Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
"The account’s posts suggest they are worried about Trump’s declining popularity. It launched an attack on Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook, whom the administration is targeting for alleged mortgage fraud, just before it claimed that Trump was lowering mortgage rates. Later, the account would post a short video of Trump under which the chyron read: “I AM STANDING UP FOR AMERICAN AUTOWORKERS,” although the video was of him promising to stop all federal payments to 'sanctuary cities' on February 1."
Comments: The art of deception. Trump only provides smoke and mirrors but can't deliver pragmatic solutions.
"At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this morning, a visibly exhausted president of the United States of America rambled in angry free association in a speech before the world’s leaders. At one point, speaking of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) dignitaries, he told the audience: 'Until the last few days when I told them about Iceland, they loved me. They called me daddy, right, last time. Very smart man said, He’s our daddy. He’s running it.’"
"He meant Greenland."
"The president of the United States went on to give a virulently racist, insulting, rambling speech in which he complained that people call him a dictator but that “sometimes you need a dictator.” More than anything, though, the speech demonstrated his mental unfitness for his position. Tom Nichols of The Atlantic wrote: 'No one can be watching this Davos speech and reach any conclusion but that the President of the United States is mentally disturbed and that something is deeply wrong with him. This is both embarrassing and extremely dangerous.'"
Comments: A grown-up needs to put Trump in his diaper, give him a warm bottle of milk, and let him take a very long nap from which he hopefully never awakes from. What a goddamn embarassment it is to have this loudmouthed boor represent the U.S. as president!
"Later, Trump backed off on the tariffs he had threatened to impose on the countries standing against his seizure of Greenland, claiming he had just had 'a very productive meeting' with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and had 'formed the framework for a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region. This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations.' Because of that framework, he said, he would not be imposing the tariffs he had threatened on those nations opposing his designs on NATO."
"As Ron Filipkowski of MeidasNews noted, this was not a new deal, but Trump surrendering. The U.S. and NATO have always been free to do whatever they want in Greenland, but Trump had insisted he needed to own it for 'psychological' reasons. Now he has reverted back to the original agreement."
Comments: Trump talkin' smack but others fight back! TACOs on the menu again...
"But then Trump went on to say: 'People will soon be prosecuted for what they did. It’s probably breaking news but it should be. It was a rigged election. You can’t have rigged elections.'"
"This is an astonishing threat. It says he intends to prosecute Department of Justice officials and others for refusing to help him steal the presidency. The timing of this particular threat is not accidental. Tomorrow at 10:00 Eastern Time, former special counsel Jack Smith, who investigated Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, will testify publicly about the evidence that led a grand jury to indict Trump and led Smith himself to conclude a jury would convict Trump."
"Lately, Trump has been rehashing his grievances from that election, repeating debunked claims of rigged voting machines and so on. The issue is clearly on his mind. Jack Smith knows what happened, Trump knows that Smith knows what happened, and it appears Trump is eager to discredit him at the very least.
After the Carney speech, the iShares Canada ETF (EWC) has jumped to a new 52-week high. Here at MFO, it's already been suggested that he could very well be the new leader of the Free World. I wouldn't mind a bit. And it looks as though he speaks a passable French, too. But I'm no judge of THAT.
The irony of the title of this thread and just how historically bad the last week has been for the country is not lost on the patriots posting here. It’s so bad that in our house we are putting limits on news consumption and watching baking you tube shows instead.
The irony of the title of this thread and just how historically bad the last week has been for the country is not lost on the patriots posting here. It’s so bad that in our house we are putting limits on news consumption and watching baking you tube shows instead.
Ya, some friends of mine did the same on inauguration Day.
"ICE agents have kidnapped a 5-year-old child to use him as 'bait' to arrest his parents. The child and his father are now in a detention center in Texas, although no one knows their exact whereabouts. They were in America legally."
"This is only the latest cruel outrage I’ve heard about. All this is being done in our name — the United States of America — with our authority, our tax dollars, and, seemingly, our acquiescence."
Comments: Low-rent ICE officers kidnapped a 5-year old boy in MN. There is definitely no justification for this terrible act. Absolute immunity for ICE officers is a total farce which is not supported by law. Hopefully, MN (or the local jurisdiction) will go after the ICE perpetrators and thoroughly emasculate them.
Edit/Add: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem needs to be impeached.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this morning, a visibly exhausted president of the United States of America rambled in angry free association in a speech before the world’s leaders. At one point, speaking of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) dignitaries, he told the audience: “Until the last few days when I told them about Iceland, they loved me. They called me daddy, right, last time. Very smart man said, ‘He’s our daddy. He’s running it.’”
He meant Greenland.
The president of the United States went on to give a virulently racist, insulting, rambling speech in which he complained that people call him a dictator but that “sometimes you need a dictator.” More than anything, though, the speech demonstrated his mental unfitness for his position. Tom Nichols of The Atlantic wrote: “No one can be watching this Davos speech and reach any conclusion but that the President of the United States is mentally disturbed and that something is deeply wrong with him. This is both embarrassing and extremely dangerous.”
Andrew Egger of The Bulwark wrote of Trump’s hostility to traditional U.S. allies today: “As long as I live, I don’t think I’ll get over this pure, dumb fact: Trump told his fans he had to blow up the liberal order because it was the only way to secure the very benefits the liberal order was already bringing us.” Egger likened this to Aesop’s fable about the greedy farmer who butchered the goose that laid golden eggs.
Later, Trump backed off on the tariffs he had threatened to impose on the countries standing against his seizure of Greenland, claiming he had just had “a very productive meeting” with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and had “formed the framework for a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region. This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations.” Because of that framework, he said, he would not be imposing the tariffs he had threatened on those nations opposing his designs on NATO.
As Ron Filipkowski of MeidasNews noted, this was not a new deal, but Trump surrendering. The U.S. and NATO have always been free to do whatever they want in Greenland, but Trump had insisted he needed to own it for “psychological” reasons. Now he has reverted back to the original agreement.
Amongst all of Trump’s other lies and threats at his Davos speech, one stood out. Talking about Russia’s war against Ukraine, he said: “It’s a war that should have never started, and it wouldn’t have started if the 2020 U.S. presidential election weren’t rigged—it was a rigged election. Everybody now knows that. They found out.” This is Trump’s Big Lie, and it has been thoroughly debunked; the 2020 presidential election wasn’t stolen from him.
But then Trump went on to say: “People will soon be prosecuted for what they did. It’s probably breaking news but it should be. It was a rigged election. You can’t have rigged elections.”
This is an astonishing threat. It says he intends to prosecute Department of Justice officials and others for refusing to help him steal the presidency. The timing of this particular threat is not accidental. Tomorrow at 10:00 Eastern Time, former special counsel Jack Smith, who investigated Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, will testify publicly about the evidence that led a grand jury to indict Trump and led Smith himself to conclude a jury would convict Trump.
Lately, Trump has been rehashing his grievances from that election, repeating debunked claims of rigged voting machines and so on. The issue is clearly on his mind. Jack Smith knows what happened, Trump knows that Smith knows what happened, and it appears Trump is eager to discredit him at the very least.
While Trump is in Davos, the violence from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agents that has been obvious for a while has ramped up in what appears to be an attempt to spark violence.
Yesterday Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, police chief Mark Bruley told reporters that the police were getting repeated complaints about violations of civil rights by ICE and that ICE agents were stopping off-duty police officers of color. He recounted that ICE agents had stopped an off-duty police officer, demanded her paperwork—she is a U.S. citizen—and then held her at gunpoint. When she tried to film the interaction, they knocked the phone out of her hand. Finally, when she identified herself as a police officer, they got in their vehicles and left.
“This isn’t just important because it happened to off-duty police officers,” Bruley said, but because “our officers know what the Constitution is, they know what right and wrong is, and they know when people are being targeted, and that’s what they were. If it is happening to our officers, it pains me to think [of] how many of our community members are falling victim to this every day.”
Yesterday Dell Cameron of Wired reported that internal ICE planning documents show that the agency is planning to spend up to $50 million on jail space and a privately run transfer hub in Minnesota for immigrant detainees from Minnesota and four neighboring states.
Today the El Paso County Office of the Medical Examiner ruled that the death of 55-year-old Cuban-born Geraldo Lunas Campos detained in Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, was a homicide. Camp East Montana is a tent encampment where migrants have reported poor conditions and physical abuse. Lunas Campos died of asphyxiation after guards put pressure on his neck and chest during an altercation during which Lunas Campos asked for his medication. Two detainees testified that they saw guards choking Lunas Campos, who repeatedly told them he couldn’t breathe. The Trump administration has since tried to deport the two witnesses.
Douglas MacMillan of the Washington Post reported that at least 30 people died in detention last year, the highest number in twenty years. Six people, including Lunas Campos and another detainee at Camp East Montana, died in the first two weeks of 2026.
