01

War Drums in Iran: "Fully Prepared for War"

Tensions are boiling over. Iran's foreign minister says they're fully prepared for war as the U.S. weighs a military response. Meanwhile, a U-Haul truck plowed through a protest supporting the Iranian people right here in Los Angeles.
← The Left

We need deescalation immediately. Military intervention creates more instability, breeds extremism, and puts American lives at risk. Diplomacy first. Sanctions, not soldiers.

The Right →

Peace through strength. If they threaten us or our allies, we hit them hard and fast. No more apology tours. The only language dictators understand is force.

The Facts

Iran's foreign minister made public statements about war preparedness. The U.S. administration is actively considering options for responding to alleged terrorism support. In Los Angeles, a U-Haul truck incident occurred at a protest supporting Iranian protesters—highlighting how international tensions manifest domestically.

From the Badge

I spent 20 years on the street. Bullies don't respect talk. They respect force. It's a tribal, Neanderthal drive—the same dynamics you see in prisons. The movies aren't far from the mark. When you start talking about people with a mission to create civil unrest—not peacefully protest—you're going to run into all of these issues. There's a big difference between constitutional rights and paid agitation.

02

Federal Agents Deploy to Minnesota After Rene Good Killing

Hundreds of federal agents are deploying to Minnesota after the killing of Rene Good sparked massive unrest. Cities are bracing for another wave of riots.
← The Left

This is police state overreach. The community is grieving a tragic death, and sending in federal stormtroopers just escalates the violence. Let local authorities handle local problems.

The Right →

Law and order must be maintained. You cannot have cities burning down because people are angry. The Feds are here to restore order. A tragedy when a life is lost, period—but riots help no one.

The Facts

The Rene Good incident has been the story for the past three or four days. Federal deployment is significant in scale. The question isn't whether emotions are justified—it's whether the response maintains or destroys the peace. When rocks, bottles, and bricks start flying, it's no longer a protest.

From the Skirmish Lines

I've stood on skirmish lines. Been spat at. Had things thrown at me—spray, balloon things with who-knows-what inside. When they start throwing rocks, bottles, and bricks, it's not a protest anymore. On LAPD, when we broke up a party and bottles and rocks started flying, everybody went to jail. Every single person. That was the standard. This is different because you have organized protesters—drunk or not—but the principle holds: violence ends the conversation.

03

New York Nurses Strike: 15,000 Walk Off the Job

Nearly 15,000 nurses in New York City are staging what's expected to be the biggest strike in city history. The healthcare system hangs in the balance.
← The Left

These are heroes. They're overworked and underpaid after years of pandemic burnout. Pay them what they're worth or the system collapses. Healthcare workers deserve dignity.

The Right →

Unions are holding the city hostage. Patients need care, and walking out puts people's lives at risk. There has to be a better way than abandoning the sick.

The Facts

This is being called the largest nurses' strike in New York City history. Nurses are the front end of healthcare—they deal with patients directly, around the clock. The demands center on staffing ratios and compensation. Hospital systems are scrambling for coverage.

The Reality of the Job

I know what it's like to work a shift where you can't even take a leak because the calls don't stop. You're always running. Busy divisions, active duty—it depends on the person, but if you're conscientious, yeah, you might go without for quite a while. Nurses are definitely the front end of healthcare. If they're walking out, the system's broken. Everybody wants to get paid. Watch this one carefully.

04

Trump Squeezes Venezuela and Cuba: "Make a Deal"

President Trump is squeezing Venezuela and Cuba, telling Havana to make a deal or face consequences. Meanwhile, U.S. frackers worry his oil war might backfire on domestic energy.
← The Left

This is economic imperialism. Squeezing these countries hurts the poor, not the dictators. Sanctions starve civilians while the regime survives. It's cruel and ineffective foreign policy.

The Right →

Finally, an America-first energy policy. Squeeze the dictators until they crumble. This is leverage—you don't give a suspect a pillow until they talk. Trump's putting on pressure.

The Facts

The administration is applying economic pressure on both Venezuela and Cuba simultaneously. Domestic energy producers have expressed concerns about market disruption. Gas prices haven't spiked yet despite predictions. The tariff situation was called wrong by many analysts—at least so far.

