Stephen Miller and his pals want medicine to be racist again

While Stephen Miller is busy directing a terror campaign across America in an attempt to implement his white supremacist vision for the country, the law firm he founded - America First Legal - is working to inject racism back into medicine .Yes, you read that right. Here's the backstory.

For decades, the test used to determine whether a patient is eligible for a kidney transplant (GFR) was modified for Black people to artificially elevate their kidney function scores by 16-21% based on flawed assumptions about higher muscle mass. One study estimated that without that race correction, 3.3 million more Black Americans would have been diagnosed with a higher stage of chronic kidney disease. 

It wasn't until 2022 that UNOS, the organization that manages the kidney donor list, ordered hospitals to use only race-neutral test results in adding new patients to the kidney waiting list. But they took it a step further.

The transplant network gave hospitals a year to uncover which Black kidney candidates could have qualified for a new kidney sooner if not for the race-based test — and adjust their waiting time to make up for it...Between January 2023 and mid-March [2024], more than 14,300 Black kidney transplant candidates have had their wait times modified, by an average of two years.

It's that last part that has white supremacists lighting their hair on fire about DEI initiatives in the Biden administration.

Mr. Biden’s health czars discovered “systemic racism” everywhere they turned, and their remedy for this malady was to impose reparations. They granted preferential treatment to certain ethnic groups when they needed an operation to replace their kidneys...this meant paying less attention to the 40,000 white men and women who are just as desperate for the chance to stay alive.

“With thousands of Americans dying on transplant waitlists each year, the public has a right to full transparency into how this program was created, because discrimination has no place in medicine,” AFL attorney Megan Redshaw said in a statement.

Did you catch that? What they're suggesting is that any attempt to remedy discrimination is, in fact, discrimination. As I wrote previously, "They aren't just attempting to roll back civil rights protections. They're claiming that any move to enforce civil rights is discrimination" against white men. A simpler way of putting it would be to say "they're using the concept of civil rights to enforce white supremacy." Stephen Miller and his pals at AFL want medicine to be racist again.

Dr. Oz does his best imitation of Nick Shirley

On December 25, 2025, right wing podcaster Nick Shirley released a video full of lies about fraud in Minnesota daycare centers. Trump responded by launching Operation Metro Surge - which has now turned into a nightmare for his administration. 

The president and his MAGA allies desperately want to turn the national narrative back to allegations of fraud in Minnesota. As part of that effort, Dr. Oz, who is in charge of Medicare and Medicaid services, travelled to the state with his buddy, Jim O'Neill (HHS Deputy Secretary) and did their best to imitate Nick Shirley.  

🚨 BREAKING: Dr. Oz and Jim O’Neill said they discovered a former linen factory in Minnesota that was converted into 400 Medicaid businesses, generating nearly half a billion dollars. 🤯

pic.twitter.com/as3BquX2i4

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) January 23, 2026

This effort would be humorous if it weren't so tragic. Almost everything Dr. Oz said is a lie. For example, the Griggs-Midway building was originally a food manufacturing plant when it was built in 1912 - not a linen factory. It was converted into an office building in 1955. 

While it is true that there is an industrial area to the northwest of the building, it is surrounded by residential areas to the west and south. 

 

I know about this building because it used to house one of the best Vietnamese restaurants in the city. It has also been home to state and public offices including the Ramsey County Workforce Center, MN Department of Human Rights, MN State Arts Board, and Public Defenders. It's a hub for government, nonprofits, and small businesses.

One of Dr. Oz's statements is particularly problematic for Twin Cities residents. The Griggs-Midway building is in St. Paul - not Minneapolis. Those of us who have lived in the former find this kind of confusion particularly troublesome. 

But let's get to the heart of the matter. Here's the big lie:

Roughly 400 Medicaid businesses were started in the building behind me over the last several years. They generated about $380 million of billing that you, the taxpayer, were putting up. That means roughly every business had a million dollars of billing...

The question is, how is it possible 400 businesses billing almost $400 million were able to thrive here? What did the owener of this building think was happeing inside? Why did no one in the state think this was a concern?

I have no idea where the allegation of 400 Medicaid businesses billing almost $400 million comes from. But here's what happened back in July 2025.

FBI agents on Wednesday raided five Twin Cities businesses and two homes as part of an investigation into Medicaid housing assistance fraud...

Twenty-two purported providers have business addresses at the Griggs-Midway Building on University Ave. in St. Paul. They collectively billed taxpayers $8 million over 17 months and used fake documentation to back their claims, the FBI alleges.

By September 2025, four of the five businesses targeted in the raid were charged in federal court. The fifth business was charged in December. While Dr. Oz wonders why no one is concerned, the truth is that state and federal officials have been on the case for months now. As all of that was unfolding, Gov. Walz completely shut down the housing assistance fund in October last year. 

The good doctor ends his nonsense with this:

There has been a censoring of the truth, and an inability to own what is happening in this state that is concerning to me. They talk about being "nice" in Minnesota, I want to be nice too, but a good person doesn't always have to be nice. They have to be truthful and honest.

Excuse me while I get a little blunt here, but - much like his pal Nick Shirley - Dr. Oz wouldn't know the truth if it bit him in the *ss. 

Why did the Trump administration target Minnesota?

The question in my title is one a lot of people are asking, but not many in the media are addressing. As I've pondered it, I've come up with four reasons.

First of all, Donald Trump is a racist. He wants to rid the country of people from places he calls "shithole countries." Given that Minnesota is home to the largest number of Somali residents, the state became a target when Nick Shirley posted his video with lies about fraud in Somali-run daycare centers.

Secondly, the state's governor, Tim Walz, became an enemy when he ran for vice-president on a ticket with Kamala Harris.

Thirdly, Trump lost Minnesota in all three of his presidential campaigns. As a matter of fact, the state hasn't voted for a Republican in a presidential race since 1972. 

I'm going to let Timothy Snider explain the fourth reason.

To give you some idea of what Snyder is talking about, Gov. Tim Walz posted this on Facebook last October:

Just this year, Minnesota has ranked:
A top 10 state for safety.
A top 5 state to live in.
A top 3 state for jobs.
A top 3 state to retire.
The 2nd best state to raise a family.
The 2nd best state for children. 

A bet against Minnesota is a bad bet.

As an example, WalletHub recently rated Minnesota as the second best state to raise a family. Their ranking included measures like affordability, safety, strong job opportunities, and access to quality education, healthcare, and entertainment. Here's what they wrote about Minnesota:

Minnesota is a great place to find a job to support your family, as it has the second-highest median family income, at over $109,000, adjusted for the cost of living. It also has the second-lowest poverty rate for families and the eighth-lowest wealth gap between the lowest and highest earners. In addition to good pay, residents also receive reliable long-term benefits, as Minnesota ranks 13th in the country for employer-based retirement plan access and participation.

Another great thing about raising a family in the Land of 10,000 Lakes is what it can do for your children’s health. The state has the fifth-highest life expectancy at birth and the sixth-best public hospitals in the country. It also encourages children to stay fit amid the obesity epidemic, as it has the eighth-highest percentage of children who live in neighborhoods with a park or playground.

To top things off, families tend to stay together in Minnesota, as it has the fifth-lowest separation and divorce rate in the country.

Also worth noting is that Minnesota consistently rates at the top in terms of voter turnout. 

The history that contributed to Minnesota being a state that works has been documented by many people. I've written about it a couple of times in the past myself. I would also point out that, while the rest of the country was still recovering from the COVID pandemic, state and federal officials were already investigating fraud in the Feed Our Future program. Similarly, state and federal officials began investigating fraud in daycare centers over a decade ago. Can you name a state that has done a better job of prosecuting fraud?

The occupation of Minnesota has been an attempt to destroy a state that works. But ironically, everything that contributes to that success has also contributed to the failure of Operation Metro Surge. Adam Serwer captured it best in an article titled, "Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong."

In Minnesota, all of the ideological cornerstones of MAGA have been proved false at once. Minnesotans, not the armed thugs of ICE and the Border Patrol, are brave. Minnesotans have shown that their community is socially cohesive—because of its diversity and not in spite of it. Minnesotans have found and loved one another in a world atomized by social media, where empty men have tried to fill their lonely soul with lies about their own inherent superiority. Minnesotans have preserved everything worthwhile about “Western civilization,” while armed brutes try to tear it down by force.

As Gov. Walz said, "a bet against Minnesota is a bad bet." 

The entire ICE operation in Minnesota is based on lies

A few days before Alex Pretti was murdered, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem released a ridiculous statement.

We have arrested over 10,000 criminal illegal aliens who were killing Americans, hurting children and reigning terror in Minneapolis because Tim Walz and Jacob Frey refuse to protect their own people and instead protect criminals. In the last 6 weeks, our brave DHS law enforcement have arrested 3,000 criminal illegal aliens including vicious murderers, rapists, child pedophiles, and incredibly dangerous individuals. A huge victory for public safety.

The numbers can't be verified because DHS won't release all of the names of those that have been arrested. What they HAVE done is release the names of 240 individuals they call "the worst of the worst." As I noted previously, the Minnesota Star Tribune analyzed the list and found that those with actual felonies were either in federal prisons (managed by federal - not state - authorities) or were transferred to ICE when their prison sentences were completed. 

But the lies coming from DHS about their operations in Minnesota have become so ubiquitous that the state Department of Corrections has developed a web page, "Combatting DHS Misinformation" to document them. Here's what they wrote about Noem's claims:

DHS’s “Worst of the Worst” (WOW) website...allows users to search by state and city for “criminal illegal aliens that have been removed from their state.”

DOC quickly identified 68 cases in which individuals were lawfully transferred from Minnesota Department of Corrections custody directly to ICE, only for DHS officials to falsely claim these same individuals were “arrested” by waves of federal agents deployed into Minnesota communities...

What is troubling is DHS taking credit for “arrests” which are, in reality, state-to-federal handoffs occurring at prison facilities after individuals complete their state terms of imprisonment, as has been the long-standing practice.

