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2024-11-17 18:02:46

@nprofile…83nr
https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/blaze-news-original-christians-to-provide-happy-thanksgiving-to-hurricane-victims-in-western-north-carolina.jpg?id=54501440&width=980
As devastating as the images were coming out of Western North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Helene in late September, sadly, it is all too easy for those of us personally unaffected by the storm to move on with our lives. Emotions were high leading up to the election, and now supporters of President-elect Donald Trump have focused much of their attention on the prospects of his second term. Not so for those in North Carolina. Though voter turnout was still remarkably high in North Carolina, exceeding turnout in 2020 by more than 100,000 votes and exceeding 2016 numbers by more than 1 million, much of the western part of the state, normally protected from the storms that batter the coast with some regularity, remains wiped out from flooding. Not content to carry on with the holiday season while their compatriots across the state still suffer, some Christians in an eastern region of North Carolina have made preparations to provide supplies, Bibles, and a hearty Thanksgiving meal to those in need. To learn more about what has been dubbed Operation Thanksgiving Blessings, Blaze News spoke with the man behind the plans, David Burke, who in turn prefers to give all the credit to someone else. "No way in the world would all this stuff ever have happened if it wasn't for God," he said, adding with a laugh, "I'm not that smart." Operation Thanksgiving Blessings Blaze News spoke with Burke on multiple occasions and can verify that he is, indeed, that smart. By trade a project manager for a metal fabrication company, Burke has also been known to dabble in some cooking competitions. "I was ranked as high as #3 in the state of North Carolina for whole-hog BBQ competition with the Roth Carolina Pork Council," he noted proudly in a message to Blaze News. After attending church one Sunday morning in early October, just a week or so after Hurricane Helene ravaged his state, Burke sensed that he had to do more for the victims than pray or write a check. "The Sunday school lesson was on home community service, of all things," he said. "I'm 59 years old. Never once have I had a Sunday school lesson on community service until about three weeks ago, four weeks ago." David Burke, speaking to children at a church that donated 100 Bibles for Operation Thanksgiving Blessings. Photo used with permission. After a series of coincidences, putting Burke in touch with people living hours away, he finally figured out what he was going to do: arrange to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for those living in an area that has thus far received little help from the government. Citing Newland, North Carolina, Mayor Derek Roberts, who claimed his daughter received just $300 from FEMA after losing her entire house to the flooding, Burke claimed that government assistance has been almost nonexistent in some cases and that the people of Western North Carolina have more or less had to fend for themselves. "I knew right then that's where we needed to go," Burke told Blaze News. Burke lives near Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, a rural area about 100 miles northeast of Raleigh and more than 260 miles east — about a six-hour drive — from Elk Park, the area he intended to feed. The distance and the scope of his plans meant that Burke needed help. As so many people do these days, Burke turned to social media, creating a Facebook page as a landing site for those interested in getting involved. And, as it were, the floodgates opened. Famed turkey company Butterball donated 100 turkeys weighing about 24 pounds each. Glover Construction is providing enough ingredients to make 300 gallons of Brunswick stew, a local staple that Burke described as "a thick vegetable soup." Even an area prison with a farm on its grounds reportedly offered 180 dozen eggs — more than 2,100 total — for the effort. Restaurants such as Napoli Pizza and Italian Restaurant in Murfreesboro chipped in by holding fundraisers. By pooling all proceeds from the fundraiser — including tips — Napoli's alone collected $4,000 for Operation Thanksgiving Blessings. Napoli's owner, Mari Rizo, told Blaze News she was thrilled with the success of the fundraiser. "At Napoli's Pizza and Italian Restaurant, we’ve always believed in the power of community. When we heard about the devastating impact of the hurricane on families in Western North Carolina, we felt compelled to help. Our team wanted to do something meaningful to give back, especially with Thanksgiving approaching," Rizo said in a statement to Blaze News. "To the families in Western North Carolina who are facing difficult times, we want you to know that we are thinking of you. We hope that this gesture helps to bring some comfort and joy to your holiday. Our hearts are with you, and we will continue to do everything we can to support you through this difficult time." Photo of Napoli's fundraiser. Used with permission. The Seaboard Lions Club, of which Burke is a member, has also collected monetary and supply donations and stored them on the organization's 20-acre site. "Everybody knows somebody, and in our world, the more people you know ... [the] better off you are," Burke said of the growing network of donors and volunteers involved with Operation Thanksgiving Blessings. Burke told Blaze News that his initial goal was to cook and serve about 5,000 total meals on Thanksgiving Day, but that goal expanded after he spoke with a woman who had a similar idea about feeding others living near Fletcher, North Carolina — about 90 miles away from Elk Park — on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. "We got another 40 turkeys donated and another 20 hams, and so what we're gonna do is we're gonna cook all that food for those 500 as well on Thanksgiving Day, and we'll pack it in bulk and send it to her. And then all she'll have to do is warm it back up and serve 500 people on Saturday as well," Burke explained. As generous as a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal is, the food represents just a tiny fraction of the goods and services Operation Thanksgiving Blessings will offer those in Western North Carolina. Burke and his team have loaded 53-foot trailers with other supplies as well, including clothes for the winter, heaters, blankets, baby supplies, gloves, hats, personal hygiene items, paper products, and cleaning supplies. ORBIS Corporation even donated 750 plastic bins for storage, a necessity for folks who lost not only all their possessions but a place in which to keep them. "ORBIS is honored to support this incredible cause and support the people of Western North Carolina in their time of need," the company told Blaze News. Photo of supplies. Used with permission. The details The crew from the Roanoke Rapids area has already begun packing up trailers and trucks, ready to haul everything out to the western part of the state just a day or so before Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving Day, they will set up shop at Cranberry Middle School at 6051 N. U.S. Hwy 19E in Elk Park, North Carolina. Folks can begin arriving at 11 a.m. and sit down and enjoy their meal or pick one up and take it to go. Screenshot of flyer featured on OTB Facebook page. Used with permission. Burke told Blaze News that his group has all the supplies and donations it can handle. He suggested that anyone still interested in making a monetary donation mail a check to the Seaboard Lions Club at P.O. Box 76, Seaboard, North Carolina, 27876. Sending it to David Burke's attention and including "OTB" on the memo line of the check will help earmark it for Operation Thanksgiving Blessings. Burke emphasized to Blaze News that "every red penny" the Lions Club receives will be distributed to people living in and around Elk Park. Ever committed to transparency, Burke even offered to have Blaze News share his private phone number in this article, an offer that we politely declined. "I don't want people to sit around and wonder what we're doing," he explained. "I want them to see exactly what's going on and see God at work." Feeding bellies and souls Burke, a devout Christian, takes the biblical call to love and serve others seriously, and he is happy to use his talents as a project manager and as a chef to give those who have lost all their material possessions a Thanksgiving meal they will never forget. However, he believes that evangelizing them for Christ is even more important. "We're looking for that one person out there that doesn't believe, doesn't think God is real," he told Blaze News, "and it is our hope that we can change his mind or her mind." "By showing them that people care and that God has been working this whole time to make all this come together, maybe, just maybe, we'll save that one," he continued. Burke is hardly the only Christian involved in Operation Thanksgiving Blessings. In fact, he has teamed up with members of churches across the state to identify and reach people in need. For instance, Burke connected with a pastor from his hometown of Murfreesboro but now living in Boone, North Carolina, who began collecting supplies sent via Amazon from all over the country. Burke also made contact with the student body president of Appalachian State University, who once attended Sunday school taught by Burke and his wife. "I called and talked to her, and I told her ... 'Go out there, and you tell these people that you're gonna come bring some help to them at Thanksgiving. ... And I'll be standing right behind you,'" he recalled to Blaze News. "I said, 'You've been on mission trips with me before. You know exactly what I want to get done. So let's see if we can make it happen.'" Burke acknowledged to Blaze News that some people, especially those who lost their homes, pets, and even loved ones in Hurricane Helene might struggle to believe in a loving, all-powerful God. But he added that faith in the face of doubt is still the answer. "Why did God let this happen? I can't answer that question, but it's all within His plan," he explained. "His plan has meaning. He doesn't make any mistakes, and so all we have to do is we have to have the faith." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/blaze-news-original-christians-to-provide-happy-thanksgiving-to-hurricane-victims-in-western-north-carolina

2024-11-17 18:02:46

@nprofile…83nr
https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=54530418&width=980
Donald Trump won the election, but that isn’t the only win Americans are seeing. “This was really not an election of Trump versus Kamala, it was really an election on reality and how many people had woken up to something roughly real that they were getting versus the endless lies of the mainstream media,” Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” explains. “I mean, CNN is now talking about the podcasters and the online streamers and everything else. MSNBC is now for sale via Comcast. CNN, it’s now being reported, is about to axe a bunch of their top talent,” he adds. Megyn Kelly is in full agreement, noting that unlike Kamala, who relied on the mainstream media, Trump utilized the podcast circuit to get his message out to voters. “The young people do not watch cable news at all. Older people, senior citizens watch cable news,” Kelly says, adding that because of the memes, commentary, and fact checking on social-media, “mainstream anchors could not get away with the lies they were telling.” “The Tim Walz stolen valor stuff, that exploded online. We all really had a massive role in shaping the narrative in a way that would have been unthinkable even four years ago,” she says, “It’s a totally new game now.” When Kelly worked at Fox News, she recalls the media company refusing to entertain actress Jenny McCarthy’s claims that the childhood vaccine schedule was way over-the-top — and now it’s the same thing with trans ideology and pronouns. “I remember Fox News being like, ‘Oh, hell no, we are not even going there,’ and now today the same thing is happening with the trans stuff. Fox News uses quote ‘preferred pronouns.’ That’s a news corp. policy. They say ‘he’ when it should be ‘she,’” Kelly explains. “You could never have the frank and honest discussions that we have on our shows about race, race essentialism, the election denialism stuff, the COVID truths,” she continues. “I only would really put it together later that a lot of that is driven by just the agenda of the owners and the people at the top, and a lot of it is driven by the advertisers.” “I mean, RFK Jr. is not wrong when he points out what a huge advertiser Pfizer is all over television,” she adds. Want more from Dave Rubin?To enjoy more honest conversations, free speech, and big ideas with Dave Rubin, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-rubin-report/mainstream-media-2669892077

2024-11-17 18:01:39

@nprofile…hfrz
https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/blaze-news-original-christians-to-provide-happy-thanksgiving-to-hurricane-victims-in-western-north-carolina.jpg?id=54501440&width=980
As devastating as the images were coming out of Western North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Helene in late September, sadly, it is all too easy for those of us personally unaffected by the storm to move on with our lives. Emotions were high leading up to the election, and now supporters of President-elect Donald Trump have focused much of their attention on the prospects of his second term. Not so for those in North Carolina. Though voter turnout was still remarkably high in North Carolina, exceeding turnout in 2020 by more than 100,000 votes and exceeding 2016 numbers by more than 1 million, much of the western part of the state, normally protected from the storms that batter the coast with some regularity, remains wiped out from flooding. Not content to carry on with the holiday season while their compatriots across the state still suffer, some Christians in an eastern region of North Carolina have made preparations to provide supplies, Bibles, and a hearty Thanksgiving meal to those in need. To learn more about what has been dubbed Operation Thanksgiving Blessings, Blaze News spoke with the man behind the plans, David Burke, who in turn prefers to give all the credit to someone else. "No way in the world would all this stuff ever have happened if it wasn't for God," he said, adding with a laugh, "I'm not that smart." Operation Thanksgiving Blessings Blaze News spoke with Burke on multiple occasions and can verify that he is, indeed, that smart. By trade a project manager for a metal fabrication company, Burke has also been known to dabble in some cooking competitions. "I was ranked as high as #3 in the state of North Carolina for whole-hog BBQ competition with the Roth Carolina Pork Council," he noted proudly in a message to Blaze News. After attending church one Sunday morning in early October, just a week or so after Hurricane Helene ravaged his state, Burke sensed that he had to do more for the victims than pray or write a check. "The Sunday school lesson was on home community service, of all things," he said. "I'm 59 years old. Never once have I had a Sunday school lesson on community service until about three weeks ago, four weeks ago." David Burke, speaking to children at a church that donated 100 Bibles for Operation Thanksgiving Blessings. Photo used with permission. After a series of coincidences, putting Burke in touch with people living hours away, he finally figured out what he was going to do: arrange to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for those living in an area that has thus far received little help from the government. Citing Newland, North Carolina, Mayor Derek Roberts, who claimed his daughter received just $300 from FEMA after losing her entire house to the flooding, Burke claimed that government assistance has been almost nonexistent in some cases and that the people of Western North Carolina have more or less had to fend for themselves. "I knew right then that's where we needed to go," Burke told Blaze News. Burke lives near Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, a rural area about 100 miles northeast of Raleigh and more than 260 miles east — about a six-hour drive — from Elk Park, the area he intended to feed. The distance and the scope of his plans meant that Burke needed help. As so many people do these days, Burke turned to social media, creating a Facebook page as a landing site for those interested in getting involved. And, as it were, the floodgates opened. Famed turkey company Butterball donated 100 turkeys weighing about 24 pounds each. Glover Construction is providing enough ingredients to make 300 gallons of Brunswick stew, a local staple that Burke described as "a thick vegetable soup." Even an area prison with a farm on its grounds reportedly offered 180 dozen eggs — more than 2,100 total — for the effort. Restaurants such as Napoli Pizza and Italian Restaurant in Murfreesboro chipped in by holding fundraisers. By pooling all proceeds from the fundraiser — including tips — Napoli's alone collected $4,000 for Operation Thanksgiving Blessings. Napoli's owner, Mari Rizo, told Blaze News she was thrilled with the success of the fundraiser. "At Napoli's Pizza and Italian Restaurant, we’ve always believed in the power of community. When we heard about the devastating impact of the hurricane on families in Western North Carolina, we felt compelled to help. Our team wanted to do something meaningful to give back, especially with Thanksgiving approaching," Rizo said in a statement to Blaze News. "To the families in Western North Carolina who are facing difficult times, we want you to know that we are thinking of you. We hope that this gesture helps to bring some comfort and joy to your holiday. Our hearts are with you, and we will continue to do everything we can to support you through this difficult time." Photo of Napoli's fundraiser. Used with permission. The Seaboard Lions Club, of which Burke is a member, has also collected monetary and supply donations and stored them on the organization's 20-acre site. "Everybody knows somebody, and in our world, the more people you know ... [the] better off you are," Burke said of the growing network of donors and volunteers involved with Operation Thanksgiving Blessings. Burke told Blaze News that his initial goal was to cook and serve about 5,000 total meals on Thanksgiving Day, but that goal expanded after he spoke with a woman who had a similar idea about feeding others living near Fletcher, North Carolina — about 90 miles away from Elk Park — on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. "We got another 40 turkeys donated and another 20 hams, and so what we're gonna do is we're gonna cook all that food for those 500 as well on Thanksgiving Day, and we'll pack it in bulk and send it to her. And then all she'll have to do is warm it back up and serve 500 people on Saturday as well," Burke explained. As generous as a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal is, the food represents just a tiny fraction of the goods and services Operation Thanksgiving Blessings will offer those in Western North Carolina. Burke and his team have loaded 53-foot trailers with other supplies as well, including clothes for the winter, heaters, blankets, baby supplies, gloves, hats, personal hygiene items, paper products, and cleaning supplies. ORBIS Corporation even donated 750 plastic bins for storage, a necessity for folks who lost not only all their possessions but a place in which to keep them. "ORBIS is honored to support this incredible cause and support the people of Western North Carolina in their time of need," the company told Blaze News. Photo of supplies. Used with permission. The details The crew from the Roanoke Rapids area has already begun packing up trailers and trucks, ready to haul everything out to the western part of the state just a day or so before Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving Day, they will set up shop at Cranberry Middle School at 6051 N. U.S. Hwy 19E in Elk Park, North Carolina. Folks can begin arriving at 11 a.m. and sit down and enjoy their meal or pick one up and take it to go. Screenshot of flyer featured on OTB Facebook page. Used with permission. Burke told Blaze News that his group has all the supplies and donations it can handle. He suggested that anyone still interested in making a monetary donation mail a check to the Seaboard Lions Club at P.O. Box 76, Seaboard, North Carolina, 27876. Sending it to David Burke's attention and including "OTB" on the memo line of the check will help earmark it for Operation Thanksgiving Blessings. Burke emphasized to Blaze News that "every red penny" the Lions Club receives will be distributed to people living in and around Elk Park. Ever committed to transparency, Burke even offered to have Blaze News share his private phone number in this article, an offer that we politely declined. "I don't want people to sit around and wonder what we're doing," he explained. "I want them to see exactly what's going on and see God at work." Feeding bellies and souls Burke, a devout Christian, takes the biblical call to love and serve others seriously, and he is happy to use his talents as a project manager and as a chef to give those who have lost all their material possessions a Thanksgiving meal they will never forget. However, he believes that evangelizing them for Christ is even more important. "We're looking for that one person out there that doesn't believe, doesn't think God is real," he told Blaze News, "and it is our hope that we can change his mind or her mind." "By showing them that people care and that God has been working this whole time to make all this come together, maybe, just maybe, we'll save that one," he continued. Burke is hardly the only Christian involved in Operation Thanksgiving Blessings. In fact, he has teamed up with members of churches across the state to identify and reach people in need. For instance, Burke connected with a pastor from his hometown of Murfreesboro but now living in Boone, North Carolina, who began collecting supplies sent via Amazon from all over the country. Burke also made contact with the student body president of Appalachian State University, who once attended Sunday school taught by Burke and his wife. "I called and talked to her, and I told her ... 'Go out there, and you tell these people that you're gonna come bring some help to them at Thanksgiving. ... And I'll be standing right behind you,'" he recalled to Blaze News. "I said, 'You've been on mission trips with me before. You know exactly what I want to get done. So let's see if we can make it happen.'" Burke acknowledged to Blaze News that some people, especially those who lost their homes, pets, and even loved ones in Hurricane Helene might struggle to believe in a loving, all-powerful God. But he added that faith in the face of doubt is still the answer. "Why did God let this happen? I can't answer that question, but it's all within His plan," he explained. "His plan has meaning. He doesn't make any mistakes, and so all we have to do is we have to have the faith." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/blaze-news-original-christians-to-provide-happy-thanksgiving-to-hurricane-victims-in-western-north-carolina

2024-11-17 18:01:39

@nprofile…hfrz
https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=54530418&width=980
Donald Trump won the election, but that isn’t the only win Americans are seeing. “This was really not an election of Trump versus Kamala, it was really an election on reality and how many people had woken up to something roughly real that they were getting versus the endless lies of the mainstream media,” Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” explains. “I mean, CNN is now talking about the podcasters and the online streamers and everything else. MSNBC is now for sale via Comcast. CNN, it’s now being reported, is about to axe a bunch of their top talent,” he adds. Megyn Kelly is in full agreement, noting that unlike Kamala, who relied on the mainstream media, Trump utilized the podcast circuit to get his message out to voters. “The young people do not watch cable news at all. Older people, senior citizens watch cable news,” Kelly says, adding that because of the memes, commentary, and fact checking on social-media, “mainstream anchors could not get away with the lies they were telling.” “The Tim Walz stolen valor stuff, that exploded online. We all really had a massive role in shaping the narrative in a way that would have been unthinkable even four years ago,” she says, “It’s a totally new game now.” When Kelly worked at Fox News, she recalls the media company refusing to entertain actress Jenny McCarthy’s claims that the childhood vaccine schedule was way over-the-top — and now it’s the same thing with trans ideology and pronouns. “I remember Fox News being like, ‘Oh, hell no, we are not even going there,’ and now today the same thing is happening with the trans stuff. Fox News uses quote ‘preferred pronouns.’ That’s a news corp. policy. They say ‘he’ when it should be ‘she,’” Kelly explains. “You could never have the frank and honest discussions that we have on our shows about race, race essentialism, the election denialism stuff, the COVID truths,” she continues. “I only would really put it together later that a lot of that is driven by just the agenda of the owners and the people at the top, and a lot of it is driven by the advertisers.” “I mean, RFK Jr. is not wrong when he points out what a huge advertiser Pfizer is all over television,” she adds. Want more from Dave Rubin?To enjoy more honest conversations, free speech, and big ideas with Dave Rubin, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-rubin-report/mainstream-media-2669892077

2024-11-15 02:07:15

@nprofile…83nr
https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/crucible-of-champions-the-isolated-region-that-breeds-the-ufc-s-stone-cold-killers.jpg?id=54500590&width=980
At UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi, Khamzat Chimaev, a beast from Chechnya, showed the world why he’s becoming one of the most feared men in mixed martial arts. Known for his brutal, relentless style and the nickname “Borz” (“wolf” in Chechen), Chimaev didn’t just beat former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker — he tore through him with a ruthless efficiency that left fans stunned. Within minutes, Whittaker — a fighter known for his strength and skill — was battered, his jaw tested by vicious strikes. From a young age, boys learn to endure cold, navigate difficult terrain, and face challenges head-on. They don’t just hear stories of heroes; they are expected to become them. Whittaker wasn’t just outclassed. He was embarrassed, thrown around like a cheap rag doll. But to truly grasp the depth of Chimaev’s dominance, one has to understand where he comes from and what fuels him. Where champions are made The North Caucasus is a place synonymous with survival. These rugged mountains, shadowed by centuries of struggle, breed people with an iron sense of identity. No trans madness here. No teaching children that there are 700 different genders. In places like Dagestan and Chechnya, where empires and Soviet boots once pressed down, boys aren’t just taught to fight; they’re taught to endure, to dominate, to win at all costs. Fighting here isn’t recreation; it’s in the blood. It is, for many, a ticket to a better life. While kids in the U.S. are glued to screens, boys here are rolling on mats, learning skills that build character and raw strength. Sure, they shed a tear — they are children, after all — but quickly wipe them away and resume training. In America and other affluent Western nations, parents often cushion their children against the hard knocks of reality. Playgrounds are rubber-padded, and competitive games come with participation trophies. Schools emphasize positive reinforcement and conflict resolution through dialogue. Safety and self-expression are the goals. But only a fool would deny that this soft approach has eroded the concept of toughness. Children in the U.S. and beyond, especially boys, are becoming weaker, both mentally and physically. Contrast this with the North Caucasus, where raising boys is less about emotional insulation and more about preparing them for an unforgiving world. Here, childhood is not an insulated period of delicate growth; it’s an initiation into manhood. From a young age, boys learn to endure cold, navigate difficult terrain, and face challenges head-on. They don’t just hear stories of heroes; they are expected to become them. The bar for what constitutes “soft” or “hard” is drawn starkly differently than in America. In the North Caucasus region, by the age of 10 a boy has already practiced wrestling in the dirt and spent cold nights learning survival skills outdoors. Here, every boy is like a mini Joe Rogan, minus the tattoos and impressive bank balance. Failure is seen as part of learning, not something to be avoided. The experience is grueling but purposeful — the expectation is to grow tough enough to shoulder family and community responsibilities. This isn’t cruelty; it’s preparation. Preparation for greatness.Epitome of greatness One cannot speak about greatness without discussing Khabib Nurmagomedov. To the people of Dagestan, he’s more than a champion. He’s a legend, revered with the same awe reserved for greats like Muhammad Ali or Michael Jordan. Khabib is arguably the greatest UFC fighter of all time, a man who dominated with a ferocity that broke opponents. In the Octagon, he didn’t just win titles — he took souls. Stephen McCarthy If in doubt, let me point you in the direction of Conor McGregor. Before stepping into the ring with Khabib, he was the brightest star in the UFC, a fighter believed to be unbeatable. A sporting icon who had elevated himself to near-mythic status, McGregor was systematically dismantled by a monster from the mountains. The buildup to their fight was nasty, with McGregor hurling cheap shots at Khabib’s now-deceased father. However, the Irishman, then the undisputed king of trash talk, would soon find himself getting a taste of his own medicine. The moment the bell rang, McGregor, full of his usual swagger, quickly realized he was facing a fighter intent on destruction — specifically, the destruction of him and his legacy. Clash of civilizations The audience, the vast majority of whom expected yet another McGregor victory, also understood they were not just watching a contest; they were witnessing a reckoning. With each takedown, Khabib sent a message to the world. He was there to make history. His ground-and-pound wasn’t flashy, but it was brutal, precise, and mercilessly effective. McGregor’s legendary counter-punches, the lethal strikes that had taken down countless opponents, proved useless against the relentless force of the Dagestani. Every attempt to escape failed. Khabib was relentless, a human Terminator, there to take McGregor apart piece by piece. The Dubliner spent most of the fight flopping around like a trout on a fisherman’s deck, desperately gasping for air. In truth, October 6, 2018, was the day the Conor McGregor we knew and loved died. He never recovered. How could he? The Grim Reaper had just visited and violated him. While McGregor was busy nursing his bruised body and his battered ego, Khabib returned to his homeland a hero. To the young boys of Dagestan, he was — and remains — a symbol of what's possible. Meanwhile, in the West, many boys and girls worship fleeting idols — TikTok influencers and pop stars like Sabrina Carpenter — whose fame is built on hollow trends and fake personas. They are all style and zero substance. We often speak of being "advanced," but take a hard look at our children and ask yourself: Are we truly moving forward, or are we losing the core values that build resilience, character, and true strength? Khabib’s triumph was more than a victory — it was a reminder of what real heroes look like.
https://www.theblaze.com/align/crucible-of-champions-the-isolated-region-that-breeds-the-ufc-s-stone-cold-killers

