State of the Discussion

If I were to formulate a hunch about "Yonaguni," I'd say that there are a few different synergies at work there. Given El Conejo Malo's gender fluidity, we might consider how Yonaguni, as a feminine coded island holding of Japan might stand in for a similar dynamic between Puerto Rico and the US.

Of course it also lets him cross over into the Kpop and Jpop audiences while stepping around the US (and, as you note, English language lyrics). Between reggaeton and the Asian pop scenes one could really capture an international audience and maintain a US presence all without ever having to make a single move to acknowledge the US mainstream.

...and to get ahead of any posts about quick concrete in protesters' milkshakes:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/07/how-a-dubious-claim-of-cement-milkshakes-in-portland-became-a-right-wing-meme/

There have to be plenty of officers who believe that meme, though, and will act accordingly.

Here is where I am today as regards calling a thug a thug.

This week we had folks in the Young Republicans organization telling us they love Hitler and who should be sent to the gas chanbers. The folks involved included a Vermont state Senator and the head of staff of a NY Assemblyman. The latter was the guy who "loved Hitler".

Not fringe people.

Today I see that Mike Davis, former chief counsel for Chuck Grassley, former clerk for Gorsuch, and current head of the conservative Article III Project, decided to call House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries "George Soros' house slave" in a post on X.

We also have a photo from the office of Congressman Dave Taylor, (R) Ohio, showing a picture pinned to a bulletin board with an American flag modified to include a swastika.

Plus all the ICE bullshit. Plus all the "manosphere" crap.

If you don't want to be called Nazis, don't be Nazis.
If you don't want to be associated with Nazis, don't associate with Nazis.
If you don't want to be called fascist, don't behave like a fascist regime.
If you don't want to be called thugs, don't send thugs in your employ into our cities and neighborhoods to abuse people.
If you don't want to be called misogynist, don't joke about rape being "epic".

A hit dog will holler.

I'm not interested in dialog with people who consider folks who don't look like them are some lower order of being. I don't even know where the conversation could begin.

I'm not referring to bc, I do not get that vibe from him.

But it's rampant in the right wing. Which owns the (R) party and the "conservative" name right now.

If you don't like that, you need to take it back from them. I can't do that, you can.

Clean your damned house. You have rats in the walls.

I’ll also note, for everyone’s edification, that the much more modest increase is for charges of assault. I take every one of these charges with a grain of salt.

I can't remember the specifics, but didn't the feds recently try to get someone charged for throwing a sandwich at some kind of officer (maybe not ICE) and then couldn't get the charge to stick?

I am anti-fascist. One implication of that is: I want criminals locked up, not people who the government says are criminals. Lawyers surely understand the distinction. So when bc points me to government sites which lay out accusations of doxxing, I appreciate it -- but I don't take it for granted that I'm getting the whole story there. Since I am personally in no position to "get the whole story", I am content to let courts do it. Back when Gitmo was a hot topic, I pointed out that habeas corpus is not merely a defendant's right, it's also one of mine: if the government, acting in my name, wants to lock somebody up, I want to know the reason why. Anti-anti-fascists may feel differently, of course.

Being anti-fascist does NOT mean I dismiss everything some Acting US Attorney says about any particular case. Maybe the facts ARE exactly what the "official government website" (with its "Democrats have shut down the government" banner) says they are. I get more suspicious when it comes to statistics. Have there been vastly more cases of ICE-doxxing than, say, judge-doxxing? Have more ICE agents than judges been harmed as a result of being doxxed? I don't know what "official" government statistics show, but I have a hunch the present government might fudge them a bit.

Being a layman, I can accept that The Law forbids publishing certain personal information about some categories of federal employees. Maybe that includes IRS clerks, maybe not, but either way I haven't heard about an epidemic of IRS clerks being doxxed. Running afoul of The Law by posting flyers like "This Revenuer lives in your neighborhood" doesn't seem to be worth the trouble for anybody. So maybe the doxxing of "brave" ICE agents is motivated by their high-handed brutality, not their official "duties", as others have pointed out.

BTW, as a layman, I can not claim to know what the Hatch Act has to say about partisan propaganda on "official government websites", but also as a layman I have to say: yeesh!

Being a naturalized citizen, I have to write a whole 'nother wall of text on immigration policy, but for the moment I only have time to ask: is it true or false that you have to be on US soil to ask for asylum?

--TP

I've changed it to 5 links and 28 days. I was tempted to change it to either 23 or 29 because they are prime numbers, but opted for the 4 weeks.

I've also changed the default order for comments to oldest.

If you become a subscriber, you can choose your own picture as your avatar, I've taken the liberty of adding Hartmut as a subscriber so he can show off that fine bust, which I think is Sargon the Great of Akkad.

