***. “Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.” [ John Adams; 1776 ]
This post presents excerpts from “Constitutional rights are under assault in Minnesota” [ E. Thomas Sullivan, Richard Painter; Minnesota Star Tribune; 2/17/26. Both are law professors. ]
1] “During Operation Metro Surge, the American public was flooded, mostly through right-wing media and social media, with imaginary insurrection scenarios and speculation about the beginning of a civil war in Minnesota. Elon Musk posted explicitly on X…that there is an “insurrection” in Minnesota. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
2] “The claims of looming civil war are just a pretext for President Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act….here is no insurrection.”
12] “Democratic accountability of public officials is being impaired. It must be restored. The survival of our republic depends upon it.”
***. “Wherever Law ends, Tyranny begins.” [ John Locke ]
3]. “There are..important rights at stake. We begin with the First Amendment: right to freedom of speech and assembly, which includes the right to peacefully protest without harassment, arrest and assault by federal officers.”
4] “Next comes the Second Amendment, violated in the killing of Alex Pretti. Pretti should not have been assaulted, much less executed for having a legally licensed, holstered handgun that was not used to threaten federal officers.”
5]. “The Fourth Amendment requires that a search warrant be authorized by a judge to enter a home or work[place, not just an ICE “administrative warrant.”
*** “We must support our rights or lose our character, and with it, perhaps, our liberties.” [ James Madison ]
6] “Fifth Amendment [due process] requires that the government gives a person adequate notice of criminal charges and an opportunity to defend oneself. The decisionmaker must be neutral and unbiased.”
7]. “The Tenth Amendment embodies the federalism doctrine governing the relationship between States’ rights and the power of the federal government. Rights that are not delegated to the federal government nor denied to the states in the Constitution are vested and flow to the states and to the people.”
8] “Furthermore, the 10th Amendment guarantees Minnesota the right to enforce its own laws, unless expressly preempted by federal law under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. this includes criminal statutes..”
*** “Where the rights of men are equal, every man must finally see the necessity of protecting the rights of others as the most effectual security fro his own.” [ Thomas Paine; 1795 ]
9] “Under the 14th Amendment, persons born in the U.S. or naturalized, and subject to the jurisdiction, are granted both U.S. citizenship in a state. These important citizenship rights…cannot be taken away by the federal government. ICE cannot rely on immigration laws to arrest natural-born citizens in Minnesota or anywhere else.”
10] “Sadly, much of the blame is with the Supreme Court and its highly controversial 2024 criminal immunity decision in Trump v. the United States. When a president is immune from criminal prosecution, his subordinates…think that immunity also flows through them…inferring that they can commit crimes, even murder, and get away with it.”
11] “As for the Insurrection Act….There is no insurrection.”
*** “In every human breast, God has implanted a principle, which we call love of freedom; it is impatient of oppression and pants for deliverance.” [ Phyllis Wheatley; 1774 ]
Author: tomdolen
The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CXXXXI. – Americans Respond to Trump’s Iranian War
***. “Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear – kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor – with the cry of grave national emergency.” [ General Douglas MacArthur; 1957 ]
“An unconstitutional, unlawful war” [letters to the editor; Minnesota Star Tribune; 3/4/26} Excerpts:
1] In the United Nations charter, “The U.S. and all signatory nations agreed to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other nations and agreed to wage war only in self-defense or when authorized by collective action. The charter is a binding treaty obligation of the U.S….and thus one of the laws that President Donald Trump swore to “take care” to faithfully execute… Iran did not attack the United States. There is no evidence that any attack by Iran was imminent….Trump has also acted without any congressional authorization, thereby violating the constitutional order that places the power to declare war in the hands of Congress.” [ T.V. ]
*** “Kill, Destroy, Sack, Tell Lies; How much you want. After victory nobody asks why?” [Adolf Hitler]
2]. “There are no stated objectives, yet Trump tells us the bombing of Iran will continue until they are achieved. He promised voters that he would end wars but over the past year he has ordered military strikes in at least six nations…Trump is a pathological liar…He is responsible for the recent killing of Americans by immigration officers, the arrests of hundreds of innocent people…He does not tolerate political dissent and speaks vilely of people of color….Trump is a major threat to global stability..” [ C. D. ]
*** “When people speak to you about a preventative war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war. War settles nothing.” [ Dwight D. Eisenhower ]
3]. “After the U.S. attack on Iran, Trump commented on the first few deaths of American service personnel in Kuwait this weekend. He said they were “true American patriots who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation.” But in 2018 at a ceremony in France, he called American service members who died in war “suckers” and “losers.” Well…which is it? Maybe in wars he starts it is different because he is scrambling to justify his attack while deflecting the problems of his domestic agenda…” [ S. O. ]
*** “That wars and rumors of wars are the great threats to political stability and to liberty needs no demonstration. Total war means total subjugation of the individual to the state.” { Justice Robert Jackson ]
4] “What do the Trump administration’s recent actions in Minnesota, Venezuela and Iran have in common? A lot. All are examples of exactly the types of behaviors tat we can expect of an authoritarian leader seeking to consolidate his hold on power. …authoritarian leaders often pursue a dual strategy of oppression at home and military adventurism abroad. The latter is often used to distract from or provide a rationale for the former. The threat of [interference] by Trump and his allies in the coming midterm elections…was elevated even before the recent use of force overseas. Now that threat is greater. The real danger will come from the real or manufactured threat of counterattacks and terrorism stemming from these wars. Given the track record of Trump and his enablers, it doesn’t take much imagination to envision these being used as pretext for the curtailing of civil liberties or the promotion of conspiracies about election integrity, or whatever else Trump and his enablers come up with to ensure the election outcome they want. For dictators, the more wars, the better.” [ T.S. ]
*** “The friends of humanity will depreciate war, wheresoever it may appear; and we have experienced enough of its evil in this country to know it should not be wantonly or unnecessarily entered upon.” [ George Washington ]
5]. From Minnesota Star Tribune 3/5/26. “letters to the editor”:
“Hours before the strikes began, the foreign minister of Oman, who was mediating negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, said “substantial progress” had been made and a deal is “within our reach.” What was Trump’s rush to war? On March 3, in the White House, Trump explained to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, without offering one shred of evidence, that Iran was going to attack first.” he said, “I felt strongly about that.” So there you have it. Trump’s explanation for putting sons and daughters in harm’s way. His explanation for the death and destruction throughout the Middle East. He had a feeling.” [ M.H. ]
***. “{The tyrant] is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.” [ Plato ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CXXXX. – Donald Trump and The Golden Calf!!!
***. “The savage bows down to idols of wood and stone; the civilized man, to idols of flesh and blood.”
[ George Bernard Shaw ]
“Trump’s ego fosters a cult of personality” [Peter Baker; New York Times; 2/16/26}. Excerpts:
1] “After a year back in the White House, Trump’s efforts to promote himself as the singularly dominant figure in the world have become so commonplace that they no longer seem surprising. He regularly depicts himself in a heroic, almost godly fashion, as a king, as a Superman, as a Jedi knight, as a military hero, even as a pope in a white cassock.”
2] “..what he is doing in his second term as president comes closer to building a cult of personality the likes of which has never been seen in American history.” No other U.s. presidents “..went as far as Trump has to create a mythologize, superhuman and omnipresent persona leading to idolatry.”
3]. “a group of cryptocurrency investors has shelled out $300,000 to forge a 15-foot tall, gold-covered bronze statue of Trump called “Don Colossus” to be installed at his golf complex in Doral, Fla.”
*** “Their idols are silver and gold, the works of men’s hands. They that make them are like them; so is everyone that trusts them.” [ Psalm 115: 4, 8 ]
4] “Cults of personality are traditionally associated with dictators and demagogues, not democrats. They are figures like Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, Benito Mussolini ans…Vladimir Putin..”
5] “Personality-driven politics serve to bind followers of a movement to their leader more than to any particular policy prescription, making his success or failure their own…The leader is presented as infallible, uniquely qualified, even divinely delivered for this moment in history.”
6]. “Trump has played to these themes since taking the national stage. “I alone can fix it,”..”I was saved by God to make America great again”…”
*** “Comrades! The cult of the individual acquired such monstrous size Chiefly because Stalin himself, using all conceivable methods, supported the glorification of his own person.” { Nikita Krushchev; closed session speech of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party; 2/23/1956 ]
7] “The efforts to exalt himself..have accelerated in the past year far beyond his first term and have increasingly come to resemble eccentric regimes in far corners of the world.”
8]. “There is no settled definition of a cult of personality, but for us tis qualifies,” Benjamin E. Goldsmith of the Australian National University and Lars J.K. Moen of the University of Vienna, who have studied Trump’s hold on his supporters, said in a joint email.”
