"That's fine, dude; I'm not mad at you."

Renee Good (z"l)

And then she was dead. Dead. Shot through the windshield.

I cannot begin to express, verbalize, define, or even speak about the murder of Renee Good. The revulsion, even days later, is palpable. I think that's because the scum currently running this country are telling us we cannot believe what dozens of phones captured on video. We are being told a woman who addressed her shooter with "...dude, I'm not mad at you," was, seconds later, shot in the head. We are being told to ignore that a physician was denied permission to approach her after the car crashed, or that ambulances were denied entry onto the street.

This is a must watch:  Jen Psaki's analysis. In the introduction to MSNOW explains:

Just two days after the deadly ICE shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis, several videos, shot from different perspectives have been released to the public, including video taken by the shooter, which many on the political right claim supports the argument that the ICE agent was defending himself when he shot and killed Good in her car. Jen Psaki synchronizes several videos for a closer analysis of what the shooter's video actually shows, and what the videos tell us about what Good was doing when she was killed.

What country are we living in?

Where the fuck are all those checks and balances we learned about in 7th grade that are supposed to prevent the usurpation of powers by an out-of-control wannabe dictator? Has the Constitution been suspended and no one bothered to mention it?

I keep thinking this is all part of a larger smoke-and-mirrors act. The "taking over" of Venezuela, the ongoing attempt to annex Greenland, the saber rattling at Cuba, the masked, unidentifiable ICE thugs with their unmarked, unplated cars all tumble together in a way that is too reminiscent of Lebensraum, Sturmabteilung (brown shirts,) and the Schutzstaffel (the SS.) There are just too many similarities to simply poo-poo the obviousness of the trend. 

Long, long ago in a kosher deli in Valley Stream, NY, I sat with my dad's colleague, Rene Slotkin, as he recounted what it was like when his dad was arrested by the Nazis in 1939. How his mother, his twin sister, and he would stand outside the prison hoping to catch a glimpse of their dad. And how they were eventually deported in December 1941 where he and his twin sister would be subjected to experiments by Josef Mengele. You can listen to Rene and his sister talk about it if you're not sure you believe me. I still have my notes from those lunches. I asked questions and he answered long before there was a Holocaust Museum or any other group collecting their stories. This has stayed with me forever...and not for the reasons that are so obvious. Both Rene and Irene are both gone now and in some ways I am relieved because Rene insisted over and over that this could never ever happen here...in the United States. He was wrong.

And if all this isn't enough to make you wonder about the depths of depravity running our country at the moment, The Washington Post ran a long article this morning about the upcoming election and census cycle that should be required reading. 

Trump is trying to change how the midterm elections are conducted. Five years ago, President Donald Trump pressured Republican county election officials, state lawmakers and members of Congress to find him votes after he lost his reelection bid. Now, he’s seeking to change the rules before ballots are cast.

Trump, openly fearful that a Congress controlled by Democrats could investigate him, impeach him and stymie his agenda, is using every tool he can find to try to influence the 2026 midterm elections and, if his party loses, sow doubt in their validity. Many of these endeavors go far beyond typical political persuasion, challenging long-established democratic norms.

They include unprecedented demands that Republican state lawmakers redraw congressional districts before the constitutionally required 10-year schedule, the prosecution of political opponents, a push to toughen voter registration rules and attempts to end the use of voting machines and mail ballots.

The administration has gutted the role of the nation’s cybersecurity agency in protecting elections; stocked the Justice Department, Homeland Security Department and FBI from top to bottom with officials who have denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election; given a White House audience to people who, like the president, promote the lie that he won the 2020 election; sued over state and local election policies that Trump opposes; and called for a new census that excludes noncitizens. The wide-ranging efforts seek to expand on some of the strategies he and his advisers and allies used to try to reverse the 2020 results that culminated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

That was the opening salvo. I recommend you read the whole thing.

In researching this episode, I came across an interesting quote from Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States from 1869 - 1877. Now to be honest, Grant was never considered the sharpest spoon in the drawer, but he had his moments and this speech, given at the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Army of the Tennessee in Des Moines, Iowa on September 29th, 1875 is a dilly. Former General of the Union Army Grant said:

If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon’s, but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side — and superstition, ambition, and ignorance on the other.

Maybe he wasn't the dimwit everyone said he was. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week 

No, I am not in Minnesota, 

but across the golf course 

from us is a house with the new 

Minnesota state flag at half staff. 
Somehow, this is very comforting right now.