Wow, what a brazen liar:
PETERS: How are you gonna ensure the safety of the public & officers if they continue to not follow required protocol to ID themselves as law enforcement?
BONDI: That's the first that issue has come to me. You're saying officers when they cover their faces? I do know they are being doxxed.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) June 25, 2025 at 11:15 AM
So glad Peters brought this up because it’s disturbing that it’s becoming commonplace for unidentified masked goons in tactical gear to pounce on people and drag them into unmarked cars. Of course Bondi knows about it! She’s just lying.
Open thread.
zhena gogolia
It’s happening on the streets of my town every day.
Old Man Shadow
I’m pretty sure Trump, Vance, and Bondi actively WANT an American with a gun to fight back and shoot and kill an ICE agent so they can have a pretext to unleash their pit dogs on the general public.
satby
This is heading to a place where we’re going to see gunfights between ICE contractors and bounty hunters on one side and potentially armed citizens and even municipal cops on the other. There’s already been people apprehended for being fake ICE and attempting to kidnap women.
West of the Rockies
I take comfort in knowing that once Trump and all the Trumpettes collapse like a cardboard box-house in the rain, people like Biondi will forever be identified as losers and enablers and villains. They will find many doors and opportunities (financially and socially) permanently closed to them.
Baud
The next time Republicans are held accountable by the public will be the first time.
Terraformer
He will lie about various and sundry, he will get appointed and do the things he says he wouldn’t do without repercussion – because there are *zero* repercussions for lying during these hearings. Aside from potential juicy snippets and soundbites, I wonder why we even do these hearings
Steve LaBonne
@satby: And the guy who murdered the Minnesota legislator was impersonating a cop, so much so that some cops thought he was one.
satby
@Baud: The last time was when Hoover lost the presidency for them for a generation. I’m hopeful that the felon can match that record.
TONYG
I wonder whether situations are already happening in which masked thugs PRETENDING that they’re ICE are grabbing people? If it hasn’t already happened, it will happen soon. The main reason why cops normally show badges is to prove that they are, in fact, cops. As for the whining about doxxing … gee, I don’t know. If you want a job the entails no risk, don’t be a cop. Go work at McDonald’s for minimum wage. Fucking cowardly assholes.
Boris Rasputin (The Evil Twin)
Come to think of it, what better way to kidnap someone than pretending to be ICE?
How many ICE “officers” are Proud Boys and that ilk? It’s hard to imagine this bunch is the best of the best.
Trollhattan
I’d like to know what happens when somebody calls 9-1-1 to report kidnapping in progress by masked thugs.
Belafon
The agreement that the government is the only group with the right to use force is contingent on being able to identify who they are and hold them accountable.
zhena gogolia
@TONYG: See satby’s link at #3.
Baud
@satby:
Apparently his grand Iranian adventure wasn’t well received by the public. We’ll see.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Oh, good.
espierce
Bondi’s been lying to the public since she stole a St. Bernard named Master Tank from a family in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/a-look-back-at-trump-ag-nominee-pam-bondi-legal-battle-over-a-dog-7093308
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
That could be my bubble and skewed polls. Don’t take it to the bank.
Trollhattan
Since open thread, can I say how bloody amusing I find this, even if not understanding even a little?
I can’t fathom how The Liver King is not now part of RFK Jr’s new committee.
zhena gogolia
@Trollhattan: Absolutely!
Baud
@Trollhattan:
A terroristic misdemeanor.
Words means nothing anymore.
Kelly
Identifying a public official is never doxing.
They Call Me Noni
@Old Man Shadow:
And I imagine Mr. Elias has a plan and team of excellent lawyers in place for that very instance.
Radio Dave, Lurker
Right you are, BC. Same ol’ Party Girl Pam, with whom I had a brief but unfortunate encounter here in Central FL.
@Baud: Ain’t it the truth, eh?
Kirk
I like this one:
zhena gogolia
@Kirk: That’s great!
WTFGhost
Bondi isn’t lying, except by omission. No one told her that they were following her orders – you don’t tell your CO that you’re following orders, you just say “yes” and do it.
So, this is the first time one of the (sniff) common folk demanded ANSWERS from their HIGH QUEEN, as if they, RUBBISH THAT THEY ARE, were deserving of such information. Of course she wouldn’t answer, but, appearances must be kept up.
Betty Cracker
People get away with outrageous shit until they don’t anymore. I agree it’s discouraging as hell that Trump and his minions lie and break the law and enact terrible and unpopular policies, seemingly with impunity. Maybe they’ll never experience blowback, and we’ll have to live in a fascist kleptocracy forever. But I don’t think that’s necessarily our fate.
I heard an episode of Maddow’s “Déjà News” podcast yesterday that I hadn’t heard before. It told the story of a group of corrupt and bigoted right-wing Florida state senators and reps who called themselves the Porkchop Gang. (They were Dems, or more accurately, Dixiecrats, since this happened a long time ago.)
They abused their power in grotesque ways to persecute gay people in Florida. They seemed unstoppable until suddenly, people got fed up with their bullshit, and they were stopped.
Lots of echoes of Ron DeSantis in that story. I had never heard of the “Porkchop Gang” since their reign of terror was before my time. Anyway, I found it instructive. Nothing is permanent, including good and evil empires.
WTFGhost
@Kirk: eff that, tell them “which is the assassin that you’re about to pose for a selfie with? Remember, they say they’re all on immigration detail!”
mayim
@TONYG:
Plus the difficulty tracking those ICE detains adds to the chances that someone could be ‘disappeared’ by non-ICE players.
I can track a pizza delivery to within minutes/feet. Why can’t ICE do the same so a detainee’s lawyer and family know where the detainee is? I know, just part of the plan for increasing fear and chaos ~ but it’s really something Congress could/should insist on.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
There was quite a Democratic landslide in the fall of 1974.
Bill Arnold
@Old Man Shadow:
Observation: one way to test this is to determine whether or not ICE is behaving differently re identification and tactics in Stand-Your-Ground states.
NotMax
@Baud
“Meter maids terrorized by huge pickup trucks blocking expired meters. Film at 11.”
Mike in Pasadena
@TONYG: Happened in my town at Dunkin’ Donuts on Lake Avenue. Bystanders fought back, freed the person from fake ICE agent and called 911. He got away and he’s under suspicion of attempted kidnapping, wanted by real police.
lowtechcyclist
@WTFGhost:
She was aware of any orders she gave. She can’t deny knowing about them.
Bill Arnold
(Open thread material)
The linked piece is short and a helpful read:
Understanding MAGA: A Worldview, Not a Wedge Issue – How Trumpism offers a sense of belonging, purpose, and revenge—by rewriting who counts, what’s true, and what power is for. (James B. Greenberg, Jun 19, 2025)
Via Tom Sullivan at digbysblog.
Sample:
The last half of the piece is usefully prescriptive.
Ends with this (plus references):
villiageidiocy
So if ICE aren’t wearing masks, then all those guys wearing them must be criminals, right? And we can refuse the masked guys any entry at any time for any reason? And if these criminals are kidnapping anyone, folks can protect themselves against the mask wearing criminals as neccessary? Is that what she’s saying?
Cool cool.
WTFGhost
@Betty Cracker: In the long run, things will change, true, but as the famed economist said, “in the long run, we’re all dead.”
Justice delayed is justice denied. Mind you, I agree with you, don’t give up hope, people will eventually get fed up. But never forget the fight.
Oh, rest – we don’t need everyone in the fight right now, but keep a small corner of your soul, marked “justice” where you never forget, and come back when you’re ready.
@Kelly: You can’t expect chickenshits who won’t show their faces to be able to deal with being identified. All cockroaches flee the light.
Baud
@WTFGhost:
Joni Ernst is a famous economist?
BellyCat
If no money changed hands, you might be ok. ;-)
WTFGhost
@lowtechcyclist: “That’s the first time that issue has come to me.” means “the issue may have come *FROM* me, but has not come *to* me.”
“I sent a memo directing this,” means the issue hasn’t come *TO* the “me” who sent the memo. See, from: PBONDI (SSCodename:Oilspray) is not to: PBONDI.
It even allows for the possibility that a subordinate mentioned it, but she told them to report it up the chain of command.
Jackie
@Trollhattan:
Give it two days…
Matt McIrvin
@mayim: I think that part of the strategy may in fact be to enable and encourage copycat crimes as a kind of force multiplier. If they’re terrorizing immigrants, does it matter to MAGA if they’re real or fake?
Sure Lurkalot
@Baud:
Trump: ”The intelligence was very inconclusive. The intelligence says we don’t know. It could have been very severe. That’s what the intelligence says. So I guess that’s correct. But I think we can take the we don’t know. It was very severe. It was obliteration.”
That salad offering was Trump’s “Mission Accomplished”, I guess.
WTFGhost
@Belafon: There is no such agreement; ref: Stand Your Ground.
