Our republic could soon die. Changes in where & how we access information, plus efforts to gut public ed, made us vulnerable. People laughed at absurdities on front pages of tabloids & wondered who made those up. [FN1] Newspapers & TV had journalistic standards. 1/15

Cable news, then the internet, changed how we perceive “reality.” Tricia McLaughlin, on CNN Saturday, [FN2] insisted Newark Mayor Baraka was arrested for "storming" a DHS facility. Host Victor Blackwell pointed out the video contradicted her claim. [FN3] 2/15

McLaughlin also described plans to arrest members of Congress who were w/Mayor Baraka at the facility. [FN4] That would be illegal. Section 527 of the statute funding Homeland Security passed most recently. “None of the funds appropriated ... may be used to prevent” a 3/15

“Member of Congress” from entering, for the purpose of conducting oversight, any facility” run by DHS. Also, a Member of Congress is not required to provide prior notice of the intent to enter a facility. [FN5] This is rooted in the basic concept of checks and balances. [FN6] 4/15

Mayor Baraka was at the facility to serve notice of code violations, said he’d been invited into the facility and, as video shows, when he was asked to leave, he left. He was arrested outside the facility, which is operated by GEO Corporation. [FN7] 5/15

The host of CNN Saturday did his job as a journalist and pressed McLaughlin about the video contradicting her. The folks at AP did their job on covering the story. They adhere to standards of journalism. We have to confront people who deny reality. An example? 6/15

An 8/24/23 meeting of a library board, HEPL, [FN8] north of Indy, was crowded. I stood, in the back of the room, next to John Schmitz, host of a right-wing podcast. [FN9] People were mad at efforts, led by Micah Beckwith, now Indiana’s Lt Gov, to remove books. Afterwards, 7/15

Mr Schmitz posted descriptions of the meeting. E.g. 8/24: “The angry mob sits and waits ...” 9/3: “The angry mob is attacking me personally now.” A “mob” is “a disorderly or riotous crowd of people [] bent on or engaged in lawless violence.” [FN10] 8/15

I did not see a mob. Neither did Noblesville PD officers standing about 15 feet away from us who present were under a duty to arrest any such person involved in such violence. [FN11] No arrests were made. Police did not even tell people to quiet down. 9/15

People on the far right seem to have internalized mindsets of the tabloid creators of “Bat Boy,” et al, but as a factual view of reality. It can be uncomfortable, but we have to challenge lies of the far right even in conversations. 10/15

Footnotes:
FN1. Usually we only glanced at those front pages, as we waited in grocery store checkout lines. Rarely did we purchase that shlock. However, my favorite was “Bat Boy.”
FN2. McLaughlin is DHS Assistant Sec’y for Pub Affairs & was an adviser to Vivek Ramaswamy in his unsuccessful campaign for Pres. 11/15

FN3. Boggioni, Tom, “'We're not playing': DHS spokesperson reveals plans on CNN to arrest members of Congress,” Raw Story, 5/10/25.
FN4. Id. 12/15

FN5. “Sec. 527 Nothing in this section may be construed to require a Member of Congress to provide prior notice of the intent to enter a facility described in subsection (a) for the purpose of conducting oversight.”
FN6. See Federalist No. 51 (James Madison). 13/15

FN7. Offenhartz, Jake, Claudia Lauer, Bruce Shipowski, “Newark mayor denies trespassing at immigration detention center following arrest,” AP, 5/10/25, accessed 5/11/25.
FN8. Hamilton East Public Library.
FN9. “Mouthwash” was streamed live on Facebook, Tuesdays at 9 pm. 14/15

FN10. Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed. 2001, p. 1234.
FN11. Noblesville PD officers present were under a duty to arrest, without process, all persons who within view violate statutes” I.C. § 36-8-3-6(c)(2). 15/15