Upcoming Snow
If you look at the current snow maps and storm maps available, Chris and his family, and me and my family all live within the wibbly red area (in New England) labeled “Armageddon Area.” They are measuring likely snow in feet, not inches. We are ready and prepared for the weather, and have plans in place for if power goes out. If you don’t hear from us for a few days, you know the reason why. We’ll post when we can, and give updates. You update us, too!
If you live in an area about to get hit with ice or snow, and you aren’t used to that, please be prepared. That doesn’t mean bread and milk, although those aren’t a bad idea either. It means making sure you have enough food to last through the worst of the emergency (because having to go out to get eggs or whatever is never a good idea). It means having firewood on hand to make a fire, if you have the means to do so. Have a camp stove ready to go, with extra fuel, so that you can cook if your power goes out and you’re dependent upon an electric stove. Know how you’ll keep warm, should you lose power and heat. Have something to use as a port-a-pottie if you can’t use your bathroom due to frozen pipes.
To generate heat, pick a single room and designate it “the warm room.” Everyone stays in that room unless they have to pee, and trust me, they’ll move quickly to get back to the warmth. Get every blanket, towel, woolen thing, tablecloth, and bring it to that room. Seal that room off so that the heat stays inside it. Cover windows, doors, doorways to halls, anything that might have a draft. If you lose power and must stay at home for a while, drag a mattress into that room so you can sleep there as well. If temps go into the single digits, consider setting up a cheap tent in your warm room, and sleeping inside that to conserve heat.
Ways to make safe heat:
- candles and oil lamps
- fireplaces (though they sometimes let out more heat than the give you)
- wood stoves
- indoor safe (RATED) propane heaters like Little Buddy
- hot water bottles
- hot food
- layers of clothes and blankets
Ways to kill yourself:
- use your stove, outdoor rated gas camp stove, popcorn popper, etc to make heat
- bring your generator inside the house
- leave candles and/or any flame unattended
- putting flames where they could get knocked over by a pet
- eating snow (it lowers your body temp very quickly)
You can use tea candles to cook over, if you’re desperate. Having a camp stove makes it much easier. I prefer propane to butane, because in the temps we’re expecting, the butane won’t work. It’ll fail more often than not. So be aware. You also don’t have to have the fancy folding stove like in this video for the sterno stove. I just have an old wire basket that was once used for doing deep frying, and I turn it over top of my candles. I put my pot on top of that. Voila, stove. You can also put a brick on either side of your heat, then use a baking rack. And remember, you can always go outside and cook, even when it’s cold. Snow is an insulator, so if you dig yourself a snow pit and cook in the center of it, it’ll help keep you warm and keep the breeze off your fire.
Standing Paste Crust
Pie crusts in the medieval era were rarely the flaky, buttery confection we are used to today. Instead, they were the ancient version of take-out food containers, only sort of edible, and designed to allow you to eat their delicious innards and then throw the crusts away. This recipe is a more edible but just as solid version of those “hot water crusts” as they were known in later periods of history.
Ingredients:
- 1.5 lbs flour
- 2 tsp salt
- 3 oz lard
- 3 oz butter/margarine
- 8 oz water
To make a standing paste crust, we’re going to ignore the sort of instructions you may be used to while attempting flaky pastry. There is a reason these crusts were sometimes called “coffins” and you’re about to discover it in person!
Add your flour (by weight, please) to a large bowl, then sprinkle the salt over it. Whisk or otherwise mix the dry ingredients well to distribute the salt as evenly as possible.
In a small pot, add the water and heat it up gently. Add in the butter or margarine, and the lard, and heat until they are all melted together. DO NOT BOIL or even simmer this mixture, if at all possible. You just want it warm enough that the ingredients can combine together.
Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ones, and then use a spoon or fork to begin mixing the dough together. You should continue using the spoon or fork until the dough has come mostly together, or it’s cool enough for you to knead by hand without burning yourself. Please be careful, and remember that the water you just poured into your flour mixture is HOT. Knead this until the dough has come completely together. It will be a very stiff dough, and that’s fine. You don’t want to over-work this dough.
If you are making a single pie, split off about 1/4 of your dough (this will be turned into a lid for your pie) and set it aside under some parchment paper or in a plastic baggie. On a Formica counter or granite dough surface, sprinkle some flour and then begin to roll out the dough. You want to have a circle of dough large enough to fill an 8″ spring-form pan, and it should be between 1/4″ and 1/8″ thick when it is ready.
To make the pie crust, you are either going to press the dough into a pie pan, or drape it over the outside of the pie pan, in order to get the shape right. Flour the pan well, regardless! While the dough is still on or in the form, refrigerate it for at least one hour. While the pie crust is chilling, roll out the lid for your pie, which should be about one inch larger in diameter than your pie pan. If you look at the pictures in the header, you can see that the crust for a standing paste pie goes inside the outer crust, not over it as you would for a flaky pie. Let the pie lid sit, sandwiched between two pieces of parchment paper, until it’s ready to be used. If it will be more than an hour, consider covering it with plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out. Do NOT put it in the fridge.
If you are making multiple small pies (this recipe should make about 3 individual pies), separate the dough into three equal sized pieces. From each of those, remove about 1/4 of the dough for the lid of that individual pie. To form small pies, flour a glass or mini pie pan and follow the same general directions as for a large pie. Roll out the lids as well, and set aside for use after refrigeration.
When the crusts are well chilled (which allows them to be standing until they bake and become stiff), unmold them from the pie pan or whatever you’re using for a form. Put the pie crust on a parchment paper lined baking sheet (lipped, please), and add in your filling. Please note, fillings can be cooked or raw, as your cooking time will be about 90 minutes, which is enough for most meats to cook. The fillings should be cool when added to the crust, however. Hot fillings would melt the fats in the crust, making them prone to drooping, and you don’t want that! The filling needn’t be cold from the fridge, but make sure it isn’t hot, either. If you can’t stick your finger in it for 30 seconds, it’s too hot.
Once your filling is in, regardless of size of pie, whisk up an egg to use for an egg wash. Brush the edges of the lid and pie with the egg wash, then add the lid to your pie, and crimp the edges closed with your fingers, a pie crimper, or a fork. Cut a small hole in the center of the pie. This is easily achieved by using a sharp knife to cut an X in the center, then peeling back the triangles. Egg wash the entire pie and sprinkle with herbs, if you like.
If you want to decorate your pie, simply use bits of left-over crust rolled out thin to create leaves, vines, or other images. Have some fun with it! Attach them by using egg wash as a “paste”, then egg wash over the decorations as well. You could also press herbs or cracked spices into the lid, if you liked. I would suggest doing that before attaching it to the top of the pie, however.
Bake the pie in a 350°F oven for 80 to 90 minutes. Start checking your pie at the 60 minute mark, and every ten minutes thereafter. When the pie is dark brown and solid when tapped, it’s ready. See the pictures in the header for reference!
Many types of fillings can go into pies like this. In medieval times, they would add chunks of beef, goat, or chicken into standing pastes, and then cook them up. Gravy wouldn’t be added until it was time to serve the pie. The gravy was poured in the hole on the top. Later period pies of this type would have contained ground or minced meats, or mixes of meats and fish. They also had fruit pies made in these types of crusts.
In my opinion, standing paste done this way is much easier than a flaky crust, and more forgiving. It doesn’t require “blind baking” (pre-baking the crust before filling it, in order to keep the crust from being mushy) because it’s so darn solid.
Serve your pies with a side of mashed potatoes or some “bashed neeps and carrots” for an authentic meal that will fill your belly and warm your soul.
Building v. Using
My first computer was a Litton Automated Business machine. It used drum memory to store data and had an instruction register and maybe two other registers. I purchased it for $100 my first summer home from college.
It was a remarkable machine. It was fun to work with, but you really couldn’t do much with it. It had dual paper tape readers, a printer, and a paper tape punch. I wrote an inventory control program for my father with just that, in something that looked very much like machine code.
It wasn’t a usable machine for my father.
The computer I told my parents to get was a Macintosh. They just worked out of the box. Plug them in and you had a word processor, a paint program, and I think a spreadsheet. It all just worked.
They got a PC and fought with it for years.
Today I can buy a piece of hardware, load an operating system on it, and have it fully functional as a general purpose computer or acting as an embedded machine in just about an hour.
The biggest time sink is removing and inserting screws to hold everything in place.
3D Printer
10 years ago or so I purchased a 3D printer kit. I’m sure I never got a fully successful printout of that damn thing. I had to do so much to just get it to do something. I spent more time trying to make it work than I did printing. And it was fragile.
Today, I believe that the kit instructions had the count of the number of teeth on one of the drivers wrong. Which meant that cubes were squished.
Today we have Macintosh printers. After 6 months of research, I pulled the trigger and purchased a Bambu Lab’s P2S printer with AMS.
Setup took around 2 hours. Every step was clearly documented. All the tools to do setup were included. Mostly setup consisted of removing packing, tape, and shipping screws.
Thereafter, it was plugging in one cable, 2 tubes, and the power. Turning on the power brought up the screen that forced me through an initial setup process that calibrated everything.
Finally, I pressed a few buttons on the control panel, and it printed a tool.
From there I used the phone app to scan a QR code, which took me to a cloud version of a storage box to print. That’s printing as I write this.
Again, there is no effort on my part to do any of this. It is pick, click, and print.
Calibration
My kit had no bed leveler. That was done by putting a piece of paper on the bed, lowering the nozzle until it just touched, and then clicking the next button to repeat. I think there were 20 or more sample points. And I still don’t know if that was enough.
The automated version required the printer to be working to print a new piece for the printer, which would hold a switch. The switch used a paperclip as a probe. This went much faster, but it still didn’t work.
The motors were noisy, but it was a joy to watch them move the hotend around.
Today’s calibration took around 45 minutes. This included using the built-in lidar to measure the distance to the bed, and then I think it used a pressure sensor to determine when it actually touched the build plate. It took samples every centimeter or so in a grid. That went rapidly.
It then went into a noise tuning calibration. For 20 minutes it ran the hothead around in diagonals, working to find the correct stepper speeds at different head speeds and then tuning them to be quiet.
It worked. These are stepper motors you can’t really hear. It blows my mind.
From there it did vibration calibration. This thing can accelerate so fast that it will cause the printer to move. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
This thing figured out, for this printer, on this surface, just how much the printer reacted to head movement to be able to offset that motion during the deceleration stage.
The first print after calibration took only a few minutes to check calibration before it started printing.
Slicers
To create a 3D print, you start with an idea. You build a 3D model. I use FreeCAD; people use many CAD systems; Fusion 360 is a popular one.
Once you have a “solid”, a completely closed volume, you export that solid as an STL or a STEP file.
An STL is a triangulated file; a STEP file still retains geometry. For example, an STL file will represent a cylinder as a mesh of triangles, while STEP represents the same geometry as a cylinder or as a curved surface; regardless, STEP is the cleaner format.
Now that you have a surface representation of your solid, you import that into a slicer. I’m using OrcaSlicer which is a fork of the Bambu Studios.
This allows some manipulation of stl/STEP objects. The important part is to position the object on the build plate with no overlaps. Once that is done, you can slice the volume.
This is where things have come so far.
The solid is sliced into layers, generally 0.2mm high. The slicer then calculates the path of the print head over the object at the same height. It knows where edges are and uses loops to make solid walls, it adds internal fill to keep the print light yet strong.
3D prints can’t print in thin air, sort of. They can span short distances before the plastic droops too much. To print with an overhang, or to put a top on something, the slicer has the hot end create a raft across infill or across supports. Once that layer is completed, it will put a more finished layer, then an actual finished layer.
The slicers are pure magic. It really is easy.
All the hard work remains back in the CAD package, which is the same package I’m using for all my other engineering builds.
If you are interested in 3D printing, decide why you want it. Then pick any of the plug and play printers out there. I strongly suggest getting one with an enclosure. An enclosure will be needed for certain types of filament.
A good set of starting projects are GridFinity, an organizational system for flat surfaces, including shelves and drawers, and MultiBoard, which is a hyped up pegboard system.
Wolford v. Lopez
In this analysis, I’m not going to be doing as much quoting. There are others that do so. Instead, I’m going to attempt to distill the argument or line of questioning.
Alan A. Beck, lawyer for the good guy
The Second Amendment is implicated. Hawaii has not met its burden to prove there is a historical tradition of firearms regulation that matches this law. This is a presumptive ban on The People’s right to bear arms, even if not stated explicitly.
Thomas: You argue that the law prevents access to about 97% of public areas? how did you arrive at that?
Beck: The entire package of laws is 96.4%, this law is less. We got that value from an architecture firm that went through public records of the County of Maui.
Sotomayor (interrupting Thomas): It’s not really 97%, right? This law is much less than that. People can carry in other places, Right?
All right. So you say that there is a constitutional right to carry a gun on private property?
Beck: Yes.
Sotomayor: I’ve never seen that right. I mean, I understand that there is a right to carry a gun on private property with an owner’s consent, express or implicit, correct?
Me: I did read it in the Constitution: the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. And she just said it, she gave it away. You have that right if you have the right to carry on public property if you have the owner’s express or implicit consent. And that is what property open to the public means: you have explicit consent to enter, and you have the implicit consent to carry.
The state of Hawaii removes that implicit consent to carry.
Sotomayor then goes on to try to conflate carrying where you are legally allowed to go with trespass. It is difficult to follow because she wants it to be difficult to follow. She is attempting to make the case about property rights. Which is not at question.
Nobody is arguing that private property owners can forbid trespass and can set rules for entering their property. “No shoes, no shirt, no service” is exactly that. A “No Guns” sign means I’m shopping somewhere else.
She then goes on to yap about the “custom” of carrying on private property with implied consent. She then pulls a quick one by trying to say that since Hawaii has a 200 year custom of forbidding firearms, this is the custom that should stand now. Beck fires back that it is a “custom of the nation”, not the state. Falling into her verbal trap.
There are no laws in this Nation’s historical tradition of firearms regulation that takes away that implied consent.
Sotomayor and Beck get into a back and forth regarding a previous Supreme Court case, McKee. Sotomayor claims it was talking about the customs of just the state of Missouri, while Beck points out that Justice Scalia used the term “Nation” multiple times. I’ll take Beck’s word over the second dumbest justice to sit on the Supreme Court.
She then tries to bring in laws from 1721, 1722. There’s a huge issue with this. The laws of 1721, 1722 are the laws of England, not this Nation.
Even if the laws were applicable, they all dwelt with closed lands. Lands that were not open to the public.
Barrett and Beck agree that Hawaii could pass a law that prohibited carrying on closed lands as a property right.
Dumber (Jackson) now opens her mouth. Justice Thomas takes off his glasses, leans back in his chair and waits for the magpie to stop making noise.
This is just a property right issue. Property rights trump Second Amendment rights.
Beck calls her BS saying the issue implicates the right to keep and bear arms. Jackson says it doesn’t. It is just property rights.
Gorsuch: This law destroys the right to bear arms in Hawaii. Where does this fit into the Bruen framework?
Beck: Carrying is implicated by this law. The burden must shift to state to prove a match with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearms regulation.
Sotomayor: So the 96% doesn’t really matter? There’s no means end scrutiny? Hawaii has a right to regulate a custom. That means the Second Amendment isn’t implicated.
Using a 1763 for the colony of New York, they banned trespass on private land; that means Hawaii can ban carry on public land.
Sotomayor’s method is to talk over, to interrupt the lawyers she disagrees with. She doesn’t listen to what Beck has to say.
She is actually doing performative art. She and Jackson are both saying things that can be quoted later and which they will quote in their dissent about why this was wrongly decided.
Sotomayor ran this guy out of time. And even when Chief Justice Roberts says he is out of time, Sotomayor talks over Roberts for another paragraph or two. Beck tries to answer; Sotomayor cuts him off before Roberts cuts Sotomayor’s line of questioning off.
Roberts uses a gas station and a home on the side of the road to highlight that there is a difference between private property closed to the public and private property open to the public. Beck does a fantastic job of pointing out that all other rights extend to the door. As Roberts says, “A stranger can walk off the sidewalk and go up to the door?” Beck, “Yes, up to the door, Your Honor”
Alito asks if there are any other objects besides guns that a person may not possess when they enter private property open to the public.
Sotomayor goes back to the Hawaii custom of denying rights to prove that they should still be able to deny The People the right to keep and bear arms.
And she is snarky about it; it looks like she yanks some number out of her ass: So 78 percent of Hawaii residents and 64 percent of Hawaii gun owners do not think that loaded concealed weapons should be allowed into businesses at all, correct?
Beck: I’m unaware of that statistic, Your Honor.
Sotomayor: “I wasn’t aware of your 97 — 96 point — percent number”
She would have been aware of his numbers if she had read the fillings. Thomas knew. Thomas mentioned it, not Beck.
Kagan: Hasn’t the state met its burden with the many historical regulations it has cited? And they have multiple references to legislation that flipped the default.
Beck: No. The poaching laws limited carrying on private lands for poaching, not for self-defense. The other laws cited are black code laws. Laws designed to discriminate against blacks. We’ve moved past that.
Kagan: Well, yes, they are anti-pouching laws, and yes, they did allow people to carry for self-defense, but that is close enough to banning armed self-defense on private property, right?
Kagan: You see, the anti-poaching laws were about preventing injuries to private property, and Hawaii’s law is about preventing injuries also.
Me: No, anti-poaching laws were to stop people from stealing food on the hoof.
Beck: This entire line of questioning is irrelevant. The laws you are referring to were closed property; Hawaii’s law is for property open to the public.
Gorsuch: The laws being referenced are a New Jersey 1771 anti-poaching law. The other is an 1865 Louisiana law that a Reconstruction governor explained was aimed at the freedmen. A black code law. Do you think that black codes should inform our decision-making?
Beck: Hell no.
Gorsuch: Well, the state claims it is a dead ringer for this statute.
Beck: The 1865 law was expressly passed to discriminate against African Americans that were newly freed slaves. And I just don’t see how a law like that can be used to be analogized to a modern-day law, this modern-day law, Your Honor.
Barrett asks if Beck agrees with everything the government said in their brief. Beck thinks she is talking about the state of Hawaii. Barrett clarifies that she is speaking of the US federal government, which filed supporting The People and will be arguing next. Beck corrects himself and there is a bunch of laughter.
Barrett: The government that’s on your same side.
Beck: Yes, I understand.
(Laughter.)
Beck: I agree with every —
Barrett: I’m not asking you to throw your case away.
(Laughter.)
Beck: I fully endorse the United States’ brief, Your Honor.
Barrett asks for clarification regarding “open to public” and “closed to public” and the 1865 black code law. Beck replies that there might be something to discuss there, but the fact that it is a black code law means it is not part of this Nation’s historical tradition of firearms regulation.
Jackson is back for another whiff at bat: Chief Justice Roberts asked about a gas station on the side of the road. We don’t get to enter that gas station because of a Constitutional right but because the owner of the gas station has given us consent. That consent has limits, and the owner can set those limits, and the state can set limits, right?
Beck: You have a constitutional right to carry your firearm onto that specific gas station.
Good going, Mr. Beck. Don’t let Jackson distract you.
Goodness, is Jackson dumb or just incompetent? She is attempting to set a word trap, and she’s nowhere near as good as Sotomayor, and Sotomayor is bad at it. She denies there is a constitutional right to carry on private property. She then says that there is an implied license
. Then claims that there is a historical tradition of requiring a license to enter private property.
This is so convoluted. Nowhere do you need a “license” to enter private property. She is using an obsolete definition where “license” is the same as “permission”. She then continues to use the term “license” to say that you require a license to enter. This type of language will be used in the dissent to justify Hawaii’s licensing (permission) scheme.
Cringe warning
Jackson:
Let me just ask you about the black codes. Justice Gorsuch raised it. And I guess what I’m wondering — your answer to him was they can’t be and shouldn’t be used.
And I guess I’m wondering whether that doesn’t signal a problem with the Bruen test, that to the extent that we have a test that relates to historical regulation, but all of the history of regulation is not taken into account, I — I think there might be something wrong with the test. So can you speak to that?
(I had to take a break after that.)
She goes on, saying that when Thomas wrote “this Nation’s historical tradition of firearms regulations” he said that we were bound by history. Since 1865 is part of our history, then that should be part of the Bruen test. Which also means that any law ever passed becomes part of our history and thus becomes justification for all future infringements, even if that law is later struck down.
Ms. Harris is the Principal Deputy Solicitor General for the Federal DOJ. She was acting solicitor general before D. John Sauer was confirmed as solicitor general. She is now the second in command of the office of the solicitor general. John Sauer was presenting on a different case the day this case was argued.
In other words, she’s way the heck up there. Trump->Pam Bondi->John Sauer->Ms. Harris. And she’s arguing for us!
Harris: Hawaii is lying about why they passed this law. It is aimed at only legal gun owners with CCWs. There are no other items these laws affect. Besides, the only law they can use to support their current law is an unconstitutional black code.
There is back and forth regarding pretextual laws. The example given is of English game laws. These laws were to “preserve game” but were designed to prevent commoners from hunting.
The gist is that when looking for an analog firearm regulation, the real reason is looked at, not the pretext. Hawaii says it is protecting property rights for safety reasons. Just because they say it is for safety and property rights doesn’t mean that laws dealing with property rights and safety are a match to this law.
You have to look for the true reason for the law. In this case, the vampire laws are designed to keep people from carrying because there are too many places where it is illegal.
Kagan opines that The Court doesn’t look at the motives a law was passed. Harris fires back that if the stated purpose and the text show a fundamental mismatch, it belies the asserted motive of the legislature.
Kagan says The Court can’t do that because that would be means-ends scrutiny.
It is clear that the three crones of the Supreme Court are trying to neuter Bruen.
Kavanaugh has had enough of this.
Why are we making it complicated? The text of the Second Amendment covers arms.
Part 3 of Heller says that means what it — Heller says it means what it says, says what it means. Part 3 of Heller says there are certain exceptions to that or contours on that which are rooted, but they have to be rooted in history.
Here, there’s no sufficient history supporting the regulation, end of case.
Isn’t that kind of the straightforward way rather than getting into this whole new elaborate pretext analysis, which, as Justice Kagan says, sounds like what we moved away from?
Harris: Absolutely!
This is a trap that “smart” people fall into. They get distracted by the details. Instead of focusing on the big picture, they get lost in the weeds, and then instead of deciding based on the big picture, they end in a major fight over details.
Harris is fighting a different battle here, though. She is fighting to make it clear that doing an end run around the limits the Supreme Court sets out is not acceptable to the United States. She is clearly targeting New York, California, and the rest of the states that had Bruen tantrum response bills.
Kavanaugh is say to keep it simple. Hawaii didn’t meet their burden. Done and done.
Gorsuch brings up First Amendment case law that addressed a similar issue. Harris uses Lamont as her example. In Lamont they flipped the script on mail delivery. The rule was that you got mail of all sorts unless you explicitly said “no”. The law in question in Lamont flipped it to require a person to explicitly request mail on a “very easy-to-send postcard”. This was firmly rejected by The Court.
Jackson is back with another attempt to make this only about property rights. Harris gives a perfect example of how stupid this argument is. She points out that today a politician can have somebody come to your door to campaign. But if this law was followed in a First Amendment situation, the homeowner would have to post a large sign on their property before that door knock could take place.
Alito sends a soft pitch asking about why antipoaching laws are not an appropriate analogue. Harris knocks it out of the park. You know why.
Alito then asks what is the purpose of the Second Amendment right is. Harris, self-defense, and other lawful purposes.
Alito focuses on Heller, which he wrote, to point out that the wording was about self-defense but that other lawful purposes also existed. Harris does a good job in the answers.
Sotomayor is back. Still attempting to make it all about property rights and the owner’s consent. She tries to use Hawaii’s tradition of screwing over The People’s right to keep and bear arms over the last 200 years as the tradition that allows Hawaii to pass the vampire laws.
Harris fires back, stating clearly that local customs in a state doesn’t allow that state to have its own Second Amendment. The meaning of the Second Amendment doesn’t change as you move from state to state.
Ok, this is good!
Harris:
It is 2026 and it is somewhat astonishing that black codes, which are unconstitutional, are being offered as evidence of what our tradition of constitutionally permissible firearm regulation looks like.
Those laws are dead ringers only in the sense that this law too is an unconstitutional pretext. The black codes were offered, as you mentioned, by states before their readmission to the union. It is not an indictment of the Bruen framework to say that unconstitutional laws do not count in illuminating a valid tradition.
It is almost as if Harris had this response lined up before it was asked. Great response.
In an interesting exchange between Kavanaugh and Harris, Kavanaugh asks about sensitive places as mentioned in Heller. He attempts to get Harris to agree with Heller as is. Instead, Harris goes with, We agree with the principle as stated that there are obviously sensitive places. You determine them with respect to the history of firearm regulation.
This is a massive statement by the DoJ. It says they are not arguing that sensitive places do exist, but that it isn’t as easy as saying, “That’s a sensitive place,” to get guns banned. You can’t declare the island of Manhattan a sensitive place. So New York declared Times Square a sensitive place.
Barrett asks about anti-poaching regulations. Harris points out that poaching was and is a problem.
In my state, and most states that I know, you have to post your land to keep hunters out. Hunters are presumed to be able to hunt on any land that is not posted. In my state the limit on where you hunt is 100 yards of an occupied dwelling. And they mean occupied as people living in, not that nobody is home.
JUSTICE JACKSON: So I guess I really don’t understand your response to Justice Gorsuch on the black codes.
And here I thought that Jackson had gotten her “I don’t understand” under control. There is so much she doesn’t understand.
She’s arguing that black code laws, laws that have been found unconstitutional, can be used to justify more unconstitutional laws.
More tomorrow.
I don’t know what to write about.
Folks, my ability to connect with the Left is becoming more and more dicey. The ones that aren’t insane are slowly creeping to the Right (which doesn’t mean they should be Conservatives, but is a relief), and then there’s the insane ones. I would like to say that the insane ones are a loud minority, but I think that’s not entirely true. I think it’s a rigid subset (Leftist women who are/were radical feminists who have been brainwashed by the media and have become radicalized jihadists for so-called Liberal values), and it’s not small. I don’t think it’s a majority, by any means, but it’s certainly the only part of the Left getting any air time.
Y’all know I’m not Christian. I was HORRIFIED at Lemon and his cohorts invading a church service. I don’t have to be Christian to know that’s a no-go. When I visit someone else’s house of worship, I follow *their* rules, not mine. If I’m unwilling to do so, I don’t go. Churches are the one place I consider to actually be a place of sanctuary. That is time-honored and long-standing, and goes far beyond the United States. Watching children cowering in the aisles, it was awful. But those folks, they were true Christians in my personal opinion, because their response to Lemon’s invasion was to pray. That part, at least, was nice to see.
I’ve been watching people on the Left go crazy in Minnesota. Blocking traffic, protesting in roadways, stopping ICE and other LEO vehicles, these things are wrong but I can at least kind of understand them. They’re “normal” protest tactics. I disagree (and for what it’s worth, I have *always* disagreed with any protest that blocks roadways, schools, LEOs, or hospitals, don’t care which side is doing it) but that’s between the protesters and the LEOs. But stopping everyday citizens and demanding papers (the protesters, not ICE who have the right to do so under many circumstances), requiring people to chant slogans (“I hate ICE!” and “I am not a Nazi!” are two I’ve seen on TikTok of late), etc… Why is this being allowed? WTF folks? That is literally what the Gestapo were doing. What ICE is doing is NOT what the Gestapo were doing. I’m aghast.
Mr. Magoo (my name for the heavy set Leftist gentleman who’s “protecting his neighborhood” with a firearm in Minneapolis) originally had my disdain because I thought he was breaking local laws (ie it’s illegal in Minneapolis to open carry a long rifle, which is what I thought he had), but turns out he’s perfectly within his rights to do what he’s doing. Therefore I’m fine with him, even if I think he looks a bit silly “protecting” his very white, very not-bothered-by-ICE neighborhood each day.
