Quote of the Day

The resistance in Minnesota is decentralized. No single leader. No central command. Just neighbors organizing neighbors. Block meetings. Mutual aid. Court support. Rapid response texts. Unions. Faith groups. Students. Elders. This is what scares them. You cannot crush a movement that lives in a thousand group chats and living rooms. The Twin Cities did not wait for permission. We built power.

– Voices Against Trump

Related Off-site Links:
Minnesota Is Still Under Seige – Jonathan V. Last (The Bulwark, February 21, 2026).
The Minneapolis Resistance Will Do Your Laundry – Deborah Copperud (Current Affairs, February 19, 2026).
Minnesota Clergy Sue Department of Homeland Security Over Access to Immigration Detainees – Matt Sepic (MPR News, February 23, 2026).
We’re All Minnesotans Now – William Kristol, Andrew Egger, and Jim Swift (The Bulwark, February 18, 2026).
What We Can Learn From Minneapolis’ Model of Resistance – Gabriel Furshong (Common Dreams, February 13, 2026).
The Rise of the Rebel Loon Logos – The Nerd of The Rings (February 13, 2026).
The People of Minneapolis Will Simply Not Let the ICE Thugs Prevail – Dan Simmons (The New Republic, February 5, 2026).
Anti-ICE Organizing Is Creating Counter-Institutions Based on Care – Rashida James-Saadiya (Truthout, February 4, 2026).
“Backing Down Isn’t an Option”: Minnesota ICE Shootings Mobilize Americans to Join ICE Observer Groups – Lex McMenamin (The Guardian, January 31, 2026).
Letter From Minnesota: Details From an Occupation – Angela Pelster (Literary Hub, January 29, 2026).
Meet the Minneapolis Parents Patrolling Their Schools Amid ICE Operations – Elizabeth Shockman (MPR News, January 16, 2026).
The Women Holding Minneapolis Together – Anna Moeslein Glamor, January 7, 2026).

UPDATE: Former ICE Lawyer Says Agency Is Teaching Recruits to “Violate the Constitution” – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, February 24, 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts on the resistance to the Trump regime’s fascist occupation of Minnesota:
• Omar Fateh: Quote of the Day – December 4, 2025
• Photo of the Day – December 5, 2025
• Susie Hayward on What’s Happening in Minneapolis
• Doing What We Can to Stop Unjust Arrests of Immigrants
• Great Event, Great Sign, Great Nails
• Christmas Eve Musings
• May We Do Likewise
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like” – January 7, 2026
• “It Was Murder”: 12 Powerful Responses to the Death of Renée Nicole Good
• Omar Fateh: “Folks Are Waking Up”
• A Good Faith Appeal and a Grim Response
• Why Minnesota?
• Chris Hedges on ICE: “I Have Seen These Masked Goons Before”
• Steven Donziger: “Let’s Get Real . . . ICE Is a Domestic Terrorist Organization”
• Historian Kyle Dekker: “It’s Not Nazi Ideology We Are Fighting. It’s American”
• Knowing Our Rights
• Mike Figueredo on Why Trump Might Be Pushing the U.S. to the Brink of Collapse
• A “Red Alert Moment for American Democracy”
• Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota
• Marianne Williamson on How to Psychologically Endure This Moment
• What Moral Clarity Looks Like in Minnesota This MLK Day
• Nemik’s Eulogy for Renée Nicole Good
• “It Was Never About Keeping America Safe”
• “ICE Out!”: The Minnesota General Strike – 1/23/26
• “This Was a Flat Out Execution”
• “Organized Sustained Systemic Resistance and Self-Defense Are Our Only Options”
• Honoring Alex Pretti
• George Conway: The Trump Administration Is a “Criminal Organization”
• In the Face of Fascist Lies, MN Governor Tim Walz Sets the Record Straight
• Adam Serwer on How “Every Social Theory Undergirding Trumpism Has Been Broken on the Steel of Minnesotan Resolve”
• “Trump Is Scared Shitless”
• “They Were Alive. Then They Were Not”
• Bruce Springsteen and the Streets of Minneapolis in the Winter of ’26
• Craig Mokhiber on the “Imperial Boomerang”: How U.S. War Tactics Abroad Are Now Used at Home
• January Vignettes (2026)
• Honoring Renée Good and the “Astonishing Surge of Courage” of Minneapolis
• A Luminous Celebration of Light, Love and Community
• More Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota
• Memes of the Times – February 2026
• Only the Beginning
• The North Remembers
• “It’s All Lies and Propaganda”
• What This Moment Feels Like in Minnesota

Image: Citizens gather at Whittier Park in Minneapolis on Saturday, January 21, 2026 to mark four weeks since Alex Pretti was fatally shot by federal immigration agents. (Photo: Tom Baker / MPR News)

Classic Dusty

If you’re a regular visitor to this blog, you would know that the late, great Dusty Springfield (1939-1999) is one of my all-time favorite female vocalists.

Years ago I started a series that I called “Classic Dusty,” in which I shared songs and videos of the woman hailed as “Britain’s best ever pop and soul singer.” Dusty’s most sustained period of commercial success was between 1963 and 1970. Many memorable songs and TV appearances mark this time, one which I call her “classic” era. That’s not to say, of course, that Dusty didn’t have both artistic and commercial success after this time. She definitely did. But it wasn’t as consistent or recognized and celebrated as her output throughout the 1960s.

It’s been 16 years since I’ve shared a Dusty track as part of The Wild Reed’s “Classic Dusty” series. I resume this series tonight with its sixth installment, one which shows Dusty, looking utterly iconic in a beautiful gold gown and ornate necklace, singing her rendition of the classic pop ballad, “How Can I Be Sure.” This decidedly psychedelic clip is from a 1970 Dutch TV special that showcased Dusty and her music. . . . Enjoy!

