In Cold Blood: State-Sponsored Violence

First, they came for the daycares. Then they murdered a mom.

This week’s newsletter was always going to be centered on Minnesota. I started jotting notes and saving links over the holidays, even though I was supposed to be on break. But the viral video and its fallout were too much to ignore. As the parent of two young children, I was enraged by daycare centers across the U.S. dealing with harassment as they got the #pizzagate treatment from Shirley and other MAGA activists. Even moreso by the fact that some media outlets chose to both sides what was happening, rather than acknowledge the insanity and danger of wannabe MAGA influencers showing up to random daycare centers with video cameras to harass workers and children.

But things have obviously escalated. This week, an ICE agent murdered a Minnesota woman, Renee Good, in cold blood, and it was all caught on video. A doctor on the scene wanting to attempt treatment was blocked by an ICE agent who told him, “I don’t care.” The Trump Regime immediately called the victim a domestic terrorist, an obviously false claim, using a violent state-sponsored murder to incite even more violence. There are protests in Minnesota and across the nation, and schools were canceled for the rest of the week in Minneapolis.

Renee Good isn’t the first person killed by ICE, but hers is the most high-profile killing to date because as The Root points out, she’s a white woman and a U.S. Citizen. Good was a mother whose youngest child isn’t much older than my kids. Her mother told the local paper that Good was “extremely compassionate. She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being.” Good likely had many of the same worries I do about raising kids in this world, starting with her son’s safety when she dropped him off at school every day. Her son is now an orphan, having lost his father a few years prior. All important details to remember as the Trump Regime cruelly attempts to rewrite Good’s biography in real time to suit its own narrative.

Before Good’s murder, I was thinking about this newsletter in terms of how the Trump Regime actively makes life difficult for the rest of us. As the newly elected mayors of New York and Seattle are emphasizing universal childcare and making cities affordable for families, MAGA goons are out with video cameras harassing daycares. The Trump Regime is freezing billions in federal childcare subsidy funds and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds in five blue states, using the viral video that started all of this as an excuse. Trump’s version of fascism is about making life miserable for everyone else as they enrich themselves. They want us to live under constant threat of violence from the state and MAGA goons so we’re afraid to speak out, fight back, or even stand with our vulnerable neighbors.

This will continue to escalate as long as Trump remains in power. He’s told us outright that he believes there’s no limit to what he can do in power. And the events in Minnesota (and Portland) are just one slice of the havoc he and his Regime are currently enacting across America and the world, from Venezuela to Greenland. Given that the Regime feels emboldened by a might is right mindset in any and all matters, I don’t hold out much hope that the midterm elections will be the catalyst we’re telling ourselves it will be. We’ll have to fight to ensure they’re free and fair, and fight to force the Regime to respect the results.

I don’t say this to be a doomer, but I do think we have to realize elections won’t be enough to stop the Trump Regime. I’ve maintained for some time that American Democracy as we knew it is over. American cities are currently under occupation. We need to mobilize in larger numbers than we have up to now and in a sustained way. Blue states and cities need to take Minnesota’s example and fight back with every lever of power they have. We need to be open to general strikes, withholding federal taxes, soft secession, and whatever other creative ideas for defiance organizers and communities come up with. And of course, we need to stand in solidarity with one another.

Here’s the good news. Not only is this a fight worth waging, it’s one we can win. I know that y’all are already out there fighting the good fight every day in ways large and small. Our challenge now is to grow the movement, bring others along with us, and let our own efforts inspire them to stay. The Regime might continue to escalate but the opposition to its mob rule grows by the day.

I don’t want to be glib about this because it’s heavy, heartbreaking, and ongoing work. I feel it in my body just like you probably do. But courage and solidarity are contagious. Consider where we were a year ago when much of the media and institutions were happy to declare that opposition to Trump was passé and dead on arrival. We’ve come so far in a year, and our capacity to expand our defiance is unlimited.

Let’s keep showing up and keep believing that a better future for humanity is possible. For Renee Good, her family, her community, and for our own families and communities.

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ICYMI

NPR’s Archive Preserves the Facts of the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot (NPR) As the Trump Regime attempts to rewrite the history of the January 6 insurrection into a lost-cause narrative, I’m grateful for outlets like NPR, which work to preserve the real history of what happened.

MAGA Influencers Cheered Trump’s Venezuela War. Their Audience Said ‘WTF?!’ (The Bulwark) From Will Somer. Worth keeping an eye on: “The divide between right-wing media personalities and their audiences suggests the Venezuelan raid could pose political problems for Trump. Even as Trump celebrates the operation and suggests future raids in Mexico and Colombia, it seems like even hardcore MAGA fans aren’t buying what he’s selling. At the same time, Maduro’s capture has put Trump’s media supporters in a bind: defend Trump or appease their isolationist audiences.”

​​A Criminal Empire (Forever Wars) Spencer Ackerman remains the best reporter on America’s foreign policy out there. At least in my view. Read his newsletter on Venezuela.

Five Years Later, These 10 Corporations Still Aren’t Funding Election Deniers (Popular Information) A rare kudos to corporations from Judd Legum. Of course he also identifies the companies that broke their promise.

Want even more content? Subscribers receive bonus content on Fridays.

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Coda

That’s all for this week. We’ll be back next Sunday. Please remember to take care of yourselves and your loved ones. In times like these, all we have is one another. Let’s end with the 2026 duo we didn’t know we needed: Ms. Rachel and NYC Mayor Mamdani.

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