October 15/16, 2025

WTF !
The UN Is About to Institute a De Facto Tax on American Citizens: ‘The Ultimate in Taxation Without Representation’
https://www.westernjournal.com/un-institute-de-facto-tax-american-citizens-ultimate-taxation-without-representation/

Transforming our world: The Agenda 2030

https://www.unasdg.org/un-agenda-2030

The UN’s DARK Agenda: What You’re Not Being Told About Agenda 2030
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-Uz9ZKWuvo
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U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston blocks Trump from firing federal workers during shutdown
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/judge-blocks-trump-firing-federal-workers-during-shut-down
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump from firing federal workers amid a government shutdown in yet another instance of a court blocking executive actions, despite a Supreme Court decision meant to limit such stays. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston issued the decision, saying, “It’s very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs, and it has a human cost.” “It’s a human cost that cannot be tolerated,”
(United States District Court for the Northern District of California. – Who would have guessed? – jlr)
(She took senior status on July 1, 2013. – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senior_status – jlr)
there’s more
Judge on Trump RIFs: I Forbid This Because I Find It Icky and Hurtful
https://chrisbray.substack.com/p/judge-on-trump-rifs-i-forbid-this
READ THE COURT ORDER – the link is in here – Note that the first paragraph frames federal RIFs as historically unprecedented, while the second paragraph frames the current federal RIFS as not ordinary: different than the way RIFs are usually conducted. So this is unprecedented, but it has happened before, and the problem with the unprecedented thing is that it’s not being done the way the thing that has never been done before is usually done.
and more
Judge pauses shutdown layoffs at more than 30 federal agencie
https://www.npr.org/2025/10/15/nx-s1-5574111/government-shutdown-federal-employees-congress-rif
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Of Scorpions – And frogs.
https://thelawdogfiles.substack.com/p/of-scorpions
Until the Palestinians as a whole decide they want peace — until the scorpions stop being scorpions — there will be no peace.
And that, Gentle Readers, will never happen.

Antifa is what you get when cowards run civilization
https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/antifa-is-what-you-get-when-cowards-run-civilization
For years, the legacy media and left-wing think tanks have portrayed Antifa as “decentralized” and “leaderless.” The opposite is true. Antifa is organized, disciplined, and well-funded. Groups like Rose City Antifa in Oregon, the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club in Texas, and Jane’s Revenge operate as coordinated street militias. Legal fronts such as the National Lawyers Guild provide protection, while crowdfunding networks and international supporters funnel money directly to the movement.

I don’t think I will ever buy a new car again
https://miguelgg.substack.com/p/i-dont-think-i-will-ever-buy-a-new

This…
https://oldnfo.substack.com/p/this-108
Is a quick way to a bad ending… A union that represents CBS News journalists told staffers they won’t be punished if they ignore a memo from their new boss Bari Weiss that has asked for details on their work duties.

Number of Young Americans Identifying as Trans and ‘Queer’ Plummets, Study Likens to ‘Fading of a Fashion or Trend’
https://www.westernjournal.com/number-young-americans-identifying-trans-queer-plummets-study-likens-fading-fashion-trend/
(The party’s over, so there’s no need to cosplay anymore. The tragedy is those who were mutilated physically, chemically, and psychologically because of this political hysteria, supported by the cry of “me-too”. Worse yet is the damage done to the progress made by the real long-standing LGBT community – jlr)

TSA Video Featuring DHS Secretary Kristi Noem Triggers Some Airport Officials Into Posting Signs
https://twitchy.com/dougp/2025/10/16/heres-the-tsa-video-from-dhs-secretary-kristi-noem-that-has-caused-some-airport-officials-to-post-signs-n2420430
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‘No Kings’ is the clown show covering for a coup
https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/no-kings-is-the-clown-show-covering-for-a-coup

Cook County, IL, Slides Toward Full-Blown Insurrection As Judges Try to Stop Immigration Enforcement
https://redstate.com/streiff/2025/10/16/cook-county-il-slides-toward-full-blown-insurrection-as-judges-try-to-stop-immigration-enforcement-n2195121

Talk Of Secession By Blue States Rises As Incidents Of Violent Civil Conflict Become More Common In Major U.S. Cities
https://michaeltsnyder.substack.com/p/talk-of-secession-by-blue-states

Commentary: California doesn’t need to secede; the U.S. already abandoned us
https://stocktonia.org/news/opinion/2025/10/15/commentary-california-doesnt-need-to-secede-the-u-s-already-abandoned-us/
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Pentagon doesn’t bend to liberal reporters, takes their press badges
https://www.theblaze.com/news/pentagon-doesnt-bend-to-liberal-reporters-takes-their-press-badges

LA County Declares State Of Emergency Over ICE Raids; Will Pay Rent & Provide Legal Aid
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/la-county-declares-state-emergency-over-ice-raids-will-pay-rent-provide-legal-aid
In addition to rent relief, it will also use taxpayer funds for legal aid and other services,
video – 00:00:47 – https://x.com/i/status/1978269993046335508
(This is from a city whose budget is approximately one billion dollars in deficit for 2025 – jlr)

Brink Of A “Humanitarian Disaster”: 800 Migrant Families Set To Be Stranded In Pennsylvania Town Amid Factory Closure
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/brink-humanitarian-disaster-800-migrant-families-stranded-pennsylvania-town-after-factory

