Oh my friends, ICE has arrived in Minneapolis and the greater Twin Cities metro. They are driving around unmarked SUVs threatening and intimidating people. Contrary to the lies spewing from the President’s mouth, the state is not overrun by Somali gangs, they do not commit most of the crimes, and 91% of them are U.S. citizens, many of them born and raised here, with the remaining 9% having visas, green cards, or protected refugee status. Sure, it’s possible some are here illegally, but if so, they are negligible in number.
Minneapolis is a sanctuary city. The mayor declared city property off limits for ICE to use as staging. A Target store right across the street from the police station that was set on fire during the George Floyd unrest, allowed ICE to use their large parking lot for staging and as a result has seen a drop in business and crowds of protesters. Our Chief of Police publicly announced that if any city police officer sees an ICE agent breaking the law and/or using excessive force, the police officer is to arrest the ICE agent and if they do not, the police officer will be fired.
Area businesses, nonprofits, and community groups have been preparing for the eventual arrival of ICE for months by passing out “know your rights” information and holding information sessions, offering free trainings on how to stay safe and how to be an observer, and creating rapid response phone numbers and teams of people. Now they are handing out whistles, following ICE SUVs around the city, patrolling schools, daycares, houses of worship, and neighborhoods. There are protests at the airport (deportation flights) and protests outside the ICE facility nearby.
I am so proud of my neighbors and city! I wish I could be part of a response team, but I don’t have the means to do that. I do, however, have one of the rapid response hotline numbers on one-touch dial on my phone so I can report something if I see it. My bike commute takes me right by a Somali and East African rich neighborhood and apartment complex so I am keeping alert.
So far there have been no big raids like in Chicago. And local news is reporting that 19 people have been arrested, but that is only the number that ICE has disclosed, there is no information about how many have been detained and released or are in custody awaiting deportation.
As for the lies regarding Somalis involved in the Feeding our Future nutrition aid scandal, there is zero evidence that they sent money to terrorist groups. Also, they have been tried and sent to jail. Apparently if they were white pedophiles or rich white men who stole millions of dollars, they’d be pardoned by the President, but since they have black and brown skin, well, that means that all Somalis and people with black and brown skin are criminals.
Please send out good thoughts to Minnesota, the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and our immigrant neighbors. And if you can, contact your elected representatives and demand they do something to stop ICE operations across the country.
One of the students at the university where I work told me about Jesse Welles the other day. Oh my, he is good. So please enjoy this clip from his recent performance on Stephen Colbert, “Join ICE”
Times like these it is still important to find joy. This has been a frigid cold week with dustings of snow nearly everyday. Thursday I biked home in the cold and snow and a wicked headwind with gusts that nearly stopped my forward motion at times. I was so tired there were moments I wanted to pull over, get off my bike, lay down in the snow and cry. But I made it home where James had a hot and delicious dinner ready, and then we had a restful evening.
Friday I felt so much better and the bike commute to and from work was so amazing that it reminded me that biking in winter can be absolutely magical.
But then James told me a rabbit has gotten into the garden. Rabbit has nibbled a few tips off the cherry bushes and they are now surrounded with wire mesh to keep them safe. Today I figured out where Rabbit got into the garden. James has repaired the breaches—there were two—but now we have to get the critter out! You would think getting the rabbit out in winter would be easy since there are fewer places for them to hide, but it is almost harder because James and I have to give chase through the snow.
Ethel and Sia will not walk on snow which means their garden wandering days are done for now. We’ve turned the heat on in the coop a few nights and days, and even when the heat is not on, they spend a good amount of time in there. Can’t day I blame them!
In sourdough news, I can happily report that using a kitchen scale has turned out to be freaking amazing! The pumpernickel sourdough bagels are not going to win a beauty contest, but, wow, did they taste good!
Today I made multigrain sandwich bread. I have made this a couple times before using the estimated cups and tablespoons measurements in the recipe, but this time I used the more precise grams measurements and the loaf is the best one ever!
Why did I resist getting a kitchen scale for so long? I had no idea it would make such a big difference. Now I will never go back!
Over the long Thanksgiving weekend I enjoyed a slow and thorough perusal on the Fedco and Seed Savers Exchange catalogs. So much “new” veg I’d like to try and grow! I’m always conflicted between whether to grow a lot of a few things or a little of a lot of things. I swing wildly back and forth from year to year. This year I’m swinging towards a lot of some things and a little of a few things. Maybe one day I will find the magical middle.
Sounds like the chief gave the smack down, though we shouldn’t have to consider it a smack down to remind officers to follow the law. That should be, like, normal police stuff.
