This is quite the frightening thread.

When the Well Is Dry: How Water Fuels Violence and Shapes Peace When the Well Is Dry: How Water Fuels Violence and Shapes Peace [Gleick, Peter] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. When the Well Is Dry: How Water Fuels Violence and Shapes Peace

Some personal news!
I've written a new book, on the threat of violence over #water and how to move from conflict to cooperation.
It'll be released in November, but it's now available for pre-order!
"When the Well is Dry: How Water Fuels Violence and Shapes Peace"
www.amazon.com/When-Well-Dr...

In Case of Emergency: The Dubious Legality of Trump Allies' Draft EO Conservative activists say that declaring a national emergency would allow Trump to assert sweeping authority over elections. They're wrong.

NEW: Right-wing activists are circulating a draft executive order that purports to give Trump sweeping power over federal elections.

@mollyroberts.bsky.social and I got new details on the activists, lawyers, and conspiracy theorists behind the proposed order:

www.lawfaremedia.org/article/in-c...

The administration plans to claim that "China interfered in the 2020 election as a basis to declare a national emergency that would unlock extraordinary presidential power"—mandating voter ID and banning mail-in ballots.

The premise, it almost goes without saying, is a total lie. trib.al/ofsnVi2

Exclusive: DHS based its newest refugee attack on a Trump proclamation that stated it would not apply to refugees New documents filed in a key refugee case in Minnesota shed light on a broad, aggressive plan to review all refugees admitted since the start of the Biden administration.

EXCLUSIVE: DHS based its newest refugee attack on a Trump proclamation that stated it would not apply to refugees.

New documents filed in a key refugee case in Minnesota shed light on a broad, aggressive plan to review all refugees admitted since the start of the Biden administration.

Law Dork:

There is No Scientific Justification to Revoke the Endangerment Finding The U.S. EPA's decision to repeal the Endangerment Finding will limit the government's ability to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

As I say here, there is no scientific justification to revoke the engagement finding. In fact, over the last 15+ yrs, the evidence of how climate change affects our health has only grown. Higher risk of allergies, dementia, fertility, heart disease, and death: that’s what’s on the line. @nature.org

we need to talk about that Ring Super Bowl ad

1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken.

Hundreds of kids are still detained.

We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵

American Conversations: Senator Ron Wyden YouTube video by Heather Cox Richardson

Sen. Ron Wyden is “following the money” trail on Epstein. This is one of the most informative interviews I’ve ever watched by Professor Richardson. Rated “Wow!”
@hcrichardson.bsky.social

www.youtube.com/live/FMmhGzZ...

We might not like it, but I suspect it's correctly legally since it targets a specific group of mask-wearers. I believe the judge upheld the ID part of the law.

"On December 2, 1783, then-Commander-in-Chief George Washington penned: “America is open to receive not only the Opulent & respected Stranger, but the oppressed & persecuted of all Nations & Religions.”1 More than two centuries later, Congress reaffirmed President Washington’s vision by establishing the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. See 8 U.S.C. § 1254a (TPS statute). It provides humanitarian relief to foreign nationals in the United States who come from disaster-stricken countries. It also brings in substantial revenue, with TPS holders generating $5.2 billion in taxes annually. See Part VI. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem has a different take. [screenshot of tweet].

So says the official responsible for overseeing the TPS program. And one of those (her word) “damn” countries is Haiti. Relevant here, three days before making the above post, Secretary Noem announced she would terminate Haiti’s TPS designation as of February 3, 2026. See 90 Fed. Reg. 54733 (Nov. 28, 2025) (Termination). Plaintiffs are five Haitian TPS holders. They are not, it emerges, “killers, leeches, or entitlement junkies.” They are instead: Fritz Emmanuel Lesly Miot, a neuroscientist researching Alzheimer’s disease, Dkt. 90 (Second Am. Compl. (SAC)) ¶ 1; Rudolph Civil, a software engineer at a national bank, id. ¶ 2; Marlene Gail Noble, a laboratory assistant in a toxicology department, id. ¶ 3; Marica Merline Laguerre, a college economics major, id. ¶ 4; and Vilbrun Dorsainvil, a full-time registered nurse, id. ¶ 5. They claim that Secretary Noem’s decision violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. § 706(2), and the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Government counters that the Court does not have jurisdiction, and, in any case, the Secretary did not violate the law. Plaintiffs seek to stay the Secretary’s decision under 5 U.S.C. § 705 pending the outcome of this litigation. See Dkt. 81 (§ 705 Mot.). To decide their motion, the Court considers first whether it has jurisdiction. It does. See Part II. It then considers: whether Plaintiffs have a substantial likelihood of success on the merits; whether they will be irreparably harmed absent a stay; and whether a merged balance of the equities and public interest analysis favors a stay. See Part III. Each element favors Plaintiffs. See Parts IV, V, and VI. Plaintiffs charge that Secretary Noem preordained her termination decision and did so because of hostility to nonwhite immigrants. This seems substantially likely. Secretary Noem