Feminists Have Discovered “Nose Ring Theory” And They’re Not Happy
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/feminists-have-discovered-nose-ring-theory-and-theyre-not-happy
…”nose ring theory”, also known as “septum ring theory”…is based on an observable stereotype: The idea that many crazed feminists on social media tend to have the exact same physical characteristics. It’s the blue hair, the face, neck and full body tattoos, the high cut bangs and, of course, they almost always seem to have septum rings in their noses. The theory is supported by the leftist habit of using symbolic identifiers, much like a cult would use to pick out other adherents in a crowd. When the pandemic mandates failed to garner enough public support in the US and the mask requirements were abandoned (largely because the masks were proven to be useless), the political left continued to wear them anyway. Why? Because the masks had become symbolic of the cult, a uniform for the woke. The septum ring is the new covid mask. It’s a signal to other believers that they are on the same side.
(apparently nose rings were origionally used on bulls and pigs to make them easier to handle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nose_ring_(animal) – now apparently cultural approperation as well (https://www.jewelry-auctioned.com/learn/buying-jewelry/meaning-of-nose-rings-in-historic-and-modern-society)  – jlr)

rcd via e-mail
‘SHUT UP!’ Enraged Nancy Pelosi goes ballistic when asked why she refused to call in National Guard on Jan. 6
https://www.wnd.com/2025/10/shut-up-enraged-nancy-pelosi-goes-ballistic-when/
video – 00:00:30 – https://twitter.com/i/status/1978498747647881514

rcd via e-mail
America First Legal Urges U.S. Supreme Court to Restore Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment in Brief Filed on Behalf of Chairman Jim Jordan and 17 Members of Congress
https://aflegal.org/press-release/america-first-legal-urges-u-s-supreme-court-to-restore-original-meaning-of-the-fourteenth-amendment-in-brief-filed-on-behalf-of-chairman-jim-jordan-and-17-members-of-congress/

How Much Ammo Do You Need for SHTF?
https://mind4survival.com/how-much-ammo-do-you-need-for-shtf/

How to Store Ammo Safely
https://www.libertysafe.com/blogs/the-vault/how-to-store-ammo-safely
(mostly an ad for Liberty Safes – but has good information too – jlr)
(silica-gel desicant can be found at Walmart in the cat litter aisle – jlr)

October 17, 2025

TRUMP EFFECT: Federal Government Hits historic $200 Billion Surplus in September
https://gellerreport.com/2025/10/trump-effect-federal-government-hits-historic-200-billion-surplus-in-september.html/?lctg=92233992
While Trump’s GOP is working furiously to increase American wealth and reduce our unsustainable debt, the Democrats are holding the country hostage for trillions for corrupt programs and money laundering ops. And why isn’t this front page news across the land?

DOJ files first terrorism-related charges against alleged ‘Antifa Cell’ after ICE attack: ‘Get to the rifles’
https://www.theblaze.com/news/doj-antifa-terrorist-charges-first

Democrats Didn’t Shut Down the Government Over Health Care -They Did It to Protect ObamaCare Subsidies Fraud
https://amac.us/newsline/politics/democrats-didnt-shut-down-the-government-over-health-care-they-did-it-to-protect-obamacare-subsidies-fraud/

The Whiskey Rebellion – and Trump
https://amac.us/newsline/national-security/the-whiskey-rebellion-and-trump/
…the media’s ignorance is profound and showing

Beware Mamdani’s Judges
https://amac.us/newsline/politics/beware-mamdanis-judges/
Mayors have the power to appoint judges to the city’s courts for 10-year terms. It can be one of their most lasting legacies.

Non-Citizen gets job as a cop with a gun. So many questions.
https://miguelgg.substack.com/p/non-citizen-gets-job-as-a-cop-with
This one is going to be an interesting one to follow.

Corporate Media Flounces out of the Pentagon.
https://miguelgg.substack.com/p/corporate-media-flounces-out-of-the
And it was mostly received with a yawn by the general public.
(https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flounce – also : to move so as to draw attention to oneself – jlr

California woman shares serious regrets about fleeing ‘Trump’s America’: ‘Life is so much harder’
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2025/10/17/california-woman-shares-serious-regrets-about-fleeing-trumps-america-life-is-so-much-harder-1593361/
Rosie, a California woman who hurriedly fled to Costa Rica because of President Donald Trump, now regrets leaving the country.

Watch: Bernie Sanders Instantly Regrets Asking Conservative Student a Question During Town Hall
https://www.westernjournal.com/watch-bernie-sanders-instantly-regrets-asking-conservative-student-question-town-hall/
video – 00:00:89 – https://twitter.com/i/status/1978642591382896899

CNN Guest Says White People in Red States Are Racist – But Look What She Said When a Black Family Moved Into Her Neighborhood
https://www.westernjournal.com/cnn-guest-says-white-people-red-states-racist-look-said-black-family-moved-neighborhood/
video – 00:00:28 – https://twitter.com/i/status/1978684310631694736
video – 00:01:00 – https://twitter.com/i/status/1955397893734715640
video – 00:00:18 – https://twitter.com/i/status/1978616516699390024

COVID Findings the last 18 months Scream Stop ALL mRNA Related Vaccines
https://libertyunderfire.org/2025/10/covid-findings-the-last-18-months-scream-stop-all-mrna-related-vaccines/
Covid vaccine alone “might have caused more than 470,000 American deaths—a number that, if accurate, would make the mRNA rollout the deadliest government-sanctioned medical intervention in modern history…nearly as many American lives as World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War combined…”

