In 2018, a Marine general who heads the service's training command wrote about his concern that the "pursuit of ensuring fair and equitable opportunity" had allowed a female Marine candidate demonstrating "dangerously poor performance" to continue a key course.

"This could have resulted in a MISHAP," Maj. Gen. Kevin Iiams, the commanding general of Marine Corps Training and Education Command, wrote in an email to other Marine Corps officers obtained by Military.com through a government records request.

The candidate was undertaking the Corps' grueling 15-week Infantry Officer Course.

"Did we let this 2Lt go to [sic] far before ending her training?" Iiams wrote in the email.

Last week unmarked white buses dropped off more than 3,000 illegal aliens – MOSTLY MILITARY-AGED MEN – on the streets of San Diego.

“Over 3,000 migrants have been street released in San Diego as cartels smuggle massive groups of migrants from Tijuana the majority street releases are males with future court dates in the U.S. and headed to major cities across the U.S.,” Jorge Ventura reported last week.

Shocking video of the illegals aimlessly wandering around 30th Street near the Iris Avenue Trolley Station was posted to social media.

Tulsi Gabbard is a former representative for the state of Hawaii. She ran for president as a Democrat in 2020–and faced strong backlash from the liberal establishment. Recently, she announced her departure from the Democratic Party. She has not announced a new party affiliation.

Gabbard is liked by moderates and conservatives for her “anti-leftist” views. She has been increasingly critical of the Biden administration, pointing to the many failures often discussed by conservative pundits. Recently, she commented on the unprecedented four indictments by Democrat prosecutors against Donald Trump. Gabbard has accused Biden of “political prosecution.”

From Daily Wire:
Gabbard shared a brief video via X, arguing that the prosecutions amounted to a concerted effort — on the parts of both President Joe Biden specifically and the Democratic Party in general — to keep Trump busy and distracted because they were afraid he could potentially win in 2024…

“Anyone who’s looking at what’s happening with clear eyes and an open mind can recognize how overtly they are trying to keep President Trump off of the campaign trail.”

Democrats have opposed House Republicans’ investigations into Joe Biden and his family. When House Speaker McCarthy announced an impeachment probe, the media claimed they had “no evidence” against the senior Biden.

This week, Republicans held their first impeachment inquiry hearing. And they are releasing more information they uncovered during their months-long probes. Republicans have long accused Biden of using his son to bring in money from foreign businesses.

Democrats and the White House have flatly denied it. But a new revelation could paint the Biden family into the corner.

From The New York Post:
First son Hunter Biden received two wire transfers from Chinese nationals worth a total of $260,000 months after dad Joe began his 2020 presidential campaign — and with the elder Biden’s Delaware home listed as the beneficiary address, a key House Republican said Tuesday…

“Bank records don’t lie but President Joe Biden does. In 2020, Joe Biden told Americans that his family never received money from China,” Comer said in a statement.

Democrats are having a bad time after another one of their team members faces a scandal being pursued by federal prosecutors. This latest scandal involves a controversial figure in Alabama state politics.

Alabama State Rep. John Rogers (D) is once again in the national spotlight after the investigation broke open. He previously gained national attention over controversial remarks he made about abortion. Rogers’s comments at the time ignited a firestorm of criticism, and in this unrelated federal case he’s back in the hot seat.

From The Daily Wire:
Rogers was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of obstruction of justice in a case that centers around an alleged scheme to defraud the Jefferson County Community Service Fund.

The case includes charges against several people and various alleged crimes that range from wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, tax related charges, and obstruction of justice. Former Representative Fred L. Plump, Jr. pleaded guilty to conspiring with one of the men in the indictment and resigned from the Alabama House of Representatives.

Rogers gained national attention in 2019 as the Republican-controlled Alabama House voted 74-3 to outlaw nearly all abortion in the state. He was highly criticized for his remarks in defense of abortion.

“Some kids are unwanted, so you kill them now or you kill them later,” Rogers said. “You bring them in the world unwanted, unloved, you send them to the electric chair. So, you kill them now or you kill them later.”

