The Wild Reed

Saturday, January 17, 2026

Remembering the Visionary Leadership of Patrice Lumumba

“He sacrificed his life for us, to give us liberty.
So he’s a hero for us . . . a model for us.”

– Michel Nkuka Mboladinga

Today, January 17, 2026, is the 65th anniversary of the assassination of Patrice Émery Lumumba (1925-1961), a leader of the Congolese independence movement who served as the first Prime Minister of the independent Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Republic of the Congo). Throughout much of his adult life Lumumba challenged colonialism and corporatism, a defiant stance that led to his murder during a coup backed by Belgium and the U.S.

“Lumumba lived and died fighting for the liberation of African people from the shackles of colonial powers,” notes Gauri Lankes News. “His legacy lives in the struggle of African nations against neo-imperialism.”

As I’ve noted previously, I first became aware of and interested in the life of Patrice Lumumba when I attended a special screening of Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck’s film Lumumba at the University of Minnesota Film Society in 2000. (Today, Peck is probably most well-known for his 2016 film I Am Not Your Negro, based on the writings of James Baldwin.)

According to The Guardian, Peak’s 2000 film, Lumumba, which features French actor Eriq Ebouaney in the title role, is a “commendable effort” and a “corrective to imperialism.”

After seeing the film shortly after its release, I did some research on Lumumba and found myself moved by the images that show him captured and bound while on his way to be executed. I was struck by his calm countenance, even as he no doubt knew what awaited him. To this day I find myself wondering if I could be so brave and calm in the face of torture and death.

In commemorating the life of Patrice Lumumba on the anniversary of his murder during a US-backed coup 65 years ago, I share a recent (and intriguing) news story from the Associated Press about Michel Nkuka Mboladinga, a man who has become a social media star for both his physical resemblance to Patrice Lumumba and how he uses this resemblance to support the Congo national football team.

________________

Statuesque Congo Fan “Lumumba”
Stands Above All Others at Africa Cup

By Ciarán Fahey

Associated Press
January 4, 2026

One fan is standing tall above all others at the Africa Cup of Nations.

He has even brought a pedestal to make sure.

Congo supporter Michel Nkuka Mboladinga has become a social media star for posing as a statue of the country’s assassinated independence hero Patrice Lumumba during games.

Lumumba Vea, as the sharply dressed supporter is known for his resemblance to the slain leader, raises his right arm and stays perfectly still, adopting the position of the Lumumba memorial statue in Kinshasa, and holds the pose for the entirety of games.

“I remain still to give strength to the team, to give energy to the players,” Nkuka Mboladinga told The Associated Press during an interview in his hotel room in Casablanca this week.

He said it was his last before the team plays Algeria in Rabat on Tuesday. Nkuka Mboladinga was clearly exhausted from relentless media attention after Congo’s first three games in the tournament, and exasperated after it seemed every media outlet had spelled his name wrong.

But he was grateful for the attention and pleased to bring Lumumba’s support to the team.

“He’s the one who gave us the freedom to express ourselves,” Nkuka Mboladinga said of the Congolese leader. “He sacrificed his life for us, to give us liberty. So he’s a hero for us, Lumumba is a spirit for us, he’s a model for us.”

Lumumba is widely hailed as the nationalist activist who helped end Belgium’s colonial rule over Congo in 1960. He became the new independent country’s first prime minister and was seen as one of Africa’s most promising new leaders, but he was killed within a year during a struggle against a Belgian-backed secessionist movement in the mineral-rich Katanga region.

Questions have persisted over how complicit Belgium and the United States may have been in his death. A Belgian parliamentary probe later determined the government was “morally responsible” for Lumumba’s death. A U.S. Senate committee found in 1975 that the CIA had hatched a separate, failed plan to kill the Congolese leader.

For many in Congo, Lumumba remains a symbol of the positive developments the country could have achieved after its independence. Instead, it became mired in decades of dictatorship that drained its vast mineral riches.

“He’s like family,” Nkuka Mboladinga said of the visionary leader.

Nkuka Mboladinga rehearses before each match by staying still for 45 to 50 minutes at a time. With Congo through to the knockout round, he also faces the prospect of having to stay in statue mode through extra time and penalties, when the fans around him are anything but.

“It’s difficult,” he acknowledged about staying still while supporters dance around and behind him. “Everyone plays their part, they play their role and I am in mine.”

He hasn’t met the players yet but has heard they appreciate his efforts.

“The players know me, but I haven’t spoken with them personally. They’re very happy with what I’m doing,” he said.

