Criminals or Heroes?

The Republicans are claiming to be the party of law and order in the ICE raids issue. They consider Trump’s policy to arrest and deport as many undocumented immigrants as possible, by any means possible, to be the law.

Courts that rule against Trump’s policy, declaring for example the deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles to be illegal, are denounced as “lawfare”, – unelected judges trying to thwart the policy of the elected president who has a “strong mandate” to deal with “illegal immigrants”. As an aside, recent polls show that the majority of Americans do not support the Trump regime’s handling of immigrants (nor any other issue for that matter) – so much for Trump’s strong mandate”. And people who try to protect immigrants from the illegal raids, including judges, mayors, and members of Congress, are arrested and charged with obstructing justice. Tom Homan, Trump’s “border Czar”, warned that anyone, including judges, who obstructs Trump’s immigration agenda will be prosecuted.

Now what if the tables were turned. Suppose that President Biden had issued an executive order to outlaw the possession of assault rifles. The courts ruled against the order, but that didn’t stop him. He then sent the National Guard into Republican states to raid any home, without a warrant, that they suspected might have such now-illegal weapons. And to seize any such weapons they found and arrest the entire families in the home, sending them to offshore prisons. The courts ruled that this use of the National Guard, and the deporting of citizens, are both illegal but that didn’t stop the president.

Do you suppose that Republican judges, mayors and members of Congress might oppose such actions and perhaps try to protect their people? And loudly protest such actions as “police state” terrorism? Of course they would – and so they should; most if not all Democrats would as well. But now people who obstructed the President’s agenda would be heroes, not criminals, in the eyes of Republicans.

Now, for the record, I don’t believe for a second that Biden would do any of that. When the courts stopped his student loan forgiveness order he backed off and found another, legal, route and did what he could.

So, people who try to obstruct illegal actions are either criminals or heroes, depending on whether you support the policy behind the actions.

Sources:

https://hartmannreport.com/p/noem-the-fbi-and-trump-just-sent-3ee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etgb6Iy6Otg

Minnesota Assassinations

Early Saturday morning, June 15, a lone gunman shot and killed Minnesota State representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark in their home.

The same night Democratic Minnesota state senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were shot in their home but are expected to survive following surgery.

The suspected gunman, Vance Boelter, was arrested late Sunday night, ending the largest manhunt in Minnesota history.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called the shootings an “act of targeted political violence.”

Typically, the initial reaction from Republicans was to deflect blame. Senator Mike Lee posted on X referring to the situation as “Nightmare on Waltz Street” hinting that somehow Governor Tim Walz was responsible. He also posted “This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way.”

It soon came out that the suspect, Vance Boelter, is a strong Trump supporter and a Pro-Life evangelical Christian. A list of possible targets, found in his car, included many other Democratic politicians and Planned Parenthood offices. Doesn’t sound like a Marxist to me!

Condemnation of Mike Lee’s posts came from all directions. Michael Steel, former chair of the Republican National Committee told him to “Grow the hell up”. Senator Richard J. Durbin, D of Illinois called Lee’s posts “beyond dangerous” and that politicizing the shootings was “absolutely unacceptable”. Senator Amy Klobuchar, D of Minnesota, who was close friends with Melissa Hortman, planned to confront Lee in person and tell him “This isn’t funny”.

Later that day, after many outraged responses, Mr. Lee posted to his official Senate account the following:

“These hateful attacks have no place in Utah, Minnesota, or anywhere in America. Please join me in condemning this senseless violence, and praying for the victims and their families.”

But Chris Lee wasn’t the only Republican to take political potshots.

Representative Derrick Van Orden, R Wisconsin, posted the usual condemnations of political violence on his official account while claiming on his personal social media account that Ms. Hortman was targeted because she was not “far Left enough.” He also pointed out that Governor Tim Walz had appointed the suspect to a state economic board.

What about President Trump?

His official statement was brief: “Such horrific violence will not be tolerated in the United States of America. God Bless the great people of Minnesota, a truly great place.”

When after 24 hours Trump had still not called Governor Walz, ABC’s Rachel Scott asked him if he would call him about the assassination. Trump’s reply was first, that the attack “was a terrible thing” but couldn’t resist adding that “I think [Tim Walz] is a terrible governor. I think he’s a grossly incompetent person. But I may, I may call him, I may call other people too.”

Unfortunately that is a typical response from Donald Trump.

Remember when Nancy Pelosi’s husband was assaulted with a hammer and nearly killed in 2022? Donald Trump and other Republicans made a joke of it, suggesting first that it was a false flag and then that it was the result of a gay lovers’ quarrel. There was no apology when those ideas were proved completely false.

Following the July 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump there was unconditional condemnation from President Biden and Democratic lawmakers. There were no jokes, at least not publicly by Democratic politicians, about, for example, the need for marksmanship training in American high schools.

Several people have speculated that Trump’s pardon of the January 6 rioters has sent a clear message that violence committed for Trump is acceptable and that he will have your back if you get caught.

