I’m gonna assume front-pager Major Major Major Major won’t mind me, um, repurposing this…
Spending some quality time with my overwintering peppers ?? gonna harvest some habanadas from the rear middle shortly, very small though, cherry tomatoes, but pretty cool that it’s still producing at all
The one on the bottom right is some weird super tall species I didn’t realize I was growing, and it apparently really appreciates humidity, so I got it a little humidifier. The bench now has 50% humidity which isn’t bad
******
This is the weekend when, historically, my winter SAD starts to lift just a bit — hope I’m not the only one. Speaking of hope for the sun’s return:
It is time.
It’s 11 weeks until the first big plantings. It’s time to crank things up & get started on the seedlings.
You're paying for this.
Trump's Big Ugly Bill gave BILLIONS to ICE and giant corporations—using money meant to lower your health care costs.
Instead of helping your mom get cancer treatment, your tax dollars are being used to terrorize communities.
Breaking news: A federal judge barred Department of Homeland Security agents from arresting people peacefully protesting ICE officers in Minneapolis unless they are suspected of criminal activity or obstruction.
Tensions between residents and federal immigration officers continued to rise in the Twin Cities area after the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent.
GOV. WALZ CALLS UP MINNESOTA NATIONAL GUARD TO "PROTECT THE PUBLIC'S RIGHT TO ASSEMBLE PEACEFULLY"
“We are staged and ready to respond. We are not deployed to city streets at this time" said MN NG Army Maj. Andrea Tsuchiya,…
… adding that troops will help provide “traffic support to protect life, preserve property, and support the rights of all Minnesotans to assemble peacefully.”
In other words, it's show time.
Said Governor Tim Walz, "Our public safety team has the resources, coordination, and personnel on the ground to maintain public safety and respond if needed. Thanks to local law enforcement for keeping the peace."
The Justice Department has opened a criminal probe into Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey — both Democrats — marking a striking escalation in an already volatile standoff between the state and federal government. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/…
Two days ago it was Elissa Slotkin. Last week it was Jerome Powell. Before that, Mark Kelly. Weaponizing the justice system against your opponents is an authoritarian tactic.
The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her.
What we are seeing in Minnesota is what authoritarianism looks like in real time. Racism, dehumanization, and state-sanctioned violence are tearing at the foundation of this country.
“ICE agents, get out now because historically, this ends with you hanging from a lamppost and your body paraded through the streets.” – the …we rate dogs guy
Telling a secret can be transformative; it can change our relationship with people we know, and even those we will never meet. More than once, I have watched strangers inspired by a shared secret self-organize into purposeful communities of kindness.
One of those stories began years ago when I pulled a postcard from my mailbox made from a photograph of smiling friends. The words taped to the photo read, “I found your camera at Lollapalooza this summer. I finally got the pictures developed, and I’d love to give them to you”.
I shared the secret on the PostSecret Blog, hoping someone would recognize one of the young people at the table and we could return all the photos to the group. Messages poured in that week from the PostSecret Community, but no one was able to identify anyone in the picture. However, one of the messages came from a Canadian student, Mathew Preprost, who was inspired to do more.
Believing that everyday people can sometimes have a worldwide impact on the web with a good idea and determination, Mathew designed and built a website that would serve as a lost-and-found for cameras. He called it, “I Found Your Camera,” and when I helped him spread the word, we were both surprised by how many lost cameras there were in the world and how many people wanted to help return them.
A 21-year-old vacationing student lost his camera at Union Station in Chicago. He thought it was long gone when a friend of his girlfriend saw the couple smiling together on the “I Found Your Camera” website. “She went crazy when she randomly stumbled upon our picture at Wrigley Field.” He said.
Dozens, then hundreds of cameras were mailed to Mathew’s Winnipeg address. When they arrived, he would post some of the photographs from each camera on his website, and millions of people would visit virtually to see if they could identify anyone in the pictures so they could be contacted. “It was exciting for me to see strangers helping strangers return lost cameras to the people who were sometimes desperately searching for them,” Mathew told me.
The owner of this camera (in yellow) left it behind in Santa Cruz (not far from the background pictured) on a long bike ride . A month later, she was surprised and relieved to find herself on “I Found Your Camera”. She contacted Mathew and in two weeks she had all the photos from her California journey.
Mathew was being interviewed by USA Today, the CBC, and other national news services. One of the stories he liked telling was about the journey of George Metz’s camera. To get George’s Mardi Gras pictures back to him in Pennsylvania, Mathew coordinated an international effort involving good Samaritans in four cities across three countries and two continents. As the success stories spread, more and more cameras began arriving in his mailbox.
Wedding pictures, photos from family reunions, parties, and graduations all found their way back to those who had lost them – over 1,000 in all – and the thankful emails Mathew received revealed heartfelt gratitude.
“Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, my son’s birth was on that camera and he turns 4 next week.”
I have traveled to Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, Canada, England, Australia and throughout the US sharing the heartening story of how a single secret sparked the imagination of one student who united people around the world to help others they will never meet.
Every time I told the story, I shared the original picture of happy people sitting around a table that started it all, always hoping that one day I would be able to complete the story. Finally, it happened.
Here is a picture of the young woman from the table whose lost camera inspired so many other stories of kindness before returning home itself. She asked me to pass along her thanks to the community for her lost, then found collection of “slightly out-of-focus memories of a lifetime”.
And here is a picture of Mathew along with a quote he told a USA Today reporter.
Last night the State Department released its 2026 white supremacist and nationalist manifesto doing business as its 2026 strategic plan. I’ll try to get to it tomorrow. It’s nothing you didn’t see in the new National Security Strategy or in any Tump, Miller, Vance, or Rubio social media post or news media hit.
One of the key portions of Just War theory is reciprocity. In application it means that one party to the conflict won’t target civilians and civilian infrastructure, such as power generation and transmission, not because it can’t, not because they might night be legitimate dual use targets, but because if it does, then the other parties to the conflict will reciprocate. This is also a reason why you don’t want to torture POWs and other captives. Unfortunately, Putin doesn’t care about Just War theory, nor the Geneva Conventions, nor any other ethic or moral that would constrain his action. This means that one of the ways for Ukraine to get Putin to stop targeting Ukrainian power generation and transmission is to attack Russian power generation and transmission.
A power substation is on fire in Krasnozavodsk, Moscow region. Local reports say it caused power disruptions in parts of the area.
The best way for Ukraine to get Putin to change Russia’s current targeting is for Ukraine to blackout as much of Russia as possible. Especially Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, and other major ethnic Russian population centers.
Part of how we got here is because Trump has been jerking the Ukrainians around since he returned to office.
On May 10th, Macron informed Trump that Ukraine had accepted his ceasefire proposal.
Putin flatly rejected it.
Trump responded by shifting the goalposts. His reversal sabotaged the very ultimatum European leaders had traveled to Kyiv to deliver. He later blamed Ukraine.
The same cycle repeated in December: Trump made demands, Ukraine agreed, and Russia refused. Yet, in his recent Reuters interview, Trump still had the audacity to blame Ukraine for the deadlock.
It’s clear the actual peace process is just a backdrop for his ego. “Oh, good, Nobel Prize for this” is the only outcome he actually gives a damn about.
I think he also likes tormenting those he thinks he can bully, he hates President Zelenskyy because he has misplaced the blame for his first impeachment on to him, and because he thinks there’s money to be made by cutting a deal with Putin regardless of how bad that will be for Ukraine and Ukrainians.
Russia and its supporters are desperate to hide one simple fact:
In March 2022, they occupied almost 30% of Ukraine. Today, almost 4 years later, they occupy only about 20%.
Any war where the invader holds less territory after 4 years than after 1 month is a disaster
All Political and Legal Decisions to Increase Electricity Imports Have Already Been Made, and They Must Be Implemented Without Delay – Address by the President
17 January 2026 – 15:31
I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!
