Welcome to CaturSaturday, January 10, 2026, and Save the Eagles Day. America’s bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) doesn’t need much saving, for within my lifetime it’s gone from being an “endangered species” to a “species of least concern” (other species of eagles in other countries may be threatened, of course). Here’s a lovely 52-second slow-motion video of eagles catching salmon. I still have no idea how they can see the salmon so well! (Yes, I know they have awesome eyesight, but still).
It’s also National Oysters Rockefeller Day and National Houseplant Appreciation Day. (If anybody can help me with a moribund Adenium obesum, I’d appreciate it.)
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the January 10 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*The buzz all over my Facebook page (which is where I go for solace, not controversy), is about the killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. One friend’s comment said this:
It was an act of domestic terrorism: terrorism by ICE,Trump’s personal Gestapo bought to you by this NAZI regime
To me that is offensive, because whatever the Trump regime does—and of course I detest the administration—it is not comparable to what the Nazis did. The term “Nazi” has become hyperbole meant to tar those anybody with whom you disagree politically. When Trump starts rounding up groups, putting them in camps, and gassing them, then you can talk to me. Yes, the killing was a tragedy, but given the hard-to-interpret evidence I am not laying blame on anyone at this point, and perhaps never will. All we have is some snippets of video and reports on what Good was doing at the police action. Further, it bothers me that people’s take on the incident is nearly 100% correlated with their political ideology. That means that people are passing judgement based more on their politics rather than the evidence.
The WSJ reports on a controversy about who will investigate the killing:
Local officials in Minnesota called on the Federal Bureau of Investigation to bring in state law enforcement to run a joint investigation into the fatal shooting of a woman by an ICE agent.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and other elected officials on Friday asked the FBI to share evidence with the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
“The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in Minnesota has consistently run these investigations before. They have done so without bias,” Frey said at a news conference.
“Our ask is to include the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in this process because we in Minneapolis want a fair investigation,” Frey said.Frey’s comments marked the latest escalation in a deepening rift between Minnesota and federal officials over the shooting incident where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a 37-year-old mother of three, Renee Nicole Good.
From the second WSJ article:
A federal immigration agent’s fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis has spurred deeply diverging narratives of who is to blame.
The incident also has created an unusual rift between federal and local law enforcers, raising questions about whether, and how, Minnesota officials might seek to prosecute the agent over a shooting they say was unjustified. And it has renewed questions about Trump’s aggressive deportation agenda and the surge of ICE agents into the streets of American cities.
Here’s what to know about the shooting and potential next steps.
When does the lethal use of force cross legal lines?
To use lethal force, an officer has to have a “reasonable apprehension” of an “imminent threat” of serious bodily harm or death being imposed against the officer or someone else, said Phil Stinson, a Bowling Green State University criminologist who studies police misconduct.
The ICE agent’s actions raised questions about whether the incident was a case of “officer-created jeopardy,” where the law enforcement officer put himself in a position of danger and then felt the need to use force, said Geoffrey Alpert, a University of South Carolina criminal justice professor.
Investigators—or a jury—would look at the totality of the circumstances surrounding the shooting, not just the video, to determine whether the officer was reasonable in his belief that the driver he shot posed an imminent threat.
“We have a lot of video material to look at, but I always caution people that video isn’t everything,” said University of Chicago law professor Sharon Fairley. “They’re also going to look at other pieces of evidence and aspects of the situation that may not be reflected on the video. It’s going to be a tough question to answer.”
Could Minnexsota prosecutors file criminal charges against the federal officer?
Law enforcement officers are prosecuted occasionally for excessive use of force, but it is typically local cops being charged by local prosecutors. Legal observers say it would be rare, though not unprecedented, for local and state leaders to look to prosecute a federal officer over the objections of the federal government.
As I said, I have no idea whether I’ll form an opinion about this killing, just as I’m hesitant to form an opinion about the origin of the Covid virus. If you want good “progressive” opinions, you know where to go. But surely the evidence should be shared among investigating offices, state or federal, unless there are strict rules about evidence-sharing that I don’t know about.
