OConnor's Quick Strike

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Hey! What is up, Patriots? Happy Halloween and happy Friday, y'all. This is O'Connor's Quick Strike, and I'm John O'Connor. Three stories the mainstream media won't cover, or will completely twist beyond recognition, delivered in roughly 15 minutes. No fluff, no BS, no filler. Just the unvarnished truth peppered with my take on what's really going on. We do this every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. As always, and if you haven't already,

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Go ahead and just casually tap that like, subscribe, and or follow button. Every single one of your taps helps get the message out there. Today, we've got three absolute doozies for you. And I promise you, these are scarier than anything you'll see trick or treating tonight. We're talking about 42 million Americans about to lose their food assistance tomorrow. Government discrimination against conservatives that went on for years. And...

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Ron DeSantis taking a sledgehammer to the woke visa system in Florida. Let's get into it. TREE Alright, let me start with the most immediate crisis. And I mean immediate, because this is happening right now, as you're listening to this. Tomorrow, November 1st, marks day 31 of government shutdown, and 42 million Americans are about to lose their SNAP benefits. That's the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, what used to be called

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food stamps. Now before the leftists start screaming that I'm heartless, let me be crystal clear about what's really going on here, because the mainstream media is lying to you about who's responsible for this mess. Here are the facts. The USDA, the Department of Agriculture, has a contingency fund sitting there with $6 billion in it. That's not a typo. $6 billion. Money that Congress specifically set aside for emergencies

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just like this. Democrats are screaming that Trump won't use it. But here's what they're not telling you. Speaker Mike Johnson, and this is coming straight from the House floor, says Republicans have passed a clean continuing resolution to fund the government 13 times. 13 times. And every single time, Senate Democrats have blocked it. Every. Single. Time. Now,

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Democrats are trying to blame Trump for not tapping into that $6 billion contingency fund. But the USDA says, and I'm paraphrasing their legal analysis here, that the fund was designed to supplement benefits when appropriations fall short, not when Democrats refuse to pass appropriations in the first place. In other words, you can't demand emergency funds be used when you're the ones creating the emergency by blocking the actual budget.

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Think about that for a second. Democrats are literally holding 42 million Americans food assistance hostage, blocking the very bills that would fund SNAP normally, and then crying crocodile tears about Trump not using emergency funds to clean up their mess. And here's where it gets even more infuriating. The contingency fund has $6 billion in it. SNAP costs about $8 billion a month. So even if Trump

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did tap into it, which Democrats claim is legally required despite the USDA's analysis saying otherwise, it wouldn't even cover a full month of benefits anyway. It would run out. And then what? We'd be right back here in about three weeks time having the exact same conversation. But here's the part that should absolutely enrage you. Left-wing TikTokers, and I can't believe I'm not making this up,

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are literally calling for riots and looting because of this. They're telling their followers to take what they need and threatening to loot stores. This isn't speculation, it's on video. These are the same people who spent four years telling us that Trump supporters were the violent ones, by the way. Meanwhile, the adults in the room, the Republicans, are trying to actually solve the problem by passing a budget. But that doesn't give Democrats the political theater.

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Does it? They want this crisis. They want the photos of empty food banks and scared families because they think it helps them politically. They're literally weaponizing hunger against the American people. And let me point out one more thing that's absolutely rich with irony. 24 Democrat attorney generals filed a lawsuit earlier this week demanding Trump tap into the contingency fund. These same Democrats who are blocking the spending bills in the Senate. So

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They are simultaneously blocking the solution while demanding emergency measures to deal with the crisis they created. You can't make this stuff up, This is the Democrat playbook in 2025. Create the crisis, blame Trump, demand he use executive authority to fix it, then probably sue him for overreach when he does. The bottom line here is simple. 42 million Americans are waking up tomorrow without their food assistance.

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Because Republicans blocked anything. Not because Trump is heartless. But because Democrats would rather plague political games than pass a clean CR to fund the government. They own this. Every single empty plate. Every food bank line. Every scared parent wondering how they'll feed their kids. That's on Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats. Period. Alright, let's move to story number two. And this one's going to make your blood boil.

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especially if you're a conservative who lived through a hurricane or natural disaster in the last few years. Remember back in October 2024 when Hurricane Milton hit Florida and we heard that a FEMA supervisor named Marnie Washington told her team to skip houses with Trump signs? Remember how Biden's FEMA Administrator, Deanne Criswell, went to Congress, testified under oath and said it was just one isolated incident? Just

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One rogue employee who got fired? Yeah, she lied. And we now have proof. 10 days ago, October 21st, be exact, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem dropped an absolute bombshell. A new investigation by the Department of Homeland Security found that this wasn't isolated at all. It was systemic. It went back to Hurricane Ida in 2021. That's four years of this happening.

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And it wasn't just Florida. It was multiple states, multiple disasters, multiple years. The investigation found roughly a hundred cases. And these are just the ones they could document where FEMA workers recorded people's political beliefs in their databases and then use that information to skip their homes or delay assistance. Now, let me read you some of actual examples from the report because this is damning. October, 2024 in Florida.

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Trump Sign No Contact Per Leadership September 2021 Pennsylvania A Lot Of Political Flags, Posters, etc. F. Joe Biden MAGA 2024 Joe Biden Sucks Trump 2024 We Do Not Recommend Anyone Visiting This Location October 2021 Louisiana Homeowner Had A Sign Stated This Is Trump Country These Aren't Anecdotes Folks.

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These are direct quotes from FEMA's own internal system, their own workers documenting their own political discrimination. Now, here's where the story gets even more interesting, and this is important, so pay attention. There was actually an earlier investigation that cleared FEMA. That first investigation concluded in April of 2025 and found no evidence of systematic discrimination. The investigator,

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a lifelong Republican named Brian Hamilton who supported Trump, said under oath, we found there was no reasonable evidence that denial of aid occurred based upon political bias. But Kristi Noem wasn't buying it, so she ordered a second investigation to DHS's privacy office, run by Roman Joukowsky from the Heritage Foundation, and that investigation found the opposite.

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It found that FEMA workers had been collecting constitutionally protected information about Americans political beliefs in violation of the Privacy Act of 1974. Now, CNN and the mainstream media are trying to spin this as Nome just shopping for the investigation results she wanted. But here's what they're leaving out. The second investigation looked at the same data as the first one. They just asked different questions. They specifically looked at whether FEMA

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violated privacy laws by collecting political information, not just whether they denied aid. And guess what? They found roughly 100 violations. The report specifically says, and I'm quoting here, The information collected included obviously protected information about individuals' freedom of expression, such as campaign signs showing support for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump or political positions such as supporting gun ownership.

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And here's the kicker about that fired employee, Ms. Washington. Remember how she went on CNN and said she was just following protocol? Remember how everyone said she was lying and just trying to cover her butt? Well, it turns out she was partially right. The investigation found that FEMA's guidance told workers to avoid hostile situations, but they never defined what hostile meant. So workers used their own judgment and shockingly,

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Their judgment was that Trump signs meant hostile. The fired worker was wrong to follow that interpretation, but she wasn't wrong that there was a culture at FEMA that allowed this to happen. That's what systemic means. It wasn't one person going rogue. It was an agency culture that enabled and even encouraged political discrimination. Kristi Noem has now referred this entire case to the Department of Justice for potential prosecution.

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and to the DHS Inspector General for disciplinary action. She's also canceled FEMA's door-to-door canvassing practice entirely and implemented new data collection controls. Think about what this means. For four years, four years, conservatives who lost everything in hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, you name it, were systematically discriminated against by their own federal government because of their political beliefs.

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While they were picking up the pieces of their destroyed homes, federal workers were literally checking to see if they had the right political signs before deciding whether to help them. This is what happens when you let woke ideology infect federal agencies. This is what happens when you hire activists instead of public servants. And this is exactly why Trump won in 2024 and why draining the swamp isn't just a slogan, it's an absolute necessity.

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Let's wrap this up with some good news for a change, and it comes from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who two days ago dropped the hammer on the H-1B visa programs at state universities. DeSantis announced on Tuesday at the University of South Florida in Tampa that he's directing Florida's Board of Governors to completely pull the plug on H-1B visas at public universities. And when I tell you why, you're going to understand exactly why this needed to happen.

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First, some background. H-1B visas are supposed to be for hiring highly skilled foreign workers in specialty occupations that are hard to fill with Americans. The tech industry uses them heavily. That's a whole other issue. Amazon, for example, alone has over 10,000 H-1B workers. The program caps out at 85,000 new visas per year nationwide. But...

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Here's what DeSantis discovered when he audited Florida's universities. They've got nearly 400 people on H-1B visas. And get this, they're not all Nobel Prize winning researchers or cutting edge scientists. They are hiring assistant swim coaches from Spain, media relations coordinators from Trinidad and Tobago, a public policy professor from China. Yeah, let that one sink in.

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A clinical assistant professor from supposed Palestine, as DeSantis put it, because let's be real about what that means. DeSantis stood there and asked the question every American should be asking. Why aren't we producing math and engineering folks who can do this? Why are we bringing people in to assess our accreditation on H-1B visas? We can't do that with our own people? And he's absolutely right to ask.

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Here's what's really happening. Universities are using the H-1B program as a way to hire cheaper labor instead of paying American graduates what they're worth. They hide behind the narrative of we can't find qualified Americans. But what that really means is we can't find Americans who will work for below market wages we want to pay. Now, the faculty union is already screaming about this.

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United Faculty of Florida President Robert Casanallo, a UCF history professor, says DeSantis is speaking out of both sides of his mouth because he emphasizes merit-based hiring but won't support H-1B visas. But here's what Robert is missing. There's no contradiction there at all. Merit-based hiring means you hired the best candidate. But if you're a taxpayer-funded state university, your mission is to serve

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Florida residents and American students not to be an employment agency for foreign nationals. This directive comes right after President Trump imposed a hundred thousand dollar fee on new H-1B visa applications last month that we discussed in another episode. And DeSantis is taking it a step further by saying Florida state universities won't participate in the program at all. Now the media is already trying to spin this as xenophobic or

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nativist. Because of course they are. But let's be crystal clear about what this actually is. It's putting American workers first. It's saying that if you're a state university funded by Florida taxpayers, your first obligation is to Florida graduates and American workers. And look, I know there are legitimate uses for the H-1B program. If you're trying to recruit a genuine world-class researcher who literally doesn't have an American equivalent,

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fine. But that's not what's happening here. When you're using H-1Bs to hire swim coaches and media coordinators, you've lost the plot entirely. DeSantis is basically saying, if Florida universities can't produce graduates who can fill these positions, then we need to take a hard look at what the universities are doing wrong, not just import foreign workers to paper over the problem.

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The Board of Governors meets next week at USF, and DeSantis has made it clear that this isn't a suggestion, it's a directive. Now, whether they can legally do this is another question. Since individual states don't have authority to revoke federal visas, but DeSantis can certainly direct state institutions to stop sponsoring new H-1B applications, and that's exactly what he's doing. This is what real leadership looks like.

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This is what happens when you have a governor who's willing to say, America first and actually mean it, not just use it as a campaign slogan. All right, folks, that's your quick strike for Halloween 2025. Three stories that should absolutely terrify you, not because of ghosts and goblins, but because of what they reveal about the state of our government and our country. We've got Democrats holding 42 million Americans food assistance hostage for political theater.

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We've got proof that FEMA systematically discriminated against conservatives for four years after natural disasters. And we've got Ron DeSantis actually doing something about the corruption of the H-1B visa system. The theme here is pretty clear. The swamp is real, the corruption is deep, and the only way to fix it is to elect people who will actually fight back instead of just going along to get along. That's it for today. If you found this valuable,

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Share it with someone who needs to hear it. And remember, the mainstream media won't tell you these stories, which is exactly why I do it. I'm John O'Connor, and I'll see you on Monday. Have a great Halloween and a fantastic weekend.