sly

|| 23 || They/Them || 18+ likes and content || Fandom trash || Demisexual || Panromantic ||

[cherryhatter-deactivated2015072]

KICK THE CAN!

Let’s play the biggest game of kick the can on the internet.

To kick the can, reblog it. I wanna see how long this can go on for.

[visibun]

the oldest reblogs for this post that i can find are from january 2nd of 2013. this can has been getting kicked around tumblr for almost 13½ years now

[drtanner]

And yet somehow this is my first time kicking it!

[preserving-tiktok]

[metalheadsagainstfascism]

I'm just here to tell you....

Now that other countries are requesting the Epstein files.

And now that they have the redacted parts and he redacted parts show what looks like mayhabsably human trafficking across country boarders.

There's nothing stopping other countries from being like "You participated in the trafficking of my citizens then the abuse and assault of my citizens. I want you to stand trial here."

Now depending on US cooperation, the US may not extradite these people. But then that country could issue what's called a Red Notice for that person which is "I want this person in my country to be tried for crimes against my citizens or on my land." Then that could limit where these people could travel outside of the US because it could trigger a forceful extradition.

And depending on how much outrage this causes, it could cause sanctions against the US and UN involvement if the US appears to be protecting people if several countries started wanting to charge people in the Epstein files for crimes against their citizens that were trafficked.

It's not as perfect as The US trying the people in the files, but since girls and women were trafficked from other countries, other countries absolutely have a legal say to do something.

[metalheadsagainstfascism]

Lithuania launches human trafficking probe related to Epstein files

VILNIUS, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Lithuanian prosecutors said on Tuesday they were launching an investigation into potential human trafficking, aft

Poland to examine potential Epstein links to KGB

PM Donald Tusk said the team will probe if Russian spies played a role in the Epstein operation.

Prosecutors investigating Epstein files after claims Turkish girls were trafficked

New DOJ documents examined as politicians in Turkey call for wider probe into allegations

Prosecutors from Turkey, Poland, and Lithuania are investigating claims that girls and women were trafficked FROM THEIR COUNTRY in the Epstein files.

Police investigating claims that Epstein trafficked women through UK airports

Moves come after Gordon Brown’s claim that files show that US sex offender used Stansted airport in Essex to ‘fly in girls’

And prosecutors in the UK are investigating claims that girls and women were trafficked THROUGH THEIR COUNTRY in the Epstein files.

The files are breaking containment. This is how we go from depending on the US Justice system to get justice for the victims to other countries stepping in, expediting people, and charging them in their country.

[tjwock]

HEY.

HEY YALL.

USAMERICAN DEMOCRATS SUCCESSFULLY REMOVED EVERY ANTITRANS RIDER FROM EVERY FUNDING BILL

Spread the fucking word because LORD knows democrats fucking suck at spreading it themselves and will fail once again to inform their base

But just in case you’re sitting there going “the Dems aren’t doing anything,” THEY ARE

IT IS JUST SLOW

AND MOSTLY INVISIBLE

BUT THEY ARE

[doberbutts]

[inkskinned]

hey if this storm ends up being as it looks, you need to take it seriously, particularly if you're in a southern state and not used to storms like this. i'm not a professional but my new england experience for losing power/etc is:

fill your bathtub with water before the power goes out. in an emergency where the pipes freeze, you'll have semi-clean water. you can use this water for your pets, to wash dishes, flush your toilet, and other small important stuff. if you have no bathtub, fill as large a bin/pot/etc as you can find.

air is the best insulator. if you can tape plastic over your windows and major drafts, it will genuinely help. (they have kits for it, but i've used trash bags and duct tape). blankets/tarps/etc also work. leave space between the covering and the window - the layer of air protects you. shove towels under your doors.

in a true emergency, you can ball up newspapers and shove them into your coats/pants/etc between your base layer and your coat. it won't be comfortable but it does insulate a little better.

have an emergency plan for your pets, particularly animals like reptiles that need constant heat to survive.

the weight of the snow and ice will be an issue. plan accordingly.

black ice is a bitch. if it looks "wet", assume it is frozen. actually just assume everything is frozen for a little while.

if you do not have a generator or other emergency power source, DO NOT bring outside-use heat sources (like propane stoves) inside. you can gas yourself and die.

