January 28, 2026

Here's video, taken on January 13, of a man who appears to be Alex Pretti in the altercation with federal agents during which they broke his rib. There's no way to tell for certain, at this point. what occurred before Pretti spat at their vehicle and kicked out the taillight. The narrator, however, says that agents were blocking the road, and observers "were shouting at the agents as they walked back to their vehicles." I don't understand the agents' response to Pretti's damaging the vehicle's taillight. Their "purpose" seems to be to rough him up and pepper-spray a number of other observers. As I said earlier today, murder and mayhem seems to be their primary goal. That's not "keeping the peace" or "making Americans safer": 

 

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “The chief federal judge in Minnesota excoriated Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday, saying it had violated nearly 100 court orders stemming from its aggressive crackdown in the state and had disobeyed more judicial directives in January alone than 'some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.' The extraordinary broadside by the judge, Patrick J. Schiltz, came in a ruling in which he temporarily rescinded an order he had issued on Tuesday, summoning Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, to appear in front of him to explain why he should not be held in contempt for violating so many orders arising from the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration actions in Minnesota. While Judge Schiltz, a conservative jurist appointed by President George W. Bush, let Mr. Lyons off the hook for the moment, he cautioned that he might change his mind and order him to appear again to answer questions if ICE continues to violate court orders.”

 

Annie Karni of the New York Times: “As ... [Donald] Trump riled up a rally crowd on Tuesday night describing immigrants bent on harming and killing Americans, he singled out one person in particular as an example of a bad actor. Foreigners coming into the United States, he told his audience in Iowa, 'have to show they can love our country; they have to be proud — not like Ilhan Omar.' The crowd booed. They recognized the name of the Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota, whom the president has demonized and dehumanized for years with racist and xenophobic attacks, venting that she should 'go back' to her country, referring to her as 'garbage,' and mocking her hijab by calling it a  'little turban.' Not long afterward, at her own event in North Minneapolis, Ms. Omar was attacked by a man who rushed the lectern where she was speaking, spraying her with a strong-smelling liquid.... 

“A Somali-born Muslim woman elected to Congress in an era defined by Mr. Trump’s bigoted attacks against immigrants, Ms. Omar has in the past seen death threats against her rise to the highest levels among U.S. lawmakers. Ms. Omar has sometimes been assigned a 24-hour security detail from the Capitol Police. That added protection is available at the discretion of the House speaker. But for the past year, Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has not offered it to her, she noted in an interview last December. After the attack on Tuesday, Ms. Omar made a formal request for extra Capitol Police protection and Mr. Johnson agreed....” ~~~

~~~ Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: “The man who squirted liquid from a syringe onto Representative Ilhan Omar in Minneapolis on Tuesday night had for years posted online about his anger at Democrats and had recently told a neighbor that he might be arrested at an event featuring the congresswoman. The man, Anthony J. Kazmierczak, 55..., is now in jail on suspicion of assault while prosecutors determine what charges to file against him. On Facebook, Mr. Kazmierczak, who went by Andy, frequently wrote and shared posts from others about conservative issues, including some that criticized Democratic lawmakers. Ms. Omar was the subject of one post he shared in 2021.... Mr. Kazmierczak had recently told a neighbor that he was going to attend an event held by Ms. Omar and that he might be arrested.” On Facebook, Kazmierczak has showed support for Trump, Charlie Kirk's organization & gunman Kyle Rittenhouse.

Georgia on His (Addled) Mind. Ryan Reilly, et al., of NBC News: “The FBI executed a search warrant at a Fulton County elections hub on Wednesday, seeking records related to the 2020 election, according to the county.... State Sen. Josh McLaurin, a Democrat who represents Fulton County, called the search 'extremely alarming.' Speaking last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland..., Donald Trump repeated his false claim that the 2020 election was 'rigged,' and said that 'people will soon be prosecuted for what they did.' Fulton County has been a fixation of Trump's following his 2020 election loss in Georgia. In the lead-up to the Jan. 6 attack, Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a phone call to 'find 11,780 votes,' which was roughly Joe Biden’s margin of victory in the state.”

Gregory Svirnovskiy of Politico: “Two Customs and Border Protection agents involved in the killing of Minnesota nurse Alex Pretti last week have been placed on administrative leave, the agency said on Wednesday. The agency said the leave is 'standard protocol.' But it appears to be a change in status for the two agents, who were not identified. Since-sidelined Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino on Sunday told reporters the agents were at work in other cities. 'All agents that were involved in that scene are working, not in Minneapolis but in other locations,' Bovino said. 'That’s for their safety.' After publication, an agency spokesperson said in a second statement that the officers had been on leave since Saturday, apparently contradicting Bovino.”

It just wasn't bad enough to goad some madman into attacking a U.S. Congresswoman with some kind of noxious spray, was it? There must be some way Donald Trump can make it worse. (I know you know he can. And he did.) ~~~ 

