Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti

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This morning I made my first visit to the sites where Renee Good and Alex Pretti were murdered in January.  Mine was only a short visit about 9 a.m.  Alex’s death was on the west side of Nicollet Avenue, between 25th and 26th Street.  Renee died on the east side of Portland Avenue  at about 34th Street.  (some snapshots at end to the post)

Five years earlier, I had visited the site where George Floyd was killed, outside Cup Foods on Chicago Avenue at 38th Street.  The three sites are in close geographic proximity, within a mile or two.

Today is Valentine’s Day, and I think this is an appropriate day for this brief remembrance in the middle of the second month of the second year of this dark time of what amounts to an attempt at ethnic cleansing in the middle of our 250th year as a United States of America.

Sue, in an e-mail last night says all that needs to be said today: I went to a concert in Minneapolis last night; it was Cantus, the Minnesota men’s acapella singing group, and their guests from England, The King’s Singers, who had been invited last year to do a dual concert with Cantus in Minneapolis this month.  Then the ICE invasion happened, and the prospects for the concert looked bleak. But in the end the English acapella men’s group decided to come. Cantus spokesmen, before the concert began, explained how they had given their guests a tour of the landmark sites of the incidents of the last month: where Renee Good was murdered; where Alex Pretti was murdered; where the Whipple Building is, with protesters outside 24/7. We were told that the King’s Singers had already heard of the rising of the people of Minnesota against the Administration’s war against our people, citizens and non-citizens alike. The artists led a virtual cheering event inside Orchestra Hall touting the strength and resilience of the good people of our state, and it was repeated more than once between songs, the theme of which was “friendship.” Very lovely stuff.

(Both groups can be heard on YouTube)

Several persons forwarded a Feb. 10, 2026, commentary by Sabrina Tavernise in the New York Times: ‘We’ve Found our Voice’: Many in Twin Cities Emerge With a Sense of Power”.   Several others referred The Editors Pick for the February 11 Minnesota Star Tribune: “The Unexpected resistance to ICE in Minnesota: The soccer moms of Signal” by Mara Klecker: MN Star Trib 2 11 26.

Finally, SAK, my long-time friend across the pond in England sent a long comment related to my post on Immigrants, Feb 7.  I’ve added it there and it is very worth your time.

Here are some few snapshots from this mornings visit to south Minneapolis.  There is no attempt to be Pulitzer quality – I just wanted to get an impression of the nearby environment.

25th and Nicollet, Minneapolis Feb 14 2026

Alex Pretti memorial, 25th and Nicollet Minneapolis Feb 14, 2026

General location where Renee Good died, about 34th and Portland Ave S Minneapolis

Renee Good Memorial Feb 14 2026 near 34th and Portland Minneapolis

COMMENTS:

Jane:     Thanks for representing.  Every day should be Valentines Day.  This would could definitely use a lot more love!

MaryEllen:  Powerful, as always. The courage of those soccer Moms is amazing.

I am proud of my home state.
My sister in South Carolina said people are saying awful things about Minnesota in their area near Charleston. I need to ask her for specifics.
Have you read Sinclair Lewis’s ‘It can’t happen here’ ?

Response to Mary Ellen: I’m very aware of Lewis’ book, and have been for years.  It’s been brought to life in real terms in more recent years, when the flirtation with fascism was very real and very nearly catastrophic.  I suppose Charles Lindbergh, because of his celebrity, sort of became the face of the American flirtation with the Nazis; but Minnesota and particularly Minneapolis became something of a hotbed – ‘silver shirts’ and the like.  I hope we’re in the process, now, and dodging the bullet of full-throated fascism here, but it’s too soon to know, yet.  The Germans were too smart to be so stupid when Hitler and his gang came to power.  We all know what the end result was of 12 years of the 1,000 year Reich.  Keep on.

from Carol’s relative in Czech Republic: … what has happened in the last couple months in Minneapolis is the perfect example of a republic in action. These were common citizens, not professional politicians, called from their daily lives out into the streets braving Sub-Zero weather to witness and document what their government was doing in their names, even in the wake of two of their neighbors having been murdered. I think there’s no better definition of a Republic. I wasn’t there myself, but I’m immensely proud to call them my fellow Americans.

ps. Europeans who have expressed disbelief and even sympathy to me this past year are now stopping me on the street to enthuse about those “brave Americans in Minneapolis. to which I say “I even have some cousins who live there”.

 

Abraham Lincoln

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This morning came a 4-minute YouTube I ask you to NOT watch until you read the rest, below, first.

Today is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.  Heather Cox Richardson offers a marvelous summary, here.

The column got me to thinking back to my own history, which includes lots of tourist stops over many years.  Among these stops at various times earlier in life were Lincoln’s birth home; where he grew up; thence practiced Law and got into politics; the White House; Gettysburg; Ford’s Theatre and across the street where he died; his grave in Springfield….

Abe Lincoln

The image of Lincoln (above) is at arms length from where I’m typing this post.  It’s been there for years.  It was a small impulse purchase at an antique store on the edge of Dickeyville WI.  The store had been a home of one of my family ancestors who arrived in Wisconsin from Germany about 1872.  It’s just an iron cast hanging on a wall.  Somebody might wonder “why did he keep this?” when they’re cleaning out my home office….

We all know about the Civil War and related.  It doesn’t take much study to know that Lincoln led in tumultuous times in the U.S.

It was a time of explosive growth in the United States.  It was a not a time of kind and gentle treatment of Native Americans.  The rapid expansion of railroads and technology like the telegraph made settlement simpler.  All of my migrant ancestors from French Canada and Germany arrived in this part of the United States in this general time.  The U.S. population increased from about 31 million in 1860 to about 39 million in 1870 (2026 estimate: about 349 million).  There is a great plenty to criticize.

Lincoln, a country boy, had an impossible task.

What made the difference for him as compared to most U.S. Presidents?

He had, it seems to me, a profound sense of community – a place for all of us – that he actually managed to convey in the limited ways available at the time.  It was a daunting task – when he became president he appointed what Doris Kearns Goodwin called “A Team of Rivals” integral to his cabinet.  And you know the rest.

I leave it to each of you to fill in the blanks, as you see him, as compared to today’s chaotic time in which we currently live…and then to implement in each of our own small way some improvements in the status quo.

Which leaves the YouTube I asked you to hold till now:

It came from one of the readers of this post, Fred, who in turn had received it from his friend, Bob.  Here are their few words of introduction:

Bob: I have never been so moved by Shakespeare.  The man had a way with words.  This is powerful, powerful stuff.

Fred:  Check this out. It is a powerful message that those needing to hear it would likely not understand. McKellan was speaking on the Colbert show.

As a sophomore in college, I found myself cornered by a need for an elective. The only one I could find that had the potential to be interesting was Theater. Its instructor was actually a part-time actress in Twin Cities theatre circles. I lucked out. She loved Shakespeare and I was awed. Turns out, of course, his work was topical!

COMMENTS:


from Jeff: I thought  Professor Richardson today did a great job noting how Lincoln dated the beginning of the USA to the Declaration, not the Constitution which enshrined slavery into the country.

McKellen simply magnificent on performance value alone [YouTube].  What a master. The message delivered with such strength and grace has even more impact.

from Molly:

WOW!
just plain breathtaking!
(& I will surely be sharing forthwith!)
and Thank You, Dick!

POSTNOTE: The word today is that the Minneapolis Surge by ICE is ending.  I will believe it when it actually happens.  I think the response by Minneapolis (and by my state, generally) should be used as a tutorial for other places which ICE etc plan to mobilize. The fight is not over, it is just beginning.   March 28 is the next nationwide protest with focus on Minneapolis.  Mark your calendar and participate where you live.

Sidenote:  I am aware that President Obama enters the “me-too” conversation.  He was tough on deportation.  This is probably true, however, the process used, apparently, was totally different than present-day ICE.  The focus was on illegal foreign nationals already sentenced and in jail or prison.  In the present instance, the focus was on reaching quotas, which led to the abundant abuses.  The whole story will be told in coming months.  Also, I keep thinking of the bipartisan House-Senate-Biden White House immigration reform bill towards the end of the Biden administration, which DJT had the Republicans pull so it was never voted on.  He had a different strategy, which is what we’re living through now.  Keep that in mind/

 

Immigrants

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PRENOTE: My post about our Precinct Caucus February 3, here

This is being written on Saturday of Super Bowl weekend, almost a sacred day for many in the U.S.  I need to admit that I don’t know which teams are playing in the Super Bowl this year, or where it is being played, but by the time of kickoff I’ll probably watch for awhile, try to catch Bad Bunny (first time I’ve heard/seen him) at half-time, no interest in the commercials….

It does seem to be a good time to muse about Immigrants, since its constantly on the front page here in the Twin Cities of ICE, including half of the front page of this morning’s paper: “ONE MONTH IN MINNESOTA” continued pp A4-9 and  about the month of January; “Resisting or obstructing?  Line is blurry“;  “5-year-old’s deportation on fast track“.  Pages A 3,8, 12&13 (opinion) are almost 100% on the topic of the horror of ICE in the Twin Cities.

Feb. 5, a lady came in the coffee shop with a novel and effective approach to keeping the Twin Cities protest alive (yes there is a head on the other side of the hood!):

Feb. 5, 2026 Woodbury MN

This morning came this from Carol (I trust her sourcing, but don’t have it yet): “The mass deportation is projected to cost the federal government between $315 billion and nearly $1 trillion over the next decade. Under 2025 legislative proposals, the annual cost to deport one million people annually is estimated to be roughly $88 billion per year. Experts estimate an average cost of roughly $70,000 per person to arrest, detain, process, and remove undocumented immigrants. In 2023, immigrants in the United States—including both documented and undocumented individuals—paid a total of nearly $652 billion in federal, state, and local taxes. Social Security/Medicare: They have contributed over a quarter of a trillion dollars to these programs.”

Here’s a related article on the topic from the National Immigration Law Center.  And another from the American Immigration Council.

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This morning immigrants are closer to my mind than usual because of a recent and unexpected dusting off of my own family history – specifically the German side (50% of me).  It came via an e-mail from Texas from the great-great granddaughter of the man who was my great grandfathers brother.  I have only very recently become acquainted with her.  Her John, my Wilhelm, their brother Herman, and their father and stepmother, Bernard and Maria Anna, came to America in 1872 and 1873.  At time of migration the brothers were all in their 20s, born between 1846 and 1852.  Their Dad was born in 1816; their birth Mom had died in 1857.

These were not tourists on luxury liners.  Their migration stories would match any other voluntary migration stories from any time from any place.  They came from modest circumstances.  America represented opportunity and big risks.  They settled in a place where people were basically like them, in  language, culture and religion.  No different than other voluntary migrants at any time in history, including today.  People with their own stories.

My newly discovered relative and I have worked on our respective family stories for many years. and early indications are that it is a fortuitous find for both of us.  (Her Dad, from Illinois, who I’ve met only one time in person,  started on his family quest about the same time as I did – in 1981.  And he introduced the two of us.  This is how this business often works.  Sometimes it takes many years, but you need to prepare for this possibility.)

(My other ‘side’ – I’m 50% French-Canadian – has similar stories to my German kin, albeit longer in North America – the first arriving in 1618 to what is now Quebec, the last to Quebec from France in 1757.  Thence to what is the United States beginning in the 1840s and 50s.)

*

I, indeed most all of us in this country, are descendants of immigrants from somewhere.  The only difference is the circumstance of their arrival on our shores.  Of course, before all of them were the indigenous people called “Indians”, one of whom was the mother of my first ancestor born in North America.

We need to pay very, very close attention to the catastrophe now under way in this country.  Our legacy as a country was built by  immigrants from everywhere.  There are endless stories.  Take time to learn your own.

from Brian in Massachusetts Jan 26, 2026:

Brian in MA Jan 26 2026

POSTNOTE: One of the many immigrant groups kicked around by DJT and company was the Haitian Community of Springfield OH.  Recently, Tim Snyder, a native of Springfield, wrote two posts about the Springfield situation.  They are accessible here and well worth your time.

Personally, I had the privilege, twice, of visiting Haiti on study trips in 2003 (right before the coup) and 2006, meeting with and seeing people and places of Haiti and Haitians.  Brian, pictured above, is a long time advocate for justice in Haiti.

My personal Haiti website, which has been on-line for years, is still available to browse if you wish.  I’d personally recommend my Open Letter to U.S policy leaders in April 2006.  It was my small effort to get some sense of policy problems relating to the relationship between U.S. and Haiti going back for their entire history as independent countries.

ALSO, recently I received two excellent writings on present day sources of information.  The first, “Twitter is not real life”, can be accessed here.  The second is “How to tell you’re being manipulated by a story”

COMMENTS (more at end):

from Joyce: [We] have been in Spain all week, on a Road Scholar tour of Andalusia. It’s 2:40AM as I write this, about to leave for the airport and home. We’ve had bizarre weather, heavy rain all week in a region that’s usually sunny and dry, thanks to an atmospheric river. My point in writing this is to let you know that everyone we’ve spoken with this week, the 18 other people from all over the US and Canada who are on the tour with us, the Spanish people with whom we have spoken, all expressed admiration for Minnesota’s standing up for immigrants. The world is with us.

from Brian: Great post–thanks!   That’s why I call them ICE holes

from Ruth: Not watching the Super Bowl.  I am watching the Olympics.  Canadians are boycotting US.  Saw Lyndsay Vaughan taken off the ski hill.  Very sad to see a great athlete go down.  Like to see the world come together for a good cause.  Best wishes to the protesters in Minnesota.  We are with you in spirit.

responding to Ruth:  My bad!  I hadn’t even thought about the Olympics, but we’ve already had it on, and know about Lyndsay’s mishap.  Don’t know any details, but my guess is her career is now ended.  I guess my personal excuse about winter sports is that when I was in 7th grade, I was wearing my Dad’s speed skates (size 13 or something), which didn’t enhance my ability to keep my feet during a kids ‘crack the pit’ on the school yard ice pond.  Ended up breaking my leg.  And lost my enthusiasm for skating, period.  There was no way I could get myself into those skates such that I could skate. I was probably size 8….

from SAK, Feb 14, 2026:

Thanks for that post & for mentioning Lincoln, he can’t be mentioned too often. The world needs a constant reminder! A war was fought mainly over the issue of race & exclusion.

Your post as well a couple of other things brought the issues of racism, anti-immigrants & misogyny to mind.

  • I listened again to an old programme about the American Populists, a political party that gained popularity in the late 19th & early 20thcentury.  [This is] highly recommended!

    To fight the populists, who were more liberal & egalitarian – no comparison with today’s oft called “populists”, the usual tactics were used: divide the poor farmers (white vs black) & limit their voting rights via various laws & restrictions. The Jim Crow Laws were setup mainly in the south to impose segregation thus helping division – people are unlikely to work together politically if they can’t even meet! The poor white farmer had to choose between voting along with black farmers for their mutual benefit or voting “against” the black farmer & thus feeling superior just due to the distinction of being white. Thus Thomas E Watson said: “You are kept apart that you may be separately fleeced of your earnings. You are made to hate each other because upon that hatred is rested the keystone of the arch of financial despotism which enslaves you both. You are deceived and blinded that you may not see how this race antagonism perpetuates a monetary system which beggars both.” Plus ça change . . .

    • As the article below shows, the fight is never done & dusted – it has to be fought again & again. Complacency allows backward slipping & sliding. Is that what happened in the early 21st century & resulted in the present predicament? Are new Jim Crow laws being proposed & instituted?

    • Elon Musk posted about race almost every day in the past January & the posts were “indiscernible from those of white supremacists” say experts.

      • A British billionaire, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has caused an almighty commotion by declaring totally wrong figures about immigration & saying the UK is being “colonized” (with an ‘s’ not a ‘z’ in the UK!) by immigrants.  He is mentioned in the article below but just to note that he is one of the richest people in the UK, was part of the Brexit campaign to leave the EU, a campaign Trump & Musk favoured. Once the Leave campaign won, Sir Ratcliffe up & left for Monaco to avoid paying taxes. It is not inappropriate to say, as one journalist & broadcaster put it: “I have a hunch more Brits would say they prefer people, immigrants or not, who pay their taxes, rather than billionaires who bugger off to Monaco and don’t”. Another article highlights how Sir Ratcliffe benefits from the UK system which educated him & subsidised his business as well as topping up his employees’ livelihoods because they receive basic salaries etc.
  • The shocking videoclip Trump posted of the Obamas & did not even explicitly apologise!

