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I'm David Rothkopf who has the privilege week of sitting here with the wise and wonderful norm. Aren't seeing how are you doing norm? Happy New Year. Happy New Year to you David. This has been a horrible week of course for the entire country and for the world. It has been. It's been a horrible week in many levels. I just finished doing our DSR podcast where we talk about international affairs and we have the advent of a new era of US imperialism and the potential end of NATO to deal with there. Not to mention many dead and wounded as a result of it. I'd like to turn to you to talk about the horrifying event that took place in Minneapolis. Since I know that's your hometown and since you feel very close to it, it's just as appalling an event as it is one that was thoroughly predictable. In fact, many of us said this is what would happen as you loaded up ice with untrained people and complete sense of impunity about what they do. But I want to leave it at that. Talk to me a little bit about Renee Good and what this means to you. Let's just note David that what you said is absolutely true. We know that ice is now filled with proud boys, oath keepers, not just untrained people, but vicious people. We had thought when the Trump administration began and he pardoned all of those violent insurrectionists, that he would create a private vigilante group of oath keepers and proud boys. That he's created an official vigilante group and enlarged it dramatically. But we should also note that the ice agent who shot and killed Renee Good was not untrained. Apparently he was not just trained and had been in the military and in ice for a long time. He was a firearms instructor. This is not about some rookie who panicked and shot. This is about a guy who willfully killed a woman who was not a threat to him. And did so, I believe, and after doing so, non-shallantly walked away from the scene and let us also note maybe they were trained, maybe they weren't. But his fellow agents who were there then blocked a doctor and ambulances from going to the aid of Renee Good, who might very well have not been dead even though she was shot clank, point blank several times, to make sure that she would die. So what we have here, I think, is a combination of unleashing people who are acting as police but are not police. They are actually paramilitary forces. And we know that there will be violence in some of it by people who just panic or don't know better. But this is policy. The policy is to attack, to intimidate, to beat up, to shoot and kill Americans who are protesting. And frankly, when I watch members of Congress like the Randy Fine, the horrible Tom Emmer and so many others saying among other things, if you just shut up and don't protest, then you're not going to have to be killed. Well, this is what they're out to do. And it has nothing to do with immigration enforcement. When you send 2,000 of these thugs to the state of Minnesota, when you cut off all child care assistance for five blue states on a phony pretext that they were all engaged in ramp and fraud, but you don't do it for the other states. One of the happiest people around is probably Brett Farve, the former Green Bay Packer, and I hate to say it for one year, Minnesota biking, who built poor children out of $700,000 with the assistance of a corrupt governor to fund projects at his own university. They're getting away with fraud. This is all an attempt to punish the adversaries who they call the enemy, and they don't care if people get killed in the reaction by sliming this woman, by no stretch of the imagination was she either a domestic terrorist or somebody who was part of a mob trying to stop ice from doing its business. We still don't have the full story of what she was doing there. I've seen some accounts suggesting that she had just dropped off her six-year-old the daycare and just happened to be there when people were there, or that she had pulled out from the daycare place and happened to be in that spot. Whatever it was, and even if she were there as part of a group as they said who would follow the ice people all day long, and there's nothing illegal or unconstitutional about that, and even if she was trying to keep their cars from moving, which she wasn't, murder, open murder is not appropriate, and the cover-up for this, and the declaration that they have absolute immunity for whatever they're doing, and the fact that there is zero empathy for her or her family tells us that we're dealing with a bunch of inhuman, sadistic monsters with no redeeming social value, running our country, and I'm sick about it. Well, I share your view. I don't think you've overstated any of that, and the fact that its policy is born out by the fact that within moments, the President of the United States defended it, the Vice President of the United States defended it, the Secretary of Homeland, security defended it, the acting head of ICE defended it, and a number of those members of Congress that you've talked about also defended this act. Even though all of the video evidence of what took place shows what you said that she was not threatening anybody, and in fact, the most recent video that's been circulating just in the moments before you and I recorded this, which was allegedly taken by one of the ICE agents, essentially shows her as described as a woman going around on her ways. In her last words, they are, I'm not mad at you, and you can see her face. There is no threat. There is no tension. She's just, she has no idea that moments later, she's going to be gunned down and cold blood, and that her three children are going to be rendered into orphans as a result of all of this. It does raise a question, and it's not an easy question about what does one do about this, because clearly they are trying to send a message, and the message is to try to intimidate people from stopping them. It works to some degree, and I was very frankly sorry to see the Minnesota Governor Tim Walts come out and say, do not protest, that's what they want, it's their excuse to invoke the insurrection act. Because I happen to think that's 100% the wrong reaction. The threat of the Insurrection Act is something that they're also trying to use to suppress dissent. This is the kind of act that should have everybody in the street, because it's