THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2026
...the glorious Times took a pass: It's amazing to see how little the American public has been told about Charles Exum.
As best we can tell from the paper's search engine, Exum's behavior in Chicago last year has never been the subject of a New York Times news report. On January 11, his conduct was briefly described by Michelle Goldberg, in this informative opinion column.
What follows is the sum total of what an avid Times reader has likely read about Exum's behavior. Warning! In this short account, Goldberg seems to have misstated several points concerning what Exum did
By Killing Renee Good, ICE Sent a Message to Us All
[...]
It’s entirely possible that had [Renee] Good lived, the Trump administration might have tried to prosecute her. That’s essentially what happened to Marimar Martinez, a U.S. citizen in Chicago, in October. Martinez was in her car trying to warn people about ICE when she collided with a Border Patrol vehicle. Federal officials claimed she “rammed” a car driven by the agent Charles Exum, while her lawyers say he sideswiped her. Exum then got out of his car and shot her five times.
Martinez survived, only for the Justice Department to charge her with assaulting a federal officer. Her lawyers soon discovered that Exum had been boasting about the shooting in text messages. In one, he wrote, “I fired 5 rounds, and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.” In another, he said, “Sweet. My fifteen mins of fame. Lmao.” The Justice Department ended up dropping the case before even more messages could be revealed.
Exum’s giddy sadism shouldn’t have been surprising; it reflects the culture the administration is encouraging among its immigration enforcers. In one ICE recruiting ad, an agent mans a mounted gun atop some sort of militarized vehicle, with the words, “Destroy the flood.” It was a reference to the video game Halo, where players must kill hostile space aliens. Another shows sword-wielding knights with the words, “The enemies are at the gates.”
Back in October, up in Chicago, Exum shot Marimar Martinez. In fact, he shot her five times, producing seven separate bullet holes—seven separate wounds.
Goldberg correctly said that federal officials had initially accused Martinex of "ramming" Exum's car. Let the record also show this:
In a fleeting reference to this incident in a "Visual Investigations" piece, a team of Times reporters said that Exum later testified that no "ramming" had occurred. He said the "collision" in question had in fact been "side to side."
Also this:
Back in real time, the struggling Washington Post devoted more attention to this remarkable incident than did the more glorious Times. In this news report—"Federal judge dismisses case against Chicago woman shot by Border Patrol"—the Post reported that Martinez had also been charged with attempted murder, not just with "assaulting a federal officer."
In November, the government dropped all charges. No explanations provided!
All in all, whatever! In her column, Goldberg referred to Exum's "giddy sadism," and there seems to be no doubt—he did send those giddy text messages, in which he did in fact seem to boast about shooting Martinez five times, producing the seven bullet holes about which he seemed to be boasting.
On Tuesday, Martinez, who is 30 years old, told this story from her point of view, right there in Washington, D.C., "at a public forum held by congressional Democrats." Her astonishing story was ignored by the Times in this brief report about that forum.
Once again, the Washington Post outperformed the Times in its own report about this Tuesday's forum.
As part of our struggling nation's lore, "Frankie she shot Albert—she shot him three or four times." In this more recent American incident, Exum shot Martinez a full five times—and the federal government then walked away from the apparently bogus charges it had initially filed.
Even after what has happened in Minneapolis, our greatest Blue American newspaper took a pass on Martinez's story in this week's news report. Lawrence O'Donnell made no such mistake. More on that tomorrow.
To our eye, O'Donnell won the Pulitzer Prize Tuesday night. Last night, sad to say, the gentleman gave it back.
Frankie she shot Albert: To hear Mike Seeger tell this story, you can just click here. His telling begins in the time-honored way:
"Frankie was a good girl—everybody knows."
ReplyDelete"Martinez was in her car trying to warn people about ICE"
"to warn people about ICE"? WTF?
What in the world could possibly brew in the pathetic excuse for a brain of those retarded cat-ladies that compelled them "to warn people about ICE"?
Don't you think, Bob, that this is a far more pertinent question than who "rammed" or "sideswiped" whom?
I mean, none of those retarded cat-ladies should've been anywhere close to federal immigration-control officers. Okay? Do you, Bob, still have enough braincells to understand this? Sadly, I don't believe you do...
