Air travel in America isn’t great—and that’s putting it lightly. Our nation’s antiquated air traffic control systems cost Americans tens of billions of dollars annually. That includes tens of thousands of years of lost time annually due to flight delays and cancellations, as well as higher prices caused by preventable limits on the supply of flights. But lost money isn’t the only consequence of our antiquated system: Failing infrastructure is leading to communication outages that risk passenger safety. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has rightly called for a complete overhaul of the system, asking for tens of billions of dollars in new taxpayer funding to that end. In his words, the current system “is not worth saving.” But instead of relying on the already debt-ridden federal government to finance an air traffic overhaul and on the innately inefficient federal bureaucracy to oversee it, the Trump administration should take the opportunity to permanently transform America’s air traffic control system through commercialization. If there’s anything the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, taught us, it’s that modernization and efficiency are enigmas to the federal government.  Take the federal government’s caveman-like process of federal employee retirements, whereby more than 700 federal employees sort through manila envelopes and cardboard boxes 230 feet below ground in a limestone mine in Pennsylvania, working to manually process about 10,000 retirement applications per month—something that a modern, digitized system could accomplish in days with a fraction of the manpower.   Or the fact that many government information technology systems rely on a spaghetti code system (COBOL) that is more than a half century old, doesn’t jive with modern digital interfaces, and is highly prone to failure. It may seem tempting for the Trump administration to use its business acumen to modernize America’s air traffic control systems. But that process would take years, extending beyond President Donald Trump’s second term—meaning the success or failure of modernization would depend on the whims of future executive leadership and future congressional appropriations. In 2017, the first Trump administration embarked on an ambitious IT modernization plan for the Social Security Administration, aiming to make it “an agile, 21st century enterprise.” However, DOGE recently found that many of the administration’s actions had been abandoned: IT systems had largely not been updated, and more than 12.3 million individuals over age 120 remained in the Social Security database. Air travel, and, by extension, air traffic control, is too important to leave to politicians and bureaucrats. In 1996, Canada acknowledged this much, moving to commercialize its air traffic control system. Now, it now has a far more advanced system than the U.S.—with one-third lower costs. As transportation expert Robert Poole wrote in an open letter to DOGE on air traffic control: Long-time observers of U.S. air traffic control shortcomings refer to our ATO [Air Traffic Organization] as ‘a would-be high-tech service business trapped in a cautious bureaucracy.’ It cannot afford to hire and keep top-quality engineers, software developers, and program managers, so it has become captive of large aerospace companies that define each new system’s requirements and produce new systems with extraneous bells and whistles, at enormous cost. And because [the Federal Aviation Administration] and its [Air Traffic Organization] rely on annual funding from Congress, new systems get produced in small batches over a decade or more, with the last recipients not getting equipped before the system’s technology may already be obsolete. Converting America’s air traffic control to a user-funded system has received long-standing, bipartisan support since the Clinton administration. In 2018, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee voted in favor of legislation to convert the Air Traffic Organization into a user-funded nonprofit corporation. Trump supported that legislation and provided principles for reform that indicated a need for even further improvement.  Today, the Trump administration can set in motion plans for more agile and efficient air traffic control. But as long as the federal government insists on being in the business of air travel, the future of air traffic control—including the prices Americans pay to fly, the frequency of delays and cancellations, and the safety of air travel—will remain in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats. Only by commercializing America’s air traffic control system can policymakers give American passengers and businesses more control over the safety, quality, and price of air travel.   The post Grounded by Bureaucracy: Trump’s Chance to Ditch the Feds, Commercialize the Skies appeared first on The Daily Signal.

House Republicans want to provide law enforcement at the border with the resources required to sustain President Donald Trump’s border security victories, members of Congress tell The Daily Signal. The “One Big, Beautiful Bill” makes the largest border security investment in history and equips Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport millions of illegal immigrants. “Thanks to President Trump and his administration, the immediate crisis at our border has been brought under control—but our frontline law enforcement needs more resources to keep it that way,” House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green told The Daily Signal. “That’s why House Republicans are working to advance funding that puts the morale and mission of these dedicated frontline personnel first, including $4.1 billion for additional frontline [Customs and Border Protection] personnel and $2 billion for annual retention bonuses and signing incentives for the CBP workforce,” Green, R-Tenn., said. The spending package ensures that “President Trump’s popular and successful border security measures are made permanent,” according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Encounters at ports of entry are down 83% compared with last April, and Republicans want to make sure the drop isn’t temporary. Reconciliation funding would enable CBP to hire 3,000 new Border Patrol agents, 5,000 Office of Field Operations customs officers, 200 Air and Marine Operations agents, 290 support staff, and eligible retired agents and officers. “In stark contrast to the Left’s open-border agenda, President Trump and his administration have taken bold, decisive action—bringing illegal crossings down to historic lows and restoring control. Congress must back these efforts,” Homeland Security Counterterrorism and Intelligence Subcommittee Chairman Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, told The Daily Signal. “That’s exactly what Homeland Security Republicans did by advancing our reconciliation bill to strengthen border security.” “It gives our agents the tools, resources, and authority they need to do their jobs and protect our communities,” Pfluger continued. “This bill sends a clear message: We’re putting the safety and security of the American people first.” The bill gives ICE and Border Patrol agents a $10,000 bonus to do their jobs over the next four years. “Republicans have the backs of Border Patrol and ICE agents who were put through hell over the past four years and have quickly worked to secure the border,” Leavitt said at Monday’s briefing. The post How House Republicans Aim to Codify Trump’s Border Agenda in ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Chuck Schumer Kind of Wants Elon Musk to Stop Killing Spanish Tall Ship Sailors

On Monday, the Media Research Center (MRC) announced that President and Founder L. Brent Bozell III will step down after 38 years and David Bozell, MRC Vice President for Growth and Development, will take the helm. David Bozell will assume the role of president effective May 27, 2025. Brent Bozell has been named President Emeritus by the MRC Board of Directors. The leadership transition marks a new chapter for the organization as it continues its over three-decade long mission to expose left-wing media bias. Karl Ottosen, Chairman of the MRC Board of Directors, praised Brent’s transformative leadership since founding the MRC in 1987: “Brent Bozell’s vision changed the American media landscape. He gave voice to millions who felt ignored, and he built an institution that holds the press accountable like no other. “On behalf of the Board, we are deeply grateful for his leadership and legacy. We are equally confident that David Bozell is the right person to lead MRC into the next chapter. His experience, conviction, and strategic clarity will ensure MRC continues to thrive in the fight for truth.” Throughout his nearly four decades as president, Brent Bozell led the organization with a bold commitment to truth. His leadership laid the groundwork for MRC’s prominent role in national conversations regarding media bias and accountability. “Founding the Media Research Center has been the honor of my life,” Brent Bozell said in a statement, expressing pride in MRC’s evolution and his confidence in its new leader: “What began as a mission to expose media bias has grown into a movement that holds the press accountable, defends truth, and empowers millions of Americans to speak out. I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve built, and I have full confidence in David and the team that will carry this work forward. The fight for America’s culture is far from over, but thanks to MRC, it’s finally a fair fight.”     Before taking the helm at the MRC, David Bozell served as President of ForAmerica, an organization dedicated to promoting American exceptionalism. Under his leadership, ForAmerica harnessed the power of social media to shape public policy debates and was hailed by The New York Times as “one of the great unexpected influences of the [2016 Presidential] election.” A frequent voice in print and broadcast media, David Bozell has been quoted by influential national media, such as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, National Review, The New York Times, and TIME. His commentaries have appeared in outlets including Fox News, The Hill, and The Daily Caller. He also serves on the coordinating committee of the Conservative Action Project (CAP) and on the board of the Washington Policy Institute. David Bozell holds a B.A. in Political Science from Hampden-Sydney College and lives in Northern Virginia with his wife, Laura, and their three daughters. “No one has done more to expose the media’s corruption and protect the truth than my father,” David Bozell said: “Brent built MRC into the tip of the spear in the fight for America’s culture, and I’m honored to carry that mission forward. The media has evolved, but so have we. MRC will meet the moment with the same fearless commitment to truth that Brent instilled from the beginning.”

HBO’s cheap rent-a-clown John Oliver — whose delivery is about as funny as a tax audit — made one of the dumbest attempts to excuse a George Soros-controlled radio station unmasking undercover ICE agents conducting operations in gang-infested San Jose, California. Oliver lashed out at FCC Chairman Brendan Carr during his Sunday show for daring to investigate KCBS 740 AM anchor Bret Burkhart gave exact descriptions and makes of the vehicles the ICE agents were reportedly using, including specific locations on January 26. Oliver based his reporting on alerts from the leftist Rapid Response Network, a community-based group which fights against deportation initiatives. After replaying the clip of Burkhart’s asinine report, Oliver squawked: “But, crucially: That report's also pretty basic. I.C.E. was in the community, community groups and government officials were talking about it, and local news covered it.” Oliver even jested that Burkhart had a “remarkably soothing voice for a news report describing something as alarming as I.C.E. agents in unmarked vehicles.”  Oliver "humorously" compared ICE agents to a tiger that mauls humans. He can't imagine illegal aliens that have mauled humans to death.  What Oliver glossed over was that Burkhart’s reporting mentioned that ICE agents were “currently carrying out an operation on the East Side of town,” indicating that the agents were still in the general vicinity of East San Jose when their vehicles were doxxed. To quote Disney comic relief character Zazu whom Oliver voiced in the CGI-remake of The Lion King (2019), the comedian’s brain-dead argument was tantamount to him having “slammed his head into trees, and” his beak wasn’t “built for it. He was concussed regularly!”   Oliver’s evidence to downplay Burkhart’s nutty reporting as much ado about nothing? Rapid Response Network’s 3:30 pm update that ICE agents had supposedly left one of the reported locations (Target on Story Road) “two hours” before the KCBS segment ran. That was it.  Two problems immediately present themselves: 1. There’s no way to know if the local RRN’s update on Facebook was accurate and it doesn’t mean that the vehicles that Burkhart specified weren’t still within close or general proximity to the identified area during their operation. NewsNation reported January 27 that agents were also spotted near Capitol Park around that time, just about 1.1 miles from the Target on Story Road. 2. Giving the specific vehicle identifications of undercover ICE vehicles could have subjected them and any citizens who own the same vehicles to threat from any gang activity anywhere within East San Jose, which is notoriously a hotbed for violence.  Did Oliver consider any of that? Nope. He instead launched a tirade against Carr for suggesting during a Fox News Channel appearance that Burkhart was “broadcasting the live location, identifying the unmarked vehicles that [ICE agents] were in” and that he was investigating accordingly. Oliver then had a meltdown:  What are you talking about? Covering stories like that is literally the whole point of local news radio. That and delivering the driest imaginable ad read for a local deck-staining company. Now, legal scholars will tell you, this FCC investigation is also meritless. As one First Amendment expert put it, ‘Law enforcement operations, immigration or otherwise, are matters of public interest.’ So if it comes to a court case, and KCBS chooses to fight, it'll almost certainly win. But it's a little worrying that so far, they haven't openly defended their journalists -- who, again, did absolutely nothing wrong. Now, Oliver has no idea if KCBS would actually win such a case, since publicly unmasking undercover federal agents and subjecting them to real life harm could definitely be argued to not be proper service to the public interest. But to dismiss the matter entirely as if nothing was done wrong is just the epitome of stupidity, which would suit his brand well anyway since he pays his nut by being a dry-bar comic in the Bozo-the-Clown business in Hollywood. Soros purchased $400 million, or a 40 percent stake, of the bankrupt Audacy in February 2024. Notably, Audacy, which is America’s second biggest radio company, features or streams at least 16 powerful 50,000-watt radio stations, which means that their coverage is especially widespread.  KCBS 740 AM was one of the stations prominently implicated in that deal. The Federal Communications Commission, in a bizarre act, fast-tracked Soros’s purchase of the radio giant, which was also backed by foreign money.

