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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Third Circut Court Win

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rogue Inferior Court Judges

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

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

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

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

Home Owner Tribulations

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See above about total replacement.

Which leads us to today’s unpleasantness.

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

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

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

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

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

Our basement gets wet when it rains hard.

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

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

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

Oh, I love being a home owner.

Holsters

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

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

(Of course you are looking for a better holster)

Mantis Laser Academy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Question Of The Week

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

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

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

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

How to listen

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

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

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

Holocaust Denial

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

How could somebody deny that it happened?

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

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

Could they all be wrong?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lies

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

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

They have not learned the guile of how to lie.

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

Most people move past this method rather quickly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Short Quote

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

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

I did … sexual relations with that woman.

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

Or this made up newscast:

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

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

Example

The following is a partial transcription of the attached video.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Something a little different.

I have a number of Jewish friends, and I hear about brisket all the time. There was the running joke about Howard’s mother’s brisket in The Big Bang Theory. Brisket is one of those cuts of meat that is just scrumptious, if cooked right. So how do you cook it? It depends a lot on the cut you’re using. I’m going for slow cooked brisket at this point in my cooking career, because I love the convenience of the slow cooker (though I did cook this one in the oven). It’s a bit pricey (our 3lb brisket cost about $21), but it’s totally worth it. Also, it makes your whole house smell like heaven.

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs untrimmed flat-cut beef brisket
• 1/2 tbsp salt, plus more to taste
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
• 3 tbsp oil (olive or vegetable)
• 2 medium yellow onions, sliced
• 4 celery stalks, cut into 2-inch pieces, leaves coarsely chopped
• 6 garlic cloves, smashed
• 2 cups red wine (such as Merlot or Pinot Noir)
• 28 oz canned crushed tomatoes
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp dried thyme OR several sprigs of fresh thyme
• 3 bay leaves
• 4 medium carrots, halved lengthwise and cut on a bias into 2-inch pieces

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

Season the brisket with most of the salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the brisket, turning occasionally, until browned on all sides, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

Place the onions, celery, and garlic in the pot, tossing it in the residual fat. Season with the remaining salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.

Add the wine, tomatoes, ketchup, brown sugar, thyme, and bay leaves, and stir to combine. Nestle the brisket down into the liquid, fat side up. You may need to move some of the onion mix to get it low enough. Most of the brisket should be covered with liquid, but it’s okay if the fat is out. Cover the pot and cook in the oven until the meat is fork-tender, about 3 hours.

Uncover the pot and add the carrots around the brisket. Cook, uncovered, until the carrots are tender (not soft) and the top of brisket is browned and crisp, 35 to 45 minutes.

Remove the brisket from the pot and let it rest while you make the sauce. Use a spoon to skim fat from the surface of the braising liquid and discard. Heat over medium-high heat and cook until the liquid is thickened to a sauce-like consistency, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove the thyme sprigs and bay leaves. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed. When the sauce is mostly ready, cut up the brisket by slicing it against the grain. Place the sliced brisket on a deep serving platter. Pour the sauce over the brisket and serve!

For sides, you need to keep in mind that Jewish folk don’t mix dairy and meat. If you don’t care, feel free to go with whatever sides you like, but if you want to enjoy the full Jewish brisket experience, try some baked sweet potato drizzled with olive oil, a cabbage and apple slaw for a tart finish, or some hot cornbread.

Wolford is in an interlocutory state. They are appealing a preliminary injunction.

The purpose of the trial court is to gather evidence, hear legal arguments, and then decide based on evidence and the legal standing.

What the Supreme Court has said is that Second Amendment challenges do not need evidence. They are legal decisions, decided by the courts.

The law says “x”. The challenger says the plain text of the Second Amendment covers the conduct regulated by the law. The burden shifts to the state to show that the current law is consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearms regulation.

There is no evidence to present. The court decides if the plain text covers the conduct. The court decides if the government has proven a history of firearms regulation that matches the current law. If the state fails to meet its burden, then the law is ruled unconstitional.

If the state wishes to bring in expert testimony regarding this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation, that expert must be a lawyer. Not only must they be a lawyer, they must be part of the case.

Friends of the court can express their opinion, but the only place those opinions have any weight is if they are legal arguments regarding regulations from the time of the founding or somehow relevant to finding that the conduct is not covered by the Second Amendment.

At this point, everybody in Wolford has agreed the plain text of the Second Amendment is implicated. The state can present their arguments to the Supreme Court just as easily as to the trial court. There is no value the trial court will add to the analysis the Supreme Court will do.

Which leads us to, when will we hear back from the Supreme Court?

Cert was granted on October 3, 2025. Per rule 25 of the Supreme Court, the Petitioner (Plaintiff) must have their briefing in within 45 days. November 17, 2025. It is unlikely that this date will be pushed. Amici briefs supporting the Petitioner are due 7 days after.

The Respondent’s (defendant’s) brief is due 30 days after that, on December 17th. Again, Amici briefs the Respondent or neither are due 7 days after.

The Petitioner gets to reply to the Respondent’s brief. That is due 30 days after the respondent dockets their brief, putting us at January 10, 2026.

If everything goes as scheduled, oral arguments will be heard in February, with the opinion issuing in May.

I expect we will see at least one other Second Amendment case this term. If the Court is looking at Wolford to address sensitive places, then there will be no other sensitive places challenges heard.

That leaves a case dealing on what “arms” means. When that case is heard, they will address the proper usage of the “in common use for lawful purposes” shortcut to a Second Amendment win.