WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 2026
We'd be slow to go there: "Back out of all this now too much for us?"
That's the way the fellow named Frost began his difficult poem, Directive. Yesterday, violent scenes in the streets of Minneapolis suggested the possibility that we Americans have found our way into such a dangerous state of affairs.
To our eye, some of the videotape from those streets was borderline astounding. So were these numbers, as reported deep inside this New York Times news report—a report about federal prosecutors quitting their jobs in protest of the current DOJ:
Six Prosecutors Quit Over Push to Investigate ICE Shooting Victim’s Widow
[...]
Mr. Thompson’s departure came during the chaotic immigration crackdown in Minnesota, which has angered many residents and left officials bracing for an escalation of violence.
Begun in December with the deployment of roughly 100 federal agents from out of state, the operation has swelled to include some 2,000 federal agents. By comparison, the Minneapolis Police Department has roughly 600 officers.
Two thousand feds versus 600 locals! Yesterday, the streets sometimes seemed to be swarming with those 2000 federal agents.
For better or worse, imagery from the last century came to mind as we watched some of yesterday's footage. Late yesterday afternoon, during a bizarre discussion on The Five, Jessica Tarlov cited the case of a young woman who was dragged from her car, apparently at a crowded intersection, by a phalanx of masked men:
TARLOV (1/13/26): The media talking about this is not the problem. Americans are seeing these images. They're seeing one of the images we just showed—a woman being pulled out of her car. She was on her way to a doctor's appointment.
To our eye, the video is startling as this young woman is dragged from her car, with her window smashed, and her seatbelt apparatus cut, to felicitate her rough removal by a gang of very rough feds.
We suggest that you click that link to see the tape of this apparent arrest. That said, Tarlov wasn't asked to explain how she knew that this young woman had merely been on her way to a doctor's appointment.
A bit later, she seemed to suggest (see below) that this young woman was an American citizen.
She wasn't asked to support that suggestion either. On this, our nation's most-watched "cable news" show, there is little awareness of the traditional practices by which factual claims are established as accurate.
What explains the very rough treatment dispensed to that young woman? A few minutes later, as that same videotape played again, the practiced idiot Jesse Watters took his latest roundhouse swing at this latest topic. He also commented on the resignations from the DOJ which are reported in today's New York Times.
Watters authored a typical gonzo performance. Below, you see the way "news" is now delivered to Red America from inside the corporate messaging entity known as the Fox News Channel.
To watch this exchange, click here:
TARLOV: There are Americans being pulled out of their cars—Americans!
WATTERS: You know why, Jessica. Because they're getting in the way. Why do you think she got pulled out?
GUTFELD (sarcastically): She was just a mom! She was just a mom in the wrong place!
(To Tarlov) You guys lie about all of this!
WATTERS: That's another hoax. You're going to find out tomorrow she's not going to a doctor's appointment. She was obstructing an ICE operation.
And these resignations, Jessica—that's another hoax. It's already been debunked.
TARLOV: Really? Debunked by who?
WATTERS: By everybody. It's like hours ago that was debunked. They resigned in late October.
And so on from there. These exchanges occurred within a wider discussion about "white women"—a wider discussion which we would score as borderline crazy/insane.
Why was that young woman roughly pulled from her car? As best we can tell, a handful of reports appear online, none of them definitive. Last evening, Minneapolis Public Radio offered this brief report, with a subsequent update:
MPR NEWS (1/13/26): On Tuesday, Jan. 13, a woman in south Minneapolis was stopped by ICE, pulled from her car and carried by agents into their vehicle. As she was being carried the woman told agents she was on her way to see a doctor. She also said that she is autistic and needed accommodations, but the agents did not relent.
Federal agents also detained an elderly man, who could be seen with blood on his face when he was put into a federal vehicle. ICE agents then deployed tear gas, stun grenades and pepper balls as they left the scene.
