🦄 Current Events Monday Jan 26 thru Sunday Feb 1, 2026
- Thread starter SarahSparkles
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Uh, this doesn't look good on its face. Though they're shy on details the FBI is executing a "search warrant at Fulton County elections office near Atlanta."
https://apnews.com/live/donald-trump-news-updates-1-28-2026
https://apnews.com/live/donald-trump-news-updates-1-28-2026
You might be right, according to this review in The Guardian there was no pre-release to the reviewing press.
They can't rig elections y'all, that's illegal, don't be stupid.
<Sounds of gunshots in the distance have been removed>
The country is dying and we have sunk very low. Not all is lost though. Its going to be a long and tough road. The next 8 - 10 years is going to be bad. All the former ICE agents kooks and nuts that supported Trump et al are going to be left out to dry and reassimilating them into society is going to be hard. We'll come out of it but forever altered, for better or worse who knows but the America left after Trumps done violating it will never be the same.
I want to know what idiot of a judge signed off on a search warrant six years after the election. And just what pile of lies are in that warrant.
For those who don't remember, the Georgia vote was counted three times with only meaningless changes in the count.
I mean I guess you're right. The other possible assumption is that it's all about greed or a desire to make America more fascist.
Cowardice is the generous assumption.
NY Times' profile of the guy who attacked Rep Omar reads like it came from central casting:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/...-what-we-know.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/...-what-we-know.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
China has executed 11 people convicted of being linked to online scam operations in Myanmar. I'm opposed to capital punishment on principle, so I'd prefer to hear that they had been sentenced to 20 years of hard labour. Not sure that it will put a dent in how much scamming is going on, but hope springs eternal.
I'm willing to bet it was more than just them not being conservative, but anti-whateverbullshit he was spouting constantly lol or not full throat agreement with the right wing media news cycles.
You met the guy once, and he didn't bite your head off, therefore he's a saint?
There's an alternative to your interpretation of the same set of observations, and that's him being a craven coward who will sell out his own mother for cash.
It’s not that they operated some scam center. They abducted people and tortured them if they didn’t hit performance targets. They murdered random people to celebrate business deals to show how untouchable they are. Obviously engaged in human trafficking and forced prostitution. Aside from the depravity of all those crimes, they engaged in them in a systematic and methodological manner, generating tens of billions in revenue. The operations that led to their arrest freed thousands of people held captive. The scale of this is really hard to imagine.
I'm not worried about the footsoldiers, the power brokers, the billionaires that profited off this travesty, the media consolidation, that's what worries me.
I'd like to share this article that touches on this point https://www.theatlantic.com/podcast...vid-brooks-neocons-democratic-society/685787/ just, ignore the first half of the interview I think.
I'd like to take a quote from the article, that I think illustrates the point.
And also this quote
We should know later this morning if there will be a partial government shutdown - cloture vote on the 6-bill funding package. Reporting is indicating that there will most likely be at least a short term shutdown.
We’ll see, I guess. I trust next to nothing any of these folks are saying before the votes are cast.
We’ll see, I guess. I trust next to nothing any of these folks are saying before the votes are cast.
You truly can't make this stuff up
https://thehill.com/homenews/admini...putin-hangs-in-renovated-room-of-white-house/
If this were a script the writer would be a hamfisted hack.
https://thehill.com/homenews/admini...putin-hangs-in-renovated-room-of-white-house/
If this were a script the writer would be a hamfisted hack.
Or he knows how to be nice to someone while he's reaching for their wallet.
SOOOO many people mistake a friendly manner for virtue. It's not the same thing at all.
Sounds like there should be at least 100 others deserving life terms of breaking rocks.
Maybe the US can take a page out of that book and put the leaders and implementers of corruption in this administration in prison for long terms and claw back the ill gotten gains.
You know who your friends are when you need them. Was talking with a ex-coworkers about layoffs (we both recently being layoff and may get layoff again). There are people who reach out to help, people who will help if you reach out, and people who ignore you.
Same apply if you need a place to crash, take care of your kids/pets, need help in hospital, etc.
When the country need him, Tim is no where to be found.
Yeah, we had a local politician who was truly a horrible person. BUT apparently he was super nice and amazing at his fundraising dinners. I noticed a co-worker went to one, and she said that he was 'absolutely lovely'. I mean, except for being a dirt bag in politics and business. The guy literally regularly retweeted neo-fascist comments and when called out on it he just said it was 'politically motivated attacks'.
Fortunately he got tossed out in the last set of elections. Denied as an MP and as a mayoral candidate.
So you go after family pictures now? A picture of Trump with her granddaughter, just below a picture of Trump with his (sugar) daddy, that should not raise any suspicion! Don't you also have pictures of people you love hanging on your walls?
I'm not sure where we could send them that they wouldn't be prone to do harm elsewhere.
