ICE abductee dies of untreated toothache; Miami Republicans’ racist chat is “Nazi heaven”; Senator leads beatdown of protester…

Father of teenage Georgia school shooter found guilty of murder

Excerpt: A man whose teenage son shot dead four people at a U.S. high school was found guilty of murder and manslaughter on Tuesday in a rare case of a parent charged over a shooting carried out by their child.

Colin Gray, 55, was convicted by a jury in Georgia of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and other offenses in connection with the September 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School by his troubled son Colt.

In 357-65 vote, US House blocks release of Congressional sexual misconduct and harassment reports

Which presumably means 65 members of the House have nothing to hide.

Me, looking grumpy, reading the news

AND NOW THE NEWS

#589
MARCH 4, 2026

ICE is still lying, about everything

Excerpt: The Star Tribune reviewed the criminal histories of nearly every immigrant detained in Minnesota who has been showcased on the DHS website and those identified in news releases. In several instances, the federal government listed inaccurate criminal histories, duplicated entries and people who have already been freed.

You are there
CaliforniaColoradoMinnesotaNew YorkOregonTexasWashington

Arizona ICE abductee dead after untreated tooth infection, official says

Excerpt: A Haitian asylum seeker held for four months at Florence Correctional Center died Monday at a Scottsdale hospital due to complications from an infected tooth, a local official in Chandler said Tuesday.

Emmanuel Damas, 56, died while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, after struggling to receive timely medical care for a worsening toothache, Chandler City Councilwoman Christine Ellis told the Arizona Daily Star Tuesday afternoon.

Ellis, a registered nurse who is Haitian-American, said she is outraged and called for an investigation into Damas’ death, which she said came weeks after the man first complained of tooth pain to Florence staff.

“Nobody should die from a toothache,” Ellis said. “Something has to be done.”

ICE had not acknowledged Damas’ death as of Wednesday morning.

Texas: El Paso ICE Camp East Montana under quarantine after measles outbreak

Excerpt: The quarantine of the facility follows multiple confirmed cases of measles and at least two cases of tuberculosis at the sprawling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in El Paso.

US Supreme Court blocks California privacy protections for trans students

It’s a chance to bring suffering and perhaps death to the weakest and most vulnerable, so there was never a doubt how the Republican Supreme Court would rule.

‘Nazi heaven’: Inside Miami campus Republicans’ racist group chat

Excerpt: The secretary of Miami-Dade County’s Republican Party started a group chat primarily for conservative students last fall — and within three weeks it was filled with racist slurs, someone wrote dozens of ways of violently killing Black people and the chat was renamed after what one member described as “Nazi heaven.”

Justice Dept., despite pressure from Trump, fails to build autopen case against Biden

Excerpt: The autopen investigation was led by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, which is run by a longtime Trump ally, Jeanine Pirro. The inquiry was quietly shelved in recent months, around the time that prosecutors under Ms. Pirro sought and failed to secure an indictment in a different case: one against six Democratic lawmakers who posted a video in the fall that enraged Mr. Trump by reminding active-duty members of the military and intelligence community that they were obligated to refuse to follow illegal orders.

DOJ says it’ll stop fighting to punish lawyers and law firms deemed ‘enemies’ of Trump — then says no it won’t

Excerpt: On Monday, the department announced in a court filing that it was dropping its appeal against a ruling by a district court judge that blocked Trump’s retaliatory executive actions against four companies that refused to make a deal with him.

Trump’s “capitulation” was celebrated by at least two of the the companies that welcomed the DoJ’s voluntary withdrawal from the legal proceedings.

On Tuesday, however, the government filed a new, single-paragraph request to the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit, announcing it had changed its mind, and wished “to pursue this appeal”.

Republican candidate in Georgia runs psychotic “Keep Georgia Sharia-free” ad

The video must be seen to be disbelieved.

Sen Tim Sheehy (R-Montana) personally breaks protester’s bone during beatdown

Among recent “vengeance for Trump” firings, FBI fired a dozen members of a counter-espionage team tracking Iran threats

Law school tells students, ‘you must be aligned politically with President Trump,’ for summer job

Excerpt: “The two most important requirements are you MUST be aligned politically with President Trump and his administration and you must be willing to work hard. Don’t be scared off by the transcript requirement. GPA is not a strong factor. If you meet those two requirements, you have a shot.”

Trump keeps illegally withholding federal money despite being sued 198 times

Trump Labor Secretary caught using govt funds for her birthday party

Republican candidate for Governor of New York forms his own militia

Pardoned Jan 6 rioter is arrested for assault & battery

Virulent misogynist, Holocaust denier, White nationalist, and Trump supporter Nick Fuentes apologized for assaulting a woman, but he didn’t mean it

Minnesota Republicans introduce bill that would fund Charlie Kirk statue at University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus

I’d be in favor of a statue, so long as it’s inscribed with this Charlie Kirk quote:

“I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the second amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.”

Punk in the Park canceled after backlash over founder’s Trump donation

The donation was just $250, which makes the cancellation even better.

Project 2025 Tracker

Why Jeffrey Epstein’s brother and lawyer do not believe he took his own life

Excerpt: “There might be some information that hasn’t been released yet that the chief medical examiner was given that might cast a different light on it. But if this were a suicide, it’s an extremely unusual suicide,” Dr Baden said.

“It’s more consistent with homicidal strangulation rather than suicidal hanging.”

It is worth noting how experienced Dr Baden is. He was a New York City medical examiner for 25 years, including a stint as its chief. He was the lead examiner for the New York state police. He was chairperson of the forensic pathology panel that re-investigated the deaths of John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King. And in the 1980s, he was among the scientists sought by the Russian government to examine the remains of the Romanov family and the last Emperor of the Russian Empire, Nicolas II. …

“When looking at the body … I looked at a little odd situation there, because the ligature furrow around the neck was horizontal rather than upwards because [in] suicides, the ligature will slide upward and stop by the undersurface of the jawbone, the mandible,” he said.

“There were three fractures: two of the thyroid cartilage, which is the Adam’s apple, and one of the hyoid bone … and that is extremely unusual in suicide. That’s much more common a crushing injury in homicidal strangulation.”

Dr Baden explained that the series of three fractures were reminiscent of the results of assassinations you might see in movies “like the Godfather pictures, when somebody gets into the passenger seat in the car and the other guy gets behind and a ligature is put around the neck and squeezed”.

“So that’s a crushing injury and not … usually seen in suicidal hangings,” he said.

Colorado’s Democratic Governor again signals he’ll commute sentence of election denier

That’s twice Governor Jared Polis has publicly announced he’s considering kissing Donald Trump’s fleshy pink ass. Does he lack even the courage to actually decide he’s useless? Will he spend the rest of his term hemming and hawing like Hamlet over his own turdiness?

Democratic candidate for Rep. Eric Swalwell’s seat donated to far-right Republicans — including Laura Loomer

Excerpt: Public filings on her own personal political giving reveal years of support for far-right Republicans. The list of those who have received her cash include MAGA candidates, the Republican head of the evangelical Zionist group Christians United for Israel, anti-abortion candidates, and even far-right pundit Laura Loomer, according to disclosures reviewed by The Intercept.

Semafor keeps hosting ridiculous “restoring trust in media” events that only further undermine trust in media

Associated Press announces it’s teaming up with prediction market site Kalshi ahead of the midterms

Ars Technica fires reporter after AI controversy involving fabricated quotes

Read all about it at Futurism, while Ars Technica remains silent.

Leaked Interior Department database reveals US plans to revise historical information

Full text: The U.S. Interior Department said a database revealing how President Donald Trump’s administration planned to revise information on key phases of ​American history at national park sites was deliberative and the employees ‌who released it “will be held accountable.”

