On January 18th Johnathon Ross, a border patrol agent, shot and killed Renee Good, a white woman, US citizen, devout Christian and unarmed mother of three. This was a murder. She was shot three times at point blank range while sitting in the driver’s seat of her car after trying to placate the federal agent who was upset with her partner who had been snippy with him. Good told this angry federal agent that she was not mad at him- trying to placate him. Moments later he shot her dead through the window of her car.
Then on January 24th a second person was murdered in Minneapolis by border patrol agents. Alex Pretti, another US citizen, a white man, 37-year-old ICU nurse, whose job was helping veterans, had rushed over to help a woman who had been forcefully pushed to the ground by a border patrol agent. He was assaulted by about 5 to 7 federal agents, wrestled to the ground, pepper sprayed before and while prone, although he was not resisting, and then shot 10 times as he lay prone and unresisting on the ground. The government claimed at first that Pretti was a domestic terrorist who was armed with a gun, was “brandishing it” and had planned to massacre agents. That was a lie. Pretti had a lawful right to carry a gun and did have gun with him in a holster but never held that gun in his hand during the entire encounter. He was never a threat or danger to these federal agents. The gun was removed by an agent BEFORE Pretti was murdered in cold blood by the agents.
Those facts are established by cell phone video recorded contemporaneously by bystanders at the time of these shootings by border patrol/ ICE. The videos are clear and convincing evidence that contradicts what our government told us to believe.
The autocrat’s playbook relies on a would-be dictator being able to sell the public a self-serving version of the truth. Pretti, for example, is being portrayed as a domestic terrorist who was going to commit mayhem and massacre federal agents, according to Pam Bondi, Trump and Greg Bovino. Therefore, his death is justified according to the government. But everyone on social media or watching cable news has seen the video evidence by now. Just as with any jury, the American public has had a chance to assess the evidence. And they did not buy the horseshit this government tried to sell them.
Bystanders witnessing and documenting the actions of ICE and border patrol agents in real time got us the truth.
Truth matters. Unless we start with truthful, shared facts it is impossible to get to some kind of agreement about how to handle the many problems we face in our country or react fairly when there is a killing. These days, right-wing media is generally supporting this administration’s fantasy version of reality- the one where Trump is always right and everyone who opposes him is wrong and a domestic terrorist. This is a common practice with autocrats. It’s called propaganda.
WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MINNEAPOLIS?
I am not going to sugar coat this.
Our government is being led by a would-be dictator who is also becoming increasingly paranoid and psychotic. He has packed his cabinet with loyalists and forced Republicans who are not loyal to him out of congress. People around this president (many of them wealthy tech bros and people in the fossil fuel industry) seem to be all in on a plot to turn this country into an autocracy that is responsive to Trump’s (and their) whims. They are doing this to gain and stay in power themselves, not for the good of the people who elected this administration.
They are also willing to throw out our constitutional democracy and fair application of the rule of law to get what they want. If successful, in the future, Trump’s whims as dictator would be the only rule of law you would need to obey to avoid prosecution and persecution. But failure to do so could expose you to not only the imposition of the law (applied only to people Trump doesn’t like), but social media attacks, doxxing, IRS investigations and targeting by Trump’s supporters or his paramilitary. This is what happens in countries run by dictators. This is already happening in our country as Trump openly asks HIS Department of (In)Justice to go after his “enemies”.
Do you want to live in a country like this?
Those who reject this vision for our country’s future have a decision to make. Will you continue to support this administration? Or will you stand up against it and work to regain our constitutional democracy?
As conservative lawyer George Conway put it: “I just checked—it turns out that Art. II, Sec. 1 of the Constitution of the United States does *not* say ‘The executive Power shall be vested in a bunch of sociopaths who think they can do whatever the f*ck they want and make sh*t up as they go along.’”
George Conway is right. But if the Constitution and our laws no longer hold, then that’s the country you get.
TRUMP IS CREATING A PARAMILITARY FORCE AND POLICE STATE
Despite the damning evidence in Good’s case, these federal border patrol and ICE agents continued to act with impunity on the streets of Minneapolis which led to the death of Alex Pretti. These agents were not afraid of being held accountable. They must have been told or led to believe their actions would not subject them to consequences. They knew they would not be prosecuted, or if they were, they could expect to be pardoned.