Again, DOC is compelled to release this information because DHS continues to rely on these misrepresentations to justify expanded federal operations in Minnesota.

As just one example, Bovino said that the operation that was underway when Alex Pretti was shot involved a criminal illegal alien with a violent rap sheet that included domestic assault involving intentional bodily harm. 

MN DOC officials reviewed public records and found "no felony commitments associated with this individual." Here's what they DID find:

DOC records further indicate that an individual by this name was previously held in federal immigration custody in a local Minnesota jail in 2018, during President Trump’s first administration. Any decisions regarding release from federal custody at that time would have been made by federal authorities. DOC has no information explaining why this individual was released.

So Bovino and his thugs were out trying to track down someone the Trump administration had released from federal immigration custody in 2018. Furthermore, the individual in question is Ecuadorian - which might explain why ICE agents attempted to illegally enter the Ecuadorian consulate in Minneapolis on Tuesday. 

It is important for all of us to recognize that the Trump administration isn't just lying about the murder of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. They're lying about the entire operation in Minnesota. They make up numbers about how many people have been arrested and claim they're deporting the "worst of the worst" when what they're really doing is simply what has always been done: those in prison who are undocumented are being turned over to ICE to be deported once their prison sentences are complete.

Meanwhile the entire population of the state is being terrorized by agents randomly grabbing folks because of the color of their skin or the sound of their accent in the hopes of finding someone who is undocumented to fill the quota set by Stephen Miller.  

Why MAGA will never understand Minnesota

On Memorial Day 2017, Donald Trump and his then-chief of staff John Kelly went to Arlington Cemetery. After visiting the grave of Kelly's son Robert, who was killed in Afghanistan, Trump said, "I don't get it. What was in it for them?" More than anything else he's ever said, that gives us a window into the perverted soul of the man who is currently the president.

Donald Trump and his MAGA administration literally don't have a clue about what it means to sacrifice for your neighbors or your country. That's precisely why they'll never understand Alex Pretti, Renee Good, or anyone else who is standing up against the tyranny we're witnessing. 

I am reminded of something Sun Tzu, wrote in The Art of War.

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

For years now it's been clear that the only play Donald Trump and Stephen Miller know is dominance. They spread fear and assume we'll cower in response to force. That isn't how things are playing out in Minnesota. The more they terrorize, the more the resistance grows.

One of the hallmarks of sociopaths like Trump and Miller is the inability to experience empathy - which is defined as the ability to perceive another person's perspective. Meanwhile, MAGA is being told that empathy is toxic, a sin, the feminization of our culture (as if that's a bad thing), and the fundamental weakness of Western civilization. That makes it impossible for them to incorporate Sun Tzu's advice about "knowing your enemy." 

What MAGA substitutes for empathy is projection - the mental process in which an individual attributes their own internal thoughts, beliefs, emotions, experiences, and personality traits to another person or group. So Renee Good and Alex Pretti become "domestic terrorists" and protesters become "paid agitators" while MAGA continues with its fantasy that increased fear and terror will result in compliance.

That's the cycle we're in now. It's the same one that we witnessed between Sheriff Bull Connor and civil rights protesters. The former assumed that fire hoses, dogs, and jails would subdue those fighting for their rights. It didn't work. Instead, too many white people got disgusted with the tactics of terror and supported the end of Jim Crow. 

I'm still wrestling with questions about why so much of this is playing out in my home state of Minnesota. Perhaps I'll write about that soon. But I DO know something about why it's not going as Stephen Miller planned. Here's something that showed up on my Facebook page about a week after Renee Good was murdered (emphasis mine):

Winter teaches you quickly that survival is collective. You pay attention. You intervene. You do not leave people stranded. Ever.

In Minnesota, ice is something you learn to negotiate together. You slow down. You help. You know how easily things can go wrong if you don’t.

That’s why this other ICE feels like such a violation of who we are.

In Minnesota, we don’t solve danger by making it worse. We don’t respond to fear by escalating it. We show up. We de-escalate. We get each other home.

So yes, we will keep saying Renee Good’s name. We will help our immigrant neighbors. We will bear witness.

Because this is how we survive here.

People who lack empathy will NEVER understand that. They'll never understand that Renee Good and Alex Pretti (along with the 50,000 who marched on Friday) simply wanted their neighbors to be treated humanely. Instead, Trump would wonder "what's in it for them?" 

Fact checking Trump's "worst of the worst"

At a press conference on Tuesday, President Trump held up pictures of some of the "worst of the worst" criminals that ICE has arrested in Minnesota. They come from a list publicized by the Department of Homeland Security.

Thanks to the Minnesota Star Tribune, we now have data on what those numbers represent for Operation Metro Surge in this state. Federal officials say they’ve arrested 3,000 immigrants in Minnesota.

They've only released the names of 240 (7%) of those arrested and described as the "worst of the worst." Of those:

• 70 have felony convictions for violent crimes. For example, one man, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2005 and has been in prison, was released and deported in October - before Metro Surge started.
• 70 have been in Minnesota serving time in federal prison. Federal policies require immigrants who commit crimes to serve their sentences before being deported. ICE is aware they are in custody and can deport them upon release.
• 48 violated immigration law by re-entering the U.S. after deportation.
• 12 had petty misdemeanor offenses like traffic tickets.
• 12 had no state record of past convictions or prison sentences.
• Others had criminal histories that are decades old and have completed their sentences.

In other words, after all of the terror being inflicted on this state, the best that can be said about deporting criminals is that ICE has arrested about 50 immigrants who either re-entered the U.S. after deportation or have committed petty misdemeanor offenses. The remainder of the "worst of the worst" would have either been deported regardless of the surge, or there is no history of criminal activity. 

Trump used the accusations of fraud in Minnesota to implement the surge targeted at Somalis. The problem the administration faced with that goal is that only about 5,000 Somalis in this state (with a population of 5.8 million) are not citizens. That figure includes people here through other legal means, such as permanent residents and green card holders.

Overall the number of undocumented immigrants in Minnesota is very small.

Finding that less than 1% is pretty close to the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack. When so few of that 1% are violent criminals (most of whom the state or federal government has already prosecuted), snatching brown/black people off the street or at gas stations is obviously not an effective strategy. 

None of that has stopped this administration from terrorizing the entire state. So I'll take a hard pass on all of this having anything to do with either immigration or crime.

ICE is terrorizing an "All American City"

It's important to understand that ICE hasn't just invaded the Twin Cities metro area. They're also in places like the town of Willmar, MN, which is about 100 miles west of Minneapolis. For example:

Federal agents detained three workers from a family-owned Mexican restaurant in Willmar, Minn., on Jan. 15, hours after four agents ate lunch there...

An eyewitness who declined to give a name for fear of retribution, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that four ICE agents sat in a booth for a meal at El Tapatio restaurant a little before 3 p.m. Staff at the restaurant were frightened, said the eyewitness, who shared pictures from the restaurant as well as video of the arrest.

The arrest happened around 8:30 p.m. near a Lutheran church and Willmar Middle School as agents followed the workers after they closed up for the night.

Here's a personal account of another abduction from Facebook: 

My husband was kidnapped tonight by ICE.

He is a born and raised Willmar, Minnesotan. Officers rushed his car. He gave his ID and complied. Without running his license, he was slammed against the car, hand cuffed, and thrown in a vehicle and was taken. They must have finally ran his ID 1/4 mile down the road, because they pulled in a parking lot, uncuffed him, threw him out of the car and threw his ID at him and took off. He then had to walk back to his car to drive back to work. 

This is wrong. This is terrifying. This is completely unjust. I am full of rage and terror. This must stop. ICE does not care what you look like. They are taking everyone and asking questions after kidnapping.

Immigrants have been a vital part of Willmar for decades. Latinos first came as agricultural workers in the 1920s and settled in the town to work at the turkey-processing company, Jennie-O. In the 1990s, Somalis joined other immigrant groups working in the same plant. Here's an interesting perspective on that from Willmar's former mayor, Les Heitke.

Coincidentally, the founder of Jennie-O—Earl B. Olson—had an immigrant background himself, being the son of Swedish émigrés. Thus, as Heitke points out, the current influx of Somali and Latino immigrants into Willmar is by no means an unprecedented trend. Rather, it can be understood as a continuation of the city's long history of immigration. According to Heitke, the area started out as a service center for passing trains and was settled by immigrants working on the railroad. As time passed, businesses sprang up and the community grew...Somalis are only the most recent addition.

In 2005, Willmar received the "All-America City" designation from the National Civic League for outstanding civic accomplishments. Then, in 2006, this happened:

From that video, here's a still shot of the moment I teared up.

In 2019, NYT columnist Thomas Friedman visited Willmar and invited Donald Trump to do the same, stating that diversity was the lifeblood of the town. 

America is actually a checkerboard of towns and cities — some rising from the bottom up and others collapsing from the top down, ravaged by opioids, high unemployment among less-educated white males and a soaring suicide rate. I’ve been trying to understand why some communities rise and others fall — and so many of the answers can be found in Willmar.

Eight years later, when Trump referred to Minnesota Somalis as "garbage," a woman from Willmar invited friends to join her for lunch at a local Somali restaurant as a way of showing support for their neighbors. Here's what happened:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jenny Groen (@jenmgroen)

This is an example of just one community being terrorized by ICE in Minnesota. 

Why MAGA does't understand us

Here's what Renee Good's wife, Becca Good, wrote about her:

[I]f you ever encountered my wife, Renee Nicole Macklin Good, you know that above all else, she was kind. In fact, kindness radiated out of her.

Renee sparkled. She literally sparkled. I mean, she didn’t wear glitter but I swear she had sparkles coming out of her pores. All the time. You might think it was just my love talking but her family said the same thing. Renee was made of sunshine.

Here's what Renee's family had to say about her: 

 

It would be understandable to assume they were exaggerating...until you saw the video of Renee saying "That's fine, dude. I'm not mad at you" to the officer who murdered her seconds later. Calmness and kindness did, indeed, radiate from her.

