What this piece captures with real clarity is the underlying pattern, not just the events. When a state begins pairing external operations with internal killings that are immediately justified through a pre‑fabricated narrative, you’re no longer looking at isolated abuses. You’re looking at a governing logic. The script is always the same: redefine victims as threats, redefine agents of the state as the ones under attack, and use the resulting confusion to normalize violence that would once have been unthinkable.
The danger isn’t only the act itself. It’s the infrastructure of impunity that grows around it. When the same institution that carries out the killing is responsible for investigating it, when the public explanation is pre‑written before the facts are known, when the story is shaped to make accountability impossible, you are watching the slow construction of a system where truth becomes irrelevant and power becomes its own justification.
The real warning here is about precedent. If an extrajudicial killing is excused, it becomes a template. If the template is repeated, it becomes a norm. And once it becomes a norm, the line between targeted violence and systemic violence disappears.
Snyder is right about the cycle: the lie that justifies the violence, the violence that reinforces the lie. Breaking that cycle requires naming what is happening while it is still visible, before disappearance becomes the default outcome and before narrative replaces evidence entirely.
This is not just a story about Minneapolis or Caracas. It’s a story about how modern states slide into a politics where human beings become instruments, and where truth becomes an obstacle rather than a guide.
It is striking how small the moral ambition community really is. Not because the ideas are obscure, but because truly seeing suffering and then accepting responsibility for it carries a real psychological cost. Most people narrow their moral field to whatever is directly in front of them. It is a defense mechanism rather than a lack of compassion. Once you recognize structural cruelty clearly, you cannot unsee it, and once you admit you could act, you also admit you are accountable for not acting. That level of clarity is rare.
History shows that every major moral shift begins with a small group willing to hold that clarity. Abolition, civil rights, early environmentalism, and animal welfare all started with minorities who refused sedation and insisted on agency. The goal is not to make everyone part of the core. The goal is to create a gravitational field strong enough that others eventually move into its orbit. Moral ambition has always been a minority position, but it is the minority that moves the world.
Thank you. My personal and life project is moral ambition; whatever we can do to always enact policies, work on projects…that reduce suffering and end injustice.
I like that you use the phrase "moral ambition" rather than "moral stand". It makes the issue so much clearer and is or demands an action, while "stand" is only a state of mind.
The fact that large parts of the world are unsafe and barred to them must have an effect at some level, even if it's not the ideal legal enforcement we'd all like to see. I'm remembering the recent shenanigans around visiting South Africa. And the alleged Putin body double that showed up in Alaska.
One of the many things I would like to see is for the US to join the ICC and the ICJ as signs of our sincerity about becoming a full member of the world democratic community. But I don't think it will happen, not only because neither of our political parties have ever favored doing so, but also because it would be admitting that American Exceptionalism is invalid. A fact that we have repeatedly demonstrated and which is now unavoidable to everyone but us.
If that doesn’t happen, we’re doomed. It’s not red aggression that terrifies me. It’s blue claims of zero culpability. IMHO, the monster we’re facing has been been gorging on our greed and hubris since Reagan seduced us with trickle down prosperity theology. We could have chosen Jimmy Carter, with lowered thermostats and self sacrifice. It will take serious self-reflection for the new growth that follows this devastation to be an improvement over what we had. At least that’s how I see it.
Agreed. My memory reaches back to "All the way with LBJ"! It is greed—an insatiable need to acquire, but it's more general and deeper than that. Those of us living overseas in other Western democracies see the problem as a generalised, all-pervasive materialism. Everything is about money. Prosperity is measured only in wealth. Every new influence coming in from the States carries with it a degrading force to monetise everything. Even the specious so-called "religion", which is actually just perverted and degraded cult. The idea of happiness and well-being attached to a lower material standard of living seems to be inconceivable to the average American.
Perfectly stated. The US has sustained a total moral collapse. When the smoke clears from this wildfire, we’ll have opportunities to make better choices. I hope to G_d that we’ve learned enough.
The upside may be that everything moves in cycles. And right now we seem to be at the crossover point between death of the old and birth of the new. So yes, pretty bad birth pangs right now. Alarm for the safety of the baby and survival of the mother.
But if I'm right, it may be all the way up from here on in. Reflecting that which came before, but always with a new element. Yes, I know no one else seems to be highlighting an upside...
I came to the United States in the late 1980s. I came happily from Europe, embraced my new home whole heartedly.. I had served from 1980-1982 as a NATO soldier (drafted) with Americans in Ramstein, Germany. I knew a bit about US culture before moving there. Even then, nobody in Europe, and not many in the US Armed Forces, believed in American Exceptionalism. Optimism. And Can Do attitude. Yes. But not Exceptionalism.
I'm guessing that in Europe they didnt shovel at you from your earliest years the "Received Wisdom", about the Shining city on the Hill, the Manifest Destiny, the Rugged American Individualism, and the rest of the hogwash...?
We are all trying to sort through the forest of seemingly unrelated, chaotic actions trump and his minions are slinging in our faces,ever faster and more furious. The intent is to confuse us, to immobilize us, to make us afraid to act because we dont know for sure even what is happening, and it is happening everywhere, at increasingly deadly speed.
People like Johan, above, like Stacey Abrams, like Timothy Snyder, Anne Applebaum, Phillips O'Brien, Charlie Sykes, David Frum, Heather Cox Richardson to name some who are more familiar than most on questions of Tyranny and Authoritarianism and Fascism, are especially articulate, and greatly needed.
We all know something is terribly wrong in our country, and in the world, it seems to me. Voices like these are of such very, very great value in my view.
From Indivisible: "Everyone on the call was clear-eyed about the huge amount of work ahead of us to confront the public menace of an increasingly lawless agency that rampages through communities, targets schools and daycare centers, and commits violence with seeming impunity.
"... Indivisible and a broad coalition of partners are banding together for the nationwide ICE Out For Good Weekend of Action this Saturday and Sunday. We hope you’ll join us."
Whatever you do, do NOT drive a gas car to these events. If you have a gas car, research which EV will serve your daily needs, figure out where you will charge it, then save up and get it done. Make it your top priority.
