Original sin

#TwinCities #Minneapolis #SaintPaul #StPaul Observers at Whipple Federal Building, by the airport, report 12+ vehicles getting ready to move out, with 30+ federal agents preparing. If you are out and about in the cities, stay alert. If you witness a raid, call the MONARCA hotline: 612-441-2881

I see there’s a post about microplastics going around with a photo of drinking straws, so here is my semi-regular reminder that the 3 biggest sources of microplastics are tires (45%), synthetic clothing particles (35%) and paint (~10%). Lay article attached:

ICE is planning 7 massive human warehouses holding 5,000 to 10,000 people … with a smaller facility holding up to 1,500 people in Woodbury. wapo.st/4axtwZ4

Folks outside of MSP, and probably many within, may not realize that ring leader of the Feeding Our Future scandal was a White Minnesotan, Aimee Bock. As a White Minnesotan, I do not consider myself liable for her criminality. www.twincities.com/2025/12/22/f...

Prospect Park (Minneapolis) bridge brigade on Tuesday this week and next week. 7:30-8:30 am, 201 Seymour Ave SE

The world we live in.

Had breakfast at Maria's on Franklin today. Emptier in the early morning than I'd have supposed, but filling up a bunch by late morning. Remember them while you support local businesses. They've already been impacted by the new building construction that's been happening over there for months.

It’s Day 22 of the ICE invasion of MSP. Today we’ve seen a sharp increase in activity, likely the “surge” we’ve been expecting. This is the moment to get involved, if you aren’t already. Carry your whistle. Be ready to respond and defend your neighbors. Connect to your hyper local Signal group.

Watch @jamellebouie.net's video, which is very informative, but also note that there are many good reasons for Supreme Court expansion apart from trying to achieve progressive political outcomes. It would be a better, more defensible institution if it were bigger. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Found the actual men in women's bathrooms assaulting women.

You might question her methods, but credit to Bari Weiss: her leadership has pushed 60 Minutes into new formats and attracted a bunch of new viewership outside the normal broadcast audience.

Even if you were unaware with how central Hans Von Spakovsky has been to right wing conspiracies about nonexistent “voter fraud,” you would still be right to think it’s a bad sign that someone named Hans Von Spakovsky thinks Heritage has gone too far to the right

Other things found to cause radar interference include the judiciary, Black people, impossible burgers, NPR, immigrants, people who are rude to me in restaurants, being banned from seeing my grandchildren, Black people again, free and fair elections, and people who refuse to follow me on Twitter.

“It turns out that banishing the slur from public discourse was, in fact, important. Because now it’s back and it turns out that it does matter when subtext becomes actual text, when terrible people enable open hatred and bigotry, encouraging others to emulate them, degrading us all.”

Why are citations down so much in 2025? (I imagine the reason will be "number of officers available.")

“When it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of ‘gold standard’ reputation for a single week of political quiet.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/b...

Now seems like a swell time to point out that Frontline just released this excellent 11-minute mini-documentary about what happened inside CECOT.

Signet marigolds are one of my favorite annuals. I grow them in big pots, three plants to a pot. They don't photograph especially well, but they bring lots of life and color. Close up, the reds are my favorites, but the orange and yellow form a tapestry with the other flowers. (5/

Art we've been part of this year: Ruby Thompson transformed St Paul utility boxes, illustrating native species of the Mississippi River. "We are all part of one whole," she explains. "I hope my artwork makes you stop and look, leaving you more curious about the plants and animals that live here."

Usually the Strib will say “so and so declined an interview request” when someone won’t reply. Today they write that DFL Senator Grant Hauschild, who voted against a ban on local governments signing NDAs with data center developers, declined seven requests to explain his vote.

🎁Gift article. No paywall. Reskeet.🎁 "U.S. companies never owned oil/land in Venezuela...and officials didn’t kick them out of the country." “Trump’s claim that Venezuela has stolen oil/land from the U.S. is baseless,” said F. Rodríguez, a Venezuelan economist at the U of Denver. wapo.st/4jblLKs

Skilled-worker visa holders who traveled back to India this month to renew their US work permits are now stranded far from home after their appointments were abruptly canceled by U.S. consular offices and rescheduled for months later.

Anyone else notice that Mayor Carter called for tearing down the skyways?

Thank you to community for coming out to the rally and march on Lake Street. You came out strong for so many immigrants who could only watch it from home/online. 💔 Please continue to support your neighbors. Immigrant-owned businesses received a ton of support today. Keep supporting them. ❤️

Today, with the windchill struggling to reach 0°F at times, thousands marched down Lake Street in South Minneapolis protesting the actions of ICE. “ICE Out of Minnesota!” "MINNESOTANS KNOW ICE IS SLIPPERY AND DANGEROUS - IT'S TIME TO DE-ICE!" "Immigrants are not the problem"

​Super windy and cold out there - but my little guy flew like a champ!

The windchill is brutal. Wind gusts strong enough to push me around. Still, thousands are here marching in the cold in support of our neighbors in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

This is Minnesota Nice We say FUCK ICE (My family’s collaboratively-written contribution to the Lake Street march. Implicitly optimistic that Minnesota will ever figure out call-and-response.)

At Bloomington and Lake.

Casten is the single most informed federal elected official on the energy system. If he said this about something I penned on energy I would die of shame. Unfortunately, the neighborhood troll has none.

Tom Paine: Noble blood is a bad way to choose leaders. I’m sure glad America’s founders did away with that nonsense. Today’s right wing: I deserve to lead, l’m descended from the founders

“We don’t give our kids a rotavirus vaccine because if they get sick and dehydrated we can just admit them to the hospital” is actually kind of fucked up.

Today on Volts: I've got a nerdy one for you! I talk with political scientist @samuel-bagg.bsky.social about the epistemic crisis & its roots in social identity. He explains why factchecking & media literacy classes will never solve misinformation -- why something deeper & stronger is required.

Important thread from a former NYT staffer breaking down how the paper's genocidal anti-trans crusade is directed, top down, from the highest levels of the organization. Stop putting bullets in the gun that's killing us. Boycott the New York Times.

Babies are going to die. This is what Donald Trump, Russ Vought, RFK Jr., Marty Makary, Vinay Prasad, Tracy Beth Hoeg, Jay Bhattacharya and Matthew Memoli have brought us. Avoidable child deaths from preventable infectious diseases. www.statnews.com/2025/12/19/d...

People honestly thought Harris should have worked with this guy.

Just telling my 12yo about this, about how they turned a canal into a highway and back into a canal. And then how MnDOT tells us we can’t tear out I-94 for…reasons. He then asks if I-94 is MnDOT’s prized possession

Everyone seems to be falling for this right-wing ratF**king operation... sahanjournal.com/news-partner...

It should have been statewide front page news for multiple days that the elderly, the disabled, the media, and a sitting city council member of Saint Paul were hit by irritants and riot munitions.

Only a person easily bribed would think that everyone else is easily bribed. $1776 to the soldiers. $1500 to you, to cover a lifetime of medical expenses. $2000 tariff refund. A man with billions of dollars thinks you can be bought for 2 grand.

So money that members of the military would have gotten anyway - tax-free to subsidize their housing, freeing up other cash - they will now get as cash they have to pay taxes on. So less direct benefit to them.

This is precisely how fascism works, by grabbing at and taking away a little more freedom whenever events lend themselves to it. Bit by bit you lose your rights, until you turn around and realize the road you're on has been long, and democracy is well behind you over the horizon.

"I refuse." This is it. There's no reason we should accept a narrative of an already settled future which marginalizes humans and individual agency. No one wants this. No one asked for it.

Consider: the overwhelm you feel is the signature product of extractive systems that require exponential growth to continue.

NEW: Colorado Sens Hickenlooper and Bennet announce they're putting a hold on the Senate appropriations package to demand funding for NCAR. Bennet said today that the Trump administration's move to dismantle the climate/weather lab is retaliation for Tina Peters' imprisonment.

Seconded. All those in favor?...

A great metaphor. Many Americans are unfamiliar with cats*, but those at least are real creatures which anchors discussion somewhat. Everyone is unfamiliar is unicorns and brings their own fantasies to what those involved * It's a dog country, for reasons somewhat related to our urban form

Re gender affirming care for youth: They will come for the haircuts and the clothes next. And it won’t stop with kids or trans people. And I’ve been telling people this for a decade and now here we are with lots of cis people shrugging and saying it’s unfortunate. How are you going to save a life?

This is what I think whenever I see Great Highway defenders or I-980 defenders.