Still Freezing
I hope Neil Young doesn’t mind if I substitute a few words to his classic “Ohio” tune from 1970. Young wrote the tune in response to the Kent State shootings. I thought of the tune when I saw the video clip of the fella who was executed by the ICE thugs this past Saturday. A few other folks have posted “Ohio” in response to Saturday’s execution in Minneapolis. Here goes:
ICE thugs and Trump’s a comin’
We’re finally on our own
This winter I hear the drummin’
Two dead in Minnesota
Gotta get down to it
ICE thugs are gunning us down
Should have been done long ago
What if you knew him and
Found him dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?
My opposition to the Vietnam War started around 1968. In 1968 we had the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Sen. Bobby Kennedy. There were massive anti-war protests across the country that were covered by the networks. Then, of course, there was the violent overreaction by the police against the anti-war protesters on the streets of downtown Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention – covered on national TV.
The 1970 Kent State shooting where four students were killed by the Ohio National Guard hardened my opposition to the war. It happened during my high school senior year in May of 1970.
I bring this up because Saturday’s murder would very well be a turning point against this ICE thug madness. It was a cold-blooded murder. I get that Donald Trump has some MAGA followers that are rabid and oblivious to human decency. I just have to believe that way too many Americans will view what happened Saturday as abhorrent, despite the lying arse spin from ICE.
ICE is turning out to be a loser for MAGA. Trump and his thugs are trying to convince America not to believe what we have been seeing on our video screens the past 48 hours. See this from the Minneapolis Star Tribune this morning:
Republican Chris Madel made a stunning exit from the Minnesota governor’s race on Jan. 26, saying he cannot support the national GOP’s “stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so.”
In a surprise video announcement, the Minneapolis attorney said he supported the originally stated goals of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s operation in Minnesota, including the deportation of undocumented immigrants with serious criminal records, but the effort has “expanded far beyond its stated focus on true public safety threats.”
“United States citizens, particularly those of color, live in fear. United States citizens are carrying papers to prove their citizenship. That’s wrong,” Madel said.
Madel, who launched his campaign on Dec. 1, quickly rose from a relative political unknown to a top contender for the GOP nomination. He won over many GOP activists with the communication skills he developed as a trial attorney and his status as a political outsider. He was consistently finishing in the top three in straw polls of GOP activists, in a crowded field of about a dozen candidates for governor.
His comments come as some other Republicans in Minnesota and Washington have started to distance themselves from the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the state. Madel said ICE’s Operation Metro Surge will be a political liability for any candidate running statewide this fall.
“National Republicans have made it nearly impossible for a Republican to win a statewide election in Minnesota,” he said.
Madel said it’s unconstitutional to weaponize criminal investigations against political opponents and for ICE to raid homes with only a civil warrant.
He launched his campaign for governor as a staunch defender of law enforcement and had recently provided legal counsel to Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.
“I do this because I believe the Constitutional right to counsel is sacrosanct,” he said in his video.
He said he had read about and spoken to many U.S. citizens who were detained by ICE in Minnesota “due to the color of their skin,” including several law enforcement officers who had been pulled over by federal immigration agents on pretextual stops.
“Driving while Hispanic is not a crime,” he said. “Neither is driving while Asian.”
Here is the entire read: Chris Madel ends GOP bid for governor, says he can’t support federal ‘retribution’ against Minnesota.
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It is still freezing this morning, but H-Town did okay this past weekend. We listened and stayed off the streets. We were lucky we didn’t get as much freezing rain as predicted. There weren’t that many power outages. It looked like the local news crews were hunting for juicy weather-related stories, but the best they got was a busted water main near the Galleria. In the featured photo from yesterday, the mayor is wearing his Texans gear.
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At FanFest this past Saturday, Jose Altuve said he was 100% healthy. Good.