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‘He Will Try Anything’: Democratic AGs Preparing for Trump to Send Military to Polls, Seize Ballots

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

A “Vote Here” sign is posted on November 4, 2025 in the Flatbush neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Trump may try to push “oddball, ludicrous, unconstitutional theories” to keep the GOP in power, one Democratic attorney general said.

Democratic state attorneys general across the US are preparing for President Donald Trump to take unprecedented actions to interfere with the 2026 midterm elections.

As reported by Politico on Monday, the Democratic AGs have been conducting war games aimed at countering “a series of increasingly extreme scenarios” where Trump tries to block Democrats from retaking the US House of Representatives later this year.

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Among the many possibilities that the AGs are preparing for are that the Trump administration orders the seizure of ballots and voting machines, defunds the post office to block the delivery of mail-in ballots, and sends federal immigration enforcement officials or even the US military to patrol polling places.

The AGs have also been carefully monitoring Trump officials’ rhetoric for hints of future election subversion plots, such as when US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said recently that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would “make sure we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders.”

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown told Politico that such statements are a “red-alarm fire that people need to take very seriously,” and emphasized that Democrats need to be ready for the president to commit outright crimes to keep the GOP in power.

“He will try anything,” warned Brown. “We have to just sort of think creatively about: If you were the president and you were trying to invalidate an election or undermine an election, what are the oddball, ludicrous, unconstitutional theories that you might advance?”

In addition to Noem’s comments about DHS getting involved in elections, Trump ally Steve Bannon has floated sending US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to monitor polling places, while Trump in January said that “we shouldn’t even have an election” this year.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta told Politico that it was “sad and tragic” that his office had to take such preparations, but said it was necessary because the president “wants to continue to have his party prevail, seemingly by whatever means necessary.”

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel pointed to the recent FBI seizure of materials related to the 2020 election from Fulton County, Georgia as a sign of what’s to come during the midterm elections.

“We recognize that what happened in Fulton County could happen in Detroit,” she said. “Not because there’s any merit to claims that anything wrong happened in Detroit, but because we know that those claims will be made again.”

Politico also reported on Monday that Democracy Defenders Action has recruited Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) to deliver a “State of Our Democracy” speech on Tuesday ahead of Trump’s State of the Union address where she will outline the threats the president and his administration pose to Americans’ voting rights.

Norm Eisen, executive chairman of Democracy Defenders Action, told Politico that the speech was necessary because “the threats facing our democracy have never been greater.”

Original article by Brad Reed republished from 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.

Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes' concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country's economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy. — Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.

Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.

Post author:dizzy
Post published:23 February 2026
Post category:Donald Trump Fascism Neo-liberalism new authoritarianism plutocracy politics the filthy rich
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‘How Many Other Killings Are They Concealing?’ ICE Shot Ruben Ray Martinez in Texas Last March

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

A federal immigration agent fatally shot Ruben Ray Martinez, a 23-year-old US citizen, early on March 15, 2025 in South Padre Island, Texas. (Photo by Rachel Reyes/Mission Park Funeral Chapels & Cemeteries)

“Americans deserve immediate answers and an independent investigation of the shooting,” said Congressman Greg Casar.

Demands for accountability are mounting after internal records revealed this week that an officer with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations fatally shot Ruben Ray Martinez, a 23-year-old US citizen, almost a year ago in South Padre Island, Texas.

“While Martinez’s death was reported in local media at the time, the reports did not identify HSI involvement or disclose that a federal agent fired the shots through the driver-side window,” Newsweek reported, citing publicly available information and records obtained by American Oversight through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

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“It shouldn’t take 11 months and a FOIA lawsuit to learn that the government killed someone,” American Oversight said on social media late Friday. Separately, the watchdog noted that “the details sound similar to the death of Renee Good,” a 37-year-old US citizen and mother of three fatally shot by officer Jonathan Ross last month in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Good’s killing, and two Customs and Border Protection agents’ subsequent fatal shooting of 37-year-old US citizen and nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, have fueled outrage over President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, resulting in a congressional funding fight that has partially shut down the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees both agencies.

ICE’s internal report on the Texas shooting states that HSI agents were helping redirect traffic at the site of a major accident early on March 15, 2025. Martinez and his passengers aren’t named, but the document claims that the driver of a blue four-door Ford “failed to follow instructions,” including verbal commands to stop and exit the vehicle.

Instead, the driver “accelerated forward, striking a HSI special agent who wound up on the hood of the vehicle. Upon observing this, HSI group supervisory special agent utilized his government-issued service weapon, discharging multiple rounds at the driver through the open driver’s side window,” according to the ICE report—a version of events that a DHS spokesperson echoed in a Friday statement added to the Newsweek article, which was initially published Wednesday.