*As always, I’ll steal a few items from Nellie Bowles’s weekly news-and-snark column in The Free Press, called this week “TGIF: Eat real food.”
→ Total MAHA victory: This week marked total, complete, and unequivocal MAHA victory over America. The Free Press MAHA moms are giving each other promotional rankings in their army—they’re slapping lentil patches on their uniforms. First, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped the recommended number of childhood vaccines from 17 to 11. No longer is it advised that you give your little sack ’o vax (child) vaccines for things such as meningitis and rotavirus before they leave the hospital. We’re now in line with Denmark’s health recommendations. I’m the last pro-vax millennial natalist. I give those kids everything I can find; I read about cool new vaccines in development like other women read about Bottega bags and think, Hmm, I want it. I respect the low-vax Danish, sturdy people with few needs, but when I look around America—no offense, but I do not see any strapping Danes. Anyway, as I tell the moms in MAHA lane at our office, watching them eat a new, seed oil–free venison stew: You people do whatever you want. Sure, when you’re in charge of the company lunch order we’ll all get diarrhea, but that’s political heterodoxy. That’s an open-minded newsroom.
The second part of the MAHA victory is that they inverted the food pyramid, so now it’s actually healthy. Like now the government is telling us to eat well.
→ Cea Weaver: There’s a new, made-for-TGIF character on the scene—Cea Weaver, newly appointed director of the New York City Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants. It’s a real position of real political power. Here’s Cea:
- “There is no such thing as a ‘good’ gentrifier, only people who are actively working on projects to dismantle white supremacy and capitalism and people who aren’t.”
- “Rent control. . . is a perfect solution to everything.”
- “Private property including and kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy masquerading as ‘wealth building’ public policy.”
- “Impoverish the *white* middle class. Homeownership is racist / failed public policy.”
Amid outrage over her appointment, here’s Sal Albanese, a former New York City council member, defending Cea: “The piling on Cea Weaver is disgraceful. A young woman attempting to make the world a better place. Disagree with her philosophy, don’t like her posts from a long time ago, that’s fair. However, the pummeling is cruel.”
A young woman. Cea Weaver is 37 years old, just like me, and my face is entirely crow’s feet. Or here’s a Nation columnist: “As millennials achieve political power, we’re going to need a general amnesty on bad old tweets.” Which would be totally fair if she didn’t actually believe in those positions anymore—but she does. Her only apparent effort at damage control was to say that she’d phrase those thoughts differently today. And her stance clearly fits into the broader Mamdani Doctrine, which is to slowly abolish private property. For example, right off the bat: They tried to delay a building’s bankruptcy sale, arguing that rent regulations have made that building an unsupportable business (Supreme Court, are you hearing this? Mamdani might be a gift. .
→ Tim Walz out, no questions please: Tim Walz won’t run for reelection amid the Somali scam news. And he will not take questions. There’s a fun video of the press conference where you can hear a reporter shout: “I thought you said you were gonna take questions? Why didn’t you?” Perhaps it’s related to his doing things like giving awards to people who later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. But that’s just a guess.
Look: I get it. I also avoid answering questions. Right now, there’s a New Yorker writer profiling my Bar, and the writer sent me these long, thoughtful questions asking about details from past years. Sorry, Tim and I are on Lake Minnetonka, and we can’t hear over the wind! No, but seriously, my comment to The New Yorker: “I support whatever my earnest, hardworking wife gets up to. As the better writer and generally accepted ‘hotter’ one, I just love to see her succeed in her endeavors.” And I stand by it.
*The United Arab Emirates has cut scholarship money to its citizens who wish to study in the UK. Why? The UAE is worried that the students could be influenced by Muslim extremists there! (h/t Williams)
The United Arab Emirates has restricted funding for its students wishing to study at British universities over concerns about extremism on campuses.
A list of eligible universities where students from the UAE can receive scholarships for study in the coming academic year has been published and notably excludes all UK institutions.
The scholarships, which do cover universities in the US, Australia and across the rest of Europe, provide students with generous funds to cover both tuition fees, as well as a monthly stipend to cover basic living expenses while they study abroad.
