Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
BlueWaveNeverEnd
BlueWaveNeverEnd's Journal
BlueWaveNeverEnd's Journal
February 8, 2026
“Americans deserve a Supreme Court that is impartial and above political influence,” Blackburn wrote on social platform X. “When a Justice participates in such a highly politicized event, it raises ethical questions. We need an investigation into Justice Jackson’s ability to remain impartial.”
GOP senator calls for probe into Ketanji Brown Jackson attending Grammys
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5726897-justice-jackson-grammy-controversy/“Americans deserve a Supreme Court that is impartial and above political influence,” Blackburn wrote on social platform X. “When a Justice participates in such a highly politicized event, it raises ethical questions. We need an investigation into Justice Jackson’s ability to remain impartial.”
February 8, 2026
With the public’s outrage and attention focused on the deadly surge of federal agents in Minneapolis, immigration operations have quietly continued across the US – albeit in less noticeable but still troubling ways, advocates say.
In recent weeks there have been day laborers swept up at a Home Depot in San Diego. A taco truck vendor chased down outside a church in Los Angeles. Immigrants arrested at check-ins in North Carolina, and during traffic stops in the nation’s capital.
In southern California, under-the-radar arrests have continued at a fast clip in the first few weeks of 2026, activists and legal experts say.
___
What has changed across southern California, experts say, is how quickly ICE is making those arrests. Earlier in 2025, the typical ICE tactic in LA seemed to involve setting up in one location, like a parking lot near Dodger Stadium, and conducting operations in that general area for an extended period of time, Johansen-Méndez said.
But in the last few months, she said, the tactic has felt more like “smash and grab”. ICE arrests now often begin and end in a matter of minutes.
“They just kind of show up in an area, do a sweep, grab a bunch of people, and by the time any responders can get there, they’re gone,” she said. “So people aren’t catching it on camera. There’s no time for protesters or for attorneys, or any legal observers, to show up. And so they’re flying under the radar by doing it faster.”
A profound sense of being hunted': with all eyes on Minneapolis, ICE arrests continue quietly across the US
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/07/ice-arrests-continueWith the public’s outrage and attention focused on the deadly surge of federal agents in Minneapolis, immigration operations have quietly continued across the US – albeit in less noticeable but still troubling ways, advocates say.
In recent weeks there have been day laborers swept up at a Home Depot in San Diego. A taco truck vendor chased down outside a church in Los Angeles. Immigrants arrested at check-ins in North Carolina, and during traffic stops in the nation’s capital.
In southern California, under-the-radar arrests have continued at a fast clip in the first few weeks of 2026, activists and legal experts say.
___
What has changed across southern California, experts say, is how quickly ICE is making those arrests. Earlier in 2025, the typical ICE tactic in LA seemed to involve setting up in one location, like a parking lot near Dodger Stadium, and conducting operations in that general area for an extended period of time, Johansen-Méndez said.
But in the last few months, she said, the tactic has felt more like “smash and grab”. ICE arrests now often begin and end in a matter of minutes.
“They just kind of show up in an area, do a sweep, grab a bunch of people, and by the time any responders can get there, they’re gone,” she said. “So people aren’t catching it on camera. There’s no time for protesters or for attorneys, or any legal observers, to show up. And so they’re flying under the radar by doing it faster.”
February 8, 2026
Woman protests ICE. 3 days later her pre check TSA is turned off. They are judge and jury
According to Ars Technica, the woman alleged in a federal court complaint that a Border Patrol agent “addressed me by my name and informed me that they had ‘facial recognition’ and that his body cam was recording.” He told her she was impeding their work and gave her a verbal warning.
But that wasn’t the end of it: She said that three days after the interaction, she was informed that her membership in the TSA PreCheck and Global Entry trusted traveler programs had been revoked. View From the Wing’s Gary Leff reports that ICE officers now use a smartphone app called “Mobile Fortify” that can “scan faces and capture contactless fingerprints, instantly pulling back names and biographical data.”
According to Leff, “That turns ‘trusted traveler’ into chilling of speech. DHS [the Department of Homeland Security] runs both the surveillance and the program, and being ‘under investigation’ can be enough to lose your [trusted traveler] status even if protesting itself cannot legally be a disqualifier.”
https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/united-airlines-sfo-21335764.php
February 8, 2026
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has warned that thousands of active-duty military personnel may have been coerced into attending screenings of the Melania documentary.