instead, if you truly have no heat source: focus on insulating a small amount of space in your house - a few rooms - and bring as many bodies and supplies in there as possible. do not break insulation if you can avoid it. you are a ~100-degree object. make your safe space into a blanket fort. you may go stircrazy but it is better than freezing.

if you have a fireplace you never use, check the flue and the chimney before the storm holy shit. i am not kidding about this. do not just start a fire willy nilly. you will burn your house down.

relatedly, if you start a fire and notice smoke is billowing back into the house: stop the fire immediately. your flue is closed or your chimney is backed up. you will burn your house down.

keep the fridge closed as long as possible; it lets the air out. but honestly like, my family has used snow as a fridge a lot. stuff that needs to stay cool will be less of an issue than things that need to get warm. plan accordingly.

most canned things can be eaten cold, but check the label. if you have a little sterno fire, it can go a long way.

if you develop a headache and feel weirdly sleepy, you may be forced to open a window. you might have carbon monoxide poisoning.

every year people die while shoveling snow. it is actually not very safe as a chore tbh. you need to go slow and take lots of breaks. you should also 100% wait until the snow has actually passed, only because when it starts shifting and undoes all your work, it will piss you the hell off.

have drinking water somewhere easily accessible. a lot more of it than you think completely necessary tbh.

fill your gas tank. it will help prevent your lines from freezing.

if you have a battery-powered light that's not very strong, put it under a water jug, it'll throw more light. idk why it works but it works.

just because you know how to drive in the snow doesn't mean other people know how to drive in the snow. better to just not.

your device probably has a "low power mode". probably best to just keep it on asap rather than be taken by surprise tbh. the battery will last longer.

great news to fanfiction writers: it really is better if y'all take one bed and huddle together for warmth. do not strip out of your clothes, though, i have no idea who the hell decided that was the smart thing to do. you want to keep at least a layer of leggings and a tight shirt on. the goal is to find the fine line between "warm" and "sweating" - you want to stay as dry as possible for as long as possible.

your hair, eyelashes, and nosehairs can freeze. just from personal experience: try not to rub or touch them, it can snap your hair off and then you'll be very sad.

hypothermia is a lot faster and more evil than most people expect. watch for shivering, confusion, and unexplained exhaustion. if someone stops shivering, that is not always a good sign. if you think you/someone you love has hypothermia, warm them up slowly. often this is through rubbing/friction (or a heat source if available). keep them awake and try to feed them something.

same for frostbite: don't just shove your hands into a fire. warm any affected area slowly. fair warning, as the blood recirculates, it will hurt :(

those blue rubber examination gloves under other gloves can help even very-cold hands stay warm.

liquor is not a good idea to drink right now, sorry beloved. but vodka/rubbing alcohol does work as an excellent de-icer if you need something small done quickly (like a lock/door handle). it's just, like, expensive in comparison to other things lol

"i don't eat that much anyway i'll be fine" that's the devil talking. you will not be. you will also probably be burning way more calories than normal. let the soft animal of your body eat a bunch of delicious snacks.

good luck i love you stay warm out there everyone

[toytulini]

I believe prioritizing slow rewarming is outdated advice, but you do need to be careful about external heat sources bc your ability to accurately gauge if something is hot enough to burn you will be skewed. afaik currently you need to prioritize keeping them warm after the rewarming process has started, but they still dont know exactly why rewarming shock happens. for mild hypothermia, passive external rewarming, via getting them somewhere warm and dry, and giving them insulated clothes that are warm and dry,(moisture wicking is your friend! wool or synthetic.) that can be enough. you can use things like hot water bottles or heated blankets to help rewarm as well, but again, be careful to avoid burns, cos your temperature gauge is going to be way off.

If you have frostbite, absolutely do NOT rub it or otherwise apply friction in an attempt to warm it. you will cause more damage. frostbite is basically your body getting freezerburnt. it is ice crystals forming in your blood and tissues and causing mechanical damage. it is generally preceded by frostnip: "a paling or reddening of a body part as its blood vessels constrict that tingles, feels very cold, or simply feels numb."

Im just going to quote the wikipedia on frostbite treatment here:

"Individuals with frostbite or potential frostbite should go to a protected environment and get warm fluids. If there is no risk of re-freezing, the extremity can be exposed and warmed in the underarm of a companion or the groin. If the area is allowed to refreeze, there can be worse tissue damage. If the area cannot be reliably kept warm, the person should be brought to a medical facility without rewarming the area.