How can I be sure
In a world that’s constantly changing?
How can I be sure
Where I stand with you?

Whenever I
Whenever I am away from you
I wanna die
’Cause you know I wanna stay with you

How do I know?
Maybe you’re trying to use me
Flying too high can confuse me
Touch me but don’t take me down

Whenever I
Whenever I am away from you
My alibi is telling people
I don’t care for you

Maybe I’m just hanging around
With my head up, upside down
It’s a pity, oh yeah, I can’t seem to find somebody
Who’s as wonderful, baby, as you

How can I be sure?
I really really really wanna know
Really really really wanna know, yeah

How’s the weather?
Whether or not, we’re together
Together we’ll see it much better
I love you, I love you forever
You know where I can be found

How can I be sure
In a world that’s constantly changing?
How can I be sure?
I’ll be sure with you

“How Can I Be Sure” was Dusty’s last Top 40 hit in the U.K. until her triumphant return in 1987 with the Pet Shop Boys and “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” In his indispensable book The Complete Dusty Springfield, Paul Howes notes the following about Dusty’s “How Can I Be Sure” recording:

Aware that her American recordings, with the exception of “Son-of-a Preacher Man,” had not been doing well in England, Dusty decided in 1970 to record a song specifically for the U.K. market. “It’s a song I’ve been in love with for some time,” she explained, “and that’s a good sign. I think it should go well because it’s a very European sound, although it is American, and that sort of thing is usually popular.”

The song was “How Can I Be Sure” – yet another number with a title reflecting her insecurities [others include “Where Am I Going,” “Am I the Same Girl,” “See All Her Faces,” and “Mixed Up Girl”]. It was written by two members of the [Young] Rascals and had been a hit for them in the U.S. on Atlantic Records in 1967. Dusty’s treatment of the song is fairly similar. After a quiet start, the whole thing just takes off wih an accordian and string-driven melody that is so infectious it’s hard to believe it never became an enormous hit.

Despite being showered with accolades from the music press (“Dusty’s quality performance,” “Will she ever stop producing these brain-blowing goodies?” and “Another great record”), the disc barely charted. And this time it could not be put down to lack of promotion. The song had received its debut airing on ITC’s Des O’Connor Show [right] a few months before its release and Dusty did numerous television and radio dates when the record actually came out. But the British public was just not interested.

To add insult to injury, it was only two years later that David Cassidy took the song to the top of the UK charts, which must have dented Dusty’s already fragile confidence considerably.

– Paul Howes
Excerpted from The Complete Dusty Springfield
Reynolds and Hearn Ltd, 2001
p. 138

For more of Dusty at The Wild Reed, see:
• Classic Dusty | II | III | IV | V
• Remembering a Great Soul Singer
• Remembering a Subversive Pop Singer
• Dusty Springfield: Queer Icon
• Time and the River
• Dusty: “Wasn’t Born to Follow”
• The Other “Born This Way”
• Something In Your Eyes
• The Sound of Two Decades Colliding
• Home to Myself
• Remembering Dusty, 25 Years On
• Soul Deep

Recommended Off-site Link:
Woman of Repute – My archived website dedicated to the life and artistry of Dusty Springfield.

What This Moment Feels Like in Minnesota

This past Sunday, February 15, my friend Dave and I walked along the Mississippi River from the Franklin Avenue Bridge to the Lake Street-Marshall Avenue Bridge. We first walked along the east bank, and then back along the river’s west bank. Midway, at Lake Street, we had a delicious lunch at Longfellow Grill.

It was a beautiful day to be out and about. But it’s Minnesota in February, so neither of us were fooled into thinking the winter is over.

In fact, as I soaked in the sunshine, the beauty of the frozen river and blue sky, and the warmth of the air, I was reminded of a piece published Saturday by 50501: Minnesota is a non-profit dedicated to “upholding the Constitution and ending executive overreach.”

I share this piece this evening, along with some of the photos I took on Sunday when walking along the banks of the Mississippi River.

In Minnesota, we are all too familiar with false spring. You get a handful of warm days, melting snow, everyone exhales. You think maybe winter’s finally over . . . until the cold snaps back, sometimes even harder.

That’s what this moment feels like. You may hear that ICE is “leaving.” They’re not, they’re shifting, spreading out. They’re moving into suburban and rural areas with less media and thinner rapid response networks.

The quiet isn’t relief. It’s redistribution. Don’t mistake a brief thaw for safety.

Above and left: At CorAzoN Gifts, next door to Longfellow Grill, Dave and I picked up a couple of free decals that honor Alex Pretti and Renée Good, two U.S. citizens shot to death by federal immigration agents last month in Minneapolis. These decals read: “Pretti Good.” Dave put his on the back of his truck once we got back to my place. I need to clean my car first before I put mine on.

___________________

Postscript: Yep, Sunday was indeed a “false spring.” Yesterday afternoon (February 18) and all through last night into today, much of Minnesota has received the biggest dumping of snow so far this winter.

Above: During yesterday’s heavy snowfall, Micah Stewart, a volunteer caretaker and protector of the memorial for Alex Pretti, clears the street and shovels a message in the snow around the area where Pretti was shot and killed by federal agents during ICE operations on Nicollet Ave. in Minneapolis. (Photo: D. Guttenfelder / New York Times)

Related Off-site Links:
Creative Dissent and Mutual Aid: Lessons From Minneapolis for Surviving the Polycrisis – Richard Heinberg (Common Dreams, February 17, 2026).
Minneapolis March Planned for Saturday to Mark Four Weeks Since Alex Pretti Killing – Riley Moser (CBS News, February 19, 2026).
Four Lessons From the Fight Against Trump and ICE in Minneapolis – Sou Mi (Left Voice, February 16, 2026).
Terrorized By ICE, Unable to Pay Rent, Minnesotans Are Getting Ready for a Rent Strike – Rebecca Burns and Sarah Lazare (In These Times, February 19, 2026).
The Sambusa Underground: How Minneapolis’s Somalis Feed Community and Resistance – Kate Nelson (The Guardian, February 18, 2026).
The Inhumane Treatment of Immigration Detainees Requires More Coverage – Dan Froomkin (Press Watch, February 18, 2026).
Courts Have Ruled 4,400 Times That ICE Jailed People Illegally. It Hasn’t Stopped – Nate Raymond, Kristina Cooke and Brad Heath (Reuters, February 17, 2026).
White House Official Says Hundreds of Federal Agents Are Leaving Minnesota, “Small” Security Force Will Remain for a Time – The Associated Press and MPR News (February 15, 2026).
What Minnesota Really Thinks of the End of Trump’s ICE Surge – Jennifer Bendery (The Huffington Post, February 13, 2026).

