We're Not Mad Enough

Until now, most of us have been playing whack-a-mole with the news—trying to keep up with the daily barrage: executions, arrests, political malfeasance, obstruction, and intimidation.

Every day feels like a shit show.

And as we’ve learned from the Steve Bannon playbook, that’s the point: keep the public swatting at the next headline so they won’t see what’s happening right under their noses. By the time they do, it’ll be too late because MAGA will have what it came for...

We’ve seen this setup in heist movies: the villains stage a brawl in the bank lobby while their people slip into the back to rob the vault.

Unfortunately, in our reality, the "brawl" is murder and mayhem—loud, overwhelming, and unbearable to witness. It’s designed to exhaust you into submission.

Meanwhile, the real heist is quieter — and easier once you're afraid and tired. It’s the theft of democracy itself.

It happens through a slow takeover of the systems that restrain power: elections, courts, journalism, the Constitution. They’re not just trying to loot the vault—they’re trying to change the locks so it belongs to them.

To that end, the Trump administration took two steps that some will say are not important or an effort to distract you from the Epstein files released this week.

First, federal agents raided the Fulton County election office in Georgia to confiscate ballots from the 2020 election. Then, the DOJ arrested two independent journalists for... doing their jobs.

Both moves are part of the Trump Administration's efforts to dismantle our democracy. And if that project succeeds, the world we’ve known doesn’t bounce back in a cycle or two. The road back stretches beyond our imagination—and our lifetimes.

I don't believe in scaring people into caring about the news.

You don’t need to be afraid.

You need to be fucking mad.

I don't know the future. Maybe this won’t be as bad as it looks. I hope I’m wrong. But hope isn’t a plan. Accountability is.

Our first meaningful chance at that comes November 3, 2026. That’s 276 days away. The time to prepare is now.

The only way out is through.

1) NO FREE PRESS FOR YOU: You hear about this happening in other countries — and even there, it’s not usually this brazen: On Friday, the Trump Administration arrested two independent journalists for (gasp) doing journalism.

• Why is This Confusing? Georgia Fort and Don Lemon covered a January 18 protest inside Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota — where demonstrators (peacefully) disrupted a service to protest the church’s pastor, who also works as an ICE official. Both Fort and Lemon are seen in video interviewing protesters and stating they are there as journalists.
• Is She Dumb?: Attorney General Pam Bondi – apparently not knowing how journalism works – said the arrests of Fort, Lemon, and two others were made at her direction, accusing Lemon and Fort of taking part in a “coordinated attack” on the church.
• Priorities: “Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two peaceful Minnesota protesters, the Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention and resources to this arrest, and that is the real indictment of wrongdoing in this case.” — Abbe Lowell, Lemon’s lawyer
• In Real Time: “I filmed a protest as a member of the media,” Fort said as she live streamed from her house while agents waited outside.
• Fourth Time's a Charm: NPR/KERA reports prosecutors were rebuffed twice when seeking arrest warrants for Lemon in Minnesota, with a judge – appointed by George W Bush – finding “no evidence” of criminal behavior in his work and calling the case “frivolous.” After also being shut down by a federal appeals court, the DOJ switched tactics and got a grand jury to indict both Fort and Lemon.
• For What Though? The government is charging Lemon under 18 U.S.C. § 241 (civil-rights conspiracy) and 18 U.S.C. § 248 (the FACE Act). This civil-rights charge typically requires proving “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the defendant tried to interfere with someone’s constitutional rights.
• Legal Gymnastics: The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act is the FACE Act. I know — it doesn’t sound like the kind of law that applies here. The law was passed in 1994 to protect abortion clinics and providers but the administration is invoking it here as protecting religious worship. Then, to win Republican votes, lawmakers added protections for places of worship, like churches. According to legal expert Joyce Vance: “The government has to prove the defendant used 'force or threat of force or…physical obstruction' to intentionally injure, intimidate or interfere with (or attempt to do so) any person who is 'lawfully exercising or seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.'”
• Cruelty is the Point: Federal prosecutors asked a judge to hold Fort without bond, claiming her alleged crime was “violent.” The judge refused, and she was released.
• Why Them: Press advocates are calling this an intimidation campaign — especially against independent/local reporters who don't have corporate legal backing.
• What's Next: Both Lemon and Fort will return for future court appearances related to the charges.

2) ELECTION INTERFERENCE: Percolating behind the scenes is the Trump Administration’s push to shape — and potentially manipulate — the upcoming midterm elections because they're gonna lose big time if they play fair.

