There is No Trump 'Shift'
His change in tone is a distraction, not a retraction.
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PRESIDENT TRUMP and his team lied about what we all saw in Minneapolis. Now they want us to believe they’re atoning.
Don’t believe them.
“President Donald Trump shifted toward a more conciliatory approach with Democratic leaders in Minnesota on Monday,” explains The Associated Press, “a sudden change in tack following an outcry over the second fatal shooting of a protester by federal agents this month during the administration’s nationwide crackdown on undocumented immigrants.”
Also, the scowling Nazi-fashioned face of the immigrant roundup, Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, was demoted and will be leaving Minneapolis, according to The Atlantic.
That may sound like good news. But Trump is still blaming the victims and Democrats, still defending excessive force, still suppressing the right to protest, still tearing apart families, still deporting people guilty of nothing more than wanting to be U.S. citizens, still supporting warrantless raids on homes, still condoning racial profiling and the baseless arrest of U.S. citizens, and still listening to overt racist Stephen Miller. The goal: make America great for white privilege.
Trump’s so-called shift in tone is a distraction, not a retraction.
THE NEW YORK TIMES released a new frame-by-frame analysis of Alex Pretti’s killing which leaves no doubt: The ICU nurse and veterans’ advocate posed no threat to Trump’s militia.
He was executed.
REGULAR MRI READER Mike’s Substack responded angrily to today’s news.
The murderers must pay for executing U.S. citizens. These sociopaths have more than likely murdered before, but these were brown and black victims and the phones were not recording from various angles. Likewise justice must come for the entire corrupt administration. Anyone still supporting Trump is a racist full stop.
I took a long sip of my coffee and replied:
I understand and share your anger, Mike. Still, I am trying not to lead with my biases. I think:
There should be an impartial investigation.
A grand jury should decide whether the agents are charged.
A jury should decide if they are guilty of murder (the conditions for which cannot fully be determined by the video), lesser charges, or nothing. There is a high legal bar for convicting cops, something we can change in time but not situationally.
The civil judgements against the agents and Trump officials will be enormous, if not recoverable.
Peaceful protests must continue. Video is the last defense against tyranny.
We can conclude from what we’ve seen that Pretti was executed, and the whole rot of the Trump administration is responsible. But only a jury can determine if the agents who shot Pretti and Rene Good committed murder — an important distinction.
Mike responded:
I hear you Ron. However, If I am on a jury and these tapes are allowed as visual evidence all I need is for the proper identification of the executioners to vote guilty of murder .
I would likely vote guilty, too. Which is why Mike and I would make lousy jurors. Ideally, in our system jurors do not make up their minds until they consider and debate all the evidence presented in a courtroom.
Trump and his team declared themselves the judge and jury against Good and Pretti. We must be better.
THIS FREE NEWSLETTER contains material pulled from today’s “Morning Read-In,” a daily pre-dawn feature for paid subscribers. The MRI also included stories on:
How the Trump administration is whitewashing history to defend white supremacy.
How AI companies are trying to steal and destroy the world’s books.
How the understaffed and profit-rich nursing home industry bought access to Trump who reverse regulations that might have saved 13,000 lives.
Be informed and heard with a daily MRI for just $5/month or $50/year.
I saw on Threads a thread by a historian who likened what Trump is doing to similar tactics by past tyrants, such as Mussolini. According to this historian, Il Duce would:
1.) assign an odious, heinous task to a henchman
2.) henchman would fulfill that task to the T with overt cruelty
3.) public would recoil from the tactics
4.) Il Duce would sack the henchman to make it seem like he is a.) dismayed by the tactics; and b.) he is the hero
5.) assign a new henchman to continue the tactics.
Replacing Bovino with Homan is like ejecting the fox in the henhouse and putting the wolf in charge.
Thank you, Ron.