Doug Mack
LightNews LightNews
banner
douglasmack.bsky.social
Doug Mack
@douglasmack.bsky.social
8.5K followers 460 following 9.6K posts
Probably down a research rabbit hole.
📖 The Not-Quite States of America, about the U.S. territories (W. W. Norton).
🍟Agreeably nerdy food history newsletter: https://snackstack.net

He/him, just another dad in Minneapolis.
Posts Replies Media Videos
douglasmack.bsky.social
now is your time, fellas
Weather report from Minneapolis: 3 degrees F, feels like -8
January 18, 2026 at 2:28 PM
douglasmack.bsky.social
I mean even the small gestures add up. On our block club group chat, someone just posted this, in case any neighbors need a shoveling buddy
Heading out to shovel in front. Will prob take no more than ten mins but I'll be out there if anyone doesn't want to shovel alone.
January 17, 2026 at 3:15 PM
douglasmack.bsky.social
So many stories like this around the state. Here's Detroit Lakes (northern MN), from the Star Tribune:
One Detroit Lakes woman asked that I not use her name because she doesn't want to lead agents to refugees she has been helping who are here legally but too afraid to leave their homes. She said she wishes people around the state knew what was happening in west-central Minnesota. "People are terrified out here," she said. "It's like living a novel back in the 1930s, the way ICE is. At the time the Nazis came to power and how they would take people from homes, that's how I feel." It doesn't surprise me that in rural Minnesota, people are trying to help. The population is slowly growing more diverse, and there have been local efforts to boost multicultural appreciation. Some protests here have drawn crowds that span multiple city blocks.
January 17, 2026 at 1:24 AM
douglasmack.bsky.social
This is the place BTW. Had a carnitas burrito and it was delicious.
Menu for Tacos el Primo in Minneapolis Big sprawling menu for Tacos el Primo in Minneapolis
January 16, 2026 at 8:14 PM
douglasmack.bsky.social
For anyone who thinks the president isn't ACTUALLY into empire-building, I regret to inform you that he's always been like this; it's just gotten more overt

I wrote this for TIME in 2017:

time.com/4752856/jeff...
Look closely at Jeff Sessions’ “Pacific Island” remark, and at Trump’s love for the Imperial Moment, and it’s hard not to see a connection to McKinley, Roosevelt and A Century of Expansion. There’s a line in the sand between “real” America and everywhere else — a nationalism-fueled decree that only the so-called authentic citizens have access to the full rights and benefits of conferred by the government and the broader society.
January 16, 2026 at 4:07 PM
douglasmack.bsky.social
come on man

how is this real

why are we getting quotes from random people at a small-town bar called Ye Olde Pickle Factory

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/u...
NYT headline One State, Two Very Different Views of Minneapolis Pull up a stool at Ye Olde Pickle Factory and listen to a story about America’s urban-rural divide.
January 15, 2026 at 1:53 PM
douglasmack.bsky.social
Following David's lead, I also posted on FB and was surprised by the positive response. Spread the word about what's happening here. People want to know.
I don't post much on here anymore but I need everyone to understand what it's like in Minnesota right now. It's terrifying here. Our communities are under attack. ICE is pulling people out of cars, rolling up to business and child care centers, detaining people based on the color of their skin, the language they're speaking, or the simple act of filming ICE. There are "guardians" stationed outside my daughters' schools to make sure kids and families are safe when they're just trying to attend classes. We should not fucking have to do this. I do not have the words to properly express my fear, anger, and heartbreak. Every day brings new scenes, new horrors that should not be tolerated even once, let alone on an ongoing basis, all encouraged by the president and his supporters, which I know includes some of the people reading this. We are just a normal city trying to do normal things, but instead we have to worry about federal agents-from the party that claims to support "small government" and "safety"-invading our neighborhoods and making everything more dangerous. Not one person I know in Minneapolis-not a single person, not even my most conservative local acquaintances-supports this or thinks it's anything other than an actual attack on our beautiful city. Many of our neighbors are immigrants. Doctors, nurses, teachers, the teller at the bank, the Uber driver getting you to the airport-the everyday people who make up the fabric of our city. These are the people being harassed and kidnapped and worse. Good people, not "bad guys." Some families just aren't sending their kids to school right now; some parents aren't going to work. I logged on and the Facebook algorithm served up a NY Post story about the murder of Renee Good. The algorithm showed me that people I know had liked it. Honestly, shame on you. Shame on you for buying the propaganda. Shame on you for feeding the machine of hatred. Have some empathy. I'm begging you.
January 14, 2026 at 7:57 PM
douglasmack.bsky.social
East Lake Street, Minneapolis
Graffiti that says, "ICE KILLS" and "Rest in peace, Renee Good"
January 14, 2026 at 4:44 PM
douglasmack.bsky.social
Chicken buddies in Key West over the weekend
Dalmatian-looking hen on sidewalk Roosters on sidewalk across the street from a historic hotel painted white with blue trim Gorgeous rooster strutting his stuff
January 13, 2026 at 11:09 PM
douglasmack.bsky.social
Whenever I hear national pundits scolding protesters, I think about this Ta-Nehisi Coates piece from 2013.

"More than anything the Iraq War taught me the folly of mocking radicalism."

archive.is/202308260310...
The Folly of Sober-Minded Cynicism By Ta-Nehisi Coates The Atlantic / March 4, 2013 I say all this to say that if I regret anything it is my pose of powerlessness -- my lack of faith in American democracy, my belief that the war didn't deserve my hard thinking or hard acting, my cynicism. I am not a radical. But more than anything the Iraq War taught me the folly of mocking radicalism. It seemed, back then, that every "sensible" and "serious" person you knew -- left or right -- was for the war. And they were all wrong. Never forget that they were all wrong. And never forget that the radicals with their drum circles and their wild hair were right. Watching reasonable people assemble sober arguments for a disaster was, to put it mildly, searing.
January 13, 2026 at 7:02 PM
douglasmack.bsky.social
I didn't visit the cats this time but here are some other animals
Rooster on street Lots of pigeons on wires Mailbox painted with a fish that looks kinda like a blimp with blue on top and yellow on bottom
January 12, 2026 at 1:46 AM
douglasmack.bsky.social
permission to post a sandwich?
Chipotle chicken torta from Tortas Frontera at O'Hare
January 12, 2026 at 1:37 AM
douglasmack.bsky.social
Just spent a few days at the Key West Literary Seminar, immersed in interesting book-chat (and tropical cocktails) and astonished by all the love and support from everyone the second they heard I'm from Minneapolis. People know what's happening. People care. There are more of us. We're going to win.
Nighttime street scene from Key West with cute white cottages and palm trees
January 12, 2026 at 1:21 AM
douglasmack.bsky.social
@keezyyoung.bsky.social looks like you already got lots of good replies to this but here's one more suggestion. Ad is from 1975.
Del Monte ad for prepackaged pudding. Varieties include rice pudding, nut and chocolate, strawberry, and tapioca
January 12, 2026 at 1:04 AM
douglasmack.bsky.social
No school in Minneapolis tomorrow and Friday. Just got this email.
Dear MPS families, Out of an abundance of caution, there will be no school on Thursday, January 8, 2026 and Friday, January 9, 2026 due to safety concerns related to today’s incidents around the city. All MPS-sponsored programs, activities, athletics, Community Education, including Adult Education, will be canceled. The District will not move to e-learning because that is only allowable for severe weather. MPS will continue collaborating with the City of Minneapolis and other partners on emergency preparedness and response. Sincerely, Minneapolis Public Schools
January 8, 2026 at 3:00 AM
douglasmack.bsky.social
IDK who needs to hear this but you can fly from MSP to Dublin for $440 for spring break
Screenshot from Aer Lingus website showing cost of $440 roundtrip from Minneapolis to Dublin in March
January 6, 2026 at 6:16 PM
douglasmack.bsky.social
I read these paragraphs the other day and my jaw literally dropped (from Underland by Robert Macfarlane)

