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Yves here. The level of disturbing actions by armed Federal officers with arrest and detention powers is rising at an alarming rate and is set to get worse. Judge Napolitano discussed an incident where someone in his circle (I infer this story was first or at worst second hand; I hope to revise with a link to the proper segment) where the police asked someone to produce proof of identity, and were not satisfied with a REAL ID driver’s license. They demanded his Social Security card and passport, which he did not have on him. That was the pretext for hauling him in. He would be a logical contact about conduct like that having raised an alarm earlier:
An excerpt from Judge's latest column… out tomorrow…
" These are dark days in America. A popular young man is publicly murdered on national media because of his articulate expression of his political views. Two state legislators are murdered in the middle of the night in… pic.twitter.com/0FHg5MTqPx
— Judge Napolitano (@Judgenap) September 17, 2025
Update: Below is the Judge Napolitano segment in question. See the detail starting at 2:10:
Larry Johnson : Trump Duped by His Own Advisors. https://t.co/n3swD0SPX1
— Judge Napolitano (@Judgenap) October 6, 2025
Back to the original post:
And then we have convenient coincidences like this one:
JFC!
This judge had put blocks against the Trump admin which Trump and Miller screeched about.
Just yesterday Miller’s response to this judge’s decision was claiming that the judiciary is shielding terrorism and that it should be dismantled.
The next day her home blows up in a… https://t.co/aNxA8vto5V pic.twitter.com/nuYF8O6veV
— Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) (@adamscochran) October 5, 2025
And it’s going to get worse before it ever gets better.
By Julia Conley, staff writer at Common Dreams. Originally published at Common Dreams
An account given in court on Monday by the attorney of a woman who was shot several times by a Border Patrol agent “really makes it sounds like” the agent “tried to murder an anti-ICE protester in Chicago and DHS lied to cover for him,” said one researcher, referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security, whose agents have descended on the Chicago area in recent weeks and have violently raided homes and assaulted community members there.
Christopher Parente, an attorney for Marimar Martinez, spoke at a hearing Monday at a federal courthouse two days after federal officers accused her of driving toward them in the Brighton Park neighborhood of Chicago.
Parente said body camera footage called the account of federal prosecutors and Border Patrol into question, as it showed a Border Patrol agent saying to Martinez, “Do something, bitch” before pulling over and shooting her at least five times.
“We need a zero tolerance policy for lying by law enforcement,” said Jonathan Cohn, political director of Progressive Mass.
Well I'll be gosh darned, looks like those rascals lied to us againhttps://t.co/VKUxgVZcWz https://t.co/7bgnHxS7NL pic.twitter.com/QXq8kvMkqa
— Laura Jedeed (@LauraJedeed) October 7, 2025
Martinez and another driver, Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, were charged Sunday with felony assault of a federal officer, with prosecutors saying they were “aggressively” driving in a “convoy” including several vehicles. The Chicago Sun-Times noted that a statement by DHS after the incident referenced a loaded gun in Martinez’s car, which was not mentioned in the charges filed.
In court on Monday, Assistant US Attorney Sean Hennessy told U.S. District Judge Heather McShain that Martinez had a gun in her car but did not brandish it, while Parente said she has a concealed-carry license and a valid firearm.
A video captured by a security camera at a nearby tire shop showed Martinez’s Nissan Rogue pulling alongside a Chevy Tahoe driven by Border Patrol agents, who had just conducted an operation in nearby Oak Lawn. A GMC Envoy driven by Ruiz is seen following closely behind the authorities’ car. The shooting is not captured on the video.
McShain acknowledged the danger of Martinez and Ruiz’s actions but denied a request by the federal government to detain them, pending trial, citing the two US citizens’ lack of criminal history and extensive community ties. Martinez works for a school and had several character witnesses write letters to the court on her behalf.
“I think there’s a danger to the community, but I don’t think it’s Ms. Martinez,” said Parente at the hearing.
