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Fast, fierce, and to the point. Join John OConnor every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for a rapid-fire breakdown of the top 3 conservative political stories since the last episode. In 10-15 minutes, get the hard-hitting analysis and sharp commentary that cuts through the mainstream media noise.
While "OConnor's Right Stand" (Tuesdays & Thursdays) takes you deep into single issues, "Quick Strike" delivers the breadth you need to stay ahead of the political battlefield. No fluff, no filler – just the most important stories impacting conservative America, delivered with the uncompromising perspective you've come to expect.
New episodes drop every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Stay informed, stay engaged, stay ready.
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00:09
Hey, what is up, Patriots? Welcome back to O'Connor's Quick Strike. I'm your host, John O'Connor. And happy Friday. Today is October 24th. If this is your first time tuning in, this is where we cut through the BS three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, hitting you with the three biggest conservative stories the mainstream media either won't cover or will completely twist beyond recognition. Just straight talk in roughly 15 minutes.
00:39
Yesterday on the O'Connor's Right Stand podcast, we covered the mayoral race for New York City and how I feel Sleazebag Cuomo should step aside to make it a two-party race between Curtis Sleewa and Mamdani. But I don't think he will because he's an egomaniac and we will likely see a socialist as the mayor of New York City. So when we wrap up here, go ahead over to o'connor'srightstand.com and take a listen. Today, as one of the stories I'm fascinated with,
01:09
I was going to dive into the NBA, mafia, and gambling scandal that broke midday yesterday. But I think there is more to this story that will be coming out soon. So chances are that I might save that for an episode of O'Connor's Right Sands where we do our deep dives. I think what we know now is just scratching the surface. And I think the NCAA is not immune from this. I have three favorite sports. Baseball, NASCAR, and I love college basketball.
01:38
And the NCAA has made some odd moves recently to possibly skirt this issue that I think will tie back to this story. So for that reason, I'm going to put this story into the Hold For More Info pile, but I am super interested in getting fully immersed in this. So what are we going to discuss today? Well, here's the theme. The people in power think they are above accountability. And now let's get into it.
02:09
Alright, I need you to sit down for this one because what I'm about to tell you is so brazen, so callous, so absolutely disgusting that even I had trouble believing it. But it's real, it's on video, and it perfectly encapsulates everything wrong with the Democrat party right now. House Minority Whip Catherine Clark, that's the number two Democrat in the House, sat down with Fox News this week and said the quiet part out loud.
02:38
We are now 24 days into this government shutdown. Military families aren't getting paid. Food stamp funding is running out in 25 states starting November 1st. Federal workers are furloughed. And Catherine Clark looks into the camera and says, and I quote, of course there will be families that are going to suffer, but it is one of the few leverage times we have. Let that sink in. Families are going to suffer, but it's leverage.
03:07
She didn't stumble into this. She didn't misspeak. Democrats are willing to let American families suffer because it gives them political leverage to get what they want. And what do they want? They want to extend those enhanced Obamacare subsidies. That's what this is all about. To openly admit that you're using the suffering of military families, federal workers, and people who depend on food assistance as a bargaining chip. Hmm, that's not politics.
03:37
That's hostage-taking. Speaker Mike Johnson was so appalled by this clip that he set up a TV monitor outside his office at the Capitol and just played it on repeat, over and over, just looping Catherine Clark admitting that American families' suffering is leverage for Democrats. But Clark isn't the only one saying this stuff. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said about the shutdown,
04:05
Every day gets better. People are struggling and Chuck Schumer thinks it's getting better because it helps his political position. And then there's Bernie Sanders. If you reopen the government and we lose our leverage, they are openly discussing American suffering as a strategic asset. The White House put out a statement calling this what it is. Democrats
04:30
gleefully wielding the suffering of Americans as a weapon in their demented political games. More than a million federal employees aren't getting paid. Airports are experiencing massive delays. Small businesses are on the edge of collapse. And the Democrats are celebrating because they think it makes Trump look bad.
04:52
Here's what really gets me. Clark even had the audacity to say, I feel for military families. Oh, you feel for them. You feel for them while you're actively using their financial hardship as leverage. That's not empathy. That's political theater masquerading as compassion. Let's be clear about what's actually happening here.
05:16
The House passed a clean continuing resolution to keep the government funded through November 21st. Clean. No games, no add-ons. It's sitting in the Senate right now, needing 60 votes to pass. Democrats have voted for clean CRs 13 times under Biden. But now? Now they won't do it because they want to jam through Obamacare subsidies as part of the deal. Republicans have said they're willing to negotiate on these subsidies.
05:45
But Democrats want it done now as part of this emergency funding bill, or they'll just let the government stay shut down. And when families suffer, well, according to Catherine Clark, that's just leverage. This is now the second longest government shutdown in modern US history, and the Democrats are out here openly admitting they are prolonging it for political gain.
06:11
when politicians are more concerned with leverage than with the people. They are supposed to serve, the system is broken. And Democrats just went on national television and admitted it. Two. Let's shift gears to a story that's getting almost zero coverage in the mainstream media. But it's absolutely critical. Senator Jim Banks from Indiana introduced legislation this week that exposes a massive loophole in our election system.
06:40
One that's been allowing foreign billionaires to pour money into American ballot initiatives and referendums. Now, you might be thinking, wait, isn't it illegal for foreign nationals to donate to American elections? And you'd be right, sort of. Foreign nationals can't donate to candidates, political parties, or committees. That's been illegal for a long time. But ballot measures, initiatives and referendums that voters decide on directly,
07:10
There's nothing stopping foreign money from flooding into those campaigns. And believe me, they're taking full advantage of it. Senator Banks introduced the Protecting Ballot Measures from Foreign Influence Act on Wednesday. We're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars, maybe billions, flowing from foreign sources into state and local ballot measures to push left-wing agendas. The poster child for this is a Swiss billionaire named Weiss. Ever heard of him?
07:39
Probably not, because the media doesn't want you to know about him. This guy has spent over $800 million of the last two decades bankrolling left-wing causes in America. Climate change organizations, pro-abortion initiatives, all kinds of radical progressive ballot measures across the country. A Swiss billionaire is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to influence what Americans vote on in their own states. And it's completely legal.
08:08
How did this happen? Well, for years, foreign money has been flowing into the ballot measures through a loophole in election law. Then, in July 2021, the Federal Election Commission made it official. They ruled that federal law banning foreign money only applies to candidate elections, not to ballot measures. They formalized the loophole and foreign actors have been exploiting it even more aggressively ever since. Senator Banks put it perfectly.
08:38
Foreign billionaires are bankrolling left-wing ballot initiatives to push radical agendas and sway our elections. In recent years, we've seen millions pour into pro-abortion campaigns in states across the country. My bill closes these loopholes and stops foreign money from corrupting the vote. Think about some of the ballot measures you've seen in recent years. Abortion initiatives, drug legalization, climate regulations, minimum wage increases. How many of those had foreign money behind them?
09:08
We don't really know the full extent because there's not any real great tracking on this stuff. But what we do know is alarming. Online fundraising platforms make this even easier. A lot of these platforms don't adequately verify donor identities, which means foreign actors can contribute either deliberately or, let's be honest, accidentally on purpose.
09:33
Banks actually introduced a version of this bill back in 2021, along with bipartisan support. Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Mark Warner, Representative Abigail Spanberger. But it didn't get any traction. Now he's bringing it back and giving everything we've learned about foreign interference in American politics over the last few years, this needs to pass. Think about this for a second. We spend all this time, rightfully,
10:03
Worrying about Russian interference in our elections, we have hearings, investigations, special councils. But here's a foreign billionaire openly spending hundreds of millions of dollars to influence American policy through ballot measures. And it's completely legal. The hypocrisy is stunning. And it's not just Weiss. Between 2017 and 2022, six states, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New York, and Washington,
10:32
received over $163 million from companies with more than 5 % foreign ownership. That's just what we know about. The worst part, most Americans have no idea this is happening. They see a ballot measure, they think it's coming from concerned citizens or local advocacy groups. They don't realize there's a Swiss billionaire or a foreign corporation behind the scenes pulling the strings. Hell, I didn't know. Banks Bill would fix this.
11:01
It would extend the existing ban on foreign money in elections to include ballot initiatives and referendums. Simple, clean, common sense. American elections should be decided by Americans and influenced only by Americans, period. This is exactly the kind of issue that should unite Americans across the political spectrum. Whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, you should want American policy decided by Americans, not by foreign billionaires.
11:31
This is about sovereignty. This is about protecting our democratic process from foreign influence. One. Let's talk about Wikipedia. You know it. We've all used it. Your kids use it for homework, probably. It's supposed to be this neutral crowd-source encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Free information for everyone. Sounds great, right? Except it's not neutral. Not even close. I think we all knew that.
12:00
But now Congress is investigating and Wikipedia is basically telling them to go pound sand. Back in August, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and Representative Nancy Mace sent a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation. That's the nonprofit that runs Wikipedia. They are investigating coordinated efforts to inject bias into Wikipedia articles, particularly anti-Israel and anti-Semitic content.
12:28
The letter was sent on August 27th. Congress gave them a deadline of September 10th to provide the requested documents. That deadline came and went. We are now at October 24th, roughly six weeks past the deadline, and Wikimedia still hasn't provided the documents. Six weeks. They are just simply ignoring Congress. Nancy Mase's office confirmed this week that
12:54
The Wikimedia Foundation is engaging with the Oversight Committee about its request, but it has not satisfied document production at this time. Translation? They are pretending to cooperate while actually stonewalling. So, what exactly is Congress investigating? Well, multiple studies and reports have shown coordinated campaigns to inject bias into Wikipedia articles.
13:21
particularly around sensitive political topics. One major investigation found that a group of about 40 Wikipedia editors coordinated to delegitimize Israel, present radical Islamist groups favorably, and reshape the narrative around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We're talking about 1.5 million edits over the past decade pushing anti-Semitic narratives. 1.5 million.
13:51
This was a coordinated, systematic effort to control the narrative on one of the most visited websites in the world. And it's not just about Israel. Wikipedia has been purging conservative media outlets from their list of reliable sources. For example, Breitbart News got blacklisted. Other conservative outlets too. Meanwhile, left-wing sources with obvious bias get treated as gospel truth.
14:19
This went viral a few weeks ago when Larry Sanger, one of the co-founders of Wikipedia, went on Tucker Carlson's podcast and laid out what's been happening. He talked about how Wikipedia has abandoned its founding principle of neutrality and become a tool for left-wing activism. The interview prompted Senator Ted Cruz to send his own letter to the Wikimedia Foundation on October 3rd asking about the purge of conservative sources. Cruz gave them a deadline too. ah
14:49
Want to guess if they responded? Of course they didn't. So now you've got the House Oversight Committee and Senator Ted Cruz both asking questions, both setting deadlines, and Wikipedia is just ignoring both of them like they are above accountability. Right in the middle of this investigation there were reports that Wikipedia held elections for their Board of Trustees.
15:16
and that two candidates got rejected before the voting even happened. One candidate was involved with a major community newsletter and was advocating for less transparency. The other had made social media posts critical of Israel. Both reportedly got the boot, and the Wikipedia community went nuts. Former board members, longtime editors, they all started raising concerns that this was politically motivated.
15:43
that Wikimedia was trying to cover up the bias problem. Some editors even started boycotting the election, saying that American and Israeli government pressure was behind the candidate rejections. Whether that's true or not, the fact that Wikipedia's own community thinks their organization is compromised tells you everything you need to know. And while all this is going on, while Congress is investigating them, while they are ignoring Congressional oversight,
16:12
Wikimedia has been putting out statements defending themselves. They talk about their commitment to openness and transparency, and their standards of reliability and neutrality. The nerve. You are ignoring congressional oversight and you are going to lecture people about transparency? Here's why this matters beyond just Wikipedia. Wikipedia isn't just another website. It's one of the most visited sites on the entire internet.
16:41
It's used in schools, it's cited in papers, and increasingly, it's being used to train AI systems. The bias that's baked into Wikipedia is literally being programmed into the next generation of artificial intelligence. If Wikipedia's systematic bias goes unchecked, it doesn't just affect what you read when you look something up, it affects what AI chatbots tell people, what gets taught in schools.
17:09
what becomes the accepted truth in our society. Right now, Wikipedia is controlled by a relatively small group of activist editors who have coordinated to push left-wing narratives, anti-Semitic content, and anti-conservative bias. And when Congress tries to investigate it, they just stonewall. The Heritage Foundation has been working on this issue too, trying to identify and expose these biased editors. They've been using data analysis
17:39
looking at editing patterns, trying to figure out who these people are and what their agenda is. Wikipedia editors have responded with rage, of course, because they don't want to be exposed. So, Congress is investigating. Multiple senators and representatives are demanding answers. The co-founder of Wikipedia himself is calling for reform. And the Wikimedia Foundation is just running out the clock, hoping this all blows over. But it shouldn't blow over.
18:08
This is about the integrity of information in the digital age. This is about whether a platform that presents itself as neutral can actually be held accountable when it's clearly not neutral. The fact that this story is getting almost no mainstream coverage should tell you something. The media doesn't want to talk about Wikipedia's bias because they benefit from it. They all use Wikipedia. They all link to it. They all treat it as authoritative.
18:35
Admitting that it's compromised would mean admitting that a lot of what they've reported based on Wikipedia information might be skewed. But the truth is the truth, and the evidence is overwhelming. Wikipedia has a bias problem. They are under investigation, and they are ignoring Congress. Either Wikimedia provides these documents, or Congress needs to start thinking about consequences.
19:01
Because if a non-profit organization can just blow off Congress with no repercussions, then congressional oversight means nothing. All right, patriots, that's your three for today. Democrats admitting that they are using American suffering as political leverage. Foreign billionaires buying American ballot measures. And Wikipedia stonewalling Congress while bias runs rampant on their platform. Three stories, one theme.
19:29
The people in power think they are above accountability. They think they can say the quiet part out loud. They think they can ignore the law. They think they can manipulate information and get away with it. But here's the thing. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. The more these stories get out there, the more people know what's really going on, the harder it becomes for them to keep getting away with it. That's why I do this show.
19:58
That's why I assume you'd tune in. Because we all need to know the truth. Thank you for listening to O'Connor's Quick Strike. I'm John O'Connor. Stay vigilant, Patriots, and I will see you on Monday. Have a fantastic weekend.