By Adrienne Fong

RESOURCES:

 UPDATES WITH BAY RESISTANCE and get plugged to actions you can support, text “Resist” to 888-850-0928

GI HOTLINE (877) 477-4497

  – Share this number to people who know active duty service members

There are events listed on Indybay that might be of interest to you(many listings in the South, North & East Bays and beyond the bay area)

Please post your actions on Indybay: https://www.indybay.org/calendar/?page_id=12

See list of Calendar of Events on Palestine from AROC: https://www.araborganizing.org/events/ 

   If your post is about Palestine you can also list your action on the AROC calendar

Bay Area Progressive Action Calendar

  ATW Bay Area / NorCal — Action Together West

ARTICLES

A. Trump praises ‘spectacular assault’ in Venezuela – January 3, 2026

Trump praises ‘spectacular assault’ in Venezuela 

B. List of Demonstrations “No War on Venezuela! – National Day of Action (from ANSWER Coal.)

No War on Venezuela! National Day of Action Saturday, Dec. 6 – ANSWER Coalition

C. From Middle East Monitor – January 3, 2026

US President Donald Trump shared on his social media account the first photograph of Venezuelan President

Nicholas Maduro aboard the USS Iwo Jima on Saturday, Jan. 3, Anadolu Agency reports.

Earlier, Venezuela’s government said the US of attacked civilian and military installations in multiple states, and declared ‌a national ‌emergency.

Trump confirmed the strike on his social media platform Truth Social, saying Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, had been captured and flown out of the country.

He later told Fox News that his forces did an “incredible job” and he watched the operation “in real time.” Asked about the next steps on Venezuela, he said the US will be “very much” involved in the process.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro and his wife have been indicted in New York. The two have been charged with “Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States,” she said on X.

“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”

From Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DTDm0uFDC84/ 

See Action # 1

See Petition  # 1

D. Buddhist Monks and a dog Walk for Peace from Ft. Worth Texas to DC (2,300-mile) – December 30, 2025

–        They were in Georgia yesterday of day 69. Videos of  crowds that have turned out are amazing. I think people are hungry for real change.

–        Instagram site: https://www.instagram.com/walkforpeace.usa/

–        Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/walkforpeace

E, San Francisco man sues city, police department over Flock camera surveillance

San Francisco man sues city, police department over Flock camera surveillance | Courthouse News Service

F. List of dozens of humanitarian org. that Israel is banning in GAZA

https://www.instagram.com/p/DS7xlaJki08/

G. China imposes sanctions on dozens of US weapons manufactures over arms sales to Taiwan – December 30, 2025

China imposes sanctions on dozens of US weapons manufactures over arms sales to Taiwan : Peoples Dispatch

H. 21 immigration judges fired in San Francisco, many reportedly without explanation – December 30, 2025

San Francisco loses 21 immigration judges, over 100 nationwide, many reportedly without explanation – ABC7 San Francisco

I. Dr UMAR EXPLODES; US Want to REMOVE TRAORE, GOITA and TCHIANI Through Nigeria – December 27, 2025

J. Federal Judge Halts Trump’s ‘Arbitrary and Capricious’ Immigration Court Arrests – December 26, 2025

Federal Judge Halts Trump’s ‘Arbitrary and Capricious’ Immigration Court Arrests | Common Dreams

K. US Launches Christmas Strikes on Nigeria—the 9th Country Bombed by Trump – December 25, 2025

US Launches Christmas Strikes on Nigeria—the 9th Country Bombed by Trump | Common Dreams

L. Trump Blockade of Venezuela, Murders on High Seas Violate International Law: UN Experts – December 24, 2025

Trump Blockade of Venezuela, Murders on High Seas Violate International Law: UN Experts | Common Dreams

M. Hawai’I Has a Rare Opportunity to Reclaim Land From the US Military – December 22, 2025

Hawai‘i Has a Rare Opportunity to Reclaim Land From the US Military | Truthout   

2 PETITIONS

1. VENEZUELA: No War, No Overthrow, No Coup, No Sanctions / Ni guerra, ni derrocamiento, ni golpe, ni sanciones

  SIGN: VENEZUELA: No War, No Overthrow, No Coup, No Sanctions / Ni guerra, ni derrocamiento, ni golpe, ni sanciones – World BEYOND War

2. End the impunity. Impeach DHS Secretary Kristi Noem!

  SIGN: End the impunity. Impeach DHS Secretary Kristi Noem! | Demand Progress 

EVENTS / ACTIONS

Saturday, January 3 – Monday January 5

Saturday, January 3 

1. Saturday, 1:00pm – 2:30pm, No War on Venezuela!

Meet at:

Powell & Market St
SF

STOP the BOMBINGS

Explosions have been reported across Caracas, Venezuela as an apparent U.S. bombing campaign has begun targeting the country. This war is not about drug trafficking, it is not about democracy — it is about stealing Venezuela’s oil and dominating Latin America. It is an outrageous escalation in a campaign of murder in international waters and piracy targeting civilian ships trading with Venezuela. 

