Minnesotans Are Showing The Way

By now it should be clear that the ICE presence in Minnesota is not about enforcement of immigration laws. It is about lawless rule. It all emanates from our supposed president, Donald J. Trump, a pathological narcissist who sees himself as unbound by any law.

As we are seeing in the streets of Minneapolis and St. Paul, usurpers of the Federal Government operate with with the same sense of unboundedness by any law. As with Trump, they can deflect any accountability by lying. Like their boss, they lie about everything, all the time. Not one word they say about anything can be trusted. As with their ideological predecessors in Nazi Germany, they know that the Big Lie is an effective propaganda technique.

Bernie Sanders was interviewed on TV a few days ago, and he said the killing of Renée Good was a warning to the entire nation, that our Federal Government will kill any of us if we get in their way. It is with ICE now, but will expand from there if not stopped. Immigration is the handiest pretext for now, the low-hanging fruit of lawless rule. Once a lethal benchmark is established, it will be easy to expand the murderous impunity outward. It must be stopped, and can when it becomes clear what is taking place. ICE has killed again today. Minnesotans are showing the way out of this mess.
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In 1966-67, while a student at St. Thomas in St. Paul, I lived in Minneapolis, 41st and 42nd St., about a mile east of where Renée Good was shot and killed. It was an average middle class neighborhood. Never would I have believed that such perfidy would take place so close to where I once peacefully resided.

A moment by moment pictorial of the shooting of Alex Pretti from the New York Times. He was an intensive care nurse at the VA hospital in Minneapolis. In 2018 I was a patient for five days in the intensive care unit at the Madison VA. I would not be here today without the dedicated care I received from the nurses there. 

Here's a video of Alex Pretti honoring a fallen veteran at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, where he worked. They do these ceremonies at the Madison VA too, and they are incredibly moving. Here's an interview with the son (Mac Randolph) of the veteran, Terry Randolph, on WCCO Minneapolis.

Heather Digby Parton, writing in Salon, says Trump is worse than a fascist. Minnesota Nice has become Minnesota Strong. Here's a story by an observer of the ICE presence in Minneapolis. Private prisons are cashing in on Trump's ICE grift. Another Big Lie in Minneapolis.
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Here's a song. Canned Heat. Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. The Knickerbockers. Stevie Wonder. The Beatles. The Fugs. I met this band at a gas station on Marshall Avenue in St. Paul in 1967. They drove a hearse to carry their equipment. Lucinda Williams. Late Show version. Amanda Rheaume. Brewer and Shipley. Peter Tosh. Another from Peter Tosh. A song for Trump. A song for the reopening of the Trump Kennedy Center. Marc Skjervem. The Marsh Family.

Here's something we can give each other in these strange times.

ICE agents should have listened to this song before signing up for their killing spree.

Billy Bragg has a new song dedicated to Alex Pretti and the people of Minneapolis. If you need a laugh in all this madness, Jon Stewart might suffice.

Bruce Springsteen has a new song, Streets of Minneapolis. I suppose ICE will try to arrest him too. Here's an alternate version of the song. She pronounces Nicollet correctly.

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R.I.P. Bob Weir. This is my favorite of the Grateful Dead songs he sang. This is probably my second favorite. He is best known for this song. The last time I saw the band was at Soldier Field in Chicago in 1994. The version they did of Cassidy took music to a new level. They opened with this song about three times in concerts I went to. This is a great song too. And this. I was at this show. Playing In The Band. El Paso. Mexicali Blues. Man Smart, Woman Smarter. And, of course, Me and Bobby McGee. With Paul Simon, doing The Boxer in 2019.

R.I.P. Joe Ely. Here's my favorite Flatlanders song. I saw the band once in Madison in 2002.

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Update, January 27:

A shorter rendition of this post appeared in today's Madison Cap Times.

You can also see it on Smirking Chimp. There are many great writers who submit their work to Smirking Chimp, which can be seen here. Sometimes it doesn't load, which is likely due to denial of service attacks.

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Update, January 31:

Meanwhile, on the over there, so here front, the government of Israel has killed another 30 people (at least), including three children (at least) in its continuing pretense of ceasefire. As with the Trump grift regime, they are lying all the time about everything. They now admit to killing 70,000 people in their campaign of genocide, sponsored by the U.S. government - including both houses of Congress. And, with the propaganda support of U.S. news media. When this kind of perfidy comes home to roost, we can expect the same here (over there, so here).
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Update, February 1:

We now know the names of two of the ICE agents who shot Alex Pretti. A story about what ProPublica reporters saw in Minneapolis.