Democratic Socialist [aka socialist] arrested outside UN

In a scene straight out of the high-stakes world of modern political theater, local Democratic Socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier courageously placed herself in front of news cameras Thursday outside the United Nations General Assembly, earning a highly coveted arrest badge after protesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Chevalier, who rocketed to fame after discovering that declaring everything a human right wins democratic primaries, joined fellow activists in denouncing Netanyahu as a “genocidal murderer.” Demonstrators expressed deep outrage that the U.N. would allow the leader of a democratic nation to speak, a prestige normally reserved for gentle, peace-loving regimes like China, Russia, Syria, and the Taliban.

Protesters cited Israel's military operation in Gaza as the primary reason for their rage. The IDF, currently fighting a terrorist organization that uses its own citizens as human shields in dense urban combat, has somehow managed a lower civilian-to-combatant casualty ratio than the United States military, a fact that local activists strictly agree to ignore.

“As the Democratic Nominee for New York’s 13th Congressional District, I refuse to allow a war criminal to roam the streets of our city unchallenged,” Avila Chevalier declared in a statement following her heroic photo op.

“I refuse to play host to a man who has overseen the slaughter or injury of more than 64,000 children in Gaza with American taxpayer dollars.”

While the exact charges remain unclear, keen-eyed observers noted that the arrest bore a striking resemblance to the classic Greta Thunberg model: carefully staged, perfectly framed for Instagram, and executed with the gentle touch of NYPD officers who clearly understood the assignment. Experts confirm Chevalier faces a harrowing few minutes of administrative processing before being released with a glowing campaign asset.

Chevalier previously made headlines by defeating incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat in June. As one of three DSA-backed candidates to unseat establishment Democrats, she is now heavily favored to bring her exquisite sense of dramatic timing to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives this November.

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American Citizen Busted Spying for China on U.S. Gets a Deuce

An American citizen has been sentenced to merely two years in prison for acting as an agent of a foreign government within the United States, a development that will surely come as a complete shock to anyone who assumed that was still frowned upon.

Thomas Weir Pauken II, 51, an American citizen who lived and worked in the People’s Republic of China, was sentenced earlier this week to two years in prison and 36 months of supervised release with no overseas travel for acting as an agent of a foreign government within the United States. The no-overseas-travel part is expected to be especially inconvenient for a man whose entire business model depended on flying back and forth like a patriotic courier service for Beijing.

Court documents say that from at least 2019 until February 2026, Pauken, a total scumcrumpet, worked at the direction and control of people he knew worked for the PRC, including a person he met in 2017 identified as “Cathy.” 

Cathy, in the grand tradition of international intrigue, was apparently not just a friendly networking contact who happened to work for Chinese intelligence. 

“Pauken exploited his U.S. citizenship and corresponding ability to travel to the U.S. without restriction in order to support Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) operations, recruiting, and gathering of sensitive information from potential assets,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “Pauken betrayed his country for money. The National Security Division is committed to holding accountable anyone who aids or abets Chinese espionage efforts.”

Cathy provided Pauken with taskings, including meeting with potential intelligence assets, providing them with devices such as a laptop and cellphone to communicate with Cathy, providing taskings for the assets on what information was required, and providing Cathy with reports from the assets. In other words, he was the guy who showed up with the complimentary hardware and a list of homework assignments from the Ministry of State Security.

“Thomas Pauken knowingly assisted a foreign adversary in actively subverting the government of the United States for his own financial gain,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Theophani K. Stamos for the Eastern District of Virginia. “This was not an isolated act; Pauken continued his course of conduct to aid China for seven years. It is unconscionable that an American citizen would not only undermine the interests of the United States, but also facilitate others in doing so.”

Pauken received at least $100,000 for his work with Cathy. Cathy also paid for Pauken to travel several times between 2019 and 2025 from China to meet with individuals in the United States who could provide Pauken, and ultimately Cathy and the MSS, with information. 

Seven years of service, multiple recruitment trips, and a six-figure payout: the going rate for selling out the country appears to have been roughly the cost of a nice suburban kitchen remodel. And all he got was two years and some hand-holding when he gets out.

“Thomas Pauken admitted to working at the direction of China’s Ministry of State Security to attempt to infiltrate U.S. political circles while also providing new recruitment targets for his Chinese handlers,” said Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division. “This case illustrates the lengths to which the Chinese Communist Party will go to undermine our democratic institutions, and it also demonstrates the FBI’s resolve to defend the homeland from threats to our national security. 

The sentencing provides a clear warning: anyone operating as an agent of a foreign government against the U.S. will be found by the FBI and held accountable.” At least for a little bit.

Pauken worked for two other people in China whom he met in 2017 and knew as “Richard” and “William.” They told Pauken that reports he wrote for them went to Japan, but Pauken believed they worked for the PRC government. 

Nothing says “plausible deniability” quite like two guys named Richard and William insisting the intel is definitely headed to Tokyo. 

Pauken also sold reports to a group of Chinese individuals from Wuhan who sought information about technology and the U.S. Department of Justice. The Wuhan clients wanted Pauken to find an expert to help them engage in cyber espionage. Because when you already have a guy with a U.S. passport and a side hustle, the natural next step is shopping around for a cyber specialist.

The FBI’s Philadelphia Field Office investigated the case with the assistance of the FBI Washington Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gavin R. Tisdale of the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorney Eli Ross of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence & Export Control Section are prosecuting the case. 

Currently, Pauken was reportedly reviewing the supervised-release terms and wondering whether “no overseas travel” includes a strongly worded exception for one last debrief with Cathy, who I doubt is a blond.