We need to take to the streets and say no to another endless war! The people of this country do not want another war! A U.S. war would cause death and destruction for the people of Venezuela. The war machine consumes an unimaginable amount of our tax dollars while working families struggle to make ends meet. In an all-out war with Venezuela, it will be working class young people who are sent to kill and die, not the children of executives at ExxonMobil and LockheedMartin. The people need to take to the streets and say not to Trump’s war on Venezuela!

Above is from ANSWER/PSL

Info Stop the Bombings – NO WAR ON VENEZUELA! : Indybay  

2. Saturday, 2:00pm – 4:00pm, What’s the Deal with Venezuela?

The Starry Plough Pub
3101 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94705
also online: Please register in advance at
https://bit.ly/SSS-Venezuela
to receive your personal link to participate in this event online

Please help us celebrate our return to the Starry Plough by ordering food and/or drinks.
Please arrive early to place your order so that you do not miss any of the presentations.
An open discussion will follow the presentations.

U.S. government officials have already admitted that CIA forces and other
“clandestine” warfare groups have been operating within Venezuela, and the
movement of large naval forces to the area signal an intent to invade.
The “clandestine” acts of war already constitute aggression, illegal under international
law. The blowing up of boats, with the clearly false excuse that they are somehow
running drugs to the USA, is a crime. Further military action will be war crimes.

Our speakers will address the question: Why is the U.S. Government, and particularly
the current Trump regime, attacking Venezuela, and what can we do about it?
Laura Wells – Green Party of California, Task Force on the Americas
Roger Harris – Task Force on the Americas and the Venezuela Solidarity
Network
*Organizations listed for identification purposes only.

We will be accepting donations which will be divided among the sponsoring organizations.
This event is sponsored by the Alameda County Peace and Freedom Party,
the Alameda County Green Party and Bay Area System Change Not Climate Change.

Info: What’s the Deal with Venezuela? : Indybay

Sunday, January 4

3. Sunday, 1:00pm – 3:00pm, Boycott Chevron Picket

Temescal Chevron
5500 Telegraph Avenue
Telegraph & 55^th
Oakland 

Join a monthly demonstration at the Chevron in Temescal | 5500 Telegraph in Oakland | FIRST SUNDAY OF THE MONTH, 1-3 PM

Signs and chants will be provided. Bring your energy and tambourines!

Israel’s genocide machine couldn’t run without power from Chevron. Israel’s war on Gaza and Occupation of Palestine contributes to the climate catastrophe. Chevron supplies light and energy via its operation and co-ownership of two major Israeli-claimed fossil gas fields in the Mediterranean.

Chevron’s extraction activities are funneling millions of dollars in tax revenues to Israeli government coffers, directly fueling Israel’s system of settler colonialism and violence against all Palestinians. In 2022, those revenues amounted to over $462 million.
BDS is a global nonviolent Palestinian led movement, and we demand that Chevron immediately cut its contracts with genocidal Israel, and end its role in climate devastation globally.

Info: Boycott Chevron Picket : Indybay

Monday, January 5 

4. Monday, 12:30pm – 1:30pm, No Monarchs Monday: Protest at Tesla in San Francisco

At the Tesla Dealership,
999 Van Ness (corner of Van Ness and O’Farrell)
SF

No Monarchs Monday (the butterflies are ok).
Join us to stand up for democracy, civil liberties, and the planet, and against the fascist/authoritarian Trump Regime!
STOP THE BOMBING, NO WAR IN VENEZUELA!
Bring a sign if you have one.

This is a peaceful protest.

Info: No Monarchs Monday: Protest at Tesla in San Francisco : Indybay

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MEYERSON ON TAP Enter, stage left, Mayor Mamdani A New York homeboy if ever there was oneI do not mean this as a negative assessment when I say that what Zohran Mamdani’s inaugural address as mayor of New York reminded me most of was Woody Allen’s Manhattan—albeit with a more all-encompassing view of the city. Like Manhattan, Mamdani’s speech was a love-besotted tour of New York—though with a focus on the city’s multiracial working and middle class you can’t find anywhere in the Allen oeuvre. For Mamdani, this focus was intended to be a means of identification and reassurance (I am one of you, I know you), legitimacy (I represent all of you), and commitment (I will fight for you all). It was a homeboy speech. A local—not an express—was stopping at every other street corner to celebrate the halal carts and the delis. It was besotted not just with the New York of today but also with some of its history. It came with name checks for de Blasio, Dinkins, and La Guardia (with whoops from the crowd for Fiorello), with a salute to the city “where the language of the New Deal was born.” The ceremony included several very New York songs, most notably two socialist-inspired anthems: “Bread and Roses” and “Over the Rainbow,” the latter with lyrics by lifelong socialist Yip Harburg, who once said, “I’m a New Yorker down to the last capillary.” (I’m sure Yip’s 99-year-old son Ernie, resident of the East Village, found “Rainbow”’s inclusion particularly apropos.) Mamdani also name-checked DSA, the Democratic Socialists of America, though it was one of about a hundred neighborhoods, constituencies, and groups of workers that he acknowledged. It was, withal, a socialist speech, of the particular genre perfected by two socialists who preceded Mamdani to the podium: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders. That genre is centered on demonstrating that, as Sanders said again and again, there’s nothing “radical” about universal child care, affordable housing, and accessible public transit—policies that polling has shown to be exceedingly popular not just with the small number of American socialists but also with the large number of American nonsocialists. The same polling also shows sizable majorities favoring the kind of tax hikes on the super-rich that Sanders and Mamdani advocate.

Fundamentally, the politics of Mamdani’s address was that of repossession, of taking the city away from the wealthiest 1 or 5 percent who’ve claimed it as their bespoke playground, and making the remaining 99 or 95 percent able to claim it as their own, too. To the extent that Mamdani’s speech had a theoretical focus, it was the resounding rejection of the neoliberalism that characterized the politics of both parties for most of the past half-century. For too long, he said, people had turned to the private sector to solve society’s problems, which the private sector was both ill-equipped and unwilling to do. He made clear that the conceit that “the era of big government is over,” as Bill Clinton once said, was itself over. Rather than tell his fellow New Yorkers to lower their expectations of what government could do, he vowed that “the only expectation I seek to reset is that of small expectations.” That sentence on expectations was worded in a way to echo the inaugural address of another New Yorker, Franklin Roosevelt, when he said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” And the socialism that Mamdani described sounded much like those New Deal policies that had the government undertake needed tasks at which the private sector had failed abjectly. Sanders has always cited FDR as the model for his social democratic policies and his attacks on those whom FDR called “malefactors of great wealth,” and Mamdani was effectively, if not overtly, claiming the same lineage in his address. (The only reference during the ceremonies to a socialist from abroad came from nonsocialist Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate, who mentioned in passing Maurice Bishop, the long-ago prime minister of the small Caribbean island nation of Grenada, from which Williams’s parents immigrated to New York.) Right-wing editorialists may seize upon Mamdani’s comment that it was time to replace the harshness of “rugged individualism” with “the warmth of collectivism,” but it was clear to anyone who listened to his speech that by “collectivism,” Mamdani meant “community” of the most diverse character imaginable. Knowing that the work of relegitimating government as a force for good requires continual public pressure to make government accomplish needed tasks, the mayor of the city of “biryani and pastrami on rye” asked the movement that had brought him to power not to stand down. “The work,” he concluded, “has only just begun.” Harold Meyerson Editor-at-Large

San Francisco Congressional District 11 Candidate Forum

Please join the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club, the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, and the CA Working Families Party for a San Francisco Congressional District 11 Candidate Forum. This event will feature Senator Scott Wiener, Supervisor Connie Chan, and Saikat Chakrabarti. Moderators are Bay Area Reporter News Editor Cynthia Laird and Mission Local Managing Editor Joe Eskenazi.The forum will be held as a hybrid event, with in-person attendance at UC Law San Francisco and a virtual participation option. Additional details regarding online access will be shared closer to the event date.Event Details Wednesday, January 7, 2026 6:00–8:00 PM | Doors 5:00 PM UC Law San Francisco, 198 McAllister Street, San Francisco RSVP for In-Person Here. (RSVP is required for admittance but does not guarantee a seat. Please arrive early!) Virtual RSVP Here. Overflow Information: Want to skip the line? This event will be livestreamed at The Beer Hall, 34 Mason Street. This is an 8-minute walk from the main venue. It will be “Wings Wednesday” and folks are encouraged to head there during or after the event to grab a bite to eat and mingle with the co-hosting organizations (and maybe a candidate or two!) Respectful space: While showing your support of candidates is allowed, please do not bring any campaign paraphernalia that could block someone’s view. Heckling or disruptions will not be tolerated, and you may be asked to leave the venue. We want everyone to be able to hear the candidates and participate. Support the hosts: If you’re able, please consider chipping in to help cover event costs here.

Housing First works. So why is SF siding with Trump to try do undo it?

By Jennifer Friedenbach

December 31, 2025 (48hills.org)

No human should have to live on the streets. Yet, as low-income households in the United States face growing disparity between income and rents, homelessness is growing too. High rents are the greatest determiner of homeless rates. The antidote is not that complicated: Invest in housing that is affordable to the bottom third of the income ladder. 

Instead, the last half century trend has been for our leaders to vacillate between immoral inaction and blaming poor people for their poverty. 

Today we are on the political far right side of that pendulum, and about to fall off into a hellscape down below. From national decisions in Washington, to local decisions in San Francisco, the broad defunding of already inadequate homeless housing is underway.

Despite this political landscape, we have made some progress. A focus on housing homeless vets led to reducing veteran homelessness by half nationally. While tens of thousands of extremely low-income San Franciscans are housed by public housing, permanent supportive housing and housing subsidies, it is nowhere near meeting the need and all of it is at risk. 