– Ciarán Fahey
Associated Press
January 4, 2026

For more on Patrice Lumumba at The Wild Reed, see:
• Remembering Patrice Lumumba
• Raoul Peck on Patrice Lumumba and the Making of a Martyr
• Bringing Lumumba Home
• In Congo, the Only Known Remains of Patrice Lumumba Are Finally Laid to Rest
• University of Antwerp Honors Patrice Lumumba
• Ludo de Witte on the Need for Truth and Justice in the Assassination of Patrice Lumumba
• Remembering Lumumba

See also:
• John Pilger on Resisting Empire
• Cornel West: “Our Anti-Imperialism Must Be Consistent”
• Resisting the Hand of the Empire

Related Off-site Links:
Brussels Marks 100 Years Since Birth of Patrice Lumumba, DR Congo’s Independence Leader – Belga News Agency (July 2, 2025).
Patrice Lumumba’s Life Defended in Oscar Nominated Documentary, Soundtrack to a Coup d’État – Chicago Crusader (February 28, 2025).
Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961) – Sean Jacobs (Jacobin, January 17, 2017).
In Search of Lumumba – Christian Parenti (In These Times, January 30, 2008).
Patrice Lumumba: The Most Important Assassination of the 20th Century – Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja (The Guardian, January 17, 2011).
Death of Lumumba – A History of Foreign Involvement – S.A. Randhawa (I/R/M, December 13, 2019).
Both Belgium and the United States Should Be Called to Account for the Death of Patrice Lumumba – Tim Butcher (The Spectator, March 7, 2015).
Congo’s Patrice Lumumba: The Winds of Reaction in Africa – Kenneth Good (CounterPunch, August 23, 2019).
The Tragedy of Lumumba: An Exchange – Ludo De Witte Colin Legum and Brian Urquhart (The New York Review, December 20, 2001).
Martyr by Choice – Catherine Hoskyns (The New York Review, April 5, 1973).
An Exchange on the Death of Lumumba – A.C. Gilpin and Catherine Hoskyns (The New York Review, April 22, 1971).
Who Killed Lumumba? – Catherine Hoskyns (The New York Review, December 17, 1970).
Belgium Faces Up to Post-war “Apartheid” in Congolese Colony – Jennifer Rankin (The Guardian, December 9, 2018).
Brussels Sets Straight Historical Wrong Over Patrice Lumumba Killing – Patrick Smyth (The Irish Times, July 5, 2018).
Belgian Princess Condemns Her Family’s Brutal Colonial History in Congo and Calls for Reparations – Democracy Now! (July 9, 2020).
“Deepest Regrets,” But No Apology: King Philippe Acknowledges Colonial Cruelties – Maïthé Chini (The Brussels Times, June 8, 2022).
Belgium Finally Returns Tooth of Assassinated Leader Lumumba to DRC – Maïthé Chini (The Brussels Times, June 20, 2022).
Congo Buries Remains of Independence Martyr Patrice Lumumba – teleSUR (June 30, 2022).
Reparations? No Consensus On How Belgium Should Apologise for Colonial Past – Maïthé Chini (The Brussels Times, November 28, 2022).
Maurice Carney on Patrice Lumumba – CounterSpin (January 20, 2023).
“‘The Cry Is ‘Lumumba Lives’ – His Ideas, His Principles”: An Interview With Maurice Carney on Patrice Lumumba – CounterSpin (January 20, 2023).

Friday, January 16, 2026

Marianne Williamson on How to Psychologically Endure This Moment

Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota

I appreciate CNN’s Stephen Collinson’s analysis of what is currently happening in Minnesota, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in particular: “This is ruthless crackdown theater choreographed by the president. Minneapolis has become a petri dish for his hardline immigration policies, zeal for militarized law enforcement tactics and attempts to use immigration as a cudgel to crush progressive values in cities that reject his strongman leadership.”

I’m still thinking about how and when I want to share my experience of Trump’s fascist occupation of Minnesota. Until then, here are eight on-the-ground reports from fellow Twin Cities residents.

_______________

A quick report on life in Minneapolis, especially for those of you who don’t live here. In short, things in our community are very bad, but are being met with a level of community care and resolve that is deeply inspiring.

ICE is rampaging through our communities every day, treating the community with contempt and aggression. They are stopping anyone who does not look white to them and demanding to see proof that they are citizens. They are racing through residential neighborhoods recklessly.They smashed into a car a few blocks from our kids’ school a couple days ago, and caused a car to crash in an alley two blocks from our home yesterday. They are physically attacking people, regardless of whether they’re suspected of any immigration violation. A woman [Aliya Rahman] in a car tried to explain that she needed to get to a doctor’s appointment on the street ICE was patrolling; they smashed her car window, cut her seat belt, and pulled her bodily from the car. They’ve shot countless rounds of tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets at community members. And all of this is after they shot and killed Renee Good twelve blocks from our kids’ school. They are everywhere. We see reports of ICE attacks in South Minneapolis, in our neighborhood in Southwest, in suburbs like Richfield, and all over the metro. A family member witnessed them brutalizing someone in an inner ring suburb north of the city.

What’s inspiring is that the community is collectively linking arms and standing up to these fascists. Through all kinds of creative channels, people are organizing observers to notify residents of ICE presence, they’re coordinating meal delivery to vulnerable people, they’re raising money to support families torn apart, and they’re putting their bodies on the line. Every day I see dozens of parents standing outside all the neighborhood schools to try to protect our children, and hundreds more working to slow ICE’s assault.

This is not an incidental or minor reality. Alerts from hyper-local organizing channels pop up a hundred times an hour with people coordinating, resisting, and showing deep care for their community. It occupies close to 100% of our mental and emotional energy. And of course ICE is working to intimidate the community from supporting one another. Multiple U.S. citizens who have been detained describe being pressed to report on neighbors who are not white. Multiple observers who are following an ICE vehicle have reported that the ICE vehicle drove to the *observer’s* house and stopped, in an ominous signal that they know who the observer is and where they live.

