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.
I've been monitoring this closely because I have friends in the area, and because I think every city in the country is at risk of having the feds come to do what they're doing in Minnesota, and we all need to get ready.
There are some Twin Cities activists who have been very clearly laying out what they're doing, and why it's effective at slowing down ICE. It sounds like all you really need, is neighborhood group chats where people can let one another know when and where ICE is present, and then people show up, start recording, and blowing whistles, and then ICE will leave again more often than not. This VERY SHORT thread by a Twin Cities activist outlines what to do and how it works.
Also: Minnesota Public Radio has been doing great coverage of what's happening, and the local NBC affiliate has some excellent interviews with activists who were arrested and detained for hours.
And finally, some good news: the courts restored SNAP funding.
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HOWEVER the shipping is only available to limited countries! Also shipping to the USA is currently suspended due to the tariffs disaster 😓 Please read the info page before ordering!
If the shipping is not available for you or if you just want to save on shipping and read these and my other zines right away, you can buy them as PDFs on my Itch.io page!
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I'll keep the zine shop open until February!
First off, a recap:
On the 28th, I was walking to the store when I saw several neighbors hanging out and talking with my next door neighbor, so I headed over for a chat. As I was approaching, a man broke from the group to jog across the street. After a moment, he managed to fish a tiny ball of fur from under the car. The kitten was young, small, with a bloated belly and cloudy eyes, and a face full of muck and blood. No one could take him and the local shelter would euthanize him due to his medical issues, so I agreed to take him.
I call him Baby Velcro because he is very clingy, loves people, and complains loudly if left alone. With y’all’s financial help, I was able to get him to an emergency vet the next day. He was diagnosed with dehydration, malnourishment, muscle atrophy due to those things, a belly full of roundworms, conjunctivitis, and keratitis in his right eye. He was estimated to only be about five weeks old! So young to be without a mother. Either she rejected him or someone dumped him. With how excited he was for people, I’m inclined to think it was the latter.
Thankfully, he is eating and drinking fine. He does still need help pooping. The medicines are helping clear his sight and get rid of the parasites. He started playing yesterday and has improved further today at tracking movement. He is still super cuddly and very talkative. He is quarantined right now until I can get him to a regular vet to test for fiv, which can commonly come along with the keratitis. We also need to do extra tests to make sure that’s exactly what it is.
Eosinophilic keratitis causes an inflammation in the cat’s cornea, which is the redness you can see in his right eye. It’s hard to say what caused it, perhaps disease or trauma or even allergy related. Unfortunately, in most cases, eosinophilic keratitis cannot be cured and will be a chronic condition requiring special care for the rest of his life, however as he is so young, there is a chance it might not. This will have to be determined by the vet after his other conditions clear up.
To afford his treatment, I am doing $50 digital art commissions of anything you want. Just DM me to make the request or ask for more information. Samples of my art can be found at @sparreaux
For those who would just like to donate, the links are here:
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for everyone lending a hand in whatever way you can. I am disabled and unable to work, so I don’t really have the budget for all his, but on the bright side, it does mean I can be on hand to help him 24/7. Thank you.
You get: a thrilling fantasy BL adventure 💖
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My novel, Dear (future) Husband is on sale until the end of the year at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1339566 👍
Husband sale still going on 💸
You get: a thrilling fantasy BL adventure 💖
I get: 4,49$ 🤝
My novel, Dear (future) Husband is on sale until the end of the year at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1339566 👍
drop whatever you’re doing right now and climb a tree
its pitch black outside, and freezing cold. I think ill climb a tree tomorrow
you climb that fuckin tree right now
I’ve literally never seen this post on my dash when it is not after dark and cold as balls. I’m beginning to think this is a conspiracy to get us eaten by some nocturnal tree demon.
everybody put in the tags at what time you saw this
You get: a thrilling fantasy BL adventure 💖
I get: 4,49$ 🤝
My novel, Dear (future) Husband is on sale until the end of the year at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1339566 👍
Drawing harassing Corbeau with poison type shinies the game keeps giving me until the game stops spawning them: part 3
You can tell I'm burning out on these whoops
The only part of this I made up is the conversation. The whirlipede really did try and run him over (only didn't because he's in the chair) and then he IMMEDIATELY showed up the next reward match to try kick my ass about it. Unfortunately for him it wasn't leveled up yet so he didn't get his scolipede battle until the next time he showed up suspiciously quickly.
HUGE SCOTSMAN @thebibliosphere
*wheezing* that is… that is so unnecessarily tall.
the trouble with tall male leads is that they've hit inflation. you have to make them extra tall to make them feel tall tall, the readers are too used to normal tall. soon they'll be seven feet tall, then eight, then nine, and where are we even gonna fit them? I suggest we start focusing on short kings instead