This year began in tragedy, as a man drove his truck, one with an ISIS flag, into those celebrating on Bourbon Street. He also got out and began firing. Police killed the suspect, Shamsud Din Jabbar, but not before he killed 14 people. There’s been plenty of concerns about how law enforcement, including the FBI, handled the terrorist attack, making it even more necessary for Kash Patel to be confirmed as President-elect Donald Trump’s FBI director. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), in a recent episode of “Unmuted with Marsha” weighed in on all of this, with a sneak peak exclusive shared with Townhall.
For such an episode, the first of this year, Blackburn spoke with Former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker.
The senator began by asking Swecker about the security barriers on Bourbon Street being down, broken, and in the process of being replaced. Blackburn had some pretty pertinent questions, “why was there no backup plan for this? How in the world could a law enforcement entity look at this and not have a proper backup plan to keep the public safe?” To add more embarrassment for the city, the police chief didn’t even know about the barriers.
Swecker offered that the issue was “complacency and incompetence,” adding, “I mean, there’s no other way to explain it.” He also spoke to the exact role that the FBI played in investigating the terrorist attack, and why they have not done such a great job.
“The city of New Orleans, and all law enforcement and the FBI, the agencies that are responsible for managing this type of event. Now the FBI is not primary, but they have an intelligence role to play. Nothing bad had happened in a long time, so they got complacent,” he offered. Swecker also reminded that having such barriers “is not an alien concept to them,” given that they have the Sugar Bowl every year, have had the Super Bowl, and Mardi Gras is a big annual celebration. New Orleans gets a multi-million dollar grant for security because of such events. […]
— Read More: townhall.com
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
