Ilhan Omar Attempts To Paint Alleged Perpetrators Of $1,000,000,000 Fraud Scheme As Victims

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Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar appeared to suggest Sunday on CBS News that the victims of a massive COVID relief fraud scheme in the state — in which nine-in-ten of those charged were Somali — were other Somali.

During an appearance on “Face the Nation,” Omar told host Margaret Brennan it is “frustrating” to her that people do not acknowledge Minnesota’s Somali community is “upset” about the COVID relief fraud — which reportedly resulted in taxpayer money winding up in the hands of a Somali radical Islamic terrorist group. The scheme’s alleged perpetrators “stole nearly $1 billion” from a nonprofit which claimed to feed hungry schoolchildren, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer stated.

“The Biden-era Justice Department called it the largest COVID fraud scheme in the country, and this was pocketing COVID-era welfare funds, more than a billion dollars in taxpayer money that was stolen,” Brennan told the Somali-born congresswoman. “Of the 87 people charged, all but eight are of Somali descent, and that has added to the spotlight being put specifically on your community. Why do you think this fraud was allowed to get so widespread?”

“I want to say, you know, this also has an impact on Somalis, because we are also taxpayers in Minnesota,” Omar said in response. “We also could have benefited from the program and the money that was stolen. And so it’s been really frustrating for people to not acknowledge the fact that we’re also — as Minnesotans, as taxpayers — really upset and angry about the fraud that has occurred.”

Later in the interview, Brennan noted “one of the initial defenses by the organization at the heart of the fraud, Feeding Our Future, was to claim the probe was due to racism.” (Read more from “Ilhan Omar Attempts To Paint Alleged Perpetrators Of $1,000,000,000 Fraud Scheme As Victims” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage skidmore via Flickr

Family Portrays January 6 Pipe Bomb Suspect as Socially Isolated, Developmentally Delayed, Not Trump Supporter

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The family of Brian Cole, the Virginia man charged with placing pipe bombs near Capitol Hill on January 5, 2021, says he is not the politically driven extremist federal investigators claim him to be. Instead, they describe a shy, developmentally delayed “computer kid” who avoids politics entirely and has spent most of his adult life in a basement bedroom grieving a lost pet.

Cole, 30, was arrested Thursday after FBI tactical teams surrounded his family’s Woodbridge home, ending a years-long national search for the still-unidentified pipe bomb suspect. Prosecutors allege he built improvised explosive devices and left them outside both the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters the night before the Capitol riot. The bombs never detonated.

Federal sources claim Cole told interrogators he supported former President Donald Trump and leaned toward anarchist ideas. His grandmother, Loretta, says that portrayal is completely false.

“He doesn’t like either political party,” she said. “He doesn’t vote. He doesn’t argue about politics. He’s just not involved in any of that.”

According to his grandmother, Cole is “borderline autistic” and functions emotionally and socially far below his age. She says he has always needed structure, avoids social interaction, and prefers spending time with computers or, until recently, his chihuahua that died earlier this year.

“He’s thirty, but mentally he’s still a teenager,” she said. “He keeps to himself. He doesn’t have friends. He’s never had a girlfriend. He just stays downstairs and works on his computer.”

Cole worked a simple data-entry role at the family’s bail bonds office. His grandmother said he handled basic phone duties and clerical tasks because the family wanted him to have routine and responsibility.

“Anything complicated would overwhelm him,” she added. “He’s quiet and polite. That’s why this is such a shock.”

Loretta said she had no warning that federal agents were about to accuse her grandson of collecting bomb components, assembling devices inside the home, and attempting an attack on political headquarters.

“We’re terrified,” she said. “The FBI says they have evidence, but we don’t believe he would plan anything like this.”

She says Cole appeared at work as normal the day before the arrest, showing no signs of distress, agitation, or unusual behavior.

When Cole appeared for arraignment, the family was told that he was upset primarily because he believed he had disappointed them.

“That’s what broke my heart,” she said. “He’s worried he let us down.”

Two armored vehicles loaded with FBI SWAT agents arrived at the home Thursday morning, startling neighbors in the quiet Northern Virginia suburb. Agents also executed a search warrant at the family’s office.

