Worst of the worst? The undocumented immigrant the Border Patrol agents were going after when they killed Alex Pretti had only misdemeanor on his criminal record
Trump, like Reagan before him, is in favor of gun rights, but only for his folks
I don’t like that (slain Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti) had a gun, I don’t like that he had two fully loaded magazines, that’s a lot of bad stuff. And despite that, I’d say it’s very unfortunate. … You can’t have guns, you can’t walk in with guns. You just can’t. You can’t walk in with guns. You can’t do that. — Donald Trump, Monday
There is absolutely no reason why out on the street today a civilian should be carrying a loaded weapon. … (Guns are a) ridiculous way to solve problems that have to be solved among people of good will. — Ronald Reagan, then governor of California, on May 2, 1967
Reagan’s position on guns in the 1960s was animated not by a general concern about firearms but with the fact that African Americans — specifically members of the Black Panther Party — were openly and legally carrying guns when “Copwatching,” their term for observing law enforcement officers in an effort to curb police brutality.
The cherished right to keep and bear arms wasn’t so cherished anymore, and Reagan signed the bipartisan Mulford Act that prohibited the open carrying of loaded firearms in public without a permit.
Similarly, Trump and his representatives have been suggesting that Alex Pretti was in the wrong Saturday morning for having a concealed pistol on his person when Border Patrol agents were beating the shit out of him before killing him.
“You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want,” FBI director Kash Patel told Fox News on Sunday. “It’s that simple. You don’t have that right to break the law.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, posted to social media, “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you.”
I’ll note that these hypocrites ignored or simply denied evidence that some of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrectionists rioting at the Capitol on Trump’s behalf were armed:
And of course they made a hero out of pipsqueak cosplayer Kyle Rittenhouse, who openly carried a semi-automatic rifle into street protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 2021 and ultimately shot and killed two people in self-defense (gift link).
The National Rifle Association was dismayed by the Trump regime’s response, issuing a statement Tuesday saying, ““The NRA unequivocally believes that all law-abiding citizens have a right to keep and bear arms anywhere they have a legal right to be,” said the NRA on Tuesday night.
Responding to Patel, the National Association for Gun Rights argued that “Carrying an extra magazine implies nothing. Claiming otherwise sets a dangerous precedent for Second Amendment rights and creates an easy backdoor argument for magazine bans and similar legislation.”
Wrapping up, I’ll note again that the Department of Homeland Security told us on Monday that there is body-cam footage from Border Patrol agents who shot Pretti. If these videos were remotely exculpatory or provided mitigating context, you can bet we would have seen them by now.
In the hours following the shooting (of Alex Pretti), U.S. Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino held a press conference asserting that the operation was targeting an individual named Jose Huerta-Chuma and characterized him as having a significant criminal history. Because federal statements have repeatedly included inaccurate information about Minnesota custody and criminal records, the DOC reviewed available records to determine whether the individual referenced had any connection to Minnesota state prison custody.
Based on DOC records and publicly available Minnesota court data:
The individual identified by federal officials has never been in Minnesota DOC custody.
DOC and court records show no felony commitments associated with this
Public Minnesota court records reflect misdemeanor offenses.
The individual is not currently under DOC supervision.
Court records indicate that Mr. Huerta-Chuma has had traffic violations and one misdemeanor related to domestic abuse, but has never been convicted of a felony. … But Mr. Huerta-Chuma was not convicted of domestic assault, according to Minnesota court records. In 2018, he was charged with misdemeanor domestic assault, but pleaded guilty to a lesser offense of disorderly conduct, according to records and Mr. Berger. The disorderly conduct conviction was later expunged.
He remains at large
Last week’s winning quip
What did our parents do to kill boredom before the internet? I asked my 10 brothers and sisters and they didn’t know either. — unknown
View: I’ll allow it. The U.S., Canada and Mexico are hosting the tournament from mid-June to mid-July, and those from other nations have an excellent opportunity to express their contempt for President Donald Trump’s rude rampaging by withholding their tourist dollars.
News: Rahm Emanuel proposes a ban on holding a position in any branch of government if you're over the age of 75.
View: Seventy-five seems too young to chase pols from the stage, but how about 80? We have mandatory retirement ages for jobs that are far less consequential and demanding than running or helping run a government — firefighters, federal law enforcement officers, pilots, judges (in some jurisdictions) — and so while the Tribune Editorial Board’s call to let the voters decide (gift link) has some merit, so, too, would a call to let voters decide if teenagers can be members of Congress or if foreign-born people (or even foreigners) could be elected to the presidency.
