Her car was left behind in the middle of the road, her coffee still in the cup holder, & her keys in plain view.

#DHS later released a statement claiming that Figueroa was at fault, saying “she crashed into an unmarked government vehicle & violently resisted arrest, injuring two officers.”

[Despite DHS claims,] Figueroa was released the same day a few hours later WITHOUT CHARGES.

#Trump #Chicago #law #DueProcess #UseOfForce #PoliceBrutality #Constitution #CivilRights #ICE #Gestapo

Seconds after the crash, agents abruptly stopped their vehicle & exited w/ weapons in hand pointing at Figueroa, a #US #citizen. Agents then forcibly opened her door & pulled her out of the vehicle by her legs without identifying themselves, presenting a warrant or informing her that she was under arrest. As bystanders yelled, “You hit her! We have it on video!” agents ignored them & forced Figueroa into a red minivan & drove away.

#Trump #Chicago #law #DueProcess #CivilRights #ICE

Oh, would you look at that? iBM has removed Ginni’s fawning open letter to Donald Trump after his election win.

https://www.ibm.com/blogs/policy/ginni_romettys_letter_to_the_president_elect

This from the company that, when asked about its complicity in The Holocaust, replied that they didn’t have any records from the period as they are tech company, not historians.

#IBM #Holocaust #Trump #fascism

#Chicago woman dragged out of her car after colliding with #ICE demands accountability

Dayanne Figueroa was on her way to get coffee before heading to work when she encountered a chaotic scene in West Town: heavily #armed, #masked federal agents making arrests on a residential street.

#Trump #law #DueProcess #ExcessiveForce #UseOfForce #PoliceBrutality #Constitution #CivilRights #HumanRights #AbuseOfPower #fascism #MafiaState #Gestapo #Sturmabteilung #WhiteSupremacy
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/03/chicago-woman-collision-ice-accountability/

"It’s … an astonishing act of cruelty, especially as grocery prices are going up—Trump lied that they are stable in the 60 Minutes interview—hiring has slowed, and the nation is about to celebrate Thanksgiving."

~ Heather Cox Richardson

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/15

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-3-2025

"Earlier this year, Popular Information broke the news that Extremity Care – a company that sells bandages to Medicare for thousands of dollars per square inch – donated $5 million to MAGA Inc., President Trump’s super PAC, on February 24. Six days later, Trump blasted a pending Biden administration rule that would have barred Medicare from covering Extremity Care’s products."

~ Judd Legum

#Trump #Medicare #ballroom #EpsteinBallroom #ExtremityCare
/1

https://popular.info/p/update-medicare-freeze-beneficiary

"Extremity Care has secretly donated $2.5 million toward the construction of a new White House ballroom, a top priority for Trump. The White House publicly released a list of donors last month, but Extremity Care was not included. According to The New York Times, the company was permitted to donate anonymously."

#Trump #Medicare #ballroom #EpsteinBallroom #ExtremityCare
/2

For the second time in a little over a week, #ICE officers reportedly shot someone in #LosAngeles, #California. This time, it was a #US #citizen who ICE officers shot from behind while he was driving a car, acc/to a report from the Los Angeles Times.

The victim was a 25-yr-old named Carlos Jimenez, who is a father of 3.

#Trump #law #DueProcess #ExcessiveForce #UseOfForce #PoliceBrutality #Constitution #CivilRights #HumanRights #AbuseOfPower #Gestapo #WhiteSupremacy
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-11-02/lawyers-say-ice-shot-us-citizen-from-behind-as-he-stopped-to-warn-them-of-childre

#ICE Shot a #US #Citizen Trying to Help #Kids

According to his lawyer, #immigration officers shot Carlos Jimenez after he warned them that #children would soon gather for the bus where they had pulled over a vehicle.

#Trump #law #DueProcess #ExcessiveForce #UseOfForce #PoliceBrutality #Constitution #RightToProtest #CivilRights #HumanRights #AbuseOfPower #authoritarianism #fascism #Tyranny #MafiaState #MilitaryState #ICE #CBP #Gestapo #Sturmabteilung #WhiteSupremacy
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/11/kids-bus-us-citizen-shot-by-ice-lawyer-report-los-angeles/

…Lacking Democratic consent on its choices, the admin can only legally install prosecutors in a temporary capacity for 120 days — the “3 or 4 months” #Trump mentioned. But the post must then be vacated & filled by a selection by district court judges if no nominee can be confirmed.

The issue looms particularly large in Virginia, where #LindseyHalligan, the #USattorney hand-picked by Trump, is prosecuting #JamesComey, the former #FBI director, and the #NYAG, #LetitiaJames.

