"The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Monday, December 8, 2025. Chump is enraged when one of the crooks he pardons doesn't scrape and bow, his ICE is all about quotas and not at all about crimes, Pete Hegseth's transition to War Criminal continues before our eyes, and much more.
A 19-year-old college student was about to board a flight to surprise her family for Thanksgiving when she was detained at Boston Logan International Airport and deported to Honduras two days later, her father and lawyer said on Sunday.
The student, Any Lucía López Belloza, was brought by her parents from Honduras to the United States when she was 7. Her father, Francis López, said in a telephone interview on Sunday that neither Ms. López nor her parents knew there was an order for her deportation.
“When they arrested Any, that’s when they told her,” said Mr. López, a tailor.
He said his employer had arranged and paid for his daughter’s travel to Austin, Texas, to surprise him at work.
***(WARNING: Graphic Content) Photos of Wilmer’s injuries, photos of Wilmer and his children, and partial video of his detainment are available to the press HERE***
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) issued the following statement condemning the violent and unwarranted assault of her constituent, Wilmer Toledo-Martinez, and calling for his immediate release from the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC).
“On November 14, 2025, my constituent Wilmer was mauled by an ICE attack dog even though he has consistently explained that he was not resisting arrest or attempting to flee. His wife and two of his young children, ages two and three, all U.S. citizens, were forced to watch helplessly as he was violently attacked and dragged away. For hours afterward, he was denied even basic medical care following this unprovoked assault. The photos documenting his injuries are horrific. This should shock the conscience of every one of us. I do not want to live in an America where federal agents can sic attack dogs on peaceful residents with impunity and face no consequences.
“While Donald Trump’s entire mass deportation agenda has been nothing short of depraved, this is especially sickening. By now, everyone should realize, Trump is not going after violent criminals or the worst of the worst—he is terrorizing everyone, including U.S. citizens and their loved ones.
“I am calling for Wilmer’s immediate release from NWIPC—he has no criminal convictions, he poses no threat to the community, and he urgently needs appropriate medical care since ICE is denying him the treatment he requires. I am grateful for Wilmer’s willingness to let me share his story—there’s no telling how many similar stories are not being told for fear of retaliation. Every one of us must demand justice and accountability and every one of us must speak out against these kinds of human rights abuses.”
According to his attorney, Wilmer was violently detained by ICE and mauled by an attack dog despite not resisting arrest or attempting to flee. An ICE agent lured Wilmer out of his home under false pretenses, posing as a construction worker who claimed to have hit Wilmer’s car and needed him to step outside to verify. Another agent, accompanied by a dog, was hiding nearby and released the dog on Wilmer shortly after he stepped outside. Following the attack, Wilmer was left shaking and dizzy, and at one point his vision went black, yet he was denied medical care for hours. He was eventually taken to a hospital, where he received stitches for his injuries. He was prescribed antibiotics and additional medication, but the antibiotics were not provided immediately, and the other medication was never provided. Throughout his detention, Wilmer has repeatedly reported that obtaining adequate medical care has been extremely difficult. Wilmer, who is currently undocumented, was brought to the United States at the age of 15. Wilmer is married to a U.S. citizen and is the father of three U.S. born children, ages two, three, and seven, and this brutality has devastated the entire family.
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth went to great lengths Saturday to avoid saying whether the military will release the full, unedited video of its controversial September 2 double-tap strikes on a boat it claims was carrying drugs in the Caribbean.
Thus far, only footage of the first strike has been released to the public. The full unreleased video, however, reportedly goes on to show two survivors clinging to the wreckage, before they were killed by a second strike that legal experts have described as a war crime or murder.
Democratic lawmakers who viewed the full video of the strikes, which killed 11 people, this week said it was “one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service” and that it “confirmed my worst fears about the nature of the Trump administration’s military activities.”
When asked Wednesday if his administration would release footage of the second strike, President Donald Trump’s answer was simple: “Whatever they have, we’d certainly release, no problem.”
His defense secretary was much more evasive.
On Saturday, NBC reported that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth “ordered the US military on September 2 to kill all 11 people” on a motorboat traveling between Venezuela and Trinidad, contradicting the administration’s denials that no such order was given.
The report substantiates the claim made by the Washington Post in a report on November 28 that Hegseth gave a “spoken directive” and that “The order was to kill everybody.”
NBC’s report contradicts the statement also issued by Hegseth Saturday that allegations that he gave an order to “kill everybody” were “patently ridiculous.”
Following an initial attack on a civilian speedboat in the Caribbean on September 2, the US military, at the direction of Admiral Frank Bradley, launched a second strike, targeting two survivors who had climbed on top of the capsized boat and were reportedly waving at US military aircraft in a request for rescue. The US military launched two more strikes, sinking what was left of the boat in a likely effort to conceal their crimes.
The Pentagon’s law of war manual declares that soldiers have a duty to refuse to carry out “clearly illegal” orders, such as killing shipwrecked sailors. “Orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal,” the manual declares.
The story isn't going away. People are focused on this. He continues to lose support in Congress. Sarah Fortinsky (THE HILL) reports:
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a former Black Hawk helicopter pilot and combat veteran, said the military operation that killed 11 alleged drug traffickers, including two initial survivors, in the Caribbean in early September was “essentially murder.”
In a Sunday interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Duckworth pushed back on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comparison of the operation in the Caribbean to the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq, where both Duckworth and Hegseth deployed.
“Well, there was actually a vote by Congress to put us at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. There was no such a vote, there was no such debate here in this situation,” Duckworth said.
