Good Day, Newsies! What a year this week has been. I am struggling to write this intro because WTF.
We are human and the escalating events can temporarily freak us out. That’s understandable. And then we have to recall that humanity has gone through stuff like this (and far worse) over and over again throughout history.
But that doesn’t make the unnecessary, brutal losses any less tragic.
So how do we recover from the repeated shocks and carry on?
I don’t know what will work for every person, but what I do know is that we must come to terms with the reality we are living. There’s no point wishing things were different, because they are what they are. There’s no point bewailing how we got here or who is to blame or whether we can ever forgive.
We just have to save our energy to push back against this evil with every bit of our strength.
And people are pushing back. Even though the naked brutality of the Republican goon squads has been laid bare for all to see, people are standing up, speaking out, marching, protesting, insisting that we are free people who will not bow to tyranny.
You’ll find lots of examples in today’s GNR from just the past few days of people standing up.
We have a long road in front of us, and some of it will be through some very dark places, and yet I already feel a change in the air. A sense of, “Hell no, we won’t knuckle under!”.
We are on the side of Good, our cause is righteous and there are far more of us than there are of them.
Take breaks when you need them and then find what you can do and do it.
It may take some time, but we will win this fight and we will build a better world for future generations. Let’s get to work.
🗽 We, the people, will right this ship
Who We Call "We" Couldn't Matter More, Shira Gabriel PhD, Many Ways to Belong, January 12, 2026.
Here is what we are seeing: Americans are including their marginalized and terrified neighbors in their definition of “we.”
Because what this comes down to is who we include in “we.” Enormous amounts of research shows that people will often to wonderful things to help people who are included in “we” but very little for those who they see as “they.” And the wonderful, amazing, and beautiful thing that has happened is that more and more of us are expanding our concepts of “we” to include people with less power. People different from us. People who are marginalized.
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"The Twin Cities-based Immigrant Defense Network says the group has trained 2,000 observers so far, including 354 people the day after Good was killed.
“We tell people: You have a right to record. If ICE tells you not to, just back up — but keep recording..."
www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
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— Rachel Maddow (@maddow.bsky.social) January 12, 2026 at 1:26 PM
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"The veteran said he saw volunteering as an ICE observer as another way of serving his country.
'It’s the most American thing to do: not to be scared of people trying to scare you...
This is a pivotal moment we’ll be asked about by our kids, "Where were you?"
www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
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— Rachel Maddow (@maddow.bsky.social) January 12, 2026 at 1:12 PM
And a reminder of cold hard facts:
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So to return to this: Mussolini had 200,000 blackshirts for the March on Rome in a country of ~35m. Hitler had 400,000 brownshirts in 1932 in Germany for a population of ~60m.
So around 0.6% of the population.
0.6% of 340m Americans is just over 2 million.
They do not have enough goons.
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— "Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux (@bretdevereaux.bsky.social) January 9, 2026 at 12:45 PM
Also, stay human 😁
🗽 “Comfort is temporary. Commitment is not.” Robert Arnold
Democrats Are Great
Speaker Jeffries (😁) — who kept his nerve last fall during the Republican shutdown, and kept the House Democrats strong — succeeded in doing an end run around the SINO squeaker Johnson, bringing enough Republicans onside to repudiate the badministration on the ACA subsidies:
Turns Out the Obamacare Subsidy Extension Was Only Mostly Dead, Jonathan Cohn, the Bulwark, January 11, 2026.
The final count was 230 to 196, which qualifies as a big win in today’s polarized, mostly party-line congressional environment. In any other week, it would have dominated the news, although the outcome isn’t as surprising as it might seem. Nearly all of the House Republicans who voted for the extension on Thursday are seeking re-election in closely contested districts where, you can safely assume, they are hearing from angry constituents.
But it also wouldn’t have happened without the persistence of key advocacyorganizations and Democratic politicians like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the veteran congressman from New York. Jeffries was as responsible as anybody for making health care a focus of the shutdown—a decision that drew plenty of skepticism—and then for keeping his caucus united around demands for a clean extension.
Needling Trump as 2028 Looms: Inside JB Pritzker’s All-of-the-Above Media Strategy, Ben Szalinski and Brendan Moore, WTTW, January 12, 2026.
While sitting for his second Fox News interview of 2025 in late October, Gov. JB Pritzker made a plain observation about President Donald Trump, who earlier that day derided Illinois' billionaire chief executive as “weak” and “pathetic.”
“It seems like I live rent free in his head,” Pritzker told host Bret Baier on one of the president’s favorite news networks. “He talks about me all the time just spontaneously.”
