Grounded wisdom for curious souls

Good morning, beloved community. It's Friday, January 16, 2026. Today: GOP senators beg Trump not to deploy troops to Minneapolis, Earth passed peak farmland and nobody fucking noticed, and the LGBTQ+ community goes back in the closet under Trump's boot. Plus the life hack that'll change how you sleep.

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Editor's note: Mid-January stillness—the pause between resolution and reckoning.

The cold sweat on Roger Wicker's brow. That's what capitulation tastes like when your own fucking president threatens to deploy active-duty troops against American citizens. Senate Armed Services Committee Chair says invoking the Insurrection Act to quell Minneapolis protests would be "probably not" appropriate—weak tea from a party that built this monster.

The damage: ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Good, 37-year-old mother of three. Second shooting Wednesday—man shot in leg during traffic stop. Trump's threat came Thursday: deploy federal troops or watch Minnesota officials "attacking the Patriots of I.C.E." GOP senators Wicker, Rand Paul, and John Thune now scrambling to walk him back. But here's the shit sandwich: 3,000 federal officers already flooding Minneapolis streets. The Insurrection Act—last invoked in 1992 during Rodney King riots, last updated in fucking 1874—would give Trump power to mobilize National Guard, active-duty troops. Masked ICE officers in ballistic vests. Tear gas. Pepper balls. Communities terrified to leave homes. The full horror.

Response: Governor Tim Walz pleading: "Turn the temperature down." Mayor Jacob Frey: "We will not counter Donald Trump's chaos with our own brand of chaos." Senator Tina Smith calls it "declaring war on Minnesota." But White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson doubles down, accusing Democratic leaders of inciting violence against "heroic ICE officers."

The slow exhale of abandoned pastures returning to wildflowers. Researchers Joseph Poore, Hannah Ritchie, and Charles Godfray dropped the bombshell nobody's talking about: global agricultural land peaked in the early 2000s and has been declining ever since. Half the planet's still farmed, but the footprint's shrinking.

The science: UN FAO data shows farmland plateaued, then started contracting. Since 1961, productivity increases spared 1.8 billion hectares—35 fucking Spains—from cultivation. Better seeds, fertilizers, irrigation doubled, tripled, quadrupled yields depending on crop and country. Europe and North America reforesting. Australia and Central Asia abandoning pastures. Wild animals reclaiming domains they once ruled. But here's the catch: deforestation still raging in South America, Southeast Asia, Africa for beef, soy, cocoa, palm oil. Last decade alone lost tropical forest twice the size of Spain.

Action: This isn't guaranteed. Lab-grown feeds, vertical farming, better fertilizers could accelerate land efficiency. Or economic pressure could reverse everything. The milestone means jack shit without safeguards. But if we play it right? We could rewild our way out of mass extinction. The details matter.

Hands that used to hold in public now slipping apart at the grocery store. Human Rights Campaign's 18th Annual Survey documents the devastation: 29.7% of LGBTQ+ adults believe acceptance decreased in the last year. 47.5% are less out somewhere in their lives. 51.1% feel less visible than a year ago.

Stakes:

The specifics gut you:

Movement: DEI rollbacks hitting hard—39.1% of workers report employer made DEI changes. Employees at companies rolling back DEI twice as likely to experience stigma, bias, discrimination (54.2% vs 24.9%). LGBTQ+ adults twice as likely to say financial situation worsened. 35.9% say federal policies made finding jobs harder. HRC President Kelley Robinson: "We need leaders that treat everyone with dignity." But the White House? Silence is complicity. Read the full report.

Unsung heroes building queer families when nobody else would. Before podcasts made it easy to find each other, queer parents were building families in a culture that barely acknowledged they existed, let alone supported them. These six moms launched magazines, created podcasts, reimagined birth education, documented achievements. Long before databases or social media, they noticed what was missing and built it themselves—hands-on care, consultation, publishing, storytelling. Making queer parenthood visible when visibility could cost you everything. Meet them.

Minnesota leaders plead for calm as federal forces crack down. The sound of rocks hitting riot shields, fireworks exploding overhead, communities under occupation. PBS reports protesters clashing with ICE after second shooting. Mayor Frey: "Go home. We cannot counter chaos with chaos." But Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem isn't backing down—ICE isn't leaving, Insurrection Act or not. Schools reporting sharp attendance drop. Several districts offering online options. Communities afraid to board buses to school. Watch the coverage.

History got the dodo absurdly fucking wrong. The weight of a bird that never got to tell its own story. Turns out everything we think we know about dodos is distorted bullshit. They weren't fat, clumsy idiots waddling to extinction. Palaeoartist Karen Fawcett and avian palaeontologist Julian Hume reveal the truth: nimble, slender birds with formidable beaks. Only scraps remain—Oxford dodo head, Copenhagen skull, Prague beak piece, moldy foot plaster casts. Historical artists never saw live dodos, painted from taxidermy or captive birds. Four centuries of misconception. The real dodo.

Winter star-gazing without freezing your ass off. Download these apps before you go—most dark sky spots have zero cell service. Stellarium (works like a camera, red light protects night vision). Astrospheric (cloud cover, transparency, moon phases). SpaceWeatherLive (aurora alerts). Photo Pills (astrophotography planning). Take binoculars—they show Pleiades and Andromeda better than telescopes.

Mid-January demands root vegetables and slow-braised comfort. The steam rising from a Dutch oven, carrots softening to butter-tenderness, the way winter squash caramelizes at the edges. This is turnip and parsnip season—roast them with olive oil, salt, and rosemary until they crack and char. Or go full comfort: beef stew with potatoes, carrots, celery. Let it simmer three hours until the meat falls apart. Serve with crusty bread for sopping. Winter cooking is patience rewarded. Seasonal recipes.

The Hill | Alexander Bolton. The taste of authoritarianism when a White House deputy chief of staff calls American citizens "insurgents" for protesting federal overreach. Miller appeared on Charlie Kirk's show Thursday accusing Minnesota officials of staging "an insurgency against the federal government." His language deliberate, chilling: "They are describing the federal government as an occupying force." He questioned whether DOJ would charge government officials abetting protests. "You only have to read their own words," Miller continued, "to understand this is clearly an insurgency." One national constitution. One immigration law. Cities and states can't ratify their own laws without destroying the republic, he argues. The threat clear: comply or face charges. Read the full story.

Seasonal prediction: Trump announces Nobel Peace Prize nomination (for himself). Constructs elaborate shadowbox to display imaginary award. María Corina Machado laughs so hard she cries. The delusion never ends.

Cold War foundations that haunt us still: The 1951 Defense of Greenland agreement granted U.S. military presence that remains in effect today. NATO directed the deal after Soviets got the bomb. Denmark had zero bargaining power. U.S. built Thule Air Base—12,000 workers, 300,000 tons of cargo, peak of 10,000 troops. The agreement barely mentioned Danish sovereignty. Indigenous Greenlanders? Not invited to negotiate their own land. Trump now threatens to seize Greenland "by force"—GOP senators finally drawing a line. The history we inherited.

Clickbait: NASA engineer lets bed bugs feast on him for science. Discovery: pest control chemicals are bullshit. Diatomaceous earth and heat above 122°F actually work. Bed bugs can survive 10 months without eating. They don't transmit disease. Before 1950, one in three homes had them. Their mating process is called "traumatic insemination" and it's exactly as horrifying as it sounds. The full experiment.

Personal Queer Journey: thistleandfern.org
Life Banter: brandonellrich.substack.com

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