Lone Candle
Champion of Truth
“A federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration to release full funding for November food stamps by Friday.
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“Last weekend, SNAP benefits lapsed for the first time in our nation’s history. This is a problem that could have and should have been avoided,””
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/06/judge-orders-trump-administration-to-pay-full-snap-benefits-00640627
“As of mid-2025, there were roughly 50 simultaneous national emergencies in force.”
https://reason.com/2025/10/25/how-to-ruin-a-shutdown/
Trump’s Appeal of His New York Convictions Highlights the Absurdity of Alvin Bragg’s Convoluted Case
https://reason.com/2025/10/28/trumps-appeal-of-his-new-york-convictions-highlights-the-absurdity-of-alvin-braggs-convoluted-case/
The shutdown didn’t force Trump to not fund food welfare. There was money available, and the administration chose not to fund it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5AU-yDO35c
“As of this writing, the U.S. military has killed at least 61 people.
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According to Philippe Sands, who frequently argues before international tribunals, the administration’s actions are “contrary to the basic precepts of international law.” The question, of course, is what that means as a practical matter and whether foreign governments — including the countries whose citizens have been killed in the attacks — might try to do anything about it.”
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/11/01/trump-boat-strikes-international-law-interview-00632077
“To fill the roles, the Trump administration is turning to agents from Customs and Border Protection, the agency that has led aggressive immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles and Chicago.”
https://reason.com/2025/10/29/trumps-move-to-replace-12-ice-directors-could-mean-more-aggressive-and-unconstitutional-immigration-enforcement/
“President Donald Trump says his tariffs protect American businesses, but more than 700 small businesses represented by We Pay The Tariffs beg to differ.”
https://reason.com/2025/10/30/these-small-business-owners-explain-how-trumps-tariffs-are-more-of-an-existential-crisis-than-covid/
Trump is moving the United States in an authoritarian direction and there is a real question as to whether authoritarianism will consolidate, or Democracy will survive.
There are post-truth authoritarian movements in the West, and it’s not clear which countries will survive as democracies.
Many politicians won’t act against Trump because they are afraid it will hurt their careers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoO3_EaoE6Y
ICE is grabbing whoever they can because they have quotas to meet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDbtrdfYqBc
“For the past two weeks, Juan Barbosa Gomez has been in federal immigration detention, but he doesn’t show up on ICE’s online detainee locator. His family says he has valid work permit and no criminal record.
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For the past two weeks, Barbosa, a 60-year-old grandfather from Mexico, has been incarcerated in the federal immigration detention system, and his family says there’s been a terrible mistake. They say he has a valid work visa and no criminal record. He’s lived in the U.S. for more than 30 years, working as a welder.
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Barbosa’s family has been unable to secure his release or even find out any information on his case. He’s been transferred to three different detention facilities in under two weeks and doesn’t show up on ICE’s online detainee locator. The transfers made it difficult for his family to keep track of him or keep his commissary fund filled, and more importantly, it has short-circuited their attempts to find an immigration attorney to look at his case.
Barbosa isn’t the only such alleged wrongful ICE arrest in Portland. The local TV news outlet KOIN 6 reported that another Portland-area grandfather, Victor Cruz, was arrested by ICE officers on October 14 despite having Temporary Protected Status, a valid work permit, and no criminal record.
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To handle the surge of tens of thousands of detainees, the administration is relying on a secretive network of federal, state, and local lockups. To encourage detainees to self-deport, the administration holds them in miserable conditions and shuttles them between facilities, making it hard for them to mount a legal defense. This raises massive constitutional issues: People are being imprisoned for weeks without transparency, without adequate access to legal counsel or means to challenge their detention, and without basic information on the case against them.
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“His grandson is six years old, and he’s trying to figure out how to navigate through this difficult time, with his grandmother in distress and his whole family right now really going through a hard time,” Smith-Mason says. “It’s a really, really hard time trying to deal with that and keep normalcy for him as well, especially because grandpa has been a constant in his life since the day he came home from the hospital.””
https://reason.com/2025/10/30/a-portland-family-says-their-dad-was-wrongly-arrested-by-ice-now-hes-lost-in-immigration-detention/