So, last night MAGA friend told me that there was no point to Holocaust remembrance events as "no one really cares about that anymore." When I stared at him in shocked horror, he said I was "out of touch." The path from alt-right to antisemitic is real, strong, and happening here in Portland, OR.

Something I have also wondered about: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/t...

A major newspaper publishing guide to help people identify the munitions their government is using against them is a real "Late Republic America" timepeice that future historians will comment on.

Back when I was more active in racial justice protests in red parts of rural WA, in the first Trump administration, I saw counterprotestors with handguns and rifles all the time. Brandished in order to make us compliant and afraid. Part of the reason I stopped going out.

Thinking about this today. MAGA friend has a friend who is asking why libraries don't stock some conspiracy coded self published books. I said it's because we tend not to buy self published works due to quality. He told me that was censorship and we didn't want people to learn about the truth.

One thing about menopause is that my migraines have shifted from a classic style headache with severe pain, light sensitivity and nausea that lasts for about 24 hours to an aura style where I effectively go blind for 20 minutes but have minimal pain, nausea, etc. Not sure this is better.

This is your reminder that Hungarian-Jewish scientist George de Hevesy dissolved two Nobel Prizes in aqua regia to keep them out of the hands of the Nazis. He then left the dissolved solution on his shelf and fled to Sweden. (After the war he un-dissolved the gold and the prizes were re-cast.)

Who wore it better?

Oof. Relatable.

Yesterday I went to a gathering focused on civil discourse and depolarization. I like to go because it's an opportunity to talk to other people about differences and realize we CAN talk to one another. It's pretty Pollyanna but I like it. Anyhow, my MAGA friend's friends have discovered this group.

New season of Blackadder is gonna be lit bsky.app/profile/pete...

Biking to work on January 14th in Portland, Oregon. Seems wrong somehow (because I am a fair-weather biker, in no way hardcore)

I have gone down a Derrida/Arendt wormhole on lies and memory and meaning and I LOVE it #howphdshavefun

The library's website is down and for the first time in twenty years it's not my problem 🎉

This woman is harder than goddamn steel dealing with these goddamn thugs. I want her to be my neighbor.

Born with the Spokane but the Clark Fork in my heart. The Willamette, currently.

@garbageday.email pointed me toward this video in their last newsletter. A doordasher pursued by ICE going into a woman's home, and ICE threatening them both. The sheriff saying that the best course of action is to comply. We are truly all alone. www.tiktok.com/@stormibabyy...

I think about this quote from the Luddite movement all the time

I love that he's gone full Montanan

So let me get this straight. I can't even wear a button supporting a candidate as a government worker or indicate any political preference, but these dudes can block elected officials from entering places they're legally allowed to be just because they don't agree with their politics?

Government by Alex Jones sums it up well

In case you're wondering, the MAGA fans in my orbit are explaining the Mpls shooting as a false flag to engineer authoritarian crackdowns and digital IDs when the Democrats seize power.

Vigil/press conference featuring six city councilors ends with an “abolish ICE” chant and the Portland crows circling overhead.

ICE in Portland shooting people now

This is excellent coverage: it gives readers context beyond the specific incident, showing a pattern of excessive force, and also documents that DHS keeps using the same and increasingly debunked explanations. Much better than both sidesing the shooting.

HuffPost has obtained a video of a physician trying to give medical care to the woman shot and killed by ICE goons today, and not being allowed to go near her. The ICE agents claim there are medics on site, but witnesses scream that there are no medics present

The people accusing Renee Good of being a domestic terrorist treated Kyle Rittenhouse as a hero.

Minneapolis.

Walz earlier "What we are seeing is the consequence of governance designed to generate fear, headlines and conflict." Adds: "It's governing by reality TV and today that recklessness cost someone their life."

A 23 year old larping as a journalist made a misleading and inaccurate YouTube video that the administration full of chronically online shitposters used to justify the “largest immigration operation ever” and now someone is dead

He is a Putin's propagandist, who hates Americans, Ukrainians and Russians at the same time

My dog and I walked past this the other day

Interesting. I've had MAGA friends tell me that the child sex crime accusations are part of a blackmail scheme employed by the 'elites' (a la Epstein) against opposition and that it's coercive control

Been thinking a lot about the real damage done by the mainstream adoption of conspiracy theories, and I think this article captures the deepest harm, the widespread resentment that they lock into and perpetuate: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/u... This is IMO what's tearing us all apart.

#BestOf2025, from @stevanzetti.bsky.social: The Texas Observer revealed that ICE Assistant Chief Counsel James Rodden operated "GlomarResponder," a white supremacist account on the social network X.

all meaning has collapsed in our post-literate society and i wrote a bunch of useless, useless words about it. read it if you, like me, are one of a diminishing minority who still reads www.theverge.com/policy/84960...

I'm confused because from what I understood this was pandemic era fraud and fully investigated, with 90-some people charged. And now because some MAGA idiot with a camera has livestreamed himself being a jerk with no reading comprehension, we're shutting down funding?

Reminds me of the folks who'd come into libraries where I used to work and ask me about how much money I earned and how much we spent on 'dirty books' while videoing me.

Love it. More of this please.

More about Nick Shirley's latest:

An essential development over the past decade-plus is that the ignorant went from feeling chastened when their ignorance was revealed to banding together and deciding that, actually, they were right. They might disagree at times, but they agreed that ignorance itself was an indicator of trust.

MAGA friend watched Nick Shirley's latest video this morning, which frames the pandemic era fraudulent situations in MN as currently actively happening and also adds a number of zeros. I sent him some actual information that he's sure to discard as lies some time in the next few minutes.

Hopefully none of you are in the position of wondering who the hell listens to Candace Owens, but if you are, this was a really good explainer: www.currentaffairs.org/news/candace...

Went to Powells on Burnside on my lunch break and found the book I was looking for within five minutes, like a badass. Your definition of badass may vary.

"10:30 A.M. Send another overdue notice to the impish man who checked out 'Tom Sawyer' months ago and listed last known address as 'Heaven.' Men like this are why I’m a single spinster."

idk if i was the zodiac killer i simply wouldn’t run for public office

Good morning You've made it, this is the shortest day of the year. From here on the days get lighter and longer May this Solstice and turning of the wheel bring you love, peace, and good fortune in the coming year. Let us welcome the returning sun with Hope and Joy. May you never thirst! 🌱💚

aaargh. this is appalling and we really need to put checks in place for this kind of academic malfeasance. AI is very good at fucking with already metricized and formulaic data. as usual, AI shit is just making *more* work for us 😡

The algorithm served this to me and it was delightful: