JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: The Doomsday Clock is a myth machine.
Related: The Clock Ticks.
JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: The Doomsday Clock is a myth machine.
Related: The Clock Ticks.
THAT CERTAINLY SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN THE INTENT: Anti-ICE protest ‘terrorized’ Minnesota church, left kids scared, parents blocked: DOJ says. “Three activists who participated in the disruption of the church — former NAACP Minneapolis chapter president Nekima Valdez Levy Armstrong, local Black Lives Matter Twin Cities chapter leader Chauntyll Louisa Allen, and leftwing provocateur Da Woke Farmer’ William Scott Kelly — were arrested last week on Jan. 22. They were charged with allegedly violating 18 U.S. Code § 241, with the DOJ saying the charges related to ‘Conspiracy Against Rights Secured by Federal Law, namely, the free exercise of religion at a place of religious worship secured by’ the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, commonly known as the FACE Act.”
I’M SO OLD, I CAN REMEMBER WHEN BATMAN ACTUALLY FOUGHT CRIME:
Man dressed as Batman goes on anti-ICE tirade in front of the Santa Clara City Council.
“I am disgusted by each and every one of you.” pic.twitter.com/9O8DhPMQro
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) January 29, 2026
SUBURBAN WINE MOMS VINDICATED: Essential oils may provide a natural remedy for antibiotic resistance.
YOU WON’T HAVE TAMPON TIM TO KICK AROUND ANYMORE! Tim Walz says he’ll never seek elected office again.
THEY DON’T CARE: Homan Schools Dems on Violent Rhetoric, Immigration Enforcement.
PEOPLE GET GROSSED OUT ABOUT THIS THERAPY, BUT IT’S PROMISING: Fecal transplant capsules show promising results in clinical trials for multiple types of cancer.
TRAVEL: ‘A betrayal’: Southwest’s new plus size policy leaves some passengers unable to fly.
A new Southwest Airlines policy that requires plus-sized passengers to buy an extra seat if they “encroach” onto the seat next to theirs is sparking disappointment, anguish and frustration among leagues of larger bodied people across the U.S. who long relied on the airline as their carrier of choice.
Southwest’s new “customer of size” policy, which takes effect Tuesday, requires plus-sized passengers who cannot fit entirely within one seat to purchase a second one. That’s regardless of whether the seat next to them is empty.
Somebody might end up buying a ticket for that seat.
ANTI-ICERS ARE NEW ‘MASSIVE RESISTANCE’ REBELS: Those anti-ICE protestors in Minneapolis are interposing themselves between federal immigration law enforcement and state/local authorities, much as did the Southern Massive Resistance did against federal civil rights enforcement.
Somewhere Harry Byrd Sr. Orval Faubus and George Wallace wonder why the media that today hails the Anti-ICErs as heroes condemned the Southerners as bigots. One wonders, too, what John C. Calhoun, the South Carolina senator best known for his views on interposition and nullification, would think were he among us today.
AMELIA: the purple-haired goth girl who became a nationalist icon.
Does it mean anything important, or is it all just amusing internet froth? I believe it does have significance, even if Amelia disappears tomorrow. Amelia is final proof, in the age of the viral AI meme, that the government no longer has any chance of controlling the narrative, let alone establishing one in the first place.
This goes against every instinct and reflex of the British Establishment. Because, if the Establishment exists to do anything, it is to control us. This is why Starmer is so desperate to ban X for putting fake bikinis on women, while taking a year to announce a possible inquiry into nationwide grooming gangs.
Happily, this is one battle the Establishment simply cannot win. It has been said that the internet is the subconscious of humanity. And, as Freud observed, in the end the subconscious will always decide what we do. Dreams denote desires, and desires determine reality. In other words: go, Amelia.
As Glenn has written, “I’m so old, I remember when ‘culture jamming’ was a leftist thing,” and Amelia is engaging in multiple levels of it. Leftist American graphic designer Shepard Fairey, who created the iconic Obama “Hope” poster in 2007 can’t be happy about this:

PLANNING:
Marco Rubio's testimony on the Maduro op before the Senate indicates that the Trump administration very carefully awaited the right operational conditions before risking it, a process that Rubio called a "trigger operation".
This attitude is likely to govern any action against…
— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) January 29, 2026
YES. NEXT QUESTION? Did Stephen Colbert Really Just Downplay the Holocaust to Attack ICE?
The world observed International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, marking the day the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was liberated and honoring the six million Jews and others who were killed at the hands of the Nazi regime. It appears late-night host Stephen Colbert missed that solemn occasion, and instead chose to use his monologue to make light of the Holocaust.
Stephen Colbert: “Do not compare ICE or Border Patrol agents to the Nazis. That’s an unfair comparison. The Nazis were willing to show their faces.” pic.twitter.com/4meqDVAk6S
— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) January 27, 2026
Such a comparison is not only meant to fan the flames of unrest and to encourage attacks against ICE and Border Patrol agents, but it’s also an insult to every person, Jewish and otherwise, who died at places like Auschwitz-Birkenau. Those were innocent men, women, and children targeted because of their religion. They broke no laws and were systematically murdered by the Third Reich.
Meanwhile, as Idiocracy becomes the law of the land, while Colbert is toying with Holocaust denial, Tim Walz forgets who was who in the Civil War. Or as VDH asks: Slouching Towards Fort Sumter?
For now, Walz, Frey, and Ellison are upping the rhetoric, fanning the violence, and talking openly about how best to nullify federal law and impede federal enforcement. They are convinced that they have galvanized national opposition to the hated Trump, smothered the Somali fraud scandal, and stopped ICE deportations of their constituents.
In all of those assumptions, they have little idea they are following the Confederate script to the letter. And like their spiritual forefathers of 1861, they grow ever more cocky, boastful, and defiant as they create martyrs, spread narratives of victimhood, and daily slouch toward another Fort Sumter.
“They have little idea they are following the Confederate script to the letter.” They really don’t:
Federal agents are in a recalcitrant state trying to enforce federal law, and the governor of that state wonders if it’s Fort Sumter without stopping to puzzle out which side that makes him in the analogy.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) January 29, 2026
UPDATE: Jim Treacher squares the circle:
https://t.co/QjF72wBR45 pic.twitter.com/44uR5EL3j9
— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) January 29, 2026
THE BASICS MATTER: Where in the world is … Greenland? Gaza? Ukraine? Iran?
American students should learn geography, writes Rick Hess. Where’s Greenland? Why would anyone want to control it? “It’s impossible to talk sensibly about immigration, border enforcement, foreign policy, or tariffs absent a clear sense of physical geography.” Furthermore, “a failure to teach bedrock knowledge leaves students adrift in a world of deepfakes and misinformation.”
When he taught a world geography class, his students started class by drilling on capitals, states, nations, continents, oceans and so on as a confidence-building warm-up before discussions, debates and projects. “We’d explore how the Rio Grande, English Channel, oil deposits, or access to fresh water helped to shape history and culture,” he writes. “But this learning rested on a foundation of geographic mastery — of knowing where the Rio Grande or English Channel was and why that mattered.”
The belief that “knowing stuff just isn’t that important” has gotten worse in recent years, says Hess. Some think knowledge prevents “critical thinking.”
Good Lord.
HARDLY SPORTING BUT VERY ENTERTAINING: Gutfeld Returns to ‘The Five,’ Promptly Humiliates Jessica Tarlov Again.
READER FAVORITE: Wrangler Authentics Mens Relaxed Fit Stretch Cargo Pant. #CommissionEarned
BLUE STATE BLUES: Stalled population growth a sign of Colorado in decline.
Something strange is happening in Colorado — strange enough that the political class should notice.
People are leaving Colorado.
After years of being one of the fastest-growing states in the nation, net in-migration has stopped and may be reversing.
According to Federal Reserve Bank data, the last time Colorado’s population took a dip was 1945. Congrats to our policy makers, who finally achieved something historic no one asked for. The Broncos haven’t won a championship in a decade, but what you’re achieving hasn’t happened in 80 years.
For the first time in 16 years, rents in metro Denver are actually going down. Not “slowing their increase.” Not “rising less quickly.” Going down.
Metro-wide rents are down nearly 5% over the last year. This should set off alarm bells under the Gold Dome. But it won’t.
Before the Democrats took complete control, Colorado was almost always in the top ten states for in-migration. Now it’s in the bottom ten.
YES:
Woke programs are not about helping poor Africans, but 'helping' Western bureaucrats who are supposedly 'helping' poor asylum seekers. Everybody gets helped to a serving of tax dollars.
Follow the money. Once you walk through the door of the Learing Center you're in the…
— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) January 28, 2026
STAY SAFE: Etekcity Camping Lanterns for Power Outages 4 Pack. #CommissionEarned
OH: Chicago schools refuse to hire Christian college student teachers despite lawsuit.
A Christian college, The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, continues to be excluded from the Chicago Public Schools student teacher program after suing for religious discrimination, the college’s lawyer told The College Fix.
In an exclusive interview, senior counsel on the case Jeremiah Galus said that as of Jan. 7, Chicago Public Schools still wasn’t allowing Moody’s student teachers to work in its schools.
“Excluding Moody from a public student-teaching program solely because of its religious beliefs violates the First Amendment and serves no one — especially students and families who need more well-prepared teachers,” Galus, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, told The Fix recently.
However, he also said that Moody’s elementary education program, which is at the center of the lawsuit, is still active.
Chicago Public Schools’ Office of Communications refuses to comment.
YES, IT’S HARD TO STRIKE SUCCESSFULLY WHEN YOU PRODUCE NOTHING OF VALUE:
I think what all these “strikes” are missing is that none of these people produce or contribute anything. We are not talking useful people like steelworkers or coal miners.
Like if these types just walk off forever, or the institutions were shuttered, we’d just be better off. https://t.co/C40VelpFrb
— Kevin DeAnna (@VDAREJamesK) January 29, 2026
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: OH NO! Dem Slacker Mobs Schedule Another Day of Protest Cosplay. “When you see the way the protest mobs are behaving right now — or anytime, really — it’s difficult to believe that any of them have ever held a grown-up job or functioned in polite society. As I wrote in yesterday’s Briefing, they’re ‘feral, reactive beasts’ now. Again, there are worse things I could say there.”
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