Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog

I’m not sure how to start this story, so we are DIVING IN.

This week, conservative analyst DataRepublican released transcripts, videos, and audio from groups including ex-USAID and national security officials (all Democrat) coordinating to provoke Trump into invoking the Insurrection Act after the 2026 midterms.

Their plan is simple.

1. Get Democrats to take control of Congress in the midterms.
2. Ramp up coordinated, color-revolution riots across the nation, forcing Trump to use the Insurrection Act and the National Guard to quell leftist violence.
3. Use Democratic governors and congressmen to declare Trump illegitimate and hold a “Third Continental Congress” to rewrite the Constitution and make America communist.
4. Engage in eternal Marxist revolution.

Here is a clip of far-left leaders, including former USAID diplomat Danielle Reiff, talking about enacting “extraconstitutional” measures to create “the kind of transformation” the Marxist revolutionaries want.

I think we have an opportunity – I think the midterms, especially if there’s a meltdown around the midterms in a crisis of legitimacy, could be a real window of opportunity for us to say, ‘Okay, some red lines have been crossed, but what we really need to do is transform our system.’ But in order to do that in November and take advantage of the meltdown scenario, we have to get super, super organized in the next seven months. So I think this is a plan that needs to be on steroids.

…

The conversation that we’ve started more broadly is what happens if we need to go extraconstitutional to create the kind of transformation that we’d all like to see. And so, we’ve talked about a sequence of, like, an important convening. Maybe like a Third Continental Congress that actually comes up with a declaration that says, ‘Here are the red lines. If these red lines in our democracy are crossed, we will move into an extraconstitutional process…

Sounds awful insurrectiony, doesn’t it!

A former Ukrainian diplomat who was at one point set to give negative testimony about Hunter Biden’s business links appears to have wrongly had his visa to the United States revoked, according to newly released documents.

The White House Task Force on Government Transparency and Election Integrity released the information to reporters late Wednesday about the State Department and Treasury Department taking action in 2020 to revoke the visa of Andrii Telizhenko, the Ukrainian diplomat. Telizhenko had worked for the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington.

Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin had called him to testify in early 2020, shortly after the first President Donald Trump impeachment, regarding the president’s phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which Trump inquired about then-former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s links to the energy company Burisma.

Democrats accused Telizhenko of promoting Russian disinformation.

Records showed that Telizhenko was friendly to the Obama administration and was opposed to the administration of pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

Federal agencies were not able to establish an evidentiary basis for claiming he was tied to Russia, according to an administration official. A Trump administration official said the records show it was based on “assumptions and newspaper articles.”

There’s no greater crime than opposing the criminal actions of a Democrat in power. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

The Department of Justice charged former FBI agents Nikki Cole Floris and Bradley Benavides for allegedly lying to Congress about their involvement in the Hunter Biden investigation.

“This morning two former FBI members of the now dissolved Foreign Influence Task Force, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, were taken into custody – charged with allegedly lying to Congress in 2023 on matters regarding investigations related to the 2020 election. One of these individuals is on record privately claiming to be ‘running a shadow government’ during the 2020 election,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “As we’ve said repeatedly: weaponization will never be tolerated at this FBI. We have already dismantled the corrupt CR-15 squad that engaged in political weaponization targeting their opponents, including President Trump – and anyone who abuses their position of public trust will be held accountable.”

According to the statement of facts, witnesses and documents, Floris and Benavides played active roles in FBI investigations into Hunter Biden between December 2019 and September 2021.

“In October 2020, both Floris and Benavides worked on the FBI’s internal and Congressional responses to reporting on the FBI’s receipt of Hunter Biden’s laptop, with Floris receiving, discussing, and passing along updates on the investigations through late 2021.”

The Koksan is North Korea’s longest-range conventional tube-artillery system and one of the most unusual weapons Pyongyang has supplied to Russia. Western intelligence first identified the system in 1979 near the North Korean city of Koksan, which later gave the artillery piece its commonly used Western name.

The original M1978 Koksan can reportedly strike targets at ranges of up to roughly 40 kilometers with standard ammunition and as far as 60 kilometers with rocket-assisted shells. Its rate of fire is relatively slow at around one to two rounds every five minutes, but its long reach allows it to operate well behind the immediate front line.

The weapon’s gun is mounted in an open configuration, providing little protection for its estimated four-to-six-person crew.

The earlier model also requires a separate vehicle to carry ammunition because of the size of the weapon and its shells, while the later M1989 variant can carry around 12 rounds onboard.

Like much commie Wunderwaffen, it sounds like more of a pain in the ass to use than a real difference-making weapon.

A fugitive accused of stealing more than $600,000 in federal food stamp benefits has been returned to the United States after being arrested in India last month, FBI Director Kash Patel announced.

Manjit Singh Bedi, one of the FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters, was wanted on federal charges stemming from an alleged Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) fraud scheme at a grocery store in Tacoma, Washington.

An Atlanta social media personality has been arrested on federal charges for allegedly stealing millions of dollars in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits by using fraudulent accounts, prosecutors say.

Mercedes Reshard New, who goes by “Shawty Dred” on social media is accused of taking more than $4 million meant to feed poor Georgia families to fund his lavish lifestyle.

According to investigators with the U.S. District Attorney’s Office of Northern Georgia, New allegedly controlled more than 350 SNAP accounts created using false identities between 2020 and 2026, having the electronic benefit transfer debit cards mailed to multiple addresses around metro Atlanta.

New also allegedly applied for his company, Shawty Dred LLC, to become an authorized SNAP retailer, allowing him to use the cards for purchases.

The USDA revoked Shawty Dred LLC’s authorization in 2025, and local police arrested New shortly afterward for allegedly selling SNAP benefits, prosecutors say. The officers seized 14 EBT debit cards, which he promptly requested replacements for.

In all, federal prosecutors say that New tricked the Georgia Division of Family & Children Services into giving him around $4.6 million in SNAP benefits, which he was able to siphon $4 million from accounts. All the while, prosecutors say he had flaunted flying on private jets, posing with luxury vehicles, and calling other people “broke motherf****s” on social media.

(Hat tip: Dwight.)

JoCasta Zamarripa: My number one priority is to see the governor sign driver’s licenses for undocumented Wisconsinites into law … Driver’s licenses for undocumented Wisconsinites is going to improve the public safety for all Wisconsinites. Whether they’re fifth generation US citizens or whether they’re newly arrived immigrant because it’s going to be more folks with a driver’s license driving on our roads.

Her number one priority! Nothing is more important to her than this!

Not crime reduction. Not the economy. Not affordability. Not jobs. Not even giving the Wisconsin Badgers the NIL money to become relevant in college sports again.

Just your regular reminder that the average Democrat candidate, even in the conservative-leaning Midwest, wants to invite the entire world to live in America and fundamentally destroy the land built by our forefathers.

Comptroller Don Huffines has issued an executive order prohibiting taxpayer funds administered through his agency from supporting discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

The order requires contractors and grant recipients working with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts to certify that their state-funded activities do not involve discriminatory DEI practices. Agreements will also include provisions allowing the agency to terminate contracts immediately for violations.

Under the order, discriminatory DEI practices include preferential or unequal treatment based on race, color, ethnicity, religion, age, sex, or national origin in recruitment, hiring, contracting, program participation, or the use of state resources.

“The radical left turned diversity, equity, and inclusion into a racket, and taxpayers got stuck with the bill,” Huffines said. “Woke DEI is discrimination, plain and simple. It sorts Texans by skin color and sex, punishes merit, and funnels money to consultants who produce nothing.”

Huffines said the comptroller’s office handles thousands of contracts and grants involving hundreds of state agencies and thousands of local governments, making the new requirements applicable to a broad range of state-funded agreements.

“Every contractor and every grantee is on notice. Hire the best, promote the best, and serve every Texan the same, and you will do just fine,” Huffines said. “Push woke DEI with taxpayer money, and we will terminate your agreement on the spot.”

Holly Hansen: In that testimony, there were some questions about the Travis County District Attorney’s Office and other district attorneys’ offices around the state, and a possible relationship with a progressive reform group known as the Wren Collective.

Did any of that surprise you, or are there additional concerns about what may be happening there?

Dustin Burrows: There are absolutely additional concerns. I think all Texans should be concerned with what was exposed during that hearing. I mean, there’s evidence that the Wren Collective communicated with Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzalez and his first Assistant District Attorney Christian Hendrickson about prosecutorial policies involving bail, sentencing, and plea guidelines.

We saw that there was a non-disclosure agreement that was in place. Lots of questions raised. We also know that there’s been a ton of money that has been poured into these races by progressive mega-donors like George Soros. They’re literally spending millions of dollars backing district attorney candidates throughout the state.

Remember that Wren Collective is a radical leftwing social justice organization that never met a minority criminal it didn’t love, nor a cop it didn’t hate.

A judge has ordered the release of a teenage suspect charged in the deadly mass shooting at the Bite of Seattle festival to home detention on electronic home monitoring, overriding objections from prosecutors who argued he remains a severe threat to community safety.

