Nick Reiner was suffering with worsening schizophrenia and became 'erratic and dangerous' when doctors changed his psych medication weeks before he allegedly murdered his parents, insiders say."
Conservative. Idaho. Software engineer. Historian. Trying to prevent Idiocracy from becoming a documentary.
Email complaints/requests about copyright infringement to clayton @ claytoncramer.com. Reminder: the last copyright troll that bothered me went bankrupt.
Saturday, December 20, 2025
The Reiner Murder Tweet That Trump Should Have Made
EV Advocates Missing the Big Problem
Friday, December 19, 2025
Criminal Behavior Has Consequences Even For a Judge
Chasing the Wrong Problem
Thursday, December 18, 2025
How Much Racism Remains in America?
Global Warming is Going to Starve Us All
Australia, another large global grain exporter, has also reported rising crop yields despite drier conditions.
The Suit Writes Itself
"The measure does not allocate any initial city dollars, a move that may have helped secure support from the board's moderates after repeated years of city budget shortfalls. Instead, the ordinance establishes a framework to receive future contributions - whether through city appropriations or private donations."
Wednesday, December 17, 2025
I Went Hunting for This as I Was Preparing for Spring Semester
There is a famous quote from Samuel Johnson deriding Revolutionary whining about being treated like slaves: "how is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?" There were Revolutionaries who saw the logic and freed their slaves. After the war, northern states start to abolish slavery. There is also a curious indirect way in which the Revolution frees many slaves.
On November 7, 1775, Dunmore issued a proclamation that established martial law and offered freedom to slaves who would leave patriotic owners and join the British army: "I do hereby farther declare all indented servants, Negroes, or others (appertaining to rebels) free, that are able and willing to bear arms, they joining his Majesty’s troops, as soon as may be, for the more speedily reducing this colony to a proper sense of their duty, to his Majesty’s crown and dignity."
Within a month 300 black men had signed up with Dunmore’s "Royal Ethiopian Regiment." While the regiment grew to only 800 men, his proclamation inspired thousands of enslaved people to seek freedom behind British lines throughout the Revolutionary War.
In addition, many masters sent their slaves to fight in the Revolutionary militaries with the promise of freedom. Some failed to keep their promise so Virginia fixed that. 11 Hening 308 (1783)
Commemorating Indian Help During the Revolution
During the starving time at Valley Forge, Oneida warriors led by Polly Cooper walked hundreds of miles carrying corn to feed them. Polly Cooper provided training in how to cook white corn to get maximum nutritional benefit from it. She is being remember during this 250th anniversary year with a coin.
Monday, December 15, 2025
Govern, Do Not Do Social Media
Global Warming Willl Starve Us All
12/15/25 Reuters:
Earlier this month, the Canadian government announced record harvests of spring wheat and canola for 2025. And because most of the grains produced in Canada are shipped and consumed abroad, those gains have major implications for the rest of the world's ability to feed itself affordably.
Australia, another large global grain exporter, has also reported rising crop yields despite drier conditions.
You might almost wonder if increased plant food in the atmosphere makes crops grow better.
Sunday, December 14, 2025
Buck 110 Knife Clip
Change
Saturday, December 13, 2025
Light Pollution
Thursday, December 11, 2025
Appropriately Named Rep. Stalker (D-KY)
Million Monkeys, Million Typewriters, Million Dreams
I Have Had Weeks Of Not Busy
Adventures in Optics
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Bored? In Need of a Research Project for Your Colonial American History Class?
I happened on this collection of estate inventories at the Colonial Williamsburg website. Searching for gun produced 354 matches. Gathering up all that data and summarizing it might be interesting.
Tuesday, December 9, 2025
Using the Rotating Table
Grand Jury Transcripts Release
A New York federal judge on Tuesday ordered the unsealing of grand jury materials and other documents related to the prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite convicted in 2021 of procuring underage girls to be sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein.
Judge Paul Engelmayer's order came at the request of the Department of Justice, which cited the Epstein Files Transparency Act that Congress passed last month.
So what will Democrats claim now? Trump's DOJ asked for their release and here they are. This 12/8/25 Bloomberg News article is paywalled but the headline shows that the PreCrime Investigation Division now has a PreNews Reporting Division: "As Epstein Files Deadline Nears, Here's What Might Emerge."
Peaky Blinders is Not Islamic Enough
Four Afghan men who dress up as the Peaky Blinders have been arrested by the Taliban for violating “Islamic values”.
