For years, gun nuts — er, enthusiasts — have told us they need all the weapons they own because an out-of-control tyrannical government might need to be put down, so the people could take it back.
Well. Here we are. And to judge from MAGA, they’re all perfectly happy to live in a police state.
Where are the people who spoke out so passionately against jackbooted thugs? Now they tell you to DO AS THE OFFICER SAYS, IMMEDIATELY, if you don’t want to get shot in the head. I ask you.
At least the so-called MSM has found a little bit of spirit. Both the NYT and WP have published detailed video analyses that clearly show the administration and its toadies are lying about what happened in Minneapolis Wednesday morning. And the Star-Tribune, the local paper, published the name of the gunman. Jonathan Ross.
Michelle Goldberg, in the NYT:
Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s attorney general, told me that since ICE ramped up its operations in Minneapolis, it’s felt “like we are being inundated with a hostile paramilitary group that is mistreating, insulting, terrorizing our neighbors.” And the residents of Minneapolis have responded: “People have got their whistles, and they’ve got their little alert system to tell people ICE is in the neighborhood. They’ve been protesting. They’ve been out there trying to protect their neighbors.”
Many of these people probably believed that even in Trump’s America, citizens still have inviolable liberties that allow them to stand up to the jacked-up irregulars who’ve descended on their communities. The civil rights of immigrants have been profoundly curtailed; even green card holders are on notice that this government may detain and deport them simply for protesting. But Americans — particularly, let’s be honest, white Americans — might have thought themselves immune from ICE abuses.
The killing of Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three and widow of a military veteran, tests that assumption. ICE, said Ellison, is all but telling people, “‘You want to defend your neighbors, you’re going to do it at the risk of your own life.’ I think that’s the unmistakable message. Just looking at the tape, they could have said, ‘You get out of here,’ right? And then she gets out of there. They didn’t want her to get out of there. They wanted to either drag her out of that car or do what they did. And it was all about teaching lessons.”
Yep. Oh well. More will be revealed.
But while we’re on the subject of Things That Are Infuriating, why is Elon Musk not chased through the streets by a raging mob? He should be:
Grok, the chatbot run by the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) is generating nonconsensual pornographic images of women with their clothes removed and wearing bikinis with swastikas on them.
This follows a recent wave of criticism directed against X for Grok’s weak moderation policies, which allow users to ask Grok to “strip” clothes from pictures of women, including minors.
Users of X can reply to a picture of someone, tag Grok, and write “put a swastika bikini on her” or a similar prompt. Grok will then reply with an image of that person wearing no clothes other than a swastika bikini.
Multiple accounts by women who’ve suffered this indicate that Grok, the chatbot, says “I’m sorry this happened to you without your consent” and then…does nothing. This is my shocked face: 🙄
Finally, Eric Zorn wrote a lovely tribute to his father, who died earlier this week:
My world is smaller and sadder than it was a week ago, but larger and more joyous for having had him as a father.
I have also heard from scores of readers of the Picayune Sentinel empathically relating to my loss and welcoming me “to the club that no one wants to join.”
Nearly all my friends are already in that club, having experienced the loss of at least one parent, if not a sibling, spouse or child. I’m conscious of wanting to share my experience here without suggesting that mine is in any way sadder or more deserving of attention than the experiences most of you have had and hopefully all of you will.
By hopefully, I mean that death will come to your family in the appropriate order — parents preceding their children in death, the elder preceding the younger. And not too soon.
Amen.
Now the weekend is nearly here. I’m planning an outing, destination unknown. Hope yours is great.
Mark P said on January 9, 2026 at 2:32 am
When my father died almost 26 years ago, my feeling was exactly what Zorn said, that I had joined a club, a club where the words “my father is dead” have an actual meaning. I looked at the rest of the world and saw people who were in the club, and understood what it meant, and people who were not in the club and could not really understand what it meant to join. It really was, “There are two kinds of people in the world …”
And you alluded to the fact that Grok is generating child porn at user requests. Musk should be in jail.
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Peter said on January 9, 2026 at 6:51 am
My Dad passed away just over six years ago. He missed Covid, the 2020 election, and this mess, and while I’m sorry and sad that he’s gone, whenever I feel sorry for myself, I’m grateful he isn’t around to see this.
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Alan Stamm said on January 9, 2026 at 7:34 am
Thanks for flagging Eric’s touching essay with more than a few relatable touchstones. He’s spot-on about the lasting tug of being unable to call a parent after doing so daily for several years.
And he delightfully crafts a verb that should exist: we will never again backfence over Michigan sports, politics, technology . . .
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Jeff Gill said on January 9, 2026 at 7:53 am
And the amazing persistence of “Dad will be amused to hear about…”
The time you think it shortens, the number of occasions starts to spread out, but with Peter I can report that at six years those moments keep coming.
Here’s a project from the fall semester, completed and posted yesterday, to give us all a bit of hope:
https://njdenisonu.shorthandstories.com/the-land-remembers/index.html
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Icarus said on January 9, 2026 at 9:45 am
I wish we could post pictures here…there is a bingo card called Bootlicker Bingo that could literally be taken from the comment threads about the Minnesota Homicides.
My wife and I were talking about it last night. We are sure that the entire side of her family is either blissfully unaware of what happened or aren’t getting accurate information from their news sources.
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Colleen said on January 9, 2026 at 12:30 pm
In keeping with the last thread about kindness….I am APPALLED by the number of posts I am seeing online from people who are A-OK with how Ms. Good died. From the “she was a paid agitator” crowd to the “she was trying to hit him” people to the “she should have listened to law enforcement” supporters. 1. Even if she was a paid agitator, don’t they also have first amendment rights to expression? Oh, and the right not to get shot in the face. 2. She was not trying to hit him, she was trying to leave, and anyone with two brain cells can see that by the way she backed up and had her wheels turned. And finally, 3. I would wager those same “respect authority” people were alllll up in arms about Ashli Babbit and her right to not comply on January 6th. (To be clear, I don’t think she should have been shot either)
It’s just disgusting to me how many people are ok with ICE’s actions. And the regime lying about it. It really is Orwellian, the way they present absolute lies that can be proven to be lies as the truth….and people buy their crap.
I think the people with TDS are his followers, so in love they are with Dear Leader.
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Dexter Friend said on January 9, 2026 at 1:52 pm
Dad died in March, 2001. That week, “Six Feet Under”, the Alan Ball masterpiece, premiered. That show really helped me deal with Dad’s death, at age 86. I still have multiple online friends I made from the chatroom of that show. Joining the DD club is a rite of passage that steels a soul.
Of all the comments and reels, Jesse Ventura’s hit me hardest: Jesse was a Navy Seal at Subic Bay during the Viet Nam conflict. He states he has seen third world countries and we have become one. ICE has the budget greater that 3 of the US military branches, according to a report I heard but did not vet. Vance has promised to “get tougher” with ICE becoming immediately more-empowered, and Vance said “we are going to be knocking on doors…”, also, I heard this on MSNOW but I did not see it myself.
Today early, the Trump Crime Syndicate sent 500 more ICE into Minneapolis. This was the response to Mayor Frey’s call for ICE to “get the fuck out of Minnesota.”
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Dorothy said on January 9, 2026 at 1:55 pm
My Aunt Ruth and Uncle Tim died within 4 or 5 months of each other back in the early 90’s. Their six kids were my next door neighbor cousins until I was 11, and they moved an hour away from us. But we are still close cousins, more like siblings. We all share a goofy sense of humor and not everyone might think this is funny. But at the funeral home my cousin Timmmy (eldest son of Ruth and Tim) was heard to say wryly “Well I guess we can go to the Orphan’s Picnic this summer, huh?”
I think the Orphan’s Picnic used to be a ‘thing’ in Pittsburgh back in the day.
I miss my mother almost daily and think of things she used to say and do all the time. We quote her endlessly. I wonder if her ears are ringing up in heaven?
