Followup: Attack SIM Farm Is China’s

October 5th, 2025

Remember the story from 10 days ago or so about the SIM farm that looked poised for a telecom infrastructure attack on New York City?

Well, as suspected, it was China’s.

New details emerged in an exclusive report from Blaze News, citing sources within the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. intelligence community, who revealed that these SIM farms had been operational for more than a year and were operated by China’s Ministry of State Security.

“This is something that is a direct threat to our nation right now,” a top intelligence official told Blaze News. “A direct threat to our nation, and it needs to be shut down today — like ASAP. Only five of them have been taken down so far.”

The Blaze’s report continues:

The SIM networks were put in place and are managed by China’s Ministry of State Security, an ultra-secretive, massive espionage agency that has grown in prominence and global activity in recent years, according to the journal China Leadership Monitor.

The MSS employs more than 800,000 people, nearly double the Soviet KGB at its peak. The MSS “now operates worldwide at a scale and tempo not seen in decades,” China Leadership Monitor wrote in a recent newsletter.

Several officials who spoke with Blaze News anonymously said the establishment and use of this destructive network by China should be considered an act of war. The potential threat to America would be “second only to thermonuclear war,” one source said.

“It’s absolutely an act of war — an internationally recognized act of war,” one intelligence expert told Blaze News. “Cyberattacks on critical infrastructure is, and facilitating terrorism to the point where you’re trying to kill high-ranking members of the United States government. Those two alone are acts of war.”

. . .

“These things were being used all summer to SWAT people since Trump was elected,” said one source, speaking anonymously because the source is not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation. “Swatting — that’s a terrorist act. The Trump administration declared that a terrorist act.”

While the Chinese facilitated the SWAT raids, it is believed that Americans who are familiar with the system — either through a government or a criminal enterprise — are initiating the hoax calls, the source said.

If Americans are indeed working with a foreign power to commit terrorist acts against American citizens, that opens a whole host of legal and national security tools to go after domestic terror networks.

The swatting of a senior Secret Service official and some Secret Service protectees last spring led to the investigation that discovered the Chinese SIM farms in the Tri-State area, the Secret Service confirmed to Blaze News. A Secret Service engineer assigned to the investigation was key to discovering the SIM network.

An intelligence analyst told Blaze News that:

What’s shocking is that there may be up to 100 or more of these sites everywhere. There’s probably 60, 80, 100 of these in the United States.

The discovery of weaponized SIM farm nodes by China should not come as a surprise. This is because the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing irregular warfare campaign against the U.S. has been supercharged over the years, especially in the era of Trump.

If theses SIM farms are active, there should be ways for telecomms to algorithmically search for mobile call hotspots where too many calls issue from too small an area. Let’s hope they’re doing that and working with various U.S. three letter agencies to shut them down right now.

How many other instances of Chinese infrastructure attack centers currently lie in wait to attack the U.S.?

Ukraine Conference: Drone Tech And Venture Capital

October 4th, 2025

This is an interesting video of a Miltech conference in Ukraine, which includes a lot of the drones we’ve talked about here, as well as some things we haven’t seen yet.

There’s a wide range of people interviewed here:

  • “We’re back in Lviv at the second Ukrainian Defense Tech Valley Summit.”
  • “Judging by this massive unmanned submarine, Ukraine’s defense tech has grown a lot.”
  • One thing shown is the “RATEL-M logistical case evac UGV,” a remote controlled ground vehicle for logistics and casualty evacuation.
  • A Fire Point rep talks about the FP-1, “the most used Ukraine deep strike drone by amount and by effectiveness as well. FP-1 is responsible for around 60-65% of the deep strike missions that are currently happening on the front line, and it’s also the cheapest one.”
  • She also shows off a miniature copy of the Flamingo cruise missile so much in the news this year. “This is our way to deliver big payloads on even deeper distances in a very asymmetric way in returns of price to effectiveness, because this missile costs less than $1 million and is the biggest in the world by payload capacity, and by the distance.”
  • Ukrainian solder attending the conference: “I believe it’s the good platform to find industrial and manufacturers who create the best products that servicemen like me and my fellow brothers in arms can use on the battlefield.”
  • “It’s the second edition of defense tech by Brave 1. We had the first one in October 2024. This time we are four times bigger. We have representatives from more than 50 countries. More than 200 companies represent their solutions and we also have more than 300 investors from many countries around the globe.”
  • “More than $100 million to be invested in the Ukrainian defense ecosystem.”
  • “One of the brave one ecosystem companies, they raised $16 million in private investment from US and European investors.” Last conference the largest investment was $2.9 million.
  • STARK UK (not the Tony kind) rep: “We’re a German company with a Ukraine arm. So, we do all our operational testing and R&D in Ukraine. But we also bring the benefits of those systems back to the UK, back to Germany, to the European NATO market.”
  • “Roma dreamed of taking out one tank, at least one. Now he has personally destroyed 500 enemy vehicles.”
  • “Our mission is to bring international capital into Ukraine’s domestic defense industry, to get the Russians out and to help integrate Ukraine into Europe’s security architecture.”
  • There’s some coverage of United24, the Ukrainian initiative whose YouTube channel this is on.
  • There’s some talk about AI controlled air defense turrets called Sky Sentinel, with prototypes of the system on display. “We’re trying to get multiple ones of these all across cities.”
  • “Only in Ukraine do you have almost no distance between the technologist, the factory and the war fighter. So the feedback loop is continuous. There’s no Pentagon separating them. There’s no MOD separating them.”
  • The video provides a glimpse of a Ukrainian defense industry operating under tech startup rules: Move fast, break things, and rapidly iterate through quick prototypes. While that’s probably not the right approach to build, say, a stealth bomber or an aircraft carrier, it’s probably much better for quickly deploying new technology to the field in response to enemy action.

    The U.S. Department of Defense weapon procurement system operates more like the IBM of old: Methodical, through, bureaucratic and slow. For the newly rechristened U.S. Department of War to win future wars, we’re going to need less IBM and more tech startup speed to defeat our foes.

    Abbott Creates Houston Crime Task Force

    October 2nd, 2025

    President Trump has had great success in driving down crime rates in various crime-ridden Democrat-controlled cities by deploying inter-agency task forces of various law enforcement officers (along with some National Guard). Texas Governor Greg Abbott is taking a page of Trump’s own playbook to launch a multi-agency task force to tackle repeat felons in Harris County.

    “Most violent crimes in the Houston area are committed by repeat offenders,” said Abbott during a press conference at the Texas Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) regional headquarters in Houston Wednesday. “Today we’re putting those criminals on notice: ‘We’re coming for you. We’re going to target you, arrest you, and put you where you belong, which is behind bars.’”

    Abbott said the task force, which is beginning immediately, will involve swarming high-crime neighborhoods with DPS troopers and special agents, Texas Rangers, and Houston-area officers, with support from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and DPS aircraft. The collaborative efforts will focus on locating repeat offenders using available intelligence regarding gang activity and suspects with warrants.

    While acknowledging that crime is down this year in Houston by about 22 percent, Abbott said that residents were still worried about public safety and there are still “far too many victims of crime in Harris County.”

    Sydney Zuiker of Crime Stoppers of Houston said that at least 55 percent of violent crime in the city was committed by individuals with a criminal history.

    “That’s not just a statistic,” said Zuiker. “It represents lives lost, families changed forever, and communities left to pick up the pieces.”

    DPS Director Col. Freeman Martin noted that increased patrol presence has been proven to reduce crime significantly in the most at-risk communities, but added that the efforts to locate offenders would not be as visible to the public. Martin noted that law enforcement agencies often know who the repeat offenders are and will be working to check that those out on bond, parole, or probation are complying with the terms of their release.

    President Donald Trump has increasingly focused on crime in urban areas in recent months and sent federal law enforcement agents to Chicago, Memphis, and Portland.

    Abbott said there’s never been any threat requiring federal intervention in Texas.

    “The president does know that I as governor, as well as our local law enforcement, that we are very committed to this,” said Abbott.

    “Houston can be the model for public safety in America’s largest cities,” he added.

    Although Houston Mayor John Whitmire did not attend the conference, Abbott said the two talk about public safety frequently and that city law enforcement would be participating in the task force.

    Houston Police Officers’ Union Executive Director Ray Hunt noted that there is already significant cooperation between Houston police and DPS.

    Hunt said repeat offenders are the “number one problem,” and cited the story of a suspect out on felony bond last year who is now facing a murder charge for a road rage shooting that killed Jadrian Edwards.

    Earlier this year DHS announced the establishment of a new regional Homeland Security Task Force in Houston to address international cartel and gang activity and to coordinate efforts with multiple law enforcement agencies.

    Release of violent offenders in Harris County has repeatedly drawn scrutiny from state lawmakers, who passed a package of bills cracking down on relaxed bail and judicial practices earlier this year. The bills further restrict the crimes for which suspects can receive a personal recognizance (PR) bond — requiring no cash payment — and require judges, rather than unelected magistrates, to set bonds for certain violent offenses.

    State lawmakers also approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would give judges the discretion to deny bond for certain violent crimes if prosecutors provide sufficient evidence that the defendant would pose a threat to public safety. Voters must approve the amendment in the November 2025 election.

    Remember, Houston is the city with some 900 accused murderers out on bond. Gov. Abbott’s task force is a welcome addition to crime fighting tools, but one that will probably prove inadequate to achieve more than modest gains.

    I have snipped the piece a bit, but one name most conspicuously absent is that of Harris County’s Soros-backed district attorney Sean Teare. It is the soft-on-crime policies of Houston Democrats in general, and those of Teare and Democrat judges in specific, that have led them to allow repeat offenders to continually bond out and get back on the street to commit more crimes. The is of a piece with other Soros-backed, social justice Democrats in deep blue cities around the country. It will be of little use if Abbott’s new task force brings more repeat offenders into custody if far-left Democrat judges and DAs just bond them right back out on the street again.

    Another problem Abbott’s task force faces is simply the sheer size of Houston. Geographically, Houston is nine times bigger than Washington D.C. (indeed, the entirety of D.C. would fit pretty much within the 610 loop in Houston, the innermost of three road loops around the largely circular city), and the crime hotspots are far more geographically dispersed. There’s a limit to how much additional law enforcement resources can cover.

    Maybe the task force can put a dent in crime, but progress will be limited as long as social justice Democrats control Harris County.

    Schumer Shutdown Soros Sponsored

    October 1st, 2025

    I generally avoid stories that everyone else is talking about, but I thought it worth pointing out that one reason Chuck Schumer has sleepwalked into this extremely ill-advised (for Democrats) shutdown over extending ObamaCare subsidies for illegal aliens is that George Soros is backing it.

    A left-wing activist group that received millions of dollars from the Soros family’s organization is spearheading a pressure campaign to push Democratic senators to vote against funding the government and force a partial shutdown.

    Indivisible — the organization behind many of the recent “No Kings” protests and other demonstrations part of the so-called “resistance” against President Donald Trump — has embarked on a recent effort to goad Senate Democrats to not come to a bipartisan funding agreement with their Republican colleagues and the president. The group’s website currently hosts a form enabling people to easily contact their Democratic senators by phone, complete with a script of what to say. (RELATED: Democrats Reportedly Quietly Planning Luxury Getaway Escape To 5-Star Resort Despite Looming Government Shutdown)

    The group’s non-tax-deductible entity, Indivisible Project, has received a total of $7.6 million in grants from the Soros’ Open Society Foundations (OSF) over the past eight years, according to Indivisible’s website. OSF is a grantmaking network which left-wing billionaire George Soros founded in 1993 and his son, Alexander Soros, currently chairs.

    Snip.

    Senate Democrats led by embattled Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have thus far refused to support Republican-passed CRs that do not include a litany of left-wing policy proposals.

    Snip.

    After Schumer and nine other members of the Senate Democratic Caucus voted with Republicans to break the filibuster on the March spending bill, Indivisible publicly called for Schumer to step down as the caucus’ leader and even put together an event where people wrote retirement cards addressed to him.

    Right after Schumer’s March decision to work with Republicans to keep the government open, Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went on the record blasting him, fueling speculation she may challenge him in New York’s 2028 Senate election. A late March poll by left-leaning firm Data for Progress showed Ocasio-Cortez leading the longtime incumbent by nearly 20 points in a hypothetical matchup.

    The House on Sept. 19 passed a GOP-backed clean CR to fund the government through Nov. 21 — with the support of only one Democrat. However, it fell well short of the 60 required votes to bypass a filibuster in the Senate on the same day.

    Meanwhile, the Senate rejected a Schumer-backed counter-proposal along party lines, also on Sept. 19. This Democratic-backed CR would have reversed about $1 trillion in cost savings of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA), nixed language preventing illegal immigrants from receiving healthcare subsidies and undid the OBBA’s new Medicaid work requirements.

    So Democrats are shutting down the federal government because Soros money wants them to, becaause one of the hills they’re willing to die on is taxpayer subsidies for illegal aliens, and because Schumer is scared of being primaried by AOC…in 2028.

    Hell of a way to run a railroad…

    Scenes From The Transsexual Madness Rollback

    September 30th, 2025

    While the violent lunatics of Transtifa will probably continue to attempt murder against ordinary people for the crime of pointing out the obvious truth that there are only two biological sexes, signs of the successful rollback of the transsexual madness the social justice Democrats tried to impose on America are readily apparent elsewhere.

  • One tranny legal case making its way to the Supreme Court is Foote v. Ludlow.

    The October Term is about to begin at the U.S. Supreme Court, and another secret social transitioning case is waiting on its doorstep. Over a dozen civil-rights advocates have urged the Justices to grant review—and finally stop schools from “transing” children behind their parents’ backs.

    The case is Foote v. Ludlow, the first of many secret social-transitioning lawsuits we’ve covered from the beginning at Legal Insurrection…

    Earlier this year, a federal appeals court decided parents Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri had no right to be told when their 11-year old daughter “socially transitioned” to another sex in school. The school’s non-disclosure policy, the First Circuit court held, was necessary to promote a “safe and inclusive” environment for all of its students.

    The parents brought their original lawsuit against the Ludlow, Massachusetts, school committee in 2022 after they learned from one of its teachers that their child had secretly become “genderqueer.”

    If not for that one brave teacher—later fired for coming forward—according to the court filings, the parents might never have known: Under the school’s policy, when a student asks to be called by a new name and pronouns of a different sex, staff members must keep it a secret from the parents, unless they have the student’s consent.

    Over the summer, the parents petitioned the Court to review the appellate court’s decision denying their right to be informed when their child “transitions” sex at school.

    This is not the first time the Court has been asked to wade into the conflict over secret social transitioning in schools. Last year, in a 6-3 decision, it declined a parents’ petition to review a similar case involving a Wisconsin school’s gender identity plan. Justice Alito dissented, noting that the case presented a question “of great and growing national importance.”

    Sixteen “friends of the court” have now filed amicus briefs in support of the parents. Together, they argue that this time, the Court should act.

    We previously covered Foote v. Ludlow here. When liberals religiously chant “Protect Trans Children!”, what they actually mean is “Social justice teachers have the right to secretly turn your children gay or trans and there’s nothing you can do about it.” Every parent in America should be furious at that idea, and if the Supreme Court takes the case, I think it’s a near certainty they rule for parents rather than groomers.

  • Riley Gaines lawsuit against the NCAA for letting men compete against women in college athletics continues to advance.

    The NCAA has a “Grand Alliance” with the Department of Defense to study concussions among “more than 53,000 student athletes and service academy cadets & midshipmen.”

    That relationship could knock the student athletics nonprofit into a far-reaching settlement with female athletes who claim it’s bound by Title IX via the DoD and committed sex discrimination against them by letting males compete in their sports on the basis of gender identity.

    A federal judge refused to wholly dismiss the lawsuit against the NCAA by 19 current and former collegiate athletes led by former University of Kentucky swimmer and women’s sports activist Riley Gaines, complementing the Trump administration’s use of federal funding obligations to ram through its higher education agenda without Congress.

    A Department of Education attorney in the first Trump administration credited the Biden administration with giving President Trump’s second term vastly more regulatory runway than it has wielded in its first eight months, warning colleges of much bigger threats.

    Harvard’s new “heightened cash monitoring status,” which requires the Ivy Leaguer to pay federal student aid out of its own pockets before drawing funds from the government, shows federal student loan eligibility could be the next “shoe to drop,” consultant Jonathan Helwink wrote in Inside Higher Ed.

    In its haste to take down for-profit colleges, the prior administration enabled its successor to “come out swinging against traditional public and private institutions” using the same “regulatory overreach,” he wrote. Few colleges can withstand a costly fight when the feds have successfully shuttered colleges “based upon far weaker versions of the current regulations.”

    Snip.

    In the case led by Gaines, U.S. District Judge Tiffany Johnson ordered the NCAA to respond to the plaintiffs’ Title IX claims by Oct. 9, to be followed by 90 days of “limited discovery” to determine whether the NCAA is a “recipient” of federal money under Title IX through the DoD partnership.

    The 19 female athletes – including San Jose State University women’s volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser, allegedly targeted for injury by her male teammate Blaire [i.e. Brayden] Fleming – “actually allege a clearer connection between the NCAA and the DoD money” than do precedents upon which the plaintiffs relied, the President Biden nominee said.

    The Supreme Court distinguished between commercial airlines and airport operators as entities that “indirectly benefit” versus “indirectly receive assistance,” respectively, insulating the former from federal disability obligations.

    Under that logic, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals greenlit Title IX claims against the NCAA by a graduate student barred from competition, because she sufficiently alleged it “effectively controlled” two federally funded youth sports organizations made up of NCAA employees and members, which NCAA itself touted as its “best kept secrets.”

    Legal discovery is typically followed by settlement talks, and the female athletes’ lawyer, William Bock — a regulatory heavy-hitter also representing them at SCOTUS in support of Idaho’s ban on males in female competition — told Fox News the NCAA would have to agree to a legally enforceable ban on its transgender policy to avoid trial.

    While the NCAA insists the lawsuit is moot because its current policy “aligns” with Trump’s “order” – singular – Bock said the “only way” his clients would settle is through a consent decree preventing NCAA from resurrecting them in the event Trump’s two executive orders against gender identity and males in female sports were rescinded.

    Even a consent decree is the “priority,” not necessarily the only condition for settlement, Bock emphasized. Gaines and the others are also seeking mandatory sex testing to stop repeats of male athletes competing against females since the NCAA rule change, as happened at Swarthmore and Ithaca College.

    The NCAA didn’t argue against the legal standing of the female athletes for “retrospective damages” covering the years 2022 to early 2025, when NCAA policy explicitly let males who identify as women compete against females, so Judge Johnson analyzed the merits.

    (Hat tip: Director Blue.)

  • Reversing years of creeping social justice inroads at the once-conservative institution, Texas Tech University has instructed faculty to recognize only biological sex.

    The Texas Tech University (TTU) System has issued a memorandum directing its schools to be in compliance with state and federal law regarding the recognition of only two human sexes — male and female.

    The letter, issued by Chancellor Tedd L. Mitchell on September 25 to the five presidents in the university system, cites three different sources for its directive: House Bill (HB) 229, which was passed during the 89th Legislative Session; a letter from Gov. Greg Abbott; and a President Donald Trump executive order, each of which recognize only male and female as the distinguishable biological sexes.

    HB 229 lays out definitions for “sex” as well as “boy,” “father,” “female,” “girl,” “male,” and “mother.” Abbott’s letter similarly directs state agencies in Texas to ensure they are in compliance with “the biological reality that there are only two sexes — male and female.” Both of these came after Trump’s executive order that sought to “defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”

    “Therefore,” the TTU System letter states, “while recognizing the First Amendment rights of employees in their personal capacity, faculty must comply with these laws in the instruction of students, within the course and scope of their employment.”

    Mitchell adds that while some within the university system “may hold differing personal views on these matters … in your role as a state employee, compliance with the law is required, and I trust in your professionalism to carry out these responsibilities in a manner that reflects well on our universities.”

    The memo comes after Angelo State University, one school in the TTU System, issued rules changes to faculty and staff on September 19 that made similar directives regarding biological sex. The information sent to Angelo State University personnel, first obtained by the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, also includes rules prohibiting preferred pronouns and removing “safe-space” designations.

  • The hard left, from Planned Parenthood to the ACLU, are all in on turning your children gay and trans. Yet this is another issue where some 85% of normal Americans stand with Republicans and against the radical transsexual social justice groomer gangs of the left. State by state, and lawsuit by lawsuit, transsexual madness is finally being rolled back.

    Faster, please.

    Moldova Votes Against Moscow

    September 29th, 2025

    It seems that Moscow’s main accomplishment in launching their illegal war of territorial aggression in Ukraine is to unite just about all of Europe against it. Now Moldova, another European country that has occupying Russian forces in it, has again voted decisively for the EU and against Moscow.

    The pro-European party of Moldovan President Maia Sandu has claimed victory and a new majority in parliament in Sunday’s elections seen as critical for her country’s future path to the EU.

    Sandu had warned of “massive Russian interference” after voting, saying the future of Moldova, flanked by Ukraine and Romania, was at stake.

    Igor Grosu, the leader of Sandu’s Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) which secured about 50% of the vote, said Russia had thrown “everything it had” at the election.

    Opposition leader Igor Dodon had claimed victory even before results came in and called for protests outside parliament in the capital Chisinau on Monday.

    However, the win by PAS is emphatic: Monday’s protest was tiny and mostly attended by pensioners. And there is no sense at this point that they have any momentum.

    With 99.9% of the 1.6 million votes counted, PAS had 50.17% of the vote – far ahead of the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc on 24.18%, Moldova’s central electoral commission said.

    Turnout was 52%, higher than in recent years.

    European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the result. “You made your choice clear: Europe. Democracy. Freedom,” she wrote on X on Monday.

    Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk praised Sandu, saying she had “saved democracy” and “stopped Russia in its attempts to take control over the whole region. A good lesson for us all”.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on social media: “These elections showed that Russia’s destabilising activity loses, while Moldova in Europe wins.”

    Snip.

    To form a government it will not need to rely on support from other parties, such as the Alternativa bloc or the populist Our Party.

    In a measure of the tension surrounding the vote, bomb scares were reported at polling stations in Italy, Romania, Spain and the US.

    Similar scares were reported in Moldova itself and three people were arrested on suspicion of plotting unrest the day after the vote. Grosu blamed criminal groups backed by Moscow for Sunday’s incidents and appealed for “patience and calm” to let the electoral process continue.

    Moldova also has a pro-Russian breakaway enclave called Transnistria along its border with Ukraine, complete with a Russian military presence.

    Residents in this sliver of land have Moldovan passports. Many are strongly pro-Moscow and Socialist party leader Igor Dodon said there had been “all sorts of harassment, stopping them from voting”.

    Russia’s inability to achieve victory in its invasion of Ukraine may endanger its tiny puppet state in Moldova. The EU has previously been slow-rolling Moldova’s membership request for fear of angering Moscow, but the marked failure of Moscow to conquer Ukraine, and Vladimir Putin’s insistence on serial provocations to NATO members may have changed their thinking. A serious push by a modern military could likely roll up Transnistria in a matter of days, and there’s very little an overextended Russian military could do about it.

    And there’s always the long-running possibility that Romania (a NATO member) and Moldova could merge. Normally NATO wouldn’t allow a country with a territorial dispute in, but, again, Putin’s many provocations may get that particular hesitation tossed to the wayside.

    Russia’s weakness plus Putin managing to piss off both the EU and Trump may finally earn the greenlight to do away with this particular vestigial remains of Putin’s shattered dreams for a Greater Russia…

    “Here’s Some Money To Build A Library.” “Right. We’ll Use It To Hate Jews.”

    September 28th, 2025

    Again and again on the left, we’ve seen money supposedly earmarked for one cause diverted into other pockets, be it fraudulant ActBlue donations under fake names or directors using #BlackLivesMatter money to buy mansions. It turns out that not even funds earmarked for LightBringer McLegTingle are immune to this effect, as money meant to fund the Obama Presidential Library ended up in the pockets of anti-Isreal organizations.

    Millions of dollars sent to Barack Obama’s foundation has ended up being donated to a progressive fund that supported anti-Israel groups, accused of setting up encampments at Ivy League universities, according to public documents.

    Donations to the Obama Foundation, set up by the former president to build a 19-acre campus including a museum, athletic facility and fruit and vegetable gardens in Chicago, totaling $2 million were instead sent on to Tides Foundation in 2022 and 2023, according to its latest available federal tax filings.

    The cash was earmarked to “support local organizations that are working to reduce violence in communities,” according to the nonprofit’s filings.

    Tides Foundation — also funded by Democratic mega-donor George Soros — is a network that operates as a fiscal sponsor for groups that have not registered with the IRS as charities.

    The third-party grant-making group is under scrutiny by the House Ways and Means Committee for handling donations for anti-Israel groups such as the Adalah Justice Project, Samidoun and the People’s Forum. Such groups helped set up pro-Palestinian demonstrations and college encampments after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel that left 1,200 Israelis dead.

    Cold-blooded murder does seem to be the surest path to winning Tides Foundation favor.

    After this story was published Friday, a spokeswoman for the Obama Foundation told The Post that the $2 million was granted to more than 50 organizations across the country to help reduce “surging summer violence” and provide “safe spaces” for young people.

    And by “reduce” they mean “increase.” Pretty much everything Tides and Soros touched with the word “justice” in the title results in drastically increased crime.

    “The Tides Center played an administrative role in the program by processing grants while Cities United [a nonprofit] managed the application process,” the spokeswoman said in an email. Grants ranged from $15,000 to $30,000 each over the two summers.

    Tides has also handled donations for Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, which sued the group in California Superior Court last year. It alleged “egregious mismanagement” of more than $33 million in its funds, according to court documents. That lawsuit is ongoing.

    In addition to sending donations to Tides, the Obama Foundation has sent more than $3 million in 2022 and 2023 in grants to Gofundme.org for undisclosed “grassroots leaders to empower girls through education,” according to the group’s filings.

    I’m just spitballing here, but when I read nebulous descriptions like that, it makes me guess that the money went to fund European vacations for the daughters of high ranking Democrats so they could see the Louvre.

    Meanwhile, the foundation admitted it has so far spent more than $615 million building the Obama Presidential Center, which is scheduled to open in spring 2026, according to its website.

    The group, which received just $129,320 in donations in 2022, spent more than $27 million on salaries.

    Among the highest-paid board members are Valerie Jarrett, a former senior adviser to President Obama and CEO of the foundation, who raked in more than $750,000 in compensation in 2023.

    Nice work if you can get it. But that’s hardly all Jarrett is doing. According to Wikipedia, the source of all vaguely accurate knowledge, “She joined the board of directors of Ariel Investments, 2U, Inc., Lyft, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Ralph Lauren Corporation, Sweetgreen, and is a member of the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women advisory council.” That’s a whole lot of fingers in a whole lot of pots.

    Robbin Cohen, executive vice president of the Obama Presidential Center, took in nearly $650,000 in 2023, according to the tax filings.

    So it’s a slush fund for Obama cronies.

    Cohen is a former president of the Pritzker Realty Group, founded by Penny Pritzker, a philanthropist who is also on the Obama Foundation board of directors. Pritzker, whose brother, JB Pritzker, is the governor of Illinois, does not draw a salary.

    It’s a big club, and you’re not in it.

    This sort of co-mingling of charitable fund (the Obama Foundation is a 501(c)(3)) with organizations dedicated to naked political activism (usually 501(c)(4), if they’re not some more exotic organizational beast) would usually be illegal if it weren’t being carried out by powerful Democrats. But the Department of Justice is finally starting to investigate the Tides Foundation thanks to Antifa’s assassination fetish. Maybe they should start investigating other areas where the Tides Foundation is breaking the law.

    Some forensic audits of proctological intensity seem in order.

    (Hat tip: Director Blue.)

    Six Staffers Jailed At NHS “Hospital of Horrors”

    September 27th, 2025

    There are lots of hospitals in America with substandard service, but I’m hard-pressed to think of one where six different staff members have been sent to jail for their crimes there.

    As former consultant Dr Amal Bose begins a prison sentence the tally of staff from Blackpool Victoria Hospital to have been jailed for criminal offences committed at work continues to rise.

    Bose is the sixth staff member to have been jailed since police were called in to investigate allegations of neglect on the hospital’s stroke unit in 2018. The arrogant surgeon molested younger, female staff members on the cardiothorasic unit after he was promoted to be head of department.

    The unit had a toxic culture – with Bose at the heart of it, Preston Crown Court heard. He attempted to pass off his predatory behaviour as ‘banter’ but his victims were left feeling helpless due to his seniority.

    But troubles at the Whinney Road hospital run deeper with ongoing investigations into allegations of neglect, mistreatment, and possible corporate failings.

    Last week, Lancashire Police confirmed the stroke unit is at the centre of a major investigation, Operation Bermuda…

    …which is considering offences including corporate manslaughter, corporate ill-treatment, wilful neglect, and breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act.

    The investigation comes after staff nurse Catherine Hudson and healthcare assistant Charlotte Wilmot were jailed for their roles in a neglect scandal. During a 2023 trial, Preston Crown Court heard how difficult patients would be sedated to give the staff an easier shift.

    Hudson was jailed for seven years, while Wilmot was locked up for 32 months for their roles in the cruelty meted out on the ward.

    Their trial heard that, in 2017 and 2018, there was “a culture of abuse” on the stroke unit, with staff able to help themselves to Zopiclone, a strong sedative, and other drugs for their own use or to drug patients. Some reportedly used the drugs to manage the effects of class A substances, the court heard.

    Band 7 staff nurse Marek Grabianowski, 46, was also jailed for 14 months for conspiracy to steal prescription drugs and perverting the course of justice. Two colleagues were also handed non-custodial sentences.

    While none of the patients connected to those convictions died, police enquiries have since uncovered additional disturbing concerns. In 2021, it also emerged that police were reviewing the deaths of eight other patients treated on the unit in 2018 as part of allegations of mistreatment and neglect. Those inquests remain outstanding.

    Within days of being called in to investigate the unit – after a student nurse reported concerns over what she had seen on her placement – beloved grandmother Valerie Kneale died after being admitted to the stroke unit. As a result of the investigation, detectives discovered Mrs Kneale had been ‘forcefully sexually assaulted’ and died as a result of her injuries.

    So a stroked-out grandmother was literally raped to death. Hell of a hospital you have there, NHS.

    In February 2024, locum doctor Xowi Mwimbi was jailed for 12 months after he was convicted of punching a dementia patient in the face. Preston Crown Court heard how the doctor had been warned the patient’s condition could cause outbursts, but when he used a racist term, the doctor forced his head away and punched him.

    The jury concluded that the doctor was not acting in self-defence and found him guilty of ill-treatment by a care worker. He was jailed for 12 months.

    In May 2023, Hernando Puno, a healthcare worker on the stroke unit, was jailed for nine months after being convicted of five counts of sexual assault. Puno, of Onslow Road, Blackpool, was first warned about his behaviour in 2014, but his victim felt her complaint was not taken seriously.

    In total, five women complained about the way the ‘jokey’ colleague touched and kissed them while they were at work. None of the convictions related to Valerie Kneale.

    In March 2025, Dr Aloaye Foy-Yamah was banned from practicing for 12 months after a General Medical Council tribunal found he had raped a female colleague. The civil hearing heard Dr Foy-Yamah had been accused of raping a female colleague in December 2018. He has consistently denied committing any offence.

    In a statement, Lancashire Police said they were unable to proceed with a prosecution due to ‘evidencial difficulties’ however the GMC hearing found ‘on the balance of probability’ – a lower standard of proof than is required in criminal cases. The case brought the profession into disrepute and Dr Foy-Yamah was banned from practicing.

    Amal Bose, Xowi Mwimbi, Hernando Puno and Aloaye Foy-Yamah don’t exactly sound like they were born in Blackpool, do they?

    Speaking after Bose was jailed, Maggie Oldham, Chief Executive at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals, said: “Our thoughts remain with all those affected by the actions of Mr Bose, and we thank our staff for the bravery and courage they have shown throughout the police investigation and trial of Mr Bose.

    Uh, Maggie, it sounds like you were the one who either hired these felons, or let them be hired under your supervision. Thoughts don’t cut it. Where does the buck stop?

    Here’s Count Dankula commenting on the story, though much of this video is just him reading the story.

    Thanks to NHS, British hospital patients are in the best of hands…

    LinkSwarm For September 26, 2025

    September 26th, 2025

    A whole lot of despicable Democrats voted against remembering Charlie Kirk and denouncing political violence, a whole bunch of lefties are still lying about Kirk, Comey indicted, President Trump officially backs a complete Ukraine victory, a new American stealth fighter enters production, two murderous lefty scumbags die, and an infamous thirty-four year old Austin murder mystery is solved.

    It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!

  • Democrats cast 58 “noes” on simple vote to honor Charlie Kirk’s life, condemn his assassination.” They couldn’t even do that.
  • Here’s the list of shame.

    Democrats who voted against:

    • Gabe Amo of Rhode Island
    • Joyce Beatty of Ohio
    • Wesley Bell of Missouri
    • Sanford Bishop Jr. of Georgia
    • Shontel Brown of Ohio
    • Andre Carson of Indiana
    • Troy Carter of Louisiana
    • Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida
    • Yvette Clarke of New York
    • Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri
    • Jim Clyburn of South Carolina
    • Jasmine Crockett of Texas
    • Danny Davis of Illinois
    • Veronica Escobar of Texas
    • Adriano Espaillat of New York
    • Cleo Fields of Louisiana
    • Shomari Figures of Alabama
    • Valerie Foushee of North Carolina
    • Maxwell Frost of Florida
    • Sylvia Garcia of Texas
    • Al Green of Texas
    • Jimmy Gomez of California
    • Jahana Hayes of Connecticut
    • Steven Horsford of Nevada
    • Glenn Ivey of Maryland
    • Jonathan Jackson of Illinois
    • Pramila Jayapal of Washington
    • Hank Johnson Jr. of Georgia
    • Sydney Kamlager-Dove of California
    • Robin Kelly of Illinois
    • Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois
    • Summer Lee of Pennsylvania
    • Lucy McBath of Georgia
    • LaMonica McIver of New Jersey
    • Robert Menendez of New Jersey
    • Kweisi Mfume of Maryland
    • Gwen Moore of Wisconsin
    • Seth Moulton of Massachusetts
    • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York
    • Ilhan Omar of Minnesota
    • Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts
    • Mike Quigley of Illinois
    • Delia Ramirez of Illinois
    • Emily Randall of Washington
    • Robert Scott of Virginia
    • Terri Sewell of Alabama
    • Lateefah Simon of California
    • Marilyn Strickland of Washington
    • Emilia Strong Sykes of Ohio
    • Shri Thanedar of Michigan
    • Bennie Thompson of Mississippi
    • Rashida Tlaib of Michigan
    • Lauren Underwood of Illinois
    • Nydia Velazquez of New York
    • Maxine Waters of California
    • Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey
    • Nikema Williams of Georgia
    • Frederica Wilson of Florida

    Democrats who voted “present”

    • Alma Adams of North Carolina
    • Donald Beyer Jr. of Virginia
    • Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon
    • Julia Brownley of California
    • Janelle Bynum of Oregon
    • Salud Carbajal of California
    • Greg Casar of Texas
    • Diana DeGette of Colorado
    • Mark DeSaulnier of California
    • Maxine Dexter of Oregon
    • Lloyd Doggett of Texas
    • Dwight Evans of Pennsylvania
    • Lois Frankel of Florida
    • Laura Friedman of California
    • John Garamendi of California
    • Daniel Goldman of New York
    • Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire
    • Val Hoyle of Oregon
    • Sara Jacobs of California
    • Julie Johnson of Texas
    • Timothy Kennedy of New York
    • Ro Khanna of California
    • Doris Matsui of California
    • Jennifer McClellan of Virginia
    • Grace Meng of New York
    • Brittany Pettersen of Colorado
    • Chellie Pingree of Maine
    • Mark Pocan of Wisconsin
    • Andrea Salinas of Oregon
    • Linda Sanchez of California
    • Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania
    • Brad Sherman of California
    • Suhas Subramanyam of Virginia
    • Mike Thompson of California
    • Jill Tokuda of Hawaii
    • Paul Tonko of New York
    • Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico
    • James Walkinshaw of Virginia

    Democrats who did not vote:

    • Nanette Diaz Barragan of California
    • Sean Casten of Illinois
    • Kathy Castor of Florida
    • Joaquin Castro of Texas
    • Steve Cohen of Tennessee
    • Herbert Conaway Jr. of New Jersey
    • Robert Garcia of California
    • Jesus Garcia of Illinois
    • George Latimer of New York
    • Teresa Leger Fernandez of New Mexico
    • Kevin Mullin of California
    • Joe Neguse of Colorado
    • Donald Norcross of New Jersey
    • Nancy Pelosi of California
    • Raul Ruiz of California
    • Janice Schakowsky of Illinois
    • Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico
    • Eric Swalwell of California
    • Norma Torres of California
    • Ritchie Torres of New York
    • Marc Veasey of Texas
    • Eugene Vindman of Virginia

    Name and shame…

  • “The ‘Study’ You’re Citing About Right-Wing Violence Is Full Of Fake Data.”

    After Charlie Kirk was assassinated last week, conservatives noted that most political violence comes from the left. The left bristles at this fact and has responded by dramatically padding the numbers to pretend the reverse is true.

    Consider a Sept. 12 piece from The Economist claiming, “extremists on both left and right commit violence, although more incidents appear to come from right-leaning attackers.”

    Right up front, the piece admits it used data “largely compiled by researchers whom sceptical (sic) conservatives would probably dismiss as biased.” The disclaimer is meant to inoculate The Economist’s audience to its sloppy reporting, as if challenges from conservatives will somehow prove The Economist’s accuracy.

    Yes, readers should be beyond skeptical of the source in that piece, The Prosecution Project. Its website claims to “track[] and provid[e] analysis of felony criminal cases involving illegal political violence, terrorism, and extremism occurring in the United States since 1990.”

    The founder and executive director of the Prosecution Project is Michael Loadenthal, although the links naming the website’s leadership were broken Friday, meaning no names were visible. Google had not yet scrubbed Loadenthal’s name from searches.

    Loadenthal is an “openly anarchist Antifa-affiliated … researcher at the University of Cincinnati who, by his own admission, is a far-left violent extremist,” The Federalist reported in 2023.

    So we have an Antifa-connected researcher with rabid bias against the right, held out as an expert on deciding who is extreme. It is like using a vegetarian to define which meat eaters are the most humane — none of them, says the vegetarian.

    The Prosecution Project lists January 2024 charges against John Reardon of Massachusetts, who made antisemitic threats against synagogues and the Israeli Consulate. It notes, “Influenced by events in Gaza, he also said, ‘you do realize that by supporting genocide that means it’s ok for people to commit genocide against you.’” The Department of Justice never identified Reardon’s political affiliation, but The Prosecution Project’s own account seems to indicate he was a pro-Palestine fanatic, a cause typically associated with Democrats. Yet The Prosecution Project identifies Reardon’s crimes as “rightist” because they’re “identity-focused.”

    The group also lists 2022 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act charges against Edmee Chavannes — even though “Chavannes was found not guilty.”

    The Prosecution Project even includes the posting of racist stickers in its tracker, as if that’s comparable to terrorism or violence. One wonders if the group will treat Democrats’ desecration of Charlie Kirk memorials with the same seriousness.

    Most crimes involving race or abortion businesses are blamed on the right in the data, with nothing to back up those claims. Yet these issues and others often cross over to the left. The Federalist has reported on the progressive anti-abortion movement, for example, and the left’s Marxist oppressor-versus-oppressed framework is manifestly racist.

    Comb through the ridiculous data on The Prosecution Project’s website, and you will soon conclude it is worthless to everyone except leftist propagandists trying to downplay Charlie Kirk’s murder and flip the blame for violence in the U.S. to the right.

    Similarly, a biased “study” by Alex Nowrasteh at the Cato Institute was debunked this week by Amber Duke at The Daily Caller.

    Nowrasteh claims politically motivated violence is rare in the U.S., but that when it happens, “right-wing terrorists” are more often to blame than the left — that is, when you exclude the terrorists who killed 2,977 victims on Sept. 11, 2001, and exclude injuries, property damage, and people who were not killed. Thus, his criteria exclude the two assassination attempts on President Donald Trump, for example. Additionally, Duke found that some of the crimes Nowrasteh blamed on the right were at best questionable and at worst downright wrong.

    Duke pointed to another lopsided study by the Anti-Defamation League, which also claims the right is to blame for increased political violence. Ryan James Girdusky unpacked those magic numbers and noted glaring omissions. For example, the ADL left the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson out of its study.

    (Hat tip: Director Blue.)

  • How the fact-free conspiracy theory about Charlie Kirk’s assassin being a right-winger magically spread around the world.

    Despite the evidence all pointing to Kirk’s killer being on the left wing of the ideological spectrum, the conspiracy theory about a right-wing shooter was pushed by a host of Democratic members of Congress, high-profile left-wing activists, liberal social media influencers, and more.

    The most common evidence-free claim on the left has been that the shooter was a follower of far right influencer Nick Fuentes.

    Lot’s more quotes from various lefty idiots asserting this connection without proof at the link.

  • More from Jeffrey Blehar:

    As each new detail trickled out, and the killer’s transgender associations became clearer and clearer, the hysterical spin and assertions of blunt unreality mounted. Cynical pros began inserting outright lies into the mix, as partisan myrmidons took up their work and used it in desperate, craven attempts to either spin facts in ridiculous ways (“his parents are Republicans!”) or simply pretend the facts weren’t “facts” at all. All of it was done with the intent of trying to will into existence — through the spread of fear, uncertainty, and doubt — an alternate narrative whose intended moral calculus amounted to, in so many words, Charlie Kirk was killed by his own team, and this is actually your fault.

    So, no, I’m not about to move on just yet.

    I could understand a certain amount of denialism at first, because I understand human nature. For those on the left who treat politics like a substitute religion — an increasing number of people in our irreligious age — this moment has been akin to seeing several of the central tenets of your faith publicly refuted. The revelation of the identity of the alleged shooter and the reports about his beliefs were arguably the worst possible scenario for the sorts of loud Democratic types who are deeply invested in the idea of the MAGA right as America’s true fever-swamp of hatred and violence.

    I can understand ignorance as well, because I depend on documenting it for a job — the Carnival of Fools would have to fold up its tent without it. In the days before the suspect was caught, it was natural that desperate progressives who get their news from left-wing authorities would use that span of time — when the killer was still at large — to conjure their own arcane interpretive theories in defiance of the known evidence. I feel inevitable disgust at these sad attempts at spin — I know who publicly celebrated the attack on Kirk, after all, and it wasn’t anyone on my side — but again, it was expected.

    But I can’t understand any of this after Tyler Robinson was caught on Friday morning. At that point, mere ignorance and wish-casting turned into an active disinformation campaign, and it was particularly appalling to see from people whose civic responsibility it is to know better. To take one example, how about the repellent Eric Swalwell? On Friday afternoon, in an audaciously sleazy bit of “partial storytelling,” the California congressman tweeted: “It doesn’t matter that Kirk’s killer was a straight white male. Or that he was from a Republican family that voted for Donald Trump. Violence has NEVER been the answer.”

    If he thought this was a cute joke, he’s a moral reprobate. If he thought it was an effective deceit, he’s also a moral reprobate. I think it is thus fair to conclude that he’s a moral reprobate. The jury’s still out on his fellow California Democratic congressman Dave Min, however, who may simply be stupid. Min said on Saturday: “Now that the Charlie Kirk assassin has been identified as MAGA, I’m sure Donald Trump, Elon Musk and all the insane GOP politicians who called for retribution against the ‘RADICAL LEFT’ will now shift their focus to stopping the toxic violence of the RADICAL RIGHT.” (As it turns out, Dave? No, we won’t!)

    How about Harvard Law professor — and Joe Biden legal adviser — Laurence Tribe? Tribe announced on Twitter that the killer “seems to have been ultra-MAGA, exploding the GOP/MAGA attempt to pin the blame for this tragedy on liberals.” (How he got that idea is anybody’s guess.) Later, he deleted the tweet and posted a non-apology accusing the right of “making things up” by associating the killer with transgender or left-wing causes. I can only tell you that once upon a time he had a fine legal mind.

    I certainly can’t say the same for Heather Cox Richardson, the world’s most-followed Substacker. Richardson is a Temu Tribe, an oracle of the complacently progressive academic establishment, and demonstrated it once again by going on a podcast on Friday to claim that the killer was a “right-winger” and all those outraged conservatives online were now retreating “in a real hurry.” (Lest you think that was an error born of speaking off the cuff, Richardson put it in writing as well.)

    Now that the gaslighting has become impossible to sustain, the left has moved on to its last line of defense: “Let’s not bicker and argue about who killed whom.” It will be a long time before I forget the five days I have just spent being gaslighted both by political operators as well as people who remain transparently in denial. I expected better of them. I held them only to the standards that I hold myself. It was a mistake.

  • “Trump golf club gunman [Ryan Routh] found guilty after assassination attempt; tries to stab self in court.” The left is sending us an endless parade of violent lunatics and losers.
  • Biden Autopen scandal deepens.

    One of former President Joe Biden’s top aides – Jeff Zients, told the House Oversight Committee on Thursday that an aide with his email credentials was green lighting some of the most controversial ‘autopen’ pardons, that Hunter Biden – who received an insane pardon himself – was involved in the pardon discussions, and that Joe Biden’s brain was pea soup.

    According to Axios, Zients – one of the highest ranking officials from the Biden White House – confirmed that Joe Biden had difficulty remembering dates and names, and often required extra briefings to make decisions during the final years of his presidency.

    Instead of having three meetings before making a decision, for example, Biden would want four.

    Zients said Biden had long had trouble with names and dates, but acknowledged to investigators that the president’s memory of such facts got worse in the final years of his term.

    Jill Biden, meanwhile, spoke with Zients about ‘managing Joe’ as Zients was readying himself to take on the role of Chief of Staff in early 2023 – urging him to adjust Biden’s schedule so he could get more rest and return to the White House residence earlier in the evening.

    Longtime Biden aide and deputy CoS Annie Tomasini also spoke with Zients about limiting Biden’s schedule and shortening distances and stairs.

    According to Fox News, Zients “admitted that President Biden’s speech stumbles increased as he aged,” adding “He also noted that the president’s difficulty remembering dates and names worsened over time, including during the administration.”

    Also interesting – Zients told investigators that Hunter Biden was involved in discussions about presidential pardons towards the end of Biden’s term, which included the blanket pardons of several members of the Biden family issued during Joe’s final 24 hours in office. It had been previously reported by NBC News that Hunter was sitting in on White House meetings following the former president’s horrible performance during a June 2024 debate against Donald Trump.

  • And just like that millions of lefty sorts who piously sand “No one’s above the law!” for the ginned-up Trump indictments all automatically switched to “This is a dangerous precedent!” when it comes to indicting James Comey.

    Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted on criminal charges related to allegations that he lied to Congress during testimony in 2020 about whether he authorized a leak of information.

    Comey is facing one count of false statements and one count of obstruction of justice, according to a release from the Department of Justice.

    “No one is above the law. Today’s indictment reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people. We will follow the facts in this case,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.

    President Trump reacted gleefully to the indictment in a statement shared to Truth Social.

    “JUSTICE IN AMERICA! One of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to is James Comey, the former Corrupt Head of the FBI.”

    “Today he was indicted by a Grand Jury on two felony counts for various illegal and unlawful acts. He has been so bad for our Country, for so long, and is now at the beginning of being held responsible for his crimes against our Nation. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

    Comey’s indictment in Virginia federal court comes just days before the statute of limitations for the perjury charge was set to run out. The charges come five years after Comey testified on September 30, 2020, before the Senate Judiciary Committee that he never authorized anyone at the FBI to leak information to the press related to the investigations of either possible collusion between Trump and Russia or Hillary Clinton’s use of an unauthorized email system.

    During the hearing, Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) asked Comey whether he had authorized leaks related to either investigation. Comey reiterated what he said in 2017 congressional testimony, that he had not.

    Cruz argued that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe had said Comey authorized at least one such disclosure, related to the Clinton investigation. But the Justice Department inspector general found in 2018 that McCabe had “lacked candor when he told Comey, or made statements that led Comey to believe, that McCabe had not authorized the disclosure and did not know who did.”

    The charges also center in part on an October 2016 New York Times report, “Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia.”

    The Times article was in response to reporting in Slate that Trump had established a communications back channel with the Kremlin, involving servers at Trump Tower in Manhattan and Alfa Bank, one of Russia’s largest financial institutions.

    Hours after the Slate article was published, the Times report related the FBI’s conclusion that the back-channel claim was unfounded. The report also detailed that the bureau’s counterintelligence investigation of Russia’s malign activities in connection with the 2016 campaign were not linked to Trump and his campaign.

    Special counsel John Durham probed the leaks to the Times in connection with the story as an unauthorized public disclosure (UPD) of classified information.

    The February 2020 closing memorandum for the probe, obtained by veteran journalist Catherine Herridge, found there were two major government sources for the story: James Baker, FBI general counsel and a close adviser to Comey, and FBI Chief of Staff James Rybicki. Baker told investigators that he was “under the belief” that he was “ultimately instructed and authorized to [provide information to the Times] by then FBI Director James Comey.”

    However, Baker did not claim that Comey gave him a direct order. “Baker indicated that FBI Chief of Staff James Rybicki instructed him (Baker) to disclose the information to the NYT, and Baker understood Rybicki was conveying this instruction and authorization from Comey.”

  • The Antifa left are stepping up their insurrection against American law enforcement. “Shooting at Dallas ICE Facility Leaves Detainees and Suspect Dead.”

    A Dallas U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility was the target of a shooting Wednesday morning that left two detainees dead, one person injured, and the suspect committing suicide at the scene.

    According to the Dallas Police Department, law enforcement responded to a call at a Dallas ICE facility after reports that someone had opened fire from an adjacent building.

    Two detainees were pronounced dead, with another being rushed to the hospital in critical condition with a gunshot injury.

    The suspected shooter, a white male armed with a rifle on a roof, died by suicide as agents approached, FOX4 Dallas reported.

    ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons spoke to CNN about the shooting as the event unfolded, saying that the scene is secure and the shooter is “down from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”

    Bullets found had anti-ICE slogans written on them.

  • Stephen Green has some some official Antifa guidelines for engaging in a criminal conspiracy to thwart federal law enforcement through violence and intimidation.
  • Why people who kept freaking out at Trump negotiating with Putin shouldn’t have. “Trump Says Ukraine Can Win Back All of Its Territory from Russia.”

    President Donald Trump declared his belief Tuesday that Ukraine can win its war against Russia outright, an extraordinary shift in tone with significant ramifications for U.S. policy.

    Trump shared his views on Truth Social after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.

    “I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form. With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO, the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option,” Trump said.

    Trump’s position is a 180-degree shift from his longstanding view that Ukraine would have to cede territory to Russia as a condition for ending the war. Moscow holds roughly a fifth of Ukraine’s territory after invading its neighbor three-and-a-half years ago. Russian forces have slowly made gains along the eastern part of Ukraine in what has become a grueling war of attrition with hundreds of thousands of estimated casualties.

    Trump argued Russia is a “paper tiger” and suggested Russian people were not aware of the damage Russian President Vladimir Putin has done to their nation. He also praised the “Great Spirit” of Ukraine and said Ukraine could “maybe even go further” than reclaiming its original territory. Trump’s comments are a stark contrast from his past statements that argued Russia was winning the war and likened Zelensky to a dictator.

    Trump promised the U.S. would keep sending weapons to NATO for the alliance to use in the way it sees fit. His comments will likely prompt a furious response from Putin and Russian forces in Ukraine. It also remains to be seen how Trump’s restraint-oriented cabinet members and political allies react to his unexpected shift.

    As previously observed, Trump’s negotiating strategy works on persuasion and tit-for-tat strategies. Zelensky, after some early stumbles, is finally fully onboard with Trump, while Putin hasn’t offered anything in return to Trump’s overtures. That means that Zelensky gets all the carrots, and Putin gets all the sticks. Golly, who could have seen that one coming except everyone who’s actually watched Trump operate for the last ten years who isn’t suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome?

  • Ukraine launched another big drone strike, this one on the Saratov oil refinery in Bryanskaya Ulitsa, Saratov Oblast, the third time they’ve hit it since August.
  • They also hit the Afipsky oil refinery in Krasnodar again. Plus more reports of gas shortages across Russia.
  • Their marine drones hit an oil loading pier at Tuapse in Krasnodar.
  • Secretary of War Pete Hesgeth has summoned 800 generals and admirals from around the world to Washington D.C. without telling them what for. They’re going to be pretty surprised when he announces that he’s brought all of them there to talk about Amway…
  • Russia just flew a wave of drones over Denmark.
  • “Gunman yelling “Free Palestine!” opens fire at New Hampshire country club.”

    23-year-old Hunter Nadeau was arrested on scene for shooting multiple victims at the Sky Meadow Country Club in Nashau, New Hampshire, Saturday night. A 59-year-old named Robert DeCesare was killed in front of his family. At least two others were injured.

    Tom Bartelson of Pepperell, Massachusetts, is the witness in the video above. He was at his nephew’s wedding in a private room of the club when the gunman entered the building dressed in all black. The shooter yelled, “The children are safe!” and “Free Palestine!” before killing DeCesare. He then moved into the club restaurant and opened fire again.

    Funny no matter what the leftwing cause, the solution seems to be murdering American citizens.

  • Another month, another #BlackLivesMatter bigwig using donations to fund her lavish lifestyle.

    A once-celebrated Boston social activist has pleaded guilty to defrauding donors — including Black Lives Matter — out of thousands of dollars that she used as a personal piggy bank.

    Monica Cannon-Grant, 44, pleaded guilty Monday to 18 counts of fraud-related crimes that she committed with her late husband while operating their Violence in Boston (VIB) activists group, according to the US Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts.

    The activist scammed money — including $3,000 from a BLM group — while claiming it was to help feed children and run protests like one in 2020 over the murder of George Floyd and police violence.

    Cannon-Grant also conned her way into getting $100,000 in federal pandemic-related unemployment benefits — which she used to pay off her personal auto loan and car insurance policy.

    But she has now confessed to transferring funds to personal bank accounts to pay for rent, shopping sprees, delivery meals, visits to a nail salon — and even a summer vacation to Maryland.

    (Previously.) (Hat tip: Dwight.)

  • Self-Replicating Worm Hits 180+ Software Packages.

    At least 187 code packages made available through the JavaScript repository NPM have been infected with a self-replicating worm that steals credentials from developers and publishes those secrets on GitHub, experts warn. The malware, which briefly infected multiple code packages from the security vendor CrowdStrike, steals and publishes even more credentials every time an infected package is installed.

    You may remember Crowdstrike from such hits as “we helped Hillary Clinton illegally erase her secret email server.”

  • Speaking of technology running amok: “OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws.” That sounds like the sort6 of cruel fact that should throw a kink in all of these AI company’s getting trillion dollar valuations but somehow won’t.
  • In California, 13 year old boy killed by sex-abusing, illegal alien soccer coach. The family of boy is “suing Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles for failing to perform a background check on the coach.”
  • Turns out that when conservatives said they were being unfairly censored due to Biden Administration pressure, they were right all along. “YouTube Lifts Ban on Censored Creators, Admits Biden Admin Pressure Was ‘Unacceptable.'”

    Google is making major changes to YouTube’s free speech policies following pressure from House Republicans and shifts among its top competitors.

    In a letter to House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), an attorney for Alphabet, Google and YouTube’s parent company, announced a series of changes to YouTube’s approach to free speech, including the return of banned creators to the platform and the implementation of a community notes system to replace third-party fact-checkers.

    YouTube is rolling back its restrictive policies surrounding political speech, especially the Covid-19 pandemic and elections. The video platform said its reliance on public health authorities was well intentioned, but expressed regret at its impact on public debate on issues that were far from settled.

    More broadly, YouTube admitted senior Biden administration officials conducted extensive outreach to YouTube to influence its approach to “misinformation” and Covid-19 content that did not violate YouTube’s policies.

    “Senior Biden Administration officials, including White House officials, conducted repeated and sustained outreach to Alphabet and pressed the Company regarding certain user-generated content related to the COVID-19 pandemic that did not violate its policies,” the letter reads.

    While YouTube independently enforced its policies, Biden officials “continued to press the Company” to remove content that did not violate the platform’s policies. The letter calls out Biden and other administration officials for creating a “political atmosphere that sought to influence the actions of platforms” under the guise of “misinformation.”

  • “Trump to Sign Off on TikTok Deal with Majority American Investors, ‘Retrained’ Algorithm.”

    President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order later this week declaring that an emerging deal involving the video-sharing app TikTok meets American security needs and constitutes a qualified divestiture under U.S. law, according to people familiar with the matter.

    Under the deal, American tech company Oracle will serve as the app’s security provider, which will independently monitor the source code of the app as well as study how a U.S.-controlled copy of the TikTok content recommendation algorithm operates and interacts with phone features and updates.

    Oracle will be required to “retrain” a leased duplicate TikTok algorithm…

    So it will not necessarily be a Chinese spyware app any more, but will still be malware for your brain…

  • Good news from the border! “Texas, Southwest Region See ‘Historically Low’ Southern Border Apprehensions in August.”
  • Less good news from the border: “Shrinking Resources Cast New Doubt on Operation Lone Star Prosecutions.”

    Texas’ border jurisdictions are scrambling to manage thousands of pending Operation Lone Star cases after key state partners abruptly pulled out, leaving local officials to coordinate housing and transportation for defendants.

    Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith told Texas Scorecard the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) and the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM), both of which helped provide housing for illegal crossers arrested under the border security initiative, are no longer handling those responsibilities.

    The Del Rio Processing Center is reportedly shutting down, along with Val Verde County’s detention facility—the original epicenter of Operation Lone Star (OLS) prosecutions.

    “We’re left holding the bag,” Smith said. “Counties are having to figure this out on their own without the infrastructure the state had in place.”

    Smith said approximately half of all prosecutions tied to OLS in Kinney County have already been resolved, either through pleas or dismissals, but thousands of cases remain active.

    According to numbers from the Texas Indigent Defense Commission, more than 2,600 felony cases have already been resolved. Nearly 2,000 cases are still pending, in part due to lengthy appeals.

    Meanwhile, the Kinney County Sheriff’s Office has more than 700 outstanding warrants for alleged smugglers and another 1,400 warrants that have not yet been executed because of limited capacity to house and transport defendants.

    Kinney County has contracts with about 10 jails across Texas—including some as far away as the Panhandle—but the county jail cannot hold a person beyond 72 hours, as it is considered a temporary holding facility. That has forced sheriffs and prosecutors into a patchwork system for transferring detainees, with major bottlenecks since TDCJ and TDEM stopped coordinating.

    The Dolph Briscoe Unit in Dilley and the Segovia Unit in Edinburg, which had filled major housing roles, are no longer available, worsening the shortage.

    Plus border counties have been avoid arresting women because they don’t have room for them in separate facilities.

  • 21-Year Age Minimum for Purchasing THC Products Adopted by Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.”
  • Boeing starts production of the F-47.
  • Amazon settles a lawsuit for tricking people into signing up for Prime and making it nearly impossibility to cancel to the tune of $2.5 billion.
  • So where did President Trump get the crazy idea that using Tylenol during pregnancy could result in autism? A Harvard study. “Using acetaminophen during pregnancy may increase children’s autism and ADHD risk.”
  • Austin Yogurt Shop Murders finally solved? retired Austin detective John Jones fingered serial killer and rapist Robert Eugene Brashers (who died in a standoff with police in 1999) as the culprit. Brashers is a serial killer and rapist who committed at least three murders between 1990 and 1998 in the states of South Carolina and Missouri. He died in January 1999 by suicide during a standoff with police. Evidently a new type of DNA testing finally matched up Brashers as the culprit.
  • Robber/home intruder gets stabbed by a samurai sword.
  • “Graceland, Graceland Graceland/Trying to steal Graceland/Four years in prison for a mortgage scam trying to steal Graceland.”
  • More scenes from The Fall Of England: “Muslim who shouted ‘I’m going to kill you’ while stabbing man is given suspended sentence by British court; victim charged instead.”
  • UK’s Labour government thought they could get away with some cost-free virtue signaling by recognizing “a Palestinian state.” Surprise! “UK could face claim for $2,700,000,000,000 in reparations for recognizing Palestinian state.”
  • “Eli Lilly Latest Recipient of Texas JETI Award, Totaling $6.5 Billion Harris County Investment.”

    Gov. Greg Abbott today announced a $5.5 million grant from Texas for the construction of a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Harris County — one of multiple projects approved under the Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology, and Innovation (JETI) program over the past year.

    Abbott joined Eli Lilly and Company executives for a press conference on Tuesday afternoon in Houston to announce its creation of a nearly one million-square foot active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing facility. The company estimated that it’ll produce around 600 new jobs and will invest more than $6.5 billion within the state.

    The grant of $5.5 million towards Lilly’s new project was made possible through the JETI approval process, a property tax abatement program established through contentious legislation passed during the 88th regular legislative session.

    House Bill (HB) 5, which was signed into law by Abbott in June 2023, replaced a 20-year-old initiative with a new economic incentive program. It created a pathway for school districts to grant companies a decade-long break in their property tax payments in exchange for relocation to their area. It limited the kinds of companies eligible to receive abatements and grants for projects in Texas, excluding renewable energy projects after negotiations proved its removal to be necessary for passage in the Legislature.

    Let me reiterate my general opposition to government subsidies of business in almost all circumstances. Government shouldn’t be in the business of picking winners and losers. However, an end to subsidizing money-losing “renewable energy” sources that made the Texas Interconnect Grid less reliable is a big plus.

    One of the first projects approved under JETI this year, also in Harris County, was to assist Summit Next Gen in opening “a world-class sustainable aviation fuel manufacturing and refining facility along the Texas Gulf Coast,” in January 2025. It’s expected to produce over $1.6 billion in capital investment for Texas.

    In February, Abbott made two JETI expansion project announcements: one for a new Braven Environmental facility in Texarkana, estimated to rake in more than $145 million in investment for the state, and the other for Vinton Steel’s “advanced manufacturing facility that recycles ferrous scrap into new steel products.” Vinton is expected to invest over $229 million in the state and create an additional 180 new jobs.

    Brazos Midland Processing LLC, also known as Brazos Midstream, was announced as an approved recipient in late August for a “300 million cubic feet per day natural gas processing plant” in Martin County, expected to create $185 million in capital investment.

    At Tuesday’s announcement of the new Lilly project, Abbott reiterated that “Texas is the best state in America for doing business.”

  • And speaking of unreliable renewable energy subsidies: “$2.2 billion solar plant in California scheduled to be turned off after years of wasted money.” That would be Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in California’s Mojave Desert, the one that used mirrors to concentrate light onto a single tower, and which fried lots of birds every year. I’m surprised that it was still running, given how markedly unsuccessful it’s been at generating affordable energy years ago. But I may be confusing it with the similar (and similarly failed) Crescent Dunes project. That’s the one that suffered the molten salt leaks… (Hat tip: Dwight.)
  • Dwight also brought news of the deaths of two murderous leftwing scumbags: Would-be Gerald R. Ford assassin Sara Jane Moore, and JoAnne Chesimard, aka “Assata Shakur”, of the Black Liberation Army, who murdered New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster. The latter died in Havana. Rot in hell, commie.
  • California attorney hit with $10,000 fine for brief filled with fake ChatGPT quotes. “The Los Angeles-area attorney fined last week, Amir Mostafavi, told the court that he did not read text generated by the AI model before submitting the appeal in July 2023, months after OpenAI marketed ChatGPT as capable of passing the bar exam.” The real fine should be no client ever willing to trust his lazy ass again..
  • This is pretty damn funny:

    (Hat tip: Ed Dricoll at Instapundit.)

  • “The radical Lower East Side shop that lured drug addicts to its storefront by offering free clothing, food and Narcan suddenly shut down Tuesday — sparking internal warfare and finger pointing.”

    Without warning, Bluestockings Cooperative announced that it would permanently shut down after more than 26 years, stating that “daily operations are unfortunately no longer sustainable on multiple fronts.”

    “This was our absolute last resort. On top of our crew’s ongoing struggle against the organized abandonment of New York City and the constant crises, the remaining worker-owner and staff are at the limits of what they can manage in terms of health, disability, and finances,” a statement posted to Instagram reads.

    The Suffolk Street shop blamed the closure on its failure as a worker-owned cooperative to “come to consensus around the guiding principles and practices Bluestockings should embody” — adding that an inability to align on political and business operations directly led to the setbacks the business faced over the last two years.

    “Of course, $12,000 a month in rent, thousands in utilities, and racist, classist violence from ‘neighbors’ certainly didn’t make our work any easier,” the statement continued.

    Bluestockings came under intense outrage from its posh Lower East Side neighborhood, which transformed into a “zombie apocalypse” of strung-out junkies shooting up in broad daylight who were drawn to the bookstore’s free and indiscriminate services.

    The self-described “radically inclusive” shop was a state-recognized Opiate Overdose Prevention Program and offered “harm reduction services” like Narcan, drug-testing strips and a used needle-drop off bin — which neighbors alleged enabled the junkies.

    In recent years, Bluestockings plunged into around $100,000 in debt to its publishers and book distributors, according to reports.

    Social justice is incompatible with both profit and basic human decency. (Hat tip: Dwight.)

  • Has Toronto become the exotic car theft capital of North America? It’s also funny how all these carjackers and thieves seem to have guns despite Canada’s gun control laws…
  • Critical Drinker and company talk about Britain’s unkillable soldier, Lieutenant General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart VC KBE CB CMG DSO.
  • Seven things to do before buying a used car.
  • Korean court orders man to pay fine for defaming virtual pop star.
  • That time an American soldier saved his own life by not killing a spider. (Hat tip: Infidel753.)
  • Inside Tokyo’s smallest apartment.
  • “Satan: ‘I’ve Made A Huge Mistake.'”
  • “Nazi Rally Inspires Millions To Forgive And Love Their Enemies.”
  • “Logo Update: Democrat Donkey Now Holding Sniper Rifle.”
  • “Hamas Calls On Democrats To Tone Down Violence.”
  • “Americans Return To Not Watching Jimmy Kimmel By Choice.”
  • “AOC Loses Debate Against Cardboard Cutout Of Charlie Kirk.”
  • I’m still between jobs. Feel free to hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.