The solution to the famous Fermi paradox may lie in a hypothesis that has been around for almost 30 years. Back in 1950, physicist Enrico Fermi wondered where all the aliens were, and since then his question about why we haven’t found them if extraterrestrial civilizations exist has become known as the Fermi Paradox. Indeed, if life arose here on Earth, and the universe tends not to create things only once, then other life should arise in other parts of the universe. In fact, the entire cosmos should be filled with advanced extraterrestrial civilizations. A hypothesis called the “Great Filter” explains why we haven’t found all these intelligent life forms, writes Space. Even if we take into account the fact that potential aliens have problems with technological development, life expectancy, and various catastrophes can also prevent them from developing, this still does not explain why people have not discovered advanced intelligent life at least in our galaxy. The Milky Way has existed for more than 13 billion years, and this is more than enough for extraterrestrial civilizations to fill our galaxy. People should observe various technological artifacts, but they do not exist. The Great Filter A hypothesis called “The Great Filter” was proposed by scientist Robin Hanson in 1996. The idea is that very few, if any, civilizations in the universe reach a level of technological development that would allow them to fly into space. Therefore, intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations have not spread throughout our galaxy. That is, there is a filter that prevents any intelligent civilization from reaching a very high stage of development. Humanity is currently on a path to more extensive space exploration, so the idea that some filter might prevent us from doing so is a bit scary. The problem is that it is not known exactly when or where the filter actually occurs. Hanson proposed nine distinct stages that life would need to complete to move from the minor leagues to the majors: the right star system, reproductive molecules, prokaryotic life, eukaryotic life, sexual reproduction, multicellular life, some vague category of intelligence, an advanced civilization with the potential for colonization, and finally, when all the pieces are in place, dispersal throughout the galaxy. From what scientists know about the universe now, the ingredients for life are incredibly common throughout the cosmos, so it is unlikely that there is a filter. As for the emergence of simple life, we only have one example, but we know that as soon as conditions for life became possible on Earth, it emerged. This suggests that life may be more common than we think. Should humanity worry? As for the emergence of intelligence, we know that our intelligent species emerged only once in the history of life on Earth and that it took billions of years. This means that intelligent life may be very rare. So perhaps the filter is the difficulty in the emergence of intelligent beings. But if intelligent life is common in the universe, then there are many things to worry about. It means that intelligent species could easily arise on a planet, but something is preventing them from becoming an interstellar, galactic species. It could be that giant asteroids have wiped out intelligent life on planets, or it could be that any intelligent species is destroying itself. The point is that any species that can travel into space must be able to harness enormous amounts of energy. And that energy could be used to destroy a civilization before it can colonize other worlds. But perhaps colonizing the galaxy is more difficult than we think, or perhaps it just doesn’t make sense and humans just haven’t realized it yet. As for humanity, maybe we’re one of the few species that got past the filter and survived. The post The Great Filter: This Hypothesis Explains Why We Haven’t Found Aliens appeared first on Anomalien.com.

This past week, several MSNBC hosts pushed a sore loser narrative that the Republican House majority was won because of "rigged" congressional districts, with one host even claiming Republicans had been "cheating basically." After Joe Scarborough first started pushing the "rigged" election line on Tuesday by invoking gerrymandering, fellow hosts Nicolle Wallace, Lawrence O'Donnell and Chris Hayes joined him on Wednesday after outgoing Democrat Congressman Wiley Nickel published an op-ed in The News & Observer complaining about North Carolina Republicans redrawing his home state's districts, and Jonathan Capehart jumped in on Friday night. And, even though Republicans are heavily short-changed by California's district maps, O'Donnell spoke of the liberal state as if it were a model for how districts should be drawn. On Wednesday, as Morning Joe covered the issue for a second day, co-host Mika Brzezinski plugged the segment: "Coming up, one Democratic member of Congress says that Republicans in his state threw fairness out the window, and it cost his party control of the House. Democratic Congressman Wiley Nickel joins us next to explain." After a commercial break, Brzezinski dutifully promoted the Democrat spin on why the party lost: "Meanwhile, a growing number of Democrats are pointing to the congressional map in North Carolina as a key reason they could not wrestle back control of the House." She then read from Congressman Nickel's piece in which he hyper-focused on North Carolina's newly drawn districts costing Democrats three seats even though Republicans lost a couple of seats when courts recently forced the redrawing of districts in Alabama and Louisiana, handing Democrats two safe seats. As Scarborough again used the word "rigged" to refer to Republicans making changes in North Carolina, he merely referred to it as a "snafu" when Democrats tried to aggressively gerrymander their state's districts in 2022, which backfired on them when a court intervened. Appearing as a guest, Congressman Nickel asserted that "Republicans do it much more than Democrats." Later the same day on MSNBC's The Last Word, O'Donnell also had the Democrat congressman on, and the MSNBC host lauded the process used by California: "... this is the kind of thing that cannot happen in California, for example, the state with the most congressional districts, because they have taken redistricting out of politics and given it to an independent body to do it." But, even though a nonpartisan commission draws the districts in California, there were only seven out of 52 districts that voted Republican in the 2020 presidential election even though 34 percent of the state's voters voted for Donald Trump, which would have been equivalent to 18 districts. In 2024, Trump won 38 percent, the equivalent of 20 districts, but only nine districts were won by Republicans while 43 were won by Democrats. The truth is there are plenty of states where the number of safe districts each party has is out of proportion to the state's overall voting pattern, and there are about as many cases of Republicans being short-changed as there are Democrats. As Wallace anchored Deadline: White House, she declared that gerrymandering is "cheating basically," and had on liberal redistricting activist Marc Elias who similarly pushed the line that Republicans are worse about gerrymandering than Democrats, and cited California as an example to emulate. It should be noted that before California started using a commission in 2012, the number of Republicans in the state's congressional delegation had not dropped below 19 out of 53 within the previous decade, which kept the proportion that each party held consistent with statewide popular vote totals. But, for next year's Congress, the number of Republicans will stand at just nine out of 52. Transcripts follow: MSNBC's Morning Joe December 4, 2024 9:23 a.m. Eastern MIKA BRZEZINSKI (before commercial break): Coming up, one Democratic member of Congress says that Republicans in his state threw fairness out the window, and it cost his party control of the House. Democratic Congressman Wiley Nickel joins us next to explain. (...) Meanwhile, a growing number of Democrats are pointing to the congressional map in North Carolina as a key reason they could not wrestle back control of the House. In a new op-ed for The News & Observer, Democratic Congressman Wiley Nickel of North Carolina writes in part this: North Carolina is a state of balance, a true purple state. With our nearly 50-50 split between Democrats and Republicans, North Carolinians expect fairness when it comes to how their voices are represented in Congress. But the Republican-controlled legislature's latest gerrymandered election maps did more than just silence voters in North Carolina. They reshaped the balance of power in Washington, D.C., costing Democrats control of the U.S. House of Representatives. And now, with Adam Gray's victory in California's 13th district giving Republicans a bare three-seat majority in the U.S. House, it's clear that gerrymandering in North Carolina tipped the scales in their favor and cost Democrats control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Congressman Nickel did not run for re-election this year, citing his district as one of three in North Carolina that were vastly shaped by Republican gerrymandering. And Congressman Nickel joins us now. JOE SCARBOROUGH: So, Congressman, Dave Wasserman brought this up about a week ago saying, you know, people don't understand, but a rigged map -- he didn't -- not his words, mine -- but a rigged gerrymandered map in North Carolina was the difference between Democrats controlling the House of Representatives for the next two years and Republicans. Of course, you can go back to 2022, and it was Democratic snafus in redistricting in New York state that actually put Republicans in charge. So, I'm just curious, how do we get past this gerrymandering? And how can states like yours actually reflect the will of the voters, the will of the people, and not the will of one party or the other like rigging the maps? CONGRESSMAN WILEY NICKEL (D-NC): Well, thank you so much for having me. You know, the first point really important from that opinion piece is that Hakeem Jeffries ought to be the Speaker of the House right now. And if it wasn't for Republicans in North Carolina rigging the system for my seat and two others, Hakeem Jeffries would be the Speaker of the House. But the solution of course is we have to get partisan gerrymandering -- we have to take it away -- we have to let the voters choose the folks that represent them in Washington. I have a bill for that -- the Fair Maps Act -- that would require nonpartisan independent redistricting in every state. But this is the thing that is wrecking Congress, and, in this case, it's cost Democrats control because of a rare, mid-decade gerrymander in North Carolina. (...) But the fact is, Republicans do it much more than Democrats. It's wrong no matter who does it. But if you took -- look at the districts that are heavily gerrymandered -- North Carolina specifically -- where you get districts that don't represent the majority will of the state. North Carolina, again, a 50=50 state, 71 percent of the seats gong to Republcans because of extreme partisan gerrymandering.  (...) MSNBC's Deadline: White House December 4, 2024 5:38 p.m. Eastern NICOLLE WALLACE: So, come January 2025, it will be a one-seat majority for Speaker Mike Johnson. That's what he has to work with. But who does he have to thank for having that at all? Well, the Republicans in North Carolina because if it were not for the hyperpartisan gerrymander enacted by the Republicans in that state, he might not even be the Speaker. North Carolina voted for Donald Trump by a little over three percentage points this November, but it had three congressional seats flipped to the GOP as a result of the radical new Republican-leaning congressional map in that state. Which the Brennan Center describes this way, quote, "Along with Texas as one of the two most extreme congressional maps currently in place." Joining our conversation, voting rights attorney, founder of the site Democracy Docket, our friend Marc Elias is here. Tell us about North Carolina. MARC ELIAS, DEMOCRACY DOCKET: Yeah, so, first of all, it's worth noting that Texas was also a Republican gerrymander. So both of the two states were gerrymandered by Republicans. But North Carolina is really a special case because, you know, North Carolina had engaged in an extreme partisan gerrymander before, and, as a result of a lawsuit that my law firm brought along with others. We struck that down as violating the state constitution banning partisan gerrymandering. And what you had as a result was a fair map -- a map that was drawn that represented the diversity and the partisan balance of North Carolina. Well, what happened next is Republicans took control of the state supreme