9]. “For us, this is the major threat to U.S. democracy from Trump’s cult-like following,” they wrote. “Congress is transformed into an enabler, even when the executive makes disastrous policies, undermines the rule of law or might attempt to fix elections. The system can transform into an electoral autocracy. Our bet is that we’re already far along that path.”
*** “What makes a cult a cult is not its religion..but the practice of mind-control techniques, usually by a charismatic leader, that robs its members of their “independence of thought.”” [ Frank Rich: “Heaven’s Gate – gate”; New York Times; 4/17/1997 ]
***. “Nothing doth more hurt in a State than that cunning men pass for wise.” [ Francis Bacon ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corrruption, Craziness, CXXXIX – “When ICE comes for our kids’ caregivers, no one is safe”, XX
***. “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” [ Thomas Jefferson ]
This post is the 20th in a series about the CONSEQUENCES of “our” American government’s power being USED. AGAINST AMERICANS. It presents excerpts from “The 70 days that will be seared in state’s memory” [Reid Forgrave, Kyeland Jackson, Erin Adler, Neal Justin: Minnesota Star Tribune; 2/17/26
These 20 posts, plus 119 others, are a WARNING. – to. YOU. – that what the Founders feared is NOW happening in YOUR country. Plans are being made, NOW, to undermine faith in the November 3rd congressional elections. WHY? Because “your” president increasingly fears patriotic Americans – having seen videos of American citizens murdered by ICE thugs on American streets, having heard and read the HORROR STORIES of cruel treatment of human beings – just might vote against HIM. – and, therefore, restore “checks and balances” our Founders wated.
“The 70 days that will be seared in state’s memory”
5] “What happens when the full force of the federal government is used to intimidate and harm rather than to protect us? The real goal is just to normalize this intimidation. If Minnesota falls, that’s permission to go after every other state, so people stop resisting.” [ Fatin Omerabi ]
3]. “Frey…talked about how the federal investigation felt like further proof this was never about immigration enforcement. It was about creating a political narrative, he said, that progressive cities are chaotic, lawless places.”
4] “His biggest fear, he said, lies around how seemingly small things. – changes in democratic norms, targeting of certain populations. – can lead to much bigger things.”
*** “Tyranny sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered.” [ Shakespeare ]
1] “Some of the impacts are quantifiable. Two 37-year old Minnesotans, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, are dead. Thousands have been detained. Detainees have described federal detention conditions as inhumane. The economic toll will cost the state billions, according to recent estimates, and recovery may take years.”
2] “The federal pressures on the North Star State will long outlast the flood of federal agent..”
6] “many in Minnesota, especially Democrats, called the surge a federal occupation. With 3,000 agents mostly clustered in a metro area of 3 million, the federal presence felt more intense than in a 2025 operation in Chicago, where hundreds of agents concentrated on a metro area of 9 million.”
*** “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered, yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” [ Thomas Paine; 12/19/1776 ]
7] “Days after Pretti’s killing, Chris Madel. – an attorney who has advised Jonathan Ross, the federal agent who shot Good. – dropped out of the GOP gubernatorial race. The past couple of months in Minnesota “embody federal overreach,” Madel said…….Madel cited Trump promising a ‘DAY OF RECKONING 7 RETRIBUTION”. as why he dropped out of the race and stopped calling himself a Republican.”
8] “The 70 days between the two federal government announcements. – that Operation Metro Surge was beginning, and that it was ending. – will scar the Twin Cities and Minnesota’s psyche for years. Anxiety lingers. Trust has disappeared. Activists as suspicious of whether this even really marks the end. “What ICE has done in Minneapolis, it is still [in] our memory,” Abdullahi said. “It will never leave.”
*** “The right of revolution is an inherent one. When people are oppressed by their government, it is a natural right they enjoy to relieve themselves of the oppression, if they are strong enough, either by withdrawal from it, or by overthrowing it and substituting a government more acceptable.” [ Ulysses S. Grant; Republican; 18th U.s. President ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CXXXVIII – “When ICE comesfor our kids’ caregivers, no one is safe”, XIX
*** “If you have an opportunity to make things better and you don’t, then you are wasting your time on this earth.”
[ Roberto Clemente ]
This post is the 19th in a series from the Minnesota war zone; describing to. YOU. what ordinary people did to resist the Trump DICTATORSHIP’ unAmerican cruelty. This is a WARNING to what could happen in YOUR. state
Most of this post is from McGrath’s “In the Resistance, We Drive Minivans.” But you can also read “Neighbors Band Together”. [Nick Woltman; St. Paul Pioneer Press; 2/22/26]: “The strangers who came to the aid of S.M. and his family are part of a sprawling, decentralized network comprising thousands of Minnesotans…”
“In the Resistance, We Drive Minivans” [Will McGrath; Minnesota Star Tribune; 2/22/26], excerpts:
13]. “Here’s what you need to remember: There is no reward that comes later. No righteous justice will be dispensed…This story does not have a happy ending, and I can assure you the villains do not get punished at the end.”
14]. “.. you also need to understand…we’ve already won. The reward is right now…The reward is watching your city…organize in hyperlocal networks of compassion…”
15] “So in the resistance you drive the car pool. It’s fun..mostly not scary. Your invisible shield of whiteness has developed a small fissure. You understand that being a white mom dropping a kid at elementary school may no longer save you from being killed in the middle of the street…”
10] “Everyone is doing his part here, each to his ability. This is easier to accomplish, it seems, when joy and love are the engines….I know of an off-grid network of doctors offering care to immigrants, a sub rosa collective of restauranteurs organizing miniature food banks in their basements…Another friend is an immigration lawyer who spends his days endlessly filing habeas petitions.”
***. “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” [ Benjamin Franklin ]
1] “In the resistance we drive minivans…..”
2]. “In the resistance we play Idles loud, we prefer British punk, turn the volume up..”
3]. “In the resistance…we”re in our pajamas…”
4] “We’ve been doing this since December, eight weeks going on nine going on who knows.”
5]. “A network of neighborhood moms and dads bloomed organically…”
6]. “Today I’m driving a girl with red lipstick and a gentle, cautious smile.”
*** “Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.” [ Goethe ]
7] “what they don’t tell you is how beautiful the resistance can be.”
8] “What they don’t tell you is how fun the resistance can be.”
9] “As we tramped through the arctic streets, a bearded dude pulled a wagon bearing a generator and a vat of bubbling soup, dishing up bowls for anyone who cared to slurp.”
11] “Every day and night, in the neighborhoods most effected by ICE raids, volunteers stand on street corners and patrol the blocks, phones and whistles ready.”
12]. “Our loose parent network keeps growing, more than 80 of us now. The demand is greater each week..”
16] “This afternoon I’m driving a brother and sister. We’ve been listening to the radio, which reports that most all of the 3,000 ICE agents involved in the surge are leaving our state. No one believes it, not really, this declaration from the agency that asked us again and again to disbelieve our eyes, to accept that nurses were domestic terrorists, that children were violent criminals.”
12] “…we cruise the city in our minivans. You can’t shoot us all.”
*** “You shall love your neighbor as yourself…The stranger that dwells with you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself.” [ Leviticus 19: 18, 34 ]
B] “What really surprised us was the outpouring of support from people who didn’t have any direct experience with ICE. People in France would write and say, ‘I can make a comic for someone if they have a story they want to tell,”” said Woodman-Maynard, who was thrilled to see people making those arrangements in comments on the #iceoutcomics. Instagram posts.” [Chris Hewitt: “Uniting against ICE”; Minnesota Star Tribune; 2/23/26]
{NOTE: this article discuss how authors and cartoonists are raising money with book signings and art on Instagram. As McGrath said: “Everyone is doing his part here, each to his ability.” 50,000 people in. a freezing march; “thousands” in volunteer networks; people giving time and money…]
{NOTE: Ask. YOURSELF. – do YOU think this, and much more, would be occurring if people in Minnesota believed that ICE had arrested. 4,000. “worst of the worst”; if ICE was even really trying to find the “worst of the worst”? If 4,000. “worst of the worst”. were. REALLY. running around free in Minnesota streets??????????????????????]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CXXXVII – “Nicht Schuldug”
*** “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who put darkness for light, and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!”
[ Isaiah 5: 12-113 ]
In the Nuremberg Trials, 22 top Nazis were on trial for their part in “Crimes against peace, War crimes, Crimes against humanity, committed by the infamous Nazi regime. Many responded “Nicht Schuldig” to accusations of their own guilt.
In more recent times, many top executives of the tobacco industry, when asked about harmful effects of tobacco – essentially replied “Nicht Schuldig.”
Currently, trials are beginning for the social media industry. In the past, top executives have responded, essentially, “Nicht Schuldig”. to accusations their products might be harming people, especially young people.
This post concerns the effort by top officials of the Trump DICTATORSHIP to declare. “Nicht Schuldig” when questioned about the conduct of ICE thugs on American streets. Please consider excerpts below”
A]. “Not giving an inch. Even as an American is killed.” [Ramesh Ponnuru: Washington Post Weekly; 2/1/26]
7] “…putting the administration’s enemies in their place is what the surge of immigration enforcement in Minnesota was always about.”
1] Normally, a government would express condolences to the family, promise the public a full investigation. “But the Trump administration views such niceties as weakness. Looking weak, giving an inch to the critics, must be avoided at all costs.”
6] “.. the statements are also signs of moral rot and civic irresponsibility.”
*** “If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.” [ Samuel Johnson ]
2] “so Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem…described the victim, Alex Pretti, as someone who “arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.” He had, she said, been “brandishing” a gun.”
3] “All available videos suggest otherwise. Noem was either lying or speaking with an indifference to truth that is morally indistinguishable from lying..”
4]. “In November, a federal judge concluded that Bovino had “lied multiple times”…”
5] “FBI Director Kash Patel contributed false statements about the law..”
8]. “On the day of this latest shooting, Attorney General Pam Bondi sent Walz a letter listing the administration’s demands..”
9] “If the administration were consciously pursuing a strategy optimized for producing confrontation rather than for bringing down the number of illegal immigrants, it would be proceeding just as it has been.”
*** “The soul and spirit that animates and keeps up society is mutual trust.” [ Robert South ]
B} “ICE chief: No apologies for deaths”. [Madeleine Ngo, Michael Gold; New York Times; 2/11/26]
1] “Top immigration officials defended the administration’s mass deportation campaign during a congressional hearing Tuesday and repeatedly declined to answer questions about the fatal shootings of two U.s. citizens in Minneapolis.”
2] “Despite bipartisan outrage last month after federal agents killed Alex Pretti, House Republicans have largely returned to a staunch defense of federal immigration enforcement.”
3] “Pressed by Democrats to apologize to the families of two people killed in Minneapolis – Pretti and Renee Good – Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said he welcomed the opportunity to speak with their families in private. But he said he would not apologize or comment on the shootings.”
4] “Asked whether he thought Pretti deserved to die, Rodney S. Scott, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, also said he would not comment on open investigations.”
5] “During the hearing, Lyons declined to say how many ICE agents had been fired or dismissed for misconduct on the job.”
6] “Scott also declined to tell lawmakers how many agents had been disciplined for misconduct in recent immigration crackdowns.”
*** “Free governments have committed more flagrant acts of tyranny than the most perfectly despotic governments we have ever known.” [ Edmund Burke ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CXXXVI – “When ICE comes for our kids’ caregivers, no one is safe”, XVIII
***. “Human dignity, economic freedom, individual responsibility. These are the characteristics that distinguish democracy from all other forms devised by man.” [ Dwight D. Eisenhower; Republican; 34th U.S. President ]
“How ICE has upended life in Minnesota” [Following are excerpts from an address given by Edina Mayor James b. Hovland. at the U.S. conference of Mayors; Minnesota Star Tribune; 2/6/26 ]
10] “If enforcement continues as it has, we will not be debating immigration alone. We will be confronting the long-term damage done to the relationship between government and the governed. And that is a reckoning no republic should take lightly.. [ “…the relationship between government and the governed.” ]
6]. “In just a few short weeks, this is what we have learned: No city can thrive without the rule of law and no nation can govern without borders; but enforcement, as currently practiced, is not merely removing individuals, it is hollowing out civic life, undermining public safety and leaving local leaders to pick up the pieces.. A democracy cannot prosper when enforcement is divorced from proportionality, clarity and humanity.. The strength of our country has never rested solely in the rigor of its laws; but in the confidence of its people that those laws are carried out with fairness and wisdom.”
2] “We have observed, first, a deep chill of uncertainty settle over many lawful, hardworking residents – citizens and noncitizens alike, and we have seen enforcement as visible, sudden and physical; it does not stop neatly at the door of those it seeks. It spreads outward…”
9]. “So this, then, is the message from Minnesota: Immigration enforcement, when conducted without close coordination with local realities and respect, does not merely remove individuals – it reshapes communities. It alters behavior, weakens trust, and imposes costs that towns and cities will carry long after the headlines fade.”
*** “This is what I call the American idea, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. – a government of the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God.” [ Theodore parker ]
1]. “We are told the actions are precise. – they are not. We are told their effects are contained. they are not. Fear has not confined itself to a single household or status. Citizens withdraw alongside noncitizens. Law-abiding residents learn that invisibility feels safer than participation.”
3] “Second, there is an economic reckoning. In Minnesota, our restaurants, food-processing plants, construction sites, elder-care facilities and hospitals rely on immigrant labor. When enforcement actions are abrupt, entire workforces can vanish overnight. – not only undocumented workers, but legal employees who choose silence or absence over risk.”
4] “Third, we face the paradox of public safety. Local law enforcement, sworn to protect all residents, finds its work harder when communities fear that any interaction may carry federal consequence.”
5]. “Finally, there s the burden placed on local government. Mayors and city council members are left to explain federal actions we do not control, to calm fears we did not create, and to mend relationships strained by forces beyond our municipal boundaries.”
***. “No government is respectable which is not just. Without unspotted purity of public faith, without sacred public principle, fidelity, and honor, no mere forms of government, no machinery of laws, can give dignity to political society.” [ Daniel Webster ]
7] “In these trouble-filled days, the nation should know that Minnesota has no resisted legal immigration enforcement; it has resisted excess. it does not reject law; it rejects lawlessness clothed in authority. It does not deny the nation’s right to govern its borders; but it insists that such governance be worthy of and deferential to a free people.”
8]. “The future of immigration policy in America will not be shaped by those who merely cheer or condemn; but by those who demonstrate. – through practice and wisdom. – that security and humanity can coexist; that enforcement can be both firm and lawful; and, that the dignity of persons need not be a casualty in the implementation of policy.”
11] “In time, when this chapter in Minnesota history is read, not in the headlines, but in history, I hope it may be said that when the nation faltered between fear and fairness regarding who deserves to live in our country, that Minnesota chose the harder path; not merely to oppose what was wrong but to help build what is right.”
***. “This will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.” [ Elmer Davis ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CXXXV. – “When ICE comes for our kids’ caregivers, no one is safe,” XVII
***. “Trump is different from all prior presidents in his utter contempt for the Constitution and America’s democracy. Trump has turned the federal government against the American people…” [ J. Michael Luttig; former U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit judge; appointed to the federal bench by President George H.W. Bush in 1991. He wrote this in “PRESIDENT FOR LIFE,” The Atlantic; December, 2025. – BEFORE “Operation Metro Surge” infected Minnesota.]
“What Did Surge Accomplish?”…Minnesota officials, legal experts dispute federal claims that Operation Metro Surge achieve3d its goals here” [Nick Woltman, Mara Gottfried, Frederick Melo; St. Paul pioneer Press; 2/15/26]. Excerpts:
8} “According to the Cato Institute, which reviewed leaked government data, 73% of individuals detained by ICE have no criminal convictions on record, and nearly half had no conviction or pending criminal charges. Only 5% had previously been convicted of a crime of violence.” [The BIG LIE. exposed]
6]. “The offenses on the “Worst of the Worst” website “were a mix of serious and less serious and less severe, such as property damage or violating court orders,” Schnell said. “These are not what most people would consider ‘worst of the worst’ violent felonies, since these crimes are often neither violent nor felonies.” [gotta jack up the numbers!!!!!!]
11] “Will it deter [illegal immigration]? It’s really hard to answer, because they certainly achieved the goal of scaring the hell out of people, and not just people who were undocumented..”
***. “Facts that are not frankly faced have a habit of stabbing us in the back.” [ Sir Harold Bowden ]
1] “What exactly ..[ICE]. came here for has shifted somewhat….The Trump administration’s stated goals…were to investigate allegations of fraud…and “target the worst of the worst”…It soon evolved into a mass deportation operation..”
2] “The roots of Operation metro Surge stretch back to mid-November, when right-wing media outlets claims that Somali immigrants in Minnesota were funneling money from social welfare programs to the terrorist group al-Shabaab….None of these cases was was linked to al-Shabaab.” [one big R-W LIE evolves into a bigger R-W LIE]
3] “The fraud investigations that drew the administration’s attention in Minnesota in the first place now appear hampered by the wave of resignations..” [ the Trump DICTATORSHIP shoots itself in the foot !!!!!!!!!!!!!! ]
4]. “DHS said the operation targeted “criminal illegal aliens” with prior convictions for serious crimes such as sexual assault, domestic violence and gang affiliation….Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty..[said].. “Anyone who has witnessed this occupation in our community, or seen the footage online, knows that none of this has made us safer,”
*** “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
[ Benjamin Franklin; 11/11/1755 ]
5]. “..Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell…said the “Worst of the Worst” website included nearly 70 people who served time in the state’s prisons and were “then transferred over to ICE because of our cooperation……”The clear implication was that these individuals had been on the loose…when in reality these individuals never touched the street…due to our voluntary cooperation..” [another BIG TRUMP LIE]
7] “For legal experts and other legal experts, more questions loom…”Of that 4,000, who knows where all those people are?”…” [So, Trump DICTATORSHIP – tell us who they are, where there are, IF there really are 4,000]
9] “…the Trump administration’s efforts around mass deportation have resulted in more than 18,000 “habeas corpus” challenges in federal court from immigrants claiming their detention is illegal, which is more than were filed under the last three administrations cvombined..”