Trump, Musk and now UK billionaire Jim Ratcliffe – they are the enablers, making racists feel great again

With their profile and vile words, these malign provocateurs are tearing down decency’s guardrails

Fri 13 Feb 2026    Jonathan Freedland

It lacks the elegance of “greed is good”, but as a distillation of the spirit of the age, it’s right up there. “I feel liberated,” a top banker told the Financial Times shortly after Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 US presidential election. “We can say ‘retard’ and ‘pussy’ without the fear of getting cancelled … it’s a new dawn.”

So that’s what they meant by “vibe shift”. Though, as the Epstein files reveal daily, the top 0.01% were hardly primly biting their tongues before Trump’s win, at least not in private. Those with telephone-number fortunes and great power felt able to speak, and write, to each other about women in language so vicious, so filled with hate – women discussed as body parts, as “less than human”, in Gordon Brown’s apt phrase – that they didn’t need the encouragement of a “grab ’em by the pussy” president to cast off their inhibitions.

Still, as that unnamed banker made clear to the FT, women are not the only group the powerful and privileged have been itching to disparage. This week it was migrants who were the target, accused by the billionaire Monaco resident Sir Jim Ratcliffe of having “colonised” Britain.

He may have got his stats wrong – he was in quite a muddle about the size of the UK population – but he did usefully debunk one stubbornly persistent assumption. For a while, it was taken as read that anti-immigrant sentiment was a function of economic anxiety: indeed, that was the instant explanation offered for Trump’s victory in 2016. But Ratcliffe, whose fortune is estimated at £17bn, won’t be feeling too much angst in the economic department. That is truer still of Elon Musk, who is simultaneously the backer of anti-immigration parties across Europe and the world’s richest man.

Indeed, the data shows no correlation at all between hostility to immigration and income. In January, Ipsos found that it was the most affluent fifth of voters in Britain who, more than any other group, named immigration as their most pressing concern.

The increasingly uninhibited musings of the super-rich are, alas, just one factor in a shift that is becoming ever more apparent. While of course we must say that Sir Jim’s comments did not specify the racial origins of immigrants, that’s inevitably how they were heard. We are, in the words of Sunder Katwala, who as the director of the British Future thinktank observes these trends more keenly than most, “going backwards on racism”.

The evidence is all around you. It’s there in the 116,000 hate crimes recorded by police in England and Wales, but excluding London, for the year to March 2025 – up on the previous year, and a fifth of it involving violence.

It’s there in the “ugly”, 1970s-style racism directed at NHS staff, incidents of verbal and physical abuse based on skin colour so frequent that the health secretary, Wes Streeting, warned last November that it was becoming “socially acceptable to be racist”.

It’s there in a changed public discourse, where the bounds of acceptability have shifted to include notions that most thought had been left behind two generations ago. Suddenly there’s a debate, drawing in mainstream commentators, over whether Rishi Sunak is English. A former cabinet minister, Robert Jenrick, can lament not seeing “another white face” in a Birmingham neighbourhood. A former prime minister, Liz Truss, appears as a guest on an online show where she chats with Connor Tomlinson, who believes, among other things, that British citizens from ethnic minorities should not be allowed to become members of parliament. The Sun’s Harry Cole hosts that same far-right figure on his online show.

It’s there on social media, where it has become routine to hurl the P-word [Paki for Pakistani] at politicians from the Tories’ Priti Patel to Labour’s Shabana Mahmood, from onetime Corbynite Zarah Sultana to Reform’s Zia Yusuf. And it’s there in the daily, lived experience of Britain’s minorities, measurable in both data and anecdote. Figures released this week, for example, showed yet another rise in antisemitic incidents, including a spike straight after October’s deadly attack on a synagogue in Heaton Park, Manchester, which left two dead on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar – more than half of that spike made up of incidents directly referring to, or celebrating, the killings at Heaton Park. Last autumn, Katwala wrote: “I personally get so much more racist abuse most weeks in 2025 than I ever did in 2005.”

Of course, there will be multiple and varied explanations for all this, but there are a few common threads. When it comes to the discourse, the shaping effect of online influencers is unmistakable. The likes of Tomlinson would once have been handing out badly stencilled leaflets in pub backrooms. Now he can reach millions, with TV production values previously the exclusive preserve of the major broadcasters. But the medium affects the message.

Put simply, the loudmouths of the far right are competing in an attention economy. Saying something shocking wins attention, but to keep it they have to say something more shocking still. There is a ratchet effect, which ensures the conversation becomes ever more extreme. Note the latest effusion from the white supremacist US influencer Nick Fuentes. Holocaust denial worked for him for a while, but his audience demands more. This week, he provided it by directing his fire at women, whom he castigated for encouraging sympathy for the poor and minorities. “The number one political enemy in America is women,” he told his audience on the Rumble platform. And so, “Every woman and girl is sent to the gulags. We will determine who the good ones are after the fact.” But first, to the gulags. “They go to the breeding gulags.”

These figures should be far beyond the fringe, but they keep getting amplified. Tucker Carlson hosted Fuentes on his show; Musk regularly promotes some of Britain’s most extreme voices, including Advance UK, a political party that now includes Tommy Robinson and that vows to ban indefinite leave to remain, ban the foreign-born from becoming British citizens and encourage all settled migrants to leave. Musk seems to think Advance is the real deal, preferable to the “weak sauce” of Nigel Farage. All the while, his X platform barely stirs as users racially abuse others, in the foulest language.

Throw in the brain-boiling effect of the pandemic period, when a small, extremely online minority became radicalised by conspiracy theories of every flavour, with anti-vax talk as the gateway drug, and you have some of the causes of this retrograde shift.

It’s important to hold on to the fact that most people do not think this way, that attitudes of tolerance are now deeply embedded in Britain: the data shows that too. Still, that led too many to become complacent, to assume that this was a problem of our past, one that we’d solved. But racism and prejudice are not like that. The battles against them have to be fought, and re-fought, in every generation. They are light sleepers – and some loud, powerful voices are determined to shake them awake.

Caucus

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Six months from today is the 4th of July, the 250th birthday of the United States.  By my count that’s 147 days; beyond that, by my count 269 days from now, is Election Day, 2026, November 3.  How does your “making a difference” calendar look like between now and then.  Set aside some time every day to our future as a country.  We, the people, are our destiny – each one of us.

*

I always attend my precinct caucus.  Last night there were 34 in our room, and they were engaged (not enraged, engaged).    I knew few of those attending.  They represented the diversity of our precinct. Two years ago, the same precinct meeting saw about a half dozen of us.  The weather on that caucus night was awful.

(In 2008, the Obama-Clinton year, in another school classroom, it was standing room only at our Precinct meeting.  (see POSTNOTE below).  People came to put either “Clinton” or “Obama” on a scrap of paper (they ran out of anything resembling a ballot really early), and once they voted, many  just left.)

Our state representative and state senator stopped by very briefly as did representatives for our congressperson and one candidate for federal office, and another for county office.  There just is no time for politicking  in such a setting.  But I think simply showing up is worthwhile.  Politics is very hard work for candidates.  Most important, the people in the room play an integral role in ultimately endorsing who the candidates will be.

There were about 10 well thought out and argued resolutions proposed and explained by several individuals who were well prepared.  Their proposals were generally supported by the group, and will go on to the next level, which will be the Senate District Convention Feb 28, then the Congressional District, thence Minnesota State DFL convention.  Committees of volunteers will sort and refine resolutions into groups, by topic (i.e. Labor), ultimately becoming the parties philosophical platform.  This process defines pretty well the DFL’s ‘big tent’ orientation – to respect everyone’s input in an exceedingly complex society.  It is impressive to watch it begin at the basic level, our precinct caucus.

At the end of the meeting I connected with one of the presenters who had submitted a resolution that particularly interested me.  Possibly, we will meet further about ways to approach the issue.

Yes, there’s LOTS of politics ahead, and that is good and it is intentional.  In Minnesota it begins with the precinct caucus.

We from Precinct 5, meeting in a classroom at Woodbury High School, were authorized 36 delegates and 36 alternates to the next level.  There were fewer of us in the room than those numbers, and I’m guessing most signed on for delegate status.  We’ll see how many show up on Feb. 28 for the Senate District Convention.  They and others from other places are the designated decision makers in the upcoming political process.

At the end of the caucus, one attendee related something that happened earlier in her day.  She had some kind of complaint about a product not received or such, and she had occasion to call customer service and her contact was a very helpful man with an accent – he turned out to be Nepalese, in a call center in that part of the world.  In a small departure from business, he asked the lady how she was doing, knowing she was from Minnesota.  The conversation was short, but he mentioned that everyone he knew, knew all about what has happened recently in Minnesota, and Minnesotans were on their minds.  The interchange made a deep impression on her, glad to know that someone elsewhere in the world knew and cared.

It was a great ending to a good night.

POSTNOTE:  Here’s my comment about 2008, recalled in my blog for February 7, 2012:

Four years ago, Feb. 5, 2008…well, here’s what I said, then:
“I’ve attended precinct caucuses for years. Our particular caucus location for the last several years has been a junior high school a 15 minute drive from me, just off I-94.
That’s 15 minutes on a normal day.
Tonight it took almost an hour to drive to the location, most of that time spent in the last half mile jammed bumper to bumper on the freeway and the exit ramp, and then another 15 minutes to walk to the school from my car which I had to park on the shoulder of the road.
The time spent had everything to do with the precinct caucus attendance, which was HUGE.
My caucus location was teeming with young people. The young guy who serves me coffee most mornings at my local Caribou was there, volunteering
for Al Franken. It is nice to make occasional unexpected connections like these….”

 

 

Black History Month

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February is Black History Month.

I’d offer the post I did a couple of weeks ago on Martin Luther King Jr Day, which is here.  This post contains Martin Luther King Jrs Letter from the Birmingham Jail, and the letter from Birmingham church leaders at the time, which led to his response from Jail about Easter time, 1963.  If you haven’t read it, or haven’t read it for some time, take the time to take it in today.  There are some small ‘gymnastics’ to get the two letters – that is intentional on my part.

Heather Cox Richardson gives a succinct history of the day here (Feb. 1 2026).

Of course, nothing is easy these days.  February 1 I heard that the President had signed the usual proclamation for Black History Month.  No such luck.  (You can find one if you’re diligent.  The one he signed was January 31, 2025, one year ago less than two weeks into his reign.)

Maybe we can all have an informal Everybody’s History Month between now and July 4, 2026, without diminishing Black History.  There can be other notes, like the significance of January 6, 2021….  We, everyone of us, are players in the ongoing history of this country of ours.  We cannot simply be spectators.

And Ken Burns 6-part 12-hour History of the American Revolution is still widely available on Public Broadcasting (PBS) – it just replayed within the last week, and I’m sure it will replay again.  Contact your station.  Rachel Maddow’s pod cast Burn Order, about the disgraceful interning of the Japanese in WWII America is also available.

Jan 13, long-time friend and colleague Paul wrote about the Burns series:

I watched, slowly, the Ken Burns series and was impressed by the detail, depth and breadth of the stories told.  Of course, there were many things we never learned when we were young.  Some because we were kids and would never have absorbed it all – imagine teaching a 6th grade class American history and trying to include it all in depth.  However, it is instructive to think about the selection of stories we were told and the ones that were not selected. There was obvious bias in that selection.  Burns gets to most of those missing pieces. Finally, women, indigenous people, slaves and free blacks and poor mountain men and more are all included in the series. Thank you, Ken Burns.  Now if we can just get the flag-waving, history erasing, politicians and their followers to watch this, we might have a chance to save our country.

COMMENTS:

from John:  Hopefully tensions in Minnesota have lessened a little bit– heard a long interview with the mayor of Minneapolis and he seemed to be hopeful – and it appears that the “Short Attention Span Theatre” that is our president has moved on to other things. I’m sure that won’t last though…

Participated in a vigil here Sunday evening, and checking other events that are scheduled locally to keep the awareness and presence going

response from Dick: Noted that 60 Minutes first segment last night was Minneapolis.  I have lots of confidence in Minneapolis Mayor, Police Chief and Minnesota Governor.  They know the routine with this guy.   The real basic training was George Floyd murder Memorial Day 2020 and the following chaos (which I believe, with respect particularly to the burnings, was ‘false flag’ stuff by hoodlums whose assignment was what used to be called Molotov cocktails).  Of course, police malpractice was the fuel for this in the first place, so there are other factors, but the week after Floyd was killed, DJT was musing about violence against protestors in Lafayette park across from the White House.  Remember that?  Of course, I can’t prove any of what I just alleged.  That week was in the really bad phase of Covid-19 and masks were the uniform of the day.

The People Part of Politics

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It has been a rough 7 months since Melissa and John Hortman were assassinated in suburban Minneapolis on June 24, 2025.  Thence came Annunciation School children targeted at Catholic Mass in south Mpls, followed by the recent killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti on south Minneapolis streets at hands of ICE, and more.  I know how these and other situations have been covered by the national media; and the more intense coverage in our local area.  What I also know is how life on the ground is here in the Twin Cities, and my post on “9 hours in a hospital” is my small effort to look at the other side of life here in the twin cities.  We’re hanging in there, non-violently.  We’re concerned and we are also determined to make it through this.  We’re up to it.  Expect to see many of us on the streets in the future.  Know that more of us are working as hard but not as visibly.  There are bright spots: today Bruce Springsteen was live at First Avenue in Minneapolis, an unexpected high spot to go along with his new song to Minneapolis.  Thank you all.

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PRENOTE:

Related, relevant, a post I wrote yesterday about my 9 hours in a Minneapolis hospital on Wednesday Jan. 28.

IMPORTANT FOR MINNESOTANS: Minnesota Precinct Caucus Tuesday Feb 3.    This is crucial for anyone wishing to impact on their parties candidates or position on issues.  I’m Democrat.  Here’s the MN caucus preview from the DFL website.

I’m a contributing member of Indivisible (which apparently makes me a ‘domestic terrorist’ in the view of some).  I contributed $50 about the time of the fall No Kings rally, and I’m glad I did.  The next: Saturday. March 28.  Here are details.

In case you haven’t heard: Bruce Springsteen: the Streets of Minneapolis.

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Years ago, for some unremembered workshop, or maybe sitting on some committee, I sketched out an alternative definition of a Power Pyramid.   It’s undated, but I kept it all these years, and it seems more impactful, un-gussied-up.

My definition: People, even a little united, have all the power, and power people with competing interest know this, and spend their time devising ways to keep the people divided and fighting amongst themselves.  Any person in power lives in dread of being found out.  You can fill in the blanks.

There are three crucial dates ahead:

First. (In Minnesota) Precinct Caucuses on Tuesday, Feb. 3.  They are open to all, most often attended by relatively few, and (my opinion) the most important political meeting one can attend.  My last caucus was two years ago.  It had very low attendance, due largely to very bad weather, and a few of us rattled around to elect delegates and propose resolutions for later levels of political conventions.  In my case, we surviving delegates had to reconvene twice to endorse candidates for legislator vacancies in our district.  The last endorsing convention, in December, 2025, 24 of us (out of over 28,000 registered voters) nominated the endorsed candidate for interim state legislator.  Our candidate was endorsed by 21 of the 24, won the primary (requested by the candidate who was endorsed by a single delegate), and ultimately won the general election on Jan 26 with near 98% of the vote (48 write-ins for other candidates).  The only reason I had a say in who was nominated and was subsequently elected was that I showed up on that miserable winter evening two years ago, and then came to the meetings to choose successor candidates.  Of course, the candidate for office similarly had to show up and campaign for office.  This is what democracy looks like, it is what democracy is.  (Each state has its own system.  So, if you don’t know your entry level political meeting, just ask someone you know who is political!)

The second crucial date: July 4, 2026: the 250th birthday of the United States.  More on that later.  My guess is that this summer will be complicated.  If you can, search out and watch for the first time, or again, Ken Burns series on the American Revolution which led to the United States of America.

The third crucial date: Tuesday, November 10, Election Day.  On this date every member of Congress will be elected, and many other offices, local, state and federal.  Know your candidates as ethereally are, and vote for all offices..

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It is often said that we, the people, are very distrustful of Congress.  On the other hand, we like our own Congressional representative.  There is huge cognitive dissonance.
“We, the People” ARE the people who pick our own representative for all sorts of reasons.  What is yours?
Pay attention.  Your future, and ours is at stake.

POSTNOTE JAN. 31, 2026: After I’d completed the above, and overnight, came Heather Cox Richardson’s Jan. 30 post with some details about the arrest of former CNN journalist Don Lemon, and Twin Cities journalist Georgia Fort in reporting on a protest at a St. Paul church.

