Trump is acquiring an inhuman taste for death. He murders individuals in international water without proof of criminal activity. He bombs civilians in foreign countries because he feels his actions are in the best interests of this country. The insurrection that took place 5 years ago claimed the lives of 5 Capitol police officers whose deaths are now on Trump's head. Trump continues to expose innocent civilians to potentially deadly situations, like the one that unfolded today in Minnesota. Our President is our own worst enemy, along with the moronic fools who support him. Perhaps the National Guard of the states being invaded by ICE should be deployed in an effort to protect their fellow neighbors, and to send a message to our commander and chief that his ICE agents aren't welcome.
Furthermore--In regards to Senator Mark Kelly, if Hegseth succeeds in harming this respected man's financial standing by demoting him from his retired status of a Naval Captain to a lesser position militarily --the people he so faithfully served during his 25 years of service, should open a "Go-Fund-Me" account in his name, and show him our gratitude for all he's done.. We should endeavor to collect enough money to offset the funds lost because of the efforts put forth by a drunken ROTC moron.
You know what - it’s not just Trump. It is the Republicans and all the other people who look the other way and lower heads and say I’m too scared to do anything because the thugs who worship him will come after me. Or even more base it’s not a threat of physical harm, but the thought of financial loss that stops them from standing up to this obviously out of contact with reality president. Anybody who knows anything about history can’t see what’s coming if we don’t organize as a country and say enough is enough. This president is a sociopath in the likes of Hitler.
Where is the emergency exit for this electoral accident?
Can we impeach him? Can we impeach the regime? Can we organise an emergency election? What do we need to get rid of the regime?
Do we need a spiritual revolution? Better education? Build a public media system?
Hope is necessary but your political system creates this disaster. It won't disappear by devine intervention, but it should by corrective actions of the system that caused the problem.
I say "your system" because I live in Europe. But I fear for world peace.
Tom, the death of Renee Good while trying to turn her car on a snowy street filled with ICE agents has been the trigger for my New Zealand daughter to finally become outraged about what is happening in America and how it WILL affect world peace.
No question about that now.
We can live in Europe, Australasia, or Minneapolis, but none of us are now safe from the outcome of this murderous, war mongering regime in the USA.
Trump is more dangerous than Hitler. Trump has his finger on a nuclear button and can make a unilateral decision to order it to be pushed. Plus, he is using Hitler's playbook to terrify a nation into submission, allowing him to enable this attack on a 37 year old mother just as he did on innocent "collaterally damaged" citizens in Venezuela. The murder spree started on January 6 with the five people who died on Capitol Hill, and came within a hare's breath of including the whole Executive of the US Government. Would have, if not for the sacrifices of the officers fighting to stop it.
Please rally, US citizens. Forget your differences. Work together in one accord, you have the numbers by many millions. You have one enemy, the present President of your country.
You guys are a Hoot. I know what I'm going to do when the jack-booted bastards come to my door. A SOAP impression put my hands in front of my face and say, "YOU can't SEE me."
" I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward in the streets." Eugene V. Debs A coffin should be built, hoisted up with the names of the dead on it and carried through the streets at the next demonstration.
I agree. It’s not just 47. And it’s not just magas. As Pogo observed 50 years ago, “we have met the enemy and it is us.” Other than the recent posters who claim zero culpability. It’s blue denial that will doom us, imho. Not red aggression.
No, it’s red aggression that will doom us. Don’t blame the Democrats. The Democratic party has not been an effective counterweight to the evil that Republicans have wrought, but that doesn’t make them responsible.
We disagree. Every time I made a purchase from Amazon, I contributed to this scenario. Every time I voted for Menendez (NJ)—the only Dem option— I contributed to this scenario. IMHO, we’re not just complicit. We actively fed this monster. But that’s just me. Peace out.
ISO . . . I HAVE N-E-V-E-R FED THIS MONSTER!!! I OPENLY CALL FOR HIS DEATH EVERY SINGLE DAY. I CALL THE DOJ AND LEAVE MESSAGES FOR BIMBO BONDI TO GET OUT! I CALL THE WHITE HOUSE COMMENTS LINE AND TELL TRUMP TO GET OUT! I RANT AT TRUMP ON THAT LINE UNTIL FINALLY, THE AUTOMATED MACHINE TELLS ME, "YOUR MESSAGE HAS BEEN FORWARDED." I AM NOT AFRAID OF DONALD THE DRIVEL-HEADED DISASTER! BUT HE SHOULD BE V-E-R-Y AFRAID OF US!
Yes, it's not just Trump and Republicans and all the other people who look the other way. It's also the dangerously corrupt legal system in America.
The corrupt legal system in American created the current inhumanity and enabled an ongoing insurrection in America to implement a lawless fascist autocracy. The insurrection began on January 6, 2021, and continued in 2025 as planned in PROJECT 2025. From 2021 to 2024, Biden, Garland and Jack Smith were blocked by the corrupt legal system from enforcing the law and imprisoning Trump, an insurrectionist. The corrupt SCOTUS refused to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to bar Trump from being on the ballot and holding office.
Monroe Doctrine? Qualified immunity as doctrine that protects unjustified ICE murder in Minneapolis? Doctrine is not law. Trump and his administration illegally invaded and took control of Venezuela with military force as an act of War without Congressional approval and kidnapped the president, Maduro. ICE acted outside their official duty in Minneapolis which was finding and detaining illegal immigrants not replacing domestic police with unjustified murder of innocent citizens. Trump and ICE are conducting an insurrection that violates federal law.
The federal criminal law in the United States is created by Congress and then described in Title 18 Part 1 of the U.S. Code which has multiple Chapters.
Specifically, the crime of insurrection is defined in 18 U.S. Code § 2383 - Rebellion or insurrection which clearly states who is guilty of the felony crime with this language.
Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
What is the solution? The law must be enforced on insurrectionists including Trump, members of his administration, Republicans in Congress, and six justices on the Supreme Court. When Democrats get elected to the presidency and take control of Congress in 2028, the insurrectionists must be arrested, convicted and imprisoned. And the corrupt legal system must be revised by removing false doctrines.
Republican politicians enabled every dirty deed and every nasty crime committed by the trump regime. They are complicit in all of it, including the murders. I sincerely hope that Americans don't forgive, forget or dismiss their culpability - their fascistic, odious, illegal and traitorous involvement.
The precedent in this case is Pol Pot, Idi Amin, or maybe late "Cultural Revolution" stage Mao. The crazy/delusional level is way higher than Hitler prior to maybe 1943.
I don't know how ANYONE viewing that video can say that she was trying to run over the ICE agent. They tried to get into her car! She turned her wheels to the right, and she tried to leave. The agent was CLEARLY not in front of her car. Trump said the agent was viciously run down, and that Trump was surprised he was still alive. Apparently, Donald Trump was looking at some other video. But facts mean nothing to him.
He is scum and a disgrace to our country. Why he is still in office is beyond me. Every thug “ice” agent involved in that murder along with Noem should go to prison for killing the woman.
There were two to the side and one ran in front of the vehicle and I think that's the one that shot the woman. Another appeared to show that one to the side fired or held his weapon as though he intended to shoot. I supposes it depends on the vantage point. But the doctor at the scene begged to be able to render aid and said she could be dying and the ICE agent is heard to say "I don't care" which sums up this entire shameful administration. To my mind, the agent that ran in front of the vehicle and fired the shot was in over his head. He should never have put himself in harms way and to be perfectly honest, I doubt the driver even SAW him. She feared for HER life, not the other way around. Disgraceful!
Under the rule of law the tragic incident would be investigated, but Trum and Noem immediately exonerated the ICE agent. This about ICE immunity, about this government's right to use lethal force to enforce obedience. This is one more step in the establishment of a totalitarian fascist regime entirely loyal to Donald Trump.
I . . . HATE . . . DON-OLD THE DRUMPF DUMPSTER WITH A PASSION! Let's play "Musical Chairs," and the last one standing gets to TAKE . . . HIM . . . OUT!!!!!
Patricia - The administration claims that they are there to protect people and bring down crime but they keep contributing to the rise in crime numbers. They are doing this because of a now debunked video. Normally they would ask for cooperation from the state to investigate but they skipped that part because quiet cooperation doesn’t generate clicks.
Yes Donna, I saw the video and was sick of Trumps comments.
But you and every voter knew he talks about carnage, only the US was in almost any aspect in the best shape ever when his term started. Trump has no relation to reality whatsoever, and his goons and fruitcakes line up with his fantasies and stupidities.
The peace president now becomes a mortal danger, for internal peace, but also for world peace. That is the responsability of the American electorate...
Tom - You mean the “peace” president who can’t even get the name of the medal that he wants so desperately right? Nobel vs Noble ;)
If the government looks good it’s his government but if it looks bad it’s someone else’s government. He even claims things that others did, or started, as his if it looks good. He’s an idiot.
And even sadder, that woman had a child who is now motherless. Trump has so much DEATH UPON HIS HEAD, GOD, I WISH WE COULD JUST YANK HIS FAT ASS OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE AND ADMINISTER THE EXACT SAME TREATMENT TO HIM! LIKE PUTTING HIM ON DISPLAY IN THE PUBLIC STOCKS, ONLY IN HIS CASE, WE WOULD BE ADMINISTERING "THE FINAL SOLUTION"!
Send Trump and company to their beloved Alligator Alcatraz with no special treatment. They can live in the conditions they forced others into. Actually, Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem should go to CECOT.
I hope ICC convicts Susan Wiles and the lot of them for war crimes, with sentences to be served in the notorious prisons of member nations: La Makala (Congo), Kamiti (Kenya), Muhanga (Rwanda), and Mendoza (Argentina). “Susie” reportedly makes casseroles for friends and neighbors. Maybe that will work on prison guards in Congo. Not sure Niedermeyer will find mayo though. https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/susie-wiles-trump-cabinet-chief-of-staff-net-worth-b2682925.html
If the Ice-Hole of ICE were to behave consistently and "rationally," she'd have that "well-trained dog" shot the way she shot her dog - for >exactly< the same "reason," albeit the rational of a psychopath. Just a'sayin'
Mary-Chilton van Hees - The $50,000 sign on bonus, lack of standards and cutting their training short is why we have unqualified people playing law enforcement which is costing people their lives and livelihood.
the new 'recruits' (evidently must) pass the - bigot, racist, NOT critical thinker tests - not to mention the physical acuity tests - to get hired ~ hmm?
Dale - I think they just stopped at the loyalty test and said f*ck it to the rest. But the rest of the qualifications you listed are probably seen as a bonus.
And Putin, now adopting Trump's self-satisfied grin, knows he has won. He is fully aware that the more American corpses and imprisoned American patriots, the more he has frightened a larger majority of his American enemies who will fear to cross his Putin-created world.
Whereabouts Unknown - The other sad thing is that it’s almost impossible to sue or bring a case against ICE officers thanks to Congress. Her life was taken and her family is going to be left with little recourse. But, hey, this administration will cover up what happened and the officer will keep his job. How’s that for justice?