The group, all in their early 20s, who are known online as the “Jebrael Shelbys” after the Shelby family in the BBC crime show, were arrested in the Herat province in western Afghanistan.
The men parade around their township of Jebrael imitating the characters from the show, which is set in interwar Birmingham.
I guess dressing up as people who beead others with a knife for believing wrong would have been okay.
Can We Be Next?
Can children and teenagers be forced off social media en masse? Australia is about to find out.
More than 1 million social media accounts held by users under 16 are set to be deactivated in Australia on Wednesday in a divisive world-first ban that has inflamed a culture war and is being closely watched in the United States and elsewhere.
Social media companies will have to take “reasonable steps” to ensure that under-16s in Australia cannot set up accounts on their platforms and that existing accounts are deactivated or removed.
Australian officials say the landmark ban, which lawmakers swiftly approved late last year, is meant to protect children from addictive social media platforms that experts say can be disastrous for their mental health.
“With one law, we can protect Generation Alpha from being sucked into purgatory by predatory algorithms described by the man who created the feature as ‘behavioral cocaine,’” Communications Minister Anika Wells told the National Press Club in Canberra last week.
While many parents and even their children have welcomed the ban, others say it will hinder young people’s ability to express themselves and connect with others, as well as access online support that is crucial for those from marginalized groups or living in isolated parts of rural Australia. Two 15-year-olds have brought a legal challenge against it to the nation’s highest court.
Supporters say the rest of the world will soon follow the example set by the Australian ban, which faced fierce resistance from social media companies.
They can express themaselves the way several thousand generations of young people have done: face to face with friends; through art, music, repairing stuff and playing (remember what that is). Or like my friends and me, learning to program computers* and doig dangerous projects involving low grade explosives and hydrogen balloons. None of us lost fingers.
*Building web pages with SquareSpace or editing silly cat videos does far less intellectual development than learning how to write interrupt service routines.
Tensions Increase Over Taiwan
Japan has protested after Chinese fighter jets locked radars on Japanese aircraft as tensions between the two nations worsened.
Locking radar onto an aircraft is considered a threat because it can signal a potential attack. Japan said there were two such incidents Saturday off its southern Okinawa islands.
Japan said it scrambled fighter jets in response to the Chinese J-15 fighter jets, while Beijing accused Tokyo of "harassing" its forces during a training exercise. No injuries or damage were reported.
Diplomatic ties between Japan and China have spiralled since last month, after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested that Tokyo could take military action if Beijing attacked Taiwan.
Beijing views self-governed Taiwan as part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to "reunite" with it.
Both sides have since engaged in increasingly hostile rhetoric towards each other, with the widening rift affecting daily life for citizens in both countries.
I keep hoping Xi thinks before acting stupid. The U.S. and its allies Singapore, Phillipines, Australia, and Vietnam could interdict Chinese exports and perhaps more critically oil imports through the Straits of Malacca and South China Sea. Invasion of Taiwan would ratchet up existing G7 anger at Chinese trade policy to a level from which China might not recover for years. I also think Chinese military might may turn out to be at Russian levels of corruption and incompetence. The energy Xi has put into prosecuting military corruption at the general officer level hints that this problem may be present at lower ranks as well. If you know (or suspect) your superiors are dirty, why not get a piece of the pie for yourself?
Monday, December 8, 2025
Adventures in Optics Part 2
I Have Always Considered the 1970-72 Malibu One of the Outstanding Body Shell Designs of the Era
Sunday, December 7, 2025
Taboos as Protection
Do You Wonder Why We Have So Msny Leftist Cat Ladies?
Highlights
- •
Mental health hospitalization rates are higher after abortion than deliveries.- •
Risk is elevated for psychiatric disorders, substance use, and suicide attempts.- •
Patients with preexisting mental illness or age <25 years are most at risk.- •
Risk of mental disorders is greatest within five years of abortion.- •
Risk of most mental disorders disappears 17 years after an abortion.Conservative Woman reports on efforts to legalize abortion until birth in Britain, which like most European nations has much more restrictive abortion laws than Roe v. Wade America.
Saturday, December 6, 2025
We Stayed in a Very Nice Hilton in Richland
As usual carpets demonstrate too many interior designers did way too much acid long ago.
Making That Wide Angle Finder
I need a way to hold the lens in a weird PVC part that slides over the end of the 2" tube.
But I also need to make sure it is held securely against the front. So I cut a piece of 2" tube about 3/4" long. I will slit this so it locks the lens in position and screws hold it in the weird fitting. The internal lens holder and external tube need holes that are exactly 120 degrees apart so...
Friday, December 5, 2025
The Princes Are Not All in Nigeria
12/3/25 Department of Justice:
The CEO of a Fresno-based home health care company was arrested at San Francisco International Airport while attempting to board a flight to Nigeria. He is charged in a criminal complaint alleging that he fraudulently obtained more than $7 million in payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs for services that were never actually rendered, including care purportedly rendered to veterans weeks after they had died, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant announced.
Am I The Only Person Who Sees An Inconsistency Here?
During interviews with the FBI, the suspect arrested in the pipe bomb probe told investigators that he believed the 2020 election was stolen, providing perhaps the first indication of a possible motive for the bombs placed near the DNC and RNC headquarters, people briefed on the matter said....
The bureau believes the man compiled bomb-making supplies for months before leaving the viable explosive devices outside of the political offices.[emphasis added]
So was this BLM activist preparing bombs before the stolen election? Or did he just come up with this excuse in the hopes of getting in on the J6 pardons?
Orange Peacemaker Bad!
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump praised the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda for their courage as they signed onto a deal on Thursday aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Congo and opening the region’s critical mineral reserves to the U.S. government and American companies.
The moment offered Trump — who has repeatedly and with a measure of exaggeration boasted of brokering peace in some of the world’s most entrenched conflicts — another chance to tout himself as a dealmaker extraordinaire on the global stage and make the case that he’s deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize. The U.S. leader hasn’t been shy about his desire to receive the honor.
Instapundit.com observes correctly that the journalists "slammed Trump in about every third sentence of their report." I wonder if any of these journalists ever wonder why they need to be attacking Trump for following Jesus' suggestion, "Blessed are the peacemakers."
Not What I Was Expecting in the Los Angeles Times
MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has repeatedly insisted that she will not allow the U.S. military to fight drug cartels inside her nation’s borders.
“It’s not going to happen,” Sheinbaum said last month after President Trump yet again threatened such an operation. “We don’t want intervention by any foreign government.”
But while Sheinbaum passionately defends her nation’s sovereignty, recent polls and interviews from across Mexico show that a significant number of people here in fact welcome more American involvement in their country’s battle against organized crime — including having U.S. boots on the ground.
Slightly more than half of Mexicans surveyed by polling firm Mitofsky said they believe “U.S. authorities should enter Mexican territory to fight organized crime and arrest its leaders.” A third of respondents to a poll by El Financerio newspaper said they support the deployment of the U.S. military to Mexico to combat cartels.
The reason is obvious. Many Mexicans believe their military lacks the capacity to do the job, likely because cartel wealth and intimidation has compromised so much of the Mexican government.
I really cannot blame Mexicans for this. Mexico is a poor country. The prospect of a million dollar bribe there is likely equivalent to $10 million here. I would like to think most of our officials would not be swayed by a bribe but $10 million for most Americans is an unimaginable amount of luxury.
The intimidation factor may matter more. Organized crime has always benefited from being able to threaten family and friends. In a nation where very few people may lawfully possess arms and police are as likely as not on the cartel payroll, what is your alternative?
Thursday, December 4, 2025
Oh Boy! A New Word!
The "That Was My Roommate's Jeans" Defense is Not Going to Work
Velasco was taken into custody and booked into the Ada County Jail. Further investigation led officers to a Boise hotel room linked to the case, where they found approximately 12,785 grams of methamphetamine and 101 grams of fentanyl powder. Both substances tested presumptive positive.
"This seizure represents a major disruption to the flow of dangerous drugs into our community," said Boise Police Lt. Terry Weir. "The amount of fentanyl recovered in this case is enough to kill over 500 people. Our officers see firsthand how methamphetamine and fentanyl contribute to overdoses, and this case highlights the importance of proactive policing and strong investigative work."
Amazing What Two Million Illegals Leaving Does to the Rental Market
A slew of new supply is still making its way through the multifamily housing market. That, coupled with weakening demand, especially from the youngest workers, is pushing vacancies up and rents down.
The national median rent for apartments fell 1% in November from October, and now stands at $1,367, according to Apartment List. It was the fourth consecutive month-over-month decline. Apartment rents are down 1.1% from November 2024 and have fallen 5.2% from their 2022 peak.
"Earlier this year, it appeared that annual growth was on track to flip positive for the first time since mid-2023; however, that rebound stalled out and reversed course during a particularly slow summer," according to Apartment List researchers.
After hitting a record high for this index, which dates back to 2017, in October, the national multifamily vacancy rate remained at 7.2% in November.
The historic surge in multifamily construction over the past few years is now pulling back, but a good supply of new units is still coming online at a time of much weaker demand.
The stack of articles about dropping rental rates around the country here is good news everywhere.
Probate
The attorney pursuing my illegitimate half-brother's inheritance informs me that the full probate process is not required because he has been dead more than two years. Something called Summary Administration will satisfy Florida's Unclaimed Property Office.
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
More About Balcony Solar
I mentioned a couple days ago. When I searched on amazon for "balcony "plug and play" solar" I got matches that look interesting. A long-time concern that I have had about PV systems as civil defense is EMP damage. If you bought one of these and put in a Faraday cage, you would have a post-apocalyptic power solution that you could be pretty sure will work.
Swords and Squatters
“The average squatter,” says James Jacobs, “has no melee experience.”
No familiarity with katana swords or other bladed weaponry. No training in kendo, iaido, or other martial arts.
If anyone knows the typical combat background of a squatter, a person living in a home illegally, it’s Jacobs. He runs a company called ASAP Squatter Removal, offering do-it-himself eviction services to property owners throughout the Bay Area.
Say a homeowner or bank or landlord discovers somebody occupying their property without authorization. They could call the police, though officers might not come. Police tend to shy away from tenancy disputes, leaving them to the civil courts. The property owner could go ahead and file an eviction lawsuit, but that can drag on for months.
Or they can call Jacobs.
For a fee, Jacobs will surveil the place and force out the people inside of it using a complex concoction of homespun arms and militarized tactics.
This is not a new problem. I knew someone in San Jose in the 1980s who had a problem with squatters who took over his cabin in Sana Cruz. The police were no help.
I suppose if the owner was not actually using it for himself or as a rental and the squatter was not actively damaging the property, I can see how progressives might persuade themselves that homeless squatters are just doing social justice. But squatters seldom treat such homes well.
Machining PVC
Tuesday, December 2, 2025
Do the Stupid Names Cause This? Or Are TheyJust a Symptom of a Broken Culture?
A homeowner who shot and killed one of four men suspected of breaking into his home in Richmond Heights on Saturday told CBS News Miami that it was the "scariest moment" of his life....Miami-Dade Fire Rescue came to the scene and rushed the injured suspect, later identified as 26-year-old Quanterry Alvin Whitley, to the hospital, where he later died....CBS News Miami spoke with Lashundia Jackson, the mother of Whitley. She said the homeowner should never have fired his weapon.I would like to say he did not do a home invasion. That is inaccurate. That is not who he is. That is not who he was. He would not do that. He was not that type of person," Jackson said of her son." [Stupid names emphasized]
Yes, I Hired an African-American By This Standard
"But as a high school senior in 2009, Mr. Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, claimed another label when he applied to Columbia University. Asked to identify his race, he checked a box that he was “Asian” but also “Black or African American,” according to internal data derived from a hack of Columbia University that was shared with The New York Times."
And by this low standard, Elon Musk is an African-American.
Long Term Care Insurance
"From day 21 to day 100 in a nursing facility, Medicare continues to contribute towards in-patient rehabilitation, but coinsurance payments are typically required from you. Additional coverage for days 21 through 100 depends on your Medicare supplemental or Medicare Advantage plans.
"Once you reach day 101 or plateau in rehab, Medicare coverage for nursing home care ceases. You are responsible for all costs (easily $300-500 per day in Florida) unless you have additional insurance policies or qualify for other programs such as Medicaid. This can be a critical juncture, necessitating a review of your financial resources and possibly the need to explore alternative long-term care options."
Monday, December 1, 2025
Epstein's Underlings Are Perhaps As Sleazy As Epstein
Democrat Delegate Stacey Plaskett, the Virgin Islands’ non-voting member of Congress, garnered headlines recently when it came to light that she took direction from sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a 2019 congressional hearing.
Her relationship with Epstein is especially notable because Plaskett herself had “private nude images” of her stolen by her own ex-staffers, who used them to attempt to sabotage her re-election campaign. The husband of one of the culprits was, like Epstein, later found dead.
It gets worse the deeper you read.