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Right Melanie? But then my police department was also responsible for the murder of George Floyd as well as several other black men, so reminders are required, sadly.
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You have many reasons to be proud of your city and your neighbors! I am so sorry you (and everyone in America )has to deal with this ongoing, unconscionable atrocity.
Delicious looking bread! I’m glad the scale has been such a help to you.
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Thank you Laila!
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The ICE situation is so infuriating and sad, not what other countries expected from America.
The bread looks yummy, i wouldn’t mind taking some of it for my own sandwich today 😉
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Sadly there has always been a strain of anti-immigration in the U.S. but currently white nationalism and racism is blaring from all corners of the government. It is a great distraction to make people believe immigrants are the problem while the corrupt politicians and billionaires are destroying the country and making money hand over fist.
Thank you! The bread was delicious. A week of extra yummy sandwiches 🙂
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I’ve been wondering how you are getting on in Minneapolis, I’m so glad that people aren’t feeling too intimidated by it all.
I’ve never understood why US recipes don’t feature scales, and ‘a stick of butter’ I had to research that! Your bread looks great.
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Katrina! How are you? I’ve been thinking about you lately. Are you not blogging any longer? I hope you are well!
Heh, in the U.S. we buy butter that comes in a box with four sticks that are usually a cup each if I am remembering correctly since it has been a long time since I’ve bought butter. So when a recipe says stick of butter everyone knows what that means. And the wrappers have measurements on them too, so if the recipe says half or a third, you just use the measurements on the stick wrapper. We are weird here! 😀
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Go Minneapolis go! /pompoms
The lyrics for that song are so pointed: love it. Thanks for sharing the vid. Also, the the comedians have really been rocking it, since 2016. #essentialservices
It’s funny, isn’t it, when one gets so myopic about not-buying, that we actually miss things that are truly useful, but at least you’ve got your scale now, and are putting it to good use.
We are planning to try another sourdough experiment over the break, BTW.
I might not be online much once I’ve shut the lid on work, so Happy Solstice in advance, to you and yours and the chickens, and, yes, the bunnies, to whom I’m lossing some carrot greens and groundcherries, outside your fencing ! ❤
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Isn’t it a great song?
So true about the not buying thing! James was down to two pairs of socks before he realized that maybe he needed to buy a few more 😀 Good luck with your sourdough experiment! Let me know how it goes! Happy Solstice you and yours! I hope you have /had a wonderful celebration!
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Oh, I hadn’t seen that. We do watch some Colbert but we don’t always catch them all. I loved some of the comments on YouTube too, recognising his bravery.
Your bread looks great, and I love your kitchen scale epiphany. I am a bit of a kitchen utensil (and certainly kitchen appliance – I mean, who needs a rice cooker when a saucepan on the stove does perfectly well?) refuser too. But I am realising that some utensils really do make a difference to the result and to the ease of cooking and preparation. They don’t have to be fancy – though a good digital scale is worth it I think – but the right one for the right task is worth it.
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Heh WG, I never watch Colbert because it is on past my bedtime so I only ever see clips after the fact on YouTube 😀
The right tool for the job is amazing when it comes to the kitchen. I thought the same thing about rice cookers until a Japanese friend told me about the Japanese-made rice cooker he uses and we have never looked back. Perfect rice every single time, and it cooks cereals too and has a timer. A kitchen scale, a rice cooker, a blender and a food processor, and a waffle maker pretty much covers all the bases now I think, though I admit to being extremely attracted to those pasta maker things but I’m not likely to get one even if James does one day decide to start making our own pasta.
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Colbert is on at weird times here, but we record it. Friends laugh at our recording practice, but for things on commercial free-to-air stations or at weird times it’s very useful. We don’t watch them all, and often we don’t watch the guests unless we know them, just the monologue intro.
I’m still not convinced about the rice maker, but then I don’t have a lot of room for appliances in our down-sized kitchen. BUT scales, food processor, stick blender, and mixmaster (stand mixer??) are my appliances. Oh, and a toaster.
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I don’t have a TV so can’t record anything, but Youtube is a pretty reliable source for clips of monologues, etc. 🙂
With limited space you definitely have to make choices regarding kitchen appliances. We are definitely at our limit in our small kitchen. We used to have a soy milk maker that was fantastic but it wore out after a couple of years because we used it so much. For space reasons, we decided to not replace it and just make our soy and oat milk in the microwave and blender. It’s a little more work because it isn’t an all-in-one thing, but it’s not hard and is one less appliance to worry about. Now that I think about it, when the soy milk maker died is when we got the marvelous rice cooker. 😀
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