SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
The atrocities and the fury mount. Astoundingly, after a murderous thug shot a mother of three in the face in broad daylight - "He didn't kill her because he was scared, he killed her because she wasn't" - state terror has ramped up with more lies, goons, attacks on "gangs of wine moms," brutish agitprop literally echoing the Nazis'. So when mini-Bovino went to take a leak at a store, the people's wrath, a bittersweet splendor, erupted. Their/our edict: "Get the fuck out."
For now, Trump's America keeps getting scarier and uglier. He's threatened to (illegally) withdraw the US from the world’s most vital climate treaty and 65 other agencies doing useful work. He's trashing a once-thriving economy because he doesn't know how it works, scapegoating longtime Fed chair Jerome Powell, who's (startlingly fighting back, flipping off autoworkers, admiring non-existent ballrooms. After (illegally) killing over 100 Venezuelans and abducting their president - Chris Hedges: "Empires, when they are dying, worship the idol of war" - he called oil executives to a dementia-ridden meeting where in a reality check one brave skeptic argued Venezuela is historically "uninvestable." He ordered invasion plans for Greenland - wait what - that joint chiefs are resisting as "crazy and illegal": “It’s like dealing with a five-year-old.” And in a supreme irony overload, he's menacing U.S. protesters while warning Iran's killers of protesters they'll "pay a big price" and urging Iran's people to "take over your institutions." We can't even.
Meanwhile, in Minnesota, he's sending yet more thugs, persisting in calling Renée Good "a professional agitator" - Professional Agitators 'R Us! - and warning a besieged, traumatized community, "THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!" Up is down and MAGA minions dutifully follow suit. Tom Homan: "We've got to stop the hateful rhetoric. Saying this officer is a murderer is dangerous. It’s ridiculous. It’s just gonna infuriate people more." Newsmax and GOP Rep. Pete Sessions agree: Dems have to quiet their "rhetoric," cease "honking of horns," and stop "putting an iPhone on your face." "STOP THE MADNESS," shrieks David Marcus on Fox, blasting "organized gangs of wine moms" across the country - Wine Moms 'R Us! - using Antifa tactics to "harass and impede" ICE: "It's not civil disobedience. It isn’t even protest. It’s just crime." Here, Renée Good was "a trained member" of groups "executing missions that put law enforcement and the public in harm’s way," probably all part of "criminal conspiracies."
To support the insane narrative that the brazen murder of a mother of three in her car in public constitutes "an attack on our brave law enforcement," DHS released crude, "pathological," Goebbels-worthy propaganda that repeats the first day's lies and includes footage of when Good "weaponized her vehicle” by “speeding across the road" while failing to mention it was when "she had just been shot in the fucking face and her dead foot hit the pedal." No wonder the mindless carnage goes on. A thug leers to a cuffed protester she should've "learned her lesson," she asks what lesson, he snarls, "Why we killed that fucking bitch." And gangs of goons rampage door-to-door, barging into households of kids with guns and tasers ready. One brave, calm woman records it all, demands a warrant, barks get your hands off me, mocks how big and bad they are flashing a light in her face and sneers that, on the street, "You're all some pussies without that shit on your chest...Your mamas raised a bitch if you can wear that outfit proudly."
Last week both Illinois and Minnesota, and each state's targeted cities, filed federal lawsuits to end their invasions by thousands of armed, masked, violent goons racially harassing, terrorizing and assaulting their communities. The courts may yet halt the deadly mayhem; the regime sure as shit won't. In the wake of the DOJ's predictable, outlandish announcement they won't investigate Good's murder, multiple attorneys in the civil rights division - for decades "America’s last line of accountability when federal agents kill" - have resigned, the latest in a flood of departures totaling over 250, a 70% reduction. In their stead, the FBI seized control of the "investigation" after blocking local law enforcement's access to evidence. Kash's Keystone Cops are now looking into, not Jonathan Ross, but Good and her "possible connections to activist groups" - also, because there truly is no low, her widow's. "This isn’t a cover-up," said one former DOJ attorney. "It’s the end of civil rights enforcement as we've known it."
Experts say the escalating malfeasance and accompanying thuggery are the logical culmination of a longtime "culture of violence" within border control agencies. Ryan Goodman of Just Security describes a scathing 2013 report, commissioned but then buried, that specifically cites agents' proclivity for standing in front of blocked vehicles as a pretext to open fire on drivers attempting to flee a tense encounter. Thank God we don't see that anymore. Nor do we have to see Stephen Miller's nightmare vision of Dems in power making "every city into Mogadishu or Kabul or Port-au-Prince," complete with roaming convoys of masked, armed, hefty hoodlums snatching people off the streets, dragging them out of their cars, beating them up, kneeling on their necks (illegal under post-George-Floyd Minnesota law), and brutalizing them for unknown offenses until they go limp, fate unknown, like in this video by Ford Fischer last week. For MAGA, ICE proudly represents "the fearsome power of the American state." But don't call them fascists.
It was sick Greg Bovino's knee on that neck. Then he went on Sean Hannity's show to praise Jonathan Ross for shooting Renée Good three times in the face - "Hats off to that ICE agent" - because "a 4,000-pound missile is not something anyone wants to face." Hannity readily agreed it was "not even a close call...There is no ambiguity for anyone with eyes to see that (Good) had been taunting officers," which is not true, also definitely a death penalty offense. Later, Bovino claimed that 90% of the public "are happy to see us." Last week, a YouGov poll disagreed, finding a majority of Americans disapproved of the murderous job ICE is doing, and almost half support abolishing it entirely. That may be why, when Bovino went to take a piss last week at a Target in St. Paul, accompanied by a phalanx of surly stormtroopers with itchy trigger fingers and nervous cameras held aloft, they were met by pure, gut-level fury, and a crowd of we the people with no fucks left to give. More video from Ford Fischer of News2Share.
A handy transcript: "You’re a fucking bum. you’re a bitch. and if your wife’s got a problem, fuck her, too. you guys are all bitches. you can’t do shit to me. you can’t do a thing. get the fuck out of here. get the fuck out. nobody wants you here. right. get the fuck out. walk the fuck, you stupid bitches. get the fuck out of here. coward. you’re a fucking coward, bitch. you’re a fucking bitch. fuck you. hold on, babe, I’m on the phone with these bitch-ass niggas. get the fuck out of here. get the fuck out of here, you stupid bitches. you’re a fucking coward piece of shit. fuck you. and if you didn’t have a gun or a vest, I would beat the shit out of you. take that fucking badge off, and that fucking gun, and see what happens to you. you shut the fuck up, you’re not fucking tough. you’re a bitch and get the fuck out, you fucking pussy. you fucking bitch-ass white boys. I’ll fucking spit on you. fucking get out of here. get the fuck out. shut the fuck up. get the fuck out of here. get the fuck out of here. get the fuck out. nobody wants you here."
Among Minnesota's ICE victims was a Marine veteran who said she was following agents "at a safe distance" when they rammed the car, broke the window, dragged her out by the neck, slammed her face into the ground, tightly cuffed her and snarled, per their memo, "This is why we killed that lesbian bitch." Shaken, she told a reporter, "I took an oath, and they're spitting on it. They're Nazis. They're Gestapo. This isn't Germany." Not yet. But close, says James Fell's Sweary History: "Those who cannot remember the past need a history teacher who says 'fuck' a lot." When ICE Barbie, "this puppy-killing, plasticized bag of fascism" called Good a domestic terrorist, he notes, her podium read, "One of Ours, All of Yours" - the phrase Nazis used when the Resistance killed "murderous motherfucker" Reinhard Heydrich, and Nazis retaliated by killing thousands of Czechs and most of the village of Lidice, where they (wrongly) thought the assassins came from. Kill one of ours, we murder all of yours: "This is what DHS is threatening should people dare to resist the American Gestapo."
Dark echoes keep coming. In more Goebbels-worthy agit-prop, the Dept. of Labor just posted a bizarre musical photo montage captioned, "One Homeland. One People. One Heritage," which even X's AI chatbot Grok noted is just like the Nazi slogan, "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer" - One People, One Realm, One Leader. Huh, said many: "Sounds familiar," "Sounds better in the original German," "I didn't have DOL dropping race-baiting propaganda with moody techno music on my 2026 Bingo card," "I remember this one from history books," "Can't wait for the sequel! Labor Creates Liberty!" and, "That 1930s retro energy really matches the new vibe." The video added, "Remember who you are, American." Rob Kelner responded, "I remember who I am. I am the grandchild of immigrants, in a nation that welcomed all four of my grandparents, dirt poor...fleeing tyranny." We have fallen so far, and lost so much. But some truths remain: "There is no world in which these are the good guys. None."
"Get it all on record now. Get the films. Get the witnesses. Because somewhere down the road of history, some bastard will get up and say that this never happened." - Dwight D. Eisenhower, Commander of the Allied Forces, on atrocities committed by the German Nazis.

The massive energy needs of artificial intelligence data centers became a major political controversy in 2025, and new reporting suggests that it will grow even further in 2026.
CNBC reported on Thursday that data center projects have become political lightning rods among politicians ranging from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on the left to Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on the right.
However, objections to data centers aren't just coming from politicians but from ordinary citizens who are worried about the impact such projects will have on their local environment and their utility bills.
CNBC noted that data centers' energy needs are so great that PJM Interconnection, the largest US grid operator that serves over 65 million people across 13 states, projects that it will be a full six gigawatts short of its reliability requirements in 2027.
Joe Bowring, president of independent market monitor Monitoring Analytics, told CNBC that he's never seen the grid under such projected strain.
"It’s at a crisis stage right now," Bowring said. "PJM has never been this short."
Rob Gramlich, president of power consulting firm Grid Strategies, told CNBC that he expects the debate over data centers to become even more intense this year once Americans start getting socked with even higher utility bills.
"I don't think we’ve seen the end of the political repercussions,” Gramlich said. “And with a lot more elections in 2026 than 2025, we’ll see a lot of implications. Every politician is going to be saying that they have the answer to affordability and their opponents’ policies would raise rates."
Concerns about data centers' impact on electric grids are rising in both red and blue states.
The Austin American-Statesman reported on Thursday that a new analysis written by the office of Austin City Manager TC Broadnax found that data centers have the potential to overwhelm the city's system given they are projected to need more power than can possibly be delivered with current infrastructure.
"The speed in which AI is trying to be deployed creates tremendous strain on the already tight resources in both design and construction," says the analysis, which noted that some proposed data centers are seeking more than five gigawatts, which is more than the peak load for the entire city.
In New York, local station News 10 reported last year that the New York Independent System Operator is estimating that the state's grid could be 1.6 gigawatts short of reliability requirements by 2030 thanks in large part to data centers.
Anger over proposed data centers has even spread to President Donald Trump's primary residential home of Palm Beach County, Florida, where local residents successfully postponed the construction of a proposed 200-acre data center complex.
According to public news station WLRN, locals opposed to the project cited "expected noise from cooling towers, servers, and diesel generators, along with heavy water use, pollution concerns, and higher utility costs" when petitioning Palm Beach County commissioners to scrap the proposal.
Corey Kanterman, a local opponent of the proposed data center, told WLRN that his goal is to shut the project down entirely.
"No good comes of having an AI data center near you," Kanterman said. "Put them in the location of least impact to the environment and people. This location is not it."
Jensen Huang, CEO of the tech behemoth Nvidia and the eighth-richest man in the world, said Tuesday that he is "perfectly fine" with a grassroots push in California to impose a one-time wealth tax on the state's billionaire residents.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Huang said that "we chose to live in Silicon Valley, and whatever taxes, I guess, they would like to apply, so be it"—a nonchalant response that diverges from the hysteria expressed by other members of his class in response to the proposed ballot initiative.
"It never crossed my mind once," Huang said of the tax proposal.
If the proposed 5% levy on billionaire wealth makes it onto the November ballot and California voters approve it, Huang would face an estimated $8 billion tax bill—a tiny slice of his $165 billion net worth. Those subject to the tax would have the option of paying the full amount owed all at once or over a period of five years.
"'Who cares' is absolutely the appropriate reaction," said Matt Bruenig, founder of the People's Policy Project, a left-wing think tank. "It means nothing to him. David Sacks types look like the biggest babies in the world."
Bruenig was referring to the White House cryptocurrency czar who left California for Texas at the end of 2025 in an apparent effort to avoid the possible billionaire tax, which would apply to anyone living in California as of January 1, 2026.
“As a response to socialism, Miami will replace NYC as the finance capital and Austin will replace SF as the tech capital,” Sacks declared in a social media post last week.
"Frontline caregivers are glad to hear that, much like the overwhelming majority of billionaires, Mr. Huang will not be uprooting his life or business to make an ideological point over a 1% per year fix to a problem that Congress created."
The proposed one-time tax on California's roughly 200 billionaires would raise an estimated $100 billion in revenue, funds that would be set aside for the state's healthcare system, food assistance, and education.
Organizers are pursuing the tax in direct response to unprecedented Medicaid cuts enacted by US President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress over the summer.
Suzanne Jimenez, chief of staff of Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West and the lead sponsor of the ballot initiative, welcomed Huang's response to the proposed tax in a statement late Tuesday.
"We agree with Jensen Huang that California has a tremendous talent pool of workers uniquely qualified to continue moving many industries forward, including within the tech sector and beyond," said Jimenez. "This initiative will ensure the $100 billion healthcare funding crisis created by [the Trump-GOP legislation] in July is fixed, so that all of those workers can access emergency rooms and vital healthcare in California."
"Frontline caregivers are glad to hear that, much like the overwhelming majority of billionaires, Mr. Huang will not be uprooting his life or business to make an ideological point over a 1% per year fix to a problem that Congress created last July—and that California will unite to solve this November," Jimenez added.
Citing the deadly "reign of terror" unleashed by President Donald Trump's immigration enforcers against both migrants and US citizens, a Democratic congresswoman on Wednesday formally introduced articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Rep. Robin Kelly of Illinois filed three articles of impeachment against Noem for alleged obstruction of justice, violation of public trust, and self-dealing. The move—which Kelly first announced on January 7— followed last week's killing of Renee Nicole Good, an American citizen, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis.
"Secretary Noem has brought her reign of terror to the Chicagoland area, LA, New Orleans, Charlotte, Durham, and communities north to south to east to west,” Kelly told reporters at a Wednesday press conference. “She needs to be held accountable for her actions."
Speaking on the House floor earlier, Kelly said that "Operation Midway Blitz has torn apart the Chicagoland area."
🚨 BREAKING: Robin Kelly just announced she is moving to impeach DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
“Secretary Noem has violated the Constitution and must be held accountable for terrorizing our communities.”
This is what accountability looks like. pic.twitter.com/4BYgLZzoin
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) January 13, 2026
During the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) operation, ICE agents shot and killed Silverio Villegas González and then allegedly lied about the victim's behavior in a bid to justify the killing. Federal enforcers have attacked protesters and bystanders with tear gas, pepper balls, flash-bang grenades, and other weapons during Midway Blitz and other operations across the country.
"President Trump declared war on Chicago and then he brought violence and destruction to our city and our suburbs in the form of immigration enforcement," Kelly said.
"In my district, federal agents rappelled down from Blackhawk helicopters and burst into an apartment building in the South Shore area," the congresswoman continued. "The dragged US citizens and noncitizens alike out of their beds in the middle of the night."
"They claim the apartment was infiltrated by members of a Venezuelan gang. I don't understand this president's obsession with Venezuela, but they did not arrest a single member from that gang," she added, alluding to Trump's illegal attacks on the South American country and abduction of its president and his wife.
Moving on to Minneapolis, Kelly said that "an ICE officer shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in cold blood."
"Without knowing any of the facts or an investigation, Secretary Noem lied about what happened," the congresswoman said. "She called a beloved 37-year-old mom a 'domestic terrorist.' Secretary Noem and her rogue agents are the ones terrorizing our communities, and she is breaking the law to do so. I will hold her accountable."
Kelly's articles of impeachment accuse Noem of:
"These are not policy disagreements," Kelly said during her House floor remarks. "These are violations of her oath of office, and she must answer for her impeachable actions."
As of late Wednesday morning, more than 70 House Democrats had signed on as co-sponsors of the effort.
"I’ve signed on to impeach Secretary Noem," Rep. John Larson of Connecticut said on X. "She must be held accountable for her corruption and her attacks on the Constitution. She’s hypercharged ICE’s lawlessness and cheered as it has terrorized our communities. She has to go."
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey, who also joined the impeachment effort, said that Noem's "malicious and incompetent leadership has led to chaos across the nation."
Rep. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania said on X: "People are being hunted. Families torn apart. A woman was just shot in the face. And DHS seem to think it's acceptable. It's past time to impeach Kristi Noem."
A DHS spokesperson called the impeachment effort "silly."
"As ICE officers are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them, Rep. Kelly is more focused on showmanship and fundraising clicks than actually cleaning up her crime-ridden Chicago district,” the spokesperson said. “We hope she would get serious about doing her job to protect American people, which is what this department is doing under Sec. Noem.”
The effort to impeach Noem came after state and city officials in Minnesota and Illinois on Monday sued the Trump administration in a bid to block federal forces “from conducting civil immigration enforcement” without “express congressional authorization.”
“People are being racially profiled, harassed, terrorized, and assaulted,” Democratic Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said earlier this week. “Schools have gone into lockdown. Businesses have been forced to close. Minnesota police are spending countless hours dealing with the chaos ICE is causing. This federal invasion of the Twin Cities has to stop, so today I am suing DHS to bring it to an end.”
Maine Gov. Janet Mills was among the leaders in the state who addressed reports late Wednesday that the Trump administration plans to send federal agents including those with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to cities such as Portland and Lewiston, and said unequivocally that the violence masked officers have unleashed on Minneapolis in recent days would not be welcome by residents and officials.
Mills said ICE had refused to confirm the reports that its agents would be in the state and what the basis for the operations would be, but MS Now reported Wednesday that the administration is considering sending federal officers to Maine.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump mentioned Maine's Somali community in a speech at the Detroit Economic Club; Somali people in Minnesota have been a top target of ICE's activities there.
Maine's Democratic governor said her administration was "taking proactive steps to prepare."
My statement on speculation that the Federal government may conduct Federal law enforcement operations in Maine in the coming days pic.twitter.com/aNriEQv7aI
— Governor Janet Mills (@GovJanetMills) January 14, 2026
"If any operations take place, our goal as always will be to protect the safety and the rights of the people of Maine," said Mills. "Maine knows what good law enforcement looks like because our law enforcement are held to high professional standards... and they are accountable to the law. And I'll tell you this, they don't wear a mask to shield their identities and they don't arrest people in order to fill a quota."
"To the federal government I say this: If your plan is to come here to be provocative and to undermine the civil rights of Maine residents, do not be confused. Those tactics are not welcome here," she said.
Mills said state police had been directed to work closely with local law enforcement in cities including Lewiston and Portland, where the police departments do not cooperate with ICE.
Reports of the potential deployment—which Portland Mayor Mark Dion denounced as a "paramilitary approach"—come days after a bill, LD 1971, became law and prohibited all state and local law enforcement from engaging in federal immigration enforcement activities.
“This new law will ensure Maine towns and cities are not complicit in or liable for federal abuses of power, and will improve public safety by building trust between local law enforcement and the communities they are supposed to serve," said ACLU of Maine policy director Michael Kebede on Tuesday.
The bill passed into law without the signature of Mills, a Democrat who is running in the US Senate primary in hopes of unseating Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). The governor has been trailing Graham Platner, a progressive who has called for the "dismantling" of ICE, in recent polls.
“One of the reasons I want to go to the Senate is that when we have power again, I want to haul all of these people and the ones that made them do it in front of a Senate subcommittee, make them take their masks off,” Platner said in October.
Dion and Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline, also a Democrat, urged residents and businesses to know their rights in case they are approached by federal immigration agents.
Dion emphasized in a statement Wednesday that "there is no evidence of unchecked criminal activity in our community requiring a disproportionate presence of federal agents."
"In that view, Portland rejects the need for the deployment of ICE agents into our neighborhoods," said the mayor, a Democrat.
President Donald Trump's recent escalation of federal immigration enforcement in Minneapolis has led to an ICE agent's killing of 37-year-old Renee Good, who had been observing the agents as people across Chicago, Charlotte, and other cities have over the past several months. A federal agent also shot and wounded a man during a traffic stop there on Wednesday.
Trump has largely been targeting the Somali population in Minnesota amid a social services fraud scandal in the state in which some Somali people have been charged and convicted. He has called for all Somali immigrants to leave the US. On Tuesday, Trump said that “Somali scams” had happened “in Maine, too.”
Maine has a significant Somali community including many people who have become US citizens; the population is largely centered in Lewiston and Portland.
