Isabel Kershner (NEW YORK TIMES) reported this evening that aid to Gaza had to be "halted because of the intensity of the Israeli strikes" that Netanyahu ordered today. Strikes?
Yeah, the cease-fire -- which was never a peace deal -- is already crumbling.
You know what's worse then the lies of a con man? Educated people who are stupid enough to believe the con man. Dan Abrams, I'm looking at you. Known you for years. How could you be so damn stupid to praise Chump and call it a peace deal? You remain in our penalty box as a result. You have always been extremely smart which is why it shocked me and it continues to shock me how you rushed to give the convicted felon credit when he hadn't earned it.
To a degree, I get it. I do. If I loathe someone, I will try to give them a benefit of the doubt because I loathe them and that might be factoring in to my initial response. So if he had focused on the hostage release, I wouldn't have been so shocked Dan was such an easy mark for Chump.
He would have still been wrong to have treated it as something amazing. A little less than nine months into his term, Chump got X number of hostages released. How was that different from Joe Biden's presidency? Joe got X number released every few months. So all Chump was doing was following the example Joe already put in place.
But Dan thought it was peace and I am still shocked. We'll return to highlighting Dan in a bit -- probably not this week -- but I am still in shock that he fell for this nonsense. Dan's much smarter than that. But I guess it just demonstrates that we are all potential suckers of a con man.
There is no peace. There never was. And now even the illusion is gone.
Getting why Chump was in a hurry to get a Nobel Peace Prize? He needs it within three weeks before his con job can be revealed. For about three weeks he can trick a few people. Again, didn't realize Dan was one of them. There were others, by the way. And they're permanently banned from this site as a result. Dan's just in the penalty box until I can get over my shock that he fell for the con man.
In other news, I had to get onto BLUESKY tonight. Why? To block accounts. Aishvarya Kavi (NEW YORK TIMS) reports:
The White House and more than half a dozen government agencies on Friday joined a social media platform popular with liberals and promptly shared posts declaring Democrats were to blame for the ongoing government shutdown.
The posts on Bluesky, a social network whose format is similar to that of X, continued a pattern of partisan attacks from the executive branch after Congress failed to reach an agreement on federal funding and the government shut down on Oct. 1.
The administration has repeatedly thrust normally nonpartisan agencies into the funding fight, including by posting politically loaded language on agency websites, even though the federal bureaucracy is ordinarily expected to stay out of the fray during political disagreements.
In a Bluesky post on Friday, the Transportation Department blamed what it called the “Schumer-Jeffries Shutdown,” referring to the Democratic minority leaders Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, both of New York, for forcing air traffic controllers, who are required to work through the shutdown, to go without pay. The post was shared alongside a cartoon image of the men in sombreros.
If you're on BLUESKY, block the White House accounts. Internet personality Betty Bowers (remember from BUZZFLASH?) already had this idea two days ago. Hopefully, everyone's been blocking. Pete Hegseth actually got on BLUESKY six months ago with a mirror account. Before I blocked him today, I saw that in six months, he's only gotten 518 followers. There is no place for crooked and hateful people in this administration on BLUESKY.
Turning to Chump's war on immigrants, Greg Sargent (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes:
As President Donald Trump’s consolidation of authoritarian power escalates, he and his allies have been employing undisguised state-sponsored propaganda to a degree unmatched by any president in modern times. This much, one hopes, is broadly understood—even if a startling number of Americans seem unperturbed by it. But here’s something that’s less discussed: This sort of industrial-scale deception would be far more difficult to pull off if Republicans hadn’t wholly crippled Congress’s oversight function on Trump’s behalf.
All this is driven home by an interesting new letter that Senator Chris Murphy sent Friday to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about a horrifying incident that unfolded during Trump’s occupation of Chicago. A federal agent shot a woman multiple times after she allegedly menaced the agents with her car. Marimar Martinez, who didn’t have life-threatening injuries, is a U.S. citizen.
This incident has been subjected to a barrage of state-manufactured misinformation, and it turns out that MAGA influencer Laura Loomer also was involved in that effort. In response, Murphy’s letter calls on Noem to account for all these official deceptions, and to come clean on whether government information was improperly leaked to Loomer to assist in them.
