Garden, New Panels, Radio
Jan. 13th, 2026 06:02 pmElsewhere in the garden; A couple of beds no longer have dying tomatoes in them which makes the fava beans, which were trying to grow in tomato plant shade, really happy. Tons of grass has been pulled out and dead sunflowers pulled out to add to the compost. Still have two big beds to go but things are definitely looking a lot better. Sadly there are vole trails all over. They love all the overgrown plants. Yesterday traps were set out to reduce the vole population. So far I've caught 3.
Today the new metal fence panels for Winter Quarters arrived. Dave and his son Grant came up to help. We removed the old beat up/broken panels that decidedly did not fit and put new ones in their place. It all fits and looks SO much better. Included in this order were several gates, one of which is now hanging from the front-center of the Winter Quarters run in shedrow. For months we have been using a temporary panel as a gate. This meant lifting it and hooking it on a hinge pin fitting that was loosely attached. It worked surprisingly well as a latch, but it was a pain in the neck to use. Today we replaced that panel with a nice gate on real hinges!
This afternoon I had an interview down at the local community radio station. I think it went well. Hopefully I didn't say "um" too many times! It was kind of fun: The lady who was interviewing me was using some new equipment; when she had trouble getting her sound levels right, my Stagehand training kicked in and we were able to solve them together.
what’s permuting itself around in my head, part one:
Jan. 13th, 2026 09:01 amI never got a chance to write an article about how much worse 2026 is going to be than 2025; it all got going with Trump’s invasion of Venezuela literally as I was getting to write it all out. But before I could, well, here we were, already ass-deep in it.
Today, I wanted to talk about subverting this year’s elections – a work already in progress – but we should probably start with what’s most loudly and visibly in front of us this week before going into that.
The first thing you have to remember – the first thing you have to keep in mind – is that the US Government is now a white nationalist government. Straight up. Little hedging or pretence remains; it’s a white nationalist government, and don’t try to tell me otherwise when the Shitweasel is openly condemning the civil rights movement and official US government accounts are openly sending out white nationalist propaganda and promoting white nationalist goals.
Which they are, if you missed it over new year’s.
Like here, for example, where the Department of Homeland Security posted how peaceful and great America would be after 100 million deportations of people from the “third world.”
There aren’t 100 million immigrants at all in the United States, much less ones from the “third world.” But if you take all immigrants (of all races) and all non-white American citizens, and yes, that includes those who have citizenship by by birth and add those numbers up…
…that’s right about 100,000,000.
They know that, of course. So given that, I have to assume that’s who they’re saying to get rid of. Everyone not white and every immigrant.
They’re literally propagandising for a mass ethnic purge of 100,000,000 people, most of whom are US citizens of colour.
Elon Musk has become even more openly white nationalist, by the way. The movement isn’t even pretending otherwise anymore.
(As an aside, why is anyone still on X? Particularly given all this? Why? Was it not obvious enough before? How about now that it’s an AI child porn generation site? Is that obvious enough? Seriously – WHY IS ANYONE STILL THERE?! If you are, get the fuck off X. For good. Now. I’m sick of excuses, get off of X, right the fuck now. If you have followers you care about, lead them off too. Now.)
But I digress.
The DHS “X” account is an official US government account owned and maintained by the Department of Homeland Security, which runs ICE. It’s not some unofficial fan club, it’s literally the US government in control of it, and they’re posting white nationalist propaganda.
The “100 million” post is only one example of such propaganda; there are many others. Not only have they not taken down this particular piece of white nationalist propaganda, when I started writing this, it was still pinned to the top of the account. They weren’t hiding it, they were highlighting it.
They’re proud of it. It’s the goddamn goal. They are telling you it’s the goddamn goal. When will people listen?
(This is, by the way, what every single person who didn’t do everything they could to get Harris into the Presidency brought us, and amongst the many things I will never forgive are those people who sneered, jeered, and slandered me, accusing me of being pro-genocide, all for doing what was absolutely necessary to keep literal fascists out of the White House. And so they played saboteur, buying into bullshit, discouraging voting, depressing turnout, and now look where we fucking are.)
But again, I digress. I digress a lot, lately, I admit.
So. As MAGA leadership is white nationalist, DHS is also white nationalist. As DHS is white nationalist, ICE is white nationalist.
Remember again that ICE is DHS’s enforcement arm, their national semi-secret police intended to execute DHS policy. Their street white nationalism is the implementation of the political white nationalism.
One way you can tell is their recruitment of white nationalists, often using literal Klu Klux Klan language. “Defend Your Culture,” which is big in their advertising, was literally a KKK slogan, and the “culture” of the Klan was white supremacy through violence. I assure you, the white supremacists don’t miss it – Proud Boy leadership started telling their membership to sign up months ago, and I promise you that they are, where they can. The people they recruit will be onboard with the agenda.
(See also how the Republican Party’s MAGA wing – when it was only a wing, and not the whole party – gave the Proud Boys a quiet tryout as a militant street action wing, a kind of enforcement brigade without official status. It didn’t work out; the PB were too undisciplined and too independent. This is their solution. Their explicitly political recruitment, targeting the far-right of the GOP base, helps make the connection clear.)
They’re only starting with this purge of actual undocumented people.
Initially moving against undocumented workers – already an expansion after promising to only go after “violent criminals” – they’ve been generating new “illegals” since day one. They’ve been making people applying for refugee status into “illegals,” arresting them as they show up for entry interviews and appointments and court dates. They’re making people here with longstanding legal status “illegals,” breaking promises and revoking already-signed papers, often breaking the law to do so. The leadership are explicitly looking for ways to “de-naturalise” people, and going after the very explicit, very intentional birthright citizenship guaranteed by the US Constitution.
They’re openly setting up the concentration camps they need for such a mass expulsion. They brag about it. They’ve published the structure of how they’ll work.
It is, as it was always intended to be, a mass ethnic purge. It is, to use their word, “wartime” in America. And yes, they will get to citizens, unless we stop them before they can.
As with any such purge, it will be bloody. It already is bloody, of course, with ICE beating down citizens they have no authority to arrest and occasionally just murdering people in the streets. Good was not the first, she was just the most recent, and the first that looked like she could turn up at a MAGA rally. That whiteness is what’s made the difference in popular reaction. But it will get far, far bloodier – which is exactly what MAGA leadership want it to become.
Vance says ICE agents have “absolute immunity,” and are above all state and local laws. That’s not the law and never has been, it’s just fascism. But it’s more specifically giving ICE informal – but clear – permission to do whatever the hell they want, up to and including murder more ‘lesbian bitches‘ like Renee Good, a threat reportedly made by more than one ICE agent this past weekend.
And, as you’d expect once given the go-ahead like that, they’re using their murder of Renee Good to intimidate Americans, threatening citizens with the same kind of violence.
It will not stop in hotspots. Vance also says he wants ICE agents going door to door all across America. They’ve been doing that this past weekend in Minnesota, sweeping through neighbourhoods. Yes, of course they include citizens in that door-to-door, and yes, it’s government terrorism. They don’t care if it’s your property, they don’t care that you’re an American, they threaten to smash down your door if you demand to see a warrant and they threaten you with prosecution if you stand up for your rights.
Do I have an example on video? Of course I do. The terror you see and hear from this American family in their own home is what they want. Listen, you’ll hear them tell the family with infant child that if they make ICE wait for a warrant they’ll smash the door down. Listen, you’ll hear them threaten the family with Federal charges for not letting them in right the fuck now.
But stand your goddamn ground, and have your whistles, and get your neighbourhood out and loud. If you don’t know what the whistles are, find out, and if you hear them, learn to respond. This particular neighbourhood did. And, being mostly cowards, ICE left – for now. But they’ll seethe, and take it out on someone else later.
They want violence, they want fear, they want and have basically received permission to spill blood. None of that is compatible with a republic, but MAGA doesn’t really want that either.
I’m further pretty sure that MAGA leadership does want resistance, however. Underneath it all, it sure seems clear to me that Trump and Vance and Miller et al are salivating to use the Insurrection Act and declare martial law. Trump’s been openly talking about it since his first term, just like he’s talked about how it’d be “good” for America to have a “president for life.” He wants dictatorial power and he wants it bad, because he knows it’s the only way the party survives the 2026 elections, and without the party, he’s vulnerable.
He knows his movement is starting to come apart. He knows everyone not in his movement is done with his shit. So he’s going to do whatever he can, with absolutely no limits, to stay in power. That includes false prosecutions against political opponents, that includes declaring war on allies, that includes declaring war on citizens (as above), and yes, that does include subverting, stealing, or just trying to overturn the 2026 elections.
That last part can’t be surprising, can it? Are we going to pretend it’s a surprise, when he tries? It’s what he did in 2020, and he didn’t go to jail, so why wouldn’t he try it again? It’d only be surprising if he didn’t try. So, I think it’s clear that he will.
I have some thoughts on how it’ll go. You can figure them out for yourself if you paid attention in 2020, because basically it’s the same plan. But this mess of an article is already too damn long, so that’ll have to wait. We’ll call that part two.
And if you’ve made it down this far through this absolute mess of an article, good job. Because holy crow, it is a mess. But that doesn’t make me wrong. Moments in history like this are messy, too.
So get organised and get used to turning out, because all this is going to keep getting worse. If there’s no ICE around, today’s a Tesla Takedown day; you might join an existing protest, or start a new one. I’ll see you again in a couple of days with part two.
Be good out there.
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Weekend protests – SHOW UP
Jan. 9th, 2026 08:45 pmPROTESTS. SATURDAY AND SUNDAY. LOTS OF THEM. SHOW UP.
Here’s a bunch on the Washington State wet side. All over the place, and I do mean all over. Like Tulalip, and Sequim. Don’t get me wrong, I like Sequim, but it is not a big place. Here’s the list. All kinds of times, all kinds of places.
Sundays are further down but this list isn’t in good date order, idk why. So keep scrolling.
I’m sure wherever you are has some too. Pick one and get out there.
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Vance: ICE agents have “absolute immunity” from state laws – including murder
Jan. 8th, 2026 11:21 amJD Vance said – in response to a reporter asking why the FBI and Federal agencies were blocking Minnesota’s investigation into the ICE agent murder of Renee Nicole Good – that ICE agents have “absolute immunity” from state laws.

This is not law. This is fascism.
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Sun, Garden, Health
Jan. 7th, 2026 08:45 pmThe sunny days allowed garden cleanup to continue. Which is very much needed. Sheesh, it is the beginning of January and there is grass going to seed! As usual the pink rose is blooming instead of going dormant. Pulling grass out of the soggy clay is a chore, but otherwise the garden is just going to disappear. Quite a lot of evidence that the voles are still around. Grrrr.
Did a quick trip over to Fort Bragg so Richard could fix the things that hurt in my back and neck. Also he fixed my left foot. A few days ago I slid and fell going down a terribly steep hillside in the semi-dark. The fall didn't hurt at all but it did mess with my foot. The slip pushed the cuboid bone in my foot just slightly out of kilter. It hasn't hurt a lot, just been a little ouchy at times. Took Richard about 1 minute to put it back in place. I'm under strict orders to warm my foot up (and strengthen it) by pointing my toes in and up, then down and out, before getting up from bed or after sitting for a while.
Once back from Fort Bragg I cut pieces of what the English call "fleece" for the garden. It is supposed to be right down to freezing tonight, and a couple of degrees below freezing tomorrow. Amazingly enough I have peppers still chugging along! I think they will get through the cold and really enjoy the 70F weather that is supposed to be on the way. Also covered one of the two lemon trees (I'll cover the other one tomorrow). The lime tree has gone into the greenhouse. The fava beans and collard greens should be fine. Speaking of collard greens, I find my self really liking Champion. I still like the old Vates plants too. Both are under serious attack from slugs this year. I've picked dozens of slugs off the plants. I blame the rain.
ICE murdered a woman in the streets today. You need to know, and you need to tell others.
Jan. 7th, 2026 10:31 amICE shot a woman, believed but not confirmed to be an American and confirmed not to be a target of their raids, to death in the streets today, murdering her. They are lying about it, calling her a terrorist and lying about what happened. Tricia McLaughlin in particular is lying about what happened. ICE and Tricia McLaughlin have lied many times, irrefutably, in the past, about ICE violence; this is yet another time.
There is third-party video. I have reviewed it several times. It matches reported eyewitness descriptions taken at the scene. In it, the ICE agent shoots while fully clear of any vehicle – having in fact stepped back from the vehicle to make room to raise his pistol – as the vehicle is moving away from him. Eyewitnesses say he shot directly into the vehicle, from the side, at a near-right-angle (at first), which matches what can be seen in the video itself.
Here’s one posting. If necessary, I have a copy and can make more copies if needed. I think these’ll be disappeared if we don’t put them enough places.
The fash are building a lie, a “false narrative.” That’s just extra syllables for “lie,” one that they’ll all pretend to believe. Debunk it at every turn.
ICE murdered a woman in the streets today for funsies and because they were mad about it, and now they’re lying about what they did, while this woman is indeed quite dead.
ETA: The original video has been moved behind moderation and is no longer visible without a Bluesky account. This is a different video from a different angle, unfortunately lacking earlier context.
Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.
what to do now
Jan. 5th, 2026 09:42 amStop using oil.
That’s it. That’s what to do.
Stop using oil. Stop using natural gas, too. Stop. The sooner you can stop, the better. Do what it takes. I don’t know what that is for any individual – for you – but do it.
I know it’s work. I’m not saying, “here’s the easy no impact thing you can do to feel better about yourself,” I’m saying “this is what you need to do if you want to actually do something,” and those are very different statements. It’s a lift, and it’s a heavy lift, but it’s what to do now.
Being work – being difficult – doesn’t change that it needs to happen. Stopping the Nazis in World War II was a heavy lift too. It was work, it was difficult, and it was very literally very very deadly. Millions of people died. Millions more got fucked up for life. Still needed to happen, just like this still needs to happen now. And both the deaths and the fuckery were going to happen anyway.
So stop using oil.
I started saying this literally decades ago, talking about US adventurism in the Middle East. For the money people – the ones who matter – it was then and is now about oil. You want the US out of the Middle East, do everything you can to stop oil consumption. Starve the beast, and eventually the beast will weaken and die. It’s not fast and it’s not easy and it’s not glamorous, but it’s what will work.
Sure, you can talk about the lunatic fundamentalists who want to start Armageddon and end the world to bring back Jesus – fuck, I hate that typing that out is relevant and important – but without the money people using them as muscle, they’re a bunch of flea-picking determinedly-ignorant dipshits feeling up snakes in strip-mall storefronts. Fuck ’em. The reality is that fossil fuel companies are ass-deep in fascism, and always have been, so:
Stop. Using. Oil.
Internalise that. The problem is oil and the people who extract, refine, and sell it. It’s also natural gas and coal and any other fossil fuel, but mostly, it’s the oil.
Stop using oil.
Hit those goddamn breaks, slow down, and then just. Fucking. Stop. Using. Oil.
Some of that’s easy, some of it’s not, and it’s not fast. Lots of people can tell you ways how, including me, but don’t get me wrong – I’m not a saint on this; our furnace is still natural gas. I want to fix that, and we’re actively stockpiling money to do so, but it’s going to take time. It just is. But we’re actually actively working towards it, and we have been for a while.
Not just at home, either. If things go right at the work I don’t talk about online – ever – we’ll be cutting fossil fuel consumption there by another 91% by late this summer.
Thanks to me.
It’s taken ages. We’ve already cut use by about 77%, thanks again – I stress – to my efforts. This new 91% cut will be 91% of what’s left over after all that. It’ll be a 98% cut from where we started, years ago.
If things go right – and there are supplier questions so it might not go right – we’ll be throwing that switch mid-year. For good. It’ll have been years of effort but we’ll have gone from over two thousand gallons of oil a year to
FUCKING ZERO
…with the remaining 2% being natural gas. (We have a path out of that, as well. But the oil comes first.)
There’s nothing unique about my position in this. My accomplishment can be repeated by others, I am just saying.
The end result of not using oil will be much better than what we have now. Some of the intermediate steps will be improvements, too. Some won’t. Some, people just won’t like. Surveys show Americans want to stop climate change but they also want to keep using gas forever and I’m fucking sorry, but that’s just not how reality works.
Until people internalise that they have to stop using oil, I don’t know how much anything else matters.
Step one is stop using oil. (And natural gas.)
It’s also step 10, step 30, step 3000.
You want to do something?
Stop. Using. Oil.
Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.
what i’m hearing
Jan. 5th, 2026 02:24 amWhat I’m hearing – and hopefully it’s wrong, but it’s what I’m hearing – is that Republicans in Congress know that this is all a hellish dictatorial evil nightmare, but that even now, they won’t cross Trump. One or two will, but not many and not enough. I don’t know that it’s true, but maybe it is.
If you have Republican Representatives or Senator(s), it is your job TODAY to make them fear YOU more than they fear HIM.
This is some serious business last chance shit right here, okay?
Get on it. Good luck.
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Rain, Tree Cleanup
Jan. 4th, 2026 10:26 amThis summer we cut down several trees along the power lines. No cleanup was done after the trees were on the ground because it was dry enough that running a chainsaw had the potential to start a fire. Not much of a chance, but any chance in these dry summer hills is too much. Yesterday was cleanup day for three smaller trees. All little blue oaks, the biggest of which was perhaps 35 ft tall and about a foot in diameter at the base. All three are now chopped up into firewood and stacked next to the road. I'd like to get the other two, similar sized trees cut up today and a tarp over the wood. The wood had a chance to dry during the summer, if it is protected from more rain it will be good firewood next winter. It is getting critical that I sharpen chainsaw chains...
The current mystery is where the fence tester is that should live at the Red Barn. It has vanished.
Shovel Work, Storm
Jan. 2nd, 2026 02:40 pmToday the promised storm is moving in. It is windy, starting to rain a bit, and not very pleasant outside so we are sitting by the fireplace in the living room.
I did get lots of canning and storage jars moved up to the attic. Lots of home canned stuff is getting eaten up, which is good!
lids+lids=storage
Jan. 2nd, 2026 12:49 pmSo I made lids for my Tide laundry detergent lids and since lids+lids=storage the tide lids are now containers (with lids) and people over on Mastodon are surprisingly into this so
I’ve uploaded the lid designs to thingiverse
enjoy lids4lids 😀

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