wtpickens.bsky.social
@wtpickens.bsky.social
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Last week on the trail, I found one of my favorite quiet miracles.

These are Pipevine flowers — easy to miss, blooming before the leaves arrive, long before most things wake up.

They’re part of a remarkable relationship that eventually gives rise to the Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly.
January 27, 2026 at 10:41 PM
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So basically Albert Speer’s defense at Nuremberg.
January 28, 2026 at 3:00 AM
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Perhaps you’ve also seen reports about the so-called pause in strikes on energy facilities in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities during the coming severe frosts.

Do I believe it?
I’ll keep you posted on how things really are.
January 29, 2026 at 9:24 PM
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BREAKING: New video emerges, allegedly from days before Pretti's killing that shows at least three of the same agents, including one of the main instigators of Pretti incident who pushed the woman, in another altercation --confirmed by his number NS-919.

Credit: JesusFreakingCongress on X. /
January 29, 2026 at 3:58 PM
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remember what JD Vance said of the ICE agents that arrested this little boy: “what did you expect them to do?”
Just visited with Liam and his father at Dilley detention center. I demanded his release and told him how much his family, his school, and our country loves him and is praying for him.
January 29, 2026 at 2:29 AM
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Of course. And that’s why Dems need to lean in and work towards dismantling ICE.
First no funding.
Impeach Noem.
Demand hearings on ICE’s operation in MN.
Demand that Miller resign.

Don’t let up.
“An administration official gave away the game to Punchbowl News, admitting that these “de-escalatory measures” are about placating Senate Democrats so they don’t seize this moment to demand restrictions on ICE as part of any government funding package.”

newrepublic.com/article/2057...
Donald Trump Is Frightened
Trump wants to appear eager to minimize out-of-control clashes between government militias and protesters. But he doesn’t want to stop the things causing those clashes in the first place.
newrepublic.com
January 28, 2026 at 3:24 PM
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"ICE will leave Minnesota if you hand over your voter rolls" tells you everything you need to know.

This was never about immigration or fraud. It was always about rigging elections.
January 25, 2026 at 11:01 PM
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If govt wants to protect male-coded jobs, skip the middle-man industry and make direct cash transfers

Canada: $3.9bn in auto subsidies, plus $28.2bn to Stellantis and WV. For ~160,000 jobs

If this were an aid project in a developing country, it'd get lambasted

www.ourcommons.ca/written-ques...
Q-543 (45-1) - Written Questions - House of Commons of Canada
www.ourcommons.ca
January 28, 2026 at 5:46 PM
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Trump is now showing his inner Brezhnev.
January 28, 2026 at 5:39 PM
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Please stop me! 🔥

I’ve agreed with Rand Paul three times today and it’s not even noon!
January 28, 2026 at 5:46 PM
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RAND PAUL: What if a country indicts our president for violating a foreign law -- should we extradite him or be okay if they get him by force?

RUBIO: We're always going to act in our natl interest

PAUL: What I'm saying is our arguments are empty. It's a ruse. We do what we do bc we have the force
January 28, 2026 at 4:31 PM
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Exhibit 973 that Trump and Stephen Miller have unleashed popular passions and a cultural moment that have caught them off guard and are at this point entirely out of their control.

newrepublic.com/article/2057...
January 28, 2026 at 5:47 PM
It’s Trump’s slush fund, off the books.
SCHATZ: You testified the oil funds are being held in Qatar & then will move to a Treasury blocked account. What's the statutory authority for the admin relying on Qatar to hold the funds?

RUBIO: It's not our funds. It belongs to VZ

S: What authority are you relying on?

R: They've agreed to this
January 28, 2026 at 5:59 PM
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‼️ Russia: “"They're quitting every day." The Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that the police shortage has reached 40%.”

*in some departments.

Hard to be a police state when you don’t pay the police enough.

ru.themoscowtimes.com/2026/01/28/v...
January 28, 2026 at 3:48 PM
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All so that Acting Director Lyons doesn’t have to appear in person before Chief Judge Schiltz on Friday…
BREAKING: The petitioner ("T.R." or Juan Tobay Robles) whose non-release prompted Chief Judge Schilitz to threaten ICE director Todd Lyons with contempt has now been RELEASED, according to what the civil chief of the US Atty's office has told his atty and his atty has relayed to me.
January 27, 2026 at 8:29 PM
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There's the difference between Democrats and Republicans.
Saw this and it’s just wild
January 26, 2026 at 2:26 PM
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Folks need to understand that at current rates it will take ICE 11+ years of this kind of sustained activity to remove all the undocumented immigrants in the US. That what Trump-Vance-Miller are doing is putting into place is a permanent national terror force that will last for at least a decade.
Cathy Young: “It has become clear that Donald Trump’s mass-deportation regime cannot be sustained without a repressive state machinery that endangers the lives and tramples the rights of legal residents and citizens of the United States, just as critics had been warning.”
MAGA’s ‘Omelet’ Excuse for DHS Thuggishness
They admit that mass deportation is impossible without egregious abuses—but want it to go ahead anyway.
open.substack.com
January 26, 2026 at 12:56 PM
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“The correct response to Dachau was not better training for the guards.”
Andrea Pitzer
January 26, 2026 at 2:30 PM
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Russia May Sack Black Sea Fleet Chief After Failing to Stop Ukrainian Unmanned Boats
Russian military command is reportedly weighing the removal of Black Sea Fleet chief Sergei Pinchuk after repeated failures to stop Ukrainian naval drone attacks, partisans say.

🤭
www.kyivpost.com/post/68801
January 26, 2026 at 2:30 PM
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Latvia’s Constitution Protection Bureau says Russia increasingly views Latvia as it viewed Ukraine before the war. The intelligence service warned of long-term military and hybrid threats and said Moscow may try to influence Latvia’s parliamentary elections this fall. #Latvia
January 26, 2026 at 2:22 PM
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Just kinda seems like refusing to tell us which ICE agents murdered Alex Pretti undercuts the idea that they’re wearing masks to protect themselves — rather than to be able to kill people with impunity.
January 26, 2026 at 2:07 PM
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Germany Slams Russia’s ‘Stubborn Insistence’ on Ukraine Territorial Claims
Ahead of the first-ever trilateral peace talks in Abu Dhabi, Moscow again said control of Ukraine’s Donbas – the Donetsk and Luhansk regions – is a prerequisite for peace.

www.kyivpost.com/post/68806
January 26, 2026 at 2:31 PM
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🙄🙄🙄

They outnumber local police by over 2k!!!
This is beyond ridiculous. Bovino is saying that they need "state and local" help to get so-called violent criminals off the street. Meanwhile, Minnesota is having to sue to stop DHS and DOJ from destroying or concealing evidence related to yesterday's killing.
January 25, 2026 at 9:19 PM
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Wow! This read-along of the NYT moment-by-moment leading to the murder of Alex Pretti should shake everyone awake. He was a Good Samaritan.

Agents fired at least ten shots in roughly five seconds. DHS and Pam Bondi claim Pretti approached them armed and intent on a “massacre.”
January 26, 2026 at 2:29 PM
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Can’t get over that Pretti’s parents yesterday woke up thinking everything was normal and by the end of the day they were watching the federal government trash their dead son.
January 26, 2026 at 3:29 AM