The Founders believed the people are sovereign and have the right and duty to resist an oppressive government; even the one they were establishing through the Constitution. Contrary to the assertions by some people, the individual right to keep and bear arms is not about hunting. Here are a few examples.

Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist Essay No. 28, asserted that the people have the right to take up arms when their elected representatives betray them:

“If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no resource left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defence which is paramount to all positive forms of government... The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource, except in their courage and despair.”

In 1803, St. George Tucker, a judge on the Supreme Court of Virginia and later a United States District Court judge, published a five-volume edition of Blackstone’s Commentaries on English common law. In his analysis of these Commentaries, Tucker wrote:

“The right of self-defense is the first law of nature; in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Whenever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.”

Joseph Story, an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1811 to 1845, construed the right to keep and bear arms as a check on oppressive government:

“One of the ordinary modes, by which tyrants accomplish their purposes without resistance, is, by disarming the people, and making it an offense to keep arms... The friends of a free government cannot be too watchful, to overcome the dangerous tendency of the public mind to sacrifice, for the sake of mere private convenience, this powerful check upon the designs of ambitious men.

The importance of this article (Second Amendment) will scarcely be doubted by any persons, who have duly reflected upon the subject. …The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms had justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpations and arbitrary power of rulers; and it will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them.”

Members of Congress, irrespective of party, are constantly drafting laws to make the federal government supreme and above the people. These so-called public servants view the people as submissive servants to government and classify those who speak out against their unconstitutional laws and usurpations of power as potential domestic terrorists.

Our ancestors stated, in no uncertain terms, how they believed the people should respond to government power grabs and usurpations when all else fails.

Bob Greenslade, Constitutional Scholar, Occasional Guest Scribbler

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One small and ignored problem: America is not a pure democracy. Never was. James Madison, who helped write the owner’s manual, drew a line between a “pure democracy”—everybody showing up and running the place themselves—and a republic, where you elect people to do the governing. He thought pure democracy was great at one thing: letting a majority steamroll everybody else. The Constitution agrees. It guarantees the states a “Republican Form of Government.” The word “democracy” does not even appear.

What we got was a constitutional republic with elections bolted on for mobility. You vote. Power can change hands. That part is democratic. The rest is a series of speed bumps: two houses of Congress, courts, enumerated powers, the Bill of Rights, staggered terms, the Electoral College. Those features are “undemocratic” in the same way disc brakes are “anti‑speed”: intentionally. The Founding Dads did not trust a crowd with mood swings and megaphones.

So if “democracy” means “the majority gets whatever it wants, immediately,” there is nothing here to threaten. But we do not have that product. If it just means “we still hold elections,” then calling every bad Tuesday an Armageddon event is salesmanship, not diagnosis. Power has changed hands before. The country did not vanish. Shocking, I know.

Here is the catch. “Regular people” were not assigned Federalist No. 10 in homeroom. They were told America is a democracy, believed it, and went about their lives. Fair enough. “Democracy” became a junk drawer: voting, fairness, my team winning, and the warm feeling that the system is legitimate when it agrees with you. Under that definition, a court that blocks your plan is a coup. An election you lose is the end of the Republic. A Senate that will not rubber‑stamp your feelings is “rigged.”

That is not because many people actually are stupid. It is because the slogan is easy and the actual system is annoying. Politicians prefer the slogan. They do not want or need you to understand the Constitution. They need you to treat the Constitution like a conspiracy the minute it tells you “no.”

The real threat is not that America will stop being the town meeting it never was. It is that we will stop putting up with the slow parts that keep us free. Freedom is not Next‑Day Delivery for your politics. It is living under known rules while other people you cannot stand live under them too. That takes patience: losing sometimes, reading past the headline, waiting for a legislature, accepting that “do something now” is not a governing philosophy.

Instant gratification is the big termite. It trains you to treat a want as a right and a delay as an insult. Credit instead of saving. An executive order instead of a vote. Threaten the courts if they will not play along. Rename the other side if they will not fold. The same brain that melts when a website takes four seconds to load is now supposed to tolerate a Senate. Good luck.

A republic is a machine for turning rage into waiting — deliberately. Delay lets tempers cool, and factions fall apart. Instant gratification hates delay. It wants the result without the filter, then calls the filter oppression. No instant win? Must be an existential threat! Must be. The cable panel said so.

Media pays for panic. Campaigns pay for “this is it! The last election!” Your phone pays for the fastest snarl. Nobody pays for the boring adult who says: this is bad, but it is not the apocalypse; use the law, and try again in two years. That person does not trend. He also happens to be the only reason limited government still exists.

Freedom doesn’t die in a cape and a coup. It dies in impatience. Limits start to feel like death. So every news cycle becomes the end of the world, and the system’s shock absorbers—federalism, courts, two chambers, staggered terms—get sold as defects. What people then want is “democracy” as street theater: the crowd decides, now, and the Constitution can catch up later.

The Dads built the opposite on purpose. They feared the crowd’s “now.” We treat that fear like an insult. Instant gratification does not just make impatient shoppers. It makes impatient rulers. And impatient rulers eventually hire someone to smash the delays, or they become a majority that no longer recognizes any right standing in the way.

So what is that “existential threat to democracy”?

Usually the other party in a Halloween costume. Sometimes it is a real abuse—corruption, censorship, violence, refusing certified results—that should be named in plain English. Those fights do not require pretend metaphysics. The phrase survives because it flatters the audience: we are civilization, they are the asteroid.

The duller warning is the true one. America is not a pure democracy. What is worth keeping is liberty under the rule of law: majority influence without majority omnipotence. That only works if people can want something badly and still accept that wanting it does not make it theirs tonight. Instant gratification is the habit that makes that sound unreasonable. It cannot be a threat to a democracy we do not have. It is a threat to the patience freedom actually requires. Tyrants love impatience. They’re betting their control of America on it. Don’t give it to them.

BW

“…setting brushfires in the minds of men” - Sam Adams

”And a few women.” Brian Wilson

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Boomer Derangement Syndrome.

Are you a victim?
A carrier?
A concerned bystander?

Here are the Six Warning Signs of BDS:

• Aggressive Ignorance

• Cellphone Addiction w/ ISC (Immeasurable Selfie Collection)

• Road Rage

• Excessive Paint & Piercings

• Loss of Sense of Humor

• Frequent Sneezing

Or, for the clinically inclined:
A.I.C.A I.S.C.R.R.B.P.E.P.L.S.H. and F.S.

If someone you know displays any of these symptoms, approach with care. Take all necessary precautions. Better yet: avoid like the Plague.

Common BDS Behaviors and Symptoms

BDS victims feel compelled to emotionally blame the entire Baby Boom generation (1946–1960) for every problem post‑Garden/Apple — especially those they believe make their lives “more difficult than the Boomers had it.”

Most frequently observed among Gen Z.

Habitat:
Parents’ basement, guest room, pool house, employed “partner,” YMCA.

Characteristic Traits:

• Massive credit card debt

• Starbucks dependency

• Latest iPhone (always)

• Instagram/TikTok addiction

• Narcissistic tendencies

• Paint/Piercings

• Frequent sneezing

Possible Cures

None.

One cannot argue with aggressive ignorance or BDS. Victims cannot and will not be swayed by irrefutable Truth or tangible Fact.

While highly communicable among generational cohorts, younger demographics, and college students, BDS is statistically rare among adults 55+.

As Frederic Bastiat observed:
“Their arguments may be fashionable enough, but they are too absurd to be justified by anything like reason.”

Conclusion

While rare, positive trauma (see also: epiphany, face punch) has occasionally been transformative. However, current prognosis indicates that age, experience, and natural mortality remain the only reliable cures.

Share with friends.
Mail directly to potential carriers.

BW

“…setting brushfires in the minds of men” Sam Adams.

And a few women. Brian Wilson

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Following up on my previous NIMBY-esque data center piece, consider this…

This is the “Bumblehive” data processing center, it’s 1.5 million square feet and accounts for a third of all “unclassified” centers. It’s run by the National Security Agency, or NSA. It represents about a third of the total and is soon to be dwarfed by the Homeland Security building which will be over twice as large. It’s unknown how many millions of square feet our nations spy agencies have dedicated to data collection, but it’s absolutely massive.

Thanks to leaks from whistleblower Edward Snowden we know exactly what they get up to — if we bothered to read it.

When I hear people who are worried about Data centers that are supposed to be invading our privacy, I kind of have to chuckle.

I’m not worried about typical data collection that is needed to run a modern society, I’m worried about Bumblehive and others like it.

