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Post-Maduro, pressure builds on Mexico over Cuba’s new oil lifeline
Are they actually going to vote on something real?

Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro’s regime was crucial to propping up America’s closest Communist neighbor, Cuba, for many years — but with the despot now in a New York prison, U.S. lawmakers and analysts are turning their attention to Mexico, a top U.S. ally and trading partner that has quietly taken Venezuela’s place.
As of January, Mexico reportedly accounted for 13,000 barrels per day or 44% of Cuba’s 2025 oil imports, the top factor keeping what some lawmakers describe as a teetering economy barely afloat. With renewed trade talks approaching in July, Republican lawmakers and conservative analysts are calling for increased pressure on Mexico to cut off Cuba's oil lifeline. 
The Trump administration is also weighing instituting a maritime blockade on oil imports to Cuba, according to Politico. The outlet noted that the move would be an escalation of its previously-stated plan to cut off imports from Venezuela, where Maduro's former Vice President Delcy Rodríguez is now acting president. Such a blockade could spur crisis in the country, and lead to the economic collapse of the Castro/Diaz-Canel regime for which much of the U.S. diaspora has long hoped.
"The Cuban government was, even before this action with Maduro, probably at the weakest point that the regime has been in the last 65 years," said Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., the only Cuban-born member of Congress.
AS TRUMP URGES DEAL, CUBAN PRESIDENT WARNS THAT THE COUNTRY WILL DEFEND ITSELF 'TO THE LAST DROP OF BLOOD'
"This just makes them weaker. My one concern is that it appears that Mexico is now trying to prop them up. And so, the oil that they were receiving from Venezuela is now being supplanted by oil being received by Mexico."
The Florida Republican said Mexico is in such a position in part because it is "governed by a Marxist," casting criticism of socialist-party-aligned President Claudia Sheinbaum.
"The oil that they were receiving from Venezuela is now being supplanted by oil being received by Mexico," he said.
"It doesn't matter that [the Miguel Diaz-Canel] regime [in Cuba] has been suppressing and oppressing its people for 65 years, as long as they have the right ideology."
MARCO RUBIO EMERGES AS KEY TRUMP POWER PLAYER AFTER VENEZUELA OPERATION
Gimenez said that Congress could use upcoming intracontinental trade talks over the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to pressure Sheinbaum to stop supporting the dictatorship just 90 miles from Fort Zachary Taylor, at the southern tip of his district.
Cuba is already experiencing rolling blackouts, inability to feed its people, …

Trump's immigration crackdown in the spotlight ahead of midterms as fatal MN shootings ignite backlash
Every delay has consequences.

A second fatal shooting this month by federal agents in Minneapolis is putting President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown carried out by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents in the spotlight.
The shootings of Renee Good, a mother of three, earlier this month, and nurse Alex Pretti this past weekend, as they protested federal agents carrying out immigration operations, sparked national debate and demonstrations, further inflaming political tensions over Trump's push for the mass deportation of millions of illegal immigrants.
Trump's immigration crackdown turned up the heat on Republican incumbents and candidates on the ballot in this year's midterm elections, forcing them to walk a tightrope as they defend the Trump administration's increasingly unpopular illegal immigration enforcement efforts.
WHY A MINNESOTA REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE DROPPED HIS BID FOR GOVERNOR AFTER SECOND FATAL SHOOTING
"I think it’s going to make things more difficult," Amy Koch, a Minnesota-based Republican strategist and former state senator told Fox News Digital. "The images and the energy behind the ICE out movement will definitely play against Republicans."
The two shootings and the massive deployment of ICE and Border Patrol agents to Minneapolis has also deflated coverage of a deepening federal investigation into the sweeping fraud scandal in Minnesota's social services programs.
TRUMP DEPLOYS BORDER CZAR TO MINNESOTA IN WAKE OF SECOND FATAL SHOOTING
The scandal, which spurred Democratic Gov. Tim Walz to drop his re-election bid for a third term, had given Republicans hope of breaking their ballot box losing streak by flipping an open governor's office and Senate seat in November's midterm elections in the blue-leaning state.
"Four weeks ago, I would have told you Republicans were going to do incredibly well statewide in Minnesota, and now I have a lot of questions," said Koch, the first and only woman elected as Minnesota Senate majority leader.
Illegal immigration, along with persistent inflation, was a key issue that boosted Trump and the GOP to decisive ballot box victories in 2024, as they won back the White House and Senate and successfully defended their razor-thin House majority.
But even before the fatal shooting of Pretti, national polls conducted earlier this month spotlighted flagging support for ICE and a deterioration of Trump's approval on immigration.
Among the most recent surveys, a New York Times/Siena Poll conducted Jan. 12–17 and released on Thursday, showed a slight majority approving of the job Trump is …

EXCLUSIVE: DHS investigating woman who tried to buy guns to ‘kill ICE agents’
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.