not just Renee Good, there will be others, others will be gunned down by these psychopaths, by this private militia that's working for the president of the United States, this racist militia. And I, you know, I'm just wondering what your feeling is about what Tim Walts said, and how people should respond, how should they process this? I do think counseling against violence is one thing. Don't protest, your right is absolutely wrong. The fact is, nothing that you or I or others who are so upset by this, and we feel we have to do something, which is what's bringing many of these protesters out, nothing that we do is going to have any impact on whether Trump declares a martial law or invokes the Insurrection Act. This is going to be like the Reichstag fire. They will, if he wants to do this, he will create some incident that gives him his own rationale for acting in that fashion. And what we're seeing now is mass demonstrations all around the country. I see that as we're loving the head of indivisible is called for a general strike, something that I had actually, you know, supported many months ago to try and dramatize what we're dealing with. Whatever it might be, people need to get out there and express their views on this. And, you know, the fact is we saw two more people shot in Portland, Oregon, not killed apparently, and there at least they let ambulances in to deal with them. We don't know the circumstances around that yet. I just saw video, shocking video of a Native American, an American citizen, obviously, born here with papers pulled out of his car and beaten viciously while the ice people laughed about his credentials. This is no longer about even saying show me that you are legal. And we've seen over and over again, people who are legal, people who are American citizens, beaten despite having that evidence. It's not even about the fact that as Americans, we don't require to carry proof of our citizenship. Of course, you and I have joked before, or when are they going to have people put little yellow symbols on their jackets to show who they are. It's not about the fact that the overwhelming majority of the people who are undocumented here, who they're pulling in, putting in these horrible camps, where, by the way, dozens have died because they've been denied medical treatment. And we know many, many have been sexually assaulted. The fact that 90 plus percent of them are not violent criminals or have no criminal record other than that they're here undocumented. And there are lots of ways of dealing with that in the Biden administration. They actually deported more people than Trump is deported, but we didn't have anything like this. This is a police state that we're living in right now. And what they're trying to do, Adam Surwer had a very important piece in the Atlantic today. They immediately started to lie over and over about this despite visual evidence that these were outrageous lies. And this is a modus operandi of theirs. It was to get that story out there before there could be a reaction, before people could see with their own eyes to frame this. It's right out of the Gerbels playbook. And we're dealing with something unlike anything. Certainly we have seen in our lifetimes. And it is beyond chilling. This is going to resonate, I think, though, David, because the story has gotten out there the number of videos have gotten out there. The fact that this was not some guy who was confronting them, but clearly a woman with no interest in blocking ice from doing what it was doing, just trying to get on her way. It's going to penetrate enough that I think every time we see one of these incidents and the videos get out there, people who hadn't paid much attention to this are going to start to realize what we're dealing with here and how completely inhuman, in decent and unamerican, at least from the past, all of this predation is from disgraceful characters with no human qualities like Kristi Nome, JD Vance, Donald Trump, and Bovino, and Tom Homan. To stay up to date on all the news that you need to know, there's no better place than right here on the DSR network. And there's no better way to enjoy the DSR network than by becoming a member. Members enjoy an ad-free listening experience, access to our Discord community, exclusive content, early episode access, and more. Newscode DSR26 for a 25% off discount on sign up at the DSR Networking.com. That's code DSR26 at the DSR Networking.com, slash bye. Thank you and enjoy the show. 500 orders a month was manageable. Fast housing is madness. Embrace intelligent, order fulfillment with shipstation. The only platform combined in order management, warehouse workflows, inventory, returns and analytics in one place. What used to take five separate tools, shipstation does in one. Ordershipstation.com and newscode start to try shipstation free for 60 days. Don't forget Stephen Miller. But well, exactly. So let me ask you another question about this. The first response from the mayor of Minneapolis was a pretty good response. He told I used to get the fuck out of Minneapolis. I said there was a good exchange. Somebody said they're offended by your language. I think Caitlin Collins and CNN and he said, look, they're defense, they're Disney princess ears. Maybe they're focused on a long thing. That was right. But then there has also been statement that the state law enforcement authorities in Minneapolis and Minnesota are not handling this. It's being left to the FBI. We know the FBI is going to cover this up. We know that what they do is a lie. And we are coming up on a potential crisis point. And frankly, I wish state of Minnesota, city of Minneapolis pressed this a little further. But yesterday, Mayor Maldonnie said, we will not allow the law to be broken into New York City. These people are breaking the law. They are prosecutable and they are prosecutable outside of the pardon power of the president of the United States. There is a move of foot among some people in Congress to remove the immunity that they're granted as police officers. I'm just wondering, what your sense is about what the accountability ought to be for people who conduct these kind of things. Because unless they think there's a downside, they're not going to stop. So we know that the serial liar, Trisham Aglock, when the spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, along