Preceding another tragic murder in Minneapolis on Saturday, the first general strike in the USA for 80 years occurred in Minneapolis on January 23, 2026. (The last one was the women-led 1946 Oakland General Strike.) This was planned over the span of a mere week, across all forms of communication — social, messaging, and stapled paper to neighborhood lamp posts. The turnout was a show of unity — an estimated 50,000+ citizens came out in -9 degrees Fahrenheit (with harsher wind chills) to the backdrop of hundreds of closed businesses, schools, and unions. It was a massive, peaceful exercise of human togetherness for the good of community in the face of injustice.

First, links to Stand With Minnesota and Minneapolis Mutual Aid, two well-curated lists for mutual aids, materials purchasing, donating, and support. There are many surrounding cities here organizing help for their neighbors and community members who are unable or fearful to leave their homes, and I want to acknowledge this isn’t just a Minneapolis-St. Paul situation, it’s state-wide, suburb-wide, rural-wide. People continue to be incredibly active and intentional in organizing support, a testament to Minnesota’s strength, resilience, adaptability, and resolve for action over words.

On the day of the strike, it was hard to discern just how many people marched together, through a twisting route westward along the avenues stemming from The Commons park adjacent to US Bank Stadium to Target Center (a nearly mile-long trek, lasting over three hours for participants). But what was easy to discern was the united front of people, together against a fearful and dire situation in their cities, and wholly bundled in winter gear and signage. There were homemade coffee carafes propped on car hoods, folks handing out hand warmers, bright-vested volunteers (or city-mandated traffic controllers, hard to tell) helping direct traffic amongst the swell of moving bodies.

A smattering of buildings and business were open. As the march wound through the city, the skyways were packed with observers. The Hennepin Public Library was permitted open as a midway reprieve of donated coffee, cookies, a spot on the floor to rub warmth back into your toes. Various small businesses along the route, shutting down their own commerce for the day, offered open doors as places to stop in for warmth. Some offered free hot dogs.

The strike was both quiet and loud, in so many ways. A scarcity of professional media added to the curious feeling. It should be said that several local outlets also went on strike. As such, I’ve curated a fair list of mainstream media and journalism coverage that reported the strike in some capacity.

In lieu of another tragedy yesterday, we hope the light that was lit here finds others across the way, and helps bind the bonds we have as people caring for the well-being of others and our country.

• The Guardian
• Minnesota Star Tribune
• The Wall Street Journal
• Minnesota Reformer
• MinnPost
• Minnesota Public Radio
• The New York Times
• Status Coup’s recorded livestream was one of the few, possibly only, realtime capture of the entire thing, amidst a few mechanical malfunctions due to the weather.

Generational context of invasive structure (via Racket):

Today, Fort Snelling is doing what it was designed to do: acting as a site from which Washington can project violent power over anyone who gets in its way. Dakota people saw this in the US-Dakota War of 1862, when the U.S. deployed soldiers from Fort Snelling to do battle on the Dakota. When it forced Dakota women, children, and elders into a concentration camp down the bluff from the fort. When it expelled the Dakota from their homelands and oversaw the largest mass execution in U.S. history.

And we are seeing it today as federal agents fan out from Fort Snelling into neighborhoods, seizing peaceable people, and reserving the right to shoot anyone, like Renee Nicole Good, who gets in their way.

Mobilizing for the truth.

Throughout those four minutes, almost every civilian — dressed in puffy coats and plaid flannel and fluffy knits — eventually takes their phone out to record. They are filming the cars, ICE agents, each other. One woman is walking her dog on the sidewalk at the start. She appears again to ask, “What’s happening?” to the filmer; later, she shows up in the periphery, this time with her phone out.

Derek Thompson’s interrogation into adult loneliness corresponds with a wavelength that connects to what’s going on politically, with capitalism/branding, and probably the future of the human race. It’s an astounding change in our species.

Westenberg’s How to Destroy a Generation:

When every feeling becomes a guiding star, resilience takes a back seat. Minor setbacks start to feel like existential crises, and any challenge to your perspective feels like a personal attack. Soon enough, you have a population that’s constantly on edge, unable to handle adversity, and primed to overreact to the smallest discomfort.

China tightens control of rare earth minerals — what’s the plan here?

At least Steve Ballmer is trying to reinforce the “twin pillars” of democracy and capitalism through his continued investment in USAFacts.org. What good it does is up to news organizations and government, fortunately/unfortunately — prime example:

Ballmer has taken his just-the-facts pitch to Capitol Hill, trying to convince Congress to ground its legislation in facts and to sign a document saying it believes in government data. “I don’t feel like I got much traction,” he admitted.

A lot of eyes on Minnesota over the past few days, and I’ve enjoyed seeing the country awash in midwestern banter. Also proud to see a representative from our state on the presidential ticket — Tim Walz is a tremendous, well-engineered asset and temperament on the national stage.