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Chicago Mayor Johnson Calls for Insurrection

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is rallying the people to begin an insurrection, but of course, it is (D)ifferent. “Are you prepared to defend this land that was built by slaves and indigenous people?” the mayor asked, urging the people to “resist” the US National Guard, while of course, adding in divisive racial political rhetoric.

Rather than urging the people to band together toward peace, Brandon Johnson would like the people to fight American troops in favor of dangerous criminals. The federal government does not have the authority to deploy troops to prevent overall crime, however, the federal government can and will deploy troops to expel illegal migrants.

The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 4,775 people in the Chicago Area of Responsibility in the first four months of the year, which expands beyond Illinois to five neighboring states. As reported by ABC, 47% of those arrested has prior criminal convictions, and 35% were wanted for criminal charges. Only 18% of those arrested in that four-month period had no prior ties to criminal activity. The majority of the people deported from the Chicago area are Venezuelan or Mexican nationals who commonly have ties to criminal organizations. Chicago and Illinois in general has become a refuge for criminals as blue policies permit crime and favor the criminal over the common man.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson continually praise the recent 30% drop in crime. Sorry, but the inner city is nearly an active war zone. Chicago had the most homicides in absolute numbers for 13 consecutive years. Yet, arrest rates remain extremely low at 16.2% despite 147,899 reported crimes since January 1, 2025. President Trump noted that Chicago’s murder rate was double that of Islamabad and nearly 15 times that of Delhi. There were 573 homicides in 2024, but blue lawmakers praise the 8% decrease from the 620 homicides in 2023.

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DHS Wrecks NYT for Puff Piece on Deported Murderer: ‘When Will They Finally Shed Light on Their Victims?’

The Department of Homeland Security criticized The New York Times this week for writing a “sob story” about the plight of a deported murderer, and asked when the newspaper would start covering the victims of such horrendous crimes.

“The New York Times ran a sob story of Orville Etoria, an illegal alien from Jamaica and a convicted MURDERER,” the DHS news release began. “In addition to murder, this serial criminal’s rap sheet includes criminal possession of a weapon, armed robbery, and forcible theft with a deadly weapon.”

“Following his criminal convictions, Etoria’s green card was revoked,” the statement continued. “Etoria was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge in 2009. Sixteen years later, this dangerous individual is finally off our streets and out of the country thanks to President Trump and Secretary Noem. On July 17, he was deported.”

A DHS representative quoted in the release asked, “Why does the New York Times continue to peddle sob stories of criminal illegal aliens? When will they finally shed light on their victims?”

“Every single day President Trump and Secretary Noem fight for justice for American victims of illegal alien crime and nearly every single day the media ignores these victims and their families.”

The Times article published Tuesday, co-authored by reporters in Washington and South Africa, tried to paint Etoria as a model citizen who’d turned his life around. It claimed he pursued academic degrees while in prison and got a job at a shelter after being granted parole.

While serving a 25-year sentence for murder, Etoria was ordered deported by an immigration judge, the article reported. However, after his release in 2021, he was allowed to stay in the United States by the illegal immigrant-friendly Biden administration.

The article claimed Etoria had become a “target” of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. The authors lamented how he wasn’t given access to an attorney after being deported to the southern African nation of Eswatini (a landlocked country formerly known as Swaziland).

It quoted Etoria’s aunt speaking about how “inhumane” his treatment was. Yet there were no quotes from the families of his victims. Why not?

The newspaper couldn’t completely ignore Etoria’s violent past, however, and was forced to finally list his litany of violent behavior. But most of it discussed was near the end of the piece.

In addition to “fatally shooting a man in the head in Brooklyn in 1996” and being convicted of murder, the article reported, Etoria “has a history of drug abuse, which he has blamed in part on head injuries he suffered as a child. He was also diagnosed with schizophrenia. Doctors noted that he has exhibited violent outbursts, hallucinations and paranoia, according to court records.”

If that wasn’t enough, he was reportedly “arrested in 1981 on charges of attempted murder, robbery and kidnapping,” according to the report.

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Joe Kennedy III: RFK Jr. ‘Threat to Health of Every American,’ Must Resign as HHS Secretary

Former Rep. Joe Kennedy III, nephew of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., demanded on Friday that he resign from his post, arguing that he ‘dismissed science, misled the public, sidelined experts and sowed confusion’ during a Senate hearing this week.

