Fucking finally. He's also got that one in France too.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.today/post/47029625

cross-posted from: https://pawb.social/post/39242993

Virginia’s then-Governor Glenn Youngkin rushed to assist President Trump’s deportation agenda last year, ordering the state agencies under his control to join ICE’s 287(g) program, which gave them the power to make civil immigration arrests. He also pushed local sheriffs and police chiefs to join the program and help round up immigrants.

But his successor, Democrat Abigail Spanberger, put an end to the state’s partnerships with this ICE program on Wednesday, fulfilling a campaign promise to roll back collaboration.

Within hours of taking office on Jan. 17, Spanberger signed an executive order that rescinded Youngkin’s order mandating that state agencies contract with ICE, but that alone left the agreements intact. She went a step further this week by actually pulling the plug and ordering four state agencies, including the state police and the Department of Corrections, to end their 287(g) agreements, terminating their role as force multipliers for federal immigration authorities.

A super PAC linked to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has made its first major venture into the United States midterm elections.

But this time around, the pro-Israel lobby group is not targeting a progressive candidate pushing to reset US-Israel policy, but a so-called “moderate” Democrat who tepidly questioned Washington’s unconditional military support amid the genocidal war on Gaza.

The $2.2m spending by the United Democracy Project (UDP) targeting former US Representative Tom Malinowski in advance of the Democratic primary in New Jersey on Thursday comes as polls have consistently shown surging dismay among Democratic voters over unwavering US support for Israel.

Amid shifting views, critics see the spending strategy as a wider message to candidates as they prepare for party primaries in the months in the run-up to the 2026 midterm elections, which will determine the makeup of the US Senate and House of Representatives.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) on Wednesday announced he will not seek reelection, ending his congressional career after more than a decade and adding to the ranks of Republicans declining to run for another term.

Loudermilk is the 29th Republican member of the House to say they will not seek reelection in 2026 — either for retirement or to seek higher office — as Republicans brace for a tough midterm election. Loudermilk’s northern Georgia district is reliably Republican.

Loudermilk is the chair of Republicans’ Select Subcommittee to Investigate the Remaining Questions Surrounding January 6, which he pushed with an assist from President Trump. He first joined the House in 2015.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed California to use a new voter-approved congressional map that is favorable to Democrats in this year’s elections, rejecting a last-ditch plea from state Republicans and the Trump administration.

No justices dissented from the brief order denying the appeal without explanation, which is common on the court’s emergency docket.

The justices had previously allowed Texas’ Republican-friendly map to be used in 2026, despite a lower-court ruling that it likely discriminates on the basis of race.

Scrutiny of university classrooms is being formalized, with new laws requiring professors to post syllabuses and tip lines for students to complain.

College professors once taught free from political interference, with mostly their students and colleagues privy to their lectures and book assignments. Now, they are being watched by state officials, senior administrators and students themselves.

. . .

And several states, including Texas, Ohio and Florida, have created laws requiring professors to publicly post their course outlines in searchable databases.

The increased oversight of professors comes as conservatives expand their movement to curb what they say is a liberal tilt in university classrooms. In the last couple of years, they have found sympathetic ears in state legislatures with the power to pressure schools, and their efforts have gained momentum as the Trump administration has made overhauling the politics and culture on campuses a focus.

But all of this, some professors and free-expression groups say, is leading to a wave of censorship and self-censorship that they argue is curbing academic freedom and learning.

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These votes demonstrate that the Democratic Party functions not as an opposition but as an enabler of the Trump administration. Its priority is to ensure the uninterrupted funding of the US military while diverting popular opposition with calls for meaningless cosmetic changes to the administration’s efforts to establish a presidential dictatorship.

A year into President Trump’s second term, his threats, retreats, twists and turns appear to be wearing on allies and adversaries.

President Trump, who considers himself a master deal maker, has never made any secret of his belief that the secret to winning at negotiation is to keep the other side off balance.

But a year into his second term, his act is starting to wear on both allies and adversaries, some of whom are starting to view him as so mercurial and unreliable that they appear willing to consider waiting him out or turning away from him rather than enduring the abrupt starts, stops and humiliations that can accompany engaging with him.

In foreign policy, tariffs, immigration and his pressure campaign on universities, Mr. Trump’s threats, retreats, twists and turns have left negotiating partners feeling at times that they are being used to score political points and that there is little purpose to engaging on substance when his moods and demands can shift in an instant.

“What Trump is identifying as unpredictability is actually anxiety about his electoral prospects,” said Timothy L. O’Brien, a biographer of Mr. Trump.

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Last week was the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision enshrining the idea that money in politics is not corruption, but constitutionally protected speech. States and cities across the US are battling the rotten legacy of that decision.

The next phase of ICE’s big ramp-up: a nationwide network of vast detention facilities. But guess what? Even parts of Red America are saying no.

Archived copies of the article:

• archive.today
• web.archive.org
• ghostarchive.org — site has been down intermittently

Additional information about the scale and location of the planned conversion of warehouses into concentration camps

About 2,000 personnel will be left in Minnesota, where President Trump’s immigration crackdown has generated outrage.

Tom Homan, the White House border czar, said on Wednesday that the federal government would immediately withdraw 700 law enforcement officers from Minneapolis, scaling down the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the area.

The change came after the Trump administration sent thousands of federal officers and agents to Minnesota, a deployment that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said was the agency’s “largest operation to date.” About 2,000 officers and agents would be left in the state, Mr. Homan said.

. . .

State and local officials said the drawdown was welcome but did not go far enough. Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, a Democrat, said in a statement that the reduction in officers was “a step in the right direction” but that 2,000 federal officers in the region was still “not de-escalation.”

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President Trump’s extraordinary comments were the latest iteration of his unsubstantiated claims that U.S. elections are rigged as Republicans face potentially big losses this fall.

Federal agencies are delaying approvals for renewable energy projects on both federal land and private property at a time when electricity demand is going up.