Today I have already held a detailed coordination call on all issues related to the emergency situation in the energy sector after the Russian strikes. There are many tasks, and the situation is extremely difficult after this night and “shahed” hits in the Kyiv region. Bucha, Hostomel, and Irpin – work is ongoing. The consequences of the strikes are also being dealt with in Odesa. Kharkiv – more than four hundred thousand people are facing a difficult situation with electricity, also as a result of the strikes. All repair crews and all necessary forces – everything is deployed. I am grateful to everyone who is working for restoration, for people, for their city, for their community. It is important that all political and legal decisions to increase electricity imports have already been made, and they must be implemented without delay. This applies to everyone – both state-owned companies and private ones – and I instructed government officials to address this promptly.
I thank every partner who is now ready to help Ukraine with equipment. There are arrangements for the import of generators and other equipment. We are accelerating all decisions as much as possible. Separately – regarding Kyiv. All government structures are involved, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs has deployed additional assistance points. There are also decisions concerning everything that may be needed, including hot meals for people – implementation must be significantly more active. Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy, the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories, and others must verify everything regarding the heating situation in residential buildings, as a significant number of buildings in Kyiv are still without heat.
We spoke with the Minister of Defense of Ukraine about air defense operations, about assessing the consequences of the strikes and the circumstances of every Russian attack. Everything the enemy does must be analyzed down to every detail – and our countermeasures, our protection, must become significantly stronger. And it will. There will also be decisions that are necessary to change our defense system, including personnel decisions. I thank everyone who is helping right now.
I also signed a new sanctions decision – these are sanctions against those who justify the aggression and are used by Russia in propaganda. I approved the next sanctions measures as well – decisions will follow shortly. Pressure on Russia must be maintained, and we will continue working on the synchronization of sanctions – not only regarding partners’ decisions within our jurisdiction, but also regarding Ukrainian sanctions decisions being reflected in the lists of partners. Even now, a significant share of partners’ personal sanctions, as well as entries in their lists against legal entities, is based on Ukraine’s proposals.
Today the Ukrainian delegation is already in the United States. Rustem Umerov, Kyrylo Budanov, and Davyd Arakhamiia. Toward the evening, Kyiv time, I expect the first reports regarding their meetings. The main task for the Ukrainian delegation is to present the full and accurate picture of what is happening and what Russian strikes are causing. Among the consequences of this terror is the discrediting of the diplomatic process: people lose faith in diplomacy, and Russian attacks constantly undermine even the limited opportunities for dialogue that existed before. The American side must understand this. Progress is also needed on the documents that have been in preparation.
Ukraine has never been and will never be a roadblock to peace, and it is now up to our partners to determine whether diplomacy moves forward. I thank everyone who stands with us, who stands with Ukraine.
Glory to Ukraine!
Georgia:
“Until the end!”
Day 416 of daily, uninterrupted protests in Georgia.
“They used the poison, they hide the crime, international probe, it’s about time.”
Georgians continue to demand an international investigation into #theCamiteCase, after a BBC investigation suggested Georgian Dream used a chemical agent against protesters.
The German flag flies high today on day 416 of daily, uninterrupted protests in Georgia.
This is after Georgian Dream and its propaganda channels attacked the German Ambassador for a supposedly “secret” meeting with activists — one he himself publicly posted about.
I love this #GeorgiaProtests tradition of partner flag prominence, and in particular during major days of solidarity and gratitude. Solidarity with Ambassador Fischer!
Our protest aesthetics are quite deeply embedded in the global democratic context.
Pro-government media claim German Ambassador Peter Fischer “secretly” met with young “opposition activists” and urged an “Iranian scenario” in Georgia. Fischer has rejected the claims as disinformation.
Regime propaganda targets the German Ambassador, Georgian student protesters, and Iranian protesters all in one propaganda story. My friend Luka Mishveladze was targeted personally and threats against him are increasing.
Young Georgian activist Isako Devidze faces up to 2 years in prison for striking a judge’s computer monitor during an administrative hearing, causing it to fall onto the desk.
He was tried and sent to pretrial detention without his family or lawyer being notified.
The group behind the attack consisted of Colombian and Cuban nationals living in Russia. They had previously attempted similar arson attacks in Poland, Romania, and the Czech Republic, targeting oil infrastructure, construction warehouses, buses, a post office, and even a cinema.
Italian authorities have detained a cargo vessel suspected of transporting Russian metal in violation of EU sanctions.
The ship, flying the flag of Tuvalu. Investigators believe its cargo of iron briquettes was shipped from Novorossiysk using falsified documents and deliberate GPS shutdowns.
Massive demonstrations organized by Greenlandic associations have been taking place across Denmark and Greenland on Saturday to protest US President Donald Trump‘s ambitions to take over the Arctic island.
The aim of the protests is “to send a clear and unified message of respect for Greenland’s democracy and fundamental human rights,” said Uagut, an association of Greenlanders in Denmark, on its website.
Thousands of demonstrators assembled in Copenhagen’s City Hall Square at 12:00 p.m. local time (11:00 GMT), chanting “Greenland is not for sale” and holding banners with slogans such as “Hands off Greenland.” They then marched towards the US embassy.
“I am very grateful for the huge support we as Greenlanders receive… We are also sending a message to the world that you all must wake up,” Julie Rademacher, chair of Uagut, told the protesters.
“Greenland and the Greenlanders have involuntarily become the front in the fight for democracy and human rights,” she added.
Protests were also ongoing in the Danish cities of Aarhus, Aalborg, and Odense.
The demonstration in Greenland‘s capital, Nuuk, began 4:00 p.m. local time (1500 GMT), according to the organizers, who say it is “against the United States’ illegal plans to take control of Greenland.”
Several thousand protesters, including the territory’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, who was seen waving a Greenlandic flag, chanted slogans and sang traditional Inuit songs in the light rain.
Many of them wore caps bearing the slogan “Make America Go Away,” an AFP reporter noted, referencing Trump’s “Make America Great Again” brand.
Demonstrators marched to the US consulate carrying Greenlandic flags. The territory’s total population is about 57,000.
More at the link including lots of pictures.
This reeks of Kremlin playback for miles around!
“We must save the people of Donba… I mean, Greenland. From evil Ukra… I mean, Danes!”
Trump imposes tariffs on European countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, The United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and Finland) over Greenland.
This is just absolutely stupidly self defeating. As we all know, none of these states will be paying the tariffs. Americans will be paying them. This is taxing Americans in an attempt to use economic power to coerce Danes, Greenlanders, and other Europeans into doing what Trump wants. The problem, of course, is that Trump is an economic ignoramus who has surrounded himself with either other economic ignoramuses – Navarro, Hassett, Lutnick – or people who know better, but will go along to ensure their proximity to his power in order to enrich themselves – Bessent.
The EU:
Responding to Trump’s Greenland remarks, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said sovereignty and territorial integrity are core principles of international law, voiced full solidarity with Denmark and Greenland, and warned tariffs would harm transatlantic ties.
The international liberal order is ending. In fact, it may already be dead.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Miller said: “We live in a world … that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power … These are the iron laws of the world.”
From the European Council on Foreign Relations director Mark Leonard at Politico:
The international liberal order is ending. In fact, it may already be dead. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said as much last week as he gloated over the U.S. intervention in Venezuela and the capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro: “We live in a world … that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power … These are the iron laws of the world.”
But America’s 47th president is equally responsible for another death — that of the united West.
And while Europe’s leaders have fallen over themselves to sugarcoat U.S. President Donald Trump’s illegal military operation in Venezuela and ignore his brazen demands on Greenland, Europeans themselves have already realized Washington is more foe than friend.
This is one of the key findings of a poll conducted in November 2025 by my colleagues at the European Council on Foreign Relations and Oxford University’s Europe in a Changing World research project, based on interviews with 26,000 individuals in 21 countries. Only one in six respondents considered the U.S. to be an ally, while a sobering one in five viewed it as a rival or adversary. In Germany, France and Spain that number approaches 30 percent, and in Switzerland — which Trump singled out for higher tariffs — it’s as high as 39 percent.
This decline in support for the U.S. has been precipitous across the continent. But as power shifts around the globe, perceptions of Europe have also started to change.
With Trump pursuing an America First foreign policy, which often leaves Europe out in the cold, other countries are now viewing the EU as a sovereign geopolitical actor in its own right. This shift has been most dramatic in Russia, where voters have grown less hostile toward the U.S. Two years ago, 64 percent of Russians viewed the U.S. as an adversary, whereas today that number sits at 37 percent. Instead, they have turned their ire toward Europe, which 72 percent now consider either an advisory or a rival — up from 69 percent a year ago.
Meanwhile, Washington’s policy shift toward Russia has also meant a shift in its Ukraine policy. And as a result, Ukrainians, who once saw the U.S. as their greatest ally, are now looking to Europe for protection. They’re distinguishing between U.S. and European policy, and nearly two-thirds expect their country’s relations with the EU to get stronger, while only one-third say the same about the U.S.
Even beyond Europe, however, the single biggest long-term impact of Trump’s first year in office is how he has driven people away from the U.S. and closer to China, with Beijing’s influence expected to grow across the board. From South Africa and Brazil to Turkey, majorities expect their country’s relationship with China to deepen over the next five years. And in these countries, more respondents see Beijing as an ally than Washington.
Of course, this poll was conducted before Trump’s intervention in Venezuela and before his remarks about taking over Greenland. But with even the closest of allies now worried about falling victim to a predatory U.S., these trends — of countries pulling away from the U.S. and toward China, and a Europe isolated from its transatlantic partner — are likely to accelerate.
The good news from our poll is that despite the reticence of their leaders, Europeans are both aware of the state of the world and in favor of a lot of what needs to be done to improve the continent’s position. As we have seen, they harbor no illusions about the U.S. under Trump. They realize they’re living in an increasingly dangerous, multipolar world. And majorities support boosting defense spending, reintroducing mandatory conscription, and even entertaining the prospect of a European nuclear deterrent.
The rules-based order is giving way to a world of spheres of influence, where might makes right and the West is split from within. In such a world, you are either a pole with your own sphere of influence or a bystander in someone else’s. European leaders should heed their voters and ensure the continent belongs in the first category — not the second.
More at the link.
Back to Ukraine.
I visited HOME: Faith, Hope, and Love – Ukrainian Children Tell Their Stories in Art.
These works are heartbreaking and powerful. They’re not “just drawings”, they’re evidence of what war does to children, and a reminder that we must never look away from Russia’s crimes against Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy has shown the work of power engineers after russia’s massive attacks.
In freezing cold, darkness, and at dangerous heights, our energy workers work around the clock to restore electricity to homes left without power after russian strikes on the energy infrastructure
The narrative of exceptional Ukrainian resilience is one of the most harmful tropes I’ve seen during this war.
Yes, we refuse to give up. Yes, we have picnics in -15°C. Yes, we keep living, drinking coffee, and even laughing occasionally, but all of this stems from a lack of choice.
We are no more resilient than any other nation. You cannot expect us to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders while being bombed and burying our friends, only to pat us on the back for how well we take the hit.
Ukrainian resilience is not exceptional, this narrative only creates the illusion that we can withstand anything. In reality, we are just normal people caught in an awful situation, who needs help, not a pat on the shoulder.
Ukraine’s FM Andrii Sybiha urged the IAEA and the international community to act and stop Russia’s threats against infrastructure linked to Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, calling for a firm global response.
Deep cold, clear skies and welcome light in our local park in Kyiv. However, Ukraine is bracing for another massive Blitz air raid by fascist Russia, which is attempting to freeze the Ukrainian population into submission amid extremely cold winter weather. It’s-12 C just now.
Winter sun on my local park. Kyiv is such a nice place to live – except when a bunch of genocidal Russian fascist-imperialists are trying to kill you every other night.
-11 C just now, expected to drop to -17 C overnight. Many buildings in Kyiv have no heating because of Russian attacks on energy facilities. The attacks were more effective not just due to the cold weather, but because of delays in supplies of air defense missiles from allies.
Melitopol substation was struck, leaving most of occupied Zaporizhzhia without power along with over 80,000 in Krasnodar region and 450+ settlements in occupied Kherson Oblast after energy infrastructure strikes.
Ukrainian drone teams keep running deadly ambushes. On the Novopavlivka axis, the 93rd Brigade’s anti-tank unit struck four Russian occupiers, a tank, and a light vehicle.
A Russian occupier from the 121st regiment complains their column was wiped out near Kupiansk. Didn’t even make it. Artillery and mortars did the job. No evacuation, nowhere to hide.
Lasar’s Group and border guard night drones struck 12 Russian assets staging for Lyman assaults, including 10 armored vehicles, a truck, and a fuel tanker.
Ukrainian paratroopers destroyed a building with Russian occupiers in Myrnohrad after identifying their staging area at a fish farm through radio intercepts revealing a soldier’s call sign inside.
Substation fire in Serpukhov, Moscow region, caused a blackout in half the city last night, Exilenova+ reports. Power failure shut down six boiler houses, cutting heat and hot water to 143 apartment blocks as temperatures hit -29°C.
There are no new Patron skeets or videos today. Here is some adjacent material.
As Russia bombs Ukraine’s critical infrastructure in the freezing cold, local stores not only share generator power so people can charge their devices, but also open their doors to stray animals, helping them survive
I was watching a video of Robert Reich saying that we will prevail, and then this video followed it. I normally ignore the videos that follow other video, but this was just what I needed.
I had just read a story about a high-ranking ICE official stepping down so she can challenge Marcy Kaptur in the race for her house seat. I have to think that A) she can’t read the room, or B) she is hoping that she won’t be slimed by her position in ICE. Apparently she is proud of her term at ICE, so it must be A. But seriously, I hope she gets her ass kicked from here to Timbuktu.
(Not linking, I don’t even recall where I saw the story.)
The weight of the world grew too heavy yesterday. No one cause—between news, the demands of daily life, and, well, winter—even an unseasonable snowless January with plenty of sun strained the nerves. Too much. Too much.
Cabin fever.
Not even the daily pilgrimage to commune with the good Foxtrotter boy was enough to silence the dread in my gut. The field where he lives in winter and where we ride is mud over frozen ground. If I get out there soon enough in the day we might have time for a road excursion before the early sunset thanks to the mountains—it depends. But the only remedy for what I was feeling was getting further out. Away.
Time in the woods.
So we climbed into the truck, visited the good boy horse on the way to other adventures (while entertaining him and the herd by bringing in a kiddie pool that blew into the fence, then was dragged out to be played with by bored horses). The Good Boy was eager to the join the herd investigating the pool as the husband brought it out of the field while I grained and groomed him. But he stood, quietly, when I was done and took him back into the field, waiting with head high until I unhaltered him. Once free, he trotted off a few steps before bursting into a tail-flagging gallop to check out the excitement. Much of an improvement over our first winter together. Two years of consistent handling has paid off.
That settled, we headed out north to the prairie. To the woods. Out to look at mountains. Canyons. Just plain out. A pattern that’s held true for us over the years, whether it was the madcap brief half-year we spent here when we were young, followed by visits to these woods and other places when we could snatch time away from work and other obligations.
Out.
Memories whispered around us as we drove, not talking about anything other than what we saw. Remembering those younger days. Time spent cruising on breaks from work, accompanied by beer when we were younger, now just plain water in our senior years. Recalling political and business discussions conducted with others during those drives, when four of us were skinny enough to fit in a pickup’s bench seat. Days when the world seemed simpler and less filled with shadows. A time before cell phones and computers. Almost a different world.
More than memories, wisps of stories flowed around me. That prairie and the woods and canyons surrounding it have been the inspiration for so many of the places in my stories. A ranch house once busy, now only seasonally occupied, looking out at a bunchgrass meadow? One of the inspirations for the Andrews Ranch in the Netwalk Sequence stories. That first pine grove where the road drops into the other side of that meadow? A setting from the Goddess’s Honor books. Over to the west, another small canyon sparked the creation of the Double R Ranch in the Martiniere Multiverse Family Saga, not far from the spooky village of Wickmasa from Goddess’s Honor.
And more.
The land. The land.
Three young spike bull elk raced across a draw near what used to be the stage stop of Midway to cross the road fifty feet in front of us, behaving more like whitetail deer than reversing direction to run away, like we normally see elk do. Better get it figured out before next hunting season, boys. A couple of coyotes trotted warily away from the truck, cautious, unlike the spike bulls. Then a small, cautious band of mule deer.
The land. The land. Tensions melt away.
Midway itself is but a shadow. Once a small stage stop between the canyons and town, for years its only remnant was an old barn that leaned further and further until a prairie wind took it down one December, a few years after we moved here. Now, what remains is a small shelter over a picnic table. Last spring when we drove by with family, we spotted four four-point mule deer bucks resting in the shelter’s shade, chewing their cud.
No bucks today. Just the spike bulls.
Further on, a male snow bunting flew up from a fencepost, fluttering along in front of the pickup until he reached the edge of his territory and dove off into the dried bunchgrass.
When we finally reached snow, the tracks from other drivers reassured us that the way was still open. We negotiated past trees that had fallen across the road and had just enough cut away to allow a single vehicle through. We pressed on, hoping to get to the old fire lookout over the canyon. Which—doesn’t usually happen in January. When we reached the lookout’s turnoff, we carefully made our way until we encountered a drift deeper than we wanted to tackle. Thirty, even twenty years ago we might have continued, even though it was late afternoon. Not now. We’re old and we’ve had to walk back from unwise decisions too many times to trust our luck.
But we still got canyon views—what we could see of the fog-filled canyons, anyway. Ridgetops barely poke out of the sea of fog, rolling in waves like the ocean suddenly was moved to this inland area.
The land. The land. Soothing. Healing. Itself, uncompromising despite human influence. It’s hard to keep the dread going out here. Maybe that’s why so much of my fantasy writing involves land magic—it’s easy enough to feel that the land is still a living thing out here.
Back again, with fewer critters but now more mountain vistas. The snow bunting picks us up where he left us off, flitting along until we reach the other side of his territory.
Dusk fell as we reached town, and the dread had flown. It will pick up again soon enough, but for a day, at least, the dread weighed less heavy. The thrill of those bull elk crossing in front of us. The Good Boy. The snow bunting. The ghostly waves of fog crashing on the dry inland shores.
The land. The land. Here today and tomorrow. Still itself, now and forever.
Explaining the Right is a weekly series that looks at what the right wing is currently obsessing over, how it influences politics—and why you need to know.
In December, the Trump administrationquietly removed Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth as holidays where visitors would be given free admission to national parks.
But this slight against the day honoring America’s most well-known and beloved civil rights leader, along with the anniversary marking Black emancipation from enslavement, did not occur in a vacuum.
Ina statement from the NAACP, President Derrick Johnson described it as an “an attack on the truth of this nation's history.”
The NAACP also noted that the attempted marginalization of these holidays came just months after President Donald Trump took office andbegan purging records and notations of key civil rights figures and moments.
An eighth-grade class visits Yosemite National Park.
Similarly, Trump and other Republicans—including right-wing institutions like Fox News—were quick to whitewash the legacy of conservative activist Charlie Kirk after his death. But, of course, left unmentioned was Kirk’s crusade to undermine the legacy of King, who he called “awful” and “not a good person.”
The national parks directive, the whitewashing, and the purge of history at the federal level are just the latest manifestations of decades of the right’s opposition to the Civil Rights movement.
This is occurring because, despite their attempts to rewrite U.S. history, conservatives were against the expansion of civil rights and vehemently opposed the work of King and other advocates for racial justice. They were on the wrong side of history then, and they’ve stayed there ever since.
For instance, the extremely influential conservative journal National Reviewdeclared in 1960 that “leadership in the South, then quite properly rests in white hands,” and described Black people living in the south as “retarded.”
This was not some fringe rhetoric. The 1964 campaign of Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona is widely recognized as a foundational moment for the modern conservative movement, and Goldwaterdistinguished himself by opposing the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
King had long held a position of political neutrality, hoping to get support for civil rights legislation from both parties. But Goldwater’s nomination led King to directly advocate for the reelection of President Lyndon Johnson, who backed the Civil Rights Act.
“For the first time, a major political party has nominated a man who articulates views that are totally out of harmony with the mainstream of American thought and views that are more in line with the 18th century than the 20th century,”King said during a 1964 press conference.
The Civil Rights movement was a direct challenge to conservative orthodoxy, advocating for a progressive change to American culture and dispensing with the old structure of society that excluded people of color. Conservatism decisively lost that battle, including southern factions of the Democratic Party, which later became Republican.
The right has been losing that battle for decades, though the trajectory to racial equality has not been a straight line forward. For many conservatives, that fight came to a head after Barack Obamawas elected president in 2008.
The late Congressman John Lewis and President Barack Obama hug during the grand opening of the African American Museum of History and Culture.
It was after this moment that Trump became themost vocal advocate of the racist birther conspiracy theory, which sought to undermine Obama’s legitimacy by falsely claiming that he was not a native-born American.
Conservatives promoted the lie, propping up racism without openly proclaiming their racism. Trump was even invited in 2012to tout his endorsement of the GOP’s nominee, then-Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.
Four years later, this avatar of racism was elevated to lead the Republican Party—and has done so for nearly a decade now.
Trump and his fellow Republicans carry the torch for the same brand of bigotry as the conservative movement in the 1960s, but instead of openly using racial epithets—most of the time—theycomplain about concepts like “woke.”
But it is truly the same bigotry that has been a part of American life since the nation was founded on the backs of enslaved Black labor.
The attempted purge of holidays and rewriting of history is a continuation of this racist crusade. Today’s conservatives are simply the inheritors of Goldwater’s and National Review’s legacies.
While an increasingly diverse United States continues to reject these ideals, the rightisn’t giving up the fight. They will continue to wage war on civil rights, even if they’re doomed to ultimately lose—that’s how much they cherish the myth of white superiority.
Just an absolute banger of a day here, although the air quality was a little worse than I would have liked. I spent a couple hours at the Phoenix DSA meeting that was held in the park down the road from here. It was nice, although the DSA has grown here a lot so now they are struggling to continue maintaining parliamentary procedure in casual environments and having the usual growing pains.
One item that took up a bunch of time was they had a problem on their signal general group. Last year they were using SLACK, but when I got back this year, they had switched to signal, and they had groups for various committees and actions but a large, general signal chat for whatever that worked great but now that there are over a couple hundred users it was getting toxic because there were a couple shitposters ruining things for everyone else.
I just fucking sighed and rolled my eyes- “been there done that.” Although I suppose it was fun watching them go through this in real time and knowing I didn’t have to do anything the fuck it. That all got settled, got hooked up with some committee leaders and joined up to do some things I am interested in (event security and de-escalation training, comms committee, canvassing, etc. So that was a nice and productive afternoon and it was nice being in the same place with a bunch of people who hate what is going on.
Came home and we are going to cook a skirt steak, so I made up some pico and some guac and that is what we are ding for dinner. Not sure what else is on the agenda although I suppose I should read the news.
Immigration agents have put civilians’ lives at risk using more than their guns.
An agent in Houston put a teenage citizen into a chokehold,wrapping his arm around the boy’s neck, choking him so hard that his neck had red welts hours later. A black-masked agent in Los Angeles pressed his knee into a woman’s neck while she was handcuffed; she then appeared topass out. An agent in Massachusetts jabbed his finger and thumb into the neck and arteries of a young father who refused to be separated from his wife and 1-year-old daughter. The man’seyes rolled back in his head and he started convulsing.
After George Floyd’s murder by a police officer six years ago in Minneapolis — less than a mile from where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Good last week — police departments and federal agencies banned chokeholds and other moves that can restrict breathing or blood flow.
But those tactics are back, now at the hands of agents conducting President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
Examples are scattered across social media. ProPublica found more than 40 cases over the past year of immigration agents using these life-threatening maneuvers on immigrants, citizens and protesters. The agents are usually masked, their identities secret. The government won’t say if any of them have been punished.
In nearly 20 cases, agents appeared to use chokeholds and other neck restraints that the Department of Homeland Security prohibits “unless deadly force is authorized.”
About two dozen videos show officers kneeling on people’s necks or backs or keeping them face down on the ground while already handcuffed. Such tactics are not prohibited outright but are often discouraged, including by federal trainers, in part because using them for a prolonged time risks asphyxiation.
We reviewed footage with a panel of eight former police officers and law enforcement experts. They were appalled.
This is what bad policing looks like, they said. And it puts everyone at risk.
“I arrested dozens upon dozens of drug traffickers, human smugglers, child molesters — some of them will resist,” said Eric Balliet, who spent more than two decades working at Homeland Security Investigations and Border Patrol, including in the first Trump administration. “I don’t remember putting anybody in a chokehold. Period.”
“If this was one of my officers, he or she would be facing discipline,” said Gil Kerlikowske, a longtime police chief in Seattle who also served as Customs and Border Protection commissioner under President Barack Obama. “You have these guys running around in fatigues, with masks, with ‘Police’ on their uniform,” but they aren’t acting like professional police.
Over the past week, the conduct of agents has come under intense scrutiny after an ICE officer in Minneapolis killed Good, a mother of three. The next day, a Border Patrol agent in Portland, Oregon,shot a man and womanin a hospital parking lot.
Top administration officials rushed to defend the officers. Speaking about the agent who shot Good, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said, “This is an experienced officer who followed his training.”
Kristi Noem stands on the roof of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Ore., in Oct. 2025.
Officials said the same thing to us after we showed them footage of officers using prohibited chokeholds. Federal agents have “followed their training to use the least amount of force necessary,” department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Officers act heroically to enforce the law and protect American communities,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said.
Both DHS and the White House lauded the “utmost professionalism” of their agents.
Our compilation of incidents is far from complete. Just as the government does not counthow often it detains citizensorsmashes through vehicle windowsduring immigration arrests, it does not publicly track how many times agents have choked civilians or otherwise inhibited their breathing or blood flow. We gathered cases by searching legal filings, social media posts and local press reports in English and Spanish.
Given the lack of any count over time, it’s impossible to know for certain how agents’ current use of the banned and dangerous tactics compares with earlier periods.
But former immigration officials told us they rarely heard of such incidents during their long tenures. They also recalled little pushback when DHS formally banned chokeholds and other tactics in 2023; it was merely codifying the norm.
That norm has now been broken.
One of the citizens whom agents put in a chokehold was 16 years old.
Tenth grader Arnoldo Bazan and his father were getting McDonald’s before school when their car was pulled over by unmarked vehicles. Masked immigration agents started banging on their windows. As Arnoldo’s undocumented father, Arnulfo Bazan Carrillo, drove off, the terrified teenager began filming on his phone. The video shows the agents repeatedly ramming the Bazans’ car during a slow chase through the city.
Bazan Carrillo eventually parked and ran into a restaurant supply store. When Arnoldo saw agents taking his father violently to the ground, Arnoldo went inside too, yelling at the agents to stop.
One agent put Arnoldo in a chokehold while another pressed a knee into his father’s neck. “I was going to school!” the boy pleaded. He said later that when he told the agent he was a citizen and a minor, the agent didn’t stop.
“I started screaming with everything I had, because I couldn’t even breathe,” Arnoldo told ProPublica, showing where the agent’s hands had closed around his throat. “I felt like I was going to pass out and die.”
DHS’ McLaughlin accused Arnoldo’s dad of ramming his car “into a federal law enforcement vehicle,” but he was never charged for that, and the videos we reviewed do not support this claim. Our examination of his criminal history — separate from any immigration violations — found only that Bazan Carrillo pleaded guilty a decade ago to misdemeanor driving while intoxicated.
McLaughlin also said the younger Bazan elbowed an officer in the face as he was detained, which the teen denies. She said that Arnoldo was taken into custody to confirm his identity and make sure he didn’t have any weapons. McLaughlin did not answer whether the agent’s conduct was justified.
Experts who reviewed video of the Bazans’ arrests could make no sense of the agents’ actions.
“Why are you in the middle of a store trying to grab somebody?” said Marc Brown, a former police officer turned instructor who taught ICE and Border Patrol officers at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers. “Your arm underneath the neck, like a choking motion? No! The knee on the neck? Absolutely not.”
DHS revamped its training curriculum after George Floyd’s murder to underscore those tactics were out of bounds, Brown said. “DHS specifically was very big on no choking,” he said. “We don’t teach that. They were, like, hardcore against it. They didn’t want to see anything with the word ‘choke.’”
After agents used another banned neck restraint — a carotid hold — a man started convulsing and passed out.
In early November, ICE agents in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, stopped a young father, Carlos Sebastian Zapata Rivera, as he drove with his family. They had come for his undocumented wife, whom they targeted after she was charged with assault for allegedly stabbing a co-worker in the hand with scissors.
Body camera footage from the local police, obtained by ProPublica, captured much of what happened. The couple’s 1-year-old daughter began crying. Agents surrounded the car, looking in through open doors.
According to the footage, an agent told Zapata Rivera that if his wife wouldn’t come out, they would have to arrest him, too — and their daughter would be sent into the foster system. The agent recounted the conversation to a local cop: “Technically, I can arrest both of you,” he said. “If you no longer have a child, because the child is now in state custody, you’re both gonna be arrested. Do you want to give your child to the state?”
Zapata Rivera, who has a pending asylum claim, clung to his family. His wife kept saying she wouldn’t go anywhere without her daughter, whom she said was still breastfeeding. Zapata Rivera wouldn’t let go of either of them.
Federal agents seemed conflicted on how to proceed. “I refuse to have us videotaped throwing someone to the ground while they have a child in their hands,” one ICE agent told a police officer at the scene.
But after more than an hour, agents held down Zapata Rivera’s arms. One, who Zapata Rivera’s lawyer says wore a baseball cap reading “Ne Quis Effugiat” — Latin for “So That None Will Escape” — pressed his thumbs into the arteries on Zapata Rivera’s neck. The young man then appeared to pass out as bystanders screamed.
The technique is known as a carotid restraint. The two carotid arteries carry 70% of the brain’s blood flow; block them, and a person can quickly lose consciousness. The tactic can causestrokes, seizures, brain damage — and death.
“Even milliseconds or seconds of interrupted blood flow to the brain can have serious consequences,” Dr. Altaf Saadi, a neurologist and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, told us. Saadi said she couldn’t comment on specific cases, “but there is no amount of training or method of applying pressure on the neck that is foolproof in terms of avoiding neurologic damage.”
In a bystander video of Zapata Rivera’s arrest, his eyes roll back in his head and he suffers an apparent seizure, convulsing so violently that his daughter, seated in his lap, shakes with him.
“Carotid restraints are prohibited unless deadly force is authorized,” DHS’use-of-force policystates. Deadly force is authorized only when an officer believes there’s an “imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury” and there is “no alternative.”
In a social media post after the incident and in its statement to ProPublica, DHS did not cite a deadly threat. Instead, it referenced the charges against Zapata Rivera’s wife and suggestedhe had only pretended to have a medical crisiswhile refusing help from paramedics. “Imagine FAKING a seizure to help a criminal escape justice,” the post said.
