OK, so the date is Tuesday, January 27, 2026.
And if you've been looking at the news this week,
it probably feels like everything is happening
all at once. It's a lot. The news cycle is just
spinning. It really is. But if you sort of zoom
out and look at the map, it feels like the entire
political world is focused on this one very cold
spot, Minneapolis, Minnesota. It's absolutely
the eye of the storm. And, you know, it's rare
that our source materials line up this neatly.
We have a political analysis of the current standoff
there, and we're putting it right up against
a historical record of the first Minnesota regiment
at Gettysburg. So we're talking about a metaphorical
hill to die on in 2026. Right. And a very, very
literal and bloody hill in 1863. Exactly. And
the mission for this deep dive is to figure out
why Minnesota, of all places, keeps ending up
in this role. Why is it always the place where
the line gets drawn? We're going to unpack this
current political siege of Minneapolis. The whole
situation with the Trump administration, ICE,
DHS. All of it. And we'll see how it's basically
a modern echo of a legacy that, well, that started
with bayonets in the Civil War. And I have to
say, some of the details in this political source
are just wild. We're not just talking bowls.
We're going to talk about the fashion choices
of a Border Patrol commander. Which is way more
interesting than it sounds. It really is. And
then we'll get into a historical suicide charge
that, you know, might have literally saved the
entire country. There's a lot to get through.
So let's start with today. The reporting we have
paints this picture of a White House that thought
it had an easy win, but now it's just stuck.
They call it the worm turning. Which is the perfect
way to put it. I mean, just think back to last
week. The administration kicks off Operation
Metro Surge. It was supposed to be this huge
show of fours. Right. Federal agents, DHS, ICE,
all flooding into Minneapolis to restore order.
They were turning the heat way up. A real shock
and awe approach. But then... The catalyst happened.
The shooting of Alex Pretty. Right. And this
is the moment the whole narrative just breaks.
Alex Pretty, a U .S. citizen, is shot by federal
agents. And the initial story from the administration
was, you know, textbook. He was violent. He resisted.
He was a threat. He came right at us. That was
the line, wasn't it? That was the exact line.
But the thing is, in 2026, there are cameras
everywhere. And when the video evidence came
out, it didn't just poke holes in the story.
No, it just incinerated it. It completely incinerated
it. The footage showed Pretty never drew his
weapon. He wasn't the aggressor. And that gap,
that huge space between the press release and
the video on everyone's phone, that's what triggered
this massive shift. The analysis we're looking
at calls this a canary in the coal mine moment.
And they point to one specific person who really
shows how fast the ground was shifting. A guy
named Chris Middell. Yeah, Chris Middell. Now,
look, normally a candidate dropping out of a
primary. It's not huge news. He was running for
governor on the GOP ticket, but it's how he did
it that matters so much here. You didn't just,
what, send out a press release and disappear?
No, not at all. He posts an 11 -minute video,
and in, you know, the world of political attention
spans, 11 minutes is basically a documentary.
He looks straight into the camera and says he
cannot support retribution on the citizens of
his state. Retribution. That is a powerful word.
It's a heavy word. He essentially went from being
a party standard bearer to saying, I can't be
part of this if this is what it means. And this
is a perfect example of what they call the Overton
window shifting in real time. Ah, the Overton
window. I love that concept. It's the range of
ideas that are considered acceptable for public
debate. And normally, that window moves like
an inch at a time over years. Right. In Minnesota,
because of the shooting, it basically shifted
a mile in 48 hours. Maidle made it OK for other
Republicans to say, no, this has gone too far.
And once that happened, the floodgates just opened.
It wasn't just local guys anymore. The list of
national heavy hitters turning on the administration
over this is pretty surprising. It's a very strange
group. I mean, you expect the moderates, right?
People like Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, they're
usually the first to get nervous about this stuff.
But then you get Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Wait, hold on. Greg Abbott. The same Greg Abbott,
who, as the source points out, is famous for
putting razor wire in the Rio Grande. The very
same one. The irony is just it's so thick. Abbott
came out and said the administration needs to
recalibrate. That's a record scratch moment.
It is. The analysis basically says, look, when
you have lost Greg Abbott on an enforcement issue,
you have completely lost the plot. If the guy
who defines hardline policy is telling you you've
gone too far, you are on your own. And it's not
just the politicians. The media ecosystem is
fracturing, too, which I think is maybe even
more dangerous for the White House. Oh, absolutely.
The real sign they've lost control of the story
wasn't the Senate, it was the media. You have
CBS News, now led by Barry Weiss, reporting pretty
aggressively against the official story. That's
a big shift. But the real damage is coming from
the populist right. The bro demographic, as they
say. Exactly. The source points out that guys
like Joe Rogan and even Bubba the Love Sponge
are just lambasting the administration over this.
I just have to pause on the fact that we're citing
Bubba the love sponge in a serious analysis of
national politics. I know. It sounds ridiculous.
But think about who they reach. These aren't
people reading policy journals. They speak directly
to the base. And if Bubba is on his show looking
at that pretty video and telling his listeners,
hey, the government is lying. There's no spin
that gets you out of that. It breaks the echo
chamber. Completely breaks it. Fox News was trying,
you know, they were blaming the app signal for
protest coordination, trying to make it about
tech. But eventually the sheer weight of it all
forced them to pivot. They had to admit on air
that the video showed Pretty never drew his weapon.
So the narrative collapses, the media turns,
the base gets angry. And when that happens in
DC, somebody has to get the boot. Which brings
us to a character study that I found completely
fascinating. Gregory Bovino. Ah, yes. The commander
at large. Which, as the article notes, is not
a real rank, right? Not at all. It's a made -up
title, has no basis in law. But Bovino was the
face of this operation. He's the guy on TV giving
the press conferences. And the article spends
a surprising amount of time talking about what
he was wearing. Specifically, his belt. The Sam
Brown belt. OK, I saw the picture. That's the
leather strap that goes over the shoulder and
across the chest, right? That's the one. It looks
very... Tactical. Very serious. It looks extremely
intense. It just screams authority. But this
is where the story gets really interesting. That
belt was invented by a British officer named,
well, Sam Brown back in the 1800s. And he didn't
invent it to look tough. He invented it because
he had lost his left arm. Wait, what? It was
disability aid? Purely. Imagine you're on a horse,
you've only got one arm, and you need to draw
a heavy saber from your hip. With a normal belt,
the scabbard would just flop around. So Brown
created this strap over his shoulder to hold
the scabbard steady so he could draw his sword
with one hand. So this thing that Bovino is wearing
as a symbol of ultimate authority started out
as an accessibility tool. Exactly. It was standard
issue in World War I. But after that, when we
stopped fighting with swords, it mostly vanished,
except for a brief comeback with fascists in
Italy and Germany. Not great company to be in.
And here's the practical point the analysis makes.
In modern policing, that strike is actually a
huge liability. It's dangerous. It's something
for a suspect to grab onto in a fight. So the
fact that Bolvino is wearing it in 2026, the
source argues it is 100 % cosplay. It's a costume.
It is. It's about projecting an image that isn't
backed up by function. And apparently, that costume
didn't do him any good against Jake Tapper. Well,
that interview was rough. It was brutal. Tapper
caught Bovino in a flat -out lie about a judge
on live television. Bovino denied it. And Tapper
just read off the documented instances. It was
a total humiliation. And the fallout was immediate.
Lightning fast. Bovino's fired. His social media
is gone. And he's been sent off to El Centro,
California to retire. The article has this pretty
snarky line about him. wanting to open an apple
orchard asking, how do you like them apples?
Wow. But he's not the only one in the hot seat.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's in trouble, too.
She is in a very, very tough spot. She tried
to shut down the investigation into the shooting,
which made the moderates angry. But she has a
bigger problem with her own base. hypocrisy.
The gun issue. The gun issue. She came out and
criticized Alex Preti for carrying a gun, but
you have to remember her signature achievement
as governor of South Dakota was signing permitless
concealed carry into law. So she literally built
her career on the idea that everyone should carry
a gun and now she's attacking a citizen for carrying
a gun. And the base sees that hypocrisy. You
can't be a Second Amendment champion only when
it's politically convenient. Democrats have filed
articles of impeachment and a lot of Republicans
are just letting her twist in the wind. And speaking
of the Democrats, the source describes them with
a phrase I love, Democrats in a ray. For once,
yes. Senate Majority Leader Schumer has played
this really smartly. He's offering to pass 11
of the 12 big budget bills. He's just isolating
the one for DHS. So he's saying, look, we can
keep the entire government open. pay the military,
fund the parks, all of it. We are just going
to have a very specific fight over this one operation.
It's a perfect trap. It forces Republicans to
either trigger a full government shutdown, which
everyone hates, or keep funding this operation
in Minneapolis, which is becoming more toxic
by the day. Even swing district Democrats like
Tom Srazi are now publicly apologizing for ever
having voted for DHS funding in the past. It
all feels like this very modern kind of chaos.
social media viral videos. But this idea of Minnesota
standing firm against a huge force, it has this
incredibly literal echo in American history.
It really does. And we need to pivot here. We
are leaving 2026 for a minute and going all the
way back to July 2nd, 1863, Gettysburg. Because
to really understand the, I guess, the DNA of
this state, you have to look at what happened
on a little ridge in Pennsylvania. This story,
every time I read it, it just stops me cold.
It's late afternoon on Cemetery Ridge. The Union
Army should be in a strong position, but instead,
it is in total chaos. And this is because of
General Sickles. General Dan Sickles. A political
general, not a career soldier. He decides he
knows better than his orders, moves his entire
corps forward off the high ground, and just gets
them annihilated. When they break, they leave
a gigantic hole in the Union line. How big of
a hole are we talking? A quarter mile wide. Just...
empty space between the advancing Confederates
and the center of the entire Union Army. And
pouring into that gap is a whole Confederate
brigade from Alabama, maybe 1 ,200, 1 ,500 men.
And if they get through that gap? If they punch
through, they split the army in two. The battle
is lost. And if Gettysburg is lost, the whole
war might be lost. And there's nobody there to
stop them? Almost nobody. General Winfield Scott
Hancock, he's one of the top Union commanders,
rides up and sees this disaster unfolding. He's
looking around desperately for any unit to plug
this hole. And all he can find is one single
small Regiment, the first Minnesota. And when
you say small? I mean tiny. They had already
taken losses, sent men out on other duties. There
were only 262 men left standing there. 262 men
against, you know, well over a thousand. That's
not a fight. That's a speed bump. And Hancock
knows it. But he doesn't need a victory. He just
needs five minutes. Ten minutes, maybe. Just
enough time for reinforcements to arrive. So
he rides up to the Colonel and gives an order
that is basically a death sentence. Take those
colors. He points at the advancing Confederate
flags and says, Colonel, do you see those colors?
Take them. He didn't tell them to hold their
ground. He ordered them to charge, to attack
a force five times their size. Can you imagine
being one of those soldiers? You look at the
math, you look down that hill, and you know.
You just know you are not coming back. The historical
record says they didn't hesitate for a second.
Those 262 men fixed their bayonets and charged
down that hill. And the absolutely insane thing
is, it worked. How was that even possible? It
was pure shock. Psychological shock. The Alabamians
see this tiny but ferocious charge coming right
at them and they must have thought, nobody would
be this crazy. This has to be the spearhead of
a huge counterattack. So they paused. They halted.
They stopped their advance to form a proper battle
line to receive the charge. And that moment of
hesitation, that was all Hancock needed. He got
his 15 minutes. But the cost of those 15 minutes?
The cost was just, it's unimaginable. In that
short charge, 215 of the 262 men were either
killed or wounded. 215. Out of 262. It's an 82
% casualty rate. To this day, it is the largest
proportional loss suffered by any surviving US
military unit in a single battle. They were effectively
wiped out in 10 minutes. And yet the source says
they were back in the line the next day. The
47 survivors were. They were back on the line
for Pickett's Charge on July 3. General Hancock
later said, no soldiers on any field ever displayed
grander heroism. That just gives you chills.
So let's connect these two dots. We have this
historical legacy of just extreme resilience,
of holding the line at a massive physical cost.
And in 2026, we see Minneapolis facing a very
different kind of siege. It's political. It's
about the media, about civil rights. But that
idea of holding the line seems to be baked into
the state's identity. And based on the political
analysis, it seems like that line is holding
again. The administration is actually retreating.
They're blinking, yeah. The reporting says Trump
himself is now calling Governor Walz and Mayor
Frey suddenly calling Alex Preti's death a tragedy.
He's pulling Bovino out, replacing him with Tom
Homan, which the source pretty clearly sees as
damage control. It is a tactical retreat. The
source uses the phrase death of Trumpism by a
thousand cuts. And the argument is that this
whole war on Minnesota backfired so badly that
the administration's numbers are now deeply underwater.
It seems like they've pushed and Minnesota pushed
back hard and the administration is the one that
buckled. It's a fascinating parallel. In 1863,
it's a bayonet charge. that stops an army because
of the shock of the resistance. In 2026, it's
video evidence, it's public outcry, and it's
political calculation. And it's still individual
acts of courage. I mean, Chris Maydell dropping
out of that race, that was his version of charging
down the hill. He sacrificed his own political
career to try and stop something he saw as a
disaster for his state. So we've covered the
Sam Brown belt, which I will never see the same
way again, the shifting political alliances of
2026 and that unbelievable 82 percent casualty
rate of First Minnesota. We have and it really
does make you think about what sacrifice means
in different eras. That's actually the thought
I want to leave you with today. The source noted
that Gregory Bovino wanted to retire to an apple
orchard and instead he got sent away in disgrace.
Okay. But just consider this contrast. In 1863
holding the line required this supreme bloody
physical sacrifice. 262 men literally throwing
their bodies into the fire to buy 50 minutes
of time. But in 2026, that line is held in a
different way. It's held with information. It's
held by people leaking a video, by politicians
breaking ranks, by citizens just refusing to
accept a story that contradicts what they can
see with their own eyes. And if the administration
is retreating from Minneapolis, as our sources
suggest, it raises this really big question for
our time. Is public pressure, is solidarity now
as powerful a force as a ban at charge was in
1863? It's a powerful thought. And hey, if you
ever find yourself at Gettysburg, go find the
monument to the First Minnesota. It's worth standing
there for a minute. Really puts things in perspective.
Absolutely. Thanks for diving in with us. Talk
to you next time.