Mystery Erupts as US Spy Satellite Explodes… and Space Force won’t Rule out an Attack

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An American spy satellite that was recently declassified to the public has mysteriously exploded, sparking concern that more satellites that provide phone and internet service may soon suffer the same fate.

The device, called USA 32, broke apart while in low Earth orbit on September 13, creating a large debris cloud just over 480 miles above the planet, the US Space Force said.

The military added that ‘further analysis is ongoing’ and did not release any other details or rule out the possibility of an anti-satellite weapon.

USA 32 had been in space since 1988 and was also known by its classified code name ‘Farrah III’ during the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which builds and operates America’s spy satellites to collect intelligence from space, had just revealed the full details of its mission last year – which was to listen for Soviet radar and other electronic signals and relay that data to the US military. (Read more from “Mystery Erupts as US Spy Satellite Explodes… and Space Force won’t Rule out an Attack” HERE)

Is Your Own Government Censoring You? X’s New Shadowban Detector Reveals the Truth

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X is the platform of free speech, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t times when it will limit the reach of a post to comply with platform policies or the government. Luckily, there’s a new reporting feature that will tell you if and when you’ve been shadowbanned, and you can use it right now.

Shadowbanning is the act of arbitrarily limiting the reach of a user’s post without his knowledge, warning, or consent. From the user’s perspective, his content will simply drop views and engagement with no explanation. Meanwhile, the social platform virtually removes the post from its algorithm so that the content isn’t served to as many users, if at all. The post is still visible on the user’s main profile page, but to the rest of the social network, it basically doesn’t exist.

Shadowbans, even on a free speech platform like X, are issued for a number of reasons: spam behavior, like mass following and unfollowing accounts or overusing hashtags, having a post reported by too many users, violating X’s safety policies, and requests from local law enforcement or the government, usually over “hate speech” or breaches of national security.

For what it’s worth, X’s official stance on shadowbanning is that it doesn’t do it, according to a blog post published in 2018, long before the Musk acquisition. This, however, has been proven false plenty of times in the past. For instance, conservative voices were silenced in 2018 and again in 2020 when the FBI met with Twitter to censor Charlie Kirk, Libs of TikTok, and Dan Bongino.

Needless to say, this has happened on and off for many years. (Read more from “Is Your Own Government Censoring You? X’s New Shadowban Detector Reveals the Truth” HERE)

Senator Corners Kash Patel on Secret Epstein Interview

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. . .Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden has accused the DOJ and FBI of illegally withholding a document it should have made public under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, claiming an FBI record of an interview with a banker with ties to Epstein has been covered up.

Wyden made the bombshell allegation in a Wednesday letter sent to Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel.

“Investigators from my staff recently learned that the FBI possesses an FBI 302 report memorializing an interview with a banker tied to Epstein that was conducted as part of a criminal investigation into Epstein and his associates,” Wyden writes. “This FBI 302 report is not included in the documents DOJ has released in response to the passage of the EFTA. The existence of this FBI 302, and its exclusion from the publicly released EFTA files, has heightened my concerns that the DOJ and the FBI are withholding key documents from Congress and the public.”

Wyden then demanded that the DOJ and the FBI “immediately produce copies of all FBI 302 reports related to investigations into Epstein and his associates, including but not limited to 302s generated from interviews with employees of JPMC, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America.”

Last month, Wyden published a report alleging that executives at those banks broke anti-money laundering laws by failing to screen or promptly report $1.4 billion in suspicious Epstein transactions. (Read more from “Senator Corners Kash Patel on Secret Epstein Interview” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Once America’s Hottest Housing Market, Popular State is Now the Hardest Place to Sell a Home

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If you’re planning to cash out in Florida, you might want to pack your patience.

The Sunshine State is the single worst place in the country to sell a home right now, according to a fresh ranking from Underwood Law Firm that pits 48 states against each other on how brutal their markets are for sellers.

Florida sits at the bottom of the barrel with a staggering 206,508 homes up for grabs, the biggest glut of any state studied.

The typical property there lingers for 73 days before a buyer bites, and bidding wars have all but vanished. Only 10.9% of homes fetched more than their asking price.

This essentially means buyers in Florida are calling the shots.

The firm crunched Redfin Data Center figures across seven yardsticks. (Read more from “Once America’s Hottest Housing Market, Popular State is Now the Hardest Place to Sell a Home” HERE)

Trump Mails Letter and $500 Check to 950K Americans with Obamacare

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President Trump is putting a half-billion dollars in the mail — and making sure Americans know who to thank for it.

About 950,000 Obamacare enrollees in 30 states will receive $500 checks as early as this week — premised on the Biden administration’s alleged overcharging of user fees to health insurance companies, which in turn charged consumers higher rates.

“I am proud to return your money to you, and I will never stop fighting to put the American People FIRST, restore Affordability, protect your hard-earned money, and lower the Cost of Healthcare,” Trump says in the letter mailed Wednesday and first reported by USA Today.

“For years, the Biden administration overcharged you to fund the operation of HealthCare.gov. That money belongs to hard-working Americans, not the Government, and now I’m returning it to you!”

Trump added: “You have paid into this flawed System, and now you are finally getting something back.”

The 30 states whose residents will receive checks include many with hotly contested congressional races on Nov. 3, including Florida, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas. (Read more from “Trump Mails Letter and $500 Check to 950K Americans with Obamacare” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

America’s Next Military Mega-Base will go to One Winning State, Hegseth Says

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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Wednesday announced plans to build a modern, self-sustaining military fortress, saying the site will be selected through a merit-based competition among governors pitching their states as potential locations.

The megaproject, dubbed the “Next Great American Base,” was unveiled during an address at Marine Corps Base Quantico as part of Hegseth’s six strategies to modernize the military.

The initiative rejects what Hegseth described as the legacy approach to spend heavily on advanced weapons systems while service members live on aging bases with outdated barracks.

“For too long, our military has been bogged down by the same old tired Washington playbook: spending trillions on exquisite weapons systems, while our troops live in aging bases, outdated barracks, and with inadequate infrastructure. That era is over,” Hegseth said.

“To back up our warfighters, when we bring the troops home, we won’t just reshuffle troops onto legacy posts. We are going to build them beautiful new bases from the ground up,” he added. (Read more from “America’s Next Military Mega-Base will go to One Winning State, Hegseth Says” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Top Federal Regulator Opens Probe Into Whether AI Will Kill Us All

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Federal regulators are preparing to make the companies building the most powerful artificial intelligence answer for its apparent risks.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) plans to compel documents and testimony from executives at OpenAI, Anthropic and other leading AI labs as it widens a probe of the companies an anonymous senior agency official told the New York Post on Wednesday. These demands land after executives from several of those companies signed an agreement at the White House pledging to regulate their own models, which President Donald Trump called “morally binding” Tuesday.

“The agency has plans to compel the executives at these firms to testify about their product [and] about the dangers they allege their products may have to consumers, to Americans,” the official told the Post.

The probe is examining possible unfair or deceptive practices under the Woodrow Wilson-era FTC Act, according to the Post. FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson believes the government does not need new laws to police the companies, the official said.

“People talk about how we need new laws for these companies, and the chairman’s been very clear … we have plenty of laws in the books,” the official told the Post, adding that the investigation is not meant to slow the AI industry down. (Read more from “Top Federal Regulator Opens Probe Into Whether AI Will Kill Us All” HERE)

The Murder Of A Trans New York Times Executive Has Taken A Strange Turn

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The director of engineering at New York Times Games, Jonathan McKinsey, was allegedly shot and killed by her in-laws Sept. 26 amid a custody battle.

McKinsey, formerly known as Dawn S. Finney, was transgender and began going by Johnathan in 2010 after undergoing gender transition surgeries.

A sergeant with the Dublin Police Services (DPS) discovered Finney, 40, lying on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds at the Dublin Sports Grounds around 3:08 p.m. Sept. 26, according to a DPS press release. . .

Finney was married to the couple’s daughter, Candice Jang, for over a decade, according to The Mercury News. Court records referenced by the outlet indicate Finney was involved in a custody dispute with Jang, with both parties accusing the other of abuse.

The same records allege that Finney hit one of her sons during an argument and left a “very large bruise the shape of a handprint” on the child’s face. Jang also accused Finney of grabbing her so hard she left bruises on her wrist in 2018. In another instance, Finney allegedly left her two-year-old son home alone while she went shopping. Police investigated the incidents, and Finney was charged with cruelty to a child by endangering health and corporal injury to a child but was freed on $50,000 bail, The Mercury News reported. (Read more from “The Murder Of A Trans New York Times Executive Has Taken A Strange Turn” HERE)

Almost All GOP Senators Block Resolution To Require Report On Israeli Violence In West Bank

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Almost every Republican senator shot down a resolution Tuesday that sought answers regarding increased violence in the West Bank by Israelis.

The resolution would have required the State Department to provide lawmakers with reports on violence and human rights violations in the territory. It failed in a 51 to 47 vote, with almost all Republican senators voting against it.

Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul voted “yes” on the measure, while Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman voted against it. Republican Sens. Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana did not vote.

Democratic Sens. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Tim Kaine of Virginia, along with independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, introduced the measure in August. The three senators were joined by eight of their colleagues, including Democratic Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey.

Van Hollen vowed Democrats would not stop fighting for “justice.” (Read more from “Almost All GOP Senators Block Resolution To Require Report On Israeli Violence In West Bank” HERE)

Iran Turns Tables on Trump Admin after Dramatic Warning amid Escalating War

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Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf rejected claims by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that Iran faces an imminent economic collapse, arguing instead that Washington is heading toward a debt crisis of its own.

Responding on X to Bessent’s assertion earlier Wednesday that Tehran could have “nothing left to trade” within two weeks, Ghalibaf used memes to point to what he saw as U.S. economic vulnerabilities.

Among them was a mock financial model titled “Trajectory of Stress on the House,” which contended that ballooning national debt, rising Treasury bond yields and energy costs will place mounting strain on the American financial system.

Ghalibaf also paired the mock formula with a cartoon depicting Bessent as Wile E. Coyote running off a cliff.

(Read more from “Iran Turns Tables on Trump Admin after Dramatic Warning amid Escalating War” HERE)