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Little Bird said on January 9, 2026 at 2:15 pm
About the whole “just do what they tell you to and you’ll be fine” is utter bullshit. Ms. Good was told different things by different agents damn near simultaneously, and they were conflicting orders. Which one would have prevented her from being shot multiple times IN THE FACE?
I’m angry. I’m furious. And I don’t have an outlet for my anger right now. I want to scream. I want to throw things. I know that neither option is helpful, and could actually be harmful, but it would help me blow off some of the pressure that just keeps building. Is it ever going to stop? What is it going to take?
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Deborah said on January 9, 2026 at 2:55 pm
I had a good cry this morning which helped like a valve letting off some steam. I was telling my husband a story and it triggered me to cry, I could hardly get the words out. It wasn’t on the subject of the murder in Minneapolis, it was related to homelessness and I just let it all out, sobbing. While it let me vent, I know it doesn’t really help the situation with all of the cruelty and violence happening now. I feel like I need to do something but except for calling representatives and giving money I feel helpless. Does it really help to do those things? I know what is happening is intended to make people feel helpless and turn away or give up and I don’t want to do that.
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Dave said on January 9, 2026 at 4:16 pm
It saddens me but doesn’t surprise me when I see what some people I’ve known many years post about the events in Minnesota. I suspect them all of being Fox News regulars, as I suspected when I was around them more (read my former co-workers). Ugly. I’m sure I have some family members who could be included in that group.
I was already 63 when my father passed away, 67 for my mother, that happens when your parents marry young and live long and you’re the oldest child. It was sad but not unexpected. I think about my uncle, dad’s younger brother, who was only 17 when his mother died and 21 when his father died, my dad’s 12 year younger brother, a later in life baby. His parents, my paternal grandparents, missed everything, including most of their grandchildren.
Dorothy, I had a second cousin on Dad’s side of the family, he and his wife died the same weekend, separately of one another, their children were all young adults, and a classmate who had the same thing happen, both parents on a weekend. How does that happen?
I saw a quote in Eric Zorn’s most recent posting that quoted Peter Sagal, the host of “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me”, on NPR. I thought it appropriate but too bad it’s reality and that makes it less funny. “Covering Trump is like asking Herbert Morrison to broadcast the Hindenburg disaster every day. Once again, Phil, I have to go with ‘Oh, the humanity!'”
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Sherri said on January 9, 2026 at 4:44 pm
“I understand she’s coming in next week sometime, and I look forward to saying hello to her,” Trump said of the Venezuelan opposition leader during an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity that aired Thursday. Trump added that he heard Machado wants to give him the prize, and that it would be “a great honor.”
He thinks she’s going to give him her Nobel Peace Prize.
https://wapo.st/4suIAwU
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David C said on January 9, 2026 at 4:50 pm
At my mom’s funeral, my aunt told that when my grandma died that my uncle told her that they were orphans so everyone had to be nice to them.
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Peter said on January 9, 2026 at 5:42 pm
I’m thinking what a lot of you are saying today, so I’ll try not to pile on, but:
Am I looking at the videos correctly? My point is that the first video shows an ICE vehicle directly in front of the victim’s car; then the second ICE truck pulls up behind her, and…
I thought I saw a video that shows the lady dropping someone off, then starting a U-turn/3 point turn. Then the large vehicle is seen going in reverse to block her car, then the second ICE truck shows up…
I don’t know if I’m dreaming this, but that would seem to make a lie out of the statement that she was blocking ICE vehicles…which of course is pretty far down the list of lies.
I’m a bit behind on my Catholic theology, but I think they frown on people wishing someone was dead, so I need to make an act of contrition soon…
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Deborah said on January 9, 2026 at 6:08 pm
I thought this was the best explanation of use of force for ICE agents by a woman who is a former official of Homeland Security https://www.instagram.com/p/DTTBFwKmDod/?hl=en I saw it on Instagram and so this link is through them and I’m not sure if you can see it if you don’t have an Instagram account. It was originally on a PBS program and I don’t know how to get a link to that directly. It makes it pretty clear that the ICE agent who shot Nicole Good was not following protocol in almost everything he did. There is no way that the FBI can say this guy was not guilty.