#law #Congress

The cause of #Trump’s anger is the #Senate blue slip tradition, which gives home-state senators virtual veto power over whether certain #justice-related nominees can advance, forcing the White House to seek their consent. While its influence has been diluted on appeals court judges, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the chair of the #Judiciary Cmte, has kept the practice in place for district court judges, federal prosecutors & US marshals—personnel matters where senators like to play a role…

#law

“You know, I have 10 U.S. attorneys who are phenomenal, phenomenal — a Harvard or Yale, a this, a that — all top,” #Trump said during last month’s White House luncheon with #Senate #Republicans as he went on an extended rant about the prosecutorial blockage. “And the problem is they’re not going to ever be confirmed, I guess. I put them in, they’ll be there for three or four months, whatever it is, & then they have to leave.”

#law #Congress #USpol

The ability to #filibuster also amplifies the #influence of each senator, allowing any one member of the body to threaten to slow or block #legislation if his or her demands aren’t met, a regular #Senate ritual.

The fight over federal prosecutors [#USattorneys] gets much less attention than the fate of the famed filibuster, but it is clearly vexing #Trump & presenting real complications for the White House as it seeks to pursue criminal charges against Trump’s perceived enemies.

#law #USpol

In reality, the #filibuster also serves #Republicans as a handy check on a president who sometimes takes stances that carry substantial risk or defy party orthodoxy, an excuse for #Senate Republicans to avoid doing things they don’t see as sound #policy or #politics without infuriating #Trump. Eliminating the filibuster would also be a huge blow to the credibility of Thune, who has pledged to preserve it.

#law #shutdown #Congress #USpol

A chief fear of wary #Republicans is that if they were to jettison the #filibuster, #Democrats would likewise be able to get everything they wanted approved when they returned to power. Republicans don’t seem ready to cave just yet to #Trump, whom they see as shortsighted….

#law #shutdown #Congress #USpol

It has not discouraged #Trump from trying, as the government #shutdown drags into a sixth, record-breaking week & #Democrats continue to block a bill to reopen. In a social media post Tuesday, Trump again called for his party to gut the #filibuster, the tactic that allows a single senator to block final action on any major #legislation unless 60 votes can be found to move forward.

“If we do terminate the Filibuster, we will get EVERYTHING approved, like no Congress in History,” Trump wrote.🙄

When it comes to preserving the legislative #filibuster & controlling the confirmation of #USattorneys, #Republicans are so far holding their ground in the face of intensifying White House pressure to jettison #Senate practices that #Trump sees as holding him back. In both cases, the rules empower senators on a personal & political level in a way that they are reluctant to surrender — even to a demanding president whom they rarely challenge.

#law #shutdown #Congress #USpol

#Republicans in #Congress have been remarkably compliant this year as #Trump has usurped their constitutional pre-eminence on fundamental matters such as #spending, #tariffs & #WarPowers. But in 2 areas, #GOP senators have put up firm resistance that is increasingly frustrating Trump.

#law #shutdown #Senate

#Republicans Hold Firm on #Filibuster & Prosecutor Veto Power, for Now

#Trump is showing mounting frustration at his inability to win confirmation of #USattorneys in blue states or break the filibuster's grip on the #Senate. The #GOP has been uncharacteristically uncooperative.

#law #shutdown #Congress
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/us/politics/trump-republicans-filibuster.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Former special counsel #JackSmith wanted to file a motion to have #FarRight #Trump appointed US District Judge #AileenCannon disqualified from overseeing the Mar-a-Lago #ClassifiedDocuments case against Trump, according to a new book by Carol D. Leonnig & Aaron C. Davis.

But he hit a brick wall & felt unable to escalate the situation.

The book, "#Injustice," details the #criminal cases against Trump.

#law #DOJ
https://www.rawstory.com/jack-smith-2674262772/

"The ascent of Donald Trump proved all of these journalistic myopias catastrophically wrong. The story of Christian nationalists and Trump, of feverish devotion to an authoritarian figure thought to be anointed by God, of a refusal to question that authority even in the face of mountains of evidence of abuse or lies, was there all along. It is the story of American evangelicalism, which is also, right now, the story of America."

#Trump #authoritarianism #evangelicalism #ChristianRight
/5

"A naive incredulousness that a religious movement would actually drive national politics paralyzed necessary coverage of the Christian right. Its death was frequently announced, always prematurely and inaccurately. …

But:

"The ascent of Donald Trump proved all of these journalistic myopias catastrophically wrong."

#Trump #WhiteChristians #WhiteEvangelicals #CrueltyIsthePoint #immigrants #racism #food #hunger #SNAP #authoritarianism #dictator
/4

Noting that traditional media never took the Christian Right seriously, Sarah Posner says that when she began writing about this topic in the early 2000s, "newspapers and magazines were still reluctant to run investigative stories on the Christian right."

