5️⃣ ICE Tear Gasses Family With Six Kids
A Minneapolis couple driving home from their kid’s basketball game Wednesday night got caught between ICE and protesters in North Minneapolis. Six children in the car, the youngest just six months old. ICE surrounded them, started lobbing tear gas and stun grenades, and a canister rolled under the vehicle. “The blast set off the airbags, smoke filling the vehicle, kids screaming,” Zev reported. The father kicked the door open, blinded by tear gas, and started pulling kids out while the baby stopped breathing in his car seat. Bystanders performed CPR on the six-month-old and poured milk on the other children to neutralize the gas. “The baby came back before EMTs got there,” Zev said. Three kids were hospitalized, two with severe asthma. Dean pointed out that enrollment in Proud Boys and Oath Keepers has plummeted 75 percent—because they’ve all joined ICE.
4️⃣ Canada’s China Deal
Mark Carney announced a massive trade deal with China, slashing tariffs on Chinese EVs from 100 percent to 6.1 percent for up to 49,000 vehicles while China dropped tariffs on Canadian canola, pork, and other agricultural products. Dean argued Trump forced Canada into a corner, but Zev pushed back hard. “China has been doing economic warfare on Canada for a while,” Zev warned, noting China desperately wants Arctic access, Canadian farmland to feed its population, and “an easy to capture government.” He pointed out that Russia acts as China’s proxy—”if you blame Russia for making Trump happen, you can blame China.” While Dean celebrated the deal helping Saskatchewan farmers, Zev called it “another version of selling out to the Chinese” and warned that China’s 30-year plans “don’t leave any room for real democracy anywhere in the world.” When Carney announced Canada was preparing for “the new world order,” Zev’s response was blunt: “That’s terrible. I’m not ready to concede yet.”
3️⃣ Trump Won’t Rule Out War With NATO Countries
A reporter asked Trump if he would leave NATO to seize Greenland, and his answer was chilling: “I wouldn’t be telling you what I’m willing to do. But Greenland is very important for national security.” Then he linked it to Venezuela. “He is willing to go to war with NATO, so he says publicly, which I’ve never heard an American president say since the formation of NATO,” Zev reported. Meanwhile, troops are deploying to Greenland from Germany, France, the UK, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the Netherlands in what they’re calling Operation Northern Endurance Exercises.
Dean announced he’s traveling to Greenland and Denmark next week with the cast of The ‘A’ Team: Ken Harbaugh, Malcolm Nance, Denver Riggleman, and Jacob Kaarsbo to interview the Prime Minister and visit Arctic Command—because “nobody is telling Greenland’s truth.” Support their mission at deanblundell.substack.com
2️⃣ Pay-to-Play Pardons
Trump’s been handing out pardons to wealthy criminals who donated to his campaign. Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan-Italian banker whose daughter Isabella donated $3.5 million to MAGA Inc.—$2.5 million while dad faced felony charges, another million after his lawyer cut a plea deal—got pardoned along with his co-defendants, including former Puerto Rico Governor Wanda Vázquez and former FBI agent Mark Rossini. “He’s pardoning people that pled guilty,” Zev noted incredulously. Then there’s Adriana Camberos, whom Trump pardoned twice—first in 2021 for a counterfeit five-hour energy scheme, then again after she got out and immediately committed new fraud. “There is a way out of jail in America,” Zev said. “You just have to pay the president.”
1️⃣ Insurrection Act Means Tanks
Trump posted on Truth Social: “FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA, THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!” He’s not bluffing about the Insurrection Act. “Tanks in the streets, military checkpoints, soldiers with live ammunition enforcing curfews on American streets—that is what the Insurrection Act actually means,” Zev warned. Stephen Miller is already arguing on television that Minnesota’s governor and mayor are “insurrection leaders.” Trump’s immigration policy is now polling at just 31 percent, with independents turning away from his crackdown. A new political report shows 18 seats now leaning Democrat for November. “They know they’re in a hurry because they’ve got to get it done before the elections,” Zev said. The clock is ticking on Trump’s authoritarian ambitions.
Minneapolis to Greenland to Beijing—power without constraint, consequences for people who don’t pay.
The FiveStack is available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The FiveStack is a co-production of deanblundell.substack.com and narativ.org.
Thank you Ellie Leonard, Rabbi Joshua Hammerman, NeuroDivergent Hodgepodge, Cat, Stephanie G Wilson, PhD, and many others for tuning into my live video with Dean Blundell! Join me for my next live video in the app.
