When the Incidents Get Close Enough in Time to Recognize the M.O. Before You Find the Confirmation

 Wichita, Kan. (1974)

01/15/1974: Police were puzzling over a crime scene where the phone line was cut, the parents were bound, gagged, beaten, then strangled to death. The son was also bound with three plastic bags over his head; he likely suffocated. The daughter was hanging in the basement, toes two inches from the floor. Their other three children were at school. There was no sign of robbery, although the murderer appears to have stolen their car. Police later suggested there was some sort of fetish to the murders but refused to describe what had been done to the bodies in support of this theory. The B.T.K. murderer eventually claimed to have done it.

Category: family non-resident

Suicide: no

Cause: mental illness

Weapon: strangle, hang[1]

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[1] "Four In Wichita Family Slain," Kansas City Times, Jan. 16, 1974, 1, 16; “Murders Baffle Wichita Lawmen,” [Olathe, Kan.] Olathe News, Jan. 17, 1974, 1; “Letter Writer Claims He Killed Seven in Wichita,” [Iola, Kan.] Iola Register, Feb. 11, 1978, 1..

One of the Hard Drive Companies Was Found to be Putting Bricks in Their Boxes to Get Adequate Inventory for Their Cooked Books

 10/20/26 Fox News:

A winery co-owned by the husband of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was shuttered amid fraud claims, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said.

Comer said over the weekend that the winery had been selling empty barrels to investors under the guise of "wine to be aged."

"I can tell you from our initial investigation of Omar and her financial disclosure form that there are multiple fronts where you could get a search warrant issued," Comer told Trey Gowdy on Fox News' "Sunday Night in America."

"First of all, not only was there a huge discrepancy in the financial disclosure form, there was the winery that was the big base of her $25 million listing on her financial disclosure form. That winery has, according to the press, been shut down because of fraud."

This could well explain the bizarre changes in her net assets over the last several years. 

US Representative Ilhan Omar's net worth became a talking point after her 2024 financial disclosure showed a sharp increase in the reported value of businesses owned by her husband, Tim Mynett. The disclosure, filed in May 2025, valued his venture capital firm, Rose Lake Capital LLC, at between $5 million and $25 million.

His winery, eStCru LLC, was valued at between $1 million and $5 million.

Of course, Islam does not approve of alcohol. Perhaps those empty barrels of wine were halal. 

The New Passover Method

 You doubtless remember that when Moses demanded Pharoah:

To protect the Jews from the deaths of the firstborn sons, the Jews put the blood of a lamb at the top, bottom, and sides of the doorposts of their homes (yes, making a cross of protection).  Babylon Bee really hits it out of the park with this:

FRANCE — French shop owners across the nation have begun hanging hams over their doorposts so the hordes of rioters will pass by their shops and leave their property unscathed.

Business owners began using the unusual defensive method after noting that looters and rioters ransacked French grocery stores but left the ham and pork products untouched.

"I'm not allowed to explain why it works, but it does," French shop owner Desmond La Forge commented. "When we hang hams from our doors, no one enters. It's amazing. I started to ask a fellow store owner how it works, but he said 'Explaining that would be hate speech' and just kept hanging up the hams."

All Tragedies; Some Just More Complex Than Others

 Many of these tragedies turn into one page summaries: fourv dead bodies in an alley shot to death. No clues. Others are surprisingly interesting.

Santa Clara, Cal. (1969)

Before 09/31/1969: The career of the father, 48, as a credit manager collapsed as his financial problems led to “misappropriation of funds” from the credit bureau. Then his attempt at embezzling funds from his senile mother-in-law failed. Neighbors said the family “seemed to just disappear in the middle of the night.” The house changed hands several times before the crime came to light. He ended up in Cedar City, Utah, where he explained that his previous wife and family had died, which was technically true. Then he vanished after embezzling more than $50,000, taking his son from second marriage with him. He was eventually caught in Biloxi, Mississippi, where he married a third time.

In 1974, a termite inspector went into the crawlspace of the family home preparing the house for sale. He found a woman and her two teenaged daughters buried there. He later admitted that he beat to death his wife and one daughter with a hammer and strangled the other daughter.

He was convicted of three murders and sentenced to life.

Category: family

Suicide: no

Cause: financial?

