The Morning Sixpack - September 17, 2025
Trump dithers, Putin bombs, Netanyahu flatters, Noem cuffs citizens, Navalny poisoned, Ben & Jerry’s muzzled—chaos is the new normal.
Mississippi Hanging Death Sparks Demands for Federal Investigation
The death of 21-year-old Demartravion “Trey” Reed, found hanging from a tree on a Mississippi university campus, has ignited calls for a federal probe amid mounting suspicions and the state’s dark history of racial violence.
Reed’s body was discovered Monday morning near the pickleball courts at Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss. University police chief Michael Peeler quickly told reporters he did not suspect foul play, but that hasn’t calmed the storm of questions—and it sure hasn’t reassured the community.
Coroner reports directly contradicted social media claims that Reed suffered broken legs and other injuries inconsistent with suicide. Their official statement insisted Reed “did not suffer any lacerations, contusions, compound fractures, broken bones, or injuries consistent with an assault.” Still, that hasn’t stopped speculation, nor should it. Mississippi doesn’t exactly get the benefit of the doubt here.
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson wasn’t buying the “case closed” narrative either. He called Reed’s death “suspicious” and urged the Justice Department and FBI to ensure “a full and impartial investigation.” As he put it: “We must leave no stone unturned in the search for answers… we cannot ignore Mississippi’s painful history of lynching and racial violence against African Americans.”
Reed’s family described him as “our little quiet light” and asked for prayers, while civil rights attorney Ben Crump announced he is representing the family, demanding “a full, independent investigation.” Students on campus, including Stacie Hoskins, voiced fear for their safety, saying Reed’s death “really makes me feel unsafe.” Meanwhile, the same day Reed was found, another man—identified as a white homeless individual—was discovered hanging from a tree in Vicksburg. Authorities claim the two cases aren’t connected. Convenient timing, though, isn’t it?
Source: UPI
Editor: Mississippi officials dismissing suspicion this quickly is exactly why people don’t trust the process. You can’t just wave off a Black man found hanging in a state with Mississippi’s history and expect everyone to nod along politely. If there’s truly nothing to hide, then prove it—through transparency, accountability, and an investigation that doesn’t read like a footnote in the coroner’s ledger. Lynching ghosts don’t vanish just because the sheriff says “move along.”
Xp Lee Wins Minnesota Special Election After Hortman Assassination, Shifting House Back to 67-67 Split
Democrat Xp Lee has won the special election to replace slain state Rep. Melissa Hortman, restoring Minnesota’s House to an even split and reigniting debate over political violence in America.
Lee, a health equity analyst and former Brooklyn Park council member, defeated Republican newcomer Ruth Bittner in Tuesday’s special election. The race filled the seat left vacant after Hortman and her husband were gunned down in June—a killing Gov. Tim Walz bluntly called “a politically motivated assassination.” With Lee’s win, the Minnesota House shifts from a one-seat GOP majority back to a deadlock at 67-67.
The victory came in the shadow of yet another act of violence: the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk less than a week ago. Lee acknowledged the “charged atmosphere” of politics today, saying he wants to lower the temperature. His opponent, Bittner, admitted Kirk’s killing briefly made her question running but added, “We can’t cower to fear… we are in very, very scary times.”
Top Democrats including Walz and Sen. Amy Klobuchar campaigned hard for Lee, framing the race not just as a local contest but a rebuke of political violence. Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said Lee’s win “honors the legacy of our dear friend, Speaker Emeritus Melissa Hortman,” adding, “Political violence is a scourge that has taken far too many lives. Enough is enough.”
Meanwhile, the alleged killer of Hortman, Vance Boelter, faces both state and federal charges ranging from first-degree murder to impersonating a police officer. The White House response to recent political violence has also raised eyebrows: Donald Trump ordered flags lowered for Kirk but had refused to do so after Hortman’s murder, brushing it off by saying he “could be nice and call, but why waste time?”