In San Francisco, 14,000 unhoused households are waiting and registered under the Coordinated Entry System for housing, and many more lose their housing every day with rising rents. That’s a bad situation with a whole lot of human suffering, compromised health and deteriorating mental health. 

It’s about to get so much worse. 

Recently, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development released the 2025 Continuum of Care Program Notice of Funding Opportunity that stipulates that no more than 30 percent of Continuum of Care funds can be allocated for supportive housing. While a judge issued an injunction, it didn’t outright require the release of the previously granted funds. 

That means San Francisco could lose an estimated $35 million in housing operating funds in a system that is already radically underfunded, a loss that will plunge hundreds of San Franciscans back into homelessness.  

Sponsored link

But it doesn’t stop there. Emergency choice vouchers, which were issued under the Biden Administration, are about to be eradicated. This program, which serves 70,000 formerly homeless households with rental subsidies, is being completely eliminated.

Approximately 1,000 additional households will return to homelessness in San Francisco at the end of 2026 with the loss of rental assistance.

The Trump Administration talks a lot about the failed ‘Housing First’ ideology, using tired tropes that it “encourages dependence on endless government handouts while neglecting to address the root causes of homelessness, including illicit drugs and mental illness.”

The fundamental idea is that affordability is not the issue—the individual just needs to stop using drugs and acting crazy and they will be able to pay for housing on their own. 

The discourse peddled by the Trump administration is mirrored by the actions of local elected officials in San Francisco, with Mayor Daniel Lurie cutting housing funds to pay for shelter—which costs just as much as housing—and recent legislation being introduced by Supervisor Matt Dorsey to ban all new supportive housing that isn’t recovery housing.

The Dorsey legislation not only unnecessarily pits “recovery housing” against “housing first,” but also jeopardizes several supportive housing projects in the pipeline and will limit our ability to backfill the loss in federal funding. His legislation already has four co-sponsors. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed similar state legislation pushed by our local leaders, limiting non recovery focused supportive housing, correctly saying nothing prevents municipalities from creating recovery based Housing First models. The California Interagency Council on Homelessness then came out with guidelines that lay out how to do recovery housing while ensuring local municipalities follow successful Housing First principles. 

The only thing preventing the addition of supportive housing focused on recovery—or even enriching current supportive housing programs to have a real recovery focus—is funding.  

Housing First is a proven effective model with a 97 to 98 percent success rate in San Francisco. Housing First was created after years of failed policy in which unhoused people had to show they were “housing ready” before they could get housing, leaving many out on the streets. 

That approach didn’t work. It’s almost impossible for unhoused people to address jobs, recovery and other means of stabilization without housing. Point in Time data in SF indicates that experiencing homelessness drives up rates of behavioral health issues—not that behavioral health is driving homelessness.

A movement at the federal and state level to remove barriers, and prioritize housing retention through onsite support services and tenant rights, was widely accepted pre-Trump. 

However, many supportive housing programs are underfunded and historically there has never been anywhere near enough supportive housing funding to end mass chronic homelessness. 

Due to the lack of housing, most unhoused people are on the streets for a decade before getting housed, leading to complicated trauma and medical needs requiring a level of care housing providers are not currently funded adequately to address. 

Rising housing, costs coupled with wholesale defunding of public housing, has led to the humanitarian crisis we see today. That does not indicate a failure of the model, but a need to expand and enrich it, which would prevent many of the issues long term homeless people face. 

Almost all those impacted by deep poverty can never be stably housed without rental assistance due to the structural disparities in our housing market. Some may need higher levels of care in the short term, while others in the long term, but they all need housing.

Yet in San Francisco, affordable housing providers such as Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation are being forced to sell off buildings due to lack of funding, while conditions and support services deteriorate in others because of underfunding.

Instead of calling for addressing the actual root causes—such as preventing homelessness in the first place—there are attempts at the federal and local level to operationalize “the Utah Model.” This is a massive untested program, called an “accountability center,” which plans to open its doors in 2027 in the deadlands outside of Salt Lake City.

The program fronts as an addiction and mental health services center, but in reality functions like a jail. Those who don’t earn enough to pay their rent are sent there against their will.

Sadly, Utah had a laudable housing program that all but eliminated veteran and family homelessness, but the funds for that are at risk with the political shift towards fixing so-called pathologies that are driven by deep inequity.

Locally, policy makers like Dorsey are calling for bringing back the tried and failed drug war by increasing penalties for public drug use, while Lurie has massively increased arrests of unhoused people and wants to open back up locked drunk tanks also masked as service centers. 

After all the money is spent, the homeless person would still be homeless, stuck in a revolving door leading nowhere.    

These changes paint a truly sad and devastating state of affairs, in which thousands will lose their housing and thousands of others will be pushed into homelessness.

