While protesting, in and of itself, is not protected by our Constitution, American do consider it to be a right. As with all things, though, there is a right and a wrong way to go about it. We’ve all seen plenty of the “bad” way of doing it on social media of late. So let me share with you the same information I shared with my children when they wanted to join a protest at school.

• First and foremost, do you care about the subject of the protest enough to put your life on the line? If the answer to that is no, then don’t go. It ends right there. While it may not be likely that you’ll be killed at a protest, it is never off the table, and you have to think of that very issue first, every single time.
• Can you clearly explain what the protest is about, what it is actually protesting, what relief you’d like to see as an outcome to the protest?  If not, educate yourself before you go back and ask that very first question again.
• Do you understand that, at a protest, you may be arrested? Being detained and/or arrested may involve bodily harm to you, and you MUST be willing to be arrested and/or detained, knowingly, before attending.
• Are you aware that you may be “group thinked” into performing actions that you didn’t intend? Any protest can easily and quickly turn into a mob, and a mob is an animal that doesn’t have single parts. It’s one big entity, and you can and likely will get sucked up into it. In order to avoid being part of a mob while being at a protest, you must always be aware of your surroundings and you must never devolve into letting someone else think for you.
• You must know that you may be ordered to stand down, detained and/or arrested, hit with non-lethal rounds (rubber bullets, beanbags, etc), sprayed with pepper spray or other chemicals, knocked down and hurt and injured, hit with icy cold water from water canons, spit on, screamed at, and dozens of other non-lethal things.
• There is always, ALWAYS the chance that someone will do something truly stupid, push the authorities too far, and someone gets shot. That someone could be you, EVEN if you are not part of the truly stupid person’s stuff. Bullets move in a path, and authorities who are rushed can and will shoot downrange. They’ll attempt not to get innocent people hurt, but it can happen. There is no protest, ever, that doesn’t include this possibility.

I support the right to protest. I support the right to publicly air grievances. I support free speech. But none of those block traffic, emergency vehicles, LEOs, or authorities. The moment you take your protest to a roadway or block non-participating people, you are breaking the law and you not only may be arrested, you SHOULD be arrested. The only time you should be on a roadway is if it has been lawfully blocked off by authorities to allow you a space to protest in (and this does happen, and it’s fine).

Do not block or impede people who are not involved in your protests. It can become violent, which is never good. More importantly, though, it makes those people angry with your protest. Protesting is supposed to be about bringing notice to an issue that needs changing, and if all your protests are doing is ricocheting around your own echo chamber, and pissing off the people who live in the vicinity, then you’ve lost. People in the area should look fondly upon you as the folks who came, made a loud noise and brought attention to something, then left the streets cleaner than they were when they arrived. THAT is the kind of protest that people pay full and positive attention to.

If all of the above is not being taught to you by the people organizing your protests, then they are not safe people. Stop, walk away. They may only be ignorant, which is dangerous… or they could be using you as cannon fodder, which is even more dangerous, for you.

Civil War 2.0 Mid-Month Update: Setting The Stage
https://wilderwealthywise.com/civil-war-2-0-mid-month-update-setting-the-stage/
Minnesota is the current flashpoint in our march towards Civil War. How does this finally spin out of control into a full-blown Civil War 2.0? One avenue is through collisions of authority. To be clear, Civil War 2.0 doesn’t have to start during Trump’s administration. It’s more likely to, though –
Keep in mind, that even if you are a middle-of-the-road “both sides suck” voter, you are a Nazi to them. They reveled in the assassination attempt on Donald Trump and were driven to ecstasy by the death of Charlie Kirk. – They want you dead,  and replaced by a more compliant populace.

Dystopian Science Fiction vs. the Anti-ICE Karens
https://armageddonprose.substack.com/p/dystopian-science-fiction-vs-the
“It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers-out of unorthodoxy.”
-George Orwell, 1984
The phenomenon of feral anti-ICE Karens currently running riot across the country is what happens when childless women — who don’t believe in God or anything else but are starved for meaning — decide, spurred by savior complexes instilled in them via culture, to adopt society as their children and turn an entire country into their infants to be protected from the bad men…The bad men who, in this context, per Social Justice™ dogma, are white men trying to fend off the Third World invaders lured into every Western country by the globalist power structure in order to undermine and rot them from within ahead of consolidation into a sprawling techno-dystopia free of the vestiges of national sovereignty.

Dear White Liberals: Blacks and Hispanics Want No Part of Your Anti-ICE Protests
https://redstate.com/jenniferoo/2026/01/11/dear-white-liberals-blacks-and-hispanics-want-no-part-of-your-anti-ice-protests-n2198018
At one of the anti-Trump/No Kings/50501/Indivisible rallies I covered last year, I overheard one white woman complain about the lack of young people and people of color coming out to protest the evil President (King) Donald Trump and his ICE enforcement to rein in illegal immigration. While I cannot speak for young people, as a person of color, I know for a fact that Blacks and Hispanics are pretty much over Affluent White Liberal Females (AWFL) and their self-centered campaigns against not only the duly elected president that many of us voted for, but against the rule of law.
video – 00:00:33 – https://www.tiktok.com/@samuraiblitzt333/video/7593472353363971336

How Dare You Fight Back Against Communists!
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2026/01/brandon-smith/how-dare-you-fight-back-against-communists/
Tim Walz is just one example of a political poison pill that likely participated in fraud and he’ll probably never face prison time for it. Look at all the leftist judges protecting the Somali fraudsters. Look at all the politicians in congress protecting them. And it’s not just Democrats, there are some Republicans and libertarian politicians who are constantly interfering with any meaningful response.

A Failure of Imagination: When Physics Collides With ‘Moral Clarity
https://pjmedia.com/jamie-wilson/2026/01/11/a-failure-of-imagination-when-physics-collides-with-moral-clarity-n4948150
Physics Doesn’t Care About Intent

WTF ! ? ! ?
Chinese Regime Helps Dox ICE Officer Rammed by Renee Good
https://pjmedia.com/catherinesalgado/2026/01/11/chinese-media-helps-dox-ice-officer-rammed-by-renee-good-n4948146
The CCP state propaganda outlet Global Times is participating in the leftist effort to demonize and dox the officer. I did not link to the Global Times article so as not to participate in the doxxing — the article names the officer — but while the Chinese government outlet claims in the article that video of the event does not actually support the ICE account, it is noteworthy that the article does not include a video with it. The reality is that we have up close video of Good’s lesbian partner daring the officer to come at her as she acts aggressively toward him, and Good herself deliberately guns her car into the ICE officer as hard as possible at very close range, which could have killed him…a foreign government, the most hostile government to the United States, is fueling leftist hatred against the ICE officer and doxxing him. Put another way, the CCP is deliberately trying to help trigger a terrorist uprising in the United States. At this point, it would hardly be surprising to find out the Chinese entities are among those funding the paid protesters screaming about Good on many U.S. cities’ streets.

Good Morning, ICE Attackers. You’re All Wrong and Could Get Yourself Killed
https://pjmedia.com/victoria-taft/2026/01/11/chicago-police-chiefs-accidental-but-excellent-advice-on-what-not-to-do-immigration-cops-n4948140
video – 00:01:50 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2009415737312727043
Cops don’t have to know why a person is trying to ambush or kill them before they shoot back.

