A.L. Spudkin
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alspudkin.bsky.social
A.L. Spudkin
@alspudkin.bsky.social
Proud Minnesotan mom. Currently getting through it by loving the sky.
Pinned
Wrote for the first time today after a long dry spell. Making this post to poke at future me to continue the trend all year. Magical Thinking and all that. 😉
After initially improving, back pain seems to be getting worse again. And my double ear infection means I can’t even listen to music to cope. Everything sounds like a shitty early internet mp3, with constant ringing in my head.

I’m in a bad mood.
February 7, 2026 at 11:51 AM
Reposted by A.L. Spudkin
if everyone could take on the “what if we just did the thing instead of waiting for it to happen” energy that much of minneapolis has right now, the world could be pretty good
February 6, 2026 at 10:51 PM
Reposted by A.L. Spudkin
This morning at the Minnesota State Capitol.

An ice sculpture that reads "PROSECUTE ICE". I'm told the organization behind the sculpture is Common Defense.
February 5, 2026 at 3:26 PM
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Watch this, it's astonishing.
Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue
February 5, 2026 at 2:58 PM
QiGong good. Too dizzy to do very much, but dang. QiGong good.
February 4, 2026 at 11:05 PM
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they don't have enough guys, and if the response in Minnesota shows anything it is that trying something like this is going to drive a much larger backlash than anything they hope to gain out of it

"oh well I guess we'll just stay home" is not how this is going to go
February 4, 2026 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by A.L. Spudkin
I think one thing people outside Minnesota don't understand is that after Good and Pretti were killed by feds while observing, the most normal people you could imagine have made peace with the fact that they could be next, and they are still out there because they say it's the right thing to do.
“If I am killed doing this, throw my body at the White House, martyr the shit out of me & raise hell. Do not be sad. Do not think I would do anything differently. I would do it over & over again — this is too important to sit down & shut up and not do anything.” www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...
Pursued by federal agents, suburban ICE observers remain resolved
After a frightening pursuit by federal agents, suburban ICE observers say fear hasn’t stopped them from protecting their communities.
www.mprnews.org
February 4, 2026 at 4:30 PM
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February 2, 2026 at 8:16 PM
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This is 1% of the population of Springfield. This would be the equivalent of 40,000 showing up in Los Angeles.

Springfield is a red town in a red state.
Meeting in solidarity with Haitians in Springfield, Ohio now - over 600 people and still growing.
February 2, 2026 at 4:15 PM
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Klobuchar can talk a big game on the Sunday shows but she is not on our side. All she's done is normalize Trump.
February 3, 2026 at 3:24 AM
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It really bums me out that Klobuchar, who was instrumental in normalizing Trump as just another political adversary, is almost certainly going to be the next governor of Minnesota, a state currently paying a severe price for that normalization of fascism.
Here's all the Klobuchar v. Republican matchups from that SurveyUSA poll

Best Klobuchar lead is +20, worst is +14
February 3, 2026 at 3:16 AM
Reposted by A.L. Spudkin
That means ~815k Minnesotans participated in the shutdown and ~310k in the strike. That would make Minnesota’s January 23 general strike one of the largest in history.
A new poll finds that 1 in 4 Minnesota voters took part in the Jan 23 shutdown against ICE, or have a loved one who did. Of those, 38% DID NOT WORK, either because they made the choice to stay out, or their workplaces closed. By me, @thomasbirm.bsky.social, @bloomekatz.bsky.social
Poll Shows Massive Participation in Minnesota Shutdown Against ICE
1 in four Minnesota voters took part in January 23 day of action, or had a loved one who did.
inthesetimes.com
February 2, 2026 at 11:40 PM
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The thing where ICE parks masked men in school lots is something I would not have believed unless I saw it with my own two eyes. They do it constantly. It’s purely a terror tactic and they’ve done it to schools over the region. Our schools are collapsing - often at 50% attendance or less.
Columbia Heights (Liam's school district) cancelled school today because of a credible bomb threat at Liam's elementary and multiple ICE vehicles parking in the high school staff parking lot at 6:15am.
February 2, 2026 at 3:57 PM
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well then it hasn’t been a very successful one
February 2, 2026 at 1:24 PM
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If true, this would be one of the least surprising turns of events in the history of events turning.
I have spoken with several senior FBI counterintelligence officers who believe that there is a reasonably strong prospect that Tulsi Gabbard is a foreign intelligence asset.
As you read WSJ's piece on the super-secret abuse complaint about Tulsi Gabbard, remember that she tried unsuccessfully to wring counterintelligence function away from FBI last year.