Roughly 100 community members responded to the shooting Saturday by holding a protest in the area where federal agents fired pepper balls and tear gas at the demonstrators.
The shooting in Brighton Park was one of several recent incidents in which federal agents have violently confronted community members in the Chicago area, following President Donald Trump’s deployment of immigration officers as part of what he calls “Operation Midway Blitz.” Over the weekend, Trump announced he was deploying hundreds of members of the National Guard—both from Illinois and other states—to Chicago to support the effort over the objections of rights groups and Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
The president and his allies have repeatedly claimed that a federal law enforcement response is necessary in cities including Chicago, Portland, and Washington, DC, even as statistics have shown violent crime is down in the cities and as local authorities have denied that protesters against Trump’s mass deportation campaign are causing havoc.
On Monday, officials in Chicago and Illinois sued the Trump administration over its invasion of the city, and a group of protesters and journalists filed a separate suit arguing that federal agents have “shot, gassed, and detained individuals” for exercising their First Amendment rights.
you can’t go on the kind of hiring spree that ICE has been on without employing some people who have no business in law enforcement.
“law enforcement” is Not what they are doing. It’s exactly the opposite. Terror and intimidation is their M.O. – So they’re hiring the right people for the job.
‘Law enforcement’ does not entail masked faces. Goons are needed and are being hired, and protected.
It’s the masks and other tricks to conceal themselves (including I heard using vehicle rfegistrations to laundry identities) and prevent accountability provides the secret part that I argue justifies calling them Geheime Staatspolizei. Whether or not what they are doing qualifies as law enforcement depends on which traditions of law enforcement we compare against.
They have also been called ” Vanilla ISIS” by some.
Sorry, Scott but this is exactly what law enforcement often looks like these days.
And you are resigned to that state of affairs? Why?
Twenty years of war have come home; And Obama we can thank for whacking a US citizen. If we can murder US citizens abroad, why not domestically? He also normalized indefinite detention. I wonder when that’s gonna start up?
Donald Trump sends US military against own citizens. People say “Thanks Obama!”
You couldn’t make it up.
We don’t have to make it up because it happened. The Democrats are the pawl in the Overton Window ratchet.
They’re both just links in a long chain of decay.
Having a partisan fight over who went fascist first is completely pointless.
You’re either antifa or you’re not.
And if you’re antifa, you’ve got the government of the USA, and 30-40% of your countrymen putting a target on your back.
I was about to say substantially the same thing. But antifa? The anti-Scarlet Pimpernel. How convenient. Here, there, and everywhere. Popping up just when an “enemy” is needed. Playing into Donnie’s fears and Stevie’s visions. Available to be blamed for anything and everything. Are there aggressive and violent people on what passes for a left these days? Yes. Are there aggressive and violent people on the right? There are. But then their guys are in the seats of power.
Masked men carrying guns who will not identify themselves snatching people off the street. And we are supposed to believe that it is only “bad actors” or whatever the label of the moment is, that are being grabbed. If Donnie cannot accomplish his goals without police state tactics, I have to question his calling himself “a stable genius.”
Well, thank God there is no more folderol about ‘anarchists’!
It only took one anarchist to start WW1. I think ‘antifa’ is just
another phantom of whatever puerile fantasies haunt the
brains of the conspiracy minded. Could just as well be aliens
from planet Cuckoo, as long as it serves as a place-marker
for the ghostly half-minds of his ardent followers. Where’s
‘gentle Jesus, meek and mild’ when you need him?
If you think that one anarchist started WWI, than I have lots of bridges to sell you.
I worked for 32 years as a prosecuting attorney in a law enforcement capacity and moishe pipik is precisely correct. This was the conclusion of the 2000 LAPD Rampart investigation, after hiring standards were lowered and their cops started planting evidence and robbing banks.