The foundation has received complaints from service members at eight military facilities worldwide. One soldier wrote, "Nobody that I know wanted to go except for those that did not want to get jacked up by our unit commander for not attending."
The commander in question allegedly wore red MAGA hats and "made it very clear" his position regarding those who do not support the administration. He reportedly designated the documentary screening as one of three mandatory monthly unit activity events designed to strengthen military unit cohesion.
The Department of Defense responded to Insider, "There is no Department of War directive requiring service members to see this film, though the film is fantastic."
Active duty personnel coerced into watching Melania documentary
https://www.rawstory.com/military-2675108262/The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has warned that thousands of active-duty military personnel may have been coerced into attending screenings of the Melania documentary.
The foundation has received complaints from service members at eight military facilities worldwide. One soldier wrote, "Nobody that I know wanted to go except for those that did not want to get jacked up by our unit commander for not attending."
The commander in question allegedly wore red MAGA hats and "made it very clear" his position regarding those who do not support the administration. He reportedly designated the documentary screening as one of three mandatory monthly unit activity events designed to strengthen military unit cohesion.
The Department of Defense responded to Insider, "There is no Department of War directive requiring service members to see this film, though the film is fantastic."
February 8, 2026
US Marshall thug kicks lil dog
https://www.reddit.com/r/BlackPeopleofReddit/comments/1qxyake/dog_kicked_by_some_sort_of_demonic_creature_looks/
February 7, 2026
ICE hits man with their SUV. Cops do nothing. Man retaliates, 10 cops pile on
Maddening. I only have a link to Instagram video
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUWkaSqEsUL/
February 6, 2026
Joscha Bach, AI guru, Musk's USAID demolition AND helping propagate Steve Bannon's lab-leak theory
Also stated that Black Americans are cognitively slow to Epstein via emails
https://www.reddit.com/r/JoschaBach/comments/1qxkd3g/one_of_josha_bachs_dumbest_takes_simping_for/
February 6, 2026
Queen Máxima has traded some palace duties for basic training. The 54-year-old monarch has joined the Dutch Army as a reservist, a move the royal family says reflects a reality in which "our security can no longer be taken for granted." She entered service Wednesday as a soldier and began training that includes weapons practice, rope climbing, and marching at the Dutch Royal Military Academy in Breda, per the New York Times. Upon completion, the Argentina-born queen is slated to become a lieutenant colonel in the reserves. "Like other reservists, she will deploy where needed," the royal family said, per CBS News.
Her enlistment comes as Europe tries to bulk up its defenses and rely less on the US. The Netherlands plans to lift defense spending from 1.9% of GDP this year to 3.5% by 2035 and grow its armed forces from under 80,000 to at least 122,000 personnel. The incoming coalition wants every 17-year-old to fill out a military-interest survey and is floating a return to selective conscription if that falls short. Máxima isn't the only royal in uniform: her daughter, 22-year-old Princess Catharina-Amalia, was recently promoted to corporal, joining a long list of European heirs who've completed military training.
54 year old Dutch Queen Maxima joins the Dutch Army as The Netherlands preps to rely less on the US
https://www.newser.com/story/383185/dutch-queen-enlists-in-the-army.htmlQueen Máxima has traded some palace duties for basic training. The 54-year-old monarch has joined the Dutch Army as a reservist, a move the royal family says reflects a reality in which "our security can no longer be taken for granted." She entered service Wednesday as a soldier and began training that includes weapons practice, rope climbing, and marching at the Dutch Royal Military Academy in Breda, per the New York Times. Upon completion, the Argentina-born queen is slated to become a lieutenant colonel in the reserves. "Like other reservists, she will deploy where needed," the royal family said, per CBS News.
Her enlistment comes as Europe tries to bulk up its defenses and rely less on the US. The Netherlands plans to lift defense spending from 1.9% of GDP this year to 3.5% by 2035 and grow its armed forces from under 80,000 to at least 122,000 personnel. The incoming coalition wants every 17-year-old to fill out a military-interest survey and is floating a return to selective conscription if that falls short. Máxima isn't the only royal in uniform: her daughter, 22-year-old Princess Catharina-Amalia, was recently promoted to corporal, joining a long list of European heirs who've completed military training.
