Originally published at: The Undocumented Underground Is Fighting Back Inside New York’s Notorious Immigration Court - TPM – Talking Points Memo
One day last month, a Peruvian mother and her daughter went into Manhattan. They were both dressed in their best. The girl, who could not have been more than 10 years old, had a pink backpack shaped like a cat and matching bows in her hair. It was an important day: they were due at…
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With the US, and JD Vance specifically, trying actively to topple governments in Europe, it is no wonder that Europe’s leaders are starting to poke holes in Trump’s Machiavellian Illusion of Power.
Machiavelli’s concept of the illusion of power revolves around controlling perception, appearance, and narrative, making a ruler seem strong, necessary, and even divine, rather than revealing the actual, often ruthless, mechanics of control, which makes power vulnerable
Key ideas include presenting actions as just or necessary (even when cruel), appearing powerful without revealing sources (like luck or alliances), and understanding that people prefer comforting narratives over complex truths, making fear a more reliable tool than love. A ruler must be a lion (strong) and a fox (cunning) to master this art of seeming, not just being.
However, making money off Russia at the expense of everybody else is not a great foreign policy. Europe now understands that the US is no longer a reliable partner as it has been gutted by a Machiavellian tech-extractionist host within the US government. Oddly, the US, which invented Madison Avenue, broadcast tv, and advertising algorithms. is not adjusting to the crumbling of the power illusion. The Kremlin certainly gets this, especially with Trump’s “I’m walking away, hey, I’m walking away, hey look, I’m serious. I’m walking away, really” schtick failing. Europe is spending more on defense and preparing to use $280 billion in frozen Russian central bank assets to collateralize loans to Ukraine, Because the illusion of power is a mere illusion, its evaporation or dispersal will be crushing for Trump and a loss for Putin. Anyway I expect we’ll be hearing a lot about “walking away” this weekend. It just means Ukraine has got Putin on the back foot.
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Thank you for all your hard work reporting this story! Sometimes I feel like I’m powerless to affect the way the world is going, but supporting actual journalism is one thing I can do.
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Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY)
A good man. Vote Democratic.
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At what point can these ICE-holes be prevented from any space in a courthouse? They don’t represent any judicial entity and they refuse to identify themselves. If I tried to do any of that, no identification and my appearance obscured by hats and masks, I would be refused entry.
Why are we letting these idiots do this? Does anyone have a legitimate answer, other than ‘because they can’? They can’t and it’s way past time to stop this crap where people are legitimately pursuing their citizenship.
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We have an obligation, as a small l liberal nation, to rise up and squash ICE in its tracks. Using the rule of law and not violent means, we must prevail at all costs to preserve and promote our multicultural society.
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Apparently the GOP is in the pockets of Big Personal Bankruptcy. Imagine that a branch of the law treated as a “form practice” could be lifted to such heights just by ruining millions of lives? In the Nordic countries this year the number of medical personal bankruptcies is again on track to be zero.
Approximately 66.5% of all personal bankruptcies in the U.S. are attributed to medical expenses or medical-related issues.
Detailed 2025 statistics and contributing factors include:
- Primary Causes: This figure accounts for both direct medical bills (cited by **58.5%**of filers) and loss of income due to illness or injury (cited by 44.3% of filers).
- Health Insurance Status: Paradoxically, nearly 78% to 80% of those who file for medical-related bankruptcy actually had health insurance at the time of their illness.
- Demographics: The majority of filers are middle-class, college-educated homeowners.
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We need Medicare for All for this reason alone. No civilized nation should let an entire family fall helplessly into poverty because one or more of the wage-earners got sick. It’s just a cruel and ignorant tradition that we let this happen all too often. The government OWES US - We The People safe and effective healthcare. It can also be economical if we eliminate the 20-40% of the cost that the insurance companies and the middle men siphon off before the patient care teams get each case. Medicare’s overhead is less than 4% of their budget. That is the most that the administration of healthcare should ever cost.
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Thank you, Hunter!
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Thanks for reading it!
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Thanks for taking the time to read it! We have more of these coming!
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I’m a little surprised there aren’t people who speak Mandinka among New York immigrants.