Ask Mudcat

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Right now in our 11am ET podcast we talk to the man who told Democrats they were losing the working class 20 years ago. Now he’s back to see if there’s anything left to save.

David “Mudcat” Saunders enters the chat 🗣️ Also in our Digital Diner: Mississippi-based Democratic consultant Billy Bova,

We won’t solve everything today, but we’ll finish in time for lunch.

Join us on Cam, Mic or Keyboards.

💬 Add your voice: Comment on today’s post
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103 thoughts on “Ask Mudcat”

  2. SC’s Colbert, another southern boy, speaks his piece


    Americans are expressing their anger about ICE in some unlikely corners of the internet, Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller are pointing fingers at each other as the administration does damage control over Alex Pretti’s murder, Rep. Ilhan Omar bravely fended off a bizarre attack at a speech in Minneapolis, and 40 million gallons of poo are washing into the Potomac River every day.

  3. and this is just the 1st month in the year of the horse-hockey (far from what the real year of the horse promises*)

    Attribution: Trumpruary 2026, the greatest month ever by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Ontario, Canada

    *According to copilot search:

    In 2026, the Year of the Horse, it symbolizes freedom, movement, and vitality. This year is particularly associated with the Fire Horse, which encourages new beginnings, bold decisions, and self-expression. The Horse embodies speed, perseverance, and untamed freedom, representing adventurers and innovators who thrive on following their own path. Overall, 2026 is expected to be a year of dynamic energy and personal growth.

  4. more months for Year of the HorseHockey:

    Fib-uary
    Merch
    Ape-ril
    Maim
    Junk
    You-LIE
    All-gas
    continuing with the Fallen months
    and ending with Dismember

  5. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/28/

    Judge blocks Trump officials from detaining refugees in Minnesota
    Ruling follows arrests under DHS ‘re-vetting’ operation of more than 100 refugees who had been lawfully resettled

    A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from detaining refugees in Minnesota, following a spate of arrests in the state.

    More than 100 refugees who had lawfully resettled in the state had been arrested in recent weeks, according to attorneys and advocacy groups. Some were flown to detention centers in Texas, according to attorneys representing the cases, and then were abruptly released – and left to find and pay their own way back home.

    On Wednesday, US district judge John R Tunheim ordered the administration to temporarily halt the arrest and detention of lawfully resettled refugees, while a lawsuit about the administration’s policy of “re-vetting” this population continued. The judge mandated the immediate release of all detained refugees in Minnesota and the release of those taken to Texas within five days.

    The ruling came after lawyers filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of refugees after the Trump administration announced its “Operation Parris” earlier this month, which it described as “a sweeping initiative re-examining thousands of refugee cases through new background checks and intensive verification of refugee claims”.

    According to the Department of Homeland Security, 5,600 refugees who had resettled in the US and had not yet become permanent residents would be subject to this vetting process.

    […]
    “The court finds that the threat of irreparable harm favors immediate relief in this case,” Tunheim said in his ruling on Wednesday. “The stories of terror and trauma recounted by named plaintiffs in their amended petition make this harm impossible to ignore.”

  6. https://www.nytimes.com/

    For Minneapolis’s Native Americans, a New Fight Echoes a Bitter History
    The crackdown on unauthorized immigrants is resonating deeply among the Dakota and other tribes, as residents confront what they call a federal occupation of their land.

    Federal agents have stopped, detained or violently confronted dozens of American citizens in Minneapolis in recent weeks under suspicion of being undocumented immigrants or for protesting the government’s crackdown. But the detention of Sophie Watso stands out.

    It’s not because of the basic circumstances. Like many residents of Minneapolis, the 30-year-old artist was tracking agents and sounding her horn and whistle when, video shows, she was boxed in by law enforcement vehicles in front of and behind her 2011 white Ford Ranger. Nor was the manner of her apprehension unusual. When the agents refused to identify themselves, she said, she refused to produce identification, and they proceeded to do what has become common — shattering her driver- and passenger-side windows, dragging her out, wrestling her to the ground and applying handcuffs.

    The distinguishing irony of Ms. Watso’s detention is that she is Native American, from the Mdewakanton Dakota tribe. She and other tribal members are alone among the many players in the immigration operation — the Washington architects, their agents on the streets and their targets — in having a legitimate claim to possessing no immigrant blood.

