Further

Good Bunny Bad Trump Dept: Super Bowl LX sucked, but Bad Bunny's exuberant "cultural landmine" of a half-time show was fire, a heartfelt, sanguine, unifying "love letter to the American Dream," or what MAGA called an "affront to the Greatness of America" during which they "couldn't understand a word of it" - Spanish! horrors! - and what's up with that? The final, unforgivable sin, proof their sordid culture war's almost done: The scoreboard proclaiming, "The only thing more powerful than hate is love."

Sunday's Super Bowl, held at the Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA, made it into the ranks of "among the six most boring games ever." But the brouhaha over an all-Spanish show at this historic, ICE afflicted moment by a 31-year-old global superstar and fierce advocate of Puerto Rican independence who dedicated his performance to "all Latinos and Latinas," has loudly urged "ICE out," launched a 57-date world tour that skipped the continental US, paused a European tour to join protests in San Juan - and sometimes wears a dress - made up for the game's lack of dazzle. Born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, he grew up in Puerto Rico's working-class coastal town of Vega Bajal, came of age in a period marked by economic recession and natural disasters - like 2017's Hurricane Maria, when Trump infamously tossed paper towels into a suffering crowd - and just ten years ago was a student working at an Econo supermarket and writing songs in his spare time.

Predictably, the exit of mini-Nazi Bovino did little to staunch ICE abuses - kids gassed, women dragged, skulls fractured, observers facing guns - which go on apace. But so do growing protests, testimony and court rulings against them. This week saw a spectacularly scathing one as ICE Barbie tried to strip protections from 350,000 Haitians peaceably living and working here - en route, dubbing them "killers" and "leeches." The result: "Federal judge reaches down Noem's throat, rips out her heart, and eats it raw."

Amidst a half-assed government shutdown that's funded vast venal parts of the regime but temporarily left out DHS, "metaphorically trapped on the street in its weaponized SUV," nobody's mourning the abrupt departure of former "commander" Greg Bovino, who quietly slunk back to whatever dark dank cave he crawled out of. Swapping him out in the wake of outrage over ICE's murderous abuses, it was agreed, was "like shitting your pants and then changing your shirt." "To stem a spiraling crisis, the White House replaced an asshole with a different asshole," reported Andy Borowitz, who quoted "senior asshole" and Nazi ghoul Stephen Miller on what's next: "Anyone who thinks this administration is going to run out of assholes any time soon better think again. We have a very deep bench." (It includes his ignorant, hateful wife.)

Despite the specious swapping out of fascist ICE leaders seeking to quell public fury, the gutted, steadfast denizens of Minneapolis continue to show up in frigid weather to demand "ICE Out" and "Stop Killing Us." Honoring their righteous struggle, Friday sees the city nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by The Nation, which cites its "moral leadership" for those fighting fascism on "a troubled planet." Likewise moved, The Boss just wrote them a song. Minnesota, says one patriot, "taught us to be brave."

Writing to "the distinguished members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee," the editors of The Nation magazine nominated the city of Minneapolis and its people for the 2026 Nobel Peace "as longtime observers of struggles to establish peace and justice" and as the editors of a magazine that's proudly included "several Nobel laureates on our editorial board and masthead - including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr." With their "resistance to violent authoritarianism," they argue, "the people of Minneapolis have renewed the spirit of Dr. King’s call for the positive affirmation of peace.” No municipality has ever been recognized for the award, they acknowledge, but "in these unprecedented times," they believe Minneapolis "has met and exceeded the committee’s standard of promoting 'democracy and human rights, (and) creating (a) more peaceful world."

What to say. Alex Pretti, 37, a kind, principled, hard-working ICU nurse who cared for real soldiers in dire need was executed in the street at close range by a vicious gang of government sociopaths cosplaying as soldiers. After state terror killed him, state terror smeared him with "flat-out insane" lies, because the man who dedicated his life to helping others was murdered by a man who has dedicated his life to hurting others. Pretti died trying to protect two women.

Videos from Saturday morning's protest in Minneapolis show Pretti, dressed in brown, directing traffic and filming federal agents; forensic video analysis clearly shows his right hand holding up his phone, and his left hand empty. When agents start pushing protesters and observers back, Pretti retreats with them but keeps filming. As one thug violently shoves a woman to the ground, Pretti moves to help her, in response, the thug pepper sprays both Pretti and the woman in the face. As Pretti struggles to continue filming and protecting the woman, a swarm of six or seven nearby agents in full tactical gear rush in to pull Pretti away from her; they slam him to the ground, pin his arms down, and begin beating, punching, kicking him; one appears to pistol-whip Pretti about the head as other protesters yell for them to stop.