2024-11-15 02:00:31

@nprofile…83nr
https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=54502858&width=980
Liberals online began wailing and gnashing their teeth almost immediately after President-elect Donald Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to a seat in his Cabinet on Thursday.As had long been rumored, Trump tapped RFK Jr. to be health and human services secretary. During his independent run for president, RFK Jr. made health a major focus of his campaign.'Putting an anti-vaxxer in charge of public health is like putting the Unabomber in charge of the mail.'After Kennedy dropped out in August and formally endorsed Trump, social media became ablaze with the slogan "Make America Healthy Again," a phrase that Trump often uttered in the close of his rally speeches."I am thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health," Trump wrote in a statement posted to X late Thursday afternoon.In his statement, Trump also called public health and safety an administration's "most important role" but said that lately, Americans have endured an "overwhelming Health Crisis" on account of "harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives."Under Kennedy's leadership, health agencies will fight back against the chronic disease "epidemic," return to the "Gold Standard" of scientific research, and become "beacons of Transparency," Trump continued. — (@) CNN reported that Kennedy accepted the nomination sometime on Thursday.In its article about the RFK nomination, the liberal outfit also described Kennedy as "one of the nation’s most prominent anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists" and accused him of spreading "false conspiracy theories about the safety and efficacy of vaccines." However, the outlet did not provide any examples of such alleged conspiracy theories.The New York Times also claimed in its headline about the nomination that Kennedy "spread false information about vaccines." Liberals online melted down over the news of Kennedy's nomination as well."Putting an anti-vaxxer in charge of public health is like putting the Unabomber in charge of the mail," tweeted the left-wing influencer known as Jo."It’s difficult to describe how utterly wretched RFK Jr. is. Not that I necessarily expect them to, but the Republican Senate *has* to put their foot down here. He’s one of the most deranged sociopaths in public life, and his war on childhood vaccination is unconscionable," wrote a user with 19K followers."RFK Jr. ran a spoiler campaign to help elect Donald Trump. Now, he’s reaping the benefits with a position that will jeopardize the health of millions of Americans," said a group of Democratic activists called End Citizens United.However, not all Democrats assailed the pick. Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado in fact cheered it, claiming that RFK Jr. would help take "on big pharma and the corporate ag oligopoly.""He will face strong special interest opposition on these, but I look forward to partnering with him to truly make America healthy again and I hope that we can finally make progress on these important issues," Polis added.One industry likely to be upset by the pick is Big Pharma. Shortly after Trump announced the nomination, the stocks of many pharmaceutical companies reportedly tanked.Kennedy did not make a statement about the Cabinet position but did retweet Trump's statement. Soon after Trump's landslide election victory, Kennedy hinted that he likely would be heavily involved in public health agencies during Trump's second term."President Trump has given me three instructions," Kennedy said, according to CNN. "He wants the corruption and the conflicts out of the regulatory agencies. He wants to return the agencies to the gold standard, empirically-based, evidence-based, science and medicine that they were once famous for. And he wants to end the chronic disease epidemic with measurable impacts on a diminishment of chronic disease within two years."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/trump-ruffles-more-feathers-with-rfk-jr-cabinet-pick

2024-11-15 01:54:25

@nprofile…83nr
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Donald Trump has made it official: Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have been tapped to run a new “Department of Government Efficiency” (or DOGE), tasked with slashing the federal bureaucracy and spending. “Their duty will be over by July 4, 2026, which is the 250th anniversary of America. So we’ve got a lot of work to do until then,” Glenn Beck of “The Glenn Beck Program” comments, thrilled with the news. The point of the Department of Government Efficiency is cutting waste in the government — though that might include mass firings of government employees. “Ramaswamy has come up with this great idea of how to fire people. OK, we know the problem is that you just can’t fire people because they’re just going to take you to court,” Glenn says. “If you’re running a company, and you need to reduce the size of the company, you will have companies that will just cut whole divisions because they don’t want any of the lawsuits.” “It has to be everybody, right? So what Ramaswamy has come up with, and he says this is only a thought exercise, but I think it’s brilliant. What he’s come up with is ‘We’re going to reduce the government by half, and here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to say everyone who has an odd number at the end of their social security number, you’re fired,’” Glenn explains. However, if an employee is elected to the office they hold, they can’t be fired this way. “If you’re elected into that office, you’re not fired. But everybody else, because we’re reducing the size of the government by half,” Glenn says. While Stu Burguiere loves the idea of reducing the government by half, he’s skeptical of the method potentially being employed. “Merit has nothing to do with random groups of firing, you want to fire the employees that suck,” Stu says. “To be able to get to the place where you have merit, you have to reduce the size of the government first. You have blood letting that have to happen,” Glenn responds. Want more from Glenn Beck?To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-glenn-beck-program/elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy

2024-11-15 01:05:51

@nprofile…83nr
https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/leftist-echo-chamber-cracks-as-alternative-media-gains-ground.jpg?id=54496021&width=980
Donald Trump dealt an earth-shattering blow to the American left. The reality television star not only secured a convincing win in the Electoral College but also captured the popular vote and carried down-ballot Republicans to victory, with the GOP taking control of the Senate and likely retaining the House. Typically, such a decisive mandate for the opposition would lead a political party to reflect on the policies or rhetoric that contributed to such a defeat. But Democrats are having none of that.Instead of examining their platform, tone toward the American people, or use of power, liberal pundits and politicians have reached a different conclusion. From MSNBC to CNN and HBO, they have conducted election postmortems, blaming their loss on one main problem: that the American people have too much free speech.Democrats had constructed a reality in which their ideology was unquestionable and their victory inevitable.A few thoughtful voices on the left have suggested that policies like opening the border, demonizing men, ignoring the economic struggles of middle Americans, and promoting radical gender politics to children may have hurt the Democrats' chances. Yet these moderating voices have been quickly labeled as racist and sexist, silenced by progressives deeply invested in their own radical ideology. Instead, the left has chosen to lay the blame for its loss on alternative media.The left has sounded the alarm about the dangers of misinformation and disinformation for years. Progressives once held a near-total monopoly over the elite institutions that shape ideological consensus in America. In a world where individuals are often isolated from real interactions or events, the dominant narrative provided by news and entertainment had the power to define reality. That is how a nation can be convinced to treat a severe flu like the Black Death. Democrats have lived inside this self-constructed reality for so long that they have forgotten its artificial nature — like a fish that doesn’t know it’s wet.Progressives genuinely believe Americans are inherently racist, sexist, and homophobic, and they worry that without a controlled flow of carefully curated information, people will revert to their “brutal” nature and start throwing Nazi salutes in honor of the eternal Trumpenreich. Leftist operatives don’t view themselves as propagandists because they rely on narratives shaped by a network of credentialed institutions.When progressives talk about “our democracy,” they really mean the consensus upheld by “experts” who show loyalty to their ideology. Any information that contradicts this narrative becomes “misinformation” — not because it’s factually incorrect but because it challenges their carefully curated information ecosystem.In this moment of utter defeat, Democrats have pointed fingers at podcasters like Joe Rogan and Theo Von, frustrated by their influence on young men. Some leftist pundits even suggest the need to create a “progressive Joe Rogan” or build their own network of influencers.But this approach is delusional on multiple levels. The left already has a massive influence network that spans mainstream media, Hollywood, corporate America, academia, and the unelected federal bureaucracy. Progressives don’t view this as an “influence network,” however. They see it as basic institutional reality. They have convinced themselves that the shadows they cast on the wall are reality, and anything outside them is nefarious and artificial.Progressives have plenty of young male influencers, like David Pakman and Hasan Piker. These voices enjoy major funding and the advantage of speaking with little to no fear of censorship from big tech. But it is exactly this obvious alliance with the status quo that dooms their efforts. Liberal commentators aren’t rebels speaking truth to power; they’re pushing on an open door. Their apparent lack of authenticity is palpable, and audiences sense it. This disconnect is so pronounced that Pakman recently made a video addressing the fact that his own audience is leaving in droves.The left’s challenge isn’t a lack of media reach. Despite emerging cracks in their foundation, progressives still hold significant influence over legacy media, education, and government bureaucracies that shape public opinion in the United States. The real problem is that each of these institutions has sacrificed its credibility in pursuit of ideological control. Soft power is delicate. It requires disciplined actors who can leverage institutional control without overtly advancing their own interests. Progressives have lost all such discipline and burned the precious currency of institutional legitimacy for short-term gain. Now they will reap the whirlwind.The left still has extensive media representation, but it no longer holds a media monopoly. Despite a substantial advantage in funding, prestige, and infrastructure, audiences are abandoning traditional media because of their consistent misinformation. They lied about the border, misled on the pandemic, skewed coverage of Trump, manipulated poll results, and even deluded themselves into thinking Kamala Harris could win a presidential election. Even in defeat, progressive commentators remain oblivious to the reality they've so fervently insulated themselves from.Leftists now watch the success of podcasters like Rogan and platforms like X, marveling at their influence. On HBO panels and in New York Times columns, they exclaim, “Media can shape reality! I’ve got to get me some of that!” The lack of self-awareness is remarkable. Yet Democrats cannot produce a candidate capable of appearing on Rogan’s show, let alone replicate his authentic style. Rogan may not be conservative, but he doesn’t dismiss Americans or their concerns, offering an everyman quality that is hard to fabricate.The Democratic Party’s problem isn’t a lack of media reach; it’s a toxic message and an unwillingness to engage with middle America. The party demonizes young white men and labels middle Americans as “trash,” alienating these demographics. The problem isn’t that comedians have podcasts that diverge from the Democratic Party line; it’s the Democrats’ toxic disregard for average Americans’ concerns.Democrats had constructed a reality in which their ideology was unquestionable and their victory inevitable. Only “outdated” institutions like the Electoral College and voter ID stood between progressives and the “end of history.” Now, a resounding defeat in the popular vote has left them bewildered, searching for someone to blame. There will be no introspection or lessons learned. Instead, leftists have doubled down on radical policies and contempt for Americans. It’s a powerful reminder that decadence breeds weakness and insularity fosters delusion.
https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/leftist-echo-chamber-cracks-as-alternative-media-gains-ground

2024-10-28 14:20:07

Kamala avoids Biden's help on campaign trail despite lagging poll numbers: Report
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President Joe Biden has offered to stump on behalf of his number two, Kamala Harris, in the waning days of election season, only for Harris to give him the cold shoulder, reports indicate.Several outlets have reported that the Harris campaign is keeping Biden at arm's length. The following are a smattering of headlines that have been published in just the last few days:"Harris stiff-arms Biden in final stretch" — Axios,"Kamala Harris Is Ghosting Joe Biden, Who Wants To Campaign With Her" — Times Now,"Wishing he could do more, Biden fades into campaign's background" — Politico, and"Kamala Harris keeps snubbing President Biden's requests to campaign for her: report" — the New York Post.While the Axios headline uses a football metaphor, the report actually compares the relationship between Harris and Biden to "a slow-moving break-up." Sources familiar with the situation told the outlet that anytime Biden offers to campaign on her behalf, Harris' people offer the same response: "We'll get back to you.""He's a reminder of the last four years, not the new way forward," another unnamed source told the outlet.'There’s really not anything he can do to help at this point.'With just over a week left before Election Day, Biden and Harris have no joint public appearances on their schedule, and Biden's stop in Pittsburgh to meet with various union leaders on Saturday reportedly took the Harris team by surprise."I have walked the picket line, and so has Kamala," Biden said during a 20-minute speech at the Allegheny-Fayette Labor Council apprentice training center, according to TribLive. "This is about decency versus lack of decency. This is about character."While Biden's overall approval rating has been in the tank for some time, Scranton Joe still enjoys some enduring support among blue-collar, Catholic areas of the Rust Belt, particularly Pennsylvania. He also appears to do well with some seniors, a reliable voting bloc.Harris could likely use those votes. Most polls on RealClearPolitics show former President Donald Trump with a slight lead in Pennsylvania, a state with a whopping 19 electoral votes. In 2020, Biden officially bested Trump in the Keystone State by 1.2%.White House spokesperson Andrew Bates denied that the Harris team did not know about Biden's trip to Pittsburgh and insisted that Biden stands ready to help Harris in any way he can. "We are in close touch with the campaign to determine when, where and how the president can be helpful," Bates told Axios.However, in a recent "Days Ahead" email sent by the Harris team, which listed a series of campaign events, Biden's stops in Pittsburgh were not mentioned.At a stop in New Hampshire last Tuesday, Biden also ruffled a few feathers after he railed about locking Trump up. "We gotta lock him up," Biden said. Perhaps recognizing that he may have overstepped and admitted a deliberate lawfare campaign against a political rival, Biden quickly added, "Politically lock him up. Lock him out. That’s what we have to do."Thus far, Biden's overtures have reportedly failed to ingratiate him with Harris and her team, even as RCP averages suggest she currently trails Trump in other key battleground states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin. "I don’t think it’s all that useful to the campaign," one Democrat said of Biden's campaign events, according to Politico. "But there’s really not anything he can do to help at this point. Maybe some of these events around policy accomplishments make a difference on the margins. But at best, they’re probably a wash."Neither the Harris campaign nor the vice president's office responded to a request for comment from Axios. The New York Post likewise reached out for comment.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/kamala-avoids-biden-s-help-on-campaign-trail-despite-lagging-poll-numbers-report

2024-10-25 10:35:01

Blaze News original: Americans don't trust the media. Here are 7 examples why they probably shouldn't.
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Trust in the mass media has bottomed out. Gallup, which has been tracking public trust in newspapers, TV, and radio for over 50 years, revealed Oct. 14 that a plurality (36%) of Americans have no trust at all in the mass media. 33% of respondents said they don't trust the mass media "very much." Only 31% of Americans indicated they trust the media to report the news "fully, accurately and fairly." Some academics and media outfits have in recent years tried to pin this breakdown of trust on President Donald Trump and on other individuals who have expressed contempt for the mainstream press, such as the late Rush Limbaugh. Although simple and politically expedient, such explanations fail to account for why this decline was under way long before Trump's descent down the golden escalator on June 16, 2015, and the debut of Limbaugh's self-titled show in October 1984. Extra to considering several proposed drivers of the broader trend, Blaze News spoke to Jacob L. Nelson, associate professor in the University of Utah’s Department of Communication and author of "Imagined Audiences: How Journalists Perceive and Pursue the Public," about both Gallup's findings and what his own research has revealed about Americans' degrading trust. While there are multiple and in some cases competing explanations for why Americans don't trust the media, one thing is clear: The continuous advancement of brazen falsehoods and deceptive narratives is not helping. Blaze News has highlighted seven egregious examples of false or misleading reports that have served both to justify Americans' distrust and to illustrate what a trustworthy media might seek to avoid. Bad diagnosis Gallup data indicates that the decline in Americans' trust in the mass media has been under way since 1976. Among those signaling a "great deal" or "fair amount" of trust in the media, there appears to have been a brief rebound from 2000 to 2003, but the downward trend resumed in 2004 — around the time weapons of mass destruction were not discovered in Iraq. This year, a record-low number of respondents (31%) expressed a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media — down one point from last year's similarly abysmal figure. Meanwhile, outright distrust rose from 4% in 1976 to 36% in 2024, briefly cresting at 39% last year. Slight distrust rose from 22% in 1976 to a high of 41% in 2016. It now sits at 33%. In the Trump years, trust in the media skyrocketed among Democrats. Broken down by party affiliation, Gallup indicated that 54% of Democrats, 27% of independents, and 12% of Republican respondents signaled a great deal or a fair amount of trust in the media. Republican trust in the media dropped off around the time of the Watergate scandal and in the lead-up to President Richard Nixon’s resignation. After a brief increase, trust began steadily declining from 1976 onward, enjoying partial though fleeting recoveries at points in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The biggest one-year drop appears to have taken place between 2015 and 2016. Independents' trust, though historically stronger than that of their Republican counterparts, has — with only a few exceptions — largely degraded in parallel. Democrats' trust (i.e. "great deal" / "fair amount") tells a different story. Starting six points higher at first measure in 1972, Democratic trust declined parallel to Republicans' trust from the end of the Vietnam War until 1997 but then began zigzagging erratically during George W. Bush's first term. During the Obama years, trust dropped, reaching an all-time low of 51% in 2016. However, in the Trump years, trust in the media skyrocketed among Democrats, reaching an all-time high of 76% in 2018 — amid the lead-up to the first impeachment of the Republican president. According to Gallup, Democrats' trust in the media tanked 16 points between 2022 and 2024 to 54%. Another telling insight from the survey is the generational divide. Geriatrics' trust in the media currently sits at 43%, having bounced around the high 40s for the past 14 years. Respondents ages 50-64, meanwhile, are less trusting, with only 33% expressing confidence in the media. Only 26% of Americans ages 18-49 expressed a great deal or a fair amount of trust in the media. Possible drivers This decline has prompted a great deal of speculation in recent years about potential causes. Some analysts have suggested that the growing distrust in the media is the result of a far greater social crisis. While less an answer and more a prompt for additional question, this is nevertheless borne out by polling data. Gallup indicated earlier this year that the public's average confidence in 17 institutions, including the U.S. Supreme Court, Congress, organized religion, higher education, and banks, has been lower than 30% for the past three years. As television news and newspapers are among the institutions least trusted, it's clear they are still excelling at shedding public confidence. Journalist and author Matt Taibbi noted in a recent Canadian state media documentary that trust may have been degraded in part by a change in the media's business model. Taibbi noted that prior to the 1990s, American broadcast news sought to secure the largest possible audience with minimal objectionable content. But facing increased competition, these outlets began targeting specific demographics in the early 2000s. This, coupled with technological disruptions — AI is now threatening a new shake-up — has allegedly helped to polarize the media landscape. Owing to the rise of social media and supposed democratization of information, the mainstream media also has faced increasing competition for the public's trust and attention from new sources and platforms. The Pew Research Center revealed Oct. 16 that young American adults and Republicans are now almost as likely to trust information from social media sources as from national news organizations. The survey found that among all U.S. adults, 74% of respondents said they had a lot or some trust in local news organizations. 59% said the same of national news organizations. 37% said social media sites had secured their confidence. Whereas the supermajority of Democrats trusted both local and national news organizations, 66% of Republicans supported local outlets and only 40% supported national news organizations — narrowly beating social media sites by three points. Among adults 18-29, 52% expressed confidence in social media sites, 56% in local news, and 71% in national news organizations. Blaze News senior editor Cortney Weil noted that extra to providing Americans with alternative information sources, social media platforms such as X have been helpful in illuminating deceptive media practices. Between Trump and Elon Musk's purchase of perhaps the most powerful social media platform in the world, everyday Americans can see that members of the media all too often launder their preferred narrative through their reporting under the guise of journalism. Some Americans may have begun nurturing distrust not only after achieving a better understanding of how the proverbial sausage is made but upon discovering who is operating the grinder and where. There appears to be incredible ideological conformity in the press, where liberals are grossly overrepresented. A 2020 study published in the journal Science Advances indicated that a survey of U.S. political journalists found that among the 78% of respondents who identified with or leaned toward a particular party, eight in 10 said they were liberal/Democrats. 'I have to present myself as someone who is deeply skeptical.' The problem of real or perceived viewpoint bias is compounded by the de-localization of newsrooms over time to coastal hives amid sweeping consolidation. "Unless and until media outlets step away from the NYC/D.C./L.A. bubbles and venture out into real America, I don't harbor much hope for them," said Weil. While these factors might account for Republicans' disproportionate distrust, the lack of intellectual diversity in the press has turned off liberals as well, such as Peabody Award-winning editor Uri Berliner, who complained — just prior to his conveniently timed ouster — that NPR, where he worked for 25 years, had become an "openly polemical news outlet serving a niche audience." Money-poisoned wells and oversaturation Professor Jacob Nelson at the University of Utah has spent years analyzing trust, objectivity, and bias in reporting. Nelson told Blaze News that in his research, interviewees suggested when asked about their confidence in the media that "the news as a whole is inherently untrustworthy." "My sense is that that's in large part due to the fact that the media environment has grown so saturated and now comprises so many different providers of news, many of which are antagonistic toward one another and sort of presenting themselves as, 'We are the ones who have the truth, and if you go elsewhere, that is not where you find the truth,'" said Nelson. "And rather than make people feel as though, 'Okay, I can trust this outlet,' I think that oftentimes people feel, 'Okay, well, if everyone is telling me that everyone is untrustworthy, then I feel like I can't trust anyone, or at the very least, I have to present myself as someone who is deeply skeptical,'" continued Nelson. "'Otherwise, I might be construed as being, you know, like a sucker or someone who is not savvy enough to make sense of what's true or what's false in the world.'" While reluctant to opine on a possible correlation between the rise of populism and the decline in public trust, Nelson speculated that an anti-elitist verve and sensitivity to patronization might prompt some Americans to discount the supposed expertise of media professionals and harbor distrust. Nelson suggested that a significant factor affecting trust is the perception that journalism is compromised by commercial interests. "We did these interviews with people where we asked them, 'Do you trust journalism? Why or why not?'" Nelson told Blaze News. "The question that we kept asking people was, 'Why is it that you think that news organizations are attempting to deceive you?
https://www.theblaze.com/news/americans-dont-trust-the-media-here-are-7-examples-why-they-probably-shouldnt

2024-10-24 20:10:01

Dems panic as Republicans bank record-breaking early votes in key states
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Less than two weeks from the presidential election, Republicans are breaking turnout records for early voting and mail-in ballots across several key states.In previous election cycles, Democrats have overwhelmingly outperformed Republicans when it comes to voting early. In 2020, over 22 million Democrats voted early, while just 15 million Republicans and nearly 12 million independents did the same. Although more Democrats have voted early, Republicans are actually outperforming them in some crucial swing states.Early voting was notably higher in 2020 due to the pandemic, but the trend remains true for previous election cycles. In 2016, just eight million Republicans voted in advance, as well as nearly 10 million Democrats and five million independents. This time around, Republicans are narrowing the gap. With over 26 million early votes counted, 11 million have been from Democrats, over 10 million have been from Republicans, and nearly five million have been from independents. Historically, the Republican Party has been averse to the idea of early voting. This time around, Trump has made the change to embrace it, and Democrats are beginning to panic. "A few more days like this, though, and the Democratic bedwetting will reach epic proportions," Jon Ralston, CEO of the Nevada Independent, told The Hill about early voting in Clark County, home of Las Vegas. "I think it comes solely down to the fact that last cycle, Donald Trump told Republicans not to vote early, and this time, the party is telling them to vote early," Jon McHenry, a GOP polling analyst and vice president at North Star Opinion Research, told Blaze News. "Pretty simple."Although more Democrats have voted early, Republicans are actually outperforming them in some crucial swing states. In Georgia, 48% of the early votes have been cast by Republicans, while 46% have been from Democrats. Similarly, in Arizona, Republicans are outperforming Democrats 42% to 36%, as well as 40% to 36% in Nevada.The two parties are nearly tied in North Carolina, with 35% of early votes coming from Democrats and 34% from Republicans. “The large mail ballot lead enjoyed by Dems has been erased and more by the GOP lead in in-person early voting,” Ralston told The Hill. While Republicans are making strides in the Sun Belt, Democrats have held onto their lead in the Rust Belt states. In Michigan, 52% of early votes were cast by Democrats, while just 38% came from Republicans. In Pennsylvania, the swing state with the highest electoral vote count, 62% of early votes came from Democrats and 29% came from Republicans. In Wisconsin, 37% of early votes were cast by Democrats and 21% of Republicans did the same. "It doesn't matter a whole lot, whether you get them early or you get them late, as long as they get there," McHenry told Blaze News. "The advantage of getting them early is that you know that they're already banked. You won't have to sweat Election Day quite as much."Notably, nearly half of early votes in Wisconsin and a third of votes in North Carolina came from independents. Roughly a quarter of early votes in Nevada and Arizona also came from independents. Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia have had the lowest independent turnout, bringing in 10%, 9%, and 6%, respectively. "Just because you're registered as a Democrat doesn't mean you voted for Kamala Harris," McHenry told Blaze News. "You might be registered as a Democrat, but you've gotten sick to death of the Democrats over the last four years and just didn't bother to change your registration. You might just vote for Trump." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/dems-panic-as-republicans-bank-record-breaking-early-votes-in-key-states-2669472463

2024-10-23 19:50:01

Harris' desperate, last-ditch effort to win over voters? Recycle tired Trump-Hitler narrative
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Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris made a last-minute addition to her schedule on Wednesday afternoon to deliver remarks outside of the vice president's residence.While the White House's announcement did not disclose the topic ahead of time, it became glaringly evident from Harris' opening remarks that the sole purpose of the address was to torch her opponent, former President Donald Trump.'Increasingly desperate because she is flailing, and her campaign is in shambles.'During her three-minute speech, Harris explained that Trump's former chief of staff, retired Marine General John Kelly, "confirmed that while Donald Trump was president, he said he wanted generals like Adolf Hitler had.""Donald Trump said that because he does not want a military that is loyal to the United States Constitution; he wants a military that is loyal to him," Harris continued. "One that will obey his orders even when he tells them to break the law or abandon their oath to the Constitution of the United States."The Trump campaign responded to Kelly's claims, stating that he "beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated."During Harris' address, she doubled down on statements claiming that Trump has "called his fellow Americans, the 'enemy from within.'""And let's be clear about who he considers to be the enemy from within — anyone who refuses to bend a knee or dares to criticize him," Harris claimed. She stated that Trump plans to go after judges, journalists, and non-partisan election officials. Harris was presumably referring to comments that Trump made over the weekend, during which he specifically referred to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and Representative Adam Schiff (D-California) as "the enemy from within."Harris continued her Wednesday address, stating, "It is deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous that Donald Trump would invoke Adolf Hitler, the man who is responsible for the deaths of six million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Americans.""It is clear from John Kelly's words that Donald Trump is someone who, I quote, 'certainly falls into the general definition of fascist,'" Harris said.She claimed that Trump "vowed to be a dictator" and "use the military as his personal militia." "Donald Trump is increasingly unhinged and unstable," Harris declared."So, the bottom line is this: We know what Donald Trump wants. He wants unchecked power. The question in 13 days will be, what do the American people want," Harris concluded before ending the address. She did not take any questions from reporters. In a Sunday interview, Harris accused Trump of demeaning the office by making critical remarks about her. NBC News accused Trump of using "incendiary rhetoric" against his opponent. Harris' impromptu Wednesday address kicked up criticism on social media, with many claiming that her campaign's final message to voters ahead of the upcoming election signaled desperation. In a post on X, conservative influencer Benny Johnson responded to Harris' claim that Trump desires "uncheck power.""This is coming from the administration that has abused its power against Trump from DAY ONE," Johnson wrote. "TOTAL DESPERATION," he said of Harris' campaign.Rudy Giuliani wrote in a post on X, "Kamala Harris is now comparing Donald Trump to Adolph Hitler. Kamala knows there have been two assassination attempts and countless threats on his life. It couldn't be any clearer—this is a dog whistle to potential assassins. Disgraceful."Trump's campaign responded to Harris' press conference, writing, "Kamala Harris is a stone-cold loser who is increasingly desperate because she is flailing, and her campaign is in shambles. That is why she continues to peddle outright lies and falsehoods that are easily disproven. The fact is that Kamala's dangerous rhetoric is directly to blame for the multiple assassination attempts against President Trump and she continues to stoke the flames of violence all in the name of politics. She is despicable and her grotesque behavior proves she is wholly unfit for office."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/harris-desperate-last-ditch-effort-to-win-over-voters-recycle-tired-trump-hitler-narrative

