Political Heat

  Transcript: The Trump administration is providing a false narrative on the killing of a Minnesota man by immigration agents on Saturday. Alex Jeffrey Pretti [pret-EE, not pretty] was shot and killed by agents on the morning of January 24, 2026. A warning now as video I share later in this video will be graphic. But before we get to that, first, let's look at the official statement from the Department of Homeland Security. In a post on X they made announcing the shooting, DHS shows a picture purporting to be a gun held by Pretti at the time he was killed. DHS also claims that Pretti "approached US Border Patrol officers with [the] 9 mm semi-automatic handgun." From what we've seen from at least three angles, at no point does Pretti make any threatening gesture or move toward agents in a dangerous way. Video also shows that Pretti did not approach agents with his gun -- rather, he held a phone in his hand, recording agents actions on the street that morning. In other ...

I'm planning to use this site more in the new year. With that in mind, I also want to start some new "ventures" — one of those being, a daily "Must Read," where I provide articles I think are worth your time to look at. Here are your "must reads" for January 23, 2026: What ICE agents are taught: How to use ‘deadly force’, evade lawsuits ( Al Jazeera ) Brutal CNN supercut catches Trump’s VP in 'absurd' lie — using his own words [on ICE agents having " absolute immunity") ( AlterNet ) USA migrant crackdown: UN Human Rights Chief decries dehumanisation, harmful policies and practices ( United Nations ) Maps show where winter storm threatens to bring heavy snow, ice, brutal cold this weekend ( CBS News ) + Related: How this brutal winter storm is even possible with climate change – and maybe even more likely ( CNN ) 'Donald Trump is the person who caused Jan. 6,' former special counsel Jack Smith tells House panel ( ABC Ne...

First, it was Canada; now, it's Australian voters delivering a sharp rebuke to President Donald Trump's assertions that he's a "world leader." The center-left Labor Party in the country from "down under" has retained control of the government, winning the parliamentary elections on Saturday — a dramatic turnaround, given that the conservative coalition was previously projected to win . The rosy outlook for conservatives flipped after the tariffs imposed by Trump on the country — initially at 25 percent, then down to the (as for now) 10 percent rate — shifted public sentiment away from the conservative coalition and back toward Labor. It's a near-identical outcome to what happened in Canada last month . From The Washington Post : With roughly half of the votes counted, Labor appeared on track to increase its majority in the lower chamber of Parliament from 78 seats to at least 87, with more than a dozen races yet to be called. In a shock that ap...

President Donald Trump is sharing images on his social media alleging that a tattooed hand, purportedly belonging to Kilmar Abrego Garcia (the man wrongfully deported from the U.S. by the administration) is evidence that he is part of a violent gang and thus deserves to remain out of the country. Users online are split over whether that's actually the case — but even if it were true, it ignores the crux of this entire debate. Indeed, the pics are meant to distract from a larger issue. Maybe the tattoos are legitimate. So what? Abrego Garcia was denied his right to defend himself when he was deported last month to an El Salvador mega-prison, without a court's review or oversight. Image via Donald Trump/X Trump can use these images to make a case against him — but that should be done in a courtroom, where the legitimacy and meaning of these tattoos can be examined and discussed, not in a social media post after the fact, after the irreparable harm to a person's rights h...