UPDATE: At 6 p.m., the friend of the women confirmed to MPR she had been released.
What's the full story behind this incident? At this point, we can't tell you.
Assuming the MPR reporting is accurate, it could be that the federal agents realized that they had misjudged once again. On the other hand, is it even possible that this young woman was charged with some offense, and only then was released?
Could something like that be possible? Everything is possible as this nation's procedures, imperfect as they've always been, now seem to be coming apart.
Even today, we can't explain the reason why that young woman was torn from her car. But of one thing you can be certain:
Jesse Watters had no idea what he was talking about as he assured millions of viewers that this very rough incident was simply the latest hoax.
Watters exists to serve the corporate messaging machine which pays him untold millions of dollars. He and Gutfeld played that role with their typical crackpot abandon during this longer gonzo pseudo-discussion on Red America's "cable news" channel.
(To watch the full segment, you can start by clicking here.)
Full disclosure:
We'll assume that some people are being arrested in Minneapolis for appropriate cause—for impeding ICE operations, which can be against the law.
That said, the numbers in Minneapolis—2000 ICE to 600 local—seem to be remarkable, and much of yesterday's videotape seemed to be worse. Meanwhile, this is all unfolding in the wake of the president's recent proclamation:
Trump Warns ‘THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING’ in Minnesota as Anti-ICE Protests Ramp Up
So reported Mediaite. To peruse that report, click here.
Yesterday morning, bright and early, the sitting president, in all caps, promised a DAY OF RETRIBUTION! The day's operations followed from there.
At this site, we now make a confession. We did in fact flash on some disastrous twentieth-century history as we watched some of the videotape which followed the president's promise.
We thought of footage we've seen of the "Brownshirts" in Germany's streets as a disaster took form. Yesterday, Joe Rogan went there explicitly, floating the term "Gestapo" with respect to some of what he has seen in the past week.
We'd exercise caution in doing that. More on that tomorrow.
For today, we apologize for this jumbled report. It mirrors the chaos in these streets, and on the gonzo TV show on which Watters and Gutfeld staged the latest bizarre "discussion."
Yesterday afternoon, we cited Michelle Goldberg's intriguing new column for the New York Times. Headline included, that column starts like this:
The Resistance Libs Were Right
For the last decade there’s been a debate, among people who don’t like Donald Trump, about whether he’s a fascist.
The argument that he isn’t often hinges on two things...
"Gestapo," Rogan said. Goldberg was discussing the related term, "fascist."
For ourselves, we'd be very careful about driving down that street. With apologies, we're just trying to serve as a possible guide out of this dangerous mess.
Tomorrow: Goldberg's intriguing column
Concerning the assault on that young woman: For a fuller account from MPR, you can just click this.
“Back out” may be Somerby’s impulse but it won’t solve our national problem.
ReplyDeleteThis ain't good
ReplyDelete🟥 Norman Crow - 64.5% ✅
🟦 Judith Taylor - 35.5%
This is a 11 point overperformance for Republicans from 2024, when the district was Trump+18
Well we will just have to run over C row, then back up to make sure the job is finished.
DeleteThis is Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Some elections are local.
DeleteThis is too rich!
DeleteNorman Crow won a local state seat in deep red Alabama, in his "win" he received 1,112 total votes with only 7% of registered voters voting.
Bwahahahahahahahaha!
He was replacing another Republican, Cynthia Almond, who had been appointed to a commission by the Republican governor.
Here is how Cynthia Almond's election in 2022 went:
Cynthia Almond 66.2%
Her Dem opponent 33.8%
Before Almond, the previous Republican won by 71.4% in 2018 and 72.5% in 2014. (And then that local state seat previously was held by a Republican that later became the governor who then had to resign after he was arrested for corruption and was involved in a sex scandal.)
So Norman Crow did worse! This district is actually increasingly trending towards Dems.
This is actually a case of Republican losing support, a clear *underperformance*.