2024-10-23 19:05:02

Over 600 female athletes have lost medals to transgender competitors, shocking UN report reveals
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A United Nations report reveals that a staggering number of female athletes have lost medals to transgender competitors.The report states that as of March 2024, more than 600 female athletes have been pushed off podiums in 29 sporting categories.'Male athletes have specific attributes considered advantageous in certain sports, such as strength and testosterone levels that are higher than those of the average range for females, even before puberty, thereby resulting in the loss of fair opportunity.'As such, women have lost almost 900 medals to men who identify as women in over 400 competitions, the report says.The report, titled "Violence against women and girls in sports," was published by the U.N.'s special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem.In the document, Alsalem explains that various national federations and governing bodies have allowed males who identify as females to compete in female sports categories.Alsalem goes on to say that no matter the age at which transgender males compete against females, inherent athletic advantages for trans competitors will persist: "Male athletes have specific attributes considered advantageous in certain sports, such as strength and testosterone levels that are higher than those of the average range for females, even before puberty, thereby resulting in the loss of fair opportunity."Alsalem also cited the 2024 Paris Olympics, during which "female boxers had to compete against two boxers whose sex as females was seriously contested" and noted that "the International Olympic Committee refused to carry out a sex screening."Controversial boxers Lin Yu‑ting of Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) and Imane Khelif of Algeria both won gold medals in women's boxing this past summer. Controversial Algerian boxer Imane Khelif beats Italian boxer Angela Carini by forfeit at the Paris 2024 OlympicsPhoto by Fabio Bozzani/Anadolu via Getty ImagesBoth the International Boxing Association and the World Boxing Organization found that Khelif was biologically a man, but the International Olympic Committee decided to allow Khelif to box in the women's category anyway.Khelif has since filed criminal hate speech complaints in France over alleged abuse during the Olympics.The U.N. report claimed that reliable sex screening procedures can be provided through a simple cheek swab and that female Olympians were in favor of its use in the past."A 1996 survey of female Olympians found that an overwhelming number (82 percent of the 928 surveyed) supported sex tests," the report noted.Last week a group of female activists and former athletes urged the U.N. to push for limitations on men who wish to compete against women in their events.Olympic silver medalist Sharron Davies and former West Virginia athlete Lainey Armistead were among those who spoke at the United Nations General Assembly meeting, alongside Alsalem and lawyers such as Kristen Waggoner of the Alliance Defending Freedom.The group of women called for the international sports community to ensure that women can participate in athletics without being at risk of harm from men.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/fearless/women-miss-out-on-medals

2024-10-23 18:55:01

National Guard husband vanishes, and his wife's alleged affair — and a new mattress — raise chilling questions of murder
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A Utah mother allegedly shot her husband to death in their bed in September, according to claims by her alleged lover. The husband has been missing since last month. Jennifer Gledhill, 41, told police she and her estranged husband met to talk Sept. 20 and began “drinking whiskey," according to an arrest report. The mother of three allegedly told her lover that she transported her husband's body "north, dug a hole, and buried him in a shallow grave." Gledhill and her husband — 51-year-old Matthew Johnson — allegedly agreed to have sex that night. "Jennifer informed [the officer] due to the intoxication from the whiskey she had a hard time recalling the events that took place after her and Matthew had sex," the warrant states, according to KSTU-TV.Johnson — a member of the Utah National Guard — was reported missing Sept. 23. The next day, Gledhill reportedly contacted the Cottonwood Heights Police Department to file a domestic violence incident report against her husband. She allegedly informed an officer that "bruises were all over her body," and she wanted them photographed for evidence. The warrant noted that an officer noticed several bruises on Gledhill's arms, hands, legs, and a bruise under her left eye.Gledhill claimed Johnson "became upset," but she could not remember why, according to the warrant. "Jennifer informed me she remembered Matthew was on top of her with a closed fist striking her several times," Gledhill reportedly told police. However, an informant told investigators a different story. An unnamed man who claimed to be having an affair with Gledhill reportedly told police that she informed him that she sustained bruises from "moving Matthew’s body and cleaning the mess in the house."'I washed everything & vacuumed & it's not an issue anymore.'The alleged lover also made another bombshell accusation. Fox News reported that the lover informed investigators that Gledhill came over to his house on Sept. 22, and she told him that she was "likely going away for a long time."According to police, the informant claimed that Gledhill told him that she and Johnson got into a fight on Sept. 20 "because he knew she had been sleeping with someone else." The informant allegedly told police Gledhill confessed to him that she shot Johnson in the head with his 9mm Glock "as he slept in their shared bed."Court documents said Gledhill told her lover "that she loaded Matthew’s body into a rooftop storage container, slid him down the stairs by herself, and loaded him into the back of her minivan."Documents added that the mother of three allegedly told her lover that she transported her husband's body "north, dug a hole, and buried him in a shallow grave." The probable cause affidavit noted that Gledhill sent the informant text messages and messages on WhatsApp, including one that reportedly read: "I washed everything & vacuumed & it's not an issue anymore."Gledhill told the informant that if she were told a story like the one she told him that "she would take it to the grave," according to court documents. A neighbor reportedly told police that she witnessed Gledhill’s parents inside the home "cleaning" the garage and "moving things around" on Sept. 24. The suspect's mother reportedly confirmed to investigators that she was at her daughter's house Sept. 24. Johnson has yet to be found.'Take it to the grave.'Detectives found Johnson's truck and his cellphone inside it less than a mile from his home.While serving a search warrant at Gledhill’s residence, detectives allegedly noted that the mattress in the master bedroom "appeared to be brand new."Prosecutors claimed, "The evidence is significant that defendant obstructed the investigation by removing the mattress she admitted to [the] informant that she shot Matthew on while he was sleeping and replaced days later with a new mattress."Gledhill’s mother allegedly told detectives that she purchased a new mattress from Amazon at Gledhill’s request."Additionally, the entire wall behind the master bed appeared to have fresh wipe marks from cleaning," court documents state. "Several reddish-brown spots were located on the walls, bed frame, and blinds of the master bedroom. Detectives noted that the wall behind the master bed was covered in bleach."Police noted "a strong smell of chlorine in the basement" and bleach stains on "several stairs" with black carpeting.During a search of the suspect’s vehicle, detectives discovered bags of what appeared to be drugs packaged "for individual sale" and roughly $200 in cash.Citing cellphone records, prosecutors said "at no point" after Sept. 21 did Gledhill "ever attempt to contact" Johnson.When investigators asked the suspect’s father if he had recently entered the master bedroom, he reportedly responded, "I did not go in where the incident happened."According to police records, Gledhill previously made "unsuccessful attempts to secure a protective order against Matthew during the course of their marriage and was found by the court to be an instigator and one to goad Matthew into a response in order to get him in trouble," prosecutors argued. On Oct. 2, Gledhill was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, five counts of obstruction of justice, possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, abuse of a human body, and tampering with a witness.During her first court appearance Monday, 3rd District Judge Todd Olsen ordered her to not have contact with any of her three young children — ages 11, 7, and 5 — either in person or electronically.KSL-TV reported Gledhill "wiped tears from her face" as the judge issued the order.Gledhill's attorney, Jeremy Deus, argued, "I think this is a heavy-handed tactic by the state to try to put undue pressure on her."Deus added, "I can't imagine what it's like to say that she can't see the children and, in effect, tell the children that they can't see mom, either. They're not named victims in the case. I don't see a basis for having a protective order that prevents them from having contact with their mother in any form or fashion."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/utah-mom-murder-national-guard-mattress-sex

2024-10-23 17:20:01

Tulsi Gabbard announces she is joining the GOP: 'The Democrat Party has no home for people like us'
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Lt. Col. Tulsi Gabbard helped torpedo Kamala Harris' presidential campaign in 2020. Keen to do so once again but also to spare America from losing further blood and treasure abroad as a consequence of the interventionism favored by the vice president and her new buddy Liz Cheney, the former congresswoman endorsed President Donald Trump in August, stressing that unlike Harris, he would "do the work and walk us back from the brink of war." At a rally Tuesday in Greensboro, North Carolina, the former Democrat went a step farther, announcing that she was joining the Republican Party. "To those of you here and those watching at home who are independent people like myself, who love our country and are committed to the Constitution and to freedom, the Democrat Party has no home for people like us," said Gabbard. "But we do have a home in the Republican Party." "It is because of my love for our country and specifically because of the leadership that President Trump has brought to transform the Republican Party and bring it back to the party of the people and the party of peace that I'm proud to stand here with you today, President Trump, and announce that I'm joining the Republican Party," added the former Hawaii congresswoman, to the sound of thunderous applause. 'A vote for President Trump is a vote for peace.' Earlier in her remarks, Gabbard noted that she spent over 20 years as a Democrat but found that the party had morphed into something unrecognizable. Gabbard noted that like her party, Harris is "anti-freedom, she is pro-censorship, she is pro-open\-borders, and she is pro-war." The former congresswoman is particularly sensitive to Harris' disregard for American freedoms, having learned over the summer from several federal Air Marshal whistleblowers that the Biden-Harris administration was apparently surveilling her via a program designed to identify and monitor potential terrorists. Gabbard's alleged enrollment in the Transportation Security Administration's Quiet Skies program was all the more offensive because she enlisted in the military in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, countering extremism across three war zones. The congresswoman previously told Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck, "The only assumption that I can make is that they're coming after me because of my speaking the truth and revealing who they really are." While continued abuses under a possible Harris administration are clearly a concern for Gabbard, she underscored that the choice between Trump and the vice president was ultimately a choice between peace and war. "President Trump has pledged to stop wars, not start them," Gabbard told the crowd Tuesday in Greensboro. "And this is why, in the eyes of the Kamala Harris, Dick Cheney Democrat Party, they will do everything possible to try to destroy him." Noting that Election Day was just two weeks away, Gabbard impressed upon the crowd that "a vote for President Trump is a vote for secure borders and safe communities, and a vote for President Trump is a vote for peace here in America and around the world." The pro-peace message at the Trump rally was at odds with the message advanced at Harris' phony town hall Monday in Royal Oak, Michigan, where the vice president and Liz Cheney criticized Trump's plan to end the war in Ukraine. Cheney said, "I think that if you look at where the Republican Party is today, there's been a really dangerous embrace of isolationism." Harris signaled her agreement, stating, "Isolationism, which is exactly what Donald Trump is pushing — pull out of NATO, abandon our friends — isolationism is not insulation. It is not insulation. It will not insulate us from harm in terms of our national security." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/tulsi-gabbard-announces-she-is-joining-the-gop

2024-10-23 16:25:01

40 sheriffs torch Biden-Harris’ open-border policies for unleashing crime and drugs on small-town America
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A coalition of more than 40 sheriffs from 18 states released a joint letter addressed to the public on Tuesday, slamming the Biden-Harris administration’s destructive open-border policies for unleashing crime and drug surges in small-town America.In the letter, obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation, the sheriffs expressed “grave concern for the safety and security of our communities” nationwide, noting that under the current administration, “Every town is a border town.”'The impact is broken families, lost futures, and devastated communities.'“As sheriffs, our first duty is to protect the citizens we serve, but today, we find ourselves confronted by a growing crisis that threatens the very fabric of our country and its sovereignty: open-border policies,” they wrote.The sheriffs blamed the administration for allowing between 10 to 15 million foreign nationals to cross the border illegally, adding that those totals are “more than the individual population of 46 states in our nation.”By refusing to enforce the country’s existing immigration laws, the Biden-Harris administration has “allowed dangerous criminals, human traffickers, and drug cartels” to infiltrate American communities, they contended.“The result is a flood of illegal drugs, particularly fentanyl, into our cities and towns. The impact is broken families, lost futures, and devastated communities,” the sheriffs continued.The Biden administration, Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, and their Democratic allies have repeatedly insisted that the only way to stop the immigration crisis is for Congress to pass more laws — specifically, the failed so-called "bipartisan" border Senate bill, the Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, H.R. 815.However, the coalition of sheriffs appeared to push back on the administration’s false claims that it does not already have the authority to shut down mass illegal immigration.“The President alone can act to fix this crisis. The president can suspend or restrict the entry of noncitizens if it is deemed in the national interest, proclaim a national emergency along the border, and redirect federal funds to construct a border wall. The Biden-Harris Administration has done none of these. And we are seeing the consequences,” they wrote.Sheriffs Rich Stanek of Hennepin County, Minnesota; Chad Leonard of Dallas County, Iowa; Adam Infante of Dallas County, Iowa; and Mark Lamb of Pinal County, Arizona, were among those who signed the letter.Sheriff James Custer of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, another signatory, told the DCNF about how the fentanyl crisis has impacted his community.“I’ve seen this trend has been going on over the last three years, the fentanyl crisis, that has come across our southern border. ... Our overdose deaths rose each year,” Custer stated. “Now we are in a slight decline this year, but we have several deaths pending toxicology results.”Sheriff Bob Songer of Klickitat County, Washington, who also signed the sheriffs’ letter, told the DCNF, “Personally, I think both the Biden administration and their administrative staff ought to be charged with treason, they’ve broken this country to where we don’t have a border.”The Biden-Harris administration and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/40-sheriffs-torch-biden-harris-open-border-policies-for-unleashing-crime-and-drugs-on-small-town-america

2024-10-23 13:30:04

Texas couple allegedly assaulted by police while praying on Jan. 6 sentenced to rot in prison
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A Texas married couple who said police assaulted them while they were praying on Jan. 6 were sentenced to years in prison Oct. 22 on felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from their time outside the U.S. Capitol during protests and subsequent rioting.Mark Fulton Middleton, 54, and Jalise Kay Middleton, 54, of Forestburg, Texas, had asked U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss to sentence them to home detention and probation, while the U.S. Department of Justice sought sentences of 7.25 years in prison for each.Judge Moss sentenced Mark Middleton to 30 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, while he gave Jalise Middleton 20 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.In February, the Middletons were found guilty by a Washington, D.C., jury of assaulting, resisting, or impeding two police officers, civil disorder, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct, engaging in physical violence and several other related misdemeanors.'The officer was pulling her scarf and choking her.'A guilty verdict on the felony charge of obstruction of an official proceeding was dismissed in September due to the June 2024 Supreme Court ruling in Fischer v. United States. That opinion vastly limits use of an accounting-fraud statute — 18 U.S. Code §1512(c)(2) — to prosecute cases that are not related to documents or other evidence. It was the most widely charged felony in Jan. 6 cases.The crux of the Middletons’ case was what took place at the police line on the Capitol's West Plaza at about 2:10 p.m. on Jan. 6. The large crowd on the north side of the plaza pressed against the bike racks police were using to hold demonstrators back.Police on the west front had been lobbing explosive munitions and firing other projectiles into the crowd for more than an hour, Capitol Police security video showed. A grenade exploded six-people deep in the crowd about a minute before the Middletons had their tangle with police, security video showed. Tear gas swirled about in the stiff wind.The Middletons say if police had not picked up the bike rack barricades and pushed them into the protesters, they would not have made contact with the officers. What prosecutors described as the couple preparing to throw their bodies against the police line was actually the Middletons facing each other and praying, a defense attorney said.“The videos do show that at one point, Mrs. Middleton’s scarf was being pulled by a police officer and Mr. Middleton has testified that he tried to pull Mrs. Middleton away from the police line and to have the police let go of his wife,” wrote defense attorney Stephen Brennwald in Mark Middleton's 21-page sentencing memo. An incendiary grenade is lobbed into the crowd by a Metropolitan Police Department officer at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Not far away, Mark and Jalise Middleton scuffle with police at the barricades.U.S. Capitol Police CCTV“That is a natural reaction that any person would have, even if the two people hadn’t been married for decades as the Middletons have,” he said.Brennwald said there is no question that police initiated contact with the Middletons and others nearby.“Her behavior only happened because she was assaulted first—hit by a police officer and pushed by a large violent protester behind her,” defense attorney Kira West wrote in Jalise Middleton's 27-page sentencing memo.“The officer was pulling her scarf and choking her and Ms. Middleton indiscriminately swatted at him to escape what she perceived was going to be her sudden death,” West said.Prosecutors took a dimmer view of the 5- to 7-second encounter.“Mark Middleton heckled police officers, including by shouted obscenities,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sean McCauley and Brendan Ballou in a 47-page sentencing supplemental memo. “Together, the Middletons then threw their bodies into the barricades. When officers tried to restore the barricades and ordered them to get back, both the Middletons assaulted two officers.”'I felt responsible to let my voice be heard and make a difference.'Prosecutors cited the political speech of both Middletons since Jan. 6 and accused them of “spreading falsehoods.”“Mark Middleton has used his Twitter to trumpet—on an at least daily if not almost hourly basis—convicted January 6 rioters, promulgate conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, and spread baseless lies about January 6,” prosecutors wrote.The Middletons bragged about their deeds on social media and lied under oath during their trial, the DOJ said.“They have sought to personally benefit by using the notoriety of their crimes to raise money and seek fame,” the DOJ wrote.West rejected claims her client lied at the trial.“Ms. Middleton made no false statements while testifying. Her testimony lines up with the video evidence in the case as well as other testimony and videos from other J6 trials,” West wrote.The Middletons had a right to exercise freedom of speech regarding their concerns over the 2020 presidential election, West said.“When this court considers all of the factors before it, the court must conclude that these are not the actions of someone there to overthrow the government or incite violence, but rather a concerned citizen who believed the election was stolen,” West said. Married couple Mark and Jalise Middleton of Forestburg, Texas, either assaulting police on Jan. 6, 2021, as prosecutors claim or defending themselves after police pulled hard on Jalise Middleton’s scarf as a defense attorney asserts. Photo from Metropolitan Police Department Bodycam In his sentencing memo for Mark Middleton, Brennwald said he was not suggesting the Middletons “should have been where they were in the first place" or that police “did not have the right to, in some manner, move the crowd away from its location.” “But the aggressiveness demonstrated by the police in this instance was not the finest example of police behavior, and ended up being counter-productive, as it inflamed passions in the crowd,” he wrote.In an Oct. 19 letter to Judge Moss, Jalise Middleton said she was in fight-or-flight mode when the incident occurred.“I felt responsible to let my voice be heard and make a difference,” she wrote of her decision to come to Washington, D.C. “The truth is, Jesus Christ makes the difference. My only job that day was to pray and stand ﬁrm. Amidst the chaos that quickly ensued, I forgot to trust him."“Furthermore, I do passionately believe my actions that day were consistent with what any person would have done in our shoes,” Jalise Middleton wrote.The FBI seized Jalise Middleton's wedding ring while executing a search warrant at the couple's home. Agents then took it with them. The Middletons have been married since May 1990.“Wouldn’t a photograph of it suffice?” West asked. “Apparently not.”Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/texas-couple-allegedly-assaulted-by-police-while-praying-on-jan-6-sentenced-to-rot-in-prison

2024-10-23 00:45:01

Armed homeowner in New Mexico confronts alleged intruder who broke in before 4 a.m. It doesn't end well for uninvited guest.
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A homeowner in New Mexico fatally shot an alleged intruder who broke into a residence early Tuesday morning, Bernalillo County deputies told KOB-TV.The station said deputies responded to a call around 3:45 a.m. about an intruder at a home near Lost Horizon Drive on the West Mesa, the station said. The area is part of Albuquerque.'That’s why we have our 2nd Amendment!!!'The homeowner reported shooting the intruder, the sheriff's office told KOB.Arriving deputies found the alleged intruder critically injured and tried life-saving measures on the individual, the station said.Medics took the suspect to a hospital, but the suspect died, KOB reported.Sheriff's office detectives who work on violent crimes and homicides are investigating the incident, the station said.How are observers reacting?Plenty of people are reacting to KOB's story on the station's Facebook page. Here's a sampling of what they had to say:"Unfortunately we have to protect our own because by the time police show up — if they show up — it's too late," one commenter wrote. "We all work hard for our things and need [to] protect our families. When [suspects are] arrested, they're just let right back out to do it all over again...""This is great news! More criminals need this fate!" another user concluded."This was totally warranted!" another commenter said. "Good job protecting yourself, family, & your home! There needs to be ... repercussions for the outrageous amount of crime in this city.""Good job!!!" another commenter exclaimed. "That’s why we have our 2nd Amendment!!!""Good," another commenter noted before adding, "Tired of this crap. When [they're] in your home, you gotta protect it. I stand for the homeowner. Job well done.""Finally some good news today," another user stated before adding, "Great job on protecting your family and what’s yours. Sends a perfect message to thieves; [we've] had enough of their BS."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/armed-homeowner-in-new-mexico-confronts-alleged-intruder-who-broke-in-before-4-am-it-doesnt-end-well-for-uninvited-guest

2024-10-22 20:05:03

How ‘the science’ is unexpectedly taking us closer to faith
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Whether it was drinking wine through masks, cutting out family for refusing to vaccinate, or ratting out neighbors for having company, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in people all over the world taking their faith to an entirely new level. “Science suddenly became this kind of new god, and it was perhaps embodied in its priest Dr. Fauci, who claimed to be the science and therefore to have authority over all ... aspects of our lives,” Spencer Klavan, author of “Light of the Mind, Light of the World: Illuminating Science Through Faith,” tells Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report.” While science itself is what Klavan calls a “noble human tradition of understanding and trying to know about the natural world,” the newfound worship of the practice disfigured its true nature. “Originally, the scientific revolution that we all know of was not an anti-religious crusade, just the opposite, it was a religious endeavor to know God’s universe,” Klavan says, noting that we were brought up to believe that science is the only truth there is. The blatant lies peddled by Dr. Fauci and the rest of the Democratic establishment regarding masks, vaccines, and social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic not only pushed Americans to question “the science” — but how long they’ve been told that it’s the only truth. “It’s a very different story than we were brought up to believe, and I kind of think we need a hard reset on this,” he says. Meanwhile, those who do worship science over religion will be for the most part checking off Kamala Harris on their ballot this November — but it’s not stopping Americans from waking up. “While you have this kind of decrepit establishment endorsing Kamala Harris, you also have things like this article in City Journal that came out recently about all these scientists who are totally shocking themselves by starting to think, ‘Maybe there’s more to the universe than just math and matter in motion,’” Klavan explains. And perhaps, human beings are much more magnificent than we’ve been led to believe. “This is also what I think the quantum revolution has unlocked, is this realization that actually, self-awareness and consciousness are irreplaceable things,” he says, adding, “It looked for awhile like everything was just made of meat and we were just chemistry sets, but actually, there's something much more capacious on the other side.” Want more from Dave Rubin?To enjoy more honest conversations, free speech, and big ideas with Dave Rubin, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-rubin-report/the-science-religion

2024-10-22 16:05:01

Air Force Academy forces fan to cover pro-women shirt at women's volleyball game featuring controversial transgender player
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Air Force Academy staffers forced a fan to cover his shirt that read "Keep Women's Sports Female" at a women's volleyball game over the weekend that featured a transgender player. John Kopecky, an Air Force Academy graduate, attended Saturday's game at the Academy. The match was against Mountain West Conference opponent San Jose State University.The pair firmly told Kopecky that if he wanted to stay he would have to zip his hoodie 'all the way up' so his shirt isn't visible.SJSU has had a controversial season due to having a male athlete, Blaire Fleming, on the roster. Several NCAA players, including Fleming's own teammate, have spoken out against a male playing against females. Blaire Fleming, San Jose State University Photo by Andrew Wevers/Getty ImagesDespite five women's volleyball teams announcing forfeits against SJSU, presumably over the unfairness of having to play against a male, the Air Force Academy decided to play SJSU as scheduled.According to reporter Dan Zaksheske, Kopecky was wearing a hooded sweatshirt with a shirt underneath that read, "Keep Women's Sports Female."A video then caught a pointed conversation between Kopecky and two Air Force Academy representatives — a male and a female — who told him his shirt is "political" and that they are "trying to keep it comfortable and safe" at the arena."How is it political?" Kopecky asks."How is it not?" the male replied.Kopecky told the pair that he had worn the shirt in question just days prior to an Air Force Academy event, and no one took issue with it. He then asked if it would be OK to wear the shirt to other Academy events."Can I wear this to the football game today?""Yeah," the female replied. "Sir, we know why you're wearing that ... targeted ...""I'm not targeting anything," Kopecky reiterated. "I'm coming here to a women's sports event."The pair firmly told Kopecky that if he wanted to stay he would have to zip his hoodie "all the way up" so his shirt isn't visible.They then warned him that he may be forced to leave the arena if he unzips the hoodie, at which point Kopecky said if he was removed from the facility, he would halt all his donations and season ticket purchases.In an interview with OutKick, Kopecky said the Air Force Academy made specific rule changes for this game in particular, including a banner telling fans that no signs are allowed into the venue."They brought out a big board with all these rules about fan conduct that may have been there in the past, but I've never seen it [displayed] right at the door," Kopecky told the outlet. According to OutKick, the school said in a statement that it "takes necessary measures to provide a safe environment at all home athletic events for players, coaches, staff and fans."In the end, San Jose State defeated the Air Force Academy 3-1, and OutKick said Fleming led SJSU with 10 kills in the match.Kopecky also echoed a sentiment that many female volleyball players have revealed after playing against Fleming: "Watching Blaire Fleming play ... the jumping ability was just drastically different. It was just like, 'Wow, there's something you don't see every day at a women's volleyball match.' ... [Fleming was] strikingly more athletic than normal."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/fearless/air-force-academy-sjsu-volleyball