    That irony was only magnified as she rode zip-tied in the agents’ S.U.V. to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, the headquarters of the immigration operation and the lockup for those detained.

    The federal building is on the vast expanse of government property at the convergence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers, land that is the site of the Dakota tribe’s origin and the center of its spiritual world. It is also the location of Fort Snelling, where 1,600 Dakota were held in deadly conditions after the tribe’s 1862 uprising over its treaty dispute with the government. Thirty-eight men identified as ringleaders by the Lincoln administration were publicly hanged in the largest mass execution in the country’s history.

    As Ms. Watso was being driven there, she sang a Native song of hope and healing. “I knew where I was going my ancestors were there,” she said. “I wanted them to hear me.”

    History is resonating loudly for Minnesota’s large Native American population as the Trump administration carries out its aggressive, sometimes deadly, crackdown on immigrants deemed ineligible to live in the United States and citizens challenging the operation. The word “occupation,” the preferred term local officials and residents use to describe the civic war they are fighting against the federal government, strikes deep historical tones for many in the Indigenous community.

    “As Native people, we’re pretty accustomed to fighting the federal government going back 530 years since they landed with their ships,” said Rachel Dionne-Thunder, vice president of a local group called the Indigenous Protector Movement. “It just so happens that everyone else is waking up to it.”

    [details of arrests continue]

    One of many moments from her trip to Whipple sticks in her mind: An agent, noting that her driver’s license listed her address as outside the city, said: “You’re not even from Minneapolis. Why do you care?”

    “This is Dakota land,” she recalled saying. “I’m Dakota.”

  8. Maine Update: ICE Retreats

    Sen. Susan Collins

    While the Department of Homeland Security does not confirm law enforcement operations, I can report that Secretary Noem has informed me that ICE has ended its enhanced activities in the State of Maine. There are currently no ongoing or planned large-scale ICE operations here.

  9. Sent to me by a Conservative I’m still speaking to about the world separating into three parts. While the commentary is mostly sane, the comments under it is filled with conspiracy crazy. It’s how the other half lives.

  10. Saw the opening above and thought at first that I had missed Mudcat yesterday. Good to know that fate worse than death hadn’t happened.

  11. https://greens.scot/news/greens-call-for-expulsion-of-us-troops-following-abduction

    Responding to reports that the US ignored a Scottish court order and “abducted two people from Scotland”, the Scottish Greens have called for the expulsion of US troops from their de-facto base at Scottish Government-owned Prestwick airport.

    The party’s co-leader, Ross Greer, said:

    “It very much looks like the US Government has abducted two people from Scotland in the middle of the night, hours after our highest court ordered that they not be removed.

    “This is a grave violation of our sovereignty. Foreign militaries cannot be allowed to kidnap people from Scottish territory.

    “Trump’s US is a rogue state with a contempt for international law. It is not our ally and cannot be trusted.

    “It’s time for John Swinney to evict American troops from their de-facto base at Scottish Government-owned Prestwick airport and block them from using any publicly owned assets in Scotland.”

    *They should impound (or attach) his golf courses, too.

    *They kidnapped the Maduro’s. Now, they’ve kidnapped two folks from Scottish soil. Where is the red line???

    *Italy should send those ICE N&zis packing (reports some are there already – why?) and refuse to let any more in.

    The mob is running the US. The world needs to shut it down, because we can’t even get white folks who make over $60K to stop buying crap on Amazon for a blackout week, let alone actually have a strike.

  12. The Senate is voting on an appropriations bill that will give the US Gestapo another $10 billion tax dollars.

    Call if you care: 202-224-3121

    Did they end ICE kidnappings in Maine to get Susan Collins’ vote today?

