Searching for random musings, after-the-jump ...
But first: Top Comments appears nightly, as a round-up of the best comments on Daily Kos. Surely ... you come across comments daily that are perceptive, apropos and .. well, perhaps even humorous. But they are more meaningful if they're well-known ... which is where you come in (especially in diaries/stories receiving little attention).
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If you haven’t already read Laura Jedeed’s essay in Slate on applying for (and being accepted as) an ICE agent — do so (and she has supplied a free link, as the Slate essay is ½ paywalled). She notes how she could have easily been disqualified with more careful vetting … yet her military background may have been enough that in order to fill Stephen Miller’s hiring quota, things were overlooked.
Her story ends with choosing to click DECLINE (rather than ACCEPT) the offer, as retribution might have been awful.
Freelance author Laura Jedeed
I hope that in the not-too-distant future, there will be a different essay — something of a companion piece. And this might be someone hired years ago who left the agency since 2025, and can describe what Stephen Miller and his henchmen did to how it was before.
Isabela Dias in Mother Jones has a brief (yet detailed) account of former agents who are distraught at what has taken place … yet her sources seem(?) to have left before the new regime took over. Yes, I’m sure there’s a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), yet perhaps someone with a serious illness (and who was rebuffed in pushing back against the changes) can offer an upfront, current account.
Isabela Dias of Mother Jones
I’m in the Abolish ICE category myself …. yet as we have seen, many centrists and moderate liberals would balk at this.
For the life of me, I can’t locate it … yet someone on social media suggested this, which just may be enough to get them on board:
→ Anyone hired in 2025 or after has to re-apply/be re-vetted to keep their job
→ No more masks, quotas, bonuses … and a return to past practices for all
→ A good severance package would be offered to entice the disgruntled to leave
→ Then a hiring freeze to to return to normal staffing levels by attrition
→ Finally, a name change, of course. → Will all this work? We’ll find out
Finally, something of levity. After his team was eliminated from the NFL playoffs this past Monday night, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has stepped down. This image shows how that franchise has had only three head coaches in 57 seasons … while the NY Jets have had twenty in that period.
The NY Jets have had many (though certainly not all) losing seasons since their January 12th, 1969 Super Bowl win and — for franchises like that — well, frequent coaching changes are not that uncommon.
I recall a different contrast in baseball. From 1954-1996 (a forty-three season period) the Los Angeles Dodgers had just two managers: Walter Alston and Tom Lasorda. Under the late mercurial team owner George Steinbrenner: the New York Yankees had twenty managerial changes (sometime re-hiring old names) from 1974-1995, a twenty-two season period … and many of those changes were in winning seasons.
Let’s close with an instrumental tune that spawned tonight’s essay title.
Now, on to Top Comments (and some Top Photos):
From blueoregon:
In the diary by thomhartmann about the siege of Minneapolis — this comment made by Front Toward Enemy … gets to the heart of the matter.
Highlighted by BiggestG:
Highlighted by MollyBloom:
And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the front-page story on EPA director Lee Zeldin denying that his agency’s pollution policies had changed — when its internal documents released showed that it had indeed changed — first b4xtc suggests how President Nixon created the agency in a cynical move ... with a reply from Stwriley noting that his first EPA administrator Bill Ruckelshaus (who did help successfully launch the agency) confirmed that in a Frontline documentary.
And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:
