Is Ice Trump’s Gestapo?

“Renee sparkled. She literally sparkled. I mean, she didn’t wear glitter but I swear she had sparkles coming out of her pores. All the time. You might think it was just my love talking but her family said the same thing. Renee was made of sunshine.”

The words are those of Renee Good’s wife Becca. They cut to our heart – our humanity. She was shot in the face by an ICE agent, who then muttered: “Fuckin’ bitch.” The murder of this 37-year-old mom as she tried to drive around the ICE guys who stopped her is national news, of course. Almost everyone has seen at least one of the many videos of the incident and, you might say, the national dialogue about virtually anything else has been put on hold.

Free Press is committed to documenting the people taken by ICE

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested, detained, deported, and/or imprisoned many people that it has unilaterally determined to be undesirables.  At first, they claimed they would deport only criminals, but it has already gone beyond that.  We at the Free Press consider every person who has been sent to the Tecoluca (El Salvador prison), Guantanamo naval base, or detained in other prisons throughout the country to be innocent until proven guilty. We will include students who have been expelled for protesting genocide.  It appears the government will revoke Visa's to get rid of undesirable students.  This article will be updated as long as is necessary.

Familiar tale gracefully blends feminism and fantasy

Feminism has a crucial role to play in modern life, but I sometimes wish it would leave our fairy tales alone. The results of its revisionist meddling are too often unconvincing and unsatisfying.

Remember last year’s Maleficent? It turned an age-old story on its head by revealing that the fairy (Angelina Jolie) who turned a princess into a “Sleeping Beauty” was not evil at all. No, she was merely wronged and misunderstood. Worst of all, we learned that the somnambulant princess could not be awakened by a kiss from the handsome prince, but only by a motherly peck from that same fairy.

How heartwarming. And how utterly unromantic.

Thank goodness Disney’s new live-action version of Cinderella doesn’t wear its feminism on its sleeve. It has nods to modern sensibilities, to be sure, but they’re handled with a lighter touch.

You Can’t Bomb Your Way to Democracy

Calls for U.S. military intervention to bring democracy to Iran rest on a dangerous illusion: that democracy is something foreign powers can install from the outside. History suggests the opposite. When democracy is imposed through force, it rarely produces freedom—and often strengthens authoritarianism.

Democracy is not just a set of institutions like elections or constitutions. At its core, it is about collective self-rule. A people is free only when it participates in shaping the laws and institutions that govern it. When political systems are imposed by foreign powers, even in the name of liberation, that basic principle is violated.

ICE Watch and Community Defense Training (virtual)

Details about event

Tuesday, January 28, 7-8:30pm EST
Register for Zoom here

Join this 90-minute training from States at the Core and Protect RP on effectively protecting your neighborhoods from federal enforcement incursions.

ICE Watch and other rapid response tactics are key strategies being used by people across the country to protect their communities against aggressive activity from federal law enforcement agencies like ICE and Border Patrol. Whether or not you are part of an established community response network, this training will share important skills for building neighborhood resilience, documenting ICE activity, and supporting neighbors. In addition to covering the basics of ICE Watch, we will discuss new analysis on ICE operations, rapid response tactics, and safety guidance.

Please Note: Due to security and safety concerns, we do not record these trainings. To keep up to date on upcoming sessions, sign up for our Substack: https://statesatthecore.substack.com/

Noem's Icy Lies

Trump should be the last person to talk shit about Somali Americans

President Trump has a long history of inflammatory rhetoric targeting Muslims. Ever since he won the presidential election in in 2016, his first Executive Order was a total Muslim ban to America, which struck the car as illegal. For the last three months, Trump has been targeting US Rep. Ilhan Omar and the entire Somali American community and using them as punching bags. Yesterday, he called Somali Americans very low. Really? Trump should be the last person to talk shit about Somali Americans. I explain why.

Trump has a four-year degree from the University of Pennsylvania. His grades and transcripts are secret. Reason is, he graduated with half-ass grades from college.

Michael Cohen, once Trump's personal attorney, gave a testimony to Congress where he revealed that, under the direction of President Trump, he had sent letters to Trump’s high schools, colleges, and the College Board (creator of the SAT), threatening them with legal action and jail time if they ever released Trump’s academic records. Ever wonder why? If he got straight As, he does not keep it secret. Think about it for a minute. All what he is doing is trying to save face and avoid being ridiculed.

Qualified Immunity, ICE and Ohio’s call to action

Alex Pretti and George Floyd

In recent weeks, public attention has turned again to a familiar but deeply consequential phrase: “federal immunity.” The term has resurfaced after ICE murdered two protestors in Minneapolis followed by Stephen Miller suggesting ICE officers are effectively untouchable by the courts.

For many Americans – particularly those who have experienced or witnessed government abuse – those words confirmed what the legal system has long signaled: accountability often stops where immunity begins.​ But the theoretical debate over immunity, that shields state actors from civil liability even when they break the law, has recently taken a tragic, human form.

Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot and killed by ICE agents on a snowy street in Minneapolis not far from where George Floyd was murdered. As their families seek answers, they are met with the cold reality of a legal system that shields federal agents from the very laws they are sworn to uphold as long as they claim, “I feared for my safety.”  

Drawing the Line in Minneapolis

Trump and Noem

There is an undeclared civil war in America now. Trump and his administration have weaponized and mobilized the federal government in one initiative after another against people in the United States. Seeing himself as having unlimited powers and enabling his administration to ignore the law and deal brutally with opponents, whether protestors, citizen observers, or immigrants. It feels unbelievable to say this, but in the wake of one episode after another in Minneapolis, it is impossible to ignore that the administration is starting a civil war.

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