Woke Va. County Forbids Bible Verses in Teacher’s Email Signature

Ezekiel Loseke
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Woke Va. County Forbids Bible Verses in Teacher’s Email Signature

(Ezekiel Loseke, Headline USA) Loudoun County Public School District forbade a teacher from having a bible verse in her email signature, and the teacher is taking legal action.

The teacher, whose name has not been revealed, was barred from placing John 3:16 in her email signature line, according to Breitbart News.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life,” the famous verse reads.

This ban came despite the fact that LCPSD allows their teachers “personally-selected pronouns, quotations, pictures or phrases that are intended to express the teachers’ personal views on a variety of subjects, and that are attributable to the teachers, and not necessarily to LCPSD,” according to a letter sent by law firm Liberty Counsel, the teacher’s attorneys, to LCPSD regarding this case.

The letter was written by Richard L. Mast and Hugh C. Phillips of Liberty Counsel, specifically. It was sent to LCPSD Acting Superintendent Daniel Smith on March 23. The letter demanded that the teacher be allowed “to restore the Bible verse to her email signature block.”

“The directive from LCPSD to [the teacher] to remove an expression of her personal faith from her email signature block, based solely on its perceived religious nature, constitutes religious discrimination,” the letter reads.

The attorneys noted that LCPSD allowed the non-factual and controversial language of pronoun displays to be added to the email signatures of other employees.

“Many teachers include personally-selected pronouns or ‘preferred’ pronouns in their signature blocks,” it said. “The listing of pronouns communicates the teacher’s personal belief that gender or sex is not binary and cannot be presumed, and that pronouns are not objective and do not correspond with biological sex.”

“These beliefs (and whether teachers should promote them to children) are matters of hotly contested public concern.”

They further argued that a public employees religious speech at work could not be considered an establishment of religion. This reasoning was upheld in the Supreme Court, according to a statement made by Liberty Counsel.

Though appalling, this behavior is not surprising because LCPSD has a long history of immoral behavior.

 

Leaked Pentagon Docs May Have Origin in Chatroom for Gamers

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Leaked Pentagon Docs May Have Origin in Chatroom for Gamers

(Headline USA) A major leak of classified U.S. documents that’s shaken Washington and exposed new details of its intelligence gathering may have started in a chatroom on a social-media platform popular with gamers.

Held on the Discord platform, which hosts real-time voice, video and text chats, a discussion originally created to talk about a range of topics turned to the war in Ukraine.

As part of debates about Ukraine, according to one member of the chat, an unidentified poster shared documents that were allegedly classified, first typing them out with the poster’s own thoughts, then, as of a few months ago, beginning to post images of papers with folds in them.

The posts appear to have gone unnoticed outside of the chat until a few weeks ago, when they began to circulate more widely on social media and get picked up by major news outlets. The leaks have alarmed U.S. officials and sparked a Justice Department investigation.

The records have provided startling and surprisingly timely details of U.S. and NATO assistance to Ukraine. They also provided clues about efforts to assist Ukraine in its war with Russia, including an anticipated spring offensive.

The scale of the exposure has yet to be determined. Also unclear is whether any government worked to share the documents or manipulate them.

The Associated Press interviewed a person who said he was a member of the Discord chat group in which documents appeared for several months. The person, who said he was 18 years old, refused to give his name, citing concerns for his personal safety.

The AP could not independently confirm many details shared by the person, and the original chatroom has been deleted.

The AP reviewed images of documents that appeared in recent weeks in the discussion forums. They include a top-secret analysis of deepening intelligence service ties between Russia’s FSB and agencies in the United Arab Emirates, the oil-rich Persian Gulf nation that hosts a U.S. air base and cooperates on many security matters with Washington.

Citing signals intelligence, the March analysis says officers from the FSB were caught claiming that the UAE had agreed with Russia “to work together against US and UK intelligence agencies.”

A spokesman for the Emirati government said the allegations “are categorically false.” U.S. officials at several agencies declined to comment on the document.

The AP also saw an analysis of what might happen in the Russia–Ukraine war in certain “wild card” scenarios, including if Russian President Vladimir Putin or Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy were to die. The analysis is marked secret, a lower level of classification than top-secret.

Were Putin to fire his top military advisers and the war to escalate, the document speculates he might authorize the use of tactical nuclear weapons if “elites question Putin’s decision-making and Russian forces are unable to overcome manning and equipment shortfalls.”

The death of Zelenskyy, in a worst-case scenario, might prompt Europe to restrict weapons shipments, the document says. But a “high-profile Ukrainian leader” might also retain domestic and foreign support as well, it says.

The investigative journalism organization Bellingcat, which specializes in digging through social media and open-source records, interviewed the same person and two others in the Discord chatroom, called “Thug Shaker Central.”

Bellingcat reported Saturday that documents from Thug Shaker Central appear to have been shared in another chatroom, “WowMao.” From WowMao, the documents appear to have spread more widely—and eventually became the subject of a story in the New York Times on Thursday, which first reported that the Pentagon was investigating a breach.

The Discord user who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity says he was on a call with others—including the person who for months had been posting documents he or she said were classified—when the Times story broke.

“We all just kind of lost it,” the Discord user said. “We couldn’t believe what was happening.”

The person said his primary motivation for speaking to the media was to clear the reputation of a third person, who uses the screenname “Lucca.”

Posts from Lucca featuring many of the documents were widely shared on Twitter and other social media. Those documents were reported on by the New York Times, the Washington Post and other media outlets.

Lucca “is just a kid,” said the poster who spoke to the AP. “He was just consistently posting it to mess with people.”

The poster declined to identify the person who originally uploaded the documents to Thug Shaker Central or confirm whether that person worked for the U.S. government. He referred to the original uploader with a nickname, “the O.G.,” a widely used online slang term short for “original gangster.”

But the poster said the person who first posted the documents did not appear to be driven by ideology or to expose government secrets broadly, but rather to impress people in their group.

Were that person to be arrested, the poster said he had copies of “way past hundreds” of pages of files.

He wanted to protect fellow posters in the now-defunct chat but also believed the documents contained secrets that Americans should know.

“On the off chance that the O.G. gets arrested, I’m leaking them all,” the poster said.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Whole Foods Shuts Down San Fran. Location Due to Rampant Crime, Drug Use

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Whole Foods Shuts Down San Fran. Location Due to Rampant Crime, Drug Use

(Headline USA) Whole Foods announced this week that it is shutting down its flagship location in downtown San Francisco less than a year after it opened because of rampant crime and drug use.

“To ensure the safety of our team members we have made the difficult decision to close the Trinity store for the time being,” a Whole Foods spokesperson said in a statement on Monday, adding that the location may reopen if they feel they can ensure the safety of their team members.

Last October, Whole Foods announced it was cutting its operating hours, citing “high theft” and hostile people.

“We’re spending more on security than any other store, I would imagine,” the manager said at the time, according to the San Francisco Standard.

The store had to limit restroom use in November after syringes and pipes were found in the bathrooms.

Resident Allyn Mejia, who works for the Housing Rights Committee, said she shops at the Whole Foods location regularly but is not surprised by the company’s decision to close the store’s doors.

“I’ve seen security run into the store real quick before, like, something happened,” she said.

Matt Dorsey, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, said the Whole Foods closure is part of an ongoing problem the city has with safety.

“I’m incredibly disappointed but sadly unsurprised by the temporary closure of Mid-Market’s Whole Foods. Our neighborhood waited a long time for this market, but we’re also well aware of problems they’ve experienced with drug-related retail theft, adjacent drug markets, and the many safety issues related to them,” he wrote on Twitter.

Dorsey pointed the blame at city officials who have cut police spending.

“San Franciscans have been denied the benefits of a fully-staffed police department for nearly 30 years,” he said. “Our current police understaffing crisis has never been worse.”

POLL: Fewer than Half of Americans Plan on Switching to Electric Vehicles

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POLL: Fewer than Half of Americans Plan on Switching to Electric Vehicles

(Headline USA) Many Americans aren’t yet sold on going electric for their next cars, a new poll shows, with high prices and too few charging stations the main deterrents.

About 4 in 10 U.S. adults are at least somewhat likely to switch, but despite an array of incentives for consumers and punitive measures for automakers, the majority of Americans continue to scoff at the proposal.

Uncertainty over safety (following reports of batteries exploding when wet), government ability to monitor and control mobility, and the length of charge time also loom as concerns for many.

The poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago shows that the Biden administration’s plans to dramatically raise U.S. EV sales could run into resistance from consumers.

Only 8% of U.S. adults say they or someone in their household owns or leases an electric vehicle, and just 8% say their household has a plug-in hybrid vehicle.

Even with tax credits of up to $7,500 to buy a new EV, it could be difficult to persuade drivers to ditch their gas-burning cars and trucks for vehicles without internal-combustion engines.

Under heavy pressure from the Left’s green-energy mafia, woke auto companies are investing billions in factories and battery technology in an effort to speed up the switch to EVs.

The Environmental Protection Agency is demanding that two-thirds of all new vehicle sales be EVs by 2032, according to a greenhouse-gas emissions proposal. President Joe Biden has set a goal that up to half of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030.

But only 19% of U.S. adults say it’s “very” or “extremely” likely they would purchase an electric vehicle the next time they buy a car, according to the poll, and 22% say it’s somewhat likely. About half—47%—say it’s not likely they would go electric.

Six in 10 said the high cost is a major reason they wouldn’t and about a quarter cited it as a minor reason. Only 16% said the high cost would not be a factor in rejecting the EV.

New electric vehicles now cost an average of more than $58,000, according to Kelley Blue Book, a price that’s beyond the reach of many U.S. households. (The average vehicle sold in the U.S. costs just under $46,000.)

Tax credits approved under last year’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act are designed to bring EV prices down and attract more buyers. But new rules proposed by the U.S. Treasury Department could result in fewer electric vehicles qualifying for a full $7,500 federal tax credit later.

Many vehicles will only be eligible for half the full credit, $3,750, an amount that may not be enough to entice them away from less-costly gasoline-powered vehicles.

About three-quarters say too few charging stations is a reason they wouldn’t go electric, including half who call it a major reason. Two-thirds cite a preference for gasoline vehicles as a major or minor reason they won’t go electric.

“I’m an internal combustion engine kind of guy,” said Robert Piascik, 65, a musician who lives in Westerville, Ohio, a Columbus suburb. “I can’t see myself spending a premium to buy something that I don’t like as much as the lower-priced option.”

Although he has nothing against EVs and would consider buying one as the technology improves and prices fall, Piascik said the shorter traveling range, lack of places to charge and long refueling times would make it harder for him to go on trips.

In his 2017 BMW 3-Series, all he has to do is pull into a gas station and fill up in minutes, Piascik said. “The early adopters have to put up with a lack of infrastructure,” he said.

Biden has set a goal of 500,000 EV charging stations nationwide, and $5 billion from the 2021 infrastructure law has been set aside to install or upgrade chargers along 75,000 miles of highway from coast to coast.

Electric car giant Tesla will, for the first time, make some of its charging stations available to all U.S. electric vehicles by the end of next year, under a plan announced in February by the White House. The plan to open the nation’s largest and most reliable charging network to all drivers is a potential game-changer in promoting EV use, experts say.

High prices and a lack of available chargers are cited by at least half of Democrats and Republicans as main reasons for not buying an EV, but there’s a partisan divide in how Americans view electric vehicles. About half of Republicans, 54%, say a preference for gasoline-powered vehicles is a major reason for not buying an EV, while only 29% of Democrats say that.

James Rogers of Sacramento, California, a Democrat who voted for Biden, calls climate change an urgent problem. However, he is unwilling to foot the extra personal expense or bear the inconvenience himself until free-marke innovation makes it a viable option.

Even with a tax credit that could put the average price for a new EV close to $50,000, “it’s too much” money, said Rogers, 62, a retired customer service representative. He’s willing to pay as much as $42,000 for an EV and hopes the market will soon drive prices down, Rogers said.

In an encouraging finding for EV proponents, the poll shows 55% of adults under 30 say they are at least somewhat likely they will get an electric vehicle next time, as do 49% of adults ages 30 to 44, compared with just 31% of those 45 and older.

And people in the U.S. do see the benefits to an EV. Saving money on gasoline is the main factor cited by those who want to buy an EV, with about three-quarters of U.S. adults calling it a major or minor reason—although the extra charging costs added onto people’s home-energy bills may change their minds.

