The FBI is reportedly probing former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey over their actions related to the Trump-Russia investigation of the 2016 election. CIA Director John Ratcliffe made referrals for investigation and potential prosecution of the former top intelligence officials to FBI Director Kash Patel. The bureau has opened criminal investigations into both Brennan and Comey, though the scope of those investigations is unclear, Department of Justice officials told Fox News. Last week, Ratcliffe declassified a “tradecraft review” of the 2016 investigation into Russian election meddling and President Donald Trump. The review determined that the investigation may have been sullied by corruption from the start. Former President Barack Obama ordered Brennan, Comey, and then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to look into Russian attempts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election, and what links, if any, those attempts may have had with the Trump campaign. Obama’s intelligence trio cut corners and froze out most of the rest of the United States intelligence community from the assessment in the atypical investigation, according to the memo. The after-action report identified “multiple procedural anomalies” such as “a highly compressed production timeline, stringent compartmentation, and excessive involvement of agency heads.” The procedural oddities undermined the integrity and credibility of the CIA, the report said. Brennan took the lead on the assessment. He overrode the advice of senior officials at the CIA who recommended not including the unsubstantiated Steele Dossier in the final report “Despite these objections, Brennan showed a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness,” Ratcliffe’s review says. “When confronted with specific flaws in the Dossier by the two mission center leaders — one with extensive operational experience and the other with a strong analytic background — he appeared more swayed by the Dossier’s general conformity with existing theories than by legitimate tradecraft concerns.” After the review was completed, its findings motivated Ratcliffe to refer Brennan to the FBI for investigation of potential wrongdoing, according to Fox News. Brennan “violated the public’s trust and should be held accountable for it,” one official told Fox News without going into detail on what in particular Brennan is being investigated for.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday ripped into “stupid” wind turbines and solar farms for killing wildlife, destroying landscapes, and being inefficient. The president tore into the green energy industry for over five minutes during a cabinet meeting, attacking wind and solar for being too intermittent and reliant on subsidies to be viable energy sources. “Wind is a very expensive form of energy. It’s very bad for your beautiful surroundings, the plains and the valleys and the birds dying all over the place, you know, the whole thing is a disaster,” said Trump. “Those big solar fields, they’re taking our farmland. Our farmers are, like, mortified by it. They hate it,” he continued. “It’s very, very inefficient and very ugly, too. You know, probably better than a windmill, but you go around and you see all these things that are 3 miles long by 3 miles wide, and you say, ‘What the hell is that?’ And it’s a lot of plastic from China. It’s plastic, black plastic from China.” China is the global leader in green energy manufacturing with around “60% of the world’s manufacturing capacity for most mass-manufactured technologies,” including solar cells, wind systems, and batteries, according to the International Energy Agency. China has invested heavily in renewable energy as it seeks to curb its reliance on oil imports. It also continues to build coal-fired power plants to meet its energy needs and is the world’s largest polluter. Trump last signed the landmark “One Big, Beautiful Bill” that included the president’s priorities for his energy agenda, including encouraging fossil fuel development and cutting tax credits and subsidies for green energy. “We’ve reintroduced clean, beautiful coal because, you know, you can do a lot with coal now, clean beautiful coal and natural gas and all of the other things that we have. But we don’t want wind and we don’t want solar because they’re a blight on our country,” said Trump. “They hurt our country very badly, and smart countries don’t use it.” “We need the kind of thing that’s going to fire up our plants, and it’s not going to be wind, you know. It’s very intermittent, as you probably know. But they’ve spent a fortune. They’ve spent trillions of dollars on this stuff,” he continued. Trump ended his monologue expressing regret that “wind” has not proven itself to be a significant source of energy “because it sounds so good, doesn’t it? ‘Wind, wind.’ But it’s not.” It’s these ugly machines, and they’re all made – you’ve got to see – some are a little taller, a little shorter. They’re made by different companies. They have different stocks. They have different blades. They have different everything. It is so horrible,” said Trump. “If you look at smart countries, they don’t use it. Smart countries don’t use it, and we’re now a smart country. We’re a brilliant country. We’re not smart. We’re brilliant now. We’re going to be a brilliant country. We have to be, because we have to catch up for some really stupid people that did a bad job,” he added.

