02d Agit-Prop

Blurb:

Kendra Pierre-Louis: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Kendra Pierre-Louis, in for Rachel Feltman.

Over the past couple of weeks oil—specifically, Venezuelan oil—has been all over the headlines.

It started late on January 2, when President Donald Trump ordered U.S. military forces to enter Venezuela and capture the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, which they did early the next morning. Last week the country’s interior minister said the action killed 100 people.

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NUUK, Greenland — U.S. President Donald Trump has turned the Arctic island of Greenland into a geopolitical hotspot with his demands to own it and suggestions that the U.S. could take it by force.

The island is a semiautonomous region of Denmark, and Denmark’s foreign minister said Wednesday after a meeting at the White House that a “fundamental disagreement” remains with Trump over the island.

The crisis is dominating the lives of Greenlanders and “people are not sleeping, children are afraid, and it just fills everything these days. And we can’t really understand it,” Naaja Nathanielsen, a Greenlandic minister said at a meeting with lawmakers in Britain’s Parliament this week.

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BEIJING — Faced with new global challenges, the leaders of China and Canada pledged Friday to improve relations between their two nations after years of acrimony.

Xi Jinping told visiting Prime Minister Mark Carney that he is willing to continue working to improve ties, noting that talks have been underway on restoring and restarting cooperation since the two held an initial meeting in October on the sidelines of a regional economic conference in South Korea.

“It can be said that our meeting last year opened a new chapter in turning China–Canada relations toward improvement,” China’s top leader said.

Carney, the first Canadian prime minister to visit China in eight years, said better relations would help improve a global governance system that he described as “under great strain.”

He called for a new relationship “adapted to new global realities” and cooperation in agriculture, energy and finance.

Blurb:

One Maryland lawmaker has a great idea: Ban Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents hired to enforce President Donald Trump’s deportations from ever getting jobs in state law enforcement.

“It says something about the morals of the person—the character of the person—if they see what’s happening on TV, they see what happening in the streets and say, ‘You know what? I want to join that,’” Democratic Del. Adrian Boafo, the bill’s sponsor, told The Washington Post

Good start, but I’d go even further.

Blurb:

Don Lemon, alongside anti-ICE agitators in Minnesota, barged into a St. Paul church during services on Sunday. The group of far-left activists disrupted the prayer service, chanting “ICE out,” all while Lemon live streamed the intimidation of Christians in their own sanctuary.

It wasn’t a spontaneous operation, as Lemon explained during a livestream. According to Lemon, the agitators — reportedly led by Nekima Armstrong, Daunte Wright, and others — had planned what they called “Operation Pull-Up.” Before the church invasion, Lemon live streamed a monologue previewing what was to come: These activists “surprise people, catch them off-guard, and hold them to account. And so that’s what we’re doing here, and then we’re — after that, after we do this operation, you’ll see it live. And these operations are surprise operations, again I can’t tell you where they’re going.”

Blurb:

MS NOW White House correspondent Jake Traylor joined Tuesday’s Ana Cabrera Reports for a textbook example of how aspiring reporters should not do their job. Within the span of only one minute, Traylor would display an obvious hypocrisy on the usefulness of anecdotal stories and fail to fact-check President Trump on Sunday’s St. Paul church storming, because it was Traylor who needed to be fact-checked.

Traylor was on to discuss Trump’s reaction and state of mind when it comes to all that is going on in Minnesota when he declared, “We’re continuing to get different, you know, citizens sending in different images and videos of ICE agents acting in ways that appear to be unlawful, or at least quite confusing. And so for the president, in a lot of ways, it continues video after video to be difficult things to defend.”

Alluding to a recent Trump Truth Social post, Traylor continued, “We do know, though, that the president himself is watching a lot of this take place. Early this morning, the president posted about a recent protest that took place in Minneapolis at a church saying that the protesters, the president, alleged they were paid agitators, which is, of course, as you know, a baseless claim. But he said that they should be not just put in jail. But he said some of them should be kicked out of this country in entirety.”

Blurb:

“CNN NewsNight” host Abby Phillip allowed a former Biden administration official to claim riots in Minneapolis were a “peaceful protest” Wednesday night.

