The backfire has begun: It was set by the people of Minneapolis

Massive crowds from California to New York turn out to protest ICE crackdowns | Watch The attempt to frighten protesters into submission in Minneapolis is backfiring on the Trumpists, and instead, their violent behavior may be resulting in more than just increasing the numbers of protesters in Minneapolis, but it is feeding an already vibrant pro democracy movement nationwide. Many can now see what it is like to be oppressed by an out-of-control militia, a hands-on lesson to the rest of the nation of what a police state dictatorship looks and feels like. Supporting democracy is no longer a matter of keeping some revered abstract political science theory memorialized in a Founders' document that we must protect just because we have had it for 250 years. Protecting it is the antidote to a real-life attempt by a wannabe tyrant strong man to wreck a democracy so he can have more power at the expense of we the people.

What Minnesota has done is to replace the description of undocumented migrants as murderers, rapists, drug dealers, and fraudsters with the term "neighbor". That alone has a profound impact of giving the law-abiding, papered or unpapered brown and black migrants and citizens, a positive name, and throws in the face of the white nationalist ideology, their assumption that citizens will cheer migrants' removal from their communities. It is not a value shared by the citizens and state city officials. It was a gross miscalculation by the Trump machine that, in their media-echoing bubble, ordinary people in blue states share the same racist /anti migrant attitude as MAGA land. Minnesota has turned the perception of the evil nature of migrants upside down by calling and protecting them because they are neighbors. The moral outrage this has inspired is now evident in word, deed, and protest by the citizens themselves, mostly white who know their brown and black neighbors are living in fear of being snatched in the ICE racist profiling dragnet.

In Minneapolis, the neighborhood-by-neighborhood and city-wide demonstrations of thousands have become an inspiration to those fighting to keep a democracy in hundreds of communities elsewhere. To help keep the focus on ICE's violent overreach, Bruce Springsteen just composed a protest song:

Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio) - YouTube

The buzzword of the 2026 elections: affordability.What does that mean?

Zohran Mamdani's winning election campaign for New York City mayor's contribution to the 2026 elections is the word: affordability. It is one of those words that can be such an umbrella term, it can mean much to so many that even if it could be defined, it falls into a category of "I can't tell you, but when I see or feel it, I know what it is".  It is sort of like the judge trying to define what obscenity means. In 1964 Judge Potter Stewart wrote an opinion in a Supreme Court case that has become famous in defining a vague term like hard-core obscenity: He famously wrote: "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that."  Affordability is like that: hard to define, but a voter knows when he/she sees it.

Lying about it as Trump is doing in Iowa does not fly either. Fact check: Trump says Democrats don’t talk about affordability anymore (they do) because inflation is over (it isn’t)  It is either his staff does not dare correct him, or his gears and mouth are stuck in lying or he thinks his MAGA base is really that  dumb. 

There has been some polling to try to understand what a word like affordability means. One was just published, but the final conclusion was what it meant to most polled concerning specific costs that worried them the most.. Per a New  York Times analysis of an in-depth poll (Cross-Tabs: January 2026 Times/Siena National Poll  of Registered Voters - The New York Times): "When we asked voters what they were most worried about affording, they usually didn’t mention the costs of goods that surged in the wake of the pandemic, like gas, cars, and food. Instead, they mentioned major expenses like housing, retirement, and health care."  The Tilt - The New York Times,  in a column written by Nate Cohn and published January 28, 2026.

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Affordability vs economy is not about semantics; both are true at the same time

If the Trump regime tries destroy Colorado's vote integrity in 2026 a buzz saw awaits

Update 1/30/2026  FBI raid in Georgia has little legal basis – but serves Trump’s goal to weaken trust in election results | Georgia | The Guardian    Why now? FBI raid in Georgia has little legal basis – but serves Trump’s goal to weaken trust in election results | Georgia | The Guardian Why now? Here is why, as the British press tries to explain this to its readers. It is to undermine our faith in the integrity of our voting. My comment: This kind of action constitutes an attempt to create a pretext for federal takeover and control of elections by separate states. The beauty of having elections controlled separately by each of the 50 states is the protection it provides from just a tyrannical wannabe who wants to control who can vote and the outcome of the vote. The tyrant may succeed in a state or two, but not in the entire nation. It is a matter that may both suit an egomaniac power-mad tyrant, but it also serves to try to shape public opinion to accept the end of our ability to trust that our elections are free and fair, the fundamental undermining of democracy that is a government of, by, and for the people, regardless of whoever sits in the Oval Office. All voters of any affiliation must understand that there is an effort to make sure your voice expressed in a vote can be ignored and you no longer count in determining who governs you if this trust is broken and breaking the trust is what such actions like the Fulton raid is also about. Note: Felicia Muftic is a former Denver elections official who holds trust in the integrity of elections sacred.

Update 1/29/2026: Trump's obsession with the 2020 elections, an attempt to prove it was stolen 6 years later, and his FBI raid on the Fulton County, Georgia, voting records could be attributed to an out-of-control personality quirk of an egomaniac who never admits a loss, or worse. Trump looks like he has an obsession with rewriting history to fit a false narrative and to justify anti democratic power grabs.. In recent history, communists and fascists, from Hitler to Mao, have used this propaganda tactic.

What is most scary about this is that there is a concerted drive to undermine fair and free elections more easily by putting voter records kept separately by 50 states per the Constitutiion into the hands a federal control and to set up the acceptance of a FBI loyal only to the president to undertake such similar actions to do so in the future, including November 2026 and 2028. Political scientist Jason Stanley warned about this in his recent book.Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future: Stanley, Jason: 9781668056912: Amazon.com: Books

FBI searches Atlanta election office, chasing Trump 2020 vote fraud claims | Reuters

Continuing with original post:

The Trump regime is threatening to hurt Colorado voter integrity in November.  The Colorado Secretary of State is ready protect our vote from the Trump attempt to federalize voter counts and elections in direct contradiction to the Constitution. Expect Trump et al will try to keep Colorado's vote from being counted, as well as any blue states,  throwing the results of who gets the majority in Congress into chaos and dispute. They will meet a buzz saw if they try such tricks on Colorado. Colorado has a plan and backup plans. 

Threat of force won’t change Colorado secretary of state’s mind on voter rolls, mail-in ballots 

Trump's false pretense of such dirty tricks is still: the 2020 election was stolen because all of those illegals voted and mail-in votes are all a fraud, their propagandists and a delusional Trump claim.. In over 6 years, such attempts to prove these claims have failed. They think if they can get voters' personal information, they can prove their pretext, the Constitution provisions delegating elections to states be hanged. The DOJ has requested Colorado’s voter rolls, including driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of voters’ Social Security numbers, and is attempting to change the post office delivery terms of mail-in ballots to be counted by local officials.  There may be hope as a federal judge blocked the DOJ request for Oregon 1/27/26. Federal judge blocks Trump DOJ access to Oregon voter rolls

  This Trumpian scheme smells like a pretext to keep the House in GOP hands by throwing the 2026 midterms into chaos.  In the longterm, it is also a way to put the control of elections in the hands of the federal government over vote outcomes, voter participation, and election results.  If Trump and his administration can't win one way (the predictions are he will lose control of the House), they will find another way, and this one is ugly.  It will mean the end of fair and free elections that we can trust.

"Don't believe your eyes ", a pattern of Trump's spin doctors that needs exposing..

Updated: 1/31/2026.We have seen enough of the spins and lies lately to see what Trump's spin doctors are trying to do: to get voters not to believe their very eyes. Their lies and spins are being exposed by citizens who have unlimited access to new kinds of technology. Those objecting to Trump's tactics have the advantage in this age of everyone having a video camera in their cell phones and access to social media to publish it. Whether a passing-by citizen or a seasoned journalist like Don Lemon uses their phone to video a protest, or  ICE killing a protester or shooting a pepper ball at a praying pastor, or a 5-year-old, looking like every other 5-year-old, being shipped with his dad to an ICE camp, the Trumpian attempt to get their followers not to believe their very eyes becomes harder and harder. Drones overhead and protesters themselves film the actual size of 7 million protesting the tyrannical king-like regime of Trump marching in masses in hundreds of locations, making a mockery of theTrump propaganda line that all of those protesters are being paid or are professional agitators.  While the most loyal MAGA close their eyes, cover their ears, Trump minions try to buy out any media who dare report these citizens' and journalists' videos,  or Trump uses the DOJ to prosecute them (the attempt is the punishment; they rarely succeed in court). They are still failing because these days of social media, those videos still escape into the public realm. This is despite the attempts by the Trump regime to suppress press reporting  them by using threats of delicensing and buyouts of their owners by MAGA loyalists.  This is not just a matter of violating the First Amendment, which protects both freedom of speech and the press. It is an attempt of a regime to control the thoughts and minds of citizens, just like the fascists and communist dictators of years past did. What is different now, everyone with a cell phone can become a photo journalist, and social media is their publisher if traditional media is suppressed.

