Minneapolis immigration enforcement mission ends.

 

ICE agents in Minneapolis. Politico/AP.

Border Czar Tom Homan has announced that the operation in Minneapolis to deport illegal aliens has been drawn down. Politico. Homan cited cooperation from state and local officials for the reason and said that thousands of ICE agents would remain in Minnesota to continue deportation operations, though the backup that was deployed will withdraw. The operation was controversial due to interactions with domestic terrorists that lead to their deaths, including Renee Good, who attempted to run over an ICE officer, and Alex Pretti, who was shot after getting into a fight with CBD officers. Shortly after the 2nd incident, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey changed their tune and began cooperation with ICE. 

My Comment:

Both sides are claiming victory here but this seems like a clear win for the White House for me. The Trump administration was able to break the will of a sanctuary state and now Minnesota is cooperating with ICE. That's a huge win and means that deportations there will continue, but without the use of force. 

Indeed, deportations will happen in Minnesota (and Minneapolis) like they do in non-sanctuary states. As illegal aliens are picked up for various crimes and after they serve their time for those crimes, Minnesota will now hold those aliens until ICE can pick them up. That's how it works in states like Texas, where there have been dramatically more deportations. Indeed, the pace of deportations in Minnesota will probably increase there. 

The left is claiming this is a victory for them, and more than few grifters on the right are as well, but I don't see how. The only thing that is really changing is the numbers of ICE and CBD and their tactics. Indeed, I expect the number of deportations to go up as operations won't be disrupted and there is a backlog of people to be picked up. 

Their stormtroopers in Antifa have been dealt a severe blow as well. They had been operating freely in Minneapolis but police have finally cracked down on them. They have also had their operations exposed, their members doxed and folks are a lot more aware of their tactics. The only good news for them is that they will get a chance to lick their wounds and regroup. 

This is also a win for Republicans in the fight over funding DHS. ICE is funded for the rest of the year due to the big beautiful bill, but the Democrats are holding other funding hostage. There entire argument was the Minneapolis operation, and that is now gone. They are going to have a very hard time justifying holding up funding for the Department of Homeland Security now. 

It's also clear that both Renee Good and Alex Pretti are yesterday's news. In both cases it was video that showed both of them acting deranged and gave credence to the claims of self defense. With those cases out of the news, much of the outrage has faded away, with the Democrats focusing on Jeffrey Epstein... again. 

So was the operation a success? I believe so. Like I said, the Democrats absolutely backed down and they were unable to keep up operations up against ICE. A large number of illegal immigrants were deported and Republicans now no longer have the bad optics that the disorder was causing. And there is one less sanctuary state in the United States. I count that as a major win. 

Transgender shooter kills family members and then commits a school shooting in Canada.

 

An undated photo of Jesse Van Rootselaar. New York Post. 

A transgender person has killed two members of his family and committed a major school shooting at a school in Canada leaving an additional six people dead. New York Post. The attacker was 18 year old Jesse Van Rootselaar, an 18 year old male to female transgender person. Rootselaar had a long history of mental health concerns and police had visited his home multiple times in the past couple of years. He had also been taken into custody for his mental health concerns and police even took guns from their legal owners due to how concerned they were about him. The attack is the 2nd most deadly school shooting in Canadian history. No motive has been revealed for the crime. 

My Comment:

Rather bizarre and tragic case out of Canada. And it looks like it was a preventable one. Rootselaar was, to be frank, a nut and a danger to himself and others. It's surprising that he was out on the streets and it's not a surprise that he ended up killing his family and six people at a school. 

It's also pretty clear that Van Rootselaar had been radicalized online. He was an active Redditor and was active on transgender subreddits, including ones focused on guns. He also had an active account on X/Twitter. The Reddit account concerns me more as he was there long before he was 18. Reddit allows people under the age of 18 to join and I think that is a mistake given how radical so many political subreddits are, with the transgender community there being among the worst of the worst. 

However, we shouldn't really lump in Rootselaar with other transgender shooters, or people like Tyler Robinson, who wasn't transgender himself but shot Charlie Kirk anyways because he was in a relationship with a transgender person. Those shooters committed their crimes in support of transgender ideology and left wing political thought.

Rootselaar though? He was supposedly far right. From what I have seen of his X account and Reddit posts he was actually pretty antisemitic and his family was libertarian. Plus, given the attack happened in Canada, his politics wouldn't really link up to American politics anyways. 

Indeed, it doesn't appear to be political at all. He was a nihilist who was obsessed with school shooters and regularly watched gore videos and videos of mass shootings. I am guessing that he was obsessed with this content, which he was viewing as an underage teenager. He probably wanted to experience what he was viewing first hand. And he probably killed his mother and stepbrother to keep them from stopping him. 

