D.C. Journalist in Exile
longingforethics.substack.com
D.C. Journalist in Exile
@longingforethics.substack.com
Twenty-year veteran editor for Knight Ridder, McClatchy, and Tribune in D.C. Now working in knowledge management, data analysis, and ethics from the desert Southwest.
For all of Biden's presidency, mainstream media tried to hold him accountable while he sought to conceal issues with his mental acuity.

2021: Vanity Fair wrote that reporters’ frustration was rising over limited access and lack of press conferences. www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/03...
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Reporters’ Frustration Is Building Over Lack of Biden Access
While the president regularly takes a handful of questions from the press, he has yet to hold a formal, solo news conference since taking office—a break from his White House predecessors.
www.vanityfair.com
February 8, 2026 at 3:54 AM
Reposted by D.C. Journalist in Exile
If we want freedom, let's defend it for everyone.

If we want respect, show it. If we want a better country, be better in how you treat people.
February 7, 2026 at 12:07 AM
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Being a good American goes hand in hand with being a good neighbor. We do not have to approve of everyone…but we can still be fair, humble, and kind. Freedom is not just for “our side.” It is for all of us.
February 7, 2026 at 12:07 AM
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No one can force you to respect people … but you can choose it.

Choose curiosity over contempt, facts over rumors, and strength over cruelty. If you want to be taken seriously, be the kind of person who can handle a free country that often disagrees with you.
February 7, 2026 at 12:07 AM
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Trump supporters are tired of liberal "noise."

Their answer -- mocking, banning, and bullying -- makes the noise worse.

The answer, if Trump supporters want it, is decency, self-control, and letting other Americans live their lives. That is the kind of strength worth admiring.
February 7, 2026 at 12:07 AM
MAGA Trump supporters are not wrong to be tired of being talked down to.

But if anyone wants a stronger country, we have to be strong enough to handle disagreement, different faiths, different languages, and other people’s freedoms…even when it annoys us. That is what real patriotism looks like.
February 7, 2026 at 12:07 AM
February 6, 2026 at 7:28 PM
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For those who don't know, Luttig was once considered the intellectual heir to Scalia. He was about as conservative a judge as you could find...
Luttig: It doesn’t matter what the Supreme Court does from this point forward. For two years, the Supreme Court has authorized the absolute lawlessness and unconstitutional activity of this president.
February 6, 2026 at 1:32 AM
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📣 BEFORE ICE TAKES YOUR PHONE — PREPARE

📞 Memorize numbers (lawyer, trusted contact).
📄 Carry: A-number, DOB, meds, key contacts.
⏱ Set a check-in rule = family acts.
📁 Pack: ID, immigration docs, school/med info.
🧠 Train: silence + no consent.
📲 One-tap alert: “Being stopped.”
🧭 More paxis.app
Donate to PAXIS: An AI Lifeline for Immigrant Rights and Support, organized by Joe Walsh
PAXIS - WHEN ICE KNOCKS, WE ANSWER. Together with immigrant advocate… Joe Walsh needs your support for PAXIS: An AI Lifeline for Immigrant Rights and Support
paxis.app
February 6, 2026 at 3:06 AM
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The Wharton School of Business estimates that U.S. taxpayers are charged an average $70,236 per deportee to arrest, detain/monitor, process, and remove undocumented immigrants, based on averaging two studies. In that breakdown, detention/monitoring is the largest cost component.

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Mass Deportation of Unauthorized Immigrants: Fiscal and Economic Effects — Penn Wharton Budget Model
It is well known that mass deportation reduces aggregate economic variables like GDP due to scale effects. We project that deportation also reduces wages of high-skill workers, compromising 63% of wor...
budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu
February 6, 2026 at 6:15 AM
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Detention length averages from 44 to 54.7 days.

Compare that to taxpayers' annual per-pupil public school spending: $18,614.

$70,236 per detainee is roughly 3.8 to 4.5 times the typical spending on each public school student.

