Losing My Perspicacity, January 16, 2026

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Good morning and Happy Friday! Thanks for reading today. I wish I had better news, but perhaps we’ll find some along the way.

DHS’ brutal lawlessness in Minnesota continues to dominate the news in America, a week after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Minneapolis resident Renee Nicole Good. It’s also been three days since multiple outlets reported DHS’s claim that Ross suffered an “internal injury” at Good’s hands. As far as I can tell, no one has followed up on that story, which is part of the problem when 1) so many journalists have been laid off and 2) the Trump administration is flooding the zone by wreaking havoc all over the country in a variety of ways. CBS News was one of those outlets, and its reporting didn’t go over too well in its newsroom, with many staffers being skeptical of the story and critical of the anonymous source CBS relied on.

I’m no doctor, and I understand that internal injuries don’t always force someone to act injured, but between the video of the confrontation between Ross and Good and this video, I don’t believe a word of it.

Meanwhile, ICE and CBP continue to treat Minneapolis-St. Paul as an occupied hostile nation, reportedly going door-to-door to ask people where members of Minnesota’s large Hmong population live in their neighborhood. This is literally why Anne Frank was hiding in the attic. I’ve seen a lot of posts advising Minnesota residents to carry their US passports with them to avoid being carted away by ICE. And while I understand the sentiment, I feel that the better response to an ICE/CBP agent is to remind them that, in the United States, WE AREN’T REQUIRED TO CARRY OUR PAPERS AROUND WITH US.

I know that you are probably sick of hearing me screech into the void day after day, and God knows I’m sick of feeling so helpless all the time. And with news that ICE is headed to Maine and likely other states as well, let’s talk about what to do if ICE shows up in your town.

This is information given to me in multiple rapid response training sessions and does not constitute legal advice from me to you.

First, make sure you have the number of a local rapid response team in your area. Reporting an ICE sighting in your community helps protect migrants, telling them where not to go and giving them time to get to a safe place. If you are an immigrant, undocumented or otherwise, or even just a person who doesn’t present as 100 percent white (I literally can’t believe I’m having to write these words), the National Immigrant Justice Center has some tips on important numbers to carry around and how to prepare for an ICE invasion.

If you’re in a home or private business, yours or anyone else’s, the owner of the premises has the right to ask ICE to leave. They need a judicial search warrant—signed by a judge—to enter a private area, so make sure not to fall for them flashing a fake administrative warrant and telling you it’s a search warrant. The difference between these two warrants? One is issued by a judge after determining that there is probably cause to justify an arrest/search. The other is a boilerplate form that ICE fills out in their car and signs themselves. The former has the force of law behind it; the latter does not.

When in doubt, look for the caption at the top (ICE warrants don’t say “United States District Court”), and the signature of a judge at the bottom.

If you are sheltering someone in your home and ICE or CBP shows up without a judicial warrant, calmly tell them that you do not consent to a search. If they refuse to leave, call 911.

If you happen upon ICE snatching someone, you can do several things to help: 1) Remind the person being detained not to talk to anyone at ICE and not to sign anything (“No firma nada! No diga nada!” are the phrases we were told to use in my area if the detainee appears Latino). 2) While staying out of the agents’ way, take out your phone and start recording. You have a First Amendment right to record anything you can see from a public space (like a sidewalk, parking lot, or on the street), no matter what DHS officials say. 3) If ICE starts threatening you, loudly narrate what you’re doing — “I’m standing on the sidewalk with my phone. I’m not impeding you in any way. I am cooperating with your instructions." 4) Ask the detainee for their name and any other information you can get, like the names and numbers of family or friends. Make sure you give all the information you have to your local rapid response team.

Finally, if you’re as sick to death of feeling so powerless, here’s a whole toolbox of actions you can take in your area to help fight back and hold ICE/CBP accountable.

Trump is now threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minneapolis, which would allow him to deploy military troops to the city and to order those troops to carry out law enforcement actions (like conducting searches and making arrests), which he wasn’t able to do with the National Guard in places like Portland and LA. The last time a President invoked the Insurrection Act was during the 1992 LA riots. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison says Trump’s invocation of the Act will result in an immediate lawsuit from his state.

In other news: Trump’s obsession with Greenland finally makes sense; Mike Jonson tells GOP to attend votes or else; Chuck Schumer still doesn’t get it; and The High Note.

Let’s get to it.

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We finally understand Trump’s obsession with Greenland

We all knew it had to be something like this, right? It’s not normal to just sit around thinking about Greenland all the time, much less demanding that the Danish turn it over. The only times I think about Greenland are when remembering why it’s named “Greenland” and when thinking about Smilla’s Sense of Snow.

Suddenly, Trump’s weirdo fixation on Greenland makes all kinds of sense:

Love having a President whose brain is functioning at the same capacity as my microwave-sized Dell laptop from 2006. Also, we need to start boycotting Esteé Lauder products.

Don’t make Mike Johnson turn this car around

With a razor-thin majority in the House, Speaker Mike Johnson has issued a warning to GOP lawmakers:

You know, it occurs to me that things have been so bad, we haven’t taken time to properly appreciate that we are Marjorie Taylor Greene-free for the first time since 2021. Yay, America! Anyway, this comes at a time when Johnson seems to be losing control of his party.

The “labor bill” in question, by the way, would have allowed employers not to pay overtime for training in certain situations. What a way to show Americans that you’re working for them and affordability!

Speaking of losing control of your party…

Chuck Schumer has completely lost the plot.

I know Democratic strategists are convinced that hammering the GOP on affordability is the way to go, but it says something awful about people who look at what’s happening on the streets of America right now and choose to stay silent. And it feels really tone-deaf.

The High Note

Each Day, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the will to fight another day.

While we all sit around feeling like we can’t do anything meaningful to fight the fascist in the White House, this man trained crows to attack and remove MAGA hats from their wearers.

Maybe we should all try a little harder, eh? Here’s some inspiration for the Revolution.

God, I love it so much, and I don’t care who thinks it’s cheesy. I will cry every. single. time. and then run through a wall for freedom.

Hey, survive and advance out there today, kids. Don’t let the bastards get you down. Have a great (and safe!) weekend.

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