Minnesota shows us the way forward

January 24, 2026

To everyone affected by the record-breaking freezing temperatures: Please stay safe and remember to check on your neighbors, family, and friends! Our thoughts are with you—Robert & Jill.

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The courageous residents of Minnesota are lighting the path to victory over anti-democratic forces that threaten our country. Through street protests, targeted boycotts, general economic strikes, and civil disobedience, Minnesotans are showing that there can be no government, no economy, and no civil framework upon which society depends if the people withdraw their consent to be governed. If cities and states across America follow suit, Trump’s corporate overlords will say, “Stop! Without the goodwill and civic participation of the people, our businesses are worthless and your reign of lawlessness is over.”

The massive protest and general strike that effectively shut down Minneapolis on Friday are not the final word in the struggle to banish ICE. But it is a terrific start that is inspiring Americans across the nation. (See “Pro-democracy protest photos,” below.)

The Trump administration is rattled. Our snarky, mean-spirited vice-president said on Friday that Trump tasked him with “bringing down the temperature” by “meeting these guys halfway.”

The fact that Trump instructed Vance to strike a conciliatory tone is evidence that the voices of outraged Minnesotans are breaking through the right-wing force-field that surrounds the White House and reverberating off the walls of the Oval Office, interrupting Trump’s latest unscheduled nap at the Resolute Desk.

Even the New York Times, which famously ignores organized street protests, gave top billing to the demonstrations and general strike in Minneapolis. See NYTimes, Demonstrators Flood Minneapolis Streets as Hundreds of Businesses Close to Protest ICE. The subheader added, “Thousands of protesters shut down streets throughout Minneapolis-St. Paul to demand that federal immigration agents end their weekslong crackdown. Businesses closed in solidarity.” And a feature photo showed thousands of protesters—perhaps 50,000—packed into the downtown area of Minneapolis.

Schools and businesses shuttered in Minneapolis. More than 100 members of the clergy descended upon Minneapolis to show their support for residents who have been terrorized by ICE for weeks. Religion News Service, Hundreds of clergy descend on Minneapolis and go on lookout for ICE.

It appears that dozens of clergy members were arrested at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport in a show of civil disobedience. See Fox 9, ICE in MN: ICE Out rally; arrests at MSP Airport. (“FOX 9 has confirmed that the peaceful protest concluded around noon on Friday, with MSP Airport Police arresting approximately 100 people who were charged and released from custody.”)

The protesters' commitment was inspiring. They took to the streets in brutal sub-zero temperatures to raise their voices in defense of democracy. The nation owes them a debt of gratitude—a debt that can only be repaid by joining their actions to withdraw the consent of the governed from an illegitimate government that is violating the Constitution to oppress the people.

This will stop when enough of us say, “No.”

We have heard from Minnesotans; they are doing their part. And tens of thousands are in the streets across the nation in solidarity with Minnesota every day. But that number must increase to the millions—in major metropolitan centers and small towns across America. That is what it will take for ICE to retreat to the underground lairs and dark corners from whence they came.

We should be filled with confidence in light of the example set by Minnesotans. But we must also be realistic. It will get worse before it gets better. Trump may (unlawfully) invoke the Insurrection Act or federalize the Minnesota National Guard. He may arrest and indict elected officials in Minneapolis and Minnesota. He may provoke an international incident to distract from the issue. And he will continue to call patriotic, peaceful Americans exercising their constitutional rights “domestic terrorists.”

But we must not relent. Every escalation by Trump is a sign of increasing weakness and desperation. When he goes low, we must get bigger and louder. When Americans are engaged in mass rallies in hundreds of cities across America, there won’t be enough ICE agents to “surge” into other cities.

This all stops when enough of us say, “No.”

That moment is drawing ever nearer as the courageous residents of Minnesota show us the way forward.

DOJ sought a warrant targeting Renee Good after she was killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross.

For a brief moment after the killing of Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, the institutional memory of the FBI and the DOJ kicked into gear: the FBI and the DOJ both prepared to investigate the actions of Jonathan Ross. But Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche ordered the FBI and the DOJ to stand down in their investigation of Ross. Blanche has admitted as much during a Sunday talk show appearance last weekend.

Worse, he ordered members of the US Attorney’s office in Minnesota to convert the nascent investigation of Jonathan Ross into an investigation of the deceased Renee Good. See MSN, DOJ sought to probe Renee Good for criminal liability, even after her death: Sources.

Per MSN,

After Good was killed on Jan. 7, FBI agents drafted a search warrant to obtain her car to reconstruct the path of bullets that an ICE officer shot into the vehicle. But they were instructed to redraft their warrant and change the subject of the investigation from a civil rights probe to an investigation into a suspected assault on an officer, the people said. A federal magistrate judge rejected that warrant, noting that Good was already dead and could not be considered a suspect for a warrant.