Why on earth does it take 300 of these masked cosplayers in Blackhawk helicopters to arrest 27 Venezuelan dishwashers? It’s because they are unqualified, untrained, and incompetent clowns who are unworthy of a badge — a badge that they appear too ashamed to display.
It is conservatives who should be outraged by the deployment of ICE thugs and the military to peaceful American cities in violation of the letter of the Posse Comitatus Act and the spirit of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights — just like U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut was (ironically a Trump appointee).
There is nothing conservative or law-abiding about Trump, Vance, Hegseth, or Noem. Their bad hair and worse makeup give them all the moral authority of Divine in Pink Flamingos. The military leadership had better stop mirror-gazing and start countermanding orders that violate the oath they took to protect and defend the Constitution, lest history judge them fools.
it’s not an accident. I believe but can’t prove that they recruited the various fash right-wing paramilitary types — Proud Boys, et al — on purpose.
It’s not like they’re hiring a ton of Bloods & Crips or Le Emma or Mexican Mafia or anything.
Those folks (and the various Latin past and future cartel muscle) we send to ukraine and gaza).
Interesting if a federal judge uses one of these cases to dismantle LEO qualified immunity, which was judge-created in the first place.
When the Economy sucks and everything is getting more and more expensive and the Rich Fucks are hoarding more and more of Americas 🇺🇸 wealth, they blame Immigrants and “Leftists” (who are really just lame shitlibs) to create a diversion.
They get us to fight among ourselves while they steal all the gold.
It is time for the Populist MAGA and Populist Left to form a new party for America outside of the corrupt Duopoly.
Republicans and Democrats have been fucking America up for a lonnnnng time when they sent our manufacturing overseas and sold us out to Wall St and the Bankers and Silicon Valley and the Feudal Tech Overlords.
We must NEVER give in to hate and emotional violence.
We must ALWAYS use reason and logic and love our countrymen using the 1st Amendment.
Long Live the American People!
America has lost that political diversity and broad coalition building. The culturally conservative working class union voters should have been the common sense backstop to our slide into moral decay and political extremism. The middleclass was destroyed in body, and now in spirit. The diminshed American Left has no allies. Academia used to be one, but we are quickly losing those wise cultural icons to old age.
There is only orthodox economics and its burn in like code to the whole system. Even it has a Flexian response … remember the old Job Creator trope – ???? – used for both lower/non taxation of corps/wealthy … only to be rebranded as lower cost for consumers [wage stagnation or hyperinflation] whilst shipping off Mfg to China et al ….
Now Trump is saying other nations pay tariffs [a tax] and U.S. will be rich …. oops its the consumer that pays … forward guidance is a quaint notion …
This is Racket/Ford Fisher
Activism, Uncensored: A Return to Chicago, Where Protests Erupt After a Shooting
As Racket continues documenting unrest in the region, conflicting stories surface over what led a federal agent to open fire on Marimar Martinez.
Ford Fischer
Oct 07, 2025
15 min.
https://www.racket.news/p/activism-uncensored-a-return-to-chicago
Greg Collard with this note (linking to the Martinez complaint in the end) and some overlap of detail with above piece:
“For the third week in a row, Ford Fischer of News2Share films clashes between activists and law enforcement officers in the Chicago area. Ford has focused on activism at the ICE detention facility in suburban Broadview, but this past weekend he also visited the Brighton Park neighborhood in southwest Chicago. Tensions erupted there after a Customs and Border Patrol agent shot a woman who allegedly struck a patrol vehicle with her car as part of a convoy attempting to trap officers.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem also said the woman, Marimar Martinez, had a handgun, but the criminal complaint below does not mention the gun. Nor does it mention a separate allegation made by Tricia McClaughlin, an assistant secretary of Homeland Security:
The armed woman was named in a @CBP intelligence bulletin last week for doxing agents and posting online ‘Hey to all my gang let’s fuck those mother fuckers up, don’t let them take anyone.’
