Author Archives: M

LA Times: Letters to the Editor: More needs to be done to keep ICE agents accountable to the law

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I read the article about Sen. Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) proposed legislation to ban Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other law enforcement officials from wearing masks (“Proposed bill would ban ICE agents, law enforcement from wearing masks in California,” June 16). While he’s at it, Wiener should also broaden his legislation to include significant penalties for officers who violate the law by failing to tell people why they are being arrested and by failing to provide them with copies of legal arrest warrants, signed by a judge. There are scores of videos on social media documenting these illegal practices by ICE agents and whoever accompanies them in these arrests. There should be serious penalties for law enforcement officers (and their contractors) who violate the law in California. No one is above the law, including ICE.

Letters to the Editor: More needs to be done to keep ICE agents accountable to the law
‘There should be serious penalties for law enforcement officers (and their contractors) who violate the law in California,’ writes an L.A. Times reader. ‘No one is above the law, including ICE.’

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/story/2025-06-19/more-needs-to-be-done-to-keep-ice-agents-accountable-to-the-law

Faux News: California police plead for help amid officer shortage as union boss warns of unprecedented riot ‘onslaught’

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Trump’s National Guard deployment protects federal property while local officers face injuries from violent demonstrators

As the protests against Los Angeles’ immigration raids spread, state law enforcement leaders are sounding the alarm on the dangers facing officers on the front lines of the riots.  

“I’ve been around a very long time, and I have seen similar to what we’re facing now,” Jake Johnson, president of the California Association of Highway Patrolmen (CAHP), told Fox News Digital. “But I’ve never seen the amount of onslaught.”

Thousands of protesters descended on Los Angeles in the last two weeks after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers began conducting raids throughout the sanctuary city. The violence included rioters hurling projectiles at law enforcement officers and lighting numerous self-driving electric vehicles on fire.

Get rid of the wannabe dictator — King Donald — and purge Washington of his sycophants, and things will get a lot better very quickly. One must address the real problems, not the symptoms.

California police plead for help amid officer shortage as union boss warns of unprecedented riot ‘onslaught’
California law enforcement faces unprecedented violence during Los Angeles immigration raids, with officers working long shifts amid hundreds of arrests and multiple injuries

https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-police-plead-help-amid-officer-shortage-union-boss-warns-unprecedented-riot-onslaught

Irish Star: Donald Trump sparks Juneteenth fears with furious four-word comment

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As the US celebrates Juneteenth, commemorating the end of slavery, Donald Trump said there are “too many non-working holidays.”

In a shocking post on Truth Social, Trump wrote on Thursday evening: “Too many non-working holidays in America. It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed. The workers don’t want it either! Soon we’ll end up having a holiday for every once working day of the year. It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Interestingly, Trump honored Juneteenth in each of his first four years as president, even before it became a federal holiday. He even claimed once to have made it “very famous.” The news comes amid a spike in dementia fears for the president, after a strange bulge was spotted in his pants.

Donald Trump sparks Juneteenth fears with furious four-word comment
After many noticed the dead silence coming from the Presidential office this Juneteenth, Trump finally made an acknowledgement – of ‘too many non-working holidays in America’

https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/donald-trump-sparks-juneteenth-fears-35423267

Guardian: Ice’s ‘inhumane’ arrest of well-known vineyard manager shakes Oregon wine industry

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Friends and family of Moises Sotelo ‘disappointed and disgusted’ after respected fixture detained outside church

In the early morning hours of 12 June, Moises Sotelo woke up to go to work in the rolling hills of Oregon’s Willamette Valley wine country, a place he has called home for decades.

But this morning was not business as usual. A car tailed Sotelo as soon as he left his driveway, according to an account from his co-worker. Trucks surrounded him just outside of St Michael’s Episcopal church, where he was detained by federal immigration agents. By the end of the day, Sotelo was in an Ice detention facility.

“He was in chains at his feet,” Alondra Sotelo-Garcia told a local news outlet about seeing her father arrested. “Shoelaces were taken off, his belt was off, he didn’t have his ring, he didn’t have his watch. Everything was taken from him.”

His detention has sent shockwaves through the tight-knit Oregon wine community. Sotelo is a fixture of local industry – in 2020 he was awarded with the Vineyard Excellence Award from the Oregon Wine Board and in 2024 he established his own small business maintaining vineyards.

Left in the lurch is Sotelo’s family, the church he attends, the employees of his small business, the vineyards he works with and friends made along the way. Requests to Ice from family or attorneys regarding next steps in Sotelo’s detention are hitting dead ends.

Ice’s ‘inhumane’ arrest of well-known vineyard manager shakes Oregon wine industry
Friends and family of Moises Sotelo ‘disappointed and disgusted’ after respected fixture detained outside church

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/19/oregon-vineyard-manager-arrest-ice

Style on Main: LA Fashion Industry Loses $7.23B In One Week Over ICE Raids

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On June 6, 2025, the LA Fashion District, a fabric of 4,000 businesses and over 15,000 workers, was left reeling from a sweeping ICE raid at Ambiance Apparel, taking some 40 workers into custody and sparking protests citywide. 

The response was quick and sharp: stores shuttered, pedestrian traffic froze, and an area teeming with activity just hours before turned into a ghost town. 

It was more than news of another bankruptcy; it was a trauma to Los Angeles’s social and economic core, exposing vulnerabilities that few had been willing to acknowledge. How deep does the damage run?

The LA fashion industry generates an estimated $72.3 billion annually, with the Fashion District accounting for about 20%, or about $14.5 billion annually. 

The news is families torn apart and neighborhoods living in fear, behind the news. While the workers who were

Notes: Sales plummeted by half in the weeks after the ICE raids, leading to a theoretical $7.23 billion loss in business, if we calculate the same loss rate weekly for an entire year.

LA Fashion Industry Loses $7.23B In One Week Over ICE Raids
Michael Jordan – Linkedin On June 6, 2025, the LA Fashion District, a fabric of 4,000 businesses and over 15,000 workers, was left reeling from a sweeping ICE raid at Ambiance Apparel, taking some 40
LA Fashion Industry Loses $7.23B In One Week Over ICE Raids

Daily Beast: Trump Lists Reasons He Deserves Nobel Prize in Epic Meltdown

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“The people know, and that’s all that matters to me!” the president claimed.

“I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for stopping the War between India and Pakistan, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for stopping the War between Serbia and Kosovo, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for keeping Peace between Egypt and Ethiopia (A massive Ethiopian built dam, stupidly financed by the United States of America, substantially reduces the water flowing into The Nile River),” Trump wrote on Friday. “And I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for doing the Abraham Accords in the Middle East which, if all goes well, will be loaded to the brim with additional Countries signing on, and will unify the Middle East for the first time in ‘The Ages!’”

He added, “No, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do, including Russia/Ukraine, and Israel/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be, but the people know, and that’s all that matters to me!

What the people know is that he is a deranged narcissistic who should be in a looney bin.

Trump Lists Reasons He Deserves Nobel Prize in Epic Meltdown
“The people know, and that’s all that matters to me!” the president claimed.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-lists-reasons-he-deserves-nobel-prize-in-epic-meltdown

Daily Beast: MAGA Madman Told ‘Prepper’ Wife to Flee During Killing Spree

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An unsealed FBI agent’s affidavit reveals what Vance Boelter texted his wife soon after allegedly committing a pair of brazen shootings.

Hours after allegedly killing a Minnesota state representative and her husband, Vance Boelter sent a text to his wife telling her to flee.

In a newly unsealed affidavit obtained by The New York Times, FBI agent Terry Getsch described the message the suspect sent to Jenny Boelter, 51.

“The text stated something to the effect of they should prepare for war, they needed to get out of the house, and people with guns may be showing up to the house,” he wrote.

Boelter, 57, and his wife were “preppers,” Getsch said. The term refers to people who prepare for a cataclysmic event they believe is imminent, often stockpiling food and equipment.

As it turned out, Boelter himself was the “cataclysmic event”! 😀

MAGA Madman Told ‘Prepper’ Wife to Flee During Killing Spree
An unsealed FBI agent’s affidavit reveals what Vance Boelter texted his wife soon after allegedly committing a pair of brazen shootings.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-madman-vance-boelter-told-prepper-wife-to-flee-during-killing-spree

Daily Beast: Trump Judge Gave Jew-Hating Neo-Nazi Coveted Academic Prize

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Prior to his suspension, Preston Damsky won an award for his paper arguing against voting rights for nonwhites.

The University of Florida has suspended one of its students over racist social media posts—but not before he won an award for a paper arguing the Constitution only protects non-whites.

The college placed Preston Damsky, a 29-year-old law student, on leave earlier after he posted a series of racist messages to his X account that included suggesting Jewish people should be “abolished by any means necessary,” The New York Times reports.

Before his suspension, Damsky had written a paper for one of his legal seminars in which he argued “We the People” in the Constitution should be understood as referring solely to white people, that voting rights ought to be revoked for non-whites, and that shoot-to-kill orders should be issued for “criminal infiltrators at the border.”

John L. Badalamenti, a sitting federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump, taught the class for which Damsky wrote that report. Badalamenti granted Damsky a “book award,” reserved for the seminar’s top student.

Trump Judge Gave Jew-Hating Neo-Nazi Coveted Academic Prize
Prior to his suspension, Preston Damsky won an award for his paper arguing against voting rights for nonwhites.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-judge-gave-jew-hating-neo-nazi-coveted-academic-prize

Robert Reich: The Dogs of War

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What’s really going on.

As a result, he’s probably getting decent advice about what’s good for Trump but not about what’s good for America or the world. It’s an inevitable consequence of purging from the government anyone more loyal to the United States than to him. Besides, Trump only listens to information he wants to hear.

1. Why is Trump taking us into war with Iran?

2. Is (or was) Iran building a nuclear weapon?

3. Is Trump getting good information and advice?

4. Will Iran now cave and agree to destroy its remaining stockpile of enriched uranium and allow inspectors to confirm that the stockpile is gone?

5. Have the bombings wiped out Iran’s capacity to enrich uranium to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons?

6. What’s the worst Iran can now do to the United States in retaliation?

7. Will the American public “rally ‘round the flag” and support Trump in this war

8. Will he send in American ground troops?

9. What’s Congress likely to do now?

10. Bonus question: Where does the phrase “dogs of war” come from?

The Dogs of War
What’s really going on

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-dogs-of-war

NBC News: A teen with no criminal background was deported by ICE, leaving his community aghast

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Emerson Colindres’ soccer coach says his case is an example of how those getting taken by ICE “are your friends and neighbors … and then one day they’re just gone.”

For 19-year-old Emerson Colindres, it was supposed to be a routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It turned out to be a trap. He never returned home.

Colindres, who came to the United States with his family more than a decade ago to escape the violence in their native Honduras, was detained by ICE on June 4, just days after the talented student and soccer player graduated high school in Cincinnati. Colindres, whose teammates said was one of the greatest players they met on the field, dreamed of continuing his sports career and hoped to attend a university. He did not have a criminal record, according to the Butler County Sheriff’s Office.

In the span of two weeks, Colindres went from celebrating his graduation to being detained by ICE to then being deported to a country where he has not lived since he was 8 years old.

So much for the American dream — f*ck*ng ICE *ssh*l*s!

A teen with no criminal background was deported by ICE, leaving his community aghast
Emerson Colindres’ soccer coach says his case is an example of how those getting taken by ICE “are your friends and neighbors … and then one day they’re just gone.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ice-deports-teen-soccer-star-graduation-rcna212566