Personally I don’t give a damn if Amazon keeps track of what kind of Toilet Paper I use.

People who are more concerned with private data collection than they are Government data collection truly puzzle me. Half of these same people won’t stop sharing photos of their kids on-line, they announce their birthdays and post their school schedules, they live with a cell phone in their hands that tracks their every move, but DATA CENTERS are the devil!!

Private companies will be collecting and using data regardless of whether or not it’s consolidated in the most efficient and cheapest way possible, which is all data centers do. They are better for the economy and the environment too, but they are scary!!. These centers use less water and less electricity than the way we currently do it, they are comparably “Green” and your government is spying on you anyway, most of the time with our own help.

If you are going to be concerned about data collection centers, can’t you please be worried about the right ones?

Brad Smith, Guest Scribbler

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Remember the old Arms Race? We had to have bigger, badder bombs before the Ruskies or we’d be on the wrong side of MAD! Now we have to beat the Chicoms at AI before…or else…again.

That kind of universal woo-woo always makes me take a closer sniff of the ever-present fecal matter floating in the popular narrative. I even ran some of the complicated stuff past the AI Bros to confirm what came out the other end. I hope the results blow away the smog of Big Tech PR and Media BS with some hard facts to consider before joining your local Data Center cheerleaders.

Mayors love a ribbon. A tech company shows up with a drawing of a sleek, windowless building and a promise: jobs, tax money, the future. The pitch sounds like landing an auto plant. It isn’t. What’s coming is closer to a power-hungry warehouse full of other people’s computers. Once the concrete is poured, the permanent staff is often a few dozen people — sometimes under 150 even at a huge site. Construction work is real; then it leaves. If the sales pitch is “this will hire the town,” toss the BS flag.

So why the stampede? Not because America suddenly needs help with homework. The rush started when chatbots and other artificial-intelligence tools became big business. A handful of giant tech firms are spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year to build the machines that train and run those systems. They want land, water, and — above all — electricity. And – surprise! -they want it fast. Washington is cheering them on and speeding permits.

That is not the same as the Federal Reserve secretly needing a building in your county to watch everyone’s bank account. Instant payments already exist. A government digital dollar for shoppers is blocked by law until the next decade. Money is going more digital through private tokens and banks, not through a server farm next to the grain elevator. Keep those stories apart. Mixing them makes the real problems easier to dismiss.

The deal towns think they’re getting.

Thirty-eight states dangle tax breaks. Towns bid against each other. The company shops for cheap power and a friendly council. Studies in places like Virginia have found the public sometimes gets back about fifty cents on every tax dollar given away. A few lucky counties with a whole cluster of these buildings do collect a lot of property tax. Copying that postcard in a thin farm county is a gamble, not a plan. If the tenant’s business plan sours — cheaper chips, a slower AI boom, empty halls — the town still has the substation and the tax deal. The company can leave. The grid changes stay.

People have noticed

This is no longer a few grouchy neighbors. In early 2026, local fights blocked or delayed tens of billions of dollars in projects in a single quarter. Towns are passing pauses. In some places, voters have thrown out officials who signed off behind closed doors.

The anger is often about process as much as the building. Developers use code names and secrecy agreements. Residents find out after the land and water terms are already cooked. Then they get a “community meeting.” That meeting is late.

Water is not an abstract chart.

Nationally, farms and power plants still use far more water than computer halls. That comparison misses the point. A data center is a year-round industrial user, often in a place that already doesn’t have spare water.

Cooling can pull millions of gallons. The bigger hidden draw is the power plant that has to run harder — or get built next door — to feed the hall. In small counties, one campus can take a noticeable slice of daily supply. Wells go down. Irrigators get nervous. A company may say it will use “no new water” by buying a farm’s old rights. That is not free water. That is a crop that no longer gets planted.

“We’ll make our own power” is not a free lunch.

Officials now talk as if each campus will build its own plant so your electric bill doesn’t go up. Some of that is a voluntary pledge from big tech. Some of it is the power company saying: if you want to plug in soon, bring your own generators.

Backup diesel engines that run for a test once a week are one thing. A field of gas turbines running day and night is a power plant. Neighbors in Virginia and along the Tennessee–Mississippi line already describe a jet-engine roar, a hum you feel in the walls, fumes when the diesels kick on. Lawsuits have followed.

You can muffle machines. You cannot pretend a private power station is quiet because the brochure said “on-site.

”What about those little nuclear plants?”

They make a nice slide. Restarts of old, large reactors — like the deal to turn Three Mile Island’s surviving unit back on for Microsoft — could put real electricity on the grid late this decade. Smaller “mini” reactors and box-sized nuclear batteries are years behind that. The first American flagship small-reactor project already collapsed when the price nearly doubled.

Big tech can afford to place long bets. Your planning commission cannot live on a promise dated 2032. The buildings going up now will run on the grid, gas, or both.

A shorter list of questions

Before anyone cuts the ribbon, ask:

· How many permanent jobs, with a penalty if the number is theater?

· Who pays when the extra power and water raise everyone else’s costs?

· What happens to the budget if the tenant leaves or the machines get more efficient?

· Were the water and noise numbers public before the vote — at the house next door, not just at the fence?

· Is “we’ll use small nuclear later” written as a hope or as a plant that already has a permit?

A computer warehouse can belong in a few places with spare power, honest numbers, and distance from homes and fields. It is not a factory. It is not a civic destiny. And it does not need to sit in every village just because the rendering looks clean and the press release says “future.”

Be careful what your elected grifters swoon for…

BW

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“I am writing you with sad news. Tim succumbed to his skin cancer on the 12th. Things went very fast starting with an ambulance ride on Friday, then moved to Hospice care on Sunday and left us on Wednesday. My dear friend/surrogate daughter (Kate) has come out to be with me for a few days and help me let people know of his passing. I am heartbroken, he was too young to leave and we both thought we had more time. He was the love of my life and I miss him every moment of the day.

Kate is writing this for me because she’s just too exhausted to type. Debra is not a computer person and will most likely not be in touch much in the upcoming days, she just thought that you should know that Tim had passed. We were going through Tim’s emails and trying to see who we should write to and saw he had recently reached out to you. She did not want you to think Tim was ignoring your email.

Warmly,

Debra (and Kate)

Tim McGraw, nom de plume Timmy Taes, my first BWW subscriber; you may have seen his unabashed comments on most every post when I first launched 2-3 years ago. He had seen my LRC articles. Turns out he was buds with Lew Rockwell and the Mises Institute clan so we shared those mutual acquaintances - and stories! Tim and I also shared the same curse: often thought to be the famous Other Guy – altho it did have some perks we exploited in our parallel careers. We also shared a love of sarcasm and irony, as great communication tools nearing extinction. But Timmy had a history that made for great sharing. Still up there, his “Powder Blue Tuxedo Boys” are classic Timmy.

What can you say when a friend dies? Something comforting to those remaining? Maybe – if they’re receptive. In real time, the moment of receiving such devastating news – what’s the best you can do? Hallmark hijacked the sincerity from the best words and prosed them onto card stock. Take your pick – there are hundreds at Kroger or CVS; the cruel irony of commercializing death seems buzzardly, feeding off the carrion of tragedy.

OTOH, they may serve those just unable to put meaningful words to their feelings, so the gentle fonts and projected sympathies are a better placeholder than silence.

Debra

Tough to “thank” someone for such sad news. But thanks anyway for finding our correspondence. Tim always had great stories and comments! While never meeting or even talking, our relationship marinated well over such a short time. Seems as that’s the way of it between people with parallel life experiences. While we occasionally kept up with each other’s various aches and ailments, like most men Tim ‘soft-peddled’ his until his most current update commenting on the skin cancer.

Having recently lost some close friends, I find myself always groping for the just right words, the best words that might bring some measure of comfort. Sadly, Hallmark has taken the best ones and turned them into greeting cards. I can only tell you that I join with you in some small measure of your great sadness, your loss. I’ll miss him, too.

Thanks again and thanks to Kate for writing and her presence.

All my best thoughts and wishes for peace and the comfort you’ll find in your best memories.

Brian Wilson

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A brand-new outfit calling itself an “independent polling and research firm” dropped a polished-looking survey showing Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass leading Councilmember Nithya Raman by nearly 12 points in the November runoff. Sample size, margin of error, detailed crosstabs, the works. Bass’s campaign celebrated it on social media. Some outlets ran with it. Then, when the Los Angeles Times started asking basic questions, Median Strategies admitted the whole thing was fake.