I miss Mao. He was insane, of course, but he was still preferable to this new maniac who rushes in each day to spout abject nonsense as the first comment.
DeleteIf you get up a little earlier, you can beat him to it.
DeleteIt probably is Mao.
DeleteI always assumed that this Anon was the performance artist formerly known as Mao. They are here to illuminate the utter depravity of the cult. They are doing a fine job, albeit they are slightly repetitive.
Delete"What in the world could possibly brew in the pathetic excuse for a brain of those retarded cat-ladies that compelled them "to warn people about ICE"?"
DeleteSupposed that, instead of coming to deport illegal immmigrants, ICE's mission was to deport people of low intelligence. Dum-dums.
Does that bring it a little closer to home?
DeleteDon't be paranoid, retarded cat-lady @5:16.
No matter how low your "intelligence" is, as long as you have a valid American birth certificate and stay away from your cult's retarded politics, no one is going to deport you.
Certainly not ICE, retarded cat-lady, trust me.
Trump Gives Rambling, Combative Speech at National Prayer Breakfast
ReplyDeleteDog bites man.
DeleteThe song by Mike Seeger has no relevance whatsoever to an ICE agent shooting a woman in a car and then bragging about it. For one thing, the Frankie in the song is female not male, and the shooting was out of jealousy, not the abuse of power by an immigration agent (or any other kind of law enforcement). So Somerby grabs this song simply because it is about shooting, even though nothing about it is relevant, including that it is a black blues folksong. How does this expropriation of folk culture shed any light whatsoever on this particular news story about incipient fascism?
ReplyDeleteThe poor woman who was shot in real life had no relationship to the man who shot her. Frankie & Albert (AKA Johnny) were married and he done her wrong. I would wonder whether Somerby is implying that all women are the possessions of men, to do with what they will, according to misogynist bro code, but I know that Somerby is just a confused and tired old man who grabs anything that floats through his mind to fill up a blog page, regardless of meaning, because meaning doesn't matter in the new fascist internet, where all is lies and it doesn't matter what anyone says anymore.
But does Somerby have to be such an asshole? These songs belong to real people (all of us folk) and they matter in their own right. Shitting on them to whine about the Washington Post vs the NY Times is gratuitous.
Mike Seeger was a collector, not the originator of the song, which is a folk song and thus anonymous with a lot of variations throughout the South.
DeleteSomerby's link to Mike Seeger doesn't work.
Selby - "Somerby is just a confused and tired old man"
DeleteWhy are you such an ageist pig?
It is a better explanation, kinder to Somerby, than the other names I could be calling him. He is once again being offensive. I prefer to think he doesn't know any better or can't help himself.
DeleteSort of sexist, too, when you think about it. Would you describe someone as a "confused and tired old woman"? I don't think you would, because that's not the stereotype.
Delete4:38 - Oh, that's right, you DON'T "wonder whether Somerby is implying that all women are the possessions of men, to do with what they will, according to misogynist bro code." So kind of you.
DeleteAnd, in the same way, I DON'T wonder whether you enjoy the carnal company of goats.
If they were old and displaying odd behavior, yes I would. Being a man or a woman is not in itself anything anyone should be ashamed of. Odd that you think simply mentioning someone's sex is sexist.
DeleteThis is not about stereotypes. This is about how Somerby behaves. He throws in a folk song reference that has absolutely no relevance to anything, except for the words "shot" and that is not normal behavior, it is bizarre, it is the kind of thing a demented person would do. If you want me to call Somerby demented, I don't know him well enough to know whether he has other symptoms, aside from being unable to figure out how to get to his medical appt, but this thinking is disordered.
If you have a better explanation for what Somerby does, please let us know. Otherwise, I think my guess is as good as anyone else's. Remember that Somerby is 79 or 80 himself. He is obviously not as sharp as he used to be. But this bizarre rambling about Troy and someone playing the lute, followed by a nonsensical reference to Frankie & Albert (aka Johnny) when a man shot a woman he didn't know, makes no sense at all. And Somerby does weird stuff like this almost daily. You tell me why, if I am not allowed to speculate using the kinder explanation that his thinking is scattered these days.
