https://www.propublica.org/article/alex-pretti-shooting-cbp-agents-identified-jesus-ochoa-raymundo-gutierrez

«Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.»

M r sum funny names. Are they citizens?

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/us/alex-pretti-minneapolis.html

Hey, NYT, WaPo, and the rest of you “legacy” media outlets: I never want to read the phrase “tipping point” ever again.

You can take that Malcom Gladwell sh…tuff and *shove it*. It didn’t apply in Iraq, and it doesn’t apply now, and I don’t know if it ever will.

No, I am not reading your vapid “tipping point” “inside story”.

https://www.thelettersfromleo.com/p/under-pope-leo-xiv-american-catholics

Huh. This is not the Catholicism I’m used to. (I’m not Catholic.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/opinion/trump-midterms-election-security.html

Volunteer to help in elections. Poll worker, observer, etc.

Donate to election legal aid groups. (Poll workers get sued, for example.)

https://www.thenation.com/?post_type=article&p=585166

Wow. *The Nation* slices David Brooks to *ribbons*.

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/29/shutdown-spending-deal-trump-00756372

«the main sticking point appears to be Sen. Lindsey Graham’s decision to block a quick vote on the deal because it includes a House-passed provision undoing a law that allows senators to receive cash payouts if they had their phone records seized by former special counsel Jack Smith.»

Man, that Serwer can write.

«Every social theory undergirding Trumpism has been broken on the steel of Minnesotan resolve. …

The secret fear of the morally depraved is that virtue is actually common, and that they’re the ones who are alone. In Minnesota, all of the ideological cornerstones of MAGA have been proved false at once. Minnesotans, not the armed thugs of ICE and the Border Patrol, are brave. Minnesotans have shown that their community is socially cohesive—because of its diversity and not in spite of it. Minnesotans have found and loved one another in a world atomized by social media, where empty men have tried to fill their lonely soul with lies about their own inherent superiority. Minnesotans have preserved everything worthwhile about “Western civilization,” while armed brutes try to tear it down by force.»

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/the-neighbors-defending-minnesota-from-ice/685769/?gift=ly-h2TZGdDJyaoFv6n-KaTNHLYmwBDFCebMfkrdvTIE&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share (gift)

I feel like there’s a quiet civil war or revolution happening in China right now.

https://www.wsj.com/world/china/chinas-top-general-accused-of-giving-nuclear-secrets-to-u-s-b8f59dae?st=HgEbuC&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

We all know by now, right? 🙄

(Yes, some of us knew decades ago. Sorry some of us are just catching up.)

Where are the Second Amendment people?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2026/01/25/minneapolis-shooting-video-gun/

Looks like some of them are waking up:

https://www.axios.com/2026/01/25/gun-groups-challenge-minneapolis-shooting-pretti