Americans spent $425 billion on gasoline last year. Since the electorate is 50/50, this means Dems spent over $200 billion on gas. The oil companies then spent about a billion electing Trump and a MAGA congress. Half that money came from people on our side. We can't expect to beat our enemies while giving them hundreds of billions like that.
His name is Musk, not Tesla. Tesla is the best car company in the world. They have done nothing wrong. As a matter of fact, Tesla is forcing the entire global auto industry to go electric. That's a huge win for humanity.
Trying to hurt Tesla because of Musk's politics is counter-productive. Those stupid Tesla takedowns only resulted in the oil companies selling more gasoline, because folks who would have switched to an EV instead kept their gas cars and kept buying gasoline.
I'm all for EVs. Even better public transport. That oil is the enemy # 1 was long obvious and does not absolve Musk OR Tesla. I trust you have stock in that company, otherwise why defend it. Musk could only do what he did, try to destroy this Nation in cahoots with his Tech Bro ilk, because of his Svengali hold on Wall Street. In Europe the people who used to buy Tesla are now buying their EVs from European or Asian companies that are run, not by saints, but also not by fascists. Big difference.
You have had the choice to use renewable energy for over a decade in CA and many other states. Utilities and third-party generators offer solar and wind energy for about the same price as the dirty stuff.
Since I had the roof for it, I installed solar in 2002 and bought my first EV the same year. The money I saved not buying gasoline or electricity paid for the solar in 2011. Since then, and for the rest of my life, I get to power my home, cars, and motorcycles on clean electricity- for free.
I encourage everyone to research how to switch to clean energy and get it done. And when you are next in the market for a new car, DO NOT BUY A GAS CAR! Only EVs going forward.
Lastly, the term you used for Teslas is harmful to Tesla while that company has done nothing wrong. Toyota, on the other hand, has done tremendous harm to our politics and the environment, yet, you say nothing about them. Anyone disparaging Tesla is working on the side of the oil industry, whether intentional or not, that is the result. If you want the details, just ask.
We need to roar ahead developing WIND and SOLAR energy. Cheaper, and cheaper and faster to develop. Does it seem to you we could accomplish a big successful push with this?
Paul: Great idea in principle. Some of us can't afford a car OR gas, or electricity, at this point. Hard to see how to make buying an electric car a top priority while eating rice and beans for a lot of people.
I take your point, though, that we have to NOT buy what makes our opponents richer. I want JUSTICE in TAXES. If the oil-owning Billionaires paid their damn taxes, every person might be able to buy an electric car some day, it seems to me.
I appreciate that the lower 20% of car buyers can't afford to switch yet, but at least 80% of them can according to sales statistics. All 16 million new car buyers can easily afford EVs, and most of the 37 million used car buyers can as well.
Most important is to never buy a new gas car. Over 40,000 new gas cars are sold every day on average in the US. Since the electorate is 50/50, that means Dems buy over 20,000 new gas cars every day and every one of them could easily buy an EV that would be better than any gas car at the same price. We need to put our efforts into making sure our friends and family never buy a gas car again.
Never forget that Noem shot and killed her young dog in cold blood rather than finding a home for him. That tells you all you need to know about her reprehensible character.
That woman is the lowest life form imaginable. She also seems to be having the time of her life getting to wear her various costumes when presiding over these 'events'. Not one ounce of empathy in that woman.
History of the government 'officials' of Germany in the mid - late 1930's seem to be the 'playbook' of those in power now. Interesting matching game - compare today's "leaders' to the those of that era.....won't take you long. Mr. Snyder's insight and exceptional writing talent should be required reading for anyone w/a deep concern for the direction this nation is going....
Trump and fellow ghouls have reached another Kent State moment in American history!! The AG of Minnesota should indict ICE and charge them with domestic terrorism and violations of the Federal Civil Rights act but is being blocked by the Trump DOJ.
There is NO legal justification for a lethal attack on US citizens by a federal police force. Not in America.
Send a message to Trump and Nazi leader Stephen Miller. The American People are the strongest force in America. You may think you and your surrogates can kick, beat or shoot America's at will. You are wrong. We're coming for you!
Yes, we MUST “call things by their proper names” and call out the institutions that participate in these lies in order to stop this American fascism that is in the making. Our protests must be massive across the nation.
Yes, Karen: "call out the institutions that participate in these lies."
Love how you second Timothy Snyder's own "We can speak the names of the victims, and call out the institutions that partake in the lies."
Trouble is, however, how many have been normalized by the elite law firms, universities, and legacy media all paying Donald's extortion demands, the billionaires of Silicon Valley spreading the hatred via their profit-making algorithms for hate, the corporate textbook packagers with their glossy, humanly empty textbooks, and the standardized testers pushing their neutered "rationality" across all K-12.
That is the very real danger and why we have to call out the truth, post the evidence, videos whatever we have on social media, protest, never silence our voices (while we still can) so the normalizing of these unconstitutional acts won’t happen. It’s not a done deal yet. It’s up to US to make sure it never is.
Jonathan Ross the killer was a ten-year ICE veteran, not a newbie, who was dragged 300 feet by a “protest car” last summer and required 33 stitches in his legs. My guess: PTSD. Specifics actually count.
It's clear that physical violence causes more physical violence. We also need to be concerned about lies that justify and produce physical violence. It is long past time for the "leaders" of both our political parties to denounce violence in all of its forms. Failure to do so should be grounds for their removal from office.
I didn't see that in the video he was in front of the vehicle; perhaps earlier when she decided to turn her car around. It's clear that when she was turning the wheel to head out he walked up quickly from the side and shot her three times through the driver-side window. It's not at all clear from the video what he was supposedly responding to. This was clearly premeditated murder.
New video shows he was in front of the vehicle and she hit him. You can actually her the car hitting him. That doesn’t justify shooting her. It’d happened to him before from a “protest car”, with serious injury to him. That doesn’t justify shooting her, but the situation is complicated and it does no one any good to simplify it.
From the accounts of his previous encounter he asked the driver to open the car window with his taser in his hand. The driver refused and Ross broke open the rear driver's side window, shot the driver with his taser and was dragged as the driver attempted to escape. Ross was dragged down the street before falling off the car. The driver drove about a mile before calling 911 to report the attack & its aftermath. Ross was not so innocent in his first encounter either.
His own body-cam shows he was hit by the car. It’s widely available. That doesn’t mean that he was right to stand in front of the car, or right to shoot. But he was hit by her car. You can see it and hear it. The NYT was a day ago and now out of date.
He should be off duty and never put into a situation. His mental status is important to the defense but right now we are grieving his "Triggering" triggered by pulling his trigger. If you know this information, then more folks should be tried for dereliction of duty for flagging him in. Or, just spitballing here, STOP HARRASSING THE CITIZENS AND NOT YET CITIZENS OF OUR COUNTRY> LEAVE US ALONE?
And my guess is that Ross was angered by Good’s verbal reproach ( she was allegedly recorded saying “Shame,shame “ to the ICE agents), and lost his cool, and knowingly shot her in a reprisal killing. He was reportedly recorded saying “F—ing bitch” as he walked away.
Art - I couldn't say, as I read/skim a half-dozen news media outlets plus numerous Substacks. Not trying to be coy, or spin the news, but also not writing an investigative report with journalistic accuracy and citations.
Judging by the way Ross walked towards Good's crashed car -- he ambled, you might say -- he was not outwardly demonstrating concern for the outcome of his actions. In other words, he wasn't rushing over to see if Good or anyone else had been seriously hurt.
And here I will be judgemental in the same manner as our esteemed POTUS, Boy JD and ICE Barbie: the ICE agent shooter, Ross, didn't care that he might have killed an American civilian who disrespected him -- his demeanor seemed to say, "No biggie; bitch got what she deserved."
We send our soldiers to a war that is not celebrated to say the least and then they come home and take law enforcement jobs givingthem them power over people. That does work on their psyches-- or maybe they need power over people from the get-go. We praise and honor them for their brutality and valor in the service of that. Then we have to deal as a society with how we distort them. Makes sense?
ICE needs to be abolished. How many ICE agents have such backgrounds or are recruited for this?
Ross needs to go on trial in a non-partisan court situation, not Trump's.
PS -Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer, served in the army, got a law *enforcement* degree and is now in prison for the murder of George Floyd-- ironically in Minneapolis. This we remember brought us the "Black Lives Matter" protests which brought fake accusations from the right to this day about Antifa, a benign decentralized movement.
Trump is only going to get worse. He and his maniacal henchmen cannot afford to stop; if their march towards autocracy gets halted, they get prosecuted and they all end up in jail. So he has to keep the pressure on, which means we'll likely see an acceleration of these horrific events. I wish I knew what Americans could do, just as I wouldn't have known what Venezuelans might have done. It seems that violence must be met by greater violence, which is in itself a terrifying thought. But I'm not sure that protesting in large but pacific groups does much more than let protesters feel kinship with each other.
Large protests send a message to Americans and the world that we see what’s happening and we are not on board, thereby breaking down isolation among like-minded people. That it’s ok to hold opposing opinions and others are with you. Autocrats want us to feel despair and non-violent protests are joyful.
It also sends a message to legislators that increasingly larger numbers of their constituents oppose these actions.
They are not sufficient in and of themselves, but in tandem with other actions, they are effective.
Unfortunately, I think you are right. You can't meet inhumanity with nonviolent protest. They will only shoot you. I don't want to encourage violence but just like confronting a bully the only thing that works is to fight back. I hope it doesn't come to that. What I think imho is that we need to bring the economy to a halt in this country. If there's one other thing besides violence this regime understands it's money. People need to stop buying stuff beyond food. Bring this economy to a halt.
Stats I've seen say that 8,000,000 of them have fled the country, many ending up in the U.S. seeking asylum.
We have a long record of sponsoring dictatorships in Central America, South America. Any who don't know the commander of U.S. marines 100 years ago, Major General Smedley Butler, might well look to the speeches and the book he wrote documenting his disgust at how the U.S. has not only abetted the dictators, but also armed their terror squads and (at the School of the Americas, adjacent to Fort Benning) trained them in torture, disappearances, and other conveniences to thug leaders.
It's sometimes hard to understand how something as small as a lie can have such deleterious impacts on a society. A lie in any small group breaks down trust and causes doubt, enmity, anxiety and resentment. Lies are the beginning of the end of a community based on trust.
“Murderous lies” is right, and so is Professor Snyder’s remark yesterday: “If you lie about a murder, you become a kind of accomplice in the murder.” It’s the lies - the mind-numbing, spirit-crushing lies! And hiding her face under an enormous and ludicrous HAT while she lies in her teeth, doesn’t somehow magically make Noem not a liar. Here in the UK, the lead tv news yesterday analysed and re-analysed the video evidence, expressing utter bafflement short of saying “ They’re all lying”. I hope people will keep telling the truth about what happened, loudly, forever.
As you point up the truth, I could chuckle, ... yeah, that's the TRUTH! ... but of course, these crimes are no laughing matter. trump is importing his version of "justice" into OUR country. I think it was in The Atlantic this morning, in an interview with 4 reporters, trump claimed that he would decide things here and in the world, according to "his own morality." Fact is, trump HAS NO MORALITY. He's always wanted what HE wants. Period. So here we are, ... for the time being. The crew he has put around him, are no better than him, even tough the are merely "obeying" his orders. Actually, he is so off his rocker, that people like stephen miller, are probably suggesting to him, what and how to do it. I hesitate to use the word "evil," but they are.
When I read about that interview, how he has no plans to follow international laws or agreements or any other of the world's legal admonitions, but to carry out his inane playbook solely based on "his own morality," I assumed he meant "mortality." There's no evidence he comprehends "morality."
I mentally substituted "mortality" in place of "morality" when I read the transcript. What a comforting thought! I'd sooner bet on his actions being constrained by mortality , which comes to us all with even more inevitability than taxation.
I wouldn't bet on Trump's having any discernible moral compass.
Absolutely on point. I was writing a piece called "From Caracas to Minneapolis" when I read Tim's. The one dimension that may also tie the events together is the "grooming" of the American military and para-militaries to take on, without resistance, ordered "missions" both home and abroad. All framed within the usual pot of lies and projected villainy.
Like so many moments we’ve witnessed over the past decades, I always try to put myself into the scene with the victims. It’s a an exercise that often keeps me awake at night, as now. What was Ms Good doing there? No one seems sure, but let’s assume for the moment that she was there intending to be a witness. She wasn’t armed. She wasn’t threatening any one. At worst she was blocking a thoroughfare. Then the proper response would have been a quiet, self-controlled law office asking her to move her car, and if she resisted, telling her she could be arrested and her car towed.
Instead, whether she was attempting to be a legal witness or just stopped to watch, she faced a version of every woman’s nightmare - an angry group of anonymous, armed men yelling obscenities and threatening to drag her from her car and do god knows what. She’d probably seen some of the videos of what they were capable of. So she was terrified. Did she stab at the accelerator in panic even as she tried to turn the wheel to get away while she stared in fear at the men surrounding her? Was she suddenly thinking of her son at home waiting?
Let’s assume that she was trying to be a witness to the thuggery taking place around her. Then, in her own quiet way, she was Rosa Parks in a seat at the front of the bus, those black teenagers at a white’s only lunch counter, the women walking with Martin Luther King across the Pettis Bridge, the girls chased with dogs and fire hoses in Selma.
But equally possible, she was just a terrified woman alone, surrounded by malevolent male menace and seeking an escape. Either way, and every way in between, she is the victim here. And all those suggesting that she deserved everything she got are at the very least just projecting their guilt over her death on her, and at worst something far darker and far more unAmerican - an unhinged hatred/fear of the power of democracy and the rule of law.
Thank you for pointing this out. My first thought on hearing this story was that she behaved not like a defiant "professional agitator", but like any reasonable person might when surrounded by angry men with guns. I ran a red light to avoid a carjacker once at 2 am. Was what I did illegal? Sure. Would I do it again? Of course. Hitting the gas in panic here is a totally reasonable response to a terrifying situation, and even, one might say, an automatic response over which she may have had no control. I am devastated by the loss of this young mother. I mentally put her with Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner, the peaceful young freedom riders who were murdered in cold blood by Klansmen and never have received anything like justice, to this day. I hope, hope, hope, that Renee Good may someday get some kind of justice. But I doubt it.
I’ve written extensively about “under color of law” killings in Texas and elsewhere. I too have noticed the culture that grows around these “events,” if we can call them that, pace Orwell. The African American experience when these murders occur is like living in a fascist bubble inside the rhetorical America of “with liberty and justice for all.” African Americans have been toyed with and brutally decimated while the carefree indifference of the majority carries on around them. There have been outbreaks of protest — against lynching, police shootings, and most notably recently after George Floyd’s inhumane murder in Minneapolis. But the indifference always rolls back in, seeded by “fear of crime,” often when no criminal statistics undergird that fear. Now, this pattern is magnified under MAGA fascism. I fear no crime. I fear the morass of indifference.
You wrote,"The African American experience when these murders occur is like living in a fascist bubble inside the rhetorical America of “with liberty and justice for all.”"
We know he's bad. We need to DO something about it. Something like this:
Trump and his MAGA congress would not be in power if not for the massive spending by the oil industry to get them there. All of us need to look at our lives and see if we are doing anything that helps our enemies. Buying gasoline is, for the majority of Americans, the most harmful thing they do in their entire lives. Affordable electric cars have been available for 15 years. The environmental, health, military, and political costs of oil have been known for over 20 years.
Never buy a gas car again.
Research which EV will serve your daily needs, figure out where you will charge it, then save up and get it done as quickly as possible. It needs to be your top priority.
Those of us on fixed income have seen (in my case) homeowners insurance increase by 5x (and heating costs double (in NJ). Impossible even to pay taxes, and enough food or survival. Lots of us over age of so-called "retirement" are in this boat. You might want to update your understanding of an awful lot of us. I have lived (modestly) on the Social Security and Army pension (tiny amount) for the past decade. For people my age who cannot go out and get a paid job, these inadequate amounts of money can not be made to cover even the most minimal living, now, due to the money grabs of the Billionaires who have jacked up their prices by 2x or 5x, and yet reported RECORD PROFITS FOR THEMSELVES in the past year under mr trump. .
What this piece captures with real clarity is the underlying pattern, not just the events. When a state begins pairing external operations with internal killings that are immediately justified through a pre‑fabricated narrative, you’re no longer looking at isolated abuses. You’re looking at a governing logic. The script is always the same: redefine victims as threats, redefine agents of the state as the ones under attack, and use the resulting confusion to normalize violence that would once have been unthinkable.
The danger isn’t only the act itself. It’s the infrastructure of impunity that grows around it. When the same institution that carries out the killing is responsible for investigating it, when the public explanation is pre‑written before the facts are known, when the story is shaped to make accountability impossible, you are watching the slow construction of a system where truth becomes irrelevant and power becomes its own justification.
The real warning here is about precedent. If an extrajudicial killing is excused, it becomes a template. If the template is repeated, it becomes a norm. And once it becomes a norm, the line between targeted violence and systemic violence disappears.
Snyder is right about the cycle: the lie that justifies the violence, the violence that reinforces the lie. Breaking that cycle requires naming what is happening while it is still visible, before disappearance becomes the default outcome and before narrative replaces evidence entirely.
This is not just a story about Minneapolis or Caracas. It’s a story about how modern states slide into a politics where human beings become instruments, and where truth becomes an obstacle rather than a guide.
Thank you.
—Johan
Former Foreign Service Officer
You are chillingly correct. Thank you for your service and your guidance.
Thank you, appreciate that.
It is striking how small the moral ambition community really is. Not because the ideas are obscure, but because truly seeing suffering and then accepting responsibility for it carries a real psychological cost. Most people narrow their moral field to whatever is directly in front of them. It is a defense mechanism rather than a lack of compassion. Once you recognize structural cruelty clearly, you cannot unsee it, and once you admit you could act, you also admit you are accountable for not acting. That level of clarity is rare.