Given this is Canada, I am guessing that the response to this shooting will be even more gun control, which obviously didn't prevent this shooting. But I think they should take some kind of action against Reddit an WatchPeopleDie, which are the websites he was radicalized on. I am, of course, deeply suspicous of things like digital ID's of course, I don't think the government should be able to see what websites I am visiting. But there is zero reason why Reddit should be allowing people under the age of 18 from using the website. Simply making the whole site age 18+ and fixing the obvious problems of moderation the website has (seriously, 4chan has better moderation of extremist content and it's not even close) could have prevented this attack. 

President Trump called the police on Jeffrey Epstein.

 

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. New York Post/US government photo. 

President Donald Trump spoke to the police chief of Palm Beach to help with the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein in 2008. New York Post. Trump called Chief Michael Reiter and Reiter claimed in a newly released file that Trump was among the first to call him to offer help. Trump said "thank goodness you're stopping him, everyone has known he was doing this". Trump also said that Epstein was disgusting and that he had banned him from Mar-a-Lago. He also said that Epstein's girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was "evil" and to focus on her as she was his "operative". Epstein was eventually arrested for child trafficking and got a "sweetheart deal", before getting arrested again in 2019. 

My Comment:

This release shows a clear pattern of behavior that Trump attempted to have Jeffrey Epstein stopped. A timeline might be helpful. Before 2004, Trump and Epstein were friends, but the relationship soured over several reasons. A real-estate deal was part of it, with Trump outbidding Epstein, but the real end of their relationship was the fact that Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were using Mar-a-Lago to recruit victims. Trump was angry about this, as one of his employees, Virginia Giuffre, had been taken by Maxwell. Epstein also hit on the underaged daughter of a club member. After all that Trump barred Epstein from his club. 

Then in 2008, after Epstein's arrest, Trump made a call to the Palm Beach police department to help with the investigation. This probably would have helped more than it did if the FBI hadn't taken over the Epstein investigation and botched it, giving Epstein the "sweetheart deal" that gave Epstein a slap on the wrist.

Trump didn't forget about Epstein and again helped in actions against him. An attorney for Epstein's victims, Brad Edwards, said that Trump provided assistance for his clients in 2009 and did so on his own volition. He was also the only rich and powerful people that were willing to do this. 

And, of course, Trump was President when Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were arrested. How involved Trump was is a mystery, it appears that he kept a hands off approach but it is important to note that he did not hinder these prosecutions in any way. 

Epstein himself may have believed that Trump was the first person to tip the police off that Epstein was a criminal. Michael Wolff, who had interviewed Epstein for over 100 hours, said that he believed that his legal downfall was due to Trump. That hasn't been proven, as no documents have been released to confirm this, but it's what Epstein himself believed. It would be extraordinary if this is eventually proven as it would completely vindicate Trump. 

This should be the nail in the coffin for the idea that Trump was somehow involved in Epstein's crimes, but I doubt it will actually help things. Trump's opposition to Epstein has been known since the 2016 election and I've posted that video Edwards admitting that Trump helped dozens of times and it doesn't seem to help anything. People don't want to hear the truth, they just want to believe that Trump and Epstein were two peas in a pod. 

Indeed, the media is now downplaying the fact that he called the police chief of his own volition to focus on the idea that Trump knew what Epstein was doing. Which is, of course, ridiculous. Trump went out of his way to help the investigation and may have been the person that started it in the first place. And it's not like it wasn't obvious that Trump knew that Epstein was a creep, Trump may have made some denials, but he also admitted that he banned Epstein for the very behavior he got famous for. Purposefully inserting himself into a police investigation is a good action and is evidence that he did indeed try to stop Epstein. 

Will UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer survive the latest Epstein related scandal?

 

Prime Minster Keir Starmer. The Guardian/WPA/Getty.

The UK Prime Minster Keir Starmer is fighting for his political life after a new Epstein related scandal. The Guardian. Starmer had appointed Peter Mandelson as the Ambassador to the United States, but did so knowing he had links to Jeffrey Epstein. Starmer and Mandelson said that Mandelson's links to Epstein were limited, but more recent releases of the Epstein files show that Mandelson was a lot closer to Epstein than he claimed, notably getting closer to the man after his 1st conviction for sex crimes. The backlash this caused triggered the resignation of Starmer's top aid and Chief of Staff, Morgan McSweeny, who advised Starmer to hire Mandelson. Starmer, already a deeply unpopular Prime Minster due to several scandals and the failure to deal with immigration, has now faced calls for resignation, including from a prominent Scottish Labor politician, Anas Sarwar. 

My Comment:

This is a classic case of an own-goal. The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson when he knew for sure that he had major connections with Jeffrey Epstein, including after he was arrested and convicted of sex crimes, was, to be frank, completely idiotic. Epstein has been toxic since the 2016 US presidential race and by 2024, the idea that he should have appointed Mandelson to an extremely important diplomatic role is crazy. 