Senator Chris Murphy pointed out that while people of all political persuasions commit violence, no Democratic leader encourages violence as a political norm the way Trump and MAGA have done, citing “a straight line from Jan 6 to the pardons to the assault on Sen. Padilla to Minnesota.”

In contrast to the messages from some Republicans, every House Representative and Senator from Minnesota, Democratic and Republican, issued a joint statement.

“Today we speak with one voice to express our outrage, grief, and condemnation of this horrible attack on public servants. There is no place in our democracy for politically-motivated violence. We are praying for John and Yvette’s recovery and we grieve the loss of Melissa and Mark with their family, colleagues, and Minnesotans across the state. We are grateful for law enforcement’s swift response to the situation and continued efforts.”

This is the appropriate response.

 

Sources:

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/june-15-2025

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/us/politics/mike-lee-minnesota-assassination-democrats.html

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-minnesota-tim-walz-shootings-b2771012.html

Assault on Senator Padilla

On Thursday June 12 Senator Alex Padilla was assaulted by security guards at a press conference in Los Angeles.

Padilla later explained what happened:

“I'm here in Los Angeles today, and I was here in the federal building in the conference room, awaiting a scheduled briefing from federal officials as part of my responsibility as a senator to provide oversight and accountability. While I was waiting for the briefing…, I learned that Secretary Noem was having a press conference a couple of doors down the hall. Since the beginning of the year, but especially…over the course of recent weeks, I—several of my colleagues—have been asking the Department of Homeland Security for more information and more answers on their increasingly extreme immigration enforcement actions. And we've gotten little to no information in response to our inquiries.

“And so I came to the press conference to hear what she had to say, to see if I could learn any new additional information…. At one point, I had a question. And so I began to ask a question. I was almost immediately forcibly removed from the room. I was forced to the ground, and I was handcuffed. I was not arrested. I was not detained.

“I will say this. If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, if this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they're doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country. We will hold this administration accountable.”

 Immediately after the event Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said to reporters outside the building: “I will say that people need to identify themselves before they start lunging at people” and accused him of engaging in “disrespectful political theatre.”

This is obviously untrue. In the videos we can plainly hear Padilla identify himself as a Senator. He was escorted to the press conference by FBI and National Guard agents who had been with him in another room. They certainly knew who he was. He also did not “lunge” toward anyone – he resisted being roughed up by the security guards and called out “Sir! Sir! Hands off! I am Senator Alex Padilla”. 

The only excuse the security staff have is Padilla was not wearing his senate security pin. That and his parents are Mexican immigrants, so he looks like the people they are hunting down to deport.

Noem wasn’t the only Republican to blame Padilla for the incident. House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested that the Senate should censure Padilla for “wildly inappropriate behavior”. Meanwhile some Democrats have called for Noem’s resignation. [Fat chance for that – MAGAts have no shame]

Of more significance than the assault is what Noem was saying that prompted Padilla to ask a question:

 "We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city."

She actually admitted that the purpose of the ICE raids in California was not just to remove undocumented criminals from the country. No, it is to overthrow the legitimate democratically elected governments of the city of Los Angeles and the State of California, because – they are not Republican.

Thom Hartmann commented on Noem’s proclamation:

For the record, the job of the federal government is not to “liberate” cities from the leaders they themselves have elected. That’s what Putin did when he forced all the elected governors of the Russian states (oblasts) to resign and replaced them with men he had appointed. Even suggesting it is deeply and profoundly unAmerican.

 

 

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/12/us/politics/senator-alex-padilla-handcuffed.html

 https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/june-12-2025

https://hartmannreport.com/p/noem-the-fbi-and-trump-just-sent-3ee

Waste Fraud & Abuse

 

This post is an excerpt from Heather Cox Richardson's substack post from June 4, 2025. It was too good not to share. Edited for brevity.

Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought ... appears to have determined the direction of the [DOGE] cuts, which did not save money so much as decimate the parts of the government that the authors of Project 2025 wanted to destroy.

Vought was a key author of Project 2025, whose aim is to disrupt and destroy the United States government in order to center a Christian, heteronormative, male-dominated family as the primary element of society. To do so, the plan calls for destroying the administrative state, withdrawing the United States from global affairs, and ending environmental and business regulations.

Vought appeared today before the House Appropriations Committee, where … he claimed that under Biden “... every agency became a tool of the Left.”

Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) told Vought:

“Be honest, this is never about government efficiency. In fact, an efficient government, a government that capably serves the American people and proves good government is achievable is what you fear the most. You want a government so broken, so dysfunctional, so starved of resources, so full of incompetent political lackeys and bereft of experts and professionals that its departments and agencies cannot feasibly achieve the goals and the missions to which they are lawfully directed. Your goal is privatization, for the biggest companies to have unchecked power, for an economy that does not work for the middle class, for working and vulnerable families. You want the American people to have no one to turn to, but to the billionaires and the corporations this administration has put in charge. Waste, fraud, and abuse are not the targets of this administration. They are your primary objectives.” [emphasis mine - Stan]

Source: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/june-4-2025

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