An internal government database first reported by the Washington Post and posted on two public websites on Monday revealed the scope of the Trump administration’s ​effort to revise or remove information on African-American history, LGBT rights, ​climate change and other topics at hundreds of national park ⁠sites.

“The narrative being advanced is false and these draft, deliberative internal ​documents are not a representation of final action taken by the department,” ​an Interior Department spokesperson said. The National Park Service is part of the Interior Department.

Trump has targeted cultural and historical institutions – from museums to monuments to national ​parks – to remove what he calls “anti-American” ideology.

His declarations and executive orders have ​led to the dismantling of exhibits on slavery, the restoration of Confederate statues and other ‌moves ⁠that civil rights advocates say could reverse decades of progress.

The Interior Department spokesperson alleged the internal working documents were edited in a misrepresenting way before being released. The spokesperson also labeled the release as inappropriate and ​illegal, without specifying the ​law it ⁠allegedly violated.

“Employees who altered internal records and leaked in an effort to hurt the Trump administration will be held ​accountable,” the spokesperson added.

Me again: They’re worried about what might “hurt the Trump administration,” which is the opposite of what might hurt the United States.

Back to the coverage: The Trump administration has sought to stifle internal ​dissent within ⁠government agencies and taken action against employees who have criticized its policies.

Last year, some employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency were put on leave ⁠after they ​signed an open letter against the agency’s ​leadership, while some Environmental Protection Agency employees were fired after they signed a letter critical of ​the government’s actions.

FDA cancels meeting to select flu strains for next season’s shots

Excerpt: The cancellation comes as the United States is in the midst of a particularly severe flu season. So far, 86 children and 19,000 adults have died this season, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I’m quite shocked,” Norman Baylor, a former director of the FDA’s Office of Vaccine Research and Review, said in an email. “As you know, the VRBPAC is critical for making the decision on strain selection for the next influenza vaccine season.”

The FDA typically convenes the meeting every spring to get recommendations on which strains should be included in the upcoming flu vaccine.

The meetings are important because the flu virus changes year to year, and the vaccine must be updated to provide the best protection. Deciding on the strains in the spring gives vaccine manufacturers enough time to produce the shots to be ready for the fall.

Despite promises, Veterans Affairs Department cut thousands of roles for doctors and nurses

Medical journal says the case reports it has published for 25 years are, in fact, fiction

Syngenta says it will stop making paraquat, a pesticide linked to Parkinson’s disease

If you’re old, you’ll remember the US government using paraquat to poison marijuana-smokers in the 1980s, and I remember reading in the 1990s about the dangers and deaths caused by paraquat. It’s still legal in the USA, though, because it’s profitable.

Henrietta Lacks’s family settles suit with Novartis over use of her cells

Hell of a heist by the bastards, and it ain’t over. The battle against other criminal companies continues.

Target’s new CEO unveils his turnaround plan

I bought a loaf of bread at the West Seattle Target in 2022. Nothing was wrong with the bread, except where I bought it, and I won’t be a customer again.

Kraken Financial becomes first crypto firm to win access to Fed’s core payments system

Can’t pretend to fully understand this news, or crypto for that matter, but I understand enough to know this is dumb.

US strikes on Iran triggered by Israel’s plan to launch attack, Rubio says

Excerpt: “It was abundantly clear that if Iran came under attack by anyone – the United States or Israel or anyone – they were going to respond, and respond against the United States,” Rubio told reporters at the Capitol.

“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”

Trump tries to quiet claims among supporters that Israel dragged him into war

Trump administration has still not settled on reasons for going to war with Iran

White House says we had to bomb Iran because Trump had a “feeling”

Iranian ‘prince’ — son of the US-installed Shah of Iran — will speak at right-wing convention in Texas

Excerpt: Pahlavi, the eldest son of Iran’s last shah, has been living in exile following his father’s ouster in 1979 and is a longtime advocate for regime change in the country.

The exiled crown prince said he expects to serve as interim leader until the country is ready to hold democratic elections, estimating “a couple years, at the most.”