Nothing could be more dangerous for our country. Not just for immigrants. For everyone who is reading this post. For everyone living in America today. Trump is, under the guise of immigration enforcement, creating a paramilitary force that will carry out his orders and a government that will use its immense power to keep Americans under its control.
It doesn’t matter if you are a Republican or a Democrat or an independent or are apolitical. We are at a tipping point. And Minneapolis is ground zero.
If ICE agents can murder people who are exercising their first amendment right of protest in Minneapolis without any consequences, then Trump will want to use this blueprint in other cities across the United States. He will send more of these rogue agents into our cities using the pretext that they are arresting bad immigrants who are committing crimes with the real goal of terrorizing Americans to submit to this dictatorship.
We could be rapidly heading towards a police state. This administration will try to scare us into staying home instead of voting, and try to convince us that blue states and blue cities are full of bad people who are domestic terrorists to justify their violations of law.
If you do not believe our country is headed in the right direction and you think that DHS is out of control then write, call or text your representatives to tell them NOT TO SUPPORT FUNDING FOR ICE. Some Republican senators (only ten so far) are also voicing some concern about DHS being out of control. But it’s more pearl clutching than anything else so far.
If your representatives are not demanding ICE be reined in, then call them today and complain. They must demand that border patrol and ICE go back to the damn border, no more surges of agents in American cities, any agents stationed in American cities must be properly trained and must wear body cameras, not wear masks, and they must be held accountable for any violations of law which means every incident must be investigated and the feds must coordinate with local investigators to do those inquires. Thank your representatives if they are demanding these and other restraints on federal agents. Our elected representatives are just human beings like you and me. They need to know you support them.
TRUMP IS LOSING IT
I analyze handwriting for personality traits. Trump’s signature reveals a man who is all about domination, control over others, total power for himself, a strong impenetrable wall against hearing what he doesn’t want to hear, no give ever (when he changes course he is not giving in, he is pretending to but reserving his “right” to return to his demand at a later time), and sadistic pleasure in the pain inflicted on others he believes are his enemies.
As he becomes more and more psychotic (yes, he is psychotic- out of touch with reality and surrounded by people who are truly evil like Stephen Miller and others who are egging him on), and paranoid (all autocrats get paranoid if they didn’t start off being paranoid, because they know they are pissing people off with their heavy handed tactics), he will try to force our country and the world to conform to his will and his alternate reality like a battering ram against the truth.
This is the situation we all face now because we elected this dangerous and increasingly demented man. Everyone, absolutely everyone! needs to stand up against this and push back in whatever way they can. The longer he is in power and “winning” without facing any consequences himself, the harder it will be to pushback.
HOW TRUMP COULD FAIL
This may be a long battle. Or not. Much depends on how strongly We the People, Democrats in congress and in state houses react and join together to push back in this tipping point moment NOW and how quickly the Republicans understand the danger they are presently trying to deny and man up to reject Trump.
Trump may fail because he is sick and getting weaker. That weakness and loss of energy is also showing up in his signature when he signs bills into law. But because he is getting weaker, he and people like Stephen Miller seem to be rushing to get this dictatorship cemented into place. I would also guess that if Trump gets so weak he could not show up in public, this group of power hungry people running our country today would find a doppelganger (someone who pretends to be Trump -as they do in Russia with Putin) in order to try to stay in power.
Trump may fail because he is trying to move too fast and enough Americans figure out what he is up to. Trump is following the standard autocrat’s playbook, but he is imposing this playbook on the country faster than most autocrats have in the past. Victor Orban took years to impose his autocracy on Hungary and his regime is not as bad as Trump’s already is according to historians. Trump, therefore, may fail because the American people who love their freedom, which includes his MAGA base, realize THEIR rights are at stake. For example, the Second Amendment is at stake because Kash Patel said Alex Pretti should not have come to the protest with a concealed weapon even though he was carrying it legally. Is our government saying that if you come to a protest with a weapon you should expect to be murdered?
