The Dictatorship

Haitian, Somali and Syrian immigrants deserve protection in the U.S.

Published

3 weeks ago

March 18, 2026

Mar. 17, 2026, 4:29 PM EDT

On Friday, a federal judge blockedthe Trump administration from ending Temporary Protected Status for 1,100 Somali residents, four days before that protection was set to expire. The judge noted that thousands of Somaliscould face severe risks, including “detention and deportation, physical violence if removed to Somalia, and forced separation from family members.” Separately, on Monday the Supreme Court said it would soon decide whether to lift lower-court orders that have so far blocked the administration from ending TPS for more than 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians.

Mohamed is one of tens of thousands of people who may be torn away from their families, friends, schools, workplaces: in short, the lives they’ve spent building in the United States.

I work as senior policy counsel at Muslim Advocates, one of the organizations representing Somali and Syrian plaintiffs in these cases, and I’ve witnessed the devastating impact this uncertainty is having on our clients. Take Mohamed Doe, who has lived in the U.S. for years as a TPS holder from Somalia. His Temporary Protected Status is his sole basis for a work permit and driver’s license, both of which he needs to take care of himself and his pregnant wife. Mohamed works as an educator and a coach for two sports teams, serving as a critical source of career and educational guidance and counseling for his students. Now he and his family are in limbo as they await a final court decision.

Mohamed is one of tens of thousands of people who may be torn from their families, friends, schools, workplaces: in short, the lives they’ve spent years building in the United States. In addition to representing Somalis and Syrians, we are working with partner organizations to sue the administration for its procedurally flawed terminations of TPS for Ethiopianand South Sudaneseimmigrants, who would also face dangerous conditions in their countries of origin. Since assuming power, the Trump administration has sought to end TPS for 13 non-European countries, affecting almost 1 millionBlack, brown and Muslim people. He has also openlywished for more immigrants from Norway, Sweden and Denmark. That is racial discrimination dressed up as immigration policy.

Some courts have seen through the administration’s justifications. A U.S. district judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that it’s “substantially likely” that the Department of Homeland Security’s termination of TPS for Haitians is due to “hostility to nonwhite immigrants,”shredding outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s claim that her focus was “national security.” Yet another U.S. district judge, in Northern California, found that Noem perpetuated xenophobic stereotypesand racist conspiracy theories in her drive to suspend TPS for Nicaraguan, Honduran and Nepali immigrants. While Noem is on the way out at DHS, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., the president’s fiercely loyal nominee to replace her, is unlikelyto hold a different point of view on TPS.

As the Trump administration attacks Black, Muslim and Latino immigrants who are here, it has also sought to block such immigrants from entering the country. Trump’s sweeping travel bantargets 39 countriesmostly Muslim-majority and African. A massive visa freeze on nationals from mostly African and Muslim-majority countries was based on racist public chargestereotypes. At Muslim Advocates, we’re also challenginga web of policies that have shut down other lawful pathways for thousands of people in the U.S., including TPS holders. The administration has even decimated the U.S.’ long-standing refugee program, setting the cap to just 7,500 people, the lowest it’s ever been, and has prioritized4,500 of those slots for Afrikaners from South Africa.

Trump’s sweeping travel ban targets 39 countries, mostly Muslim-majority and African.

These discriminatory policies are rooted in decades of successive U.S. administrations wielding national security policy as cover for racist, undemocratic power grabs. President George W. Bush createdDHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement after 9/11, drastically expanded the government’s immigration enforcement powers and ushered in an era of surveillance, detention and deportation that disproportionately targeted Muslims, Arabs and South Asians. These policies have torn families and communities apart, eroded civil liberties and created an atmosphere of fear and distrust that still exists today.

We must not allow politicians to use sham national security justifications to target and exclude our neighbors. Immigrants, faith leaders, civil rights groups and other community members are organizing, protesting and going to court to challenge the Trump administration’s policies. The lawsuit filed by Somali TPS holders is part of a broader effort to ensure that the government doesn’t arbitrarily strip people of protections they have relied on for years, or use discrimination to do so.

The grassroots efforts and ongoing litigation are necessary, but Congress must also take action to prohibit discrimination and create pathways to lawful status for immigrants who have built their lives here. The NO BAN Actlegislation that would prevent future presidents from enacting discriminatory entry bans, and the Secure Actwhich would provide TPS and Deferred Enforced Departure recipients with a pathway to permanent residency, were both reintroduced in Congress last year and are worthy of attention and support. The devastation of the past year can serve as fertile ground to work toward such comprehensive solutions.

The United States has long provided safe haven for people fleeing crises and seeking to rebuild their lives, and Americans have wholeheartedly rejectedthis administration’s cruel, lawless and racist rampagesby taking to the streets in protest, speaking out and organizing. Their efforts have forcedleadership and policy shifts at the top, but the struggle is far from over. As families wait in agony for favorable final outcomes in the TPS cases, we must continue to demand policies that make this country a welcoming and safe place for new Americans.

Sumayyah Waheed is senior policy counsel for Muslim Advocates.

The Dictatorship

Newly created Polymarket accounts bet big on US-Iran ceasefire in hours before Trump’s announcement

Published

20 hours ago

April 10, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Newly created Polymarket accounts bet big on US-Iran ceasefire in hours before Trump’s announcement

NEW YORK (AP) — A group of new accounts on the prediction market Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the U.S. and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for these new customers.

These bets were made even though, in the hours before a two-week ceasefire was announced on Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s rhetoric had escalated sharply and there were few signals that a ceasefire deal was imminent. Early in the day Trump had issued a warning on social media that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran did not meet his demand to open the Strait of Hormuz by his 8 p.m. ET deadline.

An analysis of publicly available blockchain data from Polymarket, using the crypto analytics platform Dune, shows that at least 50 accounts, or wallets, placed substantial “Yes” bets Tuesday before Trump announced the ceasefire in a Truth Social post at around 6:30 pm ET. These were the first bets made by these particular wallets.

One of these wallets, created Tuesday around 10 am ET, placed roughly $72,000 in bets at an average price of 8.8 cents. The buy-in for each betting event ranges from $0 to $1 each, reflecting a 0% to 100% chance of what users think could happen. This Polymarket user then cashed out for a profit of $200,000.

Another, which joined the platform on April 6 and traded on this exact event, shows a win of $125,500.

Another wallet, created 12 minutes before Trump’s post, made $31,908 of “Yes” bets at 33.7 cents, and is estimated to have earned a profit of $48,500. The higher price for “Yes” at that time may have reflected the efforts late Tuesday by the government of Pakistan to get Trump to extend his deadline by two weeks.

There is also the possibility that these individual Polymarket users placed their bets expecting Trump to back down, given his habit during his second term to make bold threats only to retreat — a phenomenon his critics have derided as “Trump Always Chickens Out,” or TACO.

While some users took handsome profits, others must wait for payouts because Polymarket has labeled the April 7 Iran-U.S. ceasefire contract as “disputed,” given that Iran was still placing restrictions on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz and missile attacks in the region continued. That dispute could take 48 hours to resolve.

Public blockchain data cannot identify who controls the new wallets. Polymarket uses proxy smart contract wallets, meaning a single user can create multiple accounts. Only Polymarket has the internal data needed to determine whether these were new users or existing users opening additional accounts.

Polymarket did not respond to a request for comment.

Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, who has introduced legislation to regulate prediction markets, released a statement Wednesday saying: “It’s highly unlikely that these are good-faith trades; it’s much more likely that these are insiders with access to information ahead of the public. Without some kind of restrictions, there is nothing stopping government or military officials from profiting from their positions.”

The trading pattern of newly created Polymarket accounts placing strategic, well-timed bets mirrors earlier episodes on the platform. Newly created accounts placed large wagers hours before the January capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and made hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit. Similar clusters of accounts have also repeatedly profited from well-timed bets on military actions involving Iran.

Such bets have repeatedly raised questions from the public as well as members of Congress about whether some traders are using inside information to profit in these prediction markets. Bipartisan groups of senators as well as representatives have introduced legislation that would broaden the definition of insider trading to include prediction markets.

Even the two biggest platforms in the industry, Kalshi and Polymarket, have said they see a need to broaden the definition of insider trading on their platforms.

“This is why these markets need regulation,” said Todd Philips, a professor at Georgia State University who has written on prediction markets and the industry’s regulations. “We can’t have people trading with inside information and expect other traders are going to be OK being in these markets.”

_____

Keller reported from Albuquerque, N.M.

The Dictatorship

Trump administration looks to sanitize George Washington’s slavery history

Published

1 day ago

April 10, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Trump administration looks to sanitize George Washington’s slavery history

Apr. 9, 2026, 5:39 PM EDT

The Trump administration’s fragile white ego is in focus yet again thanks to newly proposed changes for an exhibit in Philadelphia centered on George Washington and slavery.

The administration is being sued by the city over its efforts to whitewash Washington’s history of slave ownership from the President’s House Site, the nation’s first official presidential residence. The push has been put on hold by a judge who compared it to the censorship depicted in George Orwell’s book “1984.”

