January 24, 2026

I probably won't stay up to watch it, but I'm interested to see how SNL handles the cold-blooded murder of an American by agents of his own government, a murder that was quickly endorsed by the POTUS*. I'll be surprised if they can match their cold open following Trump's election in 2016: one of "Saturday Night Live"'s finest moments.

See especially the NYT story by Lum & Willis, linked below. They analyze a few videos of federal agents shooting dead Alex Pretti of Minneapolis and show that what really happened and contrasting it with what Trump & his administration have claimed. ~~~

~~~ Heather Cox Richardson, who is a very good explainer, lays out what we know so far about the execution of Alex Pretti. Her summary conforms with what we've concluded here. But she adds context. The only place I would disagree with her are toward the end where she suggests some possible solutions. They aren't wrong -- they're positive ideas -- but I don't know that any of them would work. Still, if you want a concise but thorough summary of what-all has happened, this is it: ~~~

There are times even humor cannot save us. This is one of those times: ~~~

~~~ Rebecca Schoenkopf, the editor of Wonkette, holds the posts written by her staff Friday for weekend publication. “Sometimes ... horrible things happen on the weekend, and 'funny thing about the Labor Secretary’s alleged affair' doesn’t feel appropriate. Maybe I’ll post some of them tomorrow, or maybe they’ll wait until Monday.... Today, ICE killed another neighbor.”

⭐From the Minnesota Star Tribune live report: “A man was shot and killed by federal agents in south Minneapolis this morning, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said. Video shows several agents wrestling the man to the ground and shooting him multiple times.... Here’s what else you need to know:

• A 2-year-old detained by federal agents in Minneapolis was reunited with her mother Friday.
• Witnesses are refuting the federal government’s repeated assertions that a 5-year-old was 'abandoned' by his father before both were detained in Columbia Heights this week....
• Two women detained by ICE say they helped an agent having a seizure while being transported to the Whipple federal building.” Thanks to RAS for the link. Read on. The page is free for all readers.  

Update: “Two people familiar with the incident told the Minnesota Star Tribune that the man was Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37.”

Update 2: “Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement... 'On Monday, my office and I will be in court arguing to end this illegal and unconstitutional occupation of our cities and the terror and violence it’s inflicting.... This must stop. Now.' Ellison sued, along with the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, over the surge earlier this month.”

     ~~~ The New York Times liveblog is here. From the pinned item: “... video circulating on social media and verified by The New York Times appears to show it from a distance. In the footage, several people, apparently federal agents, are seen holding a person down on the sidewalk while at least one officer strikes the person with an object. An apparent gunshot is heard, and several more appear to follow. The agents scatter, and a person falls to the ground. The shooting occurred near the intersection of 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue, officials said.... Dozens of protesters at the site blew whistles and angrily demanded that police officers arrest the federal agents. In response, law enforcement officials deployed tear gas and flash bangs to try to disperse the crowd.... Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, a Democrat, said on social media that he had spoken to the White House about the shooting. He called the incident 'sickening' and said ... [Donald] Trump 'must end this operation.' He added, 'Minnesota has had it.'... Mary Moriarty, the elected prosecutor in Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, said that the 'scene must be secured by local law enforcement for preservation of evidence.'”~~~

Mitch Smith: “Chief Brian O’Hara of the Minneapolis police said his department learned of the shooting just after 9 a.m. He said the person who was shot is believed to be a 37-year-old man who lived in Minneapolis and was an American citizen.... Chief O’Hara said officials had identified the person who was killed. He said that person was believed to have a permit to carry a gun.” 

⭐Devon Lum: “Videos on social media that were verified by The New York Times contradict the Department of Homeland Security’s account of the fatal shooting of a man by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday morning. The Department of Homeland Security said the episode began after a man approached Border Patrol agents with a handgun and they tried to disarm him. But footage from the scene shows the man was holding a phone in his hand, not a gun, when federal agents took him to the ground and shot him.”

Katie Rogers & Hamed Aleaziz: Donald “Trump moved swiftly on Saturday to try to shift the blame for another shooting death in Minneapolis away from the federal agents involved in the incident, claiming instead that it was the result of inflammatory rhetoric by local officials and the victim himself. Members of Mr. Trump’s administration also quickly labeled the man, whom Minneapolis police said was 37 years old and an American citizen, as a 'domestic terrorist' and a would-be-assassin hours after the morning shooting, before all the facts were yet known or an investigation could take place.”   

Hamed Aleaziz: “A U.S. official says that the Department of Homeland Security is investigating the shooting incident with the assistance of the F.B.I.” [MB: Right. The same people who have already blamed Mr. Pretti for his own murder & have labeled him a domestic terrorist bent on massacring DHS agents.]

[Marie: IOW, DHS has now added the Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights amendments they have previously violated: First, Fourth, Sixth (and as Heather Cox Richardson pointed out in the linked "letter," the Fourteenth Amendment, which is not part of the Bill of Rights).] 

Ernesto Londoño: “Drew Evans, the superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said the Department of Homeland Security blocked state agents from the scene of Saturday’s shooting. Evans said his agency took the rare step of obtaining a search warrant to access the — the shooting happened on a street — but that has not yet yielded the access to evidence his investigators need.... Superintendent Evans said federal officials have refused to disclose the identities of federal agents involved in Saturday’s shooting, as well as the names of federal agents who have shot people in recent days in the course of the continuing immigration crackdown.”

