The End is Near

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Attribution: End Of ICE? by Harley Schwadron, CagleCartoons.com

Harley Schwadron is a cartoonist in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His cartoons have appeared in many major publications, including Barron’s, Harvard Business Review, Punch, Playboy, American Legion, New York Times, and Readers Digest. Many of Harley’s cartoons deal with business, politics and financial investing. He has illustrated some 50 books.

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56 thoughts on “The End is Near”

  2. “Am I A Domestic Terrorist?” is a hilarious, darkly satirical protest song that skewers Donald Trump, JD Vance, MAGA loyalists, and the complicit Republicans in Congress while celebrating the power of free speech, satire, and civic courage. This witty, absurd country-gospel anthem blends clever lyrics, catchy choruses, and tongue-in-cheek humor to highlight how ordinary citizens exercising their right to critique the administration can be unfairly vilified. From mocking incompetent leadership to calling out authoritarian hypocrisy, this song is perfect for anyone who loves political comedy, sharp satire, and fearless musical protest. Laugh, think, and sing along while standing up against authoritarian tactics in today’s America.
    The lyrics to all songs on the channel can be found in the closed captions.

    Listen to the other songs in the RESIST playlist: • RESIST

  3. R.I.P. Newshour Weekend. last night’s last night close portends more endings to come.
    who and what’s next of our “for the common good” services? ben franklin’s post office on the rocks, infrastructures crumbling, governmental help hotlines on hold etc etc etc


    Due to federal budget cuts, PBS News had to make the difficult decision to rework our staffing and programming. This Sunday, our PBS News Weekend team will sign off the air.

    BUT there seems to be plenty of fed money to throw around on a beefed-up ICE and waste on invading Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico and Greenland …sigh

  6. https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/

    New red flags raised about Trump’s ‘cognitive health’: ‘He’s only going to get worse’
    Story by David McAfee

    Prominent activists on Sunday raised a renewed alarm about Donald Trump’s “cognitive health,” with one conservative declaring, “He’s still only going to get worse.”

    Amid frantic White House moves both on and off American soil, Charlotte Clymer, an Army Veteran and a writer who has done work for the Human Rights Campaign, wrote on social media, “I’m not a doctor or a nurse. I have no medical expertise. Far be it from me to diagnose anyone. Not my place. I don’t know what’s going on with Trump. But I do know something is going on with him. We all can see something is pretty damn off with him.”

    Clymer then put the “legacy media” on notice for failing to raise these same questions, asking, “Where is the scrutiny over his cognitive health that legacy media had for Pres. Biden? How much worse will this get until legacy media does what they’re supposed to do here?”

    Prominent conservative attorney George Conway, who has opposed Trump for years, further responded to Clymer, writing, “I had a few thoughts on this question in 2019 and wrote this 11,000+ word piece in [The Atlantic] about [Trump’s] serious psychiatric disorders (Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Antisocial Personality Disorder, for starters) to explain why, as a legal and constitutional matter, he was unfit for the presidency and would only become more so with the passage of time.”

    Conway went on to talk about his view on Trump’s mental health status as of this year.

    “In the six-plus years since, every mental health professional I have come across has told me that my essay had it exactly right,” he then added. “I think every word of it has been proven right many times over. Even today, he’s still only going to get worse.”

  13. https://nypost.com/2026/01/09/us-news/doomsday-plane-spotted-at-lax-sparking-panic-online/

    Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was aboard the aircraft, commonly known as the “Doomsday Plane” when it touched down at Los Angeles International Airport Thursday night.

    The E-4B Nightwatch is a heavily modified Boeing 747 operated by the U.S. Air Force. It serves as a flying command center designed to keep the federal government functioning during major national emergencies, including nuclear war.

    Hegseth is currently traveling on his “Arsenal of Freedom” tour, which aims to spotlight the U.S. defense industrial base and boost military recruiting, the Department of Defense confirmed to the Post.

    Also aboard the plane was right-wing internet personality Laura Loomer. Posting on social media, Loomer said Hegseth called enlistees at the Los Angeles Military Entrance Processing Station “real elites and one percenters” for committing their lives to “God and Country.”

    *Such a waste of taxpayer dollars.

  14. Craig, Can’t jump on today, but did you notice this?

    https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/ice-policy-use-lethal-force-redacted-questions-linger-following-minneapolis-ice-shooting

    ICE policy on use of lethal force redacted as questions linger following Minneapolis ICE shooting

    Just hours after a woman was shot and killed by an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, the department’s use-of-force policy was redacted, nearly in its entirety.

    The 2023 document has been the policy enforced by the agency and is consistent with the Department of Homeland Security’s document. But now there’s nothing on ICE’s website but a single paragraph.

    As of Thursday, Jan. 8, the 13-page document is redacted — with the exception of the section that summarizes its purpose and background:

    “Purpose/Background. This Directive establishes the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Firearms and Use of Force policy. This Directive assigns responsibilities for agency employees and, in conjunction with the ICE Firearms and Use of Force Handbook, establishes procedures and protocols concerning firearms and the use of force, including (but not limited to) training and proficiency, the reporting of use of force incidents, and the proper maintenance, storage, and accounting of firearms and intermediate force weapons.”

    Beyond that opening paragraph, the remaining document is blacked out with red lettering that reads “(b)(7)(E)” — which means information is being withheld from FOIA because it “would reveal law enforcement techniques.”

    However, a review of the document earlier in the day on Wednesday showed that the document was not redacted.

    It included detailed information about how ICE agents are instructed to use force – and when.

  16. Poobah,

    I can try – I’d be interested in doing it by keyboard (I’m in an office and don’t want the others in the office to think they can fritter away their time on the internet – we’re short handed as it is…). I would like a link to the unredacted Use of Force Manual if anyone has one.

  17. I’m attaching a link to the 2021 ICE Firearms and Use of Force Manual – attention to Attachment II (pages 62-72). That attachment was the 2018 version of the Use of Force Guidelines and maybe what was on the website… or perhaps … here’s a link to the 2023 Firearms and use of Force directive. Again, a possibility for what they redacted over the weekend.

  22. https://www.offshore-technology.com/news/president-trump-signs-order-protecting-venezuelan-oil-revenue/

    …Trump has issued an executive order to protect Venezuelan oil revenue held in US Treasury accounts, citing significant national security and foreign policy concerns.

    By declaring a national emergency, the order effectively prevents these funds from being subject to any legal claims, attachments, or judicial processes.

    Under the terms of the order, the funds remain recognised as sovereign assets of Venezuela and are held for governmental purposes.

    *For “governmental purposes,” eh. How much will tRUMP’s salary as POV be?

  24. Thanks House Counsel Pogo for steering us through this one.

    It’s 38° inside Trail Mix HQ today (heater down), but we’re sweating the details on the ICE shooting. 🥶

    Can agents actually shoot moving cars? The DOJ policy says no. New 3D forensics suggest the officer wasn’t even hit. We check the receipts.

    Today’s Rundown:
    00:00 The Clash Intro
    01:20 DOJ Deadly Force Policy
    03:40 French Forensic Video Analysis
    07:00 Legal Standards with Pogo
    12:00 The “Subjective Fear” Defense
    15:00 Christy Noem vs. The Tapes
    22:00 Qualified Immunity Obstacles
    28:00 The Clash Outro

    Watch now 👇

  25. They Want You to “Quit Demonstrating”

    Two days after an ICE agent shot and killed Renée Good in Minneapolis, Rep. Roger Williams issued an ultimatum to the Trump administration’s critics in Minnesota and beyond.

    “People need to quit demonstrating, quit yelling at law enforcement, challenging law enforcement, and begin to get civil,” the Texas Republican told NewsNation. “And until we do that, I guess we’re going to have it this way. And the people that are staying in their homes or doing the right thing need to be protected.”

    That’s a pretty clear encapsulation of MAGA-world’s views on dissent these days. You aren’t supposed to protest. You aren’t supposed to “yell at” or “challenge” the militarized federal agents occupying your city. And anyone who wants to be “protected” should probably just stay “in their homes.”

    *ICE goons are going door-to-door; they kick in the door if you don’t open it.