San Francisco leaders must stand up to Trump. The people of a progressive San Francisco should demand our leaders demonstrate real leadership and work collaboratively to develop consensus-based solutions not political wedges and performative distractions.

Our leaders should stop copying the Trump Administration style of pitting communities against each other, and figure out how to save working models we have and invest in more. Unhoused people do not need to be further marginalized and scapegoated by controversial measures demonizing their existence.  

Yes, we need more treatment of every kind, from trauma therapy to medically assisted treatment. Yes, we also need more housing of every kind—from sober living, to board and care, to permanent supportive housing, to just plain old extremely low-income housing.  Yes, we need rental assistance that keeps San Franciscans housed.

Just because we don’t have enough of the interventions that are working doesn’t mean we should bring back demonstrated ineffectual strategies or hamper evidence-based solutions.  

San Francisco knows how to be better. Let’s work together to make that happen in 2026.  

Jennifer Friedenbach is director of the Coalition on Homelessness

Leonardo DiCaprio Oct 16, 2025 Juma Xipaia from the Brazilian Amazon represents the Indigenous leaders who remind us what it means to live in harmony with the Earth. Her courage, wisdom, and leadership inspire a global movement to defend nature, culture, and community. Yanuni, the award-winning and critically acclaimed documentary that tells Juma’s story, is a testament to the power of Indigenous voices and the hope they carry for our shared future. Thrilled to share the official trailer and that the film will premiere at the São Paulo International Film Festival on October 17. Director: Richard Ladkani Producers: Juma Xipaia Anita Ladkani, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Executive Producers: Dax Dasilva, Joanna Natasegara, Laura Nix, Eric Terena, Martin Choroba, and Philipp Schall. #YanuniFilm is a ‪@MalaikaPictures‬ production in association with Appian Way, Nia Tero, ‪@ageofunion‬, Tellux Gruppe, and with the support of ÖFI+ Film Institut. The impact campaign in support of the Instituto Juma is led by Earth Alliance.

It’s been a long time coming.

Dan Rather and Team Steady Jan 2, 2025

Credit: Getty Images

It may be the biggest irony in the history of American politics – if not the history of our country — that if Donald Trump wasn’t elected to a second term, he probably would be serving time in prison right now.

Instead, the president flat out got away with it. And now he will never face federal criminal charges for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election or removing highly classified documents from the White House and hiding them at his Palm Beach resort.

We’ve waited a long time for former special counsel Jack Smith to tell us what evidence he amassed against Trump. And now we know at least part of that picture. His recent matter-of-fact recounting of his comprehensive investigations only whets the appetite for the whole story.

The famously tight-lipped Smith, who led two investigations into Trump and secured two indictments, testified before the House Judiciary Committee on December 17. Surprise!

Smith’s deposition, a robust defense of his investigations, was reported in the media. But The New York Times, for example, ran its piece on page A19 of the print edition of the paper, because the closed-door hearing was free of reporters and no video recording or transcript of the exhaustive eight-hour testimony was made available. Until December 31.

After ignoring calls from Smith’s lawyers to release the transcript, Rep. Jim Jordan, the chairman of the committee, decided to dump the 255-page transcript after everyone had gone home for the New Year.

Smith, who was subpoenaed to appear, asked for a public hearing. Surprisingly, so did the president. “I’d rather see him testify publicly, because there’s no way he can answer the questions.” Actually, he did – at least all the questions he was not barred by a Trump-appointed judge from answering.

The reason for the closed session was that Republicans were concerned Smith would use the hearing as a platform to divulge heretofore unreleased information.

Smith withstood a barrage of questions from both Republicans and Democrats. Republicans, doing Trump’s bidding to go after those who went after him, tried to trip him up. Democrats hoped to bait him into revealing details of his investigations. Neither side succeeded, though that doesn’t mean the testimony was without revelations.

Smith, a career prosecutor, who served under Democrats and Republicans, spoke with confidence and candor.

“The decision to bring charges against President Trump was mine, but the basis for those charges rests entirely with President Trump and his actions, as alleged in the indictments returned by grand juries in two different districts,” he said in his opening statement.

He went on to explain what he and his team discovered about Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election:

“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power.”

And Trump’s mishandling of classified documents:

“Our investigation also developed powerful evidence that showed that President Trump willfully retained highly classified documents… then repeatedly tried to obstruct justice to conceal his continued retention of those documents.”

Smith revealed that he planned to rely on Trump allies as witnesses, saying he thought they would be more credible than partisan ones.

“We had numerous witnesses who would say, ‘I voted for President Trump. I campaigned for President Trump. I wanted him to win,’” Smith testified. “Our case was built on, frankly, Republicans who put their allegiance to the country before the party.”

When asked if Trump ever admitted that he knew he lost the election, Smith answered yes. He went on to say the president made statements about it to several people.

“One is that, ‘It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still fight like hell.’ And then the other was, ‘Can you believe I lost to this f’ing guy?’ referring to Joe Biden.”

