The MSM calls her ICE Barbie, however Kristi Noem, and the sprawling empire she guidelines as Secretary of the Division of Homeland Safety is on the entrance strains of Trump 2.0 period battle and corruption.

I’ve been overlaying the motion at DHS as a part of my effort to parse who’s drugged, who’s delusional, and who’s disnformed within the Trump 2.0 period and likewise when dissecting what Matt Stoller calls “The Amway Oligarchy.

And whereas I hate to return to the nicely so quickly when there are such a lot of different subjects to cowl, these fools simply can’t maintain they names out of the papers. So let’s dive into their newest antics.

Is Ice Barbie Actually Going Out With Him?

We’ll begin with American Oversight’s try to determine simply what precisely ICE Barbie Kristi Noem’s alleged boyfriend Corey Lewandowski is doing precisely:

On Wednesday, American Oversight sued the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) for failing to launch data that would reply quite a few questions on Corey Lewandowski’s shadowy function on the company, together with his standing as a Particular Authorities Worker (SGE). Regardless of being described as DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s “de facto chief of employees,” Lewandowski has evaded fundamental transparency and oversight necessities whereas reportedly exercising sweeping affect over coverage, contracts, and personnel selections.

The secrecy round Lewandowski’s function within the Trump administration — together with his obvious misuse of the SGE designation that’s meant for people who present non permanent, restricted service to the federal government — displays the administration’s broader hostility towards transparency. Current experiences recommend concern about his murky function is rising amongst a minimum of some contained in the White Home.

Our lawsuit follows months of stonewalling by DHS, which has failed to reply to a number of Freedom of Info Act (FOIA) requests looking for Lewandowski’s communications, calendars, and different data. DHS’s refusal to launch data about his actions obscures whether or not he has exceeded the authorized closing dates on his appointment, averted utilizing authorities e mail to conduct official enterprise, and directed company enterprise which will profit his personal associates.

“It’s telling that this White Home — which has proven an aversion to the rule of legislation — has reportedly grown weary of Mr. Lewandowski’s makes an attempt to recreation the system at DHS,” stated Chioma Chukwu, Government Director of American Oversight.
…
Experiences point out that Lewandowski has acted as Secretary Noem’s “gatekeeper,” routed conferences by himself, directed personnel selections, and even exercised veto energy over contracts exceeding $100,000 — all whereas eschewing use of his authorities e mail and cellphone quantity to conduct official enterprise and avoiding badge swipes that will doc his time in authorities buildings. Regardless of these obligations, DHS claims he has labored solely 69 days this yr (228 days have elapsed since Secretary Noem was confirmed; Lewandowski started working there shortly after), nicely below the 130-day cap for SGEs — a depend that insiders describe as a “gross undercount.”

Lewandowski has additionally didn’t file a public monetary disclosure report, elevating issues about whether or not he’s complying with ethics guidelines that prohibit SGEs from partaking in outdoors work that conflicts with official duties. DHS’s secrecy has left unanswered questions on whether or not Lewandowski maintains personal shoppers with pursuits earlier than the company.

The course of real love hardly ever runs clean, even for ICE Barbi and Corey Lew. However, by no means concern, they’re smoothing issues out by letting Corey run rampant by multiple-agencies regardless of his mysterious function.

ICE Barbie’s Boyfriend Corey Purges the Company

The Every day Beast has the inside track on these items which builds on beforehand reported incidents of Noem’s rumored boyfriend, Corey Lewandowski firing officers like the pinnacle of FEMA regardless of having no official function at DHS.

Kristi Noem’s enforcer and rumored lover Corey Lewandowski is driving a purge inside Immigration and Customs Enforcement—tightening the DHS chief’s grip to speed up a nationwide deportation blitz.

5 ICE discipline bosses had been yanked from Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Diego and Philadelphia on Friday and despatched to headquarters after complaints about lagging removing numbers.
Contained in the Division of Homeland Safety, Lewandowski—whose relationship with Noem has been described as D.C.’s “worst-kept secret”—has helped compile a broader listing of a minimum of a dozen discipline leaders to be moved or changed, with senior Border Patrol officers entering into ICE posts, in keeping with Fox Information Digital.

The outlet detailed an unprecedented energy shift that sources known as “tense” and “combative,” and has pitched two factions in opposition to one another.

Border czar Tom Homan, 64, and appearing ICE Director Todd Lyons argue for focused arrests of these with legal convictions and closing orders to depart.
…
Fox reported that the Border Patrol inflow marks an “unprecedented” energy shift inside DHS, aligning ICE’s discipline tempo with Bovino’s hard-charging “blitz” mannequin, which might be a shift within the authorities’s pledge to take away “the worst of the worst” in favour of pure numbers.

Bovino, 55, has change into the template for Noem’s camp, main immigration crackdowns from Los Angeles to Chicago’s “Halfway Blitz.”

His hard-edged ways are below a decide’s microscope in Chicago, the place plaintiffs say he defied limits on tear gasoline use and he’s been ordered to seem in courtroom.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow on the American Immigration Council, described it on X as a “HUGE second”, including: “ICE management is being purged tonight. The outdated guard, which prioritized focused enforcement operations aimed toward folks with legal data, is being changed with Border Patrol and Greg Bovino’s ‘Halfway Blitz’ type.”

Sure, that Tom Homan, final heard from when Trump’s DOJ killed an FBI investigation involving an alleged $50,000 money payout from undercover brokers.

We’ll come again to Mr. Homan earlier than this publish is over, however first, let’s comply with ICE Barbie and her bey Cory Lewandowski to the Tremendous Bowl.

ICE Barbie: Solely Patriots Welcome on the Tremendous Bowl, Sorry Dangerous Bunny

From The New York Instances:

Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland safety, gave the clearest indication but that brokers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement would attend the Tremendous Bowl in February, the place the Latin celebrity Dangerous Bunny is scheduled to headline the halftime present.

Requested on Friday by the right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson if there can be “ICE enforcement” on the Tremendous Bowl, Noem replied, “There will probably be,” including that federal immigration officers can be “throughout” the occasion.

“I’ve the accountability for ensuring all people goes to the Tremendous Bowl, has the chance to take pleasure in it and to depart,” Noem stated on “The Benny Present.” Folks mustn’t attend the occasion, she went on, until they’re “law-abiding People who love this nation.”

Dangerous Bunny, a Grammy-winning musician who’s from Puerto Rico, rose to fame with hits equivalent to “MIA,” “I Like It” and “Me Porto Bonito.” He not too long ago completed a 31-show residency in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, saying he selected to not carry out within the continental United States as a result of he feared that his followers would change into targets of ICE brokers.

After the N.F.L. introduced final week that he would seem on the Tremendous Bowl, which is able to happen on Feb. 8 in Santa Clara, Calif., far-right commentators complained that Dangerous Bunny didn’t sing in English and that he had been overtly vital of the Trump administration’s immigration insurance policies. Johnson wrote on social media that Dangerous Bunny was a “large Trump hater.”

Alright, enjoyable’s over, let’s get again to speaking about Border Czar Tom Homan and his struggle with ICE Barbie.

Can Tom Homan Pour Oil on ICE Barbie and Corey’s Troubled Waters?

For his half, Homan says there’s no bother on Group Trump, DHS division.

The Every day Beast transcribed the alternate above:

“There are a selection of experiences that there’s rising friction between you and Kristi Noem … Is that report in any means correct Tom?” Laura Ingraham requested.

However Homan—who’s embroiled in a bribery scandal—ducked the query fully, launching as a substitute right into a long-winded protection of ICE’s file.

“Look, we’re all being aggressive. I’ve stated from day one we’re going to focus on public security threats and nationwide safety threats,” he stated. “However if you’re within the nation illegally, you aren’t off the desk. We’ll arrest you, too.”

Homan boasted, “Now we have a file variety of arrests and deportations,” and promised, “As we get extra brokers on, you will note arrests enhance twice, 3 times, you’re going to see the numbers skyrocket.”

Seems just like the enemies of Trump 2.0 and ICE Barbie must look elsewhere to discover a crack within the workforce’s unity.

However any consideration is dangerous information for “Sincere” Tom Homan.

Turns on the market’s extra scorpions scurrying round below that specific rock. Let’s flip it over.

Tom Homan Has His Hand Out at Ice

Professional Publica has the deets:

The primary time a Pennsylvania guide named Charles Sowell related with border czar Tom Homan was when Sowell reached out on LinkedIn in 2021, in search of recommendation about border contracting work. Homan had completed a stint as appearing director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, capping a three-decade profession in federal authorities. He and Sowell constructed a rapport, primarily based partly on their shared criticisms of then-President Joe Biden’s border insurance policies.

By 2023, the lads had gone into enterprise collectively. Sowell was paying Homan as a guide to his boutique agency, SE&M Options, which suggested corporations — in some instances for a payment of $20,000 a month — looking for contracts from the businesses the place Homan had as soon as labored. In 2024, Sowell grew to become chair of the board of Homan’s basis, Border911, which championed more durable border safety.
…
After Trump gained and formally introduced Homan can be returning with him to the White Home, Sowell stored Homan on his payroll till the tip of the yr. As soon as named because the border czar, Homan stated he would recuse himself from contracting, saying he would haven’t any “involvement, dialogue, enter, or resolution of any future authorities contracts.”

However a number of trade executives who spoke with ProPublica stated a minimum of half a dozen corporations vying for a slice of the $45 billion Congress has allotted for immigration detention work had employed Sowell as a result of he had led them to consider his connections to Homan would assist their probabilities of profitable authorities work.
…
Homan’s private-sector work earlier than he returned to authorities reworked his funds. In 2017, he declared belongings totaling a most of simply $250,000 on his ethics disclosures following a profession in federal service, a determine that excludes sure authorities retirement accounts.

By 2025, his internet price had grown to between $3 million to $9 million, the disclosure paperwork present. (The types listing belongings in ranges, and a portion of his internet price might come from cash he had saved in authorities retirement accounts.)

Now that we all know Tom Homan is a kind of capitalists Nancy Pelosi likes to see serving the general public, let’s use him as a bridge to our subsequent subject: Democratic makes an attempt to withstand Trump 2.0 and ICE.

Border Czar Warns Illinois Democrats

Bare Capitalism has coated Trump’s federal invasion of Chicago and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s makes an attempt to push again by threatening to convene some kind of “reality and reconciliation fee” when and if Trump’s time period ends.

We haven’t coated Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s current name for a “basic strike,” so extra on that beneath.

However first, Border Czar Tom Homan has some phrases of warning for the Illinois Governor and Chicago Mayor, presumably ICE Barbie agrees:

Homan blasted the officers for “attacking federal brokers” whereas overlooking the growing violence and risky conditions brokers face on the bottom. Homan’s feedback had been particularly directed at Gov. Pritzker, who has repeatedly opposed ICE enforcement efforts whereas, controversially, calling Chicago’s summer season “superb” regardless of a excessive variety of shootings and murders.

“Right here’s what ought to occur. The decide, Governor Pritzker, Mayor Johnson, put a Border Patrol uniform on for one shift. Come on the market and stand there with the women and men of the Border Patrol and ICE, and see the way you’re going to reply,” Homan stated.

Homan highlighted the tangible menace brokers are going through nationwide amid what he described as escalating anti-enforcement riots and assaults. Current incidents underscore Homan’s concern:

  • In Chicago, rioters have been filmed calling for brokers to be arrested or shot.
  • An ICE agent in suburban Chicago was significantly injured in September after a suspect allegedly dragged him with a car throughout an tried arrest.
  • In Dallas, two folks had been tragically killed throughout a September twenty fourth capturing at an ICE workplace earlier than the gunman took his personal life.
  • Texas authorities have reported a minimum of two different shootings concentrating on ICE and Border Patrol amenities since July 4th, leading to 10 tried homicide fees.

Homan concluded by reiterating his problem to the critics, saying, “Placed on that uniform, stand on that entrance line, and have stones thrown at you, and see if there’s justification for these women and men to guard themselves.”

Mayor Johnson Requires Basic Strike

When final I coated the battle between Trump, ICE Barbie, and the Democrats of Chicago, I used to be fairly onerous on the callow, feckless Dems and their failure to understand the truth of the battle.

Now Mayor Johnson is attempting to up the ante by speaking out loud a couple of basic strike at the newest “No Kings” rally:

“If my ancestors, as slaves, can lead the best basic strike within the historical past of this nation, taking it to the ultra-rich and large firms, we are able to do it too!” Johnson stated, met with thunderous applause.

Historical past exhibits there has by no means been a real, nationwide basic strike within the U.S. outdoors of the “nice strike wave of 1946” the place 5 million American staff mobilized in opposition to Congress in an effort to demand leaders tackle financial instability and unacceptable working circumstances. In consequence, Congress created the Taft-Hartley Act, controversial laws nonetheless in place thus far, banning a broad vary of union ways, together with political strikes.

Johnson has made his method to the entrance as a pacesetter who isn’t afraid of intimidation ways coming from Trump, together with raids from ICE brokers, and the mayor combating again with requires Trump to be behind bars and the “Fingers Off Chicago” marketing campaign.

Organizers of the two-mile march within the downtown space estimated near 250,000 folks participated, a serious uptick from July’s rally with roughly 75,000 folks. Johnson’s remarks and viewpoints have been supported by state leaders together with Gov. JB Pritzker, who can also be on Trump’s rising enemy listing.

Talking to the peaceable protestors, Pritzker stated, “We’ll by no means give up!”

“Peaceable, democratic resistance is all the time scary for authoritarians,” Pritzker stated.

“We in Chicago will not be afraid to face up … In the present day we’re resisting extra than simply Donald Trump’s assaults on democracy, and he is aware of it.”

I’m wondering if Mayor Johnson has put any extra thought into the final strike thought.

I’m 100% down, I’m simply undecided that my refusing to make some weblog posts or file music historical past podcasts will do a lot to gradual the roll of the Empire.

Pritzker’s Accountability Fee Will Be Coming for ICE Barbie

We’ve coated Pritzker speaking about this Accountability Fee however I wished to dive into the small print a bit bit through the Governor’s press workplace.

Governor JB Pritzker at present signed Government Order 2025-06 to ascertain the Illinois Accountability Fee (IAC), an unbiased board tasked with capturing and making a public file of the conduct of federal legislation enforcement brokers and recommending actions to carry the federal authorities accountable as they proceed conducting military-style operations in Chicago, collar counties, and different areas all through the state. ​

The Fee will decide the best way to safely and prudently acquire testimony, maintain hearings, and collect info from people, neighborhood members, material specialists, native officers, journalists, religion leaders, and organizations. These accounts will probably be used to shed extra mild on the misconduct of the Trump Administration’s federal brokers and doc a proper, public file that can be utilized to pursue justice and accountability.

“The federal authorities is pushing the boundaries of their authority to terrorize our communities whereas disregarding all authorized and ethical accountability within the course of. We won’t meet intimidation with concern — we are going to meet it with reality,” stated Governor JB Pritzker. “We’re going to present the general public — right here in Chicago, the State of Illinois, throughout the nation, and all over the world — precisely what’s going on. We’ll create an in depth file, and that file will replicate actuality. ​ As soon as this all ends, I consider there will probably be folks of fine religion who will evaluation what the Fee has recorded and can demand solutions and accountability.”

The Government Order is available in response to the dearth of any federal accountability for escalating federal enforcement actions marked by extreme drive, masked brokers in unmarked autos, military-style raids, using chemical irritants, and experiences of violent conduct by federal brokers throughout Chicagoland and all through Illinois.

The Fee will encompass as much as 9 members appointed by the Governor, together with a Chair and Vice Chair. The IAC will situation a report with findings and suggestions to the Governor and make the report publicly obtainable. The work of the IAC will probably be supported by the Illinois Division of Human Rights (IDHR).

That is the type of factor Democrats might want to do rather more of if they’re to be any type of a brake on the ICE Barbie Trump 2.0 streamroller.

Naturally, Trump officers don’t like being threatened with authorized penalties for his or her unlawful actions.

Stephen Miller Responds, Presumably ICE Barbie Was Busy

Stephen Miller on Fox threatens to arrest JB Pritzker for “seditious conspiracy” and says, “to all ICE officers: you have got federal immunity within the conduct of your duties. And anyone who lays a hand on you or tries to cease or hinder you is committing a felony.”

Stephen Miller on Fox threatens to arrest JB Pritzker for “seditious conspiracy” and says, “to all ICE officers: you have got federal immunity within the conduct of your duties. And anyone who lays a hand on you or tries to cease or hinder you is committing a felony.”

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) Oct 24, 2025 at 3:15 PM

And lest anybody assume White Home Deputy Chief of Workers (and unofficial evil mastermind of Trump 2.0) is a schmuck who’s lacking out on the prospect to get his beak moist, seems he’s a savvy investor.

Stephen Miller Owns Huge Heap Loads Palantir Inventory

Through Rolling Stone:

In response to ethics disclosure experiences launched by the White Home, Miller owns between $100,000 and $250,000 price of inventory in Palantir, Peter Thiel’s knowledge and intelligence software program firm that has a a number of profitable contracts with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to trace knowledge and conduct surveillance on undocumented immigrants. It’s a fairly clear battle of curiosity from the person behind a lot of Donald Trump’s immigration coverage, in an administration that’s already rife with corruption.

A Mission on Authorities Oversight (POGO) evaluation of disclosures from a number of administration figures discovered that Miller and a minimum of 11 different White Home officers and staffers personal inventory in Palantir, together with Gregory Barbaccia, Trump’s Chief Info Officer.

Miller’s stake is tucked away in a brokerage account for one in every of his three younger youngsters, all of that are below the age of six. The one diploma of separation remains to be a possible violation of ethics legal guidelines.
…
In response to an April report from Wired, ICE awarded Palantir one other $30 million contract to create monitoring software program aimed toward offering the company with “close to real-time visibility” into migrants partaking in “self deportation.” In response to paperwork obtained by Wired, one of many core capabilities of this system — dubbed ImmigrationOS — can be to streamline and prioritize “choice and apprehension operations of unlawful aliens.” The paperwork famous that one of many difficulties in creating this system was restricted entry to the biometric knowledge of migrants.

I’m wondering if Miller will probably be threatening metropolis officers in Portland, Oregon quickly? In any case they’re additionally getting extra inventive of their fights with ICE Barbie.

Portland’s Gonna Zone ICE Barbie Out of the Image

From The New York Instances:

Portland leaders try the technique they know finest: land use.

Oregon has one of the vital advanced units of zoning and land use legal guidelines within the nation. Supporters of the insurance policies say they encourage neighborhoods to be walkable and crammed with unbiased companies whereas additionally preserving huge open areas and farmland. Critics say the foundations have stymied housing building and stored residence costs excessive.

However within the metropolis’s struggle in opposition to the Trump administration, these land-use guidelines might show to be a not-so-secret weapon, largely as a result of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland could also be uniquely susceptible to the codes.

The Basic Companies Administration, which manages actual property for the federal authorities, usually leases area for ICE from different authorities businesses or personal prisons in industrial areas which can be away from residential facilities or widespread commuter routes. The massive ICE facility that has drawn protests in Illinois, for instance, isn’t in Chicago, however quite the suburban village of Broadview.

But when federal officers seemed to maneuver Oregon’s ICE “subfield workplace” from a historic publish workplace close to downtown Portland 14 years in the past, they selected to lease privately owned property simply three miles away within the South Waterfront, a showcase for the state’s historical past of progressive city design.

That has stored ICE below the extraordinary scrutiny of each protesters and metropolis planners. In mid-September, metropolis leaders issued the proprietor of the ICE facility, the developer Stuart Lindquist, a land-use violation discover, telling him ICE had breached the phrases of their authentic settlement for the property.

Time will inform if this proves a helpful tactic.

Let’s zoom again out to the large image earlier than we wrap.

First, DHS is doing extra than simply messing with immigrants and, in fact, there’s one other Palantir connection to be uncovered.

Palantir Co-Founder and His Hate for the Homeless

A number of the founders of Palantir, like Peter Thiel and Alex Karp, have been frequent topics of Espresso Break discussions however up to now Joe Lonsdale has escaped my drag internet.

Time to alter that.

As a result of our boy has been busy laying the groundwork for Trump 2.0.

From VICE in 2023:

This month, Kansas residents met on the statehouse to voice their ideas on a invoice that will ban “public tenting,” one in every of many payments throughout the nation in recent times designed to focus on folks experiencing unsheltered homelessness by making it unlawful to sleep outdoors.

Particularly, the invoice would make it a Class C misdemeanor to sleep in public, and would bar municipalities from blocking enforcement of the legislation, permitting the state legal professional basic to sue cities and counties in the event that they attempt to go a much less hostile ordinance. Whereas many of the audio system had a connection to the state, one speaker, Decide Glock, who was the one speaker to endorse the invoice in keeping with one attendee, spoke on behalf of the Cicero Institute, an Austin, Texas-based assume tank. Glock, additionally a member of the conservative Manhattan Institute who has written op-eds for The Wall Avenue Journal and Nationwide Assessment, serves as a senior fellow at Cicero.

It won’t be clear at first blush why a assume tank primarily based in Austin, Texas is invested in a tenting ban being pushed in Topeka, Kansas. The truth is, the Cicero Institute has spent the previous few years pushing its personal mannequin anti-camping laws in cities throughout the nation in an try to criminalize homelessness and to divert funding away from everlasting, supportive housing, which it has posited as too gradual and expensive to take care of public encampments. Cicero-authored payments have been handed statewide in Texas and in Missouri, and statewide payments are being thought of in 5 different states together with and Oklahoma and Arizona.

Cicero was based by Joe Lonsdale, a co-founder of Palantir, the surveillance tech firm whose knowledge evaluation software program is utilized by the Division of Protection, ICE, and a number of other massive metropolis police departments. Lonsdale can also be head of the enterprise capital agency 8VC, which has invested in dozens of corporations, together with Palantir, Hims, Oculus and The Boring Firm. 8VC’s motto is “The world is damaged, let’s repair it,” and Lonsdale has shared his ideas on how he would repair the world up to now, together with his thought to maneuver folks into personal prisons after which use market-based incentives to cut back recidivism.

ICE Barbie Is Coming for the Homeless

The DHS-Palantir joint assault on the homeless is frightening and terrible, as Conor warned within the publish “Who’s Profiting off of the Criminalization of Homelessness?”

Uncooked Story transcribed a few of the Invisible Folks podcast interview with Eric Tars of the Nationwide Homelessness Regulation Heart:

Tars stated Utah’s new facility might be a “pilot program” for that effort across the nation.

“Their finish aim isn’t just jail,” Tars stated. “They wish to put up extra of those Alligator Alcatraz sprung construction kind amenities,” referring to the ramshackle immigration detention facility constructed in a distant a part of Florida’s Everglades earlier this yr, the place detainees have been minimize off from entry to their legal professionals and are extensively reported to undergo from inhumane therapy.

He famous that, below a proposal drafted by the chair of Utah’s Homeless Companies Board, Randy Shumway, greater than 300 of the beds within the facility are slated for involuntary dedication. Different homeless folks will probably be despatched there for substance abuse therapy “as an alternative choice to jail” and can “obtain care in a supervised atmosphere the place entry and exit will not be voluntary.” Shumway referred to the power as an “accountability middle.”

“A person can be sanctioned to go there. It will not be voluntary,” Shumway stated throughout a presentation, in keeping with the Normal-Examiner. ”They’d be there for a interval of most likely 90 days with the chance to detox with the intention to get psychological and behavioral well being care, to get substance use dysfunction assist, to get bodily well being care, and to be surrounded by a neighborhood that’s serving to them in therapeutic.“

Lonsdale is a stressed man with lots of time, vitality, and cash to make bother.

He’s additionally bought massive plans for his adopted residence city of Austin, Texas.

ICE Barbie’s Technobros See Room to Enhance Austin

From Texas Month-to-month:

Final February, a Silicon Valley émigré named Joe Lonsdale seemed out the window of his Austin workplace and didn’t like what he noticed.

There on the garden of the exquisitely restored mission-style constructing that housed the Cicero Institute, a public coverage nonprofit Lonsdale had based to “repair damaged public techniques” and to “protect the promise of American liberty for generations to come back,” had been lots of people who didn’t appear to be on the identical web page.

It was a cool, brisk day, and the group of fifty or so flattening Cicero’s grass had been wearing knit caps, T-shirts, and hoodies. They had been protesting Lonsdale’s push, domestically and nationally, to comb the homeless off the streets by ticketing or jailing these tenting on metropolis thoroughfares. As Lonsdale had made the homeless a goal, so this group had now focused him: a really rich white man of the political proper who had come from California and was lifeless set on persuading town of Austin to see issues his means. He wasn’t refined. Lonsdale had shelled out for billboards that featured his face on the left, a cowboy hat on the suitable, and in between, the phrases “Freedom. Honor. Progress.” And “Lonsdale & Cicero Institute Battle for Texas.”

