FBI Arrests J6 Pipe Bomber After 4 Years, Cracker Barrel DEI Disaster, Pentagon's $35K Iranian Drones

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Hey, what is up, Patriots, and happy Friday. 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 or so. No fluff, no filler, no BS. Just the unvarnished truth peppered with my own take on what's really going on. We do this every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. As always, if you haven't already, go ahead and just tap that like, subscribe, and or follow button.

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Every single one of your taps helps get our message out there to more folks who need to hear it. Today is Friday, December 5th, and we've got three stories that tell you everything you need to know about the new era we are in. First, the FBI just arrested the January 6th pipe bomber after sitting on evidence for nearly four years. Then, we are looking at Cracker Barrel's disastrous DEI experiment that destroyed 70 % of shareholder value

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and just cost their diversity director his job. And we are closing with the Pentagon deploying cheap, Iranian-style drones that cost $35,000 instead of $30 million. Pete Hegseth's vision of future warfare in action. Let's get into it. Three. Yesterday, the FBI arrested Brian Cole Jr., a 30-year-old from Woodbridge, Virginia, for planting the pipe bombs

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at the Republican and Democrat National Committee headquarters on January 5th, 2021. Now, if you're thinking, wait, didn't that happen four years ago? Yeah, exactly. This arrest matters for what it reveals about the Biden FBI versus Trump's FBI. Because here's the thing, the evidence that led to this arrest, the FBI had it in 2021 and 2022.

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Cell phone data placing coal at both bomb sites. Credit card purchases of the materials. License plate readers tracking his car. They had him and they sat on it for years. Now, let me remind you what we covered a few weeks ago on the Right Stand podcast because this is where it gets interesting. Dan Bongino, former Secret Service agent, hugely popular conservative commentator,

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spent years calling the pipe bomber case an inside job. He said it was the biggest scandal in FBI history. He said the bombs were either planted by law enforcement as training devices, or the investigation was being intentionally sabotaged, or the FBI was doctoring evidence to frame MAGA supporters. Conservative media called him a conspiracy theorist. Even some on our side said he was going too far.

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Guess who's now the FBI Deputy Director? Dan Bongino. Guess who's the new FBI Director? Cash Battelle, who promised on Fox News he was bringing in a new team to solve cases the Biden administration buried. And guess what happened within months of them taking over? This arrest. Attorney General Pam Bondi held a press conference yesterday. There was no new tip. There was no new witness. This was just good police work.

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Translation? We used evidence the old FBI already had and chose not to act on. Let me walk you through what Biden's FBI sat on because this is infuriating. The bombs were planted on January 5th at 7.54 p.m. at the DNC and 8.16 p.m. at the RNC. They had 60-minute kitchen timers. They should have detonated between 8.54 and 9.16 p.m. that night, but they didn't.

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They were discovered the next afternoon at 1.05 p.m., about 16 hours later. Here's what makes this insane. Kamala Harris was inside the DNC building from 11.25 a.m. to 1.05 p.m. on January 6th. Her motorcade drove within 20 feet of that pipe bomb. She was in the building for an hour and 40 minutes while a live explosive device sat nine feet from the exterior wall.

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Secret Service canines swept that area twice that morning. Bomb-sniffing dogs walked right past it. The DHS Inspector General's report confirmed the Secret Service completely failed to detect an active bomb 20 feet from the Vice President-elect. When the bomb was finally discovered, it wasn't by trained Secret Service agents or FBI. It was by a plain-clothed Capitol Police officer on a lunch break.

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The FBI launched what they called one of the largest investigations in bureau history. Over a thousand interviews, 39,000 video files were reviewed, 600 tips investigated. They had cell tower data from the bomb sites, Metro card records, license plate readers. The bomber wore distinctive Nike Air Max Speed turf shoes, only 25,000 pairs sold. They had photos, videos, gait analysis.

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And yet somehow, the identity remained a mystery for four years. Former FBI agent Kyle Seraphine testified to Congress that agents working the case were systematically pulled off promising leads. Whistleblowers said when they would identify potential suspects, they'd be reassigned. The investigation, Seraphine said, was being deliberately slow-walked. Then there's the cell phone data.

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This is the smoking gun that told us something was deeply wrong. The FBI claimed cell phone data from the bomb sites was corrupted. They said they couldn't identify whose phones were near the DNC and RNC when the bombs were planted because the data was damaged. Multiple cell carriers went on record saying that's false. Verizon, AT &T, T-Mobile all said they provided complete, uncorrupted data to the FBI.

