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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   4776 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 12, 2026

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Let's start with something juicy

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvp8glg97393o

US immigration agents searched the home of Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar on Monday morning as part of a "criminal investigation".

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents "executed a judicially authorized search warrant" for the home in the Washington, DC, area, a US justice department spokesperson told the BBC.

The search "is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation," the spokesperson said, but no further details were given. ... The justice department has a longstanding policy of refraining from most enforcement action that is "likely to raise an issue or the perception" it was being brought for the purpose of affecting any election or disadvantage a candidate.

Couple of starting points - it won't help Trump, chances of uncovering smoking guns that with tank Dems in the eventual records are slim to none. Zero chance she will be stripped of citizenship or her alleged brother deported (cue Alabama joke here). It is not escalation - the escalation was the Trump trial, but as retaliation is quite weak. If democrats obtain trifecta - I wonder what type of further escalation they will figure out.

Personally I find her the most dislikable among the squad, so I won't say I am sad.

So, did she marry her brother to bring him to the United States? It seems very plausible and I'm sure similar things happened all the time prior to 2025. At the same time, conspiracy theories about the personal lives of prominent individuals usually turn out to be fake. I'll confess to wanting to believe, which means extra caution is probably warranted.

In other news Talarico (as per my prediction) has turned up seemingly no worse for wear after a 12 day absence. But... what happened? It's a very strange absence and the official explanation (flu) should be easy to verify if he was receiving medical treatment. IIRC, a right-wing influencer on Twitter claimed to have audio from an employee at a mental health treatment facility in Ohio where Talarico supposedly was being treated after having a mental breakdown. The facility came out today with an official denial. I trust both these accounts very little.

These type of stories almost always turn out to be nothingburgers, but they are definitely fun to think about.

I think the most likely explanation is that he had a mental health crisis and was admitted to a psychiatric facility. This would explain the lack of access, flu and other explanations would not preclude statements (even if he looked like ass). Even if he was in jail someone would leak it and someone else would be accommodating. Psych stay is strict.

He could have had a really bad medical event theoretically but it's hard to imagine what.

The other two explanations I heard was that it was some sort of 4D chess bait the Republicans thing, or he was secretly flying around doing fundraising (which, why would that stop updates?).

Weird all around.

The denial from the rumored place could be revealing depending on the phrasing, do you have it? I haven't seen it.

He could have had a really bad medical event theoretically but it's hard to imagine what.

Apparently he's a Type 1 diabetic, so he could have had a really bad health issue with that (e.g. possibly ketoacidosis). EDIT: Type 1s need to keep rigid blood sugar and insulin level control and being on the campaign trail would play merry hob with that. I can't see that having him out of circulation for two weeks, though, unless it was something like he got a bad case of flu which would be more complicated with his diabetes. And again, no reason not to report on his health in that case.

I have multiple type 1 diabetic friends and family members, and an aggressive infection (particularly one which causes unpredictable loss of appetite) throwing off diabetic control in a way which would put someone off work for an extra week is a thing that happens. Type 1 diabetics are on the list of people who are told "people like you can die of 'flu - it isn't just a bad cold" when the annual vaccine is being handed out.

Oh yeah, and that's a plausible case but there's no reason not to issue a short statement saying that Mr. Talarico has come down with a bad case of flu which is complicated by pre-existing health conditions, but he is being monitored by his doctors and all is well.

Instead of letting rumours like "he's in the loony bin!" circulate, unless the very idea of admitting your candidate is not literal Superman is considered so bad that they prefer to keep their lips zipped and let rumours circulate. I could see the opposition leaping on any health admissions to run attack ads about "you can't send this guy to DC, he's so fragile he'll keel over in a stiff breeze" but I honestly don't see how "he's mentally unstable" whispering is any better.

Or he really was seriously ill and they want to keep a lid on that.

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