Immigration raids start Tuesday in Chicago, MAGA rep intros bill to kill Dept. of Education, SCOTUS bans TikTok, Trump exploits wildfire victims...
Gonzo Report: January 17, 2025
The coming week marks a seismic shift in American politics and our lives. Starting Monday, we’ll see an avalanche of executive actions, policy changes, and enforcement operations that will impact millions of lives. From immigration raids to social media shutdowns to economic policy reversals, the pace and scale of changes will be overwhelming. I’m committed to cutting through the chaos to give a clear, focused analysis of what matters most and why. Stay vigilant—this is just the beginning.
Trump targets Chicago for first wave of deportations…
What Happened: Immigration raids in the sanctuary city of Chicago start immediately after Trump’s inauguration, with reports suggesting they will continue throughout the week. Dubbed “Operation Safeguard,” the initiative will deploy around 150 agents to target undocumented immigrants in what officials call the “first step toward mass deportations.”
Why It Matters: Less than 24 hours after taking power, the incoming regime is gearing up to terrorize immigrant communities with Trump’s trademark mix of cruelty and theatrical propaganda. Let’s be clear: staging these raids in Chicago, a sanctuary city, is a deliberate political attack meant to create shocking images of armed agents dragging people from their homes, workplaces, churches, and schools. Trump’s immigration chief is bragging about creating “shock and awe,” and if that sounds familiar, it should—it’s the exact phrase used to describe the U.S. bombing campaign on Iraqi civilians in 2003. None of us are prepared for this unleashing of state violence against vulnerable communities, and it pains me to say it, but this is just the beginning where things are going from bad to worse, quite literally overnight.
TikTok faces Sunday shutdown after Supreme Court ruling…
What Happened: SCOTUS unanimously upheld a law requiring TikTok to be banned or sold by Sunday, just one day before Trump takes office, potentially forcing the platform with 170 million U.S. users to “go dark.”
Why It Matters: Welcome to the digital guillotine. TikTok is on the chopping block while we stand by, prepared to witness the first-ever execution of a major social media platform in American history. The timing on all of this is wild—the app will go dark at midnight on Sunday (unless some unexpected event surprises us all.) Trump is inaugurated Monday at noon, possibly serving as some fucked up antichrist savior figure swooping in at the last moment to save the app, and 170 million American users—several million of whom depend on the app for their income—are caught in the middle of this chaotic political theater.
MAGA at work on Project 2025 plan to kill the Department of Education…
What Happened: North Carolina Representative David Rouzer introduced H.R. 369, a bill to eliminate the Department of Education, per Trump’s Project 2025 agenda.
Why It Matters: David Rouzer is many things: a far-right MAGA Republican, an election-denying insurrectionist, a white Christian nationalist, an anti-abortion zealot, a homophobic bigot, and a big-time, ass-kissing bootlicker for Agent Orange. Bastards like Rouzer aren’t even trying to hide their endgame anymore: starve public schools of funding, widen the gap between rich and poor districts, and ensure that quality education becomes a luxury only the wealthy can afford. The same people who cry about “protecting children” are perfectly fine leaving millions of kids without access to adequately funded education so that they can redirect DoE money to more corporate tax cuts—typical shameful MAGA bullshit.
Johnson boots Intel chair at Trump’s behest, signaling illegality to come…
What Happened: House Speaker Mike Johnson removed Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) as chair of the Intelligence Committee after pressure from Trump and his MAGA allies.
Why It Matters: This move is highly concerning. Turner gets the boot because he didn’t lick the boot—another nauseating example of Trump’s purge of anyone who isn’t a hard-line loyalist—but this story is important for reasons far beyond “he didn’t kiss enough ass.” The Intelligence Committee is critical in safeguarding national security, ensuring that intelligence agencies (CIA, FBI, NSA, DHS, etc.) operate within legal bounds and remain free from political interference. With a Trump lackey replacing Turner, immediate concerns about the potential misuse of classified information diminished accountability for intelligence operations, and prioritization of political loyalty over national interests become good reasons to worry about their reasoning behind this decision. This move directly undermines the committee’s ability to safeguard national security.
Trump’s Treasury pick tells poor Americans to pound sand…
What Happened: Scott Bessent, a billionaire hedge fund manager and Trump’s Treasury secretary nominee, told Bernie Sanders during his confirmation hearing that he opposes raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour.
Why It Matters: Here we go again—another Wall Street plutocrat who thinks 30 million American workers should keep scraping by on poverty wages that haven’t increased since 2009. Bessent, a hedge fund asshole who’s never worried about making rent in his life, smugly dismisses the idea of a living wage as a “regional issue.” The message couldn’t be more explicit—Trump’s cabinet, filled with billionaires, will keep fighting tooth and nail to ensure corporate profits stay high. At the same time, you and I can’t afford one emergency.
Legal battles loom as Biden claims ERA is part of Constitution…
What Happened: President Biden announced that he believes the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) has been ratified and is now part of the Constitution, asserting it as the law of the land.
