Friday’s Bumper Sticker
Monday’s Theme Music
Monday, January 26, 2026, has landed. Frigid cold holds much of the U.S. Ashland in Oregon remains 40 degrees and dry, but partly cloudy, with a high of 57 F expected this afternoon.
Much of my attention shifts between Minnesota, Trump in general, and the winter storm, Fern. My general reflections at this point make me think that the U.S. is in danger of becoming a wasteland, a rich center for the wealthy but a miserable place for the rest. As education and norms are peeled away and freedom is squashed, the future has a bleaker look to it.
For what, many of us ask? We know Trump is the figurehead and has enabled others to act on his behalf. More, the Project 2025 authors are driving it. Their intention seems to be, tear it all down, and then we’ll rebuild in an image of our own making. The image seems to be, believe in our God, buy our goods, and keep your opinions to yourself. In return, we’ll call you free, and remind that this is America, land of the free and home of the brave.
And if you resist, we will vilify, harass, and even shoot you. We will gas you and strip you of your dignity and rights.
To which We the People reply, bring it on.
Today’s music is brought to you by The Neurons. They identified “Baba O’Riley” by The Who as ideal theme music for this final Monday in January, 2026.
Out here in the fields
I fight for my meals
I get my back into my living
I don’t need to fight
To prove I’m right
I don’t need to be forgiven
Don’t cry
Don’t raise your eye
It’s only teenage wasteland
Sally, take my hand
We’ll travel south ‘cross land
Put out the fire, don’t look past my shoulder
The exodus is here
The happy ones are near
Let’s get together before we get much older
h/t to songmeanings.com
So let’s continue getting together and stand up for the United States that we believe in, a nation where we can criticize the government without threats of lawsuits or violence, a nation of elected officials who believe they work for We the People to help us all rise and be stronger, safer, and freer, and not just a privileged few.
Hope it’s a grand, safe day for you, one that helps establish a firm foundation for the needs ahead. Cheers
“Standing Beside Her: Confronting ICE in the Heartland”
Protests against ICE swept across the United States last weekend. Many citizens filled the streets and lined sidewalks to protest ICE’s policies and deployments.
Those ICE policies and deployments led to escalated violence. The most shocking violence occurred when ICE agent Ross killed Renee Nicole Good, unarmed and in her car, in Minneapolis a few days into 2026.
This week, another report emerges of ICE agents threatening U.S. citizens. This is the story of Pastor Kenny Callaghan of Minnesota.
White and gay, Pastor Callaghan was standing with protestors a few days ago when an ICE agent confronted him. Pastor Callaghan told his story to news reporters.
Rev. Kenny Callaghan is the senior pastor at All God’s Children Metropolitan Community Church in Minneapolis. He was driving to work on the morning of Jan. 7 when he saw a large crowd on Portland Avenue.
Callaghan said he parked his car and walked three blocks toward the crowd and saw several ICE agents. At the time, Callaghan didn’t know why agents were there, but saw agents approach a Hispanic woman, so he went to stand beside her.
He heard her tell agents she wasn’t afraid of them. Then, he said there was a wave of energy. It was the news of Renee Good’s death.
“I welled up in energy, even more energy than I had, and I said at that time toward those ICE agents approaching this young Hispanic woman, ‘take me, take me instead of her, I am not afraid of you either’,” he said.
Callaghan said an ICE agent approached him and asked him to repeat what he said.
“I said I am not afraid and then they pointed a gun in my face, and the crowd was chanting louder and louder, they were also chanting at this time, ‘we are not afraid, we are not afraid.’ ICE put handcuffs on my hands and put me in a black SUV,” Callaghan said.
He said while he was handcuffed in the car, ICE agents approached him a few times, asking if he was scared, and he repeatedly said no. Callaghan said ICE agents then asked him for his ID and cellphone. He asked if he was being arrested, and then he said ICE slammed the door and walked away.
“A few moments later, they came back and they said, ‘Are you afraid yet?’ and I said ‘no,’ and then they said it ‘Well, you’re White. You wouldn’t be fun anyway.’ And then I was shocked because if I hadn’t seen enough, it was then that I knew that this staging that these ICE raids are really about fear and intimidation,” he said.
Many observers agree that Pastor Callaghan is right. Trump’s ICE policies aren’t about making America great again, immigrants, whether they’re illegal or not. ICE’s tactics are about threatening Americans to do as they say, or else.
For many of us, Trump’s ICE policies aren’t a surprise. Reports from Defense Secretary Esper emerged that Trump asked about shooting protestors in Trump’s first term. During that same period, Trump also suggested invoking the Insurrection Act as justification to send tens of thousands of soldiers to deal with protestors.
Since taking office in 2025, Trump increased ICE’s budget and role. He sent ICE agents into cities on missions to round up illegal immigrants but also sent National Guard units into multiple U.S. cities. Established in 2003, ICE — Immigration and Customs Enforcement — is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Under Trump, the agency is now violently confronting U.S. citizens far from our borders. The people they’re stopping are not immigrants and ICE agents often do not identify themselves.
Tell me, are you afraid yet?
Breathe
sighing
reading
thinking
restless
my mind twists and seethes
trapped
with mindless energy
about how the world
has changed
worrying
speculating
drifting
I wonder
what will come to be
roaming through memories
of hopes
history
half-remembered
dreams
darkness
spreads
across the nation
troubles
rise
around
the world
I struggle
to find the shadows
or how
we
once were
now I find
I’m frankly
a little
out of breath
I need to go somewhere
quiet
and give my brain
a rest
Mundaz Theme Music
Munda, January 12, 2026, arrived in Ashland with little fanfare but plenty of cold.
I’m suspicious again of technology and weather forecasts. My weather system told me it was 30 degrees F last night when Alexa shared, 41 degrees F, with a low of 36. I provided feedback. Today, she is closer to my system, which says it’s 25 F outside. Sunny, hard frost coats part of the ground white under a sprawling blue sky.
Circumstances shorten this morning’s post as it’s our morning to deliver Food & Friends. This program delivers prepared meals from state and local agencies to people in need.
Before racing off to deliver meals, I do want to note how heartened I was that so many people protested Trump and demonstrate against ICE. More de-ICEing is needed, given the wanton way they arbitrarily act as judge, jury, and executioner.
So, in honor of those standing against them, or those, like Renee Good — dying while exercising her rights and freedoms as a citizen — I present today’s theme music.
Neil Young first offered us “Rockin’ in the Free World” in 1989 in response to the politics of that era, which included the Cold War. I think what we’re seeing now is worse in the U.S. I hope more people stand up to keep us in a free world.
May peace and grace be with you today and every day as we move forward. Cheers
Civil Disobedience
Enlargement on a bit of history and a reminder of what civil disobedience can do, when it’s done right. It can be useful to apply this knowledge to what we’re now enduring under the Trump Regime and right-wing activists who want to turn back time in the U.S. and world. Cheers
Michael Seidel, writer 