Vid of Ukrainian refugee’s slaughter on Charlotte train, deafening silence from Dem leaders, media

 Liberal media and politicians have been accused of staying silent on the savage murder of a young Ukrainian refugee on a North Carolina train — after a career criminal with no less than 14 arrests was charged with her murder.

Iryna Zarutska, 23, was stabbed to death on a light rail train in Charlotte, with horrifying surveillance footage showing the moment the unsuspecting young woman was brutally attacked.

Decarlos Brown Jr., 35, is allegedly shown pulling out a pocket knife and getting out of his seat behind Zarutska before the video cuts just as he prepares to plunge the blade into her, footage shared by police shows.

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Surveillance footage shows Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska get stabbed to death on a train in Charlotte by career criminal Decarlos Brown.CATS

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Brown allegedly pulling out a pocket knife before the stabbing.CATS via wbtv

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Brown winding up to plunge the blade into Zarutska on the light rail train.CATSZarutska is totally unaware of the killer behind her, fiddling with her phone as Brown allegedly unfolds the knife and prepares to attack.

After the killing, the attacker can be seen wandering through the Lynx Blue Line train — spattering blood across the floor as he carries the weapon.

Bystanders barely seem to notice that a young woman has just been hacked to death right behind them.

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Brown seen leaving the train after the fatal stabbing.CATS

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A trail of blood left on the floor of the train.CATS

The suspect takes off his bloody hoodie and then calmly waits for the train to pull into the station before exiting the train.

But in the wake of the monstrous killing, which took place on Aug. 22, mainstream outlets and politicians have largely stayed silent.

Charlotte’s Dem mayor even thanked publications that chose to keep the video from the public.

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Dems and the liberal media have been accused of ignoring the murder of Zarutska in North Carolina.Instagram/ Iryna Zarutska

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Brown has had at least 14 prior arrests.

“The video of the heartbreaking attack that took Iryna Zarutska’s life is now public. I want to thank our media partners and community members who have chosen not to repost or share the footage out of respect for Iryna’s family,” wrote Mayor Vi Lyles in a post on X on Saturday.

But her statement drew outrage from many, including Republican Congressmen in the Tarheel State.

“The Mayor’s refusal to condemn senseless, horrific, and preventable violence is as telling as it is despicable. Violent criminals, regardless of who they are or what they look like, need to be in jail,” wrote Rep. Brad Knott (R-NC) in response to Lyles’ post.

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Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles has come under fire for her response to the murder.charlottenc.gov

Lyles’ office did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

Others pointed to a broader nationwide issue of soft-touch responses to career criminals.

“The violence in Charlotte is a microcosm of a national epidemic. Americans deserve better than Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies,” wrote Rep. Mark Harris (R-NC) in a post on X.

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Zarutska fled Ukraine in 2022 after Russia invaded.Instagram/ Iryna Zarutska

Charlotte City Council candidate Edwin B Peacock posted a video of his nighttime ride on board a light rail train in Charlotte as he called for a crackdown on public transit crime.

“A week ago, 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska was brutally killed on Charlotte’s light rail. Her death is a tragedy we cannot ignore. Who’s riding without paying? Are they the ones causing problems? We need answers,” he wrote in an X post accompanying the video.

The former Mayor of Matthews, NC — a suburb of Charlotte — responded, also calling out safety concerns on the city’s public. transit.

“I’m deeply disappointed in what’s been happening & the loss of focus on making the light rail welcoming & safe to travelers. It’s only going to get worse until the current MTC (Metropolitan Transit Commission) & quite frankly, the City of Charlotte get serious addressing the root cause,” wrote Jim Taylor in response to Peacock’s original post.

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Zarutksa’s employer Zepeddie pizzeria remembered her as a “true friend.”Instagram/ Iryna Zarutska

Former DOGE secretary Elon Musk called out what he said was a lack of coverage of the killing by mainstream media, resharing a post counting how many articles the outlets had written about the stabbing, along with the comment, “Zero.”

The alleged murder of a white woman by a black man also drew many responses from the far right.

At the same time, those who knew Iryna have spoken of their horror that a young woman who escaped the war in her country in 2022 could have met such a sickening end in the US.

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Brown has more than a dozen convictions but was free on the streets when he allegedly carried out the murder.Facebook/Decarlos Brown

Iryna was still wearing her work uniform from Zepeddie’s Pizza, a Charlotte restaurant, when she was attacked. The pizzeria paid an emotional tribute to her in the wake of her death.

“Recently our Zepeddie’s family suffered a tremendous loss. We lost not only an incredible employee, but a true friend. Our dear Iryna left this world far too soon, and our hearts are heavy with grief,” the restaurant wrote in a statement on Instagram.

“Since her passing, we have kept a candle burning in her memory—a small reminder of the warmth, kindness, and light she brought into our lives every single day.”

Brown, who is homeless, has more than a dozen convictions dating back to 2014, court records seen by The Post show.

He served five years for a 2014 armed robbery and was released in September 2020, before being arrested just five months later for assaulting his sister at her home in Charlotte.

Despite his lengthy rap sheet, Brown was free on the streets when he allegedly carried out the murder.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

https://nypost.com/2025/09/07/us-news/horror-video-of-ukrainian-refugee-iryna-zarutskas-slaughter-on-charlotte-train-is-met-with-deafening-silence/

Calgary panel warns Canada is wide open to cartels

 Canada’s weak laws, failed prosecutions, and Ottawa’s refusal to cooperate with Washington are leaving the country vulnerable to cartel smuggling, a panel at the Canada Strong and Free Networking Conference in Calgary heard Friday.

The panel, titled Shutting the Gate: Alberta’s Fight Against Smuggling and Illegal Trade, featured investigative reporter Sam Cooper, Alberta’s new chief of sheriffs Sat Parhar, former Alberta justice minister Doug Schweitzer, and Quebec law enforcement veteran turned illicit trade expert Danny Fournier.

Cooper opened by covering revelations that Ottawa blocked an American request to jointly target Chinese fentanyl precursors entering Vancouver. “Ottawa denied a request to work with Washington in 2022,” he said. “The Americans came to Ottawa and said, we know about precursors from China coming into Vancouver. Will you work with us? Essentially, they were shut down.”

Danny Fournier: prosecutions and contraband enforcement
Fournier, a former Sûreté du Québec officer who oversaw organized crime and contraband tobacco operations before joining Rothmans, Benson and Hedges’ Illicit Trade Prevention unit, said prosecutions are collapsing under Canada’s legal system. “If the court system cannot absorb the extra volume of cases, then it becomes a moot point.”

He pointed to Quebec’s ACCESS Program as a model Alberta could copy. “For each dollar invested, they bring in $10.

ACCESS is a provincial initiative created to fight the underground economy, especially contraband tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, fuel, and other illegal commodities.

“There is no reason it can’t work in Alberta,” Fournier pointed out.

Fournier also warned that Alberta sits at the heart of the cross-country trade. “You’re the gateway to B.C. Controlling movement is key. We call it the pipeline.” He added that most contraband is visible online and largely ignored. “There’s no need to go on the dark web. You just Google it. We removed over 14,000 ads for contraband cigarettes in two years. Even the SQ couldn’t have tackled half of that.”

Sat Parhar: Alberta must take control
Parhar, the former Calgary Police deputy chief now leading Alberta’s newly created Independent Agency Police Service, said the drug crisis is visible on every Calgary street. He rejected harm reduction without treatment as “just wrong” and said Ottawa is the choke point for information sharing. “We do not share information well. The gaps are at the federal level. Don’t get a lawyer involved. You have to find a way to share.”

Parhar said Alberta needs more control over its policing. “For us to control our destiny, we need less influence from Ottawa.”

Doug Schweitzer: political will and capacity
Schweitzer, who served as Alberta’s justice minister from 2019 to 2020, said police can only act boldly if politicians back them. “If the police make a mistake, and you want them to be bold, elected officials have to have their back.”

As minister, he discovered Alberta had only three articling students feeding its prosecution service. “They don’t exist,” he said of senior criminal lawyers, describing how he pushed that pipeline to twenty. Schweitzer also warned about the growing contraband tobacco market. “Illegal tobacco in Alberta is nearly 30 per cent.”

