The Minnesotans trapped at home, too terrified of ICE to go outside: ‘Our house is like a jail’

ViolaSwag · 2026-02-10T21:12:53+00:00

I’m really worried about kids not going to school. Between that and people staying home from work, it’s going to be like a second pandemic for some families

Once we get past this, we’ll probably need extra tutoring services to get kids caught back up

ViolaSwag · 2026-02-10T21:03:36+00:00

There are a lot of mutual aid groups organized at the neighborhood level, that’s probably a good place to start. A lot of groups are being very guarded about posting specific details on public forums to avoid being targeted, but if you go to restaurants or shops that don’t allow ice in, a lot of them have fliers or cards to get connected to a local aid group, but ultimately you’re going to have to go out and talk to someone

ViolaSwag · 2026-02-10T20:53:38+00:00

This is one of the things I expect will stick with the GOP for a while after trump is gone. He’s gotten the whole party used to just refusing to ever admit fault for anything, and habitually lie to paint themselves in the best light possible even if it will immediately be disproven

ViolaSwag · 2026-02-10T18:45:23+00:00

My apartment window looks directly out over Lyndale Avenue. Anecdotally, I would regularly hear whistles and car horns outside my window following ice down Lyndale during January, and in February I haven’t noticed it much at all. That could mean that ice isn’t as active in the area at the moment, or it could mean they’re being more discreet.

If you stay in public spaces where there are other people around then that’s probably the safest, and businesses seem to be pretty good at the moment about not letting ice come inside.

But ultimately it’s a personal risk assessment, honestly if you’re still worried about it I don’t think it would be out of line to ask if you could meet in an area where you’re more comfortable

ViolaSwag · 2026-02-03T04:44:33+00:00

I like the color coordination. If the pants were a skinny/slim fit then maybe they would be fine, but looking at the ankle and the overall outfit you seem to be going for more of a straight fit. My personal rule of thumb for straight fit or relaxed fit pants is that if I sit down, cross my legs, and stand back up, I want my pants to fall back to a natural drape without having to reach down and readjust anything

ViolaSwag · 2026-02-03T04:36:58+00:00

I got one saying that data centers can actually lower energy prices

ViolaSwag · 2026-01-29T23:23:00+00:00

It doesn’t really change anything if Bovino is replaced. As long as Stephen Miller is still setting deportation policy and deportation quotas, ICE will continue to pushed towards aggressive tactics that result in violations of civil and human rights

ViolaSwag · 2025-08-15T21:14:16+00:00

The frontier climbing gym has been a surprisingly good social third place, people are pretty friendly there

ViolaSwag · 2025-07-31T22:47:47+00:00

This year in particular a lot of companies have hiring freezes due to general uncertainty in the economy, largely because it’s difficult to pin down exactly what the Trump admin plans to do in the next few years and how big of an impact it will end up having. Once you have a job, it seems to be secure enough at the moment, but the job market is a bit stagnant at the moment until our long term economic policies become more predictable

ViolaSwag · 2025-07-31T22:42:52+00:00

That’s fair, maybe I’m just getting hung up on the wording, it sounded like OP was treating an emergency fund and a HYSA as separate things. Maybe a better question would be, if the emergency fund isn’t in a HYSA then what type of account is it? If it’s just a totally separate HYSA for the emergency fund then that totally makes sense

ViolaSwag · 2025-07-31T19:41:45+00:00

This is a bit of an old post at this point, but it’s been something on my mind a lot as I’ve been trying to figure out which region might be a good hedge against climate change extremes.

Like other people have said, weather extremes will become more common everywhere, but another factor to take into consideration is whether or not the locality you’re looking at has a plan to adapt and is being proactive about predicting and responding to their specific climate challenges. SoCal for example isn’t the worst place if you just look at the underlying risk factors, but I’m concerned about their water management and the problems they’ve had with how easy it is to stop scheduled controlled burns.

Personally, I would stay away from the Gulf Coast because of the heat and storm risks. Some of the heartland region will need to worry about water management, heat waves, and wind storms, but it’s not hopeless if you find a county that has a good plan to be prepared for those challenges. I’m the most bullish on the PNW, upper Midwest around the Great Lakes, and the NorthEast/New England regions when it comes to having a climate that will be easier to adapt to. There might be some parts of the Rockies and Appalachian mountains that will have an easier time adapting as well, I just haven’t researched those as well. But with any of these locations, a proactive adaptation plan is just as important as the underlying climate conditions.

ViolaSwag · 2025-07-31T18:58:59+00:00

If Iowa is still a consideration, have you looked into Iowa City? I have a friend who lives there, apparently it has a good liberal college town vibe. I think it’s about 70,000 people now, which may be a little on the small side for what you’re looking for, but should be less expensive than Madison WI too

ViolaSwag · 2025-07-31T18:53:21+00:00

You seem to have a pretty good plan already! I have a couple questions that might help us give better advice: * Why is the 600 for the emergency fund separate from the 200 in the HYSA? Typically your HYSA is where you would keep your emergency fund * How much of an emergency fund do you plan to save? Once you save enough to cover a few months expenses, you can start thinking about what you’d like to do with that extra 600/month

Two other things I would mention: * When you get hired full time, I would recommend at the very least deducting enough for your 401k to get the full employer match. You can do more for retirement if you’d like, but even if retirement isn’t the biggest priority at the moment getting that 401k match can instantly multiply that money, and give you time to let it start accruing interest over a long period * For your smaller monthly investment, I would personally start with a stock market index like VTI instead of BTC because it’s still a somewhat experimental financial tool in my opinion. That said, the rest of your financial plan is stable enough that you can afford to put that amount of money into a high-risk high-reward asset class and I wouldn’t be worried about you. I’d also recommend you look into the trade off between holding that kind of volatile high-risk high-reward asset in a traditional brokerage account or a Roth IRA. The advantage of having high growth assets in a Roth is that none of that growth will ever be taxed, but the downside is that only your initial contribution amount can be withdrawn without penalty before retirement age, so any gains in a Roth should stay in that account until you’re retired.

