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Books Backlist Bonanza Backlist Bonanza: 5 Underrated Books Set During WWII Encounter time travelers, parallel universes, and mysterious horrors… By Alex Brown | Published on October 7, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share Been thinking a lot lately about resisting fascism, community organizing, and building coalitions. What do we do as a society and as an individual when confronted with impossible violence and a government that seems eager to destroy anyone and anything that doesn’t fit their narrow little boxes? In the spirit of working together to defeat the seemingly undefeatable, here are five fantasy and science fiction books set during World War II.  A Tale of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones If you look up the word “prolific” in the dictionary, the definition will just be a picture of Diana Wynne Jones. Out of all of her excellent middle grade and young adult novels, A Tale of Time City is up there as one of my favorites. Similar to the Narnia books, World War II takes place in the background yet underlines the tension. While evacuating London to avoid the bombings, Vivian is nabbed by two boys Jonathan and Sam, who mistake Vivian for the “Time Lady,” a woman a key figure in the founding of Time City, an important part in its future, and who also may be responsible for things in the timeline getting out of whack. There’s a mystery, a question, and some fun if stressful timeline chaos. It’s a little bit Doctor Who and a little bit Time Variance Authority but for the younger set. (William Morrow, 1987) Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis (Milkweed Triptych #1) The Milkweed Triptych does World War II, then the Cold War, then back to World War II, all with an alternate fantasy spin. There are superhumans, time travel, parallel universes, and eldritch horrors. Raybould Marsh, a British secret agent, uncovers a plot by a nazi scientist to create supersoldiers using dark magic. With the help of his black sheep lordling friend Will (who also happens to be a reluctant warlock), he tries to stop these new weapons from being unleashed. Two of those weapons, Klaus and Gretel, have plans of their own. The second book, The Coldest War, gets all alt history on the Cold War, while the third, Necessary Evil, dips back into World War II as an alternate alternate history. (Tor Books, 2010) The Shadow War by Lindsay Smith A group of queer and racially diverse teens wandering around Germany punching nazis is just as cathartic as you imagine. Liam, a queer physicist, figures out how to tap into dark energy from another universe. Of course, it being World War II, the baddies we all love to hate want to gain that power for themselves and use it to further their terrible agenda. The only thing standing in the way are Liam and his new friends: a pair of Jewish sibling assassins looking for revenge for the atrocities at the Łódź ghetto, a Black US army encryption specialist and tech expert, and an Algerian French Muslim bodyguard. Action and adventure in a young adult historical fantasy. I’ve seen this described as an alt history Stranger Things, and yeah, I can see that. (Philomel Books, 2021) Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson Set right around the time the US finally gets around to joining the rest of the world in the war that had already been raging for two years, this novel is Alaya Dawn Johnson doing what she does best. Phyllis has “saints’ hands,” powerful magic that drives her to kill. As a light-skinned Black woman doing wet work for a white gangster, her life is more complicated than not. Throughout the novel we follow her encounters friends, lovers, and enemies, including Dev, a mixed race Indian detective she can’t quit and Tamara, a Black dancer and card reader who can see the future. This is a world where racism is as powerful and dangerous as magic. Fans of mysteries, romance, and historical fantasy should find plenty to enjoy here. (Tor Books, 2020) The Fervor by Alma Katsu Despite being an American citizen with a husband fighting in the war, Meiko and her daughter Aiko are locked up in Minidoka, Idaho, a US-government sponsored concentration camp for people of Japanese descent. The women are trapped there along with the other 13,000 people of issei (Japanese immigrants) and nisei (second generation). That’s when the deaths start. One by one, people start falling into violent, hallucinogenic rages. Things get worse when the American scientists get involved. Fans of contagion horror, yōkai, historical fiction, and stories that dismantle the myth of American exceptionalism should definitely check this out. In a way, it reminds me of the second season of the television show The Terror, “Infamy,” which also takes place at a Japanese Concentration Camp. (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2022) [end-mark] The post Backlist Bonanza: 5 Underrated Books Set During WWII appeared first on Reactor.

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced in September that it would be reducing certain Medicare prescription drug premiums in what experts who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation called a ploy to buy votes before the November election. Enrollees in the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit are slated to have lower average monthly premiums for their pharmaceutical drugs next year due to the Biden-Harris administration pouring billions into subsidies for insurers, with premiums set to fall $7.45 from $53.95 in 2024 to $46.50 in 2025, according to a press release from the agency. The move by the Biden-Harris administration is a political bribe aimed at securing the votes of Americans aged 65 and over who have the highest voter turnout historically, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The $2,000 cap [on Medicare out-of-pocket prescription drug costs], as well as other Inflation Reduction Act provisions were slated to triple the cost of Part D,” said Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. “If millions of senior citizens see their premiums triple, they’d go to the polls and vote out those responsible. The Biden administration wanted to avert that.” Premiums were slated to rise in 2025, largely due to a $2,000 cap on Medicare out-of-pocket prescription drug costs enacted as part of provisions in President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act that go into effect next year. To stave off the increase, the White House set up a “stabilization” demonstration program for 2025 that will offer Medicare Part D insurers $15 a month per enrollee in exchange for keeping premiums roughly stable, an initiative that is estimated to cost taxpayers $5 billion in 2025. “This is absolutely political,” Joel White, founder and CEO of health care consulting firm Horizon Government Affairs, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “They are buying down premiums to buy votes.” Senior citizens have had the highest voter turnout of any demographic in every presidential election since 1996, with nearly 80% of adults 60 and over voting in 2020. The U.S. population of senior citizens is also growing faster than any other age group, and four key swing states—Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Arizona—rank in the top 20 in the share of their population aged 65 and over. “[Democrats] are not lowering premiums. They’re hiding premiums,” Cannon said. “This ‘demonstration project’ is merely a vehicle for channeling $5 billion to Medicare Part D insurers in order to keep the amount enrollees have to pay toward their premiums below what it is this year. The White House isn’t lowering premiums by lowering costs, they are doing it by passing the cost on to taxpayers rather than enrollees … . That has been Democratic health care policy going all the way back to the [Harry] Truman administration: Hide the cost of health care by shipping it to taxpayers.” The Biden-Harris administration issued a press release Sept. 30 touting its record on prescription drug costs, saying, “While Big Pharma made record profits, Americans footed the bill for the industry’s price hikes. Not anymore. Thanks to my Inflation Reduction Act.” Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris’ “New Way Forward” economic plan stated that, “Harris, along with President Biden, took on Big Pharma and won.” “The [demonstration program] is a Band-Aid that does not address the underlying wound. The [Inflation Reduction Act] radically rewrote the law in ways that fundamentally destabilize the market,” White told the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Biden-Harris administration has taken a number of actions aimed at reducing drug prices, including proposing new guidelines in 2023 that would give it the power to seize patents from drug companies, so long as the protected products’ prices are considered too high and have received funding from the federal government. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services announcement comes roughly four years after Democratic lawmakers and the press attacked former President Donald Trump’s September 2020 proposal to provide $200 discount cards for prescription drugs to 33 million seniors, with The New York Times describing it as an “election-eve promise with dubious legal authority” and Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., calling the move a “blatant political gambit.” “It’s all pretty transparently crooked, and yet you have The New York Times praising this sham demonstration program,” Cannon said. “This initiative is fundamentally antidemocratic and unconstitutional.” “The sudden decision is an attempt to curry favor with this particularly massive voting bloc,” said Peter Earle, senior economist at the American Institute for Economic Research. “Repeated efforts to eliminate or reduce student loan debt and the huge gift to climate activists dubbed the ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ are other, earlier instances of the same type of conduct … . Politically motivated redistribution is a mainstay of Washington, D.C., of course, but as both the debt and deficits of the Biden administration testify, it has escalated dramatically over the past four years.” The White House and the Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation The post ‘Transparently Crooked’: Biden-Harris Admin Buying Votes With Medicare Changes, Experts Say appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Poynter Institute’s PolitiFact, a Meta fact-checking partner, has decided that the Biden-Harris administration is not engaged in censorship at an industrial scale. This claim made by vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance is false, PolitiFact has asserted, because the Biden-Harris White House “contacting” (according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, they were contacted to be pressured) social media companies to flag content for removal “didn’t cross the line into coercion.” Not only that but pressuring these companies (yet allegedly never coercing) to censor online speech is not a threat to democracy, PolitiFact was told by a Colombia professor – if the censors decide that speech is disinformation about Covid or election results. The scale and nature of the way the US government leaned on tech companies to stifle speech that did not suit its political agenda is, to date, best revealed in the Twitter Files. One of the journalists who worked on publishing the internal documents, Michael Shellenberger, now examined this PolitiFact “verdict” and the arguments the organization used. He rejects the notion that suppressing voters’ free speech is somehow “not a threat to democracy.” Shellenberger was equally unimpressed by PolitiFact trying to explain its opinion regarding Vance’s claim by referring to the Supreme Court, which they said ruled it was not unconstitutional for the government to exert the kind of pressure it did. “But the Court did not consider the US government’s pressure of Meta or many other cases of government demands for censorship,” Shellenberger writes and notes that the ruling (in the Murthy v Missouri case) was based on the judges deciding there were no legal grounds to bring the case. To the question – as old as the rise of the fact-checking industry – why did a fact-checker (in this case, PolitiFact) get things wrong, the journalist suggests it’s more a case of “playing on the same team”. PolitiFact, he writes, is “part and parcel of the Censorship Industrial Complex.” Shellenberger goes into the many instances of those, either while they were in power, such as Hillary Clinton, or with a lot of power, like Bill Gates, openly advocating for censorship. As for how the US government, despite the country’s constitution, became prone to stifling speech and manipulating public opinion at home, the answer could be the “lesson learned” from decades of doing the same abroad. Namely, it works. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Fact-Checking or Fact-Shielding? Twitter Files Journalist Slams PolitiFact’s Defense of Government Pressure on Big Tech appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The Brookings Institution, seems to believe it has solved the problem faced by those who would like to censor memes. The problem is that memes are a form of satire, and censoring them while claiming to be a democracy is a difficult task. But now, senior Brookings Institution fellow Nicol Turner Lee and Isabella Panico Hernandez, a project assistant, have revealed their thinking: AI memes should be treated as election disinformation “manifested” through satire. One could use a similar form of mental gymnastics to say that this kind of argument represents a call for censorship manifested through supposed concern about disinformation. Related: Court Blocks Newsom’s Unconstitutional Attempt to Muzzle Parody During Election Season The Brookings, meanwhile, is not just any foot soldier in the “war on memes”: it is a powerful think tank funded by the likes of Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, but also massive financial institutions like JPMorgan Chase (via its philanthropic foundation) and that of Mastercard, Impact Fund. Brookings speaks about memes, particularly those AI-generated (adding some AI panic into the mix can only help the cause), as an extremely dangerous phenomenon hidden behind humor, and perceived as humor by pretty much everyone. But the think tank, and others going after memes, present themselves as smarter and able to understand the true nature of this clearly humorous and often satirical imagery, which they say only “seem harmless” and “appear innocuous.” Instead, the authors of the article say memes can influence how voters perceive candidates and other election-related information, “could potentially lead to violence” – and are “globally perceived” as being capable to “fuel extremist behavior” – which is in contrast to the US, supposedly because of the lack of appropriate regulation. And so, less than a month before the presidential election, these according to the authors insidious messages use humor merely as a vehicle to spread dangerous influence, but are not properly tackled in the US. Brookings also doesn’t like the fact memes can spread quickly and presents this as yet another reason they are dangerous. Congress is criticized for not passing legislation to protect the copyright of large language models – the implication being, that AI-generated memes could be suppressed on copyright grounds. And they don’t like that Congress has left memes, humor, satire, and parody out of the DEEPFAKES Accountability Act because those fall under the freedom of expression category. But Brookings wants us to think that “the task of deciphering what is parody and what is deceptive can be very challenging.” If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post The Think Tank Campaigning to Censor Satire appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Kamala Harris Appears on 'Call Her Daddy' Podcast

On Friday, NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff made several appearances on MSNBC to promote an anti-Trump documentary he helped make based on a book he wrote about the 2018 policy of separating illegal immigrants from their children at the border. On Morning Joe, in the absence of Joe and Mika, Jonathan Lemire showed a trailer for the film and then introduced Soboroff and film maker Errol Morris as guests: That was a look at the powerful new documentary from NBC News Studio, titled Separated, based on the New  York Times bestselling book of the same title from NBC News national and political correspondent Jacob Soboroff and directed by Academy Award-Winning filmmaker Errol Morris. Without putting into context that the Trump administration was trying to keep illegal aliens incarcerated until they could be deported, which meant their children had to be separated from them, Soboroff claimed the purpose of the policy was to "hurt" people: "...- 5,500 kids were deliberately separated from their parents for no other reason than to harm them -- to hurt them -- to scare their people from coming to the United States." Soboroff seemed content with the Biden administration's disastrous -- and sometimes deadly -- handling of illegal immigration as he answered a followup question: WALTER ISAACSON: You just mentioned that it's part of a pattern of deterrence that's happened for two decades now. What is the alternative to that? SOBOROFF: The alternative is a system as the Biden administration had laid out when Alejandro Mayorkas came in as the Homeland Security secretary -- one that is orderly, humane and fair. I'm not an immigration policy expert -- I'm a journalist who witnessed this myself -- and what I can tell you is what happened in the summer of 2018 was not that. Morris soon declared that he was "scared" of Trump and that "I wish Donald Trump would deport himself." A few hours later, as afternoon host Katy Tur also spoke with Soboroff and Morris, she observed the timing of the film being released during the presidential election: "When you started this, Donald Trump wasn't running for office again. I think we could say that, right? Do you see it now as a warning?" Morris reiterated his fears: I think he was always running for office. He was always somewhere lurking in the shadows, and he's frightening. I can tell you, quite simply, he frightens me. It's a visceral reaction. I don't even think it's intellectual anymore. Soboroff hit Democrats from the left as he complained that they also in past administrations have pushed a policy of "deterrence" against illegal immigrants. And, when the duo appeared again on Deadline: White House, host Nicolle Wallace recalled that children were kept in cages during the Trump administration without mentioning that the cage-like structures were built by the Obama administration for practical reasons to help protect women and children. Transcripts follow: MSNBC's Morning Joe October 4, 2024 9:41 a.m. Eastern JONATHAN LEMIRE: That was a look at the powerful new documentary from NBC News Studio, titled Separated, based on the New  York Times bestselling book of the same title from NBC News national and political correspondent Jacob Soboroff and directed by Academy Award-Winning filmmaker Errol Morris. The film describes the impact of the Trump administration's family separation policy at the southern border. And both Jacob and Errol join us now. ... So this is a story that obviously you have been covering for a long time. Viewers of this network will feel like they know it, but tell us why this film is so important. JACOB SOBOROFF: Well, I mean, don't take my word for it. Listen to what the George W. Bush-appointed judge in the Southern District of New York who stopped this policy said about it. He said it was "one of the most shameful chapters in the history of this country." Not my words -- Dana Sabraw's words, Republican-appointed judge -- 5,500 kids were deliberately separated from their parents for no other reason than to harm them -- to hurt them -- to scare their people from coming to the United States. It's part of a pattern of immigration policy in the United States that is bipartisan that revolves around deterrence and scaring people from coming here by hurting them and most profoundly obviously with this famous example of the Trump family separation policy. And there is still questions about why this happened, how it could have happened, how the nation let it happen, and that's why Errol and I decided to get together to make what Errol has done -- a spectacularly beautiful film that only Errol Morris can make. WALTER ISAACSON: You just mentioned that it's part of a pattern of deterrence that's happened for two decades now. What is the alternative to that? SOBOROFF: The alternative is a system as the Biden administration had laid out when Alejandro Mayorkas came in as the Homeland Security secretary -- one that is orderly, humane and fair. I'm not an immigration policy expert -- I'm a journalist who witnessed this myself -- and what I can tell you is what happened in the summer of 2018 was not that. (...) He (Trump) wanted to reinstate it, and he still has not said whether or not he would reinstate it. And that's why there are, you know, that's why I think the film is so important -- what Errol has done -- is so important -- to answer questions about what the future holds as much as it does in the past, including what the Biden administration has promised but hasn't done, which is have a wholesale radical departure from an immigration system based on deterrence and cruelty (?). LEMIRE: So, Errol, there's also of course a timeliness to this film because it's not just that Donald Trump was President. He is the Republican nominee for President. He stands about a one in two chance of being President again. And some of his policies, including forced deportation of immigrants including some who are here legally, is what he is saying, very much your film has a timeliness here. Talk to me about why you think it was so important to come out now and your, frankly, fears of what the next Trump term will look like. ERROL MORRIS, FILM MAKER: I'm scared. I wish Donald Trump would deport himself. LEMIRE: Fair enough. And with that, we'll leave it right there perfectly and briefly said with some real brevity. (...) MSNBC's Katy Tur Reports October 4, 2024 3:59 p.m. KATY TUR: When you started this, Donald Trump wasn't running for office again. I think we could say that, right? Do you see it now as a warning? ERROL MORRIS: I think he was always running for office. He was always somewhere lurking in the shadows, and he's frightening. I can tell you, quite simply, he frightens me. It's a visceral reaction. I don't even think it's intellectual anymore. (...) SOBOROFF: He's put it in the context -- Errol has the way only Errol can as a film maker -- of decades of bipartisan deterrence-based policy. What Donald Trump did wouldn't have been possible were it not for Democratic administrations creating -- its treating immigration as a deterrence policy -- something to punish and harm people for coming to the United States to do, and that's how we ended up with the separation policy -- how we ended up where we are today. (...) MSNBC's Deadline: White House October 4, 2024 5:45 p.m. NICOLLE WALLACE: Earlier this week at the vice presidential debate, J.D. Vance opened the door to returning to one of the darkest periods in our country's history, and that was Donald Trump's policy of forcibly separating children from their parents who were trying to immigrate to the country. Thousands of children were taken from their parents under this policy -- some as young as four months old -- and kept in wire cages. (...) JACOB SOBOROFF: We're looking down the barrel of the exact same policy potentially happening again in this moment, and they're employing some of the same rhetoric. And I do want to point out, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't -- and part of the reason that we wanted to tell the story is we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the bipartisan deterrence-based nature of immigration policy in the U.S. The Biden administration just put forward one of the most conservative immigration bills in the history of the country. But nobody has ever done what the Trump administration did, and nobody has used it, employed it, deployed it in the campaign in the way they're continuing to do. ERROL MORRIS: We hear arguments that this has been done before, that this is no different from what was done in the Obama administration, the Bush administration, the Clinton administration. Did they have immigration policies that were draconian -- that were filled with, I would say cruel policies, but nothing on this level.

Monday marked the one-year anniversary of barbarians from Gaza murdering and raping their way through southeast Israel, killing the men, women, children, the elderly, and young people at a concert. How did CBS Mornings choose to remember that day? By lamenting that Israel responded with the overwhelming force needed to neutralize the threat to innocent people, and lying by omission to suggest the Israeli Defense Forces had not rescued any hostages. CBS foreign correspondent Elizabeth Palmer walked through the ruins of Kibbutz Be’eri as her report noted that October 7 included a “a pitiless attack on young people attending a music festival.” Adding: “It was chaos, a killing spree and mass kidnapping there and nearby Zikim where 101 were murdered, some burned alive in their homes and even babies abducted.” Those facts were followed up by Palmer lamenting how “Israel's response was immediate. It bombed Gaza then sent in ground forces.” “As for the physical destruction, on a recent visit to southern Gaza with the military we saw nothing but ruins,” she mourned. Palmer also seemed to suggest that Israel was intentionally bombing babies: …two million Palestinians trapped in a sliver of land the Israeli military bombs every day. The target they say is Hamas. The collateral damage can be anyone else no matter how small. As she made those comments, imaging of babies in hospitals flashed on the screen; without admitting that Hamas uses human shields.     Through lying by omission, Palmer suggested that the IDF had not been successful in rescuing any hostages. “The mission: to destroy Hamas and rescue the hostages. A year later, neither has been accomplished,” she proclaimed. She also pushed a conspiracy theory that the Israeli government didn’t want to the bring the hostages home (Click “expand”): PALMER: Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, in hiding, is stalling on a deal and vowing to fight on. PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: We will win PALMER: And millions of Israelis believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ultra-right allies are stalling, too. UNIDENTIFIED MAN: We see that our government are full of shi[ bleep ] -- Excuse my language. And they do nothing. Our prime minister is a liar. PALMER: Over the past month, Israel's government has led the country into a bigger, riskier war. CBS’s own reporting back in August noted that the IDF had rescued eight hostages. That report, as with Palmer’s, failed to mention that United Nations employees took part in the capture and captivity of the hostages. Those rescued hostages were also ignored during Palmer’s follow up report in the next hour, when she spoke with Moran Yanai, a woman who was held hostage by Hamas but was released in a trade for terrorists. “In November, there was a cease-fire. Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli jails, and Hamas let 105 hostages go in batches over seven days,” Palmer said. In between Palmer’s reports, co-hosts Tony Dokoupil, Gayle King, and Nate Burleson spoke with Leat Corinne Unger, who’s cousin Omer Shem Tov was still being held hostage. In keeping with Palmer’s narrative, Burleson and King tried to tee up Unger to blame the Israeli government for her cousin’s continued captivity: BURLESON: In your opinion, what do you believe is the biggest obstacle of why there has not been a hostage deal done? (…) KING: What do you believe, as we sit here today, what it will take to reach a deal? But she didn’t bite, keeping the focus on Hamas. “I mean, the Biden administration has made it clear that the biggest obstacle is Yahya Sinwar,” she said. “But I think that the international community has failed to pressure Hamas through Iran, Qatar, and Turkey, and they are prioritizing political interests instead of prioritizing the sanctity of human life.” Burleson got a little more direct in where he wanted the criticism to go. “How do you feel about the job Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doing?” he asked. Unger did say she felt Netanyahu’s “focus is on other things right now. It hasn't prioritized the hostages” as attention moved to the threat in the north. She did commend the work going on up there in targeting more of Israel’s enemies. “I think it's great that we've made advancements with Hezbollah and taken out a lot of their leaders, but I wish he focused on his commitment to bring back innocent people who were stolen from their beds and from a field,” she said. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: CBS Mornings October 7, 2024 7:06:46 a.m. Eastern (…) ELIZABETH PALMER: This is Kibbutz Be’eri, about three miles from Gaza. And reminders of the massacre are everywhere like the burned out house you can see behind me. It's where Hamas murdered Yuval Haran's father and kidnapped his mother and six other members of the family. It's just one of the traumatic stories that Israelis are reliving today, a year after the October 7th attack. [Cuts to video] The attack began with Hamas terrorists shooting their way out of Gaza, past Israeli border security to launch a pitiless attack on young people attending a music festival. It was chaos, a killing spree and mass kidnapping there and nearby Zikim where 101 were murdered, some burned alive in their homes and even babies abducted. Israel's response was immediate. It bombed Gaza then sent in ground forces. The mission -- to destroy Hamas and rescue the hostages. A year later, neither has been accomplished. 