Several people have asked for opinion about the ‘insurrection’ information group provided by X-user account Data Republican. I have spent some time reviewing the information but still hold back from too much opinion on the overall network because these groups are assemblies of people, not systems.
Each deep state participant has a footprint and the only way to make sense of their assembly is to track their former and current pathways – that takes a lot of time to assemble.
Erica Chenoweth, Rear Admiral Michael E. Smith (Ret.), Danielle M. Reiff, Dr. Paul Zeitz, Maria J. Stephan, Julia Roig, Walt Roberts, Brendan Halloran, Laura Adams and Zoe Marks appear to represent the core leftist group. These interests appear to be the ones defended by The Washington Post.
Former CIA operatives who entered congress in 2018 and 2020, ex. U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin – part of the IC freshman class, also seem to represent the action group, executing the agenda of the planners.
Former ODNI Chief of Staff to Tulsi Gabbard, Alexa Henning, has a good name for the group overall, “The USAID Alumni Network.” That representation is the best encapsulation, as the motives and intents of the group seem to center around former USAID funding, NGO’s and direct finance.
This USAID commonality appears to be the central component that triggered the leftist opposition toward a more forward stance on action against the Trump administration, and by consequence toward the 2026 midterm election. Factually, if you want to determine the motives of people within any organized system, track their finance component.
Following an unauthorized publication of a strategic outline, some people within the military and intelligence system quickly ran to the Washington Post in order to get out in front of the issue.
In this overview, Mike Steger examines the Washington Post report on current and former national security officials advising state governments and lawmakers ahead of the midterm elections. He explores the role of National Security Leaders for America, the Horizons Project, and their preparations for potential military involvement during an election crisis.
Mike connects these developments to the Trump administration’s election security efforts, political tensions in Brazil and France, and the growing battle over America’s political future. Drawing comparisons to the 2020 Transition Integrity Project, he argues that an increasingly threatened political establishment is preparing for confrontation as Trump’s coalition continues to evolve.
Chapters
00:00 Democrats Prepare for the Midterms
01:00 The Washington Post’s Election Report
02:15 Military Intervention and Election Chaos
03:45 Trump’s Election Security Crackdown
06:00 Elissa Slotkin’s Warning
You might remember the story of CIA senior officer David J. Rush, 49, of Ashburn, Virginia, who was indicted after an FBI investigation found gold bars, cash in dollars and euros as well as luxury cars and dozens of luxury watches.
Today the DOJ announced that Rush has plead guilty {pdf SEE HERE} in a deal where he will admit to one count of wire fraud, and that will permit the DOJ to finish prosecuting the case without revealing extremely sensitive information about the CIA operations Rush was involved in.
Rush stands accused of manipulating more than $195 million in wire transfers to his own accounts, after setting up covert fake CIA operations centered around unknown foreign intelligence efforts. When you read the plea agreement that stipulates the facts of his activity, it certainly sounds like David Rush was able to execute the fraud under the auspices of Ukraine operations.
To be clear, there’s no mention of Ukraine, but the scale of the money involved, the timing of the activity, the location of the real estate and the attributes of the money and gold (as described) sound very Ukrainian-ish.
DOJ PRESS RELEASE – […] On May 19, 2026, the FBI searched Rush’s residence and recovered 298 gold bars, approximately $2,106,550 in cash, €104,795, and numerous luxury watches. Rush had obtained the gold bars at an approximate cost to the government of $46 million. Pursuant to the plea agreement, Rush has agreed to forfeit the gold bars and currency found at his home, the fraudulently obtained properties, 30 watches (many of which were Rolexes), and two 2026 BMW Alpina vehicles, at least one of which is valued at approximately $172,000.
A few weeks ago, the voters in Iceland rejected a referendum to join the European Union. Iceland remains a NATO ally, but not an EU member, this dynamic becomes more important when considering the Arctic defense strategy of President Trump and Secretary Rubio.
From the State Dept: Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Reykjavík, Iceland; Athens, Greece; and Lisbon, Portugal from October 5-8, 2026.
Secretary Rubio will meet with Icelandic officials in Reykjavík to discuss economic and security collaboration. In Greece, Secretary Rubio will lead the United States delegation for the Sixth U.S.-Greece Strategic Dialogue, deepening our partnership on key Administration priorities, including defense cooperation and regional and energy security. Secretary Rubio will then travel to Lisbon to meet with Portuguese officials to advance defense, economic, and technology cooperation. (read more)
Rubio delivered remarks just before departure. RAF Fairford, Russian Plague, Brazil Election, Saudi and Houthis, and more. WATCH:
I would also emphasize a little-known aspect to the Portuguese relationship. Portugal has one of the most effective intelligence operations in the world, in part due to their diplomatic corps who have groomed very strong relationships with allies and not-s0-friendly nations. Portugal maintains a very well-run, albeit very quiet intelligence system.
According to CNN, current Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton is likely to be appointed the AI/SI Czar. If that is accurate, and not a leak trap – which considering the source is sketchy, then that leaves the DNI position open again.
(VIA CNN) – President Donald Trump is expected to pick Jay Clayton to be the White House’s new czar of artificial intelligence, two sources familiar with the discussion told CNN.
The president could announce his decision about Clayton, who is director of national intelligence, as early as Friday, one of the sources said.
Trump announced last month that he was planning to create an “AI Force” and name an AI czar as the government faces growing calls to impose guardrails on the technology’s rapid development.
Trump gathered several AI and technology CEOs at the White House on Tuesday for a meeting that culminated in the signing of a new commitment aimed at better “self-policing” their companies’ AI models. (read more)
If it is accurate that Clayton is going to the Super Intelligence Czar position, and considering the sudden reappearance last week at the White House, is there a possibility of someone returning to the administration as DNI?
Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared on Fox News last night for a discussion of current geopolitical events. The segment starts with an open-ended question about updates to the terror plot surrounding RAF Fairford base in the U.K against U.S. military targets.
Secretary Rubio was very measured in his response, noting he could not discuss too much and did not want to get out ahead of the investigation; however, he did confirm the terrorism plot “clearly involves the hands of a foreign actor.” People in American and the U.K are puzzled by the British authority position to release the suspects on bail, less than 24 hours after they were arrested. Everything surrounding this event is very weird. WATCH:
According to his attorney, former CIA Director John Brennan has been subpoenaed to appear Oct. 15 in Fort Pierce, Florida, as part of a Justice Department investigation into alleged conspiracies against Donald Trump.
Brennan’s involvement in the Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy is well documented. Brennan constructed the fraudulent Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) that sought to fabricate intelligence analysis (Ciaramella) and frame Russia for interfering in the 2016 election. The overall effort was to impede the Trump administration through a series of fraudulent and malicious investigations.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former CIA Director John Brennan has been subpoenaed to testify next month before a Florida grand jury as part of a Justice Department investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against President Donald Trump, one of his lawyers said Monday.
Ken Wainstein, an attorney for Brennan, disclosed in a court filing that prosecutors last Thursday presented him with a subpoena for Brennan to appear Oct. 15 before a grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida.
He said he was told that the subpoena relates to a “far-reaching” criminal probe examining a loosely defined theory that the government officials who have investigated Trump over the last decade, including over Russia election interference in 2016 and his more recent retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, conspired to deprive Trump of his civil rights. The subpoena to Brennan is among a flurry that have been issued in recent weeks.
[…] The member of the investigative team with whom Wainstein spoke was Kurt Olsen. (more)
You might note from the current reporting of the subpoena that after Brennan/Wainstein initially sought to challenge the 2025 subpoena, they inadvertently revealed information that CTH noted could lead to a withdrawal of the demand while the Florida investigators reviewed testimony from some of the names contained within the Brennan defense letter. That is exactly what appears to have happened.
President Trump executes a clear foreign policy, a unique doctrine of sorts, where national security is achieved by leveraging U.S. economic power. It has been a fundamental shift in approaching both allies and adversaries; summarized within the oft repeated phrase: “economic security is national security.”
The Trump Doctrine of using economics to achieve national security objectives is a paradigm shift in American politics. Modern U.S. history provides no easy reference strategy, because until now no American president has ever leveraged this approach.
U.S. B-2 bombers struck Iran on June 22, 2025, as part of Operation Midnight Hammer, targeting key nuclear facilities.
Immediately following the August 2025, Alaska summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Trump, Russia restarted Arctic-2 LNG terminals and began increasing natural gas (LNG) production for storage on ‘floating platforms.’
It absolutely did not make sense that Russia would start producing even more LNG considering the previously imposed western sanctions against them, and the fact that Russia was already overproducing LNG. As noted by analysts at the time. Russia had no market for this LNG, yet Russia began increasing LNG supply anyway. For six months Vladimir Putin extracted and stored LNG.
Two months later, on October 25, 2025, President Trump did something odd. President Trump had attended the ASEAN summit in Asia before; however, this time instead of flying West over the Pacific, he flew east to Malaysia. This put a refueling stop in Qatar, which everyone just ignored as a routine part of the travel plan.
However, upon arrival in Qatar, the Amir of Qatar came to the airport to pay a courtesy visit to President Trump. They spoke aboard Airforce One during the refueling stop.
Today the CIA released an unprecedented 71 Presidential Daily Briefs given to the Executive Branch before and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. You can review the material [HERE – CIA LINK]
I would remind readers, in 2010 George W Bush’s campaign manager, aide and senior staff, Karl Rove, revealed [“Courage and Consequence“] that then CIA Director George Tenet had been trying for several weeks to get a personal meeting with President Bush to outline an intelligence concern about an international terror threat.
According to Rove, White House National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, had been blocking Tenet from meeting with President Bush. Director Tenet sent several requests using alternate channels to reach Bush. Eventually, in the late spring or early summer 2001, Tenet overcame the Rice block and was given time to brief President Bush.
CIA Director George Tenet then told President Bush the CIA had intercepted telephone “chatter” pointing to an al-Qaeda terrorist threat that somehow involved airlines. However, the details and the specifics of the threat were unknown. The only thing Tenet knew with certainty was that some type of plot was underway and airlines were involved.
George W Bush responded to Tenet by saying it appeared the CIA director was just trying to “cover his ass” in case something happened. Bush was angered at the vagueness of the warning and told Tenet to consider his ass covered, but essentially the information was useless without specifics.
The rest, as they say, is history. The matter did not surface again until after the 9/11/01 plot was carried out.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio continues to impress; however, his response to the Wall Street Journalist narrative engineer is absolutely brilliant.
Following visits to Colombia and Ecuador, Secretary Rubio is in Peru today to discuss the “Shield of The Americas”; a joint collaboration and intensely strategic partnership between the United States and Latin American countries to eliminate corruption, arrest narcotraffickers and remove all corrupt elements.
During a news conference with Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori, Secretary Rubio addressed the Peruvian people in both English and Spanish as he explained the specifics of the Shield and what the partnership entails. During the Q&A session of the press conference, a Wall Street Journal narrative engineer asked a question about sovereignty and the U.S. acting unilaterally if Peru didn’t agree to address the threat.
Essentially, Rubio responded by telling the journalist to stop working for the ‘Bureau of Imaginary Problems’. I have prompted the video at the point of the question and then provided the transcript from that moment to the end. The overall English audio-dub is not bad, so the entire presser is well worth watching:
[Transcript] – QUESTION: Vera Bergengruen with The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Secretary, you have stressed that the members of the Shield of the Americas are sovereign partners. But if one of these governments refuses to act against one of these groups that Washington deems a terrorist threat, does the U.S. reserve the right to act unilaterally, including here in Peru?
And President Fujimori: (Via interpreter) The question wanted more information about the partner of the Shield of the Americas. This will include to collaborate with the United States here in the country.
SECRETARY RUBIO: I’ll answer that question in English and Spanish. I don’t know if you guys heard it. Basically, the gist of the question is, if you’re a member of the Shield and refuse to act, does the United States – will the United States act unilaterally?
Well, if we were going to act unilaterally, why would we need the Shield? We’re not – if we were interested in acting unilaterally, we have the capacity to act unilaterally. The reason why we’re not doing it is because we want to do it with our partners. It’s the most effective way to do it. For us to confront transnational criminal groups, we need to do it inside the sovereign territory of countries, and we want to partner with those countries. It’s in their interest to do it. That is why we have the Shield. That is why the Shield exists.
People make up these problems that don’t exist. They’re getting ahead of themselves with these – these ridiculous sort of things that no one’s even contemplating. The bottom line is the reason why we have a Shield is because we choose to act in partnership with our partners. So it’s very simple. This is not very complicated; let me explain this to you. It’s a very, very simple equation. We have a country that says we want to defeat these criminals, these terrorists, these evil, despicable human beings; we want to defeat them. We want to work with America to defeat them. And so we say, of course we want to work – what should we say to them? No, we don’t want to work with you? No, we’d like you not to do anything about these groups?
Each deep state participant has a footprint and the only way to make sense of their assembly is to track their former and current pathways – that takes a lot of time to assemble.
