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“I have proposed and President Trump has concurred that this surge operation conclude.” So said border czar Tom Homan as he announced that the Trump administration is ending its immigration surge in Minnesota. Of course, we’ll have to see it to believe it. The move likely has to do with budget negotiations in Congress, the incredible resistance of everyday Minnesotans, and (mostly) the extreme damage the images out of Minneapolis have done to presidential approval ratings and recent GOP election results. Here’s the latest on the planned departure. Even if federal agents do evacuate the city, many questions remain. Will they just be redeployed to another blue city? Are we witnessing Veni, Vidi, Retreati, or Veni, Vidi, Relocati? (As Minneapolis Mayor Jaocb Frey explained, “[This surge] has been catastrophic for our neighbors and businesses ... They thought they could break us, but a love for our neighbors and a resolve to endure can outlast an occupation. These patriots of Minneapolis are showing that it’s not just about resistance — standing with our neighbors is deeply American.” Let’s just pause and consider that this is an American mayor talking about an invasion of his city by American officials.) How many of the 4,000 arrestees actually committed crimes or posed any danger to anyone? Will there be any justice for the innocent protesters who were gunned down in the streets, or will those involved just be able to take their ball and go home—or to their next domestic deployment? And what will be the next twist in this troubling American saga?
+ For an answer to that last question, you may want to tweak a famous political adage, and follow the leases: “Over the past several months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have carried out a secret campaign to expand ICE’s physical presence across the US. Documents show that more than 150 leases and office expansions have or would place new facilities in nearly every state, many of them in or just outside of the country’s largest metropolitan areas. In many cases, these facilities, which are to be used by street-level agents and ICE attorneys, are located near elementary schools, medical offices, places of worship, and other sensitive locations.” Wired: ICE Is Expanding Across the US at Breakneck Speed. Here’s Where It’s Going Next.
+ And, in case you needed one, here’s yet another reminder that many of the people who are being targeted for deportation aren’t who you think they are. NYT (Gift Article): Judge Ends Deportation Case for Mexican Father of 3 U.S. Marines. Narciso Barranco was detained while landscaping outside of an IHOP in Southern California. “At the time, the Department of Homeland Security defended the agents’ aggressive arrest, saying the agents had felt threatened by Mr. Barranco and accusing him of having raised his weed trimmer at them.” Given what we know now, I guess Narciso Barranco is lucky he’s still alive.
+ Scheduling Note: NextDraft will be off for most, and probably all, of next week, unless, you know, something really newsworthy breaks into the break.
2
Knocking Your Block Off
“We are officially terminating the so called endangerment finding, a disastrous Obama era policy. This determination had no basis in fact — none whatsoever. And it had no basis in law. On the contrary over the generations, fossil fuels have saved millions of lives and lifted billions of people out of poverty all over the world.” So said Trump, as the Environmental Protection Agency just repealed “its own conclusion that greenhouse gases warm the Earth and endanger human health and wellbeing.” EPA reverses longstanding climate change finding, stripping its own ability to regulate emissions. “If climate change law was a tower in the game Jenga, the endangerment finding would be a wooden block at the base.”
3
Sham, Slam, Thank You, Pam
“You’re siding with the perpetrators, and you’re ignoring the victims. That will be your legacy unless you act quickly to change course.” So said Rep. Jamie Raskin during an oversight hearing with Pam Bondi that devolved into a schoolyard fight. And when it comes to Bondi and the Epstein files, there are a lot of MAGA folks who would agree. But turning oversight committees into chaotic shouting matches certainly appears to be part of some bizarre strategy. To you, it probably looked like Bondi was crashing out, that the photo of her with her back toward Epstein victims was soulless, and that holding a burn book with canned personal attacks prepared for each questioner looked pathetic. But this show is for an audience of one, and the new goal in these oversight hearings is no oversight.
+ This hearing was similar to Bondi’s past performances. During the last one, the personal attacks “went for hours, a calculated performance that amounted to a giant middle finger to basic notions of decorum and accountability, leaving all sorts of questions unanswered, including a fundamental one that some of Bondi’s old friends and colleagues back home in Florida had been asking. As one of them put it to me: ‘I keep asking myself, What the f-ck happened to Pam?‘” (You could ask the same question about a lot of people these days...)
4
Five Ring Circus
In one of the mostly hotly-contested events on ice, USA’s Madison Chock and Evan Bates got edged out for ice dancing gold by the controversial duo of Beaudry and Cizeron. “The reigning European champions only teamed up last year and continue to face questions over their former partners.” Meet France’s controversial ice dance Olympic champions. The judging also proved to be controversial, driving headlines like this one: Olympic judge who cost Madison Chock and Evan Bates gold has a history of questionable scores. I’ve only been an expert in ice dancing since last night, but the winners looked pretty damn good to me. So did the silver medalists, for that matter.
+ IOC boots Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych from Olympics for wearing helmet honoring war victims.
+ Breezy Johnson gets engaged at Winter Olympics after boyfriend proposes at finish line. (The proposal came right after she crashed in her final event. If I had done something like that, I’m convinced I’d still be single.)
+ “No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.” Meet the man behind the ice.
+ “’We sell it because it works, not because it tastes good,’ says Emil Sjölander, one of Nomio’s three founders, who described that taste as ‘some combination of wood and Dijon mustard.’” WSJ (Gift Article): Olympians Can Eat All the Pasta in Italy. So Why Are They Drinking Broccoli?
5
Extra, Extra
Alef Bet: The widespread adoption of sports betting has led to several scandals involving players and coaches. But with prediction markets, you can bet on anything. Will stories like this one become the norm? “Two Israelis have been charged with using classified military information to place bets on how future events will unfold.” I covered this topic in detail yesterday. As I wrote in ‘Dict Picks, I believe the increasing popularity of prediction markets will cause a gambling addiction scourge the likes of which we’ve never seen.
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