    “When it comes to protesters, we gotta make sure we treat all of them the same: Send them to jail,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) in March, discussing Khalil’s arrest on Fox Business Network. “Free speech is great, but hateful, hate, free speech is not what we need in these universities.”

    That’s pretty close to Williams’ demand on Friday that “people need to quit demonstrating.” It also sounds a lot like Attorney General Pam Bondi’s widely derided threat in September that the DOJ “will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.”

    Hate speech—regardless of what the Trump administration thinks that means—is protected by the First Amendment. Bondi can’t prosecute people for expressing views she dislikes. And ICE can’t deport US citizens like Good.

    But of course, federal law enforcement has more direct ways to exert control. “The bottom line is this,” said Rep. Wesley Hunt, a Texas Republican running for US Senate, in the wake of Good’s death. “When a federal officer gives you instructions, you abide by them and then you get to keep your life.”

    *And when they tell you to both drive away and get out of the car?

    Moment’s later, Newsmax anchor Carl Higbie complained to Hunt that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) had “literally told Minnesotans to get out and protest and that it is, quote, ‘a patriotic duty.’”

    “People are going to go out there,” Higbie warned ominously. “And what do you think is going to happen when you get 3, 4, 5,000 people—some of which are paid agitators—thinking it’s their ‘patriotic duty’ to oppose ICE?”

    *The only paid agitators are ICE goons trying to whip up anger and chaos. MAGAts are always projecting.

  27. The forensic dolls are creepy, but the law is clear. 🚨

    A viewer scolded us for “over-analyzing” the officer’s decision. But House Counsel Pogo explains why “panic” doesn’t override the DOJ ban on shooting moving vehicles.

    Important note: In the full broadcast, we also go frame-by-frame to see if the vehicle was actually steered toward the officer or away from him.

  28. ‘Enough is enough.’ WA congresswoman pushes to impeach Kristi Noem

    U.S. Rep. Emily Randall, a Washington Democrat, says she’s co-sponsoring a measure to impeach and remove Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem from office.

    In a statement, Randall said she was “horrified” to see the video of an ICE agent fatally shoot Renee Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday — then, a day later, to hear that two people were injured in a U.S. Border Patrol shooting in Portland.

    “Kristi Noem’s lawless agents are out of control,” Randall wrote. “We cannot have rogue government agencies killing its own people in our communities.”

    “Enough is enough,” she added.

    Noem and other federal officials have said the agents in both the Minneapolis and Portland cases acted in self-defense, in line with their training.

    Randall, who represents Washington’s 6th district, joins the impeachment effort Illinois Congresswoman Robin Kelly launched in the wake of the deadly ICE shooting in Minnesota.

    Kelly on Thursday announced she planned to file three articles of impeachment against Noem: One claiming Noem violated her constitutional oath and federal law by willfully obstructing Congressional oversight and withholding Congressionally appropriated funds, another alleging she “compromised public safety, violated due process of American citizens, and directed unconstitutional actions,” and a third accusing Noem of abusing her office for personal gain.

  29. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/us/politics/mary-peltola-senate-alaska.html

    Former Representative Mary Peltola of Alaska, a Democrat, announced on Monday that she was running for the state’s Senate seat, giving Democrats a big boost as they fight an uphill battle to win back the Senate in the midterm elections.

    Ms. Peltola, who was Alaska’s sole House member from 2022 until her defeat in 2024, is one of her red state’s few prominent Democrats. She has been considered perhaps the only person who could pose a threat to Senator Dan Sullivan, a Republican who is up for re-election this year.

    In her announcement video, Ms. Peltola made clear that she planned to position herself as a political outsider fixated on state and local issues like Alaska’s fishing industry and rising cost of living. She resurrected a slogan she used during her House campaigns — “fish, family and freedom” — and said she would propose term limits for members of Congress.

    “It’s not just that politicians in D.C. don’t care that we’re paying $17 a gallon for milk in rural Alaska — they don’t even believe us,” Ms. Peltola said.

    Her entry is the final puzzle piece of the Senate recruitment map for Democrats, who need to flip four seats this fall to take a majority. The party has picked up top recruits to take on Republicans in Ohio, North Carolina and now Alaska, but faces intense primary contests in Maine, Iowa and Texas.

    Ms. Peltola had been heavily coveted as a candidate by top Senate Democrats, led by Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, as the party’s best chance to make Alaska competitive.
    […]
    Ms. Peltola is considered a star of Democratic politics in Alaska, with others in the party suggesting they would step aside from the governor’s race if she had instead entered that field. She will be a heavy favorite to advance out of the state’s nonpartisan primary system, in which the top four vote-getters move onto the general election.

    Despite her popularity in the state, she is likely to be an underdog in a general election against Mr. Sullivan, because of the state’s longtime conservative lean. But Alaska has an independent streak, and its voters have repeatedly re-elected Senator Lisa Murkowski, one of the most moderate Republicans in Congress, over more conservative challengers.
    […]
    Ms. Murkowski crossed party lines to endorse Ms. Peltola during her two House races in 2022 and 2024, but she told Alaska Public Media in an interview published on Monday that this time around, she was endorsing her Senate colleague, Mr. Sullivan.
    […]
    Democrats face a tough Senate map this year: Not only must they flip four Republican-held seats — including some in states that Mr. Trump won in 2024 — but they also need to defend vulnerable seats of their own in Michigan and Georgia.

    Their best pickup opportunities are in Maine — where Senator Susan Collins is the only Republican senator in a blue state — and in North Carolina, a battleground state where Senator Thom Tillis, also a Republican, is retiring. But Democrats will have to venture into red territory, with states like Ohio, Iowa, Texas and Alaska offering narrow but possible paths to retake a majority.

    Mr. Schumer has now secured several top-tier Senate recruits, including former Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina and former Senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio.

  30. Pat I heard from a smart Dem ops friend who has switched to bullish on Dems winning back the Senate based on what’s happening there in Alaska. this is all new to me, glad to see an article about it for study

  31. You go, Mark.

    Sen. Mark Kelly sues Hegseth over censure, potential demotion

    The lawsuit is the latest twist in an unusual feud stemming from a video in which several Democrats reminded U.S. troops they can refuse illegal orders.

    By Noah Robertson and Tara Copp

    Sen. Mark Kelly filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to reverse Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s letter of censure and effort to potentially demote the retired Navy officer — sharply escalating a confrontation between the Arizona Democrat and President Donald Trump’s Pentagon chief over a controversial video reminding U.S. service members they can refuse illegal orders.

    In the lawsuit filed in federal court in D.C., Kelly’s lawyers argued that the Pentagon’s inquiry, and formal reprimand, unlawfully punished the senator for his speech and violated his due process.

    “It appears that never in our nation’s history has the Executive Branch imposed military sanctions on a Member of Congress for engaging in disfavored political speech,” the lawsuit states.

    The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Last week, Hegseth sent a letter of censure to Kelly, criticizing what he called the senator’s “reckless misconduct” for joining five other Democratic lawmakers who had served in the U.S. military or intelligence community in filming a video that reminded service members of their duty to disobey illegal orders.

    The lawmakers have said they filmed the video in response to some of the Trump administration’s legally controversial uses of the military, such as attacking alleged drug trafficking boats in Latin America and deploying troops to major American cities.

    Hegseth also said the Pentagon was opening a proceeding into whether Kelly’s last military rank and his pension should be reduced.

    The administrative punishment fell short of the Pentagon’s most aggressive option: recalling Kelly to active duty and charging him under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. But Hegseth’s letter warned that criminal charges were possible if Kelly continued to “engage in conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline.”

    The FBI also is involved in the matter.

    Democrats, some Republicans and many legal experts have criticized the inquiry as a specious attack on an outspoken critic of the Trump administration, who also oversees the Pentagon as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
    […]

    Let’s see where this goes.

  33. Heard it last night and started reading about it today; the EPSTEIN thing is worse than imagined, if Sasha Riley’s story is corroborated (by the files, perhaps) because he is ready to testify. It’s bad. It’s probably how Putin and BiBi control others.

    A live boy or a dead girl; how about both. Epstein, tRUMP, Gym Jordan, Lindsey Graham, and many more.

    Remember the odd comment tRUMP made about how Becca Good reacted to her wife’s murder by ICE? He was projecting, again.

