{"id":26762,"date":"2026-01-11T16:54:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T00:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=26762"},"modified":"2026-01-20T16:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T00:14:11","slug":"our-era-of-21st-century-villains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/01\/11\/our-era-of-21st-century-villains\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Era of 21st Century Villains"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just the headline will do here.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-apps\/imrs.php?src=https:\/\/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/OWYXVV7OWRETD7DAHNSBYEZVK4_size-normalized.JPG&amp;w=1440&amp;impolicy=high_res\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Washington Post, Letters to the Editor, 11 Jan 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2026\/01\/11\/ice-shooting-minneapolis-terrorist-iran\/\">MAGA justice: Shoot first, don\u2019t even ask questions later<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/01\/09\/multimedia\/09dc-fbi-qmgh\/09dc-fbi-qmgh-superJumbo.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>NY Times, 10 Jan 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/01\/10\/us\/politics\/trump-ice-shooting-response-minneapolis.html\">F.B.I.\u2019s Inquiry Into ICE Shooting Faces Doubts After White House\u2019s Remarks<\/a><\/p>\n<p>First para:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Trump administration blocked Minnesota officials from investigating the death of the woman shot on Wednesday by a federal agent, then quietly offered this explanation: Local investigators simply could not be trusted to conduct a fair inquiry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is, of course, exactly upside down. It is the Trump administration that cannot be trusted to conduct a fair inquiry, because it&#8217;s already passed judgment about the victim as some kind of left-wing agitator who deserved what she got, within a mere couple hours after the incident, and before exculpatory videos came in.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Mr. Trump had already declared the shooting justified. Vice President JD Vance has asserted that federal agents had \u201cabsolute immunity\u201d from prosecution. The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, has spoken about the incident as if it were a closed case: Ms. Good had \u201cweaponized\u201d her S.U.V. to kill agents, she said, even though <a class=\"css-yywogo\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/video\/us\/100000010631041\/minneapolis-ice-shooting-video.html\">video analysis by The New York Times<\/a> suggested it was more likely that she was turning her car away from officers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>All of their claims are wrong.<\/p>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p>Similarly at <strong>JMG:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/01\/junior-ice-agent-should-sue-democrats-for-slander\/\">Junior: ICE Agent Should Sue Democrats For Slander<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The media owes JD Vance, and all of America a big apology. The Minneapolis ICE shooting is literally Covington 2026. The video clearly shows the ice officer getting hit by the car. She comes right at him. It doesn\u2019t get more conclusive than that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is absolutely not true. The video clearly shows something different. Do these people think they can get away with lying to everyone, all the time?<\/p>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p>Stepping out.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/01\/11\/multimedia\/11french-bfml\/11french-bfml-superJumbo.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp\" width=\"250\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>NY Times, David French, 11 Jan 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/01\/11\/opinion\/renee-good-trump-ice-minneapolis.html\">Trump and Vance Are Fanning the Flames. Again.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He begins by setting the context. George Floyd, Michael Brown Jr., the beating of Rodney King in 1992 in LA.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The King case was a preview of our modern dilemma. How do political leaders respond when video evidence causes the public to make up its own mind \u2014 regardless of what any judge or jury might have to say?<\/p>\n<p>The terrible divisiveness of police violence is why responsible leaders respond to every incident with extreme care. You lament the lives lost, you promise a fair and thorough investigation, and you call for calm. You do not prejudge the case. You do not set up an expectation that justice will be done only if your side\u2019s interests are vindicated. And you definitely don\u2019t send out allies and subordinates to whip up public anger.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230; But Trump isn\u2019t a responsible leader, and he\u2019s at his absolute worst in a crisis. He lies. He inflames his base. And \u2014 most dangerous of all \u2014 he pits the federal government against states and cities, treating them not as partners in constitutional governance but as hostile inferiors that must be brought to heel.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s exactly what has happened in the hours and days since an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good on the streets of Minneapolis on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Instantly, the administration\u2019s narrative locked in.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230; But if you <a class=\"css-yywogo\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/video\/us\/100000010631041\/minneapolis-ice-shooting-video.html\">watch videos of the shooting<\/a>, one thing is clear: No fair-minded person could watch that incident and conclude that Good was a \u201cdomestic terrorist\u201d on a mission to run down ICE agents. The administration\u2019s claims of terrorism are false \u2014 absurdly so.