iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Mark E. Steiner

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 7h

The right wing crash out over asian students celebrating at a UT football game reveals that all along the true goal of reactionary colorblindness was never “meritocracy” but resegregation. (Gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...

Color-blind meritocracy was, for many years, a successful rhetorical strategy for undermining antidiscrimination law and excluding Black people from selective schools and prominent positions. That’s why so many former segregationists seemed to suddenly embrace the concept in the 1970s. For them, resegregation—not color-blindness—was always the goal. As long as the success of some immigrants could be used to paint Black students as undeserving, color-blind meritocracy was good. But now many on the right see a new problem: too many Asian Americans in elite spaces. Their success, therefore, must be portrayed as a sinister theft of real (white) Americans’ birthright.

The declining “social trust” that the administration warned against is, of course, not the fault of these students. The problem is bigots like Bo French who cannot accept into their community people who do not share their race and religion, and those who monetize or otherwise profit from that bigotry by spreading it through social media. Like the proverbial child who kills their parents and asks for mercy as an orphan, they are responsible for the problem they are decrying.

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 09/10/2026

Hard to overstate how much Hegseth's execution stream mirrors the U.S. military's traditional description of ISIS propaganda: broadcast killings designed to send a message, strike fear and create a social media spectacle. Will almost certainly be repurposed by online terror cells

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Your regular reminder that the job of an ICE officer is dramatically safer than the job of a regular cop, such that not a single ICE deportation officer has been killed in the line of duty since 1949 (and that was actually a stabbing inside an INS jail in Hawaii, not street enforcement).

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David J. Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Illegal entries are down under Trump, but he's cut legal immigration even more than illegal immigration. The cuts to immigrants, refugees, parolees, students, H-1B workers, and fiancés were 2.7 times as large as the cut in Border Patrol arrests and evasions. www.cato.org/blog/trump-c...

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David J. Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

ICE agents shot a man in front of his 5-year-old child during yet another botched traffic stop. Via @noahhurowitz.bsky.social

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 08/10/2026

a livestreamed execution is just a lynching

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I think people should listen to what the administration trying to bring back spectacle lynchings, race riots, and middle passage-esque deportation voyages are trying to tell you about themselves. bsky.app/profile/bren...

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Just today: - The Trump admin announced the first public execution since 1936. - Trump tried to incite a race war against Somalis. - Trump said anyone using the phrase AI is "THE ENEMY" - The NYT reported on a potential ICE plan to deport migrants on military boats and ferries.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Jesus Christ, I didn't think we'd actually get to the "public executions" stage of Trump's project to roll back the last 100 years of societal development.

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 08/10/2026

Trump tries to start a race war: "The once Great State of Minnesota is being taken over by Somali Immigrants ... The Somalians should not be allowed to get away with what they are doing. They view you as weak and stupid people. Fight back Minnesota, fight back!"

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Whoa. @haleaziz.bsky.social has the scoop on a truly insane plan to use some military training ships for deportations, with people presumably shackled or locked in cells for days at a time as they transit to Central and South America. Each journey would be staggeringly expensive — and dangerous.

nytimes.com

Trump Administration Considers Using Ships to Deport Immigrants (Gift Article)

Journeys to destinations including El Salvador and Venezuela could take days and cost millions. Officials cautioned that discussions are still preliminary.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

This was one of the more diabolical Trump admin moves on immigration; ordering ICE to stop taking biometrics for detained immigrants seeking immigration benefits from USCIS, which meant that the agency would deny their applications by default.

In December 2025, USCIS announced that DHS would stop collecting biometrics related
to USCIS immigration applications for people in its custody. ECF No. 14-2; ECF No. 14-3 at 2-
3. In its press release, USCIS said that going forward DHS "generally will not take biometrics of detained aliens unless they are in removal proceedings and have a pending application or petition filed with the Executive Office for Immigration Review." ECF No. 14-2. That means DHS would continue to collect biometrics only for certain applications for relief, including those that can be made to immigration courts (which fall within the Executive Office for Immigration Review), but not for applications for many kinds of immigration status, including the plaintiffs' applications
(which must be submitted to and determined by USCIS). See 8 C.F.R. § 245.2(a)(1) (adjustment

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Meanwhile, over on X, the Secretary of Homeland Security is posting about "vandalizing the demographics of America," a phrase which is either a chilling suggestion of white nationalism from Mullin or just straight pablum which means nothing but sounds just fash enough to excite the faithful.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
@ReichlinMelnick
·
7m
“Vandalize the demographics of America” is either a chilling phrase suggesting that Mullin is a white nationalist or an absurdly meaningless bit of pablum which ignores 250 years of the constantly shifting demographics of a nation of immigrants.

Underneath is a picture of Mullin with a quote "How do you turn a country from democracy to socialism? You have to change the demographics."

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Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

ICE is now separating children from their parents in the nation’s interior and deeming them “unaccompanied.” www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

motherjones.com

“You kidnapped my son”

ICE is now separating children from their parents and deeming them “unaccompanied.”

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ProPublica @propublica.org · 06/10/2026

The government *still* isn’t tracking how often immigration agents detain U.S. citizens. We are. 500+ Americans have been handcuffed, held at gunpoint or held against their will in Trump’s second term. Our tally is almost certainly an undercount. THREAD (content warning: violence) ⬇️

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David J. Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

"Not everyone was thrilled with the decline in legal immigration from this demographic, including David J. Bier, who is the director of immigration studies at Cato and who took credit for the research behind the graph." www.foxnews.com/politics/rep...

foxnews.com

Republican glee erupts as White House boasts sharp decline in immigration from Muslim-majority nations

A White House graph shows a 96% drop in legal immigration from Muslim-majority nations since 2024, but the Cato researcher behind it pushed back.

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 06/10/2026

Trump on his meeting with Gold Star families: "I invited them out to check out the new helipad, check out the new ballroom, and check out the new helicopter"

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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Judge Gary Brown, a Trump appointee in New York, rebukes ICE for arresting two people erroneously — including a U.S. citizen — and later claiming "mistaken identity." "ICE agents falsified official records," he says. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The IceCube neutrino detector has won the 2026 Nobel Prize in physics. The Trump administration has proposed slashing its budget in half in 2027.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

As the Trump admin is calling in thousands of people here for years who are protected from persecution in their home country, Tom Homan is on TV saying people who want to avoid being sent to Africa can just "self-deport." So it's accept persecution or be deported to a third country.

CBS News
@CBSNews
Tom Homan, President Trump’s border czar, said people in the U.S. illegally can avoid being sent to “third countries” in Africa and other places around the world by self-deporting to their home countries.

“There’s your quick answer. If you self-deport … you're 100% likely to go to your home country,” Homan told CBS News’
@camiloreports
.

This past week, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to continue its third-country deportation effort.

Underneath is a video.

7:35 PM · Oct 4, 2026
·
169.6K
Views

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Mark E. Steiner @markesteiner.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Usually it's a combination of most or all of these credentials: graduating from an "elite" law school, serving on that school's law review, having either an advanced law degree (LL.M) or doctorate in another discipline, and a judicial clerkship, preferably federal circuit court or US supreme court.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 05/10/2026

ICE is now separating children from their parents in the nation’s interior and deeming them “unaccompanied.” "We’re talking about kids who have a mom, a dad, and siblings who want them to be living with them."

motherjones.com

“You kidnapped my son”

ICE is now separating children from their parents and deeming them “unaccompanied.”

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Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Wilber was finally able to undergo surgery on Thursday—11 days after he was shot. “When ICE can shoot a man in the back and then barely give him any medical treatment and let him suffer, there’s a reason for that because we have gotten to a point where we see people as less than human.”

texastribune.org

Austin man has surgery 11 days after being shot by ICE agent

The surgery on the Venezuelan national, who has been in custody since his Sept. 20 run-in with an immigration officer, removed the bullet lodged in his back.

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Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

First Monday in October. The Supreme Court returns.

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

ICE’s new tactic, witnessed repeatedly at the federal building in MN: when a detained immigrant makes a successful habeas petition, release the immigrant for a few steps outside the building… then tackle and re-arrest them, and claim the habeas petition has been honored and nullified

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Christopher Mathias @letsgomathias.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

New: Chris Rufo & his co-host devoted a podcast to "The Indian Question," framing Desi people as a problem to be solved. Their "solution?" Mass expulsion. For those allowed to remain: an “assimilation hazing process” w/ instances of “vulgar, defamatory racism" talkingpointsmemo.com/news/chris-r...

talkingpointsmemo.com

Chris Rufo — Known For ‘DEI’ and ‘CRT’ Panics — Tries to Make ‘the Indian Question’ a Thing

To the degree that a “respectable” or “moderate” right exists today in...

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Notice how they also brag about the number of naturalizations having plummeted; a sign of how much they detest legal immigration. /also, the removals number is largely fake. The actual number is 650-700k.

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WIRED @wired.com · 02/10/2026

DHS agents not only tracked and intimidated people observing ICE activity in Maine, but stored information about them in a Palantir-built database, newly unsealed court filings say.

wired.com

ICE Has Been Dumping Protester Photos Into a Palantir Database

DHS agents not only tracked and intimidated people observing ICE activity in Maine, but stored information about them in a Palantir-built database, newly unsealed court filings say.

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The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 02/10/2026

"They aren’t going after hardened criminals. You know, they aren’t going after the worst of the worst, like they said that they were going to. They’re picking up nuns on their way to church. They’re picking up high school students and mariachi bands." trib.al/3bPclbj

trib.al

Transcript: Trump Midterm Tirade Accidentally Reveals Key GOP Weakness

As Trump’s monologue about his Texas midterm convention exposes a problem for the GOP, a Democratic operative argues that his collapse in South Texas is a real tell about what’s coming.

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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 02/10/2026

We’ve got the inside story of how Trump’s displeasure with seeing homeless people in D.C. became the first domino in a series of actions that culminated in the administration’s stunning decision to weaken the rights of millions of disabled Americans to live in their homes and communities.

nbcnews.com

How Trump’s homelessness crackdown became a sweeping retreat from disability rights

After issuing a memo making it easier to institutionalize homeless people, the Justice Department began abandoning cases protecting disabled people’s right to live in the community.

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Mark E. Steiner @markesteiner.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Rothbard's The Panic of 1819 was the 1st book on the Panic and the only book for 50 years. It's often cited in scholarship. Rothbard's other historical work tends to suffer from his "extreme apriorism" and intolerance of ambiguity. Aside from libertarians, this work isn't well-known. 5/5

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Mark E. Steiner @markesteiner.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Thomas in his concurring opinion in Monsanto Co. v. Durnell cited Rothbard's posthumous work The Progressive Era, published by the Mises Institute in 2017. It is available as a PDF online and in paperback. The key paragraph from the cited page is included below. 4/5

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Mark E. Steiner @markesteiner.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Rothbard wasn't cited in any of the briefs by the parties or amici filed with the court. So the citation came from Thomas's chambers, either by Thomas or, more likely, one of his clerks. 3/5

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Mark E. Steiner @markesteiner.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Thomas cited Rothbard in his meandering 90-page dissent in Trump v. Barbara. Thomas cited Conceived in Liberty, originally published in four volumes by the conservative press Arlington House. The citation is to the 1 volume edition published by the Mises Institute and only available online. 2/5

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Mark E. Steiner @markesteiner.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Murray Rothbard, the anarcho-capitalist economist and advocate of right-wing populism, was cited in two 2026 opinions by Clarence Thomas. Rothbard figures prominently in recent work by @quinnslobodian.com and John Ganz @lioneltrolling.bsky.social Rothbard has never been cited before. 1/5

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Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

“Those losing their health benefits who were previously eligible include refugees of war, asylees who fled persecution, victims of sex trafficking, & interpreters who risked their lives assisting U.S. service members in Afghanistan — all of whom are in the country w/ the federal govt’s permission”

statnews.com

U.S. poised to boot legal immigrants from Medicaid, including refugees and sex-trafficking victims

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants with legal status, including refugees and sex-trafficking victims, are at risk of losing government health coverage starting Oct. 1.

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Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Sister Norma Pimentel has won her fight against the Trump regime, announcing that DHS has lifted a financial freeze on Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley. “’The ban was lifted,’ Pimentel said, smiling.” www.ncronline.org/news/dhs-lif...

ncronline.org

DHS lifts financial freeze on Sr. Norma Pimentel’s Catholic migrant charity

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has lifted a financial freeze on Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, restoring federal funding to the South Texas nonprofit run by prominent Catholic ...

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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 30/09/2026

Trump, speaking at a Hispanic Heritage Month event: “I hate to do this to the Mexicans, we love the Mexicans, but the Gulf of Mexico is now the Gulf of America. Is that okay? There could be a few people in the room that don’t love that one, but what the hell.”

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Dave Byrnes @djbyrnes1.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Among the ICE abductions reported yesterday was a ~7:20 a.m. incident in Chicago's West Englewood neighborhood. Per video shared online, ICE agents surrounded a car with a child in it, smashed the window and took the man in the driver's seat, as the woman next to him cried and prayed.