court, and, as soon as that happened, the legislature passed a new gerrymandered map -- a more extreme gerrymander than even before, ran that up to the state supreme court, and the state supreme court reversed the precedent that had just been set the year earlier, and said that, "Oh, no, no, no, partisan is just fine when Republicans do it." And, to be clear, while it is true that Donald Trump won the state by three points, it is also true that a Democrat won the governorship and won some other statewide offices. So, you know, this is really a 50-50 state. And, you know, but yet you look at the map for Congress and you look at the state legislative map, and they are extreme Republican gerrymanders. (...) WALLACE: So when we talk about gerrymandering, we're literally talking about choosing your voters, right? So they went in and they chose their voters, you know, stacking the deck, cheating basically. And I wonder how you -- especially in light of all the conversations we've had over the last four years -- how you make sure that no one looks away. I mean, we're in this razor-thin country -- the country appears to have voted in the mirror image of itself -- half for Trump, half for Harris -- a little more than half for Trump because he won the popular vote and the Electoral College -- but how do you make sure that what the Republicans are doing on the margins is not just countered legally by what you're doing, but people understand the effort and why they're doing what they're doing? ELIAS: Yeah, so the first thing is we have to be talking about this constantly. You can't just talk about it in the years in which redistricting is done every 10 years. So the fact that we're talking about it today is really a testament to you and the importance of talking about this all the time and also talking about it as the practical consequence that it has for America. The second is, we need to make sure that people understand the facts. You know, one of the big lies that Republicans tell -- which, by the way, they're aided and abetted by far too many lazy people in the media because they say, "Well, everybody gerrymanders." Well, there are two states that don't gerrymander. How about California which has a citizen commission and New York which has a state constitutional provision that was put in place to prevent against partisan gerrymandering. So what does that mean? It means that in Democratic-controlled states, we see this throughout the country -- they enact reforms to prevent against partisan gerrymandering. If you look at states like North Carolina or Ohio or Texas, you see Republicans do the opposite. In Ohio, Republicans defeated a ballot measure that would have prevented there partisan gerrymandering. But it is important that all parts of the media, you know, speak out about this -- year in, year out -- and talk about what the consequences are like here, the fact that Republicans will have control of the House rather than Democrats. And think about what the difference in accountability for Donald Trump would look like if Democrats had a one-seat majority. (...) MSNBC's All In December 4, 2024 8:46 p.m. Eastern CHRIS HAYES: In fact, the only thing that stood between Democrats and an outright congressional majority in this election were the three seats that North Carolina Republicans flipped thanks to a gerrymandered map drawn up by the right-wing state legislature last year. Without that, Congress was looking at a Hakeem Jeffries Speakership. (...) MSNBC's The Last Word December 4, 2024 10:49 p.m. Eastern LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: The final count of Republicans in the House later next year could go up to 220 versus 215. North Carolina Democratic Congressman Wiley Nickel believes gerrymandering in North Carolina prevented the Democrats from winning the House this time. He writes: The Republican-controlled legislature's latest gerrymandered election maps did more than just silence voters in North Carolina. They reshaped the balance of power in Washington, D.C., costing Democrats control of the House of Representatives. They threw fairness out the window, forcing through a mid-decade map that handed Republicans an unfair 10-4 advantage in the next Congress. That's 71 percent of California's seats in the U.S. House going to Republicans. My district along with the districts of Jeff Jackson and Kathy Manning were turned into safe Republican seats where Democrats had zero chance to win. Had North Carolina sent the three of us back to Washington, under fair maps, then New York Representative Hakeem Jeffries would be our next Speaker of the House with a one-seat Democratic majority at 218-217. Joining our discussion now, Democratic Congressman Wiley Nickel of North Carolina. He's a former North Carolina state senator. Congressman Nickel, this is really a stunning turn in the effect of gerrymandering to actually have it end up deciding control of the House. CONGRESSMAN WILEY NICKEL (D-NC): Absolutely. You know, Hakeem Jeffries ought to be Speaker right now. Democrats ought to have a seat at the table with Donald Trump, and that's what gerrymandering has cost our nation. It has literally changed the course of our nation's history. The three seats that Republicans gerrymandered with surgical precision in North Carolina are the difference in control of the next Congress. It's a big deal, and it is something that I think is that, when we're talking about this Congress, it's important to point out they don't have a mandate from the American public. They have a gerrymander that put them in power. O'DONNELL: Yeah, this is the kind of thing that cannot happen in California, for example, the state with the most congressional districts, because they have taken redistricting out of politics and given it to an independent body to do it. CONGRESSMAN NICKEL: Yeah, no, we've got to get the power to redraw maps out of the hands of politicians and have independent redistricting commissions. I have a bill for that. ... (...) MSNBC's The Last Word December 6, 2024 10:47 p.m. Eastern JONATHAN CAPEHART: And North Carolina's Republican supermajority may have cost Democrats control of the United -- U.S. House when it passed a new gerrymandered redistricting map that redrew three competitive congressional districts represented by Democrats to bright red ones. Those three seats would have put the U.S. House seat count at 218 to Republicans' 217 and made Hakeem Jeffries Speaker.