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed in a Wednesday night post on X that an agent from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shot an illegal immigrant from Venezuela after being ambushed. Former Biden White House aide Daniel Koh claimed that the response in the streets of Minneapolis was “peaceful,” despite Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara saying crowds were engaged in “unlawful acts.”

Blurb:

Many media outlets slimed Dilbert comic creator Scott Adams after his death from cancer on Tuesday, labeling him “controversial” and “racist.”

The New York Times, for instance, pushed out a breaking news alert reading that Adams, who passed away on Tuesday, “made racist comments on his podcast.”

The Times obituary carried that attack on by portraying Adams, who announced his cancer diagnosis in May, as furious that he lost friends and opportunities because he supported Donald Trump.

 

Blurb:

President Donald Trump warned he may invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy U.S. military forces into Minnesota as violent protests flare around federal immigration enforcement in Minneapolis.

The Insurrection Act allows a president to send military troops onto U.S. soil to restore order during civil unrest. It was first used by President Thomas Jefferson in 1807 to stop an attempt to break off part of the American West and was last invoked by President George H.W. Bush during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

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Former CNN host Jim Acosta furiously cursed over “CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil” stating “We love America” as one of its “five simple principles” during a Thursday episode of “I’ve Had It.”

“[W]e make no apologies for saying so,” the show’s X account posted on Jan. 2. Acosta suggested on the podcast that the statement should go without saying and used variations of the F-word five times in under one minute. (RELATED: Jim Acosta Invokes Trump’s Deceased Ex-Wife In Rant About Immigration Raids)

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The Left is going to try and make the ICE shooting in Minnesota something more than it is, and they’re going to fail miserably at it. It’s not just that they’re liberal and that liberals are usually wrong about everything, but the facts simply take an axe to this narrative. Guest Julie Roginsky decided to toss the first pitch, and it was a bit outside.

The former Fox News liberal opted to claim that the American people might see this as a breaking point in so far as they view the incident involving Renee Nicole Good as someone who could be them. Good was shot and killed on January 7 after she accelerated her vehicle toward an ICE officer.

The local Democrats were off to the races with the ‘she was murdered’ narrative that imploded when the ICE officer’s cellphone footage was released. Good was a professional activist who had participated in previous activities to disrupt ICE raids. She trained others in that regard. She was not afraid, not was she just driving home. So, no, this is very avoidable, Ms. Roginsky. It was preventable—it’s called not driving your call into federal officers. Also, nothing has been adjuctated yet in court as Noah Rothman pointed out:

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These are the best liberal media stories. The ones where the publication unintentionally exposes the opposite of what they’re trying to argue. Of course, The New York Times wanted to drum up some narrative about the Trump administration’s struggles with the courts. The funny part is a) Trump knew this beforehand, which is why his legal team is prepared to appeal all the things, and b) it showed that the lower courts are stacked with illiberal radicals, some of whom think they are the executive.

Twitchy had it first yesterday, and, well, have a laugh:

Blurb:

CBS’s host of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert, and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel lamented that the Justice Department is “investigating the victims” of the Minneapolis shooting involving Renee Good and ICE agent Jonathan Ross. However, neither host provided their audience with the key detail that Good’s wife, Rebecca, told her to “drive, baby, drive” after Good herself was told to get out of the car.

Colbert certainly wasn’t interested in narratively inconvenient facts when he huffed, “Now, it’s not just a surge of goons. In order to justify the unjustifiable gunning down of an American citizen in her car, the Trump administration is trying to smear Renee Good’s family now. Reportedly, senior Justice Department officials have pressed for a criminal investigation into Good’s widow, which today prompted both six federal prosecutors in Minnesota to resign and the resignation of five senior prosecutors in the criminal section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.”

Blurb:

Authorities have released the mugshot of 26-year-old William DeFoor following his arrest for allegedly attempting to break into Vice President JD Vance’s Cincinnati home with a hammer.

Looking at the image, it’s hard to believe this guy is an adult.

The booking photo, posted by the Hamilton County Justice Center, also lists the charges DeFoor is facing, including vandalism, criminal trespass, criminal damaging or endangering, and obstructing official business.

