jamesovei | Reading

So yeah, kind of hard to concentrate on work while being consumed by rage. I've been to conventions in the Minneapolis area and I have a lot of friends up there, and one of my goddaughters and her husband live there.

For instance, this is Greg Ketter, from DreamHaven Books, where I've done signings, at the protest and running into tear gas:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XHDR1PnqPeg

I've been doing mutual aid and sending donations where I can (https://www.standwithminnesota.com/) which is helping my sanity somewhat.

Other stuff I should link to:

Interview with me on Space.com https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-books/martha-wells-next-murderbot-diaries-book-is-the-family-roadtrip-from-hell-on-ringworld-interview

Weather permitting, I'll be guest of honor this coming weekend at AggieCon in College Station: https://www.aggiecon.net/

That's all I've got right now. Abolish ICE.

numb3r_5ev3n

Here it is.

That was what the Epstein files were really all about. MAGA supported Trump in the first place because they thought he would eventually mandate the persecution and murder of all of the people who disagree with them. MAGA assumed the Epstein List or the Black Book or whatever would be full of prominent Democrat and Liberal names, and ONLY that, and that this would finally give them the justification the needed to be able to execute on sight anyone identifying as Democrat or Liberal or Leftist.

But since Their Guy is Suspect #1, they're now actively against the release of the Epstein files. They've pivoted to just letting the ICEstapo carry on with killing people on a whim. The fact that ICE has not been sent to occupy any border states with higher immigration statistics proves that was never about immigration, any more than it was about "saving children from trafficking" because their guy is trafficker and rapist #1. And now the proof is right there in their faces, and now they can't just rationalize it away.

But it's always been about them just wanting to be able to execute us at will just for disagreeing with them about the economy, disagreeing with them about civil rights (i.e. that everyone should have them), for rejecting their cruelty and hypocrisy, for rejecting their racism, rejecting white supremacy, rejecting their warped misappropriation of a 3000-year-old Levantine storm god, and for gently asking them to put on masks during a global pandemic. That's all it has ever been about. That's what all of their bullshit rationalizations about immigration or "saving the children" are about. Always has been.

Rest in power Renee Good and Alex Peretti, and everyone else victimized by these thugs whose names haven't been revealed or aren't being mentioned right now. You never should have been martyrs. We can't let their murderers get away with this.

Current mood.

[A tweet by c a i t l i n, with the text "Roving banks of masked federal agents with total immunity executing gun owners is the kind of sweaty conservative fantasy we've heard over the last 20 years on cable news and now that it's here, they love it."]

elisem

There's someone who is trying to raise funds for memorial services and to bury his brother who died of exposure last weekend. I'll just say what I said on bluesky:

His family wants to do memorial services in Minneapolis and in Wisconsin where he was born and will be buried.

If you've felt grief, if you've comforted people in grief, please help these folks.

(My own mother died this morning.

If you were gonna bring me a hot dish,

please give here instead.)

https://www.gofundme.com/f/honoring-harold-lightfeather-benny-boy

Thank you.
And thank you also for sharing the info elsewhere as well if you can.

elisem

Here's where I am today, I guess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InyT9Gyoz_o

elisem

After some trouble getting ahold of me, my sister has let me know that our mother died this morning.

(So maybe don't assume I remember anything I'm supposed to remember this week?)
My sister and her husband continue to be awesome in these matters. As does Juan.

OK. Gonna go have food and meds now.

elisem

...EXTREME COLD WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 9 PM THURSDAY TO 11 AM CST

FRIDAY...

...EXTREME COLD WATCH NOW IN EFFECT FROM FRIDAY MORNING THROUGH

SATURDAY MORNING...

* WHAT...For the Extreme Cold Warning, dangerously cold wind chills

of 35 to 45 below expected. For the Extreme Cold Watch, dangerously

cold wind chills as low as 35 below possible.

* WHERE...Portions of central, east central, south central,

southeast, southwest, and west central Minnesota and northwest and

west central Wisconsin.

* WHEN...For the Extreme Cold Warning, from 9 PM Thursday to 11 AM

CST Friday. For the Extreme Cold Watch, from Friday morning through

Saturday morning.

* IMPACTS...The dangerously cold wind chills as low as 45 below zero

could cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 10 minutes.

And where is this for?