Speaking of Akkadian, I've just discovered some more settings for the comment plugin that seem to written in language... I would like to try and get the comment box at the bottom, but is seems that this is a nod to mobile users. Gemini tells me a way to change the php file, so I'll give that a go this weekend.

I’d love to get rid of the current avatar images though. I usually use a photo of this old bronze head in other places.

WordPress is all in on Gravatar. Subscribers can specify their own profile photo, but I believe that WordPress uses that photo and the subscriber's e-mail to create a minimal Gravatar profile on their behalf.

Russell:

The waiting in line people are those waiting for consular processing (for a green card) and the quotas that apply. These are people outside the US. If you count the family preferences and business categories, I think it is around 5M. The wait times are published in the Visa Bulletin. It has gotten a lot longer lately. Some categories, especially applied to Mexico, have incredibly long wait times. Decades I think for some.

I would find something along the lines of what you suggest (5 years, no criminal record) acceptable for a starting point of discussion. I have reservations, though. Reagan's amnesty was supposed to be coupled with a secure border so as to not provide an incentive to come illegally. That didn't happen and here we are. And those coming in legally typically need an affidavit of support to prevent them from becoming public charges. How would that be accomplished here? And how to make it fair to those waiting in line? Any path to permanent residency and citizenship should be slower than the legal path and have some sort of cost to it.

Regarding ICE, I too have my concerns based on what I've seen. But the media is fanning the flames here too, methinks. The reporter arrested while "going to the bus stop" allegedly threw an unknown liquid on the officers. I watched an MSNBC compilation of uncooperative detainees and wondered whether the person being arrested had more than just a fear of being deported (as in a criminal record). Verified info would be helpful. The AP announced a Marine dad was arrested and deported while visiting Camp Pendleton. The son says no criminal record. DHS says he was ordered removed in 2005 and has a 2020 conviction for DV and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

DHS responded to the protests outside the Illinois facility with posts showing some of those arrested and countering what it says are Pritzker's "lies." Could our intrepid AP chase this down?

https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/10/15/meet-some-worst-worst-broadview-ice-facility-illinois

https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/10/06/dhs-debunks-governor-pritzkers-harmful-lies-about-operation-midway-blitz-chicago

And regarding the Burlington facility, 20% having a criminal record is pretty high IMO. The question I have is whether the remaining 80% have 1) an order of removal; 2) have been charged with a crime or 3) have any gang affiliation. Information on that would be nice. If the majority are law-abiding, hard working people not dodging an order of removal, I'd have concerns. If they are Abrego Garcia, not so much.

3 links seems too few, 5 seems like a better compromise between overly strict and being exposed to spam.

14 days is probably too short - some threads seem to want to go on longer. 21? A month? But longer than a month seems unnecessary - usually if a thread goes on that long it's because it's wandered off onto a different topic that probably deserves its own post.

Don't know what I think about the subscriber thing. What does it give you that you don't get by just walking up to the site? Not having to re-enter name and password each time would be handy, but not sure if that alone is worth the extra fuss.

My biggest ask would be to make "Oldest" the default sort order. I (personally) find it confusing to go bottom-up to follow the chronological sequence of posts. But others may prefer the current default.

As always, thank you all for keeping this place alive!

A small complaint about the current comment plugin... When I post a comment, it appears at the top of the comment list, but any comments that have been submitted since I loaded the page and the time my comment is posted do not appear. I have to refresh the page in order to see them.

Thanks GftNC, that's helpful.

About subscriber superpowers

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I'm trying to take out the up/down vote, but it's built in the plugin, so requires some buk lernin on my part.

The limit is set at 3, but it is possible to change it. Boosting it up to 10 is possible, but the reason it is not just open is that it is an easy way to try and identify spam

1 vote for longer than 14 days, any idea how much longer? You don't want it open forever because then spammers drop comments in (and my anal retentive self gets really angry when I read something and go thru the comments and find one of thos f**king spam posts there)

About information 'in the wild', some people prefer not to sign up for things. I'm not going to distribute anyone else's info, and I try to be careful, but as soon as you are making it so your commenting history can be pulled up by you, something could happen to make them available more widely. I'm not positive how much information can be seen by others, and I'm not going to just open everything up for anyone to sign up, but if people don't want to subscribe (or don't know what it means and don't do it), I don't want to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to add features for subscribers.

With the commenting plugin, there is a system for up/down voting comments. I was planning on removing that, but it is like an appendix or tonsils, where you don't mess with it unless it is causing problems.

Hi all, just a quick bts note. Nous is right, editing a comment gets it put in the spam bucket. There was also a comment from bc there which I have pulled out and posted, it was blocked because it had 3 links.

I'm making a separate post to get opinions on some things on the blog so as not to disrupt this discussion. Thanks!

If I'd known russell were responding on the doxxing thing and covering the same points I was making, I'd have saved the typing and the risk of further piling on bc.