Joe Kennedy III, who served as U.S. Special Envoy for Northern Ireland under former President Joe Biden, released the following statement on X:

Robert Kennedy Jr. is a threat to the health and wellbeing of every American. A United States Secretary of Health and Human Services is tasked with protecting the public health of our country and its people. At yesterday’s hearing, he chose to do the opposite: to dismiss science, mislead the public, sideline experts and sow confusion.

None of us will be spared the pain he is inflicting. It doesn’t matter how rich or powerful you are or what state you live in — the heartbreak of watching a loved one fall ill knows no borders.

The challenges before us—from disease outbreaks to mental health crises—demand moral clarity, scientific expertise, and leadership rooted in fact.

He concluded by claiming that “those values are not present” in RFK Jr.’s leadership and calling for his resignation.

The call adds to growing criticism from Democrats and some in the public health sector of Kennedy Jr.’s tenure since his appointment by President Donald Trump. On Wednesday, more than 1,000 current and former Department of Health and Human Services employees signed a letter accusing him of compromising the nation’s health and demanding his resignation. Around that time, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) accused Kennedy of “gross mismanagement” and insisted he should step down.

Democrats have intensified their attacks over the past two weeks following the firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez, which prompted several senior CDC officials to resign. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) declared Tuesday that the firings amounted to the “destruction of the CDC,” while Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) previously called Kennedy a “lunatic” and urged his removal. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) went further Thursday, denouncing Kennedy as “the biggest threat to the health of the American people.”

Former public health officials and medical professionals have also raised concerns. CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner cautioned Americans “not to trust” HHS leadership, while former CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield stated Kennedy should more “aggressively embrace the value of vaccines.”

Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic, has defended his actions as necessary reforms to restore trust in public health institutions. At Thursday’s Senate hearing, he pushed back against Democratic lawmakers, insisting his changes to the CDC and vaccine advisory committees were in the public’s best interest and rejecting accusations that he endangered Americans’ health. He also accused the Biden administration of manipulating abortion pill safety data, pledging to conduct a full review through the FDA.

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US War Department To Shift Focus From China To ‘Threats’ In Latin America

US War Department officials are proposing to shift the US military posture away from a focus on China, instead prioritizing alleged threats in Latin America and the Caribbean, Politicoreported on 6 Saturday.

A draft of the newest National Defense Strategy places “domestic and regional missions above countering adversaries such as Beijing and Moscow,” Politico revealed, citing three people briefed on early versions of the report.

The news comes one day after Trump signed an executive order for the Department of Defense to be renamed the “War Department” to better reflect its mission.

Politico notes that the move, if implemented, would anger politicians in both the Republican and Democratic parties who have long been hostile to China and called for aggressive policies to counter its rise.

“This is going to be a major shift for the US and its allies on multiple continents,” said one person briefed on the draft document. “The old, trusted US promises are being questioned.”

The document was prepared by Elbridge Colby, the War Department’s policy chief. Politico reports that the shift away from China and toward the Western Hemisphere appears to be already underway.  

The War Department deployed thousands of National Guard troops to support police in Los Angeles and Washington, DC, and has established a militarized zone across the southern border with Mexico that allows troops to detain civilians.

The policy shift may also result in the US withdrawing some troops from Europe and cutting military assistance programs for fellow NATO members.

“NATO allies increasingly expect some of the roughly 80,000 U.S. troops in Europe to leave over the next several years,” Politico added.

The proposed policy shift comes amid escalating tensions between the US and Venezuela.

This week, Trump authorized the US military to shoot down Venezuelan warplanes if commanders judge them a threat to US naval and air forces in the Caribbean. “If they do put us in a dangerous position, we’ll shoot them down,” Trump told reporters Friday.

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Report: LAPD ends Harris’ police protection 

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has reportedly ended former Vice President Kamla Harris’ protection. 

According to a report by the Los Angeles Times, Harris will no longer receive special protection from the LAPD, which had been temporarily arranged by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D-Calif.).

“Pulling police officers from protecting everyday Angelenos to protect a failed presidential candidate who also happens to be a multi-millionaire … and who can easily afford to pay for her own security, is nuts,” the Los Angeles Police Protective League’s board said to the outlet.

Bass had directed LAPD to assist the California Highway Patrol in the wake of President Donald Trump’s move to remove Harris’ Secret Service protection, which she called an act of “political retaliation.”

Following Trump’s move, a senior White House official verified the reports, noting that a vice president’s security detail typically only continues for six months after leaving office. That period would have ended July 21st, when Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, lost his personal detail under the standard provisions.

