Daily Reformer: It was an occupation

Good morning, Reformers, 

Vance Boelter will be sentenced today in the killing of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark and the shooting of Sen. John Hoffman and wife Yvette. 

Those of us who likened Operation Metro Surge to a siege or an occupation were right all along, according to new CNN reporting, which relies on both named and unnamed sources who previously worked in the Minnesota U.S. attorney’s office, many who departed in protest.

“From the beginning, DHS conducted the operation in a paramilitary posture,” Tom Calhoun-Lopez, an Army veteran and former federal prosecutor, told CNN. “It had all the appearance and the mentality of a military occupation, and the ethos was they would subdue the state.”

Another striking — but by now unsurprising — finding of the reporting is that prosecutors were frustrated with immigration agents routinely lying.

I wrote up the highlights. 

In other news: The GOP primary for governor has turned into a real race, both because President Donald Trump endorsed Mike Lindell, and now because the pillow mogul has surrendered his momentum by releasing a dovish immigration plan, including a worker visa program. 

Undocumented workers would be eligible to stay and continue working — and, importantly, continue paying taxes — but would have no path to citizenship and would be ineligible for the social safety net programs those tax dollars fun like Social Security and Medicare. 

It codifies undocumented people as permanent outsiders, but it would end the brutal deportation campaign and, in doing so, also help undocumented workers assert their rights on the job.

Whoopsie though: The governor of Minnesota has no role in immigration policy. And he’s already getting attacked by one of his rivals, House Speaker Lisa Demuth, who released a statement: “Amnesty for illegals will only make Minnesota more of a magnet — I would expect this from Amy Klobuchar and Tim Walz, but I’m surprised to see it coming from a fellow GOP candidate for governor.” 

Right-wing Alpha News says accusingly that Lindell’s immigration white paper “repeatedly refers to illegal aliens as ‘undocumented immigrants.’” 

As if he cussed in church. 

Lindell has now deleted his tweet announcing the plan.

Progressive fiscal nerds will note that Lindell relies on the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy for some of his data. Welcome aboard, Mike! 

To the news:

Forgive some extra Odyssey discourse but I’ll take you in a different direction. 

I’ve long loved (and forgive me if I’ve already shared) the Tennyson poem “Ulysses,” which I came to via Ted Kennedy. 

I used to watch the flawed liberal’s 1980 concession speech on YouTube for its oratorical elegance and power, and he recites a few passages of Tennyson: 

“Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

Have a great day all! JPC