As Democrats deride President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense, one congressman says Hegseth is just the man to turn the Biden-Harris administration’s “woke and weaponized” military into a “strong and focused” fighting force. Trump’s proposal to remove underperforming or politicized generals would actually depoliticize a Pentagon that once again failed its annual audit, he added. Hegseth, an Ivy League graduate who served in the military, has been “wrongly criticized” as a lightweight, Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, told “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” on Monday. “We’re going to get a strong and focused military. Pete Hegseth has written books about it. He’s a well-educated, very successful combat veteran as an infantry officer, and I think he’s the right kind of leader. We have to get him confirmed.” Trump’s Warrior Board Will Cut ‘Bloated’ Military Democrats and the legacy media lumped in criticism of Hegseth with concern over Trump’s proposed executive order establishing a Warrior Board to review, and possibly remove, three- and four-star generals who moved up the ranks due more to their political views than their military prowess. “Our senior ranks are already bloated. We have one officer for every nine enlisted soldiers. When we won World War II, we had one officer for every 30 enlisted soldiers,” Davidson told Perkins. “We’re very top heavy.” Removing military officers has occurred numerous times under Democratic presidents. Barack Obama purged 197 military officers over five years. In 1941, during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s third term, General George C. Marshall removed 600 officers over age or physical fitness concerns. The Left has tried to portray this as part of the president-elect’s “war on democracy” and “norms.” On Sunday, “ABC This Week” host Martha Raddatz asked if Trump plans to “fire or arrest” generals “he considers woke, or those close to former Chairman Mark Milley.” Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., just elected Michigan’s next senator, dismissed the tribunal as a “kangaroo court” that would, for the first time, introduce politics into the military. “I think we’re really at risk of politicizing the military in a way that we can’t put the genie back in the bottle,” said Slotkin. But Davidson says the board would reverse the damage done by the Biden-Harris administration. Observers Say Clinton, Obama-Biden-Harris Politicized the Military, Not Trump The Clinton and Obama-Biden-Harris administrations politicized the military by using it as a tool for social experimentation, critics say. Bill Clinton’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy allowed closeted homosexuals to join the military for the first time in 1993. Barack Obama liberalized the policy, and the Biden-Harris administration extended it to transgender-identifying Americans. The Democratic administrations forced soldiers to sit through LGBTQ+ political propaganda at each step of the way. Biden-Harris also emphasized critical race theory and so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion. The U.S. Navy produced a widely mocked video in 2022 schooling soldiers on how the “proper” use of pronouns helps create “a safe space for everybody.” A video in the Navy’s online recruitment pilot program the following May featured a drag queen who uses the name “Harpy Daniels” (2nd Class Petty Officer Joshua Kelly). The entire Defense Department referred to male and female service members with the gender-neutral pronoun “themself” in its Manual of Military Decorations and Awards last Aug. 7, before reversing itself weeks later. “One of the key woke elements they created is this three-letter acronym, DEI: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” said Davidson. But DEI officers “are really just political officers” who “politicize every department, and they’re clearly doing it in the Department of Defense.” The Biden-Harris administration requested $114.7 million for the Pentagon to teach “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” to the U.S. armed forces and deeply embed “DEIA values, objectives, and considerations in how we do business and execute our missions” last year. That built on the administration’s commitment to critical race theory. As The Washington Stand’s Dan Hart reported, in 2022, “more than 600 documents were uncovered showing that West Point cadets are being immersed in CRT, with lessons on how ‘whiteness’ is ‘a location of structural advantage, of race privilege,’ how ‘racism is ordinary’ and ‘White Americans have primarily benefited from civil rights legislation.’” The materials directed cadets to use critical race theory principles to form their answers. The Washington Stand’s Suzanne Bowdey produced a list of 25 incidences