~~~ Max Rego of the Hill: Donald “Trump, without evidence, suggested Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) staged an incident during her town hall Tuesday night when a man sprayed her with an unknown substance. 'I don’t think about her. I think she’s a fraud,' Trump told ABC News. 'She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.' When asked if he had seen video of the incident, the president said, 'I haven’t seen it. No, no. I hope I don’t have to bother.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Evan Hurst of Wonkette has more on the incident. Like this: Despite her staff urging her to be checked out at a hospital, Omar went on after the incident: Addressing the public, she said, “Here is the reality people like this ugly man don’t understand. We are Minnesota Strong. We’ll stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw at us.” As for Trump's assertion, Hurst writes, "the person who did it was a dumpy MAGA loser named Anthony Kazmierczak, age 55.... He follows such absolute losers on Twitter as LibsOfTikTok and Benny Johnson and Candace Owens and Tim Pool and Elon Musk.Yeah, MAGA, it was staged. They just happened to hire somebody who has been living his entire life as a dead-end, least-common-denominator, humanity’s-least-valuable-player Trump supporter." ~~~

     ~~~ Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: “House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) blasted ... Donald Trump over his 'disgusting' rant about the attack on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in a new CNN interview.... [Jeffries said,] '... the president’s lies and misinformation continue to fan the flames of these types of violent incidents. And it’s at a moment like this where we actually need leadership from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and it’s something that we never get from this president. Ilhan Omar, of course, is a strong, courageous, hardworking public servant. This should have never happened. I’m thankful that she is physically OK. She’s mentally strong, as is always the case, and we stand by her.'”

Tyler Pager, et al., of the New York Times: “This account of Mr. Trump’s shifting strategy in Minnesota, and the dawning realization that his usual tactics were not working, is based on interviews with a dozen people, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions.... Holed up in the White House over the weekend, with temperatures dropping and a major snowstorm on its way, Mr. Trump expressed concern about the killing to aides and allies. But his frustrations were more about the coverage of the events rather than the incident itself, according to people familiar with the dynamic.... And even as he tried to turn the page on the crisis in Minneapolis, saying he wanted to 'de-escalate' the situation, he continued to blame Mr. Pretti, the intensive care unit nurse shot by Border Patrol agents, for his own death. 'You can’t walk in with guns,' Mr. Trump said of Mr. Pretti, who was legally carrying a gun with a permit and was under a pileup of agents when one suddenly shot him in the back.” The link appears to be a gift link.

~~~~~~~~~~ 

Is Our President Healthy? Yes, Yes, He Is. Ben Terris, another Washington Post defector and now possibly employed by New York magazine, has written a piece for said magazine on Donald Trump's health. I cannot access Terris' article, but here is something astounding I heard on the teevee earlier this week, something that Rebecca Schoenkopf of Wonkette has helpfully transcribed in her morning news roundup: 

“'You worked for the Obamas, didn’t you?' [Karoline] Leavitt said to [Dr./Col. James] Jones.

“'Yes, I did,' he said. Jones had, in fact, worked from 2009 to 2018 as a senior medical leader in the White House. At the end of his presidency, Barack Obama, a fitness fanatic..., was 55 years old. 

“'Who is healthier, Obama or President Trump?' I [i.e., reporter Ben] asked.

“Trump stared across the desk, making eye contact with Jones. Jones didn’t hesitate. 'President Trump,' he said.”

Reis Thebault, et al., of the New York Times: “During a town hall with Representative Ilhan Omar in Minneapolis on Tuesday evening, a man rushed the lectern and appeared to spray her with a strong-smelling liquid before he was tackled by security. The man, who had been seated directly in front of the lectern in the front row, suddenly jumped up as Ms. Omar was speaking and ran toward the podium. He used a syringe to spray her shirt with a substance that smelled strongly of vinegar. As he stumbled backward and pointed at her, a security officer tackled him to the ground, handcuffed him and removed him from the room.... Ms. Omar, a Democrat who ... has been a frequent target of ... [Donald] Trump, held the town hall in her district of Minneapolis to address the ongoing ICE operations in the city. Hours before, Mr. Trump criticized Ms. Omar at a rally in Iowa and repeated inflammatory remarks about her birth country, Somalia. He said immigrants 'have to show that they can love our country. They have to be proud, not like Ilhan Omar.'” An AP report is here. MB: Trump's repeated incendiary verbal attacks on Omar are working. 

ICE Agents in Minnesota Have No Idea WTF They're Doing. Julianna Bragg of Axios: "An ICE agent on Tuesday attempted to forcibly enter Ecuador's consulate in Minneapolis, according to the country's Foreign Affairs Ministry.... Federal agents, under international law, are generally not allowed to enter an embassy or consulate without permission of the consul or ambassador. The ministry said on X that consular staff prevented the officer from entering the premises and activated emergency protocols.A note of protest was  'immediately' submitted to the U.S. Embassy in Ecuador, asking that similar acts not be repeated at any offices in the country, per the post.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: How can they be so stoopid? Didn't these agents misspend their youths watching spy movies where the villains flee into foreign embassies or consulates so the heroes can't catch them? Don't they know that Julian Assange spent seven years in London's Ecuadorian embassy to avoid arrest and extradition to Sweden? Dios mio!

Luke Broadwater, et al., of the New York Times: “Facing an intense and increasingly bipartisan fusillade of criticism over the killing of a protester in Minneapolis and how [Kristi] Noem and other officials sought to portray the victim as a 'domestic terrorist,' Mr. Trump removed the official running the deportation campaign in Minnesota and replaced him with an aide reporting directly to him, effectively cutting Ms. Noem out of the chain of command. When asked later about Ms. Noem’s characterization of the victim, Alex Pretti, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, declined to defend it, distinctly distancing Mr. Trump from her remarks.... But [Ms. Noem's] time in Mr. Trump’s penalty box was measured in hours.... By Tuesday the president was telling reporters that her job was safe and that the media should focus more on her role in shutting down illegal immigration into the country, not the chaotic scenes coming out of Minnesota in which agents who report to her have twice shot and killed American citizens....” ~~~