The first priority in people with frostbite should be to assess for hypothermia and other life-threatening complications of cold exposure. Before treating frostbite, the core temperature should be raised above 35 °C(95°F). Oral or intravenous (IV) fluids should be given.

"If the area is still partially or fully frozen, it should be rewarmed in the hospital with a warm bath with povidone iodine or chlorhexidine antiseptic. Active rewarming seeks to warm the injured tissue as quickly as possible without burning. The faster tissue is thawed, the less tissue damage occurs. According to Handford and colleagues, "The Wilderness Medical Society and State of Alaska Cold Injury Guidelines recommend a temperature of 37–39 °C (98.6°F-102.2°F), which decreases the pain experienced by the patient whilst only slightly slowing rewarming time." Warming takes 15 minutes to 1 hour. The faucet should be left running so the water can circulate. Rewarming can be very painful, so pain management is important."

they generally reccomend NSAIDS or opioids for pain management during rewarming. depending kn the severity there may have to be wound care as well.

[kitsiinabox]

Adding a small thing to this related to electrical devices above- keep your phones close to your body. In an inner pocket if you can. Cold can and will kill your phone faster than you can believe. That's true for a lot of devices with rechargable batteries. You'll want to keep them as warm as you are and use them as little as possible. Bring books, pens and paper, plain old analogue things to entertain yourself while you're trapped inside.

[newsandstuffisee]

[lilyfromthetsab]

Most non-Minnesotans have no idea what this means, but to put it plainly: we're raised with not just the expectation but essentially -programming- to assist others who get stuck during the winter. We'll help people we'd otherwise punch on sight if they're stuck in the snow and ice, for zero reward.

This is the level of rage we're at with ICE. I'm not joking to say it's almost physically painful to not help someone stuck like that, and it's worth it because the people stuck are ICE.

The only way we have to express how mad we are above this is channeling the First Minnesota all over again.

[explorerrowan]

The Scandinavians who settled in Minnesota brought with them their Norse understanding of the laws of hospitality: you do not fuck around with winter, that if someone needs help in the winter, you help them as long as they don't actively try to hurt you or your neighbors. Food, shelter, labour, whatever, if you can help in winter, you do.

ICE has violated the "actively try to hurt you or your neighbors" bit of the laws of hospitality, and thus the hospitality has been revoked. They are free to feel winter's wrath against those who would bring harm to the community.

I like to think that Lady Skaði would be proud of her distant children.

[actual-changeling]

this reminds me of the mud wizard who walked through everything without any problems while the police officers kept sliding and falling and getting stuck, you can watch it right here.

for context, this was during anti-coal protests in lützerath which went on for days and included people being forcibly removed, injured, or otherwise violated by the police. they showed up in riot gear against people simply sitting and camping and wanting to protect their forests. it was a really big deal here.

[thenatsdorf]

Black cats are lucky. (via leahweissmuller)

[immaplatypus]

MAN [IN THICK ACCENT]: Black cat bring good luck.  Not bad luck.  I have black cat - See, him face - And I am not dead today: Good luck!

[official-mugi]

“See him face”

I sure fucking do see him face

[just-things-i-enjoy]

Him face

[luccorvus]

Reblog him face for good luck in 2021

[catsbeaversandducks]

Reblog him face for good luck in 2021 (2)

[datlokibumtho]

Reblog him face for good luck in 2021 (3)

[datlokibumtho]

Reblogging him face again for good luck in 2025.

[fionnemrys]

Reblogging him face for good luck in 2026.

[inqorporeal]

You’ve Heard About Who ICE Is Recruiting. The Truth Is Far Worse. I’m the Proof.

What happens when you do minimal screening before hiring agents, arming them, and sending them into the streets? We're all finding out.

(This article is behind a paywall, so hit yon readmore for the full text)

January 13, 2026

The plan was never to become an ICE agent.

The plan, when I went to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Career Expo in Texas last August, was to learn what it was like to apply to be an ICE agent. Who wouldn’t be curious? The event promised on-the-spot hiring for would-be deportation officers: Walk in unemployed, walk out with a sweet $50k signing bonus, a retirement account, and a license to brutalize the country’s most vulnerable residents without consequence—all while wrapped in the warm glow of patriotism.

At first glance, my résumé has enough to tantalize a recruiter for America’s Gestapo-in-waiting: I enlisted in the Army straight out of high school and deployed to Afghanistan twice with the 82nd Airborne Division. After I got out, I spent a few years doing civilian analyst work. With a carefully arranged, skills-based résumé—one which omitted my current occupation—I figured I could maybe get through an initial interview.

The catch, however, is that there’s only one “Laura Jedeed” with an internet presence, and it takes about five seconds of Googling to figure out how I feel about ICE, the Trump administration, and the country’s general right-wing project. My social media pops up immediately, usually with a preview of my latest posts condemning Trump’s unconstitutional, authoritarian power grab. Scroll down and you’ll find articles with titles like “What I Saw in LA Wasn’t an Insurrection; It Was a Police Riot” and “Inside Mike Johnson’s Ties to a Far-Right Movement to Gut the Constitution.” Keep going for long enough and you might even find my dossier on AntifaWatch, a right-wing website that lists alleged members of the supposed domestic terror organization. I am, to put it mildly, a less-than-ideal recruit.

In short, I figured—at least back then—that my military background would be enough to get me in the door for a good look around ICE’s application process, and then even the most cursory background check would get me shown that same door with great haste.

The ICE expo in the Dallas area, where my application journey began, required attendees to register for a specific time slot, presumably to prevent throngs of eager patriots from flooding the event and overwhelming the recruiters. But when I showed up at 9 a.m., the flood was notably absent: there was no line to check in and no line to go through security. I walked down nearly empty hallways, past a nearly empty drug testing station, and into the event proper, where a man directed me to a line to wait in for an interview. I took my spot at the end; there were only six people ahead of me.

While I waited, I looked around the ESports Stadium Arlington—an enormous blacked-out event space optimized for video game tournaments that has a capacity of 2,500. During my visit, there couldn’t have been more than 150 people there.

Hopeful hires stood in tiny groups or found seats in the endless rows of cheap folding chairs that faced a stage ripped straight from Tron. Everything was bright-blue and lit-up and sci-fi-future angular. Above the monolithic platform hung three large monitors. The side monitors displayed static propaganda posters that urged the viewer to DEFEND THE HOMELAND and JOIN ICE TODAY, while the large central monitor played two short videos on loop: about 10 minutes of propaganda footage, again and again and again.

After about 15 minutes of waiting, an extraordinarily normal-looking middle-aged woman waved me forward. I sat across the black folding table from her on one of the uncomfortable black chairs. She asked for my name and date of birth, then whether I am over 40 (I am 38). Did I have law enforcement experience? No. Military experience? Yes. Did I retire from the military at 20+ years, or leave once my enlistment was up? The latter, I told her, then repeated my carefully rehearsed, completely true explanation for why the résumé I’d submitted had a large gap. “I had a little bit of a quarter-life crisis. Ended up going to college for part of that time, and since then I’ve been kind of—gig economy stuff.”

She was spectacularly uninterested: “OK. And what location is your preference?”

After some dithering, I settled on my home state of New York. That was the last question; the entire process took less than six minutes. The woman took my résumé and placed the form she’d been filling out on top. “They are prioritizing current law enforcement first. They’re going to adjudicate your résumé,” she told me. If my application passed muster, I’d receive an email about next steps, which could arrive in the next few hours but would likely take a few days. I left, thanked her for her time, and prepared to hear back never.

The expo event was part of ICE’s massive recruitment campaign for the foot soldiers it needs to execute the administration’s dream of a deportation campaign large enough to shift America’s demographic balance back whiteward. You’ve probably seen evidence of it yourself: ICE’s “Defend the homeland” propaganda is ubiquitous enough to be the Uncle Sam “I Want You” poster of our day, though somewhere in there our nation lost the plot about the correct posture toward Nazis.

When Donald Trump took office, ICE numbered approximately 10,000. Despite this event’s lackluster attendance, their recruitment push is reportedly going well; the agency reported 12,000 new recruits in 2025, which means the agency has more new recruits than old hands. That’s the kind of growth that changes the culture of an agency.

