Nero Vibes 😱 ✡️🌻😱 👿 🧊 🔫 

While Minnesota Burns:  On Saturday United States border patrol agents shot and killed 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. They shot him ten times, with most of those bullets hitting him after he was already incapacitated and bleeding out.  Video shows that Pretti’s “crime” was holding a cell phone while coming to the aid of another Minneapolis resident who had been forcibly shoved to the ground by the agents. Pretti was lawfully carrying a gun, however, despite assertions made by ICE Barbie Noem, pipsqueak strongman Greg Bovino, and Deputy US AG/Trump lawyer Todd Blanche, videos show that Pretti’s weapon had been taken from him by the agents before they shot him. The Trump goon squad is making as much as they can of that gun, alleging that it proves that Pretti was a domestic terrorist, incredibly ironic given the number of January six insurrectionists who were armed. I am not one for guns, but the Trump administration is all in on gun rights at least for Trump supporting Kyle Rittenhouse types, rather than liberal ICU nurses. The Trump team’s claims about Pretti are so insane that they’ve even managed to offend the NRA which at least is consistent in the belief that the Constitution allows all of us, even libs, to carry guns everywhere.  Last week, an FBI Supervising agent in the Minneapolis field office resigned once it became clear that the investigation into Renee Good’s shooting was focused on digging up dirt on Good and her family rather than on the officer who shot her so it should come as no surprise that the plans for the Pretti investigation are following a similar trajectory.  The DOJ says it intends to leave the investigation in the hands of the Department of Homeland Security. Noem investigating her own goons, what could possibly be wrong about that? A handful of Republicans legislators are speaking up, a little, including Senator Lisa Murkowski who frequently speaks out but rarely does much, retiring Senator Thom Tillis, and about to be forcibly retired Senator Bill Cassidy. If they really cared, they’d start caucusing with the Democrats to put an end to this 💩 show, but they won’t. On the House side Homeland Security Chair Andrew Garbarino says he will seek testimony from ICE and Border Patrol officials.  Republican Garbarino’s sudden concern most likely reflects his fear that his right leaning Long Island district could swing blue if the killings of innocent citizens continue. With another government shutdown looming on January 30, Senate Democrats are threatening to vote against any funding bill that includes DHS funding.  They should. ICE, or at minimum ICE in its current expanded form, needs to go as does Kristi Noem and her “interim” but really permanent chief of staff Corey Lewandowki who is reported to be pulling her strings. 

Trump Fiddles:  While Minneapolis was experiencing fire and ICE, Trump spent part of his weekend hosting a showing of current wife Melania’s grift (divorce settlement?), the Amazon funded documentary that is officially described as offering an “intimate, behind-the-scenes look at First Lady Melania Trump during the 20 days leading up to the 2025 Presidential Inauguration.”  The soon to be flop coming to theaters everywhere was directed by Brett Ratner who very fittingly for Trump-land has been accused of multiple cases of sexual “misconduct.”  The film represents Jeff Bezos’ $75 million bribe ($40 million plus $35 million for distribution and marketing) to get more rocket funding.  That $75 million could be coming from the Washington Post’s budget. Over the weekend the paper canceled plans to send reporters to the upcoming Milan Olympics and rumor is that the paper’s international coverage is about to experience a similar fate.  While Trump was fiddling, he had Kristi Noem send Minnesota Governor Walz an offer to withdraw ICE from Minnesota in exchange for the state turning over its voter roll and Medicaid data.  That’s part of Trump’s continuing effort to gain access to voter data in order to "take over elections in swing states." With his polls sinking and more and more independents, including those key swingy Hispanic voters, jumping the Trump ship, the orange, wannabee king is very fearful of what the midterms, or at least fairly held midterms could bring so using ICE raids and extrajudicial killings to get control of voter rolls, as farfetched as that once sounded, could be key to his survival.   

Other 💩:  As if going after Greenland wasn’t enough, going into the weekend Trump further offended our erstwhile NATO allies by asserting that they were a bunch of wimps who’d never done anything for the US.  Trump’s faux ankle spurs kept him out of the army during the Viet Nam war but those not so wimpy allies, including the Brits and the Danes, fought side by side with US soldiers in Afghanistan, in many cases suffering more losses as a percent of their population than the US did. His remarks led to such withering pushbacks that Trump kind of retracted his remark, but mostly only when it came to the Brits possibly because pressure is building for King Charles to cancel his planned April visit and we know how much Trump loves to hobnob and be photographed with royalty. Here at home, RFK Jr, a member of what was once considered our royal family, is moving forward with his plan to destroy our collective health, and I don’t mean just his recommendation that we gorge on meat and whole milk. Dr. Kirk Milhoan, the new head of the once respected Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), said a person’s right to refuse a vaccine outweighed concerns about illness or death from infectious diseases. To be clear, that means that your child getting polio would be okay with him if it meant that his or her schoolmate was allowed to opt out of getting a polio vaccine. The good news is that negative pressure iron lung machines have been replaced by positive pressure ventilators, the bad news is that being on a ventilator of any kind for life is still a 💩ty thing.

 

RIP Alex Pretti and Renee Good.  May their memories be a blessing.