The Department of Homeland Security told the Washington Examiner it was investigating a woman from Kenmore, New York, who allegedly sought to kill Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

DHS said that an unidentified woman tried to purchase a gun “on two separate occasions” in order to “to protect herself from ICE Agents, and also to kill ICE Agents.” The investigation comes after a significant increase in violence against federal officers in illegal immigration enforcement operations in recent months, including on Saturday, when a protester bit off part of the finger of an ICE agent in Minneapolis who was working on crowd control duties.

The investigation is being conducted by ICE, Homeland Security Investigations, and the New York State Police, with the agencies focused on the “purchase attempts which occurred in Kenmore, New York,” according to DHS. 

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin spoke to the Washington Examiner about the incident and suggested that the inflammatory rhetoric being used against federal law enforcement officers is at least partly to blame, saying such language has “consequences.”

“Every day there are more assaults, more vehicle-ramming attacks, more attempts to kill our officers,” McLaughlin said in an emailed statement. “Now, we have an American citizen purchasing a gun with the intent to kill our officers.”

“Comparing ICE day in and day out to the Nazi Gestapo, the Secret Police, and slave patrols has consequences,” she added. “The men and women of ICE and CBP are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. They get up every morning to try and make our communities safer. Like everyone else, they just want to go home to their families at night.”

The incident in New York is just the latest in a long string of attempted violence against ICE personnel. Protesters have regularly targeted employees of the federal agency since illegal immigration enforcement operations began since President Donald Trump started his second term.

In June, ICE officers had protesters throw Molotov cocktails at them during protests and demonstrations in Los Angeles. Also in Los Angeles in June, there were numerous reports of protesters throwing bricks and other large objects at ICE vehicles that were driving on public roads and highways.

FEDERAL JUDGE SKEPTICAL OF MINNESOTA’S PLEA FOR COURT TO END SWEEPING DHS OPERATION

On July 4, over a dozen people plotted an attack to kill ICE agents at the Prairieland Detention Center in Texas. Then, in …

Brandon To: Appeasement won’t work on Trump
This affects the entire country.

Brandon To is a Politics graduate from UCL and a Hong Kong BN(O) immigrant settled in Harrow

In September 1938, Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich waving a piece of paper and proclaiming “peace for our time”. Britain and France had agreed to let Nazi Germany annex the Sudetenland, a concession made in the hope that satisfying Hitler’s demands would preserve peace in Europe.

It did not. Within a year, Europe was at war.

The lesson was brutally clear: appeasement does not moderate aggressors; it feeds them. Give them an inch, and they will take a mile. Concessions are not interpreted as goodwill, but as weakness.

This is not merely a historical curiosity. It is a pattern, and one we are in danger of repeating.

Only today, the aggressor is not Nazi Germany, nor even Russia, but the United States under Donald Trump’s renewed protectionist instincts.

This is not a hypothetical concern. As he started his second term, Trump imposed global tariffs — including on close allies — treating Europe not as a partner, but as a competitor to be disciplined. Trade became a blunt instrument of pressure rather than a means of shared prosperity.

Now, he openly toys with territorial ambitions over Greenland while once again threatening Europe with punitive tariffs. The danger lies not in any single demand, but in the precedent it sets. If Europe concedes over Greenland on the grounds of “national security”, what comes next? The North Sea, framed as a strategic energy asset? Pressure on Britain’s manufacturing, justified as supply-chain resilience?

Once the language of security is normalised as a tool of economic and territorial coercion, it can be redeployed endlessly. Appeasement does not end when demands are met; it ends only when we are weakened enough to depend on the aggressor’s favour. And when that moment arrives, one question remains: what, then, are Britain and Europe reduced to?

The message is unmistakable: no alliance is sacred, no friendship immune, when “America First” demands sacrifice from others.

For too long, Europe, and Britain in particular, has relied on the comfort of the “special relationship”, assuming that shared history and past alliances guarantee fair treatment. Trump’s posture should finally disabuse us of that illusion. Alliances exist only so long as interests align and powers balance. When they diverge, sentiment counts for very little.

