Good; now do the same to Murphy and his fellow Democrats

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Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) will propose sweeping reforms to DHS, including requiring a warrant for arrests, banning masks during enforcement operations and requiring Border Patrol to remain at the border after an ICE officer killed a woman in Minneapolis this week, Axios has learned.

Driving the news: Murphy, the top Democrat on the Senate appropriations subcommittee that oversees DHS, is also trying to build a coalition of Democrats to insist on some restraints on DHS' authority as a condition of their support for a spending bill for the department — with funding set to lapse Jan. 30.

  • But Democratic leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), have already taken a shutdown at the end of the month off the table after weathering a bruising shutdown fight last fall.

  • Murphy and his staff are in conversations about his new bill with lawmakers from Minnesota, California and Illinois, where DHS has deployed large contingents of agents, a source familiar with the talks told Axios.

  • "It's hard to imagine how Democrats are going to vote for a DHS bill that funds this level of illegality and violence without constraints," Murphy told Axios on Thursday. "There's gotta be some reasonable constraints."

Murphy's proposal also would limit the use of firearms by ICE when conducting civil matters and require agents to wear identification.

And from Google AI:

California, Washington, New Jersey, and New York are the states that have passed legislation prohibiting law enforcement, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, from concealing their identities with masks while on duty. [1, 2, 3]

Details for each state's legislation:

  • California: Enacted the "No Secret Police Act" (Senate Bill 627). This law initially applied specifically to federal and local officers, but a federal judge struck it down in early 2026, ruling that applying the ban only to federal officers was discriminatory. [1, 2]

  • Washington: Governor Bob Ferguson signed legislation in March 2026 that restricts facial coverings for federal, state, and local law enforcement officers on duty. [1, 2]

  • New Jersey: Governor Mikie Sherrill signed legislation into law in March 2026 prohibiting on-duty local, state, and federal law enforcement officers from wearing masks that obscure their identity. [1, 2]

  • New York: Adopted legislation as part of the state budget deal in May 2026 that prevents federal, state, and local law enforcement officers from concealing their identities, which lawmakers adapted to apply to all officers equally to withstand legal challenges. [1, 2]

Because of the federal government's broad supremacy, the implementation of these state-level mask bans continues to face ongoing legal challenges from federal agencies and the courts. [1, 2]

Stanwich sale

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399 Stanwich Road, listed at $3.499 million, has sold to buyers from Rye for $3.1 million. It will win no prizes for esthetics, but there’s a lot of room here, I suppose. Owners tried, unsuccessfully, to unload this in 2004, starting at $3.195 and dropping as low as $2.750. They tried again in 2018 at $2.395 million, failed again, and came back this year; third time proved the charm, and they almost got the $3.195 they were hoping for in 2004.

The listing agent, as is her wont, has pulled the listing’s interior pictures from the Internet. An Instagram video is still up and you can find it (for now) here. Spoiler alert: the interior is as bland and uninspiring as the interior, so in this case, you can judge book by its cover.

No need to travel all the way to Boston or even Stamford's Ferguson Library, we’ll soon have the opportunity to receive our own whiff of wokeness, just across from Binney Park

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Reader Paul supplied this event news in response to my earlier post, and I’m so glad he did — fortunately, there’s still time to clear my calendar (Note: to the Perrot’s credit, it’s an adults-only event, and what adults find entertaining is, and should be, entirely up to them. Not my cup of tea, but ….)

Hey, buddy, can you spare a gold bar or two? Or 300?

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Under the rug?

As I mentioned in a comment to a reader earlier, when I adopted a nine-year-old cat two years ago, it took over a month, while the cat ladies running the shelter interviewed me for 45 minutes and pored over my application, then conducted three phone interviews with references I’d supplied, friends who vouched for my reputation as one who rarely, if ever, set cats on fire or tied firecrackers to their tails, and, finally, a video tour of my entire house to make sure there were no hidden cat perils in the premises.

That was for an old cat: the intelligence experts at the CIA are apparently far more lackadaisical when it comes to vetting their own job applicants.

The story first broke two days ago:

Former CIA official arrested after feds find $40M worth of gold bars stashed at his home: report

Yesterday saw more details revealed :

WASHINGTON — A wannabe spy convinced the CIA to give him $40 million in gold bars by claiming it was for “work-related expenses” — and it was just the latest in a lengthy career full of increasingly brazen lies, according to federal prosecutors.

David Rush made a series of requests to the agency to obtain “a significant quantity” of foreign currency and hundreds of gold bars between November and March, according to a federal affidavit.

Astonishingly, Rush received what he asked for, according to the court documents, and the agency was later unable to locate any record of Rush explaining the work-related purpose for the enormous sums.

In three separate employment applications to join the CIA, he allegedly falsely claimed to have degrees from Clemson University in South Carolina and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Upstate New York — as well as an evaluation certification from the US Naval Test Pilot School.

None of these claims were accurate, according to the affidavit, nor was an undated assertion in one of the applications that he had attained a master’s degree in computing technology from the Naval Postgraduate School.

But the subterfuge apparently worked for decades, and Rush achieved his dream of working for the CIA, where he allegedly continued exaggerating his accomplishments for advancement and financial gain.

Rush enlisted in the Navy in 1997, was honorably discharged in 2015 and after that, he never enlisted in any other branch of the US military, the court documents state. 

Following his Navy discharge, Rush allegedly falsified active status as a captain to pocket $77,000 in unearned military leave while drawing an inflated executive salary. 

He also claimed he received a mathematics degree from Clemson University and an electrical engineering master’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, but registrars found no record of him.

Rush additionally alleged to have certifications from the US Air Force and Naval Test Pilot schools, but FAA and military files reveal he lacked a pilot’s license, serving instead as an IT technician, among other roles.

And today, its reported that something might just be wrong here:

Why ex-CIA officer David Rush’s $40M gold bar case could point to ‘large-scale cover-up’ — as expert reveals painstaking vetting process

Ex-CIA officer David Rush’s alleged years-long scheme that netted him $40 million in gold bars and a top-secret security clearance has those in the Clandestine Service community questioning how he slipped through the fastidious vetting process — and who else may be flying under the radar.

Former CIA staff operations officer Tracy Walder was baffled over the stunning allegations against Rush and believes they could point to a much more troubling issue within the agency.

“This would have been a large-scale lying cover-up. There would have had to be a lot of other co-conspirators,” Walder told The Post.

“They are going to go back at least 10 years in terms of people you know, people you are friends with. He would have had to ask all those people to lie for him. Or did he lie to them?”

The FBI raided Rush’s Virginia home May 18 as part of an investigation into whether he lied about his military and academic background, and found 303 1-kilogram gold bars worth over $40 million, $2 million in US currency and 35 luxury watches, “many of which” were Rolexes.

According to an affidavit, Rush obtained the gold bars by making a series of requests between last November and March of this year, claiming he needed the bullion for “work-related expenses.”

Walder surmised Rush may have forged documents, or maybe “it’s a lazy or incompetent background investigator” who missed the red flags across his three separate applications to the agency before he was finally hired in 2009.

Walden said CIA candidates must endure a lengthy, invasive vetting process in order to get hired.

“They don’t just verify your college. They came to my sorority house. They talked to my sorority sisters. They came to my parents’ house. They went to the friends of the friends of my parents,” she said.

As for the king’s ransom in gold bars Rush accumulated, she said sometimes the agency receives requests for currency or gold, but never without accounting for every penny.

“It’s not unusual to need money to meet with assets overseas. You have to have a way to pay them and you don’t just run a credit card. They’re essentially committing treason, so you’re going to pay them in whatever currency they want,” she said.

“But I cannot think of an asset that needs $40 million in gold bars,” she added.

“There is a whole process that we go through to get that money. I don’t just walk into the logistics office and say, ‘Excuse me, I need $100,000 tomorrow.’ There is a form I have to fill out. It’s not a bank vault you walk into. It doesn’t work like that.”

She said even if Rush lied and said his asset was someone ultra-high-profile like Russian President Vladimir Putin, “the CIA would know who has what asset and who is working with what asset and if they are real or not.”

But she said even if an agent asks for $10, “you still have to fill out that form and be accountable for it. It’s not a free-for-all.”

She said even after the pre-hiring vetting, CIA employees are subject to rigorous scrutiny of their credit and finances.

Walder said when she was just getting started in her career and money was tight and she was living in a rough neighborhood, her parents helped her out with $75 a month to park her car in a garage. Eventually, the agency flagged even that pittance.

