What to write today? I guess the supposed "drawback" of 700 thugs. This is nothing, just a drop in the bucket, considering 4000 thugs were deployed here. As I've written before, the entire Minneapolis police force is 600 officers, so it doesn't take a genius to do the math.

And on a personal level, I want these thugs gone for another reason. Not only are they causing ugliness in their interactions with humans, the are also creating ugliness in our surroundings. Every frickin day I pick up a fast food bag tossed out the window and/or a beer can. How do I know it is from the thugs? Because I have been picking up litter along this road for 2 years. I know my litter and what the usual garbage is. What is being tossed now is not the type of food my neighborhood tosses, it is not the type of beer they drink. It is from the thugs. Yet another reason I hate them.

One of the MN congressional representatives was finally allowed into the concentration camp for an inspection as a result of a court ruling that congressional visits did not have to be pre-scheduled a week in advance. Her words: "During my visit yesterday, I got confirmation that the facility has no specific medical policy and no real medical care on site. There was not a nurse present yesterday at all. There are no beds, no real blankets, minimal food, extremely cold temperatures. People are in locked cells with leg shackles." Agents did not answer her questions about how many people are currently being held, and how many had been sent to the hospital over the past week. These concentration camps hold US citizens and non-citizens alike. There is no distinction or separation of criminal and non-criminal. The people in there are referred to as bodies, not people.

The birds are starting to sing again. Every year I forget just how quiet it is in December and January. Until the chickadees start calling, and the woodpeckers start drilling in February. Today we start a much-needed thaw, with temps in the 30s. My snowbanks along the driveway are waist-high, so every shovel of snow is lifted up to clear the driveway. It will be nice to have them melt down some.

The coyotes have had a good winter apparently. I've heard them howling quite often this winter, and this morning I came across this:

And a song, from overseas: