***. “At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” [ Abraham Lincoln; 1837 ]
“ICE Is. Watching. You” [Tressie McMillan Cotton; New York Times; 2/6/26]
This post presents excerpts from. ICE Is Watching You”:
6]. “Many of us have come to believe that our data is something outside ourselves, when, in fact, data is our self.”
7] “Imagine what our country would look like if a federal agency compiled everything it could find about you on the open market and then paired it with your most sensitive personal data and the full weight of the federal surveillance apparatus. The result would be a system that could not only track you but also pretty accurately predict your choices, behaviors and vulnerabilities.” [NOTE: does this sound like “1984” ????? ]
10] “Emily Tucker, the director of Georgetown University’s Center on Privacy and Technology, suggested the agency could be constructing a surveillance system that, in my estimation, would make “Minority Report” look like child’s play. Homeland Security, she said, “is increasingly emphasizing interoperability in its contracting.” That is a strong sign that the agency wants to connect a range of databases……”They are seeking data about every aspect of the lives of everyone,” she said.” [NOTE: “1984” ??? ]
15] “A militarized federal police force that acts out of loyalty on the whim of a political leader who relishes retribution and adulation is the tip of the iceberg….This kind of weaponry could effectively nullify our Fourth Amendment right to protection from unreasonable search and seizure. it could also more easily enable the government to trample on your free speech. And it could do all of this without meaningful transparency or oversight.”
***. “In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later; the logic of their position demanded it.”
[. George Orwell: “1984” ]
1] “In the latest stop in Donald Trump’s war on liberal democracy, federal agents in Minneapolis have shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti…”
2] “The gun and the phone are both weapons – one a tool for violence and the other a tool of control.”
3] “That phone represents a greater power, one that could outlast Trumpism. ICE knows that it cannot shoot us all. But the Department of Homeland Security is close to being able to track us all.”
4]. “The federal government, whether Democratic-or-Republican-controlled, has repeatedly failed to institute meaningful, urgently needed regulation of or legislation about data privacy that matches the scale of our risk.”
***. “Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of the opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” [ Harry Truman; 33rd U.S. President ]
5] “Democratic administrations…thought Silicon Valley chief executives were the good guys. So they enabled their sci-fi aspirations….Then many chiefs turned heel, helping the Trump administration aggressively scale up a data dragnet that will eat our civil liberties for lunch, if we let it.”
8]. “In a citizen video from Maine that has been widely shared online, an ICE agent told a legal observer that he was taking a picture of her license plate to add her to a “nice little database” that will label her a “domestic terrorist.”
[ YOU know nothing about an ICE agent, BUT, he knows EVERYTHING about YOU ]
9} “..on Jan. 30, the Times reported that ICE was exploring ways to integrate advertising technologies and the data associated with them into its operations, specifically asking potential vendors the extent to which data could be collected on “people, businesses, devices, locations, transactions, public records.”
11] “If combined with the facial recognition and social media monitoring commonly deployed byt the Department of Homeland Security, those reams of data would turbocharge ICE’s terror campaign in the short term and destroy American civil liberties in the long term.”
*** [ ‘BIG BROTHER. IS. WATCHING. YOU” – “1984 ]
12]. “…Senator Ron Wyden….told me that the federal government is “weaponizing private data” against citizens and noncitizens. Of particular concern…was….what this administration cannot buy, it will simply take.”
13] “The Trump administration has been taking advantage of state-level data that has been aggregated by a third party nonprofit data clearinghouse called Niets….there are far too few restrictions on who can use that data and how they can use it.”
14] “You only need to know this: Whatever is happening with your data, it is important enough to the most egregiously lawless administration in American history that it be collected and consolidated.”
16] ‘.. it all starts with the American people understanding that our freedoms are now bound up in who controls our data.”
*** “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
George Orwell; “1984” – Or, is it Donald Trump; 2025-20XX ??? ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CXXXXIV – Measuring How Far Toward Autocracy Trump Has Brought America
***. “Of all the evils that infest a state, a tyrant is the greatest; his sole will commands laws, and lords it ovr them.”