That didn't stop Trump from describing her as "very radical,” “very violent,” and “highly disrespectful” toward law enforcement. For MAGA, Renee is representative of everything they believe to be true of those who protest: we're paid operatives, domestic terrorists, and radical leftists who hate America. 

Regardless of whether they're intentionally lying or really believe all of that, it is a gross misunderstanding of what is happening. Without empathy, all these MAGA folks have is projections, leaving them clueless about us. That's especially true when it comes to Minnesotans. 

For example, today I saw a gorgeous post on Facebook. Here's a bit of it:

I grew up in Texas. But I’ve lived in Minnesota for more than twenty years, long enough to know what it asks of people and what it quietly gives back.

I don’t love the cold. I especially hate the ice. But I love what the cold has made necessary.

She went on to describe her own personal experiences of getting stuck in the snow/ice and the strangers who came to her aid. Then she wrote this (emphasis mine):

Winter teaches you quickly that survival is collective. You pay attention. You intervene. You do not leave people stranded. Ever.

In Minnesota, ice is something you learn to negotiate together. You slow down. You help. You know how easily things can go wrong if you don’t.

That’s why this other ICE feels like such a violation of who we are.

In Minnesota, we don’t solve danger by making it worse. We don’t respond to fear by escalating it. We show up. We de-escalate. We get each other home.

I was reminded of something that happened about a month ago in a residential area of the Twin Cities when a bus got stuck in the snow. A man who was walking his dog saw what was happening and went home to get his truck and shovel. As he began shoveling, the entire neighborhood showed up to help. 

So is it any wonder that, when our friends/neighbors are under attack from ICE we offer any kind of support we can?

Of course we're angry - even rageful. But here's what Rebecca Solnit wrote about that a few months ago:

[B]ehind that rage is care...you are angry the children are being bombed or the forest is being cleared because you care about them, so it’s not the feelings about the forces of destruction that is primary. It’s the love, and not losing sight of that is crucial.

Stephen Miller, who is obviously the mastermind behind the fascist invasion of my home state, recently told Jake Tapper that "we live in a world, in the real world, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power." That is why he and his MAGA followers will never understand what is happening in Minnesota. We know that survival is collective...and we're intent on sticking together. 

How Trump is radicalizing Minnesota (and America)

Two years ago, Rep. Angie Craig was one of fourteen Democrats who joined Republicans in voting for a non-binding resolution "Denouncing the Biden administration’s open-borders policies, condemning the national security and public safety crisis along the southwest border, and urging President Biden to end his administration’s open-borders policies." 

Craig had won re-election in 2022 with only 50.9% of the vote in one of the only swing districts left in Minnesota. So, leading up to the 2024 election, she seems to have felt the need appeal to the anti-immigrant vibe sweeping the nation. 

Fast forward two years and we are in the midst of an invasion of Minnesota by the Trump administration based on the notion that there is a need to sweep up immigrants, deny them due process, and deport them. It has resulted in the murder of a 37 year-old mother. 

I was struck by how much Craig has changed her tune. Here she is with Ali Velschi after being denied access to an ICE detention facility. You can tell that she's really pissed - especially with her reference to "ICE Barbie." 

  

I was reminded that this was one of my favorite signs from the No Kings demonstration.

In that sense, Craig - a natural centrist - has been radicalized by the actions of this administration. I suspect that's true of a lot of Minnesotans (and perhaps Americans in general).

Donald Trump is too ignorant to understand that the harder he comes at us, the harder we fight back!

Why MAGA lies work

I said my "thank you" to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and support him in making the decision to not seek reelection - especially given that his daughter Hope has affirmed that his family's safety was a factor in that decision.  

But from a purely political standpoint, I disagree with Ed Kilgore, who wrote that it was a wise move by Walz.

[A] burgeoning scandal involving fraud in pandemic-era child care and Medicaid initiatives in Minnesota had become a huge national GOP talking point, reinforcing MAGA narratives of criminal immigrants entering the U.S. to rip off taxpayers and prey on law-abiding citizens. It guaranteed a 2026 gubernatorial campaign fought on exactly the wrong grounds for Walz and his party, offering a big blue-state upset opportunity for Republicans.

Kilgore is right that this story became a huge national talking point. As I wrote previously, it gave MAGA an opportunity to attack Walz, demonize immigrants, and go after this country's social safety net. The Democratic Party should never back down from those fights. 

A former associate of mine, Nekima Levy Armstrong, articulated the issue very well.

Watching Democrats repeatedly step aside under political and media pressure has become deeply dispiriting. Not because controversy doesn’t matter, but because the party continues to treat it as fatal rather than something to confront and survive. In a political climate where attacks are constant and often deliberately manufactured, this reflex doesn’t signal integrity. It signals vulnerability...

When Democrats respond to bad-faith attacks by retreating, they don’t just lose candidates. They legitimize the tactic. They teach voters that propaganda works, that cruelty carries no cost, and that marginalized communities can be used as political weapons without consequence. Whatever the intentions, the cumulative effect is strategic capitulation.

