An Acknowledgement

Just a brief note honoring Coco, dancer and instructor at Rancho Cordova's "Ballet Studio." She is just an amazing inspiration! We students generally approximate ballet. Coco can actually DO ballet! We all admire her and are lucky to have her as an example!

John Moss Tipi

On Tuesday, I visited the anti-ICE encampment at the John Moss Federal Building in Sacramento. I was amazed by the Tipi. There is a mix of Native American symbols and anti-ICE messages on it now. There are many more handprints on it than before, many apparently coming from the (at least 1,000) student protesters who came by here on January 30th.

I like the commemorative bear.  No one in Sacramento has gotten bear-maced more often..
 

Albuquerque Camp

Camp, as in Susan Sontag, which depends on serious intent.

The amazing “hidden” sand dunes of Albuquerque, New Mexico
byu/Dull-Pianist-6777 inAlbuquerque

Memorial Service For Prentice Blankenship - February 2, 2026

I didn't know Prentice very well.  I knew his daughter Lisa Holder and grandchildren Katherine and Lexi, however, when they were involved in the Young Performer's Theater at Davis Musical Theatre Company (DMTC) from the years 2006-8.  Prentice appeared in just one show, "Camelot," in 2007.  So, when Prentice died at age 96, and much of the family returned from Oregon for the services, I wanted to wish them well.

I was also motivated by trying to learn the identity of family member Lisa Kelly.  She seemed to know me on Facebook, but I didn't know who see was.  Turns out, Lisa Holder now goes by Lisa Kelly.  I already knew her.  Who knew?

It was nice to see them again after 18 years!

St. Mary's Cemetery. This place is big. It took me forever to find the graveside service.

Reception back at the chapel.  I was amused by the photo collection on the phone of one of the guests.  He is a tow-truck driver for AAA, and he uses his camera to duly record the reasons why vehicles stop running.  For example, photos of an endless series of mangled tires.  One tire had run over a multi-purpose tool.  Plus, tires ripped from their wheels, beltless engines, and  every possible mechanical permutation to stop a vehicle in its tracks.

"California Suite" _ Chautauqua Playhouse - January 31, 2026

Deborah Bromley and Rachel Rycerz in the greeting line after the show.

A good time watching friends on stage!

Thoughts By David Miller (on Facebook)

 When I heard Kash Patel,

and what’s left of his rag tag FBI,

“inside the octagon,”

were going to,

“investigate signal groups in Minneapolis,”

as they have in other cities,

I thought to myself,

“Oh fer cute. This will be interesting. Kash doesn’t know we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

And that’s because I know an OG,

someone who helped organize

“decentralied direct action”

here in Minneapolis

back in the 1990’s.

And I mean EARLY 90’s.

Back when that meant making a zine, getting a button making machine, putting out a newspaper, and helping organize an info shop on the corner next to the puppet studio was, “going big.”

Who is now in at least 8 different signal chat groups, and he can’t keep up.

Has to peer through his readers at the frenzy of activity, notifications pinging like a pinball machine, on his smart phone.

And he smiles, “the kids these days.”

So he’s doing what most people are doing.

Focusing on one or two specific groups.

And letting the rest continue to grow, self-organize, to meet the needs where the needs are.

And holy wow, if that isn’t happening.

There are people in vests waiting at the Whipple Federal Building to pick up those beaten and traumatized, wandering in the woods, the dog park, or miles away down some small county road.

There is the direct action faction, working to develop better ways to deal with Hexacholoroethane gas, and how to turn the moat between them and the masked private army into a hard-to-detect ICE rink, for everyone’s favorite entertainment: ICE on ice.

There are signal groups of carpenters and framers who move into fix the effects of battering rams on doors.

Teams of Tow truck drivers who let protesting masked ICE agents know, “how do I know if this is your car if I can’t see your face.”

Who also help to get the abandoned cars, often left running in the middle of the street, of those who have been taken.

There are crews of medics.

There are the ICE chasers.

The ones who follow the agents from their hotels and staging areas through the neighborhoods. Honking. Whitles out. Documenting. Witnessing.

The legion of drum kit operators and noise makers who keep the occupiers up all night.

And the Brass Solidarity Band keeping the people in a perpetual Mardi Gras of movement, even in our mourning.

An army of immigration attorneys.

And the churches. Oh, so many churches. And synagogues, mosques, and temples. Full of people singing, praying, acting as emergency food shelves, and sanctuary.

And the quiet ones.

The ones who don’t go to the massive marches and general strikes in the streets so their license plates won’t get tracked, or their faces put into biometric data bases.

Who help move the people, bring food, and give direct comfort to those in hiding.

But what Kash and Co. will find is that this isn’t the fringe, isn’t some ultra leftist project.

It’s EVERYONE.

And you may think I’m being hyperbolic.

I’m not.

It’s literally all of Minneapolis and a growing percentage of people in the surrounding suburbs.

Minnesota Public Radio just did a story that estimated that 30,000 people have been trained by UNIDOS and Monarcha to be responders.

Others are putting that number between 80 and 100k.

And those are just the people who got trained who are acting like hubs for others.

It’s soccer Moms, Wine club Moms, Dads who coach basketball down at the park building. It’s eighty year old great grandmothers who marched to stop the Vietnam War, and kids who think this regime is so 6 7.