This week, Trump ditched the second Republican primary debate. Instead, he flew to Detroit to speak to striking auto workers. One day before, Joe Biden went to Detroit to speak with auto workers. Critics have claimed that Biden rushed to Michigan to beat Trump at the punch. But from all appearances, it does not seem as if Biden had the same kind of turnout.

According to reports, Biden spoke to struggling auto workers for just 88 seconds. The next day, Trump spoke before a large crowd of striking auto workers. The former president blamed Joe Biden for the conditions that led to this unprecedented event. And, he made a vow to these union workers.

From The Post Millennial:
Noting these losses, Trump said, “they’re going to be closing up and they’re going to be building those cars in China and other places. It’s a hit job on Michigan and on Detroit…”

“Today’s radical Democrat Party wants to legalize drugs, shoplifting, and sexual mutilation of your children but they want to allow your gas-powered Suburbans, Silverados, and Ford F-150s to die… Under a Trump administration, gasoline engines will be allowed and sex changes for children will be banned, is that okay?” Trump said, which was met with cheers from the crowd.

Democrats have launched numerous lawsuits against Donald Trump and his related businesses. The four criminal indictments have received most of the media’s attention. But progressive prosecutors in New York and other states have launched other cases against the former president.

One case has resulted in a New York judge ruling that Trump overvalued his numerous properties. Trump became an internationally renowned billionaire because of his real estate investments.

Yet today, a liberal judge claims Trump lied about how much his properties are worth. In fact, the judge made a bizarre claim about Trump’s famed resort in Florida.

From Twitter:
JUST IN – A New York judge ruled that Trump inflated his property values, including Mar-a-Lago, which the judge determined was worth $18-$27 million from 2011 to 2021.

To put this into perspective, neighboring homes on 0.28-0.89 acres are listed for $18-40 million.

Mar-a-Lago, the 20-acre property in the middle, is worth less despite being 20 to 70 times larger.

@EricTrump: “The real estate circles in Florida are laughing at this foolishness.”

@DonaldJTrumpJr: “If Mar-a-Lago is worth $18 million… I’ll take 10 please!!!”

It has been well-documented that the homeless situation has reached crisis levels in many states. Most of these states are Democrat-run. Critics have blamed liberal policies that have legalized drugs and spent billions on entitlement programs for the reason homelessness has risen.

In many blue cities, residents are forced to live beside large homeless encampments. These “shanty towns” pose a real threat to residents. Many have asked why Democrat leaders haven’t cleared away these encampments.

Some have pointed to city ordinances that prevent police from removing these encampments. Others, like Democrat governor of California, Gavin Newsom, blamed court rulings that denied cities the ability to get rid of these settlements. Now, numerous advocates are fighting back. And they might take it to the highest court.

From The Post Millennial:
Numerous bodies across the US are pushing for the Supreme Court to review a court ruling that prevents cities from enforcing bans on homeless encampments in public spaces…

In Johnson v. Grants Pass, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a permanent injunction that enjoined or stopped, a city ordinance enforcing public camping prohibitions unless the city first provides shelter beds for each homeless individual in the jurisdiction.

Rulings from progressive courts have claimed it was “cruel and unusual punishment” for a city to clear away a homeless encampment. Now, the state of California is joining a variety of cities, municipalities, and organizations petitioning the Supreme Court to rule on the matter.

Elon Musk has not been one to shy away from controversy. The billionaire innovator shook up the social media world when he bought Twitter. He vowed to restore free speech to the platform and exposed how previous Twitter executives worked with the government to censor uses.

Democrats have strongly opposed Musk’s impact on social media. But they have thus failed to stop his progress. Musk has transformed Twitter into “X” and promises to grow the network into a major publishing platform.

Many critics have questioned what role the social network will play in the coming years. Elections are looming, both in the United States and abroad. And Elon just announced a move that could rankle those who were counting on using X to advance their agenda.

From The Post Millennial:
Elon Musk announced on Wednesday that he has cut the Electoral Integrity team at X (formerly Twitter) in half, including the newly brought on board head of the group, Aaron Rodericks.

When the news was reported, Musk replied “Oh you mean the ‘Election Integrity’ Team that was undermining election integrity? Yeah, they’re gone.”

