the attitude with arnie arnesen the friday edition Dec 26
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Arnie Arnesen
Dec 25, 2025, 4:31:31 PM (5 days ago) Dec 25
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The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen
opening thought: If New Orleans can stand up to masked immigration agents, so can Houston | Editorial https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/trump-noem-ice-deportation-migrant-new-orleans-21248047.php
“What does a migrant look like?”
It was a deceptively simple question, posed by U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., last week in Washington. One that the nation’s top brass in national security couldn’t answer.
Speaking at a congressional hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee, Carter’s question was intended for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem. Except Noem — in a scene all too reminiscent of Houston City Hall — had slipped away mid-hearing.
Answering for Noem were two men: Michael Glasheen, operations director of the Federal Bureau of Intelligence national security branch, and Joe Kent, National Counterterrorism Center director.
“The masked officers you sent into the streets of New Orleans are attempting to arrest and abduct and detain anyone they think looks like a migrant,” Carter pressed. He wanted to know what a newly recruited immigration agent, flush with a $50,000 bonus, might be told to look for.
A red-faced Glasheen admitted he didn’t know. Kent smirked, immediately launching into a well-worn recitation: “These are targeted raids…you have to stop them, you have to check their identification…”
It was a threadbare assertion. Reassigning agents who previously pursued drug traffickers and child abusers to round up handyman dads with spotless records isn’t “targeted” — it’s just going after anyone driving a white work van.
So what does a migrant look like?
Ask our president, and he’ll say they look like the “worst of the worst.” They’re “drug dealers, criminals and rapists” from “filthy, dirty, disgusting” “hellhole” countries, flooding and invading our own. “Poisoning the blood” of America. The only refugees who escape his scorn happen to be white South Africans.
In Noem’s eyes, migrants are criminals — inherently and irredeemably so. They’re “illegals” who are “killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies” even as they also somehow take Americans’ jobs.
They’re “inadmissibles,” to use the bureaucratic euphemism. “Deportable.” In a word: alien.
That is, not human. Meaning easier to discard, to villainize and blame for all of America’s ills.
But the truth is that telling a U.S.-born citizen from a migrant — law-abiding or not — just by looking at them is about as straightforward as telling a masked kidnapper from an immigration enforcement agent these days.
Carter’s question comes as his home of New Orleans has become the latest in Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities. Unlike Los Angeles, Chicago and Charlotte, however, New Orleans is a blue city in a red sea.
Like Houston, it’s dealing with a governor who supports Trump’s dragnet deportation regime and has limited local pushback. A new Louisiana law makes it a felony for municipal employees to refuse to cooperate with federal immigration agencies.
Much like our mayor, New Orleans’ mayor-elect Helena Moreno is a Democrat known for working across the aisle in the state Legislature. She has earned a reputation for preferring governing over partisan fights.
The difference is that, for Moreno, protecting residents from racial profiling is personal.
What does a migrant look like?
Like her: blonde and fair-skinned — the quintessential “güerita,” in Mexican parlance.
But also like her father, an oil executive whose job transplanted an 8-year-old Moreno and her family from Xalapa, Mexico to Houston. His skin is darker.
As Moreno told the New York Times, she sees her father’s face in the images of Latinos being indiscriminately swept up across the nation. Which is why she didn’t stay silent when the feds came marching in.
Moreno announced a new City Council website with a "Know Your Rights" portal to guide residents who interact with ICE agents, as well as an online reporting system for residents to upload videos documenting possible abuses during those interactions. She asked that Border Patrol agents identify themselves, provide local officials with information on people it detains and target only violent criminals.
Even Glasheen and Kent, the two national security heads, admitted transparency, due process, nondiscriminatory stops and a better partnership with local law enforcement was not an unreasonable set of things to request.
Will the administration concede? Unlikely.
To his credit, Whitmire recently made his stance clear. "I strongly oppose the fear-based and harmful tactics used by ICE that tear families apart and undermine trust in our communities," he wrote in a statement responding to the Harris County Democratic Party's decision barring him from receiving its endorsement in the future.
But Moreno did what Whitmire hasn’t: She used the bully pulpit voters granted her. Not just to assure immigrants that they are not alone. But to tell the feds that here, we will not simply surrender. Here, we will not comply in advance. Data shows that local, city-level resistance to immigration enforcement cooperation remains a key hurdle to the administration’s mass deportation agenda.
part one: if it is friday it must be Texas...we grab
Egberto Willies is a political activist, author, political blogger, radio show host, business owner, software developer, web designer, and mechanical engineer in Kingwood, TX. He is an ardent Progressive that believes tolerance is essential. His favorite phrase is “political involvement should be a requirement for citizenship”. Egberto is Host/Producer of Politics Done Right aired on Pacifica Network's KPFT 90.1 FM and other networks. Read his articles at his "Egberto Off The Record" Substack newsletter at politicsdoneright.com/newsletter.
topics:
vouchers
Comptroller asks to bar some Islamic, Chinese-linked schools from Texas voucher program
immigration
Texas National Guard’s deployment in Illinois blocked by U.S. Supreme Court Around 200 Texas National Guard troops were deployed to the Chicago area in early October, despite opposition from local and state governments in Illinois.
the assault on health
the US Senate election
Newly unsealed divorce files detail Angela Paxton’s claims against AG Ken Paxton
the election for governor
Gina Hinojosa is clear Democratic frontrunner to take on Gov. Greg Abbott, poll finds
2026 election
Texas Democrats fill every state and federal race on 2026 ballot, a first for either partyTexas Majority PAC and the Texas Democratic Party recruited 104 candidates to fill uncontested races. Gov. Greg Abbott’s strategist said it amounts to a gimmick “if they don’t back it up with serious resources.”
cheap oil
A New Year’s resolution for Trump: Stop hurting Texas oil producers | Editorial
States brace for Trump's push to make oil drilling cheap again
the war on sustainable energy
the Texas economy
Texas economy cools as concerns about tariffs, uncertainty persist
higher ed
Texas A&M System tightens restrictions on discussing race and gender in class Under the new rules, discussions on “race or gender ideology," sexual orientation or gender identity appear to be barred from introductory-level courses.
part two:
Bill Curry was a Connecticut state senator, comptroller and two time Democratic nominee for governor who served as Counselor to the President in the Clinton White House. He has written for Salon, the Daily Beast, the Huffington Post and the Hartford Courant and has provided commentary on National Public Radio, MSNBC and many other news outlets.
Laura Jedeed is a freelance journalist who primarily focuses on the American conservative movement. Her bylines include The New Republic, Rolling Stone, and Politico, and you can find her newsletter at BannedInYourState.com
topics:
americafest 2025
Turning Point USA held its AmericaFest conference. Here’s what happened Turning Point USA’s first AmericaFest without Charlie Kirk reveals ideological rifts within the conservative movement. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/22/turning-point-usa-held-its-americafest-conference-heres-what-happened
TPUSA’s America Fest Conference Showcased the Right’s Civil War In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's assassination, the right is at war with itself over who gets a place in the movement TPUSA built https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/tpusa-america-fest-right-candace-owens-1235489753/
60 Minutes’s ‘Inside CECOT’ Unpopular Front
Trump and his National Security Strategy: Is he turning US into a new East India Company? Firstpost
Newly released Epstein files include references to Donald Trump The Guardian
FBI says Epstein letter to Larry Nassar was a fake The Hill
Trump administration to start seizing pay of defaulted student loan borrowers in January CNBC
Sanders Slams Private Equity Scrooges Ending Paid Holidays for Walgreens Workers Common Dreams
MAGA Is Breaking Up Over an “Are Nazis Cool?” Debate. It’s a Sign of Things to Come. Trump’s GOP is held together by a cult of personality. But what happens when that personality flickers? https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/12/maga-heritage-foundation-mike-pence-donald-trump.html
KEEPING THE POT STIRRED SO SCUM DOESN'T RISE TO THE TOP - Anonymous
D. ARNIE ARNESEN
15 Rumford Street
Concord NH 03301
nha...@gmail.com
(C) 603-321-7654
Host of "The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen"
D. ARNIE ARNESEN
15 Rumford Street
Concord NH 03301
nha...@gmail.com
(C) 603-321-7654
Host of "The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen"
Award Winning Public Affairs Show (NHAB 2018)
airs noon to 1pm and 7pm EST M-F at 94.7FM (concord nh)
Home Station - wnhnfm.org
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go to wnhnfm.org for streaming live
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