February 6, 2026
The Trump administration finalized a new policy on Thursday that would strip job protections from up to 50,000 federal workers, a move that would make it easier for President Trump to remove or discipline them, in his latest effort to dismantle the federal work force.
Until now, the roughly 4,000 people appointed by the president, known as political appointees, were the only federal workers who could be fired at will. The policy issued on Thursday allows the administration to expand that number to include career employees whom the administration considers to also have policy-related roles. For these employees, any whistle-blower complaints would now be handled inside their agencies rather than by the independent Office of Special Counsel, as they had previously.
-----
The rule amounts to “a huge increase of at-will employment with an administration that has demonstrated a contempt for nonpartisan expertise,” said Max Stier, the chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit group that promotes an effective federal work force. “Their track record does not justify trust, and our history as a country demonstrates that these kind of changes lead to worse government results, not better.”
The new rule, said Don Kettl, an emeritus professor at the University of Maryland who studies the civil service, “sweeps away all of the pillars of accountability except responsiveness to the president.”
He added, “That, of course, is patronage under a different name.”
President Expands His Power to Fire Federal Workers
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/02/05/us/trump-newsThe Trump administration finalized a new policy on Thursday that would strip job protections from up to 50,000 federal workers, a move that would make it easier for President Trump to remove or discipline them, in his latest effort to dismantle the federal work force.
Until now, the roughly 4,000 people appointed by the president, known as political appointees, were the only federal workers who could be fired at will. The policy issued on Thursday allows the administration to expand that number to include career employees whom the administration considers to also have policy-related roles. For these employees, any whistle-blower complaints would now be handled inside their agencies rather than by the independent Office of Special Counsel, as they had previously.
-----
The rule amounts to “a huge increase of at-will employment with an administration that has demonstrated a contempt for nonpartisan expertise,” said Max Stier, the chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit group that promotes an effective federal work force. “Their track record does not justify trust, and our history as a country demonstrates that these kind of changes lead to worse government results, not better.”
The new rule, said Don Kettl, an emeritus professor at the University of Maryland who studies the civil service, “sweeps away all of the pillars of accountability except responsiveness to the president.”
He added, “That, of course, is patronage under a different name.”
February 6, 2026
As Nashville’s utility company struggled to recover from a catastrophic ice storm and its Democratic mayor ordered a review, some conservatives attacked diversity training.
Sen Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who is running for governor, alleged on X that the utility company “was so focused on woke policies and DEI that it failed at its most basic responsibility: keeping the power on.”
Tennessee’s Republican House speaker, Cameron Sexton, called for an overhaul of the utility on Facebook and said the General Assembly would pursue accountability. The utility’s “pro-tree canopy policy” and focus on DEI, among other issues, require “executive management to be fired and the board to be replaced,” he wrote.
The utility’s CEO, Teresa Broyles-Aplin, said this week that workers are doing the best they can to respond to the largest storm and outage in the company’s history.
“Accountability is important,” she said at a news conference Tuesday. “Right now, we are in active recovery. We have plenty of time to do after-action review and evaluate things we could have done better.”
Nashville is furious about power outages. Republicans say 'woke' is to blame.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nashville-furious-power-outages-republicans-say-woke-blame-rcna257338As Nashville’s utility company struggled to recover from a catastrophic ice storm and its Democratic mayor ordered a review, some conservatives attacked diversity training.
Sen Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who is running for governor, alleged on X that the utility company “was so focused on woke policies and DEI that it failed at its most basic responsibility: keeping the power on.”
Tennessee’s Republican House speaker, Cameron Sexton, called for an overhaul of the utility on Facebook and said the General Assembly would pursue accountability. The utility’s “pro-tree canopy policy” and focus on DEI, among other issues, require “executive management to be fired and the board to be replaced,” he wrote.
The utility’s CEO, Teresa Broyles-Aplin, said this week that workers are doing the best they can to respond to the largest storm and outage in the company’s history.
“Accountability is important,” she said at a news conference Tuesday. “Right now, we are in active recovery. We have plenty of time to do after-action review and evaluate things we could have done better.”
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayMember since: Wed Nov 16, 2022, 01:52 PM
Number of posts: 13,434