Appeasement Kills
Establishment Democrats will have American Blood on Their Hands, Again.
Establishment Democrats are talking right now like the problem is “bad tactics” or “lack of oversight” at ICE and DHS. They think writing things on paper will make a difference. Getting an agreement with Trump will solve the problem.
No.
The problem is that ICE and DHS are doing what they were built to do—and under Trump they’ve been turned into a paramilitary political weapon. We’ve watched it in real time in Minneapolis.
First, Renée Good is murdered by a government-sponsored masked terrorist operating in a roving street gang. This appears to be a pre-meditated murder. The masked terrorist deliberately manufactured a dangerous situation in direct contravention of the “law enforcement training” we’re told he had: he stepped directly in front of a car with a driver at the wheel. We have good reason to believe this was a pre-meditated murder because, at the same time he stepped in front of the car, he switched his phone/camera to his off-hand, freeing his dominant hand to draw his gun once he had placed himself in potential danger. Demonstrating he planned to draw his gun once he was in position to manufacture this “justification” for murder. To all appearances, Renée Good was deliberately executed, and the murderer was deliberately placing himself in danger, in direct contravention of his training, specifically to manufacture an excuse. Good’s murderer, Ross, is not a new recruit. He is a many-year veteran of ICE/DHS. And let’s be clear, even if none of the above were true—even if stepping in front of a car with a driver was something Ross was trained to do rather than to avoid, he was not in any danger when he took the any of the shots, and certainly not when he took the third shot, the killing shot.
Anyone with eyes knows Ross was in no danger from Good.
Second, Alex Pretti killed just two weeks later. He may have been deliberately targeted. He was assaulted by ICE/DHS agents about a week before they murdered him. They broke a rib beating him up because he kicked their car bumper. In other incidents, ICE/DHS agents have specifically said they are filming protestors and adding them to a database they have labeled “domestic terrorists”. That’s reasonable grounds to believe the may have filmed Pretti when they beat him up and broke his rib, and identified him as a “domestic terrorist” before they assaulted a woman in front of him, and when he came to help her up, they pepper sprayed him multiple times. After all, he’s a “domestic terrorist”. He calmly filmed them with one hand, his other empty and open held high in the air, no threat to anyone. A gang of masked government-sponsored terrorists grabbed him, threw him to the ground, beat him on the head with a pistol or a Maglite or something like that. He covered his head and offered no resistance. They disarmed him of his legal concealed carry pistol he never even tried to touch. Then, after he was disarmed, one or two of them shot him in the back, then they all stepped back and shot his dead corpse about 7 or 8 more times.
Then these supposedly “trained law enforcement officers” failed to properly secure the scene for investigation and refused state investigators access. As they failed to secure the scene and refused state investigators access in the Renee Good murder. Everyone knows the Trump administration is desperate to cover up everything to ensure zero accountability.
And we’ve watched the Trumpian pattern that follows: smear the dead, call them “terrorists,” blame the victim, and demand the public accept the lie, and stonewall the investigation.
So here’s the warning, stated plainly:
Fail to abolish ICE/DHS now, and you will have blood on your hands.
Because Trump will not comply with anything less, and it will be hard to get compliance here.
Fascist cannot be appeased, especially “mob boss” type fascist like Trump.
Trump’s move is always the same:
“agree,” then ignore
This isn’t a theory. It’s a governing style.
Look at the Epstein files: Congress passed a transparency law with a deadline. The Trump DOJ missed it, released only a tiny fraction, massively and unlawfully redacted, and still can’t provide a real date for full compliance.
Look at ICE and the courts: a federal judge in Minnesota cited repeated disobedience of court orders by ICE—enough that he was prepared to haul the acting ICE director into a contempt hearing—until ICE complied at the last minute by releasing a detainee. There are thousands of cases being brought against ICE/DHS policies, and they are not complying with court orders. It’s a strategy to clog the courts while not complying. It’s the mob boss looking at establishment Democrats across the table, sticking his chin out and saying, “What you gonna do about it, whimp?”
