01/26/26

Good morning! It’s Monday, January 26th.

Dental Drill Appreciation Day

As in… I would rather have a dentist’s drill inside of my mouth, without Novocain, every single day for the rest of my life than have one more day of this trash administration.

Setting a tone at the top.

And now, the news.

Minnesota

-via AP News, ABC News, The Hill, and NBC News

Before I really get into it… if you’re new here, or if you perhaps forgot, the tone you’re about to hear here is not one I love taking. It’s not the point of the show. I started this show because my best friend asked me to, and in the last year especially, the reason I’ve continued to do it (for all 5 people who listen), is because all of these big kid news stations are scary. On purpose. Because they understand that that’s how they keep you.

And so here, that’s not ever been my thing. Here, it’s just been about trying to keep you informed and genuinely, truly, not to scare you.

Which I’m not trying to do here.

But the facts here are not unscary.

But we have to stay informed. We have to stay paying attention. Right now more than ever.

Because on Saturday morning, at one of the many protests that have broken out since the cold blood, broad-daylight shooting of Renee Good in Minnesota, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed yet another person.

And I’m very sorry, but in order for you to fully understand where we’re at right now, you need the whole picture.

His name was Alex Pretti. He was a white man, born and raised in the United States. He looked white. He was an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA. He worked with vets.

He was almost, almost, the right kind of white person for this administration. Except he was against this administration, and so he wasn’t the right kind of white person for them.

Expendable.

He was on the streets with a cell phone.

He was armed with a gun, however he had a legal license to carry the gun. The gun stayed holstered the entire time. It was behind him. He was not there to, as this administration is lying and saying, cause a bunch of damage.

In fact, the only reason this man caught their eye is because one BPD agent full-body two-hand shoved a woman to the ground. He went to go check on her. When he did, BPD pepper-sprayed both of them, and even as that was happening, he was still putting his body between BPD and the woman. One hand protecting her and one hand in the arm.

In that hand is his cell phone. Again, he never removed his gun.

HE never removed it.

They removed his gun. They disarmed him.

They disarmed him.

Then they continued to beat him, including hitting multiple punches to the head.

And then, when he didn’t have a gun and was pinned to the ground and was not a threat and all he was was just… the wrong kind of American in their eyes…

Two agents fired a combination of ten rounds in about five seconds. Killing him.

Not a threat.

Just… the wrong kind of American.

A federal judge has issued an order preventing the Trump administration from destroying any evidence in this case. We’ll see if they listen.

A hearing is scheduled for today.

The National Guard has been called in by Governor Walz. The guards are wearing their normal military uniform, as well as yellow hi-viz vests. Why?

Because they don’t want to be confused with ICE officials.

Trump blamed the Democrats, of course. Because… well because he is old and boring and doesn’t have anything interesting to say.

He said the Democrats are inciting Insurrection.

It’s a lie, but I only want to note that we should all be clocked into him using the word “insurrection.”

What are the Democrats doing? On a House Dems caucus call on Sunday began to call for Kristi Noem’s impeachment.

Additionally, more Democrats began making the trek to Minnesota in support of the protests.

We also learned on Sunday that an Army veteran, Purple Heart veteran, and American citizen was tackled to the ground by ICE officials two weeks ago. Following that, he was detained for eight hours – all without ever being able to contact his family…. Or a lawyer.

Multiple attorneys interviewed by ABC News have said that some of the thousands of people that ICE has arrested in Minneapolis in the last few weeks have been denied their Constitutional right to a lawyer.

Which makes sense when you think about it… of course they’re denying their Constitutional right to a lawyer.

They don’t care about the Constitution. Not really.

And we already knew about that. Except the one thing they cared about was the 2nd Amendment.

We watched them defend it over everything. Sandy Hook. Uvalde. Parkland. Kids… young kids being murdered and they couldn’t even fathom taking someone’s right to a gun away.

In August of 2020, Kyle Rittenhouse traveled from Antioch, Illinois, to Kenosha, Wisconsin to, in his words, protect the businesses during the BLM protests that popped up after officers shot and paralyzed Jacob Blake.

Was he a cop? No – he was a 17-year-old YMCA lifeguard who was disqualified from joining the Marines.

But he traveled 33 miles with an AR-15 style rifle and after someone tried to take his gun away from him, he fatally shot one man. From there, he ran and, as he was pursued by a crowd. It was at that time he shot two more people. One was injured, one died.

Kyle Rittenhouse killed two people… but he was the right kind of American, he was on Trump’s side, and so suddenly 2A dorks ran from every corner of the internet, suddenly everyone was an expert, and Rittenhouse… was arrested, found not guilty, and became a darling of the Republicans.

Alex Pretti didn’t travel anywhere. He wasn’t threatening anyone. He was trying to help a woman. He never brought his gun out.

But now this 2A obsessed administration would like you to think that he had to die, no way around it… because he had a gun. (Though I will say – the NRA is calling for a full investigation. It would be nice if they put their money where their mouth is and said they were pulling all GOP donations until there was an investigation, but we’ll see.)

And you may ask yourself, as they are now murdering people in broad daylight, where will this end? How does this end?

In a three-page letter, sent by Pam Bondi to Governor Tim Walz, Bondi informed him that ICE would be happy to leave the state and peace could be restored… for the small small price of the state’s voter rolls.

She also wants the Medicaid and SNAP records.

Let me not mince words - They are holding the state hostage.

How else are we supposed to look at this?

Even Marjorie Taylor Greene says this is going too far, posting a long post that ended with: “Both sides need to take off their political blinders. You are all being incited into civil war, yet none of it solves any of the real problems that we all face, and tragically people are dying.”

Marj… both sides?? But whatever, at least she’s saying something. I mean, for now there are some Republicans calling for an investigation into this latest shooting.

But you know… how long will that last? There is a vote coming up on the appropriations bill and it includes giving more money to DHS, therefore further funding ICE.

The Democrats have already said they won’t vote for this bill if it includes the DHS funding. However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune as already said all six funding bills will be rolled into one, all but forcing a partial shutdown of the government unless the Dems agree to vote to give ICE more money.

They are murdering people in the streets and asking for more money to… I guess to do it more. And if they don’t get the money, they’re willing to shut part of the government down.

I don’t know what “both sides” Marj is talking about but… these two sides are not the same.

But that vote hasn’t happened yet so we’ll see if Republicans can find a brave. And I hope they do. If they were ever going to, if they ever could, this is the moment to do it… this is the moment to be brave. Vote against this bill.

I’m saying this because obviously every single person in Congress listens to this podcast.

Except Ted Cruz.

He wants to but he’s so lame that I won’t let him. He’d never find a brave anyway so who cares. Who cares about Ted Cruz? (Everyone say it at the same time – nobody!)

Anyway, I don’t really have a succinct way to like neatly sum of this episode. I’m tired. I’m so tired. Aren’t you?

And then tomorrow I’ll go to work. To a job I love. And then I’ll record another episode of this podcast.

Because we are not going to stop paying attention.

We are here. Together.

They hate it. And that’s enough reason to me to not stop.

I’m gonna go get some sleep. You should go get some sleep at whatever time you go get some sleep. Drink water. See five cool things you like.

And tomorrow we will be back here

I’m proud of you.