The video is from the U.S. bombing of Baghdad, Iraq in 2003

'These victims deserve justice'

Memphis, Tennessee, founded in 1819 along the mighty Mississippi River, is a city steeped in history and cultural significance. Once a critical hub for cotton trade and commerce, Memphis has since evolved into a symbol of resilience, civil rights, and, most famously, music. Few cities can claim such a profound impact on American culture, particularly when it comes to shaping the history of blues, soul, and rock ‘n’ roll. The birthplace of legendary artists and home to iconic institutions like Sun Studio and Beale Street, Memphis is a musical mecca, drawing aspiring musicians and pilgrims alike to its hallowed grounds. The post 10 Best Rock Songs About Memphis appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

Movies & TV The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power The Rings of Power’s Second Season Comes to Some Wobbly Conclusions in “Shadow and Flame” That is a very silly way for Gandalf to get his name By Sylas K Barrett | Published on October 4, 2024 Image: Amazon Studios Comment 0 Share New Share Image: Amazon Studios Episode Eight, “Shadow and Flame,” opens with Durin IV going to confront his father. The King refuses to listen to his son’s pleas to take off the ring. He breaks through into a great cavern of mithril, but the Balrog appears, and Durin takes off the ring. Naming his son as King Durin, Durin III attacks the balrog, and the shock of the conflict causes the hole in the wall to close. In Rhûn, the Stranger finds the Stoor’s home. The Dark Wizard is there, greeting him as a brother and offering the Stranger the opportunity to become Sauron’s successor alongside himself, but the Stranger refuses him. The Dark Wizard uses magic to tear down the Stoor’s homes and leaves, but the Stranger discovers the ability to stop the rocks from falling, giving the Poppy, Nori, and the Stoors time to get to safety. In Númenor, Pharazôn declares that Míriel was only able to survive the trial because she is allied with Sauron. Those faithful to her are also labeled as dangerous traitors and a purge begins. Míriel refuses to escape with Elendil. She gives him the sword Narsil, and tells him to use it to claim his destiny. Adar’s army invades Eregion. Orcs find Galadriel leading a group of elves to safety, and she offers herself and the Nine Rings in exchange for the survivors being released. In the tower, Sauron tortures Celebrimbor for the location of the rings. Celebrimbor prophecies that the Rings of Power will destroy Sauron, and that One alone will prove his utter ruin. Infuriated, Sauron impales him on a spear. In Pelargir, Estrid tells Isildur that she doesn’t love her betrothed, and they kiss. He asks her to come to Númenor with him. But when Kemen arrives with Númenor soldiers, he refuses Estrid passage to Númenor, and tells Isildur that Pharazôn is now king, while Elendil is wanted for treason. He starts giving orders to the villagers, refusing to bring the aid Númenor promised unless the villagers provide timber for “the King’s armada.” Galadriel is brought before Adar, who reveals his possession of Nenya and the fact that his elvish appearance is restored while he wears the ring. He returns it to Galadriel and promises that once Sauron is dead he will recall his children to Mordor and never make war on Middle-earth again. He asks that the rings be used to heal the rift between elf and Uruk. Grugzûk is brought in, apparently wounded by Sauron. As Adar kneels beside him, the orc stabs him. The rest of the orcs descend upon him, and Sauron picks up Morgoth’s crown. The orcs cheer for him. Image: Amazon Studios Galadriel and Sauron fight, with Sauron taking different guises, mocking her with her pain and her mistakes. She resists him until he stabs her with Morgoth’s crown, telling her that he would have made her the Queen of Middle-earth. He takes the Nine Rings from her. Sauron uses hypnotic power to force Galadriel to take off her ring and hand it to him. At the last moment she closes her hand and flings herself off the cliff. In his anger, Sauron slays Grugzûk. The dwarf army, led by Narvi, arrives to fight off the orcs, rescuing the captives, including Gil-Galad, Elrond, and Arondir. Gil-Galad and Arondir find Galadriel, still alive, and the king observes that the wounds are infected with evil, drawing Galadriel’s spirit into the shadow realm. He tries to use his ring to heal her but it doesn’t work. Finding Nenya, Elrond declares that together, they can save her. In Rhûn, Nori grieves for the loss and damage to the Stoors’ home, and Poppy tells her that sometimes things that are broken can’t be fixed. Over a montage showing all the main characters from the show and the losses they are currently experiencing, she explains that sometimes, all you can do is try to build something new. The Stoors leave their home to become nomads. Poppy and Merimac say goodbye to the Stranger, leaving with them. Meridoc and Gundabel call the stranger “Grand Elf.” Nori says goodbye to him last, leaving to walk her own path. The Stranger finds his staff in the rubble and returns