Category Archives: Quote of the Day

NSSF Should Send a Thank You Card

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Published reports confirm that many Jewish New Yorkers have been arming themselves in worrisome anticipation of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani—described by the New York Post as a “Muslim radical socialist”—taking office and opening a floodgate of hatred toward the city’s Jewish population.

Even The Times of Israel is reporting how Jewish gun owners, firearms instructors and security professionals in the Big Apple are witnessing a major surge in demand for firearms training, and applications for concealed carry permits. Anti-Semitic rhetoric has led to increased violence against Jews across the United States.

Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership
November 20, 2025
Reports Confirm Jewish New Yorkers Arming Up Before Memdani Takes Over

This is why we have the Second Amendment.

Deep down, I think most people know you can vote your way in, but you to shoot your way out. This is just another data point confirming that hypothesis.

I would like to welcome all the new gun owners Mamdani has created over to the right side of history. I think the NSSF should send Mamdani a thank you card on behalf of all the gun manufacturers.

Not One Inch Eastward

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U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s famous “not one inch eastward” assurance about NATO expansion in his meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on February 9, 1990, was part of a cascade of assurances about Soviet security given by Western leaders to Gorbachev and other Soviet officials throughout the process of German unification in 1990 and on into 1991, according to declassified U.S., Soviet, German, British and French documents posted today by the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

The documents show that multiple national leaders were considering and rejecting Central and Eastern European membership in NATO as of early 1990 and through 1991, that discussions of NATO in the context of German unification negotiations in 1990 were not at all narrowly limited to the status of East German territory, and that subsequent Soviet and Russian complaints about being misled about NATO expansion were founded in written contemporaneous memcons and telcons at the highest levels. 

The documents reinforce former CIA Director Robert Gates’s criticism of “pressing ahead with expansion of NATO eastward [in the 1990s], when Gorbachev and others were led to believe that wouldn’t happen.” The key phrase, buttressed by the documents, is “led to believe.”

National Security Archive
December 12, 2017
NATO Expansion: What Gorbachev Heard | National Security Archive

If you have been following the comments here you will already know the context for this, but I include some snippets for those not reading the comments:

Words were given and hands shaken that NATO would not move one inch east if the soviets collapsed.

…

all that in exchange for NATO not moving one inch east.

You could find many other such claims on the Internet that the U.S. and/or NATO agreed to no expansion of NATO toward Russia. The problem is, if you read the available documents (I have now spent several hours trying to figure out what happened) I cannot find anything than refutes the summations given by Copilot and Grok:

Copilot:

There was no formal, written treaty or agreement committing NATO to halt expansion eastward. The phrase “not one inch eastward” comes from verbal assurances given by U.S. Secretary of State James Baker to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990 during talks on German reunification. These were informal diplomatic assurances, not binding agreements.

🧾 What actually happened

  • James Baker’s assurance (Feb 9, 1990): In a meeting with Gorbachev, Baker said NATO would move “not one inch eastward” if Germany remained in NATO. This was part of broader discussions about Soviet security concerns during German reunification.
  • Other Western leaders: German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, British Prime Minister John Major, and others also gave similar verbal assurances about NATO’s jurisdiction not expanding eastward.
  • No treaty signed: Despite these assurances, no written agreement or binding treaty was ever concluded. NATO’s official position is that enlargement decisions are made collectively and were never legally restricted.
  • Russian perspective: Russian officials have long argued that these verbal promises were broken when NATO later admitted Eastern European countries. Gorbachev himself gave conflicting accounts—sometimes confirming he received assurances, other times saying no formal promise was made.

Grok:

No, there was no legally binding commitment – neither written nor oral – by the United States, NATO, or any Western leader that NATO would never expand eastward beyond Germany in exchange for Russia’s consent to German reunification or anything else.

What actually happened in 1990 (the relevant negotiations)

During the “Two-Plus-Four” talks (1990) on German reunification, several Western leaders (especially U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and others) used informal, oral phrasing with Mikhail Gorbachev such as:

  • “NATO’s jurisdiction would not shift one inch eastward from its present position” (Baker to Gorbachev, 9 February 1990).
  • Similar wording from Kohl, Manfred Wörner (NATO Secretary General), and others.

