Why do I torture myself?

I’ve been binging “The West Wing” this week, trying to remind myself of a time when people ran the White House with some sense of honor. Was it really only two years ago?

Unlike some of my friends, I was never a devotee. I mean, I watched it, but I didn’t get upset if I missed a couple of weeks. Now, it’s hard to watch without getting weepy. I just watched the episode where the president rips into a right wing talk radio host by asking if it’s okay if he sells his daughter into slavery, as suggested in Leviticus, or if his mother should be burned alive for wearing mixed fabrics.

And so on.

One of the things I’ve been asking friends is, is there a constitutional way to prosecute Christian nationalists who demand the death of anyone who doesn’t follow their interpretation of biblical law? (You know, like much of the Trump administration.)

So far, no one has come up with anything. But we’re still talking about it.

And now I’m waiting to see if Trump is actually going to surge ICE here in my city, the city where American independence was first codified. I am frightened of what will happen to our citizens, but I’m also curious to see what our citizens do to ICE. Stay tuned.

Uh, I think they do know

Stephen Miller is privately raging over deportation numbers he deems too low. So he's shifting huge amounts of law enforcement resources away from fighting serious crimes and into his immigration crackdown.If voters knew about this, they'd recoil. 1/(new piece)newrepublic.com/article/1961…

Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) 2025-06-05T11:03:00.693Z

Miller recently erupted at ICE officials, demanding 3,000 deportations a day. He's now redeploying thousands of agents from other agencies like Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, and DEA. This is already starting to hamper other crime-fighting, per NBC. 2/newrepublic.com/article/1961…

Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) 2025-06-05T11:10:24.256Z

We need a better discourse around public opinion on immigration. Quality polling reveals that it's self-contradictory: Voters want mass deportations until they're offered more nuanced options. Why? Here's a theory: Most voters above all want a system that works. 5/newrepublic.com/article/1961…

Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) 2025-06-05T11:28:27.522Z