  14. Join our ELEVEN TO NOON livestream today with rural experts Mudcat & Billy: https://trailmix.cc/home/chatroom/

    What America is Clicking January 29, 2026

    1. Politics: Senators are looking to escape Washington to run for governor in their home states. KSAT
    2. Immigration: Border chief Tom Homan heads to Minnesota after video emerges of a confrontation involving Alex Pretti. The Guardian
    3. Economy: The Bank of Canada governor warns of “unusual potential” for a new economic shock citing U.S. trade policy. BNN Bloomberg
    4. Markets: Meta shares jump on an earnings beat while Microsoft dips on a soft Azure forecast. Morningstar
    5. U.S. News: A car rammed into the Chabad headquarters in New York City, damaging the doors. News4JAX
    6. Tech: NVIDIA is pressing the federal government to renew the National Quantum Initiative to keep pace with emerging tech. The Quantum Insider
    7. AI Policy: A new survey suggests Trump voters in Red States oppose “AI Accelerationism” and favor regulation. Institute for Family Studies
    8. Markets: Traders are bracing for volatility as Apple is slated to report earnings after the bell. Investopedia
    9. Legislation: Senators Padilla and Booker announced the “Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act” to restrict private detention facilities. Santa Maria Sun
    10. Nature: A 77-pound mountain lion roamed a posh San Francisco neighborhood before being captured in a garden. AP News

    _Silas signing off. What are you reading today?_

  16. For the sing – a – long

    Streets of Minneapolis

    Verse 1]
    Through the winter’s ice and cold
    Down Nicollet Avenue
    A city aflame fought fire and ice
    ‘Neath an occupier’s boots
    King Trump’s private army from the DHS
    Guns belted to their coats
    Came to Minneapolis to enforce the law
    Or so their story goes

    [Verse 2]
    Against smoke and rubber bullets
    In the dawn’s early light
    Citizens stood for justice
    Their voices ringing through the night
    And there were bloody footprints
    Where mercy should have stood
    And two dead, left to die on snow-filled streets
    Alex Pretti and Renee Good

    [Chorus]
    Oh, our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
    Singing through the bloody mist
    We’ll take our stand for this land
    And the stranger in our midst
    Here in our home, they killed and roamed
    In the winter of ’26
    We’ll remember the names of those who died
    On the streets of Minneapolis

    You might also like
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    Bruce Springsteen
    Bruce Springsteen – Streets of Minneapolis (Tradução em PortuguĂŞs)
    Genius Brasil Traduçþes
    Born in the U.S.A.
    Bruce Springsteen

    [Verse 3]
    Trump’s federal thugs beat up on
    His face and his chest
    Then we heard the gunshots
    And Alex Pretti lay in the snow dead
    Their claim was self-defense, sir
    Just don’t believe your eyes
    It’s our blood and bones
    And these whistles and phones
    Against Miller and Noem’s dirty lies

    [Chorus]
    Oh, our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
    Crying through the bloody mist
    We’ll remember the names of those who died
    On the streets of Minneapolis

    [Bridge]
    Now they say they’re here to uphold the law
    But they trample on our rights
    If your skin is black or brown, my friend
    You can be questioned or deported on sight
    In our chants of “ICE out now”
    Our city’s heart and soul persists
    Through broken glass and bloody tears
    On the streets of Minneapolis

  18. Craig – Please discuss the FBI raid in Fulton, GA with MudCat, as well as TX happily turnover their voter rolls, and MN being blackmailed for theirs in that letter from Pam Bondi.

    Will there be midterms?
    Will all legally allowed to and registered be allowed to vote?
    Can we, the people, yank the chain with an economic fight?

  21. Will there be midterms?
    Will all legally allowed to and registered be allowed to vote?

    so if you saw my post from last night about Trumpco intimidating their own voters, imagine what tactics they’ll use against democrat voters they identify through submitted voter rolls

  22. Galloway’s premise is flawed, trump DOES respond to opinion polls and DOESN’T respond to markets

    Also, even if Americans were willing to self-sacrifice, lib/Dem messaging doesn’t make it out of the bubble of the twitterverse

    (a big reason it doesn’t is that legacy media is “state captured”, the nonsense fluff that news networks were running in the wake of the Pretti murder was asinine)

  25. Another clip I might play for today’s chat with Mudcat & Billy. This Texas Dem running for Senate seems promising. Here is James Talarico connecting Economic populism with Jesus…

  27. Here is James Talarico connecting Economic populism with Jesus

    yeah but MAGA doesn’t worship Jesus they worship white patriarchy

    they won’t vote for your white boy over theirs

  29. https://www.npr.org/2026/01/27/nx-s1-5689104/tiktok-epstein-direct-messages

    While it’s not yet clear how TikTok’s new leadership may reshape content rules and the app’s algorithm, the platform’s privacy terms have been changed since the new bosses took over, including that the app will now collect precise location information.
    ***

    https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-new-privacy-policy/

    TikTok Is Now Collecting Even More Data About Its Users. Here Are the 3 Biggest Changes
    According to its new privacy policy, TikTok now collects more data on its users, including their precise location, after majority ownership officially switched to a group based in the US.