2024-10-22 13:55:01

Harris tosses word salads while Liz Cheney blows remaining political capital at phony 'town hall'
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Kamala Harris held a campaign event Monday in Michigan with the apparent aim of attracting Republican women in the suburbs, having just bungled her attempts to win back male voters and Christians. The vice president once again leaned on former Jan. 6 committee member Liz Cheney, who proved more than willing to sacrifice her remaining political capital in service of someone she deemed just four years ago "a radical liberal who wants to raise your taxes, take away your guns and your health insurance, explode the size of our federal government and give it control over every aspect of our lives." While the Royal Oak event had all the makings of a town hall where voters might be able to ask the Democratic candidate questions, the host, former California first lady Maria Shriver, made clear early on that this was not the time for spontaneity or openness. In what appears to have been the only unscripted question, a woman in the crowd asked, "Are we going to be able to ask a question?" "You're not, unfortunately," replied Shriver. "We have some predetermined questions, and hopefully I'll be able to ask some of the questions that might be in your head. I hope so." 'They're not even hiding it anymore.' The apparently clairvoyant host indicated further that she wanted "this to be like a kitchen table — like, just think we're sitting around the kitchen table and we're jamming about all kinds of stuff." Concerning the scripted nature of the event, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said, "HOLY S***! They're not even hiding it anymore." John Daniel Davidson, senior editor at the Federalist, noted, "Even Kamala Harris's town hall events are more 'staged' than Trump's legendary appearance at McDonald's." 'There's been a really dangerous embrace of isolationism.' Harris, spared from having to think on her feet, recycled the script she has attempted to recite in recent interviews, including the lines about former military and intelligence officials' opposition to President Donald Trump she used in her recent Bret Baier interview. Nevertheless, she still managed to toss a handful of word salads. In one instance, she told her muzzled audience: You know, the nature of a democracy is such that I think there is a duality. On the one hand, there's an incredible strength when our democracy is intact. An incredible strength in what it does to protect the freedoms and rights of its people. Oh, there's great strength in that. And it is very fragile. It is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it. So that's the moment we're in. And I say, "Do not despair," because in a democracy, as long as we can keep it, in our democracy, the people — every individual has the power to make a decision about what this will be. And that's — so let's not feel powerless. Cheney chimed in between Harris' monologues and concern-mongered over the possibility that Trump might not commit to another costly foreign entanglement. "I think that if you look at where the Republican Party is today, there's been a really dangerous embrace of isolationism," said Cheney, who secured less than 29% of the vote in her last bid to hold on to power. "The reality is that since the end of World War II, America has led and we've led, and that has been necessary to defend our freedom." The border czar agreed, noting, "Isolationism, which is exactly what Donald Trump is pushing — pull out of NATO, abandon our friends — isolationism is not insulation. It is not insulation. It will not insulate us from harm in terms of our national security." Cheney warned further that Congress might not be able to prevent Trump from exiting NATO or from executing other foreign policy decisions the American people would have given him a mandate to tackle. 'I don't know if anybody is more conservative than I am.' The New York Times noted that in similar events that Cheney attended with Harris Monday in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the former congresswoman — who had an "A" rating from the group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America at the time she was denied another term by Republican voters — characterized the vice president as an optimal choice for pro-life women. Cheney suggested that Republican pro-life laws protecting the unborn have gone too far, such that conservative women can back the pro-abortion radical with a clean conscience. "I think there are many of us around the country who have been pro-life but who have watched what's going on in our states since the Dobbs decision and have watched state legislatures put in place laws that are resulting in women not getting the care they need," said Cheney. "In places like Texas, for example, the attorney general is talking about suing, is suing, to get access to women's medical records. That's not sustainable for us as a country, and it has to change." Harris has made clear the change she has in mind: eliminate the filibuster in the U.S. Senate in order to codify abortion as a national right. Neglecting to touch on Harris' support for taxpayer-funded sex changes for illegal aliens and her support for sex-change mutilations for minors, Cheney suggested that her supposed conservatism is compatible with a vote for Harris. "If people are uncertain, if people are thinking, 'Well, you know, I'm a conservative, I don't know that I can support Vice President Harris,' I would say I don't know if anybody is more conservative than I am," said Cheney. Trump mocked the establishment duo's events, writing, "Lyin' Kamala has stooped so low as to pick a woman to campaign with her who lost her Congressional Race by the largest margin, 40%, in history. The record holder is Crazed Warhawk Liz Cheney, whose father, Dick, convinced Bush to go into the Middle East and KILL." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/harris-tosses-word-salads-while-liz-cheney-blows-remaining-political-capital-at-phony-town-hall

2024-10-22 09:01:31

Ravens fan on viral video brutally beating rival fans turns himself in, Baltimore police say
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Baltimore police said a suspect in a viral video showing a Ravens' fan brutally beating two rival fans has turned himself in after an online campaign to bring him to justice. The video showed a man in a Ravens jersey march up to two men wearing Washington Commanders' jerseys and assault them in what appeared to be an unprovoked attack. 'Charging documents said that Callis had been captured on surveillance video assaulting one of the men before the events of the viral video.' Social media users were outraged by the video and went to work to try to identify the man in order to bring him to justice. Some claimed to have identified his place of work and pressured the insurance company until it announced that it had fired the suspect. Then, on Friday, Baltimore police said they had issued a warrant for 24-year-old John Callis. On Monday, Callis surrendered to Baltimore Police’s Southern District station after coming to an agreement with police, according to his attorney. Charging documents said that Callis had been captured on surveillance video assaulting one of the men before the events of the viral video. He allegedly punched one man, leading the other to defend the victim before being assaulted himself. A third man in a Commanders jersey intervened in the fight, as well as a woman, according to police. When they separated, the woman stayed with Callis while the three victims fled. The men who were assaulted told police that they had returned to the area in order to look for a lost cell phone when Callis attacked them again, as seen in the viral video. Police said that one of the men suffered a concussion as well several bodily bruises while the other two suffered only minor injuries. Callis had previously been arrested for beating up a man in 2021 and was given probation and a fine for that incident. A news report from WTTG-TV showed Callis in police shackles, which can be viewed on YouTube. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/ravens-beating-commanders-surrenders-police

2024-10-22 09:01:24

Toddler shoots infant to death after finding loaded long gun, police say
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An infant was shot to death by a toddler who found a long gun while sitting the back of a car in a parking lot, Texas police say. Three children were sitting in a silver SUV at the parking lot of the Audie L. Murphy VA Medical Center in San Antonio on Monday afternoon when one of the children found the loaded gun, according to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus. The female adult in the car was waiting for a medical appointment, police said. 'Police said they had not yet determined the owner of the gun.' The toddler fired the gun in the backseat, striking the infant who was between 10 and 11 months old, McManus said at a media briefing. Paramedics from the medical center tried to save the child, but they pronounced the infant dead at the scene. The two other children were aged 2 and 3 years old. Police said they had not yet determined the owner of the gun. Police initially said the incident was being investigated as a tragic accident, and no charges were being considered, but they later confirmed that they may file criminal negligence charges depending on the outcome of their investigation. McManus said they had not yet determined the relationship between the female in the car and the three children during the preliminary investigation. A news video report from KENS-TV showed scenes from the parking lot and can be viewed on YouTube. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/texas-infant-shot-killed-toddler

2024-10-22 09:01:08

14-year-old boy punches drug-pushing male in head after he lunges at teen. Male falls, hits head on street, dies weeks later.
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A 14-year-old boy punched a drug-pushing male in the head after the male lunged at the teen last month in Pueblo, Colorado. With that, the male fell and hit his head on the street — and died weeks later. Pueblo police said they believe the teen was acting in self-defense, KOAA-TV reported.The station said the Pueblo County Coroner's Office will release the identity of the male in question at a later time.Around 5 p.m. Sept. 27, police arrived in the 1100 block of York Street — which is located near the East 4th Street and Highway 50 interchange — and said the boy was providing aid to a male "experiencing homelessness," the station reported. Police told KOAA they learned the male approached the boy and asked him if he wanted to "smoke drugs." Police told the station the boy declined and tried to leave, but the male continued to try to talk to the boy.With that, the male lunged at the boy, and the boy punched the male in the head, KOAA said.Police said the male fell and hit his head on the street, the station reported, adding that he was taken to a hospital, where he died from his injuries Oct. 12. Police told KOAA they believe the teenager acted in self-defense, and at the moment, no charges have been filed against the boy. The station said the Pueblo County Coroner's Office will release the identity of the male in question at a later time. Police added to KOAA that they're still investigating the case, and if you have any information about the incident to call Det. Shay at 719-553-2445. The station also said if you want to remain anonymous, you can call Pueblo Crime Stoppers at 719-542-7867. - YouTube youtu.be Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/14-year-old-boy-punches-drug-pushing-male-in-head-after-he-lunged-at-teen-male-falls-hits-head-on-street-dies-weeks-later

2024-10-22 09:00:59

Kamala’s filibuster fails as Bret Baier shreds her cowardly campaign strategy
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Although The Hill certainly can’t be accused of being in Donald Trump’s corner and, as far as I can tell, has leaned left throughout this presidential campaign, its reporters lost no time telling us that Kamala Harris messed up her interview with Bret Baier on Fox News. The Hill’s description of the interview used the word “disaster” several times to underscore the truly appalling character of Harris’ clumsy attempts to grapple with Baier’s questioning.Contrary to the totally dishonest defense that the vice president received in much of the corporate left-wing media, The Hill further explained that American media was responsible for Kamala’s interview catastrophe.If Baier seemed to be interrupting Harris repeatedly, he had every reason to do so. She was filibustering.The legacy media, according to The Hill, never bothered to give our vice president any serious questions. The media avoided asking her those obvious things that Baier brought up in the narrow 20-minute interview that Kamala’s handlers granted him. For example, when exactly did she learn that the president under whom she was serving was afflicted with senile dementia? For years, Harris never let on that she grasped that glaringly obvious reality. She went on praising Joe Biden’s mental acumen, up until the moment Democratic kingmakers installed her as their presidential nominee. The friendly media should have been asking Kamala about why she hid Biden’s frailty. If the media had done its job, she might have had a reasonable response to Baier’s query.The interview for me raised another question: Why would Kamala’s handlers have permitted her to undergo the ordeal of an unscripted interview?Their candidate had been running neck-and-neck with and possibly slightly ahead of Trump for about two months, and it might have been possible to run out the clock without exposing Harris to a systematic grilling courtesy of a relentlessly thorough interviewer. By now it’s clear that she doesn’t think fast on her feet; and she’s already “unburdened herself” of multiple, embarrassing word salads when responding to effusively friendly talk show hosts. It might have been best, her advisers should have reasoned, not to put her into a demanding situation that was above her pay grade. (I think we can all agree with Trump that this lady is not very smart.)The one time Harris apparently ventured out beyond tightly controlled situations was during her debate with Trump in September. But even then, she had been allowed to rattle off memorized lines, mostly depicting her opponent as a fascist ogre. And this debate took place under the aegis of biased moderators, who acted as if they were Kamala’s loving babysitters. I suspect her handlers agreed to that short interview with Baier because they thought it would be a win-win situation. Her appearance on Fox News would create the impression that she was reaching out to Republicans, just as Trump went into strongly blue areas to appeal to possible voters there. Presumably at least some Fox viewers — anti-Trump Republicans — could be won over to vote blue. Since the time permitted for that interview kept getting whittled down, from half an hour to about 20 minutes, Kamala would not be exposing herself to the unknown for very long.Her handlers further assumed that Kamala could get by during the abbreviated interview by rehashing the anti-Trump rhetoric that she had dutifully recited for the debate. Please note that the most animated responses that she gave to Baier’s questions were restatements of what she had unleashed against Trump. She, therefore, went back to the same invectives even if they didn’t relate to the questions Baier asked during the interview. If Baier seemed to be interrupting her repeatedly, he had every reason to do so. Harris was filibustering. Instead, she launched into anti-Trump rants as the questioning proceeded, and that made the interview difficult to conduct.Perhaps the major factor that got Harris and her team to accept the interview was the choice of the interviewer. Although a celebrity on a Republican-leaning channel, Baier is not known to bear any affection for Donald Trump. He has never held back from going after Trump’s claim to have won the 2020 presidential race. He also plays up “bigly” his mediating role in seeking “common ground” with Democrats.If I were a Democrat deciding to be interviewed on a Republican channel, I would have been truly delighted if Baier were the one asking the questions. What happened, however, was not at all what Harris expected. Baier came out, entirely to his credit, asking tough, well-phrased questions and tried to keep his interviewee from segueing into her anti-Trump invective. That and being for nationwide unrestricted abortion rights for women continue to be Kamala’s only talking points, when she’s not belaboring her listener with unintelligible word salads.Quite predictably, the leftist media went after Baier for not doing what was expected of him, which was helping to get Harris elected. But Baier wouldn’t release his quarry, a decision for which he should be commended.
https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/kamalas-filibuster-fails-as-bret-baier-shreds-her-cowardly-campaign-strategy

2024-10-22 09:00:54

Chinese communists reportedly 'frustrated' and 'perplexed' at communist Cuba's resistance to free market solutions
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An economic collapse in the communist controlled economy of Cuba is straining its relations with communist China resulting in an unexpected report. Cuba experienced a massive electrical blackout due to deteriorating infrastructure and damaging embargoes from the U.S., but rather than implement free market solutions, the communist government insists on failing with ideological purity. 'The strained relationship is reflected in a precipitous drop of Chinese imports to Cuba, which went from $1.7 billion in 2017 to $1.1 billion.' According to a report in the Financial Times, Chinese officials are exasperated with their Caribbean island compatriots. They cite economists and diplomats briefed in the situation between China and Cuba. The sources said that China publicly supported Cuba's vertically planned economy, but in private, Chinese officials have urged the island regime to follow the Chinese economic model with market-oriented elements. The report said Chinese officials are "perplexed and frustrated" at Cuban leaders overlooking glaring disfunction in order to perpetuate the state-run economy. The strained relationship is reflected in a precipitous drop of Chinese imports to Cuba, which went from $1.7 billion in 2017 to $1.1 billion only five years later. Cuba is in its fourth day without power to about 10 million residents. Communist leaders blamed U.S. embargoes for the worsening power situation, but U.S. officials denied the accusations. "The United States is not to blame for today's blackout on the island, or the overall energy situation in Cuba," said the spokesperson for the White House National Security Council. Some Cuban residents have protested against the government's failures by banging pots and pans while disrupting traffic. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel responded by warning that the government was "not going to allow acts of vandalism and much less alter the tranquility of our people.”The situation is expected to deteriorate even more after Hurricane Oscar made landfall on Sunday in Cuba. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/china-cuba-communism-blackout-failure

2024-10-22 09:00:46

Massive migrant caravan gathers in Mexico; immigrants plan to cross border before Trump can stop them
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One-third of the population of Tapachula, Mexico, is now made up of migrants who plan to cross the border. Todd Bensman, a senior fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, explains that these 150,000 immigrants are trapped behind a militarized cordon of Mexican military operation, in order “to keep them from creating a political spectacle at our border.” “This goes back to a deal that was done in December of 2023, in order to reduce the total numbers that were being seen crossing and driving the polls down. So 150,000 is an astronomical number that are hemmed up here in this enclave, this migrant kind of Gaza Strip, if you will,” he tells Jill Savage and Matthew Peterson of “Blaze News Tonight.” The migrants in Tapachula “are in absolute torment,” as all the resources available to them have been used up. “The people are sleeping on the streets, there’s no room in shelters, there’s no room in the hotels, and they just keep pile-driving in because they fear that Donald Trump is going to win,” Bensman says. “There’s a real sense of urgency among the immigrants here, and they’ve started to form caravans to kind of force their way out of Tapachula, to escape Tapachula,” he continues. “There’s about another thousand or 2,000 forming up right now in downtown Tapachula to get ready to push on to another city down here, providing that the Mexican military will let them pass.” These immigrants aren’t just from Mexico; they’re from all over the world. “All of them just sort of keep coming with this hope that soon the Mexicans will relent and let them through. And that’s the big question: Will the Mexicans relent on the deal that they made with Biden at the time he was running for office?” Bensman asks. Peterson is shocked. “We’re old enough to remember, all of us here, when kids in cages were a terrible thing. Now, it’s hundreds of thousands of kids can go missing and it’s fine here. You have cities in cages,” he says. “Not a single person is talking about this in legacy media. It’s insane,” he adds. Want more from 'Blaze News Tonight'?To enjoy more provocative opinions, expert analysis, and breaking stories you won’t see anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
https://www.theblaze.com/shows/blaze-news-tonight/migrant-tapachula

2024-10-22 09:00:36

Texas AG Paxton accuses Democrat donation portal ActBlue of illegally funneling foreign money into US campaigns
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called on the Federal Election Commission to investigate evidence he uncovered of possible illegal foreign donations through ActBlue. 'I am calling on the FEC to immediately begin rulemaking to secure our elections from any criminal actors exploiting these vulnerabilities.' Paxton issued a statement about the results of his investigation into the Democratic donation portal on Monday. "Our investigation into ActBlue has uncovered facts indicating that bad actors can illegally interfere in American elections by disguising political donations," said Paxton. "It is imperative that the FEC close off the avenues we have identified by which foreign contributions or contributions in excess of legal limits could be unlawfully funneled to political campaigns, bypassing campaign finance regulations and compromising our electoral system." Paxton initiated his investigation into ActBlue in Dec. 2023, and the portal's directors responded by adding another security measure to credit card users on the site. Paxton said that was not enough, however. "I am calling on the FEC to immediately begin rulemaking to secure our elections from any criminal actors exploiting these vulnerabilities," he added. In July, independent investigators reported finding evidence of suspicious donations to ActBlue. Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares opened an investigation and called on ActBlue to explain the alleged evidence that donations were "being made from fictional donors or dummy accounts, or that information reported by or through ActBlue may be fraudulent." ActBlue officials accused the AG of adding credibility to a "years-long disinformation and harassment" campaign against the portal. “This investigation is nothing more than a partisan political attack and scare tactic to undermine the power of Democratic and progressive small-dollar donors,” the statement from ActBlue stated. “We welcome the opportunity to respond to these frivolous claims.”The portal has also dumped several Political Action Committee organizations that were being accused of behaving like "Scam PACs" that promise to aid campaigns but instead spent lavishly to the benefit of organizers. An ActBlue spokesperson said only that the PACs were jettisoned over their misuse of the information available on the portal. The Harris-Walz campaign has reported raising over a billion dollars in campaign donations, dwarfing previous presidential successes. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/actblue-paxton-illegal-donations-dem

2024-10-22 09:00:12

Trump's roast of liberals was so good that even Brian Stelter is praising it
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Donald Trump may be a lot of things, but one thing that stands out from the rest is his unparalleled sense of humor. The former president flexed his comedic muscle in a roast of the Democrats at the 2024 Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York City — and none of them were marked safe from his ire, especially Kamala Harris, who did not show up at the dinner, making it the first time since Walter Mondale that both presidential candidates have not been in attendance. “Chuck Schumer is here, looking very glum,” Trump said. “He looks glum. But look on the bright side, Chuck. Considering how woke your party has become, if Kamala loses, you still have a chance to become the first woman president.” Trump also went after Kamala’s supporters, specifically her very loud white male supporters. “There’s a group called ‘White Dudes for Harris,’ have you seen this?” Trump asked the audience. “I’m not worried about them at all, because their wives and their wives’ lovers are all voting for me. Every one of those people are voting for me.” But perhaps one of his best jokes of the night was pointed at Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Kamala’s VP pick. “Unfortunately Governor Walz isn’t here himself, but don’t worry, he’s going to say that he was,” Trump said, to thunderous applause. While there’s no doubt that many liberals were frustrated to see Trump put on such a great performance, others were able to laugh along — including CNN’s Brian Stelter, who said he was funny and “got a few great jokes in.” “Trump is objectively funny,” Stu Burguiere of “Stu Does America” tells Glenn Beck on “The Glenn Beck Program.” “You should be able to admit it, and I give credit to Stelter for admitting it.” “He is really funny,” Glenn agrees. “And he has no problem making fun of himself. Last night he said, ‘You know, they told me I should do some self-deprecating jokes, but I got nothing.’” Want more from Glenn Beck?To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-glenn-beck-program/donald-trump-roast

2024-10-22 09:00:11

McDonald's issues bipartisan statement to employees after Trump's visit: 'We open our doors to everyone'
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The leadership at McDonald's gave a statement to its employees after former President Donald Trump hosted a campaign event for supporters at a local franchise in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.Noting that Trump's visit does not mean it is endorsing a candidate, the company appreciates Trump being a longtime fan for many years.As McDonald's noted, it does not have records to back up Harris' claim she had worked at a location as an early job."We are not red or blue — we are golden. Though we are not a political brand, we've been proud to hear former President Trump's love for McDonald's and Vice President Harris's fond memories working under the Arches. While we and our franchisees don't have records for all positions dating back to the '80s, what makes '1 in 8' so powerful is the shared experience so many Americans have had," the statement said."Upon learning of the former President's request, we approached it through the lens of one of our core values: we open our doors to everyone. It's with that same approach that franchisees have invited Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz to their restaurants, in order to share how McDonald's provides meaningful pathways to economic opportunity and feeds and fosters local communities," the company explained. "The strength of our brand comes down to our people."As McDonald's noted, it does not have records to back up Harris' claim she worked at a location as an early job. The New York Times labeled Trump's statements saying she never worked there as "false" but have mainly relied on a statement from the Harris campaign that offers no further proof. The Times was able to find a close friend who says Harris' mother told her about the supposed McDonald's job.For his part, Trump joked he has now worked at McDonald's longer than Harris ever had. Memes about Trump's visit flooded social media, even overshadowing that Sunday was Harris' birthday.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/mcdonald-s-issues-bipartisan-statement-to-employees-after-trump-s-visit-we-open-our-doors-to-everyone

2024-10-22 09:00:05

'Peak gaslighting': Desperate California teachers characterize parental rights candidates as untrustworthy
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The prospect of greater transparency and restored parental involvement in children's education appears to have panicked a gang of teachers from California's Newport-Mesa Unified School District. Parental rights advocates emphasized to Blaze News that this desperation is yet another signal the tide is turning in favor of parents. English teacher Matt Armstrong of Newport Harbor High School and a multitude of fellow travelers in the district released an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times' Daily Pilot on Thursday blasting those candidates now seeking election to the NMUSD board of trustees who would dare protect parental rights. Although Armstrong and the op-ed's signatories refrained from naming the candidates outright, they appear to have been referring to Philip Stemler in Trustee Area 3 and Amy Peters in Trustee Area 6. "We understand that it's fashionable in some circles to criticize public institutions and vilify teachers," wrote Armstrong and company. "With that in mind, the undersigned teachers and I want to make clear that proclaiming 'parental rights' is code for two goals: to lord over our community's teachers and to censor materials available to students." According to the opinion piece, parents "have not been deprived of any rights" but threaten to upend Democratic laws intended to keep parents in the dark about consequential decisions regarding their children and to foist racial and LGBT propaganda on children. Corey A. DeAngelis, senior fellow at the American Culture Project and executive director at the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom, told Blaze News, "Their claim that parents haven't been deprived of any rights is peak gaslighting. California politicians are fighting to keep secrets from public school parents" Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) ratified the so-called AB 1955, the so-called SAFETY Act, in July. 'They think they own other people's children.' The law, first introduced by gay Assemblyman Christopher Ward (D) and championed by the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, prohibits school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and state special schools from introducing or enforcing rules, regulations, or policies that require employees to disclose to parents "any information related to a pupil's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression." On account of AB 1955, parents in NMUSD are precluded from challenging the district's policy that requires educators to hide a child's so-called "transgender or gender-nonconforming status" from their parents when "appropriate." Armstrong and company alleged in their op-ed: If elected, these people will overrule the qualifications and experience of the educators in our schools by adopting policies intended to challenge California law. They would use their position of public trust on our nonpartisan local school board to pursue a partisan agenda to upend the California SAFETY Act. Such grandstanding will subject our district to costly litigation on a losing case. This is where 'defending parental rights' will lead us. According to her candidate statement, Peters, a mother of three and former educator, not only wants to address the suboptimal academic outcomes in the district and its "poor fiscal health" but to "work to restore the partnership between parents and educators, and to ensure that transparent and response governance and leadership is prioritized." The Daily Pilot indicated that Peters has been openly critical of AB 1955. "I don't think we should be keeping that information from parents," she said at a recent forum hosted by the Harbor Council PTA at Back Bay High School. "The secrecy that's happening on school campuses drives a wedge between schools and parents and teachers and children." Stemler, a father of two and San Bernardino County deputy district attorney endorsed by Newport Beach Mayor Will O'Neill, similarly emphasized the need for transparency in his candidate statement, noting further that "when it comes to the issues facing today's students, family is the solution, not the problem." Stemler added, "Parental and family involvement is vital for student success. We must end policies driving a wedge between parents and students." Both Stemler and Peters have reportedly expressed an interest in challenging state laws that undermine parental rights. "The blizzard of state laws and regulations that are governing our schools are the reason why you need someone like me, who has experience in court and litigating and standing up for what's right," said Stemler. After warning that if parental rights advocates were elected, choices over what students read might be localized, Armstrong and company claimed, "Those who 'fight for parental rights' don't really care about your rights or your children." Blaze News reached out to Peters and Stemler for comment but did not receive a response by deadline. DeAngelis told Blaze News that the claims in the op-ed "raise serious red flags. Government school employees attacking parental rights in education are the ones who cannot be trusted." "They think they own other people's children," continued DeAngelis. "It's time for parents to hold these tyrants accountable at the ballot box." 'They look at parents as dangerous and think they should get out of the way.' Alvin Lui, president of the parental rights advocacy group Courage Is a Habit, told Blaze News that the "gas-lighting tactics" employed in the op-ed are now customarily advanced by government educators and administrators in K-12 — by those convinced "it's the parents that shouldn't be trusted; that they're the ones that know better." Lui noted that the mounting pushback from parents across the nation is partly the result of such brazen anti-parent sentiment in the school system. "The schools aren't even hiding how much they disdain parental rights," said Lui. "[Educators] believe that they know better than the parents. They believe that their values are better, that the parents are backwards or bigots. ... They look at parents as dangerous and think they should get out of the way." This op-ed is another "great example of why more parents should push back even harder," added Lui. "It's a classic manipulator tactic: DARVO, which is deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender. That's exactly what they're doing." Like Lui, DeAngelis noted a silver lining about the current battle in the schools. "The good news is parents have woken up and they're never going back to sleep," DeAngelis told Blaze News. "The power of parents scares the defenders of the status quo more than anything else. That's precisely why teachers unions have resorted to attacking parents who want more of a say in their children's education." DeAngelis added that the U.S. Supreme Court "famously ruled in 1925 that 'the child is not the mere creature of the State.' California politicians would be wise to remember those words today." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/desperate-california-teachers-characterize-parental-rights-candidates-as-untrustworthy

2024-10-21 20:25:01

'We will never forget about you,' Trump assures storm-weary Western North Carolina
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Former President Donald J. Trump told a suffering Western North Carolina, “We will never forget about you,” as he pledged that the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene would be met by efforts to make the region “greater and more beautiful than it was before.”Standing with a huge pile of storm debris in the distance behind him, Trump sought to buoy the spirits of suffering residents, community leaders, and first responders — whose task has turned from search and rescue to recovery of the dead.“We’re praying for you, and we will not forget about you,” Trump said at a press conference in Swannanoa, North Carolina. “We will never forget about you. We’re going to be working with you for a long time to come to get it back together.”In his first of three scheduled North Carolina stops on Oct. 21, Trump said he was amazed by the storm devastation as his motorcade made its way from the Asheville Regional Airport in Fletcher, North Carolina.'What an amazing act of citizenship and service.'“That’s quite a scene driving up. You see that kind of destruction, actually incredible to see,” Trump said. “That is incredible. It’s the power of nature. Nothing you can do about it, but you’ve got to get a little bit better crew in to do a better job than has been done by the White House.”Trump cited the rescue and humanitarian work of Savage Freedoms Relief Operations, which turned a local Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealership into an air and ground hub to distribute storm relief and coordinate searches. Savage Freedoms was featured by Blaze News on Oct. 16.“Nothing is more inspiring than to see the American spirit triumph over adversity with the most selfless acts of generosity and love,” Trump said. Former President Donald J. Trump greets Adam Smith of Savage Freedoms Relief Operations, a group that turned a motorcycle dealership into a helipad and storm relief center, during a visit to Swannanoa, North Carolina, on Oct. 21, 2024.Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images“One of the patrons who stepped forward to help was Adam Smith, a former Green Beret. Adam transformed the parking lot of a Harley-Davidson dealership into a makeshift airbase to help distribute supplies,” Trump said. “Did an incredible job. Adam, what an amazing act of citizenship and service.”Smith organized the relief center with the help of hundreds of volunteers, including many other special ops veterans. An adjacent field was converted into a helipad for flying supplies and even farm feed to remote mountain areas cut off from civilization by devastating rains and mudslides in late September.The relief center drew a visit from an impressed Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue, commander of the XVIII Airborne Corps based at Fort Liberty, North Carolina. The next day, the 101st Airborne Division sent 100 troops to help the center’s operations.Smith thanked Trump, saying his presence will keep the area “on the map” as it rebuilds. Trump’s decision to delay his visit gave rescue crews “space to operate and function and gave us space to provide relief where it needed to go,” Smith said. Adam Smith of Savage Freedoms Relief Operations addresses volunteers at a makeshift supply depot at the Harley-Davidson dealership in Swannanoa, North Carolina, Oct. 15, 2024. Photo by Steve Baker/Blaze News “The biggest fear that Western North Carolina is sitting on right now, at least from the communities we’ve talked to, is being forgotten,” Smith told the 45th president. “And to have you here and have an opportunity to have this conversation at a national level will keep Western North Carolina on the map and not leave the communities holding the bag on the back end of this.”Trump was sharply critical of the Hurricane Helene response from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the agency’s use of hundreds of millions of dollars for settling of illegal aliens across the country.“Their rescue effort was almost nonexistent,” Trump said.Trump said he was in favor of calling Congress into special session to approve more federal aid to the states impacted by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, but he said FEMA should have more money on hand than it does.“So they don't have any money for the people that live here that got hit by one of the worst storms, possibly the worst storm ever, but one of the worst storms in the history of our country,” Trump said. “And it’s a shame because they should have the money. They spent money that I don't believe they’re supposed to be spending for that, as you know.”Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/we-will-never-forget-about-you-trump-assures-storm-weary-western-north-carolina

2024-10-21 18:45:01

White people should face 'accountability' if Harris does not win, political commentator tells CNN
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Angela Rye said white voters should face consequences for not saving democracy if Vice President Kamala Harris does not win the upcoming presidential election. CNN host Victor Blackwell asked Rye about former President Barack Obama chastising black men for hesitating to vote for Harris. "I think that it's wonderful that President Obama is out hitting the trail for democracy, frankly," Rye initially replied. "And what I think is a mistake is to let white folks escape the accountability that they must face for not showing up to save democracy themselves. Like, they want to get mad at presidential candidates, right, when they don‘t wear a flag lapel pin or they don‘t see you pledging allegiance to the flag."Rye claimed white people view the "terrorist attack on January 6, 2021," at the Capitol building as a demonstration of patriotism, so "the responsibility of saving democracy should be on the largest demographic in this country. "That is white men and white women."Similar to other demographics that go for Democrats during presidential elections, Harris has been struggling in the polls with black voters.Rye pointed to efforts in Detroit to talk with voters about the economy and "ensuring that democracy is preserved even if it's not perfect. We're doing our part. It's time for white folks to turn their ire and their attention to each other to ensure they also do their part.“ Similar to other demographics that go for Democrats during presidential elections, Harris has been struggling in the polls with black voters when compared to President Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Obama.The New York Times reported that while Harris is expected to a win an outright majority of black voters, only 78% of black voters are expected to vote for her, compared to 90% for Biden in 2020 and 92% for Clinton in 2016. Part of the reason for the erosion of support for Harris among black voters is that many believe Democrats have not done enough to support their communities despite receiving their votes. That feeling has only been exacerbated by the influx of illegal immigrants in big cities and the money being spent on them instead of inner-city communities. "Forty percent of African-American voters under 30 said the Republican Party was more likely to follow through on its campaign commitments than Democrats were," the NYT explained.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/white-people-should-face-accountability-if-harris-does-not-win-political-commentator-tells-cnn

2024-10-21 17:50:02

Lizzo embraces Trump's warning that Kamala Harris will leave country looking like Detroit
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Lizzo elicited criticism over the weekend for embracing President Donald Trump's warning that Kamala Harris would leave the whole country looking like Detroit — and suggesting that such an outcome would be optimal. The rapper, whose real name is Melissa Viviane Jefferson, informed her supporters prior to taking a private jet to stump for the Green New Deal advocate, "This is how a bad b**** saves democracy." Jefferson, who now lives nearly 2,000 miles away in a $15 million California mansion, later told a crowd of Democrats in Detroit, where the median listing price for a home is $95,000, "I'm so proud to be from this city. You know, they say if Kamala wins, then the whole country will be like Detroit. OK." The Democratic crowd cheered at the prospect that Harris might transform the rest of the country to resemble a crime-ridden city that filed for bankruptcy in 2013. Detroit, a city that has seen its population shrink from over 1.8 million in the 1950s to just over 633,000 last year, scores a 1 on Neighborhood Scout's crime index, where 100 is safest. The chances of falling prey to a violent crime in the city are 1 in 49. The chances of becoming a victim of a property crime are 1 in 22. According to official city figures, there were 252 homicides, 804 nonfatal shootings, 10,427 aggravated assaults, 669 rapes, 167 carjackings, 9,421 reported motor vehicle thefts, 4,821 burglaries, 15,681 larceny offenses, and 1,392 robberies in the city last year. WalletHub once again ranked Detroit — where the unemployment rate is over twice the national average at 8.8% — as the neediest of 182 cities in the country. The median household income in the city last year was less than half of the national figure of $80,610. Jefferson continued, saying, "Proud like Detroit. Resilient like Detroit. We're talking about the same Detroit that innovated the auto industry and the music industry. So put some respect on Detroit's name, okay?" 'They actually want Trump to win.' Jefferson was referring to President Donald Trump's Oct. 10 speech at the Detroit Economic Club, where he said, "Our whole country will end up like Detroit if she's your president. You're going to have a mess on your hands. She destroyed San Francisco. She destroyed, along with Newscum, California, and we're not going to let her do that to this country. We're not going to let it happen." The Harris campaign and liberal media were keen at the time to ignore the context of Trump's remarks, namely that he was criticizing the hollowing out of America's manufacturing base. Trump went onto say, "I am telling you right now, standing here in the center of this once-great city, that by the end of my term, the entire world will be talking about the Michigan miracle and the stunning rebirth of Detroit." Victoria LaCivita, Trump's Michigan communications director, clarified in a statement obtained by CNN that Trump was highlighting how the city has "suffered from globalist policies championed by Kamala Harris that have shipped manufacturing overseas." "As President Trump emphasized in his speech, his policies will usher in a new era of economic success and stability for Detroit, helping the city reach its fullest potential," added LaCivita. Critics seized upon Jefferson's remarks, sharing images of abandoned houses in Detroit, staggering statistics about the city's crime, and damning figures regarding the education system. BlazeTV's Pat Gray said, "Are you serious? What a stupid thing to say. I mean, even if you're proud of your town, you know the rest of the country thinks it's a hellhole, right?" Conservative commentor Trish Regan noted, "#Lizzo says US 'becoming Detroit' is a good thing. *30% of Detroit lives BELOW poverty line. *Detroit=DOUBLE DIGIT unemployment. *Detroit=one of the highest crime rates in the country. America cannot be #Detroit. USA wants more than ⁦@lizzo ⁩ & Kamala can ever imagine." David Scott, the musician known as the Kiffness, responded, "I'm from South Africa, (one of the highest crime rates in the world) & I've never been robbed on tour. I was in Detroit last year & our tour van was robbed TWICE in one night." Comedian David Angelo shared the video with the caption, "My theory has been that Democrats know everything is about to collapse and they actually want Trump to win." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/align/lizzo-embraces-trumps-warning-that-kamala-harris-will-leave-country-looking-like-detroit

2024-10-21 16:15:01

Harris' attempt to pander to Christians after insulting them goes very badly: 'You're at the wrong rally'
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Kamala Harris' latest attempt to pander to a group she has alienated with her politics and prejudices appears to be going very badly. After attempting to win back those black male voters now abandoning her and the Democratic Party en masse with the promise of federally legalized marijuana, Harris set her sights more broadly on Christian voters, insinuating that "putting faith into action" means casting a vote for her — despite her zealous support of abortion and gender ideology, her past anti-Christian remarks, and her efforts to run roughshod over religious liberties. The online component of Harris' "souls to the polls" campaign, which corresponded with her visits Sunday to churches in Georgia, was overwhelmingly met with ridicule. Harris tweeted an image of herself standing on a church platform with crosses in the background, stating, "We each have the power to make a difference — in our communities and in this election. Now is the time to come together to show faith in action and service." Despite netting nearly 2 million views on X, the post received fewer than 8,000 likes. 'This is such disgusting, superficial, disingenuous pandering, it's beyond words.' BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey quipped, "Christian Nationalism is so scary." Auron MacIntyre, the host of BlazeTV's “The Auron MacIntyre Show” who helped "ratio" the vice president's post, responded, "I think you're at the wrong rally." MacIntyre's comment, which received roughly 9,000 more likes than Harris' post by the time of publication, referred to the vice president's remarks at her campaign event last week in La Crosse, Wisconsin. On Thursday — the day Harris blew off the Archdiocese of New York's 79th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation dinner — the vice president reportedly told a pair of Christian college students who yelled "Jesus is Lord" that they were "at the wrong rally." Grant Beth, one of the pro-life students mocked by Harris and elements of her crowd, told "Fox & Friends," "This is what you are going to get with a Kamala Harris presidency." "You are going to get the Kamala Harris that alienates over 50% of the U.S. population that is Christian," continued Beth. "You're going to get the Kamala Harris that skips the Al Smith Memorial Dinner." When an audience member yelled, "Jesus is King," at a campaign event for Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Trump's running mate said, "That's right. Jesus is King!" "Christians won't be fooled," tweeted Trump campaign adviser Alex Bruesewitz wrote in response to Harris' "souls to the polls" post. Popular YouTuber David Freiheit wrote, "4 days after telling a rally-goer who said 'Jesus is Lord' that they were 'at the wrong rally', Cackling Kamala puts out this message. This is such disgusting, superficial, disingenuous pandering, it's beyond words. And if it works on you, you are an idiot." One user wrote, "Christians are voting for Trump." Harris told members of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, on Sunday, "Our country is at a crossroads, and where we go from here is up to us as Americans and as people of faith," reported CNN. 'She has done nothing to support people of faith and what we believe and what we stand for.' "We face this question: What kind of country do we want to live in?" said Harris. "A country of chaos, fear, and hate, or a country of freedom, compassion, and justice?" Like the booster group Evangelicals for Harris, the vice president attempted to use scripture to paint her political cause as morally righteous, casting herself, for example, as the protagonist in the parable of the Good Samaritan. This might be a big reach for a great many American Christians, including Billy Graham's son, Franklin Graham. Blaze News recently reported that Franklin Graham said his dad would never have supported a candidate like Harris, highlighting how her positions are antithetical to Jesus Christ. "My father was a strong conservative all of his life, theologically as well as politically," Graham told Premier Christian News. "He would have never voted for or supported someone like Kamala Harris — someone who is almost anti-Christ in her positions. She has done nothing to support people of faith and what we believe and what we stand for." Harris has found numerous ways to alienate Christians, including suggesting that Catholic judicial nominees who embrace the Vatican's moral teaching should be disqualified from serving on federal courts; co-sponsoring the "Equality Act," which Kenneth Craycraft, the James J. Gardner Chair of Moral Theology at Mount St. Mary's Seminary and School of Theology, indicated would compel Christian hospitals "to perform gender transition surgeries, open women's restrooms to men, and force girls and women to compete against boys and men in athletic competitions"; introducing and sponsoring the Do No Harm Act, which would force religious individuals and organizations to engage in activities that directly violate their firmly held religious beliefs; attacking abstinence education; supporting overturning the Hyde Amendment, thereby freeing up federal funds for abortions; and authorizing a raid on the home of a pro-life activist who exposed Planned Parenthood's alleged trafficking of baby parts. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/abide/harris-attempt-to-pander-to-christians-after-insulting-them-goes-really-badly

2024-10-21 15:00:02

Super Bowl champ and former Steeler Antonio Brown campaigns for Trump in front of steelworker crowd in Pennsylvania
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Super Bowl champion Antonio Brown endorsed Donald Trump while referring to the media as "crazy" during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania.Brown, along with his former teammate ex-Pittsburgh Steeler Le'Veon Bell, gave remarks to a raucous crowd at a rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, which is about an hour east of Pittsburgh.Brown was all smiles at the event, interacting with the crowd and reporters while wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat.In a video posted on X, Brown made several remarks about the Democratic ticket with particular focus on Kamala Harris' running mate, Tim Walz.'He knows success, and he knows what it takes to make America great again.'"I know the media is going to call me crazy for Trump having me speak here. But I want to make this clear: We are not. They are," Brown told rally-goers. "Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, they want to put tampons in the boys' bathroom. That's really insane, right? By the way, Tampon Tim Walz, he isn't a real football coach.""He could never guard me," Brown joked. In another video from the rally posted by RSBN, Brown described himself as an "underdog," telling fans that his time playing for the Steelers taught him the "spirit of Pittsburgh: blue-collar, hardworking people that are resilient and face challenges head-on."Brown continued, "I'm here representing a man who carries those same values: Donald Trump. He knows success, and he knows what it takes to make America great again. No matter what the media threw at him, no matter what people said to try to bring him down, he continued to push forward and kept getting back up. And he's always ready for the fight."Bell, a three-time Pro Bowl player, was much more succinct when approaching the mic. The former Michigan State running back simply said that Trump is the only candidate who can "make America great again."Since retiring, Bell has ventured into professional celebrity boxing and has a 2-1 record in three fights.Brown, on the other hand, has become active in the media and political landscape. He recently accused mainstream outlets of censorship over not showing Elon Musk on television when he attended a Steelers game. His vocal support for Trump has come with much fanfare, which he has parlayed into publicity for his own online sports network called CTESPN. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty ImagesThe Pennsylvania crowd was packed with steelworkers as Trump attempts to win the swing state after losing by just 1.2% to Joe Biden in 2020; Trump won the state by 0.7% in 2016.Pennsylvania has continuously seen its industry waver or send jobs overseas. In December 2023, the United States Steel Corporation, better known as U.S. Steel, was sold to Nippon Steel, a Japanese company worth over $21 billion.U.S. Steel had been an American company since 1901, but the $14.9 billion offer was too much pass up as the company was struggling with nearly $1 billion of debt.Trump's action-packed day on Sunday included not only the rally but a shift at McDonald's and an appearance at the Steelers game later that night.During the game, a female fan caused a stir when she rushed the field in knee-high boots. As she stumbled running across the field, she raised a sign that read, "Trump secure border. Kamala open border," before being apprehended.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/fearless/antonio-brown-leveon-bell-trump

2024-10-20 20:05:01

Want to improve the birth rate? Stop being so harsh on mothers.
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In their quest to make motherhood great again, conservatives have set a very high bar for those wanting to make a go of it. Enter the all-or-nothing mother. She must breastfeed baby, and if she’s unable to produce milk for whatever reason, she’s just not trying hard enough. She can’t leave baby in a crib, or sleep-train baby, or leave baby alone with his father or extended family, because Mama must be with baby at all times, lest she give baby a lifetime of attachment-related trauma. Rather than purity-spiraling and leading the birth rate into further decline, conservatives could simply tell women the truth: that they can relax, because there are a thousand different ways to be a good mother. She must feed baby exclusively organic food, but she can’t have a job to help her afford it — that might require the ultimate dereliction of maternal duty: day care. Not that preschool, full-day kindergarten, or half-day kindergarten is much better. Come to think of it, homeschooling is really the only path for any mother who cares about her children. And so on and so forth. Domestic girlbosses In theory, such all-or-nothing motherhood applies the tightly wound, busy-busy-busy culture of high-status, white-collar professions to the domestic sphere — where the stakes are the lives and souls of one’s own children, far greater than corporate presentations and spreadsheets ever could be! And yet, in practice, this vision of motherhood makes it seem intolerable — not to mention impossible — to the only audience that matters: impressionable young women and girls. Far from convincing them of the value of motherhood, making motherhood out to be an all-or-nothing ordeal makes young women wonder if the feminists really were right, if being a mother is incompatible with being a full person. I say this as a member of that demographic: I’m 23 years old and single, and while I am quite conservative and have always wanted children, I’m surrounded primarily by moderate to liberal, professional-class women my age who don’t know what they want. Child-hating hags? My peers, for the most part, aren’t the child-hating, travel-obsessed hags they’re all too often made out to be by conservative media — they happen to actually like children, sometimes in spite of themselves. While some of their apprehension toward motherhood is absolutely driven by a culture that eggs on adult narcissism and extended adolescence, much of it is driven by the opposite extreme: the expectation that not only will they have to give up their friends, their hobbies, and their careers when they have children, but they will have to become completely dependent on their husbands for their financial and social life and will spend every moment hovering over their children with no self left besides “mother.” When young women feel like motherhood is all or nothing, that either you stay “child-free” and keep yourself or become a mother and lose yourself, is it any wonder they’re choosing to keep themselves in greater numbers? More time to spare While this failure to create tolerable motherhood norms is nonpartisan — it’s telling, for instance, that conservative mothering and hippie mothering have basically become one and the same — conservatives have a special responsibility here. After all, unlike liberals, conservatives are interested in getting more women to have more children. Instead of tilting at the windmill of middle-class maternal neglect, conservatives should acknowledge the reality that working mothers today spend more time with their children than stay-at-home mothers did a generation ago, and yet children today are more anxious and less self-sufficient than ever before. Conservatives would do well to keep in mind that women in traditional cultures have the proverbial village to help them raise their children, something American women, even those with traditional values, usually lack. As a result, while many of the demands conservatives make of mothers ostensibly resemble traditional culture, they deviate from traditional culture in the one way that counts: Rather than enmeshing mothers in the fabric of society, over-intensive conservative mothering norms often alienate mothers from everyone else. Love's legacy Why drive mothers crazy — and deter would-be mothers from having children — all for the sake of what is essentially a neurotic, individualistic ideology that doesn’t even seem to improve children’s outcomes — and might actually make them worse? Rather than purity-spiraling and leading the birth rate into further decline, conservatives could simply tell women the truth: that they can relax, because there are a thousand different ways to be a good mother. And that, when we think of our mothers as adults, we don't remember the lifestyle choices they made — day care or not, organic or not, home birth or not — but rather the love they gave us — the deep, unconditional love that only a mother can give.
https://www.theblaze.com/align/want-to-improve-the-birth-rate-stop-being-so-harsh-on-mothers

2024-10-20 15:05:01

Will people in hell repent and be saved by God? The Bible's answer is clear
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According to the Bible, what will hell be like?The descriptions are awful, and the occupants are unsettling. Jesus said "the devil and his angels" would be there (Matthew 25:41). He taught that the unrighteous would be there (Matthew 25:41-46). John the apostle described it as "the second death" (Revelation 21:8) and the "lake of fire" (Revelation 20:15). It is a place of unceasing punishment (Revelation 20:10; Matthew 25:46), and thus it is a place from which there is no escape.Growing up, I used to imagine that those who go to hell would, at some point (and probably sooner than later), come to their senses and repent. If the prodigal in the parable (Luke 15:11-32) came to his senses when he was eating pig slop, surely the horrors of hell would provoke deep sorrow and repentance.Have you ever wondered whether there will be repentance in hell? Should we imagine that those in hell will eventually cry out to God for salvation, only to have their cries rejected? Will they plead for his redemption, pledge themselves to him, and renounce their wickedness, only to have their desperate cries met with divine contempt?We should not imagine those things because we have no biblical reason to suppose that the wicked will ever be repentant in hell.Hell is full of hardened hearts. And repentance doesn't flow from a hardened heart. Repentance is a gift of God. It is a work of the Holy Spirit. And in the New Testament, repentance is unto salvation.Will they wish they weren't in hell? Yes. Will they wish the punishment would cease? Of course. Consider the language of the rich man in Luke 16, when he says, "I am in anguish in this flame" (Luke 16:24) and describes his abode as "this place of torment" (Luke 16:28).Jesus described the emotions of hell's occupants when he said, "The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 13:41-42; see also Matthew 24:51).Should we imagine this "weeping" as being tears of repentance? No repentance is specified. Weeping is not the only thing mentioned. We read about weeping and gnashing of teeth. Together, that pair of descriptions — tears and teeth — is an image of distress and rage. The "gnashing of teeth" denotes rage and hostility. The inhabitants of hell are hostile, angry, rageful.Hell is full of hardened hearts. And repentance doesn't flow from a hardened heart. Repentance is a gift of God. It is a work of the Holy Spirit. And in the New Testament, repentance is unto salvation. There is never true repentance without salvation. Peter said, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins" (Acts 2:38). When addressing those who might be opposed to the gospel, Paul said, "God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will" (2 Timothy 2:25-26). And, of course, Paul is talking about people alive on earth, not about people in hell.Faith and repentance are the result of the gracious work of the Spirit, as the Lord opens our eyes to see the ugliness of our sin and the beauty of redemption. He convicts us, and we experience genuine contrition, a godly sorrow. According to Paul, "Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death" (2 Corinthians 7:10).Those in hell will never desire to worship God. They will never love the Lord. They will never repent. Instead, their hardness of heart will bear the fruit of all the horrors of sin.If there is any grief in hell, it is a worldly grief and not a godly grief. Godly grief produces repentance, the repentant are saved, and God is glorified because his Spirit's merciful work illuminates the sinner's heart and reveals the glory of Christ to him.It is unthinkable that repentant people would not be saved. And because those in hell will not be delivered from their judgment, there can be no genuine repentance in them. The Spirit will not produce repentance in the hearts of the wicked who cannot be redeemed from the second death.There will not be any saving grace or common grace in hell. There will only be the unrestrained rage of the godless, who, in their unending unrepentance, will indulge their blasphemies and hatred to the uttermost. If heaven is a place of love and hope, hell is a place of hate and despair.Those in hell will never desire to worship God. They will never love the Lord. They will never repent. Instead, their hardness of heart will bear the fruit of all the horrors of sin. The wicked in hell will be embodiments of iniquity, living manifestations of spiritual darkness. They will never want to flee to Christ, for they will despise him and blaspheme him forever.When we reflect on the abode of the wicked, let us rejoice that there is good news of a Savior who welcomes sinners to him even now. When people flee to Christ, he will never refuse them. In fact, he saves them and keeps them — forever.This article was originally published by Dr. Mitchell Chase at his Substack, Biblical Theology.
https://www.theblaze.com/abide/will-people-in-hell-repent-and-be-saved-by-god-the-bibles-answer-is-clear