History shows that every major moral shift begins with a small group willing to hold that clarity. Abolition, civil rights, early environmentalism, and animal welfare all started with minorities who refused sedation and insisted on agency. The goal is not to make everyone part of the core. The goal is to create a gravitational field strong enough that others eventually move into its orbit. Moral ambition has always been a minority position, but it is the minority that moves the world.
You’ve articulated the absolute truth we need to enact locally and nationally to reassert a moral compass that values human being. Thank you.
Thank you. My personal and life project is moral ambition; whatever we can do to always enact policies, work on projects…that reduce suffering and end injustice.
Amen.
I like that you use the phrase "moral ambition" rather than "moral stand". It makes the issue so much clearer and is or demands an action, while "stand" is only a state of mind.
Really good points. Thanks.
I hope someday, Johan, the US will have the benefit of you serving as one of our ambassadors.
-former low level diplomat ;)
According to DW, the Venezuela actions are illegal. It’s my understanding that ICC can issue war-crimes arrest warrants even though we’re not members. Does that mean that Susan Wiles et al—and the republicans supporting these acts—can be arrested by ICC if they leave the country? https://www.dw.com/en/us-intervention-in-venezuela-violated-international-law-say-legal-experts/a-75412120
Which countries would any of them go to that would actually enforce an ICC warrant against them?
I mean Putin has warrants for war crimes, he is living comfortably.
That’s just the uncomfortable fact... Sorry to say.
I’d like to think that many member nations of ICC would welcome this opportunity. But I’m a social worker. We’re hardwired optimists. We have to be.
I love that; that optimism is needed
Thank you!
The fact that large parts of the world are unsafe and barred to them must have an effect at some level, even if it's not the ideal legal enforcement we'd all like to see. I'm remembering the recent shenanigans around visiting South Africa. And the alleged Putin body double that showed up in Alaska.
Most major countries are members of the ICC, except U.S., Russia, China and India.
Funny how that works…
One of the many things I would like to see is for the US to join the ICC and the ICJ as signs of our sincerity about becoming a full member of the world democratic community. But I don't think it will happen, not only because neither of our political parties have ever favored doing so, but also because it would be admitting that American Exceptionalism is invalid. A fact that we have repeatedly demonstrated and which is now unavoidable to everyone but us.
If that doesn’t happen, we’re doomed. It’s not red aggression that terrifies me. It’s blue claims of zero culpability. IMHO, the monster we’re facing has been been gorging on our greed and hubris since Reagan seduced us with trickle down prosperity theology. We could have chosen Jimmy Carter, with lowered thermostats and self sacrifice. It will take serious self-reflection for the new growth that follows this devastation to be an improvement over what we had. At least that’s how I see it.
Agreed. My memory reaches back to "All the way with LBJ"! It is greed—an insatiable need to acquire, but it's more general and deeper than that. Those of us living overseas in other Western democracies see the problem as a generalised, all-pervasive materialism. Everything is about money. Prosperity is measured only in wealth. Every new influence coming in from the States carries with it a degrading force to monetise everything. Even the specious so-called "religion", which is actually just perverted and degraded cult. The idea of happiness and well-being attached to a lower material standard of living seems to be inconceivable to the average American.
Perfectly stated. The US has sustained a total moral collapse. When the smoke clears from this wildfire, we’ll have opportunities to make better choices. I hope to G_d that we’ve learned enough.
The upside may be that everything moves in cycles. And right now we seem to be at the crossover point between death of the old and birth of the new. So yes, pretty bad birth pangs right now. Alarm for the safety of the baby and survival of the mother.
But if I'm right, it may be all the way up from here on in. Reflecting that which came before, but always with a new element. Yes, I know no one else seems to be highlighting an upside...
I came to the United States in the late 1980s. I came happily from Europe, embraced my new home whole heartedly.. I had served from 1980-1982 as a NATO soldier (drafted) with Americans in Ramstein, Germany. I knew a bit about US culture before moving there. Even then, nobody in Europe, and not many in the US Armed Forces, believed in American Exceptionalism. Optimism. And Can Do attitude. Yes. But not Exceptionalism.
I'm guessing that in Europe they didnt shovel at you from your earliest years the "Received Wisdom", about the Shining city on the Hill, the Manifest Destiny, the Rugged American Individualism, and the rest of the hogwash...?
Yes, ICE could be seen as perpetuating serious Human Rights violations.
Johan - Thanks for your comment (and previous contributions in this blog), which are so clear and provide an FSO’s analytical perspective .
Much appreciated…thank you
Thank you Professor Snyder…my wife and I truly appreciate your work!!
This really helps, Johan.
We are all trying to sort through the forest of seemingly unrelated, chaotic actions trump and his minions are slinging in our faces,ever faster and more furious. The intent is to confuse us, to immobilize us, to make us afraid to act because we dont know for sure even what is happening, and it is happening everywhere, at increasingly deadly speed.
People like Johan, above, like Stacey Abrams, like Timothy Snyder, Anne Applebaum, Phillips O'Brien, Charlie Sykes, David Frum, Heather Cox Richardson to name some who are more familiar than most on questions of Tyranny and Authoritarianism and Fascism, are especially articulate, and greatly needed.
We all know something is terribly wrong in our country, and in the world, it seems to me. Voices like these are of such very, very great value in my view.
From Indivisible: "Everyone on the call was clear-eyed about the huge amount of work ahead of us to confront the public menace of an increasingly lawless agency that rampages through communities, targets schools and daycare centers, and commits violence with seeming impunity.
"... Indivisible and a broad coalition of partners are banding together for the nationwide ICE Out For Good Weekend of Action this Saturday and Sunday. We hope you’ll join us."
See https://indivisible.org/ - ICE Out For GOOD Week-end Action to find an event.
We had a big protest/rally here in Seattle last night. Just the beginning.
Whatever you do, do NOT drive a gas car to these events. If you have a gas car, research which EV will serve your daily needs, figure out where you will charge it, then save up and get it done. Make it your top priority.
Why?
Americans spent $425 billion on gasoline last year. Since the electorate is 50/50, this means Dems spent over $200 billion on gas. The oil companies then spent about a billion electing Trump and a MAGA congress. Half that money came from people on our side. We can't expect to beat our enemies while giving them hundreds of billions like that.
Thank you. A really good point.