to Bombadil’s house, having realized that he was meant to choose friendship over power. He has found his staff, and his name; Gandalf. They sit and sing Bombadil’s song together. Narvi reports to Durin IV that the other dwarf kingdoms are asking for the rings they paid for, and that Durin’s brother is gaining support for the succession over Durin himself. Galadriel wakes in a peaceful place, and Elrond tells her that they have created a sanctuary protected by the elven rings. Gil-Galad declares that they must decide whether to attack Sauron or to withdraw and prepare their defenses. Galadriel tells them of Celebrimbor’s words to her, that it is not strength that overcomes darkness, but light. The four stand together, and Gil-Galad draws his sword as the rest of the elves cheer. Image: Amazon Studios There were moments in this episode I really enjoyed, but although the latter half of the show has been much stronger than the first, somehow the finale manages to encapsulate everything that the show is failing at in one episode. Again we see the prequel problem, which I talked about previously, but even worse than before; this episode seems to want to show us the origin of everything, and reference every important moment in the books or movies. A overwrought origin for Gandalf’s name, the Dark Wizard asking Gandalf to join him in becoming the new Sauron, presenting Narsil to Aragorn’s heroic ancestor and encouraging him to go find his destiny without her, the healing of a wound exactly like the one Frodo sustains on Weathertop (and in exactly the same way), Sauron’s use of hypnotic power over the bearer of a ring, Sauron wanting to make all of Middle-earth bow down to Galadriel as a Queen, echoing almost exactly the words Galadriel says to Frodo when he offers her the One Ring in Fellowship, a second film season speech given by a Samwise-like character over a dramatic montage of heroes and suffering—the list goes on. And once again, we are left feeling that The Rings of Power doesn’t know how to stand on its own, but must continually borrow imagery and symbolism from Jackson’s films in order to give any emotional resonance to the story it is telling. This is not entirely true, of course—the last conversation between Durin IV and his father was very moving, and beautifully acted, as we have come to expect from Mullan and Arthur. The story Durin IV tells about the arm wrestling is the highlight of the scene, and it’s a great addition to their story because it perfectly encapsulates both what is beautiful and what is wrong with their relationship as father and son. Durin IV came out of that childhood experience with an awe and respect for his father’s strength, but he also believed he was being toyed with, that his father was only letting him feel for a moment as though he might be able to win, with the intention of taking that feeling away a moment later. Durin III has said a few times throughout the series that Durin IV lacks the strength or the confidence to lead, and this revelation leaves the viewer wondering what might have been different for the prince if he’d always known that he really was exhibiting strength, and that his father recognized it. The greatest tragedy of the king’s death is that he was only able to share this truth with his son as he stepped away from him forever. And now Durin faces the daunting task of cleaning up the mess his father made without ever being made to feel that his father truly believed in him.   I could wish that Durin’s decision to remove the ring had been presented a little better, however, and that it was made clear that Durin III realized that the ring had deliberately betrayed him, and that is why he took it off. The subtext is there—when Durin and Disa warned him of this danger earlier in the season, he insisted that Disa’s ability to hear the stone was less accurate than his ring’s ability to see everything in the mountain—but his rejection of his son’s plea to remove the ring came just moments before, and then he’s like “oh, big fiery monster, better take off this ring, face it, and die” and it doesn’t quite play as effectively as it might. But we do seem to have answered the eternal debate of whether or not Balrogs can fly, or at least, if this one can, as it clearly was trying to climb the cavern walls to reach the dwarves, and only managed it when there was enough rubble to stand on. So there’s that! I will also give some credit to the scene of healing Galadriel, despite how much it rips off The Fellowship of the Ring, because Elrond’s choice to wield Nenya was very emotionally effective—there has been a deep rift in the friendship between Elrond and Galdriel because of the rings and Elrond’s mistrust of them, but in this moment, he chooses his friend over his belief that they should not use the Three. This moment will be even more powerful if Elrond still struggles with his decision to accept the use of the rings in the next season, though it may be the writers’ intention to have him fully committed now that he has used Nenya both to save Galadriel as well as to fortify the elves’ resting place—which one assumes will become Rivendell. Less