The Epstein Files???

Just this morning, via Time Magazine:

Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky went against the most powerful leaders of his party to push forward with a vote to release more Jeffrey Epstein investigation files.

Except that last night,

President Donald Trump called for House Republicans to take a “vote to release” files relating to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, explaining that it is time for the nation “to move on from this Democrat Hoax.”

. . . “As I said on Friday night aboard Air Force One to the Fake News Media, House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat ‘Shutdown,'” Trump said in his post.

According to Wikipedia,

The term "Epstein files" refers to documents collected as evidence in the criminal cases against Epstein and his associates, stored as over 300 gigabytes of data, plus other media, in the FBI's case management system. They include his contacts book, flight logs of his planes, and court documents; some have been publicly released in redacted form. For example, court documents and flight logs have contained various prominent individuals as having traveled with Epstein, or been in contact with him.

I asked Chrome AI mode, "Why is there such a widespread expectation that the Epstein files will contain dirt on trump?" It answered,

The widespread expectation that the Jeffrey Epstein files would contain incriminating information ("dirt") on Donald Trump stemmed primarily from two factors: their past personal association and years of speculation and political maneuvering by figures on both sides.

Surprisingly, it added farther down, under "Reality of the Files",

The actual released documents contain mentions of Trump but no direct evidence has emerged of his participation in any illicit activity. The emails released are hearsay, and testimony from an ex-butler and the victim Virginia Giuffre in a 2016 deposition indicated Trump was a visitor for dinner but never stayed overnight, got a massage from Epstein's victims, or was seen in an inappropriate setting. The expectation of "dirt" largely stemmed from the combination of their past social ties, an absence of full transparency, and years of political posturing and conspiracy theories, rather than confirmed facts of wrongdoing in the files.

So I went on to ask, "Can you name which public figures have actually had their reputations damaged by association with Jeffrey Epstein?" It answered,

The most significant and publicly documented cases of reputational damage and professional consequences due to association with Jeffrey Epstein are those of Prince Andrew, Alexander Acosta, and Jes Staley.

OK, we know all about the former HRH Prince Andrew, now known as Mr Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. Jes Staley resigned as the CEO of Barclays Bank in 2021 after allegations that he concealed his relationship with Epstein from UK bank regulators. Acosta is in a different category; he never cavorted with Epstein's nymphets, but he succumbed to political pressure while a US Attorney to give Epstein favorable treatment in negotiating his 2008 non-prosecution agreement.

But then Chrome AI notes,

While many other prominent names, including . . . Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, Bill Gates, and various celebrities, appear in contact lists, flight logs, and court documents, they have largely avoided the career-ending fallout experienced by the figures above. The presence of their names in records does not automatically imply involvement in wrongdoing, and they have denied any knowledge of Epstein's crimes.

In fact, of the numerous figures mentioned for one reason or another in the "Epstein files", very few have had their reputations seriously damaged simply as a result of being named in the files. The idea of "Epstein files" in itself appears to be a product of Epstein's own self-promotion as a highly connected, highly influential individual, which in turn appears to have been a cover story invented to explain the mysterious origin of his fortune, which was probably acquired largely through embezzlement of Leslie Wexner's money.

Since Trump's return to the White House, a few people, briefly including Elon Musk, have tried to hitchhike on Trump's prestige by claiming they somehow know enough about the "Epstein files" to bring Trump down a la now-Mr Mountbatten-Windsor. Musk seems to have recognized almost immediately that this was a bad strategy and quickly dropped it. Reps Massie and Taylor Greene seem to be more obtuse. It's a bad strategy in general to try to base your career on underestimating Trump.

Bp Strickland Provokes A Silence In Baltimore

Via The Catholic Herald:

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops was briefly unsettled this week when Bishop Joseph Strickland intervened against Fr James Martin over a recent confirmation liturgy involving an openly “married” homosexual couple.

The exchange occurred during the Committee on Doctrine’s consideration of Action Item #03, which concerns updated Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.

Bishop Strickland spoke briefly and drew attention to images widely circulated online of a recent liturgy involving a well-known American broadcaster. “Since we’re in the area of doctrine,” he said, “I don’t know how many of us have seen on social media, priests and others gathered celebrating the confirmation of a man living with a man openly. And it just needs to be addressed.”

Bishop Strickland continued, stating, “Father James Martin once again involved. Great pictures of all of them smiling. Here we are talking about doctrine. I just thought I need to raise that issue. I know it’s not part of any agenda, but this body gathered, we need to address it. Thank you.”

