“An ICE [gang member] charged in connection with a shooting that wounded a Venezuelan man in Minneapolis has been released from a jail in Texas. A Texas federal judge denied Minnesota’s request on Wednesday to compel the extradition of Christian Castro. Thursday’s release from the jail in Brownsville, Texas, came as the 90-day clock on Castro’s detention expired …. Castro is accused of shooting at Julio Sosa-Celis through the door of a north Minneapolis home on Jan. 14 in the course of his duties as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [gang member] during Operation Metro Surge. He had initially told FBI investigators that Sosa-Celis and others had attacked him, using a snow shovel and a broom handle as weapons. Video evidence of the shooting contradicted his sworn statement, and Castro was placed on leave as the U.S. Department of Justice investigated whether he lied under oath.” (08/27/26)
“Andrew Day, Luke Nicastro, and Spencer Neale discuss the Trump administration’s new economic strategy to force Iran’s capitulation. Then, they talk about recent elections and whether the Democrats will sweep the midterms.” (08/27/26)
“A clear indicator that Trump sycophants realize that they are caught in reality’s snare is how they respond to any question about current economic difficulties. Their first sentence almost always contains the word ‘Biden’, as they make the false claim that things were worse under Joe Biden, or that Biden somehow caused all of our current problems (including high gas prices and depleted munitions), or that Biden left an economy in shambles. Call it a bad case of Biden derangement syndrome, a desperate and utterly transparent attempt to shift the blame for the gratuitous mess that Trump and his minions have made.” (08/27/26)
“World War II ended when America dropped the atomic bombs named ‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat Man’ on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese died in an instant and of radiation poisoning over the subsequent years. Several American politicians, military brass, and university academics advocated for preemptive war against Russia to prevent it from acquiring nuclear bombs. Francis Matthews, Secretary of the Navy, advocated becoming ‘aggressors for peace.’ The mathematician John von Neuman, who was a pioneer in game theory, remarked: ‘If you say bomb them tomorrow, I say why not bomb them today?'” (08/27/26)
“Tanzania’s governing party expelled the vice president who resigned this week, in an act of retaliation that will further test the credentials of the East African nation as a place of relative peace and stability. A meeting of the Chama cha Mapinduzi, or CCM, party decided to punish Emmanuel Nchimbi for indiscipline, and it nominated Energy Minister Deogratius Ndejembi to become President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s deputy, CCM Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro told reporters late Wednesday. The maneuver is believed to be part of the ongoing fallout from Hassan’s contentious election in October, when the security forces were deployed to put down riots over the disqualification of the president’s main rivals. The internet was shut down for days, a move that Hassan later apologized for and promised would never happen again. Hassan’s main rival, Tundu Lissu, is jailed over treason charges he says are politically motivated.” (08/27/26)
“Both Dolly and Donald are American originals. But to say ‘there will never be another Dolly’ is to do so with regret. To say the same about Trump is, for many Americans, to do so with hope for the country and Constitution. She was a fairy tale version of the American dream, born in a one-room mountain cabin, ever humble and true to her roots yet serenaded after her death by royal troops playing ‘9 to 5’ outside Buckingham Palace. He was born entitled and rich, yet embodies that old American saying ‘born on third base and thinks he hit a home run.’ Safe to say Trump won’t be honored abroad with serenades on his passing, given how fully he has alienated allies. Dolly’s philanthropy was real and global; the Trump Foundation was fraudulent and forced to shut down. She was no dumb blond; about him you’ll get an argument.” (08/27/26)
“When a crime consists of nothing but handing a police officer or an informant something in exchange for money, the evidence often consists of nothing but that purported buyer’s word, along with drugs that easily could have been obtained through other means. This situation invites dishonest cops to invent drug offenses and take credit for the resulting arrests, as [Gerald] Goines did for years with impunity. When your job is to create crimes by arranging illegal drug sales, it is not such a big leap to create crimes out of whole cloth, especially if you are convinced that your target is a drug dealer.” (08/27/26)