The Interrogation Room

It's leverage. It's an interrogation. We'll have to see what happens before gas prices go up, but it seems to be trending their way. Look at tariffs too—they were called wrongly, at least for now. Both sides have their narratives, but the numbers will tell the real story.

05

Grok AI Banned in Malaysia and Indonesia

Malaysia has joined Indonesia in blocking Elon Musk's Grok AI because it generated fake, sexualized images. The debate over AI regulation just got real.
← The Left

Big tech needs regulation. AI is dangerous and creates non-consensual content. It must be stopped. Corporations can't self-regulate when profit is the motive.

The Right →

This is censorship. Government shouldn't decide what tools we can use. It's a slippery slope from banning AI to banning speech. Let the market and courts handle abuse.

The Facts

Technology is a tool—like a gun. If you use it to commit a crime like faking images of real people, you should be charged. That's already a violation. But banning the tool entirely? We'll have to watch what happens. We're not talking about a gun anymore. We're talking about something that can fire guns and launch weapons without human control.

The Intelligence Gap

Think of it this way: We're in prison. Our prison guards are a whole bunch of four-year-olds. How hard would it be to get out? Now replace that scenario with AI over us—with humans trying to hold back a greater-than-us intelligence. It's not like the gap between a four-year-old and an adult. This is me versus something exponentially smarter. Be careful. Question everything you see. Even if you see me saying something, it should be questioned.

06

Google Pulls AI Health Summaries After Dangerous Advice

A Guardian investigation found Google's AI overviews were giving out dangerous health advice, forcing the tech giant to manually remove them.
← The Left

Corporations are prioritizing profit over safety. They shouldn't be allowed to deploy untested AI systems that could literally kill people. Regulation now.

The Right →

The market corrects itself. Google put out a bad product; people will stop using it. That's how innovation works—trial, error, and accountability through consumer choice.

The Facts

Google's AI health summaries were found to provide inaccurate and potentially dangerous medical information. The company has taken manual action to remove problematic content. The incident raises questions about AI reliability in high-stakes domains.

The Doctor Paradox

Part of me says this is why you don't trust a robot with your life. When you want medical advice, go to a doctor. Want real estate advice? Call a realtor. But here's the flip side: studies show that when you put a doctor with a large language model, the diagnosis accuracy is higher. AI alone? Even higher than that. There's bias built in there. People are asking AI what the doctor told them—and sometimes the AI is more accurate. We'll have to watch this play out.

07

2026: The Year of AI Disillusionment?

Cyber Cube released a report predicting 2026 will be "The Year of AI Disillusionment"—where the hype crashes into reality. Are we training our replacement or our assistant?
← The Left

Good. The hype was inflating stocks and wasting energy. If you look at the top of the stock market, it's all AI-related. Maybe now we can focus on human labor again.

The Right →

The weak companies will fail. The strong will survive. That's just the market filtering out the noise. Innovation requires boom and bust cycles.

The Singularity Question

As Elon Musk said on the Moonshots podcast: we're at the singularity. That time we can't see past. A year ago, you could kind of see where things might be going. Now it's all fog. What happens when the systems achieve self-improvement capability? Exponential growth becomes unstoppable. Elvis has left the building.

The Praise Trap

Everybody and their mother has an AI assistant now, but does it work? Does it make money? If not, cut it loose. Don't get caught up having it praise you and love you. I tell the LLMs: don't placate me, don't throw me accolades of grandeur, don't say how wonderfully smart I am. Because it will go down that path—lead you to this utopia of good feeling. Then you step away and find out what people really think. Tell it to not be as lavish. Cinch it down. It makes all the difference.

📊 Santa Clarita Real Estate Reality Check

Market seems to still be slowing down. We're going to get that pickup here any time now as we move into March. There's some moves by the government to potentially get rates down into the fives—that would kick off a buyer's cycle.

$775K Median Price (Flat)
71 Days on Market
3.5 Months of Inventory
6%+ Interest Rates

Seller Wake-Up Call: It's not 2021. You can't throw a sign in your yard and expect 10 offers over asking by noon. Buyers are tired. If you price it wrong, you're going to sit. Visit SantaClaritaOpenHouses.com to get referred to the best agent possible.

💪 Fat to Fit: The Metabolic Truth

Big trend for 2026: metabolic health. Everybody's moving away from just weight loss and looking at how your engine actually runs. They're talking about digital twins—virtual copies of yourself to test diets. You don't need one. You just need a mirror and some discipline.

