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steven monacelli

@stevanzetti.bsky.social

67K followers 1.5K following 3.8K posts

award winning investigative journalist special investigative correspondent @texasobserver.org • columnist @thebarbedwire.com • publisher @proteanmag.com • send tips via Signal: stevanzetti.12 Read & support my work: https://linktr.ee/Stevanzetti

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steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 14d

The Barbed Wire conducted an in-depth review of court records and statements thus far in the July 4 Prairieland case in which 17 people have been charged related to a shooting at an ICE facility — and found holes that call into question the government’s narrative.

thebarbedwire.com/2025/09/24/n...

‘None of It Makes Any Sense’: New Details in the July 4 ICE Attack Show Holes in Feds’ Case

Repeated changes to the official narrative after the July 4 attack have shrouded the investigation.

thebarbedwire.com

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 3h

NEW: We sent @stevanzetti.bsky.social to a Turning Point USA event, where Attorney General Ken Paxton was the keynote speaker — just hours after he announced his “undercover operations to infiltrate and uproot leftist terror cells in Texas.” It went how you expect.

thebarbedwire.com/2025/10/08/k...

Texas Republicans Are Using Charlie Kirk’s ‘Martyrdom’ to Crush Free Speech

Hours after announcing ‘undercover operations’ into leftist groups, Ken Paxton compared Charlie Kirk to Jesus at a Turning Point USA event.

thebarbedwire.com

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steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 3h

Texas Republicans Are Using Charlie Kirk’s ‘Martyrdom’ to Crush Free Speech.

Hours after announcing ‘undercover operations’ into leftist groups, Texas’ attorney general compared Charlie Kirk to Jesus at a Turning Point USA event.

My latest for @thebarbedwire.com

thebarbedwire.com/2025/10/08/k...

Texas Republicans Are Using Charlie Kirk’s ‘Martyrdom’ to Crush Free Speech

Hours after announcing ‘undercover operations’ into leftist groups, Ken Paxton compared Charlie Kirk to Jesus at a Turning Point USA event.

thebarbedwire.com

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The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 6h

“He was also young himself. God has forgiven him,” Rirhandzu Manganyi wrote.

“AND HIS MINISTRY WILL BE BIGGER THAN EVER,” user Shannon Liddle wrote.

“I still will listen to him!” Pam Ullo wrote.

Meanwhile, Morris must register as a sex offender.

thebarbedwire.com/2025/10/08/s...

Supporters Say ‘God Has Forgiven’ Ex-Megachurch Pastor Robert Morris, Who Admitted to Sexual Abuse of a 12-Year-Old

Comments have rolled in expressing forgiveness for the convicted child sex offender and megachurch founder.

thebarbedwire.com

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Rima I Anabtawi @rimaanabtawi.bsky.social · 7h

Ya’Kub Ira is a Filipino American artist, educator, and photojournalist. He is a well known Eskrima Filipino martial art expert and is known for his work and activism in Baybayin script scholarship and revival.

steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 8h

The Dallas area Palestinian Youth Movement reported yesterday that Ya'Kub Ira, an activist and martial arts instructor, was abducted by ICE despite Ira's legal status under DACA.

"This is the second unexpected arrest of someone with proximity to the Palestine movement in the past two weeks."

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steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 6h

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steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 7h

Is deportation okay in your mind as long as it happens to people whose politics who don't like?

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steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 8h

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steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 21h

Those are my assassination coordinates

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 23h

Happening right now. To us. In America.

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steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 1d

Everyone who grew up in Texas has at least one person in the high school friends group chat who seems a little too concerned about Gender

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steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 1d

Mr. Paxton please contact me, I have crucial information regarding a deadly leftist terror group called BOFA

Robert Downen @robertdownen.bsky.social · 1d

Citing the “martyrdom” of Charlie Kirk, Texas AG Ken Paxton says his office is pursuing sweeping undercover investigations into “leftist” groups. “To those demented souls who seek to kill, steal, and destroy our country, know this: you cannot hide, you cannot escape, and justice is coming."

"Leftist political terrorism is a clear and present danger. Corrupted ideologies like transgenderism and Antifa are a cancer on our culture and have unleashed their deranged and drugged-up foot soldiers on the American people," said Attorney General Paxton. "The martyrdom of Charlie Kirk marks a turning point in America.
There can be no compromise with those who want us dead. To that end, I have directed my office to continue its efforts to identify, investigate, and infiltrate these leftist terror cells. To those demented souls who seek to kill, steal, and destroy our country, know this: you cannot hide, you cannot escape, and justice is coming."
The radical Left has incubated an environment where political violence is not only justified but celebrated and praised. In July, nearly two dozen armed leftists connected to various Texas-based Antifa-like groups ambushed an Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") facility in Alvarado, Texas. On September 10, 2025, a leftist assassin connected to the radical transgender movement murdered Charlie Kirk because of Kirk's bold support for truth, love of country, and unshakable faith. Two weeks later, another deranged leftist opened fire at an ICE facility in Dallas.
President Donald Trump has officially designated Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization and instructed his administration to "utilize all applicable authorities to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle any and all illegal operations — especially those involving terrorist actions — conducted by Antifa." Building on President Trump's bold actions, Attorney General Paxton has instructed his office to initiate sweeping investigations into radical leftist organizations engaged in or providing support to those performing political violence.

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steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 1d

We are thrilled to publicly launch COINTELPRO 2.0

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steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 1d

Law enforcement historically loves announcing their undercover operations ahead of time

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Launches Under- cover Operations to Infil- trate and Uproot Leftist Terror Cells in Texas After Increased Political Violence

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 5d

Corporate outlets aren’t resisting fascism. They’re enabling it. All the president’s men aren’t breaking into the Watergate; they’re buying up the media and firing anyone who won’t toe the line.

thebarbedwire.com/2025/10/03/b...

Bari Weiss Doesn’t Want You to Read This

Bari Weiss’s reported hiring at CBS News is the latest example of corporate media capitulating to Trump.

thebarbedwire.com

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The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 1d

Texans will vote on 17 constitutional amendments on Nov. 4.

Here’s the ballot in plain English: If you’re wealthy, the state promises to protect your fortune. For everyone else, there’s small perks, patriotic gestures, and pothole-filling promises.
thebarbedwire.com/2025/10/07/t...

Texas Is Asking Voters to Protect the Rich and Punish the Poor. Will They Do It?

Among 17 potential constitutional amendments, voters will be deciding the fate of corporate welfare and inherited wealth.

thebarbedwire.com

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Chicago Sun-Times @chicago.suntimes.com · 2d

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed.
trib.al/9Sxu9IN

Attorney for woman shot by Border Patrol claims officer said 'Do something b-----' before shooting

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government's claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed. A judge ordered Martinez and a co-defendant released pending trial.

trib.al

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steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 2d

Do any of you happen to live in Lubbock

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 2d

perhaps the biggest story TFPever ran was a catastrophically shoddy argument that George Floyd ackshully died of an overdose. When confronted with irrefutable evidence that the piece was simply wrong, Weiss didn’t take it down, she asked her critic, @radleybalko.bsky.social, to come on a podcast.

max tani @maxtani.bsky.social · 2d

David Ellison’s note to staff on Paramount’s acquisition of the Free Press

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Kristina Cooke @kristinacooke.bsky.social · 4d

I spoke to a Venezuelan woman who was arrested in this raid and later released with her 4yo son. She said agents broke down their door, pointed guns at them and made sexualized remarks about Venezuelan women. When she returned to her apartment it was boarded up and all her possessions were gone.

Ted Hesson @tedhesson.bsky.social · 4d

US Border Patrol raid sweeps in citizens, families as Chicago crackdown intensifies, w/ @reneehickman.bsky.social @kristinacooke.bsky.social www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...

US Border Patrol raid sweeps in citizens, families as Chicago crackdown intensifies

U.S. Border Patrol agents deployed to Chicago led a late-night raid on an apartment building this week, rappelling from helicopters onto rooftops and breaking down doors in an operation authorities said targeted gang members but which swept up U.S. citizens and families.

www.reuters.com

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Ian Carrillo @iansociologo.bsky.social · 5d

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Why Underachievers Dominate Secret Police Organizations: Evidence from Autocratic Argentina
Adam Scharpf and Christian Gläßel

Autocrats depend on a capable secret police. Anecdotal evidence, however, often characterizes agents as surprisingly mediocre in skill and intellect. To explain this puzzle, this article focuses on the career incentives underachieving individuals face in the regular security apparatus. Low-performing officials in hierarchical organizations have little chance of being promoted or filling lucrative positions. To salvage their careers, these officials are willing to undertake burdensome secret police work. Using data on all 4,287 officers who served in autocratic Argentina (1975-83), we study biographic differences between secret police agents and the entire recruitment pool. We find that low-achieving officers were stuck within the regime hierarchy, threatened with discharge, and thus more likely to join the secret police for future benefits. The study demonstrates how state bureaucracies breed mundane career concerns that produce willing enforcers and cement violent regimes. This has implications for the understanding of autocratic consolidation and democratic breakdown.

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Nicole Rizzuto @fluentisona.bsky.social · 7d

40 people from 7500 South Shore is an insane amount of people. This is one apartment building, in a neighborhood that is 93% Black, with ICE attacking people sent here by the Texas governor 2 years ago.

The TRiiBE @thetriibe.com · 7d

NEW — An estimated 40 people were taken by federal agents in an overnight raid in South Shore, a predominantly-Black neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side.

A couple who live nearby said they were shocked to see the enormous militarized raid in their community.

thetriibe.com/2025/09/feds...

Feds detain dozens of immigrants in 'massive' South Shore apartment building raid in Chicago • The TRiiBE

An estimated 40 people were taken by federal agents in the course of the overnight raid in the predominately-Black neighborhood.

thetriibe.com

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steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 6d

Texas billionaires rejoice

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 6d

Bari Weiss is set to be named the editor in chief of CBS News, the New York Post reports

Paramount Skydance is poised to name Bari Weiss as editor in chief of CBS News in the coming days — giving the hard-charging journalist unusual clout to revamp the struggling network as it also acquires her scrappy news site the Free Press, The Post has learned.

Weiss — a 41-year-old former New York Times opinion writer who has built the Free Press into a buzzworthy site with a contrarian bent — is expected to be named to the top post in a Monday announcement, although the talks are in flux and the timing could change, a source close to the situation said.

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steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 6d

When I get carded at the bar

An image of the viral meme guy who always posts videos of himself with captions that say "36-year-old man who looks 17" but he absolutely looks like he is 42

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 6d

Surreal moment for America. Needless to say, if the normal police ever pulled something like this — pulling every single person out of an apartment building and handcuffing them to run warrant checks — they would be sued into oblivion.

Yet ICE is going to get away with it entirely.

"It was scary, because I had never had a gun in my face," Fisher said. "They asked my name and my date of birth and asked me, did I have any warrants? And I told them, 'No, 'Ididn't."
Fisher said she was handcuffed before being released around 3 a.m., and she was told that if anyone had any kind of warrant out for them, even if it was unrelated to immigration, they would not be released.

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steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 7d

It all goes toward the same goal — helping me expose fascists

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