The teen suspect faces charges of first-degree assault with a firearm enhancement and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. Court documents show the State is seeking to decline juvenile jurisdiction and try him as an adult.

Fort Bend County Tax-Assessor-Collector Carmen Turner and two co-conspirators were arrested Thursday on charges including conspiracy to commit fraud, theft of government funds and benefits, and wire fraud related to a scheme that included fraudulent positions in her office at taxpayers’ expense.

“If you did not already hate tax collectors enough already, we’re going to give you a few more reasons to do so today,” said Aaron Reitz, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, during a press conference in Houston on Thursday.

According to the federal indictments, Turner hired Shemerrylyn Regina Fields as a deputy tax clerk but then allegedly tasked Fields with providing full-time care for Turner’s elderly mother. Turner also hired Victor Ewing, the father of her adult child, as a department coordinator — a position Reitz said was “fake.”

Although Ewing drew a Fort Bend County paycheck, he reportedly lived in Chicago and worked at another full-time job at O’Hare Airport. Reitz said Ewing then sent payments back to Turner in what he characterized as an alleged “kickback” scheme.

“Carmen Turner has been strutting around Fort Bend County with the title The Honorable for years. Nothing could be more dishonorable—or illegal—than her and her conspirators’ public corruption,” Reitz said. “The people of the Southern District of Texas have my commitment to do everything we can to do justice and make it right. Taxpayers deserve so much better.”

Jason Hudson, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Houston Division, said that Turner allegedly instructed Fields to lie about her work on Fort Bend County time sheets, and that the fraudulent activity took place from about September 2023 to September 2025.

I know you’ll be shocked to learn that Turner is a Democrat…

In Berkeley, Calif., elementary schoolers are learning about “cisgenderpatriarchy,” “ableism,” and “decolonization,” a House Education Committee investigation found.

Representative Tim Walberg commissioned the investigation following an uptick in antisemitic incidents after the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks against Israel. While the report, which was shared with National Review, documents instances of antisemitism in all three school districts the committee examined, investigators also found a broader pattern of left-wing bias that shapes how young children are being taught history, reading, geography, economics, and other subjects.

In some instances teachers and National Education Association union leaders discouraged colleagues from sharing certain controversial lessons “directly with families.” One such lesson aimed to teach Berkeley students about Israel and Palestine. Lesson plans obtained by the committee claimed that “from the river to the sea” — a popular activist slogan that calls for the elimination of the state of Israel — can be “a call for freedom and peace.” The same lesson avoided describing Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Berkeley’s ethnic studies curriculum offers several examples of how these political themes enter the classroom.

In fourth-grade ethnic studies, Berkeley Unified School District teachers asked nine-year-olds to define “covert resistance” and “overt resistance.” Teachers also introduced the terms of “colonization,” “decolonization,” and “settler.” With these new definitions in mind, the curriculum explained that history “is often presented from a colonizer’s perspective” and expressed the importance of “decolonizing historical narratives.”

The district’s fifth-grade ethnic studies curriculum takes a similar approach to civics. A unit titled “defining democracy” sought to “critique empire and its relationship to white supremacy, racism, patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, anthropocentrism, and other forms of power and oppression at the intersections of our society.”

When teaching about the Founding Fathers, Berkeley’s fourth-grade curriculum aimed to “challenge imperialist/colonial hegemonic beliefs and practices on the ideological, institutional, interpersonal, and internalized levels.” The term “Founding Fathers,” the lesson says, is “harmful because it does not acknowledge the Indigenous communities who lived here before colonization.”

The investigation found similar politicization in the School District of Philadelphia. A lesson taught to ninth graders linked capitalism to imperialism and colonialism.

Social justice corrupts everything it touches.

The settlement comes after Paxton sued PDD Holdings, Inc. and WhaleCo Inc., which conducts business as Temu, earlier this year for harvesting the personal information of customers and exposing it to the Chinese Communist Party.

In the lawsuit, Paxton alleged that the company violated Texas law “by engaging in false pricing schemes, misrepresenting the quality of its goods, and covertly mining the data of Texans.”

Paxton also called the shopping app “a Trojan horse” that has the ability to bypass security protocols and allow “backdoor access” to a user’s private data, all under the guise of an avenue to buy “affordable great products.”

Although Temu’s principal offices currently are located in Ireland, Paxton says that the company has maintained significant operational ties to China, which is where it was originally founded.

Temu has also been accused of selling products that contain harmful chemicals, such as PFAS, posing health risks to consumers.

Eh. $3 million seems pretty low to me…