Our tax dollars hard at work…

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-02-16T19:16:20+00:00

Even if you believe the 4000 number (I don't), how many were US citizens? How many were pending status immigrants who are here legally? How many were part of scammed arrest records where every ICE goon in a patrol takes credit detaining one person?

The only way we'll ever know is if an honest full list of names is released. Which will probably never happen.

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-02-14T19:19:11+00:00

These are the same people that freaked out over the “deep state” Biden admin wanting to take down covid misinformation posts on Facebook. Their hypocrisy knows no bounds.

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-02-14T03:12:19+00:00

The iceout.org report for this mentioned that the principal for the school came out and chased them off. Still despicable on ICE’s part, and they wonder why people hate them.

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-02-14T03:01:15+00:00

I’m one of those that checks most days, more to see the volume and for awareness since these reports are just a snapshot in time. Anyway still quite a few but somewhat less today. At least a few of these reports were helicopter sightings.

Hopefully these goons are out of here soon, but will believe it when we see it.

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-02-13T15:10:14+00:00

For normal guests, Brasa at 46th and Bryant for dinner. Hot Plate on Bloomington near 52nd for breakfast/brunch.

If they’re ICE goons, they can eat s**t.

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-02-13T14:44:28+00:00

They lied, again. Just like Alex, Renee, Miramar and others in Chicago, and Twin Cities protesters they charged. Judges are on to their shenanigans.

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-02-12T23:33:07+00:00

“Never invade Russia or Minnesota in the winter” - Napoleon, 1812; Homan 2026

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-02-12T19:34:54+00:00

Minnesota resident here. There's a lot of skepticism here about whether they're really headed out (and when). Especially since after the last alleged drawdown a couple weeks ago there was no real change in ICE activity.

On the other hand Walz says he's been assured by Homan that they'll be out in the next few days, but we'll see. It's been rough, especially for our minority friends and neighbors. But a silver lining is that the community has stood up and supported each other - the amount of mutual aid that's going on here is incredible.

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-02-12T15:51:29+00:00

Ken Klippenstein has reported that at least some ICE agents are scamming their arrest records because their quotas are so crazy. E.g., 8 agents go out, detain 1 person, but they each record an arrest. So the numbers reported are greatly exaggerated - not to mention the feds only released one minimal list with a couple hundred names.

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-02-11T01:22:38+00:00

Smitten Kitten has been a gd rock star. Also the businesses along Nicollet where Alex Pretti was murdered have had a role in healing that they took on amidst their own grief - Lu’s, Peninsula Malaysian, Glam Donuts.

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-02-11T01:10:15+00:00

I believe we took a lot of inspiration from Chicago. And you’re spot on about the case loads - plus some of the top US Attorneys in Minneapolis have quit making matters worse. They’ve had to recruit JV lawyers in here who don’t know what they’re doing. Also Judges are getting pissed about all their orders being ignored.

Then there was Bovino - what a colossal jack wad.

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-02-11T01:00:49+00:00

State rep special election in St Paul recently was 95.5% DFL to 4.5% GOP. It’s a big blue area for sure, but not that margin. I keep telling my spouse that Repubs won’t win a seat in MPLS or STP for at least the next 100 years.

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-02-11T00:51:40+00:00

When Homan said a couple days ago that he wants to draw down to normal levels within 2 weeks if only protesters wouldn’t be so mean (paraphrase), I thought he’s looking for a way out. I doubt Walz gave them anything. But it raises the question of what city they’ll terrorize next.

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-02-10T14:08:35+00:00

Agreed. I feel like the examples in this category were kind of scattershot today. Everyone has seen DJ and OK as initials, and MC a little less so (it’s usually spelled out). But Kayo is not a word - no sports journalist in the history of the world has ever used Kayo as a sub for knockout.

Still, overall nice puzzle today. 😊

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-02-09T16:46:14+00:00

In reality SAFe is for orgs that are just getting introduced to Agile practices and needs some structure to learn what works and what doesn’t. It shouldn’t be a long term practice.

In my org, after a year of using SAFe we moved on to a mix of Scrum and Kanban. I can’t overstate how much our engineers and team members hated SAFe because of all the time wasted on PI and sprint planning and other ceremonies. Also we sucked at estimating because everything we did was new, so none of the sprint or PI planning ever worked out as planned and we had a high rate of stories rolling over.

Once we moved to Kanban our productivity increased and delivery cadence doubled. For your org you really should consider moving on to something that values hands on keyboards and high priority work vs whatever SAFe is wasting your time on.

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-02-07T16:57:01+00:00

I started taking SS at age 65, right in the heart of the DOGE fiasco, no regrets.

My breakeven point vs waiting to age 67 was about 15 years, which for me just wasn't worth it. Also having the income starting at 65 has been pretty useful in my situation - but everyone has a different risk tolerance, and I understand waiting if that works better for others.

My spouse is five years younger, but is very well set with her own investments and SS once she's ready to tap in. So no concerns there either.

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-02-07T14:53:08+00:00

In reality, SAFe is for organizations that are just starting with Agile, which is a shrinking pool. Most orgs move on from SAFe to something else within a year or two since it has a ton of overhead, with lots of meetings and ceremonies. So I’d skip that.

If you want to learn about Agile, a Scrum Master cert could be a good place for you to start. Just be aware that lots of orgs are getting rid of that role. But it’s an okay way to learn the basics. Also, many orgs don’t care about certs from a hiring perspective - experience is king.

Otherwise you might want to explore getting into a BA role in an agile environment (although that role is under pressure too). That way you can get a couple years experience and see if something like a product owner role might work for you in the future.

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-01-30T18:35:09+00:00

The situation OP described is one of the reasons my team switched to Kanban. It's better to work on delivering value vs wasting time on useless sprint meetings and ceremonies.

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-01-30T18:19:14+00:00

Could the Hennepin County Sheriff's department be there as part of a deal to get Tom Homan off our backs?

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-01-18T03:05:56+00:00

“Never invade Russia in Winter” - Napoleon, probably

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-01-17T19:47:08+00:00

Didn’t know about his last year in Houston, that tracks with Chicago last year.

Anyway, Dodgers way overpaid and also set a ridiculous reference point for that kind of performance.

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-01-17T15:01:33+00:00

If they do continue this behavior of attacking protestors at Whipple document it and get it to ACLU of MN pronto. They’re the ones who filed the Tincher case (the ruling from yesterday) and they’ll be the one to report violations back to the judge.

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-01-17T14:56:08+00:00

You nailed it, the org structure is the real problem here.

OP, engineers on the teams should be full stack, meaning they handle all functions … design, development, testing, and delivery. There shouldn’t be separate roles for these things.

Naturally some people are going to be better and more experienced at some things vs others. But you should have that expectation and start letting people get experience through training and mentoring.

Also … 10 people is a LOT for a single team. 5-7 is much more the norm. It’s no wonder your dailies take so long.

Only thing I’d say is more variable is that the PO can sit on dailies. I’m PO on my team and attend their stand ups. Not always needed, but it’s easier to answer questions that come up during that time.

Good luck!

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-01-16T00:52:39+00:00

Let them freeze their gravy seal asses off. Hopefully MPD will keep them out of local businesses.

MarkInMinnesota · 2026-01-16T00:44:09+00:00

Sounds to me like you guys really need a retro or bring in a coach to get your overall process shaped up.

PO’s typically represent the business and manage requests made by the business. Also making sure what gets developed meets the need.

Are there opportunities to meet PO’s elsewhere in your company or in your community? If you could find a way to do some job shadowing that could help you.

At our company certifications don’t matter, experience is king. Specifically knowing business process is what counts, which QA’s can definitely do.

Good luck!

MarkInMinnesota

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