Full Blown Police State In Minnesota

 I can't figure out how to simply copy this Bluesky post, so here's a screenshot and a link to the post so you can watch the whole video.   This sort of video is all over social media.  It's appalling that the GOP in Congress have no consciences, not a shred of courage.  But this is the United States at the beginning of the year 2026.  A faltering democracy.  

Some liken this to Jim Crow in the South when thousands were lynched.  Is it different?  I was going to say that now these terrorists are wearing what some call law enforcement uniforms, whereas during Jim Crow they were wearing white cloaks and white hoods.  But some of those in the white hoods were law enforcement.  And law enforcement stopped cars with Black folk in them and treated them like this.

So this isn't new in the US, but it's new that

• it's federal agents
• lighter skinned people are being targeted
• it's in broad daylight in the north with lots of witnesses

Again, here's the link.  It's not pretty, but we have to look and change Congress in November.

https://bsky.app/profile/noturtlesoup17.bsky.social/post/3mcdab3qrvs2g

We have a white nationalist Nazi wannabes acting as immigration prosecutor:

"In February of last year, the Texas Observer reported that t James “Jim” Joseph Rodden—an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) assistant chief counsel who acts as a prosecutor for ICE in immigration court in Dallas—operates a white supremacist X account named GlomarResponder, based on an overwhelming number of biographical details that the Observer matched through publicly available documents, other social media activity, and courtroom observation.

The account has over 17,000 followers and has routinely posted hateful statements, including that “America is a White nation,” that “‘Migrants’ are all criminals,” and that “All blacks are foreign to my people,” in addition to posts with apparent praise of Adolf Hitler." (From Texas Observer)

While this is just one example, the fact that he's back in court after a complaint, reinforces the idea that not only is this reasonable in the eyes of the Trump administration, it's, in my opinion, the dream of Stephen Miller, who is rabidly anti immigrant, especially those whose skin is darker than Scandinavian.  Here's a 2018 article referencing his uncle's condemnation of Miller.  Here's an MSM article saying Miller's target is 3000 arrests per day, and not criminals, but any undocumented immigrant.

From the Libertarian
leaning CATO Institute

3000 per day.  That's 90,000 per month.  That's over a million a year.  The campaign rhetoric about criminals, rapists, murderous gangs, was simply rhetoric.  Somalians eating pets was pure fiction.  But they are Black.  And Miller and others want to protect the "purity" of the white "race."  And they also want to protect Republican candidates who they feel will lose more and more elections if the population gets less pure white.  It's hard to attract people of color to a party that welcomes white nationalists and Nazis.  

So combine Miller's fanatic racism and the GOP's fear of losing future elections, and exporting a million or so darker immigrants makes cruel sense.  

And these arrests, like the one in the Bluesky post above, are violent and intended to intimidate.  These ICE agents have been given a license to be roaming domestic terrorists.  

But the US is nothing but a country of immigrants.  Except for the indigenous peoples who lived here before Europeans came, every one is an immigrant or descendent of one.  

Everyone should be outraged.  Everyone should make a plan to find ways  they are comfortable with, to fight this administration.

For some that may 

• be writing post cards to voters.  
• giving money to candidates who have a record of courage and fighting for people, not corporations. 
• marching in protests.  
• working with refugee and immigration rights groups.  
• joining local groups fighting to save democracy
• volunteering for pro-democracy candidates
• writing letters to you representatives and senators
• pick something from Robert Reich's list of ten things to do

Just feeling helpless will worsen one's anxieties and make one feel hopeless.  Joining a local group of activists will connect you with like minded people and show you ways to fight back.  The recent Democracy Fair in Anchorage showed people a dozen or more such organizations.  This is where internet is you friend.  Just search for "local progressive activist groups in _[your town]_"  I got this FB page, for example, when I put in Boise, Idaho.

found posted multiple times on Spoutible, not sure of the author/creator

While many claim all these current events - kidnapping the president of Venezuela, threatening to invade Greenland,  ICE thugs violently dragging people out of cars and sending them off into a black hole are distractions from the Epstein files.  

Given how much has already come out in the Epstein files, I'm not sure that additional files will change many people's minds.  (But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be continuing to demand their release with pedophiles unreacted.)  

