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Weather Reports:
New York: 29°F with goddamn freezing rain turning to sleet, the kind of wet cold that seeps through your soul and makes you question why humans ever settled this miserable stretch of coastline
Kansas City: 18°F and clear as fuck, so cold your breath freezes mid-exhale, the air so sharp it could slice through bullshit and bad intentions alike
Atlanta: 41°F with scattered showers, that annoying Southern drizzle that's too wimpy to commit to real rain but persistent enough to ruin your whole damn day
San Francisco: 56°F and shrouded in that iconic coastal fog, the kind that rolls in thick as regret and makes you feel like you're living inside a beautiful, melancholic painting
Detroit: 22°F with snow flurries, those delicate motherfucking snowflakes that look pretty for about five minutes before turning into grey slush that ruins your shoes and your mood
Good morning, beloved community. It's Friday, January 23rd. Today: Jack Smith testifies that Trump caused January 6th, just 32 fossil fuel companies poison half our fucking atmosphere, trans wrestlers fight hate with laughter and lube, and the life hack that'll change your damn week.
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Editor's note: The cold grips hard today, but the fire of resistance burns hotter.
Jack Smith's Reckoning
The wood-paneled hearing room smells like old paper and stale coffee, the fluorescent lights harsh enough to reveal every lie. Former Special Counsel Jack Smith sits straight-backed, his voice steady as he tells Congress what they already fucking know but refuse to admit: Donald Trump caused January 6th. "Our investigation revealed that Donald Trump is the person who caused Jan. 6, that it was foreseeable to him and that he sought to exploit the violence," Smith testified. While Trump rage-posted from his phone calling Smith a "deranged animal," the prosecutor remained unflinching. No one should be above the law, Smith insisted, even as Trump threatened to prosecute him. The damage: Democracy hangs by threads Trump keeps trying to cut. Response: Smith refuses intimidation, standing firm that he'd bring the same charges against any president, Democrat or Republican, because that's what justice actually fucking means. CNN
Wall Street Isn’t Warning You, But This Chart Might
Vanguard just projected public markets may return only 5% annually over the next decade. In a 2024 report, Goldman Sachs forecasted the S&P 500 may return just 3% annually for the same time frame—stats that put current valuations in the 7th percentile of history.
Translation? The gains we’ve seen over the past few years might not continue for quite a while.
Meanwhile, another asset class—almost entirely uncorrelated to the S&P 500 historically—has overall outpaced it for decades (1995-2024), according to Masterworks data.
Masterworks lets everyday investors invest in shares of multimillion-dollar artworks by legends like Banksy, Basquiat, and Picasso.
And they’re not just buying. They’re exiting—with net annualized returns like 17.6%, 17.8%, and 21.5% among their 23 sales.*
Wall Street won’t talk about this. But the wealthy already are. Shares in new offerings can sell quickly but…
*Past performance is not indicative of future returns. Important Reg A disclosures: masterworks.com/cd.
32 Companies, Half the Planet's Carbon Sins
Imagine the weight of smoke—not metaphorical, but real—32 companies producing enough CO2 to choke half the atmosphere in a single year. State-controlled fossil fuel behemoths from Saudi Aramco to China's coal giants pumped enough greenhouse gases in 2024 to alter weather patterns your grandchildren will curse. The science is brutal: 57% of global fossil CO2 emissions came from state-run companies, 17 of them controlled by governments that opposed phasing out fossil fuels at COP30. These aren't accidents—they're choices. Choices made by men in air-conditioned rooms while the planet burns. Action: The Carbon Majors dataset now tracks every molecule of their destruction, linking these emissions directly to hundreds of heatwaves that killed thousands, heatwaves scientists say would have been "virtually impossible" without their pollution. Trump's rolling back every climate protection, but the data doesn't lie, and neither does the heat. Earth.org
Trans Bodies, Queer Joy, Lube Wrestling
Picture a warehouse packed with queer folks, the air thick with anticipation and olive oil. Trans Dudes of LA have turned wrestling into resistance, T Boy Wrestling packing venues across the country with a politically charged mix of classic American grappling, staged psychodramas, and drag. This isn't your MAGA uncle's WWE—this is bodies reclaiming space, trans and nonbinary wrestlers making the latent homoeroticism of traditional wrestling beautifully, explicitly queer. "We wanted to move away from a support-group model to highlight artists and makers in the community," organizers explained. In an era where 886 anti-trans bills have been introduced across 49 states, these collectives fight back with a lot of laughter and a little lube wrestling. Stakes: While Trump's administration strips rights, these communities are building their own stages, their own rules, their own fucking joy. Movement: From Boston's BLOWW to LA's Lez Get Physical, queer wrestling nights are surging nationwide—visibility as armor, pleasure as protest, bodies that refuse to be erased. LGBTQ Nation
"We should never forget what they did to the guy that we the people elected president twice."
— Rep. Jim Jordan, twisting accountability into victimhood like a dickhead
Here's the survival truth Jordan won't tell you: Remembering isn't the problem—it's selective amnesia. When you choose to forget the violence, the lies, the attempted coup, you're not protecting democracy, you're burying it alive. Practice radical honesty in your own life. Write down what you witnessed. Trust your own fucking eyes. Don't let gaslighters—political or personal—rewrite your reality. The people who tell you to forget are the ones with the most to hide.
Community & Culture
Drag queen nails Erika Kirk impersonation, raises funds for ACLU: LA-based drag performer Lauren Banall went viral (7+ million views) with her campy yet spot-on impersonation of Charlie Kirk's widow Erika, complete with icy blue contacts and intense eye makeup. Banall's lip-syncing to Kirk's memorial speeches and interviews turned grief into satire, then satire into activism—she's now raising money for the ACLU "so we can fight this administration in the courts and win." In a time when Trump demands loyalty over law, queens with contacts and convictions are fighting back one viral video at a time. Pride.com
Minnesota businesses shut down to protest ICE terror: Hundreds of Twin Cities businesses are closing Friday for an "ICE Out of Minnesota: Day of Truth and Freedom"—no work, no school, no shopping. After federal agents shot and killed Renee Good during a raid, and with ICE now authorized to kick down doors without judicial warrants, the community is using economic power as resistance. Restaurant owners are donating meals to immigrant families while paying their workers' salaries. "This is a bigger thing than the weather," one organizer said, even as temperatures hit 8 below zero. Trump's Minneapolis crackdown has turned a progressive city into a war zone, but solidarity tastes like free pizza and feels like locked doors keeping ICE the fuck out. NBC News
Lesbian knight game 1348 Ex Voto breaks the internet: People are losing their shit over upcoming RPG 1348 Ex Voto, which features protagonist Aeta rescuing her "closest one" Bianca from bandits in 14th-century Italy. The story trailer's unabashed sapphic yearning (Aeta clutching Bianca's medallion, the field scene between them) has fans screaming "LESBIAN KNIGHT GAME" across social media. Right-wingers predictably raged about "historical inaccuracy," conveniently forgetting the 13th-century Trobairitz who wrote love poems to women and lesbian relationships documented back to 10,000 BC. Sometimes progress looks like a queer protagonist wielding a sword in chainmail, and sometimes that's exactly what the fuck we need. Pink News