Our family is not directly targeted and we are fine. But please use your voice, your connections, and your money to support those who are being targeted here. There is so much work to be done every day to take care of each other, and despairingly it feels like our elected officials do not have the courage to lead in this moment.

Don’t let the news cycle move on from this occupation. Don’t let anyone convince you it’s not that bad. It is that bad. And my biggest fear is that we’re at the beginning of something, not the end.

– Mike Spangenberg
via social media
January 14, 2026

It certainly feels like an occupying force. And that seems to be the way that they’re operating. They’re not working in coalition with other jurisdictions. They’re not working with our state government or our city government by any means. We have a sanctuary policy here in the city of Minneapolis. If our governor called up the National Guard, these different agencies would be working together. And that is not what seems to be taking place here. It feels like an occupying force. It feels like a rogue gang of armed militia.

That’s what it seems like. Most of the agents are masked, and you can only really see their eyes. So it’s hard to know their age or anything like that. But I said before the murder of the observer last week, it’s only a matter of time before someone gets killed. It’s only a matter of time. What’s happening is constant escalation rather than de-escalation. While I, of course, wish it hadn’t happened, I am not at all surprised that somebody was killed.

The thing about Minneapolis is we know who keeps us safe, and it’s each other. And so that’s what we’re going to keep doing. But it’s very tense.

– Christin Crabtree
Quoted in Trey Cook’s article, “A Minneapolis Mom
on the ICE Violence She’s Witnessed”
Jacobin
January 16, 2026

I live in St. Paul, Minnesota, a state now occupied by Trump’s ICE – 3000+ and growing. I’m finding myself constantly tired, wanting to stay in bed in the morning or take long naps once I’m up. It’s been over a week now since a woman was murdered by ICE. I’m depressed. I know, however, certain resources can help: prayer – talking with friends, my dog Mac. I’m not giving up hope, despite a President who loves to create chaos wherever he goes.

– A resident of the Twin Cities
who wishes to remain anonymous
via social media
January 16, 2026

This note is for those of you not in a heavily ICE-patrolled area. This inhumanity and cruelty is actually happening.

Keep in mind that I live in a fairly high-resourced, predominantly white suburb of St. Paul, and this is still our reality now. School buses in our district are being followed by ICE, and there are nearby reports of school buses being boarded by ICE agents with guns while kids are on them.

So, I have to talk to my kids about what to do, what to document, and how to keep our friends and ourselves safe if this happens on their buses.

Regular people are being stopped in Target parking lots and demanded to show their passports. The other day, ICE profiled a brown man at our local Target who then pulled out his TSA ID. No joke. A federal employee. It’s pure racism.

Folks are cancelling needed medical appointments or keeping kids home from school out of fear. People will die. Kids will fall behind. Black and brown people are afraid to leave their houses, despite being citizens or permanent residents. They can’t make it to grocery stores without feeling unsafe, so we try to find community groups to deliver groceries and help out.

Community members – mamas, sisters, brothers, daddios, many U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents – are being taken and detained. This recently happened to a staff member’s wife at a nearby school. They have children. How do you explain a mom’s absence to your kids? How is kidnapping someone’s mother improving our community?

I have had conversations with my 11-year-old about what to record and document if he sees ICE approach anyone. I have described to him what our rights are. These are not conversations to have with an 11-year-old.

My 9-year-old’s tennis class was dismissed early tonight because it’s next to the federal building where ICE is headquartered, and there was fear for public safety.

I had to snuggle my 9-year-old to sleep tonight because she understands enough to know that things are very wrong right now.

Our teachers have to patrol parking lots at school dismissal to ensure kids are safe. Communities are arranging systems to walk kids – even high schoolers – home from bus stops or schools.

These actions create generational trauma. And this is still the beginning of this attack on our city.

It’s cruel and inhumane how people are being treated – pulling their pants down and dragging them along sidewalks, throwing them face-first into icy snow, or shooting them through a car window as they’re driving away. No one feels safe.

Taxpayers are spending billions so good people can be harassed and taken from their families, and so kids can live in fear. This is not okay.

This is a pledge for all of us to stand up strong for the democracy we believe in – where we appreciate the melting pot we are. Those of us who are privileged to have white skin: now is the time, if there ever was one. Show up for your neighbors.

We in the Twin Cities – we are one. They should know by now that acts of violence and humiliation against our people only fuel our unity.

If this unsettles you, it should. Do not look away. Talk about it. Share this with people who believe this “can’t be happening here.” Support local mutual-aid groups, immigrant legal defense funds, and school communities doing the work to keep families safe. And demand accountability from anyone who claims this cruelty is necessary – or normal.

When Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said, “To ICE: get the fuck out of Minneapolis,” he echoed a sentiment that should be shared across this nation. It is up to us to make sure that clarion call rings everywhere.

No one should feel unsafe in everyday life in America. The color of your skin or the depth of your American ancestry should not factor into whether you can move through the world without fear.

Democracy does not defend itself.

We do.

Watch out for one another.