At about 6:00 in the video embedded above, he comments,

I said a few words, spoke for maybe 30 seconds, not very long, and then the rest of the clip [from the session] was total silence, until, I guess, the bishops said, that were leading the meeting, sort of recovered from my interruption, and just told the bishop that was there at the podium, "Oh, Bishop, continue with your presentation." It was like I didn't exist, and the words that I'd spoken were not heard. It was just sort of a blip in the broadcast.

On one hand, the Baltimore bishops are generally seen to have taken conservative steps in electing Abp Coakley as president, as well as formally adopting a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender patients in Catholic hospitals. On the other, Bp Strickland's simple request that the meeting address the question of Fr James Martin endorsing communion for individuals in a state of mortal sin provoked a stunned silence, a "does not compute".

The request, of course, is hardly as simple as Strickland made it seem. Pope Leo granted a private audience to Fr Martin this past September 1, which is taken as a signal that Leo intends to continue Francis's legacy of "openness and welcome" toward the LGBTQ+ community. It's hard not to imagine the thoughts that were racing through the bishops' heads in the ensuing silence.

Thus places Bp Strickland in the position of truthteller, a Huckleberry Finn, a James Dean playing Caleb Trask in East of Eden, a Holden Caulfield, even a Froggy Gremlin.

Froggy the Gremlin was a character created by Smilin' Ed McConnell and brought to radio in the 1940s and television in 1950s on the Smilin' Ed's Gang show, and later Andy's Gang TV show, hosted by actor Andy Devine after McConnell's death.

. . . Froggy was a troublemaker. Disrespectful of adult authority figures, Froggy played practical jokes and disrupted the presentations of other guests. If a guest were to demonstrate how to paint a wall, he might say, "And now I'm going to take this can of paint..." Froggy would chime in, "And dump it over my head." And the confused guest would proceed to do so.

I asked Chrome AI mode, "Are there any Catholic saints who resemble Froggy the Gremlin in certain ways?" It replied,

There is no Catholic saint who physically resembles Froggy the Gremlin or has an appearance based on an amphibian. Froggy the Gremlin is an American fictional character from mid-20th century children's television, and the Catholic Church does not have saints with a physical description or iconography matching a green, mischievous, frog-like creature.

So there you have it. Bp Strickland is neither a frog nor a saint, nor is any case for his canonization likely to be taken up in any foreseeable future. Nevertheless, I wondered exactly why he was removed as a bishop, and I discovered that nobody really knows.

In an online interview given several hours after his dismissal, Strickland stated that he was uncertain of the exact reason he was removed from office, "except I've threatened some of the powers that be with the truth of the Gospel".

But it appears that he's been on point over a good many issues, including of all things, COVID:

In May 2020, Strickland signed a petition released by [Abp Carlo Maria] Viganò that criticized government restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Viganò characterized them as intentionally "...creating panic among the world's population with the sole aim of permanently imposing unacceptable forms of restriction on freedoms." The petition singled out the use of contact tracing devices as well as mandatory vaccination as infringements on people's rights. It also cited "growing doubts ... about the actual contagiousness, danger, and resistance of the virus."

In a December 2020 letter to his diocese regarding the COVID-19 vaccines, Strickland wrote "I urge you to reject any vaccine that uses the remains of aborted children." He later tweeted, "The fact remains that ANY vaccine available today involves using murdered children before they could even be born." Strickland added, "I renew my pledge — I will not extend my life by USING murdered children. This is evil WAKE UP!"

I can only conclude that I haven't been praying fervently enough for our bishops.

Biden showered half a billion dollars on @USCCB for resettling his foreign invasion force.

Trump took office and stopped it, and now @USCCB is doing a PR campaign condemning Trump’s immigration policies.

We all know what’s happening here. https://t.co/V1KwTEfkZa

— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) November 14, 2025

Yesterday,

As The New York Times reported, the United States’ Conference of Bishops sharply rebuked the Trump Administration over its mass deportation policy of illegals during the bishops’ annual conference in Baltimore.

In a statement, the bishops slammed the Trump Administration for creating “a climate of fear,” vilifying illegals, and not granting lawbreakers access to pastoral care.

. . . The statement overwhelmingly passed, with 216 anonymous votes in favor. Five bishops voted no, and three abstained.

I asked Chrome AI mnode, "What are major catholic NGOs that support migrants, and has the trump administration withdrawn funding?" It replied,

Major Catholic NGOs that support migrants include the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Catholic Charities USA, and Catholic Relief Services (CRS). Following funding freezes and policy changes by the Trump administration in 2025, the USCCB ended its partnerships with the federal government for refugee and children's aid programs, and Catholic Charities agencies experienced layoffs and program cuts.

Major Catholic NGOs supporting migrants

• U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB): Through its Migration and Refugee Services, the USCCB has historically been a major partner with the federal government in refugee resettlement. They also operate the "You Are Not Alone" initiative to provide support to migrants.
• Catholic Charities USA: Local Catholic Charities agencies across the U.S. provide direct services to migrants, including food, housing, legal aid, and resettlement assistance.
• Catholic Relief Services (CRS): CRS provides humanitarian aid to migrants and refugees internationally, particularly throughout Latin America, offering aid beyond the U.S. border.
• Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC): CLINIC provides legal support to immigrants in need.

These were just the first entrries in a long list. It also linked to several news stories, including this from The Washington Post last April:

Citing “drastic” government funding cuts, U.S. Catholic bishops Monday said they’re ending a century-old program of resettling refugees fleeing war or persecution.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services, the largest refugee resettlement agency in the world, will also end its support of undocumented children who come into the United States.

I askexd Chrome AI mode, "What is the total amount of funding the US Catholic resettlement NGOs have lost in the Trump funding cuts?" It replied,

A precise, single figure for the total amount of funding lost by all U.S. Catholic resettlement NGOs due to the Trump administration's cuts is not publicly available, as the impact was fragmented across numerous local agencies and programs. However, reports indicate widespread and substantial losses, with specific agencies losing millions of dollars and a large portion of their budgets.

Howevef, this site carries a lengthy breakdown of grants and amounts to the USCCB alone under the Biden administration, including

• $138 million for refugee reception and placement services, with $38.4 million specifically for evacuated Afghan refugees
• $110 million for the “Preferred Communities Program” (refugee aid program established in the 1990’s by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, includes one year of comprehensive assistance
• $48.8 million for USCCB’s Unaccompanied Alien Children program
• $66.1 million for general post-resettlement refugee assistance

In other words, the USCCB isn't necessarily addressing this issue from a disinterested moral perspective. But various statements from the USCCB, some individual bishops, and even the Holy Father consistently fail to mention CCC 2241:

The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin. Public authorities should see to it that the natural right is respected that places a guest under the protection of those who receive him.

Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants' duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.

It appears that over the course of this year in particular, a consensus has emerged in the UK, Europe, the US, and Canada that the level of migration has now exceeded the ability of the prosperous nations to accommodate it without serious social disruption. In the US, programs from the USCCB and Catholic Charities were identified last year as enabling problems in places like Springfield, OH and Charleroi, PA that included migrants being able to drive unregistered cars without licenses or insurance, resulting in accidents, injuries, fatalities, and insurance rate increases for law-abiding citizens.

These issues affected the 2024 presidential election, which led directly to the Trump administration cutting the funding to the programs that created a situation in which Catholic NGOs were seen as enabling migrants to disobey laws and avoid carrying civic burdens. And it's a Catholic principle that citizens should participate in public decisionmaking through voting. As Border Czar Homan put it in response to the USCCB statement in the first link above,

So, according to them, the message we should send to the whole world is that if you cross the border illegally, which is a crime, don’t worry about it.

If you get ordered to be removed by a federal judge after due process, don’t worry about it because there shouldn’t be mass deportations.

In 2024, the US electorate made it plain that the level of immigration had exceeded the point where the country was able to accommodate it. This was one of the top issues in the election. The voters insisted that the political authorities enforce existing juridical conditions surrounding the right to immigrate.

It intrigues me that the USCCB vote was anonymous. And due to its near unanimity, I suspect that some centrist-to-conservative bishops like Bp Barron voted for it, but they would probably be unwilling to defend their votes publicly if forced to do so. But that brings me to another question: given a similar anonymous vote on whether the bishops support CCC 1994, which says in part,

[T]radition has always declared that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Persona humana, 8). They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

would there be the same level of near-unanimity in support? I can't disagree with Border Czar Homan who urges the bishops to turn their attention to fixing the Catholic Church.

One FBI, Two Stories

Let me start by saying I don't think "gait analysis" had much to do with identifying either Osama bin Laden or alleged J6 pipe bomber Shauni Kerkhoff. I'm sure there is such a thing as "gait analysis", but I don't think it's used independently without a lot of other pointers, and something else, including human sources, put investigators on the track in both cases. In fact, I think "gait analysis" is being used here mostly as a cover to protect human informants.

Next, the basic investigative tool these days is camera footage. Cameras are everywhere, something the putative bomber apparently neglected to keep in mind on her bomb planting expedition, even though she was allegedly in law enforcement. If there was so much footage of her as she circumnavigated Capitol Hill for nearly an hour on January 5, 2021 -- this is beyond dispute -- investigators must have other footage of her entering and leaving the area in that distinctive outfit. Either she drove in and parked a car nearby, or someone dropped her off, or she took a bus or the Metro. Cameras would confirm or dismiss every possibility.

Law enforcement, either Metro PD or the FBI, would have resources scouring camera footage covering every possibility in the applicable timeframe, especially given her highly distinctive outfit. I can only assume there's relevant footage that hasn't been released.

Now we get to the question of a Metro card that was traced to one of the stations in Falls Church (there are two, East Falls Church and West Falls Church, but I'll refer to them colletively as just "Falls Church"). I can only assume this was traced by reviewing video of the distinctive figure's path from Capitol Hill to a downtown Metro station, possibly Capitol South, which would put her on either the Orange or Silver Lines to Falls Church, where camera footage would show her getting off the train.

Her use of a Metro card to ride the train would have been noted, and the electronic record of its use would have been traced to the time she was recorded on camera in the station. Thus we get to the specific card that was used, apparently purchased by credit card, so that the purchaser of the card could be identified. Thus we somehow got to Ms Kerkhoff's next door neighbor, who had in fact bought the card a year earlier.

At this point, I need to point out that this is a version of events constructed entirely from the Blaze Media account identifying Ms Kerkhoff. The advantage of this version is that it conforms to the surmise a person generally informed about law envorcement methods might make about how the suspect's path was traced. But as I say, I don't believe "gait analysis" had much to do with it, and I suspect that in general, the FBI knows more than it has released, while I also suspect FBI sources were involved in developing the Blaze Media version of events.

But on November 1, before the Blaze story broke, I noted that there are two conflicting versions of how the bombs were planted, and this continues to be the case. The other version simply discounts the role of the 5'7" figure in hoodie and face mask, whoever this may be, and insists there must be some entirely different explanation, although the alternate hypothesis is never very clearly outlined. The most recent iteration of this is from Julie Kelly on X:

I spoke this morning with the individual believed to be “Person of Interest 3” (POI3) in the FBI’s original pipe bomb investigation related to January 6.

I will not name this individual to protect his privacy since he just found out today (by me) that he had been under FBI…

— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) November 12, 2025

The person she identifies appears to be consiatent with the "next door neighbor" (identified as POI3) who provided his spare Metro card either to Ms Kerkhoff (the Blaze Media version) or an old friend from out of town, POI2 in the Julie Kelly version. Kelly quotes the neighbor, POI3, whom she describes as a 66-year-old man currently employed by the Air Force:

I have a friend who came up for the January 6 Stop the Steal protest, he lives out of state. . . . he’s very Republican, very pro-Trump person.

. . . He came up a day before or a couple days before the January 6 date and I took him to the Metro. . . .I let him borrow my Metro card. I have an extra Metro card, I have one that I use to ride the Metro every day and one that I keep [as] my personal thing.

. . . So he went downtown the day prior to January 6 and he was downtown on January 6. I know he was doing some type of journaling for this event. I know he posted some stuff on Facebook. He was keeping a log telling everybody about all the events and activities that took place.

. . . And then I think on the 7th of January, I took him back to Dulles to catch his flight.

. . . All I can say is there’s two people involved in this that I know--my friend who I went to elementary school and high school together who asked for a favor to let him stay at my house during the January 6 rally.

As it relates to this lady, this policeman, other than her living next door to me, I have no involvement with her in any way shape or form. It was my understanding they worked for the Metropolitan Police Department, that’s all I know and they were not here that long.

A subsequent post from Rep Barry Loudermilk, chairman of the current House January 6 committee, confirms this version from FBI files:

This information fills in some of the blanks the previous administration refused to provide about the pipe bomb investigation.