It’s circles, interlocking circles, built on top of the work of Black Women and BIPOC LGBTQIA during the George Floyd Uprising, but also Anti-Globalization in the early 00’s, lthe student networks doing Central American solidarity in the 1990’s, anti-apartheid work in the 1980’s, anti-Vietnam war work in the 1970’s, the birth of the Amercan Indian Movement on these streets in 1968, and the reverberating legacy of radical unionism from the 1930’s.

It’s all of that, but it’s more.

And it’s that part that’s hard to explain.

Hard to quantify.

There’s something else going on.

People who have felt like the whole world is going to hell in a hand basket, who felt hopeless, despondent, depressed, and disempowered

who are waking up to the fact that we can do something about it.

That we can actually do something to change the course of history.

That these are our neighborhoods.

This is our society.

And this is our Country.

And if they’re going to come for the “ring leaders” to try and stop it,

they’re going to have to come for us all.

Early Bloom

There is an event that happens annually in my back yard. This Japanese plum tree starts to bloom. Generally, the date of first bloom is February 5th. The earliest I’ve seen it bloom is January 31st. This year, it bloomed on the early side, on February 1st. 

First bloom date keeps moving earlier and earlier due to global warming. I thought it might bloom later this year given how foggy December felt so cold, but apparently it wasn’t cold enough to make any dent in the statistics. December 2025 was just the coldest December since 2022. A nothingburger. 

Given the recent lack of rain, and previous rains, rainfall for the season in Sacramento is now exactly normal. We continue drying out.

Chaotic Monday At The John Moss Building

It was a chaotic Monday afternoon, February 2nd, at the ICE Field Office’s 7th Street Gate at Sacramento’s John Moss Building. (I arrived much later, so missed the excitement). 

ICE officers, likely heading home at 3:45 p.m., refused to remove masks (it’s now illegal for officers to wear masks in California) and refused to identify themselves to protesters. The ICE officers relied heavily on support from unmasked DHS officers (basically, their more-experienced babysitters). One protester was tased, bear-maced, and hauled inside. Another protester (praying on the sidewalk) was dragged inside. She was also bear-maced. A third protester escaped. Both of the detained protesters were released. 

It seems to me that ICE is trying to jam open a loophole in SB 627 here and that the confrontation was carefully orchestrated. The ICE officers present were at the end of their shift and presumably heading home. Even though they were still on John Moss grounds they would say they were off duty, and free to wear any masks they pleased. This would explain why the DHS officers weren’t wearing masks and why the protesters weren’t held for long, since there are penalties for false arrest. Meanwhile, the protesters were trying to enforce the law within their limited means. 

This video is sped up.

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We Live In Jeffrey Epstein's World

I like history and I like people’s shock to news that Jeffrey Epstein was connected not only with Steve Bannon but to the founding of 4chan. 

Even for the non-conspiratorial, everything’s connected. The President of Columbia was not wrong when he recently said that a cabal of pedophiles running the world from Washington, D.C., was an immediate threat to his country. The cabal is in charge. This is ongoing. Wake up, everyone….

 

@dreamtwist A lot of people seem to not completely comprehend what this means and i get it because there’s a lot! #mememagic #gamergate #2016 ♬ Classic classical gymnopedie solo piano(1034554) - Lyrebirds music

I Wonder If "Melania" Is At The Tower Theater?

 

Sacramento's Howe at Arden Protest - January 31, 2026

The energy and public support were high at Saturday's weekly Howe at Arden anti-ICE protest. The number of people protesting keeps increasing, week over week. I made two counts, of 122 and 114, so roughly 120 people were present and loudly showing their displeasure towards ICE. Last week, we had about 100, the week before, 80, and the week before that, 50. 

We are riding an exponential upswing in protest participation. Nothing is harder to sustain than exponential growth, especially with something so morally-serious as protesting, but here we are! We aren't even the fastest-growing protest group. Apparently the group at Sunrise and Greenback in Citrus Heights had 112 participants on Saturday. The week before, they had 50. That's explosive growth! 

I also visited the brand-new protest group at the Fulton Target, at Fulton and Alta Arden. Maybe 15 participants at first outing. 

New groups are nucleating across California and the country, and finding their own success. I'm curious about the Sunrise Gold River group. A new group, an offshoot from our Howe at Arden group, starts protesting in Santa Rosa tomorrow. 

I'm sorry I missed the big student protest at the State Capitol and at the John Moss Federal Building on Friday. This protest was amazing, the pinnacle of coordinated success, with more than a thousand student participants (according to the Sacramento Bee), from dozens of schools, and apparently arriving on light rail in two large waves. 

It is difficult to arrange large protests, especially with young people, who have to consciously-step outside their bubbles of conventional thinking. The students execute joint action with their peers and they do not readily forget what they did. The anti-ICE students join previous generations of protesters, such as Civil Rights, Vietnam, Iraq, and Occupy protesters, We all fight together in common cause.

 

Dog Park

Last Thursday, January 29th, I walked Jasper to the auto repair place, to collect my car, and then across the street to the dog park, where we met many dogs, including this little staring doggie, who protectively blocked me from getting anywhere close to his master.