HAKEEM JEFFRIES TO BE SPEAKER BEFORE THE MIDTERMS?
And just when Speaker Mike Johnson lost a key vote on House rules and tariffs, and perhaps thought his leadership couldn’t become any more precarious?
A top source says Neal Dunn, the Republican representing Florida’s 2nd Congressional District, will announce an early retirement next week for a “time certain” to be before the Midterm Elections.
Ok, that heading was clickbait, but it may well prove to be prescient and predictive. A couple of more resignations, deaths or defections, and Democrats will have a majority in the House or Representatives even before the Midterms!
The veracity of this rumor about Congressman Dunn is underscored by Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News, commonly regarded as the top source of Capitol Hill gossip. He writes:
"House Republican leadership believes that Neal Dunn is going to resign by July. I know Dunn is denying it. But the leadership thinks he's gone in five months."
This is a really important article. Thanks. This is why the Democrats should insist on inspection rights and a stop to new development of detention centers until inspections are freely allowed as part of their demands to fund ICE. We can only imagine what is going on in these centers now. If Republicans won't even negotiate, expand the list until they do. We must no longer play by their rules.
I think we can easily explain to the American people who is at fault for any partial closure of the government.
OMG Fantastic interview. Thank you both so much for your hard work. I would also like to hear from Austin Kocher if we could, he's a data guy and has real command of that aspect of this nightmare.
Great interview. Why is the press not exposing all the businesses who are willing to have their warehouses used as detention centers: building owners, institutional investors, real estate companies, landlords, etc. We need to shame these businesses. We have seen the impact on Target. Let’s expose these people.
I am repeating this comment because I think it is super important.
What legislation for humane immigration can you recommend to avoid all this arrest and detention of people coming here for a better life. We need fresh legislation.
Thanks for this terrific interview. What is happening to immigrants now is unbelievable--but we need to see it and believe it to fight it.
I am currently trying to assist a wonderful Haitian man who legally immigrated to the US in 2010 under TPS (Temporary Protected Status). He was my late husband's caregiver, and for the past two years has been an employee of the Santa Fe, NM Public School System as an aide to disabled children--he assists kids in wheelchairs and on feeding tubes so that they can attend class, in a bi-lingual school (he speaks English, French, Spanish & Creole). He has a CNA license (Certified Nursing Assistant). He has experience as a professional soccer player, as a teacher, and is active in his church. He has done everything right, renewing his TPS regularly, filing and paying his taxes. On Feb. 5, he received a letter, dated Jan. 28, from DHS telling him that his TPS status had expired, and ordering him to appear before an immigration judge in San Antonio, TX (700 miles from his home and his place of employment) for a deportation hearing. This is a terrifying situation.
This one immigrant is worth twenty or more of the ignorant white trash who are bashing immigrants, including the TwatWaffle-in-Chief. The contribution of the Haitian TPS is large and incalculable. Contrast this with the mass of MAGA dummies!
If this interview doesn't wake some people up, nothing will. Somehow it needs to get blasted out into every nook and cranny of this apparently godforsaken country. Blocking these rotten detention facilities is TOP PRIORITY, as essential as getting any and all people from POTUS on down out of office and/or power if we're ever, ever to be thought of as a remotely honorable nation again. This is all horrifying. I see Trump and think Ceausescu, see ICE and think SS. We need to act fast. Thank you, Simon and Aaron - I will be sharing this one for sure.
I keep thinking of all the damage that will be done using this despicable model to people’s wellbeing and safety, it makes me sick! This is inhumane and I want no part of it!
While I deeply appreciate the gory details, I would really love to come to the point, and I can't help wondering which is more important to your audience.
ON REPEAT FROM OCTOBER 2025 SINCE THE ELIMINATIONISM IS STRONG WITH THIS WHITE HOUSE (thoughts of Yoda):
Unfortunately, relative to MAGA, we most always remember Anders Breivik (curiously, he had a well developed “Nazi streak” as with some recent sub-cabinet nominees of the current government): https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/inside-prison-mass-murderer-anders-breivik-norway-suing-isolation-5Hjcbyc_2/ . Note the language that Breivik used to describe the liberals and progressives in his society. He killed 77 of them (with the majority being young people) for their “hypothetical” POLITICAL affiliations.
The irreverent digital scholar, Douglas Rushkoff, calls it “using technology to solve for people” (note that these interviews were at least 6 and 7 years old, i.e. pre-COVID): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6lQBkz8FGE and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kCPJEDRNKQ. I have followed his work for years, and I did read his original article about the Tech Bros and their literal bunker mentality (see below). They can no longer feel for regular people as too much money might have impacted their brain function (timestamp - 17:45 and 24:01): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ux255iCSmg&list=TLPQMDQwNTIwMjXguGg818G1fg. Some want to go to Mars, and others just want to be safe from the rest of us on Earth - with possibly the help of AI-directed, killer bots as the unreliability of people must be “solved”.