Per the Rittenhouse verdict, if you can say you were so vewy scayurred that someone, unarmed, might seize your gun from you, and start shooting other people (NB: so your fear emphatically does not have to be at all rational!), you’re allowed to murder and maim with near impunity. Oh, sure, after your GoFundMe, you’ll need to dodge process servers so you don’t get sued, but, in no way does the government still have a monopoly on the use of force. Mere *FEAR* removes everyone else’s right to live, in an unknown radius around anyone with a gun, and note the AR-15 has a very long effective range. (That’s why it’s moronic to use it for self defense, in almost all situations: overpenetration.)
It just has a monopoly on punishing it, and, just like with any monopoly, it is kind toward those who do what it wants.
And, yes, the executive is in charge of investigating and punishing violence, with dereliction of duty, bribery, and blackmail all available to the executive (because those crimes are also investigated and punished through action of the executive). (The courts, absent a prosecutor, can’t punish wrongdoing.)
WTFGhost
@TONYG: You forget: in normal court cases, the arresting officer is identified, and is part of the case. If someone else presented as the arresting officer, your defense attorney would savage them sideways.
But Trump is assuming migrants will never get a valid day in any non-administrative court. This is why the secrecy works for them.
So: you’re right, cops don’t fear doxing, but the point isn’t *fear*. The point is elimination of any checkpoint to report abuse or unlawful behavior.
Kirk
@Matt McIrvin: I admit to surprise they haven’t yet incorporated Texas’s anti-abortion vigilante law. You know, where anyone can get a bounty by turning in anyone else that was “participating in a conspiracy to commit abortion.”
matt
it’s possible that she has some kind of brain damage like Phineas Gage, or that she went into some kind of fugue state like Walter White during that press conference.
They Call Me Noni
@Trollhattan: They’re all certifiable.
satby
@Baud: Krugthulu agrees.
Archon
@Baud: At least some abusers show up with flowers and promise it won’t happen again. Republicans don’t even bother to do that with voters before we let them back in.
WTFGhost
@Old Man Shadow: I think they want a mob uprising. If you really wanted to scare ICE, you’d pick a few masked men off, here and there, and would slow down operations, because it would cause real fear. They don’t want that. I think they want something that lets them call in the military.
WTFGhost
@Archon: that’s because they pick on the abused kid who everyone agrees is at fault for everything. Even the loving parent(s) excuse “necessary” abuse of children.
satby
@Betty Cracker: pretty much the plot of almost every Leverage episode. Which I watch to keep my spirits up (and because it’s a good show).
Archon
@WTFGhost: Violent confrontation, probably with a shooting of somebody unarmed is inevitable because the very nature of ICE now is self selecting for violent sociopaths.
japa21
Mrs Japa likes to say that Bondi is the head of the DOI, not DOJ. There is no justice taking place, only injustice.
karensky
@Baud: Ah, unfortunately, yes.
Hoodie
@satby: It would make sense. There’s no predicate terrorist act, so I don’t think most Americans viewed Iran as an immediate threat to us. Maybe to Israel, but deep down most Americans don’t give a shit what happens to Israel. They’re just as much foreigners as the Iranians.
Trump’s error was in mistaking approval of – or more accurately, a certain admiration for – Israel’s actions as a greenlight for him to get involved. A lot of folks might be ok with Israel attacking Iran and/or appreciate what it took to do that – as long as we don’t get involved. In fact, the initial success of the Israeli raids undermines the rationale for the US getting involved. It’s their mess and they were handling it. Because of that, it just looks like Trump was starved for attention (and everyone knows he’s an attention whore) and may have committed us to another war in the Middle East simply because of FOMO. Even if short of war, it makes Americans targets again.
opiejeanne
@West of the Rockies: Her name is Bondi, please don’t sully the name of a great DJ from my teenage years, Dick Biondi. We used to drive over to the tiny building in Pasadena behind the Huntington Hotel where KRLA was broadcasting at the time. We’d hang out in the parking lot and listen, and sometimes he’d come out and talk to us.
mayim
@Matt McIrvin:
I agree ~ but I still find it reprehensible on the part of ICE and the DoJ. It’s star chamber level of government evil.
It’s all part of Republicans claiming that government doesn’t work ~ except when the outcome is bad for ordinary people, which just adds to the distrust/dislike of government for low information voters/non-voters.
japa21
@opiejeanne: On top of spaghetti…
opiejeanne
@West of the Rockies: And Pam Bondi is trash.
Layer8Problem
What will stop unidentified paramilitary cops from grabbing innocent people off the street? The first pretty blonde heiress relative of a rich cryptobro or techbro to get kidnapped for ransom by five unidentified armed guys in masks and tactical garb saying they are ICE.