Worse than that these Republicans are more like Dem-lite, with Almond being the sole Republican in the state to vote against an anti-ESG bill - that is a Dem position; and Crow ran on infrastructure, education, and mental health - these are all Dem concerns that Republicans normally scoff at.
Whoopsie.
Thank you for bringing facts to these jagoff trolls. Not that they are capable of learning being low IQ trumptarded cultists.
DeleteThank you for bringing facts to these jagoff trolls. Not that they are capable of learning being low IQ trumptarded cultists.
DeleteSomerby claims MPR doesn’t know how to substantiate facts because they don’t mention whether a woman pulled from her car then later released is a citizen or not. What difference does it make to the story? Why should anyone be dragged through a broken window?
ReplyDeleteIt makes ICE's actions even stupider/more cruel if she's a citizen.
DeleteNo, they are at their core, cruel sick fuck nazis, they don't care who you are.
Delete"Somerby claims MPR doesn’t know how to substantiate facts"
DeleteIn fact, Our Host makes no such claim. An observation that one story does not substantiate a supposed fact is not a claim that the organization "doesn't know how" to do so.
Aren't you the same Nonny Moose who likes to tell us that Our Host has his thumb on the scale?
Don't encourage the trannysorostroll.
DeleteIt makes ICE's actions even stupider/more cruel if she's a citizen.
DeleteThat, may very well be the point: no one is immune from this extrajudicial paramilitary force.
11:41 is not the thumb on the scale person - that is me; Somerby today wants to muddy the waters by suggesting we do not know the full story, that maybe the federal officers were justified in some way. This is trivially obvious. Buy a clue if you need to, though it is tough in today's economy.
DeleteTry a little healthy skepticism, and do not take people's word at face value, especially someone shifty like Somerby.
Happy now?
ReplyDelete"What explains the very rough treatment dispensed to that young woman?"
You know what explains it, Bob: your Democrat death-cult is running a low-level insurgency, a civil war.
The previous civil war, the big one, killed hundreds of thousands, including, I imagine, plenty of young women. "Rough treatment" is nothing; the least of what can happen in this unfortunate situation.
Capeesh? Let's pray that the swamp gets drained before some real bad thing start happening...
The swamp won't be drained until every ICE murderer has been un-investigated.
DeleteHas there ever been a more incompetent deep state than the Stephen Miller deep state?
DeleteHas there ever been a more incompetent deep state than the Stephen Miller deep state?
DeleteWhatever the ostensible cause is, the tactics are the same. Integration, peace, Trans rights, anti-Vietnam war, anti-nuclear weapons, free speech, anti-Trump, anti immigration enforcement,... Regardless of the cause, the tactics used tend to undermine the elected government and democratically enacted laws.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I conclude that that there are provocateurs whose real goal is undermining the government. E.g., take SANE -- an organization I supported in my youth. SANE promoted unilateral disarmament, It's now known that it was secretly supported by Russian spy agency.
Or, take the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley, something I saw fist hand. One of the leaders, David Horowitz, has revealed that he was in a group of radicals who planned to use this event to promote their radical aims. They had no real interest in freedom of speech.
God, you're an idiot.
Deletego fuck yourself, you fascist freak Dickhead
DeleteIt's not as complex as that with most of them. They're just unhinged and mentally ill.
DeleteYes, especially their cult's retarded cat-ladies. 60% of them are mentally ill. It's a scientific fact.
DeleteYes, studies at the Institute for Trumptardery have confirmed it.
DeleteDavid is just making up shit again, per usual.
DeleteHe had nothing to do with SANE, he wasn't at Berkeley. He just makes shit up to try to trigger others into paying attention to him.
Furthermore, David Horowitz is a far right wing loon and he was not involved in the Free Speech Movement (FSM) at UC Berkeley. He left for a six-year stint in Europe in 1962, which meant he missed the FSM's peak period during 1964. He was not a participant or leader in the FSM.