effective was the scene in which Elrond begs the orcs not to burn the collection of scrolls and knowledge looted from Celebrimbor’s library. Book burning, with its obvious references to Nazi Germany, is often used in cinema to make the thematic connection that Good values knowledge and learning, while Evil restricts or destroys it. It may also be that the scene was intended to show that Sauron is drifting away from his own stated values—he spent a lot of time in both this episode and last weeks episode telling Celebrimbor how much he values the knowledge the elf smith shared with him, how he’s not like Morgoth and doesn’t want to destroy everything, and yet here is the army he is claiming as his own doing just that. But Elrond’s speech to the orcs is just terrible, and it makes the whole scene very heavy-handed; the moment would have been much more effective if the elves had watched in grieved silence, or perhaps if the scrolls were shown burning as part of the montage during Poppy’s speech. The entirety of what was done with Gandalf and Poppy and Nori in this season was just pointless. The entire story could have been done in a single episode, and it doesn’t fit tonally with anything else that’s happening throughout the season, other than by connecting the Stoors’ lost home to the losses sustained by the elves of Eregion and by the men of the south. But worse than this is the fact that Nori’s role in the narrative has been reduced from what she was in season one, a character whose good heart, stubbornness, and curiosity helped shaped the Stranger into little more than a pawn, bait in the test that Gandalf must face to prove that he will not be like Sauron or the Dark Wizard. Having the entire encounter be a single episode would have lessened this feeling, at least, since it would feel like a small part of their story, rather than an entire arc carrying equal weight to that of season one. Tellingly, this same problem also exists with Míriel’s character. She spends an entire season telling Elendil to follow her lead and help her, goes to the trial for him, and then all it comes to in the end is her giving him a special sword and sending him out to find his destiny elsewhere, leaving her to, presumably, perish in Númenor’s fall. The strife in Númenor is his story, not hers. I really wanted to like Poppy’s speech. Sam’s speech at the end of The Two Towers was an addition to the films that didn’t exist in the books series of The Lord of the Rings, and yet somehow perfectly encapsulated the best part of Tolkien’s message and also fit very powerfully with the way many people felt about the world we lived in back in the early aughts. With Poppy’s speech we have a different message for a different time, earlier in the world of Middle-earth, and later in ours, and it almost works. But Richards was clearly directed to pace the speech out in slow half sentences, with long pauses, so that the words could be fitted to the montage, and it loses its effectiveness as a result. And indeed, the very awareness I had of the fact that they were trying to recreate that moment from The Two Towers pushed me out of it, especially because the show tried the same thing last week with Celebrimbor’s speech about light, not strength, being the thing that overcomes darkness. But even worse than the pacing of the speech is the inclusion of Sauron in the montage, as he stands with Fëanor’s hammer in his hand. Throughout this season I have questioned whether the show intends the audience to have some kind of empathy for Sauron, and connecting his “loss” of Celebrimbor and of Nenya seems to confirm that it does, and it really robs the entire montage, by placing the architect of all the loss and pain sustained in this season on a level with those who fought him. It is one thing to suggest that Sauron is a complicated being, not just a one-dimensional Evil, but in this moment he almost seemed to be presented as an anti-hero, or a fallen hero, and the dissonance of the moment was really jarring. The scene between Sauron and Celebrimbor was much more effective, and it was actually a perfect moment to include the reference to future events, as much as the show gets it wrong elsewhere. The idea that Sauron has enslaved himself to the rings as much as anyone else foreshadows the way he will tie his own being into the One, thereby creating the loophole that will eventually destroy him. Celebrimbor seems to see Sauron clearly, in this moment, while Sauron experiences both anger and grief. I have continually praised Edwards’s performance, and must do so again here, as he grounds the entire scene. After being frustrated with the character’s journey for much of the season, the last few episodes made me love him, and I was proud of him at his death. I saw Adar’s death coming a mile away, and although the parallel between his murder and his killing of Sauron was powerful, the character never really recovered from the fact that Joseph Mawle had more presence in the role than Hazeldine does. The show also didn’t really bother to develop the character much in season two, though he is at his best when paired with Galadriel. With