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Posted by Ed Driscoll

https://instapundit.com/769978/

https://instapundit.com/?p=769978

MINNEAPOLIS MAYOR PARTYING LIKE IT’S 1859: ‘Fight ICE Agents in the Streets.’

Enter the escalator-in-chief, Minneapolis’ weasely mayor, Jacob Frey, who doubled down on the incendiary rhetoric, blaming Trump and ICE agents for doing their jobs in enforcing the nation’s immigration laws.

“Meanwhile, we have ICE agents throughout the city and throughout our state who, along with Border Patrol, are creating chaos,” Frey said. He called ICE’s operations in Minneapolis an invasion, like the actual invasion American towns and cities have been dealing with thanks to Democrats’ cynical open-border policies. Frey whined about what he asserts is Minneapolis’ inadequate police force (around 600 sworn officers), a problem that defund-the-police-pushing liberals in local government created when “mostly peaceful” protesters were burning down portions of the city in the last wave of manufactured riots.

And Frey said something very curious.

“We are in a position right now where we have residents who are asking the very limited number of police officers that we have to fight ICE agents on the street. To stand by their neighbors,” he said.

Hmmm? Are Minnesota police cooperating in what would clearly be an insurrection? More evidence in support of the president invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807 to end the open rebellion against federal law enforcement.

The Minneapolis chief of police does quite a double take in response to Frey’s call that his men “fight ICE agents on the street:”

Minneapolis Mayor Frey wants police officers "to fight ICE agents on the streets."

The chief of police's reaction is priceless… pic.twitter.com/OxcULwM5qW

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) January 15, 2026

Here’s another angle, showing the two men side by side:

Watch the Minneapolis police chief's reaction when Mayor Frey says he wants cops to "fight ICE agents in the street." pic.twitter.com/irZF7t56mC

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) January 15, 2026

https://instapundit.com/769978/

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Posted by Glenn Reynolds

https://instapundit.com/769910/

https://instapundit.com/?p=769910

ROGER KIMBALL: Why can’t Democrats speak frankly about Iran?

The only Democrats who seem willing to mention the plight of Iran’s protesters do so in order to compare what’s happening in Tehran to the ongoing anti-Trump brouhaha in Minneapolis – with the inevitable hashtag: “end authoritarianism.” “In Iran, brave protesters confront a far-right theocratic regime,” wrote Ken Martin, the chair (don’t call him man) of the Democratic party, on social media. “Here at home, tens of thousands are marching after the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good – demanding justice, transparency and an end to an unchecked federal force that takes lives and tears families apart.” In case his moral equivalence wasn’t sufficiently odious the first time, Martin doubled down on Twitter/X: “If comparing the US to Iran makes you angry, ask why. Killing protesters. Crushing dissent. Kidnapping and disappearing legal citizens. Ignoring courts. Threatening critics. That’s authoritarian behavior – anywhere.”

Let’s not waste time explaining to Ken how the situation in Iran and Minnesota are not in any meaningful way similar. A more interesting comparison might be between the revolutionaries of 1970s Iran and the anti-ICE radicals of Minnesota today – two lots of fanatical zealots, hellbent on imposing their warped ideologies on everybody else.

Iran would be better off if they’d all been machine-gunned in the 1970s.

https://instapundit.com/769910/

https://instapundit.com/?p=769910

Posted by Ed Driscoll

https://instapundit.com/769946/

https://instapundit.com/?p=769946

TEN YEARS GONE:

Shot: Iran’s Murderous Regime Is Irredeemable.

—New York Times editorial board column, Wednesday.

Chaser:

This particular Persian excursion, after all, is sponsored by none other than the New York Times, the esteemed paper of record that, in case you hadn’t noticed, is quickly transforming itself into a travel agency of some renown, offering an array of exhilarating (and expensive) cultural journeys for the sophisticated traveller.

Looking for a “people to people experience” in communist Cuba? The Times has you covered. Eager to help solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Ditto. Keen to “retrace the footsteps of some of the world’s greatest explorers” in Antarctica? There’s a trip for that. It’s not clear whose footsteps you’ll be retracing aboard the “297-foot luxury expedition yacht” the Times has commissioned, but why quibble? Rates start at $15,695. Carlos Slim must be loving this.

No Times Journey, as they’re called, is as popular as “Tales from Persia.” Ours is the inaugural voyage, but there’s been so much interest that they’ve already had to increase the number of offerings this year from three to five, all of which are sold out. At the end of the day, no one—not even the ayatollah—is going to f—k with the Times. That’s what you’re counting on, anyway. Although the Gray Lady has certainly gone to great lengths to ensure her release from liability:

Without limitation, we are not responsible for any injury, loss, or damage to personal property, death, delay or inconvenience in connection with the provision of any goods or services occasioned by or resulting from, but not limited to, acts of God, acts of government, weather, force majeure, acts of war or civil unrest, insurrection or revolt, strikes or other labor activities, criminal or terrorist activities or the threat thereof…

But even if it comes to that—getting yanked into a windowless room upon arrival at Imam Khomeini International Airport—you’ve settled on a failsafe strategy: blame everything on the Jews. Before you know it, your Qatar Airways flight to Tehran (connecting through Doha, site of the 2022 World Cup final) is preparing for takeoff. There’s a large compass displayed on a big screen at the front of the cabin. One arrow points towards Mecca, the holiest of Muslim holy sites, and another (for some reason) towards Gaithersburg, Md.

—Andrew Stiles, “What I Saw in Iran,” the Washington Free Beacon, March 30th, 2015.

https://instapundit.com/769946/

https://instapundit.com/?p=769946

Posted by Glenn Reynolds

https://instapundit.com/769934/

https://instapundit.com/?p=769934

CHRIS BRAY: The Culture War Has a Real Scoreboard, But It’s Hidden Behind the Fake Scoreboard “Now, the results: Paramount+ released the series premiere for free on YouTube, again sending out the signal for audiences to come watch the rest on their paid platform. Result: ‘Paramount spent between 6-10 million an episode on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. They put the premier on YouTube for free and got 1300 live viewers.”

Not all is lost, though: “There are lots of scrappy multi-heritage lesbians and they fight a mean straight white man, which is stunning and brave. . . . It’s undergraduate story hour in space, subtly teaching empathy and Trump sucks, but on a starship.”

https://instapundit.com/769934/

https://instapundit.com/?p=769934

Posted by Glenn Reynolds

https://instapundit.com/769908/

https://instapundit.com/?p=769908

ILYA SHAPIRO: The Supreme Court Goes Back to Biology Class: Oral arguments over state sports laws underscored the simple truth that sex categories exist for a reason.

https://instapundit.com/769908/

https://instapundit.com/?p=769908

Posted by Ed Driscoll

https://instapundit.com/769941/

https://instapundit.com/?p=769941

SOMETIMES THE LEFT HAND DOESN’T KNOW WHAT THE FAR LEFT HAND IS DOING: Democrats Are Begging Radical Members Not To Revive the ‘Abolish ICE’ Craze. It’s Not Working.

Sensible Democrats who care about winning elections are begging their elected leaders to ignore the screeching activists who are (once again) hounding them to abolish ICE, the immigration enforcement agency.

It’s not going very well.

Two left-leaning advocacy groups published memos this week urging Democrats not to get swept up in the frenzy of anti-ICE rhetoric unleashed after an ICE officer shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. The Searchlight Institute, a think tank founded by former Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) adviser Adam Jentleson, thought it was necessary to remind Democrats that “advocating for abolishing ICE is tantamount to advocating for stopping enforcement of all of our immigration laws,” a policy that is “wrong on the merits and at odds with the American public.”

Third Way, another moderate think tank, warned Democrats that caving to the “abolish ICE” mob would be politically “lethal” and squander “one of the clearest opportunities in years” for meaningful reform. That is precisely what happened in 2020, the group argued, when enough Democrats embraced (or refused to condemn) the activist-led campaign to “defund the police” following George Floyd’s death. “We shouldn’t be the party against enforcement entirely,” Third Way wrote on X.

The rhetoric on the left could get even zanier:

If you were to pin Walz or Omar or any of them down in an interview, their answers would eventually land on this, but we have a media that not only refuses to do that, but agrees with them.

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) January 15, 2026

(Classical allusion in headline.)

https://instapundit.com/769941/

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Posted by Sarah Hoyt

https://instapundit.com/769976/

https://instapundit.com/?p=769976

AN IDEA SO CRAZY IT JUST MIGHT WORK:  Pentagon to ‘refocus’ military newspaper Stars and Stripes away from ‘woke distractions’ .

https://instapundit.com/769976/

https://instapundit.com/?p=769976

Posted by Sarah Hoyt

https://instapundit.com/769974/

https://instapundit.com/?p=769974

THEY’RE HOLDING RESIDENTS HOSTAGE:   The disturbing reason Iran appears to have stopped slaughtering protesters.

Mr President? Thank you for your attention to this matter.

https://instapundit.com/769974/

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