Thank you! Without being over-dramatic and realizing the difference for me, personally, I’ve thought over and over how what we're experiencing — the feeling of powerlessness in the face of evil — is similar to how Blacks must have felt during slavery, Jim Crow and so on. Why doesn’t someone do something? The people who could — Republicans — evidently like it. Their turn is next.
Pam Bondi demanding Minnesota’s voter rolls while federal agents murder protesters in the streets is textbook authoritarian playbook. I’ve been tracking this exact pattern from Argentina’s Dirty War, and the parallels are chilling.
The sequence is deliberate:
Deploy paramilitary forces (ICE with promised federal immunity).
Commit extrajudicial killings (Renee Good, Alex Pretti).
Blame victims as “domestic terrorists.”
Use the “chaos” to justify escalation.
Demand state compliance or face more violence.
Bondi’s demand for voter rolls isn’t about election integrity. It’s about identifying who to target. Argentina’s dictatorship did the same…used state records to build lists of “subversives” for detention and disappearance.
The Minneapolis resistance we are documenting: the legal observers, the Signal networks, the trained protesters; is exactly what prevented Argentina’s body count from being even higher. The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo did this. They made the invisible visible. They documented every disappearance. They created international pressure.
But here’s what Argentina’s neighbors didn’t do: apply meaningful external pressure while it was still stoppable.
Europe is making the same mistake right now. Mark Carney stood at Davos and spoke truth about building alternatives to American power. Got a standing ovation. Then what? Where’s Macron’s follow-through? Where’s Scholz? Where’s the FIFA World Cup boycott? Where are the sanctions on regime officials operating death squads?
The regime is telling you what comes next. Stephen Miller: “You have federal immunity.” NSPM-7: protesters are domestic terrorists. Secret ICE memos: no judicial warrants needed. Bondi: give us your voter rolls or we escalate.
They’re not hiding it. They’re announcing it. Building the legal fiction. Establishing precedent. Creating permission for what comes after the midterms if they lose them.
This is Argentina 1976, not Argentina 1983. The difference between those years is what happens now. Whether Americans resist (and Minneapolis is showing how). Whether allies apply pressure (and Europe is failing this test).
The body count is rising. The infrastructure is operational. The normalization is happening.
Believe them when they tell you what comes next.
— Johan
Former Foreign Service Officer
Thank you for this, I also help explain more here:
The good news is that polling shows that ICE has comprehensively lost the support of independent voters and that was before the martyrdom of Alexis Pretti. My guess is the polls will be even worse when they do it now.
I have a more parsimonious explanation for the lies post these two killings. To tell the truth would take moral courage and a preparedness to take immediate political damage to avoid worse damage later. Boy, oh boy are those qualities lacking in this administration. So they push the lie even though it brings them deeper in the mire when their lies come to nothing. (I also reckon they get a kick out of hearing their supporters braying loudly in support.)
But just like young children they stick to their lies doggedly and so further cheese people off not only for the original transgression (setting up an organization when these sort of things happen) but for persisting with lies that everyone can see the truth. If it wasn't for the fact that two blameless and honourable people have been killed I'd be tempted to enjoy this.
I agree that we cannot expect any truth from this regime.
This is what Noah Smith said in his Noahpinion Substack today about why ICE is killing people and MAGA is accepting the regime's lies about it.
"The fundamental problem remains the same: The MAGA movement has convinced themselves that they’re in an existential race war, that mass deportations are the only way to win that race war, and that anyone who opposes those deportations is their existential enemy. That “Great Replacement” ideology is being used to recruit the ICE agents who carry out these killings, and is also the reason that Trump’s base bends over backward to justify each killing. Until we either A) assemble a sufficiently strong and durable political coalition to utterly defeat Great Replacement ideology, or B) disabuse large numbers of MAGA supporters of the idea that they’re in an existential race war, killings like this will probably continue."
Luckily some MAGA are getting upset at tying the shooting to Alex carrying a weapon that he was legally allowed to have on himself. Let us hope that this lessens the support of some MAGA for this government. Meanwhile the Minnesota Board of Prisons put out this on their website. A facts sheet to share the truth. https://mn.gov/doc/about/news/combatting-dhs-misinformation/
The cognitive bias, Illusory Truth Effect, was first identified in a 1977 study. It found that repetition causes people to believe lies. That study was repeated in 1989 with the same outcome.
But, of course, fascists know this, and using those studies to influence maggots would have no effect.
“If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed." -Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda
Thanks for the empirical imput, Mark, but I reckon politicians of all stipes have learned that if you keep repeating untruths often enough you'll get a surprisingly large number of people to believe it. That's why they hardly ever admit they have been wrong. The reward for honesty is immediate political damage and they know if they just keep banging on with the same message it may well stick.
Thank you, and other PN analysts/writers, for continuing to keep us honest. It's clear now that Jim Crow and fascism never ceased inside the US. If the US ever gets to 'the other
side', one has to wonder if this would happen again--??
Spot on. But must not forget that Vance, after his shameless lie about federal agents having absolute immunity, then lied AGAIN to claim that no one had ever made that claim.
