Greetings from occupied Minneapolis,
Today I have but one question for you.
What are you doing in your life today to combat fascism?
It’s funny, when I was younger, I’d hear this kind of rhetoric from political punk bands of my time and feel it was all so dramatic and exaggerated. “What are you doing today to dismantle the patriarchy??!” Fuck, I dunno, the patriarchy is an abstract labyrinth of culture and bigotry extending over most of our human existence and I’m just one dude drumming in a shitty crust band, what is the expectation here? I cannot single-handedly defeat the patriarchy, I am limited to living my life with critical thought, intention, and reflection, and doing the best I can to navigate the world around me in an ethical manner. What else is there? We defeat these systems of power through individual evolution en mass, which is slow and uneven and vague, but it is history and we each play a tiny role in it.
But questions like this take on a new urgency and reality to me in 2026. Because I live in Minneapolis. Because when I look out my window, I see Fascism. It is there, before me, specific peoples, state-sponsored lawlessness, threatening me and my loved ones and my neighborhood. It is a masked secret police asking for papers lest you be disappeared. It is a gun in my face, it is a pestilent green cloud floating down the street, it is a cacophony of whistles and car horns somewhere in the distance. It is a baby a few blocks down the road requiring CPR after being teargassed. It is my partner calling me that her niece and a dozen other students are hiding in the basement because ICE is upstairs. It is all the scenarios that play through my head when I tell my partner to text me when she gets home so I know she’s okay, as I worry about her safety, her family, other people in my life from vulnerable populations of our city.
Fascism is not some history lesson from textbooks. It is sitting ominously next to my local Target before it brutalizes another individual. It’s not some fringe political belief, some abstract thought. It is a planned march downtown from City Hall to Cedar Riverside, with the stated purpose of harming immigrants. I’m looking for it in the parks late at night, as we patrol for abandoned detainees requiring immediate medical attention. I’m running from it at Whipple, when the teargas drops and the line of anonymous paramilitary silhouettes charge forward. Fascism has a name; it actually has a lot of them, they were all leaked and we read them loud and clear from the north lot to let Fascism know that we know it is here and we won’t fucking forget these sociopaths when the time comes.
There is only one question now:
What am I going to do, today, to fight fascism?
Because there are things we can each do to fight. And I can’t write them all in a public e-mail blast but from general strikes to grocery deliveries for at-risk families, from providing security for schools and churches to providing translation services, from data entry to donations, there is a role for every individual.
And we need every individual if we’re going to win. This has always been the case: Fascism has guns and such (and an LRAD now, get your shield ready!) but we have the numbers, the unity, the motivation, and it is this relentless ferocity for freedom from fascist oppression, for peace from state violence, that is the foundational key of our success. The path to victory is a united community that will defend itself in a de-centralized, self-sufficient style. Each of us is the community, so it’s up to us to fight for each other, and in the process, fight for ourselves.
And we can win. We can defeat Fascism by documenting every crime, showing the world how their brutality knows no bounds, until the world is forced to react and end the occupation. We can defeat Fascism by making their experience here so stressful and uncomfortable that they quit and go home. We can defeat Fascism by striking, shutting down the economy of our city, until industry puts enough pressure on institutions to capitulate. Every minute an agent spends trying to lose their tailing legal observer is another minute they're not disappearing a mother. Every agent deployed to defending the Whipple is another agent off the streets, and not pummeling a schoolteacher. Every day there's new leaks that the invaders are miserable, morale is low, they hate each other, their leadership is divided. They're having to move out of hotels and into the (reportedly archaic and dismally uncomfortable) Ft Snelling barracks to even have a chance of getting a full night's sleep. We are going to win, I have no doubt in my mind.
But to win, we need to fight, today. Because as I type, 5 year olds are being disappeared and elderly people are being paraded around for hours in sub-zero temperatures in their underwear. Because as I type, a detainee “intentionally ran head-first into a brick wall”, sustaining life-threatening injuries. Because as I type, a family is spending their 18th day in a row without leaving the house, for fear that any trip outside could be their last.
There is no time to waste.
I urge everyone, local and not, to think about what you’re going to do, today, to combat fascism. Because it is here in Minneapolis right now, and like a plague, it will eventually move to the next target.
-Dan
--------
FEBRUARY NEW ARRIVALS
I apologize for the e-mail subject being a bit misleading. I have SO MUCH new distro stock sitting in my living room, but honestly, I have no time to get it onto the website. I came back from Baltimore early and have been burning myself out trying to do everything all the time out on the streets. How can I call myself a punk and not do literally everything in my power to fight back in defense of our future? What does punk even mean if you're not going to rise to the moment and protest and survive?
Even though I can't update the webstore right now, and I will send a separate mass e-mail when I do it....I wrote this piece a few days ago and just wanted to get it out while it's still relevant.
Thank you for entertaining me on this and allowing me to use my platform in such a manner.
-Dan
Today I have but one question for you.
What are you doing in your life today to combat fascism?
It’s funny, when I was younger, I’d hear this kind of rhetoric from political punk bands of my time and feel it was all so dramatic and exaggerated. “What are you doing today to dismantle the patriarchy??!” Fuck, I dunno, the patriarchy is an abstract labyrinth of culture and bigotry extending over most of our human existence and I’m just one dude drumming in a shitty crust band, what is the expectation here? I cannot single-handedly defeat the patriarchy, I am limited to living my life with critical thought, intention, and reflection, and doing the best I can to navigate the world around me in an ethical manner. What else is there? We defeat these systems of power through individual evolution en mass, which is slow and uneven and vague, but it is history and we each play a tiny role in it.
But questions like this take on a new urgency and reality to me in 2026. Because I live in Minneapolis. Because when I look out my window, I see Fascism. It is there, before me, specific peoples, state-sponsored lawlessness, threatening me and my loved ones and my neighborhood. It is a masked secret police asking for papers lest you be disappeared. It is a gun in my face, it is a pestilent green cloud floating down the street, it is a cacophony of whistles and car horns somewhere in the distance. It is a baby a few blocks down the road requiring CPR after being teargassed. It is my partner calling me that her niece and a dozen other students are hiding in the basement because ICE is upstairs. It is all the scenarios that play through my head when I tell my partner to text me when she gets home so I know she’s okay, as I worry about her safety, her family, other people in my life from vulnerable populations of our city.
Fascism is not some history lesson from textbooks. It is sitting ominously next to my local Target before it brutalizes another individual. It’s not some fringe political belief, some abstract thought. It is a planned march downtown from City Hall to Cedar Riverside, with the stated purpose of harming immigrants. I’m looking for it in the parks late at night, as we patrol for abandoned detainees requiring immediate medical attention. I’m running from it at Whipple, when the teargas drops and the line of anonymous paramilitary silhouettes charge forward. Fascism has a name; it actually has a lot of them, they were all leaked and we read them loud and clear from the north lot to let Fascism know that we know it is here and we won’t fucking forget these sociopaths when the time comes.
There is only one question now:
What am I going to do, today, to fight fascism?
Because there are things we can each do to fight. And I can’t write them all in a public e-mail blast but from general strikes to grocery deliveries for at-risk families, from providing security for schools and churches to providing translation services, from data entry to donations, there is a role for every individual.
And we need every individual if we’re going to win. This has always been the case: Fascism has guns and such (and an LRAD now, get your shield ready!) but we have the numbers, the unity, the motivation, and it is this relentless ferocity for freedom from fascist oppression, for peace from state violence, that is the foundational key of our success. The path to victory is a united community that will defend itself in a de-centralized, self-sufficient style. Each of us is the community, so it’s up to us to fight for each other, and in the process, fight for ourselves.
And we can win. We can defeat Fascism by documenting every crime, showing the world how their brutality knows no bounds, until the world is forced to react and end the occupation. We can defeat Fascism by making their experience here so stressful and uncomfortable that they quit and go home. We can defeat Fascism by striking, shutting down the economy of our city, until industry puts enough pressure on institutions to capitulate. Every minute an agent spends trying to lose their tailing legal observer is another minute they're not disappearing a mother. Every agent deployed to defending the Whipple is another agent off the streets, and not pummeling a schoolteacher. Every day there's new leaks that the invaders are miserable, morale is low, they hate each other, their leadership is divided. They're having to move out of hotels and into the (reportedly archaic and dismally uncomfortable) Ft Snelling barracks to even have a chance of getting a full night's sleep. We are going to win, I have no doubt in my mind.
But to win, we need to fight, today. Because as I type, 5 year olds are being disappeared and elderly people are being paraded around for hours in sub-zero temperatures in their underwear. Because as I type, a detainee “intentionally ran head-first into a brick wall”, sustaining life-threatening injuries. Because as I type, a family is spending their 18th day in a row without leaving the house, for fear that any trip outside could be their last.
There is no time to waste.
I urge everyone, local and not, to think about what you’re going to do, today, to combat fascism. Because it is here in Minneapolis right now, and like a plague, it will eventually move to the next target.
-Dan
--------
FEBRUARY NEW ARRIVALS
I apologize for the e-mail subject being a bit misleading. I have SO MUCH new distro stock sitting in my living room, but honestly, I have no time to get it onto the website. I came back from Baltimore early and have been burning myself out trying to do everything all the time out on the streets. How can I call myself a punk and not do literally everything in my power to fight back in defense of our future? What does punk even mean if you're not going to rise to the moment and protest and survive?
Even though I can't update the webstore right now, and I will send a separate mass e-mail when I do it....I wrote this piece a few days ago and just wanted to get it out while it's still relevant.
Thank you for entertaining me on this and allowing me to use my platform in such a manner.
-Dan
The murderer Jonathan Ross told his neighbors he was a botanist,
because he was ashamed of being an ICE agent.
They can wear a mask to hide their face,
but the mask will never hide their sins and their shame.
SEEK FORGIVENESS FROM YOUR GOD, ICE AGENT.
YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE IT FROM ANYONE ELSE.