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FBI evidently confronted Eric "Boom Boom" Swalwell over the weekend and hoo boy

It has been a rough stretch for former Rep. Eric "Boom Boom" Swalwell. You know, the guy who's known for the fart heard round the world.

First, the sexual misconduct claims torpedoed his time in Congress and his dreams of running California.

Then came word that he allegedly scooped up illegal donations from a suspected Chinese spy. Now the FBI has decided to stop by for a chat. 

Sources report that federal agents met Swalwell at San Francisco Airport on Saturday armed with search warrants. They confiscated his electronics, including his cell phone, as part of an ongoing federal criminal probe into the sexual misconduct allegations. Agents later used additional warrants to search his Washington residence on Sunday and carted off more potential evidence.

Swalwell began Saturday in Washington, where he still keeps a home with his wife and three kids. He flew west to California later that day, only to find the feds waiting when he got off the plane. According to sources, he played nice and cooperated.

Authorities have not said exactly what they grabbed from the D.C. house, per news outlet The Daily Mail. 

But on the not so bright side, at least four women have accused Swalwell of sexual misconduct, including a former staffer. One woman claimed he drugged and raped her in 2018. Two others said he sent them unsolicited pictures of his private parts. Incredibly, his wife stands with him for some inexplicable reason.

Swalwell has stayed mostly out of sight since quitting the California governor's race and resigning from Congress. He continues to deny any wrongdoing tied to the sexual assault and misconduct claims.

In related news, the same guy who once lectured the nation about democracy and foreign influence is now watching agents dig through his devices over claims that range from creepy texts to far more serious allegations. The Chinese spy donation story just adds a nice layer of extra flavor to an already eventful week.
 

I wonder what Fang Fang thinks.

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Nancy "Hands-a-Flying" Pelosi kept Swalwell on Intel Committee after FBI warnings

There are bad ideas, there are terrible ideas, and then there is allowing a congressman who admitted having an intimate relationship with a suspected Chinese intelligence operative to remain on the House Intelligence Committee.

Apparently, Washington Democrats were determined to explore that third category.

When allegations involving Rep. Eric Swalwell and Fang Fang, a woman suspected of ties to Chinese intelligence, surfaced in 2020, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was briefed on the FBI’s findings. We now know the bureau had evidence that Fang may have compromised Swalwell through sex, foreign interns and allegedly illicit campaign donations.

And yet somehow the Democratic leadership concluded that the appropriate response was not, “Perhaps we should move this guy away from the classified information.”

Instead, Swalwell stayed.

Because apparently “House Intelligence Committee” was being interpreted as more of a suggestion than a job description.

The FBI briefings were serious enough to alarm then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who called for Swalwell to be removed from the committee. McCarthy was concerned that a congressman with access to highly sensitive intelligence might not be the ideal person to have around highly sensitive intelligence.

Crazy, right?

Sex, Interns and Campaign Cash

The newly released FBI files provide considerably more detail about the relationship between Swalwell and Fang.

According to the files, Swalwell admitted having sex with Fang, acknowledged that his staff had placed Fang’s interns in congressional offices, and admitted that his campaign finance operation was not sophisticated enough to detect the alleged straw donations she funneled through U.S. citizens.

So, to recap, the FBI was dealing with a suspected Chinese intelligence operative who allegedly cultivated American politicians through networking, campaign donations, internships and romantic relationships.

And one of those politicians was sitting on the House Intelligence Committee.

This sounds less like counterintelligence and more like the plot of a spy movie written by people who thought the protagonist should be named “Congressman Completely Unconcerned.”

The FBI also knew Fang had ties to China’s Ministry of State Security, Beijing’s intelligence service. Investigators identified her parents as MSS agents.

Fang’s activities had previously been reported by Axios, which described her efforts to cultivate politicians in California through fundraising, networking, charm and romantic or sexual relationships.

Swalwell was reportedly one of her most significant targets.

Swalwell has consistently maintained that he did nothing wrong, fully cooperated with the FBI investigation, and stopped communicating with Fang after receiving a defensive briefing about her activities.

Swalwell’s Lawyer Says This Is All Political

After the files were released, Swalwell’s attorney, Sara Azari, argued that there was nothing new to see.

“There is nothing new here. The government’s own memorandum confirms what Congressman Swalwell has said for more than a decade: he did nothing wrong, and there was no basis to charge him with any offense,” said Sara Azari, legal counsel for Swalwell, on Monday after the files were released. “What is new and deeply concerning is the apparent use of federal law enforcement information to punish or embarrass an outspoken critic of the current administration. An investigation that produced no charges and no finding of wrongdoing should not be resurrected years later as a vehicle for political retaliation.”

That is certainly one way to describe the situation.

Another would be: “The FBI investigated a congressman who admitted sleeping with a woman the bureau believed was connected to Chinese intelligence, and now everyone is upset that people are talking about it.”

Both descriptions are technically available.

After the original allegations surfaced, McCarthy said they “disqualified” Swalwell from serving on the Intelligence Committee.

“Swalwell is a national security liability,” the Republican leader said.

McCarthy then requested a full FBI briefing. After receiving it, he became even more convinced Swalwell should be removed.

“One thing I know for sure — I had questions about whether he should. That’s the one question that was answered, he should not be on Intel,” McCarthy told reporters.

That seems fairly definitive.

