Dael Norwood
@dael.bsky.social
Historian of America's old, weird political economy. Unincorporated but proudly unionized citizen of Delaware. Adding “levity to discussions of financing and high politics” since 2022. Wrote Trading Freedom: How Trade with China Defined Early America.
Pinned
Dael Norwood
@dael.bsky.social
· Jul 14
The Best Thing to Ever Happen to the State of … Delaware?
This post argues that the forces pushing DExit – and thus the death of the corporate franchise –cannot be appeased by Delaware, so we must consider the future without the franchise ourselves,…
daelnorwood.com
A moderate-length but immodest proposal: it's time for Delawareans to start planning for a future beyond the corporate franchise – and we need to do it before angry billionaires force it on us first.
Reposted by Dael Norwood
if bovino is out and conservatives are turning on noem then there is a real opportunity to demand that miller resign too.
January 27, 2026 at 1:07 AM
if bovino is out and conservatives are turning on noem then there is a real opportunity to demand that miller resign too.
Reposted by Dael Norwood
The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced the Democrats have to push their hand immediately. The parallels with the delays and subsequent failures after January 6th are blaring warning signs about what will happen if they don’t go after the issues with ICE and CBP at the root RIGHT NOW.
January 26, 2026 at 11:35 PM
The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced the Democrats have to push their hand immediately. The parallels with the delays and subsequent failures after January 6th are blaring warning signs about what will happen if they don’t go after the issues with ICE and CBP at the root RIGHT NOW.
Reposted by Dael Norwood
Everything they learned in Minnesota they’re applying in Maine from day one. They started off doing fast-moving snatch and grabs on the street, recording and using facial id on observers, and threatening observers directly. They’ll do it all where you live too.
Why is the msm outside of Maine not covering this? It seems like a huge and very troubling story to me. ICE coming to observers houses or calling them on the phone warning them to back off??!! www.pressherald.com/2026/01/23/i...
ICE watchers in Maine say they were threatened by federal agents
Community members have been monitoring the activity of immigration agents in Greater Portland.
www.pressherald.com
January 26, 2026 at 10:27 PM
Everything they learned in Minnesota they’re applying in Maine from day one. They started off doing fast-moving snatch and grabs on the street, recording and using facial id on observers, and threatening observers directly. They’ll do it all where you live too.
Reposted by Dael Norwood
This is because our elected officials haven't been helping with any of our institutions for years except the military and law enforcement. Schools, libraries and other public services have been held together by immense amounts of volunteer labor and community funding.
All of this happened with basically no help from elected officials of the opposition party. This was entirely the people.
January 26, 2026 at 10:23 PM
This is because our elected officials haven't been helping with any of our institutions for years except the military and law enforcement. Schools, libraries and other public services have been held together by immense amounts of volunteer labor and community funding.
It is encouraging to see this movement in the right direction.
(As a purely factual matter, Rep. McBride is incorrect that the US immigration system was humane before the latest surge in attacks, however.)
(As a purely factual matter, Rep. McBride is incorrect that the US immigration system was humane before the latest surge in attacks, however.)
2/ He is the exact kind of individual that our asylum system is meant to protect.
My full statement ⤵️
My full statement ⤵️
January 26, 2026 at 9:52 PM
It is encouraging to see this movement in the right direction.
(As a purely factual matter, Rep. McBride is incorrect that the US immigration system was humane before the latest surge in attacks, however.)
(As a purely factual matter, Rep. McBride is incorrect that the US immigration system was humane before the latest surge in attacks, however.)
Reposted by Dael Norwood
Here's how to identify some crowd control munitions, canisters of which federal agents have left on the ground after deploying them against people in Minnesota. bit.ly/3YWp1jE
Graphic by Mark Boswell/The Minnesota Star Tribune
Graphic by Mark Boswell/The Minnesota Star Tribune
January 26, 2026 at 8:09 PM
Here's how to identify some crowd control munitions, canisters of which federal agents have left on the ground after deploying them against people in Minnesota. bit.ly/3YWp1jE
Graphic by Mark Boswell/The Minnesota Star Tribune
Graphic by Mark Boswell/The Minnesota Star Tribune
Reposted by Dael Norwood
From Whittier's poem The Rendition, about Anthony Burns, who was captured in Boston and sent in chains to Virginia:
And Law, an unloosed maniac, strong,
Blood-drunken, through the blackness trod,
Hoarse-shouting in the ear of God
The blasphemy of wrong.
www.gutenberg.org/files/9580/9...
And Law, an unloosed maniac, strong,
Blood-drunken, through the blackness trod,
Hoarse-shouting in the ear of God
The blasphemy of wrong.
www.gutenberg.org/files/9580/9...
January 26, 2026 at 7:31 PM
From Whittier's poem The Rendition, about Anthony Burns, who was captured in Boston and sent in chains to Virginia:
And Law, an unloosed maniac, strong,
Blood-drunken, through the blackness trod,
Hoarse-shouting in the ear of God
The blasphemy of wrong.
www.gutenberg.org/files/9580/9...
And Law, an unloosed maniac, strong,
Blood-drunken, through the blackness trod,
Hoarse-shouting in the ear of God
The blasphemy of wrong.
www.gutenberg.org/files/9580/9...
Reposted by Dael Norwood
reported ICE activities in the Twin Cities this morning
-- terrorizing a daycare
-- drawing weapons outside a bank
-- terrorizing a daycare
-- drawing weapons outside a bank
January 26, 2026 at 5:44 PM
reported ICE activities in the Twin Cities this morning
-- terrorizing a daycare
-- drawing weapons outside a bank
-- terrorizing a daycare
-- drawing weapons outside a bank
Of course there's a kaiju off Delmarva
a not insignificant number of people on Threads seem to believe the snow storm was The Government's attempt to refreeze the Leviathan, the world-eating serpent, which was getting loose (to eat the world, I assume)
January 26, 2026 at 5:17 PM
Of course there's a kaiju off Delmarva
In the bad old days, the Cossacks worked for the Tsar.
In the new American empire, however
In the new American empire, however
Trump sends border tsar to Minnesota after second fatal ICE shooting
President tasks Tom Homan with overseeing operations as outcry grows over the death of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
www.scmp.com
January 26, 2026 at 4:34 PM
In the bad old days, the Cossacks worked for the Tsar.
In the new American empire, however
In the new American empire, however
First the website, then the lectures, next the classrooms - the logic of this era’s censorship tracks backwards from what materials are most easily algorithmically discoverable and aggregateable by the regime’s AI bots and bureaucrats
arktimes.com/arkansas-blo...
arktimes.com/arkansas-blo...
January 26, 2026 at 4:13 PM
First the website, then the lectures, next the classrooms - the logic of this era’s censorship tracks backwards from what materials are most easily algorithmically discoverable and aggregateable by the regime’s AI bots and bureaucrats
arktimes.com/arkansas-blo...
arktimes.com/arkansas-blo...
Reposted by Dael Norwood
Censorship comes to the University of Arkansas Little Rock: arktimes.com/arkansas-blo...
UPDATE: Lectures on race and history canceled in latest assault on academic freedom in Arkansas - Arkansas Times
Two planned lectures on race and history have been canceled at UALR after campus leadership was apparently concerned conservative lawmakers might take offense and withhold future funding.
arktimes.com
January 26, 2026 at 3:55 PM
Censorship comes to the University of Arkansas Little Rock: arktimes.com/arkansas-blo...
Reposted by Dael Norwood
This is one of the things that I find is most shocking to people outside Minnesota who don’t realize it yet—the scale at which everyone who isn’t white has been forced into a spectrum of hiding.
Very good article drawing out the Tahrir Square comparison.
Very good article drawing out the Tahrir Square comparison.
January 26, 2026 at 4:01 AM
This is one of the things that I find is most shocking to people outside Minnesota who don’t realize it yet—the scale at which everyone who isn’t white has been forced into a spectrum of hiding.
Very good article drawing out the Tahrir Square comparison.
Very good article drawing out the Tahrir Square comparison.
For any other poor fool, so that you may not suffer in the darkness of ignorance as I have
www.census.gov/programs-sur...
www.census.gov/programs-sur...
January 26, 2026 at 2:18 AM
For any other poor fool, so that you may not suffer in the darkness of ignorance as I have
www.census.gov/programs-sur...
www.census.gov/programs-sur...
I'm simultaneously overjoyed to find that the US Census Bureau does an "Annual Survey of State Government Tax Collections" – that breaks down each state by source, including personal income vs corporate license fees - and also ABSOLUTELY FURIOUS that it took me so long to find it
January 26, 2026 at 2:15 AM
I'm simultaneously overjoyed to find that the US Census Bureau does an "Annual Survey of State Government Tax Collections" – that breaks down each state by source, including personal income vs corporate license fees - and also ABSOLUTELY FURIOUS that it took me so long to find it
Bondi’s request for voter rolls confuses me. Surely the real ask is for *ongoing control* of the voter rolls, not simply the list as it is today?
Surely the list as-is, or something close to it, is something they could easily buy or steal (if the spam texts I get are any indication).
Surely the list as-is, or something close to it, is something they could easily buy or steal (if the spam texts I get are any indication).
January 26, 2026 at 12:04 AM
Bondi’s request for voter rolls confuses me. Surely the real ask is for *ongoing control* of the voter rolls, not simply the list as it is today?
Surely the list as-is, or something close to it, is something they could easily buy or steal (if the spam texts I get are any indication).
Surely the list as-is, or something close to it, is something they could easily buy or steal (if the spam texts I get are any indication).
Reposted by Dael Norwood
This was just me making this comparison yesterday, but today the Korean news is calling Minnesota "America's Gwangju" and have human rights lawyers explaining how America is now living through the dictatorship Korea once had.
The Chun regime that my wife fought against in the 80s did the exact same thing. They needed a "crisis" that "only they could solve" to hoard more ill-gotten power, so they chose one city (Gwangju), declared its inhabitants enemies, sent trucks full of soldiers to violently attack and kill them.
January 25, 2026 at 11:37 PM
This was just me making this comparison yesterday, but today the Korean news is calling Minnesota "America's Gwangju" and have human rights lawyers explaining how America is now living through the dictatorship Korea once had.
I know I shouldn't hold law review articles to my standards for historiography, but this article about the 20th-c caselaw on local voting that relies on cites to early Americanist scholarship about state-level voter qualifications is making me shake my head hard enough I'm going to pull something
January 25, 2026 at 10:15 PM
I know I shouldn't hold law review articles to my standards for historiography, but this article about the 20th-c caselaw on local voting that relies on cites to early Americanist scholarship about state-level voter qualifications is making me shake my head hard enough I'm going to pull something
Reposted by Dael Norwood
when writers and artists warned of intellectual theft, when women warned of the threats of deepfake revenge porn, when child safety advocates begged us to take the dangers of inevitable abuse into account: these were portents of what this administration will do.
January 25, 2026 at 9:44 PM
when writers and artists warned of intellectual theft, when women warned of the threats of deepfake revenge porn, when child safety advocates begged us to take the dangers of inevitable abuse into account: these were portents of what this administration will do.
Reposted by Dael Norwood
talking with someone about this today, and their whole expression sharpened suddenly as they asked "is that why ICE is angry people have video from multiple angles?"
AI is the enemy of documentation--which is a way of saying, it's the enemy of accountability.
AI is the enemy of documentation--which is a way of saying, it's the enemy of accountability.
a reminder that AI isn't just cringe; it's part of this administration's toolkit.
January 25, 2026 at 9:36 PM
talking with someone about this today, and their whole expression sharpened suddenly as they asked "is that why ICE is angry people have video from multiple angles?"
AI is the enemy of documentation--which is a way of saying, it's the enemy of accountability.
AI is the enemy of documentation--which is a way of saying, it's the enemy of accountability.
Reposted by Dael Norwood
STATEMENT FROM THE NATIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYERS ASSOCIATION (NBPA) AND ITS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ON THE FATAL SHOOTING IN MINNEAPOLIS BY ICE
January 25, 2026 at 8:52 PM
STATEMENT FROM THE NATIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYERS ASSOCIATION (NBPA) AND ITS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ON THE FATAL SHOOTING IN MINNEAPOLIS BY ICE
Also, the wikipedia page for Minnesota-based but Trump-friendly financial firm Securian Financial Group is afflicted with some kind of payola accusations?
January 25, 2026 at 8:29 PM
Also, the wikipedia page for Minnesota-based but Trump-friendly financial firm Securian Financial Group is afflicted with some kind of payola accusations?
Reposted by Dael Norwood
More profiles in cowardice:
Target, Best Buy, General Mills, Cargill and roughly four dozen other large MN companies issued a public letter calling for an “immediate de-escalation of tensions” in the state. Stops short of condemning the killings or who is responsible for them.
Target, Best Buy, General Mills, Cargill and roughly four dozen other large MN companies issued a public letter calling for an “immediate de-escalation of tensions” in the state. Stops short of condemning the killings or who is responsible for them.
Minnesota’s Biggest Companies Call for ‘De-escalation’ of Tensions
www.nytimes.com
January 25, 2026 at 8:20 PM
More profiles in cowardice:
Target, Best Buy, General Mills, Cargill and roughly four dozen other large MN companies issued a public letter calling for an “immediate de-escalation of tensions” in the state. Stops short of condemning the killings or who is responsible for them.
Target, Best Buy, General Mills, Cargill and roughly four dozen other large MN companies issued a public letter calling for an “immediate de-escalation of tensions” in the state. Stops short of condemning the killings or who is responsible for them.
Reposted by Dael Norwood
Palantir’s role in enabling ICE raids is an undercovered story. A month ago, CEO Alex Karp - who wrote his college thesis on fascism - was asked whether Trump was a fascist and replied: “Of course not. I think that’s stupid, honestly”
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/b...
Palantir’s Chief Defends His Company’s Work With ICE
www.nytimes.com
January 25, 2026 at 7:57 PM
Palantir’s role in enabling ICE raids is an undercovered story. A month ago, CEO Alex Karp - who wrote his college thesis on fascism - was asked whether Trump was a fascist and replied: “Of course not. I think that’s stupid, honestly”
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/b...
Minnesota Chamber of Commerce organized an abject and embarrassingly vague “open letter” from 60 CEOs, which (in effect) begs the Trump regime to stop.
Notable in that it represents the business community acting politically, in the open.
But also reveals how powerless & late biz elites are rn.
Notable in that it represents the business community acting politically, in the open.
But also reveals how powerless & late biz elites are rn.
Open letter from more than 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies | Minnesota Chamber of Commerce
www.mnchamber.com
January 25, 2026 at 8:12 PM
Minnesota Chamber of Commerce organized an abject and embarrassingly vague “open letter” from 60 CEOs, which (in effect) begs the Trump regime to stop.
Notable in that it represents the business community acting politically, in the open.
But also reveals how powerless & late biz elites are rn.
Notable in that it represents the business community acting politically, in the open.
But also reveals how powerless & late biz elites are rn.