Thank you @fbi and @FBIDDBongino for your quick and transparent response and continued partnership in getting to the truth on these issues. pic.twitter.com/LM5UDRvavo

— Rep. Barry Loudermilk (@RepLoudermilk) November 13, 2025

This overall version is reported separately in a Daily Wire story from Wednesday. In a November 12 update to its November 8 story, The Blaze reported,

Kerkhoff has not been charged with any criminal conduct by any law enforcement agency in connection with the pipe-bomb incident.

After publication, Steve Bunnell, who the Washington Post identified as an attorney for Kerkhoff, told the Post his client "categorically denies" that she planted the pipe bombs.

So we finally have what we hoped to see, an attorney hired by Ms Kerkhoff making a categorical denial, for whatever it's worth. On the other hand, at the same link,

The Biden FBI is guilty of “gross misconduct and/or fraud” for calling off surveillance of an early person of interest in the Jan. 6 pipe-bomb case, an FBI whistleblower alleges in a letter to Congress. The letter refers to events that occurred nearly five years before Blaze News disclosed that the surveillance subject lived next door to a Capitol Police officer who is now a potential forensic match to the gait of the bomb suspect.

. . . Attorney Kurt Siuzdak of Madison, Conn., filed a 10-page protected disclosure on behalf of his client, the whistleblower, with Massie and U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), among the most active lawmakers still investigating Jan. 6 and its aftermath. Loudermilk is the chairman of the House Select Subcommittee to Investigate the Remaining Questions Surrounding Jan. 6.

. . . “The ‘neighbor’ identified below [in the whistleblower complaint] lived within feet of [Person of Interest 3] and she appears to be the same individual as investigative reporter Steve Baker identified as a former U.S. Capital [sic] Police officer, who is currently associated with a U.S. intelligence agency,” Siuzdak wrote.

. . . The new whistleblower said the female next-door neighbor of the man being surveilled was photographed by FBI agents.

“The ‘neighbor’ had been photographed by the FBI surveillance team, and her photograph and attire are similar to the individual who [allegedly] placed the devices,” Siuzdak said.

So this "whistleblower" is said to be a current FBI supervisor who must be presumed to have inside knowledge -- and his version, published by Blaze Media, appears to support Blaze Media. At this point, we seem to be getting two separate stories on the pipe bomber, both apparently emanating from sources within the FBI itself, neither confirmed, and with no defnititive comment from FBI leadership.

I wish I knew what J Edgar Hoover would do with this.

That AI Country Song

From Newsweek:

According to Billboard’s "Country Digital Song Sales" chart, the No. 1 song in the U.S. is "Walk My Walk" by Breaking Rust—an artist that was created by artificial intelligence (AI).

. . . This is a new development in the music industry as it is the first time an AI-created song has reached the top of the charts.

There have long been concerns about the use of generative AI in creative sectors.

But there's nothing new here. In David Alan Coes's song "You Never Even Called Me by My Name", he added a verse to the original 1971 lyrics by Steve Goodman and John Prine. He outlined "the perfect country western song", which needed to mention "Trains and trucks and mamas and prison and gettin' drunk":

I was drunk the day my mama got out of prison
And I went to pick her up in the rain
But before I could get to the station in the pickup truck
She got ran over by a damned old train.

Even before AI, people understood that a lot of so-called creativity is just a formula. Farther down in the Newsweek link, it reports:

Breaking Rust also has a profile on Instagram, which boasts over 35,000 followers and is filled with images of a melancholy looking man, wearing a cowboy hat in various settings, including at a phone booth, walking on a road, and sitting in the rain.

A quick web search brings up A comprehensive guide for indie authors looking to write a western novel:

1. Normal World: Introduce your protagonist in their everyday life, which is often in a small town, on a ranch, or traveling across the open plains.
2. Inciting Incident: Something happens that propels the protagonist into the central conflict—whether it’s a crime, a personal challenge, or an external threat that forces them to act.
3. Rising Action: The protagonist faces challenges, builds alliances, and confronts obstacles as they navigate the dangers of the frontier. This is where you introduce secondary characters, like antagonists or love interests, and develop the main conflict.
4. Climax: The protagonist faces the central challenge—whether it’s a gunfight, a moral decision, or a major confrontation with the antagonist. This is the pivotal moment where the stakes are at their highest.
5. Resolution: The story concludes with the resolution of the central conflict. The protagonist either achieves their goal, finds redemption, or faces consequences. The resolution should provide a satisfying end, whether it’s bittersweet or triumphant.

In other words, nobody ever needed AI to write pulp fiction, and paying a hack to do it by hand is still probably a lot cheaper. This is a point that Pope and Swift were making 400 years ago. This has also been an emerging pattern I've begun to see in AI: last month, I noted that Baltimore police paid up to $15,000 a year to take down a student whom AI had flagged for carrying a bag of Doritos that looked like a gun, while back in 2020, Canadian police were able to take down a girl wearing a Star Wars storm trooper suit carrying a plastic blaster without paying extra to get AI's help to do this.

Fr Mike Schmitz has a very thoughtful YouTube piece embedded at the top of this post. At 5:50, he inserts his own AI country singer who sings about Fr Mike, but he adds,

A computer program creates a country song, and so what happens is the creativity that is innate to humanity is extended by technology, but something in the process might be lost. In fact, let me say this: something in the process is going to be lost. AI is not evil, any more than a bicycle is evil, any more than an internet of itself is evil. It is simply an extension of a human capacity beyond human capacity. What we lose in the process is going to be the question.

The only thing I would add is that a lot of AI simply adds unnecessary complexity and expense to give us things we already have plenty of without its help -- or from Fr Mike's point of view, AI can also expand the human capacity for avarice and sloth. It'll just cost a lot more to give us what we already have.

Mike Benz Has A Good Lead

Mike Benz draws an interesting connection with the alleged January 6 pipe bomber in the video embedded above. At 3:20:

The guy in chgarge of the FBI at the time was the one who sold fake pipe bombs three months earlier in the Whitmer fednapping case. Steve D'Antuono was how did they bust them on the Whitmer fednapping case, where over half of the co-conspirators turned out to be federal assets or informants. It was two FBI agents, this is the Detroiit FBI Field Office, Steve D'Antuono these guys were under, who went to a bunch of Three Percenters, that was one of the militia groups, the big three militia groups, the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers on January 6, went to the exact miltia group that was involved in January 6, infiltrated them, convinced them, trained them on how to build homemade pipe bombx, and then busted them buying pipe bomb parts and chaged them with attempted possession of weapons of mass destruction.

According to Wikipedia,

On October 8, 2020, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced the arrests of 13 men suspected of orchestrating a domestic terror plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, and otherwise using violence to overthrow the state government.

. . . Two men pleaded guilty and offered to testify on behalf of the prosecution as part of a favorable plea deal, while two men were acquitted at trial. Two other men, who had received a hung jury at the first trial, were later found guilty of kidnapping conspiracy and conspiracy to possess weapons of mass destruction. One of those men was also convicted of another explosives charge.

. . . The defense has argued that this is a case of entrapment, claiming to have identified twelve FBI informants. They contend that the entire plot was fabricated by federal agents.

According to this site,

Steven D'Antuono was the Assistant Director of the FBI Washington DC Field Office from 13 October 2020. . . . [He previously was] special agent in charge of the Detroit field office from 2019 to 2020 . . . . In January 2021, in the aftermath of the 2021 United States coup d'etat attempt [sic], he worked hand-in-hand with the US Attorney's office and local and national police to arrest and charge multiple individuals who took part in the insurrection, opening over 160 case files.

Steven D'Antuono has already appeared here several times in connection with his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on June 7, 2023. It's worth quoting again what I quoted in this post almost two years ago:

"People surmise and suspect that, 'oh, there's all this video all over the country, all over D.C.' It's not true," Steven D'Antuono, the former head of the FBI Washington Field Office, testified before the House Judiciary Committee on June 7, 2023.

. . . "We did every check, every lab test, every data. We ran this through systems back and forth, up and down, sideways, all over the place," he testified about the search for the suspect.

Thery did every check, every lab test, except it looks like they never did gait analysis, which is the focus of the Blaze Media story, and which was apparently used to track down Osama bin Laden -- certainly it was a known tool as of 2008:

Nearly seven years after Osama Bin Laden disappeared, US intelligence agencies are still chasing his shadow. And shadows are precisely what they should be looking for, says NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

By analysing the movements of human shadows in aerial and satellite footage, JPL engineer Adrian Stoica says it should be possible to identify people from the way they walk – a technique called gait analysis, whose power lies in the fact that a person’s walking style is very hard to disguise.

