Did she or didn’t she? Yes, she failed a polygraph, which is not definitive, and gait analysis appears to match, but that is still art rather than science, so also not definitive. But her lawsuit against the reporter who claimed it was her was successful, though his employer, The Blaze, was fighting it, as of May. And then there is the possibility it was a CIA or FBI plot, connecting to her transfer from Capitol police to a job with the CIA, supposedly building security…
🚨What is she carrying?⁉️
Let’s all have fun with this. As I mentioned last night, at the very moment Ms. Kerkhoff texted her boyfriend, Dan Dickert, that she was “Coming home,” Kerkhoff was actually in a @CapitolPolice CDU van on her way to the Fairchild Building, where USCP’s… https://t.co/9QooJqkHpipic.twitter.com/s6x0L0UaHg
…where USCP’s Civil Defense Unit is detailed. She was not yet on her way home. The Government’s filing in the Brian Cole Jr. case, late Friday, indicates Kerkhoff sent this text at precisely 5:18:55 p.m.
The most frequently asked question yesterday was, “How do you know Kerkhoff was in that van?” Because we have Capitol CCTV video of her leaving USCP headquarters, getting into the van with two other officers, driving to Fairchild, and even stopping to fuel up on the way. We then see her leave Fairchild in a sedan with one other officer, whom I’ve identified as one of her fellow Less-Than-Lethal squad members.
The pair then return to USCP HQ and reenter the building at almost exactly 5:40 p.m. Kerkhoff then electronically “clocks out” at that time — as confirmed by the Government’s filing on Friday — and only 45 seconds after entering the building, she is seen coming out and heading toward her car.
This is where things might get fun. Let’s all do this together.
When Kerkhoff and her colleague return to USCP HQ at 5:40 p.m., she is carrying something in her left hand. (Video and screenshots below.) She enters the building with the object and exits with it 45 seconds later. She then carries the object to the exact parking spot where she parked her car early that morning at the beginning of her shift. On a long-range CCTV camera, she can be seen opening up the hatchback of her car, presumably to place that item in the back of the vehicle. Kerkhoff’s car disappears from Capitol CCTV at approximately 5:51 p.m., destination unknown.
What is that item she’s carrying? A lunch cooler? We’re pretty sure that’s a “no,” for a lot of reasons related to our video review and the fact that we can find no cooler of any type with that unique handle and strap design. (Having reviewed and compared with hundreds of examples.)
Let’s allow the X hive mind to have a go at this one. What do you think? Opinion? Expert knowledge? Use Google, Grok, or other AI machines. Show it to your LEO,
@FBI
,
@ATFHQ
, and
@CIA
neighbors. But PLEASE… show your work or share your opinion in the comment thread below. I’ll share our working theory in a couple of days.
Ready … Set … GO!
If she is innocent, making an internet game of that moment is cruel.
Former Jan. 6 Cop Falsely Accused Of Being Pipe Bomber Wins Defamation Case
May 21, 2026
[Yahoo] A former U.S. Capitol Police officer who sued a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter and reporter after he falsely accused her of planting pipe bombs on the eve of the Capitol attack was handed a victory by a federal judge on Thursday.
The former officer, Shauni Kerkhoff launched the hefty defamation lawsuit against Steve Baker, a reporter with Blaze Media, in April. U.S. District Judge Rossie Alston Jr. entered the default judgment against Baker after Baker failed to respond to the claim. Kerkhoff can now pursue damages.
Kerkhoff said Baker ran false reports about her, suggesting they had secured "forensic gait analysis" that matched the suspect seen in surveillance footage planting pipe bombs at the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee buildings on Jan. 5.
An attorney for Blaze Media told HuffPost they intend to "vigorously defend the meritless defamation claims asserted against it in this case."
NOTE: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that the judge entered a default judgment against Blaze Media. The default judgment was entered only against Baker, Blaze Media reporter Joseph Hanneman and Veritas Regnant LLC, a media entity formed by Baker and Hanneman.
#1
If this can be proven?
It will add even more credibility to those researching the DNC / O'Biden Coup and it's many years of unconstitutional subversive activities and plots.
Maybe , we'll finally get to the point were every Biden Executive Order & Auto-Pen document is nullified, including issued pardons? Then start arresting those for Treason.
#2
@1 "Maybe , we'll finally get to the point were every Biden Executive Order & Auto-Pen document is nullified, including issued pardons?"
Unlikely, that would set a precedent in the Federal government no one involved wants to see set. Long term we would see investigations into EVERY pardon when control of either house of Congress or the Presidency changes hands.
#3
'Eh, those pardons that was actually and proven to have been signed by Biden himself should stand, just have to show him signing and showing the pardons on dated and verified videos.
Those orders and pardons that was signed by auto-pen or otherwise cannot be shown to have Biden actual signature should be nullified!
#4
No, we should fix this problem not in the past, but in the future. Pass a law that describes the process of providing a pardon under Congress' necessary and proper authority.
"Every Presidential pardon to come into effect must be published in the federal register during the incumbency of the President signing the pardon, can only have effect upon offenses prior to that date of publication, and has no effect on federal civil cases, nor cases brought under the jurisdiction of any non-federal entity."
#5
What is the point of getting elected to a public office if you cannot use your power to reward your friends and punish your enemies? Why elese would someone spend millions of dollars to get a job that pays $200K.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] In Niger, an unsuccessful coup attempt occurred at the end of August: the authorities were challenged by the Armed Forces for the Restoration of the Fatherland (Forces armées pour la restauration de la Patrie, FARPA).
Western media tend to portray its supporters as young and ambitious officers determined to rebel against "tyranny and criminal orders." However, the noble motives of the losing side are questionable. Niger
Their actions clearly reflected the interests of Western players who were unwilling to take the republic's new authorities into account. However, the bet on a "security forces revolt" played out against the external sponsors of the unrest.
THE FATHERLAND IS IN DANGER
Although the crisis in Niger is being portrayed by the Western press as a "sudden outburst of popular anger," the ideological groundwork for it was laid back in March 2026, when the European Commission adopted a harsh resolution against the country.
Brussels demanded the immediate release of former President Mohamed Bazoum, who was ousted in 2023, and an "end to the reckless regional policy."
Moreover, for the first time since 2023, European officials emphasized the "sharply deteriorating" security situation in the country. According to European officials, the crisis was triggered by strategic errors by the new authorities in planning the operation against terrorists.
At the same time, European, primarily French, military leaders began to visit Benin and Côte d'Ivoire frequently, where they began negotiations on joint operations to combat terrorist and other threats. The last major visit, with an unannounced agenda, took place just a few days before the active phase of the rebellion.
Although Niger expected a swift attack from its neighbors, especially Benin, with whom it has long had tense relations, the real threat arose from within. In late August, the capital was rocked by explosions and gunfire.
The uprising against the government of Abdourrahmane Tchiani was launched by special forces soldiers who had secretly arrived from the outlying regions of Dosso and Tillabéri, where the army is waging the heaviest battles with terrorist forces and suffering significant losses.
As it later became known, young rebel officers created a secret organization at the front called FARPA and decided to challenge the central authorities, believing that since they could not cope with the terrorists, there would be nothing left for the career military to counter.
Is that what it was all about? I’d wondered.
INFLATED EXPECTATIONS
Although the rebels managed to catch the army's line units by surprise and quickly seize control of Air Base 101 (the country's key special-purpose air hub), the Diori Hamani International Airport complex, and adjacent critical facilities, they were unable to build on their success.
The assault on the presidential palace, where the military leadership was taking refuge, was repelled by the guards, and mobile groups that arrived to assist the authorities made a second assault attempt pointless.
Under cover of several pickup trucks, the rebels retreated to the airbase, preparing for a possible counterattack. However, individual groups continued to attempt to engage in fighting in the western part of the city.
Speaking on the radio, General Salifu Modi nevertheless described the attempted coup as a failure and said that the authorities were gradually regaining control of the situation.