• What's at Stake: This week, Axios reported that a recorded call between Sen. Ted Cruz, President Trump, and election donors captured Cruz warning that Republicans could lose power in November. Cruz told Trump: “You’re going to lose the House, you’re going to lose the Senate, you’re going to spend the next two years being impeached every single week.”
• Undermine the Results: The DOJ raided the Fulton County, Georgia election offices and hauled away millions of 2020 ballots, claiming they’re looking for evidence of fraud. Trump has spent years insisting the 2020 election was rigged — despite mountains of evidence proving otherwise. Fulton County recounted its votes three times in 2020, and each time declared Joe Biden the winner.
  • Remember When: That didn’t stop Trump from trying to manipulate the outcome. Remember the recorded phone call in which Trump urged Georgia election officials — Republicans — to “find” him just enough votes to win the state. Fulton County is also where Trump became the first president to be criminally charged for illegally interfering with an election and conspiring with allies to change its outcome. Those charges were dropped after he became president, because apparently we can’t — or won’t — hold presidents accountable. Thanks, SCOTUS!
  • Fishy, Fishy: Also spotted in Fulton County: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — which is super weird. The New Republic writes that she “may have been there in an attempt to legitimize a conspiracy theory popular in right-wing circles (and the Trump administration) that the Venezuelan government was involved in a plot to overthrow the 2020 election. The Justice Department has been investigating the false claim, debunked in a Delaware court in 2023, as of November last year. Is the Trump administration attempting to create a case out of thin air to validate the president’s 2020 election lies?”
• Intimidate Voters: This week, we learned Pam Bondi told Minnesota officials everything would be a lot easier if they just handed over their voter rolls — which the state’s secretary of state, Steve Simon (D), called an “outrageous attempt to coerce Minnesota into giving the federal government private data on millions of U.S. citizens in violation of state and federal law.” Voter fraud is extremely rare. Still, Bondi claims they’re just “trying to keep elections secure.” (NYT)
  • Obviously: “Voting rights advocates have said Bondi’s letter appears to confirm their long-standing anxieties that the DOJ’s voter data campaign is being used as political leverage rather than as a good-faith effort to enforce election laws — a concern now echoed, at least in part, by a federal judge evaluating the administration’s conduct on the record.” (Democracy Docket)
  • This Isn't New: Since last spring, the Trump administration has been demanding unredacted statewide voter files — including sensitive information that can be weaponized and manipulated — from every state, and it’s suing those that won’t comply. The Constitution gives states broad authority over how elections are run, and federal judges have tossed some of these suits, arguing the federal government’s demands infringe on states’ rights.
  • Master Plan: With access to this data, the Trump Administration can purge legitimate voters from the rolls, target communities with disinformation and intimidation campaigns, and weaponize the DOJ to launch baseless investigations. They could tip an election without touching a single voting machine.
• Make it Hard: House Republicans are pushing a new bill they’re calling the Make Elections Great Again (MEGA) Act. It proposes stricter voter ID laws, new citizenship-proof requirements, changes to when mail-in ballots can be processed, and a nationwide ban on vote-by-mail. This won’t make elections great again — it will make voting harder and disenfranchise an untold number of legitimate voters, most likely Democratic ones.

3) JUST FOR SHOW: After the public execution of Alex Pretti sparked national backlash, the Trump Administration moved fast to change the optics: U.S. Customs and Border Protection official Greg Bovino — who’d become the on-the-ground face of Operation Metro Surge — was pushed out, and Tom Homan was sent in as the new point person. But on the ground, local officials say the operation hasn’t meaningfully changed — same posture, same fear, same aggressive tactics. Here’s what that looks like this week:

• Oops!: Ecuador says a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent tried to enter its Minneapolis consulate and was physically blocked by staff — an incident Reuters notes raises serious issues under diplomatic protections.
• Pants on Fire: The Associated Press reports a Minneapolis hospital is openly disputing ICE’s claim that a Mexican immigrant’s shattered skull and brain bleeding came from him “running into a brick wall” while handcuffed — and staff describe being intimidated by agents inside critical care. “The nurses … felt intimidated by ICE’s presence in the critical care unit … [and] staff members are using an encrypted messaging app … out of fear that the government might be monitoring their communications.”
• Quick to Judge: In at least four other cases — excluding Pretti and Good — a Reuters investigation found that the government’s actions “show a pattern in which officials rushed to defend immigration officers without waiting for key facts to emerge – in what former immigration officials called a clear break with past practice for federal agencies in such situations.”
• Orwellian: Reporting based on 🎁 The New York Times describes agents using tools like facial recognition, phone/social monitoring, and data systems (including vendors like Palantir Technologies) not just to find undocumented immigrants, but also to identify and track protesters.
• So What: Newly surfaced footage shows Pretti in a confrontation with federal agents 11 days before he was killed — kicking a taillight, briefly exposing a firearm when his shirt lifts, but not reaching for it. His family confirmed it was him.
• Will We Get the Truth? The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into Pretti’s killing, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation leading the review.
• No Italian Ice: Italians hate ICE, too, apparently — and not the frozen dessert kind. After learning that ICE agents would be accompanying U.S. officials to Milan for the Winter Olympics, which begin Friday, Italians have been livid — and even protested Saturday. ICE, which is housed under DHS, typically sends agents to international events as part of their security protocol — but their reputation precedes them now. Milan’s mayor Giuseppe Sala: “This is a militia that kills, a militia that enters into the homes of people, signing their own permission slips. It is clear they are not welcome in Milan, without a doubt.”
• Shutdown: A partial federal government shutdown is underway — through at least Tuesday — after Democrats refused to provide the votes needed to fund DHS without new guardrails on immigration enforcement. Democrats want agents to stop hiding behind masks, start wearing body cameras, and face tighter rules and independent scrutiny — all aimed at forcing DHS/ICE to operate within the Constitution and the rule of law, including the limits on entering homes without a judicial warrant except in narrow circumstances.

4) EPSTEIN FILES: The U.S. Department of Justice says it has completed its required review and published what it’s calling the final batch of Jeffrey Epstein–related material under the Epstein Files Transparency Act: ~3.5 million pages total, plus 2,000+ videos and 180,000 images.

• It's Not Everything: But the DOJ has also said there are about 6 million “potentially responsive” pages total — meaning roughly half the universe still isn’t public. Lawmakers are demanding an explanation. The DOJ says that’s to protect the privacy of abuse victims, including children. (ABC)
• Got Off Easy: A draft of a 2007 federal indictment against Epstein was released. It alleges he sexually victimized girls as young as 14, threatened them, and asked them to recruit other children for “prurient interests.” The document “had been one of the most sought-after documents in the Epstein files, because it showed how much federal investigators knew about the extent of his crimes,” per The New York Times. Then, Epstein was sentenced to just 13 months in jail — and was allowed out for work for most of the day.
• Sure...: At a press conference, Deputy AG Todd Blanche said the DOJ didn’t “protect” anyone — specifically pushing back when asked about Donald Trump and whether anything mentioning him was being held back. (Axios)
• Cover-up?: Numerous outlets report that files referencing Trump disappeared from the DOJ site without explanation or notice. It’s not the first time. Last month, the DOJ removed at least a dozen other files before uploading them again later.
• Lutnick Lies? The tranche also includes details that undercut Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s public line that he cut Epstein off in 2005 because he was “disgusting” and “gross." Emails show correspondence about a meeting in 2012. (Politico)