What makes this moment more troubling is the predictable response from both ends of the political spectrum.

The Left will posture loudly when dealing with domestic opponents, but grow timid when confronted by external pressure. Faced with real power, their instinct is always the same: de-escalate, appease, compromise, regardless of the long-term cost. They mistake submission for …

"Yes, It’s Fascism" op-ed from the Atlantic.
Every delay has consequences.

The word is used too often and has a lot less meaning as a result. It also has too many definitions to be clear.*
Has the US crossed that line?
The Atlantic's conclusion about the US is correct. The country isn't fascist. My internal political scientist says US institutions are strong and still block authoritarian full consolidation. Or at least their resistance would not be trivial. So calling the US a fully fascist state overstates the case....for now. There is though evidence consistent with movement toward an illiberal or hybrid regime including some consolidation.
Consolidation is where the government pulls the power to act or govern from the States and Municipalities into the executive.
The things Miller has said about power recently, do echo fascism.
However, that's not uniquely fascist, for example, Miller is doing what the Atlantic author called "might is right" or "bully worship."
But that, or politicized law enforcement, having a leader cult, or disinformation can occur in many authoritarian or illiberal regimes. The question becomes whether the combination and direction is toward fascist radicalization, rather than just “authoritarianism plus nasty rhetoric.”
What good does it do to say the president is a fascist while not indicting the country, and other departments he controls?
Fascism is a system, not an individual attribute. It is imprecise to say a country is fascist based on a single leader while the rest of the government is still capable of democratically functioning.
And then from a completely personal point of view, the photos out of Minneapolis look a lot like the SA (Sturmabteilung.) But they are federal, not paramilitaries. That makes it worse. But that's the emotional side of me talking. The Border should be controlled. The laws should be enforced. But maybe not like this.
Hindsight is 20/20 but if we cross the lines and become fascist, we won't like what we see when we look behind us. So even if it isn't there yet, if the direction is towards fascism, then the job is to stop it before it gets there.
But is it that direction? It's a dire question.
*I used Griffen's and Paxton's Anatomy of Fascism definitions to work with for deciding what was what.
Original Here - Paywalled

How Tennessee’s Speaker of the House Helped Keep a Payday Lender’s Struggling Sports Gambling Company Alive
What's the endgame here?

The powerful owners of a payday lending company faced a crisis in March 2021 when their other business, a now-defunct sports gambling operation, was under investigation by Tennessee regulators.

The couple, Michael and Tina Hodges, had already turned to Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton in 2014 to create a new triple-digit interest loan called a “Flex Loan.” The couple’s company, Advance Financial, through the Flex Loan, went on to make hundreds of millions of dollars lending to the state’s most financially vulnerable.

Now they needed Sexton’s help keeping their fledgling gambling business, Action 247, afloat as it tried to compete with sportsbooks like FanDuel and DraftKings, which were dominating the market in Tennessee and around the country.

In many states, regulators try to keep lending and betting separate; Virginia, for example, bans gambling operators from offering loans to customers. But in Tennessee, it’s different. A payday lender and a gambling company can have the same owners and operate out of the same storefronts.

From November 2020 through Jan. 16, when Action 247 closed, this was happening. A person could walk into any Advance Financial storefront and borrow up to $4,000 at a 279.5% interest rate. Then, at the same window, the customer could legally tell the store’s employee to deposit cash into an Action 247 account, through which they could gamble the money on something like a football game.

Members of the Tennessee Education Lottery Corp., which oversaw sports gambling at the time, were concerned by the arrangement and the company, but the agency’s board was prevented from doing anything about it by its attorney in January 2021. Two months later, the board attempted to assert its power over Action 247 by suspending its license for violations related to its failure to ensure that customers adhered to state gambling laws; ultimately, Action 247 went to court, where a judge lifted the suspension but allowed the agency to continue its investigation.

That’s when Sexton stepped in.

The Hodges own the majority of both Action 247 and Advance Financial. The payday lender is one of the largest donors to Sexton and his political action committee, giving around $105,000 over the past decade.

ProPublica and the Tennessee Lookout previously reported how, after creating the new type of payday loan, Advance has gone on to sue more than 110,000 Tennesseans, making the company one of the single largest plaintiffs in the state.

Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton told a lottery board official he was not happy with the panel’s decision to suspend the online sportsbook Action 247; weeks later, he helped pass a bill to remove lottery oversight. John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout

Through Action, the Hodges also brought in dozens of investors, including two with political ties to Sexton and other powerful state lawmakers, according to an investor document obtained by the Tennessee Lookout and ProPublica.

A month after the suspension, Sexton met with two members of the lottery board. The legislator “made it clear he was not happy” with the decision to suspend Action 247, said Susan Lanigan, the chair of the Tennessee …

‘Sorry, Trump’: Ilhan Omar fires back after Trump targets her in Truth Social post
Are they actually going to vote on something real?

Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota accused President Donald Trump of "deflecting" after he took aim at her in a Truth Social post on Monday.
In part of his post, Trump said, "the DOJ and Congress are looking at ‘Congresswoman’ Illhan Omar, who left Somalia with NOTHING, and is now reportedly worth more than 44 Million Dollars. Time will tell all."
The left-wing lawmaker fired back in a post on X.
ONE YEAR, ONE CHART AND AN EYE-POPPING JUMP IN ILHAN OMAR'S PERSONAL WEALTH
"Sorry, Trump, your support is collapsing and you’re panicking. Right on cue, you’re deflecting from your failures with lies and conspiracy theories about me. Years of 'investigations' have found nothing. Get your goons out of Minnesota," she wrote.
Before mentioning Omar in the Monday Truth Social post, Trump had also noted, "I am sending Tom Homan to Minnesota tonight. He has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there. Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me. Separately, a major investigation is going on with respect to the massive 20 Billion Dollar, Plus, Welfare Fraud that has taken place in Minnesota, and is at least partially responsible for the violent organized protests going on in the streets."
Omar advocates abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
MEET THE LONGTIME BIZ PARTNER OF ILHAN OMAR'S HUSBAND AS QUESTIONS SWIRL OVER HER SKYROCKETING NET WORTH
"ICE is beyond reform. Abolish it," she declared in part of a Sunday post on X.
In a January 18 Truth Social post, Trump said that Omar should either be jailed or sent back to Somalia.
"There is 19 Billion Dollars in Minnesota Somalia Fraud. Fake ‘Congresswoman’ Illhan Omar, a constant complainer who hates the USA, knows everything there is to know. She should be in jail, or even a worse punishment, sent back to Somalia, considered one of the absolutely worst countries in the World. She could help to MAKE SOMALIA GREAT AGAIN!" the president declared in the post.
TRUMP CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION INTO ILHAN OMAR'S WEALTH, SAYS IT SHOULD START ‘NOW’
Omar, who has served in the House of Representatives since early 2019, was born in Somalia and became a U.S. citizen in 2000.

How local businesses are helping anti-ICE activists obstruct immigration enforcement
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.

Local businesses in Minnesota are aiding the resistance against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, supplying anti-ICE activists and illegal aliens alike with food, housing, and legal support as part of a sophisticated network dedicated to obstructing deportation operations across the sanctuary state.

The Minnesota chapter of 50501, one of the left-wing organizations behind the nationwide “No Kings” movement, maintains a list of community partners providing “mutual aid” in the state for agitators targeting ICE and illegal immigrants at risk of removal.

For instance, Latino-operated stores and markets in Minneapolis are delivering groceries for free to illegal immigrants too afraid to leave their homes due to increased enforcement operations.

Valerie’s Carniceria, a Mexican meat market in south Minneapolis, serves about 100 customers a week who are too scared to shop in person for fear of ICE capture. Alborada Market is offering free delivery for customers within a three-mile radius, while Daniel Hernandez, the owner of Colonial Market, is making deliveries himself. “The service — it’s a lifeline for them,” Hernandez told the Sahan Journal, a nonprofit newsroom covering immigration in Minnesota.

50501 Minnesota itself has organized a network of safe houses in the Minneapolis metropolitan area to help illegal immigrants evade enforcement.

In the event of ICE apprehension, 50501 Minnesota recommends detainees consult with Mai Neng Moua Law, a Minneapolis law firm helping clients “navigate” U.S. immigration law. When scheduling an appointment, illegal immigrants are able to get their consultation fee waived if they mention a referral from Minnesota 8, an anti-ICE group teaching followers to “resist deportation and detention.”

50501’s Minnesota arm also advertises several bail funds as well as a supply drive for those subsequently released from federal custody in Minneapolis.

The Midwest Immigration Bond Fund Coalition will pay the immigration bonds of arrested illegal immigrants upon request, and the National Lawyers Guild of Minnesota offers legal assistance, including bail money, in protest-related cases.