  Here are the danger signs that your mind is being twisted to swallow the spin.  Immediately, within minutes, without any attempt to investigate first, the spin is out: the agent was always acting in self-defense in the shooting, followed by refusing to let independent or multiple agencies do an investigation. The spin doctors depend on the suppression of evidence to the contrary. They are afraid their cover-up would be exposed, which itself suggests they are engaged in a cover-up. Next, if the selected video is shown and edited to support their spin, know that given the same opportunity exists for everyone else in the world to see something quite different, and then give the world the opportunity with eye-opening multi-video opportunities in every media opportunity possible. Third, as the event gets less and less coverage, the propagandists will try to revise history by those whose memories have dimmed. Keep the videos to the contrary shown every time the spin is attempted in the future, and never let up doing it whenever the opportunity presents itself. The pattern itself is damning.

Some opportunities to show the pattern of behavior of lies and spins using  the "don't believe your very eyes"attempts and put events in context of behavior:

A most recent one, 1/28/2026: Lying about affordability, the economy, and inflation as Trump is doing in Iowa does not fly either. Fact check: Trump says Democrats don’t talk about affordability anymore (they do) because inflation is over (it isn’t)  It is either his staff does not dare correct him, or his gears and mouth are stuck in lying, or he thinks his MAGA base is really that dumb. He assumes they do not know the price of gas in the tank is not under $2, or if grocery bills have increased, not decreased or he thinks he can get away with "don't believe your eyes" line on this issue, too.  Even those in Trump's cabinet who should know better about the economy lie. Scott Bessent says construction jobs are booming under Trump's tariffs. Government data show the opposite,  and the job numbers sector is just for starters in this fact check.1/29/2026.

On January 6,the spin: The Trump banner-waving rioters were looky-loos tourists who were not called to be violent that day by the president himself (Jack Smith's detailed findings are to the contrary and demand release of his report. Call it a cover up diverted with personal attacks on Smith). The propagandist response is to bury and rewrite history in words that contradict what we saw with our very eyes or videos of the violence that the stormers of the Capitol committed. In the shooting of Renee Good, show the wheels and back-up lights as she moved away from the threatening ICE agents, and the bullets that riddled her side of the car that killed her is from an agent on the drivers side, not standing in front of it.  An agent claiming that she tried to run him down has a hard time showing why he shot her from the side of the car.. In the case of the killing of  Alex Pretti, focus on the cell phone in his hands, some 9mm pistol. Show he was pinned to the ground on all fours with no gun in his hand. His legally concealed gun was removed from him, but after that, he was shot multiple times by the agent/killer after he was subdued and the weapon was removed..Timeline: How the Shooting of Alex Jeffrey Pretti Unfolded - The New York Times And do it all over again and again and again as a way to demonstrate a pattern of behavior and destroy the credibility of the Trump spinners.

Sidenote: Some takeaways from the Alex Pretti killing that serve as a warning to protesters: 1) leave your legal conceal and carry weapon at home; you too could be called a domestic terrorist armed and dangerous with an evidenced plan to kill ICE agents 2) wear a covid mask; you are on ICE agents cell phone cameras for future prosecutiion as domestic terrorist. Filming ICE is legal but exposes you to digital tracking – here’s how to minimize the risk 

Gen. Mark Hertling, former commander of US troops in Europe, called out ICE for being an uncontrolled militia. He did this morning, 1/26/2026 on Morning Joe. 'ICE is playing soldier but without the discipline:' Ret. general | Watch

 Hertling and other analysts. In the past heand others have used the term like a "violent militia" or "occupying army". This includes accusations of using excessive force, such as the shooting of a civilian in Minneapolis, which contradicts official reports (per a search on Google AI). 

The profound implications of Davos: a stronger Europe and a weaker US

Update 1/31/2026: NATO will be holding its annual summit, and the topic on everyone's mind will be what sort of target each country should set for military spending. If Trump's attacks on NATO members for not doing their part as well as his hostility toward Europeans in general esxpressed in Davos and his tariff policies, the stalemate in Ukraine and the potential threat to Western Europe by Russia, Europe is stepping up even more. Germany had already agreed to 5% of GDP to be spent on defense in the future. 5% will be considered. The USA's current expenditures on defense in its current budgets is 3.3% of GDP. Using Gross Domestic Product as the measure is a way to be fair to all sizes of countries in NATO. 

