America's Awesome: 03 July 2025. 10,000 New ICE Agents Should Scare the Hell Out of All of Us
Pride in America is down, more endless winning ➕ young heroes are awesome, MAHA maybe not so much, lots more.
10,000 New ICE Agents Should Scare the Hell Out of All of Us
INHABIT: Interesting News, Headlines, And Bullshit I’m Tracking
Good News & Nonsense
Today’s Podcast
In Closing: Civics 101, I’m Just a Bill
10,000 New ICE Agents Should Scare the Hell Out of All of Us
America’s Awesome, but the BBB is not. We’re getting 10,000 more ICE officers in the Bizarro America Cinematic Universe (BACU) and that should scare the hell out of all of us. The President and Congressional Republicans are celebrating as House sends GOP’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ to Trump’s desk in major win for Republicans. But as that goes to Don’s desk, one thing that should be concerning to all of us is that Trump’s Big Bill Is Building a Big Police State:
With more than $150 billion in outlays to expand the horrific surveillance, detention, and rendition regime created under the Laken Riley Act, the measure will carry out Trump’s pledge to make the terror wreaked by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, alongside federal and National Guard troops, in Los Angeles the standard operating procedure for immigrant roundups going forward. The scale of the proposed increases in ICE funding alone make for grim dystopian reading. As Don Moynihan notes, ICE’s annual budget for detentions would skyrocket from $3.4 billion in the present fiscal year to $45 billion until the end of the 2029 fiscal year—a 365 percent increase, and a figure that outstrips the combined funding of all 50 federal prisons.
By its own numbers, “ICE now has more than 20,000 law enforcement and support personnel in more than 400 offices in the United States and around the world” (as of 07 March). The newly passed budget bill includes “Money (that) would go for hiring 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, with $10,000 signing bonuses” (PBS). We just DOGE’d the federal workforce and now we’re hiring 10,000 new ICE officers, with $100 MILLION in signing bonuses! What are they needed for? Are they for rounding up immigrants, really? Or is this how we prepare “to detain U.S. citizens and send them to prisons in El Salvador” or wherever else they can be whisked away to?
“But here’s what they don’t understand: authoritarianism thrives in ambiguity. It requires linguistic fog to operate. It depends on our unwillingness to call things by their proper names. Every euphemism is a small surrender. Every hedge is a tiny collaboration. Every refusal to speak plainly is a gift to those who profit from confusion.” - Mike Brock, in The Moral Imperative Of Clear Language
This should scare the hell out of all of us. As Newsweek reported, “Joshua Aaron, the creator of ICEBlock, told Newsweek that he ‘knew something had to be done to help the people’ after researching Project 2025 and seeing images of ICE agents detaining people… The ICEBlock app allows users to access and update a real-time map of ICE activity across the U.S. It became the top download on the App Store in the social networking category this week.” The Administration didn’t love that. Matt Novak wrote in Gizmodo, “‘We’re working with the Department of Justice to see if we can prosecute them for that,’ Noem said of CNN. ‘Because what they’re doing is actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement activities, operations. And we’re going to actually go after them and prosecute them with the partnership of Pam if we can. Because what they’re doing, we believe, is illegal.’”
The “Homegrowns are next.” Until then, keep calling out this bullshit. RESIST. See you in Alligator Alcatraz.
Go deeper:
GOP Budget Bill Would Make ICE “Largest Federal Law Enforcement Agency in the History of the Nation”
“Arrest Now, Ask Questions Later”: Why Did L.A. ICEAgents Arrest and Jail U.S. Citizen Andrea Velez?
Key West City Commissioners vote to end police agreement with ICE. What's next? Well…
DeSantis administration threatens to punish island city that voted to end police agreement with ICE
ICEBlock, an app for anonymously reporting ICE sightings, goes viral overnight after Bondi criticism
Remember when we used to talk about closing Guantanamo? Not anymore: U.S. holding detainees from Asia, Africa and Europe at Guantanamo Bay immigration facilities and its never been Trump’s plan: Trump, reversing 2009 move, vows to keep Guantanamo open indefinitely (31 Jan 2018). Will I end up at Guantanamo or Alligator Alcatraz…?
INHABIT
National pride is declining in America. And it’s splitting by party lines, new Gallup polling shows. We’re failing the future. “Only about 4 in 10 U.S. adults who are part of Generation Z, which is defined as those born from 1997 to 2012, expressed a high level of pride in being American in Gallup surveys conducted in the past five years, on average. That’s compared with about 6 in 10 Millennials — those born between 1980 and 1996 — and at least 7 in 10 U.S. adults in older generations.” Go deeper with Gallup: American Pride Slips to New Low.
Republicans and Democrats in Secret Talks to Create a Third Party. “Disgruntled Republicans sick of being bullied by Donald Trump and Democrat centrists imperiled by the Left are secretly having conversations about forming a third party in American politics, The Swamp can exclusively reveal.” Plus, ‘A billion people backing you’: China transfixed as Musk turns against Trump Great. Really. But see Tuesday’s post: America's Awesome, 01 July 2025. Hate Trad-Party Politics? Support Ballot Access Reform.
National Guard Troops Sent To California By Trump Are Just Out There Doing Drug Busts. Martial law? Police state?