COMMENTS (more at end):

from Laura: Thanks, Dick.

Be sure to view the YouTube three minute Marsh family  song Minnesota Tribute, it’s beautiful.

from Mary: I did hear yesterday that Minneapolis is to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize – first time for a city.  Probably just a pipe dream but would be a fitting reward for the persistence of the activism.  And DJT would be furious!

from Larry: Excellent piece and the recent shootings took those two legislators out of the breaking news. Glad you brought up those victims. My God, Minnesota is turning into some kind of assassination/murder capital – something like NYC when it was run by the mafia. But in Minnesota’s case, it’s the federal gov’t under Donald Trump that is doing the shooting. Appalling! As Rachelle Cordova (known in social media as “Elle”), who is a Youtuber who grew up in Fargo and is a U of M grad, said in a recent “short” video essay: “Nothing will make Trump’s magabase turn against him...but he is losing approval points (with the general public) almost as fast as he’s losing his marbles.”  So true. LG


from SAK (two contributions):

Dear Mr Bernard, I was moved by your “We’re hanging in there, non-violently.  We’re concerned and we are also determined to make it through this.  We’re up to it.  Expect to see many of us on the streets in the future.”

It parallels 2 lines from Marilynne Robinson’s article which was on the front page of the Financial Times’ Life & Arts today, Saturday 31st of January, 2026:

“This country is in a state of crisis that began decades ago and will continue for decades more, if we are fortunate. The worst outcome would be a quiet that meant the exhaustion of the public resistance to the post-democratic, post-constitutional movement that controls the government at present.”

Here is the full article:

The killings in Minneapolis

 

As American cities have been left reeling by the deployment of ICE federal agents, acclaimed novelist Marilynne Robinson explores the deeper conflict that lies behind Donald Trump’s show of force.

This country is in a state of crisis that began decades ago and will continue for decades more, if we are fortunate. The worst outcome would be a quiet that meant the exhaustion of the public resistance to the post-democratic, post-constitutional movement that controls the government at present. The disorder we are seeing now is a show of force for its own sake encountering resistance that is entirely to be anticipated, since, as a matter of common sense, these cities that have offered sanctuary to immigrants do not want to see them abused or expelled. If they were, in any significant numbers, the gangsters and criminals and the burden on resources President Donald Trump says they are, hundreds of thousands of people would not be turning out to defend them, to help them stay.

It is clear from what Trump frequently says about immigrants and the countries many of them come from that he quite sincerely despises them. He earnestly wishes that America could be the pure white country it never was. But there is a profounder issue here, that is, whether the American people really do have the right to govern themselves. Federal troops have surged into blue cities, cities that usually elect Democrats to govern them, that provide necessities and amenities to their populations with a freer hand than might be done elsewhere, that embrace new thinking about the definition of family or about environmental issues, for example. They tend to be prosperous and well educated, and to love themselves. And they tend to know their rights. Minneapolis is a prime example of all this. Renée Good and Alex Pretti were credits to their community.

This is the source of its present troubles. There has long been a controversy in this country about what a real America is or would be. Is it its history of change and reform, or is it the past that was lost in all that progress? There is something else in play now that has disrupted the old, frayed likemindedness, our former willingness, however grudging, to grant the other side a point or two. Now we have a president with no sense of shared history or purpose, who speaks of carnage in the streets and calls his opposition “left lunatics” and “very sick people” who hate our country and want to destroy it. Obviously this view of things is not compatible with the orderly transfer of power or any other civil virtue of democracy, or, frankly, of normal adulthood.

There is no better angel to be appealed to in his case. In demonising those who disagree with him he gives himself and his henchmen frightening licence to attack them. Having had so much more experience with the law than a law- abiding citizen, or non-citizen, he knows it can be thwarted or delayed, or weaponised, and that by this and other means he can enjoy more impunity than an honest man would desire or have any use for. We will learn sooner or later if the killings in Minneapolis will simply be one more demonstration of the effectiveness of his methods. We can hardly expect anything but chaos from him. The true variable here is the American in the street, the American in the voting booth.

We must hope that we are teaching our children to enjoy their rights and honour the rights of others, because this conflict may go on for generations. A weird offshoot of old controversies has sprung up, a subculture that rejects democracy. The Trump phenomenon has rested on the love and loyalty of “people”, who are more “people” than the rest of us because when they gather in crowds we are told we are witnessing “populism”. New Yorkers can amass in astonishing numbers, their worries and passions never becoming populism. Fairly or not, they are assumed to read books.

The coming Maga, or Magog, are definitely not “people” in this sense. They are masculinists with very inflated notions of their own intelligence and no respect at all for the generality of humankind. Enough of them are billionaires to make it fairly certain that their intertwined zealotries will persist and have influence. They want to make us all Christians — a tragic history there! — and they want to make us all emulate the values of Aristotle, a pagan before the word, or Word. It is all sophomoric, but with actual academic credentials and publications, a carefully constructed soi-disant elite is emerging who really wouldn’t want those Maga crowds or those Americans in the streets to know what they have in mind, once democracy is out of the way. Knowingly or not, aged Trump is preparing the world for them, a world that will claim to be Christian.

Surely nothing better can be said about the past than that it yielded the present. And no aspect of the present was harder won than the emancipation of Christianity from the state and from the custom and expectation of sectarian hatred and the repression and violence that so often made it unworthy of the name. People who call themselves conservative seem to yearn for those days, to feel the rush of that old certainty while doing sanctified harm to “very sick people”. It is still statistically true in America that there are Christians in any random group. Recently we saw soldiers gathered around a man they held prostrate. They beat him first. If Christ appears to us in this moment, he is not among the executioners.

Marilynne Robinson’s most recent books are the novel ‘Jack’ and ‘Reading Genesis’.

more from SAK, Feb 3:

To introduce Jefferson, not that he needs an introduction, this is what John F. Kennedy said at a dinner honouring Nobel prize winners:

“I want to tell you how welcome you are to the White House. I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”  😊

Compare that with those dining at the White House these days – many of whom dined at an Epstein mansion or island  . . .

Well Jefferson wrote on one January 30th a few years ago:

“Societies exist under three forms sufficiently distinguishable. 1. Without government, as among our Indians. 2. Under governments wherein the will of every one has a just influence, as is the case in England in a slight degree, and in our states in a great one. [England has since much improved one hopes . . . ] 3. Under governments of force: as is the case in all other monarchies and in most of the other republics. To have an idea of the curse of existence under these last, they must be seen [hopefully it will not be seen in one or more of these United States]. It is a government of wolves over sheep. It is a problem, not clear in my mind, that the 1st. condition is not the best. But I believe it to be inconsistent with any great degree of population. The second state has a great deal of good in it. The mass of mankind under that enjoys a precious degree of liberty and happiness. It has it’s evils too: the principal of which is the turbulence to which it is subject. But weigh this against the oppressions of monarchy, and it becomes nothing. Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem [I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery]. Even this evil is productive of good. It prevents the degeneracy of government, and nourishes a general attention to the public affairs. I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.”

Sadly one must also admit that Jefferson kept slaves & had a long term relationship with a young slave who bore him many children that he did not acknowledge I think.

As a tender novel, The Go-Between, opens: “The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.” This is not meant to justify however.

Jefferson goes on to say:

“Our citizens can never be induced, either as militia or as souldiers [sic], to go there to cut the throats of their own brothers and sons,”

Sadly, as a famous Minnesotan sang, “The times they are a-changin’ . . .”, sometimes for the worse not better. Surely the pendulum has started swinging for the better though.

9 hours in a Hospital

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Two days ago I was delivering my spouse to the Day Surgery section of Abbott Northwestern Hospital (ANW) in Minneapolis.  The objective was a new shoulder, with overnight stay.  (All went fine.  I brought her home yesterday.)

I spent nine hours at the hospital, before 10 a.m. to after 6 p.m. Wednesday, mostly waiting.  You’ve likely been in the same circumstances….

But yesterday was different for me: an opening to learn.

Abbott Northwestern, a prominent hospital in Minneapolis, is less than one mile east of 26th and Nicollet, where Alex Pretti was killed a few days before.  The building where Cathy was admitted borders on 26th….  A casual visitor would have no idea there had been a murder just down the street.

Wednesday was a busy day at the hospital.  As a visitor, I went where I was told.  Everyone I saw was a stranger.