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Deborah said on January 9, 2026 at 9:12 pm
Oh my I just realized I didn’t say her name properly. Her name is Renee Nicole Good, shame on me.
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Julie Robinson said on January 10, 2026 at 12:41 pm
From what I’m reading, the newer ICE agents weren’t fully vetted, poorly trained, and don’t meet military standards for enlistment. Sounds like a perfect place for umemployables with fascist tendencies!
Our daughter has already been working with several groups on immigration, and goes to the ICE hearing center twice a month to minister to those waiting to go in. But on the day of the murder she ramped things up and helped organize a protest that night, where she was interviewed speaking passionately about how this is wrong. Judging by the number of people we’ve heard from, they played it every hour on the local NBC station. She spent most of yesterday in a series of meetings where they pulled together coalitions and planned another protest for tomorrow.
I can’t go to protests because of my physical issues and caregiving demands, but I can provide her with a place to live, phone, regular meals, and emotional support. I think of this house as the homefront.
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Deborah said on January 10, 2026 at 1:05 pm
Good for you Julie, for providing a haven for your daughter who’s going out and doing something to both offering support and activating others.
I watched a clip this morning of slumping Grampa Trump mumbling and shambling to the window in the midst of welcoming a room full of Oil execs before he tries to coerce them into doing his bidding in Venezuela.
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tajalli said on January 10, 2026 at 2:00 pm
Regarding police states: a huge revolution is occurring in Iran with massive crowds including women burning their veils in Tehran and in all 31 provinces of the country.
https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.solnit/posts/pfbid0ma3dDLRc1ZNGvDxVpfyYwPgFBr7BqTaQ5GPAQ5VnxEe1fGTMMb8UMfuCUC748mZZl
Here’s the post by Rebecca Solnit, for those who don’t do FaceBook or if the link doesn’t work (sorry for the length):
Revolution in Iran. Iran on fire. I cannot vouch for the veracity of each of these, but the gist is: broad uprising, brutal attempts at repression. #womenlifefreedom
Guardian: Iran’s supreme leader has vowed that authorities will not back down in the face of a rapidly growing protest movement, setting the stage for an intensified violent crackdown as demonstrations and a nationwide internet shutdown continued on Friday.
Protests have raged in cities and towns across the country in recent days, posing a threat to the authority of the regime, which has been significantly weakened since the last large protest movement in the country in 2022.
In his first speech since demonstrations started on 28 December, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described protesters as “vandals” and “saboteurs” and accused them of working on behalf of foreign agendas.
Protesters were “ruining their own streets to make the president of another country happy … because he said he would come to their aid”, Khamenei said, referring to Donald Trump who has threatened American intervention in Iran if authorities kill protesters.
The protests started after a sudden depreciation in the value of the country’s currency, but demands for political reform and an end to the regime’s rule quickly emerged.
In Tehran’s Sadatabad district, people on Friday banged pots and chanted anti-government slogans including “death to Khamenei”, a video verified by AFP showed.
Other social media images showed similar protests elsewhere in Tehran, while videos published by Persian language television channels based outside Iran showed large numbers taking part in new protests in the eastern city of Mashhad, Tabriz in the north and the holy city of Qom.
These protests followed giant demonstrations on Thursday that were the biggest in Iran since the 2022-2023 protest movement sparked by the custody death of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the dress rules for women. Authorities look more vulnerable this time around because of the dire economic situation and the aftermath of last year’s conflict with Israel and the US.
The leaders of France, Germany and the UK released a joint statement on Friday night urging Iran to exercise restraint.
“We are deeply concerned about reports of violence by Iranian security forces and strongly condemn the killing of protesters,” they said. “The Iranian authorities have the responsibility to protect their own population and must allow for the freedom of expression and peaceful assembly without fear of reprisal. We urge the Iranian authorities to exercise restraint, to refrain from violence and to uphold the fundamental rights of Iran’s citizens.”