Continuing with original post:

An impression of the Davos conclave: a stronger Europe; a weaker US..It was more than just embarrassing as Trump in his usual off-script oratory, went off on his stolen election results in 2020, ended 8 wars, so he deserved the Nobel prize, got Greenland confused with Iceland, and insulted any number of European countries. World leaders at Davos vacillated between treating Trump like a dangerous, deranged egomaniac who declares his thoughts for the day as his policies or they flattered his ego, or began to show a backbone and call his bluff, bunders, and verbal blasts as something to take seriously, or acted like the adults in the room using careful diplomatic speak to mask their own feelings. Post Trump's on-stage act, CNN's interviews with European leaders was telling and a contrast with how real international leaders should speak.. This from the British Mirror is even more telling:Donald Trump's strongman act collapses - but now he's confirmed the world's worst fears     The most indepth and influential analysis came from Der Spiegel in Germany. Donald, that's enough! - DER SPIEGEL - The German View   The Germans have him figured out.  The opening sentence of the Der Spiegel substack reflected the disgust and failure of the European leaders to appease and flatter him: "One of the most reliable constants of Donald Trump's secpnd term is that he responds to weakness with brutality." and the closing paragraph on expecting more threats, though Trump folded in Greenland annexation for now was: "On Wednesday afternoon at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he (Trump) would b very grateful if the Europeans handed over Greenland voluntarily. 'If you say no, we will remember'. That is not how a president speaks. That is how a mafia boss speaks."    

The implications of this are profound for now and the future. Above all, Trump seems to have accomplished two things: get Europe and Canada unified to be independent of US support, and the US has lost control of influencing Europeans to agree to his priorities. He has lost any trust in words or policy pronouncements as his whims soar with his midnight rants on

Truth Social. What's next for U.S.-Canada relations after Mark Carney's pointed speech at Davos? : NPR

So what does it mean for those in the US? It means those whose businesses are dependent on trans atlantic trade are now ugly Americans abroad and are toxic as business partners. How this influences prices of everyday expenses like housing, construction, and groceries, subject to the insane tariff policies, is just being felt. What is noticeable when Trump makes his threats and divorces himself from our allies is that the stock market takes a dive. It may cause the bond market to collapse as foreign investors seek more friendly countries. Even Canada is seeking greater ties with China. It may also affect the oligarchs and uber wealthy bottom lines as the dollar dives. It means if Trump wants help with any of his own treasured delusional policies, Europe is likely to give him a one-finger salute.

There is one upside: Europe has realized it has to take care of itself and not depend on the military umbrella of the US to give it a national defense shelter. Their priorities begin to differ from ours, and NATO is now weak and damaged goods, since mutual defense is now in question.

.

One winner from Davos is Putin, who loves to see NATO destroyed and the US not coming to the defense of Ukraine. clearing his way to an invasion of Poland, step two in Putin's goal to return Eastern Europe to the days of the USSR glory. It is like 1939 all over again. ..except now the US is also an aggressor, and our president is still seeing Putin as a desirable anti-democracy peer and colleague.

1 23 2026 From the US: The right-wing press shows that their writers didn't get the story of what was going on in the background at Davos, either, and just repeated old and worn talking points... and instead based their analysis on superficial public pronouncements. There was a profound realization by the European attendees, and they are now more unified than ever in the face of Trump's insults and unprofessional nastiness. In one German's words in its most influential publication, Der Spiegel,, Trump responds with brutality against anyone who tries to appease and flatter him because, in so many words, it shows weakness and vulnerability.

The behind-the-scenes comments were the real story: Yes, Europe gets it. They have to be on their own, can no longer trust the US as a partner and dependable defense umbrella. Where the right wing Washington Examiner misses it, the US also lost the ability to blackmail, bully, and shape Europe's foreign policy to suit Trump's whims. Trump had to back off his threats on Greenland and, boy, did he lose face and have his bluff called. Behind the scenes, some Europeans called his remarks sounding like a mafia boss when he hinted "he will not forget", an implied threat that he would take revenge some day.. The damage to NATO is de facto, if not formal...as the mutual defense treaty is undermined by Trump's instability and TACO comments. Davos shows that Europe still doesn’t get it per the Washington Examiner. The truth is, the Washington Examiner doesn't get it.