Philadelphia influencer 'Meatball' who posted bail Thursday morning after being arrested for looting while live-streaming has asked her followers for cash. 

The looter, whose legal name is Dayjia Blackwell, posted on her Instagram story and went live after being released. 

According to the New York Post, she told her 196,000 followers that: 'All I want to do is go treat myself' and plugged her Cash App handle for her followers. 

Blackwell also posted on her Instagram asking users to 'go bless her' and said frequently that she wanted to get her 'toes done', the outlet reported.

The influencer's bail was set at $25,000 according to court documents.

In 2014 Europe was under siege, with millions of African and Arab migrants marching into the EU and using asylum claims to quickly enter the region without vetting.  With the union facing an unprecedented surge of foreigners not seen since WWII or the collapse of Yugoslavia, some among the public called the event a crisis.  EU officials did not see it that way.  Instead of securing their borders and repelling the invasion, top representatives like Angela Merkel announced they would open their borders completely to migrants and refugees in 2015.

Many migrants were given the impression that free housing, welfare and easy employment would be made available to them upon arrival in Germany.  The reality was far more complicated, but the image of a golden land of ease was all that was needed to trigger a tidal wave.  With shared border policies in the EU, Germany's decision became every other nation's problem.

At the time, the decidedly socialist European majority applauded the move; with many leftists meeting migrants at train stations to clap and cheer.  To grasp the mentality of the political left it's important to understand that they were not cheering the migrants so much as cheering themselves – Leftists have been conditioned to believe in original sin, and that original sin is to be a white "colonizing" westerner.  They were really cheering themselves; they saw open borders as an act of self sacrifice and appeasement to the gods of progressive ideology.

The result has been disastrous.

As Chief Justice John Roberts stated:

the Harvard and UNC admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause. Both programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points. We have never permitted admissions programs to work in that way, and we will not do so today.

So far, so good.

The problem is that Harvard and other academic institutions have not lost their desire to base admissions on race improperly, and now they know that they have to go underground to do so. As we reported, SCOTUS “gave universities a narrow opening, and Harvard just announced it’s going to drive an affirmative action truck right through it”:

[T]here is one really important point that came near the end of the majority opinion that is a narrow path to consider applicant’s experience on race (as opposed to their race itself)(emphasis added):

Affirmative Action sure does make strange alliances. In this case, a desire to defend a grant program open only to black women may bring down the entire anti-discrimination legal infrastructure that has been in place for over 150 years, if a District Court ruling that racially discriminatory contracting is “speech and expression” protected by the First Amendment is not reversed.

The American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER), a group formed by Ed Blum, whose Students for Fair Admissions won the Harvard affirmative action case, sued Fearless Fund in federal court for the Northern District of Georgia over a grant program open only to black women. The claim was brought under a post-civil war statute prohibiting discrimination in contracting, not under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment (which arguably would not apply to a private investment company) or other discrimination statutes. You can read the Complaint and Motion for Preliminary Injunction.

Numerous civil rights groups filed Amicus briefs supporting the defendant and the black-woman-only grant program.

The fallout over the Canadian parliament’s veneration of a Ukrainian Waffen SS veteran spread to the University of Alberta on Wednesday. The institution has apologized and shut down an endowment fund named after the elderly Nazi collaborator, Yaroslav Hunka, just hours after Russian diplomats exposed his connection to the school.

The university admitted on Wednesday night that it held an endowment named after Hunka, the 98-year-old Ukrainian native who was given standing ovations by Canadian lawmakers during President Vladimir Zelensky’s visit to parliament on Friday. Upon the exposure of Hunka's Nazi past, the incident became an international embarrassment for Ottawa, leading to the resignation of House Speaker Anthony Rota, a public apology from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and an admission from Germany that its ambassador had applauded a former member of the Waffen SS.

Hunka’s family donated $30,000 in 2019 to establish an endowment, named after him and his wife, at the University of Alberta’s Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. Russia’s ambassador to Canada, Oleg Stepanov, told RIA Novosti that the embassy discovered Hunka’s link to the university and publicized the fact. A few hours later, the institutionl announced the cancellation.

