FIVE THINGS in veterans news: 🏢An AI-ready workforce 💊Psychedelic medication ☢Honoring atomic veterans ✏️Easing benefit apps 🕊A homecoming 80 years late See the latest:

5 things to know in veterans news: An AI-ready workforce, psychedelic medication, honoring atomic veterans

Opportunities and challenges of AI, HHS and VA team up on psychedelic treatments and a bill expands compensation for workers exposed to radiation.

stripes.com

But hey, vote blue no matter who right?

Jaime Harrison@jaimeharrison.bsky.social · last mo.

I say this with no ill will or animosity: if you hate the Democratic Party, then please don’t run for our nomination. Don’t use our resources. Don’t rely on our volunteers. Don’t use our infrastructure. Don’t ask Democrats to invest their time, money, and energy in your campaign.

Folks look at you like you're crazy when you say we're in the midst of the worst, most unprecedented Article I constitutional crisis in American history, & then it's Saturday. Again, every time someone says "Trump can't do that" the only serious response is "Yes, he can, until Congress removes him"

Edward Wong@ewong.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The Trump administration is bypassing a Congressional review process to send $6.5 billion of weapons aid to Israel. The package includes Apache attack helicopters and combat vehicles. It's the third time the Trump administration has done this. Gift link to story: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/u...

A significant majority of the $75 billion that Congress gave ICE in the OBBBA will go to private companies that operate most of the machinery of mass deportations; they staff and provide the prisons, they drive the buses, and they own and fly the planes. They are all set to cash in massively.

Gillian Brockell@gillianbrockell.com · 6mo ago

NEW: Meet the private-equity firm -- and its billionaire immigrant CEO -- making millions off some of ICE's cruelest deportation flights. After a five-month investigation, my story for @motherjones.com: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

“Freedom is not free. We have to work at it. Nurture it. Protect it. Even sacrifice for it.”

The Washington Post published a clear video of federal agents removing Alex Pretti's handgun moments before he was fatally shot. There's nothing in the video to suggest Pretti even reached for his weapon. wapo.st/49Zqv1L

Alex Pretti was a colleague at the VA. We hired him to recruit for our trial. He became an ICU nurse- I lover working with him. He was a good kind person who lived to help and these fuckers executed him. White. Hot. Rage.

This is correct. MN officials are the ones appealing for calm. The White House is demanding obedience.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 6mo ago

Pritzker: "An American president should be standing up, calling for calm. That's not what this president ever does. In fact, he wants the temperature to go up. Why? Because what he's looking for is an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act, to bring actual troops into American cities."

So I watched the shooting video frame by frame and it looks like: 1) They were beating a struggling man with batons 2) His jacket opened revealing a gun in his waistband or lower back 3) The agent in gray grabbed the gun and was walking away 4) THEN the other agents shot the man in the back

If only we as a country, as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our independence, had some historical events from our founding era that might help us understand why agents of a distant government shouldn’t murder protesters on the streets of the city where they live.

As the other E Higgins points out, he looks like he was disarmed prior to the shooting bsky.app/profile/eoin...

Eoin Higgins@eoinhiggins.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The guy in grey disarms the man on the ground being beaten—BEFORE shots were fired

I just watched the shooting video. It's a horrific beating and execution in the middle of the street. If local and state officials don't move to arrest everyone involved for murder, they need to resign. Making arrests will de-escalate the situation. Do nothing and this is going to explode.

DHS said in October that "comparing ICE day-in and day-out to the Nazi gestapo, the Secret Police, and slave patrols has consequences." After I found one of their lawyers for ICE is a racist and a self-described fascist who has praised Hitler, there have been no consequences.

steven monacelli@stevanzetti.bsky.social · 7mo ago

BREAKING: James Rodden, an ICE prosecutor who the Observer identified last year as the operator of an X account that posted “America is a White nation," “‘Migrants’ are all criminals,” and apparent praise of Adolf Hitler, appeared to be back at work Tuesday. www.texasobserver.org/ice-prosecut...

