Brian Tyler Cohen: "Barack Obama praises those who protest ICE 'with the truth and with cameras and with peaceful protest and with shining a light on the behavior that, in the past, we've seen in authoritarian countries and dictatorships, but we have not seen in America'."
copy:
@renewedresistance#effectiveness#politics#HumanRights#CivilLiberties#Minneapolis
News is saying they are leaving. Run go hide more like it.
The problem with rabid racists is they make the mistake of thinking everyone feels like them. They actually thought this was going to be a winner, coming from a group of people that were undoubtedly school bullies bed wetters and animal torturers.
The presidents car The Beast is photoshopped onto a frozen lake where it is sinking. Ice Out day people drive junkers onto the ice and bet on how long before it become a fish habitat. There just has to be a brilliant drinking game attached. If there isn't , call me I have lots of ideas.
Some recent protest signs are added and Dunk the Clunk as the Ice Out day is called.
"Saari, a Marine Corps combat veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, went to the scene of #AlexPretti’s killing in #Minneapolis less than an hour after federal agents fired the fatal shots. He was wearing his Marine camouflage and carrying a lawfully owned 9mm Glock handgun on his right hip, as he does every day, he told The Intercept. Agents on the scene 'thought I was undercover,' Saari said. 'They kept asking what agency I was with.'
"When Saari told them he was not with any agency, their demeanor shifted. Federal immigration agents soon aimed M4-style rifles at his head, footage reviewed by The Intercept shows, their fingers on the trigger less than a minute’s walk away from where Pretti was killed.
'More and more #BorderPatrol and ICE agents gathered around me,' Saari said. 'Then they moved in with rifles and handguns drawn.'
"The encounter raises questions about how federal agents assessed threats, used force, and made arrest decisions in the immediate aftermath of Pretti’s killing. In Saari’s case, he and his attorney told The Intercept, federal agents took scans and samples of his biometric data and made a copy of his phone — without obtaining a warrant."
“THIS IS NOT A PROTEST STORY. THIS IS A CIVIC DEFENSE MANUAL”
by Closer To The Edge And Rook T. Winchester on Substack
“From that moment on post the murders in [#Minneapolis of Renee #Good & Alex #Pretti], Minnesota stopped acting like this was about persuasion and started acting like it was about protection.
What followed wasn’t chaos. It was organization under pressure. And that’s what other cities need to understand, because this wasn’t a protest cycle. It was a community building a defensive system in real time.
“If we talk about Rosa Parks, people think, oh, she was just a little old lady, she got tired, and she sat down.” What disappears in that telling is the discipline, preparation, and strategy behind her action. ... “It isn’t just that we innocently don’t remember [these histories]. I think they are, in a lot of ways, condensed and erased so that we think of change as heroic action by individuals, instead of long histories of collective reflection.”
#Bookstodon#Minneapolis#HugoAwards From Queen of Swords Press: Member of LA Con or Seattle Worldcon? You can nominate works for the Hugo Awards ballot! Know what we, a tiny press in the heart of Minneapolis, published? A Hugo Award-eligible series! Please consider nominating the Astreiant Series by Melissa Scott & Lisa A. Barnett! https://queenofswordspress.com/product/complete-astreiant/
the communities are #organising#FoodExchanges & #SeedSwaps, teaching ppl how to grow their own food & support each other, so nobody goes hungry. they cook & eat together at long tables..
Minnesota Twin City neighbors are still going through it. That so-called 'draw down' was a ploy to get media to leave and it worked. ICE and Border Patrol are still everywhere and they haven't stopped.
There's a lot going on everywhere but if you can still be a witness and amplification point for Minneapolis/St Paul, that would be great.
Seeing reports on other social media of #Minneapolis getting posts deranked and buried. We should remind people that #Mastodon has many popular servers hosted outside the US.
The situation with #ICE has been getting worse there, but coverage has declined a lot. There have been drones and helicopters overhead, even overnight. People have started hiding neighbors in their homes. As well as organizing food distribution networks to limit time in public, and help people who aren’t able to work.
On February 3, Aliya Rahman — a US citizen and resident of Minneapolis, #Minnesota — testified before a bicameral public forum at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.
The session on the violent tactics and use of force by agents of the Dept.of Homeland Security (DHS) was convened by #US senator Richard Blumenthal (Democrat, Connecticut) and US congressman Robert Garcia (Democrat, California). Other testimony came from Miramar Martinez, who was shot five times by #DHS agents in Chicago, Illinois, and from family members of #ReneeNicoleGood, who was murdered by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (#ICE) agent in #Minneapolis on January 7.
If you want a ton of indie #ttrpg stuff and more for $10 that goes to a good cause, consider getting the No ICE in Minnesota Charity Bundle-- funds raised will go to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota.
As a #Minneapolis resident, I can say with confidence that this shit is not over yet-- the temperature has not be "turned down" in in any significant way, and people are still being snatched off the streets.
In #Minneapolis and St. Paul, as well as the surrounding suburbs, tens of thousands of #immigrant families are relying on churches and mutual aid for food and financial support. People have not left their homes for weeks. Local schools have reverted to Covid-era online measures to support immigrant students too terrified to come to class. Those students who still attend in person are transported by #US-born neighbors and family friends. Campuses at all grade levels are patrolled by volunteers in fluorescent vests, an effort aimed at deterring federal agents’ practice of targeting parent pick-up and drop-off sites.
So…”done” may be a misuse of the word, but I have reached a stopping point where my ambition has outrun my skill. I also think that trying to finesse this piece is a disservice to the emotion behind its creation. I think it shows that I was angry and mourning and demanding action. Is it good? Meh? Who am I to say. Am I Picasso, no, but am I satisfied with my take on Guernica via #Minneapolis? No, but ya know, I know I’m a hack and a fraud, so… 🤷🏻♀️🤣
I give you: Minneapolis (apologies, I’ll add better alt when I get to a keyboard)
A largish canvas with an oil painting of a surreal cityscape and three figures. One figure is prone, and two are expressing distress. The Morse code for SOS is repeated throughout, and the colors all come from the Minnesota state flag.
In another move that will further separate the US economy from the rest of the world, the US embassy in London is now refusing visas to corporate executives for having minor criminal convictions (sometimes from decades ago)..
The type of offence blocking a visa seems to have been shifted so that minor historic convictions (for cannabis procession, or drunk & disorderly) now halt applications & these limitations are being invoked increasingly by other embassies & consuls
Hello Fedi! We are the still-in-progress Twin Cities Radical Community Archive. This project aims to collect, preserve, and increase access to left-wing, working-class activism in the Twin Cities metro, both historically and currently.
The killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretty has activated communities across this country to begin organizing to protect themselves from unhinged state violence from the masked federal agents. ...
I don't know about you but as for me this view of the downtown Minneapolis skyline is one of the best in the city. Coming up from the south on 35 W gives you the few of all the buildings but there are two other things that you see you magically. Now I had to task of catching this scene from an evening vantage point. Everything is different in the evening.
I don't know about you but as for me this view of the downtown Minneapolis skyline is one of the best in the city. Coming up from the south on 35 W gives you the few of all the buildings but there are two other things that you see you magically. Now I had to task of catching this scene from an evening vantage point. Everything is different in the evening. The buildings are all lit up differently, The sky is lit up differently, the road is lit up differently. I hope you enjoy these images as much as I do.
Experience the vibrant energy of Minneapolis, Minnesota from a stunning vantage point as dusk settles over the city. This photograph captures the iconic downtown Minneapolis skyline glowing against a rich sunset sky, framed by the graceful sweep of Highway 35W leading directly into the heart of the urban landscape. The long exposure creates dynamic light trails from evening traffic that draw the eye toward the towering architecture and dramatic clouds above.
Every element of this scene feels alive. The warm hues of sunset contrast with the cool tones of the city lights.
Image:
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/downtown-minneapolis-skyline-on-35-w-sunset-wayne-moran.html
Council President Elliott Payne said there’s nothing more urgent than what’s happening in Minneapolis now.
“This is going to impact our city for years to come,” he said. “This is about the future of democracy. Our bond rating will be irrelevant if we are in outright civil war.“
The Minneapolis skyline, including City Hall seen from the back of the federal courthouse, in downtown Minneapolis. (Glen Stubbe/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Israeli forces shoot a man in Qalqilya, raid villages near Ramallah. #Israel holds hundreds of #Palestinian bodies. US contractor pitched #Gaza plan with massive profits. Former Israeli Prime Minister #EhudBarak warned of a one-state future in a 2013 conversation with Epstein and Summers. Released Palestinian prisoner dies after detention. #DHS expands body cameras after #Minneapolis shootings. DHS labels #Portland protester as #Antifa leader. #SEC moves to revive risky mortgage securities. Trump says the US is close to #Cuba agreement. US and #Iran plan first talks since war. #US advances Sudan peace plan via #Trump’s Board of Peace. #French judges issue warrants over Gaza aid obstruction.
I saw a #StatusCoup vid with a former #MAGA Trump voter being interviewed on the street, at a #FuckICE protest in #Minneapolis#Minnesota. He demonstrated genuine #humility , #repentance & #regret. People like that - I can forgive because everyone makes mistakes. It's how people choose to deal with their mistakes that builds up or tears down their own personal character.
