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Democrats have not yet completely recovered from the moment when they lost faith in their standard bearer. That was on June 27, 2024, when Joe Biden couldn’t get out a coherent sentence during the presidential debate.

The bizarre and fact-challenged ramblings of his opponent seemed almost normal in comparison. We all know what happened next.

I wonder whether the murder of Alex Pretti will have a similar effect, if not on Republicans, then on the independent swing voters who will determine the results of the 2026 midterms. The Republican standard bearer has always lied, but this was a different kind of lie.

We all saw an American citizen who we could plainly see was holding only a cellphone shot 10 times in the back. Our president asserted that the victim was a crazed gun-waving assassin, responsible for his own brutal murder.

That lie was an insult of a different order to the intelligence of American voters. Will this be the moment when the political right finally loses faith in its standard bearer?

I certainly hope so, for all of our sakes.

Alex Pretti, an American citizen, was murdered in cold blood in Minneapolis while he was trying to shield a defenseless woman who was being pepper sprayed. He was surrounded by vicious thugs who first threw him to the ground and then shot him 10 times in the back.

The many videos on the scene all plainly show that he was holding a cellphone. Yet “officials” keep trying to convince everybody that the phone in his hand was a gun, despite the clear evidence of our own eyes.

The idiots who are sending masked and armed thugs to terrorize our nation’s cities seem to really believe that they can get away with gaslighting 345 million Americans.

But Americans are not that stupid, and enough is enough. As Chico Marx once said: “Who are you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?”

I find that one of the greatest impediments to getting things done is overconfidence. After a string of successes, at some point I start to think that everything will turn out great, no matter what, and that’s when I start to get careless.

At which point, inevitably, something goes wrong. And then I am reminded that the ability to maintain a little humility is one of the most useful tools in your toolbox.

Yes, I know it sounds ironic, but it’s true. There’s nothing like a good setback to help you make good progress.

I read a beautiful and sensible quote today. It said “Freedom is the absence of fear.”

That idea goes a long way toward explaining what is happening right now in Minneapolis. Our president and vice president have been trying to convince the public that they should fear the very small percentage of immigrants who are criminals.

But the fear that ICE is creating is vastly greater than any other threat. Pregnant women are being dragged through the streets. Five year old children are being rounded up and sent away to detention centers in Texas. People who are guilty only of “looking Asian” are being dragged out into the freezing cold in their underwear.

A mother of three was shot to death by an ICE agent, in plain sight, on the streets of Minneapolis. The main response of the administration was to gaslight everyone into pretending that the victim was guilty of something (despite clear and copious video evidence to the contrary) and to squash any investigation of the shooter.

I am proud of my fellow citizens in the Twin Cities who stood up today to this sadistic madness by calling a general strike. Courage in the face of raw brutality is never easy.

I enjoyed watching the testimony by Jack Smith about the attempt by you-know-who to subvert our democratic process in 2024. Smith was consistently clear, articulate and measured, and utterly unfazed by the clown show being put on by the Republicans on the committee.

It is clear that Smith is a patriot, fearlessly standing up to charlatans in his defense of our democratic process. But what the heck was going on with those Republicans?

They didn’t dare question the veracity of Smith’s account, since they knew it was all verifiably true. Instead they resorted to hurling third grade insults at him, and defending 47 by clinging to the farfetched theory that the poor boy didn’t actually know that he had lost.

In service of truth and honest representation, shouldn’t Jim Jordan (representative from Ohio) have been wearing clown make-up? That would have been consistent with his agenda during that hearing: Trying desperately to distract from the clear evidence of crimes against our nation by putting on a clown show.

The contrast between two speeches this week at the world economic summit in Davos was remarkable.

The speech by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney might very well be the best political speech that anyone has given in the 21st century. And it wasn’t written by staff — he wrote the whole thing himself, which is quite unusual for a major political speech.

But don’t take my word for it. Check it out for yourself.

Then there was that other speech, by the weird little child. It was idiotic, it was rambling, it was deeply embarrassing all around.

I will spare you the agony of watching it. To the extent that any of it was comprehensible, here’s the main take-away: He really, really wants the U.S. to take over Iceland.

Despite the confusion around by Mercator projection for people who never learned how maps work, the actual number of square miles of inhabitable land in Greenland is just about the same as the number of square miles in the state of California.

Maybe there could be o aone-for-one swap. If you-know-who gets Greenland, maybe Norway could get California.

I’m sure the good people of California would love to be part of a country that doesn’t send around masked goons to terrorize its own citizens. Wait — there’s a word for a country like that. What is that word…

Oh right — “civilized”.

Today we Americans celebrate one of our greatest heroes, Martin Luther King Jr. MLK was everything an American should be — courageous, compassionate, and deeply spiritual. He was also willing to put his own life on the line in the pursuit of justice and decency.

I see a reflection of that courage in the good people of Minneapolis. Very few people continue to believe the excuse given by the despicable monsters invading our country — led by the despicable monster in the White House — that they are protecting Americans by expelling illegal immigrants.

Their actions reveal their true intentions. Masked and armed goons are rounding up American citizens, sometimes dragging those citizens out into the freezing Minnesota winter without even having the decency to let them put on an overcoat.

As we’ve all realized by now, this has nothing to do “illegal immigration”. This is a deliberate unprovoked attack on American citizens, and the point seems to be to demonstrate that this administration is fully capable of a fascist takeover of our democracy.

But brave and patriotic Americans are fighting back, and despite the hysterical falsehoods from this rogue administration, they are doing it calmly, peacefully, and with deliberate intent. Despite the clear risk to their own lives, they are braving the cold and the tear gas and the bullets to help their neighbors.

I suspect the criminals who are behind this campaign of terror thought that the killing of Renee Good would be a deterrent to resistance. After all, if the government can get away with killing a white 37 year old devoutly Christian mother of three, then nobody is safe.

But Minnesotans have absorbed that message and have responded by continuing, with courage and with dignity, to stand up for freedom and for American values. Martin Luther King would have been proud.

Today, in anticipation of Martin Luther King Day, I went back and thoroughly reread Dr. King’s I’ve Been to the Mountaintop speech — the very last speech he ever gave, on the day before he was assassinated.

It’s a beautiful speech, both powerful and intelligent. It is the speech of a man who seems to know that he may not be alive for much longer, yet who finds peace in knowing that he has been able to make the world a better place during the time he was given.

It’s a speech that would not be understood by the idiot criminal in Washington, because it is deeply spiritual, and because it speaks to our shared humanity. Reading it reminded me what we are fighting for right now.

Make no mistake about it, America is under attack. Those of us who believe in freedom and human dignity — and there are many of us — need to push back forcefully against our nation’s enemies, especially when those enemies have taken up residence in the White House.

Dr. King’s beautiful words and ideas are powerful tools in that struggle. If your love this country, I know that his words will resonate with you as well.

Suppose a little kid wants another little kid’s bike, and thinks he can just take it. His mom points out that you can’t just take other peoples’s stuff.

“But I want it Mommy!” the kid screams, “Jimmy’s bike should be mine!!!!”

Our brat knows he also needs some leverage. So he adds “If you don’t give me Jimmy’s bike, I’m going to hold my breath until I turn blue!”

Clearly he is confident that his threat of self-harm will win the day. But that doesn’t mean he will end up getting what he wants.

This is pretty much what we are currently witnessing on the world stage. Our bratty president really, really wants Greenland. The fact that it already belongs to another sovereign nation doesn’t seem to bother him.

“But I want it Mommy!” you can almost him him screaming “Denmark’s territory should be mine!!!”

Our president knows he also needs some leverage. So he adds “If you don’t give me Greenland, I’m going to impose a 10% additional tariff on goods from Europe!”

Now as we all know, a tariff on goods from Europe is actually a tax on American consumers. We’re the ones who end up paying that 10%. In effect, the president is trying to force Europe to give up territory by threatening self-harm.

Clearly he is confident that his threat of self-harm will win the day. But that doesn’t mean he will end up getting what he wants.

If our president were capable of listening to reason, I would tell him “Don’t hold your breath.”