MS Now reported that according to people familiar with the administration's plan, immigration operations in Maine were "being designed to arrest and detain Somali refugees for reviews that could last around 30 days."
The Maine Monitor reported that immigration authorities visited Lewiston last month and visited Gateway Community Services, a healthcare provider for immigrants that the state suspended payments to after it alleged more than $1 million in interpreter fraud.
Mills said Wednesday that she fully supported the right of Maine residents to protest a federal immigration enforcement operation and urged them to do so peacefully and "to meet any hostility with reserve and resolve."
"I know there are more unanswered than answered questions right now," she said. "We will continue seeking out answers and continue to communicate our information and plans with you in the coming days. But know this: Maine will not be intimidated, and we will not betray the values that make us who we are."
As oil industry giants are being set up to profit from President Donald Trump's invasion of Venezuela, a new analysis shows the ample backing those companies have received from Wall Street's top financial institutions.
Last week, Bloomberg reported that stock traders and tycoons were "pouncing" after Trump's kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month, after having pressured the Trump administration to "create a more favorable business environment in Venezuela."
A dataset compiled by the international environmental advocacy group Stand.earth shows the extent to which these interests are intertwined.
Stand.earth found that since 2021, banks—including JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, TD, RBC, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America—have committed more than $124 billion in investments to the nine companies set to profit most from the toppling of Venezuela's government.
More than a third of that financing, $42 billion, came in 2025 alone, when Trump launched his aggressive campaign against Venezuela.

Among the companies expected to profit most immediately are refiners like Valero, PBF Energy, Citgo, and Phillips 66, which have large operations on the Gulf Coast that can process the heavy crude Venezuela is known to produce. These four companies have received $41 billion from major banks over the past five years.
Chevron, which also operates many heavy-crude facilities, benefits from being the only US company that operated in Venezuela under the Maduro regime, where it exported more than 140,000 barrels of oil per day last quarter.
At a White House gathering with top oil executives on Friday, the company's vice chair, Mark Nelson, told Trump the company could double its exports "effective immediately."
According to Jason Gabelman, an analyst at TD Cowen, the company could increase its annual cash flow by $400 million to $700 million as a result of Trump's takeover of Venezuelan oil resources.
Chevron was also by far the number-one recipient of investments in 2025, with more than $11 billion in total coming from the banks listed in the report—including $1.78 billion from Barclays, another $1.78 billion from Bank of America, and $1.32 billion from Citigroup.
According to Bloomberg, just weeks before Maduro's removal, analysts at Citigroup predicted 60% gains on the nation's more than $60 billion in bonds if he were replaced.
Even ExxonMobil, whose CEO Darren Woods dumped cold water on Trump's calls to set up operations in Venezuela on Friday, calling the nation "uninvestable," potentially has something major to gain from Maduro's overthrow.
Exxon and ConocoPhillips each have outstanding arbitration cases against Venezuela over the government's 2007 nationalization of oil assets, which could award them $20 billion and $12 billion, respectively.
The report found that in 2025, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips received a combined total of more than $12.8 billion in investment from major financial institutions, which vastly exceeded that from previous years.
Data on these staggering investments comes as oil companies face increased scrutiny surrounding possible foreknowledge of Trump's attack on Venezuela.
Last week, US Senate Democrats launched a formal investigation into “communications between major US oil and oilfield services companies and the Trump administration surrounding last week’s military action in Venezuela and efforts to exploit Venezuelan oil resources.”
Richard Brooks, Stand.earth's climate finance director, said the role of the financial institutions underwriting those oil companies should not be overlooked either.
"Without financial support from big banks and investors, the likes of Chevron, Exxon, ConocoPhillips, and Valero would not have the power that they do to start wars, overthrow governments, or slow the pace of climate action," he said. "Banks and investors need to choose if they are on the side of peace, or of warmongering oil companies.”
Sanders' likening of ICE to a "domestic army" comes as more footage out of Minneapolis shows federal immigration agents violently assaulting protesters and legal observers.
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday called attention to the massive amount of money that Republicans have been shoveling toward federal immigration enforcement during a time when many US citizens are facing eye-popping increases in health insurance premiums and struggling to afford groceries.
In a social media post, Sanders (I-Vt.) noted that the Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed last year gave US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) a $28 billion annual budget, which he said is "larger than the annual budgets of the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals Service and the Bureau of Prisons COMBINED."