There needs to be some explanation. This is not normal.
What is "not normal" is your obsessive Somerby-hatred. An innocuous, throwaway line about a song triggers you into suggesting that Somerby is a sexist, confused, tired, old, demented, disordered asshole who doesn't know any better or can't help hiimself. And this is you being "kind."
DeleteI’ve explained before. You don’t like my opinions. Cope.
DeleteThat throwaway line is a paragraph with a link that doesn’t work, and the song’s story is entirely different than the ICE narrative. It is misleading and wrong. Maybe I’ll just call Somerby a fraud and a liar.
Ragging on Somerby for his -to put it kindly - loose associations is not particularly kind towards an elderly man with serious medical problems. Maybe he enjoys pontificating like this well past his prime or maybe there's money in it that pays the rent and is needed. But I don't get why you need to come to this site. Is ventilating against this elderly ill man that rewarding?
DeleteSo, Somerby's response to that Martinez testimony is to post two stories that have nothing to do with it, one about Greeks playing lyres and the other about a woman in folklore who shot her husband. Don't these stories of mistreatment by ICE agents deserve to be taken seriously? Somerby is not doing that. If his implication is that Martinez is telling just another story, then it is offensive. We do not know what he is doing here, or why. But it is clear that he is not on the same page with the rest of us Democrats and liberals whens it comes to decrying what happened to Martinez. If we assume that Somerby posted this as a competent person, then he is an asshole and Martinez and the rest of ICE victims don't deserve this treatment.
DeleteYou can't have this both ways.
Yeah, I get your point. In truth, I hardly ever get entirely through any one of his diatribes anymore. My bad.
Delete5:42 - “Maybe I’ll just call Somerby a fraud and a liar.”
DeleteAnd you say this in the very same thread where you were patting yourself on the head for your preternatural kindness!
Here’s what I’d like to know: Is it just Somerby you hate, or do you hate all men?
DeleteNice new nym, Corby, Perry, a.
DeleteSomerby is correct.
DeleteWe'll never be rid of Trump, because every single Republican voter is a bigot.
Good luck arguing otherwise.
Lol. Spot on.
DeleteIf Somerby were a little sharper, he might have written something like Tiedrich's complaint about the demise of the Washington "Post as a good news source:
ReplyDelete"let’s lay the blame for this atrocity exactly where it belongs: at the feet of Jeff Bezos, the Donny-snuggling gazillionaire who laughs like some fucked-up cartoon villain.
it was Bezos’ own disastrous decisions that led to the Post bleeding money.
first, a week before the 2024 election, Bezos phoned up the editor of the Post and told him not to run their planned endorsement of Kamala Harris. Bezos didn’t want to make Donny mad, just in case he happened to win. hundreds of thousands of angry Post subscribers canceled their subscriptions in response.
then, in February 2025, Bezos announced the Post was no longer going to tolerate ‘left of center views’ on their editorial page. instead, they were going to focus on ‘personal liberties and free markets.’ once again, hundreds of thousands of subscribers canceled their subscriptions.
why would Bezos deliberately antagonize his readership? because doesn’t give a shit. he’d rather curry favor with his new despot snugglebunny, Donny Convict.
Jeffrey Beez is not a newspaper guy. he doesn’t bleed black ink, as the saying used to go. he’s a business honcho. the Post is a just line item on a spreadsheet.
listen to your Uncle Bernie Sanders.
“If Jeff Bezos could afford to spend $75 million on the Melania movie & $500 million for a yacht to sail off to his $55 million wedding to give his wife a $5 million ring, please don't tell me he needed to fire one-third of the Washington Post staff. Democracy dies in oligarchy.”
democracy dies up Jeff Bezos’ ass.
let’s be clear here. Bezos spends his money like a drunken sailor. he flushed $75 million down the shitter on that bogus ‘documentary’ about Dear Leader’s Slovenian rent-a-wife — and didn’t think twice about how much it cost. sixty million got pissed away on a wedding for his personal flotation device.
Jeff Bezos’ current net worth is TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY-ONE BILLION DOLLARS. think about this: Bezos could give every person on the planet a billion [sic] dollars each, and have $253 billion left over. that’s still more money than he could possibly spend in his lifetime.
the hundred mil that the Post lost is a rounding error to someone with that much moolah.
if he wanted to, he could personally fund the Post and give it away for free — and not even notice the money missing from his bank account.
fuck it, Bezos could sell the Post to someone who would care about putting out a quality product — but he won’t. he’d rather destroy it. owning some hallowed institution and clownfucking into irrelevance is the hip new thing. all the cool oligarchs are doing it.
I swear, these morbidly wealthy shit-kazoos are so easy to hate. and they wonder why people walk around wearing Eat The Rich t-shirts.
heroes, that’s what we’re in desperate need of right now.
no one ever went to bed with fascism and came up smelling like roses. no one ever said ‘gee, I’m so glad the Washington Post partnered with Nazis.’
fascist regimes come, and fascist regimes go. when this current nightmare finally runs its course, no one is going to say ‘wasn’t it awesome how Jeff Bezos slobbered all over Dear Leader’s ass?’
the people we’re going to look back on with admiration are the ones who stood up said ‘take your Nazi bullshit and stick it where the sun don’t shine.’"
Your math ain't great but point taken.
DeleteThink it is a typo
Deletehe flushed $75 million down the shitter on that bogus ‘documentary’ about Dear Leader’s Slovenian rent-a-wife
DeleteBribing a dictator is hardly flushing the money down the shitter. Some would call it a wise investment.
Tiedrich is outraged by flagrant bribery and the destruction of the Washington Post as a viable news organization. Where is Somerby's outrage?
DeleteDestroying the Washington Post is also good for Bezos. One fewer paper to keep tabs on his corrupt business practices.
DeleteDoing a good deed seems to create an obligation to do more good deeds. Bezos did a good deed by keeping Wapo alive when it was going broke. He contributed mucho dollars to do this. The staff couldn't fix the paper. Now people blame Bezos for not being willing to keep contributing money at the same rate. They should be thanking him for giving the paper a chance.
DeleteThe Washington Post was not in a state of financial crisis when Bezos bought it. You see , DiC, whenever you post a statement on here as fact, it can be Googled, as is the case here. And very commonly it turns out to be bullshit. Go ahead and Google " Was the Washington Post in financial crisis when Bezos bought it?" AI will then educate you. Read an article or two about how Jeff Bezos managed to lose many thousands of subscribers to the paper and get back to us.
DeleteAnd by the way, you suck as a contributor here because of how easily one can debunk your bullshit comments with minimal effort on the internet, a task you seem incapable of performing before posting them.
Delete@11:37 - The facts support what I wrote
DeleteFinancial Status at the Time of Sale (2013)
The newspaper's financial health was rapidly deteriorating due to industry-wide shifts from print to digital:
Operating Losses: For the first half of 2013, the newspaper operations reported a loss of $49 million.
Declining Revenue: Operating revenue had plummeted by 44% over the six years leading up to the sale.
Historical Losses: The company had reported substantial annual losses for most of the preceding years, including $53.7 million in 2012, $21.2 million in 2011, and a massive $163.5 million in 2009.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Was+the+washington+post+losing+money+when+bezos+bought+it%3F&sca_esv=2717b4d29587c584&sxsrf=ANbL-n4QtEuFSxcKOuBJYgm8ZxVRdNqcxA%3A1770356441423&source=hp&ei=2X6FacK3F5Sg0PEP7-LpyQg&iflsig=AFdpzrgAAAAAaYWM6Wj6RSo4CxQgyVxN_iZsVhcXoaI0&aep=22&udm=50&ved=0ahUKEwiCiMLWk8SSAxUUEDQIHW9xOokQteYPCCw&oq=&gs_lp=Egdnd3Mtd2l6IgBIAFAAWABwAHgAkAEAmAEAoAEAqgEAuAEByAEAmAIAoAIAmAMAkgcAoAcAsgcAuAcAwgcAyAcAgAgA&sclient=gws-wiz&mtid=-X6FafHJGuzb0PEPjsq5mA8&mstk=AUtExfA83JFfe2_uHfPIrkep5iYT0-GSzYmLY5Juh0ssZ4ZC0SPsbVsMeP-A1MCtMEsAu5ROmTsLiFygeA39UhtcNOEywBFbEMo4qmR9rpaGEFlCYOUTq7k0gUzYJYiGXv2Gzt6UjJL_aC8rHi0QHgxScptFXMixePYcD3knhlHKScj8zeg72SQ4WXWPeg78AC1As8EsP-ubz_J0vCtJlZiz_5JLqmo_IlP_SkCdsB_rr3QfBd6DqAPXu8Apq0Qorn06jokpd0OqC8_d7PfnyBubJW-xiz1IBXrj3MQ&csuir=1
The facts support the person who says there is no such thing as a Republican voter who isn't a bigot.