Many of ICE’s critics worry that the agency is hoovering up pro-Trump thugs—Jan. 6 insurrectionists, white nationalists, etc.—for a domestic security force loyal to the president. The truth, my experience suggests, is perhaps even scarier: ICE’s recruitment push is so sloppy that the administration effectively has no idea who’s joining the agency’s ranks. We’re all, collectively, in the dark about whom the state is arming, tasking with the most sensitive of law enforcement work, and then sending into America’s streets. And we are all, collectively, discovering just how deadly of an arrangement that really is.

At the end of my brief interview, the recruiter mentioned I could talk to a current deportation officer about what the job would be like. There was no line to talk to a deportation officer (did I mention how empty the place was?) and so I walked up, introduced myself to one of them, and asked about day-to-day duties.

I shouldn’t expect to hit the streets right away, the agent told me. Odds were good I’d get a support position first—something like the Criminal Alien Program office. “Let’s say a local police officer arrests someone out in the field for a DUI. Extremely common. Or beating their wife or whatever—all the typical crimes they commit,” he said. (The “they” here being “undocumented immigrants,” and while it’s extremely difficult to measure, evidence suggests that “they” actually commit crimes at a lower rate than U.S.-born citizens.)

If the cops suspect they’re dealing with an immigrant who doesn’t have permanent legal status, they alert ICE, whose agents conduct interviews and run record checks. If this preliminary investigation suggests that status, the person ends up in the Criminal Alien Program office for processing—which is where I would come in. “What you see on TV, with us arresting people and doing all kinds of crazy things, that’s maybe 10 percent. The other 90 percent is essentially doing a bunch of paperwork,” the agent said. “It takes a lot to remove somebody from the United States. Some people are subject to due process.”

The officer ran down other departments I might end up in: Prosecutions, Removal Coordination Unit, or Detention. The point being that I should not expect to be a badass street officer on Day 1. “I have so many guys that come over to me, they’re like, ‘I’m gonna put cuffs on somebody. I’m gonna arrest somebody.’ Well, you need to master this first and then we’ll see about getting you on the field.”

I told him that I was fine with office work—with my analyst background, it seemed like a better fit for my skill set anyway. His attitude shift was subtle, but instant and unmistakable; this was the wrong attitude and the wrong answer. “Just to be upfront, the goal is to put as many guns and badges out in the field as possible,” he said.

The agent then told me a bit about his own background. Like me, he enlisted straight out of high school, then got out and vowed to get as far away from the violence of the military as possible. Like a lot of veterans, he had trouble assimilating into the civilian world. “After about six months, I was like, ‘These people aren’t like me. I want to be around like-minded people.’ ” He found his way into law enforcement. That was well over a decade ago—he’s on his way to a very comfortable retirement, and he enjoys the work. “I like that instant gratification of Hey, that guy committed this crime, these X, Y, and Z, he’s not even supposed to be here,” he said.

I do not agree with his framing, but have no trouble understanding the appeal. Hell, it’s why I enlisted in the first place. Thankfully, Afghanistan beat it out of me. If I believed what he believed, I would surely do the same thing he’s doing.

I thanked him for the information and time, shook his hand, and took a seat on one of those uncomfortable folding chairs. I had a few hours before my flight back to New York City, and it made more sense to hang out than to flee the building and get good and airport drunk, regardless of how desperately I would have preferred the latter. Instead, I settled in to do what everyone does at the DMV: check my phone and people-watch. The aspiring officers fall broadly into three categories: thick-necked law enforcement types who look like they do steroids but don’t know how to work out, bearded spec-ops wannabes who look like they take steroids and do know how to work out, and dorks. Pencil-necked misfits. I couldn’t tell whether there were more white or Hispanic people waiting for their email, but it was close. A few Black applicants rounded out the overwhelmingly male group.

I’d been sitting around for about an hour when the video suddenly stopped and a bearded man in a black suit stepped onto the stage. He did not introduce himself—we were, I gathered, supposed to already know who he was—but it became clear he’s a senior agent of some sort. “I figured it would be best if I break up the same video you’ve been watching for the last four hours,” he said, and offered to answer any questions we might have.

One person asked about work/life balance, which the agent said is possible but not the route he’s chosen. Someone else wanted to know about travel opportunities and he talked about the many places he’s gone as part of the job.

