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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 5h

Reporter's notebook: I actually began working on this story shortly after footage of the incident showed up last month.

But by the time I finally got ahold of folks, the story grew: 2 *other* faith leaders I spoke with *also* reported being shot w/pepper balls while protesting this ICE facility.

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 23h

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.

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Julie Laumann ❌ 👑 @julielaumann.bsky.social · 3h

“ICE officers on the roof “suddenly and without warning” shot pepper balls that struck Rev. David Black's head…

Black fell to his knees in pain. Moments later, officers on the street sprayed him with tear gas.”

“Pattern of extreme brutality”: pastor shot in the head by ICE agents sues Trump regime

Pastor shot in the head by ICE agents sues over First Amendment threats

David Black joins journalists and protesters in lawsuit to stop ‘pattern of extreme brutality’ from federal agents

www.independent.co.uk

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 5h

Pritzker: "This guy is unhinged. He's insecure. He's a wannabe dictator. And there's one thing I really want to say to Donald Trump. If you come for my people, you come through me. So come and get me."

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Julie Laumann ❌ 👑 @julielaumann.bsky.social · 3h

And why are taxpayers bailing out not only American farmers, but also Argentina, thereby enabling their farmers to capture our export markets?

“Rob Citrone, whose hedge fund bet big on Argentina, asked his friend for a rescue package. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent delivered.”
#corruption

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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 9h

JUST IN: The Republican Mayor of Fairbanks, Alaska’s second biggest city, lost re-election last night to a Democrat.

Mayor David Pruhs is a conservative who fought protections for LGBTQ+ residents; he made comments this year drew condemnation this year from Alaska Natives. He lost to Mindy O'Neall.

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Kevin Rothrock @kevinrothrock.me · 8h

ICE in Portland is limiting media access to Fox News and right-wing influencers, while stonewalling the local news media.

www.oregonlive.com/politics/202...

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Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 1d

New on MSNBC: Trump's new acting U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan has recruited prosecutors from outside her office to take James Comey to trial, after being unable to find any federal prosecutors in her own office willing to pursue the charges, according to two people familiar with the selections.

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Julie Laumann ❌ 👑 @julielaumann.bsky.social · 7h

“Ever since his family’s food rations stopped, the father watched helplessly as his once-vibrant baby weakened, suffering from diarrhea and begging for food.

On May 21, two weeks after Taher’s little boy died, Marco Rubio declared: “No children are dying on my watch.”

That, Taher says, “is a lie.”

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 8h

i desperately want everyone involved in the destruction of USAID to have to, st the very least, answer to the american people for the suffering and misery they have caused apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

Julie Laumann ❌ 👑 @julielaumann.bsky.social · 7h

Hannah Arendt, On Violence: “The greatest enemy of authority is contempt, and the surest way to undermine it is laughter.”

Satire and mockery work.

Maj @lif3asmaj.blacksky.app · 9h

The best part of how Portland is handling this is they’re not only protesting, but also angering the goose steppers by not taking them seriously.

Pretty genius. Because even ICE & the national guard don’t want to be displayed as that asshole fighting people in cute costumes.

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Julie Laumann ❌ 👑 @julielaumann.bsky.social · 8h

No spinning these numbers 😮

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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 8h

if blue state governors and mayors aren't already thinking about the reliability of various police forces nominally under their control, they should start immediately

southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 9h

The situation in America is not great. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 9h

I will not back down.

Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power.

What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?

Donald Trump Truth Social Post: Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also.

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Senator Patty Murray @murray.senate.gov · 1d

The scenes out of Chicago should outrage us all. These federal agents are out of control, committing senseless acts of violence & putting everyone at risk.

American citizens are being detained & brutalized.

This kind of immigration "enforcement" shouldn't be acceptable to anyone.

Immigration agents become increasingly aggressive in Chicago

Activists, residents and elected leaders say increasingly combative tactics used by federal immigration agents are sparking violence and fueling neighborhood tensions in the nation’s third-largest cit...

www.pbs.org

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Julie Laumann ❌ 👑 @julielaumann.bsky.social · 8h

“Prosecutors’ inability to secure this indictment continues a pattern in LA and DC where local citizens on grand juries are providing a check on Trump-directed [military invasions] …

Robledo & Collins were charged under the same statute Bondi has directed federal prosecutors to utilize nationwide.”

Department of Shoe @shoe.bsky.social · 8h

H/t @crunchyfishtaco.bsky.social
news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/g...

Grand Jury Declines to Indict Two Chicago-Area ICE Protesters (1)

A federal grand jury declined to indict two people charged with assaulting law enforcement agents outside a suburban Chicago ICE facility, an attorney for one of the defendants said.

news.bloomberglaw.com

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 9h

I mean read this, the Trump administration in an official document is saying that Americans won't ever pick crops and America won't have enough food to eat because of ICE raids!
prospect.org/politics/tru...

As a result, employers are facing significant economic harms, the filing claims. And incredibly, given the administration’s unceasing rhetoric to the contrary, the Labor Department definitively rejects the idea of Americans replacing the missing workers. “The Department does not believe American workers currently unemployed or marginally employed will make themselves readily available in sufficient numbers to replace large numbers of aliens,” the filing states, adding that agricultural work involves “a distinct set of skills and is among the most physically demanding and hazardous occupations in the U.S. labor market.” (For what it’s worth, nearly half of all agricultural workers are native-born, and significantly more than half are U.S. citizens, according to Department of Agriculture data.)

The Labor Department even claims that broadly advertising agricultural jobs, which is required under the H2-A rules, has not led to a boost in applications from U.S. workers. This is a bit of a fiction; workers who apply often do not receive jobs, and nobody is really checking to see if applications are coming in. “The system isn’t set up to prove that there’s a labor shortage of U.S. workers,” said Costa, of EPI.

In the end, the Labor Department concludes, the only way to protect agricultural employers from disaster and consumers from rising prices and food shortages is to slash wages in the H-2A program to make it more viable to bring in workers. This is an odd response to a workforce crisis, since cutting wages across the sector will likely drive existing workers to look elsewhere for jobs. In fact, farm employers in Florida fear that H-2A foreign workers won’t apply for these jobs anymore because the wages are so low. (There were 384,900 H-2A applications last year.)

But the filing states, “Without swift action, agricultural employers will be unable to maintain operations, and the nation's food supply will be at risk.”

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 9h

So this is funny.
The administration just issued a rule slashing foreign agricultural worker wages. And to justify it, in a public filing, Trump's Labor Department alleges that Trump's immigration enforcement has devastated the Ag workforce and caused a "risk of supply shock-induced food shortages."

Trump Labor Department Says His Immigration Raids Are Causing a Food Crisis

In a filing in the Federal Register, the Labor Department argues there are “immediate dangers to the American food supply” due to a lack of migrant agricultural workers.

prospect.org

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Dave Jorgenson @davejorgenson.bsky.social · 9h

The Post laid off seemingly the remaining of their liberal-leaning staff members on Opinion last Thursday, when some of them were observing Yom Kippur.

from @oliverdarcy.bsky.social for Status
status.news/p/washington-post-opinion-cuts-adam-oneal

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 10h

Weaponizing the Justice Department. Happening right in front of us. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 10h

I really believe that huge majorities of Americans don’t want masked soldiers shooting priests in the street. They don’t want naked children ripped out out of their apartments in the middle of the night and handcuffed. We win by making sure these stories get told.

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 10h

The same people who insisted devout Catholic Joe Biden was leading a “war on Christianity” are now cheering Trump on as his armed goons assault clergymen.

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 11h

WATCH: Trump’s lawless Ice goons shoot an unarmed priest in the head with a pepper ball. Completely out of control.

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Julie Laumann ❌ 👑 @julielaumann.bsky.social · 9h

“The charges – the latest brought against a high-profile Trump foe – were filed after Trump successfully pressured a federal prosecutor to resign, then named one of his personal attorneys to head the office.”

Ex-FBI Director James Comey to be arraigned after Trump called for his prosecution

Ex-FBI Director James Comey to be arraigned after Trump called for his prosecution

Comey was charged amid the president's repeated calls for investigations of his political opponents.

nbcnews.to

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Eric Michael Garcia @ericmgarcia.bsky.social · 10h

"Every time Chuck Schumer....says that Democrats are looking to open the government through a negotiation around and deal on ACA subsidies, he is acquiescing to the idea that a government in which Border Patrol agents can shoot bullets at protesters in Chicago after screaming “Do something, bitch!”

Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 11h

Bridging my current life in Chicago and my past life in D.C., I argue today at @newrepublic.com that Democrats should ~never~ vote to fund this government. Make John Thune blow up Senate rules and Republicans wholly own the U.S. extra-military military doing war crimes against us, funded by us.

The Case for the Forever Shutdown

Senate Democrats actually allowing the GOP to stop funding the government is only the first step. Now they have to make the case that Trump’s government is illegitimate.

newrepublic.com

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Julie Laumann ❌ 👑 @julielaumann.bsky.social · 10h

“Rev. David Black of Presbyterian Church of Chicago was shot 7 times with exploding pellets containing a chemical agent.

“I extended my arms, palms outstretched toward the ICE officers in a traditional Christian posture of prayer and blessing. Without any warning, I was fired upon by ICE officers.”

Reposted by Julie Laumann ❌ 👑

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 10h

The same people who insisted devout Catholic Joe Biden was leading a “war on Christianity” are now cheering Trump on as his armed goons assault clergymen.

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 11h

WATCH: Trump’s lawless Ice goons shoot an unarmed priest in the head with a pepper ball. Completely out of control.

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 11h

JB Pritzker and Gavin Newsom are doing something new and important: They understand Stephen Miller's theory of fascist power politics, and they've developed a theory on how to combat it. More Dems need to reckon with Miller's understanding of the moment.

New from me:
newrepublic.com/article/2014...

Inside Stephen Miller’s Secret Plan to Normalize Trump’s Dictator Rule

He wants to supercharge searing civil tensions to get low-information voters to embrace their inner authoritarian. Exactly two Democrats appear to fully grasp this.

newrepublic.com

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Julie Laumann ❌ 👑 @julielaumann.bsky.social · 10h

[Trade] war-ravaged American farms.

“We'll see the bottom drop out if we don't get a deal with China soon," said Ron Kindred, who farms 1,700 acres of corn and soybeans.

"There doesn't seem to be any urgency on China's side, and more urgency coming from the farm community in the US.”
#TrumpTariffs

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 11h

“.. If a deal with China isn’t reached soon, Hill said, the soybean market ‘might be a bloodbath.’”

@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/economy/trad...