View: I’m vehemently opposed to political violence, of course, but also to protests outside the homes of public officials. So I understand the impulse here. But, as the Tribune story says, this new law “erects a barrier between citizens and records long considered essential to democratic accountability, including marital status and basic information about whether lawmakers, county clerks and other officials actually live in the districts and communities they serve.”
I hope the law fails a court challenge and that protesters in the future have the common decency to limit their demonstrations to offices.
News: Trump and others continue repeating that those protesting against him and his policies are paid agitators.
View: I’ll just echo the Twitter post of Sarah Ironside:
The right is convinced that the people in the streets protesting this vile administration are paid because they cannot fathom actually giving a shit about other people and upholding the Constitution for free.
News: Illinois Democrats are hoist with their own petard.
View: This is what happens when you don’t actually believe in democracy. In 2024, Democrats in the General Assembly rushed to pass a law to end the long-standing practice of allowing local party organizations to appoint general election candidates in otherwise-uncontested legislative races (where no candidate from that party had entered the primary). The purpose was to protect state Rep. Katie Stuart, a Metro East Democrat, who was thought to be vulnerable, from a Republican challenger.
Courts held that the law unfairly changed the rules during an active election cycle and allowed the Republicans to slate a candidate (who lost by 9 percentage points anyway). But the law is now in effect for the 2026 election cycle, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections, and it’s coming back to bite the Democrats.
In McHenry County, Democrat Brian Meyers of Crystal Lake was running unopposed in the March primary for the right to face incumbent Republican state Rep. Steve Reick, to whom he’d narrowly lost in 2022. But on Jan. 8, as Illinoize reported, the state board removed Meyers from the ballot for failure to pay an $85 fine for missing a deadline to file previous campaign finance reports.
Meyers did not quickly register as a write-in candidate — he had until Jan. 15 to do so and still have his votes counted — and this will leave Reick without an opponent and voters without a choice in November in the 63rd House District. Leaving Republican voters without a choice was the clear intent of Democrats when they passed the 2004 law that has now come back to bite them.
Most states, such as Illinois, require prospective write-in candidates to register in advance so elections officials don’t have to waste their time tallying votes for cartoon characters. But I see little need for the requirement that such registration take place at least 60 days before Election Day unless, again, it’s an effort to discourage competition.
Similarly, I see little need to remove candidates from the ballot because they owe fines (that, in this case, were paid but paid late). Barring candidates from taking office until such fines are settled seems like sanction enough.
View: Much as I don’t like the sentiment — unless the word “AWAY” between “GO” and “ICE” is implied — I even more don’t like any content-based restriction on what public employees may post to their private social media accounts. If school district rules permit teachers to post political opinions, such permission must not apply simply to opinions that are popular with students and parents.
The teacher’s support for the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers is a minority view but hardly fringe — 39% of Americans in a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll approve of the Trump regime’s handling of the immigration issue.
If a teacher can post “GO AWAY ICE” but is punished for posting “GO ICE,” I see a First Amendment issue.
As marginally the least wishy-washy of the Democratic U.S. Senate hopefuls, I give Monday’s debate to Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton
Each of the three front-running Democratic candidates in the March primary for the seat of retiring U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin whiffed on the Brandon Johnson question.
Co-moderator Jennifer Steinhauer, senior director of University of Chicago Institute of Politics: Do you approve of the leadership of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, and will you support his reelection?
U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi: … I want to see where Brandon Johnson is going to take us as a city. Look, we have tremendous potential as Chicago. We are an amazing city in the Chicago region, and all of Illinois for that matter, and the question is, do we bring people together and try to find our boldest common denominators? Or do we go a different direction? And I’m always fearful when we might be dividing more than uniting. Because when we’re attacking each other, we can’t attack our common problems. And so what are some of those issues that we have to deal with? One is we have to continue to build upon the record that, for instance, Gov. JB Pritzker has done at the state level with attracting jobs —
Steinhauer: I’m sorry, Congressman, the question wasn’t about the governor, it’s about the mayor. So without attacking specifically, do you approve of his job performance so far? Do you imagine yourself supporting him for reelection?