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, an assistant U.S. attorney said in court Monday that the loaded gun was on the passenger side of the vehicle, but it was never brandished. Martinez’s attorney, Christopher Parente, says she has a concealed-carry permit for the gun.
Parente also told a federal judge that videos show an officer turning into Martinez’s vehicle and yelling, “Do something, bitch” before exiting his vehicle and shooting her.
The judge released Martinez and another man facing charges in the incident, in part because of their lack of criminal history and family ties in the area.”
p.s. I missed ATW yesterday. Did they cover this? And is Kirn capable to actually not side with law enforcement for once. It´s beyond me how nowadays “intellectuals” who claim independence are defending ICE and cops because they think that is not ideological.
They did cover it, and Taibbi showed Fischer’s footage during the episode. I didn’t watch the whole thing yet but will probably finish it today. The part I did listen to once again had Kirn trying to be too clever by half in his attempts to “own the libs” – he was bringing up the precedent of LBJ bringing in the National Guard to enforce civil rights policies back in the 60s as a justification for Trump using them now. I was not amused, and decided to listen to something else at that point.
When Taibbi first brought Kirn on board to discuss literature, I really thought their podcast was great. I had read Kirn in Harper’s and enjoyed his take on things then. The podcasts were shorter at first, with less time spent on politics. Now they are much longer and Kirn spends way too much of the time rambling on with his ill thought out hot takes, often interrupting Taibbi in the process (and I’ve seen him called out for it in the comments at Taibbi’s site). I do think he’s riffing for writing ideas when he does that, but I don’t find it entertaining or informative. And I think it’s Kirn with his long tenure on Gutfeld’s show who actually enjoys pandering to conservatives, not Taibbi. They still do a great job with the literary discussions, often pointing me to interesting things I haven’t read, or bringing takes I never thought of to books I have. Maybe keep that up, and find someone other than Kirn to discuss politics with, at least until he gets over his anti-anti-Trump derangement.
That’s a very good summary of why I stopped reading and listening to Tiabbi. I cannot stand to listen to Kirn’s ramblings. He does mental gymnastics to make an irrelevant point. And he talks way more than Matt…Who also says a whole lotta nothing these days.
Ford Fischer does brave work though.
I also enjoyed Kirn’s Easy Chair columns, and I can’t stand what he’s become now. He has the opposite of Trump Derangement Syndrome. What to call it, maybe shit lib derangement syndrome? There’s no helping them.
>>>It´s beyond me how nowadays “intellectuals” who claim independence are defending ICE and cops because they think that is not ideological.
As with Israel and Hamas (or as with the several Red Scares or the “War on Terror”) there is a massive campaign to demonize, if not just dehumanize, a group. In this instance, anyone who is not MAGAbot and/or to the left of Augusto Pinochet; by saying over and over again that this group is bad, are dangerous Antifa terrorists, emphasizing the often chaotic protests while ignoring, even hiding, police overreach, they paint a picture that many in the intelligentsia and pundocracy expect to see. Don’t forget that most of the legacy media and its pundits are members of the establishment and therefore conservative when looking at those wanting change.
After seeing those pictures in the Chicago Sun-Times of masked, well armed and armored paramilitary police, I have to ask myself why? What do they have to be afraid of and do they honestly think that they are safer and more effective looking like out of control gendarmerie? Or are the goals to scare, antagonize, and provoke the locals?
I mean that the San Francisco police were terrifying and effective enough thirty-five years ago just wearing motorcycle helmets and shields while using batons, and I don’t recall seeing any masks on the police. And even if I disliked the police, I didn’t think of them as an occupying army unlike today. The more the police waltz around looking more goofily menacing than the actual American army, the more they are seen as the enemy and not only this, but as an occupying army, which is dangerous for everyone.
I have to wonder if they realize how much harder, and ultimately more dangerous, their jobs are by being such? Or am discounting the ego gratification of acting like goons too much? “Oooo, look at me! Don’t I look like a bad boy dressing like a goon?
