Ace: aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com
Buck: buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com
CBD: cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com
joe mannix: mannix2024 at proton.me
MisHum: petmorons at gee mail.com
J.J. Sefton: sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info: maildrop62 at proton dot me
US overdose deaths fell through most of 2025, federal data reveals
U.S. overdose deaths fell through the most of last year, suggesting a lasting improvement in an epidemic that had been worsening for decades
NEW YORK -- U.S. overdose deaths fell through most of last year, suggesting a lasting improvement in an epidemic that had been worsening for decades.
Federal data released Wednesday showed that overdose deaths have been falling for more than two years -- the longest drop in decades -- but also that the decline was slowing.
And the monthly death toll is still not back to what it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, let alone where it was before the current overdose epidemic struck decades ago, said Brandon Marshall, a Brown University researcher who studies overdose trends.
"Overall I think this continues to be encouraging, especially since we're seeing declines almost across the nation," he said.
Overdose deaths began steadily climbing in the 1990s with overdoses involving opioid painkillers, followed by waves of deaths from heroin and -- more recently -- illicit fentanyl. Deaths peaked nearly 110,000 in 2022, fell a little in 2023 and then plummeted 27% in 2024, to around 80,000. That was the largest one-year decline ever recorded.
...
Researchers cannot yet say with confidence why deaths have gone down. Experts have offered multiple possible explanations: increased availability of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, expanded addiction treatment, shifts in how people use drugs, and the growing impact of billions of dollars in opioid lawsuit settlement money.
Apparently it's just impossible that stopping fentanyl imports and deporting Tren de Aragua drug-dealers contributed to the decline. It's not even worth a mention.
By the way, note that overdoses shot up during Fauci's (and Tucker Carlson's) shutdowns. More deaths that can be laid at their feet.
Two other theories recently joined the list....
In a paper published last week in the journal Science, University of Maryland researchers point to the drug supply. They say regulatory changes in China a few years ago appear to have diminished the availability of precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl.
Their argument is based partly on information from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which last year reported that the purity -- and dangerous potency -- of fentanyl rose early in the COVID-19 pandemic but fell after 2022. It suggests it became harder to make fentanyl and its potency was diluted.
One piece of evidence for that: More U.S.-based Reddit users reported a fentanyl "drought" in 2023.
The authors connect that to signs that the Chinese government -- at the urging of U.S. officials -- took steps in 2023 to clamp down on the selling of substances used to make drugs. Information is limited on exactly what the Chinese government did, and the paper is a bit speculative, but "we thought we could make a case," said Peter Reuter, one of the authors.
Oh, so it is possible that US government action is responsible for part of the decline -- but only those steps taken by Biden.
Another mystery: Why did US serious crime rates fallen by unprecedented levels in 2025?
Must be something Biden did.
The U.S. is on pace for the largest one-year drop in murders the nation has ever recorded, according to an analysis by crime stats expert Jeff Asher.
The big picture: The decline in killings is part of a broader decrease in violent crime following the COVID-era spike. Mass killings in the U.S. also fell in 2025, reaching their lowest level since 2006.
The Real-Time Crime Index, which compiles data from 570 law enforcement agencies, shows a nearly a 20% decline in murders this year compared with the same period in 2024.
The database, which Asher used in his analysis, does not consider manslaughter, self-defense, negligence, or "accidental killings" for the statistics, according to its online glossary.
The database's statistics are currently available through October. The FBI will not release official 2025 violent crime data until sometime next year, though RTCI estimates have historically tracked closely with federal figures.
Other major crime categories measured by the index were also down nationwide and across locations of all population sizes, including motor vehicle thefts (23.2%), aggravated assaults (7.5%) and robbery (18.3%).
By the numbers: New York City and Memphis recorded nearly a 20% drop in murders compared with 2024, and Chicago saw them fall almost 28%.
New Orleans saw a decline of 7.5%, while Los Angeles County recorded murders dropping by nearly 19%.
...
State of play: President Trump has prioritized cracking down on violent crime in his second term, though there is no clear evidence linking his policies to the decline. Crime rates have been declining since 2021, according to data from both the RTCI and FBI.
LOL, sure. Definitely cite the fake FBI crime figures -- which do not include most blue cities crimes, because they refuse to report them. And we know blue cities routinely cook their crime figures.
Also note the deceptiveness of this statement. Crime didn't just decline in 2025 -- it plunged by 20%.
So the fact that it's been (allegedly) merely "declining" for a few years does nothing to explain the huge fall we saw in one year, when Trump took office again.
She had previously dedicated the Prize to Trump when she was awarded it.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado told reporters on Thursday that she had presented her Nobel Peace Prize to President Donald Trump when the pair met at the White House.
Machado dedicated the prize to Trump when she first received it. The U.S. president has long lobbied for the award and has received multiple nominations for his role in ending myriad global conflicts.
"I presented the president of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize," she told reporters. She further recounted a historical episode in which Revolutionary War hero the Marquis de Lafayette presented Simon Bolivar with a medal bearing the face of Washington.
Yes, she's obviously currying favor with Trump so that he will help her take the presidency when Maduro's regime falls.
Similarly, Crown Prince Pahlavi is saying he anticipated that Trump will "keep his promise," that promise being that America would come to the aid of Iranian protesters. He reminds Trump of that promise multiple times in this press conference:
He doesn't insult Trump. He doesn't accuse him of not honoring his promise. He says he believes Trump will keep the promise.
But he's definitely reminding Trump of that promise.
I saw a news report stating that Trump felt "obligated" to come to the aid of the Iranian protesters after encouraging them to keep marching and "keep fighting." Someone, I think Bonchie from RedState, commented, "He is obligated after encouraging them to keep marching and keep fighting."
I hope he continues feeling that obligation.
General Keane notes that Trump has made this "promise." He details Trump's moves against Iran, including stopping all of their oil shipments and cyber operations against Iran's ability to surveil and target its own population.
He also expects Trump to move decisively against the Revolutionary Guards.
Meanwhile, the USS Abraham Lincoln is closing in on Iran...
As SCOTUS Debates "Trans Women" Competing in Girls Sports, the World's 671st Ranked Male Tennis Player Easily Beats the Woman Ranked #1; also, Remembering Scott Adams and Dilbert
—Buck Throckmorton
The Supreme Court heard arguments earlier this week on whether individual states are allowed to ban “transgender women” (e.g. males) from competing in girls’ sports at the high school and college level. It’s a triumph for the woke assault on civilized norms that the Supreme Court justices even took this case.
The good news is that the prevailing sentiment of court watchers is that the court will rule in favor of the states which ban biological males from competing in women’s sports. But it is also concerning if this NBC report is true, “There was wide agreement on the bench that, at least in the cases before them, the scientific consensus on to what extent transgender girls and women have a competitive advantage is not clear.”
Yikes. I hope that statement is just wishcasting on the part of a left-wing journalist. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson famously admitted during her confirmation hearing in 2022 that she is scientifically illiteratenot a biologist and is unaware of any differences between men and women. But I certainly hope that there is not “wide agreement” among the other eight justices that men do not have a proven competitive advantage over women.
Meanwhile, a tennis “battle of the sexes” just took place a couple weeks ago, matching Nick Kyrgios against Aryna Sabalenka. Mr. Kyrgios is ranked 671st among male professional tennis players. He has played just six tour-level matches in the past three years. Ms. Sabalenka has won four women’s grand slam tournaments, and is currently ranked #1 in the world among professional female tennis players.
Because the tennis world understands that women and men are not equal, Ms. Sabalenka’s side of the court was 9% smaller, meaning that she had less ground to cover compared to Kyrgios, and that he had a smaller in-bounds area in which he could place his shots than she did.
Mr. Kyrgios won easily in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3.
This is also an appropriate moment to remember that back in 2017 a soccer team of under-15 year old boys whipped the US Women’s National Soccer Team.
In preparation for two upcoming friendlies against Russia, the U.S. women’s national team played the FC Dallas U-15 boys academy team on Sunday and fell 5-2, according to FC Dallas’ official website.
Circling back to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Ace documented this amazing question of hers from the bench this week, "Is treating someone transgender, but does not have, because of the medical interventions and the things that have been done, who does not have, uh, the same, uh, threat to physical competition and safety and all the reasons the state puts forward - that's actually a different class, says this individual. So you're not treating the class the same. And how do you respond to that?"
Yes, how do you respond to that? KBJ is an orator for the ages. We may have to start referring to her as Ketanji Wendell Holmes.
*****
GM Pivoting its Focus from One Tesla Niche to Another Tesla Niche
General Motors’ heir-apparent to the CEO office was hired just eight months ago from an autonomous vehicle start-up company that has lost billions of dollars and has less than 10 vehicles on the road.
Since Mr. Anderson’s hiring, several prominent executives have departed [General Motors], presumably because they don’t share his vision for prioritizing self-driving cars. As reported by CNBC a few weeks ago, Mr. Anderson “has consolidated power to oversee ‘the end-to-end product lifecycle’ of GM vehicles, including manufacturing, engineering, battery, software and services product management, and engineering teams, according to GM.”
Despite the massive EV losses that GM has incurred, the company is apparently casting its lot with a tech executive whose profit-and-loss experience is with cash burn rather than cash flow.
This piece is not behind a paywall. I’d be honored if you’d give it a read.
My latest at The American Spectator discusses how General Motors keeps getting distracted by shiny new objects. After its catastrophic losses on EVs, the mass-market auto manufacturer is again pivoting toward another boutique niche - autonomous vehicles.https://t.co/br4nimCGvG
Scott Adams’ death is being eloquently covered by others, so there is not much I can add. But I do want to offer up a few quick thoughts. Aside from Dilbert being my favorite cartoon for decades, I was a loyal reader of Mr. Adams’ blog for many years before his greater celebrity during the Trump era. Mr. Adams often expanded my views, and occasionally frustrated me, but he helped me understand how rational people can understand things differently.
Back in 2016, when I doubted that Donald Trump was in any way conservative, and when I thought Trump had no chance to beat Hillary in the presidential election, Scott Adams was one of two writers who made an impact on my attitude toward that election. Mr. Adams famously wrote about the reasons why Trump was likely to win. He was right. (The other writer was John Hinderaker of Powerline, who was the first legacy conservative I read who stated that of course we traditional Republicans needed to vote for Trump.)
I was flattered once when Scott put out a call for Dilbert topics and he ended up using one of my submissions. As I recall, his invitation to the public was something to the effect of ”You provide the workplace situation and I’ll provide the humor.” I wrote him and offered up what a special hell it was to be working for a company campaigning for recognition in a local “Best Places to Work” contest. Shortly thereafter he used that in a cartoon.
Finally, my favorite Dilbert character was one who got very little screen time. Scott Adams may be gone, but Mordac, The Preventer of Information Services lives on.
I think of Mordac every time I have a spontaneously obsolete password, or I’m blocked from being able to access a system necessary for my job, or I can’t access an SaaS app because there are too few licenses, or I’m logged out of a system because I got called away for a short meeting, etc. In all these circumstances, I give a tip of the hat to Mordac, and I applaud his success in protecting my employer by preventing me from doing my job.
. . .senior Iranian officials are funneling their money out of the country like "rats fleeing the ship," amid escalating protests and financial unrest inside the Islamic Republic."We are now seeing the rats fleeing the ship. Because we can see tens of millions of dollars being wired out of the country—snuck out of the country—by the Iranian leadership. So they are abandoning ship," Bessent said Wednesday on Newsmax.
As Tim Walz Encourages Resistance, Minnesota ‘ICE Watch’ Declares ‘Time Is Ripe To Embrace Militancy’ — The "ICE Watch" group at the center of the unruly demonstrations gripping Minneapolis urged supporters to "embrace militancy" and escalate their demands "by any means necessary." Hours later, Minnesota governor Tim Walz (D.) also encouraged residents to resist ICE, accusing the agency of carrying out a "campaign of organized brutality."
MN ICE Watch, which describes itself as an "autonomous collective documenting & resisting against ICE, police, & all colonial militarized regimes," shared an Instagram post on Wednesday teaching agitators how to relay "information on police and/or fascist" activity at demonstrations.
The Minnesota Department of Human Services or the Minnesota Department of Education could not have grown that fast on their own, but what they were really doing wasn’t offering new programs announced by Walz, but managing disbursements to politically connected nonprofits, like the ones involved in the scam, which were able to threaten their personnel with the wrath of Attorney General Keith X. Ellison and other local and state officials if they objected to anything.
While Gov. Tim Walz and other officials claimed that they were implementing ‘programs’, what they were actually doing was building political piggy banks for their allies. Fraud was baked in because the real purpose of outsourcing what were supposed to be government programs to third parties was to subsidize the ‘community groups’ that turn out voters for their campaigns.
The nationwide networks of community groups are really a voter outreach and turnout operation for the Democratic Party funded with taxpayer money. For an example of how that worked, consider the role that one single non-profit played in the political careers of Kamala Harris, the former vice president, and Gov. Gavin Newsom, a likely presidential candidate.
Hey, you don't have to be no William Allen White from Emporia KS to know that the aforementioned "ICE Watch" and probably every other crackpot anti-American commie front group is getting tons of taxpayer dough re mi in exchange for fomenting revolution and of course election thievery! Well you can't get the former without first getting the latter, nein?
“I think there are some reasonable members, but basically it will be cutting off again that, you know, constant flow of money that they’ve used to purchase votes through the years,” she told Marlow, “but the attention that the Minnesota fraud scandal has gotten has really given us legs once again. So it will put some of them in a very difficult position, but it’s absolutely necessary to do this.”
A grinning anti-ICE agitator was arrested after she allegedly punched a Florida state trooper during a confrontation with federal agents — drawing a blunt warning from Gov. Ron DeSantis that the Sunshine State “is not Minneapolis.” Jennifer Cruz was arrested outside Mi Pueblo, a Mexican grocery store and meat market in Jacksonville, Tuesday morning after she allegedly jumped out of her car and punched a state trooper in the face while officers were working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a post on X. “Jennifer disagrees with immigration enforcement and decided to commit a few felonies by getting out of her car and punching a trooper in the face,” Uthmeier wrote.
Unlike the infamous Michael Brown of Hands Up Don't Shoot mythology, who slugged police officer Darren Wilson in the face while resisting arrest by attempting to take his gun and shoot the policeman rather than get arrested, and the rest as they say is history - - this filthy degenerate slag just cold-cocked a cop in the face because she knew she could get away with it, despite her fellow Democrat stormtrooper Renee Good getting ventilated last week. After that, law enforcement officers know that they face extermination if they dare do the unthinkable and defend themselves.
It's gotten to the point where Leftists and their mediawhore propagandists are proclaiming that law enforcement doing its job is the real crime and cause of all the violence.
I've had it. I won't be satisfied until Walz's pinhead is on a pike and the Democrat Party and its allies cease to exist or are otherwise removed from the national discourse.
Andrew Breitbart may his memory be for a blessing when he declared "Fuck You, War!" Expressed it perfectly, except the Left have been waging war against us for decades and it is high time WE THE PEOPLE resist, fight back and Win absolute victory. Amen.
Have a great weekend.
And lastly, a quick shout-out and a huge thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.
The Black Panthers are back and threatening to "unalive" ICE agents in honor of the false narratives they worship, which enable them to commit more crimes. Ah, communism! Isn't it swell? Black Panthers In Philly Threaten To *Pew, Pew* ICE Agents
* * * * *
In a late-December ruling, the Eighth Circuit set an example for challenging ideological bullying in public employment. Drawing a Legal Line on DEI Coercion
Jennifer Cruz was arrested outside Mi Pueblo, a Mexican grocery store and meat market in Jacksonville, Tuesday morning after she allegedly jumped out of her car and punched a state trooper in the face while officers were working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a post on X. “Jennifer disagrees with immigration enforcement and decided to commit a few felonies by getting out of her car and punching a trooper in the face,” Uthmeier wrote. Grinning anti-ICE agitator arrested after allegedly punching Florida trooper as DeSantis warns: ‘This is not Minneapolis’
The news comes after an ICE agent fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis when she allegedly tried to use her vehicle as a weapon and run over officers, an incident which leftist groups used to mobilize protesters, whom Brandy Shufutinsky, director of the Education and National Security Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said are “stoking the grievance industry that they built.” Democrats Propose Anti-ICE Bills to Obstruct Crackdown on Illegal Alien Crime
It is demonstrative of how disconnected the Democrat Party is from reality at its top levels. Democrats: ICE Is Just Like The Ayatollahs (If only they compared ICE to the Israeilis! - jjs)
“Birth was not enough. The American rule was no different. Contracts, by definition, are not entered into unilaterally. A lawful residence implies protection. An unlawful residence does not.Most aliens who came to the United States came to stay. Tribal members were excluded.“It was a violation of the law of nations to enter into another country illegally.” True History of Birthright Citizenship
Cui’s arrest highlights ongoing scrutiny around Chinese investment in U.S. territories and raises questions about immigration enforcement and visa policies. ICE Just Detained This Chinese Billionaire.
IRAN ON the BRINK?!
The Lincoln will substantially boost U.S. Central Command’s offensive capabilities in the Middle East, as President Trump warns the Iranian regime that he will intervene to prevent the killing of protesters. WAR? Trump Redeploys Carrier Strike Group to Middle East.
"And we are seeing it come into banks and financial institutions all over the world. And what we do at Treasury is we follow the money, whether it is through the typical banking system or through digital assets. We are going to trace these assets, and they will not be able to keep them," he continued. (Now do Soros and whoever is bankrolling insurrection in MN - jjs) ‘Rats Fleeing the Ship’: Bessent Says Iranian Leadership Is Funneling Millions Out of Country
The ruthless slaughter of anti-government protesters in Iran appears to have stopped — but only because residents are being held hostage in their homes by machine gun-wielding security forces that have flooded the streets, sources told The Post Thursday. After weeks of anti-regime protests across Iran left thousands dead, the mass mobilization of security forces has suppressed the demonstrations, with many too afraid to step foot outside now. “There were tanks out — there’s tanks everywhere,” the source told The Post after speaking to family in Tehran about the current situation. The disturbing reason Iran appears to have stopped slaughtering protesters
Democrats and their media allies have been touting their “Affordability Agenda” strategy since their disastrous loss in November to Trump. The vague term helps paper over deep splits in the Democratic Party, such as elite support for the H-1B visa worker program that has damaged millions of Democratic-leaning college graduates. Democrat Tom Suozzi Says Wage Gains Are Bad for ‘Affordability’
Former Kew Gardens resident Charles Foehner was locked up at the Eric M Taylor Center in the Bronx for his felony gun charges stemming from the May 31, 2023, shooting, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced on Wednesday. The then-65-year-old was returning to his Queens Avenue apartment at around 2 a.m. after buying a pack of cigarettes when he was confronted by a menacing Cody Gonzalez. (Melinda Katz is a vile lefty shit-whore - jjs) Charles Foehner, NYC senior citizen who fatally shot would-be mugger, begins prison sentence for weapons possession
FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH
Yeah, because you're a left-wing hack. You're not a reporter. You're posing in this room as a journalist, and it's so clear by the premise of your question. And you and the people in the media who have such biases but fake like you're a journalist, you shouldn't even be sitting in that seat. But you're pretending like you're a journalist, but you're a left-wing activist. And the question that you just raised and your answer proves your bias. You should be reporting on the facts. MUST WATCH: Karoline Leavitt Destroys MSM 'Journalist' Over ICE Question
POLITICS
The otherwise excellent JD Vance, with his stubborn loyalty to the openly pro-Islamist, antisemitic Tucker Carlson, is raising doubts about his own values. It Will Be Marco Rubio In 2028
Sheahan launched her campaign in a field that has many seeking the GOP nomination for Ohio’s 9th Congressional District. “I’m a Trump conservative running for Congress to protect American jobs, American paychecks and American values,” she said in a post on X. “No excuses. Let’s get this done,” Sheahan added. ICE official resigns to challenge U.S. Rep. Kaptur of Ohio
ISRAEL vs IRAN & GAZA/HAMAS . . . AND LEFTISTS
“They want what everybody else in this world wants — just a good life." Administration Official: “Hamas Wants Peace”(Hamas’ definition of “peace” and “the good life” is every Jew in Israel and on planet Earth dead. - jjs)
Leavitt outlined the president’s vision to reporters during Thursday’s White House press briefing. She stated that the first pillar is “permanently lowering prescription drug prices” by codifying Trump’s most-favored-nations deals with pharmaceutical companies. White House Lays Out ‘Four Commonsense Pillars’ of ‘Great Healthcare Plan’
...based on all the data MRO and other Mars orbiters have been gathering for the past decade, we are almost certainly looking at near-surface ice flowing downhill and past that peak. Martian glacier flowing past small peak
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
“The campaign includes photos and videos of participants wearing exclusive merchandise designed by award-winning fashion designer and ACLU artist ambassador Willy Chavarria,” noted Variety. “The photos were captured by artist and fashion photographer Collier Schorr and videography captured by Sundance award-winning writer and director Alessandra Lacorazza.” WATCH: Megan Rapinoe, Elliot Page, Naomi Watts, Appear in ACLU Ad Supporting Trans Youth (the Witches of Beast-schtick - jjs)
ALSO: The Morning Report cross-posts at CutJibNewsletter.com usually within an hour or so of posting here, if you want to continue the conversation all day.
The fact that you can't actually buy them is clearly a skill issue. Git gud, scrub.
Hardware Unboxed - an Aussie hardware review channel - was planning a market roundup of currently available 5070 Ti models, and reached out to their industry contacts for review cards. There were no review cards to be had anywhere. (YouTube)
Their contacts in the Australian retail market confirmed that there was no stock of the 5070 Ti at distributors at all, echoing recent reports from Germany and Japan. And Asus told them, and subsequently confirmed, that the 5070 Ti was "end-of-life", had ceased production, and would not be restocked.
Then Nvidia... Clarified... That all RTX 5000 series cards are still in production, and Asus walked back earlier comments and agreed that the 5070 Ti is still in production.
Hardware Unboxed requested - again - a review sample. There has been no response as yet.
Good luck with that. The 8GB 9060 XT seems to have bounced back up from its recent low price - it was briefly selling below MSRP - but it and the three 16GB cards (9060 XT, 9070, and 9070 XT) are all in stock. As is the 32GB 9700, though that model is quite expensive.
It worked like most so-called "Prompt Injection" vulnerabilities: It asked the AI for your data, and the AI helpfully handed it over because it has less self-interest than the average mycoplasma.
This particular instance has been patched, but it was active in the wild for four months before Microsoft took action. This is why even people who use AI tools are up in arms about Microsoft integrating it directly into their operating system.
Answers to questions like "How do I do it?", "Does it have pictures of Sydney Sweeney?", and "You're not recording this are you? Stop recording right now!"
It's a cheaper version of the N5 with a plastic rather than metal case, but otherwise almost identical. Apart from five 3.5" drive bays, it has room for three M.2 SSDs (with two running only at PCIe 4.0 x1 speed and one at x2), and includes a Ryzen 255 CPU, room for two DDR5 SODIMM modules (none as standard, so beware of that), and a whole lot of ports: OCuLink, two USB4 ports, 10Gb and 5Gb Ethernet, three USB3 10Gb ports, and HDMI. One of those USB3 ports is inside the system to host a boot device so that you can dedicate all the drives to data.
Top spot goes to the Apple Mac Mini M4 Pro. With 64GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD, though, it costs more than three times as much as the same configuration for the Minisforum AI X1 at #5. (They list the 32GB model, but I bought the 64GB model.)
We use only the finest baby frogs, dew-picked and flown from Iraq, cleansed in the finest quality spring water, lightly killed, and sealed in a succulent, Swiss, quintuple-smooth, treble-milk chocolate envelope, and lovingly frosted with glucose.
And what is this one: Spring Surprise?
Ah, that's one of our specialities. Covered in dark, velvety chocolate, when you pop it into your mouth, stainless steel bolts spring out and plunge straight through both cheeks.
Everything I ordered during my definitely not drunken New Years Eve shopping spree has now shipped.
The SSDs doubled in price and the memory tripled the next day. I do need to pick up an AM4 CPU to use it all - the motherboard is on its way - but those are cheap and readily available.
Musical Interlude
Disclaimer: This graphics card has rung down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!
Engaged to be wed this month, a young Texan wrangled the support of an entire preschool class to throw his fiancée a surprise bridal shower.
Walking into her preschool class at Shlenker school in Houston, Zoe Kampf was surprised by a troupe of children dressed in floral garlands and bow ties who handed her a tiara and a sash.
In the middle of it all was her hubby-to-be, Sean Folloder, in the very room where he had first met his beloved.
“When I walked in, I was really surprised,” Kampf told the Jewish Herald-Voice. “They had cookies and decorated the classroom. They gave me a sash and a veil and crown. It was really cute.”
Over the decades, a glacier in Central Asia appears to have been growing when almost every other glacier on Earth has been shrinking.
Now, a scientific expedition has recovered ice cores containing 30,000 years of frozen water in the hopes that somewhere inside lies some indication of how we can help these rivers of ice survive as the planet warms.
Located in the Pamir Mountains, the Kon-Chukurbashi high-altitude ice cap in Tajikistan defies convention. While a substantial number of glaciers have completely disappeared, it has grown in size, and scientists want to know how and why.
You don't need to check out the whole thing. But it is a hoot to still see these climate doomers before they go the way of the dodo.
On January 6th, the District Court of Overijssel, in the Netherlands, invalidated a wedding ceremony held in April of last year in the city of Zwolle. Despite the married couple’s pleas, the Court decided that their marriage had never legally existed because the wording of their wedding speeches, which had been generated by ChatGPT, did not include certain mandatory phrases.
The Dutch couple had appointed a friend to officiate as a temporary civil registrar, known as an eendagsbabs in the Netherlands, and he decided to have ChatGPT generate more romantic and informal speeches for the newlyweds. The bot came up with a more relaxed version of the usual wedding speech, but one that did not include a mandatory declaration.
Using ChatGPT to devise your wedding speech? Asshoes!
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Only 11 years for our Wednesday ONT host to finish growing up?
An analysis of growth rings in the leg bones of 17 Tyrannosaurus rex individuals reveals that the dinosaurs matured much more slowly than previously thought, and adds to the evidence that they weren't all one species
The largest-ever analysis of Tyrannosaurus rex fossils suggests the giant and fierce Cretaceous predator was a late bloomer, taking 35 to 40 years to reach maturity.
The findings also further the debate about whether there were several T. rex species instead of just one and whether smaller specimens, once thought to be juveniles, are in fact a more diminutive species called Nanotyrannus.
Americans love driving fast cars fast. It’s the mystique of white-knuckling a sports car to its limit that made the German autobahn and Paul Walker famous.
An Arizona lawmaker wants to give drivers the green light to drive as fast as they deem “reasonable and prudent” on some of the state’s long, straight stretches of paved road, saying the lack of a speed limit will actually reduce deadly crashes. A traffic safety advocate said the bill invites catastrophic wrecks that could lead to higher insurance premiums for the state’s slowpokes.
Probably good arguments against this, but it sounds kinda kewl to me!
Kraftwerk agrees
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DJ Doof - Guess The Theme
Easy peasy! Difficulty level 1 out of 5
What's the common thread / common meaning / common leitmotif?
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Tousi TV: The Iran Strike Is Coming; US Has Delayed Because Israel Needed More Time to Prepare for Iran's Retaliatory Strikes, and US Needed More Troops In the Area
—Ace
According to Mayhar Tousi, Trump has not called off the strike.
But action has been delayed because:
1, Israel asked the US to give it more time to prepare for Iran's inevitable ICBM barrage on Israel. I will add that I've heard scuttlebutt that Iran might launch dirty bombs, using up their enriched uranium to make Israel radioactive.
2, Tucker Carlson's patrons in Qatar have forbidden us to use our own base in that country for the attack. So... it's not our base then is it?
3, the military wants more assets in theater for the attack. Given that we can't use the base in Tucker Carlson's future homeland of Qatar, it makes it more important that the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier be in theater to launch planes. I believe that's sailing from the Pacific towards Iran.
I've heard rumors that the attack is still on, too.
I think Trump's statements about Iran having stopped massacring civilians could be an attempt to get Iran to stop killing them, because he needs more time to prep the attack, and he would like Iran to kill as few civilians as possible while we're forced to wait.
Tousi offers more rumors. He says there are claims that the government is dividing up between the Regime and those plotting to overthrow the Regime. He says that, according to rumor, the former president and former foreign minister have both been arrested by the Revolutionary Guard for plotting against the government. They have not been seen in days, so it's possible.
Team Trump and Senator Lindsey Graham have pushed back hard on reports claiming the U.S. told Iran it would not strike.
The White House dismissed the story as false, with Graham calling the headlines “beyond inaccurate” and stressing that President Trump’s resolve against the… pic.twitter.com/jgrmxjYMz3
Who's Funding the Domestic Terrorist and Insurrectionary Groups in the US? Why, George Soros, the Ford Foundation, and Democrat Dark Money Groups, Of Course
We don't tolerate insurrection in this country. And we don't tolerate anyone who tolerates insurrection.
Right?
That's why it was justified to hound people who had merely been in chat groups with J6 "paraders," right?
Jessica Costescu and Chuck Ross
January 14, 2026
When the Trump administration sent some 2,000 immigration agents to the Twin Cities area, they were met by activists who trailed their movements and harassed them outside their hotels. The activists are members of radical groups that together have received millions of dollars from the Left's premier foundations and dark money networks, including George Soros's Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, the Tides Foundation, and the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a Washington Free Beacon review found.
At the center of the unrest is the Sunrise Movement, a left-wing group founded to fight climate change that has since directed its local chapters to fight the Trump administration. For Sunrise Twin Cities, that means tormenting ICE agents on the ground. The group holds in-person "action trainings" on how to "stop ICE & build a revolution." It also maintains a running list of the Twin Cities hotels housing ICE agents and organizes late-night "noise demonstrations" aimed at making it "impossible" for those hotels to operate.
Sunrise is bankrolled by a who's who of deep-pocketed left-wing organizations. Open Society Foundations has sent it $2 million since 2019, according to its grant database. Half of the money supported general "social welfare activities." The Ford Foundation contributed $150,000 in 2024 and $550,000 in 2025, while the MacArthur Foundation--the 12th-largest private charity in America--gave $250,000 in 2024, according to tax filings and grant disclosures. Sunrise says it generally rejects "checks that come with expectations of input on our strategy." It also says donations go to support its local chapters with "materials, housing, technology, food, travel, training expenses, and more."
Sunrise Twin Cities has collaborated with two other local groups to drive anti-ICE demonstrations: Unidos MN and Defend the 612.
Unidos, an "immigrant-led, BIPOC majority, multiracial, state-wide organization," leads a "rapid response" network through its affiliate group, Monarca. That network includes a 24/7 hotline that Twin Cities residents can call to report ICE activity. The group's trained "responders" are then dispatched to the area in an attempt to prevent ICE agents from making arrests. Like Sunrise, Unidos is backed by the Ford Foundation, which sent the group $400,000 in 2024. The left-wing dark money juggernaut Sixteen Thirty Fund sent Unidos $150,000 between 2021 and 2022, tax filings show.
Defend the 612 offers similar "ICE Watch Welcome & Orientation" trainings for those in the Twin Cities interested in "documenting ICE activity." It also offers "Community Response Resources" that provide guidance on "Tracking Federal Agents." This includes a list of known ICE vehicles operating in the Twin Cities--or a list of "License Plates of Abductors," as Defend the 612 describes federal immigration agents. The group accepts donations through Cooperation Cannon River, a Minneapolis-based "social and environmental justice" nonprofit that has received funding from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, the left-wing dark money giant Tides Foundation, and the Solutions Project, a grantmaking organization founded by actor Mark Ruffalo.
Another group that operates its own ICE sighting hotline, Copal MN, has received $50,000 from the Tides Foundation and an additional $185,000 from the Sixteen Thirty Fund.
The groups' funding sources underscore the extent to which Democratic billionaires prop up some of the more radical left-wing activism across the country.
...
Good's wife, Becca Good, was on the scene and told Good to "drive" as the agents approached the SUV. Becca Good reportedly followed an Instagram page, "MN Ice Watch," that describes itself as an "autonomous collective documenting & resisting against ICE, police, & all colonial militarized regimes."
Last June, the page posted training slides that it described as a "basic introduction to de-arresting," a tactic in which activists pressure police to release arrestees. One slide calls for "totally surrounding the officers who have the arrestee or otherwise blocking them and/or their vehicle and chanting 'Let them go!' and the like until the LEOs [law enforcement officers] cave to the mounting pressure." A second slide calls for "pulling and pushing an officer off of an arrestee and/or breaking their grip on an arrestee," a move the slide says is "probably the most risky as it requires physical contact with an officer."
The illustration clearly shows one of the "de-arresters" about to hit the cop over the head, though -- probably on advice of lawyers -- the text claims that an "assault" merely could happen.
NEW: amid ongoing tension between Minnesota and Trump admin, DHS is calling on Gov. Walz & Mayor Frey to co-operate with 1,360 detainers of criminal illegal aliens after DHS says MN already released 470 criminal illegal aliens onto streets.
"Governor Walz and Mayor Frey REFUSE to cooperate with ICE law enforcement and have released nearly 470 criminal illegal aliens back onto the streets of Minneapolis. We are calling on Walz and Frey to stop this dangerous policy and commit to honoring the ICE arrest detainers of the more than 1,360 criminal illegal aliens in Minnesota's custody," said Assistant Secretary @TriciaOhio. "It is common sense. Criminal illegal aliens should not be released back onto our streets to terrorize more innocent Americans."
Leny Odemel Ramirez-Santos, a criminal illegal alien from Honduras charged with sex offense against a child -- fondling and driving under the influence of liquor.
Edwin Amable Ashca Ninasuta, a criminal illegal alien from Ecuador with charges for lewd or lascivious acts with a minor.
Lenda Neh Mama Epse George, a criminal illegal alien from Cameroon with charges for cruelty toward a child and domestic violence.
German Adriano Llangari Inga, a criminal illegal alien from Ecuador charged with homicide -- negligent manslaughter with a vehicle and driving under the influence of liquor.
Puol Both, a criminal illegal alien from Sudan convicted of making terroristic threats, burglary, first-degree aggravated robbery, and larceny.
Somsalao Thonesavanh, a criminal illegal alien from Laos convicted of drug trafficking and selling a synthetic narcotic.
NEW: amid ongoing tension between Minnesota and Trump admin, DHS is calling on Gov. Walz & Mayor Frey to co-operate with 1,360 detainers of criminal illegal aliens after DHS says MN already released 470 criminal illegal aliens onto streets.
Minneapolis Mayor and Insurrectionist Jacob Frey Justifes Attacking ICE Agents, Saying Hitting Federal Agents With Shovels Is Just "Defending Our Neighbors"
So, if a group of Republicans throws rocks at Minneapolis, Minnesota Mayor Jacob Frey's SUV while his driver carts him around to "Protect Their Neighbors" from his dangerous policies, no problem, right @Jacob_Frey?
Frey does not share the values of his Republican constituents. Do they, then, have a justification for using violence against him?
The left never answers this question. Or rather, they avoid it by simply saying "that's different."
But it's not different. When they say "it's different" what they really mean is that they consider themselves to be the ruling class with rights the plebeians -- you and me -- simply do not have. They don't have to answer "do the plebeians have the same right as the patricians" because of course they don't.
But we do not agree that we are plebeians and they are patricians. We, in fact, are starting to doubt that they should even have rights at all. They're simply too stupid, too immoral, and too mentally ill to be full citizens.
Their whole claim relies on us accepting the idea that we are inferior untermenschen who may be attacked by our "superiors" when our "superiors" decide that we've become unruly.
And they're convincing me that we too should adopt the same position about our clear inferiors.
Below, a Minnesota state senator also justifies attacking federal agents.
This is Fort Sumter stuff.
🚨 State Sen. Bobby Joe Champion (D) says last night's vicious assault of an ICE agent "is just an example of Minnesota being a place where we help our neighbors."
CNN: If they used weapons to attack the officer, would that change your opinion?
Mentally-ill women are apparently not getting the "support" they demand from their male partners, who are telling them, correctly if inadvisedly, that they're "overreacting."
Suddenly men are to be the "protectors" and "leaders" -- but it's a strange kind of "leadership" they want from men.
They want men to "lead" by obeying their mentally-ill wives.
And when they say they want their men to "protect" them, what they really mean is that they want men to literally go to war with the government and die as martyrs while these unfuckable fat-asses sit on their couches at home typing revolutionary rhetoric on Redit.
All of a sudden the big, strong, independent women of the country are looking to their husbands for protection and leadership.
Imagine that.
The same people who degrade and blame men for everything are now looking for a hero to tell that that everything is going to be okay.… pic.twitter.com/r5MyK71ch6
Paramount's "Landman" Takes on Fragile SJW Pronoun Sissies; Newest, Gayest Star Trek Ever Crashes In Ratings
—Ace
Emily Juniper 🇺🇸🇦🇺 𝕩
@emilyjuniper_
Jan 13
🚨Paramount's Landman just put the pronoun debate in a chokehold. Ainsley Norris nails it: "Using a plural pronoun for one person is just kind of incorrect."
TCU Counselor: "Says who?"
Ainsley Norris: "Well, the English language."
The world is healing
I know someone who's watching it. She told me that liberal women are attacking the show for failing to write liberal women accurately. (Landman's wife is an AWFL.) She said no, the show does write liberal women completely accurately -- you just don't like seeing yourselves represented honestly.
The show apparently doesn't have much use for liberal women:
LOL! The Landman absolutely roasts The View in hilarious scene.
Sam Elliott: "What's The View?"
Billy Bob Thornton: "A bunch of pissed off millionaires bitching about how much they hate millionaires and Trump and men and you and me."pic.twitter.com/6UYh7Frj78
NO WAY: President Trump just posted this legendary clip from the Paramount+ hit show Landman, where Tommy Norris schools a lawyer on why oil is essential and windmills are costly and horrible for the environment. pic.twitter.com/wNnoGIS0Le
The early performance of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is shaping up to be a serious warning sign for Paramount+, with the show's free YouTube premiere delivering alarmingly weak engagement numbers that undercut the platform's entire conversion strategy and marked the show as a flop from the get-go.
The Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premiere flop is already difficult to ignore. Paramount made the unusual decision to launch the series premiere for free on YouTube--typically a move designed to entice casual viewers and convert them into paid subscribers. But if the goal was to build momentum, the results so far suggest the opposite happened.
The premiere episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy debuted on YouTube with a live premiere that peaked at roughly 1,300 concurrent viewers.
In the 11 hours following its release, the episode accumulated approximately 16,000 total views--numbers that would be underwhelming for a mid-tier fan upload, let alone a flagship franchise entry from a major studio.
Or are they? Carlson and Owens barely pretend to be Trump supporters, and Nick Fuentes urged his "Groyper" followers to vote for Kamala Harris.
"Grandma Groyper" Megyn Kelly, meanwhile, just supports whatever position she thinks is hot with the TikTok generation this week.
President Trump had a resounding no for any antisemites claiming to be part of the Republican Party or his MAGA movement.
"I think we don't need them," he told The New York Times in an interview. "I think we don't like them."
His comments, made in a Wednesday interview but published on Sunday, came after a series of high profile ultra-conservative figures have made controversial comments about the Jewish people and antisemitic speech has split Republicans.
Trump said: "I condemn" antisemitism.
He said he's an ally of Israel and was awarded its Israel Prize, considered the country's highest honor.
...
"My daughter happens to be Jewish, beautiful, three grandchildren are Jewish," he said. "I'm very proud of them. I'm very proud of the whole, that whole family. I am the least antisemitic person probably there is anywhere in the world."
But the Republican Party has been roiled by series controversies that have garnered wide-spread public attention.
A group of young Republican leaders, in the fall, were revealed to praise Adolf Hitler in a series of chat groups.
And the Heritage Foundation, a premier conservative think tank in Washington DC, was roiled by a staff outcry after President Kevin Roberts defended a far-right figure who made anti-semitic remarks.
Roberts sparked the wave of resignations among the think tank after defending Tucker Carlson for interviewing Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes on his platform.
The pipeline of lies from the Nazi sewer to Matt Gaetz’s show is as short as a Botox needle. pic.twitter.com/Ywv2bsRMz7
— David Reaboi, Late Republic Nonsense (@davereaboi) January 14, 2026
Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson argues that Russia would be within its rights to nuke Germany and UK over peevishness that their invasion of Ukraine was slowed down.
As you consider this claim, recall that Tucker Carlson recently attacked the US for having dropped two nukes on Japan during WWII, once again using his (claimed) religion to justify his position.
You see, it was "demonic" for the US to use nukes.
But for his Russian friends? It's justifiable.
Tucker Carlson has described nuclear weapons as "demonic" and "prima facie evil," questioning the moral justification for the atomic bombings of Japan on civilians
.
His specific comments on the issue include:
"Demonic" forces and no upside: In a November 2024 discussion, Carlson stated that nuclear weapons are "demonic, there's no upside to them at all," and suggested that the forces involved in their creation "were not human forces obviously".
"Prima facie evil": During an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in early 2024, Carlson argued that it is "wrong to drop nuclear weapons on people" and labeled the act of defending the use of atomic bombs on civilians as "prima facie evil".
Questioning historical justification: He has questioned the common argument that the bombings saved lives by preventing a mainland invasion of Japan, suggesting this justification is a "mindless and childish intellectual exercise".
In Tucker land, the US dropping nukes to end a world war and save millions of lives was an unjustifiable, unforgivable act.
But Russia threatening to nuke Europe over a regional war they started is perfectly reasonable and not worthy of immediate condemnation.
Nick Shirley digs deeper: the taxi scam propping up welfare fraud
In his latest on-the-ground video, conservative journalist Nick Shirley turns his attention squarely to taxpayer-funded taxi operations in Minneapolis, zeroing in on Somali-run transportation companies paid through Medicaid to ferry low-income and medically vulnerable residents to appointments, government offices, and essential services.
This time, Shirley documents visits to multiple listed business addresses that are supposed to be operating taxi services.
What he finds instead are empty or questionable locations and angry confrontations--plenty of shouting, but no paperwork, schedules, vehicles, or proof that legitimate transportation services are actually being provided to Minnesotans footing the bill.
"These transportation companies are what hold all the aid and welfare fraud together," Shirley says in the video, arguing that the taxi operations act as the connective tissue linking fraudulent daycare centers, adult care programs, and healthcare providers.
According to Shirley, the coordination between these entities creates the appearance of legitimate services while enabling mass billing of Medicaid.
His colleague David Hoch puts it more bluntly: "We're shining the light on the fraud, and they have no defense."
The taxi focus has also prompted new firsthand accounts from locals.
In one TikTok video now circulating widely, a former drug addict claims Somali taxi drivers paid him simply to sign ride receipts--documents later used to bill Medicaid--allowing drivers to collect taxpayer money for trips that never happened.
As Shirley's taxi-focused investigation spread, Minnesota's political and media establishment began quietly conceding what watchdogs have warned about for years.
The Minnesota Star Tribune acknowledged that non-emergency medical transportation--including taxi services--has long been vulnerable to fraud, citing industry insiders who say alarms have been ignored.
Scott Isaacson, president of the Minnesota R-80 Transportation Coalition, told the paper that people working in the transportation sector have "been ringing the fraud bell for quite some time," pointing to repeated abuses baked into the system.
State data underscores the scale.
Minnesota Department of Human Services records show Medicaid transportation billings climbing from roughly $80 million in 2018 to more than $115 million by 2024, before dipping last year to about $88 million.
The concerns aren't new.
More than 15 years ago, Minnesota's Office of the Legislative Auditor warned that the state exercised "little statewide oversight" over medical transportation, including taxi services, allowing excessive mileage, unnecessary trips, and weak authorization controls.
It's almost as if Democrats deliberately make it impossible to verify if these charges are real.
...
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking with conservative activist Christopher Rufo earlier this month, indicated investigators are deliberately building a sweeping fraud, kickback, and racketeering case tied to Minnesota's Democrat political apparatus.
"My personal motto, and the Treasury motto, is move deliberately and fix things," Bessent said on the podcast. "You're not going to see headlines tomorrow. You're not going to see them next week, but in a month, or a quarter, once we get people in the bear trap, they're not getting out because we will have conclusive evidence to present."
Bessent suggested prosecutors expect plea deals that force lower-level players to flip on those higher up the chain, allowing investigators to map how the system operated and who benefited.
"I think that they will have to make plea deals ... to turn in higher-ups to help us map out how this happened," he said.
And Minnesota, he added, is only the starting point.
"We're going to take this Minnesota strategy map to the other 49 states."
Below, Somali "businesses" paid by the taxpayer to supposedly ferry sick people to doctors turn out to have no vehicles and no parking lots. In one case, they found a bunch of vehicles -- which you paid for -- but those vehicles haven't been moved for six months.
They find no signs of legitimate taxi services, but they do find a lot of Somali thugs physically menacing them.
David at a FRAUDULENT Minnesota transportation company: “None of these vehicles have moved in 8 months. I’ve been taking date stamp photos—all these vehicles are in the exact spot they were 8 months ago.”
“Look, there are no tire tracks, so they haven’t moved.”
🚨 After my last video exposing over $110 Million in fraud Tim Walz dropped his run for reelection and multiple federal investigations were launched to stop fraud across the country. In this 51 minute video David and I expose another $16 Million in fraud as Minnesota welfare… pic.twitter.com/p5r6BDXqsK
🚨 BREAKING: A TSA whistleblower exposed to Nick Shirley that he WATCHED Somalis send millions of dollars in *cash* through the airport on a weekly basis via suitcases
$6M PER WEEK.
"There was always 2 individuals traveling. So you would have maybe one guy with $2.2 million and another guy with $3 million."
"Our hands were kind of tied. We couldn't do a whole lot. We would rack our heads all the time like, where are they getting this?!"
"Where in the world are they getting this money? And I had heard about these daycares and whatnot, but I mean, I thought at the time, okay, maybe they had 10 daycares but apparently they have a lot more than that!"
"Millions. Literally millions and millions. I mean, we're talking for a good 5-6 years you're talking...$5-6M per week!" @nickshirleyy
🚨 BREAKING: A TSA whistleblower exposed to Nick Shirley that he WATCHED Somalis send millions of dollars in *cash* through the airport on a weekly basis via suitcases
$6M PER WEEK.
"There was always 2 individuals traveling. So you would have maybe one guy with $2.2 million and… pic.twitter.com/IokrYEMNzV
This is an organized and well funded insurrection. Why isn’t federal government treating it 1/10,000,000th as seriously as they treated J6? https://t.co/DiMteGhBbL
🚨 BREAKING: Anti-ICE rioters tied a TOW ROPE to a weapons locker in a federal vehicle and RIPPED IT OUT with a pickup truck, as Minneapolis PD REFUSED to respond
President Trump and his merry band of realists have dumped the conventional paradigm squarely on its head.
The United States does not need an endless supply of immigrants the way we did in the 19th century. We do not need farmers and factory workers to work the physical expansion of the country. We do not need to expand our domestic markets by importing new consumers, nor do we have the infrastructure to support those additional people.
But that convention was subverted anyway by the deeply unpatriotic Immigration Act of 1965: rejecting our traditional immigrants in favor of new ones who had no tradition of hard work, individualism, education, and self reliance. No, they began to import big-government loving 3rd worlders whose arrival coincided with the destruction of the traditional American dream of family, marriage, religion, and home ownership.
And of course they made welfare an integral part of government, so these newcomers would vote early and often for the government teat.
Well, Donald Trump & Company seem to be tired of that system, and have turned off the spigot!
The United States experienced negative net migration in 2025 for the first time in more than five decades as the Trump administration continues a sweeping crackdown on immigration.
In a report released Tuesday by the Brookings Institution, the shift was driven by a combination of stepped-up immigration enforcement, removals of illegal immigrants, voluntary departures, but most significantly a sharp decline in new entries into the country over the past year.
And the President has managed this in spite of a rabid 5th column in his own party that wants to keep the gravy train of never-ending cheap labor running for a little while longer.
The real question is: How many people do we need in this country, and what kind of people should they be? That conventional paradigm says that even asking the question is vile and racist, and the asker should be banished to the nether reaches. But our country asked that question for a few hundred years, and we know the answer. In fact we have a wonderful template for immigration...it's called "America Before the 1965 Immigration Act!"
But for the foreseeable future a negative migration rate is just the ticket. It will moderate housing costs, it will improve the employment opportunities for Americans, it will decrease our welfare and medical costs, it will decrease crime in America.
So what is the downside? That's a serious question!
[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter and X/Twitter]. If you folks who are on X/Twitter would follow us it would be much appreciated!
Good morning kids. With Iran on the brink of at long last toppling the bloodthirsty Islamic regime and Nicolas Maduro behind bars, what comes next for the long suffering Venezuelan and Persian people remains a mystery.
As we discussed on the latest episode of the podcast linked here and in the sidebar as well as available on the popular outlets listed at the bottom of this post, so long as American boots on the ground are not in the cards, we stand firmly with the people and with all responsible small "d" democratic forces who will or will try to establish a stable and benign government that poses no threat to their citizenry and the wider world. With that there are unconfirmed reports that President Trump is indeed preparing for some sort of military strike on the Mullahs. Let's hope it's massive, quick and decapitates the regime allowing for the swift takeover of the government by non-Islamic opposition who can consolidate power and restore order ASAP. Pollyanna-ish of me? Maybe, but the mullahs have got to go.
With that, and with all the talk of President Trump reviving and reinvigorating a heretofore moribund Monroe Doctrine abroad, considering what's going on here at home, I think it's about time that the Insurrection Act is dusted off and wielded like a terrible swift sword against the cancer that has been eating us alive for over 200 years: The Democrat Party and those who use it as cover to destroy us from within. Unreal yet all too real.
An illegal Venezuelan migrant was shot in the leg by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis after he allegedly fled during a traffic stop and beat the “ambushed” officer with a snow shovel Wednesday evening, the Department of Homeland Security said.
The suspect was behind the wheel when he tried to get away from federal immigration officers at around 6:50 p.m. local time, but he crashed into a parked car, according to DHS.
The migrant then tried to escape on foot and “violently assault[ed] the officer” as the two wrestled on the ground, according to an X post from the agency. While the man continued to struggle with the officer, two other people emerged from a nearby apartment and allegedly mercilessly attacked the agent with a snow shovel and broom handle, the department said. In the chaos, the Venezuelan migrant was able to wriggle out of the officer’s hold and also allegedly started striking him “with a shovel or broom stick,” according to the post. The officer, “fearing for his life,” shot the Venezuelan man in the leg, DHS said.
The wounded migrant and the two alleged attackers then fled into the apartment and barricaded themselves inside, according to the agency. Federal agents were eventually able to get inside and apprehended all three individuals.
The officer and the injured suspect were both taken to a nearby hospital, and the two attackers were taken into custody, DHS said. . . KARE reported that federal agents swarmed around North Lyndale Avenue and 25th Avenue, which is near a 21-acre park, just before 8 p.m. local time.
A photographer with the outlet observed at least one ambulance leaving the area.
Angry protesters later swarmed the shooting scene and began hurling fireworks at police officers, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at a late-night press briefing. Cops tossed tear gas canisters at the protesters in response.
“The crowd is engaging in unlawful acts,” O’Hara said.
“I urge anyone who is at the scene to leave immediately. This is already a very tense situation and we do not need this to escalate any further,” the chief added.
Mayor Jacob Frey also slammed the destructive protesters — claiming they were taking President Trump’s “bait.” . . . The shooting comes just one week after Renee Nicole Good, 37, was gunned down by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross after she allegedly tried to “weaponize” her vehicle against federal agents at a protest near her Minneapolis home.
Wait, The President is "baiting the protesters?" More accurately, they are not protesters but terrorists interfering with law enforcement doing its duty to protect the citizenry and arrest criminals, illegal aliens and criminal illegal aliens. The unmitigated chutzpocritical gall of Frey is off the charts as it is he and his ilk that have labeled the President as literally Hitler and ICE as the equivalent of the Gestapo.
Anyone who uses their car, a snow shovel, a molotov cocktail and even firearms against law enforcement deserves to be dealt with and should be met with lethal force.
If we're going to target tyranny, instead of IRGC barracks and command and control installations, maybe the President should be targeting the DNC, the Soros HQ, Ford Foundation and so on and so on.
Wednesday on MS NOW’s “Deadline,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said chances were “high” that America could lose its democracy between now and next November. Murphy said, “I think that the president’s first just trying to make people stay home, trying to make ordinary citizens fear going out on the streets. But that doesn’t seem to be working, given the number of people that are turning out in these special elections, the number of people that are turning out for protests. So now, possibly he takes a look at the elections itself. Maybe he does try to take voting machines in a state where his candidate lost a close election. Maybe he goes in ahead of time and tries to use the military in order to take control of polling places. We’re going to have to, you know, have an army of lawyers unfortunately ready to be able to make sure that the Constitution is protected headed into this next election. We’ll be ready. The Supreme Court is probably going to have a role to play here. By and large, they have sided with this totalitarian takeover, but there will probably be a seminal case before the court between now and November where they’ll be asked, Can Trump federalize these elections, or can he not? That will be maybe one of the most dispositive moments as we try to make sure that he doesn’t, transparently rig the elections.” He added, “I do believe that this is the most serious threat to democracy since the Civil War. I think that we are at a 5050 moment right now. I think the chances are high that we could lose our democracy between now and next November. And so I want there to be a level of urgency out in America. I’m sometimes frustrated about the lack of urgency that some of my colleagues show, internally, about this moment. But I am actually optimistic because I have seen the American people refuse to be bullied into silence.”
I pray every night and day that Chris Murphy's "DEMOCRACY" has a kryptonite stake driven into its black heart of darkness and goes straight to hell for all time. I want my constitutional Republic as founded restored!
I wasn't going to quote Murphy, the filthy scumbag, but evil must be stared in the face and confronted head on if we are to defeat it.
And if the midterms do go our way, Even if we squeak out a win in just one race for dogcatcher somewhere, the Democrat terrorism will be off the charts.
Have a great day.
And lastly, a quick shout-out and a huge thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.
And there it is. Forget all the news stories about righteous indignation over the plight of illegal invaders to America, many of whom have violent criminal records. The “ICE observer” army of mostly liberal white women does not care about any of that. All they know is they hate men and most of the ICE officers are men. Case closed. Man-Hating Anti-ICE ‘Observer’ Says Quiet Part Out Loud About Why She Does It
“The State Department will pause immigrant visa processing from 75 countries whose migrants take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates,” the State Department wrote in a statement. “The freeze will remain active until the U.S. can ensure that new immigrants will not extract wealth from the American people.” State Department Freezes Visas for Welfare-Dependent Migrants from 75 Countries
Proposed by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, as an amendment to an appropriations package considered by the House for the 2026 fiscal year, the measure sought to cut the budgets of the D.C. District Court and Court of Appeals by 20 percent. Roy cited the D.C. courts’ overreaching activism in stifling President Trump’s policy agenda as the reason for the amendment during a floor speech ahead of the vote. 46 House Republicans Help Democrats Defeat Measure Defunding ‘Activist’ Judges Boasberg, Boardman (GOP = Grifting Oleaginous Parasites - jjs)
Trump is currently requesting the Supreme Court review and overturn the $5 million defamation verdict, citing “indefensible evidentiary rulings” made by the district court. E. Jean Carroll Asks Supreme Court to Reject Trump’s Defamation Appeal. (why hasn't this sick cvnt been countersued into oblivion?! - jjs)
FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH
Bondi wrote, “This past week, at the request of the Department of War, the Department of Justice and FBI executed a search warrant at the home of a Washington Post journalist who was obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor. The leaker is currently behind bars. I am proud to work alongside Secretary Hegseth on this effort. The Trump Administration will not tolerate illegal leaks of classified information that, when reported, pose a grave risk to our Nation’s national security and the brave men and women who are serving our country.” Bondi: DOJ, FBI Execute Search Warrant of Washington Post Journalist Who Reported Classified Information
What that means in practice is, London's Office of Communications (Ofcom) will mandate on-device software able to read everybody's "private" messages in real-time, and scan their images, too, before any personal encryption tools come into play. Big Brother Britain: ALL YOUR TEXTS ARE BELONG TO US!
RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, DEMOCRAT-LEFT WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS,
Aside from EPA’s concerns about a technology whose centerpiece is the injection of vast amounts of a criteria pollutant into the stratosphere, there are other reasons to be worried about solar geoengineering. What if the technology actually succeeded in blocking sunlight? Blocking The Sun: The Folly Of Solar Geoengineering
Pennsylvania’s power crisis is no longer theoretical: PJM’s latest auction shows deep shortages, soaring prices, and a state losing new generation to neighbors with clearer, faster rules. The Grid Is Warning Pennsylvania
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the Title X grants to the nation’s largest abortion provider in December, Politico reported. The administration had frozen the funds last spring. Officials blocked approximately $27.5 million in grants as part of a probe into diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at organizations receiving federal dollars, The Boston Pilot reported. ACLU Drops Lawsuit After Trump Admin Restored Millions In Funding To Planned Parenthood
Former state state Sen. Colton Moore (R) responded to the controls, saying, “Ultimately what Savannah was doing was regulating citizens’ right to have a gun in their car…Their car was getting broken into, and they were going from a victim of a crime now to being a criminal. And that’s what we don’t want to happen going forward.” Georgia Bill Allows Citizens to Sue Local Governments over Gun Control
DEMOCRAT/LEFTIST AND RINO SCANDALS, MESHUGAS, CHUTZPOCRISY
After weeks of waiting for the federal panel’s decision on the major case, the judges released a 117-page file revealing in a 2-1 vote that they denied the plaintiffs’ arguments that the maps were drawn to favor Hispanics in certain districts. After the lawsuit was quickly filed after election results rolled in, the case was brought forward to U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton, U.S. Circuit Judge Kenneth K. Lee and U.S. District Judge Wesley L. Hsu to request a temporary restraining order by Dec. 19. Federal Judges Give Green Light To California’s Gerrymandered Maps
Former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron is leading the Republican Senate primary against Republican Kentucky Rep. Andy Barr and businessman Nate Morris, capturing 40% of surveyed voters and holding an advantage among both men and women across all age groups, according to a poll commissioned on behalf of Kentucky First Action, a Cameron-aligned Super PAC. EXCLUSIVE: Heated Race To Replace Mitch McConnell Still Has Clear Frontrunner, New Poll Shows
Walz was still prepared to forge ahead where no political clown had gone before as late as the fall and run for a third term as governor. Tim Walz can't leave Minnesota politics soon enough (He can't depart this world soon enough - jjs)
A decent number of leftist counties are getting sick of being a part of leftist states. (I think the author meant conservative counties - jjs) text
The president announced the policy after two weeks of protests in the country calling for an end to the brutal Islamist regime, which has responded with widespread violence that, some estimates suggest, has killed as many as 3,000 people. The “supreme leader” of Iran, 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has since said in public remarks that it is the democratically elected Trump administration, and not his regime, that is on the verge of collapse, and Khamenei’s underlings have insisted that the regime has the country “under control.” China Fumes at Trump’s Iran Tariffs After Losing Access to Venezuelan Oil
The balance in great power competition is measured not only in its contestants’ strength, but because the accompanying and often derivative effects—international influence, economic pre-eminence, technological innovation—succor a global climate that is either friendly or hostile to differing and opposing political ends: China and Russia exemplify the latter. A Trump doctrine that aims at nullifying the most dangerous threats to U.S. security would help accomplish this. The Trump Doctrine
ALSO: The Morning Report cross-posts at CutJibNewsletter.com usually within an hour or so of posting here, if you want to continue the conversation all day.
Because, to quote the founder of Hypixel Sudios, "The game is unfinished and runs on a build from over four years ago. Charging more didn't feel right. I don't think the game is good yet."
Honestly it seems to run pretty well, though I haven't spent much time in it. And I was running on a laptop with integrated graphics, so far from high-end hardware.
It certainly has the best complement of I/O: Dual 40GBps USB4 ports, dual 80GBps USB4 ports, dual 10Gb Ethernet, one HDMI, five regular USB ports, and three M.2 slots, and a PCIe slot (though just half height, single slot).
And it's 15% faster than the Framework Desktop apparently thanks to better cooling, because the two systems use the exact same CPU.
Reddit ate Digg's lunch years ago after a the latter pushed out an extremely unpopular UI update. Now the founder has bought back the company and is trying again, It's a clean design and runs quickly, at least. And Reddit is a toxic swamp these days.
Musical Interlude
Disclaimer: But not after 8, because it's a school night.
Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - January 14, 2026 [TRex]
—Open Blogger
Good evening Horde. The time has come for mid-week shenanigans of the post-cafe overnight variety.
Welcome to the Wednesday night ONT which means another edition of random overnight fun and games. Pull up a chair and sit a spell. Good will offerings of amusing puns are happily accepted. Pants are optional. Be nice to your fellow commenters and AoS contributors.
Lots of lists in this one, so buckle up!
[Top photo: No knowledge other than the bike is an Indian Four. I just like the photo.]
The Official 2026 Wednesday ONT Prediction Challenge
Feeling confident about telling the future? The Official 2025 Wednesday ONT Prediction Challenge seemed to work out well, so let's do it again.
Same format as before with two segments. One for financial metrics and one for events. You choose whether to pick one or participate in one or both.
Post your guesses in the comments tonight or submit your answers to me via email (moronhobbies at protonmail dot com).
Financial metrics - levels as of Dec 31, 2026 (provide a number for each:
- S&P 500 (currently 6926.6)
- Price of Silver (per ounce) (currently 93.185)
- Bitcoin (USD 96,654.94 today)
- 9mm ammo (per blackbasin) ($0.20 per round today)
- Average nationwide cost for a regular grade gallon of gas ($2.840 per AAA today)
- Average cost for a gallon of regular grade gas in California ($4.21 per AAA today)
- Lowest price for a one-way adult flight from Denver to Orlando on Southwest Airlines if you buy 2 weeks in advance ($159 today)
- Total TSA airport passenger volume for 2026 (2025 number is 88,614,614)
- Median price for a 2 bedroom apartment in Austin (per latest Zumper data available) ($2,000 today)
- Price of Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (750ml on Total Wine website with location set to Knoxville, TN) ($34.99 today)
- TSLA stock price ($439.14 today)
- Brent Crude Oil (65.06 per barrel today)
Will the following events take place by the end of 2026? Yes or no.
- Tim Walz indicted?
- Agreement to bring Greenland under US control in some form (such as a territory)?
- Regime change in Cuba?
- Another Government budget shutdown?
- More than six SpaceX Starship launches
- SpaceX IPO announced (direct to public market, not through another company)?
- Russia/Ukraine cease fire agreement?
- Jerome Powell leaves as Fed Chair before his term ends in May 2026?
- Democratic control of the House after mid-term elections?
- More than 14 earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 globally?
- At least one Supreme Court Justice leaves the bench or announces their intent to step down?
- Over the past four winter Olympic games, the US has averaged about 28 medals. Will the US win more than average in the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics?
Winners get their pick of items from the Club ONT lost and found box and the admiration of the Horde.
Best wishes!
***
Horde shopping - not new, but still worth a giggle. Ace Hardware in Midland, Michigan. The bakery next door partners with the hardware store to sell pastries.
Texas and Florida lead the list of in-migration states on the U-Haul Growth Index analyzing one-way customer transactions during 2025, while California ranks last with the greatest out-migration number for the sixth consecutive year.
Texas reclaims the title of No. 1 U-Haul growth state for the seventh time in 10 years. It climbs one spot from its previous ranking behind South Carolina, which slides four spots after being the leading growth state for 2024.
Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee follow Texas as prime destinations. It's the same top five from 2024 and 2023, although in a different order.
The top 10 also includes Washington, Arizona, Idaho, Alabama and Georgia.
Top 15:
1. TEXAS
2. FLORIDA
3. NORTH CAROLINA
4. TENNESSEE
5. SOUTH CAROLINA
6. WASHINGTON
7. ARIZONA
8. IDAHO
9. ALABAMA
10. GEORGIA
11. OREGON
12. MONTANA
13. ARKANSAS
14. OKLAHOMA
15. MAINE
Bottom 15:
36. VIRGINIA
37. KANSAS
38. NORTH DAKOTA
39. NEBRASKA
40. RHODE ISLAND
41. MICHIGAN
42. CONNECTICUT
43. OHIO
44. PENNSYLVANIA
45. MARYLAND
46. MASSACHUSETTS
47. NEW YORK
48. NEW JERSEY
49. ILLINOIS
50. CALIFORNIA
***
RIP
***
Never heard this tradition before:
I never knew this, but the Habsburgs have a very cool “knocking” ritual for burying their emperors pic.twitter.com/rDlp8okRhc
Written correspondence can be sent to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Are you lurking ?? Airspace over the ONT is temporarily restricted. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Podcast: CBD and Sefton chat about the end game in Iran, what to do about the Fed, its supposed "independence," and its hyper-politicized chairman, the housing crunch, and Trump's harebrained suggestion to decrease credit card interest!
Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, and an always interesting observer of the human and political condition, has died. RIP. [CBD]
Tousi TV: France closes embassy in Tehran, US Department of State advises all US citizens to get out of Iran He's been saying that Tuesday will be a decisive day. Other reports say that Trump is in the last stages of planning an action against the mullahs. (And other reports say that Tucker Carlson Simp JD Vance is attempting to get Trump to agree to "negotiations" with Iran -- for fucking what? What do we get out of saving the fucking mullahs and letting them kill and torture their own people? Apart from Tucker Carlson getting to pretend he's a Big Man Influencer and that he's worth all the Qatari money he's receiving.)
Asmongold predicted that AWFLs would turn on immigration the moment we started importing hot women into the country, and he was right via garrett
New Yorkers are shocked after footage goes viral of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's Tenant Director stating that white people will be HEAVILY impacted after they transition property "as an individual good to a collective good" [CBD]
Podcast: The Somali grift might be the biggest financial scandal in American history, will the Mullahs finally fall? CFPB gets a lifeline from a corrupt judge, Brigitte Bardot...RIP, and more!