I've always been open to #forgiveness when humility, repentance & making better, more humane, personal choices, going forward - are demonstrated. I'm only a hardliner with forgiveness when none of the above-mentioned actions are taken.
The regime really wants out of #Minneapolis but has no face saving way to do it. They tried changing the face of the operation, they tried mugging the state for its voter rolls, now they're trying to slink away bit by bit I guess. They did that in LA too.
“Border controls are most severely deployed by those Western regimes that create mass displacement, and are most severely deployed against those whose very recourse to migration results from the ravages of capital and military occupations. . . We are all, therefore, simultaneously separated by and bound together by the violences of border imperialism.”
Roughly 14 years and 20+ social media accounts ago, I first encountered "my favorite writer nobody else has ever heard of." Posting under the handle Mobute, it was actually part-time media critic Jeb Lund who ultimately convinced me that there was something to the idea of integrating a social media account, with a website or blog, to more accurately track with the way people under the age of 60 were actually getting their news and analysis content. In a very strange way, everything I've done on NIDC and the social media accounts attached to it, sprung out of enjoying Lund's unique style of writing, and watching how he moved seamlessly from critical essays, to ripping lanyards and nazis on social media, then back again.
Of course, time and the world's richest nazi (except maybe Putin) buying Twitter caused me to lose track of Lund and his work. So imagine my surprised when immediately after the one day general strike against ICE occupation in Minneapolis, a Jeb Lund essay published on Truthdig showed up in my direct message box. Furthermore, imagine my delight when I found that Jeb hadn't lost his fastball, and had indeed drifted much further to the left in the wake of the open and obvious fascist takeover of America; just as I, and almost every other analyst I talk with regularly have.
"We can also say this: Wherever you live in the United States, the Trump administration is going to bring an ethnic cleansing near you, if not directly to you, and they are going to use every term except that one to describe what they are doing. They will not stop until they have ethnically cleansed the United States, and they do not care if you die. The only lesson each new body teaches them is how inconsequential it is to make the next one."
Quite frankly, I didn't just share this essay to go down memory lane. At the end of the day, what Jeb Lund is articulating here is more or less the central thesis of my own writing about the Trump administration's vision for America, the ethnic cleansing project he and Stephen Miller are conducting, and the Gestapo's role in transforming (in so much as that is even necessary) the United States into a fascist dictatorship - the Pork Reich. Yes it is a fascist dictatorship in progress, yes they are openly doing ethnic cleansing in our streets, no they don't care if you live or die so long as the stock market stays profitable for some, no the cavalry isn't coming to save us, and yes we have to rise up together on our own and beat back the forces of fascism or we're all fucking cooked.
In particular, I think Lund's most compelling argument for why we must all fight is that these people, this fascist order, clearly means to kill millions and millions of Americans for billionaire (cultists) whether you fight back or not. The author acknowledges that opposing a fascist regime can be dangerous, it might even get you killed, but then articulates all the ways this regime is at a minimum completely indifferent to the deaths of the American people it ostensibly represents, and at worst seems to be actively trying to kill us. And Lund isn't just waxing poetic about the Gestapo coming to your door some day either.
"They have already told all levels of law enforcement to take the gloves off, and they take care to look the other way when “officers are on scene” and a “shooting transpires” and “it eventuates” that you die. They don’t care if you are detained and some combination of filth, disease, malnourishment, injury, confiscation of your medication or “discipline” makes you die. They don’t care if your insurance rescinds your coverage and you die. They do not care if they eliminate Medicaid and Medicare, and you have to fly home and take care of your mom before she dies. They don’t care if you fly home to see her, and your plane collides with something and you die, and they don’t care if it’s blown apart by the debris from a Nazi’s rocket that was busy exploding over a protected wetland and you die.
They don’t care if you get measles, mumps or rubella and die. Sometime in early summer of 2020 was the last time they cared that anyone got COVID and died. They resented passing COVID relief, themselves defrauded it with lusty abandon, and, come the next pandemic, they will use their own crime as justification for the moral hazard of spending a cent to make sure you don’t die."
I don't want to just quote the whole essay here, he actually goes on for at least two more paragraphs pointing out all the ways the Trump regime is probably going to kill you anyway, even and perhaps especially if you don't life a finger to oppose fascism. Lund then closes by pointing to Minneapolis as an example for us all about how to say "no" and what resistance looks like.
Naturally of course, even Lund couldn't get such a "radical message" published in a mainstream outlet. So I wanted to share it with you here.
Fear, the Revolution killer: Rapid Response OpSec and Security Theater | SquidTips ( www.youtube.com )
The killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretty has activated communities across this country to begin organizing to protect themselves from unhinged state violence from the masked federal agents. ...