“Paulette Jiles, an award-winning and best-selling novelist and poet who spent the last 30-plus years living and writing in San Antonio and in the Texas Hill Country, died on July 8. She was 82.
Jiles said in her blog that she had been recently diagnosed with a form of non-alcoholic cirrhosis.
A Missouri native, Jiles lived in Canada for several years mainly as a poet and a reporter before returning to the United States where she married and moved to San Antonio and then the Hill Country to become a novelist. She sold more than 800,000 books across North America.”
The paper, in its obituary also stated:
“jiles produced her first novel, 2002’s Enemy Women, a Civil War-era piece that tells the story of a young woman who finds love and hope amid the carnage and betrayal that she and her family experience during the conflict.
Enemy Women won Jiles another Canadian literary award — the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.
The success of Enemy Women elevated Jiles’ writing career.”
Enemy Women just happened to be the novel that introduced me to Jiles’ writing, the novel was set in Southeast Missouri, an area in which I was born, raised and still reside today.
While Enemy Women brought great success, it also generated a fair amount of controversy as a Civil War massacre that took place on Christmas Day, 1863 was the focal point of it.
It was this controversy, and the personal attacks against Jiles that inspired me to write “Blood in the Ozarks”. I believed the massacre happened, I set out to prove it happened and I did just that.
During my writing of “Blood in the Ozarks” I began to correspond with Mrs. Jiles and we became “pen pals” of sorts. She began a tradition of sending me a signed copy of her latest novel whenever she finished on (along with a heartfelt note) which I will always treasure.
I communicated extensively when she was writing “Chenneville: A Novel of Murder, Loss, and Vengeance“ and before the book was released, she said she was going to send me an autographed, advanced copy (as was her tradition).
It never came, I got busy and didn’t ask her what happened. Partly because of my personal life and partly because I didn’t want to bother her. For whatever reason the thought crossed my mind today that maybe there was a reason I didn’t hear back from her. Curiosity got the best of me, I typed her name into a search engine, and my worst fears were confirmed. Paulette Jiles had left us.
I want to thank her for shining a spotlight on a part of the country in which the Civil War is rarely mentioned in mainstream circles. Paulette changed that along with inspiring me to write my first book.
What a news cycle this past week has been, beginning with the fatal shooting of activist Alex Pretti which occurred on January 24, 2026. As you might expect the response from the mainstream media was sympathetic with many news outlets defending his actions and proclaiming his innocence. Here are a few examples.
On January 25, 2026 CNBC reported the following under the headline “Videos of Alex Pretti shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis contradict Trump official claims”
“On Saturday, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse and U.S. citizen, was shot and killed by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. There’s a wide gap between what Americans have seen of the shooting and what federal officials are telling them.
Soon after the shooting, Department of Homeland Security officials rushed to defend the officers involved, claiming the victim “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun” and that when federal agents attempted to disarm him, “the suspect violently resisted.”
CNBC claimed to “verify” all available videos from the shooting and concluded that:
“At no point in any of the three videos shown here does Alex Pretti brandish a weapon or appear to threaten federal immigration agents before the confrontation begins, as was claimed by DHS Secretary Noem and others in the Trump administration.
One video also appears to show a federal officer removing a weapon from Pretti while he’s being restrained by agents on the ground before any shots are fired.
Pretti is a lawful gun owner and owns a permit for his weapon.”
So suddenly the Liberal “left” who have spent years trying to implement gun control are suddenly pro-Second Amendment? Got it.
On January 25, 2026, USA Today reported under the headline “Who was Alex Pretti? Man killed by feds remembered as helper of people”, the news outlet many of those closest to Pretti. Among them were his sister:
“Micayla Pretti said in the statement that it was a “privilege” to be his sibling and said he “had a way of lighting up every room he walked into.”
“Through his work at the VA caring for the sickest patients, and passion to advance cancer research, he touched more lives than he probably ever realized,” she wrote. “My brother is, and always will be, my hero.”
In this CBS video that shows the shooting of Alex Pretti, the narrator describes him as an “observer”.
Celebrities, influencers actors and reporters made Alex Pretti the latest martyr in their fight against the Trump administration’s effort to deport violent illegal immigrants but as soon as the “left” uplifted Pretti a problem soon developed, another video emerged of Pretti embroiled in a previous confrontation with ICE agents.
In the video, posted on January 27, 2026, by the 0Hour1 account, Alex Pretti can be seen in a confrontation with ICE weeks before he was shot. Pretti can be seen spitting on ICE agents, exclaiming “Assault me mother f*cker” and kicking the taillights out of an ICE vehicle.
As you might have noticed, this created a problem for the “left”, after all they had spent almost an entire week creating the narrative that Alex Pretti was a peaceful, caring “hero”.
What was their response to the damning new evidence? It was about what you would expect. Most were similar to what Keith Edwards posted on his X account on January 28th.
You kicked a car 11 days ago… the government must execute you now.
It doesn’t matter how much damaging evidence comes out blowing the left’s narrative of Alex Pretti out of the water, the “left” will just say “So what?”.
It also doesn’t matter because as of the time this story is published former CNN reporter Don Lemon was arrested for his part in the recent invasion of a Minnesota church.
🚨 BREAKING: Don Lemon could make his first court appearance as early as TODAY, as he’s now been arrested and taken into federal custody
And just like that, the “left” forgets about their “martyr” Alex Pretti.
Don Lemon is a journalist and has the right to cover the undeniably important news events in Minneapolis. Arresting him will not silence criticism of the federal government. Free Don Lemon.
The arrest of Don Lemon is textbook fascism—a brazen attempt to silence reporting on a criminal regime. Stand up for Don, because our rights stand and fall with those of courageous journalists throughout this country. pic.twitter.com/Lrm7rTqzKF
Literally all of the liberal influencers that were advocating for justice for Alex Pretti yesterday have abandoned him for the new cause of the very much alive Don Lemon today and in doing so it reveals their hypocrisy for despite their faux, steadfast dedication to “inclusivity” it certainly appears that Liberal-Gay-Black-Alive trumps Liberal-White-Dead.
Politics and the news have you down? Sit back and relax while you listen to my latest release “We Got A Good Thing” a musical tribute to the 1960’s and 1970’s.
It’s been a while since I have written a proper article, but recent events have inspired me to share some observations. However, I do need to note that one of the reasons that you have not seen a recent podcast or article from me is the fact that I have had three eye surgeries since October and am scheduled for a fourth next month. So I am depending on my “good eye” to accomplish this. If you spot any grammatical or spelling errors, please cut me a little slack (or not).
“This afternoon, Tim Walz called a press conference in which he threatened civil war. It was one of the most extraordinary performances by an American political leader since the Confederates seceded in 1861. Walz said that he had put the Minnesota National Guard on official notice of potential deployment. Deployment to do what? To fight ICE, federal law enforcement:
We have never seen anything like it, not just in Minnesota but anywhere in America, since the Civil War: a governor threatening to call out the National Guard to forcibly resist federal authority and prevent the enforcement of our national laws. George Wallace didn’t do that. Ross Barnett didn’t do that.
Walz can’t seriously think that the Minnesota National Guard can militarily resist federal authority. Federal forces are by no means limited to ICE: President Trump has clear legal authority to call out, for example, the 82nd Airborne to restore order in Minneapolis, if that is what it takes.”
Governor (and failed Vice-Presidential candidate) Tim Walz isn’t the only Liberal Minnesota politician to declare “States Rights”. On January 8th, 2026, CBS News reported :
“Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey had a strongly worded message for federal immigration officials after an ICE officer shot and killed a 37-year-old woman on Wednesday: “Get the f*** out of Minneapolis.”
At a news conference after the shooting, Frey said, “We do not want you here. Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety and you’re doing exactly the opposite.”
Of course, one could speculate that this faux outrage of ICE and the shooting of Renee Good provides a rather convenient distraction to the massive fraud (estimated at over $1 billion) in the state uncovered by independent reporter Nick Shirley.
As of the time of this writing, there has been another ICE involved shooting. This time a man armed with a 9mm pistol and extra ammunition tried to interfere with operations against ICE. According to FOX News:
“A Border Patrol member shot an armed individual in Minneapolis, Minn., on Saturday at the intersection of West 26th Street and Nicollet Ave., Fox News has learned.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Fox News that the suspect was armed with a gun and two magazines.
“At 9:05 AM CT, as DHS law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault, an individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun,” DHS said in a statement.”
Politicians like Governor Walz and Mayor Frey are nowhere to be found as they are more than content to inspire programmable liberals like Renee Good to run over an ICE agent, or the yet to be identified man who attacked ICE agents today.
It is clear that “States Rights” is their “War Cry” but the question that remains is on what grounds? For years the official mainstream narrative has been that the “Civil War” settled the issue of States Rights and that the Federal government reigns supreme. Information found on the tutorchase.com website gives the generally accepted view of the matter:
“The Civil War redefined federalism by solidifying the supremacy of the federal government over state governments.
