The Latest IDF Strike in Gaza Restarts the PR War

The Earth is currently in the firing line of four distinct coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which means we could experience geomagnetic storms throughout the weekend. And while it’s unclear exactly how strong these storms will be, such events are known to trigger spectacular auroras at lower latitudes than one would typically expect to see them.Coronal mass ejections are expulsions of plasma and magnetic fields that are fired out into space from the Sun when solar flares erupt. When the charged particles of a CME interact with the Earth’s magnetosphere, they can trigger geomagnetic storms, enhancing the strength and geographical spread of the auroras.According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), two CMEs associated with an M-class solar flare began their journey towards Earth on Wednesday, August 7th. The following day, an X-class solar flare erupted, hurtling a third CME in our direction.X-class signifies the strongest category of solar flare, with Thursday’s event rated at X1.3 (on a scale of X1 to X9). According to the SWPC, a “faint CME” associated with another M-class flare was then detected early this morning (August 10th), bringing the total number of plasma blasts heading our way to four. Last night, the sun let off yet another CME, although this one is expected to “pass upstream of Earth orbit.”With all four coronal mass ejections predicted to reach us between now and Monday, the SWPC has forecast periods of G2 geomagnetic storms from August 10th to 12th. Storms in this category are classified as moderate, although confidence in the magnitude of the weekend's upcoming events is described as “low”.According to spaceweather.com, the severity of these storms could be upgraded to G3 if all four CMEs collide with the Earth in quick succession. And with sunspot activity currently high as we approach the solar maximum, the possibility of further M-class and X-class flares between now and the end of the weekend remains elevated.There’s currently no indication of how strong the auroras associated with these storms might be or how far away from the poles they will become visible, but we do know that the Perseid meteor shower is due to peak on the night of August 11th to August 12th. If a strong geomagnetic storm happens to coincide with this spectacular annual event, then stargazers could be in for a truly unique double whammy this weekend.

ABC White House correspondent MaryAlice Parks joined Saturday’s installment of Good Morning America to gush over the supposed contrast between “joyful” and “happy” Vice President Kamala Harris and the “mean and nasty” Donald Trump. If that wasn’t bad enough, Parks also predicted that most people will not care about Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, embellishing his military resume, and instead just care that he served at all. Parks appeared to concede that Trump leveled a fair criticism against Harris that she hasn’t done any recent press conferences, but ultimately she tried to spin that, “She's going to have to define her campaign more, she’s going to have to flush out some of her policy positions, but that strategy you're talking about, that joyful warrior presence, that excitement, leaning into the laughing, it has been effective out there on the campaign trail.”     She also claimed it is “amazing how quickly she's, kind of, branded herself like that. Blunting criticism that she laughs too much. She looks and sounds different than President Biden. I think that it's reminding Democrats they don't have to feel that sense of doom that, frankly, a lot of them felt about the Biden campaign, but it's also letting her draw a contrast to Trump without talking so much about Trump because I think every time she sounds joyful or happy, you're sort of reminded that he can sound mean and nasty.” Circling back to Trump, Parks added, “Like, I’m thinking about, in his press conference when he criticized her for not giving a press conference. He didn't just say 'she hasn’t taken questions,' he said she's not smart enough to take questions, and it's that language that swing voters are just put off by.” A few minutes later, Parks was discussing Walz’s controversies when she declared, “I think that some people will care about the fact that Walz seemed to, sort of, misrepresent, he said he was in war when he never saw active combat. The campaign said he misspoke, but I actually think that more Americans will care that there are two veterans, Walz served in uniform for 24 years.”     After conceding the campaign was compelled to change its website to refer to Walz’s proper rank at retirement, Parks turned to the controversy of him not going to Iraq. “Look, when he got out, he was really outspoken against the war in Iraq, he was consistent with that position. I do think that's something he'll be able to talk about. Frankly, a lot of Americans were consistent in their opposition to the Iraq War.” Parks continued, “I talked to a lot of veterans, some major veteran organizations across the country, that were excited about that pick. Just because of the work that Walz did when he was in Congress fighting for veterans and veterans' benefits.” JD Vance has also been a fierce critic of the Iraq War, but made the point that he went where Uncle Sam sent him, but Walz didn’t. ABC Good Morning