What’s Wendy Doing: I am sitting here, looking at a picture of Jesus Ochoa and thinking, how the fuck does shit like this happen. HIS NAME WAS ALEX PRETTI…
Table of Contents
❄️ Weather Check ❄️
New York: 34°F, gray and bitter, the kind of cold that settles in your goddamn spine before you've finished your first coffee.
Kansas City: 28°F, clear with a sharp wind. The prairie doesn't forgive and neither should we.
Atlanta: 48°F, overcast drizzle threatening. Feels like the sky can't decide what to do with its grief.
San Francisco: 54°F, fog rolling in like a secret. The Bay holds its breath.
Detroit: 22°F, snow flurries. Motor City's bones are showing again.
The Daily Gathering
Grounded wisdom for curious souls
Good morning, beloved community. It's Monday, February 2, 2026. Today: Federal agents finally named in the Alex Pretti killing, a court rules Trump's secret climate-denier panel broke the law, the administration's calculated lies about ICE enforcement targeting our trans siblings, and the life hack that'll change your fucking week.
First time here? Join hundreds of seekers cutting through the noise.
Editor's note: Groundhog Day arrives differently this year—we're not waiting to see our shadow. We're staring into the light.
Two Federal Agents Named in Alex Pretti Killing — Now Accountability Begins
If You See These Two Men: Run Away, FAR AWAY.
These Two Motherfuckers: The sting of pepper spray. The weight of masked men in tactical gear piling onto a 37-year-old ICU nurse who worked at a VA hospital helping veterans breathe through their worst nights. Ten gunshots ripping through a Minneapolis intersection while bystanders screamed into the frozen air.
The damage:
Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa, 43, and CBP officer Raymundo Gutierrez, 35, have been identified as the shooters in the January 24th killing of Alex Pretti. Both men operated under Operation Metro Surge, Trump's masked immigration dragnet where federal agents roam American cities with their identities concealed—a practice virtually unheard of in law enforcement.
This is now two civilians killed by immigration agents in Minneapolis in two weeks. Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot dead days before Pretti.
The DOJ's Civil Rights Division has opened an investigation, but state officials accuse federal agencies of blocking state investigations and withholding evidence, including body camera footage.
Video analysis suggests an agent removed Pretti's legally-owned firearm from his hip before the first shots were fired—contradicting DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's claim that Pretti "came to attack agents."
Response: Even Republican senators are breaking ranks—Utah's John Curtis called for transparent, independent investigation and accountability "no matter their title." Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has promised a state criminal investigation. The protests haven't stopped. Thousands continue filling Minneapolis streets in subzero temperatures. You can join the National Police Accountability Project's call for unmasking federal enforcement agents. Document everything. Know your rights. ProPublica
Court Rules: Trump's Secret Climate Panel Violated Federal Law
Captain Planet is Pissed at You, Donald MouthAnus
The Real: Imagine a closed room where five men who don't believe fire is hot are writing the official government report on whether fire burns. That's what the Department of Energy's "Climate Working Group" was—a shadow panel of climate deniers crafting a report to justify gutting America's foundational climate protections.
The science:
A federal court in Massachusetts ruled Friday that the DOE violated the 1972 Federal Advisory Committee Act by secretly convening this five-person panel of climate skeptics to write a report downplaying global warming.
That report falsely claimed sea level rise isn't accelerating and that CO2 is beneficial for plant growth. The Trump administration then used it as the basis to propose repealing the EPA's Endangerment Finding—the 2009 scientific determination that greenhouse gases threaten public health, and the legal foundation for all federal climate regulation.
The repeal is currently under final review at the White House.
Action: The Environmental Defense Fund says Trump's EPA "must immediately withdraw its fundamentally unlawful and forever tainted proposal." This is your reminder: they're not just lying—they're institutionalizing lies as policy. Support state-level climate litigation. Call your representatives. The science isn't confused; the sabotage is deliberate. Earth.org
Trump's Government Is Lying About ICE — And Trans Lives Are on the Line
Credit: lgbtqnation.com
The Feels: There's a whistle hanging around former Minneapolis City Council President Andrea Jenkins' neck these days. She's not using it for fun. She's a Black trans woman navigating a country where her federal government has made erasing her existence an explicit policy goal—and is now lying about how far the machinery reaches.
Stakes:
The administration is actively deporting LGBTQ+ asylum seekers to countries where homosexuality carries the death penalty, including Uganda, according to the National Center for LGBTQ+ Rights.
Trans detainees have had their protective custody policies rescinded. Trans people are being housed according to their assigned sex at birth in ICE detention—meaning trans women are being placed with men.
Meanwhile, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard—who worked for her father's Alliance for Traditional Marriage organization that explicitly promoted conversion therapy and called homosexuality "unhealthy, abnormal behavior"—oversees intelligence operations that increasingly target immigrant communities.
This is the shape of what Stephen Miller meant by "Operation Aurora." Not deportation. Eradication by bureaucracy, exposure, and violence.
Movement: Trans asylum lawyers are overwhelmed but fighting. Organizations like Immigration Equality need support. If you're LGBTQ+ and in any interaction with immigration enforcement, contact a qualified immigration attorney immediately. Document contacts. Know that international solidarity networks exist. We protect each other because no one else will. LGBTQ Nation
Also, a bit of History, watch:
Life Survival: Growth
"We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative."
— Anaïs Nin
Growth isn't linear, and neither is survival. Some days you're advocating at city hall. Some days you're crying in your car before work. Some days you're doing both within the same hour. This is what it means to live through historical pressure—we expand where we can, contract where we must, and never apologize for the shape we take to stay whole. Be gentle with your asymmetry today. It's keeping you alive.
Community & Culture
A gay mom in the South built her own community when no one else would. After her business struggled to find acceptance, she created a mutual support network that now connects dozens of queer families across her region. Why it matters: We don't wait for permission to belong. LGBTQ Nation
Does National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard support conversion therapy? The evidence is damning—she worked for and publicly defended her father's organization, which promoted "ex-gay ministries" and called being LGBTQ+ an addiction. Why it matters: The people surveilling us want us to not exist. LGBTQ Nation
Nature & Science
Monk fruit is hiding health secrets in its peel and pulp. New research reveals different varieties contain unique combinations of antioxidants, terpenoids, and flavonoids that interact with biological pathways beyond simple sweetness. Why it matters: Nature's pharmacy is deeper than we've mapped. ScienceDaily
Wildfires are polluting the air 21% more than scientists thought. A new study found that hidden volatile compounds in smoke transform into dangerous fine particles—explaining why wildfire smoke lingers and sickens long after flames die. Why it matters: Climate crisis is already in your lungs. ScienceDaily
Life Hacks
Monday dread spiral → Make your first work task a 2-minute win you've been avoiding. Send that email. File that thing. The feeling: Your nervous system learns Monday doesn't have to hurt.
Endless scroll before bed → Charge your phone across the room starting tonight. Buy a $6 alarm clock. The feeling: Your first thought tomorrow is your own, not an algorithm's.
Decision paralysis at the grocery store → Write your list by meal, not ingredient. "Tuesday dinner: tacos" not "ground beef, tomatoes, shells." The feeling: Your brain stops re-solving solved problems.
Food & Nourishment
Citrus is peaking right now. Blood oranges and cara caras are at their sweetest. Slice thin, fan over arugula, drizzle with olive oil and flaky salt. 10 minutes. Tastes like someone loves you.
The pantry transformation you need: Canned white beans + olive oil + garlic + lemon + salt + heat = dinner. Mash half for creaminess, leave half whole. Serve over toast. Five ingredients. Eight minutes. Boring → luxurious.
Food sovereignty corner: February is for planning your container garden. One 5-gallon bucket of cherry tomatoes will produce more than you can eat from June to frost. That's food they can't take from you.
Life Survival: Moving Forward
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."
— Maya Angelou
Forward motion doesn't require perfection. Today you might call your senator about the Minneapolis killings. You might just get through your shift without breaking. Both count. Both move something forward. The work is long and you are not obligated to finish it in one day—but you are not free to abandon it either. Pick one thing. Do it. Then rest. That's the whole instruction manual.