#Minnesota had been a haven for #refugees since after World War II, when it was an early destination for #Holocaust survivors in the #UnitedStates, & especially since the late 1970s, when it began taking in thousands of South Vietnamese & Hmong people on the wrong side of America’s withdrawal from #SoutheastAsia.
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There is the genuinely stunning fraud scandal, recently revealed, that happened on Walz’s watch. And there is the long shadow of #GeorgeFloyd. But to understand both the crackdown & its stakes, it’s also worth revisiting a speech #Trump gave in the city in Nov 2016, two days before the election that would first deliver him to the White House.
#law #RevengePolitics #WeaponizationOfGovernment #DOJ #LegalEthics #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech #Fascism #MafiaState
@Nonilex I disagree that the Minnesota fraud scandal is "genuinely stunning". It's less fraud than Don Jr and Eric do on any given Tuesday, though even they aren't the worst fraudsters in a Republican party that includes Rick Scott.
Oh 100% [I say more, but I understand math]. It was a direct quote from the article.
“Oh, Minnesota,” #Trump told the crowd, dropping into the just-you-&-me-talking mode that has always been one of his greatest assets as a politician. “You know what’s going on. You know what I’m talking about. Do you know what I’m talking about? Be politically correct. Just nod — quietly nod. The whole world knows what’s happening in #Minnesota.”
#law #RevengePolitics #WeaponizationOfGovernment #DOJ #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech #Authoritarianism #Dictatorship #Autocracy #tyranny #MafiaState
@Nonilex meanwhile in minnesota
What was happening in #Minnesota then was a tension surrounding the state’s #Somali community, its 2nd-largest #immigrant population. In 2008, a young Somalia-born man from #Minneapolis was recruited by the Somali Islamist militant group Al Shabab & detonated a car bomb outside a govt building in his birth country’s Puntland region, the first of dozens of young men from the community who would fight for Al Shabab in Somalia &, later, for the #IslamicState in Iraq & Syria over the next decade.
It's odd that billionaire bigots freak out about cultures with strong mutual aid practices.
When facing bigotry & hatred, it's natural to band together.
Cultures with mutual aid practices
https://blog.massmutual.com/planning/what-is-a-money-pool
Tzedakah, Tikkun olam
https://www.yadvashem.org/exhibitions/human-spirit-during-the-holocaust/mutual-aid.html
https://sapirjournal.org/money/2025/poverty-and-jewish-community/
#Minnesota had been a haven for #refugees since after World War II, when it was an early destination for #Holocaust survivors in the #UnitedStates, & especially since the late 1970s, when it began taking in thousands of South Vietnamese & Hmong people on the wrong side of America’s withdrawal from #SoutheastAsia.
This hospitality had historically been a point of pride for the state, a piece of the exceptionalism that Minnesotans, performatively modest as they are, have always claimed. It was a product of a broader, deep-rooted civic idealism: the state’s preponderance of religious charities, community-level nonprofit organizations and in particular its Nordic-style social safety net, among the most generous in the country.
Trump's billionaires and their war on empathy would make a state like Minnesota a natural target.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/08/empathy-sin-christian-right-musk-trump
https://theconversation.com/magas-war-on-empathy-might-not-be-original-but-it-is-dangerous-255300
https://paulwaldman.substack.com/p/conservatives-declare-war-on-empathy
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/06/toxic-empathy-weakness/683355/
https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-rights-latest-culture-war-crusade-is-against-empathy
https://baptistnews.com/article/heres-whos-behind-the-war-on-empathy/
@Nonilex "dropping into the just-you-&-me-talking mode that has always been one of his greatest assets as a politician"
Thank you for putting that into words.
Why does this work on people? Seriously... It's so stupid that it works so well too.