ICE Agents Face Kidnapping Investigation, Virginia Defunds Confederate Groups, and Federal Judge Blocks Voter Supp…
Here at The Dworkin Report, paid subscribers get access to every exclusive conversation I’ve had with the lawmakers, organizers, and fighters on the front lines—plus our full archive, the ability to comment on every post, and the satisfaction of funding one of the largest independent organizing operations against Trump in the world. Don’t miss the next interview, the next breaking story, or the next moment that matters—join us as a paid subscriber today and get 50% off: ICE Agents Face Kidnapping Investigation, Virginia Defunds Confederate Groups, and Federal Judge Blocks Voter SuppressionPlus, a historic win for clean energy
The resistance is winning. Not just trending, or gaining. Winning. In courtrooms, on the power grid, in statehouses, and at the ballot box. The regime is losing and the evidence is piling up. A Minnesota county just opened a kidnapping investigation against ICE agents—hit the ❤️ like button and re-stack this edition before the regime buries it. Every share helps us break through Trump’s propaganda machine. We run on zero ads, with no corporate money, and no billionaires—just readers who decided the resistance is worth funding. We’ve been at it since 2016, driven millions of contacts to Congress, and built one of the biggest social media operations against Trump ever. Help our movement flip Congress by becoming a paid subscriber today: RENEWABLE ENERGY JUST MADE HISTORY
The regime declared a national energy emergency and did everything it could to keep natural gas on top. Despite that, in March—for the first time in history—the US generated more electricity from renewables than from natural gas for an entire month. Natural gas has dominated American electricity production for over a decade—more than coal, more than nuclear, more than anything else. For one month, that changed, according to energy think tank Ember. Catherine Wolfram, energy economist at MIT and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Climate and Energy at the US Treasury, put it plainly: “Most of the growth in renewable power we’ve seen come online in the past year reflects decisions that were made years ago.” Every wind turbine that spun last month, every solar panel that powered a home, every record that was broken—none of it happened because of Trump. It happened despite everything he did to stop it. The people won. MINNESOTA CALLS IT KIDNAPPING
In January, ICE agents used a battering ram to break into ChongLy “Scott” Thao’s home in St. Paul, Minnesota, at gunpoint, with no warrant. They dragged the 56-year-old Hmong American outside in subfreezing temperatures wearing only underwear and a blanket, handcuffed him, and drove him—in his own words—”to the middle of nowhere.” Thao is a US citizen with no criminal record. ICE was looking for two completely different men—one of whom had been in a Minnesota state prison since 2024. When investigators traced the federal vehicles used during the arrest, they found the agents had switched the license plates, a violation of Minnesota law. This week, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi and Sheriff Bob Fletcher announced a criminal investigation into those agents for kidnapping, burglary, and false imprisonment. Choi was direct: “We believe there was no legitimate legal reason for the federal agents to enter that home.” Fletcher drew the line: “There is no such thing as absolute immunity for federal agents. Seizing a person out of their home who’s an American citizen—they’re not immune from that.” If charged and convicted, those agents could face up to 20 years in prison for kidnapping alone. And because these are state charges—Trump’s pardon power would be useless. JUDGE BLOCKS GOP’S VOTER SUPPRESSION LAW
Indiana Republicans passed a law in 2025 banning college-issued student IDs from being used to vote. It’s the first time the state ever singled out a previously accepted form of ID, and stripped it from voters. Student IDs had been valid at Indiana polls for nearly two decades. The GOP said the new law was about election integrity. But they knew the truth: young voters trend heavily Democratic—and that’s exactly why they passed it. But on Tuesday, a federal judge blocked it. US District Court Judge Richard Young ruled the law “imposes unconstitutional burdens on students and young voters.” Young found no evidence that student IDs were ever used to commit voter fraud. None. Up to 90,000 Indiana students can now use their IDs to vote in Indiana’s May primary. VIRGINIA JUST MADE THE CONFEDERACY PAY