of the military promoting the woke agenda in the Biden-Harris administration’s first 21 months: January 2021: Biden Welcomes Transgenderism back into the Military, Scrapping Trump Policy January 2021: Army Punishes Chaplain for Opposing Transgenderism in the Ranks March 2021: Pentagon Launches Extremist Stand-Down March 2021: White House Announces Taxpayer-Funded Gender Reassignments for Troops March 2021: Navy Under Fire for Reading List that Promotes America as ‘Systemically Racist’ May 2021: Space Force Suspends Lt. Colonel for Denouncing Marxism June 2021: DOD Asks for Money to Combat Climate Change June 2021: Critical Race Theory Infiltrates U.S. Military Academies June 2021: Military Defends Drag Show at Largest Training Center as ‘Essential to Morale’ June 2021: Pentagon Warns Chaplains to Affirm the LGBT Lifestyle February 2022: Army Introduces Strategy to Fight the ‘National Security Threat’ of Global Warming April 2022: Military Offers ‘Compassionate Reassignments’ for Service Members in Red States April 2022: Defense Secretary Considers Adding Nonbinary or ‘Polygender’ Troops to Ranks May 2022: Air Force Library Forced to Cancel Drag Queen Story Hour after GOP Pressure June 2022: Marines Celebrate Pride Month with Rainbow Bullets June 2022: Gratuitous Pride Tweets Circulate across the Branches June 2022: Pentagon Hosts ‘Transgender Visibility and Progress’ Event June 2022: Langley Air Force Base Hosts a Taxpayer-Funded Drag Queen Show June 2022: Democratic Leaders Resurrect Push for Women in the Draft June 2022: Navy Launches Training Video on the Correct Use of Personal Pronouns June 2022: Army Investigates Chaplain for Celebrating the End of Roe v. Wade June 2022: Pentagon Expands Access, Leave, and Travel for Service Member Abortions September 2022: Veterans Affairs Announces the Start of Taxpayer-Funded Abortions September 2022: Military Accused of Indoctrinating Kids with Woke Gender Ideology, CRT in Base Schools September 2022: Air Force Cadets Warned Not to Use ‘Gendered’ Words like ‘Mom,’ ‘Dad’ The Biden-Harris administration also denied religious exemptions for those who refused to take the COVID-19 jabs, firing thousands of soldiers who refused to take the then-experimental shot. Biden officials “know that, by and large, the vast majority of men and women who serve in the military lean to the Right. And those 260,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who did not take the vaccine are probably far more conservative,” said Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., at the time. Only 43 of the roughly 8,000 soldiers dismissed for refusing to take the untested injection had sought to reenlist in the armed forces, according to military data furnished to CNN last October, the last full fiscal year of the Biden-Harris administration. All of these ideas have impacted recruitment. The Army exceeded its 2023 recruitment goal of 55,000 by a mere 300 enlistees. The other service branches posted similar numbers. The number of men volunteering for military service has declined by 35% over the last decade, much of it during the Obama-Biden-Harris years. Slotkin acknowledged in passing that “there’s issues with recruiting” but felt the Pentagon’s “equity” agenda remains worthwhile, because “we want a diverse force.” “You inherently build a diverse unit [when] you take the most talented people at each of the skill sets required to succeed,” replied Davidson, “and the unit flourishes.” Unit cohesion and “the ability to shoot, move, and communicate lethal force is what makes our military strong.” The news comes as the Pentagon has once again failed its audit. Defense Department Fails Seventh Audit in a Row On Sunday, the Biden-Harris administration’s Defense Department announced it had failed an audit for the seventh time, failing to account for how it spent its $824 billion budget. Of the 28 components of the Pentagon’s audit, only nine passed with an unmodified opinion; more than half (15 of 28) received a failing report with disclaimers. Administration figures dismissed claims they were guilty of nonfeasance. “I do not say we failed,” said Michael McCord, the Biden-Harris administration’s undersecretary of defense comptroller and chief financial officer, last Friday. “We have about half clean opinions; we have half that are not clean opinions. So, if someone had a report card that is half good and half not good, I don’t know that you call the student or the report card a failure.” A 50% grade is, indeed, a failing grade even under the most generous grading system. The DOD, which has never passed an audit since they became legally mandated in 2018, is the only major government agency not to pass an audit. McCord says passing an audit by 2028 is achievable—but not at the DOD’s current performance. “If you draw a trend line … back from when we started, from Year One to Year Seven, I don’t think it’s going to show you’re getting there in time if you don’t continue to pick up the pace,” said McCord. Concerns have percolated for years about Pentagon accountability. Liberal comedian Jon Stewart broached the topic during an April 2023 interview with Biden administration Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, calling it a potential sign of “waste, fraud, and abuse.” “The fact that DOD has not passed an audit is not suggestive of waste, fraud, and abuse. That is completely false right there,” deflected Hicks. “It’s suggestive that we don’t have an accurate inventory of what we have where.” “So, in my world, that is waste,” replied Stewart. As Hicks laughed dismissively at his argument, a staid Stewart replied, “I’m not looking to pick a fight with you, but I am surprised that the reaction to these questions is, ‘You don’t know what an audit is, Bucko.’” The 2024 National Defense Authorization Act requires the Pentagon to have a clean audit by 2028. “The fiscal and national security benefits that will come with the Pentagon finally being able to account for all of its assets are literally immeasurable and will continue to be until it gets its financial house in order,” said U.S. Taxpayers for Common Sense. “Congress should help push it over the finish line.” Originally published by The Washington Stand The post Congressman: Pete Hegseth Must Reform ‘Woke’ Military appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Mullvad VPN Review: Fast and Secure With Advanced Privacy Features appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Trump Is Getting a Honeymoon, Believe It Or Not

Things at Bluesky Going as Well as Could Be Expected

Wednesday afternoon’s edition of CNN News Central took a trip to Crazy Town when actor and transgender activist Laverne Cox joined the program to react to Speaker Mike Johnson’s announcement that single-sex Capitol Hill restrooms are just that: single-sex restrooms. Cox, however, insisted this was some sort of Nazi-like attempt to create a “untermenschen” or “subhuman” class of people. Cox declared, “Donald Trump himself said that he wants to make biological sex the law of the land, and that is assigned at birth, and that is binary. This is what Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, has basically also asserted.”     It’s also the law of nature, or science, but Cox continued by going after The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles, “This has never been about the children, it's been about scapegoating trans people, eradicating us from public life as Matt Knowles will say and what—Michael Knowles, yeah, that's his name, Michael Knowles, and I think the most important thing for us to remember as trans people and then as people in general is that when we dehumanize people, we dehumanize ourselves.” It should be noted that Knowles was talking about transgenderism, as in the anti-reality, science-denying ideology, not people who identify as transgender. Still, Cox rolled on, “I want to say what Brené Brown says about dehumanization. She defines dehumanization as moving a particular group of people into a place of moral exclusion and she uses that phrase, ‘moral exclusion,’ because we as human beings are not hardwired to harm each other. We have empathy and we love each other. But if a group of people is rendered subhuman, the Nazis use the term untermenschen, subhuman, then we can take away their rights, then we can abuse them and commit violence against them.” There is no right to use the ladies’ room or compete in their sporting competitions if you are a man. Here is a transcript for the November 20 show: CNN News Central 11/20/2024 2:27 PM ET LAVERNE COX: Donald Trump himself said that he wants to make biological sex the law of the land, and that is assigned at birth, and that is binary. This is what Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, has basically also asserted. This has never been about the children, it's been about scapegoating trans people, eradicating us from public life as Matt Knowles will say and what-- Michael Knowles, yeah, that's his name, Michael Knowles, and I think the most important thing for us to remember as trans people and then as people in general is that when we dehumanize people, we dehumanize ourselves. And I have to, I want to say what Brené Brown says about dehumanization. She defines dehumanization as moving a particular group of people into a place of moral exclusion and she uses that phrase, "moral exclusion," because we as human beings are not hardwired to harm each other. We have empathy and we love each other. But if a group of people is rendered subhuman, the Nazis use the term untermenschen, subhuman, then we can take away their rights, then we can abuse them and commit violence against them.