Above: Tipis stand at Mni Owe Sni (Coldwater Spring), a sacred site for the Dakota and other tribes, across from the Whipple Federal Building on February 10. (Photo: Kerem Yücel / MPR News)

UPDATES: Lawmakers Omar and Craig Describe Empty Whipple Detention Center; Feds Say Less Than 500 Agents Remain – Jennifer Bendery (MPR News, February 20, 2026).
Federal Judge Accuses White House of “Terror” Against Immigrants in U.S. – The Guardian (February 20, 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts on the resistance to the Trump regime’s fascist occupation of Minnesota:
• Omar Fateh: Quote of the Day – December 4, 2025
• Photo of the Day – December 5, 2025
• Susie Hayward on What’s Happening in Minneapolis
• Doing What We Can to Stop Unjust Arrests of Immigrants
• Great Event, Great Sign, Great Nails
• Christmas Eve Musings
• May We Do Likewise
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like” – January 7, 2026
• “It Was Murder”: 12 Powerful Responses to the Death of Renée Nicole Good
• Omar Fateh: “Folks Are Waking Up”
• A Good Faith Appeal and a Grim Response
• Why Minnesota?
• Chris Hedges on ICE: “I Have Seen These Masked Goons Before”
• Steven Donziger: “Let’s Get Real . . . ICE Is a Domestic Terrorist Organization”
• Historian Kyle Dekker: “It’s Not Nazi Ideology We Are Fighting. It’s American”
• Knowing Our Rights
• Mike Figueredo on Why Trump Might Be Pushing the U.S. to the Brink of Collapse
• A “Red Alert Moment for American Democracy”
• Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota
• Marianne Williamson on How to Psychologically Endure This Moment
• What Moral Clarity Looks Like in Minnesota This MLK Day
• Nemik’s Eulogy for Renée Nicole Good
• “It Was Never About Keeping America Safe”
• “ICE Out!”: The Minnesota General Strike – 1/23/26
• “This Was a Flat Out Execution”
• “Organized Sustained Systemic Resistance and Self-Defense Are Our Only Options”
• Honoring Alex Pretti
• George Conway: The Trump Administration Is a “Criminal Organization”
• In the Face of Fascist Lies, MN Governor Tim Walz Sets the Record Straight
• Adam Serwer on How “Every Social Theory Undergirding Trumpism Has Been Broken on the Steel of Minnesotan Resolve”
• “Trump Is Scared Shitless”
• “They Were Alive. Then They Were Not”
• Bruce Springsteen and the Streets of Minneapolis in the Winter of ’26
• Craig Mokhiber on the “Imperial Boomerang”: How U.S. War Tactics Abroad Are Now Used at Home
• January Vignettes (2026)
• Honoring Renée Good and the “Astonishing Surge of Courage” of Minneapolis
• A Luminous Celebration of Light, Love and Community
• More Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota
• Memes of the Times – February 2026
• Only the Beginning
• The North Remembers
• “It’s All Lies and Propaganda”

Images: Michael J. Bayly, unless where otherwise noted.

A Rare Alignment

Project Nightfall is a Facebook group dedicated to philanthropy. I appreciate the following words shared by the group earlier today.

________________

Three Different Calendars, Three Faiths,
One Rare Alignment
Something unusual is happening right now.

Ramadan, Lent, and Lunar New Year all started within the same window of days, creating an extraordinary convergence of Muslim, Christian, and Chinese traditions around mid-February.

Lunar New Year began on February 17, welcoming the Year of the Horse. Families gathered. Homes were cleaned. Red envelopes were exchanged. Firecrackers lit up the night. Across the world, millions marked a fresh start under the first new moon of the Chinese lunisolar calendar.

That same evening, depending on crescent moon sightings, Ramadan began. The first fast started on February 18. Muslims around the globe are now fasting from dawn to sunset, centering their days around prayer, discipline, charity, and spiritual reflection. For the next month, the rhythm of life shifts toward restraint and devotion.

On February 18, Lent also began with Ash Wednesday. Christians entered a 40-day period of prayer and sacrifice leading to Easter on April 5. Ash crosses appeared on foreheads. Some began fasting. Others gave up comforts. The season of repentance and renewal is now underway.

Three observances. Three faith traditions. All unfolding at the same time.

This alignment is unusual because these holidays do not move together. Lunar New Year follows the Chinese lunisolar calendar. Ramadan shifts roughly 11 days earlier each year because it is based on a purely lunar cycle. Lent is calculated using the Gregorian calendar in relation to Easter after the winter solstice.

They drift independently. For them to begin almost simultaneously is rare and may not repeat for decades.

Yet here we are. Across cities and villages, lanterns glow while others break their fast at sunset. Ash Wednesday services are held while families celebrate reunion dinners. Some people are feasting. Others are fasting. All are reflecting.

Different rituals. Different prayers. Different histories. But the themes feel strikingly similar.

Renewal. Self-discipline. Gratitude. Fresh beginnings.