10]. “The stated goal of Operation PARRIS was to focus on 5,600 refugees awaiting lawful permanent resident status. Rather than simply schedule sit-down interviews, federal agents resorted to armed arrests, removing people from their homes for weeks at a time, often out of state, without a bus ticket or plane ride back to Minnesota.”
[Read this AGAIN – it is ONE example of the monstrous CRUElTY “your’ government is inflicting; in this case, on people living and working in America, following rules, to become U.S. citizens.]
*** “Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear – kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor – with the cry of grave national emergency.” [ General Douglas MacArthur; 1957 ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CXXXIV. – Do YOU Like To Eat Food???????
***. “Wooden-headedness consists of assessing a situation in terms of preconceived, fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be confused by facts.”
[ Barbara Tuchman ]
This post deals with the. STUPIDITY. and. DESTRUCTIVENESS of Trump DICTATORSHIP policies toward American agriculture. Read this and pray. – pray YOU will have enough food. Read comments by farmers, here and elsewhere, that show how Trump DICTATORSHIP policies could sabotage the production of YOUR food.”
This post features excerpts from. “FARMS FEAR FALLOUT OF IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN”. [Emma Nelson, Trey Mewes; Minnesota Star Tribune; 2/10/26]:
3]. “Even before Operation Metro Surge began in December, ag leaders like Land O’ Lakes CEO Beth Ford warned that President Donald Trump’s hard stance on immigration could stoke a farm labor crisis. Workers were already in short supply, and the industry was grappling with the fallout from federal trade and agriculture policies that have reduced incomes and raised costs.” [!!! read this again, slowly. This is Trump DICTATORSHIP stupidity defined]
5]. “A group of 27 retired ag and government officials recently wrote a letter to members of Congress warning of a “widespread collapse” of the agriculture industry. “Mass deportations, removal of protected status and failure to reform the H-2A visa program are wreaking havoc with dairy, fruit and produce and meat processing,” the bipartisan group wrote. “Those disruptions are causing food to go to waste and driving up costs for consumers.” [[this is called self-sabotage – or, STUPIDITY enacted to serve stupid ideological goals]
7]. “John Rosenow owns a 700-cow dairy farm…He said 13 of his 18 employees are Mexican green card holders….if federal agents were to detain his employees, he would immediately reach for the cattle buyer’s phone number…”We would have to get out of here within a day..” [YOU think Trump might want to talk to John Rosenow?????]
*** “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” [ Proverbs 29: 13 ]
1] “Minnesota farmers are worried they won’t have enough hands to tend livestock and manage crops this year, a consequence of…targeting undocumented workers from Latin America who keep U.s. agriculture churning.”
2] “ICE has recently raided dairy farms…and crop growers are worried they won’t have enough temporary visa holders to work the fields come spring.”
4] “If people employed on farms are afraid to come to work, or if ICE were to detain and deport many of them, it could spell catastrophe for Minnesota farms across the global food supply chain.”
6]. “Minnesota faces a growing worker shortage as its population ages and the state can’t afford to go without immigrant workers, he said….Communities are shrinking…”This situation is the worst thing that could have happened in Minnesota in this particular moment, in terms of the demographics.”
*** “Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread.]
[ Thomas Jefferson; 1821 ]
8] “Some Minnesota farmers are responding to stepped-up immigration enforcement by supporting local immigrant families who are hiding and unable to work….”They thought this administration was going to leave them alone…Farmers are definitely upset.”
9] “LIke the central cities, Minnesota’s farm regions face an economic hit that is coming in focus. With immigrant workers afraid to leave home, farmers who depend on their labor and Main Street business owners who count them as customers are falling behind>”
10]. “When farmers can’t plan with confidence for the season, the entire farm-to-market pathway becomes really fragile,” Schneider said. “It’s really hard to recover from those kinds of shocks.. Ultimately, farmers’ ability to raise animals and harvest crops is about the most basic need: putting food on the table.”
***. “I know of no pursuit in which more real and important services can be rendered to any country than by improving its agriculture, its breed of useful animals, and other branches of a husbandman’s cares.” [ George Washington; 1794 ]
{ NOTE: 10-15 years ago, a Wisconsin farmer decided he HAD to recruit and employ Mexican workers on his farm. – BECAUSE. – no native-born Americans would do the work. This is NOT an isolated statement. But, it IS a statement on the INCOMPETENCE. of the zealots running the Trump DICTATORSHIP. If YOUR. food prices go up even more. – ask about labor shortages on American farms and ranches. And, KNOW, from ALL evidence, this will be a consequence of the Trump DICTATORSHIP’s war on the people who produce. YOUR. food. }
The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CXXXIII. – “When ICE comes for our kids’ caregivers, no one is safe”
***. “Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any departure from it, under any circumstance, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.” [ Edmund Burke ]
This post is the 16th in a series of stories about the impact of the Trump DICTATORSHIP’s ICE thugs on the lives of ordinary people – like YOU. The trauma inflicted on people, neighborhoods, communities, cities throughout Minnesota will. NOT. end when the ICE thugs and Trump DICTATORSHIP end their cruelties.
This post presents comments by ordinary Minnesotans: “We need recourse to this lawlessness” [letters to the editor’. Minnesota Star Tribune; 2/7/26]. Excerpts follow:
1] “If you want to do something about lawless immigration enforcement…Call your congressional representatives and tell them to support the Bivens Act and the ICE and CB Constitutional Accountability Act. The Bivens Act would allow citizens to recover damages for constitutional violations by federal officials. The Constitutional Accountability Act would recognize that federal, state and local law enforcement agencies should have the same civil liability for officer misconduct that private employers have for their employees under the legal doctrine “respondeat superior.” [H.R.]
2] “In the rush to destroy the personal lives of individuals it seems the bosses at the Department of Justice are destroying due process and the rule of law….This collateral damage threatens everyone, regardless of political affiliation.” [ G.H. ]
3] “The problem is that federal immigration agents continually break the laws they are supposed to uphold, defying the Constitution and courts that protect us all. When Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border Control agents assault, arrest or deport U.S. citizens, they break the law….ICE even breaks the law and its own policies when undocumented immigrants it detains are denied access to attorneys or due process.” [ R.C. ]
4] “Minnesotans won’t forgive that easily”…….”Maybe Homan’s expectation is that Minnesotans will forgive that one of his own shot a nonimmigrant citizen who was pulling away when he stepped in front of her vehicle. Shot in the head. According to our highest officials, her killer is “immune” from prosecution. We won’t forget that or the videoed killing of a disarmed protestor lying facedown on the ground, by a cohort of Border Patrol agents. Ten shots in his back. We won’t forget the brutal weeks of masked gunmen roaming throughout our state…. Frozen in our memories are the taunts, the shoving, the teargassing of nonviolent protestors and constitutional observers by these thugs, the many cruel acts of lawless vengeance on the people of our state.” [ S.U. ]
5] “The political theater is the goal itself”…..”The policies that are tearing our state apart were cooked up by an aging narcissist who brags about his wildly inconsistent dictates [President Donald Trump]; lying and immoral opportunists who embrace cruelty [Vice President JD Vance and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem]; and a trio of jingoist sadists who proudly trumpet their hatred of nonwhite immigrants [White House advisor Steven Miller, Corey Lewandowski and Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino]. Oh, and then there are the “influencers” who alter video and post laughable lies [whistles are dangerous weapon, etc.]….The “policy” is to grow their power by whipping up a MAGA base with fear and hatred of immigrants….The surge’s only purpose is performance cruelty.” [P.D. ]
6] “My grandma would be swearing, too” …”The occupants of ..]the Whipple Building].. need to understand that we are not going anywhere, and we will protest them to our last breath. These jackbooted thugs have brought it on themselves. I’m sorry if this writer’s delicate sensibilities were offended, but he should realize that if ICE agents had showed up at his polite, uplifting protest, the crowd would have turned on them with the same language as they were using at the Whipple Building.” [ P.S. ]
*** “Here in America we are descended in blood and spirit from revolutionaries and rebels – men and women who dared to dissent from accepted doctrines. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.” [ Dwight D. Eisenhower; WW II General; Republican 34th U.S. President ]
With Justice For All 
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