Y D

[Senator Mark Kelly @SenMarkKelly]

Takeaways from Hegseth’s press conference this morning:

1. There is no strategic goal. He said this isn’t about “regime change” despite the President saying otherwise, repeatedly. That means they can't explain how all of this makes Americans safer in the end.

2. He said “this will end on the President’s choosing,” and provided no real timeline. That reinforces that there is no plan and no strategic goal, just a 79 year old man who spends too much time in a ballroom in Florida deciding when to stop this.

3. Hegseth suggested the Commander-in-Chief is setting the operational tempo — which is really high right now, putting a lot of stress on our troops and systems. Donald Trump, despite what he may believe, doesn’t have the capacity to make these types of operational decisions that have real consequences for commanders and servicemembers.

4. And finally, going into a conflict of this scale with no strategy and a wishy-washy end state often leads to a less than optimal outcome, starting with the potential for continued escalation and a long, bloody conflict. Americans want leaders who focus on improving their lives, not starting more wars. It’s clear to me and everyone else who is paying attention that this President needs to be reined in, but that’s not going to come from this Secretary of Defense, who has tough sounding talking points but little else to offer the American people or our servicemembers.

[𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖_𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 @SundaeDivine]

@WhiteHouse EPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEINEPSTEIN

[Jim Acosta @Acosta]

BREAKING: The Epstein survivors are releasing this ad on this Super Bowl Sunday to send the message that they will not “move on” from the largest sex trafficking scandal in the world. #standwithsurvivors

[Marc Polymeropoulos @Mpolymer]

He’s right. And before a bunch of hillbillies on this site get all huffy that other countries are criticizing us, just understand that we in the USG would issue exactly this type of protest/demarche if we saw it overseas. It is what we did from our embassies all the time, even towards our allies. All. The. Time. So we deserve all of this shit coming our way. If that shocks anyone, well, this is America in 2026. Democracy and who you vote for matter. If you don’t like getting criticized by the rest of the world’s democracies, don’t elect a president who has dragged us into the gutter. Until then, we are going to take this incoming from our (perhaps soon to be former) allies, much of it justified.

[Martina Navratilova @Martina]

@marcthiessen 1- nobody knew he had a gun
2- he never brandished the gun
3- he was killed after they took his gun.
Also- how do you spell Kyle Rittenhouse???

[Niko @NikoLeMieux]

Yesterday as I was walking through Minneapolis with a friend I saw this Lexus parked terribly and commented to him: “get a load of this asshole’s terrible parking.” By complete serendipity, as if the universe itself was saying "be kinder with your spoken thoughts," right at that moment I heard a voice say “hey that’s my car, ICE grabbed me, I’m so sorry!” come from the passenger of a Jeep slowly passing by; the Jeep driver said she was the sister of the Lexus’ owner and that the two of them had just come back from picking her up from Federal detention. I went to go talk to the Lexus’ driver, but first I read the note on the windshield:

“THIS WOMAN WAS TAKEN BY ICE. Please don’t hit or tow.” Neighbors put that there, and put a tarp over the window that ICE broke open so snow wouldn’t get in.

The Lexus driver, a short, brown haired white woman told me she lived in the area and was driving through looking for parking, when armed ICE agents speedily blocked off the street in front of her, and swarmed the white pickup truck in front of her grabbing its driver. She said people came from throughout the neighborhood with whistles to record them grabbing that driver, and as she was trying to leave, ICE agents swarmed her vehicle as well and proceeded to open her window and door and remove her from her car, slamming her facedown in the street. She said a Federal agent entered her vehicle and parked it like this, before taking her away. I don’t know the story of the pickup driver.

I'll be honest, I didn't really believe what I was hearing at first until she showed me the video that a neighbor filmed, confirming the whole story. I asked her to airdrop it to me so I could make this post.

This woman was just driving and minding her business one moment, and the next she was snatched, she told me that they said she was "obstructing an investigation." After 24 hours in Federal custody, they released her with only the white shirt she was wearing when I met her, into the -8F cold where her sister was waiting, and they didn't give her back her car keys. She came to make sure her vehicle was still there.

There's a lot of people on this platform making all sorts of excuses for the Federal government's despicable behavior in Minneapolis, but what it comes down to is this: they are out of control. They are Out. Of. Control.

