Freeing Liam

"Bereft of human decency"

The symbolism seems a bit on-the-nose-don’t you think? Trump names the Kennedy Center after himself — and then shuts it down.

Humiliated by the growing number of artists who want nothing to do with the MAGA-fied venue, the would-be-Impresario-of -the-World turns off the lights for the next two years.

Meanwhile, Trump’s attempt at comedy fails to slay at the Alfalfa dinner; ICE is roasted at the Grammys, and a federal judge orders the Administration to release 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos from detention — while slapping the Thugocracy with a searing lecture on legal and moral values. [See below for full text.]

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery wrote, “Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency. And the rule of law be damned.”

Happy Monday.

Liam Ramos is home

You remember the story. Ron Fournier describes it as “Innocence Seized by Evil.”: The boy in the picture, Liam Conejo Ramos, was “one of at least four children arrested — some might say kidnapped — by ICE agents from the same suburban school district this month.”

The picture and story — which seems torn from a dystopian novel — quickly went viral; and became one of the images of ICE abuse that shocked the conscience of the nation.

But after Judge Biery’s fiery order, Liam was released from an ICE detention camp in Texas. He was given a wings pin in the cockpit on his flight back to Minneapolis.

And now, he’s home. “I’m happy to finally be going home,” Conejo Arias, who is originally from Ecuador, told ABC News’ John Quiñones in an exclusive interview as the pair flew from San Antonio back to Minneapolis.

“Liam is very happy to be going back,” Conejo Arias added. “He’s going to see his mom and his brother again.”

Read This. The Whole Thing.

Liam is home because of this decision.

I'm merely speculating here, but I suspect I'm not alone in hearing echoes of Judge J. Michael Luttig who has written eloquently, connecting the dots between our Constitutional crisis and the words and values of the Declaration of Independence.

But, really, read Judge Biery’s whole decision here. Every word is worth your time.

OPINION AND ORDER OF THE COURT

Before the Court is the petition of asylum seeker Adrian Conejo Arias and his five-year-old son for protection of the Great Writ of habeas corpus. They seek nothing more than some modicum of due process and the rule of law. The government has responded.

The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children. This Court and others regularly send undocumented people to prison and orders them deported but do so by proper legal procedures.

Apparent also is the government's ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence. Thirty-three-year-old Thomas Jefferson enumerated grievances against a would-be authoritarian king over our nascent nation. Among others were:

1. "He has sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People."

2. "He has excited domestic Insurrection among us.” "For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us."

3. "He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our Legislatures."

   "We the people" are hearing echoes of that history.

   And then there is that pesky inconvenience called the Fourth Amendment:

   “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and persons or things to be seized.” U.S. CONST. amend. IV.

Civics lesson to the government: Administrative warrants issued by the executive branch to itself do not pass probable cause muster. That is called the fox guarding the henhouse. The Constitution requires an independent judicial officer.

Accordingly, the Court finds that the Constitution of these United States trumps this administration's detention of petitioner Adrian Conejo Arias and his minor son, L.C.R. The Great Writ and release from detention are GRANTED pursuant to the attached Judgment.

Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency. And the rule of law be damned.

Ultimately, Petitioners may, because of the arcane United States immigration system, return to their home country, involuntarily or by self-deportation. But that result should occur through a more orderly and humane policy than currently in place.

Philadelphia, September 17, 1787: "Well, Dr. Franklin, what do we have?" "A republic, if you can keep it."

With a judicial finger in the constitutional dike,

It is so ORDERED.

SIGNED this 31st day of [January] 2026.

FRED BIERY UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

[Note: Matthew 19:14: "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." John 11:35: “Jesus wept.”]

Who’s reading “To the Contrary”?

Thank you, Jim!

ETTD: Kennedy Center Edition

Brave Sir Donald ran away.

Faced with a growing list of cancellations, snubs, unsold tickets, and empty seats at his enshittified Trump-Kennedy center, Trump announced he was shutting the place down for the next two years. For “renovations.”

Right.

A short list of artists who bailed on performing at a venue with Trump’s name on it: Hollywood actress Issa Rae; Stephen Schwartz, writer of the box office juggernaut “Wicked;” the Tony Award winning box office smash hit, “Hamilton;” five-time Grammy-winner Renée Fleming; Grammy and Oscar nominee Philip Glass; famed Jazz player Chuck Redd; two-time Grammy-winner Rhiannon Giddens; and Gregory Spears, writer of the critically acclaimed opera “Fellow Travelers.

Last week, Harry Litman wrote about Philip Glass’s refusal to collaborate with Trumpism:

The episode deserves sustained attention, because Glass did not merely pull a piece of music. He invoked Abraham Lincoln—and Lincoln’s warning about democratic collapse lands with unsettling accuracy on the dangers of Trumpian rule.

Glass, now 89, is a towering figure in modern composition whose place in the history of music is secure. His Symphony No. 15, Lincoln, was to be a major cultural event—quite possibly his last symphony.

But Glass did not simply withdraw a premiere. He explicitly invoked the work’s theme, including its incorporation of Lincoln’s famous “Lyceum” speech, as explanations for the decision.

