Americans sent a clear message to the swamp after President Donald Trump swept all seven swing states and secured the popular vote in November. Since then, the MAGA base was promised an administration staffed with change agents eager to uproot the political establishment in Washington, D.C.The winning streak continued after Kash Patel was successfully confirmed to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation alongside Deputy Director Dan Bongino, both of whom have been allies to the president. Patel and Bongino also shared a common mission going into the FBI: The status quo isn't working. 'If you embarrass that community, you will be ostracized.'Now five months into Patel's tenure, several former agents and FBI whistleblowers described how their optimism has faded into disappointment. "Kash Patel and Dan Bongino both used to consistently call for dismantling the FBI, or at minimum, for a massive restructuring of it," one FBI whistleblower told Blaze News. "The latest revelations only bolster the position that the FBI has become a secret police organization. Yet, there has been no mention of the criminal charges against FBI employees involved in this gross miscarriage of truth and justice. There has been no mention whatsoever of any form of punishment for those involved."RELATED: 1,004 days of betrayal for suspended FBI Special Agent Garret O’Boyle Photo by Calla Kessler for the Washington Post via Getty Images"Like most of the FBI's known corruption, cover-ups, and illegal activities in recent years, these revelations began with yet another whistleblower," he added. "Only then did the FBI 'leadership' discover how deep the corruption surrounding this election interference was. Still, no whistleblower has been vindicated, reinstated, promoted, or provided back pay and damages under the 'new' FBI." Other whistleblowers like Marcus Allen share this sentiment, saying the bureau is beyond help. "Attempts to salvage the FBI are a fool's errand," Allen told Blaze News. "Its reputation is damaged beyond repair. It has lost the public trust and proven itself to be an enemy of the American people and rightfully elected American governance." Allen previously worked in the FBI's Charlotte field office before he was abruptly put on unpaid leave for challenging the official narrative surrounding the January 6 protests. After being branded a conspiracy theorist, Allen was eventually given his security clearance back by former President Joe Biden's administration and was awarded back pay as part of a settlement with the FBI. Allen later resigned from the bureau. "They know when they have been abandoned," Steve Baker, investigative reporter for Blaze News, said. "When they speak out, that goes against the culture of the FBI. It goes against the intelligence community at large. If you embarrass that community, you will be ostracized."Clint Brown, who worked closely alongside Patel during his Senate confirmation process, pushed back on critics, noting that Kash has been heading the bureau for only five short months. “Kash is an extremely methodical person and very strategic,” Brown told Blaze News. “He is going to work through everything methodically and in the right way. Not everything is a narrative. Not everything has a quick fix. We’re living in the real world.”"The former leadership may have tarnished it’s own reputation, but they’re the institution that exists to catch the bad guys, and they still have to do that while fixing the place," Brown added.RELATED: Kash Patel's surprising appointment of a top J6 inquisitor to head DC FBI office Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty ImagesWhile continuing to "catch the bad guys," Patel has also lead the popular crusade against former Director Christopher Wray, which many current and former agents have championed. Patel announced Tuesday that the bureau uncovered evidence of Wray lying to Congress about China's involvement in influencing the 2020 election. These findings also detail how the agency "recalled" a report that contradicted Wray's testimony under oath to Congress denying China's involvement."There are a dozen other people that we could put in the perp walk parade," Baker told Blaze News. "But the guy that needs to lead the parade is Christopher Wray."This evidence is just the latest piece of a larger puzzle implicating the former FBI leadership for working to influence the 2020 election. Whether it's coordinating with social media monopolies like Facebook to promote one party over the other or censoring the bombshell Hunter Biden laptop story, all signs suggest the FBI was involved."To date, this is unequivocally the worst example of FBI election interference," Steve Friend, another FBI whistleblower, told Blaze News. "The Steele dossier and censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop were abhorrent attempts to smear Donald Trump's reputation and deter voters from his camp. However, this latest revelation that the FBI covered for a foreign adversary to stuff ballots for Joe Biden strains all bounds of credulity and requires an honest conversation about whether the FBI should be dissolved.""Disgraced FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate knew this," Phil Kennedy, a whistleblower and former FBI agent, said in a post on X. "He was the executive who allegedly said, 'FBI employees who question the bureau's handling of January 6-related cases can seek employment elsewhere.' He helped hide the crime and then imprisoned Americans demanding answers." Patel has also led a broader effort to decentralize D.C.'s influence in the bureau and empower local field offices to continue doing the day-to-day work that impacts communities. “As far as reforms in the FBI, there’s been a restructuring in the organization, and it’s still ongoing," Brown told Blaze News. "Agents have been moved out to the field, and this is all part of reorganizing the FBI over the long term and doing it methodically.”RELATED: Exclusive: Oversight Project refers former FBI Director Wray to DOJ for criminal charges Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty ImagesWhile some former agents believe that the new leadership is a step in the right direction, other whistleblowers say the bureau remains unchanged, forever being driven by the status quo. "The FBI has demonstrated an unwillingness and inability to understand the complexities of corruption within the FBI writ large and the simplicities of emergent national security and public safety threats," one whistleblower and former DHS employee told Blaze News. "The new FBI deputy director has told Americans this is 'our FBI,'" Kyle Seraphin, another FBI whistleblower, told Blaze News. "It turns out, 'our FBI' is the same FBI it was last year: deceptive, duplicitous, and functioning on operational morality. The FBI serves the FBI, polishes the reputation of the FBI, and exists to prop up the legend of the FBI. Americans can see the results — promises without production, press releases instead of probable cause to arrest, and backroom document deals instead of disinfecting sunshine. The status quo is 'cutesy time,' and it is unquestionably continuing."Although critics insist the culture remains unchanged, Brown says Patel was the right choice to push for a change. In order to successfully restore integrity to the bureau, Brown argues that Patel needs both time and trust from the rank-and-file agents. "Kash is the guy that exposed the 'Russia, Russia, Russia' hoax," Brown told Blaze News. "He did it methodically, and the president knows that.""The other thing is he picked the guy who’s going to relate to the brick agents," Brown added. "Trump’s philosophy, whether it’s FBI or DOD, he said the same thing about Pete Hegseth, is that he wants people who are doing the job to feel like they have a leader who understands them. So Kash has to earn trust within the FBI, while having to expose, methodically, while also having to catch bad guys, in order to reform the FBI. Without their trust, they’re not going to follow your leadership to fix things.”The FBI did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The ruling class trades in carbon outrage like it’s gold. Sanctimony fuels its crusade against oil, gas, and coal — never mind that those very fuels built the modern world. The comforts we take for granted — from longer lives and stocked shelves to clean water and lifesaving medicine — all trace back to the energy abundance that hydrocarbons made possible.Still, the decarbonization faithful press forward. They dream of a carbon-free Eden, even as the global power grid, still humming on fossil fuels, refuses to cooperate.Critics keep forecasting a shift away from fossil fuels. Reality keeps proving them wrong.You won’t find a clearer contradiction than in the Yuxi Circle.Draw a circle with a 2,485-mile radius around the southern Chinese city of Yuxi. British geographer Alasdair Rae did just that — and inside it resides 55% of the world’s population: some 4.3 billion people crammed into just 7% of Earth’s surface. The region includes China, India, much of Southeast Asia, and parts of Pakistan. Some of it — like the Tibetan Plateau and the Taklamakan Desert — is barren. But the rest is packed with cities, factories, and the aspirations of hundreds of millions clawing their way toward modern life.Why does this matter? Because this region now anchors the world’s biggest fight over energy, growth, and climate policy.While bureaucrats in Brussels sip espresso and activists glue themselves to the pavement in London, the real action plays out in Asia’s economic engine. In cities like Shanghai, Delhi, and Tokyo, energy demand soars — and fossil fuels do the heavy lifting. Coal and gas plants keep the lights on, while wind and solar trail far behind.China burns more coal than the rest of the world combined. India burns more than the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom combined. The 10 ASEAN countries rank third. Oil use tells the same story: China and India sit alongside the U.S. atop the global leaderboard of consumption. Economic growth, it turns out, runs not on hashtags but on hydrocarbons.Critics keep forecasting a shift away from fossil fuels. Reality keeps proving them wrong.Hundreds of millions in the Yuxi Circle are still striving for what Westerners call a “decent life.” That means refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioning — and with them, a dramatic spike in electricity demand.RELATED: Climate orthodoxy punishes the West Photo by Thomas Lohnes/Getty ImagesFor context: The average American consumes 77,000 kilowatt-hours of energy each year. The average Indian uses a 10th of that. A Bangladeshi? Just 3% of what the average Norwegian consumes.Now multiply that gap by a population of billions, and you begin to understand what’s coming.The living room revolution is only the start. An industrial boom is building behind it — factories, office towers, and shopping malls all hungry for electricity. The coming surge in energy use across the Yuxi Circle will make the West’s climate targets look like a quaint relic of the past.In this part of the world, the green fantasy runs headfirst into human need. Wind and solar can’t meet the moment. Coal, oil, and gas can — and do.Just as they did for the West, these fuels now power the rise of the rest. And no amount of Western guilt or climate alarm will change that.

New wave music wasn't easily defined, but most fans knew it when they heard it. We chose 10 songs that, to us, were the best of the genre. The post 10 Songs That Defined New Wave Music appeared first on Best Classic Bands.

Manor Lords' publisher Hooded Horse has signed on as the new publisher of Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, the first mainline Heroes of Might and Magic game in ten years. While Ubisoft was previously publishing Olden Era by itself, the Assassin's Creed and Ghost Recon studio has now teamed up with Hooded Horse, alongside Unfrozen, Olden Era's developer, to bring the tactical turn-based RPG to Steam Early Access. Continue reading New Heroes of Might and Magic game signs up with publisher behind Manor Lords MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best strategy games, Best RPGs, Best fantasy games

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