I'm not boycotting Target. That would imply they could earn my business back. target is pork and not only am i muslim, but it is still Ramadan.

A small male toad is on top of a larger female toad. The male toad is gripping the female toad using his front legs. The female toad has a look of deep resignation as if to say she couldn't give a fuck, as opposed to the male toad, who clearly is.

Awwww look. The lady toad is giving the man toad a piggy-back up our garden path tonight. He must be tired.

See Alt text.

My name is Marisa Kabas, and I'm an independent journalist who publishes The Handbasket. I'm reaching out about a matter that involves your team and that continues to trouble me. In June of last year, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and I filed a FOIA lawsuit against the DC Metropolitan Police Department to compel them to release body camera footage from the March 17, 2025 DOGE raid on the US Institute of Peace. What followed was months of back and forth with their lawyers, arguing why it was in the public interest to release the un-redacted footage in its entirety. Though tiny segments were handed over, that wasn't enough: We wanted all of it.  On February 18, 2026, a DC judge ruled in our favor, and your reporter Mark Segraves sent a kind note of congratulations that day. Then on Monday, March 2nd, the footage was handed over to me and excitedly announced I'd received it and would be reviewing it in the coming days and sharing what I learned. When Segraves emailed me this past Thursday asking for my phone number, I didn't think much of it. But when he called me just before 2pm on Friday to let me know NBC4 Washington would be airing a segment at 5pm, I grew concerned.  Segraves said he'd obtained some of the footage via a FOIA request that week after he heard the footage had been released to me. He said he'd credit the work of RCFP and me, but it was little comfort. I asked if he'd known the day before when he emailed me for my number, why didn't he tell me then? He didn't have a good answer for that. He acknowledged all the hard work I'd done getting this footage released. I asked him if he could hold the story until Monday, to which he replied that he's "not just a blogger" (implying that that's all I am, presumably) and that he'd have to check with his editor. I said fine. Nearly an hour later he called back to say his editor refused to hold the story, but that they were happy to interview me via Zoom to add to the package, and I said I would.

What followed was two hours of furiously writing and posting clips of the footage to Youtube so I could get something published before the 5pm broadcast, and in the midst of that, recording a quick Zoom interview with a person who was about to take credit for my work. At 4:59pm ET, The Handbasket published a piece titled "Police body cam footage shows DOGE knew Institute of Peace was private property during raid." Then I tuned into NBC4 Washington via your website to catch the broadcast, and my instinct to rush to get something out first was proven right.  "It's a story you're seeing first on News4," your newscast began. "For the first time we're getting an inside look at what happened the day the Trump administration took over the US Institute of Peace. News4 obtained more than four hours of police body camera video from that day." What followed was more than six minutes of clips and commentary from Segraves, but it's not until six minutes and 21 seconds into the piece that he mentions my name (mispronounced though he asked for the correct pronunciation on Zoom), "The Handbasket blog," and the RCFP's foundational role in bringing this footage to light. I was angry, but didn't feel there was much I could do. Then I saw the version NBC4 posted to Instagram and TikTok—the video itself made ZERO mention of the RCFP or my work, only briefly acknowledging it in the written caption on Instagram, and not even bothering to do that on TikTok. An average viewer with no background on the case is lead to believe that this footage was released because of your efforts. When I saw that, I decided I couldn't let this go. It's difficult to explain what it's like to spend nearly a year working on a story only to have another reporter and outlet surreptitiously take credit for it; months of work and personal risk only to have another reporter lying in wait to swoop in. What NBC4 did was immoral, unethical, and to be frank, just truly sucked.

I just sent this email to the news director at NBC4 Washington about the unprofessional and disrespectful way they handled publishing the body camera footage of the DOGE raid on the US Institute of Peace that was obtained via my FOIA lawsuit:

Ouch😂❤️

Stoic Kristi Noem Bears Firing With Stiff Upper Lip, Chin, Cheeks, Forehead

Stoic Kristi Noem Bears Firing With Stiff Upper Lip, Chin, Cheeks, Forehead

Sierra Nevada mountains just north of LA, CA, USA. Jagged snow covered peaks rise above green trees and a yellowish plain. A small blue lake peeks around a bend.

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel -Maya Angelou

Pic of the day

#photography

So true❤️

Beautiful ❤️

magnanimous mood,
when giving asks nothing back,
kindness holds no past

#vss365 #magnanimous #haiku #writing #micropoetry

A red salamander with dark spots all over sitting in a pile of brown leaves next to a wood plank. It looks like a gummy candy.

Met this cutie pie just now cleaning up the garden. It's a northern red salamander, the Virginia state salamander in fact! I don't think it was happy I was rearranging its house.

#ForbiddenGummyCandy

It’s a jungle out there 😉

Blue jay lands hard into another jay on the peanut-covered railing. Wings partly spread, seeds scatter, and one peanut falls mid-air in warm winter light.

a moment to crash
always too hungry to dash
worth the bruises

#haikufeels #Crash #Haiku #Poetry #Micropoetry #WildlifePhotography #Birds #Birding #BlueJay #ImageAndVerse #Haiga #EastCoastKin #BirdOfTheDay

#MorningVibe

Sometimes art speaks louder than words.

#ArtAsActivism

Love this idea ❤️

“Well, Bruce is weird about our feet: maybe he’d be a shoe salesman? Or a podiatrist, but I don’t think he’d get the grades for that.” “He wouldn’t have a job. Of course he’s very sweet, but not that bright. He lacks ‘life of the mind,’ for which he’s often criticized. By me. And he’s a lazy guy. He’s got no discipline. So he’d still live with me. I’d still take care of him.” “I’ve thought a lot about this, actually. She’d have a PhD in forestry, and be emeritus at Sarah Lawrence, and she wouldn’t teach much anymore; she just stays on ‘cause she enjoys the research part of things. Old girl…”

“I guess he’d be a cook? I mean, he’s in the kitchen all the time.” “Silly question. But we did name her ‘Cluny Brown,’ so she would be a plumber.” “She’d be a janitor. Aboard a space station. She’d be no good at it, ‘cause she can’t handle stress. When the mission goes awry (as these things always do, like they’re about to crash, some shit like that) she’d lock herself inside the spense, and she would stress-eat all the cheese.”

I ask my friends what job they think their pet would have, if their pet was a human

Poem, "Space-Time Continuum" (c) constance lee menefee Some wives eventually run out of room I guess the box at the back, at the bottom of the closet must have swollen over the years been subject to the general theory of relativity as it applies to the heaviest of dark matter: last letters, photos of shirtless grinning soon to be dead boys posed against the sand bags arms looped around each other and their best friend the rifle, ribbons and medals too if the top sergeant hadn't run out the day they finally cut you loose; must be bigger than it looks bigger than that box of god-awful Christmas tree stuff from her dead aunt that she shoves in your hands every year: Here, you always put these up before. Anyway, the box is gone, she sort of remembers a cleaning frenzy one violet-peppered spring morning when it got in the way for the last time, like you feel more and more, dog-eared discharge papers taking up more than your share of space. -end-

Image of form DD 214 with purple violets

Poem, "Space-Time Continuum"
(c) constance lee menefee

...
"Anyway, the box is gone,
she sort of remembers a
cleaning frenzy one violet-peppered spring morning when it got in the way for the last time, like you feel
more and more..."

Morning.

I miss my dog, especially in the season she left me ...

every January
between the crocus carpets
I find sticks to throw
although my dog died years ago
she still fetches memories

#tanka #haiku #dog #dogs #vss365 #micropoetry #

Nicely done❤️

nearly finished with my first crochet blanket 💕✨4 months and many many hours later and i'm so proud of my work💖

From the soul's dialogue with itself,
2 small poems of mine:

youtube.com/shorts/y21Mo... #poetry

Well said❤️

I feel it still inside myself
Small cores that won’t dissipate
I give it up just like the sun
And my fragmentary whole
Radiates into the atmosphere
My self sinking downward
Toward the little lives below
Lurking pieces, from one to all
Like satellites as I descend
Sharing ever-smaller sips of me

Beautiful ❤️

life is an art film
mood carrying every frame
no special effects

#Cassiopeian #effects #haiku #writing #writingcommunity #micropoetry
@yeehawpoems.bsky.social

I wish I didn’t like this so much❤️

My heart is blue and bruised
It battles lightness, waves of warmth
Love that reaches from above

I’ve seen hope for better days
By yesterday those fires fade
And now in grimness I hold on

My soul is bathed in this
Self-directed chorus
Love-hate painted
Swirling darkened lights
Deep inside my heart

Finally, a chatbot that answers the burning question: “what wine pairs best with shame and an emergency room copay?”

😂