BattlePenguin

When was the last time RAM was this expensive?

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Memory has become insanely expensive over just the past few months. Micron cut production of Crucial, their consumer brand of memory, to focus on data center products at the end of 2025¹. This was after Micron received massive amounts of taxpayer money from the CHIPS Act². Crucial’s exit has radically changed the market. We’ve seen big shifts in RAM prices over the past few decades. It has always been volatile, but it’s never been this bad. In this unprecedented time of memory pricing, I started going back through all my previous purchases to see how far into the past I’d have to go to see the current-day cost per byte of memory.

I built a desktop in 2016 after living out of two bags for nearly a year. It was the first desktop I had put together in years, and I spent $190 for 32GB of DDR4-3200 memory. A year later, I ended up selling that desktop before driving across the country. When I settled down in Chicago and decided to build another desktop, I paid $330 for 32GB of the same DDR4-3200 memory, a nearly 60% increase.

RAM prices spiked massively in 2018³⁴. Supply may have been constrained due to the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 recall⁵. There are only three major manufacturers of DRAM chips: Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix. Small supply and demand changes can have volatile effects, as we’re seeing today.

Recent Jumps

In September of 2025, I purchased this 32GB (2x16GB) RAM kit for $86. As of March 1st of this year, it was $370.

A 64GB DDR5-6000 set of RAM cost me $210 in July of 2024. In August 2023, it was around $300⁶. By the end of March 2026, it is currently $950.

Date	Capacity	Type	Cost	Price Per GB
2025, September	32GB (2x16GB)	DDR5-6000	$86	$2.69
2026, March	-	-	$370	$ 11.56
2025, February	64GB (2x32GB)	DDR5-6000	$90	$1.41
2026, March	-	-	$950	$14.84

The current data center and AI-mania has pushed most memory manufacturers to switch to production of enterprise high-bandwidth memory, leaving the consumer market in panicked short supply.

Price per Gigabyte

These are obviously massive increases in prices, but just how bad? Typically, consumer storage tends to gain capacity while reducing cost over time. How far back do we have to go before we see a regression to today’s prices? I decided to go back through decades of ancient e-mails, searching for old DDR orders from both large and small online retailers.

Date	Capacity	Type	Cost	Price Per GB
2005, May	512MB	DDR PC3200	$38	$76
2006, January	2GB (2x1GB)	DDR-266 PC2100 (Registered ECC)	$160	$80
2006, February	2GB (2x1GB)	DDR2-667 PC2-5400	$156	$78
2009, April	1GB	DDR2-667 PC5400 (SODIMM)	$20	$20
2009, May	2GB	DDR2-667 PC5400 (SODIMM)	$29	$14.50
2009, July	4GB (2x2GB)	DDR2-1066 PC8500	$140	$35
2016, November	8GB (2x4GB)	DDR4 (SODIMM)	$44	$5.50
2016, December	32GB (4x8GB)	DDR4-3200	$190	$5.94
2018, December	32GB (2x16GB)	DDR4-3200	$330	$10.31
2020, September	16GB (2x8GB)	DDR4-3200	$57	$3.56
2020, December	64GB (2x32GB)	DDR4-3600	$230	$3.59
2021, November	16GB (2x18GB)	DDR4-3000	$50	$3.13
2022, July	64GB (2x32GB)	DDR4-3200 (SODIMM)	$160	$2.50
2024, July	64GB (2x32GB)	DDR5-6000	$210	$3.28
2024, November	64GB (2x32GB)	DDR5-5600 (SODIMM)	$140	$2.19
2025, February	64GB (2x32GB)	DDR4-3200	$90	$1.41
2025, September	32GB (2x16GB)	DDR5-6000	$86	$2.69

Of course, this isn’t a fair comparison, as I’m only looking at the price per GB. I’m also only looking at my purchases, not overall market data. Memory has changed over the years, both in DDR standards and in bus speed. Many of these purchases came in matched kits as well, to take advantage of dual-channel configurations. A 2x16GB pair might run at a lower cost per GB than a single 32GB due to chip density, but for the sake of simple comparison, we’re going to ignore that as well.

The Height of Memory Mania

Once again, let’s compare the capacity cost of the current market, ignoring everything else.

Date	Capacity	Type	Cost	Price Per GB
2026, March	64GB (2x32GB)	DDR5-6000	$950	$14.84
2026, March	32GB (2x16GB)	DDR5-6000	$370	$ 11.56

I would have to go back to 2009 to get to our current cost-per-gigabyte market price. The largest capacities I could find for consumer-grade memory during this time period were 6GB sticks of DDR3, which ran for around $180, or $30 per GB⁷. Getting anywhere near current memory capacity back then likely required server hardware and enterprise motherboards.

Pressure Release

We have regressed a decade and a half when it comes to RAM prices. 4K editing, software development, local AI models, gaming and the ever-increasing bloated requirements from web browsers and Electron applications have all pushed up memory requirements a lot for general computer use. Yet, due to massive data center expansion, RAM scarcity is forcing prices outside the range for most normal consumers.

There eventually must be a pressure release. It could be the impending and easily predictable collapse of the AI bubble, or it could be the United States government finally removing sanctions from ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), allowing for another supplier to compete in the market.

The danger of continued high RAM prices is that it could push more services into data centers and away from local machines and homelabs. Even businesses may push developers to utilize more cloud architecture rather than provide their staff with sufficiently powerful laptops for their technology stacks. Decades of technological innovation that have pushed more compute and storage power to individual engineers could regress due to the price of chip-based storage.

When will we see reasonable prices for consumer RAM, as well as for NVMe storage that’s also risen dramatically? The DRAM industry is a difficult market to enter into, and has long been held by a small cartel of chip manufacturers⁸, some of whom have been charged and pleaded guilty to illegal price fixing⁹. Gartner is predicting we won’t see slowdowns in the AI markets until 2027¹⁰, which could lead to entry level gaming PCs becoming affordable by 2028¹¹.

The availability of affordable consumer compute has radically changed what people have been able to create and do for the past several years. There’s been a large democratization of technology¹², and constricting supply only benefits those who offer cloud services and software subscriptions. It’s a terrible hit for enthusiasts that may go unnoticed by those who are fine with renting and not owning hardware.

WTF Just Happened? - The Corrupt Memory Industry & Micron. 5 December 2025. Gamers Nexus. ↩
Trump’s big bill boosts Micron’s tax break for Clay chip plants by about $5 billion. 26 July 2025. Weiner. Syracuse. ↩
Why RAM Prices Are Through the Roof. 30 January 2018. Hruska. ExtremeTech. ↩
RAM Price Report: DDR4 Same Price as Initial Launch. 22 January 2018. Lathan. Burke. GamersNexus. ↩
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 recall: Here’s what happens now. 22 January 2017. Dolcourt. CNet. ↩
This 32GB kit I bought in September, for $86 … is now $370. 1 March 2026. @djsumdog@djsumdog.com. mirror ↩
Memory - DDR3 RAM. TigerDirect. Archive from 8 December 2009 ↩
The DRAM Cartel - Price Fixing, Anti-Consumer Collusion, & Corporate Conspiracy. 6 March 2026. GamersNexus. ↩
Japanese Company Agrees To Plead Guilty To Participating In Dram Price- Fixing Conspiracy. 30 January 2006. US Department of Justice. ↩
Gartner Says Surging Memory Costs Will Reduce Global PC and Smartphone Shipments in 2026l. 26 Feburary 2026. Gartner. ↩
Gaming PCs will be too expensive for ordinary people by 2028 predicts report. 5 March 2026. Beckwith. Metro. ↩
An Army of Davids. Reynolds. (2006) ↩

80 TB of RAIDZ Storage

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

4x 30TB Seagate Hard Drives

Over the course of my life, hard drives have continued to get denser as far as their data capacity. Back when I was traveling for years, I could comfortably put most of my data on a single hard drive. Over the years, when I reached capacity, I’d copy everything to a new drive and ship the old one as an offsite backup to a family member halfway across the world. In recent years, I’ve switched from smaller custom NAS servers to a custom rack-mounted solution with ZFS storage. I was able to upgrade to a ZRAID array before storage prices started skyrocketing. This post talks about the new 80TB ZFS RAID array I built, as well as how I’ve converted my old hard drives to backups using ZFS snapshots.

The Homelab

In 2022, I purchased a Sysracks rackmount in order to build out a small homelab. It’s an entry-level “gamer rack¹,” which would struggle to properly fit a lot of enterprise rails and hardware. It’s good that I’ve mostly used commodity hardware and reused consumer parts. The NAS I built used a Plink case², containing the ITX motherboard and parts from my older NAS. I then added two sets of 3 X 5.25 hot-swap tray-less hard drive enclosures.

The Old Rotation

Even with this new server chassis and its large number of drive bays, I didn’t move to a full RAID array. Instead I kept volumes for three general classifications of data: main, storage and archive. I’d rotate backup drives into the server every few weeks and transfer incremental ZFS snapshots to them. I kept a complicated spreadsheet of which drive contained which volume.

Data pool tracking spreadsheet

The backup volumes would go into a fire-resistant box. This is one of the off-the-shelf boxes that can be found at most hardware stores. I don’t know how fire resistant they truly are and hope I never find out.

Hard drives in fire resistant box

This is a terrible way to handle backups. In the case of a data failure, I could be weeks or months behind, depending on how well I’ve kept up my schedule. However, now that I have this new array, I also have several old drives that I could turn into backups. I could keep two sets of backup drives. One could be kept online and automated, while the other could be traded out occasionally into the same fire resistant box.

4x 30TB Seagate Drives

On December 3rd, 2025, I purchased four 30TB hard drives directly from Seagate for $2,451.54, including sales tax. By January, these drives were only available from 3rd parties at $900 each! Prices and supply for large capacity hard drives have fluctuated heavily. Had I waited, I could have purchased Seagate’s newer 32TB offerings. I’ve seen them for around $700 recently on several websites, but they do tend to go out of stock very quickly. Pricing and supply for these hard drives isn’t as bad as RAM, but it’s still volatile.

In February, Western Digital stated they had already allocated their entire hard drive manufacturing capacity for the year³⁴, meaning we could see further supply constraints in the hard drive market.

4x 30TB Seagate Hard Drives

The New RAIDZ Pool

I created this as an encrypted RAIDZ pool using the following settings.

zpool create -f -o ashift=12 \
                   -O compression=lz4 \
                   -O acltype=posixacl \
                   -O xattr=sa \
                   -O relatime=on \
                   -O encryption=aes-256-gcm \
                   -O keyformat=passphrase \
                   -O canmount=off \
                   -O mountpoint=none \
                   -f arcadia raidz1 /dev/sde1 /dev/sdf1 /dev/sdg1 /dev/sdh1

This created a RAIDZ volume with one drive of redundancy and a total usable capacity of 79.1 TB. In reality, it’s quite a bit shy of 80 TB due to RAIDZ overhead⁵, but the round number sounds cooler, so I’ve kept it as the title of this post. 😇

The Backup Server

The last of my spare compute units consisted of an AMD Ryzen 3 3200G on an Asus Prime A320I-K ITX motherboard with 16 GB of RAM. This particular motherboard does support PCI-E cards waking it from the sleep state, allowing me to equip it with a Wake-on-LAN (WoL) network card.

Since it will be in a low power state most of the time, it can live silently in my home office rackmount. I can remotely wake it up to perform backups and immediately suspend it again.

Backup Server in Server Rack

I wanted to connect this server to my 10 Gb fiber network. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that any cards with SPF+ cages support WoL, most likely due to lacking the power needed to keep the fiber transceiver active while the machine is suspended. I found this network card (NIC), which used a Marvell AQC113 chip, that offered 10Gb over copper with WoL for $114.

NICGIGA 10Gb Ethernet Adapter

Unfortunately, this NIC operates using PCI 4.0 by x1. The slot on this motherboard is PCI 3.0. So even when placed in the motherboard’s only PCI-E slot, lspci shows the card’s link status as Speed 8GT/s (downgraded), Width x1 (downgraded). In this configuration, I seem to be limited to transfer speeds of ~6 Gb/s over the network.

iperf3 -c chloe
Connecting to host chloe, port 5201
[  5] local 2605:8600:x:x:x:x:x:x port 45560 connected to 2605:8600:x:x:x:x:x:x port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec   731 MBytes  6.12 Gbits/sec   67   1.12 MBytes
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec   729 MBytes  6.12 Gbits/sec    1   1.23 MBytes
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec   728 MBytes  6.11 Gbits/sec    0   1.25 MBytes
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec   729 MBytes  6.12 Gbits/sec    8   1.27 MBytes
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec   729 MBytes  6.11 Gbits/sec    3   1.29 MBytes
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec   728 MBytes  6.10 Gbits/sec    0   1.30 MBytes
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec   727 MBytes  6.10 Gbits/sec    0   1.32 MBytes
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec   729 MBytes  6.12 Gbits/sec    0   1.34 MBytes
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec   729 MBytes  6.11 Gbits/sec   13   1.36 MBytes
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec   729 MBytes  6.11 Gbits/sec    0   1.37 MBytes

The ITX motherboard doesn’t have enough SATA connectors for the 5x bay hard drive cage I purchased for this project. So I purchased an M.2 SATA controller, which had two SAS breakout cables that can connect up to eight devices. I had purchased a similar M.2 SATA controller in the past but never got it working in other boards. I assumed it was a compatibility issue, but after trying it on other motherboards, I think it was just defective.

M.2 SATA Controllers

The new SATA controller I purchased had a warning label instructing the user to install the SAS breakouts before installing the card. I assume this is to prevent stress to the card while in the M.2 slot, which could damage the controller’s PCB.