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Smith laid out his evidence like, well, a prosecutor.

“[Trump], in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6, created a level of distrust. He used that level of distrust to get people to believe fraud claims that weren’t true. He made false statements to state legislatures, to his supporters in all sorts of contexts and was aware, in the days leading up to Jan. 6, that his supporters were angry when he invited them and then he directed them to the Capitol.”

As Trump is trying to downplay and distort what happened at the Capitol on January 6, Smith did not whitewash the violence perpetrated by the rioters. “Cracked ribs, traumatic brain injuries, smashed spinal disks and heart attacks as rioters used bats, poles, chemical sprays, stolen police shields and batons.”

That violence, Smith said, was “foreseeable” to the president and Trump exploited it.

When Republican committee members suggested Trump’s statements about the 2020 election were protected speech, Smith pushed back, hard. “Fraud is not protected by the First Amendment.”

Smith had far less to say about the classified documents case because Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who slow-walked the original case and then tossed it, is now deciding if Smith’s report of the investigation will ever be released. She blocked the release for more than a year, though ruled last week she would lift the order on February 24, if Trump doesn’t challenge the ruling. What are the odds?

In the meantime Smith is barred from speaking about it, including to the House Judiciary Committee.

When asked if he could draw any conclusions about Trump’s refusal to return the classified documents despite being given multiple opportunities, Smith responded, “I don’t think I can answer that question because it may involve nonpublic facts that are a part of the final report that is currently under an injunction.”

He gave a similar answer to most questions posed about the documents.

In Trumpworld, Jack Smith is Public Enemy No. 1. There is no doubt Trump’s allies in the House were hoping Smith’s testimony would give the president some viable legal avenue to use against him. Though he didn’t give them one, Smith is not naive about his future.

He said he wouldn’t be surprised if Trump directs the Department of Justice to indict him. “I believe that President Trump wants to seek retribution against me because of my role as special counsel.”

Which brings us to another great irony: The man who the government believed committed one of the greatest crimes in our nation’s history now has the ability to seek revenge against those who tried to hold him accountable.

Steady is free, but to support my team’s efforts to protect our democracy through the power of independent journalism, we’d appreciate it if you would consider joining as a paid subscriber. It keeps Steady sustainable and accessible for all.

Upgrade to paid

No matter how you subscribe, I thank you for reading.

Stay Steady,
Dan

Next stop is likely the Ninth Circuit Court

by Sage Ríos Mace December 31, 2025 (MissionLocal.org)

A San Francisco federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status was unlawful, restoring the status for nearly 90,000 immigrants.

U.S. District Court Judge Trina Thompson’s decision pertains to a recent lawsuit that challenged the administration’s decision to terminate TPS for migrants who fled natural disasters in Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua. It was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and partnering law firms.

The program covers about 72,000 Hondurans, 13,000 Nepalis and 4,000 Nicaraguans, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It gives them temporary status to legally stay in the country.

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The administration announced its intentions to cancel the Biden-era extension of TPS in July. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision on Aug. 20, and on Sept. 7, TPS holders from Nicaragua and Honduras lost their status.

Wednesday’s decision restores TPS for those from Nepal, Nicaragua and Honduras. However, the government could challenge Thompson’s ruling by appealing the decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Jhonny Silva, 30, who is from Honduras, lost his job as a nursing student after TPS was terminated in September.

“The court’s order today is a tremendous relief, but the administration’s decision to terminate TPS has already wreaked havoc for me and so many others,” Silva wrote in an email today. 

He continued,“I hope that this means my child and I can be secure in the United States for the time being but we will not give up fighting to protect our rights and the rights of others.”

In today’s 52-page decision, Thompson wrote that the administration failed to adequately consider country conditions that would prevent TPS holders from safely returning and rebuilding their lives in their home countries.

Thompson found that the decision to end TPS was likely “preordained,” meaning that it was made before the government received country-condition reviews for Honduras and Nicaragua. 

The decision  alleges that the Department of Homeland Security relied on “skewed data,” requesting  roughly one page of information on country conditions. The latter, Judge Thompson concluded, failed to capture the full scope of the conditions in the affected countries.

The judge further concluded that the decision was likely motivated by racial animus, echoing claims previously raised by the National TPS Alliance, one of the organizations that represents the plaintiffs.

In the court order, Thompson cited statements by President Trump and social media posts by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that portrayed TPS holders as criminal invaders.

Among them were Trump’s statement that migrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” and another in which he wrote, “You now know a murderer. I believe this; it’s in their genes,” when referring to migrants in the United States.

Thompson wrote, “These statements reflect a stereotyping of the immigrants protected under the TPS program as criminal invaders and perpetuate the discriminatory belief that certain immigrant populations will replace the white population.”

