Live for Love's Sake

A 2022 DNA study confirmed what the Blackfeet Nation has always said: their ancestors have lived in Montana for 18,000 years. These are the TRUE Americans, with a lineage stretching far before written history.
www.science.org/content/arti...

This past week we sent:

$2,770 in direct cash support to unhoused & recently housed neighbors (including putting money on one of our people’s books)

$1,000 to bond someone out of ICE custody

Thank you all for trusting & supporting us so we can help our neighbors

Love & solidarity 🖤🏴🖤

If you lose to the Vikings in the UK you should be forced to change your team name to The Benedictines

Is it possible to market your business without spiritual bypassing or capitalist gaslighting? I'm trying to find out.

Marketing for Weirdos by Bear Hebert may be the answer. An online course for those who want to survive capitalism without selling their soul. We start Monday.
bearcoaches.com/m4w

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

Wall Street’s Bid For Your Power Regulators just greenlit BlackRock’s acquisition of a Midwestern power company — the latest deal in the private equity giant’s spending spree on public infrastructure.

NEWS: In a case with national implications, @governorwalz.mn.gov's officials are approving Blackrock's takeover of one of the Midwest’s largest utilities.

Critics say the precedent-setting move paves the way for more Wall Street firms to buy utilities to further hike skyrocketing electricity rates.

If you're in the news, tough facts and full transparency business, the question, "Who paid for this?" should not come as tough or surprising. Like some of you last night, I watched the documentary, "A Precarious State", noting the presence of former KARE-TV reporter Rick Kupchella, its unusual commercial-free runtime on several ABC stations owned by the Hubbard family and its weighted cast of landlords, "business leaders" and conservatives of varying pedigrees. Being a guy who doesn't get out much, I had no inkling of the production until yesterday morning, when I read an infomercial on the Star Tribune's op-ed page. It was a piece written by Kupchella touting his show. I could have thought, "Cool! The Strib is now running paid promos in its editorial section. Kind of like Budweiser decals on Nascars." I hadn't stopped asking, "What the f*ck is this? before several texts arrived asking if I knew anything about the show." Several of my woke, Marxist, anti-capitalist, eat-the-rich, let's all eat bugs-and-roots cronies were already smelling a new variation of a MAGA-marinated Liz Collin/Mrs. Bob Kroll attack on the faerie lefty nymphs running Minneapolis... or in the case of Kupchella's piece, all of Minnesota. Not knowing anything about what was up, I told them that I only knew Kupchella from back in the day and generally liked his work. As they say in the biz, "He's good TV." Not a raver. Not a ranter. Adept at compiling statistics and delivering the goods with a genial, neighborly vibe. To a couple of my pals I did add, somewhat recklessly, that he was also "a relentless self- promoter", "relentless" probably being a bit much. But the point was the guy, even as a staff reporter for a corporate-owned TV station knew how to market his goods. As a media columnist at the time I always knew when a new Kupchella piece was about to drop. And as I say, they were consistently "above average." Quality visuals. Lots of interviews... and stats. Not that any of that guarantees a…

If you missed the show last night, the capsule summary is that Minnesota, Minneapolis in particular, has descended to the levels of depressed, illiterate, crime-ridden hellholes like Louisiana and Mississippi. Everything around us is trending toward disaster. And the main reason is ... wait for it... oh, you already guessed ... radical democratic socialists... who in five short years have emasculated both our prosperity-inducing developers, landlords and cops. But mostly our cops. Now, being an old white guy living in Edina I don't pay as much attention as I should to the daily nitty of the Minneapolis City Council. But even as a delusional, woke, MAGA-resistant scold I can accept that some of the stuff the council's majority yabbers about and proposes is kinda batty. As batshit as Tylenol causing autism? Defunding pediatric cancer research? Or flushing anyone who knows anything about science out of the CDC? No. Not quite that loony and destructive. But counter-productive. IMHO a lot of the current council lacks the realpolitik awareness that any city, especially big cities like Minneapolis, require buy-in from a wider range of influencers than the 40 people who showed up on caucus night and got you on the ballot. Kupchella's film, which plays like it got a script polish by John Hinderaker and Katherine Kersten at the Center for the American Experiment, (another operation from whom I'd love to see a donor list), does make some valid points about the easily-gamed caucus system. But its primary focus is ... crime. Lots of crime. Constant crime. Crime so pervasive "no one" wants to go anywhere downtown. Put simply, the film argues, Minneapolis needs lots more cops. The deep irony there being that the appallingly inadequate vetting and training of cops was what (along with outside agitators) incited the George Floyd riots. But (without new taxes of course) let's quickly put 600 more of those guys out there and hope for the best this time

(In the context of "too few cops on the street", I always like to remind readers that in the George Floyd episode, two MPD squad cars and a third, a Park Police squad, carrying a total of six peace officers, turned up to check out the possibility of a fake $20. And were soon bellowing f-bombs, waving guns and murdering the suspect.) Kupchella's statistics team wove in a lot of gloomy numbers about our crime and student achievement. But, odd thing about Google ... five-seconds of tapping turns up other numbers that paint a far ... far ... less grim picture. Like the stuff US News and World report culled from FBI stats showing that The City of Lakes and Free Fire Hellholes was actually dead last in violent crime among the USA's 25 largest metros. Similarly, the state's academic achievement scores, while certainly in need of improvement (whose aren't?) still hold up well in comparison to say, Texas, which Kupchella and crew regard as a beacon of deregulated, low-tax, free enterprise supremacy... never mind the wretched state of its schools, which landlords, developers and can-do entrepreneurs invariably hate paying taxes to support. (Those Democrat unions, y'know.) And on the topic of schools, at one point Kupchella interviews what I guess he regards as an average, representative suburban Minneapolis couple; parents of school age children. Nice looking folks. Tidy house. But, I'm sorry when the dude with the crucifix necklace starts muttering about "indoctrination" in Minnesota's public schools and how "parents need more input" into curriculum, one guesses, I'm out of there. Similarly, in the context of "good TV" we have "exclusive security cam footage of a wild shoot out last year down off Franklin and 19th. It's berserk. Sixty-some bullets fired. Some guy with an Uzi- style machine gun. Bad. No way to coat it. But for, um, dramatic purposes, Kupchella runs that clip ... three times ... and on the last roll intones, that this ... "is the new normal." Also, just asking…

But that would have ruined the fun. I could go on ... and on ... but the point is that this, very much like, but with far more mainstream polish than your average Alpha News/Liz Collin rabble rouser, is a film with an agenda. And that's fine. For the next few hours at least it's still a free country. You got something you want to say and you've got somebody willing to write the check to buy an hour of airtime on a half dozen network affiliates around the state, knock yourself out. But if the game here includes the pretense of journalistic integrity you owe it to your viewers to show your work. Like a list of who contributed how much to cover the two years of production and tab for an hour of commercial-free network airtime. After the film aired Kupchella hosted an on-line discussion with several of the key sources/subjects and took questions from viewers. Mine was, "Who provided money to produce this film? Did the Hubbard family donate? Why wasn't Mayor Frey interviewed? Did he deny a request?" Unless I missed it, time expired before they got to those

Some of you know me as an OG media reporter, but Brian Lambert, who I don’t think is on here, taught me. He had some great thoughts about Kupchella’s landlord ad & “journalism.” Sorry for no alt-text; these excerpts are too long. If you need alt please message me & I’ll shoot you an email or text.

Minneapolis woman shot dead minutes after making Facebook post about violent ex, family says Mariah Samuels, 34, was shot and killed on Sunday in Minneapolis. Her family said she died just minutes after posting about the domestic violence she faced.

Rest in power, Mariah. You deserved so much better.

www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/ne...

We have to do more. For those with knowledge:

What Twin Cities organizations are effectively supporting DV survivors, especially those most vulnerable, and fighting these systemic failures?

Please name them below. I want to help build the world that should have saved Mariah.

And I witnessed it fail Black, Indigenous, and People of Color with a viciousness and consistency that my white skin partially shielded me from. For Mariah, that failure was fatal.

She loved her sons, her animals, and had a future that was stolen. She did everything she was supposed to do.

My abuser charged at me, tripped, and broke his own table. The police who arrived that night charged us both with disorderly conduct.

I spent the next 7 years explaining a "domestic abuse" charge on my record to every employer. The system didn't just fail to protect me. It punished me for years.

Donate to Mariah Samuels, organized by William Samuels On September 14, our beloved Mariah Samuels’ life was tragically taken due to domestic violence when sh… William Samuels needs your support for Mariah Samuels

As a domestic violence survivor, Mariah Samuels’ murder is a tragic pattern I recognize all too well. It’s the story so many of us live in fear of.

Her family has a GoFundMe for funeral expenses and her children. If you can, please share or contribute.
➡️ www.gofundme.com/f/mariah-sam...

Dear neighbor, 

I want to send my deep condolences to Mariah Samuels, her family, and the Northside. On September 14, 2025, Mariah was shot and killed. She was the victim of domestic violence and deserves justice. 1/

"It is ICE’s responsibility to respect and uphold our first amendment rights.

It is not on us to accommodate their illegal and immoral actions….

Every week the government escalates.”

“We’ve been forced into a 'free speech zone.'

It’s very existence implies that everywhere else is a non-free speech zone.

That there are places that our first amendment rights do not apply."

www.youtube.com/live/hnyq5UY...

Our phones do the same thing when they lock onto a face.
If it was an external scan, we wouldn't see its targeting data on our end.

It's a scary reminder of how watched they are, but thankfully, this particular thing is likely just a tech feature.
Grateful for your careful eye. 🇵🇸

With all the Flotilla vessels now intercepted, the live streams have gone silent.

I can see why the boxes look alarming, and it's smart to be vigilant. From what I understand, those are almost certainly just autofocus tracking boxes from the camera itself.

Pick one or two lanes and keep at it. You are one person and cannot do everything or take 10 actions a day.

YouTube video by MSNBC ‘F--- them kids’: ICE agents drag children out of bed, ransack Chicago building

According to eyewitnesses, armed ICE agents dragged kids out of their beds in the middle of the night, zip tied them and put them in rented vans while raiding an * entire apartment building* on the South Side of Chicago.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOXO...

#ProudBlue #Pinks
My post is a bit different today, but there are so many of our loved ones grieving & I was thinking about how to support them. We often don’t know what to say. Yet your presence speaks volumes. Just be there. Even when it feels awkward. Just stay there. Hang out with their pain.

Global Sumud Flotilla Marinette, the last remaining boat of the Global Sumud Flotilla, was intercepted at 10:29am local time, approximately 42.5 nautical miles from Gaza. Over 38 hours, Israeli occupation naval forces ille...

The last boat of the #GlobalSumudFlotilla, the Marinette, has been intercepted.

42 vessels carrying humanitarian aid were illegally harassed and then stopped over the last 38 hours.

This is not the end. The determination to break the siege remains unshaken.

#FreePalestine

t.me/globalsumudf...

Black women

Only daughters

Oldest daughters

Remember that you’re only one person. You can’t do it all. You’re not failing because you didn’t get it all done. Survival is not the bar. Living is.

Love y’all.

On the other side of that courage lies a profound integration. A chance to build a belief system that is truly our own—aligned, coherent, and rooted in our truth and in our lived values.

It is the hard, magnificent work of weaving our fragments into a whole. 💚

What if we met that tension not with shame but with gentle curiosity? For me, a single Q began the shift: "What if the people I was taught to see as monsters are also human beings with fears, hopes, and a right to safety?" This is not a betrayal of our past, but an expansion of our own understanding

You might know the feeling. That defensive flare at a challenging idea. The quick "what about..."-ism that deflects instead of connects. The excuses we make for our side that would unsettle us if from another side.

These are not failures of character, but failures of perspective.

To soothe that ache, we are tempted to simplify the world. To make "them" less human so our story can stay intact. It is a fragile peace, built on the silence of our own empathy.

We create moral exceptions for our group, a split that can privately haunt us.

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE "Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief." Frantz Fanon

I remember the intense, quiet tension of holding two conflicting truths. My childhood preached "love thy neighbor," yet demanded I fear the outsider.

That inner friction has a name: cognitive dissonance. It's the mind's signal that our beliefs and realities have fallen out of sync.

For those wanting to learn more, I urge you to listen to the many Jewish and Israeli voices offering a different path. Look into:

www.btselem.org (Israeli human rights org)

@972mag.com (Independent, Palestinian-owned journalism)

This is about choosing a political solution over endless war.

"The US was worse" is not a moral defense. Many of us protested those wars too. We should learn from past atrocities, not use them as a playbook.

"Warnings" do not grant a blank check under international law, as groups like @hrw.org and @amnesty.org have documented.

Saying critics "don't care" is a cheap way to avoid debate. We advocate for a ceasefire because we care about Palestinian lives and see this war as creating more insecurity for everyone.

The ceasefire process is complex; one-sided blame on the besieged is not serious analysis.