Why It Matters: This declaration is worth nothing. Biden may claim the amendment has met all necessary criteria for ratification, but the reality is fraught with legal complexities and potential challenges, especially given that five states have attempted to rescind their support. And that’s to say nothing of the fact that an orange wrecking ball is about to demolish everything he possibly can, especially anything Biden had a hand in. We hoped Joe might come through on this after an outcry from citizens reflecting a desperate push to secure gender equality in a political landscape that’s already hostile to women’s rights and growing increasingly more so by the day. Spoiler alert: Joe didn’t do anything to formally enshrine the ERA into the Constitution, so what he said doesn’t matter. He may as well have saved the breath to tell us another Corn Pop story.
FDA takes 33 years to ban cancer-causing red dye…
What Happened: The FDA has banned Red Dye No. 3 from food, beverages, and drugs 33 years after finding it caused cancer in lab rats.
Why It Matters: This happens when corporate profits matter more than public health—it takes the FDA over three decades to protect Americans from a known carcinogen that’s been banned almost everywhere in the world. While Big Food pumped 200,000 pounds of this petroleum-based poison into our food supply in 2021 alone, the FDA sat on its ass, continuing to let industry lobbyists call the shots as they’ve done for decades. And yet, they’re still giving companies until 2027 to phase it out because, fuck it—it’s already been over three decades; what’s another three years of feeding Americans cancer-causing chemicals? This is regulatory capture at its most grotesque.
MAGA Republicans push death penalty for abortion patients in four states…
What Happened: MAGA Republican lawmakers in South Carolina, Oklahoma, North Dakota, and Indiana proposed bills to classify abortion as homicide, allowing prosecution of abortion patients, with some bills including the death penalty.
Why It Matters: These bills show the GOP’s “pro-life” agenda for what it is: a crusade to criminalize women, police their bodies, and push extremist control under the guise of morality. Even if these bills don’t pass, the strategy is clear—normalize radical legislation until outrage fades and then strike. If this doesn’t both enrage and terrify you, it should.
RFK Jr. sought to halt vaccines during the pandemic…
What Happened: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee for HHS Secretary, petitioned the FDA in May 2021 to revoke authorization for all COVID-19 vaccines and prevent future approvals, despite the vaccines saving thousands of lives daily while thousands more continued to die.
Why It Matters: Trump is putting someone in charge of HHS who actively tried to stop lifesaving vaccines during a pandemic that was still killing thousands of Americans every week. Think about that. Having an anti-science zealot in charge of the nation’s health agencies—someone who pushed debunked treatments like ivermectin while trying to block vaccines that had already saved 140,000 lives. The sheer disregard for human life is staggering. Installing RFK Jr. as health secretary is one of the most reckless things Trump has ever (at least attempted) to do. Trump never gave a shit about protecting American lives because there’s no money to be made from it.
Etcetera…
Trump is a fucking ghoul: Trump will exploit victims of the Los Angeles wildfires to pass his extreme agenda by holding assistance hostage: “If you add Los Angeles into it then you can really do one big beautiful bill because, frankly, they want that so badly…They want the money to go out there so badly and I don’t think we should do a bill until Los Angeles is included, and when Los Angeles is included, we get everything we want.” Here’s the audio of the son of a bitch saying this.
Speaking of Los Angeles: California Governor Gavin Newsom has become the first Democratic governor to announce that he will raise state flags to full mast on Inauguration Day, joining numerous Republican governors. The motivation is clear: Newsom is playing the same game as corporate leaders who’ve donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration—not out of admiration but to curry favor. Unlike CEOs doing it for selfish reasons, Newsom’s actions are strategic. He’s trying to secure federal assistance for Californians by appeasing Trump’s ego. It may involve swallowing his pride, but it’s a pragmatic and defensible move to protect his state in this case.
DUI hire: The confirmation vote for Trump’s Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth, will likely occur on Wednesday or Thursday of next week.
Filmmaker, artist, and proud Eagle Scout David Lynch died this week at 78.
See you tomorrow, friends…
It's important to remember at this point that these people are neither omniscient nor invincible; despite the impression they hope to give.
They can be led around in circles, their time and energy can be wasted just like everyone else's can. They can fail, and be seen to fail, disastrously; and let no one tell you that wanting them to fail is rooting for America to.
They are not "America", they are but a competing faction within it; one no ordinary American should have any love of, or trust in.
This has gone thru several stages for me:
First stage was disbelief-- How could people vote again for Satan's spawn?
Second stage was grief--
for all of us.
Third stage was anger and absolute rage at those who voted for and supported trump. Disbelief again.
Fourth stage is acceptance of what is and connecting with those who are in this with me, us, them.
Fifth stage--preparing to fight trump every fucking day through WHATEVER MEANS POSSIBLE, barring nothing. This includes lots of timeouts from news and things that enrage me and destroy me. This includes shedding love on those who need it and supporting them, laughing, playing music and living how I want to as best I can. PROTECT OUR
IMMIGRANTS!!!!!!