~~~ Marie: Maybe this is because everybody, from the President* on down, in the Trump administration is adept at pointing a finger at somebody else -- and ICE Barbie has the longest nails. ~~~ 

~~~ Marc Caputo of Axios: "Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is under fire for issuing misleading and incendiary information that claimed immigration agents killed an armed Minnesota protestor Saturday because he wanted to 'massacre' them.... White House officials are blaming Customs and Border Patrol for furnishing inaccurate information, while others are targeting Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and top Trump adviser.... Miller's power extends to de facto oversight of Noem, though she's a Cabinet secretary who technically outranks him. 'Everything I've done, I've done at the direction of the president and Stephen,' Noem told a person who relayed her remarks to Axios.... The officers directly involved in the shooting 'all shut up and got lawyers real quick so there wasn't a lot of information,' one source ... said. The CBP officers on the ground furnished a report that, White House officials told Axios, left officials with the belief that Pretti had brandished a gun.... 'Any early comments made were based on information sent to the White House through CBP,' Miller told Axios.... 'Bovino should be blamed'  for the misinformation about Pretti, 'not Stephen,' a White House source said, adding that Bovino supplied the details about the shooting to those in D.C." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

~~~ Laura Esposito of the Daily Beast, republished by Yahoo! News: “... Donald Trump’s most loyal advisers are locked in a bitter battle over who will take the fall for a disastrous and deadly immigration crackdown unfolding in Minnesota, according to his biographer. On the latest episode of Inside Trump’s Head, author Michael Wolff described a hostile blame game erupting inside the White House.... 'The point, the understanding that someone is going to be blamed here and that person is not going to be the president of the United States,' Wolff told co-host Joanna Coles.... The rift between the two Trump loyalists became publicized after [Stephen] Miller was reportedly shut out of a closed-door White House meeting on Monday night attended by [Kristi] Noem, Trump, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, and other top officials.”

Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: “When [Greg Bovino] got yanked from Minnesota, he lost access to his X account, too.... The decision to bar Mr. Bovino from his account was made ... by his higher-ups at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, according to an official at the Department of Homeland Security.... How is one supposed to build a profile within the MAGA universe if one cannot post?... It’s hard to imagine what was off-kilter about the way Mr. Bovino was using social media. After all, the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, the Labor Department and other sectors of this administration have spent the year posting references to neo-Nazi literature, QAnon conspiracy theories and white-supremacist song lyrics on official government accounts.” 

In an effort to de-escalate, the Trump Admin is benching the Nazi-Cosplayer for Mr. Bribes. -- Gov. Gavin Newson (D-Calif.), on X ~~~ 

~~~ Farrah Tomazin of the Daily Beast, republished by Yahoo! News: “California Governor Gavin Newsom has mocked Donald Trump’s decision to bench his top trench-coated immigration enforcer [Greg Bovino] in favor of his border czar [Tom Homan] as the president attempts to 'diffuse the chaos' in Minneapolis.... The move effectively sidelined Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.... [Newsom's] comment was a reference to the fact Homan was investigated by the FBI in 2024 for allegedly accepting a $50,000 cash bribe from undercover agents posing as businessmen seeking future government contracts.... The Department of Justice closed the probe after Trump won the election.... Bovino and his infamous 'Nazi cosplay' trench coat received international attention last week when Newsom shared a clip of him at the World Economic Forum in Davos, mocking Bovino for looking 'as if he literally went on eBay and purchased SS garb.'” ~~~

     ~~~ And if, by any chance, you still think Mr. Bribes will make things all better, Paul Krugman points out that before he got his new assignment, Mr. Bribes a/k/a Tom Homan told Fox "News" that "he was pushing to create a database of protestors, which would be used for retribution[.]" This, of course, is entirely consistent with CNN's reporting that DHS is "collecting personal information (also linked above) about protesters and agitators in Minneapolis." Krugman, nevertheless, is optimistic: "Ordinary Americans are showing more strength, more resolve in defending our fundamental values, than almost anyone expected." ~~~

     ~~~ Heather Cox Richardson reminds us, too, that “... in Maine, a protester recorded an agent responding to her question of why he was recording her license plate. 'We have a nice little database,' he answered, 'and now you are considered a domestic terrorist.'” So what sounded like one thug's bravado a week or so ago now seems much more like a real thing. A dangerous thing. 

Madeleine Ngo, et al., of the New York Times: “A preliminary review by U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s internal watchdog office found that Alex Pretti was shot by two federal officers after resisting arrest, but did not indicate that he brandished a weapon during the encounter.... The review makes no mention of the Department of Homeland Security’s earlier claims that Mr. Pretti 'wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.' Shortly after the shooting, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, claimed that Mr. Pretti had been 'brandishing' a gun.... The initial review by C.B.P. ... represents the first official written assessment of Saturday’s shooting since administration officials rushed to blame Mr. Pretti.... The review was done by C.B.P.’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which normally conducts internal misconduct investigations following shootings, and was distributed to members of Congress on Tuesday, as required by law. It presents a detailed timeline of the events based on body camera footage and agency documentation.” CNN's report is here. A Guardian report is here.

Claire Moses of the New York Times: “Federal investigators are reviewing body camera footage related to the killing of Alex Pretti.... The evidence is being stored in a secure evidence room at the F.B.I.’s Minneapolis field office, according to [a memo included in a court filing]. The document also stated that 'CBP has preserved all relevant body-worn camera footage from the incident and will do so for 75 years.'...” 

Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: On Tuesday, Tom Foreman of CNN broke down new video obtained by the AP that shows what was going on in the minutes before federal agents attacked and murdered Alex Pretti. As Foreman went through the video, he said things like, "This video just gets worse and worse and worse for the White House and what they’ve been claiming!... [The agents] cross the street to engage with Pretti and the other people over there. So Pretti is there, the agents come across and engage with them, and that’s when you see this moment where one of the agents pushes Pretti off the road.... [This video] shows all of the aggression coming from the officers aimed at these people. And then finally, we move to the moment where they grab Pretti as he’s trying to help a person who has also been pushed down.... And the agents grab him while his back is turned and drag him into the center of people where they’re all gathered around here." Watch the video. 

     ~~~ Marie: Absolutely every single thing Trump officials have said about the encounter was a lie. This is all the more astounding because DHS knew multiple people were videotaping the incident and the public would quickly learn what really happened. What really happened began with a repeat performance of the Biblical Parable of the Good Samaritan, who helps a (Jewish) stranger who has fallen by the side of the road after being beaten by thugs. In this modern true story, the thugs cross a wide road to shove a woman to the side of the road, and Prezzi -- the Good Samaritan -- comes to her aid. Unfortunately, the thugs are still around, and not only do they shove Prezzi, they pepper-spray both Prezzi and the woman he was helping. They continue to beat up Prezzi, and within seconds, shoot him dead. Remember Adam Serwer's famous essay titled "The Cruelty Is the Point"? Now murder and mayhem are the point. The federal government wants to scare the crap out of us. They sponsor the thugs. They want us to know they will shoot us at will, then they will casually lie about it.  

Carol Leonnig, et al., of MS NOW: "... Donald Trump’s Justice Department has decided there will be no civil rights investigation of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti. Instead, two units of the Department of Homeland Security will investigate their officers and the man they killed, according to three people briefed on the steps and internal records reviewed by MS NOW. A Customs and Border Protection office will investigate whether its own officers followed agency policy in the shooting, according to the people. Another DHS unit, Homeland Security Investigations, will investigate whether Pretti broke any laws, according to two people familiar with the decision. That unit is part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and normally focuses on tracking down human-trafficking and narcotics rings and threats to national security." 

      ~~~ Here's more from Rebecca Santana of the AP: “The White House says three federal investigations into the shooting are underway. During a briefing Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI were investigating the shooting and U.S. Customs and Border Protection was 'conducting their own internal review.'... The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which normally plays a key role in any case in which a federal law enforcement officer kills a civilian, is instead only lending support in processing physical evidence from the scene, such as Pretti’s gun.... Gil Kerlikowske, who headed Customs and Border Protection during the Obama administration, said that when he was at the agency, if a Border Patrol agent used deadly force on the job, it would be 'routine' for the FBI to conduct a criminal civil rights investigation.... Kerlikowske also ... [said,] 'This isn’t something that [Homeland Security Investigations] has real expertise or does at all.'...” 

     ~~~ Marie: Notice that Leavitt's claim that "three federal investigations are underway" is essentially bogus. One of the investigations is of the victim, not of the perpetrators. They're still looking for a way to blame Alex Pretti for his own murder. One isn't an investigation at all; it's just FBI lab personnel processing some evidence for DHS. And an "internal review" is not a criminal investigation; it's a study to determine what might have gone wrong & how procedures can be improved. Normally, an internal review could lead to a criminal referral to DOJ. But the Secretary of Homeland Security has already "cleared" the agents and proclaimed that they were "defending" themselves and the public against a 'domestic terrorist" who was "brandishing" a semi-automatic weapon. Do you think there will be a criminal referral against the agents? ~~~