As can occur, Lonsdale’s notion of freedom was colliding with that of the protesters. “Cicero Income off Ache,” learn indicators printed in purple on black. “Poverty Is NOT a Ethical Failing,” learn a hand-crafted poster. The signal instantly adjoining declared that “Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist.” A couple of protesters used megaphones to precise their fervent opinion that Cicero’s insurance policies amounted to criminalizing the homeless, one thing they accused Cicero of advocating for throughout the nation. “Joe Lonsdale and the Cicero Institute, the victims of Cicero see by your lies!” a girl with a bullhorn cried. As she spoke, the group started a gradual surge towards the porch, chanting, shaking their posters, and demanding that Cicero staffers come outdoors and listen to them out.

Cicero’s founder made Austin his residence in 2020 after changing into one of the vital influential voices in Silicon Valley. A disciple of libertarian billionaire Peter Thiel, he launched his profession with a school internship at PayPal, which was cofounded by Thiel and was the place Lonsdale got here in touch with Elon Musk. After graduating from Stanford, Lonsdale labored at Thiel’s hedge fund, Clarium Capital. Then, within the early aughts, the 2 males based the information mining and defense-tech firm Palantir.

I’m wondering if Lonsdale must name in a few of ICE Barbie’s goons to crack down on bother makers proper right here in Austin?

Ice Barbie Is Enjoyable and All, however The place Is This Headed?

Ezra Klein of all folks has some salient factors within the introduction to an interview with Radley Balko, the writer of “Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces.”

I see the evisceration of due course of. I see detention facilities being constructed the place it’s terribly onerous for legal professionals and households to succeed in the folks inside. I see males in masks refusing to determine themselves and pulling folks into vans. I see armed U.S. troops in camo, some on horseback, driving by MacArthur Park in Los Angeles like they’re an occupying military. I see Trump sending in armed forces to take over the American capital.

What’s going to occur when, predictably, a protester throws a rock at an agent? Or a Marine hears a automotive backfiring and thinks it’s a gunshot?

Instantly, this might all explode. You can have American troops firing on American civilians in an American metropolis in a country-defining disaster. What occurs then?

As a result of that’s the opposite image I see — the one which retains coming into clear focus. Not Trump cleansing up disaster or dysfunction however Trump creating disaster and dysfunction so he can construct what he has wished to construct: an authoritarian state, a navy or a paramilitary that solutions solely to him — that places him in complete management.

And let’s let the worthy Mr. Balko have the final phrase about Trump’s technique, as implements by ICE Barbie Kristi Noem and her beau Corey Levandowski:

ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Safety have lengthy been probably the most rogue, renegade and definitely pro-Trump police businesses within the federal authorities. So I feel Trump sees these two as probably the most loyal to him. Additionally, clearly, the mass deportations are going to make sure that these two businesses stay related all through his administration.
The F.B.I. has had an extended, proud historical past and tradition. There are lots of stains on that historical past and tradition, however it’s an establishment that has prided itself on its independence. Similar with the A.T.F., which is usually bucked by Republican administrations. I’ve definitely had my issues with the D.E.A. through the years, however there’s a separate tradition and sense of independence there.
I feel that is an effort to construct up the 2 federal policing businesses that Trump sees as most loyal and deferential to him.
…
I’ve warned for a very long time about police businesses changing into too militarized, too aggressive and too us versus them. Militarized each within the sense of the gear that they use but in addition within the mentality that they carry to the job. However it was all the time in response to an actual menace. So it occurred through the crack epidemic, which killed lots of people. It occurred once more after Sept. 11, while you had these assaults on American soil. Homeland safety began equipping police departments throughout the nation with this military-style police gear.
…
So what we’re seeing is that this large enhance in aggressiveness and brutality — in response to a disaster that’s utterly of Trump’s personal making. What we’re seeing will not be a good-faith effort to go after the worst of the worst.
…
Stephen Miller is a menace. He’s been very clear about what his intentions are. He has been very clear that he doesn’t consider the USA must be a spot that takes in refugees from different international locations. He has been very clear that he thinks the USA must be a primarily Western tradition nation. We’ve learn investigative journalism about his being influenced by white supremacists. He has not pretended to cover who he’s.
…
There aren’t very many international locations through which the figurative political head of the nation assembled his personal private paramilitary drive that was loyal solely to him the place issues turned out nicely. In order that’s the place I feel we’re proper now.

Buckle up, issues are solely going to get wilder from right here.





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