ABC’s The View had a rare moment of actual debate on Wednesday as they clashed over school choice, with anti-Trump Republican Alyssa Farah Griffin getting into a contentious sparing matching with co-host Sunny Hostin about the effectiveness of school choice programs. Farah Griffin even called out Hostin’s hypocrisy in opposing the programs because her family sent her to a prestigious private school in Manhattan. Hostin obnoxiously parroted unnamed studies she claimed proved that voucher and other school choice systems didn’t work. Despite insisting “I’m not making this up,” she refused to share the sources she was citing: HOSTIN: And what happens with vouchers, the studies show very clearly that they fund students who are already attending private schools. So people with money, get those vouchers, use the vouchers to pay less for their private schools, and their kids go on to do well. Where do you get the money from vouchers? You pull those money from the poor schools. Those poor schools ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: I don't see it -- HOSTIN: Let me just finish this. So, wealthy families are overwhelmingly the recipients of school voucher tax credits. I’m not making this up. This has been studied. FARAH GRIFFIN: Who’s that cited? Who’s the study – HOSTIN: In a 2020 – A 2020 study found that only about half of states with voucher programs required teachers to have a bachelor's degree, required teachers to have training, required teachers to have licensing. “If I may get in to make it a conversation,” Farah Griffin shot back because Hostin kept trying to dominate the conversation. Hostin tried to use her status as a mother as a cudgel in an attempt to shut Farah Griffin up; telling her to “wait because I have children and because I looked at private schools.” Seemingly fed up with Hostin’s arrogance, Farah Griffin called out her hypocrisy. “I went to public school. I believe you had to go to private school. You got to go to private school,” she jabbed.     The sniping back and forth occurred during heated crosstalk that was so chaotic that moderator Whoopi Goldberg had to shut it down and send the show to a commercial break. “Because no one can figure out what's being said here! There is no last thing right now! We're going to go to break and then we're going to come back,” she declared. Following the commercial break and Joy Behar’s meltdown about President-elect Trump, Farah Griffin dropped some truth bombs about the effectiveness of a school choice program she worked on when she was a staffer on Capitol Hill and the support for such programs nationwide: I personally worked on the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program when I was working in Congress. And that program alone, which is a charter school system, it experienced a 21 percent increase in graduation rates. There are conflicting statistics but according to Morning Consult, the majority of Americans support health savings account vouchers and the taxpayer money following the students. It is my belief as somebody who grew up in the public school system, believes in it and was grateful to be in a good school district. If you're in a school that’s falling behind and your parent wants to give you the opportunity to get a leg up your tax dollars should follow you. “But see, you went to a good school. I wasn’t in a good school district. That's the inequity,” Hostin argued. But Hostin was being misleading about her schooling and where she lived. According to a feature published in Westchester magazine, Hostin only lived and went to school in the Bronx for a few years in her early life. “Born Asunción Cummings, Hostin lived in the Bronx until she was 8 years old, when her family moved to Stuyvesant Town because ‘my parents then felt that I’d have a better life in Manhattan,’” Laurie Yarnell wrote. Stuy Town, as it’s known, is a very well-off, private neighborhood in the East Village. Hostin’s own website admits she “graduated from the Upper East Side’s prestigious Dominican Academy at 16.” The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: ABC’s The View November 20, 2024 11:08:41 a.m. Eastern (…) SUNNY HOSTIN: And what happens with vouchers, the studies show very clearly that they fund students who are already attending private schools. So people with money, get those vouchers, use the vouchers to pay less for their private schools, and their kids go on to do well. Where do you get the money from vouchers? You pull those money from the poor schools. Those poor schools ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: I don't see it -- HOSTIN: Let me just finish this. So, wealthy families are overwhelmingly the recipients of school voucher tax credits. I’m not making this up. This has been studied. FARAH GRIFFIN: Who’s that cited? Who’s the study – HOSTIN: In a 2020 – A 2020 study found that only about half of states with voucher programs required teachers to have a bachelor's degree, required teachers to have training, required teachers to have licensing. FARAH GRIFFIN: So, that's just not my experience. HOSTIN: Required participating schools FARAH GRIFFIN: If I may get in to make it a conversation. HOSTIN: Wait, because I have children and because I looked at private schools. JOY BEHAR: Oh, is that what this is? FARAH GRIFFIN: I went to public school. I believe you had to go to private school. HOSTIN: There are zero statistics - FARAH GRIFFIN: You got to go to private school. [Crosstalk] WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Because no one can figure out what's being said here! HOSTIN: One last thing. GOLDBERG: There is no last thing right now! We're going to go to break and then we're going to come back. HOSTIN: Yes. GOLDBERG: You can't -- what's happening is no one can hear anything anyone is saying so everybody has -- FARAH GRIFFIN: [Inaudible] so we can talk. GOLDBERG: Well, you know. JOY BEHAR: Well, that goes for you, too. FARAH GRIFFIN: I haven’t gotten a word in. She's been talking for three minutes. HOSTIN: You talked the first three minutes. [Goes to a commercial break] (…) 11:16:45 a.m. Eastern FARAH GRIFFIN: I personally worked on the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program when I was working in Congress. And that program alone, which is a charter school system, it experienced a 21 percent increase in graduation rates. There are conflicting statistics but according to Morning Consult, the majority of Americans support health savings account vouchers and the taxpayer money following the students. It is my belief as somebody who grew up in the public school system, believes in it and was grateful to be in a good school district. If you're in a school that’s falling behind and your parent wants to give you the opportunity to get a leg up your tax dollars should follow you. [Crosstalk] SARA HAINES: One question Alyssa cause you’re a school charter person. This is the part I don't understand. Doesn't it come down less to the result and more the choice of the par – isn't the fight for the parents to say they choose it? Is that what most people are supporting? HOSTIN: No. FARAH GRIFFIN: It's simply a parent should be able to make the best choice for their student. But I also think that there are schools that are falling behind. It doesn't mean they don't deserve education but I don’t think students should be victims of the falling behind at school. Their life is at stake is at stake in it, their future, their earning potential. [Crosstalk] BEHAR: Let Whoopi talk. HOSTIN: But see, you went to a good school. I wasn’t in a good school district. That's the inequity. FARAH GRIFFIN: Where did you go to school? HOSTIN: In the south – I had to start school in the South Bronx Projects. BEHAR: Just jump in Whoopi. FARAH GRIFFIN: But didn't you get to go to a private school? HOSTIN: Yes. GOLDBERG: Here's what's interesting right now. [Crosstalk] FARAH GRIFFIN: And look at how good. You’re an example-- GOLDBERG: Because – Don't make me shut this bad boy down again! (…)

Within a year, there will be more than 1,500 new members of New York's Finest, thanks to an influx in funds that were previously intended to address the immigrant crisis, the New York Post reported.The next two classes of NYPD officers — set to graduate in January and April 2025, respectively — had been nixed last year amid major budget cuts meant to help address the hordes of illegal immigrants pouring into the city. Now, with more than $100 million restored to NYPD coffers, those two classes have been reinstated, meaning that 1,600 rookie cops will be out on the streets by next October, according to the Post, citing sources in City Hall.'We're making even MORE investments to public safety, affordability, and livability for working-class New Yorkers.'On Wednesday, Mayor Eric Adams (D) basically confirmed that report during a press conference to discuss the new budget cycle."The November plan adds two police academy classes, which will put 1,600 new officers on our streets by October 2025, increasing our uniformed force to nearly 34,000, getting