She praised military personnel as “the utmost professionals” but said, “The problem is, they have not been authorized to be at war.”
Duckworth said she sees critical differences in the way the operations are being carried out. For one thing, she said, the individuals targeted by the U.S. military in the alleged drug boat “were not even aimed at the United States.”
Here's the video.
And it's not just Democrats like Tammy Duckworth. SKY NEWS notes:
Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney claims some members of the Republican Party are beginning to “push back” against US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s boat strikes. “It’s interesting to me as an observer because it’s one of the places that the Republican Party, on the hill, the Senate and the House, have started to push back a little bit against the Trump administration,” Mr Mulvaney told Sky News Australia. “Now you’ve got some very high-profile Republican senators and high-profile Republican House members starting to call Hegseth’s decision-making, especially regarding these Venezuelan drug boats, into question.”
Congress is talking about it. The story gets more and more traction. Snigdha Gairola (BENZINGA) reports:
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is demanding full transparency from the Pentagon after a recent military strike reportedly killed shipwrecked survivors at sea, calling the action both unlawful and morally unacceptable.
On Sunday, Schiff posted on X, criticized the killing as "a textbook violation of the laws of war" and called on the Pentagon to release the full video.
"If Hegseth is so proud of the killing of these survivors, the Pentagon should release the full video, just like they have with other boat strikes," he said.
And Kaja Hubbard (CBS NEWS) notes:
Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has "zero credibility" on the September strikes on an alleged drug boat, citing "shifting explanations" from the Pentagon for the second strike, which has drawn scrutiny in recent weeks.
Himes was among a small number of lawmakers who last week received briefings from military officials behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, which centered on the Trump administration's campaign against alleged drug trafficking boats off the coast of South America, including the Sept. 2 follow-on strike that has become a flashpoint in Congress. The lawmakers were shown video of the second strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat, after the Washington Post reported a week earlier that a second attack killed two survivors of the initial strike.
Himes, a Connecticut Democrat, told reporters after the briefing that "what I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I've seen in my time in public service."
Appearing on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sunday, Himes urged that it's "really important that this video be made public," noting that the interpretation of the video from lawmakers who were briefed "broke down precisely on party lines."
"And so this is an instance in which I think the American public needs to judge for itself," Himes said. "I know how the public is going to react because I felt my own reaction."
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) took his criticism of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth a step further Friday, claiming the Pentagon chief’s recent decisions have “ruined his credibility.”
“I’ve been on the record already,” he told Politico’s Dasha Burns, who also hosts “Ceasefire” on C-SPAN. “After Signalgate, I think I’ve seen enough. What I really wanted to see was someone take responsibility -- own to a mistake.”
Joseph Gedeon (GUARDIAN) reports:
Senator Patty Murray, the Democratic vice-chair of the Senate appropriations committee, called for Hegseth’s firing following a bipartisan briefing on the incident on Thursday. “Between overseeing this campaign in the Caribbean, risking US servicemembers’ lives by sharing war plans on Signal, and so much else, it could not be more obvious that Secretary Hegseth is unfit for the role, and it is past time for him to go,” Murray said.
No accountability, not even coherent lies. Bernd Debusmann Jr (BBC NEWS) notes the constantly changing storyline the White House attempts to pimp. The frustration continues to mount. Articles of Impeachment were introduced on Thursday:
[. . .] Congressman Shri Thanedar wrote Articles of Impeachment against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for Murder and Conspiracy to Murder, and for Reckless and Unlawful Mishandling of Classified Information.
“Pete Hegseth is uniquely unqualified to serve as Secretary of Defense,” said Congressman Thanedar. “Every day he serves in this role, he puts American servicemembers and their families in danger. He gave direct, unlawful orders to kill every single person on a civilian boat from Venezuela, violating the Defense Department’s Law of War Manual.”
“Additionally, his mishandling of classified information, leaking war plans in a Signal chat which included sensitive operations details, including target systems and attack times, has put American lives at risk. He can no longer serve as our Secretary of Defense, which is why I am introducing these articles of impeachment.”
And that's only one of Hegseth's two scandals currently. Joseph Gedeon (GUARDIAN) reports:
Pete Hegseth is facing the most serious crisis of his tenure as defense secretary, engulfed by allegations of war crimes in the Caribbean and a blistering inspector general report accusing him of mishandling classified military intelligence. Yet despite the long list of trouble and as lawmakers from both parties call for his resignation, Hegseth shows no signs of stepping down and still holds Donald Trump’s support.
The twin crises have engulfed the former Fox News personality in separate but overlapping allegations that lawmakers, policy experts and former officials say reveal a pattern of dangerous recklessness at the helm of the Pentagon. Democratic legislators have reignited calls for his ouster after revelations that survivors clinging to wreckage from a September boat strike were deliberately killed in a “double-tap” attack, while a defense department investigation released on Thursday concluded he violated Pentagon policies by sharing sensitive details via the Signal messaging app hours before airstrikes in Yemen.
[. . .]
Compounding Hegseth’s bad week, the defense department inspector general report released on Thursday concluded that he violated Pentagon policies by using Signal to share precise details about upcoming airstrikes in Yemen, including the quantity and strike times of manned US aircraft over hostile territory, approximately two to four hours before the missions were executed on 15 March.
The report determined that Hegseth’s actions “created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed US mission objectives and potential harm to US pilots”. The information, which was marked as secret and not to be shared with foreign nationals, was transmitted via Hegseth’s unclassified personal device in group chats with other Trump administration officials. The investigation also found he failed to retain all associated messages, violating federal record-keeping requirements.
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