it's a lot

It's all a lot. Despite today's heartbreaking photo (and related local news story) making the rounds online (no, not that that other awful photo), and despite this physician news conference protesting current federal actions, I feel like the national news cycle is trying to move on to other shiny things, avoiding any need to say what's clearly evident in this situation.

As the ongoing occupation by over 3,000 ICE agents stretches into its third week — with no clear end in sight — I’ve received a steady string of messages from increasingly concerned friends across the country. They all start the same way: Uh… is this really as bad as it looks from the outside? My answer to that question is easy: no, it’s worse.
- How much can a city take?" (The Verge)

There aren't many things that get world religions to agree, but this event does. Dozens of faith leaders representing religions both major and minor in Minnesota held this joint statement yesterday. Their event during the general strike is apparently being organized by ISAIAH, but I couldn't find a page specifically about it on their website. Despite the forecast of bitterly cold temperatures (-27C/-17F to -22C/-8F) on Friday, I intend to be there in downtown Minneapolis for the 2pm march. This general strike is now endorsed by the state AFL-CIO!

Watch on YouTube

There are, however, good bits of journalism. I recommend the following:

• On the Front Line of Minnesota's Fight with ICE, audio podcast from New York Times
• Inside Trump's War on Minneapolis - What We Saw on the Ground", video from Zeteo
• ICE vs. People of Minnesota: Community Resists Trump's Militarized Crackdown – Special Report, Democracy Now
• This Week in Politics | Explainer", Heather Cox Richardson, USA historian

I queued that last link to the bit where the historian specifically talks about Minnesota and why we were a bad choice by Trump to start this escalation. We haven't given him (and the rest of you in the USA) the invocation of the Insurrection Act. I've said repeatedly on this blog over the years that Minnesota has a different kind of conservative politics, still aware of community responsibility. (I did, however, give up that estimation of them in this post last year, when they tried to literally steal a majority voice in the state government.) This historian mentions that civic mindedness specifically and how it relates to our current situation. That whole YouTube video is worthwhile. It's an hour well spent, from past world history to a conclusion with hope about the future. I need to learn more about these "ad hoc committees" as they relate to the new world order of "diplomatic variable geometries". It sounds initially like the demarchy that I keep advocating. I'm not sure, though, if that's what they mean by those new terms.