Source: CNN
Editor: Lee’s win restores a fragile balance of power, but the bigger story is how normalized political violence has become. We’re now tallying assassinations alongside election results like they’re just bullet points on a midterm recap. When Trump lowers flags for Kirk but not Hortman, it’s not just partisan—it’s petty, and it sends the message that some lives matter more than others. This isn’t democracy cooling down; it’s democracy boiling over.
Kristi Noem’s ICE “Stunt Video” Backfires After Wrongful Arrest of U.S. Citizens
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accidentally broadcast her agency’s blunder when a video she posted from an ICE raid in Illinois showed U.S. citizens being detained.
Noem—mocked online as “ICE Barbie” for her endless costumed photo-ops—joined agents in “Operation Midway Blitz” outside Chicago, boasting on social media about handcuffing alleged criminals. The problem? One of the men splashed across her feed was 37-year-old Joe Botello, a Texas-born U.S. citizen who says he was terrified when armed agents stormed his home.
“I’m just blessed that I’m still alive,” Botello told the Chicago Tribune, recalling how he and his roommates were cuffed without explanation. The father of five added that one agent even questioned how he spoke English so well—his reply was simple: he’s American. After showing ID, Botello and another wrongly detained man were released. Four others were taken into custody.
Botello’s warning to others was blunt: “Always have your documentation—passport if you can, and any type of ID that would identify [you]. Stay safe.” DHS later admitted two citizens had been wrongly detained, but Noem didn’t mention the mistake while hyping her tough-on-immigration image online. Instead, she wrote: “I was on the ground in Chicago today to make clear we are not backing down. Our work is only beginning.”
State Sen. Cristina Castro blasted the raids as sowing fear in immigrant communities, saying families were already “unnerved” ahead of Mexican Independence Day. “This is just going to put more fear in hard-working people who really just are here to have a better life,” she said. DHS justified the operation as honoring a young woman killed by an undocumented drunk driver in January—but that context doesn’t excuse arresting U.S. citizens in their own homes.
Source: The Daily Beast
Editor: Noem’s obsession with cosplay PR stunts finally collided with reality, and the collateral damage was two American citizens in handcuffs. If the head of Homeland Security can’t tell the difference between an undocumented migrant and a guy from Texas with five kids, maybe she should spend less time riding ATVs for Instagram and more time fixing her department’s basic competence. When your big “law and order” moment ends with the wrong people in cuffs, you’re not projecting strength—you’re broadcasting incompetence.
Trump Avoids Pressuring Putin and Netanyahu, Risks Becoming a Spectator in Global Conflicts
President Trump’s reluctance to use U.S. leverage on Israel and Russia is raising alarms as Netanyahu and Putin escalate wars while ignoring him.
Trump loves to cast himself as the world’s great peacemaker, bragging about stopping wars left and right. But when it comes to the two conflicts he talks about most—the Gaza war and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—he’s been reluctant to flex America’s power. Instead, both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin have shrugged off his words and carried on with their own agendas.
Netanyahu just launched missile strikes in Qatar against Hamas officials who were discussing Trump’s proposals to end the Gaza conflict. Meanwhile, after Trump’s meeting with Putin in Alaska, Russia escalated drone and missile strikes on Ukraine—some were even shot down by NATO over Poland. Trump’s reaction? A vague social media post asking, “What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones? Here we go!”
Critics argue Trump has done little beyond phone calls and online posts, while adding conditions that effectively delay tough sanctions on Russia. He’s told Europe to stop buying Moscow’s oil and demanded NATO nations slap 50-100% tariffs on China before he’ll consider “major sanctions.” As one analyst put it, “They have flushed some of their leverage away.”
Even Trump’s defenders admit his approach relies heavily on personal relationships rather than concrete action. Netanyahu has mastered flattering Trump to stay in his good graces, while Putin simply sees Ukraine as his destiny regardless of who sits in the White House. As Daniel Shapiro of the Atlantic Council warned, Trump’s loose talk and deference have only “contributed to the extension” of war in Gaza, putting hostages and civilians alike at risk.