According to reporting in TheTimesand Financial Times, all UK funding has been limited because of concerns over the presence of the Muslim Brotherhood on UK campuses, which is proscribed as a terrorist group in the UAE.
People familiar with the situation told the FT that the exclusion was not an “oversight”, but that the UAE did not want its students to become “radicalised” while studying at British institutions.
The UAE has long campaigned for the Muslim Brotherhood to receive the same status in the UK and across Europe, but a previous 2015 government review – led by John Jenkins, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia – concluded that while the group “promoted a radical [and] transformative politics”, it stopped short of banning the group.
The exclusion of UK institutions does not prevent Emirati students from studying in the UK, and those who are able to self-fund will still be able to apply.
According to figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the number of UAE students studying in the UK doubled between 2017 and 2024 to 8,500.
This is hugely ironic: the UK, because it now harbors so many Islamists, is not a place where the UAE wants its Muslim citizens to study!
A tweet:
BREAKING:
The UAE announces it will cuts funds for citizens who want to study in the UK out of fear of Emirati students being radicalized by Muslim Brotherhood Islamists on British campuses.
An Arab state now views a European state as a dangerous Islamist radicalization hotspot pic.twitter.com/uqCxDuDwvr
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) January 9, 2026
*Maarten Boudry reports from Belgium that the new rector of Ghent University (the place where he works, but probably not for long) used AI to write her inauguration speech. The result? She gave several quotes from people like Einstein that were completely fabricated by AI. I first found out about this when Matthew send me this tweet:
OMG. The Rector of the University of Ghent used ChatGPT for her opening speech this academic year. Journalists pointed out the hallucinated quotes (including Einstein). Now she's doesn't dare to go and get an honorary PhD in Amsterdam.There's A LOT in there. But still some *shame*, which is great.
— Liesbeth Corens (@onslies.bsky.social) 2026-01-08T19:56:05.117Z
From VRT News:
At the start of the academic year, Rector Petra De Sutter gave a speech containing fabricated quotes from well-known thinkers. These quotes were ‘hallucinations’ generated by an AI tool. The matter came to light after an investigation by news website Apache. Ghent University confirms that errors were made due to the use of AI or artificial intelligence.
De Sutter, who for the Green Party earlier served as Europe’s first trans cabinet minister in PM De Croo’s federal government, spoke at Ghent University on 19 September 2025 at the start of the academic year. She quoted philosopher Hans Jonas and psychologist Paul Verhaeghe, among others. She also attributed the statement ‘Dogma is the enemy of progress’ to Albert Einstein. Apache’s investigation shows that the three quotes used are fabricated. They appear to be hallucinations of an AI tool.
The UGent press service explains that things went wrong when the draft text was edited by AI. On the university’s website the speech has twice been amended since September. The first time was in October and the second time was recently in January. This happened after Apache pointed out the errors. There is now a disclaimer accompanying the text on the website. The speech with the hallucinated quotations can still be viewed in the video on the website .
In the speech, Ghent University has now replaced the quotations with paraphrases and also corrected the sources that turned out to be incorrect. The blunder is embarrassing, especially since Ghent University itself has a very clear AI policy. ‘If you use AI tools irresponsibly, you may provide information without sources, the sources may be fabricated (hallucinations), or the information may be accompanied by incorrect sources,’ it states.
From an email response by Maarten (published with permission) when I asked him about this:
She tried to cover up her tracks with mendacious and half-hearted “corrections”, pretending that she just “summarized” the quoted luminaries (she didn’t, it was all hallucinated and the speeches didn’t even exist). And finally, when the dam had broken and it was all over the media, she published an embarrassing “nonpology” in the passive voice (she “fell” in a trap and “let” herself be fooled), then pivoting right away and having the chutzpah to lecture others about AI.She MUST resign.
Did I tell you she previously LIED about her equally outrageous and stupid quotes on the Gaza genocide? She warned in an interview that any researcher who dared to question the genocide narrative is “crossing a red line” and will not be protected by academic freedom. [Maarten has crossed the red line.]