This is what Trump-world does: stall, stonewall, dare institutions to enforce the rules, then make a small move at the last second to avoid consequences—while keeping the machine intact.
So if Democrats think they’re going to “negotiate” mask rules or “guidelines” or “independent review” and call that victory, they’re not just naïve. They’re complicit.
Either knowingly or out of truly monumental ignorance.
Either way, “leadership” this flaccid isn’t leadership, it’s abdication.
Why “reform” will fail
Fascism isn’t a policy dispute. It’s a power dispute. It treats every compromise as proof of weakness, and every concession as incentive to take more next time.
And it cannot afford accountability.
If Trump allows a real investigation that leads to prosecutions, it tells every armed thug in the chain of command: you can be held accountable. That’s how loyalty cracks. That’s how the whole apparatus stops functioning. That’s why he’s fighting firing Noem. He might survive firing her, but he would not survive actually holding Ross and the other murderers accountable. He cannot afford to allow his thugs to be accountable to the law, or to anything other than him. That’s how “mob boss” style fascist like Trump operate.
So the incentive is to protect the murderes, protect the chain of command, and keep escalating—while offering just enough theater to get a vote through or calm a headline.
That is why “restrictions” won’t work. That is why “agreements” won’t work. Trump will take the vote, take the win, and then keep doing what he was going to do anyway.
The blood will be on the hands of the appeasers
Here’s the part that establishment Democrats keep avoiding:
When you keep funding and legitimizing a fascist regime, you become responsible for what it predictably does next.
After Renée Good’s killing, seven House Democrats still voted with Republicans for a DHS funding bill that included major ICE funding.
Alex Pretti’s murder is on their hands.
And yes, the hands of Trump and Republicans also, but establishment Democrats are complicit in this fascist project.
Here’s the enabling pipeline:
Trump policies kill → outrage → damage control → compromise → votes → funding → back to murdering Americans.
This is what progressives warned about in 2016. We said you don’t beat fascism by “working across the aisle.” You beat it by starving it—of money, legitimacy, personnel, narrative oxygen, everything it needs to survive.
Ostrom 101: rules without enforcement are bedtime stories
Elinor Ostrom taught something painfully basic: institutions work only when there is real monitoring and real consequences.
Without enforced sanctions there will never been any compliance.
That’s where we are.
If Democrats won’t impose the one consequence that matters—ending the funding and abolishing the agencies—then the next murder after the “deal” is signed will be on them. Not morally in the abstract. Practically. Predictably.
They already have blood on their hands of course, like from the soft fascism of a private healthcare system where “containing costs” = denying care = murdering Americans = increased corporate profits.
Murder is murder.
The dead don’t care if they were murdered by a gas chambers and ovens, by bullets and bombs, or by insurance bureaucracy and red tape: they’re all government policies that murder people to enrich the wealthy. US corporations are making bank on bullets and bombs for Palestine and Minneapolis no different that Nazi corporations were making bank on ovens and Zyklon B or US insurance companies are making bank on denial of care = literally murdering Americans.
Will establishment Democrats care that they’ll have even more blood on their hands?
No, of course not.
Establishment Democrats—like Trump and Republicans—don’t care about the people, they only care about their big donors. A lot of big donors are getting massive chunks of the hundreds of billions the Trump administration is spending on ICE/DHS.
Real Opposition
If your idea of “opposition” keeps the murder machine funded, you’re not opposition.
You’re management.
Your job is to keep the murder machine funded and operational.
Abolish ICE.
Dismantle DHS as a domestic political weapon.
Stop pretending fascists will honor agreements they don’t fear.
Otherwise, more Americans will die and the people who chose appeasement will have blood on their hands—again.
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Your analysis is point-on. If a criminal organization has taken over our government administration, then a logical response would be police action and prosecution by appropriate and relevant authorities. You are right that Schumer must act not only as a Senator but as a law enforcement officer. As a smart lawyer, he should be able to figure that out. The issue is will, and knowing that he has backing. That’s where politics count. As David Brooks wrote, we need a mass movement inspired by political heroes. Now.