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Twin Cities/Chanhassen MN

1202 PM CST Wed Jan 21 2026

MNZ051>070-073>078-082>085-091>093-WIZ014>016-023>028-220615-

/O.NEW.KMPX.EC.W.0001.260123T0300Z-260123T1700Z/

/O.EXT.KMPX.EC.A.0001.260123T1700Z-260124T1800Z/

Sherburne-Isanti-Chisago-Lac Qui Parle-Swift-Chippewa-Kandiyohi-

Meeker-Wright-Hennepin-Anoka-Ramsey-Washington-Yellow Medicine-

Renville-McLeod-Sibley-Carver-Scott-Dakota-Redwood-Brown-Nicollet-

Le Sueur-Rice-Goodhue-Watonwan-Blue Earth-Waseca-Steele-Martin-

Faribault-Freeborn-Polk-Barron-Rusk-St. Croix-Pierce-Dunn-Pepin-

Chippewa-Eau Claire-

Including the cities of Chippewa Falls, St Peter, Mankato,

Stillwater, Victoria, Hudson, Fairmont, Blue Earth, Hutchinson,

Olivia, Faribault, Gaylord, Waseca, Owatonna, Benson, Madison, Elk

River, Redwood Falls, New Ulm, Cambridge, River Falls, St Paul,

Minneapolis, Menomonie, Shakopee, Red Wing, Durand, Blaine,

Chanhassen, St James, Center City, Litchfield, Monticello, Osceola,

Montevideo, Granite Falls, Albert Lea, Willmar, Hastings, Rice Lake,

Eau Claire, Ladysmith, Le Sueur, and Chaska

And what do we do?

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Dress in layers including a hat, face mask, and gloves if you must go

outside.

Keep pets indoors as much as possible.

Which mostly means "Keep yer ass indoors! You, and your little dog too!"
And also means "Look after each other. We keep us safe." OK? OK then.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to finish the bag for the supply depot and start on one for Pow Wow Grounds.

What's the weather going to be doing where you are? And how are the people in your neighborhood?

numb3r_5ev3n

This video articulates something that I have been feeling about the Republican party since 9/11 and The War In Iraq/The War On Terror, though I'm sure it was ongoing even before that.

To sum it up, the person who made this video explains that people in the West assume that Putin has an endgame, an actual end he is working towards. But people in Russia understand in a way that people in the West do not that power is the end in and of itself. Endless war and stress and strife serves this agenda in the way that any abuser tries to keep their abuse victims living in a constant fearful present where nothing is certain, no source of information can really be trusted, and the only constant is the power of the oligarchs on top, dominated by the despot above them.

And this has been the Republicans' game since at least the early 2000s. And why those of us who have been feeling this, who have been trying to convince everyone else of this since then feel so jaded and disillusioned now. We told you. We told you where this was headed. We told you that just grabbing and holding onto power was what they wanted, that the age of "business as usual," of "reach across the isle" was done. Oh well.

This is supported by this next article from Medium, by Sprinkled Salt (who is also on Tumblr.) It's time to just admit that MAGA are collectively just a bunch of abusers, and just being nicer to them won't change that or stop that. The only way you stop a bully is by standing up to them, or avoiding them, or leaving them.

Which leads us next to another banger by Catherynne Valente, "This Is Why You Feel That Way: The Incredibly Sad Root of America's Great Malaise." Yes, it's on Substack. Yes, I'm aware that Nazis are on Substack. So is everyone else, apparently. They're going to be there until we get rid of Nazis, in general. I recall a quote by Terry Pratchett about how the best way to deal with a house on fire is by taking the fire out of the house. And yes, this is what we collectively need to be figuring out how to do right now. Unfortunately for us, the best time to have done that was 26 years ago, before it started raging out of control. People have been joking about the "This Is Fine" meme for years, but yeah.

numb3r_5ev3n

On youtube, here.

I like how he goes straight into the way that Tron was an expression of 60s Left Wing idealism, and the idea of taking on a corrupt corporate entity: and even going into the spirituality and consciousness-expanding aspects of it.

( Spoilers for the Tron franchise. )

Jaymie Moore

Reading

Abolish ICE

Points to my previous post about how MAGA wants to be able to legally shoot us in the streets.

Other people trying to do the right thing in grief need some help - please read. Thank you

you may know this one already (On the Nature of Daylight)

in the midst: another passage

National Weather Service sez

Links for this week.

Interview with Steven Lisberger, creator of TRON.

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January 2026

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