Given what had happened and is happening in the Twin Cities I had a heightened sense of the environment I was in.

The hospital – its representatives – was friendly and welcoming – nothing over the top, just the usual kind of behavior expected from people oriented employees, regardless of their position.

I did see at most desks a specific sign to costumers like myself that abusive  kinds of behavior would not be tolerated.  There is certainly some reason for the sign, which I saw in several places.  Usually this kind of signage results from individual incidents.  There was no formal check-in procedure – like scanning for weapons, or such – but staffing for check-in was near the entrance

I noticed, as I always do, the personnel infrastructure of the hospital.  ANW is diverse in all ways; helpful, welcoming.

At the end of the day, near 9 hours, I had to access my car after normal hours, and first I had to navigate hallways in a building I’d never been in to find the correct entrance.   This is nothing unusual.  But several people on or off duty who happened across me were very helpful.

A text “how did we do?” assessment came at home soon after I arrived home.  It was about the valet service.  I gave it the highest score.  The entire institution deserved the kudos.

Thinking back on the day, most of what I experienced was contemporary communication.  50 years ago, up to really very recent past, there might be a television in the waiting area; doubtless there would be all points messages heard by everyone.  I found a single ragged People magazine, for neanderthals like me.  Today, virtually everyone is ‘wired’ – iPhones, laptops, wifi….  The whole world is accessible instantly to most anyone.  Even an old-timer like me text’ed messages (though I’m too wordy)!  TV isn’t needed.  It was there, but no sound.  No fighting over what channel.  You know the drill.  Every transaction can be private, but there is no privacy, really.  Years ago I sort of coined a phrase which seems pertinent today: “there are more ways to communicate less”.  We’re all in a learning curve.

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Enroute home, I took the usual route out of downtown, which took me within a couple of blocks of the VA Hospital where Alex Pritti had been ICU nurse.

I thought back t0 early 2006 to a time when my brother-in-law, Mike,  had been at theAlex’s  VA Hospital for an extended period of time, including 10 full days in ICU after a major surgery.  Mike was also mentally ill, and his assigned nurses would not have had an easy task.  (I liked him, but you know how this goes).  I visited Mike in ICU several times.  Of course, I made no particular notice of those who were caring for him – but they, like Alex, were always there.

Not long ago I wrote about my grandfather Bernard who spent most of the last year – 1956-57 – of his long life in the VA Hospital in Fargo ND.  Someone(s) were his Alex Pretti.

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We are best advised to learn from the tragedies that we are experiencing frequently these days.

In peace.

 

 

Minneapolis

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Several previous posts on the Minnesota situation accessible here.

Sunday, one of you sent a note from England: “What with the storms & bitterly cold weather as well as the distressing images we see, I just thought I would drop you a line to make sure all ‘s well.”  I replied: “Just got back from Mass – Basilica is edge of downtown Minneapolis about 2 miles from 26th and Nicollet..  Sunshiny day.  Calm. Noon.  Zero Fahrenheit.  More later in blog.  Thanks for asking.”

These are not normal times here, or anywhere.  At the moment we’re in the spotlight.  The local papers, Minnesota Star Tribune, and St. Paul Pioneer Press, are full of news from here.  Front page headline in Star Tribune for Monday: “In ‘uncharted territory’ State and federal officials clash over shooting investigation“.  It is stressful and depressing, but we’ll endure, I’m convinced of that.  In a few days, I’ll write specifically from my point of view.  For now, what follows is my update.

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First, about 40 of you may not have received the last post, which is here, from Jan 21  Also, please note the POSTNOTE at Jan. 16, beginning, here.  Also take a quick look at the comments.  Overnight, Monday morning,  came Heather Cox Richardson’s January 25 post primarily about the Alex Pretti killing.

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Minneapolis and area, January 25, 2026.  There is an immense amount of credible information out there.  It doesn’t take much searching to sift through the disinformation.  The following are some observations as a new week begins.  I will comment later this week with my personal feelings

Overnite came this e-mail from Jeff, visiting home area in Upper Michigan: It’s hard not to wring your hands and bemoan how we got here. The problem being is it too late?  Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.

I am up in Bessemer Michigan , the old iron mining area I grew up in.  The Pretti   [The man killed by ICE agents here yesterday]  family were from up here, his father went to Michigan Tech and eventually moved the family to Green Bay.  Alex attended the U of M on the reciprocity tuition. 
I have already seen emails from people up here who know his relatives who live up here even now. 

Sunday at Mass at Basilica, Fr. Gillespie handled the awful situation well.  Basilica is less than two miles from 26th and Nicollet.  He lives in the area where the George Floyd killing happened five years ago, and he noted community members gathering with lit candles witnessing to what  happened Saturday short miles away.  In my town, Saturday, a demonstration at an intersection.  These are the things you don’t see on TV – the micro.  I predict Minnesota is a community that will stay together.  I see Maine seems to be the new target.  Here is the statement of Pastor Dan Griffith on the Basilica website.


from Larry, long-time friend and regular newspaper columnist on peace: For Friends and Family to Whom I Regularly or Sometimes Send my OGP Column From the Sun Post:

This morning Elaine and I joined 2500 people nationwide on a Zoom Prayer Meeting organized by the Interfaith organization, ISAIAH.  I think it’s fair to say the event was to help people, in Isaiah’s words, to wait on the Lord, renew their strength, and rise up with wings like an Eagle to melt the unjust ways ICE is operating in Minneapolis.  They directed participants to www.iceoutnowmn.com, and I was astounded at the list of local businesses closed today to support this effort.  I applaud them.  I am also troubled whenever I hear national leaders say this aggressive mass deportation activity is necessary because no one is above the law.  Much of my work as a storyteller/educator for many years has been with children in families struggling with employment and income because one or more parents have a criminal conviction.  I will never understand how one such conviction keeps many people from voting or holding a decent job, but one person with multiple convictions can be President making crucial decisions for all.
We were still in Mexico when Renee Good was shot.  We were visiting family who moved there in September because they decided they could not/would not live in a country where NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW does not really mean that.  We did not know Renee, but it could have been someone we know.  Frankly, it could have been one of us.  Leaders said she had it coming because she was a member of a radical terrorist organization, INDIVISIBLE.  I’m not aware that Indivisible is a group you can join, but we have been at two enormous NO KINGS gatherings they organized, one in Golden Valley where we live, and one in Alexandria the day our grandson was competing there in a trapshooting event.  We ducked out long enough to join many other people in expressing our first amendment rights.  This was also the day Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed.  We learned later that the shooter had a list that included many of our local elected officials, and that he was involved with the general “Christian” milieu I grew up in. When I graduated from high school in 1964 I attended Bible College and was working for Minneapolis Youth for Christ, the organization Billy Graham emerged from.  They fired the Director I liked because he took a potential donor to a famous Minneapolis restaurant with a nude statue in the courtyard.  About the same time I heard a Minister rail against Pat Boone for claiming to be “born again” while appearing with a “half naked” Ann Margaret in the movie, STATE FAIR.  It is extremely difficult for me to understand how current leaders of this “Christian” strand, like Franklin Graham, could endorse a President with a history of less than one percent sexual purity.  That’s also apparently the amount of Epstein files that have been released a month past the deadline for all to be out.  Still, I could maybe overlook that if current actions were not striking intense fear in many folks I know, including grown up grandchildren who don’t look white because their mother, long a U.S. citizen, grew up in South America.
I was drafted and served as an Army Medic 4 months after National Guard troops shot and killed 4 students at Kent State in May of 1970.  It was a freedom of expression protest against the War in Vietnam, a conflict described 20 years later by its Secretary of Defense as, “Gee, I’m sorry.  We knew at the time we shouldn’t be there”.  I have friends who were students at Kent State at that time.  It could have been them.  I have friends whose names are on the Vietnam Wall. I have spent my life advocating against wars that have nothing to do with defense, as well as for better care for the Veterans sent off to fight.  More often than not they are young and traumatized between the call to Patriotism and the Specter of things they’ve been taught all their life are wrong.  I personally applaud the Congresspeople who recently reminded us all that soldiers swear an oath not only to protect the Constitution and to obey the Commander, but also that they have an obligation to disobey unlawful orders. I will turn 80 this year, so deemed myself too old to be marching at 2 p.m. in 40 below windchill temperatures.  However, I’d take the bus downtown to bail Jesus out if he were thrown in jail for disobeying unlawful orders.  It’s what he did.


from Carol, who saw this in the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

Chief executives of Target, Best Buy, General Mills, Cargill and roughly four dozen other large Minnesota companies issued a public letter Sunday calling for an “immediate de-escalation of tensions” in the state.

