Daniel Knowles
@dlknowles.bsky.social
Midwest correspondent at The Economist, in Chicago. Before that, in London, Mumbai, Nairobi and DC.
Buy my book: http://shorturl.at/BJOUV
Buy my book: http://shorturl.at/BJOUV
Pinned
Just reposting this - my story this week is part of this week's cover package on Minneapolis and the rise of what we call "America's paramilitary peril."
www.economist.com/united-state...
www.economist.com/united-state...
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
Judge Reyes starts with a comparison: George Washington versus Kristi Noem.
![[start quotation] MEMORANDUM OPINION
On December 2, 1783, then-Commander-in-Chief George Washington penned: “America is open to receive not only the Opulent & respected Stranger, but the oppressed & persecuted of
all Nations & Religions.”1
More than two centuries later, Congress reaffirmed President
Washington’s vision by establishing the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. See 8
U.S.C. § 1254a (TPS statute). It provides humanitarian relief to foreign nationals in the United
States who come from disaster-stricken countries. It also brings in substantial revenue, with TPS
holders generating $5.2 billion in taxes annually. See Part VI.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem has a different take."[end quotation]
Underneath is a screenshot of a tweet, which reads: " Secretary Kristi Noem
@Sec_Noem
I just met with the President.
I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.
Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom-not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS.
WE DON'T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.
6:52 PM
Dec 1, 2025
13.2M Views](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2vtbmhmrwzbqcfv4we4uxzzt/bafkreibseafaz2alyw7z2wcopu7uht4x26giiuqqov5cznw34rhdgqub7u@jpeg)
February 3, 2026 at 12:49 AM
Judge Reyes starts with a comparison: George Washington versus Kristi Noem.
I could! If I wanted to mess with my own record. (I would never do that. I will however admit to deleting some of the occasional embarrassing song I've listened to way too often in a short space of time)
February 3, 2026 at 1:41 AM
I could! If I wanted to mess with my own record. (I would never do that. I will however admit to deleting some of the occasional embarrassing song I've listened to way too often in a short space of time)
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
A fun case study since there have been 72 million articles on the cold in the east and 4 on the warmth in the west
January 2026 temperature rankings compared to all Januarys since 1895.
February 1, 2026 at 5:16 PM
A fun case study since there have been 72 million articles on the cold in the east and 4 on the warmth in the west
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
BREAKING Star Tribune:
Eight additional federal prosecutors are in the process of leaving the Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation.
The departures follow the mass exit of six veteran prosecutors who left the office last month.
Eight additional federal prosecutors are in the process of leaving the Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation.
The departures follow the mass exit of six veteran prosecutors who left the office last month.
The latest: Eight more federal prosecutors set to leave the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office
The recent wave of departures follows the mass exodus of six veteran prosecutors last month who quit in protest of recent directives from the U.S. Department of Justice.
www.startribune.com
February 2, 2026 at 11:01 PM
BREAKING Star Tribune:
Eight additional federal prosecutors are in the process of leaving the Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation.
The departures follow the mass exit of six veteran prosecutors who left the office last month.
Eight additional federal prosecutors are in the process of leaving the Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation.
The departures follow the mass exit of six veteran prosecutors who left the office last month.
Ok just added a feature that if I put in an artist name it can look up albums and then scrobble all the tracks to Last.FM specifying a time played, so that I can also include stuff I play on Vinyl. It is absolutely insane how easy this was to make. Yes I do want to track every song I ever listen to
February 3, 2026 at 12:31 AM
Ok just added a feature that if I put in an artist name it can look up albums and then scrobble all the tracks to Last.FM specifying a time played, so that I can also include stuff I play on Vinyl. It is absolutely insane how easy this was to make. Yes I do want to track every song I ever listen to
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
More than a dozen federal prosecutors have left, or are preparing to leave, the US Attorneys Office in Minnesota since Renée Good was slain by an ICE officer. Good people fleeing a sinking ship.
“We are down to a skeleton crew,” one source told @samanthamichaels.bsky.social
“We are down to a skeleton crew,” one source told @samanthamichaels.bsky.social
Federal prosecutors in Minnesota are "demoralized and pissed"
The administration is pressuring them to charge ICE protesters on scant evidence.
www.motherjones.com
February 2, 2026 at 11:50 PM
More than a dozen federal prosecutors have left, or are preparing to leave, the US Attorneys Office in Minnesota since Renée Good was slain by an ICE officer. Good people fleeing a sinking ship.
