Median democratic voter

Bethesda made Fallout 3 and has never stopped trying to make everything Fallout 3.

Kinda funny how the biggest richest cyberpunk dorks in the world are allergic to one of the core aesthetic appeals of cyberpunk: dense walkable urbanism

Twin Cities home owner question: Any recommendations for cold weather air source heat pumps? - Models? - Installers? I’ve heard modern models out can handle temps down below 0°. Our gas furnace is 17-years-old and needs expensive part replacements.

It’s great for Bruenig to critique the privatization of MN’s public programs in a national venue, but note that @ehbinmn.bsky.social made EXACTLY this argument in @minnesotareformer.com *18 months ago* More broadly, it’s weird to watch MN’s fraud blow up years after it was already known locally

Here's the full post in the Star Tribune liveblog for posterity since it doesn't have a stable URL to link to:

My position is that *both* ICE/CPB goons and DOJ/DHS lawyers find better employment that matches their skills, or for the skill-less ICS/CPB goons just get retrained.

You may recall that now-Judge Jerry Blackwell was one of the state prosecutors in the Derek Chauvin trial

The old line how defending against government prosecution is fighting against infinite resources of the state? My musing is this Minnesota’s people resisting exhausting even the state?

Love how the goalposts keep shifting here and invariably in the direction of cowardice, a desire to use normies to conceal black bloc bullshit, or both.

Yup. Yelled at us for saying there were people not from the area causing trouble and were like, "you're believing 'outside agitators'?" - Public defenders saw bookings, they weren't from here - People not from here literally showed up in our streets and told us exactly where they were from+

This means that people who are wrongfully detained by ICE can force ICE to pay for the legal fees it takes them to get out. Could have big implications in how this legal work is paid for.

Huh. And I was hearing that it was the anti-normie anarchist bloc out there taking credit for the work of organizing.

Detour: I use Apple News constantly. Very highly tuned. Since iOS 26, the lightest sweep near an ad instantly pops it up. Fucking HELL! This feels like Apple enshittifying News to farm ad engagement. Hate it hate it hate it.

People have an image of 15-year-old electric mower humming and clogging, compared with gas mowers used by landscape crews and think we will always need powerPowerPOWER of gas tools and vehicles because electric must be weak. Outdated and zero foresight in the progress that happened.

Why, for the past 50 years, have US labourers been getting worse at building stuff? www.ft.com/content/2ae2...

Big news out of California. After years of study, the CA Law Revision Commission recommended a major rewrite of state antitrust law — explicitly instructing judges to break with weak federal standards & restore meaningful limits on monopoly power. The legislature often follows the CLRC's guidance.

How immigration detainees are moved around Minnesota and the nation

Instead of firing Attia, Bari has invited Epstein’s victims onto her podcast to debate him. (This is a joke. So far.)

Seeing all the “professional” activists go after Stancil is negatively polarizing me into a stance that Minnesota is winning because it’s normal people rising to the occasion and pushing a lot of activist nonsense out of the way by doing it

My flannel collection hardest hit!

Professional athletes are being advised not to leave the hotel or go anywhere without their passports while visiting Minnesota. This is not a country that can safely host international events like the World Cup. Boycotting is not even a political question anymore. It is a basic issue of safety.

The senate vote confirming Tulsi. Only McConnell was the R voting against. www.senate.gov/legislative/...

Patriotic job re-training into Trump’s big beautiful manufacturing boom. Observers should bring job counseling forms.

Absolutely every behavior people offer as "proof" that their phones are listening to them 24/7 is 100% explainable by cross-site pixel tracking and location services! We have known for years that ad networks do this!

Millions get their drinking water from wells that are rarely tested for “forever chemicals,” leaving rural America at risk and in the dark.

Wait. Huh. Ammon Bundy is mad at ICE? Did not expect that twist! www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Trump was waving around the photo of a fully-pardoned immigrant business owner, as a “worst of the worst”? Then the feds *THEMSELVES* filed the order to release as a big “whoopsie”! Great local reporting. www.startribune.com/pardoned-aut...

Almost 4 years into this full scale war and Russian tankers are now using NATO territorial waters in order to avoid being attacked by Ukrainian drones. You read that correctly. Russians hiding behind NATO, because they lost control of the Black Sea.

The FBI was able to access Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson's Signal messages because she used Signal on her work laptop. The laptop accepted Touch ID for authentication, meaning the agents were allowed to require her to unlock it. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Let’s see if the Sunday morning shows Trump stooges are confronted about the de-escalation lies.

Kinda cool but the red makes me wince and flinch. www.npr.org/2026/01/31/n...

"Chanting “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me” sure feels more righteous when thugs have overrun the streets of your city than it did in the ’90s, when that chorus was just as likely to seized by fratty malcontents looking for an excuse to collide with each other."

Domestic in-migration sharply drops in Florida, Texas & the South as a whole. Meanwhile the Midwest has positive domestic in-migration for first time in two decades. [gift link] www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/u...

some Public Service Journalism: I took that Minnesota judge's pdf list of court orders that ICE violated, found all the cases on CourtListener and linked to the dockets reason.com/2026/01/30/j...

Stand With The Sinister Minnesotans Against ICE https://store.theonion.com/products/sinister-minnesotans-t-shirt?variant=44569654984773

The level of solidarity and organization in the Twin Cities is a goddamn inspiration. We should all be taking notes and following suit.

good New Yorker cartoon today.

Gotta update the chart

This is a great piece from @deardara.bsky.social about how even the best of intentions can lead to things spiralling out of control in MN right now. And how the nationalization of outrage can destroy a small restaurant mspmag.com/eat-and-drin...

Did he ever … work at a company?

DISGUSTING

Waste fraud abuse from the dealership-owner class. As expected. www.startribune.com/walser-autom...

Because he’s a geographical illiterate and is not aware of Panama City.

The North remembers bsky.app/profile/mcbr...

Don Lemon is not the only reporter who was arrested by federal agents overnight — local independent journalist Georgia Fort just went live on FB to say federal agents were also at her door to take her into custody over her protest coverage in Minneapolis.

Federal agents were pursuing a driver when the three-car crash took place.

My position on L'affaire d'Stancil is that if you don't want to work with someone who submits himself humbly as a contributor to the work, then turns around and uses his considerable platform to evangelize for the cause in a way that constantly decenters himself, you aren't serious about the work.

A Minnesota woman observing ICE agents in her car was cornered on one-way streets. An agent approached, called her by name—citing facial recognition. Days later, her Global Entry and TSA privileges were revoked, with no explanation.

There is a level of alarm coming from many great small businesses in Minneapolis & St. Paul that I haven’t heard since COVID. This weekend - pick a locally-owned business or three that you love and go spend some money if you can. We’ve all got to look out for one another and they need our help.