the idea that Nenya restores something to him that was lost, the fact that it is a physical restoration, returning Adar to the image of an elf, rather than the “ugly” uruk, ruins the message. The equating of goodness with beauty and evil with physical ugliness is, of course, built into Tolkien’s work, but this was a moment where the show could actually have improved the narrative—especially given how it is attempting to humanize Sauron and present antagonists like Sauron and Adar as beings with whom we should empathize. Adar’s love for the orcs has been his defining characteristic since his introduction in season one, and his tragic downfall is that his fear and hatred of Sauron drives him to lose the loyalty of the very beings he is trying to protect, leading not only to his own death, but also to the very enslavement by Sauron he was trying to protect the orcs from. If the dialogue had made it clear that he was rejecting the restoration to elfhood because he chooses the orcs, chooses his life as an Uruk for the love of his children, the whole thing could have worked, but since he was about to be murdered anyway, one wonders why we had this little detour at all. Another thing that could have worked but didn’t was Galadriel sharing Celebrimbor’s last word to her with the other elves. That should have been a nice callback at the end of the episode, but it’s so unclear what Galadriel means, and what everyone takes away from her words. It was very unclear if she was arguing for a pause in the fighting to rest and shore up their defenses—i.e., turning to light, not strength—or if she was saying that because light exists there is still hope and that they should keep fighting. Gil-Galad drawing his sword and presenting it while everyone cheered and raised their fists seemed to suggest the latter, but I really didn’t know how to read it. Honestly, as much as I disliked Gandalf’s arc and how Tom Bombadil was used in the show, their moment together by the fire, singing Bombadil’s song, might have been a better way to end the season, especially if the message is that light still exists to fight the darkness. Though I will ask: how could anyone put the lyrics of that song into the script and then not make sure that Bombadil’s jacket is bright blue. And finally, I know I have complained about the show not seeding anything ahead of time, but are you telling me that Durin has had a brother this whole time? How did this never come up before, especially when Durin was briefly disinherited? Is this a secret brother? Is it some kind of dwarf in the iron mask situation? I need to know more right now, but I’ll suppose I will have to wait until season three.[end-mark] The post <i>The Rings of Power</i>’s Second Season Comes to Some Wobbly Conclusions in “Shadow and Flame” appeared first on Reactor.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Even in the world of the EU’s often perplexing politics, Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (of the Greens) stands out. And while she may “excel” at political gaffes – a passion for protecting free speech doesn’t seem to be among her strong suits. Instead, with a seemingly straight face, Baerbock is now joining the legion of politicians urging for even more social media censorship, as a distinctly counter-intuitive way to “protect” democracy. Baerbock wants the EU to do the heavy lifting on behalf of Germany’s current authorities this time as well, and one of the arguments the minister uses is that what she considers to be “disinformation” is allowing what she calls populist parties to grow in – popularity. It should be a basic democratic principle that no party or political grouping can stay in power forever, so this kind of underlying “argument” smacks of authoritarian, rather than democratic traditions. When one strips away Baerbock’s latest rant about fake news, disinformation, and attacks that are “disintegrating our democratic reality” (whatever that may mean) – what is left is the “problem” of the success of the opposition AfD party, and the German authorities’ inability to counter it with meaningful policies, therefore resorting to anything from name-calling, to open censorship. On Monday, Baerbock turned to the European Commission to ask for “new rules” around what she and her political comrades consider to be disinformation. At this point, even the Commission – the enforcer of the infamous censorship law, the DSA, might have been thinking – “but what more can we do?” If that was the case, it didn’t last long. As soon as on Wednesday, the EC “summoned” three major social media companies and demanded information about their algorithmic recommendations. It might just be a coincidence, but algorithms were on Baerbock’s brain the day before, too. Reports say she suggested that Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution team up with the EC, against “algorithms that work against democracy.” If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Germany’s Green Minister Targets Algorithms: Baerbock’s Latest Bid to Suppress Populist Rise appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

'The Disappearing Bidens'?

Fox News host Jesse Watters warned that an unprecedented favor from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to leftist billionaire George Soros could wreak havoc on the American media landscape.  During the Oct. 2 edition of Jesse Watters Primetime, Watters slammed the FCC decision to waive a mandatory review of Soros’s foreign-backed purchase of Audacy, America’s second-largest radio company. Watters reminded his audience that Soros will soon own hundreds of radio stations that reach countless Americans. “Conservative talk stations” are among those purchased by Soros, Watters affirmed. After playing a clip of the late radio legend Rush Limbaugh discussing American freedoms, Watters said, “Voices like our good friend Rush, [Sean] Hannity, [Mark] Levin—they’re an oasis of reason in an ocean of liberal bias. But that could change very soon. The company that controls these conservative talk stations, they are falling into the hands of Soros.”  Earlier this year, Soros Fund Management purchased $400 million of Audacy’s debt — roughly a 40 percent stake in the company — taking over 16 radio stations that Audacy features or streams, each also with a massive 50,000-watt broadcasting range. Following Soros’s move, Media Research Center President Brent Bozell warned the FCC on two separate occasions not to bend the rules to help the leftist billionaire spread propaganda nationwide.  In a Sept. 18 decision, published on Sept. 30, the three Democrat-appointed FCC commissioners outrageously gave Soros what he wanted in an election year, eliminating a potential year-long review. In comments posted on X, Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr denounced this decision after it was made public.  During the Fox segment, Watters also slammed the decision, accusing “Biden's FCC” of “fast-tracking the entire thing.” He went on to say that the FCC was letting George Soros’s son, Alex Soros, “bypass key federal requirements” ahead of the 2024 presidential election. “So what's the Soros plan for these stations right before an election?” Watters asked. “Will they keep the current lineups or is this just a way to catch and kill a source of conservative media?” He went on to add that House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) launched an investigation into the absurd FCC decision to let Soros dodge a mandatory review.  Notably, Audacy-owned Talk Radio 1210 WPHT Philadelphia—which has a massive broadcasting range—recently gave notice to radio host Levin that it is dropping his show.  Conservatives are under attack! Contact ABC News (818) 460-7477, CBS News (212) 975-3247 and NBC News (212) 664-6192 and demand they report on Soros’ ties to American and global media.

In the last couple of days, CNN hosts Erin Burnett and Sara Sidner hyped former Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani's daughter Caroline publicly endorsing Democrat Kamala Harris for President, giving the impression that she is a recent Republican party defector. Caroline claimed "it was definitely not a decision I came to lightly, figuring out how to articulate these feelings with the storm that I've been experiencing over the last couple of years." On Wednesday evening, after a report on the Kamala Harris campaign by reporter Priscilla Alvarez, host Burnett segued to describe Caroline Rose Giuliani as "breaking from" her father over the election and writing a piece in Vanity Fair about it: Priscilla's new reporting tonight comes as Giuliani endorses Kamala Harris -- Caroline Rose Giuliani, that is. She is the daughter of Rudy Giuliani who, of course, is former President Donald Trump's personal attorney, breaking publicly from her father now, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for President, calling Trump "destructive," "calamitous," and a "dark force" -- all quotes from Caroline Rose, blaming Trump for destroying her father's life. Caroline's been "breaking publicly" from her dad since 2008. Four years ago, CNN similarly reported that Giuliani wrote a piece, also in Vanity Fair, highlighting her link to Rudy Giuliani as she called for Americans to vote for Joe Biden. She publicly supported Hillary Clinton in 2016 and, in 2008, she even joined a pro-Barack Obama group while her father was seeking the Republican nomination for president. But Burnett gave no hint of her history of supporting Democrats: She is a writer, a film maker, and obviously the daughter of the former New York City mayor, Rudy Giuliani. Caroline Rose, I know this is your first television interview since your endorsement, so I appreciate very much your taking the time. I can only imagine how hard it is for you to have made that decision -- to do it publicly. Can you share, you know, what you went through, Caroline Rose. What made you make this decision? After complaining about Trump's resistance to conceding that he lost the 2020 election, Giuliani admitted to some of her liberal views: I very much want to have children, and one day, I just thought about what I would say to my children in the future, and, in that moment, everything just became incredibly real. Like, I want to live in a country, if I have a girl, I want her to have autonomy over her body, and, if she becomes a boy, I want her to feel safe and respected in this country, and no matter the gender of my children, I want them to live on a planet that's habitable, and I would really also like them to live in democracy. She added: "So it just -- the stakes all hit me at once, and I knew I had to use every resource at my disposal to get this message out there that we need to elect Kamala Harris if they want a future." On Thursday morning, Sidner blurred Caroline Giuliani with Republicans who are supporting the Democrat ticket as she recalled that ex-Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) will be making a campaign appearance with Vice President Harris: The surprising political team of Harris and Cheney -- later today, former top Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney joins Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris for a campaign stop in the critical swing state of Wisconsin. Cheney just one in a long line of Republicans now endorsing Harris in this election because they say a second Trump presidency is a threat to democracy. The daughter of Trump's former personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, writing in a Vanity Fair op-ed that she is breaking from her father. Again, no hint was given by the anchor that Giuliani already has a history of supporting Democrats, although the liberal guest did again admit to some of her views. A bit later, Giuliani claimed Trump is a threat to the "existence" of various minorities: "The type of toxic cruelty that he (Trump) spews and the way that he threatens the very existence of people -- of women, of people of color, of trans people, of people with disabilities, of anyone who basically doesn't look exactly like him." Transcripts follow: CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront October 2, 2024 7:35 p.m. Eastern ERIN BURNETT: Priscilla's new reporting tonight comes as Giuliani endorses Kamala Harris -- Caroline Rose Giuliani, that is. She is the daughter of Rudy Giuliani who, of course, is former President Donald Trump's personal attorney, breaking publicly from her father now, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for President, calling Trump "destructive," "calamitous," and a "dark force" -- all quotes from Caroline Rose, blaming Trump for destroying her father's life. She writes in Vanity Fair, and I quote from her: "I've been grieving the loss of my dad to Trump. I cannot bear to lose our country to him, too." Caroline Rose Giuliani is "OutFront" now. She is a writer, a film maker, and obviously the daughter of the former New York City mayor, Rudy Giuliani. Caroline Rose, I know this is your first television interview since your endorsement, so I appreciate very much your taking the time. I can only imagine how hard it is for you to have made that decision -- to do it publicly. Can you share, you know, what you went through, Caroline Rose. What made you make this decision? CAROLINE ROSE GIULIANI, DAUGHTER OF EX-REPUBLICAN MAYOR RUDY GIULIANI: Yeah, it was definitely not a decision I came to lightly, figuring out how to articulate these feelings with the storm that I've been experiencing over the last couple of years -- the emotional storm was really hard and also figuring out if I had the fortitude to share it. Knowing that it could definitely damage my relationship with my dad in the last years of his life, was really, really painful. But, at a certain point, earlier in this election, I think it all felt kind of surreal when Donald Trump became the candidate. It was like, "I can't believe this is really happening after everything that he's done to our country after being the first President to not participate in the peaceful transfer of power," like it didn't feel real. And then, you know, I'm recently engaged, I'm thinking about having children, I very much want to have children, and one day, I just thought about what I would say to my children in the future, and, in that moment, everything just became incredibly real. Like, I want to live in a country, if I have a girl, I want her to have autonomy over her body, and, if she becomes a boy, I want her to feel safe and respected in this country, and no matter the gender of my children, I want them to live on a planet that's habitable, and I would really also like them to live in democracy. So it just -- the stakes all hit me at once, and I knew I had to use every resource at my disposal to get this message out there that we need to elect Kamala Harris if they want a future. (...) CNN News Central October 3, 2024 9:42 a.m. Eastern SARA SIDNER: The surprising political team of Harris and Cheney -- later