Budapest will block further EU aid to Ukraine if Kiev doesn’t account for the money it has already received from Brussels since the start of the conflict with Russia, a senior Hungarian government official has said.

“There are many technical ways to finance Ukraine and also help in the humanitarian field,” said Gergely Gulyas, the head of the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office. He told a briefing on Thursday that Hungary had no objections to individual EU countries providing assistance to Kiev.

He said unanimity would be required regarding any changes to the EU budget, however, which is currently “on the table for amendment.”

Budapest will make sure that Ukraine “will not receive a single penny of new aid” if it can’t account for the funds it has already been given by the EU, Gulyas insisted.

In June, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen requested an increase of €66 billion ($69.9 billion) for the EU’s long-term budget, which includes €17 billion (around $18 billion) for providing grants for Ukraine.

Webmaster addition: An accounting? Well, there is all that money Zalensky "invested" in FTX, which prior to the collapse made heavy donations to Democrats. Then there are all the new high-end cars for top Ukrainian officials, plus the mansions, yachts, and shopping trip to Europe for various wives! Did I miss anything?

Children are disappearing from northern Ohio in record numbers, with more than 1,000 minors reported missing so far this year.

More than 45 children have gone missing in the Cleveland-Akron area this month alone, and in August, there were more than 35 missing minors, according to the Ohio attorney general’s missing children website.

The disappearances are creating a disturbing trend in northern Ohio, which began in May, when nearly 30 children went missing in just the first two weeks.

Officials at the time called it an “extraordinary surge” in disappearances.

Webmaster addition: Both of the Walmarts we shop at have these display boards showing photos of locally missing children. It's probably a company-wide program. But I look at these photos every time we shop. they are constantly changing! Now, some are probably just runaways, but I have to wonder how many are not, and what has happened to them.

The European Elites have a stunning new plan to defeat the fearsome Russian hordes marching toward Central Europe again. EU grand strategists will reinvent Adolph Hitler’s idea of Lebensraum. French Europe Minister Laurence Boone told POLITICO recently that the only way to combat Putin’s yearning for conquest is for the EU bloc to expand. No, I am not joking.

According to the news, the EU is preparing for a potential wave of expansion that could extend the bloc by as many as eight new members, including Ukraine and six Balkan countries. Boone spoke by phone with reporters and said:

“Vladimir Putin, in addition to his territorial ambitions, also aims to weaken the European Union. That’s a factor we need to take into account and fight against.”

As for Hitler’s grand plan of ‘Lebensraum,’ which he laid out in his book Mein Kampf (banned in Russia), the German Reich would gain power and control of nations to the east to colonize them with German settlers. The Slavs who lived in these territories were to be wiped away by expulsion, enslavement, and slaughter. And Westerners still wonder at Vladimir Putin’s warnings about Nazis in Ukraine and having a neutral zone between the EU and Russia. Russians and Ukrainians are brother Slavs, genetically.

Today, the Serbs, Bosnians, Belarussians, and Ukrainians are in the crosshairs of EU President Ursula von der Leyen (who I lovingly refer to as von der Clucky) and her handlers, the Western oligarchs and the Royal houses of central and Western Europe.

Russian commando units involved in the special operation in Ukraine have used the newest robotic sniper detector Sosna-N, a source in the defense-industrial complex has told TASS.

"A batch of anti-sniper systems Sosna-N was purchased for special units and it has been successfully tested in the area of the special miliary operation," the source said.

The remote-controlled Sosna-N scans an area for optical devices such as sniper rifle scopes, binoculars, or anti-tank missile targeting systems. Upon detecting such a device, it generates an acoustic signal and releases a special laser beam to impair it. This sophisticated detection system can identify a sniper within a range of 3 kilometers while its laser countermeasure has an effective range of up to 2 kilometers. The device comes with a portable control pad, weighing around 1.1 kilograms, offering easy maneuverability for soldiers in the field. The product was first demonstrated during the Army-2021 forum.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken embraced the creative soul of Muddy Waters on Wednesday to help launch a global initiative to elevate music as a diplomatic tool, picking up a guitar and singing the American blues legend’s iconic ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’ at the state department.

The Global Music Diplomacy Initiative aims to support the U.S.’ broader foreign policy goals, noted a fact sheet ahead of the event.

The plan also aims to leverage public-private partnerships to create a music ecosystem that expands “economic equity and the creative economy, ensures societal opportunity and inclusion, and increases access to education.”

To that end Blinken thought of nobody better suited to the task than himself.

Playing rhythm guitar to a house band and turning his usually soft-spoken voice to a lower-set warble, Blinken offered his rendition to cheering subordinates at the department.

Russian forces have gained more territory in Ukraine this year than the Ukrainian side despite the Ukrainian counteroffensive that was launched in June, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

The report noted that despite nine months of heavy fighting in Ukraine, only about 500 square miles of territory have changed hands this year. Russia has gained 331 square miles while Ukraine has gained 143, a difference of 188, which amounts to Russia’s net gain in territory so far this year.

Most of the fighting in the first half of the year focused around the Donbas city of Bakhmut, which Russia fully captured in May after a brutal battle that started in August 2022. Ukraine’s counteroffensive has focused on the south, but fighting has continued near Bakhmut and across the entire eastern front.

Moscow announced that it plans to increase military spending by nearly 70% in 2024 as it fights against what the Kremlin has dubbed NATO’s “hybrid war.” Russia’s defense budget next year, which is dwarfed by the Pentagon budget, will still be less than the total amount the US has already pledged to assist Kiev in its proxy war with Moscow.

Russia’s Finance Ministry published a document on Thursday explaining that Moscow is set to ramp up defense spending by a whopping 68% to 10.8 trillion rubles ($111.15 billion) next year.

At the same time, the Pentagon budget is fast approaching $900 billion, greater than the next ten highest-spending countries combined, while total yearly spending on the national security state is almost $1.5 trillion.

The document adds, “the focus of economic policy is shifting from an anti-crisis agenda to the promotion of national development goals… [including] strengthening [Russia’s] defense capacity.”

The additional funding is also needed for the process of “integrating” the four regions of Ukraine which Moscow has annexed since its invasion began, namely Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

During the disastrous Vietnam War, it was said that the US government treated the public like a mushroom farm: keeping it in the dark and feeding it with manure.  The heroic Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers documenting the unrelenting US government lying about the war in order to protect politicians who would be embarrassed by the truth.  A half century later, during the Ukraine War, the manure is piled even higher. 

According to the US Government and the ever-obsequious New York Times, the Ukraine war was “unprovoked,” the New York Times’ favorite adjective to describe the war.  Putin, allegedly mistaking himself for Peter the Great, invaded Ukraine to recreate the Russian Empire.  Yet last week, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg committed a Washington gaffe, meaning that he accidentally blurted out the truth. 

In testimony to the European Union Parliament, Stoltenberg made clear that it was America’s relentless push to enlarge NATO to Ukraine that was the real cause of the war and why it continues today.  Here are Stoltenberg’s revealing words:

Parallel efforts in the House and Senate hoping to find a short-term funding solution have advanced at a snail’s pace this week, and it continues to look likely that no agreement will be struck and the federal government will shutdown on October 1.

Central to the major battles being fought right now between and within both chambers is the future of Ukraine aid. While majorities in both the House and Senate still support both humanitarian and weapons assistance to Kyiv, an increasing number of Republicans have expressed skepticism or flat-out oppose additional funding beyond the $113 billion allocated by Washington last year.

A few have vowed to reject any government funding measures that include more aid or have pushed to attach more conditions to future support.

In the latest in a series of flip-flops in recent weeks, House Republican leadership decided late on Wednesday night to remove $300 million in security assistance for Ukraine from the Defense Appropriations bill, and will vote on the aid separately, according to reporting from Juliegrace Brufke.

News media manufactures consent, and one way that happens is by manufacturing amnesia — burying a government’s past misdeeds makes it easier to sell future ones.

The catastrophic floods that Storm Daniel unleashed on Libya, which have killed as many as 10,000 people, are both a natural disaster and a human-made one. In the week following Storm Daniel, a large portion of the media coverage described “war” as a reason the country was ill-equipped to handle the catastrophe.

However, media discussion of NATO’s contribution to what has become Libya’s forever war has been almost non-existent. NATO’s intimate involvement — albeit by proxy — in the current war in Ukraine makes the omission all the more remarkable.

War in contemporary Libya is traceable to February 2011, when protests against Muammar Gadhafi’s government evolved into an armed conflict. In the initial days of the fighting, the U.S. media amplified claims that the Libyan air force was bombing demonstrators despite statements by top Pentagon officials that there was “no confirmation whatsoever” that such bombing was happening.

Western media outlets and politicians accused Gadhafi of carrying out a systematic mass slaughter of civilians, and of intending to do more of the same, particularly as government forces advanced on rebel-held Benghazi. In this climate, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1973 in March 2011, which authorized “all necessary measures” to protect civilians.

NATO dubiously interpreted the resolution as granting it the right to overthrow the Libyan government. NATO forces — primarily Britain, France and the U.S. — subsequently conducted roughly 9,700 strike sorties and dropped over 7,700 precision-guided bombs during their seven-month campaign.

Dozens of Palestinians suffocated on Thursday morning as Israeli occupation forces stormed the town of Ya’bad, south of Jenin, in the northern occupied West Bank, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

Local sources told WAFA that Israeli forces stormed several neighborhoods in Ya’bad town, spurring confrontations with Palestinian residents in the vicinity of schools.

Dozens of people suffocated after inhaling tear gas fired at them by Israeli soldiers during the clashes.

Nearly 250 people, including 48 children, have been killed by Israeli occupation forces in the occupied West Bank and Gaza since the beginning of 2023.

While each side is jockeying for position in political points, the fact remains that one of the main factors precipitating the coming government shutdown is the insistence by both parties to continue sending money we do not have to a losing war in Ukraine. Also today: McConnell claims sending more money to Ukraine is the “number one priority right now for the United States.” Really?

The House Ways and Means Committee released a document on Wednesday showing an IRS agent relaying an inquiry from a CNN producer who claimed to have an email where Hunter Biden said that all of his "stuff" would go away once his father was elected president. To date, the alleged email has never become public. 

"Documents show Hunter Biden and his business associates had access to the White House and Joe Biden’s advisors; Biden business associates were instructed to not ‘mention Joe being involved’; and official trips to Ukraine line up U.S. government actions and Hunter Biden’s financial bottom line," the Wednesday press release states.

"And, after the IRS began investigating these crimes, Hunter apparently "expected all of this ‘stuff’ to go away when his dad becomes President." 

Buck's Stove Palace has been a mainstay in Southeast Portland for nearly 50 years, however increasing theft has led founder and owner Buck Froman to consider shutting down for good.

While some of the break-ins took place at the shop, which has sat at Southeast 68th and Foster Road since 1974, the majority occurred at Froman's storage facility about a mile down the road.

As KGW8 reports, over the past weekend alone, the facility was broken into numerous times. With law enforcement unable to come to his defense due to staffing issues, he took matters into his own hands and ended up with injuries after falling while pursuing the suspects.

"I can't handle it," Froman said. "It's killing me emotionally and mentally."

He explained that after one round of thefts, he changed the locks, but perpetrators simply cut through them and made off with more products. At one point, the driver of a pickup truck drove through the chain link fence surrounding the property, tearing off its front bumper and knocking the barrier to the ground.

Out of 180 Canadian doctors who have died unexpectedly since COVID-19 vaccines rolled out in Canada, 42 had cancer.

A group of more than two dozen House Republicans led by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, is introducing legislation Wednesday to defund climate envoy John Kerry's office at the State Department.

The No Taxpayer Funding for Climate Zealots Advancing Radical Schemes Act would prohibit any federal funds — including for salary, administrative, and travel expenses — from being appropriated for Kerry's office. In 2021, President Biden appointed Kerry to be the first-ever special presidential envoy for climate, a position that didn't require Senate approval, and gives him a spot on the president's cabinet and National Security Council.

"Climate czar John Kerry is the poster child for the Biden administration's anti-energy policies that are destroying both our economy and national security," Roy told Fox News Digital in a statement.