02 U.S. Politics

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FBI Director Kash Patel announced an investigation into encrypted Signal group chats used by Minnesota residents to share information about federal immigration enforcement — agent locations, vehicle license plates, activity near schools. Patel expressed concern that such activities could “put law enforcement in harm’s way,” and said investigators would determine if residents violated federal statutes, reports NBC News. — Read the rest

The post Kash Patel finds free speech inconvenient, opens investigation into chat groups warning about ICE appeared first on Boing Boing.

from boingboing.net

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Federal investigators raided an election office in Fulton County, Ga., Wednesday in a case related to the 2020 vote, a Justice Department official told The Post.

FBI officers are acting on a search warrant, but no more details were immediately available.

Former Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged President Trump and more than a dozen of his allies and supporters in August 2023 with racketeering and other crimes related to attempts to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in the state.

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President Donald Trump is not a man of nuance, and so as a result, many fall into the trap of concluding he can’t see the big picture. The most common mistaken assumption about him is that people think he’s reactionary, when the opposite is true. You don’t get the peace agreements he’s gotten, the concessions he’s won on his tariff strategy, or so many other things he’s accomplished if you wing it.

Consider all of this and how uncharacteristically quiet the president has been on the anti-ICE movement in Minneapolis in recent weeks. While he hasn’t avoided the topic, he hasn’t allowed it to dominate his narrative and the media coverage of the White House.

More importantly, while there has been a good deal of noise coming out of Minneapolis, and even more confusion by design coming from the Minnesota governor, Democrat politicians, and the left, in the wake of the Michael Pretti shooting, the very measured response coming from the White House may have been overlooked.

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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is scrambling to walk back his China pivot after President Donald Trump threatened to hammer Canada with massive tariffs if Ottawa turns itself into a trade conduit for Beijing.

Carney now insists Canada has “no intention” of pursuing a free trade deal with the Chinese Communist Party.

It comes just days after President Trump warned that any such move would trigger a 100% tariff on Canadian exports entering the United States.

The sudden reversal follows a series of events that exposed Canada’s quiet but aggressive realignment toward Beijing.

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The Supreme Court last week ordered California Democrats to respond within a week to a Republican-backed request seeking to block the state’s newly drawn congressional maps from being used in the 2026 elections.

The move, issued by Justice Elena Kagan, who is handling the emergency injunction request, caught many court watchers off guard. Given the court’s recent decision to allow Texas Republicans to keep their mid-decade redistricting plan, most expected the justices to let California’s Democrat-drawn map stand without intervention.

California Republicans argue the new maps violate the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution by relying on race, rather than politics, to redraw at least one congressional district.

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Reportedly said he would ‘rather not associate with white people over the course of the class’

An investigation has determined that a black professor at Indiana University created a “hostile educational environment” for white students via “comments made over the course of a semester.”

The Herald-Times reported Jan. 13 that the scholar would be sanctioned as a result, a recent decision made by the vice provost for faculty and academic affairs.

“[T]he university had found a ‘preponderance of evidence’ that Croom had created a ‘hostile educational environment for White students,’ a violation of the university’s discrimination policy,” the Times reported.

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China reportedly hacked and surveilled the mobile phones of top officials in Downing Street for years as a part of a global espionage dragnet.

A report from London’s Daily Telegraph has claimed that a Chinese spying operation saw the communications of senior officials in the administrations of prime ministers Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak monitored between 2021 and 2024.

Although it is unclear if the phones of prime ministers were caught up in the surveillance scheme, a source is quoted by the broadsheet as saying that the Chinese infiltration reached “right into the heart of Downing Street”.

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President Donald Trump appears to be backing down in Minneapolis — not because the situation has improved, but because Democrat officials who are still openly declaring their opposition to immigration enforcement have apparently pressured him into retreat.

After months of open defiance of federal immigration law, weeks of unrest, and a second fatal shooting involving federal agents, the Trump administration demanded on Sunday that Walz, Frey, and other Democrat leaders “cooperate … to enforce our Nation’s Laws.” In part, he specifically called on state and local prisons to turn over illegal aliens in custody and called on local police to “assist Federal Law Enforcement in apprehending and detaining Illegal Aliens who are wanted for Crimes.” But two days later, the president is reportedly planning to withdraw some forces in Minneapolis.

