START SAVING EARLY: ‘Trump Accounts’ For Kids Could Turn Out to Be a Game Changer for the Next Generation.

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.

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

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.

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.”

THE RENDERS ARE WILD: A New Challenger Emerges in the F/A-XX Race With Mach 4 Fighter Concept. “Dubbed SM-39 Razor, the aircraft features a low-observable triple-fuselage layout, a configuration intended to help limit wave drag during sustained supersonic flight.”

F/A-XX is late and over budget, of course.

IT’S MY THURSDAY ESSAY FOR VIP SUBSCRIBERS: So How’s That Russo-Ukraine Oil War Going? “Not as well as hoped — if Kyiv would only focus. Alas.”

THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME (NYC EDITION): Mamdani Presses for Tax Hike on New York’s Wealthiest as Budget Deficit Looms.

“We must raise taxes on the wealthiest few in New York City so that we can invest in the many,” the newly elected Democratic socialist mayor of the country’s largest city said in an interview Tuesday.

During the campaign, Mamdani pledged to raise taxes on millionaires and corporations to help fund his ambitious affordability agenda. But the plan drew swift rebuke from the city’s elite, who said a tax hike would drive the wealthiest out of New York. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who would have to sign off on the increases, has said she opposes income-tax hikes but has previously been more open to a potential corporate-tax increase. “I don’t believe in raising taxes for the sake of raising taxes,” she said earlier this month.

Mamdani said in the interview the tax increases were now urgently needed to meet the moment. “New York City has not seen a gap of this scale since the Great Recession,” he said, referring to the 2008-09 financial crisis. He added that his administration has already begun conversations with state officials.

And when the wealthy few move to Miami?

MAKE THE MONROE DOCTRINE GREAT AGAIN: Western Hemisphere, Baby! Rubio Puts on a Venezuelan Master Class.

DATING IN 3,500 BC: The origin story of syphilis goes back far longer than we thought.

LOOK FOR TROUBLE, AND YOU’LL USUALLY FIND MORE THAN YOU WANTED:

🚨 LEFTIST HOAX DESTROYED 🚨

New video shows Alex Pretti violently attacking federal officers and destroying federal law enforcement vehicles. His firearm is fully visible in the footage.

This video PROVES that Alex Pretti was not an ‘innocent bystander’ or ‘legal observer’

He… pic.twitter.com/hFiNfkKRik

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 28, 2026

From the replies: “Just a hospital nurse. Out running errands. Handsome guy too.”

YOU CAN’T CHANGE THE PAST, BUT YOU CAN MAYBE STOP IT FROM REPEATING: FBI Raid Vindicates Georgia Election Concerns — Even If It Changes Nothing.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: All Jimmy Kimmel Does Is Lie (And Cry). “He’s the King of the anti-Trump Resistance. Comedy? Laughs? Merriment? That’s no longer his prime directive, and it hasn’t been for some time.”

HMM: Bill Belichick — Arguably the Greatest Coach in NFL History — Is Snubbed by the Hall of Fame.

CHANGE, RAPID CHANGE: Ukraine And The Gamification Of Combat “The Russo-Ukrainian War continues to accelerate military innovation at a furious rate. The latest innovation isn’t a better drone or newer hardware, but introducing a fundamentally new organizing principle: the gamification of combat.”

More:

Ukraine's Defense Ministry built a performance-based system for its drone units—and the results are staggering.

The "Army of Drones Bonus" program tracks confirmed kills, destroyed vehicles, and recon missions in real time. Units that deliver get priority access to new… pic.twitter.com/4G0qHMzHYL

— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) January 27, 2026

It’s easier to get Ukraine’s side, but Russia’s drone program probably moves just as quickly, and has been used to serious effect against Ukraine logistics.

OH MY: FBI Executes Search Warrant at Fulton County Elections Office.

MY JUNIOR YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL, THEY WHEELED A TV INTO THE CLASSROOM SO WE COULD WATCH A TEACHER GO INTO SPACE: 40 Years Ago Today, the Space Shuttle ‘Challenger’ Exploded 73 Seconds After Liftoff

THIS IS AN AGE OF MIRACLE AND WONDER:

Congrats to the @Neuralink team for helping many people who have lost use of their body with our Telepathy implant that enables computer use simply by thinking!

The next generation Neuralink cybernetic augment with 3X capability will be ready later this year.

Pending regulatory… https://t.co/OfRM7FsVsC

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 28, 2026

DETERRENCE: Contract to Expand B-21 Production Coming by March. “Yet details on what exactly the deal will entail remain scarce and are likely to remain shrouded in classification, if past B-21 contracts are any indication. The Air Force has declined to reveal any metrics for how much production will be expanded, and it is unclear if the long-term goal is to buy extra B-21s beyond the current program of record of 100 aircraft, or simply reach that baseline quantity faster.”

ELIMINATIONIST RHETORIC: Dem Candidate Threatens to Execute Trump.

AN IMPORTANT REMINDER: Shooting vs. Fighting: The Reality Is, Bad Guys Have Guns Too…And Always Will. “A conversation regarding the current state of affairs in the United States, particularly in states and cities run by socialist Democrats, led a person I was talking to to respond that he had a gun and knew how to use it. To be fair, my friend, who will remain anonymous, does indeed own firearms. I also believe that he knows full well how to load them and then press the trigger to make them go bang. However, I also know that this same person never has time for training, having myriad excuses whenever the subject is brought up.”

ISAACMAN IS HAPPY WITH IT, BUT NOT EVERYBODY ELSE IS: NASA is Going Back to the Moon Next Month in a Ship That Many Experts Feel Is Unsafe.

COLD: Pre-Oct. 7 Hamas memo quotes top Islamic Jihad official calling Gazans killed by misfired rockets ‘price of war.’

A memo from before the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, reportedly captured by the IDF in Gaza, quotes a top Palestinian Islamic Jihad military official dismissing Hamas’s concerns that rockets launched by the terror group during a previous round of fighting in Gaza were falling short of Israel and landing inside the Strip, with deadly consequences for Gazans.

“We are in a war; even if a thousand are killed by friendly fire, that’s the price of war,” Akram al-Ajouri is quoted as saying in the document, parts of which were first published by the Kan public broadcaster this morning.

Days after the Hamas onslaught sparked the current war, a misfired Gazan rocket that Israel said was launched by Islamic Jihad landed in Gaza City’s al-Ahli Baptists’ Hospital, killing hundreds, with Hamas and many major news outlets initially placing the blame on Israel.

Hamas doesn’t see friendly fire as the price of war, but as an opportunity for anti-Israeli propaganda.

The Complicit Media generally plays along, too.