Bondi’s letter isn’t unprecedented, it’s textbook authoritarian playbook.
Argentina’s junta made identical demands: surrender sovereignty, hand over data, cooperate with paramilitary operations, or the violence continues.
Here’s what destroys the regime’s argument:
They admit it’s a protection racket. DOJ literally told the court: “there is no hint of a quid pro quo…she does not…commit to end Operation Metro Surge under any circumstance.”
Translation: Submit to all demands, and we still won’t leave. That’s not negotiation, that’s extortion with no exit.
Every demand violates existing court orders. Bondi’s response: “Do it anyway or we keep killing your citizens.”
The DOJ’s own filing proves malice. So official statements only count when convenient? That’s not law, that’s nihilism.
The pattern is operational.
Bovino gets demoted for being too visible, Homan arrives with PR-friendly “drawdown” language while ICE abducts people during his press conference. Trump admits on camera “nothing is going to change.”
Classic two steps forward, one step back: infrastructure stays, rhetoric softens, mission continues.
This is how democracies end. Not with tanks, but with attorney generals putting protection rackets on official letterhead.
The regime depends on compliance masquerading as voluntary cooperation. Minnesota refused.
That’s why they’re under occupation.
Every other state watching needs to understand: submission doesn’t end the violence, it expands it.
Each day is outrageous, and everything that Trump does is outrageous. I think people should be calling for State's rights the way the MAGAs did all through Biden's presidency. Defund the Ayatollah Trump and all of his Mullahs like Bondi, Homan, Bovino, Noem, Kennedy, Vance, Miller, Vought, etc... No funding of this government as long as it does not follow and enforce the constitution.
Good points. The Ayatollah Trump has struck again. His Republican Guards are still in Minnesota, and Georgia gave up their personal data because they have a Mullah for a governor.
“We have been deformed by educational and religious institutions that treat us as members of an audience instead of actors in a drama, so we become adults who treat democracy as a spectator sport.”
Fortunately, we can think for ourselves. The First Amendment was written in 1789 and ratified by 1791 to secure every individual's right to oppose abusive (purported) public servants and to protect us as we do so. It was written and ratified to encourage Americans of every generation to be as active and outspoken as the first generations of Americans were.
Multiple SCOTUS decisions have highlighted a highly enlightening statement by the First Continental Congress in 1774 about the meaning of our freedom of expression, communication and association ("the freedom of speech" and "press" and "the right of the people" to "assemble" declared in the First Amendment). That Congress included such lions of liberty as George Washington and John Adams (our first two presidents), John Jay (the first SCOTUS Chief Justice), Patrick Henry (first governor of independent Virginia), Samuel Adams and John Dickinson.
In a letter to the people of Quebec (to try to recruit them to join the United States) they declared our “five great rights.” One of the “great rights” was “the freedom of the press.” Fortunately, the First Continental Congress did more than merely write that right. They shed vital light on its power and purpose:
"The importance of this consists," in very significant part, in the "diffusion of liberal sentiments on the administration of Government, its ready communication of thoughts between subjects, and its consequential promotion of union among them, whereby oppressive officers are shamed or intimidated, into more honourable and just modes of conducting [public] affairs."
Anyone else remember when a whole lot of people correctly predicted this shit would happen and how they got called hysterical by the self appointed adults in the room?
Interestingly, ever-valiant Stephen Miller blurts, “Might is right!” (or in undertones, “White is Right”) but Minneapolis is proof otherwise: The city (and state) wasn’t cowed … and bullying is not real power but, like Venezuela, a sucker punch.
Anyone who actually believed that exchanging one goon (Bovino) with another goon (Homan) would usher in a new era of peace, love and reconciliation in Minnesota is also gullible enough to believe that pigs fly or that hell can freeze over.
Liz, you are not the first to point out that Cava Bag used military jargon about the ongoing ICE/Border Patrol rape of MSP yesterday: in theater, draw down, rotations, de-escalation. Yep, it's a military exercise as promised by the mad dictator (the latter his own word used in Davos this month) when he spoke at the idiotic command performance of military leaders on 09/30/2025: use "dangerous" American cities, i.e., those with uncooperative and non-compliant Dems for mayors, as "training grounds." We can't say we weren't warned.
All the while, the occupation continues unabated and the lies, threats and extortion from one Blondie Bondi continue to spew forth.
Before our very eyes, the people of MSP and MN have been putting on a live seminar about how to bravely resist tyranny. The invaders and their superiors should have realized that people who can gather to protest in sub-zero temperatures are not to be trifled with.
As the great Lawrence O'Donnell said in the opening segment of The Last Word last night: the protesters are winning. And we shall overcome.
The list of individuals in this administration whose actions demonstrate utter ignorance and incompetence just keeps getting longer by the day- what will be the tipping point in Congress where the Republicans finally open their eyes to the disastrous consequences of this administration and take a stand? Many of these politicians will forever be linked with Trump in history with the honor of being labeled “the worst of the worst “.
Here's a question for anyone other than the extremist far right that claims to govern this country: would you want one of those goons terrorizing our country and murdering peaceful protesters as a relative? Someone sitting at your dinner table? Marrying your child? Taking care of your aging parents? I bet a much larger majority than the partisan divide in this country will say no to that hypothetical question.
It will be awesome when blondi is hauled in for her Nuremberg trial, all the video of her is shown and guilty verdict in 5mins followed by quick hanging. I think that is fair just. At least she had a brief chance unlike Good or Pretti.
Bondi’s letter isn’t unprecedented, it’s textbook authoritarian playbook.
Argentina’s junta made identical demands: surrender sovereignty, hand over data, cooperate with paramilitary operations, or the violence continues.
Here’s what destroys the regime’s argument:
They admit it’s a protection racket. DOJ literally told the court: “there is no hint of a quid pro quo…she does not…commit to end Operation Metro Surge under any circumstance.”
Translation: Submit to all demands, and we still won’t leave. That’s not negotiation, that’s extortion with no exit.
Every demand violates existing court orders. Bondi’s response: “Do it anyway or we keep killing your citizens.”
The DOJ’s own filing proves malice. So official statements only count when convenient? That’s not law, that’s nihilism.
The pattern is operational.
Bovino gets demoted for being too visible, Homan arrives with PR-friendly “drawdown” language while ICE abducts people during his press conference. Trump admits on camera “nothing is going to change.”
Classic two steps forward, one step back: infrastructure stays, rhetoric softens, mission continues.
This is how democracies end. Not with tanks, but with attorney generals putting protection rackets on official letterhead.
The regime depends on compliance masquerading as voluntary cooperation. Minnesota refused.
That’s why they’re under occupation.
Every other state watching needs to understand: submission doesn’t end the violence, it expands it.
Bondi wrote the confession. Use it.
—Johan
Each day is outrageous, and everything that Trump does is outrageous. I think people should be calling for State's rights the way the MAGAs did all through Biden's presidency. Defund the Ayatollah Trump and all of his Mullahs like Bondi, Homan, Bovino, Noem, Kennedy, Vance, Miller, Vought, etc... No funding of this government as long as it does not follow and enforce the constitution.
Incisive. Yet unlike Argentina, Trump has a history of backing down in the face of approbation; and Georgia has stood up before.
Homan does not = 'backing down'. Georgia may have stood up; it also just got raped.
Good points. The Ayatollah Trump has struck again. His Republican Guards are still in Minnesota, and Georgia gave up their personal data because they have a Mullah for a governor.
Actually , the FBI raid on Georgia- like the one on Caracus - was a surprise attack, taking the state and Fulton County unawares.
“We have been deformed by educational and religious institutions that treat us as members of an audience instead of actors in a drama, so we become adults who treat democracy as a spectator sport.”
-Parker Palmer
Fortunately, we can think for ourselves. The First Amendment was written in 1789 and ratified by 1791 to secure every individual's right to oppose abusive (purported) public servants and to protect us as we do so. It was written and ratified to encourage Americans of every generation to be as active and outspoken as the first generations of Americans were.
Multiple SCOTUS decisions have highlighted a highly enlightening statement by the First Continental Congress in 1774 about the meaning of our freedom of expression, communication and association ("the freedom of speech" and "press" and "the right of the people" to "assemble" declared in the First Amendment). That Congress included such lions of liberty as George Washington and John Adams (our first two presidents), John Jay (the first SCOTUS Chief Justice), Patrick Henry (first governor of independent Virginia), Samuel Adams and John Dickinson.
In a letter to the people of Quebec (to try to recruit them to join the United States) they declared our “five great rights.” One of the “great rights” was “the freedom of the press.” Fortunately, the First Continental Congress did more than merely write that right. They shed vital light on its power and purpose:
"The importance of this consists," in very significant part, in the "diffusion of liberal sentiments on the administration of Government, its ready communication of thoughts between subjects, and its consequential promotion of union among them, whereby oppressive officers are shamed or intimidated, into more honourable and just modes of conducting [public] affairs."
Anyone else remember when a whole lot of people correctly predicted this shit would happen and how they got called hysterical by the self appointed adults in the room?
Once again, it should be noted that Roy Cohn notwithstanding, Trump’s first crush was John Gotti, not unfamiliar with protection rackets.
Interestingly, ever-valiant Stephen Miller blurts, “Might is right!” (or in undertones, “White is Right”) but Minneapolis is proof otherwise: The city (and state) wasn’t cowed … and bullying is not real power but, like Venezuela, a sucker punch.
Do we have to add "unprecedented?" Isn't "illegal" enough (and stronger)?
Anyone who actually believed that exchanging one goon (Bovino) with another goon (Homan) would usher in a new era of peace, love and reconciliation in Minnesota is also gullible enough to believe that pigs fly or that hell can freeze over.
Liz, you are not the first to point out that Cava Bag used military jargon about the ongoing ICE/Border Patrol rape of MSP yesterday: in theater, draw down, rotations, de-escalation. Yep, it's a military exercise as promised by the mad dictator (the latter his own word used in Davos this month) when he spoke at the idiotic command performance of military leaders on 09/30/2025: use "dangerous" American cities, i.e., those with uncooperative and non-compliant Dems for mayors, as "training grounds." We can't say we weren't warned.
All the while, the occupation continues unabated and the lies, threats and extortion from one Blondie Bondi continue to spew forth.
Before our very eyes, the people of MSP and MN have been putting on a live seminar about how to bravely resist tyranny. The invaders and their superiors should have realized that people who can gather to protest in sub-zero temperatures are not to be trifled with.
As the great Lawrence O'Donnell said in the opening segment of The Last Word last night: the protesters are winning. And we shall overcome.
"In theater"?? What is this nonsense? These are not military troops at war. I am so angry about this travesty.
Great essay! Thank you, Lisa!
The list of individuals in this administration whose actions demonstrate utter ignorance and incompetence just keeps getting longer by the day- what will be the tipping point in Congress where the Republicans finally open their eyes to the disastrous consequences of this administration and take a stand? Many of these politicians will forever be linked with Trump in history with the honor of being labeled “the worst of the worst “.
Your last sentence is also the answer to why the cannot. They are chained to the mast on the rump ship.
“The Trump administration is a trans-national crime syndicate masquerading as a government” -Sarah Kendzior
Here's a question for anyone other than the extremist far right that claims to govern this country: would you want one of those goons terrorizing our country and murdering peaceful protesters as a relative? Someone sitting at your dinner table? Marrying your child? Taking care of your aging parents? I bet a much larger majority than the partisan divide in this country will say no to that hypothetical question.
It will be awesome when blondi is hauled in for her Nuremberg trial, all the video of her is shown and guilty verdict in 5mins followed by quick hanging. I think that is fair just. At least she had a brief chance unlike Good or Pretti.
Thank you, Ms. Needham. bondi is as big a thug as noem or bongino.
The more DHS and DOJ claim they are changing in Minnesota, the more they keep doing the same criminal violations.