| For months, we have warned of a drive by President Trump and his administration to undermine the 2026 election. It is unprecedented, outlandish. Now Trump himself is blaring his intent — and over the past week, the public issue has exploded. The fight for a free and fair vote is taking shape, starting on the floor of the House this week as it once again considers the SAVE Act. Make no mistake: The SAVE Act would stop millions of American citizens from voting. It would be the most restrictive voting bill ever passed by Congress. It is Trump’s power grab in legislative garb. Today, the House Rules Committee is voting to send the measure to the full House for a vote. Effectively, the bill would require Americans to produce a passport or a birth certificate to register and thus to vote. Brennan Center research shows that 21 million people lack ready access to these documents. Half of all Americans don’t have a passport, for example. And millions of married women who have changed their names might need to jump through extra hoops to vote. The measure likely will pass the House, as it did in an earlier form last year. Once again, it will be up to senators to block it. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) declared it “dead on arrival.” But this time around, a mobilized outside drive is pushing lawmakers to restrict voting. “It must be done or democracy is dead,” instructed Elon Musk. The SAVE Act will not expire quietly, surrounded by loved ones. It’s on all of us to stand up and speak out, once again. And now we see how it fits into the broader strategy. In recent days, Trump has repeatedly demanded that Republicans “nationalize” the elections on behalf of his political party. Each time his aides try to clean up his remarks, he doubles down. “A state is an agent for the federal government in elections,” he wrongly insisted. Constitutionally, that’s upside-down land. The Constitution is unambiguous: States run elections. Presidents have no role. Congress, appropriately, can enact national legislation. It should use that power to pass national standards to protect the freedom to vote, not restrict it. Then there’s the appalling abuse of federal law enforcement. We still do not know why Kash Patel’s FBI raided election offices in Fulton County, Georgia, nearly two weeks ago. A judge has ordered that the underlying legal papers, secret until now, be released. ProPublica reports the raid may be linked to agitation by a “conservative researcher” who has peddled discredited conspiracy theories. Intelligence chief/gadfly Tulsi Gabbard showed up at the Atlanta raid. FOMO? Amid Justice Department ducking and a denial by Trump, Gabbard wrote to Congress that in fact the president ordered her to go even though her office plays no part in elections. Now it turns out that Gabbard last year obtained voting machines in Puerto Rico. And Trump’s allies in 2020 claimed that Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, long dead, had masterminded a plot. This is comic opera stuff. But it’s deadly serious, too — certainly for the public servants in Fulton County. It all aims to send a message to intimidate election officials around the country. If you preside over an election and we don’t like the result, we may come after you. Steve Bannon, the Trump strategist who served prison time for defying a congressional subpoena, declared on Tuesday, “We’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November. We’re not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again.” When we see how politicized and aggressive immigration forces have become, that threat becomes more than a podcaster’s bombast. Here, the law is clear: That would be a federal crime. My colleague Sean Morales-Doyle explains: “Can the president send troops or ICE agents to polling places? No — both federal and state laws explicitly prohibit the federal government from carrying out these implied threats.” It’s a federal crime to intimidate voters, too. In coming months, if we see abuses of power like this, what can we all do to ensure that voters have their voice? So far, we and others have staved off Trump’s worst impulses. After Trump signed an executive order last year purporting to unilaterally rewrite election rules, we sued the administration, and we won. And as the Trump administration continues to sue states for sensitive voter information, courts in California, Michigan, and Oregon have reaffirmed states’ right to refuse. State and local governments, too, must be ready to act to protect the polls. And voters will need to know that, despite all the noise and drama, we can make sure the 2026 elections are free, fair, secure, and, yes, uneventful. It may require voting early or by mail, for example. In an election year, voting rights advocates often ponder whether pointing to threats risks demobilizing citizens. At some point, warning about voter suppression can accidentally dampen participation. Not this year, it seems. Each time Trump declares that his goal is to “nationalize” the election — not for the greater good, but for his own political interests — the stakes become clearer. When he wrongly insists American elections are “rigged,” as he did over the weekend, it’s more than bluster. He’s saying the quiet part out loud. In 2026, the right to vote will demand a fight to vote. |
A FAST RISING, BRUTAL DICTATORSHIP
08 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in Uncategorized Tags: Alex Pretti, An American Spring, Donald Trump, ICE Murder, Politics, Renee Good, Trauma, Trump's Gestapo
Not only has Trump ignored the US economy as it pertains to the working class, even as his actions are sending the stock market—mostly owned by multi-millionaires/billionaires—to record-breaking highs, among his worst atrocities is purposely and indifferently traumatizing small children for life.
Reading The Guardian recently, I came across an opinion piece by Moira Donegan, Republicans are the party of separating and destroying families. Never forget that.
Her first two paragraphs—next two paragraphs—are especially disturbing when we remember that Trump is just getting started, having spent most of his first year of his second term transforming America into a budding police state and an authoritarian oligarchy. And he is building, at taxpayer expense, a personal army of masked, unidentifiable, and unaccountable thugs (not unlike the Nazi Gestapo in the early to mid 20th century) that is virtually immune to brutally beating immigrants as well as US citizens—even immune to murder. He has, in his own words and actions, made it clear that cruelty, even to small children, is the point.
