iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

This raises the eternal question: Which was the dumber of the Slag Brothers, Rock or Gravel?

Cartoon of the Slag Brothers from the Hanna-Barbera TV show, Whacky Races.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Today in No Shit Sherlock. www.justsecurity.org/159770/aucti...

In promising that he would pay every adult citizen of the United States a “dividend” of $5,000 if the Republican Party retains control of the Senate and House in the 2026 mid-term elections, President Donald Trump potentially has violated multiple federal criminal statutes that criminalize buying or coercing votes. He has done so, moreover, in his unofficial, political capacity, and thus cannot claim immunity under Trump v. United States if that promise was unlawful. Given the stakes for American democracy, Trump’s $5,000 promise deserves careful analysis, rather than being swiftly dismissed as just normal political speech.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Not that it will make a bit of difference, but big-time sports are a boondoggle for cities. theconversation.com/cities-keep-...

Text reading: "In an analysis of the economic impacts of sports stadiums over four decades, through the early 2020s, researchers found little to no economic benefits for taxpayers or communities, including per capita income. Other research has concluded that effects on job growth have similarly been negligible."

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

statuskuo.substack.com/p/an-order-a...

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

crookedtimber.org/2026/09/13/t...

But the US is not a serious country. Over the past decade, at least 40 per cent of US voters (including sustained majorities of white men, the dominant identity group) have shown themselves willing to vote for a corrupt and deranged clown, while another third of the population hasn’t even bothered to vote.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

College football. Not quite as corrupt as the Trump administration, but damn close. www.jezebel.com/does-college...

College football’s coaches, administrators, and broadcast partners are consistently revealing these days that college football is run by fundamentally unserious people who have proven they are not up to the task of properly running a multi-billion dollar sport. They are children playing with toys and demanding to be taken seriously when they royally fuck up in front of the entire world. It’s just one big cash grab, and no one running this sport has proven they care one iota more about the fans or players than the next dollar they see over the horizon. It’s insulting that they still try to keep up that charade in light of the now weekly indignities suffered by college football fans trying to argue that this sport is not degenerating into professional wrestling.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

I turn 65 in a couple months. I guess that means I have to put up with my government pushing quacks on me. I think we need to replace the words, "Healthy with" with the words "away from."

A picture of "Dr. Oz: with the the legend: "Stay Healthy with Dr. Oz."

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Woke up and realized I can't deal with the world today. Maybe tomorrow will be better. Retreating to nice things today.

A drawing of a baby holding a book upside down. The book is as big as the baby and is entitled, "Book About Nice Things."

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Ya know, after thinking about it, it makes sense to hire a young woman to follow me around and tell me how awesome I am. It is a sure sign of a healthy and secure personality.

Français : Caroline Delestres, Portrait de femme jouant de la harpe, 1801, detail
Portrait de femme vêtue d'une robe noire, assise, jouant une sonate pour harpe du célèbre compositeur de cet instrument, Jean-Baptiste Krumpholtz, comme l'indique la partition positionnée sur la table à droite. La harpe de cette jeune fille est richement décorée de feuillages et de fleurs, avec deux tons de couleurs. Le portrait est daté du mois de Thermidor, an 9 (calendrier républicain), c'est-à-dire entre le 20 juillet et le 18 août 1801.
English: Caroline Delestres, 'Portrait of a woman playing a harp, 1801, detail

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

It appears the "threat" to Trump that made him take his secret plane out of Turkey was an Israeli bit of intelligence that our own people thought was unreliable. But President Bone Spurs ran away, bravely ran away away. digbysblog.net/2026/08/13/t...

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

I'm going to skip the movie because I read the book.

The cover of the Classic Comics edition of The Odyssey. Polyphemus is pictured throwing a boulder at Odysseus's ship as he escapes.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

From the FBI file of Speros Lagoulis of Rockwell's American Nazi Party in the early 1960s. From the address to the mode of entertainment, its hard to believe he could be taken seriously.

Text reads: "On 11/19, 58 the following investigation was conducted by the writer. Chief James Sullivan, Newburyport, Mass. advised that Speros Lagoulis formerly resided at 14 Unicorn St., Newburyport, Mass. but has not resided in this city since 1950. He sated that Lagoulis is an entertainers agent and he and his wife [redacted] perform on roller skates. He stated taht the last he eard of Lagoulis he was residing in Boston, Mass. and was operating his own booking agency."

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

In 1949, the Cinema Education Guild, an antisemitic organization wanted to get the Reds out of Hollywood. They named these people as commies. Obviously, Rita Hayworth, but my question: why not Chico?