2024-10-20 14:05:01

Tatting lace with no regrets
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If you're Euro-American, your great-grandmother probably tatted, and if her great-grandmother was a lady of class, she probably also tatted. While there is some thought that tatting has nautical origins, it is a relatively new lace-making technique that materialized a little over two hundred years ago and briefly trended in women's magazines and ladies' parlors. It is resurging, threatening to become as popular as it was in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Tatting is great on public transit. I can keep my lace and shuttle in my skirt pocket, pull it out and work on it for only a stitch or two if I like, then quickly shove it back into my pocket. Tatting was always an aristocratic pastime. Regular women had no time for sitting around to make lace. It was the 19th-century equivalent of the "fidget spinner" for women who hosted parties with fancy tea-things and was especially suited for chatty women who liked to keep their fingers preoccupied. Keturah Hickman Aristocratic fidget spinner One of my most prized possessions is a bookmark that was supposedly tatted by my great-great-great-grandmother, Mary Ann Wheeler. It was given to me by my maternal grandmother, who taught me to tat about four years ago when I asked to learn. It took me nearly three days to be able to make only an inch of lace. After that I made about ten yards of cotton lace edging for a quilt I sewed by hand. Shuttle tatting does indeed feel similar to a fidget spinner for me, except I feel good after "spinning" when I have something — lace — to show for it. Keturah Hickman Keturah Hickman Shuttle diplomacy I've been living on the road with my husband out of our backpacks for the last few months. Tatting stores better than knitting or crocheting might — it is light and needs little space. I'm even able to keep a few extra shuttles on me to give away whenever I meet someone who wants to learn. It is great on public transit. I can keep my lace and shuttle in my skirt pocket, pull it out and work on it for only a stitch or two if I like, then quickly shove it back into my pocket. Tatting is difficult to master if you have not already learned other handicrafts. It involves making a series of knots with either a shuttle or straight needles and requires perfect, taut tension in order to flip the knots from one thread to another so that the knots slide instead of stick. The size of the lace is determined by the needles when needle tatting and by the weight of the thread when shuttle tatting. Needle tatting is a good option if you have hand or finger disabilities. I personally prefer shuttle tatting simply because the shuttles are very pretty and fun to use. Shuttles can come in all sorts of sizes for holding more or less thread. They are traditionally made of sterling silver but can also be found made of bone, shell, wood, steel, or plastic. Often one tats with a thin thread, but it is possible to tat with any sort of string. I have used embroidery floss and yarn. Time to tat One can make all sorts of things by tatting. I made all my wedding dress lace with silk yarn. I've also made barefoot shoes, earrings (my own ears are unpierced, but earrings sell well on the road), bookmarks, collars, lace edgings, and doilies. There are various Instagram accounts selling tatted jewelry. Keturah Hickman Lace cuffs and collar combos are also popular. While little old ladies are best known for their doilies, they also used to make beautiful lace edgings for priests' vestments. I have ambitions of making a lace parasol. The beautiful thing about tatting is that once you master it, it doesn't take as long to make lace as one might think. When I hosted the girls' immersive program "The Living Room Academy," I did not teach tatting because it simply takes more time to master the basics than any other general skill, and I did not consider it a "necessary" skill to prioritize along with sewing and baking. However, if you feel that you simply want to make lace for the fun of it, it is worth the time and effort to learn tatting. My husband has joked that we should open a tatting shop next to a tattoo parlor, and I could offer "tats with no regrets." There's just something about a piece of lace. Perhaps it was an aristocratic fad at one point in history. But now ... now we all have time to make a little lace, if we want. Keturah Hickman
https://www.theblaze.com/align/tatting-lace-with-no-regrets

2024-10-19 20:05:01

Could a hacker blow up your EV remotely?
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Pagers and walkie-talkies can be turned into remotely triggered bombs — so why not electric vehicles? That was my first thought when I read about last month's coordinated attacks on Hezbollah — believed to have been orchestrated by Israel — in which pagers and walkie-talkies exploded across Lebanon, killing dozens and wounding thousands. A thermal runaway event could be induced deliberately, even when the EV's 'ignition' is off — especially if a hacker gained access to the vehicle's battery management system. While those devices appear to have been modified at some point during the supply chain, the principle behind turning them into deadly weapons is relatively simple: Heat the battery until it catches fire or explodes. It could just as easily apply to EVs — as well as hybrids, plug-ins, or 48v cars, all of which use batteries much larger than in any handheld device. Of course, these vehicles have a number of safety systems to prevent the battery from catching fire and overheating. But those safety systems run on software that can be hacked, especially since they are already years old by the time the vehicles are built and sold. Roy Fridman, CEO and chief revenue officer for C2A Security, an Israel-based cybersecurity company focused on the automotive industry, recently said that one automaker told him that the software that controls a motor has two million lines of code. And that’s just the motor. He stated, “You have hundreds of millions of lines of code inside a vehicle. If you were talking about autonomous vehicles, it's even more. But the number of lines of code in a vehicle is continuously growing.” This code is vulnerable to exploitation thanks to wireless connections to the internet (for software updates) and to charging infrastructure. Vehicle-to-grid technology, which allows EV owners to sell their energy storage capacity to grid operators, requires connection to the electricity grid. “The more communication protocols you have, the more lines of code you have, the more you are susceptible to [hacking],” Fridman said. We already know the technology exists to disable cars remotely. Cybersecurity experts are also worried that EVs could be hacked to steal drivers' personal data. As Fridman says, its plausible that someone could "create a battery overload and disable some of the protective mechanisms" within your car. Lithium-ion batteries catch fire when they enter an uncontrolled, self-heating event called thermal runaway. Most often, it occurs due to damage or a defect in the battery. But such an event could be induced deliberately, even when the EV's "ignition" is off — especially if a hacker gained access to the vehicle's battery management system. An overheated battery gives off toxic and flammable gases, which can cause an explosion. At the very least, it produces a smoldering, difficult-to-extinguish fire. For more on this, see my video below:
https://www.theblaze.com/align/could-a-hacker-blow-up-your-ev-remotely

2024-10-19 18:05:02

‘It’s a tied game’: MSNBC pollster realizes Kamala is in trouble
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After the first presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris had a slight edge on Donald Trump — but that edge is now weakening, and her loyal mainstream media is starting to realize it. “Numbers say it, it is a tied game here weeks before the election,” MSNBC pollster Steve Kornacki told Kristen Welker of “Meet the Press” in a recent segment. “Harris had opened up that advantage over Trump going in our new poll,” Kornacki continued. “That advantage has all in the last few weeks in our poll washed away for her.” The polling on the issues of immigration and financial stability lean in favor of Trump while Kamala’s leading in “representing change,” though her numbers have still dwindled on that specific issue since September. “Maybe a reason for that too is remember, she’s the VP in an unpopular administration. Look, we ask [about] Joe Biden’s policies as a president, 'Do you think they’re helping or hurting your family?'” Kornacki says, before showing that almost double the number of people asked say the current administration’s policies are hurting their family. Meanwhile, 44% of people polled believe Trump helped their family while 31% of them say he hurt their family. Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” doesn’t think it looks good for Kamala, explaining that she appears to be in “the doom loop.” “They thought, ‘All right, she couped the old man, now we can just install her and protect, right? We have an entire machine dedicated to protecting her, we have a corporate machine and corporate media, we have Big Tech on our side, we’ll just protect her and hide her,’” Rubin says. “When they realized that the protect and hide wasn’t working as well as they thought, then they thought, ‘Okay, we’ll just put her in these ridiculously easy interviews,’ with the exception of that '60 Minutes' one, which was more difficult, and that one was an abject disaster,” he continues. “But even in the easy ones, she failed because she’s so deeply inauthentic. So the more people find out about her, the less they like her,” he adds. Want more from Dave Rubin?To enjoy more honest conversations, free speech, and big ideas with Dave Rubin, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-rubin-report/polls-election-2024

2024-10-19 17:05:00

What happens after November 5?
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A national election is upon us. Friends, family, and neighbors are at odds. Results may be challenged. What a time we are in! Between the bombast and the ballots, it’s hard to see our way through to a time of hope and peace. Wonder what happens after November 5? For the person of faith, it looks a lot like November 4. Pray. Love. Trust. We can pray, we can love, and we can trust, my friend. What God says will happen will happen. Pray. Perhaps you find yourself unsure of how to pray. Everything seems so confusing, so angry, so exhausting. Here are two topics you might consider for your conversations with God. Let’s lift up our nation. We are a family with so much shared history and an important future. Ask God to humble us, hear us, and heal us. It may seem futile, but remember — the power is not in the one who prays; it’s in the God who hears. And let’s ask God to help our neighbors, and let that help start with us. Pray for the compassion to reach out to the single mom across the hall at work and the shut-in at the nursing home. Pray for hope for those still recovering from storms — whether those tempests go by the name of Helene or Milton or divorce or chronic illness. May God bring his healing balm of hope. And pray for those neighbors with whom you disagree. Yes, even those who make you mad. The quickest way to douse the fire of anger is with a bucket of prayers. Rather than blame, pray. Jesus did this. While hanging on the cross, he interceded for his enemies: “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.” We are never more like Jesus than when we pray for others — those with whom you agree and those you don’t. Pray for this hurting world. God cares about it all. Love. Now, love is not exactly the byword of the day. Contentiousness, yes. Anxiety, for sure. Fear, our constant companion. But love seems to be in short supply. Let’s check our source. This worried world is not the place to look to for steadfast love. Let’s instead turn our gaze to a gracious God whose love will never fail. Governments will fail, but God’s love will last. Crowns are temporary, but love is eternal. Your money will run out, but his love never will. Let God love you. And let him help you share that love with others. Pause for a moment, right now, and make a list of three people you can show love to today — quietly, simply, and unconditionally. I promise you, that offering of love will return to you in unexpected ways, and the hope-o-meter of your heart will rise like the morning sun. Trust. It’s hard, I know. So many unknowns, and the things we do know are worrisome. These are troubling times with challenges both at home and abroad. Leadership matters. But whether your preferred candidate occupies the White House or not, we can know that God’s in charge of who’s in charge. Proverbs states that a king’s heart is like a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he directs it wherever he pleases. Might I suggest we lift our eyes and shift our thoughts? We can face the problems of this world by focusing on the promises of the next. The future is not as frightening if you know the future. And you can know the future when you know who controls it. One of my favorite sermon illustration books contains a story of a missionary and his son. They moved from England to Central Africa in the company of four other adults. Three of them died. The health of the father began to fail, so he resolved to return to England. He and his boy bounced for days across Africa in an old, broken-down wagon. Upon reaching the coast, they embarked for England by sea. Within a few hours, they encountered a brutal storm. The waves and wind combined to make the sound of cannon blasts and shake the ship from stem to stern. During a lull in the tempest, the father held and warmed his son. The boy asked, “Father, when shall we have a home that will not shake?” I can’t vouch for the story. The book provides no source. But I can most certainly vouch for the question. I’ve asked it. You’ve asked it. Each and every person has felt this world with its troubles and tremors and asked, “God, when shall we have a home that will not shake?” His answer? “Soon, dear child. Very soon.” This world, so upside down, will be right side up. People who were rejected in this life will be respected in the next. In this age, they were enslaved and sold; in the next, they will rule and reign. In this age, they were handicapped and sick; in the next, they will serve with perfected, glorified bodies. This sounds like heaven. This sounds like the perfect ending. This sounds like the grand conclusion to the story of God. We can pray, we can love, and we can trust, my friend. What God says will happen will happen.
https://www.theblaze.com/abide/what-happens-after-november-5

2024-10-19 16:05:01

The dark arts have a new name — witchcore — and it's lurking in your local grocery store
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Paganism has been on the rise in the Western world for some time now. More and more people are abandoning their religious upbringings and rejecting the Judeo-Christian values of the West. While some have opted to adopt agnosticism or atheism, others, especially Gen Zers, have chosen to replace Christianity with a different set of beliefs and practices rooted in paganism. Ranging from engaging in actual black magic to just dressing in dark, edgy clothing, witchcore is the newest fad among the rising generation. Unlike the colonial days when witches were so feared that even the town spinster had to watch her back, today, witches and witchcraft are embraced by society. Allie Beth Stuckey points to a recent magazine in a grocery store checkout lane titled “Witches: Discover their secretive and mysterious practices” as an example of how mainstream the occult has become. The magazine, which features a woman clad in black robes and a pointed hat holding a cluster of burning red candles, sits adjacent to gossip columns and rows of candy as if it’s just another mundane object. “This is clearly a glorification of witchcraft,” says Allie. While the magazine features a traditional-looking witch, the majority of today’s witches look like “your normal suburban mom.” “Even if someone is not wearing a pointy hat and walking around with their black cat, they might be imbibing and emulating [and] exhibiting aspects of witchcraft,” says Allie. Further, modern “witchcraft doesn't necessarily always look like a Ouija board or like dying your hair black and casting spells,” she explains. It often looks like “manifesting,” “transcendental meditation,” “burning sage,” “using crystals,” etc. Modern witches weren’t ushered into the dark arts because they happened to stumble upon a group of women chanting incantations in the forest either. Most of them were introduced to new age concepts in the growing realm of “self-help” and “self-empowerment” guides. Allie explains that things like “a Cosmo article,” “astrology,” or the idea of tapping into your inner “goddess” is all it takes for someone to set off down a path of darkness. A recent British Vogue article even spoke on the subject of witchcore and admitted that although the fad aims to “merge romantic mystical vibes with grungy Gothic undertones,” the “witchcore aesthetic is influenced by ancient rituals and practices, from potion making and herbalism to tarot card reading, sage burning, and crystal healing.” “It’s not just about following a trend that you saw that you think is cute,” says Allie. Even things that seem benign, like a specific clothing aesthetic, are rooted in the incredibly dark idea of unleashing “a woman’s darker side.” Artists like Taylor Swift are heavily responsible for viralizing the witchcore trend. Allie plays a video of Swift performing on her Eras tour in a black robe surrounded by a circle of female dancers who are also clad in black robes. They essentially bow down to the pop icon who stands in the center of the dark ring. “That is clearly demonic,” says Allie. What’s perhaps even more disturbing, however, is the number of Christians who don’t recognize that these new age concepts and practices are satanic in nature. Some even try to engage in certain aspects of new ageism while maintaining their Christian faith. “That’s called syncretism,” says Allie. “In the Book of Revelation, one of the things that [Jesus] condemns is syncretism — trying to wed light and darkness.” To hear more of Allie’s commentary on the rise of modern witchcraft, watch the episode above. Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
https://www.theblaze.com/shows/relatable/the-dark-arts-have-a-new-name-witchcore-and-it-s-lurking-in-your-local-grocery-store

2024-10-19 14:05:01

Dems are panicking that this key demographic is turning to Trump
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Black men are turning their backs on Vice President Kamala Harris and turning out record levels of support for former President Donald Trump. Among black male voters, 20% said they would vote for Trump even though just 4% considered themselves Republican, according to a New York Times/Siena poll from Oct. 12. Trump is on track to perform better among young black men than any other Republican candidate since 1960, according to CNN pollster Harry Enten. Harris has managed to hold on to only 41% of support from black men ages 18-44, which is a 12-point deficit from President Joe Biden's numbers and roughly half of former President Barack Obama's support among the demographic, according to Enten's analysis. These figures have sounded the alarm for the Harris campaign. In an attempt to regain their support, the Democratic presidential hopeful curated a policy pitch to the "brothas," as Obama said. Obama lectured other black men during a campaign appearance last week in an attempt to boost turnout for Harris. "We have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all quarters of our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running," Obama said to a roomful of black men. "Now, I also want to say that that seems to be more pronounced with the brothas. So if you don't mind, I'm just going to speak to y'all directly." "You're coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses; I've got a problem with that," Obama continued. "Because part of it makes me think, and I'm speaking to men directly, part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren't feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you're coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that." Harris has made other attempts to bridge the widening gap between herself and black men. Harris unveiled her "opportunity agenda" for black men on Monday, featuring policy proposals like forgivable loans for "black entrepreneurs," bolstering cryptocurrency so black men "know their money is safe," and legalizing recreational marijuana, despite overseeing over 1,900 marijuana convictions during her tenure as San Francisco district attorney. However, the campaign's last-ditch effort to regain the votes fails to address the actual policy priorities of black men. As in other demographics, the economy remains the top issue for roughly a quarter of black men, according to the recent NYT/Siena poll. While Harris' pitch to black men is tailored to address issues with a racial backdrop, only 4% said equality is their top priority and just 2% said the same for racial issues. Democratic political pundits like former CNN host Don Lemon are even admitting that "Kamala Harris has a problem with black men." "There's a problem," Lemon said. "I went from battleground state to battleground state. ... It was not curated. I went up to people just doing man on the street and said, 'Who are you gonna vote for?' Black men, time after time after time, they said, 'I'm voting for Donald Trump.'" Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/dems-are-panicking-that-this-key-demographic-is-turning-to-trump

2024-10-18 22:40:02

Trump takes the lead over Harris for the first time in 538 election forecast
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Former President Donald Trump has taken the lead in the famed 538 election forecast model for the first time since it began measuring the 2024 presidential election. 'A slow drip-drip-drip of polls showed the race tightening.'Trump is now favored to win the election 52% in the model, which runs 1,000 simulations of the election. Harris has a 48% chance to win the election based on the model. "The change in candidate’s fortunes came after a slow drip-drip-drip of polls showed the race tightening across the northern and Sun Belt battlegrounds," explained data analyst G. Elliot Morris at the 538 site. He said that new polling gave Trump a lead in Pennsylvania while lessening Harris' lead in Michigan and tying up support in Wisconsin. Georgia and Arizona have also gone from toss-ups to being classified as leaning Republican.Morris went on to caution against reading too much into the trend and said he still classifies the race a toss-up. "While Trump has undeniably gained some ground over the past couple weeks, a few good polls for Harris could easily put her back in the 'lead' tomorrow. Our overall characterization of the race — that it’s a toss-up — remains unchanged."Other polling experts such as Harry Enten at CNN have cautioned Democrats that Harris needs to have a large lead in order to feel safe about the election results because Trump often underperforms in polling before an election. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/538-forecast-trump-leads-polls

2024-10-18 19:20:01

Liberals lash out at Jim Gaffigan for 'normalizing' Trump and slamming Kamala Harris' absence at Al Smith Dinner
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Comedian Jim Gaffigan emceed the charity Al Smith Dinner, and many on the left were outraged that he took swipes at Democrats while "normalizing" former President Donald Trump. 'F*** everyone who normalizes that demented fascist rapist. What an obscene event.' Gaffigan mocked Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for skipping the dinner and referred to her as a "mediocre vice president" during his speech. While he also took aim at Trump and others in attendance, many viewers were outraged that he would even sit at a dinner with the former president. "Holy f*** Jim Gaffigan was embarrassingly bad tonight. Oh and he helped legitimize a f***ing fascist. So, you know, f*** all of that," responded actor Jeff Locker. "You stood and applauded a convicted felon and rapist who oversaw an attack on the Capitol in order to maintain power? For shame, Jim. For shame," replied another detractor. "Jim Gaffigan is now in the same s***pile with hair tousling Jimmy Fallon to me. F*** everyone who normalizes that demented fascist rapist. What an obscene event," said an account identifying as a feminist. "F*** Jim Gaffigan for hosting this s***!" read another tweet. "I was a big Jim Gaffigan fan. All he did yesterday was prove being Catholic is more important to him than standing up for what's right. Sitting in that room with that piece of s*** and tucking it up with him? F*** that noise," read another response. "Well, I never thought I’d say F Jim Gaffigan, but here we are," said another critic. Gaffigan especially ridiculed the event for catering to the powerful and wealthy elites of New York City. The dinner is named after Al Smith, the governor of New York from 1923 until 1929 and the first Catholic to run in a major political party in 1928. Video of Gaffigan's comments can be viewed on YouTube. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/libs-hate-jim-gaffigan-smith

2024-10-18 17:55:01

Stelter accidentally showcases how out of touch mainstream media is with the rest of America
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CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter provided a prime example of how out of touch members of the mainstream media are by making comments about how great his quality of life is compared to that of most Americans.It started during Thursday's edition of "CNN Newsnight with Abby Phillip." CNN contributor Shermichael Singleton noted many Americans are fed up seeing so much money being spent overseas in multiple countries while things like infrastructure and school systems in the United States are deteriorating.Stelter characterized such criticisms as unamerican."I don't live in that country, by the way. America is not that horrible. ... I live in a normal city, in a normal town. I love New York, but my roads are not crumbling. My schools don't suck. I just get tired of the anti-America rhetoric," Stelter, 39, said. Stelter later wrote on X that Singleton had 'obviously' misrepresented his point."Well, maybe you're fortunate enough to put your kids in darn good schools ... but there are a lot of Americans in this country who aren't wealthy, who don't live in great cities, who do have to send their kids to terrible schools. That is a fact because of their zip codes," Singleton replied with emphasis. "And to sit here arrogantly and say, 'Well, my kids go to great schools. I live in a great neighborhood.' That's your experience!" — (@) Stelter later wrote on X that Singleton had "obviously" misrepresented his point.Stelter's comments are the latest clue that members of the media class often avoid the issues that everyday Americans face because they have the money to separate themselves from them. Martha Raddatz got a lot of heat for dismissing the growing threat of Tren de Aragua, the violent gang from Venezuela, because some members in Aurora, Colorado, had taken over only a "handful" of apartment complexes."Martha, do you hear yourself? Only a 'handful' of apartment complexes in America were taken over by Venezuelan gangs, and Donald Trump is the problem and not Kamala Harris’ open border?!" GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance replied. "Americans are so fed up with what’s going on, and they have every right to be, and I really find this exchange, Martha, sort of interesting because you seem to be more focused with nitpicking everything that Donald Trump has said rather than acknowledging that apartment complexes in the United States of America are being taken over by violent gangs."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/stelter-accidentally-showcases-how-out-of-touch-mainstream-media-is-with-the-rest-of-america

2024-10-18 15:35:01

Rhode Island officials prompted possible noncitizens to register to vote: Report
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Officials in Rhode Island, one of the bluest states in America, reportedly sent out notices to possible noncitizens, urging them to register to vote.In 2021, Rob Rock — who was then the director of elections at the Rhode Island State Department and is now deputy secretary and director of administration — was corresponding via email with Kyle Upchurch, program manager at the Center for Election Innovation & Research, the Federalist reported.During their exchanges, Upchurch inquired about a group of residents referred to as "eligible but unregistered" to vote. In response, Rock claimed that the state had sent mailers to so-called EBUs, some of whom were flagged as noncitizens."We sent two versions of the EBU," Rock wrote, according to emails viewed by the Federalist. "One to people who have a 'Y' citizenship flag and one to those who have a 'No' citizenship flag. Each PDF contains the English and Spanish versions."How many mailers were sent overall and how many were sent to noncitizens specifically remains unclear. However, the purpose of the mailer, according to a statement to the Federalist from Department of State Director of Communications and Public Affairs Faith Chybowski, was to identify recently naturalized citizens.The text of the mailer appears to support Chybowski's explanation."Our records show that you have not been eligible to vote due to your U.S. citizenship status. If your status has changed recently, you may now be eligible to vote," the mailer reads, according to a copy ostensibly reviewed by the Federalist.The mailer also reportedly warns recipients that they must be U.S. citizens to register to vote.'Why do you care whether voters are 22 or 63, other than younger voters tend to lean left?'Unfortunately, recent attempts to clean up voter rolls in other states revealed that noncitizens are regularly registering to vote, despite the federal prohibition against doing so. Virginia recently removed from its voter rolls more than 6,300 noncitizens who, according to Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, "accidentally or maliciously" registered to vote. The Biden-Harris DOJ responded by suing the state.After facing a series of lawsuits late this summer, Arizona discovered that perhaps as many as 97,000 residents had registered to vote without ever providing proof of citizenship. The state supreme court ruled late last month that these residents could still vote in state and local elections in 2024.Rhode Island claims to have removed nearly 150,000 names from its voter rolls since 2020.Despite a nationwide problem of noncitizens appearing on voter rolls, officials in Rhode Island may not compel someone to provide documented proof of citizenship when registering to vote, the Rhode Island State Department told the Federalist. Instead, registrants provide "an attestation that the signer is a citizen," Chybowski said.Perhaps even more alarming, Rhode Island sent the mailer soliciting more voter registration because of its membership in the Electronic Registration Information Center, better known as ERIC.ERIC bills itself as a "nonpartisan" organization designed "to help election officials" in member states "maintain more accurate voter rolls and detect possible illegal voting." It is also funded entirely through fees paid by its 25 members, including the District of Columbia. In other words, taxpayers pay for its existence.Far from "nonpartisan," though, ERIC was founded by David Becker, a former DOJ attorney characterized by a former colleague as "a hard-core leftist" who "couldn’t stand conservatives."Just a few weeks ago, Becker dismissed concerns about noncitizens voting in American elections, indicating that such reports were a "made-up threat" coming from former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies."Remember to seek out only OFFICIAL election info, from trusted sources like election officials," he wrote in mid September.Becker is no longer listed on the ERIC website, but the organization still seems to make election-related demands that favor Democrats. For instance, ERIC shares with third parties certain demographic information about voters, including age."Why do you care whether voters are 22 or 63, other than younger voters tend to lean left?" asked Michael Greibrok of the Foundation for Government Accountability, a federal watchdog group.Among the third parties with which ERIC coordinates is the Center for Election Innovation & Research, the group Kyle Upchurch represented when he mentioned "eligible but unregistered" concerns with Rob Rock of the Rhode Island State Department back in 2021.And indeed ERIC appears fixated on EBUs. On its website, the group laments that America has perhaps as many as 51 million EBUs scattered throughout the country. Tens of millions of EBUs in a free country are only a problem if those individuals desire to register to vote but have been prevented by external circumstances beyond their control. In all likelihood, they do not want to register to vote and may even have deliberately elected against doing so. ERIC apparently wants them to register anyway."ERIC was established to clean up the voter rolls in member states. However, the member agreement only mandates adding voters, not removing them," Ned Jones, director of the Citizens Election Research Center at the Election Integrity Network, noted to the Federalist."Under the ERIC agreement, member states may be registering noncitizens," he added.Since 2021, at least nine states have parted ways with ERIC, perhaps on account of its partisan activism: Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia."ERIC is a bipartisan organization that operates in a nonpartisan manner," ERIC Executive Director Shane Hamlin told the Washington Examiner in December 2023. "We valued the states that resigned, but we will continue to work on behalf of our remaining members in improving the accuracy of America’s [voter] rolls and increasing access to voter registration for all eligible citizens."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/rhode-island-officials-prompted-possible-noncitizens-to-register-to-vote-report