– A resident of the Twin Cities
who wishes to remain anonymous
via social media
January 14, 2026

I’ve been so inspired by the thousands of Minnesotans who have been peacefully protesting the brutality of ICE agents who are illegally grabbing and detaining people in Minnesota. And most Americans agree with us. But I was depressed to see the tv news tonight - they focused on the fireworks protesters threw last night at ICE, the trashing of ICE vehicles - two hours compared to the weeks of peaceful protests. And of course Trump responded with threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act. We can’t give Trump any justification for calling in the military.

I understand the rage we all feel at having our beautiful city overrun with violent thugs, but I strongly believe we are more powerful with peaceful protests, with a majority of the population backing us, with the general strike called for January 23rd, not with violence against ICE.

I liked this letter from Alex Frecon in Star Tribue: “I’ve read a lot of comparisons to fascism lately. To Nazi Germany. But there’s a difference worth naming: Minnesotans aren’t letting this slide. We’re showing up. We’re making noise. We are not going gentle into the night. The response has not been apathy or silence. It has been loud, sustained and angry in exactly the way it should be.”

But peaceful and “loud, sustained, and angry”!

– T. Burke
via social media
January 15, 2026

To all of you wondering, MINNESOTA IS NOT HAVING AN INSURRECTION!

We are scared, angry and empowered.

We are peacefully protesting, supporting our black and brown neighbors who are being targeted by ICE for no reason but the color of their skin and their accent. We are driving students to and from school, parents to and from work, cleaning the streets after ICE deploys tear gas and chemical irritants and damages homes, businesses and cars. We are supporting businesses that are impacted by ICE’s dangerous and illegal tactics.

I am super proud to live in Minneapolis and it gives me hope to see so many people standing up for our community.

– Courtney Cushing Kiernat
via social media
January 15, 2026

I need people outside of Minnesota to understand the extent of what is happening here.

We need you to fight for us.

• ICE arrested two teenagers – U.S. citizens – while they were working at Target, bringing in carts. They slammed one of them to the ground in front of the store while he sobbed. They are still being held, and families are being denied information.

• ICE agents are sitting outside stores, ignoring anyone who looks white and seizing people with brown and Black skin or who are Asian. They stopped a Native individual who showed a tribal ID – ICE didn’t even know what it was.

• An individual was detained outside Roosevelt High during dismissal. ICE used tear gas that hit the students. Two teachers were assaulted and handcuffed while doing their jobs getting kids safely to the buses.

• Many stores in Latino and Somali neighborhoods are closed because people are terrified. Or they are keeping the doors locked and only allowing customers in.

• Families are afraid to go to the grocery store. Mutual aid networks are now shopping for them and delivering food.

• Minneapolis schools are providing an online option for the next weeks to try and provide safety for their students. It's likely those most scared to come will be our immigrant children which just furthers the disparities.

• Our nervous systems are constantly on edge. I went to a Hmong restaurant last night and felt fear for the Latino and Hmong people working there, which is nothing compared to what our immigrant community members are suffering.

• A mother of three was murdered. She had a glove compartment full of stuffed animals for her six-year-old. ICE [agent Jonathan Ross] screamed – “you fucking bitch” – as he shot her in the head three times. A doctor who offered to help was refused. The National Catholic Reporter called [Vice-president] Vance’s response to the murder of Renee Good a “moral stain on the collective witness of the Catholic faith.”

This is not an exhaustive list.

This is NOT the land of the FREE.

We are being terrorized by our own government.

And they are not stopping with Minnesota.

We have doors locked at both of my businesses 24 hours a day. We have a sign stated “All are welcome – EXCEPT ICE.”

For the human beings who voted for this administration I urge to look into your hearts and ask yourself is this consistent with your values and beliefs about our country and how we treat other human beings. This is not the Republican party you used to know, they are now monsters committing crimes against humanity.

– Laurie Schlosser
via social media
January 10, 2026

Above: ICE agents force Aliya Rahman, a U.S. citizen, into a vehicle after pulling her from her car in south Minneapolis on Tuesday, January 13, 2026 (Photo: Ben Hovland / MPR News)

I’ve been part of the response around George Floyd’s murder, Philando Castile’s murder, Jamar Clark’s murder, and now Renee Good’s murder. . . . [I do this because] the excuses for [the racism and misogyny that undergirds this kind of violence are grounded in a] kind of distorted Christianity, a kind of white Christian nationalism. And so it feels important for those of us who are Christian leaders to be here in the community in the same way that Renee Good was – to protest our neighbors and to say that this community is about belonging and connection and love, not the brutality and violence of ICE.

[My message for those outside of Minnesota is to] not believe the lies of Kristi Noem, of Donald Trump, of any in the Trump administration. The actions that Renee Good was taking were ones of a peaceful witness and legal observer. [Another message is that] our community is a beautiful community of diversity. We live in the Northland, and in order to survive we need each other. And we are connected to each other. Yesterday there was a beautiful gathering of the Somali community in which Somali beloveds were handing out sambussas, and we were feeding each other; we were lighting fires for each other to keep each other warm. Do not believe the rhetoric of hatred and division. We are here to love one another as neighbors.

– Rev. Dr. Rebecca Voelkel
Co-pastor at Lyndale United Church of Christ
January 11, 2026

“Resistance” – Minneapolis, MN, January 2026 (Folklore Photos).

Mike Figueredo on Why Trump Might Be Pushing the U.S. to the Brink of Collapse

Says Mike Figueredo in introducing the latest segment on his podcast, The Humanist Report:

As tensions ramp up in Minneapolis, Trump refuses to deescalate. In fact, he’s going out of his way to fan the flames even more by threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act, illegally cut off funding for blue states, and possibly even cancel the upcoming midterm elections. This volatile climate is totally unsustainable. Populations will only tolerate fear and intimidation for so long before society starts to break down. In this video we’ll talk about why Trump might actually be bringing about the beginning of the end of The United States of America.

Thursday, January 15, 2026

Maha D. Blackfeather’s Message to the American People: “We’re Finally Seeing the Truth”

To the American people,

Take a breath.

Not the shallow kind we’ve been forced into for years, but a deep one. The kind that reminds you that you are still here, that this country is still breathing, and that history has not ended in a scream just because it’s been loud.

I know many of you are tired. Bone-tired. Spirit-tired. Tired of waking up to outrage, of bracing yourselves before opening the news, of wondering how much worse it can get and whether the ground beneath you is still solid. I am writing to tell you that it is. And more than that, it always has been.

What we are living through is not the collapse of America. It is the exposure of it.

Every nation reaches a moment where the lies it has leaned on for too long begin to crack. Where the stories told to justify cruelty, hoarding, and domination stop working. Where the old order panics because it knows it cannot survive the light. That is where we are now.

The noise you hear is not strength. It is fear.

Authoritarian movements always get louder before they lose relevance. They shout, threaten, posture, and perform because they sense the shift. They know younger generations are not buying the mythology. They know women are no longer quiet. They know Black, Brown, queer, immigrant, and working people are no longer willing to sacrifice their lives for someone else’s comfort. They know the world is changing, and they cannot stop it.

So they try to exhaust you.

They want you overwhelmed, hopeless, frozen, convinced that you are powerless. That is the oldest trick there is. But look around. Look at who is organizing, teaching, feeding, building, healing. Look at who shows up after storms, after shootings, after laws fail. It is not the loud men on television. It is the people.

Power in this country has never flowed from thrones or podiums. It has always come from communities deciding they have had enough and moving together anyway. From workers. From mothers. From elders. From students. From artists. From those who were told they didn’t matter and proved otherwise simply by continuing to exist.

You are not alone, even when it feels like it. You are not crazy for sensing that something new is being born under all this chaos. That intuition is correct.

Empires do not announce their endings politely. They thrash. They distort reality. They elevate the cruel and the foolish because they think noise can replace legitimacy. It never works for long.

What comes next is not darkness. It is reckoning. And reckoning is not the same as destruction. It is truth rising to the surface so it can finally be dealt with.

There are more people committed to care than to control. More people invested in the future than in nostalgia. More people who understand that democracy is not a performance but a practice. You don’t see them screaming because they are busy doing the work.

So rest when you need to. Laugh when you can. Stay connected to each other. Do not let manufactured panic convince you that hope is naïve or that love is weakness. They are afraid of your calm for a reason.

This country has survived worse than this, not because it was perfect, but because ordinary people refused to let it belong only to the cruel.

The ground is steady. The tide is turning. And you are part of the force behind it whether you realize it yet or not.

Everything is not ending.

We’re finally seeing the truth.

– Maha D. Blackfeather
via social media
January 12, 2026

Knowing Our Rights

Related Off-site Links:
“Get ICE Out!” Protests Intensify After Another Shooting by Federal Agent in Minneapolis – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, January 15, 2026).
Trump Threatens to Use the Insurrection Act to “Put an End” to Protests in Minneapolis – MPR News (January 15, 2026).
“Minneapolis Is the Test Case”: Trump Threatens Insurrection Act to Put Down Protests – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, January 15, 2026).
“Federal Invasion”: Minnesota Officials Condemn Violent ICE Raids and Arrests – Democracy Now! (January 14, 2026).
“ICE Is Okay with Renee Good’s Killing”: Journalist Ken Klippenstein on ICE Tactics and Recruitment – Democracy Now! (January 14, 2026).
ICE Agents Appear at Twin Cities Hospitals, Alarming Health Care Workers – Erica Zurek (MPR News, January 14, 2026).
“ICE Has Gone Rogue”: Rep. Ro Khanna Demands Accountability As New Videos Show Minneapolis Chaos – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, January 13, 2026).
“Where Were You Born?”: ICE Demanding Citizens Show Their Papers in Minneapolis – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, January 13, 2026).
ICE Using Private Data to Intimidate Observers and Activists – Jon Collins (MPR News, January 13, 2026).
ProPublica Finds More Than 40 Cases of Immigration Agents Using Banned Chokeholds and Other Moves That Can Cut Off Breathing – Nicole Foy and McKenzie Funk (MPR News, January 13, 2026).
Twin Cities Students Walk Out, Decry ICE as Surge Continues – Elizabeth Shockman and Kyra Miles (MPR News, January 13, 2026).
Trump Vows “Reckoning and Retribution is Coming” to Minnesota as ICE Brutality Mounts – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, January 13, 2026).
Rep. Ilhan Omar Warns That Trump Aims to Provoke Enough Agitation in Minnesota So He Can Declare “Martial Law” – Jon Queally (Common Dreams, January 11, 2026). More Americans Support Abolishing ICE Than Ever Before, Polling Data Shows – Chris Walker (Truthout, January 12, 2026).
The Playbook of Every Successful Nonviolent Struggle – Jamila Raqib (Waging Nonviolence, November 21, 2025).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Steven Donziger: “Let’s Get Real . . . ICE Is a Domestic Terrorist Organization”
• Chris Hedges on ICE: “I Have Seen These Masked Goons Before”
• Why Minnesota?
• Omar Fateh: “Folks Are Waking Up”
• Doing What We Can to Stop Unjust Arrests of Immigrants
• Susie Hayward on What’s Happening in Minneapolis
• “It Was Murder”: 12 Powerful Responses to the Death of Renée Nicole Good
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like”
• Derek Johnson on the “Courage to Call Fascism by Its Name”
• An Incident That Feels “Ripped from a Dystopian Novel”
• James Greenberg: “I Am in Mourning for America”
• Karen Salmansohn on the “Duel Citizenship of Being Alive”
• “Most Revolutions Succeed Not Through Violence But Through National Strikes”
• Chris Hedges on the End of the American Empire
• Brent Molnar on the MAGA Cult and Its Intentions
• Garrett Graff: “America Tips Into Fascism”

Images: Zeteo.

Wednesday, January 14, 2026

Historian Kyle Dekker: “It’s Not Nazi Ideology We Are Fighting. It’s American”

So as a historian/student of history I’m honestly really done with the “ICE=Gestapo and Nazi Germany” comparisons [relating to what] the Trump administration [is doing]. We don’t need to look to another country for this kind of evil. I’m also done with the “this is unprecedented in the USA.”

No, you are wrong. It’s very precedented. ICE is much more like the fugitive slave patrols of the 19th century. Packs of law enforcement whose sole job was to hunt down black folks, ask them (sometimes) for their papers proving they were free (or legal if you); breaking into the homes of black folks, separating families, abducting them.

And just like now, our government (not even state or local) is not going to stop/save them. Community resistance did. And that resistance led the slave owners to conclude the environment for their inhumanity was changing and their only option was to secede.

This community resistance included the well known Underground Railroad. But there were also court cases where people who fought these slave patrons were indicted for obstruction (sound familiar) but juries would be split trying to convict them (sometimes by just one just member holding their ground).

My point is, this isn’t Trump and company trying to make us Nazi Germany, that’s the “feel better about America” comparison. Trump and company want to return us to Antebellum America. With a white, male ruling class that has all the rights of the constitution, and anyone they deem not that description is less than and not subject to its protections.

This has always been America, for every progress we’ve made, this form of oppression is built into the very fabric of our country. And now we have a regime aiming to return America to our blood roots. Yes be angry but this isn’t a foreign, Nazi ideology we are fighting. It’s American.

– Kyle Dekker
via social media
January 14, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
How Does ICE Compare to the Slave Patrols Back When America Was “Great”? – William Spivey (Level, January 9, 2026).
Slave Patrols by Another Name: Making America White Again – Rashaad Thomas (Amsterdam News, November 20, 2025).

UPDATE: Lawmaker Criticizes Trump’s ICE Tactics, Compares Them to Nazi Raids and Slave Patrols – Elaine Mallon (The National News Desk, January 16, 2026).

Steven Donziger: “Let’s Get Real . . . ICE Is a Domestic Terrorist Organization”

Earlier today lawyer and human rights activist Steven Donziger shared the following on social media.

Let’s get real: ICE is not just a rogue police agency. It’s actually a domestic terrorist organization.

Let’s review what happened in the last few weeks. Trump sent ICE agents to invade the U.S. city of Minneapolis to arrest immigrants, mostly Somalis who fled violence and persecution in their homeland and are living in the U.S. legally. During a tactical operation on January 7, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed an unarmed citizen named Renee Good by putting three bullets in her head. In my view, this was murder under any legal definition. Rather than investigate Ross and hold him accountable, Trump ordered the Department of Justice to investigate her widow for ties to activist groups.

Trump also is using the killing to launch an all-out military occupation of the city by masked agents recruited from far-right extremist groups like the Proud Boys. Many are openly abducting people of color (including many citizens) from their cars and homes. The purpose is to freak out, intimidate, and terrorize the local population to submit to Trump as our strongman leader. It’s terrorism in service of fascism. And it’s happening not just in Minneapolis but all over the country in Democrat-led cities that by virtue of their multi-ethnic character directly challenge Trump’s conception of America as a white Christian nation. At core, this is all about using racism to divide people in service of Trump’s power grab.

Here’s my proposal: we must hit the streets to force ICE out of our cities and demand that it be abolished. In the meantime, state prosecutors in Minnesota should charge Ross with murder. More broadly, local police must start protecting us by arresting ICE agents who violate our rights through assaults, shootings and false arrests. In New York City where I live, our new mayor must try to create a model for the nation along these lines. For more on how ICE agents can be charged by local prosecutors, read this article by my colleague Marjorie Cohn.

Let’s be clear about the purpose of ICE. It’s not about protecting public safety. It’s about threatening public safety in service of Trump’s power grab.

– Steven Donziger
via social media
January 14, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
“Federal Invasion”: Minnesota Officials Condemn Violent ICE Raids and Arrests – Democracy Now! (January 14, 2026).
“ICE Is Okay with Renee Good’s Killing”: Journalist Ken Klippenstein on ICE Tactics and Recruitment – Democracy Now! (January 14, 2026).
ICE Agents Appear at Twin Cities Hospitals, Alarming Health Care Workers – Erica Zurek (MPR News, January 14, 2026).
“ICE Has Gone Rogue”: Rep. Ro Khanna Demands Accountability As New Videos Show Minneapolis Chaos – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, January 13, 2026).
“Where Were You Born?”: ICE Demanding Citizens Show Their Papers in Minneapolis – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, January 13, 2026).
ICE Using Private Data to Intimidate Observers and Activists – Jon Collins (MPR News, January 13, 2026).
ProPublica Finds More Than 40 Cases of Immigration Agents Using Banned Chokeholds and Other Moves That Can Cut Off Breathing – Nicole Foy and McKenzie Funk (MPR News, January 13, 2026).
Twin Cities Students Walk Out, Decry ICE as Surge Continues – Elizabeth Shockman and Kyra Miles (MPR News, January 13, 2026).
Trump Vows “Reckoning and Retribution is Coming” to Minnesota as ICE Brutality Mounts – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, January 13, 2026).
Rep. Ilhan Omar Warns That Trump Aims to Provoke Enough Agitation in Minnesota So He Can Declare “Martial Law” – Jon Queally (Common Dreams, January 11, 2026). More Americans Support Abolishing ICE Than Ever Before, Polling Data Shows – Chris Walker (Truthout, January 12, 2026).
The Playbook of Every Successful Nonviolent Struggle – Jamila Raqib (Waging Nonviolence, November 21, 2025).

UPDATES: “Get ICE Out!” Protests Intensify After Another Shooting by Federal Agent in Minneapolis – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, January 15, 2026).
Trump Threatens to Use the Insurrection Act to “Put an End” to Protests in Minneapolis – MPR News (January 15, 2026).
“Minneapolis Is the Test Case”: Trump Threatens Insurrection Act to Put Down Protests – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, January 15, 2026).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Chris Hedges on ICE: “I Have Seen These Masked Goons Before”
• Why Minnesota?
• Omar Fateh: “Folks Are Waking Up”
• Doing What We Can to Stop Unjust Arrests of Immigrants
• Susie Hayward on What’s Happening in Minneapolis
• “It Was Murder”: 12 Powerful Responses to the Death of Renée Nicole Good
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like”
• Derek Johnson on the “Courage to Call Fascism by Its Name”
• An Incident That Feels “Ripped from a Dystopian Novel”
• James Greenberg: “I Am in Mourning for America”
• Karen Salmansohn on the “Duel Citizenship of Being Alive”
• “Most Revolutions Succeed Not Through Violence But Through National Strikes”
• Chris Hedges on the End of the American Empire
• Brent Molnar on the MAGA Cult and Its Intentions
• Garrett Graff: “America Tips Into Fascism”

Image: Reuters – Minneapolis, January 13, 2026. Minnesota Public Radio News photojournalist Ben Hovland was also at the scene where this photo was taken. In an interview with MPR’s Nina Moini, Hovland said:

I had been tracking ICE activities in South Minneapolis all morning, and actually had been at an earlier operation over on Portland and 28th Avenue when we heard that there was a large gathering of agents and protesters over near 34th and Park Avenue. So we headed over there. And as soon as I jumped out, I ran over to the scene as fast as I could. And when I got there, I saw about a dozen agents and even more media and protesters surrounding this Ford Fusion in the middle of the road. And agents were actively grabbing this young woman [subesquently identified as Aliya Rahman] who looked clearly distraught. They were grabbing her and taking out of taking her out of her car. I was documenting the scene at 34th and Park today, there is a constant cacophony of whistles, people blowing their whistles, people shouting. And so as the situation evolved, as you said earlier, ICE agents took this young woman and carried her to their vehicles and eventually, drove off with her. As I ran back, back toward the parked car where the woman was taken, I actually saw another elderly man being carried by ICE agents as well, and they put him in a car. And I don't the role that this man was playing at the scene, but his face was covered with blood when I saw him being put into the car.

Lauren Bacall’s Vow Following the Death of Humphrey Bogart

It’s the 69th anniversary today of the death of actor Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957).

For many years now I’ve been an admirer of the life and work of Bogart’s fourth wife, actress Lauren Bacall (1924-2014).
Their marriage was the defining relationship of both Bogie and Bacall’s lives.

I’m currently reading the expanded edition of Bacall’s 1978 autobiography By Myself and Then Some (2006). I’m also awaiting the delivery of the recently released Lauren Bacall: The Queen of Cool, described as “the first book to bring together all aspects of the legendary star’s life and career, exploring her iconic style, her extensive body of work, as well as her friendships and relationships with some of the most famous figures of the twentieth century.” Also explored is her relationship with Bogart, “the stuff of legend and the most beloved pairing of classical Hollywood – a perfect blend of romance, glamour, and cinematic glory.”

Given my interest in the life and career of Lauren Bacall, I was happy to come across the following by Mera Desh, shared online to coincide with the anniversary of Humphrey Bogart’s death.

