.

Journalists need to ask, “What made Pettri a ‘suspect’?” He was ‘seized’ under the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, which requires *probable cause that he was committing a crime* MAKE THEM ARTICULATE THE BASIS FOR THE SEIZURE