#Trump #WhiteChristians #WhiteEvangelicals #CrueltyIsthePoint #immigrants #racism #food #hunger #SNAP #authoritarianism #dictator
/3

"We are experiencing a great asymmetrical stretching of the moral and political bounds of American society. Increasingly, self-identified Republicans (who represent approximately 30% of the public) and white evangelicals (who represent 13% of the public) are drifting farther from the American mainstream, drawn away by MAGA’s extreme gravitational pull."

#Trump #WhiteChristians #WhiteEvangelicals #CrueltyIsthePoint #immigrants #racism #food #hunger #SNAP #authoritarianism #dictator
/2

"With the exception of white Christians, two thirds of whom cast their votes for Trump in 2024, majorities of all other religious groups and the religiously unaffiliated see Trump as a dangerous dictator."

~ Robert P. Jones

#Trump #WhiteChristians #WhiteEvangelicals #CrueltyIsthePoint #immigrants #racism #food #hunger #SNAP #authoritarianism #dictator
/1

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/most-americans-are-seeing-the-dangers

"It’s all part of the right’s deeper political project to control women and assert their preferred gender and class-based hierarchies."

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #women #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown #patriarchy #gender #misogyny
/14

"The casual cruelty of limiting or cutting off SNAP isn’t just about budgets. It’s about power. It’s about who gets to eat, who gets to work, & who stays dependent. The White House’s refusal to fully extend funding for SNAP will disproportionately harm women and children, who make up the vast majority of SNAP recipients."

~ Cammy Pedroja

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #women #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/13

https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/republicans-snap-benefits-women

"The Trump Administration is now threatening grocery stores that give discounts to SNAP eligible Americans."

~ Aaron Parnas

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/12

https://aaronparnas.substack.com/p/news-trump-threatens-grocery-stores

"Meanwhile, Trump is gilding the Oval Office and building a ballroom. At least he’s not out of touch!"

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown #ballroom #EpsteinBallroom
/11

"Grocery prices are 2.7 percent higher than they were last September and 1.4 percent higher than January, when Trump triumphantly returned to office. They’re also still on the rise, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics last Friday. Overall, grocery prices have increased almost 30 percent in the last five years."

~ Rachel Kahn

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #SNAP #shutdown
/10

https://newrepublic.com/post/202586/no-youre-wrong-trump-spirals-food-prices-60-minutes

"The administration’s position on SNAP shows its cruelty and sends a message that no one is safe from the administration’s heartless disregard of the law. ... Inhumane and cruel have become the watchwords of the Trump administration."

~ Austin Sarat and Steve Kramer

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/9

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/a-mia-president-and-a-hungry-america

"Trump agrees to only starve families a little bit."

~ Alix Breeden

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/8

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/11/3/2351900/-Trump-agrees-to-only-starve-families-a-little-bit

"As a result of the shutdown, Donald Trump has threatened to cut off the food benefits for the first time in the program’s more than 60-year history. A federal judge last week prevented the Department of Agriculture from suspending Snap altogether."

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/7

"The Trump administration said it would provide only partial relief to recipients of food stamps on Monday, amid mounting uncertainty among the nearly 42 million people on the supplemental nutrition assistance program (Snap). ...

How did we get here?"

~ Jem Bartholomew

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/6

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/04/first-thing-trump-administration-to-fund-just-half-of-food-stamp-benefits

"Trump and his minions can also shame and police poor people for buying soda, or getting their nails done, because, again, those are the perks of being wealthy.

Power is entitlement—and part of entitlement is the sadistic pleasure of immiserating women, Black people, immigrants, the poor. As Adam Serwer says, the cruelty is the point."

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/5

"Being rich is fun because you have lots of stuff. But an important part of the pleasure is not just enjoying what you have but enjoying what others do not have. Policing the purchases of the poor is part of the entitlement of the wealthy. Trump can have a gold plated bathroom because that’s the kind of thing he deserves."

~ Noah Berlatsky

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/4

https://www.everythingishorrible.net/p/republicans-want-poor-people-to-suffer

"Of course he realized how it would look. He understood perfectly well that he was partying while ordinary Americans were suffering. And that understanding — combined with the belief that he can get away with it — was a big reason he enjoyed the event.

During Trump’s first term Adam Serwer wrote a justly celebrated article for The Atlantic titled 'The cruelty is the point.'”

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #SNAP #shutdown
/3

Not so, Krugman says. Trump knew exactly what he was doing:

"The party at Mar a Lago wasn’t a case of tone deafness, living it up despite others’ suffering. It was in large part a party held to celebrate others’ suffering."

For Trump and his followers, the cruelty always has been the point. It's what they celebrate:

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/2

Paul Krugman notes that commentary on Trump's roaring twenties party hours before 42 million Americans lost food assistance as federal workers are going without pay says the party was "tone deaf." As if Trump really had no idea what he was communicating throwing the obscene gilded age shindig as people face hunger and no salaries.