The American Civil War, fought from 1861 to 1865, was a pivotal moment in the history of the United States. It was a conflict that was rooted in a fundamental disagreement over the nature of the Union and the balance of power between the federal government and the states. The outcome of the war had profound implications for the concept of federalism, which refers to the division of power between the national government and the individual states.
Before the Civil War, there was a significant debate over the concept of ‘states’ rights’. Many Southern states believed that they had the right to make their own decisions on key issues, most notably slavery, without interference from the federal government. This belief was a key factor in the decision of several Southern states to secede from the Union, leading to the outbreak of the Civil War.
The victory of the Union forces in the Civil War effectively settled this debate. The federal government demonstrated that it had the power to prevent states from seceding and to enforce its decisions on contentious issues. This was a significant shift in the balance of power in favour of the federal government.
The post-war amendments to the Constitution further reinforced this shift. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, the Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalised in the United States, including former slaves, and guaranteed equal protection under the law, and the Fifteenth Amendment granted African American men the right to vote. These amendments significantly expanded the power of the federal government and limited the rights of the states.
In the years following the Civil War, the federal government continued to assert its supremacy over the states in a variety of ways. For example, during the Reconstruction era, the federal government took unprecedented steps to rebuild the South and to protect the rights of newly freed slaves. This period saw a further expansion of federal power and a corresponding reduction in state autonomy.
In conclusion, the outcome of the Civil War fundamentally redefined federalism in the United States. It established the supremacy of the federal government over the states and set the stage for the expansion of federal power in the years to come.”
For years, decades even Liberal Democrats were happy to invoke this interpretation of Federalism. The same Liberals of today who say that President Trump has no authority to “federalize” the National Guard of “their” state are the same ones who celebrated the integration of the University of Alabama in June of 1963.
How did they forcefully integrate the University of Alabama? I’ll let Wikipedia do the explaining:
Apparently, they supported the federalization of the National Guard once again on March 20, 1965. An article published on the History.com website summarizes the story:
Intimidation and discrimination had earlier prevented Selma’s Black population—over half the city—from registering and voting. On Sunday, March 7, 1965, a group of 600 demonstrators marched on the capital city of Montgomery to protest this disenfranchisement and the earlier killing of a Black man, Jimmie Lee Jackson, by a state trooper.”
Still, all good, right? It’s always “all good” when it benefits Liberal causes. So why have Liberals who have supported “federalization” as a solution to resolve “equality” and “social issues” suddenly opposed to the concept of “federalization”? A quick AI search reveals that:
“Since President Biden took office in January 2021, an estimated 6 million or more unauthorized immigrants have entered the United States and taken up residence. This figure includes individuals who were released into the U.S. interior after being encountered by immigration authorities, as well as those who evaded detection”
Who do you think these people voted for? Who do you think is paying for their housing, their medical care, their food? Who do you think are coming up with the massive schemes to defraud the government through social “safety net” programs and why are the Democrats fighting so hard to protect them to the point that they incite insurrection and threaten Civil War?
Liberals have hailed “federalization” as a solution to every social cause from the end of the Civil War and now they do not like it when it threatens their voter schemes and kickbacks from defrauding the government.
My suggestion? Deal with it. Accept it. Live with it. You wanted it. You got it. You just don’t like it when it doesn’t benefit you.
I've always said Missouri has two seasons: Arctic & Rainforest. It was 74 degrees on Christmas Day. Today it is 8 degrees and they are calling for 8- 13 inches of snow. #Missouri#WinterStormpic.twitter.com/gZCdVzTgtx
White Genocide is real, and Nelson Mandela was no hero. He was a communist, terrorist who used violence and race to overthrow South Africa. Now, progressives in the United States are using the same game plan in an attempt to overthrow this country. #SouthAfrica #WhiteGenocide #Trump #Mandela
As Democrats choose a violent, MS-13 illegal immigrant as their new poster child civil rights, the Trump administration might have just found a way to keep rogue, activist judges in check.
The Clintaucracy Podcast Episode #12: Heroes of the Due Process Democrats
Social “Content Creator” Tommy Powell Jr. has declared war on a local Republican county politician accusing him of spreading “misinformation” while weaving together a string of accusations, misinformation and liberal hypocrisy
In Episode #9 of The Clintaucracy Podcast, Clint profiles Liberal “Content Creator” Tom Powell Jr, who likes to call women the “c” word, thinks Jack Daniel’s is distilled in Kentucky and is so miserable he wishes his mother had aborted him.
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