with Donald Trump and these other monsters we've mentioned, keep saying that states cannot prosecute that there is absolute immunity for federal officers. That's false. They can prosecute crimes in their states committed by anybody who is a federal law enforcement person or a federal agent. And that's what we need to see happen here, I believe. We know that they're trying to cover this up by shutting out state and city authorities from any part of this investigation for just the reason that you said so that they can deep-six it. We have to hope in part that there will be at least one honest FBI agent who might get some of this evidence out there, although I'm skeptical. But frankly, if I were the city attorney or the Hennepin County district attorney and she, Mary Moriarty, has her own baggage to deal with in terms of how she's handled crime in Minneapolis, I can be in a grand jury. Including the eyewitness testimony of the people who are there filming it and watching it, using the videos that were taken and indict this guy. And if they can get the names of the others who denied medical attention, all of them on charges of murder or accessory to murder. And if you have a grand jury indictment and then you move towards a trial, the city or the state can subpoena information from the federal government for that trial. Judges would demand it. They will refuse, but at least we are then going to get a much greater spotlight on the fact that they're covering it up because they know it was wrong. So there are things that ought to be done at the same time. We need to have local and state law enforcement, the city police in Minneapolis, the Minnesota state patrol, arresting ICE agents who violate the local laws and not stand by and let them get away with it. We're not going to see any change until somebody has held accountable for this. You know, a circle back a minute, David, we all remember and we discussed this, the scene that was on tape that had been filmed of a woman in a courtroom in New York, man handled by an ICE agent in the hallway. He beat her up, he slapped her, he threw her to the ground. The immediate reaction was, you know, people were appalled. ICE said we're suspending him and this was wrong. It's not what we do. We're going to take care of it. And we know the next day they brought him right back on to duty. So they saw from that example that they could get away with anything that they wanted. And that was a logical connection that would lead from this to cold, blooded murder. Yeah. You know, it's interesting. There's a resonance between this and the conversation I just had about Trump International. We were talking about Venezuela, we were talking about Greenlight, we were talking about his threats against Cuba and some other places. And you know, the punchline there is Trump does what he could get away with. He is a bully. He likes to use force. He likes to flex his muscles, but not when anybody pushes back. And when people push back, then you end up with the taco phenomenon. Trump always chickens out. We understand how that has to play out internationally. NATO has got to take a stand about Greenland that needs to be rock solid stand. Other countries need to tell him that there's going to be a penalty for this. He needs to understand that there are going to be physical risks to US soldiers and so forth going into countries if he continues to do this kind of thing. And then he'll very likely slow down. But the same thing happens domestically. He thinks the Supreme Court and the United States Congress with Republicans in the House in the center have essentially said no one's going to let me stop. And in fact, there was this conversation with the New York Times yesterday in which he said the only limitations on his behavior are the limits of his own morality. Well, that's a little chilling since he's an immoral person. But I do think that it is going to come at some point to a head that somebody in a bunch of blue states or perhaps a Democratic control of House of Congress after next November is going to start making him pay a price or he will not stop. This kind of, I mean, in the past week we have seen Schumer and Jeffries and all these Democratic leaders come out with these namby, pamby statements and say, oh, I don't want to go to impeachment. That would be ugly. And I'm like, do you think know who they're dealing with here? If he says he will marry you, he will cheat on you. If he says you're his business partner, he will steal from you. If he says you are his loyal supporter, he will betray you. It happens every time you can't play him that way. So as you know, for months, for many months, I've been calling for much tougher action on the part of Congress, Democrats in Congress. And that includes pushing them to impeach some of these, the worst figures out there. We're seeing some of the rank and file members finally do that with Kristi Known and RFK Jr. And one of the reasons I've wanted that to happen, it's not, you know, is it going to mean that they'll be removed from office? No. But the way the rules work in the house, an introduced impeachment resolution is privileged. They have to bring it up on the floor. They have one hour of debate. Okay, they'll table it, perhaps. But if you bring up an impeachment resolution for Kristi Known and you point out what she's done for lies, the unleashing of thugs, all of the horrible things, you're going to force and you're going to have multiple articles of impeachment. Each one gets a vote. You're going to have Republicans either directly endorsing it, not just dancing around it or trying to ignore it. Or maybe you'll get a handful who will understand that they better vote in a different way and maybe you actually can impeach not to be convicted in the Senate, but you can highlight how horrible and unlike any that we've seen in the past, some of these people are bring up an impeachment resolution against RFK Jr. Point out the number of people who've died as a consequence of what he's done, the way in which he's subverted science, the way in which he's lied about studies and about the impact of vaccines and the way he's cut out a research for vital diseases like Alzheimer's and pediatric cancer and force them on the record and not make statements of how deeply disturbed you are. That's not enough under the circumstances. And