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/1

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-big-smirk

Their efforts are grounded in a controversial theory of social progress: That a select group of #elites are the right people to move the country forward, a position #ChrisBuskirk argues is not in defiance of MAGA’s populism. Putting industry leaders in positions of #power is a hallmark of #Trump’s presidency — from #Commerce Secy #HowardLutnick to #tech titan #ElonMusk — & Buskirk says the #MAGA movement has energized a new generation of stewards for the country.

#law #technocracy #aristocracy

The pair — along with admin officials & friends — recently launched #ExecutiveBranch, a $500,000-a-head membership club for #Trump-supporting business leaders to hobnob in DC.

These organizations have a collective ambition, according to #ChrisBuskirk, which is to give the businesspeople he sees as vital to the country’s future a role shaping #government & lasting #political #power.

#law #Constitution #democracy #technocracy #plutocracy #aristocracy #oligarchy #USpol

The #RockbridgeNetwork has assembled a database with deep profiles of potential #voters through nonpolitical memberships, including outdoors groups & churches, acc/to a person directly familiar with the organization.

#ChrisBuskirk’s ties to #Trump’s orbit go beyond Rockbridge. #1789Capital, the #VC firm he co-founded with investor #OmeedMalik, focuses on what the partners call “patriotic capitalism” & now counts Donald Trump Jr. as a partner.

#law #democracy #technocracy #aristocracy #USpol

With significant funding from #tech leaders, #RockbridgeNetwork aims to equip #MAGA to outlive #Trump. The group has no website or public-facing entity, but it has assembled pollsters, data crunchers, online advertisers & even a documentary film arm. It is gearing up to deploy its arsenal in the 2026 #midterms & in the 2028 presidential contest, when many Rockbridge members hope #JDVance will be the nominee.

#law #Constitution #democracy #technocracy #plutocracy #aristocracy #oligarchy #USpol

Today, #ChrisBuskirk helms the #RockbridgeNetwork, a secretive organization birthed out of the weekend gathering that has established itself as one of the most influential forces in #GOP #politics. Political strategists credit the close-knit network of businessmen-cum-donors with helping fuel #Trump’s reelection last year & propelling one of its own — #JDVance — into the vice presidency.

#law #Constitution #democracy #technocracy #plutocracy #aristocracy #oligarchy #USpol

In 2019, a small group of #RightWing donors rented a resort outside the 100-person town of Rockbridge, Ohio, for a summit to secure the future of the #MAGA movement. They aimed to turn a singular candidate — President Donald #Trump — into an enduring political coalition, with a pipeline of voters, donors & candidates that would cement a radical transformation of the #GOP.

#law #Constitution #democracy #technocracy #plutocracy #aristocracy #USpol

#GiftArticle

Inside the #billionaire network shaping #MAGA’s post-#Trump future

#ChrisBuskirk put #tech #elites at the center of power in Trump’s Washington. His efforts are grounded in a controversial theory — an “#aristocracy” is needed to move the country forward.

#law #Constitution #democracy #technocracy #plutocracy
https://wapo.st/3Jsvgrl

For #Republicans, Earle-Sears will show whether a candidate in #Trump’s general mold — though notably without his full-throated support [you know why] — can win in a battleground state. For #Democrats, Spanberger will signal whether the same center-left approach that worked across the country in the 2018 midterms is the answer in 2026, when the party’s energy has been focused on its progressive base [though, it’s Virginia, not NYC; know your audience].

#VoteBlue

#Virginia governor’s race will test #Trump & Democrats nationally—& make history

Republican Winsome Earle-Sears, a staunch conservative who serves as Virginia’s lt. gov, & Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a center-left Democrat & fmr CIA case officer who helped her party win a House majority during Trump’s 1st presidency, are vying to become the 1st woman to lead the commonwealth. Earle-Sears also would make history as the 1st Black woman governor in any state.

#VoteBlue
https://apnews.com/article/virginia-first-female-governor-earlesears-spanberger-01f9854a94fdab6e5719096664ee9be1

The race to replace term-limited #Republican Gov. #GlennYoungkin has taken on national dimensions from the start, serving as a testing ground for both parties one year ahead of national #midterm #elections that could redirect the country’s course for the balance of Trump’s 2nd term. It comes as the state #Trump lost in 3 successive presidential contests has been strained by many of his policies, particularly the steep cuts to the #CivilService & the ongoing government #shutdown.

#VoteBlue

Allen received notice of his termination from the White House after he made efforts to provide key information to prosecutors in that office, acc/to 4 sources. The information he turned over was constitutionally required, 2 of them said, while a third described it as being potentially relevant in discovery.

#Trump #law #RevengePolitics #USpol #authoritarianism #fascism #tyranny