“Of the 3,800 children and infants taken into immigration custody between January and October of 2025, a majority – 2,600 – were detained by ICE officers. That means that the children, as young as one or two years old, were not arrested at the border or legal ports of entry, where asylum seekers frequently present themselves to border officers, but inside the country.
“That means that those children were not new arrivals seeking help; they were kids going about their daily lives in the US, often with legal status. They were children like Liam Conejo Ramos, aged five, who was snatched from his driveway after school by immigration agents while wearing a blue bunny hat to keep him warm in the Minnesota cold. They are children like one student, a 17-year-old from Liam’s school district in Minnesota, who was taken from their car, or the other child, a 10-year-old girl in the fourth grade, who was taken alongside her mother; or the two other boys, brothers in the second and fifth grades, who were delivered by school officials to an ICE detention center after their mother was arrested and taken there. She had called the school to ask them to bring her boys to her in the prison; there was no one else to take care of them.”
Every citizen, republican, independent or democrat, who has the capacity to be angry with Trump’s brutality and building an uncountable army to occupy US cities, kill immigrants and citizens, and traumatize small children for life, and who, no doubt, plans to use that army to hijack the mid-term elections, must stand up, protest every way you can, and vote blue!
JOIN MOVE TO AMEND
06 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
Contact your senators and reps to urge them to support/cosign the We the People Amendment (H.J.Res. 54). I am a member!
 Something important is happening in Washington right now — and most people only see it in fragments. Banks are increasing lobbying spending. Tech companies are flooding Washington with influence campaigns. Defense contractors and financial firms are expanding their political operations. Lobbying firms themselves are reporting record profits as corporations race to shape policy before it is written.This isn’t speculation. It’s happening in plain sight. Federal lobbying spending surpassed $5 billion in 2025 — the highest level ever recorded, with the largest year-over-year increase on record. Large U.S. banks boosted lobbying expenditures by about 12%, their biggest jump in more than a decade, as they fight to influence regulatory changes. Crypto firms increased lobbying spending by roughly 66% as they pushed for industry-friendly legislation. Tech and AI companies spent more than $100 million lobbying Washington as policymakers debated regulation. When political power concentrates, corporate money follows — shaping laws, influencing enforcement, and deciding whose speech is protected and whose becomes a problem. None of this is illegal. And that is exactly the problem. What we are witnessing is a system where economic power is legally transformed into political power. For decades, Supreme Court decisions have expanded constitutional protections for corporations and declared money to be a form of political speech. That legal framework turned political spending into protected activity and allowed economic entities—created for profit—to exercise political power on a scale no human being can match. The result is predictable. When regulatory decisions are made, corporations are already in the room. When laws are written, industries have already shaped the language. When enforcement priorities shift, the most powerful economic actors have already made their case. The problem isn’t one company, one party, or one administration. The problem is structural. As long as corporations retain constitutional rights — and as long as money is treated as speech — concentrated wealth will continue to dominate democratic decision-making. That is why scandals come and go while public anger remains. The underlying system never changes. Real accountability requires more than ethics reforms or new regulations. It requires changing the constitutional rules that allow corporate power to overwhelm democracy in the first place. The We the People Amendment (H.J.Res. 54) would end corporate constitutional rights and make clear that money is not speech. It would place constitutional rights where they belong—with human beings—and begin the work of building a democracy where political power is not determined by wealth. But constitutional change has never come from politicians alone. It has always come from people organizing together and demanding something better. If you’re frustrated by a system where corporate money speaks louder than people, we need you in this movement. We’re inviting you to join our Volunteer Onboarding Call on February 19—a space to connect, learn where you fit, and take real action alongside others who believe democracy should belong to people, not corporations. You don’t need special experience. You just need to care about the future we’re building together. Register below for the 2:00 PM PT/ 3:00 PM MT/ 4:00 PM CT/ 5:00 PM ET call. You’ll receive a link once registered. The stakes are too high to sit this one out. The movement grows when people show up. The surge in lobbying we are witnessing today is not an accident. It is a reminder of who currently writes the rules. The question is whether we are willing to change them. In solidarity and fierce determination, Alfonso, Jessica, Jason, Tara, Cole, Shelly, George, Daniel, Kelsey, Jennie, Keyan, Greg and Katie   Move to Amendhttps://www.movetoamend.org/Move to Amend · PO Box 188617, Sacramento, CA 95818, United States This email was sent to max10ties@gmail.com · UnsubscribeCreated with NationBuilder. Build the Future. |
FROM THE GUARDIAN:
05 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in Acts of the Ignoble, America's shame, Corruption in the U.S. Government, Dishoner, Donald Trump, Firearm Violence, Hall of Dishonor and Shame, Hall of Shame, Injustice Tags: empathy, Fascism comes to America, ICE, ICE Murder, Renee Good, Trump's Gestapo
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/03/us-congress-democrats-immigration-hearing
*Note from Max T. Furr, owner of this blog. I read The Guardian every morning and trust it for three reasons: 1. It is funded mostly by subscribers; 2. The Guardian is a British news source and has no dog in the US political fight; 3. I have vetted enough news reports to know that The Guardian is trustworthy.