Why does Trump seem not to care he facing plunging polls and a loss of the House in November?

 Updated: 2/3/2025 

Polls today, nearly all of them, show Trump's approval is sinking into Nixon territory, and nearly 60% of Americans disapprove of his top issues: immigration, affordability, and land grabs of foreign territories. He is already brushing off the loss of the House this November. Why does he seem not to care that voters feel the pain, and instead, just doubles down? He seems in a hurry to get revenge and punish his enemies and is engaged in stuffing his personal wealth with crypto converted to dollars and exchange fees while the getting is good. He is acting like a deranged fascist dictator gorging himself in a candy shop and satiating an appetite that craves for more and more power and control, domestic and abroad, and getting away with it before he is stopped in November: Why? He keeps issuing executive orders that he treats like they are the law, but that are blatantly unconstitutional. He counts on court delays and appeals to give him time and let him keep on violating the Constitution. He is hinting at calling off even the November 2026 and 2028 elections or confiscating ballot boxes, or declaring some national emergency or a cooked-up insurgency, as a pretext for military occupation.  Observers fear he is hoping that the streets turn so ugly he can use ICE as a pretext to invoke the insurrection act, using military,  and his ICE paramilitary, even Joe Rogan calls it a Gestapo,  funded and in place and able to act as his personal army. Why?  MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Trump wants to GOP nationalize elections and control the vote count: that's what dictators do

 Why has this happened? 

(1). First and foremost, there is no one or no way to stop Trump's lust for power, and he knows it.  He has whipped Congress into subservience as they cower in fear of crossing him. Court rulings? He just figures a way around them and keeps on enforcing and executing his orders while the courts delay, delay, delay decisions and hear appeals upon appeals.  He may even ignore court rulings if there is an insurgency, he hinted to the New York Times recently. He believes he has the power to do it. Update 1 20 2026: A comprehensive report of how Trump and conservative GOP leaders are turning America into a unitary form of governement. (Unitary form: all power to the executive with eliminating checks and balances of the legislature and judiciary...( That in my view is a polite description of an autocracy) Trump Tests Presidential Power: Venezuela Operation, Iran Bombing and More - The New York Times

 (2)  He is a lame duck who will never have to face angry voters again, so he can ignore them, even those in his own party.

(3)"His" Supreme Court gave him immunity from criminal prosecution, so breaking the law is of no concern to him.

.(4) He is counting on his partisan loyalists of about 40% of all adults polled, to keep him going and have his back. 

(5) Update: 1/27/2026 He is planning some dirty tricks to disenfranchise votes of citizens in blue states...and especially in Colorado. Trump's attempt to federalize voter counts and elections in direct contradiction to the Constitution. Expect Trump et al will try to keep Colorado's vote from being counted, as well as any blue states,  throwing the results of who gets the majority in Congress into chaos and dispute. They will meet a buzz saw if they try such tricks on Colorado. Colorado has a plan and backup plans. Threat of force won’t change Colorado secretary of state’s mind on voter rolls, mail-in ballots   

Tump's false pretense of such dirty tricks is still: the 2020 election was stolen because all of those illegals voted and mail-in votes are all a fraud, their propagandists and a deluded Trump claim.. In over 6 years such attempts to prove these claims have failed. They think if they can get voters' personal information, they can prove their pretext.  In reality, this is just a pretext to keep themselves in power by throwing the 2026 midterms into chaos.   

 What to do; what to do, hand wringers? The only way to stop two more years of this is still an overwhelming vote and kicking out his political allies up and down the ballot in the midterms. In the meantime, angry voters have to deny Trump a fascist style pretext for such a military-like takeover of democracy by keeping their protests peaceful, large, and focusing on voter registration and turnout. FYI: an insurrection is not peaceful protestors nor even a handful of violent protestors...but Trump threatens to invoke the insurrection act, nonetheless. Those threats will go nowhere if the protests remain peaceful.

 In the meantime, cool it, hot heads, you who want to vent anger with violence.  As Minnesota officials say, "Don't take the bait". ICE hopes you do lose self-control and become violent. They will then have a pretext to invoke the Insurrection Act and oppress you with overwhelming military-like force. As they escalate their violent behavior, they are provoking you to answer in kind. Don't. If you play this right, your day will come to oust these MAGA. The real power, the opinions of the majority of the people, is the force that is already with you. So is a federal judge. Don't mess it up. 

Judge Restricts Immigration Agents’ Actions Toward Minnesota Protesters - The New York Times Renee Good killing is the straw that broke the camel's back. Judge clamps down on ICE actions to suppress Minneapolis protesters exercising their constitutional rights with flash bangs, pepper spray, chemical agents, and excessive force by combat-ready ICE paramilitary-garbed agents... We are not yet a militarized police state working on behalf of a government leadership determined to get its way by any means, including violence. Let's see if this gets appealed or ignored.

These ICE are not patriots or just police. They are a masked paramilitary, claiming they are a law enforcement agency, while using excessive force techniques to take down their targets and use violent weapons of crowd control, inflaming, not de-escalating, being overtly racist, targeting those who are brown or looks like a migrant, in a way that would have gotten local policemen fired, suspended, prosecuted, and even imprisoned. The agents wear masks and display no badge numbers, so citizens cannot hold individual agents accountable. Their leader claims they have total immunity from prosecution and conceals evidence that could lead to prosecution, even for murder. Wearing masks makes them look fierce and threatening as well. No local police agency condones this.  

Here is the real value of organizations like Indivisible and 50501. They give the opposition cover and safety in numbers,, and give them the guts, non-violent techniques, and the discipline to stand up peacefully. They provide a non-party-based outlet, support, and protest opportunity for disaffected GOP members, independent,  unaffiliated voters, and Democrats dissatisfied with their own party's leadership.  The tent of these groups is welcoming, with room for a wide variety of ideologies and public policy issues.   They have the ability with vast lists of activists and their emails, leaders trained,  ready, able, and willing to galvanize voters in November. This is not the MLK civil rights movement of 50 or so years ago, but it is similar in its spirit, and it has drawn on many of the same peaceful and effective techniques of protest. The Indivisible types of protesters know from their education what kind of democracy we have and why it is so valuable. They know the difference between our kind of democracy and dictatorships. They have also inspired other organizations, grassroots, and neighborhood groups to adopt their same techniques, so it is creating a movement that goes far beyond the influence of the Indivisible lists of participants. 

 Sometimes polls do not get the complete picture if they fail to ask the right questions: I looked at the most recent one at the beginning of February.  The question of whether you believe Trump is damaging democracy was not asked....or even if that was an issue in some rankings. The closest to testing that is do you approve of Trump's job or performance? When asked that way, Trump's slide is only from 49% to 45%, yet the special election results show a decisive shift in the matter of 15 or more points.  Something is not adding up and there seems to be a disconnect between polling and voter action.

  Trump approval rating falls across every major issue in new poll   Here is another view by a heavyweight think tank taken before the Minneapolis murders. This one says the reason for the shifts in job approval is that Trump is losing blocks of voters who voted for him in 2024: young voters, independents, Hispanics. As President Trump loses support, Republican prospects in the 2026 midterms grow darker | Brookings  Such polls must give Trump comfort that his job approval has not fallen before 40% (usually below 40% signals real trouble). 

What gives Trump discomfort is  what happens in November 2026 could very likely shift Congress blue, opening him up to impeachment (again) and trimming his budget wings, as well as stopping ICE's cruel dragnet approach that sweeps up and imprisons non-criminals, legal immigrants with no criminal records, and even American citizens.  Doing it cruelly and trampling civil rights seems part of their plan now.. 

Trump is rightly correct in pointing out he is not on the ballot in November, and that is why he is likely lose Congress in any case. The other way he can get around this is if he tries to interfere with our elections using dirty tricks he has up his sleeve as feared in terms of takeover of the election process nationally..Another factor will be how many protesters marching in the street are increasing to over 3.5% of the voters (12 million), usually a threshold of success for peaceful protests successfully causing regime change elsewhere in the world per political scientists studying that history, though even smaller percentages have been successful. .  The Minneapolis effect could well boost the ranks of marching protesters to that level. The '3.5% rule': How a small minority can change the world | Harvard Kennedy School