Whereabouts Unknown - You seem to be correct. MAGA is going all in on victim blaming as well just because she listed pronouns in a bio. How damn sad is that. A persons life reduced to their online presence. Not that they were a living human being as it should be. Now that the FBI is taking over the investigation and shutting out the state we will never see the evidence/truth that we all witnessed come to light. Just read that after killing the woman they went to rough up some school kids. Just wrong on all levels.
He should be questioned thoroughly every time he lies... which is almost as often as he takes a breath. Pressure him to explain every single lie and force him to embarrass himself when he can't explain his lies adequately.
This is about ICE immunity. This is about creating a paramilitary domestic organization above the law, entirely loyal to the President. This is why Abrego Garcia is still fighting deportation. ICE does not make mistakes is what Trump and Noem tell us. This is the road to serfdom under a fascist regime.
As a utilitarian humanist, this question cuts to the core failure of American governance: We’ve systematically inverted who gets human dignity and who gets treated as disposable.
The grotesque irony: Corporations get constitutional rights while actual humans fleeing violence get extrajudicial execution by ICE. AI gets regulatory protection while Venezuelans get bombed for oil access. The calculus is perfectly backwards from any framework aimed at reducing suffering and achieving justice.
From a utilitarian lens, the Venezuela operation is catastrophic on every measure. The suffering-to-benefit ratio is infinite because there was no benefit that required that level of harm.
The NSS framework that authorized Venezuela explicitly rejects the post-WWII humanitarian order in favor of might-makes-right spheres of influence. It’s not just amoral, it’s anti-moral. It treats human dignity as negotiable based on strategic asset location.
U.S. grants personhood to legal fictions (corporations) and technological constructs (AI) while systematically dehumanizing actual humans (immigrants, minorities, homeless, poor, Venezuelans, anyone outside the “sphere”). This isn’t accidental confusion, it’s operational doctrine designed to maximize elite extraction while minimizing accountability for human costs.
As a realist, I recognize power dynamics constrain what’s achievable. But the current trajectory isn’t realism, it’s nihilism masquerading as strategy. Bombing capitals for oil while ICE executes women in Minneapolis doesn’t advance American interests. It erodes them by proving to the world that American power operates without moral constraints or institutional checks.
The fundamental utilitarian question: Does this reduce aggregate suffering? Venezuela, ICE killings, corporate personhood, unregulated AI…every single policy you describe increases suffering while concentrating benefits among those who already have power. That’s not governance. That’s organized predation with constitutional vocabulary.
You’re right that America is doing the exact reverse of moral imperatives. From a utilitarian humanist perspective, that’s not just wrong; it’s catastrophically stupid. Systems that maximize suffering while denying human dignity to actual humans don’t produce stable outcomes. They produce collapse, resistance, and eventual reckoning.
The USA isn’t just going in the opposite direction from reduced suffering and zero injustice. It’s systematically institutionalizing increased suffering and normalized injustice as official doctrine, then wondering why the world stops cooperating and domestic solidarity fractures.
So, what does it mean to be a human being: inherent dignity, inalienable rights, protection from predation. America’s current answer: personhood is conditional on power, rights are negotiable based on strategic interests, and dignity is reserved for those who can’t be exploited.
That’s not civilization, it’s barbarism with better PR.
—Johan
Professor of Behavioral Economics & Applied Cognitive Theory
Do you mean that you do not agree that 'to maximize overall well-being for the greatest number of people' is a good thing? What's your alternative? Is it extravagant abundance for a privileged few, and deprivation and despair for the majority?
But inequality in the US has a long history - it doesn't start with Trump. A study by Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez estimates that, in 1913, about 18% of income went to the top 1%. 1913 is also when the income tax was first introduced (even though it was used to compensate for the lost revenues by reducing excessively high tariffs rather to redistribute wealth). In 2016, when Trump first became president, the top 1% already held 30.5% of the country's wealth.
And US intervention in latin american countries also has a long and chequered history ranging from the bad to the appalling in terms of its consequences for the citizens of the affected countries.
With respect and thank you, understanding the architecture of harm is the first step, not the last. The question of “what to do” only makes sense once we stop pretending the system is something it isn’t. You cannot fix a machine you refuse to diagnose.
There are three levels where action is actually possible:
1. Structural clarity
The public needs a vocabulary for what is happening. As long as people think these are isolated abuses rather than an operating model, nothing changes. Naming the pattern is not academic. It is the precondition for coordinated resistance.
2. Institutional pressure
The only leverage that works on systems built for elite extraction is reputational, legal, and economic pressure applied to the institutions that enable it. Courts, universities, NGOs, state governments, professional associations, and international partners still have tools. They just need the political will to use them.
3. Human solidarity at the ground level
When a state begins normalizing dehumanization, the most powerful counterforce is the refusal to participate in it. Sanctuary networks, legal defense funds, whistleblower protection, local journalism, and community‑based resistance have historically done more to blunt authoritarian drift than any federal mechanism.
None of this is glamorous. None of it is instant. But it is real.
I don’t offer fantasies. I offer the same thing I teach:
diagnose the incentives, expose the doctrine, and build counter‑structures that make cruelty costly rather than convenient.
The only thing the puppet masters care about is money. A coordinated, sustained, general boycott of all companies complicit in enabling the administration and the GOP is the only way to get their attention short of massive general strikes and civic unrest.
Here’s an idea and I’ll post it in other places too:
Here’s a simple thought experiment….not a plan, not a proposal, just an idea if someone with the right expertise ever wanted to explore it. The median American has about $8,000 in liquid savings, but politically engaged households usually sit closer to the $10k–$30k range. If 20 million people redirected even that modest amount into a euro‑denominated index fund or another stable foreign asset (let’s say a pro-democracy private equity fund that’s easy to invest in from your personal bank account to this fund, like the stock market) you’re looking at $400–$600 billion moving in a coordinated window. That’s not symbolic. That’s a macro‑signal: reduced marginal demand for dollars, upward pressure on the euro, and a political‑risk premium that U.S. corporations and the Federal Reserve would have to register.
Launching something like this would require a regulated, transparent investment vehicle …essentially a professionally managed fund open to U.S. investors; very possible, these already exist for other investments. I’m not saying I know how to build it or whether it’s even feasible.
But if you extend the same logic outward, you can see how it scales: if participation ever reached the level where the aggregate capital approached $1 trillion, you’re suddenly talking about a figure equal to several percentage points of U.S. GDP. At that level, the signal becomes impossible to ignore.
And participation wouldn’t just be financial. It would function almost like a referendum: people would sign on publicly and commit to coordinated economic behavior—- including stepping away from the corporations and platforms driving the very dynamics they’re resisting. No Amazon, no big‑tech ecosystems, no convenience‑based backsliding, The leverage only works if the commitment is real.
It’s just an idea, nothing more, but if anyone with the right background wants to think about real, non‑violent leverage, the math shows where scale actually lives.
Yes, Johan, this is barbarism, and barbaris always collapses in the end. Hopefully, Trump's malignant narcissism will turn the country against him and his enablers.
Johan, thank you for your clearly stated, expert analysis of what we are witnessing: The BARBARISM and HUMAN SUFFERING done in our name as citizens of the United States of America under DJT.
What can WE DO to show the level of disapproval felt by we the people for DJT?
How do we instead show our willingness to stand up for our convictions against the show of ILLEGAL POWER we are witnessing everyday from this administration?
What counter action would be as drastic, without the element of barbarism and lawlessness, to show the majority of human beings in our country are not going to remain silent for another day of Trump’s MAGA madness?
Could we agree to be out on our local streets in droves in peaceful demonstration
ON A GIVEN DAY FOR ONE HOUR? Can we do that? Can we cheer each other on with a shared sense of support for what our Constitutional Republic, our United States of America means to each of us.
Simply being in the public domain where we are known would speak volumes.
We would BE THE FACE of resistance to Donald Trump and his loyalists who seek to demonstrate their POWER over the LAWS of our country.
Anyone who supports the demonstration but must travel at that hour on that day, would simply display a USA Flag representing our law-based Constitutional Republic and we would respect your circumstances requiring your passage. Your flag (even a hand-drawn flag on paper would be sufficient) would be your indication of support for the resistance to the Trump regime.
Additionally, we would recognize the two-finger PEACE SIGN ✌️ as a show of support of our peaceful demonstration.
As for other passing unmarked vehicles, we would be TOTALLY MUTE and NOT OBSTRUCT PASSAGE in any way when a vehicle without a flag or hand peace sign passes by. Again, we would be MUTE and NOT OBSTRUCT passage in any way as any vehicle without a show of support passes by.
How many of our fellow Americans would pass by us unmoved by their own face-to-face witnessing of our peaceful stand for our Constitutional Republic?
Would simply taking a stand before the people we know and live among be the public reckoning that this time calls for before more human suffering happens in our name? We are all human beings and hearts must be moved!
With the technology of 2026, our cell phone cameras could produce the largest record of historical documented evidence of public sentiment ever compiled by a population of free people during the one hour of peaceful demonstration.
I envision the numbers of people out on their streets growing as the minutes go by and shared video and commentary spreads across our country with the sunlight of day from the east in West Quoddy Head, Maine to the west in Cape Alava, Washington.
Maybe this Sunday, January 11th, at 2:00 p.m. and heading west as the sun moves…?
Sounds simple and doable…what am I missing?
Thanks you, Johan, for your valuable contribution to this PR forum.
To save our Constitution and democracy from ruin, the only way to get the maligant narcissitic demagogue out of the White House is by impeachment and the conviction of the same. Therefore, we need to, peacefully, fight like hell to get more progressive democrats in the US House and Senate. ALso, we need to ensure US Rep. from Nebraska, republican Don Bacon, is encourage to keep speaking out against Trump's insanity of taking over Greenland, Columbia, Mexico, and Cuba.
Stay focused on your homeland! Wrest the US flag from Trump's bloody hands! Trump and his allies are stealing your own country from you. Forget Greenland!
It seems POTUSs always send people to their death. Do you think the more they do it, the easier it gets? Surely there needs to be well structured reins upon this, especially because a POTUS may become demonstrably sociopathically unbalanced. Do any names come to mind?Many more reins than just the 25th Amendment are necessary. Such reins are regularly wholly lacking under Dictatorship, cf 1930’s Germany.
Will such reins be invoked in present Minneapolis? Or is this just the beginning of wholesale massacre by 🧊? Does Peewee German imagine so?
Donald, Pete Hegseth and his boss should face charges for their multiple crimes, and lose privileges of their undeserved positions, like security details and benefits associated with said positions of power. A guy like Hegseth and his draft dodging overlord have their nerve in their pocket judging a Patriot like Mark Kelly, who was telling active duty military that they had the right to refuse to follow illegal orders.
A non sequitur to your comments, but relevant to important points Prof. R makes, re
⭐Corporations are not persons; ⭐Money is not speech:
MoveToAmend.org has been hanging in there for a few decades, to get a Constitutional amendment that ONLY human beings are persons with 14th Amendment & other guarantees.. The constantly- reintroduced bill is sponsored by Rep Pramila Jayapal, our shero in this crucial effort❣️
Some history: Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, 118 U.S. 394 (➡️1886⬅️), is a corporate law case of the United States Supreme Court concerning taxation of railroad properties. *The case is most notable for a headnote stating that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment grants constitutional protections to corporations.*
Which of course is a lie. And not even a ruling by that corrupt SCOTUS in 1886, yet accepted as precedent, by ~ who else ~ heads of corporations who control the levers of power.