“We Won’t Stop Until Heads Drop Like In 1793”: Tens Of Thousands Take To Streets Of Minneapolis After ICE Shooting
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/we-wont-stop-until-heads-drop-1793-tens-thousands-join-take-streets-minneapolis-after-ice
(cute slogan, looks like the left is now calling for a full on shooting revolution, BUT obviously they have never investigated the French Revolution at all – after the revolutionaries got rid of the aristocracy they turned on each other, and then anyone else who didn’t exactly agree with their views – jlr)

Socialist Mayor Ordering Liberals to Track ICE Agents Days After Deadly Attack
https://americanjournaldaily.com/seattle-mayor-ice/
Key Takeaways –
1) Seattle’s socialist mayor is telling citizens to use a Soros-funded app to track federal ICE agents.
2) The left’s dangerous rhetoric that demonizes law enforcement is directly inspiring violent attacks.
3) Radical Democrats are actively working to subvert federal law and dismantle immigration enforcement.
4) This is the blueprint for how Democrats plan to resist President Trump’s law-and-order agenda.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While Iran Bleeds – Hundreds Dead in Brutal Crackdown – American College Activists Silent on Oppression
https://twitchy.com/justmindy/2026/01/11/colleges-arent-protesting-iran-why-ian-bremmer-n2423813
A man thought it would be funny to act like he was pointing a gun at DHS officers at the Santa Ana protest. He then decided to approach the entrance to the federal building while pointing his phone, and this is what happened.
video – 00:00:50 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2009924120746832217
(Liberals do not learn from past experience/history. They MUST, individually, FA to FO for themselves – jlr)

Truck Plows Through Anti-Iranian Regime Protest in Los Angeles
https://www.westernjournal.com/breaking-truck-plows-anti-iranian-regime-protest-los-angeles/
Activists say a crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran has killed more than 530 people.

IRAN ENTERS ITS FINAL HOUR: Despite Reports of 10,000 Dead, Iran Still Rises, Streets Erupt as U.S. and Israel Prepare to Act
https://gellerreport.com/2026/01/iran-war.html/
This is not a protest. This is a revolution.

Why Does The “Free Palestine” Mob Have No Interest In the Brutalized Masses in Iran Yearning to Be Free?
https://gellerreport.com/2026/01/why-does-the-free-palestine-mob-have-no-interest-in-the-brutalized-masses-in-iran-yearning-to-be-free.html/
(A free non-terrorist supporting Iran does NOT fit their agenda – jlr)

KILL ORDER: Regime Orders EXECUTION of Arrested Protesters as Thousands Are Rounded Up
https://gellerreport.com/2026/01/kill-order-regime-orders-execution-of-arrested-protesters-as-thousands-are-rounded-up.html/
Mohammad Movahedi Azad, Attorney General of the Islamic Republic of Iran, has pronounced that arrested protesters will now be executed. Protesters are ‘enemies of Allah’: Iran warns of death penalty in crackdown
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Obama judge disrupts Trump administration’s plans again: Talwani pauses efforts to end mass parole for 10,000+ migrants
https://www.theblaze.com/news/obama-judge-disrupts-trump-administrations-plans-again-talwani-pauses-efforts-to-end-mass-parole-for-10000-migrants
U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani, the Massachusetts-based Obama judge who blocked the Trump administration from cutting federal funds to Planned Parenthood last month, issued a temporary restraining order on Saturday preventing the Department of Homeland Security from revoking the legal status of tens of thousands of foreigners.
The same Obama judge’s previous injunction in the case was thrown out by the Supreme Court in May.

The Fall of Soygon – “to speak through the masks”
https://chrisbray.substack.com/p/the-fall-of-soygon
The footage almost always captures people taking footage. Nearly everyone having spontaneous eruptions of righteous rage has their phones out recording their descent into an emotional state of horror and fury. “I’m going to sob uncontrollably as soon as I hit this ‘record’ button.” Reminder of what this same phenomenon looked like in 2020, with a screen being recorded on a screen:

Dictators are Bad – Unless Trump Stops Them
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2026/01/dictators_are_bad_unless_trump_stops_them.html
…nothing exposes Democrat double standards and hypocrisy faster than a real-world test.

Arrests, Prisoners, U.S. Warnings — What’s Really Happening on the Ground In Venezuela
https://pjmedia.com/sarah-anderson/2026/01/11/is-venezuela-really-releasing-political-prisoners-n4948091
The situation on the ground in Venezuela is a mixed bag right now, which is to be expected. One doesn’t just pluck the lead narco-terrorist from a “government” that’s basically organized crime and expect sunshine and roses within a week. It’s going to take time for Donald Trump and Marco Rubio and the United States team to pull all the weeds, and I have no doubt that, if anyone can do it, those two men can.

Red State Residents Speak Out on the Blue State Invasion, Sparking Viral Videos
https://pjmedia.com/jennifer-rust/2026/01/11/red-state-residents-speak-out-on-the-blue-state-invasion-sparking-viral-videos-n4948157
We Southerners have never taken to outsiders coming in and telling us how to live. You know the type, the person from “off” who comes in, buys a house, and proceeds to inform the locals who’ve been there for generations just what they are doing wrong. Lucky for us, though, he’s here now and has come to set us straight.
viseo – 00:01:37 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2009980451742679403

From Golden to Broke: Billionaires Ditch Newsom’s California, Take $1 Trillion With Them
https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2026/01/11/from-golden-to-broke-billionaires-ditch-newsoms-california-take-1-trillion-with-them-n2198011
Their latest boneheaded proposition is to further tax billionaires, who already pay a massive share of the state’s revenue. Whether or not you like really, really rich people, you might want to be nice to them if you’re running a state, because in Cali, the top one percent of earners pay over 39% of all income taxes.

“Yes, Yes, And Yes”: Bessent Signals Crackdown On Dark-Money NGO Protests ‘Just Like We Did With The Mafia’
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/yes-yes-and-yes-bessent-signals-probe-dark-money-ngos-begins-amid-color-revolution-threat

We’re Outta Here! This Federal Agency Just Announced Its Immediate Exit From Minneapolis
https://redstate.com/terichristoph/2026/01/10/were-outta-here-federal-agency-announces-its-leaving-minneapolis-immediately-n2197995
…Small Business Administration (SBA), announced Saturday that she has ordered the agency’s Minneapolis branch to relocate out of the city due to “the overwhelming local hostility toward Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” The Minneapolis SBA bureau will, instead, set up shop in a yet-to-be-named area “that compl[ies] with federal law – and take[s] seriously their responsibility to promote public safety on Main Street.”

Comedian infiltrates Dearborn, Michigan — and the stories he returns with are WILD
https://www.theblaze.com/shows/sara-gonzales-unfiltered/comedian-infiltrates-dearborn-michigan-and-the-stories-he-returns-with-are-wild
video – 00:13:06 – https://youtu.be/QowvnzTvkFo

A little humor…That I think we all need right now…
https://oldnfo.substack.com/p/a-little-humor-754
…She wrote a letter to the tech support to find her answers. She sent the letter as a joke and only remembered about it when she suddenly received an email notification with a response…

Yeah, I know, we’re all tired of hearing it. But I want to throw out my two cents, as someone who was only recently liberated from the Left.

When I try to evaluate situations that are politicized (and this situation definitely has been), I attempt to re-set the incident in a non-politicized setting and see if I’m still angry/upset/whatever. So let’s look at this entire situation between ICE and Ms. Good from another angle.

Let’s pretend this was not ICE. Let’s pretend this was a random person walking on the roadway (not illegal, but some might consider it stupid). He didn’t have a gun. He didn’t have a method of defending himself. Another person approaches Ms. Good at her car window and orders her out of the vehicle. She doesn’t comply (whether that’s legal when ordered by ICE or not doesn’t matter for this scenario). Instead, she backs up to leave, inadvertently aims her car at the random person walking, and then shifts into drive and hits the gas.

The end result is similar: the person walking or standing is hit. The difference is that, being unarmed, the person who was hit is actually damaged, and possibly killed. How do we know this? Well, cars weigh a lot, and when you gun an engine that way, you move fast (especially when shooting forward off an ice patch as Ms. Good was doing). Even at slow speeds, a car or van can do a ton of damage to a human body, and bumpers are placed right where kneecaps are.

In my pretend scenario, Ms. Good’s intent would only come into play for one reason: to determine the length and breadth of her punishment. The fact that she would be punished (whether it be for manslaughter, murder, or intended murder) does not change. Only the severity of it. There is no excuse on the book that allows someone in a vehicle to hit someone not in a vehicle.

Period.

Read More

If you have the best possible trauma kit in the world, it does you zero good if you don’t have it with you.

I believe that I have as many trauma kits as any other person. Every load bearing vest has a trauma kit. The range bag has a trauma kit, my get-out-of-Doge-expeditiously (GOODE) bag has trauma kits.

My car has multiple kits in it.

What I was missing was something that I had on me every time I went out. I decided to buy an ankle trauma kit to try.

I have been 100% consistent since getting it; if I have a firearm on me, then I have the kit on me.

First things first, it is comfortable. I was expecting it to cause issues or to print in horrible ways. It doesn’t print, and it is comfortable. When wrapped around my sock, it is noticeable for about 3 minutes, then I forget it is there.

What I purchased I expected to be good enough. I’ve decided it isn’t. What it comes with is a SOFT-T tourniquet, a 4″ combat bandage, and a pair of nitrile gloves.

What is it missing?

A mini-Sharpie, mini-bandage shears, and z-fold gauze for wound packing. That’s it. If really pressed, a pair of mini-hyfin chest patches, for sucking chest wounds.

I could upgrade my ankle kit with another pouch, but I’ve not found one that I like. I want to have a QuickClot Z-Fold bandage, and that is a slightly larger package than simple gauze.

If you don’t have an ankle kit, look into it. I think you will be surprised at what you can get that will meet your needs and still be extremely comfortable.

Be safe out there. Keep your head on a swivel. Stay out of stupid places at stupid times. Stay away from stupid people.

January 9:

Closing the Deep State Gap: A Proposed Law to Restore Constitutional Order
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2026/01/closing_the_deep_state_gap_a_proposed_law_to_restore_constitutional_order.html
We all know that the culprits behind the Russia Russia hoax, behind the lawfare, and other seditious sabotage, have not been brought to justice…Is the problem the law itself?

Death of Privacy… and What Comes Next
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2026/01/doug-casey/death-of-privacy-and-what-comes-next/
In practically every country, the allowable limit for cash withdrawals and transactions continues to be lowered.
Why are governments so intent on phasing out cash? What is really behind this coordinated effort?

The Insurrection Act Could Be Invoked Tomorrow
https://gellerreport.com/2026/01/the-insurrection-act-could-be-invoked-tomorrow.html/
Minnesota is calling for open revolt with corrupt Governor Tim Walz threatening to use the Minnesota Guard against federal officers.
Fort Sumter wasn’t just the first battle of the Civil War—it was the moment a state decided federal authority no longer applied, and backed that claim with force.
video – 00:00:11 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2009020845239533590
video – 00:00:42 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2009131415150244344
video – 00:00:54 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2009288975240884425
vide0 – 00:02:58 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2009275922705154426

GOVERNOR WALZ URGES HIS COMMUNIST SUPPORTERS TO TAKE TO THE STREETS
video – 00:02:49 – https://x.com/Breaking911/status/2009018778001223721

Tim Walz calls for a “day of unity” tomorrow following the shooting of Renee Good.
video – 00:01:47 – https://x.com/Breaking911/status/2009459153270657124

Minneapolis McDonald’s Removes Anti-ICE Sign After Backlash, Following Hilton Incident
https://istandforfreedom.com/mcdonalds-anti-ice-backlash/
McDonald’s corporate moved quickly once the story caught fire, confirming the sign was “posted without approval” and had been removed. The franchise owner would be having “a conversation” with staff about appropriate signage.

Minnesota police who refused to work with ICE now mad feds won’t work with them
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2026/01/08/minnesota-police-who-refused-to-work-with-ice-now-mad-feds-wont-work-with-them-1614890/
…angry responses from Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) said Thursday that the U.S. attorney’s office blocked the agency from participating in the investigation, cutting state investigators off from evidence, case files and interviews they said were necessary to conduct a full and independent review,

Border Agents Fire Defensively After Car-Ramming Attempt, Democrats Close Ranks Around Gangbangers
https://gellerreport.com/2026/01/border-agents-attacked-border-agents-fire-defensively-after-car-ramming-attempt-democrats-close-ranks-around-gangbangers.html/

Bodycam Shows Aggressive Renee Good Made Eye Contact with ICE Agent Before Aiming Her Car at Him
https://www.westernjournal.com/breaking-bodycam-shows-aggressive-renee-good-made-eye-contact-ice-agent-aiming-car/
video – 00:00:47 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2009679932289626385

‘Innocent mom’ was a trained anti-ICE ‘warrior’
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2026/01/09/innocent-mom-was-a-trained-anti-ice-warrior-report-1614954/
V
Renee Nicole Good was Minneapolis ‘ICE Watch’ ‘warrior’ who trained to resist feds before shooting
https://nypost.com/2026/01/08/us-news/renee-nicole-good-was-minneapolis-ice-watch-warrior-who-trained-to-resist-feds-before-shooting/
V
There’s WAY MORE to ‘MN Mom’ Renee Good That Lefties Do NOT Want You to Know (So You KNOW We’re Sharing)
https://twitchy.com/samj/2026/01/09/more-to-renee-good-and-her-wife-than-people-know-paul-sperry-n2423736
V
Julie Kelly Exposes Renee Good’s Wife, Her Connections to MN ICE Watch Movement, and Much MORE
https://twitchy.com/samj/2026/01/09/renee-goods-wife-n2423739

Spontaneous Riots: Not Exactly
https://susandaniels.substack.com/p/spontaneous-riots-not-exactly-170

Organic? LOL-RIGHT: DAMNING Thread Takes Group Behind Minnesota ICE Agitators (and Who FUNDS Them) APART
https://twitchy.com/samj/2026/01/09/mitchell-williamson-thread-the-orgs-funding-the-mn-protests-n2423723
Truth is, these groups of agitators and protesters are hardly organic and, in fact, are very well-funded and trained.