Check out the headline and lead sentence of the front-page story on the Daniel Perry acquittal in Tuesday’s New York Times, “Jury Acquits Man Who Was Choking Rider On Subway Cleared of Homicide -- Split Reaction in a Case Reflecting Tensions in New York City,” by Hurubie Meko and Anusha Bayya. Yes, a man just randomly choked an innocent subway “rider” in New York City -- not a loud, threatening disruptor with a long criminal record who posed a potentially deadly threat to other passengers. The lead was no better. Again what a bizarre way to describe Daniel Penny’s brave subduing of Jordan Neely. Daniel Penny, a former Marine who choked a fellow subway rider on an uptown F train last year, was acquitted on a charge of criminally negligent homicide on Monday, ending a case that had come to exemplify New York City’s post-pandemic struggles. The jurors decided that Mr. Penny’s actions were not criminal when he held the rider, Jordan Neely, in a chokehold as the two men struggled on the floor of a subway car on May 1, 2023. There was nothing on Neely’s lengthy criminal record, 42 prior arrests in just eight years, including four for alleged assault, at least two instances of which took place in yes, the subway system. The story didn’t get much better. Neely, who was homeless and had a history of mental illness, had strode through the subway car that afternoon, yelling at passengers and frightening them, according to witnesses. After the forewoman announced the verdict, the courtroom erupted, with some people cheering the outcome and others responding with anger. The paper’s standard labeling slant was present, with “conservatives” and “Republicans” present on Penny’s side but no “liberals” or “Democrats” on Neely’s side. As prosecutors were set to close their case last Tuesday, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, called Mr. Penny “innocent” and a “hero” in a social media post. “Under Alvin Bragg, saving a train car full of innocent people is a crime,” the group posted. For others, the killing showed the city’s inability or unwillingness to help its most vulnerable and marginalized residents. And Mr. Penny, they said, deserved to be punished. Members of Black Lives Matter and the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network protested across from the courthouse nearly every morning, their chants sometimes audible inside the stuffy courtroom on the 13th floor where the trial unfolded. As Mr. Penny walked into the building, they would shout “murderer” and “subway strangler.” There were two more paragraphs of quotes from Sharpton, the racial ambulance chaser who is himself supposedly a journalist, hosting a show on MSNBC. The same authors wrote a follow-up for Wednesday’s edition, “In Penny Verdict, a Flashpoint in the Debate Over Crime and Mental Illness -- A New York jury acquitted Daniel Penny in the death of Jordan Neely. Republican politicians hailed the verdict. But some New Yorkers found it deeply disturbing.” Were only “Republican politicians” happy that justice prevailed? The conceit that real New Yorkers take dangerous subway rides in stride is just a strain of urban liberal pride. Again, Neely’s violent criminal record was left on the cutting room floor by the Times. If the death of Mr. Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man who had struggled with mental health problems, had left New Yorkers unnerved and divided, the verdict quickly became yet another flashpoint in the nation’s debate over how best to address issues of crime and justice, homelessness and mental illness. Again the reporters purported to pit “Republican political figures” against real New Yorkers. But in New York, some found the verdict deeply troubling…. The reporters didn’t even follow up on the relevant facts they raised: If the city knew Neely was a danger to either himself or others, why was he still roaming free? Some residents saw Mr. Neely as the embodiment of a system that had broken down, letting vulnerable people slip through the cracks. Mr. Neely was on a city list informally known as the Top 50, a small number of people in a city of eight million who stand out for the severity of their troubles and their resistance to accepting help. For others, it was emblematic of a string of high-profile crimes on the city’s subways, many involving homeless and mentally ill people, and evidence of the city’s inability to keep residents safe….

The U.S. Capitol Police lieutenant who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was recommended for termination in 2001 for abandoning his post in the Speaker’s Office for a card game in a nearby cloakroom, then lying about it to Internal Affairs Division investigators, Blaze News has learned. The 2001 investigation of Michael L. Byrd, 56, was the first known disciplinary case brought against the lieutenant who crept from his blind near the doors to the Speaker’s Lobby on Jan. 6, 2021, and shot Babbitt to death. The 2001 incident is the fourth such disciplinary case disclosed since Nov. 20. A source with detailed knowledge of the Internal Affairs Division case told Blaze News that Byrd was charged with abandoning his post, eating and drinking at his post, and lying to investigators — a terminable offense. It is one of three Byrd disciplinary cases for which records could not be found when a House oversight subcommittee requested them in early 2024, the source said. Byrd was assigned to the Speaker’s Office of U.S. Rep. Denny Hastert (R-Ill.) on the evening in question. During his break, Byrd went to play cards in a cloak room near the House Chamber, the source said. 'He ends up getting into some trouble, but they won't terminate him.' Byrd went to relieve the officer who covered Hastert’s office during Byrd’s break, but then abandoned his post and returned to the cloakroom to play cards, the source told Blaze News. “Well, the sergeant walks by and was like, ‘Man, there’s nobody in the Speaker’s Office,’” said the source, who has worked in the top levels of U.S. Capitol Police administration. “This is a big issue.” An internal investigation was opened. “Of course, we have cameras everywhere and we track him walking off post, going back to the cloakroom,” the source said. “And we talked to the other people in there and he was in there playing cards.” Investigators also found that Byrd was eating and drinking at his post in the Speaker’s Office, activities forbidden by department policy, the source said. “Supposed to be a bit of the decorum there, but he’s sitting in a chair eating and drinking a soda, which is a big taboo, especially back then,” the source said. “It’s the Speaker’s Office.” Investigators confronted Byrd with their findings. He denied it all. “Mike denies that he was supposed to be assigned to the post,” the source told Blaze News. “So therefore he couldn’t abandon the post. He denied eating and denied drinking on the post.” Investigators already had the evidence they needed, but they gave Byrd a chance to come clean, the source said. “They told him — and this is what we do when we’re getting ready to charge somebody — ‘We know different, Mike. There are video cameras up there.’ Mike still denies it.” Then-Lt. Michael L. Byrd shot Ashli Elizabeth Babbitt at 2:44 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, just as she leaned out a broken window into the House Speaker’s Lobby. As Byrd’s disciplinary record is being revealed in 2024, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said she wants Byrd charged with homicide.Photos by John Sullivan (left) and Aaron Babbitt The USCP disciplinary officer recommended that Byrd be fired. “So they charge him with eating, drinking on post, abandoning post,” the source said. “They charge him with untruthful statements with the recommendation to terminate.” Even with the evidence and firing recommendation, Capitol Police administration did not part ways with Byrd. “He ends up getting into some trouble, but they won’t terminate him,” the source said. “So therefore they didn’t want to move forward with the untruthful statements [charge], but that was still a sustained charge against him.” The source questioned how records of the 2001 case and two other disciplinary cases brought against Byrd could be “missing,” as congressional investigators were told by the USCP in early 2024. There are too many intersecting emails and memos outside Byrd’s internal-affairs jacket for the record to be fully missing, the source said. “That would’ve been documented so many different ways that it’d be impossible for them not to have it,” the source said. “It’s funny to me that everyone knows Mike’s a liar and the case that sustains it that had all the evidence that shows he is a liar is something that Tad [DiBiase] and the department can’t find when there’s all these different records. If they just did a search on the emails, all this stuff, it would be in existence.” Thomas A. “Tad” DiBiase is general counsel for U.S. Capitol Police. Blaze News reached out to the Capitol Police and an attorney for Byrd but did not receive a reply by press time. Concerns about promotion As more details of Byrd’s work history emerge, a key Republican lawmaker expressed reservations about Byrd’s 2023 promotion to captain. “I have concerns about this decision, given Byrd’s lengthy disciplinary history and the apparent political influence of internal operational decisions related to Byrd following January 6, 2021,” U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) wrote in a Nov. 20 letter to Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger. Revelation of Byrd’s 2001 disciplinary case comes as congressional investigators disclosed the lengths Democrat lawmakers and Capitol Police went to after Jan. 6 to provide Byrd with income, security upgrades at his Maryland home, and months of free lodging at a secure military hotel at Joint Base Andrews in Prince George’s County, Md. U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), shown here at a GOP leadership press event in Washington, D.C., Dec. 4, 2024, recently disclosed that several disciplinary cases had been filed over 20 years against Michael Byrd, the Capitol Police lieutenant who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Photo by NathanPosner/Anadolu via Getty Images Records obtained by the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight showed top House Democrats worked with DiBiase to find ways to help Byrd financially in the months after he shot and killed Babbitt at the Capitol. The records were first disclosed by journalist John Solomon and Just the News. Byrd was given $36,000 in unrestricted funds as a “retention bonus” in 2021, while other Capitol Police officers received around $3,000 each. Byrd was reimbursed for more than $21,000 in security upgrades for his personal residence in Prince George’s County. Capitol Police paid to house Byrd at the Joint Base Andrews military facility from July 2021 until late January 2022 at a cost of more than $35,000, according to records obtained by Judicial Watch Inc. When he left the base for any reason, Byrd was provided with a Capitol Police dignitary protection detail, which a source told Blaze News could easily cost $425 per hour. 'This is really bad for you all to do this when you know we’re expecting to have funds soon.' DiBiase met with Jamie Fleet, staff director for then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), to discuss options to help Byrd, according to an email uncovered by congressional investigators. Pelosi had earlier said that she wanted Byrd “taken care of,” said a Blaze News source who directly witnessed the statement during a meeting. DiBiase suggested that they could place Byrd at one of the department’s “continuity sites,” but that would require a top-secret clearance. Continuity sites are maintained to ensure that Capitol Police could continue to operate and communicate in the event of a catastrophe in Washington, D.C. “We believe it would be very difficult for him to obtain one, give that he has had significant financial issues in the past and is currently on the USCP Lewis List,” DiBiase wrote. The Lewis List is a confidential database of police officers who have disciplinary records and could face added scrutiny if they were called as witnesses in criminal cases. Capitol Police considered assigning Byrd as head of security at the USCP Alternate Communications Facility, which is located outside the capital region. Under such a plan, Byrd could be awarded a per-diem payment for expenses. Sources told Blaze News that other Capitol Police officers assigned to the ACF have not been given per-diem payments. Avoid fitness-for-duty test DiBiase wrote that the USCP could help Byrd obtain mental health assistance, “but not move forward on a FFDE [fitness for duty evaluation] since a negative one could mean we should not allow him to carry our USCP-issued firearm if he is not fit to be a police officer. “We believe it is more important for him to have his weapon and the ability to defend himself,” DiBiase wrote. “We have no indication Mike intends to harm himself and he has access to personal weapons, so even if we were to remove his weapon, there would still be some danger.” According to Loudermilk’s Nov. 20 letter, the Capitol Police had planned to loan a shotgun to Byrd, but he failed the federal background check and did not qualify after shotgun training. There was an early plan to provide Byrd with a payment from the Capitol Police Officers Memorial Fund, which was founded to honor fallen officers and support their survivors. Byrd expressed frustration that the fund was being opened to officers who were injured on Jan. 6. “What you proposed could take months,” Byrd wrote in an email to DiBiase at 8:47 p.m. Nov. 16, 2021. “Our expectation was that this would be done soon. Now you’re telling me we got to wait for the rest of the department to even file claims, get evaluated and go through the process we have endured for months. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said she hopes incoming Attorney General Pam Bondi files murder charges against Capitol Police Capt. Michael Byrd, who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt outside the Speaker's Lobby on Jan. 6, 2021. Photo by Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images “That is blatantly wrong to treat us like this,” Byrd wrote. “This was never proposed to us in this manner. Now we’re being grouped in with everyone else. Wow! This is really bad for you all to do this when you know we’re expecting to have funds soon. So disappointing!” In a reply email one minute later, DiBiase was taken aback by Byrd’s attitude. “I’m sorry you are disappointed,” DiBiase wrote. “I find that surprising since we have already provided you $36,000 in unrestricted retention funds. You know what the rest of the department is receiving? $3,000 each. Yes, you are being lumped in with the other 91 officers who suffered injuries that day. The Memorial Fund is for the entire department, not one officer.” Byrd shot back 20 minutes later, “We play the game as you request and then once we’re in compliance you guys change the rules on us. If we were aware that our situation would be looped in with everyone on the department then we would have been better prepared. “We were expecting this was for us and everyone else has their own situation,” Byrd wrote. As a postscript, Byrd added: “Just so you know, my wife is vividly upset and in tears because of this news. We have to wait additionally for the fund and can’t get approval to start the GoFundMe. Happy Holidays!” Byrd’s weapon was pointed directly at the back of U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas). Word of the proposal to give Byrd a potentially hefty payment from the memorial fund spread around the department, and officers were not happy, said Gus Papathanasiou, chairman of the United States Capitol Police Labor Committee. Papathanasiou said he expressed his opposition to the idea directly to acting Chief Yogananda Pittman. Rumors swirled around the department that Pittman wanted to give Byrd $400,000 from the memorial fund, he said. “I brought it up in a formal meeting, and I had a couple of my board members with me,” Papathanasiou told Blaze News. “She looked at me like I had 10 heads. She wouldn’t agree or deny it that it happened or it was going to happen. “Once we got wind of it and brought it to their attention, all of a sudden it kind of took them aback. They didn't expect it,” Papathanasiou said. A GoFundMe account set up in November 2021 to benefit Byrd ended up raising $164,206 from 3,621 donors. One of the largest donations came from U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who chipped in $2,500. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), a member of the Jan. 6 Select Committee, donated $200. “A worthy cause, as this man has faced quite an onslaught of misinformation and extreme threats,” Kinzinger posted on Twitter Nov. 18, 2021. Byrd was notified by DiBiase on July 15, 2022, that he would not receive any payments from the Officers Memorial Fund. In an email reply a few hours later, Byrd said: “I will address on my own. USCP will not look good as a result.” The department also looked at whether it could provide funding to Byrd to cover closing costs on the sale/purchase of a new home, according to the July 2021 DiBiase email. Earlier discipline cases revealed In November 2024, Loudermilk’s subcommittee disclosed several other disciplinary cases brought against Byrd since 2004. Those included charges that he fired a weapon at fleeing vehicles near his home and provided an “inaccurate” account to investigators, claiming the vehicles were coming at him and attempting to run him over. The Capitol Police Internal Affairs Division determined that Byrd violated use of force and use of weapons policies by discharging his service weapon in a “careless and imprudent manner.” Byrd appealed the finding to the Disciplinary Review Board, which overruled the OPR findings. Questions have been raised about Byrd’s handling of his service weapon on Jan. 6, besides the fatal shooting. A news photo distributed by Getty Images shows Capitol Police plainclothes agents with their guns pointed at the main House door after rioters in the hallway outside broke out some of the door’s frosted panes of glass. The agents had their fingers straight along the barrels, above the triggers of their weapons. U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd appears to have his finger on the trigger of his service weapon while walking on the U.S. House floor as rioters broke windows at the House entrance at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Photo by Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Graphic overlay by Blaze News Byrd walked down the row of seats nearest the door with his finger on the trigger of his Glock handgun, the photo showed. He carried the Glock in his right hand at hip level and a package or similar object in his left hand. Law enforcement officers are trained to keep their fingers off the trigger until they intend to fire and not point a weapon at any target they don’t intend to shoot. Byrd’s weapon was pointed directly at the back of U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), who was defending the House entrance with a long wooden hand sanitizer stand. Four other plainclothes and uniformed police officers were in his vicinity at the time. In 2015, Byrd was suspended without pay for seven days for an incident at a high school football game where Byrd berated an officer from the Montgomery County Police Department working security at the game, accusing him of being a “piece of sh*t” and a “racist a**hole.” Byrd was suspended for 33 days without pay in 2019 for leaving his loaded service weapon in a bathroom in the Capitol Visitor Center. The gun was left unattended in the bathroom for some 55 minutes before it was discovered by another officer. Byrd also has a long history of financial troubles, according to Maryland public records and federal court filings. In August 2019, the federal government won a tax-lien judgment of $56,366 against Byrd in Prince George’s Circuit Court. According to federal court records, Byrd filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy on March 9, 2009, and the case was converted to Chapter 7 bankruptcy in July 2010. Creditors filed $1.27 million in claims against Byrd. The case was discharged for $14,563. Byrd also filed for bankruptcy in April 1999, and the case was discharged in July 1999. Archived U.S. Bankruptcy Court records do not indicate the amount of debt discharged in the case. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Mel Gibson at a Tuesday night event at President-elect Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago said he'd "have to kill someone" if any of his nine children got sex-trafficked. The Hollywood actor-director spoke at the America’s Future Champions for America Celebration Gala, which the likes of Kid Rock and Tucker Carlson also attended. 'We’ll see how much this administration can claw back from the Philistines.' Video of the "Lethal Weapon" franchise star speaking to the crowd shows him taking note of the “thinly veiled Marxism” America is enduring under President Joe Biden — as well as what he called a “four-year grace period” the country will enjoy under Trump's incoming administration. "But we have to work hard," Gibson said before adding that "the president’s got a big job on his hands to turn this place around; a lot of damage was done. And they continue to start fires, just like around my house." He also thanked retired Gen. Michael Flynn, who served in Trump’s first administration, for his work against sex trafficking, saying he's “exposing all these wolves in sheep’s clothing that prey upon our young.” Then Gibson warned what he'd do if anything happened to his children. “I mean, I got nine kids. ... If one of them got stolen or trafficked or something, I’d have to kill someone,” he stated matter-of-factly, after which the crowd erupted in applause. Gibson is one of several executive producers for 2023's "Sound of Freedom" movie about the battle against child sex trafficking. In closing, Gibson — with a noticeable enthusiastic grit to his voice — stated that he hopes "in the next four years we can get back some of that precious commodity that this country has, that commodity called freedom, all right? We’ll see how much this administration can claw back from the Philistines.” You can view Gibson's remarks here. Gibson's faith — and endurance Gibson — who directed and financed 2004's box-office behemoth "The Passion of the Christ" — has been open about his Catholicism. In July he showed support for conservative Catholic Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, whom the Vatican excommunicated. Gibson praised Viganò for calling out "core problems" within the Catholic Church and, in Gibson's view, "the illegitimacy of [Pope] Francis." Gibson is a sedevacantist, or someone who believes the Holy See is vacant and the last legitimate pope was Pope Pius XII, who died in 1958. Sedevacantists reject the authority of the Second Vatican Council. A fellow actor in 2021 urged Hollywood to "Cancel Mel Gibson" for being a "raging anti-Semite" — and promptly received a cyber spanking for dusting off "old news" and pushing "censorship." It's pretty common knowledge that nearly 20 years ago, Gibson went on a drunken, anti-Semitic rant in the back of police car and then endured a huge tailspin. He and his longtime wife divorced, a subsequent relationship came unglued amid battery accusations, there was a child custody battle — and of course, Hollywood shunned him. Gibson, of course, apologized for his words and worked on putting his life back together ever since. Of particular note is that he reportedly educated himself about the Holocaust and quietly conducted related endeavors, such as his philanthropic work to help Holocaust survivors in eight countries through the Survivor Mitzvah Project. 'Unless you are completely without sin' In the spirit of digging up old news, way back in 2011, actor Robert Downey Jr. chided a star-studded audience on Gibson's behalf during a speech for an award that Downey specifically had Gibson present to him. "I humbly ask that you join me, unless you are completely without sin — in which case you picked the wrong f***ing industry — in forgiving my friend his trespasses, offering him the same clean slate that you have me, and allowing him to continue his great and ongoing contribution to our collective art without shame," Downey said in regard to Gibson. Before those pointed words, Downey revealed to listeners how Gibson had helped him — before Gibson's own downfall: When I couldn't get sober, he told me not to give up hope, and he urged me to find my faith. It didn't have to be his or anyone else's as long as it was rooted in forgiveness. And I couldn't get hired, so he cast me in a lead of a movie that was actually developed for him. And he kept a roof over my head, and he kept food on the table. And most importantly he said that if I accepted responsibility for my wrongdoings, and if I embraced that part of my soul that was ugly — "hugging the cactus," he calls it — he said that if I hugged the cactus long enough I'd become a man of some humility, and that my life would take on a new meaning, and I did, and it worked. All he asked in return was that someday I'd help the next guy in some small way. It's reasonable to assume that at the time he didn't imagine that the next guy would be him or that someday was tonight! Downey added that Gibson had "hugged the cactus long enough!" Check out the clip here. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Sunny Hostin of Disney's "The View," the co-host who unwittingly helped derail the Harris campaign, asked former President Bill Clinton Wednesday whether President Joe Biden should shield fellow travelers from accountability with pre-emptive pardons. Clinton appeared reluctant to endorse the move, even after Hostin personalized the proposal by throwing failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's name into the mix. Although unwilling to advocate for his wife's pardon, Clinton did attempt to sanitize her record, suggesting she did nothing wrong. Senior Democrats speaking to Politico under the condition of anonymity claimed last week that top Biden aides have been "conducting a vigorous internal debate over whether to issue pre-emptive pardons to a range of current and former public officials who could be targeted with President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House." Among the names raised during the deliberations organized by White House counsel Ed Siskel, allegedly in Biden's absence, were former Jan. 6 committee member Liz Cheney, then-Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci. It is unclear whether Hillary Clinton's name came up in the deliberations even though her record has proven to be of great interest in recent years to President-elect Donald Trump and his allies, including Kash Patel, who made sure to mention her in his book "Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy." There might also be some unfinished business. 