Which brings me to 2A stuff. Folks, there’s a lot of Leftists right now going out and purchasing firearms. There’s a LOT of noisy Conservatives complaining and bitching about that. I say to those Conservatives: shut the fuck up. I don’t CARE why the Leftists are finally exercising their right to keep and bear arms. They are doing so, now leave it alone. Encourage them to learn how to use their firearm safely, explain the basic rules to them, offer to take them to a range to practice on the regular. They are new 2A people. It’s none of your business WHY they are new 2A people. Doesn’t fucking matter. They think we’re nuts for the reasons we carry; we think they’re nuts for the reasons they carry. It doesn’t matter; they’re carrying. Time to step up and put your values into action. I am all for everyone carrying who wants to, and if we have new folks doing it, GREAT. At the end of this bullshit in Minnesota, they will still have their guns, and will probably continue to carry, and that makes them one step closer to being rational human beings. They’re also extremely unlikely to be vocally anti-2A while holding a handgun or rifle. The correct answer to, “I’m going to go buy a gun for protection!” is “Great, here’s the name and number of a fantastic trainer who’ll show you the ropes. Use it.”
About Charlie’s Voice: if men want women to be “real women” today, then they need to start being “real men” first. Yes, first. Because that’s LITERALLY the basics about being a man. You get to go first. Do you know when I started wearing skirts and cooking and doing home-bound stuff? When my man stood up and made it safe and comfortable for me to do so. Before that, I was working and trying to keep myself alive and healthy, and I didn’t have time to fuck around with peasant skirts and home cooked food. You want me to be a woman, then start by being a man. I’m really lucky that I have two very manly men in my life, who make it safe for me to be the woman that I am. They also support my decisions about myself, whether I want to exercise or work or stay home and write, or whatever. They make it safe for me to take the softer route, and I’m thankful for that. I was well on my way to being a hard-ass old woman, and instead, I’m a happy, healthy, productive and softer lady.
The Intermittent Missive – Jan. 21, 2026
January 15, 16, 2026
ICE Officer Owning Smug Protesters With a Career Reality Check Could Be a DHS Recruitment Ad
https://twitchy.com/dougp/
video – 00:00:48 – https://twitter.com/i/status/
WATCH Charles Blow Do What ALL Lefties do When Pushed to Prove His ICE=NAZI Claim
https://twitchy.com/samj/2026/
video – 00:02:56 – https://twitter.com/i/status/
video – 00:01:26 – https://x.com/i/status/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Resistance AWFLs Don’t Realize Not Every State Thinks Their Tantrums Are Adorable
https://hotair.com/tree-
We’ve discussed AWFLs (Affluent White Liberal Females) many times before here on the blog, but the recent unpleasantness in Minnesota, coupled with a deeply ingrained progressive mental disease sweeping the country like a pandemic, seems to have triggered some latent call to action in their febrile brains. So rather than making angry TikTok videos in kitchens and bathroom mirrors, they are hitting the road, literally. The AWFLs have been recording menacing messages of ill intent, promising harm to come, and practicing haiku or whatever sort of martial arts they think is trendy.
video – 00:00:25 – https://x.com/i/status/
multiple videos in here
Venn diag – https://x.com/JDHaltigan/
#USTOO: Men are fed up with female insanity. Here’s what they tell me.
https://www.theblaze.com/
‘Empowered’ women without prudence or accountability are ruining lives — and destroying society…I know of two licensed mental health counselors, both gay men, who will no longer accept female clients because it is too dangerous to be alone behind closed doors with women. Even if you’re gay…I.E. Bob, hotel executive – Sam, husband – Gary, piano teacher – Alex, aspiring husband and father – I have some ideas about what needs to change in order for American men and women to build fulfilling lives with each other again.
1) The family has to be put first again, not last.
2) Leftist derision of traditional family values needs to be loudly mocked and excoriated. It’s time those on that side are made to pipe down the way they’ve been shutting up the right since the 1960s. Or, in Archie Bunker terms, “stifle it.”
3) Men have to stop accepting this shrew behavior from women. And they have to take the risk of being called “misogynist” in the interim period while women scream and object. We have to go through the problem and take the wounds before we can get to peace on the other side.
4) Sane women ***(and there are a lot of them; they tend to be married with children and conservative) will need to put social pressure on the bitch contingent. Don’t maintain friendships with women like this, and tell them why. Defend your husbands and the male sex when your girlfriends talk them down. Turn their mean-girl rhetoric right back on them.
When the women in your family go nuts
https://disaffectedpod.
From friends, consulting/counseling clients, and from reading online, I’m hearing from a number of men whose female family members, mainly but not exclusively their mothers, have become impossible to bear. Yes, it’s about woke/Trump/the election. Or about abortion, or LGBTQ, or about feeding “migrants,” or about any of the other bugbears that obsess today’s leftists…We have been out of balance in the home, and in society, for a very long time. If we can fix this, it will take a very long time. I think we must. Men, I’m asking you again to pluck up your courage (we’ve all gotten really wimpy) and start saying “no” to this kind of excess in your wives or girlfriends or family members. No, it won’t make you popular in the short term. Yes, it may mean in some cases that you have to withdraw from a relationship or put more distance there for a time.
repost:
1) https://www.mensvoicesireland.
2) https://wibc.com/108211/pew-
Blocking ICE with ‘micro-intifada’: Good’s group taught de-arrest, cop-car chaos before her death
https://www.theblaze.com/news/
The group to which Good apparently belonged circulated a manual on how to attack law enforcement and free arrestees…The group to which Good apparently belonged circulated a manual on how to attack law enforcement and free arrestees. The subversive instruction manual, (https://drive.google.com/
Watch: This Is Just Absolutely Insane
In an incredible Senate hearing meant to address the dangers of abortion pills sold online without proper oversight, a Democratic witness turned the spotlight on herself by refusing to acknowledge that only women can get pregnant.
video – 00:05:05 – https://twitter.com/i/status/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trump Threatens To Invoke Insurrection Act As Left-Wing Chaos In Minneapolis Spreads
https://www.zerohedge.com/
In response to overnight left-wing chaos, what can only be described as the Democratic Party’s “George Floyd 2.0” attempt, President Trump wrote on Truth Social about the very real possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act. The Insurrection Act would allow Trump to deploy active-duty military forces or federalize the National Guard within the Democratic-run state to restore order as Democrats allow left-wing groups to go rogue. The act has not been invoked **since the 1992 Los Angeles riots. (Q: Where can you get a fully automatic weapon? A: from looting federal vehicles – jlr)
video – 00:02:51 – https://twitter.com/i/status/
V
Man Who Stole Rifle From FBI Vehicle During Minneapolis Rioting Arrested
https://twitchy.com/brettt/
Raul Gutierrez, 33, a member of the LATIN KINGS gang, has a lengthy rap sheet.
video – 00:01:49 – https://twitter.com/i/status/
V
DHS Tracks Down Alleged Minneapolis Rioter ID’d as the Man Filmed Stealing Federal Agent’s Weapon: ‘His Life Has Been Changed Forever’
https://www.westernjournal.
“Only Good Agent Is A Dead One”: It’s Time for The Insurrection Act, Trump Prepares To Act
https://gellerreport.com/2026/
“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,”
The Insurrection Act, an 1807 law, has not been invoked since the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The order allows the president to deploy the military to suppress rebellions and enforce federal laws. If invoked, it would grant Trump the authority to federalize the National Guard and deploy active duty forces to restore order. It would temporarily override the Posse Comitatus Act, which normally restricts the use of the military for domestic law enforcement.
(I.E., Martial law would be declared. Arrestees would be tried by a military tribunal, not civilian courts. And possibly detained in GITMO – jlr)
The Morning Briefing: Aging Melba Toast Mobs Are Further Proof of Dems’ Irrelevance
https://pjmedia.com/stephen-
Sometimes it feels as if the Democrats have been in a state of continuous protest since the morning of Nov. 9, 2016. I know that they didn’t wait long to kick things off after it was announced that Donald Trump would be the 45th president of the United States. Leftist politics are inherently immature (“Daddy, I want an Oompa Loompa and I want him NOW!”), so thoughtful responses to any opposition are impossible. They just get their public sector union goons to offer unemployed people a ride and a free lunch, then tell them to “protest.” After 40-plus years of conservative activism, I am a veteran of quite a few, um, interactions with Dem-supported protest groups. I really got to know them during the Tea Party years — especially the frothing Occupy Wall Street loons. Believe me when I say that there are no organic protests on the left — they’re all the result of coordinated, astroturfed agitation.
Minnesota State Representative Posting the Locations of Federal Law Enforcement Officers
https://twitchy.com/brettt/
Minnesota State Representative Brad Tabke is one of the reasons there are so many agitators everywhere ICE goes. Tabke thinks his job is to post the locations (and suspected locations) of ICE on X.
Left-Wing Mobs in Minneapolis Now Stopping Cars and Interrogating Civilians
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/
These people are insane. They’re interrogating a man over the vehicle he drives, demanding that he prove he’s not from DHS or ICE, and then lecturing him on driving the “wrong” kind of vehicle. They have become the very thing they claim to hate, but without the legal authority to enforce our immigration laws.
video – 00:01:34 – https://twitter.com/i/status/
V
Watch What Happens When This Leftist Protester Accosts a CNN Reporter in Minneapolis
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/
‘I HOPE I’m Wrong’! Tom Homan Warns Walz & Frey What Might Be Next After Tomorrow’s Trump Meeting
https://twitchy.com/dougp/
video – 00:01:30 – https://twitter.com/i/status/
As Trump Contemplates Invoking the Insurrection Act Against Minnesota, Washington’s Example as President Is Instructive
https://www.westernjournal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Israel Warns Iran: ‘If You Attack Us, We Will End You For Good’
https://gellerreport.com/2026/
On Sunday, Iran had threatened Israel that they would retaliate towards the Jewish state if the US hit them. …if Iran attacks, there won’t be another round after that. No back and forth, no limits.
