From here in occupied Minneapolis, I have to say first how brilliant this is, Mr. Balko: and second how heartened I was to learn that in a vigil or protest in Boston over the weekend as citizens gathered to mourn the murder of Alex Pretti by Trump's paramilitaries, a chant went up from the crowd; "We're not cold, we're not afraid, Minnesota taught us to be brave."
Thank you, Boston. What goes around comes around.
(Sorry: original misspelling due to brain tumor, my apologies.)
Will try to keep this short. Just reviewed the New York Times video and audio of the latest killing. I spent over 35 years as an inpatient psychiatric nurse. When I see videos of police assaults, that should be simple containments, I am usually appalled. This one really shook me up. I trained staff for decades mostly in a large county psychiatric hospital in prevention and management of assaultive behavior. This was required of everyone who worked on one of the units. At any given time Under one very large roof there were 100 of the most severely mentally ill residents of that large county that had much more than its share of violent crime, poverty, rampant drug dealing and abuse, and untreated mental illness. After Rodney King , depending on who was in the class and how well they performed, I would often say at the end of the training, “any six or seven of us could now contain Rodney King safely, without anyone getting hurt.“ I hope to see a careful forensic analysis of the Pretti killing. I would like to know the amount of training and experience of each of the participants in the killing. I would like to know what standards if any they were being held to. This looked like the incompetent action of a mob of goons. Sickening. Thanks for letting me vent.
I've recently finished watching the PBS documentary on the Revolutionary War and have been thinking of the parallels between the Boston Massacre and Minneapolis. Radley illuminates the connection so well. Since finishing the series I've started referring to MAGA as "MAGA Loyalists" because I'm pretty sure most of them would have been on the side of the Redcoats during the revolution, no matter how much they like to think of themselves as patriots today.
An astute observation. In many ways, the politics of modern America strongly resemble those of colonial America, complete with authoritarian sympathizers vs. democratic republicans.
Nearly nine years ago Chris Hedges wrote a piece in Common Dreams titled "Trump Is the Symptom, Not the Disease," in which he says, "The crisis we face is the result of a four-decade-long, slow-motion corporate coup that has rendered the citizen impotent, left us without any authentic democratic institutions and allowed corporate and military power to become omnipotent."
The murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti (yet how many more before them?) are the apotheosis of that coup, where the corporate state has moved from subtle dehumanization by selling off people's dignity and life prospects bit by bit - e.g., no tax money for decent health care for you and your family, instead it goes to missiles and bombs - to complete deprivation of life through murder by the corporate enforcers and body guards.
When pictures of masked ICE thugs dressed in combat attire, toting high-powered rifles, with fingers on the triggers carry the caption "Federal agents," you know "government of, by, and for the people" is merely a quaint fantasy.
We fought a revolution to get rid of a king once, it's past time now to get rid of another one. This history from Boston is being repeated in Minneapolis.
It's vital that people remember this history... and the fact that community-building was how the colonists defeated the much more powerful British empire... and that what kept the colonists together to prosecute the war was the call for *equality* in the Declaration.
We have come to this low point in our nation's history because one man has been made very unequal by the USSC, because a few dozen rich men (at least the top ten are all men; Miriam Adelson is a rare woman with that kind of wealth) have decided that the rest of us shall have no say.
The final piece of history that we would do well to remember was that the new republic almost failed because the states failed to harmonize their vision of a central government. We need to have a revised Constitution, with associated legal framework, ready to go. And it must make a reality the promise of equality of the Declaration.
So the numerous stories of illegals in MN along with the billions of fraud dollars leaving that state is all made up? What protest demonstrator brings a firearm to the event rather than a sign (Hooray for our side)? If you step out in front of an on-coming car and are hit, is it the driver's fault or yours?
From here in occupied Minneapolis, I have to say first how brilliant this is, Mr. Balko: and second how heartened I was to learn that in a vigil or protest in Boston over the weekend as citizens gathered to mourn the murder of Alex Pretti by Trump's paramilitaries, a chant went up from the crowd; "We're not cold, we're not afraid, Minnesota taught us to be brave."
Thank you, Boston. What goes around comes around.
(Sorry: original misspelling due to brain tumor, my apologies.)