'These matters absolutely warrant additional exposure.' Blaze News previously noted that a Department of Justice report released in May 2023 by special counsel John Durham revealed that the FBI shut down at least four criminal investigations into Hillary Clinton and the Clintons' nonprofit foundation ahead of the 2016 presidential election at the request of the agency's top officials closely connected with the Clinton family. FBI field offices in Washington, D.C., Little Rock, Arkansas, and New York launched separate investigations into the Clinton Foundation in 2016 for "possible criminal activity." Then-Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe, who has since become one of the loudest opponents to Kash Patel's nomination as Trump's FBI director, initially told the field offices investigating the Clinton Foundation to "close their cases," expressing anger at the very existence of the probes. The New York Times indicated that the Justice Department nevertheless kept open the investigation into the foundation for most of Trump's first term. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, whom Trump initially tapped to head the Department of Justice in his second term, said upon the release of the report, "These matters absolutely warrant additional exposure and review." 'Three of those were classified at the time they were sent or received.' "Donald Trump will be returning to the White House unburdened by the pressure of re-election, with sweeping immunity granted to him, I believe, by the Supreme Court, and an alleged enemies list, we're hearing," Hostin said Wednesday. "Do you think it would be wise of President Biden to pre-emptively pardon any potential targets? What about your wife, Hillary Clinton?" "They've got a problem with her because, first, she didn't do anything wrong; second, she followed the rules exactly as they were written," said Clinton. "Third, Trump's State Department found — you remember how the emails were such a big issue in 2016? Trump's State Department found that Hillary sent and received exactly zero classified emails on her personal device. It was a made-up, phony story." While Obama's secretary of state, Hillary Clinton apparently used a personal email server to transmit classified and top secret information. Former FBI Director James Comey indicated in July 2016 that from the group of 30,000 emails returned to the State Department, 110 emails in 52 email chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification. Separate from those, about 2,000 additional emails were "up-classified" to make them Confidential; the information in those had not been classified at the time the emails were sent. Comey added, "With respect to the thousands of emails we found that were not among those produced to State, agencies have concluded that three of those were classified at the time they were sent or received, one at the Secret level and two at the Confidential level." 'If he pardons them, that sort of implies they did something wrong.' Hillary Clinton, who previously said under oath that she never sent or received classified messages, claimed in her FBI interview that she did not know what the classified markings in select emails meant. Comey suggested to Congress that it may have been a "reasonable inference" for Clinton to conclude the emails were not classified. Following a years-long investigation into the matter, the State Department found that 38 State Department officials had been "culpable" in 91 cases of sending classified information that ended up in Clinton's email, reported the Associated Press. While the State Department report claimed that there was "no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information," it nevertheless indicated that there were 588 violations involving information then or subsequently deemed classified and "that the use of a private email system to conduct official business added an increased degree of risk of compromise as a private system lacks the network monitoring and intrusion detection capabilities of State Department networks." The investigation apparently did not look at emails Clinton deleted on the advice of counsel. After telling the hosts of "The View" that Kash Patel could find fault if so inclined, Clinton said, "If President Biden wanted to talk to me about that, I would talk to him about it, but I don't think I should be giving public advice on the pardon power. I think it's too — it's a very personal thing. It is — I hope he won't do that." "Most of us get out of this world ahead of where we'd get if all we got was simple justice. It's normally a fool's errand to spend a lot of time trying to get even," added Clinton. Joy Behar chimed in, "If he pardons them, that sort of implies they did something wrong, which they didn't." "Not necessarily," said Clinton. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

New Total War Warhammer 3 DLC Omens of Destruction is out today, and it marks the conclusion of a rollercoaster year for Creative Assembly. The studio came into 2024 recoiling from negative feedback around the price and value of its Shadows of Change DLC. Since then, it’s spent the year winning back player sentiment with free updates and its Thrones of Decay expansion. Now it’s looking to continue that resurgence in Omens of Destruction, which delivers three paid legendary lords alongside a free one. Ahead of its release, I sat down with senior game director Rich Aldridge to ask how the team picks its next factions to update, and what lies ahead for the series. Continue reading Total War Warhammer 3’s Omens of Destruction DLC wants to get roleplaying right MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Total War: Warhammer 3 DLC, Total War: Warhammer 3 races, Total War: Warhammer 3 review

A new report claims that Qualcomm, maker of the Snapdragon CPU range, could be testing its next-generation chip, and this time it looks as though the company is properly aiming to take on Intel and AMD in the desktop PC market. One of the best mini PC makers, Geekom, has already announced desktop Arm PC, but Qualcomm could now be eyeing up an official desktop CPU launch. Apparently dubbed “Project Glymur”, the new hardware potentially shows an Arm-based future for the desktop PC as we know it. Continue reading Qualcomm is reportedly testing a desktop Arm CPU, as PC gaming shift looms MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best graphics card, Best gaming PC, Best SSD for gaming

ALL THE JOY! Jill Biden Openly and JOYFULLY Trolling Kamala Shows Just How Much She HATES Her (Watch)

'This Ends in January': Defense Dept. Priority Indicates Pete Hegseth Can't Get There Fast Enough