A year into his second administration, Americans’ views of President Donald Trump – already more negative than positive – have continued to slip.
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Latest Pew Research poll -
25th Amendment. Seriously.From Gov Newsom's office:
https://bsky.app/profile/govpressoffice.gov.ca.gov/post/3mdlf5k6j6s22
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FBI searches Fulton County elections officeTulsi at work. WSJ reporting:
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Keep it up Democrats in Congress ...The White House and Senate Democrats reached a deal Thursday to separate the fight over ICE funding from the threat of a broader government shutdown, sources told Axios.
https://www.axios.com/2026/01/29/government-funding-deal-shutdown-dhs-schumer-trump
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FBI searches Fulton County elections office -
"Minnesota has had it."Local reporting about the earlier incident.
The earlier altercation occurred at E. 36th Street and Park Avenue in Minneapolis’ Powderhorn neighborhood — less than half a mile from the spot where an ICE officer shot Renee Good in her vehicle the week before.
Shapiro, a Minneapolis-based corporate tax attorney, rushed to the area just before 10:30 a.m. after Signal group chats alerted him to ICE enforcement activity near his young son’s Spanish immersion day care.
Shapiro said he witnessed several in the crowd of 15 to 20 people lobbing snowballs at agents. Then, he said, a bearded man positioned in the street — wearing a brown coat, black hat and sunglasses — proceeded to kick out the taillight of an agent’s SUV.
Shapiro’s account matches events captured in a separate video posted to social media Jan. 28 by conservative influencer Nick Sortor, showing the encounter from a different angle. A firearm is visible on Pretti’s waistband.
Shapiro’s recording begins seconds after Pretti kicks the vehicle, when he is seen flipping off the car full of federal agents. One beelines toward him and spins him to the ground. Other agents shoot pepper balls, toss smoke canisters and threaten the use of chemical irritants in an attempt to keep the angry crowd back.
Three other officers pounce on Pretti, appearing to strike him while he’s restrained.
The reaction to Pretti’s smashing of the taillight seemed overly aggressive, Shapiro later told the Star Tribune.
“Is it grounds for getting out of a car after you’ve already packed up and decided that you were going to leave and then assault a person and harass a group of observers? Probably not,” Shapiro said, noting that Pretti did not appear to fight back, only attempt to flee.
Eventually, Pretti wrestles out of his coat and runs away, rejoining the small group of protesters.
The 2½-minute video ends with a caravan of federal vehicles leaving the scene as smoke billows in the intersection. Shapiro approaches Pretti, who he did not know, and asks if he’s OK.
Pretti says that he is, before turning to the dispersing crowd. “Are we all OK? Are we all safe?” he calls out to the dozen or so bystanders who remain.
The previous encounter, first reported by CNN, allegedly began after Pretti stopped his car while observing ICE activity in the neighborhood. He joined a throng of demonstrators who began shouting and blowing their whistles as agents chased several people on foot.
CNN reported, citing an anonymous source, that claimed that Pretti suffered a broken rib after five agents tackled him and another leaned on his back about a week before his death. The story did not disclose when or where this allegedly happened.
U.S Department of Homeland Security officials told CNN they have “no record of this incident.”
Rewatching his earlier video with the knowledge that the man he met had died at the hands of government agents left him shaken. If it could happen to Pretti, he thought, it could happen to anyone.
Yet, Shapiro wasn’t surprised to learn that Pretti had continued protesting.
“People feel so adamantly about how wrong this is,” Shapiro said, referring to the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown.
From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
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Alberta separatismIs MAGA weaponizing Alberta separatism?
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/is-maga-weaponizing-alberta-separatism-transcript-9.7064935
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"Minnesota has had it."Alex was involved in an incident with immigration agents 11 days before he was shot. Looks like he had his gun with him during this interaction.
For all the talk that he was looking to massacre agents, he never went for his weapon during either interaction. Not looking like a trigger-happy kind of guy.
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WTF CookbookBTW, Chris Young, the guy whose video on rotisserie chicken stock that @steve-miller posted, has some other great videos. Like this one on the best frying pan. @bernard might be interested.
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WTF CookbookKitchen hack. Ways to use parchment paper. Love the guy's accent.
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Kennedy CenterNot even one Scaramucci's worth.
In a Jan. 16 news release, the Kennedy Center announced that Kevin Couch would be its new senior vice president of artistic programming.
On Jan. 22, the center posted the announcement on X.
Not a week later, Couch resigned.
Couch confirmed his resignation Wednesday but declined to comment further.
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Melania, the movie isn't doing too wellThe movie has been pulled from distribution in South Africa.
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What happens after Minneapolis?Also this from Minneapolis. A consulate??
Bovino “was removed, but the tactics so far are still the same,” Hernandez said. “Nobody now is trusting the government with those changes.”
The federal enforcement extended to the city’s Ecuadorian consulate, where a federal law enforcement officer tried to enter before being blocked by employees.
From another AP story:
Ecuador files a protest with the US Embassy
A video of the Ecuadorian consulate entry attempt posted on social media shows a staffer running to the door to turn the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents away, telling them, “This is the Ecuadorian consulate. You’re not allowed to enter.” One ICE officer can be heard responding by threatening to “grab” the staffer if he touched the agent before agreeing to leave.International law generally prohibits law enforcement authorities from entering foreign consulates or embassies without permission, though sometimes permission may be assumed granted for life-threatening emergencies, like fires.
“Consulate officials immediately prevented the ICE officer from entering the consular building, thus ensuring the protection of the Ecuadorians who were present at the time and activating the emergency protocols issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility,” the ministry wrote on X.
A “note of protest” was filed with the U.S. Embassy in Ecuador so that similar attempts aren’t made at other consulates, the ministry said. The State Department, Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to requests for comment..
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What happens after Minneapolis?I'm guessing the whole Tom Homan thing is a fake, and that the immigration strategy will barrel along, if with slightly quieter tactics. @axtremus has a thread about ICE surging in Ohio soon. And there's this look behind the scenes:
NYT:
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About the UK's Chagos dealStarmer, asked whether he trusted Trump to honour the commitment he gave in backing the deal last year, told reporters: “I’ve obviously discussed Chagos with Donald Trump a number of times. It has been raised with the White House at the tail end of last week, over the weekend and into the early part of this week.
“The position, as you know, is that when the Trump administration came in, we paused for three months to give them time to consider the Chagos deal, which they did at agency level.
“Once they’d done that, they were very clear in the pronouncements about the fact that they supported the deal – and they were announcements made by the defence secretary, from memory, Marco Rubio as well, and by president Trump himself.”
Pressed on whether he believed Trump fully understood the deal – after he appeared to get the details wrong – Starmer added: “There was a three-month pause whilst his administration looked in detail at an agency level, because obviously this is about security and intelligence.
“So it was an agency review that was conducted in the US before they then concluded that it was a deal they wanted to support, did support and did so in very clear terms.”
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"Minnesota has had it."CBP and ICE people at the scene, do you hear the bus coming? Stephen Miller is about to push you under it.
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"Minnesota has had it."The "woman in the pink coat". A very powerful interview with Anderson Cooper. Worth 20 minutes of your time.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/27/us/stella-carlson-alex-pretti-witness-video
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About that White House ballroom and the East WingAs far as the first question regarding ramifications for lawyers who pull stunts like these seem to be doing and whether they may face sanctions, I don't know the answer.
From the second part of your post (what's noble about that?), I'm wondering if my comment about fun in the courtroom was misunderstood. Like @shirokuro , I think the judge is doing a great job keeping the lawyers in line. Any "fun" is enjoying them being put in their place.
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About that White House ballroom and the East Wing