The Alberta window
All three agreed Alberta has a narrow opportunity to act, with Parhar’s new agency, provincial tax tools, and political leadership aligned. Whether Ottawa cooperates or not, Alberta might need to move first.

https://www.junonews.com/p/shutting-the-gate-calgary-panel-warns

President Trump is right: foreign protectionism is an American emergency

 

By George Shuster

Now that the tariff issues are headed to the Supreme Court, it is time to rip off the pretenses about U.S. trade policy.

For decades, the American “free trade” chorus has proclaimed that they are pursuing “free trade.” That is a deliberate lie.

Instead, the so-called “free traders” have been busy establishing a world in which other countries have tariffs averaging 40 percent on U.S.-made goods, versus only 1 to 2 percent in the U.S. on foreign goods, along with imposing a withering array of non-tariff barriers (NTBs), versus very few in America. And that doesn’t include foreign nations’ significant border taxes imposed on top of their tariffs, while the U.S. has none.

Image created using AI.

Yes, the self-declared “free traders” have created, not just some protectionism, but rather a whole world of it!

This foreign protectionism has created massive harm to America, including 1) the hollowing out of large swathes of U.S. manufacturing, 2) the loss of American assets to foreign ownership (we buy their T-shirts and with the proceeds they buy our T-bills, as well as our farm land, real estate, companies and other U.S. assets), and 3) many other consequent societal ills.

They did this because they wanted to use cheap and loosely regulated foreign platforms to manufacture their products, which they then could bring back into the U.S. as frictionlessly as possible. Jack Welch even famously said the best place for a factory was on a barge so that it could be moved as labor costs and regulations shifted from one country to another.

This is naked protectionism, practiced worldwide. Yet note what is actually being protected. It is foreign labor, not American workers. It is a foreign industry, not American.

The Trump tariffs are designed to reverse this pattern of global protectionism. Faced with a dose of their own medicine, many of these protectionist countries may be induced to reduce their trade barriers. Some are already doing it. America may then respond in kind, and eventually the world will become much closer to true free trade than the massive global foreign protectionism that currently exists.

Yet there are still some in the American “free trade” chorus who insist that the tariffs be disallowed because the damage America is suffering has existed for so long and that there is supposedly no national “emergency.” Obviously, that argument is specious. The analogy would be a house thief whose defense is that he should not be stopped because he has been getting away with it for years without being caught!

The fact that the unmitigated disaster of foreign protectionism has been causing massive damage to America for so long means that its correction is much more, not less, critical, pressing, and necessary.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/09/president_trump_is_right_foreign_protectionism_is_an_american_emergency.html

For Democrats, history always starts with Trump

 

By M. Walter

This morning, The New York Times published Trump Tramples Congress’s Power, With Little Challenge From G.O.P., which would be laughable if there were anything funny about “the paper of record’s” ability to actually, you know, document the record.

They’re upset about the usual things, of course, which is simply that a president they don’t like is acting well within his presidential authorities, doing things they don’t like—and they just can’t stand it. They’re specifically upset about Trump’s ability “to conduct foreign policy and military operations,” but, really, it’s just this: It’s icky when Trump does it.

Image created using AI.

This paragraph stood out:

The Trump administration continues to erode the power of Congress, trampling on its constitutional prerogatives in ways large and small. Through it all, Republicans in charge have mostly shrugged — and in some cases, outright applauded — as their powers, once jealously guarded, diminish in ways that will be difficult to reverse. (Emphasis mine.)

Were they in the actual business of actual reporting of the actual news, they might have remembered this breathtaking moment when Obama gave his 2014 State of the Union:

“…Wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation…that’s what I’m going to do.”

Democrats stood up and literally, physically “outright applauded,” en masse, at President Pen-and-Phone‘s overtly stated claim to “erode” Congress’s “constitutional prerogatives” and steal their “once jealously guarded” powers. I was watching at the time, and I remember being thunderstruck, absolutely gobsmacked, that they stood and applauded his flatly articulated intention to make eunuchs of all of them.

