Yes, it’s still somehow free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter, please do so, and if you are already a subscriber, let’s hear from you, thanks!
Yesterday afternoon, I published here one of my rare “emergency” late day postings, this time provoked by another ICE execution in Minneapolis, which was again captured on videos, though not with the clarity of the Renee Good murder. I then updated last night, in good old “blog” style. You’ll find all of that below, now with Sunday updates, with more to follow today (as we absorb massive snow day) if you wish to check back.
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” —George Orwell, 1984
SUNDAY
David Axelrod:
Spoke to a friend yesterday--a 30-year police veteran--who had seen the video from MN. "No one in law enforcement would tell you what we saw on that video was proper procedure. It's insulting to real law enforcement folks to say it was. Those guys are out of control."
Norman Ornstein, former Republican:
I will repeat that Minnesota’s home to a number of fortune 100 companies. Small and medium sized businesses have responded to the war zone enveloping the city and state. Where are the CEOs for the big companies?
—A federal judge in Minnesota late Saturday issued a temporary restraining order barring federal officials from destroying evidence related to the shooting. The lawsuit, filed by local officials, accused federal officials of blocking state investigators from accessing the scene of the shooting and removing evidence. Local citizens had tried to preserve the crime scene by ringing it with trash cans.
—The latest murder did not halt a screening for notables at the White House in a newly erected and costly makeshift state-of-the-art movie theater (since the one in the East Wing had been torn down) of the new flop film, “Melania.”
The Atlantic:
The great M. Gessen, who lived under Putin, at NY Times:
The toolbox isn’t particularly varied. President Trump is using all the instruments: the reported quotas for ICE arrests; the paramilitary force made up of thugs drunk on their own brutality; the spectacle of random violence, particularly in city streets; the postmortem vilification of the victims. It’s only natural that our brains struggle to find logic in what we are seeing. There is a logic, and this logic has a name. It’s called state terror.
Nick Anderson:
John Mitnick:
I helped to establish DHS in 2002 and 2003 and later had the homeland security portfolio as a White House Counsel and served as General Counsel of the Department. I am enraged and embarrassed by DHS’s lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty. Impeach and remove Trump—now.
Nicholas Kristof:
This is grotesque: After shooting Alex Pretti, ICE agents appeared not to be administering first aid, according to a doctor on the scene, but rather to be counting his bullet wounds.
David Frum, former Republican and Bush speechwriter:
Not everybody who supported Trump and MAGA was a bad person at the start. But MAGA is a jealous god. It demands its supporters descend a path of degeneration to utter moral ruin. Police death squads today; who knows what tomorrow.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA):
What we just saw this morning on the streets of Minneapolis is another outright murder by federal officials. And let me just be clear, those federal ICE officers are absolute cowards. I am a Marine veteran standing here telling you to your face they are unprofessional, pathetic cowards. Because if a Marine, an 18 year old Marine, did that in Iraq in the middle of a war zone, he would be court martialed because it is murder. And you pathetic little cowards who have to wear face masks because you’re so damn scared, couldn’t even effectively wrestle a guy [to] the ground, so you needed to shoot him? This is why ICE needs to be prosecuted.
Mike Luckovich:
Amy Siskind, writer:
Federal agents killed an US citizen in broad daylight, and a grand total of ONE Republican has spoken out against it? You have lost your souls cowards!
Mehdi Hasan:
They kill innocent people. They then block medical treatment for innocent people. They then smear the dead innocent people as terrorists. Rinse and repeat. These are the worst people in America.
—New link to Minnesota Star-Tribune coverage.
Dennis Goris:
SATURDAY NIGHT
Timothy Snyder:
Abolish ICE, abolish DHS, redistribute the other agencies, prosecute actual criminals, such as people who commit execution-style murders of Americans in broad daylight.
Kurt Andersen, writer:
Lucky break that when a fascist regime arrives in America, everyone carries a video camera.’
—Some high-profile gun rights activists and groups bristled at government officials’ claims that federal agents may have been justified in killing a Minneapolis man during a protest because he was carrying a pistol. The right to bear arms and in public, has been a mainstay of the gun rights movement.
Carrie Coon, actress:
Call your Senators. The House already voted (special fuck you to our New York reps). This is a critical vote, even though it won’t stop funding already passed in Trump’s Fuck America bill.
My friend, author Rick Perlstein:
I love this grand old word, valor. Alex Pretti, in the middle of the street, drecting traffic through the melee, all while filming: protecting neighbors any way he can. The thugs force him and a woman to the sidewalk, and he steps in front of the woman to protect her as she’s gassed. Then holds his hand up and backs up to deescalate--still filming. Only then, as the woman forced is to the ground, does he put his phone away to better protect her.
Then, for that insult, the mass beating begins...
Another friend, CNN analyst and author, Ron Brownstein:
The level of violence the Trump administration is directing against its own citizens is unmatched in American experience since the depth of the Southern segregationist violence vs civil rights protesters. Soon the only relevant yardsticks might be authoritarian regimes abroad.
—Hey, you think I’d ignore cartoons? One of our regulars, Barry Blitt:
—Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic “leader,” said in a statement that Democrats would vote to block a bipartisan spending package that would fund the DHS nd other parts of the government. The Senate is set to take up the measure, which includes $10 billion for ICE, ahead of a shutdown deadline at the end of January. “Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included,” he said.
—Stephen King on Twitter: “Alex Pretti was murdered.”
—Just ICE? The civil rights division of the Justice Department, which has historically investigated shootings involving federal law enforcement officials, is not expected to investigate the shooting.
Steve Brodner:
SATURDAY AFTERNOON
—The top headline on NY Times site kind of captures the essence:
Videos Appear to Contradict Federal Account of Killing
An I.C.U. nurse shot by federal agents was an American citizen with no criminal record, the city police chief said. A New York Times video analysis shows he was holding a phone, not a gun.
—The man who was shot as Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an intensive-care nurse. Ruth Anway, who worked with Alex Pretti, described him as a passionate colleague and kind-hearted friend with a sharp sense of humor.
—Homeland Security officials said the man approached Border Patrol agents with a handgun and the intent to “massacre” them. NY Times: “Footage of the encounter shows the man holding a phone in his hand, not a gun, when agents take him to the ground.”
Video #1:
—Federal officials have refused to disclose the identities of federal agents involved in Saturday’s shooting.
—In total, at least 10 shots appear to have been fired within five seconds.
From NYT:
President Trump moved swiftly on Saturday to try to shift the blame for another shooting death in Minneapolis away from the federal agents involved in the incident, claiming instead that it was the result of inflammatory rhetoric by local officials and the victim himself. Members of Mr. Trump’s administration also quickly labeled the man, whom Minneapolis police said was 37 years old and an American citizen, as a “domestic terrorist” and a would-be-assassin hours after the morning shooting, before all the facts were yet known or an investigation could take place.
—The victim was carrying a handgun, homeland security officials have said. Under Minnesota law, citizens can legally carry a handgun in public, without concealment, if they have a firearm permit. The shooting victim was believed to have had a permit, said Brian O’Hara, the chief of the Minneapolis Police Department.
—Gov. Tim Walz called on President Trump to withdraw federal agents from the state. “They are sowing chaos and violence,” he said in a news conference.
—Shooting from second angle. Many believe that gun was taken from victim’s waistband BEFORE shots were fired.
∙
Steven miller should be arrested for his role in all of this. He is an avowed white suprematist who is behind the violence. Greg bovino also should be removed. He is giving orders on the street in Minneapolis. Congress also needs to claw back the huge pot of funding dhs was already given. And make sure noem can’t use fema funds to kill more people.
State terror is what it is.