Minnesota is under siege. This cannot stand | Hacker News Reader

Minnesota is under siege. This cannot stand

startribune.com

51 pointsfizl45 comments

If you live in Minnesota, please consider helping me transform rural politics. I’m the chair of the Agrarian Party of Minnesota [1], and candidate for the 20B legislative seat. Please consider running for office and providing a new hope for republicanism. I also seek help moving our statutes to a version control system, among other technical tools.

[1]: https://agrarianparty.org/

PS: if you have a contact for Governor Ventura, please help connect us.

Robby Roadsteamer (giraffe w/ g-string) was on Democracy Now! in two silent clips because ICE goons went across the street to arrest him specifically in retaliation. He was released within 5 minutes because of his army of lawyers waiting on the side and social media presence. Totally lawless 1a violations.

https://youtu.be/_IwSFqKc7-4

I don't know what gets through to the average voter. Maybe Jesse Ventura: https://youtube.com/watch?v=udSUbBhA8I0

We're going to have to wait until Boomers age out to get any form of common sense government. They've absolutely been the most damaging generation and will leave a wake of destruction for future generations to recover (or not) from.

Waiting doesn't work; ask me how I know :-) (I voted with my feet instead: it only takes ~2 years to learn a language)

Actual substantive comment:

My personal theory (looking from this side of the Atlantic) is that ICE got weaponised in this format precisely because the US Military wanted no part of thuggery, eg this 2020 memo: https://www.jcs.mil/Portals/36/Documents/CJCS%20Memo%20to%20...

Is this a reasonable theory?

I think that's a reasonable theory. Trump had rough experiences (i.e. was not obeyed) by Secretaries of Defense during his first term. He needs his personally loyal armed force because of that. Firing a lot of military leadership is also probably part of that.

Interesting, where did you move?

Switzerland. Politics has gotten more polarised away from the centre towards the extremes here as well, but it's still a long way from a two-party state: https://www.aboutswitzerland.eda.admin.ch/en/political-parti...

How do you know^W^W^W did you find out? (Taking your ancestor suggestion)

I'm old enough to have seen that as the old bigots died off, young bigots replaced them.

Waiting is an excuse to do nothing. That's the loser's path.

Believe it or not, gen-x is the only age group with a favorable opinion of ICE.

The way out of this is with vigorous antifascism today. Not waiting.

It will stand. Walz, Frey, & Co. have zero intention of protecting their citizens from ICE predation. The local police sit on their hands.

But I'm sure this strongly worded editorial will get Trump to reconsider.

I'm asking this in good faith, but what can they do? The Trump administration is absolutely salivating for armed pushback. I think the best they can logistically do is refuse to help ICE (as local police are doing in some cities).

Very clearly, there's zero reason to do what Trump's ICE is doing, house-to-house searches, violating first amendment rights, not following laws, shooting bystanders. Minnesota is not what Trump depicts. The reason is probably because Tim Walz ran against Trump in 2024.

What's the desired end point here? Just to prove that nobody can run against Trump? Trump will use his personally loyal security force to make any opponent's city a smoking crater? What does that get Trump, or his successor Republican? Why would anyone in any state where Trump cuts off already allocated federal spending vote for him ever again, much less why would Minnesota?

General Strike. Shut down the economy until ICE is out. Put the Trump administration under economic siege. It is peaceful, and it will work.

The problem I've found is coordinating. The idea that we need a sizable chunk of the country to all work together in leaderless organization, is noble but lofty. Every attempt I've ever seen is something extremely easy for the feds to disrupt like a Facebook, Reddit, or Discord group, where everyone collectively bikesheds and no decisions get made.

Completely agree; it's a classic game theory problem. One could start with every union that could be gotten on board, perhaps?

I always see "general strike" mentioned as if it's some powerful solution to work towards. But even ignoring the practicalities of organizing such a thing, I don't understand how the effects would be helpful. It's not like the brownshirts would go on strike, Trump is happy to print trillions of dollars in new debt, it would impoverish many of the very people working against this, and the type of society-wrecking chaos would appear to be exactly what Trump (ie his foreign handlers) want.

It will very definitely crash the economy, eventually, regardless of the known issues you point out.

Yes, sure. But this appears to be one of Trump's goals as well. Every single policy seems designed to irredeemably wreck our country - riffing off of longstanding frustrations of Republicans and ostensibly framed in terms of addressing them so they cheer in support, but implemented so terribly wrong that it's hard to keep assuming mere incompetence rather than an active hybrid warfare attack.

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