back and reaching our goal of 35,000 officers patrolling our streets," Adams said at the press conference."That's a lot of officers," he continued, "who alongside all the civilian employees of the NYPD work day in and day out to keep us safe."The X post with a livestream of the press conference included the message: "We're making even MORE investments to public safety, affordability, and livability for working-class New Yorkers." — (@) During the press conference, Adams celebrated the reduced cost of addressing the immigrant crisis. According to a press release from his office, the city will save nearly $500 million over the next two fiscal years "primarily due to lower-than-expected number of asylum seekers entering the city's care since July 2024."Earlier this month — just days after President-elect Donald Trump soundly defeated Kamala Harris, largely on account of the border crisis — New York City decided to end a program which provided thousands of immigrants living at the Roosevelt Hotel with prepaid debit cards in lieu of boxed meals. One of the main reasons cited for ending the program was the dwindling number of new arrivals.Likewise during the press conference on Wednesday, Adams announced the appointment of Jessica Tisch as the new NYPD commissioner and referenced an officer who was shot in Queens on Tuesday night.Officer Rich Wong, a seven-year veteran of the force, was wounded during a shootout with a violent suspect who had reportedly committed several armed robberies in the Queens neighborhood of Jamaica. During the shootout, the suspect, 57-year-old Gary Worthy, managed to shoot Wong in the thigh. Wong returned fire, fatally striking Worthy in the face.Thankfully, Wong has already been discharged from the hospital. An innocent bystander was also wounded in the incident but is expected to survive, the Post reported.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

An elderly Massachusetts woman was mauled to death by her own dog, according to investigators. The Boston woman's husband and two police officers also were injured in the dog attack. Jeriline Brady-McGinnis — a 73-year-old from Roxbury — was attacked by her own pit bull in her home around 4:30 p.m. Monday.'She’s very close to her animals, almost like children ...'Investigators said the dog also attacked the victim's husband as he tried to save her, plus two Boston police officers responding to the pit bull attack. All four were rushed to a local hospital. However, Brady-McGinnis allegedly died in surgery.WFXT-TV reported that a pit bull named Deuce mauled Brady-McGinnis to death. The officers and the husband suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to police.Once the officers were attacked, another cop shot at the pit bull, according to WFXT. The outlet obtained surveillance video allegedly showing three shots being fired when police arrived on the scene.The dog was transported to Angell Animal Medical Center for treatment. But due to "his worsening condition and poor prognosis," officials decided to euthanize the dog, according to Boston Animal Control.Brady-McGinnis allegedly owned four dogs. The three other dogs reportedly were removed from the home. Neighbors told WBZ-TV they were scared of the dogs. WBZ-TV spoke to Jean McGuire — the landlord and close friend of Brady-McGinnis."She’s very close to her animals, almost like children, I think,” McGuire said. "She took good care of them. She walked them every day."McGuire — a 93-year-old civil rights pioneer and the first black woman elected to the Boston School Committee — said Brady-McGinnis was like a "sister" to her. “She’s a wonderful person. A very generous, a very loving person. Loved animals,” McGuire said of McGinnis. “I’ve lost my sister. She’s a sister.”The family of Brady-McGinnis remembered the elderly victim as having a "heart of gold."Brady-McGinnis' three children — Chris, Ronald, and Donald — told WBZ, "Our mother was a loving and caring mother. She put her children first. … The heart and soul of our family is gone."The family said Brady-McGinnis cooked dinner for her dogs every night.The Boston Police Department's Homicide Unit reportedly is investigating the dog attack. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here.

When the U.S. government sent the Tsukamoto family to an incarceration camp in 1942, one neighbor stepped up to save the farms they left behind, giving them something to come home to

Snowflake Capital of Social Media: Babylon Bee's Time on Bluesky Is Going EXACTLY As You'd Expect