“There’s no real controversy over what happened. Nonetheless, in a fascist ritual which has become grotesquely familiar, Trump’s authoritarian apparatchiks rushed to lie and smear.”
This from the NYT frame by frame analysis. Any grand jury submitted this analysis accompanied by the video(s)? Indictment(s) would occur.
----
Mr. Pretti is surrounded by a group of seven agents, some of whom have wrestled him to the ground. One of the agents, who wears a gray coat, begins to approach the fray with empty hands and grabs at Mr. Pretti, while the other agents hold him down on his knees. At the same time, another agent strikes Mr. Pretti repeatedly with a pepper spray canister.
The agent in the gray coat appears to pull a gun from near Mr. Pretti’s right hip. He then begins to move away from the skirmish with the recovered weapon.
At the same time, another agent unholsters his firearm and points it at Mr. Pretti’s back.
The agent in the gray coat removes the weapon, which matches the profile of a gun D.H.S. says belonged to Mr. Pretti, from the scene. Then, while Mr. Pretti is on his knees and restrained, the agent standing directly above him appears to fire one shot at Mr. Pretti at close range. He immediately fires three additional shots.
Several agents have moved away from Mr. Pretti, who has collapsed. Another agent — the same one who shoved the civilians into the street and pepper-sprayed Mr. Pretti — unholsters his gun and fires at Mr. Pretti. The first agent also fires additional shots. Together, they fire six more shots at Mr. Pretti while he lies motionless on the ground.
So, the lies are to create fascist solidarity for the in-group, but what are they achieving for everyone else? And the “everyone else” is a much larger group. It appears to me that the obvious lies and especially about the very people that they’ve killed is almost a blessing on the people who continue to show up and support their city. The fascists have rather cloaked themselves in evil such that everyone else—non-believers included—now bears a nobility of character.
Thank-you for this. To understand how this regime is using it’s outrageous lies to demonize observer heroes like Alex Pettri, control the narrative, and keep the rest of us in line, afraid we will be murdered too if we speak out against the atrocities of this fascist regime.
The murders of MN House speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and the attempted murder of another MN legislator by a propagandized Trump extremist last Spring has been largely ignored by media. But Trump/his enablers in his cabinet of misfits and the spineless gop are using maga extremists and ICE secret police to kill Trumo’s political opponents. And then smear the victims & lie about who ‘caused’ these deaths and inform us that we could be next if we don’t stay home and obey as our rights are being taken away.
Thank you! Without being over-dramatic and realizing the difference for me, personally, I’ve thought over and over how what we're experiencing — the feeling of powerlessness in the face of evil — is similar to how Blacks must have felt during slavery, Jim Crow and so on. Why doesn’t someone do something? The people who could — Republicans — evidently like it. Their turn is next.
Pam Bondi demanding Minnesota’s voter rolls while federal agents murder protesters in the streets is textbook authoritarian playbook. I’ve been tracking this exact pattern from Argentina’s Dirty War, and the parallels are chilling.
The sequence is deliberate:
Deploy paramilitary forces (ICE with promised federal immunity).
Commit extrajudicial killings (Renee Good, Alex Pretti).
Blame victims as “domestic terrorists.”
Use the “chaos” to justify escalation.
Demand state compliance or face more violence.
Bondi’s demand for voter rolls isn’t about election integrity. It’s about identifying who to target. Argentina’s dictatorship did the same…used state records to build lists of “subversives” for detention and disappearance.
The Minneapolis resistance we are documenting: the legal observers, the Signal networks, the trained protesters; is exactly what prevented Argentina’s body count from being even higher. The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo did this. They made the invisible visible. They documented every disappearance. They created international pressure.
But here’s what Argentina’s neighbors didn’t do: apply meaningful external pressure while it was still stoppable.
Europe is making the same mistake right now. Mark Carney stood at Davos and spoke truth about building alternatives to American power. Got a standing ovation. Then what? Where’s Macron’s follow-through? Where’s Scholz? Where’s the FIFA World Cup boycott? Where are the sanctions on regime officials operating death squads?
The regime is telling you what comes next. Stephen Miller: “You have federal immunity.” NSPM-7: protesters are domestic terrorists. Secret ICE memos: no judicial warrants needed. Bondi: give us your voter rolls or we escalate.
They’re not hiding it. They’re announcing it. Building the legal fiction. Establishing precedent. Creating permission for what comes after the midterms if they lose them.
This is Argentina 1976, not Argentina 1983. The difference between those years is what happens now. Whether Americans resist (and Minneapolis is showing how). Whether allies apply pressure (and Europe is failing this test).
The body count is rising. The infrastructure is operational. The normalization is happening.
Believe them when they tell you what comes next.
— Johan
Former Foreign Service Officer
Thank you for this, I also help explain more here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/johanuniverseends/p/this-is-how-state-terror-becomes?r=490k23&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay
The good news is that polling shows that ICE has comprehensively lost the support of independent voters and that was before the martyrdom of Alexis Pretti. My guess is the polls will be even worse when they do it now.