 As much as the Trump regime tries to say these are paid agitators and organizers, they are fooling themselves and MAGA. Without millions themselves realizing they are the only way to stop this wannabe dictator, since the guardrails against such have failed, Indivisible could never have succeeded in turning out so many, mostly white, educated middle-class people of all ages.  The participants have been willing to risk Trump's threats and abuse of power, "screw their courage to a sticking post" (Shakespeare) all across America, and for many, for the first time in their lives, to get out and march in support of democracy. They know a wannabe King, tyrant, dictator when they see one because they remember what they learned about the history of the 1930s  in Europe, the 1950's to current times in South America, and how ordinary people suffered under such rule, causing many to flee their home countries to western democracies. (There is a reason the migrants are not hordes flowing to such dictatorships.) They see it happening here and now.  Above all, they are a pro-democracy force that wants to preserve the kind of democracy we have had for 250 years, of, by, and for the people  (not of, by, and for a one-man, small minority,  or oligarchic ruler). They know about such dictatorships that, once in power, they only care enough to trickle down just enough to the masses to keep them from violently revolting. The rest of the tax benefits and grift is for their personal lifestyles and the causes that serve them. The goal of such autocrats is to stay in power by whatever means, including violence.  

CNN poll: Democrats are deeply motivated for the midterms despite having dismal views of party leaders

 

Are Trump's supporters getting what they want from his second term? Here's what a new poll shows

A post from mid December which  dives deeper into why and what of Trump's brand of fascism, or whatever you call how he is acting. MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: My nagging question: why does fascism keep raising its ugly head

A post written in October: MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: What is MAGA? Whatever you call it, it is not conservative, but something else.

Why are ICE agents so prone to violence and so dedicated to taking down anyone who looks like a migrant. Look at who they are recruiting. Whatever could go wrong? . The US government seems to have a clear message for white nationalists | CNN Politics

Grocery price inflation end of 2025: up 2.4 percent  tariff role per an ABC news report.Grocery inflation is picking up, defying Trump's claims. Here's why.

Gas prices at pump..just below $3 per gallon; mid Jan 2026 AAA Fuel Prices  Not..below $2 per gal as Trump claims.

Housing price inflation:Housing price inflation, 1967→2026

Energy cost inflation: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/21/why-electricity-prices-are-surging-for-us-households.html#:~:text=Electricity%20prices%20are%20rising%20quickly,the%20electric    Nearly 5% in 2025

White people are poorly treated, claims Trump. His true self is revealed again

 The president just claimed that "white people in this country are poorly treated."Trump's true self is revealed again. I have been trying to find proof, too, that those who are not DEI hurt white people. By eliminating DEI throughout the federal government, the result is not to level a playing field, but to give a green light and to remove a barrier to what nationalists most desire, which is giving their race (and mine), already a heady majority, more of an advantage over others. This is a nation with nearly 40% percent of those not white. This is the white nationalists' dream to increase domination of a majority over a minority, a formula for a past and a future of racial conflict. It is not just divisive, it is dangerous for a future we hope will be peaceful and governed by and for all of the people.

What we now have is a country led by an obvious racist and who includes white nationalists in non-elected, powerful, influential positions in his administration. Now his administration is actively recruiting white nationalists for ICE. The US government seems to have a clear message for white nationalists | CNN Politics Whatever could go wrong?

What is clear is that Trump has built his political base and risen to near absolute power on racism, from birtherism to central park 5 to the golden escalator to constantly documented dog whistles to rally his fellow racists, like calling tiki torch carrying neo nazis fine people. Trump has made it clear that the only migrants he welcomes to the US are Norwegians and White South Africans. How much more blatantly obvious can a racist be?

The real shame is that so many Americans share or tolerate his racism.

The other shame is that his racist whisperer is in his ear daily and given a permission slip to proceed. Stephen Miller on his staff has a long history of white nationalism. If anything, Miller's contribution to the Trump regime is his anti-immigrant stance, including using the cruelty of family separation as a tool and in deporting immigrants without due process. He is viewed as an extremist in these sensitive matters. Given his anti-immigrant reputation, I doubt if the Bill of Rights and the civil rights-related amendments would be high on his required list of curriculum topics. The Southern Poverty Law Center tags him as an extremist.https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/stephen-miller/. Miller is in charge of this ICE project aimed at ridding the country of as many brown people as he can under the pretext migrants are criminals when 70 percent of those they grab have no criminal record.. ..but are brown and are both american citizens and who only committed a misdemeanor of being undocumented. Miller's campaign involves eliminating the birthright citizenship of those born in the US and cleansing them from this country.

the-independent.com

Trump says white people being treated ‘very badly’ due to civil rights protections

Show me your papers. If you are an American citizen, what papers?