More from The Times:

For nearly a century, Democratic and Republican presidents alike have sought to amass more power, particularly to conduct foreign policy and military operations, and with a few exceptions, succeeded in chipping away at congressional influence. What is different now is the degree of disdain Mr. Trump has shown for Congress — and the willingness of G.O.P. leaders to defer to him even when it means undercutting their coequal branch of government.

“That is the big story here — not that a president is trying to push the bounds of their authority, because our system was designed with that in mind,” Representative Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado and a member of the House Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, said in an interview. “The true story is that Republicans in Congress have capitulated and are not pushing back to assert authority.” (Emphasis mine.)

Did you catch that? “What is different now is the degree of disdain Mr. Trump has shown...” In other words, it’s just icky how Trump does it. When Mr. Smooth-Talker Pen-and-Phone did it, they didn’t mind so much. But the boorish New York developer? Where’s the fainting couch?

Oh, and Congressman Crow? I refer the gentleman from Colorado to the video above for “the big story” on how supine Congress can be when its powers are threatened. Supine, that is, when its members are not standing and applauding!

Spare us all your lamentations. All of you. None of you were “jealously guarding” your “prerogatives” when Obama illegally conferred DACA on illegal immigrants, killed an American citizen with a drone strike, helped his Attorney General blow off congressional subpoenas, made “recess” appointments to the NLRB when Congress wasn’t actually in recess, etc., etc. The list is long. Too long.

In fact, let’s take that first paragraph and write it the way it should have been written in 2014:

The Trump The Obama administration continues to erode the power of Congress, trampling on its constitutional prerogatives in ways large and small. Through it all, Republicans Democrats in charge have mostly shrugged — and in some cases, outright applauded — as their powers, once jealously guarded, diminish in ways that will be difficult to reverse.

Now that’s the historical record, “paper of record.” Fit to print.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/09/for_democrats_history_always_starts_with_trump.html

Schoolgirls told they can escape undressing with boys in lockers by admitting they are mentally ill

 

By Eric Utter

In Temecula, California, junior and senior high school girls will henceforth have a choice between letting biological males hang around in their bath and locker rooms … and proclaiming themselves to be mentally ill.

You read that correctly. The only way these girls will be able to avoid sharing bathrooms and locker rooms with their male counterparts will be for their parents to fill out a “Mental Health Accommodation Request Form.”

The form reads in part:

I am requesting a mental health accommodation on behalf of my child. This request is made in accordance with federal and state laws, including Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and California Education Codes. Please describe the mental health condition and the nature of the accommodation being requested (e.g., diagnosed anxiety, PTSD, etc.): If available, please attach supporting documentation (e.g., medical diagnosis, 504 Plan, counseling records, etc.) 

So, a young girl must be suffering from a “disability” if she doesn’t want males to watch her undress, use the bathroom, or shower?

As a parent, I would have anxiety if adults in charge of my daughter’s school wanted to force her to share a bathroom and a locker room with boys.

And the “authorities”-- whether at that school or in the government -- who made this so would have PTSD shortly after meeting with me.

Just sayin’.

What’s next, will “authorities” soon “allow” us to decline to submit to an experimental mRNA injection if we sign a document testifying that we’re insane?

This is sounding kind of Soviet, where dissidents were classified as mentally ill and locked up.

Where will this end?

Are we sure we’re winning the War With Woke?

Or, when I go to my polling place to vote in some future election, will I hear: “Of course you have every right to vote for Republicans, Mr. Utter, but you must then sign this form testifying that you have a severe mental illness and will require extensive treatment at a local facility.”

“Authorities” want to take the place of fathers like me … and our Father who art in heaven, for that matter. They don’t like the competition. They appear to believe they can groom indoctrinate parent our children better than we as moms and dads can.

But do you really want the likes of Gavin Newsom, Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, and Randi Weingarten to be in charge of your child’s education and safety, with no parental checks and balances?

California was once the Golden State. The Land of Milk and Honey. It is now the Fallen State. The Land of Illegal Aliens, Poverty, and Homelessness.

There may not be much gold left “in them thar hills,” but there are plenty of tyrants and perverts around.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/09/schoolgirls_told_they_can_escape_undressing_with_boys_in_their_locker_rooms_by_admitting_they_are_mentally_ill.html

China to Reopen Bond Market To Russian Energy Firms, FT Says

 

China is moving to resume its domestic bond market with top Russian energy companies, signaling closer economic and diplomatic ties with Moscow, the Financial Times reported citing two people familiar with the matter.

Top Chinese regulators told Russian energy executives at a late August meeting in Guangzhou that they would back plans to issue renminbi-denominated “panda bonds,” the people told FT.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-07/china-to-reopen-bond-market-to-russian-energy-firms-ft-says

Washington's Panic Over Kennedy Tells Us He's Close To The Truth

 by David Manney via PJMedia.com,

The Flak in the Sky

During World War II, bomber crews flying over Germany were experts in anti-aircraft ordnance. I've read accounts where pilots and crew were able to predict their location by the amount and variety of flak they were receiving. 

Accounts such as these gave rise to popular idioms we use today. In this case, if flak lit up the sky, you knew you were over the target. Nobody wasted shells on empty skies; the closer you were to hitting a high-value target, the heavier the fire.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump's secretary of health and human services, is facing such intense anti-aircraft flak that he could walk from New York City to Washington, D.C. without his feet touching the ground. Regardless of the party, senators from both parties shredded him; the media turned his strained voice into a punchline, and worst of all for anybody, his own family publicly demanded he resign, immediately, all in unison.

Whenever we see such coordinated verbal assaults, we know Kennedy is circling something explosive, something Washington elites are desperate to keep buried.

A Hearing That Was Never About Questions

The Senate Finance Committee meeting, on paper, was supposed to cover topics that were nothing more than an ordinary meeting.

The reality, however, was (paraphrasing Hillary Clinton) a mass suspension of belief. Kennedy was grilled by senators who definitely felt as though they might be having their career-defining moment in front of the camera.

Kennedy was grilled hard for firing CDC Director Susan Monarez, tearing down the vaccine advisory board, canceling $500 million in mRNA contracts, and restricting shots for children and pregnant women.

Questions dripped with contempt.

Louisiana Republican Bill Cassidy, a doctor, accused Kennedy of denying people vaccines.

Democrats treated him like some outlaw scientist, living in his own castle, prone to lightning strikes, and being the center of suspicion by local police over grave robberies.

But listen closely: the ...wait; no need to listen closely because of all the shouting in voices full of unmitigated hatred. Just turn the volume down instead, and turn the captions on. Makes it easier.

Let's start that again.

But read the captions closely: The questions weren't really about medicine; they were about power. Secretary Kennedy has been working to dismantle a system that thrives on crisis, contracts, and revolving door profits. His punishment wasn't the result of his hard work, which put errors into the spotlight. Instead, he was punished for the simple act of touching the money tree.

That action alone explains the flak.

Flak From Both Parties

Have you ever seen Republicans and Democrats skate with such rhythm and emotion to make Torvill and Dean jealous? Usually, they can't clap on the same beat, not once!

But against Secretary Kennedy, they moved as though they were gun batteries coordinating a firing solution all at the same bomber plane.

Why?

Because both sides know what happens if his ideas take root.

For instance, what happens when Americans start asking why experimental contracts were rammed through under emergency orders, if people begin demanding receipts for what was promised, and compare them to what was delivered? If people realize that their public health department has transformed into a political cartel, the implications would be yuuge.

Washington can, and has, survived angry voters: One thing that's deadly for them is exposure.

Family Fire: The Dynasty’s Panic

Then, like something out of a Joan Collins novel, came the spectacle of family betrayal. Joe Kennedy III decided to call his uncle a danger to every American; Kerry Kennedy labeled him incompetent, and Caroline and Jack Schlossberg shouted their relevance with loud disavowals.

With a visual so frightening to those who give a damn, Camelot itself was melting down, while headlines screamed, "Kennedy Feud," as if Camelot itself were melting down.

Have you ever seen a family feud before? They basically follow the same formula: bickering amongst themselves, which leads to bloodletting. When, however, that bloodletting ends up broadcast like something out of Jersey Shore, you have to wonder if the family is protecting something, right?