This week, millions of people across cultures pressed pause in their own way. Some through celebration. Some through sacrifice. Some through quiet prayer.

It is a powerful reminder that while calendars divide us, human longing does not.

Around the world right now, people are choosing reflection over noise, intention over routine. And that feels significant.

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

THE WILD REED’S 2025 LENTEN SERIES
• Inayat Khan and the Fountain of Happiness Within
• The Alchemy of Happiness
• A Light That Will Always Shine
• A Living Light
• A Perpetual Fire Within
• One Wisdom
• Awakening and Turning

THE LENTEN JOURNEY
• Blessing the Dust
• “This Beloved Quickened Dust”
• Ash Wednesday Reflections
• The Ashes of Our Martyrs
• Lent: A Season Set Apart
• A Lenten Resolution
• Lent: A Time to Fast and Feast
• “Here I Am!” – The Lenten Response
• Let Today Be the Day
• Pope Francis on Lenten Fasting
• “The Turn”: A Lenten Meditation by Lionel Basney
• Lent: A Summons to Live Anew
• Now Is the Acceptable Time
• Lent With Henri
• Waking Dagobert
• “Radical Returnings” – Mayday 2016 (Part 1)
• “Radical Returnings” – Mayday 2016 (Part 2)
• Move Us, Loving God

THE DIVINE PRESENCE
• “Everything Is Saturated With the Sacred”
• The Most Sacred and Simple Mystery of All
• The Source Is Within You
• Michael Morwood on the Divine Presence
• Prayer and the Experience of God in an Ever-Unfolding Universe
• Prayer of the Week – October 28, 2013
• Neil Douglas-Klotz: Quote of the Day – December 29, 2011
• Cultivating Stillness
• Thoughts on Transformation | II | III

Image: “Spiritual Alignment Attained” by Wumples.

Genny Harrison on Brian Tyler Cohen’s Interview with Obama: “A Careful Meditation That Comforts More Than It Challenges”

. . . and “in a moment defined by aggressive
use of power, comfort is not resistance.”

I appreciate Genny Harrison’s analysis and critique of Barack Obama’s recent remarks to Brian Tyler Cohen. It should be noted that Cohen is a Democratic establishment influencer, or “Demfluencer.” This clearly shows in his interview with Obama, prompting Harrison to note the following.

Throughout the interview, Brian Tyler Cohen [. . .] approaches Obama less as a journalist than as a devoted interlocutor, rarely pressing him on contradictions or omissions. When Obama describes enforcement abuses as unprecedented, Cohen does not raise deportation data from the Obama years. When Obama critiques Democratic tradition, Cohen does not ask why those traditions were protected when Obama had the authority to challenge them. When Obama discusses youth disengagement, Cohen does not ask whether institutional failure, rather than tone, is the central driver. The result is a conversation that feels curated rather than examined. It allows Obama to occupy the role of moral narrator without confronting the full consequences of his legacy.

Following is Genny Harrison’s full commentary on Cohen’s interview with Obama.

________________

In Brian Tyler Cohen’s recent interview with Barack Obama, the former president attempts to do many things at once. He condemns cruelty in political discourse, defends democratic norms, critiques institutional inertia, explains Democratic infighting, reflects on youth disengagement, and gestures toward the long arc of social movements. The interview is expansive and rhetorically polished. It is also evasive in precisely the places where honesty would have mattered most.

Obama frames the current political moment as a moral test, arguing that decency, civic engagement, and community organizing are the antidotes to authoritarian behavior. He reassures listeners that most Americans still believe in kindness and fairness, even if social media and television reward cruelty.

This is comforting, but it sidesteps the more pressing reality that belief without leverage does not constrain power. The erosion of democratic norms has not occurred because Americans forgot their values. It has occurred because institutions have been structured to allow those values to be overridden without consequence.

This becomes especially clear in Obama’s discussion of immigration enforcement. He describes recent ICE actions as unprecedented and dangerous, highlighting community resistance as a source of hope. The moral clarity is welcome.

The historical framing is not. Modern immigration enforcement did not suddenly become expansive under Trump. The machinery that enables aggressive raids, broad discretion, and minimal oversight was constructed over decades, including during Obama’s own presidency. Deportations reached historic highs while he was in office, and enforcement partnerships were normalized as governance rather than treated as emergency measures.

A more honest Obama would have said this out loud. He would have acknowledged that systems built in the name of pragmatism are easily weaponized, and that his administration, like others before it, chose stability over dismantling. Instead, the interview treats the present as a rupture rather than a culmination. That choice allows outrage without responsibility.

Obama does briefly address institutional barriers, criticizing the Senate filibuster and Democratic attachment to tradition. He is right that these traditions have often functioned as obstacles rather than safeguards. But he speaks about them as inherited problems rather than defended ones. The filibuster was not merely endured during his presidency. It was protected. Gerrymandering was condemned rhetorically but confronted unevenly. Executive power expanded even as Congress stagnated. These choices were not accidents. They were trade-offs. The interview never names them as such.

This pattern continues when Obama turns to Democratic infighting and the long shadow of 2016. He argues that divisions between liberals, moderates, and progressives are exaggerated, noting that figures as different as Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton share core values around equality, social protection, and regulation. This is broadly true. But it elides the deeper conflict that animated that primary and still shapes the party.

The Sanders-Clinton divide was not merely tactical. It was institutional. It was about whether incrementalism within existing systems was sufficient, or whether those systems themselves were fundamentally misaligned with democratic and economic reality. Obama positions himself above this divide, portraying it as a matter of tone and strategy rather than power and legitimacy. Yet his presidency, by necessity or choice, aligned far more closely with Clinton-era assumptions about globalization, technocracy, and institutional continuity than with Sanders’ critique of structural inequality.

