Author: sauer@technologists.com

curated news excerpts & citations

WSJ – Karl Rove: Republicans Have an Economy Problem

President Trump’s triumphal tone isn’t helping matters for everyday Americans.

It’s bad news for Republicans that recent coverage of President Trump has been dominated by topics ranging from invading Greenland and Immigration and Customs Enforcement killings in Minneapolis to trashing the Grammys and ordering a giant Jeffrey Epstein document dump. These aren’t as important to Americans as the economy.

To correct this problem, the president came to Iowa last month for an economic speech. His team hoped his appearance in a Des Moines suburb would recenter the discussion.

It didn’t. Mr. Trump made two mistakes.

The first was straying from the subject for almost half his speech. Victories and stolen elections. Immigration. Introducing politicians on the stage. Attacking his predecessor for multiple sins. Lots of different foreign issues. He went everywhere—and therefore nowhere.

The second problem was Mr. Trump’s triumphal tone. He congratulated himself on “the greatest first year of any administration in American history.” The “economy is booming,” he said. It’s been “the best first year of any president ever maybe.”
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Capitol News Illinois: ‘My own government attempted to execute me,’ Chicago woman shot by Border Patrol testifies

• Marimar Martinez, who was shot five times by immigration agents last year, testified at a public forum on immigration agents’ use of force in D.C. on Tuesday, Feb. 3.
• Panelists and members of Congress called for immigration enforcement reform and civil liability of federal agents.
• This is the second forum hosted by two congressmen who opened an inquiry in October to investigate reports of immigration agents detaining U.S. citizens.
• Two other citizens who accused immigration agents of assault testified at the forum.

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Jennifer Rubin: The real ‘terrorists’ are in the Trump regime

The Trump regime calls those it kills and abuses “terrorists.” Renee Good was defamed as a “domestic terrorist.” She was a mother, a daughter, a wife, a neighbor. Alex Pretti was also labeled a “domestic terrorist.” He was a beloved ICU nurse at the VA. Approximately 125 people that the Trump regime illegally killed on the high seas were dubbed “narco-terrorists.” That too is a lie. Indeed, whenever you hear “terrorist” uttered by this administration, you should understand that means “someone a fascist government had no right to kill.”

The family of two innocent men murdered on the high seas have brought suit against the Trump regime.
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The complaint reminds us that Trump’s regime has never provided proof that the victims were doing anything wrong
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Business Insider: America’s economy is ‘driving through the fog’

The decline of economic data could end up with a lot of unemployed workers and increase the chance of recession
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For people who rely on the BLS, the past year has raised acute concerns. The first was President Donald Trump’s firing of BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer in July. Revisions to that month’s jobs report showed that the US had created far fewer jobs than initially reported in the previous two months. Revisions are a standard part of the BLS data collection process, and the size of the adjustments was well within historical norms. Economists warned that the firing could be a harbinger of political meddling in the crucial job and price figures. Jed Kolko, a senior fellow at the Petersen Institute for International Economics, called the firing a “five-alarm intentional harm to the integrity of US economic data and the entire statistical system.” Skanda Amarnath, Executive Director of Employ America, a think tank, said, “public trust is permanently harmed when the BLS commissioner is fired after one bad jobs report.”
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Heather Delaney Reese: The Epstein files are a who’s who of Trump’s inner circle

With puffy eyes and a bruised right hand hidden under his left, Donald Trump sat hunched over on his leather chair behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. Behind him stood Pam Bondi, Dr. Oz, RFK Jr., and a few others from his inner circle of elite enablers, all poised to give a false sense of power, control, and normalcy. Instead, it just showed how dazed and detached he was. …

This was not normal. And they all knew it, standing there with him.

It wasn’t the only sign that something was wrong. European leaders are openly saying what American officials won’t. Politico reported that Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who’s actually been one of Trump’s closest allies in the EU, told other European heads of state that his recent meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago left him deeply alarmed. While at the summit in Brussels, he described Trump’s “psychological state” as “dangerous,” according to multiple diplomats who were in the room. Fico didn’t say that lightly. He’s backed Trump’s nationalist agenda for years. But after seeing him in person on January 17, he brought his concerns to other EU leaders during an emergency summit that next week.
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And what we keep learning with every release of the files that comes to us is that Epstein didn’t just run a trafficking ring. He ran a blackmail operation. …

That’s why you’re seeing Trump propped up like Weekend at Bernie’s.
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BBC: Israeli air strikes kill at least 27 Palestinians in Gaza, rescue officials say

The civil defence agency, which is operated by Hamas, says children and women were among those killed. It added that in one attack, helicopter gunships hit a tent sheltering displaced people in the southern city of Khan Younis.

Palestinians have described these strikes as the heaviest since the second phase of the ceasefire, brokered by President Trump in October, came into effect earlier this month.

The Israeli military confirmed that a number of strikes were carried out in response to what it said was a Hamas violation of the agreement on Friday.
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Joyce Vance: Today Fulton County, Tomorrow???

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The most important question in 2026 is whether the midterm elections will be free and fair. And these developments go to the heart of that. If Trump gets away with seizing Fulton County’s ballots from the 2020 election, there is no reason to believe it will stop there. He will try to do it everywhere he thinks it might benefit him. For him, it’s not about the will of the voters; it’s about what he wants.

Last night, after news that the FBI was executing the search warrant broke, Donald Trump posted this on Truth Social.

Stolen Election. Obama. Cash to Iran. Hacked voting machines. Flipping votes from Trump to Biden. China. The Big Lie is back on—just in time for the midterm elections.
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Judd Legum, Rebecca Crosby, and Noel Sims: Social media as state media

Silicon Valley was once viewed as a tool for liberation. Now, from blocking apps to banning groups, it is helping the White House suppress dissent.

In the past, social media platforms were viewed as engines of social change, empowering everyday citizens to band together against repressive governments. In 2009, during the Green Movement, millions of Iranian protesters relied on Twitter to coordinate gatherings and circumvent government media blackouts.

Social media, it seemed, was an effective tool that ordinary citizens could use to counteract the excesses of the powerful.

Times have changed.
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Contrarian and Indivisible Project: NO KINGS Coalition Responds to Escalating Brutality and Authoritarianism

No Kings Coalition Announces Immediate Efforts and Builds Towards Next National Mass Mobilization on March 28
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Rachel Hurley on Facebook: Federal government brought military weapons to Minnesota

Not for a war zone. For a protest in a parking lot outside a Marriott.

On January 26th – yesterday – law enforcement showed up to a protest in Maple Grove with an LRAD. That’s a Long Range Acoustic Device. The military developed them after the USS Cole bombing in 2000 to blast warnings at approaching boats from a quarter mile away. They can hit 162 decibels. A jet engine is 140. The threshold for permanent hearing damage is 130.
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One professor who got hit by an LRAD at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh described it this way: “The intensity of being hit at close range by a high-pitched sound blast designed to deter pirate boats and terrorists at least a quarter mile away is indescribable. The sound vibrates through you and causes pain throughout your body, not only in the ears. I thought I might die.”

That was Karen Piper. She sued the city. She has permanent hearing loss now.
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In 2017, a U.S. District Court determined that using an LRAD against protesters could constitute excessive force and violate the Constitution. The NYPD had to settle a lawsuit in 2021 over using one against Black Lives Matter protesters.
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Eyewitness accounts from January 7th describe them on Bearcats at the scene where Renee Good was killed. What I can’t confirm is whether they’ve actually fired the deterrent tone at protesters. But the presence alone is a threat. That’s the point.
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