u/Foreign_Librarian193

What if you could write a letter to the politician of your choice — your governor, your senator, Stephen Miller, JD Vance, whoever really grinds your gears — and have it arrive on their desk inside a clear, phallus-shaped plastic clamshell?

The Dildo Distribution Delegation is currently sitting on several thousand of these clamshells in a storage unit, and we are exploring the possibility of putting them to work.

We can't recycle them in any meaningful way. Throwing them out feels wasteful and frankly disrespectful to their shape. They are too weird to donate and too numerous to ignore.

But slide a rolled-up letter inside one and suddenly you have the most attention-grabbing envelope in the history of the United States Postal Service.

No staffer is throwing that away unopened. No intern is tossing it in the "constituent mail we'll get to never" pile. A letter in a dick-shaped clamshell gets read.

We have the inventory, the postage budget is being calculated, and we honestly cannot think of a better use for several hundred empty phallus containers than making sure your words cannot be ignored.

What do you think?

Credit: Minnesota Indivisible Alliance

Minnesota's elections got tested…and we held. That didn't happen by accident.

For months, we've been wondering how the Trump regime would test our elections. Here's what we've learned.

First, the Trump administration has pushed Minnesota to turn over its voter rolls, seeking sensitive voter data and pursuing a federal investigation into supposed noncitizen voting. Minnesota pushed back, and yesterday a judge dismissed the Justice Department's lawsuit. She said the government had no right to engage in a "fishing expedition."

That's the 23rd straight loss for the Justice Department in lawsuits over states' voter data. They haven't won one yet.

Next, the Justice Department sent about 20 staff to monitor polling places in Hennepin and Ramsey counties. This wasn't anything new — they've done this work in previous elections under Republican and Democratic presidents.

What changed is this previously innocuous work was occurring under this regime. So this time, Ramsey and Hennepin counties had to remind them: Minnesota law did not allow them into the polling locations. They had to stay 100 feet away. To make sure the feds complied, Minnesota sent its own watchers to watch the federal ones.

Finally, a twist: a right-wing group led by activist James O'Keefe walked into Minneapolis polling places dressed in burqas, using fake foreign accents, and carrying hidden cameras. They tried to impersonate Muslim voters in an attempt to expose supposed cracks in Minnesota's voter-vouching law.

Poll workers spotted it immediately and reported it. Law enforcement is now reviewing the incident for any potential legal action. Secretary of State Steve Simon called the stunt "outrageous and totally unacceptable."

And despite all that attention from the regime and its allies, more than 1.1 million Minnesotans voted — the most ballots ever cast in a Minnesota primary, breaking a record that had stood since 2018.

Guess Minnesotans really like to vote.

None of that means we relax.

It means we understand that protecting elections takes a lot of Minnesotans: county election officials, city clerks, township clerks, election judges, poll workers, canvassing boards, lawyers, observers. Many of them volunteers. Many of them your neighbors, friends and family. Some of them, you, dear reader…and thank you.

Before any votes were cast, we tested the machines publicly. We established chains of custody. We recruited judges from the two major parties. And canvassing boards will meet to certify the result in public.

The work isn't especially dramatic. But there's a beauty and awe in doing the commonplace work of democracy.

And it's also where the rest of us come in.

If you've been wondering what you can possibly do to defend democracy, election protection may be one of the most useful places to invest some time.

One vehicle for that work is Indivisible's national election protection program, Hands Off Our Vote.

It's designed to help ordinary people understand how elections actually work — building relationships with local election officials, preparing for misinformation or intimidation, and getting ready to respond fast if something unusual happens.

Link to that initiative is in the first comment.

But there's another option that might work even better: join your local Indivisible chapter.

Elections are local. And what matters in one county can look completely different from what matters in the next.

One chapter might need people willing to serve as election judges. Another is keeping an eye on county meetings. Another is building a relationship with the local election administrator before there's a crisis. Another is helping voters navigate a polling-place change. Another is getting ready to correct misinformation the moment it starts spreading. Another is already working with local partners who've done this for years.

