ICE will "surround the polls" in the November mid-terms

 Here's the opening of an article at Democracy Docket, February 4:

Steve Bannon says ICE will ‘surround the polls’ as Trump doubles down on taking over elections

Former senior advisor to President Donald Trump Steve Bannon said Tuesday that the federal government is planning to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to patrol polling stations during this year’s midterm elections.

“We’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November,” Bannon, still a figure of influence in the administration, said on Tuesday’s episode of his War Room podcast, addressing Democrats. “We’re not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again. And you can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen.”

The comments come amid rising concerns that Trump is plotting to interfere in this year’s midterms.

 Unfortunately, the rest is behind Democracy Docket's paywall.

 

 

Krugman on the cowardice of SCOTUS

Click here for Paul Krugman's Substack entry for February 4, 2026, entitled "Profiles in Cowardice, Tariff Edition, subtitled "The Supreme Court's silence says volumes."

The Constitution is quite explicit in saying that Congress alone has the right to levy tariffs. Trump is end-running Congress by claiming he has the right to act in a "national emergency." There is of course no emergency; it's another Trump lie. But that's the defense he's putting up in a case argued in the Supreme Court in early November. We're still waiting for a decision.

 Krugman explains why SCOTUS is dragging its feet on coming to a decision. Trump has no case; it's open and shut. So if they decide in his favor, they are announcing to the world that they are not a court of justice, but are simply partisan hacks in Trump's pocket. But if they make what everyone knows to be the right decision and go against Trump, it will be a humiliating blow for him, and they will be ostracized from the social milieu they live in, where they are comfortably surrounded by right-wing billionaires and Republican luminaries. Krugman says:

They share in the privilege and glitter of that scene even if they aren’t outright corrupt — even if they aren’t all like Clarence Thomas, who, as ProPublica revealed, has taken multiple lavish vacations paid for by billionaire Harlan Crow. 

In fact, with death threats skyrocketing against people who oppose Trump, perhaps judges, SCOTUS among them, fear actual physical danger if they come to a decision that would certainly damage Trump. 

Jeff Bezos's film "Melania" is a huge bribe.

Click here for Robert Reich's Substack entry for February 2, 2026, entitled: "Melania: The Movie. The Bribe. The Shame," subtitled "Bezos's illegal payoff."

 He starts: 

I haven’t seen it. I hope you don’t, either.

This, from one of the kinder reviews:

“Across some 104 minutes, the first lady delivers these blatantly scripted and meaningless narrations with all the conviction of someone who just woke up from a two-hour nap and can’t remember what day it is.”

Reich states:

My purpose today is less to highlight this inane excuse for a film than to talk about its real excuse — allowing Jeff Bezos to give a big fat bribe to the president of the United States. 

He goes on to state some of Bezos's business ventures that are dependent on Trump's goodwill -- for example,  "Bezos’s Amazon Web Services has a $1 billion agreement with the General Services Administration for cloud services, which presumably Bezos would like renewed."

He says he hopes American business leaders who knuckled under to Trump will be "condemned to the hellfire they deserve for helping destroy American democracy." In this category he lists Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Larry and David Ellison, Shari Redstone and the board of Paramount; Bob Iger, CEO of Disney; Debra O'Connell, president of ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks; Elon Musk; Tim Cook of Apple, crypto magnates Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss; oil tycoon Harold Hamm; Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman -- but especially Jeff Bezos: "Jeff Bezos, with his $75 million bribe of Trump, will deserve a special place in the innermost ring of hell."

The $40 million he paid Melania Trump’s production company is at least $35 million more than the cost of typical high-end documentaries. (By way of comparison, Magnolia Pictures and CNN Films produced “RBG,” a documentary about the late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for around $1 million.)

Melania Trump pocketed more than 70 percent of that $40 million — or more than $28 million — the Journal reported.

The additional $35 million Bezos shelled out for marketing “Melania” is 10 times what other high-profile documentaries spend on marketing. The promotional budget for “RBG” was about $3 million. (To be sure, Melania Trump is no Ruth Bader Ginsburg, so I suppose you might argue that Melania needed a larger promo budget. But this much larger?)

He concludes by saying "Melania" was never a financial investment:

Of course it’s an outright bribe.

If America still had a Department of Justice, Bezos would be indicted for bribery of a public official pursuant to 18 U.S. Code § 201, which criminalizes offering or giving anything of value to a public official with the intent to influence their official actions. Penalty: imprisonment for up to 15 years.

(Also note: The U.S. Constitution lists taking a bribe as an impeachable offense for a president.)

There’s a statute of limitations for criminal prosecution of such bribes: Prosecution must begin within five years of the deed.

So, my friends, if America gets a true Justice Department starting in January of 2029, Bezos’s inferno may become a reality.