UNSTACKED! #18
“They are Killing the Helpers.”
~ Tiffany Torres Williams, Project 2025 Takedown

January 25, 2026

On Saturday, Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at the VA and by all accounts, a really
kind and genuinely caring person, was violently attacked by an undisciplined
pack of CBP officers. He was gunned down in the streets of Minneapolis for the
crime of being a Good Samaritan. Let that sink in for a minute. His offense—
coming to the aid of a fellow human being, while exercising his first and second
amendment rights. He, like Renee Good, was murdered in broad daylight for
trying to be a helper in his community and doing it in the most American way.
Like in the Renee Good case, the “official” statement was a lie. Before any
investigation could be done, our government rushed out a concocted response to
avoid accountability, by attacking the character of the victim. They said, that
Pretti was the threat. Kristi Noem called him a domestic terrorist. Little Stephen
Miller called him an assassin. Greg Bovino, the “Nazi-Cosplayer” border
enforcer, said Pretti was there “to massacre law enforcement” and it was the
agents who were the real victims. But the evidence spoke for itself and the
manufactured justification for the shooting of an innocent man, crumbled before
our eyes. We all know what we saw and so many of us did see it within hours,
because of the massive winter storm that kept a lot of us inside over the
weekend. We saw the STATE murder a man and then lie about it. We were ALL
witnesses to an execution.

Rachel Bitecofer, in her Substack, “The Cycle” wrote, “Today, every bystander is
a documentarian. Every phone is an archive. Violence no longer waits for
historians—it is recorded in real time and a video is worth a thousand lies.”
Crucially, this time, the facts and the truth arrived first, before the government line
could get traction.

We relate to the Alex Pretti’s of the world. The Everyman, the quiet, good
hearted souls just going about their lives making a difference to the people they
touch. They are the people who become known to us in tragedy and it’s THIS
tragedy that has rocked the country to its core. It feels like a breaking point, but
we’ve seen the cracks in the facade before. Only time, organizing and an
ELECTION will tell us if the pushback we’re seeing will keep growing into a
powerful, counter-movement to slow the slide toward fascism.

I had lunch with a woman who formerly worked with the immigrant community.
She said ICE has always been like this, but now we’re able to see the brutality for
ourselves. This operation in Minnesota has exposed exactly what 47’s up to. It’s
not about fraud, it’s not even about immigration. They’re not cracking down on
the worst of the worse. This administration is using Mob Boss tactics, being paid
for with our tax dollars, to terrorize the whole country. Pam Bondi’s ransom letter
to Minnesota made it clear what they really want. They’re going blue state by
blue state, using all of us as pawns in a nefarious endgame to gain access to
voter data. If this DOJ gets our voting records, we know they’ll use them in an
attempt to hold onto power. The people of Minnesota are not having any of it.
Their courage is contagious and they are an inspiration to the rest of us.
The short and may I say swollen fingered-vulgarian, blinked on Monday. He has
two eyes and when they’re open, he knows this looks bad for his administration.
The look and the fallout for him is all he cares about. It’s more important than
ever to keep up the pressure on our elected representatives. Call and email your
Senators now. There’s still time to stop the funding of the Homeland Security
budget – including billions of dollars for ICE. I wrote and called my Senators on
Sunday. I got the usual canned response from Moreno. I have yet to receive
anything from Husted.

Watching Governor Walz go head to head with 47, I’m filled with incredible
sadness for what could have been. It’s a stand-off worth noticing. Instead of
chaos and a government that’s been turned against us, we could have had a
level of competence and sincere compassion. The anxiety I know we’re all
feeling is in Robert Reich’s words, “A rational response to a nation that’s
becoming ever more disordered…Trump and his enablers aren’t just violating the
Constitution and disregarding laws. They’re not merely doing cruel and vindictive
things. They’re also spreading fear and fueling hate.” We’re living in a
“corrosive” environment where no one can thrive.

From CNN—Something to watch: Alex Pretti’s name was known to federal
authorities before the shooting on Saturday. He had been injured in an earlier
encounter with ICE agents the week before. There have been reports from
Minnesota and Maine of authorities collecting protestors information to create a
data base. “A memo sent earlier this month to agents temporarily assigned to
the city asked them to “capture all images, license plates, identifications, and
general information, so we can capture it all in one consolidated form,” according
to correspondence reviewed by CNN. Also from CNN—“On Sunday, a DHS
spokeswoman denied the agency was compiling a database of “domestic
terrorists” after a video in Maine showed a federal agent recording the license
plate of a woman observing him during an operation and telling her, “We have a
nice little database and now you are considered a domestic terrorist.” It might be
straight-up intimidation or it could be much more. Top officials have repeatedly
signaled their willingness to investigate and label peaceful protestors as domestic
terrorists. Our government has a long history of illegally surveilling its citizens
under the guise of national security, so stick a pin in this one for more to likely be
revealed under this subject.

“They are killing the Helpers” and trying to crush the spirit of the resistance. We
stand with Minnesota and we will not give in to despair!

“The faces and the leaders may change…but the people go on forever. The
people — beaten down today, yet rising tomorrow…the people are the real
guardians of our hopes and dreams. ~ Paul Robeson, 1952

With Readiness and Refusal!     S.W.