They called it a “short-term social experiment to examine how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification.” After that, they shut the website down, withdrew every prior release, and told the world none of it should ever be treated as genuine data.

Can you get any more transparent?

This wasn’t their first rodeo. Earlier they floated a fabricated poll showing Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong with a massive 20-plus-point lead. She lost the primary. The firm posted a brief mock apology and moved on to Los Angeles.

These are the Cool Kids.

They hid nothing. They planned the work. They worked the plan. The trap sprung exactly as designed. Campaigns and media swallowed it whole. Another direct hit to their Good Ships’ ‘Credibility’, ‘Veracity’, and ‘Integrity’. Only ‘Hypocrisy’ remains afloat and unscathed.

I’ve written about this one point for years: most of the coverage is too polite — or too implicated — to say out loud: Anyone can buy a poll.
Or better yet, invent one. A cool-sounding name, a basic website, some methodology jargon, a credit card with a high enough limit, and – ta-da! - you’re in business. No licensing board. No mandatory audit. No real-time verification. You pick the subject, the questions, wording, sample size, the demographic spread, the narrative. If you don’t have the budget for the Big Polling Boys, just create a Median Strategies. Watch how fast the political class treats your numbers as gospel.

And here’s the Big Thing:

They didn’t even try to hide the experiment! They posted the intent after the fact, but the mechanics were sitting there in plain sight the whole time. And still the candidates, the parties, and large parts of print and broadcast media took the bait. Fools exposed. Now listen to them howl.

Bass’s team, after deleting their celebratory post, suddenly discovered Principle: “Any bad faith attempts to influence elections should be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” Raman’s side correctly noted that the mayor’s operation failed to vet the source before amplifying fake data to the public. Both true. Both incomplete. The real story is how easily the entire ecosystem can be gamed by something this thin.

And then there’s the media’s performance. FOX News honcho, Bret Baier, looking bleary-eyed and slightly embarrassed on a mid-morning hit, took credit for FOX not getting sucked in this time — unlike “some other networks.” Fair enough. But instead of properly indicting the colleagues who ran with the numbers sans fact-checking, he and his fellow anchors tut-tutted the audience with stern lectures about checking sources and confirming stories before adding them to one’s belief portfolio. So the viewer is charged with vetting and fact-checking…FOX News?

Ironic much?

Fox wants the Gold Star for dodging this particular bullet while the rest of the media takes another credibility hit. Never mind that every major outlet, including FOX, has pulled its share of boners on other stories — just ahead of or just behind the pack. The sudden piety about “vet your sources” is rich coming from an industry that routinely treats polished PDFs from no-name operations as authoritative when the narrative is convenient.

The Wrap

Median Strategies didn’t invent the problem. They simply proved, in public, how cheap and easy it still is to exploit it. The politicians who amplified the fake numbers, the parties that looked the other way, and the media that flunked Basic Verification 101, all just failed the test they were given. They planned it. They executed it. The trap worked.

Now the only question left is whether anyone in power actually learns the lesson — or whether the next Median Strategies will be even more successful because this one got treated as a one-off embarrassment instead of a systemic warning.

The experiment is over. The data is in.
Credibility took another direct hit. Hypocrisy sails on.

Thanks for reading this far

BW

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Well! A couple thoughts on that:

Marketing Extortion: Pay to Play or get lost. How constructive is that? “Keeps the Crazies out. Duh.” Isn’t that assuming no one would be crazy enough to Subscribe, post his “craziness”, then cancel and get a pro-rata Refund? Or challenge the credit card charge and make the Owner deal with that hassle? Brilliant.

Firstly, BWW has never had a Paywall. For anything. Sharing information, perspectives, personal insights, experiences are Features, not bugs. Subscriptions are free; paying is voluntary and appreciated. Personally, I’d welcome the Crazies – altho in 3+ years of Substack scribbling, none have invaded my hallowed Comments space. Yay, Me! And readers who might be pissed off at the nonsensical ravings of a lunatic mind. But even those can be instructive: They Walk Among Us.

So, If you can’t be a good example, you’ll just have to be a horrible warning.

Secondly, isn’t building a Paywall or requiring a Paid Subscription to comment, saying to your Reader: “If you don’t agree with me, I don’t want you posting on my site. I only want to hear from dedicated Sycophants who never contradict me. Join the Choir of get outta my Temple”?

OK – so you’ve gotten really, really popular: 2,3, 5,000 read your posts. “If I permit access to the Crazies, the Normies will get crowded out, not Comment anymore, maybe even Unsubscribe!” I get it. Being you’re the Writer, Art Director, Head of Research, Public Relations, Correspondent, Admin and Chief Bottle Washer is time consuming and should come with some financial compensation. Key word: “should”. Some of my favorite Substack scribblers work their magic Full Time. Subscribers and donations are their sole source of income. For all they add to inspire the brain and add content to the public conversation, I gladly pay their very reasonable subscription rates. But even if I didn’t, I’d still get to Comment.

And if controlling the Crazies is that important, the Delete key works wonders.

There are boatloads of Counselors, Advisers, On-Line Gurus who will advise any web site practitioner how to monetize their presence. For a fee, of course. Capitalism provides the opportunity to create one’s own reward. Fortunately, it also leaves supporting Substack Scribblers your decision, just as charging a Fee to post your comments. Here, In the interest of “…starting brushfires in the minds of men”, charging for the “matches” seems counterproductive.

BW

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My name is Don, and I’m an old coot.

Last week Mrs. Barn and I took one of our occasional trips to the big city, in part for me to restock some routine building supplies. It had been a very long time since I bought much in the building materials realm as I had really stocked up while constructing the barn almost two decades ago. Slowly over time that inventory had dwindled down and it was time to do a little restocking. Plus, replacing some decking was on the autumn agenda.

The sticker shock almost put me into a wallet-coma. Some CDX plywood, nothing special to say the very least. Enough decking to refurbish an 8’x12′ deck with some left over (even disregarding the need to sort through the pile since about a third of it was useless). Checkout was well on its way to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS. To say that I was ranting all the way home like a curmudgeonly old coot vastly underemphasizes the pungence of my rhetoric. Not only do they not call material what it is, they tripled the prices since I last bought stuff. $60 for a 3/4″ sheet of CDX plywood? $14 for a 12-foot piece of PT/SYP decking? Insanity.

It would be easy enough to condemn the lumber stores and the lumber markets, but markets just do what markets do. Their moral duty is to maximize legal profits on behalf of their shareholders.

The real crisis is inflation, a crisis I do not believe we as a culture have the knowledge, wisdom, or courage to address.

It would be easy enough to blame the bankers, especially The Fed. But even though they are integral to the crisis, the central bankers are only doing what the legislative, executive, and judicial politicians are instructing them to do.

Even though they are misanthropes integral to the crisis, the spineless weasel elected politicians are only doing what the electorate is instructing them to do; spend money on us, money that we do not have. When legislators and executives spend money they do not have, in order to purchase votes they need as they need food, water, and air, there are only two “solutions.” 1) raise tax revenues to cover the expenditures, or 2) create/borrow phony baloney money to do the deed.

The limits to the first are well established as history has revealed an almost iron-clad truth: governments can only extract about 23% of the economy in taxes regardless of the taxation scheme. Hence the drive towards totalitarian collectivism, a/k/a abolition of an economy.

As for the creation of phony baloney money, also known as fiat currency, the only limit is political. The blame for inflation comes down to us, the electorate. In the aggregate we demand the gubmint give us stuff we cannot afford and cannot be paid for. So they do the “rational” thing, they create money out of ones and zeroes and fractional reserves, reducing the worth of the money in existence. Intrinsic prices are not rising, it’s the value of the money that is falling. That has always been and always will be the proximate cause.

Until we in the electorate tell them to stop spending money on us (yeah that’s gonna happen) the inflation locomotive will be picking up steam as it charges down the tracks, the engineers unaware that the bridge up ahead is collapsed (if it has not yet occurred, servicing the debt will soon be the largest component of the Federal budget). And collapse is the only possible end point. Get ready for it. I do not know the current score in the game nor do I know how much time is left on the clock. But I know the end result.

So Don, are you saying you are smarter than all the smart guys in Washington?

Yup.

But then I live in Cootville and the perspective is not in sync with the outside world. As CS Lewis said, “Reality is a ruthless instructor. It does not care whether you agree with it or not.”

Don Williams

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Recent events make the claim look more like a protection racket than a moral principle.

In 1984, Gary Plauché walked into a Baton Rouge airport and shot Jeffrey Doucet, the man who had kidnapped and raped his eleven-year-old son. The killing was captured on television. Plauché served no prison time. The public understood what the courts eventually formalized: the state had already failed. The predator was in custody only after the damage was done. A father acted where the system had not.

Four decades later, Aaron Spencer of Lonoke County, Arkansas, found his thirteen-year-old daughter in the vehicle of Michael Fosler—the same man already charged with dozens of sexual offenses against her and free on bond. Spencer forced the vehicle off the road and shot Fosler. He did not deny it. He said he protected his child. In 2026 a judge dismissed the murder charge after law enforcement lost critical evidence under circumstances the court called “egregious.” Spencer is now the Republican nominee for county sheriff. The same system that released the accused predator and then lost the evidence of the confrontation could not bring itself to punish the father who stopped further harm.

The pattern continues. In July 2026 in Grove City, Ohio, a mother discovered video evidence on her eleven-year-old daughter’s phone showing the child being sexually assaulted. She reported it to police. The next day the girl’s father, Malik Chandler, used TikTok to pose as his daughter and lure the accused man, Diego Montoya Gonzalez, back to the family apartment. When Gonzalez arrived and reached toward his pocket—Chandler later said he believed the man was going for a weapon he had previously displayed online—Chandler shot him twice. Gonzalez survived. He was later charged with rape and multiple counts of pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor, including material involving other children. Chandler was charged with felonious assault. Remarkably, his bond was set higher than the alleged predator’s. The state, which had not prevented the assault and then allowed the accused man to remain free long enough to be lured back, moved quickly to prosecute the father who confronted him.

These are not edge cases. They are illustrations of a structural truth: the state claims a monopoly on protective force while repeatedly demonstrating it cannot or will not deliver protection. When a predator is free to continue after evidence surfaces, or is released on bond and then takes the same child again, the monopoly has already collapsed. Demanding that the father wait for the same institutions that failed is not a demand for order. It is a demand for submission.

The same logic applies to the expanding surveillance apparatus. Flock cameras and similar automated license-plate reader networks do not merely “assist law enforcement.” They create a permanent, searchable record of the movements of entire populations, shared across agencies, often without individualized warrants or meaningful oversight. This is not neutral infrastructure. It is aggressive monitoring of peaceful people. When citizens respond by disabling the devices, covering lenses, or organizing to force contract cancellations, they are not committing random vandalism. They are resisting an intrusion into the private sphere that no free people would have consented to in the first place. This is vigilante justice.

Anarchism does not begin with a romantic vision of chaos. It begins with a refusal to grant the state exclusive moral license to initiate force. Force used in genuine defense of person or property is not aggression; it is the assertion of the same right every individual possesses. The state does not create that right. It claims to monopolize its exercise and then fails, selectively, to exercise it on behalf of those who need it most.

Private protective force is therefore not a regrettable exception. It is the default that becomes visible whenever the monopoly breaks down. Parents who stop predators the system failed to contain, neighbors who disable cameras that treat every driver as a potential suspect, communities that organize mutual defense instead of waiting for distant bureaucracies—these are not threats to order. They are order asserting itself against institutional failure and institutional overreach.

The consistent position is straightforward. The state’s claim to exclusive legitimate violence is unjustified. It is a claim of power, not of superior morality or competence. When that power is used to leave predators free while evidence of their crimes sits on a child’s phone, private force in response is justified. When that power is used to build permanent surveillance grids that track the innocent, resistance to those grids is justified. In both cases the aggression originates with the institution that demands a monopoly it cannot responsibly exercise.

This does not mean every private act of force is automatically right. Misidentification, disproportionate response, and cycles of retaliation are real risks. Anarchist thought has never denied them. It has simply refused the state’s solution: concentrate the power to decide these questions in the same hierarchical apparatus that already fails the vulnerable and expands control over the peaceful. Voluntary associations, customary norms, reputation, insurance, and mutual defense arrangements are imperfect, but they are not improved by granting one organization permanent, non-consensual authority over everyone else’s lives and movements.

The cases of Plauché, Spencer, Chandler, and the growing resistance to Flock cameras are not arguments for lawlessness. They are arguments against the fiction that the state is the only legitimate source of protection and the only legitimate judge of when force may be used. When the monopoly fails to protect children from known or evident predators, fathers who act are not the problem. When the monopoly expands into continuous tracking of ordinary people, those who dismantle the tracking apparatus are not the problem.

The problem is the monopoly itself.

A free society does not require a single institution to hold exclusive rights over defense and adjudication. It requires that people retain the ability to protect themselves and each other when official structures prove inadequate or become the source of the threat. That is not vigilantism. That is the baseline condition of liberty. Everything else is permission granted by an authority that has never earned it and frequently abuses.

BW

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Everything the US government is good at is bad stuff.

Bombing innocent people, killing, stealing, both overtly in the form of taxes, and covertly in the form of inflation and civil asset forfeiture. It’s good at spying on foreign countries and us, US citizens that fund the entire criminal organization.

Everything the US government is bad at is the good stuff.

Teaching, infrastructure, protecting and securing liberty. Healthcare. Allowing us the freedom to work an honest day’s work for honest pay without a worry of a government regulator or extortion agent bothering you or your employer.

In spite of these truths, a large portion of the US can’t wait for the next election. And I get it, the current boob is insufferable. A totally despicable example of the human species, but is indeed a laid-bare example of those that rule and order us about.

We are not ever going to vote ourselves out of this debacle. It’s a virtue, for the ruling elite, not a bug.

Brad Waltz, Bowling Green, OH

Davy Crockett Didn’t Fight and Die For This

As financial, religious, and political refugees from California to Texas, we expected a conservative state. However, that has not been the case. Despite national media coverage to the contrary, our governor is very very average…and, I say that kindly. The Texas House is run by an alleged “Republican majority”—many of which are actually self-serving “representatives” that have Rs behind their names, but maintain power by ignoring the grassroots, while continuing a decades-long coalition with radical Democrats behind closed doors. The Dems vote for “our” speaker of the House, and in exchange they receive important, and powerful, vice chairmanships where they influence—if not write—public policy. The Senate is reasonably solid.

As for North Texas cities, candidates for office don’t have to declare a party affiliation. This is convenient since no political party holds them accountable. Of course, they run as being reasonable…then we get to hold our breath to see what they really are. Case in point, last night’s city council meeting in McKinney, a town of 237,000. On the agenda was whether to give final approval for a mosque, school, and additional building on 5.5 acres. The council had originally put this on a “consent agenda,” which simply means that it’s routine and without citizen input. They did relent, under pressure, and allowed two minutes for each citizen (assuming all were) to speak.

When we got there at 5:25 for a 6:00 meeting, the council chambers were already full. They opened a secondary location that was not large enough. They could have removed tables and put in a few hundred chairs, but they did not. It too was standing room only, and the fire marshal made anyone without a chair leave. We found ourselves standing with 100+ people in a corridor between the council and the overflow rooms. Few left. The meeting started late with Keith Self—part of the anti-Sharia caucus in D.C.—and State Rep. Keresa Richardson speaking against. Six hours later the final person spoke, each person being given 2 minutes. After that, the city council and mayor voted 7-0 for the mosque. About 15% of the speakers were either Muslim or Muslim-aligned liberals, imho. Crowd size was 500+.

Setting aside “why,” it’s very very clear that as long as we treat Islam as a religion, instead of a political powerhouse that has a way of organizing society radically different than our Constitution, we lose. They are not stupid. They are organized. They are funded. They are here. They are growing. Their leadership is using our Constitution against us in order to advance a system that will replace the Constitution itself. As a political entity, it should be viewed in the same vein as Mao’s China, or Stalin’s Russia, submitting plans to the City of McKinney for a 5.5-acre party headquarters. Yes, it might get approved…but at least you know what it actually is. What it isn’t is the equivalent of a church, synagogue, temple, or Grateful Dead concert. It’s political, with a religious accent.

On our way out, there was a group of hijab-wearing Muslim women that chanted, “shame on you, shame on you, shame on you.” I suggested that there were 56 wonderful Muslim countries they could move to—lots of options. My wife contributed with a polite non-verbal gesture. A man with them laughed and said, “This is America—you can’t do anything about it.” He could be right.

Resist. Karl Schafer-Junger, Frisco, TX

Thanks for reading this far.

More coming…

BW

“….starting brushfires in the minds of men.”

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But I digress…

As expected, the Talking and Scribbling Heads of the Chattering Class went “All Fauci, All the Time” between Prez Trump’s on-again-off-again red lines to “bomb the shit out of Iran” posting on Truth Social. Also “predicted”, the Whores of the MSM circled their PlaySkool wagons to defend and deflect the incoming condemnation of Tony “the 5^th” Fauci, whose Legacy is chiseled on headstones everywhere.

Try not to get caught in the depressingly dependable Black Hole of Media Undertow.

While steadfastly not in the Predicting Business – another Pundit Exclusive – I suggest Tony will simmer on the Media back-burner for a little while longer, waiting for St. Paul (no, the other one) to get his Committee to vote a Contempt citation, complete with a Criminal Referral for Fauci’s contemptuous behavior on the Hill, floating in a cesspool of irony and hypocrisy. Recall he commented endlessly that he was “willing to testify.” (Insert Laugh Track sfx here).

“The stupid neither forgive or forget; the naïve forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.” – Thomas Szasz

Who will be the first to say, “I’m sorry. I was wrong”. Anyone who was responsible? If Tony Fauci called a presser and said those exact words, would that be OK with you? All is forgiven? All’s right with the world?

An awful lot of people deserve a lot more than that. Civil society deserves more than that. The Rule of Law requires more than that.

Bible quotes, Jesus projections, personal piety, neatly tucked into Virtue Signals, all highlighting the USDA Prime Goodness ‘n Godliness Grade of Forgiveness and Repentance are littered through Comments Sections. Simply put, so as not to offend even Devoted Agnostics: “Good is Better than Bad because it’s Nicer.” Throw in tolerance for “Just 10 days”, “Keeping society safe”, “Following Orders”, and “For the Children!”. Yes, we all fall short…etc.” ‘Human imperfection’! No worries! There’s a Spiritual App for That.

“Revenge served cold” - Sounds tasty

Personally, I’m not that Good. I willingly pawned my future cloud, harp, and halo when it became fashionable to extend Obligatory Forgiveness for ghastly horrors resulting from intentional evil, psychopathic behavior, narcissism, egomania, psychotropic drugs, and megalomaniacal expectorations cloaked as Official Acts. I want Severe Accountability for Fauci, all his fawning demons, government myrmidons, and especially the complicit syphilitic whores of the media.

Venting and Feelings are great for filling time and space, but terminally useless for the Solutions and closure everyone wants (allegedly). As noted, any apology would be insincere at best and an outright lie at worst; neither offers a Solution or closure for the unspeakable suffering and death forced on loved ones and the innocent. Accountability is the only answer that’s a solution, bringing closure - and as much of that as possible.

I’ll be missing Sunday School for a while.

Thanks for reading this far

BW

“…setting brushfires in the minds of men” Sam Adams

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Only a typical low-information voter would ass-ume something of substance would co... even be aware the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic was meeting today, specifically to question the subpoenaed-to-appear Anthony Fauci of COVID Pandemic fame.

(*Note: Paul eschewed referring to Fauci as Dr. Nice touch.)

Here’s a few basic observations for BWW Readers who will likely tire of the redundancy that will be pounded into oblivion by the chattering class on all platforms for the next 48 hrs.

Take-aways

That Killer Fauci had to be subpoenaed to appear absolutely guaranteed he would arrive with a phalanx of legal beagles (not the ones he tortured to death in his macabre sand fly experiments where “‘They also locked beagles alone in cages in the desert overnight for nine consecutive nights to use them as bait to attract infectious sand flies... ‘)

With this came the next certainty: Fauci wasn’t gonna say nuffin’ about nuffin’. And he didn’t.

(*Note: Fauci DID attempt the long forgotten Lois Lerner stunt: make an opening statement professing innocence, integrity and personal virginity, then trashing your enemy, then plead the 5^th Amendment to refuse to testify. Remarkably, what appeared to be “settled law” or, at least an intimidating operative precedent failed to move Little Tony or his lawyers to recant and come clean. With the infamous All-Inclusive Super-Pardon from President Auto-Pen, he sacrificed the protection of invoking his beloved 5^th Amendment rights, but he did it anyway - 111 times. He even plead the 5^th about whether a folder on the desk in front of him was on the deak in front of him! (In Your Face, Sen Paul!)

Fauci’s steadfast but dangerous repeating his 5^th Amendment was not a bug, but a feature of his and his attorneys defense strategy: rope-a-dope, waste time, run out the clock and live large on your bodacious tax-payer funded pension for another day.

Lots of days.

Because Father Time is on his side. Reluctantly, one hopes.

Think about it: what has Fauci got to lose? After 7 different procedures in the Senate process,, Grok said”

“In practice, the biggest “real-world” consequence would be whether DOJ actually prosecutes (for criminal contempt) or whether the situation moves into court-based enforcement (for civil contempt).”

Think about that:

What are the real-life chances the criminal morons in the “world’s most deliberative body” would actually unite to do something positive out sheer moral decency, requiring accountability from The One who oversaw the mass murder of millions, the ruin of countless businesses and careers, done with massive hubris and impunity as he wrote daily in his personal diary?

You know the answer,

But I digress…

An American citizen who lived through the uniquely planned “pandemic” hoping today for something, some recalcitrance (phony as it would likely be) to put a just end to the multiple horrors and tragedy, courtesy of the raging ego and ‘short-man psychosis’ of Anthony Fauci, the best you got today was the list of his heinous actions recorded into the Senate record for everyone to read – if they missed the Main Event on cable today.

That’s it.

Without one of those “jaw-dropping bombshells” my former colleagues love to “report”, Fauci goes absolutely free. The bastardizing of the application of the 5^th Amend (intended to protect the innocent), the snail-pace of judicial and government procedure, the slow-walk of disincentivized career bureaucrats, the ignorance and apathy inflicted on everyone just by living Life and Moving On, takes its toll.

(*Note: it will be interesting to watch how the MSM handles the story this evening - if at all. I’m sure the most-watched, ABC’s David “Hands” Muir, will have forest fire footage in New Mexico, a tornado ‘war zone’ in Kansas or a lost ‘beloved’ school teacher lost Hershey Park to fill the time).

But I digress…

Sure, Fauci’s “legacy” has been indelibly stained, but only those watching and caring know that. But do you think that means he won’t be getting any Christmas cards this year? That he won’t eventually be the Featured Speaker at some Pfizer Anniversary Celebration?

Another certainty; Fauci will not, as Sen. Paul ruminated, lie in bed tonight or any night, thinking, squirming, silently screaming for those Beagle puppies, the grandmas who died confused, broken-hearted and desperate in militarized nursing homes, or the millions who suffered the torture of certain death with forced inhalers and Remdesivir at the hands of medical doctors like Fauci, who cruelly and knowingly revised the Hippocratic Oath into the hypocritic oath, turning cure into death.

Even worse condemnation is reserved for the Political-Pharmaceutical-Media axis of evil, the unindicted co-conspirators; the ones who will be sending Fauci his Christmas cards this year.

BW

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Samantha, my oldest daughter, asked me to write something for the obituary…

Borrowing from Erich Segal: “What can you say about a twenty-five year old woman who has died?”

Sharon hadn’t been 25 for a while, but the question remains, marinated through all the after-years with the trauma and unavoidable acrimony. But those memories have no place in obituaries.

“What’s too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget”.

I suspect most divorced adults get there eventually. We did. Sadly, the kids don’t always make the trip. They’re the ones who live through the indelible trauma; the ‘collateral damage’ from their parents’ poor decisions. There is no atoning for that.

In the big picture, Sharon was a good wife whose patience with her local ‘rock star’ finally ran out; a doting, motherly mother who, in earlier times, would have had a helicopter.

As a nurse, she was admired and respected by peers and patients – as she deserved. Those who loved her, loved her intensely, unequivocally. The coming “Celebration of Life” in her honor will be crowded. I’ll be there.

Thanks for reading this far

BW

While I’m tending to things, consider this….

Do we really believe in freedom?

Or do we only believe in freedom when it applies to people who agree with us?

Do we trust people we fundamentally disagree with to remain free citizens?

Or do we believe they must be controlled through laws, censorship, surveillance, or social pressure because they are too dangerous to be trusted with liberty?

(Read the rest of this thought-provoking piece here)

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And this divide is rarely discussed.

The Adult America vs. The Perpetual Adolescents

This divide isn’t about age — it’s about development.

One demographic has lived long enough to understand:

• consequences

• restraint

• earned authority

• institutional memory

• civic responsibility

• the difference between “ideal” and “possible”

The other demographic — shaped by decades of cultural erosion, collapsing civic education, and digital validation — has been conditioned to believe:

• feelings equal facts

• desire equals entitlement

• expression equals citizenship

• immediacy equals justice

• institutions are optional

• history is irrelevant

This isn’t a moral judgment. It’s a civic mismatch — two incompatible operating systems trying to run the same Republic.

Boomers vs. Post‑Boomers: The Maturity Gap

Again, not about age — about experience.

Boomers (and older Gen X) lived through:

• draft cards

• inflation cycles

• civic duty

• Cold War stakes

• institutional trust

• consequences arrived in real time

Post‑Boomers lived through:

• participation trophies

• digital echo chambers

• collapsing civic education

• one‑parent households

• algorithmic validation

• consequences that arrive only when someone else pays

The result is a demographic that sees warnings from older generations as:

• outdated

• irrelevant

• oppressive

• “OK, Boomer”

And that’s the fracture: Warnings issued in a language the younger demographic never learned.

Leaders vs. “Average Americans”: The Competence Gap

This is the part no one touches.

For decades, public education eroded:

• critical thinking

• historical literacy

• civic understanding

• institutional respect

• basic common sense

Meanwhile, messaging ecosystems — especially digital ones — have filled the vacuum with:

• outrage

• identity performance

• emotional absolutism

• algorithmic reinforcement

• the illusion of expertise

So when leaders (from any side) issue warnings about structural danger, constitutional risk, or civic instability, they are speaking to a demographic that:

• lacks the vocabulary

• lacks the context

• lacks the maturity

• and lacks the historical grounding to understand what’s being said.

The warnings may as well be broadcast in Sanskrit.

The Termite Problem: Messaging vs. Reality

The messaging ecosystem — especially the most influential media channels — has become a termite colony, quietly chewing through:

• institutional trust

• civic literacy

• human decency

• shared reality

• and the ability to distinguish fact from molded narrative

This isn’t merely partisan. It’s structural.

When millions of citizens are raised on messaging instead of meaning, performance instead of principle, and identity instead of responsibility, the Republic becomes vulnerable to any ideology that promises:

• simplicity

• immediacy

• emotional validation

• elimination of red tape

All under the banner of Instant Gratification

The danger is not the ideology itself — but the demographic unprepared, incapable and apathetic to evaluate it.

The Undiscussed Problem

The danger facing the Republic isn’t simply a clash of ideologies — it’s a clash of civic capacities. A nation can survive disagreement; it cannot survive a population split between those who understand the stakes and those who have never been taught they exist. When half the country speaks the language of civility, respect and responsibility and the other half speaks the language of ignorance, chaos and narcissism, societal norms evaporate, institutions lose their authority, warnings become meaningless, and the future loses its anchor.

This fracture didn’t appear overnight. It grew quietly, intentionally — through decades of eroded education, fractured families, digital conditioning, and the slow decay of shared civic memory. Now it sits beneath every headline, every election cycle, every cultural conflict, silently shaping outcomes while we argue about personalities. (see Rules for Radicals)

Clarity is the essential ingredient

In an age where the audience ranges from genius to idiot, from deeply informed to civically illiterate, from historically grounded to algorithmically hypnotized, clarity is the only universal solvent. It cuts through noise. It bypasses defensiveness. It reaches the reader who didn’t even know they needed reaching.

Unless we confront the divide beneath the noise, the turbulence above it will only intensify. The Republic doesn’t require unanimity — but it does need comprehension. Without it, even the clearest warnings will continue to echo unheard, drifting across a nation that no longer shares the same civic language.

The Republic can survive any variety storms — but it will not survive citizens who deny the weather.

Thanks for reading this far.

BW

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Buy me a coffee?

Other informative reading:

Nobody Declared Martial Law-Yet

Of Marxists and Morons

Carefree Highway (not)

The Collapsing Authority of the State

Meanwhile, in Dearborn…

One was Bob Madigan, (now retired) my partner on “Brian and Bob”, our sadly short-lived but award-winning AM drive show in Washington, DC. Once, Bob literally walked off the show rather than participate in a story to which he objected.

Two, my wife, Cassie Wilson. And it’s not prejudice. For the 7 years we worked together, she was News Director, I was Program Director. On oiccasion, we strongly disagreed on local stories but the question was never about reporting integrity. Local politicians just hated what I did with the information on my talk show and, dumbasses that they were, blamed her for reporting it. Her multiple AP Awards spoke volumes about her excellent work product and their incompetence.

Third, while we were never colleagues, I have always admired the straight-up, straight forward, no-frills reporting of Catherine Herridge. I’m a subscriber to her columns. The accuracy, honesty and integrity of her reporting are impeccable. In the wake of the 3 major networks, along with CNN and MS-Whatever‘s appalling and unprofessional refusal to carry the President’s recent address to the nation, I am re-posting Catherine’s outstanding analysis below.

BW

TOP LINE

In his primetime address, President Trump called it the “largest compromise of election data in history,” resulting in China’s acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files.

Based on declassified records, career intelligence and law enforcement officials routinely suppressed the magnitude of China’s 2020 election influence operation because they apparently disagreed with Trump’s politics.

The President characterized the current voting system as “catastrophically flawed” and vulnerable to fraud, manipulation, and non-citizen voting. He cited roughly 278,000 non-citizens on American voter rolls.

Despite speculation by major TV networks that refused to carry the address, President Trump did not explicitly claim he won the 2020 election.

Instead, he made a compelling, document-driven case that the intelligence community was deeply politicized, biased, and had been weaponized.

Accountability is still possible. In this newsletter, I will document the applicable criminal statutes.

CHINA: ESPIONAGE, FRAUD, EXPLOITING U.S. VOTER DATA

The push to declassify records exposing the magnitude of China’s election operation began with an intelligence community whistleblower.

In April, I reported that multiple sources said a credible whistleblower complaint was filed alleging the CIA, FBI, and other IC agencies suppressed intelligence about China’s influence operations during the 2020 election—operations targeting President Trump and his campaign.

Based on my reporting, China’s goal was to “impede” President Trump’s re-election and “denigrate” him as a candidate. According to these accounts, the CIA—then led by Director Gina Haspel—would not formally document the Chinese influence operations out of concern that President Trump would use the intelligence to his advantage.

NOTE: Haspel was a career CIA officer, not a political appointee. She was part of the CIA enhanced interrogation program that took place at so-called black sites (waterboarding.)

China’s 2020 election influence operation was a “multi-domain” campaign involving trade, diplomacy, information operations, social media, and all levers of government power. According to declassified records and whistleblower accounts, China’s goal was to diminish—or even block—Trump’s re-election.

The Chinese Communist Party is a massive collector of personally identifiable information. China’s collection of U.S. voter data in 2020 is not an isolated event but part of a broader pattern.

In 2015, China was blamed for the theft of 22 million U.S. government security clearance applications (SF-86 forms). These applications provide a roadmap to an individual’s life, from birthplace and education to work history, friends, and family.

Having covered national security in Washington, D.C., for 25 years, I know China’s goal has been to harness AI and other technologies to exploit this information.

By combining hacked voter rolls, healthcare and credit agency data, and security clearance applications, the Chinese military and intelligence services can build detailed digital profiles of American citizens. These profiles can advance voter registration fraud, identity theft, and serve as a powerful tool for Chinese military intelligence to identify and recruit Americans for espionage.

For example, if hacked Equifax data shows long-overdue student loans or child support payments, and a security clearance application reveals rehab for gambling, an individual could become an ideal target for blackmail or recruitment.

THE SHADOW GOVERNMENT

Then FBI Deputy Assistant Director (DAD) for Counterintelligence Nikki Floris wrote, “I’m basically running a shadow government across the FBI at this point.” In the same exchange—appearing to be via an FBI instant messaging service—Floris stated that all 2020 election-related intelligence should come through FBI headquarters.

These reports are known as FBI Intelligence Information Reports (IIRs). The bureau uses IIRs to document and share unevaluated intelligence. While most IIRs are classified, they include a “tear line” version: unclassified but sensitive information that can be more widely shared. Think of it as an early warning system based on intelligence that has yet to be fully corroborated.

Floris’ directive can be seen as an effort to keep all election intelligence on a close hold—especially details about China’s influence operations. Under this scenario, the “shadow government” would decide what to suppress and what to share with other intelligence agencies as well as the Trump administration leadership.

Other emails between intelligence officials said the President’s Daily Brief (PDB) was “deliberately massaged” to remove direct links to the election.

In other words, these so-called intelligence professionals were disconnecting the dots by withholding evidence of China’s influence operations targeting the election from the Commander in Chief.

This internal email is from National Security Agency (NSA) personnel.