TAXPAYER-FUNDED NETWORK OF MINNESOTA DEFENSE FUNDS BAILING OUT ANTI-ICE AGITATORS

Any arrestee let out of the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, a facility serving as the city’s primary ICE detention site, can collect phones, clothes, and food covered via the Whipple Safe Haven fund. A team of on-site activists additionally provides cars for …

Minnesota madness upstages Trump’s Iowa affordability pitch
This affects the entire country.

President Donald Trump’s attempt to use the bully pulpit to tout his administration’s efforts to lower everyday prices for people is being eclipsed by the shocking news that federal officers killed a second anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protester in Minnesota over the weekend.

Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, was fatally shot by Border Patrol agents while recording and attempting to intervene in a federal immigration operation in Minnesota. His death came in the same month that Renee Good, a mother of three, was killed during an altercation with an ICE officer.

Pretti’s death has only further inflamed tensions between protesters, Democratic officials, and federal agents throughout Minnesota. The incident also spurred bipartisan calls in Congress for an investigation and hearings.

“While emotions are no doubt high, a congressional hearing is a place where federal, state, and local community leaders can be heard,” Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI) wrote on X. “I believe Congress can conduct oversight and lead a facts-based discussion.”

Trump has sought to lower tensions, telling the Wall Street Journal he would remove federal immigration agents from Minnesota “at some point.” On Monday, Trump announced he was sending “border czar” Tom Homan to oversee the situation in Minnesota. The president also said he had spoken to Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and the two “seemed to be on a similar wavelength.”

“Nobody in the White House, including President Trump, wants to see people getting hurt or killed in America’s streets,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Still, the unrest is likely to spill over into Trump’s visit to Iowa on Tuesday, where the president was going to champion his work to lower the cost of living.

“Ending Joe Biden’s economic and affordability disaster has been a Day One priority for President Trump,” a White House official told the Washington Examiner. “The president’s trip out to Iowa will underscore the work that this Administration has already done to raise real wages, cut gas prices, and accelerate economic growth — and what work the Administration will continue doing to keep delivering for the American people.”

Aaron Evans, president of Winning Republican Strategies, said Trump will have no choice but to juggle his handling of the situation in Minnesota with his efforts to improve the economy.

“At the end of the day, he doesn’t really have the luxury of picking one priority over another priority. He’s got …

DHS investigating woman who tried to buy guns to ‘kill ICE agents’
Who's accountable for the results?

EXCLUSIVE – The Department of Homeland Security told the Washington Examiner it was investigating a woman from Kenmore, New York, who allegedly sought to kill Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

DHS said that an unidentified woman tried to purchase a gun “on two separate occasions” in order to “to protect herself from ICE Agents, and also to kill ICE Agents.” The investigation comes after a significant increase in violence against federal officers in illegal immigration enforcement operations in recent months, including on Saturday, when a protester bit off part of the finger of an ICE agent in Minneapolis who was working on crowd control duties.

The investigation is being conducted by ICE, Homeland Security Investigations, and the New York State Police, with the agencies focused on the “purchase attempts which occurred in Kenmore, New York,” according to DHS. 

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin suggested that the inflammatory rhetoric being used against federal law enforcement officers is at least partly to blame, saying such language has “consequences.”

“Every day there are more assaults, more vehicle-ramming attacks, more attempts to kill our officers,” McLaughlin said in an emailed statement to the Washington Examiner. “Now, we have an American citizen purchasing a gun with the intent to kill our officers.”

“Comparing ICE day in and day out to the Nazi Gestapo, the Secret Police, and slave patrols has consequences,” she added. “The men and women of ICE and CBP are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. They get up every morning to try and make our communities safer. Like everyone else, they just want to go home to their families at night.”

The incident in New York is just the latest in a long string of attempted violence against ICE personnel. Protesters have regularly targeted employees of the federal agency since illegal immigration enforcement operations began since President Donald Trump started his second term.

In June, ICE officers had protesters throw Molotov cocktails at them during protests and demonstrations in Los Angeles. Also in Los Angeles in June, there were numerous reports of protesters throwing bricks and other large objects at ICE vehicles that were driving on public roads and highways.

FEDERAL JUDGE SKEPTICAL OF MINNESOTA’S PLEA FOR COURT TO END SWEEPING DHS OPERATION

On July 4, over a dozen people plotted an attack to kill ICE agents at the Prairieland Detention Center in Texas. Then, in September, …