An internet blackout introduced on Thursday has sharply reduced the amount of information flowing out of the country. The Iranian rights group Hengaw reported that a protest march after Friday prayers in Zahedan, where the Baloch minority predominates, was met with gunfire that wounded several people.
Amnesty International said the “blanket internet shutdown” aims to “hide the true extent of the grave human rights violations and crimes under international law they are carrying out to crush” the protests.
Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights, raising a previous toll of 45 issued the day earlier, said at least 51 protesters, including nine children, have been killed by security forces and hundreds more injured.
The US-based Human Rights Activists news agency said that at least 50 people have been killed in the violence surrounding protests, while more than 2,270 others have been detained.
Videos from the protests on Thursday showed crowds of thousands of people marching through the streets of Tehran, setting fire to a building belonging to the Iranian state broadcasters and hoisting a flag bearing the lion and sun emblem – the flag of Iran before the 1979 revolution that brought the current regime to power.
Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the late shah, who had called for the protests on Thursday night, made another call for demonstrations to take place at 8pm (1630 GMT) on Friday. He also called on Trump to help the protesters, saying Khamenei “wants to use this blackout to murder these young heroes”.
Footage from Thursday showed protesters chanting in support of Pahlavi, including in Mashhad, Khamenei’s home town.
Protesters who went out on Thursday night said they were met with violence – part of what rights groups are calling an already brutal crackdown.
“They’re aiming for the eyes,” Maryam, a 25-year-old artist who was at protests in Tehran in the early hours of Friday, told the Guardian via text message. “The Faraja [uniformed police], the Basij [paramilitary militia] and even plainclothes kill squads are driving into the crowds with motorbikes. I don’t know how long the internet will be working but we are thousands on the streets and I fear I will wake up to hundreds of casualties.” https://www.theguardian.com/…/iran-supreme-leader…
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Deborah said on January 10, 2026 at 5:51 pm
This is a good video interview with George Saunders from the NYT, he’s one of my favorite authors https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/10/magazine/george-saunders-interview.html?unlocked_article_code=1.DVA.w0oK.YGV3OlyYpnBH&smid=url-share Gift article
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Jeff Gill said on January 10, 2026 at 7:35 pm
ICE officer training is 300 hours now, a three month program. In Ohio, to cut my hair? As a licensed cosmetologist here you need 1,500 hours of training, plus another 600-1,200 hours depending on specialities.
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Sherri said on January 10, 2026 at 8:22 pm
ICE officer training is laughable, no question, but Jonathan Ross, the officer who calmly murdered Renee Good while filming the whole thing with his phone, is not some new recruit. He joined the Border Patrol in 2007, and moved over to ICE in 2015. He’s also a firearm instructor, though he didn’t demonstrate much understanding of the policy on firing on moving vehicles. If I had been his fellow officer who had been standing next to Good’s driver side door, I might now have appreciated Ross shooting so close to me, but then, I wouldn’t have been standing there trying to drag an unarmed woman out of her vehicle to begin with.
Masked men who have no identification as law enforcement other than “POLICE” stenciled on their vest trying to drag people out of their cars on the regular is not a situation designed to do anything but cow people into compliance and make it clear that you have no rights nor recourse.
I’d call it hypocrisy that the 2nd Amendment fetishists who claimed that we needed guns to protect against a tyrannical government have no problems with ICE murdering people, but it’s not hypocritical. They don’t consider people like Renee Good human beings with full rights, so she doesn’t get the protection of the 2nd Amendment, only the boot of the government. Just like Philando Castile.
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Jeff Gill said on January 10, 2026 at 8:27 pm
Sorry, correction: ICE training is two months, not three.
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susan said on January 10, 2026 at 8:41 pm
Oh, that’s much better. Whew.
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Carl said on January 11, 2026 at 3:43 pm
Agent Ross profile from Mike Masnick
https://bsky.app/profile/mmasnick.bsky.social/post/3mc45qfg3wc2v
“Today in least surprising news… Ross’s family and friends describe him as a hardcore conservative Christian and MAGA supporter, who sports Don’t Tread flags and Tmp/Vance stickers.”
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