Very interesting take. Logical. Precise. But then Mr. Tesla has also funded the Oligarchic Presidency. Before the fall-out. And he is still a fascist.
His name is Musk, not Tesla. Tesla is the best car company in the world. They have done nothing wrong. As a matter of fact, Tesla is forcing the entire global auto industry to go electric. That's a huge win for humanity.
Trying to hurt Tesla because of Musk's politics is counter-productive. Those stupid Tesla takedowns only resulted in the oil companies selling more gasoline, because folks who would have switched to an EV instead kept their gas cars and kept buying gasoline.
The oil industry is our real enemy, not Tesla.
I'm all for EVs. Even better public transport. That oil is the enemy # 1 was long obvious and does not absolve Musk OR Tesla. I trust you have stock in that company, otherwise why defend it. Musk could only do what he did, try to destroy this Nation in cahoots with his Tech Bro ilk, because of his Svengali hold on Wall Street. In Europe the people who used to buy Tesla are now buying their EVs from European or Asian companies that are run, not by saints, but also not by fascists. Big difference.
An interesting factoid, to me: In PRC (China) anyone can buy an excellent Electric Car for the equivalent of about $8,000.
Electricity mostly comes from fossil fuels. If you're not off the grid, you can't win. At least don't drive a swasticar.
You have had the choice to use renewable energy for over a decade in CA and many other states. Utilities and third-party generators offer solar and wind energy for about the same price as the dirty stuff.
Since I had the roof for it, I installed solar in 2002 and bought my first EV the same year. The money I saved not buying gasoline or electricity paid for the solar in 2011. Since then, and for the rest of my life, I get to power my home, cars, and motorcycles on clean electricity- for free.
I encourage everyone to research how to switch to clean energy and get it done. And when you are next in the market for a new car, DO NOT BUY A GAS CAR! Only EVs going forward.
Lastly, the term you used for Teslas is harmful to Tesla while that company has done nothing wrong. Toyota, on the other hand, has done tremendous harm to our politics and the environment, yet, you say nothing about them. Anyone disparaging Tesla is working on the side of the oil industry, whether intentional or not, that is the result. If you want the details, just ask.
It must be pretty to think that.
We need to roar ahead developing WIND and SOLAR energy. Cheaper, and cheaper and faster to develop. Does it seem to you we could accomplish a big successful push with this?
Paul: Great idea in principle. Some of us can't afford a car OR gas, or electricity, at this point. Hard to see how to make buying an electric car a top priority while eating rice and beans for a lot of people.
I take your point, though, that we have to NOT buy what makes our opponents richer. I want JUSTICE in TAXES. If the oil-owning Billionaires paid their damn taxes, every person might be able to buy an electric car some day, it seems to me.
I appreciate that the lower 20% of car buyers can't afford to switch yet, but at least 80% of them can according to sales statistics. All 16 million new car buyers can easily afford EVs, and most of the 37 million used car buyers can as well.
Most important is to never buy a new gas car. Over 40,000 new gas cars are sold every day on average in the US. Since the electorate is 50/50, that means Dems buy over 20,000 new gas cars every day and every one of them could easily buy an EV that would be better than any gas car at the same price. We need to put our efforts into making sure our friends and family never buy a gas car again.
Never forget that Noem shot and killed her young dog in cold blood rather than finding a home for him. That tells you all you need to know about her reprehensible character.
That woman is the lowest life form imaginable. She also seems to be having the time of her life getting to wear her various costumes when presiding over these 'events'. Not one ounce of empathy in that woman.
noem is the lowest form of life,
History of the government 'officials' of Germany in the mid - late 1930's seem to be the 'playbook' of those in power now. Interesting matching game - compare today's "leaders' to the those of that era.....won't take you long. Mr. Snyder's insight and exceptional writing talent should be required reading for anyone w/a deep concern for the direction this nation is going....
Trump and fellow ghouls have reached another Kent State moment in American history!! The AG of Minnesota should indict ICE and charge them with domestic terrorism and violations of the Federal Civil Rights act but is being blocked by the Trump DOJ.
There is NO legal justification for a lethal attack on US citizens by a federal police force. Not in America.
Send a message to Trump and Nazi leader Stephen Miller. The American People are the strongest force in America. You may think you and your surrogates can kick, beat or shoot America's at will. You are wrong. We're coming for you!
and more of his maga folks are jumping because they are starting realized how much they have been used by this regime.
Are they really? Not sure if that is enough to tip the scale.
true. It is wishful thinking. Some are so dug in it defies explanation.
Yes, we MUST “call things by their proper names” and call out the institutions that participate in these lies in order to stop this American fascism that is in the making. Our protests must be massive across the nation.
Yes, Karen: "call out the institutions that participate in these lies."
Love how you second Timothy Snyder's own "We can speak the names of the victims, and call out the institutions that partake in the lies."
Trouble is, however, how many have been normalized by the elite law firms, universities, and legacy media all paying Donald's extortion demands, the billionaires of Silicon Valley spreading the hatred via their profit-making algorithms for hate, the corporate textbook packagers with their glossy, humanly empty textbooks, and the standardized testers pushing their neutered "rationality" across all K-12.
That is the very real danger and why we have to call out the truth, post the evidence, videos whatever we have on social media, protest, never silence our voices (while we still can) so the normalizing of these unconstitutional acts won’t happen. It’s not a done deal yet. It’s up to US to make sure it never is.
Jonathan Ross the killer was a ten-year ICE veteran, not a newbie, who was dragged 300 feet by a “protest car” last summer and required 33 stitches in his legs. My guess: PTSD. Specifics actually count.
So why was he out on the street involved in raids? He never should have been there.
Agreed. Unsafe. Prone to being triggered.
He could have shot at the car's tires instead of the woman's face. He shot to kill.
It's clear that physical violence causes more physical violence. We also need to be concerned about lies that justify and produce physical violence. It is long past time for the "leaders" of both our political parties to denounce violence in all of its forms. Failure to do so should be grounds for their removal from office.
He should have known better than to be in front of a vehicle like that. He put himself in danger.