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I’m covering immigration for Mission Local and got my start in journalism with El Tecolote. Most recently, I completed a long-term investigation for El Centro de Periodismo Investigativo in San Juan, PR and I am excited to see where journalism takes me next. Off the clock, I can be found rollerblading through Golden Gate Park or reading under the trees with my cat, Mano.More by Sage Ríos Mace

Published: August 11, 2025 (TheOnion.com)

WASHINGTON—Calling the ongoing violence in the region “disgusting” while pledging America’s unwavering support, President Trump announced Monday that the United States would be the first country to recognize the state of Mega-Israel. “We recognize the right of Mega-Israel to exist as an ever-expanding sovereign nation,” said Trump, who added that he believed the West had turned a blind eye to Mega-Israel for too long, and that Mega-Israel had the right to defend whatever they claimed their borders to be. “Today, I called Giga-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and I told him that the U.S. stands behind Mega-Israel, its Mega-land, and its Mega-army. As such, we will continue to provide them with military support as they face attacks from the Micro-Middle East.” At press time, Trump announced plans for the United States to officially back a one-Mega-Israel solution.

For years, I’ve shared names of former soldiers implicated in atrocities with the Pentagon. It’s shown no interest in punishment until Mark Kelly dissed Trump.

Nick Turse

December 27 2025 (TheIntercept.com)

U.S. soldiers of the 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, look on a mass grave after a daylong battle against the Viet Cong 272nd Regiment, about 60 miles northwest of Saigon, in March 1967. Photo: Henri Huet/AP

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth took the unusual step last month of threatening to recall Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., to active duty to possibly face court-martial, after the retired Navy captain reminded service members in a social media video that it is their duty to disobey illegal orders. President Donald Trump suggested Kelly ought to be killed for his viral video, then seemed to call for him to be imprisoned.

The review of Kelly’s comments has since blossomed into a full-scale inquiry. “Retired Captain Kelly is currently under investigation for serious allegations of misconduct,” a War Department spokesperson told me.

Kelly issued a statement after Hegseth’s office announced it was escalating its case. “It wasn’t enough for Donald Trump to say I should be hanged, which prompted death threats against me and my family. It wasn’t enough for Pete Hegseth to announce a sham investigation on social media. Now they are threatening everything I fought for and served for over 25 years in the U.S. Navy, all because I repeated something every service member is taught,” said Kelly. “It should send a shiver down the spine of every patriotic American that this President and Secretary of Defense would so corruptly abuse their power to come after me or anyone this way.”

What most surprised me was Hegseth’s apparent willingness to recall a former member of the military for punishment.

That Hegseth is targeting a sitting senator is all but unheard of. But what most surprised me was his apparent willingness to recall a former member of the military for punishment. I was shocked because, for two decades, the Pentagon has failed to respond to questions about the potential recall of veterans accused of heinous illegality by Army investigators.

In the mid-2000s, I provided the Pentagon with the names of dozens of former service members implicated in crimes against civilians and prisoners during the Vietnam War: massacres, murders, assaults, and other atrocities. The Defense Department never recalled any to active duty. Years later, a defense official laughed when I asked if anyone even looked at the spreadsheet of names that I provided. In the wake of Hegseth’s threats against Kelly, I again asked his office if they want that list.

While working for the Los Angeles Times, I helped expose 320 atrocities that were substantiated by Army investigators, including seven mass killings from the 1960s and 1970s, in which at least 137 civilians died. This tally does not include the 1968 My Lai massacre during which U.S. troops slaughtered more than 500 Vietnamese civilians. The records chronicled 78 other attacks on noncombatants in which at least 57 were killed, 56 wounded, and 15 sexually assaulted; and 141 instances in which U.S. troops tortured civilian detainees or prisoners of war.

Murder, torture, rape, abuse, forced displacement, home burnings, specious arrests, and imprisonment without due process were a daily fact of life throughout the years of the American war in Vietnam. But the great majority of atrocities by U.S. troops never came to light — and almost never resulted in criminal investigations, much less courts-martial. These records — compiled in the early 1970s by a secret Pentagon task force known as the Vietnam War Crimes Working Group — represent some of the exceedingly rare instances that resulted in official inquiries.

Army criminal investigators determined that evidence against more than 200 soldiers accused of harming Vietnamese civilians or prisoners was strong enough to warrant charges, according to the records. These “founded” cases were referred to the soldiers’ superior officers for action. Ultimately, 57 of them were court-martialed, and just 23 were convicted.

Fourteen soldiers received prison sentences ranging from six months to 20 years, but most won significant reductions on appeal. The stiffest sentence went to a military intelligence interrogator convicted of committing indecent acts against a 13-year-old girl held in detention. He served seven months of a 20-year term, according to the files. Many substantiated cases were closed with a letter of reprimand, a fine, or, in more than half the cases, no action at all.

In the early 2000s, many veterans who had escaped justice were still alive, including members of Company B of the 1st Battalion, 35th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division. That unit committed a litany of atrocities, culminating in a massacre in a tiny hamlet in South Vietnam.