Pritzker and Trump did not speak directly in 2025, but they regularly exchange barbs through television cameras and social media. Pritzker is among Trump’s most pugnacious critics and has likened his return to power to the rise of Nazism in 1930s Germany.✂️
The governor’s strategy of needling Trump has opened him up to criticism, with some arguing that it places Illinois in the administration’s crosshairs, whether through frozen federal funding and threatened troop deployments to the state’s streets, among other consequences that might be avoided through a more cooperative approach.
But Pritzker and his team say their posture is shaped by their dealings with Trump during the pandemic, when — even after the governor said he would publicly praise the president — the administration failed to deliver life-saving medical equipment it had promised.
The lesson from this fool-me-once moment they say was unmistakable: Don’t cut deals with Trump and don’t expect appeasement to buy protection.
Mark Kelly Hits Defense Secretary Hegseth With Major Lawsuit, Hafiz Rashid, The New Republic, January 12, 2026.
Senator Mark Kelly has decided enough is enough with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and filed a lawsuit against him in federal court Monday.
Kelly sued Hegseth, the DoD, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan, and the U.S. Department of the Navy over Hegseth’s attempts to punish the Arizona senator. Hegseth has censured Kelly and moved to reduce his retirement grade and military pension after he appeared in a video message in November with other former service members in Congress advising military personnel to refuse to follow illegal orders from the Trump administration.✂️
“The Constitution does not permit the government to announce the verdict in advance and then subject Senator Kelly or anyone else to a nominal process designed only to fulfill it,” Kelly said in the lawsuit.
Hegseth is attempting to punish a sitting member of the Senate for criticizing the president, which already goes against the Constitution and separation of powers, something Kelly highlighted in his lawsuit.
Elizabeth Warren’s Plan for a Revived Democratic Party, Elizabeth Warren, the Nation, January 12, 2026.
Democrats win when we show we’re willing to fight. That means that even when we fail, we leave everything on the field. One moment in 2025 when voters actually saw Democrats fighting for them was the government shutdown. We refused to rubber-stamp Trump’s budget unless he rolled back his health care cuts—and we said so loudly and unapologetically every single day. And yeah, a small group of moderate Democrats ended up blinking, so we didn’t get the health care wins we could have. But public polling shows that voters supported us putting up a real fight to actually lower their costs.
We win when we run on the big changes it will take to build an economy for everyone. We win when we call out corruption and bad actors. We win when we stand against the avalanche of corporate money trying to bury our democracy. We win when we stop members of Congress from buying and selling individual stocks and cryptocurrencies while they are writing laws that affect those very assets.
Illinois Democratic leadership saying H*ll no to ICE/CBP: Illinois and Chicago sue DHS over ‘militarized’ immigration-enforcement tactics, Jason Meisner and Jack O’Connor, Chicago Tribune, January 12, 2026.
Saying immigration agents have acted more like an occupying military force than law enforcement, lawyers for the state of Illinois and Chicago sued the Trump administration in federal court Monday seeking to bar agents from using tear gas without sufficient warning, making warrantless arrests, and randomly stopping people to question them about their citizenship.
The 103-page lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court also seeks to ban agents from immigration enforcement operations from “sensitive” areas such as schools, courthouses and hospitals, and limit the use of “biometric” scanning of fingerprints and other personal information.
This lawsuit is one of around 50 Raoul has signed onto against Trump since the president’s second term began in January 2025.✂️
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker similarly spoke out against ICE and CBP’s tactics in Chicago and said in a post on X that the state was “standing up for our people.”
Minnesota:
Minnesota and the Twin Cities sue the federal government to stop the immigration crackdown, Rebecca Santana and Mark Vancleave, AP, January 12, 2026.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The state of Minnesota and the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are suing the federal government to stop an enforcement surge by Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE officer.
The state and cities filed a lawsuit in federal court on Monday, along with a request for a temporary restraining order to halt the enforcement action or limit the operation.
The Department of Homeland Security says it’s surging more than 2,000 immigration officers into Minnesota, and that it has made more than 2,000 arrests in the city since the push began last month. ICE has called the Minnesota surge its largest enforcement operation ever.
The lawsuit alleges that Operation Metro Surge violates federal law because it’s arbitrary and capricious, since it says other states aren’t seeing commensurate crackdowns. And while the Trump administration says it’s about fighting fraud, the lawsuit says ICE agents have no expertise in combatting fraud in government programs.
