Dalio: “Stocks Only Look Strong in Dollar Terms.” Here’s a Globally Priced Alternative for Diversification.
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Table of Contents
Good morning, beloved community. It's Friday, January 30, 2026. Today: Journalists arrested for doing their fucking jobs, courts slapping back Trump's climate vandalism, and queer folks clinging to hope while the world tries to crush it. Plus, the life hack that'll actually change your week.
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Editor's note: January's got her teeth bared, but we're still here, still gathering, still holding the damn line. Stay Warm & Stay Safe. Wendy cares.
Some Cold As Balls Weather
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New York: 28°F and freezing your ass off with sleet hammering the pavement like tiny ice bullets—winter's still got claws, and she's dragging them across every exposed surface. Bundle the fuck up.
Kansas City: 35°F with rain that soaks straight through to your bones—the kind of gray, relentless drizzle that makes you wonder if the sun's just packed its bags and said "fuck this shit, I'm out."
Atlanta: 52°F with clouds thick as goddamn concrete, trapping in the damp and making the air taste like wet wool and regret. Spring's teasing, but she's not here yet.
San Francisco: 48°F with that signature Bay Area fog rolling in, wrapping the city in a cold, damp embrace that smells like salt and seaweed—beautiful and bone-chilling all at once.
Detroit: 22°F and bitter as hell, wind cutting through layers like they're made of tissue paper, frost clinging to every damn thing. The frozen tundra demands respect.
When Covering the News Becomes a Crime: The Arrest That Proves Press Freedom is Under Siege
The handcuffs clicked shut in Los Angeles Thursday night—the cold metal biting into Don Lemon's wrists as federal agents pulled him from covering the Grammys. The former CNN anchor, now an independent journalist, had committed the unforgivable sin of doing his goddamn job: covering anti-ICE protests at a Minnesota church.
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The damage: Lemon faces federal charges for conspiracy to deprive others of civil rights and violating the FACE Act—charges that could imprison a journalist for reporting on public protest. Attorney General Pam Bondi directed his arrest personally, making crystal clear this administration's contempt for the First Amendment. Federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens during immigration raids this month—Renee Good and Alex Pretti—but instead of investigating those killings, the Trump Justice Department devoted resources to arresting a journalist who witnessed the aftermath.
Response: Lemon's attorney Abbe Lowell called it "an unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration." Press freedom advocates are terrified—when covering protests becomes criminal, democracy dies.
Massachusetts Court Tells Trump's Wind Freeze to Go Fuck Itself
The salt spray hits your face as you stand on Martha's Vineyard, looking out at the almost-complete wind farm 24 kilometers offshore. These turbines were supposed to power homes, cut emissions, fight the climate crisis. Then Trump froze them because... national security? Bullshit.
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The science: Judge Brian Murphy ruled construction can resume on Vineyard Wind, the fourth court this month to overturn Trump's climate vandalism. The administration froze five offshore wind projects claiming "national security threats"—but judges keep calling it what it is: "arbitrary and capricious." Offshore wind is significantly cheaper than fossil fuels for both manufacturing and electricity generation, yet Trump lies, calling turbines "pathethic" and falsely claiming they "kill people."
Action: Courts are rejecting Trump's fossil fuel fellatio one project at a time. Danish developer Orsted's $5 billion Rhode Island wind farm moves forward. Massachusetts wind construction resumes. Judge Amit P. Mehta also ruled Trump's halting of $7.5 billion in clean energy grants was "unlawful" because it primarily targeted Democratic states—"the political identity of a terminated grantee's state played a preponderant role." The courts are doing their fucking jobs even when the president won't do his. https://earth.org/massachusetts-court-delivers-another-blow-to-trumps-offshore-wind-freeze/
"I Hope It Isn't Too Late": Queer Folks Fight for a Future They Can't Yet See
Hands finding hands in the darkness. Pride flags catching winter sunlight. The catch in someone's throat as they speak truth to power—this is what resilience looks like when everything's burning down.
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Stakes: The Trump administration's assault on LGBTQ+ rights in its first year has been relentless—diversity programs dismantled, trans service members targeted again, Pride funding evaporated, LGBTQ+ history scrubbed from government websites. Trans youth bore the worst: health care bans expanded, school policies treating their existence as "controversial," legislators calling them problems to solve rather than children to protect.
Movement: About 2,000 activists gathered at Creating Change 2026 in D.C., refusing to surrender. The Council of Europe voted to ban conversion therapy despite anti-trans lobbying—71 members said no to torture disguised as "therapy." Community organizing intensifies. Former Minneapolis City Council President Andrea Jenkins warned that masked federal agents and militarized deployments aren't outliers—they're the blueprint. "This is not just a Minneapolis problem. It's a United States problem. Fascism is running rampant, and it's up to us to fight it." In 2025, LGBTQ+ people watched progress unravel in real time. In 2026, they're building it back with their bare hands. https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/01/i-hope-that-it-isnt-too-late-queer-folks-cling-to-hope-for-a-brighter-more-equal-future/
"The thing about rights is that in the end you can't prove what should be considered a right."
— Paul Farmer
The doctor who spent his life in Haiti's poorest communities knew this truth in his bones: rights aren't natural laws waiting to be discovered—they're agreements we fight like hell to make real. When someone tells you healthcare isn't a right, housing isn't a right, dignity isn't a right, they're not revealing cosmic truth. They're revealing whose suffering they've decided doesn't matter. So here's your survival move: stop arguing about what should be rights and start acting like human dignity is non-negotiable. Feed someone. Shelter someone. Defend someone. The philosophical debate ends when you make someone's material reality better. Rights become real when enough people refuse to live in a world without them.