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On February 8, 1968, a medic, Jamie Henry, sat down to rest in a Vietnamese home, where he was joined by a radioman. On the radio, he heard 3rd Platoon leader Lt. Johnny Mack Carter report to Capt. Donald Reh that he had rounded up 19 civilians. Carter wanted to know what should be done with them. As Henry later told an army investigator: “The Captain asked him if he remembered the Op Order [Operation Order] that had come down from higher [command] that morning which was to kill anything that moves. The Captain repeated the order. He said that higher said to kill anything that moves.”

Hoping to intervene, Henry headed for Reh’s position. As he neared it, though, the young medic saw members of the unit drag a naked teenage girl out of a house and throw her into the throng of civilians, who had been gathered together in a group. Then, Henry said, four or five men around the civilians “opened fire and shot them. There was a lot of flesh and blood going around because the velocity of an M-16 at that close range does a lot of damage.”

Henry repeatedly reported the massacre, at peril to himself, and spent years attempting to expose the atrocities. Army investigators looked into the allegations for more than three years before closing the case and burying the files. They determined that evidence supported murder charges in five incidents against nine “subjects,” including Carter. Investigators concluded that there was not enough evidence to charge Reh with murder, because of conflicting accounts “as to the actual language” he used in giving the orders. But Reh could be charged with dereliction of duty for failing to investigate the killings, the report said. The military did not court-martial any members of the unit — either in the 1970s or the 2000s. Some are still alive today and could, theoretically, face some modicum of justice.

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Hegseth has been on the hot seat since major media outlets picked up on The Intercept’s reporting of a double-tap strike that executed survivors of an attack on a supposed drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean in September. Military legal experts, lawmakers, and confidential sources within the government who spoke with The Intercept say Hegseth’s actions could result in the entire chain of command being investigated for a war crime or outright murder.

Hegseth said Kelly’s “conduct brings discredit upon the armed forces and will be addressed appropriately.” I asked Hegseth’s office if the crimes detailed in the Vietnam War Crimes Working Group’s files also brought “discredit upon the armed forces.” A spokesperson acknowledged that and other questions but offered no answers.

“Nick, we received your earlier message and haven’t forgotten about you,” she said last month. “Our response time is going to be delayed due to the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.” That response has, weeks later, still yet to arrive.

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Hegseth has previously derided “academic rules of engagement which have been tying the hands of our warfighters for too long,” and, during President Donald Trump’s first term — before he became the Pentagon chief — successfully lobbied for pardons on behalf of soldiers convicted of crimes against noncombatants.

“This just shows their total distain for the rule of law,” Todd Huntley, who was an active-duty judge advocate for more than 23 years, serving as a legal adviser to Special Operations forces, said of Hegseth and Trump. “They view the law as a political tool to support their positions and help them get what they want.”

“They view the law as a political tool to support their positions and help them get what they want.”

Hegseth took his post focusing on lethality at all costs, while gutting programs designed to protect civilians and firing the Air Force’s and Army’s top judge advocates general, or JAGs, in February to avoid “roadblocks to orders that are given by a commander in chief.” Military operations under Hegseth have since killed civilians from Yemen to the Caribbean Sea.

The Former JAGs Working Group — an organization made up of former and retired military judge advocates which was founded in February — issued a statement condemning Hegseth’s order and the execution of it “to constitute war crimes, murder, or both.” The group also called out the war secretary for targeting Kelly. “The administration’s retaliation against Senator Kelly violates military law. We are confident the unlawful influence reflected in the press reports will ultimately disqualify all convening authorities except possibly the president himself from actually referring any case to a court-martial,” they wrote in a statement provided to The Intercept.

Huntley said the War Department wasn’t following its typical investigative process in its case against Kelly.

“There was no way that was unlawful. It doesn’t even come close to undermining good order and discipline of the military,” said Huntley. “Under normal circumstances, an investigating officer would be appointed. They’d look into it and then the report would come back, it would be reviewed by a JAG, and it would say there was nothing unlawful, no charges warranted. But these aren’t normal times.”

Huntley also noted that Kelly’s video was likely to sow confusion among low-ranking enlisted personnel and officers concerning determinations about whether an order is lawful.

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Huntley clarified that the Pentagon doesn’t have to bring Kelly back to active duty to charge him under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. “All that’s required is that you get permission of the service secretary. In this case, I’m guessing that Hegseth himself could probably give permission to do that,” he explained. When I asked why the War Department would have announced that it might recall Kelly despite not needing to do so, Huntley had a simple assessment: “Because they don’t know what the law is.”

Hegseth’s office and Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson failed to reply to repeated questions about the Vietnam-era personnel who might still be sanctioned for their crimes against Vietnamese civilians, as well as questions about the jeopardy troops today might be in for following Hegseth’s orders.

A Pentagon spokesperson also seemed to foreclose the release of additional information concerning the War Department’s persecution of Kelly. “Further official comments will be limited to preserve the integrity of the proceedings,” she said.

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Contact the author:

Nick Tursenick.turse@theintercept.com@nickturseon X