“These statements were lies,”Zapata Rivera alleges in an ongoing civil rights lawsuit he filed against the ICE agent who used the carotid restraint. His lawyer told ProPublica that Zapata Rivera was disoriented after regaining consciousness; the lawsuit says he was denied medical attention. (Representatives for Zapata Rivera declined our requests for an interview with him. His wife has been released on bond, and her assault case awaits trial.)
A police report and bodycam footage from Fitchburg officers at the scene, obtained via a public records request, back up Zapata Rivera’s account of being denied assistance. “He’s fine,” an agent told paramedics, according to footage. The police report says Zapata Rivera wanted medical attention but “agents continued without stopping.”
Saadi, the Harvard neurologist, said that as a general matter, determining whether someone had a seizure is “not something even neurologists can do accurately just by looking at it.”
DHS policy bars using chokeholds and carotid restraints just because someone is resisting arrest. Agents are doing it anyway.
When DHS issued restrictions on chokeholds and carotid restraints, it stated that the moves “must not be used as a means to control non-compliant subjects or persons resisting arrest.” Deadly force “shall not be used solely to prevent the escape of a fleeing subject.”
In Los Angeles in June, masked officers from ICE, Border Patrol and other federal agencies pepper-sprayed and then tackled another citizen, Luis Hipolito. As Hipolito struggled to get away, one of the agents put him in a chokehold. Another pointed a Taser at bystanders filming.
Then Hipolito’s body began to convulse — a possible seizure. An onlooker warned the agents, “You gonna let him die.”
When officers make a mistake in the heat of the moment, said Danny Murphy, a former deputy commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department, they need to “correct it as quickly as possible.”
That didn’t happen in Hipolito’s case. The footage shows the immigration agent not only wrapping his arm around Hipolito’s neck as he takes him down but also sticking with the chokehold after Hipolito is pinned on the ground.
The agent’s actions are “dangerous and unreasonable,” Murphy said.
Asked about the case, McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, said that Hipolito was arrested for assaulting an ICE officer. Hipolito’s lawyers did not respond to ProPublica’s requests for comment.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Hipolitolimped into court days after the incident. Another citizen who was with him the day of the incident was also charged, but her case was dropped. Hipolito pleaded not guilty and goes to trial in February.
Some of the conduct in the footage isn’t banned — but it’s discouraged and dangerous.
Masked ICE Nazis in LA got their SUV towed as they were violently arresting community activist and journalist, Tatiana Martinez pic.twitter.com/Vqpi7flWUQ
Placing a knee on a prone subject’s neck or weight on their back isn’t banned under DHS’ use-of-force policy, but it can be dangerous — and the longer it goes on, the higher the risk that the person won’t be able to breathe.
“You really don’t want to spend that amount of time just trying to get somebody handcuffed,” said Kerlikowske, the former CPB commissioner, of the video of the arrest in Portland.
Brown, the former federal instructor and now a lead police trainer at the University of South Carolina, echoed that. “Once you get them handcuffed, you get them up, get them out of there,” he said. “If they’re saying they can’t breathe, hurry up.”
Taking a person down to the ground and restraining them there can be an appropriate way to get them in handcuffs, said Seth Stoughton, a former police officer turned law professor who also works at the University of South Carolina. But officers have long known to make it quick. By the mid-1990s, the federal government was advising officers against keeping people prolongedly in a prone position.
When a federal agent kneeled on the neck of an intensive care nurse in August, she said she understood the danger she was in and tried to scream.
“I knew that the amount of pressure being placed on the back of my neck could definitely hurt me,” said Amanda Trebach, a citizen and activist who was arrested in Los Angeles while monitoring immigration agents. “I was having a hard time breathing because my chest was on the ground.”
McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, said Trebach impeded agents’ vehicles and struck them with her signs and fists.
Trebach denies this. She was released without any charges.
DHS’ McLaughlin did not respond to questions about the incident.
Along with twosimilarchoking incidentsat protests outside of ICE facilities, this is one of the few videos in which the run-up to the violence is clear. And the experts were aghast.
“Without anything I could see as even remotely a deadly force threat, he immediately goes for the throat,” said Ashley Heiberger, a retired police captain from Pennsylvania who frequently testifies in use-of-force cases. Balliet, the former immigration official, said the agent turned the scene into a “pissing contest” that was “explicitly out of control.”
“It’s so clearly excessive and ridiculous,” Murphy said. “That’s the kind of action which should get you fired.”
“How big a threat did you think he was?” Brown said, noting that the officer slung his rifle around his back before grabbing and body-slamming the protester. “You can’t go grab someone just because they say, ‘F the police.’”
In November, Border Patrol agents rushed into the construction site of a future Panda Express in Charlotte, North Carolina, to check workers’ papers. When one man tried to run, an officer put him in a chokehold and later marched him out, bloodied, to a waiting SUV.
Freelance photographerRyan Murphy, who had been following Border Patrol’s convoys around Charlotte, documented the Panda Express arrest.
“Their tactics are less sophisticated than you would think,” he told ProPublica. “They sort of drive along the streets, and if they see somebody who looks to them like they could potentially be undocumented, they pull over.”
Experts told ProPublica that if officers are targeting a specific individual, they can minimize risks by deciding when, where and how to take them into custody. But when they don’t know their target in advance, chaos — and abuse — can follow.
“They are encountering people they don’t know anything about,” said Scott Shuchart, a former assistant director at ICE.
“The stuff that I’ve been seeing in the videos,” Kerlikowske said, “has been just ragtag, random.”
There may be other factors, too, our experts said, including quotas and alack of consequences amid gutted oversight. With officers wearing masks, Shuchart said, “even if they punch grandma in the face, they won’t be identified.”
As they sweep into American cities, immigration officers are unconstrained — and, the experts said, unprepared. Even well-trained officers may not be trained for the environments where they now operate. Patrolling a little-populated border region takes one set of skills. Working in urban areas,where citizens — and protesters — abound, takes another.
DHS and Bovino did not respond to questions about their agents’ preparation or about the chokehold in Charlotte.
Experts may think there’s abuse. But holding officers to account? That’s another matter.
Arnoldo, 16, and his sister, Maria Bazan, 27, at their home in Houston. Maria brought her brother to the hospital after his detention by federal officers.
Back in Houston, immigration officers dropped 16-year-old Arnoldo off at the doorstep of his family home a few hours after the arrest. His neck was bruised, and his new shirt was shredded. Videos taken by his older sisters show the soccer star struggling to speak through sobs.
Uncertain what exactly had happened to him, his sister Maria Bazan took him to Texas Children’s Hospital, where staff identified signs of the chokehold and moved him to the trauma unit. Hospital records show he was given morphine for pain and that doctors ordered a dozen CT scans and X-rays, including of his neck, spine and head.
From the hospital, Maria called the Houston Police Department and tried to file a report, the family said. After several unsuccessful attempts, she took Arnoldo to the department in person, where she says officers were skeptical of the account and their own ability to investigate federal agents.
Arnoldo had filmed much of the incident, but agents had taken his phone. He used Find My to locate the phone — at a vending machine for used electronics miles away, close to an ICE detention center. The footage, which ProPublica has reviewed, backed the family’s account of the chase.
The family says Houston police still haven’t interviewed them. A department spokesperson told ProPublica it was not investigating the case, referring questions to DHS. But the police have also not released bodycam footage and case files aside from a top sheet, citing an open investigation.
“We can’t do anything,” Maria said one officer told her. “What can HPD do to federal agents?”
Elsewhere in the country, some officials are trying to hold federal immigration officers to account.
In California, the state Legislature passed bills prohibiting immigration officers from wearing masks and requiring them to display identification during operations.
In Illinois, Gov. JB Pritzker signed a law that allows residents to sue any officer who violates state or federal constitutional rights. (The Trump administration quickly filed legal challenges against California and Illinois, claiming their new laws are unconstitutional.)
In Minnesota, state and local leaders are collecting evidence in Renee Good’s killing even as the federal governmentcut the state outof its investigation.
Arnoldo is still waiting for Houston authorities to help him, still terrified that a masked agent will come first. Amid soccer practice and making up schoolwork he missed while recovering, he watches and rewatches the videos from that day. The car chase, the chokehold, his own screams at the officers to leave his dad alone. His father in the driver’s seat, calmly handing Arnoldo his wallet and phone while stopping mid-chase for red lights.
The Bazan family said agents threatened to charge Arnoldo if his dad didn’t agree to be deported. DHS spokesperson McLaughlin did not respond when asked about the alleged threat. Arnoldo’s dad is now in Mexico.
Asked why an officer choked Arnoldo, McLaughlin pointed to the boy’s alleged assault with his elbow, adding, “The federal law enforcement officer graciously chose not to press charges.”
How We Did It
ProPublica journalists Nicole Foy, McKenzie Funk, Joanna Shan, Haley Clark and Cengiz Yar gathered videos via Spanish and English social media posts, local press reports and court records. We then sent a selection of these videos to eight police experts and former immigration officials, along with as much information as we could gather about the lead-up to and context of each incident. The experts analyzed the videos with us, explaining when and how officers used dangerous tactics that appeared to go against their training or that have been banned under the Department of Homeland Security’s use-of-force policy.
We also tried to contact every person we could identify being choked or kneeled on. In some cases, we also reached out to bystanders.
Research reporter Mariam Elba conducted criminal record searches of every person we featured in this story. She also attempted to fact-check the allegations that DHS made about the civilians and their arrests. Our findings are not comprehensive because there is no universal criminal record database.
We also sent every video cited in this story to the White House, DHS, CBP, ICE, border czar Tom Homan and Border Patrol’s Gregory Bovino. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin provided a statement responding to some of the incidents we found but she did not explain why agents used banned tactics or whether any of the agents have been disciplined for doing so.
As is traditional for me when I’m sickly enough that all I should do is rest, I have thought of at least five different craft projects I want to do. I have written them down in my fancy planner, so I’ll remember them for when I’m healthier. I may stagger upstairs to grab the supplies for the easiest one and slowly work on it.
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Miss Erzabet No Biting is doing her very best to nursemaid me and keep me pinned to the couch, but is startled every time I have a bout of coughing. I don’t blame her, because I find it pretty alarming, too. I know it’s only day two of the antibiotics and higher dose of prednisone, but I don’t feel any better yet and I’m frustrated about it.
Injustice for Allis a weekly series about how the Trump administration is trying to weaponize the justice system—and the people who are fighting back.
Welcome back to another week of the Trump administration’s war on America—led by one of its most loyal soldiers, Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The Department of Justice has been a busy little bee as of late, what with all the suing and being sued. Oh, and let’s not forget the terrorizing of Minnesota, of course.
DOJ to judges: Don’t tell us what to do
In its ceaseless quest to keep only the worst, most inexperienced, most Trumpy people in U.S. attorney roles, the DOJ has a new motto: Screw you, judges.
That’s pretty much the argument being made by the DOJ as to why, after a federal judge ruled that Lindsey Halligan was never legally in her interim U.S. attorney role, Halligan has nonetheless kept signing pleadings as “United States attorney and special attorney.”
Lindsey Halligan
When ordered by a judge to explain herself, everyone’s least favorite insurance lawyer-turned-Trump hatchetperson filed an absolutely whiny and spittle-flecked response. Her legal theory? Well, it’s twofold.
First, it’s that, since the DOJ says Halligan was properly appointed, she is—so there:
“It is the United States’ position that Ms. Halligan was properly appointed as interim United States Attorney … That Judge Currie dismissed two indictments based on her disagreement with that position does not prevent the United States from otherwise maintaining it,” the response said.
It … kind of does prevent you? Like, that’s sort of the whole point of a judge’s order?
The DOJ’s second genius claim is that, for a judge to ever say that a U.S. attorney might be subject to the same sort of discipline as any other lawyer who violates multiple ethical rules, it’s “a gross abuse of power and an affront to the separation of powers.”
The Trump administration’s constant invocation of the separation of powers is equal parts wearying and disingenuous, given that it really means it can ignore the other branches of government, and neither branch can do anything about it.
DOJ to judges: We mean it, don’t tell us what to do
Remember when the Third Circuit Court of Appeals told Alina Habba that, yes, actually, the lower court did not stutter, and the administration could not just keep her in the role of U.S. attorney in New Jersey indefinitely without having her confirmed by the Senate?
Well, the administration is back and demanding the full court to rehear the case … for reasons.
Those reasons boil down to arguing that the Federal Vacancies Reform Act doesn’t mean what it says it means, and that the DOJ can keep unqualified stooges like Habba without a Senate confirmation. How? Because Bondi can “delegate” her authority to anyone, and she wants it delegated to Habba, so there.
Sure, whatever.
Utah judge to DOJ: I will tell you what to do
A cartoon by Clay Bennett.
It’s time for another U.S. attorney disqualification!
This is the … hmm, let’s see … sixth disqualification. SIXTH.
U.S. attorneys keep being found to be illegally in their roles because Trump knows that they won’t make it through a Senate confirmation, so he keeps trying to stitch together temporary appointments.
So now New Mexico’s Ryan Ellison joins the inauspicious ranks of Alina Habba, Bill Essayli, Sigal Chattah, and Lindsey Halligan—all of whom have been told to stop cosplaying as U.S. attorneys.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge David Nuffer of Utah told Ellison that, no, he also could not stay indefinitely in an interim role that is limited by law to 120 days. Nevertheless, Ellison is still running around bragging that he’s “the top federal prosecutor in New Mexico” as he gets to stay on as first assistant anyway.
Of course.
Oregon judge to DOJ: I will also tell you what to do
A federal judge in Oregon has sided with the state over the DOJ’s attempt to get access to complete, unredacted voter data.
The DOJ had sued Oregon, along with several other states, demanding unredacted voter rolls as part of its open and obvious goals of suppressing votes and attacking immigrants. The state moved to dismiss the suit, and on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai granted the motion.
Given that providing this level of access to voter rolls is illegal in many states—and given that the Constitution explicitly gives states the right to regulate elections—many states have refused. But come on, that won’t stop this DOJ.
You can expect the Trump administration to race to the court of appeals to whine about how unfair this is any day now.
DOJ to Minnesota: We will tell you what to do, and we are not sending our best
Not content to just surge trigger-happy federal agents to Minnesota, the DOJ is now going to pile 25 military lawyers into the state as special U.S. assistant attorneys.
This is not a new technique for the Trump administration, nor, regrettably, are military lawyers barred from being civilian prosecutors. This is how U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro sought to fill her thinned-out ranks after the massive exodus of actually qualified federal
Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus stand beside a photo of Renee Good, who was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.
prosecutors.
There’s no doubt that this is, in part, because the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office just lost six top prosecutors who refused to participate in the disgusting attempt to criminally investigate Renee Good’s widow, Becca Good.
But it’s also pretty clear that the office is gearing up to make sure that federal agents get to commit crimes, while Minnesota residents get jammed up with charges.
Shoving military lawyers in as immigration judges was clearly designed to get more deportations done faster rather than engage in actual judging.
One lawyer, Christopher Day, seemed to believe that his job was to evaluate things fairly and grant asylum when appropriate. So, of course, the administration fired him.
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia got into it with CNBC host Joe Kernen on Monday while criticizing President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement tactics.
Rep. James Comer of Kentucky and other House Oversight Committee Republicansheld a ramshackle press conference Wednesday, where they were badgered mercilessly about the toothless nature of their Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
In an interview on “CBS Evening News,” Trump mocked anchor Tony Dokoupil for having a job due to the network’s rightward shift following the 2024 election. The exchange comes as it was revealed that the network’s ratings have collapsed under the new conservative regime.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollinsoffered up a strikingly paltry $3 meal plan under the Trump administration’s new Make America Healthy Againfood pyramid.
