It’s so cold in Lake County, you can see frost forming on the feathers outside of this red-shouldered hawk’s eye. #birds #birding #wildlife #nature #photography #naturephotography #wildlifephotography

The term martyr means “witness.” The man was murdered for bearing witness, literally bearing it, not arms but a camera. Murdered for seeing.

As best I can reckon, *everything* DHS/Noem /Leavitt /Bovino have ever said after shooting or other ICE/CBP violence has quickly been shown to be a lie. (Renee Good "running over" ICE, "domestic terrorist," etc.) Anyone recall a case where their immediate reaction turned out to be true?

Café. Looking up from my notebook to see two friends talking about yoga in a ping-y, fun conversation, when one picks up her phone casually, like to check the time or something, & then she goes quiet & hands it across the table, & then the friend goes quiet. & then I watch the news spread—a fire.

“The art and architecture of these endangered properties manifest the good that happens when the government puts the American worker first, as it did when these were conceived in the Works Progress Administration."

And Babies?

A Book

Chicago Cultural Center.

As you can see here, they entered *legally*. These are *legal immigrants*. They did things "the right way." This administration then either changes the law or violates the law to call people "illegal." This is unconscionable, but most people don't understand this...

Illinois bison …

The 6th chapter, near the center of this 12-part poem, bears the title for the whole thing : SHIELD OF MNEMOSYNE. Here's a short poem from that chapter.

Flying over and above Lake Michigan’s frozen, fractured, and steaming surface. #Chicago

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.

Winter Trees

“When the fragility of others penetrates our hearts, when their pain shatters our rigid certainties, then peace has already begun. The peace of God is born from a newborn’s cry that is welcomed, from weeping that is heard ...”

“I’m seeing our nation become more and more fascist before my eyes — I saw it. I saw it. I mean, demanding papers? I never thought I would live in a country like this.”

"People in the US did not eat much chicken—only about ten pounds per person a year—until 1940. During World War II, the government wanted red meat for the troops and rationed it for civilians, who were encouraged to eat chicken and eggs instead."

TODAY, Friday January 23rd, 2026: We are ALL residents of Minnesota. We ALL want #ICE_OutForGOOD 🚫 🧊 Also: #ICE_OUT4ReneeGood 💔

"The organizers demand ICE exit Minnesota, that Renee Good’s killer face justice, that Congress refuse to further fund ICE and investigate its violations of the law, and that corporate America cut ties with ICE and refuse federal agents access to their properties."

"This statement is the product of an episcopate that is broken beyond repair; any other moral proclamations they can try to make, any other teachings they attempt to pass on, can be countered with a simple 'well you got this easy thing wrong, so how can I trust you to get this other thing right?'"

"At home one does not speak so that people will understand but because people understand." Ernst Fuchs

Help us make hope normal again. Join the Green Party now.

"If Europe and China and India are all headed towards renewables, where does that leave America? It leaves it as a flailing state, whose leaders try to intimidate reason."

Special Counsel Jack Smith in his Opening Remarks:

Some good conversation ...

Jack Smith: "My fear is that we have seen the rule of law function in our country for so long that many of us have come to take it for granted. The rule of law is not self-executing. It depends on our collective commitment to apply it."

"Trump’s collapse at Davos teaches us that he is a paper tiger who folds in the face of resistance. We are on the right path. We must continue our resistance on a grander scale. If we can do that, we can rein in Trump long before the midterms."

They shipped off a five year old wearing a hat with rabbit ears to detention in Texas.

This thread ...

Wonder Run

Massed Fleabane

The Columbia Heights school district says ICE detained four of its students, including a 5-year-old boy, as "bait" to draw out family members.

Trump: “I don’t need international law” (January 8, 2026) Catholics associated with his regime should note:

Frog put the cookies in a box. “There,” he said. “Now we will not eat any more cookies.” “But we can open the box,” said Toad. “That is true,” said Frog.

if two people are already restraining someone physically while spraying their face with pepper spray, that is torture, plain and simple. no debate to be had about it

Only Paper

Pope to media: “In a fragmented and polarized world, be the antennae that pick up and relay what the weak, marginalized, lonely, and those who need to know the joy of feeling loved, are experiencing.” www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news...

Remarkable. Lucid. Needed. @mark-carney.bsky.social names the moment, leans heavily on the wisdom of Thucydides and Havel. The American Century firmly is over. youtu.be/dTvFnC-oFGw?...

Pope Leo at General Audience: “Let us pray for peace at a moment in history that seems marked by a growing loss of respect for the value of human dignity and in which war has come back into fashion." www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news...

"Barbaric cruelty in the news from back home, meanwhile I was tucked into bed and an alarm button put in my hand."

Friday … standing & sitting with Minnesota.

Americans are realizing that unfettered federal power to detain and arrest is a very dangerous thing. I learned that lesson as a child when they put us into internment camps just for looking like the enemy. Don’t go further down this road.

David Dark has a new series of thinking/wondering things—some longer than others but mostly short—here's the latest, but you might wnt to start with the first.

"The biggest miscalculation of the Trumpists was, as I've been saying all year, about human nature. They assume we're all selfish and cowardly and can be cowed into silence or submission or surrender ... They're wrong."

"... may we treat one another with kindness, and may we finally awaken"

Charley Harper, "Darwin's Finches", from "The Giant Golden Book of Biology", 1961