There has long existed in America a conundrum of Blacks and the military...A nation that had enslaved Blacks would come to call upon them during the Civil War to save America. Those Black soldiers—told by Confederate forces they’d be hanged if captured—served with distinction.
"In 2022...Noem singled me out by name, accusing me of having an agenda and being unfair. That tactic did not come from South Dakota’s political tradition. It came straight from a national playbook designed to weaken trust in journalism."
Cover of “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From The Twentieth Century” graphic edition by Timothy Snyder and illustrated by Nora Krug. Illustration shows a white paper mask face floating above a body in black clothing.
The graphic novel version of Timothy Snyder’s “On Tyranny” was released in 2021, but I recently discovered it existed and requested that my library acquire it for their collection. They did, and I’m currently reading it. This version is quite powerful with the added photos and illustrations.
"Those who support or excuse this campaign of terror and civil rights abuses, say: Why can’t you simply comply with these officers? They’re just doing their jobs. As if better compliance is the root issue with asking someone to show papers based on skin color."
In solidarity with today's ICE OUT OF MINNESOTA blackout, MinnMax is donating $1 to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota for every share of this Bluesky post for the next hour.
Kent Nerburn and son holding a red banner with the word “LIES” in white lettering at a protest in Minneapolis.
Minnesota author Kent Nerburn on Facebook, after attending protests in Minneapolis:
"Trump, in his tiny vicious rage, hoped his oafish Brownshirts would create chaos. Instead, in this corner of America, on this particular day, they were creating community."
www.facebook.com/knerburn
I just want to say this before I turn to our actions: if you are hurting, feeling gut-punched, angry, in despair, or can’t stop crying—that does not make you broken. That makes you human, and whole, and healthy. This is an absolutely awful moment in history and what we’re witnessing—including the dishonest and cruel responses from many GOP lawmakers—is really hard to take. It’s horrific. You’re not crazy. They are. So give yourself space for self care. Take breaks. Embrace community like you never have before. Lean in to love, and shared meals, and long walks, and pet cuddles, and family, and friends, and art. Celebrate the fact that you can feel, and care, and mourn, and create. It’s what makes you one of the “good guys.” Really. It is also what makes you a strong and capable fighter. Never forget it: love, art, and community are our superpowers. So by leaning into them we are not only helping to sustain ourselves during this brutal fight, but we’re super-charging our batteries with a power that the right can never, ever access, because it is based in something they have no ability to experience. Jess Craven, 1/8/26, Chop Wood, Carry Water email
Cartoon by @badiucao.bsky.social.
The Peace of Wild Things When despair grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting for their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. Wendell Berry
I think @terrymoranabc.bsky.social has the right idea of breaking up the onslaught of horrific news from the regime with regular poetry breaks. I needed this palate cleanser today.
Screenshot of Jan Brady from The Brady Bunch television show. “All year it’s Marcia, Marcia, Marcia. Today, it’s JAN 1st."
Janet V (@janetvolpe2): “'I’m 74. I was in the grocery store and a male about my age still is wearing a red MAGA hat. He looks at me and says, 'You like my hat? I saw you looking at it.' Me: ‘I can’t believe anyone is still wearing a hat that so clearly suggests, look at me, I’m an asshole.’"
The pale light of a winter sunrise accompanies gray skies as the calm, glassy surface of the Missouri River reflects those clouds and the trees lining the shore.
Sunrise on the Missouri River near Yankton, South Dakota. Saturday, December 27, 2025.
"'The fact is that we did it,' Murdoch M. Wood said, 'and I then came to the conclusion that I have held very firmly ever since, that if we had been left to ourselves there would never have been another shot fired.'"
"To call such people ‘garbage' is not just a lie. It is a moral disgrace. It is the language of someone who wants to divide Americans into those who belong and those who can be discarded. It stems from the mind and heart of a man who treats human beings as refuse."
Statue of Donald Trump in downtown Rapid City, South Dakota, sports a traffic cone - aka dunce cap.
Rapid City, South Dakota, has a number of statues of presidents in the downtown area called City of Presidents. They recently installed a statue of Trump. Some residents are making it clear how they feel about that. Photo courtesy of the Indivisible 605 Facebook group.
"I suspect Trump and the assholes at his side are no match for Elissa Slotkin, Jason Crow, Mark Kelly, Maggie Goodlander, Chrissy Houlahan and Chris Deluzio, the senators and congress members in the video. They’ve actually read, understood and know how to fight for our Constitution."
My love, I know I haven’t been okay for a long time. It felt like I had lost my way forward. That wasn’t it. I just lost the why I am here. I will chase it again. Don’t worry, I will be me again soon. -love John Roedel
R/T John Roedel via Facebook
Many more gems found @johnroedel.bsky.social.
"South Dakota women are imprisoned at a rate of 338 per 100,000. That’s a higher rate than Montana or Idaho...All three states have higher rates than El Salvador, the country with the highest incarceration rate. The nationwide incarceration rate for women in the U.S. is 112 per 100,000."
A bit of good news!
"In a little over two months, South Dakota Public Broadcasting raised $1.6 million to help keep its staff after losing federal funding. In July, SDPB announced it lost 100% of its federal funds, which amounts to around $2.3 million annually and around 22% of its entire budget."
“‘Motherf***ing wind farms. Loud, ugly, harmful to nature,' he says, then pauses and shakes his head. 'Who says that? These giants are standing tall against fossil fuels, rising up from the ocean like a middle finger to CO2.’"
"On trumpet, Ernestine ‘Tiny' Davis was 'the female Louis Armstrong.' When she played in DC, Armstrong himself offered her five times her meager Sweethearts salary to join his band. She refused. ‘Well,' Davis recalled, 'I just loved them gals too much.’"
I wish we all had a clear path out of this regime. I teeter between hope and hopelessness every day. I've found - for me, at least - that Jess Craven and Jay Kuo are both really helpful. They offer concrete action steps when I feel completely lost.
You mustn't let the dystopian nightmare bullshit dim your fucking sparkle.
Some version of the Crusades might be right around the corner, too.
"The promoters of Christian nationalism seek a dangerous convergence of government and religion. Christian religion, of course.
"We have seen what happens in other countries where religion and government become one. We should never want that here."
New at Fight the Fire:
An unprecedented look at Trump’s unprecedented level of claims about unprecedented stuff.
Trust us, you’ve never seen anything like it, at least since the last time you never saw anything like it.
Painted lady butterfly rests on pink zinnia.
Late summer in South Dakota.
Minnehaha County Democratic Party: “we’re good, thanks” in response to a DJT post of his image superimposed on Mount Rushmore.
Mary Oliver Of The Empire We will be known as a culture that feared death and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity for the few and cared little for the penury of the many. We will be known as a culture that taught and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke little if at all about the quality of life for people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a commodity. And they will say that this structure was held together politically, which it was, and they will say also that our politics was no more than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of the heart, and that the heart, in those days, was small, and hard, and full of meanness.
Perhaps we should also paint tunnels on the wall so unsuspecting immigrants run right into it (aka Roadrunner vs. Coyote?) My god, this truly is the stupidest timeline.