97 hostages taken on October 7th are presumed still to be in Gaza along with two million Palestinians trapped in a sliver of land the Israeli military bombs every day. The target they say is Hamas. The collateral damage can be anyone else no matter how small. As for the physical destruction, on a recent visit to southern Gaza with the military we saw nothing but ruins. Recent polling data shows a slim majority of Israelis want the war in Gaza to end in a deal to bring the hostages home. Easier said than done. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, in hiding, is stalling on a deal and vowing to fight on. PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: We will win PALMER: And millions of Israelis believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ultra-right allies are stalling, too. UNIDENTIFIED MAN: We see that our government are full of shi[ bleep ] -- Excuse my language. And they do nothing. Our prime minister is a liar. PALMER: Over the past month, Israel's government has led the country into a bigger, riskier war. [Cuts back to live] Most of the hostages' families fear that means a death sentence for their loved ones. As one speaker said at a memorial we attended this morning, we all know this war is going to end in an agreement, it's just a question of how many lives will be lost between now and then. (…) 7:41:58 a.m. Eastern NATE BURLESON: In your opinion, what do you believe is the biggest obstacle of why there has not been a hostage deal done? LEAT CORINNE UNGER: I mean, the Biden administration has made it clear that the biggest obstacle is Yahya Sinwar. But I think that the international community has failed to pressure Hamas through Iran, Qatar, and Turkey, and they are prioritizing political interests instead of prioritizing the sanctity of human life. GAYLE KING: Yeah, Sinwar is the head of Hamas. UNGER: Yes. KING: What do you believe, as we sit here today, what it will take to reach a deal? UNGER: I think now that we're looking this northern front, we need to deescalate the situation and avoid a regional war, and the hostages must be at the top of the priority list. There should be no discussion of a cease-fire deal without a discussion of the hostages. So, if the international community comes together and really prioritizes human life and wants to avoid continued suffering in the region, which it's been a year of ongoing suffering. KING: Haven't they done that, Leat? Hasn't the international come together and say this has got to end? I'm trying to figure out what will it take to finally move the needle on it. UNGER: It's a good question. You know, I'm not a political adviser. I don't have any knowledge of it. At the end of the day, if they've done it, it hasn't been enough because at the end of the day Omer and 100 other hostages are not home. (…) 7:44:18 a.m. Eastern BURLESON: How do you feel about the job Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doing? UNGER: I think his focus is on other things right now. It hasn't prioritized the hostages. I think it's great that we've made advancements with Hezbollah and taken out a lot of their leaders, but I wish he focused on his commitment to bring back innocent people who were stolen from their beds and from a field. (…)

A middle-school teacher and the chair of the Democratic Party in Jay County, Indiana, resigned both of those positions after he was accused of masturbating in front of his students and sending explicit photos to a person who identified herself as a 15-year-old girl.The eighth-grade students in Joel Bowers' sixth-period social studies class at Jay County Junior-Senior High School in Portland, Indiana, about an hour south of Fort Wayne, became increasingly uncomfortable during class on April 9. According to reports, Mr. Bowers, 37, refused to get up from his seat to teach the class that day but never really assigned students to perform any tasks.Bowers "would not get out of his seat and didn't tell us to do anything," a student later claimed.One female student reportedly took photos and video of Bowers during class that day and sent them to her mother. The video and photo evidence indicated that he had a white stain near the groin area of his pants, that his shirt was partially untucked, that he was sweating profusely, and that he had a hand under his desk."There was white stuff on his pants and he would not get up for anything," the girl said in a report submitted to school resource officer Cody Jesse a day after the alleged incident. "He had his hand down there and was sweating, but it was cold in his room. His hands was down there, but when someone went up there he would wipe his hand off with paper towel."Other students made similar observations, claiming that Bowers refused to leave his seat and told students to come to his desk if they had questions. When students began whispering about what he might be doing, Bowers allegedly told them he was looking at his phone for other reasons, the Commercial Review said.Some students even alleged that Bowers was ogling students' rear ends that day as well.When police and school administrators confronted him with the allegations, Bowers denied "touching himself in class," the Star Press reported. He also furnished the pants he had been wearing that day. Though the pants reportedly had a white stain in the vicinity of his crotch, just as students had said, Bowers claimed the stain was paint. Bowers acknowledged to police that he should