Every time someone tries to defend the indefensible, it comes wrapped in the same two words:
“Yes, but…”
“Yes, Trump is a fascist, but he stopped the illegal aliens from coming across the border.”
“Yes, the ICE agent shot her, but she was about to run him over.”
“Yes, the ICE agent shot her, but she did not obey orders.”
“Yes, Esrati speaks truth to power, but he is so damn (annoying, brusque, crude, direct, evil, foul, gruff, fill in the blank).”
The “yes, but” is how we sand down atrocities until they fit in polite conversation.
On Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, Renee Nicole Good was shot in the face by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. The “yes, buts” started immediately. She did not comply. She did things wrong. She “FAFO’d” which is internet shorthand for “Fuck Around and Find Out.”
I have watched the videos. I have listened to the legal rationalizations. None of them change one basic fact:
Cops, of any kind, are not supposed to be judge, jury, and executioner.
They are not supposed to film themselves on their phones while they do it.
And any masked man with a gun and body armor barking “Get out of the fucking car” is not representing me, my government, or the best of us.
This is not normal. It is not law and order. It is how you slide into a police state one “yes, but” at a time.
Why this hits me the way it does
It still shocks some people to learn that I am Jewish.
My father was born in Berlin in 1927. My mother was born in England in 1928. They met on a kibbutz in Israel in 1954. My father had just gotten his U.S. passport back, my mother was there looking for an “MRS degree.” She stepped off a bus, saw him, and the rest is why I am here.
My last name confuses people. It does not sound Jewish. People hear it and think Italian, because “Esrati” sounds like “Maserati” without the “Ma.”
In 1933, in Palestine, my grandfather was told: why keep a German sounding name. So he changed it. According to my father, he picked the name of the “washer woman.” Later, when they came through Ellis Island in 1937, he did not know how to transliterate Hebrew into English. He used German phonetics instead. What should have become Ezratty, or Isardi, or something similar turned into “Es,” because in German that is pronounced “Ez.”
When masked, armed men demand to see your papers, I do not experience that as an abstract civil liberties dispute. I hear family history.
My grandfather left Berlin because of people like that. His attempts to get the rest of the family out, his parents, my grandmother’s parents, others, yielded exactly two successes, my grandmother’s sister and her daughter. Everyone else stayed. My great grandmother reportedly said, “What would they want with an old woman like me.”
Years later, my father, who re learned his fluent German after joining the U.S. Army and being stationed in Gorizia, Italy, at the end of the war, dug into the archives. He found the inventory of everything in my great grandmother’s apartment, down to the number of teaspoons and dessert forks in the silverware drawer. Germans are very efficient record keepers.
He also found the record of her “death” in Theresienstadt in 1943.
In February 2025, I finally met the only known relative on my extended paternal side, a second cousin in London. His grandfather and my great grandfather were brothers. He survived, somehow. Thank you, Ancestry DNA.
So when I see masked, armed thugs roaming American streets, demanding papers, I do not think “security.” I think “We have been here before.” And I hear my father’s voice warning that a country that prides itself on freedom can still be very good at looking away from cruelty.
Papers, please
In America, you are not supposed to walk around with “papers” you must produce on demand. That is the theory, at least.
Since 9/11, we have been backsliding. “Homeland Security,” the phrase alone should have made us flinch, normalized the idea that we are all potential threats. My tiny pocketknife with a one inch blade is contraband at an airport, at the Federal building, but a metal barreled pen, a much better weapon by the way, is just fine.
I say that as someone who was part of a well regulated militia, the U.S. Army, attached to Special Forces. If I want to tear out your jugular in the field, a pen is far more useful than a one inch blade as a field expedient weapon.
But one idiot tried to blow up a plane with explosives in his shoes, so now every shoe is a potential bomb. We were told to accept constant scanning, searching, and stopping as the price of “freedom.”
Somewhere along the way, freedom left the conversation.
Every action is now tracked. Clicks. Street cameras. Purchases. “Rewards” cards. Phone locations. Facial recognition. Unlike Europeans, we shrug and tell ourselves it is necessary because:
The Haitian in Springfield are “eating our dogs and cats.”
Farm laborers, who have always done the jobs Americans do not want to do, are “taking our jobs.”
“Illegal aliens” are “committing crimes.”
Yes, but. Yes, but. Yes, but.
Trump, pardons, and the corpse of the rule of law
While we are busy being afraid of our neighbors, we have a president arranging to bail out Argentina for 40 billion dollars and pardoning people who should be cautionary tales.
On Dec. 1, Trump pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, claiming without evidence that Biden had “set him up” because Honduras has drug cartels. Hernández had been convicted of trafficking drugs to the United States. You can read more at FactCheck.org if you like:Examining Trump’s Pardon of Former Honduran President Convicted of Trafficking Drugs to U.S.
He also pardoned the January 6th rioters who assaulted Capitol Police, all by himself.
Yes, but, we are told, we still have “checks and balances.” Three co equal branches of government, just like they taught you in elementary school.
Yes, but, “all men are created equal,” except the ones Trump tells us to fear, deport, imprison, or ship off to foreign concentration camps without due process. (note, this is the official video on 60 minutes channel, may not be the original that they shelved)
The rule of law is not fraying. It is being torn up in our faces.
My problem with God and with his self appointed bodyguards
The Christian right has sworn fealty to this charlatan king and somehow convinced themselves he is the second coming.
I have never understood why Christianity needed to exist in the first place. Jesus was a Jew. If he followed anything, it was what we now call the Old Testament. There was no printing press, no motel nightstands with Gideon Bibles, no Bibles tucked into mangers like a motel room prop, and most people could not read.
If you really wanted to be “like Jesus,” would that not mean keeping kosher and observing the Sabbath from Friday night to Saturday night. Seventh day Adventists at least have that part right.
As for me, I have a hard time with religion. A God who lets six million of “his people” be slaughtered at the hands of evil lost his claim on moral authority a long time ago, certainly with my great grandparents.
I call myself an “Atheist Jew.” I do not believe in the parables and fables. I do believe in the cultural commandments:
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Love thy neighbor.
Educate yourself.
Give to charity.
Do not let children go to bed hungry.
Do not let bankruptcy become a medical condition.
I believed in serving my country and swearing an oath to uphold the Constitution. God had nothing to do with it. I do not invoke his name to tell others how to live. I do think we should all try to live so that if there is a judgement day, at some set of holy gates or just in our own conscience, we can say we lived honestly, honorably, and tried to be a light in the darkness.
No “yes, buts.” Just “yes, I did.”
A different America I once saw
Most kids’ fathers do not write them a whole book about what it means to be an American, but mine did.
When we moved to Toronto in 1968, because my father did not trust what Nixon was about to do to this country, he started a book for me called “Dear Son.” Later, together, we added a subtitle: “Do You Really Want to Be an American.” It has been a free download on this site for a long time.
He did not fill it with flag waving. He filled it with stories about the country as he had actually seen it. He wrote about sitting on a bus in Virginia in World War II while a Black soldier with a Purple Heart ribbon on his chest was ordered to the back by a new driver, and how his own silence in that moment has haunted him ever since. He wrote about the day a church in Birmingham was bombed and four little girls at Sunday school were killed, and about the column he wrote asking his readers to think about “those small coffins.” For that, he got an unsigned letter that said “Get out of town you nigger loving bastard. We do not need any of your Comsymp (communist sympathizer) ideas.”
The lesson to his son was clear. Sitting quietly while uniformed men abuse power is its own kind of guilt.
At the time, dual citizenship was not an option. If we had stayed in Canada until I turned 18, I would have had to choose.
Looking back on those two years, I see a country that:
Provides health care for all.
Outperforms us on multiple indices that actually measure quality of life.
Does not spend more on “national defense” than the next eight countries combined, most of which are our allies.
Does not have jackbooted thugs in masks and battle gear roaming the streets with guns, demanding papers.
We were supposed to be the example. Somewhere along the line, we stopped acting like it.
Dear Son is still there for anyone to read. If you ever wonder why I end up sitting silently at a city commission meeting until Mayor Mike Turner had me arrested, or why I file a Quo Warranto to try to remove a crooked clerk from office, the answer is simple. I am his son. He taught me that pretending not to see or stand up is not an option.
“Papers” in Trotwood
Around 2012, I was driving to a small independent restaurant in that strange triangle where the Trotwood Connector ends near Salem and Shiloh Springs Road. Police had set up a sobriety checkpoint.
I was stopped. The officer asked me to roll down my window and produce my license. I cracked the window.
Me: “Officer, did I commit a crime”
Officer: “We are conducting a sobriety check”
Me: “I served my country because I believe in freedom and the Constitution. This is not Nazi Germany. You cannot stop me and ask for my papers”
Officer: “Thank you for your service, have a nice day.”
Yes, but, I could have been drunk.
Yes, but, I could have stolen the car.
Yes, but, I could have had a warrant.
Not today, Satan.
I am an American. There are no “yes, buts” when it comes to what used to be the laws of our land.
“Nazi Germany all over again”
Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, a former Navy SEAL and pro wrestler, looked at what happened in Minneapolis and said it plainly: this is Nazi Germany all over again. He told people to read their history.
I am with Jesse.
Compare that to the draft dodger, convicted felon, who turned a reality TV show into a launchpad for the White House.
Apparently, a lot of Minnesotans are with Jesse too, including the mayor of Minneapolis, who told Trump to get ICE the fuck out of his city.
There are no “yes, buts” here. What happened to Renee Nicole Good is not what our founding fathers fought for. It is not what the Constitution authorizes. It is not what my immigrant parents taught me America was supposed to be.
Bravery, not excuses
We are being asked, daily and hourly, to excuse the inexcusable:
“Yes, but, she did not obey.”
“Yes, but, he is keeping us safe.”
“Yes, but, that is what it takes now.”
What we need instead is what we have seen in Minneapolis, in Portland, and across what used to be a great country:
People marching.
People protesting.
People refusing to let anyone hiding behind a badge and a mask operate without accountability.
People insisting on being treated with respect and on feeling safe from their government, not just by it.
We need braver people in government, people like Ventura and the mayor of Minneapolis, who are willing to say “Not today, Satan. We are still America, and we still have laws that protect us from tyranny.”
The “yes, but” is how cowards sleep at night.
Bravery is just “no.”
No more excuses.
No more rationalizations.
No more pretending this is normal.
And no more “yes, buts.”
Thank you for the very informative and personal post, David. I couldn’t agree more. Innocent people (and eventually the silent/complicit) are often victims of tyrants and extreme cruelty. Usually at great cost, the yoke of subjugation is flung off and the dictator killed or put in prison to his rotting demise.
It appears Trump’s jackboot thugs (aka like Putin’s “little green men”) are not stopping with deadly excessive force on American citizens. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and her direct subordinate Greg Bovino are doubling down and violating every level of the rule of law.
https://bsky.app/profile/123simco.bsky.social/post/3mcauifnwwk2w
The Trumps are generational cowards and draft dodgers – in two countries! Trump, Hegseth, Noem, and Bovino are unfit and will be eventually prosecuted. Trump’s newest DOJ threat against Jerome Powell and SecDef Henseth’s censure of Senator Mark Kelly will not stand.
Senator Mark Kelly is an honored veteran, truth teller, loving husband, and a stand up guy. As for me and mine, we stand with him and all veterans who honorably serve their country.
https://bsky.app/profile/captmarkkelly.bsky.social/post/3mcaubbzjsd2w
You better get your papers out, Tim, in case Daddy Trump forgot already that you were there for him and all of the other traitors to our nation on Jan 6. No mask required.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJu0TnoZhHE
Fleet Admiral Ernest King said nations in peril call in the S.O.Bs to save them. Perhaps you and Melissa prefer to live in a world where Russia’s or China’s dictator calls the dance. Take a breath and have another piece of cake.
P.S. Remember to chew before you swallow.
Have another cup of tea with your own cake, Donald, and read over these musings about military history and Fleet Admiral Ernest King. Smarter people than you and I offer these. Shock and awe did not work for some (“W”), but one can still learn things.
https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera/videos/notion-of-taking-over-venezuela-will-explode-in-our-face-quotable/1386546296477371/
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2020/july/what-would-ernie-king-do-if-he-were-cno-today
I don’t think Admiral King would suffer the fools and failures we currently have in the Presidency and at the Pentagon and suspect King would take a very dim view of the waste, drubbing, abuse, political manipulation, and utter misuse the military is being subjected to at present.
How many military equipment screw ups, opsec / comms snafus, or personal character abominations has America had to endure while under the command of Trump and Hegseth so far? I have lost count of how many planes have crashed or fallen into the sea and the untold taxpayer money spent on defense parades / unnecessary travel / ill conceived war games.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Hegseth
Trump dances to the tunes from Putin and Xi. They brought Trump to the dance and, in the famous words of journalist Molly Ivins, “You got to dance with them what brung you.” It’s a sad and embarrassing state of affairs for the United States of America.
Renee Good was executed in broad daylight by jack-booted thugs that are funded by the US taxpayers and old Donald says its worse in Russia. What a bum. No surprise as the claim to fame for republicans is proudly managing wombs, so you get the stupid elected to government and the stupid defending it. That right wing socialism sure does pay and the white republicans are certain they will not be next.
I am a supporter of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, while the mouth breathing Republicans are offended that liberals are defending the intent of our Republic. Freedom from government over reach and less regulation so I can pursue Happiness….Happy, intelligent people make the little men of the GOP very, very mad.
…yet another example of the David Esrati writing style I call ‘brilliant incoherence.’ Of particular interest is David’s autobiographical flight to Toronto, and return to the US as an adult. I can only guess at the relief in Canada knowing the pain in the glutes they averted..
David is a victim of selective outrage. If Renee Nicole Good had been an insurance company CEO, he’d be on the next flight to Minnehopeless to raise the shooter’s bail money…
It seems to me Old Bandito is trying to say something between the lines about David Esrati’s birthplace or entrance into the United States or yada yada. Are you dancing around some nonsensical Trumpy birther crap there, old man? Your messaging is muddled.
I know you like your MSG, but it’s not good for what ails you. Here’s a better recipe to try.
https://youtu.be/9J3py525fQc?si=Bis6A0E4fsPzseLa&t=268
See if you can find a cooking partner in South America to get things heated up … yum.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sSqv5MW4jy0
Choose enduring love, a life well lived, and few regrets. Trump’s not it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuVIJlSDOs0&list=RDOuVIJlSDOs0&start_radio=1
Liberal white women have a sort of smugness with authority? Hmmm.
I think Will Cain brought his tiki torch, zip ties, and white pointed hood to work with him.
https://bsky.app/profile/konstitution.bsky.social/post/3mcdgi46lds2u
“That’s fine, dude, I’m not mad at you”, said Renee Good before Iraq war veteran Jonathan Ross shot her in the head three times and then said “fucking bitch” after killing her.
Per People magazine, it turns out Ross lied at a neighborhood party about what he does for a living, saying he was a botanist. He could have just been an honored vet with a civil service job, but no. Ross is a notorious DHS murderer now who is married to a much younger Filipino daughter of immigrants. Go figure.
We all know and see what Trump and his henchmen love to do to women.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTQ23YKgW37/
https://bsky.app/profile/iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social/post/3mcdecjsmpc2e
This will not stand for long. Fortunately, lots of good men love and honor the women in their lives, liberal or not.
Ross, like Trump, had to hire an immigrant to a “job” that no self-respecting US Citizen would take.
Donald and the Old Bandito must have to shell out some cash to get any companionship in their miserable lives. They must love to hear “are you done yet”, but hey its America and it takes all kinds, but man what pathetic lives they live.
“I do believe the American people are largely concluding that the individual in question, she …” weaponized her message.
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mcfehst6ut2c
DHS spokesperson Trish (Patricia) McLaughlin (Mrs. Ben Yoho) is a serial liar like her current boss, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. I’m reminded of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast or newly married Oliver North and Fawn Hall when I see them together. Apparently, Mr. and Mrs. Yoho like covert criminal activities like Mr. and Mrs. North, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96R4vHlZMEY
Mr. and Mrs. Yoho honed their ability to lie on demand during Vivek Ramaswamy’s last Ohio political office campaign, but their foundational skills stem from time with the corrupt Ohio Republican Party, which is quite possibly a criminal enterprise. Several former Ohio GOP chairs / leadership have spent time in prison. Matt Borges (2012-2017) just got out.
https://ballotpedia.org/Ben_Yoho
Expect the lies to continue from these native Ohio Republicans when Ramaswamy comes back from his tropical vacation in the Turks and Caicos (thanks to private jet plane tracking from Ohio Governor Dem candidate Dr. Amy Acton).
Pipsqueak Mike DeWine, Ohio’s lame duck governor, knows nothing about loyalty, having thrown Dr. Acton under the bus during the Covid pandemic. The DeWines vote party over country every time, especially for a Trump mention. Mike DeWine has House Bill 6 crime fingerprints all over himself and his boy, junior Ohio Senator Jon Husted, does, too. Crooked is as crooked does.
DeWine just endorsed Ramaswamy. The grift continues under the Republican regime.
Get your papers out, people. Nazi rule and McCarthyism 2.0 have arrived in America for another turn. I wonder what symbol all non-Trump voters will have to sew onto their clothes so the Trump regime can readily identify who is their idea of a domestic terrorist.
https://x.com/Mr_Dave_Haslam/status/1921477389827137901
Be warned, Tim. Breakfast at Bob Evans is the least of your worries, bro. Where have you been lately or did you run off to join the ICE Squad to get that $50,000 signup bonus?
ICE Barbie says you might be a criminal while eating your green eggs and ham, walking the dog, pumping gas, shopping at Target, or dropping off your child at school. Trump and Noem don’t care if you are US citizens. The Constitution be damned. Less than lethal firearms and excessive force are the methods of choice.
https://bsky.app/profile/donnayoungdc.bsky.social/post/3mchzesvbtk2o
Apparently, Trump is threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act on those Minnesota nice American citizens because they aren’t going along with the pogrom indoctrination.
Trump’s regime IS coming for you. It’s neighbor vs neighbor now. Until it’s not. You choose. Remembering will be your burden, as it was for all victims of illegal / immoral persecution.
https://www.auschwitz.at/karl-stojka-en
Yes, but
KKKaroline, aren’t there Daddy pedophile protector issues?
https://bsky.app/profile/mariopro.bsky.social/post/3mciaodoep22s
You can finger that cross necklace all you want, but it won’t protect you from the fact that President Trump is a perverted and crooked serial liar and you shill for him like a Leni Riefenstahl style propagandist.
https://bsky.app/profile/rbgprevails.bsky.social/post/3lyddb2n7jc2g
Look into this new bit, which is troubling, ask the President about it, and report back to us.
https://lisevoldeng.substack.com/p/dont-worry-boys-are-hard-to-find
If, as Melissa proclaims, we live (all-together-now) ‘under Nazi rule’, why is she still at large?
For the Nazis persecuted the mentally infirm.
Donald, I know you’re trying to be cute, but don’t take my word for Donald Trump being “America’s Hitler”. Trump’s own Vice President JD Vance believed that and said it himself.
Now, you don’t know me or my mental state and are, thus, not qualified to speak on the subject. What you could learn is that the Nazi pogrom you refer to was called Aktion T4.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aktion_T4
Sadly, it’s true the Nazis eliminated many innocent victims they deemed racially unhygienic or to just save money. The elderly, disabled, religious leaders, protesters, the mentally or physically infirm, Roma, Jews, children, and those arbitrarily deemed undesirable for no good reason, were systemically euthanized. The United States had a bad period of forced sterilizations and eugenics atrocities until we smartened up.
I wouldn’t want a repeat of Nazi style “empty bed” actions to take place in America. I mean it would be so wrong if Trump and Noem’s paramilitary Schutzstaffel (SS) swooped into Dayton, Ohio and started disappearing old men from senior housing / widow’s homes. Wouldn’t you agree, Donald, that would be undesirable?
Trump’s first immigrant wife, Ivana, reported that her husband kept for bedside reading a book of Hitler’s speeches called My New Order. Donald Trump is a lifelong racist (as was Fred).
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trumps-history-adolf-hitler-nazi-writings-analysis/story?id=105810745
FFS, is this Trump’s America? America can do better than this!
https://bsky.app/profile/69cletus.bsky.social/post/3mci6zyh6z225
Mr. Esrati’s chronic Mike Turner Mania seems to have cropped up, now that the later is going to cakewalk into a 12th term in Congress (then waltz into a blue chip federal pension and cushy job at Raytheon). Of course, Mr Esrati should hold that seat, but the electorate is too ignorant to appreciate his superior intelligence, no matter how frequently he mentions it. What does Mr Esrati have to do?
Did your Ouija board tell you all that about Mike Turner, Donald?
Chump moved on Machado like a b*tch. He invaded so she had to let him have a piece.
https://bsky.app/profile/spankymccracken.bsky.social/post/3mcj2uy3us22c
Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun gave his 1920 Nobel Prize in Literature to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in 1943. Hamsun liked Adolf Hitler and became a Quisling Nazi supporter when Hitler invaded Norway. Hamsun was charged with treason after the war, but had mental problems and was too old for punishment beyond hefty fines.
Trump is a weak, pathetic traitor and the whole world knows it.
https://bsky.app/profile/trending.bsky.app/feed/566602485
…’yes’ David Esrati is a veteran. ‘But’ that status does not exempt him from the law, despite what his inflated ego and sense of entitlement assures him.
Were David the constitutional expert he claims, he would know DUI checkpoints have had the blessings of the Supreme Court since the 1990 ruling in Michigan v Sitz. And when it comes to constitutional interpretation between David and the Supremes, I go with the nine in the black robes every time.
My question to David is what other legal obligations he thinks his veteran status shields him from? Had the Old Bandito been conducting that stop, and David laid that “I’m a veteran and I know my rights” blather on me, I would have reached for my gun and handcuffs and said “not today Satan”…
Trump is exposing the Cabal that runs the world….
They have been hurting all people for since 1913….
I amazed at the amount of TDS folks that can’t see what’s happening….
Trust Trump he has opened the Biggest Rico case in History !
All by the book, no mistakes or charges dropped…. “We caught them all”
Can you imagine how much wealth we would have if fraud from the Democrats and the Republicans was stopped. Just think you could drive on smooth roads have nice things not look like a Third World shit hole country at the airport or the sanctuary Democrat cities.
Dave why you don’t you dig on the fraud and expose it like the 18 year old YouTube kid did ? You and I both know there is tons in Dayton !
Renee Good disobeyed a lawful order while using a deadly weapon and paid the price end of story. You can sugarcoat it all you want but a car is a deadly weapon. They’ve rammed into these ice agents over 10 times in the last two weeks…..
fuck around find out
https://x.com/justicecometh/status/2011824730853065008?s=46&t=Py4415amM1FIuUSVIRaQgA
Tim, I’m glad you didn’t go down another rabbit hole and ride with ICE Barbie, which could have been hazardous to your health! I see you are still firmly holed up with the Qanon freaks trying to get legit as “independent media”. When you follow washed up J6 and traitor military types like Phil Waldron and Michael Flynn, expect to take on heavy lies and losses.
As to old vets, I believe Old Bandito can speak to real military action and may know the face of war. I wonder if he would defend Lt. William Calley and Charlie Company members who performed the indefensible killing of innocent babies, women, and old men civilians at My Lai in Vietnam in 1968. It was a U.S. war crime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_massacre
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJZTycsmiJw
I hope Old Bandito didn’t bring back that mentality to American streets and is not advocating gunning down innocent American civilians in cold blood. Are you good with that OB? We all saw Jonathan Ross, a former vet of the US Iraq invasion (another war lie) did just that. Renee Good’s minor children didn’t deserve to grow up mother less, but Jonathan Ross and his young Filipino wife’s kids get to live (even if in federal criminal witness protection).
Old Bandito may not know that Renee Good was an award winning poet who received the 2020 Academy of American Poets Prize. I believe he writes poems about MSG, Dear David, and such. Renee Good’s sparkling star power is really shining now. Rest in peace, Renee Good. We hardly knew you, but Jonathan Ross will live in infamy now.
As with all corrupt/liar presidents, it’s always about the cover up. A real investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh, broke the My Lai story. Trump and his lawless cabal (Tim’s word) are no different. As the old adage goes, we will repeat history when we don’t learn from it, or something like that. Get a free Netflix trial & learn history so we don’t keep repeating it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CxEnECKs9U
I’m not going to sound off on Rene Good, other than to say she should not have been shot. But Pu-lease, Melissa, don’t laud her because she “was a poet”. Mao and Pol Pot were poets, too.
Donald, good to know. I commend you for agreeing with all sensible people with a shred of human decency that Renee Good did not deserve to be shot dead by Jonathan Ross. My poetry comment was just a pearl of wisdom for Old Bandito’s necklace of knowledge.
I saw this DHS memo and independent journalist report, which may inform about the deadly excessive force cluster gone awry.
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/leaked-memo-de-escalation-is-key?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F20552ac5-33dc-4be9-989d-c5f134f4f67a_1806x1988.png&open=false
Apparently de-escalation was the operative word for what DHS/ICE should have been doing.
Trump’s two top DHS leaders spouted invective anyway:
1) DHS Secretary Kristi Noem: “These vehicle rammings are domestic acts of terrorism,” Noem said on the day of Good’s death.
2) DHS Deputy Secretary Trish McLaughlin (an Ohioan): “This unprecedented increase in violence against law enforcement is a direct result of sanctuary politicians and the media creating an environment that demonizes our law enforcement and encourages rampant assaults against them,” McLaughlin said.
The local PD Chief had a different view:
3) Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara: “in law enforcement, you know, we expect our officers to be training and trying to do everything they can to de-escalate situations and avoid the use of force and certainly avoid the use — the loss of human life whenever possible.”
Jonathan Ross was presumably a trained US ex-military Iraq War veteran with over a decade of DHS training/experience. While not exactly safety oriented policing, even DHS memo(s) cite chapter and verse on caution, de-escalation, and avoid use of force / loss of human life. The “fucking b*tch” comment post kill shots told me all I need to know, though. :-(
Great descriptive writing, David. Your Dad must have been a wonderful father.
In my mind since ICE was activated was the automatic replacement of “Brownshirts” for ICE whenever they were reported on. It’s Trump’s personal army, as the news last night showed several Democrats linking Jan. 6 thugs to ICE membership.
Did I tell you the story about the three quacks?
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mckhzp7jpp2o
It looks like some important extortion related decisions are being made about US.
https://bsky.app/profile/alanderminna.bsky.social/post/3mcn4inxgzc22
We’re being forced to choose sides now!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/HOb2Hspcn3s
I’m still dreaming of that peach cobbler cinnamon bun from Pflugerville, Texas lol…
Dear Mr Old Bandito, Mr Esrati was sort of a tier two operator. His name does not appear on any stolen valor databases, but he is selective as to the information he releases to the public. (And most civilians are too ignorant of things military to call him out, even if they cared.) His MOS was in communications. He ended up in an SF reserve unit; however he didn’t, as they say, ‘wear the tab’.
@Donald, I wasn’t a tier two operator. I never completed the Q-course. I had 3 days to go in Phase 1 and left. I was assigned to Service Company, 5th SF GRP and got injured shortly thereafter. I then was assigned to Service Company 7th Group and worked in the dive locker while awaiting moving to the Temporary Disabled Retirement List. After 2 years on TDRL and 2 years of College at Wright State via Chapter 31, I was assigned to 11th SF Grp Reserve, and was on a team, as commo 2. The plan was to go back to the Q-course upon completion of college. I was there 2 years- in Jamestown. Senior year in College- it was a question of graduation- or playing weekend warrior, I chose graduation.
I did have proficiency in morse code at 15 groups per minute, and I was Airborne qualified.
There has NEVER been anything I put out that said anything but that.
What’s your military record?
Donald, do you have any proof for what you say about David Esrati’s military service or are you just talking out of your ass tonight? Cough it up, bub.
One thing is sure – Donald Trump is a coward many times over who has never served in the military. He did dress up as a toy soldier for his folks, though. You’ll see his immigrant mom Maryann (a domestic from Scotland) and his anchor baby dad Fred (immigrant parents from Germany) on his own 2013 Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10153134068950725&set=a.486910606128098
That was Trump at the private Cornwall, New York boarding school in 1964, right before he started the string of five (5) draft deferments for the Vietnam War. A Canadian article addressed his stolen valor / cowardice:
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/fact-check-authentic-picture-trump-232600863.html
Donald Trump’s paternal grandfather, also named Fred (a barber), fled Germany to avoid the draft, went to the US & Canada to mine for gold, ran a brothel / restaurant in the Yukon, made some money, and returned to Germany for a wife. Grandpa Fred Trump and his pregnant wife were soon kicked out of Germany because Trump’s draft dodging grandfather did not serve Germany in the compulsory draft the first time. The Trumps are generational cowards and just a few steps from the immigration boat dock themselves.
I wonder if that’s why Donald Trump hates immigrants so much. Does he want to be a so-called “Heritage American” like JD Vance, but can’t pull it off? Is he really just a common member of the hoi polloi and not a blue blood? Maybe Grandpa Fred Trump only found fools gold and the Trump progeny are used to painting their digs with it ever since.
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/23/jd-vances-2028-strategy-be-even-worse-than-trump/
…in your list of famous wordsmiths, dear Donald, you neglected to mention Charles Manson. The cult leader is remembered on web pages today for his ability to bust a rhyme..
As you know, the designation poet is not infrequently used to add a sympathetic and intellectual elan whether or not the designated in deserving.
The most recent example is Qassim Soleimani. After the Iranian General got smoked on an airstrip in 2020, did the New York Times describe him as “worldwide Jihadist,” or “killer of American soldiers” or “the Ayatollah’s muscle?” No, the headline referred to him as an “austere and religious poet.”
Forgotten is the attitude of poets held by Mohammed (peace be upon him). In one of the first of the Sharia trials after the occupation of Mecca, the Prophet ordered the mass execution of thieves and prostitutes. Included was Mohammed’s most vociferous critic.
“But I’m a poet” the soon be beheaded appealed. “Poets and hookers?” Mohammed allegedly said, “I see no difference”…
Yes, but aren’t we all human and divine?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAl05lQm4nQ&list=RDjAl05lQm4nQ&start_radio=1
No matter the expression or spirituality, love your neighbor as yourself. Have a blessed day!
Come on the white leadership of Ohio, the City of Dayton and Montgomery County was
so racist that they decided to invest in first generation Indians instead of our own citizens and Daytonians. The Federal and Ohio governments financed, through the Dayton Chamber of Commerce, the election of the same Republicans that Bandito, Donald and Tim have supported for years. That my friends is the classic definition of Systemic Racism.
I knew what was up when I ran against Mike as a Republican when the Chamber backed him in 2002.
Racism wrecked public education in the South and the Hillbillies from Ohio are culpable in wrecking the US from the inside due to racism of its own citizens. Mike Turner still being in Office and Mike DeWine backing Vivek being your next Governor makes my analysis self-evident.
Yes, Bandito, Manson and Mao wrote poems, but they’re not known for that.
Yes, Renee Good was shot in the chest, but Jonathan Ross did that.
Yes, Renee was a poetry winner, but she was not killed for that.
Yes, Renee birthed three small souls, but her children are mother less.
Yes, Renee was a parent’s child, but God called His own child back.
Yes, Renee touched the face of God, but Trump and Ross can’t track.
Yes, Republican lawless seize the days, but the Good ones form the stacks.
https://bsky.app/profile/mrsissy.bsky.social/post/3mcqhzt25kc27
…damn. If Renee Good was all that, start the beatificaton process, and get the Pope on board. I’m sure we can find some miracles she performed if we look hard enough…
RENEE GOOD:
“That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.”
POPE LEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6efOB3NXKLY
U.S. BISHOPS:
https://www.usccb.org/news/2025/us-bishops-issue-special-message-immigration-plenary-assembly-baltimore
POPE FRANCIS:
https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/letters/2025/documents/20250210-lettera-vescovi-usa.html
He knows what is in our hearts.
Dear Mr. Esrati,
My service record? I was a Sad Sack in the infantry (11B). A sympathetic first sergeant in the 2nd Bn./ 7th Armored Cav. (Custer’s former command) in West Germany appointed me company clerk. I also spent two years with the 1st Bn./29th inf. at Fort Benning. We primarily supported Fort Benning’s many schools, especially Ranger, which for some arcane Army reason, saw us uniformed out in 1980s Ranger garb (black beret, jungle boots, etc.). We passed for the real thing, such was the degree of ignorance within and without the Army.
I consider my ‘service’ as merely the duty of citizenship–AND NOT AN EXCUSE TO DODGE A ROADSIDE SOBRIETY TEST, which, of course, you would have failed, drunk as you are on your absurdly over-inflated ego.
Donald those sobriety check points may have been blessed by the SCOTUS, that doesn’t make the decision correct.
Probable cause is the standard and getting in a box canyon with the cops for no reason is not warranted or Constitutional.
Have you really studied the MADD induced Federal overreach? Raising the drinking age to 21 was as stupid forcing every state to change the DUI standard to 0.08. No evidence supports these changes but by god it did erode our rights. Is that what you put on the uniform for?
I believe in laws that support the General Welfare like vaccines as air is universal like water but when it comes to roads then the Feds can set laws for Federal Interstate highways but once I get on to a state or local road then the State prevails. 21 and 0.08 being forced on every state is really what you support?
Donald you may have put on the uniform but you really didn’t understand what for. David stood up against a shit decision based on an unjust law enacted by the Feds using women as a cover.
You and the Bandito have commented without using your real names and it’s another indication of how you are far less brave or an ideal Citizen than David and I. Donald Trump definitely got grabbed you by the pussy, that’s for sure.
Greg Hunter, I think Donald is using his right name.
Donald aka Donald Phillips, were you drafted for WWII, Korea, or Vietnam?
Old Bandito aka Ice Bandit, were you drafted for WWII, Korea, or Vietnam?
Donald Trump was drafted for Vietnam, but lied with a doctor’s note and got many deferments. Trump was always a coward and a bully. He remains both today.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2019/02/27/trumps-lawyer-no-basis-for-presidents-medical-deferment-from-vietnam/
No matter how long you have been in America, or how you got here, be proud of our nation and work to keep it free for all Americans. It’s under attack from within and without.
https://bsky.app/profile/mjfree.bsky.social/post/3md6b7vkxj22b
https://bsky.app/profile/adamjschwarz.bsky.social/post/3md6l4iu23c2r
In my opinion, military service is a patriotic act, in peace or war time. Those who don’t wish to serve can be a conscientious objector and support the country in other ways while maintaining their moral or religious convictions.
On July 4, 2026, our nation will commemorate and celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Visit america250 dot org. Watch the fabulous PBS Ken Burns series on the American Revolution. Courage, bravery and extreme sacrifice are abundant. Many left it all on the field of valor.
I thank them all for their service or ultimate sacrifice so we can be free of tyranny.