DeleteObviously.
David in Cal,
DeleteWhen balance sheets and P&L statements are calculated using shitheads whining because they are losing their white privilege, and not basic math, media corporations will become biased towards the Right.
Bet on it.
My understanding, dickhead, is that there are buyers willing to take the Post off of Bezos' greedy little hands, but he won't sell. If it is such a big burden to the fucking freak, then selling to someone who actually likes the news business would be a no brainer. What the fuck is wrong with you?
DeleteDavid in Cal,
DeleteIn your opinion, can someone really be a Right-winger if they don't support the raping of children?
No use arguing that the media is biased towards the Right because they are the elites the GOP give tax breaks to.
DeleteBetter to agree with David in Cal that the media is liberal, because corporations don't want to get in bed with Right-wing morons who don't understand math or economics.
Agreeing with trolls like David in Cal makes them go away.
NOTE: Does not work with bigotry, because that's the one thing they actually believe. EVERYTHING else is negotiable.
"Even after what has happened in Minneapolis, our greatest Blue American newspaper took a pass on Martinez's story in this week's news report. Lawrence O'Donnell made no such mistake. More on that tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteTo our eye, O'Donnell won the Pulitzer Prize Tuesday night. Last night, sad to say, the gentleman gave it back."
Is Somerby ever going to tell his readers what O'Donnell did to win that fictitious Pulitzer Prize and then lose it again? Does winning such a prize depend on keeping Somerby's favor, the way it seems to depend on keeping Trump's, or are there some actual standards involved?
"A newly released email from the Justice Department's Epstein Files reveals that convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein claimed to be in Palm Beach with "all the trump boys" on Christmas Day 2016 — a month after Donald Trump's election victory.
ReplyDeleteIn the December 25 message to Bill Gates' advisor Boris Nikolic, Epstein wrote, "im in palm with all the trump boys. . = fun."
Rawstory
This is 11 years after Trump claims he broke off with Epstein. Epstein also claims he was at the White House for dinner with Trump on Thanksgiving 2016. The emails between Epstein and Steve Bannon are about how to help Trump get elected. It is true that young girls are not mentioned in these emails, but the lie that Trump did not associate with Epstein is revealed, long after Epstein's plea deal on sex trafficking charges in FL.
No one who has lied about their association with Epstein should still have a job, including Donald Jessica Trump.
Trump has heard from some very important people that Jeffrey Epstein was lying about those visits, a fact we cannot corroborate since Trump had him killed.
Delete"“I don’t sleep on planes; I don’t like sleeping on planes, you know? I like looking out the window, watching for missiles and enemies, actually.”
ReplyDelete— President Trump, speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast."
And if he spots one he can divert it with the power of his enormous brain.
DeleteGeneral "Buck" Turgidson: Doctor, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?
DeleteDr. Strangelove: Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious... service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.
OK Ilya. Nice work.
DeleteSo Trump is threatening to withhold funding for projects unless Penn Station and Dulles Airport are named after him. At a certain point even the most staunch of the pedophile worshipers will find these sorts of antics repulsive, but it is highly unlikely that they will connect the dots linking his infantile narcissism and failed policies.
ReplyDeleteThe Republican Party should change their name to The Epstein Files for short.
ReplyDeleteWhy do Republicans like to rape children so much?
ReplyDeleteIf you aren't telling Right-wingers to go fuck themselves with a rusty saw, you're a shitty person.
ReplyDelete