The outcome of the conflict was largely determined by the timely intervention of the Russian Ministry of Defense's African Corps. Together with the Presidential Guard, the corps' specialists dislodged the rebels from their positions by midday and regained control of Base 101 and its surrounding area.
Having lost the initiative, the rebels fled, throwing down their weapons.
By the evening of August 29, when government troops regained control of the last buildings on the airport grounds, the rebellion had been effectively suppressed. By dawn, motley columns of barefoot and disarmed putschists began marching toward the local prisons. Some of them had their epaulettes torn from their shoulders.
PLANNING ERRORS
The rebels were hampered by the lack of a prominent media leader who could assume overall leadership and voice their demands to the world. At the same time, someone who could have served as a guide for other military and civilian leaders, including those who secretly remained loyal to Bazoum.
The success of the 2023 coup, which ended the pro-French regime, was initially largely based on the personal authority of the coup leader, Ciani, then commander of the presidential guard and one of the most respected officers in the country.
In the case of the 2026 coup, however, no such figure was found. Even the FARPA brand, under which the putschists allegedly operated, was massively promoted by Western media. And even then, only after the armed opposition had been effectively routed.
Moreover, the rebel forces didn't bother much with the ideological training of their personnel. They were essentially small groups of soldiers, some of whom, as it later emerged, deserted from their permanent bases under various pretexts, under the influence of junior commanders hatching a conspiracy.
Moreover, further interrogations revealed that not all soldiers were privy to the details of the operation. Some believed they were, on the contrary, suppressing a rebellion in the capital. Others swore they were ordered to "drive terrorists" out of the airbase. Only a few admitted they had gone to "overthrow the regime" of their own free will and understood the potential consequences.
Coordination between the rebel groups, according to the same testimony, was minimal. At best, the putschists knew the names of their immediate commanders. Apparently, outsiders hoped to destabilize Niger along the lines of the Syrian scenario, creating the appearance of a popular uprising and only after Chiani's regime was dismantled would they choose the most charismatic leader with a relatively "clean" reputation.
However, this long-term calculation proved fatal: disparate masses rose up against Niger's supposedly monolithic government. Consequently, the majority of civilian and military officials, considered doubters in Europe, remained loyal to the government at the crucial moment.
The only possible exception was one high-ranking officer—National Gendarmerie Chief Kimba Tahiro, who suddenly disappeared several hours before the fighting began and allegedly secretly joined the putschists. However, neither the authorities nor the armed opposition have officially confirmed this information.
Takhiro's whereabouts remain a mystery to this day.
"DON'T GET INVOLVED - HE'LL KILL YOU."
Europe greeted the news of the rebellion's failure with cold calm. At least in the public sphere.
Most European powers didn't even pay attention to the crisis in Africa. French representatives limited themselves to routine remarks about the "complicated situation" on the African Continent.
Only after two days had passed since the mutiny was effectively suppressed did Brussels issue a statement calling for stabilization. However, European officials deemed it unnecessary to mention FARPA in any way.
The crisis didn't escalate in Africa itself either. Benin and Côte d'Ivoire, contrary to expectations, didn't rush into action. However, judging by a number of indirect signs, the Beninese had already managed to prepare a limited contingent for a police operation in the border areas, under the pretext of "the unstable situation in Dosso."
However, the Benin army never received the order to advance.
In addition to the swift intervention of the Russian Afrika Korps, the appearance of several Su-30 fighters at an airbase near Niamey had a sobering effect on Niger's opponents. Algeria sent them the very next day after the failed coup as a small contribution to the fight against the local armed insurgency.
In this way, the Algerians have greatly increased the offensive capabilities of government troops and shaken their fist at France, which they tend to consider the main customer of the FARPA rebellion.
Niger's closest allies in the Confederation of Sahel States—Mali and Burkina Faso—also closed ranks. Both countries increased the combat readiness of their armed forces and strengthened their counterintelligence regime, vowing to "firmly suppress" any attempts at destabilization.
As a result, the consolidation of anti-Western forces in Africa has effectively deprived Europe of the opportunity to play the rebellion card in the near future, including in countries neighboring Niger, without the risk of putting the remnants of local loyalists at risk.
Of course, this doesn't mean the West will abandon attempts to find other weaknesses in its opponents or to sow new discord between them. For example, due to an insufficiently rapid response to the crisis.
However, it is far more likely that in the near future Europe will prefer to watch events unfold from the sidelines.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Daniil Pelymov
[REGNUM] 445 years ago, on September 1, 1581, the Cossack retinue of Yermak Timofeevich departed from the Nizhny Chusovskoy Gorodok fortress (in today's Perm Krai). 540 armed freemen, recruited on the Volga by the Ural industrialists, the Stroganovs, boarded flat-bottomed boats called strugas.
Ataman Ermak's men went up the Chusovaya River, and from there beyond the Stone Belt - that is, beyond the Urals - with an order from their employer: "Clear the Siberian land and drive out the godless Sultan Kuchum."
From this campaign “beyond the Stone” Russia began to “grow into Siberia”.
The Russian explorer Yermak, who blazed a trail along the taiga tributaries of the Irtysh, resembled in appearance the Spanish conquistadors who, in the same years of the 16th century, were advancing through the jungles of the Amazon tributaries. Portraits of the ataman, based on descriptions, depict a man with a black beard, swarthy skin (which may indicate Yermak's Don Cossack origins), wearing a cuirass and a morion helmet with a feather.
Yermak was a younger contemporary of Cortés and Pizarro and the same age as the mad Lope de Aguirre, nicknamed the Wrath of God. So it's tempting to compare the "cleansing of the Siberian land" with the South American conquest—if not for two differences.
Firstly, the conquest of the "New Indies" was the work of the states—the Spanish and Portuguese crowns. The advance into Western Siberia—at least initially—was the personal initiative of the Stroganovs.
Ivan the Terrible granted these merchants and industrialists lands along the Kama and Chusovaya rivers with strict conditions: they were to build fortified towns, develop salt mines, and maintain gunners at their own expense. Security was also a private initiative, and the instrument used was, as we would say today, a private military company.
Secondly, Yermak's campaign was not a conquest, but a defensive operation. The Volga Cossack squad went "beyond the Stone" not only and not primarily for riches, although the myth of the Golden Woman, a huge idol supposedly worshiped by the natives on the banks of the Ob, can be compared to the legend of El Dorado.
The task was to eliminate the permanent source of military aggression on the eastern borders of the Stroganov lands and the Russian state as a whole.
USURPER IN THE EAST
In the 1550s, following the campaigns of Ivan the Terrible's troops, two fragments of the Golden Horde—the Kazan and Astrakhan Khanates—disappeared from the map. The Crimean Khans, who controlled the ancient lands of Taurida, were under the protection of the most powerful power of the time, the Ottoman Empire, so Tatar raids from the south plagued Russia's southern borderlands until the time of Catherine the Great.
But relations between the Moscow state and the Siberian Khanate were quite calm until the middle of the 16th century.
This khanate was another product of the Golden Horde's disintegration. It emerged in the second half of the 15th century, the same year that the Grand Duchy of Moscow finally freed itself from Horde rule after the Great Stand on the Ugra.
Today, Siberia is the name given to the vast territory stretching from the Urals to the Far East, but the Siberian Khanate itself (which gave this "subcontinent" its name) was comparatively small. The Taibugid rulers laid claim to lands stretching from the Urals to the middle reaches of the Ob River. This was believed to be based on the will of Genghis Khan, who, according to legend, granted his comrade Taibuga lands along the Irtysh.
The Khan's headquarters were initially located in Chingi-Tura (now the site of the historical quarters of Tyumen), and were later moved to the city of Kashlyk or Isker, approximately 20 km southwest of Tobolsk.
This part of Western Siberia could have been peacefully integrated into the Russian state. In 1555, the legitimate Taibugid Khan, Ediger, sent ambassadors to Ivan IV asking him to "take Siberia into his own hands" and agree to become a tributary of the Moscow sovereign.
But a few years later, Kuchum, a relative of the Khan of Bukhara, invaded the Taibugid lands from the south at the head of Nogai and Kazakh hordes. He killed Yediger Khan and his heirs (after which the legitimate dynasty came to an end) and usurped power. He brought with him to the banks of the Irtysh and Tobol an ideology of harsh Islamization and reliance on the nomadic Nogai cavalry.
It was this new state of Kuchum Khan that became a threat to the Russian Pomorye (the vast northern lands along the Vychegda, Sukhona, Northern Dvina and Kama rivers) and the Urals.
Kuchum stopped paying even the symbolic yasak to Moscow. He launched a systematic terror campaign against the local Ob Ugrians, forcing them to fight against the Russian settlers.
The troops of "Tsarevich Aleika," the eldest son of the Khan, Ali bin Kuchum, regularly carried out deep raids across the Urals. They burned Russian villages, enslaved thousands of peasants, slaughtered Orthodox monasteries, and completely destroyed salt works. The Perm land bled.
In these critical conditions, the Stroganovs took a step dictated by exceptional military necessity: they hired an experienced military specialist, Ermak Timofeevich, who then attracted his “colleagues” – the atamans Ivan Koltso, Yakov Mikhailov, Nikita Pan and Matvey Meshcheryak.
Initially, the Cossacks' tactical mission was limited solely to the active defense of the fortresses on the Chusovaya River. However, Yermak, a brilliant field strategist, quickly realized that passive defense would doom the Russian settlements to slow strangulation and inevitable destruction.
The only effective way to secure the eastern outskirts of the state was a crushing, preemptive counterattack on the very "decision-making center" - Khan Kuchum's headquarters in Isker on the Irtysh.
EQUIPMENT AND MOBILITY
The expedition was prepared by the Stroganovs and the Cossack atamans in the strictest secrecy. The industrialists provided the detachment (later joined by three hundred Stroganov "military men" from local garrisons and captured Lithuanians) with the best weapons of the time. The Cossacks were given light riverboats capable of carrying up to 20 men and a full complement of supplies.
The expedition's main asset was its mass-produced firearms: hand-held arquebuses, muskets, and several light cannons.
The technological advantage of the Cossacks became a decisive factor in the confrontation with the forces of Kuchum and his vassals, which were many times superior to them in numbers.
Yermak's squadron represented the forerunner of a regular naval infantry. His ships, carrying troops, maneuvered on the Ural and Siberian rivers, using the waterways as ready-made, high-speed transport corridors through the impenetrable, dense taiga, completely negating the advantage of Kuchum Khan's steppe cavalry.
They had to operate without rear supply bases, in difficult natural conditions and with the constant threat of attacks from the Tatars (who were superior, although not in weapons, but in numbers).
The Cossacks (and here we can draw a parallel with the campaign of Lope de Aguirre) had to literally drag heavy wooden planers through portages with their own hands, clearing debris in the centuries-old taiga, climbing to the very headwaters of the rivers, and then descending into the unexplored Ob basin.
Difficulties were overcome thanks to strict discipline. Looting was punishable by death, and the entire campaign was accompanied by strict adherence to fasts and church regulations, for which regimental chaplains were present in the detachment.
The Remezov Chronicle records in detail the detachment's unanimous and unwavering resolve in the face of inevitable death, when some Cossacks wavered due to hunger and losses:
“Let us remember, brothers, our promise, which we made before God from a pure heart, but we cannot go back because of the shame and violation of our word, which we promised with an oath... So let us place our hope in God, and He will be our Helper.”
FINAL BLOW
The culmination came with the assault on the fortified Chuvash Cape on the Irtysh in October 1582. It was here that Khan Kuchum assembled his militia, mercenary guards, and vassal Ostyak (Khanty) "princes" with their riflemen. The Kungur Chronicle recounts the events as follows:
"Kuchum stood on the mountain near the abatis with his son Mametkul... The Cossacks shot down many of the wicked with firearms, killing them. The wicked, urged on by Kuchum, were unable to resist their fire..."
Yermak forced Kuchum's mounted warriors to defend their stationary wooden fortifications, completely depriving them of their main asset—maneuverability in the open steppe. When the abatis on Cape Chuvashia was finally breached, the Siberian khan's vassals retreated into the taiga. Kuchum, abandoning his capital of Kashlyk, fled south into the steppe. On October 26, 1582, Yermak entered the deserted city with banners unfurled.
Yermak's campaign ended with the tragic death of the ataman himself in 1585 in an ambush on the Vagay River. Kuchum's main forces were scattered, and the former subjects of the Siberian khans swore allegiance to the Russian tsar. But the usurper of the khan's throne continued his attacks until the late 1590s.
In 1598, the voivode Andrei Voeikov set out from the fortification of Tara (one of the first Russian fortresses in Siberia, now the northernmost and second-largest city in the Omsk region). On the banks of the Ob River—in what is now the Ordynsky District of the Novosibirsk Region—on August 20, 1598, Voeikov routed the remnants of the khan's forces. Kuchum fled to the Nogai, where he died two years later.
And in 1608, while the Time of Troubles was still raging in European Russia, a Russian detachment at Lake Zaysan (in the east of modern-day Kazakhstan) captured the last claimant to the Khan's throne, Ali bin Kuchum. The former "Tsarevich Aley" lived his final decades in Yaroslavl.
And his son, Kuchum’s grandson Araslan Aleevich was already a subject of the first tsar from the Romanov dynasty, Mikhail Fedorovich.
Arslan Aleevich ruled the vassal Kasimov Khanate in today's Ryazan Oblast. His son, the last Kasimov Khan, became even more Russified, taking the name Vasily. The great-grandson of the rebellious Kuchum, Ivan Vasilyevich Kasimovsky served the Tsar and the Fatherland faithfully—under Peter the Great, he headed the Mining Department.
The fate of Kuchum's descendants "rhymes" with the history of Siberia's integration into the Russian state.
Russia offered indigenous peoples a model of a multi-ethnic, integrating space. The Muscovite kingdom did not follow the path of Western European colonizers who exterminated the indigenous populations of the New World, nor did it emulate the nomadic empires that scorched the local identities of subject tribes.
On the contrary, the incorporation of the Trans-Ural lands into Russia created conditions for peaceful coexistence.
Having sworn allegiance to the sovereign, the Tatar murzas and Khanty and Mansi princes retained their ancestral estates, internal self-government, traditional courts, and customs. The local elite gradually integrated into the pan-Russian class system, transforming from tributaries into full-fledged participants in state-building.
[PJMedia] In 2008, when Barack Obama That’s just how white folks will do you.... defeated John Maverick McCain ... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution. As an ordinary citizen he greased the infamous hookers peeing on the Obamabed in Moscow dossier in an attempt to smear President Trump... , a dramatic surge in the black vote fueled Obama's victory: black voters cast 16.6 million ballots — and black turnout went kaboom! to 66.8%, "smashing the previous record of 58.5% in 1964."
That mattered, because Obama won 95% of the black vote.
Question for the peanut gallery: Why did John McCain do so gosh-durn poorly with black voters? What the heck did he do wrong?
If you just shook your head and thought, "What a stupid question," congratulations: You’re smarter than the journalists at Politico.
Because obviously, John McCain’s absence of black support had very little to do with McCain himself. It wasn’t an indictment of his character or blowback for his policy proposals.
That premise is absurd. Stupid! It’s demonstrably ignorant of U.S. history and voting patterns.
Because black voters weren’t voting AGAINST John McCain — they were voting FOR Barack Obama!
You know it. I know it. Anyone with an IQ higher than their air conditioning setting knows it.
But at Politico? Ha!
Politico: Trump Won the Heart of Michigan’s Arab Community. They’re Moving Away From Mike Rogers.
Four days before the 2024 election, Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons... declared in Dearborn, Michigan that "the Moslem population" is "liking Trump." On Election Day, the state’s Arab Americans helped deliver Trump a victory.
Now, they want nothing to do with him — and are souring on the GOP overall.
Many bankrupt, increasingly impoverished, reliably Democrat, Detroit ... ruled by Democrats since 1962. A city whose Golden Age included the Purple Gang... -area Arab Americans, who swung hard to Trump over the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... and cost-of-living issues, are now saying they’re fed up with the ongoing war in Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and slow grinding of the peace processor in Gaza. It’s a shift that could have direct consequences on the battle for Senate control, with former Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers fighting to hold onto Trump’s 2024 gains against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, a Moslem whose parents are Egyptian immigrants colonists.
Trump’s perceived broken promises — exacerbated by GOP attacks against El-Sayed that some see as Islamophobic and racist — are pushing these voters out of reach for Rogers.
First things first: Politico’s headline is using "Arab" as a stand-in for "Moslem." That’s misleading.
Fun fact: 63% to 77% of Arab Americans are Christians. Only about 25% of Arab Americans are Moslems. (Because of immigration patterns, Michigan was 58% Christian and 42% Moslem back in 2003, but Michigan’s percentage of Moslems is almost certainly much higher today. Unfortunately, I was unable to find more current stats.)
This matters because Arab Christians and Arab Moslems have vastly different voting patterns: Arab Christians tend to be Republicans; Arab Moslems tend to be Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... It’s not a trivial distinction. Arab Christians — many of whom fled Islamic tyranny — are natural allies of the MAGA movement.
Moslems, on the other hand, seem to be natural allies of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). And not necessarily Arab Moslems, either.
Just Moslems in general. (Like Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the Ugandan-born Moslem with parents of Indian descent.)
So let’s try to settle this "Arab Christian versus Arab Moslem" population conundrum in a roundabout way: By some estimates, Michigan had approximately 55 mosques in 2000. Today, it’s 127.
Meanwhile,
...back at the bunker, his Excellency called a hurried meeting of his closest advisors. It was to be his last. They discussed the officers's efficiency rating system... the number of Michigan churches has actually declined.
This means, even if hard stats are unavailable, that there’s ample reason to believe Michigan’s Moslem population is exploding.
So no, Politico: It’s not the "Arab community" that’s moving away from Mike Rogers. Try again.
It’s the rapidly-growing Moslem community.
And just like the black vote in 2008, there’s an obvious reason for that: Mike Rogers’ opponent is a Moslem named Abdul El-Sayed. He’s made his Moslem identity central to his campaign — with, in the words of Axios, opposing AIPAC his "centerpiece."
It worked, too.
On Aug. 4 in the Democratic primary, El-Sayed captured nearly 80% of the Moslem-majority community of Dearborn, Mich., and over 70% in nearby Dearborn Heights. He had super-majorities with Moslem voters.
Yet he only won the primary by a single point.
Which means, without overwhelming Moslem support, he would’ve lost to Haley Stevens.
So nobody should be surprised that Michigan Moslems are still supporting El-Sayed. The opposite is true: It would’ve been weird if they suddenly stopped.
The primary was less than a month ago!
Yet Politico suggests that Rogers’ lack of Moslem support is all Donald Trump’s fault:
A dip in support from Arab American former Trump voters could hurt Rogers’ path to election in what’s shaping up to be a tough year nationally for the GOP. And it could offset gains he makes in other communities — including with some Jewish voters who are wary of El-Sayed for his harsh criticism of Israel and comments from him and his allies that some see as antisemitic. Both communities matter significantly in close elections, and Michigan has the largest proportion of Arab Americans in the country, with nearly 400,000 living in the state, as well as more than 100,000 Jews.
Michigan Republicans — who, just two years ago, dreamed of building sustainable support among the state’s Arab American population — now see community leaders shifting ranks.
Question for Politico: Was Haley Stevens’ lack of Moslem support President Trump’s fault, too?
For some strange, mysterious reason, Politico ignored that question. (Can’t imagine why.) In fact, its next insinuation was that Rogers’ Moslem woes were because of his hateful, Islamophobic rhetoric:
Rogers has not shied away from branding his opponent as a Moslem Death Eater. He’s hammered El-Sayed for campaigning with Hasan Piker, a prominent and controversial left-wing influencer who’s drawn accusations of antisemitism, as well as slamming El-Sayed for responding to an attack on a Michigan synagogue earlier this year by condemning it but saying "hurt people hurt people" because members of the attacker’s family had been killed by the Israeli military in Leb ...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?... El-Sayed has condemned antisemitism throughout his campaign; in a statement distancing himself from Piker last week, he said "Antisemitism is a scourge, and we need to address it in all its forms") On Saturday he apologized for his remarks after the synagogue attack, telling a group of Jewish Democrats that he’d "made a mistake" and that "nobody deserves to have their pain trampled on."
And not just Rogers. The whole dang National Republican Senatorial Committee is to blame:
The National Republican Senatorial Committee’s first ad of the general election called the Democratic nominee by his full name, Abdulrahman Mohammed El-Sayed.
The NRSC ad will "alienate and distance" potential Arab American supporters, said [Faye] Nemer.
"I most certainly will not support a candidate that is alienating and vilifying my community," said Nemer, who met Trump during his 2024 visit to Dearborn. "I was fully prepared to support Mr. Rogers. ... But after seeing the direction that he chose to proceed in, that’s given me a lot of pause."
You have to go 22 paragraphs down before we get somewhat closer to the truth:
[Hassan] Nehme, the former state GOP vice chair, said many Arab Americans are drawn to El-Sayed because of his background, even though many are far more socially conservative than the Democratic nominee. "They’re not even really looking at politics anymore," Nehme said.
[...]
"I’m hoping that they [Rogers/GOP] pull through and they come out and at least try to address the community," Nehme said. "But in all actuality, I’m not sure how much good it’s going to do."
Right: It would be a waste of time.
Because Michigan’s Moslems aren’t voting against Mike Rogers. They’re voting for El-Sayed.
The same way black voters were voting FOR Barack Obama!
So what explains Politico’s editorial decision to frame El-Sayed’s sky-high Moslem support as a Republican failure?
Three things:
It lets ‘em bash Donald Trump, whom Politico named 20 times (!) in an article about a Michigan Senate race.
It recasts El-Sayed’s ultra-loyal, disproportionately large army of Muslim supporters not as the byproduct of his Muslim identity and/or Israel-bashing, but a Republican lack of PR outreach.
It not so subtly accuses Rogers of being a racist/bigot who’s unfairly picking on El-Sayed because of his religion.
This wasn’t just a campaign story. It was an attempt by the mainstream media to redirect the PR narrative:
Donald Trump is so unpopular that he’s costing Rogers the race in Michigan! Don’t fret over Michigan’s Muslims voting as a bloc for a Muslim socialist candidate (or consider what this foretells nationally) — see, they’re only doing so because the GOP didn’t have enough meet-and-greets in Dearborn. Duh!
And stop drawing attention to El-Sayed’s antisemitism, support of Sharia law, or fixation on Israel! It’s a racist dog whistle!
We know that’s the takeaway Politico is pushing because of how it ended the article:
El-Sayed campaign spokesperson Cole Wozniak called attacks invoking El-Sayed’s faith and identity “cheap.”
“Mike Rogers is resorting to cheap attacks to distract from his deep record as a corrupt career politician who has taken millions from Big Pharma,” Wozniak said in a statement. “Michiganders see right through it, and they’re not going to let Mike Rogers distract from the fact he’s spent thirty years in Washington making himself and his billionaire donors richer while selling out working families.”
Without hearing directly from the Rogers campaign or state party leaders, Arab American voters say their community is likely to swing back to the left this election.
Could Rogers “go into Dearborn and have those conversations and fix that?” asked [Monica] Yatooma. “I think yeah, absolutely. I just don’t know if he’s doing it.”
Flip the narrative. Set the parameters of public discourse. Deny what’s obvious. Run interference on behalf of the Dems. Suggest stupid campaign tactics for Republicans.
It’s only August, and the mainstream media is already in late October form.
Buckle up, America: The 2026 midterms are only 64 days away — and the media’s propaganda campaign is fully underway.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
John 
...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?...
