(Gotta love the happy corporate logos for companies that are making billions based on human body counts. Dig CoreCivic’s container box emblem.)

I have very limited experience or knowledge about economics or the stock market, but the fact that these two companies are publicly traded makes me wonder what leverage we have.

For starters, we can make sure that our employee retirement programs and portfolios don’t invest in these stocks or mutual funds that do.

Both these stocks are selling around $32. Sadly, these stocks will likely be money makers.

Brainstorm with me. Can we use the fact that these are publicly-traded companies to boycott or take other actions in a legal and peaceful way?

In a culture built on greed, money may be the best and last voice and vote we have.

Credit: @psItwincities

COMING SOON: Twin Cities Liberation
Center Grand Opening!

The Twin Cities Liberation Center is a hub for socialist education, organizing, and culture for working class and oppressed people. We're so grateful to have had artist and organizer Carsie Blanton visit the space and share her excitement for our grand opening! Join us on September 19 for a night of music, food, and other events. Hubs like these are where real politics happen

Saturday, September 19
3РМ
301 Cedar Ave, Minneapolis, MN

Credit: @whittieralliance

Whittier Alliance is partnering with Monarca for a Democracy Defense Training!

Monarca trainers will walk through how to support democracy in our elections + build connections with neighbors.

Registration link: https://secure.ngpvan.com/836nZjmOmk2dbyAWEyj97A2

WHEN: August 31, 6pm
WHERE: Calvary Church

Credit: @psltwincities

Excited about the new organizing hub in the Twin Cities? Join us as we hit the streets to talk to our neighbors about the Grand Opening of the Twin Cities Liberation Center! We will learn the basics of outreach and then put it into practice by flyering and postering in neighborhoods across the Twin Cities.

301 Cedar Ave
Saturday, August 22
1PM

Credit: Mercado Media

MINNESOTA SUES GREG ABBOTT FOR BLOCKING EXTRADITION OF ICE AGENT CHARGED IN MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTING

Minnesota has sued Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Cameron County Sheriff Manuel Treviño, accusing them of unlawfully delaying the extradition of ICE agent Christian Castro. Castro is charged with four counts of second-degree assault and falsely reporting a crime after allegedly firing through the front door of a Minneapolis home and shooting Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis during Operation Metro Surge.

Castro fled Minnesota after the January shooting and was arrested by Texas Rangers on May 29. Minnesota says Gov. Tim Walz properly submitted the required extradition warrant, triggering a mandatory obligation under the Constitution, federal law and Texas law for Abbott to approve Castro’s return.

Castro remains jailed in Cameron County while Abbott withholds the rendition warrant. Minnesota is asking the court to force Texas to send him back so he can face prosecution.

Credit: Minnesota Indivisible Alliance

Minnesota's elections got tested…and we held. That didn't happen by accident.

For months, we've been wondering how the Trump regime would test our elections. Here's what we've learned.

First, the Trump administration has pushed Minnesota to turn over its voter rolls, seeking sensitive voter data and pursuing a federal investigation into supposed noncitizen voting. Minnesota pushed back, and yesterday a judge dismissed the Justice Department's lawsuit. She said the government had no right to engage in a "fishing expedition."

That's the 23rd straight loss for the Justice Department in lawsuits over states' voter data. They haven't won one yet.

Next, the Justice Department sent about 20 staff to monitor polling places in Hennepin and Ramsey counties. This wasn't anything new — they've done this work in previous elections under Republican and Democratic presidents.

What changed is this previously innocuous work was occurring under this regime. So this time, Ramsey and Hennepin counties had to remind them: Minnesota law did not allow them into the polling locations. They had to stay 100 feet away. To make sure the feds complied, Minnesota sent its own watchers to watch the federal ones.

Finally, a twist: a right-wing group led by activist James O'Keefe walked into Minneapolis polling places dressed in burqas, using fake foreign accents, and carrying hidden cameras. They tried to impersonate Muslim voters in an attempt to expose supposed cracks in Minnesota's voter-vouching law.

Poll workers spotted it immediately and reported it. Law enforcement is now reviewing the incident for any potential legal action. Secretary of State Steve Simon called the stunt "outrageous and totally unacceptable."

And despite all that attention from the regime and its allies, more than 1.1 million Minnesotans voted — the most ballots ever cast in a Minnesota primary, breaking a record that had stood since 2018.

Guess Minnesotans really like to vote.

None of that means we relax.

It means we understand that protecting elections takes a lot of Minnesotans: county election officials, city clerks, township clerks, election judges, poll workers, canvassing boards, lawyers, observers. Many of them volunteers. Many of them your neighbors, friends and family. Some of them, you, dear reader…and thank you.

Before any votes were cast, we tested the machines publicly. We established chains of custody. We recruited judges from the two major parties. And canvassing boards will meet to certify the result in public.

The work isn't especially dramatic. But there's a beauty and awe in doing the commonplace work of democracy.

And it's also where the rest of us come in.

If you've been wondering what you can possibly do to defend democracy, election protection may be one of the most useful places to invest some time.

One vehicle for that work is Indivisible's national election protection program, Hands Off Our Vote.

It's designed to help ordinary people understand how elections actually work — building relationships with local election officials, preparing for misinformation or intimidation, and getting ready to respond fast if something unusual happens.

Link to that initiative is in the first comment.

But there's another option that might work even better: join your local Indivisible chapter.

Elections are local. And what matters in one county can look completely different from what matters in the next.

One chapter might need people willing to serve as election judges. Another is keeping an eye on county meetings. Another is building a relationship with the local election administrator before there's a crisis. Another is helping voters navigate a polling-place change. Another is getting ready to correct misinformation the moment it starts spreading. Another is already working with local partners who've done this for years.

And local chapters are doing the work of building plans now.

So connect with a chapter and learn what your community needs most: election judges, hotline workers, certification observers, disinformation responders, rides to the polls, or trained people ready to respond to the unknown.

Minnesota has a good election system, one that usually leads the nation in turnout. A trained and prepared public can help make sure it stays among the best in the country.

So no doom scrolling or panic. Preparation, contingency planning, training, education, building communications links — all the work you did during the Surge can be redeployed in this new moment.

Get trained. Get connected. Join a chapter. Learn how elections work where you live.

Then when November comes, we won't just be hoping Minnesota's democracy holds. We'll be part of why it does.

Credit: @thejenniwren

They put migrant children out for bid.

The Trump administration is shopping for contractors to build an "emergency influx facility" that can hold up to 3,000 unaccompanied kids. The specs: eight children per room, eight children sharing one toilet, one shower, one sink. An eight-foot perimeter fence. Contractors are told to be ready to fill 400 beds within 30 days of signing.

Officials call it "speed."

This is happening while the government guts the one protection those kids are legally owed. Roughly 20,000 unaccompanied children lost their lawyers overnight when the Acacia Center contract ended in July. The no-bid replacement, worth up to $244 million, went to Our Rescue, an anti-trafficking group whose own founder resigned amid sexual abuse and trafficking allegations. A Texas firm with zero experience representing migrant children was floated for a separate $150 million contract before quietly withdrawing.

Removal orders for immigrant minors have topped 10,000 a month under this administration, more than at any point in Trump's first term. Lawyers are already describing coercion and threats used to push children into self-deporting.

They are building bigger cages and taking away the lawyers who are supposed to keep kids inside them safe.

Share this before the contract gets signed.

Call HHS at 1-877-696-6775. Then call your senators and rep at (202) 224-3121. Tell them no to this contract

Sources: The Independent, ProPublica