Doom Report (Week 54: In Memoriam)

The last words of Renee Good: “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.”

The last words of Alex Pretti: “Are you okay?”

These are the people your government is murdering.

This week, a spate of heartfelt tributes and incisive discussions about the execution of Alex Pretti, and other ICEscapades.

• An excellent, impassioned summary from Jon Stewart on Monday.  “And maybe that, more than anything, explains why Alex Pretti really was a threat.  Because he was brandishing a weapon: a handheld, aluminum, 1080p, 60 FPS weapon of mass illumination.  Because there is nothing more dangerous to a regime predicated on lies than witnesses who capture the truth.”

• An excellent, thunderous summary from Stephen Colbert on Monday.  “Yes, do not compare ICE or Border Patrol agents to the Nazis.  That’s an unfair comparison.  The Nazis were willing to show their faces.”

• An excellent, emotional summary from Jimmy Kimmel on Monday.  “And to the people of Minneapolis, to the Pretti family and the good family and these people who were looking out for their neighbors, we want you to know that we are with you and you are not alone.”

• As per usual, a more angry take from Christopher Titus on Tuesday.  “Alex Pretti never went for his gun—his legal to carry gun.  He never tried to punch an officer.  He was protecting a woman these cowards had pushed to the ground.  He was blind, unarmed, face down, and they shot him 10 times.  They murdered him.  So, I guess this ICU nurse who took care of veterans and whose first instinct was to protect someone else instead of himself was the definition of ‘worst of the worst’.”

• A very passionate speech from Congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, who is herself under indictment for her efforts protesting ICE.  “This is not a stepping stone in my career.  I want this seat because I want to do what I’m good at: help others, fight Nazis, and go back home to hang out with my cat.  If you’re angry, stay angry.  I’m angry, too.  And we’re in this together.”

• The first 19 minutes of this week’s Strict Scrutiny is dedicated to covering the incident from both a legal and human perspective, including some chilling witness statements.  “We just want to suggest the radical idea that it cannot be that everyone is allowed to carry a gun for their safety, but the government can still murder you in the streets if you lawfully possess a gun.  Having a gun, we are told, does not make you a criminal, except, apparently, when you are protesting the government.  Even more maddening is that the Republican party and this court have attempted to justify the Second Amendment right to carry and possess a firearm by saying that people have a right to defend themselves—wait for it—from the government.”

• More Jon Stewart: on The Weekly Show, he interviews 404 Media co-founder Joseph Cox and civil liberties journalist Radley Balko about ICE surveillance and enforcement.  The best part was probably a discussion of how the current situation with ICE is so reminiscent of the conditions that led to the American Revolution.  ”... the tension in Boston of having those soldiers there are why it eventually will lead to the Boston Massacre.  But it is specifically why we have a Second, Third, and Fourth Amendment, because you had soldiers who had these general warrants.  They had the power to break into anybody’s home at any time to look for untaxed goods, right?  Well, what’s ICE trying to do now?  They’re claiming they can break into anybody’s home at any time without a warrant to look for undocumented people, right?  I mean, the parallels are so incredible.”

• On this week’s first Even More News episode, Katy Stoll does a great job pointing out that “killed while resisting arrest” is such a bullshit rationale because a) he wasn’t resisting—flailing around while people beat the shit out of you is not resisting—and b) even if he was, he wasn’t under arrest, because ICE aren’t cops, and they can’t arrest you, and c) even if he had been, you cannot be executed for resisting arrest.  Not legally, anyway.

• I often point you at Adam Kinzinger, a never-Trump Republican, but it’s not because I always agree with him.  In point of fact, I often disagree with him, including at least some of what he says about this incident.  But I think it’s important to know that even lifelong conservatives are not okay with this bullshit, and Kinzinger’s words are sincere and heartfelt.

• On the What a Day coverage, Jane Coaston not only has a good summary of the incident; she also interviews Laura Jedeed, a journalist who applied for a job with ICE for a story and somehow ended up getting the job, despite the fact that she never submitted any paperwork and utterly failed the drug test.  Her insight into the ICE hiring process is really revelatory.

• Jamelle Bouie thinks that this incident signals that Trump has lost.  I applaud the confidence, but I’m not sure I can share the optimism.

• Adam Conover shares Bouie’s confidence ... to a point.  More trenchant commentary from the creator of The G Word.

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Other things you need to know this week:

• A good breakdown of Trump’s Greenland debacle from Spencer the Scowl Owl over on Legal Eagle.
• Also from Legal Eagle, Liz Dye has an excellent breakdown of the DOJ’s doomed attempt to convict Don Lemon.

• As usual, a good week in review from Adam Kinzinger.
• Alex Wagner and Jon Lovett give a short report on the situation on the ground in Minneapolis as of mid-week.

• Graham Platner has been a controversial figure, but I still think he’s an excellent candidate to supplant Susan Collins in Maine: younger than the current governor (who’s running against him), an oysterman and veteran, and a self-described “New Deal Democrat.”  He explains what that means in this campaign video.

• Just in case you thought that Trump’s TACO in Minneapols was actually a good sign, Robert Reich and Heather Lofthouse are here to bring you back to reality in this week’s Coffee Klatch.

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Kat Abughazaleh, who I’ve mentioned many times in these reports, released an attack ad ... against herself.  It is one of the most hilarious things I’ve seen all year (and I know that’s a low bar, but still), and you simply must watch it.  At only a minute long, it captures the utter absurdity of the criticisms against her—and against any of the crop of strong new progressive faces we’re (finally) seeing, such as Mamdani, AOC, Jasmine Crockett, and Ilhan Omar.

Omar, of course, got a lot of press this week because one of the rightwing nutjobs sprayed her with apple cider vinegar, for some unknown reason (other than just Trump being in his head—I think that might be the real “Trump Derangement Syndrome”).  Rather than shrinking back and/or freaking out, Representative Omar stepped to the crazy man, fist cocked back.  The really stupid thing—even stupider than squirting vinegar at someone—is that it’s likely that almost no one outside her native Minnesota would even know her name, except that Trump cannot help himself when anyone brings up a strong woman of color, and he goes on and on about how terrible they are, how dumb they are, and how he’s so much smarter than they are.  I myself was barely aware of her as one of the original members of The Squad, but knew almost nothing beyond that.  But now Trump and his big mouth have ensured that she’s receiving national attention, with people on the left praising her and those on the right having to make shit up to discredit her.  (Best coverage on this is likely the Even More News segment on it, which has the added bonus of Matilda star Mara Wilson weighing on the sexual abuse generation machine that is Grok.)  But now I, and just everyone else in the country, know her name, know her face, and know that she don’t take no shit.  To say that Trump is an idiot is underselling it a bit; more fair to say he’s a toddler, with a limited grasp of object permanence, who lacks the self-control to keep his mouth shut even when it would benefit him to do so.  That and the toxic narcissism, of course.

So Abughazaleh and Omar are my hope for this week.  Strong women, and especially strong women of color, are the one thing Trump can’t handle, and maybe that’s exactly what’s going to save us all.