Dear Everybody:
In Minneapolis murder news:
--Without providing any evidence, press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed the shooting death of Renee Good was part of a wide and "sinister" left-wing conspiracy to impede law enforcement officials who "are under organized attack."
--She then introduced JD Vance, who said, also without producing any evidence, "That woman was part of a broader left-wing network to attack, to doxx, to assault, and to make it impossible to do their job." He also said we all owe the ICE agent who killed Good our gratitude.
--They also blamed the media, calling it "a disgrace" for reporting what is on camera.
--Governor Tim Walz warned Minnesotans Thursday not to trust the results of any investigation led only by the FBI, saying it’s clear that "people in positions of power have already passed judgment--from the president to the vice president to Kristi Noem--have stood and told you things that are verifiably false, verifiably inaccurate."
--Mayor Jacob Frey said the lies about the shooting are part of a bigger lie. "It’s about vilifying not just immigrants, but all who welcome them and their contributions to our communities. By defending the lie about this clearly avoidable shooting in Minneapolis and refusing to allow Minnesota officials to investigate the crime, the administration is sending a message to the entire country: if you show up for your immigrant neighbors, or even are simply present when those neighbors are taken, your rights will not be protected by the law and your life will be at risk."
--The name of the ICE agent who murdered Renee Good is Jonathan Ross. His photo is up on the internet, apparently put there by his father.
--JoJofromJerz: "What followed the killing was as revealing as the act itself. The machinery of the federal government engaged with startling speed, not to slow events down, not to question, not to acknowledge the gravity of what had occurred, but to foreclose the narrative before it could breathe. The language arrived pre-hardened, pre-accusatory, pre-ordained. She was dangerous. She was a threat. She was a domestic terrorist. Her death was framed not as a loss, but as a necessity--didactic, exemplary, meant to be absorbed as instruction. They don’t require the facts to align. They don’t require coherence or credibility. Power, once it abandons accountability, has no need for persuasion. This wasn’t confusion. It was domination--an assertion that what we saw belongs to them now, to be named and reshaped at will. What frightens me most is the lucidity of intent now on display. The administration envisions a country where dissent is criminalized, where resistance is recoded as terrorism, where a woman can be killed in her car and the official response is accusation rather than accountability. They demand that we distrust our senses, surrender our moral instincts, and accept obedience as the price of safety."
--At a memorial vigil for Good, an ICE agent kicked over a memorial candle, and when confronted by an attendee, said, "I don’t give a fuck." (I guess she’s lucky he didn’t shoot her.)
--At a protest in Minneapolis, a car ran over a protester.
--Jason: "Yesterday was the kickoff. It’s open season on liberals."
And there’s been another ICE shooting:
--Federal Border Patrol agents have shot and wounded two people in Portland, Oregon. A man and a woman in east Portland have been shot during a traffic stop by the Border Patrol. They were shot in their car. Yesterday they reported one was shot in the leg and the other in the chest, but they are still alive and have been taken to a local hospital. Today we found out they were taken to two separate hospitals, but there is NO WORD on their condition.
--The shooting happened in the parking lot of a medical center, unfortunately without witnesses or anybody recording it, because the Border Patrol has already changed their story a couple of times. First they said the car was "weaponized: and tried to run over them, then that they fired a single shot at the car as it tried to flee, then realized that you can’t shoot two people with one shot and said they fired five or so shots. They are also saying without any evidence at all that the two people were Tren de Agura gang members who were running a prostitution ring.
--The worst detail to come out of the shooting is that one of the wounded people called 911 and that EMT people came and administered aid. That means the Border Patrol agents left the scene, leaving the two to bleed out. `Also, if they were really Tren de Agura gang members, would they have called 911?
--John J Guy: "The ICE Gestapo are out of control."
--Palmer Report: "I wrote that no one knew what was going to happen next, the only certainty was Trump’s thugs would end up killing again."
--And now the right is going after AI for not helping spread their eyes. When you google ChatGPT, instead of promoting the lies Kristi Noem and Trump are pushing, it tells what really happened. StephenMiller’s wife immediately called for it to be outlawed, saying, "ChatGPT is dangerously woke. An AI that wrongly judges an outcome is a threat to the future of nation and world." She suggested everybody use Elon Musk’s Grok, which once referred to itself as MechaHitler and pushed Nazi propaganda.
Meanwhile, Trump is moving on to greener pastures, like total world domination:
--He now says he wants to put all that money we’re going to get from Venezuela’s oil into off-shore accounts that he controls. He also said on Hannity last night when asked when they would hold new elections in Venezuela, "They wouldn’t even know how to hold an election!"and suggested the US might be in control for years.