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But we&#8217;ve learned not to believe anything Trump or his administration says already; this is just another reason why. The problem is that there is apparently a large segment of the population, who only glancingly pays attention to the news, that *does* believe him, by rote. And they are as culpable for this administration&#8217;s bad behavior as anyone.<\/p>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p>Another broader perspective.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!E6CL!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9140fb0b-f228-4757-ae32-06d9faed32c7_1500x1000.jpeg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Paul Krugman, 9 Jan 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/paulkrugman.substack.com\/p\/the-mad-kings-madness-deepens\">The Mad King\u2019s Madness Deepens<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Trump wants war, war and more war \u2013 even against Americans&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>And as January 6th 2021 showed, Trump simply can\u2019t stand political rejection. He will do anything, use any tool or any person at his disposal, to obliterate the sources of that rejection.<\/p>\n<p>So as we head into the 2026 midterm season, the best way to understand U.S. policy is that it\u2019s in the pursuit of one crucial objective: Propping up Trump\u2019s fragile ego.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And so Maduro and Venezuela. And then Minneapolis.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Trump and his minions responded by flatly lying about what happened. But their accounts have been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/video\/us\/100000010631041\/minneapolis-ice-shooting-video.html\" rel=\"\">refuted by video evidence<\/a> which show an out-of-control ICE agent gunning down a woman who was simply trying to get away from a frightening situation. Yes, MAGA loyalists will fall into line, preferring to believe Trump rather than their own lying eyes. But public revulsion over Good\u2019s murder and Trump\u2019s mendacity are high and growing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And so Trump changes the topic by announcing a huge increase in military spending. Just what dictators need. Krugman concludes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>And here\u2019s a warning to those directly perpetrating Trump-directed atrocities: He will not be in power forever, and I expect and hope that you will be held accountable, personally, and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Here&#8217;s another long-term perspective, a new thought today. Everyday politics is driven by inattention and ignorance and short-term thinking. The longer-term view will be written by historians and captured by novelists and filmmakers. And in their view, Trump will go down as perhaps the greatest villain in American history. He&#8217;s perverted American ideals and undercut its ambitions and ruined its reputation in the world. Like Hitler, in German history. Hitler didn&#8217;t &#8220;win,&#8221; and neither will Trump.<\/p>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p>One more take.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/heathercoxrichardson_498x517.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/heathercoxrichardson_498x517-289x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"289\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/heathercoxrichardson.substack.com\/p\/january-10-2026\">January 10, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Yesterday, in an apparent attempt to regain control of the national narrative surrounding the deadly shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis, Vice President J.D. Vance led the administration in pushing a video of the shooting captured by the shooter himself, Jonathan Ross, on his cell phone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>She describes the video in more detail than I&#8217;ve seen anywhere else. Then:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>What is truly astonishing is that the administration thought this video would exonerate Ross and support the administration\u2019s insistence that he was under attack from a domestic terrorist trying to ram him with her car. The video was leaked to a right-wing news site, and Vance reposted it with the caption: \u201cWhat the press has done in lying about this innocent law enforcement officer is disgusting. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.\u201d The Department of Homeland Security reposted Vance\u2019s post.<\/p>\n<p>As senior editor of <em>Lawfare Media<\/em> Eric Columbus commented: \u201cDo Vance and DHS think we can\u2019t actually watch the video?\u201d Multiple social media users noted that Good\u2019s last words to Ross were \u201cThat\u2019s fine. I\u2019m not mad at you,\u201d while his to her, after he shot her in the face, were \u201cF*cking b*tch!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>I have some comments about the new &#8220;food pyramid&#8221; and how it reflects interests other than science, but keep putting them off in favor this latest scandal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just the headline will do here. Washington Post, Letters to the Editor, 11 Jan 2026: MAGA justice: Shoot first, don\u2019t even ask questions later \\ NY Times, 10 Jan 2026: F.B.I.\u2019s Inquiry Into ICE Shooting Faces Doubts After White House\u2019s &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/01\/11\/our-era-of-21st-century-villains\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservative-resistance","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26762"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26828,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26762\/revisions\/26828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}