~~~ So ... Shaila Dewan of the New York Times: “Nine progressive prosecutors from cities around the country are launching a coalition to assist in prosecuting federal law enforcement officers who violate state laws, one of the prosecutors, Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, said on Tuesday. The organization, which is called the Project for the Fight Against Federal Overreach, will also include Mary Moriarty, the elected prosecutor in Minneapolis. Its acronym, F.A.F.O., references a slang term for negative consequences [--MB: 'Fuck Around and Find Out' --], and its formation was spurred by 'growing concerns about warrantless entries, unlawful detentions, and coercive enforcement tactics by federal agents,' according to a news release.”

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: “In the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti..., Republicans in Congress have starkly shifted their tone on the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown, offering some of the strongest and most pointed criticism of the administration since the start of ... [Donald] Trump’s second term.... Mr. Pretti’s killing over the weekend had drawn notable pushback from a small but significant group of G.O.P. lawmakers even before Mr. Trump switched rhetorical gears, distancing himself from his administration’s smears of Mr. Pretti and installing a new commander ... in Minnesota. But for a much broader group of Republicans who have been reluctant to ... even gently criticize [Mr. Trump], the president’s messaging pivot appeared to have provided license to air grave concerns about what happened in Minneapolis.... The shift could be temporary and may be more of a matter of style over substance. It was not clear whether it would yield any immediate action by Republicans, who have largely ceded their power to Mr. Trump and who still solidly back his immigration policy. ” ~~~

~~~ Julie Tsirkin, et al., of NBC News: “Sens. Thom Tillis and Lisa Murkowski called for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign Tuesday, making them the first Republicans in Congress to say she should step down. Asked whether he had confidence in Noem, Tillis, R-N.C., told reporters on Capitol Hill: 'No, not at all. I think she should go.'... 'Yes, she should go,' Murkowski told NBC News.” ~~~