The Color Revolution Chooses Yellow
https://grayzoneresearch.substack.com/p/the-color-revolution-chooses-yellow
According to social media posts and their website, Indivisible and the No Kings protest campaign have chosen yellow as their unity color.
Why It Matters: Several weeks ago, I reported that Indivisible, the country’s largest protest organizer, had spent an hour debating which color or symbol to use, and that an announcement was pending. I actually dislike this choice for them. Purple – as a combination of Blue America and Red America coming together to fight perceived fascism – would have been a much better choice as a unity color, in my opinion. “No Kings” as a slogan is pithy and allows the movement to claim ownership of America’s heritage of opposition to kings (“Rejecting Kings Since 1776,” as one sign reads), but still misses the point because President Trump is not a king, nor is he attempting to become one. I would not be surprised to see this color change as we get closer to 2028 because the imagery of Red and Blue America coming together is a very powerful strategic message, especially because so much of the main effort in a Color Revolution is about encouraging defections from the autocratic side to join the resistance. – M.S.

Do you know why my house has a locked door?
https://miguelgg.substack.com/p/do-you-know-why-my-house-has-a-locked
If you hear “FIX BAYONETS!” followed by a racking noise, either run or pray to Jesus.

School staff member dies after getting kicked by 14-year-old female student
https://www.theblaze.com/news/student-kills-staff-member-mass

https://www.theblaze.com/news/student-kills-staff-member-mass
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2025/10/18/minnesota-just-admitted-that-illegals-can-vote-in-their-elections-n2664973

Feds Indict Smartmatic, The Voting Company: Money Laundering, Bribing Election Officials
https://gellerreport.com/2025/10/feds-indicts-smartmatic-the-voting-company-in-million-dollar-bribery-scheme.html/?lctg=92233992

Another swing…
https://oldnfo.substack.com/p/another-swing
The next iteration of Meals Ready-to-Eat is MRE 46, set to release in 2026.
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2025/10/16/buffalo-chicken-thai-and-cuban-food-coming-to-the-mre-lineup-in-2026/

Prepping – The Last Light On
https://vineofliberty.com/2025/10/17/prepping-the-last-light-on/
Don’t ignore mental health preps. We’ve seen what happens when you do (look “to the Left” for visual cues).

https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=1338027267724787
AOC Worries About The Woes of Drinkable Air

https://www.facebook.com/reel/2384795425296165
Predicting how the shutdown will end with @senjohnkennedy.

AND FINALLY – A FEEL GOOD STORY !
Immediately After Being Crowned Homecoming King, Quarterback Makes a Memorable Move
https://www.westernjournal.com/immediately-crowned-homecoming-king-quarterback-makes-memorable-move/
(There is hope – jlr)

I’ve tried drawing network maps a half-dozen times. I’ve failed. It should be simple, and I’m sure there are tools that can do it. I just don’t know them, or worse, I don’t know how to use the tools I currently have.

In simple terms, I have overlay and underlay networks. Underlay networks are actual physical networks.

An overlay network is a network that runs on top of the underlay/physical network. For example, tagged VLANs, or in my case, OVN.

OVN creates virtual private cloud. A powerful concept when working with cloud computing. Each VPC is 100% independent of every other VPC.

As an example, I have a VPC for my Ceph data plane. It is on the 10.1.0.0/24 network. I can reuse 10.1.0.0/24 on any other VPC with zero issues.

The only time there is an issue is when I need routing.

If I have a VPC with node 172.31.1.99 and a gateway of 172.31.1.1, that gateway performs network address translation before the traffic is sent to the internet. If the node at 172.31.1.99 wants to talk to the DNS server at 8.8.8.8 traffic is routed to 172.31.1.1 and from there towards the internet. The internet responds, the traffic reaches 172.31.1.1 and is forwarded to 172.31.1.99.

All good.

If I have VPC2 with a node at 192.168.99.31 and its gateway at 192.168.99.1, I can route between the two VPCs using normal routing methods by connecting VPC and VPC2. We do this by creating a connection (logical switch) that acts as a logical cable. We then attach gateway 172.31.1.1 to that network at 192.168.255.1 and the gateway at 192.168.99.31 as 192.168.255.2.

With a quick routing table entry, traffic flows between the two.

But if VPC2 was also using 172.31.1.0/24 then there is no way to send traffic to VPC. Any traffic generated would be assumed to live in that VPC. No router would become involved. And NAT will not help.

Why use an overlay network? It allows for stable virtual network, even if the underlay network is modified. Consider a node at 10.1.0.77. It has a physical address of 192.168.22.77. But because it needs to be moved to a different subnet, its physical address changes to 192.168.23.77.

Every node that had 192.168.22.77 within its configurations now needs to be updated. If the underlay is updated, it does not affect the overlay.

Back to Simple.

There are three methods for traffic to enter a VPC. The first is for a virtual machine to bind to the VPC. The second is for a router to move traffic into the VPC, sometimes from the physical network. And the final method is for a host (bare metal) machine to have a logical interface bound to the VPC.

My Ceph nodes use the last method. Each ceph node is directly attached to the Ceph VPC.

It is the gateway that is interesting. A localnet logical port can bind to a port on a host, called a chassis. When this happens, the port is given an IP address on the physical network that it binds to.

When the routing is properly configured, traffic to the VPC is routed to the logical router. This requires advertising the logical router in the router tables.