Ernesto Londoño: “Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the city will be asking a federal judge to order an end to the immigration crackdown immediately. The city is a plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking an end to the federal operation and the parties have a court hearing scheduled on Monday.” [MB: I think this is the same suit Minnesota AG Keith Ellison referred to in the item in the Star Tribune liveblog linked above.]

Hamed Aleaziz: “Kristi Noem called the victim of the shooting a domestic terrorist. 'This individual who came with weapons and ammunition to stop a law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers committed an act of domestic terrorism,' she said. 'That’s the facts.' Earlier in the day, Stephen Miller has described the man as a domestic terrorist as well.... Noem ... continues to say at her news conference that she knew the intent of the individual killed by D.H.S. officers on Saturday. 'The facts of this situation: this individual showed up to an law enforcement operation with a weapon and dozens of rounds of ammunition,' she said. 'He wasn’t there to peacefully protest.' There is no evidence, as of yet, about the motives of the man, Alex Pretti.... Now, two high-ranking D.H.S. officials have made sweeping comments on the shooting, saying the man who died intended to kill federal agents.” DHS is the agency that will “investigate” the murder. [MB: It is not just ICE Barbie's face that is broken.]

Rylee Kirk: “Gov. Janet Mills of Maine has requested a meeting with ... [Donald] Trump to ask him to remove federal immigration agents from her state after a second fatal shooting by federal officers in Minnesota. Immigration agents started focusing on Maine this week....”

Catie Edmondson: “Senator Chuck Schumer of New York..., said in a statement that Senate Democrats would vote to block a bipartisan spending package that would fund the Department of Homeland Security and other parts of the government. The Senate is set to take up the measure, which includes $10 billion for ICE, ahead of a shutdown deadline at the end of January. ” 

~~~ Marie: Here is the first video referred to in news reports:

The full DHS statement on the shooting is here. Not surprisingly, it doesn't seem to jibe with videotape of what really happened. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Here's a very brief clip of what happened right before the federal agents killed the man in Minneapolis. The "weapon" he had in hand was a phone, with which he was video-recording what was happening on the street. A masked officer starts pushing him off the street, where the video ends. With this information, in impossible to know what happened between the end of that video and the beginning of the one above, but -- again -- this sure doesn't compute with the DHS "official" account. ~~~

     ~~~ Update 2. Marie: I haven't seen it myself, but Sarah Longwell of the Bulwark said slo-mo video shows that agents shot Alex Pretti after one of them disarmed him. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) just said the same thing on MS NOW. According to the DHS statement, linked above, "an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement." Tim Miller of the Bulwark also said that Pretti is a ICU nurse at the VA. Anything is possible, but an ICU nurse doesn't sound like a person one would immediately tag as a person intent upon massacring law enforcement personnel. ~~~

     ~~~ ⭐Update 3. Digby has linked to several bystander videos including the slo-mo video referenced in Update 2. I can't get any of Digby's videos to play, either on her site or on X, but maybe you can. Read her whole post, which includes commentary from writers who posted the videos. After viewing the videos, Digby writes, 

"It’s clear the man was on his knees with his hands on the ground. An ICE agent saw the gun in his back waistband (which he was legally carrying.) The agent with the gun moves away and for some reason another agent shot the protester, backed up and shot his dead body numerous times.... When you add this to the video of him taken before the murder, directing traffic with his phone in his hand, being rousted by agents (again with just his phone in his hand) then being beaten and shot, there can be no doubt that this was an execution." ~~~

~~~ Thanks to RAS for the link. We'll be learning a lot more, but there is no question that DHS in its official statement, that Greg Bovino in his news conference earlier today, and that Donald Trump in a tweet, are all lying their asses off. I agree with Digby (and others): "This was an execution." That is where we are in the United States of Trump: federal agents execute a nurse in broad daylight because he was exercising his First and Second Amendment rights -- and the government covers up the murder and blames the victim. 

We cannot go through three more years of this, and I can't see any legal way out. Ousting Trump wouldn't do us, because that would leave us with JayDee. Ousting JayDee wouldn't do it, because that would leave us with Bible Mike. Ousting Bible Mike wouldn't do it because that would leave us with 92-year-old Chuck Grassley. Ousting old Chuck wouldn't do, because that would leave us with Little Marco -- and right on through the Trump Cabinet. ~~~

⭐Now This. Devon Lum & Haley Willis of the New York Times analyze some videos I haven't seen elsewhere: “An agent begins shoving the demonstrators, and squirts pepper spray at their faces. At this moment, Mr. Pretti has both hands clearly visible. One is holding his phone, while he holds the other up to protect himself from pepper spray. He moves to help one of the protesters who was sprayed, as other agents approach and pull him from behind. Several agents tussle with Mr. Pretti before bringing him to his knees. He appears to resist as the agents grab his legs, push down on his back and strike him repeatedly. The footage shows an agent approaching with empty hands and grabbing at Mr. Pretti as the others hold him down. About eight seconds after he is pinned, agents yell that he has a gun, indicating that they may not have known he was armed until he was on the ground.

“The same agent who approached with empty hands pulls a gun from among the group that appears to match the profile of a firearm DHS said belonged to Mr. Pretti. The agents appear to have him under their control, with his arms pinned near his head. As the gun emerges from the melee, another agent aims his own firearm at Mr. Pretti’s back and appears to fire one shot at close range. He then appears to continue firing at Mr. Pretti, who collapses. A third agent unholsters a weapon. Both agents appear to fire additional shots into Mr. Pretti as he lies motionless. In total, at least 10 shots appear to have been fired within five seconds.”