Middle East war could be decided by who runs out of missiles or interceptors first, analysts say

Military leaders say Iran war is so Trump can bring about “Armageddon”

Full text: Without any clear message coming from the White House with regard to the purpose of the Iran war, U.S. military commanders have turned to Jesus, apparently telling American troops that the war is “biblically sanctioned.”

The U.S. joined Israel in striking Iran early Saturday morning. By Monday evening, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, or MRFF, was “inundated” with complaints, receiving more than 110 grievances from U.S. military personnel stationed at dozens of sites across the Middle East, reported independent journalist Jonathan Larsen.

One such note included an anecdote from a noncommissioned officer, who reported that their commander had “urged us to tell our troops that this was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’ and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.”

The NCO’s complaint was lodged on behalf of 15 troops, including 11 Christians, one Muslim, and one Jew, according to Larsen. The officer stated that such remarks “destroy morale and unit cohesion and are in violation of the oaths we swore to support the Constitution.”

“This morning our commander opened up the combat readiness status briefing by urging us to not be ‘afraid’ as to what is happening with our combat operations in Iran right now,” the NCO wrote.

“He said that ‘President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,’” the NCO continued. “He had a big grin on his face when he said all of this which made his message seem even more crazy.”

It wouldn’t be a stretch to blame some of the blatant constitutional violations on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has repeatedly evoked God and Christian nationalism in his time fronting the Pentagon.

Hegseth has parroted the views of Douglas Wilson, a conservative theologian who advocated for Christian dominance over government and society. He has followed through in practice, instating regular prayer services at America’s military headquarters. He also entered office with several Christian symbols already emblazoned on his skin—a Jerusalem cross and the phrase “Deus vult”—in what Hegseth has described as emblems of the “modern-day American Christian crusade.”

U.S. service members are afforded the religious liberty protections in the First Amendment. They also have a legal right to seek religious accommodations—and the MRFF told Larsen that it has been overwhelmed with complaints about commanders who are apparently tapping into the same sort of Christian nationalism espoused by the Pentagon chief.

“These calls have one damn thing in freaking common; our MRFF clients [service members who seek MRFF aid] report the unrestricted euphoria of their commanders and command chains as to how this new ‘biblically-sanctioned’ war is clearly the undeniable sign of the expeditious approach of the fundamentalist Christian ‘End Times’ as vividly described in the New Testament Book of Revelation,” MRFF president and founder Mikey Weinstein, a veteran of the Air Force and the Reagan White House, told Larsen.

“Many of their commanders are especially delighted with how graphic this battle will be zeroing in on how bloody all of this must become in order to fulfill and be in 100 percent accordance with fundamentalist Christian end of the world eschatology.”

Multiple US embassies are telling Americans they cannot evacuate or help them get out of the Middle East

Trump to cut off all US trade with Spain over refusal to use military bases in Iran war

Excerpt: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the United States would cut off all trade with Spain after the European country refused to let the US military use its bases for missions linked to strikes on Iran.

“Spain has been terrible,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, adding that he had told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to “cut off all dealings” with Spain.

“We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain,” he added.

US steps up murders of Central Americans

Excerpt: The United States and Ecuador have launched joint military operations against “designated terrorist organizations” in the South American country, the Pentagon said on Tuesday night, in what appeared to be a major expansion of the U.S. military’s unilateral strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific that the Trump administration has accused of carrying drugs.

James Talarico wins Democratic Senate primary in Texas

Ugh. Talarico’s opponent, Jasmine Crockett, has her problems, but she’s sometimes sounded genuine, and her name is on my very short list of Democrats I don’t want to punch in the teeth. This guy Talarico is a seminarian, and on every issue, everything I’ve seen or read him saying always segues to his endlessly profound and deeply personal faith in Jeebers Crispies. If I lived in Texas, I would’ve voted for Ms Crockett, while packing to leave for somewhere sane.