I have a more parsimonious explanation for the lies post these two killings. To tell the truth would take moral courage and a preparedness to take immediate political damage to avoid worse damage later. Boy, oh boy are those qualities lacking in this administration. So they push the lie even though it brings them deeper in the mire when their lies come to nothing. (I also reckon they get a kick out of hearing their supporters braying loudly in support.)
But just like young children they stick to their lies doggedly and so further cheese people off not only for the original transgression (setting up an organization when these sort of things happen) but for persisting with lies that everyone can see the truth. If it wasn't for the fact that two blameless and honourable people have been killed I'd be tempted to enjoy this.
Small victory when Trump declares martial law.
I agree that we cannot expect any truth from this regime.
This is what Noah Smith said in his Noahpinion Substack today about why ICE is killing people and MAGA is accepting the regime's lies about it.
"The fundamental problem remains the same: The MAGA movement has convinced themselves that they’re in an existential race war, that mass deportations are the only way to win that race war, and that anyone who opposes those deportations is their existential enemy. That “Great Replacement” ideology is being used to recruit the ICE agents who carry out these killings, and is also the reason that Trump’s base bends over backward to justify each killing. Until we either A) assemble a sufficiently strong and durable political coalition to utterly defeat Great Replacement ideology, or B) disabuse large numbers of MAGA supporters of the idea that they’re in an existential race war, killings like this will probably continue."
Luckily some MAGA are getting upset at tying the shooting to Alex carrying a weapon that he was legally allowed to have on himself. Let us hope that this lessens the support of some MAGA for this government. Meanwhile the Minnesota Board of Prisons put out this on their website. A facts sheet to share the truth. https://mn.gov/doc/about/news/combatting-dhs-misinformation/
The cognitive bias, Illusory Truth Effect, was first identified in a 1977 study. It found that repetition causes people to believe lies. That study was repeated in 1989 with the same outcome.
But, of course, fascists know this, and using those studies to influence maggots would have no effect.
“If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed." -Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda
Thanks for the empirical imput, Mark, but I reckon politicians of all stipes have learned that if you keep repeating untruths often enough you'll get a surprisingly large number of people to believe it. That's why they hardly ever admit they have been wrong. The reward for honesty is immediate political damage and they know if they just keep banging on with the same message it may well stick.
Aye
Thank you, and other PN analysts/writers, for continuing to keep us honest. It's clear now that Jim Crow and fascism never ceased inside the US. If the US ever gets to 'the other
side', one has to wonder if this would happen again--??
Spot on. But must not forget that Vance, after his shameless lie about federal agents having absolute immunity, then lied AGAIN to claim that no one had ever made that claim.
“There’s no real controversy over what happened. Nonetheless, in a fascist ritual which has become grotesquely familiar, Trump’s authoritarian apparatchiks rushed to lie and smear.”
This from the NYT frame by frame analysis. Any grand jury submitted this analysis accompanied by the video(s)? Indictment(s) would occur.
----
Mr. Pretti is surrounded by a group of seven agents, some of whom have wrestled him to the ground. One of the agents, who wears a gray coat, begins to approach the fray with empty hands and grabs at Mr. Pretti, while the other agents hold him down on his knees. At the same time, another agent strikes Mr. Pretti repeatedly with a pepper spray canister.
The agent in the gray coat appears to pull a gun from near Mr. Pretti’s right hip. He then begins to move away from the skirmish with the recovered weapon.
At the same time, another agent unholsters his firearm and points it at Mr. Pretti’s back.
The agent in the gray coat removes the weapon, which matches the profile of a gun D.H.S. says belonged to Mr. Pretti, from the scene. Then, while Mr. Pretti is on his knees and restrained, the agent standing directly above him appears to fire one shot at Mr. Pretti at close range. He immediately fires three additional shots.
Several agents have moved away from Mr. Pretti, who has collapsed. Another agent — the same one who shoved the civilians into the street and pepper-sprayed Mr. Pretti — unholsters his gun and fires at Mr. Pretti. The first agent also fires additional shots. Together, they fire six more shots at Mr. Pretti while he lies motionless on the ground.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/01/24/us/minneapolis-shooting-alex-pretti-timeline.html
Thank you for this article today and everyday for keeping us informed of truth and what we are up against.
So, the lies are to create fascist solidarity for the in-group, but what are they achieving for everyone else? And the “everyone else” is a much larger group. It appears to me that the obvious lies and especially about the very people that they’ve killed is almost a blessing on the people who continue to show up and support their city. The fascists have rather cloaked themselves in evil such that everyone else—non-believers included—now bears a nobility of character.
Thank-you for this. To understand how this regime is using it’s outrageous lies to demonize observer heroes like Alex Pettri, control the narrative, and keep the rest of us in line, afraid we will be murdered too if we speak out against the atrocities of this fascist regime.
The murders of MN House speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and the attempted murder of another MN legislator by a propagandized Trump extremist last Spring has been largely ignored by media. But Trump/his enablers in his cabinet of misfits and the spineless gop are using maga extremists and ICE secret police to kill Trumo’s political opponents. And then smear the victims & lie about who ‘caused’ these deaths and inform us that we could be next if we don’t stay home and obey as our rights are being taken away.
From hate crimes to hate policies.