Like many of you, the weight of the moment feels heavy. ICE agents murdered a woman, Renee Good, in cold blood on Wednesday. We all saw what happened on video, and then Donald Trump and Dog-Killing Monster Kristi Noem just flat out lied about it and smeared a woman who by all accounts was a wonderful person. The right-wing disinformation machine kicked into high gear. Even though Good lived up to her name, that didn’t matter to the lying liars who always lie. No criminal record, no problem, we’ll just smear her for being a lesbian and paying attention to pronouns.

None of this should be a surprise, nor should it be a surprise if it happens again, because it likely will. I think some of the reaction to this is because a white woman was murdered by a government agent. This is, of course, not the first time an agent of the government killed an American citizen. Just ask any Black or Native American person. They know.

It also shouldn’t be a surprise because of who the Trump administration was trying to recruit to join ICE, and the short amount of training time these thugs received. These are MAGA people, the very same people you see driving around in pickup trucks with bumper stickers featuring violent messages. People who are obsessed with guns, who post online about killing liberals.

I know that some very stern lectures were issued about how progressives were being “too woke” when we said ICE should be abolished, that it was a very bad thing to say because we might upset a suburban Bucks County, PA voter, or something. Well, I am here to tell you that times have changed. Behold:

If you said to me in, say, 2015, that Woke Bill Kristol would be a thing, I would recommend bed rest and maybe even rehab. But here we are.

Kristol is right. And if anyone out there has any reflexive “WE CAN’T SAY ABOLISH ICE THAT’S OUTLANDISH!” feelings in your system, allow me to point out a few things.

First off, allow me to point out that because of the massive and well-funded Trump recruitment drive, ICE is becoming a classic secret police force that is common in fascist regimes. It is no longer hyperbole or lefty fantasy to say so; people who know what they are talking about are saying it. Whenever a Democratic president takes over, how would they be able to rehabilitate an agency full of dangerous people with little regard for the rule of law?

The agency itself is operating outside of the law. It is wildly corrupt, and will consider any Democratic president its enemy.

None of this is suggesting we have an open border. Of course, we need some kind of border enforcement. But ICE is a cancer, a horrible one, and we need to do what needs to be done with cancers: Cut it out.

The last word goes to Ladytron.