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Frey: "You cannot drag pregnant women through the snow. You're not allowed to take teenagers out of their car and detain them when they are in fact American citizens. That is against the law in every state. That is against our US Constitution."
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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 12, 2026 at 3:51 PM
Big news from Alaska!
Senate Democrat taking no guff:
And House Democrats:
Fed Chair Powell stands up to intimidation
Republicans/MAGA/45 in Disarray
Trump’s Shrinking Coalition, Jonathan Chait, the Atlantic, January 11, 2026.
trump has expressed bewilderment that his approval ratings could be so low given the breadth of change he has enacted. “I wish you could explain to me what the hell is going on with the mind of the public,” he complained at a recent gathering of House Republicans. “We’ve had the most successful first year of any president in history, and it should be a positive.”
In the president’s mind, he is living his best, Trumpiest life, and the public ought to be rewarding him for it. What he seems not to grasp is that he is losing support in no small part because he is accomplishing so many of his goals.
Winning national elections requires building big coalitions, including with groups that disagree with one another. Trump has a rare and underestimated talent for finessing these internal fissures. His rhetorical style is rambling, dishonest, and inconsistent, which makes it hard to pin him down on specific commitments. As a result, voters often see in him what they want to see.✂️
Trump seems to assume that voters share his own worship of power. His most intense fans may revel in his displays of dominance, but his least attached supporters—the ones who turned him from a loser in 2020 to a winner in 2024—are recoiling.
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ExxonMobil CEO, acknowledging objective reality: Venezuelan oil is dirty, the infrastructure is poor, the security situation is bad, we don't want to invest.
Trump: Oh yeah, then I won't let you invest in Venezuelan oil!
(This is what a flailingly weak leader who doesn't think ahead looks like)
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— Nicholas Grossman (@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social) January 12, 2026 at 10:23 AM
Trump Refuses to Learn His Lesson on Letitia James, Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling, The New Republic, January 12, 2026.
New York’s top cop has become one of the president’s chief legal adversaries since Donald Trump’s bank fraud case, when James successfully proved Trump was guilty of lying to banks. He was ordered to cough up nearly half a billion dollars in 2024—but has yet to do so.✂️
The Justice Department has since tried—and failed—two more times to prosecute James. But Trump’s latest efforts may be a dud thanks to the loud mouths of some of his own staff: In December, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles fessed to Vanity Fair that the president’s flimsy charges against James were his “one retribution,” an admission that would give James’s legal defense plenty of reason to toss his cases against her for eternity.
Trump’s Rage Explodes at GOPers as Their Defiance of Him Visibly Grows, Greg Sargent, The New Republic, January 12, 2026.
The other day, five Senate Republicans helped pass a measure blocking President Trump’s authority to wage war in Venezuela without Congress. That caused Trump to erupt in a crazed fury. He attacked those Republicans by name, fumed that they had weakened his authority, and raged that “they should never be elected to office again.” He even seethed at their “stupidity.” This comes amid other signs of GOP defiance: A number of House Republicans backed extending Affordable Care Act subsidies and other measures Trump opposed. Several GOP senators openly criticized the administration’s handling of the ICE killing in Minneapolis. One slammed Stephen Miller’s comments on Greenland as “stupid.” We talked to Salon’s Amanda Marcotte, who writes well about Trump’s psychoses. We discuss how all this shows Trump’s power isn’t absolute, why he’s so desperate to keep you from realizing that, and why we shouldn’t get psyched out every time he plays tyrant on TV. Listen to this episode here. A transcript is here.
Republican senator vows to block all Fed nominations after DoJ investigates Powell, Joseph Gedeon, the Guardian, January 12, 2026.
Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a member of the banking committee that oversees Fed appointments who is retiring at the end of his term later this year, said Sunday he would oppose any nominee for the Fed, including the upcoming chair vacancy, “until this legal matter is fully resolved”.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC
“If there were any remaining doubt whether advisers within the Trump Administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve, there should now be none,” Tillis wrote on X.
“It is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question.”
Alaska Republican senator Lisa Murkowski said she spoke with Powell Monday morning, writing on X: “it’s clear the administration’s investigation is nothing more than an attempt at coercion” and added that under their reasoning “then Congress needs to investigate the department of justice.”
Panicked Scott Bessent Confronts Trump Over Revenge Probe, Erkki Forster, Daily Beast, January 12, 2026.
President Donald Trump is facing blowback from inside his administration over the Justice Department’s investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confronted Trump in a tense call late on Sunday, telling him the criminal probe “made a mess,” Axios reported.
