Jewish self-determination & Palestinian self-determination are not mutually exclusive ideals, and non-Jews identifying as “anti-Zionist” is super weird
I know I haven’t posted regularly on this blog in years but I’m not seeing a whole lot of posts on this site about what’s happening in Minneapolis right now. And the posts I am seeing are not covering the scope of it. I’m genuinely surprised because tumblr is usually where I find out about things organically through my feed. So I’m making a post about it.
A brief summary of events, from someone who pays attention and also lives here, best taken with a grain of salt and some fact checking:
2020: George Floyd is murdered by Minneapolis police. There are weeks of protests about it. It makes national news. Protests happen in DC. The infamous Trump and his bible photo shoot happens.
2024: Gov. Tim Walz is Kamala Harris’ running mate in the presidential election. He starts the “they’re just weird” thing. Is folksy, Trump personally hates him.
November 2025: ICE starts showing up to “crack down” on “illegal immigrants” in our Somali community. I may remember the numbers wrong, but something like 90% of our Somali neighbors are either naturalized or were born here. People distribute ICE whistles and are on high alert. Localized to the twin cities.
December 2025: Nick Shirley is paid by a bunch of MN Republicans to do an exposé on daycare fraud. I didn’t hear much about this. All I really know is this was an ongoing investigation that MN officials were already taking care of and some of the guilty parties have already gone to court from a COVID era food assistance program. Mostly, if not all, legal US citizens. He did a really bad job at doing journalism and just showed up to day cares with a camera crew and went “YUP nobody’s here” as if they weren’t in lock-down procedure because some fuck ass white men showed up with camera equipment that could easily be mistaken for guns. I believe. I will fact check all of this and will correct myself in a reblog if necessary. (source but not all the details that I remember hearing about but they said there was no recorded evidence of fraud)
Conservative internet explodes. Kristi Noem sends a mess of agents. I know it’s more than a thousand more. They call it Operation Metro Surge. They are going everywhere. There are protests. People try to interrupt the arrests. It’s a lot.
1/7/2026: Renee Nicole Good is shot by an ICE agent in the middle of a protest. A few blocks away from where George Floyd was killed. Broad daylight. In front of a crowd. While she was following instructions to turn her vehicle around. Jonathan Ross, the piece of shit Nazi who did it, was recording on his phone the whole time, switched his phone to his non dominant hand so he could more effectively shoot her in the face from 2 feet away. Claims self defense, several angles immediately disprove him. He releases his video, he calls her a “fucking bitch” as her corpse drives away. Does not help him at all. (source) He has not been seen since. Some photos/reports exist of a bunch of agents showing up to his house and taking some tubs and art away. His wife is an immigrant. (source but it’s the daily mail so grain of salt.)
Not hours later they go raid a school and tear gas a bunch of kids. (source). Minneapolis has switched to distance learning. I’m not sure about St. Paul.
The last week: There are up to 3,000 ICE agents here. Keep in mind Minneapolis and St. Paul only have 600 or fewer police officers each. So these dudes are roaming in packs. It’s 2-4 dudes to a car and 2-5 cars per pack. People are “commuting with” ICE agents to honk and alert people that they’re there. People are going on patrols with their neighbors.
ICE is no longer asking “are you a citizen.” They are simply walking up to you and taking you into custody. They are going door to door. They have started just breaking the door down if you don’t comply. They are driving recklessly to just grab pedestrians and drivers alike (source). People are afraid to go get groceries. It’s all over the state. I am learning names of cities in places I thought were just factory farm land and I’ve lived here my whole life because they’re doing raids there. I had to text my family in the suburbs because I saw reports of my small little hometown an hour away getting door knocks today.
It’s insane and I am not doing it justice. There are thousands of masked federal agents roaming around all of Minnesota with no warrant or specific goal. They are just trolling around looking for people. They are detaining anyone and everyone. They are beating people. They are pepper spraying people. They are kidnapping people. They are acting unconstitutionally, aggressively, and unpredictably. They are creating situations that are dangerous so that they can try to justify beating or shooting their way out. I will run an errand and then get fed a tiktok that was shot from the Cub Foods that I just left and there’s 20+ ICE vehicles parked there now. They’re taking people from work, from day care, from schools, from shopping centers.
Iceout.org tracks ice sightings. This is a screen shot with the date set to 12/1/2025.
And from today.
They have cut off SNAP and WIC benefits. Just for us. Not any other state, just Minnesota. They’re saying it’s because of fraud but I think it’s because they hate that we use federal funds to give free breakfast and lunch to every public school student.
And this is breaking just now, 1/13/2026: the DOJ is trying to investigate Renee Good’s widow. 4 people have resigned about it. (source). I don’t even want to read the article to see what they’re saying.
So that’s a brief history.
Unicorn Riot is doing a lot of good reporting and they don’t seem to have the spin that a lot of local news stations will have where they downplay everything. This article specifically goes into a lot of the specific instances of brutality.
It’s also a rumor on TikTok that all of the videos of ICE and protests and the such and the like are being geo locked. So my feed is all footage of people being detained and talking about the “commuting” they’re doing and what they’re seeing but people outside of the state are not seeing it. So if you’re also on that infernal app, try searching for Minneapolis or Minnesota and see what you see. I’m kind of curious if this is true. Because I’ve been living and breathing ICE and doomsday prepping content for a week. I’m sure those two topics aren’t connected.
I don’t really know what my goal with this post is. I’m tired. I’m in the first ring of suburbs, so it’s been pretty quiet. But I have friends in south Minneapolis. And I’m worried for them. And I know it’s a matter of time before my quiet pocket is affected. Because they’re coming door to door.
Pay attention to Minnesota, I think an example is being made of us.
Update- Minnesota republicans are taking this opportunity to try to impeach Govt Waltz, who has already declared that he will not seek re-election in November because of Republican death threats against him and his family. Because of the “fraud”. But actually because Waltz is speaking very plainly about what is happening here.
St Paul has gone to partial virtual learning for anyone who doesn’t feel safe sending their kids to school.
Every school I know now has safety patrols.
The school districts are not mincing words about the clear and present threat. Everyone in the area is completely clear that we are under violent occupation.
Most of the white people ICE grab, are released within days, because ICE can’t even keep track of who was grabbed by who over what. However, they are still subjected to beatings, gassing, having their home and car windows smashes, etc.
Local police are advising compliance with the blatant human rights violations and total lack of due process, because they are cowards.
Even conservative Minnesotans are balking at the total lack of due process and open violence against unresisting people for doing things like taking videos. I know a guy who was in his house recording ICE, and they smashed his home window, dragged him out over the broken glass, beat him while screaming slurs, smashed his phone, and detained for three days.
We need your help to spread the truth about what is going on. Find the videos and share them on any platform you have. Make noise about what’s happening. Get your “don’t tread on me” relatives whipped up about it if you can.
We need republicans to be afraid, otherwise ICE plans to be here for half a year attacking us.
If human rights can be revoked because Trump doesn’t like your state, then they aren’t rights anymore, they are favors dispensed by your king.
love the camera guy even gets to bump into a mirror for us
Nope! Regular maze. Fine. I could maybe eventually figure it out. This where I can’t easily tell what is a path or not? I would get claustrophobia and freak out! How can I tell without ever being in a maze like that? Just watching this video alone is giving me anxiety and making me feel like I am trapped.
But if you’re outside the country, especially in the EU or the UK, there are things you can do that actually matter.
Please use your voice to pressure your governments to take real action:
Cut diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic
Officially designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization
Recognize Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi as the legitimate opposition leader for Iranians fighting for freedom. Reza Pahlavi has been clear about what he stands for: secular democracy, human rights, and progress for Iran. He is the most popular opposition figure, and Iranians have been chanting his name in the streets, and his plan for a post-IR Iran will help get Iran back on track.
And just as important — keep sharing what’s happening in Iran. Keep reblogging. Keep amplifying Iranian voices. Don’t let this disappear from timelines. Push your media outlets to keep covering it, because silence is exactly what the regime wants.
I live by the motto, “if you can’t buy what you want, make it.” And this motto came to life recently in the form of a floral mosaic dining table for my back deck.
Our deck table had been showing its age already when the wind caught the umbrella and cracked it. I wanted to replace it with a mosaic table because I’d been enjoying that art form recently. But I couldn’t get one the size I wanted so I got creative.
I spent a few weeks looking for tile and figuring out a very loose design concept. I started by picking a limited set of tile shapes and a color palette.
Once the tiles arrived I had a piece of particle board cut to size for the base and I experimented with different motifs until I settled on a selection of floral shapes that gave me plenty of variety to fill space without locking me into one repeating pattern.
And then I was off! I basically doodled my way around the table, attaching tiles with Weld Bond (I went through 4 full bottles!) and rocking out to the K-Pop Demon Hunters soundtrack.
Once the florals were done it was time for the background…
Over 3,800 1cm glass tiles make up the not-design part of the design. It went pretty quickly though because I just had to fill the space, leaving room for grout.
Once I had the tile done, my husband assisted with disassembly and reassembly. We used the legs off the original table for this one (waste not).
One huge bucket of black grout later…
She is finished.
I enjoyed making it and just looking at it makes me so happy - I can’t wait for all the dinners we’ll have around this table 🌼❤️
Speaking of observed problems, Microsoft notes that the following dependent Shell components and related services may fail and report an on-screen error or silently fail to execute, such as the following:
Explorer.exe crash
shelhost.exe crash
StartMenuExperienceHost issues
System Settings silently fails to launch
Application crashes when initializing the XAML views
Explorer running but no taskbar window.
other XAML island views fail to initialize.
ImmersiveShell problems
Explorer.exe is the core of the Windows UI, which is pretty bad.
One thing I will always appreciate Fullmetal Alchemist for is the fact that they let Roy Mustang be complicit in genocide.
Mustang is an Atoner figure. Something that plagues Atoner figures is when writers are too precious about the characters we’re meant to like to actually let them be guilty of something serious.
The Atoner might be trying to make amends for their involvement in the Great ‘87 Hotel Massacre, and then three seasons in you find out what happened. And it’s like, “I drove a taxi to the hotel, and the KILLER was in it! I ferried the killer to the hotel! That makes me responsible, and now I must atone for being nearby while the killings took place! And also vanquish the real killer who is the villain for this season.”
Or maybe the Atoner did do the killings but they were under mind control the whole time and would never, ever have done it in their right mind.
But FMA said no. Mustang, Hawkeye, Hughes, even Armstrong to an extent though he suffered a breakdown and fled during it. They did that shit. They followed their orders and they did that shit. And it haunts them.
Roy did that shit. And his atonement, his grand ambition, is to see everyone responsible for that shit brought to justice for their crimes. Including himself.
i hope the original author sees this thread go by (or y'all are leaving comments on ao3), there is a A LOT of love in the tags and they absolutely deserve it
hey, I’m isaac chotiner I wrote this! I thought a small handful of people might enjoy it and instead it is by some margin the most popular thing I’ve ever posted on ao3. two key takeaways: 1) the people crave affectionate fidelity to the new yorker style guide, and 2) yuletide rules
ALT