This woman's story that I saw firsthand is emblematic of the institutional rot at the core of DHS, CBP, and ICE. The agents involved in both shootings this month were 8- and 10-year veterans, not untrained amateurs. There have been three homicides in Minneapolis thus far in 2026- 66% of them have been US citizens murdered by the Federal government. My city is being subjected to a full-fledged occupation by lawless, unprofessional, un-American thugs. They have gone far beyond their stated mission of removing violent criminals and illegal aliens. They have all of us looking at every SUV, every vehicle with out-of-state plates, every vehicle with more than 2 men in it with caution, scrutiny, and concern. Many of my friends have bought guns or have gone to get their conceal carry permits, to stay safe from their own government because it's better to be judged by twelve than to be carried by six.

Minneapolis will survive this and will come out stronger for it, because we learned in 2020 that there's no one coming to save us, it's up to us to show up for our friends and neighbors. But people need to know that if the Federal government are doing this to us: You're not safe. You're next.

[Joshua Reed Eakle 🗽 @JoshEakle]

I was activated by the Tea Party.

Nearly everyone I respected spoke passionately about the Constitution, the rule of law, and the ideals of limited government.

I believed them. I thought they meant it. I internalized those principles and made them my own.

Today, almost all of those same people have proven themselves traitors to those ideas, having replaced them entirely with total loyalty and sycophancy for one man.

I won’t be that naïve again.

Vote Democrat.

[Y D @arrrrstar]

@SarahSevans2000 17.
Maybe I should figure out how to stay put somewhere?
.
.
.
Nah!

[Marc Polymeropoulos @Mpolymer]

To all those in the media calling on Trump to ditch his awful advisors – such as Miller, Noem, Bovino, etc, the architects of this heinous brutality program – doesn’t everyone realize that this is exactly who Trump is? He has not been given “bad advice by the incompetent crazies” – this is exactly what he wanted. It’s almost excusing him by saying he’s been somehow misled. Give me a break. He’s backtracking because the polls are down and some in his party are panicking that this is so jacked up they will get absolutely creamed in the mid terms. But make no mistake, he loves this shit. The normalization of Trump by the media is never ending….

[Elizabeth Warren @SenWarren]

Donald Trump and Kristi Noem think you will believe them over your own eyes. No.

Alex Pretti wasn't a terrorist. He was a VA nurse.

When agents pushed a woman to the ground, he tried to help her up. His last words were “Are you okay?”

Enough.

Kristi Noem should resign.

[Alec MacGillis @AlecMacGillis]

This is quite an exchange with @DavidAFrench about whether we are witnessing the emergence of a "dual state."

[Y D @arrrrstar]

@SundaeDivine @capitalweather On a positive note, that’s a great display of acrobatic balance

[TheFrenchie @ML3democrats]

None of these things would be happening under her. Not a single one. America, you made your biggest mistake in 2024.

[Timothy Snyder @TimothyDSnyder]

If it is fascism now it was fascism then but if you were wrong no need to pause to make a special effort to admit your error – we don't have that much time now, please act right away, get organized, and then tell your followers what you are doing to stop fascism and what they too can do.

[Steven Beschloss @StevenBeschloss]

It’s hard to believe one lawless man—enabled by an entire party—can cause so much stress and fear, so much pain and suffering…a man who took an oath to protect our Constitution. This man, who is inciting terror across our land, should be removed from office. In a sane world, it would happen now.

[Elizabeth Warren @ewarren]

Funding for DHS—including ICE—should be stripped out from the Senate funding package and debated as a separate, standalone bill.

The days of ICE getting billions of dollars and spending it terrorizing American communities must end.

[Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski]

Stephen Miller called the victim, an ICU nurse at the VA filming ICE, a “domestic terrorist who tried to assassinate federal law enforcement.” Greg Bovino said he “wanted to massacre law enforcement.” You saw the videos. How can any Republican not call for their resignations?

[Y D @arrrrstar]

@MarkWarner Good for you Senator!! Congress must put a stop to this devolution into a police state

[Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta @malcolmkenyatta]

Any “deal” that ends with Dems just getting a pinky promise in return is a mistake.

The American people are suffering because Republicans refuse to stop healthcare costs from skyrocketing. An agreement that doesn’t fix that reality falls massively short.

[Y D @arrrrstar]

@designmom Wonderful and excellent post, Ms. Blair. Sadly, you are 100% correct!!!