The Backup Pool

I created a zpool on the backup server without RAIDZ. This is effectively Just a Bunch of Disks (JBOD) array in ZFS. It doesn’t provide any redundancy, but I do gain the full storage capacity of each drive, which seems like a reasonable tradeoff for a backup.

zpool create -f -o ashift=12 \
                   -O compression=lz4 \
                   -O acltype=posixacl \
                   -O xattr=sa \
                   -O relatime=on \
                   -O encryption=aes-256-gcm \
                   -O keyformat=passphrase \
                   -O canmount=off \
                   -O mountpoint=none \
                   -f carmella /dev/sdf /dev/sdg /dev/sdh

I sent my first ZFS snapshot to the new pool. It was a full snapshot sent via SSH. With both the limitation of the NIC and the overhead of SSH encryption, it took a total of five days to complete this transfer! Luckily, most of this was over the weekend, so I only had to deal with the loud server in my home office for part of that transfer.

# zfs send arcadia/aerith@2026-03-04 | pv | ssh stacey zfs recv byleth/aerith
50.8TiB 5:02:08:10 [ 121MiB/s] [           <=>                                               ]

I decided to create a similar pool with my more recent set of backup hard drives, turning them into a JBOD pool. This time, I placed the backup hard drives in the existing NAS to see if it made a difference in transfer speed. The entire snapshot transferred in one day and twenty-two hours, a fraction of the network transfer time.

root@chloe ~ [SIGPIPE|0|1]# zfs send arcadia/aerith@2026-03-10 | pv | zfs recv carmella/aerith
50.8TiB 1:22:51:28 [ 316MiB/s] [                                            <=>              ]

These initial snapshots are a one-time cost, as subsequent backups only require incremental data between two previous snapshots.

Pool Name	Set	Type	Capacity	Current Available Space
arcadia	Master	RAIDZ	79.1 TB	28.4 TB
byleth	Backup	JBOD	52.7 TB	2.32 TB
carmella	Backup	JBOD	54.5 TB	3.78 TB

It may seem like my backup pools are far under the potential capacity of my primary storage. Fortunately, they’re JBODs and I have several smaller drives from when I lived minimally, ranging from 3TB to 8TB. My backup server supports five hot-swap drives, and both of these backup pools only use three. As my usage grows, I can add additional drives until my backup sets reach capacity.

8TB, 6TB and 4TB Capacity Hard Drives

Final Costs

Part	Price	Tax	Shipping	Total
10G Base-T PCI-e4.0 X1 Network Card	$113.99	$11.09	$5.99	$131.06
3x5.25” to 5x3.5” SATA Trayless Hot-Swap Cage	$130.99	$13.30	$12.69	$156.98
2U Rackmount Case	$105.00	$9.71	-	$114.71
M.2 to SATA 8 Port Controller	$55.99	$5.18	-	$61.17
Total for Backup Server				$463.92
4x 30TB Seagate Hard Drives	$2,639.96 (-$395.99 discount)	$207.57	-	$2,451.54
Total Including New Storage				$2915.46

The 10 Gb Ethernet card was double the cost of an equivalent SPF+ card with a fiber transceiver and ended up being somewhat of a waste compared to an equivalent 5 Gb card on this particular build. The hot-swap cage was also a little over twice as much as I’ve paid previously for similar drive bays. Other than those two items, most of the prices for this build are comparable to my previous server builds.

I’m thankful I purchased my storage drives last year. I’m also thankful this build utilized existing parts and didn’t require RAM or NVMe storage, which have skyrocketed in just the past three months.

Future Work

The next steps for this project involve automating ZFS snapshots and backup transfers. I’d like to build a job that will make regular snapshots, wake the backup server, perform snapshot transfers and server updates, and maintain the required incremental snapshots needed to update both backup pools. For now, I have more than enough primary storage capacity, along with two sets of full backups and a plan for long-term continual rotations. With the current state of the consumer PC hardware market, this might be my last build or upgrade project for a considerable amount of time.

nice gamer rack. 28 August 2022. @duponin@udongein.xyz. mirror ↩
3U Intelligent Green Saving LCD Display & Fan Control. Retrieved 18 March 2026. Archive ↩
Western Digital Has No More HDD Capacity Left, as CEO Reveals Massive AI Deals; Brace Yourself For Price Surges Ahead!. 14 Feburary 2026. Zuhair. Wccftech. ↩
Western Digital is Sold Out of Hard Drives for 2026. 17 Feburary 2026. msmash. Slashdot. ↩
ZFS / RAIDZ Capacity Calculator (beta). WintelGuy.com. Retrieved 20 March 2026 ↩

Search the Past

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In today’s world of content generated by the Weighted Random Word Generators (also known as Large Language Models (LLMs); too often incorrectly referred to as Artificial Intelligence), the vast majority of top search results are a mix of mainstream news sites and automatically generated articles, which are difficult to read and verify for correctness. Too many people simply read and trust the generated answer at the top of the search results. For those who want to look deeper, the first step is to set your Internet time machines to the past, before the era of the modern chatbot.

Time Machine

Here is a simple search form that supports date ranges for several search engines. I’ve made the source code available under the search the past project. You can easily modify it or embed it into your website or personal dashboard.

Technical challenges

Adding query parameters to Bing was a challenge. Their web user interface is broken, and you cannot manually type in dates on all web browsers I’ve tried. You have to click to cycle dates.

You cannot enter a date in Bing's filters. The UI is broken.

The query parameters Bing adds are complex, and even repeated interrogations to LLMs only produced queries that were wrong. Thankfully, someone on the Fediverse¹ dug up a five-year old-post explaining Bing’s weird date system, which encodes dates as a filter in days since a specific epoch².

Yandex's Limited Time Period Selection

Yandex’s user interface limits searches to time periods from the previous day, the last two weeks or last month. Their official documentation claim dates can be added directly to the query³, but I couldn’t get such searches to work. I suspect their documentation is no longer up to date. I’ve found Yandex to be an incredible resource for many things that are either not indexed or intentionally removed from Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo. However, I’ve removed it from this project for now, until I can figure out how to get date-specific queries working.

Fake Time Travelers

I found the following search result for the RTX 3080-Ti video card from 2006.

The trouble is, this video card didn’t exist in 2006. I purchased a 3080-Ti in 2021, a year after its release. This is a modern post that has its metadata set to be far in the past. This could just be an honest mistake, some type of weird search engine optimization (SEO) or an LLM-generated article.

It doesn’t really matter why this particular article exists, but it is important to realize the dates on web pages may not indicate their actual publication date. Another limitation of using major search engines is that we can only search for old websites that are still up. Websites that have left our world are only available via archival sites, which may have their own integrity problems.

Even with these limitations and caveats, using time-based queries for past search results can be incredibly useful for research and avoiding documents generated by modern LLMs.

Other Search Engines

There are several engines that specialize in indexing smaller websites. They can be useful in finding blogs, fringe websites and other interesting content.

Wiby - “Search engine for the classic web.”
Shodan - Search Engine for Internet-connected devices.
Grep.app - Fast GitHub code search.
ooh.directory - “A place to find good blogs that interest you.”
Filmot - YouTube subtitle and caption search.

Closing Thoughts

The vast majority of people don’t go past the first page of search engine results⁴, not that it matters since most search engines never allow people to view more than a few pages anyway⁵⁶. Google has been formed into a verb, with far too many people leaning on a sole search engine. In a 2005 interview with Eric Schmidt, who was the CEO of Google at the time, he stated that Google returning a list of results was a bug and that he desired for it to return one perfect result⁷. Two decades later, it seems as if the LLM era has gotten search engines closer to Schmidt’s original ~~goal~~ dystopian-level of thought control.

Most search engine and social media algorithms seem to favor posts that are current or recent. Their user interfaces often make it difficult to search for more niche content. Just as LLMs can be “hacked” using prompt injection to give unintended results, using date ranges on the major search engines is one technique that can be used to find obscure content from real human beings in the time before the modern LLM era.

He’s memeing, anyway here’s the only thing I could find on their retarded search query system. 13 Feburary 2026. @caronnov@dill.burggit.moe mirror ↩
So…how do you sort search results by time range?. 21 August 2025. cutcss. /r/bing. Reddit. ↩
Search by date, language, and file types. Retrieved 10 March 2026. Yandex. Archive ↩
Using the Internet: Skill related problems in users’ online behavior. Deursen. Dijk. June 2009. Interacting with Computers. Science Direct ↩
Where Did the Rest of the Internet Go?. 11 April 2022. TruthStream Media. ↩
YES, They Really Are Deleting the Internet And it’s WAY Worse Than You Think. 15 August 2022. Bright Insight. ↩
Eric Schmidt - Charlie Rose. 3 June 2005. Charlie Rose. (Interview) Specific Clip ↩

2026 Will be the Year of Wars

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Last year, I thought 2025 would be the year of psychological operations. It’s not a risky prediction to make since false flags and propaganda infiltrate everything these days, from Wikipedia to film and cinema. Still, it was a year filled with economic hardships for most Americans, combined with questionable narratives surrounding political assassinations. Now that we’ve entered 2026, the year has already started off with military operations and uprisings. We will undoubtedly be in for a year filled with more economic hardships, but now with a side order of armed conflicts and war propaganda reminiscent of George W. Bush-era neoconservatism.

Venezuela and the New Era of Regime Change

In 2003, George W. Bush took America to war in Iraq over contrived narratives about “weapons of mass destruction.” Saddam Hussein, a man previously photographed shaking hands with Donald Rumsfeld in 1983, turned from an American ally to an enemy. The resulting attack and “Mission Accomplished” banner on the USS Abraham Lincoln led to years of civil unrest¹, and the dissolving of every Iraqi institution in a disastrously executed reconstruction effort².

I previously made the argument that Donald Trump would be the better option for leading America away from war, and it turns out that prediction was entirely wrong. On January 3rd, on the breaking of a brand new year, Trump announced the U.S. had carried out large scale strikes against Venezuela and captured their leader, Nicolas Maduro³. People in Caracas posted videos of explosions in the capitol⁴. Attorney General Pam Bondi stated Maduro and his wife had been indicted for charges of “Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns [sic]” and a list of other charges⁵.

The extraction of Maduro was a grandiose narrative surrounded by a fog of war-style operation, similar to when Obama allegedly had a team assassinate Osama bin Laden and dump his body in the ocean. Immediately after Obama’s operation in 2011, a witness interviewed by Al Jazeera, who frequently walked by the house Bin Laden allegedly was hiding in, said he didn’t believe Bin Laden ever lived there⁶. French intelligence agencies suspected Bin Laden was already dead in 2006⁷. An Obama-appointed judge refused to release the photos of Bin Laden’s death⁸, and my own personal group of Australian friends believed the entire operation had been faked, when I lived in Melbourne in 2012.

We’re told the military employed more than 150 aircraft, including bombers, helicopters and drones, in the operation to capture Maduro⁹. Mainstream news sources released photos of Maduro in a funny hat, surrounded by DEA agents, giving two thumbs up¹⁰. Immediately people questioned if such photos were real or fake, and Snopes claimed they couldn’t independently verify the authenticity of one such photograph¹¹. Some have questioned why Venezuela’s military didn’t fight back, as their military did possess air defenses such as the S-300 and portable MANPADS¹².

If the smiling expressions and thumbs-ups photos are in fact real, it might be the case that Maduro made some kind of deal with the U.S. government to put on a dramatic military stage show with minimal casualties. Only time will tell what the true nature and purpose of this January operation was, but it is certainly not the sensational, headline-grabbing story it’s being reported to be¹³.

But What About The History?

The argument in favor of Trump’s operations in Venezuela takes us decades back to President Hugo Chavez and how he nationalized the nation’s oil fields in 2006 and 2007, arguably committing theft against international oil companies British Petroleum, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Total and Statoil, whose investments into the nation’s oil infrastructure were estimated at $17 billion¹⁴. This was in the wake of a failed coup against Chavez, and a strike of 18,000 workers, which brought oil production to a standstill¹⁵.

When Chavez nationalized the nation’s oil and fired experienced workers, the nation’s oil production plummeted. While redistribution of wealth to the nation’s poor might seem like a great idealistic virtue, in reality it can lead to a loss of industrial skill. It’s similar how, when Mugabe took farms away from white farmers and gave them to his supporters who knew nothing about farming, it plunged the nation into years of food shortages¹⁶.

Still, does that justify the Trump administration’s military intervention? Many of Trump’s supporters believed he would lead America away from an era of war in the Middle East, and yet last summer he ordered airstrikes on Iran, coordinated with Israel.

Trump has said the U.S. will run Venezuela for now, even as the Venezuelan supreme court granted Vice President Delcy Rodríguez full presidential power and the military recognized her as the country’s acting leader¹⁷. The original claims of fighting “Narco-Terrorism⁵” were quickly superseded with plans to subsidize U.S. oil firms to get Venezuelan oil production “up and running” with increased operations within 18 months¹⁸.

American oil firms are less than enthusiastic about developing Venezuelan oil again. Fracking has increased American oil and natural gas production since Chavez’s nationalized oil production 20 years ago. Rebuilding the oil industry in Venezuela could cost up to a billion dollars with uncertain payoffs¹⁹. Their oil is a heavy grade crude and requires thermal cracking and solvents for extraction and processing²⁰.

Trump’s operation was not about any type of liberation for the Venezuelan people. Although there are many Venezuelans who are celebrating the removal of Maduro²¹, does anyone think whoever becomes their next leader will honestly be any better? Will America, using their intelligence operatives, allow anyone to run as a serious candidate in Venezuelan elections who does not side with the interests of the U.S. government? This was not a story of liberation, stopping the flow of drugs, or even a story about oil. This is a story about regime change and an obvious continuation of neoconservative imperialism, grasping for the tail end of a dying American empire.

Shooting of Federal Officers

I’ve tried to avoid all coverage of the recent federal officer-involved shootings. Any commentary seems to bring out the absolute worst in all sides. I’ve personally gone through immigration processes to work in other countries and am the descendant of legal immigrants. I do not like the defense of illegal immigration, nor do I like defending any type of constable just because they’re a police officer, for incidents that are questionable and result in serious injury or death.