www.wsj.com/politics/nat...
February 2, 2026 at 3:49 PM
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this would be like if at the height of the invasion of Gondor, Mordor had voted overwhelmingly for Aragorn
The largest GOP county in the US, Tarrant Co, TX, suddenly turns blue. And it isn't even close.
February 1, 2026 at 10:42 PM
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To be fair those are some of the more inoffensive camps that Heritage Foundation is pushing
The party of small government now proposes marriage camps!
Project 2025 at work👇🙄
February 1, 2026 at 5:11 PM
Reposted by A.L. Spudkin
A few broader thoughts:

1) This election happened, period.

2) It happened in Texas, no less.

3) It happened even though Trump himself took an intense interest in winning it.

If Trump could cancel elections or ordain their outcomes, then why didn't he do that tonight?
BREAKING: Texas Democrat Taylor Rehmet just won a *massive* landslide to flip a deep-red Senate district. He's up by 14 points in a Trump+17 seat—an overperformance of more than 30 points.

How did he do it? Here's our full writeup:
Breaking: Texas Democrats score landslide upset in race Trump badly wanted to win
Taylor Rehmet just flipped a deep-red seat—and gave his party a shot in the arm
www.the-downballot.com
February 1, 2026 at 5:45 AM
Heard this on the radio and liked it. Music video is cool too.

youtu.be/Hq2y9iAaHC4
little image - KILL THE GHOST (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by littleimageVEVO
youtu.be
February 1, 2026 at 9:13 AM
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Not to get political, but America is very pretty and has a lot of nice folks making cool things, and I think if we had a president who wasn’t actively trying to murder us, we could have a pretty good time
January 30, 2026 at 9:31 PM
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"In response to criticisms she's heard about the hat being 'performative,' Mashaal, the shop owner, said the thousands of dollars that have gone toward supporting their community speaks for itself."
January 31, 2026 at 3:47 PM
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The fact that Doug Wardlow, former (?) lawyer for Mike Lindell), represents these clucks is a tell.
One detail getting lost in the coverage of Don Lemon's arrest?

The church at the center of the case has ties to the Christian nationalist movement, including the “TheoBros," a loose network of mostly millennial, extremely online Christian nationalist pastors, podcasters, and shitposters.
The church at the center of Don Lemon’s arrest has ties to Christian nationalism
And the "TheoBros."
www.motherjones.com
January 31, 2026 at 5:22 PM
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“The pro-ICE church is worse than you think ***
Cities Church in St. Paul is the persecutor, not the persecuted” 1/26/26 … 1/ www.salon.com/2026/01/26/p...
The pro-ICE church is worse than you think
Cities Church in St. Paul is the persecutor, not the persecuted
www.salon.com
January 31, 2026 at 3:30 PM
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MPR News has learned that the police chief in the small southern Minnesota city of St. Peter intervened Thursday afternoon to prevent federal immigration agents from arresting a local resident.
St. Peter police chief intervenes, prevents federal agents from arresting resident
The police chief of St. Peter intervened to prevent federal agents from taking a local resident who was observing ICE enforcement actions into custody. It is believed to be the first time local police...
www.mprnews.org
January 31, 2026 at 3:08 PM
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🚨TONIGHT’S PROTEST IN MINNEAPOLIS IS INSANE:

CNN is STUNNED. Share this widely!

“I've covered many protests… I've not seen a crowd like this before.” It’s 8 degrees. “It is freezing, but nothing, nothing is stopping these people.”

This isn’t a rally. It’s a movement. @calltoactivism.bsky.social
January 31, 2026 at 12:59 AM