__________________

On January 14, 1957, in their Holmby Hills home in Los Angeles, moments before Humphrey Bogart died, Lauren Bacall spoke a private promise she carried for the rest of her life. While the vow was never publicly quoted word-for-word, her son Stephen said it centered on protecting their love from becoming spectacle and staying true to the private dignity they shared. The words were never intended for interviews, biographies, or sympathy. They were meant to guide how she would live after losing the man who anchored her sense of partnership and purpose.

Bogart’s death ended a marriage defined by equality, humor, and mutual discipline. Bacall was thirty-two, suddenly alone inside an industry that measured recovery in box office weeks rather than emotional time. Studio calls arrived quickly. Scripts followed, many shaped to keep her image intact and commercially reliable. Bacall continued working, yet people closest to her noticed an internal shift that never reversed. The promise she made that morning reframed how she understood ambition, love, and independence.

Years later, Bogart and Bacall’s son Stephen provided rare clarity about that vow. In interviews and in his memoir Bogart: In Search of My Father, he explained that Bacall committed herself to protecting what she and his father shared from turning into public spectacle. She rejected the idea of grief as performance. According to Stephen, honoring Bogart meant choosing restraint, dignity, and emotional control, even when those choices slowed her professional momentum.

That promise shaped her career almost immediately. Bacall declined several romantic roles designed to mirror her earlier screen chemistry with Bogart. Pairings with younger co-stars felt artificial to her. Repeating that dynamic conflicted with the boundary she had set for herself. She gravitated toward characters built on intelligence, authority, and self-possession. Films such as Designing Woman (1957) reflected that recalibration, presenting women defined by agency rather than romantic dependency.

Stephen Bogart later recalled that Bacall spoke of his father in the present tense long after his death. She preserved personal letters, scripts, and shared routines for years. According to Stephen, she described the promise as structure during grief, something that kept her from impulsive reinvention when emotions felt unstable.

Her professional life reflected that discipline. Bacall increasingly turned toward theater, where performance relied on preparation and presence instead of illusion. Broadway offered a space where maturity carried value. Her work in productions such as Applause [left] allowed her to age publicly with control, reinforcing identity rather than image.

The promise influenced her personal life as well. Bacall married again, yet Stephen noted that she never spoke of that relationship with the same gravity reserved for his father. She acknowledged that love could return, while comparison remained unacceptable. Bogart stayed her emotional reference point for integrity and balance.

In private conversations, Bacall shared stories of Bogart’s humor, standards, and professionalism. Stephen wrote that she credited his influence with teaching patience and clarity. She avoided excess, guarded privacy carefully, and declined roles that demanded emotional exposure without meaning. That restraint traced directly back to the vow she carried.

Loneliness followed her for decades, yet the promise transformed loneliness into intention. Bacall measured success through alignment with values rather than applause. Stephen observed that she spent evenings reading scripts with precision, weighing how each decision reflected responsibility to herself and to the life she shared with his father.

Lauren Bacall died in 2014 at the age of eighty-nine, having lived more than half a century guided by a promise spoken at home on January 14, 1957. That vow never trapped her in grief. It gave her a compass, allowing her to move forward with restraint, clarity, and emotional survival, honoring a love that continued shaping every meaningful choice she made.

Related Off-site Links:
The 15 Best Humphrey Bogart Movies Ranked – Gino Orlandini (MSN, January 10, 2026).
The One Actor Humphrey Bogart Was Always Suspicious Of: “We Had Long Arguments” – Aimee Ferrier (Far Out Magazine, January 14, 2026).
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall’s Two Children: All About Stephen and Leslie – Emy LaCroix (People, January 14, 2026).
Lauren Bacall at 100: A Hollywood Casualty Who Fought Back – Lily Ruth Hardman (Indie Wire, September 16, 2024).
How Lauren Bacall Faced and Overcame Antisemitism – Benjamin Ivry (Forward, September 16, 2024).
Lauren Bacall Talks Favorite Hollywood Memories and Career in Unpublished Interview – Sandy Stert Benjamin (Remind Magazine, August 12, 2024).
The 10 Best Lauren Bacall Movies, Ranked – Daniela Gama (Collider, June 6, 2024).
The Day Lauren Bacall Let Rip at Australian Reporters – The Sydney Morning Herald (August 14, 2014).
An Astonishing Portrait of Lauren Bacall at Age 88 – Kristin Hohenadel (Slate, August 13, 2014).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Remembering Lauren Bacall on the 100th Anniversary of Her Birth
• An Appropriate Homage

The Wild Reed

Saturday, January 17, 2026

Remembering the Visionary Leadership of Patrice Lumumba

Friday, January 16, 2026

Marianne Williamson on How to Psychologically Endure This Moment

Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota

Mike Figueredo on Why Trump Might Be Pushing the U.S. to the Brink of Collapse

Thursday, January 15, 2026

Maha D. Blackfeather’s Message to the American People: “We’re Finally Seeing the Truth”

Knowing Our Rights

Wednesday, January 14, 2026

Historian Kyle Dekker: “It’s Not Nazi Ideology We Are Fighting. It’s American”

Steven Donziger: “Let’s Get Real . . . ICE Is a Domestic Terrorist Organization”

Lauren Bacall’s Vow Following the Death of Humphrey Bogart

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