Source: Wall Street Journal (gift article)
Editor: Trump keeps selling himself as the dealmaker-in-chief, but right now he looks more like the guy at the poker table folding every hand while his opponents rake in chips. Netanyahu flatters him, Putin ignores him, and the only people paying the price are Ukrainians, Palestinians, and the hostages still waiting for someone to actually use American leverage. If your foreign policy boils down to tweets, flattery, and delays, you’re not leading—you’re loitering.
Yulia Navalnaya: Foreign Labs Confirm Navalny Was Poisoned
Yulia Navalnaya says two independent labs tested smuggled biological samples from her late husband, Alexei Navalny, and both concluded he was poisoned.
Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, died at 47 in a remote Arctic prison in February 2024. Officially, Moscow insisted he succumbed to illness. His widow has never accepted that explanation, repeatedly accusing the Kremlin of murder—and now she says the science backs her up. “These labs in two different countries reached the same conclusion: Alexei was killed. More specifically, he was poisoned,” Navalnaya declared in a video posted to X.
The Kremlin’s response was predictably dismissive. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, “I don’t know anything about these statements of hers, and I can’t say anything.” That’s in line with the regime’s long pattern of denial, even as Navalny himself survived a previous poisoning in 2020 before returning to Russia and being imprisoned on trumped-up charges.
Navalnaya described Navalny’s final hours in harrowing detail: He collapsed in pain during exercise, complained of burning in his chest and stomach, and eventually vomited before being locked in a punishment cell. She shared a photo of the scene—vomit pooled on the floor—as evidence of the suffering he endured.
She also alleged that the “inconvenient truth” of her husband’s death may be unwelcome not only in Moscow but also among unnamed Western politicians. Navalny had warned for years that Russia was a “brittle criminal state run by thieves, sycophants and spies.” His life—and now his death—continue to expose just how right he was.
Source: Reuters
Editor: Navalny knew the risks when he returned to Russia, and he paid the ultimate price. Now his widow is proving what most of the world already suspected: Putin kills his opponents and calls it “natural causes.” Western leaders claiming otherwise should check their spines. If two foreign labs can say it out loud, then silence from the so-called defenders of democracy is complicity, not caution.
Ben & Jerry’s Co-Founder Quits After 47 Years, Says Unilever Silenced Brand’s Social Voice
Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, announced he is leaving the ice cream company, saying Unilever stripped the brand of the independence it once had to speak out on social issues.
In a letter shared by fellow co-founder Ben Cohen, Greenfield said the unique merger deal they struck with Unilever in 2000 was supposed to protect the company’s social mission “in perpetuity.” Instead, he said, that independence has been “lost,” leaving the brand muzzled at a time when, as he put it, “Our country’s current administration is attacking civil rights, voting rights, the rights of immigrants, women and the LGBTQ community.”
Greenfield didn’t mince words about what the brand has become under Unilever’s thumb. “Standing up for the values of justice, equity, and our shared humanity has never been more important, and yet Ben & Jerry’s has been silenced, sidelined for fear of upsetting those in power,” he wrote. For him, the ice cream company was never just about Cherry Garcia or Phish Food—it was about using ice cream as a platform for activism.
Unilever, which also owns Dove soap and Hellmann’s mayonnaise, pushed back, insisting it remains committed to Ben & Jerry’s mission. A spokesperson said they “disagree with his perspective” but want to engage constructively with both founders. That corporate boilerplate doesn’t erase recent clashes, including lawsuits over the removal of Ben & Jerry’s CEO and disputes over statements in support of Palestinians during the Israeli war against Gaza.
This divorce has been brewing for years. In 2021, Ben & Jerry’s announced it would stop selling in Israeli settlements, a move that sparked a bitter fight with Unilever. By 2024, the parent company announced plans to spin off its ice cream division altogether. For Greenfield, the breaking point came when speaking truth to power became just another “risk management” decision.
Source: AP News
Editor: Greenfield leaving feels like the last scoop of integrity melting away from the brand. Unilever thought it was buying ice cream, but what it really bought was a political megaphone—and now it wants the volume turned down. If your corporate strategy is “peace, love, and shut up,” don’t be surprised when the founders walk out with the soul of the company.