But it's possible that in a perverse way, the Epstein files are a distraction from the authoritarian takeover of the US.  

Democracy Fair Draws Crowd To Loussac

The League of Women Voters sponsored a Democracy Fair at Loussac Library in Anchorage Saturday. 

On the 4th floor there were twenty tables staffed by employees and volunteers for Municipal agencies and non-profits.  

email: alaskamarchon@gmail.com

Facebook:  Alaska March On

Bluesky:  @alaskamarchon.bsky.social

In the Marston Auditorium there were speakers most of the day.

And in the Moose Room, they had two showings of the film The Officials about election officials who, despite all the the attempts to challenge the 2020 elections stood firm.  

The Anchorage Equal Rights Commission takes complaints about discrimination in housing, employment, and other areas in businesses and in government agencies within the boundaries of Anchorage.  

equalrights@anchorageak.gov 

it was a good way to meet a lot of people from a wide range of groups who are working to preserve democracy in the United States.  [I know, that sounds bizarre, but that's where we are.  The outcome is uncertain.]  Each group has its own key issue and approach, but my sense was they were all open to working together when that made sense.  Ultimately they all have a common goal.  

My personal goal is to work to get as many non-voters to vote, with a particular focus on young voters.  Not much is going to change in Alaska politics unless we engage the people who have decided that 'voting is not my thing' or 'every party is equally corrupt so why vote?’  A huge swath of people eligible to vote, regularly do not vote.  They can make all the difference.  There are several groups that seem to be working toward that goal and I will follow up with them.   

Normalcy In A Time Of Terror [Updated]

 [Scroll to bottom for update]

Imagine having to worry that masked thugs could come to your home, your work place, your car and just drag you off in handcuffs, put you on a plane to prison, and possibly ship you to another country's prison.  

A growing number of people in the United States don't have to imagine this.  They're living it.  And it will get worse now that the US Congress approved 

". . . more than $160 billion that are going to immigration enforcement and the deportation operation. So when you break it down, that means $46.5 billion to building the rest of the border wall, $45 billion to immigration detention centers, nearly $30 billion to hiring and training ICE staff, and $3.3 billion to immigration court judges and attorneys." (from Laura Barron Lopez NPR)

But there are different amounts cited by different outlets:

The annual budget of Immigration and Customs Enforcement alone will spike from about $8 billion to roughly $28 billion, making it the highest funded law enforcement agency in the federal government.  (NYTimes July 13, 2025 - paywalled)

Since those numbers are way beyond what most people can comprehend, here are some comparisons:

• Senate appropriators tack on $22 billion to defense spending bill for $853 billion topline   
• USA Facts says the Department of Education spent $268B in 2024 and was 4% of the Federal budget
• While most of Social Security’s benefits are funded by the payroll taxes collected from today’s workers, the program has also accumulated $2.8 trillion in trust fund reserves over the past four decades.[3] During that period, Social Security’s income exceeded its costs, and the program invested the surplus in interest-bearing Treasury securities. Over the next nine years, those reserves will make up the difference between Social Security’s income and costs.

But don't trust these numbers too much.  It's hard to find consistent numbers online, and I don't really know how much of the money goes to contractors, particularly contractors who make significant campaign contributions.  Consider those just vague comparisons. 

If Donald Trump and the Republican Party in general have their way, they will use their government power to go after any and all who oppose them.  They've already begun.  All the people who were fired from the US government for example.  

The integrity of our institutions is disintegrating quickly (think about the Congressional and US Supreme Court roles in checking the power of the president), and our elections (See Texas remapping its election districts to eliminate five Democratic seats).  [Do I really need to put in links on the Supreme Court and the Congress?  Okay - here and here.]

Acting Normally

Meanwhile, most people in the US are going about their business as if things were normal.  They  assume that the worst violations of human rights will not affect them personally.  And for the time being they are probably right.  

But the government's shadow is getting closer.  Universities are being forced to pay protection money to Trump.   Media outlets that criticize Trump are being attacked.  Ask Stephen Colbert.  

But we do have to go about our lives.  Yesterday I went to the post office and mailed a package to my son for his birthday.  I dropped off some books at the library and looked at the new books section.  