Jan 20 is No Kings Day. There are plans for a total national shutdown - we all need to participate. We all need to stand up, participate in the resistance.
I'm all crestfallen. And here, after reading Dr Reich's essay this morning, I was getting all worked up to post a rant to assert "And Money Is Not Speech!" But understandably, I guess that just won't happen today!
👍 It would involve a long-winded discussion of what freedom of the press means in the Constitution - commonly understood as freedom of speech - disambiguating between the printed word from the printed or struck (metal printed) dollar and spending - or even having - money from speaking! Although, to me it seems mere common sense should suggest it shouldn't take any more than this statement to make the damn point and it shouldn't take a goddam PhD to understand it! But then again, I'm a moron! 🤪
Besides, it seems more pressing - pardon th' pun please - issue(s) have developed, lately!
Donald, describing Hegseth as a "drunken ROTC moron" is perfect. He is one of those guys most people who knew him probably despised, even if they didn't say it to his face. He reminds me of the classic bully who is in reality a coward. Well, Hegseth is a coward, giving orders he has no right to give to officers he has most likely threatened something if they don't follow them. His boss is also a dementia-laden fool who never had any sense, but somehow came out better than OK because he had a bunch of needy people around him that he could slip a bill to and it would keep them silent and working on his behalf. We do need to do better in the selection of leadership. Trump and his toddler pool should never have been in power in the first place, and the second place was orchestrated by people like Musk and his digital interference. I do wish we could get proof of that, even though a lot of folks know it happened!
Donald - What has outraged me is a list that is way too long. Any one who believed that this administration, and namely T, was pro law enforcement should have been woken up to the fact that he is not when they just blamed the Capitol Police for the riot on Jan 6. Their ICE goon squad is Not law enforcement! At least they are not acting like they have had any training. After their rush to hire the “worst of the worst” shows it. No one, and I repeat No One, stands in front of a vehicle to try to stop someone. An officer in Ohio learned that after he shot a pregnant woman for shoplifting. The woman and baby died because of it. There are other methods to get the person if they leave the scene. This administration’s rush to spin reality of a situation tells you all you need to know about what really happened. I’m so tired of victim blaming and no accountability for the perpetrators - who are ICE and DHS right now. Renee Good did not deserve to die. They denied her immediate medical care. Immigrants and U.S. citizens should not have to “prove” who they are when they are bum rushed by a masked person. They do not deserve to sit in a cell until they can while their rights are being violated. I have had to use my service weapon and I have been shot by a gun. Those cases went to trial and I won only because I had a good case and I followed my training. DHS has lost most of their cases. I live every day with what I did when I was an officer and I hope that these people have to live with themselves as well. They are not the good guys and have brought shame onto their department. It’s okay if you hate me because of my profession (it used to not be this way - but I get it) but please understand that not all law enforcement officers are bad guys. That said I don’t recognize what is going on right now. If it was following the orders just to keep my job and the orders were what we are seeing right now I would have quit.
As far as Mark Kelly goes - I hope he fights like hell.
“I have just viewed the clip of the event which took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a horrible thing to watch. The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot at her in self defense. Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe that he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital. The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis. They are just trying to do the job of MAKING AMERICA SAFE. We need to stand by and protect our Law Enforcement Officers from this Radical Left Movement of Violence and Hate! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP”
Someday in the future when we are finally rid of this disgusting man a movie will be made about how he was able to attain the highest office in the land.
“The Great Divide” How one deceitful man was able to completely turn Americans against each other.
He is a blatant lier for sure. Disgusting that people will take his words as truth, even after watching the many videos of this woman’s murder, with her murderer walking away from the scene unharmed. Enough!!!
It is plain that the 37 year old woman who wanted to warn her neighbors of the presence of ICE KNEW that if they pulled her out of her car, She would have been abducted, and severely harmed. I would have gunned the car to get away in that situation.
Ice agents are Trumps gestapo and deserve whatever they get. They are an extra legal paramilitary force. The worst of them deserve long prison sentences much as real Gestapo types after the end o WW2
What a sad movie that would be. Its not some mystery. Maybe a cooking show. You take a couple of cups of well-aged fear and loathing of females. Hispanics and evangelists and the Mormons who stopped the ERA at the threshold and guys getting stroked by the hardly new gross guy stuff online. Add a squeeze of undying Cuban Pavlov's dog drool at the word "Communist." Mix well with another cup of insanity over Gaza. (We are fine with the Muslim ban guy who moved the embassy to Jerusalem and etc.?) A couple of tablespoons of banal gullibility: "They TOLD us!" wailed the Venezuelan lady in Florida, of the promises of the Republican party reps. "They TOLD us it would only be criminals!" And throw out half your dough for the didn't vote at all. It's known as a s---t cake.
Not to pick a nit here, but I like to weigh my ingredients when baking. Its more accurate, as bread or cakes involve a formula rather than a recipe. How much does a cup of "well-aged fear and loathing of females" weigh? I can't seem to find that anywhere here........
It is more about deep insecurity, low esteem and no real idea how to get through life. These are the people hiding behind that rhetoric. They don’t look inward and feel justified in their hatred.
We have big social problems and they became political because of Trump.
Oh, God, Keith . . . NO MOVIES ABOUT TRUMP . . . PLEASE! Haven't we had enough of him already???? We sure don't need any post- silver screen reminders to keep him hanging around another 25 years or so!!
As a father and grandfather, I cannot understand how a person can look a women, a child’s mother, a mother’s daughter in the eye and shoot her in the face robbing her and her loved ones of years of loving moments.
Maybe she simply hates the way the immigrant situation is being handled - and finds it brutal and completely unnecessary? What do you think? A possibility… or even a probability?
Sometimes protesting is a very necessary, legitimate tool.
Our country is being turned into a police state. Maybe that's okay with you, but millions upon millions of your fellow citizens do not find it okay.
The woman who was shot in the face three times is no longer alive. She was a human being. Have we really sunk so despicably low that we don't know the difference between a human being and a robot. She was breathing, able to feel the wind on her face, experienced emotions first hand, loved and worried and laughed spontaneously without being programmed. She was one of a kind - unique, possessing her very own unique abilities. Her heart beat, her mind was curious and capable of analyzing, appreciating, observing, sensing in infinite ways. She also bled. But not now. Robots don't care. Robots are tools. She was a human being.
This subject is so profound. I have tried to express what it means to be a living, breathing Human Being. It's a poor attempt… but I certainly hope you get the point!!!!!
This so-called democratic government we currently have is a farce. It’s more like either a very bad, embarrassing reality TV show or, frankly, simply a freak show.
She also had/ has a soul!!! She has had her life cut short unnecessarily.
IF absolutely necessary, what about shooting tires - instead of drivers - to get a car to stop!
Trump is an archetype for too many of our fellow citizens. Perhaps, instead of focusing primarily on "what's wrong with him," we should be focusing more on what happened that made him that way. Genetics may provide a partial explanation, but we all have a "dark" predatory, survivalist side, that used be activated less frequently in our society.
A lack of the resources to meet our basic survival needs (extreme poverty) seems to be a primary trigger for predatory criminal behavior. Some contemporary economists are considering replacing our minimum wage policy with a guaranteed annual income policy. That would have been impossible before our computer technology because the cost of living varies so widely within our country. The guaranteed annual wage would be a lot higher for residents living in Washington, DC than it would be for residents who, like me, reside in Washington, NC. Computer technology may make the distinction possible for the first time in human history.
These are frightening times to live through, but they are also exciting and promising times if we just begin to apply a little more right-brain intuition and imagination to the search for solutions to problems that are largely of our own collective making.
I think it might be more appropriate to look at how US society became so divided. Also how big business and oligarchs turned it into an authoritarian state. Trump is a symptom of what is wrong not the cause. Many societies have divisions, some manage them.
'People Like Nick Fuentes Are the Bottom of the Barrel': Who Are the Brains Behind the MAGA Movement?
U.S. President Donald Trump.
U.S. President Donald Trump. Credit: Adam Gray/AP
In her new book 'Furious Minds: The Making of the New MAGA Right,' Laura K. Field outlines the camps that make up the American far-right and maps out the intellectuals fueling Donald Trump's assault on liberal democracy. In an interview, she explains their rise and promises: 'They aren't invincible'
Re: equalization by way of computer technology. Didn't Biden have a significant program to extend "broadband" to rural areas? I have a vague recall that that was an early"kill" by Trump. (?) Your observation that "guaranteed income" varies widely from state to state is so real: but we have so little evidence that anybody outside of maybe Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren even care about balancing such issues nationwide. As for what's the matter with Trump, Mary Trump says he was never loved at a tender age because of his mother's illness and father's indifference. With respect, I give genetics a lot of weight.
My autistic, bipolar daughter also speculated that Trump (and Putin) might be autistic. Although autism is a spectrum, with highly diverse symptoms, one of the most common symptoms seems to be a lack of empathy.
Kerrin used the drug Ecstasy one time and said she experienced empathy for the first time. She also said that, although she was glad to have an experienced a feeling that was more natural in others, she would not use it again because she could not function in that altered state of consciousness.
If it weren't for the "function" problem, we could just put ecstasy in our drinking water like fluoride and solve all of our social problems. Just kidding!
There is no conflict between genetics and cultural conditioning. Both contribute to the gradual development of our personalities from infantile narcissism to a more mature adult personality. Negative genetic traits play a stronger role in the development of some than of others. Sometimes the balance is tipped more toward the social environment.
People with exceptional intelligence and a strong self-will are usually either more constructive or more destructive than "average" people. What makes the difference between which way they turn is still a deep mystery to me. People who begin by being unusually "evil," sometimes repent and become "good" at great personal sacrifice and sometimes the "good" turn "evil" to hold onto their unjust socioeconomic/political advantages.
Interesting. My former partner has a younger daughter who is on the spectrum. She is diagnosed as such. Yet when I had a spell of illness, her empathy shone out of her like a beacon. She was the same when her stepfather had terminal cancer. However at work tact was not her thing. So the setting ,made a difference.
Trump must be under extreme stress. He has chosen something where he is completely out of his depth. All he had is an ability to connect with whites who feel marginalised.
But any other skills like understanding complex issues, solving problems are beyond him.
That is what explains the bizarre outbursts, but it doesn't excuse them.
If Trump were not more of a cause than a symptom of our toxic society, that would be a valid perspective, but I'm afraid, although Trumpism is still represented by a minority, it seems to be a sizeable minority that may still be growing, especially in certain sections of our Nation.
It is especially concerning that a minority of the electorate was able to deliver control of the House and Senate over to Party where, although they are not MAGA, many (most?) are willing to support MAGA policy to remain in control.
That's a valid point, as long as we don't make the mistake of thinking that our social pathology will be "cured" as soon as Trump is removed from office either by time limitations (which can be disregarded like so many other historical precedents), impeachment or death.
Trump is still a symptom, not the cause, of the shit storm of monumental proportions that we are currently living through.
