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Cake day: January 18th, 2026

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  • Paywall so here’s this paste of the text. Hope I didn’t get this messed up.

    ICE Is Running One of the Largest Anti-Left Surveillance Operations in US History ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations is engaged in far-reaching spying against left-wing activists that rivals the FBI and CIA crackdowns on the Civil Rights and anti-war movements.

    Attorneys for 15 Minnesota residents facing federal conspiracy charges have obtained evidence of a sweeping, possibly unconstitutional spying operation carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement against left-wing social movements in Minnesota and beyond.

    The high-profile Minnesota 15 prosecution makes clear that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), flush with federal funds and newly hired personnel, is now President Donald Trump’s primary tool against dissent, with a powerful array of post-9/11 investigative authorities brought to bear against everyday Americans organizing their communities.

    Nothing of this scale has been seen in the United States, experts say, since the federal government’s counterinsurgency against the New Left and the anti-war movement in the 1960s and 1970s.

    Among the records revealed during the discovery process in these cases are dozens of reports, audio transcripts, emails, intercepted Signal chats, photographs, database queries, and more. They reveal the inner workings of the domestic terrorism investigations, running under the names Project Whipple Shield and Operation Puppet Master, authorized by the controversial National Security Presidential Memorandum 7.

    Published following Charlie Kirk’s assassination in September of last year, NSPM 7 instructs federal law enforcement to use every tool available against organizations and people who criticize the administration’s policies and espouse “anti-Christian” ideas. The full scope and extent of the investigations it authorizes remains unknown.

    Defense attorneys for the Minnesota 15 claim that the prosecution stems from a broader nationwide surveillance operation aimed at opponents of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. One attorney in the case directly compares the DHS-run campaign to the FBI’s infamous Counterintelligence Program, or COINTELPRO, which unconstitutionally surveilled, infiltrated, and blackmailed racial justice, civil rights, and anti-war movements from the 1950s through the early 1970s.

    Three former law enforcement officials who reviewed filings concur, telling WIRED that the case is almost certainly part of a wider intelligence-gathering operation that began long before the administration invaded Minnesota in December 2025.

    Dueling motions in the case over discovery of DHS’s surveillance program reveal that personnel with Homeland Security Investigations—one of ICE’s two components—repurposed funding mechanisms and investigative tools for serious criminal probes and turned them on domestic dissenters. Operation Keyhole, the HSI undercover program that bankrolled the Minnesota 15 prosecution, dates back to 2008. As of June 2026, it was underwriting a half dozen active undercover investigations in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area.

    Around 120 HSI agents, many drawn from specialized units across the country that have served as the leading edge of the administration’s militarized immigration enforcement operations, were assigned to the case—including 11 undercovers. They used highly invasive surveillance techniques, including the deployment of Reaper drones and Patriot Act tools usually restricted to money laundering and terrorism investigations. Undercover operatives also infiltrated churches in apparent violation of a court order.

    The Minnesota 15 indictment stems from the Trump administration’s demand that the Justice Department “go big and go loud” to crack down on community response networks during last winter’s Operation Metro Surge. Twin Cities activists organized volunteers to monitor DHS agents and their vehicles using encrypted Signal groups, homebuilt vehicle databases, and a centralized dispatch system. Government prosecutors claim that this amounts to a criminal conspiracy to block immigration enforcement, unlawfully identify and stalk federal agents, and even assault them.

    Their defense attorneys say the heavy charges filed against the Minnesota 15 don’t align with their alleged conduct. “This is the first time I’ve had a client who’s accused of a conspiracy and went on a speaking tour,” says Kevin Riach, who represents defendant Isaac Sant.

    An internal ICE document laying out the scope of Operation Puppet Master—which led to the indictment of the Minneapolis 15—ends by noting, “This case has also been accepted under CUC Op Keyhole.” According to prosecutors, Operation Keyhole is a long-standing program created by HSI’s Saint Paul office to fund “undercover activity”—primarily equipment purchases and personnel costs—in a region covering Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska. The program has funded at least 77 investigations into “narcotics trafficking, child sexual abuse, financial investigations, and counter-proliferation” since it started in December 2008.

    The CUC prefix, per an internal 2008 DHS handbook unearthed by the independent media outlet Unicorn Riot, refers to Certified Undercover Operations, a formal designation with clearly defined oversight mechanisms, procedures, and reporting requirements. Operation Keyhole’s parameters are reviewed every six months by a committee comprising senior DOJ and DHS officials. As of June 2026, when it was last renewed, Keyhole funded six active investigations, including Project Whipple Shield, which was initiated in February to probe claims of assault, stalking, and doxing of DHS agents and other federal employees, and underpins the Minnesota 15 indictment.

    At least 11 undercover agents working under Operation Keyhole infiltrated Twin Cities anti-ICE activists, participating in martial arts and know-your-rights trainings, marches, general strikes, and community meetings. They also infiltrated activists’ communications network for identifying possible undercover ICE vehicles and dispatching activists to tail them through the Twin Cities, and penetrated several activist group chats on Signal, transmitting their contents back to other HSI colleagues for analysis and eventual inclusion in the indictment.

    Activist conferences as far away as Seattle, Michigan, Chicago, and New York City were placed under surveillance as part of the investigation, and HSI teams photographed and ran the license plates of every car parked in the lot of a meeting location or seen transporting activists. There is also drone footage from unarmed Customs and Border Protection Reaper drones of the activists moving around the Twin Cities area.

    The undercovers were part of a much broader group of more than 50 HSI agents, including at least two dozen from HSI’s little-known Special Operations Group, that took part in the investigation and surveillance of the defendants, both digital and in-person. Feds with decades of experience on complex financial crimes, drug cartel investigations, human trafficking, and organized crime were pulled into the Minnesota 15 investigation.

    Several of the Minnesota 15 case agents are from out of state and appear in court records for the prosecutions of anti-ICE activists in other cities. This includes Los Angeles–based HSI agents Robert Kurtz III, who specializes in financial fraud, and Ryan Ribner, who allegedly assaulted SEIU California president David Huerta at a June 2025 protest of an ICE enforcement operation, arrested him, and then claimed the then 58-year-old Huerta attacked federal law enforcement. (Huerta’s charges were dropped in July after videos contradicting Ribner’s account surfaced.) HSI records show Ribner was also involved in at least two prosecutions of Southern California residents who physically confronted ICE and Border Patrol agents last year.




  • I think you may be focusing a bit too much on MAGA. Like yeah its a movement that is enacting change now but workers rights have been continuously stripped even before MAGA was even thought about. The reason why is because the workers have not organized a general strike for their own rights. (caused by a variety of factors; lack of support, distrust of others, union busting, union leaders betraying for capital interests, etc) but ultimately striking DOES hurt companies and demand better concessions within America. Many politicians are deeply invested in companies as well, take for example AI. If we had an organized general strike to prevent the use of AI in a majority of industries, we don’t even need the law to be passed to enforce it. This would tank investments in it and directly hurt capitalists. It would also empower workers to fight for more of their rights.

    A disconnect you might be having is this idea that the majority of profit doesn’t come from the workers. While yes most capitalist wealth comes from speculative ventures and investments allowing them to use as collateral on loans. Those are primarily backed BY the excess value that is extracted from the labor force.

    Capitalist forces workers to make chairs for 1$/chair and sells them for 10$. He uses another 1$ to pay for materials. He pockets 8$. (Lets assume he simply sells 1 a day for ease of math) An Investor buys a portion of his business for 10$, expecting the growth to pay off. So now the Capitalist, uses this as proof of growth and takes a loan for 18$ to buy more materials and pay for more workers. Now he has enough workers and materials to make 10 chairs a day. (10 workers make 1$/chair with 1$ cost to materials per day) Now the companies profits has grown and the Investor’s share, which previously was purchased for 10$ has now grown 10 times that and is worth 100$. Instead of selling, he stays invested and uses it as collateral to take out a 200$ loan.

    By exploiting the workers of 90%~ of their true value, the company has enriched the Capitalist, and the Investor, despite them contributing nothing to the process. But has enriched the worker. The Capitalist could hire more workers to grow, or could pay the workers less, or use cheaper materials to make the chair, etc. But ultimately the WORKER is the sole source of value.

    It doesn’t matter how complex the chain becomes, the workers are always the ones with all the power and value that is being taken from them. If the workers strike and stop producing chairs, the profit of the company drops, its value drops, the shares drop and the investor and capitalist are unable to pay back their loans.