People go to work.  They buy groceries, clean their houses, mow their lawns.  Walk their dogs, go to their kids' soccer games.  

In Nazi Germany people kept their lives as normal as possible under very abnormal circumstances.  But nearly every German family was impacted.  Hitler Youth sucked up most of the genetically suitable kids, including girls:

"The League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Mädel [BDM]) was the female section of the Hitler Youth, its role was to indoctrinate girls into the beliefs and ideals of the Nazi regime.  The BDM focused on developing girls into women who were dedicated to Nazism, dutiful housewives, and whose role within in society was to become a mother. Girls were to grow-up with an unquestioning understanding of the intended role of women in the Third Reich. BDM members were required to have German parents, be in good health, and conform to Nazi racial ideals."  [From a British Holocaust Museum.]

Check out Victor Klemperer's book, I Will Bear Witness.  There are two volumes of his journal during the Nazi period and WW II.  (The link takes you to the Internet Archive where you can read Volume I online.) Of Jewish ancestry, but a Protestant since his family had converted when he was a child, and married to a gentile, this WW I veteran and university professor felt safe.  

But as we go about our daily lives, we must also pay attention to what is happening and find ways to prepare and to resist.  All authoritarian regimes want you to obey.  To comply before they even tell you to.  The more that people resist, the harder the regime has to work.  The people protesting ICE raids across the country make a huge difference, especially people filming ICE agents acting like the Gestapo and breaking car windows and beating people up.  Sharing the video clips online helps people understand.  The people of Nazi Germany didn't have tiny video cameras or social media to post the things they saw.

For those, like myself, who are not darker skinned and whose citizenship is based on being born in the US to US citizens, we may be safe for now, unless we have a job that seeks to figure out truths - whether it's climate science, US history, female anatomy and health care, reporting the news, or even using social media to spread truths.  

All those camps the Immigration Mafia are building.  What do you think will happen to them once the first wave of immigrants have been shipped off to authoritarian regimes to be forgotten?  The next level of enemies of the state will fill them if Trump (and his evil advisor Stephen Miller) gets his way.  

I advise everyone who may be 'safe' now to start finding ways to resist.  

I've been taking letters every Monday to the downtown offices of my three US legislators offering them information and my thoughts about pending legislation.  The picture shows a day when the door was locked and people left their letters under the door at Senator Sullivan's office.

I've gone to demonstrations.  

I've attended forums where issues and legislation have been discussed. 

And I've donated money to organizations I think are most effectively fighting back.  

Sometimes I wonder if these things make a difference.  But I know they do.  Minimally they signal to other resisters that there is opposition they can join.  Even if my legislators don't do as I want, I know that their staffers are reading the letters and learning something.  

My one body protesting won't change the world. But hundreds of bodies in Anchorage, thousands in Alaska, and millions in the US will make a difference. Remember, Trump is obsessed by crowd size.  

I'm retired so I have more time than most.  But everyone can find ways to slow down the erosion of democracy, stick their fingers in the holes of the dike holding back fascism.  

Right now I'm thinking through two things:

1. How do we find the most effective actions to take within our time constraints and abilities?  I'll try to post those ideas when I think through them.  At this point I can see three basic goals:
1. Gum up the works, slow down the destruction - law suits against all illegal actions help here and ordinary people can help this by financially supporting those organizations on the forefront of suing the regime.  It doesn't have to be a lot.  But it has to be a lot of people giving $5 regularly.  Organizations like the ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center, the NAACP, and attorneys like Marc Elias.  These folks were well prepared for the Trump regime and have been winning suits against the government.
2. Inspiring others to vote, to get politically active, to get folks stirred up.  Large rallies that get lots of publicity help.  But I'd like to see rally organizers do more than get people out.  They need to sign them up and get them committed to regular action.  
3. Getting those who didn't vote to vote.  The Environmental Voter Project identifies people with an environmental interests, but who don't vote.  Then they train volunteers to call them and get them to vote.  Their self reported evaluations suggest they are quite effective.  
2. Developing a score card for a person's activism.  It's easy to burn out on going to rallies and writing letters or post cards to legislators and voters.  I'd like to develop a weekly (monthly?) check sheet or score card where people can check off things they've done.  I have a target of how many km I want to bike this summer and knowing I'm adding kliks gets me out more often and going further.  Apple watches get people to walk 10,000 steps. Something similar for activists would help inspire people to be regularly active.  