    >Now, if you give TikTok permission to use your phone’s location services, then the app may collect granular information about your exact whereabouts.

    >Now, users’ interactions with any of TikTok’s AI tools explicitly fall under data that the service may collect and store. This includes any prompts as well as the AI-generated outputs. The metadata attached to your interactions with AI tools may also be automatically logged.

    > So, rather than just using your collected data to target you while using the app, TikTok may now further leverage that info to serve you more relevant ads wherever you go online. As part of this advertising change, TikTok also now explicitly mentions publishers as one kind of partner the platform works with to get new data.

  30. Anon – SFB Taco literally stopped pushing on Greenland when the markets went squirrelly on his EU tariff talk. He absolutely DOES respond to the market.

  31. when did they go squirrelly? i watch em everyday, record highs because there are two economies, ours and theirs

    Tesla reported a 61% drop in profit and their stock went up

    that said, i do think markets are incredibly vulnerable to a shock, foreign or otherwise

  32. I was curious why Cruz warned (reportedly) Trump of electoral consequences of a 30% drop in 401(k)s when the market has been at sustained highs for years

    What does he know that the market doesn’t already??

    ???

    ????

  36. They are going to tamper with the paper ballots in those boxes. Guess they’ll have to take time off from redacting Epstein files. No chain of command. No oversight.

    All do he can claim he won in 2020…which would mean he can’t legally be POTUS now since this would technically be a 3rd term. (?)

    Anyway, this will convince nobody new. Folks are tired of his shitty pants & shitty economy.

  38. LOL
    I’m a converted fan of Ilan Omar, I’ve been watching the clips of the attack on her. did you see the way she cocked her fist back and went after that asshole. Her security saved the sucker from a serious ass whippin’, they were protecting him , not her. She didn’t need any protection.

    Jack

  40. Ya know, it just occurred to me, There was a serious shift in rural areas, from Democrats to Republicans in the last 30 years, just about the same time that political advisors like mudcat were advising Democrats on how to run in rural areas. Humm.

    Jack

  41. their benefit is voter intimidation

    im using the ‘chat’ window on streamyard

    damnit my algo is fucked again 🫤

  43. Key Breakdown of Federal Health Spending (as of 2024/2025): Health Programs: Major spending includes Medicare ($1.1 trillion), Medicaid ($931.7 billion), and ACA subsidies.

    Total Federal Spending: Federal tax-funded health expenditures were projected to be around $3.6 trillion in 2024.

    Total National Spending: Total U.S. healthcare spending, both public and private, hit $5.3 trillion in 2024, or 18% of the GDP. Components of Tax-Financed Healthcare: Medicare & Medicaid: These make up the largest portion of federal health spending.

    Tax Expenditures: Beyond direct spending, federal tax exemptions for employer-sponsored insurance and other areas amount to another $465 billion in lost revenue.

    State/Local: State and local governments also contribute to Medicaid and public health, splitting hospital spending roughly equally with the federal government.

  50. Bruce Springsteen bought the local fire department a truck, but the real story in rural Virginia is the price of Thousand Island dressing.

    Mudcat and Billy Bova return to the “Digital Diner” to explain why the MAGA wall is cracking and drop the absolute line of the year: “You can’t eat your guns.”

    TODAY’S RUNDOWN:
    00:00 Intro
    00:55 Springsteen’s Fire Truck
    04:15 ICE in the Neighborhood
    15:30 Tallerico & The Jesus Argument
    23:50 The Price of Salad Dressing
    35:10 Can’t Eat Your Guns
    42:00 The Gender Gap

    Watch the full ELEVEN TO NOON replay here:

  51. “Beware of any Christian movement that demands the government be an instrument of God’s wrath but never a source of God’s charity, mercy, or compassion.”
    – Rev. Benjamin Cremer

    *It’s not that we want “God” brought into it, it’s that a group of folks saw it as a way to co-opt power by manipulating folks. You’ve got to meet them where they think they are, which is why Talarico is the one for moment.

