The Peristaltic Testator

Posted by PZ Myers

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/02/04/dont-believe-tom-homan/

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/?p=78557

He claims he is already reducing ICE presence in Minneapolis, that he’s getting cooperation from county jails, and that they aren’t harassing random citizens anymore.

White House border czar Tom Homan announced Wednesday that he’s immediately pulling 700 federal agents from Minnesota, citing “productive discussions” with state and local officials and “unprecedented cooperation” from county jails.

The Trump administration official, who recently took over Operation Metro Surge, said the reduction in agents is the result of “smarter enforcement, not less enforcement.” He pledged to continue to enforce immigration laws, with the goal of helping the president “achieve mass deportations.”

I can believe that they have reduced the number of ICE agents, but it still leaves 2000, outnumbering local police.

Working with the counties is a good idea, except then they’re only going to pick up immigrants that have committed a crime. They won’t achieve their deportation quotas that way, so I don’t believe a word of it. We do have red counties that would eagerly turn over any brown people that were arrested for jaywalking or murder, but then, why would we need any ICE at all?

Operations have become more efficient through coordination with county jails that are allowing ICE to take custody of undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes before they’re released into the community, according to Homan.

“Rather than having whole teams out looking for a criminal alien who was just released, now we have one agent at that jail picking that person up. That, and the operation has been successful in the number of arrests, so the target list is reducing.”

Homan can’t resist threatening us with another ultimatum.

He added that his goal is a “complete drawdown” as soon as possible, but again said the end of Operation Metro Surge is “largely contingent upon the end of the illegal and threatening activities against ICE and its federal partners that we’re seeing in the community.”

NO.

Protesting is not an illegal activity, and we’ll continue to oppose the criminal and racist goal of achieving “mass deportations”. We like our immigrant neighbors, we are most of us descended from immigrants, we don’t share Stephen Miller’s horrific white nationalist vision, so get the fuck out of here.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/02/04/dont-believe-tom-homan/

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/?p=78557

Posted by PZ Myers

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/02/04/save-us-from-the-glut-of-ugly-statuary/

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/?p=78549

Donald Trump has a new stupid, pointless plan for Washington DC: he wants to put up a statue to Christopher Columbus. He’s not very bright, so he thinks that pandering to an ethnic group is how you convince them to favor Republicans. Only stupid Italian-Americans will fall for it.

President Donald Trump is planning to install a statue of Christopher Columbus on White House grounds, according to three people with knowledge of the pending move, in his latest effort to remake the presidential campus and celebrate the famed and controversial explorer.

The statue is set to be located on the south side of the grounds, by E Street and north of the Ellipse, two of the people said, although they cautioned that plans could change. The three people spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak on private discussions. The piece is a reconstruction of a statue unveiled in Baltimore by then-President Ronald Reagan and dumped in the city’s harbor by protesters in 2020 as a racial reckoning swept the country.

Great. Another lump of rock to dump in the Potomac in a few years. It does kind of suit this administration.

“In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero,” spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement. “And he will continue to be honored as such by President Trump.”

But of course they would consider an imperialist, murderous slaver who maimed and killed the people of a small Caribbean island to be a hero.

But there’s more! A group of cryptocurrency assholes commissioned an 18 foot tall bronze statue of Donald Trump for the launch of another memecoin.

He was put in touch by phone with a group of 16 cryptocurrency entrepreneurs — one in Canada, the others mostly in the United States — who wanted to create a giant bronze Trump commemorating his survival of the assassination attempt at Butler.

“It was a turning point in world history,” Stockton told The Times in 2025. “It would have been a full-blown civil war.” They wanted to capture “one of the most iconic moments and to show our appreciation of his embrace of crypto”, he said.

Their knowledge of history is on par with their aesthetic taste.

Oh, wait. That’s not good enough. It had to be gilded.

It’s possibly the most Trumpian thing ever, but there’s one additional detail. The statue is currently stored in the creator’s workshop, because the people who commissioned it haven’t paid for it.

He is still owed $91,200, Cottrill said. And the giant Trump is staying with him until he gets it. He added: “I can’t trust them to pay me otherwise.”

Now that is definitely the most Trumpian thing ever.

I don’t know where it will end up, but it’s just going to end up in a nearby river or harbor eventually.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/02/04/save-us-from-the-glut-of-ugly-statuary/

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/?p=78549