It was a dark and looming morning in Washington DC when the studio lights slowly glowed brighter and Margaret Brennan took that last sip of her grande mochaccino before taking her seat, after narrowly escaping the danger of a raging gunman who attempted to enter the dining room last night.  The opportunity for a best dramatic media performance award in a supporting role is before her.  This is her moment.

With a confident pause and deep breath, Brennan delivers her best dramatic voice in combination with outwardly nervous appearances.  “You got this,” a producer says in her ear, as Ms. Brennan slowly paints the political picture of a “harrowing ordeal,” a near failure around the events of the evening.  A killer travelled by train from California to her neighborhood in Washington DC, with a shotgun and handguns. The lost innocence of journalism is almost too much to bear.

While doing her best job pretending not to know how the aligned politics of the potential killer match her own, Brennan pushes forward through the crisis, “something must be done.”

Meanwhile, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appears on CBS Face the Nation to discuss the latest assassination attempt against President Donald Trump and/or any administration officials.  The video and transcript are below:

[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche. Welcome, good morning, and I’m glad you are safe, sir. It was a harrowing–

ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE: Good morning, you as well.

MARGARET BRENNAN: It was a harrowing night, I want to get straight to what we know now, in the light of day. The FBI, as I understand it, has gone to a home in Torrance, California, believed to belong to the alleged shooter, most likely into his DC hotel room as well. What have they discovered there? What do we know?

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The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is one government agency that remains largely hidden from the American public. It operates with a secret federal budget and appears to run independent activities, even having the means to generate its own revenue.

By now most people who follow politics understand how the CIA and State Department operate collaboratively in most foreign endeavors.  Many CIA operatives have State Department covers.  The CIA also works jointly with the State Dept on influence operations through USAID, which makes some recent events a little uncomfortable.

Against revelations about the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) funding violent domestic extremist groups, consider this graphic:

It is hard to argue against the possibility that behind some of the domestic violent extremists (what the FBI calls DVEs) is a network of finance that traces back to the CIA.  It is a fact that USAID is -in part- a CIA influence operation.  If the SPLC is funded by USAID, then who was ultimately funding the SPLC influence operations?  It is an uncomfortable question.

As we researched several serious issues in the past two decades one thing always surfaces, the intelligence community is often at the heart of the matter. As a historic example, during research into the Benghazi, Libya chaos that ultimately led to the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens it became almost impossible to distinguish the CIA operatives from the State Dept objective.

In fact, we said the same thing about the CIA and the Qatar officials who were part of that background Libya story. It was almost impossible to tell a difference between the CIA operatives and the Qatari facilitators.  The money was fungible and the Libya operation was an enmeshed network of mutually aligned government interests.

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President Trump calls in to Fox News following the assassination attempt last night at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner.  WATCH:

Details are surfacing about Cole Tomas Allen, the 31-year-old California schoolteacher who tried to gain entry to the venue in order to assassinate President Trump and/or cabinet members in attendance.

A manifesto was sent to relatives prior to the effort saying the gunman wanted to target administration officials. Investigators also found extensive anti-Trump and anti-Christian rhetoric across his social media accounts. According to reports [AP Newswire], Allen’s brother alerted New London Police Department after receiving the alleged manifesto before the incident.

U.S. Secret Service and Montgomery County Police Department later interviewed Allen’s sister, Avriana Allen, at the family home in Rockville. Key points from the interview: She said her brother often made radical statements and spoke about doing “something” to fix today’s world. She confirmed he bought 2 handguns and a shotgun from Cap Tactical Firearms and stored them at their parents’ home reportedly without their knowledge.

Additionally, Cole Tomas Allen regularly trained with firearms at shooting ranges. He was reportedly linked to a group called “The Wide Awakes.” and he attended a “No Kings” protest in California.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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The gunman who attempted to gain entry to the White House Correspondents Association dinner has been identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, a schoolteacher from Torrance, California.  A registered Democrat who donated to Kamala Harris campaign.