Every other question during the 45 minutes the agent stood onstage pertained to the hiring process or what we could expect in training. Law enforcement types seemed especially concerned about the painful parts: Would they have to get pepper sprayed again? Would they have to get shot with a taser if they’d already qualified? Yes and probably not, respectively. The agent took the opportunity to gush about ICE’s new state-of-the-art semi-automatic tasers and brand-new pepper-ball guns. “It’s mostly very liberal cities—San Francisco, Los Angeles—where groups will come and try to stop ICE officers from arresting somebody. They’re like, ‘We’re going to form a human wall against you,’ ” he said. “When they do that, you can just pop ‘em up. Let them disperse and cry about it.”

When, during a moment of protracted silence, the agent threatened to put the video back on if no one had questions, I asked about harassment and doxing. “We will prosecute people to the fullest extent of the law,” he assured me, “and then people like myself will go on TV and publicly talk about how that person is now in prison to dissuade other people from doing it.”

As empty as the place had been when I’d arrived, it was even emptier by the time the senior agent ended the Q&A. Somebody vastly overestimated the number of Americans willing to take a job brutalizing and disappearing hard-working men and women—even with a potential $50K bonus, even in this economy.

That may have something to do with what happened to me next.

I completely missed the email when it came. I’d kept an eye on my inbox for the next few days, but I’d grown lax when nothing came through. But then, on Sept. 3, it popped up.

“Please note that this is a TENTATIVE offer only, therefore do not end your current employment,” the email instructed me. It then listed a series of steps I’d need to quickly take. I had 48 hours to log onto USAJobs and fill out my Declaration for Federal Employment, then five additional days to return the forms attached to the email. Among these forms: driver’s license information, an affidavit that I’ve never received a domestic violence conviction, and consent for a background check. And it said: “If you are declining the position, it is not necessary to complete the action items listed below.”

As I mentioned, I’d missed the email, so I did exactly none of these things.

And that might have been where this all ended—an unread message sinking to the bottom of my inbox—if not for an email LabCorp sent three weeks later. “Thank you for confirming that you wish to continue with the hiring process,” it read. (To be clear, I had confirmed no such thing.) “Please complete your required pre-employment drug test.”

The timing was unfortunate. Cannabis is legal in the state of New York, and I had partaken six days before my scheduled test. Then again, I hadn’t smoked much; perhaps with hydration I could get to the next stage. Worst-case scenario, I’d waste a small piece of ICE’s gargantuan budget. I traveled to my local LabCorp, peed in a cup, and waited for a call telling me I’d failed.

Nine days later, impatience got the best of me. For the first time, I logged into USAJobs and checked my application to see if my drug test had come through. What I actually saw was so implausible, so impossible, that at first I did not understand what I was looking at.

Somehow, despite never submitting any of the paperwork they sent me—not the background check or identification info, not the domestic violence affidavit, none of it—ICE had apparently offered me a job.

According to the application portal, my pre-employment activities remained pending. And yet, it also showed that I had accepted a final job offer and that my onboarding status was “EOD”—Entered On Duty, the start of an enlistment period. I moused over the exclamation mark next to “Onboarding” and a helpful pop-up appeared. “Your EOD has occurred. Welcome to ICE!”

I clicked through to my application tracking page. They’d sent my final offer on Sept. 30, it said, and I had allegedly accepted. “Welcome to Ice. … Your duty location is New York, New York. Your EOD was on Tuesday, September 30th, 2025.”

By all appearances, I was a deportation officer. Without a single signature on agency paperwork, ICE had officially hired me.

Perhaps, if I’d accepted, they would have demanded my pre-employment paperwork, done a basic screening, realized their mistake, and fired me immediately. And yet, the pending and upcoming tasks list suggested a very different outcome. My physical fitness test had been initiated on Oct. 6, it said: three days in the future. My medical check had apparently been completed on Oct. 6.

The portal also listed my background check as completed on Oct. 6. Had I preemptively passed? Was ICE seriously going to let me start training without finding out the first thing about me? I reached out to ICE for an explanation, but never heard back.

The only thing left for me to do was press the green “Accept” button on the home page. And maybe I should have. Maybe no one would have ever checked my name and I could have written the story of a lifetime. Or maybe the agency infamous for brutalizing and disappearing people with no regard for the law or basic human rights would have figured out exactly who I am while I was in one of their facilities with no way to escape. I’m not actually a domestic terrorist sent straight from Antifa headquarters, but to a paranoid fascist regime increasingly high on their own supply, I sure look like one on paper. Self-preservation won out.

I hit “Decline,” closed my browser, and took a long, deep breath.

What are we to make of all this? To be clear, I barely applied to ICE. I skipped the steps of the application process that would have clued the agency in on my lack of fitness for the position. I made no effort to hide my public loathing of the agency, what it stands for, and the administration that runs it. And they offered me the job anyway.

It’s possible that I’m an aberration—perhaps I experienced some kind of computer glitch that affected my application and no one else’s. But given all of the above, it seems far more likely that ICE is running an extremely leaky ship when it comes to recruitment.

With no oversight and with ICE concealing its agents’ identities, it’ll be extremely difficult for us to know.

There’s a temptation to take some comfort in ICE’s sloppiness. There’s a real argument here that an agency so inept in its recruitment will also be inept at training people and carrying out its mission. We’re seeing some very sloppy police work from ICE, including an inability to do basic things like throw someone down and cuff them. On some level, all of this is a reminder that their takeover is neither total nor inevitable.

But if they missed the fact that I was an anti-ICE journalist who didn’t fill out her paperwork, what else might they be missing? How many convicted domestic abusers are being given guns and sent into other people’s homes? How many people with ties to white supremacist organizations are indiscriminately targeting minorities on principle, regardless of immigration status? How many rapists and pedophiles are working in ICE detention centers with direct and unsupervised access to a population that will be neither believed nor missed? How are we to trust ICE’s allegedly thorough investigations of the people they detain and deport when they can’t even keep their HR paperwork straight?

And if they’re not going to screen me out, what hope is there of figuring out which recruit might one day turn into a trigger-happy agent who would forget that law enforcement officers are trained not to stand in front of vehicles, get jumpy, and shoot a 37-year-old woman to death on the streets of Minneapolis? That’s exactly what happened last week, and why Renee Good will never have a 38th birthday, and why her children will never again be hugged by their mother.

By all appearances, the only thing ICE is screening for is a desire to work for ICE: a very specific kind of person perfectly suited for the kind of mission creep we are currently seeing. Good’s murder is not an isolated incident; the American Civil Liberties Union reports a nationwide trend of ICE pointing guns at, brutalizing, and even detaining citizens who stop to film them. A Minneapolis pastor who protested ICE by chanting “We are not afraid” was detained at gunpoint by an agent who reportedly asked him: “Are you afraid now?”

I am. We all should be.

[butterflyinthewell]

You have been booped by this empty wrapping paper tube.

Reblog to boop all of your followers with it.

[kingkishou]

I'm only saying this for your sake, but objectively, it's not a smart idea to bring politics into normal hobbies. You might lose supporters of your blog just because of your political stance, and that would be terrible since you're so amazing!! It's only a suggestion, but I really reccomend not bringing politics into anything.

[eridanus-posessed-microwave]

Ya know. Anon asks like this?

Do they realise that everything is political? Writing is political. Art is political.

It’s why they burn the books and destroy art as a means to control.

How dare anyone tell you that you’ll have more followers if you toe the line and don’t make waves.

Fuck em.

Everything is political.

Politics imbues daily life to the point you cannot make a sandwich without politics having influenced some part of it.

Or buy clothing.

Or wear your hair however you like.

How you speak? Influenced by politics.

So yeah.

Politics affects hobbies.

Because politics affects life.

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

reblog if you love archive of our own and how they firmly refuse to let censorship have any place on their platform

[gaystation4]

[glowingghosty]

i don't say this very often so you can trust me when i say for the love of god please unmute

[foxofninetales]

Audio description: Very loud trilling purrring.

[comicgeekscomicgeek]

Very important kitty noises

[teaboot]

I think your cat is probably a dove

[chainslobber]

Commission for @awkward-youtube-trash. Thank you for ordering!

[chiangyorange]

my favorite minecraft youtuber [looks at smudged handwriting] kakashi from accounting

[aq2003]

what are some of kakashi's biggest character flaws?

he's not in every naruto episode which makes the anime literally unwatchable

[chongoblog]

Can’t wait for, like, 2025 when we look back on the 2018/2019 era and say “hey, remember when we were all really freaking depressed? That was a crazy time! Glad we aren’t like that anymore”

[ampersketch-art]

Hey,

[chongoblog]

Don’t say anything

[skykashi]

The king of my heart ❤️

Hatake Kakashi throwing hands compilation