🚨 Heavy Lifting – October 28 2025

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Lead: War Prep in the Caribbean

Photo credit: US Navy photo

The U.S. is reportedly moving an aircraft carrier strike group, including destroyers, into South American waters in what increasingly looks like preparation for war with Venezuela.

Washington has long accused President Nicolás Maduro’s government of drug trafficking and “narco-terrorism,” using that label to justify drone striking independent vessels near Venezuelan waters. But deploying a full carrier group signals something far more serious.

If confirmed, this marks a major escalation. The U.S. has had its sights on regime change in Venezuela since the first Trump administration. Former National Security Advisor John Bolton even admitted that he pushed for a coup in Caracas while serving under Trump and the Bill Barr Justice Department indicted Maduro for the drug trade. That indictment is still active.

Why would they want that? Most likely because of oil. Venezuela has a lot of oil and China knows how to refine it.

If President Trump wants a war with Venezuela, shouldn’t he ask Congress to declare one? Lol. The U.S. has fought dozens of wars since the last formal declaration, which was against Japan in 1942. Everything since then has been executive “military actions,” “operations,” and “interventions.” Whatever you call it, it sure looks and feels like war.

The Charlie Kirk Shooting: Too Many Questions, Not Enough Answers

Photo credit: WQAD

Tyler Robinson’s pretrial hearing, originally set for this Thursday, has been pushed to mid-January. Robinson stands accused of fatally shooting conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.

The delay is irregular, especially since the government has yet to provide proof of its case against him.

The judge ruled that Robinson can appear for trial in civilian clothing rather than prison garb but he will be restrained. The judge did not issue a full ruling allowing cameras throughout the trial but he did amend the media order banning what we call the “perp walk.” This is the footage of a defendant walking into a courtroom or police station.

Meanwhile, questions persist about why Kirk’s chief of staff, Michael McCoy, walked away so calmly from the scene of the shooting, and why his father claimed McCoy had been “covered in blood” when video clearly shows he wasn’t. Turning Point USA addressed that on Monday, saying McCoy was “following protocol” to alert Kirk’s wife. That doesn’t track. He leaves the scene almost immediately, with no time to gather information for such a call. Nor does it explain why he claimed to be covered in blood when he was never near the body.

What’s happening here is an information vacuum. Lies, gaps, and contradictions are being filled by a growing set of legitimate questions.

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Grokipedia Arrives Amid X Algorithm ‘Bugs’

Photo credit: X

X, formerly Twitter, has launched a Wikipedia competitor called Grokipedia. It is meant to be an AI-powered encyclopedia without the baggage of Wikipedia. Elon Musk says that it is “fully open source, so anyone can use it for anything at no cost.”

As of this writing, it has a little over 800,000 articles but they are mostly a mirror of Wikipedia.

The date of this launch is notable because it is three years to the day after Musk bought Twitter. And how is that going?

Well, X was an important stalwart for free speech during the 2024 election but lately X has come under fire for being co-opted. In fact, Musk acknowledged that the algorithm on X has been manipulated but, don’t worry, he says, it’s fixed now.

He said that this had been due to a “bug.” This is anecdotal but that “bug” fed me non-stop pro-Israel politicians and pundits, including posts like this from Ted Cruz who I detest and do not follow.

The timing of this is strange because the “bug” showed up right after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a group of influencers that he wanted exactly this to happen on X.

Musk did not specify what had been fixed but he acknowledged that users had been “seeing far fewer posts from people that they follow.” He added that X would add a new setting in the Following feed to either see everything or only highlights.

Again, this is anecdotal, but it does feel like some of the faucet was turned back on but… we’ll see. You know, those pesky political manipulation bugs. You just never know where they come from!

News By The Numbers

Photo credit: Tishman Speyer

75 feet. That is the height of the Norway spruce tree that will be this year’s Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. It was planted more than 60 years ago and weighs 11 tons.

30,000. That is how many corporate employees Amazon will lay off this week, according to reports. That would make it the largest layoff in the company’s history.

Man “Discriminated” Against for Not Powerlifting With Women

Photo credit: Reduxx

The Supreme Court in Minnesota ruled that a man was discriminated against on the basis of sex and sexual orientation when he was barred from competing with women in powerlifting.

Joel “Jaycee” Cooper was prohibited from competing with female powerlifters by USA Powerlifting in 2018 and instead of admitting that he should stay out of the women’s category, he right away started litigating.

According to Reduxx, “in 2019, Cooper was recorded as weighing 280 pounds, and had already won two titles in the women’s category despite having only entered the sport the year before and set a new bench press record with a 214.5-pound lift.”

The judge in the Minnesota case sees no problem there. She ruled that he was discriminated on the basis of sex and sexual orientation.

This ruling may not stand for long. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear two major cases — one from West Virginia and another from Idaho — that could redefine how sex is interpreted under Title IX. Both involve bans on biological males competing in women’s sports. If the Court upholds those bans, it could effectively overturn decisions like this one in Minnesota.

I am betting that they will do exactly that so this guy should not unpack his gym bag in the ladies locker room just yet.

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