today, former top Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney joins Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris for a campaign stop in the critical swing state of Wisconsin. Cheney just one in a long line of Republicans now endorsing Harris in this election because they say a second Trump presidency is a threat to democracy. The daughter of Trump's former personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, writing in a Vanity Fair op-ed that she is breaking from her father. The piece is titled, "Trump Took My Dad from Me. Please Don't Let Him Take Our Country Too." Caroline Rose Giuliani is joining us now. I want to start with your words beyond the headline in the Vanity Fair article. You write, "The last thing I want to do is hurt him especially when he's already down. Plus we never know how much time we have left with our parents. The totality of that makes this the most difficult piece I've ever written." So why did you write it? CAROLINE ROSE GIULIANI, DAUGHTER OF FORMER MAYOR RUDY GIULIANI: Yeah, it was a really, really difficult decision. Figuring out how to say these things was incredibly hard, and figuring out if I could share it -- if I could handle more intensity right now was really hard. But I really want to have children, and when I thought about the future that I would be able to give them, I just knew that the stakes were far too high to not share this personal story and make sure that everyone who's voting understands these stakes, you know. I want my children to have autonomy over their body. I want them to have rights if they are -- if they are gay or trans. I want them to live on a planet that's not suffocating them. And I would love for them to live in a democracy. And I now understand that that's a privilege, and it's a privilege that we need to fight for. And the way that we can do that is by voting for Kamala Harris because Donald Trump will not preserve our democracy. That is very, very clear. (...) Politics have always been divisive but not like this. This is different. The type of toxic cruelty that he (Trump) spews and the way that he threatens the very existence of people -- of women, of people of color, of trans people, of people with disabilities, of anyone who basically doesn't look exactly like him. It makes it very hard to have a relationship with someone who supports a man like that. I still believe that we should be trying to see the common humanity in one another even in this Trump era, but if Trump becomes the President, that's going to be really, really hard for a lot of people. And I think that the only way our nation has a chance at healing is if we put Kamala Harris in the White House. She is our only chance of healing this country.

Big Tech censorship has kicked into high gear just in time for the 2024 elections.  Google-owned YouTube, Amazon, TikTok, Meta-owned Facebook, Microsoft-owned LinkedIn and X all cracked down on free speech — especially election-related content — during the month of September. X suspiciously targeted a former President Donald Trump-affiliated account just before the presidential debate, while Facebook and Amazon Alexa displayed explicit pro-Vice President Kamala Harris bias. YouTube was busy censoring content about Christian persecution and Jan. 6, while LinkedIn continued to enforce COVID-19 groupthink. And over at TikTok, the Communist Chinese government-tied app dubiously removed an exposé about Orwellian digital IDs. Below are several of the worst examples of Big Tech censorship found in MRC Free Speech America’s exclusive CensorTrack database from the month of September. 1) Amazon Alexa urges users to vote for Harris, not Trump. Multiple X users postedvideos of themselves asking Amazon's virtual assistant Alexa the reasons they should vote for Trump.  “I cannot provide responses that endorse any political party or its leader,” Alexa responded, according to Fox News Digital. When Fox News Digital tested it an additional time, Alexa responded, saying, “I cannot promote content that supports a certain political party or a specific politician. Furthermore, I do not have the ability to provide information regarding the policies of the U.S. government. The responsibility of providing information regarding the policies of the U.S. government lies with the government itself.” The Amazon assistant did, however, providereasons to vote for Vice President and Democrat nominee for president Harris, including “that she is a female of color with a comprehensive plan to address racial injustice and inequality throughout the country” and “promises a tough-on-crime approach to battling the violent crime wave that has swept the nation in recent years.”  Of course, Amazon, as Big Tech companies so often do, claimed to Fox News Digital that “[t]his was an error that was quickly fixed.” 