by liberal japonicus
This is the second post from this podcast by Hasan Minaj, with the transcript for the podcast linked here. Jacob Soboroff’s second book is Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster and he recounts a very strange anecdote that has been knocking around in my head.
Minaj pulls out these details from the book, and this story is that Soboroff is originally from the Palisades, which was ground zero for the LA wildfires. He and his family had moved away, but when the fires started, he immediately went there to report and this LATimes article talks about it.
He has a lot of interesting anecdotes and points, but the one that I can’t shake is this. The Palisades is next to Santa Monica, which is Stephen Miller’s hometown and while he is reporting on the fires, he gets contacted by Katie Miller, Stephen Miller’s wife, asking him to check on the house of her in-laws, Stephen Miller’s parents, which is in the Palisades. Soboroff and Katie Miller were not in any way friends and in fact, Katie Miller was a flak for Homeland Security and after Soboroff’s reporting on family separation, they were on the outs. So Soboroff was pretty surprised that Katie Miller reached out to him.
He goes to the parent’s home and it has been destroyed and he let her know that. I’ll let Soboroff take it from here.
And like many friends of mine, she asked, can I go check on their house to see that I was the only person that she knew that was there? And she asked me to go look. And I did. And their house burned down and I let her know. And frankly, I felt awful for them and devastated and sad. And I thought, in a way, maybe this is going to be that olive branch that allows us to see these types of disasters and have a shared sense of humanity and to feel like we were in this together. But she had just been appointed to work for Elon Musk at Doge. And within, I think hours, both Donald Trump and Elon Musk were tweeting misinformation and disinformation about the fires. And it did the opposite of have a thawing effect with Katie. And in fact, in the long run, when it was an arsonist that was announced to have started the fire that became the Palisades fire, you know, she’s tweeting cheekily about, oh, I thought it was climate change. It didn’t do anything for all of us to see things in a common way.
They go on to talk about it more, but to me, this sounds like textbook sociopathy. The Manual of Mental Disorders lists it as Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD), which is a “pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others” and this sounds exactly right, except for the fact that the anti- in antisocial has a hard time when you have whatever percentage you have who are willing to cheer Orange Douche on. Both Adorno and Bauman talked about the notion of negative ethics, where good and bad were swapped. When I read the anecdote of Katie Miller and it just seemed to be of a piece.
Seamus Healey wrote The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles’ Philoctetes and the end has often been quoted, but this story reminds me of the beginning:
Heroes. Victims. Gods and human beings.
All throwing shapes, every one of them
Convinced he’s in the right, all of them glad
To repeat themselves and their every last mistake,
No matter what.
People so deep into
Their own self-pity, self-pity buoys them up.
People so staunch and true, they’re fixated,
Shining with self-regard like polished stones.
And their whole life spent admiring themselves
For their own long-suffering.
Licking their wounds
And flashing them around like decorations.
Even if the DHS budget gets slashed, what would stop His Orangeness to just transfer funds from elsewhere*? Iirc he already does so in other places** and SCOTUS has essentially said that nothing can be done about it
“Defense” will get its usual boost, so it’s not as if there is no money available.
and refuses to spend funds Congress has specified for use.
Historically the President can’t repurpose funds except under very specific conditions that Congress has put into statute. So far, Trump’s minions have been careful to at least make a case that such repurposings meet one of Congress’ conditions. Depressing thought — if the Dems retake Congress this year, it seems possible that sometime in the next two years the SCOTUS will actually say that Congress can’t specify purposes for their appropriations.
Trump’s proposed budget gives Defense a 50% boost, from a bit under a trillion dollars to a trillion-and-a-half. Battleships ain’t cheap, you know. In point of fact, the Pentagon has no idea how to spend a trillion-and-a-half dollars per year; it will take them at least a few years to ramp up to that.
Impoundment was settled in the 1970s while Nixon was in office. The SCOTUS will probably revisit the subject. I expect them to rule that it’s a political matter and deny that anyone has standing to bring the case.
I think the answer to your question, Hartmut, is “nothing.” Or tRump’s own mind, which is more or less the same answer if you get my drift.
They should still do it, though. Let the pressure mount.
What hairshirt said.
If the (D)’s actually manage to turn off the DHS money, Trump et al will (a) bit h and moan and write a million Truth Social posts about it and (b) try to find a way around it.
They might be successful with (b).
But do it anyway. Do whatever is available.
To expand on what russell said: absolutely slash DHS (or, at minimum, ICE) funding. The administration may invent some way around that, and spend the money anyway. But if the funding isn’t cut, they will definitely spend it.
So it’s a chance (whether large or tiny) of accomplishing something vs no chance at all. Easy choice.
“There’s An Emergency!” is getting a lot of work done for TrumpCo right now. if the funding is cut, Trump will declare an emergency of some kind and pull funding from whichever program will hurt Dems the most.
do. whatever. is. available.
the (D)’s are minority but they are not utterly without any power. use what you have.
the sternly worded letters are not working.
This (the reaction of the Minneapolis public) is rather inspiring. You could say it’s an example of Moral Sanity:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/01/minneapolis-uprising/685755/?gift=cx0iluuWx4Cg7JjlT8ugCZ3XpunvY7eUEOPAgaybJ3M&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
From where I stood, a few yards back from the scrum last Wednesday afternoon, it looked, at best, to be a savage caricature of our national divide: On one side, militarized men demanded respect at the butt of a gun; on the other, angry protesters screamed for justice.
But behind the violence in Minneapolis—captured in so many chilling photographs in recent weeks—is a different reality: a meticulous urban choreography of civic protest. You could see traces of it in the identical whistles the protesters used, in their chants, in their tactics, in the way they followed ICE agents but never actually blocked them from detaining people. Thousands of Minnesotans have been trained over the past year as legal observers and have taken part in lengthy role-playing exercises where they rehearse scenes exactly like the one I witnessed. They patrol neighborhoods day and night on foot and stay connected on encrypted apps such as Signal, in networks that were first formed after the 2020 killing of George Floyd.
***
Avalos told me that 65,000 people have received the training, most of them since December. “We started in a very different tone; it was preventive,” she said. Now, after Good’s death, “people are understanding the stakes in a different way.”
So it’s a chance (whether large or tiny) of accomplishing something vs no chance at all. Easy choice.
But do it anyway. Do whatever is available.
That is asking Trump to deploy the military for immigration enforcement without actually asking him, IMO. Or is that the point? Push escalation until the revolution?
bc,
Not really cool combining two people’s comments (and removing the context) to make your point.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion. And we can’t all spend our lives trying to figure out WTF Trump is going to do on a given day.
The point is to get DHS to stop beating the shit out of people, breaking into their homes, and shooting them.
Clear?
First, I’m not sure holding funding for DHS until they stop acting like the Gestapo counts as “escalation”.
“Escalation” is when People Like Me start shooting back. Which is not on the calendar.
And I’m really not interested in hearing anything about “escalation” from any conservative voice, at all, right now and probably for the forseeable future.
You’re a conservative, get your freaking Congress people to stop giving these freaks the space to destroy this country.
Thank you.
Accept the beating gracefully or it’s your fault.
lj: my bad. I meant to put a divider there. Still, I thought (and think) the context is obvious and I wasn’t being disrespectful. I will use my best MLA/Bluebook from here on out.
Forgive me for being unable to understand. What do you see being accomplished by giving Trump what he asks for? How often is appeasement a successful strategy for dealing with a bully?
bc, thanks, appreciate it.
bc,
Let’s hear your own suggestions. What do you think should be done about ICE, CBP, and the rest of those federal “agents”? And by who?
Or do you think nothing needs to be done?
–TP
russell:
You’re a conservative, get your freaking Congress people to stop giving these freaks the space to destroy this country.
And this is where we part company on this issue. Dehumanizing either side gets us nowhere. I don’t see the situation as black and white as you do.
wjca:
What do you see being accomplished by giving Trump what he asks for?
My point is that by defunding ICE, you do give Trump what I think (I’m doing a bit of mind reading here) you fear: that he will militarize the response. Insurrection Act, Alien Enemies Act, etc. Without ICE, you’d have to take agents from the border and there is a limit to that. Defund DHS completely, you lose the Border Patrol (and TSA and the Secret Service too). Trump, OTOH, is still Commander in Chief. He can call up the guard or maybe even the Arctic Angels.
Trump wants state and local cooperation in rounding up the illegal aliens, especially those convicted or charged with serious crimes. Sanctuary cities/counties/states are actively resisting the enforcement of federal law. Those that think the obstruction isn’t part of and the cause of much of the violence (and intentionally so) are naive IMO.
Take the resistance far enough and what you end up with may not what you bargained for. Or maybe some are bargaining for that response in search of the revolution.
ICE is broken.
it’s not making anyone safer. it’s killing US citizens, injuring them, throwing them in jail. “conservatives” have been cheerleading this for a year.
and they’ll be fine if he pretends the ’emergency’ isn’t something he created, for ratings, and sends in the military.
Trump just said: “With that being said, you can’t have guns. You can’t walk in with guns. You just can’t. You can’t walk in with guns. You can’t do that. But it’s just a very unfortunate incident.”
and Republicans are going to be fine with that. oh sure, some will grumble while they figure out a way to explain it away, but none of them are going to actually do anything meaningful.
Republicans are killing this country.
“And this is where we part company on this issue.”
I can live with that.
What I would submit for your consideration is that some people dehumanize themselves. I don’t have to lift a finger.
Comport yourself like a sociopath and eventually people are gonna consider you to be a sociopath.
“My point is that by defunding ICE, you do give Trump what I think (I’m doing a bit of mind reading here) you fear”
The reality is that DHS has all the money they will ever realistically need, and more, in the bank already. The BBB gave them $178 billion, $30B for ops and $45B for detention. The DHS piece of the current package is $64 billion, with about $10 billion for ICE.
So they’ll be okay unless they keep spending like a bunch of drunken sallors on shore leave. They just delivered a couple dozen brand spanking new SUVs to the ICE facility near me, so I think they’re all set for a while.
None of which likely has any bearing on whether Trump sends the military into US cities. If he wants to and thinks he can get away with it, he’ll find a reason. Or no reason.
The man does whatever the f*** pops into his head on any given day, unless and until somebody tells him no. So let’s tell him no, whenever that opportunity presents itself.
Also, too:
“Sanctuary cities/counties/states are actively resisting the enforcement of federal law.”
You’re gonna have to show some receipts on that one.
Trump wants state and local cooperation in rounding up the illegal aliens, especially those convicted or charged with serious crimes. Sanctuary cities/counties/states are actively resisting the enforcement of federal law.
Seriously? I doubt you will find a single official, in any sanctuary city or county or state, who would have any problem at all at all with those convicted of serious crimes being picked up and deported. What they object to, and actively resist, are armed (and untrained) thugs rampaging around their population.
They might not be enthused about rounding up people who had committed no crime beyond coming here illegally. But that’s not what’s happening. People who are here legally, who have followed the law to the letter, are being grabbed, roughed up, and deported — deported to, be it noted, countries other than the one they are from, even half way around the world.
For that matter US citizens are getting picked up, shackled,, and hauled across the country for interrogation (without any chance for the legal representation they are entitled to). And then left to get home at their own expense.**
In short, any claim that Trump (or Miller or Noem) has the least interest in legal status is simply not supported by the facts.
As for defunding ICE, at this point I’m not seeing anything less which will work. ICE is basically going to have to be cleared out completely and rebuilt from scratch. There are sure to be some few longstanding employees who should then be rehired. Some. But anyone hired in the last year should never work there again. (And, IMHO, never work in anything resembling law enforcement at any level ever again. All the way down to private security.)
** Far more than the number (citizens and non-citizens alike) who have simply been murdered.
bc – My point is that by defunding ICE, you do give Trump what I think (I’m doing a bit of mind reading here) you fear: that he will militarize the response.
He’s already done that when he mobilized the National Guard and deployed them in LA. We’ve seen that line crossed before. The people protesting aren’t acting on pollyanna instincts. We’ve seen what the response could look like.
We’ve also seen what they will do if funds are withheld. But the fact that withholding funding won’t stop this administration doesn’t mean that there is no point in doing it. The Democrats in congress have to choose if they would rather be seen as having stood up to this wave of federal violence against their communities, or if they want to be seen as resignedly accepting that this administration and their enablers in congress and the courts will not be deterred.
Sanctuary cities/counties/states are actively resisting the enforcement of federal law. Those that think the obstruction isn’t part of and the cause of much of the violence (and intentionally so) are naive IMO.
The idea that if they are defied it will provoke a more violent response, and that the response is then the defiers’ fault is what you see in the family members growing up with an abuser in authority. The abuser only wants to help the family. If everyone just did what he asked then no one would get hurt. Why do you keep provoking him?
The only ways to break that cycle are to leave the abuser or to stand up, knowing that the violence will happen, but also knowing that when it does it’s no one’s fault but the abuser’s.
The narrative has to be broken before the cycle can be broken.
Take the resistance far enough and what you end up with may not what you bargained for. Or maybe some are bargaining for that response in search of the revolution.
What revolutionaries and battered family members bargain for is a chance for some change in an unlivable situation – hostage to the threat of violence. They choose to resist knowing what is likely coming.
I’ve been teaching classes about war and civil unrest long enough to not have any illusions about what could happen.
bc: Dehumanizing either side gets us nowhere.
When I hear you saying that to any of Noem, Homan, Bovino, Miller, Leavitt, or even some random MAGA congressman, I will accept that you’re engaged in something other than Trumpologetics.
While we wait, I ask again: what do you think should be done about ICE? Or do you think nothing needs to be done?
–TP
Maybe if russell used “domestic terrorists” instead of “freaks,” we wouldn’t be discussing dehumanization. The former is clearly acceptable.
Every word of what wj said 2 hours ago, and what nous says too. The extraordinary numbers of people showing valid US citizenship ID or proof that they’re already legally in the system, which is completely ignored, makes a mockery of any suggestion that this is about criminal or illegal immigration. Not to mention the concentration on blue states. This is a vindictive campaign to retaliate against states who didn’t go for Trump, and throw the red meat of “illegal” “criminal” “immigrants” to his bloodthirsty base, who are lapping it up. It’s just a miracle that brave protesters with phones are providing evidence at the risk of their lives, and that Trump’s people are so obviously incompetent and unfit (Noem, Bovino etc) that this is cutting through to the non-brainwashed and even the NRA, and that Renee Good and Pretti were “relatable” white people.
Cross posted with Tony P and hsh. What they said as well.
ICE has set quotas, and it is easier to fulfill those with non-criminals who’re naive enough to trust in the system (and e.g. show up when called upon for hearings etc.) Parents are also easier to get through their children (either the parents get arrested when they come to take home their kids from school or kindergarten or the kids get arrested and used has hostages to lure out the parents).
Which reminds me of Ephraim Kishon. He (being a Jew) was hiding in Budapest at the end of WW2. When the Red Army arrived, he like many others came out to greet them as liberators and found himself arrested and marched in the direction of Siberia. The Soviet general had a quota of prisoners to report to Stalin and took anyone he could get. All the Nazis had gone into hiding, so they were mostly safe. Kishon managed to escape during the march and later heard that in his place a farmer got taken right from his field to get the already reported numbers correct again.
And, further to my Atlantic link up thread which I called Moral Sanity, Josh Marshall has just pinged into my inbox with this, also from the Atlantic, on the same subject:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/the-neighbors-defending-minnesota-from-ice/685769/?gift=cx0iluuWx4Cg7JjlT8ugCVq2vs66WsP3aEH6Mssk-Ig&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
I guess I’d also like to comment on the whole accelerationist / looking for the revolution thing.
Here are my politics:
I affirm the commonwealth with a small-r republican form of government as my own idea of the best available form of government. In Lincoln’s formulation, a government of, by, and for the people. And I think in general, at least for certain definitions of “the people”, that’s what the sainted founders tried to establish, and they did a pretty good job considering the conditions under which they were working. Which is to say, basically in a contentious social and political climate and while at war. And I think we’ve been trying to expand the definition of “the people” since then, with some success, and at some significant cost.
I also affirm the ideas presented by Locke in the 2nd Treatise on Government. We’re born with certain inherent rights, but in the absence of society – which is to say government – we’re on our own to defend those rights. And as a result, the strong take what they want and the less strong suffer what they must. So we have governments. And because there are lots of different kinds of people, almost anything a government does will piss off some of those people. So, assuming a government that is remotely representative of the people governed, we accept that there be some limitations on what we can and cannot do – some limitations on the exercise of our inherent rights – in the interest of not living in a world of warlords.
That’s my political manifesto, FWIW.
You have to go back at least 50 years – Vietnam War days – to find people “on the left” who had any interest in anything resembling revolution.
Over the last 30 years at least, the people who have been unwilling to abide by the basic social contract I described above have all been on the right. The people who have consisted threated the lives of People Like Me if they don’t get their way, all on the right. The people organizing themselves into unaccountable militias – private unaccountable armies – are all on the right. The people engaging in political violence and terror, not all on the right, but overwhelmingly on the right.
And most recently, the people who engaged in a deliberate scheme to overturn a lawful election, all on the right. And I am talking not just about the J6 rioters, although they most certainly are included. But also people in government, including people who are in Congress as I write this.
I won’t even get into the current POTUS’ fanciful understandings of, and disrespect for, the institutions that have allowed this country to persist as something resembling a republic for 250 years.
So I am not interested in, as Paul Simon had it, hints and allegations that people like me are trying to spur on some kind of revolution. We are holding on by our fingertips hoping this republic survives the next three years.
I hope I make myself clear.
I apologize for the belligerent tone of my last few comments. I wake up every day wondering what fresh hell awaits, and trying to get my head around the idea that somebody like our current POTUS not only holds that office, but does so with the support of a significant percent of the population. I have utterly lost respect for the Republican party and the soi-disant “conservative movement” as it currently exists, and also for a lot of people I know personally, because as far as I can tell they have no regard whatsoever for the institutions and traditions of this country. And saying that brings me no pleasure whatsoever. And all of that puts me in a truly foul mood, one which I do not enjoy and would be glad to be rid of.
But nonetheless, here we are.
What is going on now is utter bullshit. If you are offended by my referring to the likes of Miller, Noem, Patel, et al as “freaks”, pick another word. Sociopaths. Corrupt lickspittles. Whores to power. Opportunistic sycophants to a sick, sad, increasingly demented old man.
They are deeply and profoundly corrupt, starting with Trump, and they are destroying this nation. We’re rich and have a formidable military, so we’ll survive in some form, but our standing in the world will be diminished for at least a generation, and our cohesion as a polity is in tatters.
So yes, I am pissed off. Thank you all for your patience.
And most recently, the people who engaged in a deliberate scheme to overturn a lawful election, all on the right. And I am talking not just about the J6 rioters, although they most certainly are included.
I note this also. The number of examples of actual election fraud (voting dead peoples mail in ballots, etc.) is microscopic. BUT, the vast majority of those have been people on the right….