In case you doubt what she's saying, just take a look at that screenshot of Nick Shirley's latest video up above. The lying racists are claiming victory. And if you think that's the end of it, take a look at how the right is ramping up the same claims in Maine against Gov. Janet Mills. Or the fact that MAGA influencer Benny Johnson just announced that "Next week our team is traveling to the fraud capital of the world: California. The fraud uncovered in Minnesota was very bad and led to the destruction of Tim Walz’ career. But Gavin Newsom’s California is far worse."

This isn't about blaming Walz for his decision. But where were Democrats and major media outlets in calling out the racism/lies. All some intrepid journalist would have to do is actually watch the video represented by that screenshot up above and they'd hear a constant stream of hateful Islamophobia and outright lies. And yet most media outlets stood by and let these assholes take down one of the most accomplished governors in the country - while liberal pundits claim that retreating from our core values was a wise move. 

 I felt the same frustration when President Biden stepped aside. I'll now re-write what I said previously:

The truth is that Tim Walz's governorship was a tremendous success. There is a reason why that poses a big threat to Trump and Republicans.

Republicans want Democrats on their heels apologizing for Tim Walz because, as the Trump administration focuses on undoing everything Democrats have accomplished, they want to ensure that no governor in the future tries to replicate it.

I, for one, will not capitulate to that nonsense and I'll call out any Democrat who does. What Tim Walz accomplished in office was a huge step forward for this state. I'm not only grateful to him personally, I proudly embrace his vision of making the government work for ordinary Americans.

Democrats should NOT adopt the same smear campaigns as Republicans. But what we CAN do is stand up and fight for each other when one of our own is under attack. That's what teamwork is all about. I really don't understand why Democrats (not just elected officials and party leaders, but pundits and voters too) are so bad at that.

Thank you Gov. Walz

I am both angry and sad to learn that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will not run for re-election. 

The anger I feel is because the firehose of lies about Walz and my home state seem to have worked. I don't fault Walz for getting out - he and his family have been dealing with this sh*t for years now. They deserve a break. I blame every MAGA who jumped on the bandwagon - regardless of whether they were motivated by Walz himself, their hatred of immigrants, their desire to dismantle our social safety net, or all three.

But there is a sadness about all of this as well. That's because, over the years, I've come to respect Tim Walz and his family. The Minnesota Indivisible Alliance captured a lot of the reasons why.

Tim Walz didn’t enter politics chasing power. He came in because the kids he taught forced him to think that he— a teacher, a Guardsman, a coach —owed the country something. He won a deep-red congressional district by showing up and listening.

When he ran for governor, he ran on steadiness, competence, and “One Minnesota” on the promise that there was no we/them but one us. ..

In 2022, reelection and a Democratic trifecta allowed him to get stuff done. Allied with Melissa Hortman and Kari Dzic they got: abortion rights codified into law, expanded paid family and medical leave, universal free school meals, and gun safety measures. Hard, quiet work that improved lives.

Then Kamala Harris picked Walz to be her running mate in 2024, bringing us moments like this:

That election will go down in history as one of the biggest mistakes this country has ever made. I didn't know that this happened after that loss:

After the [VP] run, Tim Walz had been thinking about stepping away. In private conversations with Melissa Hortman, he confided he was considering not running again in 2026 and urged her to consider doing so. After her sudden death, he carried on.

That makes this moment at a vigil for Hortman even more poignant.

I join MN Indivisible in this:

So we close this chapter of his life by saying, while the country may remember the politician, we’ll remember the neighbors..

The guy walking his dog in the neighborhood.
The wife shopping in local stores.
The daughter working at a homeless shelter.
The son playing volleyball with joy.

The man cheering on marathoners, reading to kids, stopping for a Juicy Lucy — moments that remind us behind every public image are real people living real lives.

So this is a thank you.
For serving our country
For carrying a job that changed underneath him and not walking away.

From me, this one goes out to the Walz family today:

 

Remembering Obama's legacy in Central and South America, now trashed by Trump

Trump's invasion of Venezuela has reminded me that I came of age during the Cold War - with stories of Korea, Vietnam, and Central/South America dominating our foreign policy. Here's what I wrote about that back in 2016:

I haven’t forgotten what this country has gotten wrong in the past. There was a legitimate clash of ideologies between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. And the specter of nuclear war was terrifying. But in many ways those threats became tangled with global corporate interests and a lack of awareness about the impending death of colonialism. In the process, millions of people all over the planet had their lives upended and damaged by our interventions.

Having lived in Peru for the first six years of my life, I was particularly attuned to the atrocities this country perpetrated in Central and South America. That is why, in the spring of 2011, this photo grabbed my attention: 

On a trip to El Salvador, the President of the United States visited the grave of Archbishop Oscar Romero, who spoke out against repression by the U.S.-backed Salvadoran army during the 12-year civil war that killed at least 75,000 people. Romero was fatally shot in the heart March 24, 1980, as he celebrated Mass in a hospital chapel. 

During that same trip, Obama visited then-Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. 

After a U.S. backed coup in 1964, Rousseff was imprisoned and tortured by a military that had been trained at the infamous School of the Americas.

During one of his last foreign trips as president, Obama visited Argentina - creating this powerful moment:

That photo was taken on Argentina's “Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice” on the 40th anniversary of the 1976 coup that led to the brutal massacre of approximately 20,000 people. The U.S. backed junta that came into power organized death camps with methods that were reminiscent of the Nazi’s. One of the most common came to be known as “death flights,” where prisoners were injected with sedatives before being dropped from airplanes, still alive, into the Rio de la Plata. President Obama and then-Argentine President Mauricio Macri threw flowers into the river that became the watery grave for so many.

Even more significant, on that same trip, Obama became the first U.S. President to visit Cuba in nearly 90 years. 

That visit came on the heels of this:

The Cold War died Wednesday.

Its death was foretold, yet somehow it still came as a shock.

It didn’t expire on a bayside battlefield in the Caribbean or with a mushroom cloud or even with an exploding cigar. It perished at a White House podium.

The prisoner swap that set Alan Gross free — and the sweeping changes to U.S. policy on Cuba that went with it — won’t heal all wounds, nor will it vanquish the powerful cold warriors in the U.S. Congress. But it did fundamentally alter a curio of American foreign policy that deeply influenced popular culture and played an outsize role in U.S. presidential politics for more than half a century.

Here's some of what Obama said during his 2016 speech to the people of Cuba:

I know these issues are sensitive, especially coming from an American President. Before 1959, some Americans saw Cuba as something to exploit, ignored poverty, enabled corruption. And since 1959, we’ve been shadow-boxers in this battle of geopolitics and personalities. I know the history, but I refuse to be trapped by it...

So here’s my message to the Cuban government and the Cuban people: The ideals that are the starting point for every revolution – America’s revolution, Cuba’s revolution, the liberation movements around the world – those ideals find their truest expression, I believe, in democracy. Not because American democracy is perfect, but precisely because we’re not. And we – like every country – need the space that democracy gives us to change. It gives individuals the capacity to be catalysts to think in new ways, and to reimagine how our society should be, and to make them better.

A lot has happened in Central and South America over the last decade - not all of it good. But President Obama repaired much of the trust that had been justifiably lost over the atrocities we were involved with during the Cold War. 

Now the narcissistic felon is taking a sledge hammer to all of that - declaring U.S. dominance in the Western hemisphere. May he rot in hell for that. 

Foreign corporations are the ones that stole Venezuela's oil

During a press conference to announce the U.S. invasion of Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Maduro, Trump said that the country had seized and stolen "American oil, American assets, and American platforms, costing us billions and billions of dollars."  This echos things he's said in the past, demonstrating that the invasion had nothing to do with narco-trafficking and everything to do with taking over the world's largest known oil reserves.

As a country, we must now face the fact that, during the Cold War, U.S. proxy battles all over the globe (but especially in Central and South America) were framed as "good U.S. vs. bad USSR." As a result, many people are ignorant of the actual history.

When it comes to Venezuela, significant oil discoveries began in the 1920s. By the 1930s right-wing strongman Juan Vicente Gómez granted concessions (including generous kickbacks to himself and his cronies) that left three foreign oil companies - Shell, Gulf (Chevron), and Standard Oil - in control of 98% of the Venezuelan market. In other words, three companies (two of them American), seized 98% of Venezuela oil. 

By the 1940s, Venezuela began attempts to claw back these oil profits. For example, under President Isaías Medina Angarita, authorities approved a law in 1943 that required foreign oil companies to relinquish half their profits to the government.

Then, in 1975, President Carlos Andrés Pérez, a democratic socialist, signed a bill that nationalized Venezuela's oil industry. Here's what the New York Times reported a year later:

A year after nationalization of Venezuela's $5 billion petroleum industry, the foreign concerns that built and controlled it—principally ExXon, Royal Dutch/Shell, Mobil and Gulf—are receiving approximately $1 billion in compensation and continue to provide marketing outlets and technological aid under contract.

Although the industry accounted for one of the world's largest pools of foreign investment, the takeover, in contrast to the abrupt Chilean nationalization of American copper companies in the early 1970's, has been peaceful and orderly, following months of negotiations between the Government and the 22 foreign concessionaries.

These kinds of changes were happening all over the globe. 

[Venezuela] followed Mexico, Brazil and Saudi Arabia in a wave of resource nationalism aimed at trying to wrest control of energy resources, primarily from the United States, to achieve economic sovereignty.

Since the 1970s, Venezuela has had times when they extended partnerships with foreign oil companies and times when they pulled back. It is not necessary to support or condemn the actions of any one leader to understand that the critical change Trump is referring to happened 50 years ago when Venezuela took back what foreign oil companies had stolen from them.

What MAGA wants from the Minnesota fraud story

In January 2009, a headline in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel read: "Child-care scams rake in thousands." 

The newspaper spent four months investigating the $340 million taxpayer-financed child-care system known as Wisconsin Shares and uncovered a trail of phony companies, fake reports and shoddy oversight.

In response to the investigations that followed, the Minnesota legislature passed a law in 2013 that required the Department of Human Services to “investigate alleged or suspected financial misconduct by providers and errors related to payments issued by the child care assistance program.” In 2014, DHS created the CCAP Investigations Unit - named after the program that funds childcare services. 

An audit conducted by the state in 2019 showed that, over the course of the next five years, state a local prosecutors concluded at least 13 cases of fraud against childcare providers. That work is ongoing, as the local ABC affiliate reported a year ago. 

Minnesota Republicans were late to this story, forming a Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee in January 2025. Of course, that didn't stop the chair of that committee - Rep. Kristin Robbins (who is also running for governor against Tim Walz) - from going on Fox News to suggest that Walz has been derelict in his duty for seven years.

From House Speaker Lisa Demuth (also running against Walz) we've now learned that it was Republican staff from that state fraud prevention committee that fed information about day care centers to Nick Shirley via his partner David. 

So the picture is clear. Democrats under Governors Mark Dayton and Tim Walz have been proactive with investigations and prosecutions of fraud in state childcare centers. Meanwhile, Republicans used those investigations to claim non-existent fraud in an attempt to undermine Walz.

But Trump and his MAGA influencers aren't stopping there. They've tied this story to the three-year old one about fraud in the Feeding Our Future Program and Medicaid services. The end result is a demonization of Somali immigrants and claims that government safety net programs are all simply fraud magnets. As a threefer (undermine Walz, demonize immigrants, and trash safety net programs), perhaps you can see why they're so obsessed with this story. 

So let's debunk one other claim that is floating around. Last July, U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson was in the midst of investigating what turned out to be charges against eight individuals for alleged fraud of $10 million in Medicaid services. At the time, he speculated that "the scope of fraud in Minnesota government programs could exceed $1 billion." 

Five months later, Thompson announced charges against another six people alleging $11.6 million in Medicaid fraud. He went on to speculate that the total amount of fraud could be $9 billion. So from July to December, Thompson's claims jumped $8 billion.

As the Minnesota Star Tribune reported, "Thompson has not offered evidence to support the billion-dollar figure," so the news organization did their own tally based on court records, criminal charges and convictions. The figure they came up with so far is $218 million - recognizing that number will grow as investigations continue. 

I did a little calculation of my own: $218 million is 2.4% of $9 billion. So if I'm understanding the math right, charges and prosecutions would have to grow by 97.6% ($8.8 billion) over what has been uncovered in the last three years.

Gov. Tim Walz had it right when he responded by stating that there is no evidence for that number and that it is simply speculation for sensationalism. In other words, the point is to investigate and prosecute those responsible for committing crimes. The rest is nothing more than outrage clickbait (what MAGA does best).

The first Trump administration facilitated the biggest pandemic fraud in the country

One of the things I'm noticing in all the coverage of the "Minnesota fraud" issue is that it is common to hear reporters refer to it as the largest pandemic fraud in the country. Given that the Minnesota Star Tribune has documented $218 million of fraud currently being prosecuted, it's worth taking a moment to check that claim.

In March 2020, the CARES Act was passed and signed by President Trump. Included were loan programs (Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans) administered by the Small Business Administration that would be forgiven if borrowers fulfilled the requirements of how the money was to be used. 

In June 2023, the SBA Inspector General issued a report that included the following (emphasis mine):

We estimate that SBA disbursed over $200 billion in potentially fraudulent COVID-19 EIDLs, EIDL Targeted Advances, Supplemental Targeted Advances, and PPP loans.

In a previous report, this is what they found:

SBA did not have an organizational structure with clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and processes to manage and handle potentially fraudulent PPP loans across the program. In addition, the agency did not establish a centralized entity to design, lead, and manage fraud risk. 

While it is important to note that the IG was reporting "potential fraud," it's clear that the actual number would dwarf anything we're currently seeing in Minnesota.

But it gets worse. According to the non-partisan watchdog Project on Government Oversight, as these loans were distributed, some were marked with red flags as being at high risk for fraud so that they could be more closely assessed before being forgiven. But here's what happened:

The data obtained by POGO appears to show mass close-outs of 2.7 million flags on two separate days near the end of the Trump administration. On a third day shortly before President Joe Biden’s inauguration, the SBA cleared out 99.1% of “special review” flags, almost entirely assigned to the very largest PPP loans above $2 million.

On the infamous date of January 6, 2021, the Trump administration removed the red flag warnings on 99% of loans over $2 million - almost guaranteeing that they would be forgiven. In other words, Trump isn't just extorting fraudsters for pardons, his administration actually facilitated the largest pandemic fraud during his first term. 

All of that is why I was enraged when I saw that the current SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler wrote a letter to MN Gov. Tim Walz announcing that she was cutting off all SBA funding to Minnesota because the state "failed to safeguard taxpayer dollars." She actually had the gall to include in her letter that they had identified "13,600 PPP loans in Minnesota, totaling about $430 million, that were initially flagged by SBA as fraudulent."

These people are absolutely shameless.