Leave Rhyming To The Poets, Jimmy – by Travis Mateer

To write about Renee Good getting put on ICE, Jimmy wants to go back in time to Ohio in a “viewpoint” piece about the “rhyme” of history. Why?

We know what happened to the most spoiled and entitled generation to exist on this planet after Vietnam ended and the war came home–they sold out. But hey, go ahead and repackage that anti-war vibe like Kent State has anything to do with what’s happening today in Minneapolis.

Here’s how Jimmy opens his viewpoint:

On May 4, 1970, following Republican President Richard Nixon’s April 1970, announcement of the expansion of the Viet Nam War into Cambodia, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a group of Kent State students engaged in a peaceful campus protest against this extension of the War. The students were also protesting the Guard’s presence on their campus and the draft. Four students were killed and nine others were wounded, including one who suffered permanent paralysis.

Fast forward. On January 7, 2026, Renee Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen was fatally shot by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Johathan Ross in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Ross was described by family andfriends as a hardcore conservative Christian, MAGA and supporter of Republican President Donald Trump.

With no substantive historical context, like considering the “days of rage” in Chicago the previous year, and with 56 years between the two incidents, Jimmy isn’t off to a strong start. It doesn’t matter, though, because Jimmy is only preaching to the liberal choir, which is why he can depict the incident he’s turning into propaganda like this:

A number of videos of the shooting, show that Good was in her vehicle, bantering with the ICE agents engaged in these operations. When she attempted to drive slowly away from the ICE agents, Ross fired three shots point blank, killing Good. One video showed that Good was denied medical care even after the person offering her help identified himself as a physician. An ICE agent responded “I don’t care.”

President Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and their lickspittles defended the shooting as one of “self-defense”—i.e., that Good was trying run over the agent with her vehicle. Indeed, Noem went so far as to characterize Good as a “domestic terrorist.”

Politically, both sides of civil war 2.0 have their martyrs now, and martyrs don’t get to be real people–they are props for people like Jimmy to use while citizen journalists who focus on local corruption regardless of party affiliation get decimated, and a whistleblower like Brandon Bryant gets targeted AGAIN for prosecution, including the possibility of terrorism-related charges, which I wrote about in last week’s post speculating about the dead body that doesn’t even have a name yet two months after being found last November.

Let’s go back to Jimmy, a former lawyer and Montana Supreme Court guy, and let’s view his quaint little notion about “rights”.

Whether it be an unpopular military war or Trump’s war on immigrants, people have the right to raise their voices in opposition and interject their personal presence against such government actions without threat of being attacked or killed by their government’s agents.

Second, while it would be unfair to paint all of these agents with the same brush (and I do not), it is impossible to ignore that some are acting with a level of aggression and recklessness that endangers the very people they are supposed to protect. The issue is not simply that individuals prone to overzealous or militaristic behavior find their way into federal enforcement ranks—especially in the absence of meaningful screening—but that their leaders, supervisors, and at times even courts and juries, implicitly condone this “shoot first, justify later” posture. What we are witnessing is not merely individual misconduct but a systemic failure of supervision and accountability.

Let’s try out this first amendment thing: are you fucking retarded, Jimmy? Or, perhaps the frontal lobe you’re using is getting squishy, because MONTANA is the kind of state where NO ACCOUNTABILITY will ever happen with the process I’ve mocked for years, known as the CORONER’S INQUEST. In fact, someone just commented on that 2023 post of mine because, though the years might change, the LARP of justice remains purely theatrical in Big Sky Country.

The reason I get salty with my words and the stoking of political outrage at a national level is because my sense of narrative control is informed enough that I can see better than most how rare independent thinking actually is.

For example, I’m currently watching the show Succession, and “fly-fishing in Montana” is referenced by Roman, one of my favorite characters. Well, if you want to unpack the influence of Robert Redford and his ability to set narratives in the minds of the passive audience “entertained” by movies, check out the latest episode of PsyOp Cinema, where I join the boys for the first time to share my insights on the movie, Sneakers.

The new book I’m working on about unicorns and serial killers considers movies like Nefarious and the serial killer in that movie, Edward Wayne Brady, being modeled after the real-life serial killer, Edward Wayne Edwards. When I read that Edwards was a member of the Knights of Pythias I scanned the Wikipedia entry for this fraternal organization against gambling and boozing and found an old Mayor of Minneapolis, A.A. Ames.

Here’s how Ames led this northern city during a time period later known as “the shame of Minneapolis”:

After entering office, Ames consolidated his power over the city’s police department (the one area of city government over which the mayor had full control). He fired nearly half of the city’s officers and replaced them with his political allies, henchmen, and criminals who purchased their badges. As police chief, Ames appointed his brother Colonel Frederick W. Ames, who, despite being “a weak, vacillating individual,” had recently commanded an entire regiment of Minnesota soldiers during the Philippine–American War. Norman W. King, a gambler and underworld figure, became the city’s chief of detectives. Medical student and confidant Irwin A. Gardner was made a special policeman, worked as the Mayor’s bagman, and was also put in charge of the city’s vice squad.

Mayor Ames and the Minneapolis police began operating as an organized crime syndicate, extorting protection money and various “fines” from the city’s illegal businesses. The money collected was turned over to Ames, and only small fees were given to his associates. Minneapolis was promoted as an “open city” to criminals across the country, and criminals were released from the city’s jail. Illegal businesses such as opium joints, gambling parlors, and houses of prostitution blossomed, many in the Gateway district. It was speculated that women were setting up candy stores to run a legitimate business to children and workers out front, but providing the services of prostitutes in the back.

After a year in office, Ames’ organization began to swirl out of control. Ames was drinking heavily and the various police and politicians under him began to fight among themselves, withholding money from Ames or developing their own extortion schemes without his approval. Attempts by the Hennepin County sheriff to crack down on the widespread criminal activities were quashed, but even average citizens were aware of the city’s descent into corruption.

Yes, corruption does get harder to get away with when “average citizens” become aware of it, so it makes sense that energy and resources are put into shutting up those who grow impertinent with the segments of polite society who don’t want to hear that their pals are using homeless people like meat-shields to hide their scheming behind.

If you appreciate the local-focus that I WILL be bringing to larger platforms, then get in on the ground floor and donate to my nearly complete gofundme page, just a few more hundred dollars to get to $5,000!

While I haven’t checked, I heard some reporting that both fundraising efforts for Renee Good and the ICE officer who killed her, Jonathan Ross, have reached or exceeded a million dollars. I guess partisan outrage really does payout!

To finish up, as a poet trained by the University of Montana to rhyme, here’s a poem-song for Jimmy and anyone else who appreciates the process of making art in a time of collective retardation.

Thanks for reading!