Capitalism values a human being only so much as they can provide profits through their labor or their purchases. If not, they are part of the superfluous population that can just fade away into drug use, be deported, or just die....all of which capitalism has also found a way to profit off of. In the end, that may be America's greatest contribution to the world: serving as a warning to others of how unchecked capitalism can destroy a nation and its humanity.
Capitalism is an economic system wrought by human beings. It’s the horrendous human beings who don’t give a damn about other people who ruined this world.
The USA was born with a weak federal government, and a muddled sense of national identity. It was an experiment disliked by many, both at home and abroad. Whether the USA collapses like the Soviet Union did is up to us.
It's an interesting discussion debating just who or what are human beings. Oddly enough we're presently being ruled by inhuman beings, without compassion, honor, or in many cases within the Trump administration sufficient intelligence for the task.
This is so sad someone unnecessarily lost their life standing up for the oppressed. This event will not be seen that way by many, as evidenced by Kristi Noem and trump.
As a young black male, I was taught not to mess with cops….yes sir no sir and thank you sir; that’s it even when they are wrong! It is better to humble yourself and walk away with your life than to be billy bad ass dead because no one cares about you, you re black. The police can legally kill you. It will always be painted as your fault.
So it’s crazy that’s this is a white looking women that is a US citizen and even she is being painted as the villain.
It feels like all my life experiences from the frightening days of the Cuban Missile Crisis to JFK’s assassination to MalcolmX to Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King to Rodney King and George Floyd are HERE - all wrapped up into one big WAKE THE FUCK UP AMERICA.
Power corrupts - Absolute power corrupts Absolutely.
Back in the '60's, I knew an old black man who worked as a janitor at a retail store. If you said to him: "How are you doing?", he would reply "Oh, about half as good as you!"
He was referring to the Three-fifths Compromise in the Constitution which stated that enslaved people would be counted as three-fifths of a person for purposes of congressional representation.
Richard, the process is more subtle. Every time someone differentiates people and acts upon differences, the risk of discrimination grows. Every time people are talked about with wrong words (rapists, garbage, tsunami), we are conditioned in the direction of mass murder.
The White House functions as radio Mille Collines in Ruanda...
How lucky I am not to be American! The woman who was just murdered by thugs acting on Trump's orders should cause more outrage than the murder of Charlie Kirk.
Trump and his gang of far-right white Christians deserve nothing but contempt, and we should all, worldwide, go to US embassies and voice our disgust for these predators who are destroying humanity and the planet. We are all affected, not just Americans, because planet Earth belongs to us as we belong to it, and once again I repeat that it is absolutely important to attack these criminals on their "status" as Christians.
I am a Bermudian. A stones throw away from America. As a 10 year oId I first went to the USA in 1960 to stay with friends of my parents - The Mitchems.
Wyn Mitchem was a Col in the US military serving on the US base at Kindley Field, Bermuda. The Mitchems were our next door neighbors.
It was during our visit to their home in Reston, Virginia that I was first made aware of American politics.
Kennedy Vs Nixon.
Wyns son John had slapped a bumper sticker, supporting JFK, on his car.
Wyn, a Republican, was furious and beat his son with a strap yelling “Don’t you ever support a Democrat”.
That day was forever etched into my brain. When Kennedy was shot 3 years later I was horrified.
America built our runway back in the day. Bermuda has always loved its relationship with America. 80% of our tourists come from the USA.
In 1964 I saw The Beatles at Forest Hills. In 1973 I went to Cornell University’s hotel school. My friends dad owned the 21 Club in New York.
I supported the Buffalo Bills.
This Bermudian loves America.
I also liked Ronald Reagan. I have seen and supported from afar people on either side of the American political aisle.
It was historic to see Barack Obama elected as the 1st black president.
Having many friends in New York I well aware of who Trump was. I had Cornell hotel buds who worked in Trumps casino in Atlantic City. Some were killed in a helicopter crash in 1989.
Let’s cut to the chase:
Donald Trump is the worst human being to ever occupy the Oval Office.
There isn’t a shred of decency and integrity in the fiber of his being or indeed his sycophants.
A most grotesque thing is happening to America and the world.
2026 is shaping up to be the most draconian of times.
Professor Reich: the murderous orange rapist is doing more than supporting his lawless gestapo to further his agenda by murdering innocents. in the process of murdering innocents with the gestapo, with the rogue national guard and military, he is destroying our standing in the world, our ability to flee to safety in another country, and our very selfhood.
this makes me ask (i want to shout from the rooftops, actually): why do we think capitalism sees us as anything other than living TOOLS whose sole purpose is to earn money for billionaires? why do we think we have ANY VALUE AT ALL as human beings when capitalism's ONLY GOAL is to maximize money stolen from us and hoarded by oligarchs? as an economic system, capitalism is EVIL: CRIMINAL, UNCONSTITUTIONAL and UNAMERICAN. the sooner We The People rid our country of this profoundly immoral behavior, the better off we all will be.
it's easy to recognize the humanity of those whose views we agree with. it's far more challenging to recognize the humanity of those who disagree with us in every way possible. i find myself being challenged daily by this.
Me, too! I find a practice called lovingkindness (or metta) very helpful. After I finish asking for it for myself, I move on to people I cherish, then those whom I know only glancingly, and finally for a "difficult" person. Not the worst for me. Just one of my cranky relatives will do, but over time, I think it has enabled me to handle some very challenging people. When I make it through a very triggering experience without falling for the bait, it often surprises me. It might help you, too.
“…but people who come to the United States seeking asylum indubitably are human. So too are undocumented people who arrived in the United States when they were small children and have been here ever since. “.
So too are those babies born here even though their parents may not be citizens or may be undocumented…
Thank you, Robert. Have we lost our sense of humanity?
Everyday it feels like things are getting worse. The tension in the air is palpable. I feel like the scared 10 year old in the middle of the cuban missile crisis.
I hear older folks say, “I am glad I am not long for this world, but I really worry about my grand children”.
I personally feel I am getting “out” just in time.
That though assumes the worst.
It “feels” like Trump is taking us all down a dark path along with his sycophants and tech billionaires.
On the other hand I see amazing things are possible for the future. Incredibly exciting science and technological discoveries, healthcare breakthroughs with disease cures etc.
Some tech billionaires are totally backing a dark horse. It boggles the mind.
People are what make this world great. When one man or a handful of corporations control everything - that is dangerous.
The talk about Trump possibly invoking the insurrection act would be absolutely horrendous for the people of the United States and the world.
Americas own version of Hitler and his gestapo will have arrived.
If ever there was a time for people to be in the streets, IT IS KNOW.
Don’t wait, or it will be too late.
Americans cannot let Trump become Dictator for life. You best hope the 2026 midterms happen and that this ominous path is halted and that Trump and his regime are cast to the dustin of history.
Trump is one of the most amoral people on the planet. He is turning the United States into one of the most corrupt and amoral countries in the world. Midas was cursed because everything he touched turned to gold. We are cursed because everything Trump touches turns to sh$t!
A murderous man for our President.---
Trump is acquiring an inhuman taste for death. He murders individuals in international water without proof of criminal activity. He bombs civilians in foreign countries because he feels his actions are in the best interests of this country. The insurrection that took place 5 years ago claimed the lives of 5 Capitol police officers whose deaths are now on Trump's head. Trump continues to expose innocent civilians to potentially deadly situations, like the one that unfolded today in Minnesota. Our President is our own worst enemy, along with the moronic fools who support him. Perhaps the National Guard of the states being invaded by ICE should be deployed in an effort to protect their fellow neighbors, and to send a message to our commander and chief that his ICE agents aren't welcome.
Furthermore--In regards to Senator Mark Kelly, if Hegseth succeeds in harming this respected man's financial standing by demoting him from his retired status of a Naval Captain to a lesser position militarily --the people he so faithfully served during his 25 years of service, should open a "Go-Fund-Me" account in his name, and show him our gratitude for all he's done.. We should endeavor to collect enough money to offset the funds lost because of the efforts put forth by a drunken ROTC moron.
You know what - it’s not just Trump. It is the Republicans and all the other people who look the other way and lower heads and say I’m too scared to do anything because the thugs who worship him will come after me. Or even more base it’s not a threat of physical harm, but the thought of financial loss that stops them from standing up to this obviously out of contact with reality president. Anybody who knows anything about history can’t see what’s coming if we don’t organize as a country and say enough is enough. This president is a sociopath in the likes of Hitler.
Valerie--That he is.
So get him and his regime out of office...
Senators and representatives who won’t vote to impeach DT must,
no- they have a duty to resign now. That way the people they represent can elect someone who will vote to impeach him.
Easier said than done. How do you propose to accomplish that?
Yes Jody, it is almost a daily question I ask.
Where is the emergency exit for this electoral accident?
Can we impeach him? Can we impeach the regime? Can we organise an emergency election? What do we need to get rid of the regime?
Do we need a spiritual revolution? Better education? Build a public media system?
Hope is necessary but your political system creates this disaster. It won't disappear by devine intervention, but it should by corrective actions of the system that caused the problem.
I say "your system" because I live in Europe. But I fear for world peace.
Tom, the death of Renee Good while trying to turn her car on a snowy street filled with ICE agents has been the trigger for my New Zealand daughter to finally become outraged about what is happening in America and how it WILL affect world peace.
No question about that now.
We can live in Europe, Australasia, or Minneapolis, but none of us are now safe from the outcome of this murderous, war mongering regime in the USA.
Trump is more dangerous than Hitler. Trump has his finger on a nuclear button and can make a unilateral decision to order it to be pushed. Plus, he is using Hitler's playbook to terrify a nation into submission, allowing him to enable this attack on a 37 year old mother just as he did on innocent "collaterally damaged" citizens in Venezuela. The murder spree started on January 6 with the five people who died on Capitol Hill, and came within a hare's breath of including the whole Executive of the US Government. Would have, if not for the sacrifices of the officers fighting to stop it.
Please rally, US citizens. Forget your differences. Work together in one accord, you have the numbers by many millions. You have one enemy, the present President of your country.
So why is he still alive? Someone please explain!
To impeach we have to get back the House, to convict we need the Senate of enough R's to flip.
Impeach even without numbers to convict. The process brings impt info to the fore and gets it documented in the public record.
I know…
To start take back BOTH THE SENATE AND THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES NOVEMBER 3,2026 Not easy. but doable.
Brilliant! How did you
ever think of this???
You guys are a Hoot. I know what I'm going to do when the jack-booted bastards come to my door. A SOAP impression put my hands in front of my face and say, "YOU can't SEE me."
" I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward in the streets." Eugene V. Debs A coffin should be built, hoisted up with the names of the dead on it and carried through the streets at the next demonstration.
Your gonna need a bigger cofin
You’re just the man to build the other one!
BOB THE BUILDER, he's the guy, get him. I'm busy
That would be very powerful--suggest it to Indivisible.org staff!
I agree. It’s not just 47. And it’s not just magas. As Pogo observed 50 years ago, “we have met the enemy and it is us.” Other than the recent posters who claim zero culpability. It’s blue denial that will doom us, imho. Not red aggression.
No, it’s red aggression that will doom us. Don’t blame the Democrats. The Democratic party has not been an effective counterweight to the evil that Republicans have wrought, but that doesn’t make them responsible.
We disagree. Every time I made a purchase from Amazon, I contributed to this scenario. Every time I voted for Menendez (NJ)—the only Dem option— I contributed to this scenario. IMHO, we’re not just complicit. We actively fed this monster. But that’s just me. Peace out.
You lack any sense of proportion
ISO . . . I HAVE N-E-V-E-R FED THIS MONSTER!!! I OPENLY CALL FOR HIS DEATH EVERY SINGLE DAY. I CALL THE DOJ AND LEAVE MESSAGES FOR BIMBO BONDI TO GET OUT! I CALL THE WHITE HOUSE COMMENTS LINE AND TELL TRUMP TO GET OUT! I RANT AT TRUMP ON THAT LINE UNTIL FINALLY, THE AUTOMATED MACHINE TELLS ME, "YOUR MESSAGE HAS BEEN FORWARDED." I AM NOT AFRAID OF DONALD THE DRIVEL-HEADED DISASTER! BUT HE SHOULD BE V-E-R-Y AFRAID OF US!
agree , agree
There's no colours anymore unless it's whitewashed
It's members of BOTH sides but for different reasons.
Republicans ARE responsible in a thousand ways!
ISOequanimity - Maybe both? In one form or fashion but there are still some good people trying to course correct.
Nonsense
Valerie
Yes, it's not just Trump and Republicans and all the other people who look the other way. It's also the dangerously corrupt legal system in America.
The corrupt legal system in American created the current inhumanity and enabled an ongoing insurrection in America to implement a lawless fascist autocracy. The insurrection began on January 6, 2021, and continued in 2025 as planned in PROJECT 2025. From 2021 to 2024, Biden, Garland and Jack Smith were blocked by the corrupt legal system from enforcing the law and imprisoning Trump, an insurrectionist. The corrupt SCOTUS refused to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to bar Trump from being on the ballot and holding office.
Monroe Doctrine? Qualified immunity as doctrine that protects unjustified ICE murder in Minneapolis? Doctrine is not law. Trump and his administration illegally invaded and took control of Venezuela with military force as an act of War without Congressional approval and kidnapped the president, Maduro. ICE acted outside their official duty in Minneapolis which was finding and detaining illegal immigrants not replacing domestic police with unjustified murder of innocent citizens. Trump and ICE are conducting an insurrection that violates federal law.
The federal criminal law in the United States is created by Congress and then described in Title 18 Part 1 of the U.S. Code which has multiple Chapters.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/part-I
The crime of insurrection is defined in 18 U.S. Code Chapter 115 Part I - TREASON, SEDITION, AND SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/part-I/chapter-115
Specifically, the crime of insurrection is defined in 18 U.S. Code § 2383 - Rebellion or insurrection which clearly states who is guilty of the felony crime with this language.
Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
What is the solution? The law must be enforced on insurrectionists including Trump, members of his administration, Republicans in Congress, and six justices on the Supreme Court. When Democrats get elected to the presidency and take control of Congress in 2028, the insurrectionists must be arrested, convicted and imprisoned. And the corrupt legal system must be revised by removing false doctrines.
ca.
Republican politicians enabled every dirty deed and every nasty crime committed by the trump regime. They are complicit in all of it, including the murders. I sincerely hope that Americans don't forgive, forget or dismiss their culpability - their fascistic, odious, illegal and traitorous involvement.
The Republican party has been erased. The Trumpian party has emerged. It is a party of death.
The precedent in this case is Pol Pot, Idi Amin, or maybe late "Cultural Revolution" stage Mao. The crazy/delusional level is way higher than Hitler prior to maybe 1943.
I don't know how ANYONE viewing that video can say that she was trying to run over the ICE agent. They tried to get into her car! She turned her wheels to the right, and she tried to leave. The agent was CLEARLY not in front of her car. Trump said the agent was viciously run down, and that Trump was surprised he was still alive. Apparently, Donald Trump was looking at some other video. But facts mean nothing to him.
He is scum and a disgrace to our country. Why he is still in office is beyond me. Every thug “ice” agent involved in that murder along with Noem should go to prison for killing the woman.
As a heartbroken Minnesotan, I totally agree with your sentiment Betty Moyers!
I’m so heartbroken and sorry it happened near you. We are all with you…remember that. ❤️🙏
Betty, it helps to know people care. We are in grief here. Joan
There were two to the side and one ran in front of the vehicle and I think that's the one that shot the woman. Another appeared to show that one to the side fired or held his weapon as though he intended to shoot. I supposes it depends on the vantage point. But the doctor at the scene begged to be able to render aid and said she could be dying and the ICE agent is heard to say "I don't care" which sums up this entire shameful administration. To my mind, the agent that ran in front of the vehicle and fired the shot was in over his head. He should never have put himself in harms way and to be perfectly honest, I doubt the driver even SAW him. She feared for HER life, not the other way around. Disgraceful!
Under the rule of law the tragic incident would be investigated, but Trum and Noem immediately exonerated the ICE agent. This about ICE immunity, about this government's right to use lethal force to enforce obedience. This is one more step in the establishment of a totalitarian fascist regime entirely loyal to Donald Trump.
I . . . HATE . . . DON-OLD THE DRUMPF DUMPSTER WITH A PASSION! Let's play "Musical Chairs," and the last one standing gets to TAKE . . . HIM . . . OUT!!!!!
Which is precisely why he needs to go bye bye!
Agree with you totally. Those ICE agents have the "gear" but not the experience they so desperately need!!!
Patricia - The administration claims that they are there to protect people and bring down crime but they keep contributing to the rise in crime numbers. They are doing this because of a now debunked video. Normally they would ask for cooperation from the state to investigate but they skipped that part because quiet cooperation doesn’t generate clicks.
Yes Donna, I saw the video and was sick of Trumps comments.
But you and every voter knew he talks about carnage, only the US was in almost any aspect in the best shape ever when his term started. Trump has no relation to reality whatsoever, and his goons and fruitcakes line up with his fantasies and stupidities.
The peace president now becomes a mortal danger, for internal peace, but also for world peace. That is the responsability of the American electorate...
Noem is also a bald faced liar who doubles down on her lies
Never trust a bloody animal abuser.
Noem is as power hungry as Trump. She wants her ICE agents to exercise power, even the power to kill, with impunity---as long as she is in charge.
Morons led by a demented sociopath.
Tom - You mean the “peace” president who can’t even get the name of the medal that he wants so desperately right? Nobel vs Noble ;)
If the government looks good it’s his government but if it looks bad it’s someone else’s government. He even claims things that others did, or started, as his if it looks good. He’s an idiot.
Yes Anon agree, but I try to stay away from invectives and like to stimulatie practical research and ideas…
That agent is a well-trained dog with a limited repertoire of responses. Kristi Noem will praise him and give him a treat: "Good boy!"
WU, ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh!
And even sadder, that woman had a child who is now motherless. Trump has so much DEATH UPON HIS HEAD, GOD, I WISH WE COULD JUST YANK HIS FAT ASS OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE AND ADMINISTER THE EXACT SAME TREATMENT TO HIM! LIKE PUTTING HIM ON DISPLAY IN THE PUBLIC STOCKS, ONLY IN HIS CASE, WE WOULD BE ADMINISTERING "THE FINAL SOLUTION"!
Send Trump and company to their beloved Alligator Alcatraz with no special treatment. They can live in the conditions they forced others into. Actually, Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem should go to CECOT.
I agree.
I hope ICC convicts Susan Wiles and the lot of them for war crimes, with sentences to be served in the notorious prisons of member nations: La Makala (Congo), Kamiti (Kenya), Muhanga (Rwanda), and Mendoza (Argentina). “Susie” reportedly makes casseroles for friends and neighbors. Maybe that will work on prison guards in Congo. Not sure Niedermeyer will find mayo though. https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/susie-wiles-trump-cabinet-chief-of-staff-net-worth-b2682925.html
Florence, CO. is a better option. We can keep a better eye on them there. No casseroles to be allowed or used as barter.
You’re probably right but, given 47’s history, a Kenyan prison would be poetic. https://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/05/trump-obama-born-in-kenya-124569
I'm curious. Why did you mention Florence, CO? My second cousin lives there and loves it.
Is Devil's Island still open? Asking for a friend.
Alligator Alcatraz, for all of them, forever.
There is a child without a mother, thanks to ICE. And there’s another motherless child in Georgia. Chance—11 pounds at 7 months old— has spent his entire life in NICU. There are no plans for release. His mother was 8 weeks pregnant when she was declared brain dead but Georgia has a strict 6 week limit for abortions. She was kept on life support for six months until Chance was retrieved via c-section. Is he in pain? Is he sad? Or lonely? https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/father-awarded-custody-baby-born-to-metro-atlanta-woman-life-support-while-brain-dead-for-months/85-007e1ac5-58a6-466e-9c8f-cff396886697
If the Ice-Hole of ICE were to behave consistently and "rationally," she'd have that "well-trained dog" shot the way she shot her dog - for >exactly< the same "reason," albeit the rational of a psychopath. Just a'sayin'
My thoughts exactly.
I disagree. The murderer is a poorly trained dog. Good training could have prevented this tragedy but instead we have half-ass goons playing soldier.
Bad Dog! Go behind the shed!
Mary-Chilton van Hees - The $50,000 sign on bonus, lack of standards and cutting their training short is why we have unqualified people playing law enforcement which is costing people their lives and livelihood.
the new 'recruits' (evidently must) pass the - bigot, racist, NOT critical thinker tests - not to mention the physical acuity tests - to get hired ~ hmm?
Dale - I think they just stopped at the loyalty test and said f*ck it to the rest. But the rest of the qualifications you listed are probably seen as a bonus.
And Putin, now adopting Trump's self-satisfied grin, knows he has won. He is fully aware that the more American corpses and imprisoned American patriots, the more he has frightened a larger majority of his American enemies who will fear to cross his Putin-created world.
Whereabouts Unknown - The other sad thing is that it’s almost impossible to sue or bring a case against ICE officers thanks to Congress. Her life was taken and her family is going to be left with little recourse. But, hey, this administration will cover up what happened and the officer will keep his job. How’s that for justice?
Trump and Noem are on record telling lies and distorting the truth. I guess that's how it goes in a Dictatorship.
Whereabouts Unknown - You seem to be correct. MAGA is going all in on victim blaming as well just because she listed pronouns in a bio. How damn sad is that. A persons life reduced to their online presence. Not that they were a living human being as it should be. Now that the FBI is taking over the investigation and shutting out the state we will never see the evidence/truth that we all witnessed come to light. Just read that after killing the woman they went to rough up some school kids. Just wrong on all levels.
Poorly trained
She could also shoot him.
He should be questioned thoroughly every time he lies... which is almost as often as he takes a breath. Pressure him to explain every single lie and force him to embarrass himself when he can't explain his lies adequately.
This is about ICE immunity. This is about creating a paramilitary domestic organization above the law, entirely loyal to the President. This is why Abrego Garcia is still fighting deportation. ICE does not make mistakes is what Trump and Noem tell us. This is the road to serfdom under a fascist regime.
As a utilitarian humanist, this question cuts to the core failure of American governance: We’ve systematically inverted who gets human dignity and who gets treated as disposable.
The grotesque irony: Corporations get constitutional rights while actual humans fleeing violence get extrajudicial execution by ICE. AI gets regulatory protection while Venezuelans get bombed for oil access. The calculus is perfectly backwards from any framework aimed at reducing suffering and achieving justice.
From a utilitarian lens, the Venezuela operation is catastrophic on every measure. The suffering-to-benefit ratio is infinite because there was no benefit that required that level of harm.
The NSS framework that authorized Venezuela explicitly rejects the post-WWII humanitarian order in favor of might-makes-right spheres of influence. It’s not just amoral, it’s anti-moral. It treats human dignity as negotiable based on strategic asset location.
U.S. grants personhood to legal fictions (corporations) and technological constructs (AI) while systematically dehumanizing actual humans (immigrants, minorities, homeless, poor, Venezuelans, anyone outside the “sphere”). This isn’t accidental confusion, it’s operational doctrine designed to maximize elite extraction while minimizing accountability for human costs.
As a realist, I recognize power dynamics constrain what’s achievable. But the current trajectory isn’t realism, it’s nihilism masquerading as strategy. Bombing capitals for oil while ICE executes women in Minneapolis doesn’t advance American interests. It erodes them by proving to the world that American power operates without moral constraints or institutional checks.
The fundamental utilitarian question: Does this reduce aggregate suffering? Venezuela, ICE killings, corporate personhood, unregulated AI…every single policy you describe increases suffering while concentrating benefits among those who already have power. That’s not governance. That’s organized predation with constitutional vocabulary.
You’re right that America is doing the exact reverse of moral imperatives. From a utilitarian humanist perspective, that’s not just wrong; it’s catastrophically stupid. Systems that maximize suffering while denying human dignity to actual humans don’t produce stable outcomes. They produce collapse, resistance, and eventual reckoning.
The USA isn’t just going in the opposite direction from reduced suffering and zero injustice. It’s systematically institutionalizing increased suffering and normalized injustice as official doctrine, then wondering why the world stops cooperating and domestic solidarity fractures.
So, what does it mean to be a human being: inherent dignity, inalienable rights, protection from predation. America’s current answer: personhood is conditional on power, rights are negotiable based on strategic interests, and dignity is reserved for those who can’t be exploited.
That’s not civilization, it’s barbarism with better PR.
—Johan
Professor of Behavioral Economics & Applied Cognitive Theory
Former Foreign Service Officer
Yes, I do this for a living.
I am in awe. Thank you.
What a superbly powerful analysis.
Yes, you do it for a living but you do it incredibly well.
Thank you so much, that’s very nice of you.
Except for the utilitarian lens. That sucks.
Do you mean that you do not agree that 'to maximize overall well-being for the greatest number of people' is a good thing? What's your alternative? Is it extravagant abundance for a privileged few, and deprivation and despair for the majority?
A pragmatic naturalism in the spirit of John Dewey.
I am impressed. I jumped to hasty conclusions. You do have an intellectual.
But inequality in the US has a long history - it doesn't start with Trump. A study by Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez estimates that, in 1913, about 18% of income went to the top 1%. 1913 is also when the income tax was first introduced (even though it was used to compensate for the lost revenues by reducing excessively high tariffs rather to redistribute wealth). In 2016, when Trump first became president, the top 1% already held 30.5% of the country's wealth.
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2016/07/americas-2015-income-data-is-out-this-is-what-it-shows-about-inequality/
And US intervention in latin american countries also has a long and chequered history ranging from the bad to the appalling in terms of its consequences for the citizens of the affected countries.
Yep, completely
Since you understand it so well, what have you got to offer in terms of what to do about it? With respect.
With respect and thank you, understanding the architecture of harm is the first step, not the last. The question of “what to do” only makes sense once we stop pretending the system is something it isn’t. You cannot fix a machine you refuse to diagnose.
There are three levels where action is actually possible:
1. Structural clarity
The public needs a vocabulary for what is happening. As long as people think these are isolated abuses rather than an operating model, nothing changes. Naming the pattern is not academic. It is the precondition for coordinated resistance.
2. Institutional pressure
The only leverage that works on systems built for elite extraction is reputational, legal, and economic pressure applied to the institutions that enable it. Courts, universities, NGOs, state governments, professional associations, and international partners still have tools. They just need the political will to use them.
3. Human solidarity at the ground level
When a state begins normalizing dehumanization, the most powerful counterforce is the refusal to participate in it. Sanctuary networks, legal defense funds, whistleblower protection, local journalism, and community‑based resistance have historically done more to blunt authoritarian drift than any federal mechanism.
None of this is glamorous. None of it is instant. But it is real.
I don’t offer fantasies. I offer the same thing I teach:
diagnose the incentives, expose the doctrine, and build counter‑structures that make cruelty costly rather than convenient.
That is how systems like this eventually break.
The only thing the puppet masters care about is money. A coordinated, sustained, general boycott of all companies complicit in enabling the administration and the GOP is the only way to get their attention short of massive general strikes and civic unrest.
Here’s an idea and I’ll post it in other places too:
Here’s a simple thought experiment….not a plan, not a proposal, just an idea if someone with the right expertise ever wanted to explore it. The median American has about $8,000 in liquid savings, but politically engaged households usually sit closer to the $10k–$30k range. If 20 million people redirected even that modest amount into a euro‑denominated index fund or another stable foreign asset (let’s say a pro-democracy private equity fund that’s easy to invest in from your personal bank account to this fund, like the stock market) you’re looking at $400–$600 billion moving in a coordinated window. That’s not symbolic. That’s a macro‑signal: reduced marginal demand for dollars, upward pressure on the euro, and a political‑risk premium that U.S. corporations and the Federal Reserve would have to register.
Launching something like this would require a regulated, transparent investment vehicle …essentially a professionally managed fund open to U.S. investors; very possible, these already exist for other investments. I’m not saying I know how to build it or whether it’s even feasible.
But if you extend the same logic outward, you can see how it scales: if participation ever reached the level where the aggregate capital approached $1 trillion, you’re suddenly talking about a figure equal to several percentage points of U.S. GDP. At that level, the signal becomes impossible to ignore.
And participation wouldn’t just be financial. It would function almost like a referendum: people would sign on publicly and commit to coordinated economic behavior—- including stepping away from the corporations and platforms driving the very dynamics they’re resisting. No Amazon, no big‑tech ecosystems, no convenience‑based backsliding, The leverage only works if the commitment is real.
It’s just an idea, nothing more, but if anyone with the right background wants to think about real, non‑violent leverage, the math shows where scale actually lives.
Think about, do you agree? What’s the next step?
It's difficult to say, but the stunning increase in the price of gold may be an indication that something like this may be happening.
WIth respect, pragmatic naturalism.
Yes, Johan, this is barbarism, and barbaris always collapses in the end. Hopefully, Trump's malignant narcissism will turn the country against him and his enablers.
Johan, thank you for your clearly stated, expert analysis of what we are witnessing: The BARBARISM and HUMAN SUFFERING done in our name as citizens of the United States of America under DJT.
What can WE DO to show the level of disapproval felt by we the people for DJT?
How do we instead show our willingness to stand up for our convictions against the show of ILLEGAL POWER we are witnessing everyday from this administration?
What counter action would be as drastic, without the element of barbarism and lawlessness, to show the majority of human beings in our country are not going to remain silent for another day of Trump’s MAGA madness?
Could we agree to be out on our local streets in droves in peaceful demonstration
ON A GIVEN DAY FOR ONE HOUR? Can we do that? Can we cheer each other on with a shared sense of support for what our Constitutional Republic, our United States of America means to each of us.
Simply being in the public domain where we are known would speak volumes.
We would BE THE FACE of resistance to Donald Trump and his loyalists who seek to demonstrate their POWER over the LAWS of our country.
Anyone who supports the demonstration but must travel at that hour on that day, would simply display a USA Flag representing our law-based Constitutional Republic and we would respect your circumstances requiring your passage. Your flag (even a hand-drawn flag on paper would be sufficient) would be your indication of support for the resistance to the Trump regime.
Additionally, we would recognize the two-finger PEACE SIGN ✌️ as a show of support of our peaceful demonstration.
As for other passing unmarked vehicles, we would be TOTALLY MUTE and NOT OBSTRUCT PASSAGE in any way when a vehicle without a flag or hand peace sign passes by. Again, we would be MUTE and NOT OBSTRUCT passage in any way as any vehicle without a show of support passes by.
How many of our fellow Americans would pass by us unmoved by their own face-to-face witnessing of our peaceful stand for our Constitutional Republic?
Would simply taking a stand before the people we know and live among be the public reckoning that this time calls for before more human suffering happens in our name? We are all human beings and hearts must be moved!
With the technology of 2026, our cell phone cameras could produce the largest record of historical documented evidence of public sentiment ever compiled by a population of free people during the one hour of peaceful demonstration.
I envision the numbers of people out on their streets growing as the minutes go by and shared video and commentary spreads across our country with the sunlight of day from the east in West Quoddy Head, Maine to the west in Cape Alava, Washington.
Maybe this Sunday, January 11th, at 2:00 p.m. and heading west as the sun moves…?
Sounds simple and doable…what am I missing?
Thanks you, Johan, for your valuable contribution to this PR forum.
To save our Constitution and democracy from ruin, the only way to get the maligant narcissitic demagogue out of the White House is by impeachment and the conviction of the same. Therefore, we need to, peacefully, fight like hell to get more progressive democrats in the US House and Senate. ALso, we need to ensure US Rep. from Nebraska, republican Don Bacon, is encourage to keep speaking out against Trump's insanity of taking over Greenland, Columbia, Mexico, and Cuba.
Stay focused on your homeland! Wrest the US flag from Trump's bloody hands! Trump and his allies are stealing your own country from you. Forget Greenland!
“No Kings”
An Anthem for America
By The People, for The People
Verse 1
Two hundred fifty years gone by,
Our patriots fought and bled,
They carved a path for unity,
That wrote our country’s name;
Now chaos threatens our union,
Yet the Constitution shows,
A promise for the future,
From our Founding Fathers long ago!
Chorus 1
No Kings! No kings! No kings!, we cry,
Here throughout the land,
Our stalwart mission rings aloud,
Autocracy will not stand,
Fear and hate will not stand!
Verse 2
Through trials, storms, and oppression,
This vision still holds true,
Democracy’s enduring light,
Belongs to me and you;
The Constitution guides us still,
From division and through strife,
It calls us back to Liberty,
The heartbeat of our life!
Chorus 2
“No King! No kings! No kings!” we cry,
Here throughout the land,
Our stalwart mission rings aloud,
Autocracy will not stand,
Injustice will not stand!
Verse 3
Thrones and crowns and kings alike,
The warning signs we face,
Our love of country sees clearly,
Tyranny’s ruthless shame;
Both red and blue we gather now,
Drawn by equality’s flame,
Our common voice we raise in song,
For the USA!
Chorus 3
“No King! No kings! No kings!” we cry,
Here throughout the land,
Our stalwart mission rings aloud,
Autocracy will not stand,
Demagogues will not stand!
Yes!
We seem to have out the Federalist Society, this being the ninth version of their attempt to rewrite the American code of ethics
Spot on about trump! I will most definitely contribute to that 'Go-Fund-Me' account! Well said, Donald!