In particular, just after the shooting, DHS put out a statement claiming that the agents in question had been “boxed in by 10 cars” and that Martinez’s vehicle “rammed” theirs. The statement also suggests she threatened the agents with a “semi-automatic weapon.” All this “forced” an agent to shoot Martinez, who then “drove herself to the hospital.” DHS added that she’d previously doxed agents online. In short, the shooting was wholly justified: The victim was the one doing the terrorizing—of law enforcement.
Yet these claims are undermined by the criminal complaint against Martinez. It only mentions two cars menacing the agents, not 10. It doesn’t mention her gun, let alone her threatening of the agents with one. It says she was taken to the hospital by ambulance. And as the Chicago Sun-Times reports, Martinez’s lawyer says body-cam footage even contradicts the claim that she directly threatened the officers with her vehicle and shows that the agent said, “Do something, bitch,” before opening fire.
As we've noted repeatedly, there is no oversight. They lie constantly and they get away with it. That's why last week's news out of Chicago is so important. Aaron Parnas (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) explains:
Federal immigration officers in the Chicago area will now be required to wear body cameras following recent confrontations with protesters. The decision came Thursday from U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis, who said she was “a little startled” after viewing television footage showing agents using tear gas and other aggressive tactics.
Judge Ellis, who lives in Chicago, expressed frustration about the ongoing clashes. “I live in Chicago if folks haven’t noticed,” she said in court. “And I’m not blind, right?” Her comments reflected deep concern about the images she’s seen of federal agents’ behavior during enforcement actions linked to President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
Just last week, Ellis issued an order requiring agents to clearly display their badges and prohibiting them from using certain crowd-control measures—such as tear gas and rubber bullets—against peaceful demonstrators and members of the press.
Despite that ruling, Ellis said she’s been troubled by new reports and footage suggesting her directives might not have been followed. “I’m getting images and seeing images on the news, in the paper, reading reports where I’m having concerns about my order being followed,” she said during Thursday’s hearing.
If you're not getting why oversight is so desperately needed, Danny Postel (IN THESE TIMES) provides this overview of recent events in Chicago:
Over the last five weeks in Chicago, federal agents have
shot at least two people, killing one (Silverio Villegas González,
a father of two who had just dropped one of his children off at school
when ICE agents shot him); descended on an apartment building with
a Black Hawk helicopter and used flash-bang grenades; tear-gassed
protesters and first responders; smoke-bombed a street full of people; reportedly
zip-tied children and separated them from their parents for several
hours in the middle of the night; shot protesters with rubber bullets;
handcuffed a city council member in a hospital; and fired a chemical
weapon at a TV reporter as she was driving away, burning her face.
In one of the more shocking moments in this mayhem, on September 19,
agents perched on the roof of an ICE detention center in the suburban
village of Broadview shot the Rev. David Black, lead pastor at the First
Presbyterian Church of Chicago, in the head and body with pepper-spray
projectiles known as pepper balls. Just moments earlier, Black, dressed
in his clerical garb, had both arms up in the air and was “praying, verbally, for the ICE officers and those detained inside,” as he later recalled to CNN.
Other protesters were shot with pepper balls during the incident. They were chanting, singing and praying — peacefully, Black stressed. “We could hear [the agents] laughing as they were shooting us from the roof,” he told CNN. “It was deeply disturbing.”
Or go with this from KNEWZ, "Presbyterian pastor from Chicago, Rev. David Black, was struck multiple times by chemical pellets fired by federal immigration agents during what witnesses describe as a peaceful protest outside an ICE detention facility in Broadview, Illinois. Knewz.com has learned that the incident, captured on video, has sparked widespread condemnation and a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which accuses ICE of using 'violent force' against unarmed demonstrators engaged in prayer and civil disobedience." Need another example? Rhian Lubin (INDEPENDENT) reports:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pointed a gun at a family, including a mother holding her 3-month-old baby, as they burst into their Oregon home, footage of the incident showed.
The video recorded by Mari Magana and posted on Facebook showed the moment ICE agents kicked down the bedroom door in the family’s apartment in Gresham, approximately 17 miles outside of Portland, Wednesday evening. The video has been shared across social media.
The baby’s grandmother, Gloria Bautista, told The Independent that her daughter has been left shaken by the ordeal.
Children across the country are being left shaken and destroyed. Alvin Buyinza (MINNESOTA SPOKESMAN-RECORDER) explains:
Fear in the Windy City grew after the Trump administration ramped up “Operation Midway Blitz.” The immigration crackdown, launched against city officials’ wishes, has led to the arrest of more than 800 undocumented immigrants since Sept. 8, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
“It is a departure from everything that young people have understood from our America,” Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, says about the escalating presence and actions of immigration authorities in the city.
Aggressive tactics allegedly used by ICE agents include the use of tear gas near an elementary school, raiding a South Side apartment in a predominantly Black neighborhood, and detaining and zip-tying U.S. citizens and children, including Black folks.
DHS has denied many of these claims and has not responded to Word In Black’s request for comment.
The American Immigration Council issued a press release which opens with:
On September 29, 2025, in what has become a shockingly common occurrence, Huabing Xie died in ICE custody after suffering an apparent seizure. Xie, a citizen of China, is the 23rd person officially reported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to have died in custody this fiscal year, marking 2025 as the deadliest for ICE detainees since 2004. As of writing, two more people have died in ICE detention since the fiscal year ended on September 30.
The first year of the second Trump administration has been even deadlier than 2020, when the unchecked COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the high death toll in detention facilities. The rising fatalities this year are likely caused by several factors, including acute overcrowding, abysmal detention conditions, medical neglect, soaring mental distress, and even gun violence.
Why are so many people dying in ICE custody?
In less than a year, the Trump administration has increased the number of people detained in ICE facilities by almost 50%. Currently, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) incarcerates close to 60,000 people. The administration’s push for mass detentions and deportations has led to overcrowding as most facilities now exceed their contractual capacity.
Across detention centers, overcrowding has resulted in dire and inhumane conditions. For example, a Massachusetts ICE field office used a windowless room as a holding area packed with “35 to 40 men” who had to share one toilet without privacy and sleep “head-by-toe” on the concrete floors. Similarly, at Krome Service Processing Center in Florida, people were forced to sleep on the floor and only given “a cup of rice and a glass of water a day.” ICE is refusing to give people enough food in some facilities and provides rotten food at other facilities. These reports are understandably alarming family members and advocates.
Overcrowding and poor hygiene can spread and exacerbate diseases, leading to deaths. But medical neglect in detention can lead to equally harmful consequences. Sick detainees are being denied care, leading to unnecessarily worsening medical conditions. NPR reported that a man with a “serious eye infection for almost two weeks” and a “fever” was denied medication for both conditions.
In another instance, a previously healthy 23-year-old man was unable to walk due to pain after only a few months in ICE confinement because of medical neglect. The Venezuelan asylum seeker was frequently moved between detention centers without the ability to shower or change his clothing, forced to sleep on the floor, and frequently complained of pain. Nurses prescribed him antibiotics and pain medication, but his medical records show that he rarely actually received his prescriptions, and that ICE took his medications from him when it transferred him between detention centers. Ultimately, his symptoms worsened so acutely that he was “taken to medical in a wheelchair, assisted by fellow detainees, because he was unable to walk on his own.” This young man’s story is just one example of countless horrifying incidents occurring out of the public eye.
The Trump administration’s immigration detention policies and the resulting appalling conditions have also led to disastrous effects on detainees’ mental health. Three of the reported deaths are by apparent suicide. Twenty-seven-year-old Brayan Rayo-Garzon was found “unresponsive in his cell with a blanket wrapped around his neck” in April 2025. During his two-week detention, his appointment with the mental health clinic was rescheduled twice. In June, Jesus Molina-Veya was discovered “unresponsive with a cloth ligature around his neck tied to the bottom rail of the top bunk.” Chaofeng Ge was also found “with a cloth ligature around his neck in a shower stall” four days after his intake assessment. Many other people have reported experiencing acute mental distress in detention, including suicidal thoughts.