Text reading: This in-between-the-lines pledge of allegiance to Communism was cabled directly to Stalin and signed by:

Charles Chaplin
Eddie Cantor
George Coulouris
Olivia DeHavilland
Larry Adler
John Garfield
James Cagney
Ira Gershwin
Katherine Hepburn
Gene Kelly
Rita Hayworth
Orson Welles
Dorothy Comingore
Alexander Knox
Groucho and Harpo Marx (no r.elation to Karl Marx)
Edward G. Robinson
Gail Sondergaard
Sylvia Sidney

Katie was given the cablegram and instructed to send it direct to Joe Stalin! And she did !

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

It must really bother the malignant narcissist to be undone by a reflecting pool.

An engraving showing Narcissus gazing into a reflecting pond while two Cherubim look on. The engraving is: Marco Antonio Franceschini: Narcissus, Kupferstich; 1830, gestochen von Friedrich John

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

The Zoot Suit riots took place June 3-8 1943. This young man was arrested on June 7, 1943.

Black-and-white photograph of a LAPD officer arresting a young man wearing a zoot suit. the zoot suit is a very baggy suit considered unpatriotic during wartime rationing of fabrics

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

We have declined the invitation to play at the America 250 celebration.

A line drawing from Strand Magazine in 1892. It portrays a young boy playing an accordion accompanied by an even younger girl playing the triangle.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

After consulting with what is left of Milli Vanilli, we have declined the invitation to play the America 250 concert.

A black-and-white photograph of three men in suits and ties each holding an electric guitar. Photograph is from Finland in 1963.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

I've moved out of my office. I guess I'm really retired now.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

"We have reconsidered and will not be playing at the White House on July 4."

A drawing of two musicians, one playing bagpipes, the other with a drum. Two other performers are on stilts. On of the people on stilts is offering an upturned hat to a person looking at them through a second-story window.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Not to brag, but I'm apparently a robotics expert. Why else would this journal be interested in my work?

Hi Dr. John P Jackson,

Hope everything is good at your end.

I request your attention to my concern, in fact you are very prompt to my previous emails, but suddenly we are not receiving any email from you. So please respond to our email and let me know the submission status of your article.

Waiting to have the article by the end of this day.

Monica
EDITORIAL & REVIEW ANALYST

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Ida B. Wells's account of being forcibly evicted from the 1st class train car in 1883 when she was 20 years old.

"I refused to do so. He then took hold of me to carry me to the other car. I resisted him--holding onto my seat-- when he called for help, and two white passengers helped him to carry me out. I resisted all the time, and never consented to go. My dress was torn in the struggle, one sleave was almost torn off. Everybody in the car seemed to sympathize with the conductor, and were against me."

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-pope...

Trump and the people surrounding him have long pushed for a theocracy, an explicitly Christian nation. These folks are completely fine and happy when religious leaders weigh in … as long as they agree with what Trump is doing.

But that’s not religion. It’s a cult. Trump is treated as infallible. He is treated as wise. He is treated as if he speaks on behalf of all Americans. He is treated, apparently, as if he is just like Jesus or perhaps that he is actually Jesus.

No wonder he’s mad that the pope won’t sign on.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

www.publicnotice.co/p/the-great-...

So, to sum up, Trump made sure all travelers knew he was responsible for airport delays by sending hated ICE agents to stare at them while they wait in line, then Senate Republicans publicly blamed Trump for scuppering a deal, then Trump (illegally) declared he could have funded TSA anytime he wanted, then Republicans in Congress had a massive internal fight which ended with them refusing to fund TSA and going on vacation.

Meanwhile, Democrats refused to fund ICE, then refused to fund ICE, kept refusing to fund ICE, and got to remind the public over and over that the GOP appears to hate TSA workers and wants everyone in every airport to suffer for absolutely nothing.

Black and white photo of a young man holding a rake and looking at it with a smile on his face.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

In the old days, the subtext was text.

Cover of the 1920 book, The Rising Tide of Color: The Threat Against White World Supremacy, by Lothrop Stoddard.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Maybe even better. Paterson to Rand.

Stop taking that benzedrine, you idiot. I don't care what excuse you have--stop it.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Isabel Paterson to Ayn Rand. I'm surprised Ayn let the parasite/cat live with her.

P.S. i have read your book; please tell me all about your god-damned cat.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

www.publicnotice.co/p/mark-jacob...

A major story that probably doesn’t get talked about enough is the reality that the president of the United States is, well, out of his mind.

You see it on display every single day. Whether he’s gloating over the deaths of revered Americans, fabricating conversations with foreign officials and Americans (he did both yesterday) who always seem to have nothing but praise for him, sleeping through on camera events (he did this yesterday too), making mathematically impossible claims, touting made-up accomplishments, or mangling the English language to the point where he just pretends his creations (“mutilization”) are actual words, Trump rarely appears in public without raising grave concerns about his mental state.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Hey, if we are going to start calling in the promises made to me in my 1960s childhood, I'm much rather have this.

The cover of "You Will Live Under the Sea." A 1960s book for children that pictures a young boy riding on the back of a sea turtle.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

theconversation.com/destruction-...

Decades of scholarship dating back to World War I on using air power to force political change has established a consistent finding: Bombing can degrade military capacity and destroy infrastructure, but it does not produce governments more cooperative with the attacker.

Political outcomes require political processes – negotiation, institution-building, legitimate transitions of power.

Bombs cannot create any of these. Instead, what they reliably create is destruction, and destruction generates its own dynamics: rallying among the population, power vacuums, radicalization and cycles of retaliation.

The American record confirms this. In 2003, the George W. Bush administration launched “Shock and Awe” in Iraq with the explicit aim of regime change. The military objective was achieved in weeks. The political objective was never achieved at all.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

The right-wing "intellectuals" have been preaching against education for 80 years. These are just some of the BOOKS, not to mention the magazines and, these days, online nonsense.

Field, A. N. (Arthur Nelson). 1941. Why Colleges Breed Communists. Nelson: Felstead, Arnside, Carnforth, Lancs.

Buckley, William F. 1951. God and Man at Yale; the Superstitions of Academic Freedom. Chicago: Regnery.

Hobbs, Albert Hoyt. The Claims of Sociology: A Critique of Textbooks. Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Co.

———. 1953. Social Problems and Scientism. Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Co.

Shafer, Paul W, and John Howland Snow. 1953. The Turning of the Tides. New York: Long House.

Dodd, Bella Visono. 1954. School of Darkness. New York: P.J. Kenedy.

Root, E. Merrill. 1955. Collectivism on the Campus; the Battle for the Mind in American Colleges. Devin-Adair Co.

Wittmer, Felix. 1956. Conquest of the American Mind, Comments on Collectivism in Education. Boston: Meador Pub. Co.

Iversen, Robert W. 1959. The Communists & the Schools. New York: Harcourt, Brace.

Veritas Foundation, New York. 1964. The Great Deceit; Social Pseudo-Sciences; a Veritas Foundation Staff Study. West Sayville, N.Y.

Bloom, Allan. 1987. The closing of the American mind: how higher education has failed democracy and impoverished the souls of today's students. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Kimball, Roger. 1990. Tenured Radicals: How Politics Has Corrupted Our Higher Education. New York: Harper and Row.

D'Souza, Dinesh. 1992. Illiberal education: the politics of race and sex on campus. New York: Vintage Books.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Lies, Lies, everywhere a lie Blocking out the scenery breakin' my mind. www.factcheck.org/2026/02/fact...

A sign reading: "Meets the habitual liar!"

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

“No, no!” said the Queen. “Sentence first—verdict afterwards.” “Stuff and nonsense!” said Alice loudly. “The idea of having the sentence first!” emptywheel.net/harmeet-dhil...

But the real issue — again from the Lemon and Fort filing — is that DOJ rushed to charge this before investigating. Again, two defense teams with DOJ career prosecutors scold Trump’s legal blow-ins for failing to follow DOJ polices.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Interesting. The Big Ugly Bill may be unconstitutional. www.justsecurity.org/129908/congr...

Last summer, Republicans enacted the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), providing ICE, CBP, DHS, and the Pentagon $170 billion to spend on domestic immigration enforcement over the next four years. Congress’s actions weren’t just unwise—they violated a provision of the Constitution meant to stop rogue presidents from creating oppressive, unaccountable standing armies. The Constitution’s Army Clause is simple but strict: Congress may “raise and support Armies,” but it may not fund them for more than two years at a time.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

"Did you hear that! The Dow just hit 50,000!"

A cartoon of a man yelling into a telephone while the building around him collapses and makes a loud "CRASH!"

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Big Petey Hegseth "neutralizing threats" with his new war system.

A cartoon drawing of two clowns on stilts playing with children's balloons.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

I'm all for abolishing ICE, but I've been frustrated by the lack of an actual legislative method to do so. This seems like the kind of mechanism we need to start the process. Oh, and nepo baby, Bloody Bill Kristol is still a pinhead. emptywheel.net/bill-kristol...

The question about what to do with DHS funding is nowhere near as easy as Kristol wants it to be, though Bernie already showed us how to defund ICE. Until such a vote can command 60 votes, the optimal outcome might be to include $1 of funding for both CBP and ICE, with all the requirements tacked onto it, applying it back to the Big Ugly boondoggle funds, because tying rules to funding is a necessary, if insufficient, tool to making Trump follow the law. Kristol has the luxury of scolding “scoundrel,” while throwing up his hands in hope that in 11 months Democrats will have tools to do something more, all the while letting ICE spend its existing billions unmolested.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-obam...

For Republicans, it also helps that there’s no obvious policy change here. The only real ask GOP critics made was that Trump take the video down and apologize — and they’ll probably mostly ignore the fact that he didn’t do the second. They can now move ahead cheerfully with their plans to disenfranchise and terrorize people of color.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

Here on sports day, let us remember 8-time Olympic Gold Medalist, Ray Ewry as a reminder of how fleeting fame is.

A black-and-white photograph of Ray Ewry clearing a high jump bar in the 1908 Summer Olympics.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

This is a modest list of resources on ICE and how to melt it. democracyandme.bearblog.dev/resources-fo...

A close up of a melting icicle hanging from a window in the winter.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Cory Doctorow on the importance of history and the importance of forcing your leaders to do the right thing. pluralistic.net/2026/02/05/c...

Sure, it's easy and tempting to assume that our leaders will always suck as hard as they suck now. But latent in that assumption is that the leaders who presided over big, incredible transformations were exceptional people. Maybe they were and maybe they weren't, but I'm here to tell you, ten minutes' worth of research into the biographies of the "heroes" of our history will reveal them to have been every bit as capable of monstrousness, cowardice, cruelty and pig-ignorant bigotry as any of today's rotating cast of fascist goons:

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Here's a 2018 letter Trivers sent to the President of Chapman University in which Trivers denies he exposed himself to a woman.

well, what about the notion that i jumped up and exposed myself to Miss xxx

with what? i am 75 years old, it is not 4am in the morning, i could not frighten a rabbit with what i possess

and more to the point, i have no desire to do so, nor would i do so if i did—i actually have something called
CHARACTER—a trait you are manifestly deficient in

and my underpants are woven in a complex fashion making it difficult for even me to extract the relevant organ—and impossible for anyone to see anything inside

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Epstein was the major funder of sociobiologist Robert Triver's research. But it seems much worse than that according to this FBI report in 2019. Trivers's name is mentioned nearly a thousand times in the Epstein files. www.justice.gov/epstein/file...

Crutcher and Trivers met at xxxx , a restaurant in xxxxx. Trivers lives xxxxx. While at the counter, Crutcher witnessed Trivers sexually assault xxxx by "caressing her buttocks." Crutcher said, "In an American
situation, it would cause a huge scene."

Crutcher and Trivers also met at xxxxx, another restaurant xxxxx. Crutcher witnessed Trivers caress xxxxx thigh "in a very sexually suggestive manner." When asked to explain, Crutcher said that Trivers was moving his hand all around xxxx thigh, moving in the direction toward her vagina.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

www.huffpost.com/entry/combat...

As a combat soldier, I recognize a mission when I see one — not because it’s announced, but because it’s being carried out. In the span of weeks, ICE and Border Patrol operations in Minneapolis have resulted in the deaths of two Minnesotans. In over a year of combat in Iraq, my battalion of 500 soldiers did not kill a single person.

That difference matters.

My unit spent 397 days on the battlefield. We were shot at. We feared for our lives. Snipers fired from crowds. Improvised explosive devices lined the roads we were ordered to clear. And still, we did not return fire unless strict conditions were met: The shooter had to be clearly identified, civilians could not be in the line of fire, and lethal force had to be the last resort.

Why? Because that was not our mission.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

A part of Nixon's phone call to the moon. Can you imagine Trump's call? "I could have been the first on the moon, you know, lotta people say that. There's great real estate up there, I'm gonna built a huge tower hotel there, the first one. I see you have tears in your eyes and are calling me 'sir."

I just can't tell you how proud we all are of what you have done. For every American this has to be the proudest day of our lives, and for people all over the world I am sure that they, too, join with Americans in recognizing what an immense feat this is.

Because of what you have done the heavens have become a part of man's world, and as you talk to us from the Sea of Tranquility, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to earth.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

My latest letter to my "Representative" Tom Barrett. democracyandme.bearblog.dev/to-tom-barre...

I have given up any hope that you will address the violence and chaos you unleashed with your mindless support for Trump. Given that you cannot act as a decent human being in this regard, I suggest you own your actions. I want you to campaign, and campaign hard, for your votes to support Trump and ICE. I want you to explain to your Michigan's 7th district that you will urge Trump to flood us with masked ICE agents. I want you to urge Trump to remove TPS status from anyone in our community so they may be returned to whatever country they fled. I want you to proudly declare that you believe masked federal agents should not be bound by the due process of law or the Constitution. I want you to tell us that you consider this your greatest achievement. I want you to do all these things because at least you would finally say something honest. And the voters will let you know in November how well they think you've served us.

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John Jackson @jpj.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

Turns out it was Arizona and not you-know-where. So, you know, that makes it no big deal, right?

Email from Jeffrey Epstein to Joshua Cooper Ramo dated 4/4/2014. It reads, "im in arizona with pinker dawkins venter. you are welcome today tomrow."

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