ICE agents are hanging around schools, threatening children. Reg Chapman of CBS News in Minnesota reported today that ICE has detained a five-year-old preschooler after using him as bait to get someone in his house to open their door. Then ICE transferred him and his father from Minnesota to detention in Texas. His family has an active asylum case and it does not have an order of deportation, meaning they are in the U.S. legally.
Video footage from Minneapolis also shows a federal agent spraying chemical irritants directly into the face of a man agents had pinned and held to the ground. Other video shows Customs and Border Protection leader Greg Bovino throwing tear gas at peaceful protesters.
This afternoon, Rebecca Santana of the Associated Press reported that ICE has been breaking into homes under the authority provided by a secret memo of May 12, 2025, signed by the acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, saying that federal agents do not need a judge’s warrant to force their way into people’s homes.
The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, one of the ten amendments that make up the Bill of Rights, says: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
As Joyce White Vance of Civil Discourse notes, courts have always interpreted that amendment to mean that a judge must sign a warrant to allow law enforcement to break into a home. Now the Department of Homeland Security says it does not need such a judicial warrant, but can simply use an administrative warrant signed by an official at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or ICE if immigrants believed to be inside a home have a final order of removal.
The legal training manual for DHS itself quotes a 1984 Supreme Court decision that “the ‘physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed.”
Immigration law specialist Aaron Reichlin-Melnick noted that this memo is a big deal: it is “the federal government conspiring in secret to subvert the Fourth Amendment.”
Two ICE whistleblowers provided the memo to Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), explaining that they were shown the memo. They suggested that ICE supervisors seemed to understand the order was unlawful, as the supervisors only told agents about the memo rather than sharing a hard copy with them, and that at least one long-time employee resigned rather than be forced to teach material they thought was illegal.
Blumenthal wrote a scathing letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and ICE acting director Lyons noting that the “new policy is based on a secret legal interpretation and is directly contrary to Fourth Amendment law and agency practice.” He demanded to know how many DHS agents had been trained on the memo and where the training had taken place, how many homes had been broken into under the terms of the memo, the legal determination for the memo, and so on.
“Every American should be terrified by this secret ICE policy authorizing its agents to kick down your door & storm into your home,” Blumenthal wrote on social media. “It is an unlawful & morally repugnant policy that exemplifies the kinds of dangerous, disgraceful abuses America is seeing in real time. In our democracy, with vanishingly rare exceptions, the government is barred from breaking into your home without approval from a real judge. Government agents have no right to ransack your bedroom or terrorize your kids on a whim or personal desire.”
“I am deeply grateful to brave whistleblowers who have come forward & put the rights of their fellow Americans first,” Blumenthal wrote. “My Republican colleagues who claim to value personal rights against government overreach now have an opportunity & obligation to prove that rhetoric is real.”
Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), who at the beginning of 2025 was considered a moderate on immigration, wrote: “Yeah I am not voting to give whatever ICE has become more taxpayer money. It’s no longer an immigration enforcement arm of the US government.”
Now ICE has landed in Portland and in Lewiston-Auburn, Maine, where it claims to have 1,400 targets for arrest.
"As Trump’s dementia worsens, several axioms are useful for interpreting his increasingly incoherent bloviation."
Axiom #1: Whatever he asserts to be a fact is either a wild exaggeration or a bald-faced lie. Always disregard.
Axiom #2: Whatever he blames on anyone else is something he’s done. He projects like mad, so his accusations are always windows onto what he’s worrying that others will discover about himself.
Axiom #3: Whatever he criticizes as being fake news is a fact he doesn’t want you to know. So pay special attention to it.
Axiom #4: Whenever he attacks some source of information — a survey, poll, or report — it’s come up with some truth he fears. So look at it and share it.
Comments: It's unmistakeable that Donald J. Trump is in an extremely demented state. The man is not capable of fulfilling his duties as President of the United States or as the Commander-In-Chief. Since Trump presents a great danger to the U.S. (and to the world writ large), he should be removed from office immediately by any means necessary.
"As Trump’s dementia worsens, several axioms are useful for interpreting his increasingly incoherent bloviation."
Axiom #1: Whatever he asserts to be a fact is either a wild exaggeration or a bald-faced lie. Always disregard.
Axiom #2: Whatever he blames on anyone else is something he’s done. He projects like mad, so his accusations are always windows onto what he’s worrying that others will discover about himself.
Axiom #3: Whatever he criticizes as being fake news is a fact he doesn’t want you to know. So pay special attention to it.
Axiom #4: Whenever he attacks some source of information — a survey, poll, or report — it’s come up with some truth he fears. So look at it and share it.