--What happens in Venezuela may depend on whether Machado gives him her Nobel Peace Prize. When asked about that, Trump said, "I’ve heard she wants to do that. It would be a great honor. You know, I’ve put out eight wars. Eight and a quarter because Thailand and Cambodia started going at it again." He’s now invited Machado to the White House, presumably so she can give him her Prize. (Note: That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.)
--Harry Sisson: "This is so beyond humiliating for the US. Trump won’t support Machado unless she gives him the Nobel Peace Prize she won. HE IS A CHILD."
--And as for Maduro, teemike makes a prediction: "Let’s get one thing straight. Maduro is in no danger of spending his final days in one of our hell-hole prisons! The president of Honduras was CONVICTED of forty felonies and SENTENCED to decades in prison, but he had plenty of greenbacks to pay for his release, and that’s exactly what happened! Maduro has the same resource--tons of US money squirreled away--and as soon as he and wifey are convicted, a ton or so of that money will surreptitiously find its way into Trump’s offshore accounts and Trump will ‘suddenly realize’ they were treated unfairly!"
Trump is also now threatening ground attacks on Mexico. "We are gonna start now hitting land with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico."
--Outis: "Cartels have enough $$$ and influence they could snatch anyone from Mar-a-lago if they wanted. They have no idea what they’re doing."
--He’s also threatening Nigeria and Colombia and Iran, saying "If they start killing people...(at the protests against the government) we’re going to hit them very hard. You must stand up for your right to freedom. There’s nothing like freedom." (Okay, now it’s official. Irony is dead.)
--But Trump’s next focus seems to be Greenland, and this time everyone is taking him seriously.
--Trump’s reasons for wanting it/thinking it should belong to us are unclear. Sometimes Trump says it’s ours because we need it for security, other times that it’s part of the Western hemisphere so we should have it, other times that we get to have it because we have a better claim to it than Denmark or that Greenland wants to be with us. (No, they don’t, and they’ve said so pretty forcefully. None of this makes any sense, but that doesn’t seem to matter.)
--Also, sometimes Trump says he’s going to take it by force and at other times he’s going to buy it. Question: Can you just BUY a country? Since when?)
--One of Trump’s bright ideas is to give every citizen of Greenland somewhere between $10,000 and $100,000 to either vote to secede from Denmark or to sell their homes and move to Denmark, thus leaving the place to Trump and Jared Kushner so they can build hotels. And where would the money come from? The taxpayers, of course.
--Jake Tapper: "Can you rule out the US is going to take Greenland by force?" Stephen Miller: "Greenland should be part of the US. By what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland? The US is the power of NATO." Tapper: "So force is on the table?" Miller: "Nobody is gonna fight the US militarily over future of Greenland."
--Trump: "We need Greenland. Right now Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships." (No, it’s not.) Reporter: "What would the justification be for a claim to Greenland." Trump: "The EU needs us to have it." (No again. The EU has said, "Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.")
--Yesterday France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the UK, and Denmark issued a joint statement rebuking the US and affirming that Greenland’s future is for Greenland and Denmark alone to choose." Today Canada joined the list.
--Bill Kristol: "Now Trump is circling back to a familiar target: Greenland. He doesn’t care that Denmark is part of NATO. And he’s utterly indifferent--just as he’s always been with his abuse of women--to their requests to be left alone."
--And meanwhile Stephen Miller is proclaiming, "We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else. But we live in a world, in the real world...that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power." (Now who does that sound like? German guy...funny mustache...)
--Also Stephen Miller: "We’re a superpower. And under Trump, we are going to conduct ourselves as a superpower."
--Trump: "I don’t need international law."
--dysfunctionallibra: "JFC, he’s going to get us all killed."
In Epstein news:
--GOP Rep Thomas Massie and Dem Rep Ro Khanna say the DOJ "cannot be trusted" to release all of the Epstein files and are urging a federal judge to appoint a special master, an independent overseer, to make it happen.
In Trump Tries to Destroy Washington DC news:
--Trump has now announced that he is putting a second story on his ballroom addition to the White House and that he also plans to rebuild the West Wing, saying that they have to so it will match his ballroom wing. They will add a second floor to it. (And they’ll say they have to demolish the West Wing first to make that happen.)
--Chris Jackson: "OH MY GOD! I CALLED IT. THEY ARE GOING TO DESTROY THE WEST WING NEXT! Please stop this!"
--But Trump didn’t stop there. He announced that construction of his "Triumphal Arch" (or "arc" as he persists in calling it) will begin in two months.