CONNECTING THE DOTS: HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP, AUGUST 2020

After the declassified records were released, Senator Ron Johnson confirmed to me that Nikki Floris was one of the FBI agents who gave him and Senator Chuck Grassley a “defensive briefing” in August 2020 about a Russian disinformation campaign targeting the Biden family.

An FBI defensive briefing is a specialized counterintelligence brief alerting recipients (in this case, members of Congress) that they may be targets of a foreign intelligence service.

Senator Johnson said he believes the briefing was designed to discourage the senators from pursuing the Hunter Biden laptop and to lay the groundwork for the false narrative in October 2020 that the laptop was part of a Russian information operation.

Based on her recent online profile, I have asked Floris’ employer, widely reported to be Microsoft for comment and to address an apparent conflict of interest. FWIW: Biden’s former Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco is Microsoft’s head of Global Affairs.

BURN BAGS

The President’s comments about so-called “burn bags”—used to destroy classified records—became another viral moment. President Trump claimed President Obama had ordered the burn bags and their sensitive contents destroyed, but incompetence left some intact.

“Recently we found significant numbers of ‘burn bags’... given by President Barack Hussein Obama to be burned. It was supposed to be burned,” Trump said in his primetime address.

The existence of five “burn bags” recovered at FBI headquarters first came to light in proceedings related to the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey for allegedly lying to Congress about his role in media leaks (later dismissed on procedural grounds after a federal judge ruled the interim U.S. Attorney was unlawfully appointed).

In November, FBI Director Kash Patel told me the burn bags were found in a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) on the 9th floor of FBI headquarters. Other highly classified documents were discovered in a closet off the Director’s office.

SCIFs have electronic access controls, so the FBI has likely identified individuals with access when the bags were left there. Patel indicated to me that he knows who placed them in the secure facility.

I have confirmed the records relate to some of the most sensitive and controversial investigations involving President Trump. They include documents from the 2016 Russia collusion probe (“Crossfire Hurricane”), the Mar-a-Lago investigation, and a highly classified CIA referral to the FBI about a “2016 Hillary Clinton plot” to portray Trump as a puppet of Putin.

The Clinton document is a Counterintelligence Operational Lead (CIOL). My understanding is that the paper copy of the lead sent to the FBI under Director Comey went missing. The CIOL about Clinton may have been the only copy, or one of a handful of copies.

MOST TV NETWORKS GAVE TRUMP’S ADDRESS A PASS

Most major TV networks did not carry the presidential address live. Executives cited Trump’s alleged history of election falsehoods. However, the networks are expected to apply the “equal time” provision.

I believe this decision reflects an archaic view: that Americans still rely primarily on network newscasts as their main source of information and the final word on events.

Fifteen years ago, this would have amounted to a near-total news blackout. Today, with abundant alternative sources—phones, computers, podcasts, cable and social media—it only underscores the diminished influence of legacy network news.

While legacy media will always have a role, Americans increasingly turn elsewhere. A recent Pew Poll found that a “large majority of U.S. adults (86%)” get some of their news from a smartphone, computer or tablet. More than half, 56%, said they often get their news from digital devices.

Unfortunately, I believe the networks’ decision also reinforced a recent Gallup Poll showing public trust in mass media at new lows.

In October, Gallup found just 28% of Americans had a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust that major outlets would report the news fully, fairly, and accurately.

TIME TO MAKE THINGS RIGHT FOR THE WHISTLEBLOWER

For calling out the suppression of China intelligence targeting President Trump before the 2020 election, the whistleblower allegedly faced persistent and pervasive retaliation:

• Changes in job responsibilities

• Threats to destroy their reputation

• Alteration of their “dissent” report challenging the suppression of China’s election activities, with the confidence level downgraded

It is time to do the right thing by the whistleblower.

RELEVANT CRIMINAL STATUTES

Accountability can also come through criminal prosecutions. Based on conversations over the weekend, several federal criminal statutes are relevant:

• Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law (18 U.S.C. § 242) — intentional abuse of power by federal officials.

• Conspiracy (18 U.S.C. § 371) — groups acting to commit an offense against or defraud the United States.

• Violations of the Code of Conduct and Ethics for the Senior Executive Service (e.g., Subpart E on impartiality).

• Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (criminal dereliction of duty).

• THE Director of National Intelligence oversees entities under the Department of Defense (including military analysts at agencies like the NSA). Those who coordinated to suppress China intelligence in 2020 could face legal exposure.

Declassifying records is vital. Transparency falls short without accountability.

END IT

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But the frog metaphor is one‑dimensional. It’s about temperature, not structure. It warns about discomfort, not collapse. And frankly, frogs don’t destroy anything except the occasional mosquito.

If you really want to wake up your lethargic neighbors, you need a different creature — one equally familiar, but far more destructive.

I give you: the termite.

A single termite is nothing. Squashable. Forgettable. Even a handful pose no real challenge to anyone with a pulse and a shoe.

But tens of thousands? That’s an infestation. That’s structural damage. That’s collapse from within.

Termites work quietly, invisibly, behind paneling and sheetrock. You don’t see the destruction until the floor gives way beneath you. Frogs can’t do that. Termites can — and do.

Which makes them the perfect parable for sleeping citizens.

Right now, the Federal government employs nearly 3 million termites. That’s just the federal level. Add state government (NY: 271,000) and local government (NY: 450,000), and you’ve got battalions chewing through the foundation of freedom — one law, one regulation, one bureaucratic “decision” at a time.

It’s happening right now, simultaneously, in real time. And it’s been happening for over 250 years — slowly, quietly, incrementally — behind the walls and doors of government offices across the ‘Fruited Plain’ (thanks, Rush).

So now that the infestation is visible, the question becomes:

What are you going to do about it?

Well, analogously, you are the exterminator. Time to get to work.

“Arrrgh!” — you say — “but I am only one! You just told me there are millions of them. What can one person do?”

Don’t look now, but there are millions of you across the country. And the only thing more powerful than a termite infestation… is a citizenry that finally wakes up.

“It doesn’t take a majority to prevail…”

What happens if even a fraction of those millions wake up? If even a sliver of them stop shrugging and start acting? If even a handful decide that the foundation is worth saving?

Termites win only when the homeowners stay asleep. Wake up, and the infestation ends.

“…an irate, tireless minority…”

Termites don’t stop on their own. They stop when someone notices. They stop when someone cares. They stop when someone acts.

The question isn’t whether the foundation can be saved. It’s whether the people living in the house still think it’s theirs.

“…setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”

Termites don’t fear laws, speeches, or slogans. They fear light. They fear noise. They fear the homeowner who finally puts down the remote, picks up a flashlight, and says:

“Not in my house.”

Because the truth is simple: The Republic isn’t dying from termites. It’s dying from people who stopped checking the walls.

BW

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Alas - the world didn’t want Famine, Plague, Pestilence, and Death galloping in with flaming nostrils anymore. We upgraded. We modernized. We made our doom more… convenient.

The new Horsemen don’t thunder in. They slip through the cracks, quietly on little cat feet, like Sandburg’s fog, settling into the national psyche with the gentle persistence of dust. It sets up a recliner and starts rearranging the furniture of the Republic.

And yes, the Republic is still very much in danger. Just because the beasts aren’t snorting fire doesn’t mean they aren’t burning the place down.

Meet the new riders.

1. Aggressive Ignorance

This one didn’t need a lab. It grew Free Range, in the wild — specifically in the Government Training Camps formerly known as public schools. After a century of compulsory attendance, we’ve bred a nation of functional illiterates armed with industrial‑strength self‑esteem and no actual knowledge.

Aggressive Ignorance isn’t passive. It’s proud. It’s loud. It’s the “I don’t know, and I don’t care” variant, resistant to all known antidotes. Accurate Knowledge and Common Sense used to work, but the virus evolved. Now it shrugs off facts like a teenager ignoring homework.

This Horseman doesn’t gallop. It ambles confidently, certain it already knows everything worth knowing.

2. Contagious Apathy

Aggressive Ignorance never travels alone. It brings its favorite roommate: Contagious Apathy.

This is the slow killer — the Alfred E. Neuman strain of civic decay. “What, me worry?” has become a national motto. It is the civic mildew that spreads in the dark, whispering that involvement is futile, that outrage is exhausting, that responsibility is someone else’s job.

It thrives in bureaucratic swamps, political stalemates, and cultural shrugging. It feeds on the national habit of watching tragedy like entertainment and injustice like the weather.

Bureaucratic sludge, political non‑response, and the cultural gospel of “don’t get involved” have turned Apathy into his own pandemic. He doesn’t demand attention. He simply erases the desire to give any.

The symptoms are everywhere:

• The indifference to injustice

• The submission to government overreach

• The transformation of “Don’t tread on me” into “Don’t bother me”

• The national habit of watching disaster like it’s a rerun

Contagious Apathy doesn’t destroy the Republic. It simply leaves it undefended.

3. Instant Gratification

The third Horseman does not wait. He cannot wait. Waiting is an affront to his very existence.

Instant Gratification was once the domain of infants — tiny tyrants demanding immediate satisfaction. But technology democratized impatience. Now everyone is a baby with a touchscreen.

Why endure anticipation when everything can be delivered instantly? Why cultivate discipline when convenience is cheaper? Why learn from history when the past is so yesterday? Why endure self-control when impatience feels so good?

Instant Gratification is the Horseman who rides a lightning bolt, not a horse. He is the patron saint of shortcuts, the prophet of “now,” the destroyer of patience.

And in his wake, wisdom withers.

Instant Gratification is the “I want what I want, when I want it” plague. It erases history, cripples foresight, and turbocharges both Ignorance and Apathy. When everything must happen now, nothing from the past matters — and nothing in the future will.

This Horseman doesn’t ride. It teleports.

4. Techno‑Narcissism

The lab coats had to invent a new term for this one.

Techno‑Narcissism is what happens when technology and ego have a baby and raise it on social media. It’s the All-Inclusive, All-About-Me generation — no age limits, no maturity requirements, no brakes.

Everyone is a star. Everyone is a brand. Everyone is broadcasting their lunch.

Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, X. All of them feed the beast. Self‑esteem, once a gentle supplement, is now a performance‑enhancing drug. The world must watch, must listen, must Like, must validate. Meaning comes only from what happens within one’s own timeline.

The philosophical side effect is existential nihilism: “Nothing existed before me, and nothing matters unless I’m in the frame.”

This Horseman doesn’t ride a horse. It rides an algorithm.

The Convergence — The Apocalypse in Slow Motion

Individually, each Horseman is dangerous. Together, they are unstoppable.

Aggressive Ignorance blinds. Contagious Apathy numbs. Instant Gratification distracts. Techno‑Narcissism consumes.

They reinforce one another, protect one another, amplify one another. They are a closed circuit — a self‑sustaining ecosystem of decay.

The Apocalypse is not coming. It is already here. It just doesn’t make noise.

The Four Horsemen aren’t galloping. They’re strolling. And we’re holding the door for them.

Watch for Symptoms

As you move through your day, keep an eye out for early signs of infection:

• Lethargy

• Baseless opinions

• Boundless ego

• Social media addiction

• The inability to care about anything that isn’t on a screen and happened in their lifetime.

The pathogen isn’t the problem. The pandemic is.

Stay safe. Stay informed. Stay aware.

BW

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The Editor

The Highland Recorder

In the past fortnight, we’ve witnessed remarkable celebrations of the USA, first through the reactions of tens of thousands of foreign visitors for the soccer tournament and secondly as we patriots have celebrated the 250th anniversary of the greatest nation the world has ever seen. There are untold numbers of accounts from these soccer visitors ecstatic about the grandeur of our geography, the generosity and hospitality of our people, and the joys of liberty in the USA. It enriched me to see our nation through the eyes of foreigners.

Among all that were a couple of news stories that caught my attention, one confirming and one concerning.

In the first case came the report that an analysis of the economic data revealed that our three poorest states, Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas, had all surpassed England and Canada in aggregate per capita wealth. In other words, if either England or Canada were to be a US state, they would rank 51st in the average standard of living. There are consequences to both freedom and repression.

The second story of a pair of Gallup Survey polls, reported by the Associated Press, was a sobering twist to the celebration of our 250th national anniversary. In 2001 a Gallup Survey indicated that roughly 90% of both Republicans and Democrats were proud to be US citizens. Flash forward a quarter century and the results had dramatically shifted on one side of that equation. In a 2026 Gallup survey 93% of Republicans were proud to be US citizens, while barely a third of Democrats (38%) were proud to be Americans, and another large survey (Elon Univ.) indicated that 55% of Democrats expressed a preference to live somewhere other than the USA. It would be fascinating to know, 1) where these millions of people would rather live, and 2) why are they still here since they are free to go?

In 2004, Democratic Vice President candidate John Edwards asserted that there were “two Americas.” Now 20+ years later, that campaign rhetoric has become reality. Although the particulars have changed from Edwards’ platform, how can two populations coexist peacefully if they do not share any common vision, values or identity?

Don Williams

Monterey VA

Continuing the BWW practice of providing News That Doesn’t Make the News…

If you speak Irony, you might find this piece of interest…

Sticking with Irony (with a shovelful of hypocrisy and BS), check this out…

A pointed note of concern on “birthright citizenship”…

My new hero — and should be yours!

Linked as a public service - and warning…

On a serious note, the information in this post is invaluable…

Hope your 4th was more enjoyable than the MSM’s!

BW

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1. The Grievance Ventriloquist

Species: Outrageus puppeteerii Habitat: Rallies, podcasts, anywhere people feel wronged but can’t articulate why. Behavior: Speaks the audience’s anger back to them with perfect emotional pitch. Diet: Resentment, applause, and the belief that “the system” is always the villain. Threat Level: High — weaponizes frustration into political fuel.

2. The Free‑Stuff Sorcerer

Species: Givus-everythingus Behavior: Promises benefits that defy math, physics, economics, and occasionally gravity. Call: “It’s not a handout — it’s justice.” Diet: Wish lists, fantasy budgets, and the assumption that someone else will pay. Threat Level: Catastrophic — turns governance into a shopping spree.

3. The Elite Slayer

Species: Anti-richus performativus Behavior: Rails against “the wealthy” while quietly courting donors in the next room. Diet: Class resentment, envy, and slogans that sound like Robin Hood fan fiction. Threat Level: Severe — convinces voters that confiscation equals prosperity.

4. The Accountability Abolitionist

Species: Consequencus deletus Behavior: Treats enforcement agencies like personal enemies and consequences like human rights violations. Call: “Punishment is oppression.” Diet: Loopholes, leniency, and the belief that laws should only apply to other people. Threat Level: High — erodes the civic immune system.

5. The Emotional Meteorologist

Species: Feelings-over-factus Behavior: Reads the emotional weather of the electorate and adjusts positions hourly. Diet: Polling, vibes, and whatever sentiment is trending. Threat Level: Moderate — governs by mood swing.

6. The Historical Revisionist Bard

Species: Narrativus reinventus Behavior: Tells stories about America that never happened, but should have — according to audience feelings. Call: “This is who we REALLY are.” Diet: Mythology, selective memory, and cinematic speeches. Threat Level: Severe — replaces history with screenplay.

7. The Algorithm Whisperer

Species: Clickus opportunisticus Behavior: Crafts policies based on what performs best online, not what works in reality. Diet: Engagement metrics, viral outrage, and influencer approval. Threat Level: High — confuses governance with content creation.

8. The Savior Salesman

Species: Messiahus manufacturus Behavior: Presents the lone hero who can fix everything with one election and zero effort. Call: “Only I can solve this.” Diet: Hero worship, desperation, and cinematic campaign ads. Threat Level: Extreme — sells miracles instead of plans.

9. The Bureaucratic Pyromaniac

Species: Burn-it-allus Behavior: Promises to dismantle institutions they don’t understand and voters don’t appreciate. Often seen at DSP campaign rallies. Diet: Anti‑system rhetoric, dramatic gestures, and zero replacement strategy. Threat Level: Severe — destroys without building.

10. The Untaught Citizen’s Best Friend

Species: Championus panderingii Behavior: Tells voters exactly what they want to hear: “You’re right. You’re owed. You’ve been wronged. And I will fix it.” Diet: Flattery, grievance, and emotional validation. Threat Level: Existential — turns democracy into therapy.

The Untaught Citizen didn’t break democracy — the politicians who learned how to exploit them did.

Once a political class discovers that ignorance is profitable, grievance is mobilizing, and flattery is easier than leadership, the game changes.

Elections stop being contests of ideas. They become auctions of promises. And the highest bidder wins — paid not in dollars, but in illusions.

A nation can survive bad voters. It can survive bad leaders. But it cannot survive a political class that prefers manipulation over education, validation over truth, and power over responsibility.

And that’s why the Field Guide matters.

Because once you can name the creatures, you can stop falling for their tricks

America’s 250th Birthday festivities provide a target rich environment to observe all of the species above in their natural habitat.

Enjoy and beware!

BW

“…starting brushfires in the minds of men.”

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