Cole Tomas Allen Engineering at Cal Tech 2013 – 2017, a master’s degree in computer science 2025.

Early reports suggest the shooter was a guest of the Washington hotel and assembled a long rifle prior to making entry to the venue. According to local police, the suspect was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and several knives.  The suspect was not struck by gunfire. One of the Secret Service Agents was shot during the gunfire.

Avriana F. Allen, 27, of Washington, D.C., is the sister of Cole Tomas Allen, the 31-year-old Torrance, California teacher identified by authorities as the suspect in the April 25, 2026, shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Public records confirm the sibling relationship through shared mother Kathleen A. Allen and prior family address in Torrance. {source}

Full press briefing from law enforcement is below.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

(more…)

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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Several people have inquired about the Washington DC subpoenas for former CIA Director John Brennan being withdrawn, and what does that mean. I intentionally did not write about it at the time because I wanted to look closely at the fact pattern.

The DOJ is still planning to send requests for voluntary interviews and grand jury testimony according to media reports.

From my perspective, this is a good sign. Potentially a very good sign.

The issues around the CIA targeting President Trump are extensive, attached to numerous individuals and entities, and generally complex.  Normally, an investigation of this scope would begin with questions to the outer perimeter individuals who were carrying out the instructions of those above them.

CIA Director, John Brennan and CIA Analyst, Eric Ciaramella

It is from those types of lower-level interviews that material is gathered for use in examining the truthfulness of those who organized and directed the operations.  In the example of John Brennan’s false statements to congress surrounding the ICA (Intelligence Community Assessment), or the inclusion of the Steele Dossier in the analytical material, there are key people within the Directorate of Analysis, National Security Agency and National Intelligence Council who can give first-hand statements about Brennan’s instructions.

Those types of interviews are just as important as questioning John Brennan himself, and for obvious reasons those interviews should come first.

♦ Here is where it becomes important to remember a key thing that happened between the time the investigation of Brennan began and the arrival of investigative Asst to the AG, Joe DiGenova.

Do you remember the recent criminal referral by DNI Tulsi Gabbard for former CIA Analyst Eric Ciaramella?

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Two years after the Russia-Ukraine war began, people kept wondering why I continued to ask why no western media were boots on the ground in Ukraine delivering news of the conflict.  I called it “world war reddit” for a reason.  That question loomed even bigger given the relentless on-the-ground reporting over the U.S-Iran conflict.

Why were/are international journalists almost immediately embedded in Iran to cover the details of the conflict, yet that same approach never took place in Ukraine.

For Ukraine there was no daily reports on the fighting; no frontline reports with journalists in helmets and flak jackets; no live interviews or reports of the back-and-forth battles between Russia and Ukraine; no ‘coming to you live from Kiev‘ tonight, nothing.  However, as soon as military conflict breaks out in Iran – all the familiar war/conflict reporting surfaced again.

But I see the Ukraine war reported on Telegram, some say.  True, but really?

What you “see” is through a social media prism that is structurally controlled by Western intelligence operations.  World War Reddit!

For additional context, when the U.S. went to war in Iraq/Afghanistan, how did it impact your daily life?  That’s analogous the same impact within Russia that I experienced in 2024 (3 months) and 2025 (1 month).  All recognizable impact is sanctions related.

One of the reasons I traveled from Western Russia to Poland -specifically driving across Ukraine- was to see for myself. I shared that story before.

The reality of the Ukraine conflict, World War Reddit, is entirely against the interests of those who are constructing the false impression of it.

In reality the Eastern Donbas region is very pro-Russian and when the Russian Federation took over towns and geography, driving back the Ukraine military, Russian troops were factually greeted as liberators.  Now, there is a slow-grinding stalemate, and the losses on the Ukraine side are well beyond what has been reported by government officials.

I provide this context of reality -vs- media presentation because Iranian Prince Reza Pahlavi is strongly calling attention to the bias and willful blindness of European media. WATCH:

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