The AP-NORC poll of 5,408 adults was conducted Jan. 31 to Feb. 15 using a combined sample of interviews from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population, and interviews from opt-in online panels. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 1.7 percentage points. The AmeriSpeak panel is recruited randomly using address-based sampling methods, and respondents later were interviewed online or by phone.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

US, Philippines Hold Large-Scale War Drills amid Chinese Sabre-Rattling

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US, Philippines Hold Large-Scale War Drills amid Chinese Sabre-Rattling

(Headline USA) American and Filipino forces on Tuesday launched their largest combat exercises in decades in the Philippines and its waters across the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, where Washington has repeatedly warned China over its increasingly aggressive actions.

The annual drills by the longtime treaty allies called Balikatan—Tagalog for “shoulder-to-shoulder”—will run up to April 28 and involve more than 17,600 military personnel.

It will be the latest display of American firepower in Asia, as the Biden administration scrambles to save face in the region following recent embarassment at the hands of the Chinese communist government—including its brazen deployment of a spy balloon that succeeded in gathering sensitive U.S. military data.

Also looming is a possible confrontation over Taiwan, the U.S.-supported island democracy that Beijing claims as its own.

That dovetails with efforts by the Philippines under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to defend its territorial interests in the South China Sea, which China claims virtually in its entirety, by boosting joint military exercises with the U.S. and allowing rotating batches of American forces to stay in additional Philippine military camps under a 2014 defense pact.

“The relationships that we have, that we build into these exercises, will make us faster to respond to conflict, crisis, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief,” U.S. Marine Maj. Gen. Eric Austin said.

About 12,200 U.S military personnel, 5,400 Filipino forces and 111 Australian counterparts are taking part in the exercises, the largest since Balikatan started three decades ago. The drills will showcase U.S. warships, fighter jets as well as Patriot missiles, HIMARS rocket launchers and anti-tank Javelins, according to U.S. and Philippine military officials.

In a live-fire drill the allies will stage for the first time, U.S. and Filipino forces will sink a target ship in the Philippine territorial waters off the western province of Zambales on April 26, in a coordinated inland and coastal artillery bombardment and airstrike, Col. Michael Logico, a Philippine spokesman for Balikatan, told reporters.

“We have to fire at a target that is closer to what we would expect in an actual threat, which is an intrusion coming from an adversary by sea,” Logico told reporters. “We are demonstrating that we are combat ready.”

Asked if Marcos raised any concern that Beijing may be antagonized by the rocket-firing near the busy waterway that China considers its territory, Logico said that did not come up when he briefed the president about the event. Marcos wants to witness the live-fire drill, he said.

In western Palawan province, which faces the South China Sea, the exercises will involve retaking an island captured by enemy forces, Logico said.

Philippine military officials said the maneuvers were aimed at bolstering the country’s coastal defense and disaster-response capabilities and were not aimed at any country.

Such field scenarios will “test the allies’ capabilities in combined arms live-fire, information and intelligence sharing, communications between maneuver units, logistics operations, amphibious operations,” the U.S. Embassy in Manila said.

In a sign of deeping defense cooperation, the Philippine foreign and defense secretaries will meet their American counterparts in Washington on Tuesday to discuss the American military presence and proposed joint naval patrols, officials said.

Washington and Beijing have been on a collision course over the long-seething territorial disputes involving China, the Philippines and four other governments, and Beijing’s goal of annexing Taiwan, by force if necessary.

China last week warned against the intensifying U.S. military deployment to the region. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in a regular news briefing in Beijing that it “would only lead to more tensions and less peace and stability in the region.”

The Balikatan exercises opened in the Philippines a day after China concluded three days of combat drills that simulated sealing off Taiwan, following Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last week in California that infuriated Beijing.

On Monday, the U.S. 7th Fleet deployed guided-missile destroyer USS Milius within 12 nautical miles off Mischief Reef, a Manila-claimed coral outcrop which China seized in the mid-1990s and turned into one of seven missile-protected island bases in the South China Sea’s hotly contested Spratlys archipelago.

The U.S. military has been undertaking such freedom of navigation operations for years to challenge China’s expansive territorial claims.

“As long as some countries continue to claim and assert limits on rights that exceed their authority under international law, the United States will continue to defend the rights and freedoms of the sea guaranteed to all,” the 7th Fleet said.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Biden Finally Ends COVID Nat’l Emergency after Congress Forces Hand

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Biden Finally Ends COVID Nat’l Emergency after Congress Forces Hand

(Headline USA) The U.S. national emergency to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic ended Monday as President Joe Biden signed a GOP-driven congressional resolution to bring it to a close after three years—weeks before it was set to expire alongside a separate public health emergency.

