Wandering Adventure Party

@jzb

One thing you can do to help right now is just to spread the word about how bonkers and awful all of this is. I feel like a lot of national and international news is soft pedaling it.

The vibe is not even the sort of “excessive show of force” vibe you get when militarized law enforcement goes off the rails and starts rioting. (I live in Minneapolis. I’m quite familiar with what •that• looks like.)

This is more like…hundreds of high school gym bullies get all hopped up on Red Bull and decided to take daddy’s SUV on a joy ride to randomly kidnap the first brown person they can corner…but only if nobody’s watching.

5/

What do I want you to know, watching from far away?

I want you to know that if you are not hearing about ICE swarming all the hell over my city, you are not hearing the actual news.

I want you to know that if all you see is video of ICE marching off Very Dangerous Criminals in an orderly and authoritative way, you are not hearing the actual news.

I want you to know that these turds act tough, but run away • every • time • they think too many people are watching or there might be video.

4/

What is it like to live here now?

A message comes through from a neighbor about a swarm of ICE agents in a home just a few blocks away — gone by the time I was there to check it out. Nobody knows whether ICE abducted anyone there.

A message comes through from another neighbor trying to find support for a pregnant woman whose husband was just abducted. She cannot even figure out what she wants to ask for; she is in shock. I have no way to verify this story.

Group of vehicles at this restaurant, at that library, in this suburb. On and on.

3/

ICE has been harassing residents and lawful observers unusually aggressively yesterday and today. They walk up to random cars with window-smashing tools in hand and say threatening things. They slow-drive by people’s houses in a “we know where you live” kind of way. They detain people — completely illegally, completely unconstitutionally, of course — but that will mater later and their big photo op matters •now•.

2/

I have been trying to figure out what to post here about ICE activity today in the Minneapolis / St. Paul metro. It is just •batshit• out there.

Some admin mucky-muck is in town today (Noem, I think?), and ICE is putting on a full We Are A Big Fascist Deal theater show. The result of this is chaos: ICE caravans all over, vulnerable people terrified, less-vulnerable residents dropping their work to keep watch on the streets.

1/

An important detail in this article: DHS is lying about assaults against agents.

That supposed “1,150% increase in assaults” against DHS agents they keep trotting out? By their own admission, that includes “videotaping them [agents] where they’re at.”

DHS thinks •recording video• of ICE counts as •violence•.

•That• is the supposed increase in violence they’re crying all these crocodile tears about. Un-frigging-be-lievable. https://social.freedom.press/@freedomofpress/115844121656978280

5. “But what are we supposed to do exactly?!” → Fight for digital sovereignty. Fight for a more independent financial system. Stop honoring US pharma patents. Form large coalitions to threaten economic sanctions. Limit travel, or increase the friction of it. Target the comfort of the billionaires who are bankrolling this. There is a long list of actions countries can take if •and only if• their populations create the political pressure for it.

4. “But it’s too hard” → I am not asking the world to turn the US into North Korea overnight. I’m asking everyone to make subservience to the US a source of political discontent wherever they live, in whatever way local politics allow.

2. “The US has too much power, nobody can possibly stand up to them” → I don’t know, dude, maybe ask to copy Canada’s notes? I am not asking for magic here; I’m just asking people to try.

3. “But standing up to a fascist US is too expensive for us” → Believe me, whatever it costs us all now (inside •and• outside the US), it will cost even more later.

I appreciate the boosts on the thread above, which I take as support.

The defeatist replies make me despair a bit. Just to address some greatest hits en masse:

1. “Kick them out yourselves” → JFC, what the hell do you think we are trying to do, constantly, day after day, the amount of action and engagement against the federal invasion where I live is like nothing I’ve seen in my lifetime. WE ARE ASKING FOR HELP. Please do not be an ass about it.

Treating the US like a rogue state would be a seismic shift in international relations — a shift that slow-moving world will resist. But the US •is• a rogue state at this point, and other nations need to start treating it as such. Like…yesterday.

A request from somebody in the USA: if you live in another country, please start pressuring your government to institute sanctions against the US.

Diplomatic sanctions, economic sanctions, whatever is possible.

I do not expect this to happen quickly. Start laying the political groundwork now so that it can happen at all, ever, while it still matters.

@Violinknitter

Wait, I’m blanking: how does that first movie end? Frodo and Sam sneaking away, I think? Is that why the wailing?

Please remember: when an officer stops somebody based on racial profiling to challenge their immigration status, the correct and proper term for that is a “Kavanaugh stop.”

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/12/brett-kavanaugh-stops-immigration-racial-profiling-ice.html

You know what’s really underrated?

Social opprobrium.

🧵

Apparently there’s another influx of new folks here, so I guess I should give my best tidbit of advice:

You have to really actively seek out people to follow here, much more than you’re used to — and until you do, this place will feel •dead•. Cool stuff isn’t just going to show up. You won’t get many helpful suggestions. No tech giant marketing dept is spending millions to draw you in. It’s going to be •work•. It’s kind of a drag, tbh.

But: your people are out there!! You just have work to seek them out, one account at a time.

OK, here it is, the snippet of video that has Trumpland soiling their pants, the clip so shocking that ABC ousted Kimmel rather than face the legally impossible battle of defending what he said (ht @heluecht

Somebody please post a video of Kimmel’s remarks that got him censored, and then let’s all boost the crap out of it.

Please note that the photo below, which is making the rounds, is from 1987 and not 2025; Golden Gate anniversary not a protest. See this page:

https://www.vintag.es/2013/09/pictures-of-golden-gate-bridge-50th.html