So, even though gait analysis was available to the FBI in 2021, they apparently didn't use it, although it looks like gait analysis might have identified the perp -- unless, of course, they knew who the perp was all along. Gait analysis could simply be a cover explanation; the actual basis could well be something else, like an informant. But Mike Benz's remarks in the video above are bringing me to a new theory:

• I've noted the incredible amateurishness of the figure in the hoodie, face mask, and custom shoes in the video, as well as the next-door neighbor, who was apparently traced almost immediately due to a Washington Metro card
• But then there's the stranger question of how the videos seem to show the two bombs being planted the evening of January 5, but a Secret Service sweep of the DNC headquarters found no bomb the morning of January 6, yet a local woman nevertheless did find a bomb about 12:30 that day
• The photos of the alleged hoodie-and-face-mask perp, Shauni Kerkhoff, do not suggest what Trump would call a high-IQ individual -- in fact, they almost suggest someone with a handicap
• Steven D'Antuono, under whose authority the "investigation" of the bomber took place, had a history of exploiting and entrapping low-IQ individuals to make high-profile cases.

So I'm starting to lean in the direction tbat Kerkhoff, if in fact she is the person in the hokey disguise in the video, is a dupe, a mark, one of a cast of suckers recruited and handled by FBI agents to play a role equivalent to Marinus van der Lubbe, a mentally questionable individual who was convicted and executed for setting the Reichstag fire.

One thing that makes me wonder if this is the case is Kerkhoff's apparent ambivalence in setting the bombs -- she wanders around, sits down on a bench, gets up, wanders around some more before finally placing them. I suspect she was deeply conflicted about planting bombs she was convinced would kill and maim many people, although I suspect they were fake, created by schemers from the start to look like amateur devices, but she believed they were real.

However, something about the plot went awry, and things didn't turn out as planned. I think the bombs were fake and never meant to explode -- that D'Antuono would claim they were viable in his testimony strikes me as suspicious -- but Kerkhoff and the next door neighbor suddenly became unnecessary (I'm not sure why they weren't rubbed out, to tell the truth). But because whatever was supposed to happen didn't work out for whatever reason, it was important to call off the investigation.

However, I'm also coming to the opinion that the Blaze Media investigation is so buttoned-down and so limited in its actual scope -- all it ever does is put a name to a hoodie and face mask -- that I think it's been heavily massaged by current FBI and Juastice Department insiders, and they already know a great deal more than is in the published story. For instance:

DOJ Pardon Attorney Ed Martin says he spoke with Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino over the weekend, who gave him a very promising update on January 6th and the pipe bomber:

"I spoke to Bongino and he said 'We are in this completely. It's not off the radar.' I know we are making… pic.twitter.com/jGovWEhPgX

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) November 11, 2025

I Still Want To Talk About The Interesting Stuff

So the Democrats caved last evening, and there's a leadership crisis in the party. I was on this Thursday and Saturday. It happened, as I discussed then, because they allowed Trump to back them into a structured choice in which the alternatives to caving would be seeing the filibuster nuked or abandoning their key constituencies of federal workers and welfare recipients.

Trump knew this would happen when he flew Air Force One on a victory flight over the Lions-Commanders game yesterday afternoon, even befiore they caved. Nothing new here.

What I do think is a more interesting topic is the alleged January 6 pipe bomber. As a good contrarian, I note that this topic, which even many alt sites wouldn't touch when the story broke, has now completely disappeared from any news at all. That means it's got to be worth pursuing.

On November 1, I posted about the two prevailing theories of the case, that the individual in loose clothes, a hoodie, and face mask seen in surveillance video placed the bombs during the evening of January 5, or that a woman who lived nearby, Karin Younger, may have placed the bombs not long before she reported them on the morning of January 6. Both theories involve a woman, one Ms Younger, the other the widespread speculation that the person in the mask and hoodie, 5'7" tall, walked like a woman. The revelations this past weekend add support to this second theory.

More productive, though, is that the individual in the mask and hoodie in the videos, irrespective of gender or even name, comes off as an amateur. The hokey disguise is amateurish enough, but he or she wanders for blocks around the target areas, hesitates, and wanders around some more. I asked Chrome AI mode, "What is the sequence of actions the figure in the mask and hoodie makes while wandering around Capitol Hill the evening of January 5, 2021?" It answered,

• Circa 7:30 p.m. EST: The suspect was first seen on security cameras carrying a backpack near the intersection of 1st Street S.E. and North Carolina Avenue S.E..
• Between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. EST: The individual walked to the DNC building on South Capitol Street S.E..
• Circa 7:54 p.m. EST: After walking off and then backtracking to a bench, the suspect sat down and placed the first pipe bomb underneath a bench outside the DNC headquarters.
• Circa 8:00 p.m. EST: The individual left the DNC area and proceeded toward the RNC office. The suspect was briefly lost on camera during this time.
• Circa 8:16 p.m. EST: The suspect arrived in an alley behind the RNC building and placed the second pipe bomb. The placement of this bomb was not directly caught on camera.
• Circa 8:18 p.m. EST: The figure was last seen on camera heading east on Rumsey Court S.E..