The decision by Todd Blanche, supported by the US attorney for Minnesota, Daniel Rosen, to investigate Renee Good was cruel and inhumane. Their refusal to investigate Ross while opening an investigation into the victim of the killing so repulsed members of the FBI and DOJ in Minnesota and Washington that it led to a series of high-profile resignations. See CBS, Mass exodus at DOJ Civil Rights Division, sources say.

Per the MSN article linked above,

Meanwhile, Tracee Mergen, an FBI supervisor in the Minneapolis field office who oversees fraud and public corruption cases, resigned in frustration over the handling by Justice Department leadership of the Good shooting investigation and the pivot of the original search warrant subject, according to two of the sources.

Mergen is said to be frustrated as well with the Trump administration’s decision to treat protesters in Minnesota as possible domestic terrorists and conduct mass arrests of people peaceably protesting, according to two people familiar with her decision. The New York Times reported her departure earlier Friday evening.

Trump’s surrogates and spokespeople take offense when Americans refer to ICE as “Gestapo” and “fascists” using “Nazi tactics.” But treating patriotic, peaceful Americans as “domestic terrorists” subject to mass arrest is the playbook used by Hitler and Mussolini. If ICE wants the respect of the American people, they should stop following in the footsteps of those dictators.

The effort to smear Renee Good sets a new level of depravity for the FBI and DOJ. But the detention of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos to lure his family members out of Liam’s home is despicable. The administration has attempted to give disjointed, contradictory, obviously fabricated alternative versions of the detention of Liam and his father.

Whatever spin the administration puts on the story, the fact is that Liam was removed from his childhood home in Minneapolis and is now being detained in Texas at a facility that has been the subject of numerous complaints that it fails to provide appropriate care for minors. See Common Dreams, ‘Absolutely Vile’: ICE Snatches Young Kids From Minnesota Schools, Sends Them to Texas. (“[I]ncluding a 5-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl who were both sent to Texas detention centers that have come under fire for grotesque conditions.”)

The administration has lost the battle for the hearts and minds of the American people. They are abandoning Trump in droves, setting conditions for a blue wave in 2026. Indeed, the erosion of support for Trump is so severe that he is now threatening to sue news outlets that report on reputable polls showing his favorability ratings are cratering.

Read on!

Trump threatens to sue The New York Times over the latest poll showing severe declines in Trump’s support.

The latest poll by the New York Times and Sienna Research Institute showed double-digit net unfavorability ratings for Trump. He was so upset by the results of the poll by two reputable organizations that he threatened to sue the New York Times for reporting on the polls. See Economic Times, Trump says will sue New York Times over unfavorable opinion poll.

Suing news outlets for reporting the truth “mirrors authoritarian approaches to silencing dissent.” See PBS, Trump’s moves against media outlets mirror authoritarian approaches to silencing dissent.

Per the PBS article,

The tactics are similar to those used by leaders in other countries who have chipped away at speech freedoms and independent media while consolidating political power, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a close Trump ally whose leadership style is revered by many conservatives in the U.S.

“What we’re seeing is an unprecedented attempt to silence disfavored speech by the government,” said Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College. “Donald Trump is trying to dictate what Americans can say.”

Trump’s lawsuits against major media outlets are baseless to the point of frivolity. The lawyers bringing the lawsuits should be disciplined if not disbarred. And yet, several major media outlets have paid Trump tens of millions of dollars in cowardly acts of accommodation that have earned them nothing but scorn and more hazing by Trump.

The NYTimes will not capitulate to Trump. That’s not the story. The story is that Trump is so unnerved by the plummeting popularity that he believes he must sue to stop the bad news.

There is, of course, another response that would stop the political hemorrhaging: Trump could cease using Gestapo-like tactics to address the complex problem of immigration.

Opportunity for Reader Engagement

For readers who RSVPd to the Reader Party on Feb 1, 2026, at 2:00 pm, please check your email (and spam/junk folders) for a reminder with details about the location. Thanks!

Concluding Thoughts

This will stop when enough of us say, “No.”

Thanks to the people of Minnesota, we are moving closer to the day when we redeem democracy for our generation and re-establish the rule of law for the next.

Stay strong and be safe! Remember to phone a friend during the freezing storm!

Pro-democracy protest photos

Minnetonka, Minnesota (-26 F)!

Indivisible Monterey, CA

Face Down Fascism protest in Berkeley, CA

Kalamazoo Visibility Brigade

Eugene, Oregon

Freeport, Maine Visibility Brigade protest outside of Hilton Garden Inn:

Montrose, CA (Glendale/Foothills)

West LA Freeway Brigade

Redwood City, CA

From the annual Dexter Ice Festival, where we believe ice is for making sculptures, not terrorizing people. (Dexter, MI).

Cary, NC

Manhattan, NY

North Country Resilience Sidewalk Brigade (Littleton, NH)

Waltham, MA

Georgia and Forest Glen.

Tunbridge VT

Peterborough NH

Orleans, Cape Cod, MA