Monday, July 20, 2026
Sunday, July 19, 2026
Another US service member killed while Homan and Chump try to distract from ICE's actions
Aaron Boxerman, Yan Zhuang, Hari Raj and Eric Schmitt (NEW YORK TIMES) report:
The Pentagon said on Sunday that a third member of the American military had died during a weekend of intense exchanges of attacks with Iran, as the war escalated and the United States began sending more warplanes to the Middle East.
The soldier was killed in northern Iraq during the disposal of a downed Iranian attack drone on Saturday, the Pentagon said. There was no sign of diplomacy between the two sides, and the U.S. military said Sunday evening Eastern time that it had begun conducting a new wave of strikes against Iran for the ninth consecutive night.
American officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the United States was sending more military jets to the Middle East, a move that was in the works even before the recent deaths.
The fatalities raised to 17 the number of U.S. military personnel confirmed to have been killed in the war. On Friday, two soldiers were killed in an Iranian missile barrage in Jordan that left another soldier missing. A U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, said on Sunday that remains recovered at scene were believed to be those of the missing soldier.
In addition, AP reports one service member is missing, "Earlier, the military said its strikes targeted Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard to retaliate for Friday’s killing of troops in Jordan. One service member was missing after that attack, and the military’s new statement said “unidentified remains” were found on Sunday and were being examined."
This as Dharna Noor, Chris Stein and Jessica Glenza (GUARDIAN) report:
Between widespread cuts to vital government agencies, various disease and illness outbreaks, and new environmental disaster vulnerabilities, the United States is facing a convergence of crises with widespread repercussions.
Yet the Trump administration has hamstrung the federal government from addressing these crises – and in some cases is actively fanning them. Over the past year, the administration has moved to shrink the federal workforce, roll back environmental protections and policies intended to fight the climate crisis, reduced funding for scientific research and is seeking to advance legislation that would impose new voting restrictions.
Just this week, Trump delivered an address casting doubt on the integrity of US elections, and last week, appointed a critic of mainstream climate science to oversee the government’s flagship report about the impact of climate change on the United States. Meanwhile, the country is facing a nationwide outbreak of cyclosporiasis, a parasitic illness that can cause “explosive” diarrhea.
He's spread himself thing and is focused on everything but what matters.
Turning to ICE, border czar Tom Homan appeared on FACE THE NATION (CBS) today where he was questioned by host Margaret Brennan.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mr. Homan, we saw that two immigrants were shot in the span of a week. There was that one in Maine that was fatal just days after another one in Houston. We also saw that man fleeing agents in Florida, who then was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer.
I know you've been trying to keep the department out of the headlines ever since that streak in Minnesota that was deadly. How do you respond to those who say, what's happening now looks like very little has changed?
TOM HOMAN: Well, you know, first of all, we'll wait and see what the investigations – how they play out, right. Because, you know, I don't want to get ahead of an investigation on who's at fault, what exactly happened because we all know, when these investigations happen, there's going to be cell phone video, there may be city cameras, and, of course, then you got witness statements and affidavits from the officer and witnesses. So, we've got to let the investigations play out. So I don't really want to comment on the investigations themselves.
"I don't want to get ahead of an investigation on who's at fault," he declares before going on the blame the dead civilian drivers and insist that they should have stopped due to the flashing lights. Brennan noted that in the videos, there were no flashing lights at which point Homan admits he didn't see the videos.
But he's talking about the situation as though he did and doing so afere he says "I don't want to get ahead of an investigation on who's at fault."
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. But these were fatal shootings, of course, in Houston and in Maine. And in Houston, it was an unmarked car. So, when you're saying, don't resist, these individuals who were chasing the man who died, they didn't have markings on that vehicle that would allow for him to know that they were ICE. It just looked like a car coming after them in the videos.
TOM HOMAN: No. They have emergency lights. Officers have insignia. So, when they get out of that car and approach the car, you can clearly see they're law enforcement officers. They can't – this is – these people –
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, in the video that has been public, it's not a marked car.
