“In Minneapolis, what began as local organizing against an aggressive federal immigration crackdown has quickly grown into widespread protests against the federal government’s perceived disregard for basic constitutional rights and impunity for state violence. But will the demonstrations actually change anything?” (02/03/26)
“Among all the attacks on journalists, the arrest and prosecution of [Don] Lemon is especially troubling and should strike fear in the hearts of every American, liberal or conservative. Lemon is not a big news organization — he is one, independent podcaster. He didn’t do anything wrong. He did his job. As a journalist, he followed protestors into the Cities Church of St. Paul to film their protest and interview the pastor. He did not commit a crime. He committed an act of journalism. That is protected by the First Amendment — or, at least, it used to be. As practiced by the Trump administration, the First Amendment only protects journalists or journalism that the president agrees with.” (02/03/26)
“In the past decade, the political (and to a lesser extent the intellectual) right in the United States has been possessed by ideas of greatness and golden ages. MAGA pithily encapsulates the idea that there was an era of American greatness in the misty past that is somehow remembered by still-living Americans. Kevin Roberts, the current head of the Heritage Foundation, believes that Americans in 2025 are ‘witnessing the dawn of a golden age. Not because of one man — though he has been a battering ram through the fortress of the ruling class. But because of what this moment now makes possible: a return not just to strength or prosperity or sovereignty — but to the permanent things.’ Roberts appeals to Russell Kirk to back up his sense of an emerging golden era for the American republic.” (02/03/26)
“It’s been a month since the United States captured Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, to put him on trial in New York. Rather than force his regime to dismantle, however, the U.S. chose to work with it, more on economic stabilization than on wholesale political transformation. Yet, while focusing on Venezuela’s vast oil potential, the Trump administration has, ironically, used undemocratic pressure to push the government to take a step toward democracy. So far, about 30% of an estimated 1,000 political detainees have been released. Mr. Maduro’s former deputy, and current interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, announced the release – which she called an amnesty – for all those imprisoned for political activity since 1999, as well as plans to shut down a Caracas prison where political opponents have been held and reportedly tortured. The aim, Ms. Rodríguez said, is ‘to heal the wounds left by political confrontation … to restore justice … [and] coexistence.'” (02/02/25)
Source: Popular Information
by Judd Legum, Rebecca Crosby, & Noel Sims
“The Trump administration is engaged in a multi-pronged effort to undermine the integrity of and confidence in the 2026 election. At the center of the effort is President Trump himself. In a Monday appearance on Dan Bongino’s podcast, Trump said: ‘Minnesota is a mess. There’s something in the water up there. I won the state three times, but I got no credit for it. I won that state three times but it’s a rigged state. Really rigged badly with the Somalians, and the Somalians and the theft.’ The Democratic presidential candidate won Minnesota in 2016, 2020, and 2024. Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen, which he continues to make repeatedly, have been exhaustively debunked.” (02/03/26)
“Trump and his top officials’ blame-the-gun comments certainly risk backlash from a key Republican constituency, but they also put the gun-rights movement in a no-win position. The heel-turn was foreseeable since this isn’t the first time Trump has proved unreliable on guns. Trump backed the idea of stricter gun laws three times during his first term.” 902/03/26)
“Shifting justifications for a war are never a good sign, and they strongly suggest that the war in question was not warranted. In the Vietnam War, the principal public rationale of saving South Vietnam from communism got replaced in the minds of the warmakers — especially after losing hope of winning the contest in Vietnam — by the belief that the United States had to keep fighting to preserve its credibility. In the Iraq War, when President George W. Bush’s prewar argument about weapons of mass destruction fell apart, he shifted to a rationale centered on bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq. Now, with President Donald Trump threatening a new armed attack on Iran amid a buildup of U.S. forces in the region, the Washington Post’s headline writers aptly describe the rationale for any such attack as being ‘in flux’ and, for the online version of the same article, ask, ‘what’s the mission?'” (02/03/26)
“The Washington Post adopted the slogan “Democracy dies in darkness” in February 2017. Some found it pompous, but it reflected a widespread theory about how authoritarianism could come to America. This theory, based on the experience of democratic erosion in nations like Hungary and the work of scholars like Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, argued that autocracy wouldn’t be imposed by armed men beating and killing the regime’s opponents. Authoritarian rule, would, instead, be installed through a gradual process of subversion. … But it turns out that predictions of creeping authoritarianism both underestimated and overestimated MAGA. Almost everyone, myself included, underestimated how far MAGA would go in engaging in open violence and abuse of power against those it considers enemies. On the other hand, we overestimated the movement’s impulse control, its ability to mask its tyrannical goals until its power was fully consolidated.” (02/03/26)