The DHS spokesperson also said that the incident remains under investigation by the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Ranger Division, whose press secretary, Sheridan Nolen, confirmed that “this is still an active investigation by the Texas Rangers, and no other information is currently available.”

Charles Stam, a lawyer for the Martinez family, told the New York Times that the 23-year-old was the driver in the ICE report. Stam and another attorney, Alex Stamm, also said in a statement that eyewitness accounts of the scene don’t match the document.

“It is critical that there is a full and fair investigation into why HSI was present at the scene of a traffic collision and why a federal officer shot and killed a US citizen as he was trying to comply with instructions from the local law enforcement officers directing traffic,” the lawyers said.

The Times also reached Martinez’s mother, Rachel Reyes, who said her son worked at an Amazon warehouse in San Antonio and was out to celebrate his birthday. According to her: “He was a good kid. He doesn’t have a criminal history… He never got in trouble. He was never violent.”

Reyes challenged the federal government’s narrative about her son, telling the newspaper: “What they’re saying is different from what they told the family, so that’s adding insult to injury… They are making it sound different. I don’t appreciate their language.”

In a Friday interview with the Texas Tribune, American Oversight executive director Chioma Chukwu also called out the government: “What they’re telling the public is very different than what they’re doing behind closed doors. The only reason why we’re able to make these connections and really call into question the public statements that they’re making to mislead the public is because we’re able to get our hands on these documents… That should deeply concern everyone.”

The revelations this week have generated concern. André Treiber, the Democratic National Committee’s Youth Coordinating Council chair, wrote on social media Friday evening that “ICE murdered a Texan last March and we are only just learning about it now. They are once again offering the excuse that this was done in self-defense, but forgive me if I am extremely skeptical after they’ve been caught lying about that exact same thing multiple times already.”

Federal lawmakers also sounded the alarm on Friday. Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) declared that “Americans deserve immediate answers and an independent investigation of the shooting.” Another Texas Democrat, Congressman Joaquin Castro, similarly called for “a full investigation,” including into the monthslong “cover-up.”

US Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), whose Chicagoland district has also faced a recent ICE invasion, pointed to other deaths tied to the agency, including those of Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, who was shot by ICE in the Chicago suburb of Franklin Park last September; Keith Porter Jr., who was shot by an off-duty agent on New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles, California; and Linda Davis, a special education teacher in Savannah, Georgia, who was killed in a Monday car crash that involved a man fleeing ICE.

“For a whole year, DHS hid that they murdered Ruben, a young man in Texas, after a traffic stop. Just like they did with Silverio, Renee, Keith, Alex, and Linda, they lied and avoided accountability,” said Ramirez, who supports abolishing ICE. “How many more people have to be executed before my colleagues realize that reforms are not enough?”

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

Post author:dizzy
Post published:22 February 2026
Post category:Donald Trump Fascism Neo-liberalism new authoritarianism plutocracy politics the filthy rich
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‘Most Vile Scumbags on Earth’: Critics Appalled by Explosive Report on Kristi Noem’s Corruption

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

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a press conference in Nogales, Arizona, on February 4, 2026. (Photo by Olivier Touron / AFP via Getty Images)

“Noem and Lewandowski are like the most toxic couple you have ever met given full rein of a government agency.”

An explosive report published by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday shed fresh light on what critics have described as “outrageous corruption” by US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Among other things, the Journal report highlighted Noem’s relationship with top adviser Corey Lewandowski, whom sources said is romantically involved with the Trump Cabinet official despite both of them being married.

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Of particular note, the Journal wrote, is the way Lewandowski has taken over the contracting process at the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) despite being classified as a special government employee whose service is supposed to be capped at a maximum of 130 days per year.

“Given Lewandowski’s continuing business interests in the private sector, his role in awarding contracts has raised alarm bells inside the White House and DHS,” reported the Journal. “Several officials inside the department said contracts and grants are being awarded in an opaque and arbitrary manner, and some are being held up without explanation.”

The report also claimed that Noem and Lewandowski have been flying around the country together on a luxury 737 MAX jet, complete with a private cabin.

DHS has been leasing the plane, although the Journal’s sources said it is in the process of buying it for $70 million, which “would be double the cost of each of seven other commercial planes the department is also buying at the pair’s direction to carry out deportations.”

Additionally, the report outlined allegedly abusive behavior by Noem and Lewandowski toward DHS staff members, as sources said they “frequently berate senior level staff, give polygraph tests to employees they don’t trust, and have fired employees,” including one incident where “Lewandowski fired a US Coast Guard pilot after Noem’s blanket was left behind on a plane.”

The report generated fierce reaction from critics on social media.

“Noem and Lewandowski are like the most toxic couple you have ever met,” wrote New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie, “given full rein of a government agency.”