Devlin Barrett and Hamed Aleaziz (NEW YORK TIMES) report on a new move by the administration:
Federal agents around the country were told in recent days that the F.B.I. would no longer investigate confrontations with immigration agents — cases that sometimes yield evidence that could be used to prosecute Department of Homeland Security agents implicated in violent encounters, according to people briefed on the decision.
If enacted, such a change would sharply limit law enforcement scrutiny of immigration agents, as the Trump administration draws mounting criticism over killings at the hands of federal officers. In the last two weeks, two fatal shootings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Texas and Maine have thrust the government’s tactics back into the spotlight.
F.B.I. managers around the country received a written notice informing them of the change on Thursday, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal communications. The same day, some ICE agents around the country were notified by their F.B.I. counterparts.
The guidance shared with them said that the bureau would stop investigating claims of assaults against Department of Homeland Security agents, the people said. Even though such investigations are intended to determine whether the officers were in fact attacked, they can provide a crucial means of gathering evidence implicating the agents themselves.
Isn't that something Todd Blanche should have brought up Wednesday when he appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee? Instead, he and the administration have kept this on the down low. Sarah N. Lynch (CBS NEWS) adds:
When HSI was tasked with leading the federal investigation into the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January, with the help of the FBI, the decision raised questions among current and former federal law enforcement officials.
After concerns were raised, the FBI and the Civil Rights Division were ordered to take the lead on the probe. That investigation remains ongoing.
HSI is not typically tasked with investigating officer-involved shootings and is not structured or equipped to handle core elements of such cases, including ballistics analysis, forensic processing, firearm examinations, video review and large-scale witness canvassing.
No, Homeland Security should not be investigating themselves and, no, they are not trained for these kind of investigations. This is yet another attempt to bury and skirt responsibility. These are mistakes and errors that are owned by Markwayne Mullen who has been Secretary of Homeland Security since March. Anne Kim (WASHINGTON MONTHLY) notes:
As a U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, Markwayne Mullin enjoyed a reputation for confrontation and theatricality. He often donned a cowboy hat on the Senate floor (a no-no for a body that prizes decorum) and strode the hallways of the Capitol bouncing a rubber stress ball.
During a 2023 Senate hearing, the former mixed martial arts fighter challenged Teamsters President Sean O’Brien to a fistfight, taunting him to “stand your butt up.” In a separate incident last fall, Mullin “joked” about killing journalists.
Mullin’s confirmation hearing to replace Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security this spring was likewise combative. Sen. Rand Paul—whom Mullin had called a “freaking snake”—challenged his temperament and lack of expertise. “Explain to the American people why they should trust a man with anger issues to set the proper example for ICE and border patrol agents,” Paul said.
Since ascending to DHS, however, Mullin has submerged his ostentatious persona. Unlike Noem, whose shock-and-awe immigration enforcement tactics sparked widespread public outrage, Mullin has been relatively low-key. No dehumanizing videos, no embarrassing cosplay, no obvious corruption.
He’s also built a brutally efficient deportation machine that—until last week—was largely escaping protest from an easily distractible public:
- Arrests have surged to 2,000 per day, according to the New York Times, and more than 63,000 people were in ICE custody at the start of July, often in horrific conditions.
- ICE has especially targeted unaccompanied minors, reports ProPublica, and judges are signing more than 10,000 deportation or removal orders each month.
- Immigration judges have also sharply reduced the number of immigrants granted asylum, while judges resistant to the administration’s policies have been fired.
- Judges are now also holding mass deportation hearings involving as many as 100 cases at a time, according to NPR, often with little or no notice to the people involved.
- Deportation flights reached a record high in May, according to the nonprofit Human Rights First, with 288 flights to 38 countries, including St. Kitts, Nevis, Paraguay, Ghana, and Cameroon.