A nobler, more rigorous Obama would have acknowledged this. He would have said plainly that his governing philosophy, while effective in stabilizing a post-crisis economy, also reinforced systems that left many voters feeling permanently excluded. He would have admitted that the party’s preference for managerial competence over structural reform created fertile ground for populist backlash. Instead, the interview treats 2016 as a lesson about unity rather than a warning about complacency.

Obama’s emphasis on persuasion further underscores this tension. He repeatedly frames Democratic governance as harder because it requires coalition-building, compromise, and legislative process, while the opposition thrives on destruction. This is accurate as far as it goes. What he does not say is that persuasion loses power when institutions are unresponsive. When voters see electoral wins fail to translate into material change, persuasion begins to sound like delay.

This is why his reflections on youth engagement are both the strongest and most incomplete part of the interview. Obama is correct that age itself is not the problem. Distance is. He candidly admits that he no longer understands the cultural world his daughters inhabit, and that leaders eventually lose direct access to the present tense. He explains that his campaigns succeeded with young voters because they were given real responsibility and ownership, not merely inspirational rhetoric.

This insight is crucial. Young people were not mobilized by Obama because he was young or charismatic. They were mobilized because he trusted them with power inside his movement. They were builders, not spectators.

But once again, Obama stops short of the harder conclusion. Youth disengagement today is not primarily a messaging failure. It is a rational response to a political economy that offers diminishing returns on participation. Younger voters are burdened by debt, locked out of housing, facing climate catastrophe, and watching institutions fail to respond even when elections are won. Joy without agency feels insulting in that context.

Obama gestures toward these realities but reframes them as cultural challenges rather than structural ones. He suggests Democrats lost young voters because they became scolds, because they failed to be welcoming, because they lost touch with joy. These critiques may be partially true, but they are insufficient. The deeper issue is that participation no longer feels consequential.

Throughout the interview, Brian Tyler Cohen reinforces this softened framing. He approaches Obama less as a journalist than as a devoted interlocutor, rarely pressing him on contradictions or omissions. When Obama describes enforcement abuses as unprecedented, Cohen does not raise deportation data from the Obama years. When Obama critiques Democratic tradition, Cohen does not ask why those traditions were protected when Obama had the authority to challenge them. When Obama discusses youth disengagement, Cohen does not ask whether institutional failure, rather than tone, is the central driver.

The result is a conversation that feels curated rather than examined. It allows Obama to occupy the role of moral narrator without confronting the full consequences of his legacy.

Obama’s decision to focus on leadership development rather than direct political confrontation is sincere and admirable. His foundation’s work matters. But his authority remains immense, and how he uses it shapes the political imagination. By framing the current crisis as a test of values rather than a failure of structures, he offers reassurance rather than reckoning.

This interview does not stand up to Trump. It does not meaningfully confront the conditions that produced Trump. It reflects on the moment without fully engaging its causes. It asks citizens to be better without demanding institutions be transformed.

Obama is right that age does not disqualify leadership. Distance does. Distance from material reality. Distance from institutional accountability. Distance from the consequences of past decisions.

A nobler version of this interview would have named that distance, including his own. It would have acknowledged that decency is not enough, that good intentions do not neutralize bad systems, and that the Democratic Party’s greatest failure has not been tone but timidity in the face of entrenched power. Instead, we are left with a careful meditation that comforts more than it challenges. In a moment defined by aggressive use of power, comfort is not resistance.

– Genny Harrison
“The Speech Obama Gives,
and the Reckoning He Avoids”
February 16, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
Brian Tyler Cohen Rages in Response to Demfluencer Dark Money Scandal – Krystal Ball (Breaking Points, September 5, 2025).
Taylor Lorenz Schools Brian Tyler Cohen and David Pakman on the Definition of Journalism – Rantoinette (September 9, 2025).
Barack Obama Is A War Criminal – Prince Williams (Harvard Political Review, September 29, 2021).
Meditations On the Notion That Obama “Never Had Any Scandals” – Caitlin Johnstone (Caitlin’s Newsletter, February 19, 2025).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Progressives and Obama (Part 1)
• Progressives and Obama (Part 2)
• Progressives and Obama (Part 3)
• Progressives and Obama (Part 4)
• Progressives and Obama (Part 5)
• Progressives and Obama (Part 6)
• Progressives and Obama (Part 7)
• Historic (and Wild)!
• Reality Check
• One of Those Moments
• Obama, Ayers, the “S” Word, and the “Most Politically Backward Layers in America”
• Obama a Socialist? Hardly
• Thoughts on Tomorrow’s Presidential Election (2008)
• “Change Has Come to America”
• A Night of Celebration
• The Challenge for Progressives with an Obama Presidency
• Exposing the Dark Money Network Secretly Funding Establishment Democratic Influencers

“A Blatant Call by the U.S. Empire to Resuscitate Western Colonialism”

This is insane.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio just gave one of the most explicitly pro-colonialist speeches I have seen in the 21st century.

The U.S. empire wants Europe to help it recolonize the Global South.

Rubio praised Western colonialists for “settl[ing] new continents, build[ing] vast empires extending out across the globe.”

Then Rubio complained about the Global South’s decolonization, portraying it as a sinister communist plot.

Rubio lamented: “The great Western empires had entered into terminal decline, accelerated by godless communist revolutions and by anti-colonial uprisings that would transform the world and drape the red hammer and sickle across vast swaths of the map in the years to come.”

Rubio delivered this speech at the Munich Security Conference, surrounded by European leaders, who gave him a standing ovation. They loved the pro-colonialist diatribe.

The U.S. secretary of state insisted that North American and European imperialists should unite in order to reverse “the West’s managed decline,” to revive “the West’s age of dominance,” to “renew the greatest civilization in human history.”

This is a blatant call by the U.S. empire to resuscitate Western colonialism and recolonize the Global South (which represents the Global Majority).

