Why Did J.D. Vance Doxx Jonathan Ross?
A quick note on the killing of Renee Good.
Hey everyone. I am on paternity leave, so I’m doing shorter Jackals this month, aside from the last one. But I did want to touch on two things: The Trump Administration’s capture of Nicolas Maduro and the shooting of Renee Good in Minnesota.
They shot an innocent woman in cold blood.
Good’s shooting itself is horrific, and deserves a longer post reflecting on what’s happening to us as a country and why people react so callously to everything. Good was a mother of three who had just dropped off her six year-old at school. Now she is dead, and she doesn’t have to be.
But I do want to do a quick legal analysis of her shooting. In short, I think a murder charge is coming for the officer based on the available evidence, and the only way one doesn’t come is if there is Federal interference.
The New York Times has a really good analysis of the video evidence, which is pretty damning for Ross. I think there are a few objective, factual things that everyone has to acknowledge:
The ICE officers gave Good conflicting directions. You can hear them say to her, “Move,” which she begins to do. Then another says, “Get the fuck out of the car.” In general, that is a recipe for an accident.
Ross was in no danger at all. She did not try to hit him with her car, and he was easily able to move out of the way. After he shot her, he walked down the block and said, “Call 911.” Then he left the scene, unharmed.
Ross fires three shots at her, and shots 2 and 3 were after she had already passed him. At best, you could say there is a legal defense for the first shot (I wouldn’t agree), but shots 2 and 3 are probably what gets you a murder charge.
Ross put himself in harm’s way. He steps in front of the car (law enforcement officers are told directly to never do this) and whips out his cell phone (another thing that goes against protocol). With one hand operating his phone, he shoots Good. Just total amateur hour stuff.
Nearly every word coming out of the Administration’s mouth about this incident has been a lie.
Ross’s intent was also made clear with a new video released earlier today. I would note two things: 1. The video is the Ross took with his phone, and it was leaked to a local, Right-Wing outfit in Minnesota, instead of being given to Minnesota’s law enforcement. 2. It makes things infinitely worse for him.
In the video, you can hear Good saying to the ICE officers, “I’m not mad at you guys,” and following the initial directions to move. Then, when one officer and Ross approach her car and give her different directions, she turns her wheel away from both of them and attempts to drive off. After Ross fires his third shot, he calls Good a “fucking bitch.” It is a prosecutor’s dream (assuming you have a prosecutor who likes to indict cops, which is rare).
Justin Amash (remember him?) summarizes it well:
“Mislead” is doing a lot of work there, because I would just say they are lying. You have to know things are bad when even Trump is starting to say, “It’s a horrible scene” instead of insulting the woman.
J.D. Vance has actually been more extreme than Trump, and essentially blamed her for her own death. He did an insane press conference yesterday, where he blatantly lied about what happened and then gave away information that allowed media outlets to identify the ICE officer. Vance went into detail about a prior incident that happened to Ross, which allowed journalists to connect the dots. And I can’t help but wonder why.
You have two options at this point:
J.D. Vance is a moron.
He wanted to Ross to be identified.
It is my guess that Vance and others in the Administration want Ross to be identified because they want him to get hurt. They want some sort of retaliatory violence against him or another member of ICE, because it would allow them to escalate.
It is totally possible that Vance was just stupid and outed the officer because his brain failed. But with an I.Q. of 85, he has one of the highest in the cabinet; I don’t think it was an accident.
And just from a political perspective, if/when Vance is the GOP nominee in 2028, Republicans have a serious problem: J.D. Vance is deeply unpopular. Not only is he the most unpopular vice president in history; he is the most unpopular person in public life, besides Hillary Clinton.
To put things in context, Democrats tried to roll into the 2024 Election with the guy who is currently -18 and the woman who is currently -15. Vance is -23 and my guess is that the more time the public has to get to know him, the higher that unfavorable number will go.
Mad about Maduro.
I also have a quick note about the Maduro situation, which is truly insane. Several things can be true at once:
The operation to capture Maduro was dope.
It is great that he is out of power.
The operation may have been unconstitutional.
The Trump Administration clearly has no clue about what happens next.
We did it for oil, but the reasons are unclear.
There is a huge missing piece of this that no one in the Administration has acknowledged: Guyana.
There has been a long territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana over Western Guyana for around 100 years. Venezuela has claimed that the rural and mostly uninhabited part of Guyana is really Venezuela’s since the countries were divvied up many years ago.
Those claims have waxed and waned over the years, but Maduro kicked him into high gear. In 2023, he passed a referendum (by posing it to the Venezuelan public, but it was likely fake) which supported annexing the disputed territory. He has since placed troops on the border, which has likewise prompted Brazil to place troops on their own border as a defensive posture.
A few years ago, Guyana made a huge discovery off its coast: Huge amounts of oil. The discovery was so big it will make Guyana the new United Arab Emirates of South America. GDP per capital in Guyana was $6,500 in 2019. Since the oil discovery, it has jumped to $71,000, and it could jump to $90,000 by 2030. Guyana will eventually be the third-richest country in the Western Hemisphere, behind the U.S. and Canada.
Naturally, Maduro wants the oil. And, as all illiberal dictators are true imperialists at heart, it was pretty clear that he was planning to invade Guyana and make a claim to the land, and thus the oil.
The Trump Administration has mentioned none of this. To be clear, if Maduro had invaded Guyana or had began making threats, that is 1000% the sort of thing we should use our military to defend. Guyana is our ally and we should protect them; I would have been fully on board with Trumpy.
But it is a huge missing piece of this entire operation, that can only be explained by incompetence. I said this when they did the tariffs: They tariffed an island that was only inhabited by penguins.
There is no plan. There is no strategy. Everyone in the cabinet is a smooth-brain. Buckle up.
I’m gonna try to send you guys some Jackals while I’m on paternity, but I like the snuggles too much.