The cop doesn’t rub off on the street, the street rubs off on the cop.
Why are police masking? Duh, smart phones and internet. 35 years ago cameras were expensive, analog, and their images couldn’t be easily copied or distributed. Now every gathering of 10 people has 12 video cameras recording, posting and streaming, and armies of people across the full spectrum of intentions from noble to vile stand ready to wreak vengeance on someone they might have seen possibly doing something bad.
We have smart phones here too. And plenty of (often loud and boisterous) public activism. Yet our police behave as the people’s servants they are paid to be, and seem to feel no need to hide their identities.
Weird, I know….
Where is “here”? (This is not a rhetorical or snarky question).
The goals are to scare, antagonize , and over-provoke the locals into an over-responce which will be used as a pretext to declare a State of Insurrection or States of Insurrection and order various parts of the Armed Forces to go in and Fallujahfy the targeted city or cities. Will various parts of the Armed Forces go in and Fallujahfy those places they are ordered to go in and Fallujahfy when Stephen Miller ( “trump”) gives the orders?
This will get worse (maybe much worse) before it gets better (if it gets better).
I’m a former Green Card holder who left the US in 2023. I’m never setting foot there again.
Young people are asking themselves, do I get out now or stay in the country? At least my 30 year old Son is expressing that sentiment. If I was his age I would definitely get out. If I had a pile of cash I would as well. Being in a small community with mostly left of center people, I feel pretty exempt from the goons. It’s the downfall of our society we are witnessing. Sad
Hard to know where it will be better. My mid-thirties born in US son is now attending university in the UK looking at options to stay. From what I hear things are pretty similar there. The lack of reasonable foreign language programs in US public schools is a handicap for young people looking to move abroad.
It’s more than just the United States feeling the heat.
got to get across the fence to the global south and preferably not one of the LatAm countries that flips back and forth.
UK born ex-US and ex-German resident here. I wouldn’t go back to any of them right now. I live mostly in South and South-East Asia.
We can escape the goons, but it’s harder to escape economic decline .
The problem is finding somewhere safe/comfortable with income possibilities. SE Asia ticks the first of those boxes, but good jobs for expats are hard to come by. Long term stays/visas are difficult now whereas ten years ago they were simple.
A growing number of countries have Digital Nomad visas which work well for some although usually have an income requirement. For over 50s retirement visas are an option.
I work mostly online, but this isn’t stable and is vulnerable to the economic deterioration of the West. My in-person work would pay the rent, but it’s an unusual niche and again relies on a supply of Western visitors. So, I am free of goonery but live a precarious life.
Of course if you have a pile of cash, it’s a lot simpler. Or so I hear :)
Countries to consider (all with caveats): Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, Paraguay, The Philippines, Turkey.
Also Uruguay and Cyprus, if you can stand the geopolitical risk.
I don’t think Malaysia is on any more. They increased the annual income requirements on their otherwise great Malaysia My Second Home ten year visa from ~$22,000 to over $100,000. They were nasty about the transition. They didn’t grandfather existing visas.
In Thailand, you cannot work on a retirement visa. People are having bank accounts canceled if caught.
Malaysia is still good for digital nomads [I know this is useful for a limited amount of people only]. The income requirement is relatively low. The DN visa is a bit hit-and-miss from what I understand – I know people who’ve been accepted easily and others who got lost in the system. It seems much less efficient than the Thai DTV visa.
https://visaguide.world/digital-nomad-visa/malaysia/
For a short time the Thai DTV was easy to get – one could just sign up with a Muay Thai gym for example. They seem to have got much stricter this year. And very strict on repeat tourist visas. I imagine you are much better informed that me on the Thailand front.
Vietnam is a weird one – Da Nang has become a big Digital Nomad hub and the authorities are well aware of this. However there is no appropriate visa, so most people stay long-term on repeat tourist visas. The gov seems happy with the situation but there’s nothing to stop them deciding to crack down.
