Germans are masters of the biting parade float.

How do they make those things? We need to import some German artisans to teach us the skill.

Kevin O’Leary is a Canadian. Can we put him in a concentration camp?

(Also, that chyron gives me the heebie-jeebies.)

Where are the hotbeds of Christian Nationalism? Who is causing all the problems? One approach is to map out the states with the highest density of right-wing Christian weirdos.

That doesn’t suggest any immediate explanations. My first thought was that maybe there is a correlation with poverty.

Nope, that isn’t it.

But then I noticed that Minnesota is always an exception compared to neighboring states. And that Washington, where I was born and grew up, is always on the side of right.

The correlation is clear: I, personally, am a benign influence on any state where I live.

I thought about leasing my presence to any state that wants to join the progressive future, but I had to nix that plan when I realized I might have to move to Arkansas or West Virginia.

ICE is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to buy up industrial warehouses all around the country. These are planned concentration camps.

Among the proposals for these camps is the construction of biohazard incinerators.

The one in Minnesota, in Shakopee, has been blocked so far by community activism. That one was a bit surprising: Shakopee is mainly known for Valleyfair, a seasonal amusement park, and the Minnesota Renaissance Fair. It would have kind of wrecked the family weekend if the kids had to deal with smoke from the crematorium drifting over the celebration.

We’re one short step away from building ICE death camps.

I got up this morning, checked the news, and saw this awful face staring out at me. Auggh.

Plumbing the Epstein files is like diving into a sewer. Another name that keeps coming up is Ken Starr, the evil prude who prosecuted Bill Clinton, and became good buddies with Epstein.

Starr, who died in 2022, was a close personal friend and professional contact of Epstein, and was the key lawyer who helped Epstein clinch a plea agreement in 2008, which is how Epstein avoided federal sex-trafficking charges and served a reduced sentence.

On 23 August 2018, Epstein appeared to ask Starr about a report that was to be released about Kavanaugh and the Starr investigation. Starr responded: “No writing for now. The release should be a non-event for Brett. I get criticized in one portion of the report, but no finding of illegality.”

Too bad we can’t dig him up and kick his corpse around. But Brett Kavanaugh is still around, unfortunately, and his name gets thrown around in the Epstein files quite a bit.

Jeffrey Epstein sympathized with Brett Kavanaugh during the then-supreme court nominee’s contentious 2018 confirmation and even suggested Republicans should have been harder on Christine Blasey Ford, who had accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault.

Epstein called the pending judiciary hearing “a trap!”, adding “Iye [sic] been through many of these. MANY!! She will cry, make sordid allegations. Say she feels bullied, fearful, traumatized. Every thing bad in her life was s result of the rape attempt. Suffered anxiety! Her relationships with men etc. this is a very special skill set needed.”

His suggestion was that even more intense defamation of the victim was necessary. He identified with Kavanaugh, and said that he had also been through MANY!! similar accusations (I wonder why a serial rapist and pedophile had such frequent experiences…). One has to wonder about the similarities, though.

Those of us who opposed his nomination to the Supreme Court are further vindicated, at least. Now, how can we get this mini-Epstein thrown off the court for good?

We had our caucuses this week, which started with an unfortunate announcement: Walz has stepped down and will not be running for governor. Who will run, who will win?

On the DFL side, it’s a cakewalk. Amy Klobuchar, our senator, is running for governor, and the party caucuses approved by giving her 79% of the vote. She’s OK, she won’t propose anything radical, even though we need radical right now. I feel like we’ve had an anointing of the status quo. I’ll vote for her, no question.

On the Republican side, we’re getting the crazy.

Republican house speaker Lisa Demuth actually won the caucus straw polls and is likely to be the leading candidate. Kendall Qualls came in second. Mike Lindell was in third place, but you know he’s going to be trotting around the state, speaking like the lunatic he is, and will draw lots of public attention and maybe get a Trump endorsement.

Lindell is not going to win. He’s not in this to win. He’s in it for the grift.

Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, spent more than half the money he raised for his campaign last year buying copies of his book, according to Minnesota Campaign Finance Board data released Tuesday.

That’s right. He’s taking in any donations and using it to buy copies of his book, which launders the money into his own pocket. What a deal.

At least it’s another reason Lindell doesn’t have a chance of winning.

He claims he is already reducing ICE presence in Minneapolis, that he’s getting cooperation from county jails, and that they aren’t harassing random citizens anymore.

White House border czar Tom Homan announced Wednesday that he’s immediately pulling 700 federal agents from Minnesota, citing “productive discussions” with state and local officials and “unprecedented cooperation” from county jails.

The Trump administration official, who recently took over Operation Metro Surge, said the reduction in agents is the result of “smarter enforcement, not less enforcement.” He pledged to continue to enforce immigration laws, with the goal of helping the president “achieve mass deportations.”

I can believe that they have reduced the number of ICE agents, but it still leaves 2000, outnumbering local police.

Working with the counties is a good idea, except then they’re only going to pick up immigrants that have committed a crime. They won’t achieve their deportation quotas that way, so I don’t believe a word of it. We do have red counties that would eagerly turn over any brown people that were arrested for jaywalking or murder, but then, why would we need any ICE at all?

Operations have become more efficient through coordination with county jails that are allowing ICE to take custody of undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes before they’re released into the community, according to Homan.

“Rather than having whole teams out looking for a criminal alien who was just released, now we have one agent at that jail picking that person up. That, and the operation has been successful in the number of arrests, so the target list is reducing.”

Homan can’t resist threatening us with another ultimatum.

He added that his goal is a “complete drawdown” as soon as possible, but again said the end of Operation Metro Surge is “largely contingent upon the end of the illegal and threatening activities against ICE and its federal partners that we’re seeing in the community.”

NO.

Protesting is not an illegal activity, and we’ll continue to oppose the criminal and racist goal of achieving “mass deportations”. We like our immigrant neighbors, we are most of us descended from immigrants, we don’t share Stephen Miller’s horrific white nationalist vision, so get the fuck out of here.

Donald Trump has announced that he is closing the Kennedy Center — pardon me, the Trump Kennedy Center — for two years starting this July. This is for necessary renovations, he says. He also says he’s awaiting approval from the board.

The president said that this would take effect July 4, pending approval of the board, a group that he has appointed and made himself the chairman of.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and make a bold prediction that on July 5, he will start “renovating” with backhoes and bulldozers, that he will proceed with no plans for what renovations will be done other than a vague demand for more gold-plated geegaws, and further, that no one in congress will raise a hand in protest, and the laws regulating historical buildings in Washington DC will be ignored.

Another prediction: the building doesn’t actually need major renovations, but that this demolition will occur solely because artists around the world are cancelling engagements at anything with the Trump name on it, and he finds this embarrassing.

He really is determined to leave his mark on the country, even if it is only a mark of shame.