For 76 years, Virginia taxpayers subsidized Confederate organizations through special tax exemptions that date to 1950—the same year Virginia was fighting to keep its schools segregated. Virginia Democrats pushed a bill to end the subsidies for years. Former GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed it twice. On Monday, Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed it—on Virginia’s Day of Remembrance for Victims of Lynching. Last week, Spanberger signed a separate bill that will stop the Virginia DMV from issuing Confederate-themed specialty license plates. Delegate Dan Helmer, who sponsored the legislation, didn’t mince words: “The Confederacy was a four-year period in which traitors hellbent on preserving slavery tried—and then failed—to divide the Union.” We’ve been fighting Republicans for decades, and Trump is by far the most dangerous one of them all. Since 2016, we’ve taken him on directly—launching the first impeachment campaign and flooding Congress with millions of contacts on hundreds of issues. Along the way, we built one of the largest social media operations to support progressives and fight MAGA. We have no corporate money. No ads. No billionaires. Help us flip Congress and turn Trump into a lame duck by joining as a paid subscriber today: Hit the ❤️ like button and re-stack this edition before you go. The Trump regime is losing. Let’s make sure the world knows it. Onward! Scott I have two questions for you today, that I’d love to hear your take on. For people in your life who think the resistance isn’t winning, what do you tell them? Do you believe Ramsey County officials will file charges against the ICE officers? 🚨 SEVEN URGENT ACTIONS TODAY NEW: Stop Trump’s Illegal Plan to Destroy the US Forest Service: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-stop-trumps-illegal-plan-to-destroy-the-us-forest-service/ NEW: Demand Acting AG Blanche release ALL of the Epstein files: https://tinyurl.com/2uc9vca9 Impeach Trump! https://tinyurl.com/52sw9s2d Impeach Pete Hegseth! https://tinyurl.com/28dc23a6 Defend voting rights! https://tinyurl.com/3f3m728j Stop Trump from deporting people with Temporary Protected Status https://tinyurl.com/yc8rfa7j Vote NO on SAVE Act: https://tinyurl.com/ms977ec6 A FEW OF MANY INFORMED COMMENTS: Please take action and spread the word. Send to someone you know hasn’t done it yet! This report brings me hope that the murderers of 2 Minnesotans Jeffrey Pretti and Renee Good will be caught, tried and sentenced in the not too distant future. Americans need this to heal. For all the folks I speak to who are depressed and despairing about the news, I tell them I subscribe to you! Your daily newsletter with positive news about the pushback against this regime helps me every day! I forward your newsletter often! Plus, I share posts from you, Andy Borowitz, Heather Cox Richardson, Allen Clifton - you know, journalists I trust. Keep up the good work! 100%, Denise! You know who else gives me great hope and happy feelings? Mayor Mamdani! He is crushing his new job and with such a joyous spirit. Look at DJT’s popularity if you think resistance isn’t winning! I certainly hope Ramsey County will file charges AND prosecute! The resistance isn’t just fighting back. We are winning on every front. Keep these big wins coming, Scott! I guess that's what happens when you only hire a band of grifters, misfits, criminals and morons. You get tired of losing. They give Scott lots of material to work with of their losses. When I hear Trump trying to denounce renewable energy in favor of oil and gas, I want to tell him "sit-down gramps and shut up. You're behind the times and way off on science and common sense". God, we need a progressive president. ROCKY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE (RMI) ENERGY COSTS ARE IN EVERYONE'S CONVERSATIONS AND YOU MIGHT CONSIDER EXPLORING THIS SITE AND SUBSCRIBING FOR SOLUTIONS! https://rmi.org/ And all these data centers who think they are entitled to a community’s power source should be including renewable power in their plans. Let them pay for their own power AND WATER! WATER is used for COOLING - HOT WATER PASSES THROUGH PIPES - METAL PIPES, METAL EQUIPMENT...is it being contaminated or picking up METAL? It was reported that 40-60% of WATER is lost to EVAPORATION - so NOT RETURNED TO THE SYSTEM. HOT WATER - TEMPERATURE UNKNOWN is being returned to the 'system' - what are the consequences? MASSACHUSETTS had a DECOMMISSIONED NUCLEAR POWER PLANT IN PLYMOUTH that discharged 'COOLING WATER' into CAPE COD BAY with conspicuous consequences to MARINE LIFE. This is NOT ENVIRONMENTALLY BENIGN! Unfortunately, most of my family and friends are MAGA and I rarely if ever speak to them since the '24 election. I just got terribly fed up after 10 years. As an active duty member of the resistance for 10 years I've had ups and downs when thinking if we're winning or not. There has certainly been a lot of wins on the national, state, and local levels, but there won't be any real victory until democrats take back congress. To those people I do speak to, fellow resistance members, I say, "Keep on plugging away and keep contacting your reps! Boycott trump regime corporations! It's all you can do!" Your first question is very easy for me to answer, Scott! Anytime anyone whether a friend, family member, maga or stranger expresses their view that the resistance isn't winning, I simply direct them to your substack! I tell them to go there every day and see for themselves! As for the second question, all I can say is I hope they do! I would love to see those ICE thugs be held accountable! Keep fighting, America! We definitely ARE winning! Stay strong and stay safe! I tell them, “Read Scott Dworkin” daily. When faced with the “overload” of what dt does, it helps to know the fighting back is daily and it is working! Thank you Scott for keeping my head above water. I would tell the people who don't think anything is working in the resistance to check independent news-such as yours. I would tell them that as dark as it is, there are forces working, not talked about on corporate media, who are making changes