Hegseth Fires Navy Chief Of Staff

/2 Comments/in , , /by

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth fired Navy Chief of Staff Jon Harrison on Friday, the Department of War said.

Harrison was appointed in January to lead as the Navy’s chief of staff, working alongside Navy Secretary John Phelan to implement organizational changes under Hegseth’s new leadership. A War Department official confirmed Harrison’s removal to the Daily Caller News Foundation, thanking the former chief of staff for his service.

“He will no longer serve as Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the Navy,” the statement read. “We are grateful for his service to the Department.”

According to two defense officials and a former defense official, sources told Politico that Harrison’s firing was “sudden,” coming after he and Phelan worked to implement sweeping changes in policy and budgeting offices.

The removal comes just days after retired Navy Captain and former Republican Senate candidate in Virginia Hung Cao was confirmed as Undersecretary of the Navy on Wednesday. (Read more from “Hegseth Fires Navy Chief Of Staff” HERE)

Editor’s Note: It appears that Harrison, a Trump appointee with no prior military experience who took the role in January 2025, ran into trouble with Hung Cao, a Navy veteran, who had just been confirmed by the Senate as the new Under Secretary of the Navy earlier last week. An anonymous Pentagon official described the firing as a response to Harrison’s efforts to curb the new undersecretary’s influence.

Photo credit: Flickr

FBI Agent Canned for Refusing to Arrest and Perp Walk James Comey

/0 Comments/in , , /by

An FBI Agent was fired for refusing to arrest and perp walk James Comey, according to Reuters.

Per Reuters: “An FBI agent was relieved of duty for declining to arrange a “perp walk” of the bureau’s former director, James Comey, in front of news media cameras after Comey was federally charged last month, four people briefed on the matter said on Friday.”

Comey will be arraigned on October 9. His case was assigned to US District Judge Michael Nachmanoff, a Biden appointee.

MSNBC also confirmed that the FBI agent was fired for refusing to perp walk Comey in front of news cameras after he was indicted.

CBS News reported that the FBI “is considering carrying out a “showy” arrest and perp walk” of Comey and “suspended an agent who refused to participate in the plan.” (Read more from “FBI Agent Canned for Refusing to Arrest and Perp Walk James Comey” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Reports: Hamas Responds to Trump; Agrees to Release All Hostages

/3 Comments/in , , /by

Al Jazeera reported Friday that Hamas delivered its response to President Donald Trump’s peace plan, hours after the president gave the terror group a deadline of 6:00 p.m. ET on Sunday or else face total destruction.

Al Jazeera reported:

The Palestinian group says that, in order to end Israel’s war on Gaza and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the enclave, it is ready to release all Israeli captives – both those who are living and dead – according to the exchange plan outlined in Trump’s proposal.

“In this context, the movement affirms its readiness to immediately enter into negotiations through the mediators to discuss the details of this agreement,” Hamas said in a statement shared on Telegram.

It also said it agrees to hand over the administration of Gaza to an independent body of Palestinian technocrats, “based on Palestinian national consensus and Arab and Islamic support”.

The response did not, apparently, include an agreement to disarm — a core Israeli and American demand. (Read more from “Reports: Hamas Responds to Trump; Agrees to Release All Hostages” HERE)

White House Press Secretary Explodes at Reporter Over Kushner’s Middle East Ties

/0 Comments/in , , /by

At a heated White House briefing this week, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt lashed out at a New York Times reporter who questioned the role of Jared Kushner in President Donald Trump’s proposed Gaza peace plan — even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled that Israel would not abide by key terms of the agreement.

The exchange highlighted the growing political tensions surrounding the Trump administration’s high-stakes, 20-point roadmap to end the war in Gaza — a plan that includes phased Israeli withdrawal, a governing council for Gaza, and Gulf-backed reconstruction — and the controversial involvement of Trump’s son-in-law in its negotiation.

The confrontation occurred after The Times’ Shawn McCreesh asked whether it was appropriate for Kushner — who has received over $2.5 billion in investments from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar — to be so deeply involved in diplomacy involving those very same countries.

“How did the White House decide that it is appropriate for Jared Kushner to be working on matters that involve Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, three countries that combined have given him more than $2.5 billion for his investment firm?” McCreesh asked.

Leavitt, 28, erupted in response:

“I think it’s frankly despicable that you’re trying to suggest that it’s inappropriate for Jared Kushner, who is widely respected around the world and has great trust and relationships with these critical partners in these countries, to strike a twenty-point comprehensive detailed peace plan that no other administration would ever be able to achieve,” she said.

“Jared is donating his energy and his time to our government, to the President of the United States, to secure world peace, and that is a very noble thing.”

Her impassioned defense sought to frame Kushner not as a conflict of interest, but as an asset — someone whose personal relationships and business history with the Gulf states were being leveraged for diplomatic gain.

Still, the optics are hard to ignore. Kushner’s firm, Affinity Partners, received $2 billion from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund in 2021, soon after he left the White House. Since then, the firm has secured at least $1.5 billion more from the UAE and Qatar.

The scrutiny over Kushner comes amid growing signals from Israel that it will not fully honor the peace plan brokered by the Trump administration — despite its public support.

Earlier this week, Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel would accept only an agreement “on its terms,” suggesting that the Israeli government may revise or reject critical components of the proposed deal.

The original plan includes:

The release of all hostages;
A phased Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza;
The establishment of a transitional, internationally backed governing council for Gaza;
A demilitarized Gaza Strip, with armed groups disarmed;
And billions in reconstruction funds from Gulf states, primarily Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar.

But Netanyahu’s statements — including that “Israel alone will determine the security future of Gaza” — appear to directly contradict the disarmament and governance provisions. According to Israeli media, Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition is especially resistant to any plan that would reduce Israeli control or allow significant Palestinian self-governance.

Netanyahu’s “own terms” include retaining Israeli military oversight of Gaza indefinitely, rejecting both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority as future rulers of the enclave, and demanding absolute disarmament before any reconstruction or diplomatic normalization moves forward. These changes would substantially alter the agreement Trump’s team — with Kushner at the helm — has been promoting.

The question McCreesh posed — about whether private financial entanglements are influencing public diplomacy — underscores the growing unease about the backchannel nature of these negotiations.

Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Ron Wyden, have launched inquiries into Affinity Partners’ foreign funding, warning that the overlap of Kushner’s financial and diplomatic roles represents a “serious constitutional and ethical problem.”

Photo credit: Flickr

Researchers Are Closer Than Ever to Solving Earhart Mystery — And Aerial Photos May Hold the Key

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Newly discovered aerial photos taken in 1938 of a mysterious anomaly on a remote island in the South Pacific provide “very strong” evidence that it may be Amelia Earhart’s missing plane, researchers claim.

Footage of the strange metallic object located underwater in a lagoon on the island of Nikumaroro — captured a year after the pioneer aviator disappeared 88 years ago — bolsters scientists’ belief that the “Taraia Object” is Earhart’s legendary Lockheed 10-E Electra, Purdue University announced.

A 15-person crew — made up of researchers from Purdue and the Archeological Legacy Institute (ALI) — will set off on Nov. 4 for the island, located between Hawaii and Fiji near the center of the Pacific Ocean, to investigate the enigmatic find, believed to be the main body and tail of the missing aircraft.

“Finding Amelia Earhart’s aircraft would be the discovery of a lifetime,” said ALI executive director Dr. Richard Pettigrew, who has long believed that Nikumaroro hides the secret to Earhart’s disappearance.

“Other evidence already collected by the International Group of Historic Aircraft Recovery establishes an extremely persuasive, multifaceted case that the final destination for Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, was on Nikumaroro. Confirming the plane wreckage there would be the smoking-gun proof.” (Read more from “Researchers Are Closer Than Ever to Solving Earhart Mystery — And Aerial Photos May Hold the Key” HERE)

Musk Announces Grokipedia to Challenge Wikipedia’s Left-Wing Bias

/0 Comments/in , , /by

In a bold move that challenges the established gatekeepers of online information, tech billionaire Elon Musk has announced the creation of “Grokipedia,” a new encyclopedia project aimed squarely at dethroning Wikipedia. Announced via his social media platform X, this initiative from Musk’s xAI company responds to growing concerns that Wikipedia has been compromised by partisan activists, undermining its mission to provide neutral knowledge. Musk’s plan is to leverage his Grok artificial intelligence to build what he promises will be a more truthful and reliable repository of information for the public.

The announcement follows public criticisms from notable tech figures, including an interview with Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger, who has himself warned about the platform’s descent into bias. Echoing this sentiment, investor David Sacks stated on X that “Wikipedia is hopelessly biased.” Sacks elaborated that “an army of left-wing activists maintain the bios and fight reasonable corrections,” creating a significant problem given the site’s prominence in search results and its use in training other AI models.

For years, Wikipedia has presented itself as a neutral, crowd-sourced project governed by strict policies of verifiability. However, critics argue that its editorial process has been captured by a specific ideological worldview. The site’s immense influence, as the seventh most-visited website globally, means its alleged biases are amplified across the internet and absorbed into other technologies, shaping public perception on a massive scale. . .

The vision for Grokipedia is not merely to replicate Wikipedia but to surpass it through technological superiority. Musk has suggested that Grok can use “heavy amounts of inference compute” to analyze a Wikipedia page and determine what is true, partially true, or false. The AI would then rewrite the page to correct falsehoods and add crucial missing context, a process purportedly free from human political motivations.

However, the project faces skepticism. While the ambition is grand, Grok itself has experienced controversies, including instances where it generated inappropriate responses. Building a system that can reliably discern complex truth from bias is a monumental challenge. Furthermore, winning over the general public from a deeply entrenched and familiar source like Wikipedia will be an uphill battle. (Read more from “Musk Announces Grokipedia to Challenge Wikipedia’s Left-Wing Bias” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Federal Court Strikes Down Gun Ban at U.S. Post Offices

/0 Comments/in , , /by

A federal judge in Texas has struck down a long-standing ban on carrying firearms inside United States Post Offices and on surrounding postal property, ruling that the law violates the Constitution. The decision, handed down by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, comes as a major win for the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), and two private citizens who jointly filed the lawsuit in June 2024.

The court issued a summary judgment declaring the prohibition unconstitutional and immediately blocked its enforcement against the plaintiffs. The legal challenge targeted both federal statute 18 U.S.C. § 930(a) and postal regulation 39 C.F.R. § 232.1(1), which had long made it illegal to carry firearms in and around post office properties. According to the court, these rules do not align with the nation’s historical legal tradition and therefore fail under current constitutional scrutiny.

The case, FPC v. Bondi, questioned whether peaceful citizens with lawful firearm possession could legally carry when visiting routine federal facilities like the post office. SAF founder Alan M. Gottlieb noted that no historical precedent supports banning firearms on such properties, adding that the court saw through what he described as a “thinly veiled” infringement on constitutional rights. (Read more from “Federal Court Strikes Down Gun Ban at U.S. Post Offices” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Report: Thwarted Plot to Cripple New York Cell Service Far Bigger Than First Thought

/1 Comment/in , , /by

A Chinese-linked operation to paralyze New York’s telecommunications network was far more extensive than authorities initially believed, according to law enforcement sources speaking to ABC News. The alarming scale of the plot has intensified the urgency of the federal investigation, as officials uncover more locations, more equipment, and a broader threat than first understood.

Plot Could Have Crippled NYC Cell Towers, 911 System

Federal agents say the operation had the potential to knock out every cell tower in the New York City area, jam 911 emergency calls, and sow widespread chaos by overloading critical communications systems.

Initial raids uncovered 100,000 SIM cards and hundreds of servers in five different vacant apartments and office spaces around the city. But now, officials say they’ve found an additional 200,000 SIM cards at a site in New Jersey, bringing the total haul to over 300,000.

Investigators with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the U.S. Secret Service believe the equipment — capable of sending up to 30 million anonymous text messages per minute — was designed to overload and disable cellular networks.

“This wasn’t just spam or harassment,” one federal agent told ABC News. “This was infrastructure warfare.”

Motivation Tied to Targeting of High-Level Individuals

The investigation began after a series of suspicious incidents involving high-ranking individuals — including at least one person with direct access to former President Donald Trump — who were hit with “swatting” attacks and threatening messages sent directly to their private phones.

These incidents raised red flags among federal law enforcement and national security agencies, triggering a broader probe that eventually led to the discovery of the New York-area data centers.

So far, no arrests have been made, and authorities are still working to identify who rented the spaces and operated the sophisticated infrastructure hidden inside them.

Photo credit: Flickr

Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales’ Staffer Burned to Death After Dousing Herself With Gasoline, Setting Her Body Ablaze

/0 Comments/in , , /by

A staffer for Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales who burned to death in her backyard set herself on fire with gasoline, according to firefighters — but her family still insists it was an accident.

Regina Santos-Aviles “doused herself in gasoline” in Uvalde on September 13, according to a report from responding firefighters obtained by the Uvalde Leader News.

The 35-year-old mother then “was ignited in flames,” the report said, adding that burning gasoline cans were extinguished when firefighters arrived.

Officials did not say whether she deliberately started the fatal blaze, but the Uvalde Police Department said it does not suspect anybody else was involved in her death or that there was any foul play.

Santos-Aviles was found alive and still ablaze by her own mother around 9:30 p.m. that night, and was helicoptered to a nearby hospital. (Read more from “Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales’ Staffer Burned to Death After Dousing Herself With Gasoline, Setting Her Body Ablaze” HERE)

Woke Officials in Tony DC Suburb Refused to Charge Trans Sex Offender Who Went ‘Hunting’ for Little Girls, Virginia AG Says

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Virginia’s Attorney General is blasting woke county officials for refusing to arrest a sex offender who claimed to be a woman so he could walk into girls’ locker rooms — and said there was clear evidence he was “hunting” little girls at pools and water parks in the tony Washington, DC, suburb.

Richard Cox, a prolific 58-year-old registered sex offender, allegedly exposed himself to little girls and women in the girls’ locker rooms. He was also found with child pornography and a schedule of girls’ swim class schedules at Fairfax County rec centers on his phone, cops said.

However, in Fairfax County — where a Dem-majority board oversees the cops — authorities aid they have no plans to charge Cox for his visits to three rec centers there where children were present, WSET reported.

When he was finally arrested, it was in neighboring Arlington County — where Cox is facing charges for a laundry list of sex crimes.

Video obtained by WSET shows Cox, a biological male, entering women’s locker rooms at Fairfax County’s Oakmont, Audrey Moore, and Franconia rec centers last year. (Read more from “Woke Officials in Tony DC Suburb Refused to Charge Trans Sex Offender Who Went ‘Hunting’ for Little Girls, Virginia AG Says” HERE)