US Officials Reveal Reason For CIA Chief’s Surprise Moscow Visit

The Wall Street Journal has late in the day Wednesday revealed the reason for CIA John Ratcliffe’s surprise visit to Moscow yesterday where he met with top Kremlin intelligence leaders, citing officials. It was to warn against attacking NATO countries, says the Journal:

The surprise visit by the director of the Central Intelligence Agency to Moscow this week was to deliver a warning to Russia not to attack NATO countries, according to people briefed on the visit.

The trip was spy-agency chief John Ratcliffe’s first publicly known visit to the Russian capital. It followed new U.S. intelligence assessments, reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal, that Russian President Vladimir Putin could try to test the resolve of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization with a limited assault on an allied country in the next few years.

U.S. officials are concerned that Putin, squeezed in Ukraine and under pressure at home, could launch an assault ranging from a cyberattack to a small-scale land incursion, likely on a Baltic nation, the Journal reported. 

Some pundits have suggested a weaker Baltic nation like Estonia, which has long issued provocative anti-Moscow statements of its own, could come under some kind of limited attack.

The report further suggests Putin could be ready to seize on NATO’s munitions supply weakness – given the drain amid the Iran war and after over four years of constantly supplying Ukraine.

“A shortfall in critical Western munitions, driven by expenditures in the Iran war, also could factor into Putin’s thinking, the report continues. “The U.S. has degraded its stockpile of certain weapons because of transfers to Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 invasion, as well as the Iran conflict.”

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Soros Backed Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner Threatens to Blow Up White House Ballroom

Larry Krasner has a record of corruption as Philly DA. He is a Soros-backed prosecutor.  His record is as corrupt as the records of other Soros-backed DAs inserted across the country.

After Soros-backed prosecutors take office, the family’s apparatus tells them what to do, documents show.

The Media Research Center obtained nearly 8,000 pages of internal documents through public records laws that show how a Soros-funded group called Fair and Just Prosecution (FJP) “directed Soros prosecutors to manipulate the rule of law concerning illegal immigration, drugs, abortion, election integrity, capital punishment and laws against childhood sex changes.”

MRC’s yearlong investigation suggests that Soros maintained influence over his chosen candidates after their elections were over. FJP had the Soros-backed attorneys sign 33 pledges to not enforce certain laws — including election integrity measures and immigration laws — and attend more than 50 meetings or “convenings,” some of which were “mandatory.” FJP pressed prosecutors to let criminals off the hook if they are black, having them pledge to “reduc[e] racial disparities in case outcomes by at least 20%.”

FJP’s influence can be seen on some of the most high-profile Soros prosecutors. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sought to indict former President Donald Trump for his role in the January 6 protests after the group said it wanted to hold Trump “accountable.” Since-ousted San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin was in contact with FJP on a daily basis. On 20 occasions, FJP sent prosecutors “templates” of press releases they should send out, as well as social media posts to “adapt.”

“Being a Soros prosecutor means extensive, free access to expert political consulting firms, complete with detailed polling and field-tested messaging strategies,” the MRC’s report found. “FJP remains in the driver seat, though, even going so far as to draft social media posts for its prosecutors so they can better coordinate their messaging.”

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Chinese Hackers Broke Into NASA, Federal Reserve, DOJ & Senate: FBI Announces

The United States Department of Justice has on Wednesday announced US authorities thwarted a major state-sponsored hack which saw a temporary intrusion into NASA, the Federal Reserve, Senate, the DOJ, Department of Energy, and the Department of Health and Human services, along with four unnamed companies in the US and South Korea.

“Today we announced the disruption of a global botnet and hacking platform used by Chinese state-sponsored hackers to target U.S. critical infrastructure,” said FBI Director Kash Patel.

“These tools were used by PRC cyber actors to hide the origin of their attacks. Thanks to the work of FBI San Diego, FBI Cyber Division, and DOJ partners, we seized adversary infrastructure and shut these platforms down,” he added.

Domains utilized by two hacking platforms identified as “QScan” and “QTRouter” were seized by the DOJ in the large scale counter-cyberespionage operation.

Describing a pervasive botnet which was ultimately believed to be backed by Chinese state actors, The Wall Street Journal details that the “goal was to blend in with legitimate networking traffic, making the hacking activity hard to trace, federal officials say.”

“The group exploited software vulnerabilities to launch cyberattacks against U.S. government agencies, power companies and hospital systems, and operated a worldwide network of hacked devices—known as a botnet—to conduct its hacking campaigns, according to Brett Leatherman, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s top cyber official,” WSJ continues.

As for the specific allegation that this had state backing, the DOJ press release states:

People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored group known as “QTFY,” employed by China-based Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Company, created and operated QScan and QTRouter.

The DOJ announcement additionally outlines efforts at concealment and ‘plausible deniability’ in the following:

QTRouter consists of these compromised IoT devices, as well as commercial proxy service devices and leased virtual private servers. QTRouter then serves as an “obfuscation network” – meaning it allows QTFY and other malicious cyber actors to conceal the PRC-origin of their computer intrusion activities because the malicious communications appear to originate from computers (such as those compromised by QScan) that are outside of the PRC and may even be local to the targeted networks. Because the seized domains were hard-coded into both the QScan and QTRouter malware and used for essential tasks such as communication and authentication, the court-authorized seizures made QScan and QTRouter inoperable. 

Neither Beijing’s foreign ministry nor the Chinese embassy in Washington have officially responded to the allegations, and as has been the pattern in the past is likely to reject the US charge altogether.

Earlier this year Google was among those warning of imminent stepped-up Chinese and Russian targeting of US defense companies. 

Google’s prior report seemed to preview some of the techniques on display in this latest hack. The report cited observations of “more China-nexus cyber espionage missions directly targeting defense and aerospace industry than from any other state-sponsored actors over the last two years.”

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Federal Appeals Court Rejects Democrat Rep. LaMonica McIver’s Immunity Defense After She Assaulted ICE Agents

A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected Democrat Rep. LaMonica McIver’s immunity defense after she assaulted ICE agents at a Newark ICE detention center last year.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals rejected LaMonica McIver’s argument that she was immune from prosecution because of the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause.

This is the latest legal set back for LaMonica McIver.

Last year, a federal judge declined to toss out the federal charges against Rep. McIver.

Politico reported:

Rep. LaMonica McIver is not immune from prosecution for her contact with ICE officials during a heated scrum at New Jersey’s Delaney Hall detention facility, even though it occurred during a legislative investigation, a federal appeals court panel ruled Wednesday.

“The charged conduct … is unambiguously non-legislative,” 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Cindy Chung, a Biden appointee, wrote in a 2-1 opinion joined by Judge Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee.

McIver is facing three federal charges related to alleged assaults on ICE officials and interference with them during a May 2025 oversight visit to Delaney Hall. McIver and two other Democratic lawmakers were present when federal officials moved into a small crowd to arrest Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who joined them on the oversight visit. The confrontation escalated and became physical, and McIver was ultimately charged with making physical contact with the officials.

The 3rd Circuit ruling sustains the bulk of the criminal case against the Democratic lawmaker despite her protestation that the charges were brought for political purposes. McIver pointed to commentary by Trump, his allies and the former federal prosecutor who brought the case at the time: Alina Habba, a former Trump personal lawyer and current White House aide.

In June 2025, a federal grand jury returned a 3-count indictment charging Democrat Rep. LaMonica McIver with forcibly impeding and interfering with federal law enforcement officers at the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark.

McIver is facing a maximum of 17 years in prison for all three counts.

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Mellon Foundation Wages Philanthropic Jihad

Why is the Mellon Foundation funding programs linked to a political and religious system that seeks to destroy Western civilization? A cultural and ideological contest is underway for the future of Western civilization. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation—long a champion of the humanities and an advocate for “social justice”—has directed substantial resources toward Islamic studies programs in higher education. These programs advance perspectives incompatible with core Western principles of free speech, religious liberty, equal rights for all citizens, and the rule of law.

Commentators such as Vince Coyner (American Thinker), Joel Richardson (Will Islam Be Our Future?), Imtiaz Mahmood, Craig Huey, and Daniel Greenfield have described Islam, in its classical and political forms, as expansionist, intolerant of apostasy and criticism, and hierarchical in its treatment of non-Muslims and women. Greenfield has highlighted large-scale violence attributed to Islamist actors that is sometimes reframed internationally as “decolonization” or resistance. Whether one accepts these characterizations or not, the question remains: why has Mellon, with its $7.7 billion endowment and stated commitment to elevating underrepresented perspectives, invested heavily in programs that normalize or advance such worldviews under the banner of the humanities?