“If it looks like fascism, it’s probably not intentional. Trump simply isn’t smart enough to implement the real thing. But he does like authoritarianism, which looks a lot like fascism, because he’s always felt a president should be treated like a king — someone who answers to no one, not even his 340 million employers.” - Tim Cushing, via the link above
Nothing to see here, America. Pardoned Jan. 6 Rioter Who Threatened Police Joins Justice Dept. The pardoned rioter, a former F.B.I. agent who was charged with encouraging the mob that stormed the Capitol, is a counselor to Ed Martin, the director of the so-called weaponization committee. Background from 2023: Former FBI supervisor arrested in connection with Jan. 6 riot; Jared Wise, formerly assigned to the Washington field office, left the bureau in 2017. S’all good, man.
Really, it’s all good. DOJ OIG Releases Management Advisory Memorandum of Concerns Regarding the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Policies Pertaining to the Use of Restraints on Inmates. “Some inmates reportedly suffered long-term injuries after prolonged placement in restraints. For example, one inmate suffered injury requiring the amputation of part of the inmate’s limb after being kept in restraints for over 2 days.” I’m sure conditions will be better at Alligator Alcatraz.
Liberation Day updates! BIG NEWS! 90 DEALS IN 90 DAYS!
So much winning. The private sector lost 33,000 jobs in June, badly missing expectations for a 100,000 increase, ADP says. “Private payrolls lost 33,000 jobs in June, the ADP report showed, the first decrease since March 2023. Economists polled by Dow Jones forecast an increase of 100,000 for the month.”
Too much winning, really. More measles outbreaks put US total within single digits of modern-day record
A Decade after Disneyland. Ten Years Ago Today, California Pushed Back on the Anti-Vaccine Movement. Now, RFK Jr. Runs HHS. A Look at Networked Activism and The Future of Public Health.
We’re already dead. How Artificial General Intelligence Could Affect the Rise and Fall of Nations. Visions for Potential AGI Futures. “Even when geopolitical factors align favorably, the inherent difficulty of ensuring that AGI systems reliably pursue human-compatible goals creates significant risks.” 😬
We’re already dead. 49 Percent of Americans Believe June’s Top False Claims
Thank God this kind of religious fanaticism will never happen here! 🫥 Turkey arrests journalists over alleged cartoon of Prophet Muhammad
Dr Phil’s Anti-Woke TV Network Files for Bankruptcy a Year After Launch
Everyday Question: if the President were a Russian asset, what would he do differently? Kremlin Welcomes Halt in U.S. Arms Shipments to Ukraine
Good News & Nonsense
Science and Technology are Awesome: A neural brain implant provides near instantaneous speech; Focusing on sound production instead of word choice makes for a flexible system. “We’re not at the point where it could be used in open-ended conversations. I think of this as a proof of concept.”
Recognizing Young Heroes is Awesome: Romir, 12, named honorary firefighter, Petersburg hero after saving his grandmother, brothers from house fire. A story for last month, but a good one. “A 12-year-old Petersburg boy is being celebrated as a hero after rescuing his two younger brothers and grandmother from a fast-moving house fire earlier this month. Romir Parker, a rising seventh grader, was honored by the Petersburg City Council with a special proclamation recognizing his bravery during the June 3 incident. ‘I go downstairs, it's just black smoke all throughout the house,’ Romir said, describing the moment he heard a strange noise and went to investigate. Without hesitation, the young hero went straight to the couch where his 1-year-old and 2-year-old brothers were sleeping. ‘I picked both of them up. I grabbed them, they was on opposite ends of the couch. I grabbed them, I grabbed my 2-year-old brother, then I grabbed the 1-year-old, cause the 1-year-old is smaller and I fitted them inside my arms and we ran outside the house,’ Romir said. But getting everyone to safety wasn't simple. Romir also worked to get his grandmother out of the house while running through thick smoke as the fire rapidly spread… The city's proclamation recognized Romir for ‘demonstrating a level of bravery and presence of mind, well beyond his years’ …Chief Hoover even extended a future job offer, telling the young hero, ‘When he turns 18, he's got a job with us.’”
Today’s Podcast
Actually, this is yesterday’s pod, but since I didn’t get to publish America's Awesome yesterday, here you go. And the second pod is a good listen on MAGA-MAHA alignment and how trying to eat and live healthy went from being “weird gay stuff lefties do” to being embraced by the MAGA right.
Men of a Certain X EP 254. BBB and its impacts, NFL Coaching change -New Orleans, and Happy Independence Day! REAL Independence Day ❌‼️ as Dave & I discuss...our shower schedules?
The Senate passes the BBB, what's next?
NFL coaching change review: New Orleans Saints & Kellen Moore assessment
A history of Independence Day & our traditions
The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie: From Big Gulps to Raw Milk: The Rise of MAHA. Today's guest is Elizabeth Nolan Brown, whose recent Reason cover story looks into the politics of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement spearheaded by Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Just a decade or so ago, it was Democrats, liberals, and progressives who were pushing healthy eating initiatives and it was common to see Republicans and conservatives like Sarah Palin brandish Big Gulps like AR15s and Fox News anchors like Sean Hannity declare their loyalty to Kentucky Fried Chicken. But now the Trumpian right is embracing wellness and food purity like nobody's business--and is using the state to enforce its preferences. Nick Gillespie talks with Brown about how we got here, where it's headed--and whether you've eaten your last red M&M.
In Closing: Civics 101, I’m Just a Bill
Earlier this week I got to reference Schoolhouse Rock and one of my favorites. As we celebrate America, and as I look around America today, from Executive Orders to the shitty legislation Congress is passing, I can’t help but think we really need to teach our kids, and maybe everyone, more basic civics. The classic below, from 1975, and featured regularly as I watched Saturday morning cartoons growing up.