Here is my post from yesterday about why I’m feeling the barest glimmer of hope. I am experiencing a deep sense of schadenfreude (again) because Greg Bovino, the duster coat wearing, swaggering macho asshole with a Napolean complex and a filthy mouth (filthy as in nasty to humans not like him, not filthy as in swear words), the man who had relentlessly mocked others as he pumped himself up is on his way on.
That’s not the reason I’m snickering to myself, though. I have included a video below of Chris Hayes from MS NOW who is here. He included a snippet of Trump saying (timestapmp 2:50):
You know, Bovino’s very good, but he’s, uh, a pretty out there kind of a guy, and in some cases that’s good maybe it wasn’t good here, and, uh, that’s all working out….
Hahahhahahhah! Hey, Bovino. how do you like the view from under the bus?
For all his scrapping and bowing, for all his muscling and bravado, for all that he’s become the face of Border Patrol (and to a lesser extent, ICE, because people blend the two together. For example, Alex Pretti was murdered by Border Patrol, but everyone says he was murderd by ICE.Personally, it’s a diference without distinction, and if people want to think it’s ICE, I have no qualms with that), for all that he’s relished swinging his dick around, it’s gotta hurt how quickly and easily he got thrown in the trash like yesterday’s garbage.
I know that this isn’t the end of anything, by far. but I’m allowed my moment of pure happiness that Bovino has been humiliated in this fashion. Yes, he was allowed to ‘retire’ (read, demoted/fired), but he knows as we all know that heh was fired. And it has to hurt. It has to sting his oversized ego. And I am relishing every fucking moment.
I am not the better person when I reach the end of my compassion, so it seems. I just can’t at this moment. Let me rephrase that. I have so much compassion for my fellow Minnesotans, especially people in Minneapolis. I have compassion for others who are suffering. But for this administration or their former supporters? Hell, nah. I just can’t do it. And I’m fine with it.
I have to admit that Iw as wrong about something–kind of . As per usual, it’s not that simple because ideas are complicated. But, here goes. I was mostly wrong to be frustrated with the peaceful protests. I’m going to get into that along with my many caveats.
The peaceful protests are a powerful thing because they contrast the unhinged response from those on the right, ranging from the federal officers to the rest of the federal administration to the pundits to the MAGA supporters. They want to call Minnesotan protestors hateful and angry, and they haven’t been able to do it.
Now, I will caveat that by saying it’s the videos that have made that possible. In the past, before people videotaped everything, it was much easier for them to spin protesters as paid agitators to their followers who were all-too-eager to believe them.
We saw this happen after the Good murder, and we saw them try it again with Pretti*. Both were videotaped by several bystanders, so the feds were not able to get away with spinning the narrative. And, yes, the peacful protests shown over and over were really hard to refute.
This is Minnesota Nice writ large, and it was heartwarming to see. I do believe that there is a time and place for anger, chaos, and even violence, but this was perhaps not that time. Not with the videos running.
By the way, I am deeply impressed with the way Governor Walz has handled this. I hate that he’s not running for another term, but if he’s going to go out, he’s going to do it his way. In fact, I think it’s very possible that he’s abble to speak as frankly as he is because he’s not running again. In fact, he’s being very emphatic with his words in a way that he might not have been even a year ago.
That’s not to say that he wouldn’t be honest–he would. I may or may not agree with something he’s done, but I do not doubt he’s done it for the reason he’s stated. He’s a very frank man. he’s blunt and plain-spoken. He’s everyone’s grandad, and he’s so homespun, it’s very endearing.
And, on his way out, he’s decided that it’s time to kick his homespun truths up a notch or ten. Which is now. He’s had enough of Trump’s bullshit, and he’s calling him out by name. Yes, he’s doing it in a very Minnesotan way, but he’s saying it very fiercely. Calling them the Gestapo and saying that Trump is the one who started all this.
After years (including the first term) of people (including politicians and journalists) tiptoe around this demagogue, pretending not to see that he had no clothes, that he’s deranged and can’t finish a simple sentence, and that he’s a deeply vindictive man.
It’s the later point that made people hesitate to step to him. He will go after anyone he perceives as defying/standing up to him to a disconcerting degree. He has the attention span of a grasshopper, but this is one thing that focuses him like nothing else–revenge.
There is a change in the air. I’m not talking about anything concrete. People are still afraid. People are still being stopped by ICE and CBP. But.
I think Trump and his bootlickers deeply underestimated Minnesotans. They came in hoping they would be able to stir up the locals, incite riots, and then heroically stop the ‘rioters’ so their MAGA supporters would swoon over their military cosplay.
They did all this without knowing the fiber of the morality of Minnesotans. Yes, there is such a thing as ‘Minnesota Nice’, but there is steel under the niceness. We’ve also dealt with Minnesota winters all our lives, which can be quite brutal.
People like Trump often mistake kindness for weakness, and he is now finding out that’s not the case. Minnesotans are kind, yes, but we are not weak. Well, most of us. I’m weak in some ways, but I’m doing what I can from the background. And many Minneapolitans are strong AF.
We may bend, but we will not break. We will not allow him to define who we are. And this president nor his people do not know what to do with that.
*I have my theories as to why it seemed to stick this time, but that’s another post for another day.