Neo-liberalism

Senate GOP Plans to Give ICE $10 Billion More as Masked Agents ‘Murder People in Broad Daylight’

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Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

US Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) speaks to the media on January 13, 2026. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

“My support for funding ICE remains the same,” said one Fascist Republican following the horrific killing of Alex Pretti.

Republicans in the US Senate indicated Sunday that they planned to move ahead this week with government funding legislation that includes $10 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a federal agent gunned down intensive-care nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, a killing captured on video from multiple angles.

“My support for funding ICE remains the same,” declared Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), a sentiment echoed by other GOP lawmakers ahead of votes on a package of six government appropriations bills approved by the US House last week.

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“We’re not defunding ICE,” said Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) after the horrific shooting of Pretti. “Live with it.”

An unnamed Senate Republican aide told Punchbowl that “government funding expires at the end of the week, and Republicans are determined to not have another government shutdown. We will move forward as planned and hope Democrats can find a path forward to join us.”

One of the bills up for consideration in the Senate this week would provide $64.4 billion in taxpayer money to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including $10 billion for ICE—an agency that is already more heavily funded than many national militaries. Last summer, congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump approved $170 billion in new funding for immigration enforcement, which ICE has used to massively jack up weapons spending.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) reportedly has the votes from his caucus to block the DHS funding bill.

Senate Democrats have proposed separating the DHS legislation from the rest of the appropriations bills to avoid a looming January 30 shutdown and debate ICE reforms. The American Prospect‘s David Dayen reported late Sunday that Democrats are “going to ask for real investigations into the murders (including an end to impeding the state/local investigations)” as well as an end to arrest quotas and mask-wearing by ICE agents.

“Federal agents cannot murder people in broad daylight and face zero consequences,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the Democrats’ top appropriator in the Senate. “I will NOT support the DHS bill as it stands. The DHS bill needs to be split off from the larger funding package before the Senate—Republicans must work with us to do that. I will continue fighting to rein in DHS and ICE.”

Murray also stressed that “blocking the DHS funding bill will not shut down ICE.”

“ICE is now sitting on a massive slush fund it can tap, whether or not we pass a funding bill,” the senator added. “But we all saw another American shot and killed in broad daylight. There must be accountability, and we must keep pushing Republicans to work with us to rein in DHS.”

“The Senate must immediately take out any additional funding for the Department of Homeland Security in the current spending bill. Congressional Republicans must answer for these killings.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the top Republican appropriator, did not mention ICE funding in her statement on Pretti’s killing, saying only that “this tragic shooting needs to be thoroughly and transparently investigated.”

Assuming unified support from their caucus, Senate Republicans need at least seven Democratic votes to pass the funding package with DHS appropriations included. Last week, seven House Democrats voted with Republicans to approve the DHS funding.

Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the watchdog group Public Citizen, said in a statement that “this federal enforcement agency is running rampant with an outrageous budget that dwarfs most countries’ militaries.”

“The Department of Homeland Security must get ICE off our streets now, and the Senate must immediately take out any additional funding for the Department of Homeland Security in the current spending bill,” said Gilbert. “Congressional Republicans must answer for these killings.”

Amy Fischer, Amnesty International USA’s director for refugee and migrant rights, asked, “How many more people must die before US leaders act?”

“The US Senate faces an urgent choice in the coming days: continue pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into a lawless agency that endangers lives with impunity, or take meaningful action to rein in ICE and stop funding its abuses,” said Fischer.

Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of Peace
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Continue ReadingSenate GOP Plans to Give ICE $10 Billion More as Masked Agents ‘Murder People in Broad Daylight’

“It is Venezuela today. It will be South Africa tomorrow,” warns its largest trade union

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Original article by Pavan Kulkarni republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

NUMSA march to US consulate in solidarity with Venezuela. Photo: NUMSA

Marching to the US consulate in Johannesburg, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) protested against US aggression on Venezuela on January 24.

Demanding the release of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores, South Africa’s largest trade union marched to the US consulate in Johannesburg on Saturday, January 24.

“In defending Venezuela, we defend the sovereignty of all nations,” concluded the memorandum read aloud outside the consulate by Irvin Jim, general secretary of the over 460,000 members-strong National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA).

“It is Venezuela today … It will be South Africa tomorrow,” Jim warned in his address to the demonstration. US President Donald Trump, who has bombed parts of Nigeria after concocting a false story about a “Christian Genocide” in the country, has also been spinning tales about a “White Genocide” underway in South Africa.