Pelosi: Nothing to See Here

Pelosi later confirmed that Democratic leadership had first been briefed about Swalwell’s relationship with Fang in the spring of 2015, shortly after Democrats nominated him to the Intelligence Committee.

Pelosi said congressional Democrats cut off communication with Fang once they learned about the situation.

“When that was made known to the members of Congress, it was over. That was the end of any communication with those people,” Pelosi said.

The Speaker also said Republicans had been briefed at the same time.

“We knew when they knew,” explained Pelosi.

And then came the part that has aged particularly well.

Summing up her assessment of Swalwell, Pelosi told reporters that she did not “have any concerns about Mr. Swalwell.”

Naturally.

Nothing inspires confidence in congressional counterintelligence quite like a suspected Chinese spy sleeping with a member of the Intelligence Committee while party leadership says there are “no concerns.”

McCarthy tried to remove Swalwell from the committee in early 2021 after Pelosi reappointed him.

The House voted largely along party lines to reject the measure, with 200 members voting for removal and 218 voting against it.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff also defended Swalwell, calling him a “trusted member of our committee” who had “acted fully in accordance with his responsibilities” after the 2015 briefing.

Apparently those responsibilities included continuing to sit on the committee.

McCarthy: Democrats “Jeopardized” Congress

When Republicans regained control of the House in 2023, McCarthy blocked Swalwell from serving on the Intelligence Committee.

“If you got the briefing I got from the FBI, you wouldn’t have Swalwell on any committee,” McCarthy said.

“One thing I know for sure – I had questions about whether he should. That’s the one question that was answered, he should not be on Intel.”

McCarthy said Democratic leadership had “jeopardized” Congress by allowing Swalwell to remain on a committee handling sensitive intelligence for years.

“The only way that they even knew it came forward is when they went to nominate him to the Intel Committee. And then the FBI came and told the leadership then, he’s got a problem,” McCarthy explained. “And they kept him on. That jeopardized all of us.”

That is the sort of sentence that tends to make people wonder why national security was apparently being handled with the same urgency as deciding where to hold the congressional Christmas party.

Then Came the New Details

The newly released files reveal even more about what the FBI knew.

According to the documents, the FBI initially considered investigating Swalwell for a bribery scheme involving campaign donations and internships. Investigators ultimately narrowed the criminal case to Fang and allegations that she made illegal donations through U.S.-citizen conduits.

Swalwell admitted that he had sex with Fang, that his staff placed her interns in congressional offices, and that his campaign finance system was not strong enough to detect the alleged straw donations.

The Justice Department ultimately declined to prosecute Fang after she fled the country as investigators began interviewing associates and raiding her home.

The FBI had also been trying to recruit Fang as a confidential informant.

Her code name?

“Rusty Thumbs.”

Yes, “Rusty Thumbs.”

Apparently the FBI's counterintelligence operation had a naming committee that was having a particularly creative afternoon.

The bureau was considering hiring Fang through a cutout company and was still evaluating her suitability as a confidential human source when investigators discovered her alleged criminal activity.

The FBI also knew early in the recruitment process that Fang had suspected ties to the MSS. One memo identified her parents as “known MSS intelligence officers.”

Agents also suspected Fang herself had ties to Chinese intelligence and knew she was raising money for California Democrats and allegedly willing to use sex to advance her political influence.

The investigation was opened on March 17, 2014, under the remarkably appropriate codename “Freshman Fifteen.”

The probe examined allegations that Swalwell awarded congressional internships in exchange for campaign contributions, with Fang allegedly serving as the facilitator.

According to an FBI summary of Swalwell’s 2015 interview, Swalwell admitted that he had “physical relations with Fang” on multiple occasions.

During another interview in 2016, Swalwell described an incident in which Fang showed up at his home. Swalwell said they “hooked up,” according to the FBI summary.

And all of this was known before Democrats repeatedly decided that Swalwell belonged on the House Intelligence Committee.

At some point, the question stops being whether Eric Swalwell had a questionable relationship with a suspected Chinese intelligence operative.

The more interesting question is why the people who had been briefed about it decided that the appropriate response was to give him access to some of the most sensitive intelligence in the United States government.

Then again, Washington has always had an interesting definition of “intelligence.” Sometimes it apparently means classified information.

Sometimes it means figuring out that the guy sleeping with a suspected Chinese spy probably shouldn't be sitting on the Intelligence Committee.

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Eric Swalwell and the Chinese Honeypot That Keeps Giving

This is getting almost too good to be true.

We already knew former Rep. Eric "Boom-Boom" Swalwell (D-CA) had a rather unusual relationship with a Chinese intelligence-linked honeypot named Christine Fang, aka Fang Fang. Now, thanks to documents released by the FBI, we apparently get to see what was happening behind the curtain, and it should scare normal Americans.

And suddenly, the California political scene looks even more entertaining.

According to newly released FBI memos, investigators believed 'the Fangster' may have compromised a Democratic congressman through sex, foreign interns and potentially illegal campaign donations. The FBI was even trying to recruit her as an informant because of her connections to Chinese intelligence.

The whole thing sounds less like congressional politics and more like the rejected plot of a low-budget spy movie.

Swalwell admitted to having a physical relationship with Fang., who he says he met in 2012, and diddled up until 2015.

The FBI eventually dropped Swalwell from the investigation and focused exclusively on Fang's alleged activities. So, at least according to the bureau, the congressman somehow managed to survive an investigation involving a Chinese intelligence-linked woman, while the woman herself remained the person of interest.

The FBI documents, obtained after President Donald Trump declassified them, describe a probe into Swalwell and Fang that was opened on March 17, 2014, under the wonderfully ominous name “Freshman Fifteen.”

The investigation centered on allegations that Swalwell provided congressional internships in exchange for campaign contributions. Investigators identified Fang as the alleged facilitator of the arrangement and accused her of using intermediaries to disguise the source of prohibited foreign donations.

“The FBI developed evidence that a Chinese woman with direct ties to that country’s intelligence service had potentially compromised a Democratic congressman from California with sex, foreign interns and illicit donations while she was being recruited to become a bureau informant a decade ago, according to bombshell memos that expose another threat to America’s political system from Beijing.”

That is quite a sentence.

Apparently, the FBI was not merely investigating a congressional intern who happened to have a funny accent. Investigators believed they were looking at a Chinese national with connections to Beijing's intelligence apparatus who had cultivated relationships with American politicians.

The documents say the FBI opened its investigation after allegations emerged that congressional internships were being exchanged for campaign contributions. Fang was allegedly the person making the arrangements.

“Investigation has revealed Fang ‘Christine’ Fang, a Chinese foreign national residing in the United States, is the facilitator of a scheme to trade access to Swalwell and internships in his congressional office in return for campaign contributions […]” the memo reads.

The FBI also alleged that Fang “used conduits to conceal herself as a prohibited Foreign National source,” for illegal campaign contributions “at least twice in 2013 and at least two more times in 2014.”

And then there is Jack Smith.

During the early stages of the investigation, the FBI regularly briefed the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, which was then headed by Smith. Smith would later become famous for leading the Biden administration's investigations and prosecutions of Trump.

Washington really does have a remarkable talent for producing recurring characters.

Eventually, after interviewing Swalwell multiple times, the FBI determined that it had not found evidence that the congressman himself had violated federal statutes. On February 8, 2017, the bureau reclassified the investigation, dropped Swalwell as a subject and concentrated on Fang's alleged campaign finance violations.

So Swalwell survived.

Politically speaking, this was apparently the congressional equivalent of walking away from an exploding building without even getting dust on the suit.

But the FBI's interest in Fang went considerably further than her relationship with Swalwell.

Before investigating her alleged illegal activities, bureau agents spent months trying to recruit her as an informant. They used an undercover employee and even created a fictitious company in an effort to persuade Fang to cooperate.

The objective was to obtain information about Chinese influence operations targeting American public officials, several of whom Fang was reportedly close to.

The operation was given the appropriately subtle name “Rusty Thumbs.”

According to the memos, an undercover FBI employee met with Fang several times, learned about her background and offered her a consulting position with the fictional company. The proposed job would have involved using her Chinese connections to assist the business.

Fang apparently wasn't eager to provide a detailed biography of her life in China. The memos say she was vague about her past, declined to explain her parents' positions with the Chinese government and would not disclose where she attended undergraduate school.

She was apparently much more comfortable discussing her political activities in America.

Those activities reportedly included helping connect donors to Swalwell's congressional campaign.

Eventually, Fang agreed to work with the fictional company. On June 14, 2013, she signed a contractor agreement for the consulting position.

The FBI has the contract in its files.

So there you have it. A Democratic congressman, a Chinese national with alleged intelligence connections, congressional internships, campaign contributions, a physical relationship, an undercover FBI operation, a fake company and something called “Rusty Thumbs.”

At this point, all that seems to be missing is Tom Clancy receiving a royalty check.

The important distinction, of course, is that the FBI ultimately concluded it had not established federal criminal violations by Swalwell himself. But the newly released documents nonetheless provide a remarkable look at how seriously the bureau viewed Fang's activities and the possibility that Beijing was using relationships with American politicians to gain influence.

And somehow Eric Swalwell still gets to participate in American politics.

Apparently, surviving a Chinese honeypot scandal is now considered a qualification for higher office in California.

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IDF seizes huge Iran terror axis arsenal but the fingerprints on them are damning

Israel’s capture of a vast arsenal from Iran’s terror proxies reveals an axis with the most unexpected originsAmong the weapons taken from Hezbollah was a Nazi-era MG-34 machine gunFox News Digital was granted rare access to the Israel Defense Forces’ Tzrifin Base in central Israel. There, stored in careful order, lies a formidable collection of rockets, grenades, drones, sniper rifles, automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers, mortars and assorted firepower seized from Hezbollah and Hamas.

This arsenal, manufactured in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Russia, China, and by local workshops in Lebanon and Gaza, and even including a relic of the Nazi era, formed the machinery with which Hamas and Hezbollah waged war against Israeli civilians and the IDF after the October 7, 2023, massacre. 

The IDF notes that Hezbollah directed some of the same weapons against Lebanese civilians as well. Both groups belong to Iran’s so-called “axis of resistance.” Together they have killed more than 300 American citizens, according to available reports. 

At the height of the conflict Israel fought a multi-front war against Iran and its proxies. Tehran fired these weapons into civilian areas, including Tel Aviv and Be’ersheva. Days after the joint American-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February, the regime launched a ballistic missile into Beersheba, wounding 19 people.

To the untrained eye the small Nazi swastika emblem on a German Second World War MG-34 machine gun, recovered from a Hezbollah compound in Lebanon, is almost invisible. 

For Lieutenant Colonel (reserve) Idan Sharon-Kettler, commander of the IDF’s Captured Equipment Evacuation Unit, identifying such markings is routine. “The German MG-34 has the markings of an eagle carrying a swastika stamped on it,” he explained. The gun, he told Fox News Digital, appears to have served “propaganda or for morale” among the Iranian-backed terrorists in Lebanon. A second Nazi-era weapon, the MP 44 (also known as the StG 44), was likewise taken from Hezbollah.

Hamas and Hezbollah, both designated terrorist organizations by the United States, showed particular ingenuity in converting ordinary vehicles into instruments of high-intensity attack. Dual-use technology, equipment that serves civilian purposes one day and military ones the next, is their stock in trade. 

“Motorcycles like these took Israelis hostages,” Sharon-Kettler said, indicating an Egyptian Halawa Motors motorcycle captured inside Israel on 7 October. That day Hamas murdered more than 1,200 people, among them more than 40 American citizens, and abducted over 250 others. 

The IDF also recovered rockets belonging to Palestinian Islamic Jihad that had been employed as “propaganda dummies” in Gaza parades directed against Israel. From Hezbollah in Lebanon came all-terrain vehicles designed to carry rockets and fighters. One such ATV was fitted to hold six rockets complete with launchers. “You can sit on top of a hill and control a road that goes underneath. And with six anti-tank rockets you will stop almost any vehicle that passes,” Sharon-Kettler observed. 

In the broken, hilly terrain of southern Lebanon the vehicles offered obvious tactical advantages. 

Iranian-made mortars were found in quantity. “We found hundreds” in Lebanon, Sharon-Kettler said. Drones, including decoy models, were seized as well. Some of Hezbollah’s drones, according to Sharon-Kettler, exist chiefly “to make noise” and thereby “divert [IDF] resources.” 

Dozens of Iranian-produced cannons were taken from villages in southern Lebanon, the organization’s heartland. “In many houses the canons were pointing out of windows,” he reported. One of the captured pieces was of Russian manufacture. The storage halls also contain Russian AK-47 assault rifles in various configurations, together with more recent AK-103 and AK-104 models recovered in southern Lebanon. “Light sniper rifles, some made in Iran, some Russian, are very common with Hezbollah and Hamas,” Sharon-Kettler noted. 

Among the more unexpected finds was a highly decorated Turkish hunting rifle used by Hezbollah, as well as sophisticated Austrian Steyr sniper rifles, including the Steyr HS .50-calibre model. An Iranian-made replica of the Steyr was also displayed. Sub-machine guns of Chinese and Russian origin, and anti-tank launchers produced in Russia and Iran, completed the collection of small arms and support weapons.Uniforms manufactured in Syria, China and Lebanon, helmets, anti-shrapnel vests and medical kits further illustrate the professional and guerrilla equipment amassed by these groups. 

Both Hezbollah and Hamas embed their fighters among civilian populations, placing them inside residential neighborhoods, hospitals, schools and mosques. This is how these terrorists operate, but it seems the Left doesn't like to discuss this situation.

Sharon-Kettler offered a blunt assessment of Israel’s continued presence in Lebanon. “Even after the agreement we had with the Lebanese army and government, once we entered Lebanon again, we kept finding everything that is here. For me, it means, if we are not doing the work to clean Lebanon from military entities targeting are civilians, nobody else is doing that.” He referred to the November 2024 ceasefire arrangement between Lebanon and Israel that was meant to end the fighting begun when Hezbollah joined Hamas’s war on 8 October 2023.

A State Department official, speaking on background, recently informed Fox News that the American-led effort to secure the disarmament of Hezbollah by the Lebanese government and a phased withdrawal of IDF forces from southern Lebanon continues. The next round of talks is scheduled for early September in Rome. “We feel good about the trajectory,” the official said, adding, “We are not naive about the difficulties. . . "

Hezbollah, of course, is trying to sabotage the process.  

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Eleven Chinese Nationals Busted by Feds in Alleged Marriage Scheme

Eleven people in New York, mainly Chinese nationals, have been indicted in what authorities describe as a massive sham marriage network that allegedly turned the American immigration system into something resembling a decade-long dating service for people who were not actually looking for love.

The alleged operation ran for roughly 10 years and arranged more than 1,000 phony marriages, allegedly for the sole purpose of obtaining legal status in the United States. Some customers were reportedly willing to pay more than $100,000 for the privilege of participating in the scheme.

"Gaining American citizenship and legal status to reside in this great nation is a sacred privilege, and we will ensure it is always done in accordance with the law, protecting our communities and national security,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said Wednesday at a news conference.

"This scheme was not a quick fly-by-night operation, but rather a year's long multimillion dollar cottage industry to criminally assist people," he said.

The Wednesday indictments were filed entirely in New York City, but the Justice Department said the alleged sham marriages extended well beyond the Big Apple, with suspected activity in Massachusetts, Kentucky, Tennessee, several other states, China and Vanuatu, wherever that is.

Under the alleged arrangement, American citizens could receive as much as $30,000, paid in smaller installments throughout the process. Recruiters reportedly received about $5,000 for every American citizen they successfully brought into the operation.

U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald for the Southern District of New York told conservative media outlet Townhall that Americans were recruited through social media, including advertisements that may have been deceptive on their face.

So much for "love at first sight." Apparently, the real matchmaking algorithm was Facebook, cash and an immigration attorney.

"As alleged, this decade-long scheme turned marriage fraud into an international business model arranging countless sham marriages and causing hundreds of fraudulent Green Card applications to be submitted to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services,” Acting Executive Associate Director John Condon of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) said in a statement. 

“Through the Homeland Security Task Force, HSI and our partners will continue to dismantle criminal networks that undermine the rule of law, exploit federal laws, and profit from fraud.”

The case is a reminder that America's immigration system is not supposed to operate on the principle that anyone with enough money and a sufficiently creative story gets to skip the line.

For millions of immigrants who followed the rules, waited their turn and pursued citizenship legally, these alleged schemes do more than commit fraud. They undermine the very system that lawful immigrants worked so hard to navigate.

The American Dream is still available. Apparently, the Justice Department would just prefer people obtain it legally.

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A Space X Rocket Will Soon Crash Into the Moon with the Power of Millions of Firecrackers

A decommissioned SpaceX rocket that got off course is expected to slam into the moon at 5,400 miles per hour on Wednesday morning.

The impact will generate an explosion equivalent to 15,000 sticks of dynamite, which is 
roughly 140–150 million standard (legal consumer) firecrackers, based on approximate TNT-equivalent energy/blast comparisons—though the two are not directly equivalent because of fundamental differences in how they release energy. Still, that's a lot of boom for the buck.

The upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will probably hit the moon at 2:35 a.m. ET on Wednesday. It has been floating for 19 months in a high orbit around Earth that crosses the moon’s path. Usually, this part of the rocket goes into a long oval orbit around Earth. Then it is brought back down, burns up in the atmosphere, and falls into a far-away part of the ocean. But the pull of gravity from Earth, the moon, and the sun slowly changed the rocket’s path.

This rocket helped launch commercial landers to the moon before it was taken out of service. Julianna Scheiman is the director of NASA science and Dragon programs at SpaceX. She said the company did “a different maneuver [than de-orbiting] to ensure that the second stage itself is safe per the appropriate rules and regulations.”

“What has happened is, essentially, a mixture of solar activity and gravity forces have put it on a path towards the moon,” Scheiman added. Astronomer Bill Gray was the first to predict the date and time of the crash. He thinks the impact will release as much energy as 15,000 sticks of dynamite and will create a big cloud of debris.

Even though the crash is powerful, scientists say it will be too faint and too quick to see with the naked eye from Earth.

NASA says the crash is not a danger to Earth. The agency “will continue to track the booster for training purposes, as well as later observe the impact site for scientific purposes.” Los Alamos National Laboratory researcher Benjamin Fernando said that the collision “provides an opportunity to test pipelines for measuring flash properties to locate impact events seismically, and to better understand the multi-modal hazards posed to future lunar infrastructure and astronauts from space debris impacting the moon.”

The crater from the crash should be about 90 feet wide and 16 feet deep. NASA will aim its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter at the site before and after the hit. This is a robotic spacecraft that maps the moon.This will be only the second time a used rocket has hit the moon by accident.

In 2022, a Chinese rocket booster smashed into the far side of the moon. At first, researchers thought it was a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Later they found out it was China’s Long March 3C rocket. That rocket had launched a mission around the moon in October 2014.

As NASA gets ready to keep people on the moon for a long time, it will be more important to deal with space junk in orbit around the moon. Future crashes could throw debris off the moon’s surface. That could create dangers for astronauts, spacecraft, and equipment operating nearby.


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President Trump Drops Truth Bomb On Beijing, China Freaks Out While Democrats Insist Voter Data Is Basically Free

President Trump’s explosive allegations against China on Thursday night have left the Chinese Communist Party and its American enablers scrambling for excuses.

Speaking from the White House, POTUS accused China of committing the largest compromise of election data in history. He said Beijing had illicitly obtained information from roughly 220 million American voter files during the 2020 election cycle.

The Chinese Communist Party responded with its usual straight faced denial while longtime China watchers in Washington wondered aloud how Trump could possibly maintain any relationship with Xi Jinping after laying out the facts.

“China has all along adhered to the principle of non interference in others’ internal affairs,” Chinese Embassy spokesman Liu Chang said in a statement. “The U.S. election is an internal matter of the U.S. Its outcome is determined by the votes of the American people. China has never and will never interfere in the presidential elections of the U.S.”

The fresh accusations have raised questions about a possible summit between Trump and Xi later this year.

Longtime observers of China immediately began asking how Trump’s stated desire for a working relationship with Xi could survive evidence that Beijing had swiped a massive trove of American voter information.

Bill Bishop, publisher of the Sinocism newsletter, wondered how anyone could still pretend everything was normal. “So how can he still be friends with Xi after what he says the PRC just did in stealing 220m voter files?” Bishop wrote on X.

“If any of these allegations are true how can this not be a rupture?”China hawk Gordon Chang, author of “Plan Red” and “China Is Going To War”, said Beijing’s leaders were almost certainly rattled by Trump’s decision to make the intelligence public.

“China’s leaders are almost certainly in a panic right about now,” Chang wrote. “Bravo, President Trump, for revealing China’s massive interference in our elections and in our society.”“Trump just showed China who’s boss.”

Not everyone was impressed. Senator Mark Warner, the Democrat vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, brushed the whole thing off by noting that voter registration data has long been available for purchase. “The idea that somehow these countries are gathering voter files, these are publicly available. You don’t have to hack into them. You can buy them,” Warner told CBS News.

Trump’s claims go beyond the limited assessments released during his first term. A January 2021 intelligence community review said China probably kept up its usual efforts to collect information on American voters and public opinion. A later partially declassified report found that Chinese intelligence had analyzed voter registration data from multiple states.

Neither assessment accused China of changing vote totals or hacking election systems.Just one day before Trump spoke, a Pew Research Center survey found that China is now viewed more favorably than the United States in 25 of the 36 countries polled. It marked the first time in two decades of Pew polling that Beijing had overtaken Washington in a majority of nations surveyed. Researchers blamed the shift on China’s growing influence and fading global respect for the United States.

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NBC News sides with Chinese agent, worried her arrest would cause racial backlash

Well, this headline from NBC News proves that the brain rot on our college campuses seeps into the workplace—you already knew that. You saw glimpses of it at The New York Times when they forced Bari Weiss, a liberal by the way, out of her job over her pro-Israel and free speech stances. 

When an elected official is busted for being a foreign agent, that’s a problem. It’s a story. What’s not a story is the speculation that some racial backlash could happen. Alas, that’s what the outlet found to be the most pressing matter (via NBC News):

The resignation of a Southern California mayor who pleaded guilty to acting as a foreign agent for China has sparked backlash and reignited fears of anti-Asian discrimination.

Earlier this week, Eileen Wang, 58, admitted to federal law enforcement that she “secretly served the interests of the Chinese government,” according to the FBI. She agreed to plead guilty to a single count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government and resigned as mayor of Arcadia, a predominantly Asian city in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles.

Political figures including Bernadette Breslin, a spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said the indictment was another example of Chinese-led plans to weaken the United States from within.

But racist comments began to appear on social media feeds soon after FBI Director Kash Patel announced on X the case against Wang. Many replies to Patel’s post announcing the charges suggested investigating other prominent Asian American women political figures. Others suggested violent punishment for her.

Advocates said they are concerned that this rhetoric is part of a long history of fear and discrimination that has proliferated for generations in regard to Asian communities, especially Chinese immigrants. Experts who spoke to NBC News said Asian people in the U.S. are often treated as perpetual outsiders, which can motivate violence in some cases.

It seems that those perpetrating acts of political violence are anti-Trump leftists, but it obviously goes against the narrative.

Brain Flushings tried to reach Eric Swalwell for his take on the situation, but he was indisposed with someone who goes by the name Fang Fang--just kidding, sort of.

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Arcadia Mayor Caught Red-Handed As Chinese Spy, Immediately Claims "It Was Just A Personal Thing With My Fiancé"

Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang reached a federal plea agreement after being accused of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for China, promoting the country’s propaganda.

Wang admitted to posting Chinese government-directed content, including articles denying Uyghur persecution in Xinjiang. Because nothing says "dedicated public servant" like copy-pasting Beijing's greatest hits while wearing the mayoral sash.

Wang, who is a Democrat, naturally, served as mayor of the San Gabriel Valley suburb, entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors over charges that she acted under the control of the People’s Republic of China to promote propaganda in the U.S. between 2020 and 2022, according to court filings.

She was previously elected to the City Council in November 2022, stepped down as mayor on Monday hours after the plea agreement was unsealed. Arcadia officials and Wang’s attorneys said the conduct described by federal authorities occurred before Wang was elected, making her a pre-elected spy, of sorts. Just a harmless little hobby, they insist. Like scrapbooking, but with espionage and genocide denial.

Wang appeared in federal court in downtown Los Angeles during a brief hearing Monday, where a judge instructed her lawyers to set a date when she would formally enter a guilty plea.

The maximum sentence for the charge is only 10 years in prison.

Dressed in a blue suit jacket and skirt and accompanied by four lawyers, Wang listened to the proceeding through a Mandarin interpreter, because as a mayor of a California town, speaking English is evidently not disqualifying. 

She sniffled throughout the hearing, wiping at her eyes and her nose drippings with her hand and a tissue.

The magistrate judge ordered a $25,000 bond and for her to surrender all of her passports and travel documents. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda B. Elbogen asked that the judge order Wang to refrain from any communication with the Chinese government, including consular officials in the U.S.

“Individuals in our country who covertly do the bidding of foreign governments undermine our democracy,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli in a statement Monday. “This plea agreement is the latest success in our determination to defend the homeland against China’s efforts to corrupt our institutions.”

In a statement, Wang’s attorneys, Brian A. Sun and Jason Liang, said “she apologizes and is sorry for the mistakes she has made in her personal life,” as if working as an agent for our enemy is a 'mistake,' a simple 'oopsie.'

“Her love and devotion for the Arcadia community have not changed and did not waver. She asks for the community’s understanding and continued support,” her attorneys said. 

The city of Arcadia’s website said Wang was “vacating her position” [aka quitting] and the process of selecting someone to step in as mayor would begin at the next City Council meeting.

“We understand this news raises serious concerns, and we want to be direct with our community about what we know and where we stand,” City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto said in a statement. “The allegations at the center of this case, that a foreign government sought to exert influence over a local elected official, are deeply troubling. We take them seriously.”

From late 2020 through at least 2022, Wang worked with Yaoning “Mike” Sun, her former fiancé, to run a website called U.S. News Center that branded itself as a news source for Chinese Americans, according to the plea agreement unsealed Monday. Both Wang and Sun “executed directives” from Chinese government officials, posting requested articles and reporting back with screenshots showing how many people viewed the stories, the agreement says.

On June 10, 2021, the agreement says, Wang received a message from a government official about “China’s Stance on the Xinjiang Issue,” which included a link to a letter to the editor in the Los Angeles Times from the consul general of the People’s Republic of China in Los Angeles. The consul general had been responding to a Times editorial supporting a boycott of products made with cotton produced in the Xinjiang region of China.

At the time, news reports were highlighting the Chinese government‘s campaign of incarceration, persecution and “reeducation” of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang province.

“There is no genocide in Xinjiang; there is no such thing as ‘forced labor’ in any production activity, including cotton production. Spreading such rumor is to defame China, destroy Xinjiang’s safety and stability,” read the message from the Chinese government official, according to the plea agreement.

Minutes after receiving the link, Wang posted the article on her website and responded to the Chinese government official with a link to the article on her website, according to the court filing.“So fast, thank you everyone,” the government official responded, the court records show.

Prosecutors also say Wang edited articles at the request of officials and shared information showing the reach of the posts.

“Thank you leader,” she wrote on Aug. 20, 2021, after being complimented for a post that was viewed more than 15,000 times, according to the plea agreement.

Wang never disclosed that the Chinese government had directed her to post the content, according to court documents.

Wang’s attorneys stressed in their statement “that the conduct underlying the information and the agreement with the government relates solely to Ms. Wang’s personal life — i.e., a media platform that she once operated with someone whom she believed to be her fiancé — and not to her conduct as an elected public official.”

Prosecutors charged Sun, a resident of Chino Hills, in December 2024 with conspiracy and acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government. Wang said her relationship with Sun ended in the spring of 2024.

Sun had also served as campaign manager for her City Council campaign to lead Arcadia, a landing spot for many Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants. Prosecutors accused Sun and his Chinese government contacts of cultivating Wang in hopes that she would rise in politics and help them strengthen China’s influence in California.

“We broke up the fiancé relationship,” Wang told the City Council after he was charged. “We keep the friendship.”

Sun was sentenced in February to four years in federal prison after pleading guilty in October 2025 to one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government.

Sun worked as an illegal agent for the People’s Republic of China, submitting reports to high-level government officials about work he was doing on the government’s behalf, according to a federal sentencing memorandum. This activity included combating Falun Gong, a spiritual practice banned in China, and supporters of Taiwanese independence. Sun also was accused of monitoring the then-president of Taiwan during her April 2023 trip to the U.S.

Facing calls for her resignation on the heels of her former fiancé’s indictment, Wang vowed at the time not to step away from the council, emphasizing that she was “not responsible for the action of others.”

Wang said in a 2024 interview that she moved to Southern California from China 30 years ago. Her mother was a Chinese medicine and acupuncture doctor and her father was a physician in Sichuan province before working at USC, she said.

Wang appeared as usual at last week’s city council meeting, shepherding along discussions on street paving, the upcoming budget and a potential e-bike ordinance. Lazzaretto, the city manager, said in his statement that the city has conducted an internal review related to the charges and found no wrongdoing.

“We can confirm that no City finances, staff, or decision-making processes were involved,” Lazzaretto said in a statement. “We have found no actions that require reconsideration or that are invalidated as a result of these developments.”

In other news, sources confirm the "personal life" defense is now being workshopped by every CCP asset currently holding elected office in California.

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POTUS says the US is "starting the process of clearing out" Strait of Hormuz

The United States is beginning to clear sea mines laid by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz as the two-week ceasefire remains in effect, President Trump announced on Saturday morning.

Trump said the only threat that Iranian forces had left was that a ship may “bunk” into their sea mines, which the Islamic regime apparently can’t locate. Trump suggested this was the case because Iran doesn’t have the means to retrieve them.

“All 28 of their mine dropper boats are also lying at the bottom of the sea,” he wrote on Truth Social. [You gotta love 'mine dropper boats'. Technically they're called minelayers.]

“We’re now starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz as a favor to Countries all over the World, including China, Japan, South Korea, France, Germany, and many others,” he said. “Incredibly, they don’t have the Courage or Will to do this work themselves.”

Shortly before the announcement, Axios reported several U.S. Navy ships crossed the strait on Saturday in a move that was not coordinated with the Islamic regime.

Iranian state media reported that Tehran threatened to attack a U.S. destroyer if it continued sailing toward the Strait of Hormuz, communicating their warning to a mediator in Pakistan. The U.S. did not receive word of such a warning, according to an Axios reporter.

Both sides are engaging in peace talks in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad on Saturday after a tentative deal to pause the fighting was made earlier this week. Vice President JD Vance is heading the U.S. delegation.

A U.S. official said the operation was “focused on freedom of navigation through international waters,” referring to the sea mine recovery efforts.

Trump continues to boast that much of Iran’s military capabilities are destroyed and its senior leaders, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have been killed.

“Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti Aircraft apparatus is nonexistent, Radar is dead, [not Radar O'Reilly from M*A*S*H* since capitalizing that word might have confused older readers] their Missile and Drone Factories have been largely obliterated along with the Missiles and Drones themselves and, most importantly, their longtime ‘Leaders’ are no longer with us, praise be to Allah,” he said in a comment appearing to mock Islam.

Look, this is classic Trump, turning a military mop-up into a global public service announcement while the mullahs are still pretending they have a navy. The Iranians spent years bragging about their "asymmetric warfare" with those cheap little mine boats, and now all 28 of them are decorating the seafloor like some kind of underwater parking lot for losers.

The man is out here doing the world a solid, clearing the Strait of Hormuz so China and Europe do not have to get their soft little hands dirty, and they are still too cowardly to say thank you. 

Meanwhile, Tehran is issuing threats through Pakistani middlemen like it's 1979 all over again. Newsflash, guys, your destroyers are at the bottom of the ocean, your leaders are checking in with Allah and the Goats, and nobody in Washington even got the memo on your big scary warning.

This is what winning looks like when you actually have a president who is not interested in managed decline. The mullahs are finished, their toys are smashed, and Trump is out here mocking them in their own holy language. Praise be, indeed.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

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