[Very much not encouraging breaking visa or other regulations with this comment]
When I last checked, the Malaysia digital visa was short term, as in for a year or two, so not a long-term option. Given what they did with the Malaysia Your Second Home visa, I would not rely on them not changing it in some major restrictive way.
The grass always looks greener….
Very few countries are better options than the US/Canada or Europe. To paraphrase a semi-joking statement made a couple of years ago by one senior Chinese minister – ‘we’ll know we’ve succeeded when the queue for immigrant visas at the Chinese embassy in Washington is as long as the one in the US embassy in Beijing’. The same applies to much of the world.
I’ve a US friend here in Ireland who has lived here for 10 years and is well plugged in to the networks – she says there has been a huge increase in the numbers of USasians reversing the usual emigration trail, but many struggle when they get here – settling into a new country is always hard, even if you are young and have no problem with getting work. Some love it and have no problems, but that’s probably a minority (she confesses to still having problems here, although her husband and daughter are very well settled).
Digital nomadism – or other forms of nomadism – can be great if you are young and adventurous, but even then people run out of steam or options after a certain amount of time. Very few people can stick with that lifestyle long term and there are all sorts of ancillary issues with pensions/healthcare etc., when you grow older which you can only avoid if you have a high income or big savings.
The nice, stable countries around the world tend to be very reluctant to give long term status to immigrants (e.g. Japan, South Korea), and you take huge risks with the others – as Yves points out below, countries like Malaysia can simply change their mind and whip the rug from under you without warning. Countries like Vietnam have ‘officially’ opened themselves up, but the reality of dealing with their bureaucracy can be problematic.
For any young American looking to leave, I’d advise moving to a EU country which provides a pathway to citizenship (possibly Oz/NZ too). In the longer term, having dual US/EU citizenship greatly increases your options as you grow older – even if you want to go to Asia or South/Central America longer term. There are also advantages to having contributary tax records in more than one country when it comes to seeing what benefits you can get when you are older.
Anecdote, one of the cities in one of the countries I was thinking of expat’ing to, they have a service that helps Americans immigrate.
Now this service says they are overwhelmed with American demand and won’t put any more cases on their waitlist until January
I remember my father, who fought in Europe during WW2, explaining to us kids how the US was different than countries in Europe in that we did not have to “show our papers” when moving about. He would roll over in his grave today at the West TN Veterans Cemetary knowing what we’ve become. I type this distracted by a helicopter buzzing overhead in my occupied town of Memphis.
I still think this is just part 1 of the plan. Part 2 needs some resistance to be justifiable.
Trump says he’s open to invoking the Insurrection Act if ‘necessary‘ (AP, video clip)
Well, I’ll do it if it was necessary… We have an Insurrection Act for a reason. If I had to enact it, I’d do that if people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up. I want to make sure people aren’t killed.”
Trump Is Not Afraid of Civil War. Neither Is Stephen Miller. (NYT via archive.ph)
The quickest way to piss people off is to send soldiers into their neighborhoods especially when there’s no reason for them to be there. It’s inherently provocative, and Trump and his team understand this. Research by the political scientist Robert Pape shows that the single most powerful predictor of suicide terrorism is the presence of foreign troops on local soil. People hate, hate, hate that. They hate the humiliation, the powerlessness, the feeling of being occupied.
Once citizens begin to view their own government’s security forces as an occupying army, violence becomes inevitable. Trump’s team knows this. In fact, that’s the point. They are not trying to restore order; they’re trying to trigger the very unrest that would justify further crackdowns. In the end, violence serves their ultimate end: They want to create the illusion of disorder so they can tighten control and stay in power indefinitely.
Will Trump appear at the Chicago Marathon mile 19 on Sunday?
Rahm used to greet the winner at the finish line, making an embarrassing spectacle of himself.