‘Our family feels deep distress’: Renee Good’s brothers plead for Democrats’ help at hearing
No Republicans attended Capitol Hill forum of US citizens detailing their experiences being harmed by federal agents (Bold mine)
US politics live – latest updates
Robert Tait in Washington
Tue 3 Feb 2026 21.34 EST
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Democrats on Capitol Hill offered apologies and promises of accountability on Tuesday amid often harrowing testimony from people who had experienced violent encounters with federal agents engaged in Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
With Republicans conspicuously absent, the forum of senators and representatives heard from Luke and Brent Ganger, the brothers of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who was shot dead by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis on 7 January as she tried to drive away from agents.
Luke Ganger said he and his brother were there “to ask for your help” and suggested the sense of loss his family felt had been deepened by subsequent events in Minneapolis, where Alex Pretti, also aged 37, was shot dead by two border patrol agents on 24 January.
2:25
Renee Good’s brothers call violent ICE operations ‘beyond explanation’ – video
“The deep distress our family feels at Renee’s loss in such a violent and unnecessary way is complicated by feelings of disbelief, distress and desperation,” he said.
“In the last few weeks, our family took some consolation, thinking that perhaps [Renee’s] death would bring about change in our country. It has not. The completely surreal scenes taking place are beyond explanation.
“This is not just a bad day or a rough week or isolated incidents. These encounters with federal agents are changing the community and changing many lives, including ours. I still don’t know how to explain to my four-year-old what these agents are doing when we pass by.”
His daughter, Ganger added, “knows that her aunt died and that somebody caused it to happen”.
He said the death of his sister had brought his family closer, although they had different political viewpoints.
The brothers’ testimony was followed by that of Marimar Martinez, Aliya Rahman and Martin Daniel Rascon, three US citizens who each described traumatic experiences at the hands of agents while they were in their cars.
Martinez, from Chicago, recalled how she was shot five times by a border patrol agent, who later circulated images as she lay wounded in hospital to colleagues as “trophy” pictures. The agent then accused her of assaulting a federal agent and of ramming his vehicle with her car, resulting in criminal charges that were subsequently dismissed.
The agent who shot Martinez was identified in the hearing as Charles Exum. Texts that he sent to colleagues were shown to the assembled gathering in the Dirksen Senate office building. One read: “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book, boys.” Members of Congress at the hearing called for him to be arrested and prosecuted.
Ro Khanna, a Democratic representative from California, told Martinez: “The entire country needs to hear your story. I am angry on your behalf, Miss Martinez.”
Rahman, who said she suffers from autism and a traumatic brain injury, described how agents violently pulled her from her car after she was caught in a traffic jam caused by ICE vehicles as she tried to reach a medical appointment at the Hennepin county brain injury center in Minneapolis on 13 January.
“I yelled ‘I’m disabled’ at the hands grabbing me. One of them said ‘too late’,” she said.
“An agent pulled a large combat knife in front of my face, which I thought was for cutting me, and later learned was used to cut off my seat belt.
“Shooting pain went through my head, neck and wrists when I hit the ground face-first and people leaned on my back. I was carried facedown through the street by my cuffed arms and legs while yelling that I had a brain injury and was disabled.
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“I now cannot lift my arms normally. I was never asked for my ID and never told I was under arrest.”
She was later taken to a detention center, where – she said – agents referred to those being detained as “bodies”.
Later in the hearing, Rahman put her arm around her fellow witness Rascon, from San Bernardino California, as a comfort as he struggled to deliver testimony describing his experiences at the hands of ICE and the border patrol after an agent opened fire on the car he was traveling in with family members last August.
Robert Garcia, a California representative who is the top Democrat on the House of Representatives oversight committee, said the nature of the testimony was difficult to hear.
“I’m so sorry that the stories are horrific, and I promise you that every single one of us, whether it’s the House or the Senate, we will hold all of those that caused you harm accountable,” he said. “You all deserve justice and you deserve peace. And it’s horrific that anyone in our country has to go through what you have all been.”
Richard Blumenthal, a senator for Connecticut, who led the hearing along with Garcia, called the testimony “a defining moment and a moral moment”.
He used words once aimed at Joseph McCarthy, the 1950’s red-baiting Republican senator for Wisconsin, to excoriate Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and other administration members involved in the immigration raids. “Have you no sense of decency?” he said. “Have you no sense of shame?”
Alex Padilla, a senator for California who was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed by two federal agents last year when he tried to ask Noem a question at a press conference, lamented the absence of Republicans from the forum. “Why is it just Democrats?” he asked. “Let’s not let our Republican colleagues off the hook. Under normal circumstances, regardless of who’s in the majority, when a tragedy has happened, congressional committees conduct our job to provide oversight. The Republican colleagues refused to.”
An Evil Demigod in the White House 
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