Will try to keep this short. Just reviewed the New York Times video and audio of the latest killing. I spent over 35 years as an inpatient psychiatric nurse. When I see videos of police assaults, that should be simple containments, I am usually appalled. This one really shook me up. I trained staff for decades mostly in a large county psychiatric hospital in prevention and management of assaultive behavior. This was required of everyone who worked on one of the units. At any given time Under one very large roof there were 100 of the most severely mentally ill residents of that large county that had much more than its share of violent crime, poverty, rampant drug dealing and abuse, and untreated mental illness. After Rodney King , depending on who was in the class and how well they performed, I would often say at the end of the training, “any six or seven of us could now contain Rodney King safely, without anyone getting hurt.“ I hope to see a careful forensic analysis of the Pretti killing. I would like to know the amount of training and experience of each of the participants in the killing. I would like to know what standards if any they were being held to. This looked like the incompetent action of a mob of goons. Sickening. Thanks for letting me vent.
Sending this post to all the sane people I know. Thank you!
I've recently finished watching the PBS documentary on the Revolutionary War and have been thinking of the parallels between the Boston Massacre and Minneapolis. Radley illuminates the connection so well. Since finishing the series I've started referring to MAGA as "MAGA Loyalists" because I'm pretty sure most of them would have been on the side of the Redcoats during the revolution, no matter how much they like to think of themselves as patriots today.
An astute observation. In many ways, the politics of modern America strongly resemble those of colonial America, complete with authoritarian sympathizers vs. democratic republicans.
Nearly nine years ago Chris Hedges wrote a piece in Common Dreams titled "Trump Is the Symptom, Not the Disease," in which he says, "The crisis we face is the result of a four-decade-long, slow-motion corporate coup that has rendered the citizen impotent, left us without any authentic democratic institutions and allowed corporate and military power to become omnipotent."
The murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti (yet how many more before them?) are the apotheosis of that coup, where the corporate state has moved from subtle dehumanization by selling off people's dignity and life prospects bit by bit - e.g., no tax money for decent health care for you and your family, instead it goes to missiles and bombs - to complete deprivation of life through murder by the corporate enforcers and body guards.
When pictures of masked ICE thugs dressed in combat attire, toting high-powered rifles, with fingers on the triggers carry the caption "Federal agents," you know "government of, by, and for the people" is merely a quaint fantasy.
We just started watching Ken Burns The American Revolution on PBS and noticed the parallels. Incredible stuff.
Que “You’ll Be Back” Hamilton!
We fought a revolution to get rid of a king once, it's past time now to get rid of another one. This history from Boston is being repeated in Minneapolis.
It's vital that people remember this history... and the fact that community-building was how the colonists defeated the much more powerful British empire... and that what kept the colonists together to prosecute the war was the call for *equality* in the Declaration.
We have come to this low point in our nation's history because one man has been made very unequal by the USSC, because a few dozen rich men (at least the top ten are all men; Miriam Adelson is a rare woman with that kind of wealth) have decided that the rest of us shall have no say.
The final piece of history that we would do well to remember was that the new republic almost failed because the states failed to harmonize their vision of a central government. We need to have a revised Constitution, with associated legal framework, ready to go. And it must make a reality the promise of equality of the Declaration.
So the numerous stories of illegals in MN along with the billions of fraud dollars leaving that state is all made up? What protest demonstrator brings a firearm to the event rather than a sign (Hooray for our side)? If you step out in front of an on-coming car and are hit, is it the driver's fault or yours?
My guy. Did you really just pay me $6 so you could leave that comment?
Because I'm not sure you got your money's worth.
You should make good his tuition with a recitation of the facts, Radley
1. Fraud in Minnesota was prosecuted under Biden, with state assistance. The fraud had nothing to do with immigration status, and everything to do with good old American greed. politifact.com/factchecks/2026/jan/08/pam-bondi/DOJ-Minnesota-fraud-Trump-Biden-Somalis/
2. Right wing protesters routinely bring guns to protests. Some of them even have the necessary permit that Alex Pretti had.
3. Pretti's gun was in its holster. It was taken away by agents before Pretti was shot.
4. No one was hit by a car in the two ICE murders, not even agent Jonathan Ross.