The Explosion of Political Noise Is Meant to Cover the Death of the Blue Model, Nothing Else
https://chrisbray.substack.
“the state’s negative fiscal situation is now chronic”…Serious concerns about the state’s fiscal sustainability: California is headed for insolvency, stubbornly pursuing a plainly unsustainable financial course…Career political-class professional liberals, working inside progressive state governments: OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT.
Oglala Sioux Chief Lied About ICE Locking up Tribe Members
https://pjmedia.com/rick-
…”That’s not entirely accurate.”…Mr. Star Comes Out apparently felt that Native Americans were being left out of all the victimization of oppressed minorities in Minnesota and decided to shoulder his way onto the stage.
An Anti-ICE Activist Tried Interfering With an Arrest in California. Guess What Happened Next.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/
Sorry, only bleeding heart liberals are going to feel bad for this kid, who got shot in the face with a rubber bullet by federal agents while trying to interfere with an arrest. The best way to avoid getting shot by law enforcement is to not interfere with their operations. You people don’t have some special shield that protects you, and feelings aren’t a defense. Those who don’t follow that simple, common-sense rule get the Renee Nicole Good treatment, aka being buried six feet under.
(Reiterating, once again – Liberals DO NOT learn from history, or personal past negative experiences. Each and every time they must, individually, FA to FO. Then they are then shocked at the repetitive negative outcomes. One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different outcome – jlr)
no agency without responsibility – tying together the wokester/marxist/victimplex (and how to fix it)
https://boriquagato.substack.
this “kids in the hall” skit in the 90’s was intended to be so over the top that no one could believe it. it was slapstick lampoon. Would anyone today deny that this has become more norm than fiction in academic discourse even and especially at the once top institutions?
video – 00:03:15 – https://youtu.be/1DI6rOj8IPs
Schumer Pleads for Money and Denigrates ICE in White House Meeting with Trump
https://www.westernjournal.
(any bets that this will be the LAST invitation to the White House for Schumer? – jlr)
‘I killed Daddy’: Adopted 11-year-old boy killed his father for taking away his Nintendo game, police say
https://www.theblaze.com/news/
video – 00:03:53 – https://youtu.be/3v5cIhwoKG0
(Welcome to the world as envisioned by the socialist/communist/NWO/
The Clock Ticks: Make It Matter
https://wilderwealthywise.com/
The clock ticks for us all. Use it wisely.
Stuff that gives me headaches
https://miguelgg.substack.com/
Mr. Porter was actively shooting within a residential area with a forbidden weapon in California, but his death was murder because we are now in a rant against ICE?
I did not have that in my bingo card. – USPS on notice
https://miguelgg.substack.com/
Text found here Constitutionality of 18 U.S.C. § 1715
We cannot find a common ground when they live in the land of fantasy
https://miguelgg.substack.com/
They are led to believe they are fighting a war against evil forces, and they will come on top because “their hearts are pure.”…They are not prepared for reality…They are posers acting up against people limited by good manners and protocols. They think they are dealing with weaklings easy to overwhelm. And then reality hits at 1,300 feet per second. The worst part? They will somehow sublimize what they saw, put it away, and continue with the same wreck train of thought… until it happens to them.
(reiterating, once again – Liberals DO NOT learn from history, or personal past experiences. They must, individually, FA to FO every time. They are shocked at repetitive negative outcomes. One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different outcome – jlr)
Active Response Training – Weekend Knowledge Dump- January 16, 2021
https://www.
Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. – Road Rage Statistics – Native Food Plants of Texas: An Austin Forager’s Guide Based on Indigenous Knowledge – What Ammo Types Do You Really Need for When the SHTF – Wilderness Predator Defense
rcd as an email:
Independence Spreading Across State Lines
Fellow Texan,
While most Americans were still nursing their New Year’s resolutions, lawmakers in New Hampshire filed a bill to study independence. That’s not a typo. The question of self-determination is spreading—and Texas is leading the way.
New Hampshire Follows Texas’s Lead on Independence
House Bill 1441 heads to a public hearing in Concord on January 23rd. If passed, it would create a commission to study the economic, legal, and social implications of New Hampshire exercising its sovereign rights—including outright independence.
The NHEXIT movement, which we’ve worked alongside for years, is mobilizing supporters ahead of the hearing. I’ve joined their calls, compared notes with their organizers, and watched them build something real. This isn’t a copycat effort—it’s a parallel movement that’s been developing for years. But there’s no question that Texas’s momentum has helped fuel independence conversations in statehouses from Concord to Juneau.
If you can’t make the trip to New Hampshire (and I don’t expect most of you can), you can still help. Contact New Hampshire legislators and tell them you stand with the principle of self-determination. When the question gets asked in Austin, we’ll want friends who asked it first in their own capitals.
What this means: Every state that seriously examines independence makes it harder for critics to dismiss TEXIT as a fringe Texas obsession. This is becoming a national conversation.
Read the full story: New Hampshire Legislature to Consider Independence Study Commission –
https://texianpartisan.com/
The Treason Myth Collapses Under Its Own Weight
Every time we gain ground, someone trots out the scare tactic: ‘Secession is treason. You’ll all be arrested.’ It’s designed to shut down the conversation before it starts. And it’s completely wrong.
Here’s the history they hope you never learn. After the Civil War, federal prosecutors arrested Jefferson Davis and charged him with treason. If anyone could be convicted for secession, it was him. They held him for two years—then dropped the charges. Why? Because Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase himself admitted that bringing Davis to trial would ‘condemn the North, for by the Constitution, secession is not rebellion.’
Treason requires levying war against the United States. Sedition requires force to overthrow the government. What are we doing? Asking the Texas Legislature to give you a vote. That’s democracy, not rebellion. Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution lists everything states can’t do—coin money, grant titles of nobility, make war without being invaded. Withdrawing from the union? Not on the list.
What this means: The legal foundation for TEXIT is solid. Don’t let fear tactics silence a conversation the Founders never intended to criminalize.
Read the full story: Federal Law Cannot Criminalize Peaceful Texas Independence
Cherokee County: How Independence Gets Built
Monday evening. Milano’s Pizza in Rusk. Six volunteers. Two hours. Twenty-five conversations. One new supporter.
That might not sound like much to the Austin crowd that measures success in press releases and donor checks. But David Breunig and his team understand something the political class doesn’t: movements are built one conversation at a time, in restaurant meeting rooms and church fellowship halls, by people who show up when nobody’s watching.
The evening’s best moment? A man who’d attended a previous event brought his wife to learn more. She signed up. That’s how it works. Personal relationships drive political change. Cherokee County launched as an official TNM county group last June. They’re one of dozens of counties now actively organizing. And every one of those counties is a building block for the day we finally put this question to a vote.
What this means: We don’t need permission from Austin or Washington. We need neighbors talking to neighbors in all 254 counties.
Read the full story: Volunteers Build Independence Movement in Cherokee County
David Breunig didn’t wait for someone to organize Cherokee County. He stepped up. Your county needs someone like that. Maybe it’s you.
Connect with Your County
The conversation is spreading—from Texas to New Hampshire, from the Partisan to the statehouse. Keep talking. Keep showing up. That’s how we win.
Daniel Miller
President
Texas Nationalist Movement
P.S. If you’re in New Hampshire or know someone who is, that hearing is January 23rd at 1:00 PM in Concord. Show up if you can.
January 19, 2026
How Islam Is Reshaping the West—and Why Debate Is Forbidden
https://gellerreport.com/2026/
Rape Ensues After Dutch Students Forced To Live With 125 Refugees In Woke ‘Integration’ Experiment
https://www.zerohedge.com/
Dutch students forced to live side-by-side with 125 refugees in a woke government plan to aid the refugees’ ‘integration’ were subjected to years of sexual assault and violence, according to an investigation…they faced frequent sexual assault, harassment, violence, stalking, and gang rape…The students said that authorities ignored multiple reports.
The AWFUL Truth About Minnesota
https://wilderwealthywise.com/
Ah, the AWFULs. If you haven’t heard the term yet, it stands for Affluent White Female Urban Liberal. It’s the kind of acronym that makes mainstream media clutch their pearls…The term bothers them because it’s true… AWFUL isn’t just a label. It’s a symptom of a society where their ascendant political power has left GloboLeft women unfulfilled and GloboLeft men emasculated. AWFULs are modern versions of those women Orwell wrote about: fanatical, slogan-chanting, spying on “wrongthink” via social media. They police language, cancel dissent, all while their weak men nod along. Orwell knew. Without strong men, women become the regime’s enforcers.
MSM Melting Down Over New Term For Liberal White Women
https://www.zerohedge.com/
…the liberal media has found yet another offensive word to whinge over…the objectionable term is the acronym AWFUL, which stands for Affluent White Female Urban Liberal. Another variant is AWFL…The acronym so scandalized the New York Times that it even tattled to the Department of Homeland Security about it and its growing popularity…After years of using terms like “Nazi” and “fascist” against Trump and Republicans, the paper’s outrage over AWFUL rings hollow. . The acronym simply states observable demographic and ideological facts. Affluent, white, female, urban, and liberal are not slurs. Yes, the acronym is clever, but its implied criticism is far milder than the relentless, extreme rhetoric the New York Times has long published against the right, particularly President Trump.
NYC Socialists Prepare Mass Mobilization Of 4,000 Anti-ICE Army
https://www.zerohedge.com/
New York City’s Democratic Socialists of America effort to assemble a highly organized anti-ICE army of purple-haired leftists to impede federal deportation operations is particularly alarming because the planning phase was apparently being done at an upscale Midtown headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party-linked People’s Forum, a venue littered with pro-Communism rhetoric…Most concerning is that a dark-money NGO network tied to a CCP-linked communist billionaire, Neville Roy Singham, was allegedly at the center of this anti-ICE chaos and potentially seen as a command-and-control support node to organize nationwide protests.
The ongoing search for Perpetual Outrage continues – And it is getting stupider.
https://miguelgg.substack.com/
(Miguel is right. This is UBER-stupid, and ignorant all at the same time – jlr)
Thinks that makes me wonder. – OK, not really.
https://miguelgg.substack.com/
All these people protesting ICE and how they are snatching thousands of innocent immigrants off the street and how the Media pundits latch on that to also denounce this administration “fascist” streak…Yeah, he does not fit the narrative.
Liberal Gun Things that make you go “Whut?”
I am not 100% sure, but it looks like a carbine-length AR 15 upper which makes it a legal long bun, with a silencer. Why does it have a brace rather than a regular stock? I have the strange feeling this gentleman had a pistol AR and then decided to swap uppers to cosplay Pro-Illegal-Alien Tactical Neighborhood Watch. If my guess is right, I wonder if he knows that legally he can go from pistol to rifle, but going back the pistol way is a violation of Federal law.
(he’s a liberal, so the law doesn’t apply to him if he disagrees with it – jlr)
Can you be any stupider? – That is a challenge they take seriously and win every time.
https://miguelgg.substack.com/
It seems the pastor of the church has the same name as an ICE Assistant Field Director, something apparently strange to them because somehow in their world, people have unique names. That was enough for band of Social Justice Thugs to invade the church and interrupt services.
It was a trap last time – It’s a trap this time.
https://thelawdogfiles.
…as amnesty goes — in 1986 we gave amnesty to 3 million illegal aliens in return for “fixing immigration”. Does anyone honestly think our immigration system is “fixed”?
Breaking: DOJ Confirms Charges Are Coming for Don Lemon and Anti-ICE Agitators Who Invaded Church
https://www.westernjournal.
(I’ll believe it when Don Lemon actually goes to jail – jlr)
Why White Women Are Leading Domestic Terrorism in Minnesota
https://thefederalist.com/
Like toddlers throwing tantrums, the leftist women attacking federal officers need to be told ‘no.’…Out with the Patriarchy, In with the Gynocracy…hey’re going to call us misogynists. They’re going to tell us we have “an aggressive tone” with women. This is merely the same toddler distraction behavior that ends up exploding in these absurd and dangerous street performances.
Watch: Somalis Nearly Kill Journalist Nick Sortor, Getaway Driver Reportedly Owns MN Child Autism Center
https://www.westernjournal.
President Donald Trump must bring down the hammer on Minnesota. Invoke the Insurrection Act. Put leftist lawbreakers in prison. The people who voted for the president have exhausted all patience. If Trump does not bring down the hammer, then his entire second administration will have served no purpose.
video – 00:02:03 – https://twitter.com/i/status/
Trump Officials Face Troubling Response When They Go to MN to Look Into the Rampant Fraud
https://redstate.com/nick-
Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and Jim O’Neill, deputy secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), are revealing troubling things that have gone on in their effort to investigate. Liz Collin of Alpha News reported that while they were checking out suspected fraud in St. Paul, “within minutes they were chased out of buildings, flipped off, and followed by vehicles.” That’s crazy that they, as officials of the federal government, should face that, but that’s how off the rails the situation seems to have become.
video – 00:13:04 – https://twitter.com/i/status/
Failed Minneapolis Mayoral Hopeful Omar Fateh Declares Somali Area ‘No-Go Zone for White Supremacists’
https://redstate.com/mike_
Illegal Who Swore He Wasn’t Going Back to Haiti Still in the US a Year Later
https://twitchy.com/brettt/
And sometimes you just want to say “F**k it, let it burn.”
https://miguelgg.substack.com/
So we have a convicted felon, elected to a non-LEO office pretending to be a cop. But wait, here is what makes me say “Fuck it, let it burn”: Detroit’s population is around 640,000 people and Morris got elected as a Write In with a paltry 518 votes.
Schumer Vows to Reverse DOGE Cuts and Expand Spending
https://gellerreport.com/2026/
Chuck Schumer announces Democrats will reverse all DOGE cuts made under President Trump if they win the 2026 midterms.
The Slow and Silent Islamic Transformation of the West, and Western society has criminalized discussion about it.
Progressives Are Crying About the Lack of Deceptive Editing in Trump’s Upcoming Interview
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/
President Donald Trump recently conducted an interview with CBS News, and the White House is pushing for the interview to be aired in its entirety rather than the network include deceptive edits. Of course, the usual suspects on the Left are using this to claim that the White House is bullying poor journalists into submission. Take a look at some of their posts on X crying about the situation:…
A little humor…To start the week…Tool daffynitions
https://oldnfo.substack.com/p/
January 20, 2026
Ketanji Brown Jackson defends Jim Crow law during Second Amendment case hearing
https://www.bizpacreview.com/
“Things I didn’t have on my bingo card today: Justice Jackson defending the racist Black Codes as precedent for what we should consider constitutional,”…Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson used legislation passed as part of the post-Civil War “Jim Crow” laws Tuesday to justify a Hawaii gun control law.
Now Brady Wants to Disarm the Police?
https://bearingarms.com/
“We don’t know the details behind the shootings of 2 people by a Border Patrol agent in Portland,” Brown wrote.. “But I know one thing for certain: whether in the hands of federal officers or everyday Americans, guns do not make us safer.”
The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
Minnesota Doesn’t Set America’s Immigration Policy
https://www.americanthinker.
Either the federal government exercises authority over immigration enforcement or the state of Minnesota does.
Democrat Somali Declares Minnesota Neighborhood a ‘No-Go Zone’ for White Americans
https://americanjournaldaily.
…a series of posts on X showing Fateh standing in front of the Cedar Riverside towers alongside two other men. “Cedar Strong. White Supremacists aren’t welcome here. We protect our own,” the post read. When pressed by journalist David Marcus, who wrote that Americans do not allow “no-go zones,” Fateh doubled down, replying, “This is a No-Go zone for white supremacists.”…Don’t mistake this for a simple slip of the tongue. This wasn’t a gaffe; it was a confession from Minnesota State Senator Omar Fateh. He is openly promoting the creation of an autonomous enclave on American soil, a place where his political opponents are barred from entry and where a private force, not the police, keeps order.
Minnesota’s Muslim AG to Christians: Church Ambushes Are ‘Just Something You’ve Gotta Live With’
https://redstate.com/
video – 00:00:32 – https://twitter.com/i/status/
V
MOTHERS TERRIFIED, CHILDREN SCREAMING as Democrat Protestors Storm Church in Minneapolis, ‘Hunting’ ICE Agents
https://gellerreport.com/2026/
video – 00:02:06 – https://twitter.com/i/status/
video – 00:00:39 – https://x.com/i/status/
V
Anti-ICE Protest Leader Who Invaded Minnesota Church Just Did the Dumbest Thing Imaginable
https://redstate.com/bonchie/
video – 00:00:39 – https://twitter.com/i/status/
V
Don Lemon Digs the Hole Even Deeper With Vile Comments About Parishioners in MN Church Incident
https://redstate.com/nick-
V
Don Lemon, civil rights martyr? Get ready for it.
https://www.bizpacreview.com/
V
Tim Walz Further Embarrasses Himself With Pathetic, Belated ‘Statement’ on Minnesota Church Invasion
https://redstate.com/sister-
V
DHS McLaughlin Promises ‘Mugshots Soon’ for Activists Who Disrupted MN Church Worship Service
https://redstate.com/
V
Leftist thug who stormed Christian church dares Bondi to come and get him
https://www.bizpacreview.com/
V
Don Lemon labels parishioners of church stormed by anti-ICE rioters ‘entitled white supremacists’
https://www.bizpacreview.com/
State Senator Omar Fateh calls for eviction moratorium to help residents ‘terrified’ to go to work in Minnesota
https://www.theblaze.com/news/
Three Tourists Shot Dead by Muslim Gunman Outside Disney World
https://gellerreport.com/2026/
“Random.” “Cold-blooded.” “Premeditated.”- Ahmad Jihad Bojeh. Jihad, literally. – Authorities say “the motive is unclear”—the phrase deployed to suspend common sense and obfuscate the jihad motive.
“Worst Daily Massacre Since the Holocaust”: 24 Hours of Hell in Iran; Over 16,000 Killed
https://gellerreport.com/2026/
According to medical sources cited by The Sunday Times, at least 16,500 protesters were killed and some 330,000 injured—much of it in just two days—marking the most brutal crackdown in the Islamic Republic’s 47-year history.
V
Ayatollah Khamenei Celebrates Mass Murder, Declares Victory: “We Broke The Back Of The Rioters”
https://gellerreport.com/2026/
Khamenei today: “We broke the back of the rioters. The day of the successful crackdown will be remembered as a day of celebration for years to come.”
He has become so emboldened that he is shamelessly calling the massacre of tens of thousands of Iranians a “celebration.”
Dems rip Trump over Greenland letter, but is it another hoax?
https://www.bizpacreview.com/
Customary of Trump Derangement Syndrome sufferers, any action of the president is seen as an opportunity to leverage another negative salvo of coordinated messaging. The latest took shape after a nod to the Nobel Peace Prize was treated as though Trump had “lost touch with reality” in calling out America’s need to have “Complete and Total Control of Greenland.”
Schumer Vows to Restore All DOGE Cuts And Increase Spending If Democrats Win Midterms
https://americanjournaldaily.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats will push to restore federal funding cut under the Department of Government Efficiency and potentially increase spending beyond prior levels, as lawmakers continue negotiations over the 2026 budget. Schumer made the comments Thursday when asked whether he would work to replenish funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development during a forum hosted by the Center for American Progress… “If you look at the budget we’re working on right now, we’re restoring most of the cuts. And even go higher than previous years on many of the programs that DOGE slashed.”
California Progressives Push Wealth Tax on Billionaires, Citing Migrant Voter Power
https://americanjournaldaily.
Progressives are using migrants’ voting power — and threats of a populist revolution — to grab a huge share of Silicon Valley’s stock-market wealth via a tax plan on California’s November ballot. “You made all your money in California, you ungrateful piece of shit,” Kara Swisher, a progressive journalist in California, told one of the billionaires targeted by the ballot initiative. “We deserve the taxes from you,” added Swisher, who is wealthy, far-left, childless, and pro-migration…And there you have it. The mask isn’t just slipping anymore; it’s been ripped clean off. This isn’t some complex political strategy—it’s a heist, plain and simple. For years, Democrats have orchestrated a border crisis, creating a massive dependent class that looks to the government for everything. We are now witnessing the endgame. They are weaponizing this population to create a permanent voting bloc that will gladly vote to confiscate the wealth of American citizens.
Jennifer Welch urges her followers to target Fox News’ Jesse Watters over ‘toxic masculinity’
bizpacreview.com/2026/01/20/
video – 00:00:37 – https://twitter.com/i/status/
The Migrant Shelling, Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland Continues Unabated
https://armageddonprose.
Aside from the ethnic cleansing itself of a noble people, the most sadistic aspect of the all-out globalist siege of the Emerald Isle — catapulting wave after wave of weaponized migrants onto its shores — is that Ireland did not participate in any of the historical sins that allegedly justify the same punishment for other European nations.
Writing to a brick wall
https://disaffectedpod.
-Words mean nothing.- Words mean whatever I, the interpreter, want them to mean at any given moment.- Words even mean the opposite of what they mean, if I choose in the moment.- Words that are spoken or written were not actually spoken or written. Words that you never said, and meaning you did not imply, is actually what you’re saying. These are the things I’ve learned being a writer in the advanced, mature internet age.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/
January 21, 2026
Will Trump Invoke the Insurrection Act? He Gave His Answer Last Night.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/
For the time being, the president is holding off making that call, but won’t hesitate to invoke it should the situation continue to deteriorate:
video – 00:01:29 – https://twitter.com/i/status/
OOPSIE
California Governor Responds as Phillips 66 Refinery Begins Shutdown
https://uschecknews24h.com/
Eight days ago, California’s energy infrastructure collapsed in ways nobody saw coming. On December 15th, California’s largest inland oil pipeline shut down permanently…carried crude oil from Bakersfield’s oil fields to Northern California’s refineries for 70 years…The company operating it was losing $2 million every month…Northern California’s refineries lost their primary crude oil source overnight…Valero already announced they are closing the Benicia facility in April…California’s energy crisis is no longer theoretical. It is real. It is happening now.
The ‘gift’…
https://oldnfo.substack.com/p/
Bombshell video obtained by Townhall News indicates that immigration court judges and lawyers in Ohio are willing to be corrupted by illegal aliens from the African nation of Mauritania.
Gutfeld Absolutely Nails It: Anti-ICE Terrorists Exhibit “Suicidal Empathy Driven by Rescue Fantasy”
https://rumble.com/v74lcbe-
video – 00:04:15 – https://rumble.com/v74lcbe-
The Invasion of the Industry Snatchers: Patel Motels and the Trucking Singhularity
https://wilderwealthywise.com/
That’s not capitalism; that’s a clan economy plopped into America’s free market like a Bollywood dance number. And I said that the Patels own the banks. They do. Enter the “State Bank of Texas®”, was founded in 1987 by Chan Patel (of the Mumbai Patels).
Radical Groups Like Renee Good’s Are Tailing ICE All Over America
https://www.westernjournal.
A crowdsourced map of alleged ICE activity throughout the U.S., complete with photos and license plate numbers, is also available on “Stop ICE,” an anonymously-run website featured on Minnesota ICE Watch’s Linktree page. The Department of Homeland Security filed a subpoena seeking to identify an Instagram user affiliated with the site in September due to alleged “doxxing,” but withdrew the request after litigation led by the American Civil Liberties Union and Civil Liberties Defense Center, court records show. The Instagram user denied any wrongdoing.
V
LA Times Reported That ICE Busted Into Homes Without Warrants, Made Kids Cry. Guess Who Was President?
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/
the LA Times reported on an ICE raid in Georgia. Federal agents barged into this woman’s home looking for someone who shouldn’t be here. They scoured the property, kids were crying—it would be an event where hordes of friendless, white, crusty liberals would’ve swarmed and harassed these agents who are enforcing federal immigration laws.
V
Lawyers Claim Man’s Life ‘Stolen’ By ICE: Turns Out He Shot at an Officer
https://www.westernjournal.
V
Freezing is not a strategy.
https://miguelgg.substack.com/
I am amazed that people still do not understand that enraged mobs do not give a shit if you are a good person or a bad actor or neutral: once you have been deemed the enemy, you are in for a bad time.
embedded video – 00:00:43 – The pedal on the right all the way to the floorboard. Don’t mind the speed bumps.
V
Journalists lose their minds when border agent tells Minnesotans to stop clogging 911 system
https://www.bizpacreview.com/
video – 00:02:06 – https://twitter.com/i/status/
Dear Ladies, don’t do this
https://miguelgg.substack.com/
If there is an imminent danger, stop interfering with your guy!…If you are not directly contributing to the cessation of the danger, be useful and watch his back, make sure nobody comes from behind. And having a weapon of your own helps plenty.
embedded video – 00:01:11 – (He is VERY lucky he was attacked by a single person. Things would have gone very differently if there had been an anti-ICE mob around the corner.)
CHURCH TERROR: DOJ Moves to Arrest Don Lemon, Investigate Storming of Church, Targeting Families, Children at Sunday Mass
https://gellerreport.com/2026/
V
Cities Church Issues Full-Throated Response to Invasion of their Sunday Worship Service by Leftist Agitators
https://www.westernjournal.
response – https://www.citieschurch.com/
Virginia: Democrats First Moves With New Majority: Ban Hand-Counted Ballots, Gut Penalties for Rape and Violent Crime, Shield Child Predators, and Side With ICE Opponents
https://gellerreport.com/2026/
(This is EXACTLY what DemocRATS will do if they take back the House or the Senate in 2026, with Trump in the WH vetoing DemocRAT stupid stuff, the government will grind to a halt – jlr)
V
Here Are Some of the New Taxes Coming to Virginia Under Democrat Rule. It’s Insane.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/
It goes beyond the redistricting plans, the ending of cooperation with ICE, and ghoulish abortion amendments…Here are just a few of the bills they’ve introduced – via https://x.com/greg_
– New 4.3% sales tax on Uber Eats, Amazon, etc deliveries.
– New sales tax on admissions to a wide variety of businesses.
– Create two new higher tax brackets of 8% and 10% on people making over $600K.
– A new 10% tax bracket for anyone making over $1M.
– 3.8% investment tax on top of state income taxes.
– Raise the hotel tax.
– New personal property tax on landscaping equipment.
– Ban gas powered leaf blowers.
– Guarantee illegal aliens free education.
– Make it illegal to approach somebody at an abortion clinic.
– Extend the time absentee ballots can be received after election day to three days
– Allow people to cast their votes electronically through the internet.
– Expand ranked-choice voting.
– Extend the deadline for ballot curing to one week after election day.
– Redact the addresses of political candidates from FOIAs.
– Add Virginia to the National Popular Vote Compact for presidential electors.
– Make it illegal to hand count ballots.
– $500 sales tax on firearm suppressors .
– “Assault weapons” and large capacity magazine ban.
– 11% sales tax on all firearms and ammunition.
– Prohibit outdoor shooting of a firearm on land less than 5 acres.
– Lower the criminal penalties for robbery.
– Ban the arrest of illegal aliens in courthouses.
– Remove mandatory minimum sentences.
– Allow localities to install speed cameras.
– Replace Columbus Day with “Indigenous Peoples Day.”
(AND THIS IS JUST THEIR STARTING POINT – They have several years to completely californicate Virginia – jlr)
(This is EXACTLY the kind of laws DemocRATS will pass, for a start, if they ever regain the House, the Senate, and the White House to enshrine socialism/communism in the USA FOREVER- jlr)
(people forget that while you can vote your way into socialism/communism – you have to shoot your way out – jlr)
Supreme Court Justice defends Gun Control against Blacks
https://miguelgg.substack.com/
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is making AOC look almost like a genius. Black Codes that prohibited African Americans from gun ownership are a valid argument to support gun restrictions nowadays.
(Don’t forget that KJB is a BIDEN DEI apointee. Biden appointed her for her sex and skin color, not her judicial resume’ – jlr)
California’s ‘Billionaire Tax’ Could Bite Harder Than Advertised
https://reason.com/2026/01/21/
The proposed tax is already driving people and businesses to flee the state…While the tax is specifically targeted at billionaires, lower-worth entrepreneurs are also reportedly leaving. They’re worried that the state’s political environment has turned against business creation and that it will be safer to invest elsewhere…One particularly momentous policy choice has the potential to strip the founders of some of the world’s largest companies of their controlling interests and force them to sell off a significant portion of their shares.”