The attack, reported on by RedState’s Nick Arama, unfolded early Monday at Vance’s Ohio home, where DeFoor reportedly used a hammer to smash multiple windows in what authorities described as an attempted break-in.

Blurb:

Sean Spicer exposed Politico’s inadvertent publication of an internal Google document — detailing the news sources it routinely checks — with Breitbart News notably absent from the list.

On January 9, Sean Spicer, host of The Sean Spicer Show and former White House Press stated: “Ever wonder why @politico @playbookdc is so left leaning? Major blunder this morning when they accidentally linked a story to their internal google doc showing what sources they “go to” (and therefore don’t – no @BreitbartNews @DailyCaller @DailySignal @realDailyWire )”.

The screenshots show a comprehensive list of outlets Politico staff are instructed to check for aggregation, ranging from legacy outlets like the New York Times and CNN to newer entities like Semafor and Axios. However, not a single conservative-focused publication appears among the primary sources. The document even includes logins and passwords for paywalled sources but excludes any reference to Breitbart News.

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Angie Craig is a Minnesota congresswoman seeking the Dem nomination for an open Senate seat. Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, Craig’s ultraliberal primary opponent, has accused Craig of being too tough on immigration. Craig committed the unforgivable sin — in leftist eyes — of voting for the Laken Riley Act, and supporting a House resolution condemning antisemitism and expressing gratitude for ICE.

So Craig is clearly on a campaign to atone for her transgressions, and prove to the kind of far-left Dems who vote in Minnesota primaries that she is just as out there as the wackiest of them.

MS NOW’s The Weekend gave Craig an opportunity to do that, having her as a guest on Saturday’s show.

The first topic was the blatant stunt Craig pulled on January 7th, picking an argument on the House floor–with cameras conveniently rolling–with Republican congressman Tom Emmer on the subject of the ICE shooting of Renee Good. Craig repeatedly poked her finger toward Emmer’s chest, and a colleague eventually had to pull her away. She described herself to The Weekend hosts as “a pissed off congresswoman on the House floor.” Oh, the bravery of this woman warrior! Peggy Flanagan is a hopeless lefty, but she got one thing right, saying Craig “cravenly picked a fight” with Emmer.

Blurb:

Don’t believe your lying eyes.

That’s effectively what the hoax-peddling Washington Post told its readers when it ran what can only be surmised as the most dishonest piece of left-wing propaganda published (so far) this year.

Splattered across the top of the outlet’s homepage on Thursday was an ” analysis” titled, “Video shows ICE agent in Minneapolis fired at driver as vehicle veered past him.” (An earlier version of the article had the headline, “ICE agent was not in the vehicle’s path when he fired at driver, video shows.”)

Right from the get-go, it’s clear that make-pretend “reporters” Aaron Davis and Jonathan Baran aren’t trying to inform their audience of what actually happened but are instead seeking to advance the Democrat Party’s anti-ICE agenda.

Upon navigating the Orwellian article, readers are immediately bombarded with the presumption that the Trump administration’s central (and well-documented) claim — that the now-deceased woman disobeyed ICE and then hit an agent with her car — is false. In typical legacy media fashion, Davis and Baran play up such framing by asserting that their “frame-by-frame analysis” “raises questions” about the administration’s account of the incident.

Blurb:

The official White House narrative of how a U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed a U.S. citizen in her vehicle in Minneapolis is bumping hard up against what can be seen in videos of the incident.

U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice-President JD Vance and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are all insisting that the victim, Renee Nicole Good, deliberately rammed her vehicle into an ICE officer who then fired shots in self-defence because he feared for his life.

Yet three videos from the scene — each verified by CBC News as authentic — contradict these claims and raise serious questions about why the White House is defending the fatal shooting as justified.

Blurb:

“The violence we are seeing did not begin on January 7. The only difference now is that more people are finally seeing it.”

Activists march in downtown Boston Thursday night to protest the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent. Ken McGagh/The Boston Globe

Several hundred people marched in Boston Thursday night to protest the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a 37-year-old Minnesota mother, by a federal immigration agent as she tried to drive away from agents.

With glowing Park Street Church as a backdrop, close to a thousand people chanted, calling for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to leave local communities and for an end ro deportations.