has terminated every TPS country designation to have reached her desk—twelve countries up, twelve countries down. See Section IV.A.2. Her conclusion that Haiti (a majority nonwhite country) faces merely “concerning” conditions cannot be squared with the “perfect storm of suffering” and “staggering” “humanitarian toll” described in page-after-page of the Certified Administrative Record (CAR). See Section IV.A.3.a. She ignored Congress’s requirement that she “review the conditions” in Haiti only “after” consulting “with appropriate agencies.” 8 U.S.C. § 1254a(b)(3)(A); see Section IV.A.1. Indeed, she did not consult other agencies at all. See id. Her “national interest” analysis focuses on Haitians outside the United States or here illegally, ignoring that Haitian TPS holders already live here, and legally so. See Section IV.A.3.b. And though she states that the analysis must include “economic considerations,” she ignores altogether the billions Haitian TPS holders contribute to the economy. See id. The Government’s primary response is that the TPS statute gives the Secretary unbounded discretion to make whatever determination she wants, any way she wants. And, yes, the statute does grant her some discretion. But not unbounded discretion. To the contrary, Congress passed the TPS statute to standardize the then ad hoc temporary protection system—to replace executive whim with statutory predictability. See Section I.A. As to irreparable harm, the Government contends that, at most, the harms to Haitian TPS holders are speculative. But the Department of State (State) warns [screenshot]

Dkt. 100 (§ 705 Reply) at 20–21.4 “Do not travel to Haiti for any reason” does not exactly scream, as Secretary Noem concluded, suitable for return. And so, the Government studiously does not argue that Plaintiffs will suffer no harm if removed to Haiti. Instead, it argues Plaintiffs will not certainly suffer irreparable harm because DHS might not remove them. But this fails to take Secretary Noem at her word: “WE DON’T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.” See Section IV.B.2.b. Finally, the balance of equities and public interest favor a stay. The Government does not cite any reason termination must occur post haste. Secretary Noem complains of strains unlawful immigrants place on our immigration-enforcement system. Her answer? Turn 352,959 lawful immigrants into unlawful immigrants overnight. She complains of strains to our economy. Her answer? Turn employed lawful immigrants who contribute billions in taxes into the legally unemployable. She complains of strains to our healthcare system. Her answer? Turn the insured into the uninsured. This approach is many things—in the public interest is not one of them. For the reasons below, the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs’ Renewed Motion for a Stay Under 5 U.S.C. § 705, Dkt. 81.

Even if you don't have time to read all 83 pages of Judge Reyes's opinion barring the Trump administration from rescinding Temporary Protected Status for 350,000+ Haitians, please at least check out the four-page introduction.

It's a tour de force:

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Note from the editors: ProPublica is publishing the names of the two federal immigration agents involved in the fatal shooting of Minnesota protester Alex Pretti. We believe there are few investigations that deserve more sunlight and public scrutiny than this one, in which two masked agents fired 10 shots at Pretti as he lay on the ground after being pepper-sprayed. The Department of Justice said it is investigating the incident, but the names of the two agents have been withheld from Congress and from state and local law enforcement. The policy of shielding officers’ identities, particularly after a public shooting, is a stark departure from standard law enforcement protocols, according to lawmakers, state attorneys general and former federal officials. Such secrecy, in our view, deprives the public of the most fundamental tool for accountability.

A note from our editors:

Screenshot of an X.com post by The Associated Press (@AP) stating that dozens of immigrant families protested for better treatment behind fences at a Texas detention facility, where a 5-year-old Ecuadorian boy and his father were sent after being detained in Minnesota. Below is a video thumbnail showing a crowd gathered outdoors along a fenced walkway; many people wear bright blue or red outerwear, and some hold signs.

