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arthursmid.bsky.social
Life in Common
@arthursmid.bsky.social
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Community, story, strategy: arthursmid.com

Arthur Smid - Portland, Oregon
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"We articulated the vision for the movement that we hoped to build. Each day, we would work to embody the values of a better world." - Elle Bisgaard-Church

www.cityandstateny.com/personality/...
How Elle Bisgaard-Church became Zohran Mamdani’s most trusted adviser
The first-time campaign manager steered him to victory in June. Now she’s focused on the likely next administration.
www.cityandstateny.com
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$200 art to help www.canmn.org/donate . Dm inquiries.
January 24, 2026 at 6:39 PM
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“Get it all on record now — get the films — get the witnesses — because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower, after visiting liberated concentration camps in April 1945
January 24, 2026 at 9:24 PM
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A Golden-crowned Kinglet getting ready to launch to another branch. These little cuties snuggle together at night to help keep warm.
January 22, 2026 at 10:57 PM
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This is an actual post from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth: Praising ICE after Alex Pretti was killed, blaming the Democratic leadership of Minnesota, and writing that ICE is greater/better than Minnesota.

He is actively demeaning the people of Minnesota just hours after Pretti was murdered.
January 24, 2026 at 10:26 PM
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Two white people have been killed on camera by ICE in 2026.

6 other people (5 Latin Americans + 1 Cambodian) have died in ICE custody since the turn of the year.

The on-camera killings can - at the very least - make us very suspicious about the circumstances of all the off-camera ones.
January 24, 2026 at 10:38 PM
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One thing that irks me: people keep calling the folks on the streets in Minneapolis protestors. They are not generally there to protest, they are there to observe and document. This is the product of organizing and mutual aid. It is telling that these acts of citizenship are seen as protest!
January 24, 2026 at 9:29 PM
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There is nothing wrong with protesting - it is a good thing to do! But calling these acts protests is incomplete and diminishing. They are motivated by protesting the acts of the federal government but ultimately amount to much more.
January 24, 2026 at 9:31 PM
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NEW: Amid ICE's rampage, Dems provided votes to fund ICE, Dem leader Hakeem Jeffries refused to whip votes against the funding, Dem Senate candidates opposed another Dem calling for ICE to be abolished - and a Dem think tank demanded Dems back "an aggressive plan to rebuild ICE."
How Democrats Are Enabling ICE
Trump’s immigration police will not be reined in by a party refusing to mount a real opposition.
www.levernews.com
January 24, 2026 at 10:01 PM
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‘The Case for Impeaching Donald Trump’

“No, Democrats don’t have the votes to convict. But they should brandish their convictions in the court of public opinion.” 🎯
newrepublic.com/post/205118/...
January 10, 2026 at 4:26 PM
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Even a doomed-to-fail impeachment effort offers Democrats some advantages. Remember: Democrats are in a content-creation war with the Trump regime.

There’s no reason an impeachment effort can’t be a kaleidoscopic panoply of Trumpian misdeeds presented to the public. trib.al/fXmkl4O
January 24, 2026 at 10:04 PM
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An overhead view of protesters gathering at the scene of the shooting.

Live coverage: www.startribune.com/ice-raids-mi...

📽️ Aaron Lavinsky/The Minnesota Star Tribune
January 24, 2026 at 9:46 PM
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Another angle. he tried to protect the woman pushed by ICE agents

bsky.app/profile/fake...
Another angle showing the victim had both hands on the ground when he was shot.
January 24, 2026 at 9:37 PM
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Multiple officials of the US federal government are spending their day rather blatantly obstructing Minnesota law enforcement and covering up a murder.
January 24, 2026 at 9:34 PM
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This is why I have been telling people to work in their community to create local legislation denying ICE access to lease or buy these kinds of facilities. Use zoning and other city/state/county regs to block them wherever possible. (Remember, before it became a camp, Dachau had been a factory.)
“The federal government plans to imprison 9,500 people in a warehouse built for storage next to FedEx, Amazon, and other corporations." New concentration camp incoming to DFW area. www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/...
ICE Just Bought a Massive Warehouse in Hutchins
Faith leaders call the 1-million-square-foot planned detention facility—originally designed as an Amazon warehouse—"disturbing."
www.dmagazine.com
January 24, 2026 at 9:44 PM
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We’re supposed to believe this is a domestic terrorist attacking ICE with a gun
January 24, 2026 at 9:35 PM
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This was murder. Pretti did not initiate the confrontation. He didn’t strike them. He didn’t brandish his gun. They tackled him, beat him, disarmed him, and shot him.
Holy crap.

This is the most damning video yet.

It shows Border Patrol agents clearly taking Alex's firearm, running it away, and THEN executed him in cold blood by emptying a clip into his face.

Murder.
January 24, 2026 at 9:46 PM
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UPDATE: @dropsitenews.com has obtained the very graphic video from the lady in the pink coat, which shows ICE executing yet another person in broad daylight:
January 24, 2026 at 6:49 PM
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The term martyr means “witness.” The man was murdered for bearing witness, literally bearing it, not arms but a camera. Murdered for seeing.
January 24, 2026 at 9:45 PM
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Just because a person has a gun does not justify execution in the street.

Video analysis to come.
January 24, 2026 at 4:30 PM
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Our initial analysis is up.

The video footage appears to show that the gun was taken away from the man before he was shot.

He was UNARMED before any of the shots were fired.
Federal law enforcement agents shot and killed a man in Minneapolis on Jan. 24 according to local police officials. DHS told Fox News that the man was “armed with a gun”. A video of the shooting appears to show that a gun was taken from the man before the first shot was fired. x.com/BillMelugin_...
January 24, 2026 at 7:10 PM
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It’s no comfort, but the official DHS line being “he can be killed by masked agents of the state because he had a legal gun” is such an interesting new frontier in how Trump has made the conservative movement very publicly and embarrassingly abandon every principal it once claimed.
January 24, 2026 at 6:40 PM
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Hard to deny this.
We have been told for nearly 30 years that America needed to tolerate mass shootings because the broad availability of guns would help us defend ourselves from an overreaching federal government. That day has come. The people who said this are supporting the federal agents. Many have joined them.
January 24, 2026 at 6:37 PM
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Alex Pretti, the man killed by federal agents today in Minneapolis, appears to have been a registered nurse, an athlete, a son and a brother, with ties to Colorado and Wisconsin.

Here is a photo he used for several accounts.
January 24, 2026 at 7:07 PM
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Save the date!
Neighbors for Change Civic Action Fair
Sat Feb 7 10-4:30
Bensen HS, 546 NE 12th

Build community & connect locally

Learn tools for civic participation. Free family-friendly fun including photo ops w Portland Frog Brigade!
@pdxoregon50501.bsky.social @indivisible-oregon.bsky.social
January 24, 2026 at 6:01 PM
Reposted by Life in Common
$175 billion devoted *this year* to funding a militarized and masked secret police force that is terrorizing American cities and murdering people (citizens and non-citizens alike) with what appears to be complete impunity. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
ICE’s Mind-Bogglingly Massive Blank Check
Congress has appropriated billions with few strings attached, creating a likely windfall for well-connected firms.
www.theatlantic.com
January 24, 2026 at 6:08 PM