The claim that "one of the leaders" was David Horowitz is misleading, he did not have a role in organizing or leading the FSM, he was not even on the ground at the FSM when it occurred.
Ignore the fuck wit troll. DNR
Delete"SANE promoted unilateral disarmament, It's now known that it was secretly supported by Russian spy agency."
DeleteThanks DiC, for this historical analysis. I googled your theory and this is how AI Overview responded:
"There is no evidence in the search results to support the assertion that the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE) was supported by a Russian spy agency."
But I found your approach interesting so I decided to apply it to another political movement and here's what I got back:
"Yes, multiple intelligence agencies and bipartisan Senate reports concluded Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election with the goal of supporting Donald Trump's campaign."
So in the case of MAGA, I would have to agree they are provocateurs whose real goal is undermining democracy. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Yesterday, when Trump gave a middle finger to workers at a Ford plant, I knew then that Trump is cooked.
ReplyDelete"For ourselves, we'd be very careful about driving down that street. With apologies, we're just trying to serve as a possible guide out of this dangerous mess."
ReplyDeleteToo late, the left has used "fascist" and "racist" and "Nazi" like a small child who learns new words and exhausts the grown-ups with them.No one is listening anymore and Democrats are seen as nothing more than angry violent cat ladies. They've already driven down that street and we aren't negotiating. We aim to stop them.
"we"
DeleteBwahahaha!!!! Hey little shitstain maggot, how you gonna stop me from your mother's basement?
We'll take your cats, retard.
DeleteWhen centrist HCR starts calling it fascism, you know it's bad.
DeleteBy the way, why is Watters saying the Minnesota DOJ resignations are a hoax because they happened in October? Is there even a fig leaf of truth for this?
ReplyDeleteRepublicans are snowflakes that can not cope with not winning, so they cheat and lie to win.
DeleteSomerby is, of course, 100% correct that the media are dropping the ball by not reporting that Trump is an existential threat to the USA, but even Somerby has no solution to the predicament.
ReplyDeleteSascha Riley is starting to go viral.
ReplyDeleteSacha Baron Cohen filmed Trumps personal attorney getting ready to rape a minor, u til he had to stop the sick fuck. Typical of these fucking pedo creeps.
DeleteSacha Baron Cohen filmed Trumps personal attorney getting ready to rape a minor, u til he had to stop the sick fuck. Typical of these fucking pedo creeps.
DeleteThere is video yesterday of a 17 year old Target worker in MN, an American citizen, who, with ICE officers approaching his Target, started saying "fuck you" at the officers, the officers, about 6 of them, then lost their cool and tackled the kid down to the ground, threw him handcuffed in their SUV, drove off, beat him up, then dumped him in a Walmart parking lot, bloodied and crying.
ReplyDeleteWild.
Fucking Nazi pussies.
DeleteFucking maggots won't be happy till they kill all of us:
ReplyDelete"Recent changes to the childhood vaccine schedule by the Department of Health and Human Services — made without meaningful input from clinicians, public health experts, independent advisory bodies, or patients — will effectively reintroduce vaccine-preventable diseases into everyday clinical settings at a time when many clinicians have not been trained to recognize, manage, or counsel patients about illnesses vaccines had largely eliminated.
Most medical trainees have never seen measles or its complications, muscle rigidity from tetanus, or an infant struggling to breathe from pertussis. Unless they are in their 60s or older, many attending physicians haven’t, either. Medical education evolved as these diseases became rare."
Idiots and weirdos, all of these fuckwits.
Is "gestapo" a bad word to use when describing ICE agents' behavior? Maybe. Personally, I'm an adherent to the famous internet tradition that says once a comparison to Hitler or the Nazis has been invoked, rational discussion has ended.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is, we Americans don't have a word of our own to name such heavy-handed police practices. For some "gestapo" is the most accessible, comprehensible label.
Maybe in the future, "ICE" will be the word we use to indicate biases, aggressive policing.
There already is a dictionary word for a. person who interferes with ICE -- vigilante -- "any person who takes the law into their own hands."
Delete"kleptocracy, in politics, a form of government by individuals who primarily seek personal gain at the expense of those they govern. Kleptocracy is a major problem both in individual countries and internationally, as kleptocratic countries tend to adopt broadly destructive policies and to subvert international institutions." In other words, fucking nazis bitches.
DeleteThere already is a dictionary word for a person who keeps agitating others with their constant bullshit in the comments of a blog. Fucking Nazi Shithead Troll. Go away asshole troll.
Delete
Delete"heavy-handed police practices"
Meh, Soros-monkey. I don't think it's more "heavy-handed" or "aggressive" than the circumstances created by your cult demand it to be.
Put the blame where it belongs.
Mao is an old bitter troll. 25 years later and "0" people think he has anything to say. A life's work for nothing. Haha. Sad dumb Nazi troll. When he dies alone will anybody know, care?
DeleteMaybe in the future, "ICE" will be the word we use to indicate biases, aggressive policing.
DeleteMaybe in the future we will describe Gestapo as using ICE-like tactics.
True.
DeleteNobody cares about 1:28 or the other trolls like David and Cecelia.
Sad.
IF IT QUACKS LIKE A DUCK....WHY WOULD YOU CALL IT SOMETHING OTHER THAN A DUCK.
DeleteSorry, but the original comment is really dumb.
Anonymouse 1:44pm, oh, you care, dear. You didn’t spend eight hours yesterday on a blogboard maniacally yelling “Go away!!!!” because you don’t care. We love you too.
DeleteSay it with me, Cecelia: Trump is a mentally ill megalomaniac who should be removed from office.
DeleteInflation rate held steady in December at 2.7% compared to same time last year
ReplyDeleteThe tariffs did not cause a spike in inflation. Why not?
Have you been to the grocery store lately?
DeleteDavid has his groceries delivered by Oompa Loompas, whose immigration status he verifies personally. David dares not to step out of his compound until each and all undocumented -- and most documented -- immigrants have been deported.
DeleteWith that said: grocery prices are significantly up. So much so, that even with my income I am beginning to notice.
Finally, Trump says even one protester’s death is too much.
ReplyDeleteOh, wait. He’s talking about Iranian protesters.
When you’ve lost Joe Rogan..
ReplyDeleteTrump has just fallen off a cliff when it comes to Gen Z. Trump's net approval in February of 2025 was +10. It's a drop of 42 points to -32
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"...maniacally yelling “Go away!!!!”"
Yeah, something's been happening with Soros-monkeys in the last couple of days; they're squealing like stuck pigs. Like never before.
It's nice, I like them squealing. But why are they panicking now? Is it because Soros and other death-cult's sponsors are being investigated now? I guess we'll find out soon...
I picture you as Renfield, Dracula's fly-eating assistant in Nosferatu.
Deletejob growth in the first year of Trump’s second term was the worst in *over 2 decades*"
ReplyDeleteHow can that be? There were enormous numbers of job losses during the Covid shutdowns. This chart validates my obvious point. https://www.statista.com/statistics/269959/employment-in-the-united-states/
DeleteGOP Rep Randy Fine is pushing for a bill that would allow drivers to run over pro-Palestinian protesters blocking bridges and roads with impunity.
ReplyDelete“The Thump Thump Act will allow Americans to run over these Muslim Terrorists,” he wrote. “They don’t try this in Florida because of the bill I helped pass in the Legislature to allow them to be run over. It’s time to take it national. Thump thump.”
“To be clear, the Thump Thump Act will also allow you to run over BLM, Antifa, illegal immigrants, and anyone else who intentionally blocks roads! Thump thump!” he wrote in a separate post.
The empathy! Ladies and gentlemen, your GOP.