Grounded wisdom for curious souls

Good morning, beloved community. It's Monday, January 12, 2026. Today: The Supreme Court just gutted the last protection standing between voters and systemic erasure, Hong Kong's climate is collapsing in real-time with twenty fucking records shattered, queer joy explodes on Broadway stages while trans humanity gets psychoanalyzed to death, and the employment text that could save your ass.

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Editor's note: January's bare branches hold memory—the sap hasn't forgotten how to rise.

Smell that? It's the Constitution smoldering. The Supreme Court's about to gut Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act—the only damn thing stopping states from erasing Black congressional districts like mistakes on a chalkboard. At least 15 seats hang in the balance, enough to trigger the largest drop in Black representation since fucking Reconstruction ended in 1877. Press Robinson in Baton Rouge, who fought for his school board seat in 1980, watches the justices play dumb about what diluting minority voting power actually means: "That is not where we should be in 2026." The conservative majority's already telegraphing their move—race can't be a factor in redistricting, they'll say, conveniently ignoring that race is why we needed the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Louisiana's two majority-Black districts? Could become one. Georgia, Alabama, Texas—all lining up to redraw their maps. The decision drops sometime before June, just in time to reshape the 2026 midterms. NPR breaks down what's at fucking stake.

Your lungs can feel it before your brain processes the data: Hong Kong just recorded its sixth hottest year since 1884, breaking 20 weather and temperature records in 2025 alone. Every single month warmer than baseline. October hit 27.4°C mean temperature—the hottest October ever recorded. Not a cold weather warning issued in November or December for the first time since 1999. The city saw 53 very hot days, 54 hot nights, and such low humidity it tied 1963 for driest year on record. Meanwhile, Super Typhoon Ragasa and Typhoon Wipha—fueled by hotter-than-normal sea temperatures—battered the region with 16 red rainstorm warnings and 5 black rainstorm warnings, the most ever. Scientists link it to warmer Pacific waters, subtropical ridge shifts, and the acceleration nobody wants to admit: we're watching climate thresholds collapse in real-time. The heat doesn't just break records—it kills. University of Hong Kong researchers found 18 heatwaves over the past decade may have contributed to 1,677 excess deaths. That's not weather; that's a body count. Earth.org documents the horror.

Throat tight, pulse racing—that's how Joseph McConville remembers getting sucked into the alt-right at 13, playing goddamn Neopets. White, male, promised everything, then the 2008 recession pulled him out of private school and the internet offered answers: blame trans people. LGBTQ Nation digs into how online radicalization works, how economic disappointment gets weaponized into hatred, how kids like McConville learn to fear people they've never met. The article traces the psychological manipulation—people taught to believe trans existence threatens their own survival, that gender diversity somehow "destroys America." It's social engineering masquerading as concern. The piece examines how right-wing media creates panic spirals, how Trump administration rhetoric about "domestic terrorists" gets internalized, how trans people in Kentucky are now arming up because the violence feels inevitable. The research is clear: this manufactured fear serves power, not safety. Trans writer Jelinda Montes dissects the mechanisms—the way fascism always needs a scapegoat, always starts with "just asking questions" before it escalates to elimination. The pattern's been documented in every genocide: dehumanize, isolate, eliminate. We're watching it happen in real-time, wrapped in the language of "protecting children" while trans kids get erased from public life. Read the full psychological breakdown.

Heated rivalry, hot reception. Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams walked onto the Golden Globes stage Sunday night to Chappell Roan's "Pink Pony Club" and the room fucking erupted. The Heated Rivalry stars—playing closeted hockey players in a decade-long secret affair—presented Best Supporting Actress in a TV Series, joking about how everyone's seen them naked onscreen. "Connor and I had chemistry instantly," Williams told E!. "But then we had to find a way to get Shane and Ilya to have chemistry." They're not even Emmy-eligible (Canadian production), yet they dominated Golden Week parties, showed up at BAFTA tea, and had Jeff Goldblum eating out of their hands. Williams did a shot with Gayle King on the red carpet. The show's sparked real-world impact too—Williams says professional athletes still in the closet have been sliding into his DMs. Variety captures the phenomenon.

Streets filled with refusal. Hundreds marched through Atlanta Sunday—fourth straight day of protests after ICE officer Jonathan Ross shot Renee Nicole Good in the face in Minneapolis last Wednesday. Good, a 37-year-old mother and poet, was driving through her south Minneapolis neighborhood observing an ICE raid when agents opened fire. The Department of Homeland Security calls it "self-defense." Video evidence says otherwise. Protesters from Midtown Atlanta to East Cobb held signs reading "Stop ICE Terror Now" and "ICE out 4 good," part of nationwide demonstrations hitting 1,000+ cities. The organizers explicitly connected Good's killing to U.S. military action in Venezuela, understanding that imperialism abroad and militarized police at home grow from the same root. Miles Wetherignton with the Party for Socialism and Liberation told crowds: "These issues are connected... all part of complete, blatant unjustified attacks and aggression across Venezuela and the United States." Good is the fifth person killed by ICE agents in recent months. AJC covers the uprising.