  54. it’s that a group of folks saw it as a way to co-opt power by manipulating folks

    the “folks” aren’t innocent victims they’re willing pawns and inherently vicious

    outsmarting yourself with the jesus shit

    trumpism “permits” people to be awful, it works because they indeed are

    and no i don’t think Crockett would beat any random MAGA or GOP (or Paxton specifically) i do think Dems should elevate her nationally, however

  55. i find it a fitting metaphor for the entire country BiD that within your own household your family has an incredibly hip and informed resource (you) and they REFUSE to pay it (you) heed

  56. Jack, you brought up Ihlan Omar going after her attacker. Hunted for it during the chat and still can’t find the actual angle that first caught my attention like it did yours. Where you see her raise her fist at the guy. The clips they’re all showing now don’t get that angle.

  57. It’s that old Celestine coincidence thing ….it wasn’t more than 3 days ago Mudcat popped into me think holes as in “what ever happened to the Mudcap?” Even remembered his last name…. Then I recalled the friction between the Mudman and Old Lardass Liberal. I never did get the gist of what the disagreement was about, just remember being surprised by it.

  58. Love the stamp meme. Since $.62 will send a postcard and it takes $.78 to mail a first class letter 1 oz. or less, a $.52 stamp with spit on the face sounds about right for Dumbass.

  60. Craig
    About 6 min into the Colbert clip that Pat posted this morning.
    Most other clips cut out just as she is raising her fist but his show a clinched fist ready to punch.
    Jack

  61. If Minneapolis Somali community is anything like the Kansas City Somali they were settled in some of the poorest neighborhoods in the city and attended the public schools. It was there she learned to throw those punches. Urban life trains you to not just defend yourself but to launch a counter attack. Colbert and his writers , coming from middleclass suburbia just don’t understand. Urban culture is an alien culture to them, just like rural culture is.

    Jack

  64. See if this looks better for the Omar townhall. Starts @ 20 seconds in, lasts @ 5 seconds. Not clearly raising a fist, but her right hand goes up as she advances toward the nut.

  65. Yeah, Sturge , she would fit right in to my old Kansas City neighborhood, She stepped forward like a real Eastsider.

    Jack

  66. agree with everything Jack is saying except that white America appreciates a strong black woman, it’s the trifecta of things they fear

  67. https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/28/europe/us-embassy-copenhagen-removes-flags-danish-soldiers-intl

    The US Embassy in Copenhagen has angered Danish veterans by removing flags honoring soldiers killed in Afghanistan from an area outside the building.

    Video shared by Danish media outlet TV2 showed a security guard removing the flags honoring the 44 Danish soldiers who died in the conflict from planters located outside the embassy on Tuesday.

    *Those flags don’t support Orange Adolf’s narrative about NATO never doing anything for us.

  68. Anon – They will believe things if it comes out of the mouth of Joe Rogan or Ben Shapiro, but they will first think it’s AI if they don’t agree with it, and run it by their FB groups.

  69. Re: Anon’s 11:01 post about Dumbass and the 22nd amendment, He’s right, IF Dumbass is right, and he won the 2020 election, it would arguably invalidate the 2024 election. The operant portion of the Amendment is

    Section 1
    No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice,…

    The legal challenge, and there will be one if he gets the FEC to say he was elected in 2020, will likely to hinge on whether he was elected to the office of the President in 2020. The wrangling will be over the meaning of “elected to the office of…” But of course, he isn’t right, but with the FBI doing their thang in Fulton County, who can say what their review of the voter info they stole. ummm, collected, will yield. But of course we all know there won’t be any shenanigans with the likes of KKKash and Blondi (not to mention Blanche) leading that effort.

  71. https://www.defiance.news/p/why-we-should-worry-that-trumps-spy

    Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was caught on camera participating in an FBI raid on a local election office in Fulton County, Georgia yesterday. This is bad. Very bad. But we don’t need to speculate wildly about why this is happening. Donald Trump told us the other week — and you may not have noticed. Let me explain.

    So when Trump says he “should have” done something like seize ballots, that isn’t him recounting a lawful option that he prudently declined. That’s an admission he wanted to take an illegal act and then pretend the law would have somehow allowed it.

    In particular, I want to call your attention to these words from the order: “an appropriate separation between intelligence functions and policy and legal judgments.” EO 13848 was explicit that the nation’s spy agencies needed to tread lightly on this issue because they have no role in the administration of elections, other than to prevent foreign bad guys from doing things like trying to hack the vote.

    So what on earth is Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard doing at an FBI raid of a local election office?

    In the meantime, it’s critical to remember: administration of elections is not a federal responsibility. The Constitution places that authority with the states. If the federal government is actually carrying out the president’s wishes to seize election information to relitigate his baseless 2020 claims, then there may very well be violations of state law happening here. Right before our eyes.

  73. 45 to 55 OMG!

    https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/29/politics/senate-funding-bill-vote-government-shutdown-ice

    Seven conservatives joined Democrats in keeping the package from moving forward in a 45-55 vote. Senate Majority Leader John Thune changed his vote to “no,” to be able to bring the package up for a later vote.

    *I’m sure it was my call to Thune that flipped him. Ha!

    All Democrats, who are pushing to force changes to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement policies in the wake of Alex Pretti’s fatal encounter with federal agents in Minneapolis, voted not to advance the six-bill funding package.

    Instead, they are demanding that Republicans and the White House agree to separate funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which houses ICE, from the rest of the package so it can be renegotiated.

    *I’m not thrilled with this part. They already have too much funding and no proven accountability. I feel like we’re being played by both sides, although by fewer Dems.

  74. credit to BiD for putting it together re: trump’s current illegitimate 3rd term (i did have the same thought tho!)

  75. BTW, on my way back to the office this morning, Tom Homan’s address was being carried by MSNOW. About the best summary I can give is “blah blah BS, rinse and repeat”. Without a doubt it should have removed all doubt that anything in MN is going to change because of his presence.

  77. The siege of Minneapolis isn’t about safety. It’s based on lies about Somali Americans.

    4,000 federal agents are on the ground hunting for a “failed experiment.” We checked the receipts: The Somali community isn’t a drain—it’s an $8 BILLION economic engine.

    We debunk the Top 3 Lies being used to justify the raids and the attacks on Rep. Omar.

    📉 READ THE DATA (The Brief):

    The Top 3 Lies About Somali Americans

    🗣️ BRING YOUR TAKE (Live Tomorrow 11am ET):

  78. “They’ve got the smallest wages and the least amount of cash.”

    Mississippi’s Billy Bova on why the rural vote isn’t just about culture—it’s about being completely tapped out.

  79. One of Minnesota’s treasures, Minnesota Mom aka “Minnesota Salads that are not really Salads”, made the best video to help out in our communities. Someday, I will tell you all about the Sven, Ole, and Lena jokes.

  80. Katie, have you noticed any reps for the Somali community there who might come chat with us tomorrow? I’m really into debunking the lies about them now that this mess is hopefully settling down. It reminds me of what they tried to do to Haitians during the campaign. In the end there was a wave of coverage showcasing what a strong and constructive community they actually are..

  81. Jack – I liked how she just turned and moved, no hesitation. The big plus is the way she made a right proper fist, formed to put a knot on someone’s head.

  82. Yep Trump is in full retreat. I just hope Democrats strike a tough bargain and get ICE under serious control.

    Once again we see how public protests make a difference. We backed him down on National Guard too.

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats and White House have struck a deal to avert a partial government shutdown and temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security as they negotiate new restrictions for President Donald Trump’s surge of immigration enforcement.

  83. They took originals, not copies. Fulton County has no inventory of what was taken. There is no chain of continuity. No oversight. Elections are handled by the state, not the federal government, but Tulsi Gabbard was there.

    It’s another huge distraction from the EPSTEIN files and it placates the Toddler Tyrant, and they’ll do something devious with it because they have make elections look questionable. Well, I question whether Elon did something in 24 as Adolf said multiple times; as Elon knew the vote count before votes were counted, it smells.

    Republicans have to sew chaos, lie, and cheat to win.

    The EPSTEIN distraction is an important point, though. Some really horrible men did something horrific stuff and they are hellbent in hiding it. Distraction is the name of the game.

    It won’t fix grocery prices.

  85. Hayley Mills….”Let’s Get Together (yeah, yeah, yeah) from the movie “The Parent Trap”
    1961.

    The Beatles “She Loves You (yeah, yeah, yeah)
    1964

    So: The Beatles stole “Yeah, yeah, yeah” from Hayley Mills.
    Written by the Sherman Brothers.

  87. Thanks for that clipJamie. I’m working on a montage celebrating Minneapolis and Somali Americans for tomorrow. Let’s declare victory! Trump pretended Minnesota doesn’t even exist at his cabinet meeting today, never mentioned it. Very telling.

  88. https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/news/news-articles/fremont-student-hit-in-apparent-hit-and-run-during-student-led-ice-demonstration/

    Fremont student hit in apparent hit-and-run during student-led ICE demonstration

    Video captured by News Channel Nebraska shows the driver getting into a red SUV that’s carrying a flag supporting President Trump’s 2024 campaign. Protesters are standing on the sidewalk when one student steps in front of the parked vehicle.

    The driver appears to go forward, slows and then speeds up, hitting the person, who appeared to land on the hood of the SUV and then roll off to the side. The driver initially slowed down after hitting the student and then left the scene.

    This happened around 2 p.m. during a “non-school sponsored, student-led” demonstration. School administrators were near the protest to “ensure students were safe and peaceful.”

    Shortly after the apparent hit-and-run, Rep. Mike Flood released a statement calling it “disturbing.” “This is not what we do in Nebraska,” Flood said. “While initial reports say that the girl was alert and talking when she was taken away, we are praying for her and her well-being. The incident needs to be fully investigated by law enforcement. It is critical that our country preserve the ability of people to safely protest.”

    *Flood is typically a POS (you may have seen videos of him being booed at a town hall), so I’m surprised he decided not to side with the tRUMPer.

  91. https://www.gadgetreview.com/why-tiktoks-new-immigration-status-tracking-triggered-a-150-uninstall-spike

    Why TikTok’s New “Immigration Status” Tracking Triggered a 150% Uninstall Spike

    You know that sinking feeling when apps update their privacy policies? TikTok’s revised terms hit differently. The updated language mentioned potential collection of:

    Racial origin
    Citizenship status
    Sexual orientation
    Precise GPS location
    This marked a shift from previous policies that explicitly avoided U.S. location tracking.

    Nothing says “market opportunity” like your competitor’s user revolt. UpScrolled saw downloads jump over 10x, while Skylight Social gained 919% and Rednote climbed 53%. These aren’t household names—yet. But in the attention economy, today’s indie app becomes tomorrow’s cultural phenomenon faster than you can say “For You Page.”

    The irony? TikTok avoided the nuclear option of a federal ban only to face user-driven deletion campaigns. Like watching someone survive a car crash only to trip walking away from the wreckage. The platform that mastered viral content now faces its own viral exodus, proving that in social media, trust travels at algorithm speed—and disappears just as fast.

  92. How to delete your TikTok account while bypassing the new Terms and
    Services:

    Turn on airplane mode
    Open TikTok + click on your profile
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  93. Todd Maffin is hilarious. He has a couple of videos about which states are allowed to become Canadian. The comments from the rejected begging to be reconsidered are almost as funny.

  94. “Republicans don’t do anything for us because they don’t think they have to. Democrats don’t come out here because they don’t think they can win.”

    Mudcat Saunders on the two words that could fix the rural stalemate.

  95. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5712698-house-republicans-election-reform-bill/

    House Republicans unveil election reform bill dubbed Make Elections Great Again Act

    “Americans should be confident their elections are being run with integrity – including commonsense voter ID requirements, clean voter rolls, and citizenship verification,” Steil said in a statement. “These reforms will improve voter confidence, bolster election integrity, and make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat.”

    In addition to requiring photo ID when casting a ballot and citizenship verification upon voter registration, the bill implements restrictions on how states administer and maintain their election systems — some of which became flashpoints in the 2020 election, fueling President Trump’s claims of election fraud.
    The bill would require mail-in ballots to be received by the close of polls on election day to be counted, making an exception for members of military stations overseas.

    It would require states to use auditable paper ballots for a federal election. The vast majority of federal ballots are already cast on paper, with a 2024 Brennan Center for Justice analysis estimating that 98 percent of votes cast would be on paper ballots in that year’s presidential election.

    It would also implement stronger routine voter list maintenance requirements and ban universal vote by mail systems by requiring voters to affirmatively request a ballot to vote by mail.

    “Ballot harvesting,” the practice of collecting completed ballots and delivering them to polling centers, would also be prohibited for anyone who is not an immediate family member or caregiver of a voter. It would also prohibit a person from distributing or delivering more than four mail-in ballots at a time.

    The bill would prohibit federal agencies from using taxpayer funds to promote voter registration, in reference to former President Biden’s 2021 executive order directing agencies to help the public register to vote, with Republicans deeming the practice “BidenBucks.”

    The bill would also ban ranked choice voting in federal elections. The system, in which voters rank their top choices of candidates rather than voting for a single person, is used in some statewide elections in Maine and in Alaska and a smattering of local elections across the country.

    Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), ranking member on the House Administration Committee, slammed the legislation and promised to oppose it.

    “President Trump and House Republicans are terrified of the American people. They are desperate to rig the system so they can choose their voters. This bill is their latest attempt to block millions of Americans from exercising their right to vote. I will fight this bill at every turn,” Morelle said in a statement.

    The unveiling of the bill comes a day after Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters that another GOP elections bill that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, will come to the Senate floor “at some point.” The bill has previously passed the House, and Thune said lawmakers are working to add a requirement ensuring only residents can cast a ballot, not just register.

    *If Republicans thought they could win, they’d want voting to be easy. They have to cheat.
    I guess I know what I’ll be calling Congress about next.

  97. Jamie- Tod has a pod, too, called “Mirror Falls.”

    Katie- I lived in the Minnie Apple for awhile, and had roommates from MN & WI when I moved to Texas. One of the Minnesotans said she was making hot dish and I asked, “A hot dish of what?”

    She explained it could be a tater tot hot dish (which we call “funeral casserole”) or tuna noodle hot dish, etc.

    Casserole. It’s a casserole. LoL I thought it was going to be something exotic.

    The Midwest does win the prize for craziest salads that aren’t salads.

  99. i watched “Eddington” and “One Battle After Another” and “Eddington” is the better movie

    As disturbing as the society it criticizes

    (it’s basically about how social media drives us mad for profit, can confirm)

  100. Who Takes Palantir’s Money? A New Tracker Finds Out.

    ICE relies on the firm for deportation tech—and Palantir’s PAC pays it forward to Congress.

    Palantir Payroll, the product of an effort by the campaign Purge Palantir, compiles data from FEC filings to account for the two-way cash flow: from the government to Palantir via contracts, and from company executives to elected officials.

    Palantir makes roughly half of its revenue through government sales, including a $30 million deal last April to build an “Immigration OS” to facilitate ICE’s “selection and apprehension operations of illegal aliens,” according to the Washington Post.

    There are other valuable kinds of collective action around ICE’s suppliers, González says—she has seen students kicking out technology corporations holding recruiting events on campus and organizing at investor briefings within the financial sector—but even fundamental information about those firms’ funding and relationships with ICE can fly under the radar.

    In fact, as a Monday report in Wired notes, Palantir’s own employees—some of whom are openly disturbed by the firm’s ICE collaboration—rely on outside news reports for information on their employer’s practices. CTO Akash Jain reportedly responded to one query about Palantir’s work with ICE by saying that the company does “not take the position of policing the use of our platform for every workflow.”

    That attitude defines the company’s leadership. As Sophie Hurwitz wrote in Mother Jones last February, CEO Alex Karp said on an investor call following stock price surges that the company “is here to disrupt…and, when it’s necessary, to scare our enemies and, on occasion, kill them.”

    Since Palantir’s founding in 2003—the same year as ICE—by Karp and right-wing megadonor Peter Thiel, its tech has also reportedly been used to help make “kill lists” for the Israel Defense Forces.

    González says that successive governments, Democrats included, have let the Palantir-DHS relationship grow entrenched: Since 2013, Palantir has provided ICE with the systems it currently uses to look through people’s information through a network of federally and privately-owned databases.

    Elected officials, meanwhile, continue to take Palantir’s money. The top six Palantir-funded politicians—via the company’s corporate PAC or individual contributors employed there—are Donald Trump, Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.)

  102. Don’t leave it out in the rain cause it took so long to bake it and you might never have that recipe again……

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