{"id":43717,"date":"2026-01-27T10:10:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T16:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=43717"},"modified":"2026-01-27T10:10:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T16:10:25","slug":"and-you-didnt-think-of-this-at-the-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2026\/01\/27\/and-you-didnt-think-of-this-at-the-time\/","title":{"rendered":"And You Didn’t Think Of This At The Time?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m gobsmacked at the failure to think on the part of the Administration and their allies, helpfully summarized<\/a> by Steve Benen:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that Pretti had a holstered gun, though, as Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O\u2019Hara\u00a0explained<\/a>, he had a legal right to have the firearm and a permit to carry it.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump, for example,\u00a0told The Wall Street Journal<\/a>, \u201cI don\u2019t like it when somebody goes into a protest and he\u2019s got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets.\u201d Similarly, FBI Director Kash Patel\u00a0told Fox News<\/a>, \u201cYou cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It\u2019s that simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around the same time, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appeared on ABC News and\u00a0condemned Pretti<\/a>\u00a0for carrying a gun, which came a day after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem\u00a0said at a press conference<\/a>, \u201cI don\u2019t know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign. This is a violent riot when you have someone showing up with weapons.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And you folks have protested and worked against gun control laws for how many decades? And then you couldn’t predict that someone might show up with a gun? Epistemological bubble time: Liberals would never purchase and use guns!<\/em><\/p>\n

No, Pretti didn’t draw it, brandish it, fire it, threaten ICE<\/strong> agents with it, even when pushed. The epitome of an honorable man. Benen even says<\/p>\n

At this point, we could talk at length about the simple fact that Pretti wasn\u2019t at a protest.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>So ICE<\/strong> achieved the additional level of randomly attacking folks on the street.<\/p>\n

But back to Trump, Noem, et al, and their ideological allies, this level of stupid is rarely achieved, and to use the special word gobsmacked<\/em> is really inadequate. How are they getting through life without drowning in vats of ivermectin?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m gobsmacked at the failure to think on the part of the Administration and their allies, helpfully summarized by Steve Benen: It\u2019s true that Pretti had a holstered gun, though, as Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O\u2019Hara\u00a0explained, he had a legal right to have the firearm and a permit to carry \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43717"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43720,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43717\/revisions\/43720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}