The world is an amazing place. Always worth remembering this.
On the Anatolian plateau, where ash spewed by volcanoes 30 mil-lion years ago has hardened into a rolling terrain of cones and dips, a man is rebuilding his house. He decides to knock down a wall where it stands flush with the bedrock tuff - and behind the wall he discovers a chamber. Off the chamber runs a passage - and the pas-sage leads down to a subterranean city. The city has eighteen different levels arranged over 300 vertical feet, and it offers shelter for up to 20,000 people. There are chambers for storing food, water, wine and oil. There are sleeping rooms, communal rooms, cooking rooms and tombs. Stone doors can be rolled across key openings to isolate areas in case of attack. Air moves by means of dozens of ver-tical ventilation shafts, and thousands of lateral tubes dispersing air between the individual chambers of the city - and through its centre runs an underground river. The man feels he has stepped into a fable. The name that will be given to this discovered city is Derinkuyu, meaning 'Deep Well'. Its excavation is thought to have begun in the fourth century BC, and for more than a thousand years it has provided a place in which per-secuted minorities might hide until trouble has passed. From a far chamber of the city, a five-mile-long passage connects this city to another such sunken city, even larger in extent. The man has stum-bled into an invisible city - no, a network of invisible cities. There may be more than a hundred such settlements as yet undiscovered, sleep-ing forgotten beneath the surface of the landscape.
January 6, 2026 at 4:41 AM
douglasmack.bsky.social
I mean does this sound familiar or anything
The reason Hawaii is now a part of the U.S. is that in 1893, American interests overthrew Queen Lili’uokalani, the ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii, imprisoning her in her bedroom at ’Iolani Palace. It was a violent action against a sovereign nation. A century later, Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed an Apology Resolution, acknowledging the U.S.’s role in this conspiracy. But American leaders of the nineteenth century celebrated, including William McKinley, who was elected president in 1896, on the Republican ticket. During the campaign, he vowed to annex Hawaii, and two years later, he did just that, saying, “We need Hawaii just as much and a good deal more than we did California — it is manifest destiny.”
January 6, 2026 at 4:20 AM
douglasmack.bsky.social
I did a quick search and all I can find is this image
Amy Klobuchar holds two small toy train cars
January 6, 2026 at 3:48 AM
douglasmack.bsky.social
Graphic with two rectangles. Inside the right one are 3 pictures of true crabs. Inside the other are 3 pictures of false crabs.
January 6, 2026 at 3:40 AM
douglasmack.bsky.social
shout-out to the ASI employee who was tidying up the kid area at closing time, saw that my daughter had laid out all the pretend food like this, and went, "that looks SO organized and lovely and better than what would have done, so we'll just leave that overnight"
Assortment of soft toy food on three different trays. One has four pastries, another has 12 cookies, the last has an array of veggies and a fish
January 3, 2026 at 1:00 AM
douglasmack.bsky.social
Thing is, this is the Boomer parent opening move—when you say no, they'll hit you with the "reasonable" alternative, which is a gaudy centerpiece bowl the size of a toilet and matching flatware that looks like props from Sweeney Todd
Silver Spoons and forks and who the fuck knows that the other implements are but there are five in total and they're ornate and creepy
January 1, 2026 at 10:14 PM
douglasmack.bsky.social
The Morning News asked me to contribute to its annual "most/least important things" package. Here's part of mine (click through for the rest).

Community. Now more than ever. ❤️

themorningnews.org/2025-the-yea...
Doug Mack I’ve found reassurance and hope in human connections and the number of people just showing up for each other. Most important: People working to create and support community. In a time when fascists and Al cultists are taking a sledgehammer to our basic institutions and social structures, I’ve found reassurance and hope in human connections and the number of people just showing up for each other. The protesters in the streets; the groups of strangers blowing whistles and rushing to the scene when ICE shows up; the hundreds of people who turned up to a recent upstander training session at a church in my South Minneapolis neighborhood. On a more joyful, personal front, I’ve recently rediscovered the delight of meeting up with people you don’t know that well. Cheeseburgers with acquaintances from social media; a long, cocktail-fueled lunch
January 1, 2026 at 3:32 PM
douglasmack.bsky.social
GIANT Clam Sanctuary!

www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_R...
Giant clam
December 31, 2025 at 2:00 PM
douglasmack.bsky.social
Fun with geography: Samoa (independent country) and American Samoa (U.S. territory) are only 40 miles apart but on opposite sides of the International Date Line, so for the next 21 hours, they're in different years.
Google map showing Samoa to the west and American Samoa to the east, with a line drawn between them
December 31, 2025 at 1:51 PM