Trying to remember to bring our chipper to school patrol this week!

Living up north, I have wanted a tool like that ever since. And I think about the women a lot. Living through a Blockade, and then taking the great pride they did in Keeping Streets Safe. /end

And these women, who had lived through so much, would chatter the entire time, solving the world's problems among themselves, gossiping, commenting on passersby, scolding or advising them as they deserved, always taking great care to clear All The Ice. 4/

The scraper was too heavy to lift too far, but little lifts were all it took to shatter the ice. They'd leave the shards and then someone else would come by later in the day and shovel them all into the street, where they would either melt or get plowed or shoveled into a truck. 3/

They would come out in brigades in long coats and fur hats and heavy boots and move slowly down a block, lifting the scrapers maybe two inches every time, and dropping them on their blades, breaking ice that was sometimes five inches thick. Lift and drop, lift and drop. 2/

Something I think about all the time is when I was living in SPb, Russia, there were these armies of old women -- most of them Blockade survivors -- whose job was would clear ice from sidewalks with large cast iron scrapers. Basically shaped like a flooring scraper, but all one piece, and heavy. 1/

I’ve been wandering solo with an ice chopper, but have recently met up with friends with more tools. The crowbar + hammer was key to clearing the SE corner of 22nd and Lyndale a few days ago.

Bopping in to say that clearing ice from corners and bus stops is excellent community care and also good for getting out some kind of energy and connecting with strangers.

Begging everyone with these kind of centrist senators to call their offices every single day. If you want to support Minnesota, set a daily alarm and call

We are observers, not protestors. We show up to document and film the atrocities ICE is committing. Using 5 year olds as bait. Kidnapping senior citizens. Breaking down doors without warrants. Murdering poets and nurses. Media has all of that information because *observers* were there to document it

"I insisted that the agents let me assess him. Normally, I would not have been so persistent, but as a physician, I felt a professional and moral obligation to help this man, especially since none of the agents were helping him."

“Only hours have passed since they shot a man right in front me and I don't feel like I can go home because I heard agents were looking for me. I don't know what the agents will do when they find me.”

Especially if you're not in Minnesota. Especially if you have Republican senators. Please help us.

One thing that irks me: people keep calling the folks on the streets in Minneapolis protestors. They are not generally there to protest, they are there to observe and document. This is the product of organizing and mutual aid. It is telling that these acts of citizenship are seen as protest!

Friends. This is the long haul. Regulate yourself. Breathe. Act if you must today, but know that the work will be here tomorrow. Pick your lane. Connect to your people.

Things to do remotely, today: 1. Make donations to mutual aid groups in Minnesota. 2. Flood the Capitol switchboard with phone calls. 3. Don't give unsolicited, online advice to Minnesotans. 4. Be careful what posts you share. Stick to MN sources, or trusted journalists.

In the Emily Holmes' original "tetris can help reduce PTSD" study, what was found was that tetris is an activity which busies the part of working memory called the visuospatial sketchpad: imagining the rotation of shapes. www.psych.ox.ac.uk/news/tetris-...

Ways to help if you're local, ways to help if you aren't in MN. Also still need support for our unhoused neighbors, especially in this cold. Links in quoted post. www.standwithminnesota.com has links, including a way to send messages to Minnesota.

this is just my opinion and there's a good chance I'm wrong, but: it seems to me that one important thing people who aren't here can do is spread the word, calmly and relentlessly, to people in your life who aren't tuned into what's going on (or the reality of what's going on)

ALL MN PROTESTERS Absolutely nothing could be worse for our cause than violence and rioting. It is what ICE and Trump obviously want. Do not burn down our own city to protest invaders; they do not care; they will enjoy it. Do not do it. Do not let your fellow protesters do it.

If you know anyone who still supports this one or doesn't think it's that bad in MN, please send them this. People need to know.

It's stupid that the anti-accessibility/pro-car folks are spending so much of their time on this while most of us are trying to materially protect our neighbors, but they are. Email MPRB commissioners that parks that are for people + green and growing things, not cars + pavement, by 5:30 today.

Seriously, if you want to help the folks in Minnesota (& we could really use your help), please call your members of congress. Also spread the word to the less-online about what's going on. And if you've got money, throw it at something here: www.standwithminnesota.com

Any one of my bike rides, man.

Maybe don’t use people’s physical characteristics as insults or ways to demean them? Using “small” or “short” as an insult is bigotry based in and reinforcing misogyny and racism.

This is true, we fact checked

This is supposed to say “chud” not “child.” I like and respect children as vital members of our society. My apologies for not catching the auto-correct!

So in the age of social media and as an “influencer”, this child drew fewer people than showed up to the same intersection to protest Bill Clinton’s bombing of Iraq in 1996?!?!

“[T]he vast majority of men are only willing to engage in public violence if they feel like the people around them will approve of—and reward them for—that violence. ICE Watch works because it surrounds men seeking approval with people loudly expressing their disapproval.”

Our frozen Mpls lakes. The original, true, lover-of-all-people ice. The ice that holds us up, allows us to walk on water, welcomes everyone. (Pictured: Bde Maka Ska in December, where I talked to so many out for the miracle, including immigrant neighbors.)

‼️Our relatives cannot shelter safely outside due to ICE escalation. MIWRC offers a culturally grounded low-barrier sanctuary; services, warmth, food, safety, & support obtaining tribal ID’s/documents. This is survival. This is sovereignty. We take care of us. Help here: bit.ly/Healinglight

We are in fact DESPERATE for winter coats, waterproof gloves, and good boots. We get so many wonderful donations but it is so cold and the numbers of unhoused unsheltered people are going up at the absolute worst time for it, and we run out of coats weekly.

Middle of the night (or very early morning) is a good time for shy or awkward folks in the United States to leave messages for their members of congress. Being shy or awkward is not a requirement, anyone can call any time . . .

I am not in the vicinity of the gassing. If it makes to me, the winds will have to significantly shift. That said, it is BAD. If I can smell it from the freeway with windows rolled up is is BAD. A health disaster.

There is so much tear gas in the air it can be felt driving on the other side of highway 94 in Minneapolis - in your car.

Share what you're seeing with your extended networks. There's misinformation and both-siderism happening broadly. Email, call, text, send a letter. Offer clarity to help them act. (Just a reminder when we're all focused on what's here and now, helping neighbors/community with immediate needs.)

from our former mayor RT Rybak who is very much NOT known for being radical or using hyperbole:

I'm looking for instances of online disinformation related to the Minneapolis ICE shooting for the Minnesota Star Tribune. If you see stuff that's a) blowing up online and b) objectively or very likely fake or untrue, please send it my way. Signal in bio if you prefer that.

I just watched two women get kidnapped right in front of me in Northeast Minneapolis. ICE is still terrorizing our city.

Consistent followers of mine will know I've been thinking a lot about how we think about bolstering our coping capacity for challenges to come. My aim is a simple stand-alone worksheet for individual or group reflection. I think I'm getting closer:

This is state terrorism.

I’ve been knitting hats this winter, and a half dozen or so might be enough to record the pattern I made up. (Warming: I taught myself to cable based on looking at cabled items and trial and error, so it’s certainly unorthodox and possibly the worst way to do it.)

Was this that super expensive mansion (like one of the most expensive to date in the country)? I think the location/tear-down date fit what I recall hearing

Yo, business owners in MN (500 employees or less)! MPCA has a cool grant you might be interested in. E-bikes for commercial biz. Think delivery, providing services, etc. Grant applications due Jan 15, 2026: www.pca.state.mn.us/grants-and-l...

I have video from a few years ago of a City of Minneapolis plow moving a hug mound of snow from the middle of the street (T intersection turns/plowing left an island) literally into a beautifully shoveled, totally clear sidewalk corner.

So much of why sidewalks are unusable in winter is because the streets were plowed on to them, especially at corners

All kinds of ICE in our neighborhoods is a policy failure.

It’s astounding! On Monday, I could feel the cracking as directional zips beneath me from my weight and as others skated nearby. Lots of rainbow baby cracks!

@metrotransitmn.bsky.social seems like neither side of sign at 5th/nicollet away-from-river is working. (Other side says it’s out of service.)