New York: 36°F, gray as a dead man's pallor with snow flurries threatening to slap you in the face—bundle up, you beautiful freezing bastards.

Kansas City: 28°F, wind chill cutting through your bones like a goddamn ice pick, partly cloudy with a chance of existential dread.

Atlanta: 46°F, unseasonably mild for winter—don't get comfortable, Mother Nature's a fickle bitch.

San Francisco: 54°F, coastal fog rolling in thick as bullshit from Washington, drizzle expected because of course it is.

Detroit: 24°F, bitter fucking cold with lake-effect clouds looming—the kind of day that makes your snot freeze mid-drip.

Good morning, beloved community. It's Thursday, January 29, 2026. Today: Trump's fascist fever dream pushing us toward government shutdown over ICE's killing spree, the bloody $20 billion wildlife slaughter industry, a real LGBTQ+ ally running for Congress, and the life hack that'll change your fucking week.

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Editor's note: January gnaws at our bones, but we're still goddamn standing.

Feel the cold Minneapolis asphalt against your cheek. Taste the pepper spray burning your sinuses. Hear six federal agents surrounding a man who committed the crime of filming them.

Alex Jeffrey Pretti—a 37-year-old intensive care nurse who spent his days keeping veterans alive at the VA—was shot multiple times in the chest by Customs and Border Protection agents on Saturday. His crime? Standing between a federal agent and a woman the agent had pushed to the ground. Bystander video verified by Reuters, the BBC, and the Wall Street Journal shows an agent appearing to move a gun toward Pretti's body after he was already shot. This is the second fatal shooting in Minneapolis this month—Renée Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother, was killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on January 7 while sitting in her goddamn car.

The damage: 2,000+ ICE officers and 1,000+ CBP agents are occupying Minneapolis like it's fucking Fallujah. "Operation Metro Surge" has made 3,000 arrests since December—and exactly 23 of those were Somali, despite Trump claiming the operation targeted Somali "garbage" involved in fraud. Shutdown odds hit 77% as Senate Democrats demand: warrants for arrests, no masks on agents, mandatory body cameras, and a uniform code of conduct. The House is on recess. The deadline is tomorrow night at midnight.

Response: Governor Tim Walz called it "governance designed to generate fear, headlines and conflict." Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey watched the footage and said plainly: "That is bullshit. To ICE, get the fuck out of Minneapolis." Local businesses report revenue drops of 50-80%. Bruce Springsteen released a protest song titled "Streets of Minneapolis" memorializing both victims. The state of Minnesota and cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul have sued DHS, arguing the militarized occupation violates the Tenth Amendment and "commandeers" state resources through terror. The Hill

Press your palm against the cold steel bars of a shipping container in Vietnam's Hai Phong port. Pry it open. Smell the death—hundreds of severed ivory tusks stacked like cordwood, declared as "peanuts."

The illegal wildlife trade is a $20 billion annual death machine—the fourth largest organized crime on Earth, tangled with drug cartels, arms dealers, and human traffickers. Over 7,000 species are being trafficked right now, with up to 100 million plants and animals poached annually. Pangolins—those scaled, shy, miraculous creatures—are the most trafficked mammals on the planet, hunted to oblivion for traditional medicine and exotic meat.

And where's the Trump administration? Gutting the Endangered Species Act. Proposing to strip scientific rigor from listing decisions. Pushing legislation that would automatically deem false information from state officials as "the most relevant data available." They're literally making it easier to hunt endangered species to extinction while slashing EPA budgets and undermining every conservation law we've built over fifty years.

AI systems like iSharkFin and Fin Finder are trying to identify trafficked species at checkpoints. Protection Assistant for Wildlife Security (PAWS) uses game theory to predict poaching hotspots. But technology can't outrun policy sabotage. When your government treats wildlife as disposable, the poachers just follow the money. Earth.org

Watch his hands as he speaks—steady, certain. Hear the catch in constituents' voices when they describe someone who doesn't just wave a Pride flag at parades but shows up when the cameras are gone.