And noncitizens in ICE detention have another deadly threat to worry about: gun violence. Two people detained by ICE were killed by a gunman opening fire on an ICE facility in Dallas. This fatal incident was the third shooting at a federal immigration facility in Texas in recent months, bolstering fears about increased political violence. While DHS may not be able to prevent all external violence from impacting people in its custody, it can control the atrocious conditions within ICE detention centers that have caused the deaths of far more immigrants.
On deaths in custody, Pedro Camacho (LATIN TIMES) reports:
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has confirmed the death of a 67-year-old Jordanian man in its custody, marking the third reported fatality in detention in the past three weeks. The agency, however, maintains that conditions in its facilities are "safe, secure, and humane."
ICE said Hasan Ali Moh'd Saleh died on October 11 at Larkin Community Hospital in Miami, Florida, after suffering cardiac arrest. According to the agency, Saleh was taken to the hospital a day earlier due to a fever and was later admitted for treatment. Medical staff found him unresponsive the following evening and initiated CPR. He briefly regained a pulse before suffering another cardiac event and was pronounced dead at 7:13 p.m.
No one is safe is ICE custody. People are dying, women and girls are being sexually harassed, immigrants are denied needed medical care. Lauren Villagran (USA TODAY) reports on another issue regarding ICE custody:
Months after leaving immigration detention, Camila Muñoz can still remember the ice-cream scooper used to ladle food onto plastic trays and the "sour feeling" after every meal.
Hunger.
"You have to eat no matter what, or the night is going to get you," she told USA TODAY. "We were really hungry."
In Louisiana – a major hub of the Trump administration's mass deportation effort – detainees and their representatives say people in custody are going hungry on a diet of processed foods that are barely edible, often expired and never filling.
A week's menu served at Richwood in August, obtained by USA TODAY, offers a glimpse into the lives of detained immigrant women and how they are fed.
At the Richwood lock-up, the breakfast scoop of oatmeal or powdered eggs aren't worth waking up for, they say. A ration of pasta with canned meat and canned green beans at lunch leaves them hungry. Sunday dinner – a thin slice of bologna between white bread and an ounce of potato chips – isn't enough. Women detained long-term say they haven't had fresh fruit in months.
The war on immigrants is a stain on our country. It makes us no better than the abusers in other governments that we've long called out. People will wonder, Americans will wonder, in the future how this ever took place, how it was ever allowed. How people went along with it. They went along, in part, those who did go along, due a media that too often treated this as natural and too long just ignored the reality of what was taking plce. J. David McSwane and Hannah Allam (PRO PUBLICA) report on that reality:
When Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers stormed through Santa Ana, California, in June, panicked calls flooded into the city’s emergency response system.
Recordings of those calls, obtained by ProPublica, captured some of the terror residents felt as they watched masked men ambush people and force them into unmarked cars. In some cases, the men wore plain clothes and refused to identify themselves. There was no way to confirm whether they were immigration agents or imposters. In six of the calls to Santa Ana police, residents described what they were seeing as kidnappings.
“He’s bleeding,” one caller said about a person he saw yanked from a car wash lot and beaten. “They dumped him into a white van. It doesn’t say ICE.”
One woman’s voice shook as she asked, “What kind of police go around without license plates?”
And then this from another: “Should we just run from them?”
During a tense public meeting days later, Mayor Valerie Amezcua and the City Council asked their police chief whether there was anything they could do to rein in the federal agents — even if only to ban the use of masks. The answer was a resounding no. Plus, filing complaints with the Department of Homeland Security was likely to go nowhere because the office that once handled them had been dismantled. There was little chance of holding individual agents accountable for alleged abuses because, among other hurdles, there was no way to reliably learn their identities.
Since then, Amezcua, 58, said she has reluctantly accepted the reality: There are virtually no limits on what federal agents can do to achieve President Donald Trump’s goal of mass deportations. Santa Ana has proven to be a template for much larger raids and even more violent arrests in Chicago and elsewhere. “It’s almost like he tries it out in this county and says, ‘It worked there, so now let me send them there,’” Amezcua said.
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