The national emergency allowed the government to take sweeping steps to respond to the virus and support the country’s economic, health and welfare systems.

Some of the emergency measures have already been successfully wound-down, while others are still being phased out. The public health emergency—it underpins tough immigration restrictions at the U.S.–Mexico border—is set to expire on May 11.

The White House issued a one-line statement Monday saying Biden had signed the measure behind closed doors, after having publicly opposed the resolution though not to the point of issuing a veto.

More than 197 Democrats in the House voted against it when the GOP-controlled chamber passed it in February. Last month, as the measure passed the Senate by a 68-23 vote, Biden let lawmakers know he would sign it.

The administration said once it became clear that Congress was moving to speed up the end of the national emergency it worked to expedite agency preparations for a return to normal procedures.

Among the changes: The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s COVID-19 mortgage forbearance program is set to end at the end of May, and the Department of Veterans Affairs is now returning to a requirement for in-home visits to determine eligibility for caregiver assistance.

Legislators last year did extend for another two years telehealth flexibilities that were introduced as COVID-19 hit, leading health-care systems around the country to regularly deliver care by smartphone or computer.

More than 1.13 million people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19 over the last three years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including 1,773 people in the week ending April 5.

Roughly two-thirds of those—729,000—have died on Biden’s watch, despite the fact that the disease had largely peaked and vaccines were readily available even before his presidency began in January 2021.

Then-President Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar first declared a public health emergency on Jan. 31, 2020, and Trump declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergency that March.

The emergencies have been repeatedly extended by Biden since he took office in January 2021, and he broadened the use of emergency powers after entering the White House.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

N.Y. Judge Anxious to Know If Trump Will Attend Sham Rape Hearing

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N.Y. Judge Anxious to Know If Trump Will Attend Sham Rape Hearing

(Headline USA) A federal judge wants to know if ex-President Donald Trump plans to attend a New York trial this month resulting from a columnist’s claims that he raped her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, a Bill Clinton appointee, issued an order Monday directing parties in the case to notify him by April 20 whether they will be present throughout the trial, scheduled to start April 25 in Manhattan federal court.

Later in the day, Kaplan rejected a request that names of anonymous jurors be released to lawyers, saying Trump’s latest public statements about a criminal case against him in state court show jurors might be harassed if their identities got out.

E. Jean Carroll sued Trump in November, saying he raped her in early 1996 after a chance meeting at the Bergdorf Goodman department store. He has repeatedly and emphatically denied it in language sure to be highlighted for a jury that will decide whether the rape occurred and if Trump defamed Carroll with his comments.

The rape claims were made immediately after a temporary state law took effect allowing adult rape victims to sue their abusers, even if attacks happened decades ago.

Trump’s lawyers did not respond Monday to requests for comment on Kaplan’s order.

Attorney Roberta Kaplan, no relation to the judge, said Carroll “intends to be present for the entire trial.”

In his order, the judge asked “each party” to notify him in writing whether he or she intends to attend the entire trial. If not, he asked to be told what dates and times each individual will be absent.

The judge said the order was not to be construed to suggest whether either side is obliged to be present throughout the trial or what legal consequences could result from a decision not to be present the entire time.

The judge was likely interested in learning exactly when Trump might be in court because of the special security arrangements that would be required for a Secret Service-protected former president who is campaigning for a second term in office.

Last week, Trump arrived in a motorcade for a New York state court arraignment where he pleaded not guilty to a 34-count felony indictment for alleged hush-money payments during the 2016 election.

Judge Kaplan cited public comments Trump made after the appearance, as he rejected a request by lawyers on both sides in the rape case to be told the names of anonymous jurors. Recently, he ruled that the jury will be anonymous, citing in part the “strong likelihood” that there could be “harassment or worse” of jurors by Trump supporters.

“The likelihood of such difficulties since the Court made those findings only has increased. That is so in view of Mr. Trump’s public statements,” he said, citing media reports characterizing Trump’s statements as attacks against the presiding judge over his criminal case.

The judge also cited “the threats reportedly then made, presumably by Mr. Trump’s supporters, against that judge and members of his family.” In a footnote, the judge cited media reports including a story that said the judge in the criminal case got death threats after Trump’s arrest.

In October, Trump underwent a videotaped deposition in which he was questioned about Carroll’s claims, which were first made publicly in a 2019 memoir by the former longtime Elle magazine columnist.

In the deposition, Trump was dismissive of Carroll’s claims, saying: “Physically she’s not my type.”

Even if Trump decides not to attend the trial, it is likely that significant portions of his deposition will be watched by the jury.

In recent weeks, the judge has denied requests by Trump’s lawyers to exclude testimony from two women who made sexual abuse claims against Trump in circumstances similar to those alleged by Carroll and from two individuals who worked at the department store at the time the rape allegedly occurred.

He also has ruled that jurors can hear misogynistic remarks Trump made about women in 2005 on an Access Hollywood tape.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Pentagon: Leaked Documents a ‘Very Serious’ Risk to Security

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Pentagon: Leaked Documents a ‘Very Serious’ Risk to Security

(Headline USA) The online leaks of scores of highly classified documents about the Ukraine war present a “very serious” risk to national security, and senior leaders are quickly taking steps to mitigate the damage, a top Pentagon spokesman said Monday.

As the public airing of the data sends shockwaves across the U.S. government, the White House said there are concerns there could be additional leaks.

Chris Meagher, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, told reporters that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin first became aware on Thursday that a number of classified briefing slides detailing the U.S. military efforts in the Ukraine war and intelligence involving other nations were leaked.

In the days since, Austin has reached out to allies, held daily meetings to assess the damage and set up a group not only to assess the scope of the information lost but review who has access to those briefings. The department is looking closely at “how this type of information is distributed and to whom,” Meagher said.

A defense official who spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters said the Pentagon has now taken steps to reduce the number of people who have access to those briefings. The official said the Pentagon regularly reviews access lists to weigh who has a need to know and have access to classified material.

At the White House, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby was asked if the U.S. was bracing for more online releases.

“The truth and the honest answer to your question is: We don’t know,” he said.

“And is that a matter of concern to us? You’re darn right it is,” he added. “We don’t know who’s behind this; we don’t know what the motive is.”

As U.S. authorities go through the documents that were posted online, they are still trying to determine their validity, but have found that at least some of the papers “have been doctored,” Kirby claimed.

He and others would not go into detail, but at least one of the documents shows estimates of Russian troops deaths in the Ukraine war that are significantly lower than numbers publicly stated by U.S. officials.

Under a section titled “Total Assessed Losses,” one document lists 16,000-17,500 Russian casualties and up to 71,000 Ukrainian casualties.

Gen. Mark Milley, the soon-to-retire chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said publicly last November that Russia has lost “well over” 100,000 soldiers, and Ukraine had lost about that many also. Those estimates have continued to climb in recent months, although officials have stopped providing more exact numbers.

At the State Department, spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters Monday that U.S. officials “are engaging with allies and partners at high levels over this, including to reassure them of our commitment to safeguarding intelligence and the fidelity of securing our partnerships.”

The U.S. officials declined to provide any specifics, including about the expanse of the release, how it happened and to which country leaders the U.S. has spoken. Patel added that there is “no question” the documents’ release present a risk to national security.

Investigators who specialize in tracking social media, including at the journalism organization Bellingcat, say the documents may have been circulating for months in private internet chats on the Discord discussion platform. Asked if the Pentagon has contacted Discord, Meagher referred questions to the Justice Department, which has opened a criminal investigation into the leaks.

The slides, which eventually were distributed on more mainstream sites such as Twitter, detail U.S. training and equipment schedules to support Ukraine, assessments of losses, what the U.S. is monitoring on key allies and strategic partners, and what moves Russia may be taking to undermine those relationships.

While the Pentagon has been careful not to authenticate the information contained in any specific document, overall “they present a very serious risk to national security and have the potential to spread disinformation,” said Meagher. “We’re being very careful and watching where this is being posted and amplified.”

The documents are labeled secret and top secret and in some cases resemble routine updates that the U.S. military’s Joint Staff would produce daily but not distribute publicly.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Kamala Ripped for Honoring Ousted Tenn. Dems, Snubbing Shooting Victims

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Kamala Ripped for Honoring Ousted Tenn. Dems, Snubbing Shooting Victims

(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) Vice President Kamala Harris once against demonstrated where the Biden regime’s priorities rank, when she skipped visiting with families of the victims slaughtered in the trans-triggerman mass shooting in Nashville, but took a taxpayer-funded trip to pay homage to ousted Tennessee state representatives.

“Today, I stood with parents, students, and the Tennessee Three,” Harris proclaimed. “They won’t be silenced and their demands for gun reform must be heard. In Congress and in state legislatures around our nation, leaders must have the courage to act.”

Two of the three Democrat lawmakers had been booted from the state Legislature for their part in instigating a mob that overtook the state Capitol, hijacking the mass shooting tragedy at Nashville’s Covenant School to demand gun confiscation instead of assistance for the mentally ill or improvements to school safety.

Before being ousted, Rep. Justin Pearson even went on a “race and gender rant,” claiming that “legislators weren’t listening enough to transgender people, one of which actually committed the shooting he was allegedly protesting.”

That didn’t stop Harris from praising the ousted transurrectionists who were, Harris said, being “silenced and stifled for standing up for the lives of schoolchildren.”

“Let’s understand the underlying issue is about fighting for the safety of our children,” Harris said. “It’s been years now where they are taught to read and write and hide in a closet and be quiet if there’s a mass shooter at their school, where our children, who have God’s capacity to learn and lead, who go to school in fear.”

During her transurrectionist rally at Fisk University, the vice president also called for more restrictive background checks, red flag laws and restrictions on assault rifles.

“It’s been nearly two weeks since 6 people, including 3 young children, were murdered in a planned attack on a Christian school in Nashville and neither the President nor VP of the U.S. have expressed any condolences to families of the victims,” tweeted one frustrated commentator.

The New York Post’s editorial board noted that all the “passion” was caused by transgender triggerman Audrey Hale, calling Kamala’s snubbing the victims’ families a new White House low.

“That makes it beyond bizarre that Harris didn’t (at least) also meet with survivors of the three small children and three adults slain that day. Which event is more awful, after all: the murders or the expulsions?” the Post wrote. “Meanwhile, the White House has yet to invite the two hero cops who stopped the massacre from being far worse by charging in to take Hale down.”

Trans-Pronouns Mass Shooter Pushed Anti-Trump, Pro-Lockdown Rhetoric

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Trans-Pronouns Mass Shooter Pushed Anti-Trump, Pro-Lockdown Rhetoric

(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) The latest suspected mass shooter with reported ties to a radicalized LGBT movement and trans-pronouns hustlers was also an avowed Trump-hater and pro-lockdown COVID tyrant.

Social media accounts reportedly belonging to Connor Sturgeon, the suspected triggerman in Monday’s deadly mass shooting in Louisville, showed an embittered Never-Trumper who promulgated COVID lockdown misinformation, according to the Post Millennial.

In response to a Reddit thread about an appearance by Donald Trump in Alabama, which called Trump “a frail pathetic thin-skinned loser,” Sturgeon wrote, “I’ll be doing my part to make sure it is not the warm response he’s looking for.”

Before Monday’s mass shooting, Sturgeon reportedly posted ominously on Instagram and in text messages, warning that “they won’t listen to words or protests, let’s see if they hear this,” and reportedly admitting that “he was feeling suicidal and would shoot up the bank.”

Another message threatened, “I could burn this whole place down,” and another that stated “I know what I have to do but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it.”

“This is what happens when Radical Leftist Administration Empowers Crazies!” tweeted one Kentuckian. “This is My Hometown and the main reason I moved a county south in 2019!”

Sturgeon also promoted anti-Trump memes that grossly distorted the former president’s comments on racism, with a comic of a hulkster bragging he got so big by doing “one push-up” for “Every time Trump tweets some racist sh*t.”

In another post cheerleading for COVID lockdowns, Sturgeon, using his CSturg41 handle, boasted, “Finally, an excuse to stay in without being a bad person.”

Sebastian Gorka, former Trump-era assistant to the president, noted that Sturgeon’s accounts were being wiped from social media.

“These were the anti-Trump and pro-lockdown posts,” Gorka wrote, denouncing the suspected shooter as “another Democrat killer,” while encouraging people honor the victims.

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