J.D. Vance gave a press conference yesterdaay where he claimed that everything was the fault of the Democrats, and while he doesn’t know about Renee Good herself, he is certain that the ICE protests in Minnesota were being organized by a terrorist, left-wing radical group and that the administration was going to investigate and get to the bottom of things. When asked if Good was part of this group, he intimated that she was, only qualifying what he said by admitting (alors!) that he was not certain if or not she got paid for putting her car where she did. When asked who was running the group, he said we had to find out.

I don’t want to repeat what everyone else is saying, but have a couple of random thoughts you might want to put into the mix.

1. Let’s take Iran. President Trump came out strong for the right of Iranians to protest actions of their government and said that if the Iranian government started to act wrongly towards the protestors, the U.S. would go into action. It appears that Trump might think that Iranians can protest government actions, but Americans can not. And, by the way, I am not saying that to be cute. I am saying that because that might be the way it is.
2. I am assuming that Renee Good did not hit the ICE officer with her car, although one of the videos makes it look like she may have grazed him, or he may have grazed the car. I have heard that part of the ICE training is to make it clear that an ICE agent (I assume this is true of all law enforcement training programs) should never go in front of an automobile; it is too dangerous. Now, you can say in this case: “Well, he didn’t position himself there, did he? Wasn’t he in front only because she abruptly turned the car?” I couldn’t tell the answer from watching the videos, BUT……do you know that the same officer was hit by another car that he recently walked in front of, needing over 30 stitches on his arm and hand?
3. Let’s even assume that Good was obstructing the work of ICE by placing her car where she did (although it appears that there was room for cars to continue driving around her). Is that a capital offense? Is every protest against government action a capital offense? (Here, I remind you again of the Iran comparison.)
4. I also understand that there are specific training points on firing guns at a moving vehicle, and that you can only shoot to kill if you think your life is in danger. As Good was beginning to drive away, there was no way the shooter could have thought his life was in danger, was there? It doesn’t look so from the videos.
5. It was lucky that, after she was shot, her car just slammed into another car and came to rest. What if it had run into a crowd (or an individual) on the street or sidewalk and caused more injury or death?
6. In response to a question as to whether it wasn’t the job of the government to calm things down, Vance’s response was basically that it was the job of the protestors to stop protesting.

I did just see some terrific interviews last night with a 72 year old couple who were pepper sprayed, and with a Minneapolis pastor who was handcuffed and arrested, presumably for nothing (I can explain), and was eventually let go with an agent saying: “You can go. You are White, and you wouldn’t be much fun, anyway.”

When the publicity about the major fraud problem in Minnesota was spread last week or so, I was afraid that Minnesota was going to go Republican. I am not afraid of this right now.

It was after I wrote everything that comes before that I heard that there was another shooting by federal officials in Portland OR, where two people were wounded. This too was a shooting into a car, and it was the driver and the passenger who were hurt, but were able to drive off. They were later picked up. I thought that there was some sort of proscription against shooting into a vehicle unless the shooter’s life was in danger. It seems that, in neither situation here was that the case.

Why has no one made a connection between the drone bombing of the fishing/drugs vessels and the shootings in Minneapolis and Portland? In all of these cases, there seems to be a total disregard of human life as goals are pursued. In the case of the two survivors of the boat bombed in September, and the case of the woman killed in Minneapolis, the possibility of provided attention to save their lives were ignored. In September, the survivors were hit by another drone. In Minneapolis, medical attention was obstructed; whether her life could be saved, I do not know, but there were people ready to try, and they were blocked from getting to her.

This morning, I hear we have taken another oil tanker. And I hear that Trump has decided that the “second wave of attacks” (who knew?) on Venezuela may not have to happen because the current government is being so cooperative. (On the other hand, he said that he would be very pleased if Nobel winner Machado decided to share her award with him. What does that even mean?)

On the other hand, Trump this morning addressed the Republicans at the Kennedy Center (not only the name of the Kennedy Center has been changed, but its use is no longer just as an arts center, but as a home for Republican political gatherings) and told them that we are probably through bombing fishing boats, but now we are going to attack cartels on land. What does that mean? That means Mexico will be a target of our military, and probably Colombia.

You know, I think it all started with the Gulf of America, and now has extended to the full Caribbean, which will soon be renamed as well. My guess is that Mexico won’t be very happy for the American military to move onto its territory, but that Trump will try to bully them as we attack cartels and cause a fair amount of collateral damage. Once we start that, I am not sure what the endgame will be in Mexico. In Venezuela, it is oil. And my guess is that soon, it will be real estate and tourism in Cuba.

We have three very rocky years ahead. I have said regarding Israel and Netanyahu and his gang that, if they are successful in pacifying the West Bank and Gaza (and building a tourism mecca in Gaza), in 50 years they will be praised, and any of the crimes they have committed along the way will be forgotten. I think the same of Trump.

In the meantime, we should scrap E Pluribus Unum, and move on to The End Justifies the Means.  Exitus Acta Probat. ( Thank you, Ovid)