APO.Eagles: It must be Maddow Monday if the newsletter is this heavy duty (plus a free bonus podcast episode)

Monday, January 19, 2026

TODAY'S TOP MADDOWBLOG POSTS

Reagan-appointed judge slams 'unconstitutional conspiracy,' calls Trump an 'authoritarian'

"These Cabinet secretaries have failed in their sworn duty to uphold the Constitution," Judge William Young concluded.

Trump connects his Greenland crusade to his failure to win a Nobel Peace Prize

"I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace," the president said in a truly bizarre text message to Norway's prime minister.

The controversy surrounding Trump's pardons goes from bad to worse

The White House has confronted questions for months about whether presidential pardons are effectively for sale. Those questions just got louder.

After unveiling a pitiful health care 'plan,' Trump struggles to explain its merits

One day after unveiling a purported health care "plan," the president had an opportunity to tout its virtues. It did not go well.

MORE FROM THE MADDOWBLOG

BONUS PODCAST

If you already follow the Rachel Maddow Show podcast you saw this pop up in your feed this morning. But in case you missed it, we added a special podcast episode that also includes video on YouTube if you would rather watch than listen.

For Trump's opponents, a model for finding their fight to stop him
While Donald Trump has made clear how he intends to wield his power and retain his power, the most pressing question for Americans is how his opponents intend to stop him. Jon Ralston, founder and CEO of the Nevada Independent, and author of the newly published "The Game Changer: How Harry Reid remade the rules and showed Democrats how to fight," talks with Rachel Maddow about how the Democrats' best political tactician and savviest fighter in living memory would have handled stopping Trump and retaking power before it's too late.

WHAT'S ON RACHEL'S BLUESKY RADAR?

"In the immediate aftermath of the death of Renée Good in Minneapolis... an FBI agent in Minnesota conducted an initial review of the shooting and determined that sufficient grounds existed to open a probe into the actions of the officer who shot Good..."
(Washington Post)
"US Archbishop of the Military Services Timothy Broglio: US military personnel could disobey 'immoral' orders against Greenland"
...
"Catholic personnel in the US military could in good conscience consider disobeying orders to attack Greenland, according to the bishop responsible for their pastoral care.

The Archbishop of the Military Services Timothy Broglio said personnel "could be put in a situation where they're being ordered to do something that's morally questionable" if the US acted on President Donald Trump's threats of military action to take control of Greenland.

Speaking on the BBC's Sunday programme on 18 January, Archbishop Broglio said it would be "very difficult for a soldier or a marine or a sailor by himself to disobey an order such as that", but "within the realm of their own conscience it would be morally acceptable to disobey"."
(The Tablet)
"We renounce war as an instrument for narrow national interests and proclaim that military action must be seen only as a last resort in extreme situations, not a normal instrument of national policy..."

Three US Cardinals: Foreign policy must respect human dignity, religious liberty -
Ten days after Pope Leo XIV's 'State of the World' address, American Cardinals Cupich, McElroy, and Tobin release a joint statement renouncing war and calling for US foreign policy to be based on peace and respect for human dignity and religious liberty.
(Vatican News)
I'm the one in the brown hat.

What you might not see is the victim in the car. His feet are pointing out the open car door. An agent is sitting on one of his legs. He's only wearing crocs.

Bystanders found his legal work visa in his abandoned car.

#AbolishICE

(Ethan Pants shares Elliott Paynes's video)

(George Conway)

"Cardinal Tobin said he was struck by voices in the Trump administration who seemed to be advancing a moral framework he described as 'almost a Darwinian calculus that the powerful survive and the weak don't deserve to.'

'I would say that's less than human'..."

Top Catholic Clerics Denounce U.S. Foreign Policy
(New York Times)
There's no better way to observe MLK Day than to go on the news and insist that the civil rights protesters objecting to police brutality are actually "paid agitators"

Rep. Byron Donalds: "These agitators -- who by the way are paid, folks. America, they are paid to do this kind of mess."
(Kevin Kruse reacts to Aaron Rupar sharing Fox News video)
"They seem unprepared for what they are facing. They have misjudged the ground beneath their feet: a state full of ordinary people — real estate agents, high school students — who've decided that watching their neighbors being dragged away is an intolerable sin..."
(New York Times)
The agent said that??

"When they told the agents they were US citizens, the couple said, one responded, "It doesn't matter."

Another said, "What you're doing is illegal. This is like Germany 1938," the court papers said..."
...
"A protester detained, her bra removed and wedding ring cut off, and some of her clothes never returned..."

In Minneapolis, a Pattern of Misconduct Toward Protesters
(New York Times)
"There is extreme consternation that your president appears completely immune to data, facts, arguments and common knowledge," Mr. Breum said. "He continues to state what is obviously, factually wrong. This seems unbelievable to many people in this country. We cannot understand what is happening. We wonder what is next."
(New York Times)
Tuesday January 20, 2026 walkouts...

Trump inauguration anniversary walkouts: here's what to know
(The Guardian)
Rapid Response Networks in the Twin Cities
A Guide to an Updated Model
(CrimethInc.)
"Justice Department leadership ordered prosecutors about to start a major bribery trial to reach a more lenient deal with Puerto Rico's former governor -- who had endorsed President Donald Trump -- and a billionaire represented by Trump's personal lawyer..."
(Bloomberg Law)
Trump's promised manufacturing boom is a bust so far -
Manufacturing employment has declined every month since April, when the president said tariffs would bring factories "roaring back."
(Washington Post)
"Today in St. Paul: A house is raided by ICE agents and other law enforcement officers in St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S., days after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, January 18, 2026. REUTERS/Leah Millis"

(Leah Millis)

"The DOJ is not investigating ICE agent Jonathan Ross for the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a top official said Sunday.

The top DOJ official confirmed that an investigation is underway into Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey."
(Minnesota Star Tribune)
"Claim all the room there still is for speaking, writing, publishing, protesting, voting.

It's what the people of Minnesota appear to be doing, and it's something each of us needs to do — right now, while we still can..."

One Year of Trump. The Time to Act Is Now, While We Still Can.
(New York Times)
"Bruce Springsteen dedicated a performance of 'The Promised Land' to slain ICE watcher Renee Good. He also called out ICE's 'Gestapo tactics,' telling them to get out of Minneapolis."
(Vulture)
The pardons came about after the daughter of one of the defendants gave $2.5 million to MAGA Inc. on Dec. 31, 2024, and another $1 million donation in late July...
(Ryan J. Reilly shares NBC News)
"The number of Americans embracing the 'liberal' label climbed to 28% — the highest total since Gallup started asking the question in the early 1990s..."

Poll: Americans describing themselves as 'liberal' reaches a generational high -
Gallup found the number of self-described moderates and conservatives sinking, while the number embracing a "liberal" label climbed.
(MaddowBlog)
"In February of last year, the Texas Observer reported that James "Jim" Joseph Rodden—an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) assistant chief counsel who acts as a prosecutor for ICE in immigration court in Dallas—operates a white supremacist X account named GlomarResponder, based on an overwhelming number of biographical details that the Observer matched through publicly available documents, other social media activity, and courtroom observation.

The account has over 17,000 followers and has routinely posted hateful statements, including that "America is a White nation," that "'Migrants' are all criminals," and that "All blacks are foreign to my people," in addition to posts with apparent praise of Adolf Hitler."

ICE Prosecutor Who Runs Racist X Account Returns to Dallas Immigration Court
(Texas Observer)
"Graham, a 34-year old Greensboro, North Carolina police officer, is the seventh instance ProPublica has investigated in which a pregnant woman in a state that significantly restricted abortion died after she was unable to access standard care..."
(ProPublica)
"I think more than 350 of those cameras have gone out and are already deployed in the community now," he said...

How One Guy Crowdsourced More Than 500 Dashcams for Minneapolis to Film ICE
(404 Media)
US federal forces blind two protesters shot in face with 'less-lethal' munitions
(The Guardian)
Do we need to say it louder? Here. Louder.

" Federal courts in Alabama are using a law last applied during the U.S. internment [incarceration] of people of Japanese descent during World War II to charge immigrants who don't register themselves..."
(AL.com)
"Neighbors in neon vests dot the neighborhood... Information-sharing networks have been built. Residents have connected with non-profits and churches to deliver food to people who are locked in their homes out of fear. Resistance signs are everywhere..."
(Liberal Currents)
"License plate readers and personal data from car registrations are only supposed to be accessed for an active criminal investigation...

"Following or observing or reporting on federal agencies is not a criminal activity — it's protected 1st Amendment activity..."
...
"Bryan, who is due to give birth in two weeks, was helped over the slippery parking lot by two assistants. She said she knocked on the window and said, "Could you please leave the parking lot? It's private property. You can park across the street. That's government property."

Bryan said she was greeted by a masked female ICE agent who threatened her with a canister of pepper spray. "I said, 'You're going to spray me in the face? I'm two weeks away from giving birth, and I'm just kindly asking you to leave my property.'" "

Privacy advocates: ICE using private data to intimidate observers and activists
(MPR News)
Trump received a Nobel Peace Prize the same way he received a Purple Heart
(MaddowBlog)
"Activists who packed the rafters in the Assembly chambers in Trenton's Statehouse cheered loudly after the bill's passage, hailing it as a landmark moment for immigrant rights..."

Divided NJ Legislature gives final passage to three anti-ICE bills
(News from the States)
Hyperlocal and highly visible: the power of freeway overpass protests amid Trump 2.0 -
Since Trump retook office, protesters across the US are sending messages that are hard for drivers to miss
(The Guardian)
"To characterize the document the White House produced as a health care 'plan' is overly generous.

The entirety of the proposal — literally, from start to finish — is 386 words. For context, this blog post is roughly 650 words..."
(MaddowBlog)
"If a Democratic president had done something like this, Fox and the GOP would have turned Adriana Camberos into a household name à la Willie Horton or, yes, Hunter Biden."
- "In 2021, a convicted fraudster named Adriana Camberos was freed from prison when President Trump commuted her sentence.
  
  Rather than taking advantage of that second chance, prosecutors said, Ms. Camberos returned to crime. She and her brother were convicted in 2024 in an unrelated fraud.
  
  This week, Mr. Trump pardoned both siblings, marking the second time he had opened the prison gates for Ms. Camberos."
  (Mehdi Hasan cites New York Times reporting)
Trump struck deals with 16 drug companies. But they're still raising prices this year
(NPR)
"The crowd-control grenades went off around them and one tear gas canister rolled beneath the car, Ms. Jackson said. A concussive blast — from the tear gas canister or another device, she wasn't sure — rocked the vehicle, she said, setting off the airbags and trapping the family as acrid smoke billowed around.

"It felt like our lungs was burning," Mr. Jackson said, noting that two of his children had severe asthma. "Water didn't help. Nothing helped at that moment."

The couple said they were able to get their children, ages 6 months through 11 years, out of the car only after Mr. Jackson kicked open a door. Ms. Jackson, blinded and unable to breathe, circled the vehicle pulling out as many of her children as she could, she said.

Bystanders arrived to usher the family into a nearby house, she said, while others set about removing the 6-month-old, who was briefly trapped in his car seat.

"My baby was completely unconscious, not breathing," Ms. Jackson said. She recounted talking to emergency services over the phone, receiving instructions on how to perform CPR on her child, while bystanders doused her other children with milk to neutralize the tear gas.

Once the Jacksons' youngest child came around, emergency medical services arrived and took the couple and the three children most affected by the tear gas to a hospital."
(New York Times)

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