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An independent journalist claims to have infiltrated encrypted Signal chat groups used by anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement activists, uncovering what appears to be a coordinated effort to obstruct federal immigration enforcement and harass law enforcement officers.

Cam Higby, an on-the-ground reporter known for undercover infiltrations, shared on X screen recordings and member lists from the alleged chats. His posts revealed hundreds of participants apparently actively plotting interference with U.S. ICE operations.

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Virginia Democrats want to teach schoolchildren to “affirm” gay and “transgender” propaganda as part of their new “inclusive history” proposal.

A bill proposal from Democrat Del. Sam Rasoul would require history and social studies courses taught at public schools would be required to push the “contributions, perspectives, and experiences of historically marginalized communities, including racial and ethnic minorities; immigrants and refugees; women; individuals with disabilities; individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+); individuals from various socioeconomic statuses; individuals from various religious backgrounds; and any other group of individuals that the Board of Education deems appropriate.”

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Former U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman encouraged his followers and supporters to “burn this s*** down” after an anti-ICE agitator was shot and killed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents while attempting to draw a firearm.

Bowman — who was ousted by a Democratic Party primary challenger in 2024 — was speaking in reference to the shooting of Alex Pretti, 37. Footage from the scene shows Pretti inserting himself into a federal immigration operation and attempting to prevent CBP agents from arresting a fellow agitator.

At that point, a struggle ensued between Pretti and agents. Pretti, who was licensed to carry a 9mm firearm, then reached towards his waistband before shots rang out.

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The shutdown Washington is preparing for this weekend has several key differences from the government funding battle last fall.

That 43-day shutdown became the longest in U.S. history, ending in November 2025. It centered on Democrats’ concerns that legislation to keep the government open did not contain a provision to extend Obamacare subsidies. And before the shutdown was triggered on Oct. 1, it was widely expected due to the known deadline for renewing the expiring Obamacare subsidies.

Unlike last fall’s controversy, the latest looming government shutdown would be only partial and stem from unexpected unrest in Minnesota. And key Senate Democrats who proved critical to ending the last shutdown have announced that they will not aid the Trump administration this time around in backing the Department of Homeland Security funding bill for ICE.

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U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez pressed attorneys for Minnesota and the Justice Department on Monday about the state’s claims that federal government violated the Tenth Amendment by surging Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to Minneapolis.

Lindsey Middlecamp, a special counsel at the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, reportedly described ICE’s deployment as an “unlawful occupation” at the outset of the hearing.

She argued that the the administration of President Donald Trump is using the ICE deployment to pressure the state on policy.

“They are not letting the courts work this stuff out,” Middlecamp said, according to Politico’s Kyle Cheney. “What they’re trying to get in court … they’re trying to get that same thing by putting 3,000 heavily armed agents on the streets of Minnesota.”

As evidence of alleged coercion, the state’s attorneys presented a Jan. 24 letter from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, urging Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, to consider three major policy changes.

Bondi urged him to share Minnesota’s records on Medicaid and Food and Nutrition Service programs with the federal government; to repeal “sanctuary” policies restricting state and local law enforcement from assisting federal officers; and to allow the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to access voter rolls to confirm Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal laws.

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Some have claimed that ICE is undertrained. Today’s show breaks down what’s going on with ICE.

According to Tim Walz, Donald Trump needs to “pull these untraided officers out of Minnesota before they kill another person.”

“This is, of course, a talking point parroted by everyone on the left right now and by their useful idiots on the liberation/black pill right,” Crowder said.

Both officers involved in the two recent shootings in Minnesota are extensively trained officers.

According to the New York Times:

Mr. Ross joined the Indiana National Guard in 2002, a year after graduating from high school in Peoria, Ill. In November 2004, he deployed to Iraq, and was there for a year, during a time when the insurgency was growing increasingly violent. He served as a gunner in convoys for his logistics unit, but nothing in his record suggests he saw combat.

Mr. Ross was also part of a cohort inside ICE known as the Special Response Team that is trained to handle more dangerous situations. In 2025, S.R.T. members were sent across the nation to cities where Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown had spurred mass protests, including Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.

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President Donald Trump has launched a sweeping new effort to shut down Canada’s new alliance with China to help the Chinese Communist Party establish a “new world order.”

Trump is seeking block Communist China from further entrenching itself in North America by cutting off Beijing’s growing influence inside Canada.

The move comes as Trump formalizes what allies are calling the “Donroe Doctrine,” a return to hard-line American hemispheric dominance modeled on the Monroe Doctrine.

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It was a wild weekend with the Border Patrol shooting in Minneapolis on Saturday.

We don’t know all the facts in the case yet. But the Democrats were off to the races, declaring it “murder.” They’ve helped to incite the anti-ICE and anti-DHS agitators. Immediately, there was violence in the wake of the shooting, with an ICE agent having his finger bitten off by a rioter and protesters attacking a hotel they thought ICE agents were staying at.

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For most of its history, the United States has been blessed by geography. Since the country’s founding nearly two hundred and fifty years ago, both Europe and Asia have often been beset by war and upheaval. America was fortunate to have oceans between them while also having neighbors, Canada and Mexico, who were weaker and incapable of posing a serious threat. Mexico’s instability has posed problems of its own, but the U.S. could always count on Canada. Until now.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has embraced China, America’s foremost geopolitical adversary. And he’s done so with undisguised relish.

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Minnesota officials are considering filing state criminal charges against federal immigration officers involved in two deadly shootings in Minneapolis.

Federal agents typically enjoy a degree of immunity under federal law, which could complicate efforts to prosecute the officers.

The first shooting involved 37-year-old Renee Good, who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent earlier this month during an immigration raid. The authorities claim she tried to run the agent over with her vehicle. However, some dispute this claim, citing video evidence appearing to show Good trying to drive away from the scene before the agent opened fire.

The second involves a 37-year-old ICU nurse named Alex Pretti, who was fatally shot during an immigration enforcement operation near a protest in south Minneapolis. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed Pretti approached officers with a firearm.

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The bill ultimately passed the chamber 220 to 207. Five other Democrats joined Gillen and Suozzi in passing the bill, while Rep Thomas Massie was the only GOP member to vote against it.

Two Democrat House reps from Long Island, New York have broken with their party in backing a spending bill that includes billions funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as a major immigration crackdown has been underway in Minnesota.

Reps Laura Gillen and Tom Suozzi sided with House Republicans on Thursday in passing a $64.4 billion funding package for the Department of Homeland Security. Included in the package is $10 billion for ICE. The bill ultimately passed the chamber 220 to 207. Five other Democrats joined Gillen and Suozzi in passing the bill, while Rep Thomas Massie was the only GOP member to vote against it.

Blurb:

A mob of anti-ICE agitators laid siege to a Minneapolis hotel Sunday night, smashing windows, trashing the lobby and injuring at least one federal law enforcement officer, after local police withdrew.

The city’s chaotic anti-ICE operations spiraled into a violent frenzy Saturday after an agitator was shot dead by a federal officer during an altercation. Alex Pretti, 37, was carrying a Sig Sauer P320-AXG COMBAT, a high-capacity 9 mm pistol as he filmed Border Patrol agents executing a targeted immigration enforcement operation.

Tricia McLaughlin, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said the officers were responding to a man who had a gun with two magazines and fired “defensive shots.”

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President Donald Trump says that he has spoken with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) via phone and indicated that the Democrat was cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement efforts after publicly opposing them.

The president posted about the phone call with the governor in a social media statement on Truth Social after rioting escalated in Minneapolis in response to another lethal shooting over the weekend.

‘Even in Minnesota, Crime is way down, but both Governor Walz and I want to make it better!’

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Ever since President Trump announced his interest in a U.S. acquisition of Greenland, leftist media at home and abroad have reacted with a mixture of vicious mockery and hysterical indignation. The media frenzy reached new heights shortly before the Davos WEF meeting this January due to Trump’s strong rhetoric.

This rhetoric is part of Trump’s “art-of-the-deal” tactics as a powerful negotiator. Despite the leftist hysteria, however, the Greenland deal framework that is already underway is a testament to the recognition of the strategic importance of the island both for U.S. and European defense. This is also supported by the bare facts, which anti-American media outlets routinely ignore. It would be helpful to summarize these facts.

The official interest of the United States in acquiring Greenland is nothing new — it goes back over 150 years, when, after the purchase of Alaska in 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward emphasized Greenland’s desirable natural resources and strategic ports. A precedent was provided in 1917, when the United States purchased from Denmark the West Indies and renamed them “U.S. Virgin Islands.”