“We are down to a skeleton crew,” one source told @samanthamichaels.bsky.social
“We are down to a skeleton crew,” one source told @samanthamichaels.bsky.social
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
Seeing all the “professional” activists go after Stancil is negatively polarizing me into a stance that Minnesota is winning because it’s normal people rising to the occasion and pushing a lot of activist nonsense out of the way by doing it
February 2, 2026 at 11:08 PM
Seeing all the “professional” activists go after Stancil is negatively polarizing me into a stance that Minnesota is winning because it’s normal people rising to the occasion and pushing a lot of activist nonsense out of the way by doing it
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
I was a little late to catch up with this WSJ kleptocracy story. We already knew Sheikh Tahnoon dropped $2b on World Liberty Financial to get Trump to let UAE import advanced chips. Now we learn Tahnoon also purchased 49 percent of World Liberty Financial.
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
‘Spy Sheikh’ Bought Secret Stake in Trump Company
$500 million investment for 49% of World Liberty came months before U.A.E. won access to tightly guarded American AI chips.
www.wsj.com
February 2, 2026 at 8:19 PM
I was a little late to catch up with this WSJ kleptocracy story. We already knew Sheikh Tahnoon dropped $2b on World Liberty Financial to get Trump to let UAE import advanced chips. Now we learn Tahnoon also purchased 49 percent of World Liberty Financial.
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
A newborn in Minneapolis hadn’t eaten for a day and a half.
ICE agents took her mother when she went to work, trying to make money for diapers.
Her 16-year-old and Bri, a local mother of two, saved that baby's life. @chabeli.bsky.social tells their story
ICE agents took her mother when she went to work, trying to make money for diapers.
Her 16-year-old and Bri, a local mother of two, saved that baby's life. @chabeli.bsky.social tells their story
When one mother was taken by ICE, another stepped in to donate breastmilk
Moms in Minneapolis are donating diapers, food and time to help families who have been ripped apart by ICE.
19thnews.org
February 2, 2026 at 7:46 PM
A newborn in Minneapolis hadn’t eaten for a day and a half.
ICE agents took her mother when she went to work, trying to make money for diapers.
Her 16-year-old and Bri, a local mother of two, saved that baby's life. @chabeli.bsky.social tells their story
ICE agents took her mother when she went to work, trying to make money for diapers.
Her 16-year-old and Bri, a local mother of two, saved that baby's life. @chabeli.bsky.social tells their story
I haven't written any code at all since I was 15 years old and messing around with Visual Basic to make silly (and rubbish) programmes
February 2, 2026 at 7:48 PM
I haven't written any code at all since I was 15 years old and messing around with Visual Basic to make silly (and rubbish) programmes
That's the sort of thing it just seems ideal for yeah
February 2, 2026 at 7:47 PM
That's the sort of thing it just seems ideal for yeah
I guess I've long been a convert - and if anything this ought to boost my worries about the unexpected consequences, like making it vastly easier to automate a bunch of fraud. But this is the first thing I've used it for that feels kind of like magic, rather than just an iteration on a search engine
February 2, 2026 at 7:46 PM
I guess I've long been a convert - and if anything this ought to boost my worries about the unexpected consequences, like making it vastly easier to automate a bunch of fraud. But this is the first thing I've used it for that feels kind of like magic, rather than just an iteration on a search engine
That's what I am thinking. Analysing transport data too
February 2, 2026 at 7:44 PM
That's what I am thinking. Analysing transport data too
I probably ought to come up with some journalistic uses of this...
February 2, 2026 at 7:29 PM
I probably ought to come up with some journalistic uses of this...
I fear I may have become an AI convert. Just used Claude to write a python script I would have absolutely no idea how to do otherwise, and then write a GUI to run it. This is to uh, update my @last.fm account with logs from a 22-year-old iPod, so pretty niche. But it just works!
February 2, 2026 at 7:26 PM
I fear I may have become an AI convert. Just used Claude to write a python script I would have absolutely no idea how to do otherwise, and then write a GUI to run it. This is to uh, update my @last.fm account with logs from a 22-year-old iPod, so pretty niche. But it just works!
yes! That's why he won I am sure
February 2, 2026 at 4:13 PM
yes! That's why he won I am sure
Migration in the past few years has been more dramatically visible in rural America than in cities, I'd say. I know there is tension with that. But clear benefits too. In 2024 I went to a town in Nebraska where they had a new coffee shop, new restaurants and rising house prices because of migrants
February 2, 2026 at 4:12 PM
Migration in the past few years has been more dramatically visible in rural America than in cities, I'd say. I know there is tension with that. But clear benefits too. In 2024 I went to a town in Nebraska where they had a new coffee shop, new restaurants and rising house prices because of migrants
One thing I encountered in my 2024 election coverage was that while people at Trump rallies were wildly pro mass deportation, some rural Republicans I met, including party officials, remained broadly pro migration. They just thought the mass deportation stuff was all bluster and wouldn't happen
Remarkable: 55% of noncollege whites and even 50% of rural whites say ICE is too aggressive, per new Fox News poll.
And 71% of independents disapprove of Trump on immigration.
This is digging deep into Trump's base.
We detail these numbers on today's pod:
newrepublic.com/article/2059...
And 71% of independents disapprove of Trump on immigration.
This is digging deep into Trump's base.
We detail these numbers on today's pod:
newrepublic.com/article/2059...
Trump Tirade over Protests Goes Off Rails as Crushing Fox Poll Hits
As Trump grows more delusional about how hated his ICE raids have become, a longtime pro-immigrant organizer explains why this may be a watershed moment in terms of public opinion on the issue.
newrepublic.com
February 2, 2026 at 4:08 PM
One thing I encountered in my 2024 election coverage was that while people at Trump rallies were wildly pro mass deportation, some rural Republicans I met, including party officials, remained broadly pro migration. They just thought the mass deportation stuff was all bluster and wouldn't happen
An interesting example here is Elon Musk's blatant attempt to buy the Wisconsin judicial election last year. It seems he did succeed in boosting Republican turnout. The state GOP chair was giddy when I interviewed him. But they didn't account for how much farther it boosted Democrat turnout
well then it hasn’t been a very successful one
February 2, 2026 at 1:55 PM
An interesting example here is Elon Musk's blatant attempt to buy the Wisconsin judicial election last year. It seems he did succeed in boosting Republican turnout. The state GOP chair was giddy when I interviewed him. But they didn't account for how much farther it boosted Democrat turnout
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
If a university student group had celebrated Charlie Kirk being killed, complete with a graphic made from an actual picture of the killing, the whole lot of them would have been expelled before the ink on the digital story was dry.
University of Illinois college republicans advocate for executing protesters as “traitors” with art that takes a disturbing killing and makes it even more extreme.
dailyillini.com/news-stories...
dailyillini.com/news-stories...
‘Fell the enemies:’ Illini Republicans support ICE amid killings - The Daily Illini
In a post that included a graphic of a presumed officer holding a gun to someone's head, Illini Republicans stated that they “stand with ICE."
dailyillini.com
February 2, 2026 at 12:03 PM
If a university student group had celebrated Charlie Kirk being killed, complete with a graphic made from an actual picture of the killing, the whole lot of them would have been expelled before the ink on the digital story was dry.
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
University of Illinois college republicans advocate for executing protesters as “traitors” with art that takes a disturbing killing and makes it even more extreme.
dailyillini.com/news-stories...
dailyillini.com/news-stories...
‘Fell the enemies:’ Illini Republicans support ICE amid killings - The Daily Illini
In a post that included a graphic of a presumed officer holding a gun to someone's head, Illini Republicans stated that they “stand with ICE."
dailyillini.com
February 2, 2026 at 4:40 AM
University of Illinois college republicans advocate for executing protesters as “traitors” with art that takes a disturbing killing and makes it even more extreme.
dailyillini.com/news-stories...
dailyillini.com/news-stories...
Especially and necessarily in America because *there hasn't been any comprehensive reform to the actual law in over 30 years*
I genuinely have no idea how to convey this to the American people, but I think the biggest impediment to any kind of immigration reform is that people are convinced that "legal" and "illegal" are immutable, intrinsic categories instead of a rapidly-shifting arbitrary constellation of regulations.
February 2, 2026 at 6:41 AM
Especially and necessarily in America because *there hasn't been any comprehensive reform to the actual law in over 30 years*
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
I remember when political scientists sounding the alarm about a Jan. 6-type event in ~October 2020 were ridiculed by "smart" pundits as radical leftists. One called an article in The Atlantic "too magazine-y." The good news is people seem to be taking 2026/28 much more seriously
David French: This is not a drill www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/o...
February 2, 2026 at 3:58 AM
I remember when political scientists sounding the alarm about a Jan. 6-type event in ~October 2020 were ridiculed by "smart" pundits as radical leftists. One called an article in The Atlantic "too magazine-y." The good news is people seem to be taking 2026/28 much more seriously
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
The schoolmates of Liam Conejo Ramos wrote letters to ICE.
This is just gutting. And also such a reminder that hate is taught. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/o...
This is just gutting. And also such a reminder that hate is taught. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/o...
Opinion | ICE Took Liam Conejo Ramos. His Classmates Have Something to Say.
www.nytimes.com
February 2, 2026 at 3:36 AM
The schoolmates of Liam Conejo Ramos wrote letters to ICE.
This is just gutting. And also such a reminder that hate is taught. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/o...
This is just gutting. And also such a reminder that hate is taught. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/o...
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
Lots of teargas at ICE tonight in Portland. People were just standing and chanting.
February 2, 2026 at 3:23 AM
Lots of teargas at ICE tonight in Portland. People were just standing and chanting.