Veteran foreign policy journalist Laura Rozen described Noem and Lewandowski as “the most vile scumbags on Earth” after reading the report, highlighting the details about the pair flying on the luxury jet as particularly egregious.

Investigative journalist Sarah Posner found herself floored by the conduct outlined in the Journal’s report.

“There is so much crazy shit, outrageous corruption, and naked, ham-fisted ambition in this WSJ piece about Noem, Lewandowski, and DHS,” she wrote. “Read and take note of the of eye-popping number of sources who have knives out for Kristi and Corey.”

Former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) argued the report showed Noem and Lewandowski “are wholly unqualified and a disaster at DHS,” and have been “been very effective in driving [President Donald] Trump’s ratings into the ditch.”

Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch, expressed disbelief at how much power Lewandowski had accumulated despite only being a special government employee.

“How the fuck is Corey Lewandowski in any position to fire a Coast Guard pilot?” he asked. “What is his title? What is his job? What is his official position in the US government? If you are Kristi Noem’s boyfriend you get to fire Coast Guard officers?”

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

Post author:dizzy
Post published:13 February 2026
Post category:Donald Trump Fascism new authoritarianism politics
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Amid Secretive Expansion, Leaked Docs Reveal Locations of New ICE Facilities Nationwide

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

Hundreds protest against shootings by immigration agents in Los Angeles, California on January 10, 2026. (Photo by Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Many new facilities will be located near schools, hospitals, and places of worship such as churches and mosques.

Leaked documents obtained by Wired show that federal immigration enforcement operations in the US appear set to expand even more significantly in the coming years.

Overall, Wired reported on Tuesday, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—which includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—has been aggressively expanding its footprint across the country, with “more than 150 leases and office expansions” that “have or would place new facilities in nearly every state, many of them in or just outside of the country’s largest metropolitan areas.”

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Many of these new facilities are near sensitive locations that ICE has targeted in its immigrant abduction campaigns, including schools, hospitals, and places of worship such as churches and mosques.

For example, records show ICE is planning to occupy an office building just blocks away from a preschool in Houston, Texas, and to move into offices in Irvine, California located near a childcare facility.

To speed up this rapid expansion, DHS has been leaning on the Government Services Administration to write off standard lease procurement procedures and to even conceal lease listings in the name of “national security concerns.”

Taken as a whole, Wired found that “ICE agents and officers will share buildings with doctors, restaurants, and businesses,” and will “expand existing offices and move in with unrelated government agencies,” such as in Philadelphia, where they are set to share space with the local Division of Motor Vehicles.

“The leasing plans give a clear picture of 2” the report concluded.

The leaked plans about ICE’s aggressive expansion come as immigrants being held in ICE detention centers give disturbing accounts of conditions at facilities.

Seamus Culleton, an Irish citizen who has been held at a Texas ICE detention center for five months despite having a valid US work permit and no criminal record, told Ireland’s RTÉ that the facility is akin to a “modern-day concentration camp.”

“It’s a bunch of temporary tents,” he explained. “There’s a room for, probably, a thousand detainees in each tent… I’ve been locked in the same room now for four-and-a-half months. I’ve had barely any outside time, no fresh air, no sunshine. I can probably count on both hands the number of times I’ve been outside. So I’m just locked inside this room all day, every day.”

Culleton also said that the facilities were “filthy,” with toilets and showers being “completely nasty.”

Seamus Culleton, an Irishman with a valid US work permit, has been held in an ICE detention center for over four months and calls it “a modern day concentration camp” (Video: @RTERadio1) pic.twitter.com/p4nJJwuoXL
— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) February 10, 2026

On Monday, ProPublica published letters that children detained at an immigration center in Dilley, Texas had written while they were being held with their parents.

Ender, a 12-year-old from Venezuela who has been detained in Dilley for over two months, complained about people getting inadequate medical care at the facility.

“Going to the doctor and… the only thing they tell you is to drink more water,” Ender wrote in his letter. “And the worst thing is that it seems the water is what makes people sick here.”

Ariana, a 14-year-old from Honduras who has been at the facility for a month-and-a-half, used her letter to explain the mental toll the detention has taken.

“Since I got to this Center all you will feel is sadness and mostly depression,” explained Ariana, who added that children being held at the facility are “being damage (sic) mentally, they witness how the’ve been treated.”

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

Post author:dizzy
Post published:11 February 2026
Post category:Donald Trump Fascism human rights violations Neo-liberalism new authoritarianism plutocracy politics
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‘Fucking Insane’: Journalist Finds at Least 2,300 Illegal ICE Detentions Since July

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

A protester holds a sign that reads, ‘’Due process: That’s it. That’s everything.’’ during a demonstration against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement outside City Hall in Houston, Texas, on January 10, 2026. (Photo by Reginald Mathalone/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“This is what ‘mass deportations’ looks like. Neither due process nor basic humanity,” said one lawyer. “Don’t look away.”

In yet another display of the Trump administration’s disregard for the US Constitution, there have been at least 2,300 cases in which federal judges have ruled that immigration officials illegally detained people without bond or due process since just July, according to one journalist.

Politico reporter Kyle Cheney shared some of the cases he’s tracked in a thread on the social media platform X late Saturday. “This is one that stands out,” he said of Sonik Manaserian, an Iranian woman of Armenian ethnicity who is a member of the Baha’i faith.

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According to an order out of the Central District of California in Manaserian’s case, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “arrested a chronically ill, 70-year-old woman, who came to this country to avoid religious persecution and applied for asylum, who has lived here peacefully for 26 years and complied with all check-in requirements and other conditions of release, who has no known criminal record and poses no threat to anyone, without notice or the process required by their own regulations and without any plan for removing her from this country, then kept her in detention for months without sufficient medical care—and they do not have any argument to offer to even try to justify these actions.”

Cheney’s thread came just hours after Customs and Border Protection (CBP) fatally shot legal observer and nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, less than three weeks after ICE officer Jonathan Ross similarly killed Renee Good in Minnesota’s largest city.

“Minnesota courts have been inundated with these cases since the beginning of Operation Metro Surge last month,” said the journalist, noting a Friday order in which a judge freed Audberto J., a Mexican man residing in the state, “where he and his wife have lived and raised three children together over the last 20 years.”

While the Trump administration has repeatedly claimed that its immigration enforcement operations are targeting “the worst of the worst,” like the vast majority of immigrants actually seized by agents with the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in recent months, Audberto J. has no criminal history, according to the order.

Another ruling just yesterday in Minnesota: A federal judge calls it "particularly craven" that ICE transfered "a nursing refugee mother" out of state. Ta Eh Doh Lah was admitted as a refugee from Myanmar in 2024, has no criminal history and a 5-month-old. https://t.co/RIHZJd6p2l pic.twitter.com/sKWNisIW36
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) January 25, 2026

“Yet another ruling from Friday, freeing a man detained by ICE in Minnesota who suffered severe head injuries during his arrest and has been hospitalized since. The man claims ICE has required him to be shackled in the hospital, against the wishes of doctors,” Cheney noted. “Here’s another Minnesota ruling that just came in tonight: A federal judge is threatening DHS with contempt for transferring a petitioner out of the state despite a court order enjoining the administration from doing so.”

The journalist added to the thread on Sunday, as judges in Minnesota continued issue to rulings. In one of those cases, “Judge [Katherine] Menendez—who issued last week’s injunction against ICE’s retaliatory use of pepper spray—just ordered the release of a Kenyan woman arrested while picking up seizure medication at CVS.”

Sharing the thread, American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick stressed “this is what ‘mass deportations’ looks like. Neither due process nor basic humanity. Don’t look away.”

Immigrant Defenders Law Center co-founder and CEO Lindsay Toczylowski said that “as you read this excellent thread, let it sink in that one of the most pervasive issues for people in ICE detention is lack of access to counsel which means in most cases people have no shot at filing these challenges to their illegal detentions in federal court.”

For an institution that wants to enforce immigration laws, kind of astounding that courts have found they’ve violated the 5th amendment of the Constitution at least 2,000 times in the last six months. And these are the cases we know about. https://t.co/yStJYRQWsb
— Kim-Mai Cutler (@kimmaicutler) January 26, 2026

The Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution states in part that no person shall “be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” and protects various rights in legal proceedings. The Trump administration has also faced intense criticism recently for its disregard of rights protected by the First, Second, and Fourth amendments.

Cheney was praised by other journalists for “such good shoe-leather reporting,” as “PBS NewsHour” correspondent Lisa Desjardins put it. Lawfare senior editor Roger Parloff suggested that he “should get a Pulitzer for this thread.”

John Yarmuth, a former newspaper editor and Democratic congressman from Kentucky, said that “this is a great example of a journalist doing his very critical job. Now it’s up to government officials to act to correct these injustices. AND be shamed and replaced if they don’t.”

Last Thursday, seven Democrats in the US House of Representatives voted with nearly all Republicans to pass a multibillion-dollar DHS funding bill. Pretti’s killing has increased pressure on all senators to reject it. While immigration agents’ deadly and illegal actions have fueled calls to “abolish ICE,” some lawmakers are demanding reforms at the agency and across the department.

Pointing to Cheney’s findings, anti-monopoly lawyer Basel Musharbash said: “This is fucking insane. What reforms are supposed to fix an agency that commits 2,300 adjudicated constitutional violations in just six months? And those are just the ones that made it to court!”

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