Eight years ago, my family lost our home and most of our belongings in an unprecedented flood after Hurricane Harvey dumped more than 40 inches of rain over four days. Six feet of water sat in our home for 14 days. We were evacuated by boat, and like thousands of others in Houston, we spent the next year piecing our lives back together. Every time I look at pictures of the devastation, I’m shocked at the destruction and reminded of the grueling recovery that followed. Unless you’ve lived through it, the long-term physical and mental effects of a natural disaster on individuals, families, and entire communities are difficult to understand. I’ll never forget when Wilchester Elementary was turned into a mall full of clothing, toiletries, books, housewares, and furniture, where any family flooded out of their home was invited to come shop for free. There’s a Wilchester Elementary student among those missing due to this week’s flooding in central Texas. Our community has once again been thrust into chaos as so many have faced unimaginable suffering and loss. Everyone I know is either grieving or desperately waiting to hear about a sister, father, niece, student, friend, neighbor, or daughter who lives or was camping or vacationing in the Texas Hill Country. As the death toll rises, we’re glued to our news feeds, waiting for each sliver of news, praying for those who remain missing to be found. Even friends without a direct connection to one of the victims share in the collective helplessness. Our heavy hearts and burdened souls feel the pain of each moment that has passed since the floods first came. Anything I can think to say or do feels insignificant in light of the losses other families have sustained. But when I remember the way strangers surrounded my family during our time of need after Hurricane Harvey, I want to find practical ways to show love to those suffering now. What does it mean to love others amid their extreme suffering and loss in a way that’s genuinely helpful? Here are three ways we experienced such care. Keep Watch On the night before Jesus was betrayed, in anticipation of the great suffering he’d soon face, he told his disciples, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me” (Matt. 26:38). Jesus knew his disciples couldn’t drink the cup he was about to drink. He knew they couldn’t bear the weight of the world’s sins. They couldn’t imagine the depth of sorrow and anguish he felt as he asked his father to take the cup of suffering from him. But there was one thing Jesus asked his disciples to do: Remain and watch with him. When I remember the way strangers surrounded my family during our time of need, I want to find practical ways to show love to those suffering now. Right now, so many throughout Texas and beyond are experiencing great sorrow as they wait for their daughters to be found. We can’t take their suffering away but we can keep watch. We can plea in prayer to the Father until every missing person is found and the lives of those who have been left are put back together. Eight years ago, when the water was still rising, there was nothing to do but watch. But knowing others watched with us gave us the strength to get through some of the hardest moments. Show Up Eight years ago, neighbors whose homes hadn’t yet flooded showed up to our home in rescue rafts and canoes. I don’t have any memory of eating or sleeping in the days that followed, but I know we were fed, were clothed, and always had a comfortable place to sleep as we watched the water rise over the next two weeks. When the waters finally receded, more people showed up in masks and gloves to help us muck out our house. Others showed up by donating toiletries, toys, beds, clothes, and school supplies. The parent of a former student reached out and offered to lend us a car for as long as we needed. Friends and family showed up in text messages, emails, and phone calls that often went unanswered, though they didn’t go unnoticed. One of my oldest and dearest friends, who lives hours away, showed up without any agenda. Another friend I hadn’t seen in years sent a package that included the hymnal we sang from as children, reminding me of my comfort in life and death, the never-failing truth of the old, old story. Give Generously It wasn’t only friends, neighbors, and family God used to sustain us. Donations to local cleanup efforts poured in from all over the country. The staff from the church camp I attended as a child drove eight hours to help with clean-up. Amazon packages from a church group several states away began showing up on the front porch of our rental home. The owner of a clothing boutique on South Whidby Island in Washington State raised money to help our family with temporary living expenses. A local bicycle-shop owner collected the hundreds of flooded bikes in our neighborhood and restored them for free. A local theater invited all the flood victims over for a night away from the chaos. And when James Avery, an artisan jeweler who lives in Kerrville (where this week’s floods hit the hardest) heard that my daughter’s charm bracelet was lost in the flood, he wrote a personal letter that included a generous gift card to replace what had been lost. Strangers from all over Houston filled churches for city-wide prayer nights. Even the gracious #HoustonStrong comments on social media felt like tiny graces on the hardest days. It wasn’t only friends, neighbors, and family God used to sustain us. Donations to local cleanup efforts poured in from all over the country. I don’t own a boat or have an extra car to share. I don’t own a boutique, restaurant, or theater. I’m not an artisan jeweler or bicycle mechanic. And I’m not close enough to any of the victims’ families to show up in more personal ways. But I write. So today, I’ve written this as a reminder to my brothers and sisters in Christ to watch, pray, show up, and give generously from the abundance of time, talents, and treasures God has given you. And when I’m finished writing, I’ll get on my knees and keep watch with those who are suffering the unimaginable right now. I’ll show up in the tiny ways I can even when it feels insignificant. I’ll stay engaged despite the temptation to look away. I’ll tie ribbons around my trees. I’ll buy lemonade from the little girls on the corner raising money for their missing friend. I’ll go to the prayer night, and I’ll weep alongside those who are even now sorrowful. I’ll show up and be present just as Christ himself and his people showed up for me.

'We are a city of immigrants'

We're starting to get corny with this whole Caitlin Clark thing

When we launched the American Conservative Values ETF (ACVF), we did it with an important mission in mind: to give voice to the millions of Americans who are sick and tired of watching their retirement dollars fund woke liberal corporate activism. That mission brought us face to face with a troubling trend: major U.S. companies […]

Russia's Wagner Group Hired People to Carry Out London Arson Attack

The devastating Texas flood tragedy has been met with heroism, kindness, and, of course, a shocking surge of political spin and falsehoods from the left.“You get the run-of-the-mill, standard nonsense, of course, from House Democrats saying climate change is obviously a part of the Texas flooding,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere says on “Stu Does America.”“You can understand the corollary of why you might say something as dumb as that. The issue, of course, is, why would you go to that place right now? I mean, even if you think climate change is the issue, you’re not solving it tomorrow,” he continues. “You don’t need to dance on the graves of all the dead children today to make your political point.”“But of course, they can’t do that,” he adds, before comparing how CNN’s Dana Bash handled the flooding in North Carolina under Biden versus the way she’s handling the flooding in Texas under Trump.“The former president is falsely accusing federal relief agencies of maliciously withholding and misusing aid,” Bash said on CNN, playing a clip of Trump blasting Biden for giving North Carolina residents $750 while shelling out billions to foreign countries.“What you just heard is not true. They’re rumors and they’re lies, and they are hurting the very people that thousands of FEMA emergency responders are trying to help,” she continued.Now, after the Texas floods, Bash appears to be blaming National Weather Service cuts the Trump administration made, asking Rep. Joaquin Castro, “Do you have any indication whether those or other cuts helped play a role in the fact that the people in the flood zone were not prepared and certainly not evacuated?”“The National Weather Service did warn about this,” Burguiere comments. “As we pointed out, when you make a warning and it’s the middle of the night and the whole thing develops between midnight and 4 a.m., it’s really, really hard to get enough people awake to avoid tragedy.”According to NWS meteorologist Jason Runyen, most offices usually have two on staff when the weather is benign, and there were five on staff the night of the storm.The NWS office also issued a flood watch for the area at 1:18 p.m. on Thursday, which was 15 hours in advance. While a flash flood warning was issued at 1:14 a.m., most residents were likely asleep.Even a reporter on ABC News explained that “they were actually staffed extra because they knew it would be a big night.”“Do I think that something happened from the weather service side that was related to that? No. I think that they were staffed fully. I think they did the best they could and put out the warnings in a pretty timely fashion,” the reporter said.“There you go. I mean, it’s not just the conservatives saying that. If you actually find people who are honest in the media — and you had an example there — they will tell you that this had nothing to do with Trump's funding issues,” Burguiere adds.Want more from Stu?To enjoy more of Stu's lethal wit, wisdom, and mockery, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

But He's TOTES Not a Commie! Zohran Mamdani Wants to Seize Investment Property for the Homeless

Eric Swalwell Wants to Waste Time and Money in Futile Attempt to Blame Trump for the Deadly Texas Floods