Minnesota day-care exposé journalist strikes again — and part 2 names the ‘hub’ of the fraud wheel
https://www.theblaze.com/
Nick Shirley joins Liz Wheeler to drop his explosive part 2 video, exposing the hidden ‘hub’ of Minnesota’s massive fraud wheel allegedly draining $8 million a day from taxpayers.
video – 00:47:54 – https://youtu.be/x_50dbbks4s
A GOP Senator’s Stance on This Election Integrity Bill Is Quite the Gut Punch
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/
Womp, womp…nationwide walkout draws thousands instead of millions
https://www.bizpacreview.com/
Scheduled mass protests drew “thousands” instead of millions as “ungovernable” leftists walked off the job and out of schools in sparse, sanctioned gatherings…Despite the tough talk and propaganda messaging, even the organizer’s own posts documenting the protest depicted an anemic turnout…
Democrat Politicians Sacrifice More Pawns
https://www.americanthinker.
The useful idiots haven’t yet figured out that they’re just cannon fodder…Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, intimated martyrdom, asserting that “tens of thousands are marching after the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good — demanding justice.” So, there you have it. The dimwit Democrats are trying to create their next George Floyd…Martin is about taking a tragic story and spinning it to what he believes is his advantage to confuse voters into voting for more dimwitted Democrats in the 2026 election.
Texas Attorney General issues sweeping opinion against DEI
https://www.kxan.com/news/
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a wide-ranging legal opinion Monday declaring many diversity, equity and inclusion policies unconstitutional across state government, schools and public institutions, according to a release from the Office of the Attorney General of Texas, or OAG. The opinion states that decades of DEI-related statutes and frameworks violate both the U.S Constitution and Texas Constitution, including programs that consider race or sex in hiring, contracting or appointments. The release also mentioned that private companies using DEI practices could face legal liability under state and federal law…The opinion doesn’t carry the weight of law, but it could influence agency executives, school officials, and local governments to abandon DEI initiatives.
Casting Parts
The featured image is of one of my very first sandcastings. It came out better than expected given my level of experience. My later castings were much better.
I used Petrabond for this casting, which gives fine details. The item in the front is a Duplo block, and the part in the back is from a wooden bowl with a handle.
Sand Castings
A sand casting starts with a pattern. The pattern needs to create a void in the sand, which will be filled with molten metal. To allow the sand to hold its shape, fine sand is mixed with a binder and a liquid. When the binder and liquid are in the proper ratios and thoroughly mixed, when compacted, the sand will hold its shape after the pattern is removed.
This means that you must be able to remove the pattern from the sand without damaging the void. Any sand that crumbles from the sides will cause an imperfection in the surface of the casting. Or worse, it can cause a void inside the casting.
Because we need to be able to remove the pattern safely, The pattern is created with “draft” or taper. With proper draft, as soon as the pattern releases, it is no longer in contact with the sand at all. If the pattern is undercut, meaning the sand covers the pattern, there is no way to remove the pattern from the sand without disturbing the sand.
For the parts shown, there is only one piece of the pattern. For a pattern that does not have a flat side, we use two patterns that fit together to form a whole, called a split pattern.
The Flask
The flask is a two piece box that is open on the top and bottom. The bottom piece is called the drag because you drag it across the molding board. The top is called the cope.
You start by placing the drag upside down on the molding board. Then you position the pattern inside the drag with the taper pointing up. The molding sand is then added to the flask until the pattern is covered.
The sand is then “rammed” up. This means compacting the sand by ramming it again and again with the end of a stick. This will force the sand to bind together and bind to the edges of the drag. More sand is added and the next layer is rammed up. This is repeated until the drag is overfull of sand.
Once the drag is full, a stick is used to scrape off the excess sand, called striking off. This leaves a flat sand surface.
A second molding board is placed on top of the drag and then the sandwich of the bottom molding board, drag, and upper molding board is flipped over. This leaves the pattern exposed on top side, sitting in a cavity in the sand. The sand is extremely firm if rammed correctly.
Now the cope is put over the drag to complete the flask.
Ramming Up the Cope
With the cope in place, we can put the other half of our split pattern in place. More parting powder is dusted over the pattern and top of the drag. Think of parting powder as non-stick spray for sand casting.
Once the pattern is in place, we can then ram up the cope the same way we rammed up the drag.
When we finish striking off the cope, we cut a sprue for pouring molten metal into the mold.
The cope can now be lifted straight up, and with a little luck, the top pattern will come away in the cope and the bottom pattern will stay in the drag.
To make sure everything goes back together, the cope has alignment pins, and the drag has alignment holes.
Pattern Extraction
This is the most frustrating part of the process for me. The two halves of the split pattern are firmly held in their sand voids. We need to get them out. The surface of the pattern that is facing us is normally very flat.
If you have made the pattern correctly, there should be threaded holes to insert screws into. Once these screws are in place, you tap and rattle them to cause the pattern to shift slightly in its void. If done correctly, this makes a very thin space between the pattern and the sand.
When you think you have done this enough, you carefully lift the pattern straight up. If you don’t, you can destroy some of the void in the sand.
This is why making patterns is such a high skill level job. The pattern must have enough draft, or it won’t release. The surface needs to be very smooth to reduce the friction between the pattern and the sand. There can be no undercuts. And the pattern must be sturdy enough to withstand being rammed up, over and over again.
Once the patterns are drawn out of the sand, gentle air from a squeeze bulb or from a low pressure air hose is used to remove all the stray sand. Sharp lips of the pattern might be gently touched with a soft brush to remove any sand that might separate from the walls when the casting is poured.
Cutting Runners and Gates
Tools are now used to remove sand from the drag to make channels, called runners, from the sprue hole around the different patterns in the drag. Smaller channels are then cut from the runners to the void/patterns. These are called gates.
Cutting runners and gates is a science unto itself. They have to be large enough for the molten metal to reach all the gates before it starts to freeze. It can’t be so large that you waste metal that is needed for the casting. The metal needs to be a laminar flow; turbulence can cause erosion of the sand of the walls of the runners and gates.
In addition, you want a place for sand carried in from the pour to go and settle out without the loose sand entering the casting.
Closing the Flask
Once all the work is completed on the mold, it is time to prepare the mold for the pour.
The mold needs to be transported to the foundry floor. For large castings, the mold is created right there on the foundry floor. I’ve watched videos of them molding and casting drive wheels for steam locomotives, wheels 5 feet or more in diameter.
The process is the same, except the flask is huge and is rammed up on the floor. Overhead cranes or other types of cranes are used to lift and flip the flask. It is remarkable to watch.
If the mold is small, then the cope is put on the drag, the alignment pins bringing the two parts in to perfect alignment with each other. It is important to note that it is not relevant that the cope and drag be in perfect alignment, just that they align repeatably. That is to say, when the alignment is correct, the voids in the two halves of the flask will be perfectly aligned.
Once closed, the mold is transported to the foundry floor for the pour.
Occasionally the mold is too heavy to be closed and moved. In this situation, the drag is first moved to the foundry floor, then the cope is moved and put into place.
If the mold is truly too heavy to move, even in halves, then the mold will be rammed up on the foundry floor. Cranes will lift the cope off and put it back when required.
Pouring
When the mold(s) are in place, ready for the pour, the furnace is started. The metal is brought up to temperature. Additives will be added to create the correct type of iron or steel or aluminum.
When the metal is up to temperature, the crucible will be lifted out of the furnace and transferred into a pouring gizmo; the word escapes me. For large pours, the furnace has a pour spout at the base; the furnace is opened, metal runs out and is caught in a crucible or ladle.
Regardless of the method of getting the molten metal into the pouring crucible or ladle, the metal is carefully carried to the molds and then poured into the feed sprue.
The metal has to be poured at a constant speed into exactly the correct spot on the mold. If the pour is too slow, the metal will freeze, and you will not get a good pour. If you pour too fast, you risk overrunning the sprue, which will get metal to run out over your flask, which can be very dangerous.
You want to continue pouring until you see metal start to come up the risers. If you don’t see this happen, then you have a short pour, meaning that the casting might not be complete because it didn’t get enough metal to completely fill it.
The pour has to be continuous as well. You can’t stop and start. To do so would be to cause chill spots and potential freezing.
The Wait
After pouring, you need to wait for the metal to completely freeze. To cool enough that it can be handled.
Different metals have different wait times, affected by the mass of the castings.
I was able to observe a bronze bust being poured. I asked when they would break open the mold. They laughed at me because it would soak in the mold for at least 24 hours.
Certain metals perform much better if they are allowed to cool slowly.
Luckily for me, the wait time for aluminum castings is about an hour.
Even after 2 or 3 hours, the castings I make are warm or hot to the touch.
Rough Finishing the Casting
Once the casting is cool enough to work with, the casting is cleaned. The means to remove all the sand that is still attached after breaking the casting out of the mold. If there was a core print, the casting might be soaked in water to help remove the core.
After all the sand has been removed, the casting is cut free from the gates and risers.
The flashing is also removed. The flashing is where metal leaks between the two halves of the mold. You can see the parting line in most objects that are cast or molded.
In some foundries, the casting is then processed to clean up any remaining excess metal.
For some metals, the casting needs to be heat-treated before it can be machined. This consists of putting the casting in a heat treat oven and bringing the metal up to temp. Then the casting is held at that temp for a known amount of time. Finally, it is allowed to cool according to the heat treat instructions.
Most metals have internal stress. I’ve watched a piece of 1/8″ steel curve like a banana when I cut it longways due to the internal stress being removed.
Part 2 tomorrow, about lost sand.