Krishnamoorthi: Let me get to that. So basically, what I’m trying to say is this: My support for him will depend on whether we do more of building on consensus and bringing people together to tackle our common problems — attracting more economic development, especially the South and West sides of Chicago. … Brandon Johnson can preside over a renaissance in Chicago, but only if he takes the best parts of Chicago and amplifies them, including the people.
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton: I’m very grateful for the ways that we have stood together here in the city of Chicago and in the state of Illinois, especially in the wake of all of these attacks by Donald Trump and his administration, and you all might have seen when he was threatening to send federalized troops to our city. We all stood together, federal electeds, the governor and I, county and the city of Chicago, to say that we don’t welcome Donald Trump here, that we don’t want his troops and that we’re going to stand up for our neighbors. So that kind of collaboration must continue. I don’t know if he has announced that he’s running for reelection, so I have no comment on that at this time.
U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly: …. There’s some things you agree with and some things you don’t agree with. I will give him a great compliment on how he handled ICE. And actually, I will give him a great compliment. When Chicago was on stage with the DNC, Chicago did a fantastic job under his leadership, and when he had to, he was summoned to D.C. on the Oversight Committee, and you would be proud of how he stood up and defended Chicago and took a lot of heated questions, but he did a really, really good job. I don’t know if he’s running again. He hasn’t said that to me, but I think that, in this next year, time will tell. What happens with the budget, what happens with school, what happens with businesses coming in and out of Chicago? Can he bring the council together?
The homina-homina-homina humbug — it depends, no comment, time will tell — seemed rooted in a calculation that failing Mayor Johnson still has enough progressive supporters in the city to swing a statewide race, and there’s no sense alienating them, even it makes you look wimpy.
The timidity continued when the first two candidates answered a similar question later in the debate:
Co-moderator Tina Sfondeles of the Sun-Times: Will you support Chuck Schumer as the leading leader of your party in the Senate? Yes or no?
U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi: I’ll hear his pitch. I haven’t decided.
U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly: Depends who’s running against him.
But then Stratton took a stand:
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton: No, and I’ve already said that I will not support Chuck Schumer as leader in the Senate, and I’m the only person on this stage that has said so.
Whether or not you agree with Stratton on this — I happen to think it’s past time for the superannuated Solons in the Democratic Party to yield to a new and more dynamic generation of leadership — at least she gave a straightforward answer.
Land of Linkin’
A careful look by The New York Times: “New Video Analysis Reveals Flawed and Fatal Decisions in Shooting of Pretti.” “A frame-by-frame assessment of actions by Alex Pretti and the two officers who fired 10 times shows how lethal force came to be used against a man who didn’t pose a threat.”
Found among my father’s digital effects: A copy of Barbara Brotman’s stunning two-part series in 2006 in which she followed an 81-year-old hospice patient in his final weeks. Part one: “The final journey of Arthur Clifton.” Part two: “Facing the end, with faith.” (Both are gift links.) Brotman wrote, “Death is a mystery, not just philosophically but literally. Many Americans have never seen one. Shrouded in medical routine and cultural discomfort, death is universal, but in this country, largely invisible.”
Slate: “RFK Jr. Is Obsessed With Whole Milk.” Epidemiologist Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz writes: “Given the MAHA fixation on whole milk, you’d be forgiven for thinking that full-fat dairy has more vitamins and minerals than skim, or more protein. It does not. All it has is more fat. … Specifically, saturated fat … (which) increases bad cholesterol (that) causes cardiovascular disease.”
Mystery kinda solved: “How S-Backing Causes People to Pronounce ‘Street’ as ‘Schtreet’” is an old entry from Quick and Dirty Tips that attempts to explain one of the more annoying linguistic tics of our age. But in all the explanations about tongue positions, the writer fails to account for the fact that this so-called “s-backing” simply isn’t heard in old recordings and is clearly an affectation/fad.
A click-poll landslideon the question of whether it’s appropriate for winning athletes to “give all the glory to God.”
Squaring up the news
This is a bonus supplement to the Land of Linkin’ from veteran radio, internet and newspaper journalist Charlie Meyerson. Each week, he offers a selection of intriguing links from his daily email news briefing Chicago Public Square:
■ The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Will Bunch (gift link) says the murder in Minneapolis of 37-year-old community volunteer and Veterans Affairs nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents “is beyond politics. This is about good vs. evil.”
■ Investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein, talking to federal agents on the ground, finds them “uncomfortable with the mission creep that is taking them away from actual immigration enforcement. … ‘Fuck this,’ a senior ICE officer said.”
■ The Current: Five popular apps—ostensibly designed to make your life better—are ratting you out to an insurance company, which can use the data to raise your rates.
You can (and should) subscribe to Chicago Public Square free here.
Liz Nagy
Media notes
Former Sun-Times sports reporter and WSCR-AM talk-show host Terry Boers died last Friday at age 75. Obituaries ran in the Sun-Times and the Tribune (gift link)
Because ace media columnist and blogger Robert Feder had the audacity to retire, I just now learned that ABC7 Chicago reporter Liz Nagy, always the most elegantly dressed TV newsy in town, took a job with ABC7 Los Angeles in October.
And from Charlie Meyerson’s Chicago Public Square:
■ Actor, director and founding board member for the Freedom of the Press Foundation John Cusack, writing for the Sun-Times, warns that news organizations’ paywalls create a two-tiered citizenry — one that can afford to be informed and one that can’t.
■ Chicago news needs you: If you can spare about 10 minutes for a survey, you can help news organizations working with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism to better understand the public they serve—and you could win a $100 gift card.
Quotables
A collection of compelling, sometimes appalling passages I’ve encountered lately
The first month of 2026 has provided a series of events that have simply broken my heart as well as my brain. … The only honest way to describe what is in front of our noses is that we now live in an elected monarchy with a manic king whose mental faculties are slipping fast. After 250 years, we appear to have elected the modern equivalent of King George III, and are busy dismantling the constitution Americans built to constrain him. … This staggering concession to evil — which cannot be withdrawn — robs us of any case against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or China’s threat to Taiwan. It legitimizes war by major powers for conquest everywhere. It endangers the entire system of collective security that has kept the peace for nearly 80 years. … And the blithering old king at the center of all this? He went to Europe … and poured contempt and bile on allies who sent young men and women to die in Afghanistan and Iraq after NATO’s Article V was invoked for the first and last time after 9/11. … The selfless achievement of generations are being discarded by a senile, distracted, cowardly thug. —Andrew Sullivan
“MY FAMILY CAME HERE LEGALLY!” No, your family came here on a disease boat to dig tunnels and be cannon fodder. But congrats on making it two rungs up the ladder. Now you get to spit on the people below you! God Bless America! — Mike Recine
If Democrats hadn’t been so fucking weak for the four years they were in office and prosecuted to the full extent of the law, we wouldn’t be in this shit. — Spock Resists
When people watch that video and the government tells them, well, (Alex Pretti) was assaulting the police officers, nobody with any objectivity watches that video and believes that’s what’s happening. As the man retreats, with each altercation, he retreats and then the woman is thrown violently to the ground, he’s thrown to the ground. No American believes that he was assaulting the officers.In fact, the opposite appears to be true. … If videoing somebody is an assault which most people don’t believe it is— but if that is an assault— then people need to know that. — Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky
(Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is) out of her depth. She’s proven that she doesn’t know how to lead, how to de-escalate. She’s exposing ICE officers to dangerous situations. She’s exposing U.S. citizens to deadly, deadly situations. — Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina
This administration doubles and triples down on lies even in the face of facts and undeniable evidence. Until there are consequences, they have no reason to stop. — Jake Vig
Unlike Minnesota, Texas and Florida weren’t invaded by lawless, masked “immigration” ICE thugs. That’s because their residents voted for Donald Trump and their governors flatter him. This isn’t about immigration; it’s about deeply damaged Donald’s brittle ego. — Betty Bowers
It’s not debatable that a mentally disturbed person has the nuclear codes. The Republicans know they’re endangering us all by leaving him in office. This is a betrayal of every person on Earth. It is a crime against humanity. — Mark Jacob
Two questions for my readers
1. Do any of you pay for AI?
I’ve been seeing ads in my social media feeds soliciting subscribers for various AI platforms. I used some of these platforms instead of Google to quickly find websites that address issues I’m writing about or interested in, and I find them quite useful and usually highly reliable. But when one is slow or tells me I’ve reached a limit on queries, I simply go to another. I toggle between:
All, for now, have sufficient free offerings that I don’t have to pay. Of course, that may change as the field narrows. But clearly a lot of people are paying, and I’m wondering why.
2. Are those who pay for access to Sophie Rain’s Only Fans ephebophiles?
Recently, internet model Sophie Rain posted that she had surpassed $100 million in revenue from her OnlyFans account — the money comes from subscribers who evidently enjoy watching her dance and looking at her Jessica Rabbit-like physique. She’s 21, but with the facial features of a 15-year-old:
Sophie Rain, screen grabs
The entire OnlyFans phenomenon puzzles me. I’m reminded of those stories of sad, lonely men who think the stripper or the hooker actually likes them. But I’m beyond puzzled to creeped out by the Sophie Rain phenomenon.
An ephebophile is a person sexually attracted to post-pubescent teens (as distinct from pedophiles, who are sexually attracted to prepubescent children), and Rain’s site appears to appeal directly to such people. The images on her site are reportedly non-pornographic, yet I still have to wonder about a person who would pay money to look at her. Do any of you have a friendlier or more innocent take?
Quips
In Tuesday’s paid-subscriber editions, I present my favorite tweets that rely on visual humor. Subscribers then vote for their favorite. Here is the winner from this week’s contest:
The new nominees for Quip of the Week:
I don’t like to get the baby spinach because then I feel even worse when it dies in the fridge. — @bestestname
Next time you get a call from an unknown number, answer it by whispering, “It’s done. But there’s blood everywhere.” — @deelomas.bsky.social
Having a retriever puppy has really opened my eyes to how much of this crazy, beautiful world is, in fact, edible — @ThisOne0verhere
When someone tells you the name of their new baby, repeat it back to them, with their surname, and ask, “Like the murderer?” — unknown
Schrödinger’s Margarine: When you both can’t believe it’s not butter, and simultaneously completely believe it’s not butter. — @jakevig.bsky.social
Doctor: The good news is, this is a surprise birthday party! Patient: But my birthday’s not until next month. Doctor: Which brings me to the bad news. — @itsabbyyep.bsky.social
Sorry I didn’t respond to your message. I opened it five seconds after you sent it and forgot to reply while trying to wait an appropriate amount of time to reply. — @cheygoulet.bsky.social
It’s true that exercise helps with decision making. I went for a run this morning and decided never to do that again. — unknown
The correct spelling is “School,” not “School.” Some people put the second o before the first, which is absolutely wrong. — unknown
Ever try boiled pasta? Not as crunchy, but still good. — @mindflakes.bsky.social
Vote here and check the current results in the poll.
Marj Halperin, Austin Berg and I joined host John Williams on this week’s episode of “The Mincing Rascals” podcast. We discussed the slaying of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, of course, along with the suspension of a public school teacher who posted “GO ICE” to social media, media paywalls, THC-infused beverages and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s new effort to tax the rich.
Traffic lights:
John: A green light for the nonfiction book “Football” by cultural critic Chuck Klosterman.
Eric: A green light for El Xangarrito Mexican Restaurantat 4811 N. Rockwell St. in Chicago, particularly the guacamole made with grilled corn and queso fresco.
Austin: A green light for “White Rock,” a documentary about the 1976 Winter Olympics that’s available only on the Criterion platform (but you can watch it with a seven-day free trial). UPDATE — You can alsolog in to Olympics.com, create a free account and watch the film.
Marj: A yellow light for “Saturday Night Live” player Marcello Hernández’s Netflix stand-up special “American Boy.”
Subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. Or bookmark this page. If you’re not a podcast listener, you can hear an edited version of the show at 8 p.m. most Saturday evenings on WGN-AM 720 look for the YouTube version that will be posted later in the week. I am agitating with the station to post the video more quickly.
Get some window shades for the Merchandise Mart!
It’s a lovely idea to use the river side of the Merchandise Mart as a huge screen on which to project images to those viewing from the opposite bank, but the effect has always been spoiled by the number of lighted windows on the side of the building. I’m not sure why any office lights have to be turned on at night when no one is there, but some window shades would certainly turn this into a magnificent spectacle instead of a weird image that looks like something on a damaged TV screen.
Good Sports
The international winter circus starts a week from Friday. Yawn.
What? The Winter Olympics are upon us again? That quadrennial fortnight of frozen frivolity — slip-slidey races against the clock, astounding acrobatic stunts performed by masters of otherwise useless skills and competitors flailing with brooms at the ice in front of smoothly gliding stones. It’s basically Cirque du Soleil in snow pants with a few hockey games thrown in.