--Trump: "Everyone loves it. They love the ballroom, too. But they love the Triumphal Arch." (No, they don’t.) "It will be like the one in Paris, but to be honest with you it blows it away. We’re going to have something that the likes of which has never been done before."
--Trump has been itching to get his hands on Washington, DC’s three public golf courses and this week he abruptly (and probably illegally) terminated their leases, claiming they hadn’t fulfilled their obligations to maintain and improve them, and took over the courses.
--The National Links Trust: "The National Links Trust is devastated by the Trump administration’s decision to terminate our 50-year lease with the National Park Service...NLT has consistently complied with all lease obligations as we work to ensure the brightest possible future for public golf in DC. We are fundamentally in disagreement with the administration’s characterization of NLT as being in default under the lease. We have always had a productive and cooperative working relationship with the National Park Services and have worked hand in hand on all aspects of our golf course operations and development projects."
--Trump says he’s going to redesign the courses: "If we do them, we’ll do it really beautifully."
--He had already announced that Jack Nicklaus would redesign two golf courses at Joint Base Andrews just outside DC.
--Rick Maese: "A similar but slightly different version of the Kennedy Center takeover."
--Lynda Creedy: "Every move more outrageous than the last."
--Ed Combs: "Trumpy is going on the delusional belief that he IS HE KING O’ THE WORLD! Trump is more bonkers deluded than ever and one day SOON it is gonna catch up with HIM BIGLY! Where is his Gold crown? He has everything else gold plated!"
--JaniaPie: "It’s kinda more Napoleonic. I hear that building has started on an Arc de Trump in Washington."
In Trump Attempts to Destroy the Entire Country news:
--Trump’s administration closed the Goddard Library, NASA’s largest library. They are not only closing the library, but also throwing out decades worth of vital research.
--A statement from the Goddard Engineers, Scientists, and Technicians Association, the union that represents Goddard employees said, "Specialized equipment and electronics designed to test spacecraft have been removed and thrown out...With it inaccessible and the library closing, NASA is losing both history and vital information for future space missions."
--gtchaucer2: "Good lord. The ongoing pilfering, destruction, and contempt for taxpayer-paid-for research and history is beyond galling. My contempt for everyone connected with this administration is incandescent. And they bristle at the comparison with Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, Mao China."
In other news:
--Democratic Governor Polis says he’s considering "revisiting" the sentence of Tina Peters for election fraud because the sentence was "so harsh." Everyone else is furious about it, including top state officials who are demanding she stay locked up. The AG’s office said reducing her sentence would be "a grave miscarriage of justice," and Secretary of State Jena Griswold said, "Tina Peters has done more to undermine confidence in our elections than any other Coloradoan, and is rightly facing accountability for the harm she has caused to election workers, our democracy, and state. I am deeply concerned at any indication of caving to this unhinged President."
--Texas A & M University just banned some of the works of Plato as being too "woke" to fit their new curriculum standards.
--RFK, Jr. just issued new dietary guidelines, which include lots of meat and dairy (fruits and vegetables not so much), animal fats, and alcohol. Lots of alcohol because apparently it serves as a "social lubricant." (And would make accepting the new regime more palatable, I would guess. They drink A LOT in Russia.) Dr. Oz issued one caution: "Don’t have it for breakfast." (Okey dokey.)
In good news:
--The House passed a three-year extension of ACA health insurance subsidies. 17 Republicans joined all the Democrats in supporting the extension. (The Senate has already voted it down, but this means a compromise may be possible, and it’s a huge blow to Trump because this was basically a vote that said they’re no longer afraid of Trump.)
--MuellerSheWrote: "The reckoning is upon us. House Republicans are having to abandon Trump because they have to get re-elected."
--The Senate voted 52-47 to halt Trump’s naval blockade in Venezuela. (Another sign Congress is starting to assert itself and is no longer quite so afraid of Trump.)
--The Washington National Opera is the latest group to pull out of Kennedy Center after 55 years of performing there. The New York Times called it possibly "the largest artistic rebuke yet to President Trump’s campaign to remake the Kennedy Center in his image."
Best comment of the day, from Paul Krugman: "We should be clear about what is happening. American fascism is on the march, and anyone who balks at saying that clearly, who makes excuses and pretends that Trump and the people he brought in aren’t monsters, is deeply unpatriotic. If we are to have a chance at saving democracy, our first duty must be clarity. No sanewashing, no bothsidesing. Only facing the horrible truth can set us free."
Keep calm and carry on,
Connie Willis