Broadway gets its Queen. Bob the Drag Queen—Caldwell Tidicue out of drag—makes his Broadway debut January 27 as Harold Zidler in Moulin Rouge! The Musical for an eight-week run. "Being on Broadway has always been a dream of mine," Bob said. "I moved to NYC almost 17 years ago to pursue it. Some roads take a while." The RuPaul's Drag Race Season 8 winner, Peabody Award recipient, and New York Times bestselling author of Harriet Tubman: Live In Concert joins a lineage of iconic performers who've played the flamboyant impresario—Danny Burstein, Boy George, Wayne Brady. Bob's been everywhere: co-hosting HBO's We're Here, launching the hit podcast Sibling Rivalry, serving as Master of Ceremonies for Madonna's Celebration Tour. Now the Al Hirschfeld Theatre gets to see what happens when a drag superstar claims the Great White Way. Pink News has the full story.

Holy shit, researchers are actually cracking the code on catching Alzheimer's before it devours people's minds completely.

They strapped brain scanners onto 85 folks already showing memory hiccups and watched their neural electricity crackle and spark for years. Not the old, blurry-ass averaging methods that smeared all the signals into meaningless mush – they built this badass tool called the Spectral Events Toolbox that captures each goddamn brain pulse like a high-speed camera catching lightning strikes.

And here's where it gets fucking critical: they zeroed in on beta waves, the brain's memory frequency. When they compared people who spiraled into full Alzheimer's within two and a half years versus those who stayed stable, the difference was right there – stark, undeniable. The beta activity in the people headed toward Alzheimer's was already screaming warning signs, beating out a different rhythm than the brains that held steady.

This isn't just data – it's a potential lifeline, a way to see the neural deterioration before it steals everything.

ScienceDaily details the discovery.

The four texts that'll fuck your career. Employment lawyer Ed Hones sees great cases destroyed every day by one thing: old text messages. Coworkers aren't friends, he reminds us—they're colleagues who can become witnesses or ammunition. Never text: (1) Requests to falsify records ("clock me in" = documented policy violation). (2) Trash talk about your boss (gives employers cover for "disrespectful employee" claims in wrongful termination suits). (3) Complaints about work conditions via text (document formally instead). (4) Anything you wouldn't want read in court. "In the eyes of the law, those text messages are evidence," Hones explains. Defense attorneys will get those messages during discovery and use them to destroy your credibility. If you need to vent, call someone not connected to your workplace. If you need to document something, put it in writing to HR with a paper trail. Your text thread is not a safe space. Upworthy breaks down the legal reality.

Seasonal nourishment: Winter citrus. January means grapefruit, blood oranges, and Meyer lemons at their absolute fucking peak. Segment citrus over a bowl to catch the juice, toss with fennel, olive oil, and flaky salt. Or supreme them (cut away all pith and membrane) for salads with bitter greens, shaved red onion, and crushed pistachios. Preserve Meyer lemon peels in salt for North African cooking. Candy grapefruit peel for cocktails. The acidity cuts through winter's heavy foods while providing vitamin C when your immune system needs reinforcement.

Container gardening for apartment life. You don't need land to grow food. Start with herbs in 6-inch pots on a sunny windowsill—basil, cilantro, parsley. Upgrade to 5-gallon buckets with drainage holes for tomatoes and peppers in spring. Lettuce and spinach grow well in shallow containers year-round indoors under grow lights. Use organic potting mix, water when the top inch feels dry, and watch your grocery bill drop while your connection to the food cycle deepens.

NBC News | Steve Kopack, Shannon Pettypiece, Garrett Haake. Jerome Powell's voice cracks with something between fury and resignation—the Federal Reserve Chair just revealed DOJ subpoenas arrived Friday threatening criminal indictment, ostensibly about testimony on Fed building renovations but actually about interest rates and Trump's relentless campaign to control monetary policy. Read the full confrontation.

NBC News | Senate politics team. Five Republicans broke ranks to advance a War Powers resolution blocking Trump from further military action in Venezuela without congressional approval—the 52-47 vote represents rare bipartisan pushback after Trump's January 3 military raid captured Nicolás Maduro, killed at least 80 Venezuelan and Cuban nationals, and sparked global condemnation for violating international law and Venezuelan sovereignty while Trump promises to "run" the country indefinitely for oil access. Read about congressional resistance.

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