Weapon: blunt[1]

---

[1] “Termite Inspector Finds Victims of Triple Murder,” [Burley, Ida ] South Idaho Press, Mar. 22, 1974, 1 .“House With a Secret,” [Scranton, Penn.] Times-Tribune, Oct. 06, 1974, 63, 70; “Former Biloxian Gets Life Term for Murders of Wife, Daughters,” [Biloxi, Miss] Sun, Jan. 27, 1979, 8.

I can find no record of his death. By this point, I think it unlikely he is still alive. It might be worth checking voter registration records.

This Seems Like a Dirty Trick

A text message:

Hello Fellow Democratic Socialist!

We the People of Idaho, who hold socialist values, are proud to endorse Senator Jim Risch for re-election to the United States Senate. With no Democrat on the ballot this year, the choice before us matters more than ever. Matt Loesby is simply too extreme for our values, and Todd Achilles betrayed us when he served in the State House and abandoned our party. Senator Risch offers something different: while we may not agree with him on every issue, he has shown a willingness to work with us to advance a national socialist agenda. After nearly two decades in the Senate, few people understand the power of the federal government quite like Jim Risch. Together, we can make sure our voice is heard and build a brighter socialist future for all of us in Idaho. On November 3rd, join us in voting for Senator Jim Risch!

STOP=END

The Independent Candidate Surge: Do Not Be Fooled

 I recalled just as we left Idaho, supposedly independent candidates with positions intermediate between Democrat and Republican appearing. When we arrived, one of the candidates for governor was a convicted felon. From the 9/15/26 Tennessee Lookout:

Hatley running as conservative outsider

Hatley has never run for political office in Tennessee and has spent most of his adult life as a businessman. 

After a felony bank fraud conviction, Hatley said he turned his life around. He became the successful owner of Whisper Outdoor, which started by manufacturing hot tubs and has since expanded to producing golf carts, boats and off-road vehicles.

While running as an independent, Hatley described himself as “a very conservative guy.”

“I’ve always been pro-life and pro-guns,” Hatley said. “I want to be independent because I don’t want to have party pressure.”

A tenet of Hatley’s argument to voters is that he is pushing for the state to have an elected auditor to “figure out where the money is going,” because he doesn’t feel like the state is managing its budget correctly.

He is also touting his willingness to spend at least $7 million of his own money and doesn’t plan to do any fundraising.

“I don’t want anyone in my ear,” Hatley said. “It’s very important that I go in on day one with a clean slate, only thinking about things that make sense for Tennessee.”

Hatley was 21. We all do stupid things when young. Maybe not that stupid.

I do believe that once a felon has completed their sentence, continuing their disability from full citizenship is not a great idea. If you are that dangerous, perhaps you should still be inside. I do not think this particularly recommends you for public office, however. 

Grok confirmed my intuition: 

Yes, more pure independents (candidates not nominated by a political party) are running for Congress in the 2026 midterms than in typical recent cycles.

A July 2026 Newsweek analysis of candidate lists found 217 independent entries across U.S. House and Senate races (170 House, 47 Senate), covering 153 distinct contests. Later reporting (NPR and others) put the House figure around 170–173.

A more precise Ballot Access News tally (September 2026 print edition) counted 141 independent candidates for U.S. House seats. That is roughly double the recent norms and matches or exceeds the recent high-water mark:

• 2024: 57 independents for House (lowest since 2004)
• 2022: 78
• 2018: 84
• 2016: 72
• 2014: 82
• 2012: 104
• 2010: 140
• 2006–2008: ~63–65

Political scientist Bernard Tamas noted that a clear increase would reverse a decline in independent/third-party House candidacies lasting more than 25 years (the broader third-party + independent peak was 559 in 2000). Multiple outlets (The Nation, Independent Voter News, NPR) described 2026 as one of the largest surges of independent candidates in recent memory, coinciding with a record ~45% of Americans identifying as independents in Gallup data.

Notable high-profile pure independents include Senate candidates Dan Osborn (Nebraska), Brian Bengs (South Dakota), Todd Achilles (Idaho), and Seth Bodnar (Montana), several of whom benefited from Democrats stepping aside in red states, plus House candidates such as Bill Hill (Alaska).

Caveats: Early lists can include candidates who later dropped, failed ballot access, or ran as write-ins. “Independent” here means unaffiliated (not a nominee of the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green, or other parties). Structural barriers (petition requirements, fundraising, spoiler concerns) remain high, and success rates for independents have historically been very low. Overall congressional candidate volume was also elevated in 2026, partly due to high open-seat numbers.

In short, the data support more independent candidacies than the recent average, especially versus the lower counts of the 2010s–early 2020s.

Why? It would be tempting to see this as a rejection of doctrinaire politics. This would be a good thing.

A cynical view is that these are Democrats in mufti, attempting to split likely Republican voters away to give Democrats seats that would otherwise be out of their reach. I asked Grok about this as well. While independent candidates are not concentrated Republican districts:

Where the serious/viable ones stand out

The independent candidates receiving the most attention—and those where Democrats have cleared the field or formally/informally backed them—are concentrated in Republican-leaning states for statewide races:

• Nebraska (Dan Osborn for Senate)
• South Dakota (Brian Bengs for Senate)
• Idaho (Todd Achilles for Senate; also House candidates like Sarah Zabel in a deep-red district)
• Montana (Seth Bodnar for Senate)
• Alaska (Bill Hill for House)

This reflects a pattern in which Democrats, facing weak brands in solidly red states, have stepped aside in hopes an independent can be more competitive against a Republican incumbent. Similar dynamics appear in some deep-red House districts (e.g., examples cited in Florida and Idaho).

At the same time, independents are also running in blue-leaning or competitive areas (New York, Illinois, California, Washington, Virginia, swing districts like Iowa’s 1st). One sitting House member, Kevin Kiley (California), switched from Republican to independent and is running as such in a redrawn district that leans Democratic.

This actually makes sense. Democrats know that socialism and child mutilation are so now heavily identified with their party that backing candidates without that "Democrat" label is likely to defeat Republicans. These IINOs (Independents In Name Only) could redeclare themselves after the election or simply caucus with the Democrats like Socialist Bernie Sanders does.

Wealth

10/17/26 Fortune:

The Federal Reserve’s latest Survey of Consumer Finances revealed a striking split: Median net worth rose roughly 38% for households headed by someone 75 or older between 2022 and 2025, while falling 23% for those headed by someone under 35. Both figures account for inflation, according to an analysis by Nick Maggiulli, chief data officer at Ritholtz Wealth Management and author of The Wealth Ladder.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the age split in a short post on what it called “the gold standard for measuring household wealth,” which the central bank releases every three years. Americans 55 and over now hold roughly $140 trillion, about three-quarters of the nation’s net worth, Fortune reported this month, citing a Bank of America Institute analysis of the Fed data.

The oldest households finished the period with a median net worth of $504,600, up from $366,288 in 2022, measured in 2025 dollars. For the youngest households, it fell from $42,725 to $32,820. The oldest group now has roughly 15x the wealth of the youngest, compared with about 9x three years earlier.

Across all families, inflation-adjusted median net worth rose just 2% between 2022 and 2025, reaching $215,900. That modest national gain concealed sharply different experiences at opposite ends of the age spectrum.

The findings also echo an argument Yale law and history professor Samuel Moyn made in an interview with Fortune this summer about his book, Gerontocracy in America: The concentration of wealth among older Americans is not merely a matter of who has had longer to save. In his account, it also shapes whose interests the economy and political system serve.

Moyn describes an “oldigarchy,” in which older, disproportionately wealthy Americans hold outsize influence. His book argues that “aging Americans control the biggest bank accounts and stock portfolios,” and that “the old rich have pulled away from everyone else.”

Yes. We had the good sense to not take out enormous student loans for degrees that did not lead to jobs of any value. Some of this was not really good sense. Almost any degree except maybe art or sociology would likely get you an adequate job in 1970. Education was also so absurdly expensive that you needed the 1970s equivalent of a $100,000 student loan to start out adult life.

We had some other advantages. Lots of good jobs did not require a college degree back then. Creeping credentialism and the contempt for technical jobs had not closed other avenues from serious consideration.

The harsh reality, however, is that generally getting older makes you richer. We bought a Sears refrigerator in 1976. It was still working into the 2000s. Some of the dishes that we received as wedding presents in 1980 are still in use, although not many.

Still, time heals most financial mistakes if you stay invested and do not waste on trying to look like The Illustrated Man.

I suspect as us Boomers go bust and our assets enrich our kids, this will even out a bit. Unless the young whiners decide we need to go full Communist.