Bleeding Minnesota

Federal Agents Kill Minneapolis ICU Nurse in Controversial ICE Operation — Outrage, Protest, and Political Backlash

Here we are, the morning after another American was killed by ICE — shot down in the streets. Just like the dystopian imaginings of second-amendmenteers about Obama sending “goons and thugs” into cities to kill people, and why they said they needed as many guns as they could buy — making sure gun sellers could sleep in deep-cushioned beds of cash.

The President was quick to blame the victim, again. DHS was quick, as always, with claims that the victim was a murderous psychopath who was out to mow down ICE officers.

And, as usual, the videos from the scene show those claims to be lies. Alex Pretti wasn’t threatening anyone; he was trying to protect a woman ICE shoved to the ground. He got pepper-sprayed for it. He got killed for it. He had a legal permit to carry a weapon — the very thing second-amendmenteers usually defend. The gun was removed by an ICE agent and was being taken away before Pretti was shot eleven times, including several shots after he was down and unmoving. One ICE agent is seen on video clapping afterward.

And what’s the President doing this morning? Ranting about his ballroom.

I try — often unsuccessfully — to write about what’s happening as logically as I can, so my anger doesn’t slide into unfair hyperbole.

But how in the hell do you not get angry at this? Livid? Enraged? Especially at the Trump administration’s response — doubling down, as if they want this. As if they want to spark something far worse.

How can you not take a side? How can you not be vehement?

Yes, I know this is the reaction they seem to want. Their logic, if you can call it that, is to provoke more violence to justify an even more brutal response.

But there comes a point where you can’t help it.

Where do we go from here? We’re on a dangerous road, and it’s clear the federal government has no interest in getting us off it. In fact, they seem determined to stay on it. And if I allow myself a moment of conspiracy, the timing even raises the question of whether this chaos could be used to cancel midterm elections — at least in states Trump doesn’t like.

These are the darkest times for the country I can remember in my lifetime.

The title of this piece is Bleeding Minnesota. It echoes Bleeding Kansas, which historians see as a prologue to the Civil War — violent clashes in the 1850s that showed political compromise over slavery had collapsed and foreshadowed the bloodshed to come.

Can we get off this road?

There are a few hopeful signs. Growing peaceful protests. Some Republicans — even some Trump supporters — pushing back against what’s happening in Minnesota.

And the Trump administration appears to have miscalculated badly. If the goal of deploying a brutal, paramilitary force against not criminals but innocent bystanders was to frighten people into silence and compliance, it’s failing. The reaction isn’t fear — it’s anger. And if the goal was to push that anger until this becomes a civil war in all but name, then they’re doing a bang-up job.

Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think.