Sometimes even God needs a bit of a makeover. Michelangelo's "Last Judgment", a Renaissance masterwork in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel that depicts the Second Coming of Jesus, is undergoing its first restoration in 30 years. @reuters.com

"She sustained a torn rotator cuff, concussion and bruised ribs during the incident and received medical treatment at a hospital..." www.salemreporter.com/2026/01/31/u...

NEW: This isn't about "training." The two agents who murdered Alex Pretti - Jesus Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez - have been with Border Patrol for 8 and 12 years respectively. You can't reform CBP. Abolish ICE/CBP. www.propublica.org/article/alex...

An important read

It should not take a court order to get a toddler out of a prison.

The arrests of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort underscore the gravity of this moment. This has never happened before in our history. We shouldn't pretend it's normal. More reason for us to hold the line and demand a DHS budget that stops funding lawlessness.

MINNESOTA — Mom goes outside to warm up her car, ICE grabs her: "Please, my car kids are all alone in the house!” So nothing has changed and Homan was just to put a new face on the cruelty, got it (H/T longtimehistory)

Important. There has not been a deescalation.

@schumer.senate.gov this may be a start, but it is not enough.

The officer who shot Alex worked for DHS for 8 years. The officer who shot Renee worked for DHS for over 10 years. Both are considered “highly trained.” The problem isn’t "training." DHS was built to violate our rights and has been empowered to act with impunity. We must MELT ICE and dismantle DHS.

Cardinal Tobin regarding ICE funding: "I think if we are serious about putting our faith in action, we need to say 'no,' each one of us. What saying ‘no’ looks like today is by telling the truth about what is happening and honoring those whose lives are upended.” www.ncronline.org/news/cardina...

Two statements that are compatible. a. I don't think concealed carry is a good policy. b. I do not believe that someone carrying a gun in compliance with a state's gun laws gives federal law enforcement the right to murder them.

Snow @ the beach

Walz: "To Americans who are watching this, I've got a question for you: What side do you want to be on? The side of an all powerful federal govt that can kill, injury, menace, & kidnap its citizens off the streets? Or on the side of a nurse at the VA hospital who died bearing witness to such govt?"

“The peasants you kill are your own brothers and sisters. … No soldier is obliged to obey a law contrary to the law of God. In the name of God, in the name of our tormented people, I beseech you, I implore you; in the name of God I command you to stop the repression.” - St. Óscar Romero

This is such an important point. That 5-year-old and his dad should never been detained in the first place! That's because they were already in the system and going through the legal process to seek asylum — and their arrest was seemingly just to juice ICE's numbers.

Nasra Ahmed, a 23-year-old US citizen, was arrested and detained by ICE. She was held for TWO DAYS. ICE agents handcuffed her, called her a racial slur, and she was knocked to the ground so hard she got a concussion. This cannot continue happening. ICE needs to leave.

@hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social @democrats.senate.gov any democrat who does actively block funding for this - should be primaried & replaced.

A woman with no criminal record and pending asylum case arrested by ICE after dropping children at school. Reporting from @themainemonitor.org themainemonitor.org/mother-of-4-...

Thank you @chrismurphyct.bsky.social for doing your job & standing up for the people. I wish more @democrats.senate.gov were doing so too.

I have asked multiple people in the administration and around Trumpworld what is up with these “simulations,” and no one has any idea what Brooke Rollins is talking about

Carney: "American hegemony in particular helped provide public goods, a stable financial system... this bargain no longer works. Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition... recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as a weapon. Tariffs as leverage ... "

Here's the message: Trump is terrorizing our communities with a campaign of inhumane un-American ICE brutality - and he's paying for it by raising health premiums on 20 million Americans. Effective because it's 💯 true.