“This is not a joke,” NUMSA warned in a statement. “Donald Trump can easily use the lie of a White genocide in South Africa to invade South Africa, capture South Africa’s president and transport him to a jail in the US, and declare that he is now in charge of our country and all its natural wealth, whilst controlling all trade and natural wealth … After the US criminal military invasion of Venezuela, it is foolish to ignore” this threat to South Africa.

Read more: The empire laid bare: US terror in Venezuela

“There is a madman in the White House”

“There is a madman in the White House. There is a fascist in the White House,” NUMSA’s president, Andrew Chirwa, said in his opening address to the demonstration. “Today, it is Venezuela that was attacked by this international criminal. Tomorrow it is” Cuba, Iran, Nigeria,  South Africa. “All over the world this man” is baying “for blood.”

In parallel, the Trump administration is also attempting to strangle South Africa’s economy, threatening to exclude it from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which provides tariff-free access to the US market, on which the country’s automotive sector is heavily dependent.

“Our members and workers across various sectors are losing jobs” because “he has imposed 30% tariffs against South Africa,” Jim added in his speech.

Stressing the need for “an anti-imperialist front to mobilize the workers” across party and union affiliations, Jim said that NUMSA “will soon be convening a political colloquium”, inviting all progressive political parties. “It is about time to unite the working class … behind a  revolutionary agenda,” as South Africa faces increasing US aggression.  

South Africa punished for taking the genocidal state of Israel to the ICJ

South Africa, the union maintains, “is being punished by Trump for taking the genocidal state of Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).” Reaffirming that “this was the correct position … in defense of the people of Palestine,” NUMSA called on the South African government not to cave in to the pressure by Leo Brent Bozell III, Trump’s new ambassador to South Africa.

At his Senate confirmation hearing, he had stated that if appointed, “I would press South Africa to end proceedings against Israel,” and the ICJ itself to stop what he deemed a “lawfare” against Israel.

“If he continues to insult our national sovereignty … by demanding that South Africa must withdraw its case in the ICJ against Israel,” NUMSA insists, “the South African government must act swiftly, and ensure that he packs his bags and leaves the country.”

The South African government must also “continue to demand the release of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and Comrade Cilia Flores in all international forums,” added the memorandum, which was also copied to the Minister of International Relations.

Demanding that the football governing body “cancel all World Cup matches in the US this year,” a copy of the memorandum was also sent to the FIFA President.

It further called on the African Union (AU) and the BRICS to urgently convene and formulate a coordinated and collective response to the US imperialist aggression.

“No country is safe from America’s greedy appetite”

Recalling the European leaders defending unipolarity under the cover of “rules-based order” at last year’s G20 summit in South Africa, the US had boycotted Alex Mashilo, spokesperson of the South African Communist Party (SACP) said in his address to the protest: “Little did they know that just after a few weeks, that unipolar power will turn against them and demand Greenland.”

Under “the mad Trump administration”, NUMSA emphasized in its statement, “no country is safe from America’s greedy appetite”.

​The US is a danger to itself

​The US has now even “become extremely dangerous to itself” and “its citizens”, with Trump “brutalizing the American people daily” using “his personal ‘Gestapo’ police commonly known as ICE.”  ​

Read more: Killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis a day after general strike ignites community outrage

Expressing “solidarity with American citizens who are being brutalized by ICE,” NUMSA insisted, “This is a moment when all people of the world, including well-meaning US citizens and all South Africans, must unite” against imperialism.

Original article by Pavan Kulkarni republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn't bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
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Continue Reading“It is Venezuela today. It will be South Africa tomorrow,” warns its largest trade union

“Even though our weapons were smaller, we didn’t stop fighting”: the testimony of a Cuban combatant after the US attack on Venezuela

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Original article by Pablo Meriguet republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Cuban soldiers during a demonstration honoring the 32 combatants killed in the US attack on Venezuela. Source: Miguel Díaz-Canel/Facebook

Yohandris Varona Torres, a Cuban combatant and survivor of the US attack on Venezuela, describes the events of January 3.

Cuba honored 32 soldiers who fell in combat with the US army on January 3 in Venezuela, carrying out security activities legally agreed upon with the Caracas government. Many of the Cubans killed were part of the personal security detail of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was kidnapped after the attack and transferred to the United States. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans attended the ceremonies commemorating the fallen in what the Cuban government described as a new attack against the Revolution.

But not all Cubans who fought against US forces died. Little by little, the testimonies of Cuban soldiers who survived a clearly uneven fight have been revealed.

The testimony of a surviving combatant

Among them is Yohandris Varona Torres, who gave an interview to Adelante, a Cuban media outlet. Varona had been in Venezuela for just over two months as a security guard until the day of the intervention, where, according to Venezuelan authorities, 100 people died and 100 more were injured.

“We fought there against the planes that were firing at us. Even though our weapons were smaller, we didn’t stop fighting; we confronted them. I am trained, and I know how to fight, but they were superior to us. At that moment, my only thought was to fight. We had to shoot, and I started doing so,” said Varona during the commemoration ceremony for the fallen combatants.

Regarding his personal experience during the attack, Varona stated that despite the narrative that the mainstream media tried to impose, the forces on the ground did confront US troops: “That night, I had gone on duty at midnight and was supposed to be there for six hours. The attack took place at approximately 2:00 a.m. It was dawn. Everything was dark. If a helicopter comes at you, the only thing you can do is shoot at it and defend yourself. That’s how it was. We were shooting until the very last moment.”

Varona also spoke about the huge technological gap between Venezuelan and US forces. The same argument had already been made by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who explained the difference in weaponry and military infrastructure between the troops defending Venezuelan soil and the US attackers.

In addition, Varona said that after the attack, there was dispersion, and that there was no timely support to collect their dead compatriots: “Our comrades are a glory for all of Cuba. They were my brothers. They were working with me. I saw them all fall, and I carried them all. There was no support from anyone for that, but nobody was left on the field. We preserved them in one of our dormitories. I cannot explain the pain. But at least no one was left in Venezuela. Here they are, in our homeland.”

In the face of threats of possible new aggression against Cuba, during his speech to the crowd honoring the dead, Díaz-Canel said that revolutionaries are willing to fight to the bitter end if a similar or worse attack were to occur against the island. In the same spirit, Yohandris Varona Torres declared: “I will always be at my country’s disposal to fight the enemy wherever necessary. That is what the Commander [Fidel Castro] taught us. And the deaths of my comrades cannot be in vain.”

Original article by Pablo Meriguet republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

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Continue Reading“Even though our weapons were smaller, we didn’t stop fighting”: the testimony of a Cuban combatant after the US attack on Venezuela

Meta, Google Under Fire for Letting ICE Run ‘White Nationalist-Inspired Propaganda’ to Recruit Agents

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Original article by Jake Johnson republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Videos are displayed on screens as US Immigration and Customs Enforcement holds a major hiring event on August 26, 2025 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)

“The impact of an unqualified army of ICE agents being unleashed across the country has been severe,” wrote Reps. Becca Balint and Pramila Jayapal.

A pair of House Democrats on Thursday demanded that the tech behemoths Google and Meta stop allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to use their platforms to bolster the Trump administration’s efforts to recruit agents for its mass deportation campaign and lawless assault on communities across the United States.

In letters to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Reps. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) wrote that they are “alarmed by recent reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has partnered” with the tech giants “as part of a large-scale campaign that uses white nationalist-inspired propaganda to recruit immigration enforcement agents.”

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ICE, the lawmakers wrote, has “taken to Google’s platforms to draw in more applicants using advertisements that use white nationalist themes.” As for Meta, Balint and Jayapal pointed to a recent Washington Post story showing that DHS “spent $2.8 million on recruitment ads across Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram” last year.

“Since August, the agency has paid Meta an additional $500,000 to run recruitment advertisements on its platforms,” the House Democrats wrote. “In the first three weeks of the government shutdown last year alone, ICE spent an astounding $4.5 million on paid media campaigns.”

DHS, which oversees ICE, has repeatedly used white nationalist-linked rhetoric in social media posts and recruitment ads. Investigative journalist Austin Campbell reported for The Intercept earlier this month that “the Department of Homeland Security’s official Instagram account made a recruitment post proclaiming, ‘We’ll Have Our Home Again,’ attaching a song of the same name by Pine Tree Riots.”

“Popularized in neo-Nazi spaces, the track features lines about reclaiming ‘our home’ by ‘blood or sweat,’ language often used in white nationalist calls for race war,” Campbell noted. “It isn’t new to see extremist right-wing ideology perpetuated in online culture. What is new is seeing it echoed in official messaging from a federal law enforcement agency with the power to detain, deport, and use lethal force.”

In their letters on Thursday, Balint and Jayapal demanded that Meta and Google “cease further enabling this conduct,” arguing the companies are “complicit” in the Trump administration’s dangerous onslaught against US communities.

“The impact of an unqualified army of ICE agents being unleashed across the country has been severe,” they wrote.

Original article by Jake Johnson republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn't bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
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Continue ReadingMeta, Google Under Fire for Letting ICE Run ‘White Nationalist-Inspired Propaganda’ to Recruit Agents