[ Euripides ]
This post presents excerpts from the New York Times editorial. “Trump’s Stifling Of Dissent Reaches A New Level”. [2/8/26. It is the first update since October, 2025]:
A]. “The crackdown on dissent and speech in Minnesota..follows a pattern that is common in countries that slide from democracy to autocracy..”
B]. “The wide-ranging abuses in Minnesota are the main reason for change….The true goal seems to be instilling fear in people who oppose Mr. Trump’s agenda.”
C]. “The acceleration in the stifling of dissent and speech is broader than what’s happening in Minnesota.”
D] “The clearest sign that a democracy has died is that the leader and his party make it impossible for their opponents to win an electin and hold power. Once that stage is reached, the change is extremely difficult to reverse.” {NOTE: The danger is what the Trump DICTATORSHIP will do to rig the November 3, 2026 and November, 2028 elections.]
Below are the 12 metrics of “The. Autocracy. Index” A 0-10 scale is used.
1]. “Stifling speech and dissent”. “4”. “The repression of speech and dissent is ‘central”. to an authoritarian takeover.”
2] “Persecuting political opponents”. “5”. “Mr. Trump’s Justice Department has become an enforcer of his interests.”
3] “Bypassing the legislature”. “4”. “When a democracy slides toward autocracy, the leader often finds ways to neuter the legislature..” {Trump has violated laws and gutted congressionally authorized agencies.]
***. “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and the. judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” [ James Madison ]
4] “Defying the courts”. “2”. “At times, the Trump administration has openly defied federal judges.”
5] “Declaring false emergencies”. “5”. “Autocrats often curtail democracy by declaring an emergency and arguing the threat requires them to exercise unusual degrees of power.”
6] “Using the military at home”. ‘2’. “Authoritarians frequently and performatively use the military for domestic control.”
***. “It is the old practice of despots to use part of the people to keep the rest in order.” [ Thomas Jefferson ]
7] Vilifying marginalized groups”. “6” “Authoritarians tend to demean minority groups, trying to turn them into perceived threats that provide justification for a leader to amass power.”
8] “Controlling information”. “2”. “Authoritarians seek to depress inconvenient truths.” [NOTE: this site disagrees with this low grade. the Trump DICTATORSHIP has taken numerous steps to control and pervert truth.]
9]. “Trying to take over universities”. “2”. “a signature policy of Mr. Trump’s second term has been his attack on higher education.” [NOTE: this site vigorously disputes this low grade for a “signature policy.”]
*** “Truth is the most precious thing. That’s why we should ration it.” [ V. Lenin ]
10] “Creating a cult of personality”. “6”. “Emperors and kings often glorified themselves by displaying their portraits everywhere.”
11] “Using power for personal profit”. “7” “Mr. Trump glories in his administration’s culture of corruption.”
12] “Manipulating the law to stay in power” “2”. “In Mr. Trump’s second term, he has shown worrisome signs of trying to entrench the power of the Republican party…” [NOTE: this site VIGOROUSLY protests this absurdly low grade – see l/6/21 !!!!!!!!!! See the persecution of ANYBODY trying to hold Trump into account !!!!!!!!!!!!!! ]
*** “The aggressiveness of governments grows in proportion to the increase of their internal despotism.”
[ Leo Tolstoy ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CXXXXIII – ICE Exists to Enforce One Mans Will”
***. “The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others…One does not establish the dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.” [ George Orwell: “1984” ]
This post presents excerpts from. “ICE Exists to Enforce One Man’s Will” {Radley Balko; New York Times; 1/25/26]. Read this – and pray. – that YOU. have an American democracy on January 20, 2029.
19]. “We can still stop these abuses of power, but we need to be clear about what we’re facing. This is no longer a conversation about law enforcement or immigration policy. This is about authoritarianism.”
4] “The lies this administration is telling about Ms. good aren’t those you deploy as part of a cover-up. They’re those you use when you want to show you can get away with anything. They’re a projection of power.”
10] “…the administration has embraced fear tactics long associated with totalitarian regimes. Until now, law enforcement officers in the United States rarely masked their faces….it’s just been accepted that masked policing isn’t consistent with democratic society.”
