Day in the Life of an Idiot

Image: Sign at Northfield book sale that reads "Sappy Platitudes"

I'm going to take you all on a trip through time. Cast your mind back to 11:30 am on Friday, April 24, 2026.  Now, imagine my family . We are in a former rental car, several decades old, and on the entry ramp to what the locals call 35 E near downtown Saint Paul. Mason and I have just picked up Shawn from work at the Minnesota Historical Scoiety. The energy in the car is high because my family LOVES a good road trip. We are headed down to Northfield, Minnesota for a legendary used book sale. 

Per usual, I've made a list of places along the way largely garnered from America's Roadside Attractions. I'm particularly keened to see Hot Sam's Big Weird Junk (https://www.hotsamsantiques.com/). Unfortunately, when we make the pull off, we discover they're not officially open for the season yet. We see enough ot fhe place, however, that we decide that we're definitely going to try to make it back this way again soon.  We're thinking about a special trip, just for it.

We have a bit of lunch at Ole Store Restaurant (https://www.olestorerestaurant.com/). I somewhat foolishly try the beet rueben, which is OKAY, but I probably actually wanted a regular rueben. But Shawn enjoys their turkey salad club and Mason has an amazing looking pork schiztle sandwich. The booksale is exactly as increible as promised. 

Hours are spent browsing books.  The book sale filled a hockey arena. Shawn said that she heard that they had over 70,000 books. We, ourselves, brought home a trunk full of books.


Image with sign reading: Special Curated Collection " I thought I wanted this but I changed my mind."

We took a different route home, one which took us past a place Roadside America only labels as "quirky metal sculptures." This spot was just of Hwy 52 near Coates, MN. The only place to park was right next to a truck refueling place (?) We were in the shadow of the refinery for those who know this area.  

I've described the sculptures to people as: "Chainsaw art meets metal welding." Mostly, the subject matters are reminiscent of chainsaw art, the metal is... well, what it is.



Image: a rooster sculpture outside of Coates, MN


Image: "death cycle" (if you look closely you'll see the flaming skull motif)

There were dozens more, but all in this same vein. Worth the detour? I'm not sure the rest of my family thought so, but I'm always up for random weird sculptures in the middle of nowhere.

Image: Minicon Con Suite signage done in intentional 60s/70s style.

Minicon is going to stop putting me on panels. I managed to miss another one yesterday (Saturday.) I would say through no fault of my own, but that would be a lie. I made the very intentional decision that I wanted dinner that was more than a gobbled con suite sandwhich.The only "to be fair to me" part of this equation is the fact that I had a solid block of panels fro 5:30 pm until 9:30 pm and no dinner break. Still, I probably could have made it work with a little inguinity. (Voice over: Readers, she did not.)

But, we'll get to that part of the story in a minute.

I got to the convention yesterday some time just afternoon again. Since the Con Suite seems to be the hang out and find people to chat with place at Minicon, I wandered over there with the secondary thought that more coffee is, for me, never a bad idea.I know many people for whom "more coffee" is a terrible idea or for whom it quickly reaches the level of a terrible idea, but I am one of those lucky souls who can--and do--drink caffeinated coffee right up until bedtime.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the person I ran while looking for coffee wascaffeine! He was sitting with a bunch of folks that I either did not know or did not know well. As it happens, my favorite thing about cons is talking to the people I have not yet me who might be awesome. And they were! Names, of course, now escape me, but there was a mustache that I shall never forget! Very curly! Very Salvador Dali!

I had a lovely chat for a good long while with everyone there about various Apple+ shows we'd seen and now I have a recommendation to try to watch Ascention, a mini-series about a generational ship. This rather highly specific conversation that started because I had brought up the Elon Musk character type that you find in science fiction novels of a certain type, often newer SF/cyberpunk--although, not always, as I would argue the Charlie Stross's Manfred Macx from Accelerando (2005) reads as Musk-like, even though it may pre-date the Real Life version's heyday. At any rate, that got me remembering For All Mankind, an alternate history series that I absolutely adore--at least the first several seasons of. Alas, unfortunately, one thing that hasn't aged well is that it has a Musk analog, though at least the character in For All Mankind is Black. (I have a hard time finding other people who have seen it because Apple+ is not as popular a streaming service, despite the fact that it has a lot of good, originally produced SF like Silo and, of course, Murderbot.)

caffeinemeantioned that he felt I was missed on the cyberpunk panel. He felt one of the panelist was of a type that he thought I would have been a good counter to. Well, poo. Again, it was a choice I made? I can't really regret that one, though. Shawn's 59th birthday comes around only once!

At some point, despite really enjoying the company and the corresponding conversation, I decided I should probably move along and so I wandered off to check out the dealer's room. I ran into Anton P. again and he wanted to introduce me to the bookseller who is going to be at Quantum Con, so we could figure out a way to have some of my books at there. (Look at me, reminding people about this con again!!)

We made our way slowly around the room, stopping first to chat with Greg Ketter, who was staffing the Dreamhaven Books & Comics table. Greg, as you may know, went viral right after Alex Pretti's execution and so one of the things I got from him was a donation for Da'Wah Institute, a local mosque that I regularly patrol (even still.) Da'Wah is having a lot of finanical woes thanks to Operation Metro surge and is running a fundraiser: https://www.gofundme.com/f/stand-with-minnesota-dawah-institute-during-a-difficult-time. Greg is not a fan of the GoFundMe model and so we arranged for me to pick up an actual direct donation. He told me a little bit about all the other causes he's been giving money to and how weird it is that people are STILL just randomly sending the store/him $20-$100 bills, sometimes with no note at all.

I managed to not buy anything in the Dealer's Room, despite being sorely tempted by a woman who makes these absolutely incredible spider brooches. I just ran out to the car to see if I was smart enough to grab one of her business cards, but, alas, I was not. If I remember to today, I will, so you all (at least all of you who are not spider-phobic) can look at these amazing objects d'art.

Then, I need to confess that I have some very dear friends, Laurie and Cate, who I run into who at cons, during the resistance, etc... (and I think because god hates me)... I always, ALWAYS flub their names. For some reason, in my head, I always want to call Cate, Cat, and Laurie, Laurel. It's annoying. I tell you this as a confession of my sins in the hope that the universe will absolve me and I CAN START GETTING IT RIGHT. Because I was talking to Anna W. and Anton and they came up to chat. I went to introduce them and completely fucked up their names again. Gods, I love for that to never happen again. (Voice over: Readers, she will do it again, later, in this very story.)

I finally went to my first panel around 4:30 pm and it was "Greg and Naomi are Still F*cking Angry." This was basically a panel for collective healing from the trauma many of us are feeling around the federal occupation that was ICE. Despite (or maybe because) of that, it was a really good panel. For those of you unfamiliar with Minicon or Twin Cities are fandom, there was ZERO push-back. Not one question from the audience of the "but aren't you all domestic terroritsts?" or "but we need to get rid of criminal immigrants, right??" variety. Not one. THIS is largely why the metro area of the Twin Cities was NOT the city/cities to fuck with. It is not 100% blue, but it is REALLY 99.9% blue here.

rant/

As a side-note. I do think it's funny in a sad way that everyone on our side who talks about this tends to forget Saint Paul and suburbs like Columbia Heights (where Liam, the Bunny hat boy is from) and will use "Minneapolis" as a short had for where EVERYTHING happened (sometimes even while filming in front of the SAINT PAUL capitol building), and, ironically, the more inclusive term for all of us is "the metro area" which fucking Trump and his cronnies got right when they called their evil, "Operation Metro Surge."

/mini rant

Anyway, my point? A good panel. Well with it.

Then, I had a panel with Naomi at 5:30 called "Evil Overlords." That one was fun, but I will admit that other than writing about Morningstar/Lucifier, I don't have a huge amount of personal experience writing about Evil Overlords. The good news is that GoH Pat Wrede does. I happen to know thatnaomikritzerproposed this panel, in part, to make sure that Pat had a chance to talk about her newest novel The Dark Lord's Daughter. This panel was also an excuse to introduce a new generation to Peter's Evil Overlord, aka "The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I were an Evil Overlord" list: http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html We almost got off the rails when someone brought up some real life evil (again, why do people do that?) but the heart of the audience member's question was actually about how one DEFINES evil, generally, and so we were able to wrestle it back to true before everyone started to implode over the morality of the bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The panel I skipped in favor of dinner with Lois McMaster Bujold and Naomi Kritzer (the sheer number of Hugo awards I dined with was astronomical!) was "On Writing Badly." As I noted to the two of them, I guess I know a lot about that since my career has utterly tanked? I will have to ask around, but I sort of presume the panel was not about writers who suck at writing, but more about how important it is to allow first drafts to suck, etc.

The final panel of the evening was "Reading Dystoria vs. Living Dystopia" which turned into a very lively discussion, despite the fact that it STARTED at 8:30 pm. Again, Naomi moderated. Adam Stemple andpegkerrwere on the panel with me. Peg started us off in a good direction talking about how writing the fan-project Alternity surprised her by how many responses to an evil overlord (Voldemort in this case) used in the local response to Metro Surge that they predicted. Naomi asked us what we thought dystopia novels and stories got wrong in comparison to Real Life Dystopia and what they got right? A lot of the responses to the first question seemed to revolve around the fact that none of us expected evil to be this obvious and this stupid. Books and other media have prepared us largely for smart and clever evil. I tried to talk a bit about the fact that I feel like one of the things that books about dystopia get wrong is the idea that it takes someone special (or with a special McGuffin, like the One Ring) to resist. This met with some push-back (and not necessarily wrongly) from the audience who wanted to argue that the Hobbits were supposed to represent ordinary people. I agree with that? My issue is that Frodo did inherit the One Ring, so it's not like he stepped up JUST BECAUSE. He was called because he had the McGuffin and had to choose to be a hero. Most of the people I know who faced guns with whistles were ordinary people, some in their pajamas, who decided that evil simply must be stopped right here, right now. I think I made my point better when I suggested that a way to think about it is how different a triology LotR would have been if the first town that the Nazgul stopped at looking for "Baggins" simply grabbed their whistles and formed a human chain saying, "We don't know any Baggins, but we will not let you take them!"

Because that's what happened here, in essence.The Nagzul showed up and we said, "We see evil and we are willing die to make sure that it does not spread."

Obviously, that didn't fully happen yet, but that was what the vibe of our response was.

ANYWAY. That very naturally led to me hanging out in the con suite way too late, drinking coffee with a dear friend who was a former A.I.M. member, and swapping "war stories" from the ICE raids. (Side note: my friend obviously generally has more expreience facting down Federal Agents and it made me feel weird about the work I've done for the resistance. Like? Was I brave enough? Does any of it count if I never saw an ICE agent FOR CERTAIN? Of course, in the morning light, I see that all actions against fascism are acts of bravery, but it is so weirdly easy to turn this into a heirarchy of activism.) 

Right! Well, that got long! Apologies for that. I'm off now to hopefully hang out with a friend who I played a journaling RPG with. I started the project, mailed it to Poland, and then the person in Poland mailed it to this friend who wrapped up the adventure. So, I haven't seen the finished project. I have one panel today that I am moderating called "Second Book in the Series." I'll let you know tomorrow how all that goes!

 I keep intending to be better than a once-a-week blogger, but here we are on another Wednesday.

What am I doing with my life? Still much the same. I've added A-Ihsan mosque to the places I patrol, since, as discussed in previous posts, things drag on relentessly and so we are losing more and more volunteers. Very reasonably? As I told the folks at the Food Communists the other day, the only reason I'm still here is because I don't have a life to get back to!  

I did intend to tell you all the story of the day I was stalked by a drone as I watched over school children getting off buses. 


Image: A distant and blurry shot, but very clearly a drone.

It was maybe last Tuesday? But some time last week, I was at my usual spot waiting for the several buses that stop near my location to do their thing, when I noticed a drone buzzing around. I alerted dispatch and promised to try to get film or a still picture. Friends? I have now learned that it's a good thing that the resistance did not need me to be its archivist. This was the BEST shot I got despite the fact that at one point it hovered directly in front of me for several long seconds. Did I hit record? I thought I did! Instead, I was just pointing my phone at it. I now know that while I do have the presence of mind and wherewithal to have my camera pointed mostly in the right direction, I am, in fact, much more likely to take crystal clear video of the sidewalk than the clear and present threat. Sheesh.

In fact, I initally thought that all I got a picture of was something that looked like I took a picture of the sun. Luckily, I found this picture with a tiny dot on it that, once enlarged (like the picture above), you can clearly make out the shape of the drone.

Do I think it was ICE or the cops? 

I can't say for sure.

There are hobbiests out there with a poor sense of where to fly these things, but the reason I stand at the corner I do is because there is a very large concentration of Somali families that live in the nearby apartments.Also? That moment it chose to drop low and hover directly above and slightly in front of me was weird. I can't explain it, but it definitely exuded threat. Maybe it was a hobbiest trying to make sure I got a good look and thus would know that it was NOT a threat, but it "stared" at me until I waved. Then it finally flew off, like it wanted me to know that we saw each other.

Our various rapid response groups try to keep track of drones, because people think they see a lot of drones--though usually at night. I am pretty confident that I can spot the difference between an airplane, a helicopter, and a drone even at night, but, when it's just lights in the dark, I wouldn't swear to it. This was broad daylight, and there is no mistaking this for anything else. My picture isn't great, but it's a picture of a drone. Who it belongs to? Uncertain. But it was in a vulnerable neighborhood and spent a lot of time circling me and the school bus drop-off area.

Otherwise, despite a few lulls and the Food Communists trying to figure out a sustainable schedule that doesn't exhaust its volunteers or its funds, I still spend an hour or two packing groceries pretty much every day that they're open and in operation. Food is still flying out the door. Food insecurity is real? But, also there are plenty of people who are still trying to recover from Metro Surge, wages lost because of it, etc.

I did manage to read a couple of things, though!  Shawn needed me to go to the library pick up some Minnesota-centric cookbooks to be donated to the history center and, since I was there, I decided to peruse the manga section. I brought a bunch home. But, in the last couple of days I read  A Man Who Defies the World of BL by Konkici (Volume 1) and My Oh My, Atami-kun by Tanuma Asa. Both are lightly humorous, the first largely being a send-up of all the yaoi tropes. I actually like My Oh My, Atami-kun better because... well, largely because I'm a tough sell on comedy, generally, and part of me felt like A Man Who Defies the World of BL was asking me to lean into the supposed hilarity of trying to avoid catching Teh Gay and so it ended up feeling a touch homophobic. This sense was made worse by watching the first episode of the live-action TV show by the same name. My Oh My, Atami-kun also plays into the stereotypes a bit, by having Atami being the kind of gay who is constantly falling in love at first sight. But, there's a lot more found family stuff that's taken very seriously and some really great straight + gay friendships that are continuing throughout (I read the first volume that I got from the library and then immediately tracked down everything that's on the pirate sites. Whcih, shame on me, but I liked it that much.) 

My Thirsty Sword Lesbians game ended up being canceleld for the second time in as many months, but people were sick and some were travelling and had thought they could videocall in, but couldn't after all. Alas!

So, that's me. I'm just keepin' on keepin' on in the resistance and life. How's by you?

 Ramadan has just started and my Signal group is having trouble finding enough protectors to fill evening slots. My Food Communists are talking about a $40,000 shortfall that may end their ability to feed people in hiding. March 1 is looming for people who haven't been able to pay rent and are facing evictions. Yet, local politicians are declaring victory and telling people it's time to "go shopping." 

Meanwhile, ICE is still being tracked throughout Saint Paul (and presumably Minneapolis, but I don't have access to those Rapid Response groups). Reports that I've seen seem to indicate that the majority of the activity has moved out to the less well organized smaller towns and suburbs. Though the "sexy" part of the resistance--the gas in the streets, the violent confrontations--has dried up, the danger to our immigrant communities is far from over. There is zero sense that ICE is actually leaving. They have switched to quieter, more subtle tactics. They've gone further afield. But make no mistake, they are very much still here.

Last night I went to a Singing Resistance meeting for an action that took place this morning. I managed to miss this morning's action because my GPS decided that it wanted to autocorrect Street to Avenue!  VERY DIFFERENT, GPS!  In fact, a very important distinction!!!  So, I ended up getting lost in downtown Minneapolis long enough to miss the gathering time.  But, what was interesting to me is that these Singing Actions have, in the past, brought thousands of people into the streets. Famously, they sang songs encouraging ICE agents to defect outside of some of the hotels hosting them. The action today was for rent relief and trying to get the city officials to consider a temporary rent moritorium, something they were very willing to do during COVID, but which they seem less willing to do for Black and brown folks (shocking, I know!)  At any rate, I went to the pre-planning/song rehersal last night with rachelmanija who is visiting right now and... it wasn't an empty church, but it also wasn't standing room only. The organizers kept saying, "I think more people will join us tomorrow." Well, I wasn't able to. I sure hope other people did. Otherwise, it's going to be pretty sparse. They will not fill City Hall, like they hoped.

But, this seems to be part of a trend. I'd noticed the day after it was announced that ICE was pulling out, my Food Communists was almost ghostly. Plenty of bags of groceries still needed filling, but the number of volunteers that showed up to do the work was less than half of the normal amount. More people have showed up since, but we are nowhere near our previous number. It seems to be the regulars and the die-hards again--although thankfully the Veterans for Peace are still guarding the doors for us.

I ran into some neighbors yesterday when I was walking home from the Communists and they were returning from a daily protest. They also noticed a significant lack of bodies. People were still there, but the crowd was thinner. It's worrying because we are all still very much holding our breaths.

I guess people are buying into the idea that we won and that it's all over. I mean, I would very much like that to be true? I'm just not sure it is and it's disheartening to see that the energy could not, in fact, be maintained.  Maybe people are just taking a breather. I hope that's the case. 

 
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: 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!

 
A sled in the shape of a jug of windshield de-icer with ICE out of MN on it with a laser loon! (photo credit, Naomi Kritzer).

...I should probably try to remember to post more often, least you all think that something dire has happened to me. 

I think when I last checked in MONARCA was still up in operation and I was responding as a legal/constitutional observer. Well, as you may have gathered from the news things have gotten more chaotic here and so MONARCA was overwhelmed and is no longer functioning as a coordinated way to send people to active abductions by ICE. 

Thus, since none of the calls I responded to were anything more than ten minutes too late or false alarms, I have switched to mutual aid work. (Activists are being careful not to sully the waters if you will since ICE is also keeping tabs on the watchers. So we don't want anyone who has been actively protesting or observing to be delivering groceries to people sheltering in place/hiding out from the gestapo, lest we lead the bad guys right to their doors.) I've found a local organization that was already in the business of giving out free food, a group that I lovingly called the Food Communists, who have pivoted their efforts towards feeding people who are sheltering in place/hiding from the gestapo.

They basically have open doors for folks to drop by and help when and how they can and that's been really good for me because it means that if I start to feel anxious about the police state at any point during the day I can wander down the street and see if there something I can do to aid the resistance. So far, it's been organizing doubled-up grocery bags and breaking down cardboard, but I think that all of us in this fight (and there are a lot of us) feel like all effort is good effort if it's  helping our comrades and neighbors. 

I have also been showing up to the various protests around the city.

There is a group of Midway neighbors who have organized a daily protection/protest gathering in front of our local Somali mosque so that we can defend people while they are vulnerable and in prayer. I joined them the other day while the temperatures plummeted and the wind whipped around our faces. But, it was so warming to the soul when the imam came out and thanked us all for being there and we waved to everyone heading out from safely prayers. 

I'm in a Signal group for people who are gathering every day on a different street corner to sing songs of love, resistance, and hope. I've only been able to make one of their gatherings, but it was lovely to sing and be in community. 

Mason and I joined the student walk out at the Saint Paul capitol a few days ago and it was nice to see all the youths being just as fierce as their more grown-up counterparts. 

And then yesterday, I met naomikritzer at Powderhorn Park and we watched a bunch of folks crash their art sleds. 


Image: Naomi (left) and me (right) out at the art sled rally. Very bundled up. There was a high of 12 F/-11 C yesterday.

Because Minnesota is like that.

And if there is one thing that I could impart to my out of state and international friends it's that, yes, everything you see on the news is 100% happening, and also? We are sledding.

Mostly, what you see on the news makes it look like the streets are full of tear gas and, yes, it's true, ICE agents are deploying tear gas, rubber bullets, real bullets, flash grenades, and smoke bombs, but people are also still going to work and walking their dogs and singing. A lot of us are doing anything we can. People are carrying whistles and charging our phones every night to get all the film possible of the atrocities we are facing at the hands of masked, domestic terrorists who are abducting people without due process. We are standing guard over daycares and mosques and restaurants and sex shops and toy stores. (Because our sex shops have become food distribution centers and our Toy Shops have been giving away free whistles.) We are showing up and baking cookies for people on patrol. We are sweeping up after the people packing bags for people too afraid to leave their houses. We are taking to the streets with signs, sometimes all alone, but we are showing our neighbors, our immigrant and refugee families, that we want them, we love them, and we will not let them be taken without a fight.

This is what resistance looks like and it is awful, but it also hopeful and kind and loving, and, yes, even sometimes we make time for fun. 

 
Image: the "don't tread on me" snake being beheaded by a laser-eyed loon with the Minnesota flag on its chest (created by Andrew Prekker).

You know I love my laser-eye loons and I could not have been happier to see this art pop up on my Facebook Feed. Andrew is selling this art on Redbubble and I bought a t-shirt immediately. (Feel free to click the link and get your own merch.) For those of you new to my journal, I posted about Minnesota's collective enjoyment out of imagining that the red eyes of the loon could (and should!) shoot laser beams in the past. My library card has a loon with lasers shooting out of its eyes and we NEARLY had a state flag with a loon shooting laser beams out of its eyes.

One thing I have learned while living in a police state is that I need to do one good thing a day or I go out of my mind with stress. Today, when I realized I was just pacing around the house trying not to doom scroll, I found out that Smitten Kitten (for out-of-towners, this is a sex positive, trans and queer owned sex shop) has been acting as a distribution center for people who are in hiding from the gestapo. They put out a call for diapers, etc. So, I hopped in my car, bought a few things at my local Menards, and then drove over to drop them off. Just feeling the energy in the shop, being greeted by people still excited to see my queer D&D t-shirt (actually ConFABulous, which I talked to the person about potentially coming to this next year)... it felt good, maybe even kind of normal in a This is NOT normal sort of way?

Right now, at 6:30 pm,  I'm going to go throw on my coat and go sing with some neighbors. I am, apparently, someone who needs to DO.  

Stay strong out there, everybody!