It is a presidential election year, and a leading candidate for president of the United States, who also happens to be a former president of the United States, is currently a criminal defendant chained to a dingy courtroom four days of the week—time that he should be spending interacting with voters out on the campaign trail. That’s terrible. But it’s only the beginning. The daughter of the presiding judge is a professional political operative for the presidential candidate’s opposition party, and the candidate himself is subject to an over-inclusive and unconstitutional gag order. The George Soros-funded district attorney, who campaigned on a platform of prosecuting that candidate, only pressed charges after his own left-wing predecessor opted not to do so due to the frivolous nature of the charges. One of the Soros-funded district attorney’s subordinates curiously joined his team—just in time to prosecute the candidate—from a high-ranking perch in the Department of Justice that is headed by the candidate’s chief political rival. And this week, the candidate was subjected to tawdry and salacious testimony from a discredited former porn star, who spoke openly in court about how she “blacked out” during their alleged 2006 sexual encounter. Due to the sprawling gag order, the candidate was not—and is not—legally permitted to defend his honor and contest her lurid, legally irrelevant claims. Welcome to our American banana republic. America has many real, glaring problems on its hands. Inflation remains stubborn, and Americans widely report feeling pessimistic about the economy, despite nominal low unemployment metrics. Our wide-open southern border is disastrous, leading to artificially suppressed working-class wages and the most rampant illegal alien crime in the nation’s history. Violent and property crime rates remain too high, especially in large urban corridors. Energy prices should be considerably lower, and they would be if our moronic leaders allowed producers to tap into America’s great natural wellspring of hydrocarbons. Around the world, hostile regimes act against our interests in unrestrained and revanchist fashion. At home, childlessness, godlessness, anxiety, and depression are all rising, symptomatic of a broader civilizational rot and a society that has lost confidence in what it claims to stand for. Amidst all this, it would be ideal to have a normal, competitive presidential race in which the flailing incumbent is directly confronted and his record is challenged for all to see. But Americans are now being deprived of anything remotely resembling a normal presidential race. Donald Trump is physically chained down to Judge Juan Merchan’s New York courtroom, unable to get out on the campaign trail and deliver his signature rallies to adoring fans across the heartland.  These often-forgotten Americans are, in a quite literal sense, denied the opportunity to hear the full argument against the Biden Regime due to these insidious workings of the Democrat-lawfare complex. Instead of permitting the Regime’s challenger, Trump, to campaign for votes in Wisconsin, he is forced to silently endure the unhinged courtroom musings of a literal porn star and a convicted felon (Michael Cohen)—all in furtherance of a case that suffers from insuperable statute of limitations problems in addition to the structural absurdity of a local district attorney (the Soros-funded Alvin Bragg) prosecuting and attempting to prove a federal crime (a campaign finance violation). Oh, and if Trump doesn’t shut up and keep quiet, Merchan might throw him in jail—as he has repeatedly threatened to do, if Trump keeps violating his unconstitutional gag order. What a sick, cruel joke it all is. Democrats seem not to have given any thought to what happens if they lose. If Trump wins, do Democrats seriously not expect him to respond in kind? Now that the Rubicon has been crossed and we have entered a world in which politicians attempt to not merely defeat their opposition at the ballot box but also prosecute and incarcerate them, there is no going back. Just as Senate Democrats’ November 2013 invocation of the “nuclear option” to end the filibuster for lower-court nominees directly led to Republicans doing the same for Supreme Court nominees just a few years later, so, too, is it impossible to know what may ultimately come from the lawfare precedent Democrats are setting today. The new rules have been established. Many of us didn’t want these rules, but here we are anyway. So, game on. COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM The Daily Signal publishes a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Heritage Foundation.  The post The Making of an American Banana Republic appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Scan news accounts of anti-Israel campus and street protesters. Read their demands and manifestos. Collate the confusion from the Biden administration after Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorism in Israel. Here are 10 of their most common untruths about Oct. 7 and the Israel-Hamas war that followed. ‘Progressive Hamas’Gay and transgender student protesters in America would be in mortal danger in Gaza under a fascistic Hamas, a terrorist organization that has banned homosexual acts and lifestyles. Anyone protesting publicly against Hamas or its allies would be arrested and severely punished.Women are segregated in most Hamas-run educational institutions. Under the Hamas charter, women are valued mostly as child-bearers. By design, there are almost no women in high positions in business or in government under Hamas.‘Colonists and settlers’Students scream that Israelis are “settlers” and “colonists” and sometimes yell at Jewish students to “go back to Poland.”But the Jewish presence in present-day Israel is deeply rooted in ancient tradition. Dating back at least three millennia, the concept of “Israel” as a distinct Jewish state, situated roughly in its current location, is ingrained in history.By contrast, the much later Arab invasions of the Byzantine-controlled Levant and their arrival in Palestine occurred about 1,800 years after the establishment of a Jewish Israel.