"No," Sanders added. "The American people do not want Trump's domestic army."
Sanders' likening of ICE to a "domestic army" comes as shocking footage out of Minneapolis shows ICE and US Customs and Border Protection (CPB) agents violently assaulting protesters and legal observers.
The Minnesota Star-Tribune on Thursday posted a video compilation of federal immigration agents threatening, shoving, and pepper spraying Minneapolis residents.
Two days after an ICE agent killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, a federal agent asked an observer, "Have y'all not learned?" Her phone was taken and she was briefly detained.
Two days after that, another federal agent said to a different observer: “You did not learn from what… pic.twitter.com/1zAMZQEKTa
— The Minnesota Star Tribune (@StarTribune) January 15, 2026
The video also featured testimonies from locals who had gotten into confrontations with ICE.
Ryan Ecklund, a real estate agent from the suburb of Woodbury, Minnesota, said that he was slammed to the ground by federal officers after they spotted him filming them from his car.
"Five ICE officers approached my vehicle, boxed me in with their vehicles, and all five of them forcibly removed me from my car," he said. "They threw me to the ground, which is where I got some of the road rash on my face, and I was detained at the Whipple Detention Center for approximately 10 hours."
Minneapolis resident Zoë Cantu described being shot with rubber bullets by federal agents.
"I came across an ICE agent, they were turning onto a major highway, and as they were turning, I had a walk signal and started crossing the street," she said. "And when I wasn't moving as quickly as they would like, both the driver and the passenger jumped out of the car and they pulled weapons on us—while they were driving, I might add, not even pulled over—and fired rubber bullets."
A man name Shawn Jackson told local news station Fox 9 on Thursday that three of his children had to be hospitalized after ICE agents detonated a flash-bang grenade while he was driving with them in North Minneapolis.
"Officers threw flash bangs and tear gas in my car," he explained. "My 6-month-old can't even breathe... My car filled with tear gas, I'm trying to pull my kids from the car."
Shawn Jackson’s kids were taken by first responders to the hospital from the scene. He said he was trying to leave his relative’s house when a flash bang detonated his airbags and tear gas filled his car pic.twitter.com/clGdMl8sYu
— Max Nesterak (@maxnesterak) January 15, 2026
Jackson's wife, Destiny Jackson, told Fox 9 that she had to perform CPR on their six-month-old child, who was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment along with two other children.
The Jacksons also said that they weren't even in the area to protest against ICE, but were instead trying to get out of the area to keep their children safe.
"My kids were innocent, I was innocent, my husband was innocent, this shouldn't have happened," Destiny Jackson said. "We were just trying to go home."
"If you’re Black or brown, Kristi Noem thinks it’s fine to stop you, cuff you, and demand proof you’re American."
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday was called out for making a blatantly false claim about whether federal immigration agents are arbitrarily demanding that Minnesota residents provide evidence of their legal status.
While speaking with reporters outside the White House, Noem was asked about videos that have emerged from Minneapolis showing federal agents asking passersby to give proof of citizenship.
"Is that targeted enforcement and are you advising Americans to carry proof of citizenship?" a reporter asked Noem.
"In every situation we are doing targeted enforcement," Noem said. "If we are on a target and doing an operation, there may be individuals surrounding that criminal that we may be asking who they are and why they're there, and having them validate their identity. That's what we've always done."
In reality, there have been multiple alleged instances of federal agents asking Minneapolis residents for proof of citizenship that were completely unrelated to any "targeted" enforcement operation.
A lawsuit filed by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Monday documented numerous such instances, including one where federal agents surrounded and questioned a driver at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport about his citizenship, and another where US Department of Homeland Security agents approached a team of Minneapolis Public Works employees and questioned them on their citizenship.
A Monday report from the St. Paul Pioneer Press, meanwhile, quoted a St. Paul resident who said federal agents knocked on her door and asked her to help them "identify Hmong and Asian households" in her neighborhood.
Given the extensive evidence of federal agents hounding Minnesotans for proof of their citizenship, many critics were quick to call out Noem for dishonesty.
"This is just a lie," wrote Democratic strategist Matt McDermott in a social media post. "There has been extensive reporting on ICE doing random door-to-door neighborhood patrols looking for anyone who is not white."