Also, I just noticed that we can now edit our comments after posting them. Let us try our best to use these powers only for good.

Tony P. - I’d like to know more about this “doxing”. I do not trust Kristi Noem’s statements about it any more than I trust her DHS 70% statistic. Let’s hear about a few actual cases.

Not meaning to come in here and force bc to engage and defend this while outnumbered. I do think it is important to note, though, that this particular scenario does not start with people on the left being upset that the Trump administration is enforcing the immigration laws and respond by doxxing ICE agents wholesale.

It starts with ICE being given arbitrary quotas and being sent out to grab people based on language and ethnicity, and detaining and deporting people without due process.

And even with that, the few people who have actually been doxxed (as opposed to those who are afraid of being doxxed - not for enforcing the law, but for being violent while pursuing these reprehensible tactics) only ended up getting doxxed because they were the ones caught being especially, shockingly violent on video while engaging in these reprehensible tactics.

Should the public's response here be to say that all ICE agents should be allowed to wear masks so they need not fear being identified, or should it be to say that ICE needs to stop these show raids and use their enforcement power only to go after the actual criminals in a way that does not violate their right to due process? And if we protest it should be both, which of the sides of that choice should be the one we give priority to?

TP:

Indictment for three women following an ICE agent home and livestreaming it:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/federal-grand-jury-charges-three-women-following-ice-agent-home-work-and-livestreaming

DHS' announcement re Portland doxxing here:

https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/07/11/anarchists-and-rioters-portland-illegally-dox-ice-officers-and-federal-law

Note that you can actually look up the Antifa group doing this on the web and see the actual posters they were distributing. I'm not going to link to that, for obvious reasons. But I take that as verification of what Noem is saying.

Arrest of a Santa Monica man for doxxing an ICE attorney:

https://smdp.com/news/crime/santa-monica-man-arrested-for-allegedly-doxxing-ice-attorney/

One issue which may not be a vote-winner but remains vitally important is climate change.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are surging. The climate is warming. And the US president lectures the UN that the whole thing is a hoax, on the basis of exactly zero scientific understanding. He simple says what he and his voters want to believe. Perversely, he is going out of his way to increase emissions.

What we are doing to the planet really matters. What the US is doing matters a lot, because why should poorer countries restrain themselves if the US won't. It's horrible that the dangers of fascism are so acute that the threat to the climate is often not close to the forefront of our concerns.

I don't claim to know very much about illegal immigration to the USA, but it seems to me that if one genuinely wanted to attack the problem one would go after the employers, who have much more to lose than the illegal immigrants.

I'm going to guess that Trump hasn't done that. Tell me if I'm wrong.

Russell:

I appreciate the numbers view, and I agree that our country can accept a significant number of (legal) immigrants. How many is a policy decision and best made by Congress rather than having that decision made de facto by illegal immigrants.

To be clear, I am in favor of immigration and I am sympathetic to anyone trying to improve their life. I worked professionally in the immigration area years ago (pre-ICE). I too see the very real fear that is out there now. I saw that fear in downtown LA during the Reagan years around the time of amnesty and see it again today amongst the immigrant population when I visit the Pasadena area for work.

As for how this is being handled now, I agree with you to a significant degree. Depending on who you listen to, it either is or is not focusing on those we would all agree should be deported (criminal record, pending criminal charges, gang members, etc.). DHS says 70%. Other reports are much, much less. I'm strongly in favor of deporting anyone who entered without inspection with a conviction or criminal charges pending or gang association. I also think the resistance isn't helping calm things down and that to me is by design. Doxing produced masks, which engender fear and are then criticized as fascist. And on it goes.

As for the rest of those here without papers, how do you prefer those to the 5 million or so waiting in line? There are IMO far more who entered illegally already in the country. I think the numbers are underrepresented. See this MIT-Yale study before the Biden border surge estimating 22M in the country illegally (or more):

https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/yale-study-finds-twice-as-many-undocumented-immigrants-as-previous-estimates

While that study is contested by the usual think tanks (such as Pew), it seems to open up the possibility that there are a lot more than commonly believed.

Being in the United States without some kind of legal status is a civil, not a criminal, violation.

Your statement doesn't distinguish between visa overstays and entry into the US without inspection. Unless something has recently changed, my understanding is:

If you sneak across the border without inspection, you are a criminal (misdemeanor).

If you overstay your student or tourist visa, you are typically not (civil).

But if you are deported after an overstay and enter again without approval, felony. Same for those denied entry and try to enter again.

Whether or not you or I like the law, that is what I believe it is. The vast majority of the debate centers on those trying to enter without inspection, not the overstays. It also includes those here under Biden's much-expanded rules for asylum and parole, seen as illegitimate by many. Either way, we are not talking about a speeding ticket.