behind the scenes that truly impact us in positive ways. I understand full well how discouraging it is, on a daily basis. So hard! But then, I read encouraging news from you Scott, & other independent journalists & I have hope. Thank you. As for ICE, I deeply hope that they are investigated! Little by little, we’re clawing our way back to democracy. Thank you, Scott, for documenting the wins. We need that sense of success to keep us going! Of all you have posted, SCOTT, this made my day! What was done to a U.S. CITIZEN was OUTRAGEOUS! ICE GESTAPO THUGS broke into his HOME because they are POORLY TRAINED - NO ONE TOLD THEM ABOUT THE CONSTITUTION? OR LAWS? NO WARRANT? THUGS took him out of his own home in his UNDERWEAR! ICE GESTAPO THUGS will be charges in STATE COURT - TRUMP CAN'T PARDON! What ICE GESTAPO THUGS did in MINNEAPOLIS was consistent with their abuse elsewhere, but MINNEAPOLIS SPOKE OUT! People who know truth will make us free fail to consider what happens to people when truth is no longer on their radar. Propaganda is designed to subconsciously rewire a person’s brain to achieve a specific outcome that could otherwise fail. Propaganda has nothing to do with ‘free’ speech intended to protect alternative views of true facts. It was never intended to bury truth under a mountain of lies. Truth is the essence of God. The faithful worship truth. Truth keeps us free. Lies convince us to repudiate the facts, and convince us to surrender our human and civil rights. The civil right embedded in free speech is that we have the right to know and tell others what is happening, what it means, and what the outcomes are likely to be. It’s scary how fast it takes hold and people don’t realize how far into it they’ve sunk! Was this really FAST? The seeds and erosion were there. I'm more inclined to believe it was a consistent erosion of rights, the RIGHT WING buying ALL MEDIA SOURCES - they even bought publishing houses. DAVID BROCK wrote this in 2004 - WE NEVER BUY FROM AMAZON BUT THEY OFFER A GOOD SYNOPSIS: The Republican Noise Machine: Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy Hardcover – May 18, 2004 by David Brock (Author) In The Republican Noise Machine, David Brock skillfully documents perhaps the most important but least understood political development of the last thirty years: how the Republican Right has won political power and hijacked public discourse in the United States. Brock, a former right-wing insider and the author of the New York Times bestseller Blinded by the Right, uses his keen understanding of the strategies, tactics, financing, and personalities of the American right wing to demonstrate how the once-fringe phenomenon of right-wing media has all but subsumed the regular media conversation, shaped the national consciousness, and turned American politics sharply to the right. Brock documents how in the last several decades the GOP built a powerful media machine--newspapers and magazines, think tanks, talk radio networks, op-ed columnists, the FOX News Channel, Christian Right broadcasting, book publishers, and high-traffic internet sites--to sell conservatism to the public and discredit its opponents. This unabashedly biased multibillion-dollar communications empire disregards journalistic ethics and universal standards of fairness and accuracy, manufacturing "news" that is often bought and paid for by a tight network of corporate-backed foundations and old family fortunes. By dissecting the appeal, techniques, and reach of the booming right-wing media market, Brock demonstrates that it is largely based on bigotry, ignorance, and emotional manipulation closely tied to America’s longstanding cultural divisions and the buying power of anti-intellectual traditionalists. From the disputed 2000 presidential election to the war with Iraq to the political battles of 2004, Brock's penetrating analysis of right-wing media theories and methodology reveals that the Republican Right views the media as an extension of a broader struggle for political power. By tracing the political impact of right-wing media, Brock shows how disproportionate conservative influence in the media is integrally linked to the Republican Right’s current domination of all three branches of government, to the propping up of the Bush administration, and to the inability of Democrats to voice their opposition to this political sea change or to compete on an even playing field. As only an ex-conservative intimately familiar with the imperatives of the American right wing could, David Brock suggests ways in which concerned Americans can begin to redress the conservative ascendancy and cut through the propagandistic fog. Writing with verve and deep insight, he reaches far beyond typical bromides about media bias to produce an invaluable account of the rise of right-wing media and its political consequences. Promising to be the political book of the year, The Republican Noise Machine will transform the raging yet heretofore unsatisfying debate over the politics of the media for years to come. THANK YOU! The Hennepin County prosecutor has state charges ready to file against the ICE agents who murdered Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The DOJ has refused to release the body cam footage and other evidence. Attorney General Keith Ellison has filed a lawsuit about this suppression of evidence. |
Comments
Post a Comment