On my “masthead”, I’ve consistently promoted the need to become aware of the Network State movement. NOW, WE HAVE THE INGREDIENTS FOR OUR FIRST NETWORK STATE AS FOLKS VOTED IN THE AFFIRMATIVE FOR A NEW CITY, “Starbase”, this weekend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kCPJEDRNKQ. The original locals (i.e. voters) were outnumbered by new SpaceX transplants. As part of Leon’s separation/demotion from D.O.G.E., he might get a conciliation prize, being mayor of a new city - with full authority from the Texas legislature to experiment.
From Tech Lords to Nazi salutes, Dr. Julia Ebner, a brilliant, young Austrian scholar and an expert on right-wing extremism, reminds us that many of the more outspoken and notable far-right groups almost always have founders or influencers with explicit interest in the NAZIS (here is an example of her at least five-year-old concern about the fringe going mainstream): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUmeyEh-WxY&list=TLPQMDQwNTIwMjXguGg818G1fg. Dr. Ebner’s observation is an issue for MAGA that we cannot avoid, and it will manifest itself in different ways. Even this servile Republican Senate had to cancel the confirmation hearings of a Dolos nominee with a “Nazi streak”: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/20/paul-ingrassia-racist-text-messages-nazi-00613608. This withdrawal occurred in the same period of time as the nominee to run the BLS who really liked the Führer’s favorite battleship was also withdrawn from consideration: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ej-antoni-nazi-ship/
For a more thoughtful example, Sieg Heel, a well-established Republican donor and successful venture capitalist, taught a course at his alma mater, one of the best universities in the country, with CARL SCHMITT, a German legal philosopher, as part of the curriculum. To understand Schmitt’s legal philosophy relative to the extrajudicial work of the Third Reich in their rise to prominence, please browse this document on the “Night of Long Knives”: https://sci-hub.st/10.1080/00168890.2012.675795. If given a chance, Miller, Bannon, and others would reduce the population of this country to 100 million Caucasians: https://centeredamerica.substack.com/p/news-trump-privately-stated-stephen. Comparing bipartisanship to cancer could be considered extreme and politically unwise, but it would certainly follow the guidance of Schmitt: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-maga-activists-push-hyperpartisanship-rcna184965.
This MASTER PLAN sounds crazy (and evil), but Anthony Scaramucci confirmed its quasi-existence on the part of Bannon while speaking in the UK earlier this year (timestamp - 28:08): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWaxDZZCai8 . The pull quote of the interview is the following: “…they want a white America and they want to wall America off from the rest of the world literally and physically and that’s the malevolence of Steve Bannon…” If the quote seems conspiratorial, why did this current government’s DHS use the controversial term, “Remigrate”, in their own social media - THIS MONTH: https://www.latintimes.com/gavin-newsom-slams-dhs-remigration-post-points-trump-familys-immigrant-history-590602?
So, we have a group of extremely wealthy maladjusted individuals with a basic fear of their fellow citizens. A fear of a society-wide “event” (their word) was so strong that they actually began building bunkers - even in New Zealand - to save themselves years PRIOR to COVID being on anyone’s radar. They also adopted a strange need to segregate (intentional word choice) their lifestyles from the rest of society in general because democracy could make them vulnerable in some manner (i.e. too much voting and too many governmental benefits): https://www.huffpost.com/entry/peter-thiel-women-democracy_n_5747079be4b03ede4413f6f5.
With this “Billionaire mindset,” to borrow a term from Doug Rushkoff, we now have the Dark Enlightenment (i.e. Neoreactionary movement) and the need for “Network States” with geographies within the nation-state but apart from the nation with their own rules. Because these Tech Lords fundamentally believe that average people cannot be trusted with enhancing their quality of life and ensuring their security as an extreme minority cohort (i.e. only so many billionaires), even “retired” SEALs will be unreliable for providing protection because they will refuse to wear “disciplinary” collars or get monitoring implants: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff. Remember when “Coach” Walz called their ilk weird. He was correct.
Here are some slightly DARK THOUGHTS. Firms founded by these same billionaires are now providing AI-based military hardware that will not require a human to be part of the decision-making “kill chain” and will be financed by a Pentagon leadership led by a “likely” White Christian Nationalist (remember the “Enola Gay” debacle and the extremist tattoos): https://www.defensenews.com/air/2025/09/24/anduril-nears-first-drone-wingman-flight-promises-early-autonomy/. Following their own logic, if you truly wanted your desired future, you would be building your military for the Network State rather than the nation-state. We must stay vigilant.
CARTHAGO DELENDA EST (via nonviolence).
P.S.: Do the following now! FIRST, TEACH CIVICS. Second, register voters. THIRD, TEACH CIVICS. Rinse. Repeat.
I forgot to thank you for your great Post this morning. And, I really enjoyed your excellent interview with Aaron Melnik, who is intelligent and knowledgeable and has a good hand on the immigration/ detention disaster, which is so important. It was very difficult listenening and visualizing the 5,000 People or more, living in these Warehouse's!! We say, this is America, how can this be happening, but it is. I am so Fucking angry that Congress and most of the Republicans are so Weak, they are letting this happen. Wake-up Congress, We are not going to let this happen. As Simon says, "We are going to fight as hard as We can."
HAKEEM JEFFRIES TO BE SPEAKER BEFORE THE MIDTERMS?
And just when Speaker Mike Johnson lost a key vote on House rules and tariffs, and perhaps thought his leadership couldn’t become any more precarious?
A top source says Neal Dunn, the Republican representing Florida’s 2nd Congressional District, will announce an early retirement next week for a “time certain” to be before the Midterm Elections.
https://x.com/PeterSchorschFL/status/2021584238689005908
Ok, that heading was clickbait, but it may well prove to be prescient and predictive. A couple of more resignations, deaths or defections, and Democrats will have a majority in the House or Representatives even before the Midterms!
The veracity of this rumor about Congressman Dunn is underscored by Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News, commonly regarded as the top source of Capitol Hill gossip. He writes:
"House Republican leadership believes that Neal Dunn is going to resign by July. I know Dunn is denying it. But the leadership thinks he's gone in five months."
https://x.com/JakeSherman/status/2021651474917552279
There will be movement as the cutoffs for declaring as a congressional candidate come and go, too...
This is a really important article. Thanks. This is why the Democrats should insist on inspection rights and a stop to new development of detention centers until inspections are freely allowed as part of their demands to fund ICE. We can only imagine what is going on in these centers now. If Republicans won't even negotiate, expand the list until they do. We must no longer play by their rules.
I think we can easily explain to the American people who is at fault for any partial closure of the government.
Coming for all of us, stand up now while we still can…
First they came for the migrants, but I did not speak because I was not a migrant . . .
We all know how the poem ends
Our Niemoller moment
There is no way these warehouses can be made habitable in a short time. Most only have restroom and plumbing capacity for less than 10 to 20 people.
Not enough air conditioning or life safety capacity….so expect the worse for the prisoners
I worked on many of these that were constructed for the twin plant industry….
Cruel and unusual….except for maggats in red hats..
OMG Fantastic interview. Thank you both so much for your hard work. I would also like to hear from Austin Kocher if we could, he's a data guy and has real command of that aspect of this nightmare.
Excellent piece. Very informative for me.
Great interview. Why is the press not exposing all the businesses who are willing to have their warehouses used as detention centers: building owners, institutional investors, real estate companies, landlords, etc. We need to shame these businesses. We have seen the impact on Target. Let’s expose these people.
I am repeating this comment because I think it is super important.
What legislation for humane immigration can you recommend to avoid all this arrest and detention of people coming here for a better life. We need fresh legislation.
Thanks for this terrific interview. What is happening to immigrants now is unbelievable--but we need to see it and believe it to fight it.
I am currently trying to assist a wonderful Haitian man who legally immigrated to the US in 2010 under TPS (Temporary Protected Status). He was my late husband's caregiver, and for the past two years has been an employee of the Santa Fe, NM Public School System as an aide to disabled children--he assists kids in wheelchairs and on feeding tubes so that they can attend class, in a bi-lingual school (he speaks English, French, Spanish & Creole). He has a CNA license (Certified Nursing Assistant). He has experience as a professional soccer player, as a teacher, and is active in his church. He has done everything right, renewing his TPS regularly, filing and paying his taxes. On Feb. 5, he received a letter, dated Jan. 28, from DHS telling him that his TPS status had expired, and ordering him to appear before an immigration judge in San Antonio, TX (700 miles from his home and his place of employment) for a deportation hearing. This is a terrifying situation.
This one immigrant is worth twenty or more of the ignorant white trash who are bashing immigrants, including the TwatWaffle-in-Chief. The contribution of the Haitian TPS is large and incalculable. Contrast this with the mass of MAGA dummies!
