04b Theory and Analysis

Antifa ICE Attacker in Portland Charged

pgnewser July 30, 2025 0

Portland Antifa militant charged for throwing rock at officer’s head during anti-ICE riot | The Post Millennial– thepostmillennial.com
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Robert Jacob Hoopes, 24, of Portland, was arrested by the FBI on July 25 when federal agents raided his home, busting into his residence with their guns drawn.

The US Department of Justice has charged an Antifa-affiliated militant who self-identifies as a devout “Quaker” over a series of violent attacks he allegedly committed against federal police officers during a June riot at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland.

Robert Jacob Hoopes, 24, of Portland, has been accused of throwing a large rock within close distance at an ICE officer’s head, resulting in serious injury. He also allegedly used a makeshift “battering ram” to vandalize the ICE building, among other offenses, according to court documents.

Hoopes has been charged with felony aggravated assault of a federal officer with a dangerous weapon and depredation of federal property in an amount exceeding $1,000. He was arrested by the FBI on July 25 when federal agents raided his home, busting into his residence with their guns drawn.

The defendant was arraigned in federal court on Monday, July 28, and entered a not guilty plea.

Defendant Robert Jacob Hoopes

According to an FBI affidavit, Hoopes allegedly attempted to breach the front door of the ICE facility on June 14 with several other rioters. He was captured on surveillance video throwing multiple large rocks towards the door. Hoopes, wearing all black clothing and obscuring his identity behind a gas mask, then moved to barricade the front doors in an attempt to trap federal officers inside the building.

As officers opened the door to clear the barricade, Hoopes allegedly threw a large rock within arm’s length distance, striking an ICE Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO) officer in the head. The attack resulted in the officer sustaining a “significant laceration” over his eye, according to court documents.

Hoopes was captured on surveillance video allegedly gathering and throwing rocks at federal officers and the ICE facility. Photo courtesy: FBI affidavit

Photo of Hoopes allegedly throwing a rock and the ICE officer’s injuries. Photo courtesy: FBI affidavit

Later that day, Hoopes was observed with several additional black clad militants using an upended stop sign as a “makeshift battering ram,” striking the main entry door to the ICE facility several times. The unlawful act resulted in significant damage to federal property, totaling more than $7,400, according to the affidavit, which noted that the subjects worked in “concert,” but Hoopes was “leading the charge.”

Hoopes was captured on surveillance video using an upended Stop sign as a makeshift “battering ram.” Photo courtesy: FBI affidavit

Federal authorities determined Hoopes was the alleged attacker after discovering a photo of his “unmasked” face and an identifiable tattoo that was featured in a news article published in The Oregonian. Agents then used facial recognition software, which provided 30 possible comparison photos from various public databases. One of the photos was from a Reed College Smugmug photo-sharing page called “Canyon Day April ’23,” which depicted a man with a similar build and appearance with the identical tattoo, according to the affidavit.

The facial recognition software also provided an Instagram account, @illdowhatican, which listed its name as “Jacob Hoopes.” The account also stated that the user graduated from Reed College Computer Science in 2023. An FBI agent contacted Reed College’s Director of Community Safety, who provided alumni information that revealed Jacob Hoopes’ full name is Robert Jacob Hoopes, according to court documents.

Federal agents used this photo of Hoopes, featured in The Oregonian, to uncover his identity through facial recognition software. Photo courtesy: FBI affidavit/The Oregonian

On July 10, FBI agents conducted surveillance at Hoopes’ Portland residence and captured a photo of him with the distinctive tattoo on his left forearm. He was taken into custody on July 25 when FBI agents raided his home, which he shares with his Antifa-affiliated girlfriend, with their guns drawn.

FBI agents captured this image of Hoopes while conducting surveillance at his Portland residence. Photo courtesy: FBI affidavit

Hoopes self-identifies as a “Quaker pacifist,” but his alleged actions that day portray a different story, according to Assistant US Attorney Gary Sussman, who described Hoopes to the Court as a violent danger to the community.

Sussman argued that Hoopes should remain in pre-trial custody, but Judge Youlee Yim You refused the request. Instead, the judge ordered Hoopes’ release with various conditions, including GPS monitoring and a prohibition on returning to the ICE facility or the surrounding area.

Dozens of individuals involved in the Quaker community supported Hoopes in the courtroom, unaware of the crimes he allegedly committed. His father, Thomas Hoopes, flew in from Philadelphia to support him. There was a rally outside the federal courthouse calling for the release of Hoopes before the hearing, which received support from Socialist Portland City Council member Angelita Morrillo.

Online records show that Hoopes attended George School, an elite private boarding school in Pennsylvania, before graduating from Reed College. George School has a tuition of $77,500 for boarding students and $51,300 for day students.

Hoopes faces more than 20 years in federal prison if convicted on the charges. More than 20 individuals have been federally charged for a variety of offenses committed during the ongoing Antifa occupation outside the ICE facility, which began on June 7.

This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and is being prosecuted by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon.

Implications of Chinese Nuclear Weapons Modernization for the United States and Regional Allies – Hudson Institute

pgnewser July 30, 2025 0

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Based on current trends, China will become a quantitative and qualitative nuclear weapons peer of the United States by the early to mid-2030s with a diversified, accurate, and survivable force that will rival America’s. Rather than having only high-yield nuclear missiles as a strategic deterrent against nuclear attack, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is developing a range of strategic and tactical nuclear weapons, the latter being lower-yield weapons usable in a conflict theater.

Why is China seemingly going beyond its long-standing nuclear weapons approach of maintaining only a minimal deterrent or assured retaliation? Why has it chosen to rapidly develop its nuclear arsenal and related delivery system in a deliberately opaque manner?

This report argues that Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) decided to embark on such a rapid nuclear modernization not primarily because China wants to “win” a nuclear exchange against the US. Rather, Beijing wants to create political and psychological effects that lead to enormously important strategic and military effects.

As the report explains, the CCP and PLA are using the rapid development of nuclear capability and related delivery systems to subdue the adversary and win without fighting. The following are components of achieving this:

  • Degrade the adversary’s decision-making.
  • Weaken the adversary’s will to fight.
  • Undermine the adversary’s public support for war.
  • Undermine the resolve of the adversary’s government from within.
  • Support and enhance deterrence.

Trump’s New Weapon to Slash Spending Without Congress– gellerreport.com

pgnewser July 30, 2025 0

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A pocket rescission is a rarely used but fully legal tool that lets the President kill funding without Congress.

This little known tool could let DOGE cuts bypass uniparty quislings and weak, spineless GOP senators, freezing funds without Congressional approval.

Expect legal  challenges but so what?  It’s a bold move to shrink government spending

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Is a blue wave even possible? A way too early look at the midterms– www.washingtonexaminer.com

pgnewser July 30, 2025 0

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More than 460 days away, next year’s midterm elections are approaching, but Democrats are looking hopefully toward the past.

The president’s party has lost House seats in all but two midterm elections since 1938. The two exceptions were 1998, when Bill Clinton’s party gained five seats amid an unpopular Republican attempt to impeach him, and 2002, when George W. Bush’s party picked up eight seats in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Republicans control the White House, Senate, and the House of Representatives. Their congressional majorities are small, especially in the House, where the GOP currently holds 219 seats.

A blue wave could easily wash these majorities away. In the 2018 midterm elections during President Donald Trump’s first term, Democrats gained 40 House seats and a majority that would go on to impeach him. But it wouldn’t take anywhere near that big a loss to cost Republicans their House majority in 2026.

In 2022, Republicans expected a red wave. They ended up with a smaller net gain in House seats than they managed in 2020, when Democrat Joe Biden was elected president. But it was still more than enough for Republicans to take control of the House, however narrowly.

Emergency Application Filed To Supreme Court Over Red State’s Age Verification Digital ID Law– wltreport.com

pgnewser July 30, 2025 0

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An internet trade group that represents social media giants, including Meta, TikTok, and X, filed an emergency application to the U.S. Supreme Court to block a Mississippi law that requires age verification for social media users.

NetChoice urged the high court to reinstate a preliminary injunction against Mississippi’s I.D.-for-Speech law, HB 1126.

“This law violates First Amendment rights while manufacturing a cybersecurity nightmare for families that want to use social media. It will force every Mississippian—adults and minors alike—to surrender their personal information to access fully protected online speech and expose families to unprecedented risks,” NetChoice said in a release.

“Indeed, Americans are increasingly using social media to find basic information and news, but this law would burden that access and violate our rights,” it continued.

“Free speech is under attack, and NetChoice is fighting back. Social media is the modern printing press—it allows all Americans to share their thoughts and perspectives. And, until now, Mississippians could do the same free from government interference. But Mississippi’s censorship regime would upend the status quo by forcing people to provide their sensitive, personal information just to access fully protected speech online. That is a massive First Amendment violation,” said Paul Taske, Co-Director of the NetChoice Litigation Center.

Drones, Discord, and the Shifting Front in Ukraine – War on the Rocks– warontherocks.com

pgnewser July 30, 2025 0

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Fresh from his latest research trip to Ukraine’s battlefields, Michael Kofman joins Ryan for an insightful discussion on the shifting dynamics at the front, the role of drones in Ukraine’s defensive strategy, and the adaptation of Ukrainian military command structures in real time. They explore the political turmoil gripping Ukraine, including contentious reforms targeting anti-corruption agencies, and delve into evolving Western efforts for supplying arms to Ukraine. Their conversation also tackles the implications of President Trump’s growing frustration with Putin and provides a clear-eyed assessment of Senator Graham’s proposed Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025, and what it might mean (or, not mean) for the future of the conflict. Kofman goes into many of these issues further in his show, “The Russia Contingency,” so don’t miss out on becoming a member. Join at warontherocks.com/membership.

Senate Republicans Must Get Rid of Liberal Parliamentarian Before Next Big Beautiful Bill– www.lifenews.com

pgnewser July 30, 2025 0

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During President Trump’s push for his “big, beautiful” budget bill, either a betrayal or a political blunder occurred as an unelected bureaucrat became the most powerful person in the U.S. Congress. Before we go any further with a new budget — a process that is already underway — that needs to change.

Trump campaigned with the message that federal engagement on the abortion issue should be cut back. Although I disagree given the life-and-death stakes, I admire his commitment to tackle hard issues. And few things are harder than cutting federal funding to Planned Parenthood.

In the U.S. House budget, pro-life leaders fought for abortion vendors to be cut from the nation’s health care for a period of 10 years — a historic legacy for Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson and the GOP. But the U.S. Senate dropped that ball by choosing to play by rules that others haven’t always followed, allowing an umpire into the political game who seems to be playing for the other team. As a consequence, the funding cutoff now lasts just one year.

AOC, Crockett, and Mamdani: The scary future of the Democrats is now– www.washingtonexaminer.com

pgnewser July 30, 2025 0

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“Democratic voters have said they want a fighter, and Jasmine Crockett, a former attorney who represents the Dallas area, has spent two and a half years in Congress trying to be one. Through her hearing-room quips and social-media insults, she’s become known, at least in MSNBC-watching households, as a leading general in the battle against Trump.”

That kind of slobbering cover story, headlined “A Democrat for The Trump Era,” on Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) is exactly what one would expect from the Atlantic, which continues to serve at the pleasure of the left wing of the Democratic Party. The key part of that paragraph is the part where she’s become known “at least in MSNBC-watching households, as a leading general in the battle against Trump.”

This “general” has appeared on MSNBC dozens of times this year, almost as if she were a paid employee of the network. CNN is also a cozy destination, appearing on that channel many times as well. But if the folks at the Atlantic believe appealing to the dwindling viewerships of MSNBC and CNN actually matters, they’re either blindly partisan or engaging in wishful thinking.

If anyone needs a refresher course on who Crockett is, try this ego on for size. The Atlantic piece also reveals the following: “During many of our conversations, Crockett wore acrylic nails painted with the word RESIST, and a set of heavy lashes over her brown eyes.”

The True Roots of Transgenderism › American Greatness– amgreatness.com

pgnewser July 28, 2025 0

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There is a spirit resurrecting across the United States, a welcome force for the restoration of Good against Evil, the reintroduction and reinforcement of all things right and well that made Western civilization possible.

I am writing about the pro-family movement, of course, which is witnessing a necessary resurgence in the United States. Ten years ago, the United States Supreme Court imposed one of its most egregious decisions: Obergefell v. Hodges. Blasting through constitutional amendments enacted by several states, Obergefell imposed same-sex “marriage” on the entire country. Judicial fiat, a threat to democracy, and a disturbing revision of our constitution’s foundational principles marked the reception of this disordered court decision.

LGBT propaganda, promotion, and punishment have been unleashed on the country ever since. A backlash against the abuses of this coercive agenda has risen up, from boycotts against major businesses pushing Pride to a growing recession of attendance and support for Pride parades in public squares and city centers.

Washington state will no longer release public reports about assisted suicide deaths– www.lifesitenews.com

pgnewser July 28, 2025 0

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The state of Washington has announced it will no longer release data on its assisted suicides, sparking concerns over the resulting risk of abuses that would worsen what is already a gravely immoral practice.

The Washington State Department of Health website has posted a notice on its website stating that “due to funding cuts,” it has halted its so-called “Death with Dignity Program,” meaning that while eligible patients may still commit assisted suicide, reports documenting the practice will no longer be released.

The health agency said it has made the “difficult decision” to discontinue its assisted suicide report so that staff can focus on “prioritiz[ing] patient safety and other critical work,” according to The Telegraph. 

“A 2024 annual statistical report will not be released. The most recent available data year is 2023,” states the Washington Health website.

Five Crucial Facts from the House Intel Report on 2016 Russian Interference › American Greatness– amgreatness.com

pgnewser July 25, 2025 0

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Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard did an excellent service to our nation this week when she released a declassified version of a critical September 2020 House Intelligence Committee staff report on a major January 2017 intelligence report, known as an Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), titled “Russia’s Influence Campaign Targeting the 2016 US Presidential Election.”

Gabbard’s decision came after a years-long tug-of-war over the release of this report between Republican members of Congress who believe it provides critical information about the Russia collusion hoax and the involvement of Obama officials and the U.S. Intelligence Community versus Democratic congressmen and deep state intelligence officials who have desperately tried to hide this report from the American public.

Press accounts have reported most of the essential details of the House report, such as how it was rushed out on President Obama’s orders to be published just before Trump’s first inauguration in January 2017. Media stories have also detailed how substandard intelligence was used to justify the ICA’s finding that Russia meddled in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win and that this bad intelligence was included on the orders of CIA Director John Brennan over the objections of senior CIA analysts. The media has also reported the House Intelligence report’s finding that a hand-picked group of five analysts wrote the ICA and that it was not adequately vetted by U.S. intelligence agencies and analysts. It is also clear in the House report that, despite numerous statements by Brennan denying it, the fraudulent Steele dossier was heavily used in the ICA.

FDA’s Artificial Intelligence is Supposed to Revolutionize Drug Approvals. It’s Making up Studies– www.madinamerica.com

pgnewser July 25, 2025 0

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From CNN. “To hear health officials in the Trump administration talk, artificial intelligence has arrived in Washington to fast-track new life-saving drugs to market, streamline work at the vast, multibillion-dollar health agencies, and be a key assistant in the quest to slash wasteful government spending without jeopardizing their work.

“The AI revolution has arrived,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has declared at congressional hearings in the past few months.

“We are using this technology already at HHS to manage health care data, perfectly securely, and to increase the speed of drug approvals,” he told the House Energy and Commerce Committee in June. The enthusiasm — among some, at least — was palpable.

Weeks earlier, the US Food and Drug Administration, the division of HHS that oversees vast portions of the American pharmaceutical and food system, had unveiled Elsa, an artificial intelligence tool intended to dramatically speed up drug and medical device approvals.

Yet behind the scenes, the agency’s slick AI project has been greeted with a shrug — or outright alarm.

Six current and former FDA officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal work told CNN that Elsa can be useful for generating meeting notes and summaries, or email and communique templates.

Battling Transgenderism Is A Fight Between Institutions And Individuals– thefederalist.com

pgnewser July 25, 2025 0

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The “transgender” obsession of recent history can be removed from society entirely, but it will require more people actively standing athwart the left’s attempts to normalize it, forcing institutions to confront reality.

The fight must exist in every facet of the issue, but perhaps nowhere is that more illustrative than in sports, which has seen a growing number of athletes resign from or speak out against competitions in which they face someone of the opposite sex — particularly when a male competes against a female.

Amid these protests, a growing number of major sports organizations have been doing the right thing by blocking male competitors from competing against females.

On Monday, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) effectively banned males from competing in women’s Olympic sports. They did it quietly, fairly ambiguously, and without much detail on how they would ensure that would happen, but the USOPC directly cited President Donald Trump’s executive order called “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” in its policy, stating it will “ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment consistent with Executive Order 14201.”

USOPC’s rule change appears to come as pressure from that order, and also comes ahead of the United States hosting the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, preparations for which are already underway.

Quantum Scientists Have Built a New Math of Cryptography– www.quantamagazine.org

pgnewser July 25, 2025 0

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Hard problems are usually not a welcome sight. But cryptographers love them. That’s because certain hard math problems underpin the security of modern encryption. Any clever trick for solving them will doom most forms of cryptography.

Several years ago, researchers found a radically new approach to encryption that lacks this potential weak spot. The approach exploits the peculiar features of quantum physics. But unlike earlier quantum encryption schemes, which only work for a few special tasks, the new approach can accomplish a much wider range of tasks. And it could work even if all the problems at the heart of ordinary “classical” cryptography turn out to be easily solvable.

But this striking discovery relied on unrealistic assumptions. The result was “more of a proof of concept,” said Fermi Ma, a cryptography researcher at the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing in Berkeley, California. “It is not a statement about the real world.”

Now, a new paper by two cryptographers has laid out a path to quantum cryptography without those outlandish assumptions. “This paper is saying that if certain other conjectures are true, then quantum cryptography must exist,” Ma said.

SITREP: The Fed Is Rotten ,and Trump Knows It– warroom.org

pgnewser July 25, 2025 0

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There’s a storm brewing at Constitution Avenue, and it’s not just bad economics , it’s a full-on institutional rot. That’s the big takeaway from a fiery Friday WarRoom conversation between Steve Bannon and David Malpass-former president of the World Bank, as they dug into the Federal Reserve’s massive bloat, bad models, and its role in stifling American prosperity. With President Donald Trump back in office and laser-focused on rebuilding the American economy, this conversation hit a nerve , and laid out why the Fed may be standing in his way.

First, the numbers: the Fed’s new office construction project has ballooned from an already bloated $1.8 billion to a staggering $3.1 billion. “Massive cost overrun,” Bannon called it, and Malpass agreed, saying it speaks to a deeper problem inside the Fed’s entire structure. “Central banks are part of government, so they grow just like everything else in government — inefficient and expensive,” Malpass explained.

But this isn’t just about bad budgeting. Bannon and Malpass pointed to a systemic issue , outdated economic models, bloated payrolls, and a refusal to adapt. “They’ve got 8,000 people working on these broken models,” said Bannon, referencing how interest rate policies have been based on flawed assumptions for decades. According to Malpass, these models are “wrong, and they deny it.”

And who pays for all of this?  Taxpayers do through high interest rates, weak wage growth, and a distorted economy that favors foreign production. “People are getting poorer,” Malpass warned, “and Trump’s trying to fix that.”

Can New York Remain the Financial Capital of the World If Mamdani Wins the Election? – PJ Media– pjmedia.com

pgnewser July 25, 2025 0

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New York City’s business community’s criticisms of Zohran Mamdani, the self-proclaimed socialist Democratic candidate for mayor, are full of unwarranted hysteria.

After all, most major tax increases will require approval in Albany by the state legislature. Without those tax increases, Mamdani’s plans for city-run grocery stores, rent control, free childcare, building thousands of rent-controlled housing units, free bus service, and a $30 minimum wage aren’t going to get very far. The city council in New York City is far left, but they’re also not insane enough to ruin the city’s finances.

Mamdani’s tax plan is an exercise in delusional thinking. Forbes details the major elements of the candidate’s plan.

  1. Raising the Corporate Tax Rate from 9% to 11.5%, which his platform estimates will generate $5 billion annually.
  2. Creating a 2% New York City Income Tax for anyone making more than $1 million annually, which his platform estimates will generate $4 billion annually.

The PR War Over Treason, Trump, and the Fate of Both Presidencies – PJ Media– pjmedia.com

pgnewser July 25, 2025 0

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This is a war over legacies: Obama versus Trump. But it’s more than that.

This is also a war over personalities and PR strategies.

It didn’t get much media attention, but 11 days ago, President Obama delivered a blunt, hard-hitting message to whiny, sniveling Democrats:

 

“I think it’s going to require a little bit less navel-gazing and a little less whining and being in fetal positions. And it’s going to require Democrats to just toughen up,” Obama said at the fundraiser, according to excerpts of his remarks exclusively obtained by CNN.

Yeah! Toughen up, you leftwing babies! Quit complaining and get back to work!

Of course, Obama delivered this “hard-hitting message” in a closed-door, off-the-record, private dinner party for super-rich DNC donors.

Obama spoke at a private fundraiser hosted by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and his wife, Tammy Murphy, at their home in Red Bank, New Jersey. The intimate dinner drew in $2.5 million through in-person and online donations for the Democratic National Committee, a source familiar with the event said.

U.S. Intelligence-Gathering Agencies Used for ‘Political Espionage’ Historically › American Greatness– amgreatness.com

pgnewser July 25, 2025 0

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Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) has weighed in on allegations that former president Barack Obama and his national security team created a false intelligence community assessment in order to target Donald Trump following his election in 2016.

In a post on X, Lee noted that in the 1970s the Frank Church committee concluded that every administration since the era of Woodrow Wilson has used the nation’s intelligence-gathering communities for political espionage.

Lee suggested that it would be foolish to believe that this no longer happens and that, while people have brushed it aside for years, the practice can no longer be ignored.

A Year After Pushing Biden Aside, Dems’ Soft Coup Continues– thefederalist.com

pgnewser July 25, 2025 0

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It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since the Democratic Party launched its soft coup against the political liability that was Joe Biden.

Thursday marked the day President(?) Joe Biden delivered a mushed-mouth Oval Office speech to further explain “his decision” to end his run for a second presidential term. He claimed, as he struggled to read the teleprompter, that he was putting the country and democracy above “personal ambition.”

What a guy.

“When you elected me to this office, I promised to always level with you, to tell you the truth,” Biden said. It was a bold statement from a man and an administration that had routinely lied to the American people for four long years.

In fact, some very powerful people in his party were not only telling him to get the hell out of the way, they were forcing the issue. You’ll recall Biden’s meltdown in his disastrous late-June debate against then-presumptive GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. That was the “Oh, (expletive deleted)” moment for a Democrat Party in mid-implosion. George Clooney lamented in a New York Times’ op-ed that Joe Biden was a shell of his old “Big F-ing deal” self, and Nancy Pelosi performed her best Lady Macbeth behind the scenes as dozens of liberal members of Congress did the dirty work on stage.

The more advanced AI models get, the better they are at deceiving us — they even know when they’re being tested– www.livescience.com

pgnewser July 25, 2025 0

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The more advanced artificial intelligence (AI) gets, the more capable it is of scheming and lying to meet its goals — and it even knows when it’s being evaluated, research suggests.

Evaluators at Apollo Research found that the more capable a large language model (LLM) is, the better it is at “context scheming” — in which an AI pursues a task covertly even if it misaligns with the aims of its operators.

The more capable models are also more strategic about achieving their goals, including misaligned goals, and would be more likely to use tactics like deception, the researchers said in a blog post.

Media Spread Lies As Obama Intel Agencies Created Them– thefederalist.com

pgnewser July 25, 2025 0

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Using a declassified document released this week, it has never been easier to see how the propaganda press partners with politicians to hoodwink the public and shape the political landscape.

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) and Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, released a 2020 Oversight Investigation and Referral report about a 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) titled, “Russia’s Influence Campaign Targeting the 2016 US Presidential Election.”

It showed that under the direction of former President Barack Obama, then-CIA Director John Brennan and a handful of intelligence agents slapped together an ICA in two weeks, soon after Hillary Clinton lost the election. The ICA was used as the foundation of the Russia collusion hoax — the lie that Trump and Russia together cheated to win the 2016 election.

But the ICA was a terrible foundation for such a claim, because it was hastily written and had sketchy sourcing, including the fabricated and now debunked Steele dossier; and a six-word fragment of a sentence that mentioned Trump out of context. The report shows that intelligence agents argued with Brennen, telling him not to use information that was substandard, unclear, of uncertain origin, biased, or implausible.

 

Obama and the Whole Truth: Revenge or Justice?– www.dailysignal.com

pgnewser July 25, 2025 0

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Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard just released a trove of apparently once-classified documents—with promises of much more to follow.

The new material describes the role of the Obama administration’s intelligence and investigatory directors—purportedly along with former President Barack Obama himself—in undermining the 2016 Trump presidential campaign. In addition, their efforts extended to sabotaging the 2016-2017 presidential transition and, by extension, the first three years of the Trump presidency.

The released documents add some new details to what over the last decade has become accepted knowledge.

Congressional committees, special prosecutors, and the inspectors general had all previously issued reports that largely confirmed the general outlines of the skulduggery that began in 2015-16.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign, later aided by the top echelon of the FBI, CIA, and the director of national intelligence, sought—falsely—to seed a narrative that Donald Trump had colluded directly with Russia to win unfairly the 2016 election.

Misinformation identification as a digital literacy skill in an ultra-orthodox community: an eye tracking study – Nature

pgnewser July 25, 2025 0

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ABSTRACT: Online misinformation can provoke social disputes, promote the normalization of prejudice, and bias social perceptions of social groups. In Israel, where society is already polarized, exposure to misinformation could exacerbate existing tensions between the ultra-orthodox (Haredi) and the general population.

Furthermore, the low digital literacy of the Haredi population presumably makes them more vulnerable to the influence of misinformation.

This study compared the ability of Haredi and non-Haredi Jews to detect misinformation, while examining the relationship between misinformation detection and digital literacy and knowledge. 83 Jewish participants (Haredi and non-Haredi) evaluated the credibility of online news articles. Eye tracking technology was used to examine participants’ scan patterns and attention to information metadata. The results showed that Haredi participants were less successful in identifying false messages and less attentive to metadata.

However, when combined with other predictors in multivariate regression, Haredi became a non-significant predictor, and digital knowledge and activity on social networks were found to be significant and strong predictors of misinformation identification. In terms of digital literacy, while there was no difference in subjective assessment, the study found a significant gap between the two populations in terms of psychophysiological behavioral indices (i.e., scan patterns) and digital knowledge.

The implications of such dramatic differences in skills and the vulnerability to false messages of a secluded, disadvantaged population, as well as the need to invest resources to increase digital literacy among the Haredi population to reduce these gaps, are discussed.

<b>Is Israel Losing American Christians? - The American Conservative</b>

Is Israel Losing American Christians? – The American Conservative

pgnewser July 25, 2025 0

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As Israel continues its assault on Gaza, enables settler violence in the West Bank, and launches strikes on Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, American conservatives are taking special note of one form of Israeli belligerence: attacks on Christians in the Holy Land.

An Israeli tank last week shelled the only Catholic church in Gaza, killing three and gravely wounding several. Over in the West Bank, settlers in recent weeks have intensified their attacks on Christian communities, including in the town of Taybeh, where they set cars aflame and erected a sign that read “there is no future for you here,” among other indignities.

Many American Christians, including high-profile MAGA influencers, have had enough—jeopardizing one of Israel’s most vital bases of Western support.

Sen Johnson: Media ‘either duped or complicit’ in Russia election interference ‘narrative’– thehill.com

pgnewser July 25, 2025 0

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Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) accused the media of being “either duped or complicit” on the interference of the 2016 election by Russians.

“I want the press to be honest. I want Pulitzer Prizes to be returned. They were either duped or complicit in pushing that false narrative that put America in political turmoil for years,” Johnson told NewsNation’s Blake Burman on “The Hill.”

“It’s continuing to go on, all based on a Hillary Clinton dirty trick, the Steele Dossier that those guys knew was a dirty trick, and yet they used that to gin up the Mueller investigation, impeachments, everything else,” he added. “Listen, this is, again election interference orders of magnitude worse than anything Russia or China ever, ever could hope to achieve,” he added.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard put out a report last week alleging that Obama administration officials manipulated intelligence linked to Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Gabbard argued in a statement that former officials took part in a “treasonous conspiracy” and said her office was turning over evidence to the Justice Department for possible criminal referrals.

Graham likens chances of DC grand jury indicting Obama to ‘me being in the NBA’– www.washingtonexaminer.com

pgnewser July 25, 2025 0

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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) believes it is unlikely former President Barack Obama will be indicted by a grand jury for his administration’s alleged role in ignoring intelligence pointing to Russia not being involved in the 2016 election.

Graham compared the chance of Obama, ex-CIA Director John Brennan, or former FBI Director James Comey being indicted to him “being in the NBA.”

“When you show these documents to a DC grand jury, and we know all about DC grand juries, what do you think the chances are of an indictment coming for Brennan, Comey, Barack Obama, or any of these guys?” Fox News host Jesse Watters asked Graham.

“Probably like me being in the NBA,” Graham responded.

How Assassinations of Iranian Scientists Set Back Tehran’s Nuclear Program How Assassinations of Iranian Scientists Set Back Tehran’s Nuclear Program– freebeacon.com

pgnewser July 22, 2025 0

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Israel successfully assassinated 19 senior Iranian nuclear scientists during the 12-Day War, depriving Tehran’s atomic “weapons program of its most capable and experienced personnel,” according to a new intelligence assessment by a leading nonproliferation organization.

The military campaign evaporated decades of nuclear know-how, striking at the heart of Tehran’s weapons program in a way kinetic attacks could not, according to the Institute for Science and International Security.

“This act weakened Iran’s base for building nuclear weapons, eliminating needed expertise and hard-to-get management experience,” the organization determined. “This time the Israeli effort is different, and recovering may be far more difficult and take far longer.”