499,206 total hours
Day 20,800
All posts by scottobear
Day 20,799 big round numbers
I am rapidly approaching hour 500,000.
34.25 days from now, as of this writing.
Am I celebrating? I don’t know. Let’s see if I make it that long, first.
The idea of approaching 500,000 hours old lands differently than birthdays ever did. Years are abstract. Hours are intimate. Hours are what you actually live inside.
Five hundred thousand hours means there have been half a million chances to notice something or miss it entirely. Half a million opportunities to be kind, distracted, generous, petty, awake, asleep, or somewhere in between. It is a number large enough to feel mythic, but specific enough to feel accusatory.
Most of those hours were not dramatic. They were ordinary. Folding laundry. Waiting for software to update. Sitting in traffic, convinced you were late for something that now barely exists in memory. That is the uncomfortable truth of time: it is mostly made of beige moments. And yet those are the hours that add up. Those are the ones doing the real work.
Approaching 500,000 hours does not feel like running out of time so much as finally understanding the exchange rate. Hours turn into habits. Habits turn into days that feel familiar. Familiar days turn into a life that seems to have happened very quickly when you look back at it all at once.
There is a quiet relief in realizing how many hours survived you. The bad ones passed. The unbearable ones did not last forever. Even the best ones were temporary, which somehow makes them better instead of worse. Time takes everything, but it also carries you through things you could not have crossed on your own.
Five hundred thousand hours is not a trophy. It is not an achievement. It is evidence. Evidence that you stayed. That you endured boredom and heartbreak and repetition and still kept showing up for the next hour, and the next.
If there is anything to do with the hours ahead, it is probably this: notice them a little more often. Spend fewer of them pretending there will always be more. And forgive yourself for the ones you wasted, because wasting time is one of the most human ways to prove you were alive at all.
Return of the king (skunk)
ICE protest in Roanoke
Palate cleanser
The Death of Renee Nicole Good: Why ICE is a Failed Experiment That Must End
The killing of Renee Nicole Good (often cited as Rose Nicole Good) on January 7, 2026, has become a flashpoint in the ongoing debate over the necessity and conduct of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). For critics, her death is not an isolated tragedy but a systemic symptom of an agency that has become hyper-militarized, unaccountable, and fundamentally flawed.
The Minneapolis Shooting: A Catalyst for Outcry
On a snowy Wednesday morning in Minneapolis, Renee Nicole Good—a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and mother of three—was shot and killed by an ICE agent. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) quickly characterized the incident as an act of self-defense, alleging that Good “weaponized her vehicle” against agents.
However, eyewitness accounts and bystander videos paint a different picture: one of a legal observer and community member caught in the middle of a high-tension “surge” operation. Local leaders, including the Minneapolis Mayor, have described the shooting as reckless, noting that Good had no criminal record and was simply driving in her own neighborhood.
The immediate withdrawal of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension from the investigation—citing federal restrictions on access to evidence—has only deepened the perception that ICE operates within a vacuum of accountability.
A Pattern of Lethal Failure
The death of Renee Nicole Good is viewed by many as the “tip of the spear” of a broader institutional collapse. Critics argue that ICE’s current structure is inherently prone to tragedy for several reasons:
- The Deadliest Year on Record: The year 2025 was the deadliest for ICE since 2004, with 32 confirmed deaths in custody. This spike in mortality coincides with a “hyper-militarized” approach to enforcement and a massive surge in the detained population.
- Systematic Medical Neglect: Investigations by the U.S. Senate and human rights organizations have uncovered harrowing evidence of neglect. A 2024 report by the ACLU and Physicians for Human Rights found that 95% of deaths in ICE detention were preventable had adequate medical care been provided.
- Lack of Oversight and Impunity: ICE’s oversight mechanisms are often described as “internal and toothless.” By utilizing private, for-profit contractors for 90% of its detention capacity, the agency creates a layer of separation that complicates legal accountability.
Sources and Linkable Citations
The Minneapolis Incident (Jan 2026)
- CBS News: Renee Good, the driver shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis
- Fox News: Who was Renee Nicole Good, woman killed in Minneapolis ICE shooting?
- The Guardian: Minneapolis shooting is a brutal start to Trump’s ‘largest operation’
Systemic Neglect & Mortality Data
- ACLU: 95 Percent of Deaths in ICE Detention Could Likely Have Been Prevented
- Yale Global Health Review: A Silent Cry: Medical Negligence in ICE Detention
- PBS News: Senate report details medical neglect in federal immigration detention
- American Immigration Council: Mortality Statistics and Detainee Safety
- Freedom for Immigrants: Detention: A Death Sentence?
Legal & Policy Critiques
A documented analysis of the systemic failures within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, detailing the human cost of lethal neglect and the risks posed to American citizens.
Training Failures & Oversight Gaps
- Inadequate Constitutional Training: Reports from the ACLU and legal watchdogs highlight a consistent failure to train agents on Fourth Amendment protections, leading to warrantless entries and coerced consent.
- Contractor Disparities: The DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) has found that private contractors (e.g., CoreCivic, GEO Group) often operate with significantly lower training standards than federal employees, leading to hazardous conditions.
- Identification Errors: Poor training in complex naturalization laws causes agents to routinely misidentify and unlawfully detain individuals with valid U.S. citizenship.
Risks to American Citizens
- Wrongful Detainers: Between 2008 and 2021, thousands of U.S. citizens were flagged for deportation due to clerical errors and inadequate verification processes. Some citizens have been held for over 1,000 days in detention.
- Public Safety Erosion: Many local law enforcement officials report that aggressive ICE tactics destroy community trust, discouraging victims and witnesses from reporting local crimes, thereby making neighborhoods less safe for everyone.