***. “What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?” [ Mahatma Gandhi ]
12] “The administration has resurrected tactics that professional policing groups have deemed dangerous or counterproductive….Federal agents have shot into cars at least 10 times since September. This, too, is prohibited by most big city police agencies, in part because it’s too easy to mistake a driver’s intent.”
17] “In refusing to investigate Ms. good’s death, the Department of Justice is, at a minimum, indicating that it doesn’t believe that preventing similar deaths is important. But the real explanation may be more sinister. Since she was killed, we’ve seen multiple videos in which immigration officers refer to her death to threaten people lawfully observing or recording them. The real motivation appears to be make all the other Renee Goods out there, the liberal so-called wine moms watching over immigration raids, wonder if they might be next.”
***. “The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.” { Edmund Burke }
1] “I have been covering policing for more than 20 years and have read and parsed a lot of these statements. The Department of Homeland Security’s response after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis this month is something else entirely.”
2] “The Trump administration’s response to ms Good’s death made no such concessions….There was little empathy for her family…pronounced the shooting not only justified but an act of heroism..”
3] “It isn’t just the lying; it’s that the lies are wildly exaggerated and easily refutable…..”
5] “…since the protests in Ferguson, Mo., America has engaged in a high-stakes dialogue about police abuse and accountability….What Mr. Trump is doing with federal immigration forces has rendered those debates obsolete.”
6]. “The surge of federal forces into Minneapolis …isn’t about law enforcement at all. It is about an administration declaring. – explicitly, at times. – that the purpose of federal law enforcement isn’t to uphold the rule of law or promote public safety but to enforce the will of a single man.”
***. “To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
[ Theodore Roosevelt; Republican; 26th U. S. President ]
7] “Administration officials quickly declared those shootings [Parias & Martinez] justified. – and righteous. – with hyperbolic language similar to that used after ms. good’s killing. Those claims would also later be disproved..”
8] “..nearly all of the administration’s responses to deaths in custody, shootings or other accused abuses have used maximalist language to venerate immigration officers, dehumanize their victims and villainize anyone who doesn’t support the Trump administration.”
9] ‘..after federal agents dragged Aliya Rahman, a U.S. citizen, from her car and arrested her, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson referred to her as an agitator who was obstructing immigration operations. In fact, she was trying to get to a doctor’s appointment at the Traumatic Brain Injury Center…”
11]. “Instilling fear is a drawback only if your goal is public safety. this administration has made it clear that it doesn’t want marginalized communities. – immigrants, Somali U.S.citizens, residents of Latino neighborhoods and so on. – to feel safe.”
13] “Videos from cities where Mr. Trump has sent federal agents have shown agents attempting to stop fast-moving vehicles with techniques that most police departments prohibit or reserve for rare confrontations…”
*** “Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best.” [ Edward Abbey ]
14]. “It’s clear that immigration officials are routinely breaking the law.”
15]. “We’ve seen the unlawful arrest and incarceration of Somali refugees who have legal permission to be here, warrantless raids on private homes and reports of detainees be denied access to lawyers.”
16]. ‘..Todd Blanche, said on Fox News that there will be no federal investigation into her killing. The administration has already said the F.B.I. will not share the evidence it collected with the local police so they can conduct their own investigations. This is the very definition of a cover-up. It’s just being done in lain sight.”
18]. “It’s one thing to tank or slow-walk an investigation. It’s quite another to publicly declare that no investigation will happen…and then announce that you’ll be investigating the victim’s partner and supports instead.. Both paths are unethicl and corrupt….The administration’s actions…are a declaration that there will be no accountability and that it would prefer to instill fear rather than trust.”
*** “It is not infrequent to hear men declaim loudly upon liberty, who, if we may judge by the whole tenor of their actions, mean nothing else by it but their own liberty, – to oppress without control or the restraint of laws all who are pooer or weaker than themselves.” [ Samuel Adams ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Crazinesss, CXXXXII. – Constitutional Rights Under Assault In Minnesota
***. “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 ]
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 ]
With Justice For All 
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