You Are What You Wear. “Enclothed Cognition.” Derek Guy, a mensware writer, “deconstructs” Greg Bovino's “Nazi coat” for Politico Magazine: “... while Bovino’s coat shares visual similarities with certain Nazi uniforms — including the German M40 overcoat worn by Kriegsmarine officers — it belongs to a much broader lineage. The double-breasted closure, metal buttons and Ulster collar are hallmarks of the greatcoat, a 19th-century form of outerwear worn by soldiers from many different nations.... The greatcoat belongs to a shared military vocabulary that predates fascism and has been used by military forces around the world.... Bovino’s coat may not be a Hitlerian symbol, but it is a symbol for something else: the increasing militarization of immigration enforcement.... Over the last century, the evolution of dress in immigration enforcement tells a story of how such agencies have become militarized.... By dressing immigration enforcement officials in battle-ready attire, the agency encourages agents to understand themselves not as civil servants carrying out administrative law, but as frontline combatants operating in hostile terrain.... When a domestic agency dresses for war, it risks acting as if it is at war, even with the public. Clothing alone does not determine conduct, but it can help shape a worldview in which violent confrontation is more likely.”

~~~~~~~~~~ 

Marie: Okay, I'm done for the morning, but I continued posting links till 10:30 am ET. Some days it just take me longer than other days. Blame Trump.

The New York Times is liveblogging developments in the massive winter storm that is striking much of the nation and ultimately will hit about two-thirds of the U.S. population. From the pinned item at 6:30 am ET: “Much of America made frenzied preparations for a weekend of intense winter weather. Government officials urged people to stay home over nearly half the nation. Airlines canceled  thousands of weekend flights. The winter storm is forecast to plow east through the weekend, reaching New York, Washington and other major East Coast cities by Sunday. The dangerous mix of ice, heavy snow and extreme cold could halt transit, knock out parts of the national power grid and leave millions of Americans stuck inside for days. The snow started in the Rockies and is moving eastward, with light snow falling from Texas to Tennessee in the early morning there.” ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the Washington Post's liveblog. ~~~ 

     ~~~ Judson Jones of the New York Times: “'We are calling this winter storm historic because the just sheer ice totals that we’re forecasting are — they will be crippling for infrastructure,' [Caitlin] Dirks[, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service,] said. There are two main areas of concern for ice from this storm. One is from Texas to Tennessee, with a bull’s-eye of intense freezing rain over Mississippi. The other is up against the Appalachians, which would cause widespread ice in the Carolinas down to northern Georgia. While a foot of snow can be a major concern in some regions, even a quarter of an inch of ice can be far more dangerous. 'When ice starts to accumulate to a quarter of an inch or above, then we start talking potential power outages and tree limbs falling,' said Damien Hill, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Shreveport, La.” Speaking of ice. Or not: ~~~

~~~ “Another Incredibly Idiotic Story.” Kathryn Wilkens of Mediaite: During Jake Tapper's CNN show Friday afternoon, reporter “Gabe Cohen told Tapper that DHS officials ... asked FEMA to use the term 'freezing rain' instead of ice in public messaging and social media posts about the upcoming winter weather event, in which the storm and ice track is forecasted to stretch over 2,000 miles across the East Coast. 'What they are worried about here is that by posting something like, “Watch out for the ice,” that it’s gonna become an opportunity for a meme, for internet fodder, for public ridicule against the Department of Homeland Security,' explained Cohen.... 'This is largely an ice event, [said] Cohen, emphasizing that 'a lot of states that I’ve talked to' say they are expecting 'destructive ice'  causing widespread damage to power grids and roads.... Tapper [concluded], 'Because they're afraid of memes. Meanwhile, lives are on the line. Another incredibly idiotic story.'” Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his comment at the end of yesterday's thread. ~~~

~~~ BUT. Here's an Indication DHS Has a Slight Grasp on Reality. Brianna Sacks of the Washington Post: “The Department of Homeland Security has paused terminations of employees working on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster response as it ramps up preparations for a massive and life-threatening winter storm that will pummel half the country this weekend.... On Thursday night, DHS’ head of human resources sent an email notifying teams that 'just a few minutes ago,' FEMA headquarters decided the agency would halt their process of non-renewing dozens of federally funded employees. These roles, hired by FEMA for multiyear terms under the Stafford Act using the disaster relief fund, have been up for renewal on a rolling basis. Earlier that day, about 30 disaster workers received notices that their jobs would not be renewed. The pause then prompted human resources staff to backtrack, notifying those same workers that they still had jobs....” The link is a gift link.

Michelle Price of the AP: “... Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to impose a 100% tariff on goods imported from Canada if America’s northern neighbor went ahead with its China trade deal. Trump said in a social media post that if Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney 'thinks he is going to make Canada a “Drop Off Port” for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken.' While Trump has waged a trade war over the past year, Canada this month negotiated a deal to lower tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in return for lower import taxes on Canadian farm products. Trump initially had said that agreement was what Carney 'should be doing and it’s a good thing for him to sign a trade deal.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump's threat of course comes after Trumps world-class spat with Carney at Davos. This is the price we pay for Carney's standing up for his own country and other "middle countries" against Trump's bullying of long-time U.S. allies.

      ~~~ Adam Schwartz on Bluesky: "Trump’s Board of Peace logo is basically the UN logo, except dipped in gold and edited so the world only includes America." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Another reason not to replicate the map on the U.N. logo: Greenland is so small, you can barely see it. ~~~

~~~ RAS points out that two members Trump invited to join his "Board of Peace" couldn't show up for the signing ceremony because "they would be arrested at the airport for war crimes." 

From a New York Times liveblog of stupid stuff Trump has done & said lately: 

Stephen Castle (re: Cadet Bonespurs): “Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain and other leading British politicians on Friday condemned claims made by ... [Donald] Trump that NATO troops had stayed 'a little off the front lines' during the war in Afghanistan. Mr. Trump made the comments in an interview in Davos, Switzerland, with Fox Business, in which Mr. Trump questioned whether other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would come to the aid of the United States if needed. 'We’ve never needed them,' Mr. Trump said. 'We have never really asked anything of them. You know, they’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan or this or that. And they did. They stayed a little back, little off the front lines.' Under NATO’s collective security agreement, known as Article 5, aggression against one member country is considered an attack on all. It has been invoked only once in the history of the alliance — after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.... Britain ... lost 457 soldiers during two decades of subsequent fighting in Afghanistan.... Mr. Starmer — who normally avoids criticizing the president — said the remarks were 'insulting and frankly appalling.'...” Here's a CBS News story. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

I guess then we could say that Cadet Bonespurs stayed 'a little bit off the front lines' in Vietnam.... about 9,000 miles off the front lines. Fucking cowardly liar. -- Akhilleus, in yesterday's Comments  

     ~~~ Steve Hendrix of the Washington Post: “Britons including Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Prince Harry and grieving parents of soldiers killed in action reacted with fury Friday to ... Donald Trump’s inaccurate belittling of the role British troops played in the Afghanistan war.... The controversy seemed to erupt from a buildup of contained frustration over Trump’s increasingly angry rhetoric toward European allies.... Trump’s dismissiveness echoed his insulting of Gold Star families of fallen soldiers in the U.S. during his first presidential campaign and his chiding of John McCain for being captured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.... In 2020 Trump reportedly called dead American soldiers buried at a U.S. military cemetery in France 'losers' and referred to Marines killed at Belleau Wood as 'suckers.'...”

Ciaran Fahey of the AP: “German soccer federation executive committee member says it’s time to consider a World Cup boycott because of the actions of ... Donald Trump. Oke Göttlich, the president of Bundesliga club St. Pauli and one of the German federation’s 10 vice presidents, told the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper in an interview on Friday that 'the time has come' to 'seriously consider and discuss this.'” MB: Oke, Oke, Oke, what about Trump's FIFA Peace Prize??? ~~~

Let me put this in words you might understand, Mr. President. Fuck off. -- Anders Vistisen, member of the European Parliament from Denmark, message to Donald Trump sent during a Parliamentary session last week ~~~

~~~ Naftali Bendavid of the Washington Post: “... from the conference rooms of Davos, Switzerland, to the halls of the Federal Reserve to the streets of Minneapolis: ... Donald Trump’s adversaries are pushing back against him with renewed force.... Underlying it is a sense that seeking to placate Trump has proved ineffective in the first year of his second term and that counterpunching is the better option.... Much of the recent reaction to Trump has been sparked by his double-barreled onslaughts on Greenland and Minneapolis, which have seen the president seek to stretch his authority further than ever before, and by a sense that Trump could continue upping the ante as the November midterm elections approach. Trump’s critics also fear he has been emboldened by the military’s successful seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro....”

Debunking Another Trump Fake National Security Threat. Edward Wong of the New York Times: “... while China has talked about expanding trade and access to shipping lanes and natural resources in the Arctic, it has developed only a small footprint there over the years. And even as China and Russia compete with the United States in many parts of the world, they do not present a threat to American interests in or near Greenland, say experts on those two superpowers and current and former U.S. officials, including intelligence analysts. Those findings contrast sharply with assertions by ... [Donald] Trump, who has repeatedly cited security as the reason he wants to acquire Greenland.... Mr. Trump and his aides have not presented any intelligence that points to Chinese threats to Greenland.” ~~~

~~~ Jack Detsch of Politico: “The Pentagon on Friday night released a long-awaited strategy that prioritizes the U.S. homeland and Western Hemisphere — a stunning reversal from previous administrations that aligns with ... Donald Trump’s military strikes in Venezuela and efforts to acquire Greenland. The National Defense Strategy — a dramatic shift from even the first Trump administration — no longer focuses primarily on countering China. Instead, it blames past administrations for ignoring American interests and jeopardizing the U.S. military’s access to the Panama Canal and Greenland. The strategy calls for attention to the 'practical interests' of the U.S. public and an abandonment of 'grandiose strategies.'... The document, which usually follows the National Security Strategy, came out after months of delay.” MB: Isn't it a “grandiose strategy” to try to aggrandize the short-fingered vulgarian in the White House? ~~~

     ~~~ You can read the unclassified version of the "Department of War's" National Defense Strategy here. 

Abdi Dahir of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said late Thursday that a large naval force was heading to Iran, continuing his threats of U.S. military action against the government nearly a month after protests erupted across the country. 'We’re watching Iran,' Mr. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to the United States from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. 'We have a big flotilla going in that direction, and we’ll see what happens,' he added, describing the force as an 'armada.' Mr. Trump had appeared to back away from threats to strike Iran, saying he had received assurances that detained protesters there would not be executed. Leaders across the Middle East had also warned Mr. Trump that a military confrontation could destabilize the region. Last week, the Pentagon ordered the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and three Tomahawk-missile-firing destroyers ... to head to the Middle East, according to two U.S. officials....”

