More from Cox-Richardson..

 Heather Cox-Richardson is worth reposting.

"Public outrage over the violence of federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Border Patrol has given Senate Democrats a powerful lever. Tonight they forced the Republican majority to split new funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) off from five other spending bills that must pass by Friday to keep the government funded. The Department of Homeland Security will be funded separately for just two weeks while the Democrats and Republicans negotiate the conditions of funding DHS.

The funding measure passed the House before Saturday’s shooting of VA intensive care nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Seven Democrats joined the Republican majority in backing it to continue funding for other important agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), reasoning that since the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act had provided enough money to fund ICE and Border Patrol through September 30, 2029, there was no point in taking a stand against renewed extra funding.

But popular anger over ICE shootings and the administration’s lies about them made Democrats in the Senate take a stand against the measure. They demanded accountability and reforms to current ICE operations. Republicans initially said they would not split DHS funding from the rest of the package, then proposed handling the excesses of ICE and Border Patrol through an executive order or through a new, different piece of legislation. Such a plan would avoid the necessity of taking the measure back to the House, which is out of session until Monday.

Senate Democrats refused to pass the measure as it stood. They demanded an end to “roving patrols,” with federal agents required to use warrants and coordinate with local and state law enforcement officials. They wanted a uniform code of conduct for agents and independent investigations to enforce that code. And they wanted agents to use body cameras and to stop wearing masks. Senate Republicans wanted a longer period of time to consider these demands, but they settled on two weeks.

The Senate did not vote on the measure tonight. NBC News senior national political reporter Sahil Kapur reported that, according to Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the holdup is coming from Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Graham was one of those Republican lawmakers who worked to help Trump try to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, calling Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, for example, and suggesting that he should throw out some of Biden’s ballots in the state. His phone records on and around January 6, 2021, were among those examined by special counsel Jack Smith’s team. Now, according to Kapur, he wants the Senate to add back into the funding package necessary to prevent a government shutdown a measure that would let senators whose records were seized sue the government for $500,000.

The House is out of session until Monday, and the fate of the measure in that chamber is not clear. House Democrats have said they will not support the measure without significant concessions and will leave the Republicans to pass the measure on their own. But the Republican majority has fallen to two seats and is expected to fall by another seat over the weekend as a special election in Texas is expected to add another Democrat to the House.

Meanwhile, footage circulated today of a woman in Minnesota who left her home to warm the car for her kids and got taken by federal agents. The video shows her calling someone to look after her children, who were left alone in the house.

In the last week, since federal agents shot Pretti, former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden have all spoken out to condemn his killing and the violence of federal agents as well as the administration’s lies. They have warned that the nation’s core values are under assault and urged Trump officials to change course, while also calling on Americans to defend those core values.

The criticism of all the living Democratic presidents, along with his disastrous performance in Davos, Switzerland, last week and his plummeting numbers—as well as the fact the American people have not forgotten that the administration is continuing to break the law by refusing to release the Epstein files—appears to have sent Trump back to the comfort of older grievances. Today he hit not only his Big Lie but also his complaints about the inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into the ties between his 2016 campaign and Russian operatives."

Takk for alt,

Al

Should either of you want to make a gift to those suffering the siege a good cause is Rent Relief for Minneapolis Families givebutter.org