Jackie McGinnis

Image of canyon walls and the Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park. Text overlays the photo and reads, “Big Bend Needs Our Help. Urgently.Customs and Border Protection is planning to build a physical border wall through the National Park and State Park in West Texas.”

Image of Big Bend canyon walls and the Rio Grande river at sunset. Text over the image reads, “Big Bend NP protects 800,000 acres of Chihuahuan Desert. The wall would fragment miles of one of the last connected desert ecosystems in North America.”

Image from above the canyon in Big Bend, mountains are in the distance, and photo was taken in the middle of the day. Text overlays the image and reads, “The impact would be devastating. Wildlife corridors would be severed. Black bears, mountain lions, javelina, pronghorn and other species will find their paths blocked. Decades of cross-border stewardship and preservation of Indigenous history will be impeded. Construction roads, lighting, and permanent surveillance will disrupt the wilderness character of the park.”

Image of kayaks next to the river bank in the canyon. Text reads, “Environmental regulations and laws are being bypassed. Landmark regulations and laws meant to protect histories, health, and ecosystems, like the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act are being ignored.”

🚨DHS is trying to destroy YOUR public lands!🚨

What do 450 bird species…
67 reptile and amphibian species…
and 1,200 plant species…
on 800,000 acres of sensitive desert have in common?

They’re in Big Bend National Park, about to be WALLED OFF from the Rio Grande. ❌

if it DOES become sentient, you have my permission to do whatever needs to be done *mimes shooting it*

The book “Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil” by Oliver Darkshire sitting in a pot of jasmine.

One of my favorite books this year! Wizards + goblins + a grimaulkin (not a cat) + a pot of basil.
@deathbybadger.bsky.social brought very Terry Pratchett vibes. I loooooooved it so much 💚 I’m just going to carry it around for a while and hope it doesn’t become sentient.

The next step is people understanding that we are only doing to our own citizens what we have already done elsewhere. Imperial Boomerang as Ewing Theory of geopolitics

A Black man was killed by ICE (off duty) in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve. And like Renée Good, he was an American citizen. But most people have not heard about Keith Porter.

I need y’all to realize this. Black people experience this lack of visibility all the time when it comes to being victims.

Minneapolis police confirmed that the man ICE killed with a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry. bsky.app/profile/atru...

A regular reminder that cops have been doing exactly this to Black Americans for far longer than our cellphone culture has been reporting it.

If we want the nation in which we live to be different, we must organize, rise up, and make it so.

With *diverse tactics* including big strikes and more.

Confession, start to change, amends, apologies, make new choices

Here are the 5 steps of repentance undergirding ON REPENTANCE AND REPAIR: MAKING AMENDS IN AN UNAPOLOGETIC WORLD.

They're still all-too applicable today--on the interpersonal, institutional, and national levels.

And you can get free shipping from Bookshop today!

bookshop.org/a/81629/9780...

For Tolkien fans, a timely passage for No Kings Eve, from WH Auden’s review of Lord of the Rings.

"By facing this history, we honor the original stewards of the land. We honor the Indigenous Peoples who never stopped fighting for their homelands. That's the story behind America's Best Idea. And it's a story we all need to be telling."

Does Isles of the Emberdark count? I’m counting it.

"Agree to disagree" is reserved for things like "You don't like my favorite sports team." We can agree to disagree about that. It's not the same for racism, homophobia, & sexism. Not human rights. Not basic common decency. We do not have a difference of opinion. We have a difference in morality.”

Poe

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

This is very much extremely the thing.

"You stupid SHEEP! There's no invisible MAN on a MOUNTAIN!"

"No shit, Sherlock."

"And no Magic SkyDaddy is gonna just FIX things if you pray hard enough!!"

"That's correct."

"And people don't get sick because they were bad!!"

"Did... you think they did??"

The mama mourning dove in the nest with two babies a few weeks old.

The mama mourning dove in the nest with two babies. One is pecking at mom, the other is facing him. Mom has an eye on the camera.

Peering through a V in the tree trunk, the mama mourning dove watches the camera.

Light pink lilies amongst. The long green leaves. One is bloomed, partially open, and another is closed.

Backyard photos 💜

Everything is hard. Way, way too difficult. But there are baby birds and lily blooms to get us through the day.

One of the features in Black Sands Basin with a nice cloud filled sky above and some microbial mats off to the lower left.

Stop doomscrolling and focus on something positive, give your soul a break and breath for a moment.

field of mixed flowers.

😎

💯

Block Donald Trump’s Attempts to Abolish the Department of Education Public education in this country is under attack. And Trump has already made clear his intentions to undermine public education even further at every turn—including the extreme proposal to completely…

Republicans across the country are waging war on public education. They’re:

💰 Withholding school funding
❌ Trying to abolish the Department of Education
📜 Mandating the Ten Commandments in classrooms
🏫 Pushing private school vouchers

Sign our petition to fight back NOW:

Our Story — The Polar Zoo @AltYelloNatPark

You can learn all about us right here at this link, and yes we are a 501c3.

thepolarzoo.org/our-story

gazasoupkitchen.com?ref=lifeisas...

Whoa. 🌳

“Wolves, along with bears and cougars, have helped reduce elk numbers, giving aspen a chance to regrow.”

A momma black bear and her cub on a rock. Cub is behind mom looking left while mom is looking right.

A field surrounded by trees. Two junior grizzlies are running across the field.

A calm part of the river, three pairs are in the distance catching salmon for lunch.

The bears from @explore.org get me through the workday. Oh, to be a bear.

In Gaza, in Texas, everywhere

Check your local indie bookstore. I’ve seen some in both SA and Austin collecting items.

Here is a way to help those affected by the storms & flooding in Central Texas.

McMorrow: What Trump has done is weaponize us against each other, when everybody needs hospitals, good schools, and health care.

It has become this battle for scarcity, when we’re the wealthiest country in the world. We should not be fighting each other for our basic needs.