America 8/10/2024 7:32 AM ET MARYALICE PARKS: She's going to have to define her campaign more, she’s going to have to flush out some of her policy positions, but that strategy you're talking about, that joyful warrior presence, that excitement, leaning into the laughing, it has been effective out there on the campaign trail. Amazing how quickly she's, kind of, branded herself like that. Blunting criticism that she laughs too much. She looks and sounds different than President Biden. I think that it's reminding Democrats they don't have to feel that sense of doom that, frankly, a lot of them felt about the Biden campaign, but it's also letting her draw a contrast to Trump without talking so much about Trump because I think every time she sounds joyful or happy, you're sort of reminded that he can sound mean and nasty. Like, I’m thinking about, in his press conference when he criticized her for not giving a press conference. He didn't just say “she hasn’t taken questions,” he said she's not smart enough to take questions, and it's that language that swing voters are just put off by. … I think that some people will care about the fact that Walz seemed to, sort of, misrepresent, he said he was in war when he never saw active combat. The campaign said he misspoke, but I actually think that more Americans will care that there are two veterans, Walz seeded in uniform for 24 years. You’re right, they changed the campaign website to no longer say retired, because even though he raise to that—he rose to that rank, he didn’t serve in that position long enough to formally retire at that rank. Look, when he got out he was really outspoken against the war in Iraq, he was consistent with that position. I do think that's something he'll be able to talk about. Frankly, a lot of Americans were consistent in their opposition to the Iraq War and I talked to a lot of veterans, some major veteran organizations across the country that were excited about that pick. Just because of the work that Walz did when he was in Congress fighting for veterans and veterans' benefits.

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Here’s a heterodox thought: The slanted news media is unwittingly the Democrats’ worst “frenemy.”The line of reasoning to arrive at this proposition begins thus: Last month, professor Lauren Wright of Princeton University attracted notice for a provocative article in the Atlantic on “How Liberal College Campuses Benefit Conservative Students.” Wright’s thesis was simple: Because conservative students are constantly challenged at our overwhelmingly left-leaning campuses, they work harder to learn how to defend their views, usually become better informed about a full spectrum of perspectives on issues, and develop a thicker skin.Democrats should ask themselves whether having a too-friendly media is worse than having Republican enemies.By contrast, Wright observed, liberal students tend to be complacent, intellectually lazy, and uninformed about other points of view, precisely because liberal campuses don’t challenge liberal students to think critically about their own opinions. Wright recounted in her article how much better informed and versatile conservative Princeton students are compared to liberal Princeton students. This paradoxical fact about how conservative students thrive on left-leaning campuses is well-known to conservatives, though hardly anyone else apparently.The analysis likely applies to the mainstream news media as well. After all, elite media outlets like the New York Times are dominated by liberal graduates of liberal Ivy League colleges. Journalists bring the ideological laziness and narrowness of the campus bubble to newsrooms, producing a highly conformist narrative that distorts reality.That corporate media “reporting” favors Democrats and liberal points of view is beyond dispute by now. What no one is asking is whether this bias actually hurts Democrats and liberal causes, in the same way that one-sided curricula in colleges hurts the educations of liberal students.Joe Biden’s departure from the presidential race following the vivid and undeniable display of his age-related disability in the June 27 debate should be an example taught in journalism schools in the decades to come, but it surely won’t be. Prior to the Atlanta debate, any mainstream media outlet that dared to raise questions about Biden’s age and obvious mental decline was shouted down by other “respectable” mainstream media.When the Wall Street Journal published a deeply reported story in early June about how Biden was mentally “slipping,” the paper was greeted with ferocious denunciation by other media.The corporate media allowed itself to be used as a transmission belt for White House talking points that videos of Biden’s faltering physical and mental capacities were “cheap fakes.” Reporting in conservative media was subjected to endless “fact checks” that all found claims of Biden’s disability were false or “misleading.” Both the New York Times and Washington Post used “misleading” in headlines debunking the mounting visual evidence.Hiding Biden’s decline is not the only example of the lockstep media enforcement of the Democratic Party line. Back in 2022, NBC News correspondent Dasha Burns was roundly attacked for reporting that Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman, whose health status following a severe