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Reasons to smile when you see me

@twistinthekaleidoscope / twistinthekaleidoscope.tumblr.com

she/her. my loving hodgepodge. 🍉

We have spoken about baby Ayla here many times. Unfortunately, she continues to suffer. Somehow Ayla incurred a small injury to her finger and it became severely infected due to the sanitation crisis. Your support helped her mother be able to pay for her treatment, but her immune system is still compromised due to malnutrition. Now there is a major storm moving towards Gaza, threatening lethal cold and chilling rain. Her mother needs funds for blankets and for fuel for a small portable stove which they are using to heat their living space. Multiple children have now died from hypothermia this year in Gaza—please help Ayla avoid the same fate!!

Current: $74,227 out of $74,316 usd—updated 15 January

Need to raise: $89 usd

If you haven’t read the “Bunsen and Beaker’s relationship” article on the Muppet Wiki you’re missing out on a great summary of how the two have canonically gone from “could be read as gay but probably not intentionally” to “we’re not even pretending these two are straight” over the years. these aren’t even half of the entries btw

My resolution last year was to do one thing before bed that would make my morning feel easier, and that’s become a daily habit that I’m carrying into this new year.

Some nights even filling up the kettle and setting an empty mug out for my morning tea felt hard. But I was always thankful for it in the morning.

Other nights, one thing would lead to another, and I’d wake up in a clean house with everything ready to go.

And, on a rare few nights, the one thing that I could do to make my morning easier was going straight to bed and allowing myself to rest.

What stayed the same each day is that I would take a moment to think of what I could do for my future self and do it, even after a hard day. And I would wake up knowing that I had done my best and any effort—no matter how small—was a kindness to myself.

I’ve been doing a lot of “a treat for future me” moments lately.

That’s a great way to look at it, and I love this artist! (Anna-Laura: instagram / website)

The fact that “dolls having a tea party” has stuck around in the public consciousness is fascinating to me.

Like, back in the Old Days that would be a way that women would actually socialize.  So if a girl had a doll tea party, she was imitating her mom / other contemporary women.

But these days contemporary women don’t have tea parties. So now, the idea of “dolls having a tea party” is an echo of an extinct behavior, only repeated and referenced because it used to be so prevalent.

So a Barbie in a big hat themed for a tea party is a bit like if they made Transformers that turned into stagecoaches and horse-drawn buggies.

Like I wouldn’t buy the fuck out of stagecoach transformers

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.

In case people don't realize the full extent of what's going on, we are under siege in Minnesota. I live in an affluent, majority white suburb of Minneapolis, and ICE is all over the place terrorizing people. They showed up at the library, kitted out in their Temu tactical gear, and stormed it.

The library. Please let that sink in.

They've pulled weapons on legal observers and physically attacked them. They're threatening teenagers and children with death. One woman told a story at my, again, affluent, majority white suburban town's city council meeting this week of being shoved from behind so hard that she fell down by an ICE agent, who then said to her, "Stop touching me." A man, in tears and begging for our city government to do something to help our neighbors, described having a baton pulled on him. They're luring people out of their workplaces with lies about "hitting someone's car in the parking lot" and then abducting them. Citizens and legal residents are being detained. People are being racially profiled and snatched. A teenager (a US citizen) working at Target got dragged out and shoved in a car, then dumped a mile away in a Wal-mart parking lot, beaten up and crying. And all of this is after they murdered Renee Good.

I don't emphasize the demographics of my particular suburb to say "but this shouldn't be happening here, we have money!" but to illustrate that the Trump administration has declared war on a US state. Even if you stick your head in the sand because you're white and won't be directly targeted, ICE is running traffic lights, speeding, tearing the wrong way on one way streets, and causing nasty accidents because they think they're above the law. They think it doesn't matter who they hurt or kill, because they're being told straight from the top that they can do whatever they want to whoever they want.

We are all under attack, and this is coming to a city near you if we don't stand up to it. Please stand with Minnesota, as well as LA, Portland, Chicago, and every other place DHS has sent their COD cosplay gestapo. I don't know what that looks like for you but please, please, don't ignore this.

I live in Minneapolis. OP is not being dramatic. We will continue this fight, but please everything you can to stand with us because nobody in this country is safe if they get away with these crimes against humanity.

I think a lot of what pro-AI people are really wanting is stuff that already exists but they don't know it's out there like

can't format a work email? templates

don't know how to write a resume? templates

writing a thank you card or a condolences card or a wedding invitation? templates templates templates

not sure how to format your citations in MLA or whatever format? citationmachine.net

summary of something you're reading for school/work? cliffnotes.com

recipe based on ingredients in your fridge? whatsintherefrigerator.com

there's a million more like, guys, we don't need AI, we never needed generative AI

Foodcombo.com is my darling for recipes based on ingredients in the fridge, to add

“It was a devil and an angel tattoo. It said something underneath: Serendipity. I really loved the idea of being in this quite formal priest uniform with the dog collar — and there’s this little bit of his past creeping up. That is how Father Jud is attempting to be this version of himself. He’s not denying his past, hence he still has the tattoo. But that anger is still there.” — Josh O'Connor (x)

i told my friend’s dad that he was hot (it was in context with the conversation, he was complaining that he was feeling old, etc), and he said a very genuine thank you and the conversation moved on to other topic, my friend was now talking about something else entirely when his dad goes

“i think if i were born in your generation i might have been bisexual”

and friend got kinda mad at me lmao

Fuck his dad

Fuck his dad

Fuck his dad

“no one’s ever mad at me unless they tell me so” is the best assumption i’ve ever made

sorry for tagwatching but you still have to act like they aren’t mad at you imo! bc it’s the mad person’s duty to make it known if they want anything changed. it is never anyone’s duty to be a mind reader.

If I am mad at someone and am remaining Quiet about it, it is because I Do Not Want them to know that I’m mad.

Please respect my boundaries and assume that I am Not mad.

If you’re worried that I am mad, consider the possibility that I am mad for reasons I know are stupid and do not want to make it your problem.

Ohhh that last addition opens my eyes in a big way, thank you.

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