Federal officials say the arrest stemmed from evidence they already possessed from 2021 and 2022, not from a new tip. The FBI recently released previously unseen video footage of the pipe bomb suspect walking near Capitol Hill on the night the devices were planted.

The bureau had offered a $500,000 reward for information, prompting renewed public attention to the case before Cole’s arrest.

Despite the charges, Cole’s grandmother insists the allegations don’t fit the young man she raised.

“If you met him, you’d never think he could do something like this,” she said. “And if he did, it wasn’t because he understood the consequences. He doesn’t think like that.”

The family says they are now focused on finding legal help and preparing for what they expect to be a long fight.

“We love him,” she said. “We’re going to stand by him. He’s not a monster. He’s not political. He’s just a lost kid who never really grew up.”

CNN Just Cracked Open Pandora’s Box That’s Worse Than Any Fake News Hoax

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CNN has opened up a Pandora’s box that’s worse than any fake news hoax the outlet could ever possibly peddle.

On Tuesday, the network announced an “official partnership” with the online platform Kalshi, which allows users to wager on anything from a sports game to whether J.D. Vance will be the GOP nominee in 2028, to how much money Darth Vader’s lightsaber will fetch at auction. Kalshi is a “prediction market,” and users are trading “contracts” on future events. So, somehow, it is legally distinct from gambling.

“As part of the partnership, CNN will get access to Kalshi’s data through an API, or backend interface, that automatically updates in real time,” Axios reported. “That data will be featured on CNN’s air through a real-time data ticker and can be referenced across CNN’s platforms when journalists discuss news predictions.”

Of course, neither CNN nor Kalshi has addressed the ethics elephant in the newsroom, as of publication. CNN anchors, reporters, and commentators do not determine events throughout the country and world. But they certainly influence them, enough to move markets. For example, if CNN published a story that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had a terminal illness, but that story later turned out to be false, Nvidia’s stock would have likely plummeted regardless, and billions of dollars could have been wiped out in a matter of minutes.

How will this power affect their coverage now that they are partnered with a betting platform? CNN will likely get a cut of the Kalshi gambling revenue, so how will that affect which events they choose to cover? Will the popularity of bets on Kalshi’s platform drive their coverage? Are they going to do segments on Darth Vader’s lightsaber because it drives the most wagering? Will all these CNN employees, from the executives to the bookers, be barred from betting on people or events they cover in the news? Where are the guardrails? What if anonymous sources, whether in government or working for a sports franchise, leak them stories to drive betting markets in a certain direction? (Read more from “CNN Just Cracked Open Pandora’s Box That’s Worse Than Any Fake News Hoax” HERE)

Elon Musk Calls for the European Union to Be ‘Abolished’ and a Return of National Sovereignty

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Tesla chief Elon Musk has called for the abolition of the European Union as a political entity and a return of national sovereignty to the continent in the wake of Brussels announcing a $140 million fine against his X social media platform for supposedly violating the bloc’s censorship law.

“The EU should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent their people,” Musk wrote on his X account on Saturday morning.

It came after the unelected European Commission imposed a €120 million ($140 million) fine on X on Friday for allegedly breaching the Digital Services Act (DSA), the overarching censorship law crafted by Eurocrats in Brussels which seeks to prohibit the proliferation of content deemed to be hateful, disinformation, or harmful to “civic discourse” in Europe.

The bloc has long been at odds with X since Elon Musk took over the social media platform in 2022, even going to so far as to publicly warn Musk about conducting a live interview with then candidate Donald Trump ahead of last year’s presidential election.

The decision to fine X looks to further sour relations between Washington and Brussels, with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio writing: “The European Commission’s $140 million fine isn’t just an attack on X, it’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments. (Read more from “Elon Musk Calls for the European Union to Be ‘Abolished’ and a Return of National Sovereignty” HERE)

Another Afghan National Was Busted for Allegedly Plotting a Mass Shooting

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Democrats swore up and down that the Biden administration “carefully vetted” all the Afghan nationals we brought to America after the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. Despite that, an Afghan national named Rahmanullah Lakanwal drove from the West Coast to D.C., where he shot two National Guardsmen, killing one of them, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, and leaving the other, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, critically wounded.

In the days following that shooting, more Afghan nationals were arrested for various threats, including one in Texas who threatened to bomb Fort Worth and one in Virginia who was helping ISIS-K.

Now a third Afghan national named Luqmaan Khan was arrested in Delaware, this time for allegedly plotting a mass shooting.

“He allegedly told cops that becoming a martyr was ‘one of the greatest things you can do,'” Morello wrote.

Kahn came to the U.S. as a “youth,” according to The New York Post.

(Read more from “Another Afghan National Was Busted for Allegedly Plotting a Mass Shooting” HERE)

Pelosi and Greene Retirements Thrust $38M-a-Year Pension Perk for Congress Into Spotlight

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The vast majority of the record number of congressional lawmakers not seeking re-election next year, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), will collect annual pension benefits that cost taxpayers some $38 million per year to payout.

The timing of Greene’s abrupt retirement, as well of the six-figure sum Pelosi will receive after serving nearly 40 years in Congress, have brought attention to the little-known perk for ex-pols and renewed calls to end the program.

“I can’t read her mind, but it certainly seems as if it was timed to make sure she got vested,” Demian Brady, the vice president of research for the National Taxpayer Union Foundation, said of the Georgia Republican’s last day in the House.

Under federal law, members of Congress qualify for annual pension benefits only after completing five full years of service.

Brady was one of the first to point out that Greene, who began serving on Jan. 3, 2021, and will leave office on Jan. 5, 2026, picked a departure date that gives her just enough time to meet the eligibility threshold. (Read more from “Pelosi and Greene Retirements Thrust $38M-a-Year Pension Perk for Congress Into Spotlight” HERE)

Plane Bound for New Jersey Plunges Thousands of Feet After Possible Strike by Cosmic Rays from Other Galaxy, Investigators Say

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A New Jersey-bound airplane that suddenly plunged thousands of feet in the air — sending 15 people to the hospital in October — was likely struck by cosmic rays from a star that exploded in another galaxy, according to space experts.

The JetBlue Airbus A320 flight was hit by a stream of high-energy particles from a distant supernova blast that traveled millions of years, according to Clive Dyer, a space and radiation expert from the University of Surrey who spoke to space.com

“Cosmic rays can interact with modern microelectronics and change the state of a circuit,” Dyer told the outlet. “They can cause a simple bit flip, like a zero to one or one to zero. They can mess up information and make things go wrong. But they can cause hardware failures too, when they induce a current in an electronic device and burn it out.”

The flight was headed from Cancun to Newark on Oct. 30 . . . Pilots regained control and made an emergency landing in Tampa, Florida, but roughly 20 passengers suffered serious injuries, including bloody head wounds.

Airbus officials blamed the glitch this week on “intense solar radiation” from the sun interfering with the 20-year-old plane’s navigation computer. (Read more from “Plane Bound for New Jersey Plunges Thousands of Feet After Possible Strike by Cosmic Rays from Other Galaxy, Investigators Say” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

VIDEO: Suspect in January 2021 U.S. Capitol Pipe Bomb Case Arrested

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Editor’s Note:

Last month, a conservative outlet identified a former U.S. Capitol Police officer as a potential match for the January 6 pipe bomber, citing a “gait analysis” as its primary evidence. The FBI later dismissed the claim, and the officer definitively disproved the allegation by providing video footage showing she was at home playing with her puppies at the time the explosive devices were planted

By Breitbart. A man accused of planting pipe bombs near the U.S. Capitol the day before the January 6, 2021, protests has been arrested in Virginia.

Officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested the suspect early Thursday, Fox News reported, citing law enforcement sources. Fox said the suspect is Brian Cole, according to “two sources.”

The pipe bombs were placed near the Republican and Democrat National Committees’ headquarters over 16 hours before authorities located them.

A bomb squad detonated the pipe bomb found at the Republican National Committee (RNC), Breitbart News reported January 6, 2021. A suspicious package was also found at the Democrat National Committee’s offices.

“The report comes as supporters of President Trump stormed the United States Capitol to protest the Congressional electoral college vote to certify the 2020 presidential election results for President-elect Joe Biden,” the outlet added at the time. (Read more from “VIDEO: Suspect in January 2021 U.S. Capitol Pipe Bomb Case Arrested” HERE)

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Nearly Five Years Later, FBI Makes Arrest In DC Pipe Bomb Case

By The Federalist. The FBI made an arrest early Thursday morning in the five-year-old Washington, D.C., pipe bomb case. Authorities arrested Brian J. Cole Jr. and accused him of planting two live bombs on Jan. 5, 2021 — one near in the vicinity of the headquarters of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the other near the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

According to the criminal complaint, video surveillance captured an individual, now alleged to be Cole, wearing a hoodie and distinctive shoes while placing bombs at the RNC and DNC headquarters. The bombs were discovered Jan. 6, 2021, before they exploded.

The Department of Justice is charging Cole, 30, with transportation of an explosive device with intent to kill, injure, or intimidate an individual, or to damage property and malicious destruction by means of fire and explosive materials.

Cole, a resident of Woodbridge, Virginia, lives in a house “with his mother and other family members,” according to the complaint. He works at a bail bond business.

He allegedly bought materials for the bombs, including pipes, endcaps, and steel wool, at Home Depot, along with a kitchen timer at Walmart. Investigators tracked down every bomb component he purchased, according to the complaint. (Read more from “Nearly Five Years Later, FBI Makes Arrest In DC Pipe Bomb Case” HERE)

New Law Lets Texans Sue Out-Of-State Dealers For Trafficking Abortion Drugs

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A new law designed to combat Democrat laws shielding abortion drug traffickers who take advantage of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s radically expanded mail-order mifepristone allowances went into effect on Thursday in Texas.

Lone Star legislators passed House Bill 7 in September to create a punishment mechanism for illegal interstate abortion pill transactions and the dangerous and deadly consequences they hold for women and their unborn children.

Under the new statute, private citizens are permitted to sue out-of-state mifepristone prescribers, manufacturers, and distributors, such as pharmacies, for “an amount of not less than $100,000” for each violation of the state’s ban on abortion pills. Enforcement is modeled after Texas’ successful 2021 heartbeat bill, which virtually eliminated abortion in the state by granting anyone outside of the government to bring a civil action against anyone who performs or aids and abets ending a life in the womb.

Abortion activists have already dubbed the law a “dangerous” “attack” fueled by “fearmongering and intimidation.” Media such as the Houston Chronicle and The Guardian joined the dogpile with articles framing the law as a “bounty hunter” scheme.

“Abortion pill underground” coordinators, such as the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project (MAP), have also committed in print and online to continue their drug smuggling schemes regardless of potential consequences. (Read more from “New Law Lets Texans Sue Out-Of-State Dealers For Trafficking Abortion Drugs” HERE)

‘Major Breakthrough’ Blood Test Can Find Dementia Risk Before Symptoms Even Start

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. . .About 1 in 9 US seniors has Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, which slowly impairs memory, thinking skills and the ability to perform even basic tasks.

There is no single, easy test to diagnose Alzheimer’s, but a new review of 18 scientific studies confirms that a simple blood test can detect early signs of the brain disorder before cognitive symptoms appear.

The protein p-tau217 has become a reliable Alzheimer’s biomarker because its concentration in the blood is strongly linked to the presence of amyloid plaques and tau tangles in the brain, two hallmarks of Alzheimer’s.

The research out this week in JAMA Neurology supports the use of p-tau217 blood tests as a “minimally invasive tool” for early identification of Alzheimer’s, “particularly in settings where timely intervention with disease-modifying therapies may offer the greatest benefit in slowing or preventing disease progression.”

Dr. Liron Sinvani, director of the Geriatric Hospitalist Service at Northwell Health and director of research for hospital medicine, called the finding “a major breakthrough.”

“Just a simple blood test to see if this protein, this p-tau217, is present can indicate that someone is at a very high risk of having dementia right before symptoms even start,” said Sinvani, who was not involved in the new research. (Read more from “‘Major Breakthrough’ Blood Test Can Find Dementia Risk Before Symptoms Even Start” HERE)