Hello from Minneapolis, 2/12/26

of canaries and three card monties

Hello from Minneapolis, 2/12/26

Remember back in January, when all of Minnesota said, “It won’t stop here.” Have you noticed that it hasn’t, and that is not going to change anytime soon. In a piece from Wired yesterday, ”ICE Is Expanding Across the US at Breakneck Speed. Here’s Where It’s Going Next, “ there is a 6-page list of office space. But it boils down to Ice offices popping up like Starbucks on every corner. Minneapolis seems to be the canary for the nation’s coal mine; It is a crap job. The worst part is that people aren’t paying attention. Not to make the obvious pop culture reference, but it is a bit like the moment in the Matrix where Keanu Reeves character is offered the red Pill that shows the truth or the Blue pill, and he stays in ignorance and life goes on. Kinda feels like so many are choosing the ironically colored blue one.

The media really seems to have lost the plot with ICE here, and in a way its understandable as a story there is no resolution in sight, so it becomes loweronthe feed, til it becomes normal, and normal feels like noise. However i think this is part of the plan.

Have you ever played three card monty? It’s a hustle, a con game, it has a million variations, the most common one being the ball and cup popularized by close-up magicians. The game is find the queen, find the ball, with a good operator, you never will- unless they want you to. Much of the Current administration’s actions have the elements of it, the primary one being distraction, speed, and the intent to fool you. See, the thing is, when I said it was a game, I lied. You lose the moment you decide to play; you might win a round or two, but that is just to keep you in the game. Truthfully, when you see a good operator, it is a wonder to behold. This is masterful in its hideousness; it is near impossible to find the truth card when every card you turn over is a new atrocity: Episteen file, tearing down a building, tearing down NATO, naming a building, racist meme, sexist meme, suing his own government. The list goes on and on, and if he needs something else, he just yells fire in the theater: voter fraud, welfare fraud, and one of his greatest hits; fraud inMinnesota.

So there is a fraud problem in Minneapolis, a government program that is costing us so far $180,000,00 in us tax dollars, and yes, of course, I am talking about ICE, but hey, they have been making arrests, and they sure have roughly 4000. So, a mere $45,000 per person. Although the vast majority of whom have been us citizens, or immigrants in thecountry legally and going through the asylum process. The numbers are also pretty vague in what percentage are immigrants, and which are legal observers that they bring in, take their phones, then release anywhere from hours to a day later. And they get their phones back in a time range between 6 months and never.

The businesses of the twin cities have suffered hard too. The Star Tribune has estimated that they have lost 10-20 million a week, with lake street corridior alone losing 46 million in December. So if we average to 15M, that gives us a total this week upwards of 136 million as of this week. But that seems a low estimate, becasueit trickeles out everywhere in the state. Most people with any spare money are not spending it onthemselves they are trying to help keep scared families in their homes, hungry children fed

But wait, there is more: a study from the state department shows that.

“Undocumented immigrants paid nearly$100 billion in federal, state, and local tax revenue in 2022, while many are shut out of the programs their taxes fund. The findings run counter to anti-immigrant rhetoric that undocumented immigrants are “destroying” social programs. In 40 states, undocumented immigrants paid higher tax rates thanthe top 1% of the income scale in those states, according to a studyreleased Tuesday from the Institute on Taxation and EconomicPolicy, a left-leaning, nonprofit think tank.”

The study, which uses estimates of undocumented immigrants’ taxcontributions as of 2022, shows those totaled $96.7 billion thatyear. Study authors also found that undocumented immigrants would contribute $40.2 billion more per year in federal, state, and local taxes if all of the undocumented population had access towork authorization. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reasoned that this boost would come from higher wages associated with employment authorization and from easier compliance with income tax laws.

Realize that’s more than Tesla paid in income tax last year or the year before that, and the year before that. Which was none.

Now let’s turn back to the clock when Nick Shirely made his video uncovering a fraud, that was super old news here, using this as an excuse to wholesale attack the sommali community, even though the scam was started by a middle-aged white lady, and that despite the number lost being quoted as high as 100 billion, but i cant find a number anything like that outside of things from the administration, which all seem based on the Nick Shirley video. With the primary source being “a guy named David who lives in Minnesota,” it is entirely possible that this is costing us already 2 times or more of what the fraud was.

It hurts my soul to say you can not trust whatthe government says, but you really can not. In part, most of the people who did reporting and stats have been let go or fired until someone complies with Trump’s beliefs, like the former head of labor statistics, and what a shocker new guy for this jobs report, and numbers are surprisingly high. There is also the sycophantic way anyone talks about Trump, no matter what the question is, the response is threefold: Deny, Deflect, and Praise Trump, then declare victory as you say something snarky about the personwho asked the question. You even see it in responses on social media posts. At this point, it feels so canned it could be an SNL sketch from one of the bad years.

While this is a letter from Minneapolis, and I should be telling you that despite ICE saying its lowing down, it seems so much more aggressive, with ICE going undercover in Rapid Responsegroups and food networks. I want to talk about the person in charge of doing federal background checks for ICE and Homeland here, and how he was busted in a prostitution ring. Or how ICE had a high-speed chase through St. Paul after a man who is possibly in the country illegallyand crashed into cars and a building. The driver is in the hospital. There are stories, so many stories. Yet I want to talk about the Epstein files, the just cruel testimony Pam Bondi gave, as she denied the survivors who were seated behind her.

Instead i am going to tell you about my morning. I have a kidney transplant, actually i have two. And while both are public knowledge, the first one, even being an international newstory - it was the first one where an organ was found through social media. It’s not a thing I talk about or bring up that much. It doesnt defineme, but it is part of who I am. Still, there is a certain maintenance that comes with it, one of which is blood tests. This morning was my first since the occupation; the phlebotomist was a woman from Africa. She has drawn blood from me on dozens of occasions, though I couldn’t tell you her name; the routineis pretty standard, they ask your name, date of birth. They ask how you are, you ask how you are, and then you tell them where to jab you with a needle.

Today i didnt say I was fine, “it’s 2026 in minneapolis no one is doing fine, how are youdoing, this has to be truly hell for you”. She is legal and documented, educated, with a good job and a family. She’s scared nonetheless because iCE nabs first and then asks questions in Texas. She escaped a war zone to get to the dream of a better life, to live the American dream. And instead, well its a nightmare. Still, in all, she comes in every day and takes care of other people. She’s my new hero.

Meanwhile, back in DC another round of three care monty begins.

Your Pal,

c

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Photo by (Leila Navidi/The Minnesota Star Tribune)