Trump’s office issued a note titled “Memorandum for the Secretary of Homeland Security” notifying the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of the removal of Harris’ detail.

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ICYMI: Video Of RFK Jr. Pile-Driving Bill Maher Over Vax on His Own Show – Left Audience Applauding for Kennedy

Sometimes, one needs reminding that the public debate over the efficacy of COVID vaccines has always pitted faith against reason.

No one, of course — certainly no one who reads The Western Journal — should denigrate faith in general. But the object matters. Faith in what exactly?

In April 2024 — four months before he allied with now-President Donald Trump — now-Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was running as an independent presidential candidate.

He appeared on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” and delivered what any reasonable person would regard as a knockout blow to the host’s pro-vaccine argument.

Maher, however, would not concede defeat. After all, as a liberal, his faith in science — particularly COVID vaccine science — amounts to a kind of religion.

Clips of the exchange began circulating again this week on the social media platform X. It became even more relevant on Monday, when Trump used his social media platform Truth Social to demand that “Drug Companies justify the success of their various Covid Drugs.”

Moreover, last week, the Trump administration fired Director Susan Monarez from the Centers for Disease Control. This prompted resignations from four other CDC officials.

In short, the debate over COVID vaccines has taken center stage once again. And this time, there isn’t a Biden administration around to censor it.

Thus, the Kennedy-Maher exchange reminds us of why this debate remains so maddening to skeptics of coronavirus vaccinations.

In a clip posted to YouTube, Maher began by asking about Kennedy’s vice-presidential running mate, Nicole Shanahan. The host noted that Shanahan wanted to recall the Moderna vaccine, which Maher happened to have gotten.

Kennedy responded by citing polls on the subject.

“There’s 25 percent of Americans who believe that they know somebody who was killed by a COVID vaccine,” Kennedy stated.

“Killed?” Maher queried.

“Killed — 25 percent. Fifty-two percent of Americans believe the vaccines are causing injuries, including death,” Kennedy continued. If nothing else, that amounts to a significant public-perception problem for the drug companies.

Kennedy also mentioned clinical trial studies of the Pfizer vaccine.

“People who got the vaccine had a 23 percent higher death rate from all causes at the end of that study,” he said.

Then came the remarkable exchange that ignited huge applause.

“But that could not be the disease itself?” Maher asked.

“If it is, then the vaccine doesn’t work, does it?” Kennedy replied.

The laughter and applause from the crowd practically drowned out the host’s protests.

“Well, no, no that’s … not true at all,” Maher insisted, appearing annoyed at his own audience.

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AI Isn’t Free. The First Costs Are On Your Bill, And More Are Coming…

“The United States is in a race to achieve global dominance in artificial intelligence. Whoever has the largest AI ecosystem will set global AI standards and reap broad economic and military benefits.”

– America’s AI Action Plan, July 25, 2025

That’s the U.S. government’s own language. An arms race.

Artificial intelligence is no longer framed as a research project or an economic opportunity. It is being cast as a struggle for survival and global power, a modern Manhattan Project.

Yet just last week, on Aug. 26, the Congressional Research Service released a Frequently Asked Questions memo designed to help lawmakers get on the same page about the basics: what a data center is, how many exist, and how much electricity data centers consume.

If even government institutions are still in the process of aligning their understanding, it’s clear that citizens will need to move quickly to understand what is happening and to understand what it means for their daily lives.

The memo laid out in plain language what many assumed lawmakers already understood.

A data center is a specialized building that houses thousands of servers. There are about seven thousand worldwide, with the largest concentration in the United States, especially in Northern Virginia and Texas. In 2022, American data centers consumed about 176 terawatt-hours of electricity—roughly 4 percent of all U.S. demand, more than many entire states. Projections suggest an additional 35 to 108 gigawatts of demand by 2030. The midpoint estimate, 50 gigawatts, is enough to power every home in California. 

The very fact that such a memo was necessary highlights a structural reality: the pace of technological build out is outstripping the pace of legislative comprehension. If institutions themselves are still catching up, it underscores how important it is for citizens to get informed now, before the costs mount even higher.

While Congress is being briefed on “Data Centers 101,” the executive branch has been preparing all year for the AI race that is already underway:

On January 20, 2025, the White House declared a National Energy Emergency.

On April 8, an order was issued to strengthen grid reliability, with the Department of Energy (DOE) tasked to model how AI demand would reshape the grid.

Four months later, on July 2, DOE’s report warned bluntly: “Retirements plus load growth increase risk of outages by 100x. Status quo is unsustainable.”

Just weeks later, on July 23, a new order accelerated federal permitting of data centers, opening federal lands to construction. And on July 25, the White House released America’s AI Action Plan, framing AI as the next great geopolitical race.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright put it plainly: “We are taking a bold step to accelerate the next Manhattan Project—ensuring U.S. AI and energy leadership.” So on one side of our government, institutions are receiving crash courses on the fundamentals. On the other, the executive branch is already issuing a call to arms.

For many Americans, the gap between government priorities and local realities shows up in one place: the monthly electric bill. Reports are now showing how in Columbus, Ohio, households on standard utility plans saw increases of about 20 dollars a month (roughly $240 a year) linked directly to AI data centers. In New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio this summer, bills jumped by ten to 27 dollars a month.

In Oregon last year, utilities warned regulators that consumers needed protection from rate hikes caused by data centers.  And in the Mid-Atlantic, regulators cited data centers as one of the main reasons for projected 20 percent increases in household electricity costs by 2025. 

The complaints about rising bills suggest something deeper. Citizens are starting to connect the dots before Washington fully has. If households can feel the costs already, then citizens cannot wait for official briefings, they must demand clarity and prepare themselves. Part of the confusion comes from the nature of artificial intelligence itself. To most people, AI feels intangible. It lives in the “cloud.” You type a question, get an answer, and never see the machinery behind it. No one sends you a receipt for the power you used to get your answer. 

But AI is not weightless. It runs on football-field-sized data centers, packed with servers that must run day and night. These machines use staggering amounts of electricity and water to stay cool. A Google search consumes about 0.3 watt-hours of electricity. An AI chatbot query can use up to ten times more—around three watt-hours.

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Rep. Jasmine Crockett: ‘No Good Point’ in Prosecuting Crimes Committed ‘to Survive’

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) suggested this week that poverty can drive people to commit certain crimes, arguing during a podcast interview that prosecutions are not always justified when offenses involve basic survival needs.

Speaking Wednesday on the Grounded podcast, Crockett, a former public defender, explained there is “a direct link between poverty and susceptibility to having to engage in certain things.” She insisted that not all people in poverty turn to crime, but maintained that circumstances often push individuals toward unlawful acts.

“There are crimes that are committed, not because people are criminals, but because they literally are trying to survive,” Crockett stated. She went on to cite Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot, who in past remarks suggested that his office would not prosecute low-level theft cases involving food, diapers, or other necessities. Crockett noted Creuzot “probably shouldn’t have said it out loud,” but nonetheless agreed with the approach, adding that “there is no good point in doing it because a decent defense attorney would have a defense.”

Crockett has become known for making radical statements on crime, politics, and the Trump administration. On the same day the podcast interview was released, she claimed during an MSNBC appearance that President Donald Trump was “unlawfully going into various minority controlled cities” with the National Guard.

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US Credibility At Stake In The Senkakus

On May 3, Japanese Air Self-Defense Force fighter jets scrambled from Okinawa in response to a helicopter that took off from a Chinese Coast Guard vessel in an apparent territorial defense posture. The helicopter wasn’t near a port or any of Japan’s 430 inhabited islands. It was flying near the Senkaku Islands.

Long administered by Japan, and recognized by the U.S. as Japanese territory, the Senkakus have emerged as a flash point in the increasingly confrontational Japan-China relationship and the broader U.S.-China competition.

Far from a quarrel over empty rocks, the Senkaku Islands dispute resides at the volatile intersection of China’s rising nationalism, Japan’s strategic vulnerability, and, critically, America’s alliance credibility.

What’s Really at Stake for China

While control of the islands could marginally strengthen China’s anti-access/area-denial (A2AD) posture and expand its Exclusive Economic Zone, the real driver of China’s policy is rooted in its broader goal of undermining the U.S.-led alliance system in Asia. This effort is a critical step in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) pursuit of a grand strategy bent on achieving regional hegemony and ultimately displacing the United States as the world’s leading superpower.

Despite a long and bitter history between Japan and China, the Senkaku Islands, named the Diaoyu Islands in China, were a peripheral issue until 2012. That year, Japan nationalized three of the Senkaku islands by purchasing them from a private owner in an attempt to prevent their development by a hardline Japanese governor. Instead of diffusing tensions, the move led to anti-Japanese protests across China and elevated the islands to a matter of national pride.

But the protests were not a spontaneous outpouring of long simmering anti-Japanese sentiment triggered by the nationalization of three barren rocks; they were state enabled. In a country where public demonstrations are suppressed, the CCP allowed and encouraged widespread displays of outrage. By letting nationalism flare, Beijing cloaked its ensuing policy shift towards the islands it defines as “inalienable“ parts of its territory as a reaction to public sentiment rather than a calculated assertion of power and a component of their strategic ambitions.

That China’s policy shift towards the islands occurred in 2012 was no coincidence. An increasingly self-assured China perceived the U.S. as weakened, viewing the post-2008 Global Financial Crisis shock to U.S. economic power as a strategic opening. And with rising confidence in their military and economic power, the CCP, under the new leadership of Xi Jinping, began shedding its decades long “hide and bide“ strategy in favor of a more aggressive foreign policy with a mandate to “actively accomplish something.”

For China, the Senkaku dispute is less about the intrinsic value of eight uninhabited rocks than about the future of the regional order. China knows that if it can erode Japan’s ability to control the islands without triggering a U.S. response, America’s security guarantees would appear flimsy and negotiable. Beijing’s ultimate Senkaku Islands objective, then, is to expose the vulnerabilities of the U.S.-Japan alliance and thus weaken a cornerstone of American power in Asia. For China to achieve national rejuvenation, it must erode the system of U.S. alliances that stands in its way.

How China Applies Pressure: A Campaign of Attrition

Since 2012, China has transformed the Senkaku Islands dispute from a dormant issue into a calibrated campaign of coercion. China’s incremental pressure strategy aims at weakening Japan’s control and eroding confidence in the U.S.-Japan alliance.

At sea, China relies on constant presence operations. In 2023, Chinese government vessels entered the contiguous zone around the Senkaku Islands on 352 out of 365 days—the highest number since record-keeping began in 2008, according to data from the Japan Coast Guard. Additionally, Chinese Maritime Militia boats often harass Japanese fishermen and shadow Japan Coast Guard patrols.

The PLA Navy (PLAN) has also ramped up its footprint. China’s destroyers, cruisers, and surveillance ships conduct regular patrols near the islands, mapping the battlespace and normalizing their presence. Now the world’s largest navy, PLAN operations are becoming more frequent and more complex.

In the air, Beijing declared an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the East China Sea in 2013, encompassing the Senkakus. While ignored by the U.S. and Japan, the ADIZ signaled China’s intent to claim the airspace as its own. The PLA Air Force (PLAAF) now regularly flies J-11 fighters, H-6K bombers, and UAVs near the islands, prompting Japan to scramble jets hundreds of times per year.

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Astronomers uncover a hidden world on the solar system’s edge

A small team led by Sihao Cheng, Martin A. and Helen Chooljian Member in the Institute for Advanced Study’s School of Natural Sciences, has discovered an extraordinary trans-Neptunian object (TNO), named 2017 OF201, at the edge of our solar system.

The TNO is potentially large enough to qualify as a dwarf planet, the same category as the much more well-known Pluto. The new object is one of the most distant visible objects in our solar system and, significantly, suggests that the empty section of space thought to exist beyond Neptune in the Kuiper Belt is not, in fact, empty at all.

Cheng made the discovery alongside colleagues Jiaxuan Li and Eritas Yang from Princeton University, using advanced computational methods to identify the object’s distinctive trajectory pattern on the sky. The new object was officially announced by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center and in an arXiv pre-print.

Trans-Neptunian objects are minor planets that orbit the Sun at a greater average distance than the orbit of Neptune. The new TNO is special for two reasons: its extreme orbit and its large size.

“The object’s aphelion — the farthest point on the orbit from the Sun — is more than 1600 times that of the Earth’s orbit,” explains Cheng. “Meanwhile, its perihelion — the closest point on its orbit to the Sun — is 44.5 times that of the Earth’s orbit, similar to Pluto’s orbit.”

This extreme orbit, which takes the object approximately 25,000 years to complete, suggests a complex history of gravitational interactions. “It must have experienced close encounters with a giant planet, causing it to be ejected to a wide orbit,” says Yang. “There may have been more than one step in its migration. It’s possible that this object was first ejected to the Oort cloud, the most distant region in our solar system, which is home to many comets, and then sent back,” Cheng adds.

“Many extreme TNOs have orbits that appear to cluster in specific orientations, but 2017 OF201 deviates from this,” says Li. This clustering has been interpreted as indirect evidence for the existence of another planet in the solar system, Planet X or Planet Nine, which could be gravitationally shepherding these objects into their observed patterns. The existence of 2017 OF201 as an outlier to such clustering could potentially challenge this hypothesis.

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