‘Two-state solution’When student protesters scream “From the river to the sea,” that is not advocacy for a two-state solution.It is a call to eliminate the state of Israel—lying between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea—and its 10 million Jewish and Arab citizens. The Hamas charter is a one-state/no-Israel agenda, which we saw attempted on Oct. 7.‘Occupied Gaza’The Gaza Strip, adjacent Israel, was autonomous. The Israeli border is closed, but so is the Egyptian border. There have not been any Jews in Gaza for nearly two decades.So on Oct. 7, Gaza was not occupied by Israel. It was under the control of Hamas, designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization.After being elected to power in 2006, Hamas canceled all subsequent elections and ruled as a dictatorship. Gaza forbids Jews from entering Gaza and has driven out most Christians. Israel hosts 2 million Arabs, both as Israeli citizens and residents.‘Netanyahu is the problem’The U.S. and Europe claim that the conservative government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is alone behind Israel’s tough response in Gaza to the Oct. 7 attacks. Thus, both the E.U. and the U.S. are doing their best to undermine or even overthrow the elected Netanyahu administration.Yet, most Israelis support Netanyahu’s coalition government’s agenda of destroying Hamas in Gaza. There is no evidence that any other alternative Israeli government would do anything differently from the present policies toward Hamas.‘Targeting civilians’After murdering nearly 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, Hamas scurried back to Gaza and hid in tunnels and bases beneath hospitals, schools, and mosques.Its preplanned strategy was to survive by ensuring Gaza civilians would be killed. Hamas has indiscriminately launched more than 7,000 rockets at Israel, all designed to kill Jewish civilians.Outside assessors have concluded that Israel has not inadvertently killed a greater ratio of civilians to terrorists compared to most other urban fighting conflicts elsewhere, and perhaps even fewer than American engagements in Mosul and Fallujah.‘Protesters are pro-Palestine’Increasingly, protesters make no distinction between supporting “Palestine” and Hamas. Their chants often echo the original Hamas eliminationist charter and recent genocidal ravings of its leadership. Some protesters wear Hamas logos and wave the terrorist organization’s flag. Many cheered the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7.‘Anti-Israel is not antisemitic’When protesters scream to Jewish students to “go back to Poland” or call for the “Final Solution,” or assault them or bar them from campus facilities, they do not ask the Jewish students whether they are pro-Israel.For protesters, anyone identifiable as Jewish becomes a target of their antisemitic invective and violence.‘Genocide’Israel has not tried to wipe out the Palestinian people in the fashion of Hamas’ one-state solution plan for Jews.Before Oct. 7, some 20,000 Gazans a day requested to work in Israel—on the correct expectation of much higher wages and humane treatment.If Hamas had come out of its tunnels, separated from its impressed civilian shields, released its surviving Israeli hostages, and either openly fought the Israel Defense Forces or surrendered the organizers of the Oct. 7 massacre, no Gaza civilians would have died.According to Hamas’ questionable “genocide” figures, roughly 4% of the Gazan population died during the Israeli military response to Oct. 7. At least a third to almost half of those deaths, according to various international observers, were Hamas terrorists.‘Disproportionate response’Iran tried to send 320 missiles and rockets into Israel. Israel replied with three.Hamas launched 7,000 rockets into Israel and slaughtered 1,200 Israelis before the Israel Defense Forces responded in Gaza, often dropping leaflets and sending texts to forewarn citizens.Israel has been disproportionate only in the effectiveness of its response. Hamas and its Iranian benefactor intended disproportionately to hurt Israel, but utterly failed.So Israel proved to be competent and Hamas incompetent in their similar efforts to use disproportionate force. (C) 2024 Tribune Content Agency LLC The Daily Signal publishes a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Heritage Foundation. The post Try a Little Honesty About Israel appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Those who want to live their life as safely as possible should be well-versed in necessary survival skills. Not only are these hacks useful, but they have the potential to save lives. Whether you need to know how to jumpstart your car, check for signs of stroke, or escape from a riptide, here is what you should do in case of an emergency. Strokes are more common than you may think, so it' Source

Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud

UPenn: Another Encampment Cleared, Larry Krasner Hardest Hit

Journalist/author Michael Shellenberger joined forces with UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers and Tablet Magazine Senior Writer Jacob Siegel to discuss the inner workings of censorship in the West. On Thursday, UnHerd released an interview featuring the three men, who discussed the complex web of NGOs and state agencies that make up the “Censorship Industrial Complex,” the origins of the industry and the techniques it uses, as well as the underlying ideology driving the players behind it.    Shellenberger did not hold back in his criticism of these entities, describing their mission as driven primarily by a sense of bigotry and religious zeal.    “But the other one is in this mania to — which I really think is driven by intolerance and dogmatism — censor and disparage different voices, dissident voices, they end up widening the circle too broad,” Shellenberger said. “So you end up censoring people for things that are factually true.” Shellenberger concluded that the drive for “misinformation” really came into being as a way to counter undesirable political ideologies that saw a resurgence in 2016, notably with the election of Donald Trump.  “But when you see all these people working together over time, you get a much clearer picture that this is what we would consider counter-populism,” Shellenberger observed. “This was clearly [an] orchestrated event after the revolutions of 2016 to fight against populism.” According to Sayers, the convoluted nature of the censorship industry makes it very difficult to avoid and leads companies and online advertisers to inadvertently support censorship, such as with the Global Disinformation Index, a non-profit that creates advertising blacklists designed to starve “harmful” news sources and dissident voices of ad revenue. Related: Not So Fast: Biden Signs NDAA Calling Out NewsGuard … Then Issues Disclaimer “I actually corresponded with Elon Musk about it,” Sayers said. “Twitter is apparently using GDI via something called ‘Integral Ad Services,’ which is another one of these ad buyer platforms, and now he was on Twitter saying, ‘GDI should be shut down and the miscreants should be published.’ So you’ve got this weird situation where the heads of these companies don’t even understand the beast that is happening further down.” GDI was exposed last month by UnHerd for placing the outlet on a “dynamic exclusion list” of news sources to be boycotted by advertisers.  GDI’s 2022 report featured a list of “the ten riskiest” online news outlets that exclusively included right-leaning and libertarian news outlets while “the ten lowest-risk” list was filled exclusively with hyper-partisan leftist outlets like Buzzfeed and NPR. According to UnHerd, the GDI is funded by many governments including the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (until 2023), the European Union, the German Foreign Office and Disinfo Cloud, a body created and funded by the U.S. State Department. You May Also Like: A Defiant State Department Threatens to Obstruct Censorship Investigation Responding to external pressures raised by UnHerd’s reporting, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron sent a letter on May 8 to Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch declaring that the UK government will no longer fund the GDI. Cameron wrote, “The FCDO has not funded GDI since 2023, and there are no current plans to do so.”  Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable

A Border Patrol agent who spoke with NewsNation explained just how bad the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border really is, and to make things worse, it will not get better any time soon.The agent gave the interview anonymously, with NewsNation casting him in a shadow and changing his voice in order to protect his identity so the Department of Homeland Security does not punish him for speaking out. 'The biggest thing is that we do not control the border. The cartel controls the border.'"[What] don't ordinary Americans understand about the border?" reporter Ali Bradley asked."The biggest thing is that we do not control the border. The cartel controls the border. Everything that we do is a reaction to things that they have planned. Usually we're chasing around pawns while the kings and queens are doing whatever they want," the agent replied.Bradley then asked about the seriousness of the threat posed to Americans by so many people illegally entering the country. The agent said the threat to American citizens is "absolutely" real."These huge give up groups that we're getting, you know, the media is only reporting what they can report on, right? Which is, statistically speaking, a small percentage of the actual bad guys that we're catching. The really good ones, we will never catch. ... Our border is by no means secure," he explained."No one is coming. No one is coming to protect you," the agent further warned, pointing out local law enforcement has a hard time dealing with criminals who are U.S. citizens and the influx of illegal immigrants who are committing crimes within the country. The agent stressed Americans need to take it upon themselves to make their safety a priority. — (@) The ongoing crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border has had detrimental effects for the nation, from cities and states spending millions of dollars trying to take care of people released by Border Patrol to U.S. citizens falling victim to crimes committed by the processed immigrants.A new case out of Florida shows how releasing people into the country, with court dates years from now, has proven to be disastrous.A Guatemalan illegal alien who was caught at the border in January and then released into the U.S. with a 2027 court date was arrested for allegedly kidnapping an 11-year-old girl from in front of her home, pulling her into a van, and raping her in the town of Lake Worth Beach. The girl was saved after her mother went looking for her and banged on the van while calling for help.

As Ukraine rakes in billions from the American government, Maui fire victims are still displaced. Lucky for them, last year they received a $700 one-time payment from the government to help them get back on their feet. Joe Rogan equates the $700 one-time payment to 700 cups of Ramen noodles. “Who said yes to that? Who allowed that?” Rogan asked Tulsi Gabbard, adding, “At the same time releasing this number where they accidentally had sent Ukraine $6 billion.” “Yeah, they said, ‘Oh well, we lost track of this $6 billion and so now that we’ve found it because of some accounting error now we can go and send it to Ukraine,'” Gabbard says. “I remember specifically when the fires had just happened. The White House brought in the director of FEMA to talk to the White House Press Corps and someone asked the question, ‘What are you, FEMA, what are you actually doing for the people who’ve been impacted by this tragedy?’” “The director stood there with a straight face and proudly said, ‘Well, we have provided a one-time payment of $700 to everyone who has been impacted by this fire or displaced by this fire,’ and that was her big announcement,” Gabbard explains. “So, we have completely abandoned those people in Hawaii,” Dave Rubin comments, disturbed. 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.

Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray received a whopping $100,000 fine after he was shown throwing multiple objects at a referee during a playoff game.During the second quarter of Denver's 106-80 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves (Game 2, Western Conference semifinals), Murray was pictured throwing a towel, then a heat pack in the direction of a referee.The towel landed at the feet of the official. Then, when it appeared to be given back to the Denver bench, Murray appeared to throw a heating pack at the referee that ended up on the court in the middle of play.Murray was officially fined $100,000 for "throwing multiple objects in the direction of a game official during live play" but was not suspended, the league announced. Does Jamal Murray get a game suspension or fined for his actions of throwing the heating pad? — (@) Fellow Nuggets player Kentavious Caldwell-Pope retrieved the heating pack and tossed it aside at the same time the arena's public-address announcer asked the crowd not to throw any objects on the court.The officiating crew later told reporters that they were unaware the objects had come from the bench; otherwise they could have "reviewed it under the hostile act trigger." Officiating crew chief Marc Davis told reporters that the penalty for such an act would have been a technical foul.Davis was indeed the official who had the towel thrown at his feet by Murray.Timberwolves coach Chris Finch called Murray's actions "inexcusable and dangerous" and said that his team tried to convince the officials that it was unlikely that a heating pack would come from anywhere other than a team bench.Murray left the arena without speaking to reporters."The playoffs are going too well. The storyline is that Anthony Edwards is ascending to superstardom," sports writer Gary Sheffield Jr. told Blaze News. "People will forget about the expected suspension by the end of Game 3, and the story will be back on Edwards and that Minnesota defense."The reason Murray avoided suspension, Sheffield pontificated, is that he is pivotal to the playoff success for the league."You can't transition to a post-LeBron-James-led NBA by suspending the second-best player from the defending champions," he said.The Nuggets and Timberwolves will play at least two more games in their series, May 10 and May 12, 2024.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The prosecution in the New York criminal trial against former President Donald Trump is expected to call Michael Cohen, Trump's former attorney, to the witness stand on Monday, according to live updates from the courthouse.Following the conclusion of Friday's trial, prosecutors requested that Allen Weisselberg's severance agreement from the Trump Organization be submitted into evidence. Weisselberg was an executive at the company but is currently incarcerated for tax evasion. The defense rejected the request, noting that he is "an uncalled government witness.""Mr. Weisselberg's absence from this trial is a very complicated issue," stated Trump's attorney Emil Bove.Acting Justice Juan Merchan responded, "I think it would be helpful to me in making my decision if I could see that some efforts were taken to compel his appearance."The "whole case is fake," Trump said.Prosecutors admitted that they had not attempted to compel Weisselberg to provide testimony.The defense asked Merchan to place a gag order on Cohen, who regularly posts on social media. Trump's attorney, Todd Blanche, cited a recent TikTok post from Cohen in which he was wearing a T-shirt with an illustrated picture of Trump behind bars. Michael Cohen is allowed to wear a T-Shirt depicting the defendant in a trial he is the \u201cstar witness\u201d in behind bars and talk about the case on a TikTok live stream.\n\nMeanwhile, Donald Trump isn\u2019t even allowed to defend himself due to a gag order.. — (@) Blanche asked the court to "order the government to instruct the witness to not talk about President Trump or this case until the case is over."Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass argued they have "no control" over witnesses' actions."We have repeatedly — repeatedly — asked the witnesses not to do that," he stated.Merchan instructed the prosecution to remind Cohen that he is "to refrain from making any more statements" regarding the case or Trump.Last week, Trump's former White House communications director and campaign aide, Hope Hicks, told the jury that Cohen told her the $130,000 so-called "hush money" payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels was not true, Blaze News previously reported. She claimed it "would be out of character" for Cohen to make such a payment himself.The corporate media has repeatedly referred to Cohen as Trump's former "fixer," but Hicks explained that Cohen coined the name for himself. She noted he would "insert himself" into Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and go "rogue," much to the frustration of the campaign team."He would try to insert himself at certain moments, but he wasn't supposed to be on the campaign in any official capacity," Hicks told the jury. "He liked to call himself a fixer, or Mr. Fix It, and it was only because he first broke it that he was able to then fix it."Trump told reporters outside the courthouse on Friday that the "whole case is fake" and "the judge is corrupt." He said the entire case is about "somebody paid a lawyer," referring to himself. He added that the payments were made to his lawyer and "not a fixer.""There is no crime," Trump remarked.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!