The former hedge fund manager, 63, reportedly warned the president, 79, that the DOJ’s investigation could rattle financial markets, which depend on the central bank’s independence from political meddling.
Bessent is also frustrated that the investigation appears to have caused Powell, 72, to dig in just months before his term as Fed chair ends in May, Axios reported.
Trump’s Attack on Powell Backfires, Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect, January 12, 2026.
This time, Trump may have met his match. When Trump first raised the allegations, Powell deftly invited the president to the Fed to see the construction for himself. In July, Trump walked into the trap, had a cordial conversation with the Fed chair, and backed off.
Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell
But Powell’s refusal to cut interest rates as deeply as Trump wants and his defense of the Fed as an independent institution have continued to rankle. Last month, Trump threatened to sue to have Powell removed “for incompetence,” a preposterously hollow threat.✂️
Republicans in Congress, who have been reluctant to criticize Trump on other issues, joined in. Rep. French Hill of Arkansas, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, called the inquiry “an unnecessary distraction,” adding that the charges “could undermine this and future Administrations’ ability to make sound monetary policy decisions.”
Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, in a statement on Monday, said he considered Powell a “bad Fed Chair,” but added: “I do not believe, however, he is a criminal.”✂️
If anything, Trump’s clumsy efforts will reinforce the Fed’s independence. It is rare for a Trump vengeance gambit to backfire so quickly and so totally—a sign of both Trump’s impaired judgment and growing isolation.
🌲☀️ To Your Good Health 🥗 🥕
Health tip for the flu
🦠 The Best Flu Drug Americans Aren’t Taking, Sarah Zhang, the Atlantic, January 2026.
The two antivirals are equally effective at allaying symptoms, both shortening the duration of flu by about a day. But Xofluza, which was approved in 2018, offers some tangible benefits over Tamiflu.
First, Xofluza is simply more convenient, a single dose compared with Tamiflu’s 10, which are taken over five days, twice a day. It also causes fewer of the gastrointestinal side effects, such as vomiting and nausea, that patients on Tamiflu will sometimes experience.✂️
Second, Xofluza makes you less contagious to the rest of your family. It drives down the amount of virus spewed by sick patients more quickly than Tamiflu✂️
Third, Xofluza is better at heading off serious post-flu complications such as pneumonia or myocarditis.
Xofluza is noticeably more effective against influenza B than Tamiflu, which tends to falter against this family of viruses.✂️
For healthy people who fall ill, antivirals can ease the burden of flu, which is nasty even when it is not deadly. “I don’t want you to be out of work longer than you need to be. I don’t want you to not be a caregiver for your kids,” Wolfe said. “Maybe you have business travel coming up, and I don’t want you to be sick still on that plane.” With challenges around access to antivirals, he said that “the best drug is the one you can get.” Both Tamiflu and Xofluza can make this historically bad flu season a little more bearable.
For your mental health
Humour: This year, I’m sticking with achievable New Year’s resolutions. Here are a few, Dave Schilling, the Guardian, January 12, 2026.
The one thing that dampens my cheer at being dragged back to my desk for the comfort of drudgery – besides the endless and brutal news headlines – is the New Year’s resolution. The tradition of picking a few things to promise yourself to do (or not do) in the spirit of wellness is centuries old, dating back as far as 2000BC. Not sure what the Babylonians were resolving to do. Tidy up the storage closet in the ziggurat? Finally finish that tower they’d been thinking about? Try not to get sold into slavery (again)?
Most modern New Year’s resolutions are a cause for misery – they’re either things you can’t do (losing weight) or things you don’t want to do (calling your mother more often). They put a dark cloud over what should ideally be a time for reveling in the joy of not being dead yet. How about a few New Year’s resolutions that are positive and easily attainable? I can think of some for you so you don’t have to.
1 See more movies in a theater
2 Start dressing better
3 Start randomly putting your name on things for no reason
4 Stop worrying about what’s in the McRib
My final resolution for you is to forget the things that don’t matter and focus on the things that do. Your loved ones, your health and seeing art. What else is left to do?
The Secret to Happiness, Robert Waldinger, Big Think, December 29, 2025.
Most of us think happiness is something you achieve: status, money, accomplishment. Robert Waldinger’s work asks a more unsettling question: what if happiness is less about what you get and more about who you keep?
Drawing on the longest study of adult life ever conducted, Waldinger traces human wellbeing across 8 decades, from the Great Depression to old age, following people from radically different starting points to see what endures.
0:00 The secret to happiness
2:12 The importance of relationships
3:30 How to study a life
5:19 Can we control our happiness?
6:17 Taking stock of connection
8:20 Childhood lessons and adult repair
11:22 Relationships and emotional regulation
14:41 The impacts of toxic relationships
Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-t...
Cook up some healthy food!
What to cook in January: Feel-good recipes that are light on prep, Camilla Wynne, CBC, January 6, 2026.
I absolutely adore the holiday season and look forward to it all year, but I won’t pretend I’m not a little exhausted come January — and over the rich food. This is the time I look for recipes that are uncomplicated and low on prep, yet craveable and nutritious.
Taking a few minutes before bed to mix up overnight oats or a mango lassi-flavoured chia pudding for breakfast the next morning is an easy way to get some gut-friendly yogurt and fibre in your diet.
For lunch, you could make a double batch of red lentil soup and freeze some for later. Or try a sweet potato and lentil salad — save time by using canned lentils instead. Both recipes feature legumes, a humble ingredient that will fill you up and is often recommended by dieticians.
And don’t forget the snacks, like whole-grain chocolate chip cookies, with a twist that adds flavour and a touch more fibre. Freeze the dough and bake a couple fresh when you’re craving a sweet treat.
If you’re looking for something savoury, a white bean and artichoke dip, packed with protein and fibre, can double as a sandwich filling.
Dinner might be baked fish and “chips,” which swaps french fries for sliced roasted potatoes, or chicken with sweet potatoes and dates. Both meals are nutritious, filling and all you need is a sheet pan.
And finally, treat yourself to a relaxing apple-mint tea to wind down for the day, and congratulate yourself on eating well with no great effort.
(Recipes for these and more at the link!)
How to make Kashmiri chai — plus the secret to that pretty pink hue, Maryam Jillani, CBC, January 12, 2026.
While this Kashmiri chai is comforting year-round, it’s particularly enjoyable in the depths of winter. And since here we are, what better recipe to make right now than this pretty pink tea from Maryam Jillani’s cookbook, Pakistan? Keep a batch of the concentrate on hand so you can simply add milk and heat whenever you’re craving a cup.
Ingredients
4 cups (960 ml) ice-cold water
¼ cup (20 g) loose Kashmiri tea leaves
4 green cardamom pods, cracked
1 star anise (optional)
¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste
¼ teaspoon baking soda
4 cups (960 ml) full-fat milk
Sugar, for sweetening
2 tablespoons roughly crushed pistachios (optional)
Preparation
In a saucepan, bring 2 cups (480 ml) of the ice-cold water to a boil over high heat. Add the tea leaves, cardamom pods, star anise (if using), and salt. Lower the heat to medium and cook for about 15 minutes until the liquid reduces by half.
Stir in the baking soda and, once it foams, start aerating the tea—pouring the liquid into the saucepan from a height with a ladle—for about 3 minutes until the color begins to change. Add the remaining 2 cups (480 ml) ice-cold water and let the tea cook over medium heat for 15 minutes while continuing to aerate it. Once the tea acquires a deep burgundy hue, remove the pan from the heat and strain the tea into another clean saucepan or airtight container for later use. This will yield roughly 2 cups (480 ml) tea.
To serve, bring the strained tea to a gentle simmer in a saucepan and add the milk. Once warm, stir in the sugar to taste. Pour into cups. Top with pistachios (if using), before serving. Serves 6.
from Pakistan: Recipes and Stories from Home Kitchens, Restaurants, and Roadside Stands by Maryam Jillani
🐩 💙 CG’s Picks 💙 🐩
Hello Everybody, it’s me, Curlygirl! Today I have some fun videos and stories for you!
This first story could have been one for Mama’s section on good health OR my section, but since I saw it first, I get to have it! 😁
🦮 A new start after 60: I adopted a Guide Dog mum – and found true love, community and confidence, Paula Cocozza, the Guardian, January 12, 2026.
Helen Smith was cleaning her bathroom and listening to the radio, some time after the pandemic, when a story came on about a shortage of guide dogs. The pandemic had made it hard to breed puppies. One vision-impaired owner faced a two-year wait for a new dog. Knowing the importance of her own relationship with dogs, Smith was overcome with sadness for him. Right then, she thought, “Well, what am I going to do with the rest of my life?”✂️
Ms. Smith and guide dog mama, Blossom
She whittled the contents of her house down to a truckload. “I was letting go of 25 years of being in Germany.” She returned to Warwickshire and the day after she moved into her new house, she applied to look after a guide dog mum. Within a month, Blossom was brought to meet her.
“And when she ran into the room, it was, Oh my goodness, she’s so big! Oh my goodness, she’s so lively. The first week, I got up at six. I was so excited to go downstairs and see her.”
It sounds like love. “It is,” Smith says.
Guide Dogs pays for Blossom’s vet bills, insurance and food. When the time comes, the puppies will be born at Smith’s home, with support from a vet at the end of the phone. She will look after them for seven weeks, before they start their guide dog training.
Blossom has brought Smith new friends, and a community. Now, fellow villagers drop off newspapers for when the puppies come, and Smith has joined Guide Dogs fundraising groups.
Blossom’s lanyard – it says “Guide Dog Mum” – starts conversations. “I go out and have dinner at the cafe, and she’s lying at my feet. If I hadn’t got her, I would never go to a cafe by myself. Blossom has given me confidence to do all sorts of things.”
A good dogs video!
🐈 🐈⬛ Vet Reveals Signs Your Cat Loves You As Much as a Dog—Some Are Surprising, Lucy Notarantonio, Newsweek, January 11, 2026.
Although cats tend to be far more subtle than dogs, veterinarians say that doesn’t mean the affection isn’t there. Newsweek spoke to Dr. Liza Cahn of Embrace Pet Insurance, who shared 10 clear signs that a cat may feel just as bonded to its owner as any loyal pup—just in quieter ways.
“In vet school, we learn repeatedly that ‘cats are not just small dogs,’” she told Newsweek. “They are a unique species in terms of anatomy, basic needs, health concerns, social behaviors, and communication style.”
Research supports that the cat–human bond often looks different. A May 2022 YouGov poll found fewer cat owners reported a sense of “unconditional love” from their pets compared to dog owners, yet a higher proportion said their cats helped reduce stress and anxiety. Many also cited their cat’s entertainment value and ability to make them laugh.
Based in Washington, Seattle, Cahn outlined the subtle body language cues and behaviors that show a cat feels deeply connected to its person. (details in linked article)
1. Relaxed Body Language
2. Purring (duh! 🐩)
3. Slow Blinking
4. Grooming You
5. Head‑Butting
6. Kneading
7. Meowing
8. Sleeping on You
9. Play
10. Bringing “Presents”
🦊🦇 How a Tiny Australian Town Relocated 500,000 Flying Foxes, Mary Lou Costa, Reasons to be Cheerful, January 12, 2026.
“We’ve never harmed an animal. […] It’s all about deterrent and behavioral change. As humans, we’ve created these problems, so we need to be ready to have a solution without lethal means,” Noy says. “We get people telling us, ‘shoot every last one.’ But it’s not doing anything because animals don’t react to death. If you shoot one flying fox, they won’t even notice the difference within the mob itself. Another animal just takes its place.”
Noy and his team use the dispersal tactics that had failed previously — banging drums and saucepans at known flying fox sites at 4 a.m. But then they take it up a notch with full-scale pyrotechnics, which includes smoke and bright lights. Some skeptical residents, who had set up sound systems and drum-banging brigades of their own, questioned what A$300,000 was buying that they couldn’t achieve on their own.
That, says Noy, was an action plan that involved closely tracking and understanding the flying foxes. In 2020, Noy and his team spent three months in Ingham doing just that. Then, when it came time to deploy the noise over two intense early mornings — accompanied by the Mayor and local politicians — Noy had a pretty good idea of where they would go, namely a wetlands on the outskirts of town, or to join a small colony based at one of the beaches.
“That morning at the Botanical Gardens, it looked like the old war stories, where you see smoke and bombs and guns and everything going off. It took about three to four hours for the smoke to clear,” says Mayor Jayo, who describes Biodiversity Australia’s efforts as “amazing.”
When the flying foxes arrived at their chosen new locations, Noy’s teams were ready to check that there were no disturbances that would stop them from settling. At the wetlands, they realized that mowers and maintenance teams were creating noise, preventing the bats from getting comfortable, so that was called off.
🐰 The pet I’ll never forget: Dory the 10kg rabbit, who saved me from a diabetic coma, Simon Steggall as told to Joe Pinner, the Guardian, January 12, 2026.
The most extraordinary thing about Dory wasn’t her size, or her appetite. It was her brain. One evening in 2004, I was watching TV with my then wife when I began to lose consciousness and slip into a diabetic coma – which can lead to serious brain damage or death if left untreated. My ex-wife simply thought I’d nodded off after a long day’s work and hadn’t noticed anything was wrong, but it was dear old Dory who sensed danger.