  34. Stur, I’d have less than great morale if you sent me to Minneapolis in January, too. I probably wouldn’t kill anyone, but that’s just me.

  36. I’m seeing a lot of videos of gorillas fighting lions and giraffes kicking hyenas around….is that AI stuff?

  37. The Fed is Flying Commercial
    Could This Be Why Powell Got Subpoenaed?

    The Trump DOJ launching a criminal investigation into Jerome Powell is definitely the loud part of the weirdness over at the Federal Reserve today. But the quiet part is actually more alarming.

    It is now an open secret that the Fed has effectively stopped trusting this administration’s economic math. After months of “downward revisions” and missing data, the central bank has started outsourcing its reality checks.

    Fearing bogus Trump numbers they are now prioritizing private data from ADP (payroll processors) and PriceStats (online price scrapers) over the official government numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    Think about how weird that is: The “Government’s Bank” now trusts private companies more than the government itself.

    Sources: The Fed’s “Shadow” Data

    • The Distrust (Official Data “Overstated”): Fed Chair Powell explicitly stated that BLS reports are “drastically overstating” job growth by up to 60,000 jobs per month, arguing the real number is likely negative.

      Read at Fox Business
    • The Outsourcing (Reliance on Private Data): With official data distrusted, the Fed has shifted to relying on private sector metrics (like ADP) to determine interest rate policy, effectively bypassing government agencies.

      Read at Michigan Journal of Economics

  38. Nabbed this from somebody’s FB. So what is going to happen? Will this “rogue officer” be charged? Maybe it’s another set of endless rhetorical questions?

    One of the smartest things I’ve heard regarding the killing of Renee Good by Jonathan Ross came from Andrew Weissman, a career DOJ prosecutor and now an NYU Law professor. He said if he were prosecuting the case, he wouldn’t deal with the first shot. It’s too murky. Was she driving forward or trying to get away? Did the ICE agent fear for his life or didn’t he? Instead, Weisseman would focus on shots two and three, which were fired from the side of the car, reaching through the driver-side window and pointblank in the victim’s head. It’s indisputable that the ICE agent was *not* in danger at that time. Combined with his calling Renee a “F-ing B” (on video) as her SUV rolled ahead, it would be easy to make the case that he fired his gun the second and third times out of hostility or rage or frustration, but certainly not as an act of self-defense.

  39. NBC Nightly News making time to air a story about a youth hockey brawl (which is a precursor to problems as they age), but it’s just sad that they provide pablum out of fear…and from knowing most of their audience, I guess.

  40. There’s video of Renee Good’s van on a flatbed tow truck. (No damage to the front, of course…except for a bullet hole in the windshield, to the far right near the metal frame.) I’ll bet the Feds are getting rid of physical evidence.

  41. Remember when Powell & tRUMPsky were doing a walk-thru and he tried to get Powell about the cost on camera, but Powell wasn’t having it? Yep, and now Adolf’s ballroom, which is all Dementia Don cares about (aside from the world not getting specifics about the horrible things he and his “friends” did that are allegedly listed in the EPSTEIN file) is up to $400 billion and seems to be more bunker than ballroom.

  43. Powell has the cajones that Congress lacks. Adolf has been harping on him to drop interest rates for forever.

  44. https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/should-we-storm-mcdonalds-italian-prime-minister-giorgia-meloni-fires-back-at-donald-trump-over-nato-zero-without-us-remark-watch-article-153436927

    Trump recently reiterated a familiar line – “NATO is zero without America” – underscoring his view that the alliance’s strength depends on US leadership and capability.

    In response, Meloni was quoted rhetorically asking whether Europe should then take radical steps like closing US military bases, cutting trade, or even “storming McDonald’s” – not as a literal plan of action, but to highlight how unrealistic some proposals are that have circulated online.

    *She is the second person to mention of cutting US bases.

  46. why are you trying to stir up shit over a woman who got herself killed Craig? Clicks?

    reject the outrage machine

    playing that game literally cost you all three branches of fucking government

    Libs still insist on playing it, it’s just dumb

  52. how about Kamala dropping hints that she might run in 2028 as if she deserves consideration after hiding while leadership is desperately needed

    Stay hidden forever

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