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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

She was an FBI agent. She started an investigation of the murder of Renee Good. Trump forced her to reclassify it as an ICE agent assault. She was then forced to resign. Her evidence confirms that a cover-up of the homicide has been undertaken, directed from the highest levels.

cnn.com

FBI agent who initially investigated fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis has resigned | CNN Politics

The FBI agent who initially began working with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to investigate the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good has resigned from the bureau, two sources familiar with...

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Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

From 16,000 to 185 to Zero: Trump’s Claims of Illegal Voting in Nevada Fizzle. "The state sent a strongly worded rebuke to the federal government: Every single person on the list was a lawful citizen."

nytimes.com

From 15,000 to 185 to Zero: Trump’s Claims of Illegal Voting in Nevada Fizzle

It was the Trump administration’s latest stumble in its effort to find proof of widespread noncitizen voting, despite decades of evidence that it is extremely rare.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Incredible. First Secretary Mullin claimed that DHS had identified 15,903 noncitizens on Nevada’s voter roll. Then DHS officials told a skeptical Nevada, no no no, that’s just people we flagged. Here are the names of 185 people we KNOW aren’t citizens. All 185 were citizens. DHS got 100% wrong.

When the Department of Homeland Security sent Nevada a list of 185 names last month that it claimed identified noncitizens who had been improperly allowed to register to vote, state election officials got to work.
On Tuesday, the state sent a strongly worded rebuke to the federal government: Every single person on the list was a lawful citizen.
"As for the 185 individuals, our records indicate that they were citizens," Greg D. Ott, a deputy attorney general in Nevada, wrote, according to a copy of a letter sent to Department of Homeland Security officials obtained through open records requests.
"You have provided nothing of substance to suggest otherwise."

Following the meeting, Ms. Vogt sent a clarifying email to Nevada officials. "I also wanted to be sure I clarified that we did not reduce the 15,903 to 185," she wrote. "We've manually reviewed some of the 15,903 and confirmed 185 are not U.S. Citizens."
Now, Nevada officials are saying even that 185 number is wrong. They also took issue with a letter D.H.S. sent them in early September, in which the agency reiterated its initial claims about nearly 16,000 noncitizens on the rolls and pressured state officials to review each case in a letter to Nevada officials in early September.

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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 24/09/2026

The "Office of Remigration" funnels tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to foreign governments—many of them authoritarian and riddled with human rights abuses—to serve as third-country destinations for deported refugees. Keep your ability to feel shock.

lnk.thebulwark.com

The White Nationalist Buzzword on a State Department Door

“Remigration” traveled from European far-right circles into the machinery of Trump’s deportation policy.

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Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

“The abuse that immigration agents inflict on people everywhere from Evanston streets to Alabama construction sites underscores that Kavanaugh’s racial profiling apologia in Vasquez Perdomo was always based on a fantasy. People of color have no choice but to live in the real world.”

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Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

“Kavanaugh did not support this claim with any citations to the voluminous record developed by the district court, or to news reports, or to any of the other credible sources available to him. Instead, he appeared to rely on his own imagination as a rich and powerful middle-aged white man.”

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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app · 23/09/2026

federal immigration agents beat up a US citizen in Evanston on Sunday morning and left him lying in the street or as Kavanaugh would put it, he experienced as "brief investigative stop" ballsandstrikes.org/law-politics...

ballsandstrikes.org

Brett Kavanaugh’s Imaginary Immigration Stops Opinion Gets More Embarrassing Every Day

The fact that ICE officers do not allow wrongfully detained people to “promptly go free” is a surprise to only one man in America.

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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 22/09/2026

DoorDash has ripped off more than 260,000 NYC delivery workers. We’re making them pay $131.5 million — the largest worker settlement in City history. This is New York, where hard work pays and greed will cost you.

DoorDash messed up.
They repeatedly left more than 260,000 NYC delivery workers underpaid or paid late, causing them immense stress and financial difficulty.
That's unacceptable.
We've secured a $131.5M settlement from
DoorDash - the largest worker settlement in NYC history and largest delivery worker settlement in
American municipal history.
Every worker will be paid what they are owed, and every company will be forced to abide by the laws of this city.

LOGOS:
The OFFICE of the MAYOR of NYC
NYC Consumer and Worker Protection

Mayor Mamdani and Deliveristas representatives stand behind a podium.

Three delivery workers holding a giant fake check for $131.5M.

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