I had multiple VMs running on different host servers. They all sent traffic to the router which was bound to my primary machine. My primary machine has physical and logical difference from the rest of the host nodes.

What this meant was that traffic to the VPC was flaky.

Today, I simplified everything. I turned down the BGP insertion code. I added a single static route where it belonged. I moved the chassis to one of the “normal” chassis.

And everything just worked.

It isn’t dynamic, but it is working.

I’m happier.

When the grid fails, your calm mind might be the last light on. I know, it sounds cheesy, but it’s true. The idea of mental health in prepping is often relegated to a short oneliner: “Three months without hope.” Bam, done. Except it’s not done, and in many ways, mental health is something we ought to be paying a ton more attention to, and it’s also something we almost entirely ignore. Current prepper magazines and e-zines talk a lot about ammo, food, shelter, the Rule of Threes, types of firearms and other weapons, even first aid… but they don’t talk about what to do if someone’s mind breaks.

There are a handful of stories out there about preppers who went a little “funny” while getting anxious over expired food or having the right stuff in their go-bags. It’s definitely easy to let your anxiety run you down, especially if you’re actually IN an emergency already. Isolation is a huge contributor to mental health issues, and even if you have your family with you, bunker life or hunkering down at home is going to cause some problems. We know more about this than we should, thanks to the pandemic. With that in mind, we should be applying mental health prep to our general SHTF preparations. The topic deserves more than one line. We need to give mental health its proper focus, as an integral and continuing part of our everyday prepping activities.

The idea of a “loneliness spike” is not a new one. We know it from studying trauma after real disasters (Harvard study). We are aware of how insecurity and worry causes brain fog (Medical News Today). There are studies done on survivors of hurricanes and the prevalence of PTSD among them (National Institute of Health), where mental health issues can affect up to 30% of those who make it through. Then there’s the idea of survivor’s guilt, which is absolutely real and devastating, and something we know both from horrors like the Holocaust, and soldiers coming back from war, and even families caught in natural disasters. All of these problems are things that could and likely will happen in a SHTF scenario, and so we must begin to come up with methods to help minimize the trauma response. After all, you want the person who’s got your back to be sane… and they want the same thing.

So how do we minimize the kind of mental health problems we’re likely to see in a post-apocalypse or post-big-emergency world? Some of the most banal and stupid practices done in therapists offices around the world are the most effective. Breathing exercises (in for 4, hold for 4, out for 4, hold for 4), journaling positive things, active exercises just for the sake of doing it, avoiding reading the news (which may or may not be a problem come the apocalypse), and checking in on friends are all methods you can use to keep your panic down and your mental load a bit more healthy. Yes, the world may be falling to ruin around you, but if that’s your focus, you will go to ruin with it. The most resilient minds are the ones that can ignore “all that stuff out there” and instead focus on what can be done here and now.

Community is a big part of what keeps us on an even keel. Yes, the smallest community is your family, but at some point you have to reach beyond that. Human beings are meant to live in villages, and we need the company of others to keep us straight and sane. Whether you’re organizing a town meeting, bartering your skills for therapy (like in The Last Of Us), or having a sit down “come to Jesus” moment like an AA meeting, doesn’t really matter. It’s the doing that’s important, rather than what it is you’re doing. When paranoia is the word of the day, it’s going to be tough to reach out to people and form lasting connections, but it’s something that has to be done. If you can’t come to terms with doing it for yourself, think of doing it for the sake of your kids or your neighbors’ kids.

The big question is how to make the best SHTF armor possible, not just for the body, but for the mind as well. Group talks and forums can help, if there’s still internet to be had. But there are some really simple things you can do every day to make sure your mental health doesn’t become a liability. The first and most important thing is to get enough sleep. Obviously if you’re fighting zombies, that might get pushed back in priority… but only for a while. If you want to live rather than just survive, you’re going to have to get to a point where you can sleep on the regular. You have to get food into your body, too. Good quality food (even if it’s canned) is going to be a huge help in making you feel safe. Going for a walk, whenever it’s safe and possible, also helps, as does gardening (National Institute of Health).

So there you have it. Stock up your mental health preps right beside your beans. Be ready to surround yourself with the start of a community, and be prepared to keep building. Focus on the end goal, which is to thrive. Survival should only be your goal in the beginning. Once you’ve achieved survival, it’s time to live and thrive, to grow and heal. That’s your focus; a healthy, happy world for the children we bring into it. Don’t ignore mental health preps. We’ve seen what happens when you do (look “to the Left” for visual cues).

Third Circut Court Win

Judge Jennifer Mascott now sits on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. This means that the Third is no longer an agenda-driven leftist playground.

She was confirmed last Week, Trump signed her appointment early this week, and she was sworn in on the evening of the 14th or the morning of the 15th.

And the first case she heard was as a member of the en banc panel, Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs I v. Attorney General New Jersey, 24-2415 (3rd Cir.) This is an Assault Weapons Ban and a Large Capacity Magazine Ban (propaganda terms).

The court was 9-7 last week and is 10-7 this week. This means that it takes to Republican appointed judges to slide over to the dark side to lose this case en banc.

This is a case that is fully briefed; it has been decided at the trial (district) court level the 3-judge merits panel and has now been heard en banc by the Third Circuit.

My guess is that The People will win. The state will decline to appeal. If they were to appeal, it has all the right characteristics to be granted cert. It is fully developed; it will be the cause of a circuit split; it is a ban case that the Justices have said they want to hear.

Rogue Inferior Court Judges

In another set of rulings from rogue judges, a judge in California has decided that Trump can’t fire federal employees until she approves.

The magic is that Trump couldn’t fire people who had been funded by Congress. When the funding ran out, he can fire them. So he did.

Another rogue judge has decided that he gets to decide if Trump can deploy the National Guard. He thinks the opinion of a local police chief holds more weight than the Article II executive, which was granted that power by the Constitution.

Still another Judge ordered the fence protecting the ICE facility in Chicago removed. It was blocking the road, according to the court. ICE declared one side of the building a “no protest zone” so of course that is where they are protesting, screaming about the 1st Amendment (that screaming statement is my guess, not verified).

Home Owner Tribulations

Very little demo involved. If you want demolition pictures, go read Miggy’s Substack.

Our plumbing is the result of additions being added and then new pipes being put in place. At one time the owners of our house ran a daycare facility. One of the reasons our doors open out and not in.

Part of the requirement was to add another bathroom. The floor of that part of the house is nearly two feet lower than the rest of the house.

As they say in the plumbing business, shit flows downhill. Except that the output of the toilet was only 6 inches above the outlet to the sewer system on the other side of the basement. This did not allow for enough slope to carry that shit downhill.

The answer is simple: a pooper shooter. This is a sump with a garbage/ejector pump. The output of that bathroom flows downhill into the sealed sump. When the solid/fluid level gets high enough, the pump fires up. This ejects the contents, violently, up a 2 in PVC pipe into the joists and across the basement to flow down into the sewer system.

Great system, works great. Until the pump fails. That was a $2.5k replacement. The entire system had to be cut out and a new one put in place.

That was 4 or 5 years ago. The next problem we were having is that the output from the kitchen sink was going through copper pipes across the basement one way and then the other to get out to the sewer. Food particles and grease were building up in those pipes and making me flush those pipes every four or five months.

The fix? We had the plumber reroute the sink to the pooper shooter. No problem. Until…

Somebody was pouring grease down the sink. This would flow into the pooper shooter, and it slowly built up a dam around the pump. Then it sealed off the pump inlet.

This allowed the sump to overflow. Yes, it was a gross as you think it was, and it smelled worse than you think.

My son and I spent a less than pleasant day opening each cleanout and making sure there were no blockages. In the end we got a plumber in who emptied the sump, cleaned it out, and made it all good. We called the plumber because the installers had not put the proper joints to allow us to remove the lid of the sump to do the cleanout ourselves.

See above about total replacement.

Which leads us to today’s unpleasantness.

If you remember, my son and I removed every cleanout to do what we could. We put them back. We got them on tight. We thought.

For the last two years we’ve been chasing a “bad smell” It wasn’t all the time. It was only part of the time. We checked for dead animals in the crawl spaces. We checked to make sure the pooper shooter was still shooting. We couldn’t find where the smell was coming from.

I had isolated it to wet weather. I was thinking the vent pipe might be to low. But before I invested in that. I did another check in the basement.

There was a mound of dirt below the last cleanout before the sewer. It was a little damp.

As I was looking at it, a drop of water fell from the cleanout onto the pile.

Our basement gets wet when it rains hard.

During the dry seasons, that drop is slow enough that it dries before the next drop lands. In the wet seasons, it doesn’t.

We had a shit pile in the basement, built from a single drop of water carrying small amounts of solid waste.

And I can’t get the damn cleanout open to clean the threads and reseal it correctly. That’s today’s fun project.

Oh, I love being a home owner.

Holsters

My new holster system from “We The People Holsters” arrived this week. I’ll be at the range testing it out tomorrow. It feels good. It looks good. My only issue is that it doesn’t come standard with the pad to protect my delicate skin.

If you are looking for holsters, they might be worth looking at.

(Of course you are looking for a better holster)

Mantis Laser Academy

This Mantis system uses the laser insert to spot where your shot goes. The the targets are self identifying. There are multiple games that can be done with the different targets.

Push stick, app, laser, and targets all get a giant thumbs up.

The phone holding tripod and phone holder, not so much. My phone in its OtterBox case didn’t fit. Luckily, I have real camera tripods and real phone holders.

The little I did was helpful. I’ll do more when I have a bit of time and now that I have a holster.

Hello, My name is Chris, and I’m a (sugar) addict

My wife’s birthday was recently. She ended up with many pies, which was an acceptable day off the diet. We like our food way too much, and I eat too much if given the chance.

I’ve lost nearly 20 pounds since I went on this diet. Not enough, but a start.

What I can’t do is walk by those sugar things without taking a piece. A cookie, a slice of pie, a slice of cake. I don’t even like the flavor. It leaves my mouth tasting bad. And I feel, mentally, horrible after I do.

Yet I still do it. I can walk past a sugar thing 10, 20 times and leave it. But at some point I give in and eat that sugar thing.

The only thing I don’t do is buy those sugar things and stash them. It isn’t that I crave them so badly that it overcomes my innate laziness; it is that I have difficulty not eating those sugar things when they are available.

Question Of The Week

If you have been listening to regular news reporting, what are some of the subtle ways they twist the narrative?

I’m not talking about the outright lies they tell about Trump, or quoting out of context. There is nothing subtle about that.

It things like the straight reporting that Trump had authorized the CIA to operate in Venezuela because they had emptied their prisons and sent the prisoners into the US.

The statement, as presented here was neutral. The reporter then followed it with, “President Trump has offered no evidence that Venezuela emptied their prisons into the US.”

How to listen

Before we can learn, we need to have an open mind. A mind ready to learn new things. To unlearn old things. To ask questions and evaluate answers.

If we are not willing to question what we think we know, or if we are starting from a set stance, we do not have an open mind.

Having an open mind does not mean a willingness to accept garbage, but it does require us to ask if it is garbage.

Holocaust Denial

Years ago I ran into Holocaust denial for the first time. It was shocking to me because I knew what happened to the Jews and other undesirables during WWII by the Nazis.

How could somebody deny that it happened?

So I asked a simple question: How do I know it happened?

The answer was that my elders told me so. These were my teachers and my history books.

Could they all be wrong?

This was in the early days of the Internet, so it was a little more difficult, but I found a couple of sites documenting why the Holocaust was fake and a few others that were debunking the deniers.

I compared these sites, and the first thing I noticed was citations to external, primary sources. The deniers made many claims, but there were not very many links to back those claims up. On the other hand, the debunkers’ site was full of references to primary sources.

When I did look at the primary sources, I found that my personal evaluation of that evidence matched what the debunkers were saying.

The deniers told me that all those sources were lying to me. But I could see the images. I could examine the images for altercations and to see if they were faked. I didn’t find anything in the primary sources or the debunker sites that even suggested altercations or fabrications.

This was not true of the denier’s site. Their primary sources did not support their conclusions.

The other thing that I quickly spotted was a comparison between ethical, reasonable, modern actions vs. wartime evil operations.

For example, they claimed that the trains could not transport that many people. But they based that on human treatment of the people stuffed into the cars. There was no indication of such human treatment. Those being transported to the extermination camps were stuffed into those cars with no room to move.

There are multiple accounts of people standing next to dead people who couldn’t fall to the ground. They were held up by the crush of humanity around them.

Finally, the deniers made a claim that a sample they stole proved that the levels of cyanide in the showers were not high enough to cause death in humans. Except that the sample they stole had been exposed to the elements for over 50 years. The values they used for LD50 were appropriate for insects, not humans.

After my research, I had personally determined that the Holocaust did take place and the deniers were sacks of shit for attempting to deny something so evil.

Before I could make that determination, I had to open my mind to the possibility.

Lies

People lie. You can’t escape it. As thinking humans, we are pretty good at detecting people who are lying to us. But that only works when dealing with average people.

We have all chuckled at the videos of children lying about something when they are covered in the cake frosting of their misdeed. A child will flat out deny they ate the cake while covered in frosting.

They have not learned the guile of how to lie.

This is the simplest type of lie: to simply say something not true. “Did you eat the cake?” “No, Mommy!”

Most people move past this method rather quickly.

The next place that people go is to deny knowledge or to exaggerate. “Did you eat the cake?” “What cake?” or “Just a teeny tiny piece.”

There is an entire science of lying with statistics. If you have heard something like “There as a 50% increase in murders in Small Town, year over year,” you know that something horrible is happening.

What if last year there were 2 murders and this year there are 3? That is a 50% increase. While every murder is bad, the difference between 2 and 3 murders a year is just as likely to be noise in the data.

But we can see where going from 2000 violent crimes to 3000 violent crimes in a year is bad.

Now look at a different version of this: “Over the last year there have only been 10 more murders year over year.” What they might be saying is that Small Town has gone from 2 murders per year to 12 murders per year. That might be alarming.

You have to know what to look at. Per capita? Raw numbers, percentages?

You also need to look at what the definitions are. It is impossible to compare the murder rate in the United States to the murder rate in the United Kingdom. We count different things as murder.

In the U.S., if a person is murdered, it counts as a murder. In the U.K., if a person is convicted of murdering somebody, then it is counted as murder. Until there is a conviction, the wrongful death is not classified as a murder.

There are many other ways to lie. There are two more that are worth touching on.

The first is a lie by omission. This is when a pertinent fact is left out of the fact pattern. “Today the police broke into a local man’s house, arresting him after he had an altercation with his neighbor [where he threatened to kill him while brandishing a firearm].”

The bracketed text changes the entire gist of the story. Both versions are true, but in one case it sounds like the police arrested that local man for something minor, breaking down his door to do so. When the more complete version is there, it sounds like the police are acting reasonably to protect the community.

The final method we’ll touch on is lying by telling the truth. If you can tell the absolute truth in such a way that nobody believes you, then you have succeeded in lying, if that was your intent.

Short Quote

By selectively quoting a person, you can change the meaning of what is said, or at the very least, the conotations.

Consider the following quote: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” Now consider the following quote:

I did … sexual relations with that woman.

By omitting two words, “not have”, the entire meaning of the quote has changed. While we did not change any of his words, we have changed the meaning of his statement.

Or this made up newscast:

Again, the quote is correct, but the meaning is twisted.

When you read an article that has short quotes in it, it is best to assume that the meaning of the original statement is being manipulated. Find the original and listen to the statement in context.

Example

The following is a partial transcription of the attached video.

save this to repost on Halloween
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1936417686932715

(worth reading – jlr)
White House Welcomes Rosie O’Donnell’s Bid for Irish Citizenship as ‘Great News for America’
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1734520580586620

RCD VIA E-MAIL
Agony for Ellen Greenberg’s parents as Philadelphia rules her death by 20 stab wounds ‘WAS a suicide’ in staggering ruling
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15188473/ellen-greenberg-philadelphia-suicide-stabbing-death-ruling.html
Despite the extent and nature of her wounds, the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office ruled her death a suicide.

Federal Judges Blame Trump and SCOTUS for a Problem They Created; We Need to Fix It Now
https://redstate.com/streiff/2025/10/13/federal-judges-blame-trump-and-scotus-for-a-problem-they-created-we-need-to-fix-it-now-n2195021
The issue stems from the simple proposition that a nontrivial number of judges no longer see their job as ruling on conflicts of law. They see their job as ensuring the “correct,” and naturally progressive, outcome to cases. The very fact that Trump has had only one minor setback at the Supreme Court, despite having virtually every decision of consequence litigated, is an indication that the legal reasoning and arguments of his team are rock-solid; see SCOTUS Scorecard: How the Trump Administration Is Faring Before the High Court (So Far). With increasing frequency, courts are issuing rulings that amount to “I don’t like it.” So long as the President has legal authority to do so, that is not an argument that is a tantrum.

(Ruh Roh – jlr)
“We Want Our Entitlements”: In November, Food Stamp Money Will Run Out For 42 Million Very Angry Americans
https://michaeltsnyder.substack.com/p/we-want-our-entitlements-in-november
…And we do not want to see millions of very hungry people take to the streets. (or is that the Democrat plan? – jlr)

‘Executive fiat’: Biden-era rule change quietly permits H-1B visa holders to work remotely
https://www.theblaze.com/news/executive-fiat-biden-era-rule-change-quietly-permits-h-1b-visa-holders-to-work-remotely
On December 18, 2024, the DHS filed the “H-1B Modernization Final Rule,” which took effect three days before Trump was sworn in to office. This lengthy document reveals a months-long deliberative process in which Biden officials relaxed H-1B enforcement standards to explicitly permit remote work — all under the pretext of “modernization.” (Hummmmm – just how remote is remote? Here in the USA, or remote as in India? – jlr)

DOJ alleges State Dept employee removed classified docs, met with Chinese officials
https://justthenews.com/nation/crime/doj-says-state-department-employee-allegedly-removed-classified-docs-met-chinese
The employee, Ashley Tellis, is also a contractor with the Office of Net Assessment at the Department of Defense and is considered a subject matter expert on India and South Asian affairs, according to the DOJ,

Elderly woman beaten to death with a rock — police said they found her daughter ‘covered in blood’
https://www.theblaze.com/news/mom-killed-rock-daughter-milwaukee
(IF rocks kill people why are NONE of the usual gun control advocates wailing, screaming, and DEMANDING “Rock Control”? OH! Wait, it doesnt fit the template or the agenda of the left- jlr)

Snort…
https://oldnfo.substack.com/p/snort-736
Democrats are now demanding the removal of Dominion voting machines after a pro-Trump investor bought the company and rebranded them as Liberty Voting machines, with some Democrats even calling for paper ballots. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, it’s suddenly an issue??? Isn’t ‘that’ interesting…

DHS Confirms Sickening Plot ‘From Mexico’ Targeting ICE and CBP Agents
https://www.westernjournal.com/dhs-confirms-sickening-plot-mexico-targeting-ice-cbp-agents
DHS put out a blistering release that chronicled a sickening plot from south of the border that was targeting Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents — all the way in Chicago. headline: “Bounties Originating From Mexico Offered to Shoot ICE and CBP Officers in Chicago.”
https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/10/14/bounties-originating-mexico-offered-shoot-ice-and-cbp-officers-chicago

‘Actual medical professionals’ are telling Jasmine Crockett that Trump has had a stroke, she claims
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2025/10/15/actual-medical-professionals-are-telling-jasmine-crockett-trump-has-had-a-stroke-she-claims-1592717/

On Saturday, while I was camped out at a lovely open air farmer and maker’s market for the afternoon, a Left friend reached out to people “on her feed” on Facebook. She said she was aware some of her followers and friends had voted for Trump, and asked if we were willing to explain why, and whether we feel Trump is doing an adequate job since getting into office. She made it crystal clear that no one was going to be dogpiled for responding (though I’m not sure how she intends to ensure that, since she can only control what’s on her wall, but the gesture was nice). She legitimately wanted to know.

I thought about it for a long time. I could have answered. I didn’t really want to do so in public, though. As I’ve said before, I’m still trying to keep my customers around, many of whom are on the Left. I don’t believe in mixing politics and business (other than what’s required by law… I mean that a business hanging a Trump or Dem sign out front is basically telling people that they value politics over business, and I might do so privately but not publicly). So I paged her privately and said I’d talk with her, but only in private.

She wanted to know why. I sat with that one for a good five minutes before finally explaining, “Because there’s been a lot of violence toward people on the Right of late, including a number of shootings. I don’t want to be shot, hun.” It took her a while to respond, and when she did, she admitted she understood now that it was explained, and that she was sorry if I felt threatened.

That led to me telling her I’d talk to her today or tomorrow (looks like tomorrow wins, as she’s busy today). I didn’t have time to get into long discussions with her while vending at a craft fair. She got it… she does the same thing (and well; she’s formed her own thriving business that is keeping her in her home, supporting her daughter, and paying for lawyers to keep her abusive ex out of her life). But I did explain to her that, while I didn’t think there was much chance of my being shot, it was something I thought about. A lot. Maybe Chris would get shot. Maybe one of my kids. I pointed out that an awful lot of Leftists and Liberals are talking freely right now, tromping around in front of ICE and the government, with no worry for their lives… and conservatives and Right leaning folk are wearing flak vests and standing behind bullet proof glass just to have simple conversations. After another long pause, she agreed. “Yeah…”

In the scattered long-distance chat we had over Saturday, she learned just how often I’d been called a Nazi of late, or a bigot, or a few other hateful names. She just couldn’t understand that. She’s known me since her girl was a little one, and left that little girl in my care on a few occasions during faire. She knows I support human beings living however they want, provided they’re consenting adults. She knows I’m poly, pagan, kinky, pansexual, all the things. She knows I’m not a Nazi, or a bigot. She knows, from personal experience, that I walk my talk.

What I intend to suggest to her is that, if we’d had the conversation in public, there might have come a moment when someone else used one of those horrid names for me. At that point, she would have had to either tell the person they were wrong (setting herself up as a target for her own people… ie largely how I ended up over here initially), be silent and let it happen (tacit approval), or engage in calling me names herself (open approval). Would she be willing to stand up for someone when it might put her at risk, or her kid? It’s a legitimate concern right now, after all. And that might lead to her asking herself why she’s involved with someone or a group of someones who would push her away because she had spoken with someone “like me.”

I think it’s going to be an interesting conversation…

Portland Antifa Operatives Planning Coordinated Action to Take Down Federal Aircraft
https://www.westernjournal.com/portland-antifa-operatives-planning-coordinated-action-take-federal-aircraft-report/

Dominion Voting Bought Out, Renamed in Effort to Restore Trust to Vulnerable Electronic Voting Systems
https://www.westernjournal.com/developing-dominion-voting-bought-renamed-effort-restore-trust-vulnerable-electronic-voting-systems/
will that restore any faith the public lost after 2020? – does this really change anything?

Melania Trump’s ‘MELANIA’ Documentary from Amazon MGM Studios Set for January 30 Release
https://americanjournaldaily.com/melania-trump-documentary/

Florida Woman Disarms Hostage-Holding Suspect Thanks to Gun of Her Own
https://bearingarms.com/camedwards/2025/10/11/florida-woman-disarms-hostage-holding-suspect-thanks-to-gun-of-her-own-n1230231

Democrat Party Set TO PARTY at Luxury Spa After Voting to Shutdown the Govt. 8 TIMES
https://twitchy.com/samj/2025/10/12/democrats-party-at-luxury-hotel-while-americans-gov-shutdown-n2420248

Islamic takeover of Texas? They don’t want you to see this
https://www.theblaze.com/shows/come-take-it-with-sara-gonzales/islamic-takeover-of-texas-they-dont-want-you-to-see-this

MEMO TO TRUMP: DON’T STOP – Is the NYT on my side?
https://anncoulter.substack.com/p/memo-to-trump-dont-stop

How do you say Schadenfreude in Mexicano?
https://miguelgg.substack.com/p/how-do-you-say-schadenfreude-in-mexicano
more here – https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/10/automotive-chickens-coming-home-to.html
apparent original article – https://ace.mu.nu/archives/416621.php

OK, make up your mind. – Is it about all rights or only some of them?
https://miguelgg.substack.com/p/ok-make-up-your-mind
Hell if anything, what they stand for is reason enough why you should have guns and a lot of loaded magazines.

I need to be callous here.
https://miguelgg.substack.com/p/i-need-to-be-callous-here

And that explains cats
https://miguelgg.substack.com/p/and-that-explains-cats
embedded video – 00:00:09 – Even the Missus who is a Feline Fan found the video both funny and explanatory.

Neighbor Glows
https://areaocho.com/neighbor-glows/

Top immigration official warns naturalization fraudsters could be stripped of citizenship
https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/agency-exploring-denaturalization-prosecution-mass-patterns-immigration-fraud

How Systems Collapse
https://gellerreport.com/2025/10/how-systems-collapse.html/?lctg=92233992
“When merit is replaced with ideology, fires rage unchecked, killers walk free, and fragile systems collapse—leaving lives and cities in ruin.”

HAMAS DOCUMENT REVEALS WAR PLAN FOR 10/7: Meticulous Planning of Wholesale Slaughter, Mass Rape, Mutilation, Crush Heads, Burn Neighborhoods
https://gellerreport.com/2025/10/oct-7-blueprint.html/?lctg=92233992

Newly Empowered Hamas Conducting Mass Executions As it Re-Seizes Power in Gaza
https://gellerreport.com/2025/10/hamas-mass-executions.html/?lctg=92233992

Zohran Mamdani Took Thousands in Illegal Foreign Donations
https://gellerreport.com/2025/10/zohran-mamdani-took-thousands-in-illegal-foreign-donations.html/?lctg=92233992

How to Attend a ‘No Kings’ Rally Saturday
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2025/10/13/how-to-attend-a-no-kings-rally-saturday-n2664845
(Don’t Do: stupid sh*t, with stupid people, in stupid places, at stupid times. – just saying – jlr)

Welcome to the TDS Zone
Unbelievable: Antony Blinken Gives Biden Credit for Gaza Deal, and It Gets Worse From There
https://redstate.com/bonchie/2025/10/12/unbelievable-antony-blinken-gives-biden-credit-for-gaza-deal-shows-he-is-incapable-of-shame-n2194995

Something a little different.