Ashley Ahn of the New York Times: “The United States military on Friday struck another boat it suspected of smuggling drugs, killing two people, according to the U.S. Southern Command, in its first known boat strike in the eastern Pacific since the capture of Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela. The U.S. Southern Command, which shared a video of the strike on social media, said the attack targeted a boat sailing along 'known narco-trafficking routes' and that there had been one survivor. It said it had asked the U.S. Coast Guard to start a search-and-rescue mission for the survivor. This latest attack brings the known death toll in the Trump administration’s campaign that claims to be targeting drug smugglers to 125 since early September.”

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: on “the Un-American President”: “It is heartbreaking that on the cusp of our 250th anniversary, we have a president who is perverting all the values our country was founded on — looking out for one another, respecting one another’s rights. America is not supposed to be a place where an angel-faced 5-year-old named Liam, with a floppy-eared hat and a Spider-Man backpack, gets seized and taken to a detention center by men in masks. The American leader is meant to be a unifier.... Trump is an anarchic toddler, constantly causing upheaval across the globe, transgressing and remaking everything in his helter-skelter image. He has no interest in fireside chats; he wants to set fires. He’s more about droit du seigneur than noblesse oblige. He feels entitled to whatever he wants, from Greenland to Canada to the Kennedy Center to a Nobel Prize he didn’t win. Unlike previous presidents, he isn’t countering Russia; he’s catering to it. He disparaged the NATO troops who died for us in Afghanistan and belittled our nicest neighbor, claiming that 'Canada lives because of the United States.'”

Elena Shao, et al., of the New York Times: “Federal immigration agents have broken windows and dragged occupants out of their vehicles. They have forcefully tackled people to the ground. They have pushed and shoved protesters, and deployed pepper spray directly in their faces. For weeks, residents have documented the scenes unfolding as federal agents pursue President Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota. The videos have circulated widely and intensified outrage and fear among many Minnesotans.... The New York Times reviewed dozens of videos taken in recent weeks and identified multiple aggressive tactics that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agents used during immigration arrests and in encounters with protesters.” The article includes still shots but not videotapes of some of the incidents. Update: The link has been changed to one that appears to be a gift link. ~~~

~~~ Ernesto Londoño of the New York Times: “... photos of a Border Patrol agent squirting pepper spray in the face of a man who was being pinned down by fellow officers on Wednesday searingly captured why the ongoing immigration operation has been met with furious resistance on the streets of Minneapolis....  The unmasked agent walked around the other agents, squatted down and deployed the pepper spray can just inches from the man’s face, drenching him in a thick orange goo.... Images of the episode drew millions of views online, made the front page of The Minnesota Star Tribune and elicited blistering condemnation from local officials. 'No one looking at this image can seriously claim this is about public safety,' said Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis.... Gov. Tim Walz reposted the Star Tribune newspaper page on social media, along with a two-word comment: 'Trump’s America.'... The identity and whereabouts of the man who was sprayed was unclear on Friday.” The article includes a full account of the incident. The link is a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It looks as if even top DHS liar/propagandist/sadist Tricia McLaughlin knew that deploying pepper-spray inches away from the face of a man who was pinned down was at least a "bad look." Londoño writes, "Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, did not respond to an email asking about the confrontation...." ~~~

This is no longer simple misunderstanding. At best DHS fundamentally misunderstands Minnesota’s correctional system. At a minimum, this reflects systemic data management inadequacies or incompetence as it relates to DHS tracking of detainers in custody. At worst it is pure propaganda, numbers released without evidence to stoke fear rather than inform the public. -- Paul Schnell, Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner, at a press conference ~~~

~~~ Andrew Egger of the Bulwark: Tricia “McLaughlin and other DHS officials have repeatedly accused Walz and Frey of conspiring to keep even criminal aliens out of the hands of ICE. But while some county jails continue to refuse to honor ICE detainers, the state prison system has been honoring them all along. In fact, when DHS releases its now-routine self-congratulatory lists of 'worst of the worst' offenders apprehended by ICE in Minnesota, many of the migrants listed are people who have simply been handed over by the state prison system at the conclusion of their sentences. State prison officials have been flabbergasted by DHS’s apparent unwillingness to get even basic facts correct here.... Throughout their shambolic rampage through the Twin Cities, DHS has been both clownishly incompetent and eager to lie and spin to cover up their overreaches and mistakes.”

KARE Minneapolis: "The day after ICE arrested a 5-year-old boy, his lawyer is sharing new details about how he and his family came to the U.S., directly disputing claims made by the Vice President. Liam Ramos ... was detained on Tuesday afternoon along with his father. The arrest has sparked widespread criticism.... Vice President JD Vance held a press conference in Minneapolis on Thursday, where a reporter asked about Liam. Vance appeared sympathetic at first but then claimed that the boy's father is an 'illegal alien.' 'What are they (ICE) supposed to do? Let a 5-year-old freeze to death?' Vance said.... Attorney Marc Prokosch said the father is not an 'illegal alien' and has been following the law in seeking asylum. According to Prokosch, the family entered the U.S. in 2024 through a port of entry, has been following the legal process, appearing at court hearings, and does not pose a safety risk. He said they 'did everything right when they came in,' and the boy's arrest is 'inhumane and unacceptable.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Mediaite transcribes JayDee's remarks here. He claims he did "a little bit [of] follow-up research" and learned that "when they went to arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran." Every story I've read about the boy's detention says that both the child and his father were detained in the driveway of their home, so it looks as if Dad didn't run very far. According to this Guardian story, the father's car engine was still running when ICE detained him. JayDee's "little bit of research" seems to have been checking in with professional liar Tricia McLaughlin. According to the Guardian, "Tricia McLaughlin, Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary, said in a statement on Wednesday night that ICE was conducting a 'targeted operation' to arrest Liam’s father, who[m] she called an 'illegal alien'. 'ICE did NOT target a child,' she said. McLaughlin also alleged the father 'fled on foot – abandoning his child.'” I don't know for certain what happened, but neither does JayDee.

Jack Brooks & Sarah Raza of the AP: “A Minnesota activist who was charged for her role in an anti-immigration enforcement protest at a church released her own video of her arrest Friday after the White House posted a manipulated image online. The White House on Thursday posted a picture on its X page of civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong crying with her hands behind her back as she was escorted by a blurred person wearing a badge. The photo was captioned in all caps: 'Arrested far-left agitator Nekima Levy Armstrong for orchestrating church riots in Minnesota.'... At no point in [a] more than seven-minute video -- which shows Levy Armstrong being handcuffed and led into a government vehicle -- did Levy Armstrong appear to cry. Instead, she talked with agents about her arrest.... Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Allen, a St. Paul school board member who was also arrested in connection to the protest, were both released Friday, according to a post by Levy Armstrong’s organization, the Racial Justice Network.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: According to the report, Levy Armstrong asked ICE officials not to record her arrest. “'It’s not going to be on Twitter,' the agent filming [her] said. 'It’s not going to be on anything like that.... We don’t want to create a false narrative,' the agent said.” Yeah, (a) No "anything like that." (b) Definitely not going to "create a false narrative." In fact, (a) DHS advertised on its Website a real image of Levy Armstrong in cuffs. (b) After that, the White House manipulated the image to further humiliate her by manipulating the image to darken her skin and picture her wailing. 

It's ICE Out Day! But First, It's Jail All the Priests Day. Lauren Gurley, et al., of the Washington Post: “Roughly 100 clergy were arrested without incident during a protest against deportation flights at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport on Friday, as an economic protest of the Trump administration’s immigration operations in Minnesota shuttered hundreds of businesses in the Twin Cities. Organizers of the action, dubbed ICE Out of Minnesota: Day of Truth and Freedom, have called for residents to boycott work, school and shopping. The goal, said Ruth Kashmark, who closed her bar Friday to participate, is to demonstrate that 'this is what the world’s going to look like if you take our hardworking neighbors away.'... The airport protest ... sought to call on airlines to halt cooperation with government deportation flights from the facility, a spokesperson for Faith in Minnesota said. The Bloomington Police Department confirmed it had assisted in making arrests, which occurred peacefully after about an hour of protest in front of airport entrances by singing and praying clergy members.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Giovanna Dell'Orto, et al., of the AP: “Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesman Jeff Lea said the clergy were issued misdemeanor citations of trespassing and failure to comply with a peace officer and were then released. They were arrested outside the main terminal at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport because they went beyond the reach of their permit for demonstrating and disrupted airline operations, he said.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Heather Cox Richardson: “Status Coup News interviewed a protester walking down the street [in Minneapolis or St. Paul] holding a sign that said: 'CLASSIC NAZI BLUNDER: INVADING IN WINTER.'” Read on.  

Carol Leonnig, et al., of MS NOW: "Federal judges in Minnesota have several times in recent weeks rejected arrest warrants for people protesting a surge of immigration officers in that state, finding that federal agents do not have sufficient evidence that protesters assaulted officers or committed other crimes.... In these sealed court proceedings, magistrate judges in the federal court in Minnesota have been deluged with requests from federal prosecutors to arrest and criminally charge protesters.... But some prosecutors have fared poorly in establishing evidence of crime.... It is exceedingly rare for judges to turn down investigators’ requests for search and arrest warrants or criminal complaints, since the standard of evidence required is so low.... This spate of rejections in Minnesota would normally cause embarrassment for the U.S attorney’s office.... But the Minnesota office has been in turmoil since the Justice Department’s decision not to investigate the officer who killed [Renee] Good, which led to six senior prosecutors resigning, and more departures are expected." (Also linked yesterday.)

Alan Feuer & Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “An F.B.I. agent who sought to investigate the federal immigration officer who fatally shot a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis this month has resigned from the bureau, according to two people.... The agent, Tracee Mergen, left her job as a supervisor in the F.B.I.’s Minneapolis field office after bureau leadership in Washington pressured her to discontinue a civil rights inquiry into the immigration officer, Jonathan Ross.... Such inquiries are a common investigative step in similar shootings. Ms. Mergen’s resignation was only the latest shock wave to have emerged from the Justice Department’s handling of the shooting of Renee Good.... Instead of allowing Ms. Mergen to work with the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis to investigate Mr. Ross, the Justice Department has decided to investigate Ms. Good and her partner, Becca Good, scrutinizing their possible ties to left-wing protest groups in Minneapolis. That decision prompted at least six senior prosecutors in the office to resign in protest.” The link appears to be a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Carol Leonnig & Ken Dilanian of MS NOW: "Aides to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche directed the U.S. Attorney’s office and FBI agents based in Minnesota to shut down a civil rights investigation into an officer’s fatal shooting of Renee Good and instead alter it to probe Good for possible criminal liability, according to three people.... After Good was killed on Jan. 7, FBI agents drafted a search warrant to obtain her car to reconstruct the path of bullets that an ICE officer shot into the vehicle. But they were instructed to redraft their warrant and change the subject of the investigation from a civil rights probe to an investigation into a suspected assault on an officer, the people said. A federal magistrate judge rejected that warrant, noting that Good was already dead and could not be considered a suspect for a warrant. 

     ~~~ Marie: These stories explain a story I linked sometime back that said there was an ongoing federal civil rights investigation into Ross's murder of Good. There was until there wasn't. Leonnig & Dilanian's story also provides yet another window into how incompetent the Blondie/Blanche DOJ is. You don't need to study criminal law to know you can't charge a dead person with a crime. 

Michael Luciano of Mediaite: “Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested a husband and wife, and their seven-year-old daughter, as the three tried to go to an emergency room in Oregon. The three were apprehended outside Adventist Health hospital in Portland, according to Noticias Noroeste, a Spanish-language news website. Last Friday, Yohendry De Jesus Crespo and his wife, Darianny Liseth Gonzalez de Crespo, took their seven-year-old daughter, Diana, to the hospital after the child developed a nosebleed that would not stop. But according to Oregon Live, 'They never got to see a doctor.' Three unmarked vehicles surrounded their car in the hospital’s parking lot, said Ana Linares, a family friend whose husband spoke with the parents after their arrest. The Crespo parents are from Venezuela, and their daughter was born in Ecuador. They currently have a pending asylum petition. Oregon Live said a review of the Crespos found no criminal history in Oregon or Utah, where they previously resided.”

In this audio opinion piece, New York Times "columnist Jamelle Bouie argues that the Trump administration's immigration policy has more in common with ethnic cleansing than actual immigration enforcement." Includes a transcript of Bouie's remarks.

Here is perhaps the biggest "Get Out of Jail Free" card in U.S. history not issued directly by Donald Trump: ~~~  

~~~ Hannah Schoenbaum & Jaimie Ding of the AP: “Federal immigration authorities allowed a suspect in a $100 million jewelry heist believed to be the largest in U.S. history to deport himself to South America in December, a move that stunned and upset prosecutors who were planning to try the case and send him to prison. Jeson Nelon Presilla Flores was one of seven people charged last year with stalking an armored truck to a rural freeway rest stop north of Los Angeles and stealing millions worth of diamonds, emeralds, gold, rubies and designer watches in 2022. Flores faced up to 15 years in federal prison if convicted on charges of conspiracy to commit theft from interstate and foreign shipment and theft from interstate and foreign shipment. He pleaded not guilty to the charges. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported Flores in late December after he requested voluntary departure, prosecutors said in court filings.” Thanks to RAS for the lead. ~~~

~~~ Speaking of Trump's Get Out of Jail Free cards: ~~~ 

~~~  Quiz. Which one is a domestic terrorist? (1) a woman in Maine standing on the side of the road videotaping ICE officers who were stopping cars; (2) a leader of a violent extremist group convicted of attacking and injuring police officers and storming the U.S. Capitol in search of members of Congress and the Vice President in an effort to overturn the government. If you chose (1), you would be right! Thanks to RAS for the link to (1). AND, if  you chose (1), this next story won't surprise you: ~~~

~~~ Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration proposed massive cuts to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s body camera program for this fiscal year as officers surged into U.S. cities to arrest immigrants.... A string of violent incidents involving federal immigration officers — including the fatal shooting of Minneapolis resident Renée Good in her SUV this month — has added fresh urgency to calls from congressional Democrats and some Republicans for more body-worn cameras. In several use-of-force incidents, witnesses and Homeland Security officials have given wildly differing accounts of the confrontations. Yet the government has voluntarily released little officer-worn footage. To address these concerns, House appropriators this week said they would allocate about $20 million for cameras for DHS, which oversees ICE and its sibling agency, Customs and Border Protection, and require the agency to report back on its progress in 30 days. But the House plan stops short of requiring officers to wear cameras.... Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said Republicans would not agree on requiring agents to wear the cameras.” 

Andrew Ackerman of the Washington Post: “Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spent much of the past year quietly urging restraint as President Donald Trump trained his fire on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell. This week, Bessent joined the attack.... Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Bessent delivered pointed public criticisms of Powell’s leadership, a shift that underscored growing tension between the administration and the central bank at a moment when Trump is poised to announce who should replace Powell when his term as chair expires in May.”