When I get this better thought out I'll post it.   

For now, everyone should try out some forms of resistance as often as possible.  Start with, maybe two kinds of action repeated once or twice  a week.  Some actions that are reasonably comfortable, and then slowly increasing the number of actions each week.  And then start stretching your comfort zone.  Below are some links to get you thinking about what you can do that fits your time constraints.

• Here's Ten Ways You Can Resist Now
• Don't Just Do Nothing. Here Are 20 Things You Can Do To Counter Fascism
• How to Legally Fight Fascism in Your Community
• Fighting Fascism in Italy
• 40 Ways to Fight Fascists:  Street Legal Tactics For Community Activists

I'd note that keeping one's life as normal as possible is good for everyone's mental health.  Do fun things when you can, but also resist when you can.      

[UPDATED August 1, 2025, 2pm:  I forgot to include this chart (from the CATO Institute , a conservative - Libertarian 'think tank' ) that counters Trumps campaign claims that the immigrants were all rapists, murderers, and gang members and that he was going to get them.  

65% have no criminal record at all!  If they were all criminals, ICE shouldn't have trouble finding them.  But they can't.  Because it was all campaign fiction to stir up resentment and anger.  

Anchorage NO KINGS - "So many problems, so little cardboard"

 Counting the crowd seemed impossible.  There wasn't a spot for me to get higher so I could see the whole gathering.  The May 1 rally had probably over 3000.  This seemed larger, but I couldn't really count.  There were people up on a parking garage nearby and I considered going over there, but instead stayed wandering through the crowd.  The Anchorage Daily News said "thousands" which isn't wrong.  

The crowd was seriously angry about what's happening to the US, but the mood among all these other people who felt the same was cheerful and friendly.  I didn't see any law enforcement uniforms.  I also didn't see a lot of non-white faces.  There were some, but it was pretty white crowd.  And dogs.  And a number of kids.  

These folks at Vet memorial.  On the right
"so many problems, so little cardboard"

The Vet Memorial is on the park strip, a few blocks from the main rally that was on L Street in front of the building houses the offices of our two US Senators.  

There were lots of people headed to L St. with signs as I biked there.  

Mostly I'll let the pictures do the talking.  

  

This one repeats the 'so little cardboard' sentiment, and how I feel.  The president (and his team) do so many impeachable acts, that they all become a blur.  And then someone says something like, "Well, different people have different numbers."  

Well, yeah, but the damning ones are right on the mark or close to it.  This president's done more things before lunch on any one day, that would have gotten any other president in serious trouble, if not impeached.  

So I like this sign - "Ugh! Where do I  Begin?"

On the back he did begin a list.  

I marked the approximate locations of the Anchorage offices of Alaska's two (GOP) Senators.  

It's Alaska, so we don't reject all kings.

That's a chain saw the guy with the clown nose is carrying

You can get a sense of how big the crowd is by looking at how close I am to that building.  The lots we were on were crammed with people, from here up to right in front of the building.  See the closer picture above with the Senators' offices marked on the picture.  

There's the parking garage where I could have gotten a better crowd size picture.  There were folks up there already.

The window washer was cleaning windows up above us and when I watched him, he was ignoring us and working busily.  

The green sign is the back side of "Ugh!  Where do I Begin?"

There are more photos, but you get the picture.  There were speakers, but unless you were on that block, you really couldn't hear them.  

When the hour or so was up, the crowd marched to the Park Strip and joined the folks at the Juneteenth celebration.  

The Rest Of The May Day Anchorage Protest Photos

I  got help from Apple today to fix my problem with AirDropping the pictures on my phone to my laptop.  We did it through Chat.  They denied being AI and wrote they were in the Philippines.  The fix was to go into my phone settings, down to 'transfer or reset phone' and then 'reset'.  I was nervous that I'd lose a bunch of things, but so far it seems ok.  And when I tried to upload the photos it worked.  

So here are more of the photos from the May 1 protest in Anchorage.  The original post is here.