Bishop Seitz: “I make an urgent plea today that the government and immigration enforcement pull back from the edge and respect the sanctity of every human life, the constitutional and civil rights guaranteed to all in this country…

Renee Good had a pulse when EMS arrived. I’m not sure it would have made a difference if ICE had let that civilian physician render aid before EMS arrived, but now we will never know. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

A group of Senators met with the Foreign Minsters of Denmark and Greenland and it was so maddening. People in our country are losing their health care, facing price hikes on everything - and Trump is prepping an invasion of Greenland. Here's what I learned in the meeting.

They have quite an operation going. www.mprnews.org/episode/2026...

The thing is, some people can make mistakes, get things wrong, be careless, etc. But that’s not what Jennings did here. Jennings knowingly, purposefully and intentionally lied to utterly distort what was said, which CNN pays him to do every day. CNN is the enabler of this.

“You can’t treat children like this, you can’t treat people like this. We were able to stand up for them. We were able to convince people about the fact that this was unethical.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Truth

Breaking NYT: The Pentagon used a secret aircraft painted to look like a civilian plane in its first boat attack, according to officials briefed on the matter. The laws of armed conflict forbid combatants from feigning civilian status. That is a war crime called "perfidy."

AOC: “I understand that VP Vance believes shooting a young mother of three in the face three times is an acceptable America that he wants to live in, & I do not — That is a fundamental difference between VP Vance & I — I do not believe the American people should be assassinated in the street”

Pope Leo decried the use of military force as a means of achieving diplomatic goals on Friday, delivering an unusually fiery annual foreign policy speech in which he also called for human rights to be respected in Venezuela. For @reuters.com:

About 33.5 million pilgrims came to Rome in 2025 for the Catholic Holy Year, Vatican and Italian officials said on Monday, marking a record number of yearly visitors and a boon for local tourist shops, museums and restaurants. For @reuters.com

Democratic leadership be like:

Pope Leo said in a Christmas Eve sermon that the story of Jesus being born in a stable because there was no room at an inn should remind Christians that refusing to help the poor and strangers today is tantamount to rejecting God himself. For @reuters.com

"The hospital was understaffed, and people in the camp were so anemic that they couldn’t get enough blood donations. [Dr.] Otieno had twice donated himself while he was midsurgery in order to save a pregnant woman’s life." @annamaria.bsky.social on the real-world damage done by Trump's aid cuts:

This 👇& also its shocking how many act like it is exceedingly brave & they arent brave enough to simply call out & condemn white supremacy 🤦‍♀️

"Babies in the randomized, controlled trial will or will not receive the vaccine at birth... "It is a breach of scientific ethics to withhold an intervention that has been proven safe and effective." www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

They are all such cowards

Flu’s link to cardiovascular disease shows why vaccination is essential www.nature.com/articles/d41... @ashishkjha.bsky.social "...we now have clear evidence that flu vaccination significantly reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke, and death owing to cardiovascular disease..." #VaccinesWork

A couple more thoughts on the HepB vaccine trial in Guinea-Bissau that RFK Jr. just funded. -A single-blind study is concerning -The endpoints are unclear, setting up an opportunity for p-hacking -The U.S. should be funding expanded use of the HepB birth dose in G-B and not experimenting

An important thread on medical research ethics:

NEW: When the Trump administration took away her family’s food this summer, Rose Natabo had to choose which of her three sons to care for — who ate and who didn’t. By Brett Murphy & @annamaria.bsky.social, photography by Brian Otieno

A story that should shock our collective conscience: After Trump Cuts to Kenya Food Aid, Children Died of Starvation

I'll post some related things later, but this is kind of a big story: religionnews.com/2025/12/12/d...

Armed ICE agents trapped US citizens in a restaurant and demanded their papers. Federal agents walked into East African restaurants in Cedar-Riverside, MN. They closed and blocked the doors. Then they demanded to see everyone’s papers. Every person present was a US citizen.

Prayers especially for the vulnerable on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

This is worth your time. I can't recall the last time a Catholic prelate got so much natl airtime & described a church anybody would be proud to be in. In these terrible times, something is happening. Chicago's Archbishop weighs in on a year of immigration enforcement www.npr.org/2025/12/10/n...