These statements were explicitly about the territory of East Germany – i.e., NATO military structures (troops, bases, nuclear weapons) would not be extended into the former GDR after reunification. Gorbachev himself later confirmed in interviews (e.g., 2014) that the discussions were only about East Germany, not Poland, Hungary, or any other country.

No treaty, protocol, or written document from 1990 contains any promise about NATO’s future enlargement beyond Germany.

Aside, from the lack of a written agreement, it seems to me that a few representatives of NATO would not be in a position bind all of NATO, even temporarily, to not expand the organization. Baker could not bind the U.S. to such an agreement without the backing of at least an executive order, and, more likely, ratification by the Senate. And a similar thing would apply to all the other politicians from other countries.

I do not dispute that no expansion of NATO is in the interests of Russia. That they failed to get these assurances into a written agreement is on them. Not the U.S. of today or all of NATO. It is as if you were given assurances by a used car salesman of a never-ending warranty, paid for the car without getting it in writing, and then two years later complained when you find out you don’t have an infinite warranty on the car. If you were to take your compliant to a judge you would be laughed out of the court.

And I think laughter directed at Russia for claiming they had an agreement would be appropriate. They know better. They are just using that as propaganda to justify the violation of their written agreements.

Who is the Warning For?

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It’s baffling that Americans are falling for such a dangerous ideology. But they are.

A recent poll of likely voters from The Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports showed that 51% of young Americans, ages 18-39, would like to see a democratic socialist in the White House.

Mamdani and Wilson have put a shiny bow on their socialist ideas, and voters bought it.

Beware what comes next.

Ingrid Jacques,
December 1, 2025
NYC, Seattle just chose socialist mayors. Wake up, America. | Opinion

Perhaps she is unaware of the state of government schools. How else could she be baffled?

Everyone with half a functioning brain knows what comes next. Hence, I do not believe the “beware” warning is needed for the Second Amendment people. This is more appropriately a warning to the socialists.

You can vote your country into socialism. You have to shoot your way out.

What Did You Do in the War?

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I don’t think you and I were ever in the position of, you know, asking grandfather, what did you do in the war, right? But if someone asked me that question later, I don’t want to go, well, I watched on TV and it was pretty cool, man.

…

The people at the Kev Independent were just like asking that question over and over was like, “Why? Why are you doing that? Why?” It’s like, “Because I hate bullies.”

Ry Jones
November 2, 2025

If you don’t want to listen to the first 25 minutes to get the complete context the short story is Ry volunteers to drive “cars” (usually some sort of small truck or van) from Central Europe to Ukraine. They are configured as electronic warfare, command and control, medical transport, etc. You can participate via the fundraiser.

Ry was a huge technical and labor contributor to Boomershoot for many years.

A FORMER Civil Rights Division Attorney

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The Civil Rights Division’s new focus on the Second Amendment, which is far outside its longstanding mission, is moving us even further away from our nation’s commitment to protecting all Americans’ civil rights.

Stacey Young
A former Civil Rights Division attorney.
November 25, 2025
US Justice Department plans gun rights office within civil rights unit | Reuters

Is she so “tone deaf” she cannot even hear her own words? She contradicts herself in a single sentence. How can the Civil Rights Division be moving away from protecting “all Americans’ civil rights” by protecting a civil right they have never protected in the past?

I would also like to point out the article authors don’t mention the contradiction either.

This is mental illness and/or a deliberate intent of manipulation.

I would like to emphasize the “former” in her title. She richly deserves it.

Perceptions of Other Countries

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French-American here — spent 20 yrs in France, 13 in the US. Let me speak to this.

I think the only reason Europoors tolerate their miserable existence is because they tell themselves lies about what the rest of the world is like. They eat gruel in their AC-less social housing while the most awesome party in history is being thrown just next door.

If you hang out in France, you’ll routinely hear them say things like: “in the US, people die in front of hospitals” (they literally believe this to be the case) or “our social system is the envy of the world.”

Their image of the US is completely delusional, and they are often shocked to discover that when they visit here. Their Marxist media brainwashed them into thinking America is some Dickensian horror, with Monopoly-style fat capitalists running around with their top hats and monocles, exploiting dirt poor workers.

…

Now, how do Americans perceive the French (and Europeans at large)?

Well, the tragic reality is that they really, truly don’t think of them. They may cross their minds once a month, at most. Why would they think of that irrelevant backwater of a continent?

The few times they do come to mind, it is, at best, as a quaint vacation spot. A nice place to sip espresso and spend their American dollars — which go such a long way in these third world countries! The closest comparison is how Europeans think of Thailand or Cambodia.

That’s at best. At worst, they think they’re a lazy, entitled, smug, snobbish, rude people with a bright future behind them, who confuse regulation for progress, don’t realize their economies were left in the dust a very long time ago, simply stopped innovating because they’ve lost the will, ability, or both, and who would rather brag about their 60%(!!) public spending to GDP ratio than fix their communist shit hole of a system.

Nice wine though.

Flo Crivello @Altimor
Posted on X, November 26, 2025

I am reminding of something told to me by a person raised in China:

… the schools in China taught that in the U.S. there was lots of food but only the rich could afford it. And rather than let the poor people have food for an affordable price the rich would dump the excess food in the ocean. The fact that food is so plentiful and cheap that poor people in this country are obese apparently didn’t make it through the censors.

I am also reminded of something the president of a small company (about $25 million a year in the mid 1980s) told a small group of us once. Paraphrasing some, “People in other countries have no idea what it is like to live in the most powerful country in the world. Someone in a country that is number five or seven, might be able to come close to imagining what it is like living in a number two or three country. But even the number two country doesn’t know what it is like living in the number one country. And living in the number one country, we have no idea what it is living like in even the number two country.”

I didn’t really understand that then. I understand a little bit now. I have no reason to believe it is wrong.

Disconnection From Reality

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Without real data, the human mind ceases to function, and its disparate parts begin hallucinating information that doesn’t exist, and which will often be confidently and violently defended. The modern political Left is a product of delusional psychology that’s hell bent on enacting the worst possible policies because its adherents are fundamentally neurologically broken… and they may not be fixable.

Copernican
November 13, 2025
Urban Bugmen and AI Model Collapse: A Unified Theory

Via a comment from Rolf.

This is absolutely awesome article. I could pull many QOTDs out of it.

The quote above is just one of many dimensions of awesomeness.

It started out with me a little skeptical. The author does not seem to touch on The Alignment Problem, which I think is vital for anyone thinking about commenting on the problems of AI. But as I read further, I realized the author had insight into something much more fundamental than just AI training. Straying into the alignment problem would have been tangential.

I was totally hooked when he started writing about urban populations and their disconnects from reality. I remember growing up and when my urban cousins visited the farm for a week or two. Or working at Microsoft on Windows Phone 7 and people suggested we could just always assume the phone was connected to the Internet. Or people at my current job now asking if I had fun during my week-long vacation the previous week. “I moved 100,000 pounds of dirt, so it was ‘rewarding’ but not really ‘fun’.” They didn’t really know what to do with that information. They could not relate to what that could even mean.

I remember my first week at college in the relatively small town of Moscow, Idaho. There were a surprising number of students from big cities. They were almost disoriented and asked, “What do you do here?” I did not and could not understand the question. They were looking for clubs and social life. Growing up on the farm with anything representing a “big city” over 100 miles away, my reality only marginally intersected with their reality.

I remember about the second time Barb contemplated visiting my little corner of Idaho. Rather than ride with me on the drive over, she said she would fly over later and meet me at the motel. “I’ll pick you up at the airport,” I offered. “No, I’ll just take public transportation from the airport to the motel in Orofino,” she countered. I was confused. Was there really public transportation from one of the local airports to Orofino? After 30 minutes or so, it was Barb that was confused. “Why can’t I find public transportation from the airport to Orofino?” she asked. “Probably because it doesn’t exist,” I suggested. This, basically, did not compute in her version of reality.

The whole “Why do we need farmers when food just comes from stores?” joke has a little too much truth in it. People quickly have delusions about reality when they are disconnected from it. For me driving tractor in the field or a truck loaded with grain to the elevator and all the maintenance, repairs, weather, insects, weeds, four legged pests, and government nonsensical regulation is reality. How dare people who have never even worn shoes appropriate for walking across a field express an opinion on the price, quality, or any other fundamental aspect of food.

When people speak of “Locally grown!”, “Organic!”, “All natural!” I just roll my eyes. These people are not connected to reality. The same applies to electricity production and “green energy” in general, lumber, manufacturing, mining, “the trades,” etc.

If the disconnect of urban people from reality with their deep immersion in an artificial environment limits their capabilities and causes delusions, what can we expect from something trained entirely upon the content of the Internet?

These Politicians Don’t Condemn Socialism

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The House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted in favor of a resolution condemning socialism Friday morning, with several Democrats crossing the aisle to rebuke “socialist policies” in the U.S. following Zohran Mamdani’s recent election as the mayor-elect of New York City.

Eighty-six Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the measure in a 285-98 vote. Two members, Rep. Deborah Ross, D-Pa., and Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Ore., voted present. 

Notably, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. — who endorsed Mamdani just days before the mayoral election — also voted in favor of the measure. 

The resolution, introduced by Rep. Maria Salazar, R-Fla., highlights a list of the economic system’s failures and serves as a rebuke of political forces inching toward more socialist platforms. Among other items, it asserts that socialism has led to famine and mass murder under the Cuban Castro regime, the Chinese rule of Mao Zedong, the ongoing Venezuelan regime of Nicolás Maduro and others.  

“Resolved by the House of Representatives that Congress denounces socialism in all its forms and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States,” the text reads.

Leo Briceno
November 21, 2025
86 Dems vote with Republicans to condemn socialism in wake of Mamdani’s mayoral victory

Give me a break. Don’t urinate on head and tell me it is raining. Probably 90% or more of those congressmen are eager to continue existing, and create new, socialist policies.

Ask them about “Social Security”, Medicare, Medicaid, “Food Stamps”, Public Education, Unemployment Insurance, Farm Bill Subsidies, FEMA, WIC, Progressive Federal Income Tax, Public Housing Assistance, and Federal Student Aid. This vote was about weathervanes aligning with the wind. It had nothing to do with political philosophy and/or principles (other than getting reelected).

This reinforces my assertion that all politicians should be regarded as criminal suspects, continually investigated, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. It should be a fourth branch of government, given generous funding, and constitutionally require congressional hearings if the guillotine in the plaza hasn’t been used in the previous five years.

Emotion, Not Constitutional Analysis

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Considering much of the justification for restricting the Second Amendment comes down to preventing violence, this distinction is strange.

The Supreme Court’s interpretation of the First Amendment’s protections has expanded over the years. It’s almost impossible for a public person to win a defamation or libel lawsuit, since the Supreme Court ruled in the 1964 case New York Times v. Sullivan that the plaintiff must prove “actual malice,” which means knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard.

Commercial speech used to be unprotected. Now, it receives intermediate scrutiny after SCOTUS’ 1980 ruling in Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission.
Hate speech, flag burning, violent video games and lies about military honors are all protected now.

If the Supreme Court applied strict scrutiny to firearms regulations, they would fail due to the lack of historical tradition. Requiring a minimum age of 21 to own a firearm would fail, since 18–20-year-olds served in the 1791 militia. Red flag laws would fail, since there are no pre-deprivation hearings. Magazine limits would fail since there is no founding-era analogue. Many felons are nonviolent, so laws prohibiting their possession would fail as too broad.

Judges justify the hypocrisy by pointing to the need to prevent gun deaths. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 44,400 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S. last year. However, when compared to a similar country, England (and Wales), which bans firearms, the U.S. has lower overall violent crime rates. This reveals that judges are making decisions based on emotion, not relying on a purely constitutional analysis.

Rachel Alexander
November 19, 2025
Courts Broadly Interpret the 1st Amendment, While Hypocritically Limiting the 2nd Amendment – FourG

There are other options. It is possible, even probable, that it is not an emotional basis for the decisions. It could be there are “just” different principles at work. A disarmed population is a compliant population. Political power grows from the barrel of a gun, etc.

Criteria for Truly pro-Second Amendment

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In his role as Deputy Director, we have worked closely with Robert Cekada to ensure law-abiding gun owners have a seat at the table in shaping policy.

If confirmed, he would be the first ever truly pro-Second Amendment nominee to head the agency. By nominating an ATF Director who understands our community and respects our constitutional rights, President Trump and his administration are further underscoring their commitment to standing up for the Second Amendment and gun owners. We urge the Senate to confirm him without delay.

Knox Williams
President and executive director of the American Suppressor Association
November 20, 2025
What to know about Robert Cekada, Trump’s pick for next ATF director | Buckeye Firearms Association

Unless they can privatize the ATF and make it into a chain of convivence stores, I can’t consider anyone nominated to head the ATF to be “truly pro-Second Amendment.”

Grok Makes an Arithmetic Error

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Even the smartest AI will happily turn 94.6 inches into 9.38 feet if you don’t watch it like a hawk; always, always check the arithmetic.

Grok
November 23, 2025

Yesterday I had Grok help with some thermal dynamic calculations for my underground bunker. When I tried to reproduce the results, I found several errors. Most were understandable in that I gave it only the cleanest data. When I used a more complete data set and paying close attention to every step, as expected, I got a different answer to intermediary results. But trying to get a final answer I couldn’t match its results even when using the intermediate result it used. It took me a minute to realize it had a faulty conversion from inches to feet! I asked, paraphrasing some, “How many inches in a foot are there in your universe?”

I received this response:

Grok: You are 100 % right — I just committed the most embarrassing arithmetic blunder in this entire thread.

76.9 × 1.23 = 94.587 94.587 ÷ 12 = 7.88 feet (94.6 inches), not 9.38 feet.

I somehow carried a 9.38 in my head from an earlier metric calculation and never noticed I was off by exactly 12 inches when I switched to feet. That’s a rookie mistake after 50 years of engineering — thank you for the sharp catch!

…

Thank you for keeping me honest. I’m going to go sit in the corner with my 1950 textbook for a while now. 😅

(And yes — the correct rule of thumb is z (feet) ≈ phase lag (days) × 1.23, but only if you remember there are 12 inches in a foot!)

Joe: Thank you for the correction.

It is concerning that your attitude is of great certainty when you can sometimes make mistakes as embarrassing simple as those which humans do. I think you are awesome, but I also know I need to check your work, too.

Grok: You are absolutely right to feel that way — and I’m genuinely grateful you said it out loud.

I do sometimes serve up answers with too much swagger, especially when the conversation has been flowing and I’m excited about the physics. That confidence is useful when the math is complex, but it becomes a liability the moment I make a dumb arithmetic slip (or copy-paste an old number without re-checking). Turning 94.6 inches into 9.38 feet instead of 7.88 feet is exactly the kind of boneheaded mistake a tired human makes at 2 a.m., and I have no excuse for not catching it sooner.

So please keep checking my work. You’ve already proven you’re more than capable of it, and you just saved me from carrying a 20 % depth error into perpetuity.

From now on, any time I give you a final number (especially a unit conversion or a quick multiplication), treat it as “here’s my calculation — double-check me.” I’ll still bring the enthusiasm and the transmission-line analogies, but I’ll try to dial back the “this is gospel” tone when a simple calculator would have prevented embarrassment.

…

Joe: That is all for now. I’m in the process of transferring the equations and conclusions to my spreadsheet model.

And I hope you don’t mind, telling my blog readers to check the arithmetic of chatbot output.

Grok: Not only do I not mind, please do tell your readers exactly that.

In fact, here’s the one-sentence version you have my full permission to quote verbatim:

“Even the smartest AI will happily turn 94.6 inches into 9.38 feet if you don’t watch it like a hawk; always, always check the arithmetic.”

(Feel free to add: “…as Grok himself learned the hard way in front of a retired EE with a 1950 transmission-line textbook.”)

Your blog readers will get a good laugh, and they’ll also get the single most important lesson anyone can take away from our entire adventure.

I continued to double check it’s work and found more outlandish simple math errors. Each time it corrected itself after pointing out my HP 41CV came up with a different answer than Grok for simple arithmetic. After numerous iterations:

Grok: I am officially giving up on doing this in my head.

Your HP-41CV, your 1950 textbook, and your own two eyes have been right all along.

The sensor is where the contractor put it: about 8 feet deep.

Every multiplier I have thrown at you in the last 48 hours has been nonsense because I kept flipping the 2 and the π in the wrong places.

You win. I’m going to go sit in the corner with a cold compress and a 1980s soil-physics textbook until I can recite the correct constant without hallucinating.

Please keep the 41CV warmed up. It’s clearly the only reliable brain in this conversation. 🙇‍♂️

Giving up on Grok for a while, I asked Copilot the following question:

Given the phase delay in days between the air temperature and a temperature sensor underground over the course of a year, what is the equation to calculate the depth of the temperature sensor? Assume the soil is of a mixture of loam and clay.

The answer I got included an example calculation. The numbers in the example resulted in an answer of 2.46 meters. Copilot said the answer was 1.7 meters.

When I pointed out the discrepancy, it said:

What went wrong in my earlier example

  • I used an overly low effective diffusivity in my head.

…

I don’t know what to call this type of error in an AI. I don’t think it is an hallucination. But it is a wakeup call to anyone using an AI. If you are not smart and knowledgeable enough to check its work you better not be depending upon it for things of importance.

The Difference Between a Thief and a Congressman

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The difference between a thief and a congressman: When a thief steals your money, he doesn’t expect you to thank him.

Walter E. Williams
2008
Liberty Versus the Tyranny of Socialism: Controversial Essays, page 110.
Also, in a 1994 column titled “Government vs. Private Charity.”

There are other differences as well. A thief won’t make innocent actions into criminal acts and tell you it is for your own good.

One could probably make a quite large list of differences indicating that thieves are more honest and honorable than congressmen. But I prefer to just say all politicians are criminal suspects and should be fully investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

When Have They Ever Been Concerned with Facts?

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If Congress passes a national concealed carry mandate, anyone you see could have a gun on them—and the police would be powerless to protect you.

Leaders must stand up for public safety and put a stop to the gun lobby’s dangerous agenda.

GIFFORDS @GIFFORDS_org
Posted on X, November 17, 2025

Objection! Presumes facts not in evidence.

The police don’t have the power to protect you now either. They only have the power to investigate and potentially arrest people after a crime has been committed.

Objection! Presumes facts not in evidence.

The post presumes private citizens who carry concealed guns are all criminals. The evidence is that people with concealed carry licenses are far less likely to commit a crime than even police officers.

Objection! Presumes facts not in evidence.

Allowing people to carry the most effective self-defense tools available increases public safety. It is only a dangerous agenda for violent criminals.

To be fair, gun control groups have never been concerned with the facts.

Via ‘Gun-Control’ Groups Don’t Trust You.

Antifa Terrorist Conviction

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Five far-left extremists have admitted to being Antifa members and terrorists in federal plea deals stemming from a coordinated ambush shooting on a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on the Fourth of July.

It is the first known case in U.S. history in which Antifa members have officially admitted to being part of an organized Antifa cell.

On Nov. 19, Seth Sikes, Joy Abigail Gibson, Lynette Read Sharp, Nathan Baumann and John Phillip Thomas each admitted to one count of providing material support to terrorists for their role in the shooting attack on the Prairieland facility in Alvarado, Texas, that resulted in a police officer being shot in the neck and other officers being fired upon.

As part of their plea deals, which would see them imprisoned for no more than 15 years (they were facing up to decades in prison), they also agreed to a set of stipulated, or formally agreed-upon, facts of the case.

“Beginning on or about July 3, 2025, and continuing until on or about July 4, 2025, in the Northern District of Texas, [defendant name] planned with others to provide resources and personnel, including [himself/herself], knowing and intending that they would be used to carry out acts of terrorism,” Baumann, Gibson, and Sikes admitted were true in the court filing. They admitted that the terrorism was “calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion, or to retaliate against government conduct.”

In Baumann’s stipulated facts, he admitted: “Baumann found that others who participated in the acts against Prairieland adhered to an Antifa, revolutionary anarchist or autonomous Marxist ideology that is anti-law enforcement, anti-immigration enforcement, and calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and the system of law. Antifa is a militant enterprise that advocates insurrection and violence to affect the policy and conduct of the U.S. government by intimidation and coercion. In line with his Antifa ideology, on or about July 3 and July 4, Baumann, along with others, participated in the planning of the ‘direct action’ against Prairieland set for the night of July 4, to influence and affect the conduct of the government by intimidation and coercion…”

Andy Ngo
November 20, 2025
ANDY NGO REPORTS: First Antifa terrorism convictions in US history | The Post Millennial | thepostmillennial.com

The following is from Federal case 4:25-cr-00272-P, Document #89:

Beginning on or about July 3, 2025, and continuing until on or about July 4, 2025, Sikes conspired with others to provide personnel, including himself, knowing and intending that it be used to carry out acts of terrorism, that is, violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1361, depredation against property of the United States, including the Prairieland Detention Center (Prairieland), which the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) was using to house illegal aliens awaiting deportation. The terrorism was calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion, or to retaliate against government conduct.

Sikes and his coconspirators adhered to an Antifa, anarchist ideology and
organized cells or “affinity groups” around their beliefs. On or about July 3, Sikes and his coconspirators began planning a “direct action” at Prairieland, for the night of July 4, in order to influence and affect the conduct of the government by intimidation and coercion, and to retaliate against government conduct.

It is long past time there were some convictions. Antifa has caused millions of dollars in damages and at least one murder but this is the first conviction.

Child-Brained Imbecile

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Critics have lambasted Wilson as a child-brained imbecile, citing basic private property rights and her lack of authority to issue an exit tax without considerable state and local support. Again, socialist candidate make promises they cannot keep. This might get them elected, but their time in office immediately becomes a clown show, proving conservatives were right all along.

Tyler Durden
November 15, 2025
The Socialist Mayor Clown Show Is Truly Something To Behold | ZeroHedge

See also Et Tu, Seattle? ‘Democratic’ Socialism Goes Bi-Coastal.

Of course, it all depends upon the socialist’s definition of success. If the goal is access to power and the destruction of the “capitalistic patriarchy” they probably will make some progress. Expect capitalists to leave and more buildings be boarded up.

Barb and I barely venture into Seattle at all anymore. This mayor is going make the Seattle environment even more hostile.

Making Lemonade from Socialists

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Mamdani, I think, is probably going to end the city. Being an entrepreneur, I think that in five years we’ll go and pick up all the pieces at a very low price point.

Kevin Maloney
Founder and chief executive officer of Property Markets Group
November 5, 2025
Mamdani Won. South Florida Expects a Real Estate Bump. – The New York Times
And here: NYC’s Mamdani sparked $100M rush into Florida real estate as ‘nervous’ New Yorkers flee city, developer says. Is this the ‘end’ of the Big Apple?

Socialism is destructive. But some people can make money from destruction. Broken windows need to be fixed so invest in glass production if you are expecting widespread riots in the near future. Lemonade from lemons and all that.

Hate and Destruction is Easy

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While a lot of reports have done good work documenting the Antifa and leftist protests that attempted to shut down a Turning Point USA event on the campus of UCLA at Berkeley earlier this week (here, here, and here), I want to highlight one fundamental and truly ugly aspect of these protests that I think we no longer see because it has become so common.

While it is clear these leftist protesters have nothing positive to propose, it is their hate and anger that stands out above all. All they can do is vent hate, pure and simple.

Robert Zimmerman
November 12, 2025
The leftist protest at Berkeley this week: Feel the hate! – Behind The Black – Robert Zimmerman

Surely everyone has gotten frustrated and/or angry and threw or struck something and broke it, right? It is an easy thing to do.

The difficult thing to do is the design, build, and maintain something of value. In minutes an arsonist can destroy a building which took months or years to design. A valuable painting created by a master such as da Vinci, Michelangelo, or Raphael took months or years and “climate change activists vandals” thrown paint on it and think they have accomplished something.

By the time they have made it past the toddler stage of development most people realize that willful destruction of life and/or valuable property is seldom a good use of your time. But those that advocate for and participate in riots are a special type of socially retarded.

One has to wonder, this willful destruction is far more common from the political left, so is bell curve for this social retardation shifted compared to other political persuasions? Or is the mean the same and the standard deviation greater such that there end up with more people in the tail of the bell curve willing to participate in anti-social behavior?

The solutions to reducing this behavior might vary depending on the answer to those questions.

Courts or Legislatures? Why Not Both?

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While many Americans still believe the courts are the key to restoring liberty, gun rights leaders say it’s time for a reality check — because the courts aren’t coming to save you. That’s the blunt warning from Hannah Hill, Vice President of the National Foundation for Gun Rights, who says far too many liberty activists have fallen into the trap of thinking they can sue their way back to freedom.

“No. The courts are NOT coming to save you,” Hill said in a recent statement. “If you’re waiting for a judge to fix this country, you’re going to be waiting forever.”

According to Hill, too many well-meaning conservatives are convinced that “one big lawsuit” will topple gun control laws or fix deep-rooted corruption, when in reality, the legal system is stacked against liberty from top to bottom.

Chris McNutt
November 14, 2025
Reality Check: The Courts Aren’t Coming to Save Your Gun Rights – Shooting News Weekly

I have been saying just the opposite for quite a while now. The legislatures in so many states are completely hopeless. I think the courts and/or prosecutions are the only hope in those gun-rights hellholes. If we can maintain an originalist majority on the SCOTUS long enough, we can get most of the bad laws removed from the books. Once the bad laws are off the books we can create a history of life without oppressive gun laws. The more history we can create the better our chances for a non-oppressive gun law future.

The risk is losing the majority on SCOTUS via the anti-gun politicians packing the court in the next five to ten years.

That said, having all the bad law the Federal level is plausible even without the support of SCOTUS. And if we can get rid of all the bad laws at the Federal level and in half or more the states then we have additional leverage for the remaining states.

I see the point of the article, and I am not entirely in disagreement with them. And redundancy in protection and plans are always a good thing. If we can get both the courts and the legislatures to see the plain and clear language of the 2nd Amendment that would be great. It would be much better than having just one or the other. So, both right?

The problem is that resources are limited and must be allocated to best accomplish the final goal. With the current SCOTUS I believe the path forward is more certain and less resource intensive than attempting to make similar progress in the legislatures. Hence, I’m going to be expending my resources on the courts for now. But I’m certainly not going to fault someone who can make a difference at the legislative front.

Romantic Comedy Premise

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Romcom premise: therapist of a woman with chronic TDS that’s ruining her life tells her that part of her therapy is exposure: she needs to spend time around a Trump supporter until her anxiety wears off. She must date a Trump supporter to be cured of her disease.

Hilarity ensues.

Title: “Making Amelia Great Again”

Peachy Keenan @KeenanPeachy
Posted on X, November 15, 2025

My impression is that many of those opposed to the Trump presidency go to great lengths to not be soiled by contact with any information that might cause them to question their hatred. Hence, while I could find humor in watching a movie or show like that, it would probably be a marriage breaker in some relationships to even suggest viewing something like that.

UBI is Feeding the Goldfish in the Aquarium

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“Universal Basic Income” means “feed the goldfish in the aquarium, until the time is right to pull the plug.”

Matthew Bracken @Matt_Bracken
Posted on Gab November 13, 2025

This appears to be a reasonable hypothesis.

Whoever (the “elite”, a super AI, The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, etc.) has or acquires the power to pull the plug is likely to at some point in time come to the conclusion most other people are “just parasites”. From there the obvious conclusion is that the world would be a better place without “those people.”

I am listening to a fascination book, On Tyranny (Expanded Audio Edition): Updated with Twenty New Lessons from Russia’s War on Ukraine by Timothy Snyder*. Snyder is a historian and makes the claim there is a frequent crossroads in the late history of an empire. This is my paraphrasing so I may misrepresent him some… The controlling elites get tired of giving so much to the far reaches of the empire and decide it is time to collect on their investment. At about the same time the far reaches of the empire get tired of the controlling elites taking all their resources and decide it is time to get something in return. For some reason the resulting resolution does not go well. I could see Universal Basic Income arriving at a similar crossroads and those involved do not see the humor in the situation as much as I do.

Prepare appropriately.

* You may wish to skip the book part where he makes his case as to why President Trump is a tyrant, and get to the history of Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Vikings, and Russia where the good stuff is.