Brendan Gill is running for Congress in New Jersey's 11th District special primary on February 5th, and he's not just another politician who discovered LGBTQ+ rights when the polling looked favorable. As Essex County Commissioner, Gill secured a $120 million bond ordinance to replace lead service lines in Newark—that's environmental justice, that's public health, that's basic human rights. He's been a consistent champion for reproductive freedom, immigrant protection, and public safety.

As Chair of the Montclair Democrats, Gill built a statewide progressive volunteer network of more than 14,000 people, powering hundreds of thousands of phone calls, door knocks, and handwritten postcards. Real organizing. Real turnout. Real impact.

"Brendan Gill is someone who doesn't just talk about values, but has spent his career delivering results," says Larry Hirsch, a federal workers' union representative and Democratic State Committeeman. "He's the kind of leader those of us who believe in democracy, a fair government, and public service need right now." LGBTQ Nation

Life Survival: Resilience isn't about being unbreakable—it's about bending without snapping. When the world tries to erase you, showing up becomes an act of defiance. Today, find one small way to be visible. Text a queer friend. Donate five bucks to a community organization. Wear the pin, say the thing, refuse to shrink. Every tiny act of presence is a middle finger to those who'd rather you disappeared.

🔥 The Sellout in Stilettos: Nicki Minaj Is A Smelly Skank TwatWazzle This bought-and-paid-for, Trump-bootlicking, community-backstabbing sellout clambered onto stage with the actual president yesterday and declared herself his "#1 fan" while holding his hand like a desperate pick-me. This treacherous, dollar-chasing turncoat—who once criticized family separation at the border—pledged $150,000 to $300,000 to "Trump Accounts" and scored a free Trump Gold Card (normally $1 million) for her trouble. She praised JD Vance, attacked Gavin Newsom, and simpered that "the hate only motivates me to support him more." Numerous petitions for her deportation have gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures. The community that bought her records, defended her controversies, and made her a goddamn icon? She sold them out for a photo op and a gold-plated participation trophy. Congratulations on becoming the Candace Owens of rap, you craven, clout-chasing, money-grubbing disgrace. LGBTQ Nation

The bisexual Twilight star says she'll likely leave the U.S. because she "can't work freely" under Trump's "terrifying" threats to impose 100% tariffs on films made abroad. Her directorial debut The Chronology of Water—a visceral exploration of trauma, queerness, and survival—was shot in Latvia because "it would have been impossible to do in the States." Stewart married screenwriter Dylan Meyer in 2025 and isn't mincing words: "I'd like to make movies in Europe and then shove them down the throat of the American people." Pink News

🐾 Tiny Mammals Are Screaming Warnings We Can Finally Hear Scientists developed a footprint-based tracking system that can identify nearly indistinguishable small mammal species with 96% accuracy—no invasive DNA sampling required. Tested on two sengi species in South Africa, the method offers a revolutionary way to monitor ecosystem health. "Small mammals exist in almost every ecosystem on the planet," says Dr. Zoë Jewell of Duke University. "They're early warning systems for environmental damage." The technique involves charcoal dust, special paper, and photography—simple, ethical, scalable. ScienceDaily: Tiny Mammals Are Sending Warning Signs Scientists Can Finally Read

❄️ Lake-Effect Snow Is Dying—And That's Terrifying Those brutal Midwest winter storms that bury Chicago and Buffalo? They're getting more intense right now—warmer Great Lakes waters pump more moisture into cold air. But long-term, climate change will kill them entirely. "We get big lake-effect snow storms when cold air moves across warm lakes," explains Colgate professor Adam Burnett. "But if you don't have the cold air, you're not going to get lake-effect snow." The shift from snow to rain will devastate spring runoff cycles, soil moisture, and aquatic ecosystems. The snow that used to pile up and melt in spring? Gone. National Geographic: Why Lake-Effect Snow May Become a Thing of the Past

Life Survival: Being seen isn't vanity—it's survival. When systems try to erase marginalized communities, visibility becomes armor. But visibility is also exhausting. You don't have to be "on" every moment. Rest is resistance too. Today, give yourself permission to exist without explaining yourself to anyone.

The Hill | Alexander Bolton. Feel the fluorescent buzz of the Capitol hallway, the exhaustion of aides running on coffee and fury, the weight of knowing that tomorrow's midnight deadline might be the moment everything breaks. Senate Democrats issued an ultimatum: no DHS funding without warrant requirements, body cameras, a ban on masked agents, and a uniform code of conduct. Republicans are splintering—some GOP senators are openly backing the idea of separating DHS from the funding package. "I can't in good conscience vote for a DHS budget under these circumstances," says Senator Angus King. The House is on recess and won't return until after the deadline. Shutdown probability: 77% and climbing. The Hill

Mother Jones/City of Minneapolis lawsuit filing. Hear the helicopters. See the masked agents without badges. Feel the tear gas seeping through your car vents as your children scream in the back seat. "Operation Metro Surge" deployed thousands of armed, masked DHS agents to conduct "militarized raids and dangerous, illegal, and unconstitutional stops and arrests." Schools went into lockdown. Businesses closed. Minneapolis Police logged more than 3,000 hours of overtime in the first week alone—over $2 million in taxpayer costs just to clean up the chaos federal agents created. Customer-facing businesses report 50-80% revenue drops because people are too terrified to leave their homes. And the fraud investigation that supposedly justified all this? Of 3,000 arrests, only 23 were Somali. None had ties to the frauds under investigation. This isn't law enforcement. This is collective punishment. Minneapolis.gov

Life Survival: Here's the brutal truth nobody tells you: the cavalry isn't coming. No politician, no court ruling, no viral tweet is going to save us. Change happens because ordinary people decide they're too fucking stubborn to quit. You don't need to be wealthy or connected or certain—you just need to keep showing up. Today, identify one small risk you've been avoiding. Make the call. Send the email. Have the conversation. Failure isn't the opposite of progress; it's the goddamn currency of it. Every movement that ever mattered was built by people who got knocked down, wiped the blood off their chins, and stood back up anyway.

🗓️ What's Likely Coming: This Could Happen

📸 Visual Feast: Steam Rising From a Frozen Lake Michigan The Great Lakes are warmer than they should be—October surface temperatures ran 4.5°F above the 30-year average. That warmth creates the instability for brutal lake-effect snowstorms, but long-term, we're watching the death of winter as we knew it. National Geographic's stunning aerial photography captures steam rising off frozen Lake Michigan in Chicago—a beautiful harbinger of the climate catastrophe slowly unfolding beneath the ice. National Geographic

Clickbait: Cher Called David Letterman an Asshole to His Face in 1986, and It's Still Iconic In her first-ever Late Night appearance, Cher crossed her arms, sized up Letterman, and said: "I thought that I would never want to do this show with you... Because I thought you were an asshole." The audience gasped. Letterman laughed nervously. Cher didn't blink. This was a woman who'd hit #1 on Billboard, starred on Broadway, and would win an Oscar two years later—and she refused to let a smug male host condescend to her. Letterman was notorious for bullying female guests, mocking Shirley MacLaine, getting laughs at Farrah Fawcett's expense, making Madonna visibly furious. Cher saw through the performative charm and called it what it was. Toxic masculinity in entertainment isn't new—it's just that powerful women have always been calling it out, and we should have listened harder. Upworthy

Life Survival: When you're drowning in doom-scroll news—ICE shootings, shutdowns, betrayals—remember that despair is the enemy's preferred outcome. They want you hopeless, disengaged, certain nothing will change. Your job isn't to fix everything today. Your job is to stay in the fight for tomorrow. Find one person to text. One organization to support. One action to take. Hopelessness is a lie; community is the antidote.

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

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Behind the Name: The Gathering is the mycelial thread running beneath the scorched surface of the news cycle—connecting what they'd rather you see as isolated incidents into the truth: everything is connected. The cruelty is systemic. The resistance is networked. We're the fungal network whispering through the roots while the forest burns above, passing nutrients, warnings, and goddamn hope to whoever needs it most.