AMERICAN POLICE ARE OUT OF CONTROL

ANYTHING GOES

EYE👁️ON AI

IGNORING THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY

THE LORD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS

MY BROWSER HISTORY, MINUS THE PORN

NEVERENDING FILM FESTIVAL

WEEKLY DEAD

Nothing will meaningfully improve
until billionaires fear for their lives.

3/4/2026

Logo illustration by Jeff Meyer. Tip ‘o the hat to the Anderson Valley Advertiser, Daily Grail, Fat Magic, Jemin Na CPA, Joe My God, Jamie Zawinski, Voenix Rising, What Not’s, and anywhere else I’ve stolen links, illustrations, or inspiration.

Special thanks to Linden Arden, Becky Jo, Joey Jo Jo & John the Basket emeritus, Jeff Meyer, Dave S, Name Withheld, and always extra special thanks to my lovely late Stephanie, who gave me 21 years and proved that the world isn’t always shitty.

News always and only from reliable sources, and I decide what’s reliable — no right-wing bullshit, no Substack because fuck Nazis, and no RawStory, Newsweek, or other clickbait sites. Written news is preferred; video links will be rare, and damned near never to videos where a reporter or podcaster simply reads a script or does improv — that’s show biz, not news.

If a paywall prevents access to any coverage linked here, let me know. I’ll reply with the article’s complete text.

And Now the News

itsdougholland.com
← PREVIOUS          NEXT →


4 responses to “ICE abductee dies of untreated toothache; Miami Republicans’ racist chat is “Nazi heaven”; Senator leads beatdown of protester…”

  1. granville Avatar
    granville

    Huh. I’d only heard the word “paraquat” as an insult used in The Big Lebowski. I assumed it was some kind of antique slang. Until now.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/lebowski/comments/16vhuia/human_paraquat_why_did_dude_choose_this_insult/

    Each one, teach one.

    1. Doug Holland Avatar

      Well, that sent me on a delightful 45-minute field trip through Big Lebowski quotes and trivia. It used to be one of my favorite films, watched maybe monthly, and it never grew tiresome… but most of those watches were with my wife, and it’s seemed too painful to watch it again without her. Might be time, though. Might be time.

      And always, when you speak, I learn.

  2. granville Avatar
    granville

    Texas is a really odd one. Both of their senators are intensely anti-charismatic, even people who agree with Ted Cruz don’t like him very much. But Texas has been a money trap for Democrats and I don’t think this one is going to be any different. It always seems winnable but it’s not, it draws in money from all over the country that could conceivable do more good elsewhere. I don’t really understand where the coalition gets the numbers to win statewide.

    Statewide Democratic campaigns in Texas have to run a whole different playbook from the national party, whose messaging is often counterproductive to swing voters there (war, fossil fuels, guns, etc. etc. etc.) So you have to have someone with some separation from the national party but has enough personality to sell himself as not one of them crazy nutters, enough money to push that message and the organizational ability to build a big apparatus. Neither Crockett nor Talarico are that person, and Crockett’s organization was apparently a disaster. But the only person I can think of who could fit the bill is someone who isn’t a politician at all, but someone like a movie star or businessman.

    (Adding that none of these people are my kind of people, obviously.)

    1. Doug Holland Avatar

      Texas has been edging us for years, and someone like Talarico isn’t gonna bring the jism.

      It’s a Republican state, haven’t seen the evidence it’s gonna change, and wishing and hoping and writing a check won’t change that. The only Democrat who could hypothetically win a statewide position would be a wimpy Dem who sucks up to Republicans. And that would be better than another Ted Cruz clone, sure, but I can’t stay hard and sure won’t donate or invest any enthusiasm for a candidate who, if they win, you just *know* will let us down whenever there’s crucial legislative votes. Another schmuck like Sinema, Fetterman, etc.

      Long way to say “Yup.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 512 MB. You can upload: image, audio. Drop file here

Comments with attachments or multiple links are held for manual approval.