Worth Knowing, Probably Not Quite Threadworthy 1/16

[SVPete]

Oglala Sioux Chief Lied About ICE Locking up Tribe Members

https://pjmedia.com/rick-moran/2026/01/16/oglala-sioux-chief-lied-about-tribe-members-being-locked-up-by-ice-n4948371

On Tuesday, the president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, Frank Star Comes Out, made headlines by claiming that four members of his tribe were unlawfully detained by ICE and calling for their immediate release. He also claimed that the federal government tried to force him to “enter into an immigration agreement with ICE.”

To coin a phrase, "That's not entirely accurate."

Mr. Star Comes Out apparently felt that Native Americans were being left out of all the victimization of oppressed minorities in Minnesota and decided to shoulder his way onto the stage.

Democrats and the media leapt at the story that Native Americans, "Americans" before anyone else got here, were being rounded up by evil ICE and thrown into a detention camp.

The only problem with this juicy news item was that it wasn't true.

ICE never even encountered any Ogala Sioux and never asked for an immigration agreement. The tribe only gave ICE the first names of the supposed detainees. It's not unreasonable to speculate that the entire "incident" was a publicity stunt, a set-up from the start.

[enslaved1]

Following Renee Good’s killing, her son’s Minneapolis charter school receives right-wing attacks

The small Minneapolis charter school where Renee Good sent her 6-year-old son has switched to online learning out of safety concerns after receiving multiple phone and email threats, the school told Sahan Journal. The school said it had reported some of these threats to local law enforcement.

The threats to Southside Family Charter School came after New York Post articles describing the school’s social justice focus and a series of social media posts from right-wing commentators.

The interesting part to me...

In the wake of the threats the school received, it shut down its Facebook page and most of its web presence. The school’s website was also removed from the Wayback Machine, an Internet archive, between Monday and Tuesday.

The article doesn't list any specific threats, and taking down their website, as well as getting the archived versions pulled means any "threats" left on those sites are gone and the general public at least can't substantiate the claims.  Not really passing the smell test to me.  Even if there were actual threats made, how many were from actual "right wingers" and how many were from left wing agitators/bots?  We will probably never know, because this will just be another headline to reference with no follow up until the next outrage comes in a couple of hours. 

[SVPete]

... Even if there were actual threats made, how many were from actual "right wingers" and how many were from left wing agitators/bots? ...

I'm sure the comparative percentages are not knowable, though I'm sure neither is 0%. And there probably are some crazies with no coherent political ideology mixed in. Being crazy is a human, not a partisan phenomenon.

[SVPete]

White House slams Walz, Democrats in Minnesota following governor's 'direct appeal' to Trump

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-slams-walz-democrats-minnesota-following-governors-direct-appeal-trump

The White House pushed back Thursday after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told President Donald Trump to "turn the temperature down" following a warning from the president that he could invoke the Insurrection Act over unrest in Walz’s state.

In a "direct appeal" on X, Walz pleaded to Trump to "Stop this campaign of retribution" and said that "This is not who we are." The Democrat’s comments came after a second U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)-involved shooting in Minneapolis in recent days sparked demonstrations in the streets.

"Tim Walz, Jacob Frey, and Democrat leaders in Minnesota have done nothing but turn up the temperature, smear heroic ICE officers, and incite violence against them — all in defense of criminal illegal aliens," White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Fox News.

"In Minnesota, ICE has arrested rapists, drug traffickers, domestic abusers, and more, despite Democrat opposition. The Trump Administration will protect the American people and enforce the law without apology. The only statement Tim Walz should be making is an apology. He has repeatedly compared ICE officers to Nazis and lied about their important work, including in his speech just last night," Jackson added.

1. Trump 2.0 is not LIEden, OhBummer!, GWB, or even Trump 1.0. After 2020's Summer of Mostly Peaceful Riots, I do not think Trump will back down from enforcing immigration law.

2. Per USC Srticle VI, Clause 2, Federal law trumps contrary state/local laws, and obstructing enforcement of Federal laws is also not permitted.

3. The Free Speech and Freedom to Assemble clauses of the First Amendment do not embody a right to obstruct or assault law enforcement officers.

[SVPete]

Exclusive: Consumer Product Safety Commission Withdraws Accreditation of 4 Chinese Testing Labs to Protect American Families

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/01/15/exclusive-consumer-product-safety-commission-withdraws-accreditation-four-chinese-testing-labs/

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on Thursday announced the withdrawal of four Chinese testing laboratories to protect American families, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.

Under the Consumer Product Safety Act, manufacturers and importers have to certify that their products comply with American safety standards to be sold in the country. Children’s products must especially be tested by a CPSC-accepted third-party laboratory.

Peter Feldman, the chair of the CPSC, spoke about the need to cancel the accreditation of four Chinese labs, which include:

Shenzhen GTT Testing Technology Co., Ltd. (CPSC Lab ID 1843)
Dongguan True Safety Testing Co., Ltd. (CPSC Lab ID 1755)
Fujian Berton Testing Service Co., Ltd. (CPSC Lab ID 1857)
Shenzhen HUAK Testing Technology Co., Ltd. (CPSC Lab ID 1710)

Feldman explained to Breitbart News, “One, the amount of commerce that’s coming through that country, the volume alone indicates that is a geographic area of concern. But two, when you’re relying on self-attestations that the laboratories meeting certain independence criteria, that just really comes to a head when you’re talking about authoritarian regimes where workers can’t whistle blow without sort of fear of retaliation, imprisonment, death, gulag, etc. If you’ve got a lab that can’t demonstrate integrity independence, full compliance with our testing regime and laws, that creates real problems when you know there’s issues with the reliability of the certificates that importers are required to furnish when they’re trying to bring things into the country.”

These are safety labs akin to UL and ETL in the US or CSA in Canada. Various countries' safety regs have been harmonized so that, for example, UL can certify compliance with many/most/all European countries' regs (and vice versa for TUV in Europe). FWIW, a lot of computer's, tablets, and other electronics' power supplies and adapters are manufactured in Dongguan.

[SVPete]

Illegal-alien patients drain Texas hospitals, racking up billion-dollar bill — in less than a year

https://www.theblaze.com/news/illegal-alien-patients-drain-texas-hospitals-racking-up-billion-dollar-bill-in-less-than-a-year

Unsurprisingly Texas bears a disproportionate share of the burden from illegal immigration due to its expansive southern border. Now state leadership has released the numbers to prove the massive financial burden illegal aliens have had on one sector in particular: hospitals.

New data has been released by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission showing a baffling 10-figure financial burden on Texas hospitals in fiscal year 2025, Texas Scorecard first reported.

The total cost tipped over the billion-dollar mark: $1,050,642,864.

According to the new data, the total visits between November 2024 and August 2025 reached 313,742 for those "not legally present."

[SVPete]

Anti-ICE Protesters Harass Random Man For Crime Of Driving A Chevy Suburban

https://dailycaller.com/2026/01/15/anti-ice-protesters-random-man-chevy-video/

Protesters harassed a man driving a rental SUV after appearing to mistake him for an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, a video that went viral on X Thursday shows.

The video, which was originally posted to TikTok, shows the man opening the trunk of a white Chevy Suburban as a woman inspects its contents. Another woman noted that the man, who later in the video said that he worked for a media outlet, “has a lot of camera equipment” before accusing him of being an ICE agent.
...
“I’m not. I tried to tell the first lady. Nobody believed me. That’s all I can do is tell you,” the man said in the video.

As protesters continued to question him, the man told them, “I really appreciate what y’all are doing.”

Gee, maybe Media-Dude should reflect on the thugs' actions in relation to his appreciation for what they are doing, Mugged Liberal Meditation.

[SVPete]

CNN Tried to Cover for Tim Walz and Scott Jennings Wasn’t Having It

https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2026/01/16/cnn-tried-to-cover-for-tim-walz-and-scott-jennings-wasnt-having-it-n4948373

The left is desperately trying to claim the moral high ground on the issue of immigration enforcement and the ongoing unrest in Minnesota. To that end, CNN literally cherry-picked quotes from Gov. Tim Walz’s recent speech regarding the presence of ICE in his state.

Host Abby Phillip played clips of Walz urging peaceful protest and rejecting violence. But commentator Scott Jennings called her out for cherry-picking quotes.

"Okay, you cherry-picked a handful of comments," Jennings shot back. "Did you play the comment where he said, ‘We're under a federal occupation?'"

Phillip tried to deflect, asking whether calling Minnesota occupied territory actually constitutes inciting violence.

"Of course it is," Jennings responded. "What does that language sound like to you? You have Walz and Frey and Flanagan and the rest of these Democrats in Minnesota radicalizing and propagandizing their constituency, telling them things that aren't true."

(Just as an aside, Walz previously called ICE “Trump’s Gestapo.”)

"And what has happened?" Jennings continued. "One lady went out and got into a very, very sad and unfortunate situation."

Then he started listing violent incidents that followed Walz's heated rhetoric about "federal occupation."

"Three Venezuelan illegals came out and tried to beat an ICE agent to death with a shovel," he recounted. "Hordes of people on the street vandalized and raided ICE vehicles and stole weapons, Kevlar, and documents, and […] dox people on the internet last night. Do you believe they are listening to Tim Walz when he talks about peace? Or do you think they're listening to Tim Walz, who says we're being occupied by the federal government?"

Lies by Omission and Lies by Selectivity are twin lies.

[enslaved1]

I'm sure the comparative percentages are not knowable, though I'm sure neither is 0%. And there probably are some crazies with no coherent political ideology mixed in. Being crazy is a human, not a partisan phenomenon.

I agree.  There are nutjobs who call themselves conservative and/or republican, but are just as crazy as moonbats, only in a different direction.  There are also folks who just want to sow chaos for grins and giggles. 

And there is no way of knowing this side of Heaven either.  Kind of hope part of eternity is the opportunity to watch history somehow and get answers to these and other questions. 

[SVPete]

Involuntary manslaughter conviction in ‘Grandpa Vicha' trial

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/grandpa-vicha-murder-jury-verdict/4013795/

Jurors in San Francisco delivered a mixed verdict Thursday in the trial of a man accused of killing an elderly man in 2021, finding him guilty of involuntary manslaughter but not guilty of murder.

Defendant Antoine Watson was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee. The jury's mixed verdict found Watson not guilty of first- and second-degree murder.

Watson, 24, was also charged with assault and elder abuse. The jury found him guilty of assault but not guilty of elder abuse.
...
Monthanus Ratanapakdee, the daughter of the victim, discussed the outcome with reporters after court convened for the day.

"Our family is grieving and even disappointed and painful," she said. "But me, as a daughter, I can speak for my father. And I'm going to commit to working for our community for dignity and for public safety in San Francisco."

The verdict seems lenient to me. Maybe the prosecutor did not prove the elements needed for a voluntary manslaughter or second degree murder conviction. The maximum for involuntary manslaughter is 4 years, which, IMO, is pathetic. Since, "Watson has spent five years in custody while waiting for the trial," he could be released based on time served.

At the time, 2021, there was a rash of violence in the SF Bay Area targeting Asian people. The MSM and some activist groups represented the perpetrators as population-wide. In reality, most perps were black, some/many also being Sacred Homeless. Because of those two factors and Lib/Prog inclinations, I do wonder whether the SF prosecutor did less than (s)he might to get a more serious conviction and/or if there was a prejudiced juror.

[SVPete]

Too Good(?) to Check: Minneapolis Police Department Bleeding Officers—Again

https://hotair.com/david-strom/2026/01/16/too-good-to-check-minneapolis-police-department-bleeding-officers-n3810934

After the George Floyd riots, Minneapolis lost hundreds of police officers due to resignations and even disability. The department went from over 900 officers to as few as 560.

According to the city charter and a court order based on it, the absolute minimum staffing level of the department is 731, but the department has been struggling to fill the slots despite a significant increase in pay in order to attract more officers.
...
Now, reports indicate that more officers are leaving due to the department's horrific morale. The fact that morale is in the toilet is not in dispute; the number of officers leaving or claiming family leave is only rumored, although the source of the rumors is good. Consider the numbers unverified but realistic.

A mayor and goobernor who have shown they would backstab any/every police officer for giggles & grins telling police officers to fight Federal law enforcement isn't playing well with MPD officers? Who'd athunk it?

[SVPete]

CA: 12 Month Pilot Approved for Offshore Floating Desalination System

https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2026/01/16/ca-12-month-pilot-approved-for-offshore-floating-desalination-system-n3810947

Fort Bragg and Mendocino County in general have been in a boom-and-bust cycle, from too much rain to severe drought over the past decade or so. Being California, no one in state government has done a thing to alleviate any of that distress by building the reservoirs they need or implementing the plans they've had on the books for decades to capture the runoff they do get in copious amounts when it comes. This system sounded worth pursuing.

Fort Bragg Public Works Director John Smith told the gathering, “Obviously, we are here for water. It has been a challenge for us in the 1970s. [Then] 2014 was the first wake-up call for us, pretty much we had no water in the river and only one reservoir. 2021 was also a bad year for us, extreme drought, and if you were living in town, you knew what the consequences of that were.”

So it seems locals are thinking outside the box, and a Canadian company called 'Oneka' (their site here) has been testing its desalination buoys off the coasts of places like Chile and Nova Scotia for almost 10 years now.
...
The pilot project was awarded a $1.5M grant from the state to secure the go-ahead. The buoy, which will be stationed a half a mile offshore, requires no fuel or power other than wave action.

For the terminally curious, yes, Fort Bragg is named for Braxton Bragg, who served in the Mexica-American War that resulted in California and other SW states becoming US territory.

Take the snark about failure to build dams on nearby waterways with a block of salt. ConservaMedia are often not any more aware of local geography than are MSM. The Noyo River and Pudding Creek (which border Fort Bragg) watersheds are not large, and are somewhat mountainous. IOW, possibly no suitable spaces for water storage and not large supplies of water.

WRT desalination, @#$% well about time! Israel has been doing it successfully for decades.