Day in the Life of an Idiot

 
Image: the north star shining behind a loon with the words RESIST (by Jack Brinatte)

This morning Border Czar Homan says they are ending Operation Metro Surge. This is good news!  I hope some of us here in Minnesota will take a short victory lap or dance in the streets a little.

HOWEVER. 

There is no doubt in my mind that ICE operations will continue in Minnesota. They're just ending the surge, not their horrible, extra-legal, and inhumane work. In fact, I find it sort of ominous that they are implying that they've secured the help of local authorities. My hot take is that that just means fewer agents, more cops. Which sucks in a different kind of way because cops do have actual authority to arrest us for "obstructing" them. I still say that there are more of us then there are of them, so let them try. We can still film them. We can still blow our whistles. As far as I am aware, the first amendment still exists in this country. And, as we know from George Floyd, we can film cops just as easily as we can film ICE.

I do think that the bad guys are hoping that we'll stop feeding our neighbors in hiding, force them to come out to grocery shop or go to work, and then kidnap them. Tim Waltz has been very loud about the "economic impact" the Operation Metro Surge has been having on local shops and businesses, which is true--but, and I love you, Tim, I really do, but $$ being spent in Minnesota is not actually the crisis. Businesses struggling is just the consequence of the crisis. I'm sorry Target is feeling the pressure of our constant protests to their weak response to the 4th amendment, but, you know, they CAN DO something about it. It's the people who are being kidnapped and sent to concentration camps that are the core of the crisis. The real crisis is that NONE OF THIS SHOULD BE HAPPENING. There is a due process for immigration and EVERYONE deserves due process and humane treatment, full stop. No one should be (as someone was the other day) arrested while trying to appear in court for their immigration status hearing!  That is a literal perversion of justice. And we should not stand for it. Even if we go down with this ship.

The bad guys have fully misjudged this movement if they think that the good people of Minnesota are going to just be like, "Oh, you're leaving? Ope, well, I guess I'll just stop caring about my neighbors, then!" 

They have lit a fire in this state that I don't think is going to be easily extinguished. I don't even know that this announcement will change a single day in our lives. I'll be headed off to mutual aid work in a couple of hours, then school patrol after that, and singing at 6:30 pm tonight. I suspect that will be what my tomorrow looks like, too. 

 The news continues to be not great... and hopeful, all at once. 

ICE is supposedly shipping some 700 of its roughnecks off to other parts of the country, but if anything they seem to be sending the slackers away? The ones who are making their quotas seem to still be on the ground and out in force.

The mutual aid folks I work for, the Food Communists, had one of their deliverers get boxed in by ICE vehicles on Wednesday, demanding to know where they thought they were going with all those groceries and where did all that come from anyway? The driver apparently made oblique noises about having come from a food distribution warehouse and the ICE agents said, "You mean that church over there?" clearly indicating the church basement that my folks operate out of. And, then, apparently, getting their lines directly out of the villain's playbook, the ICE guys added, "Shame if anything were to happen to that church." Then they threatened to dump all the groceries the next time they spotted this guy. The Food Communists are keeping (and I am not inflating this number) 13,000 households fed. If that network went dark, people would suffer.

That threat happened on Wedensday afternoon. When Mason and I wandered in for our usual shift on Thursday we were told to go away until later in the day in order to keep the numbers of volunteers low so that everyone could be protected. The organizer there was really shaken by the threat and was wearing a bulletproof vest. By Friday (today), I saw some activity at the church as I was driving home from the mosque. Y'all you'll never guess what I saw!  The Food Communists were being visibly protected by VETERANS FOR PEACE. This is a bedfellow in the revolution I would not have predicted, but here we are. 

As I've started saying, "Worst timeline; best people." 

Meanwhile, at the mosque today we all heard from another organizer that apparently the Goyim Defense League, actual Neo-Nazis, have rolled into Midway and, last night, apparently, stabbed one of the peaceful protestors at the Bridge Brigrade (which is what we call the loose collection of people who pick a random highway overpass bridge to hold up signs on) two blocks of my house, at Aldine. The protestor is okay? But, STABBED. JFC. The irony, of course, is that even though a lot of the sentiment is "F*ck ICE," around here I would say that a good 75%-85% of the signs say things like "We love our immigrant neighbors" and "ICE Out, Love in." Not sure why the antisemites have a particular beef with the anti-ICE people, but maybe they think we're all being funded by someone from one of their conspiracy theories. Who knows. F*ck those f*ckers. Also NOT WELCOME here.

Speaking of my mosque duty, I have finally personally been handed a heart-shaped donut by someone who was driving around doing nice things for the protectors. The mutual love here is really something special, y'all. It is life giving. In part because it's so random and so loving. This person was wearing a hijab and so perhaps she was especially doing nice things for folks in front of mosques or other Somali-immigrant places, but I wouldn't swear to it. She seemed like she had a car full of donuts and was just handing them out to people she saw protecting, which is so 100% Minnesota's response to this crisis. She was so pleased to be helping us help others. Like, so many smiles. So many thank you, no THANK YOUs getting bandied about. It was delightful. And given that I spotted my second ever "definitely ICE with those bandanas over their faces" vehicle, a really, really welcome bit of joy among all the fear and tension.

This part is fully difficult to explain to people not from around here. Like, you don't understand the random, chaotic, yet somehow fully organized nature of this resistance.... and how much goddamn love is going into every moment of it. The Veterans for Peace showed up for the Food Communists! Like, within two days!!  And it feels like for every stabbing or act of shitty Nazism, twenty thousand more people are haphazardly driving around and handing out hot cocoa and donuts to people with whistles (an exaggeration, surely, but it is absolutely HOW IT FEELS on the ground.) Sure, one guy flipped us off, but the the amount of support and genuine acts of kindness outnumber the bullshit a thousand fold. 

I believe we will win.  I believe we will win because this community is standing strong and continues to grow and is motivated not by hatred or greed, but by LOVE and kindness and community. When those sh*theads realize that their bonuses aren't forthcoming, their health care will never actually kick in, and their paychecks bounce, their motivation will evaporate. We will still be here keeping our neighbors safe. We'll still be making cookies for each other and feeding our hungry and sheltering our vunerable and singing. 

Speaking of, I have to tell you one other crazy thing. 

People actually now have forms they give each other in case they go to a high-risk protest or an event where they think they might be arrested or detained. Our neighbors came over last night with one and a set of keys to their apartment. This form is terrifying, you all. It says things on it like, "If you don't hear from this person by ___ time, contact the following people..." I felt extremely honored to be handed this responsibility, but holy crap. What is this timeline? How are we in a place where my literal neighbors have to hand me a list of who they were with and who should take care of their cats in case they are disappeared?

Of course, we had this solemn exchange of information and what did I say when they were leaving? "Have a good time!" (God, I felt stupid.) Also, the "speaking of" of all this is that I believe they were headed to what we colloquially call "band practice" here in the Twin Cities. Band practice is the folks who set up outside of hotels that are hosting ICE personel and make as much noise as possible all night long. Every grain of sand in the gears, my friend. Every grain of sand.



A tiny sign on a stick no larger than a chopstick with the words, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere...whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

 
NOT A LOON. The MInnesota Flag with a list of things that Minnesotans hold that aren't guns, including all the yummy food our immigrant neighbors make and things like candles and blankets.


If you're curious about how things are getting done here, there's a really lovely article by a Minnesotan who is normally a food blogger about something they're called The Cookie Theory of Collective Action: https://snackstack.net/2026/01/30/the-cookie-theory-of-collective-action/  As someone who is doing the majority of her work for the resistance via food justice, I really love thinking about this in terms of cookies.  

As I told Colin this morning as I checked in at the Food Communists, it's another day in the revolution, my friends.

None of this is normal, but it's kind of shocking how quickly I feel like I am starting to have a rather routine part to play in the response to this insanity. Pretty much Monday-Thursday sometime after 11:00 am to about 2:30-3:30 pm, you can find me bagging food with the Communists. I found out today, that if I wanted to be insane I could show up as early as 6 am??? I am DEEPLY curious what the operation looks like that early, so maybe I will give it a try to drop in the next couple of days right after I drop Shawn off at work. 

Then on Fridays I join my neighbors who are protecting our neighborhod mosque from noon until 2:30 pm. 

Every so often, when the time allows, I go sing. 

These are my days now.

Today when the Food Communists were looking for people willing to have their pictures taken for an Instagram post, I volunteered because I know for a fact that I've been photographed by ICE agents who were parked in a black Jeep directly across from the mosque a couple of Fridays ago. So, if there is a database of activists, I have joined a proud Morehouse tradition of being photographed by Federal agents. I will not be the first, and, no doubt, I will not be the last. We were talking about all this survalience stuff  as we were sitting around eating our food before starting the bagging work and my feeling about it all boils down to: good luck to them. This dissident database of theirs is going to have every single person in Minneapolis/St. Paul in it and 57% is going to be moms/human beings who work from home and the other half is going to be pastors, rabbis, priests, etc. You know, the really scary people. There are community organizers, yes, of course, but if one falls, the rest of us will just pick up the slack. They can't arrest us all. 

We did manage to play D&D on Saturday, which was wonderful because it was a great way (at least for me) to spend three hours thinking about something that wasn't .... *gestures at everything in Minnesota right now*

Tomorrow, we caucus!

 
Image: a Minnesota state bird crushing ICE in its beak. Art by Annie Shao.

You have likely all heard the news, we have turned away at least one of the goons from our streets. Greg Bovino has been sent packing.  Horray! Now there are 2,999 more to go!!

There are some conflicting reports that all of ICE is leaving, but I don't find that terribly plausible. I hate to say it, but I suspect they realize that they FUBARed their PR by executing a white man who was not only an ICU nurse for Veterans, ffs, but also a stridant 2nd Amendment guy. They are hoping, I think, that Minnesotans only really care about white people and that once they reduce their numbers in our streets we'll turn our backs on their atrocities against our immigrant neighbors.

Think again, A$$holes.

 Already today, I fielded a request for someone in one of my little resistance cells who wanted to get involved in packing groceries for folks over with the Food Communists. People are not stopping. We are continuting to show up for each other. In fact, yesterday, when I was at the Food Communists, they asked for a show of hands for how many people were showing up for the first time and a half a dozen hands shot into the air. It is very heartwarming.

So, yeah, the resistance continues apace. 

Besides packing food, I also went out to join my singing group, which decided to stand outside of a lesbian sports bar on University Avenue? It was a weird locale (if only because it's hard to know what we're doing, since lots of people stand outside of bars to smoke.) We had only four people, but one of them was someone in my Thirsty Sword Lesbians group, Laurel, so that was cool!  We sang songs for about a half hour and that was about as much as my toes could take, so it worked out. Plus, I had signed up to get a little bit of a refresher course on Legal Observing from the ACLU, which was a Zoom event, at 7 pm. 

The ACLU Zoom was okay but not focused on what to do locally, so I'm also attending one for Ward 4 (my congressional ward) tonight, in person, at a local church, because I have completely forgotten everything important. That starts at 6pm tonight, and I am telling you to reminnd myself because my brain on fascism is very soupy.  (My brain was already a seive as the joke goes? Now all the information going in also turns to soup... so very, very little is being retained.)

But, we had a win!  Go TEAM!!

Oh, and I should note? The ACLU Zoom had 60,000 people signed up for it across the nation. That's still a tiny fraction of America, but still impresssive. 

I tried to embed the list of businesses shutting down, but here is a link: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1556336315616701


There are so many more... yes, this is adided by the fact that we have -15 F /-26 C air temperatures out there(does not include windchill), but this city is shutting down in solidarity with the anti-ICE movement in Minneapolis/St. Paul.  Y'all, general strikes like this normally do NOT work in the United States, they just don't. 

Except here.

And the best part? If a business needs to stay open for reasons no one is shaming them, as the statement from the Minneapolis City Council noted it's understood that some businesses are supporting the movement in other ways (including continuing to employ vulnerable people.) 

I am about to head out to our local mosque with some neighbors who want to be introduced to the local protectors, but my day yesterday was much the same as the day before. I spent about an hour and a half loading groceries and diapers into cars that are then taking them to our immigrant, refugee, and other folks in need so that they can continue to stay inside and stay safe. 

Mason's partner arrived just as the protest was starting at the Minneapolis International Airport where we are demanding that airlines stop collaborating with murderers and kidnappers. I'd gotten the call to go out there, but I have chosen to leave that fight to others. Pictures of the event underscore my choice. There are hundreds of people marching in this weather!   



loon art by juliessa figueroa  No laser-eyes today, but the cool thing about loons, actually, is that they carry their babies on their backs!

 
Image: no laser eyes this time, but this is a loon in the shape of the Rebel Alliance symbol from Star Wars.


So, let's see. Yesterday started out a little rough for me in part because I was feeling EXTRA anxious because helicopters were buzzing our neighborhood. So much information getting shared is people guessing at what's going on and people who seem to maybe be reporting on what's happening? But, it's often unclear where they are getting their information? So, it's very paranoid here.

What I heard was that ICE was back at the MidwayTarget just up the block from me, specifically targeting the protestors there. Target has been a target for resistance efforts because of the video that was widely circulated of Greg Bovino, the ICE commandant/literal SS officer cosplayer, stopping to take a piss flanked by his goons. Rumors have also circulated that Target is not what we are calling a "Fourth Amendment business." (For our international friends, the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the US states that there must be probable/reasonable cause for search and seizure--including of our persons, our bodies--basically no one has the right to just snatch people out of homes or businesses.) So, here in the Twin Cities, if a business appears to cooperate with ICE, even to the point of not protecting their employees, people have been mad. And supposedly Target was compliant with ICE. So,the day before yesterday there was a big sit-in in Target. Yesterday, there was a group of people doing retail resistance? They would buy salt (or other metaphorically appropriate things) and then immediately return it, so that Target would have the hassle of all this merchandise to deal with and refunds to issue. 

There was another rumor that ICE was at HarMar Mall in Roseville, which is literally a shopping mall? But, as someone who has taken the bus out in that direction, a lot of folks who might be targets of the gestapo do work in those retail stores. 

What I should have done when the helicopters were circling was just get in my car and drive up to Target and see what I could see or head out to HarMar, but I was waiting for Mason to be up to find out what he wanted to do for lunch and whether or not he was going to his uncle Keven's to do some odd job work. Mason was justifiably cranky with me when he came down to find me in a state. As he pointed out, I can just go. He is an adult. Not only can he make himself lunch, he can figure out how to get to Keven's if need be. 

But, having talked that through, Mason and I decided to drop by the folks I lovingly call the Food Communists and see if there was work to be done. Sure enough!  We arrived in time to help load up one car that was delivering diapers. We packed several bags of groceries, helped load more stuff to go, and then spent the "downtime" making individual packs of various bulk food items, while chatting with neighbors--and one guy who and I am not kidding, came from the Gunflint Trail in Northern Minnesota order to help with the resistance. That is 288 miles from us, about a 5 hour drive (if you drive without stopping.) People in the UK? He basically came from another world. (And honestly? A few more miles and he would have been coming from Canada.)

Speaking of my non-Minnesotan and foreign friends, here's naomikritzer 's write up of things to do for us if you are interested in helping the resistance: https://naomikritzer.com/2026/01/21/how-to-help-if-you-are-outside-minnesota/  Even if all you want is some links to reliable, detailed information about what is actually happening here, this is a good resource to start with!

My singing group was supposed to gather last night at 7:30 pm and I made an effort to join them, but I think I screwed up the where or the when because I wandered around in the place I thought they'd be and no one was around.  To be fair to me (and them) it was supposed to be outside a church and there are a number of churches with similar names in the neighborhood and I suspect I just ended up at the wrong one. They sing every day, so I'll get other chances to join them.

I've been trying to also focus on feeding myself and my family, so yesterday I made a lovely mapo tofu for lunch and then we had bibbimap for dinner. Two rice meals, but both hearty, filling, and sustaining. I went this morning to get my blood drawn for all the various health checks, so I am remembering to take care of myself and my family. I've been joking that all of this stress has actually made me better about remembering to hydrate, so that's something.

And, with luck, I'll be running D&D this weekend. So, we can keep up our mental health!

Okay, everyone, stay strong!

Image: Laser-eyed loon flying away with the "Don't Tread on Me Snake" in her beak. The words "Don't Tread on US" appear in laser light trails around her head (by Cas Fern, local tattoo artist.)

I took a break on Sunday. The weather here in Minnesota has finally stepped up to join the resistance. Today we are expecting -20 F/ -29 C windchills and yesterday the windchills were around -11 F /-23 C. I won't lie. I let Mother Nature take my shift. There were things happening, including my singing group, but I spent the day baking hot cross buns and snuggling under blankets.

Rest is resistance, too.

If you are not from around here and/or would like to watch naomikritzer talk about her experiences "commuting," and talk generally, along with Diana McCleery, about what things are like on the ground here in Minneapolis and St. Paul. My friend Cliff interviewed her on an SFF videocast:





It's a good watch? I will say that the guy who opens and closes the video, Bob, is a bit of a character, but if you can get past that and some of the echo in Naomi's microphone, it's very informative. Naomi recently did a ride-along with the folks who are self-organizing to follow and harrass ICE vehicles and so it's fascinating to hear how it's being done. 

I always feel that people don't quite talk enough about the mutual aid that folks are up to--but the truth is the quiet revolution just isn't splashy enough for the front page.

 
Image: albino loon (one of which has been spotted near Minnesota) melting ICE with LASER EYES by Cat Saint-Croix.

I have to say that I also really love the outpouring of art that has been happening. 

Speaking of art, last night I happened to see that a group of my Hamline-Midway neighbors were gathering at a random street corner to sing. The idea was just to gather in a low-risk way so that some very little children could join. Also, in hopes that if there were neighbors nearby in hiding from the gestapo, they could hear our voices. The temps are dropping here, so there weren't very many of us. Probably a dozen? But we stood together in a circle and raised our voices and sang old protest songs, some hymns, and even one pop song ("Lean on Me.")

Did it stop ICE? No. Was it extremely cathartic? Fully. Did I heal my soul a little? Yes, it helped. 

In my effort to do SOMETHING every day, I'm hoping to join one of the pedestrian bridge brigades today. It's at an awkward time for me (right when I need to get Shawn from work), but, if nothing else, I might spend some time making a poster or two. 

It's funny because we are absolutely a metro area under seige, but it is also fully possible to go through your day and not see anything? My grocery stores are open--even Shanghai market. Shawn is going to work. Mason is applying to law schools, going over to his uncle's to do handiperson work... life is kind of going on, while also very much NOT for so many of us. 

 "Ope, Gotta Go!"

My family has been hearing me say that a lot. Though, so far, both of the MONARCA calls for observers that I answered ended up to be false alarms. This morning there was a sighting of a forced entry not far from me on Fairview and Wellesley, which turned out to be real police on actual lawful business.I stood around with neighbors waiting for the official all clear. Until that comes in, people just keep streaming in, so a bunch of us agreed to stand by and wave people off. 

Y'all? A lot of people kept showing up.

It was incredibly heartening.

I was glad to be there, but I also need to remember to pace myself. The unfortunate truth is, ICE isn't going anywhere anytime soon. I would like them to GTFO right now? But, that doesn't seem likely at the moment. So, I need to take time to breathe. Pick my battles--maybe even pick a day to battle, a singular day of the week--because dishes still need to be done, food needs to be made and consumed, and gods know the laundry doesn't do itself. Probably a shower and hydration are also important? 

My regular D&D group was supposed to meet today. I'm a little sad that we didn't because just getting on with things, including things that spark joy, is also extremely important right now. But I can also understand how maybe pretending to be "murder hobos" isn't exactly hitting right this week for some folks. Our group actually isn't very murder-y? In fact, we were poised to rescue some folks, but, again, I get it. Still? We're going to need to figure out how to just carry on, especially considering that 2026 seems poised to be a continuation of the very worst timeline.

Ugh.

Well, speaking of, I should probably go do the dishes.

I really appreciated all the lovely stories that people provided for me yesterday. They really, honestly cheered me up tremendously. THANK YOU ALL SOOOOOOOOOO MUCH.

There were a couple of things going on yesterday, not the least of which was ther prospect of having to work the snow emergency under the new conditions. You all may not be at all surprised to discover that I have "quiet quit," in part because the job became even more unreasonable than it already was.

For those of you just tuning in, the tl;dr is that I previously enjoyed being a "tagger" (the person who gave out parking tickets during a snow emergency) for the City of Saint Paul due to the independent nature of the job. The job changed this year and now the only option is to be an assistant to a retired/reserve police officer as a kind of ride along. Many things, including ACAB, that I no longer could even imagine enjoying, since the largest part of my appreciation of the previous work was, in fact, the autonomy.

Yesterday, things got exponentially worse.

Because I spent much of last season also feeling dread over a job I ended up enjoying, I was determined to attempt to go on at least one shift this year to be absolutely sure that I did, in fact, actually despise it. So, when the call came out yesterday, I BRAVELY answered.

So the initial email offered these shifts, (though they would not guarantee work):

St Paul has DECLARED A SNOW EMERGENCY and runners are needed.
This is a call for ALL Shifts:
- Monday (12/29 NIGHT - 8pm - 5am)
- Tuesday (12/30 DAY - 7am - 5pm)
- Tuesday (12/30 NIGHT - 8pm - 5am)
- Wednesday (12/12 DAY - 7am - 5pm)

Yeah, these are terrible hours. The shift is ten hours, but this was also nothing new. These were the hours I worked last year and I was surprised by how fast the time actually went when you were out and about. So, okay, I wrote back and said I could do the day shift today (you may note I am writing this TODAY.)

The first hassle was waiting to find out if I actually snagged a shift. The email was very clear that I should not show up to work unless I got a notification telling me where and when to show up. Both of these interoggative pronouns confused me a bit since the WHEN was very clearly stated above among my choices and where else would I show up other than the Public Works building in Saint Paul? But, okay, I understood the assignment: wait and see what I was offered before making definite plans to work the next day.

And so I waited.

And waited.

The previous year, this is was much more straight-forward. Regardless of when the text went out (though it was guaranteed to come out by 3 pm the day that the emergency was called), once we agreed to a shift it was ours. You could make plans, pack up a lunch, etc., etc. well in advance.

It was 6:30 pm the night before an early morning shift that I got the following message:

You are scheduled for:
- Tuesday DAY (12/30 - 06:00 - 18:00)

I had to read the message three time before calling Shawn upstairs to also double-check my math. 6 am to 6 pm??? That's a TWELVE hour shift, y'all. Also, NOT AT ALL WHAT WAS INITIALLY OFFERED. 

So, with Shawn's seal of approval, I told them absolutely no fucking way. Only, I just used two letters: "n" and "o."  And, I was moderately polite about it. I believe my actual response was, "I can not work a twelve hour shift. If that means you need to choose someone else, so be it."  

Like, y'all? I was actually perfectly willing to consider ten (possibly horrific) hours in a car with a cop (or, more likely outside in the freezing conditions of the streets of Saint Paul, MInnesota--it is 17 F/-3 C today--with a cop harrassing me to hurry up.)  But twleve hours feels vaguely unconstitutional, you know? Especially since at the informational meeting I attended regarding the changes in this job, I asked, "So, you're talking a lot about how fast you want to do this job. I'm a woman who is nearly 60 years old. You will make time for me to go to the bathroom, right?" I got a look like, OMG a woman is speaking and an answer that was, and I quote, "This is why we go to the bathroom before our work."  To which, I said, "Sir, we are talking about a ten hour shift and a 60 year old bladder." This didn't didn't even get a laugh. They were dead serious that they weren't willing to give me the breaks that are, in fact, guaranteed by Minnesota Labor Law. 

So ... (again, possibly not in a surprise to anyone) ACAB and Fuck Saint Paul.