Comments: It's unmistakeable that Donald J. Trump is in an extremely demented state. The man is not capable of fulfilling his duties as President of the United States or as the Commander-In-Chief. Since Trump presents a great danger to the U.S. (and to the world writ large), he should be removed from office immediately by any means necessary.
"Vice President J.D. Vance was in Minnesota for the administration today, trying to regain control of the narrative about the violence perpetrated there by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). A new poll out today from the New York Times and Siena University shows that nearly two thirds of Americans, 63%, disapprove of how ICE is handling its job, while only 36% approve. Even among white Americans, 57% disapprove, while only 42% approve. Sixty-one percent of Americans, including 19% of Republicans, think that ICE agents have gone too far."
"Just hours after ICE agent Jonathan Ross killed 37-year-old Renee Good on January 7, and long before there was any official investigation of the shooting, Vance was out in front of the news, blaming Good for her own death and claiming that the officer was clearly justified in shooting her."
"But even MAGA voters don’t buy it. Podcaster Joe Rogan has compared ICE to 'the gestapo,' and Greg Sargent of The New Republic noted that a majority of both young voters and those without a college degree, those who tend to be easy for MAGA to reach, disapprove of ICE enforcement. Media Matters reported that the senior judicial analyst on right-wing channel Newsmax, Andrew Napolitano, called the newly revealed secret ICE memo claiming the right to break down doors to arrest people in their homes 'a direct and profound violation of the Fourth Amendment, which expressly says people are entitled to be secure in their homes and that security can only be invaded by a search warrant signed by a judge based on probable cause of crime.'"
"The vice president also denied his words from January 8, when he said of Ross at the White House: 'You have a federal law enforcement official engaging in federal law enforcement action. That’s a federal issue. That guy’s protected by absolute immunity.' Moving the goalposts considerably today after it turned out that Americans don’t particularly like the idea that masked agents can do whatever they want, he said: “I didn’t say…that officers who engaged in wrongdoing would enjoy immunity. That’s absurd. What I did say is that when federal law enforcement officers violate the law that’s typically something federal officials would look into. We don’t want these guys to have kangaroo courts.'"
Comments: Another Trump official changing his tune regarding an absurd statement that he made. This type of behavior doesn't foster confidence in the current political environment. The fascist lout is just one heartbeat away from the presidency!
Comments
It launched an attack on Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook,
whom the administration is targeting for alleged mortgage fraud,
just before it claimed that Trump was lowering mortgage rates.
Later, the account would post a short video of Trump under which the chyron read:
“I AM STANDING UP FOR AMERICAN AUTOWORKERS,” although the video was of him
promising to stop all federal payments to 'sanctuary cities' on February 1."
Comments: The art of deception. Trump only provides smoke and mirrors but can't deliver pragmatic solutions.
of the United States of America rambled in angry free association in a speech before the world’s leaders.
At one point, speaking of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) dignitaries,
he told the audience: 'Until the last few days when I told them about Iceland, they loved me.
They called me daddy, right, last time. Very smart man said, He’s our daddy. He’s running it.’"
"He meant Greenland."
"The president of the United States went on to give a virulently racist, insulting, rambling speech
in which he complained that people call him a dictator but that “sometimes you need a dictator.”
More than anything, though, the speech demonstrated his mental unfitness for his position.
Tom Nichols of The Atlantic wrote: 'No one can be watching this Davos speech and reach any conclusion
but that the President of the United States is mentally disturbed and that something
is deeply wrong with him. This is both embarrassing and extremely dangerous.'"
Comments: A grown-up needs to put Trump in his diaper, give him a warm bottle of milk,
and let him take a very long nap from which he hopefully never awakes from.
What a goddamn embarassment it is to have this loudmouthed boor represent the U.S. as president!
standing against his seizure of Greenland, claiming he had just had 'a very productive meeting'
with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and had 'formed the framework for a future deal
with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region.
This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America,
and all NATO Nations.' Because of that framework, he said, he would not be imposing the tariffs
he had threatened on those nations opposing his designs on NATO."
"As Ron Filipkowski of MeidasNews noted, this was not a new deal, but Trump surrendering.
The U.S. and NATO have always been free to do whatever they want in Greenland,
but Trump had insisted he needed to own it for 'psychological' reasons.
Now he has reverted back to the original agreement."
Comments: Trump talkin' smack but others fight back! TACOs on the menu again...
It’s probably breaking news but it should be. It was a rigged election. You can’t have rigged elections.'"
"This is an astonishing threat. It says he intends to prosecute Department of Justice officials
and others for refusing to help him steal the presidency. The timing of this particular threat
is not accidental. Tomorrow at 10:00 Eastern Time, former special counsel Jack Smith,
who investigated Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election,
will testify publicly about the evidence that led a grand jury to indict Trump
and led Smith himself to conclude a jury would convict Trump."
"Lately, Trump has been rehashing his grievances from that election, repeating debunked claims
of rigged voting machines and so on. The issue is clearly on his mind.
Jack Smith knows what happened, Trump knows that Smith knows what happened,
and it appears Trump is eager to discredit him at the very least.
The child and his father are now in a detention center in Texas,
although no one knows their exact whereabouts. They were in America legally."
"This is only the latest cruel outrage I’ve heard about.
All this is being done in our name — the United States of America — with our authority,
our tax dollars, and, seemingly, our acquiescence."
Comments: Low-rent ICE officers kidnapped a 5-year old boy in MN.
There is definitely no justification for this terrible act.
Absolute immunity for ICE officers is a total farce which is not supported by law.
Hopefully, MN (or the local jurisdiction) will go after the ICE perpetrators and thoroughly emasculate them.
Edit/Add: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem needs to be impeached.
https://www.newsweek.com/kristi-noem-impeachment-update-congresswoman-touts-nationwide-support-11401244
Axiom #1: Whatever he asserts to be a fact is either a wild exaggeration or a bald-faced lie.
Always disregard.
Axiom #2: Whatever he blames on anyone else is something he’s done.
He projects like mad, so his accusations are always windows onto what
he’s worrying that others will discover about himself.
Axiom #3: Whatever he criticizes as being fake news is a fact he doesn’t want you to know.
So pay special attention to it.
Axiom #4: Whenever he attacks some source of information — a survey, poll, or report —
it’s come up with some truth he fears. So look at it and share it.
Comments: It's unmistakeable that Donald J. Trump is in an extremely demented state.
The man is not capable of fulfilling his duties as President of the United States or as the Commander-In-Chief.
Since Trump presents a great danger to the U.S. (and to the world writ large),
he should be removed from office immediately by any means necessary.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/trumps-board-peace-billionaires-cronies-and-genocidaires/51179?utm_source=EI readers&utm_campaign=5c0b117c72-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e802a7602d-5c0b117c72-296229349
axiom #0 : assume direct and indirect grift for self, friends, family...save 99% effort for any other explanation.
https://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/trump-family-corruption-tracker?1
https://truthout.org/articles/with-twin-cities-under-siege-by-ice-minnesota-moves-toward-a-general-strike/
https://www.iceoutnowmn.com/
fwiw
(it is okay and helpful, I am told, for out-of-staters to sign as Minnesotans)
trying to regain control of the narrative about the violence perpetrated there by agents
from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
A new poll out today from the New York Times and Siena University shows that nearly two thirds
of Americans, 63%, disapprove of how ICE is handling its job, while only 36% approve.
Even among white Americans, 57% disapprove, while only 42% approve.
Sixty-one percent of Americans, including 19% of Republicans,
think that ICE agents have gone too far."
"Just hours after ICE agent Jonathan Ross killed 37-year-old Renee Good on January 7,
and long before there was any official investigation of the shooting, Vance was out in front of the news,
blaming Good for her own death and claiming that the officer was clearly justified in shooting her."
"But even MAGA voters don’t buy it. Podcaster Joe Rogan has compared ICE to 'the gestapo,'
and Greg Sargent of The New Republic noted that a majority of both young voters
and those without a college degree, those who tend to be easy for MAGA to reach,
disapprove of ICE enforcement. Media Matters reported that the senior judicial analyst
on right-wing channel Newsmax, Andrew Napolitano, called the newly revealed secret ICE memo
claiming the right to break down doors to arrest people in their homes
'a direct and profound violation of the Fourth Amendment,
which expressly says people are entitled to be secure in their homes
and that security can only be invaded by a search warrant signed by a judge
based on probable cause of crime.'"
'You have a federal law enforcement official engaging in federal law enforcement action.
That’s a federal issue. That guy’s protected by absolute immunity.'
Moving the goalposts considerably today after it turned out that Americans don’t particularly like the idea
that masked agents can do whatever they want, he said:
“I didn’t say…that officers who engaged in wrongdoing would enjoy immunity.
That’s absurd. What I did say is that when federal law enforcement officers violate the law
that’s typically something federal officials would look into.
We don’t want these guys to have kangaroo courts.'"
Comments: Another Trump official changing his tune regarding an absurd statement that he made.
This type of behavior doesn't foster confidence in the current political environment.
The fascist lout is just one heartbeat away from the presidency!