2024-10-18 15:10:01

Assassination attempt 'will happen again' if Secret Service doesn't get new leadership, panel says
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The U.S. Secret Service needs a new leadership team with significant experience from outside the agency in order to address a long list of critical failures laid bare by the nearly successful attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, a review panel recommends. A four-member investigation group appointed by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas restated many of the weaknesses identified by other investigators since the July 13 assassination attempt. The group said the Secret Service needs a new director and leadership team to address everything from risk-based threat assessment to the lack of critical thinking by personnel. Among the most shocking aspects of the attempted assassination was how easy it was for a young man barely out of his teens to defeat what was supposed to be world-class security. “The Secret Service as an agency requires fundamental reform to carry out its mission,” the panel wrote in a letter to Mayorkas. “Without that reform, the Independent Review Panel believes another Butler can and will happen again.” The Independent Review Panel said the Secret Service “does not perform at the elite levels needed to discharge its critical mission.” “The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent, and static even though risks have multiplied and technology has evolved,” the panel wrote. “The work of the Independent Review Panel uncovered not only numerous mistakes that led to the events of July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, but also deeper, systemic issues that must be addressed with urgency.” The 52-page document released Oct. 17 is the first final report from the nearly dozen probes under way in Congress, the FBI, the DHS Office of Inspector General, and other groups. Members include Janet Napolitano, DHS secretary under President Barack Obama; Mark Filip, a former federal judge and deputy attorney general under President George W. Bush; Frances Townsend, former Homeland Security adviser to President Bush; and David Mitchell, former superintendent of the Maryland State Police. ‘With striking ease’ The panel conducted 58 multi-hour interviews, surveyed the Butler Farm Show Inc. site, and amassed some 7,000 documents. Among the most shocking aspects of the attempted assassination was how easy it was for a young man barely out of his teens to defeat what was supposed to be world-class security. “The July 13 assassination attempt was not the work of a trained foreign adversary prepared to conduct a multi-dimensional attack and willing to sacrifice themselves in the process,” the report said. “Rather, a young, local Pennsylvania man who had seemingly conceived of and executed his assassination plot within days after the former president’s rally was publicly announced had managed, with striking ease, to circumvent the Secret Service’s ‘no fail’ protective mission.” Would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks climbed onto the American Glass Research roof just after 6 p.m. July 13 and ran the length of the complex until he reached Building 6, where he made his sniper’s nest. A SWAT operator looks to access the roof of the American Glass Research building after the July 13 shooting of former President Donald J. Trump in Butler, Pa. Butler Township Police Department via Judicial Watch A Pennsylvania State Police trooper saw Crooks running on the roof and broadcast a warning on police radio, but Secret Service officials said they never heard it. Acting Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said the first indication of a threat came when Crooks unleashed the first of eight shots from an AR-15 rifle. A SWAT team operator — Sgt. Aaron M. Zaliponi of the Adams Township Police Department — stopped Crooks’ attack when he shot and damaged the buttstock on his rifle. A short time later, a Secret Service counter-sniper killed Crooks before he could attempt any more gunplay. Trump was struck in the ear by the first shot. Other rounds killed volunteer firefighter Corey Comperatore and seriously wounded David Dutch and James Copenhaver. Overall 10 people were injured during the tragedy, including seven law enforcement personnel and one Secret Service agent, the report said. Major blunders by the Secret Service included failing to secure the rooftops in the AGR complex 130 yards north of the event stage and not taking steps to prevent the gunman’s direct line of sight to the former president, the report said. Lack of effective communication between the Secret Service and state and local law enforcement agencies helped Crooks escape early detection and prevented Trump’s protective detail from removing him from the stage or even preventing him from appearing at the podium, the report concluded. The Butler County Emergency Services Unit set aside pre-programmed radios for use by various Secret Service personnel — including counter-sniper teams — but the radios sat untouched. The panel recommended that the Secret Service work in the same command center as local law enforcement instead of the separate accommodations used in Butler “with the integration of a real-time incident command management system.” The failure to have counter-drones in the air during a “critical period of time when it could have detected Crooks operating a drone” indicates a “deeper concern” by the panel “regarding a general lack of technology to support the Secret Service’s protective mission.” Secret Service agents cover former President Donald J. Trump after he was shot in the ear by a would-be assassin in Butler, Pa., July 13. Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images The Secret Service did not have drone coverage through most of the day. Crooks surveilled parts of the site with his own drone, starting at about 3:50 p.m. and running for about 11 minutes, the FBI has said. Security experts told Blaze News that Crooks was likely checking his planned route to ensure that conditions had not changed since he first surveilled the site. An inexperienced Secret Service staff member could not get the counter-drone system working and ended up repeatedly calling technical support for the drone manufacturer, according to the House Task Force to Investigate the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump. The Independent Review Panel recommended “a mandate that all outdoor events are observed by overhead technology.” Changes to site security planning should include better identification of line-of-sight threats and “significant training” on how to use a risk-based threat identification system rather than basing resource decisions on a protectee’s title, the report said. The panel said a clean sweep needs to be made of top leadership of the Secret Service, with a new director coming from outside the agency. This will help address systemic or cultural issues that show in a lack of critical thinking, a lack of ownership for site planning and other issues, and the need for extensive training. The group also recommended some internal reorganization to place an emphasis on the Secret Service’s protective mission as opposed to investigative or other functions. The panel said that while additions to the Secret Service’s $3.1 billion budget “would be helpful,” the focus should first involve “dialogue around the failures of July 13” or the “critical lessons from July 13 will have been lost.” Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/assassination-attempt-will-happen-again-if-secret-service-doesnt-get-new-leadership-panel-says

2024-10-18 01:40:01

Kamala's comedy cult: Late-night hosts venerate veep
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Regrets, Jerry Seinfeld has a few. No, he isn’t apologizing for skewering pro-Palestinian protesters at his comedy appearances earlier this year. 'Maybe this election, maybe you don’t have a candidate that you love, but you have to have an issue that you, maybe the somebody you love is you.' He’d do that again in a heartbeat. He wants to take back his thoughts on the “extreme left” crushing comedy. Et tu, Jerry? In an interview published in Variety yesterday, the "Seinfeld" alum mused: Does culture change and are there things that I used to say that [I can’t because] people are always moving [the gate]? Yes, but that’s the biggest and easiest target. You can’t say certain words about groups. So what? The accuracy of your observation has to be 100 times finer than that just to be a comedian. ... So I don’t think, as I said, the "extreme left" has done anything to inhibit the art of comedy. Did Seinfeld catch holy heck in the comedy community for that initial opinion? The backpedal here is Tim Walz-weird, Jerry! And he was right the first time, of course. 'Joker's' home invasion The movie that scared Warner Bros. executives silly is coming home for Halloween. “Joker: Folie a Deux,” which may lose the studio up to $200 million, will be out on VOD Oct. 29. It opened Oct. 4, crashed at the box office, and then plummeted an astonishing 80% in week two. Who could have predicted a film that ditched everything that made the first “Joker” click and added musical numbers might disappoint at the box office? The film feels like an elaborate trick from director Todd Phillips. Guess he loved that ”Joker burns money” meme so much he brought it to life. Hathaway's hash Word salad. It’s catchy and delicious! Consider Oscar winner Anne Hathaway. She dropped in on a Broadway fundraiser for Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this week. The “Les Miserables” star assumed the best way to honor the presidential candidate was to talk just like Harris. “We got a big choice to make, America, you have to make a choice, you do have to vote. Maybe this election, maybe you don’t have a candidate that you love, but you have to have an issue that you, maybe the somebody you love is you. You gotta vote for yourself, America,” she said. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, no? No ha-has from Harris hacks We knew late-night hosts have no shame, but this is getting absurd. Both Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert shifted from partisan hacks to literal cogs in the DNC machine earlier this year. They hosted Democratic fundraisers for President Joe Biden before the not-so-active senior’s cognitive decline made its national debut June 27 at the presidential debate. The comedians covered up that open secret for three-plus years. And happily so! Now they’re pouncing and seizing on a generic medical report from Harris that says she’s in excellent health. “This weekend, Harris released her latest medical report, which states that she's ‘in excellent health.’ It's great that just the words ‘excellent health’ kinda feel like a dig at Donald Trump. They should follow that up with ‘can walk up stairs’ and ‘is potty trained.’” Satire needs a kernel of truth to be funny. Break out a magnifying glass, and you still won’t find anything funny there. Sad? Yes. Funny? Not so much. 'Saturday Night' dies “Saturday Night” is dying at the box office. The film capturing the chaotic moments from “Saturday Night Live’s” first episode earned mostly positive reviews and solid box office results from its New York/L.A. debut. The film opened wider over the weekend, and audiences mostly stayed away. The film earned $3.9 million on 2,300 screens. Maybe we don’t want to be reminded of a time when SNL delivered smart, irreverent comedy without an agenda. For longtime fans, that’s a jagged little pill to swallow. At any rate, "Saturday Night" is notable for at least one reason. After decades of box-office flops based on SNL characters, this is the first bomb based on the show itself.
https://www.theblaze.com/align/kamalas-comedy-cult-late-night-hosts-venerate-veep

2024-10-18 00:50:03

New polling from Ohio race may mean Democrats will lose control of the US Senate to Republicans
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A new poll from the U.S. Senate race in Ohio may have dashed Democrats' hopes to keep their tenuous control of the upper chamber of the Congress. 'Sherrod Brown has been a rubber stamp for the radical left.' The Morning Consult poll released Thursday found that the Republican challenger Bernie Moreno had taken the lead over the incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown by 1%. A second poll by Fabrizio Lee for the Moreno campaign found the Republican had surpassed Brown by three percentage points, from 47% to 44%. The error margin for the poll was. 3.1%. Axios pointed out that Democrats are more likely to vote early, but the early voting results were dead even, which was a positive sign for the likelihood of a Republican victory. "Sherrod Brown has been a rubber stamp for the radical left, only cares about keeping his tax payer funded salary, and sold out Ohio to San Francisco liberals like Kamala Harris," said Moreno on social media. The race is the most expensive congressional race with $483 million already spent. The campaign for the Republican has been bolstered by his support for cryptocurrency, as one crypto PAC has donated $40 million to change the owner of the Senate seat. Brown, as the chair of the banking committee, is one of the top opponents of cryptocurrency. “The FTX collapse showed how dangerous crypto can be,” said Brown at a Banking Committee hearing in 2023. “But FTX wasn't the only bad apple. It was just the most explosive example of the problems in crypto: failure to provide real disclosure, the conflicts of interest, the risky bets with customer money that was supposed to be safe," he added. "For consumers, it adds up to billions of dollars.” Moreno has criticized Brown on cryptocurrency and accused him of not knowing the "difference between blockchain and a chainsaw." The Senate can flip to Republican control with just one seat change from Democrats or if Republicans win the presidency and control the tie-breaker between the two sides. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/sherrod-brown-moreno-senate-flip

2024-10-17 21:35:01

Why is the Biden-Harris administration coddling Iran?
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The Biden-Harris administration continues to coddle Iran despite being labeled a State Sponsor of Terrorism since 1984 — and Mark Levin is absolutely disturbed. “The behavior of the Harris-Biden-Blinken administration — this isn’t normal. One of Blinken’s boyhood best friends is a guy named Robert Malley. Robert Malley is under criminal investigation,” Levin of “LevinTV” explains. Malley is under criminal investigation because classified information was passed from his operation to the Iranians. “He was the envoy to Iran. Picked by Blinken, approved by Biden to negotiate the nuclear deal. He’s an Iranian sympathizer or worse. Under him, there was a little beehive of spies who are also providing information and exchanging emails with the foreign minister of Iran,” Levin says. However, the Biden administration has been attempting to cover up from Congress and from the press the extent to which Malley and others were involved in releasing classified information with the Iranians. “Now, ladies and gentlemen, in most normal countries, this would be a massive scandal,” Levin says. “This is an unparalleled scandal in American history.” “You want to know why Iran gets hundreds of billions of dollars? You want to know why they hate Netanyahu at this White House more than they hate the Islamo-Nazi who runs Iran? You want to know why they won’t defend our soldiers? They won’t defend our ships?” he asks. “I think what’s going on here is our relationships, some could be financial, some could be ideological. Maybe it’s something else. Maybe it’s all the above between actors in our government and at the highest level of the Iranian regime. Otherwise, none of this makes sense to me.” “What’s being done is against America’s best interest; it’s against the best interest, obviously, of Israel,” he continues, adding, “I believe treason is taking place.” Want more from Mark Levin?To enjoy more of "the Great One" — Mark Levin as you've never seen him before — subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
https://www.theblaze.com/shows/levintv/iran-2669417834

2024-10-17 14:35:01

Harris rails about Trump 'locking people up' for disagreement as DOJ sends Christian pro-lifer to prison for peaceful protest
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A Christian grandfather walked into federal prison this week to serve a sentence related to a peaceful pro-life protest while Vice President Kamala Harris (D) caterwauled about her opponent, former President Donald Trump, allegedly threatening to imprison those who "disagree with him." Around 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Calvin Zastrow, 63, arrived at Federal Correctional Institute Thomson in Illinois to begin serving a six-month sentence for participating in a peaceful protest outside a Tennessee abortion clinic on March 5, 2021. A report from the Daily Wire claimed that Zastrow and others gathered outside the clinic that day, "sat in front of the entrance," "sang hymns," and "urged women not to have abortions." A Department of Justice press release described the incident as a "clinic blockade" that prevented "employees from providing, and patients from receiving, reproductive health services." Nothing in the DOJ press release indicates that Zastrow or his five co-defendants engaged in violence. The press release does note that co-defendants Chester Gallagher and Paul Vaughn "stalled the Mount Juliet Police Department through negotiations that Gallagher referred to as a delay tactic," a detail that seems to reiterate that the protesters were committed to peaceful, civil disobedience, not violence. The same cannot be said for some of Zastrow's fellow inmates at Federal Correctional Institute Thomson. According to the Daily Wire, the prison had five suspected homicides and two suspected suicides between 2019 and 2023. Sex-related crime is also apparently rampant at the facility. Prison staff there filed 275 reports of sexual misconduct in 2022 alone, the Daily Wire claimed. Despite the violent environment in which he will spend the next six months, Zastrow — who was convicted in January of felony conspiracy against rights and of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act — is embracing the opportunity to continue evangelizing. "I’m praying to be able to witness for Christ. If I’m miserable there and can’t sleep well, then I’ll just suffer with honor for Jesus," he told the Daily Wire. "But if I’m able to get sleep and be healthy, I’m just going to see who the Lord wants me to minister to and be ministered to by." "I’m here to declare the glories of Christ and his kingdom," Zastrow continued. "I’m just here to do that. I’m just going let all the demons in hell know that they’re on notice." The Thomas More Society, which is representing Zastrow in a separate case, is disgusted by the Biden-Harris DOJ's ruthless prosecution of peaceful pro-lifers like Zastrow. "Calvin Zastrow ... is a peaceful man with a deep love for others and for his country. He has dedicated his life to peacefully interposing on behalf of innocent children in the womb who face imminent violence – indeed, death," said TMS senior counsel Steve Crampton in a statement to Blaze News. "The injustice of sentencing such a man of peace to perhaps the most violent federal penitentiary in the nation is hard to fathom. But it underscores the blind allegiance of the Biden-Harris administration to the abortion industry and their unbridled zeal to crush the pro-life movement." 'In a democracy, the president of the United States, in the United States of America, should be willing to be able to handle criticism,' she then seethed, 'without saying he'd lock people up for doing it.' The Biden-Harris DOJ does seem determined to prosecute peaceful pro-lifers. This week, Bevelyn Williams, a 33-year-old Christian wife and mother, began serving a 41-month sentence for misdemeanor criminal trespass in connection with a pro-life protest. In September 2023, the Biden-Harris DOJ secured convictions against elderly pro-lifers who committed similar supposed crimes. Among the defendants in this case were Joan Andrews Bell, then 74, and Jean Marshall, then 72. Paulette Harlow, then 73 and suffering from a debilitating medical condition, was initially determined to be unfit for trial. However, two months later, she was convicted and sentenced to 24 months in prison. Even as the DOJ under the Biden-Harris administration has focused on prosecuting peaceful Christians who oppose abortion and on prosecuting Trump for ridiculous alleged offenses, Vice President Harris waxed indignant in her infamous interview with Bret Baier of Fox News that Trump allegedly wants to sic lawfare on people who have a different opinion than he does. Trump "talked about locking people up because they disagree with him," a visibly flustered Harris fumed to Baier. "This is a democracy," she then lectured, pointing her finger and bobbing her head furiously. "And in a democracy, the president of the United States, in the United States of America, should be willing to be able to handle criticism without saying he'd lock people up for doing it." Of note, the U.S. has always been and continues to be a constitutional republic. Harris' interview with Baier aired on Wednesday, about 24 hours after Zastrow reported to prison. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/harris-rails-about-trump-locking-people-up-for-disagreement-as-doj-sends-christian-pro-lifer-to-prison-for-peaceful-protest

2024-10-17 14:05:01

Donald Trump shares the plans he has for Elon Musk if he’s elected in exclusive Glenn Beck interview
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Earlier this week, former President Donald Trump joined Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck for an exclusive interview. Among the subjects the duo discussed were Kamala’s dramatic policy reversals — especially when it comes to the border — who’s really calling the shots in the White House (not Joe Biden), and the reported falling out between Harris and Biden following the president’s ousting. They also conferred about Elon Musk, who’s been a welcome addition to the Trump campaign. Glenn asked Trump if he was serious about utilizing the Tesla/SpaceX/X owner if he’s elected. “Oh sure,” said Trump, calling Musk “a great businessman.” “He feels that there's tremendous fraud, waste, and abuse. ... He could save a lot of money and make lives better,” Trump continued. He explained that while Musk “doesn’t want to be in the Cabinet,” as he’s “got so many things going on,” he has expressed interest in a role “having to do with the budget.” “He’s good at finding [waste],” said Glenn, pointing to “the way he runs his companies” as a testament to his savviness. “He’s maybe the best at finding that,” Trump agreed. “It really is such a statement that he's probably the most effective person on the planet of looking over the horizon and then bringing tomorrow into today, and the left, because he likes you ... they will shut him down,” Glenn added. “They’ll try, but he’s hard to shut down because he’s so advanced. He’s on a different playing field,” Trump praised, adding that shutting Elon down was going to “shut the country down essentially.” To hear more of the interview, watch the episode above. Want more from Glenn Beck?To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-glenn-beck-program/donald-trump-shares-the-plans-he-has-for-elon-musk-if-hes-elected-in-exclusive-glenn-beck-interview

2024-10-17 13:05:01

Nothing changes: House GOP greenlights $1.5 trillion inflation bomb
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After handing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris everything they wanted on budget bills for the past two years, the duplicitous Republican-controlled House isn’t finished with its inflationary spending spree. Now, more than half of the House Republican Conference has sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and other House Republican leaders urging them to pass the statist farm bill during the upcoming lame-duck session.Even after pushing through the Biden-Harris continuing resolution and railing against inflation on the campaign trail, Republicans can’t seem to control their appetite for the very policies fueling inflation, especially in the food industry.As we hope for a victory less than three weeks from now, we better start planning for how this time will be different.The $1.5 trillion farm and food stamp reauthorization bill is a prime example of the WWE-style fake political battles between the two parties. Every chance they get to reform, cut, or devolve programs to the states, Republicans not only fail to make a dent in the staggering level of inflationary spending, but they also add to the deficit above the existing baseline whenever they control Congress. They bicker over the rate of increase and some minor aspects of the program, only to give Democrats 95% of what they want, all while pretending to fight over 1% of the issue.This reauthorization consists mostly of food stamps and other food assistance programs, amounting to about $1.2 trillion over five years. As for the remaining agricultural portions, both parties seem to agree on continuing nanny-state farm programs that bankrupt the country, distort agriculture and land-use markets, create monopolies for wealthy interests, and nationalize our food production.In the House Agriculture Committee hearing earlier this year, both parties fought fiercely over the rate of food stamp increases, yet they ultimately agreed to lock in a baseline that is double what it was in 2008. Neither side proposed reforms, such as transitioning the program to the states, where anti-dependency initiatives like “Hope Florida” helped 27,500 individuals leave the program. As a result, H.R. 8467, the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024, passed the committee on May 23 with a 31-21 vote. Four Democrats joined every Republican in supporting the bill.The 954-page monstrosity, which combines urban food stamp interests with large-scale farming interests, was designed to increase the overall price tag and extend federal control over state programs. The bill formalizes Biden’s illegal expansion of the Thrifty Food Plan and locks in a three-year annual cost-of-living increase. Ironically, this was viewed as a conservative win, as Democrats had pushed for even greater program growth during the amendment process.Republicans secured "savings" by preventing further growth in food stamps, only to redirect $40 billion into farm subsidies. These subsidies fuel venture socialism at its worst, distorting agricultural decisions, enriching the wealthiest landowners — often foreign — and inflating land prices. Federal crop insurance has had the same effect on farming that Obamacare had on health care: driving up costs, accelerating mergers, and squeezing out independent farmers, much like it did to independent doctors. Just 10% of farmers receive 56% of subsidies.A 2017 Congressional Research Service report noted that 94% of farm subsidies under Title I go to just six commodities, with 46% going to corn. Corn already benefits from the ethanol mandate, requiring fuel producers to blend ethanol into the national gasoline supply. Despite these six commodities receiving 94% of the subsidies, they only account for 27% of total farm output. The report suggests this disparity "merits further inspection of how the programs function across program crops."Additionally, 54% of all cropland is rented, not owned, according to the USDA, with the highest concentration of rental land in crops receiving the most subsidies. Thus, this is more of a landowner subsidy bill than a farmer subsidy bill.Government intervention in farming, much like health care, picks winners and losers. Under these farm bills, you're a winner if you grow large-acre crops like corn, cotton, and soybeans, or if Southern Republicans fight for low-acreage crops like peanuts and rice. If the government stayed out of it, the private sector would manage crop insurance, just as it does with car and homeowners' insurance. Instead, crop insurance has become a market-distorted mess, much like medical insurance.Food, like COVID, has become the new frontier for government overreach. The government wants to take over farming and push you toward unhealthy, expensive food, just as it did with medical care. These federal farm programs further skew the playing field away from local farmers and toward corporate farming lobbyists. Biden plans to mandate electronic IDs for all cattle, and nothing in this bill blocks that terrible rule.Under the guise of “conservation,” the government spends $14 billion paying farmers to leave land dormant. In 2018, Donald Trump vowed to cut these programs, which allow rich companies to buy land and keep it idle. Yet, the last farm bill, passed under a GOP trifecta, fully funded and expanded these programs. As a result, wealthy landowners profit, and land costs continue to skyrocket, just like any subsidized asset bubble. While the House GOP version omits some of the garbage climate-change rhetoric, it fully preserves the absurd conservation programs, which undermine the goal of food independence.Here we stand 16 months after Kevin McCarthy’s debt-ceiling increase (which Mike Johnson supported), and our debt has grown $4.3 trillion — almost as fast as during the lockdown year itself. How exactly will we cure inflation, especially with food, if we continue to push these massive farm bills without any meaningful, systemic reforms or at least without devolving these programs to the states where they cannot print their way out of debt?As we hope for a victory less than three weeks from now, we better start planning for how this time will be different.
https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/nothing-changes-house-gop-greenlights-1-5-trillion-inflation-bomb

2024-10-17 02:05:01

How space travel became right-wing
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Over the weekend, Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched its Starship with a Super Heavy rocket and successfully recovered the rocket’s first stage during an unmanned test flight. In a remarkable display of engineering, the first stage made a controlled descent to Earth and was secured back onto its launch platform by a mechanical arm. This achievement should have been an inspiring moment for all Americans. But many leftists took to social media to express outrage that a Trump supporter was responsible for the historic event.As Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance praised the technological triumph, commentators made bewildering statements, wondering how the dream of space travel had become culturally associated with Republicans. So-called progressives have built their political strategy around demonizing the very elements that make scientific progress possible. Now, they are shocked to find their opponents seen as champions of a brighter future.Those who are willing to sacrifice and persevere will ultimately reach for the stars, escaping the stifling, suffocating, and resentful grip of leftism to realize their dreams.When I was young, space exploration was viewed as an inevitable part of the near future. The United States had won the space race in the 1960s, and while astronauts had not landed on a celestial body for over a decade, shuttle missions were common. We were landing remote rovers on Mars, and most of us assumed that manned missions to the red planet were well within reach.The dream of exploring the stars was also politically bipartisan. Republicans embraced the patriotism and pride attached to the achievement, while Democrats saw it as a step toward their “Star Trek”-inspired vision of a post-scarcity utopia.As the United States solidified its position as the only global superpower, ironically, the drive to prove dominance through space exploration waned. NASA’s achievements became less impressive, and the agency clearly oversold many of its projections. Republicans began viewing the program as a bloated government expense in need of budget cuts, while Democrats saw an opportunity to redirect funding to their supporters here on Earth. NASA limped along with fewer launches and delayed major projects, and while science fiction remained part of popular culture, the idea of real-world space travel seemed to fade farther into the background.Regardless of how one feels about Elon Musk, it’s hard not to see echoes of Ayn Rand’s “man of industry” in his struggle against a system that tries to keep him tethered to Earth. SpaceX has certainly benefited from government contracts, but it has also fought off stifling regulations and lawsuits while achieving something the government seemed incapable of. The leftists' outcry that SpaceX should be nationalized now that it has proven successful outside government control highlights the parasitic nature of the progressive regime they’ve created.Musk may not fit the mold of a typical conservative, and it’s doubtful he ever sought to become a political figure, but his ambition is undeniable. He and many other leaders and entrepreneurs have realized that the dominant leftist regime will make their grand visions impossible. Progressives have embraced a politics driven by graft and spite. Their policies punish success and innovation while fostering a culture of envy and entitlement. Ambition is now labeled as dangerous, and prosperity is seen as something to be collectively plundered for political gain.Democrats have transformed universities into centers of woke indoctrination, rejecting merit in favor of racial and sexual biases that favor their client classes. What began as an infection in the softer fields of the humanities has now spread to the hard sciences. Woke ideology has branded critical aspects of the scientific method as cultural imperialism and turned math into a symbol of white supremacy. Valuing the written word, prioritizing punctuality, emphasizing efficiency, and striving for perfection — traits essential to launching humans into space — are now labeled as forms of colonial oppression.While I’ve always been a fan of science fiction and fascinated by space travel, I never fully grasped its significance as a social ambition. Earth is rife with unsolved problems, so why not focus our efforts here?I’ve come to understand the role that boldness and greatness play in the health of a civilization. Western man, or “Faustian man,” as Oswald Spengler described him, has a deep need to discover and expand. In many ways, the United States was forged by its expansion and taming of the frontier. Without a new frontier to explore, Western societies seem to turn inward and consume themselves. Space, as the final frontier, calls us to greatness.In the end, progressives are right about one thing: Their relentless attacks on merit, ambition, and achievement have made space exploration a domain of the right. Leftist ideology cannot tolerate the concept of great individuals or natural hierarchies, which is why it fails to reach for the achievements those people make possible.We are all equal in value before God, but we are not equal in our abilities or accomplishments. Those who strive for greatness must embody the very traits Democrats have demonized. It is those who are willing to sacrifice and persevere who will ultimately reach for the stars, escaping the stifling, suffocating, and resentful grip of leftism to realize their dreams.
https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/how-space-travel-became-right-wing

2024-10-17 00:55:01

15-year-old girl testifies that she and her friends beat elderly disabled man to death because they were bored
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A 15-year-old girl who had pleaded guilty for her part in the brutal beating death of a disabled elderly man testified that she and her friends killed him because they were bored.Five girls were arrested for allegedly beating 64-year-old Reggie Brown and leaving him to die in an alleyway in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 17, 2023. 'They then stomped on his head and one recorded the beating on her cellphone.' Detective Harry Singleton said that the fight was initiated by a man in his 20s, who attacked Brown before the girls came up and asked if they could beat the man as well. They then stomped on his head and one recorded the beating on her cellphone. That video was played in court at trial against the girls. “Damn, you leakin’!” said one girl in the recording to the bleeding victim. One 12-year-old and two 13-year-old females were arrested in March over the incident, and two other girls were arrested in July, a 14-year-old and a 15-year-old. All were charged with second-degree murder. The oldest suspect pleaded guilty to the lower charge of assault with a dangerous weapon in exchange for cooperating with the investigation and accepting a sentence of three years in a juvenile detention facility. In her testimony, the 15-year-old said she had suggested to the group that they look for someone to beat up because they were bored. She said that Brown's pants were pulled off during the beating, and police said he was beaten with his own belt. She also testified that she realized the man had died when they walked away from the scene of the crime. A medical examiner determined that Brown had died from blunt force trauma to the head that caused brain bleeding. If convicted, the two girls at trial could face a maximum sentence of detainment at a juvenile facility until they turn 18 years old, according to D.C. law. The trial judge announced that a second girl of the remaining two arrested had also pleaded guilty, but no other details were released. One of Brown's relatives previously demanded justice for the man. "My uncle really didn’t deserve this. He was known in this community for years so for this to happen where he lived for 64 [years] is insane. They have to be held accountable!” said his niece. Video from the case can be viewed on a news report from WRC-TV on YouTube. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/dc-disabled-elderly-stomped-death

2024-10-17 00:05:03

This deadly experiment endangered Trump’s life — and imperils public safety
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The near assassination of Donald Trump on July 13 at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, serves as a chilling reminder of the dangers in today’s political landscape. A 20-year-old shooter breached the Secret Service’s security perimeter with a rifle, firing multiple rounds from an elevated position just 150 yards from the stage. Trump sustained a superficial wound to his right ear, and tragically, an attendee was killed. Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle called it “the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades.”Questions surrounding the incident continue to grow. One of the most glaring concerns is the behavior of multiple Secret Service agents, who appeared overwhelmed by the situation. They struggled with basic tasks, such as handling and holstering their service weapons. This incident has intensified scrutiny of federal law enforcement hiring practices, but Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas dismissed these concerns as “baseless and insulting.”The Secret Service’s poor performance after the attack on Trump underscores that public safety is not the place for social experimentation.The Secret Service agents’ conduct on July 13 is the troubling result of a new initiative spreading throughout American law enforcement: the 30x30 Initiative.According to its website, the 30x30 Initiative aims to “advance the representation and experiences of women in policing agencies across the United States.” The program seeks to “increase the representation of women in police recruit classes to 30% by 2030 and ensure police policies and culture support the success of qualified women officers throughout their careers.” In 2022, the U.S. Marshals Service became the 200th agency to sign the 30x30 pledge, and the Justice Department announced its collaboration with the initiative.All outward appearances indicate the 30x30 Initiative is another example of leftist, woke ideology worshiping at the secular altar of diversity, equity, and inclusion. However, a closer look at the principles and goals behind the initiative reveals a more insidious intent. If left unchecked, it could erode America’s ability to ensure public safety, advancing a cultural Marxist agenda under the guise of “female empowerment.”The 30x30 Initiative’s website offers resources and summaries explaining its agenda. One document, titled “What Works: The Social Science Research Behind Advancing Women in Policing, Recruitment & Assessment,” states that “policing is a traditionally male-dominated profession, and even today, white, heterosexual men comprise the majority of law enforcement.” It also describes a “culture of homophobia” and criticizes how sexual and racial minority officers must conform to “performative heterosexuality or masculinity.” Additionally, the pamphlet claims that “white culture is a source of decreased retention for women officers.”Another document, “What Works: The Social Science Research Behind Advancing Women in Policing, Retention & Culture,” critiques police physical fitness tests, arguing that they “advantage younger and male recruits by emphasizing upper-body strength.” It further claims that “minority recruits are negatively impacted by ‘job knowledge’ tests due to deep-seated economic, social, and educational inequality.” Finally, the document states that “female officers are subject to restrictive policies regulating the exact lengths of their hair and banning makeup and other accessories.”A quick look at these claims might lead a casual observer to dismiss the 30x30 Initiative as misguided, woke dogma. However, a deeper analysis reveals a more radical agenda.American policing has historically been a male-dominated field because of the nature of the work. The job involves irregular hours and heightened physical danger and requires participants to be willing and able to use force. Biology equips men with the psychological predisposition and physical strength to handle these demands.Dress codes are common in every workplace. In law enforcement, uniform and grooming standards promote safety, as long hair can become a liability during use-of-force situations. Additionally, the pressure to conform to workplace culture exists across all industries and is one of the main reasons employees leave jobs within their first year.Law enforcement demands significant physicality. While handling a combative arrestee or chasing a fleeing suspect may make up a small portion of a police officer’s day, officers must always be prepared and capable of performing these tasks. Professional baseball players are expected to hit pitches traveling over 90 miles per hour. Although the total time spent reacting to pitches in a game is only a few seconds, a player who can’t hit the ball hurts the team.The stakes are higher for police officers. Reduced physical and job-knowledge standards jeopardize the lives of fellow officers and citizens when officers lack the strength, stamina, and expertise necessary to perform their duties adequately.There’s also the issue of the 30x30 Initiative’s desire to eliminate “white culture.” In 2020, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture released — and quickly retracted — a chart listing characteristics of “white culture.” The list included self-reliance, objective thinking, hard work, respect for authority, delayed gratification, rigid time schedules, politeness, and adherence to English common law. It’s absurd to attribute these qualities to a particular race, yet all are essential for effective law enforcement.The failed attempt on Donald Trump’s life on July 13 should be remembered as an infamous date in American history. As the country grapples with unanswered questions surrounding the events of that day, one issue should be settled: Whether driven by a misguided commitment to diversity or Marxist ideologies, the federal government’s embrace of the 30x30 Initiative is a dangerous mistake. The Secret Service’s poor performance after the attack underscores that public safety is not the place for social experimentation.If Donald Trump returns to office, he could safeguard his own well-being — and that of the American people — by withdrawing the federal government from the 30x30 Initiative and refocusing federal law enforcement on public safety rather than radical gender and racial identity politics.
https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/this-deadly-experiment-endangered-trumps-life-and-imperils-public-safety

2024-10-16 22:55:01

Biden admin sends pro-life mom to prison for 3 years over violating law protecting access to abortion clinics
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A pro-life mom has reported to prison after being convicted of violating a law protecting access to abortion clinics. 33-year-old Bevelyn Williams was sentenced in July to 41 months in prison for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinics Act over several instances during which she prevented patients of entering abortion clinics. She was convicted of misdemeanor criminal trespass. 'Biden's Department of Justice has brazenly weaponized the FACE Act against normal, everyday Americans across the political spectrum, simply because they are pro-life.'"Biden/Harris administration has made my husband a single father today," wrote Williams on the X platform Wednesday. "I am on my way to turn myself into federal prison where I am scheduled to serve three years in federal prison for unlawful assembly. Share this and make mothers and fathers of this nation aware of what's going on!"A statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office said that Williams "repeatedly intimidated and interfered with individuals seeking and providing critical reproductive health services" by use of physical force and threats of violence against the staff. They cited an incident in 2020 where Williams injured the hand of a clinic volunteer and also a livestream she posted during which she said she would "terrorize" the clinic. Conservatives have accused Democrats and especially the Biden administration of using the FACE Act to target pro-life and Christian activists for unjust prosecution and imprisonment. “The Biden DOJ has weaponized this constitutionally suspect law against pro-life sidewalk counselors while failing to protect pregnancy centers and churches from violent attacks,” said Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Texas in 2023. “Free Americans should never live in fear of their government targeting them because of their beliefs," said Republican Sen. Chip Roy of Texas. "Yet, Biden's Department of Justice has brazenly weaponized the FACE Act against normal, everyday Americans across the political spectrum, simply because they are pro-life. Our Constitution separates power between the federal government and the states for a reason, and we ignore that safeguard at our own peril."Williams has opened a GiveSendGo account for donations to help her cause. "I was persecuted as a Christian standing for my beliefs when it comes to life," wrote Williams on the page. "This is devastating news. Not only is this bond extensive for the accused crime, but she made it very clear in the courtroom that she was going to an make example out of me. The concern of being a young mother, and a stay-at-home mother, was completely disregarded."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/prolife-mom-prison-clinic-abortion

2024-10-16 20:35:01

Barbra Streisand lashes out at Trump with debunked liberal accusation about musical town hall
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Barbra Streisand lashed out at former President Donald Trump with an unhinged rant that included a debunked accusation about a recent town hall in Pennsylvania. The entertainer appears to be obsessed with the Republican candidate in recent posts on social media. 'This is not normal... Something is very off with this man’s brain.' "Trump with his disowned self is now projecting his mental decline onto others like Kamala. It’s so transparent that he is unfit for a 4 year term as President of the US," she posted on Wednesday to her 843K followers on the X platform. "Donald Trump already has plans to contest the outcome on Election Day. He will unleash the same chaos as in 2020 when he lost by over 7 million votes," she added soon after. Her most popular recent claim had already been debunked by no less than an ABC News reporter who had been at the town hall event in Oaks, a suburb of Philadelphia. "This is not normal. Particularly for someone running for President. He stood there and swayed for over 30 minutes. Something is very off with this man’s brain," she posted. While the missive garnered more than a million views, the content was lacking in substance. Many on the left had implied that Trump was showing signs of mental and cognitive deterioration after he ended questions at the town hall and instead played his favorite music for the audience. Terry Moran of ABC News said that the incident was not odd at all and members in the audience appeared to enjoy it very much. He also noted that Trump had stopped the town hall because of two audience members suffering separate health emergencies. "While in certain quarters of social media people had a field day with that, and I guess on the screens it might have looked quite strange, inside that hall, however, people were having a good time. What can I tell you? It did not seem out of the ordinary. It seemed almost intimate," Moran reported. He went on to say Trump "came down off the stage and mingled with his supporters" before he started "signing autographs and shaking hands." Critics of Trump have nevertheless persisted in smearing the candidate with the accusation. Moran's report can be viewed on ABC News via its YouTube account. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/barbra-streisand-vs-trump-townhall

2024-10-16 19:50:02

FBI covertly changes its crime stats for 2022, revealing Trump was right all along
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President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested that crime is far worse than government officials care to admit, particularly in Democrat-run cities. Democratic operatives and the liberal media have claimed the reverse is true, citing incomplete FBI data indicating a drop in violent crime in the first two years of the Biden-Harris administration. It appears that Trump was correct when he told Time magazine that the "FBI fudged the numbers" and possibly also when he suggested during the second presidential debate that the FBI data "was a fraud" — just as he appears to have been correct about U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' bogus jobs numbers. The Crime Prevention Research Center recently reported that the FBI stealthily changed its crime data for 2022 — a year in which cities like Phoenix, New York City, and Los Angeles failed to submit crime data. Whereas the bureau originally claimed that violent crime fell by 2.1% that year — a claim USA Today and other publications have made ample use of for Democrat officials' benefit — the FBI subsequently adjusted its statistics to reflect that violent crime actually spiked by at least 4.5%. 'Now we know the truth.' The FBI did not bother highlighting this narrative-destroying change in its Sept. 23 press release concerning national crime statistics. RealClearInvestigations noted that the change was only cryptically referred to in a footnote in the September Uniform Crime Reporting Program report on crime in 2023, which stated, "The 2022 violent crime rate has been updated for inclusion in CIUS, 2023." According to the CPRC, with the adjustments, "there is a net increase of 80,029 more violent crimes, 1,699 more murders, 7,780 more rapes, 33,459 more robberies, and 37,091 more aggravated assaults." "There you go," responded Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.). Republican Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.) responded to the FBI's quiet correction, "You'll never believe it. FBI reporting was wrong and violent crime did not in fact go down." "This is why the regime wants to censor 'disinformation and misinformation,'" tweeted Auron MacIntyre, podcast host and columnist at Blaze Media. "Our institutions now lie to us regularly for political gain." Elon Musk's America PAC wrote, "They want to give you the illusion that cities are safe, but now we know the truth." "I have checked the data on total violent crime from 2004 to 2022," Carl Moody, professor of economics at the College of William and Mary and research director at the CPRC, told RealClearInvestigations. "There were no revisions from 2004 to 2015, and from 2016 to 2020, there were small changes of less than one percentage point. The huge changes in 2021 and 2022, especially without an explanation, make it difficult to trust the FBI data." RealClearInvestigations indicated the FBI did not respond to "repeated requests" for comment. By other measures, it appears things are actually far worse than the FBI and media have let on — again, comporting with Trump's sense of how thing have deteriorated. John Lott Jr., president of the CPRC, told Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck last month, "There are two measures that we have of crime, and the media just seems to only be looking at one of these measures and not realizing what it's measuring." "So the two measures are the FBI's measure of crimes reported to police," continued Lott. "And then there's the Bureau of Justice Statistics measure, called the National Crime Victimization data, which gets a measure of total crime, both reported and unreported. Prior to 2020, these two sets of numbers generally went up and down together. But since 2020, they have been going at opposite directions." Lott noted that in 2022, for instance, when the FBI originally claimed violent crime dropped by just over 2%, the National Crime Victimization Survey reflected a massive spike in the violent victimization rate — from 16.5 victimizations per 1,000 persons in 2021 to 23.5 per 1,000 in 2022. Lott said that was the "largest percentage increase that we've ever seen." — (@) While the FBI contends violent crime has fallen under the Biden-Harris administration, the NCVS, which doesn't measure murder, reportedly indicated violent crime jumped 55% between 2020 and 2023. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/fbi-covertly-changed-its-crime-stats-for-2022-revealing-trump-was-right-all-along

2024-10-16 17:45:02

Trump hatches master plan to troll Kamala Harris from behind the counter of McDonald's: 'I'm gonna work the french fries'
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Former President Donald Trump plans to work the fryer at McDonald's this upcoming weekend, a not-so-subtle jab at his opponent.While visiting the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Sunday, Trump will stop at a McDonald's restaurant to "work the fry cooker," adding the Golden Arches to his resume.'I’m gonna work the french fries because I will have worked longer and harder at McDonald's than she did if I do that even for half an hour.' The Trump campaign has not yet announced at which McDonald's location Trump will work, though it will be a location in Philadelphia, according to WCAU-TV.Last month, Trump said he planned to work at McDonald's to get a leg up on Vice President Kamala Harris, who has repeatedly claimed that she once worked at Mickey D's. Trump, however, believes Harris is not telling the truth."We don't want to hear Kamala's fake promises, even something like she worked very long and hard hours over french fries at McDonald's. She never worked at McDonald's. It was a fake story," Trump said at a campaign rally. "It was a lie. She never worked at McDonald's over the hot french fries."I think I'm going to a McDonald's in two weeks actually, and I’m gonna work the french fries because I will have worked longer and harder at McDonald's than she did if I do that even for half an hour," he added.In August, the Harris campaign released an ad claiming Harris worked at McDonald's "while she got her degree," presumably a reference to her undergraduate days at Howard University. And in an interview with MSNBC last month, Harris said she worked at the fast-food joint "as a student." The legacy media, moreover, has uncritically regurgitated Harris' claim.The problem, however, is there is no evidence to prove it.Snopes, a left-leaning fact-checker, reported:Aside from the above-mentioned news reports, there was no tangible evidence of Harris working at McDonald's as a college student. We reached out to Harris' campaign, as well as McDonald's headquarters, seeking tax records or other proof — which could include photos or videos of her working at the restaurant, employment records or physical items such as a uniform or name tag. We also reached out to Harris' sister, Maya, as well as a close friend from Howard University seeking comment, and looked for public interviews by friends or family members of Harris' to confirm the story, with no luck. Not only is there no evidence of Harris' McDonald's employment, but, importantly, McDonald's has not confirmed that Harris once worked there. If it were true, it would be easy for McDonald's to quell the doubt. That the restaurant has not is telling.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/donald-trump-plan-work-mcdonalds

2024-10-16 17:00:01

Veterans put special ops experience to work helping hurricane-hit North Carolinians
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SWANNANOA, North Carolina — A group of former special forces operators who converted the local Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealership into a hurricane-relief supply depot is working so efficiently supplying aid to mountain communities that it drew a visit from the commanding general of the U.S. Army’s airborne forces. Lt. Gen. Chris Donahue of the XVIII Airborne Corps from Fort Liberty in Fayetteville, N.C., visited the makeshift Savage Freedoms Relief Operations center on Oct. 15 to see for himself what his commanders had been reporting about the all-volunteer supply chain. “All of the ground force commanders for the the 101st [Airborne] that have been in the area have reported back to General Donahue in their sitreps the effort that this group of volunteers has been doing here in Swannanoa,” said Adam R. Smith, 41, a former Army Green Beret who runs the depot. “Specifically how effective we have been in integrating with them on the ground and and how effective they’ve been in supporting our efforts on the ground,” Smith told Blaze News. Before Smith set up the military-style supply chain under his Savage Freedoms Relief Operations charity, he had to rescue his own family when rains from Hurricane Helene caused devastating floods and mudslides across Western North Carolina in late September. 'This is going to take years.' Smith was in Texas when the massive hurricane moved inland from Florida and rumbled north, inundating the mountainous area around Asheville, North Carolina. His home in Black Mountain is a short distance from the Broad River, so Smith feared his wife, Megan, 40, and 3-year-old daughter, Tove, were killed by the floods. Smith told the Charlotte Observer newspaper that on Sept. 28, a friend flew him by helicopter to his home and they airlifted his family to safety. It was one of the first Hurricane Helene rescue operations in Western North Carolina. The supply-chain nerve center relies on hundreds of volunteers to process a steady stream of humanitarian aid, sort it, pack it, and load it onto military and civilian helicopters, trucks, utility vehicles, and all-terrain vehicles — whatever mode is needed to get food, water, cold-weather gear, generators, and heaters to the most remote parts of Western North Carolina. Smith said there is a pressing need for cold-weather gear and supplies as nightly temperatures dip into the 30s. Financial donations can be directed to the Savage Freedoms website or a GoFundMe page established to support relief efforts. On Oct. 14, crews loaded huge rolls of hay onto a National Guard Chinook CH-47 helicopter that took off from Savage Freedoms Relief Operations. The flight and others like it will help farmers keep their animals alive while they are cut off from the usual modes of delivery. Recent airlift deliveries included livestock feed for cattle, pigs, goats, and chickens. The twin-rotor heavy-lift Chinook is used to ferry tons of supplies per flight and has also been used for rescuing people trapped by floodwaters. Smith said the U.S. Air Force Reserve supplied air traffic control specialists to help manage flights in and out of the depot. That expertise helped secure an official designation for the base as a helicopter landing zone. “They’re basically tactical air traffic controllers,” Smith told Blaze News. “We were directly supported with air reservists, and in so doing, it gave us a really great capacity to not only have better control of the airspace, but we got an official [notice] from the FAA making this an official HLZ [helicopter landing zone] with a dedicated frequency that became our controlled airspace.” The setup has been very efficient. “We’ve run a lot of sorties with a small number of birds,” Smith said. Operations centered at the depot range from humanitarian relief that goes out by air and ground to specially trained cadaver dogs that search for human remains in the mud and debris. A medical team does wellness checks on local residents and writes or arranges prescription medications “to make sure that people have what they need and can continue to live,” Smith said. Adam Smith (L) of Savage Freedoms Relief Operations gives a tour to Lt. Gen. Chris Donahue, commanding general of the XVIII Airborne Corps, at the hurricane relief depot in Swannanoa, North Carolina, on Oct. 15, 2024. Donahue (R) autographs a photo and flag at the operations center.Photos by Steve Baker/Blaze News Smith’s operation has an intelligence section that scrapes social media to find leads on people needing help and an operations group that confirms where help is needed and schedules transport. A community outreach team is working on providing potable water for schools and assisted living facilities. “We go out and vet information. Once the information is vetted, then it comes back and either goes to a ground operation or air operation,” he said. “We build pre-specified supply packages, and then once we get the thumbs-up, the supply packages get loaded into helicopter or on a ground vehicle, and then it gets pushed out to that location.” The extensive military experience of most of the volunteers has helped the depot integrate with various U.S. military assets and personnel around North Carolina, Smith said. “At this point, the fluidity of effort and the efficiency by which we’ve been able to mesh with the National Guard units, the air reserve units, and the active-duty units has been one of the principal reasons why we’ve been so effective utilizing [military air support], getting materials and supplies where they need to go,” he said. Elements from the 101st Airborne Division and the 82nd Airborne Division have been active in North Carolina disaster relief. Both are part of the XVIII Airborne Corps under the command of Gen. Donahue. More than 11,000 National Guard members are at work in a half-dozen states helping with recovery from Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, according to the National Guard Bureau. More than 3,600 Guard members from 15 states are tasked with Hurricane Helene relief. Maj. Gen. Ronald Win Burkett II, National Guard Bureau director of domestic operations and force development, said more than 750 people have been rescued by Guard personnel in North Carolina alone, including 219 extracted by hoist to hovering helicopters. Adam Smith of Savage Freedoms Relief Operations addresses volunteers at a makeshift supply depot at the Harley-Davidson dealership in Swannanoa, North Carolina, Oct. 15, 2024.Photo by Steve Baker/Blaze News One of the more pressing duties in recent days has been rumor control and disinformation. Smith and some of his leaders set out to contact every church and relief group in Buncombe County to ensure that they know how to request aid and to caution them to be on the watch for scammers looking to steal or hijack supplies. The personal communications also help to dispel rumors that operations like Savage Freedoms are part of some anti-government militia. Smith said the devastation brought by Hurricane Helene is staggering. “The amount of devastation is so much bigger than is being reported by the national news media,” he said. “And this message and the idea that everybody is A-OK is simply not true. The reconstruction effort is not going to take one week or two weeks or a month or two months. This is going to take years.” Smith has extensively supported Savage Freedoms Relief Operations with his own funds. He said he trusts that God will help him “see a way out of it.” “We spent all of our own money, all of our own savings,” Smith said. “As far as this goes, this could either make us or break us, and right now, financially it’s hurting. “But I think if we continue to say yes to God and we continue to do God’s work and we just don’t put fear in our hearts, then I think he’ll provide.” Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/veterans-put-special-ops-experience-to-work-helping-hurricane-hit-north-carolinians

2024-10-16 12:05:01

Kamala Harris would screw up Joe Rogan — for the same reason she needs him
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She ended her silence. Vice President Kamala Harris last week broke with previous campaign strategy and showed up for the podcasts, the daytime liberal talk shows, and the town hall. Most of the people who watched or listened had already made up their minds, but the internet sent awkward and embarrassing clips from those interactions a little farther than the reach of the shows themselves. Voters got a closer look, and her polling numbers continued to drop. If talking to sex podcasters about their mutual love for abortion had helped with swing-state voters, she wouldn’t be going on Fox News and trying to go on Joe Rogan’s show. So she escalated. What choice does she have? On Wednesday night, she’ll sit down with Fox News’ Bret Baier. Word is out that her team is negotiating to get her onto Joe Rogan’s podcast next. While neither will quite satiate what her critics and fans are looking for, both are a sign of where the Democrats see an emergency brewing. First, the optics. While Fox News might seem like a lions’ den for Democrats, Fox’s news hosts are far from the snarling caricatures liberals like to paint them as. Their opinion side might join with Republicans, but the news operation is largely moderate — and appears conservative only in comparison to its nakedly partisan competitors. And though Baier is a far fairer interviewer than ABC’s David Muir and his fellow throne-sniffers, he’s no pit bull. Expect a firm but respectful interview. Joe Rogan is another animal entirely. The man has long refused to interview powerful people. He believes those who have large soapboxes don’t need to use his, and this philosophy has helped him build a massive and idiosyncratic following. He has slowly rejected the Democrats generally and Harris specifically, but he’s also been slow to embrace his newfound role as a potential kingmaker. It’s clear he finds the crown an uncomfortable fit. Even if Rogan green-lights an interview with Harris and former President Donald Trump (as is rumored), don’t expect fireworks. It’s not his style. He wants to know the person behind the headlines. It’s a long conversation — not a 10-minute interview. Can Harris endure the kind of “scrutiny” a two-hour on-air conversation demands? And here’s where it gets interesting. Because the answer is almost certainly not. Harris appears mechanical during a 15-minute interview with “60 Minutes.” Conversation is a definitive low point for Harris when you’re talking policy. She gets better and more energized talking about her personal life, but when she’s allowed to riff more than a few moments, her make-believe biography-pandering hits parody levels. A couple of hours with Rogan? Not a chance. That’s how we got here, anyway. If Harris was good at this, she wouldn’t have gone on last week’s media blitz. If talking to sex podcasters about their mutual love for abortion had helped with swing-state voters, she wouldn’t be going on Fox News and trying to go on Rogan’s show now. Which brings us back to the first problem: not being good at it. Then again, when you’ve raised a billion dollars in three months, anything is possible. Blaze News: Senior Harris campaign adviser says Dems are in ‘freakout’ mode because her lead over Trump was fake Blaze News: 'The View' host Sunny Hostin says media outlets need to do more to help Kamala Harris Sign up for Bedford’s newsletter Sign up to get Blaze Media senior politics editor Christopher Bedford's newsletter.
https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/kamala-harris-would-screw-up-joe-rogan-for-the-same-reason-she-needs-him