NO KINGS & more watercolor botanicals

Thank goodness I found another indoor hobby besides reading and watching TV. Between the freezing cold weather and not traveling due to my husband’s knee, I needed something.

Even though I’m working with someone else’s designs at the moment, I’m definitely learning some stuff from this book/teacher.

Daisies
Kind of a weird design called “Lady Rose”

Mark your calendars: The next mass anti-Trump NO KINGS protest will be March 28, 2026.

Here’s the message from the national leadership of Indivisible:

Our mobilizations grew from month to month last year, exploding from Hands Off in April (3 million) to the second No Kings Day in October (7 million) — and the regime’s ongoing brutality and authoritarianism in the months since have only convinced more Americans, including many who’ve never attended a protest in their lives, to join their neighbors in the streets. Now we’ve got to keep that momentum growing, with the same creativity and dogged determination.

Everything we’ve done so far, and everything we’ll be doing in the next weeks and months, is the stuff of history. And together, we’ll write the history of how, for the second time in 250 years, we the people defied, and overcame, a tyrant.”

The only thing that’s going to stop this authoritarian/fascist train is US—the people. Minnesota showed us that all people of good conscience (left, right and center) must get involved.

Executed by ICE on January 24, 2026

Alex Pretti, registered nurse, United States citizen

Statement from the family of Alex Pretti:

“We are heartbroken but also very angry.

Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the hero term lightly. However his last thought and act was to protect a woman.

The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed.

Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man.”

Related post:

Minneapolis

Minneapolis

It is currently 4 degrees Fahrenheit in Minneapolis and both the current and former ministers of my Unitarian Universalist Church in Massachusetts are there to answer a call to clergy.

I hope the media will cover their act of courage.

I’d like to say that what we’re seeing in Minnesota—and now Maine—is not America, except it is. This is what Trump voters wanted. He was perfectly clear on this.

Greg Bovino (aka Colonel Lockjaw) really looks the part.

He’s even got the coat.

I somewhat resisted the whole Fuck ICE thing. I haven’t been to any protests specifically targeting ICE. I’ve been more concerned about women’s rights, abortion, democracy and healthcare.

But what I’m seeing now has pushed me right over the edge.

FUCK ICE

This is not the America our grandparents fought for.

The People of Minneapolis vs ICE: A Street Level View