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“White evangelical Christianity is a cancer. These are the worst of our country.”

Far-left podcaster Jennifer Welch has said that “white Evangelical Christianity” is a cancer. While making the comments, she named people such as Erika Kirk and cited the Christian’s tendency to vote for Trump as a reason to oppose them and claimed Christians are not getting persecuted.

“So when you think about the Erika Kirk, the Life Church, the Joel Olsteen of it all, and their desire to accumulate wealth while hood-winking their flock into thinking they’re super moral, this is a cancer. White evangelical Christianity is a cancer. These are the worst of our country,” Welch said.

“These are the worst people in our country because they use their religion in two ways, as a weapon and as a shield. They weaponize it whenever they want to, and say, ‘We’re on the moral high ground. You’re a lesbian. You deserve to die. You’re a lesbian. The cops shouldn’t have revived you. Oh, your parents are Mexicans, and they brought you over here. Yeah, you should go to jail and eat worm food.’ And then when you call them out on it, ‘Oh, my God, they’re after the Christians. How dare they, how dare they. We’re so oppressed,'” Welch added, mocking those who are Christian.

“White Christians are so oppressed in this country, and they want it both ways, because in the religion that duplicity is taught, you can be morally duplicitous. You thrive in cognitive dissonance. And so this is just a massive, massive problem. And it should come as no surprise to anyone that of this cult that I’m talking about, white evangelicals over 80 percent went and voted triple Trumped.”

Blurb:

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) is facing increasing pressure to do away with the filibuster if Democrats seek to force a government shutdown over funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

MSN reports that the odds of a government shutdown by January 31, jumped from 11.5%  to 79% on Kalshi and from 9% to 80% on Polymarket.

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The situation in Minnesota is out of control, and finally, happy hands lunatic Tim Walz has chosen reason, deciding to cooperate with Trump officials in the wake of the recent shooting of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis last Saturday. It sparked another round of outrage from the Left, who claim, without evidence, that he was executed. Meanwhile, some conservatives claimed wrongly that he was about to commit mass slaughter before he was shot—Pretti was legally carrying a firearm at the protest. It’s created a total mess on messaging, and now Trump is stepping in to clean up the mess, appointing Tom Homan, who I assume is going to be the point person, not just of the overall operation in the state, but with Walz personally in resolving this matter (via Fox 21/Associated Press):

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For all Democrats bragged about Gov. Tim Walz’s years as an educator, it’s a good thing he didn’t teach English.

The Minnesota chief executive, whose watch included a welfare fraud scandal that robbed potentially billions from Minnesota and American taxpayers, launched a rhetorical salvo Sunday against President Donald Trump and Immigration and Customs Enforcement by using one of the best-known symbols of Holocaust history.

And — true to “knucklehead” form — he got the comparison completely wrong.

As Fox News reported, Walz was engaged in a lengthy discourse about Saturday’s shooting of an anti-ICE protester in Minneapolis — a discourse that was equally partisan and predictable — when he strayed into the dark days of World War II.

“We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside. Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank,” Walz said.

“Somebody is going to write that children’s story about Minnesota, and there’s one person who can end this now.”

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The Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, the largest children’s hospital in the city, announced last week that it would stop providing prescriptions for gender-mutilating drugs to minors in response to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) referring them and other hospitals for investigation.

In a January 20 statement shared with local media, the Lurie Children’s Hospital announced it would temporarily pause handing out prescriptions for so-called “gender-affirming” drugs such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy to children under 18 that the hospital had not previously treated. The children’s hospital stressed that the decision came in response to HHS’ January 15 announcement that the Chicago hospital, as well as several other prominent children’s hospitals, had been referred to the department’s Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) for investigation for failing to comply with the department’s official guidance emphasizing the danger of these “sex-rejecting drugs.”

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“We look at all this stuff. As soon as Higby put that post out I opened an investigation on it.”

FBI Director Kash Patel has opened up an investigation into anti-ICE Signal chat networks in Minnesota after a report on the chats was published by independent journalist Cam Higby.

“We look at all this stuff. As soon as Higby put that post out I opened an investigation on it,” Patel said of the chats while speaking to Benny Johnson.