The attempted alteration of the exhibit came after a Trump executive order demanded a review of national parks and museums to bar any displays that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.” Last year, Trump also lobbed a puerile complaint that Smithsonian musuems focus too much on “how bad” slavery was.

And all that kvetching provides context for the changes that Trump’s administration is seeking to impose at the President’s House Site — alterations that The Philadelphia Inquirer said places the first president’s slave ownership “in a more sympathetic light.”

The Inquirer flagged government renderings showing plans for new historical panels to be installed at the site, and it seems clear that the administration’s goal is to make Washington out to be a loving patriot or conscientious objector to slavery, rather than a racist slave driver.

First, note what the Inquirer said has been removed:

The panels taken down by the Park Service in January included displays titled ‘The Dirty Business of Slavery’ and ‘Life Under Slavery,’ as well as illustrations about the Fugitive Slave Act and Ona Judge, who was enslaved by Washington and later escaped.

So the administration wants to omit detailed references to Washington’s slavery history — which Black activists fought for years to include — while also promoting a whitewashed narrative that he was a fundamentally moral man despite the whole “claiming dominion over other human beings” thing. Per the Inquirer:

For instance, on one panel titled ‘Presidents Washington and Adams on Slavery,’ the Trump administration writes that ‘Caught between his private doubts about slavery and his public responsibilities as president, George Washington navigated a nation deeply divided over slavery.’

‘Privately, George Washington often expressed discomfort with the institution and a desire to see it abolished,’ the panel continued. ‘Yet as a Virginia plantation owner, his wealth and livelihood were deeply tied to it.’

And another example:

And later in the same panel: ‘Slaves living in the President’s House experienced a greater modicum of autonomy than elsewhere in the South such as to explore the city and sometimes even attend the theater, with Washington buying the tickets.’

When a censorship regime like Trump’s sees fit to tout a slave owner’s generosity — and the “greater modicum of autonomy” he purportedly granted to those he subjected to brutal bondage and forced labor — it leaves little doubt that the fundamental goal is to sanitize history, rather than teach it thoroughly.

A White House spokesperson told the Inquirer that the administration wants to acknowledge “the full breadth of our nation’s history” and that “no piece of history should be washed away.”

But “whitewashing” truly is the most apt descriptor for a plan that includes touting George Washington as some kind of selfless, principled gift-giver while brushing past, or deliberately omitting, details about his well-documented — and extremely lucrative — history of enslaving human beings.

Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.

The Dictatorship

Thursday’s Mini-Report, 4.9.26

Published

1 day ago

April 10, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* Crisis conditions in Lebanon: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel vowed on Thursday to continue striking Hezbollah in Lebanon, hours after he appeared to make a concession by saying his country would start talks with the Lebanese government about trying to disarm the Iran-backed paramilitary group.”

* In related news: “More than 80 countries — which did not include the U.S. — condemned Israel’s lethal strikes on Lebanon. … Several international leaders have condemned Israel’s intensified strikes on Lebanon, which killed more than 300 people yesterday alone, according to The Associated Press, citing the country’s health ministry.”

* This wasn’t a problem before the war: “Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei vowed today to tighten control over the Strait of Hormuz and claimed victory in the ongoing war between his country and Israel and the U.S. ‘We will definitely take the management of the Strait of Hormuz to a new phase,’ Khamenei said in a series of posts on X.”

* Inflation news: “Core inflation held above the Federal Reserve’s target before the recent surge in energy prices, according to a key gauge released Thursday that offers the central bank a snapshot of conditions leading into the Iran war. The core personal consumption expenditures price index, which excludes food and energy, rose a seasonally adjusted 3% in February, the Commerce Department reported. The all-items headline inflation measure increased 2.8%.”

* The good news is, the vaccine saves lives; the bad news is, the Trump administration doesn’t want us to know that: “The acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has delayed publication of a CDC report showing the covid-19 vaccine cut the likelihood of emergency department visits and hospitalizations for healthy adults last winter by about half, according to two scientists familiar with the decision.”

* Even for this White House, her remarks were weird: “First lady Melania Trump denied any ties to convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell on Thursday. … ‘The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,’ the first lady began in remarks delivered from the White House. … It was not clear who or which statements or reporting she was referring to.”

* On a related note, Donald Trump told MS NOW that he didn’t know about his wife’s press statement.

* Trump’s animosity toward the NFL has reached a new stage: “The Justice Department has opened an investigation into whether the National Football League has engaged in anticompetitive tactics that harm consumers, according to people familiar with the situation.”

See you tomorrow.

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”