- Economic Destabilization: Raids in public spaces create high-stress environments that impact local businesses and disrupt community economic networks.
Lethal Neglect & Custodial Deaths
- Rising Fatality Rates: Since 2004, over 200 deaths have been recorded in ICE custody. Independent reviews by Human Rights Watch cite “substandard medical care” as a contributing factor in many of these fatalities.
- Mental Health Crises: Investigative reports reveal a pattern of using solitary confinement to manage detainees with mental illness, a practice linked to multiple preventable suicides.
- Pandemic Response: During COVID-19, the refusal to release non-violent detainees and the failure to implement social distancing led to massive, avoidable outbreaks and deaths.
Personnel Crimes & Misconduct
- Sexual Abuse Complaints: Internal data analyzed by The Intercept shows over 1,200 complaints of sexual abuse filed between 2010 and 2017, with a shockingly low rate of prosecution.
- Systemic Corruption: Hundreds of agency employees have been arrested or convicted for crimes including bribery, drug trafficking, and smuggling over the last decade.
- Abuse of Force: Watchdogs have documented the use of chemical agents and physical restraints as punishment for non-violent protests or hunger strikes within detention facilities.
Primary Resources & Documentation
- ACLU: Misconduct and Constitutional Violations Report
- DHS Office of Inspector General: Concerns about Detainee Treatment (PDF)
- Human Rights Watch: Code Red: Lethal Medical Care Neglect
- American Immigration Council: U.S. Citizens Held in Detention Analysis
- The Intercept: Investigation into Sexual Abuse Complaints
- POGO: Report on Pervasive Misconduct in DHS
- TRAC Immigration: Immigration Detention Data Tool
20,795 Skunks and a mouse
I am in Roanoke, Virginia.
I saw the videos.
Not clips.
Not screenshots.
Not the “context” people sell like coupons.
The videos.
I know the truth.
It does not need to argue.
It does not need a thread or a podcast or a guy pointing at captions.
It just sits there.
Heavy.
Unavoidable.
It. Was. Murder.
Say it slow and it stops being controversial.
Say it plain and it stops being abstract.
Say it at all and people get uncomfortable.
Good.
Because comfort is the luxury of people who did not watch.
History is still watching.
And the truth does not need permission to exist.
Filmation’s #TheHardyBoys perform “Those Country Girls” in the episode “What Happened at Midnight?” ABC, Saturday, November 1, 1969.
#ByronKane-#JoeHardy #FentonHardy #DallasMcKennon-#FrankHardy #ChubbyMorton #PeteJones
#JaneWebb-#WandaKayBreckenridge #GetrudeHardy
#FilmationHardyBoys
Day 20,793
ICE does *not* get special shoot-on-sight powers. Nobody does.
Leaving the scene does not justify deadly force.
Only an imminent threat to life does – and that must be proven, not asserted.
Does ICE have any authority to shoot someone leaving the scene of an incident?
Answer:
❌ No – not merely for leaving
❌ No – not for refusing orders
❌ No – not for blocking traffic
❌ No – not because they are ICE
✔️ Only if the person posed an immediate, unavoidable threat of death or serious bodily harm at that exact moment.
Anything short of that is unconstitutional, regardless of the agency.
Was there an immediate, unavoidable threat at the moment shots were fired?
If the answer is no, then the shooting is unjustified, and any Federal authority does not save it.
School in Minneapolis has been cancelled for the rest of the week due to ICE inflicting terror on the area.
As masked men murdered Renee Nicole Good, a nearby elementary school had to go into lockdown.
ICE then went three blocks down the road to a Minneapolis high school where they chased and tackled at least one person, pepper sprayed students, and were defended on social media by the Trump regime.
The district cancelled school to preserve student safety.
Source: https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/apparent-ice-presence-at-roosevelt-high-school-causes-chaotic-scene/
Day 20,792
Critters week 1 of 2026
Skunk, squirrel and cat mostly
20,791 evening, post book club
MIL just now, fresh from book club, carrying that satisfied glow that suggests something important has just happened.
“I read a book about two months ago, and it deeply affected me.”
This is how myths begin.
“Awesome,” I say. “What was it called?”
“I don’t remember.”
Naturally.
So I adjust course.
“What was it about?”
“I forget.”
Okay, fair enough. Books are slippery creatures. I try again.
“What about it affected you most? A character, a plot point?”
“I’m not sure,” she says, serenely. “But it was excellent.”
At this point the book has achieved a kind of Platonic perfection. It exists only as Impact.
“How did it affect you?” I ask, carefully.
“I don’t know,” she says, without irony. “But it was really life and outlook changing.”
I nod, because this is clearly not a problem that can be solved with follow up questions.
“I’m glad you got something out of it,” I say, and I mean it.
“I’d like to read it again,” she continues. “Can you help me find it?”
“Sure,” I say. “What criteria should I use to search for it?”
She looks at me kindly, the way one looks at a child asking about taxes.
“I don’t know. You’re the tech guy.”
So I do what tech guys do. I pull up her tablet and present evidence.
“Here are all the books you’ve read in the last three months. Do any of these ring a bell?”
She reads about four books a week, give or take. There are roughly thirty of them staring back at her.
She scans the list.
“No,” she says. “I don’t think so.”
“Well,” I say, doing some quick math in my head, “now you have thirty books to reread and find out.”
Here is the thing. Her memory outside of books is a steel trap. Names, dates, conversations from decades ago, all locked in and retrievable on demand. But the moment she finishes a book, its contents are immediately flushed like a temporary file. Characters vanish. Plots dissolve. Titles evaporate.
All that remains is the emotional aftertaste and the firm conviction that it was excellent.
Some people collect books. Some people collect knowledge. She collects the feeling of having been changed, again and again, by stories she can no longer name.
Honestly, that might be the most literary approach of all.