It could happen.
brantl
I can’t wait for somebody to mace a bunch of these assholes and just keep spraying their faces till they got them on the ground and then rope them up and say “these guys tried to kidnap me, I don’t know who the fuck they are!” “OK, show me their ID, prove that those people are ICE, because they didn’t show me any ID, They just tried to grab me.”
cain
@WTFGhost: Best if everyone 2 degrees of separation from them mocks them mercilessly. They refuse service to ICE people. Basically turn them into societal pariahs.
opiejeanne
@japa21: Ha! I thought I was the only one who remembered that.
brantl
If a bunch of civilians start carrying mace, and scream for these people to identify themselves as they come up on the immigrants and then spray the hell out of them With mace then I think this shit will stop happening..
Redshift
@Kelly:
The only reason doxxing can be a concern (for anyone, not just public officials) is if it’s encouraging/enabling a threat or harassment. Since the secret police bosses never mention any evidence of that, their claim of “somebody published some home addresses, therefore the only way to remain safe is to masks for everyone!” is complete bullshit.
gene108
@satby:
Im surprised this isn’t happening more often.
You don’t even have to pretend to look like a cop. Just dress up in cargo pants, tactical gear, a mask, and a gun and detain anyone you want as a make believe federal officer.
Redshift
@Hoodie:
It was worse than that, from what’s been reported. Admiration for Israel’s actions on Fox News made him unable to resist getting in on the action.
gene108
@West of the Rockies:
I want to take whatever powerful mind altering drugs you are taking. The entirety of the modern conservative movement is to dedicated to declaring Donald Trump and his loyalists the greatest best people ever.
The federal courts, every Republican in Congress, every Republican in state and local government, most billionaires, and corporations will do anything to make sure Trump and his minions are protected.
The powers that be will never allow them to be seen as losers, no matter what reality shows, and given Trump’s hard floor of support, it will work.
Bondi will go back to a multi-million dollar a year lobbying job.
The only consequences people around Trump might suffer is if they get out is kind and question Trump’s greatness.
Layer8Problem
@gene108: So, should we give up in the face of this preordained future?
Eolirin
@gene108: Yeah, currently. They’ll do a hard 180 if he becomes a genuine liability and his base will go along with it without blinking. It’s what they did with W and Nixon.
lowtechcyclist
@WTFGhost:
I’m sorry, but that’s bullshit. She didn’t receive her own thoughts and words from her own self? Did one part of her brain think them and send them out without the rest of her brain being aware?
If she ordered or okayed the masking-up, it’s not just an omission to say she didn’t receive any knowledge about it, it’s a flat-out lie. Just like I cannot say at a later date that I didn’t receive knowledge of this comment until that date. I’m receiving knowledge of it now as I freaking type it out. Same with her.
Paul in KY
@espierce: One steals them and one kills them…
Dog’s best friends, the GQP.
Omnes Omnibus
@WTFGhost: That would never fly in a court. No military chain of command would accept it it. Sorry, you are reaching.
Paul in KY
@lowtechcyclist: It was too ephemeral. Gone mostly by 1980.
Redshift
@Eolirin:
And the entire Tea Party “movement” arose in part so Republicans could pretend they weren’t from the same party as W once he led us into the Great Recession and his popularity plummeted.
piratedan
well, ironically, one way to get them to change the policy is if a bunch of old liberals started cosplaying as ICE agents and started retaining members of the 47 Administration and GOP officials without comment or due process. Just stick ’em in a warehouse without air conditioning and proper sanitary facilities to sit back and wonder if this is really any way to treat ANYBODY, much less someone who may or may not be here illegally.
Maybe start with good old Mark Wayne Mullin or Charlie Grassley.
Paul in KY
@japa21: Mrs. japa has it worded correctly.
Paul in KY
@Hoodie: We sure did alot of Israel’s work back in the Iraq Adventure ™. I never saw widespread discontent that we were doing Israel’s work for them (which we were). Thus, I can understand them thinking this would be the same situation.
Paul in KY
@brantl: Unfortunately, those good citizens might get shot. These ICEgoons are armed and you can never let a civilian get control of your weapon, etc. etc.
Geminid
@Paul in KY: I think they’d definitely get shot. It would make for an interesting wrongful death action, though.
evodevo
@opiejeanne: He was broadcasting from WLS in Chicago in the early Sixties in Chicago. Then he made that infamous joke about cheeks and was fired. I lost track after that, having gone off to college in ’64, but WLS was our go-to station when sitting in the drive-in in ’62 and ’63…ahhh, the good old days
Omnes Omnibus
@Geminid: Let’s see how many people think that having their heirs inherit a potential wrongful death action is worthwhile. I don’t want our side to get anyone killed of we can avoid it. I certainly don’t want people to run that risk without making sure their eyes are wide open.
Ghost of Joe Lebling’s Dog
@Betty Cracker:
In Broad Daylight tells the story of the killing of Ken Rex McElroy on the main street of Skidmore, Missouri, in July 1981. McElroy, an illiterate hog farmer, had terrorized all of northwest Missouri for over 20 years, until the town, and even law enforcement, was terrified of him. McElroy was shot as he sat in his truck in front of the tavern. Over 45 men witnessed the shooting. Despite two eyewitness accounts and three grand jury investigations, no one has been prosecuted for the crime.
@Betty Cracker:
Geminid
@satby: Krugman could be making too much of that leaked DIA report. This was an initial report from one agency. He might turn out to be right, but it’s awful early to be making a full assessment of the damage those strikes caused, on top of damage caused by all the strikes the Israelis have made on those and other sites. I’m not sure the Iranians even have the full story yet.
It’s tempting to take that one report and run with it, because it fits a desired narrative. But Krugman is a generalist writing for a liberal audience. There are plenty of people who concentrate on these matters professionally, and they are not so sure about this question as Krugman is.
JWR
@Trollhattan :
That happened here in L.A. yesterday afternoon. LAPD showed up to what they said was a reported kidnapping in progress, and once they saw what was happening, formed a ring around the ICE goons for “crowd control”.
Jeffro
@Bill Arnold: good piece – thanks!
Geminid
@Omnes Omnibus: I’ve seen some very cheerful fantasies aired out here. The one one about kidnapping a Senator reminded me a little of “The Ransom of Red Chief.” I’m not sure it would end like the story, though.
catclub
@West of the Rockies:
I am amused by your innocent faith in the future and hope you are right.
catclub
Actually, we did it extremely badly as far as Israel was concerned. We made Iran MUCH more influential in Iraq than it had been.
Marc
Not an ICE concern. What would be an ICE concern is if some individual dressed and armed like them “participated” in one of their operations, either shooting at the real ICE agents, those being snatched, or the general public.
RaflW
I was reading the NYT (I know, I know…) about the civil unrest in Nairobi and across Kenya (gift link) and came across this. I woulda choked on my Cheerios if I’d have been eating at that moment:
Steve Paradis
If they’re like this guy, they damn well better mask up.
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2025/04/10/heres-what-to-know-about-the-former-mpd-sergeant-involved-in-deportations/83025071007/
Or hiding from ex-wives, or Friend of the Court–those people never sleep.
Steve Paradis
@gene108:
$50 gets you a badge.
https://coinsouvenir.com/products/usa-ice-special-agent-badge-solid-copper-replica-movie-props?srsltid=AfmBOophM_6-Udf-yVu8liAVdzZguZ69MbzB3BvNy5aFgcBjUt0ueqGY
Layer8Problem
@Marc: Really? I would think that if a big Trump donor/supporter had a loved one, even a merely tolerated one, snatched off the street by people identifying as ICE that would cause someone in the Justice Department or Homeland Security to change ICE’s protocol regardless of how badly ICE felt about that. Certainly by the third copycat kidnapping.
WTFGhost
@Omnes Omnibus: That kinda assumes she thinks she’ll ever be questioned about it in court. You’re also reaching pretty far on a joke, “duh, she gave the order OUT, but nobody told her they were obeying,” see, that’s not really an excuse?
So, the notion that she “lied, but only by omission” is shedding a different, unexpected light on an incident, and coming to a ridiculous conclusion. This is called “humor.” It’s not always funny, but deep analysis shows that it is not the humorist who has made the mistake here.
@lowtechcyclist: Yes, it is bullshit. That is the point.
@cain: Indeed :-).
Another Scott
Cheryl Rofer has questions:
Worth a click.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Paul in KY
@catclub: Likud Israel did not want a successful secular Arab state that had the assets Hussein’s Iraq did. They really aren’t that concerned with Iran (IMO) as Iran is not an Arab state and generally hates Arabs.
Geminid
@Paul in KY: Likud was out of power when Bush took us to war. Ariel Sharon was Prime Minister then. Sharon had left Likud to form a new party, Kadima, because he disagreed with Likud’s adamant opposition to a Palestinian state.
Omnes Omnibus
@WTFGhost: I’ll be honest here and say that I can never be sure if you are trying make a joke or if it’s just your idiosyncratic thought processes at work.
opiejeanne
@evodevo: There was a rumor that he told a dirty joke on the air, but I never knew what it was. He was pretty clean when he was in Pasadena. I think I was in that parking lot in 1967-ish. Went off to college in 68 but was nearby that we could pick up KRLA.
Mr. Bemused Senior
define:doublethink