• More on ICE & DHS:
  • Judges across the country are growing tired of ICE’s disrespect for the rule of law. “'ICE is not a law unto itself,' Judge Patrick Schiltz, the chief judge on Minnesota’s federal bench, said Wednesday in a ruling describing staggering defiance by ICE to judges’ orders — particularly ones requiring the release of detained immigrants. He estimated, conservatively, that the agency had violated court orders by Minnesota judges 96 times this month alone.” (Politico)
  • DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is being blamed for circulating a false narrative about the circumstances of Pretti’s murder — that has even angered the NRA — but Noem says she was just taking orders. "’Everything I've done, I've done at the direction of the president and Stephen,’ Noem told a person who relayed her remarks to Axios.’” (Axios)
  • Republican Sens. Thom Tillis (NC) and Lisa Murkowski (AL) were the first in their party to call for Noem to step down after the murder of Alex Pretti. Tillis — who is retiring — said: "If I were in her position, I can't think of any point of pride over the last year.” But, there’s no indication that Noem is going — at least not now. But even if she did — some think it won’t matter. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT): “She’s unqualified, but so will the next DHS secretary. The name on the door of DHS doesn’t really matter. This is an operation being run by the president and Stephen Miller.” (NBC News)
  • Five-year-old Liam Ramos and his father must be released from detention no later than Tuesday, February 3, per the ruling of U.S. District Judge Fred Biery on Saturday. Ramos was detained after returning home from preschool in Minneapolis, where he lives. ICE agents then used him as bait to draw out other people inside his home — which DHS denies. “U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, wrote that their case 'has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.'” 🎁 (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
  • Susan Collins (R) says ICE is no longer operating in Maine after she personally called DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and asked her to scale down operations. (Sen. Susan Collins/X)
• We’re still at it in Iran. Reuters reports that Trump has sent an American flotilla to Iran in hopes of sparking a fight with Iran that will reignite protests leading to “regime change.” Trump “is looking at options to hit commanders and institutions Washington holds responsible for the violence, to give protesters the confidence that they could overrun government and security buildings,” sources said. Both sides claim to be working through diplomatic channels to avoid a conflict. (Reuters)
• Once again, President Trump is suing his own country’s government — this time the IRS for $10 billion. In a civil case filed in Florida by Trump, two of his sons — Donald Trump, Jr and Eric — accuses the IRS and Treasury Department of failing to prevent a leak of their tax records by a former IRS employee in 2019 and 2020. A government contractor — who is serving five years in prison — plead guilty to leaking the documents and others to various news outlets including The New York Times and ProPublica. In the latter’s report about the tax documents, an expert assessed that they showed some evidence of fraud which the Trump organization says caused them “reputational and financial harm” and a bunch of other stuff that probably isn’t true. This isn’t a first for Trump — last year he sued the DOJ for $230 million because they gasp investigated him. (CNBC)
• The DOJ cut funding for units working on sex crimes against children. The cuts “are putting vulnerable children at risk and impeding efforts to bring child predators to justice, according to four prosecutors and law enforcement officers specializing in cases of child sexual exploitation, speaking on the condition of anonymity.” DOJ claims they “prosecute criminals who exploit children and ensure the efficient use of taxpayer dollars.” (The Guardian)
• At a town hall in Minneapolis, a man lunged at Rep. Ilhan Omar and sprayed a substance on her. Omar has been in Trump’s crosshairs for years. The liquid was later identified as apple cider vinegar. The man was tackled and arrested. (KARE-11)
  • Days earlier, Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) was punched in the face by a man who told him he should be deported. (Axios)
• Trump keeps a framed photo of him and Putin in the White House. Marko Mihkelson, the chair of Estonia’s parliamentary foreign affairs committee, said of the photo: “If it is true that the US president considers it appropriate to hang on the White House wall a photo of the greatest war criminal of the 21st century, then a just and sustainable peace will have to wait. Unfortunately.” (The Guardian)
• Trump says he’ll nominate Kevin Warsh as the next chair of the Federal Reserve. (Politico)
• After Trump allies took control of TikTok this week — users reported videos about ICE, Jeffrey Epstein and other unfriendly Trump topics wouldn’t load or got literally zero views — highly unusual given the previous popularity of the videos on those topics. The social media app claimed technical difficulties. Droves of users left the app to move to Upscrolled. (Vox)
• The next “No Kings” rallies are scheduled nationwide for March 28. This will be the third such nationwide protest day since Trump took office again last year. (Common Dreams)
• That Melania documentary that Amazon spent $75 million on was a huge flop. (Forbes)
  • Tell that to the 16,000 people Amazon laid off this week. (CNN)
• Singer Bruce Springsteen released a new song this week, “Streets of Minneapolis,” honoring Renee Good and Alex Pretti — and protesting ICE’s tactics in the city. (NPR)

• USAID warned the Biden Administration as early as January 2024 that “Northern Gaza had turned into an ‘Apocalyptic Wasteland.’" “The staff reported seeing a human femur and other bones on the roads, dead bodies abandoned in cars and 'catastrophic human needs, particularly for food and safe drinking water.' But the U.S. ambassador to Jerusalem, Jack Lew, and his deputy, Stephanie Hallett, blocked the cable from wider distribution within the United States government because they believed it lacked balance, according to interviews with four former officials and documents seen by Reuters.” (Reuters)
• The Israeli military now says it accepts the Gaza Ministry of Health death toll numbers — reported at 71,000 so far — after undermining and casting doubt on them for two years. The true number is estimated to be higher. (Reuters)
• Israel is planning to build concentration camps for Palestinians. (The Jerusalem Post)
• NBC News is treating the ceasefire as still intact — and “inching forward” — even as its reports that Israeli strikes killed 30 people in Gaza on Saturday.
• This week marked the second anniversary of the killing of five-year-old Hind Rajab. Her mother, Wesam Hamada, wrote a tribute honoring her daughter. No one has been held accountable for her murder. (The New York Times)