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Fast Facts: Expenditures (66)
The NCES Fast Facts Tool provides quick answers to many education questions (National Center for Education Statistics). Get answers on Early Childhood Education, Elementary and Secondary Education an...
nces.ed.gov
February 6, 2026 at 6:15 AM
"If a newspaper’s publisher makes a bunch of decisions that lose money, and then the owner keeps the publisher while firing the staff who puts out the paper—none of this is really about the money, is it?"
"What happened to the Washington Post over the last three years happened for one reason and one reason only: Because Jeff Bezos wanted it to be so. Because he gets off on civic vandalism." lnk.thebulwark.com/4qiJnyH
The Washington Post Dies in Daylight
Civic vandalism and the mutilation of a great paper.
lnk.thebulwark.com
February 5, 2026 at 9:43 AM
The Washington Post leadership "is behaving much like private equity owners of newspapers—cutting costs primarily to squeeze out short-term profits."
At this point, it’s hard to say that Jeff Bezos has any real ambition to grow The Washington Post into a larger business. For much of the past year, I was willing to suspend disbelief and assume there was some broader strategy at play. But now it feels more like a company managing decline. In fact,
Washington Post Tears Up Plans to Cover Winter Olympics
www.nytimes.com
February 5, 2026 at 6:13 AM
A few hours after federal immigration agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, anti-government extremist Aamon Bundy said, “It’s sickening to me, just to see the parallels of history repeating itself.”

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Ammon Bundy Is All Alone
The anti-government militia leader can’t make sense of his allies’ support for ICE violence.
www.theatlantic.com
February 1, 2026 at 8:32 PM
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Elon Musk has publicly claimed he never visited Epstein's island and barely knew the man.

New documents show Musk emailing Epstein in Dec 2013: "Is there a good time to visit?"

Epstein: "always space for you"

This was 5 years after Epstein's 2008 conviction and sex offender registration.
January 30, 2026 at 8:14 PM
MAGA comedians and fans are again demanding a special right to use comedy clubs to assault audiences with celebrations of police violence and mafia-style executions, while calling it "comedy."

This time they want to dehumanize Renee Good and assault her family in their own home town.
Comic Ben Bankas shows canceled at St. Paul club after jokes about Renee Good
The comedian would have been one of the strongest draws in Laugh Camp Comedy Club’s history.
www.startribune.com
January 29, 2026 at 6:40 AM
January 28, 2026 at 8:23 PM
January 27, 2026 at 10:21 PM
Reposted by D.C. Journalist in Exile
Following the Kent State massacre in May 1970, a Gallup poll showed that 58% of Americans thought the shootings were justified. The night *before* the killings, Ohio's GOP governor described the student protesters this way: "They're the worst type of people that we harbor in America."
January 26, 2026 at 2:43 PM
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#Minnesota Department of Corrections issues press release showing “ #DHS Is Publishing False Arrest Claims at Scale”

Videos available at YouTube.com/@MinnesotaDOC

mn.gov/doc/assets/M...
January 26, 2026 at 5:18 PM
Tressie McMillan Cottom says the second Trump administration has revealed uncomfortable truths about power in America. She talks with Geoff Bennett about trust in institutions and how to keep your sense of purpose in an onslaught of news.
The stories we tell ourselves about America
Tressie McMillan Cottom says the second Trump administration has revealed uncomfortable truths about power in America. She talks with Geoff Bennett about trust in institutions and how to keep your sen...
www.pbs.org
January 27, 2026 at 4:24 AM
Reposted by D.C. Journalist in Exile
Fmr. ICE Assistant Chief Counsel: "This administration has promised to go after the worst of the worst. But when you look at the numbers of who is actually being detained, it tells a different story…Local officials have every right to not trust this administration."
January 26, 2026 at 9:10 PM
How governments make people resistant to facts
The Kremlin Finally Found a National Idea: Forever War
YouTube video by INSIDE RUSSIA
www.youtube.com
January 26, 2026 at 9:25 PM
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I know people are on this already, just want to amplify that none of these MN corporations are willing to even *mention* ICE and some have been extremely cooperative with them.

Target is a huge offender there. I think redoubling on #BoycottTarget + telling them why helps.

bsky.app/profile/prem...
60+ CEOs release letter on "recent challenges" creating "tragic loss."

Call for "immediate deescalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions."

No mention of ICE.

Signers include Target, UnitedHealth, Cargill, General Mills, MN sport teams
January 25, 2026 at 10:23 PM