The protest, organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation, was the second in Boston after Good’s killing. In a quickly organized event, crowds also gathered at the Boston Common Wednesday evening.

“We are outraged. People all across the country, but also here in Boston, are sick of ICE,” Ximena Hasbach, a PSL organizer, told Boston.com. “We demand an end to ice terror. We demand justice for Renee. We demand the arrest of Jonathan Ross, the man who killed her.”

Blurb:

On Wednesday’s CNN This Morning, Democrat strategist Antjuan Seawright, commenting on President Trump’s Venezuela operation and his comments about Greenland, said:

“I don’t think this is the posture of someone who’s planning to leave the White House in three years because he’s been very aggressive about his foreign policy approach, and taking over countries.”

Aggressive foreign policy = determination to remain in power? Non sequitur much, Antjuan?

Blurb:

The aftermath of the ICE shooting of an anti-ICE activist in Minnesota has quickly exploded into a national story that sucks the oxygen out of anything else trying to elbow its way into the news cycle . This includes Venezuela, where the NBC Nightly News was the sole evening network newscast to chronicle a major development: the Chavista regime’s release of an indeterminate number of political prisoners.

Here is the Venezuela roundup that has the prisoner release at the top, in its entirety and as aired on NBC Nightly News on Thursday, January 8th, 2026:

Blurb:

Hypocrisy was in high gear on Morning Joe today regarding the Minneapolis ICE shooting. The panel accused President Trump and JD Vance of “prejudging” the situation and “jumping to conclusions.” But the panel repeatedly described Renee Nicole Good as “the victim.” If Good is the victim, that, ipso facto, makes the ICE agents the guilty parties. So who’s prejudging now?

That wasn’t the only instance of hypocrisy/double standards on display. Former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson lamented that instead of “trying to calm people’s fears down,” leaders “are simply playing to [their] base and trying to amp it up.” While Johnson didn’t name names, this is MS NOW, so his accusation clearly seemed aimed at the Trump administration.

But when it comes to playing to the base and amping things up instead of calming people’s fears, consider these statements by an array of Democrats:

  • Tim Walz called ICE “Trump’s Gestapo,” and declared, as he mobilized the MN National Guard, “we’ve never been at war with our federal government [until now?]”
  • Jasmine Crockett called ICE “slave patrols.”
  • Ilhan Omar called ICE agents “vile and beyond cruel.”
  • Hakeem Jeffries implored people to “fight” the Trump administration “in the streets.”
  • Good old Maxine Waters called Trump “lowdown, no good, filthy,” over ICE raids.

Blurb:

If protests are an “unstoppable force that they can’t oppose,” that Trump “can’t oppose,” why are they opposable? That is something Rachel Maddow will never be able to answer, but it won’t stop her from going on a rant about percentages, authoritarianism, and blah blah blah.

According to Rachel Maddow, “In political science terms, there’s what’s called the 3.5 percent rule, which is that if you look at authoritarian regimes all over the world over the last century, once you have 3.5 percent of a population protesting nonviolently against a dictator or an authoritarian, that is essentially an unstoppable force that they can’t oppose.”

The only problem with this is that it’s unclear what it is that Trump can’t oppose. What are they even fighting for? A woman who spent much of her free time dedicated to doxxing federal agents allegedly attempted to run over an officer with a deadly weapon. Now, apparently, 3.5 percent of the population is opposing this, and Maddow claims Trump can’t oppose that opposition.

Blurb:

Normal people are breathing a sigh of relief that narco-terrorist leader Nicolás Maduro is finally getting his just desserts for getting fat off of the torture of his citizens and funneling drugs into the U.S. for years. For MRC Business, it’s a moment worth recalling when the idiotas at The New York Times made their readers dumber by blaming anything but communism and socialism for Venezuela’s destruction.

The July 28, 2024, story that Times Venezuela reporter Anatoly Kurmanaev, international correspondent Frances Robles and Andes Bureau Chief Julie Turkewitz ran was so bad it was enough to make people lose IQ points:

[I]n recent years, the socialist model has given way to brutal capitalism, economists say, with a small state-connected minority controlling much of the nation’s wealth.

Yes, the journos actually attempted to make Maduro and Venezuela’s bread lines synonymous with — *checks notes* — “capitalism.”