 "Show me your papers." ICE should not demand of anyone in what we once had a democracy. Videos of show American citizens are being snatched and brutally taken down if they look like a migrant. ICE does not even pause to ask first.. They just throw their suspect n to the ground, dragged and cuffed by a masked paramilitary. So, what papers should American citizens carry with them? We do not have a national ID card. Drivers license and SSI cards are not proof. Should all Americans have to carry their birth certificates around? Only a small percent of Americans have passports, and migrants with green cards have some evidence of legality, but what about the rest of us? Heaven help you if you do not look Anglo and have an accent. There is a history here of show me your papers laws. SB 1070 at the Supreme Court: What's at Stake | American Civil Liberties Union

startribune.com

Target employees detained by federal officers were U.S. citizens, legislator says

Minnesota Rep. Michael Howard, who represents Richfield, said the employees also were injured in the incident.

The Renee Good shooting and the absurd Trumpist reaction

 The Renee Good/ICE shooting initial voter reaction is heavily divided along partisan linesmper a snap poll same day as the incident. There is a parallel of what happened 8 blocks from there in Trump's first term...the shooting of George Floyd, and both were caught on video for the public consumption, domestic and abroad. .Like the George Floyd shooting, there are plenty of videos of it. The major difference is that the victim here was a middle-aged white woman, who caused the agent to feel he was attacked. As reported in Newsweek, the snap poll did not break down approval or disapproval by those who had seen the videos before, during and after the ICE agent shot Good in the head through the front windshield after a verbal exchange. The agent shot through the passenger side door two 2 more times as the car continued in the direction Good had turned the wheels away from the agent just before the shooting/, It crashed down the street. Just before the first shot, the reverse lights had lit up. How in the name of whatever could the agent claim he was threatened is hard to see. But in a matter of minutes after the incident, Trump officials claimed the agent's shot was self-defense. That the agent was injured (a blatant lie as he walked away on his cell phone, obviously in no sign of pain after it) is the proof. "Don't believe your eye"s Trump's agents, Noom, the VP, want their followers to believe. In time, those with any vestige of objective thought will understand what happened. What I am sure of is a)the Trump regime will never find the agent guilty of anything, or if by chance the agent is found culpable, Trump will just pardon him. To make sure justice will never be done or foundguilt of manslaughter by a jury, the Trump-controlled FBI is playing keepaway of evidence from either local or state prosecutors, indicating they fear what it would reveal

The Trump regime's response immediately after the shooting, and before they even knew any facts, was to cover their rear end with not only the lie about the agent being run over, but to call this middle-aged woman a domestic terrorist. JD Vance's absurd remarks along that line will be hung around his neck if he ever runs for president.. If the latter is true, likewise, anyone who mouths off and refuses to respond to a burly battle garbed trigger happy Ice agent with a gun in his hand is a domestic terrorist and deserves to be shot through the head, it appears.

The only way to counter this is through congressional hearings.(Fat chance...while the GOP controls that). We could also hope for some civil lawsuit based upon wrongful death or civil rights abuse, where the discovery of evidence is required.

Until then, MAGA will view the videos through their loyal, rosy-colored glasses, and everyone else in the world will come to a different conclusion. The court of public opinion will be closely watched as more people view the videos. If this follows the George Floyd history, the impact on public opinion will be a slow burn as the videos are viewed, and the anger of demonstrators will dramatize their outrage (God hope, peacefully), but it will be the only impact felt before the November midterms.

ICE approval rating after Renee Nicole Good shooting revealed in new poll

I have been puzzled that some on the left turned the Renee Good shooting into a feminist issue until I read reports of the incident in two foreign publications, Der Spiegel and Le Monde. Both are reporting that holder of one of the videos, an ICE agent, heard Good referred to just before shots were fired as a "f*******ing bitch". Sometimes nuances like this escape our own journalists. In any case, these two influential publications are informing Europe as much as our domestic press is covering it. Also reported on derspiegel@substack.com (German publication but in English)

lemonde.fr

Anger over Minneapolis shooting probe fuels protests

Renee Good was one of four people who have been killed by ICE since Trump launched his immigration crackdown. The Trump administration has sought to paint the victim as a 'domestic terrorist,' insisting that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who fatally shot her was acting in self-...