All those things worry me too, but it may still be relevant to point out that Hitler started out as a foot soldier.
Initial vote to clear cloture failed, 45y-55n, on the funding package.
I didn’t hear any Democrats cross the aisle during the voting, but several Republicans did; it was the normal, “never vote for appropriations” people like Scott (FL) and Tuberville and Paul, not anyone voting specifically against ICE (except maybe Paul, but he was never going to be a yes vote anyway).
“Negotiations” are ongoing, but a partial shutdown is almost certainly in the works.
I didn’t hear any Democrats cross the aisle during the voting, but several Republicans did; it was the normal, “never vote for appropriations” people like Scott (FL) and Tuberville and Paul, not anyone voting specifically against ICE (except maybe Paul, but he was never going to be a yes vote anyway).
“Negotiations” are ongoing, but a partial shutdown is almost certainly in the works.
Good. Bernie has it right: shut it down until Noem and Miller are punted.
Fine. At least then we’ll know for sure it’s fascism.
Exactly.
Premise 1 - The nation needs fixes which are not possible via reconciliation.
Premise 2 - The democrats will not kill the filibuster.
Premise 3 - The GOP will do what they will do regardless of what we do.
Hope: electoral overwhelming landslide can overcome their planned fixes, doubtful on outlook.
I basically am adamant that the nation is dead with a filibuster still intact the cracks are simply too large. Kill the filibuster and you can basically fix anything we can get 51 votes for.
In a small bit of good news, Mamdani's handling of New York weather response seems well received. Dare I say that Mamdani seems to truly understand that smart governance doesn't have to come at the cost of good politics? Achievements aren't worth much if you can't cash them in as electoral success, as the 2024 election certainly proved.
Schumer found a way to say yes after talking to the Trump Administration.
New Plan:
DHS gets a funding until 13 Feb while “negotiations” continue.
The other five bills are voted on as a block.
The whole thing goes back to the House, who must vote on the amended package.
The House is in recess, so there will be a potentially short partial shutdown over the weekend until they return to vote on Monday.
https://rollcall.com/2026/01/29/bipartisan-deal-reached-on-homeland-security-stopgap-bill/
It still needs to pass the Senate and the House.
New Plan:
DHS gets a funding until 13 Feb while “negotiations” continue.
The other five bills are voted on as a block.
The whole thing goes back to the House, who must vote on the amended package.
The House is in recess, so there will be a potentially short partial shutdown over the weekend until they return to vote on Monday.
https://rollcall.com/2026/01/29/bipartisan-deal-reached-on-homeland-security-stopgap-bill/
It still needs to pass the Senate and the House.
Thing I don't get is that DHS or ICE got $75 billon last year, for ICE alone. Their one year budget is $10 billion.
So what is this additional funding for? The big tranche of monies were appropriated with the OBBB.
The shooter(s) in the Pretti case were CBP guards -- not sure how they deploy which personnel to states but I heard they seek volunteers?
So CBP funding is separate from ICE funding? Or maybe yet another separate funding for these blue state deployments, not a part of the normal ICE or CBP budget, because you know they must be paying a lot of OT and covering hotel expenses and so on.
So what is this additional funding for? The big tranche of monies were appropriated with the OBBB.
The shooter(s) in the Pretti case were CBP guards -- not sure how they deploy which personnel to states but I heard they seek volunteers?
So CBP funding is separate from ICE funding? Or maybe yet another separate funding for these blue state deployments, not a part of the normal ICE or CBP budget, because you know they must be paying a lot of OT and covering hotel expenses and so on.
By all means, the best way to start “negotiations” is by handing over any leverage that you might’ve had. Infinity-D chess!
The OBBBA funds were for greatly expanding ICE in almost all ways. More (a LOT more) personnel, the expanded operations we’re seeing, more detention centers, and a LOT of technology buy-in and contracts. It’s a one time infusion of funds outside the normal appropriations cycle. Notably, it doesn’t cover a lot of administrative costs. DHS has some leeway to move some of that money around in ICE, but a shit-ton of it has already been spent or otherwise allocated on various contract vehicles for tech and structures.
ICE and CBP are distinctly separate orgs underneath DHS, with very different (on paper) mandates and missions. And yes, their funding is separate.
The annual ICE budget in the DHS appropriations bill is to keep the lights on, pay the staff that existed before the hiring surge, and fund the back end / top level administrative stuff. In addition, that covers ‘normal’ operational costs that doesn’t really include hiring 50,000new people and sending several thousand “agents” to one city to terrorize a populace multiple times a year - that’s OBBBA in action.
This is all pretty top level, and the specifics in the bill texts and statutes are a bit more detailed. There is still several layers of obfuscation because the funding laws as they stand at the moment don’t go too deep into the details - part of the controls being put into place across most of the appropriations bills is to add some of that granularity. The tough part about that is the Administration may (and probably will) just lie.
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