~~~ Jordain Carney of Politico: “Senate Majority Leader John Thune declined to say Tuesday whether he had confidence in Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as ... Donald Trump faces calls to fire her and Democrats push for her impeachment. 'That’s the president’s judgment call,' Thune told reporters when asked about Noem, a fellow South Dakota native who previously served with him in the state’s congressional delegation.” ~~~

~~~ AND. Steve Mistler of Maine Public: "Republican Sen. Susan Collins said she's asked Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to pause the immigration enforcement surge in both Maine and Minnesota, calling both operations too sweeping and indiscriminate.... She told Maine Public that she spoke to Noem on Monday.... Collins says she has received multiple calls from constituents expressing fear and anger about the ICE operation because it was sweeping up people who are here legally. She said Noem asked for examples and that she's compiling a list.... Collins stood by her calls to continue funding DHS, the umbrella agency for ICE, in an upcoming funding bill. That position has drawn criticism from Democrats, including two of the leading contenders vying to unseat her in the upcoming midterm election, Gov. Janet Mills and Graham Platner."

Marie: Did CBP target Alex Pretti? If you read Adam Serwer's report in the Atlantic (also gift-linked yesterday), then you know that Pretti and Renee Good were on "ICE Watch": people who call themselves "observers," "watch" for ICE/CBP agents, and warn others of the agents' presence. "Trump-administration officials and MAGA influencers have repeatedly called these activists 'violent' and said they are involved in 'riots.'" Serwer travelled around Minneapolis with two of these "observers" and both told him that ICE agents made efforts to find out who they were, then showed up at their homes and harassed them. Update: The link has been changed to one that appears to be a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Now we learn from Jeff Winter & Priscilla Alvarez of CNN: “Federal immigration officers have been collecting personal information about protesters and agitators in Minneapolis, sources told CNN – and had documented details about Alex Pretti before he was shot to death on Saturday.... A memo sent earlier this month to agents temporarily assigned to the city asked them to 'capture all images, license plates, identifications, and general information on hotels, agitators, protestors, etc., so we can capture it all in one consolidated form.'... Sources told CNN that about a week before his death, [Pretti] suffered a broken rib when a group of federal officers tackled him while he was protesting their attempt to detain other individuals.... [Pretti had] stopped his car after observing ICE agents chasing what he described as a family on foot, and began shouting and blowing his whistle. Pretti later told a source that five agents tackled him and one leaned on his back – an encounter that left him with a broken rib. The agents quickly released him at the scene. 'That day, he thought he was going to die,' said the source. Pretti was later given medication consistent with treating a broken rib, according to records reviewed by CNN.... Pretti’s name was known to federal agents, according to a [federal] source....” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Maybe this explains why agents seemed so pumped after murdering Good & Pretti: they had killed targets. One thing is certain now: ICE & CBP are targeting Minnesotans. It's a policy. BTW, Winter & Alvarez' report also explains why Jonathan Ross was videographing Renee Good right up until he shot her. I had hought he took the video to use as DHS promo content. That's still possible. But if you look at what Ross recorded, you'll see the content is largely identifying information: it includes images of Good and of her wife as well as their car's license plate. Ross was following department orders to "capture all images, license plates, identifications...." When Jonathan Ross endangered himself by standing in front of a car with the engine running and a potentially-hostile person in the the driver's seat, he did so because taking those cellphone footage was part of his job. 

     ~~~ Jonathan Ross shot Renee Good three times, the second and third time through a side window -- so that he could not possibly have thought he was in harm's way. The vehicle was past him. A few days later, when I saw video of Ross walking around (seemingly completely unharmed) right after killing Good, I commented that he looked "pumped." Saturday, a CBP agent shot Alex Pretti, after another agent had already disarmed Pretti. Pretti fell to the pavement, possibly dead. But the shooter and one of his cohort shot the dead or dying Pretti nine more times as other agents backed away. Again, they could not possibly have thought anyone was in danger. Anderson Cooper pointed out yesterday that one of the agents was clapping as the nine shots rang out. I thought that when the clapping agent turned around to face the camera, he too seemed pumped. Murder -- real murder -- taking the lives of whom? -- "woke" people? -- seems to thrill these federal agents. 

     ~~~ Update. Paul Campos, in LG&$, agrees with me, at least in part: "Was Alex’s Pretti’s killing a targeted and premeditated first degree murder? Looks like it may well have been.... The problem with getting the answer to this question, of course, is that we don’t know the identities of his killers, because they’re part of a secret Gestapo force whose members that hide their faces, and then are shielded from the law by Donald Trump’s lawless administration. This is one of those facts that’s easy to get used to, because apparently everything is easy to get used to under tyranny. Yet the outrageousness of a secret police force murdering with impunity, and, apparently, premeditation, is something that needs to be front and center when justice is finally done to everyone responsible for all this."

Paul Krugman sees Pretti's murder as a possible tipping point for a number of good reasons, which he shares. BUT. The brutality will continue. "Because these people are malignant narcissists, whose lives are all about displaying dominance. The sheer horror of what they’ve already done makes it impossible for them to change course, because climbing down after you’ve murdered people and lied about it would be humiliating — and humiliation is their greatest fear.... One safe prediction is that Trump will try to subvert the November elections: in a clear example of a shakedown, Bondi has demanded that Governor Tim [Walz] hand over the Minnesota voter rolls." (Also linked yesterday.)

Why Is ICE so Afraid of Five-Year-Olds? ~~~ 