- DHS has also told employers to fire thousands of legal immigrant workers who are likely to lose their Temporary Protected Status in coming weeks, thanks to a recent Supreme Court decision granting the administration broad discretion over TPS status.
The fatal shooting of a Houston man by ICE agents earlier this month, along with another killing last week in Maine and the death of yet another man in Florida, have revived some public scrutiny of ICE’s tactics. But the national outcry has so far been relatively muted compared to the protests in Minneapolis, Portland, and other cities earlier this year. These recent shootings have not involved U.S. citizens, unlike the killings in Minneapolis, and ICE has taken pains to avoid the massive shows of force that frightened or inconvenienced ordinary Americans. “It’s by design,” as one anonymous source told Politico.
Even as outrage is building anew over ICE’s abuses, thousands of people have already been quietly disappeared from their neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces. Perhaps you no longer see the family that lived next door, the server at your favorite restaurant, the custodian at your children’s school, or the aide who helped your elderly parents. And perhaps the reasons for their absence are perfectly benign. Many Americans will tell themselves that.
But it’s exactly that silent complicity that Mullin and his agents have been counting on to carry out their mass deportations. The current furor may yet die down. Don’t look away.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Adam Schiff's office:
Schiff: “Trump knows he has failed to deliver on any of his campaign promises, has raised costs of American families instead of lowering them, and gotten us into another Middle Eastern war nobody wanted. Terrified that voters will send his party packing in the midterms, he is falling back on some old lies and putting out new ones.”
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) released the following statement responding to Donald Trump’s primetime address, in which he leveled unsubstantiated claims of election fraud and cast doubt on future elections:
“Tonight, the same President who once badgered Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State to find 11,780 votes that didn’t exist, so he could overtake Biden’s lead in the state in 2020, put out a whole new set of lies about our elections, past and present.
“Trump knows he has failed to deliver on any of his campaign promises, has raised costs of American families instead of lowering them, and gotten us into another Middle Eastern war nobody wanted. Terrified that voters will send his party packing in the midterms, he is falling back on some old lies and putting out new ones.
“All of his claims and the selective release of any documents must be treated with the greatest skepticism given the President’s many lies and misrepresentations about our elections. Even so, tonight he produced no evidence that China or any other country manipulated a single U.S. voting system or changed a single vote. He is merely trying to undermine confidence in our elections, so he can seize voter data under the guise of protecting it, and subvert elections he is convinced his party is losing. He will not succeed.
“The reality is that foreign governments do try to influence our elections—in fact, Trump has previously encouraged Russia to do exactly that. He has also repeatedly ignored and dismissed previous, credible intelligence about foreign interference in elections because it did not fit his political agenda. But when it comes to identifying real threats and giving our election administrators the resources to fight them, Trump’s actions speak louder than his words tonight.
“Under Trump’s leadership, he has gutted resources committed to combatting foreign malign influence. Funding for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and local election security grants have been slashed under the Trump administration. Seasoned FBI and other federal agents have been pulled off the beat to chase conspiracies and aid Trump’s chaotic and unlawful deportation agenda. And Trump himself has discounted these threats as hoaxes in the past, breaking from bipartisan tradition of taking the hard work of our intelligence community seriously.
“What the President presented tonight was not a leveling with the American people. It was a renewed attempt to inject fear and cloud reality ahead of the next election in November and provide pretext for seizing voter data, and discrediting and interfering with election results. By now it should be obvious that Trump intends to repeat his playbook from 2020, and attempt to deny any result he does not like. And tonight was just another attempt by him to avoid accountability and defeat in November.”
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The following sites updated:
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Getting Close to 300k3 hours ago
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Lina Khan on AI and More1 day ago
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Chump's election lies1 day ago
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Grifters Musk and Chump2 days ago
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Chump has come unmoored2 days ago
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Idiot of the Week2 days ago
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photos from the edge 36 - THE RAID IN THE DATE PALMS
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