What the U.S. empire did to Gaza, Venezuela, and currently Cuba is what it wants to do to the entire Global South.

~ Benjamin Norton
via social media
February 15, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
Rubio’s Speech Signals U.S. Colonial Aspiration – Sushim Mukul (India Today, February 16, 2026).
Forget MAGA. Welcome to MEGA: Make Empire Great Again – Mehdi Hasan (The Guardian, February 17, 2025).
Marco Rubio’s Dark and Disturbing Speech You Have To See To Believe – Kyle Kulinski (Secular Talk, February 16, 2026).
Trump’s “Naked Imperialism” Leaves Allies Facing U.S. Coercion – Stephen Wertheim (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, January 21, 2026).
Cuba Hunkers Down as a U.S. Oil Blockade Brings a Humanitarian Crisis – Marc Frank (The Nation, February 17, 2026).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• John Pilger on Resisting Empire
• Resisting the Hand of the Empire
• Chris Hedges on the End of the American Empire
• Progressive Perspectives on the Trump Regime’s Illegal Attack on Venezuela
• “Our Anti-Imperialism Must Be Consistent”
• The Queen and Colonialism
• Queer Native Americans, Colonialism, and the Fourth of July
• Remembering Lumumba

Image: AI image by Sushim Mukul.

What Does It Really Take to Build a Rebellion?

What does it really take to build a rebellion? . . . That’s the question posed by Kapil of Show Me the Meaning, a podcast dedicated to “exploring what great TV has to say about our lives,” in his beautifully-crafted video that focuses on the second (and final) season of the Star Wars show Andor.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I can think of no other contemporary TV series than Andor that captures the political zeitgeist we’re living through, one dominated by the rise of fascism in the U.S. Streaming on the Disney+ platform, Andor is a prequel to the 2016 film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which in turn serves as a prequel to the events of Star Wars: A New Hope (1977).

Among other things, Andor contends that resistance to and rebellions against fascism, authoritarianism, and empire are built on hope. But is that enough? . . . Are there other factors that intentionallr or not, come into play? Realies such as loss and reckoning; formative leadership; moral complexity and contradictions; blind luck; community; sacrifice.

What does it really take to build a rebellion? And what are the long-term consequences of the various factors involved in what it takes?

These are the hard, unsettling questions explored by Kapil in his 12-minute video commentary below.





Related Off-site Links:
The Dark Side of Hope: How Andor Brings Star Wars Into the 2020s – Show Me The Meaning (January 4, 2025).
The Side of Andor That Nobody Talks About – Epic Sell (August 24, 2025).
Tony Gilroy on What Andor Says About Trump’s Fragile Authoritarian Regime – Lovett or Leave It (August 24, 2025).
How Andor Mirrored Israel’s Genocide – Jessie Gender After Dark (June 17, 2025).
How Not to Be Fascist According to Andor (and Jesus) – Bryan Jarrell (Mockingbird, May 20, 2025).


For more of Andor at The Wild Reed, see:
• Welcome to the Rebellion
• Andor’s Depiction of the Rise of Fascism: Not Predictive But Reflective
• Andor: “A Magnum Opus of Anti-Imperialist Art”
• The Revolution Will Be Televised
• Andor: The Star Wars Franchise’s “First Piece of Universally Excellent Television”
• The Brilliance of Andor
• Inauguration Day Thoughts
• How Empires Are Built and Rebellions Are Born
• Andor Season One Recap
• The Reckoning Is Here


See also the related Wild Reed posts:
• Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota
• More Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota
• Omar Fateh: “Folks Are Waking Up”
• “It Was Murder”: 12 Powerful Responses to the Death of Renée Nicole Good
• A “Red Alert Moment for American Democracy”
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like”
• Chris Hedges: “Most Revolutions Succeed Not Through Violence But Through National Strikes”
• Jason Duchin: “It’s Here, and We Are Sleepwalking Through It”
• Marianne Williamson: “We’re Moving Into Totalitarianism”
• “He Is Enacting an Authoritarian Agenda”: Khalil Gibran Muhammad on Donald Trump’s Militarization of Law Enforcement
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2025
• Robert Reich: “This Is Fascism”
• “Protesting Is What Patriotism Looks Like in Public”: The “No Kings” Protests of June 14, 2025
• Peter Bloom: Quote of the Day – June 10, 2025
• “This Is How Democracy Unravels”

“It’s All Lies and Propaganda”

Twin Cities resident Corey Magstadt shared the following on Facebook today in response to yesterday's press conference by Tom Holman (left), in which he declared that Operation Metro Surge will end in Minnesota. (For six other responses to this news, see this Wild Reed post from yesterday.)

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Like most of us in Minnesota, I listened to Tom Homan’s press conference yesterday with skepticism. Not just because ICE has been very active in our neighborhood today, but also because there is a funding bill on the table that is being held up due to the increasing unpopularity of ICE enforcement.

After listening to it, I was disgusted. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard someone lie and gaslight with such boldness (and I’ve listened to a lot of Trump’s speeches). My rage response is to argue, so here’s an unnecessarily long breakdown of the press conference and data countering his lies.


CLAIM #1: “Minnesota Is Safer Because of the Surge”

• “The Twin Cities of Minnesota in general are and will continue to be much safer . . . because of what we have accomplished under President Trump’s leadership.”

• “Minnesota is now less of a sanctuary state for criminals.”

• “We’re leaving Minnesota safer.”

• “This community is safer because we arrested over 4,000 illegal aliens. . . . Many of them public safety threat, not all of them.”

FACT CHECK

• No public data demonstrates a decrease in violent crime that can be attributed to ICE’s surge. In fact, two of the only three homicides in Minneapolis this year were committed by ICE agents.