NPR reporter Sergio Martínez-Beltrán countered Noem's claims by describing an incident he saw first-hand.
"A few days ago, I witnessed how immigration agents stopped at a parking lot and asked drivers charging their electric cars for proof of citizenship or legal status," he explained.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said that Noem's claims were false not just in the context of Minneapolis, but of other US cities as well.
"In Los Angeles, for example, DHS officers outright admitted to doing 'roving patrols,' which are NOT targeted," he explained.
Another first-hand account was given by Dan Mihalopoulos, an investigative reporter at Chicago-based public radio station WBEZ.
"Last month, I saw Border Patrol roll up to random Asians in the parking lot of a Costco in Illinois asking if they are citizens," he said. "They backed off a woman who spoke English without an accent. But a Chinese shopper had to show his green card to agents."
Democrats on the US House Homeland Security Committee accused Noem of supporting racial profiling by law enforcement.
"If you’re Black or brown, Kristi Noem thinks it’s fine to stop you, cuff you, and demand proof you’re American," they wrote. "Republicans support racial profiling. They want it in your neighborhood."
"The empire can do whatever it wants, but we are here to tell you that we are free, independent, and sovereign," said one demonstrator.
Demonstrations demanding the United States release Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife continued Wednesday as thousands more people took to the streets of Caracas in a show of support for the abducted leftist leader.
Public workers led a march through Caracas, during which demonstrators chanted slogans—including "Free Maduro!"—while vowing to keep protesting until the socialist president and his wife, First Combatant Cilia Flores, return home.
“Unity is not under discussion at this time," Capital District Head of Government Nahum Fernández said during Wednesday's rally. "The person who conspires against unity conspires against Venezuela."
“The Venezuelan people are going to be in the streets and they’re going to have to hand Maduro over to the Venezuelans,” Fernández added.
Labor leader Anais Herrera demanded the US release Maduro “because he is our president and we want him back, we are in the streets and we will not rest.”
"The president prepared us for this and that is why we are in combat, in the streets with the Venezuelan working class,” she said.
Maduro and Flores were kidnapped by US special forces soldiers during a January 3 invasion backed by airstrikes and an armada of naval warships deployed along with thousands of troops off the Venezuelan coast. The US operation killed more than 100 people, including Venezuelan troops and civilians and over 30 Cuban soldiers and police officers.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has indicted Maduro for alleged conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States, conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices, and possession of such weapons. Maduro has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and has called himself a "prisoner of war."
The kidnapping and charges came amid US bombing of alleged drug-running boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, covert CIA operations, oil tanker seizures, and years of crippling economic sanctions.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez—who is serving as the US-backed acting president—said Wednesday that she had a long, courteous phone call with Trump, who expressed satisfaction with her move to release hundreds of prisoners held for political or national security offenses.
“This opportunity is for Venezuela and for the people of Venezuela to be able to see reflected a new moment where coexistence, where living together, where recognition of the other allows building and erecting a new spirituality,” Rodríguez said.
Trump took to his Truth Social network Wednesday to praise the "very good call" with Rodríguez.
"We are making tremendous progress, as we help Venezuela stabilize and recover," the president wrote. "Many topics were discussed, including Oil, Minerals, Trade and, of course, National Security. This partnership between the United States of America and Venezuela will be a spectacular one FOR ALL."
Amid widespread international condemnation of his aggression, Trump has openly declared his intention to control and exploit Venezuela's vast oil resources, dubiously claiming that the country owes the US for losses incurred by oil companies due to past petroleum nationalization.
Trump is scheduled to meet Thursday afternoon with Venezuelan opposition leader and recent Nobel Peace Prize recipient María Corina Machado at the White House. To the chagrin of right-wing Venezuelans and much of his base, Trump has said that Machado "doesn't have the support" to be the country's next president.
On the streets of Caracas, one protester said Wednesday, "We say to Donald Trump, that miserable invader... [that] Maduro has already proven that he is innocent."
"Nicolás is not a drug trafficker," she added. "I don't know why they haven't returned him yet."
Another demonstrator at the march said, "The empire can do whatever it wants, but we are here to tell you that we are free, independent, and sovereign."
"You can meet with whomever you want," the man said in a message meant for Trump, "but you must meet with who represents our government, and you must release Nicolás Maduro—our president—and Cilia Flores."