And unlike many of the people named in the Epstein files, there is a possibility that Mandelson did something worse than being friends with Epstein. Supposedly, he received money from Epstein back in the early 2000's. And there is evidence that Epstein was attempting to influence him on tax policy, giving at least the appearance of corruption, and there are even reports that Mandelson sent sensitive data to Epstein. There's also a picture of him in his underwear next to an unidentified woman. 

Lord Peter Mandelson. BBC/US Justice Department.

Certainly, the possible corruption and the above picture weren't known to the public before the release of the Epstein files. But the links between the man were widely known and the fact that Mandelson supposedly lied about it doesn't change the fact that hiring him was an obvious mistake. There certainly could have been better people to hire but Starmer hired him anyways. 

Will this bring down Starmer? I am not sure. Under normal circumstances with a popular politician this would not be a huge deal. It's certainly a mistake, but it's not a career ending one. Epstein hysteria is pretty rampant, but the fact of the matter is that it is a fringe issue. If this was a normal situation, I would say that nothing more would come from it after the resignation of Morgan McSweeny. 

But Starmer was in a political crisis even before this scandal. He has been extremely unpopular, with his approval under 20%. People hate his economic polices, a chaotic cabinet and his utter failure to deal with immigration and the crime committed by immigrants. Indeed, he's gotten the nickname of "Two Tier Keir" for treating right wing native Britons worse than immigrants committing much more serious crimes. Indeed, there was a very good chance that Starmer was on his way out before this happened, he's very unpopular and the only thing that is keeping him in power at this point is that there isn't really anyone in Labor that can replace him. 

As for the Epstein files, the release has been a mixed bag. People have gone completely insane about some of the stuff in there, most notably the discredited anonymous tips. Most of those people are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome and won't listen to any explanation about why Trump was obviously not connected to Epstein after he broke ties with the man before his conviction. Trump even helped the investigation into Epstein and he's also the one that released the files in the first place. 

But you wouldn't know that if you listened to the left and a few deranged people on the right. They generally don't know the facts of the case and would probably shrug when you talk about this incident, or the folks that actually have been accused of sexual abuse, like Prince Andrew, Marvin Minsky and former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson. Indeed, with Minsky and Richardson dead and the main witness against Prince Andrew, Virginia Giuffre dead, charges simply aren't going to happen. It is pretty certain that the only person left that will be charged in the Epstein case is Lord Mandelson. 

 

TODAY show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie's mother Nancy abducted, apparently for ransom.

 

File photo of Savannah and Nancy Guthrie. TODAY show/NBC.

TODAY show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie's mother Nancy has been abducted and ransom notes have been sent, in an extremely rare kidnapping for ransom plot. NBC News. Nancy Guthrie was reported missing on Sunday after she did not show up for church. Investigators say that she was apparently taken at night and blood was found at the scene, which was later confirmed to be hers. Ransom notes were delivered to media outlets demanding millions of dollars worth of bitcoin. Nancy Guthrie was in poor health and had several medical conditions, including a pacemaker. No suspect has been identified in the case. Savannah Guthrie sent a video begging for the safe release of her mother. President Trump spoke to Savannah and vowed federal resources to solve the case. 

My Comment:

This story is notable because abduction for ransom is extremely rare in the United States. When it does happen it's big news largely because of just how rare it actually is. The majority of kidnappings in this country are custody issues between parents. A break in abduction for ransom is something that is almost unheard of in the United States, though it is common across the border in Mexico. 

Why? Because America is actually really good at tracking down kidnappers. The majority of kidnappers for ransom get caught fairly quickly as the FBI is actually competent in these kinds of cases. It's a very low percentage crime and doing it to a relative of someone famous is even dumber as the President himself has taken an interest in this case. I would assume that the chances of the kidnapper(s) getting away with this as close to zero. 

All of this is strange as it seems like it was a competently planned crime. They were able to grab Nancy without too much trouble and they apparently did enough research to realize both who she is and who she is related to. That's not something you do on the spur of the moment during a home invasion, this was a planned crime. The idea that they are smart enough to pull this off but stupid enough to attempt in the first place is hard to square. 

Folks are naturally suspecting the involvement of Cartels or other organized crime. So far there is no evidence of that either way, but it is certainly possible. As I said before, kidnapping for ransom is a very common crime in Mexico and it wouldn't be surprising if they were involved. Doing so would be a huge escalation as it would invite law enforcement and possible military action, against them, so I would guess they are not involved. 

As for Nancy herself, I am very concerned about her survival. She's fairly old at 84 and she was at the very least bleeding as she was taken. She needs medication that she's probably not getting and her pacemaker tracking device has been turned off, which does not bode well. The kidnappers do have an incentive to keep her alive but so far they haven't released any proof of life. 

I do have to say that just because this happened we shouldn't think that this kind of crime is common. It absolutely is not and it's mostly notable because of how rare it actually is. I guess it could become more common if this case isn't solved, but I doubt that will be the endgame in this case.