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Our Gettysburg moment in Minneapolis

Our Gettysburg moment in Minneapolis

Jonathan V. Last, after summarizing the events immediately leading up to the Civil War’s pivotal Battle of Gettysburg, writes: It’s not clear why the Trump regime chose to invade Minneapolis. Maybe it was animus toward the city’s Somali population. Maybe it was because Gov. Tim Walz had run against Trump and Vance. Maybe it was because they believed the state’s welfare fraud investigations made Minneapolis favorable terrain on which to fight. But when the regime’s forces occupied the city they were surprised…

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Yes, it really is fascism

Yes, it really is fascism

Jonathan Rauch writes: Until recently, I resisted using the F-word to describe President Trump. For one thing, there were too many elements of classical fascism that didn’t seem to fit. For another, the term has been overused to the point of meaninglessness, especially by left-leaning types who call you a fascist if you oppose abortion or affirmative action. For yet another, the term is hazily defined, even by its adherents. From the beginning, fascism has been an incoherent doctrine, and…

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Trump and Bondi’s threats and demands fuel legal case against Minnesota surge

Trump and Bondi’s threats and demands fuel legal case against Minnesota surge

Politico reports: President Donald Trump’s threat of “retribution” and Attorney General Pam Bondi’s explicit policy demands may be undercutting the federal government’s legal arguments defending its immigration crackdown in Minnesota. A judge hearing a lawsuit seeking to halt the ongoing surge of thousands of federal immigration agents in the Twin Cities repeatedly cited Trump’s and Bondi’s statements Monday as evidence that the massive “Operation Metro Surge” in the Twin Cities isn’t aimed solely at enforcing immigration laws. Rather, their comments…

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Lawyer representing Jonathan Ross, the agent who killed Renee Good, thinks ICE has gone too far

Lawyer representing Jonathan Ross, the agent who killed Renee Good, thinks ICE has gone too far

The Wall Street Journal reports: Chris Madel was distraught as he left last Tuesday’s GOP gubernatorial debate at a suburban movie theater, where he had squabbled onstage with six other candidates ranging from the speaker of the house to the embattled founder of MyPillow about nearly every major political issue but immigration. It rattled Madel that no one mentioned the thousands of federal agents stationed in and around Minneapolis. No one mentioned the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a 37-year-old…

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Minnesota’s mealy-mouthed corporate cowards call for calm during ‘this difficult moment for our community’

Minnesota’s mealy-mouthed corporate cowards call for calm during ‘this difficult moment for our community’

The New York Times reports: Chief executives of Target, Best Buy, General Mills and Cargill were among more than 60 large Minnesota companies to issue a public letter on Sunday calling for an “immediate de-escalation of tensions” in the state. The letter marks the first time the most recognizable businesses in Minnesota have weighed in on the turmoil in Minneapolis amid the aggressive crackdown by federal immigration agents, which have sparked widespread protests throughout the city. It comes one day…

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Why Minnesota can’t do more to stop ICE as Trump’s actions threaten to destroy the United States

Why Minnesota can’t do more to stop ICE as Trump’s actions threaten to destroy the United States

Garrett M. Graff writes: America has never seen a moment in modern history like the federal occupation of Minneapolis. Thousands of masked federal officers with uncertain authority are rampaging through the region, assaulting protesters and innocent people, abusing constitutional safeguards, staking out daycares and schools, snatching people off the streets in unmarked vans based on the color of their skin or their accent, and recklessly, relentlessly provoking violent confrontations with civilians—all against the loud, repeatedly expressed wishes of local and…

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In Trump’s ‘dual state,’ dissenters face extrajudicial executions, while loyalists enjoy protections

In Trump’s ‘dual state,’ dissenters face extrajudicial executions, while loyalists enjoy protections