“Symphony No. 15 is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln,” Glass wrote, “and the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the symphony.” For that reason, he said, he felt “an obligation” to withdraw it under the Center’s current leadership.

The timing was deliberate. Glass announced his decision on January 27, 2026—exactly 188 years to the day after Lincoln delivered his Lyceum Address in Springfield, Illinois.

To understand the force of Glass’s gesture, one must read the Lyceum Address not as a ceremonial ode to law, but as a remarkably prescient theory of democratic self-destruction….

Nota Bene

Tara Palmeri on Friday’s Epstein file dump:

What’s becoming clear isn’t just the scale of the depravity. It’s how many people in Donald Trump’s inner circle—figures who have publicly claimed distance or ignorance—are prominently featured throughout the material.

So many of these documents would have dominated news cycles for days. But we’re desensitized now. Overwhelmed. And that’s not an accident….

What’s emerging now is far more damning: a portrait of Epstein’s world and the powerful people around him, stitched together over three decades, across multiple administrations. It helps explain not only how Epstein was protected for so long, but why so many of his powerful friends remain shielded today. …

What’s getting lost in this chaotic rollout is the toll it’s taking on survivors, who are once again being reminded how easily their experiences can be sidelined.

“This feels like government-mandated institutional betrayal,” survivor Marijke Chartouni texted me this morning. “The institutions within the government that we look up to and depend on have violated and continue to violate our trust.”

**

Palmeri 2.0 — The deplorable Bruce Blakeman:

In the meantime, I sat down Friday with Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman to discuss his long-shot bid for New York governor on the GOP ticket. Remarkably, he’s running on a pro-ICE platform, pushing for more aggressive enforcement even as the White House pulls back. To say the interview got heated would be an understatement.

**

David French’s warning: “This Is Not a Drill”- The New York Times

It’s only February, and the November elections are already in peril.

When I think back to the days and weeks before Jan. 6, 2021, one thing that’s clear is that many of us suffered from a failure of imagination. We knew President Trump’s lies and conspiracy mongering were dangerous, but it’s hard to think of a single person who predicted that a MAGA mob would storm the Capitol.

Very few people anticipated the sheer scale and scope of the effort to overturn the election or that an incredible 147 Republicans would vote not to certify Joe Biden’s clear and unambiguous presidential victory. We did not realize that they would go along with something that plainly corrupt and dangerous.

We must not make that mistake again.

Read the whole thing. Really. [GIFT LINK]

**

Garrett Graff: Accountability for ICE and CBP: “However bad you think the corruption and misconduct at ICE and CBP is — the reality is far far worse.”

Criminality is so rampant inside CBP that it has seen one of its own agents or officers arrested every 24 to 36 hours since 2005. CBP’s misconduct scandal is so long-running that today it would be old enough to drink.

In total, according to CBP’s own discipline reports, over the 20 years from 2005 to 2024 — the last year numbers are available — at least 4,913 CBP officers and Border Patrol agents have been arrested themselves, some multiple times. (In 2018 alone, a single CBP employee was arrested five times.) To put that number in perspective:

• The population of CBP agents and officers who have been arrested would make it roughly the nation’s fourth largest police department — equal to the size of the entire Philadelphia police.

• Indeed, for much of the 2010s and likely before and since, it appears the crime rate of CBP agents and offices was higher PER CAPITA than the crime rate of undocumented immigrants in the United States.

Finally

Matt Labash: “Is Melania The Worst Film Ever Made?”

It’s perhaps unfair for me to call Melania the worst film ever made, since I haven’t seen every film ever made. But I have seen Porky’s 3, Police Academy 6, and many Rob Schneider vehicles, so you know I mean business when I say it’s the worst film I’ve ever seen.

And lest you think I’m an outlier, it’s the worst film a lot of other people have seen, too. Melania’s Rotten Tomatoes critics’ ranking, as of this writing, is at 10 percent. Making it less popular than the media, Congress, some venereal diseases, and even her husband’s tariff policy. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, its Popcornmeter/audience ranking is 99 percent, because MAGA cultists gotta cult, making that number as reliable as North Korean election returns.)

It’s no small wonder it’s taking such a drubbing. Melania is a personality-study of a person who doesn’t actually have one. Or rather, she is such a chilly approximation of a flesh-and-blood human being, that this feels less like a documentary than an industrial film about dry ice.

**

Maureen Dowd: “Slovenian Sphinx Flick Nixed!” - The New York Times

It turns out there is no riddle, no enigma, no mystery, no dark anguish.

Melania is not Rapunzel in the tower, pining to be saved from the ogre imprisoning her..

Melania is where she wants to be, in the bosom of a corrupt family that is prostituting the People’s House….

This is particularly gross given that Amazon is engaged in mass layoffs and Bezos seems intent on starving his Washington Post of money and talent. The split screen of Bezos and his spendthrift wife, Lauren Sánchez, frolicking everywhere — including Paris fashion week — while the tech mogul defiles the crown jewel nurtured by Ben Bradlee and Kay Graham, is sickening.

Monday dogs

From the trail-cam. Scary beast in the woods.

Flashback. Cuddling with Pete who was wearing his quite fashionable orange jacket.