John Cole Presents “This Fucking Old House”

Another grim day of headlines here in Amerikka, although I want to focus on what is happening in Minneapolis:

Thousands of protesters shut down parts of Minneapolis and St. Paul on Friday as hundreds of businesses closed their doors, and workers and students stayed home to demand an end to the sweeping immigration crackdown that has roiled the Twin Cities for weeks.

The action on Friday, which unfolded in subfreezing temperatures, was the most widespread and organized demonstration since federal agents arrived in Minneapolis more than six weeks ago. It was aimed at pressuring the federal government to pull thousands of its agents from the streets.

Businesses, many of them locally owned, closed their doors to halt economic activity, saying that losing a day’s revenue was worth the cost to be part of the effort to end the immigration enforcement.

The day of protests followed weeks of clashes between Minnesotans and federal agents, mostly in the Minneapolis and St. Paul areas. The immigration operation, which started late last year, has led to some 3,000 arrests, at least two shootings in Minneapolis and chaotic scenes on the streets.

Calls for the ouster of federal agents have grown from residents and local officials, especially after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot Renee Good, an American citizen, in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. Protesters and state officials have also filed lawsuits to restrict the agents’ conduct and to block the surge.

The turnout has been so impressive. Here is one live feed:

For reasons that I can not fully explain or understand, I still hold out hope that some of the people I served with and some of the people in ICE and in the MAGA movement will look at these continued abuses and violence and have a moment of self-reflection:

Meanwhile, CNN has completely and totally lost the fucking plot:

Jesus fucking christ. Look, I do not know who needs to be told this, but a policy memo at ICE written by barely literate nincompoops like Lindsay Halligan, does not now nor ever will supplant the 4th Amendment to the Constitution.

Now that does not mean they will enter without a warrant, because they are lawless goons and will and have been for a year, but it absolutely is not legal. And they will probably keep doing it because nothing would make them happier to sacrifice a couple dipshit agents in a warrantless home invasion that ends up with a couple dead, because they are desperate to invoke the insurrection act. Everyone needs to remember that these are not conservatives in MAGA, they are radical accelerationists. A bunch of us have been screaming about this for years and no one of any importance listens, although it sure feels like people are starting to wake up.

Everyone in the region that will be hit by snow should, by now, have a backup plan on top of a backup plan, because if the levels of ice they are predicting occur, it will be biblical. A half inch of ice will break 75% of the tree limbs around and shut down power everywhere wires are not buried, generators fail at those temps, and many regions will also get tons of snow. I heard predictions of up to and over an inch in some places, and I can not say clearly enough just how fucking catastrophic that would be. I could potentially come home to a house without trees in April and a willow in the spare bedroom and a couple oaks in the home office.

So be careful. Run water in the tubs and buckets, find a structurally safe room in your house, if you have space heaters make sure you ventilate and have the area around them free of debris. On and on. You know the drill. Know where your candles, flashlights, shovel, pick, and saws are. Fire is also a concern. Have your fire extinguishers ready.

Be safe. And stay off the fucking roads.

Friday Late Afternoon News Dump and Open ThreadPost + Comments (147)

For everyone who thinks Maxwell was going to murder me in my sleep:

Y’all have no idea who this cat is or what he is about, but he needs to be the CONSTANT center of attention. He loves his collars. He loves when everyone is looking at him. He will rush to get pet by Joelle as soon as she sits. He will rush to jump on me when I lie down. He follows me everywhere and when I am working he lies in the chair in that picture because he can see outside the patio doors AND keep an eye on me down the hallway and anything that enters the hallway. He will sit there and let me slide one collar off and replace it with another. If you have not pet him enough or given him enough attention he will paw me or try to nibble on my foot. He absolutely is not a starter cat but he has also completely met his match because I will give him all the attention he wants. I think since Joelle has been home so much convalescing that she is honestly surprised how much Maxwell and I talk to each other.

He’s my boy.

The ICE pigs are doing exactly what we said they were doing but they denied, to the surprise of fucking no one except maybe Schumer or Fetterman, both addle-minded for different reasons:

Federal immigration officers are asserting sweeping power to forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant, according to an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press, marking a sharp reversal of longstanding guidance meant to respect constitutional limits on government searches.

The memo authorizes ICE officers to use force to enter a residence based solely on a more narrow administrative warrant to arrest someone with a final order of removal, a move that advocates say collides with Fourth Amendment protections and upends years of advice given to immigrant communities.

The shift comes as the Trump administration dramatically expands immigration arrests nationwide, deploying thousands of officers under a mass deportation campaign that is already reshaping enforcement tactics in cities such as Minneapolis.

For years, immigrant advocates, legal aid groups and local governments have urged people not to open their doors to immigration agents unless they are shown a warrant signed by a judge. That guidance is rooted in Supreme Court rulings that generally prohibit law enforcement from entering a home without judicial approval. The ICE directive directly undercuts that advice at a time when arrests are accelerating under the administration’s immigration crackdown.

Send every fucking one of them to jail. Here’s a gift link to a Radley Balko piece on ICE that is a must read for all y’all:

For all their flaws, typical communications from police officials usually include a modicum of solemnity. There are assurances that there will be a fair and impartial investigation, even if those investigations too often turn out to be neither. There’s at least the acknowledgment that to take a human life is a profound and serious thing.

The Trump administration’s response to Ms. Good’s death made no such concessions. There were no promises of an impartial investigation. There was no regret or remorse. There was little empathy for her family — for her parents, her partner or the children she left behind. From the moment the world learned about her death, the administration pronounced the shooting not only justified but an act of heroism worthy of praise and celebration.

It isn’t just the lying; it’s that the lies are wildly exaggerated and easily refutable. All the evidence we’ve seen so far, including a meticulous Times forensic analysis of the available footage, makes clear that at worst, Ms. Good mildly obstructed immigration enforcement, disobeyed ambiguous orders or perhaps attempted to flee an arrest. None of those are capital crimes, nor do law enforcement officers get to dole out punishment in such cases. At one point, President Trump justified her shooting by claiming she’d been “very disrespectful” to immigration officers. That isn’t a crime at all.

The lies this administration is telling about Ms. Good aren’t those you deploy as part of a cover-up. They’re those you use when you want to show you can get away with anything. They’re a projection of power.

As they say, read the whole thing, line by maddening line. Unfortunately, it appears this is clear to all of us, but not Democratic leadership in the House and Senate:

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) announced in a closed-door meeting on Tuesday that he would oppose the bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the rest of the fiscal year. But the Democratic caucus is not engaged in a formal whip operation to encourage all members to vote against the bill, which is likely to get a vote on Thursday.

Two congressional sources told the Prospect that Jeffries and his leadership team were “recommending” a no vote, but that is different from a whip operation where Democratic Whip Rep. Katherine Clark and her deputies push members to support the leadership position on the bill. Several frontline Democrats in swing seats are expected to vote in favor of the appropriation.

“They’re terrified of being labeled anti–law enforcement,” said a Hill source tracking the legislation. “They want this to go away so they can talk about the cost of living more. Problem is, it’s not going away.”

Part of being a large coalition is always having to cater to a couple feckless idiots in tough districts, but fer fuck’s sake, what’s the point of being a part of that coalition if one of their principles isn’t “Opposing masked nazis shooting americans in the face and kicking in their car doors and brake-checking legal observers and blasting gas in the face of priests and old ladies.”

I mean fucking hell you guys. Are we going to have to wait to put this in the fucking party platform in 2028? Jesus fucking christ the fracture of the left in 1930’s germany makes so much fucking sense now.

Well, now I’m fucking livid again. If you didn’t follow the Davos summit closely I can not blame you, but it was another humiliating spectacle for the united states, with everyone pretty much openly mocking Trump and Lutnick and Trump backing down after the bond market shit the bed, but one of these days it’s going to be really bad. Lutnick’s bullshit went over so poorly that one of the billionaires had to embarrassingly hush the room and try to smooth things over. So there’s that.

I think I have thought about this to the point that I am now too pissed off to think about it anymore, so I will see you all tomorrow.

*** Update ***

Look, ffs, I know I am being mad and irrational and screaming at the wrong people and I am not helping but jesus fucking christ I am so angry all the time I just want them to look fucking mad and swear and have human fucking reactions. And this fucking focus on affordability no one fucking cares it’s never going to penetrate the media is hardwired against you AND NAZIS ARE DISAPPEARING PEOPLE FROM THE FUCKING STREETS.

Wednesday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (139)

Another lovely day here, but I am still pretty low energy. The ac/electric company was here today and gave us an estimate on insulation and grounding the outlets and then they had the vent guy come because they never finished that when they did the ac and are coming back to finish it, and every time I see the truck pull up I get anxiety thinking about the cost. It will be nice when it is all done so then we can FINALLY get the insurance company to send out the roofer and fix that. One thing after another.

I went to the LGBTQ+ coffee place today while I was out running errands, and I just want to note that pretty reliably, any gay run coffee shop is going to have great coffee and not only that but a good vibe. This place, Brick River, is no different, and one of my favorite things about it is this bathroom sign:

I can not repeat this enough- this is the only fucking criteria we should be worrying about with public bathrooms. At any rate, Brick Road is a pretty cool place- they always have the Golden Girls projected on the back wall and there are always people sitting there having conversation or working or drawing. It also has just fantastic lighting and is one of the few places around here where I do not always wear my sunglasses in, and the people all have style and different looks. And I don’t mean to say it is all good style, because some of it is quite horrid (and trust me I know what they all think when they see me walk in all six foot of bearded fatness with mirrored sunglasses, khaki shorts, teva’s, and shirt that says “Bad CHOICES Make Good Stories” or you know the kind of gibberish on my shirts), but at least it is a style and a look and something different and just you. Compared to the looks you see in a grocery store where everyone’s style is “My job and kids are sucking the life out of me this is what I put on to come here to buy chicken nuggets for them sp they get off my last fucking nerve and jug wine for myself so please just fucking work with me I think I want to cry.”

So if you are ever in town, check them out.

I saw in the news that Usha Vance is pregnant with JD’s fourth child, so in the offchance any of you ever felt bad for her, please fucking stop it. She knows who JD Vance is, she is ok with it, and she wants to make more of him. She’s as disgusting and broken as her Hillbilly Vanilli husband, and so are all of the Eva Braun’s and Magda Goebbel’s and Gertrude Klinks goosestepping around this reich. The whole lot of them can get what is coming to them, so stop pretending they are any different from Kristi Noem.

I don’t know if the coverage has just slowed down or the ICE activity has slowed down, but I am not seeing as much coming out of there. Does anyone have any inside info or places to follow/watch/stream? As a reward, I will give you this, a picture of Maxwell in his collar sleeping in a laundry basket:

The new Game of Thrones spinoff is DELIGHTFUL! Be nice to each other (I have not read the morning threads yet so please tell me you all were not at each other’s fucking throats again).

Tuesday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (118)

Feeling a little under the weather the past 36 hours so I am not fully up to date with the day’s Trump tomfuckery, but all the Greenland and tariff saber rattling is getting justified pushback, including this:

German Finance Minister

[image or embed]

— Olga Nesterova (@onestpress.onestnetwork.com) January 19, 2026 at 5:53 AM

These fucking idiots are going to fuck around until there is a global boycott on American goods and bonds, and when that happens, it’s going to be ht Ides of March for Trump and Bessent, but not by the radical left, but by the finance and wall street bros, and they will do it without masks in front of the charging bull in the financial district. They don’t care about civil rights or minorities and half or more of them are cheering the gestapo in Minneapolis, but you fuck around with the market like that and it is curtains. You noticed how quick that Jerome Powell talk disappeared from the headlines last week.

In other news, there is apparently a big sportsball game tonight. I think I am going to skip it, do a little questing in KCD2 and check out this mmorpg enshrouded, which someone said is interesting, so I shall give it a whirl.

Monday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (165)

Just an absolute banger of a day here, although the air quality was a little worse than I would have liked. I spent a couple hours at the Phoenix DSA meeting that was held in the park down the road from here. It was nice, although the DSA has grown here a lot so now they are struggling to continue maintaining parliamentary procedure in casual environments and having the usual growing pains.

One item that took up a bunch of time was they had a problem on their signal general group. Last year they were using SLACK, but when I got back this year, they had switched to signal, and they had groups for various committees and actions but a large, general signal chat for whatever that worked great but now that there are over a couple hundred users it was getting toxic because there were a couple shitposters ruining things for everyone else.

I just fucking sighed and rolled my eyes- “been there done that.” Although I suppose it was fun watching them go through this in real time and knowing I didn’t have to do anything the fuck it. That all got settled, got hooked up with some committee leaders and joined up to do some things I am interested in (event security and de-escalation training, comms committee, canvassing, etc. So that was a nice and productive afternoon and it was nice being in the same place with a bunch of people who hate what is going on.

Came home and we are going to cook a skirt steak, so I made up some pico and some guac and that is what we are ding for dinner. Not sure what else is on the agenda although I suppose I should read the news.

What are you all up to tonight?

Early Saturday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (109)

Just thought I would pop in and say what is up- I have not even had time to read the front page. I have only two things to share tonight.

1. Name five tv characters who would be your ride or die in the apocalypse

Mike Erhmantraut- Breaking Bad
Lafayette- Trueblood
Trixie- Californication
Hodor- GoT
Standish- Slow Horses

I think this is a solid squad and posted it on bluesky and the results are becoming interesting.

2.) Whose fucking idea was it to wrap soft logs of goat cheese in the flimsiest god damn wrappers ever so you can never get it out?

Off to watch this new Damon/Affleck movie on Netflix.

Friday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (80)

One of the things I struggle with as an adult is because I have it so pretty much every day is the same working from home, with the only variations being when the meetings and deadlines are, but it’s still pretty much the same every day. Because of this, I never know what day of the week it is. I do a lot of going places and saying “Hrmm- it says they are closed on Tuesdays. I guess it is Tuesday.” The reason I am telling you this is because for the last couple of weeks, the first step for me when writing this post is yelling “Hey babe what day of the week is it?”

For some reason she keeps track of that shit.

I feel obligated to make sure you all see this queen (just the first 30 seconds of this video):

I feel as a white person we are morally obligated to mock these people every time we see them in public.

That’s it. I had a long day with some unexpected shit and my sinuses blew up and I am done and fried and I can not think any more.

Stay salty, fuckers. This shit in Minneapolis is gonna come to you.

Thursday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (101)