According to Rollins, the administration claims that the plan will save Americans money—regardless of the fact that her meal isn’t going to fill anyone’s stomach.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt lost herChristian cool during a press conference, when a reporter asked howRenee Good being “shot in the head and killed by an ICE agent” fits with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's assertion that ICE agents are "doing everything correctly."
Republicans just can’t quit former President Joe Biden.
House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared on Fox News Wednesday morning, where he was asked about Trump’sefforts to gaslight the public by calling affordability a “hoax.”
We have subsidized Denmark, and all of the Countries of the European Union, and others, for many years by not charging them Tariffs, or any other forms of remuneration. Now, after Centuries, it is time for Denmark to give back — World Peace is at stake! China and Russia want Greenland, and there is not a thing that Denmark can do about it. They currently have two dogsleds as protection, one added recently. Only the United States of America, under PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP, can play in this game, and very successfully, at that! Nobody will touch this sacred piece of Land, especially since the National Security of the United States, and the World at large, is at stake. On top of everything else, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, The United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and Finland have journeyed to Greenland, for purposes unknown. This is a very dangerous situation for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Planet. These Countries, who are playing this very dangerous game, have put a level of risk in play that is not tenable or sustainable. Therefore, it is imperative that, in order to protect Global Peace and Security, strong measures be taken so that this potentially perilous situation end quickly, and without question. Starting on February 1st, 2026, all of the above mentioned Countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, The United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and Finland), will be charged a 10% Tariff on any and all goods sent to the United States of America. On June 1st, 2026, the Tariff will be increased to 25%. This Tariff will be due and payable until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland. The United States has been trying to do this transaction for over 150 years. Many Presidents have tried, and for good reason, but Denmark has always refused. Now, because of The Golden Dome, and Modern Day Weapons Systems, both Offensive and Defensive, the need to ACQUIRE is especially important. Hundreds of Billions of Dollars are currently being spent on Security Programs having to do with “The Dome,” including for the possible protection of Canada, and this very brilliant, but highly complex system can only work at its maximum potential and efficiency, because of angles, metes, and bounds, if this Land is included in it. The United States of America is immediately open to negotiation with Denmark and/or any of these Countries that have put so much at risk, despite all that we have done for them, including maximum protection, over so many decades. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
DONALD J. TRUMP
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Surely this will revive the sputtering economy and strengthen our crumbling alliances! But seriously, he won’t stop ruining shit until someone stops him, and right now, only Republicans (in Congress and on the Supreme Court) have the power to stop him. They won’t.
Maybe the EU and other targeted countries dump U.S. Treasury bonds? I have no idea what will happen. But someone needs to punch the bully in the snot locker.
It’s a perennial argument: Does President Donald Trump know he’s lying, or is he just stupid or demented (or both)? For example, does he know he lost the 2020 presidential election, or does he actually believe the falsehoods he spreads about it?
Every once in a while, though, he slips up and tells the truth, revealing that he’s not entirely deluded. One of those moments came on Wednesday, when Trump admitted to Reuters that Republicans are headed for trouble this November.
“It’s some deep psychological thing, but when you win the presidency, you don’t win the midterms,” he said. And rather than lean on his go-to lies—supposed voter fraud or the vast conspiracy he claims robbed him and his party in past elections—he veered straight into authoritarian fantasy: “When you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.”
No one is thinking that except Trump. But everyone is looking at the same numbers he clearly is.
As Trump tries to shore up the GOP’s fragile House majority through norms-busting mid-decade redistricting, the Cook Political Report has shifted its race ratings for 18 seats toward Democrats. The new ratings, published Thursday, look tough for Republicans.
Republicans are favored to take only three Democratic-held seats (North Carolina’s 1st, Maine's 2nd, and Texas’ 35th districts). Beyond that, Republicans have few offensive opportunities, while some of the seats they tried to steal via redistricting remain highly competitive or still lean Democratic.
Democrats in Virginia, whose state capitol is shown here, are getting involved in the mid-decade redistricting fight.
The pressure is even clearer on the Republican side. One GOP-held seat has moved to “Lean Democrat” and should flip in this environment: Nebraska’s 2nd District. And in the “tossup” category, the imbalance is striking: Just four Democratic seats are considered shaky, compared with 14 Republican seats.
And this is early. Unless the political climate unexpectedly shifts in Trump’s favor, more Republican seats should come into play. This cycle already features an extremely high number of congressional retirements. Of the 58 Senate or House members not running for their current seats, 32 are Republicans. Like Trump, they see the writing on the wall—though most aren’t demanding elections be canceled to save themselves.
Meanwhile, the Senate is suddenly, improbably, in play. Democrats are within range of erasing their 53-47 minority.
Their top pickup opportunities are Maine—the only state with a Republican senator that Kamala Harris carried in 2024—and the open seat in North Carolina.
After that, the map gets tougher but still plausible: Alaska, Iowa, Texas, and Ohio. Trump won all of these states by double digits. But the climate is that bad. More of America now affiliates themselves with the Democratic Party, according to Gallup.
Candidates matter, too. In Ohio, former Sen. Sherrod Brown is the star recruit, but Mary Peltola’s Senate run in Alaska is a strong pickup opportunity. She has previously won statewide and narrowly lost her 2024 House reelection in a much harsher environment.
Former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, center, is making his political comeback this year.
Iowa polling is scarce, but the state has been hit hard by Trump’s tariffs, forced deportations, and the elimination of the U.S. Agency for International Development—effectively a farm subsidy program. And in Texas, early polling shows a close race. The state has long been Democrats’ white whale, but maybe this is the cycle ...
Democrats will have to defend seats in Michigan and Georgia, both purple-to-light-red states. In a Republican wave year, those would be tough holds. In a cycle where Democrats have outperformed by double digits in special elections, holding them becomes far more manageable.
Which brings us back to Trump fantasizing about canceling elections. He knows what’s coming. He can’t muster the energy to scream about fraud anymore. He knows he’s about to lose his compliant Congress, and he knows that a Democratic majority will get deeply into his—and his family’s—business. Another impeachment would be all but inevitable. And—hot take—if Republicans lose badly enough, some may even join in, desperate to rid themselves of the stench.
What Trump gets wrong, even in his moment of lucidity, is that this isn’t “psychological.” It’s material. Prices are still high. Wages aren’t keeping up. He promised affordability on Day 1, then pivoted to threatening Greenland, stealing Venezuela’s oil, demolishing the White House without a plan, promoting cryptocurrency scams, cozying up to dictators, potentially installing marble armrests at the Kennedy Center, renaming the cultural center, and sending federal agents to swarm American cities.
He’s so furious that affordability—the thing that got him elected—is hurting him that he’s started calling it a “hoax” and repeating the same mistake that doomed former President Joe Biden: refusing to acknowledge the public’s economic distress. All the while, Trump remains in violation of the law by refusing to release the full government files on accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. By slow-walking them instead, he’s dragging out the pain—for himself and his party.
This will be a bad year to be a Republican. Trump knows it. His party knows it. And that’s why he’s daydreaming about a future without elections—because elections are about to put the brakes on all this madness.
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balloon_juice_feedhoopy frood
(@huwupy.kawaii.social) January 9, 2026 at 2:23 AM
@rusudandjakeli.bsky.social Day 416
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The group behind the attack consisted of Colombian and Cuban nationals living in Russia. They had previously attempted similar arson attacks in Poland, Romania, and the Czech Republic, targeting oil infrastructure, construction warehouses, buses, a post office, and even a cinema.
Special Kherson Cat
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Protests in Denmark and Greenland against US plans.
Trump has imposed tariffs on EU countries for supporting Greenland independence
I visited HOME: Faith, Hope, and Love – Ukrainian Children Tell Their Stories in Art.
These works are heartbreaking and powerful. They’re not “just drawings”, they’re evidence of what war does to children, and a reminder that we must never look away from Russia’s crimes against Ukraine.
If you’re in London, please go. The exhibition is open until 25 January at St art gallery (36 Eastcastle Street).