“It’s annoying … I remember being flagged about that,” she said, recalling the agency peppered her with questions about the money: “Where did you get this? Why did you get it? What was it for?”

She eventually had to give them her parents’ banking information to prove where the $75 was coming from.

My bold prediction: either we never hear of this story again — given the CIA’s record so far, that wouldn’t totally surprise me — or more heads will roll, and steel doors clang. Stay tuned.

"Minutes from the Riverside train station"? I suppose it is, if both legs are chained behind you, and you're dragging a 250-lb ball

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22 Carrona Drive Riverside train tracks, raised-ranch listed for $1.295 million, has sold for $1.450.

The address is Riverside. The opportunity is real. 22 Carrona Drive sits on a 1/3 acre in one of Greenwich's most convenient locations minutes from the Riverside train station, Riverside Elementary, and Eastern Middle School, with the shops and restaurants of the village close at hand.

Brace yourself, Bridget, "Take Your Child to the Library Month" is upon us

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The Morning Briefing: Hide Your Kids — Pride Month Is Almost Here

With June on the horizon, the Pride Month festivities are once again in full swing. School districts across the country are hosting many of them. In Columbus, OH, the largest school district is partnering with the Columbus Education Association to host a pride parade that affirms and celebrates radical transgender ideology and perversion.

Worse, they are inviting the entire school community, including its students, as young as three or four, to attend with their families and teachers. Imagine what's happening in the classroom.

….

Stephen Kruiser

“The rhetoric of the LGBTQ people does not match reality. I would like a list of what any of the letters aren’t free to do. The “courageous visibility” line is utter stupidity. Pride parades have been going on since Richard Nixon’s first term in the Oval Office. After more than half a century of dudes in harnesses and garish drag queens in rainbow makeup marching down the street, trust me, they’re visible.”

Oooh, the poor widdle commie. "Susan Collins sent me to war!" Uh, no, no she didn't, Mr. Blackhawk contractor

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Graham Platner As He Digs Deeper Hole on Military Enlistment Claims

READ MORE: Graham Platner Was Already Disgusting — These Latest Unearthed Posts Make It Much Worse

Between … bizarrely bragging about self-pleasuring in a porta-potty, and even the Nazi tattoo scandal, the cringe against Platner is stacking up, which isn't good for a guy who needs to win not just Democrats but some independent voters if he hopes to defeat Collins in the fall.

The latest example comes from Platner's repeated insistence that Collins "voted to send me to Iraq," a campaign line he's been using since at least mid-May, when he uttered it in a New York Times interview:

The anger that I feel is for the people that sent me, who are frankly still the same people who are sending people off right now to be in harm’s way so we can have this stupid war with Iran. Susan Collins voted to send me to Iraq, and she’s also there to help Donald Trump continue this absolutely insane conflict in the Strait of Hormuz.

Except Susan Collins voted for the Iraq war resolution in 2002. Platner didn't enlist until late 2003, several months after the war started.

Others at the time pointed to comments Platner posted on Reddit, where he noted how enthusiastic he was about enlisting, so that he "could kill some people":

Since Platner has continued with the baseless attack, reporters are still talking about it, and Collins was asked about it during a Thursday groundbreaking in Maine.

She landed a solid on him, pointing out that not only did he enlist twice after the war started, but that he "also went to work for a controversial security company" sometime after his service was over. Further, she made the point that Platner was "not drafted" to serve:

Collins also took issue with Platner’s repeatedly saying she sent him to Iraq by voting in 2002 to authorize President George W. Bush to start the war, which began in March 2003. Platner enlisted in the Marines later that year, after finishing high school, and served three combat tours in Iraq. In 2009, he enlisted in the Army, which deployed him for one combat tour in Afghanistan.

Collins said, “He not only enlisted twice, after the war was started, but he also went to work for a security company, a controversial one named Blackwater, after his term in the service was over. So, I respect anyone who steps forward to serve their country. But the fact is, that was Platner's decision to serve. He was not drafted.”

Incredibly, Platner's response was to pretend she was attacking veterans, and to pretend he was their defender after years of disparaging them:

Of course, none of this matters to Maine Democrats and their fellow -travellers: they want a communist in office, and any commie will do. Here are two typical comments posted in response to the X post above:

How far will they bend over to excuse their pet candidate? This moron yesterday defended his hero’s “accidental” Nazi tattoo: