Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,

The word “insurgence” means a large increase. What with TikTok providing basically everyone a platform to spout their deepest thoughts in 30-second to 2-minute intervals, the insurgence I’m seeing is one of complete idiots.

The newest trend on the social media outlet is a bunch of stunned young people making shocked faces at the camera and talking about the brilliance of…

Osama Bin Laden.

I could not make this up. Here is a glimpse inside the minds of TikTokers who are now certain Bin Laden was a benevolent genius. Do you remember the phrase, “Useful Idiots?”

Observe Exhibit A below.

TikTok has now rehabilitated Osama Bin Laden. 9/11 was justified and an act of resistance, they say.

Decolonization is a death cult.

pic.twitter.com/germOD11IL

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 16, 2023

We’re all passionate and naive about life at this age.

I remember being in my late teens and early 20s. I was certain at the time that I knew everything and that if the world would just listen to me, I could make it a better place. I was pretty liberal (of course, this was in the late 80s and early 90s, when liberal was an entirely different animal than it is today), and I was utterly convinced that I knew more about the world than my dad. In his wisdom, he challenged me with interesting questions and made me defend my stances with facts, not feelings. And so I evolved to realize that I didn’t know diddly squat.

I guess these kids don’t have a dad like mine, because they can’t compose an argument worth beans.

Let’s put aside for a moment all our doubts about what occurred on 9/11 and the actual culprit because that isn’t the topic of this conversation.

In this conversation, these young people believe, lock, stock, and barrel, that Bin Laden was the mastermind of an attack on American soil that took out more than 3000 innocent people. And they think he’s awesome.

It astounds me that there’s more information available than any other time in history…and they choose to “get educated” (a favorite buzzphrase) on a social media platform filled with baseless soundbites.

What’s in this letter?

It’s hard to find Bin Laden’s Letter to America online now, but here’s a copy on the web archive. After The UK Guardian pulled it, every other location I could find followed suit. I remember reading it back when it was first published, and my reaction was certainly not one of, “Ohhhh….this dude really understands life.”

The letter is Osama Bin Laden’s ravings about “why” they attacked America. No sources are cited. He simply goes on and on about the evils of America and Israel through the lens of his religious beliefs.

Bin Laden hated Jews, Americans, and gay people, just to name a few on his hit list. He believed that anyone who died on 9/11 deserved it and wasn’t innocent because they paid taxes to a country that committed the acts against which he had grievances. He was filled with hate.

But because the first segment of his manifesto mentions the Palestinians, these kids with no critical thinking skills suddenly see him as a beacon of truth.

The letter goes on to demand that everyone convert to Islam. It discusses how we’ve separated Church and State in America and says that’s a bad thing. Bin Laden cites such things as usury, gambling, intoxicants, incest, sexuality, homosexuality, and disease as uniquely American issues.

It concludes:

If the Americans refuse to listen to our advice and the goodness, guidance and righteousness that we call them to, then be aware that you will lose this Crusade Bush began, just like the other previous Crusades in which you were humiliated by the hands of the Mujahideen, fleeing to your home in great silence and disgrace. If the Americans do not respond, then their fate will be that of the Soviets who fled from Afghanistan to deal with their military defeat, political breakup, ideological downfall, and economic bankruptcy.

This is our message to the Americans, as an answer to theirs. Do they now know why we fight them and over which form of ignorance, by the permission of Allah, we shall be victorious?

This is just so dumb.

Mark my words, at this rate, it won’t be long before some of these crazy Bin Laden fan-girls convert to Islam. They truly don’t seem to grasp that if they were to follow the mandates laid out by this letter that all their gay and trans friends would be put to death, brutally executed. They don’t understand they’d be owned by men from the cradle to the grave. They wouldn’t be allowed to be educated (though we can’t say formal education has done much for these folks), and they certainly wouldn’t be airing their views on social media. There would be no more mimosa-fueled brunches, no freedom of movement, and no choices about what to do with their lives.

They just don’t understand.

Ignorance is bliss until it gets you a big fat dose of Shariah law.

A few words about Bin Laden’s “Letter to America”#lettertoamerica #Islam #HamasisISIS #IsraelAtWar pic.twitter.com/YPYucCnD6H

— Dani Buller (@askdani__real) November 16, 2023

TikTok is cracking down.

TikTok is cracking down on this and says it isn’t really “viral.”

While TikTok said reports of it trending were inaccurate, the #lettertoamerica hashtag on TikTok had 13.7 million views as of Thursday afternoon. “Letter to America” also trended on X, the platform formally known as Twitter, where there were more than 82,000 posts.

“Content promoting this letter clearly violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism,” TikTok said in a statement on Thursday. “We are proactively and aggressively removing this content and investigating how it got onto our platform. The number of videos on TikTok is small and reports of it trending on our platform are inaccurate. This is not unique to TikTok and has appeared across multiple platforms and the media.”

I think the genie is out of the bottle, though. Our young people have been radicalized, which is something I’ve written about before. They’ve been taught by our education system and our media to hate America. Look at all the radicalized professors we see in the news saying shocking things lately.

And they really don’t have a clue how the real world works.

But the problem here is not that some dumb kids don’t understand the world. The problem here is that they have been brainwashed to hate their own country. And how will people who hate America ever defend her?

We’re watching the destruction of our culture in real time.

Not all Gen Z kids are this ignorant.

I’m not here to say every person of Gen Z age is horrible. There are notable exceptions. And most of those exceptions come from households like mine, who taught their kids actual critical thinking and the real difference between right and wrong. We challenged our kids to defend their ideas with facts, and if they didn’t have enough facts, we made them go look up more facts until they had a better grasp on the topic.

Cherry-picking a few comments out of an eight-page letter and waxing poetic about the ravings of a terrorist is not critical thinking. It’s not edgy or cool.

It’s idiotic.

Perhaps these fans of Bin Laden need to go live amongst the Taliban for a while and then get back to us with some videos.

[ZH: PJW does what he does best – pointing out the stupity of it all…]

*  *  *

Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, adventure-seeking, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites.  1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty; 2)  The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived; and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. Her work is widely republished across alternative media and she has appeared in many interviews.

Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.

Authored by Joseph M. Hanneman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The U.S. Supreme Court has set a conference for Dec. 1 on whether to accept two key Jan. 6 case appeals—one involving a federal agent who carried his firearm at the U.S. Capitol and the other on the Department of Justice’s controversial use of evidence-tampering law to prosecute Jan. 6 defendants for felony obstruction of Congress.

If either or both of the petitions are accepted, it will be the first time a Jan. 6-related case is reviewed by the Supreme Court.

On Nov. 14, the court listed both cases as “distributed for conference” on Dec. 1.

Defense attorney Marina Medvin, who is involved in both cases, said it should be clear by Dec. 4 if the court will issue orders, accept or reject the petitions for review, or hold the cases over for another conference.

The first case—Edward Jacob Lang, Petitioner v. United States—could impact hundreds of defendants accused of the most frequently charged Jan. 6 felony. Corruptly obstructing an official proceeding, which carries a potential 20-year prison term, has been charged in 317 cases, according to the latest DOJ tally.

Dozens of Jan. 6 defendants have already been convicted under the law, which has never been used in such a way since it was implemented in 2002 as a means to curb corporate financial fraud.

Attorneys for Mr. Lang and three other Jan. 6 defendants who filed an amici curiae brief in the case say the DOJ’s weaponization of the statute represents dangerous prosecutorial overreach.

“If the Biden DOJ’s adventurism is allowed to stand, it will permanently change the ability of the government to suppress the rights of American citizens,” legal researcher Jonathon Moseley told The Epoch Times in October.

“Every American will be at the whim of any prosecutor to terrorize them.”

The DOJ said the High Court should not intervene, allowing the prosecutions to proceed.

“At a minimum, the government should be permitted to present its case to a jury and prove that petitioners obstructed a proceeding by [in part] preventing the relevant decision-makers from viewing the evidence at the time and place specified for that purpose,” reads the DOJ’s opposition document.

Mark Sami Ibrahim, 35, of Anaheim, Calif., faces three federal charges: entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, carrying a firearm on Capitol grounds, and injuries to property for climbing on a statue at the edge of Capitol grounds.

Mr. Ibrahim comes from a military and law-enforcement family. Before joining the DEA, he served for years in U.S. Army intelligence. His brother is an Army veteran who became an FBI special agent. His sister is a U.S. Navy veteran, and his mother was at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

Mr. Ibrahim’s appeal argues that even though he was off-duty on Jan. 6, he was legally authorized by federal law to carry his service weapon on Capitol grounds. DEA regulations encourage agents to carry their weapons and credentials at all times, the appeals petition says.

“The prosecution of this case breaks faith with countless federal law enforcement officers who make themselves available around the clock, 24-7, and carry their agency-issued weapons per agency directives,” the document states.

“Failure to address the question of the law’s exemption breeds uncertainty and shakes any remaining confidence of the public and the law enforcement officers in the application of the laws.”

United States District Judge Timothy Kelly in March ruled against Ms. Medvin’s motion to dismiss Count 3 of the indictment, which charged Mr. Ibrahim under 40 U.S. Code § 5104 for having a firearm on Capitol grounds.

Read more here…

A very short while ago, any US politician or media pundit publicly calling for peace negotiations in Ukraine with Russia’s Putin was branded ‘pro-Kremlin’ and somehow compromised. For example, mainstream media has sought to isolate and cancel thinkers like John Mearsheimer for his realism toward Moscow and the conflict, and urging immediate ceasefire which would require territorial concessions from Kiev. It was only in September that one prominent publication branded him “the world’s most hated thinker.”

But now, at a moment Ukraine’s leadership itself has become more desperate while admitting its forces are facing almost insurmountable odds, the D.C. beltway consensus has clearly and drastically changed, and now it’s apparently okay to admit the following…

The War Street Journal acknowledges that the narratives it’s been pushing for months — of a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive, a possible palace coup in Moscow, a Russian economy in tatters — are “Magical Thinking.” In other words, their coverage has been a fraud. pic.twitter.com/ZxB25W61Kn

— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) November 16, 2023

The WSJ piece actually calls for a longer-term strategy of confronting Russia, while also admitting that Washington’s approach thus far has been based on “magical thinking”. 

Or else we might just call the establishment narrative to this point fraudulent: 

What Western leaders conspicuously haven’t done is level with their publics about the enduring nature of the threat from an emboldened, revisionist Russia. They have indulged all too often in magical thinking—betting on sanctions, a successful Ukrainian counter-offensive or the transfer of new types of weapons to force the Kremlin to come to the negotiating table. Or they have hoped to see Putin overthrown in a palace coup.

Elsewhere in the article, the authors point out that contrary to how the Wagner rebellion was widely presented in Western press, the reality is that whole episode actually strengthened Putin: 

As Russian President Vladimir Putin looks toward the second anniversary of his all-out assault on Ukraine, his self-confidence is hard to miss. A much-anticipated Ukrainian counter-offensive has not achieved the breakthrough that would give Kyiv a strong hand to negotiate. Tumult in the Middle East dominates the headlines, and bipartisan support for Ukraine in the U.S. has been upended by polarization and dysfunction in Congress…

Putin has reason to believe that time is on his side. At the front line, there are no indications that Russia is losing what has become a war of attrition. The Russian economy has been buffeted, but it is not in tatters. Putin’s hold on power was, paradoxically, strengthened following Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed rebellion in June. Popular support for the war remains solid, and elite backing for Putin has not fractured.

The tragedy is that so many people from both sides died for a year for nothing

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 16, 2023

Of course, none of this has stopped Zelensky as well as his friends in US Congress from seeking to push through more billions in American taxpayer aid for Ukraine. 

On a global level too, Moscow has made inroads and gotten closer with other well-armed powers who find themselves in Washington’s crosshairs…

Zelensky has recently complained that “Russia’s goal” to take the global focus away from the Ukraine war is working, particularly against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas conflict and rising tensions in the Middle East. But certainly for now, Ukraine has taken a far backseat among the list of current Biden administration priorities, it seems. Perhaps indeed there’s less “magical thinking” these days.

* * *

US headlines with “Ukraine winning” in them, data via Bloomberg:

Authored by Caden Pearson via The Epoch Times,

A recent government report has highlighted serious lapses in safeguards against potential fraud in President Joe Biden’s scuttled plan to unilaterally forgive $430 billion in student loan debt.

The Biden plan, announced in August 2022, aimed to provide relief ranging from $10,000 to $20,000 for 31 million federal student loan holders. Mired in legal challenges, court orders halted the program in November 2022 before the U.S. Supreme Court struck the final blow in June.

The Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) report, released Thursday, revealed that the U.S. Department of Education’s handling of the initiative lacked critical measures to ascertain whether the recipients’ incomes justified the debt forgiveness.

Spanning from January to September, the watchdog’s report specifically noted that the “increased flow of federal funds” for relief programs due to the COVID-19 pandemic increased the risk of fraud. This, the report stated, underscored the “imperative for federal agencies to manage fraud risks strategically.”

The watchdog’s report highlighted concerns over the Biden administration’s failure to verify incomes for millions of borrowers before granting relief.

“Education developed two processes to assess borrower incomes and account for fraud risks, but did not implement key procedures to further identify and prevent potential fraud,” the report states.

By November 2022, more than 12 million out of 26 million applicants were approved by the federal government for relief without collecting or reviewing any income documentation, solely relying on self-reported income and post-enrollment earnings data to estimate eligibility.

The Education Department’s methodology, relying on aggregated data to pinpoint these individuals, was harshly critiqued in the watchdog’s report.

Borrowers who received Pell Grants were eligible for up to $20,000 in relief, and other borrowers were eligible for up to $10,000 if their income fell below specific thresholds. A further 2 million borrowers automatically qualified based on past financial aid applications and loan repayment plans, without any income verification steps.

Only a fraction of flagged tax filings underwent income review before the Supreme Court overturned the program, per the report.

Interviews with key Education Department officials conducted as part of the watchdog’s review further exposed lapses in fraud risk management, raising questions about the department’s compliance with federal internal control standards and industry best practices.

The Education Department omitted information labeled as controlled unclassified information (CUI) in the publicly released version of the report.

This move was criticized in a scathing rebuke on Thursday by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), both prominent figures in congressional committees.

The senators accused the department of misusing the CUI designation to withhold crucial information from the watchdog’s report.

“We understand the imperative to protect highly sensitive information in the interest of public safety or as mandated by law. However, the arbitrary shielding of information solely to evade embarrassment or complexity undermines transparency for the American people,” asserted the senators in a joint statement.

The senators accused Education Secretary Miguel Cardona of concealing information by applying designations to certain sections, raising questions about transparency and review processes within the department.

“The Executive Branch should never unnecessarily apply its own designations just to hide material from the public because it is embarrassing or difficult to explain,” the senators wrote in a letter.

President Biden and Mr. Cardona first announced the debt cancellation program in 2022, citing authorization under the 2003 Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students (HEROES) Act. However, the Supreme Court ruled that the law was intended solely for veterans of specific wars, halting the president’s unilateral action.

Subsequently, a separate income-driven repayment plan was introduced, estimated to cost $475 billion over the next decade, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model.

Dr. Cassidy, the ranking member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, condemned the lack of accountability in the administration’s approach, emphasizing the burden placed on taxpayers for others’ student debts.

“When GAO believes the Biden Administration is improperly applying the CUI designation to content in its reports, it should push back consistently and it should not take actions that it believes are unwarranted,” Dr. Cassidy wrote. “It is critical to ensure maximum transparency for the American people when there is no legitimate basis for safeguarding information.”

Two days ago, JPMorgan’s head of energy strategy Christyan Malek warned that amid the recent plunge in oil prices, driven as much by shorting CTAs (who today are in full-blown short squeeze panic mode) as the BIden admin, the oil market was underestimating the chances of deeper supply cuts during this month’s Nov 26 OPEC+ meeting.

“The market’s probably assuming very little chance of that happening, I’d say it’s much higher than that – not as a base case but as a scenario” Malek told Bloomberg in an interview, adding that deeper curbs would be “in order to get ahead of potential weakness in the first half of next year.”

“We may need to see” a cut “given where the balances are, particularly given the demand trending.” And while “there’s a view that Saudi is tapped out”, Malek said that he doesn’t believe that: “I think there’s more flex if they wish to cut. We could see them do sizable cuts from here; having said that, I think it’s more likely they’ll want to socialize them among their OPEC peers – a collective cut rather than one on their own.”

And so, from JPM’s strategist to OPEC+’s ears because moments ago the FT reported that what until recently was unthinkable, is suddenly all too possible and largely thanks to the (mostly) Arabic resentment at what Israel is doing in Palestine: according to the FT, not only is Saudi Arabia prepared to prolong oil production cuts well into next year but Opec+ is weighing further reductions in response to falling prices and rising anger over the Israel-Hamas war.

Why? Because while OPEC+ is not getting directly involved in the Gaza war, it certainly did not expect the Biden oil trading desk to hammer oil as hard as it did. If anything, it was expecting oil prices to rise above $100. Or as the FT puts it, “an additional Opec+ cut of up to 1mn b/d could be on the table, one informed person said, describing the cartel as “galvanised” by the conflict.”

Naturally, the further cuts – which are under discussion by Opec+ as it prepares to meet in Vienna on November 26 – could further inflame tensions with the US, although it appears that nobody in the cartel is even remotely worried about angering the senile US president who just got schooled by “dictator” Xi Jinping during his recent tour of China’s California colony.

There’s more: Opec+ is clearly not happy that the US is so openly on the side of Israel in the Gaza conflict. And while the oil price drop is the main cause, “members are also indignant at Israel’s war on Hamas and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza” the FT reports, adding that “Kuwait, Algeria and Iran are among the Opec members most agitated by the conflict.”

“You should not underestimate the level of anger there is and the pressure leaders in the Gulf feel from their populations to be seen to respond in some manner,” said another person close to senior Opec figures in the Gulf, effectively confirming that an Opec+ production cut would directly target Biden’s policies meant to keep the price of oil (and gas) as low as possible into the 2024 election.

The person said there would be no repeat of the oil shock of the 1970s, when Arab states halted exports to the west. But they added: “People have become complacent about the potential to tighten oil supplies to send a subtle message, which will be well understood both in the streets and Washington DC.”

Joe Biden, having crushed the US middle class in the past three years with his catastrophic economic policies, is facing an impossible re-election battle next year where he is already losing against his predecessor Donald Trump according to multiple polls, and the White House is struggling to convince voters that the country’s economy is healthy. The only thing it has to show: oil gas prices (which are largely the result of markets pricing in the coming recession). If Opec+ can send oil prices soaring again, then Biden is completely finished.

Some more from the FT:

The people close to Saudi Arabia’s thinking stressed that no final decision had yet been made. They emphasised that any public statements by Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, would keep the focus on the oil market, rather than the Israel-Hamas war.

Prince Abdulaziz recently hit out at hedge funds that have increased their bets against oil, amid expectations that the market may move into a small surplus next year because of the weak global economy and rising supplies outside Opec.

Other analysts suggested that Prince Abdulaziz could push other countries to deepen cuts — or comply with past commitments to reduce production — by threatening that Saudi Arabia could shift back towards full production unless such steps are taken.

It’s not just Saudis that want oil as high as possible: Russia depends heavily on oil to finance its invasion of Ukraine, and has been increasing seaborne exports in recent months. However, if it means boosting oil prices, even Putin would be willing to seek a sharp if brief production cut, just enough to spark a worldwide energy panic.

Meanwhile, the economic reform program of Prince Abdulaziz’s half-brother, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman requires an oil price close to $100 a barrel: the plan ranges from building hypermodern cities to hosting the 2034 football World Cup.

Ahead of the FT report, it appears that the news had leaked far and wide, and after plunging into a bear market amid CTA liquidations, we have seen a complete reversal in the price of Brent, as if yesterday never happened.

Via The Cradle,

The Pentagon has failed its independent annual audit for the sixth year in a row, as US defense officials could not provide auditors with enough information to form a full accounting evaluation, according to the Defense Department’s yearly financial report released on Thursday.

“Auditing the department’s $3.8 trillion in assets and $4 trillion in liabilities is a massive undertaking,” Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord said.

The 2023 audit gave a “disclaimer of opinion,” which means the Pentagon could not provide auditors enough financial data to allow them to form an opinion. An unqualified, or “clean,” opinion is the highest possible rating and a qualified opinion is an acceptable rating. Both mean that auditors were given enough information to make a complete judgement.

In 2022, the Pentagon only managed to account for 39 percent of its $3.5 trillion in assets. With this failure, the Pentagon has kept its spot as the only US government agency to have never passed a comprehensive audit. It also highlights the US war department’s persistent lack of internal financial control, its poor budget estimations and rampant overspending. 

A clear example of this is the F-35 program, which has gone over its original budget by $165 billion to build a plane tasked to perform many different tasks, none of which it does well.The Pentagon is slated to buy more than 2,400 F-35s for the Air Force, Marines, and Navy. The estimated lifetime cost for procuring and operating these planes – $1.7 trillion – would make it the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons project ever.

A 2021 Pentagon assessment of the F-35 found 800 unresolved defects in the plane. There is also the current plan to expand Washington’s ship production, as part of the Pentagon’s obsession with preparing for a potential war with China.

While the Pentagon estimates the average cost of this shipbuilding initiative to be $27 billion per year between 2023 and 2052, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) contends this, claiming that the average annual cost of the plan will be over $31 billion, meaning the Navy is underestimating costs by $120 billion.

Furthermore, in 2019 alone, the Pentagon made $35 trillion in accounting adjustments – a figure larger than the entire US economy.The Pentagon budget is not only gargantuan, but replete with waste – from vast overcharges for spare parts, and weapons that don’t work, to forever wars with far reaching human and economic consequences.

These shadowy practices have, however, boosted the profits of US weapons makers like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman, with major gains made despite the challenges posed by inflation and supply chain issues caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Along the same lines, the US government is expected to reach a $1 trillion defense budget by 2027, if not before. The defense budget has expanded as a result of both the war in 2022 between Ukraine and Russia, which many analysts argue was sparked by Washington, and the recent outbreak of war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, which Washington refuses to de-escalate.

The recent failure of the Pentagon’s 6TH audit couldn’t make it clearer that we need accountability & transparency. It’s time to independently #AuditthePentagon. No institution is above scrutiny, especially the DoD w/ the largest budget of ANY fed agency. https://t.co/ATqPB3ZYlS

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) November 16, 2023

On October 20, US President Joe Biden asked the US Congress to provide $106 billion in supplemental funding for Israel, Ukraine, and the US border. The request includes $30 billion for the Department of Defense to help supply Ukraine with weapons and replenish US stocks. There is also $14.4 billion to support military intelligence in Ukraine and $481 million to help assist Ukrainians arriving in the US.

The request comes at at time when the US deficit has sky rocketed, reaching over $33 trillion, both due to government spending and paying higher interest on debit. The Federal Reserve has aggressively raised interest rates in the past two years to fight inflation resulting from stimulus during the Covid lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.

Authored by Joseph Hanneman via The Epoch Times,

John Earle Sullivan, the onetime Black Lives Matter-affiliated provocateur who filmed the deadly shooting of Ashli Babbitt at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been found guilty by a federal jury on seven criminal counts, including civil disorder and carrying a dangerous weapon.

A District of Columbia jury took less than four hours to return guilty verdicts on all seven counts, including corruptly obstructing an official proceeding, civil disorder, unlawful possession of a dangerous weapon on Capitol grounds, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

United States District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered Mr. Sullivan taken into custody pending a sentencing hearing. A sentencing date will be set later. Prior to the verdicts, Mr. Sullivan, 29, of Tooele, Utah, was free on personal recognizance.

Jurors rejected Mr. Sullivan’s defense that he was a journalist wanting simply to document a historic day on Jan. 6. He argued that his provocative behaviors were meant to mask his previous affiliations with Black Lives Matter and Antifa and prevent him from becoming a target.

That defense mirrors comments he made to The Epoch Times in a January 2022 interview.

“Anything that I might have said was to protect me among a crowd of Trump supporters, white supremacists, and terrorists,” he said. “I am not about to have my black [expletive] lynched by a mob of raging idiots.”

Using a wealth of video evidence, federal prosecutors painted Mr. Sullivan as a sower of chaos who incited protesters to riot with profanity-laced admonitions such as “take this [expletive]” and “burn this sh*t down!”

The case was unique because it involved someone vastly different than most Jan. 6 defendants—a man with a history of leftist politics influenced heavily by the May 2020 police custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Mr. Sullivan has been affiliated with Black Lives Matter and Antifa, although some leaders in those movements have disavowed him. He has said he views himself as a civil rights activist and not a member of a group.

Mr. Sullivan is best remembered for the video he took on Capitol grounds, including the 2:44 p.m. shooting of Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt in the hallway outside of the Speaker’s Lobby. His video has been used in the prosecution of many Jan. 6 criminal cases.

While his video of Ms. Babbitt falling back to the floor after being shot by U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd has been seen around the world, it was not shown to the jury in his trial.

When Mr. Sullivan reached the crowded hallway outside the Speaker’s Lobby just after 2:35 p.m., he said, “Let me through, I’ve got a knife. I’ve got a knife.” With that, he was able to make his way through the crowd and secure a spot along the south wall near the front.

From his vantage point, Mr. Sullivan filmed rioter Zachary Alam’s escalating violence, punching the lobby doors and later using a black riot helmet to smash the glass. He captured Ms. Babbitt shouting at Capitol Police to call for backup as the situation deteriorated.

Mr. Sullivan was the first to call out that Lt. Byrd had a gun pointed at the lobby doors. “There’s a gun! There’s a gun! There’s a gun!” he shouted, although it did not appear anyone heard him.

Just before the shooting, Mr. Sullivan worked to convince the Capitol Police officers to abandon their post at the door, which they did a short time later. As soon as the officers moved away, Mr. Sullivan shouted, “Go! Let’s go! Get this [expletive]!”

John Earle Sullivan reacts to the shooting of Ashli Babbitt that he filmed outside the Speaker’s Lobby at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Sam Montoya/Special to The Epoch Times)

Loaded Words

Mr. Sullivan’s videos, some uploaded to YouTube with a “Jayden X” watermark and some with an “Insurgence USA” logo, were potent evidence against him in the trial.

A 1-hour 12-minute video used as evidence in several Jan. 6 trials documented Mr. Sullivan’s walk from the Washington Monument to the Capitol, with filmmaker Jade Sacker capturing footage of him for a forthcoming documentary.

At one point, Mr. Sullivan wondered aloud what would happen if the crowds knew of his history with Antifa and Black Lives Matter.

“Go to the front. Everybody’s like, ‘This is Antifa, [expletive] him up,'” Mr. Sullivan said. “I’d be dead.”

As he got close to the Capitol, Mr. Sullivan sounded excited as police fired munitions and tear gas into the crowds.

“Oh! They’re firing tear gas! Oh, yes,” he said on the video. “What are we doing back here? We got to go up and support the troops on that [expletive]. Man the front line!”

As he approached the scaffolding near the west plaza, Mr. Sullivan conversed with several protesters. “Are you ready? I don’t think you are,” he said to one man. “[Expletive]’s going to go down now. We’re taking this [expletive] to the ground.”

Mr. Sullivan startled a number of bystanders when he got out a black bullhorn and boomed, “We about to burn this [expletive] down!”

Mr. Sullivan witnessed the crowd breach a police line under the scaffolding and filmed as protesters moved up the stairway. He filmed a second breach of a police line and followed the crowd as it stormed up the northwest steps.

On the upper terrace, as he watched crowds below swarm toward the Capitol, Mr. Sullivan said: “This is a revolution, mother[expletive]! Let’s go! We takin’ this [expletive]. This is a mother[expletive] revolution. Let’s take this [expletive].”

Filmmaker Jade Sacker, 25, of Los Angeles, films activist John Sullivan on the Upper Northwest Terrace of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Jayden X/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

‘We Accomplished This’

Mr. Sullivan then moved with the crowd toward the Senate Wing Door, where he climbed through a broken window into the Capitol.

He said to another protester: “There are so many people! Let’s go! This [expletive] is ours. [Expletive] yeah! I can’t believe this is reality. We accomplished this [expletive]. We did this [expletive]. Together! [Expletive] yeah!”

As he moved through the grounds, Mr. Sullivan captured random video of now-familiar Jan. 6 figures such as Proud Boys Dominic Pezzola and Christopher Worrell, Jacob “QAnon Shaman” Chansley, the violent and still-unidentified provocateur #RedOnRedGlasses, and rioters spraying police with pepper gel and pulling down barricades.

Mr. Sullivan is frequently heard on his videos telling people that he is at the Capitol to document the events.

“I’m just reporting the situation,” he told a Capitol Police officer near one entrance. “That’s fine,” the officer replied. “You’ve got to do it from outside.”

Mr. Sullivan’s attorney, Steven Kiersh, asked jurors why—if his client was at the Capitol to sow chaos—he would film his own deeds while being trailed all day by a documentary filmmaker.

Ms. Sacker’s documentary—titled “A House Divided”—is about the liberal Mr. Sullivan and his brother James, a conservative Republican. The film is expected to be released soon.

Despite reports that behind the scenes the Americans and Iranians are talking ‘de-escalation’ related to the Gaza War, facts on the ground point to anything but…

⚠️ Smoke billows from the hangars at the American base in Harir, in Irbil in northern Iraq.
According to the reports, this was after a drone attack by the Iranian proxy. pic.twitter.com/M2IvgqgSYx

— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) November 17, 2023

The above unverified footage, said to show the aftermath of what appears a large attack on a US base in northern Iraq, is widely circulating online Friday. It shows a huge black plume of smoke rising high above the base, as it appears either an aircraft or vehicle suffered direct hit. 

“Iraq’s al-Harir airbase hosting US and international forces was targeted with an armed drone, Iraqi Kurdistan’s counter-terrorism service said in a statement on Friday,” regional sources are reporting. Iranian state sources have posted the video.

Semi-official Iranian news source Mehr writes, “The video shows the moments when the Iraqi Islamic Resistance launched a drone attack on the American terrorists’ base at Harir Airport located in Erbil province.”

The White House has long warned it will escalate attacks on “Iranian proxies” if such attacks continue. There has so far been three waves of US airstrikes against Iran-linked targets in eastern Syria, but this supposed “deterrent” has not proven effective in stopping missiles and drones sent by regional militias.

The last 24 hours has also witnessed another Israeli attack on Damascus, for the second time in just over a week. Overnight, Syrian anti-air defenses were active after multiple strikes from Israel. 

“At around 2:25 a.m. Friday, the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial attack from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting a number of points in the surroundings of Damascus,” a military source told the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA). “The Army air defense forces responded to the missile aggression and shot down most of them, saying the damage was limited to materials.”

As is typical, Western sources have described the target as a “Hezbolloah arms depot” on the outskirts of Damascus. But over the past month, Israel has also on multiple occasions attacked significant civilian sites as well, especially Damascus and Aleppo international airports.

Meanwhile, President Bashar al-Assad has returned to international headlines this week, after a French court issued an arrest warrant for the Syrian leader, alleging war crimes.

Just like with the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, this is of course largely symbolic. Assad will certainly not travel to Europe anytime soon. France’s action is summarized in the following:

French judicial authorities issued international arrest warrants for Syrian President Bashar Assad, his brother and two army generals for alleged complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity, lawyers for Syrian victims said Wednesday. They include a 2013 chemical attack on rebel-held Damascus suburbs.

A victim of the attack welcomed the move as a reminder of the horrors of Syria’s civil war, and urged countries where Assad might travel to arrest him. While he is unlikely to face trial in France, international warrants for a serving world leader are very rare, and send a strong message about Assad’s leadership at a time when some countries have welcomed him back into the diplomatic fold.

In addition to President Assad, the arrest warrants were issued for his brother, Maher Assad, the commander of the 4th Armored Division, and two Syrian army generals, Ghassan Abbas and Bassam al-Hassan, the lawyers said.

At least 8 Missiles launched by Israeli Aircraft are reported to have Struck several Positions of Iranian-Backed Forces near the Syrian Capital City of Damascus. pic.twitter.com/80J5XHoFJU

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) November 17, 2023

There’s a dark irony in the timing, as it comes against the backdrop of Israel having slaughtered well over 11,000 people in Gaza. Most of these are civilians, with half estimated to be women and children. Of course, don’t expect any arrest warrants to be issued for Benjamin Netanyahu or his military leadership for war crimes, even with admissions like this.

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Below is my column on Fox.com on the new allegations of perjury by Michael Cohen after his testimony in the New York fraud trial of his former client Donald Trump.

The alleged perjury occurred in testimony before Congress, but it is part of patterns going back decades.

For his critics, Cohen has made lying a virtual art form – supported by an ever-changing array of powerful benefactors.

Here is the column:

If lying were an art form, former Trump fixer Michael Cohen would be its Rembrandt.

Throughout his career, the disbarred lawyer has found powerful clients who valued his reputation for supporting any side that offered the biggest payback.

Now he is accused of yet another lie under oath and the question is whether his current benefactors will again protect him from a criminal charge.

For years, Cohen was the heavy for Donald Trump who threatened everyone from journalists to students with ruin for threatening the former president.

Faced with disbarment and criminal charges, he then became an equally vicious critic of Trump; a human cudgel for Democrats. The most remarkable thing about his checkered career is the one constant: a long, uninterrupted line of lies upon lies. Indeed, he is now accused of lying about prior lies.

I have been a critic of Cohen for years, going back to work as a legal thug for Trump. That criticism continued after Cohen sought to raise money from Democrats as a Trump killer as opposed to a Trump enabler. Those of us familiar with his history warned about the notion that he was now a “liberated former liar.”

As expected, the sides changed but the lies continued.

He would appear as the new star Democratic witness before House Oversight Committee chairman, Elijah Cummings, and was promptly accused of lying under oath again. Cummings refused to take any action against Cohen. He had again found a powerful ally who valued his moral flexibility.

Even after being stripped of his bar license and sentenced to three years in prison, Cohen continued the pattern. In 2019, Cohen failed to appear to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee, citing the inability to travel due to a medical surgery. However, he was seen partying before the hearing date with five friends with no apparent problems.

Even in jail, Cohen was accused of lying to a court in violation of an order for early release due to medical problems. He was ordered back into custody after being spotted at a high-end restaurant.

Nevertheless, Cohen has few illusions about his sudden alliance with media outlets and Democratic figures. He does not have to be truthful; he has to be useful.

That celebrated role continued this year when Cohen was called to testify in the New York fraud case brought by Attorney General Letitia James. It mattered little to James that Cohen is a serial liar. Yet, even her office may have been surprised with the ease with which Cohen now admits to false statements.

During his recent testimony, Cohen was confronted by statements about Trump inflating the value of his properties that directly contradicted his sworn testimony before Congress. Most witnesses would be petrified by the prospect of admitting lying under oath. Most would refuse to testify under the Fifth Amendment. Not Cohen. He simply seemed to shrug it off and admitted that he previously lied under oath in 2019 before Congress.

In testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on February 28, 2019, Cohen was asked about the same alleged violation and responded: “I’m sorry. Did he ask me to inflate the numbers? Not that I recall, no.”

When read that answer in New York by defense counsel, Cohen admitted that he was not being “honest” with Congress. 

Trump attorney Alina Habba then asked him:

“So you lied under oath in February of 2019? Is that your testimony?”

Cohen replied “yes.”

For Cohen, the admission of a lie is hardly a significant moment. He pleaded guilty to felonies including false statements to banks in 2018. After professing his profound guilt and remorse, he was sentenced to three years. He then later said that he really did not mean it in denying aspects of the plea.

After that plea and then denying the sworn plea, Cohen was called to give testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. He now says that he proceeded to lie again.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner and House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik have sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland for an investigation into the admitted false testimony.

This would seem an embarrassingly easy case for a prosecutor. A serial liar just admitted under oath that he lied previously under oath.  There is a five-year statute of limitations on lying to Congress.

Moreover, this is the attorney general who aggressively pursued Trump officials and associates for contempt and other violations linked to congressional investigations. It is also the same department that prosecuted figures like Gen. Michael Flynn for false statements made to FBI agents.

For Cohen, the key to his career has been to lie to the right people at the right time. It is now up to Garland whether he will join a long line of powerful allies covering for Cohen.

Cohen may be able to again evade real punishment. When he was still thumping people for Trump, Cohen told the reporter that he should “tread very f—ing lightly because what I’m going to do to you is going to be f—ing disgusting. Do you understand me?”

When it comes to the legal system, Cohen is ironically true to his word. What he has done to the legal system for decades is truly disgusting. The New York bar took no action for years until Cohen confessed to crimes to secure a plea deal.

Past incidents of alleged perjury before Congress were ignored because prosecution would have been inconvenient. Now he has nonchalantly acknowledged lying under oath in 2019 after pleading guilty to criminal falsehoods.

The problem is not Cohen. He continues to act to his nature. The problem is a political and legal system that enables him as a serial liar. It is a system that continues to call Cohen to the stand and ask him to swear to God to offer the “truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” without a signature joke drum roll before his punchline.

The fact that Cohen can say “I do” without breaking up in laughter reflects a true artist at work.

Much to the chagrin of the Biden administration and its woke sycophants, we’re sure, Exxon CEO Darren Woods is once again making sense.

The head of the oil supermajor argued this week that turning big oil companies into “villains” would inhibit the world’s path to net zero emissions and would trap millions of people in the developing world in poverty, according to a new Bloomberg report.

At the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in San Francisco this week, Woods said: “The solutions to climate change have been too focused on reducing supply. That’s a recipe, for human hardship and a poorer world.”

Instead he urged governments to “harness the industry’s capabilities for change”, Bloomberg reported. He suggested providing government funding for technologies that reduce emissions, such as carbon capture, until they become viable through market dynamics.

Woods said that attacking oil and gas would keep net zero emissions an “aspiration” instead of a reality. 

“Oil and gas companies reliably provide affordable products essential to modern life. Making them into villains is easy. But it does nothing – absolutely nothing – to accomplish the goal of reducing emissions,” Woods added. 

He then spoke about his personal commitment to the environment: “I’m a father and grandfather – who cares about his family, their quality of life, and their futures. Which means I care very much about our environment and the health of our planet.”

“I’m fully aware that there are many who question ExxonMobil’s commitment because of what was said over 30 years ago – or what they think Exxon knew back then,”  he added. “Frankly, I’m more interested in what ExxonMobil knows today. Climate change is real. Human activity plays a major role.”

“We’ve got the tools, the skills, the size, and the intellectual and financial resources, to bend the curve on emissions. That’s what ExxonMobil knows,” he concluded. 

Exxon will not cut back on oil and gas production or make substantial investments in renewable energy, unlike its European counterparts, Woods said. Instead the company plans to focus on investing in low-emission technologies that enhance fossil fuels, including carbon capture and hydrogen. 

As we noted weeks ago, Exxon is expanding in a big way. It reached an agreement to acquire the US shale drilling company Pioneer Natural Resources Co., with the transaction valued at approximately $62 billion.

The supermajor’s largest takeover in more than two decades will make it a dominant producer of shale oil – as well as being extraordinary transformational for the US energy sector that might unleash another shale revolution.  

“Pioneer is a clear leader in the Permian with a unique asset base and people with deep industry knowledge. The combined capabilities of our two companies will provide long-term value creation well in excess of what either company is capable of doing on a standalone basis,” Woods said at the time.