Very Cold with a Chance of ICE

Well... it's sub-zero into mid-morning here in Minnesota and we have ice. And ICE on top of the ICE we already had, now that Trump is ranting about our Somali neighbors. 

People are hiding in their houses, the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood organization has moved its annual meeting to Zoom so people will not have to attend in person and be in danger of being picked up by goons, businesses are being affected by loss of foot traffic. The Target store in South Minneapolis is said to have allowed ICE to stage vehicles in its parking lot. That will be good for its failing business!

An entire room full of powerful old white people smiling and laughing as the president dehumanizes black immigrants and the first black president. Just fucking pathetic.
Radley Balko

Incredible optics here, really underscores it all.
Chris Hayes

With the sound off, it looks like one of those lynching postcards.
drf5n.bsky.social

I know: he’s a racist authoritarian who’s running a militantly racist government constantly doing and saying racist things, carrying out a highly militarized campaign of ethnic cleansing and also doing anti diversity crackdown all over the place. And yet…his racist rhetoric IS getting worse, somehow
Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social

The President’s blaming Feeding Our Future, but the fraud he’s talking about was enabled by the CARES Act — a bill he signed that gutted oversight to get money out fast. It’s also the law that allowed members of Congress to pocket PPP loans for their own companies.
Kendal Killian

This man may be the most racist president this country has ever had, and twelve presidents owned slaves.
@nikobowie.bsky.social

Sherrilyn Ifill asked for IDs on all the people standing behind Trump when he went on his racist tirade against Somalis, and Helen Kennedy, retired New York Daily News reporter, obliged:

Ford CEO Jim Farley
Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa
General Motors plant manager John Urbanic
National Auto Dealers Association Chairman Tom Castriota
Transportation Sec Sean Duffy
Deputy transportation Sec Steven Bradbury
WV Sen Shelly Moore Capito
ND Sen Kevin Cramer
Missouri Sen Eric Schmidt
Fla Rep. Vern Buchanan
Tenn Sen Marsha Blackburn
Texas Sen Ted Cruz
Ohio Sen Bernie Moreno
Missouri Rep Sam Graves
Pa Rep Mike Kelly
Texas Rep Roger Williams
Ohio Rep Troy Bolderson
Michigan Rep. Lisa McClain

Locally based science fiction writer Naomi Kritzer had a charming thread of advice today for our unwelcome visitors from the federal government on how to dress for the cold. It included suggestions like wearing cotton socks — if your windshield gets iced over, boil some water and pour it over to thaw it fast — and if you have to shovel your car, out don't lift with your legs, you'll wreck your knees. Commenters added a number of great suggestions.

The diminutive Greg Bovino from CBP, meanwhile, is parading around New Orleans, where they are picking up day laborers out of Home Depot parking lots. Oooo, so scary.

I know that Trump is immune to facts and even if he knew them or could remember them, he would lie anyway. However: Somali refugees began coming to Minnesota in 1993, based on decisions made when George H.W. Bush was president. More people came when Bill Clinton was president. By 1998, when I began working in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis, there was already a substantial population in that area. I believe Barack Hussein Obama had barely been elected to the Illinois State Senate at that point.

Almost all Somalis in Minnesota are either citizens or green card holders. A huge percentage were born here — that's how long they (their parents) have been here. They're part of Minnesota's fabric now, and we're not going back.