Normally a docile creature, Dory leapt into action: she climbed up on to my body and went nuts, jumping up and down, thumping furiously on my chest, and licking all over my face. It was only when she started acting so strangely that my ex-wife realised something was seriously wrong and phoned 999.
I still can’t be sure how Dory knew. Some people say that pets can sense when their owners are sick, and when they are dying. Perhaps she could smell that my blood sugar was low, or could hear my heartbeat quicken. Either way, without her actions, I know I wouldn’t be here to tell the tale.
🔥🐴 Last but not least, it’s the Year of the Horse!
Here’s a little video where a nice lady tells us all about the year of the horse. I will leave you with it, and see you next time! Bye for now, Luv CG 💙 🐾
⚡️ Lightning RoundUp ⚡️
⚡️ Fed Chair Jerome Powell turns whistleblower against Trump, Sophia Tesfaye, Salon, January 12, 2026.
“The Justice Department's legal action against Powell for maintaining Fed independence could backfire on Trump”
⚡️ Republican Attacks on the Affordable Care Act Give Democrats an Opportunity to Court Small Business, David Masciotra, Washington Monthly, January 12, 2026.
“Millions of entrepreneurs, small proprietors, and gig workers get their health insurance through Obamacare.”
⚡️ On Not Surrendering in Advance (Or At Any Point Thereafter), Rebecca Solnit, Meditations in an Emergency, August 2025.
“There's a reason why sports teams don't chant "I believe that we will lose" before a game, a reason so obvious that I'm pretty sure it needs no explanation in that context. Words have power. They not only describe but shape reality...”
⚡️ Embracing Impeachment, Jill Lawrence, the Bulwark, January 12, 2026.
“The case against Trump and his cabinet keeps growing—and the argument for waiting is no longer convincing.”
⚡️ When the State Terrorizes the People, Thomas Zimmer, Democracy Americana, January 11, 2026.
“No matter what Donald Trump, the MAGA movement, the political Right, and the Republican Party may claim: The majority of Americans are not ready to give up on democracy just yet.”
⚡️ Want to Stop ICE? Go After Its Corporate Collaborators. ERIC BLANC, WES MCENANY, and CLAIRE SANDBERG, the Nation, January 8, 2026.
“ICE can’t function without help from the private sector. So we should force the private sector to stop helping.”
⚡️ Reupping this from last month: We Are Going to Win, Adam Gurri, Liberal Currents, December 30, 2025.
“Trump's revolution will fail, but we still have a long and painful road ahead of us.”
⚡️ The Spirit of the Laws, Guilliame A.W. Attia, Liberal Currents, January 8, 2026.
“The Constitution is not in heaven. Without honorable and virtuous public officials, constitutional limits have no meaning.”
⚡️🎧 Trump REBUKED at every turn; Courts and Congress show new spine as Americans take to the streets, Rachel Maddow, MS Now, January 12, 2026.
“Rachel Maddow rounds up a litany of recent court losses Donald Trump has suffered, as even some Republicans in Congress are agreeing to block or otherwise mitigate the damage Trump's policies are inflicting on their constituents, all while Americans rally in protest of abuses and outright crimes committed by Trump's ICE agents.”
⚡️🎧 Heather Cox Richardson: Trump is acting like Putin...The feckless MAGA GOP needs to STOP him, Nicole Wallace, The Best People, MS Now, January 12, 2026.
“As Trump’s actions abroad rattle the post-World War II international order, Heather warns of a political era that adheres more to the strongman politics of autocratic leaders like Vladimir Putin than it ever has before. Together, Cox Richardson and Nicolle trace an evolving list of national concerns: a president in clear decline, a Congress unwilling to act, and a Republican Party abandoning its core principles in real time.”
⚡️🎧 Trump and American Vetocracy, Francis Fukuyama, Frankly Fukuyama, YouTube, January 2, 2026.
“Liberals societies need to steer a path between vetocracy and would-be authoritarians like Trump, and demonstrate that government can act lawfully in the common interest.”
⚡️🎧 George Saunders Says Breaking These 3 Delusions Can Save You | The Interview, NYT podcast, January 10, 2026.
“Human contact is the only thing that matters”
🚧 🩷 How Can You Help Build a Better World?❣️🚧
I’m going to share some of the excellent links and suggestions from GoodNewsRoundup and chloris creator. Repetition is good!
🎩 GOODNEWSROUNDUP:
There are many ways to get involved. Everyone can find something that works for them.
Here are some ideas.
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If you can, I strongly recommend going to an in person meeting in your area.
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Join the truth brigade! Grassroots-powered lie-stopping. Person by person; mind by opened mind
- Election Response Center is a project hosted by Working Families Party, MoveOn Civic Action, Indivisible, and Public Citizen. They are organizing lots of events to get people fighting. Join one at this link
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The ACLU plays a key role in filing lawsuits that often stop voter suppression. Get involved with them at this link.
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Get involved with the Democratic party. We aren’t perfect, but they are fucking evil.
- Get involved with the States Project They are working on turning state legislatures blue
- Get involved with Swing Left. They are working on races right now!
- People For the American Way is a national progressive advocacy organization that inspires and mobilizes Americans to defend freedom, justice, and democracy from those who threaten to take them away. Get involved with them here
- Center for American Progress Action Fund is an independent, nonpartisan policy institute and advocacy organization that is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action. Get involved with them here
🎩 CHLORIS CREATOR:
I know it’s tough to see the path forward. And I can’t guarantee that there is a path forward. But people who are smarter and braver than I have seen ways to move ahead.
Their (the fascists’) plans really are dark, but many of them are also dumb, in the sense that they don’t make sense. So many of them cannot succeed.
Here are some quick hits.
- Stay involved. Yeah, that’s tough. I want to look away too, but by taking simple actions you can make a difference. Keep contacting your representatives, both in DC and at home.
- Support causes that will fight. Send money if you can. Also, spread their news with clicks and conversation.
- Slow them down. Oppose and block at every turn.
- Make tRump unpopular. Doing this weakens him. And it should not be that difficult. The GOP made a lot out of Biden is old and eggs cost too much. Well, tRump is older than Biden was at the beginning of his term and tRump has no policies that are going to bring down inflation. And a host of other problems, like he’s a convicted felon.
- Divide the GOP from each other. They are a coalition based on contradictory promises, so there’s plenty to work with.
- Keep telling the truth and showing love.
- Make sure to pace yourselves in this marathon and to practice self-care.
Other Actions
📰 🗞️ SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL NEWS SOURCES!! 🗞️ 📰
If you are able to at all, lend your financial support to local newspapers, PBS and NPR stations and community newsletters.
📞 Call your Congress critters and register your concerns!
(202) 224-3121 is the main switchboard number for Congress. They will ask for your city and state or your zip code and connect you with your representatives. It’s easy and it does make a difference.
📪 Write postcards to help Democratic candidates and progressive judges get elected:
Postcards to Voters
Newsie Progressive Muse usually posts an update in comments each day letting us know what PTV campaigns are currently happening. Right now there is an October birthday voters for Public Service Commission in GA campaign, among others, which I have been writing for.
New! 🚨 Many Ways to Belong — this is a new weekly newsletter from our own GoodNewsRoundup, the Mayor of Gnuville herself! It’s GREAT! SUBSCRIBE! 😃
3️⃣ Check out
Third Act Actions page — there might be something there that you can do.
🚨 NEW! 🚨
If you are able to donate, now is the time.
Mayor of Gnuville, Goody says: To help us out, I set up a fundraising page!
It splits our donations among the 15 seats held by Republicans in swing districts. These are seats that were either won by a margin of 4% less and/or were won by Harris in 2024. In other words, these are seats we can win in 2026. None of them are in CA or TX (and thus likely to be redistricted). Any money you donate will go directly to whomever our candidate will be in 2026. We only need to flip three of these!
I know there has been bad press about ActBlue out there. Is it perfect? No. Is it our main fundraising arm for the party? YES!!! Our group alone has donated half a million dollars to Democrats through ActBlue
You know who is spreading bad info about ActBlue? Republicans in the House. Gee, I wonder why????
TO KEEP US FROM DONATING (that is why).
➡️ I know the spam we get from donating is the worst. So I set this one up so you can opt out of sharing your info with the candidates.
Of course, I can’t guarantee that you won’t get spam from this from someone. But, honestly, is that going to be what keeps you from saving Democracy? Spam emails?
Of course not!
Please, if you can, donate to take the house and SAVE DEMOCRACY.
Here is the link:
Take the House in 2026
🧵 Remember: Share your favorite news sites, podcasts or vloggers in the comments! By spreading good news and action ideas, you help build that better world that we all hope to see. AND, the GNR comments section is a bonus reason to read GNR every day!!
💙 RoundUp WindDown 💙
That’s it from me and CG for another Tuesday. Thanks to you all for reading and for staying in the fight for a better world.
Remember, you are important and very much needed in this world. Take good care of yourself. Get some rest, eat nutritious food and do what you can to spend some time outdoors every day if you are able.
Happy Tuesday, Gnuville!
