Donald Trump the Megathread part II - Mod Warning updated in OP 12/2/26

Many people carry a gun legally in the U.S. for personal safety. Jeff Pretti was not murdered because he was carrying a gun. He never made an attempt to even reach for his gun. He was pepper sprayed, dragged to the ground and pummeled by a mob before they even knew he had a gun, and was shot eleven times after the gun had been discovered and removed from the scene. Renee Good was not in possession of a gun when she was murdered. Her crime it appears was that she was driving a car, so should people not drive in a city where ICE are either ?

Both were murdered by what in effect is a private army of psychos with the full backing of this administration to do whatever they wish, including murder, to spread as much terror as they can in areas that politically disagree with this administration, while being assured they have immunity to do so.

Anybody attempting to say in any way that Jeff Pretti or Renee Good were in any way culpable for their own murders is doing what this administration is attempting to do. Blame the victims.

I have wondered if he could have been killed "because he had the gun" in the sense that the ICE agent who shot wanted to murder him after he stepped between them and their prey (woman that was shoved over), and when the weapon was found, there was a handy excuse of sorts?

That is the fable the leadership have run with despite fact it's such an easily exposed lie; i.e. he had a gun on him, therefore he was a radical leftist "terrorist" who intended to shoot at the Brave Boys of ICE doing their duty saving America and needed to be killed. The fish rots from the head, or the big liars on top will feed the lies down to those below them to use.

Maybe the one who shot thought he could twist situation and claim he was attacked and did not appreciate how many people were recording it all and they would not be able to arrest everyone/confiscate all the video evidence before it got out?

The whole thing is obscene, the stuff that the Trump officials have been coming out with in days afterwards is just incredible, even for them IMO. I wonder will there be a proper investigation of it?

Leavitt and the 1st question at this presser.
Where is the outrage from the liberal media after the death of Ashli Babbit.
Weird that the right wing are equating someone who was trying to break through barricaded doors to attack members of Congress, with someone who interposed themselves between a group of black & Tan wannabes.

The mental gymnastics are incredible to behold as are the Muppets who swallow this BS from the admin.l

I don't understand the constant noise about this. This is a yearly invite to the Oval Office to meet the President of the US of A. This is an opportunity to discuss various issues, Irish, EU and other important topics like Ukraine and Palestine. I don't think the Palestinian Government get many opportunities to have their voice heard positively in the Oval Office. Surrounding this is the many, many events that are attended by the Taoiseach and other ministers, heads of departments and other dignitaries to discuss other opportunities. These are well attended and well though of get-togethers, and a lot of business is done here. Politics is very much about dialogue, whether we agree or not. If we pulled up the draw bridge every time someone did something we didn't agree with, we would become very isolated quickly. I really wish people would think a bit harder before bringing this tired and reactionary trope out.

There are parts of almost every major city that are kips. My point is rather simple, America isn't a 3rd world nation. Not even close. You can keep making personal comments all you like but I won't be dragged into a tit for tat so might aswell save yourself the hassle.

The only thing I have seen is speculation that Jeff Petti`s gun somhow discharged on its own because it was faulty as that ICE agent walked away.

For perspective that was from the New York Post owned by Murdock and which has endorsed Trump in every election he has stood in.

This was the protest in Minnesota on Saturday before Alex Pritti was shot, and in sub-zero conditions too:

For the past several weeks there have been hundreds of protests all around the country.

Can Jean Carroll go after his estate when he dies?

He was a legal gun owner with a gun holstered, which is what Republicans keep promoting. They can't have it both ways. If they feel he was a threat because he had a gun, maybe they want to row back on gun laws.

Yeah, maybe not. Utter hypocrites and liars.

I'm surprised that an ICE agent has not been taken out by a sniper yet. They are sitting ducks and with so much chaos would not know where to look or deal with the situation.

Two things: Trump (or Trump's puppet master) doesn't need any excuse to throw off the remaining shackles - pussyfooting around waiting for thoughts and prayers to stop it from happening will be no more effective than hoping that Putin would call a halt to his "Special Military Operation" by telling him we'd stop buying his gas.

And secondly: the British Army were a proper battle-hardened fighting force, ready to engage with the IRA as equally determined military adversaries. What we're seeing in this version of ICE is literally the same as Putin is sending to his killing fields - a bunch of out-of-shape cosplayers with no discipline and (probably) no stomach for real combat. Like their commander-in-chief.

Then in all fairness I stand corrected. I didn't watch all the video as I don't want to see people be murdered. I thought he got in a scuffle with the Ice guys, did not realise he was simply trying to help someone up. I still think he shouldn't have been carrying a gun, but it does change my perspective somewhat and makes the Ice guys look even worse

On the first point, Trump and co. have consistently maintained a gradually escalating pattern of rhetoric. It seems like forever ago, but Trump's initial stance on immigration was to target all these supposed hardened criminals coming into the country, not necessarily the ones just living there peaceably, contributing to the economy, but without a legal right to stay. This has now gone to where ICE are not only reefing these people out of their homes in the dead of night, but even accosting people for the apparent crime of being non-white. Every step along the way, they go a bit over the line, weather the pushback, have their talking heads go on the offensive, normalise the behaviour (or wait until the public becomes numb/habituated to it), pause, and then go a little bit further. Rinse and repeat. They may not need an excuse to their base, but they want to keep that other 3rd of the country apathetic, per Werner Herzog's quote.

On the second point, it wasn't a direct comparison between the British army and ICE. The point was about the British establishment having the restraint not to go scorched earth to win the conflict, if only because the British public at large was sane enough not to accept that kind of brutality in their own backyard.

Trump's base isn't that sane. They would accept that kind of brutality, or even cheer it on. It's just about inching toward it being normalised for the section of society in the middle, as mentioned previously.

Currently Trump is normalising the concept of invoking the Insurrection Act via his tweets to send in the heavies if Minneapolis doesn't 'get in line'. We'll see how it pans out, but I'm not optimistic given the established pattern.