Twenty-two years ago jet planes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York. Within two hours they fell, starting fires that still burned eight days later, on September 19th, when Attorney General John Ashcroft asked for a sweeping expansion of executive power, telling congress on a Wednesday to have a bill by the end of the week. “We need every tool available to us,” Ashcroft said, and congress quickly delivered with “roving” wiretaps, warrantless searches, “trap and trace” searches, law enforcement and intelligence access to grand jury information, use of FISA monitoring for non-foreign situations, reduction or elimination of predicate requirements for FBI investigations, and elimination of judicial review for most of these activities, among many other things in the USA PATRIOT Act. It all passed on October 26th, marking just the beginning of what turned into a long period of radical change.

From 2001 to 2008 the U.S. internationally became the world’s Death Star, constructing the most fearsome military-intelligence state ever seen. Between 1.9 and 3 million Americans served in wars after 9/11, as the open-ended 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force led not only to invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, but deployments in Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Syria, Niger, and parts unknown, the list of foes covered by the AUMF remaining classified. Passage of new military commissions law made Guantanamo Bay the face of an anything-goes secret justice system, kept filled with “combatants” by troops from a swelling archipelago of 750 foreign bases. A “targeted killing” program headed by a fleet of CIA-run drone programs was likewise kept busy by a vast global surveillance net, newly consolidated after the creation of the 240,000-person Department of Homeland Security, the largest federal reorganization since the Defense Department’s birth in 1947.

It’s forgotten, but Barack Obama was sent to the White House in what a lot of the voting public at the time considered a referendum on the security state. The genteel Obama played up “constitutional lawyer” credentials, announcing in a national security address at the Wilson Center in 2007 his opposition to the “color-coded politics of fear” and “a war in Iraq that should never have been authorized.” Candidate Obama added it was time to “turn the page” with more peaceful means of “drying up” support for terrorism, a strategy that hurtled him past favored Hillary Clinton in primary season. Privately however he’d already met with people like Richard Clarke, who told him, “As a president, you kill people.” This is who Obama would actually be in office, an “idealist without illusions” who expanded the buildup, institutionalized the “kill list,” and in one of his last major acts, created a new counter-disinformation authority that helped birth the censorship state.

Twenty-two years ago jet planes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York. Within two hours they fell, starting fires that still burned eight days later, on September 19th, when Attorney General John Ashcroft asked for a sweeping expansion of executive power, telling congress on a Wednesday to have a bill by the end of the week. “We need every tool available to us,” Ashcroft said, and congress quickly delivered with “roving” wiretaps, warrantless searches, “trap and trace” searches, law enforcement and intelligence access to grand jury information, use of FISA monitoring for non-foreign situations, reduction or elimination of predicate requirements for FBI investigations, and elimination of judicial review for most of these activities, among many other things in the USA PATRIOT Act. It all passed on October 26th, marking just the beginning of what turned into a long period of radical change.

From 2001 to 2008 the U.S. internationally became the world’s Death Star, constructing the most fearsome military-intelligence state ever seen. Between 1.9 and 3 million Americans served in wars after 9/11, as the open-ended 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force led not only to invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, but deployments in Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Syria, Niger, and parts unknown, the list of foes covered by the AUMF remaining classified. Passage of new military commissions law made Guantanamo Bay the face of an anything-goes secret justice system, kept filled with “combatants” by troops from a swelling archipelago of 750 foreign bases. A “targeted killing” program headed by a fleet of CIA-run drone programs was likewise kept busy by a vast global surveillance net, newly consolidated after the creation of the 240,000-person Department of Homeland Security, the largest federal reorganization since the Defense Department’s birth in 1947.

It’s forgotten, but Barack Obama was sent to the White House in what a lot of the voting public at the time considered a referendum on the security state. The genteel Obama played up “constitutional lawyer” credentials, announcing in a national security address at the Wilson Center in 2007 his opposition to the “color-coded politics of fear” and “a war in Iraq that should never have been authorized.” Candidate Obama added it was time to “turn the page” with more peaceful means of “drying up” support for terrorism, a strategy that hurtled him past favored Hillary Clinton in primary season. Privately however he’d already met with people like Richard Clarke, who told him, “As a president, you kill people.” This is who Obama would actually be in office, an “idealist without illusions” who expanded the buildup, institutionalized the “kill list,” and in one of his last major acts, created a new counter-disinformation authority that helped birth the censorship state.

The signature of Joe Biden’s State Department has been the abdication of diplomacy. Its head, Antony Blinken, the chief U.S. diplomat, has abdicated the role of diplomat. Though obvious in Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea, this absence of diplomacy has been nowhere more evident than in the Russo-Ukrainian war where the State Department has been more the warrior than the Pentagon.

On November 9, 2022, it was America’s top soldier, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, who said, “There has to be a mutual recognition that a military victory is probably, in the true sense of the word is maybe not achievable through military means, and therefore you need to turn to other means.” Nine months later, Milley was still advising that, “If the end state is Ukraine is a free, independent sovereign country with its territory intact, that will take a considerable level of effort yet to come. And this is a long, very difficult, high casualty-producing war that’s ongoing. You can achieve those objectives through military means. That’s gonna take a long, long time, but you can also achieve those objectives maybe possibly, through some sort of diplomatic means.”

But while the warriors were counselling diplomacy, the diplomats were counselling war. When asked about talks taking place in the early days of the war, State Department spokesman Ned Price answered that Russia is “suggesting that diplomacy take place at the barrel of a gun or as Moscow’s rockets, mortars, artillery target the Ukrainian people,” and objected that, “This is not real diplomacy. Those are not the conditions for real diplomacy.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday alleged that the UK was behind a foiled plot against a Russian nuclear power plant.

The Russian leader claimed that a group of “saboteurs” was captured by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). “During the questioning, they testified that they were trained under supervision of British instructors,” Putin said, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

Putin did not offer any evidence for the accusation and did not name what nuclear power plant the saboteurs planned to target but insisted he was telling the truth. “The leadership of British intelligence agencies knows that I am telling the truth,” he said.

The Russian leader questioned if Britain’s leadership was aware of the activities of their intelligence agencies. “Do they even understand what they are playing with? Do they provoke us to some response actions against Ukrainian nuclear facilities, power plants?” he said.

The Biden administration has been blasted over plans to send out a letter to major news organizations demanding they probe the 'lies' of the House GOP's impeachment inquiry.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced an official impeachment inquiry on Tuesday over allegations of corruption and involvement in son Hunter's business dealings, setting off fiery reactions from Democrats.

Ian Sams, a special assistant to the president and senior advisor to the White House Counsel's Office, penned a letter to both conservative and liberal-leaning outlets, slated to be distributed Wednesday in an apparent attempt to influence their coverage. Among outlets targeted are CNN, the New York Times, the Associated Press and Fox news.

'It's time for the media to ramp up its scrutiny of House Republicans for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies,' Sams wrote.

Sams added the impeachment inquiry should 'set off alarm bells for news organizations,' but commentators both left and ring-wing have condemned the interference. 

A new documentary produced by the “far green left” has in fact put the argument forward “that renewable energy is not clean, not green and not practical,” according to Sky News host Chris Kenny.

Environmental documentary film, ‘The Planet of the Humans,' absolutely “skewers the renewable energy industry,” Mr Kenny said.

“The film goes on to attack major corporations for their pretense, their virtue-signalling on renewable energy”.

Mr Kenny said the stance taken in the documentary is “kinda strange” given the executive producer is Michael Moore, who is a “millionaire, leftist, academy award winning director”.

Mr Kenny said, “why isn't the ABC talking about this, showing this, debating this?”

The Libertarian Party filed for conservatorships over Joe Biden and Senator Mitch McConnell due to their “mental acuity” and “overall health.”

Wikipedia defines a Conservatorship as:

Under U.S. law, a conservatorship results from the appointment of a guardian or a protector by a judge to manage the personal or financial affairs of another person who is incapable of fully managing their own affairs due to age or physical or mental limitations. A person under conservatorship is a “conservatee”, a term that can refer to an adult. A person under guardianship is a “ward”, a term that can also refer to a minor child. Conservatorship may also apply to corporations and organizations.

“Now, before you dismiss this as political theater, hear us out. The mental acuity and overall health of our nation’s leaders are not matters to be taken lightly. When signs of cognitive decline become evident, it’s not just a personal issue; it’s a national security concern,” the Libertarian Party stated.

“We’re all aware of the gaffes, the lapses in memory, the freezes, and the incoherent statements made by these two powerful men. These aren’t mere quirks; they’re red flags. The decisions made in the Oval Office and on the Senate floor have far-reaching implications, affecting both domestic policy and international relations. If the individuals making these decisions aren’t at their cognitive best, the consequences could be dire,” the statement read.

Former President Donald Trump called on Republicans Tuesday morning to use the 25th Amendment, which involves presidential succession in the case the president cannot carry out the powers and duties of the office, claiming a new prisoner swap deal with Iran shows that President Joe Biden is "incompetent."

On Monday, the 22nd anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Biden administration revealed to Congress it had moved forward with a controversial deal with Iran for the release of five detained Americans in exchange for the unfreezing of $6 billion.

The move was quickly criticized by many on the Right. Trump chimed in on Tuesday morning, writing on Truth Social: "So, lets get this straight! We did a hostage TRADE with Iran. We gave them 5 very tough, smart people that they desperately wanted. We likewise got back 5 people BUT, we also gave them 6 BILLION DOLLARS!"

"How much of a kickback does Crooked Joe Biden get? Does anyone realize how much money 6 Billion Dollars is? When I was President, I got back 58 hostages for ZERO money. Remember Pastor Brunson? It sets a TERRIBLE precedent. Republicans, call out the 25th Amendment, NOW! Biden is INCOMPETENT!" he said.

A group of writers is suing OpenAI over claims the company illegally used their works to train its AI ChatGPT chatbot, as reported earlier by Reuters. In a lawsuit filed on Friday, Michael Chabon, David Henry Hwang, Rachel Louise Snyder, and Ayelet Waldman allege OpenAI benefits and profits from the “unauthorized and illegal use” of their copyrighted content.

The lawsuit is seeking class-action status and calls out ChatGPT’s ability to summarize and analyze the content written by the authors, stating this “is only possible” if OpenAI trained its GPT large language model on their works. It adds that these outputs are actually “derivative” works that infringe on their copyrights.

“OpenAI’s acts of copyright infringement have been intentional, willful, and in callous disregard of Plaintiffs’ and Class members’ rights,” the lawsuit claims. “OpenAI knew at all relevant times that the datasets it used to train its GPT models contained copyrighted materials, and that its acts were in violation of the terms of use of the materials.”