Not "acquiring." When was he not a "violence voyeur?"
It seems POTUSs always send people to their death. Do you think the more they do it, the easier it gets? Surely there needs to be well structured reins upon this, especially because a POTUS may become demonstrably sociopathically unbalanced. Do any names come to mind?Many more reins than just the 25th Amendment are necessary. Such reins are regularly wholly lacking under Dictatorship, cf 1930’s Germany.
Will such reins be invoked in present Minneapolis? Or is this just the beginning of wholesale massacre by 🧊? Does Peewee German imagine so?
A demented ROTC moron.
Donald, Pete Hegseth and his boss should face charges for their multiple crimes, and lose privileges of their undeserved positions, like security details and benefits associated with said positions of power. A guy like Hegseth and his draft dodging overlord have their nerve in their pocket judging a Patriot like Mark Kelly, who was telling active duty military that they had the right to refuse to follow illegal orders.
Petropete is upset because Kelly told him that he is following illegal orders. The Senate should remove him for the good of the country.
A drunken ROTC moron -that’s the best description of, unfortunately, our secretary of defense.
Yes, And, we can and should donate to Senator Kelly NOW!
A non sequitur to your comments, but relevant to important points Prof. R makes, re
⭐Corporations are not persons; ⭐Money is not speech:
MoveToAmend.org has been hanging in there for a few decades, to get a Constitutional amendment that ONLY human beings are persons with 14th Amendment & other guarantees.. The constantly- reintroduced bill is sponsored by Rep Pramila Jayapal, our shero in this crucial effort❣️
Some history: Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, 118 U.S. 394 (➡️1886⬅️), is a corporate law case of the United States Supreme Court concerning taxation of railroad properties. *The case is most notable for a headnote stating that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment grants constitutional protections to corporations.*
(wikipedia.org)
Which of course is a lie. And not even a ruling by that corrupt SCOTUS in 1886, yet accepted as precedent, by ~ who else ~ heads of corporations who control the levers of power.
and the Federalist society justices in the Supreme Court?
So why isn’t he in prison or better yet dead?
Jan 20 is No Kings Day. There are plans for a total national shutdown - we all need to participate. We all need to stand up, participate in the resistance.
I'm all crestfallen. And here, after reading Dr Reich's essay this morning, I was getting all worked up to post a rant to assert "And Money Is Not Speech!" But understandably, I guess that just won't happen today!
DZK--Why not?
👍 It would involve a long-winded discussion of what freedom of the press means in the Constitution - commonly understood as freedom of speech - disambiguating between the printed word from the printed or struck (metal printed) dollar and spending - or even having - money from speaking! Although, to me it seems mere common sense should suggest it shouldn't take any more than this statement to make the damn point and it shouldn't take a goddam PhD to understand it! But then again, I'm a moron! 🤪
Besides, it seems more pressing - pardon th' pun please - issue(s) have developed, lately!
Donald, describing Hegseth as a "drunken ROTC moron" is perfect. He is one of those guys most people who knew him probably despised, even if they didn't say it to his face. He reminds me of the classic bully who is in reality a coward. Well, Hegseth is a coward, giving orders he has no right to give to officers he has most likely threatened something if they don't follow them. His boss is also a dementia-laden fool who never had any sense, but somehow came out better than OK because he had a bunch of needy people around him that he could slip a bill to and it would keep them silent and working on his behalf. We do need to do better in the selection of leadership. Trump and his toddler pool should never have been in power in the first place, and the second place was orchestrated by people like Musk and his digital interference. I do wish we could get proof of that, even though a lot of folks know it happened!
Donald - What has outraged me is a list that is way too long. Any one who believed that this administration, and namely T, was pro law enforcement should have been woken up to the fact that he is not when they just blamed the Capitol Police for the riot on Jan 6. Their ICE goon squad is Not law enforcement! At least they are not acting like they have had any training. After their rush to hire the “worst of the worst” shows it. No one, and I repeat No One, stands in front of a vehicle to try to stop someone. An officer in Ohio learned that after he shot a pregnant woman for shoplifting. The woman and baby died because of it. There are other methods to get the person if they leave the scene. This administration’s rush to spin reality of a situation tells you all you need to know about what really happened. I’m so tired of victim blaming and no accountability for the perpetrators - who are ICE and DHS right now. Renee Good did not deserve to die. They denied her immediate medical care. Immigrants and U.S. citizens should not have to “prove” who they are when they are bum rushed by a masked person. They do not deserve to sit in a cell until they can while their rights are being violated. I have had to use my service weapon and I have been shot by a gun. Those cases went to trial and I won only because I had a good case and I followed my training. DHS has lost most of their cases. I live every day with what I did when I was an officer and I hope that these people have to live with themselves as well. They are not the good guys and have brought shame onto their department. It’s okay if you hate me because of my profession (it used to not be this way - but I get it) but please understand that not all law enforcement officers are bad guys. That said I don’t recognize what is going on right now. If it was following the orders just to keep my job and the orders were what we are seeing right now I would have quit.
As far as Mark Kelly goes - I hope he fights like hell.
Just another lie from our Mob Boss:
“I have just viewed the clip of the event which took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a horrible thing to watch. The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot at her in self defense. Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe that he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital. The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis. They are just trying to do the job of MAKING AMERICA SAFE. We need to stand by and protect our Law Enforcement Officers from this Radical Left Movement of Violence and Hate! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP”
Someday in the future when we are finally rid of this disgusting man a movie will be made about how he was able to attain the highest office in the land.
“The Great Divide” How one deceitful man was able to completely turn Americans against each other.
Total fucking bullshit! Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey called it right.
He is a blatant lier for sure. Disgusting that people will take his words as truth, even after watching the many videos of this woman’s murder, with her murderer walking away from the scene unharmed. Enough!!!
It is plain that the 37 year old woman who wanted to warn her neighbors of the presence of ICE KNEW that if they pulled her out of her car, She would have been abducted, and severely harmed. I would have gunned the car to get away in that situation.
Any reasonable person would. ICE are not law enforcement and they should not be deployed as such.
one correction- she was 37
Have ever made a typo on these little phone pads? Of course I made a typo
Because of Trump we live in fear now. Republican enablers in Congress are allowing this to happen.
Noem lied snd later doubled down on her lies. Evil.
Yes, it is awful and scary
Ice agents are Trumps gestapo and deserve whatever they get. They are an extra legal paramilitary force. The worst of them deserve long prison sentences much as real Gestapo types after the end o WW2
What a sad movie that would be. Its not some mystery. Maybe a cooking show. You take a couple of cups of well-aged fear and loathing of females. Hispanics and evangelists and the Mormons who stopped the ERA at the threshold and guys getting stroked by the hardly new gross guy stuff online. Add a squeeze of undying Cuban Pavlov's dog drool at the word "Communist." Mix well with another cup of insanity over Gaza. (We are fine with the Muslim ban guy who moved the embassy to Jerusalem and etc.?) A couple of tablespoons of banal gullibility: "They TOLD us!" wailed the Venezuelan lady in Florida, of the promises of the Republican party reps. "They TOLD us it would only be criminals!" And throw out half your dough for the didn't vote at all. It's known as a s---t cake.
Not to pick a nit here, but I like to weigh my ingredients when baking. Its more accurate, as bread or cakes involve a formula rather than a recipe. How much does a cup of "well-aged fear and loathing of females" weigh? I can't seem to find that anywhere here........
It's more commonly known as insanity. Such people are usually to be pitied. But not this one.
Gregg Scott, it is definitely nit picking....
I apologize…..
It is more about deep insecurity, low esteem and no real idea how to get through life. These are the people hiding behind that rhetoric. They don’t look inward and feel justified in their hatred.
We have big social problems and they became political because of Trump.
Yes Keith, but the people voted for him...
And where are the spines of his supporters? Or should I say brain or morality?
Gerrymanders "Trued" the vote for those who did vote, along with all the money of the obscenely wealthy.
Oh, God, Keith . . . NO MOVIES ABOUT TRUMP . . . PLEASE! Haven't we had enough of him already???? We sure don't need any post- silver screen reminders to keep him hanging around another 25 years or so!!
As a father and grandfather, I cannot understand how a person can look a women, a child’s mother, a mother’s daughter in the eye and shoot her in the face robbing her and her loved ones of years of loving moments.
“She was obviously a political agitator?” Really?
Maybe she simply hates the way the immigrant situation is being handled - and finds it brutal and completely unnecessary? What do you think? A possibility… or even a probability?
Sometimes protesting is a very necessary, legitimate tool.
Our country is being turned into a police state. Maybe that's okay with you, but millions upon millions of your fellow citizens do not find it okay.
The woman who was shot in the face three times is no longer alive. She was a human being. Have we really sunk so despicably low that we don't know the difference between a human being and a robot. She was breathing, able to feel the wind on her face, experienced emotions first hand, loved and worried and laughed spontaneously without being programmed. She was one of a kind - unique, possessing her very own unique abilities. Her heart beat, her mind was curious and capable of analyzing, appreciating, observing, sensing in infinite ways. She also bled. But not now. Robots don't care. Robots are tools. She was a human being.
This subject is so profound. I have tried to express what it means to be a living, breathing Human Being. It's a poor attempt… but I certainly hope you get the point!!!!!
This so-called democratic government we currently have is a farce. It’s more like either a very bad, embarrassing reality TV show or, frankly, simply a freak show.
She also had/ has a soul!!! She has had her life cut short unnecessarily.
IF absolutely necessary, what about shooting tires - instead of drivers - to get a car to stop!
Six months of training???? Maybe not enough?????
Huh?
Trump is an archetype for too many of our fellow citizens. Perhaps, instead of focusing primarily on "what's wrong with him," we should be focusing more on what happened that made him that way. Genetics may provide a partial explanation, but we all have a "dark" predatory, survivalist side, that used be activated less frequently in our society.
A lack of the resources to meet our basic survival needs (extreme poverty) seems to be a primary trigger for predatory criminal behavior. Some contemporary economists are considering replacing our minimum wage policy with a guaranteed annual income policy. That would have been impossible before our computer technology because the cost of living varies so widely within our country. The guaranteed annual wage would be a lot higher for residents living in Washington, DC than it would be for residents who, like me, reside in Washington, NC. Computer technology may make the distinction possible for the first time in human history.
These are frightening times to live through, but they are also exciting and promising times if we just begin to apply a little more right-brain intuition and imagination to the search for solutions to problems that are largely of our own collective making.
I think it might be more appropriate to look at how US society became so divided. Also how big business and oligarchs turned it into an authoritarian state. Trump is a symptom of what is wrong not the cause. Many societies have divisions, some manage them.
This article from a liberal Israeli news source is very interesting:
https://www.haaretz.com/life/books/2026-01-07/ty-article-magazine/.premium/who-are-the-intellectuals-making-magas-policies/0000019b-88ab-d487-a3bf-f9afe03d0000
'People Like Nick Fuentes Are the Bottom of the Barrel': Who Are the Brains Behind the MAGA Movement?
U.S. President Donald Trump.
U.S. President Donald Trump. Credit: Adam Gray/AP
In her new book 'Furious Minds: The Making of the New MAGA Right,' Laura K. Field outlines the camps that make up the American far-right and maps out the intellectuals fueling Donald Trump's assault on liberal democracy. In an interview, she explains their rise and promises: 'They aren't invincible'
Thank you for the reference. I look forward to reading this book.
Re: equalization by way of computer technology. Didn't Biden have a significant program to extend "broadband" to rural areas? I have a vague recall that that was an early"kill" by Trump. (?) Your observation that "guaranteed income" varies widely from state to state is so real: but we have so little evidence that anybody outside of maybe Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren even care about balancing such issues nationwide. As for what's the matter with Trump, Mary Trump says he was never loved at a tender age because of his mother's illness and father's indifference. With respect, I give genetics a lot of weight.
My autistic, bipolar daughter also speculated that Trump (and Putin) might be autistic. Although autism is a spectrum, with highly diverse symptoms, one of the most common symptoms seems to be a lack of empathy.
Kerrin used the drug Ecstasy one time and said she experienced empathy for the first time. She also said that, although she was glad to have an experienced a feeling that was more natural in others, she would not use it again because she could not function in that altered state of consciousness.
If it weren't for the "function" problem, we could just put ecstasy in our drinking water like fluoride and solve all of our social problems. Just kidding!
There is no conflict between genetics and cultural conditioning. Both contribute to the gradual development of our personalities from infantile narcissism to a more mature adult personality. Negative genetic traits play a stronger role in the development of some than of others. Sometimes the balance is tipped more toward the social environment.
People with exceptional intelligence and a strong self-will are usually either more constructive or more destructive than "average" people. What makes the difference between which way they turn is still a deep mystery to me. People who begin by being unusually "evil," sometimes repent and become "good" at great personal sacrifice and sometimes the "good" turn "evil" to hold onto their unjust socioeconomic/political advantages.
Interesting. My former partner has a younger daughter who is on the spectrum. She is diagnosed as such. Yet when I had a spell of illness, her empathy shone out of her like a beacon. She was the same when her stepfather had terminal cancer. However at work tact was not her thing. So the setting ,made a difference.
Trump must be under extreme stress. He has chosen something where he is completely out of his depth. All he had is an ability to connect with whites who feel marginalised.
But any other skills like understanding complex issues, solving problems are beyond him.
That is what explains the bizarre outbursts, but it doesn't excuse them.
a malignant narcissist he is, no doubt about it.
Focusing on what made him that way is a distraction and a waste of time.
Not entirely, for Fox News made Trump.
If Trump were not more of a cause than a symptom of our toxic society, that would be a valid perspective, but I'm afraid, although Trumpism is still represented by a minority, it seems to be a sizeable minority that may still be growing, especially in certain sections of our Nation.
It is especially concerning that a minority of the electorate was able to deliver control of the House and Senate over to Party where, although they are not MAGA, many (most?) are willing to support MAGA policy to remain in control.
Scare them, and you own them, seems tobe the extent of Trump's empathy.
It's not easy to think rationally when one's brain is filled with fear and stress chemicals.
I think it far more productive to focus of the behavior that on whatever made them that way. That's my point.
That's a valid point, as long as we don't make the mistake of thinking that our social pathology will be "cured" as soon as Trump is removed from office either by time limitations (which can be disregarded like so many other historical precedents), impeachment or death.
Trump is still a symptom, not the cause, of the shit storm of monumental proportions that we are currently living through.
Capitalism values a human being only so much as they can provide profits through their labor or their purchases. If not, they are part of the superfluous population that can just fade away into drug use, be deported, or just die....all of which capitalism has also found a way to profit off of. In the end, that may be America's greatest contribution to the world: serving as a warning to others of how unchecked capitalism can destroy a nation and its humanity.
Capitalism is an economic system wrought by human beings. It’s the horrendous human beings who don’t give a damn about other people who ruined this world.
The USA was born with a weak federal government, and a muddled sense of national identity. It was an experiment disliked by many, both at home and abroad. Whether the USA collapses like the Soviet Union did is up to us.
It's an interesting discussion debating just who or what are human beings. Oddly enough we're presently being ruled by inhuman beings, without compassion, honor, or in many cases within the Trump administration sufficient intelligence for the task.
Your word "honor" evoked an interview today with an honorable guy I always notice, ret. Gen. Honore': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNR8_8kNWB4
This is so sad someone unnecessarily lost their life standing up for the oppressed. This event will not be seen that way by many, as evidenced by Kristi Noem and trump.
As a young black male, I was taught not to mess with cops….yes sir no sir and thank you sir; that’s it even when they are wrong! It is better to humble yourself and walk away with your life than to be billy bad ass dead because no one cares about you, you re black. The police can legally kill you. It will always be painted as your fault.
So it’s crazy that’s this is a white looking women that is a US citizen and even she is being painted as the villain.
Well said Alex.
It feels like all my life experiences from the frightening days of the Cuban Missile Crisis to JFK’s assassination to MalcolmX to Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King to Rodney King and George Floyd are HERE - all wrapped up into one big WAKE THE FUCK UP AMERICA.
Power corrupts - Absolute power corrupts Absolutely.
Back in the '60's, I knew an old black man who worked as a janitor at a retail store. If you said to him: "How are you doing?", he would reply "Oh, about half as good as you!"
He was referring to the Three-fifths Compromise in the Constitution which stated that enslaved people would be counted as three-fifths of a person for purposes of congressional representation.
That man, a janitor... that man had guts.
There is a Russian joke too:
"How are you doing?"
"Better than tomorrow"....
Hitler didn't think Jews were human beings either. We are on the same path now. It is sickening to watch.
Richard, the process is more subtle. Every time someone differentiates people and acts upon differences, the risk of discrimination grows. Every time people are talked about with wrong words (rapists, garbage, tsunami), we are conditioned in the direction of mass murder.
The White House functions as radio Mille Collines in Ruanda...
Fox News.
Sure; my comparisons with Ruanda are terrible enough…
How lucky I am not to be American! The woman who was just murdered by thugs acting on Trump's orders should cause more outrage than the murder of Charlie Kirk.
Trump and his gang of far-right white Christians deserve nothing but contempt, and we should all, worldwide, go to US embassies and voice our disgust for these predators who are destroying humanity and the planet. We are all affected, not just Americans, because planet Earth belongs to us as we belong to it, and once again I repeat that it is absolutely important to attack these criminals on their "status" as Christians.
I am a Bermudian. A stones throw away from America. As a 10 year oId I first went to the USA in 1960 to stay with friends of my parents - The Mitchems.
Wyn Mitchem was a Col in the US military serving on the US base at Kindley Field, Bermuda. The Mitchems were our next door neighbors.
It was during our visit to their home in Reston, Virginia that I was first made aware of American politics.
Kennedy Vs Nixon.
Wyns son John had slapped a bumper sticker, supporting JFK, on his car.
Wyn, a Republican, was furious and beat his son with a strap yelling “Don’t you ever support a Democrat”.
That day was forever etched into my brain. When Kennedy was shot 3 years later I was horrified.
America built our runway back in the day. Bermuda has always loved its relationship with America. 80% of our tourists come from the USA.
In 1964 I saw The Beatles at Forest Hills. In 1973 I went to Cornell University’s hotel school. My friends dad owned the 21 Club in New York.
I supported the Buffalo Bills.
This Bermudian loves America.
I also liked Ronald Reagan. I have seen and supported from afar people on either side of the American political aisle.
It was historic to see Barack Obama elected as the 1st black president.
Having many friends in New York I well aware of who Trump was. I had Cornell hotel buds who worked in Trumps casino in Atlantic City. Some were killed in a helicopter crash in 1989.
Let’s cut to the chase:
Donald Trump is the worst human being to ever occupy the Oval Office.
There isn’t a shred of decency and integrity in the fiber of his being or indeed his sycophants.
A most grotesque thing is happening to America and the world.
2026 is shaping up to be the most draconian of times.
A line in the sand must be drawn.
WE THE PEOPLE ….
Please, draw this line....
Professor Reich: the murderous orange rapist is doing more than supporting his lawless gestapo to further his agenda by murdering innocents. in the process of murdering innocents with the gestapo, with the rogue national guard and military, he is destroying our standing in the world, our ability to flee to safety in another country, and our very selfhood.
this makes me ask (i want to shout from the rooftops, actually): why do we think capitalism sees us as anything other than living TOOLS whose sole purpose is to earn money for billionaires? why do we think we have ANY VALUE AT ALL as human beings when capitalism's ONLY GOAL is to maximize money stolen from us and hoarded by oligarchs? as an economic system, capitalism is EVIL: CRIMINAL, UNCONSTITUTIONAL and UNAMERICAN. the sooner We The People rid our country of this profoundly immoral behavior, the better off we all will be.
One way to counter it is to nurture your own humanity and that of others. These are scary times, but we are still humans like others who suffer.
it's easy to recognize the humanity of those whose views we agree with. it's far more challenging to recognize the humanity of those who disagree with us in every way possible. i find myself being challenged daily by this.
Me, too! I find a practice called lovingkindness (or metta) very helpful. After I finish asking for it for myself, I move on to people I cherish, then those whom I know only glancingly, and finally for a "difficult" person. Not the worst for me. Just one of my cranky relatives will do, but over time, I think it has enabled me to handle some very challenging people. When I make it through a very triggering experience without falling for the bait, it often surprises me. It might help you, too.
We are human when we have controlled our inhuman urges and understand there are laws and consequences to our actions.
“…but people who come to the United States seeking asylum indubitably are human. So too are undocumented people who arrived in the United States when they were small children and have been here ever since. “.
So too are those babies born here even though their parents may not be citizens or may be undocumented…
Thank you, Robert. Have we lost our sense of humanity?
Mike, it seems to me that’s exactly what has happened.
they don't like most humans clearly is a rather disturbing part of the problem.....
ICE is the new Gestapo.
Robert
Everyday it feels like things are getting worse. The tension in the air is palpable. I feel like the scared 10 year old in the middle of the cuban missile crisis.
I hear older folks say, “I am glad I am not long for this world, but I really worry about my grand children”.
I personally feel I am getting “out” just in time.
That though assumes the worst.
It “feels” like Trump is taking us all down a dark path along with his sycophants and tech billionaires.
On the other hand I see amazing things are possible for the future. Incredibly exciting science and technological discoveries, healthcare breakthroughs with disease cures etc.
Some tech billionaires are totally backing a dark horse. It boggles the mind.
People are what make this world great. When one man or a handful of corporations control everything - that is dangerous.
The talk about Trump possibly invoking the insurrection act would be absolutely horrendous for the people of the United States and the world.
Americas own version of Hitler and his gestapo will have arrived.
If ever there was a time for people to be in the streets, IT IS KNOW.
Don’t wait, or it will be too late.
Americans cannot let Trump become Dictator for life. You best hope the 2026 midterms happen and that this ominous path is halted and that Trump and his regime are cast to the dustin of history.
ICE means legalized cold-blooded murder.
If an ICE agent assassinated the President would it be declared self-defense?
That’s a wonderful question.
Trump is one of the most amoral people on the planet. He is turning the United States into one of the most corrupt and amoral countries in the world. Midas was cursed because everything he touched turned to gold. We are cursed because everything Trump touches turns to sh$t!