Anti-ICE Protesters Being Coached Before Press Conference Say the Quiet Part Out Loud
https://twitchy.com/dougp/2026/01/09/anti-ice-protesters-being-prepped-for-press-conference-say-the-quiet-part-out-loud-n2423733
video – 00:00:07 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2009509402261508191
video – 00:02:14 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2009344280025026806

Democratic Rep. Angie Craig could be seen laying into Republican Whip Tom Emmer, a fellow Minnesotan, on the House floor on Wednesday in the wake of the shooting of a Minneapolis woman who could be seen driving her car into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
video – 00:00:20 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2008990192368275931

Bessent delivers bad news to Somalis on welfare: No more wire transfers to the homeland
https://www.theblaze.com/news/bessent-delivers-bad-news-to-somalis-on-the-dole-no-more-wire-transfers-to-the-homeland
Bessent stressed that if asylum seekers have enough money to send home, they certainly don’t need benefits.

Mamdani’s Clown Show Offers Its Opening Act
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/mamdanis-clown-show-offers-its-opening-act
V
NYC protesters chant, ‘Kristi Noem will hang… Save a life, kill an ICE’
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2026/01/09/nyc-protesters-chant-kristi-noem-will-hang-save-a-life-kill-an-ice-1614951/

BLOOD IN THE STREETS: Iranian Regime Guns Down Protesters as Uprising Explodes, Regime Cuts Internet, Phones, Total Blackout
https://gellerreport.com/2026/01/bloodbath-iran.html/

Why we carry. (Mantras don’t work)
https://miguelgg.substack.com/p/why-we-carry-mantras-dont-work
When you have a dedicated enemy, mantras do not work (I am in danger!), dashcams do not work, phones do not work, and most certainly, police minutes away do not work. About the only thing they are good for is to gather evidence for the police of your death or grave injury, which is something altogether avoidable with the use of ballistic behavioral modifiers, AKA a gun.
Embedded video – 00:02:26
video – 00:02:39 – https://youtu.be/BS9918S5pHw

Farmland Shock: Georgia Grower Drops 3,000 Acres, Warns Of Unplanted Ground in 2026
https://www.zerohedge.com/food/farmland-shock-georgia-grower-drops-3000-acres-warns-unplanted-ground-2026

Fani Willis’ failed lawfare against Trump might cost her a fortune
https://www.theblaze.com/news/fani-willis-failed-lawfare-against-trump-might-cost-her-a-fortune
In addition to having to fight misconduct allegations, Willis now faces the possibility of having to shell out millions to the president in attorney fees and costs, thanks to legislation ratified in May by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.

24 Memes About Bleeding Minnesota
https://wilderwealthywise.com/24-memes-about-bleeding-minnesota/

Is a Wealth Tax Coming to California?
https://patriotpost.us/articles/124092-is-a-wealth-tax-coming-to-california-2026-01-09
The failure of politicians to keep the books in order has left the Golden State desperate to make up for massive revenue losses.
Billionaires begin to exit California: California Democrats’ plan to impose a wealth tax on billionaires is creating a predictable result: rather than staying and having their wealth looted by the state government, at least six billionaire residents are planning to move out. Topping the growing list of billionaires fleeing the Golden State are Google co-founder Larry Page and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. Six billionaires left before New Year’s Day to avoid a potential one-time 5% tax on all their assets exceeding $1 billion. Democrat lawmakers in the state have pushed this wealth tax, which residents will vote on in November. Silicon Valley investment firm co-founder Divesh Makan has been helping billionaires leave the state, and he estimates that as many as 20 additional billionaire families will move out. Given that California has roughly 200 billionaires, that’s no small number.
V
Wealth tax threat prompts at least six billionaires to cut ties with California, as about 20 more mull exit
https://nypost.com/2026/01/08/business/wealth-tax-threat-prompts-at-least-six-billionaires-to-cut-ties-with-california-with-about-20-more-mulling-exit-report/
Larry Page, the Google co-founder and one of the world’s richest men, has relocated out of California.
V
Larry Page, the Google co-founder, Divesh Makan, co-founder of Silicon Valley investment firm ICONIQ Capital, David Sacks, a billionaire venture capitalist and co-founder of Craft Ventures, another 15 to 20 billionaire families to depart if the tax is approved by voters — a significant portion of California’s roughly 200 billionaires. Tech investor Chamath Palihapitiya has publicly said he is giving “serious consideration” to moving to Texas, warning that the tax could drive entrepreneurs and capital out of California.

Weekend Knowledge Dump- January 9, 2026
https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/weekend-knowledge-dump-january-9-2026

January 10:

(The bought and paid for cannon fodder that is the useful idiots on the left have struck another match to the fuse of an (un)civil war. Now we have to wait and see if it ignites a civil war, or it fizzles out like the 2020 summer of the “Mostly Peaceful George Floyd Riots.” – check your preps, L&L, Carry ALL the time, even at home, because bad things happen suddenly, and the bad guys are NOT going to wait while you go and get your gun – and oh yes, Get Out of the Cities. – NOW.  A year too soon is better than a day too late” – jlr)

Rhetoric to Violence: Anti-ICE Protests Spread
https://www.threatjournal.com/archive/tj01102026.html
Three Key Factors Fueling the Violence – 1. More Agents, More Encounters, 2. A Permissive Culture of “Resistance”, 3. Far-Left Rhetoric Demonizing Officers
V
57 Times Sick, Unhinged Democrats Declared War on Law Enforcement
https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2026/01/57-times-sick-unhinged-democrats-declared-war-on-law-enforcement/
On Friday, the White House released a blistering article compiling 57 specific quotes from prominent Democrats—including governors and members of Congress—who have labeled ICE officers as terrorists, Nazis, fascists, or thugs, called for ICE’s abolition, or excused resistance and violence against them.

Anti-ICE Mob Storms Hotels in Minneapolis Looking for ICE, Even Chases and Attacks Police
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2026/01/10/protesters-storm-hotels-in-minneapolis-looking-for-ice-n2197974
Now comes the next part — the part they seem to have been agitating for: the agitators in the streets over the “murder.” It doesn’t matter that the facts don’t support the lie. The Democrats don’t care about reality. The radical mob hit Minneapolis hotels on Friday night, looking for ICE agents. They stormed The Depot Hotel. You can see someone carrying a flag for the Communist Party of the USA.
video – 00:00:57 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2009822830679212063
video – 00:00:47 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2009824920407265372
video – 00:00:11 – https://x.com/NickAtNews/status/2009826774859894985
video – 00:02:09 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2009828791758057610
****pin pic – https://x.com/breccastoll/status/2009800741410799883
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Anti-ICE Agitators Storm Hotels and Overwhelm Police
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/josephchalfant/2026/01/09/anti-ice-riots-break-out-in-minneapolis-n2669258

‘Just a matter of time’: Threats to KILL federal agents ramp up amid fiery Dem rhetoric
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2026/01/10/just-a-matter-of-time-threats-to-kill-federal-agents-ramp-up-amid-fiery-dem-rhetoric-1615161/
Numerous videos containing threats against federal law enforcement suggested “It’s just a matter of time” before someone is killed by an egged-on leftist…
“We have to show up with guns. We have to. There’s no other way around it. I don’t care if I don’t have a Minnesota carry permit. I’m unarmed right now, but this is the last time I show up and face these guys without a weapon,”
video – 00:01:42 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2009693707948462535
video – 00:01:01 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2009462445702783336
video – 00:00:27 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2009462445702783336

Minneapolis ICE Shooting Shows Left Wing’s Protest Industrial Complex Wants Another ‘George Floyd’-Type Riot
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/minneapolis-ice-shooting-shows-left-wings-protest-industrial-complex-wants-another-george
…the Democratic Party is desperately seeking another George Floyd-style protest or riot to shift public opinion about Trump’s expanded ICE deportation operations nationwide, which are deporting criminal illegal aliens out of the country. If we understand that mass migration has been used by the party in an attempt to build a one-party-rule (California-style) nation, then we can see why these on-the-ground pressure campaigns against ICE even exist in the first place.

Protests Escalate Nationwide
https://www.mobilize.us/?from_map=true&lat=40.78156943681316&lon=-73.91464233398533&tag_ids=29132&zoom=9.574019267638283
On Friday evening, AlertsUSA notified subscribers of nationwide anti-ICE protests planned for this weekend, advertised in hundreds of cities. Is this the start of another “Winter of Love?”
V
(check out this map – use the +/- in the upper right corner – now, tell me this is all not coordinated – jlr)
https://www.mobilize.us/map/?lat=40.78156943681316&lon=-73.91464233398533&tag_ids=29132&zoom=9.574019267638283

The Winter of Love
https://vineofliberty.com/2026/01/10/the-winter-of-love/
It is my belief that the only reason we are not seeing massive riots already is the temperature is too low. It is too cold for a good riot. If the weather changes for the better, it is likely we will see riots. If it doesn’t, it would not surprise me even a little that the media keeps things at a low simmer until it is warm enough for the riots to happen. DefCon 3 right now, people. As it warms up, DefCon 2. Keep strapped, keep your head on a swivel, stay away from stupid places, stupid people. Nothing good happens after midnight.

FAFO x2…
https://oldnfo.substack.com/p/fafo-x2
The question is, WHO benefits from all this crap? WHO is paying these people to protest? WHERE is the money coming from?
Peter at BRM, HERE has questions too.
V
The organizers behind the anti-ICE protests
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-organizers-behind-anti-ice-protests.html
V
Shades of 2020… are we seeing George Floyd redux on the left?
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2026/01/shades-of-2020-are-we-seeing-george.html

Choose Stupid, Win Stupid Prizes….Repeatedly.
https://miguelgg.substack.com/p/choose-stupid-win-stupid-prizes
…I do question the idea of placing fat chicks in front of vehicles bigger than a Mini Cooper to block them. Physics do not give a damn about your fervor to the cause, and you ain’t made out of rubber.

Renee Good’s Lesbian Partner Breaks Silence, Says ICE Harassment, Stalking Was to ‘Support Our Neighbors’
https://www.westernjournal.com/renee-goods-lesbian-partner-breaks-silence-says-ice-harassment-stalking-support-neighbors/
(Liberals do not learn from past experiences/history. They MUST, individually, FA to FO for themselves – jlr)

Courting death to own the Nazis
https://www.eugyppius.com/p/courting-death-to-own-the-nazis
None of these ICE-watching women appear to have the slightest idea of the gravity of their actions. Objectively speaking, they are each of them playing a dangerous game of chicken. Their ever-present aim is to edge beyond being a mere nuisance and cause meaningful disruptions, while hoping always to stop short of becoming a serious, actionable threat…A shooting like this was inevitable given the protest tactics at hand, and more shootings will follow. Each one will be decried by the activist left, and should a protestor ever kill an ICE agent instead, the protesters won’t miss a beat in celebrating his death.

Police said there had been no calls at the home prior to the shocking incident.
https://www.eugyppius.com/p/courting-death-to-own-the-nazis

America vs. F**K YOU!
https://townhall.com/columnists/kevinmccullough/2026/01/10/america-vs-fk-you-n2669259
It bothers me to my core that lawmakers, elected leaders, and those who serve the public rushed to condemn law enforcement officers—without proof—the tragic death of Renee Nicole Good…What is new is the language. The profanity. The contempt. The open hostility. We are now watching governors, members of Congress, mayors, and even law-enforcement leaders openly tell a lawful federal agency to “eff off.”

And suddenly the Left values the Second Amendment.
https://miguelgg.substack.com/p/and-suddenly-the-left-values-the
Talking about taking action against ICE Agents. “It is time for the American people to organize and to utilize their Second Amendment right to protect themselves from what is clearly becoming an unaccountable and lawless agency that’s killing Americans.”
embedded video – 00:01:14

We are all waiting for the Fort Sumter CW2 ignition event. We are not one country. Please watch this and understand. MOVE OUT OF BLUE HIVES NOW.
This is not parody… This is the actual Philadelphia County Sheriff. Is it possible to coexist with someone like this?
video – 00:02:51 – https://x.com/i/status/2009476631799451739
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Police shoot New Jersey man who allegedly charged them with machete — then find gruesome scene inside his home
https://www.theblaze.com/news/nj-machete-deaths-mother-grandparents
Police said there had been no calls at the home prior to the shocking incident.

Major Trump Advisor Declares Which Major Red State City Will Replace NYC as Financial Capitol Thanks to Mamdani
https://www.westernjournal.com/major-trump-advisor-declares-major-red-state-city-will-replace-nyc-financial-capitol-thanks-mamdani/
“As a response to socialism, Miami will replace NYC as the finance capital and Austin will replace SF as the tech capital,”
(Part/most of wal Street has moved to DFW in Texas – jlr)

Did Marjorie Taylor Greene Tip Off Leftists About Where Trump Was Eating Dinner Last Fall?
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2026/01/10/did-marjorie-taylor-greene-tip-off-leftists-about-where-trump-was-eating-dinner-last-fall-n2669172
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has left the building. She quit, though the Georgia Republican and former Trump stalwart waited until her congressional pension vested.

Israeli Military Intelligence Gave a Shocking Update on the Iran Protests
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2026/01/10/if-iran-is-falling-what-an-image-this-is-n2669260
What is happening in Iran? Days of popular unrest, mainly over economic woes, have reached a fever pitch. The capital of Tehran has reportedly been lost to the protesters. Mayhem and chaos are spreading. More cities are breaking free of the grip of Ayatollah Khamenei. Police stations are being attacked, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps offices are being burned, and police commanders are reportedly being picked off as well.

Iranians Burn The Tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini
https://gellerreport.com/2026/01/iranians-burn-the-tomb-of-ayatollah-khomeini.html/
“Don’t let your children go out tonight. If they do, don’t complain if they are shot.”
video – 00:00:35 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2009638158636609575

SCOTUS Considers Case About Whether Second Amendment Cross State Lines
https://bearingarms.com/camedwards/2026/01/09/scotus-considers-case-about-whether-second-amendment-cross-state-lines-n1231160
Marquis v. Massachusetts is a challenge to the state’s ridiculous laws regarding non-residents and their ability to legally bear arms once they cross the state line.

Biden judge rules taxpayers must continue funding blue state daycare scams
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2026/01/10/biden-judge-rules-taxpayers-must-continue-funding-blue-state-daycare-scams-1615147/
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian sided with five Democrat-run states by issuing a temporary restraining order preventing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from cutting off $10 billion in grants to childcare welfare programs impacting California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York…An unelected lower court judge has once again commandeered national policy by moving to block the government from freezing federal childcare funds to a handful of blue states amid rampant systemic fraud in Minnesota.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1639183744059267
Carl Higbie urges “internet trolls” to not follow dox reports, antagonize or show up at the homes of ICE and law enforcement agents — not for the agents’ sake, but for their own safety.

Late January 10 and January 11:

Why is this being ignored??? (by the MSM – jlr)
https://oldnfo.substack.com/p/why-is-this-being-ignored
Iran is now 13 days into ‘protests’ that started over the devaluation of the currency and a water crisis in Tehran among other places. The original protest was NOT students, but shopkeepers…Now, almost two weeks later, it is sweeping the entire country! And more and more civilians/women/students are involved…The Iranian regime triggered an internet “kill switch” in an apparent effort to hide alleged abuses by security forces and as protests against it surged nationwide, a cybersecurity expert has claimed.

The Shattering of the Fear Barrier and the Dawn of a New Persian era
https://gellerreport.com/2026/01/the-shattering-of-the-fear-barrier-and-the-dawn-of-a-new-persian-era.html/

Iranians Torch Mosques in Revolt Against Islamic Rule
https://gellerreport.com/2026/01/iranians-torch-mosques-in-revolt-against-islamic-rule.html/

IRAN ON FIRE: Facing Bullets and Bloodshed, Millions Flood the Streets
https://gellerreport.com/2026/01/iran-on-fire.html/

President Trump: ‘Iran Is Looking For Freedom, US Stands Ready To Help’
https://gellerreport.com/2026/01/president-trump-iran-is-looking-for-freedom-us-stands-ready-to-help.html/

Reports: Regime Slaughters At Least 2,000 Protesters Killed in Iran in 48 hours, Trump Prepares ATTACK
https://gellerreport.com/2026/01/reports-regime-slaughters-at-least-2000-protesters-killed-in-iran-in-48-hours-trump-prepares-attack.html/

DIGITAL LIFELINE: Elon Musk Activates Starlink in Iran as Regime Cuts the Internet
https://gellerreport.com/2026/01/elon-musk-digital-lifeline-starlink-in-iran.html/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Sets the Record Straight on Who Sets Policing Policy in the City
https://redstate.com/jenniferoo/2026/01/10/philadelphia-commissioner-sets-the-record-straight-that-the-sheriff-does-not-set-police-policy-in-philly-n2197983
Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal calls ICE agents “fake law enforcement”: “You don’t want this smoke, because we will bring it to you. The criminal in the White House will not be able to keep you from going to jail.”
video – 00:03:21 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2009675218713968706
video – 00:01_13 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2009801849986044347

Tim Walz’s One-Man Civil War
https://gellerreport.com/2026/01/tim-walzs-one-man-civil-war.html/
A second civil war in the United States has seemed to be on the horizon for years, and many have predicted its imminent arrival, but one courageous man, way out ahead of us all, is already fighting it. That man is Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and he wants you to know that he is standing in the vanguard against the evil forces of Orange Man Bad, who are committing the heinous and unpardonable crime of… enforcing the nation’s immigration laws.
V
Tampon Tim is not exactly alone – (repost – jlr)
57 Times Sick, Unhinged Democrats Declared War on Law Enforcement
https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2026/01/57-times-sick-unhinged-democrats-declared-war-on-law-enforcement/

More Wild Action in MN As People Who Take on Border Patrol Find Out That Isn’t a Good Idea
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2026/01/09/more-wild-action-in-mn-as-people-try-to-block-ice-and-it-doesnt-turn-out-well-for-them-n2197955
video – 00:00:15 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2009666509690278216

rcd via IM last night – TRUTH
ONLY THE REAL HARD FUKIN TRUTH !!
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1603965604358324

let’s talk about renee good – the facts and the foundations
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/lets-talk-about-renee-good
I don’t know what it is that makes Minneapolis such an absurd flashpoint over and over, but here we go again…

Minneapolis ICE Shooting Shows Left Wing’s Protest Industrial Complex Wants Another ‘George Floyd’-Type Riot
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/minneapolis-ice-shooting-shows-left-wings-protest-industrial-complex-wants-another-george
MSM, the Democratic Party, and left-wing nonprofits are working hard to manufacture another ‘George Floyd’-type protest or riot by omitting key context about the woman shot and killed by an ICE agent. They conveniently left out her social justice “warrior” role in Minneapolis, including her reported involvement with “ICE Watch” and other operations to disrupt ICE raids in the sanctuary city. These details matter because MSM attempted to manufacture an outrage news cycle, while nonprofits create artificial multi-city protests aimed at shifting public opinion on ICE operations nationwide.

Watch: New Footage Shows Three Minutes Before Minneapolis ICE-Involved Shooting
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-new-footage-shows-federal-agents-perspective-minneapolis-ice-involved-shooting
video – 00:03:31 – https://x.com/i/status/2010037103665787019

White Liberal Women Really Are Bat Poop Crazy, and This Proves It
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2026/01/10/white-liberal-women-really-are-bat-poop-crazy-and-this-proves-it-n4948130
Kevin Downey Jr. wrote about what he calls “affluent white liberal women,” or AWFLs, pegging them as the biggest internal threat to America. Not foreign enemies. Not terror cells. Just well-off women with pronouns in their bios and too much time on their hands. He described them as attention-seeking harpies who push extreme gender ideology, drag their kids to medicalized gender clinics, and parade them at sexualized drag shows labeled as “family-friendly.” These are the same people, he argued, who want to defund the police, defend criminals no matter how violent or foreign, and censor anyone who steps out of line with their diversity-and-inclusion gospel.
V
from 16 April, 2020
The Mental Health Crisis Among Young Liberal Women
https://www.mensvoicesireland.com/articles/the-mental-health-crisis-among-young-liberal-women/
V
Pew Study: White Liberals Disproportionately Suffer From Mental Illness.
https://wibc.com/108211/pew-study-white-liberals-disproportionately-suffer-from-mental-illness/

WHOOPS: Leftists Stage Massive Anti-ICE Protest Outside of the Wrong Hotel
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/josephchalfant/2026/01/10/whoops-leftists-stage-massive-anti-ice-protest-outside-of-the-wrong-hotel-n2669257
As the protests in Minneapolis against Border Patrol and ICE agents conducting operations have continued to escalate, demonstrators just wasted hours making a massive error.

Lib Reporter Faces Subpoena After Doxxing Delta Force Commander Over Maduro Capture
https://www.westernjournal.com/lib-reporter-faces-subpoena-doxxing-delta-force-commander-maduro-capture/
The House Oversight Committee voted on Wednesday to subpoena Rolling Stone contributing editor Seth Harp after he shared a picture and biography of a Delta Force commander that he said played a central role in the recent U.S. military operation in Venezuela.

Trump Says US Will Begin Land Strikes on Cartels in Mexico
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/trump-says-us-will-begin-strikes-on-cartels-in-mexico-5968491
‘We knocked out … the drugs coming in by water, and we are going to start now hitting land with regard with the cartels,’ the U.S. president said.

Residential Electricity Prices Are Surging Even More
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/residential-electricity-prices-are-surging-even-more
In one year, this will be the most popular chart on this site…between exploding electricity bills and lack of jobs for grads, a new luddite revolution is coming – they will be burning down data centers within a year

AS PREDICTED ON RADIO CONTRA: Russian Shadow Tanker Fleet Weapons Smuggling Group Uncovered
https://www.americanpartisan.org/20…nker-fleet-weapons-smuggling-group-uncovered/
Ukrainian hackers have uncovered a Russian weapons smuggling group, operating in conjunction with Russia’s “shadow tanker” fleet putting arms into the hands of terrorists worldwide. “We can even smuggle nuclear weapons”: how officers of the 291st regiment of the Russian Armed Forces and “Vostok-Akhmat” organized an arms smuggling operation through Crimea.

Schumer Rushes to Make Sure Trump Can Never Pull Off Another Operation Like Maduro’s Capture Ever Again
https://www.westernjournal.com/schumer-rushes-make-sure-trump-can-never-pull-off-another-operation-like-maduros-capture-ever/
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos on Sunday that he would introduce a War Powers Act resolution to prevent further military operations against Venezuela. (Because a Democrat didn’t do it, so it makes the Democrats look weak and Trump look strong – jlr)

‘A giant step back’: Liberals rage against red meat after new food pyramid guidelines release
https://www.theblaze.com/align/food-pyramid-rfk-jr-outrage
‘Beef is responsible for 20 times more greenhouse gas emissions per gram of protein than beans.’…The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine spoke out against the new federal guidelines too. The group reportedly criticized the promotion of meat and dairy products, labeling the foods as “principal drivers of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity.”
(“On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero” – https://www.zerohedge.com/ – jlr)

Vulgus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur. – The crowd wishes to be deceived, so let it be deceived.
https://thelawdogfiles.substack.com/p/vulgus-vult-decipi-ergo-decipiatur
Nothing speaks to the state of modern affairs quite like the current news cycle. On one hand you have a woman LARPing as something called a “protest warrior”1 who got convinced that “good intentions” were just as adequate2 as training and experience in handling herself in high-stress, rapidly-changing, emotionally-fraught kinetic environments; and decided that the best use of her day was to take a 4,000-pound weapon and go intentionally and knowingly harass, impede, and interfere3 with Federal law enforcement operations. During the process of Sticking It To The Man she hit a Federal officer with her 4,000-pound weapon, and — predictably — got shot. This is, undeniably, a tragedy — especially for her children, who lost their mother — but this is not an event of historical significance……….

Pope Leo calls out ‘inclusive’ language as a painful, ‘Orwellian’ movement in the West
https://www.theblaze.com/news/pope-leo-calls-out-inclusivity

Ted Lieu’s Tough-Guy Letter to Oil Barons Goes HILARIOUSLY Off the Rails As the ‘Barons’ Just NUKE Him
https://twitchy.com/samj/2026/01/11/oil-and-gas-ted-lieu-n2423801
In an all-too-predictable display of Democrat hypocrisy, California Rep. Ted Lieu (the same guy who cheered ‘AMERICA IS BACK’ after dumping billions in aid to Ukraine) now whines on X about Trump’s push for U.S. oil giants to invest in Venezuela, going so far as to lightly (passive-aggressively) threaten them.
Because nothing screams patriotism like blocking cheap energy deals while funding endless foreign wars, right, Ted?

Economist: Want to Make America Affordable Again? Get Rid of These Zoning Laws
https://www.westernjournal.com/economist-want-make-america-affordable-get-rid-zoning-laws/
…restrictive zoning laws, often called “red tape,” increase housing prices, limit the supply of housing, and hinder economic growth.

Here’s the Judge Who Blocked Trump From Freezing $10 Billion in Childcare Funds
https://twitchy.com/brettt/2026/01/10/heres-the-judge-who-blocked-trump-from-freezing-10-billion-in-childcare-funds-n2423777
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, who was nominated to the bench by President Joe Biden, did not rule on the legality of the funding freeze but said the five states met a legal threshold “to protect the status quo” for at least 14 days while arguments are made in court.

I had two rifles to zero and time to spend with my wife. It was a wonderful day!

We took seven guns to the range and shot 4 of them, never noticing we didn’t have a chance to shoot the pistols.

We took two fun guns as well as my serious rifles for zeroing.

Wife brought Mrs. Pink, her AR-15. Yes, it has all pink furniture. It is most definitely hers. We set her up with a half size torso target at 50 yards. Truth, we don’t think she put a single round from her AR on paper.

On the other hand, she had a blast! She was using a single 20-round GI magazine from the 60s. What she got was manual of arms training. She learned how to load magazines, rather than having me hand her loaded mags.

She knew how to operate the rifle, but she didn’t have it down to the point she could just do it. So she got to practice charging the rifle, dropping the bolt after inserting a new magazine, removing and inserting magazines.

She was at a bench with a bench separating us. She did it all on her own. After getting her going, the next time she interacted with me was when she told me that Mrs. Pink was out of food. That was 100 rounds downrange. 3 of which were mine.

From there she moved to a Henry Big Boy in beautiful brass. This one is chambered in .22LR. She went through a couple of 100 round boxes, just beaming from ear to ear. She loved how smooth it was and how nice it was to shoot. She declared that she liked it better than Mrs. Pink.

At my bench, things were not going as well. My primary goal was to get the AR-10 zeroed. I have a new LVPO 1-8 by Vortex. Beautiful scope.

I had no real issues with the scope, except for having difficulty spotting where rounds were hitting the target. I never did get that figured out because after about 5 or 10 rounds I started to get failure to feed.

After I got back home, I did a bit of research, and AR-10s are known to be picky. They need 50 to 200 rounds before they are worked in, and they need lots of lube to begin with.

For me it was a single shot rifle with painful ergonomics to charge the next round. AR-10 buffer springs are much stronger than AR-15 buffer springs. I was there with 40 rounds in two mags. I think I sent 20 or so rounds downrange.

She’s been cleaned, lubed, and put away. I require some more range time. I require her to feed flawlessly every time.

On to the beauty of the day, my CZ 600 in 30-06.

This rifle has a trigger that makes my 1911s feel like Glock triggers (Yes, that is an insult to the Glock fanboys). It is a light trigger with zero take up. You put your finger on the trigger, think about pressing the trigger and the round is on its way downrange.

It has a vertical safety. It is likely a “crossbolt” style, but instead of the left to right arrangement I’ve seen for crossbolt safeties, this is vertical. The engage button is just behind the trigger guard. The disengage button is just behind the bolt. You just press down with your thumb to take the safety off.

I didn’t test the magazine feed; it comes with a 5-round magazine, but I feed each round individually.

With just boresighting, my first 3-round group was about 0.5 inches at 50 yards. It was also 4 inches left and a bit high from where my point of aim was. It took around 20 rounds before the point of aim and point of impact were nearly the same.

I don’t think I’ve shot a rifle as accurate as this before. I brag about punching primers with the 7.62×51 NATO Remington 700. This was easily 50 fold better than that Remington.

With the overkill of the scope, I could actually see point of impact. I could see my breathing modifying point of aim. I also found myself aiming for the corner of the 1″ square bullseye because that was more consistent than “somewhere” in the 1 in^2 red blotch.

For fun, I just put the crosshairs on the center of the 1/2 steel target at 100 yards. That rang true. So did aiming for the head of the steel.

It was just a little to crude to have any idea where on the steel I was getting impacts.

I’m still smiling from range day. Oh, it was warm today, with the temperature just above freezing and no real wind.

It has been more than 24 hours since a paid agitator received the “Find Out” part of “FAFO”. Some things have become clear.

First, she is not married. She was living with a female partner raising children.

Her job was to be a paid agitator. She had taken professional development courses to further her career as a paid agitator.

Her partner was also a paid agitator.

She attacked a federal law enforcement officer with a deadly weapon. As such he does not need to wait to be lethally hit or severely injured before acting to stop the threat.

But the lie has entered the gestalt of the left.

She was an innocent woman attempting to flee an encounter with evil Trump minions, afraid for her life, when she was murdered for no reason at all.

I remember the anger I felt when I saw the video of Saint George Floyd being murdered by a police officer in full view of the world.

I remember how I was glad I was not there. Not knowing how I would have reacted to a cop attempting murder. Would I have killed the cop to save the life of that black man?

And it was all a lie.

That didn’t stop massive riots, the burning of cities, and the death of multiple people. All because the left and the media couldn’t stop lying.

It is my belief that the only reason we are not seeing massive riots already is the temperature is too low. It is too cold for a good riot.

If the weather changes for the better, it is likely we will see riots. If it doesn’t, it would not surprise me even a little that the media keeps things at a low simmer until it is warm enough for the riots to happen.

DefCon 3 right now, people. As it warms up, DefCon 2.

Keep strapped, keep your head on a swivel, stay away from stupid places, stupid people. Nothing good happens after midnight.

There are times when I wish I had entered the Computer Science world a few years earlier.

My mentor was born four years before I was. He went through the computer science program four years before I did at a prestigious university.

His academics took place as electrical engineering was morphing into computer science. Which meant that he was taught circuit design at a lower level than we were taught. He was taught how to design transistors and to build the hardware.

My class was taught bits, bytes, and words. We built on what his generation was learning as computers advanced.

A bit is the smallest amount of data that a computer can store. In fact, it is the only type of data that a computer can store.

Bits are grouped into bytes and words. Today, a byte is 8 bits long; in past years, it could be larger or smaller than that. I’ve worked on machines where a byte was defined as 12 bits.

Bits, by themselves, have no meaning. A programmer assigns meaning to a sequence of bits. Let’s take a byte of 8 bits, for example. The byte we will be looking at has a sequence of bits like this 0011 0001.

Again, this is meaningless until we assign meaning to it. If we say that it is an unsigned tiny integer, then a byte represents a value between 0 and 255, while our byte represents the integer 49. 0*128 + 0*64 + 1*32 + 1*16 + 0*8 + 0*4 + 0*2 + 1*1 = 49 base 10. We can also express that integer in base 16 as 0x31 or in base 8 as 061.

We could define it as a signed tiny integer; then a byte represents a value between -127 and 128. But one of the most magical ways of looking at the byte is as a character. In this format we have a table of values to glyphs or characters. The value 0x31, 49, 061, 0011 0001 is interpreted as the character “1”. In the same way, the value 0x41, 65, 101, 0100 0001 is interpreted as the character “A”.

In other words, a bit pattern doesn’t have meaning until we define what the value means.

Primitive Types

The CPU in a computer has several registers. Each register holds a bit pattern of a given size. The CPU can then manipulate registers with a fixed set of instructions. Those instructions define the meaning of the register for that instant. If we use the integer add operation, then the two registers are treated as integers with the result being stored in a third register. If we use floating point operations, then we treat the registers as 32 or 64 bit floating point numbers. Doubles are 128 or 64 bits. We can treat the registers as containing one byte or character or a multiple characters. Or, we can treat each bit as a boolean.

For languages, we normally have integer, unsigned integer, float, double, character, and string. These are all referred to as primitives.

While we have defined the type, we have not defined the meaning. For example, 1234.70 is a floating point number. But what does it mean.

It could be a price, a quantity, a physical measurement. If it is a physical measurement, then it is expressing units.

It is the meaning we give values that allows humans to interact with the data.

Formatting

Let’s say we are working with a basic product object. Each product has a SKU, price, description, and quantity in stock. We will call these “labels”. We give a primitive type to each. SKU=>string, price=>float, description=>string, quantity=>integer.

This is a good start, but we also define how we will format these values when we display the product for a user. We can say that SKU and description will be left-aligned, price will be formatted as currency ($x,xxx.xx) right-aligned, while quantity will be formatted as an integer (x,xxx) right-aligned. This formatting is encoded in the knowledge of the meaning of the labeled data.

Formatting is not part of the data; it is associated with the label. The label allows us to assign meaning to the data.

Viewing Data

Humans have a difficult time applying meaning to bit patterns, so each primitive type has a standard text format. This allows us to see the values of the data.

For example, we say that strings are input and displayed as quoted strings, “This is an example string”. Integers are input and displayed as an optional negative sign followed by a sequence of digits, 1-9 as the first character followed by 0 or more 0-9 characters. Or it can be a 0. This defines a base 10 integer. If integer starts with 0x, then what follows the x is an integer in base 16. if the first character after the sign is a 0, then it is octal.

Simple.

These rules for displaying and inputting values are well defined.

Information Interchange

This is a gigantic subject. We are going to barely touch on it. To transfer information in a meaningful way, we have to define the meaning of each datum that is exchanged.

There are specific tools for doing this. XML, JSON, YAML, SOAP, and others are designed specifically for this process.

Unfortunately, there are de facto “rules” for exchanging data. Rules that must be followed but that the people using them do not understand.

Excel, Word, and Other MicroSoft Monstrosities

The default for most people when exchanging a table of information is an Excel file, an xls file. How I hate this.

An Excel file gives labels to values and adds formatting but does not add meaning. Meaning comes from external sources.

So, we might have a two cells we are looking at; B1 has a value of “Price”. It is formatted as bold text, centered. B2 has a value of 7.50. It is formatted as text, so it displays as “$7.50”. If the cell was formatted as “number” or “general” it would display as 7.5.

It is the user who applies these formatting rules. It is the user who provides meaning to these values.

If you have an application that can read and display Excel sheets, then all is good.

But Excel sheets are not a great way to exchange data. As a matter of fact, they suck. Each cell must contain both formatting and values. There are linkages between cells and a hundred other things that can be added. They are painful to create programmatically.

The Savior of Data Interchange, CSV

It doesn’t get any simpler than a comma-separated values file. They use the well-defined primitive type display rules; they are easy to generate, they are row independent, and they can be read by a simple text editor.

The biggest thing to understand is that CSV exchanges values. The meaning of those values is up to the receiver.

Which is why expectations and Excel suck.

It’s Bad Data, No! It’s Being Displayed Wrong!

When a normal user receives a CSV file, they want to open the file and view it. On Microsoft platforms, the program tasked to do this is Excel. On many Linux platforms, the tool is LibreOffice. For Solaris it was OpenOffice.

These tools import the CSV file. That import process can break things, badly.

By default, a comma separates each field. If a comma is part of the value, it must be escaped. Quotes are used to provide escaping. Quotes within quoted strings must also be properly handled.

So we end up with client bug reports like this: “Data is misaligned throughout”.

What does this mean? It means that the client hasn’t properly defined the type and formatting for the column. In this case, the SKU sometimes consists of just digits. When this happens, Excel treats the value as an integer type. By default, integers are displayed right justified. If the value has characters in it, then it is displayed as a left justified character string.

Once you tell Excel that the SKU column only contains text, then the alignment issue goes away.

“The price column is missing dollar signs” means that values are being displayed as floating point numbers, not as currency. Change the format to currency, and it all just works.

“There are symbols instead of letters.” means they get what they put in. The value stored in the database has an accent in it. Like résumé.

The problem happens when Excel imports a word with accents on their Microsoft platform. My browser and LibreOffice both use the same font set, so I see résumé. Their Excel on their Microsoft platform displays the accent as something like a copyright symbol, ©.

They see what they put into the database, but they are unhappy that Excel is doing exactly what they asked it to do.