Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize-winning economist, posted this message on his Substack blog. Having watched Trump apologists on TV today, explaining why it was just to kill Alex Pretti, it was refreshing to encounter simple truths: the murderers running our government, especially the Department of Himeland Security, have no souls.
Their first instinct is to lie.
Anyone who watched the videos saw that Alex had a cellphone in one hand and the other hand was empty. Everyone knows by now that Alex had a registered gun that he never drew, and that was removed by an Ice agent before he was slaughtered. Everyone could see that he advanced to help a woman throw to the ground by ICE and that he never posed a threat to ICE agents.
Krugman wrote:
I was working on another wonkish post about China’s trade surplus when the news about Alex Pretti’s murder broke. I’ll put that post up at some point, but not today.
It has been clear for a long time, to anyone willing to see, that the people running the federal government — Trump, Miller, Noem, Bovino and more — are monsters. It has been equally obvious that ICE and the Border Patrol are now filled with sadistic thugs. Yet many people — almost the entire GOP, everyone serving in the Trump administration, some Democrats, a significant part of the media — were too cowardly to admit the obvious.
At this point, however, there are no more excuses. In a way the cowards and opportunists enabling Trump are more to blame for where we are than Trump and company themselves: monsters are monsters and can’t help themselves, but the enablers have a choice. And they have chosen, again and again, to accommodate and facilitate evil.
I wish I could believe that the last few weeks will be the last straw, but I don’t. To be honest, I wish I believed in Hell, because if it did exist, the enablers would be going there along with the monsters.
What I do believe in is the courage and decency of millions of ordinary Americans, which have been so dramatically on display in Minneapolis. We can only hope that this courage and decency get us through this nightmare — and we must do all we can to make it happen.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
All I can do is cry, Diane. There’s a terrible lump in my throat almost all the time. It’s happening isn’t it? So so obvious.
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THE MURDER OF ALEX PRETTI BY ICE IS NOT A “TURNING POINT”…it’s just another rung on the ladder of America’s descent into armed dictatorship. Just like the murder of Renee Good wasn’t a “turning point” —her murder was only followed by the murder of Alex Pretti. There will be more murders by ICE, perhaps many more. Remember that Trump told us that he could walk down Fifth Avenue, shoot someone, and nothing would be done? Well, that’s true of Trump’s ICE army, too.
Don’t look to the Supreme Court to “do something”. The Supreme Court majority has ruled that Trump is above the law in what he does. And what he does is to order ICE to brutally attack anyone who blocks ICE’s way.
Trump and ICE are clearly above not just the laws that Congress made, they are also above our Constitution: Trump clearly violated Article VI of our Constitution which says that the provisions of treaties into which the United States enters become “the law of the land” in the United States. The United States is party to the United Nations Charter, a treaty which, as Article VI says became “the law of the land” in America. The United Nations treaty says that no member nation shall threaten to use or use military force against another nation — but Trump ignored that by attacking Venezuela and threatening to attack Denmark’s Greenland.
Trump simply ignored Article VI of our Constitution, thereby not only violating our Constitution, but also breaking his Oath of Office in which he swore to protect and defend the Constitution.
ICE is also ignoring our Constitution: THE FOURTH AMENDMENT OF OUR CONSTITUTION requires that before arresting someone, ICE must first go to a MAGISTRATE JUDGE with SOLID EVIDENCE that a particular person has committed a particular crime, and the judge then decides if a warrant will be issued to arrest the person and to enter the person’s residence.
ICE IS IGNORING THE 4th AMENDMENT by claiming that ICE’s own internal “administrative judges” — who AREN’T ACTUAL JUDGES AT ALL and are only members of the Department of Justice legal staff — can issue warrants for whatever reason they choose and can break down doors, arrest people, and cart them away.
IF YOU KNOW AMERICAN HISTORY, before we won our Revolutionary War that’s exactly what British soldiers did: They kicked in the doors of patriots’ homes and dragged them away without any warrants. THAT’S WHY when our Founding Fathers wrote our Constitution they put the 4th Amendment in it that requires law enforcement agencies to first go to a genuine magistrate judge with solid evidence that they need to arrest someone and enter their home.
IF ICE GETS AWAY with ignoring the 4th Amendment, no one is safe from arrest for no reason other than that ICE wants to arrest you. And don’t expect either Trump or ICE to stop ignoring our Constitution and ignoring the laws of our land. Armed opposition will only trigger Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, send in the Army, and really start shooting lots of people, while imprisoning thousands in concentration camps.
THE ACTUAL PURPOSE OF ICE is to use increasing brutality until it triggers such massive demonstrations around ICE agents that Trump can invoke the Insurrection Act by claiming that the carrying out of federal law is being impeded. After sending the Army in, Trump will impose Martial Law which suspends civilian government functions, including state and local laws and judicial systems. Military authorities, such as Secretary of Defense Hegseth, take control and enforce their orders with armed troops instead of local police.
When the 2026 midterm elections are held during the time of Martial Law, armed troops will “guard” the polling places to intimidate non-White voters — who most often vote Democratic — from voting, and to arrest any voter whom they arbitrarily accuse of something, thereby intimidating a wide range of voters from coming to the polls. With many Democratic voters afraid to vote, Republican candidates can easily win, giving Trump control of all the state and local governments in what were Blue States.
THE ONLY WAY that ICE can be reined in is by having a federal District Court compel ICE to OBEY THE 4th AMENDMENT which requires that ICE can’t kick in doors and arrest people and must obtain legal warrants from an actual magistrate judge by furnishing solid evidence for a warrant. OF COURSE, ICE would appeal such a ruling all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where THE FATE OF OUR NATION will be decided by a Court majority that favors America having a dictator.
The murder of Alex Petti is not a “tipping point” of change for the better. It’s JUST ANOTHER RUNG ON THE LADDER OF AMERICA’S DESCENT into armed dictatorship. THERE WILL BE MORE MURDERS AND MORE ARRESTS of citizens exercising their First Amendment Rights of Free Speech and Free Assembly to protest against the government until — IF — the U.S. Supreme Court rules that ICE must obey the 4th Amendment…AND THAT PROCESS HASN’T EVEN BEGUN YET IN THE DISTRICT COURTS. WHY?
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