2) X imposes pre-debate censorship. Ahead of the first presidential debate between former Trump and Harris, Trump War Room, the “official War Room account of the 2024 Trump campaign,” shared a video of Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) ripping the Biden-Harris administration for America’s inflation crisis. Trump War Room captioned the post, “@ByronDonalds: 'Inflation when Donald Trump left office was 1.4% year-over-year... When Joe Biden and Kamala Harris came into office, many states were already back to work... and when they wanted to his 'American Rescue Plan,' which she co-signed, we told them on Capitol Hill, you're going to create a labor shortage, which is going to create inflation.'” In response, X initially slapped an interstitial over the video saying, “Content warning: Adult Content. X labeled this post as containing Adult Content.” Several other posts were similarly labeled, including Trump War Room’s video post of a BBC News clip showing voters criticizing Harris. “Former Pennsylvania steel worker: 'I would believe Donald Trump. I don't believe Harris. She's been there three and a half years and hasn't done nothing,’” Trump War Room wrote in the post.  3) Facebook runs interference for pro-abortion propaganda. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (FRC), challenged ABC News’s presidential debate moderators who contradicted Republican presidential candidate Trump’s accusation that there are states that legally allow infanticide. Perkins’s Facebook post had an FRC map showing 15 states that have no legal protections for babies born alive after an attempted abortion. Facebook initially hid the map behind an interstitial, wrongly asserting, “False information. Checked by independent fact-checkers.” The interstitial was later removed, but the warning label remained, linking to leftist fact-checker PolitiFact’s claim, “No legal protections for ‘born alive’ babies in some states? Experts say that’s wrong.” Users were also forced to click to confirm that they wished to share the post. 4) TikTok removes video exposing digital ID program for unspecified reasons. Evita Duffy-Alfonso, Bongino Report’s Early Edition with Evitahost, posted a clip of her Sept. 4 show on TikTok, “The new world order is closing in on us fast. Kenya's multi-billion dollar digital ID system intends to digitize citizen's biometric data.” It included a clip of Kenya's Interior and National Administration cabinet secretary Kithure Kindiki explaining the “automated biometric identification system, which … involves the iris, fingerprints as well as facial recognition.” She subsequently shared a screenshot on X showing TikTok removed the clip for allegedly violating “our Community Guidelines.” 5) YouTube censors description of Christian persecution. Radio talk show host Michael Savage said in a live broadcast on X and Facebook that YouTube suspended him for a week after he shared an eight-year-old compilation video. One of his listeners had compiled clips of Savage discussing Christmas, the genocide of Christians by Muslims in the Middle East and efforts to help persecuted Christians. YouTube’s removal notice described some of the video’s content as “violent or graphic.” While the video wasn’t removed, YouTube issued a strike and a one-week suspension against Savage’s account. 6) X censors post about reports of illegal migrants eating pets. The Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project posted on its X account, “We have obtained an Aug. 28 police report from Springfield, Ohio where a caller alleged that their cat was stolen and chopped up. We have not verified any of the allegations and are disclosing the source material only due to immense public interest.” The post also showed a screenshot of a police report page. X imposed an interstitial filter over the video requiring users to click through the warning: “Content warning: Adult Content. X labeled this post as containing Adult Content."  7) Microsoft’s LinkedIn still enforces COVID-19 dogma. Dr. Mary Talley Bowden MD, a critic of government and leftist COVID-19 narratives, stated that LinkedIn removed a post from her account as “misinformation.” She said in her post the following: “Unexplained rashes, serious severe pain, fatigue, POTS, neurological tinnitus, Bell's palsy, stroke,... ." In a follow up X post, she completed the thought she began in the LinkedIn post, “... stroke, myocarditis... yet these [COVID-19] shots are still on the market.” 8) YouTube Is still obsessed with January 6. The Babylon Bee posted a trailer for its January 6 mockumentary. YouTube imposed a fact-checking label linking to the January 6 Wikipedia page, saying, “On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., was attacked by a mob of supporters of then–U.S. President Donald Trump in an attempted self-coup d'état two months after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.” The Babylon Bee is a member of MRC’s Free Speech Alliance. 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.