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The Daily Gathering
Grounded wisdom for curious souls
Good morning, beloved community. It's Monday , January 19, 2026. Today: Federal immigration enforcement spirals into deadly chaos, the ocean finally gets the protection it's been screaming for, young men sliding back into their grandfathers' homophobia, and Dolly fucking Parton turns 80 reminding us what allyship actually looks like.
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Editor's note: January's ice melts slower than hearts thaw.
The Weather Where You Are
New York: 36°F with that bone-cutting wind that makes your goddamn teeth chatter, grey skies threatening more of winter's bullshit, feeling like 18°F when the gusts hit.
Kansas City: 28°F, clear and deceptively bright—the kind of cold that lies to you through sunshine, air sharp enough to slice your lungs open with each breath.
Atlanta: 42°F trying to pretend it's not winter, drizzle hanging like bad intentions, that Southern humidity making the chill stick to your bones like grief.
San Francisco: 55°F wrapped in fog so thick you could chew it, mist on your face like the city's weeping, perpetually damp as a basement in purgatory.
Detroit: 25°F with snow-dusted streets and that metallic taste of frozen air, windchill making the whole damn city feel like the inside of a deep freezer.
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The Big Three
Blood on the Snow: ICE Shootings Spark Nationwide Revolt
The crack of gunfire. Snow turning red. A partner crying in the street beside a body going cold, their dog howling something primal that echoes what we're all feeling but can't say.
Credit: Rassmussen Polls (Who Traditionally Poll Only Voters)
The damage:
Eleven people shot by federal immigration officers since September. Renee Good, 37, killed in Minneapolis—a mother, a citizen, a woman whose last moments were recorded on bystanders' phones showing officers firing through her windshield. Trump threatens the Insurrection Act while protesters flood streets in New York, El Paso, Boston, Chapel Hill. The pattern emerging isn't random—it's officers firing into cars, a tactic law enforcement experts have spent decades trying to eliminate because it's fucking deadly and rarely justified.
Credit: Rassmussen Polls (Who Traditionally Poll Only Voters)
Response:
Over 1,000 demonstrations planned nationwide. Congress divided but Democrats pushing for investigations, defunding, impeachment of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. Minneapolis community building barricades declaring "no ICE zones." The FBI took over the investigation after Minnesota agencies reported being blocked from key materials. Polls show majority of Americans believe Good's shooting was unjustified.
The Ocean Gets Teeth: High Seas Treaty Takes Effect
The taste of salt spray on your tongue. The weight of water pressing down two-thirds of Earth's surface, finally—finally—getting boundaries that mean something. The mycelial networks underwater as vast and ancient as any forest, now with a chance to survive us.
credit: disney.com
The science:
The High Seas Treaty—two decades of negotiations condensed into binding law—establishes Marine Protected Areas beyond national jurisdiction. Currently only 1% of high seas are protected. The 30 by 30 goal (protecting 30% of oceans by 2030) suddenly becomes possible. This legally enforces what Indigenous peoples have known forever: everything connects. Destroy one part, watch the rest collapse. Protect the deep, save the coasts where fishing communities depend on healthy stocks.
Action:
80 countries ratified, though the US signed but didn't ratify and just withdrew from UN Oceans this month. Environmental groups celebrating but demanding action—treaties on paper don't stop trawlers or mining operations. Belgium wants to host the secretariat while simultaneously pushing deep-sea mining. Green groups calling this hypocrisy so thick you could choke on it.
The Kids Aren't Alright: Gen Z Men Backsliding Into Bigotry
Hands not quite holding across a table. Eyes sliding away from trans friends. That sick feeling when someone you love regurgitates their uncle's talking points. The widening canyon between young men and women, and at the bottom—fear and propaganda dressed up as tradition.
credit: thepinknews.com
Stakes:
Pew Research shows 71% of men born in the 2000s support same-sex marriage compared to 77% of 1990s men—we're going backward. Only 65% of 2000s men accept homosexuality generally. Women aged 24 and under? 83% support marriage equality, 82% support homosexuality. The gender gap on trans rights hits 16 percentage points—60% of young women support trans acceptance versus 44% of young men. Right-wing religious groups pumping "social-issue messaging" directly into young male spaces.
Movement:
Researchers noting Gen Z more likely to identify as LGBTQ+ than Republican. Professor Ryan Burge warns the next five years are decisive—will this be permanent shift or growing pains? Young men increasingly influenced by manosphere content, Jordan Peterson types, podcasts monetizing masculinity anxiety. Meanwhile young women organizing, voting, building community solidarity that looks like the future those young men are scared of.
"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Quick Hits
Community & Culture
Dolly at 80: Icon, Ally, Legend—Today the patron saint of rhinestone-covered radical kindness turns 80. Nine times she's come out swinging for LGBTQ+ rights: from writing "family is family" in 1991, to calling out Christians for judging, to defending trans bathroom access ("if I have to pee, I'm gon' pee"), to gifting a bejeweled guitar to Texas drag queen Brigitte Bandit during the state's anti-drag crusade. She wrote "Travelin' Thru" for Transamerica. She made sure marriage equality was policy at Dollywood after staff turned away a lesbian patron. At 80, she's still teaching us that fierce love isn't soft—it's steel wrapped in sequins.
Your Face Is Now a Database—Police departments using Flock surveillance accidentally leaked details on millions of surveillance targets because they forgot to redact license plates in public records. One single mistake by individual departments exposed sensitive data from thousands of other departments nationwide. Flock's trying to shut down HaveIBeenFlocked.com (which compiled the leaked data) by claiming intellectual property violations and "threats to public safety." Meanwhile they're limiting audit log transparency so regulators, journalists, and citizens can't see how pervasive this shit really is. The panopticon has spreadsheet errors.
Nature & Science
Chasing the Rain—A thousand years ago, Polynesian navigators were climate refugees. New research analyzing plant waxes in sediment cores reveals Western Pacific islands like Samoa and Tonga got steadily drier while Eastern islands like Tahiti got wetter. The South Pacific Convergence Zone shifted eastward between 1,100-400 years ago. Polynesians followed the water, island-hopping across thousands of miles of open ocean because where rainfall goes, survival follows. We're doing it again—only now there's nowhere left to sail.
Life Hacks
The Grocery Store Psychology Hack: Read unit prices (per ounce/item) not package prices. That "family size" bullshit often costs more per ounce than buying two regular sizes. Your brain wants the big container, the store makes money. Fight back with math.
Save Every Glass Jar Forever: Rinse and save every pasta sauce, pickle, salsa jar. They're portion-perfect for soups, leftovers, overnight oats. Free Tupperware that doesn't leach microplastics and you can see what the hell you stored.
The Clothesline Meditation: Hang-dry your clothes. No really—standing outside pinning wet fabric while the sun does the work, it's strangely fucking meditative. Saves electricity, extends clothing life, gives you ten minutes of actual peace.
January Roasted Root Vegetables with Maple Glaze: Cube sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips. Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper. Roast at 425°F for 35 minutes. Five minutes before done, drizzle with maple syrup and apple cider vinegar. The caramelization hits different when you're battling winter darkness.
Coffee Grounds = Garden Gold: Don't trash those grounds—they're nitrogen-rich compost, slug deterrents, and acid-loving plants (roses, azaleas, tomatoes) crave them. Just sprinkle around the base. Free fertilizer that smells like morning instead of manure.
The Freezer Insurance Policy: Every meal you make, portion and freeze half. Spaghetti sauce. Chili. Soup. Casseroles. Three months from now when money's tight or you're sick or just fucking done, you've got a freezer full of past-you's generosity.
"We are not going to be able to operate our Spaceship Earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. It has to be everybody or nobody." — Buckminster Fuller
Deep Read
14,400-Year-Old Wolf Stomach Reveals Woolly Rhino's Sudden Demise
404 Media | Becky Ferreira. Scientists sequenced the genome of half-digested woolly rhinoceros tissue found inside a mummified Ice Age wolf puppy—turns out the rhino showed no inbreeding, suggesting their extinction was catastrophically sudden rather than a slow genetic decline.
Etcetera
1963: When Everest Nearly Broke Them
National Geographic published photographer Barry Bishop's harrowing firsthand account of the first American team to summit Everest. Fire in the tent, claustrophobia at 27,000 feet, frozen bivouac on exposed rock, toes blackening from frostbite. "There are no true victors, only survivors." The mountains don't give a fuck about your ambition. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/barry-bishop-everest-himalayas
Clickbait: Some People Just Don't Fucking Belong (And That's Beautiful)
Scientists name new personality type "otrovert" for people who remain perpetual outsiders no matter how welcome they are in groups, and honestly, have they been reading our therapy notes? https://www.upworthy.com/new-personality-type-called-otrovert-ex1
The Gathering History
Edgar Allan Poe born (1809); Confederate General Robert E. Lee born (1807); Janis Joplin born (1943); Dolly Parton born (1946); First woman appointed to British Cabinet (1919); Indira Gandhi elected India's first female Prime Minister (1966).
"I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own." — Audre Lorde
Who Is In The Gathering?
Poetry and Feelings: thepoetmiranda.com
Personal Queer Journey: thistleandfern.org
Life Banter: brandonellrich.substack.com
Lisa's Porch Talk: wuzzittoya.org / wuzzittoya.substack.com
Presence Not Permission: presencenotpermission.beehiiv.com
Become a member: thistleandmoss.com/upgrade
Behind the Name: The Gathering is your daily dose of what matters—the real stories buried under mainstream noise, the interconnected threads that bind justice to ecology to human dignity. We're the mycelial network beneath the forest floor, feeding what needs to grow.