Mellon Grants Supporting Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies

Mellon has funded numerous initiatives framed as advancing the study of Islam and Muslim communities in higher education. Selected examples include:
• Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies: Grants in 2000, 2010, and 2012 totaling approximately $870,000 for a digital multi-volume atlas of the social and intellectual history of the Islamic world.

• American University of Paris: $100,000 in 2007 for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies.

• Earlham College: $300,000 in 2008 to develop an Islamic Studies Program.

• Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, and Haverford Colleges: $670,000 in 2005 for a Tri-College Islamic/Middle Eastern Studies Initiative.

• Lehigh University: $1.4 million in 2009 to establish an undergraduate program and Center for Global Islamic Studies, intended to “heighten awareness surrounding Islamic culture and civilization.”

• The University of Chicago: $600,000 in 2010 and an additional $800,000 in 2013 for an Islamic Studies Initiative aimed at raising the field’s profile as an interdisciplinary enterprise. F

• Duke University: $750,000 in 2012 supporting international and area studies centers, including Islamic Studies.

• Connecticut College: $100,000 planning grant (circa 2012) followed by an $806,000 renewal in 2018 for its Global Islamic Studies program. Faculty directors Sufia Uddin and Eileen Kane have spoken of “undoing” narratives that portray Muslims as violent or as security threats, partnering with fields focused on other “persecuted” groups.

• University of Michigan / Big Ten: $3 million in 2014 for the Islamic Studies Virtual Curriculum (later Digital Islamic Studies Curriculum), expanding shared courses across Big Ten institutions.

• University of Maryland: Approximately $1.75 million (2022–2025) for the Open Islamicate Texts Initiative, developing digital access to premodern manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish, and Urdu.

• UCLA: $350,000 in 2019 for a pilot project reframing Middle Eastern studies.

• Syracuse University: $500,000 in 2022 for a project on “Black-Arab Relationalities.”


These grants are real and publicly documented. Mellon is thereby sponsoring a radical and violent political system.” Many of the funded programs are academic in form, and, in practice, support a significant number of faculty and campus environments that tilt heavily toward narratives that downplay or justify Islamist violence.

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Los Angeles Residents Disgusted by Their Choices for Mayor: ‘I Wish They Could Both Lose’

Lots of people who live in Los Angeles are disgusted by the two choices they have for mayor this year, Democrat incumbent Karen Bass and radical DSA candidate Nithya Raman.

It is still amazing to think that leftists managed to bump Republican Spencer Pratt off the ballot, leaving voters with the choices of far left or super far left.

The city is in need of rescuing, but no one is coming to the rescue. The left made sure of that by removing Pratt from the race.

FOX News reports:

Los Angeles’ Democratic mayoral candidates were torched by residents after a debate night in America’s second-most populous city that one voter described as “disgraceful.”

Besides being home to Hollywood, Los Angeles is one of America’s most economically important cities. The city, however, has struggled with recent fires, rising living costs, homelessness and outmigration. Those problems have fueled a particularly contentious mayoral race this year, which included a surprisingly competitive but ultimately unsuccessful bid by Republican Spencer Pratt.

With Pratt out of the race, Democrats Karen Bass, the incumbent, and Nithya Raman, a democratic socialist city council member, are locked in a competitive and bitter runoff for Los Angeles mayor. During last week’s debate, Bass and Raman traded personal attacks and insults, leaving some voters frustrated over what solutions the candidates could offer.

After the debate, voter Stacey Segarra Bohlinger told Fox News Digital she believes Bass and Raman are “both bad” and said, “I wish they could both lose.”

Bohlinger, who until July served as a committee member on the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council, said that although she was initially “a huge champion” for Raman, “I don’t see substantive differences between the two of them.”…

Meanwhile, Wayne Spindler, an Encino resident and regular City Hall critic, told Fox News Digital that “a lot of people… are upset.”

“They don’t like either one of them. And a lot of them are going to walk out of this [debate] and not vote,” he said.

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US Universities Had Extensive Ties With Chinese Defense Research Labs, Air Force Study Finds

Thirty U.S. academic institutions have until Aug. 31 to examine specified foreign research ties or risk losing eligibility for future federal research funding.

Seven days after the Pentagon ordered the reviews, an Air Force-affiliated institute published a study cataloging 204 interactions involving U.S. institutions and laboratories at the center of China’s defense research system.

The Aug. 24 study by the China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI) found more U.S. institution-level interactions with China’s Defense Science and Technology Key Laboratories than those involving institutions from any other country.

CASI describes the Defense Science and Technology Key Laboratories as China’s highest level national laboratory network for military research. The contacts it identified ranged from academic visits and conferences to coauthored technical research and formal joint laboratories in fields including aero-engines, underwater sensing, hyperspectral target detection, advanced communications, and aerospace materials.

CASI described interactions between Western researchers and Chinese military laboratories as “at the very least problematic,” saying even seemingly benign exchanges could give Chinese defense researchers access to knowledge and technology useful to the People’s Liberation Army.

CASI Director Brendan Mulvaney told The Epoch Times that institutional collaborations-including joint laboratories, long-term partnerships, and mutual study or training agreements-were the most concerning because they represented sustained cooperation rather than one-off encounters.

The Pentagon’s Aug. 17 order directs 30 U.S. institutions to review academic, financial, and research relationships with foreign entities of concern and report what action they have taken by Aug. 31.

The Pentagon did not publicly identify the schools. According to a list DefenseScoop obtained from a U.S. official, Harvard University, MIT, the University of California-Berkeley, Duke University, Penn State, the University of Texas at Austin, New York University, and the University of Southern California are among institutions on that list that also appear in CASI’s records.

The Pentagon has not said that the relationships identified by CASI prompted the Aug. 17 notices.

Purdue and Beihang Built Joint Research Labs

In 2011, Purdue and Beihang formally established the BUAA-Purdue Joint Laboratory on Energy Systems and the BUAA-Purdue Joint Laboratory on Low Emissions Combustion.

Then-Purdue President France Córdova and Beihang President Huai Jinpeng signed the agreements.

The energy laboratory paired Purdue’s computational modeling with Beihang’s experimental capabilities. The combustion laboratory focused on low emission gas turbine combustors used in aircraft and power generation.

Beihang records also describe the two laboratories as formal joint research arrangements and say the universities discussed broader scientific research, teaching, and faculty and student exchanges.

Beihang later described the combustion laboratory within a research program that also undertook Chinese National Defense 973 projects, a state-backed basic research program supporting its defense science and technology.

CASI identified Beihang’s thermal engineering department-which oversees a Defense Science and Technology Key Laboratory for aero-engine aerodynamics and thermodynamics-as having established a joint combustion research team with Purdue.

Beihang is now on the Pentagon’s Section 1286 list of foreign institutions subject to tighter research security restrictions.

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‘Detransitioners’ share sex-change horror stories about doctors pressuring them as impressionable teens: ‘Like a car salesman’

Three disturbing stories of children that were allegedly preyed upon by greedy hospitals and doctors — and encouraged as minors to undergo gender-care treatment — were outlined in the Department of Health and Human Services’ bombshell “Wolves in White Coats” report Thursday.

Here are their stories.

Clementine Breen

Clementine was just 12 years old and anxious about her changing adolescent body, while simultaneously grappling with unprocessed trauma from sexual abuse years earlier.

Desperate for an escape, she discovered the idea of transitioning gender in an internet search, and thought it would be the perfect refuge for her puberty fears.

She confided in a school guidance counselor, who immediately reached out to her parents. “Within months,” HHS details, the counselor coordinated meetings to her social transition, which included explaining the concept of transgenderism to her classmates.

At her first medical appointment at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which was about an hour long, doctors told Clementine’s parents their daughter was “100% trans” and at a high risk of suicide without medical intervention.

Her terrified parents agreed, and she was placed on puberty blockers a month later, then testosterone at 13 before undergoing a double mastectomy at 14.

Clementine’s mental health cratered, culminating in a psychotic episode, and she began suffering from insomnia, disordered eating and fits of anger.