When novelty competitions were not common TV fare, the Winter Olympics were somewhat diverting. ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” on Saturday afternoons gave us an often tantalizing taste of unfamiliar athletic contests. But that show went off the air in 1997 in the face of competition from dedicated cable sports channels for which seemingly no competition was too wacky or obscure for inclusion in the offerings.
The games that begin Feb. 6 in Milan will feature more than a dozen separate races on sled-like objects down a narrow, winding ice path — the luge, the bobsled and the skeleton. In each, one team or one ride will finish the course a fraction of a second ahead of the others — just as in most of the downhill skiing events, a difference in skill imperceptible for those without a precision timepiece.
If you like that sort of thing, then of course this is the kind of thing you will like. But for me, it’s as dull as if the track events in the Summer Olympics were individual time trials instead of actual side-by-side races.
I’m not alone. In 2022 after the winter games in Beijing, Forbes reported:
The TV ratings for the Olympics continue to spiral downward. The Beijing Games on NBU delivered an average primetime audience of 10.7 million viewers, making it the least watched Olympics on linear television of all time. This was a 40% decline from the 2018 Olympics from PyeongChang, South Korea. When NBC/Universal’s Total Audience Delivery (TAD) was factored, which includes other screens, the average audience increased to 11.4 million viewers, still a record low.
The Summer Olympics, with its more relatable events, does better, as Front Office Sports reported after the 2024 Summer Olympics in Tokyo:
The entire 17-day event averaged 30.6 million viewers in the U.S. on NBC/Universal platforms, a whopping 82% above the 2021 Tokyo Games that were delayed and marred by the COVID-19 pandemic, and representing the highest figure for the Olympics since 2012.
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Green Light
Green Light features recommendations from me and readers not only of songs — as in the former Tune of the Week post — but also of TV shows, streaming movies, books, podcasts and other diversions that, with only rare exceptions, can be enjoyed at home.
In light of the tumult in Minneapolis, the Marsh Family has recorded “Minnesota,” borrowing the tune from Scott McKenzie’s 1967 hit song “San Francisco,” which was written by John Phillips (of the Mamas and the Papas and is known as “the unofficial anthem of the counterculture movement of the 1960s.”
The Marshes are a British musical family specializing in song parodies. The band consists of four children under 21 and parents who are roughly 50. The father, Ben Marsh, writes the lyrics.
For those whose guns tore Minnesota
Are sure to bear their power everywhere
If you don’t stand with Minnesota
Comes a time, will be beyond repair
So all the world’s in Minnesota
Their debt we share, on shoulders wide to bear
Love and honor Minnesota
Where Renée Good and Alex Pretti cared
Bruce Springsteen’s new protest anthem “Streets of Minneapolis” is also powerful:
Info
I am a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. I began publishing the Picayune Sentinel on Sept. 9, 2021, roughly two and a half months after I took a buyout from the newspaper. Find a longer bio and contact information here. This issue exceeds in size the maximum length for a standard email. To read the entire issue in your browser, click on the headline link above. Paid subscribers receive each Picayune Plus in their email inbox each Tuesday, are part of our civil and productive commenting community and enjoy the sublime satisfaction of supporting this enterprise. Browse and search back issues here.
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The "de-escalation" of conflict in Minneapolis by Agent Orange, so heralded by the media, is a load of boloney. Federal agents are still there. Decent people are still there, being terrorised. The replacement of the strutting sadist Bovino by the thuggish Tom "Cava Bag Full of Dollars" Homan is lipstick on the Miller/Noem pig, Listen to Bruce and continue to do everything you can to stand against this vile racist regime in every way you can.
The "de-escalation" of conflict in Minneapolis by Agent Orange, so heralded by the media, is a load of boloney. Federal agents are still there. Decent people are still there, being terrorised. The replacement of the strutting sadist Bovino by the thuggish Tom "Cava Bag Full of Dollars" Homan is lipstick on the Miller/Noem pig, Listen to Bruce and continue to do everything you can to stand against this vile racist regime in every way you can.
Regarding those paid agitators, their payroll accountant's memos were posted in McSweeney's: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-am-the-payroll-accountant-for-professional-protestors-in-minnesota-and-i-am-swamped