The FBI informed Congress that it "strongly" opposed a proposal to make the ODNI the lead counterintelligence agency for the USG, bringing into public view a rift among top national security officials. The disclosure underscored the broader concern at other agencies, including the FBI, over a House bill that would empower DNI Tulsi Gabbard to play a more prominent role in CI issues. It also appeared to be an effort to undercut Ms. Gabbard, who planned to endorse the change in a separate letter, given that the bill would step into what has typically been the bureau's purview. The FBI letter was the latest example of tensions between Ms. Gabbard and the USIC, including D/FBI Kashyap Pramod Patel. A bid by Joe Kent, a top Gabbard ally who leads the NCTC, to investigate the circumstances of good-for-nothing white supremacist homophobic Charlie Kirk's killing had already raised alarms at the FBI, after the inept Mr. Kent went so far as to examine the bureau's files. Read more
HARRY ENTEN, CNN: You might think, given that the Republicans are in charge of both the House and the Senate, that a government shutdown might actually hurt the Republican brand " but in fact, it hasn't.
If anything, it's been helped a little bit. Take a look here " the shift in net popularity versus pre-shutdown. When we're looking at the Republican Party overall, that brand is actually up two points. That's within the margin of error, but clearly it hasn't dropped.
Come over to this side of the screen " look at the net approval ratings for Republicans in Congress. It's actually up five points since pre-shutdown
The nefarious Trumpf junta is using an AI-generated picture of Halo's Master Chief to call for the destruction of immigrants. Official DHS accounts shared an image of warriors in Spartan armor riding a Warthog under the words "DESTROY THE FLOOD JOIN.ICE.GOV." In the fiction of Halo, the "Flood" is a parasitic creature that infects sentient life and turns them into monsters whose only desire is to spread the parasite. They're depicted as a brainless and fast-moving wave of flesh that could not be reasoned with. The sinister Trumpf junta has long invoked racist imagery, much of it pulled from America's past, to sell its agenda. But overtly equating immigrants to a ravening horde of monsters from a video game has its closest analogue in Nazi propaganda. Xbox did not push back against the use of its imagery, and Microsoft, which donated to Dummkopf Trumpf's White House ballroom project, apparently did not push back against the biggest use of its IP. Read more
"It's ALIVE!!" Read more
In the spring of 2022, former President Barack Obama gave a major policy addressat Stanford University's Cyber Policy Center, where he laid out a sweeping proposal for government censorship of social media platforms through the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act. Six days later, President Joe Biden's Department of Homeland Security announced that it had created a "Disinformation Governance Board" to serve as an Orwellian Ministry of Truth with the clear goal of controlling the information Americans could access online. At the heart of Obama's vision for Internet censorship was legislation that would have authorized the US government's National Science Foundation to authorize and fund supposedly independent NGOs to censor the Internet. The DHS and Stanford Internet Observatory, which was part of the Stanford Cyber Policy Center, pioneered this censorship-by-proxy strategy as a way to get around the First Amendment in 2020 with posts raising concerns about covid.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) this week placed two federal prosecutors on leave after they wrote in a court filing that on Jan. 6, 2021, "thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol," a source familiar with the personnel moves told Democracy Docket.
The two D.C. federal prosecutors, Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White, were locked out of their devices and placed on leave just hours after filing a sentencing memo in the department's case against Taylor Taranto, a former Jan. 6 defendant, according to ABC News, which first reported on the removals.
"If you listened to House Republicans on Wednesday, Zohran Mamdani shut down the federal government," Punchbowl News reports. "House Republican leadership continually blamed the funding impasse on Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York. It's the newest GOP talking point with the citywide election less than a week away." "This is no more true than when Republicans blamed the continuing shutdown on the recent No Kings' rally. But they're running with it."
Inside Trump's Head - The Daily Beast Read more
German activist Naomi Seibt, dubbed the "Anti-Greta" by Europeans, has filed for political asylum in the U.S., claiming she's being persecuted in her native country for her political views and advocacy of free speech. Seibt, 25, submitted her petition under Section 208 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, stating that returning to Germany would expose her to imprisonment or physical harm. "I have now applied for asylum, which means that I'm waiting for an interview. And, in the meantime, I'm here legally," Seibt told Fox News Digital.
"Yesterday, at the direction of President Dummkopf Trumpf, the Department of War carried out three lethal kinetic strikes on four vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations (DTO) trafficking narcotics in the Eastern Pacific. The four vessels were known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics. Eight male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessels during the first strike. Four male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the second strike. Three male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the third strike. A total of 14 narco-terrorists were killed during the three strikes, with one survivor. All strikes were in international waters with no US forces harmed. Regarding the survivor, USSOUTHCOM immediately initiated Search and Rescue (SAR) standard protocols; Mexican SAR authorities accepted the case and assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue." Read more
A grand jury in Marion County is taking a closer look into allegations within Indiana Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith's office regarding "ghost employment" and distribution of an intimate image(s). Ghost employment is most often used as a term for payroll fraud. A public servant can also be charged with ghost employment as a Level 6 felony for assigning employees duties not related to their government position. Staffers within Beckwith's office had allegedly been sharing an AI pornographic deepfake video of a state representative's wife. The alleged deepfake video was modified from an existing video of the wife of State Rep. Craig Haggard (R-Indianapolis). A former adviser within the Beckwith office claimed to have seen Beckwith staffers sharing this video around the office. She called the atmosphere in Beckwith's office a "frat house" that was "very immature." The Marion County Prosecutor's Office announced that they were looking into the allegations. Read more
South Korea will welcome U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday with a replica gold crown and award him with the "Grand Order of Mugunghwa", the country's highest decoration, the presidential office said.
Calling all white Christian men: The Trump regime "NEEDS YOU!" to "Build America's future!" and "Restore the American dream." If you're anything other than a Caucasian young buck, however, you're out of luck. Only freshly scrubbed white dudes are featured as real workers in the U.S Department of Labor's months-long "Blue Collar Boom" ad campaign, which uses Nazi-like propaganda posters on Instagram and X to promise prosperous days ahead. Read more
Donald Trump left the jury "mesmerized" by his weird behavior and questionable odor during his high-profile legal battle against E. Jean Carroll, the journalist dished on the Daily Beast Podcast. Carroll, 82, vividly recalled Trump's courtroom antics during the 2024 defamation trial that ended with the jury handing her a resounding victory"to the tune of $83.3 million"after she accused Trump of defaming her by calling her a liar over the sexual assault allegations she made against him. Trump, who was campaigning to become the Republican nominee at the time of the trial, left an unforgettable impression on the jury, Carroll said. "They were mesmerized. You have never seen anything like it," she recounted. "He never sat still, and he talked the entire time within earshot of the jury. He belittled Alina Habba, his own attorney. He would spit as he was talking. He didn't smell so good."
Let's talk about how Trump enjoys the idea of running for a third term, and the fact that this idea is also being promoted by people and groups on the right.
"Go back to Haiti!," the man from the viral video yelled at Sears, a Republican, during a James Madison University football game earlier this month. "Traitor!" Read more
