Lee West
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Lee West
@whodat35.bsky.social
“Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.” — Things you won’t see trending on X • L.A./N.Y./London/Rome & NOLA. Energy transition, Silicon Valley technofile, aerospace, filmmaker, writer ✍️, former producer, foreign policy and dolphin hugger. #RESIST
Pinned
Immigration authorities have insisted the New Orleans area sweeps are targeted at “criminal illegal aliens.” But the law enforcement records detail criminal histories for less than a third of the 38 people arrested in the first two days of the operation. | AP

www.nola.com/news/catahou...
Records reviewed by AP detail online monitoring, arrests in New Orleans immigration crackdown
Records reviewed by the AP show that few of those arrested have criminal histories beyond traffic violations.
www.nola.com
Trump pulls a TACO again…

Five days after he promised the American public that they would be able to see drone footage from the September 2 airstrike in the Caribbean, Donald Trump has decided to walk it all back. | TNR
Trump Pulls a Sudden 180 on Releasing Boat Strike Video
It sure sounds like we are never going to see that video.
newrepublic.com
December 9, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Community groups organize food deliveries to families affected by immigration raids.

Pantries across New Orleans have responded to the arrival of ICE officials by directly distributing food to people in fear of leaving their homes to shop for groceries or go to restaurants. | Verite News
Residents deliver food to those affected by DHS raids
Community food distribution and immigrant rights advocacy groups have organized grocery deliveries to immigrants in response to the arrival last week of hundreds of federal immigration agents in New O...
veritenews.org
December 9, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Residents of Metairie, New Orleans protest ICE immigration operation in Louisiana.

Local activists held demonstrations in Metairie and New Orleans, demanding federal immigration officials leave the state. | Verite News

veritenews.org/2025/12/07/m...
Protesters in New Orleans area seek swift end to DHS sweeps
More than 100 people gathered across three protests in Metairie and New Orleans on Saturday (Dec. 6) against the federal immigration operation launched by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security last...
veritenews.org
December 9, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Reposted by Lee West
The War on Drugs was never about… drugs.

Drug use is not a poor problem, or a Black problem. It’s a mental health problem. And a policy problem.

NEW: ‘Junkie to Judge’

@marybethoconnor.bsky.social on Drug Use, Addiction, Criminalization, Recovery, and Community

🔗 bit.ly/junkietojudge
December 7, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Reposted by Lee West
From Junkie to Judge

How Mary Beth O’Connor’s survival and success showcase the flaws in our drug policies and failures of our justice system

NEW ✍️ + 🎥 for @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social

🔗 bit.ly/junkietojudge
December 7, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Donald Trump's claim today that the U.S. donated $350B to Ukraine is incorrect. The actual amount of U.S. aid allocated for the Ukraine response since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022 is substantially lower | BBC www.bbc.com/news/article...
How much has the US given to Ukraine?
As Ukraine's president meets European leaders for talks, how much is Europe spending on military support for Ukraine compared with the United States?
www.bbc.com
December 9, 2025 at 12:39 AM
Reposted by Lee West
NEW LAWSUIT: Trump’s budget chief & acting head of CFPB has manufactured a funding crisis to completely defund the agency.

We're challenging the Trump admin's unlawful attempt to stop the CFPB from doing its Congressionally mandated job by starving it of funding.
December 9, 2025 at 12:23 AM
Reposted by Lee West
The Trumps and their billionaire friends stand to make millions if Paramount’s hostile takeover bid succeeds. Not only is this a conflict of interest, it's even more evidence of how the Trump family is using the presidency to get richer, while working families suffer.
December 8, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Reposted by Lee West
🚨BREAKING: The guy unofficially sitting at the table brokering a deal with Russia w/Witkoff — Kushner’s Affinity Partners is part of Paramount’s $108 billion hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery—backed by Gulf sovereign wealth funds & tucked into an SEC filiing… www.axios.com/2025/12/08/j...
Jared Kushner is part of Paramount's hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery
Paramount is telling WBD shareholders that it has a smoother path to regulatory approval than does Netflix.
www.axios.com
December 8, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Reposted by Lee West
Congress has rightly decided that some government functions, like supervising America's elections, are best served by independent, bipartisan, expert commissions, rather than presidential control. Read more about our brief and what's at stake in the case: campaignlegal.org/update/indep...
Independent Agencies Must Remain Independent
The potential impact of Trump’s efforts to seize control of agencies that don’t fall under his authority cannot be understated.
campaignlegal.org
December 8, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Reposted by Lee West
During oral arguments in the Trump v. Slaughter SCOTUS case today, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson recognizes what Campaign Legal Center argued in our amicus brief: Independent agencies promote democratic accountability.
December 8, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Reposted by Lee West
Bessent calling himself “soybean farmer” is just as much monkey bullshit as Donny claiming to be “IVF president*”

good grief
a poster for son of a catch shows a woman crying and says believe this is happening
Alt: a poster for son of a catch shows a woman crying and says believe this is happening
media.tenor.com
December 8, 2025 at 11:56 PM
As New Orleans immigration sweeps enter day 6, here's what happened over the weekend | NOLA

www.nola.com/news/catahou...
As New Orleans immigration sweeps enter day 6, here's what happened over the weekend
Here’s what you need to know as the operation continues into the next week.
www.nola.com
December 8, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Reposted by Lee West
“.. By my count, today's $12B farmer bailout is the FIFTH thing that Trump's tariffs were gonna pay for.”

- @scottlincicome.bsky.social
December 8, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Reposted by Lee West
JUST IN: Trump personally asserts executive privilege to protect 4K+ documents/messages from discovery in J6 civil suit. Court given very bare bones list. Doc: www.documentcloud.org/documents/26... As first reported by POLITICO last week w/ @kyledcheney.bsky.social
www.politico.com/news/2025/12...
December 8, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Archdiocese $230M settlement with abuse survivors approved by court

The settlement confirmation effectively concludes a case that began in May 2020, when the US’s second-oldest Catholic archdiocese filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy.| WWL

www.wwltv.com/article/news...
Archdiocese $230M settlement with abuse survivors approved by court
The settlement confirmation effectively concludes a case that began in May 2020, when the US’s second-oldest Catholic archdiocese filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy.
www.wwltv.com
December 8, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Reposted by Lee West
No one signed up for The National Guard to play prison bed quota filler for the private GEO group concentration camp apparatus.

Texas and Florida are big prison business states… let’s not turn rural America into private prison profit centers either.
December 5, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Gov. DeSantis has lost his damn mind! This is what they did on plantations!!

Torture Techniques from CIA Black Sites Were Used at Alligator Alcatraz.
Amnesty International, interviewing migrant detainees, identifies use of the confinement box. There can be no denying it is a torture prison.
Torture Techniques from CIA Black Sites Were Used at Alligator Alcatraz
Amnesty International, interviewing migrant detainees, identifies use of the confinement box. There can be no denying it is a torture prison
www.forever-wars.com
December 8, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Reposted by Lee West
This is how the economy works now. You kiss the ass of the top guy, he throws you favors. There is no ideology here, it's just mafia rules, the oldest rules in the book.
random farmer to Trump on what his child said to him: "He said, 'Daddy, I don't want Santa Claus to come to our house for Christmas, I want President Trump.' I think you brought Christmas to farmers with this bridge payment."
December 8, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Reposted by Lee West
Q: If you withhold SNAP funding, would that be a violation of the San Francisco's judge's order?

BROOKE ROLLINS: We're working all that through
December 8, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Reposted by Lee West
LOL! Absolutely! If we only ever thought about the seriousness of it, it would keep us all up at night, wear us down, and diminish our capacity to push back (which might be the whole point). A little levity and camaraderie go a long way!
December 8, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Rep. Jasmine Crockett launches Texas Senate run, shaking up Democratic primary.

Former Rep. Colin Allred dropped out of the race Monday morning, but state Rep. James Talarico remains as Democrats try to contend for GOP Sen. John Cornyn's seat. | NBC News

www.nbcnews.com/politics/202...
Rep. Jasmine Crockett launches Texas Senate run, shaking up Democratic primary
Former Rep. Colin Allred dropped out of the race Monday morning, but state Rep. James Talarico remains as Democrats try to contend for GOP Sen. John Cornyn's seat.
www.nbcnews.com
December 8, 2025 at 9:38 PM
This is how it is done…

Congress to withhold Pentagon travel funds until it sees boat strike videos. | Politico

www.politico.com/news/2025/12...
Congress to withhold Pentagon travel funds until it sees boat strike videos
Lawmakers quietly stuck the requirement into their must-pass annual defense policy bill.
www.politico.com
December 8, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Reposted by Lee West
Bye 👋
December 8, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Reposted by Lee West
Clean Air Moms: “EPA head Lee Zeldin Must Go”
December 8, 2025 at 8:55 PM