“As a child, Michelle Serrano would take trips to Boca Chica with her grandmother. From her home in Brownsville, the drive ran east through Texas wetlands and countryside before landing on miles of beach, stretching far down the Gulf Coast just above the U.S.-Mexico border. They’d spend the day there, swimming, laying out — which didn’t cost anything, unlike at South Padre Island to the north. For them, it was the people’s beach. Today, decades later, it’s hard for Serrano to believe those memories. It’s early December at Boca Chica Beach. A thick fog has settled over the sand dunes as Serrano pulls up the hood of her jacket to block the coastal wind. Already, she had seen four U.S. Border Patrol trucks driving along the sand—trucks she knows will slow down as the drivers stare at her with suspicion. ” (01/22/25)
“Federal authorities have arrested two anti-ICE agitators after a mob stormed a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Thursday. Bondi named Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Louisa Allen as the suspects. FBI Director Kash Patel said Armstrong’s arrest was in connection with a violation of the FACE Act, which prohibits interfering with the exercise of religion at a place of worship. Armstrong is expected to appear Thursday before U.S. Judge Douglas Micko. Allen is charged with conspiracy to deprive rights, the Department of Homeland Security said.” (01/22/25)
“Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison declared Sunday that there are no federal grounds for prosecuting the mob that disrupted St. Paul’s Cities Church and characterized the conduct as ‘First Amendment activity.’ Ellison not only supported the protesters as exercising their First Amendment rights in an interview with CNN, but also signaled an unwillingness to enforce state laws allegedly violated by the protesters, including trespass and disorderly conduct. Ellison is infamous for his prior support for violent groups and has long-faced criticism for statements and associations involving extremist movements and figures linked to political unrest.” [editor’s note: Compare to Turley’s view of the “mob rule” in the Capitol riot – TLK] (01/22/25)
“Donald Trump’s youngest son contacted UK police saying he witnessed a friend in London being ‘beat up’ during a video call, a court has heard. Barron Trump, 19, told police he had friends call 999 from the US so that he could report the alleged attack in January 2025. Matvei Rumiantsev, 22, is on trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court accused of assault and two counts of rape, among other charges, against the alleged victim. He denies assault, actual bodily harm, two counts of rape, intentional strangulation and perverting the course of justice by pressuring the woman to withdraw her complaints. Trump called the alleged victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on 18 January last year, the court heard. Shortly after placing the call, the US president’s fifth child contacted the police and said she was being assaulted.” (01/22/25)
“The Trump administration is expanding its ban on U.S. foreign aid for groups supporting abortion services to include assistance going to international and domestic organizations and agencies that promote gender identity as well as diversity, equity and inclusion programs. An administration official said Thursday that the State Department would release final rules that expand the scope of the ‘Mexico City’ policy that has already severely reduced assistance to international organizations that provide abortion-related care. The policy was first established under President Ronald Reagan but rescinded by subsequent Democratic administrations. The new rules, first reported by Fox News, would halt foreign assistance from going toward not only groups that provide abortion as a method of family planning but also those that advocate ‘gender ideology’ and DEI, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the rules’ publication in the Federal Register on Friday.” (01/22/25)
“The Trump administration’s exercise in armed regime change in Venezuela should have come as no surprise. The U.S. naval buildup in the Caribbean and the attacks on defenseless boats off the Venezuelan coast — based on unproven allegations that they contained drug traffickers — had been underway for more than three months. By the end of December 2025, in fact, such strikes on boats near Venezuela (and in the Eastern Pacific) had already killed 115 people. And those attacks were just the beginning. The U.S. has since intercepted oil tankers as far away as the North Atlantic Ocean, run a covert operation inside Venezuela, and earlier this month, launched multiple air strikes that killed at least 40 Venezuelans while capturing that country’s president, Nicholas Maduro, and his wife. Both of them are now imprisoned in New York City and poised to face a criminal trial for narco-terrorism and cocaine importing conspiracies, plus assorted weapons charges.” (01/22/25)
“Trump’s attacks on working people (threats to send troops into major U.S. cities, ripping collective bargaining rights from a million federal workers, an immigration enforcement terror campaign that borders on unconstitutional) have been so extreme that many people are talking about a general strike. These calls are coming not just from the usual suspects, but even from my own mayor, former Chicago Teachers Union leader and organizer Brandon Johnson. We’ve all heard calls for a general strike before — usually not as a serious proposal or strategy, but as a reaction to the attacks that working people face on a regular basis from existing political and economic power.” (01/21/25)
“President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he was canceling his planned tariff on [American buyers of goods from] U.S. allies in Europe over US control of Greenland after he and the leader of NATO agreed to a ‘framework of a future deal’ on Arctic security. The abrupt about-face emerged hours after Trump had insisted that he wants to ‘get Greenland, including right, title and ownership,’ but said he would not use force to do so while deriding European allies and vowing that NATO should not try to block U.S. expansionism. In an extraordinary [senile rant] at the World Economic Forum, the president said he was asking for territory that was ‘cold and poorly located.’ … ‘We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force, where we would be frankly unstoppable. But I won’t do that, OK?’ Trump said, later adding, ‘I don’t have to’ and ‘I don’t want to use force.'” (01/21/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Australia’s Labor government has successfully passed a ‘hate speech’ bill that’s plainly aimed, at least in part, at suppressing pro-Palestine organizations as ‘hate groups.’ Free speech advocates are sounding the alarm about the new laws, saying their extremely vague wording, lack of procedural fairness and low thresholds for implementation mean groups can now be banned if they make people feel unsafe or upset without ever actually posing any physical harm to anyone. For me the most illuminating insight into what these laws are actually designed to do came up in an ABC interview with Attorney-General Michelle Rowland on Tuesday. … Rowland was asked by ABC’s David Speers to clarify whether the new laws could see activist groups banned for criticizing Israel and opposing its genocidal atrocities in a way that causes Jewish Australians to feel upset feelings, and she refused to rule out the possibility every single time.” (01/21/25)
“Imagine this …. You’re minding your own business, or maybe picking up your kid at their school, when suddenly you find yourself in the middle of a platoon of masked, armed, camouflaged government agents. One thing leads to another, and in a flash, an agent has wrestled you to the ground, and is brandishing a weapon — maybe a Taser if you’re lucky. But what if I told you that lawmakers on Capitol Hill have a solution? They are proposing a brave new world, where now (flat on your back and gasping for air, and perhaps able to bravely manage to free your phone from your pocket) you could scan a federally mandated QR code on the agent’s uniform and find out the identity of the man who is currently pummeling you to within an inch of your life.” (01/21/25)