~~~ (a) Rebecca Schoenkopf of Wonkette has found astounding footage of federal agents tear-gassing a Minneapolis preschool as a bystander yells at them, "This is a preschool, you stupid motherfuckers!" MB: Really, it seems to me "stupid motherfuckers" is the most politically-correct way to address these guys. ~~~

~~~ (b) Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the deportation of a 5-year-old boy and his father who were arrested in a Minneapolis suburb in an operation that further stirred the outrage over the Trump administration’s deportation efforts. The boy, Liam Conejo Ramos, and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, were arrested last week in Columbia Heights, Minn., shortly after the father had picked the boy up from school, according to school district officials. They were quickly taken to an immigration detention center outside San Antonio, where they remain. In his order, Judge Fred Biery of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas told the federal government that it could not move the boy or his father out of his court’s jurisdiction while they challenged their detention. The detention of the boy and his father by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents became a flashpoint in the Twin Cities, where anger has continued to grow over the surge of federal agents in the region.” ~~~

~~~ (c) Claudia Mendoza & Tiago Rogero of the Guardian: “Five-year-old Génesis Ester Gutiérrez Castellanos..., despite being a US citizen..., was deported on 11 January alongside her mother, Karen Guadalupe Gutiérrez Castellanos, to Honduras, a country Génesis had never known. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were acting on an administrative deportation order against Gutiérrez, 26, issued in 2019, before Génesis was born. 'I kept telling them ‘the girl was born here”. They didn’t care, they picked up the child, just put a jumper on her and told me to get into the car with her,' Gutiérrez told the Guardian. The two were held for almost a week in a hotel 80 miles from their home, without access to a lawyer or a hearing before a judge, before being deported to the Central American country.” 

Maxine Joselow of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that construction could continue on a $4.5 billion wind farm off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., striking down the Trump administration’s decision to halt work on the nearly complete project. Judge Brian E. Murphy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction that would allow the developers of the wind farm, known as Vineyard Wind, to restart construction while the broader legal battle unfolds. The ruling was the fourth legal setback that the Trump administration has suffered in its quest to throttle the country’s nascent offshore wind industry.... In an abrupt announcement three days before Christmas, the Trump administration had ordered all work to halt on Vineyard Wind and four other wind farms under construction off the East Coast. To justify the sweeping decision, officials cited a classified report by the Defense Department that found that the projects posed risks to national security. Judge Murphy, who was nominated to the bench by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., said he was unpersuaded by the government’s claims about national security after reviewing the classified report under seal.”

Rob Gillies of the AP: “Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday he told ... Donald Trump that he meant what he said in his speech at Davos, and told him Canada plans to diversify away from the United States with a dozen new trade deals. Carney rolled his eyes and rejected U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s contention to Fox News that he aggressively walked back his comments at the World Economic Forum during a phone call with Trump on Monday. 'To be absolutely clear, and I said this to the president, I meant what I said in Davos,' Carney said to reporters as he arrived for a Cabinet meeting in the capital, Ottawa. 'Canada was the first country to understand the change in U.S. trade policy that he initiated, and we’re responding to that.'” (Also linked yesterday.)

⭐Karoun Demirjian & Kate Kelly of the New York Times: “The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the Federal Aviation Administration had approved dangerous flight routes that allowed an Army helicopter to fly into the path of a passenger jet over the Potomac River on Jan. 29, 2025, to calamitous results. In a meeting on Tuesday, the investigating board also castigated the agency for not doing enough to respond to warnings about longtime risks to safety and found a complacent culture within the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport that relied too heavily on pilots in the airspace being able to see and steer clear of each others’ aircraft, a practice called visual separation. They also determined that insufficient warnings from the air traffic controller to the pilots of the Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet involved in the crash, and altimeters that, unbeknown to the helicopter pilots, habitually gave faulty readings of altitude, also contributed to the tragic crash. The long-awaited determination, which the board approved unanimously, is the culmination of a yearlong investigation that put the F.A.A. and Army under a microscope, as the board scrutinized how officials missed — or outright dismissed — risks that ultimately led to the collision.” ~~~

     ~~~ Rachel Weiner, et al., of the Washington Post outline major takeaways from the NTSB report. 

