Spring 2026
Saturday March 28, 2026. No Kings national demonstrations. All info here.
In case you haven’t seen it, Thomas Friedman wrote an outstanding commentary about Twin Cities actions during the ICE “surge” in early 2026. Links are in the post I did March 15, here. Friedman is a native of the Twin Cities.
It’s a good time to check in on voting regulations in your state. I think this is a reliable website: Vote.gov
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We were reminded today (Mar. 20) that 23 years ago. in 2003, the Iraq War started with “Shock and Awe” over Iraq. Here’s one take on the subsequent 20 years.
Today is the end of the third week of Epic Fury over Iran. The last gas fill for me before the assault began (Feb 28) was Feb. 25 – $2.999 per gallon. The first fill after the assault – Mar. 11 – $3.599 per gallon. Both readings are at suburban St. Paul stations I regularly use. These will be my personal base line for the duration….
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Personally. we leave for Missouri on March 28 for the wedding of our grandson. We will be back by March 31. Unfortunately, this means that “No Kings” isn’t on the schedule for us.
Our grandson is an active duty Marine and has been for the last 8 years. His assignment is aircraft maintenance state side, and to my knowledge he or his unit are not slated for transfer. But as any military person knows, orders can change on very short notice. His spouse is a high school teacher and grew up in a Marines family. We are happy for them both.
Easter is April 5, so likelihood of writing here between now and then will likely be sporadic.
We are in insane times, and I suspect the insanity will increase between now and July 4, and beyond toward Election Day Nov. 3.
I visualize this time in our history as a blizzard imposed on all of us. In a blizzard or any other disaster, the essential action is that provided by individual citizens, like you and I. There are millions of things which can be done, not the least of which is to get out of the house and into one of the demos all over the U.S. on March 28. The Twin Cities will be a focus, in honor of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and the courageous citizens who stood up at the time of crisis.
“EXTRA CREDIT” – My French-Canadian cousin, Remi, in Montreal, has written a fascinating piece about the French language and its variations. I think you will find it very interesting if you have any interest in French and/or our Canadian cousins. (Remi’s great-grandfather and mine were brothers – surname originally Colet (present day Collette). I’m 50% French-Canadian.) Here’s the link.
COMMENTS:
from Brian: Oh wow! Thanks so much for including the article about Canada and French–super. I so loved reading it. We have good friends in Quebec.
Have a Happy Easter Dick and family. Thank you Rémi for your well researched article. I’ve always heard that Canadian French is old world française, but your writing of les filles du Roi filled in the language time-gap for me. The watercolor “ L’arrivée des jeunes filles fançaises à Québec” by C.W. Jeffries is wonderful, and I’m so glad to be a distant, distant relative of Jack Kerouac!
Love the Easter card, (Bunny’s, chicks, Easter Egg)
Info re: French Canadian – Interesting: as my grandmother Traver brother- Virgil Foster – United Council of church’s, UN – was originally from Quebec, Canada
Dick, Are you, of all the fine DFLers I know, REALLY implying that what the military action in Iran does to gas prices in the short term speaks in any important way to the wisdom, or quality of execution, of the operation? I sure hope not!
Trump and his advisors DO seem pretty clueless on HOW, exactly, to do this operation. In addition to being unsure of their objectives. In my book, those are really GOOD reasons NOT to be doing it. On the other hand, assuming that some form of “regime change” is, in fact, one of the poorly-explained objectives… well… the regime did in fact murder roughly 7,000 people (and openly admitted to 3,000), just for protesting in the streets. In January alone. So that’s a pretty good reason TO be doing Epic Fury. Either way, gas prices really seem trivial to me.
But I’ve been biased here by human compassion for 46 years or so. I had a good friend, a young, quite westernized, Iranian woman I’ll call “Elahi”,. She and I were in grad school together in Berkeley. In ’80, just post-Revolution, she went back home for a visit. She left in jeans and t-shirts, looking like the Berkeley grad student she was. She returned after a few weeks clad head to toe in the flowing black “chador”, continued to wear it, and hardly spoke to anyone. Pressed, she explained that the agents of the regime were everywhere Iranians were in the US – especially California. More so in LA than up north because of the larger community there… but… EVERYwhere. She was largely “broken” of her bright, happy nature. She was living a sham life, and living THAT in fear. In freakin’ Berkeley!
She chose to go back again for a visit after the next semester. We all tried to talk her out of it. She planned to return and finish her degree – she needed less than another year. We never heard from Elahi again. We never learned whether she had only died figuratively, or whether she died literally. Our Professor, the Department, and the University, could get no information from Iran – not even an acknowledgment of Elahi’s existence.
This regime, for 46 years now, has been utterly barbaric. It’s not now, nor has it ever been, a “shades of grey” thing. I hope against hope that Trump will somehow stumble into getting something right, here. I’ll gladly pay for the gas.