have ended their conversation after she told him she was actually 15 but that he 'got caught up in the moment,' the police report said.During the investigation, police uncovered a Snapchat conversation Bowers had with a user who identified herself as a 15-year-old girl. During their exchanges, Bowers allegedly sent the girl a photo of his erect penis.When confronted with the Snapchat evidence, Bowers said he initially believed the individual was 18 since he had met her on Free Chat Now, an online platform ostensibly restricted to those 18 and up. Bowers then allegedly invited the girl to move their conversation from Free Chat Now to Snapchat, where they could exchange photos and engage in what he described to police as "age play." Bowers acknowledged to police that he should have ended their conversation after she told him she was actually 15 but that he "got caught up in the moment," the police report said.Bowers said he wasn't sure exactly how old she was, according to the police report. Whether his interlocutor has been identified and confirmed to be a 15-year-old girl is unclear.Finally, Bowers allegedly admitted to police that he has sent nude photos to other women in the past and that he has done internet searches for "youngest or younger porn," the Commercial Review reported.Within days of the alleged masturbation incident, Bowers was placed on administrative leave, the Mercer County Outlook reported. He resigned from his teaching position on May 20.At the time of the alleged incident, Bowers was also the chair of the Jay County Democrats. He resigned from that position around the same time he resigned from his teaching post.Last Tuesday, Bowers was arrested and charged with performance before a minor that is harmful to minors and dissemination of matter harmful to minors, both Level 6 felonies. He was taken to Jay County Jail but later released on $3,000 bond.According to the Commercial Review, Bowers has no prior record aside from a traffic violation.Blaze News attempted to reach Bowers for comment, dialing multiple numbers believed to be associated with him. One number has since been disconnected. A message left at another number was not returned.Neither the school nor the administrator of the Jay County Democrats Facebook page, where Bowers is likewise still listed as an administrator, responded to a request for comment from Blaze News.H/T: Libs of TikTokLike Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Will Ferrell released a new Netflix documentary that explores the relationship between Ferrell and his “transgender” friend Andrew Steele, who now identifies as “Harper” — and it’s every bit as delusional as you might assume. “We always say ‘quote unquote’ or ‘so-called’ or ‘what’s referred to’ because there’s no such thing as transitioning. Your gender and sex are one and the same. They’re not two different categories,” Allie Beth Stuckey of “Relatable” comments. “Now we’ve got a Netflix series saying that a man who has lived as a man his entire life is now a woman and should be accepted as a woman and should be able to go into women’s spaces to be regarded as a woman,” she says, adding, “and Will Ferrell is just like ‘It’s no big deal, who cares, like he’s just happy.’” And recent comments made by Ferrell make his deluded take on the matter abundantly clear. “There is hatred out there. It’s very real and it’s very unsafe for trans people in certain situations. But I don’t know why trans people are meant to be threatening to me as a cis-male,” Ferrell said. The famous actor also reportedly said that “it’s strange” to him because “Harper is finally her.” “If the trans community is a threat to you, I think it stems from not being confident or safe with yourself,” he added. “Remember, Will Ferrell is a multi-millionaire who has already made his career in Hollywood. He’s a man himself, and he has sons, and so these people who always claim they’re on the side of empathy I guess have a hard time understanding why we as women, as moms and parents who have daughters, why we would not want these men entering our spaces,” Stuckey says. While the film itself sets out to claim that transgenders are hated across the country, especially in red states, the film ends up disproving their own narrative. “Steele is treated warmly by people all over the country. Which I think is good, like I do think just in a personal interaction you can treat anyone, no matter who they are, warmly,” Stuckey says, noting that if the tables were turned, the reception might not be so friendly. “If you made a documentary of someone with a MAGA hat,” she says, “and he went to a bar in New York, I guarantee you he would probably be physically assaulted because remember, politics is the religion of the left. It is their theology.” Not only does the film disprove its own narrative but the questions being asked by Ferrell appear intentionally surface-level in order to keep “Harper” from facing any legitimate critiques. “The questions that are being asked by Will Ferrell aren’t like, ‘Okay, so you’re going to share a bathroom with these women?’ The questions are just like, ‘How do you feel? Does this make you happy? Are you your authentic self?” Stuckey explains. “We live in a world that says all of your feelings are valid. All of your feelings are not valid. They may all be real, but valid means they’re rooted in truth. Some of our feelings are just downright lies,” she adds. 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.