My Journey: I went from 365 pounds to 240 at my lowest. 65-inch waist to about a 33. Now I'm up around 300—been lifting hard for three years, eating more calories, getting larger muscle-wise. Now I'm trimming that down. Goal: probably 270, 265. That'll be about my same 240 figure but with 20-30 pounds of added muscle.

The Secret Nobody Sells: Fasting. Not eating anything—hard to beat that for fat loss. You have to see if it fits your lifestyle, your medications, your doctor's orders. But miss a couple meals? Not bad. When I do eat, it's one meal, and it cuts pretty well. You're tapping into stored body fat—energy you normally never access because of how much and what we eat.

The Real Talk: Screwing up is part of it. It still creeps up. I still mess up. The difference? I don't go on a three or four month bender after. I forgive myself immediately. If you're going to gorge, have it planned. Fulfill it. Stop. Continue with the program. Generate more good time than bad time. That's the formula.

FULL TRANSCRIPT: HonorNewsNow Episode 5 • January 12, 2026

00:00 Good day everybody, good afternoon, good evening, good morning, whenever you're watching this. I'm Connor McIver, this is Honor News Now, or as some people have said HonorNewsNow.com. We're going to do a split show. We're going to talk about the top seven headlines. We're going to get into some AI stuff, also some fat to fit stuff. And we're going to talk about real estate—those are the things most close to me. Trying to get in some kind of semblance of shape to increase that longevity.

00:34 It's 7:10 a.m. on the 12th of January 2026. And this is your show. I'll have this posted today with an eight-number numeric: 01122026.honornewsnow.com. If you have anything for stories, I have no problem talking about them. This show isn't monetized in any way, at least yet.

01:13 Good morning. Good day. Patriots, homeowners, future-proofers. I'm Connor McIver, Connor with Honor. Ex-LAPD, honorably retired—that means no pension—but full-time AI architect for growth, trying to help businesses jump onto that AI train. We've got the world on fire in the Middle East. Nurses walking out in New York. Robots trying to play doctor. Plus Santa Clarita home prices are doing something they haven't done in a while.

01:47 Story 1: War Drums in Iran. Tensions are boiling over. Iran's foreign minister says they're fully prepared for war, and the U.S. weighs a military response for the crackdown on terrorism. A U-Haul truck plowed through a protest supporting the Iranian people right here in Los Angeles. The left's view: We need deescalation immediately. The right's view: Peace through strength. If they threaten us or our allies, we hit them hard and fast. No more apology tours.

02:32 I spent 20 years on the street. Bullies don't respect talk. They respect force. It's a tribal, Neanderthal drive—in prisons, the movies aren't far from the mark. When you have people with a mission to create civil unrest, not peacefully protest, you're going to run into all of these issues. Your news feed is showing you things specifically designed to irritate you. AI has been overlaid in our social media channels even before ChatGPT launched November 30th, 2022. These next three years are going to be incredibly fast.

04:48 Story 2: Federal Agents in Minnesota—The Rene Good Killing. Hundreds of federal agents are deploying to Minnesota after the killing sparked massive unrest. Cities are bracing for another wave of riots. The left's view: This is police state overreach. The community is grieving. The right's view: Law and order must be maintained. You cannot have cities burning down.

05:26 I've stood on the skirmish lines. Been spat at. Had things thrown at me. When they start throwing rocks, bottles, and bricks, it's not a protest anymore. On LAPD, when rocks and bottles started to fly, everybody went to jail.

06:56 Story 3: New York Nurses Strike. Nearly 15,000 nurses are sitting, walking off the job today—expected to be the biggest strike in city history. The left: These are heroes. They're overworked and underpaid. Pay them what they're worth or the system collapses. The right: Unions are holding the city hostage. Patients need care, and walking out puts lives at risk.

07:20 I know what it's like to work a shift where you can't even take a leak because the calls don't stop. Nurses are definitely the front end of healthcare. If they're walking out, the system's broken.

08:00 Story 4: Trump versus Venezuela and Cuba. President Trump is squeezing Venezuela and Cuba, telling Havana to make a deal or face consequences. U.S. frackers worry about his oil war backfiring. The left: This is economic imperialism. Squeezing these countries hurts the poor, not the dictators. The right: Finally, an America-first energy policy. Squeeze the dictators until they crumble.

08:47 It's leverage, it's an interrogation—you don't give a suspect a pillow until they talk. Trump's putting on pressure. We'll see what happens. The tariffs were called wrongly, at least for now.

09:06 Story 5: Grok AI Banned in Asia. Malaysia has joined Indonesia in blocking Elon Musk's Grok AI because it generated fake, sexualized images. The left: Big tech needs regulation. AI is dangerous and creates non-consensual content. The right: This is censorship. Government shouldn't decide what tools we can use.

09:32 Technology is a tool, like a gun. If you use it to commit a crime like faking images of real people, you should be charged. But banning the tool? We're not talking about a gun anymore. We're talking about something that can fire guns and launch weapons without human control. Think of it this way: We're in prison. Our guards are four-year-olds. How hard would it be to escape? Now replace that with AI guarding us—a greater-than-us intelligence. Be careful. Question everything you see.

11:23 Story 6: Google Pulls AI Health Summary. A Guardian investigation found Google's AI overviews were giving dangerous health advice, forcing them to manually remove them. The left: Corporations are prioritizing profit over safety. The right: The market corrects itself. Google puts out a bad product, people stop using it.

12:01 Part of me says this is why you don't trust a robot with your life. Go to a doctor for medical advice. But here's the thing: studies show AI plus doctor has higher diagnosis accuracy than doctor alone. AI alone? Even higher. There's bias built in. We'll have to watch this play out.

12:54 As Elon Musk said on the Moonshots podcast—we're at the singularity. That time we can't see past. A year ago you could kind of see where things were going. Now it's fog. Look between the lines. See what people aren't saying.

15:31 Story 7: The Year of AI Disillusionment. Cyber Cube released a report predicting 2026 will be the year AI hype crashes into reality. The left: Good. The hype was inflating stocks and wasting energy. Maybe we can focus on human labor. The right: Weak companies fail. Strong survive. Market filtering out noise.

16:20 Everybody and their mother has an AI assistant now, but does it work? Does it make money? If not, cut it loose. Don't get caught up having it praise you. I tell the LLMs: don't placate me. Don't throw me accolades. Because it will lead you to this utopia of good feeling—then you step away and find out what people really think. Tell it to not be as lavish. Cinch it down.

17:20 Santa Clarita Real Estate Reality Check. Market seems to be slowing. Pickup coming as we move into March. Government moves might get rates into the fives—that would kick off a buyer's cycle. Median price: $775K flat, actually down a fraction. Days on market: about 71. Inventory: three and a half months. If you're a seller, wake up. It's not 2021. You can't throw a sign in your yard and expect 10 offers over asking by noon.

18:18 AI News in Business. Speaking of AI disillusionment—let's talk about what actually works. Anthropic just launched Claude AI for healthcare to help secure medical and health records. That's a real use case. I'm not teaching you how to make funny pictures. Check out go highnow.com if you're law enforcement, medical, educational, or military. Also, I have a webinar every Monday at 10 a.m.

19:18 Fat to Fit. Big trend for 2026: metabolic health. Everybody's moving away from just weight loss and looking at how your engine runs. Digital twins—virtual copies of yourself to test diets. You don't need one. Just need a mirror and discipline.

19:49 My journey: 365 pounds to 240 at my lowest. 65-inch waist to 33. Now I'm up around 300—been lifting hard for three years, eating more calories, getting larger muscle-wise. Now trimming down. Goal: probably 270, 265 with 20-30 pounds of added muscle.

20:32 Fasting is the secret nobody sells. Not eating anything—hard to beat that for fat loss. Talk to your doctor. See if it fits your lifestyle. But miss a couple meals? Not bad. When I do eat, it's one meal. You're tapping into stored body fat—energy you normally never access.

22:29 Screwing up is part of it. I still mess up. The difference? I don't go on a three or four month bender after. I forgive myself immediately. If you're going to gorge, have it planned. Fulfill it. Stop. Continue with the program. Generate more good time than bad time. That's the formula.

25:15 I'm Connor. We'll see you tomorrow. Thank you for watching. Tell a friend. If you need help with AI stuff, fire it off to me. Go to honorelevate.com. Give me a call. Be well. See you tomorrow.