The letter marks the first time the most recognizable businesses in Minnesota have weighed in on the turmoil in Minneapolis amid the aggressive crackdown by federal immigration agents, which have sparked widespread protests throughout the city.

It comes one day after federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, 37, a nurse at the city’s Veterans Affairs hospital, while he was being restrained during a protest in Minneapolis.

“With yesterday’s tragic news, we are calling for an immediate de-escalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions,” the letter states.

The letter was signed by top executives of Minnesota’s largest companies and large hospital systems, including Land O’ Lakes, Hormel, U.S. Bancorp, Mayo Clinic and 3M. It also was signed by local sports teams: the Minnesota Vikings, Minnesota Timberwolves and the Minnesota Wild.

The letter is notable because many CEOs have sought to avoid weighing in on any politically charged issues during the second Trump administration.

~ Pioneer Press

 


from Carol, also from the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Jan 23, 2026 report from Frederick Melo and Talia McWright: The sex offenders federal authorities said they were seeking when they detained an elderly Hmong man in St. Paul Sunday do not appear to be missing and may not be registered sex offenders.

After federal agents handcuffed 57-year-old ChongLy “saly” Scott Thao, a U.S. citizen, and forced him out of his house at gunpoint and into cold wearing little more than crocs and boxer shorts, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security took to social media to say he lived with two criminal aliens — both of them convicted sex offenders who are still at large. DHS officials said earlier this week that the two were at large in St. Paul and “public safety threats.”

The Thao’s family has said he has no knowledge of the two men — one of whom is already in custody within the state prison system at Minnesota Correctional Facility-Faribault, where state records show the offender has resided for the past 16 months.

Lue Moua, who was born in 1973, has been in state custody since September 2024, serving a sentence for child kidnapping, with an expected release date of January 2027. An ICE detainer is already in place, according to the state Department of Corrections, meaning he is in line to be transferred to federal immigration authorities on his scheduled release date.

In defending the decision to remove Thao from his home at gunpoint, DHS issued a press statement calling Moua his roommate, and one of its “most wanted” and “a criminal illegal alien from Laos … wanted for sexual assault of a minor, rape, kidnapping and domestic violence.”

The statement noted an immigration judge issued him a final order of removal in 2012 but he remains at large.

In fact, Moua is behind bars, and has been for months. Before that, he was homeless, according to the criminal charges that landed him in state custody.

 

Court records show that in 2023, while living in a tent in a lakeside campsite off a dirt road, he repeatedly removed his ex-wife’s 6-year-old daughter from her home and threatened to harm them both, garnering convictions for felony kidnapping and misdemeanor domestic abuse. He was not charged with sex assault in the case.

Another man named Lue Moua, who was born in 1986, was placed in state custody in June 2020 following a drug conviction, and released under supervised probation in January 2022. His supervised release expires in October 2027.

ICE issued an order in June 2020 that they be notified within 72 hours of his release. DHS published a public statement Wednesday that also listed him among their “most wanted” at large, even though he’s currently listed on state records as being under the supervision of a probation officer from Ramsey County Community Corrections.

A search of the Minnesota Department of Corrections registry of sex offenders who are subject to public notification does not list either of the two Lue Mouas, or another man on the DHS “most wanted” list who was alleged but never proven to have lived with Thao.

 

On Friday, following coverage of Lue Moua’s imprisonment by Twin Cities broadcast news stations, DHS issued the following statement on X, attributing their inability to find him to the mayor of Minneapolis, who plays no obvious role in the case:

“We are calling on Governor Walz and Mayor Frey to agree to turning this child predator over to ICE, so this criminal can never prey on innocent American children. This is exactly what we have been saying: We need state and local law enforcement engagement and information so we don’t have to have such a presence on the streets.”

The other suspect, Kongmeng “Jack” Vang, was described as dangerous and at large by DHS officials. They said he was wanted for “sexual assault, gang activity and assault,” and that a federal immigration judge had ordered him to be removed from the country in 2016. It does not indicate why ICE failed to do so after he was transferred into their custody that year.

His court history on record shows Vang was convicted of misdemeanor sex assault in 2012, placed on probation, and then, following a probation violation, sentenced to 90 days in the Hennepin County Workhouse a year later.

 

In November 2016, Vang was convicted of disorderly conduct, but a fifth-degree assault charge was dismissed. He was sentenced to 30 days in the Hennepin County Workhouse and a year of probation.

Court and prison records show Vang was transferred to ICE’s jurisdiction and held in the Sherburne County Jail from November 2016 to April 2017 on an ICE hold. It’s unclear why he was not deported at that time.

 

On Thursday, a search of public records showed him living a few hours out of state, with a phone number listed.

COMMENTS (more at end of page):

from Laura: Thanks so very, very much.Dick.

Situation just heartbreaking.We all are doing the best we can.

from Pierre: Scary indeed.

from David: You seem to have a bit more faith than I do that “The truth will out.” Or, if it does, that it will make any difference. I’ve been burned before when some outrageous information/action came out regarding Trump or his administration thinking, “Well, NOW this will be different. No one can deny what they just saw/heard.” While the latest murder by ICE agents is a new level of outrage, I can’t see why it will be different this time. I hope I’m wrong.

response from Dick: All of this is depressing.  My optimism, hopefully not misplaced, is that the American public seems to be waking up to the harsh reality.  Krugman’s view (above) might help to explain this.  It is a long struggle, and the success or failure most lies in the laps of the Congress of the United States – the House of Representatives – which has not distinguished itself.


from Brian:

Thanks for your updates, and so sorry for the assault on your community.  You and your neighbors are in our thoughts, and actions.  Friday I attended a labor-focused protest outside Home Depot and Target in Boston, Sunday joined a suburban march around the town common.  Kenbe fem!

from Jane: Good to have someone on the spot who can tell us what is really going on.


from Lawrence:

And this truth is already out, from the WH DCS Steve Miller:

“To all ICE officers: You have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties,” Miller told Fox News last week.

“Anybody who lays a hand on you or tries to stop you or tries to obstruct you is committing a felony. You have immunity to perform your duties, and no one – no city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist – can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties.”

from Ken: Thanks Dick. For sharing your thoughts at this difficult time


from Larry:  Good summary of the way things are, Dick…I wrote – once again this morning to my delegation. It’s like a stone in the ocean…but I think we need to tell them what we think. They are cowards…if Congress can’t stop him, what or who can?  LG

Extreme

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If you have questions, please ask, or if you see errors, point them out – I’m doing this on the fly.  I guess I live in a war zone – at least as it is publicly portrayed in the words of the President of the United States and media, which persists in giving him undeserved air time.

This morning we’re preparing for an extreme weather event in the Twin Cities beginning Thursday night, per National Weather Service.  The weekend is predicted to be a doozy – good to stay indoors.

The President in Davos is talking about 19 billion or such in fraud in Minnesota, due, he says, to an incompetent governor and Democrats and evil Somalis and such who should be sent back  where they came from, and threatening to take Greenland by force if necessary.  Of course, any reliance on the Presidents numbers or assessment on anything are best received as ‘what the hell’ estimates – what plays well is all that matters to him.  Honesty is in short supply.

Apparently 1500 troops are on alert to come to Minnesota to augment the federal Army of masked hombres from ICE already here to clear the riff-raff off our streets and out of our homes, schools and churches.  The guy who murdered Renee Good seems to be off the hook…   She was apparently a domestic terrorist, and we’re harboring boatloads full of rapists, murderers and other crud from foreign countries. We are apparently the willing sanctuary of this scum and crud of the universe.

Now, our Governor, Minneapolis Mayor, the Attorney General and the Hennepin County attorney, at minimum, have been subpoenaed by the so-called Department of Justice for investigation of alleged criminal behavior…..

And the Supreme Court is hearing arguments about how the President can fire somebody from the Federal Reserve Board….  What a wonderful world!

I guess I live in the place from Hell – at least the national press agent, the President of the United States, declares it so.  Pay attention.  Pay very close attention.