Thank you Simon and Aaron Great interview. Let’s ban ICE and expansion of detention centers for profit in human misery
If this interview doesn't wake some people up, nothing will. Somehow it needs to get blasted out into every nook and cranny of this apparently godforsaken country. Blocking these rotten detention facilities is TOP PRIORITY, as essential as getting any and all people from POTUS on down out of office and/or power if we're ever, ever to be thought of as a remotely honorable nation again. This is all horrifying. I see Trump and think Ceausescu, see ICE and think SS. We need to act fast. Thank you, Simon and Aaron - I will be sharing this one for sure.
I keep thinking of all the damage that will be done using this despicable model to people’s wellbeing and safety, it makes me sick! This is inhumane and I want no part of it!
While I deeply appreciate the gory details, I would really love to come to the point, and I can't help wondering which is more important to your audience.
ON REPEAT FROM OCTOBER 2025 SINCE THE ELIMINATIONISM IS STRONG WITH THIS WHITE HOUSE (thoughts of Yoda):
Unfortunately, relative to MAGA, we most always remember Anders Breivik (curiously, he had a well developed “Nazi streak” as with some recent sub-cabinet nominees of the current government): https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/inside-prison-mass-murderer-anders-breivik-norway-suing-isolation-5Hjcbyc_2/ . Note the language that Breivik used to describe the liberals and progressives in his society. He killed 77 of them (with the majority being young people) for their “hypothetical” POLITICAL affiliations.
Please let me know if the objectives of Breivik are different from some of the more famous proponents of MAGA. We need to be honest and open about the toxicity of this “Blue/Red” divide as people talk freely about Civil Wars and detention camps. History is rhyming - darkly: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trumps-massive-deportation-plan-echoes-concentration-camp-history/ . We have been warned!
ON REPEAT:
“[I]f it were up to [Stephen] Miller, there’d only be 100 million people in this country, and they’d all look like Miller.” - Donald J. Trump (2024)
The NETWORK STATE - For the best synopsis of the objectives of the “Tech Lords”, please listen to this 45-minute podcast and share widely (these folks are going to leave a huge blast radius - if we let them): https://www.thenerdreich.com/the-nerd-reich-podcast-episode-1-the-network-state-2/.
Here are Professor Barbara Walter’s five suggestions for fighting authoritarianism:
https://barbarafwalter.substack.com/p/the-hidden-battle-that-decides-whether .
https://barbarafwalter.substack.com/p/authoritarian-power-is-mostly-performance .
https://barbarafwalter.substack.com/p/how-dictators-lose-control-of-the .
https://barbarafwalter.substack.com/p/4-storms-and-streets-break-regimes .
https://barbarafwalter.substack.com/p/5-how-to-break-a-tyrant .
Epstein, Epstein, Epstein. NATIONAL SECURITY. NATIONAL SECURITY. NATIONAL SECURITY. Representatives Khanna and Massie now have the numbers to get the files released in the House: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5520512-massie-grijalva-epstein-petition/ . Let’s remember that this is now a NATIONAL SECURITY issue (i.e. think kompromat): https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/insider-claims-prince-andrew-s-alleged-s-x-tapes-in-russia-s-possession-could-bury-the-royal-family-over-epstein-ties/ar-AA1KaQbC .
WARNING - LONGISH READ BELOW:
Folks:
The irreverent digital scholar, Douglas Rushkoff, calls it “using technology to solve for people” (note that these interviews were at least 6 and 7 years old, i.e. pre-COVID): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6lQBkz8FGE and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kCPJEDRNKQ. I have followed his work for years, and I did read his original article about the Tech Bros and their literal bunker mentality (see below). They can no longer feel for regular people as too much money might have impacted their brain function (timestamp - 17:45 and 24:01): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ux255iCSmg&list=TLPQMDQwNTIwMjXguGg818G1fg. Some want to go to Mars, and others just want to be safe from the rest of us on Earth - with possibly the help of AI-directed, killer bots as the unreliability of people must be “solved”.
On my “masthead”, I’ve consistently promoted the need to become aware of the Network State movement. NOW, WE HAVE THE INGREDIENTS FOR OUR FIRST NETWORK STATE AS FOLKS VOTED IN THE AFFIRMATIVE FOR A NEW CITY, “Starbase”, this weekend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kCPJEDRNKQ. The original locals (i.e. voters) were outnumbered by new SpaceX transplants. As part of Leon’s separation/demotion from D.O.G.E., he might get a conciliation prize, being mayor of a new city - with full authority from the Texas legislature to experiment.
From Tech Lords to Nazi salutes, Dr. Julia Ebner, a brilliant, young Austrian scholar and an expert on right-wing extremism, reminds us that many of the more outspoken and notable far-right groups almost always have founders or influencers with explicit interest in the NAZIS (here is an example of her at least five-year-old concern about the fringe going mainstream): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUmeyEh-WxY&list=TLPQMDQwNTIwMjXguGg818G1fg. Dr. Ebner’s observation is an issue for MAGA that we cannot avoid, and it will manifest itself in different ways. Even this servile Republican Senate had to cancel the confirmation hearings of a Dolos nominee with a “Nazi streak”: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/20/paul-ingrassia-racist-text-messages-nazi-00613608. This withdrawal occurred in the same period of time as the nominee to run the BLS who really liked the Führer’s favorite battleship was also withdrawn from consideration: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ej-antoni-nazi-ship/
For a more thoughtful example, Sieg Heel, a well-established Republican donor and successful venture capitalist, taught a course at his alma mater, one of the best universities in the country, with CARL SCHMITT, a German legal philosopher, as part of the curriculum. To understand Schmitt’s legal philosophy relative to the extrajudicial work of the Third Reich in their rise to prominence, please browse this document on the “Night of Long Knives”: https://sci-hub.st/10.1080/00168890.2012.675795. If given a chance, Miller, Bannon, and others would reduce the population of this country to 100 million Caucasians: https://centeredamerica.substack.com/p/news-trump-privately-stated-stephen. Comparing bipartisanship to cancer could be considered extreme and politically unwise, but it would certainly follow the guidance of Schmitt: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-maga-activists-push-hyperpartisanship-rcna184965.
This MASTER PLAN sounds crazy (and evil), but Anthony Scaramucci confirmed its quasi-existence on the part of Bannon while speaking in the UK earlier this year (timestamp - 28:08): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWaxDZZCai8 . The pull quote of the interview is the following: “…they want a white America and they want to wall America off from the rest of the world literally and physically and that’s the malevolence of Steve Bannon…” If the quote seems conspiratorial, why did this current government’s DHS use the controversial term, “Remigrate”, in their own social media - THIS MONTH: https://www.latintimes.com/gavin-newsom-slams-dhs-remigration-post-points-trump-familys-immigrant-history-590602?
So, we have a group of extremely wealthy maladjusted individuals with a basic fear of their fellow citizens. A fear of a society-wide “event” (their word) was so strong that they actually began building bunkers - even in New Zealand - to save themselves years PRIOR to COVID being on anyone’s radar. They also adopted a strange need to segregate (intentional word choice) their lifestyles from the rest of society in general because democracy could make them vulnerable in some manner (i.e. too much voting and too many governmental benefits): https://www.huffpost.com/entry/peter-thiel-women-democracy_n_5747079be4b03ede4413f6f5.
With this “Billionaire mindset,” to borrow a term from Doug Rushkoff, we now have the Dark Enlightenment (i.e. Neoreactionary movement) and the need for “Network States” with geographies within the nation-state but apart from the nation with their own rules. Because these Tech Lords fundamentally believe that average people cannot be trusted with enhancing their quality of life and ensuring their security as an extreme minority cohort (i.e. only so many billionaires), even “retired” SEALs will be unreliable for providing protection because they will refuse to wear “disciplinary” collars or get monitoring implants: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff. Remember when “Coach” Walz called their ilk weird. He was correct.
Here are some slightly DARK THOUGHTS. Firms founded by these same billionaires are now providing AI-based military hardware that will not require a human to be part of the decision-making “kill chain” and will be financed by a Pentagon leadership led by a “likely” White Christian Nationalist (remember the “Enola Gay” debacle and the extremist tattoos): https://www.defensenews.com/air/2025/09/24/anduril-nears-first-drone-wingman-flight-promises-early-autonomy/. Following their own logic, if you truly wanted your desired future, you would be building your military for the Network State rather than the nation-state. We must stay vigilant.
CARTHAGO DELENDA EST (via nonviolence).
P.S.: Do the following now! FIRST, TEACH CIVICS. Second, register voters. THIRD, TEACH CIVICS. Rinse. Repeat.
Good Evening, Simon.
I forgot to thank you for your great Post this morning. And, I really enjoyed your excellent interview with Aaron Melnik, who is intelligent and knowledgeable and has a good hand on the immigration/ detention disaster, which is so important. It was very difficult listenening and visualizing the 5,000 People or more, living in these Warehouse's!! We say, this is America, how can this be happening, but it is. I am so Fucking angry that Congress and most of the Republicans are so Weak, they are letting this happen. Wake-up Congress, We are not going to let this happen. As Simon says, "We are going to fight as hard as We can."