Recap of this week in the revolution: Pritzker may prosecute ICE-stapo, journalists refuse Pentagon pledge, and judge halts shutdown firings. Trump regime to give $40B bailout to Argentina, Johnson shrugs off ICE brutality and refuses to seat Rep. Grijalva. ICE detentions like a kidnapping and US continues killing Venezuelans in international waters.
The good...
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker talks to the media regarding ICE. Image by Paul Goyette from Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Illinois Governor Pritzker is looking into prosecuting ICE agents for their racial profiling and unnecessarily aggressive tactics.
Illinois is one of several states that have been targeted by the Trump regime as it aims to weaponize the government against its political opponents. ICE agents are engaging in increasingly violent actions against residents, often including legal residents and U.S. citizens. Meanwhile, the National Guard has been deployed to Chicago against the wishes of the state's elected leaders and representatives.
While the Trump regime keeps telling the lie that these aggressive tactics are needed to remove violent criminals from our streets, statistics show that more than 70% of all ICE detainees have no criminal convictions. These activities have nothing to do with safety or security, they are nothing more than an intimidation tactic by an authoritarian regime.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.
Last month, the Trump regime declared that any journalists who didn't sign a pledge to only report on what the Pentagon pre-authorized for release would have their access revoked. This past week, that deadline passed, and reporters from nearly every news outlet in the country packed their belongings and left the Pentagon rather than agree to the new rules.
A free press is the cornerstone of any free democracy. Every totalitarian regime starts with the elimination of the free press because fascists cannot retain their power in the face of an informed public. The Trump regime is following the dictator's playbook line-by-line.
While we are glad to see that the press did not sign the pledge, the end result is still the same: The people don't know what's really happening at the Pentagon in particular, or with the regime as a whole.
Like stubborn children, Congress refuses to negotiate on a bipartisan budget bill. Image by Olena from Pixabay.
A federal judge has put a halt to the Trump regime's plan to lay off federal workers during the government shutdown. US District Judge Susan Illston noted that statements from Trump and Vance showed that the threatened shutdowns were politically motivated, and thus violated the law.
The issue is not yet resolved, as the claim still needs to be reviewed by Illston and her decision may be appealed at a higher court. Instead, the ruling is meant to temporarily halt the mass layoffs until a proper ruling can be reached.
Meanwhile, the government shutdown reaches into its third week, with both parties refusing to budge. Democrats are holding out for extensions to healthcare subsidies for millions of Americans facing a devastating increase in premiums for 2026 insurance plans if the subsidies expire. Republicans, on the other hand, are simply refusing to negotiate at all.
The bad...
Argentina Peso, 1970
Despite running on a campaign promise of putting America first, the Trump regime is pledging a $40 billion bailout to the government of Argentina at a time when our own government is shut down and federal employees are going without pay.
The United States has agreed to buy $20 billion worth of Argentinian currency, and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has recently announced that additional funds from banks and sovereign wealth funds would bring the total to $40 billion.
Meanwhile, the Republican party is unwilling to bail out American citizens who are facing devastating increases in their health insurance premiums under the Trump regime's proposed budget resolution.
Oh, and there is one catch...the promised bailout will only happen if President Javier Milei wins the upcoming election. If Milei, an admirer and close ally of Donald Trump, loses the election, there will be no bailout for Argentina. So this isn't so much an attempt to help the people of Argentina through a difficult time. It's all an attempt to buy a foreign election and ensure that a foreign leader owes Donny 2-Dolls a favor.
Pastor David Black staff photo from the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago website.
For over a month now, clergy members and protesters have been gathering every day to protest the inhumane treatment of detainees inside a Chicago-area ICE processing center. Federal agents have responded to these peaceful protests with tear gas, flash grenades, rubber bullets, and chemical weapons. This week, Pastor David Black of the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago was shot in the head with a pepper bullet and spayed with tear gas while he led a peaceful prayer outside the facility.
The Trump regime has often falsely claimed to be defenders of religious liberty, at least when the religion in question happens to be Christianity. But the violent attacks on immigrants, who are predominantly Christians, and attacks like these on Christian leaders who are clearly identified by their attire and their actions as Christians, show that this is just another lie the regime is trying to sell to the public.
Speaker Mike Johnson shrugged off the incident when asked about this instance and other examples of ICE violence against peaceful protesters:
Reporter:Johnson:We've seen images out of Chicago of federal agents shooting faith leaders with pepper balls and arresting journalists. Where's the limit for you on what's acceptable conduct by federal law enforcement? And when is it incumbent on Congress to amend oversight on federal law enforcement?
I've not seen them cross the line yet. It's not risen to that level.
Adelita Grijalva, 2024
It's been three weeks since Adelita Grijalva was elected to represent Arizona in the House in a special election on September 23. But House Speaker Mike Johnson refuses to swear her in, so she and her constituents have no voice in the US government.
Johnson has made the claim that he will not swear in Representative Grijalva until the shutdown is over, but there is no legal reason or justification for that decision: The US Congress is expected to continue to work even during a shutdown.
The real reason Johnson refuses to swear in Representative Grijalva is because she is expected to vote in favor of releasing the Epstein files, and her vote would push the expected total of representatives in favor of releasing the files to the 218 needed to force a vote on the issue.
The ugly...
Promotional image of the WRAP restraint from Safe Restraints, Inc.
A growing number of federal lawsuits are being filed against ICE agents for their use of a full-body restraint system known as the WRAP. The device is designed to completely restrict an individual's mobility like an advanced version of a straitjacket.
While the device itself likely has a place in law enforcement activities, the lawsuits argue that the device is being misused by untrained ICE agents. Intended for short-term use against combative individuals who need to be rapidly constrained, ICE has been using the devices to terrorize and dehumanize detainees, often for hours at a time.
One of the lawsuits describes detainees who were already restrained being bound in the WRAP during a 16-hour deportation flight to Ghana, though none of the detainees were from that country.
Detainees describe being confined to these devices to intimidate or punish them for asking to speak to their attorneys or expressing fear over being returned to countries they fled out of fear for their very lives. One detainee described the experience like this:
No one should be put into a WRAP. I don't even think they strap animals like that...It was the most painful thing I've been through...Forget the assault, forget the broken jaw. Just the WRAP itself was hurtful.
Six more killed in international waters on unsubstantiated claims that they were smuggling drugs into the United States
The United States is continuing its assault on Venezuelan drug smugglers, conveniently skipping the process of verifying that those targeted are actually smuggling drugs into the United States. This is the fifth boat destroyed in international waters by the United States in clear violation of international maritime and human rights laws. Legal experts have referred to the attacks as a "massacre of civilians at sea."
If [Trump] wants the Nobel Peace Prize so bad, maybe he shouldn't be committing random acts of state violence.
Charles P. Pierce, Esquire
What did I/we do last week?
Sounds of the revolution...
On the lighter side...