On the other hand, if you believe a word der fuhrer  says about anything, there’s doubtless a bridge for sale somewhere, cheap, which you can’t access, or if you’re on it, it goes nowhere….  And likely it is phantom real estate anyway.

Into this mix comes another reality.  We’re supposed to have a day of action on Friday, but weather will likely interfere with the televised part of the revolution.  The guy I overheard on my walk this morning talking about being unable to sleep; the quiet expressions of concern; the e-mail I saw in my e-mail box when I got home from my walk (at the end of this post, from Jeff), etc. etc. etc.

I try to stay reasonably well informed, and in the last twenty-four hours have come three posts from Robert Reich that I think are worth your time.

In the first, there is a link to the proposed Minnesota action on Friday.  It’s just a link, near the beginning, brief, take a look.  The second is more of a call to action – what are you, personally, willing to do.  The two links are here and here.  In between is a third post from him, yesterday, here.

There is literally endless and credible information about the implications of this Presidents assorted mal-adventures that will affect us all if we sit on our fantasies that this will all end without our own investment of time and energy.  The next 10 months, until  the November election, are absolutely crucial for ongoing citizen action, in my opinion.  It is our future at stake.

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Finally, this mornings e-mail from Jeff about the Bond market: He also includes an article from the Jan 21 Barron’s Daily about yesterdays bond selloff.  “So, I have learned over many decades of investing that one always watches the bond market to get the feeling of what is really going on. 

Yesterday’s action maybe a one off, but I don’t think so…the bond markets are reacting to instability and uncertainty in the USA, Japan, and EU.  That is a huge percentage of the world’s GDP.    with treasury markets going down (value of the bond down, interest rate up…its often perplexing to wrap your brain around) this means rates are going up , and when the 10 year US treasury rates go up….then mortgage rates go up, and go up they did yesterday.  
The Japanese PM is a conservative, with economic plans similar to what Liz Truss proposed in the UK a few years ago (cut taxes, increase spending).  Japan is a moderate-conservative nation actually, but it values stability and cohesiveness…hence the bond markets reactions to the Japan treasury bonds….
The sad thing is Congress remains AWOL.  Now some Republicans are joining in the enthusiasm for taking over Greenland.  
As I said, Trump is a soul vampire…if you travel with him he steals your soul, you become a zombie and then he uses you up. 


Yesterday, Dave sent on a link to a half hour interview with the Minneapolis Police Chief, Bryan O’Hara:  “This is recording of NYT’s reporter Michael Barbaro’s interview with Minneapolis Chief Brian O’Hara. It was recorded Jan. 12 and is 34 minutes long. Well worth the time.

COMMENTS (more at end):

from Fred:  “Soul stealer” is an excellent description. I listened to his rambling speech at Davos. In my humble opinion it was a disaster for him.

from Joyce: Eric got an alert last night that the workers at a local Mexican restaurant were afraid to leave because ICE was in the area; he, and a few others, drove the workers home, then picked them up this morning to take them to work.

from Jeff: good one sir,  I suspect the dollar amounts in Trump’s addled synapses might be that he is confusing the amount ($19 billion) he and his family and cronies have

extracted from the US taxpayer already in his current reign.
This is not to distract from the issue of fraud in social services…having been on the firing line in this venue, I know that fraud is possible and opportunities are ripe. The problem
as usual is poor accounting, auditing and systems to promote correct usage without cutting off needy recipients.   I suspect Minnesota is only the tip of the iceberg, inconvenient fraud issues in places like Florida and Mississippi get papered over……


from Carol: My son John lives in South Minneapolis and attends a church there.  His church has a little food/clothing shelf, but he says hardly anyone is coming there now as people are too afraid to leave home.  I’m sure many of them have had their jobs put on hold also.  So the church members are individually shopping and delivering food to families – mostly Hispanic.  One of his friends is feeding four other families.  His daughter Liana is engaged to a Mexican guy who lives with his family in Minneapolis (he was born here – like that matters anymore).  So John and Tony are grocery shopping, paying themselves, and delivering to people that have contacted the church.  (Tony is a soccer coach in an elementary school over there.  Every time he goes out the door, he’s putting himself at risk.)  I told John his church should set up a fund that people can contribute to.

I understand that school teachers are doing this for their students’ families, also.
Please pass the word about these wonderful people who are stepping up.  We need to find ways to help feed our fellow Americans.

from Darleen: Well written, Dick.  We must remain vigilant; doing what we can while protecting our loved ones.  Our democracy and world stability are on the line.

from Jim: Dick, I’m afraid the die is cast and we’re too late! Trump does not care about our constitution, laws or court orders! He has built up his ICE/KGB/Gestapo to do his work, legally or illegally. If he doesn’t employ the insurrection act to cancel the November voting, he will use ICE etc. to collect the voting ballots, and his people will do the counting. He will remain as president until whoever he picks as his successor. Need to fight like hell!

 

 

 

Martin Luther King Day

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Today is Martin Luther King Day.  I notice it is not even mentioned on the White House website, at least I see no reference,  Of course, in every community in one way or another today will be recognized.  This is my tiny contribution.

I word searched Martin Luther King and found 80 blogs with references to MLK within my blog history. This one from 15 years ago is the one I want to emphasize today,  There is a specific reason.  Read on before you open it.

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First, I dedicate my post today to Andrena Guines, whose funeral I attended a couple of weeks ago at Basilica of St. Mary.  She was only 61.

Jan 8, 2026 Basilica of St. Mary

The Memorial writing about Andrea is here: Andrena Guines Jan 8 2026.  Below is a portion of the folder.  I think MLK would be proud of her.

“From an early age, Andrena was taught that one’s vote and voice matters.  Her strong social beliefs left her to a life of service and deep commitment to empowering others.  She worked on many successful political campaigns in Georgia and Minnesota.  Andrena won the Vice Chair for THE Congressional District 4 -DFL and became a 2024 Presidential Elector for the State of Minnesota.  This honor placed her name in the Library of Congress.  She also participated as one of the core members of Black Women Rising, where she found community and offered support to others.”

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Yesterday, Sunday January 18, at the end of the Mass, our Pastor at Basilica of St. Mary suggested to us that this would be a good time to read MLK’s April, 1963, Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

If you’re interested I ask you to first return to the second paragraph in this post, and open the post from 15 years ago. August, 2010.  About half way down, note the last line of the paragraph beginning “MLK wrote…” open the link “Alabama clergy MLK 63001”.

At this link is the public letter from six prominent church leaders in Birmingham, which led to MLK’s response.  It is seldom brought to public attention,.

I’m asking you to go through this little “dance”, just to point out that the originating letter is seldom emphasized, and in 2010 I found it difficult to find on-line.  But it gives context to King’s letter, which is all most people ever see.

MLK was in his early 30s when he was in jail and wrote his letter, a young pastor.

The six clergy who wrote their position, which speaks for itself, were at the pinnacle of leadership of their own denominations in Birmingham and accustomed to being in charge, and being persons of influence in the community.  All were white and probably astute in local politics and well connected with the movers and shakers.

MLKs constituency was by and large common folk not viewed as people with power.

I hope you take the time to read the articles and reflect on how they apply to today, 63 years later.

COMMENTS (more below);

from Lois:  Yesterday I read an article: History of U. S. Sanctuary Cities and States written by Laura Madokoro, Carleton University.  Understanding this was long overdue.

After 9/11 it seems our attention was on the Middle East while the situation in Central American countries festered for 2 dozen years.  The fraud investigation sure ignited the explosion what was previously hit and miss in addressing the issue.

Can we say our federal lawmakers were asleep at the wheel since the mid ‘80’s?  Our tax money goes in, gets mixed like the salmon loaf I just made, and divvied out with the best intentions, assuming everyone down the line to distribute it, and recipients use it as intended.  The word “trust” has been lost to history after 1000 years (per definition online).

I read, I listen, and I agree with the opinion, news is a televised daily soap opera.  “This too shall pass”, hopefully soon.

from Christine in France:  It is so unbelievable from the country of freedom…!  In France, everybody is in shock and still wondering how to react… soon I hope otherwise, it will hit us as well…

response from Dick: I don’t recall Churchill’s exact words to the schoolboys in WWII, but the essence was “never, never, never, never quit”.  It’s not going to be easy, but great numbers of us are keeping on.  Remember, over 75 million Americans voted for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz one November ago.  Of course, over 90 million didn’t vote at all, and several million for candidates they knew ha no chance….  But the battle is not over, not by a long shot.