For decades, the Kennedy name has been nothing short of a protected brand for liberal orthodoxy. It's a dynasty that absolutely cannot afford for one of its own to stand shoulder to shoulder with President Trump while dismantling the sacred institutions of the bureaucracy surrounding public health.

If RFK Jr. is indeed over the target, as I think he may be, then the dynasty is ensuring the flak will be loud and strong enough to drown out whatever is exposed.

Media Guns on Full Auto

What follows is just a smattering of the flotsam out "there."

• Bill Maher mocked him on HBO, calling his Senate appearance a train wreck.

• The Daily Beast fired off the usual "nutjob" labels, like flares out of Tom Cruise's F-14 Tomcat helping him evade a 5th-generation fighter jet.

• Over a thousand current and former HHS staff members signed a letter condemning him.

• Mainstream reporters gleefully picked apart his halting speech, ignoring his neurological condition, which he's been battling for years.

We're seeing in real time the media's role changing from analysis to suppression.

The left isn't worried about a single hearing, but of what comes next if Kennedy survives the barrage; will he open the filing cabinets, then drag decades of contacts into the daylight? What happens if the American people learn just how badly the swamp is addicted to fear-driven profits?

The intense flak isn't just noise from a compliant media; it's a warning shot from an industry that's protected the orthodoxy surrounding public health for decades.

Speculation: What Are They Hiding?

It's a question that practically asks itself: What is Kennedy circling that terrifies the swamp so badly? 

Could it be the financial ties between pharmaceutical firms and government health agencies, you know, the one with a revolving door, that push executives out to approve contracts one year and cash stock options the next? How about buried data within the CDC archives that show just how flimsy some of the COVID-era guidance really was? Is there evidence that "the science" was shaped not by discovery, but by the three "P's": Politics, Polls, and Paychecks?

Maybe, just maybe, it's all the above.

Perhaps the flak is intended to prevent him from releasing the payload: evidence that America was deceived during the pandemic, and that deception was fiscally profitable.

My Thoughts: What I haven't mentioned was just how confusing that period was; nobody knew nuthin', and we all were scared. Well, I can't say we ALL were frightened. I had moments of uncertainty until I learned more about COVID, and then I hoped I had a better understanding of what we were up against.

Unless it's something you can't afford to lose, you don't shoot every shell in the battery at the man unless he's flying directly overhead.

The Trump Variable

There's another reason for the fury: Kennedy isn't flying the bomber solo; he's displaying Trump's banner on the outside surface of the bomber. Instead of a drawing of a voluptuously beautiful woman named "Mabel," Kennedy has a MAGA banner.

Each attack on Kennedy doubles as one on President Trump; when we see a headline about a Kennedy train wreck, we know it's part of the goal of bruising Trump's cabinet.

Washington understands that if Kennedy succeeds in this mission, Trump scores a direct hit on one of the swamp's most protected fortresses.

That's why the incoming fire on Kennedy is so bloody intense.

Final Thoughts

At times, silent European skies were mistaken for safety by bomber crews. They knew if the guns were quiet, they were probably way off target.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. isn't rocketing through quiet skies; he's flying through a storm of tracers, explosions, and whatever else gets pulled out of the behind of those worried about something. Senators, media elites, and his own bloodline are trying to shoot the man down, to silence him.

Our lesson couldn't have had a clearer answer unless RFK Jr. is over the target.

What I want to know is this: Will RFK Jr. stay the course long enough to release what the swamp doesn't want us to see? I checked and found that I'm not wearing a tinfoil hat to keep the signal out of my head. If I'm right about this, then the American political swamp is just as deep and corrupt as any government anywhere in time.

As frightening as this concept is, I pray we have the correct people in place to find the spot in the swamp marked by an X and start digging. It may take years, but answer this: Is our country worth it? Did that bullet miss Trump's head because of divine planning that gave us the warriors needed to finally clean Washington up?

I guess we'll know by the amount of screaming whenever a member of the Trump administration opens a locked door.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/why-washingtons-panic-over-kennedy-tells-us-hes-close-truth