Masked Un-ID Federal Agents started kidnapping peaceful people in 2020

 https://www.opb.org/news/article/federal-law-enforcement-unmarked-vehicles-portland-protesters/

Masked agents wearing no identification have been seen jumping out of unmarked vehicles to detain peaceful protesters and community members without explanation, without warrants, and without regard for due process.  In Portland, unidentifiable agents pulled demonstrators off the streets into waiting vans. These tactics aren’t isolated -- they reflect a disturbing national pattern. ...after a night spent protesting at the Multnomah County Justice Center and Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse, Mark Pettibone and his friend Conner O'Shea decided to head home.

It had been a calm night compared with most protesting downtown. By 2 a.m. law enforcement hadn't used any tear gas and, with only a few exceptions, both the Portland, Ore., Police Bureau and federal law enforcement officers had stayed out of sight.

A block west of Chapman Square, Pettibone and O'Shea bumped into a group warning them that people in camouflage were driving around the area in unmarked minivans grabbing individuals off the street.

They had barely made it half a block when an unmarked minivan pulled up in front of them.

"I see guys in camo," O'Shea said. "Four or five of them pop out, open the door and it was just like, 'Oh s***. I don't know who you are or what you want with us.'"

Federal law enforcement officers have been using unmarked vehicles to drive around downtown Portland and detain protesters since at least Tuesday. Personal accounts and multiple videos posted online show the officers driving up to people, detaining individuals with no explanation about why they are being arrested, and driving off.

Homeland Security Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli acknowledged that federal agents had used unmarked vehicles to pick up people in Portland but said it was done to keep officers safe and away from crowds and to move detainees to a "safe location for questioning."

  "We will pick them up in front of the courthouse. If we spot them elsewhere, we will pick them up elsewhere. And if we have a question about somebody's identity, like the first example I noted to you, after questioning determine it isn't someone of interest, then they get released. And that's standard law enforcement procedure, and it's going to continue as long as the violence continues." 

"The federal administration has chosen Portland to use their scare tactics to stop our residents from protesting police brutality and from supporting the Black Lives Matter movement," Rosenblum said in a statement. "Every American should be repulsed when they see this happening. If this can happen here in Portland, it can happen anywhere."

  officers are detaining people on Portland streets who aren't near federal property. Demonstrators such as O'Shea and Pettibone said they think they were targeted by federal officers for simply wearing black clothing in the area of the demonstration. 

O'Shea said he ran when he saw people wearing camouflage jump out of an unmarked vehicle. He said he hid when a second unmarked van pursued him.  "Feds are driving around, grabbing people off the streets," O'Shea said on the video. "I didn't do anything f****** wrong. I'm recording this. I had to let somebody know that this is what happens." 
Pettibone and O'Shea both said they couldn't think of anything they might have done to end up targeted by law enforcement. They attend protests regularly, but they said they aren't "instigators." They don't spray-paint buildings, shine laser pointers at officers or do anything else other than attend protests, which law enforcement have regularly deemed "unlawful assemblies."

 

Blinded by his hat, in an unmarked minivan full of armed people dressed in camouflage and body armor who hadn't identified themselves, Pettibone said he was driven around downtown before being unloaded inside a building. He wouldn't learn until after his release that he had been inside the federal courthouse.

"It was basically a process of facing many walls and corners as they patted me down and took my picture and rummaged through my belongings," Pettibone said. "One of them said, 'This is a whole lot of nothing.' "

Pettibone said he was put into a cell. Soon after, two officers came in to read him his Miranda rights. They didn't tell him why he was being arrested. He said they asked him whether he wanted to waive his rights and answer some questions, but Pettibone declined and said he wanted a lawyer. The interview was terminated, and about 90 minutes later, he was released. He said he did not receive any paperwork, citation or record of his arrest.

"I just happened to be wearing black on a sidewalk in downtown Portland at the time," Pettibone said. "And that apparently is grounds for detaining me."

What is the legal justification for making arrests away from federal property? What is the legal justification for searching people who are not participating in criminal activity? Why are federal officers using civilian vehicles and taking people away in them? Are the arrests federal officers make legal under the Constitution? If so, how? 

Pettibone's detention is an example of intimidation by federal law enforcement, and noted that people have a First Amendment right to demonstrate. She also said law enforcement officials have to follow procedures when they detain someone.

"I would be surprised to see that pulling up in an unmarked van, grabbing people off the street is an acceptable policy for a criminal investigation," Albies said.

''We're going to do what needs to be done''

In a letter released Thursday, Wolf, the acting DHS secretary, said, "Portland has been under siege for 47 straight days by a violent mob while local political leaders refuse to restore order to protect their city."

"A federal courthouse is a symbol of justice," Wolf wrote, denigrating protests against racism in the U.S. criminal justice system as an angry mob. "To attack it is to attack America."

[Drumpf]...alluded to increasing their presence in cities nationwide. Speaking to Fox News on Thursday, acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan called the protesters criminals.

  "Federal forces shot an unarmed protester in the face," Merkley said in a tweet. "These shadowy forces have been escalating, not preventing, violence." 

https://www.opb.org/news/article/federal-law-enforcement-unmarked-vehicles-portland-protesters/

Federal officers have charged at least 13 people with crimes related to the protests so far, while others have been arrested and released, including Pettibone. They also left one demonstrator hospitalized with skull fractures after shooting him in the face with so-called "less lethal" munitions July 11.

Drumpf Shiztler Regime to kill 14 million people by 2030 by cutting USAID

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFHUK_17tIg

 

The crisis of Medicaid for US farmers (who voted for Drumpf) and inequality of Wealth in the U.S. as Imperial Implosion

 only 41.4% of farming, fishing and forestry workers are eligible for employer-sponsored health insurance.

  Nationwide, nearly half of all rural children are enrolled in Medicaid.

  Medicaid also plays a crucial role in funding rural hospitals that all patients rely on, whatever insurance they may have. And our rural hospitals are already struggling as it is.

  Jimmy Gentry is president of the North Carolina State Grange.

https://www.wakeweekly.com/columns/medicaid-cuts-would-devastate-americas-agriculture-and-its-farmers-4ff15cbc 

 “Coverage is not the same thing as access, and access to waiting lists is not the same thing as access to health care,” Snyder said. “So just because you have a card that says you are covered by Medicaid does not mean you’re going to find a hospital or a physician who actually accepts that.”

Dr. Doug Curran

Dr. Doug Curran, a physician in Athens, Texas, said the low reimbursement rates are stark compared with private plans.  

“Medicaid will pay you about 28 bucks for seeing a kid with an earache,” he said. “You know, you can’t even pay the electric bill, hardly, for that.” 

https://publichealthwatch.org/2024/03/04/texas-farmers-ranchers-health-uninsured/ 

millions of farmers rely on Medicaid for health care - but the above proves that it's not really healthcare. Below is just a handful of states proving some 5 million of farmers relying on Medicaid yet 50% of those farmers are NOT making a "minimum wage income"! Their net income is only hundreds of dollars a year at most. In 2023 reported a NEGATIVE net income for "intermediate family farms"

Households associated with intermediate farms reported median farm income of -1,974

 

And now even that healthcare will be cut off unless a farmer can prove a "minimum wage" for 80 hours a month! Yet in 2021 the IRS farm income for 50% of farmers was $210 net income!! That means farmers don't have a minimum wage at all for 50% of farmers.

The increasing cost of health care has limited the ability of some U.S. farmers and ranchers across the U.S. to increase their operations because they’re unable to work the land full-time. They have to work outside jobs to get health insurance; when they come home, they must feed the animals, repair the fences, help a cow give birth and plow the fields. 

“It’s a big responsibility, you know, it’s not an eight-to-five job. It’s round the clock,” said Robin, a family friend and farmer from the Hill Country. She asked that only her first name be used.  “Farmers and ranchers just don’t have any idle time, really. There’s always something to do.”

Merida Venezuela where I stayed for 2 1/2 weeks in 1998, now lost its glaciers due to global warming

  algae can sequester 100 gigatons of cO2 per year. Interview Sir David King or double Ph.D. marine biologist Raffael Jovine - they are both focused on algae as the only means to stop abrupt global warming. China had three scientists just publish how near-ocean algae farms can sequester 100 gigatons of CO2 per year. 80% of coal and oil is from algae. Dr. William Rees mentioned photosynthesis is the origin of negative entropy on Earth to build the biosphere. algae is already blooming - toxic algae or kelp. Algae is the future of life on Earth - one way or another. Algae has been on Earth for over 3 billion years. We can embrace the algae or pretend algae is not the future and the algae will take over anyway.

https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/communities-and-ecosystems-in-venezuela-learn-to-adapt-to-life-after-glaciers/

I never visited the glaciers directly - in fact I didn't even know Merida was known for "eternal snow." 

At 4,925 meters (16,158 feet), Humboldt still has a glacier — for now. In 2023, scientists demoted the ever-shrinking glacier, La Corona, covering an area barely larger than two football fields, to ice field status.

Venezuela has become the first tropical country to lose all its glaciers.

 My friend who hosted me in Merida was close friends with a "rock climber" - but in fact they were mountaineers!

 “People used to come here to see the snow. Many mountaineers used to spend the night here to acclimatize and then climb the glaciers, but now there is no more snow and that’s why they don’t come here as much,” La Cruz says.