Once again, we see that Trump's bad decisions are not limited to political and economic matters. : ~~~ 

~~~⭐Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: “Offering a startlingly candid view into the philosophy guiding vaccine recommendations under the Trump administration, the leader of the federal panel that recommends vaccines for Americans said shots against polio and measles — and perhaps all diseases — should be optional, offered only in consultation with a clinician. Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who is chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, said that he did have 'concerns' that some children might die of measles or become paralyzed with polio as a result of a choice not to vaccinate.... In the case of an infectious disease, a personal choice to decline a vaccine may also affect others, including infants who are too young to be vaccinated or people who are immunocompromised. But a person’s right to reject a vaccine supersedes those risks, Dr. Milhoan said.... The polio and measles vaccines are widely acknowledged as staggering successes in public health, credited with preventing disability and millions of deaths worldwide.” (Also linked yesterday.)

⭐Mike McIntire of the New York Times: “A group of fringe researchers thwarted safeguards at the National Institutes of Health and gained access to data from thousands of children. The researchers have used it to produce at least 16 papers purporting to find biological evidence for differences in intelligence between races, ranking ethnicities by I.Q. scores and suggesting Black people earn less because they are not very smart.... Their papers have provided fodder for racist posts on social media and white nationalist message boards that have been viewed millions of times.... Mainstream geneticists have rejected their work as biased and unscientific. Yet by relying on ... data from the prominent project, known as the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, the researchers gave their theories an air of analytical rigor. Members of the research group were ineligible to obtain data from the ABCD project. But one of them gained access through an American professor who was already being investigated by the N.I.H.... At least 63 times since 2007, data from some of the 28 human genomic repositories that the N.I.H. controls was improperly released to researchers, used for unapproved purposes or made vulnerable to theft, according to government records reviewed by The New York Times.”

Dead Letter. Laura Meckler of the Washington Post: “Nearly a year ago, the Education Department sent universities and K-12 school districts scrambling with a sweeping but vague directive. The 'Dear Colleague' letter said schools may be in violation of federal law if they consider race in virtually any way — hiring, discipline policy, scholarships and programming. After a lawsuit and a defeat in court, however, the Trump administration says it is dropping the matter entirely. That means an August federal court order blocking the 'Dear Colleague'  letter will stand. The Trump administration had also demanded that schools certify that they are in compliance with the letter, and that demand is now dead, too....  The Trump administration, which made sweeping changes to education over its first year, can still work to impose its view of the law on schools through enforcement actions and other pressure. For instance, in July, the Justice Department published a memo that included many of the same ideas that were in the Education Department’s letter.... Many schools have already changed their diversity, equity and inclusion policies, wary of running afoul of the administration’s anti-DEI stance.”

Perry Stein of the Washington Post: “A grand jury in Maryland indicted a federal contractor accused of leaking classified information to a Washington Post reporter, charging him with one count of retaining and five counts of sharing sensitive national security information. The systems administrator in Maryland, 61-year-old Aurelio Luis Perez-Lugones, has held a top-secret security clearance since at least 1995, according to the indictment. He is accused of accessing classified documents from his workplace, printing them out and illegally removing the materials from secured facilities.... 

“The investigation of Perez-Lugones led authorities to execute a search warrant last week at the Virginia home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson and seize her electronic devices. A search of a journalist’s home ... has raised alarms among First Amendment advocates.... According to the indictment, Perez-Lugones’s classified-information leaks were used in at least five stories co-written by Natanson between Oct. 31 and Jan. 9.... She is not named in the indictment against Perez-Lugones and is referred to as 'Reporter 1' throughout the document.... A federal magistrate judge in Virginia ... on Wednesday barred the government from examining [Natanson's] electronic devices, including her phone and two computers, while the legal challenge [she and the Post mounted] is being resolved.” MB: I'm still betting Trump's DOJ downloaded everything on Natanson's computer.

Marie: Here are some short videos I've been searching for over the past couple of days. Call it "Great Moments in Jim Jordan's Committee Hearings." Each of these comes from the goings-on Thursday, when Special Prosecutor Jack Smith testified before the House Judiciary Committee:

Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) gets to the heart of the case against Donald Trump, with a series of questions to Smith: ~~

Here, Smith responds to a number of "gotcha" questions posed by Ben Cline (R-Va.):

And finally, we hear from Jared Moscowitz (D-Fla.) Smith doesn't get a word in edgewise. But hey, it plays in Peoria, or in this case, Fort Lauderdale: ~~~

Michael Gold of the New York Times: “Two top House Democrats called on Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday to allow them to visit the minimum-security federal prison in Texas where Ghislaine Maxwell is being held and to interview the warden, citing reports they said they had received that she was receiving preferential treatment. In a letter to Ms. Bondi, Representatives Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrats on the Judiciary and Oversight Committees, said that more than a dozen people had come forward with whistle-blower complaints about the treatment of Ms. Maxwell, the longtime companion of Jeffrey Epstein.... The lawmakers asserted that whistle-blowers had told them that one person had been fired for reporting Ms. Maxwell’s treatment to Congress, which would be a violation of federal law.” (Also linked yesterday.)

~~~~~~~~~~ 

California. Joseph Choi of the Hill: “California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced just one day after the U.S. officially withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO) that his state would become the first to join the organization’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, in a seeming rebuke of the Trump administration’s withdrawal from international collaborations. Newsom traveled this week to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland ... where he met with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. 'As President Trump withdraws the United States from the World Health Organization, California is stepping up under Governor Gavin Newsom — becoming the first, and currently the only, state to join the WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network (GOARN), strengthening public health preparedness and rapid response coordination,' Newsom’s office said in a statement. This announcement comes just one day after the U.S.’s withdrawal from the WHO became official after nearly 80 years of membership, having been a founding member of the organization.” Thanks to RAS for the lead.

Indiana. Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: “Police officials in Lafayette, Ind., have arrested five people in connection with the nonfatal shootings of a prominent local judge and his wife five days ago. Officials said in court documents that the attack was part of a plot to murder the judge in order to delay the trial of one of the alleged conspirators in another case. The allegations, described in court documents released on Friday, indicate that the police also believe that the shooting of the judge, Steven P. Meyer of Tippecanoe County Superior Court, and his wife, Kimberly, was a gang-related crime. In the attack on Sunday, the police said, a man went to the door of the couple’s house in Lafayette, claiming to have lost a dog. When the judge and his wife came to the entryway of the house, the man shot them through the door, the police said. Judge Meyer, 66, who was struck in the arm, is hospitalized and recovering. Ms. Meyer was treated for a leg injury and released.” (Also linked yesterday.)