Michael Rosenwald of the New York Times: “Gladys West, a mathematician at the U.S. Naval Weapons Laboratory whose modeling of the Earth’s shape played a critical role in the development of GPS, the global satellite mapping system..., died on Jan. 17 in Fredericksburg, Va. She was 95.... Born to Black farmers in rural Virginia, Dr. West lived through remarkable societal and technological transformations — from segregation to the civil rights movement, from calculators to supercomputers, and from paper maps to Google Maps. Through it all, she worked in near obscurity. She was almost 90 before she received any recognition for her work. 'Dr. West’s mathematics really did lay the foundation for the global positioning system to be built,' D. Sarah Stamps, a geophysicist at Virginia Tech, said in an interview. 'She made the world more precise for all of us.'”

~~~~~~~~~~

Minnesota House Elections. Mitch Smith of the New York Times: “Democrats won two vacant seats in the Minnesota House of Representatives on Tuesday, The Associated Press said, restoring that chamber to an even partisan split.... The results were not unexpected. The districts are heavily Democratic, and in one of the races, the Democratic nominee was the only candidate on the ballot. Shelley Buck, a former president of the Prairie Island Indian Community’s Tribal Council, won one of the seats, and Meg Luger-Nikolai, a lawyer, won the other. The seats, one in St. Paul and another in suburban St. Paul, became vacant after the Democrats who previously held them were elected to other offices in November. Assuming there are no other changes before Ms. Buck and Ms. Luger-Nikolai are sworn in, their elections will leave the Minnesota House with 67 Republicans and 67 Democrats. Democrats hold a slim majority in the Minnesota State Senate, and the state’s governor, Tim Walz, is a Democrat.”

Virginia Congressional Districts. Gregory Schneider of the Washington Post: “A circuit court judge in rural Tazewell County has ruled against the redistricting effort started by Virginia Democrats, declaring Tuesday that the process they used to create a proposed constitutional amendment is invalid. Democrats immediately pledged to appeal and said they expect a referendum on the matter to go ahead this spring as planned.... In Tuesday’s decision, Circuit Judge Jack S. Hurley Jr. wrote that his ruling 'PROHIBITS the proposed amendment from being submitted to the voters for their consideration.' He ruled against the amendment on three of the four grounds that Republicans had raised.... Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee executive director Julie Merz called Tuesday’s ruling a 'rogue decision' and a 'disappointing, but temporary setback' that will be overturned.” A Politico story is here.

Washington, D.s. Congressional Seat. Megan Mineiro of the New York Times: “Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, who has served for three decades as Washington, D.C.’s nonvoting representative in Congress, on Tuesday announced she planned to retire at the end of her term, pivoting after months of insisting she had no intention of stepping aside.... The 88-year-old Democrat is the oldest person serving in the House. Once a forceful voice for the nation’s capital, she had retreated from her congressional duties in recent years amid signs of mental and physical decline.” A Politico item is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Ukraine/Russia, et al. Steve Holland & Bipasha Dey of Reuters, in Yahoo! News: "The United States has told Ukraine that it must sign on to a peace deal with Russia in order to ​get U.S. security guarantees, a source familiar with internal discussions told Reuters ‌on Tuesday. U.S. security guarantees are considered by Ukraine as the linchpin for any settlement ending Russia's four-year-old ‌invasion of Ukraine.... The Financial Times reported that the Trump administration has signalled to Ukraine that U.S. security guarantees depend ⁠on Kyiv agreeing to a ‌peace deal, likely requiring it to cede the Donbas region to Russia. But the source who spoke to Reuters said the United States ‍is not telling Ukraine what has to be in the peace deal and that it is misleading to suggest that Washington is trying to force Ukraine into territorial concessions to Russia."

Helene Cooper of the New York Times: “The number of Russian and Ukrainian troops killed, wounded or missing during nearly four years of war is on track to reach two million by this spring, according to a new study, a stunning toll as Russia’s assault on its neighbor grinds on. The study, published on Tuesday by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that nearly 1.2 million Russian troops and close to 600,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed or wounded or were missing. That would put the overall casualty figure for both countries combined at almost 1.8 million. For the entirety of the war, casualty figures have been difficult to ascertain because Russia is believed to routinely undercount its dead and injured, and Ukraine does not disclose official figures. The study relied on American and British government estimates, among other sources.”