Fight and help win a world war. Establish a global order that cements your national power for 80 years. Blow it all up. What am I missing?

Have helped guard a local mosque during their Friday prayers. Been very cold but Somali restaurant offers us delicious, warm tea constantly. Members expressed much gratitude & confidence this ugly time will pass.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 7mo ago

Talked to a Somali man today who said his mosque last night was surrounded by neighbors ready to protect them against ICE if needed. Made me feel proud to live in this city.

Media reports say two battalions of the US Army's 11th Airborne Division (aka the "Arctic Angels"), who specialize in cold weather warfare, are on standby for possible deployment to Minnesota.

The White House wants a civil war and they are taking steps to implement one. Democrats who can't recognize or accept that are incapable of leading.

Leadership need not come from the House or Senate. Governors would be better. Barring that, big city mayors. Even influential activists. But it cannot be these two.

I said this morning that we would win. But we will lose — and lose badly — if the opposition party doesn't recognize the gravity of the situation. Schumer and Jeffries must be supplanted as the party leadership's center of gravity. It's vital. They're not capable of leading us through this.

Kate Ross@kateross.bsky.social · 7mo ago

ABC News reporting 1,500 active duty soldiers are on standby to deploy to MINNESOTA. The soldiers are from the 11th Airborne Division, based at Joint Base Elmendorf--Richardson, one of the Army's premier infantry formations. The division is also the military's leading formation for Arctic warfare

These soldiers come from two infantry battalions, officials say. White House does not confirm but official there says it's typical for the Pentagon "to be prepared for any decision the President may or may not make." Move comes after Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act on Thursday.

About 1,500 soldiers w/ 11th Airborne Division in Alaska have been placed on prepare-to-deploy orders with a mission in Minnesota in mind, defense officials tell me tonight. Unclear if some or all of them ultimately will go. News reported tonight by ABC News, too.

Her mother called 911 for help… and got turned into ICE instead. They placed her and her five year old daughter in a hotel and told them not to contact anyone. ICE didn’t want the community fighting for them. Mother & daughter have been deported to Honduras and the local police were complicit.

ICE deports 5-year-old US citizen from TX to Honduras, group says

Génesis Ester Gutiérrez Castellanos and her mom were arrested in Austin on January 5.

mysanantonio.com

Pentagon readies 1,500 soldiers to possibly deploy to Minnesota, officials say www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Pentagon readies 1,500 soldiers to possibly deploy to Minnesota, officials say

Soldiers with the Army’s 11th Airborne Division in Alaska have been placed at the ready following Trump’s Insurrection Act threat, according to defense officials.

washingtonpost.com

People in Minnesota are now using their key fobs to trigger their car alarms from the safety of their homes when they see ICE walking around.

DHS getting basic 4th Amendment law wrong on its official Twitter account. Seems like this post is bound to show up as an exhibit in one of the cases challenging ICE/Border Control enforcement actions.

ICE detained people while waiting in line at a food pantry. Again, ICE DETAINED PEOPLE WHILE WAITING IN LINE AT A FOOD PANTRY.

ICE detained people waiting at a food pantry, Salvation Army says

A foodbank in New Jersey cautioned its partners to have a plan in place in case of an ICE raid.

nj.com

Oh, and if anyone was confused. You build houses for the unhoused. Not kill them. Thank you.

Guantanamo today has 15 wartime prisoners, all held in one facility run by a Pentagon staff of 800 military police and other government workers. A look at the operation that began 24 years ago with these first 20 prisoners, one of whom is still there today. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/11/u...

Guantánamo Prison Enters 25th Year

nytimes.com

Who is this guy? He just threatened to murder a woman on camera. He should be arrested by local authorities for menacing.

Dom Ervolina@dominicervolina.com · 7mo ago

A woman recording an ICE agent tells him "Shame on you." The agent responds, "Have you all not learned from the past couple of days?" "Learned what?" she asks Then he knocks her phone out of her hand