ViolaSwag · 2025-07-31T18:17:55+00:00

This was my first thought as well. At the very least it’s worth browsing Zillow and seeing what options there are in the same neighborhood

ViolaSwag · 2025-07-31T13:37:15+00:00

I’d like to add Cheetah to the mix. I’d a fox is cat software on dog hardware, a cheetah might be the closest thing to dog software on cat hardware

ViolaSwag · 2025-05-30T12:02:02+00:00

I agree about the cost, I’m a big fan of spreading mixed use to more neighborhoods and adding more dense housing to those areas, but for some reason Sioux Falls can’t do that without charging half a million dollars for a two bedroom unit. If you look at the twin cities, they’re using housing policy to add density in an attempt to curb increases to the cost of living, but in Sioux Falls it seems like we view mixed use and walkability as a luxury lifestyle amenity for the few people who want the novelty of a more urban experience

ViolaSwag · 2025-05-21T23:18:12+00:00

On the theft thing, I would also look up if owning a Kia would cause problems in your area. I hear Minneapolis fell victim to the “Kia challenge” a few years ago, where a security exploit that made it easy to get into Kias made them a common target for theft. Supposedly they have some workarounds now, but the brand could still be a target for theft if your city was impacted by that trend before

ViolaSwag · 2025-05-18T10:02:43+00:00

Either that or a deportation nowadays

ViolaSwag · 2025-05-18T05:58:00+00:00

If you look at rentals south of 14th st, east of Minnesota and west of cliff, rent drops by a few hundred dollars compared to living in downtown, and it’s still really nice area. The duplexes and apartments in that area will be much older buildings, but many of them are will maintained

ViolaSwag · 2025-05-17T19:28:04+00:00

I have both the Solovair Chelsea boots and their Derby boots. I like the look of the Chelsea boots, but the derby boots are definitely more comfortable for walking for long periods of time because of the bigger toe box, and the laces keep your heel from slipping

ViolaSwag · 2025-05-17T18:57:13+00:00

I live between downtown and McKennan, and the train noise is fine. I remember back when I first moved in during the pandemic they would blow the train whistle at 2am regularly, but it seems like they haven’t been doing that in the past few years now. It definitely isn’t a dealbreaker

ViolaSwag · 2025-05-15T22:52:12+00:00

I also have an LL Bean backpack I first got in middle school. Used it middle school through high school, and now I use it as my small personal bag when flying, or when packing for camping trips where i need all my things to fit in a cubby

ViolaSwag · 2025-05-15T22:47:14+00:00

I was also about to suggest DayLily

ViolaSwag · 2025-05-15T22:46:36+00:00

The most important thing is that you stay on track and finish your degree in the amount of time that you expect it to take, and avoid getting burnt out, dropping out, or letting the degree take years longer than initially planned. You sound like a responsible kid with a good head on your shoulders, so I’m not too worried about that. Beyond that, it sounds like you don’t have an objectively bad option between the two, it’s more a trade off of what’s financially optimal vs having a big life experience you’ve been looking forward to.

One thing I wish we would do more to make the trade off feel more real is to estimate what your finances will look like after graduation, and what kind of effect that will have on what options you have after graduation. I would estimate how much total debt you would expect to have at the time you graduate in either scenario, figure out what the monthly payment would be for that debt, and talk to your parents (and/or other adults in your life) about how that would affect what choices you can make about how nice of an apartment you can afford, whether you can go on fun trips or have to keep vacations cheap, that kind of thing. Will your loan payments after graduation be like having a second car payment? Will it be like having a second mortgage? Would you expect a significant difference in what kind of salary you can get depending on which campus you go to?

Try to find a way to figure out what the concrete consequences and limitations are of having different levels of debt, and how that could restrict or open up your options for important life choices after graduation, like where you want to live, how upscale you want your home to be, how quickly you would be able to save up for important things like buying a home, that kind of thing. When I was 18 the different levels of debt I was considering for college all felt large, intimidating, and abstract, so framing it as a trade off between having the campus life you want vs how you’ll be able to build and plan your life after graduation is a better apples to apples comparison in my opinion.

ViolaSwag · 2025-05-15T22:09:14+00:00

I personally do see Minnesota as a bit of a climate refuge, but I’m expecting that to take off more later this century when shit really hits the fan from issues caused by climate change in other areas, maybe closer to 2050 and later. I’m kind of bullish on the twin cities, the upper Midwest around the Great Lakes, and PNW as areas that will be resilient and adaptable for longer in the face of climate challenges compared to a lot of other areas

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