Americans like podcaster Joe Rogan seem to be getting the memo that this administration is lying to them about its goals and about what is happening on the streets of our country. Rogan recently said ICE and the CBP are like the “Gestapo”. He is echoing what he hears from his base, which means American men are waking up to the reality that this enforcement action is not about immigration and getting the bad guys off the streets. This is about our government putting Trump’s paramilitary onto the streets of America and forcing Americans to stand down and accept autocratic rule and ethnic cleansing.
We the People are not helpless. Pushback works when enough people do it. It has already forced Trump to remove Bovino from Minneapolis. Trump is replacing him with Tom Homan. We will see if Homan changes the government’s heavy handed approach. No matter who he puts in charge, however, the facts belie the pretext of immigration enforcement.
PUSHBACK
Pushback takes many forms. It can be supplying support, food and clothing to people being targeted. It can be calling, texting or emailing your representatives in congress or in your state. It can be donating to candidates who, if elected, could flip a state house red to blue. The stronger the states become, the more it is possible for governors and Attorneys General in the states to shield the people in that state from the national government’s overreach. It can be volunteering to document what ICE is doing using your cell phone and sending the video to the ACLU or other legal organizations. It can be canvassing, texting, calling, helping voters get to the polls. It’s every hand on deck in this emergency. Everyone must do what they can do.
Whether or not you like the Democratic Party doesn’t matter right now. We need every single Democratic candidate for Attorney General, state supreme court judge, secretary of state, and governor who has a reasonable chance to be elected to win their elections. Purple states need to flip their state houses red to blue. The blue states need to function as a bulwark against this regime and AGs in blue states should band together to protect the people in their states from Trump’s overreach.
Blue states might at some point also band together to withhold funds from the federal government unless it provides FEMA relief or funds programs that congress has passed legislation to provide. Trump is already threatening to withhold these federal monies to force concessions. The administration is already extorting blue states to get what they want. Pam Bondi’s letter to Governor Walz was essentially an extortionate demand letter- you want ICE out of your state? Give us your voter rolls so we can purge them.
Blue state governors might decide to use their National Guard units like UN peacekeepers on the streets when there are protests to keep the federal goon squad from hurting innocent citizens who are exercising their first amendment rights. Governor Walz in Minnesota is starting to do that.
THE GOOD THAT COULD COME OUT OF THIS
These next few years will be a tough time in our country because we elected Trump. We need to be here to support each other. But there is an opportunity, I believe, for some good to come out of this very bad time in our history. Backlash is powerful. And if the Democrats choose a strong leader who can lead with his or her values in contrast to the corruption, meanness, and divisiveness of Trump and the MAGAs, the result could be spectacularly good.
Americans could reconnect and recommit to being supportive to each other in our communities which has happened in every city that has been subjected to Trump’s border patrol/ ICE goon squads. Our country could recommit to becoming a multicultural democracy that celebrates all kinds of people no matter the color of their skin or their backgrounds or religious beliefs in backlash against the cruelty and evil of this regime. We could reaffirm our constitutional democracy and reinvent it so that it is more responsive to the needs of the people in our country. We could reaffirm kindness and caring, the rule of law, and fact-based governance as core national values.
Nothing clarifies one’s values like a regime that is as vicious, mean and demented as this one.
ALEX PRETTI’S LEGACY
Yesterday, after Alex Pretti’s death, the son of a man Pretti had cared for at the VA hospital published a video of Pretti speaking at his father’s deathbed. “Today we remember that freedom is not free,” Pretti said. “We have to work at it, nurture it, protect it, and even sacrifice for it. May we never forget and always remember our brothers and sisters who have served so that we may enjoy the gift of freedom. So, in this moment, we remember and give thanks for their dedication and selfless service to our nation in the cause of our freedom. In this solemn hour, we [give] them our honor, and our gratitude.”
Let’s make sure Alex did not die in vain. Let’s follow what he is reminding us to do, namely, work at, nurture and protect our democracy, our hard-won freedoms, from a would-be dictator and his lackeys. Tell your representatives that DHS must not be funded until and unless it conforms to clear limits on its power.