What a Day

Tim Walz and Keith Ellison had another news conference yesterday and Walz’ anger and frustration were real, and so was Ellison’s. I recommend watching it if you missed it.

Because we’ve seen it happen again and again, I think we’re all expecting to be disappointed by the Senate’s action on ICE. Since Democrats are in the minority, it’s worth setting expectations. Here’s Greg Casar’s view:

I generally think Patty Murray is better than the average Democratic Senator, but I’m wondering why we can’t take money back from ICE as part of a deal.

Moving on to Trump’s response, I think he’s getting that ICE is very unpopular so there’s a possibility that he might pull the plug and move on to the next atrocity.

Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse at the VA, and this is disgusting:

In yesterday’s press conference, Keith Ellison mentioned that his son was a former combat medic who became a RN in Minnesota, and that his son and his son’s colleagues were very affected by Pretti’s death. Many were crying at work.

Pretti’s death seems to have precipitated a lot, but I wonder if one thing that it could precipitate is a long-overdue reckoning over the way that medical professionals, especially nurses, have been treated since COVID. MAGA has heaped scorn and abuse on one of the most widely respected (by non-weirdos) professions. Clearly, the fact that Pretti was by all accounts a great human being is a factor in the outcry over his death. Most nurses and medical professionals are the best of us. It’s time that MAGA is shamed and derided for the way they’ve treated nurses and other medical professions, because it’s disgusting.