Wednesday morning in Minneapolis, less than a mile from where George Floyd was murdered, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good through her windshield. Three shots. She died at Hennepin County Medical Center. She was a poet, a wife, a mother to a six-year-old who is now orphaned. Her partner was in the car. Stuffed animals in the front seat. Golden Grahams in the back. She’d just dropped her kid at school.
Twenty-four hours later, the Trump regime closed ranks. Today’s show broke down five angles on how authoritarianism protects its own.
1. FBI Seizes Control, Freezes Out Minnesota
Thursday morning, the FBI announced it was taking complete control of the investigation—and freezing out Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension entirely. No access to evidence. No access to interviews. No access to the scene. “We’re not sure we’re going to get a fair outcome here,” Governor Tim Walz said. This breaks with precedent. After George Floyd’s murder, the FBI and BCA conducted a joint investigation. Not this time. Federal officials unilaterally seized it. As Dean emphasized on today’s show, “This is how cover-ups work in 2026.”
2. JD Vance’s Gaslighting Press Conference
Vice President JD Vance held a press conference attempting to paint Good as a “left-wing lunatic.” When pressed on whether he actually knew her politics, Vance admitted “I don’t know, we’re trying to figure that out yet”—but kept pushing the narrative anyway. He called protesters a “paid, organized, trained, fundamental mob of left-wing lunatics preventing ICE from doing their job.” The reality? Good was a church-going white woman who had just dropped her child at school and was trying to navigate conflicting orders from masked agents—one telling her to drive away, another grabbing her door handle screaming “get out of the f***ing car.” Dean called it what it is: “A megalomaniacal fascist gaslighting dump on the memory of a woman that Trump and his regime sanctioned the murder of.”
3. Trump Shares Manipulated Video to Justify Killing
Hours after the shooting, Trump posted video to Truth Social. Forensic analysis by NARATIV and military analyst Nick Paro revealed systematic manipulation: Video slowed to 50 percent, stretching 7 seconds to 13 to make normal movement look threatening. Audio slowed at a different rate—3 to 4 times slower—making her screams of “NO! NO!” completely unintelligible. Possible AI “ghosting effect” creating the illusion someone was being run over when no one was. Cropped 14 pixels from edges to remove context. Compressed to 863 kbps causing extreme quality loss. Re-encoded through Rumble instead of using original source. Speed her voice back up to normal, and you hear what Trump’s team didn’t want anyone to hear: a woman pleading for her life. “The woman in no way was armed, in no way was dangerous, and did not ram anybody,” Dean said, citing former FBI forensic criminologists who’ve analyzed the footage. They’re still running with the lie anyway.
4. Noem Defends Shooter, Congress Prepares Impeachment
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem called Good a “domestic terrorist” who “attempted to run a law enforcement officer over.” She called ICE agent Jonathan Ross “an experienced officer who followed his training.” When asked about Minnesota being frozen out of the investigation, Noem attacked the state itself: “Minnesota is a train wreck. It’s corrupt.” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s response: “This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying.” Now House members are drafting Articles of Impeachment against Noem with six counts: abuse of power, deprivation of civil rights under color of law, systematic deception of the public, dehumanization as policy, failure to supervise federal law enforcement, and pattern of ethical corruption.
5. Protests Grow as 2,000 More ICE Agents Flood Minneapolis
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered Thursday morning outside federal buildings, heckling ICE agents as they arrived for work. “No more Minnesota nice; we don’t want your fascist ICE,” they chanted. Police deployed tear gas. Arrests were made. One protester wore a sandwich board with Smokey Bear saying “Only you can prevent fascist liars.” Another handed out whistles so neighbors could alert each other if they see ICE agents. “It feels like we are reliving the George Floyd moment,” one protester said. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is deploying 2,000 additional ICE agents into Minneapolis. The message is clear: we’re not backing down. As Dean noted, this isn’t just about immigration anymore—”they’re coming after Americans now, white Americans. And that makes a difference.”
The shooter has been identified: ICE agent Jonathan Ross. The FBI seized the investigation. The Vice President smeared her. The President shared manipulated footage. The DHS Secretary called her a terrorist. Congress is preparing impeachment. And 2,000 more agents are flooding the city.
Renee Nicole Good. Remember her name.
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.
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