Not one of her doctors attributed her symptoms to her undergoing hormone therapy, instead loading her up with psychiatric drugs like Zoloft, Seroquel, Guanfacine and Hydroxyzine, according to the HHS.

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Bessent Suggests Economic Warfare Against Iran Could ‘Blow Up the Global Financial System’

With the United States unable to militarily defeat Iran in President Donald Trump’s illegal US-Israeli war of choice, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday escalated the administration’s economic attacks on Tehran, warning countries and companies around the world that continuing to do business with the nation could expose them to punitive sanctions.

“Let there be no ambiguity as to the position of the United States,” Bessent said during a news conference unveiling what the Trump administration is calling Operation Economic Outcast. “An economic engagement of any kind with this murderous regime will expose those responsible to the full reach of American power.”

The “economic D-Day” campaign targets five sectors – technology, gold, aviation, shipping, and digital assets – and is intended to choke off virtually every remaining source of hard currency for Iran.

Bessent warned that it is “no longer acceptable to operate in the gray spaces” of US policy. The secretary said he anticipates the announcement of sanctions against a major financial institution as soon as next week.

Asked if Chinese banks that do business with Iran would be sanctioned, Bessent replied that “no one is above the reach of US sanctions.”

While Bessent did not say which countries would likely be targeted, China, Türkiye, and the United Arab Emirates are Iran’s biggest trading partners.

The secretary was also asked why sanctions aren’t being imposed immediately.

“Well, we are giving everyone the opportunity to remedy bad behavior,” he replied. “Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?”

“We believe that it is important to level set and give people a cure period, but they should know that that will move very quickly and that we are serious,” Bessent added. “So we believe that a warning shot and a level set of expectations is appropriate, and if people do not want to meet our expectations, then we expect – and they should expect – that they will leave the dollar system.”

Iranian officials largely scoffed at Bessent’s “economic D-Day” threat. Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi asked on social media, “Is this a victory or an admission of America’s failure!?”

“You say Iran’s military capability has been ‘dismantled,’ 100% of its military factories ‘destroyed,’ and its nuclear program ‘buried’; but for this very Iran, the ‘largest financial assault in history’ and the mobilization of ‘all US institutions and authorities’ have been necessary!” he mocked.

While Trump has said the war is “over” or nearly over dozens of times, Iran currently appears to have the upper hand, as shipping has overwhelmingly avoided the US-supported route through the Strait of Hormuz, with most vessels using a course set by Tehran or avoiding the waterway altogether.

Trump’s war on Iran is proving costly not only in Iranian lives and US taxpayer dollars, but in the increasingly strained budgets of American families. Disruptions to oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz have pushed gasoline prices above $4 a gallon nationally – roughly a dollar more than a year ago. Trump has dismissed Americans’ concerns about high fuel prices, saying $4 is “not very high” and vowing to “never apologize” for the economic pain his actions are inflicting.

That pain doesn’t stop at the pump. More expensive gasoline and diesel ripple through the economy, raising the cost of transporting food and other goods while keeping inflation elevated.

The pain is far worse for the people of Iran. Trump administration’s escalation comes as Iran’s currency, the rial, has plunged to record lows amid an economic crisis largely caused by the war and years of preceding US-led sanctions.

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Mass-Shooting Stats: Inconvenient Facts Vs. Liberal Lies

Like everything else, mass shootings have become politicized. The who/what/how many/which guns did they use, etc., are all part of a SNAFU situation, brought to you by the people with the most to hide: liberals.

You may have seen tweets stating that more people have died in France’s current heat wave than in all U.S. mass shootings since 1966.

That’s not true. Mostly. It depends on a few things—”things” the left lies about to hide the truth and demonize those pesky straight, white men. “Things” the left will conflate to get the stats it needs to confuse you and piss off other leftoids.

What you need to know before we jump into mass shootings is this:

The Democratic Party (and a handful of RINOs) has been hijacked by the Red-Green Alliance globalists. Their goal is to conquer America from within. Their biggest obstacle is the Second Amendment. Therefore, they MUST fudge the numbers regarding gun deaths to scare Americans into giving up their weapons. They need to take your guns to fulfill their dream of a one-world government, as stated in the 45 goals of Communism, which were entered into Congress in 1963 (I added the bold).

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