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Appeals court revives lawsuit by Alaska Airlines flight attendants fired after opposing Pride message

2026-07-01

[FoxNews] Lacey Smith and Marli Brown were fired after sharing concerns about the Equality Act in an internal employee forum A federal appeals court revived a lawsuit brought by two former Alaska Airlines flight attendants who say they were fired after expressing

religious objections to the airline's support for the Equality Act, allowing their religious discrimination claims to proceed.

The Ninth Circuit ruled Wednesday there is sufficient evidence for a jury to determine whether Lacey Smith and Marli Brown were fired because of their religious beliefs, reviving the lawsuit they filed against the airline.

"We are grateful the court recognized the clear evidence of religious discrimination against Marli and Lacey by both Alaska Airlines and the flight attendants’ union," Stephanie Taub, senior counsel at First Liberty Institute, who argued before the Court back in August 2025, said in a statement.

"The Ninth Circuit’s decision today reinforces that federal civil rights laws protect people of faith from discrimination by their employer or their union," Taub added. "You cannot be fired because your employer does not like your religious beliefs."

In early 2021, Alaska Airlines said it would support the proposed Equality Act on an online internal employee network.

The Equality Act, which was introduced by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., sought to add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes in employment, housing, and other capacities under federal civil rights law. It passed the House in February 2021.

Link

Fifth Column

J6 Shocker: FBI informants warned of armed violence, Antifa presence before riot, lawmaker reveals

2025-11-08

But then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to let the National Guard help.

[JustTheNews] Rep. Barry Loudermilk says he fears that the FBI withheld vital intelligence, creating fateful security holes before Capitol riot.

Numerous confidential informants alerted the FBI prior to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot that there was the strong possibility of “armed” conflict at the U.S. Capitol, but that intelligence was not disbursed aggressively enough to force a change in security that fateful day, the first congressman to review those source reports tells Just the News.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., the chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee investigating Jan. 6 law enforcement failures, said he was floored to see the specificity of threats and the consistency in warnings that multiple confidential human sources provided the FBI and that the intelligence was serious enough that it should have prompted more security and possibly even a cancellation of President Donald Trump’s speech that day on the Ellipse.

Loudermilk said the intelligence reports came weeks and days in advance of the Capitol riot from about two dozen informants embedded in radical groups around the country and that many of those informants came to the Capitol to keep assisting the FBI.

“I was surprised that we found this significant intelligence that was derived from these people embedded in these organizations,” he said Friday night in an expansive interview on the "Just the News, No Noise" television show. “There is no way that at least the Washington Field Office or the FBI headquarters was not aware that there were elements, not the entire crowd. There were elements of people coming to Washington, DC with the intent of attacking the Capitol of the United States.”

The Georgia lawmaker credited current FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi for giving him access to the intelligence reports of the informants and said that it opened a whole new avenue of inquiry into whether some elements inside the FBI withheld intelligence that could have helped Capitol Police better prepare or repel the violence that occurred that day.

“We’re really having a hard time finding really any tangible reports that were sent to the Capitol Police or other agencies. And so my question is, what did they know? When did they know it, and what did they do with the information?” he said.

“I can tell you unequivocally, they had to know that there was something not only bad going to happen, but the reports coming from these confidential human sources, not just one, but multiple sources from multiple organizations across multiple field offices across the nation, were reporting the same thing,” he added.

Loudermilk said the informants made clear to their FBI handlers “that not only was there going to be violence in Washington, DC, at the Capitol on January 6, most of the reports were it was going to be a whole lot worse than what actually it turned out to be."

Pressed further, Loudermilk said he was waiting to have documents further declassified but confirmed multiple informants told the FBI that groups were planning an armed attack on the Capitol, lawmakers or law enforcement during the certification of the 2020 election results that cleared the way for Joe Biden to become the 46th president.

“There were elements, not every group that was there, but there were certain groups that were planning on an armed attack of the Capitol, and even against law enforcement if they got in the way,” he disclosed. “And it's not just isolated. It was, again, from several different places across the United States, and reported to several different field offices.

FBI HAD AS MANY AS 26 CONFIDENTIAL INFORMANTS EMBEDDED IN JAN. 6 CROWD
“One of my concerns about this, and I'm just going to speak from my own self, and one of the, one of the things that I think we need to run down is if they would have passed along this level of intelligence, if they would have shared that level of intelligence, would it had changed the security posture to the extent where President Trump would not have come out and given his speech at the ellipse,” Loudermilk added.

It was revealed last year by the DOJ’s internal watchdog that the FBI had as many as 26 confidential informants in the crowd on Jan. 6 and that some had been passing on warnings to agents about potential violence by right-leaning groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.

ALSO WARNED ABOUT ANTIFA
But Loudermilk revealed for the first time Friday night that one of the groups that were being flagged by the FBI informants was the far-left anarchist group Antifa, which was recently designated a domestic terror group by Trump.

“The answer is yes, there was concerns that Antifa would be embedded within the crowds there,” he said. “There were several references, again, not just isolated to one, but several different field offices, different organizations that were reporting that they had heard that Antifa would be embedded within the crowd.”

FBI officials confirmed to Just the News that their informant did warn of armed conflict and even Antifa, that the reports have now been shared with Congress and that efforts are underway to declassify them, so the public could see the long-hidden warnings.

Just the News has previously reported that Capitol Police intelligence analysts did not receive intelligence warnings of major violence and were led to believe by intelligence partners that Jan. 6 would look like prior peaceful Trump rallies. That assessment led Capitol Police to have a smaller security footprint and for top lieutenants to reject then-Capitol Police Chief Steve Sund’s request days ahead of the event for the National Guard to be deployed for extra security.

Loudermilk released last year videotape of then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., admitting she should not have opposed the deployment of the National Guard.

Loudermilk said the intelligence and informants he has now read four years later warranted a far more aggressive security plan than was deployed.

“There should have been even more security put in place. The National Guard should have been at the Capitol the first time Chief of Police, Steven Sund requested it, just based on that information,” he said.

Since the revelation last year of the presence of FBI informants in the Jan. 6 crowd, some have questioned whether their presence had a nefarious intent. Loudermilk said the evidence he has seen leads him to the opposite conclusion, that the informants did a good job warning the FBI, but those warnings fell on deaf ears.

“They are all reporting the same thing, and it's just not prior to January 6. Some of them are reporting during January 6 and post reporting,” he said. “And so that's what I found enlightening. They continue to report what was going on which, which increases their credibility, in my opinion, that they were trying to do the right thing.”

Link

Home Front: Politix

Nancy Pelosi Alarmingly Incoherent in Remarks Outside San Francisco VA Hospital

2025-08-08

[Red State] Just because former President Joe Biden's decline while in office has been confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt, thanks in part to ongoing investigations as well as conveniently timed books from reporters on the matter, doesn't mean questions about the mental acuity of those who are still serving in government have gone away or should go away.

We've written before, for instance, about the periodic incoherency that has come from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), with interviews done and video clips shared on social media from time to time that are, as my RedState colleague Rusty Weiss described, the equivalent of "nightmare fuel" for people concerned with the health and well-being of those on Capitol Hill who we are supposed to believe are sharp enough to be able to thoughtfully consider and vote on bills that impact millions of Americans.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Defiant Chuck Schumer hits back at Nancy Pelosi, vows ‘I'm not stepping down'

2025-03-23

[NY Post] A defiant Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed that he will not step down from his leadership role any time soon while strenuously defending his decision to vote against blocking a GOP bill to avert a partial government shutdown.

Schumer (D-NY), 74, who has been facing a progressive revolt over his shutdown vote earlier this month, reiterated that he “did this out of conviction” and fired back at detractors such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)

“Look, I’m not stepping down,” Schumer told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in a pretaped interview that aired Sunday. “I did it out of pure conviction as to what a leader should do and what the right thing for America and my party was. People disagree.”

Critics, from both the moderate and far-left wings of the party alike, contended that the government shutdown fight was a rare instance when Dems had leverage to extract concessions from Republicans.

At noon on Sunday, New York City progressives are set to hold a rally organized by the Big Apple chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America demanding Schumer step down from his leadership post due to his actions in the shutdown fight.

Link

Government Corruption

FBI releases video showing January 2021 pipe bomb suspect planting device outside DNC, RNC offices in DC

2025-01-03

[FoxNews] The suspect left two bombs near the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee offices on the eve of the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol

The FBI on Thursday released a new video allegedly showing the Jan. 5, 2021 suspect who planted pipe bombs outside the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee offices in Washington, D.C.

Why? And why now, just before Trump nominee Kash Patel takes over?

Along with the video, the FBI also revealed that the suspect is believed to be about 5-foot, 7-inches tall in an effort to elicit new tips from the public ahead of the fourth anniversary of the crime.

The FBI noted that a $500,000 reward is still available for tips that lead to an arrest.

The attempted attack occurred on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, but there is no clear link between the two events.

"Without being able to confirm the suspect’s identity, it is very hard to definitively establish motive," David Sundberg, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office, told The Associated Press. "Therefore, it would be difficult for us to state that there is a link, although we can’t state there is not one."

Investigators aren’t even sure if the suspect is a man or a woman.

The suspect was wearing a grey hoodie, face mask, black gloves and Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes, the FBI said, adding that fewer than 25,000 pairs of the shoes were sold between August 2018 and the time of the attack.

"Based on attire, those are probably the most remarkable or distinctive feature when it comes to clothing the suspect wore," Sundberg said. "We're hoping that somebody might recognize that."

The FBI has assessed over 600 tips, reviewed about 39,000 video files and conducted more than 1,000 interviews over the past four years.

The new video shows the suspect placing the first bomb near a bench outside the Democratic National Committee building just before 8 p.m.

The suspect then placed the second bomb in an alley behind the Republican National Committee building at around 8:16 p.m. and was last seen in surveillance footage two minutes later walking past a row of D.C. houses wearing a backpack that investigators believe they used to transport the pipe bombs.

"We still believe there is someone out there who has information they may not have realized was significant until now," the narrator of the FBI video said. "We’re asking you to come forward and share that information with the FBI."

No one was hurt in the attempted attack and the bombs were rendered safe, but the FBI said it could have been deadly.

Both Vice President Kamala Harris and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were near the DNC office before the first bomb was found on the afternoon of Jan. 6 and deactivated.

Link

Government Corruption

Pelosi's 'House Ethics Committee' Caught in Multiple Staggering Lies in Gaetz Report

2024-12-29

[Western Journal] Former Rep. Matt Gaetz is just that — a former representative.

That made the release of an investigation by the House Ethics Committee into his professional and private life — begun during former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 117th Congress — highly unusual. The interest of the House Ethics Committee is generally into the ethics of sitting members.

Moreover, the position that Gaetz resigned to pursue — attorney general of the United States — is one he’s no longer pursuing due to the fact that some of the contents of that report had already been revealed long ago and he didn’t have the votes to get confirmed by the Senate, report or no report.

Gaetz has now moved into the land of cable news punditry, with a new show on One America News television network. If he’s likely to pursue any sort of career in politics in the future, it seems unlikely he’d re-transition into the world of elected or confirmed public officialdom. As the old "Simpsons" meme goes, "Stop! Stop! He’s already dead!"

That being said, it’s worth examining the Gaetz ethics report — something the media is loath to do, inasmuch as they’ve reported on the findings as if the former Florida representative’s resignation and attorney general recusal is a prima facie admission that everything in it is true.

Skipping down:

One of the few people who’s been following this story — and not taking everything in the report at face value — is Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist, who’s noted several issues with the report.

The latest? At least one of the people mentioned in the report, a friend of Gaetz’s, has demanded corrections from the House Ethics Committee for mentions of him in the report which he says are erroneous.

The letter was first reported by Marc Caputo of NeverTrump outlet The Bulwark, but Hemingway noted how it dovetailed with numerous other issues with the report.

“At the outset, I’ll note the release of your committee’s report is bizarre, Congressman Gaetz is no longer subject to your jurisdiction, and the precedential effect of the release of this report cannot be overstated,” a lawyer for Chris Dorworth, the man mentioned, wrote in a letter to House Ethics Committee chair Rep. Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican.

The letter went on to list “three demonstrably false statements within your report” regarding Dorworth.

The first involved a mention that “Mr. Dorworth believed that Representative Gaetz invited people to his home on the evening of July 15, 2017.” This evening was critical, inasmuch as the most problematic allegation in the report — that Gaetz paid to have sex with a minor — happened on that night at Dorworth’s home.

“No, Mr. Dorworth did not and has never believed that Representative Gaetz invited people to his house on July 15, 2017,” the letter stated.

“To support your claim that Gaetz ‘invited’ people to my client’s home, you cite, in footnote 97, a gate log that doesn’t include Gaetz’s name on it and reference an affidavit and deposition transcripts that say nothing about Gaetz inviting anyone to my client’s home.” [Emphasis theirs.]

Furthermore, the letter stated, “Mr. Dorworth’s deposition transcript does not support this statement in your report, and it should be retracted immediately.”

Again, this basically undermines the most serious allegation completely, inasmuch as the Ethics Committee’s report relies upon Dorworth’s memories of that evening and the fact that he lived in a complex where “non-residents are required to present a driver’s license before entering, and entry records are maintained.”

If those entry records don’t have Gaetz’s name on them, they were either 1) tampered with, or 2) the preponderance of the evidence regarding the allegation shifts radically.

The second discrepancy also involves that allegation, noting that “Mr. Dorworth was deposed and confronted with cell phone records showing that he was in fact at his residence during the party.”

“As an attendee at Mr. Dorworth’s deposition, I can assure you he was never ‘confronted with any cell phone records,” adding that the records “were deemed ‘Attorneys Eyes Only’ at the time of Mr. Dorworth’s deposition” and that he was “mortified that the Committee on Ethics would include such a ridiculous conclusion” in its report.

The third alleged discrepancy, later in the same paragraph: “The Committee requested, through counsel, that Mr. Dorworth clarify his testimony regarding his whereabouts on the evening of July 15, 2017; his counsel did not respond.”

His counsel, being the author of this letter, noted that he did, saying he emailed the staff on Sept. 6 of this year.

“Interesting. The House ‘Ethics’ Committee is caught here just flat out lying about three things in its report on Matt Gaetz. (In addition to all the other alleged falsehoods),” Hemingway noted in an X repost of the letter:

Again, it’s difficult to overstate how damning serious mistakes in this part of the report would be, particularly given the decision to release it absent any real reason to do so; without substantial evidence that Gaetz paid to have sex with a minor, what you have is essentially a log of someone’s alleged substance use disorder and/or dysfunctional sex life the better part of a decade ago.

And again, this isn’t the only issue with the report. As Hemingway noted in a November article, “the same two central witnesses the House Ethics Committee has relied on for its critical report of Gaetz” are the two witnesses whose credibility issues led the Department of Justice to drop its investigation of Gaetz in 2022.

One is a former tax assessor who agreed to plead guilty to charges that included “sex trafficking of a child, aggravated identity theft and wire fraud,” according to The Washington Post, in exchange for “substantial assistance” in building cases against other people.

He’s currently in prison for those charges. The other is the woman who was allegedly the minor Gaetz paid for sex; the Post said her “testimony has issues that veteran prosecutors feel would not pass muster with a jury.”

Let me reiterate: Joe Biden’s Department of Justice thought this case wouldn’t fly based on the believability of the witnesses central to the House Ethics Committee’s report. If the Biden DOJ wouldn’t go ahead with the public crucifixion of a Trump ally, it generally has to be really bad.

Link

Government Corruption

Democrats pressed Capitol Police to show favoritism to officer who killed J6 protestor, memos show

2024-12-05

[JTN] Scumbags all
The committee’s investigation uncovered evidence that the Capitol Police went to extraordinary lengths to promote Byrd and provide him financial support not received by other officers on duty on Jan. 6.

House Democrats pressured U.S. Capitol Police to provide special financial assistance and even a promotion to the officer who fatally shot unarmed protester Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6 riot, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayer and charitable assistance not provided to other officers, according to internal emails reviewed by Just the News.

"He is very upset about how he is being treated. He wants us to figure this out and now," a top congressional aide to then-House Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, wrote to Capitol Police in November 2021 pressing for more assistance to Lt. Michael Byrd after he killed Babbitt.
File
2021.11.18 - Chairman was speaking with.pdf

The records show that pressure also came from then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's staff and from then-Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, causing Capitol Police to find any solution they could to make Byrd and Democrats happy. Despite the extraordinary assistance, Byrd expressed dissatisfaction and continued to insist he deserved more, to the chagrin of Capitol Police officials, according to records assembled by Congress.

"We play the game as you request and then once we’re in compliance You guys change the rules on us," Byrd wrote to U.S. Capitol Police General Counsel Thomas DiBiase in November 2021 after being informed he wouldn't be able to immediately access charitable funds from a memorial fund for fallen or wounded officers.
File
2021.11.16 - Re Memorial Fund (play the game).pdf

The department's chief later told Byrd he would not be offered any further assistance from the memorial fund, but Capitol Police instead helped set up a GoFundMe that landed Byrd more than $160,000 in extra funds. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D- Calif., was one of the many progressives who donated to and promoted the fundraising.

The revelations were uncovered during probe by Chairman Barry Loudermilk’s House Administration Oversight Subcommittee into the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) and follow findings that Byrd has a significant disciplinary record that resulted in six referrals to the USCP’s Office of Professional Responsibility.

At least one of these incidents resulted in a referral to a prosecutor and others ended with temporary suspensions, Just the News reported earlier this month.

"In addition to USCP’s decision to promote Byrd despite his disciplinary history, I also have concerns about the decisions USCP made with respect to Byrd after January 6, 2021," Loudermilk wrote in a letter to current USCP Chief Thomas Manger, previously published by Just the News.

Loudermilk told the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show that it is understandable that House Democratic leadership would want to ensure that Byrd was well taken care of considering he did end up unfortunately taking a life, but that their calls for assistance for the then-lieutenant went above and beyond other officers.

"[They] went to extremes, to where they gave bonuses to officers who are on the front line of the battle, that was a few thousand dollars—Byrd gets one of $37,000 okay, it's not equally played," Loudermilk said.

"I think people should really be considering the earlier question, which is whether he should have been on the force," the chairman said referring to the now-captain’s lengthy disciplinary record.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Nancy Pelosi tears into Bernie Sanders for claiming Democrats ‘abandoned' working class amid Harris election loss: ‘I don't respect him saying that'

2024-11-10

[NY Post] The circular firing squad forms up
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tore into Sen. Bernie Sanders who had derided the Democratic Party and its alleged issues with the working class that ultimately failed to support Vice President Kamala Harris in her bid for the White House.

In a scathing letter to his former party a day after the election, Sanders blasted the Dems for “abandoning” the working class and seemingly acting surprised they didn’t show up at the polling booths.

“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,” the Democratic socialist, 83, said in a fiery statement on X.

“First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well. While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right,” the Democratic Socialist said.

Pelosi didn’t take kindly to the Vermont independent senator’s remarks, rebutting Sander’s claim and doubling down that the Democratic Party didn’t abandon the working class.

“I have a great deal of respect for him, for what he stands for, but I don’t respect him saying that the Democratic Party has abandoned the working-class families. That’s where we are,” the 84-year-old California Rep. told the New York Times podcast “The Interview.”

Pelosi was pressured to reveal what went wrong in Harris’ campaign, but could not admit it was the vice president’s fault for losing the presidential election to Donald Trump.

“Well, I just completely disagree. And, in fact, Kamala Harris ran ahead of Bernie Sanders in Vermont,” Pelosi told the podcast.

Pelosi, who was seen as the mastermind in getting Joe Biden to drop his reelection campaign, said cultural issues were the reason Trump was backed by the lower classes.

“Well, there are cultural issues involved in elections as well. Guns, God and gays — that’s the way they say it,” she added.

During her conversation with Luu Garcia-Navarro, released Friday, Pelosi admitted it was a mistake to allow Biden to stay in the race for as long as he did before ultimately dropping out in July and handing the reigns over to Harris.

“Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary.”

Link

-Short Attention Span Theater-

Steve Bannon: I survived prison because my life's been nothing like Hunter Biden's

2024-10-31

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] I’m very glad he was not harmed by the experience, as so many January 6 prisoners have been.

Trump's former strategist was released from prison in the early hours of Tuesday

Steven Bannon served four months for contempt of Congress

Hours after being released from federal prison, Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon said he had a warning for the Biden family: Pardon Hunter before he has to serve a sentence that could destroy him.

'I don't think Hunter Biden would last 48 hours in a federal prison,' he told DailyMail.com

'I think that it would be too much for him, particularly with his previous drug addiction.'

The president's son could face years in prison when he is sentenced for gun and tax crimes in December.

Bannon detailed the hardships of life inside during an exclusive interview at the end of his four-month sentence for contempt of Congress. He left Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

After broadcasting his War Room livestream show from a Manhattan hotel suite he sat down with DailyMail.com to talk about the lowest point of his incarceration, what he learned from the inmates and how life in the U.S. Navy had prepared him for being cooped up with so many men.

'I'm 70 years old. I can tell you, there's not many 70-year-olds I know on Wall Street or in the political class that could go to a federal prison for four months,' he said.

'It's extremely difficult.

'These places are violent places. There's lots of drugs. This drug, K2 is all over these prisons.'

K2 is synthetic marijuana, also known as 'spice', that can be sprayed onto paper and smuggled into jails.

'That's why you have to be maniacally focused 24 hours a day. I think it's evident to me that Joe Biden is going to have to pardon his son.'

Biden has repeatedly said he will not use his powers to pardon his son. But insiders say the thought of Hunter, who is five years sober, spending time in prison has been a drain on the family.

Bannon was convicted in 2022 on two counts of defying subpoenas issued by the congressional investigation into the January 6 attack when Trump supporters ransacked the U.S. Capitol in 2021.

His release just a week before Election Day frees one of the most powerful Trump voices back on to the airwaves just as the two candidates hammer their closing messages.

Polls put Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris neck and neck.

Bannon was straight back into the swing of the campaign on Tuesday morning. He returned to the airwaves at 10 am and used his show to accuse former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of trying to silence him.

'She sent me to a federal prison as a political prisoner, to do two things, to make sure that she tried to tamp down the power of this show, right, tamp down the power of the show, and also to break me,' he said.

'Nancy Pelosi, take out your number two pencil and write this down: this show has never been more powerful.'

He urged supporters to ensure Democrats 'cannot steal the election,' showing that the prison sentence had not dimmed his fire. Later in the day it was on to a press conference, where dozens of journalists crammed into an upscale hotel suite to hear him repeat the unfounded claim that the 2020 election had been stolen.

Dressed in his trademark double-shirt and Barbour jacket getup, he said he had already spoken to Trump, but declined to offer further details of their conversation.

Victory would come down to getting the ground game running and turning out the vote, he said. But he had a warning for anyone who thought it would be over quickly.

'My focus is on victory next Tuesday and the biggest number possible, because folks: don't think it's going to end on Tuesday,' he said. 'This is going to take a while to sort through.'

Talking to DailyMail.com later, he described how the strict regimen and outdoor exercise had helped him lose weight and that time spent with other inmates energized him for the political struggle ahead. But he said it was wrong for anyone to think prison was a camp. And Biden should think hard about what it would do to Hunter.

'I don't his son will handle it,' he said.

'These are, these are dangerous, tough places.'

Link

Government Corruption

The Silent Insurrection: General Milley's Hand On January 6

2024-09-22

Much more at the link.

[ZeroHedge] In the days and weeks leading up to January 6, the nation's highest-ranking military officer, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley,

…for a general he went to the right schools, ticked the right career boxes, and looks good in a uniform. Unfortunately, nobody required reality-based insight of him, so he never thought to question the assumptions of his class — and so moved himself from patriot to effectively a traitor…

was moving in lockstep with the political anxieties of top Democratic leaders.

These Democrats grew anxious as over 140 House Republicans planned to contest the election results during the electoral college certification that day. Milley was then deeply engaged with a circle of confidants including

... his Chinese counterparts…

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, former Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice, and former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, among others—all of whom shared a unified disdain for President Donald Trump.

At a House Oversight Committee hearing in April addressing the 3-hour and 19-minute delay in mobilizing the D.C. National Guard on January 6, Colonel Earl Matthews, one of four Department of Defense witnesses, testified about an “irrational” fear among a “clique” of senior military officers concerning the potential misuse of the National Guard by the president. He indicated that these concerns were influenced behind the scenes by Milley, who often made disparaging remarks about the president and regularly referred to his fear of a so-called potential “Reichstag moment.”

Meanwhile, Milley has insisted he maintained a posture of strict neutrality, vocally distancing his leadership of the military from the political turmoil surrounding the 2020 presidential election. "My job is to stay clean by ensuring that the uniformed military remains out of domestic politics," Milley stated during his testimony before the January 6 Select Committee. "The United States military has no role in domestic politics, period, full stop."

Nevertheless, accounts of Milley’s approach to the unfolding situation during the late days of the Trump administration, as detailed in Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker's I Alone Can Fix It and Susan Glasser and Peter Baker’s August 2022 report in The New Yorker, present a picture of Milley that is much different from the disinterested persona he has disingenuously cultivated.

Some excerpts follow:

Considering resigning in the summer of 2020 during the height of the George Floyd riots, Milley ultimately decided against it. “Fuck that shit,” he told his staff, “I’ll just fight him.” Despite assurances to confidants that he would never openly defy the president—a move he considered illegal—he was “determined to plant flags.” Milley envisioned a scenario involving either a declaration of martial law or a presidential invocation of the Insurrection Act with “Trumpian Brown Shirts fomenting violence.”

Embodying a self-styled narrative of heroic defiance, Milley was prepared to face severe consequences to counter what he perceived as a grave threat. “If they want to court-martial me or put me in prison, have at it,” Milley told his staff, “but I will fight from the inside.”

Milley saw himself as “tasked” with safeguarding “against Trump and his people” from potentially misusing the military, something he confided in a “trusted confidant” to ensure he remained true to this plan. “I have four tasks from now until the twentieth of January,” he affirmed, “and I’m going to accomplish my mission.”

MILLEY’S COHORT OF CONFIDANTS
I Alone Can Fix It highlights how Milley, as the joint session approached and more than 140 House Republicans were pledged to contest the election results, shared his anxiety with “senior leaders” in Congress who sought his “comfort” amid fears of “attempted coups.” The New Yorker’s August 2022 report further reveals Milley’s communications with key Democrats, specifically Pelosi and Schumer.

Additionally, the New Yorker report describes Milley’s continued outreach to "Democrats close to Biden," which included “regular” interactions with Susan Rice, former Obama national security advisor. Known for her role in helping to orchestrate the Trump-Russia collusion hoax, Rice’s expertise in activities aimed at undermining the former president raises this question: What was it about her that made Milley want to seek her guidance in the days leading up to January 6?

The report also references Robert Gates, former Secretary of Defense during both the Obama and Bush administrations, as another key figure in Milley’s circle of confidants. Gates reportedly advised Milley to remain in the Pentagon as long as possible, citing President Trump’s “increasingly erratic and dangerous behavior.” I Alone Can Fix It also depicts Gates as a mentor to Milley, urging him not to resign during the final months of the Trump administration. He’s quoted advising Milley, “Don’t quit. Steel your back. It’s not going to be easy, but you’re the right guy in the right place and at the right time.”

LIZ CHENEY AND MILLEY’S “NIGHTMARE SCENARIOS”
During Trump’s final months in office, the New Yorker report notes that Milley had two “nightmare scenarios” running through his mind: One was that Trump might spark an external crisis, such as a war with Iran, to divert attention or to create a pretext for a power grab at home, and the other was that Trump would manufacture a domestic crisis to justify ordering the military into the streets to prevent the transfer of power.

On December 26, 2020, the two “nightmare scenarios” then preoccupying Milley transitioned from his personal concerns to the public domain in a column by Washington Post reporter David Ignatius—a journalist with close ties to both (you guessed it) the Obama and Bush administrations.

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-Short Attention Span Theater-

The biggest stock trades in Congress revealed: Nancy Pelosi tops list

2024-06-24

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is notoriously wealthy from making massive stock trades while in Congress, but she's not the only lawmaker cashing in.

Officially, lawmakers are not allowed to trade stocks using information learned on Capitol Hill. But that rule has been hard to enforce.

Congressional stock trades have caught the public eye since the pandemic, when some lawmakers raised eyebrows by selling shortly after closed-door COVID-19 briefings before the stock market crashed.

Pelosi, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., Rep. Dan Mueser, D-Pa., Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., for example, have all traded over a million dollars in securities this year, according to federal data compiled by politician trade tracker Quiver Quantitative.

In 2012, the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act was passed to force politicians to disclose their trades.

The act forces officials to publicly disclose their transactions valued over $1,000 within 30 days of receiving notice of the trade and 45 days of the date of the trade. However, it does not require members disclose the exact price of a trade but rather a range.

Members must report trades made by themselves, their spouse or dependents - and the transparency law has led to a wealth of information about top politicians' pricey portfolios which can reach up to the tens, if not hundreds, of millions.

DailyMail.com breaks down the top stock trades made by politicians so far in 2024:

Nancy Pelosi: $4 millionRep. Josh Gottheimer: $46.2 million

Sen Rep. Dan Meuser: $1.2 million

Rick Scott: $26.4 million

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: $1.3 million

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Home Front: Politix

Pelosi - ‘Americans are blinded by their God.’

2024-05-15

[FOX] Former Mumford & Sons member Winston Marshall discusses the video of him calling out former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying elites are the real threat to democracy on ’The Bottom Line.’

Clip found here.

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