we've got to get pushback. I will say one of the things I tweeted today was directly to two House Republicans who've been more courageous, Don Bacon of Nebraska, former military guy who's retiring, and Thomas Massey who is as far right as any of them, but not just when it comes to the Epstein files, but in other areas has not been intimidated by Trump and his threats. And I've said Republicans just lost two more seats, one death, Marjorie Taylor green resigning, the margin is down to one or two. Why don't you even temporarily join with Democrats? Oost Mike Johnson as speaker, bring in how Kim Jeffries and bring in Democratic committee chairs and put now as we descend into the abyss, a little bit of pushback in place, a little bit of oversight, a little bit of control over the money so that we can put a modest limit on what this authoritarian, which is too nice a term to use, guy is trying to do. They're not going to do it most likely, but we need something more than words. Yeah, we need stronger words from the people are giving words. As I said, we get them from AOC and Jasmine Prok, there are people out there who are giving strong words. But I even heard Amy Klobuchar, who's now thinking of running for governor of Minnesota, and she was talking about what happened there in a kind of process terms. Like, well, they should have done this and they should have done that and so forth. And what I posted on social media was talking about this stuff in process terms, it's not going to work. It's like saying Godzilla was guilty of J. Walking, you know, because they don't care about the process. This is just more of Stephen Miller's doctrine that power is all that matters and they believe they've got unlimited power at this moment. And I'm just wondering, you know, where can that be challenged or is it not going to be challenged until the election? With that in mind, by the way, today, the president put out a social media post saying, oh, the federal government is in charge of elections. The state should go along with the federal government. I mean, this whole state's right thing of Republicans is also now completely out the window. You know, one of the things that I actually fear a little bit, president has no role in elections. The only role is an indirect one of a justice department, part of the executive branch that's supposed to protect voting and voting rights, although it will now be weaponized against. Congress does have power. The state's control their elections, but Congress can override them when it comes to federal elections. I fear a little bit that as they get close to potentially losing majorities in the House and Senate, that we might see Senate Republicans if they have the votes in the House, and that's maybe problematic, given where they are, try to pass a pretty draconian law to limit voting and blow up the filibuster if necessary to make it happen if their own survival is at stake. But that aside, Trump is trying to exercise unconstitutional authority, and he's done this far too often, and he's gotten away with it too much. And the fact is, while we can blame Republicans in Congress for being completely absent without leave having zero moral core or backbone, the Supreme Court has unleashed this, and it is John Roberts and his other five partisan hack colleagues who've not only empowered Trump by basically giving him a blank check, but, and of course, Brett Kavanaugh giving ice a blank check saying, you can stop anybody you want if you think they might be Hispanic or illegal, because of course you're not going to go too far, and that was taken as a signal that you can do anything that you want. But their unitary executive theory is not just about giving, empowering a president. It's about saying Congress has no role in any of this independent regulatory commissions where there's a balance where Congress has, and this is for many, many decades, been accepted that they can delegate power in that fashion, and that it's all about as the late great scholar Richard Newsdat wrote in his book, Presidential Power. It's about separate branches operating independently upon one another, that they've tried to eliminate the role of Congress and give the president complete authority. And, you know, he takes that and runs with, in a direction that is frightening, despicable, inhuman, un-American, sadistic, and potentially could destroy everything that we have as a society. I'm stabbed to death. It's surprising. You know, we've done this for so long, and I always think, well, you know, that was pretty dark, but we're not going to get any darker. But, yeah, I mean, I think all those things are true, and it's only the beginning of the second year of a four-year term. You know, if he doesn't get stopped, you know, if RFK can do what he's doing, if Kirstie don't can do what she's doing, if they can continue to do what they're doing in terms of imperialism and the near abroad. And, if they can continue to do all of these things, the United States is, it's going to do damage to itself that's going to take decades and decades and decades to recover from if we can recover. Yeah, you know, one thing that may stop them oddly enough is asbestos. Apparently, as they blow up a good portion of the White House, they have done nothing to do mitigation against what apparently was a lot of asbestos in the building. So maybe we're going to see, you know, a lot of people in the Trump White House calling lawyers who do mesothelium work. I can't, Norm, I can always count on you to end on a high note. Yeah, that may stop them. Who knows what's going to stop them? But we will be here following it and talking to you about what it is and how to get there each and every week of the coming year. Happy New Year to everybody. This has been a tough way to start, but I have faith in everybody and, you know, there is an election in just 11 months and it could be one where we could put the breaks on this insanity. And I think we need to talk about that too as we go forward, which we will do with Norm and with you each and every week. Here at Words Mettern, we hope you will join us for that. Until then, happy New Year, Norm. Happy New Year, everybody. And we'll see you next week. Bye-bye. MGMOTA Financial Services, £2,300 deposit over 49 months, £7,223 optional final payment. Offer end of March 2026, Conditions Apply, visit mg.co.uk.