I didn't see that in the video he was in front of the vehicle; perhaps earlier when she decided to turn her car around. It's clear that when she was turning the wheel to head out he walked up quickly from the side and shot her three times through the driver-side window. It's not at all clear from the video what he was supposedly responding to. This was clearly premeditated murder.
New video shows he was in front of the vehicle and she hit him. You can actually her the car hitting him. That doesn’t justify shooting her. It’d happened to him before from a “protest car”, with serious injury to him. That doesn’t justify shooting her, but the situation is complicated and it does no one any good to simplify it.
From the accounts of his previous encounter he asked the driver to open the car window with his taser in his hand. The driver refused and Ross broke open the rear driver's side window, shot the driver with his taser and was dragged as the driver attempted to escape. Ross was dragged down the street before falling off the car. The driver drove about a mile before calling 911 to report the attack & its aftermath. Ross was not so innocent in his first encounter either.
Yesterday, The NY Times released a forensic analysis of videos gathered from all angles. Their study indicates the shooter was not hit by the car.
New video? From whom? The street crowd that made the ones we have? That is really a great development---all these cameras.
His own body-cam shows he was hit by the car. It’s widely available. That doesn’t mean that he was right to stand in front of the car, or right to shoot. But he was hit by her car. You can see it and hear it. The NYT was a day ago and now out of date.
He should be off duty and never put into a situation. His mental status is important to the defense but right now we are grieving his "Triggering" triggered by pulling his trigger. If you know this information, then more folks should be tried for dereliction of duty for flagging him in. Or, just spitballing here, STOP HARRASSING THE CITIZENS AND NOT YET CITIZENS OF OUR COUNTRY> LEAVE US ALONE?
I too, have PTSD, and have gotten it treated and continue to treat it. It is irresponsible not to.
And my guess is that Ross was angered by Good’s verbal reproach ( she was allegedly recorded saying “Shame,shame “ to the ICE agents), and lost his cool, and knowingly shot her in a reprisal killing. He was reportedly recorded saying “F—ing bitch” as he walked away.
His own video-audio recording.
Reported by whom?
Art - I couldn't say, as I read/skim a half-dozen news media outlets plus numerous Substacks. Not trying to be coy, or spin the news, but also not writing an investigative report with journalistic accuracy and citations.
Judging by the way Ross walked towards Good's crashed car -- he ambled, you might say -- he was not outwardly demonstrating concern for the outcome of his actions. In other words, he wasn't rushing over to see if Good or anyone else had been seriously hurt.
And here I will be judgemental in the same manner as our esteemed POTUS, Boy JD and ICE Barbie: the ICE agent shooter, Ross, didn't care that he might have killed an American civilian who disrespected him -- his demeanor seemed to say, "No biggie; bitch got what she deserved."
I'd say that was Murder 2.
His arms, actually. Vance got that entirely wrong.
The agent who killed Renee Nicole Good is Jonathan Ross. This is his story linked below. He appears to have done enough "service" to our country.
https://apnews.com/article/immigration-minnesota-jonathan-ross-b9ce88da676d74ec6a1ab36aa55fbda1
We send our soldiers to a war that is not celebrated to say the least and then they come home and take law enforcement jobs givingthem them power over people. That does work on their psyches-- or maybe they need power over people from the get-go. We praise and honor them for their brutality and valor in the service of that. Then we have to deal as a society with how we distort them. Makes sense?
ICE needs to be abolished. How many ICE agents have such backgrounds or are recruited for this?
Ross needs to go on trial in a non-partisan court situation, not Trump's.
PS -Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer, served in the army, got a law *enforcement* degree and is now in prison for the murder of George Floyd-- ironically in Minneapolis. This we remember brought us the "Black Lives Matter" protests which brought fake accusations from the right to this day about Antifa, a benign decentralized movement.
Another excellent essay. Thank you.
Trump is only going to get worse. He and his maniacal henchmen cannot afford to stop; if their march towards autocracy gets halted, they get prosecuted and they all end up in jail. So he has to keep the pressure on, which means we'll likely see an acceleration of these horrific events. I wish I knew what Americans could do, just as I wouldn't have known what Venezuelans might have done. It seems that violence must be met by greater violence, which is in itself a terrifying thought. But I'm not sure that protesting in large but pacific groups does much more than let protesters feel kinship with each other.
Large protests send a message to Americans and the world that we see what’s happening and we are not on board, thereby breaking down isolation among like-minded people. That it’s ok to hold opposing opinions and others are with you. Autocrats want us to feel despair and non-violent protests are joyful.
It also sends a message to legislators that increasingly larger numbers of their constituents oppose these actions.
They are not sufficient in and of themselves, but in tandem with other actions, they are effective.
We need to hit them where it hurts and that's in their profits. A national boycott of most everything except necessities. Bring the economy to a halt.
We need to do that, too.
it galvanizes us to make sure we vote in overwhelming numbers, perhaps.
Unfortunately, I think you are right. You can't meet inhumanity with nonviolent protest. They will only shoot you. I don't want to encourage violence but just like confronting a bully the only thing that works is to fight back. I hope it doesn't come to that. What I think imho is that we need to bring the economy to a halt in this country. If there's one other thing besides violence this regime understands it's money. People need to stop buying stuff beyond food. Bring this economy to a halt.
That might be effective. Boycott as much as is possible. Thank you.
Nice, Chip: "what Venezuelans might have done."
Stats I've seen say that 8,000,000 of them have fled the country, many ending up in the U.S. seeking asylum.
We have a long record of sponsoring dictatorships in Central America, South America. Any who don't know the commander of U.S. marines 100 years ago, Major General Smedley Butler, might well look to the speeches and the book he wrote documenting his disgust at how the U.S. has not only abetted the dictators, but also armed their terror squads and (at the School of the Americas, adjacent to Fort Benning) trained them in torture, disappearances, and other conveniences to thug leaders.
Indeed, another excellent essay.
It's sometimes hard to understand how something as small as a lie can have such deleterious impacts on a society. A lie in any small group breaks down trust and causes doubt, enmity, anxiety and resentment. Lies are the beginning of the end of a community based on trust.
“Murderous lies” is right, and so is Professor Snyder’s remark yesterday: “If you lie about a murder, you become a kind of accomplice in the murder.” It’s the lies - the mind-numbing, spirit-crushing lies! And hiding her face under an enormous and ludicrous HAT while she lies in her teeth, doesn’t somehow magically make Noem not a liar. Here in the UK, the lead tv news yesterday analysed and re-analysed the video evidence, expressing utter bafflement short of saying “ They’re all lying”. I hope people will keep telling the truth about what happened, loudly, forever.
This regime is composed of reflexive liars. Everybody around the President catches that virus.
As you point up the truth, I could chuckle, ... yeah, that's the TRUTH! ... but of course, these crimes are no laughing matter. trump is importing his version of "justice" into OUR country. I think it was in The Atlantic this morning, in an interview with 4 reporters, trump claimed that he would decide things here and in the world, according to "his own morality." Fact is, trump HAS NO MORALITY. He's always wanted what HE wants. Period. So here we are, ... for the time being. The crew he has put around him, are no better than him, even tough the are merely "obeying" his orders. Actually, he is so off his rocker, that people like stephen miller, are probably suggesting to him, what and how to do it. I hesitate to use the word "evil," but they are.
When I read about that interview, how he has no plans to follow international laws or agreements or any other of the world's legal admonitions, but to carry out his inane playbook solely based on "his own morality," I assumed he meant "mortality." There's no evidence he comprehends "morality."
I mentally substituted "mortality" in place of "morality" when I read the transcript. What a comforting thought! I'd sooner bet on his actions being constrained by mortality , which comes to us all with even more inevitability than taxation.
I wouldn't bet on Trump's having any discernible moral compass.
Some very questionable doctors pumping this man full of drugs so he can perform.
I think Trump's moral code was learned in Scoula McCarthy back in the fifties...
Absolutely on point. I was writing a piece called "From Caracas to Minneapolis" when I read Tim's. The one dimension that may also tie the events together is the "grooming" of the American military and para-militaries to take on, without resistance, ordered "missions" both home and abroad. All framed within the usual pot of lies and projected villainy.
Like so many moments we’ve witnessed over the past decades, I always try to put myself into the scene with the victims. It’s a an exercise that often keeps me awake at night, as now. What was Ms Good doing there? No one seems sure, but let’s assume for the moment that she was there intending to be a witness. She wasn’t armed. She wasn’t threatening any one. At worst she was blocking a thoroughfare. Then the proper response would have been a quiet, self-controlled law office asking her to move her car, and if she resisted, telling her she could be arrested and her car towed.
Instead, whether she was attempting to be a legal witness or just stopped to watch, she faced a version of every woman’s nightmare - an angry group of anonymous, armed men yelling obscenities and threatening to drag her from her car and do god knows what. She’d probably seen some of the videos of what they were capable of. So she was terrified. Did she stab at the accelerator in panic even as she tried to turn the wheel to get away while she stared in fear at the men surrounding her? Was she suddenly thinking of her son at home waiting?
Let’s assume that she was trying to be a witness to the thuggery taking place around her. Then, in her own quiet way, she was Rosa Parks in a seat at the front of the bus, those black teenagers at a white’s only lunch counter, the women walking with Martin Luther King across the Pettis Bridge, the girls chased with dogs and fire hoses in Selma.
But equally possible, she was just a terrified woman alone, surrounded by malevolent male menace and seeking an escape. Either way, and every way in between, she is the victim here. And all those suggesting that she deserved everything she got are at the very least just projecting their guilt over her death on her, and at worst something far darker and far more unAmerican - an unhinged hatred/fear of the power of democracy and the rule of law.
Thank you for pointing this out. My first thought on hearing this story was that she behaved not like a defiant "professional agitator", but like any reasonable person might when surrounded by angry men with guns. I ran a red light to avoid a carjacker once at 2 am. Was what I did illegal? Sure. Would I do it again? Of course. Hitting the gas in panic here is a totally reasonable response to a terrifying situation, and even, one might say, an automatic response over which she may have had no control. I am devastated by the loss of this young mother. I mentally put her with Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner, the peaceful young freedom riders who were murdered in cold blood by Klansmen and never have received anything like justice, to this day. I hope, hope, hope, that Renee Good may someday get some kind of justice. But I doubt it.
I’ve written extensively about “under color of law” killings in Texas and elsewhere. I too have noticed the culture that grows around these “events,” if we can call them that, pace Orwell. The African American experience when these murders occur is like living in a fascist bubble inside the rhetorical America of “with liberty and justice for all.” African Americans have been toyed with and brutally decimated while the carefree indifference of the majority carries on around them. There have been outbreaks of protest — against lynching, police shootings, and most notably recently after George Floyd’s inhumane murder in Minneapolis. But the indifference always rolls back in, seeded by “fear of crime,” often when no criminal statistics undergird that fear. Now, this pattern is magnified under MAGA fascism. I fear no crime. I fear the morass of indifference.
You wrote,"The African American experience when these murders occur is like living in a fascist bubble inside the rhetorical America of “with liberty and justice for all.”"
Thank you. A good point.
We know he's bad. We need to DO something about it. Something like this:
Trump and his MAGA congress would not be in power if not for the massive spending by the oil industry to get them there. All of us need to look at our lives and see if we are doing anything that helps our enemies. Buying gasoline is, for the majority of Americans, the most harmful thing they do in their entire lives. Affordable electric cars have been available for 15 years. The environmental, health, military, and political costs of oil have been known for over 20 years.
Never buy a gas car again.
Research which EV will serve your daily needs, figure out where you will charge it, then save up and get it done as quickly as possible. It needs to be your top priority.
Those of us on fixed income have seen (in my case) homeowners insurance increase by 5x (and heating costs double (in NJ). Impossible even to pay taxes, and enough food or survival. Lots of us over age of so-called "retirement" are in this boat. You might want to update your understanding of an awful lot of us. I have lived (modestly) on the Social Security and Army pension (tiny amount) for the past decade. For people my age who cannot go out and get a paid job, these inadequate amounts of money can not be made to cover even the most minimal living, now, due to the money grabs of the Billionaires who have jacked up their prices by 2x or 5x, and yet reported RECORD PROFITS FOR THEMSELVES in the past year under mr trump. .