When there was an outcry about this, she proceeded to tell bare-faced lies to her own Board of Directors, claiming that her statements were about the Holocaust and were “twisted” and “framed” by the journalist. It was a lie, and the journalist pointed it out: the whole conversation was about Gaza, and she even proof-read the whole interview.
Here is the journalist correcting the record: https://x.com/barteeckhout/status/1990682977786036392
Here’s the Rector’s “nonpology” (translated from Maarten) and a tweet from him::
On Thursday, January 8, 2026, media reports surfaced about incorrect quotes in Rector Petra De Sutter’s speech at the opening of the academic year. These errors resulted from the use of generative AI.
The Rector would like to convey the following message to all students and staff.
AI has become an indispensable part of our daily lives. At Ghent University, we embrace the benefits of AI and want to teach our Ghent University students to use it critically. It’s easy to be fooled by AI. Most users have probably experienced this before. I deeply regret that I, too, fell into this trap. Unfortunately, I can’t undo this. This experience is a good lesson for me and will undoubtedly further fuel the debate around AI use.
With this message, I want to emphasize to all Ghent University staff to maintain a critical eye when assessing AI-generated output. Use AI responsibly. You, as the user, are and remain solely responsible for what you do with the tools, and it is up to you to verify the reliability and source of the tools’ output. Never abandon your critical attitude and continue to hone your AI literacy, because developments are moving at breakneck speed.
A tweet. The translation from Dutch is this: “As Einstein said at the Sorbonne in 1927: “Sorry is the hardest word”. If you don’t know how to apologize, ask GPT. Really, @Ugent, how much more painful can this get?
Zoals Einstein zei aan de Sorbonne in 1927: “Sorry is the hardest word”. Als je niet weet hoe je je moet verontschuldigen, vraag het dan aan GPT. Echt, @Ugent, hoeveel pijnlijker kan dit nog worden? pic.twitter.com/Mzm6KFxp94
— Maarten Boudry (@mboudry) January 9, 2026
Because of this flub, the Rector decided not to accept an upcoming honorary degree from the University of Amsterdam. I guess this is marginally more ethical than plagiarizing from others, as Harvard’s ex-President Claudine Gay was supposed to have done, but crikey, if a University President can’t write in her own words, what hope is there? Of course, the University of Ghent is a hotbed of wokeness, which does seem associated with AI.
*You may have listened to the famous banjo player Béla Fleck of the former Béla Fleck and the Flecktones (he’s won 17 Grammy Awards). Fleck has just withdrawn from giving three concerts at the Kennedy Center x
The celebrated banjo player Béla Fleck announced on Tuesday that he had withdrawn from three concerts at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, becoming the latest artist to forgo playing at the venue amid changes from the Trump administration.
Mr. Fleck, an 18-time Grammy Award winner, was scheduled to play with the National Symphony Orchestra in February. Several musicians have cut ties with the Kennedy Center since its board voted last month to add President Trump’s name to the institution.
“It has become less and less a musically and artistically based situation and more of a highly politicized and divisive one,” Mr. Fleck said in a statement to The New York Times. “This pushes against the deepest motivations of why I want to be a musician.”
In a social media post announcing his withdrawal, Mr. Fleck said that performing at the Kennedy Center had “become charged and political, at an institution where the focus should be on the music.”
When asked for comment, the Kennedy Center pointed to a social media post by its president, Richard Grenell, who responded to Mr. Fleck’s post by saying, “You just made it political and caved to the woke mob who wants you to perform for only Lefties.”
Mr. Grenell added, “We want performers who aren’t political — who simply love entertaining everyone regardless of who they voted for.”
An updated listing on the Kennedy Center’s website said that Mr. Fleck, who was scheduled to play “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin, had pulled out of the concerts because of “personal issues.” Replacing him is the orchestra’s principal clarinetist, Lin Ma, who will perform Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto.
I don’t think the “woke mob” wants Fleck to play only for Lefties, and I don’t think Fleck was forced to cancel because of a mob. He just doesn’t want to play in a place that was renamed to link “Trump” to “John F. Kennedy.”
Here’s Fleck playing some bluegrass with his band; the song is “Wheels Up”:
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, I worried that Hili was getting religious, but Andrzej tells me she is joking.
Andrzej: Can you see anything out there?
Hili: No, I’m hearing the voice of Providence.’
In Polish:
Ja: Coś tam widzisz?
Hili: Nie, słucham głosu Opatrzności.
*******************
From CinEmma:
From the New Yorker’s FB post, a cartoon by Lynn Hsu, showing the new food pyramid:
From Cat Memes:
Masih retweeted this. It’s time for Americans to start calling attention to what’s going on in Iran. It’s a MASSIVE protest against a repressive theocracy. Roberta Metsola is President of the European Parliament.
The world is once again witnessing the brave people of Iran stand up.
Europe stands by their side. pic.twitter.com/iKYBLwYBEg
— Roberta Metsola (@EP_President) January 8, 2026
We support Hamas? What kind of morons ARE these?
Yah, we know. You don’t have to keep telling us. https://t.co/KDukiVHuZ0
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) January 9, 2026
A meme from Simon, sent to him by his friend:
From Malcolm: a road map of Australia (I want to go across the south and then back and up to the north):
Road map of Australia. pic.twitter.com/trzoudjTdj
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) January 2, 2026
One from my feed. Is it real? I hope so, and hope that the muntjac came out unscathed. How did it get in there with the rhino?
🦌 A tiny deer challenges a massive rhinoceros at Wrocław Zoo — and the internet can’t get enough
A video from Wrocław Zoo has gone viral, racking up millions of views across social media.
The unlikely “challenger” is a male Chinese muntjac — a small deer species from Asia —… pic.twitter.com/ynzyuzRo6N
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) January 9, 2026
One I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:
This Hungarian Jewish boy was gassed as soon as he arrived in Auschwitz. He was nine years old, and would be ninety today had he lived. https://t.co/T83ioKwVYd
— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) January 10, 2026
Two from Dr. Cobb, who, like me, is depressed at the state of the world. This singing kitty makes us both feel better. You can find the full video here.
Timeline cleansing
— Oregon 🕎🎲 (@oregonthedm.bsky.social) 2026-01-09T03:36:08.426Z
Here’s another “timeline cleanser,” part of a series:
Best TikTok thing going is the two dudes trying food from every country without leaving NYC. If you haven’t seen them yet, it’s incredible. My favorite so far is last week’s. Legit got me emotional.
— Brian Coulter (@philabcoulter.bsky.social) 2026-01-09T01:50:56.483Z
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history. -Lord Acton (John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton), historian (10 Jan 1834-1902)
Today’s clinical update with Dr Dan on This Week in Virology (TWiV) deals with rfkjr/cdc recommendations and the importance of the science-educated medical community being aware of this and able to counsel those of us in the non-medical hoi polloi. I think the post-modernist influence in rfkjr/CDC trusting their feelings over science is an example of great untruth number two in Lukianoff and Haidt’s “Coddling of the American Mind”. I was amused by post-modernist thinking and behaviors in the humanities as an undergrad in the 60’s, but its recent incursion into serious policy-making matters in the 21st century seems to present a real danger to civilization. Url for episode should be (if I didn’t foul up):
Thr problem for the Left is that they are all in on Trump being as bad as Hitler. If they step back from that at all, they invite people to make their own judgments about Administration actions. If ICE aren’t the Gestapo, maybe what they are doing is acceptable? And once people realize that Trump isn’t Hitler, the Democratic Party looks really stupid and corrupt.
What a generalization! Most people on the left do not equate Trump with Hitler. “Stupid and corrupt”, yes, and maybe showing signs of early stage fascism, but not in the same boat as Hitler.
Equating Trump to Hitler is fairly common on the left. The following is a quote “Trump is a racist like his stupid supporters. Trump is a bigot like his stupid supporters. Trump is a dictator like Hitler. Only racists, pedophiles, Nazis, and fools support the pedophile president”.
That is not common, though I recognize that some people have said things like that. Some people on the right (including close Trump allies) called for the execution of some of Trump’s political opponents (Sen. Mark Kelly for example), but I do not believe this is a common sentiment on the right.