Kyle Varner writes: The concept of the Dual State, first articulated by the jurist Ernst Fraenkel, one of the few Jews in Germany who was allowed to temporarily practice law during a ban on Jewish lawyers due to his status as a World War I veteran, describes a system where two parallel governmental structures inhabit the same body. On one side is the Normative State—the administrative body that handles the routine, non-political business of a nation through predictable laws and…

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Alex Pretti’s ICE murder is beyond politics. This is about good vs. evil

Alex Pretti’s ICE murder is beyond politics. This is about good vs. evil

Will Bunch writes: In the waning days of the worst January any of us can remember, I desperately wanted to tell a good story about America, and then on Friday, I watched one unfold in frozen Minnesota with an abiding love and white-hot intensity that seemed to melt the subzero air. The sight of as many as 50,000 people packing the downtown streets on a minus-9-degree day to demand that federal immigration raiders leave Minneapolis was a high watermark for…

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Congress can either rein in ICE or be complicit in the violence

Congress can either rein in ICE or be complicit in the violence

Mike Zamore writes: A 5-year-old child detained and sent with his father to a Texas immigration detention facility. Minnesotans shot – and even killed – at the hands of federal agents. U.S. citizens arrested by masked officers in broad daylight. These headlines should be enough to make anyone rethink their support of President Donald Trump’s immigration agencies. The death of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday – caught on camera from multiple angles — must finally shock this country’s…

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Trump-appointed federal judge blocks DHS-FBI cover-up in VA nurse killing

Trump-appointed federal judge blocks DHS-FBI cover-up in VA nurse killing

The Daily Beast reports: A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from “destroying or altering evidence” in connection with the fatal shooting of VA nurse Alex Jeffrey Pretti. Judge Eric C. Tostrud, who was nominated to the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota by Donald Trump in 2018, issued his ruling on Saturday evening. The Department of Homeland Security, ICE, Border Patrol, Attorney General’s Office, and the FBI are prohibited from tampering…

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China fires top general in shocking purge of senior military command

China fires top general in shocking purge of senior military command

The Washington Post reports: China’s highest-ranking military official below Xi Jinping has been placed under investigation for corruption, a stunning upheaval that brings down the most senior figure yet in a widening purge of Beijing’s armed forces and signifies an unprecedented consolidation of military power under the country’s leader. China’s Ministry of National Defense said Saturday that Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) — the Communist Party body that controls China’s armed forces — is suspected…

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The summary execution of a VA nurse, holding his phone, shot at least ten times by federal agents

The summary execution of a VA nurse, holding his phone, shot at least ten times by federal agents

The Guardian reports: The Minnesota man who was killed by federal agents on Saturday has been identified as Alex Pretti, 37, a registered nurse working in the intensive care unit at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, which serves veterans. It’s the second fatal shooting this month in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in addition to another non-fatal shooting, amid a major crackdown in Minnesota by federal agents. Pretti attended nursing school at the University of Minnesota, where he was also a junior…

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After her death, DOJ sought to probe Renee Good for criminal liability

After her death, DOJ sought to probe Renee Good for criminal liability

MS Now reports: Aides to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche directed the U.S. Attorney’s office and FBI agents based in Minnesota to shut down a civil rights investigation into an officer’s fatal shooting of Renee Good and instead alter it to probe Good for possible criminal liability, according to three people briefed on the discussions. After Good was killed on Jan. 7, FBI agents drafted a search warrant to obtain her car to reconstruct the path of bullets that an…

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German commentators note that Gregory Bovino dresses like a Nazi officer

German commentators note that Gregory Bovino dresses like a Nazi officer

The Guardian reports: A greatcoat worn by the senior US border patrol official Gregory Bovino, who has spearheaded aggressive immigration operations across the country, has raised eyebrows in German media with some commentators saying it resembled a fascist aesthetic. Bovino has been an increasingly recognisable figure during the raids in Minneapolis for the brass-buttoned, calf-length olive green coat, which is unlike the fatigues and body armor worn by many of the federal agents. Along with his close-shorn haircut, the media…

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