    This is the basic idea, in America there are tons of bail outs for corporations that use government funds to prevent companies from going under but the money used to do this is primarily taxed from people’s pay and spending within the country. It always affects them and the oppression is not just from MAGA but from the ruling bourgeoisie class as a whole. ICE existed way before trump and was STILL killing people in detention and putting families in camps.

    Overly simplified and also sorry for using the chair example again i just really like it. Pls anyone send corrections if i got something wrong with the theory.

    -edit: formatting issues


  • Unfortunately imperialist actions like this don’t really “Wake people up” Most people are completely unaffected and the only ones who care are related to the issue or are already involved in anti imperialist messaging and organizing. If you ask anybody they prob have a very middle position of not wanting a war but also hating iran and thinking its justified. very “whats to be done” kinda ppl

    The deaths are needless, to truly speak to the masses we ourselves have to go out and speak to the masses and organize.


  • I learned Japanese in a year in a really really really intense study program I made for myself but you can chill on it and be able to be conversational on it p quickly. Same for spanish which i also speak. (Tried to learn it on duolingo for 5 years but gave up with little progress and did it this way, like with Japanese.

    Apps and textbooks have trouble teaching you languages that are spoken in REAL life. To learn a language you just need comprehensible input. I also used flashcards to study words with Anki.

    The strategy I had was: Step 0: have good motivation to learn it(have friends/family/partners who speak the target language) Step 1: Learn the alphabet of the target language Step 2: Begin Study of the top 2000 most common words Step 3: Learn simply phrases preferably with those words that I would use. Step 4: begin speaking as soon as possible. I started speaking to people when I only had like 600 words under my belt. Step 5: Listen and Read childrens media related to the language(this part suuuuuuuucks) Step 6: As you are nearing the end of top 2000 words you’ll encounter new words you might be curious about or you might want to use. Add these to your study deck. Step 7: Study simple common grammar rules. BUT DONT OVER DO THIS. (If you know 100 grammar rules but 10 words you cant say much, but if you speak 100 words and know 10 grammar rules you can communicate quite a bit. Think of it like grammar is a multiplier and words are the base number) Step 8: Speak, listen, read, and (if you like) write in the language as much as possible. Replace your TV with target language TV. Music with target language music. Try to focus on listening sometimes and other times just chill with it.

    You have to be ok with embarrassing yourself. You’re like a baby learning, just keep going. Eventually youll find you can string entire thoughts and jokes together. Repetition is super important, input and use stuff over and over and it becomes second nature and you understand or speak it without thinking, much like your native language.

    Around 10,000 words is what is known and spoken for most young adults. Focus on stuff your interested in or stuff you think youll need to talk about. If anki sucks to do and you cant keep it up just focus more on input with the language through other sources like media or books.

    Depending on the difficulty of the target language you can get conversational p fast. Remember, babies are stupid and take like 18 years to get to 10,000 words. But we’re smart adults and can structure our study towards our goals.


  • As an artist I’d love to see suggestions in this thread. The specific recommendations might be different country to country or smaller districts. Something thats difficult for the US is that a lotta people are doing jobs related to tech and there’s not really a single unifying symbol for this. Hammer and sickle to represent farming and manufacturing is possible, and I believe adding a brush branches out to a wider movement.

    But finding symbols to speak to the workers as a whole can be difficult with how diverse it all is. Theres so many hyper specialized machines and tools.

    When making Icons before I’ve used my states iconography and Black panthers, and queer symbols like the pink triangle. This is extremely important and a good symbol will speak to the audiences you want and pull dedicated people into the movement.

    It might be necessary to focus on smaller regions within the US and Unite those before creating broader movements. (OFC whichever is in the best interests of the end goal of revolution at that time.) I can only speak to the US however


  • Part of the reason we have so few blood types is because humans nearly went extinct during the ice age. I think estimates put around 2000~ humans alive at one point. Because of this massive bottle neck, humans of today arent as diverse as you find in other species. It also explains why we don’t really have much sexual dimorphism in comparison to other species as well. Except, species that also went through similar near extinction events, for example; Hyenas. They also went through a similar near extinction event and as a result have a ton of associated diseases having to do with it. Just like us.

    This is useful because it means animals we drive to near extinction will be altered for thousands of years onward even if we were to vanish right now.