Welcome to the RedState Weekly Briefing — where we take a quick look at the week’s most viewed stories in case you missed any of them. What do you suppose caught people’s attention as we closed out a wild ride of a January? Grab a cup of coffee (or something stronger if you’re so inclined), and sit down with this 21st Century Weekend Edition of your favorite (online) publication.
#1 – Anti-ICE Signal Chats: Walz Administration Implicated, Foreign Funding Revealed — by Jennifer Van Laar
We’re learning a lot more about the people who were in the anti-ICE Signal chat groups that independent journalist Cam Higby infiltrated in Minnesota, the organization of the group, its donors, and the significance of the address at which Alex Pretti was obstructing federal officers. There’s far too much information to detail completely in this piece, but even just from an overview, it’s clear that there is an organized insurrection underway, led by several elected officials in Minnesota and aided by alleged journalists.
Let’s hit the highlights:
Organization
The groups are highly sophisticated. They’re set up geographically; within the City of Minneapolis, they’re generally divided by City Council district, but also cover St. Paul, Bloomington, and other suburbs. They start a new chat every day and delete the prior day’s chat. Because of Signal’s encryption, it would be exceedingly difficult for the deleted messages to be recovered unless, say, participants were recording those messages prior to deletion. Signal also has a “no screenshots” function, which undoubtedly was enabled on these chats, so the messages would have to be recorded the way Higby did – by recording using a separate phone.
#2 – Anti-ICE Crew Thinks They Have ICE Cornered in CA Restaurant, Then an Epic Fail Ensues — by Nick Arama
Turns out, of course, the men weren’t ICE agents. Fox 11 identified them as TSA workers; other local news clarified that, specifically, they were federal air marshals.
Either way, the anti-ICE crew struck out again. When Fox’s Matthew Seedorff tried to plumb how they felt about that, they didn’t want to talk with him because he was with Fox, and they knew they screwed up. That was pretty funny.
But this kind of harassment just isn’t right, either for ICE agents or anyone else. This isn’t “resisting” anything except reality. If you took away the leftist “it’s ICE” excuse, who would really argue that it’s all just cool if you follow people, blow whistles in their ears, scream curse words at them? They think they can do this because of their political opinion. It’s bizarrely delusional.
#3 – Has Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney Made the Dissolution of Canada a Done Deal? — by streiff
Right now, polling shows that independence from Canada receives at least 29 percent of Albertans’ and 31 percent of Quebecois’ support. This, however, is based on the status quo, which includes a highly advantageous trade arrangement for Canada with the U.S. If that trade deal goes away, but remains possible through independence, then I think it is safe to say that both provinces could vote to head for the exits.
A broken and atomized Canada has its risks, but they are lower than those of a Canada with a close relationship to China. An independent Alberta and Quebec—and if that happens, a lot of other provinces will be close behind—could become territories in the mode of Puerto Rico and Guam, where they gain the political, economic, and defense benefits of affiliation with the U.S. but don’t bring millions of quasi-communists into our political system.
The irony here is just too rich and luxurious to ignore. Carney’s push to become the darling of the Never-Trump international community could end up being the final straw that leads to the inevitable breakup of Canada.
#4 – Boss Mode: Trump Delivers Priceless Response to Tim Walz on His ‘Fort Sumter’ Comments — by Nick Arama
“Wow. Does he know what Fort Sumter was?” Trump asked. “Or do you think somebody wrote it out for him?” He went on to say that he was elected on law and order, and that was what all of this was about.
That’s a hilarious takedown of Walz. But it’s true, Walz is not very bright.
Does Tim know what happened in that scenario? Maybe that’s not what he wants to be implying or inciting. Yet he’s already shown he wants to keep ratcheting up the temperature when he makes Civil War references.
Tim knows he’s in big trouble, between the massive fraud and the chaos he’s helped to incite with the anti-ICE people. If he or they go full Civil War, it would not end well for them. They’re already treading all over the insurrection line at this point; he shouldn’t want to be trying to confirm that.
#5 – California’s Oil Refining System Has Collapsed, and One Region Is Ground Zero — by Steve Williams
Competent leadership starts with an honest accounting of refining capacity and geographic concentration. It treats energy reliability, affordability, environmental protection, and national security as linked responsibilities.
Right now, California does none of this.
Residents of AD-66 live with the infrastructure. They bear the environmental risk. They absorb the economic consequences. And they are told disruption is the price of progress, even as the state fails to manage that disruption responsibly.
They did not ask to become ground zero for California’s energy contradictions. But they have. The refining reckoning has arrived. California can continue mistaking aspiration for execution, or it can start governing like a state that understands how systems work.
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