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Both statements cannot be true. Either the FBI is lying or every major cell carrier is lying. I know which one I believe. And here's what made it even more suspicious. Out of 1,500 January 6th defendants, the FBI successfully used cell phone data to track and prosecute nearly all of them. Grandmother taking selfies in the Capitol. FBI used cell phone data to find her. Guy standing on the lawn. Cell data.

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random protester who never entered the building, cell data. But the person who planted actual bombs designed to explode near the vice president-elect, suddenly the cell data is corrupted. Only for this one case, the most important case, the data mysteriously doesn't work. Dan Bongino said for years this smelled like a cover-up. He suggested the bomber might be connected to law enforcement or intelligence agencies.

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He theorized the bombs might have been intentionally placed to create a narrative, either to justify the massive security response on January 6, or to paint Trump supporters as violent terrorists trying to assassinate Kamala Harris. People called him crazy. They said he was trafficking in conspiracy theories. They said he was undermining trust in the FBI. And now, he's the FBI Deputy Director. And within months of taking over,

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Using evidence that was sitting in FBI files for years, they make an arrest. Brian Cole Jr. is now in custody. The FBI says he used his personal cell phone near both bomb sites. Data they've had since 2021. His credit cards purchase bomb-making materials. Records they've had since 2022. License plate readers tracked his car. Data they've had the entire time.

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This wasn't a cold case that required new technology or a lucky break. This was a case the Biden FBI chose not to solve. And Trump's FBI solved it in months. You want to know why Trump won? This is why. Because Americans watched federal agencies deliberately sabotage investigations for political reasons. They watched the FBI arrest grandmothers for January 6th while ignoring the guy who planted bombs.

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They watched Dan Bongino get mocked for asking questions that turned out to be exactly right. The FBI had this guy in 2021. They chose to let him walk for four years while they prosecuted 1500 Trump supporters, many of whom never entered the Capitol, many of whom committed no violence. That tells you everything about the priorities of the Biden's Justice Department. And it tells you everything about why Trump put Cash Patel and Dan Bongino in charge of fixing it.

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From the FBI's corruption to corporate America's stupidity. Cracker Barrel just held their annual shareholder meeting on November 20th, and it was an absolute bloodbath for the woke executives who tried to turn a southern comfort food chain into a DEI laboratory. CEO Julie Massino received only 75 % shareholder support. That means one in four shareholders voted no confidence in their own CEO. For context,

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When ExxonMobil's CEO faced a massive left-wing pressure campaign, he still got 99 % support. Messino got 75. But that's not even the most devastating part. Gilbert de Villa, their DEI director, official title, diversity specialist, received only 40 % support. Six out of 10 shareholders voted against him. He resigned days later.

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Seven of their 10 board members failed to reach 90 % approval. In corporate America, that's a vote of no confidence. Boards typically get 95 % plus. Cracker Barrel's board barely scraped by. This is what happens when you take a profitable business with a loyal customer base and decide to use it as a vehicle for our left-wing social engineering. Since 2021, Cracker Barrel has destroyed 1.2

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billion dollars in shareholder value. The stock is down 70%. If you invested $1,000 in 2021, it's worth less than $300 today. 70 % of your money gone. You know what they did during this collapse? In August, they spent who knows how much on a logo redesign. They removed Uncle Hershel from their branding.

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A character who'd been part of the company since 1969, representing the founder's friend in symbolizing Southern hospitality. They went minimalist, clean, modern, corporate, soulless. The backlash was immediate and brutal. Customers revolted. Social media exploded. People threatened boycotts. Within weeks, Cracker Barrel quietly walked it back.

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They brought Uncle Hershel back and pretended the whole thing never happened. That's the problem with woke corporations. They hire diversity directors and DEI consultants who convince executives that their loyal customers are backwards bigots who need to be educated. So they make changes nobody asked for, destroy value nobody wanted destroyed, and act shocked when customers leave.

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Cracker Barrel's base is old or rural, southern and family oriented. These are people who want biscuits and gravy, not lectures about systemic oppression. They want rocking chairs on the porch, not pronoun pins on servers. They want comfort food, not corporate activism. When Davila got hired, when they started pushing DEI initiatives, when they redesigned the logo to remove southern tradition,

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customers saw exactly what was happening. The company was signaling that its own base was embarrassing. That the people who built Cracker Barrel into a billion dollar business were the wrong kind of people. So those customers stopped coming. Revenue dropped. Stock started collapsing. 1.2 billion in value evaporated. And now, after shareholders finally revolt,

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After the diversity director gets humiliated with a 40 % approval rating, after the CEO barely survives a confidence vote, after the stock is down nearly 70%, now they are trying to fix it. Too late. I believe the damage is done. Here's the lesson. Your customers are not stupid. When you hire a diversity specialist to transform a southern comfort food chain,

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They know exactly what that means. It means you think they are bigots. It means you are ashamed of the culture that made your business successful. It means you value progressive approval more than their loyalty. And they respond by taking their money elsewhere. Bud Light learned this. Target learned this. Disney is learning this. And now Cracker Barrel learned it. 70 % stock drop later. The good news? Gilbert De Villa is gone.

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The DEI experiment is over. Maybe Cracker Barrel can get back to making decent biscuits instead of trying to change the world. We'll see if it's too late. Let's end with something that actually makes sense. The Pentagon deploying cheap, expendable, mass produced drones that cost $35,000 instead of $30 million. The Air Force just deployed the low cost unmanned combat attack system, Lucas for short.

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to the Middle East under Task Force Scorpion Strike. These drones are reverse engineered from Iran's Shahed 136, the same ones Russia uses in Ukraine. Why would we copy Iranian drones? Because they are effective and they are cheap. An MQ-9 Reaper costs $30 million. When you lose one, that's $30 million gone. Iran's Shahid drones cost maybe $20,000.

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lose 10 of them, you are still under what one Reaper costs. Our version, Lucas, costs about $35,000. That's a thousand times cheaper than traditional combat drones. You can deploy them in swarms. You can use them for missions where losing aircraft is expected. You can saturate enemy defense with sheer numbers. This is Pete Hegseth's strategy in action. In his book, Tomorrow's War,

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He argued, the Pentagon's obsession with expensive, exquisite platforms is losing us wars. We build $30 million drones, $100 million jets, billion dollar ships, and then we are terrified to use them because losing one is politically and financially catastrophic. Meanwhile, our adversaries build cheap, mass-produced systems they can afford to lose. Iran swarms targets with disposable drones. China cranks out missiles by the thousands.

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Russia uses artillery shells by the millions. Hegseth argued we need to match quantity with quantity, build cheaper systems we can produce at scale, accept that weapons are expendable, focus on lethality per dollar, not sophistication per unit. That's exactly what Lucas represents. Spectral Works developed these drones in months. For comparison, traditional Pentagon acquisition programs take five to seven years

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just to get through the approval processes. This went from concept to deployment faster than most programs get initial funding. The drones are 10 feet long with an eight foot wingspan. Delta wing design, modular payloads. They can carry munitions, sensors, electronic warfare packages. They can operate in swarms, coordinate autonomously, overwhelm defenses through numbers. And here's the best part, they are reusable.

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Unlike kamikaze drones, Lucas can drop its payload and return back to base. You get multiple missions from a $35,000 platform. This is how you change military procurement, not through decades-long studies and billion-dollar contracts to defense giants. You find what works, you reverse-engineer it, you mass-produce it, you deploy it. The Air Force is already expanding production. They are looking at variants for different missions.

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Other services are watching closely. This represents a fundamental shift. We are moving from exquisite systems we can't afford to lose toward expendable systems we can afford to use. That's real deterrence. When adversaries know you can swarm them with cheap lethal drones that will actually deploy, not $30 million assets you're too cautious to risk, your adversaries start to think twice. Iran's been doing this for years.

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Ukraine adapted these tactics brilliantly against Russia. Turkey is using this model in Syria and Libya. We are finally catching up. Pete Hegseth has been in office less than a year and we are already seeing the shift. Less focus on gold-plated legacy programs. More focus on cheap, effective, mass-produced lethality. That's how you win future wars, not with fewer, more expensive platforms.

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with more, cheaper platforms you're willing to use. So there you have it, Patriots. Three stories that show you the difference between the old way and the new way. Story one. The FBI sat on evidence for years while the pipe bomber walked free until Dan Bongino and Cash Patel took over and solved it in months. That's what draining the swamp actually looks like. Story two.

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Cracker Barrel destroyed 70 % of shareholder value chasing DEI nonsense instead of serving biscuits. Their diversity director got humiliated with a 40 % approval rating and resigned. That's what happens when you insult your own customers. Story three, the Pentagon's deploying $35,000 Iranian-style drones instead of $30 million Reapers. Pete Hegseth's vision of cheap, mass-produced lethality is becoming reality.

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That's how you actually win wars. The pattern is obvious. Trump's team is solving problems the establishment wouldn't touch. They are fixing agencies that were broken on purpose. They are building strategies that actually make sense instead of enriching defense contractors. And the results are already showing. Arrests that should have happened years ago. Corporate America getting smacked down for woke overreach. Military procurement that prioritizes winning over spending.

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This is what competent governance looks like. Pay attention, because you are watching the blueprint for how to actually fix broken institutions. I'll see you on Monday with three more stories the mainstream media won't touch. This is O'Connor's Quick Strike, and I'm John O'Connor. Hold the line, Patriots.