I appreciate Jerry’s take on the Minneapolis shooting. I’m not saying the shooting was or wasn’t justified, but it’s best to not engage in activities where you might be arrested. If you are confronted by the police or federal authority, do not resist arrest.
We don’t have enough information to be certain, at least not yet. I live in Portland, OR, and we had all kinds of anger against federal agents for trying to apprehend alleged (illegal) Tren de Aragua gang members. So many people here are insane.
Re: the incident in Minneapolis— The last time the state governments were in such open defiance of the federal government’s orders was over school integration and busing, wasn’t it? And the states mostly lost that fight (except over some of the forced busing). I think the states will largely lose this fight too, if only because a majority of the American public wants to see illegal immigrants deported.
ICE is using tactics that are too severe in some cases, but I support what they are doing. There’s no right to be in this country illegally, whether you committed a crime or not. I’m not sorry to see you caught and deported if that’s your status. And neither state governments nor protesters should be allowed to interfere with federal agents doing their job.
I’m sorry that this one civilian protester Good lost her life, but I view her case much like I do Ashli Babbitt’s: her own actions and choices directly led to her death.
I think they both made mistakes, but one paid with their life without any warning that that was on the table. The officer has instructions to NOT get in front of or behind a vehicle. This according to their training manual, apparently. That will be the point about “officer created jeapardy” that Jerry mentioned, I think.
Mark, Renee Good had many seconds of warning that lethal force was on the table. That warning started when she turned her car across the road to disrupt an ICE enforcement operation. From that moment the warning clock was ticking. She might not have been able to extricate herself from the situation she created for herself but in a deterministic world the outcome ought to have been reasonably foreseeable to her.
I’m not commenting on the use of force itself, just on your statement “without any warning that that was on the table.” Lethal force is always on the table when you mix it up with police officers enforcing the law. Maybe the anti-ICE citizen vigilante patrols will take that as their prior warning.
The Honda starts out pointing almost perpendicular to the road. Video taken from farther away and behind the officer shows the driver backing up and turning the wheels so that the Honda, which was a few seconds before pointing to the officer’s right, now points directly at the officer. Then – all in a few seconds – a different officer tries to open the Honda’s driver-side door, the driver’s wife also tries to open the passenger-side door, but both doors are locked, the wife yells “Drive, baby, drive”, the driver guns the car forward, and the first officer uses his gun. Although I don’t know anything about the law in Minnesota, this doesn’t look to a lay person like me to be officer-created jeopardy. The driver and her wife seem to have deliberately put themselves in a dangerous situation, taunted the officers, then failed to follow instructions to get out of the car, and instead tried to flee and in the process put an officer in danger. None of this is good, but responsibility for how it turned out doesn’t seem to rest with the officers. I’m so sorry for the woman who died and for her family, especially because there’s a decent chance her wife will face criminal charges. It’s all awful.
“I think the states will largely lose this fight too, if only because a majority of the American public wants to see illegal immigrants deported.”
The majority of Americans, hopefully in both parties, want transparency. Given the lies already made by the administration, the recent pardons of criminals friendly to the administration, and vindictive prosecutions of his opponents, it is reasonable for people to doubt that they will conduct an impartial investigation. The state government will also be under political pressure that could influence their investigation, but if there are two different results, maybe the evidence will be presented in such a way that we can each come to a more objective conclusion than if one of those investigations was withheld. We don’t promote transparency by forbidding relevant authorities to investigate the incident.
Today’s heartbreaking new video shows Ms Good very politely telling the officer that she has nothing against him. This video shows that Trump and his people were lying when they called her vicious.
I should add that the left has also been lying, saying that she was not an activist. By her own admission, a few seconds before she was killed, she was an activist participating in anti-ICE activities. This in no way justifies her killing, of course.
My guess is the muntjac and rhino are friends and companions to alleviate the boredom of confinement and loneliness. The rhino seems to be playing along with the “attack.”
It looks real. I’ve been fooled by AI videos before, so I’m hoping it is; the rhino looked like it was having a lot of fun.
I was seeing it that way too. It isn’t the first time that I see hints that rhinos are not that bad-ass.
Then there’s this that Jerry posted a while back. Total bad-ass. Though the video does note this behavior is highly unusual…
“Rhinos are usually calm under sedation” but of course we’ve all seen the phenomenon of mean drunks. Perhaps this was a rhino equivalent.
I agree that it is too early to form a judgement on this case. As a former prosecutor and public defender, I will be interested in seeing the autopsy report, for example. One key piece of evidence is whether the first shot missed. Judging from the location of the bullet hole in the windshield, that may be the case. The autopsy, and a thorough search of the vehicle, would likely be able to determine that.
That said, the federal take over of the investigation, and the premature determination by Trump and Vance and others to pass judgement on the officers innocence, indicates that a cover up may take place. We may never know all of the evidence.
Imagine if Biden or Harris or Pelosi had made the same type of pronouncement about Ashlee Babbitt on Jan 7th, 2021.
Can you say why it would matter if the first shot missed?
I’m surprised (well not really) how much is made online of the fact that subsequent shots were through the side window, hence the officer was no longer in front of the car. I thought we all knew by now that they are trained to keep firing, since one bullet often isn’t enough. So I would have thought only the initial decision to draw & start firing mattered.
I doubt that the officer would have known whether the first shot hit or missed, or would have had time to decide NOT to take a follow-up shot even if he somehow had known immediately that his first shot hit. Once you decide to shoot, you keep shooting until the threat is over. At that distance, you don’t take a single shot and stop to re-assess. In other words, I disagree with you that whether the first shot hit or missed is relevant either legally or as a matter of the officer’s self defense.
Disclaimer: Trained defensive shooter, but not a lawyer.
ETA: Somewhat redundant with Pawel’s comment above.
The ICE killing was entirely predictable. Because of a calculated belligerence, on all sides, someone was going to die, that was for sure. That also means it’s going to be a giant, dangerous, shit-show. Because that’s what we do now.
More cat videos, please.
Love the rhinosaurus* playing with the little deer. Is the deer challenging the rhino, or are they just having fun? I vote for the latter. We need more fun!
The division regarding the Minneapolis shooting is pushing us towards violence. It doesn’t even matter what the facts are or who is at fault. City and state officials are making things worse, implicitly encouraging protestors to fight the feds. The unrest will probably spread and get worse before it gets better.
*Misspelling intentional and just for fun. We need more fun!
The scandal at Ghent is relevant to Jerry’s post yesterday, “Quinn Que: To save liberalism, “progressives” must apologize and abandon their air of moral certainty”. The rector de Sutter is a trans-identifying male (and a gynaecologist!) with a long political career in the Green Party. He’s never been told ‘no’. He’s probably as shocked as anyone that Einstein didn’t say “Dogma is the enemy of progress”, that quoting Einstein this way contravenes all kinds of Ghent University policies and general academic norms, and that Maarten and others care about this. I expect there will be no apology and no resignation.
There was a time when a U.S president would withhold public judgement on an incident like the MN ICE shooting/slaying. I’m trying to remember when that was.
Recently additional Trump public comments per the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/world/americas/trump-venezuela-machado-nobel-prize.html
‘President Trump indicated on Thursday evening that he will meet with María Corina Machado . . . after refusing to support her . . . Ms. Machado has tried to ingratiate herself to Mr. Trump and earlier this week offered to give him the Nobel Peace Prize she was awarded last year. Mr. Trump has long coveted the award . . . Ms. Machado said . . . that presenting the prize to Mr. Trump would be a token of gratitude from the Venezuelan people for the removal of Mr. Maduro. She had previously dedicated the award to Mr. Trump . . . Mr. Trump said . . . that “it would be a great honor” to accept the award, adding that it was “a major embarrassment to Norway” . . . that he had not been given the prize.’
Surely Ms. Machado is not indulging in sycophantic Trumpian transactionalism. Apparently her “dedicating” the prize to him was not sufficient.
There are several choice reader comments. One asked whether a Medal of Honor winner should give his medal to Trump for bravery on the golf course. Another similar one about the Purple Heart. Donations of Super Bowl rings and Oscars and other golden and “shiny” objects are mentioned.
Ought, say, Nobelists in Physiology and Medicine adopt a similar transactional strategy to restore federal funding for medical research?
So AI made up a quote and attributed it to Einstein – hasn’t everyone been doing that for decades?!
What’s so strange about this attitude for me is simultaneously believing that the police are boy scouts. The masked officers are doing the devil’s work, but you can safely jeer at them for the enjoyment of your fans on facebook. They are wildly unconstitutional but won’t so much as grab your phone. They are shipping innocent migrants to concentration camps yet you can stop them by just parking your SUV in the way, this will “unarrest” people, you totally got “trained” to do this.
It betrays a lack of seriousness in thinking about power, violence. Maybe about the world in general.
Renee Good seems like a mirror image of Ashli Babbitt, in this way. To make a serious attempt at a coup you must know you are going to have to kill the presidential guard. Some of you are going to get shot. If that’s not your intention, but on your merry flag-waving protest you find the room to which the senators have retreated with their armed guards, and barricaded the door… how can you possibly not imagine that the guards will think you mean real harm?
That’s very good, Pawel.
First they came for the soft-target poseurs and morons.
And FWIW the Gestapo were never the Leader’s personal armed force; that was the SS.
You’re not seriously saying ICE “came for” soft-target poseuse and moroness Renee Good are you, I hope? Looks more like she came for them. Gritty lady, got to admit: bringing a car to a gunfight.
A riff on Martin Niemöller’s “First they came for the socialists, …”; ‘they’ being the regime and its pattern of activities, not just wrt the named enemies (the socialists, trade unionists, Jews, and finally him). And I am quite serious about it. This is not a joke. We’re rather beyond that, no?
I get the reference, thanks. But ICE didn’t come for anybody, except the illegal aliens it’s their job to apprehend. Renee Good waded into that situation all on her own initiative. It wasn’t about her until she and her friends made it about her.
Someone has to try to keep your country together. It doesn’t help to cast federal immigration authorities as secret police rounding up everyone who opposes the regime. That way leads to insurrection under false premises and you definitely don’t want that. You’re not beyond that, thank Ceiling Cat.
I’ve witnessed the sort of phenomenon you describe in my visits to US National Parks such as Yellowstone and Grand Teton. I’ve seen tourists go right up to dangerous wild animals such as buffalo, male elk and bears as if they were docile creatures in a petting zoo. Affluent people today live lives so insulated from existential threats that they think running up to a buffalo for a selfie, or challenging border control officers who are doing their job in deporting illegals, are risk-free acts.
As for their purported wish to see criminal illegal aliens remain in Minnesota, why don’t they take some of them into their own homes? Or put their own children in the Learing Center? Better to play-act at revolution, it seems.
It seems to me (from afar mind you) that blokes patrolling streets, armed, with face masks is not convivial to having a pleasant day.
It looks like seige material with the act of pulling, detaining, intimidating, killing, on the streets akin to… Hitler’s brownshirts and perhaps Gestapo, hightened by the fact, this is the US, leader (eh) of the free world.
What a farce there is so much going on with this.
“Engaging in street fights and intimidating trade unionists, Romani people, and especially Jews. This created an atmosphere of chaos that allowed Hitler to present himself as the only leader capable of restoring law and order.”
Anne Applebaum has something to say about ” The Real purpose of ICE” Substack and if true, US citizens maybe sleepwalking into something even they don’t beleive is happening.
Interesting and of worrying times for the US.
Hard disagree. If I lived in certain neighborhoods here in L.A. (or Minneapolis, for that matter), I would welcome it.
Re Nazis and “Nazis” —
● Trump usw. are obviously not Nazis. As a minor and perhaps bad-taste cheap shot, the actual Nazis had a far better sense of political drama. Nighttime public-participation book-burnings are much more impressive than this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/climate/nasa-goddard-library-closing.html
● At what point short of industrial-scale genocide would the “Nazi” insult be appropriate?
And re the President of the European Parliament standing with Iran — what has she actually done or is planning to do that might have some actual effect? See my above comment about poseurs. To be fair, IMO, The Don has done far more for the prospects of Iranian democracy than the feckless European governments.