• Minnesota is not less of a sanctuary state than it was before. The Trump administration often claims victory by winning something it already had (see the Greenland debacle for another example). In this case, Homan claims that now Minnesota is partnering with ICE and letting them take criminal immigrants from jail and prison after they complete their sentences. He was very proud of this because it’s much safer for everyone to deport someone who is already in custody. THEY WERE ALREADY DOING THIS! THIS IS NOT NEW! IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE POLICY! What Minnesota doesn’t do and still won’t do is hand over immigrants who are arrested and accused of crimes but not yet convicted (because Minnesota actually believes that people should have due process).

• They have shown no evidence that they have arrested over 4,000 illegal aliens. And even if that is the number, many are being released as their immigration status didn’t warrant it (ongoing asylum claims, refuge status, etc.). Over 800 habeas corpus lawsuits have been filed since the surge began (compared to 128 in all of 2025) and the vast majority have resulted in the successful release of the prisoner back into the community.

• I can’t fact check this claim, but I GUARANTEE that more crime has been committed by ICE agents than undocumented immigrants in Minnesota over the past two months. The number of car accidents caused by ICE alone is enough to prove this claim to be a lie.

• ICE arrest totals often include: Administrative immigration violations (not showing up for a hearing, missing paperwork, etc.), Pending criminal charges (we’re still innocent until proven guilty in this country), old or nonviolent convictions (small crimes from 30 years ago probably shouldn’t be cause for deportation today).

CLAIM #2: ICE Only Targets Serious Criminals (But Also Promises Mass Deportation)

• “Many criminal aliens have been arrested . . . including murders, sex offenders . . .”

• “Through targeted enforcement operations . . .”

• “We will enforce immigration law against all persons in the United States illegally.”

• “Prioritizing public safety threats . . . doesn’t mean we’ll forget about everybody else. We will take action on everybody else.”

• “President Trump made a promise of mass deportation and that’s what this country is going to get.”

FACT CHECK

• According to the Minnesota Department of Corrections, most of the violent “worst of the worst” criminals that ICE has claimed credit for were actually already in custody.

• MPR News has reported on cases involving administrative immigration violations and individuals with minor or old convictions being taken into custody “mass deportation” proposals have been estimated to cost hundreds of billions of dollars and would require unprecedented detention expansion.

• Our on the ground reporting demonstrates that this is not a targeted approach. As I’ve repeatedly written, if you have brown skin, you are a target and can be arrested anywhere.

CLAIM #3: ICE Did Not Arrest Anyone Inside Hospitals, Schools, or Churches

• “ICE has not arrested anybody inside a hospital.”

• “We have not arrested anybody inside of a school.”

• “We have not arrested anybody inside a church.”

• “It simply has not happened.”

• “Those locations are not off the table.”

FACT CHECK

• This was a very intentionally misleading statement. Has anyone been arrested in hospitals, churches or schools? Not to my knowledge. But parking lots and streets surrounding these sensitive locations have been fair game. Most immigrant churches have stopped meeting in person since ICE is always circling around their parking lots before and after services. Schools around the state have reported daily occurrences of ICE agents knocking on families doors before school, following them to and from school, waiting at bus stops, following buses, and circling around the school parking lots.

• UPDATE: “They have been arresting people inside the hospitals in Rochester and they have arrested people inside a mosque there as well. I heard reports of arrests in HCMC and in mosques up north, but I don’t know anyone close enough to it to confirm. My parents have confirmation of the abductions in Rochester." – Brenna Zeimet (2/13/26)

CLAIM #4: 3,364 “Missing Unaccompanied Alien Children” Were Located

• “ICE here in this state have located 3,364 missing unaccompanied alien children.”

• “Children that the last administration lost and weren’t even looking for.”

FACT CHECK

• He’s straight up lying. First, ICE isn’t involved in placement and care of unaccompanied minors. That role is played by the Department of Health and Human Services.

• The number 3,364 is given with no evidence and there is simply no way that many children have been picked up by ICE without parents or guardians. Do you think the protesters outside of Whipple every day or the guy watching every plane take off and counting the people who get on wouldn’t have noticed thousands of kids being put onto airplanes and shipped to Texas? It’s completely fabricated.

• In fact, claims of “missing” children actually reflect simply the inability of ICE to contact the child’s sponsors or guardians, not that they are actually missing. So if they actually located that many "missing” children, it just means that they now have cleaned up their database to have contact information for these families that they didn’t previously have.

CLAIM #5: “Most Secure Border in American History” and “Record Arrests and Deportations”

• “Today, we have the most secure border in American history.”

• “Record number of arrest and deportations under President Trump’s first year.”

FACT CHECK

• Deportation totals during the previous Trump administration did not exceed the peak removal numbers recorded during the Obama administration. And Biden’s last year in office had more deportations than Trump did in 2025 (Not that this is a good thing, but it’s just remarkable how much they feel like they have to lie, especially to beat the libs).

• I can’t really speak to the border. It seems that border crossings are down and fentanyl smuggling is also down. But border crossings are mostly down because of the cruelty of this government. Is that really how we want to solve illegal immigration . . . make this country so violent and unsafe that no one wants to come here?

CLAIM #6: “Unprecedented Cooperation” and No Jail Refusals

• “We have obtained an unprecedented level of coordination . . .”

• “I have not met one county jail that says no to us.”

FACT CHECK

• As stated above in #1, this has always been the policy. Minnesota counties generally do not hold individuals beyond their scheduled release time solely on ICE detainers without judicial warrants (as courts have ruled that this violates the 4th amendment). The jail or prison contacts ICE to let them know someone is scheduled to be released. If ICE doesn’t show up to get them, they are released because they have completed their sentence. This has always been and still is the policy. So if “dangerous criminals" are released back into the community IT’S BECAUSE ICE DIDN’T DO ITS JOB TO SHOW UP AND PICK THEM UP!

Beyond the lies, Homan’s overall tone was unconscionable. He repeatedly praised and blessed ICE officers and never once said anything comforting about the people they terrorize. He defended the use of masks because of “doxing,” but they’re the ones taking pictures of all of the protesters and observers and putting them in their database for who knows what nefarious purpose. He consistently refers to constitutional observers as violent agitators rather than community members who are showing up to care for their neighbors. He casually threatens that his security forces won’t go away as long as people continue to protect their neighbors. He never mentions the devastating economic impact on families and businesses or the emotional impact on children who haven’t been able to go to school.

It’s all lies and propaganda. And until we see otherwise, we continue to keep ourselves safe since no one else is going to do it.

– Corey Magstadt
via Facebook
February 13, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
What Minnesota Really Thinks of the End of Trump’s ICE Surge – Jennifer Bendery (The Huffington Post, February 13, 2026).
What We Can Learn From Minneapolis’ Model of Resistance – Gabriel Furshong (Common Dreams, February 13, 2026).
The Rise of the Rebel Loon Logos – The Nerd of The Rings (February 13, 2026).
‘Time to Speak Up’: In Columbia Heights, School Leaders Stepped in to Protect Families as ICE Surged – Elizabeth Shockman (MPR News, February 13, 2026).
Mayor Jacob Frey Calls on Feds and State to Help Pay ICE Surge Costs in Minneapolis – MPR News (February 13, 2026).
“Border Czar” Tom Homan Says Immigration Operation in Minnesota Will End Soon – Katelyn Vue (Sahan Journal, February 12, 2026).
“Not an Anomaly . . . A Blueprint”: Homan Says Minnesota ICE Surge Ending – But Mass Deportations Aren’t – Jessica Corbett (Common Dreams, February 12, 2026).
Yet Another Case of ICE Agents – and DHS Officials – Lying About Shooting Incident Emerges – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, February 12, 2026).
Charges Dropped Against Men Accused of Attacking ICE Officer – Matt Sepic (MPR News, February 12, 2026).
Twin Cities Health Care Workers Describe “Fear” and “Intimidation” Due to ICE in Hospitals – Erica Zurek (MPR News, February 11, 2026).
ICE Is Expanding Across the U.S. at Breakneck Speed. Here’s Where It’s Going Next – Leah Feiger (Wired, February 10, 2026).
The People of Minneapolis Will Simply Not Let the ICE Thugs Prevail – Dan Simmons (The New Republic, February 5, 2026).
Anti-ICE Organizing Is Creating Counter-Institutions Based on Care – Rashida James-Saadiya (Truthout, February 4, 2026).
“Backing Down Isn’t an Option”: Minnesota ICE Shootings Mobilize Americans to Join ICE Observer Groups – Lex McMenamin (The Guardian, January 31, 2026).
Letter From Minnesota: Details From an Occupation – Angela Pelster (Literary Hub, January 29, 2026).
Meet the Minneapolis Parents Patrolling Their Schools Amid ICE Operations – Elizabeth Shockman (MPR News, January 16, 2026).
The Women Holding Minneapolis Together – Anna Moeslein Glamor, January 7, 2026).

UPDATE: White House Official Says Hundreds of Federal Agents Are Leaving Minnesota, “Small” Security Force Will Remain for a Time – The Associated Press and MPR News (February 15, 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts on the resistance to the Trump regime’s fascist occupation of Minnesota:
• Omar Fateh: Quote of the Day – December 4, 2025
• Photo of the Day – December 5, 2025
• Susie Hayward on What’s Happening in Minneapolis
• Doing What We Can to Stop Unjust Arrests of Immigrants
• Great Event, Great Sign, Great Nails
• Christmas Eve Musings
• May We Do Likewise
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like” – January 7, 2026
• “It Was Murder”: 12 Powerful Responses to the Death of Renée Nicole Good
• Omar Fateh: “Folks Are Waking Up”
• A Good Faith Appeal and a Grim Response
• Why Minnesota?
• Chris Hedges on ICE: “I Have Seen These Masked Goons Before”
• Steven Donziger: “Let’s Get Real . . . ICE Is a Domestic Terrorist Organization”
• Historian Kyle Dekker: “It’s Not Nazi Ideology We Are Fighting. It’s American”
• Knowing Our Rights
• Mike Figueredo on Why Trump Might Be Pushing the U.S. to the Brink of Collapse
• A “Red Alert Moment for American Democracy”
• Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota
• Marianne Williamson on How to Psychologically Endure This Moment
• What Moral Clarity Looks Like in Minnesota This MLK Day
• Nemik’s Eulogy for Renée Nicole Good
• “It Was Never About Keeping America Safe”
• “ICE Out!”: The Minnesota General Strike – 1/23/26
• “This Was a Flat Out Execution”
• “Organized Sustained Systemic Resistance and Self-Defense Are Our Only Options”
• Honoring Alex Pretti
• George Conway: The Trump Administration Is a “Criminal Organization”
• In the Face of Fascist Lies, MN Governor Tim Walz Sets the Record Straight
• Adam Serwer on How “Every Social Theory Undergirding Trumpism Has Been Broken on the Steel of Minnesotan Resolve”
• “Trump Is Scared Shitless”
• “They Were Alive. Then They Were Not”
• Bruce Springsteen and the Streets of Minneapolis in the Winter of ’26
• Craig Mokhiber on the “Imperial Boomerang”: How U.S. War Tactics Abroad Are Now Used at Home
• January Vignettes (2026)
• Honoring Renée Good and the “Astonishing Surge of Courage” of Minneapolis
• A Luminous Celebration of Light, Love and Community
• More Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota
• Memes of the Times – February 2026
• Only the Beginning
• The North Remembers

Image: White House “border czar” Tom Homan speaks at a press conference at the Whipple Federal Building on Thursday, February 12. Homan announced an end to the Trump regime’s immigration enforcement operation in the state. (Photo: Stephen Maturen / Getty Images)