So it took the person almost half an hour to wander around the scene before placing the bomb at the DNC headquarters, all the time dressed in a highly distinctive outfit and apparently unaware that cameras were everywhere. Then the person took another 16 minutes to travel what, according to Chrome AI mode, is approximately 0.17 miles (around 900 feet), which is a short three to four-minute walk. Then, after apparently planting the RNC bomb, the person quickly skedaddled.

Whatever this was, it wasn't a professional operation. Since Chrome AI mode has been hitting quite well today, I asked it, "How would professional, experienced operatives have planted the January 6 pipe bombs?" It answered, in part,

• Minimizing Identifiers: A professional operative would have worn completely generic and disposable clothing to avoid leaving behind forensic evidence or a discernible trail based on unique items like specific models of sneakers.
• Optimal Timing and Discretion: Operatives would choose a time with minimal foot or vehicle traffic to reduce the chance of witnesses or appearing on CCTV, or would use methods to disable surveillance systems beforehand. The time the DNC and RNC bombs were planted (between 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. the night before) still involved some public visibility.
• Operational Planning and Reconnaissance: Professionals would conduct extensive reconnaissance to identify surveillance blind spots and escape routes, ensuring the devices were placed in locations that were highly likely to cause casualties or significant disruption if detonated, rather than in easily discoverable, accessible spots like behind bushes where they were found.
• . . . Evasion of Digital Forensics: Operatives would employ rigorous counter-surveillance tactics, use burner phones (or leave personal phones elsewhere to avoid geofencing data), and avoid using any personal vehicles or equipment that could be tracked or linked to their identity.
• Secure Communications and Logistics: The entire operation, from acquiring materials (which would likely be from hard-to-trace sources) to planning the placement, would involve secure communication channels and logistics, leaving no digital or paper trail that law enforcement could exploit.

It concludes,

The fact the suspect remains unidentified after more than four years suggests some level of careful execution, but the relative simplicity of the devices and their failure to detonate are often cited in expert discussions as potential indicators of an amateur or an operation that prioritized placing the devices quickly over ensuring their functionality or maximizing their impact.

Except the devices were planted anything but quickly! The person dithered for nearly an hour, followed on video, doing something that should have taken at most ten minutes! The story as it's begun to emerge after the Blaze Media version was released is that the person (assuming it's Ms Kerkhoff) seems to have worked with her next-door neighbor both to use a Washington Metro card that was tied to the neighbor, and apparently later to be picked up in the neighbor's Subaru on the way home.

Clearly neither was following professional tradecraft, and via former FBI Agent Kyle Seraphin, the neighbor had already been traced via the Metro card the suspect had used to travel to the site -- but then the FBI dropped the case, which probably, given the amateurishness involved, should have been easily solved.

Certainly both individuals, Ms Kerkhoff as either a police officer or a CIA security guard, and her neighbor, said to be a civilian Air Force employee, could at minimum be removed from their jobs via ordinary due process, given the evidence.

So what's happening now? I would assume that at minimum, the FBI would need to interview Ms Kerkhoff, if for no other reason than to rule her out as a suspect. But as I surmised yesterday, the Blaze writers had almost certainly already been tipped off to Ms Kerkhoff by a source within the FBI. But so far, Director Patel and Attorney General Bondi are silent. The five-year statute of limitations for prosecuting the wannabe bomber or bombers has yet to run out, on January 6, 2026. I asked Chrome AI mode, "What is the federal penalty for planting a pipe bomb, even if it doesn't explode?" It answered,

Planting a pipe bomb, even if it does not detonate, is a serious federal offense that can lead to imprisonment for a term of years or life, or even the death penalty, depending on the specific charges and the intent and circumstances of the act. The act can be prosecuted under various statutes, including those related to the use of a weapon of mass destruction or attempted malicious destruction by explosive, which carry severe penalties.

I've got to assume something is in the works, although the most obvious suspects, highly trained deep state operatives, probably aren't involved, due to the incredible amateurishness of the whole operation.