After being held in two of them as a boy, I fought for decades urging America to never again build concentration camps and put human beings in them. It breaks my heart to watch this happen twice now in my own lifetime.

It's not quite the most pressing issue at the moment, but the American people absolutely have a right to know the names of the federal officials who shot and killed a man peacefully protesting, who was on his knees, prone in the street when they shot him in the back.

They ‘Had Done Everything Right.’ ICE Detained Them Anyway.

We profiled refugees who:

Arrived in the country legally.

Applied for green cards.

Were arrested by ICE and detained.

One refugee who was arrested found out they got their green card after being released.

This is an unprecedented operation.

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/u...

Walz: "To Americans who are watching this, I've got a question for you: What side do you want to be on? The side of an all powerful federal govt that can kill, injury, menace, & kidnap its citizens off the streets? Or on the side of a nurse at the VA hospital who died bearing witness to such govt?"

This led to a TRO by the end of the night.

I cover the TRO at Law Dork — and all of the quick-moving legal action on Saturday that followed the ICE killing of Alex Pretti: www.lawdork.com/p/the-ice-ki...

guys minneapolis is a living hell today. they've tear-gassed so many people, tear-gassed a park, beaten people up in front of me. greg bovino is rolling around to gas stations and posing in front of them, trying to cause a riot.

Recently I've been spending some time with pro-democracy leaders from other countries organizing against national strongmen. Their stories of organizing against authoritarians are eerily familiar. Among the many clear takeaways: stand up to bullies and go on offense because defense doesn’t win.

Trump administration concedes DOGE team may have misused Social Security data Some DOGE personnel had more access to data than previously acknowledged, according to a court filing.

👇👇👇👇👇👇

"Two members of Elon Musk’s DOGE team at the Social Security Administration were secretly in touch with a group seeking to 'overturn election results in certain states,' and one signed an agreement that may have involved using Social Security data..."

www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

Source? The post has a photo but no verification?

FBI opened probe on Minneapolis shooting; none exists now, Justice Dept. says After the death of Renée Good in Minneapolis, FBI agents launched a civil rights probe into the shooting. The Justice Department says no such case now exists.

"In the immediate aftermath of the death of Renée Good in Minneapolis... an FBI agent in Minnesota conducted an initial review of the shooting and determined that sufficient grounds existed to open a probe into the actions of the officer who shot Good..."

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

This is the entire shebang right here. THE MILITARY CANNOT SOLVE THIS PROBLEM. If Congress won't provide oversight, it falls to Flag Officers to make them understand the nature of the situation, by resigning en mass if necessary.

Who among them will live up to the values of their profession?

Danish Parliament Deputy Speaker Lars-Christian Brask:

"If I could come with some advice, it would be for the Senate & House to start to take control of political power in America because with this erratic & mad behaviour, you have to ask the question, is the President capable of running the US?"

abcnews.go.com/US/lawyers-a...

Photo by Pierre Lavie. Yes this is me. And I threw my Leica. It landed on the bass plate with hardly a scratch. Another Photographer grabbed it along with my phone and I was able to track him later. I was held face down tear gas deployed right in front of me and pepper sprayed directly into the eye.

There’s a Key Reason Why Trump Hasn’t Invoked the Insurrection Act Yet The president’s position is an extraordinary threat to free speech and state sovereignty.

Super illuminating conversation with the great @stevevladeck.bsky.social about what's holding Trump back from invoking the Insurrection Act and what happens if he pulls the trigger: slate.com/news-and-pol...

The state ACLU in Minnesota has sued the federal government and accused agencies of racial profiling and illegal stops in its ongoing immigration crackdown.

Richard Warnica: I spent the week in Minnesota. The only thing I’m sure of now is that more people are going to die As confrontations between ICE and protestors and activists grow more common, the tension only rises.

"If you want to investigate fraud, bring an accountant,” Stancil, a Democratic activist and education policy adviser told me as we drove around ... The ICE agents in Minnesota don’t look like accountants. They look like soldiers. And you don’t bring soldiers unless you want to fight a war."

Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.

Common Sense, published 250 years ago today.