From a Comrade 19h. C One of the nuts things about organizing in the Twin Cities right now is that even the most long term organizers who've been here for decades can't keep track of all the resistance that is going on. There are so many self-organized crews just doing work that in any conversation with someone from another neighborhood you might stumble over a whole collective of people resisting in ways you didn't think of. There's a crew of carpenters just going around fixing kicked-in doors. There are tow truck drivers taking cars of detained people away for free. People delivering food to families in hiding. So many local rapid response groups that the number is uncertain but somewhere between 80 and the low hundreds- especially when one considers that several immigrant communities have their own non-English rapid response networks usually uncounted in the main English-language directories. People standing watch outside daycares and schools. This whole resistance has so many poles of initiative and leadership, so many layers of self-organization, that it's extraordinarily difficult for the state to repress or for opportunists be they Democrats or movement-riding parties) to co-opt and control. Of course, that's built up through many years and decades of organization, and not only through explicitiv political campaigns or formations built during times of crisis and rupture like 2020. It is also built through day-to-day mutual aid, culture building, workplace and tenant organizing, and simple, basic relationship building among neighbors and coworkers here.

From a Comrade 19h. C One of the nuts things about organizing in the Twin Cities right now is that even the most long term organizers who've been here for decades can't keep track of all the resistance that is going on. There are so many self-organized crews just doing work that in any conversation with someone from another neighborhood you might stumble over a whole collective of people resisting in ways you didn't think of. There's a crew of carpenters just going around fixing kicked-in doors. There are tow truck drivers taking cars of detained people away for free. People delivering food to families in hiding. So many local rapid response groups that the number is uncertain but somewhere between 80 and the low hundreds- especially when one considers that several immigrant communities have their own non-English rapid response networks usually uncounted in the main English-language directories. People standing watch outside daycares and schools. This whole resistance has so many poles of initiative and leadership, so many layers of self-organization, that it's extraordinarily difficult for the state to repress or for opportunists be they Democrats or movement-riding parties) to co-opt and control. Of course, that's built up through many years and decades of organization, and not only through explicitiv political campaigns or formations built during times of crisis and rupture like 2020. It is also built through day-to-day mutual aid, culture building, workplace and tenant organizing, and simple, basic relationship building among neighbors and coworkers here.

message from MN

Also Margaret Killjoy’s “The Sapling Cage” has many of the same themes and charms but a completely different feel (a less contemporary setting but somehow more reflective of current-world problems?) Not sure when the sequel(s) will be out.

Not a librarian but I work at a library! Highly recommend Rochelle Hassan’s “Buried and the Bound” - it’s a trilogy but the third book isn’t out yet. The friendship between the the three protagonist teens is complex and lovely, there’s humor and genuine suspense…and the covers are gorgeous!

Notable Sandwiches #137: Po' Boy Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I trip merrily through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week, a...

Bennie & Clovis Martin, inventors of the po' boy sandwich, to striking workers:
"We are with you till h--l freezes, and when it does, we will furnish blankets to keep you warm."

Let's bring this energy to 2026:
buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Donate to Honoring the life of Fobazi Ettarh: Funeral & other costs, organized by Ysabel Gerrard Hello all, my name is Ysabel and I’m fundraising for my frien… Ysabel Gerrard needs your support for Honoring the life of Fobazi Ettarh: Funeral & other costs

gofund.me/a660f5efa

'measles outbreak at the child prison' seems entirely avoidable, it's really the kind of thing that only happens if you do several unthinkably evil things on purpose all at once

horrible

I heard a story on @nebpublicmedia.bsky.social the other day about a NE woman who is fighting this (legislatively); her father died a few years ago at the McCook “Work Ethic Camp” (recently turned into an ICE detention camp) due to untreated diabetes

How to Film ICE Filming federal agents in public is legal, but avoiding a dangerous—even deadly—confrontation isn’t guaranteed. Here’s how to record ICE and CBP agents as safely as possible and have an impact.

NEW: The @wired.com Security desk put together a comprehensive guide to filming ICE—with tips for reducing risk at the forefront. No paywall, but please consider subscribing to help find these kinds of resources. And stay safe out there. www.wired.com/story/how-to...

www.wired.com/v2/offers/wi...

A stack of thin pink books that say OBSTETRIX * NAOMI KRITZER on the spine

HEY I AM DOING A FUNDRAISER FOR MINNESOTA RENT FUNDS

AND GIVING AWAY A SIGNED ARC (advance review copy) OF OBSTETRIX

THAT'S RIGHT YOU CAN HELP MINNESOTA FAMILIES AND MAYBE GET A FREE EARLY SIGNED COPY OF MY BOOK

I guess the plan is to intimidate people by making them look like the best ska group of 2026.

= Israel News IDF Accepts Gaza Health Ministry Death Toll of Over 71,000 Palestinians Killed During the War Although many international experts have accepted the Health Ministry's data as reliable, and even conservative relative to the true death toll, Israel had refused to accept the Health Ministry's count until noiw ® HAARETZ Save Yaniv Kubovich and Nir Hasson 12:20 PM • January 29 2026 IST

Whenever the Gaza Health Ministry was cited they were called 'the Hamas-run Health Ministry' to make us all doubt the numbers. Now even Israel accepts the official death toll, because that's how confident Netanyahu is that he'll face no consequences.

The real death toll is, obviously, much higher.

‘I don’t have words’: 2 more kids from Liam Ramos’ Columbia Heights school taken into ICE custody The children were taken into ICE custody after their mother was detained at a court appointment. School leaders say the mother asked them to bring the kids to the detention center because there were n...

“We had to deliver them to a detention center,” principal Jason Kuhlman said about the second grader and fifth grader.

Rice students expose ICE raids with new interactive map It's a nationwide digital spotlight on ICE arrests and detention centers.

It's a nationwide digital spotlight on ICE arrests and detention centers.

Oh, somehow I had assumed exfoliating would make things worse but I’ll try that! I know I need to take shorter (and less hot) showers…better for the environment as well (but so much less satisfying, alas!)

Indiana, Minnesota and North Dakota. Includes Skittles, Pringles, Gatorade, Coca-Cola, Heinz Ketchup, Crisco Oil, Pepto Bismol, Axe body spray, Q-Tips, Fancy Feast cat food, Gillette razors, and more. "Rodent excreta, rodent urine, and bird droppings." (Can cause salmonella or leptospirosis.)

winter itch has me in its scaly grip

Minnesotans, I promise we are studying your rapid response and mutual aid lessons but when you have a sec if you could also send your best moisturizing tips

We recently watched a Portuguese WWII spy show (“A Espia”) in which tungsten (which they called wolfram!!!) plays an important role, so I went a little ways down a tungsten/wolfram rabbithole and it was SO COOL. You also seem very cool. I’m sorry your dad doesn’t see that 💚

I have had that feeling before where in the middle of an action you feel how tangibly another world is possible, but this time I feel it across an entire city. So many here are seeing what life could be like if it were organized around different principles, if the rhythm were completely different

that is so rad, and so relevant to my interests

Protest breaks out at Dilley immigration detention facility holding 5-year-old Liam Ramos A protest broke out Saturday at the ICE-run South Texas family detention complex in Dilley, where five-year-old Liam Ramos is being detained.

No words

“As the Michigan-based attorney walked toward his car…he heard what sounded like “100s of children” shouting, with voices he described as "high-pitched" and "urgent.”…he could see children streaming from dormitory areas behind a chain-link fence and chanting “Libertad."
shorturl.at/yOXfh

I just keep thinking about how for multiple years now we’ve watched a genocide unfolding before our eyes while being told by our own government that what we were seeing was not what we knew we were seeing and how dare we suggest otherwise

And that was a Democratic administration

they're executing moms and nurses in the street. they're using preschoolers as bait. they're stealing people's dads and grandmas and children. they're tear gassing babies. they're staking out schools. there is no remedy but abolition. any proposal that doesn't start there is an act of violence.

I'm honestly just sick. If you can stomach watching any of this footage & still let the words "more training" escape your mouth, I cannot ever forgive you. These are state-sanctioned street executions. This is the training.

This reminded me to fill out the survey at the bottom of my receipt from mailing packages today (all 5/5s, except a 4 for wait time because they seem understaffed)

Announcements Sullivan Elementary • 10:30 AM • To: Sullivan Elementary Hello Sullivan Families, we have learned that ICE is sending out flyers offering food support to families. For your safety, do not respond to these offers. If your family is in need of support, please contact the school and we will connect you with one of our School Social Workers. Thank you!

There is no level to which these heartless shit-for-brains won’t stoop to inflict cruelty and suffering.