And local chapters are doing the work of building plans now.

So connect with a chapter and learn what your community needs most: election judges, hotline workers, certification observers, disinformation responders, rides to the polls, or trained people ready to respond to the unknown.

Minnesota has a good election system, one that usually leads the nation in turnout. A trained and prepared public can help make sure it stays among the best in the country.

So no doom scrolling or panic. Preparation, contingency planning, training, education, building communications links — all the work you did during the Surge can be redeployed in this new moment.

Get trained. Get connected. Join a chapter. Learn how elections work where you live.

Then when November comes, we won't just be hoping Minnesota's democracy holds. We'll be part of why it does.

Credit: @sunrise.twincities

Homeland Security has been using invasive tactics to target our organizing, but it's not working. We're stronger than ever, and our numbers are growing.
Mass, nonviolent youth movements are particularly resilient against authoritarian overreach and have toppled dictators in the past. Now, we're proving our power here in the U.S.

Curious about how to organize against fascism while staying safe? We have a few guidelines, including:

1. Organize in public - We're loud about our goals and tactics. Want to investigate us? You won't find anything surprising.

2. Treat large group chats like social media - Only share sensitive information with people you've directly vetted.

3. The greatest risk of all is not taking action or not organizing for a better world. Organizing always carries some risk. We think it's worth it.

Take action with us! Become a Sunrise Movement member at smvmt.org/membership

Credit: @thejenniwren

They put migrant children out for bid.

The Trump administration is shopping for contractors to build an "emergency influx facility" that can hold up to 3,000 unaccompanied kids. The specs: eight children per room, eight children sharing one toilet, one shower, one sink. An eight-foot perimeter fence. Contractors are told to be ready to fill 400 beds within 30 days of signing.

Officials call it "speed."

This is happening while the government guts the one protection those kids are legally owed. Roughly 20,000 unaccompanied children lost their lawyers overnight when the Acacia Center contract ended in July. The no-bid replacement, worth up to $244 million, went to Our Rescue, an anti-trafficking group whose own founder resigned amid sexual abuse and trafficking allegations. A Texas firm with zero experience representing migrant children was floated for a separate $150 million contract before quietly withdrawing.

Removal orders for immigrant minors have topped 10,000 a month under this administration, more than at any point in Trump's first term. Lawyers are already describing coercion and threats used to push children into self-deporting.

They are building bigger cages and taking away the lawyers who are supposed to keep kids inside them safe.

Share this before the contract gets signed.

Call HHS at 1-877-696-6775. Then call your senators and rep at (202) 224-3121. Tell them no to this contract

Sources: The Independent, ProPublica

Credit: Mercado Media

MINNESOTA SUES GREG ABBOTT FOR BLOCKING EXTRADITION OF ICE AGENT CHARGED IN MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTING

Minnesota has sued Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Cameron County Sheriff Manuel Treviño, accusing them of unlawfully delaying the extradition of ICE agent Christian Castro. Castro is charged with four counts of second-degree assault and falsely reporting a crime after allegedly firing through the front door of a Minneapolis home and shooting Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis during Operation Metro Surge.

Castro fled Minnesota after the January shooting and was arrested by Texas Rangers on May 29. Minnesota says Gov. Tim Walz properly submitted the required extradition warrant, triggering a mandatory obligation under the Constitution, federal law and Texas law for Abbott to approve Castro’s return.

Castro remains jailed in Cameron County while Abbott withholds the rendition warrant. Minnesota is asking the court to force Texas to send him back so he can face prosecution.

Credit: @solidarityorganizinginitiative

I could be wrong, but it’s systemic destruction of a target population with deliberate physical and mental harm up to and include murder/suicide.

Credit: @eyesoffsaintpaul

Join Eyes Off Saint Paul for the National Week of Action Against ALPRs.

Whether reinforcing racist and discriminatory policing, or being used to surveil and intimidate protestors and activists, there is no amount of public oversight, department policy or reform that justifies the use of Al-powered surveillance technology. Its use is a violation of our civil liberties and it doesn't belong in our city.

The public is welcome to attend any of the events this week. Join us to tell the city: no mass surveillance in our streets and no mass surveillance in our sky!

Credit: @rebel_loon

Mark your calendar, and drop a comment with which events you're planning to come to!

We've been waiting for official permission to share the Capitol Building exhibition, and we finally got approval to talk about it publicly. We're partnering with the Governor's Minnesota Truth Council to host an art exhibition that will overlap with two of their public meetings (which we strongly recommend attending!).

Additionally, we're excited to start planning the book release party for "The Rebel Loon Archive: Art Against Operation Metro Surge." After the MPR article & radio spot yesterday, the first print run completely sold out, and we've pivoted to take pre-orders for the second print run, which we expect to arrive before the December holidays.

The book release party is free to attend, and there will be drinks and food available to purchase.

The gala is two months away! Have you started planning your outfit yet? We're excited to gather with friends who care about sustaining the work of the Rebel Loon Archive, and to enjoy a glittering evening filled with live music, gifts & art up for auction, and indigenous foods catered by Owamni.

Whichever of these events appeal to you, we're looking forward to the opportunity to gather together.

Art credit: "Looking Up" by Patricia Canney. Acrylic on canvas, 2026.

Preorder here: https://linktr.ee/rebelloonarchive

🪖🛟💉🚗💊🏥

So what is harm reduction?

It’s pretty simple: reduce the harm and keep people alive.

We already do this with seat belts, helmets, sunscreen and life jackets. Drug use shouldn’t be the exception.

Naloxone, syringe services, drug checking, overdose education and low-barrier healthcare are all harm reduction.

And the evidence shows these programs save lives without increasing drug use or neighborhood crime.
You don’t have to approve of someone’s behavior to want them to survive it.

#HarmReduction #PublicHealth #OverdosePrevention #Drugs #Educational

Credit: Adam Yinzer on FB

Credit: Minnesota Indivisible Alliance

1. FRAUD WAS REAL. SO ARE THE FIXES.

People stole public money. Minnesota missed warning signs. The people responsible are being prosecuted and sent to prison — Feeding Our Future alone has produced at least 68 convictions.

Minnesota has tightened screening, paused enrollment in high-risk programs, increased reviews before claims are paid and put high-risk Medicaid services under additional scrutiny. Minnesota’s Medicaid improper-payment rate is a little over 2.1 percent, compared with 6.1 percent nationally. Improper payments are not the same as fraud, but the comparison matters.

Gov. Walz has acknowledged the failures happened on his watch and backed changes to fix them. You can argue about whether enough has been done. But “Minnesota ignored fraud and did nothing” is not true.

2. MINNESOTA IS NOT THE FRAUD CAPITAL OF AMERICA.

Minnesota has had serious fraud. Nobody should minimize it. But fraud is not some uniquely Minnesota disease.

Trump’s own CMS called Republican-led Florida a health-care fraud “hotspot” this year. Florida has seen individual health-care fraud schemes on an enormous scale, including one that produced more than $1 billion in false Medicare claims.

Fraud happens in red states. It happens in blue states. It happens wherever large amounts of money and weak controls give criminals an opening.

What has not been shown is that Minnesota is uniquely corrupt. So when somebody calls Minnesota the fraud capital of America, ask: compared with where? Show us the numbers.

3. “SOMALI FRAUD” IS RACISM. FULL STOP.

Some people charged in Minnesota fraud cases are Somali American. If they stole money, prosecute them. Put them in prison.

But being from Somali is not a crime. Fraud is.

When a white businessman runs a Ponzi scheme, we do not call it “white fraud,” “Norwegian fraud” or “German fraud.” We hold the criminal responsible. We do not smear everyone who shares his ancestry. So when a politician uses “Somali fraud” in an ad or speech, ask them if they really are saying all Somalis are criminals.

Operation Metro Surge is what happens fraud, Somalis and immigration get tangled together politically. Ask them if that’s what they want to see our neighbors and co-workers get trashed by association.

And tell them that there’s no place for that gutter politics in Minnesota.

4. FRAUD IS THE EXCUSE. THE SAFETY NET IS THE TARGET.

Someone steals from a bank. We don’t shut down banking. Someone steals from Medicaid. That does not make Medicaid the problem.

Fix the holes. Prosecute the fraud. Protect taxpayer money. But do not make a senior, a child or a person with a disability pay because somebody else stole from a program they depend on.

Most health-care fraud is not committed by beneficiaries. The people stealing the big money are overwhelmingly providers, suppliers and other businesses billing the programs.

The fraudster is the problem. The person who needs Medicaid is not.

And Republicans were pushing deep cuts to Medicaid and food assistance long before Minnesota fraud became their favorite talking point. Fraud now gives them another argument for doing something they already wanted to do.

So when fraud suddenly becomes a reason to cut the safety net, call it out.

5. REPUBLICANS DON’T GET TO PRETEND THEIR HANDS ARE CLEAN.

Democrats own the failures on their watch. Republicans should own theirs.

In 2017, when Republicans controlled the Legislature, they passed a budget bill that would have cut 87 DHS positions, including staff responsible for investigating fraud and abuse. Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed it.

Other opportunities to strengthen safeguards died with bipartisan fingerprints on them. Some of the programs later exploited by fraudsters expanded with weaknesses already built into their structure.

And then there is Joe Thompson.

Thompson helped lead the Feeding Our Future prosecutions. He was Minnesota’s top federal fraud prosecutor and one of the people warning most loudly about the problem.

Trump’s Justice Department pushed the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office to investigate Renee Good’s widow after Good was killed by an immigration agent. Thompson and five other Minnesota federal prosecutors resigned.

While Republicans were yelling that Minnesota wasn’t serious enough about fraud, Trump’s Justice Department was losing some of the prosecutors actually putting fraudsters in prison.

If fraud is your priority, protect the fraud prosecutors.

6. NO DOUBLE STANDARD ON FRAUD.

Donald Trump has pardoned scores of people convicted of financial crimes, wiping away hundreds of millions of dollars in fines, restitution and other penalties.

One was nursing-home executive Joseph Schwartz, who pleaded guilty in a $38 million tax-fraud case and spent nearly $1 million lobbying for clemency before Trump pardoned him.

The same political movement demanding maximum accountability for Minnesota fraud is remarkably quieter when Trump is helping the fraudster.

Where are the Minnesota Republican ads about that? Where is the outrage for the victims?

Fraud does not become less wrong because the person convicted knows the right people.

BOTTOM LINE

When someone says, “But the fraud is real,” say yes.

Yes, it was real. Yes, Minnesota missed warning signs. Yes, prosecute people. Yes, keep fixing the systems.

Then keep going.

Why is Minnesota supposedly uniquely corrupt? Why call it “Somali fraud”? Why should innocent people lose health care or food assistance because somebody else stole from those programs? Why do Republicans erase their own role in weak oversight? And why does the outrage get quieter when Trump pardons fraudsters?

Fraud is real. So is racism. So is selective outrage.

Prosecute the fraud. Recover the money. Fix what failed. Make accountability apply to everyone.

Save this. Share this.

You’re going to hear these arguments a lot. Now you’ll be ready.

Links to sources in the comments.

MIRAC member confronts Amy Klobuchar at a parade to ask her if she will commit to banning 287g agreements that allow collaboration with ICE in Minnesota. Klobuchar has still not responded to our candidate questionnaire where we asked all candidates for MN governor if they would end collaboration with ICE and make Minnesota a Sanctuary State! We have also reached out to her office for a meeting and have gotten no response.

Amy, when will you finally stand with immigrants?

SANCTUARY NOW!