stroke was being ignored by the media, had trouble carrying on a basic conversation.As if borrowing from the Ring Lardner novel “The Young Immigrunts,” the media as one said to Burns: “Shut up, they explained.”The point is: The extended White House cover-up of Biden’s deterioration, evident as early as 2021 if not sooner, was only possible because a compliant liberal media went along with the cover-up. Leading Democrats on Capitol Hill were aware of Biden’s problem but couldn’t say very much so long as the media covered for him.What will happen once the Trump campaign begins running ads educating voters about Harris’ past radical positions?How has this worked out for Democrats? Once Biden’s deterioration became too obvious to ignore any longer after the June 27 debate, the media turned on him instantly. If the media had done its job properly and reported on Biden’s slippage a year ago, the party might have been able to convince Biden to stand down or encouraged a serious challenge from several prominent Democratic office holders, enabling Democrats to have a regular nomination process to pick a strong candidate with time to develop a coherent campaign.Instead, Democrats are now in crisis mode, likely having to settle for Kamala Harris as their candidate, even though she never won a single primary vote in the 2020 election cycle and has even lower approval ratings than Biden.Rather, she had lower approval ratings than Biden until the media reverted to form and decided to give maximum effort to boost Harris. The media is performing another massive cover-up of Harris’ far-left record, airbrushing her record and credulously passing along her new positions, such as that she was never the “border czar.”Is the media now repeating the same mistake with Kamala Harris that it made with Biden? The media is doing Harris and Democrats no favors by treating her with kid gloves and glowing coverage. (The Los Angeles Times is typical, running a story on “Kamala Harris is a cook — and she knows her L.A. restaurants. Will it help her win?” Think of it as a puff pastry piece perhaps.)Hence Harris is enjoying a nice “honeymoon” with voters, suddenly drawing even with Trump in the polls on a wave of sycophantic media. But what will happen once the Trump campaign begins running ads educating voters about Harris’ past radical positions, such as banning fracking, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defunding the police, bailing out rioters, and nationalized medicine?This election might play out as a rerun of 1988, when the relatively unknown Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis tried to airbrush his liberal record. He led George H.W. Bush by 17 points at this point in 1988, only to lose by eight points in November after the public learned of his record.Democrats should ask themselves whether having a too-friendly media is worse than having Republican enemies. It shields Democrats from true public opinion and leaves them vulnerable to effective Republican attacks. And the corporate legacy media might ask itself if it serves its own ideological interests, let alone preserves its credibility, when it ceases having an adversarial disposition toward whoever is in power and reveals itself to be a Democratic Party operative with bylines.Democracy dies in darkness, the Washington Post lectures us. But media credibility dies in partisanship.Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared originally at PowerLine.

When former president Donald Trump was nearly assassinated, it wasn’t only his life that was forever changed but his supporters that attended the rally. And two attendees, Mia and Eric, are telling Alex Stein everything that happened that day — including how one of them was detained by the Secret Service. “They were rushing him out, I ended up running up, I got within 30 feet of Trump in his motorcade driving off after he had just got shot. That was a failure of the Secret Service, terrible, terrible work,” Eric tells Stein. “So then, I was coming back, and they said, ‘Put your hands up,’” he continues, noting that he complied. “I was definitely riled up. A lot of adrenaline.” While Eric saw what happened firsthand, there have been plenty of conspiracies forming, particularly on the left, that it was all staged. “I do think that the government, the Secret Service, and probably the CIA wanted it to happen, and they didn’t follow the proper procedures in stopping this,” Stein says before asking Eric what he believes. “I do not agree with them,” Eric says of the “staged” conspiracies. “I definitely saw him get shot and go down. I think it was definitely an inside job of some sort because there’s no way he should have been able to get on that roof. It’s like a direct perimeter for the Butler Fairgrounds.” “I mean, that would’ve been covered. Even I would have done that and I’m not like Secret Service or nothing,” he adds. Mia, the other attendee, actually got the shots on video. “When it first happened, we thought it was firecrackers to be quite honest, but after I’ve listened to the videos,” she explains, “you can hear multiple [shots being fired].” Want more from Alex Stein?To enjoy more of Alex's culture jamming, comedic monologues, skits, and street segments, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Ford, once an icon of American innovation, now wants to take the lead on another emerging and upcoming trend — mass surveillance.In January 2023, Ford filed a patent application for a new technology that would allow it to track the driving behavior of vehicles on the road and report speeding violations to law enforcement. Vehicles would have cameras that activate if they detect speeding vehicles nearby and capture high-quality images of the offending vehicle and its identifying features, such as license plates or accessories attached to the offending car. Then, those images and GPS data would be shared with local law enforcement to decide whether to initiate a chase.Many believe that these cameras violate drivers’ privacy. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise that corporations and governments worldwide already have methods to spy on their citizens. Governments have been found to hack into private individuals’ phones through software provided by corporations, and the NSA admits to purchasing Americans’ sensitive data. Local law enforcement has always partnered with corporations to surveil the public by installing cameras to detect speeding and running red lights. These cameras have come under fire for their questionable legality and efficacy, spurring some states to ban them.Car makers already have a habit of violating drivers’ privacy. A New York Times reporter found that General Motors 'tricked millions of drivers into being spied on' by tracking detailed driving data and adjusting insurance rates accordingly; those with supposedly poor driving behavior would see their rates increase.In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill to ban red-light cameras in 2019, two years after KXAN, an Austin-based NBC affiliate, reported that almost all cities with red-light cameras had illegally issued traffic tickets. Their investigation also found that drivers paid the city of Austin over $7 million in fines since the cameras were installed, and cities in Texas made over $500 million from the cameras since 2007. For now, Ford’s new camera idea remains a patent application, so it's not certain whether we’ll see F-150s snitching on you for going five mph over the limit, even if Ford is granted the patent. But if it does become reality, we’ll probably see F-150s snitching on you for no reason at all. After all, if red-light cameras are faulty, why won’t Ford’s camera be?A bad habitCar makers already have a habit of violating drivers’ privacy. A New York Times reporter found that General Motors “tricked millions of drivers into being spied on” by tracking detailed driving data and adjusting insurance rates accordingly; those with supposedly poor driving behavior would see their rates increase.As a result, lawmakers urged the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on car makers’ privacy violations. In a letter to the FTC, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) accused GM, Honda, and Hyundai of spying on drivers and selling data for pennies. In the letter, they claim that Honda sold data from 97,000 cars, at a rate of 26 cents per car, to Verisk, a data analytics provider for insurance companies, between 2020 and 2024. Between 2019 and 2024, Hyundai sold data from 1.7 million vehicles, at a rate of 61 cents per car, to Verisk.“The FTC should hold accountable the automakers, which shared their customers’ data with data brokers without obtaining informed consent, as well as the data brokers, which resold data that had not been obtained in a lawful manner,” the two senators urged.Car makers aren’t the only ones scheming to snitch on drivers, though. Popular apps like Life360, a location-sharing app popular for families with teens, are accused of selling families’ data to insurance companies. Despite being advertised as an app that helps improve families’ safety, it violates families’ privacy. In 2021, one former X-mode employee claimed, “Life360 had the ‘most valuable offerings due to the sheer volume and precision’ compared to other sources of data,” according to the Verge.MyRadar, a weather forecast app, and GasBuddy, which finds the cheapest gas stations, are also accused of violating privacy for profit.Some insurance companies are finding ways to gather driving data without buying it from someone else. Progressive, for example, has a product called the Progressive Snapshot. Drivers voluntarily attach the device to their vehicles, allowing Progressive to track their driving behavior. Each time the device detects a hard brake, it will beep, encouraging drivers to alter their behavior on the road. Progressive claims that safe drivers will be rewarded with discounts, but it's uncertain whether it will benefit most drivers. People who work in big cities must deal with bumper-to-bumper traffic during rush hour, causing them to brake harder or unexpectedly. Even though frequent hard braking is out of their control, they may see their insurance rates increase.Fortunately, Progressive Snapshot is a voluntary program. However, insurance companies already have ways to track driving behavior without alerting their customers. In an era that feels eerily similar to Orwell’s "1984," it's only a matter of time until all Americans realize they’re being spied on.

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After Ignoring the Story for a Week, the Press Clean-Up Crew Arrives to Protect Tim Walz

New Trump/Vance Ad, 'Forgotten Cities,' Should Be Taken Nationwide