When it comes to the recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) involved shootings, things immediately don’t seem to be adding up. In Minneapolis, the shooting of an ICE agent occurred only a few blocks from the George Floyd incident years earlier on Portland Avenue²². Meanwhile, another shooting involving Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), just happened to occur in Portland, Oregon²³. The protestors in Minneapolis, who are presumably against borders, have constructed a barricaded border²⁴, reminiscent of the autonomous zone in Seattle years ago.

ICE officers refused to let someone who claimed they were a doctor administer aid to the woman who was shot²⁵. While this seems understandable in some respects, as this was a protest that seemed to turn violent and an officer cannot simply trust anyone on the street who claims to be a doctor, it could have also been because the woman was not really shot or injured. The entire incident, broadcast immediately into the national spotlight, might have been entirely staged²⁶.

JD Vance has already stated publicly that the ICE officers have been given immunity²⁷, and local police have been denied their right to investigate the incident²⁸²⁹. Barriers were erected in Minneapolis and stayed up for three days around the area of the incident³⁰. These events only further the argument this could very well be some type of staged event or cover-up.

What’s amazing is that the conservative stance perpetuated by the outrage media is causing people to side with federal authority over local authority and in favor of federal agents without investigation or due process. The news cycle is also conditioning those on the left to side against federal officers and with the protestor, regardless of the details of the incident or if the officer’s life was threatened by a deranged individual who used a car like a weapon.

The reality is that there is a reasonable middle. If an officer tells you to get out of the car, do so and stay silent until you can speak to a lawyer. Know and assert your rights. Don’t attempt to drive off or into an officer. At the same time, any officer-involved shooting should be carefully investigated, including by local authorities even in a federal incident, to eliminate even any hint of bias or corruption. People should be held accountable for their actions.

There is significant evidence to suggest the George Floyd incident was a staged event³¹. The recent set of ICE escalations has many of the same characteristics. They are designed to psychologically condition conservatives to continue supporting federal raids, which have little to no impact on immigration. Instead, they normalize federal police in municipalities while also conditioning resentment of liberals as people with no respect for borders, legal jurisdictions or immigration law. These are events that turn both sides of the political spectrum against their own interests.

Iran

Protests have broken out in Iran, with US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency claiming more than 2,500 people have been killed so far³². How this information is getting out is questionable, as the nation has shut down the Internet, including jamming Starlink satellite transmissions, for well over a week³³. Former CIA director Mike Pompeo has already chimed in on how the collapse of the Venezuelan regime was a direct blow to the Ayatollah, claiming they rely on Venezuelan oil³⁴. This is an absolutely laughable and absurd statement, as Iran imports less than 2% of their oil³⁵.

In 1951, Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh was the democratically elected president of Iran. In an effort to bring more of the nation’s wealth to his own people, he nationalized oil reserves that had been previously held by the British. Amid fears of communism, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in conjunction with the British, started Operation Ajax, which succeeded in a coup against the democratically elected president and led to the installation of the Shah, who would come to be known as a tyrannical dictator³⁶.

It’s impossible to know at this point what is really happening in Iran. Reports vary wildly about the number of people killed, and America’s intelligence agencies have a long history of operations to unseat the nation. I have serious doubts if any of the recent protests are in any way organic. The nation of Syria collapsed in December of 2024, and Iran is another nation that has been in the crosshairs of regime change rhetoric by American presidents for decades. This could simply be a continuation of the escalations from the previous summer; yet another attempt at destabilization and regime change.

The Year of War and Mirrors

The opening events of January seem to be used by the media to set the tone for the entire year. In the past, we’ve seen January as a stage for political prisoners, terrorism and assassinations. The rhetoric leading up to 2026, including how Trump restored the tiles Department of War and Secretary of War³⁷, was preparing the way for events that would be psychologically burned into the minds of all Americans at the very start of the year.

It sets the stage for 2026: a year that pushes America into a regressive policy of imperial expansionism. It’s hardly a new concept. The technocratic class is embracing computing power they could only dream about a century prior in order to advance the surveillance state and consolidate power into a small set of kingdoms.

New Year’s Day is often seen for many as a new beginning and a time to make resolute the goals one has for the coming year. It’s a period of rebirth, pushing through the decay of winter, past the solstice with hopes of longer, warmer and brighter days. That is also why it is the perfect time to induce trauma, like a baby being poked and prodded and subjected to invasive procedures in a hospital, tainting and conditioning it before entering our modern world³⁸. We are slowly being conditioned to the annual media cycle, bringing us propaganda and trauma during the cold winter months, preparing us to turn further against one another in what will surely be a year of endless wars.

Inside Iraq: The Untold Stories (2004 Documentary) ↩
No End in Sight (2007 Documentary) ↩
The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country…. 3 January 2026. Trump. Truthsocial. Archive ↩
NOW - Explosions detonating in Venezuela’s capital of Caracas, reports.. 3 January 2026. @Disclosetv. X. ↩
Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted in the Southern District of New York. Nicolas Maduro has been charged with Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States…. 3 January 2026. @AGPamBondi. X ↩ ↩²
Bin Laden Death - Eyewitness Neighbors Say It’s Bullshit. 3 May 2011. Al Jazeera news clip posted by TheFlexEffect. ↩
French Intelligence Also Suspects Osama bin Laden Is Dead. 23 September 2006. White. About.com US Liberal Politics. (Archived Captured 27 November 2012) ↩
Judge Who Blocked Release of Osama bin Laden Death Photos Now Blocks Release of Senate Torture Report. 26 May 2015. Brinkerhoff. Straehley. AllGov. ↩
U.S. had 150 aircraft in the sky during Maduro raid. 3 January 2026. Demarest. Axios. ↩
Nicolas Maduro smiling and giving thumbs up in posed pictures with DEA agents. 3 January 2026. Smith. MSN. ↩
Inspecting image of Maduro giving thumbs up next to DEA agent. 8 January 2026. Christenssen. Snopes. ↩
Why Venezuela’s Military Did Not Fight. 4 January 2026. García. GlobalResearch. ↩
The Gathering Storm: Snatch-and-Grab Regime Change is the New New Normal. 11 January. Corbett Report. Substack ↩
Venezuela nationalizes Orinoco oil fields. 27 February 2007. The New York Times. ↩
Hugo Chavez’s Sad, Oil-Soaked Economic Legacy After a decade drunk on petroleum profits, Venezuela’s economy is looking at a dicey future.. 6 March 2013. Weissmann. The Atlantic. ↩
Mugabe and the White African. (2009 Documentary) ↩
Trump says the U.S. will “run” Venezuela for now. What do we know about the plans?. 4 January 2026. Quinn. CBS News. ↩
Trump claims US oil firms could be ‘up and running’ in Venezuela within 18 months. 6 January 2026. Epstein. MSN. ↩
Making Imperialism Great Again?. 13 January 2026. Paul. The Ron Paul Institute (via Lew Rockwell). ↩
Venezuelan Oil and U.S. Refining Capacity Constraints in 2026. 14 January 2026. Hidayat. Discovery Alert. ↩
Venezuelans are PISSED OFF... 5 January 2026. Asmongold Clips. ↩
Minneapolis on edge: ICE agent shot Renee Good ‘in the face,’ just blocks from where police killed George Floyd. Garg. 8 January 2026. WION. ↩
Portland shooting latest: Police chief alleges gang ‘nexus;’ 2 shot remain in hospital. 9 January 2026. Ault, Stone, Deliso, et. al. ABC News. ↩
“Wake up babe, the open borders people are constructing borders again”. 9 January 2026. @lance_corporate. X. ↩
ICE ‘blocked doctor for 15 mins’ and ambulance from trying to help dead shooting victim. 7 January 2026. Orrico. MSN. ↩
33’S COMPANY! WAKE UP AMERICA THEY ARE REVEALING THEMSELVES THROUGH MAJOR CODED PSYOPS RIGHT NOW!. 9 January 2026. Official Rumble Channel for A Call For An Uprising. ↩
JD Vance Declares ICE Agent Involved in Fatal Shooting Has ‘Absolute Immunity’. 8 January 2026. Bahney. Mediaita. Yahoo! news. ↩
What’s behind the highly unusual move to block Minnesota officials from investigating ICE shooting. 9 January 2026. Rabinowitz, Perez, Holmes. CNN. ↩
Minneapolis Cops Blocked From Investigating The ICE Shooting. 12 January 2026. Timcast IRL ↩
Minneapolis deadly ICE shooting: City removes barricade near scene. 9 January 2026. Turtinen. FOX 9. ↩
The Timeline Of George Floyd With Maryam Henein and Sean Hibbeler. 24 September 2022. Tin Foil Hat with Sam Tripoli. ↩
‘The world needs to know what’s happening’: families of protesters killed in Iran tell of heartbreak. 15 January 2026. Parent. The Guardian. ↩
Iran’s internet shutdown is now one of its longest ever, as protests continue. 15 January 2026. Franceschi-Bicchierai. TechCrunch. ↩
The collapse of the Venezuelan regime is a blow to the Ayatollah, whose regime relies on Venezuelan oil to stay afloat. We must ensure that Maduro isn’t succeeded by yet another corrupt, Iran-aligned Chavista, but a government that represents the Venezuelan people.. 5 January 2026. Mike Pompeo. Facebook. ↩
Iran Oil Reserves, Production and Consumption Statistics. World Meter. Retrieved 15 January 2026. Archive ↩
A Very British Coup. ↩
Trump Renames DOD to Department of War. 5 September 2025. Olay. Pentagon News. ↩
Ep. 215 - Entre Dos Auguas (pt.1). 10 October 2025. WAR MODE. (podcast). YouTube. Apple. Rumble. ↩

IF-ERGO Keyboard

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve owned a lot of mechanical keyboards. Over two years ago, I started using an Ergodox layout, starting with the SliceMK. It was difficult to get used to the ortholinear layout of the Ergodox, but I’m glad I stuck with it, as I really enjoy the experience of typing on split keyboards. I later added the W-Ergo to my keyboard lineup, the first keyboard I’ve used with SA profile keycaps. A few weeks ago I built out another Ergodox profile keyboard: the IF-Ergo. It uses the Gateron Baby Kangaroo V2 switches, as well as the Domikey Crisis and Cyberpunk SA keycaps. This keyboard replaces my Slice MK as the primary keyboard for my work laptop.

Software

I was considering getting another W-Ergo, but it appeared that Keyclicks was no longer taking orders for them. I was previously under the impression they were a rebranded IF-ERGO keyboard, as the PCBs and cases look amazingly similar. The IF-ERGO shipped very quickly, and I discovered it wasn’t just a rebrand of the W-Ergo. Although it shares a lot, the battery placement and a few board details are different. It works with the VIAL software, just like the W-Ergo, but is detected as a totally different device. I couldn’t simply import my layout from the W-Ergo. VIAL shows it alongside many of the other IF keyboard offerings, but doesn’t show the matrix key tester for some reason. It’s a very odd way to support a given family of keyboards, and I was confused by the lack of a key testing screen. Still, I was able to use other keyboard testers to verify all the switches worked.

VIAL Software Configuration for the IF-Ergo

Switches

I had briefly considered the Gateron Baby Kangaroo switches before when trying them on my previous switch tester, but they only came in non-clicky versions. Recently, Gateron released a V2 tactile version of this switch, and I decided to just go for it. I ordered these from Kinetic Labs, purchasing 5 packs, each with 18 switches, for a total of around $60, including shipping.

I was unsure of these switches at first. They didn’t have a loud click I’ve come to expect when playing with them in my hands. However, after they were installed and had keycaps attached to them, they became my absolute favorite switches. They have an amazing “bouncy” feel that makes them feel great to type on, while still providing a really nice “thunk” sound on key presses when combined with the SA keycaps I paired with them.

Keycaps

I really liked the sculpted feel of the SA DreamEater keycaps I had gotten previously. It’s pretty difficult to find sculpted keycaps for Ergodox layouts. Although the alphanumeric keys can be used from standard layouts, most companies don’t allow for buying individual 1.5U or 2U keys, which need to be carefully selected for the Ergodox modifiers in order to match the rows correctly. I ended up ordering three different sets of keycaps from KPrepublic. I ordered a Domikey Crisis SA Ergo keyset, which provided green and grey keys for the Ergodox modifiers. I paired them with the Domikey SA Cyberpunk purple alphanumeric keys. Finally, I ordered the mod plus pack, which I hoped I could pull some modifiers from to have some labeled keys. The entire order was about $90.

Domikey SA Cyberpunk

Delivery of the keycaps did take considerably longer than any of the other components, so in the meantime, I used a bunch of random DSA keycaps I had leftover from various other kits and projects.

IF-Ergo with Random DSA Keycaps

This allowed me to get the keyboard set up and configured, and I enjoyed trying out the Kangaroo tactile switches while waiting on my full keycap set.

Domikey Crisis SA Mod Plus

I probably could have forgone getting the MOD Plus pack, as there were only 7 labeled modifier keys I could use from it in my layout. The shift key on the right thumb is actually an R3 profile, which is kind of nice since it does slope up a bit.

Total Damage

Date	Parts	Price	Shipping/Tax	Total
2025-10-08	IF-ERGO Wireless Ergodox Keyboard	$85.00	$20	$105.00
2025-10-09	Gateron Baby Kangaroo V2 Tactile Switches (18 pc) × 5	$54.00	$6.56	$60.56
2025-10-09	Domikey SA Crisis / Ergo	$34.40	$0	$34.40
2025-10-09	Domikey SA Cyberpunk / Alpha	$28.60	$0	$28.60
2025-10-09	Domikey SA Crisis / MOD Plus	$28.60	$0	$28.60
Total	$230.60	$26.56	$257.16

Also a Logitech Appeared

I recently sold my Vortex Race 3 and picked up this cheaper Logitech POP Keys Wireless for use with one of the machines I use with my homelab.

Logitech POP Keys Wireless

Conclusions

The IF-ERGO is very similar to the W-Ergo. If they did start with a shared design history, they have diverged enough to be noticeable. I prefer the VIAL support for the W-Ergo, displaying a full matrix tester and focusing on configuration for that specific keyboard. However, the W-Ergo also has an annoying quirk of not sending the first keystroke if it has been idle for a while. (I assume it’s waking from low power mode). The IF-ERGO does not have this issue. The IF-ERGO also shipped immediately with good store communication, whereas the W-Ergo took forever to ship and no longer seems to be available.

The best part about this build has definitely been the Gateron Baby Kangaroo switches. They are the best switches I have typed on. They feature a double spring, which makes key rebounds fast and bouncy. They still feel like a heavy tactile switch, but are much less fatiguing for long stretches of typing.

I still prefer the look of the SA DreamEater keycaps on my other Ergodox keyboard, but the Domikey sets feel much better. It’s difficult to find sculpted Ergodox keycap sets, so I think this build came out fairly well for what I could find.

For now, both of my primary machines now have Ergodox layouts with sculpted keycaps. I’m satisfied with both, but the new Gateron Baby Kangaroo switches are so good that I may replace the Kailh Box White switches with another set of them at some point in the future.

Banned in Real Life

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

It was a Friday evening, and I had just finished having dinner with some friends from work. As everyone was heading out, I got a text from a good friend of mine. He invited me to hangout with some buddies of his who lived in the North part of town. I had been to their house before and generally got along and enjoyed talking to them. We didn’t often discuss cultural issues, but when we did, they tended to lean towards the left. Our viewpoints often diverged, but it was interesting to listen to their perspectives while also presenting and defending my own. That all changed on this one Friday evening when, for the first time in my life, I was kicked out of someone’s home.

The Documentary

The two of them were on the couch watching a documentary about an old lady who shot her neighbor, a mother. The old woman alleged the mother was banging on her house door and threatening her. The old lady shot her neighbor through her door. Immediately the documentary framed the incident as being about race, with the old woman being white and the mother banging on her door being black.

I’ve watched several documentaries that expose how news media often misrepresents major hot-button cases, spinning them into narratives about race. The Trayvon Hoax, a 2020 film by Joel Gilbert, brought to light how George Zimmerman’s 911 call was selectively edited for the news and suggests the prosecution had a woman pretend to be Diamond Eugene, their key witness¹. What Killed Michael Brown? was a 2020 film by Eli and Shelby Steele that exposed the false narrative around the death of Michael Brown². Darren Wilson, the officer who shot Brown, claimed the man attacked him repeatedly and attempted to take his firearm³. Uncle Tom, a 2020 documentary by Justin Malone and Larry Elder, addresses the backlash experienced by black conservatives who stand against victimization narratives they believe are subconsciously implanted into their own people⁴.

I pointed out to my friends how this story had nothing to do with race. Yes, the woman shouldn’t have shot through her door. She lacked basic gun safety skills (the biggest being you should know your target and what’s behind your target). Furthermore, she would have had a better case if she had waited for the woman to physically break into her home before shooting her. These friends couldn’t see any way I could justify her situation. I told them the movie had obvious biases from the producers. They accused me of only seeing it through my own bias. When asked what would make this alright, I said I wanted the perspective of the old lady. Where are her family members? Her character witnesses? Her advocates? The documentary immediately switched to a scene of the deceased mother’s family members outside a courthouse demanding justice.

I didn’t get to watch the rest of this documentary with them. At this point, the wife said, “You need to leave.” She was cordial about her request while still being emotionally upset. The friend who invited me also left. I don’t remember for sure, but I think he was asked to leave as well. I’m not sure if it was because she was generally too upset to deal with people or if she blamed him for not saying very much during this discussion and bringing me into their lives and their home.

I’ve never actually been thrown out of someone’s house before, not even during years of youthful indiscretions, and periods of my life when I drank way too much alcohol. Now well into my 40s, I was asked to leave because I did not accept a narrative presented to people on a TV screen without challenge. At least that’s the way I saw it from my perspective. I’m sure the couple saw me very differently.

When researching this documentary and trying to find videos or blog posts with critical voices, I found very few dissenting views, most likely because it had just been released. The only place I found insightful critiques was in the one-star user reviews for the documentary on IMDB⁵, and they were quite informative.

Guilt and Empathy

White guilt is a luxury belief. It is a belief that is held by the well-off who feel they are moral advocates for those who are lesser-than. Yet, these beliefs ultimately end up hurting the poor they wish to uplift⁶. Building affordable government housing for minorities and giving them welfare funding seems like a good idea, but such programs have removed people’s individual agencies. In the long term, it can be argued welfare programs make people worse off because they prevent individuals from building pride and value in their own agency and choices.

While watching this documentary, these companions spoke of how easy their lives were compared to the underprivileged. They echoed a narrative growing in our culture that seems to value victimization. There’s nothing wrong with feeling empathy for people, but often that empathy turns into the idea that “we must do something!” This can easily lead society into a race to the bottom. Helping a butterfly out of a cocoon prevents the insect from building its own wing strength, condemning it to being unable to fly⁷. In the same way, advocating for someone or a group based on their personal identity can lend itself to those people blaming everything on that label. Rather than learning to have pride in their own individual accomplishments, they can become perpetually held back by their perceived victimhood. Such luxury beliefs are leading the world into an era of suicidal empathy⁸.

Fringe Beliefs

I wouldn’t consider myself a conservative or liberal today. My views are complex. I believe 9/11 was both a false flag operation and a planned demolition⁹¹⁰¹¹¹²¹³. Even though I think the 2020 elections were fraudulent, I don’t believe Donald Trump had a bullet hit his ear. I think the events of 2020 were a psychological operation designed to fragment people globally, pushed a dangerous and untested drug and represented a dark time we should never return to. I think the case of George Floyd was deeply misrepresented by the media, and more recent evidence indicates the entire incident may have been a carefully planned and staged psychological operation¹⁴. I doubt the official Sandy Hook narrative and am concerned about evidence against that narrative being scrubbed from the Internet. I question if the 2019 Christchurch shooting was entirely fake¹⁵, with the censorship in New Zealand being used to cover up the details of the fraud. I question if Charlie Kirk was really killed. I have a lot of beliefs that would be considered fringe.

I have conservative friends who fully believe in Trump, and yet they don’t kick me out of their homes when I cite my issues with the Orange Pedophile Apologist¹⁶¹⁷. A reasonable person who found me a bit too much would probably just not invite me over in the future. I do think that conservatives generally have a higher degree of real tolerance, if not a willingness to debate, than most modern-day progressive liberals. But I also don’t want to give credit to the false left/right dichotomy. The most radical view to hold in America right now is the one that rejects both major political parties.

The Telescreen is a Two-Way Device

The world is not split into black and white, liberal and conservative, or even religious and agnostic. No, the world is split into people who believe what they see on social media or the TV screen, and those who question everything that is being propagandized into their brains. Those who have embraced the term woke think they have been freed from The Matrix or Plato’s cave, when in reality it is impossible to tell if you are inside or outside the illusion. The real message of such parables is to question the nature of the reality you’ve been presented. After all, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it¹⁸.” Doubt is the foundation of science and understanding.

I grew up in an America that embraced debate and the challenge of ideas. Asking someone to leave your home was reserved for the most heinous offenses. It would be an appropriate response to a guest who says, “That was a lovely dinner; now I’m going to rape your wife,” not someone who said, “The earth is flat¹⁹.” There was a time when if someone truly upset you by words they said, you simply wouldn’t invite them over again. We are moving into a realm where the wrong words can get you ejected from someone’s home and their lives.

The needle on what’s acceptable between people has been moving steadily. For years people have been removing friends and family from gatherings, Thanksgivings and other life events based purely on strict adherence to certain ways of thought. The truth about inclusivity is that it’s very exclusive. I make no apologies for the things I said that Friday evening. I think I saw obvious propaganda and stood my ground in pointing it out. I could always be wrong, but rather than engage in reasonable discussion, some people respond with emotional outrage. Ironically, the documentary we were watching was about a woman who claimed she was unable to have peace and quite in her own home, something these acquaintances were able to restore when kicking me out of theirs.

The Trayvon Hoax: Unmasking the Witness Fraud that Divided America. 26 April 2020. Joel Gilbert. Official Website. ↩
What Killed Michael Brown. (2020 Documentary) Official Website. Retrieved 20 October 2025. ↩
Exclusive: Darren Wilson Speaks Out For the First Time to George Stephanopoulos. 25 November 2014. ABC News. ↩
Uncle Tom. (2020 documentary) Official Website. ↩
The Perfect Neighbor (2025) - User reviews. IMDB. Retrieved 23 October 2025. Archive Previous Archive from 18 October 2025 ↩
How Luxury Beliefs Hurt the Poor - Rob Henderson. 10 April 2025. Maiden Mother Matriarch with Louise Perry. Episode 68. ↩
Unforgettable Story of The Butterfly and The Cocoon - Struggles Give Us Strength. 11 August 2021. Fearless Soul. ↩
Ritualistic Cannibalism, Human Sacrifice and Suicidal Empathy with Sam Urban. 22 October 2025. Tin Foil Hat with Sam Tripoli ↩
Loose Change. (2005 Documentary) ↩
9/11 Revealed: The Unanswered Questions. Morgan. Henshall. (2005 Paperback). ↩
911 Chronicles Part 1: Truth Rising. (2008 Documentary) Archive ↩
9/11: A Conspiracy Theory. 11 September 2011. The Corbett Report. mirror mirror mirror ↩
Zeitgeist: The Movie. Peter Joseph. (2007 Documentary) ↩
The Timeline Of George Floyd With Maryam Henein and Sean Hibbeler. 24 September 2022. Tin Foil Hat with Sam Tripoli. ↩
Forensic Study Finds That Christchurch Mosque Shooting was Staged. 5 September 2025. Reese Report. ↩
The Epstein Files Cover-Up Gets Even More Sinister. 30 July 2025. 2lazy2try. ↩
Trump Bizarrely Claims Epstein Docs Were a DEM HOAX?. 16 July 2025. System Update with Glenn Greenwald. ↩
Often attributed to Aristotle. Nope, Aristotle Did Not Say, “It Is the Mark of an Educated Mind to Entertain a Thought Without….”. 22 September 2018. Sententiaeantiquae ↩
Sam Hyde Show: The Flat Earth Special. 30 August 2025. Sam Hyde. (34m:05s) ↩

Cryptocurrency, Collapsing Governments and Captain James T. Kirk

Sun, 28 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The dominant US headlines for the fall of 2025, in both mainstream and big-alternative media, involve the assassination of Charlie Kirk. As expected, people are taking to social media, politicizing what seems to be a horrific murder. Americans are deeply fixated on this event, ignoring global changes such as the collapse of the government in Nepal. Everything about the media narrative concerning Kirk feels deeply unsettling. There are various conflicting statements from the FBI. The video evidence concerning the shooter and murder weapon make little sense. Comments are being made from every single sphere of both big-alternative and small-indie podcasts.

The framing of this as a left-right issue has led to unhinged individuals glorifying this murder on social media, further pushing a divisive wedge to keep Americans fighting among one another instead of those who are covering up Epstein documents. The news cycle for the past several months has also ignored the Roman Storm legal battle, a criminal case that could have been a precedent-setting linchpin concerning new cryptocurrencies and free software development. Although the shooting of Kirk is a tragedy, the way he impacted so many in independent media, and the way his killing has overshadowed other major events, should make everyone pause and carefully assess the propaganda we’re being fed. All of us are likely being manipulated into the emotions we are currently experiencing.

Roman Storm and Digital Currencies

Roman Storm is a developer who created Tornado Cash, a GPL licensed¹, self-contained, unopinionated and open-source application deployed on Ethereum². He never advocated or facilitated any illegal activity, but the software was placed under US sanctions and later removed from those sanctions³. Storm was eventually arrested and prosecuted for unlicensed money transmitting, money laundering and sanctions evasion⁴. Roman had no administrative or custodial rights over what others did with his software. The legal theory used to prosecute him took absolutely bizarre liberties and interpretations of clear legal regulations⁵. He was literally arrested and prosecuted for what others allegedly did with software he had written years ago.

Needless to say, this type of prosecution has a critical chilling effect on the privacy-focused world of cryptocurrency and open-source software. I found very little coverage of this story, even among many niche technology news sites and forums. Eventually, perhaps even reluctantly, the Electronic Frontier Foundation finally chimed in with their own calls to dismiss the case⁶. In August, Storm was found guilty on the sole count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, was found not guilty of sanctions evasion, and said his lawyers intend to get the sole count dismissed in a post-trial motion⁷. Roman Storm considered the verdict a “big win,” stating he would return to Seattle and continue to fight the remaining charge⁸.

There are two major implications of the Storm case. The first has to do with decentralized versus Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). This prosecution is a clear indication that the federal government wants to tighten its grasp on any type of digital store of value it cannot directly control and tax. The second major implication is that simply writing software to facilitate anonymous exchanges of digital value stores could be made illegal. This was clearly a major move against independent cryptocurrencies and free software, and it received very little media coverage.

Captain James Kirk

There are a lot of questions surrounding the assassination story of Charlie Kirk. As Kirk himself stood boldly for the freedom of speech and the freedom to question, it should be clear there is nothing wrong with carefully examining and questioning the official narrative of his death. That being said, if we are to take the official story even in its baseline form, there are a number of absolutely unhinged individuals celebrating his death.

No matter what psychological operation may or may not be at play, one thing is very clear: if you are celebrating public murder, there is something seriously wrong with your moral character. It doesn’t matter if that individual has said x or believed in y. The core foundation of Americanism is the freedom to speak. This was a litmus test of your empathy. If you allowed low-level social politics to overtake your basic humanity, you have become a monster. You may try to rationalize it and justify it however you want, but there is no scenario where you are not wrong for celebrating the murder of a father of two children. You were tested, you failed and you are a failed human being⁹.

The people who are protesting vigils for Kirk¹⁰, with their gay pride flags and queer beliefs, have zero self-awareness. They have now degraded themselves into the ranks of the Westboro Baptist Church by literally protesting funerals.

Alternative Theories on the Events

With all of that being said, the events surrounding the Charlie Kirk narrative are extremely suspect. There was immediate politicization from nearly every corner of the mainstream and alternative media. Podcasters large and small were dedicating episodes to either their friendship with Kirk or his martyrdom. Conflicting stories describing the details of the event, the alleged shooter and the weapon flooded every stream of media.

Bullet Deflection Theory

What if Charlie Kirk knew a bullet was coming? Looking carefully at the photos and videos from the event, some have suggested he was wearing some type of concealed body armor. In the high elite circles that are powerful enough to wave away the Epstein saga, these people may have a need to exert their influence in powerful humiliation rituals. Kirk may have been told a bullet was coming and he needed to participate. It had to be real, because no one would believe anything else in our current world of continual filming, always online and AI-augmented reality. The entrance to Charlie’s neck is not indicative of a .223 (which would have been 1/5 of an inch) or .308 (1/3 of an inch) round, but the order of a full inch¹¹. What if a real hollow-point was aimed at plate armor under Kirk’s shirt, and it expanded and shot up through his neck? Another possibility is that the bullet pierced body armor and then exited up through his neck¹². What if Kirk wasn’t supposed to die, but instead have a story about how he miraculously survived an attempt on his life?

Alternative Shooting Location Theory

Some videos seem to indicate the bullet came from a position elevated and to the side of Kirk’s stage, angling down into his body¹³. If this theory is true, the bullet should still be in the grass next to where he was speaking. However, the sod has already been removed and the stage area (which looks like a menorah) is being reconstructed by the University¹⁴.

Ariel view of Utah Valley University Lawn where Charlie Kirk was Allegedly Shot

The Acceleration of Events

Less than a month before the Kirk incident, Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee, was allegedly stabbed and killed on a train by Decarlos Brown in Charlotte, North Carolina. Immediately people were questioning why Brown, a repeat offender with fourteen arrests, was free on the street¹⁵. Others questioned why the mainstream media was allegedly ignoring this story¹⁶. When actually looking into Brown, his story seems tragic. Having served six years in prison, he assaulted his own sister only months after his release and has battled with schizophrenia¹⁷.

However, there were also people who questioned if any of this story was based in reality. The Iryna/Brown story has several inconsistencies in the official narrative, indicating it could be a carefully staged hoax¹⁸. Careful analysis of the video shows how it’s impossible to see the actual stabbing, and there is a complete lack of blood or serious neck injury¹⁹. After carefully examining the video that was originally released by Alex Jones, I too have a lot of questions about this stabbing and the narrative that followed²⁰.

Everyone Loves Charlie

One thing that immediately grabbed my attention was the sheer number of people in alternative media who were dedicating entire episodes of their shows to Charlie Kirk. There were a lot of people who considered Charlie a close friend, someone they would message regularly. Charlie had extensive and well-cultivated relationships with many of these people. Candice Owens said she was “one of the masons of Turning Point USA²¹.” I assume she meant the term “mason” as “founder,”” but considering her audience, why use such an obviously loaded term? Bret Weinstein claimed that Charlie had bailed out his Rescue the Republic movement when it faced financial hardships²² and played clips where Kirk very respectfully answered questions from both gay²³ and transgender²⁴ students.

Shoe0nHead made a video to comment on the sad state of people glorifying Charlie’s murder, stating that Kirk’s death hit differently because “he was just a f–king guy … a podcaster … a guy who talked about politics … nothing he said warranted his life being taken away. This is America. We have freedom of speech here. Unless you criticize a certain country²⁵.”

As Shoe0nHead and Weinstein took a very somber and heartfelt approach to the assassination, Sam Hyde took the entire opposite stance. He made comparisons between Iryna Zarutska, Charlie Kirk and his audience in a video titled This Is You²⁶. He made comparisons to Donald Trump’s assassination as if it were real, even though he covered the recent video of the event from a different angle²⁷, implying the Trump assassination was staged, although he didn’t comment meaningfully on the new video. His rant about Charlie Kirk honestly felt like a cringey and unhinged call to outrage.

Some of these individuals are simply commenting on the event, admitting they didn’t know Charlie personally. Still, I’m surprised at the number of people I’ve listened to in big-independent media who claimed to be close to him. Several of these people discussed texts and direct messages they had received recently from Charlie. He went out of his way to make personal relationships with a lot of influential micro-celebrities. It may have simply been his virtue, but it also could have been part of a very intentional campaign and propagandist capture. Charlie may have been portrayed as humble, but he ran an extremely influential origination from a very young age, had a net worth of over $12 million and earned over $400,000 per year²⁸.

Staged Oddities

I previously stated I didn’t think the shooting itself was fake, but also didn’t discount people who examined that position. Since then, a lot of oddities have arisen that make me question my previous conclusion. There is a video of Kirk’s wife weeping over his casket, and I found it incredibly weird, creepy and disturbing²⁹. Why was Kirk’s body taken into the back of an SUV instead of an ambulance³⁰? Frank Turek, a prominent Christian apologist who rode in the SUV next to Charlie, claimed both that “he was killed instantly and felt absolutely no pain” while also claiming that “doctors later said that we got a pulse because Charlie was a very healthy man³¹³².”

Candice Owens claims she has seen the footage from a camera that was mounted behind Charlie Kirk and that she saw no blood³³. Alex Jones claimed a .30-06 bullet should have blown through Kirk and left a clear exit wound³⁴. Andrew Kolvet, a spokesman for TP USA, claimed the bullet, which would normally go through an elk or moose, was miraculously stopped by Charlie’s body, preventing potential injury to other bystanders³⁵.

Standard operating procedures, such as locking down the university, clearing each building and securing the crime scene, were all completely ignored³⁶. Not only was Kirk taken to the hospital in an SUV instead of an ambulance, his casket was flown on Air Force Two, Vice President Vance’s official transport, back to his family in Phoenix, Arizona³⁷. Miles Mathis researched Charlie Kirk’s origin and family lineage. He discovered missing and conflicting records, indicating that Charlie James Kirk might be a fake name, possibly an alias in honor of James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise³⁸.

Needless to say, there are many discrepancies in the entire story presented to the public so far. It is a reasonable possibility the entire assassination may not have been real at all³⁹⁴⁰.

Nepal passed legislation that social media companies needed to register to operate within their nation. The registration was mostly a legal entity requirement and opened the door to possible digital identification, although digital identification was not part of the initial rollout⁴¹. Large companies like Facebook refused compliance, and the nation was planning to ban 26 social media sites in September. This led to massive amounts of youth protests throughout the nation, not only on the stifling of social media, but also over claims of nepotism, corruption and economic inequality. The protests led to over 50 deaths, 1,300 injuries and the burning of Nepal’s parliament. The government collapsed, and the interim prime minister was chosen by a small group of youth activists via a poll on the chat application Discord. Sushila Karki, a 73-year-old former chief justice, was selected as the interim prime minister and the first female prime minister of the nation⁴².

Back in July, the United Kingdom rolled out the aggressive Online Safety Act, which required citizens to undergo an age verification process under the pretense of protecting children from online pornography. This was immediately used to censor protests outside migrant hotels⁴³. The invasive age verification system required users to submit government IDs in order to access many Reddit communities, Spotify music videos tagged as 18+, and war footage/protest videos on X⁴⁴, leading to a massive increase in VPN usage within the country⁴⁵. The new laws even restricted the government’s own police forces when they posted missing persons reports⁴⁶.

The United Kingdom has much more legal sway over large social media entities, meaning websites were much more likely to comply with British laws rather than be restricted within the nation. It’s unknown if British youth would have participated in similar protests had their nation threatened to ban social media in the way Nepal did. Although one might view Nepal as a victory for speech and against corruption, one must remember the role social media has in accelerating violent uprisings.

In 2017, content on Facebook contributed to the rise of anti-Rohingya content in Myanmar, leading to atrocities and ethnic cleansing⁴⁷. Facebook contributed to the Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia and Bahrain, during which nations like Egypt quickly realized they couldn’t shut down Internet connectivity during periods of civil unrest without also crippling their own economy⁴⁸. Facebook itself has deep connections to US intelligence and the surveillance industry, with its origins rooted in the US military⁴⁹.

On its surface the story of Nepal’s recent uprising is a precarious one. Anti-government sentiment was organized and spread via major American social networking giants that Nepal’s government was seeking to rein in. Where the United Kingdom has somehow managed to stifle dissent, the youth of Nepal set fire to government buildings and deposed their leaders. It’s a dangerous situation, because the youth of Nepal were not protesting for any locally established Internet services, but instead for international big tech giants that are known propagandists. The youth also established an interim government using a gaming chatroom application, with input from a tiny subset of the nation’s 30 million people⁵⁰. If anything, this situation screams similarities to some of the dangerous revolutions that have led to autocracy and communism.

The World Keeps Turning

At least five people were killed in violent riots in Indonesia, sparked by police running over a taxi motorcycle driver at a rally against perks for lawmakers. The unrest led to political parties revoking a number of perks and privileges for parliamentarians in concession to the protestors⁵¹. Protests also broke out in the Philippines over government corruption, mostly concerning flood control⁵². There were also marches across Australia “Against Endless Immigration and Housing Pain,” due to the nation pulling in 1.4 million migrants since 2022, which is 80% more immigrants than Australia took in from 2007 to 2010⁵³. There were many major news events sparking off all over the world⁵⁴, yet in America they were all overshadowed and ignored due to the amazing focus placed solely at the neck of Charlie Kirk.

Should Charlie be a Martyr?

I think the death of Charlie Kirk, as it’s been portrayed, is tragic. I still think there are a lot of questions surrounding the incident. Yet, even with the official story, should Kirk be a martyr? I am greatly weary of the way he’s being idolized as a symbol for conservative Christian values. A mural is already being painted in memorial for him in Israel⁵⁵. Lawmakers in Oklahoma are attempting to have statues of Kirk built at all state community colleges⁵⁶ and Republicans are pushing for a statue in D.C.⁵⁷ In many ways, he’s being turned into the conservative mirror of George Floyd.

Although Kirk had a lot of poignant moments when talking about free speech or his belief in God and Christianity, he also advocated heavily for the power of the state. He joined the ranks of people like Tim Dillon⁵⁸, who said they were “done talking about Epstein,” deferring to their friends in government to handle the situation⁵⁹.

Charlie Kirk is now being used as a figurehead for many ideas and positions done in his name. He joins the ranks of the assassinated, like Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi, whose stories have grown far beyond them: their triumphs exulted and their shortcomings dismissed or forgotten. In this way, martyrs are dangerous because they become a coaster for whatever the populists with the loudest bullhorns claim that the figures stood for. Whether that story is about free speech, the defense or criticism of Israel, or Christian nationalism, it is a narrative that is forming on his memory and without his agency to guide it. Yes, his murder was heinous, but we should be deeply wary of those using him for martyrdom⁶⁰.

September 11th, in the Year 2025

A lot has gone on in 2025. I originally predicted this would be the year of psychological operations. Both traditional TV and online social media have focused the American gaze onto a particular series of events, ignoring international uprisings and American legal cases that challenge the future of alternative digital currencies. All the major events are being used to accelerate the removal of essential rights and the disarmament of American citizens. We are being bathed in a bloodbath of outrage porn and propaganda, part of which is ushering in a world of digital identification under the guise of protecting children from porn. (Ironically, real sexual pornography is probably healthier than the propaganda slush being fed to us through the 24/7 hate machine news cycle).

“We’re trapped in the belly of this horrible machine, and the machine is bleeding to death” -The Dead Flag Blues, Godspeed You! Black Emperor (1997, Song)

People seem to be losing their minds right now, and the major media networks are using divisive terms such as “far-left lunatics,” “radical far left,” “right-wing extremism” and “fascists.” Through a series of propagandizing repetition, they are turning Americans against one another⁶¹.

“We’re losing a lot of people because of the Internet. And we have to do something. We have to go see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what’s happening. And we have to talk to them, maybe in certain areas, closing that Internet up in some way. Somebody will say ‘Oh, freedom of speech, freedom of speech.’ These are foolish people. We have a lot of foolish people.” -Donald Trump, 2015⁶²

I think it should be clear to everyone who is paying attention at this point that there is something deeply wrong with the Charlie Kirk story. Whether he was really shot and killed, or if it was a stage show and he’s hanging out in a retirement bunker in some foreign nation, is quite honestly irrelevant. The story as it has been presented is being used by people on all sides and political persuasions. The reaction to it is being used as a cudgel to keep Americans fighting among each other instead of the real powers in both political parties that are facilitating this stage show.

“We create a pretend world. We are a global production company. We write the screenplay, we’re the directors, we’re the producers, we’re the main actors, and the world is our stage.” -Mossad agent⁶³

tornadocash/tornado-core: Tornado cash. Non-custodial private transactions on Etherum. Retrieved 23 September 2025. Github ↩
Prosecution of Tornado Cash dev Roman Storm. 6 August 2025. nomad.lw. Level1Techs Forums. ↩
Tornado Cash Delisting. 21 March 2025. U.S. Department of the Treasury. ↩
Defend Coding Freedom - Support Roman Storm! #FreeRomanStorm. Retrieved 23 September 2025. ↩
The Trial Against Tornado Cash Developer Roman Storm: Everything You Need to Know. 3 August 2025. The Rage. ↩
Digital Rights Group EFF Calls for Roman Storm Dismissal in Tornado Cash Case. 29 January 2025. Reynolds. Mishra. CoinDesk. ↩
Tornado Cash Developer Roman Storm Guilty on One Count in Federal Crypto Case. 6 August 2025. Khalili. Wired. ↩
🚨NEW: Just caught @rstormsf outside the courtroom. I asked how he was feeling. In a quiet voice, but with a noticeable smile, he told me: “It’s a big win. The ‘1960’ charge is bullshit and we’re going to fight it all the way. You know how President Trump said ‘fight, fight, fight’? We’ll do that too.” He expressed relief at not being remanded to jail and mentioned his 5-year-old daughter as one of the reasons he plans to keep fighting the one charge he was convicted on. He said he’s heading back to Seattle tomorrow.. 6 August 2025. @EleanorTerrett. ↩
There is Something Demonic Happening in America. 16 September 2025. Vigilant Citizen. ↩
This man cheered RIGHT AFTER Charlie Kirk was shot. 11 September 2025. The Body Language Guy. ↩
The only “conspiracy” angle I can kinda see is if it was supposed to be another staged assassination attempt that went wrong, aka he was supposed to be shot in the chest (into the IIIA armor) with a low velocity pistol-cartridge chambered rifle (they exist and are common) and it went wrong and he died by accident from the deflection….. 11 September 2025. @freemayonnaise@gigaohm.bio ↩
Was Charlie Kirk wearing. Bullet proof vest when he was assassinated?. 14 September 2025. @RyanMattaMedia ↩
With there still being so many ridiculous conspiracy theory videos regarding different shooters, etc., it’s all just way too tiresome. The video below actually shows the projectile/bullet in flight & the right side, elevated rifle muzzle flash.. 15 September 2025. @1RadNomad ↩
Where did the bullet go that hit Charlie Kirk? And remember, these are just theories and questions that need to be asked and answered. We don’t know exactly what happened.. 17 September 2025. Eric Moutsos. ↩
Who are the judges who kept letting this psycho go free after each arrest???. 6 September 2025. @libsoftiktok ↩
Charlotte N.C. Stabbing IGNORED, Reveals MSM Political Bias! And GoFundMe Scam or Psy-Op?. 9 September 2025. Viva Frei. ↩
Decarlos Brown Jr. Criminal Record: What We Know About Suspect in Charlotte Stabbing. 8 September 2025. Alexander. Newsweek. ↩
Charlotte Stabbing Hoax: Another Race-Baiting Psyop To Inflame Racial Tensions. 10 September 2025. Gemma O’Doherty. Archive ↩
Phil Breaks Down Full Length Iryna Zarutska Stabbing Video. Stabbing Hoax. 9 September 2025. Fakenukes. ↩
GRAPHIC WARNING: This is the full, uncensored video of Iryna Zarutska getting slaughtered. After 5 stabs in the neck with a knife she slowly loses consciousness and collapses into a pool of blood, terrified and alone.. 9 September 2025. @bennyjohnson. ↩
They Are Lying About Charlie Kirk. - Candace Ep 235. 15 September 2025. Candace Owens. (31:27) ↩
Honoring Charlie Kirk: The 295th Evolutionary Lens with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying. 17 September 2025. @BretWeinstein. Darkhorse Podcast. (4m:10s) Mirror ↩
Gay Conservative Has A Question for Charlie…. 7 November 2024. Turning Point USA. ↩
Charlie Kirk’s Honest Message to a Trans Student 👀. 3 May 2025. Turning Point USA. ↩
These People Are Sick. 18 September 2025. Shoe0nHead ↩
Sam Hyde Show: This is You. 15 September 2025. Sam Hyde. ↩
New Angle From Trump Shooting… - Sam Hyde, Charls Carroll & Nick Rochefort. 9 August 2025. Sam & Nick’s Perfect Clips. ↩
Charlie Kirk’s net worth revealed after assassination. 19 September 2025. Tollman. DailyMail. ↩
Charlie Kirk’s wife, Erika, shared a heartbreaking video praying over and showing love to his body in the casket 😢 😭. 13 September 2025. @MacChrsta. ↩
Goodness Gracious— looks like Mr. Kirk’s body is being taken into a sketchy, black SUV instead of an ambulance after he got brutally shot in the neck. That’s mildly to moderately strange, no?. 15 September 2025. @SWorld30561 ↩
What Happened Inside Kirk’s SUV on Way to Hospital. 18 September 2025. Citizen Frank. ↩
Insider Who Rode with Charlie Kirk to the Hospital Speaks Out: ‘Charlie Didn’t Suffer’. 17 September 2025. Saunders. MSN / The Western Journal ↩
Who Moved The Camera Right Above Charlie’s Head? - Candace Ep 239. 19 September 2025. Candace Owens. ↩
TPUSA is now reporting that Charlie Kirk was shot by a magic bullet: TPUSA Spokesman Andrew Kolvet is now officially claiming that a high caliber rifle designed for moose hunting did not shoot all the way through Charlie Kirk’s neck. Then it only gets worse. He then goes on to claim that no bullet was found inside Charlie’s neck.. 20 September 2025. @RealAlexJones. Mirror ↩
I want to address some of the discussion about the lack of an exit wound with Charlie. I’m usually not interested in delving into most of this kind of online chatter, and I apologize this is somewhat graphic, but in this case, the fact that there wasn’t an exit wound is probably another miracle, and I want people to know.. 20 September 2025. @AndrewKolvet ↩
The Manufactured Martyrdom of Charlie Kirk. 15 September. Morgan C. ↩
Charlie Kirk’s casket to be flown on Air Force Two from Utah to Arizona. 11 September 2025. DiMella. Fox News. ↩
The Murder of Charlie Kirk was of course STAGED. 11 September 2025. Mathis. ↩
Sorry Blue Checks, No One Killed Charlie Kirk. 20 September 2025. R!CKYRANTS ↩
TFH #923: AI, Occult Codes & The Death of Charlie Kirk: A Deep Dive with Doenut. 18 September 2025. Tin Foil Hat. Direct Peertube ↩
Nepal’s Push for Social Media Registration: Regulation or Restriction?. 5 September 2025. Gayatree. Npeal Niceties. ↩
Sushila Karki: Nepal’s First Female PM Chosen in a Digital Uprising Through Discord. 14 September 2025. Okewoye. Diplomatic Watch. ↩
It took all of 12 hours for the Online Safety Act to switch from protecting kids from porn to censoring protests outside migrant hotels. Day 1.. 25 July 2025. @MorgothsReview ↩
Didn’t Take Long To Reveal The UK’s Online Safety Act Is Exactly The Privacy-Crushing Failure Everyone Warned About. 4 August 2025. Masnick. Techdirt. ↩
VPNs top download charts as age verification law kicks in. 28 July 2025. McMahon. BBC. ↩
The UK Labour Government are now censoring their own Police Forces This is pure insanity. 11 August 2025. @Basil_TGMD. mirror ↩
Myanmar: Facebook’s systems promoted violence against Rohingya; Meta owes reparations. 29 September 2022. Amnesty International. ↩
The Role of Information Communication Technologies in the “Arab Spring”. May 2011. PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 159. (pdf) archive ↩
The Military Origins of Facebook. 12 April 2021. Webb. Unlimited Hangouts. ↩
Nepal Population (2025). Worldmeter. Retrieved 27 September 2025. Archive ↩
Indonesian president says lawmakers’ perks to be cut after deadly protests. 31 August 2025. News Agencies. Al Jazeera. ↩
13 rallies recorded in Metro Manila during Black Friday protests: PNP. 13 September 2025. Villaruel.ABS-CBN News. ↩
The March Against Endless Immigration and Housing Pain. 6 September 2025. Onselen. Saunders. Macrobusiness. ↩
Discord Democracy is Coming For Us All! - New World Next Week #604. 18 September 2025. New World Next Week. The Corbett Report. Mirror ↩
We should look at this as disrespectful. Charlie died by being subverted and lied to by them. “ Judeo Christian” is a made up political scam they use to confuse people religiously so they follow them blindly. This is a war cry to me not a memorial !. 11 September 2025. @urinalwallpoet. ↩
Oklahoma Bill Calls For Charlie Kirk Statue at All State Colleges. 21 September 2025. Toher. Newsweek. ↩
Republicans push for a monument to Charlie Kirk in the Capitol. 11 September 2025. Schermele. USA Today. ↩
Tim Dillon Has Been Compromised. 21 July 2025. 2lazy2try. ↩
Charlie Kirk: “Honestly, I’m done talking about Epstein for the time being. I’m gonna trust my friends in the administration. I’m gonna trust my friends in the government.” 😂. 14 July 2025. @mtracey. ↩
Yes, the killing of Charlie Kirk was heinous. No, he was not a martyred truth-teller. 12 September 2025. Michael Tracey. ↩
Why Americans are losing their minds over Charlie Kirk. 22 September 2025. Carey Wedler. ↩
User Clip: Trump on closing up the Internet. 7 December 2015. C-SPAN. ↩
Newsmakers Former agents from Israel’s Mossad detail how they built and sold explosive pagers to Hezbollah terrorists. 8 June 2025. Stahl. 60 Minutes. CBS News. ↩

Transgender Shooters, Flags and Troop Deployments

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Last month, a shooter opened fire in a Catholic church. The immediate backstory of the shooter being transgender fit the current social fears of ideological conservatives. Almost immediately, news media seemed to forget about the current administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case. Conservatives also seem to be heralding Trump’s commitment to expand military deployments in American cities, something they would have raged against had the previous administration engaged in the same practices. Why was the media covering this particular shooting, with a near orgy of evidence released immediately, while completely glazing over the assassination of a Blackstone executive whose industry has been ravishing the consumer housing market? Now we see another assassination of a prominent conservative speaker, in full view of hundreds of students at a university. Immediately there is polarization and massive coverage of the event from every media outlet. Examining what the major outlets are covering and what they’re downplaying can paint a picture of what may be coming later this year.

Blackstone and the Housing Market

On July 28th, a gunman opened fire in a New York City business tower, killing four people¹. Investigators claimed he carried a hand-written note stating the reason for the shooting was due to brain injuries and the NFL². When journalists mention the name of the Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner, it’s always with phrases like “loving wife” or “mother³.” They don’t mention she was the CEO of BREIT, the Blackstone Real Estate Interest Trust that has spent over $100 billion buying up homes and rentals across the United States while constantly raising housing rates⁴⁵. She was leading a company that, like other BlackRock real estate subsidiaries, was buying out entire markets of homes, turning them into rentals and forcing up the price of housing across America⁶.

The story of the shooter being upset over the NFL seems like a coverup. We are told to believe he drove halfway across the country to shoot someone on the 33rd floor of an executive building with a rifle and then turned it on himself⁷. It seems more likely this was some type of hit on a prominent executive. It furthers my belief that the Luigi Mangione case was a planned psychological operation. If anything, LePatner should have been Mangione Part 2: the assassination of a female, lady-boss CEO responsible for driving up housing prices and crushing an already demoralized subset of Americans who believe they will never be able to afford a home⁸. Instead, the details of this case have been immediately swept under the rug. It’s an important news story to not forget about, because it’s a shining example of how big media has the ability to quash stories that should stoke American outrage.

Burning the Flag

Near the end of August, President Trump signed an executive order for prosecuting the burning of the American flag. He claimed this executive order would result in someone burning an American flag receiving one year of jail time⁹. In reality, the executive order doesn’t specify prison time. It only advises that the Attorney General prosecute existing ordinances if someone burns a flag, such as property damage or disturbance of the peace crimes¹⁰. It shows that the president doesn’t read his own executive orders¹¹.

It’s a rather silly issue, as the Supreme Court ruled that flag burning was constitutionally protected speech in their 1989 Texas v. Johnson decision. What’s also interesting is that Hillary Clinton co-sponsored a bill to imprison flag burners as well in 2005¹².

Flag burning can be a heated issue. Symbols are powerful and emotionally loaded for a reason. Yet in America, we also understand the essential and undeniable importance of speech. Even at the January 6th protest, a small sample size of woman-on-the-street interviews showed that at least some conservatives understood why flag burning was protected speech¹³.

Perhaps the recent executive order was intended as a response to the man who was sentenced to fifteen years for burning a pride flag in Iowa¹⁴. In that situation, he stole the flag from a church, committed arson, and had his sentence compounded by previous felonies¹⁵. Still, the sentence seemed excessive. The issue of flag burning is one of many that can make people heated across the political spectrum, even though it is ultimately a silly thing not even worthy of the anger it generates. Trump’s executive order was just a part of a series of divisive escalations. It wasn’t even original, just a rehash of a beaten-to-death trope to distract everyone from actual violations of American values.

The Catholic School Shooting

On August 27th, two children were killed and eighteen others injured in a shooting at a Catholic church in Minneapolis¹⁶. The alleged shooter was Robert Westman. People immediately focused on how Westman was transgender, having changed his identity to Robin Westman¹⁷. Almost immediately, the news reported on the shooter’s deleted social media videos, and the various guns featured with phrases like “Nuke India,” “Israel must fall,” and “Kill Donald Trump” written on them¹⁸. A witness claimed he heard gunshots, identified them as from a rifle and not a handgun, and heard “30 to 50” shots¹⁹.

It’s interesting how in this particular shooting, there was an immediate plethora of evidence, discovered online or released almost immediately²⁰. The shooter, who spouted anti-Israel sentiment, didn’t target the nearby synagogue or yeshiva, but instead attacked Catholic school children during mass²¹. The details of the Catholic church shooting fit perfectly into a growing narrative involving transgenderism, mental instability and gun violence. They are convenient narrative details: a tragedy with dead children that’s immediately exploitable in the growing tension of the American politic. It’s given the spotlight, front and center, completely overshadowing the killing of a Blackstone executive and the Epstein files debacle.

President Trump’s administration claimed the Department of Justice was “reviewing ways to ensure that mentally ill individuals suffering from gender dysphoria are unable to obtain firearms while they are unstable and unwell²².” Just like that, many conservatives who once stood united on Second Amendment gun rights are now willing to compromise due to the threat of transgender shooters, clamoring for what are essentially Red Flag Laws.

Send in the Clowns Troops

On Monday, August 11th, Donald Trump deployed federal troops in Washington, D.C., under the Home Rule Act of 1973 (signed under Nixon), branding the event as “Liberation Day²³.” In his speech, Trump spoke of his intentions to expand troop deployment efforts to New York City, Baltimore, Oakland and others²⁴. In a leaked memo obtained by The New Republic, the Department of Homeland Security was anticipating increased use of the military in urban centers under the justification of fighting gangs, cartels and illegal immigration²⁵.

“I cannot believe the same people who would have completely shit themselves if Biden did this, if Kamala Harris did it, if Obama did it. .. Where are they? They’re nowhere. They’re like, ‘Oh it’s okay when my preferred dictator does it…’” -Melissa Dykes, TruthStream Media²⁶

On the Ground in The District

I’ve talked to several friends who either currently live around D.C. or were originally from the area. One of my friends is concerned about the strong-arm tactics of military deployment. She doesn’t think they will fundamentally address the issues leading to most of the crime, considering the city government was already making progress in that regard. She was also concerned about the rounding up of the homeless, what Trump referred to as “beatification” projects²⁷. I couldn’t help but think about how China displaced homeless people in preparation for hosting the Olympic Games in Beijing²⁸.

Another more conservative friend was in favor of the efforts. She had spent years in D.C. and argued the situation with crime was quite substantive, and the city’s efforts were not really going to address it. Another individual cited his concerns about the military patrolling areas around news and media outlets. While deploying troops domestically within a federal district is one thing, the expansion to other cities should raise serious concerns.

Chicago and Beyond

In a later broadcast in August, Trump referred to Chicago as a “killing field” while also trying to claim, “I’m not a dictator²⁹,” in reference to sending troops into the city. I lived in Chicago for over three years, in the neighborhoods of Logan Square, Old Town and South Loop. There were times when I’d see news of shootings in places I had been, yet I had never personally had a gun pulled on me or seen anyone shot. I did lose a phone to a pickpocket on the Blue Line, and an attempt was made to break into my car (although nothing was stolen). When looking at crime in Chicago, shootings are mostly concentrated in very specific neighborhoods³⁰. When I first moved to Chicago, I often walked and cycled through some of these neighborhoods, ignorant of how dangerous they were.

Chicago crime problems stem mostly from gang violence. No amount of National Guard presence is truly going to make a difference within those neighborhoods. People seem to have already forgotten that the National Guard was deployed in Chicago during the last Trump presidency after the George Floyd riots. Directly across from my apartment building, Humvees lined up in the afternoon in a gas station parking lot. The following days I saw them at intersections in nearly every direction.

National Guard in Chicago. May 30 2020.

When the National Guard was brought in to add stability after the riots, it began a process of normalization. It didn’t start with Trump. George W. Bush deployed troops domestically in 2008 to carry out crowd control in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act³¹³². Everyone, no matter what side of the political spectrum they fall on, should be greatly concerned with the deployment and use of troops domestically for any purpose. It’s a great overreach and leads to a very dangerous path.

“There’s a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people” -Commander Adama. Battlestar Galactica³³ (TV Show 2004)

The Shooting of Charlie Kirk

On September 10th, the eve of the anniversary of 9/11, Charlie Kirk was shot and killed during a question and answer session at a speaking event at Utah Valley University. Numerous students were in attendance, and the videos of the assassination are quite horrific. What was equally horrific were the people who were celebrating his death. There was protest, even during a moment of silence for Kirk, on the floor of the House of Representatives³⁴. I have a feeling many of the people making light of this situation probably didn’t know who Kirk was, beyond a vague notion that he should be hated because he was on the wrong side. I personally only thought of him as someone who was occasionally a guest on Tim Pool, unaware that he was also a co-founder of Turning Point USA.

Charlie Kirk is not without his controversial statements. He’d openly advocated for death penalty executions to be “public, quick and televised,” with corporate media sponsorship³⁵. He’s also stated that Joe Biden should have been put in prison or given the death penalty for his crimes³⁶. To that I’d only add that every president should be put in prison for their crimes, including George W. Bush for his involvement in torture, Barack Hussein Obama II for carpet bombing Libya and trying to take America to war with Syria, and even Donald Trump for the Epstein debacle, filling his administration with the swamp monsters who were involved in the 2008 financial crisis and pushing the dangerous and untested preventive drug as a reaction to the events of 2020.

Still, despite what anyone may think about his political stances, glorifying an assassination against an American who was expressing his freedom to speak is absolutely disgusting and inexcusable.

Questioning the Facts

Immediately there were people in the alternative media questioning the narrative around the shooting³⁷³⁸³⁹⁴⁰. Was what we were seeing real? I do think the shooting and death of Kirk were real, but I also don’t think anyone should be shunned or belittled when questioning anything that comes out of the media landscape today. With all the new automated video generation techniques available, people should understandably be skeptical.

Some people have pointed out how in some of the videos, it appears that Kirk’s ring switches fingers as he is shot. It’s a legitimate question, but it turns out it has a simple answer. He owns a hinged ring, and he’s often seen fidgeting with it in interviews⁴¹⁴². Some have pointed out the unusual way his shirt seemed to ripple, and I think those people simply need to watch high-speed video of actual projectile impacts⁴³⁴⁴. A fired bullet has a tremendous amount of force in a tiny mass that can easily cause ripple effects of any type of fabric or light material on the target. Finally, some have questioned how the bullet can immediately be heard in videos with zero delay. If the details we’ve been given about distance are correct, the sound of the bullet would still be in the air upon impact⁴⁵.

Charlie Kirk's Hinged Ring

I do not discount anyone who questions anything about the shooting. There are people who can become immediately enraged when questioning anything about an event with so much media-focused emotion behind it. I have looked at what people have presented and have reached the conclusion his public murder was very real.

Questioning the Narrative

Still, the timing of the attack should draw serious questions. After his death, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Kirk a “friend of Israel” and a “great champion of free speech⁴⁶.” He also rejected accusations that Israel was behind the assassination⁴⁷. However, Charlie Kirk was beginning to question Epstein’s connections to Mossad and Israel⁴⁸. He became critical of Israel’s ongoing campaign against Hamas⁴⁹. Harrison H. Smith claimed that “someone close to Charlie Kirk” told him Kirk thought Israel would try to kill him if he turned against them⁵⁰. Kirk, once a loyalist to Israel, labeled as anti-Semitic for mildly criticizing Zionism, and murdered on the day before the anniversary of 9/11, should make people consider there could be more to this situation⁵¹.

Prior to getting shot, Kirk was answering a question regarding transgender mass shooters, a very hot topic and contentious issue that’s been exacerbated by news media coverage this year. The FBI released a video and requested assistance in tracking down the shooter⁵². The shell casings from the shots allegedly had words written on them⁵³, suspiciously like the Brian Thompson assassination. This information was supposedly leaked to Steven Crowder, a man with questionable investigative principles, by an ATF officer⁵⁴.

After the suspect’s apprehension, Governor Spencer Cox of Utah stated the suspect had a roommate/boyfriend who was transitioning from male to female, and then continued on a rant about the dangers of social media, comparing the dopamine hits from online engagement to fentanyl⁵⁵.

Charlie Kirk’s assassination may have been a professional hit by an intelligence agency, or it could have been an organic lone gunman. Whichever is the case is irrelevant. News and propaganda agencies have immediately jumped on this story, accelerating all sides of the political spectrum into a hyper-reactionary and emotionally charged event that is dividing Americans further on core moral lines.

The Reversed Conservative

The propaganda media cycle is working diligently at turning Americans, both conservatives and liberals, against the core beliefs and rights that are the foundations of our nation. Every crisis is being used as a catalyst for some political agenda. Americans should be unified in standing against military officers deployed on the streets of our cities, but now some are embracing this dangerous direction. Americans should be unified in standing against disarming citizens and protecting the Second Amendment, but now there are people who are supporting the suppression of gun rights for those citizens the State deems mentally ill. Governor Spencer Cox has even gone as far as to use loaded language against Internet usage, which seems like it would be used to promote digital identification and government tracking of individuals. How ironic would it be if Charlie Kirk’s assassination, while exercising his freedom of speech, would lead to the suppression of speech one side or the other disagrees with?

I drove by a protest in my own city last week, where people held up signs opposing “fascism.” While I am concerned deeply with the direction the nation is moving, I also can tell by the signage what these people stand for and how they’ve been ideologically captured by the false left-right narrative. They likely oppose the violation of our essential liberties only when it is done by their opposition and not by their political sports team. Where Americans should be driven together by single critical issues of freedom, we’re driven further apart by requiring people to accept an entire massive package of ideologies in order to find a political home.

Emotions are high, propelled by traditional and social media. Where George Orwell’s 1984 had a 2-minute hate, we are now in a 24/7 hate cycle. Certain events are covered in detail while others are completely ignored. Few have the critical capacity to read between the narrative bullshit to identify what lawmakers are really trying to gain and steer the populace into accepting using their roles as actors on the Senate floor. At the beginning of this year, I predicted that 2025 would be the year of psychological operations. When I look around and talk to people, I feel like Americans have learned nothing from the events of 2020.

We are continuing down a path where both sides of the false left-right dynamic are clamoring for more control and autocracy while also claiming to fight against government overreach and authoritarianism. We are a nation of fractured people, indoctrinated with deeply conflicting narratives that will ultimately lead to more technocratic capture by those whose hands are on the levers of collective thought control.

Rifle-toting NYC shooter Shane Tamura kills 4 —including NYPD officer — before turning gun on himself at Blackstone, NFL HQ. 28 July 2025. Marino. Celona. McCormac. et. al. New York Post ↩
Gunman who killed 4 in NYC building blamed NFL for mental health issues and was targeting its office. 29 July 2025. Peltz. Attanasio. Collins. et. al. AP. ↩
Slain Blackstone Executive Was a Mentor to Women and a Leader at Work. 29 July 2025. Searcey. Farrel. The New York Times. ↩
Why Blackstone Is Buying Homes In The U.S. Again. 16 July 2025. CNBC. ↩
🚨ANOTHER CEO SHOT DEAD — CEO of “Breit” a Subsidiary of BLACKSTONE Was Shot and Killed —and The Media Barely Whispers. Ever Wonder Why?. 3 August 2025. @ProjectConstitu. X. ↩
The Secret Company That Will Own Your House In 5 years. 3 March 2025. Moon. ↩
Let’s review..He lived in Nevada and drove to New York, …. 29 July 2025. @I_Am_JohnCullen ↩
They have a MONOPOLY. Over the housing market. In some areas at least.. 2 August 2025. notsolegal_off. Instagram. mirror mirror ↩
President Trump Signs Executive Order on Flag Burning. 25 August 2025. C-SPAN. ↩
PROSECUTING BURNING OF THE AMERICAN FLAG. 25 August 2025. Executive Orders. The White House. ↩
Burn A Flag…Go To Jail?. 26 August 2025. Ron Paul Liberty Report. ↩
Local News Hillary Clinton Co-Sponsored Bill In 2005 To Jail Flag Burners. 29 November 2016. CBS Philadelphia. ↩
I Went To The Jan 6th Rally. 22 January 22, 2021. Shoe0nHead. ↩
Fifteen years in Iowa jail for burning pride flag. 19 December 2019. BBC. ↩
Did an Iowa Man Get 16 Years in Prison for Burning an LGBT Rainbow Flag?. 20 December 2019. MacGuill. Snopes. ↩
Annunciation Church shooting: 2 children killed, 18 others hurt. 27 August 2025. Turtinen. Fox 9. ↩
PURE EVIL: Trans Minneapolis Catholic School Shooter Identified – Had Two Names – Posted Manifesto on YouTube Before Shooting – Shooter Had “Kill Donald Trump” Written on Gun (VIDEO). 27 August 2025. Conradson. The Gateway Pundit. ↩
“Nuke India”, “Kill Trump”: Minneapolis Shooter’s Chilling Messages On Guns. 28 August 2025. Tiwari. NDTV. ↩
Witness describes Minneapolis shooting gunfire. 27 August 2025. CNN. ↩
IT’S BACK TO SCHOOL FALSE FLAG SHOOTING SEASON! GOVERNMENT LEAVES THEIR CALLING CARD AGAIN!. 28 August 2025. Official Rumble Channel for A Call For An Uprising ↩
Troon school shooter: “I hate Israel” Drives past the synagogue Drives past the yeshiva Drives past the jewish politicians house To the catholic school to shoot Christian children at mass.. 27 August 2025. @Kitler512. ↩
BREAKING: Trump DOJ Deliberates Over Gun Ban For Transgenders. 4 September 2025. Olohan. Daily Wire. Archive ↩
Trump’s moves toward taking over Washington are unprecedented. Here’s what the law says. 11 August 2025. Whitehurst. AP. ↩
President Trump Announces Expanded Federal Role for Security and Law Enforcement in Washington, D.C.. 11 August 2025. The White House. C-SPAN. ↩
Trump’s Domestic Use of Military Set to Get Worse, Leaked Memo Shows. 2 August 2025. Sargent. The New Republic. ↩
This Is Tyranny. 12 August 2025. TruthStream Media. ↩
National Guard asks DC leaders for ‘beautification’ projects as Trump says crime is gone. 13 September 2025. Mayes-Osterman. USA Today. ↩
Beijing to evict 1.5 million for Olympics: group. 9 August 2007. Reuters. ↩
Donald Trump: ‘A lot of people are saying maybe we’d like a dictator.’. 25 August 2025. FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul ↩
2025 Homocite Map. HeyJackass! Retrieved 6 September 2025. Archive ↩
Thousands of Troops Are Deployed on U.S. Streets Ready to Carry Out “Crowd Control”. 8 October 2008. Wolf. Third World Traveler. ↩
Thousands of Troops Are Deployed on U.S. Streets Ready to Carry Out “Crowd Control”. 8 October 2008. Alternet.org. ↩
Battlestar Galactica (2004). Water. Season 1, Episode 4. (TV Show) ↩
An unbelievable moment on the House floor. Rep. Lauren Boebert requests a moment of prayer for Charlie Kirk. Democrats can be heard shouting “no!” Then, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna shouts back “y’all caused this!”. 10 September 2025. @townhallcom. ↩
Charlie Kirk fantasizes about children watching televised executions: “At a certain age, it’s an initiation”. 16 Feburary 2024. Staff. Media Matters. ↩
Charlie Kirk: Joe Biden should be “put in prison and/or given the death penalty for crimes against America”. 24 July 2023. Staff. Media Matters. ↩
CHARLIE KIRK SHOOTING – What’s Next??. 10 September 2025. The Healthy American Peggy Hall. ↩
CHARLIE KIRK SHOOTING: WHY WOULD “THEY” DO THIS?!. 12 September 2025. The Healthy American Peggy Hall. ↩
GOVERNMENT PRODUCTION! CHARLIE KIRK SHOT DEAD ON THE EVE OF 9/11 AS THE CALL FOR CIVIL WAR BEGINS!. 10 September 2025. Official Rumble Channel for A Call For An Uprising ↩
DON’T BE FOOLED! THEY KILLED THE CHARACTER CHARLIE KIRK BUT THE ACTOR’S STILL ALIVE!. 11 September 2025. Official Rumble Channel for A Call For An Uprising ↩
Apparently he wears/wore some weird not-a-ring ring that could explain the thing falling off oddly during the violent convulsions of getting shot i guess.. 11 September 2025. @freemayonnaise@gigaohm.bio. mirror ↩
Social Media Sleuths Have Solved The Troubling Mystery Of Charlie Kirk’s Ring Appearing On Different Fingers Before And After Tragic Shooting (VIDEO). 11 September 2025. Flavius. TotalProSports. ↩
1,074 MPH BASEBALL vs. 1 Gallon of Mayonnaise - Smarter Every Day 264. 28 October 2021. SmarterEveryDay ↩
Bullets HITTING Bullets in Slow Motion - THE IMPOSSIBLE SHOT - Smarter Every Day 287. 10 June 2023. SmarterEveryDay. ↩
200yds is 600ft. 30.06 rd over 200yd 2374 fps. bullet would hit in about .25 sec. sound of the blast would still be in the air after the bullet hit.. 12 September 2025. @Koropokkur@poa.st mirror ↩
Charlie Kirk understood attack on Judeo-Christian heritage: Netanyahu - The Record. 11 September 2025. Newsmax. ↩
Netanyahu rejects ‘insane’ conspiracy theories that Israel was behind Charlie Kirk’s assassination. 12 September 2025. Berman. The Times of Israel. ↩
Charlie Kirk Was Starting to Notice! “And this is no longer just speculation. First of all, the evidence that shows that Epstein was a creation of either Mossad, Israeli intelligence, American intelligence…”. 10 September 2025. @Red_Pill_US. ↩
Charlie Kirk turns to antisemitic stereotypes amid Israel-Hamas war. Horowitz. 31 October 2023. MediaMatters. ↩
I’m not gonna name names, but I was told by someone close to Charlie Kirk that Charlie thinks Israel will kill him if he turns against them.. 13 August 2025. @HarrisonHSmith. ↩
Something tells me they’re not going to tell us the truth about who killed Charlie Kirk…. 10 September 2025. @jacksonhinklle ↩
Officials release video, plead for public’s help in tracking down person of interest in Charlie Kirk shooting. 11 September 2025. Deliso. Brennan. Forrester. et. al. ABC News. ↩
Inscriptions found on bullet casings in Charlie Kirk shooting: What we know. 12 September 2025. Christensen. Yahoo! news. ↩
MAGA host subpoenaed by ATF after revealing Charlie Kirk investigation details. Edwards. 11 September 2025. RawStory. ↩
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox shares new details about Charlie Kirk shooting suspect: Full interview. 14 September 2025. NBC News. ↩

Final Fantasy VIII Remastered

Sun, 24 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I originally started playing Final Fantasy VIII in the 1990s on the PC. I had the original 5-disc set and ran the game on Windows 98. Unfortunately, I lost my save files twice when I forgot to back them up during operating system reinstalls. In one game, I even got to the final dungeon. Twenty years later, I’ve decided to pick up this classic again, and I finally finished the 2019 PS4 edition. This remaster has some amazing improvements, which really make the game a lot less boring. Even though the story is about average, I enjoyed my final playthrough of FF8.

Story

Even though it has been two decades since I first played this game, I remembered all the major story beats. The characters are certainly memorable. The music by Nobuo Uematsu is incredibly well scored. Despite the length of the game, the massive variety of music fit well throughout all the major battles and transitions. The characters are somewhat basic, yet still lovable.

Early on, the player is introduced to story jumps where your party plays the roles of mysterious soldiers in dream sequences. There is a lot of interesting world building around the nature of your characters’ roles and the history of the world your party lives in. The discovery never feels forced or expositional, even though the story is overall fairly basic.

Final Fantasy VIII is the first game in the franchise that advertised itself as a true love story. For better and worse, I think it does a good job of hitting all those beats. The main character of Squall really is an interesting timepiece of the 1990s emo goth kid. His stoic nature and story arc is one of growth and finding people to care for in spite of, maybe even due to, his troubled past.

Gameplay

The remastered edition adds in the ability to speed up the game by 3x by pressing down L3. One big criticism of both Final Fantasy VIII and VII was the set of incredibly long animation sequences, especially during summons. FF8 is a summon-intense game where guardian forces are junctioned to each character, allowing the player to assign abilities to each party member. Magic is drawn from enemies or from points in various areas. Stored magic can be junctioned to enhance stats, and cast in attacks.

The user interface is fairly clunky. It gives the player the ability to switch the entire junction assignment between characters when switching one’s party, but the UI doesn’t indicate what guardian forces everyone is currently connected to. It can be all too easy to end up in a battle where basic controls like magic and items are entirely missing because of a misplaced junction switch.

Like a lot of role-playing games, FF8 tries to force players to balance the use of attacks, magic, draws, items and summons. The 3x speed enhancement is a welcome addition, but can lead to the game being more summon-heavy. Guardian forces replace the characters’ health bars for the time they are waiting to be summoned, adding a really interesting dynamic to selecting battle actions.

The Remaster

I’m glad I played through most of the original version on the PC. As remasters go, FF8 really feels like it gets everything right. The game is displayed in the classic 4:3 aspect ratio of old TV screens. The models are slightly enhanced, but the game still consists of 3D overlayed on 2D drawn scenes. The full-motion videos are slightly upscaled, but they still capture the classic look of the original game. The audio has been enhanced with full surround sound. If you have a decent home theater setup, you get a few treats of hearing footsteps panning and moving behind you as your characters traverse various areas.

Everything else has been kept true to the original. The save screen even shows you which disc you are on, even though there is no more CD swapping. The 3x speed ability makes so many of the more boring moments considerably more tolerable, even though it makes the game slightly easier (especially during timed sequences where the countdown clock does not move at a faster rate).

Overall, I’m impressed by the way this remaster was done. There is also an enhancement that makes battles easier, essentially adding a story mode. Although I didn’t use the battle enhancement until the very last boss, I was thankful it was present for those who want to experience the story without endless churning.

Overall

I never felt like Final Fantasy VIII was a game where I had to grind. Even in my original playthroughs, I sought out a lot of the additional missions. Still, there are a lot of secrets in this game that require looking up hints. A lot of the more complex puzzles are not at all intuitive.

What really set apart FF7 and FF8 during the 90s was the amazing animation. FF7 also had an incredible story. FF8 is memorable and has great characters, but the story doesn’t approach FF7’s magic. Squall’s character arc is well written, but the love story feels expected. The summon animations were quite amazing for their time, but today they just feel like filler that drags down the entire experience.

The story is fun and playful, yet it doesn’t encompass a lot of depth. The characters are warm and memorable, but the narrative isn’t extraordinary. The final dungeon is honestly aggravating, and I feel like several of the battles towards the end could have been simplified or cut out. I only used the remaster’s battle enhancement in the very last fight, and I was thankful for it.

For the majority of the game, I never felt I had to grind to move on or invest in uninteresting side quests. The early game was never really hard. I had leveled up nearly every one of my party members past 50 and had all but one of the guardian forces, but the ending battles still felt unbalanced even with spending time to get all the party’s abilities unlocked.

My final game timer was just under 30 hours. With deaths and continues, I likely spent around 35 hours total on this game, which would have easily been 50 to 60 if I had played the original without the 3x speedup enhancements. My score is reflective of the remaster. Even though it’s very close to the original game, I don’t think I would have had as positive an experience without the speedup ability.

Overall, Final Fantasy VIII is a fun game. It doesn’t compare to its immediate predecessor or to its successor, Final Fantasy IX. Still, I’m glad I finally finished this game. It’s a fun love story, with memorable characters and decent but somewhat exaggerated gameplay. It’s a great mid-tier game in the Final Fantasy franchise and is a great look at RPGs from the late 90s.

The Purism Librem 5 and the Six Year Refund

Sat, 23 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In 2019, I placed a pre-order for a Purism Librem 5. It was touted as a Linux mobile phone, providing an alternative to the two big players in the cellphone operating system space. Two years later I attempted to cancel this pre-order, as the promised device had failed to materialize. Three years after my original order, I got an e-mail indicating the device I no longer wanted would finally ship. It took almost six years from my original order to get a refund. I was met with tons of excuses from support staff and eventually had to file a complaint with my credit card company to finally get the money restored. I’m honestly shocked Purism is even still in business. They’re a horrible company filled with liars. No one should give them any money for what must be garbage products.

I was made aware of many of the issues facing Purism, and specifically the Librem 5 phone, back in the fall of 2019¹. Still, I decided to keep my pre-order, in hopes I would see a product that would eventually provide an alternative to the closed duopoly of Android and iProducts. In 2021, I realized my trust in Purism had been misguided and requested a cancellation of my order. It would be nearly six years from my purchase date before the company would refund my order. They made up excuses and even put me in a “refund queue.” The following is a timeline of communications:

2019-10-01	Order Placed
2021-08-11	Requested refund citing return policy
2021-08-12	Was was told refunds only applied to orders, and pre-order have a different policy
2021-10-25	Requested refund again
2021-11-08	Requested a refund again
2021-11-21	Once again was, I was told pre-order policy, but was given the option to switch my order to “something else”
2023-04-17	Over three years later, I was told my order would finally ship
2023-04-17	Once asked for a refund
2023-04-19	A ticket was created for my refund
2023-07-20	Requested status update on refund
2023-07-26	Was told the refund was not processed and the process was “quite slow”
2023-10-27	Once again, I asked for a refund
2023-10-30	Was offered store credit +20%, but no refund
2025-01-05	Requested another refund
2025-01-05	Service Desk #6257 Ticket Created
2025-05-02	E-mail stating I was in the “refund queue”
2025-07-24	Refund of $699.00 was issued

E-mail Communication

Purism’s support personnel kept trying to tell me refunds didn’t apply to my purchase, even though it was clearly stated I could refund my order based on their refund policies on their website at the time my order was placed². Asking on forum posts, it seemed clear that Purism was openly lying³ and trying to prevent further hemorrhaging of funds as they failed to deliver their product. The following are the e-mail threads between myself and Purism support.

E-mail response to refund request from July 2021

E-mail response from November 2021

Purism support E-mail thread from 2023

Refund and Credit Card Investigation

Purism E-mail issuing a refund

I was surprised when I received an e-mail stating I would be getting a refund in July of 2025. Had I finally made it through the “refund queue?” Only a few days after this refund did I get the following letter from my credit card company, stating that they had completed their investigation of my purchase from Purism.

Dispute response from credit card company

I had made this complaint to my credit card provider in the fall of 2022, and it still took over two years for the dispute to be resolved! Had I not involved my credit card company, I doubt I would have gotten a refund.

The State of Linux Phones

My original $699 had been held for nearly six years! Purism essentially got a six year interest-free loan from me and many other customers⁴⁵. I had moved three different times and even ordered and received a PinePhone during the time when Purism failed to deliver anything.

I’ve never done a full post on my PinePhone. I worked on it briefly for a while, but other projects took priority, and it has ended up confined to its box for years. But unlike the Librem 5, the phone did actually exist. I ordered it, it was delivered and I was able to boot it up and start working on it. In recent years, I’ve found it easier to maintain privacy and control over my phone by removing Google services from Android devices.

I’ve never owned a Purism product, and after this experience, I never want to. The company failed on multiple levels and has never owned up to their mistakes. They are likely still holding money hostage from many customers, and using that capitol to keep what must be a horrible mess of a business from collapsing entirely. Even if their products aren’t complete garbage, they are obviously untrustworthy, and I can only imagine warranty claims would be a nightmare. If you’re looking for a company that produces good open-source hardware that respects their customers, Purism is not what you’re looking for.

The Sad Saga of Purism and the Librem 5 : Part 1. 23 October 2019. Jay Little. ↩
Policies - Purism. Archive Captured from 28 November 2019 ↩
It’s been over a year and a half. No Purism 5 and they will not let me cancel my order. What can I do?. 11 August 2021. r/Purism u/djsumdog ↩
Purism wants me to delete my video exposing their refund scam & delay tactic - answer is no. 2 August 2023. Louis Rossmann. ↩
Purism Is In Big Trouble. Talks of Insolvency & Not Honoring Refunds 3 December 2023. Zaney. ↩