On Monday morning, the major broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC provided extensive coverage on former President Joe Biden’s horrible diagnosis of advanced prostate cancer, but saw no reason to question the timing just days before the release of the blockbuster book by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson. In fact, they went so far as to suggest Biden’s team was telling the truth these symptoms arose only recently and the cancer might have only just formed and spread into his bones.  ABC’s Good Morning America never even raised the book’s upcoming release and didn’t even open the door to Team Biden not being entirely truthful. “Former President Biden’s cancer diagnosis, the urgent manhunt for prisoners on the run, and guess who’s bringing the thunder? Former President Biden announcing he has an aggressive form of prostate cancer, which has spread to his bones. What his office said about treating the disease and the reaction from political leaders this morning,” co-host Michael Strahan declared in a tease. Virulent Trump-hating correspondent Rachel Scott largely stuck to the genuine well-wishes from across the spectrum and reading from the Sunday afternoon statement by Biden’s team: As CBS and NBC would also do, Scott brought up Biden’s late son, Beau: “The former President’s cancer diagnosis comes nearly ten years after his beloved son Beau lost his battle with brain cancer. That loss motivating Biden the establish the Cancer Moonshot Initiative.” ABC medical contributor Dr. Tara Narula popped up in the second half-hour for more whitewashing (see the transcript for a blow-by-blow): NBC’s Today tried to have it both ways. Senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez also started with the so-called facts as we know them and the reality that we all are praying for his health. Gutierrez tied in Beau and a previous health scare as a U.S. Senator: Cancer has devastated the Biden family before. As Vice President, he led a moonshoot effort to find cures for the disease after his son Beau died from an aggressive form of brain cancer in 2018...In 1988, then-Senator Biden battled two brain aneurysms that threatened to end his political career. Then, however, he turned up the heat as the only network correspondent to acknowledge Biden’s “most recent White House medical exam at Walter Reed was in February of last year when a physician assessed he was fit for duty.” He even used the opportunity to bring up the released audio of his interview in 2023 with then-Special Counsel Robert Hur (click “expand”): GUTIERREZ: But, during his presidency, Biden faced mounting questions about his health, age, and mental fitness, which ultimately led him to drop his bid for re-election. This weekend, Axios published audio from Biden’s 2023 interview with Robert Hur, the special counsel who investigated his handling of classified documents. At some points during the interview, Biden appeared to struggle to remember key dates and details. [HUR AUDIO EXCERPT] GUTIRREZ: Tomorrow, a new book by two journalists is set to be published, raising more questions about whether Biden’s inner circle may have concealed any cognitive decline during his time at the White House, something the Bidens denied in a recent interview. BIDEN [on ABC’s The View, 05/08/25]: They’re wrong. There’s nothing to sustain that. GUTIRREZ: As for the release of the special council audio, Biden’s spokesperson says his administration had released a transcript more than a year ago and that the audio does nothing but confirm what is already public. He wrapped with the actual question skeptical Americans are asking: “Meanwhile, a major question today that we don’t yet have an answer to, how was the cancer missed in earlier screenings?” NBC News medical contributor Dr. John Torres broke down what Biden’s Gleason score of nine means and possible treatments, but also ran cover for the timing with zero reason to doubt it: Torres joined the 3rd Hour of Today for more of the same, reiterating regular testing for such conditions were scaled back some time ago. CBS Mornings was even more vague. Senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang tacked onto the end of her report about the diagnosis and well-wishes that “this is all unfolding at a sensitive time because a new book that dives into President Biden’s cognitive and physical health and whether top aides concealed that information during the 2024 campaign is set to be released tomorrow.” Medical contributor and former Biden transition official Dr. Celine Gounder defended the sudden diagnosis, arguing there shouldn’t be reason for concern about transparency because, in her analysis, men at Biden’s age stop testing for prostate cancer (click “expand”): KING: But you hear the thing, spread to bones. How long does that take? We hear he was just diagnosed last week. Does it spread to the bones very quickly? I always thought it took a while to do that. Wouldn’t he be getting regular checkups? GOUNDER: Yeah, so depends on the kind of cancer you’re talking about here. We know it is quite aggressive. Again, the time in which it would take to spread the bones is going to be shorter than with a less aggressive cancer. And he is 82. Normally, doctors will stop screening for prostate cancer at 75 or so — KING: Mmmmm. GOUNDER: — because after that the prostate cancers you typically pick up are very slow growing and so, the harms of all of the testing and treatment — BURLESON: Gotcha. GOUNDER: for something that may not kill you — KING: Got it. GOUNDER: — you know, you’re talking about risk versus benefit, it may not be worth the risk. DOKOUPIL: Isn’t there a blood test that men can take to know if they have an issue that might warrant further examination? GOUNDER: So there’s something we call a PSA test, but that can also be indicative of many different things. It could just be you have an enlarged prostate. Maybe you have a low-grade infection in the prostate. There are many things that can cause that. And so, this is again why, after a certain age, doctors will typically stop screening for prostate cancer. DOKOUPIL: Wow. GOUNDER: But in his case, it’s not screening. It’s important to emphasize this was diagnostic because he had urinary symptoms. And so, there was a reason to do more testing. Gounder doubled down on CBS Mornings Plus. When asked whether was something he could have been living with for awhile or something that genuinely just came about, Gounder said either could be true: He could have been living with this for a while, but typically men are — we stop screening men for prostate cancer around the age of 75. He's 82. And why is that? Because most of the prostate cancers we pick up in, men over 75 are slow growing and you're weighing the risks of all of the diagnostics, the biopsies, the treatment. And that may not make sense when this is a prostate cancer in most men that may not kill them. We say many people die with prostate cancer, not from prostate cancer, so it's certainly possible he could have been living with this with some for some time, and only now developing symptoms, that it was that they did some testing for this. To see the relevant transcripts from May 19, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS Mornings), here (for NBC’s Today), and here (for NBC’s 3rd Hour of Today).

After a prison escape late last week in New Orleans that one fed-up lawmaker said resembled scenes from "The Shawshank Redemption," authorities said seven of the 10 escapees were still on the loose over the weekend — and one of at-large escapees is a convicted murderer. The inmates were discovered missing during a routine 8:30 a.m. Friday head count at the Orleans Parish Jail, the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office told CBS News, adding that they were believed to have escaped sometime just after midnight. They all were considered "armed and dangerous" — and likely had help from the inside, the news network added. 'This is something out of the "Shawshank Redemption'' film, though the escapees are no Andy Dufresne or Red Redding but are dangerous men who pose a serious risk to the safety of citizens in the New Orleans area.'Derrick Groves is one of the still-escaped inmates, the sheriff's office said. He was convicted of murder in a 2018 Mardi Gras shooting, CBS News noted.RELATED: Trump orders restoration of Alcatraz prison to lock up 'dregs of society' Image source: Orleans Parish (La.) Sheriff's Office New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick asked the public to notify police if they were victims or witnesses at the escapees' trials so they could get help, CBS News said. Sheriff Susan Hutson said the inmates pulled a sliding jail cell door off its track around 12:23 a.m. and left the jail by 1:01 a.m. after breaching a wall behind a toilet, the news network said, adding that the toilet and bolts were removed using toiletry items, although Hutson didn't specify what the items were. As with "The Shawshank Redemption," the escapees had a lengthy head start — in this case, about eight hours. The inmates also scrawled obscene messages for the guards on the wall behind the toilet, CBS News said, adding that one was misspelled; it reads "to easy, LOL." RELATED: 'Inmates escape prison' using virtual reality program — infraction rate of solitary confinement prisoners drops by 96% Image source: Orleans Parish (La.) Sheriff's Office The inmates then descended a wall and ran across an interstate highway, CBS News reported. The sheriff's office on Friday night released security video of the escape, starting with the door being yanked of its tracks and ending with inmates seen in the distance sprinting across a freeway.RELATED: Reported illegal immigrant charged with murder of beloved New Orleans French Quarter tour guide In addition to Groves, the other inmates still on the loose were Corey Boyd, Jermaine Donald, Lenton VanBuren, Antoine Massey, Leo Tate, and Gary Price. Image source: Orleans Parish (La.) Sheriff's Office Image source: Orleans Parish (La.) Sheriff's Office Image source: Orleans Parish (La.) Sheriff's Office Authorities captured Kendell Myles, Robert Moody, and DKenan Dennis. Image source: Orleans Parish (La.) Sheriff's Office Image source: Orleans Parish (La.) Sheriff's OfficeLouisiana State Police on Saturday said the three captured inmates were taken to a "secure state facility" and "the search remains active with multiple agencies working nonstop" to find the remaining seven escapees. — (@) Republican state Rep. Mike Bayham in a statement to Blaze News blasted Sheriff Hutson and the New Orleans criminal justice system:This is something out of the "Shawshank Redemption" film, though the escapees are no Andy Dufresne or Red Redding but are dangerous men who pose a serious risk to the safety of citizens in the New Orleans area. The voters of Orleans Parish recently sent a message of no confidence in incumbent Susan Hutson at the ballot box when a 10-year millage renewal for sheriff was only passed by two votes out of over 25,000 ballots cast. Dysfunction in the New Orleans criminal system inevitably spills over to neighboring communities when dangerous violent criminals are able to escape confinement. Representative Jason Hughes and Council President Helena Moreno have rightly asked for a security audit at the jail. Sheriff Hutson has no business seeking re-election this November. New Orleans could do better randomly picking a name out of the phone book than Sheriff Hutson.What else do we know?In regard to the delay in discovering the jailbreak, Hutson told CBS News that "you gotta go inside the facility to be able to see; they could have been anywhere. Then we had to first prioritize talking to victims to make sure they were safe." Hutson added to the news network that it's believed the escapees received help from jail staff or deputies.Kirkpatrick added to CBS News that authorities notified some of the victims of the escapees; several of them are facing murder charges or other violent charges. Police moved one family to safety, Kirkpatrick added to the news network.Kirkpatrick added to CBS News that the escapees probably had help, and it wasn't likely that they still were wearing their jumpsuits. Kirpatrick also warned the public that those who harbor or help these escapees "will be charged," the news network also reported. The sheriff's office is laying some of the blame for the escape on the city for not funding prison security upgrades, CBS News said, claiming it has been asking for help for five years. Hutson added that replacing the locks alone at the parish's prison facilities is estimated to cost $5.2 million, the news network said.RELATED: 'The rats are eating our marijuana; they're all high': Infested New Orleans police evidence room becoming rodent cafeteria Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

No moment offers a political party a better opportunity for self-examination than losing the White House after a single term. But the Democratic Party refuses to seize that opportunity. Instead, party leaders and media allies have turned their ire toward the one man with no role in shaping the party’s future: Joe Biden. Yes, Biden’s four years exposed real structural problems worth sorting out. Friday’s release of special counsel Robert Hur’s tapes exposes just how far gone the president was and raises serious questions about how closely he must have been managed. Tapper, Thompson, and the rest are covering up the Democrats’ own failings, giving them the excuse they need to avoid any real soul-searching. Then came Sunday’s revelation that Biden is suffering from an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer — two years after he slipped up and said he had it and one year after his doctor publicly presented a clean bill of health (but declined to take questions). The White House claimed at the time his claim of having cancer referred to skin cancers that were removed (a common procedure for the elderly), but we know for a fact that the White House lied to the public about his mental health, and the Biden family only revealed this information as the country gets ready for another week of scrutiny on the former president. None of those problems, however, touch the core philosophical rot Democrats must confront. The reality is that Biden didn’t defeat the Democrats; Vice President Kamala Harris did — and she was a candidate more wounded by her ideas than her campaign’s short runway. Now, ahead of Tuesday’s release of “Original Sin” — the new book by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson — the salacious details of Biden’s mental and physical decline have become political gossip. But the truth remains unchanged: Everything the book reveals was painfully obvious to anyone not peering through Democrat-colored lenses for the past five years. We already knew the president couldn’t remember the names of senior staff. We watched him forget his own defense secretary’s name — even when they stood side by side. We saw the signs of dementia. He stood frozen in place, staring blankly into space for minutes at a time. When asked about it, Washington Post “fact-checker” Glenn Kessler shrugged and said Biden just doesn’t dance. We saw the mumbling, the sudden outbursts of anger, the muttered non sequiturs. We saw it again and again. We saw the physical decline, too — how he abandoned the main stairs of Air Force One, how he fell repeatedly in public. After watching him on camera for decades, we could tell his gait had stiffened and grown unsteady. The book’s only meaningful new claim is that Biden’s staff believed he might need a wheelchair after the campaign. While historically relevant, that detail pales in comparison to the deterioration the public witnessed in real time. He looked bad even before Iowa’s caucuses and New Hampshire’s primary! So how did a clearly declining man who handily lost both of these primary races end up reversing the narrative and taking the nomination in a barnstorm? That question points to the party’s structural troubles on the one hand, but also to the pox on Democrat priorities infecting them to this day. For all their talk, the Democrats have a very top-down party structure. The bosses can really move chips around the table when they need to, as was on display when the full weight and power of the party came down on Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders’ unsanctioned and insurgent 2016 primary campaign against anointed champion Hillary Clinton. In 2020, we saw these gears turn for Joe Biden — starting first in South Carolina. Joe Biden wasn’t Barack Obama’s first choice. He wasn’t the Clintons’ either. He stood far from the top of his game. So why did Democratic Party leaders rally behind him? Because he was, quite simply, the least insane option on stage. And that points directly to the party’s deeper sickness. Think back to that 2020 stage, if you can. You had Bernie Sanders, well past his prime and weakened by his reluctant acceptance of woke ideologies; clucking Harvard professor and scold Elizabeth Warren; New York technocrat Michael Bloomberg; nightmare drunk aunt Amy Klobuchar; tiny town mayor Pete Buttigieg; global warming fanatic and hedge-fund manager Tom Steyer; high school snitch Michael Bennet; latecomer Deval Patrick; unknown tech guy Andrew Yang; and veritable Democratic apostate Tulsi Gabbard. That doesn’t even include perennial loser Beto O'Rourke, Manhattan cuckold Bill de Blasio, China enthusiast Eric Swalwell, illegal immigrant devotee Julián Castro, séance medium Marianne Williamson, or Kamala Harris — all of whom dropped out before the primary even began. Early on in the debate, moderators asked the candidates if they would decriminalize illegally crossing the border into the United States. Biden was the only one who actually made it to Iowa who opposed this idea. The only one! Well, this would not do in November, and so nobody’s first choice to take on Donald Trump was anointed in South Carolina, cruising toward Super Tuesday looking like a moderate and a winner, with no need to hold rallies or even a convention, and a corporate press willing to do anything it needed to in order to defeat the incumbent and see a Democrat in the White House again. Party leaders saw what everyone else saw: Biden was the only candidate who appealed to the Democratic base and could still sell his platform to the broader public. His scripted rise allowed Democrats to gloss over the mess — open borders and a slate of fringe ideas pushed by nearly every other serious contender. But once in office, the radicals he had outmaneuvered took control. They implemented the very policies voters had rejected. And four years later, when his debate with Trump showed Democrats the charade was finally, mercifully over, they got their woman. Really, she wasn’t their woman. She did not even make it to Iowa in 2020 because people didn’t like her, and she hadn’t improved at all since joining the administration. Democrats can claim Biden’s refusal to bow out in time held stunted her ability to convince voters they liked her, but that doesn’t comport with the facts. She had one of the most high-profile jobs in the world for four years, checked (or at least smudged) all the Democratic boxes for being a woman and whatever ethnicity she is, and had the full power of a media coronation behind her. Kamala Harris served an administration that had divided the people and weakened the country. She was unwilling to offer either a convincing defense or any alternative to the course we were on, and she hoped she could wall herself off from cross-examination. She had spent more than a decade pronouncing and enacting radical policies, and when she ran for president, she could not escape her record, no matter how many flags they put up for the convention. Remember how her campaign refused to let her talk to reporters until she was obviously trailing? They can complain all they want about not having the time, but when given time, they left it on the table. The Republicans, meanwhile, ran against the Democrats’ past record, current policies, and future proposals and won the popular vote for the second time in 36 years. Now Democrats and their friends in the news business had both an important and opportune time for introspection. They chose to do otherwise. Tapper, Thompson, and the rest aren’t simply covering up the press’ complicity in the farce of the past decade — they’re covering up the Democrats’ own failings, giving them the excuse they need to avoid any real soul-searching. “It’s not our fault,” you can hear the press saying. “It’s the White House’s fault! They lied to us!” And the Democrats can’t be to blame for their deep unpopularity, either. “It’s Joe’s fault! He stayed in too long! He was too old! Kamala never stood a chance because of him!” Well, Joe’s gone now. And it’ll be mighty difficult to pick up the pieces while Democrats and their reporters are pretending nothing is broken. Blaze News: Democrat lawmakers completely flip on Biden's mental acuity Glenn Beck: Biden was a puppet, not a president. So who signed the pardons? Blaze News: The party of democracy just stole an election from itself Blaze News: Democrats pick Beijing over Trump in shocking trade war poll Blaze News: Illegal alien teen in blue state avoids jail time despite killing woman in car crash Blaze News: Harvard staff fall over each other to aid comedian's fake deportation claim, offer tips to evade ICE Sign up for Bedford’s newsletter Sign up to get Blaze Media senior politics editor Christopher Bedford’s newsletter.

Oklahoma might be one of the deepest red states in the country, but that hasn’t stopped woke policies from infiltrating the school system. Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters is leading the fight against the takeover, and he tells James Poulos on “Zero Hour” just how he plans to win the war for America’s future. “It’s unreal how bad the problem is,” Walters tells Poulos. “When I first got into office, we banned pornographic material from the classrooms, we banned transgender ideology from the classrooms. I was sued by our own administrators.” Walters was sued by the administrators to keep the books “Gender Queer” and “Flamer” in grade school classrooms — both of which contain pornographic material depicting homosexual relationships. “Inclusivity? You want ‘Gender Queer’ and ‘Flamer’ in the classroom? You guys are the same ones that then turned around and sued me to keep the Bible out of the classroom. So it was inclusivity except when it came to the most read book in American history,” Walters says. But it’s not just the books that has Walters concerned. “I had two school districts, one of them sent out a handout to a classroom of high school kids asking them about their favorite sexual preferences in graphic detail, about which of these sexual preferences do they have,” he tells Poulos. “That is completely inappropriate in the classroom,” he continues. “We have pulled over 100 teacher certificates from sending sexually explicit text messages or committing sex acts with kids in the state of Oklahoma.” “We’ve had to pass all these rules, all these requirements, because of again, people that have crossed the line, people that have indoctrinated kids, and then people who have taken even a step further to engage sexually with kids, and that’s where we have got to protect our young people,” he explains. And again, this is all happening in Oklahoma, one of, if not, the reddest state in the country. “If we’re dealing with it in Oklahoma,” Walters warns, “I’m telling you, it’s happening in every state.” Want more from James Poulos?To enjoy more of James's visionary commentary on politics, tech, ideas, and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

A fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, was the apparent target of a car bomb on Saturday.The FBI identified Guy Edward Bartkus, who was killed in the explosion, as the suspect in the attack.'I think we need a war against pro-lifers.'Akil Davis, the assistant director of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, stated that the incident appeared to be "an intentional act of violence." Davis also referred to the attack as "terrorism," linking the suspect to "nihilistic ideations.""This was a targeted attack against the [in-vitro fertilization] facility," Davis said. "Make no mistake: We are treating this, as I said yesterday, as an intentional act of terrorism."Interim U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli confirmed that the explosion was intentional."My office along with the FBI will be leading the terrorism investigation into this incident. Federal prosecutors and special agents are on scene," Essayli said. "We do not believe there is any further threat to the public at this time. We will release as much information as possible that does not jeopardize our active investigation."The explosion, which occurred in the facility's parking lot, caused significant damage to American Reproductive Centers and nearby buildings. Bartkus, 25, died in the blast, and at least four others were injured. No embryos were destroyed, according to the clinic. RELATED: Wyoming abortion ban blocked hours after suspect arrested in connection to clinic fire — (@) American Reproductive Centers stated in part, "We are immensely grateful to share that no members of the ARC team were harmed, and our lab — including all eggs, embryos, and reproductive materials — remains fully secure and undamaged. We are heavily conducting a complete safety inspection and have confirmed that our operations and sensitive medical areas were not impacted by the blast."The FBI believes that Bartkus had planned to livestream the attack. It is currently investigating "a possible manifesto."In an alleged online manifesto, the suspect shared his anti-natalist beliefs."The end goal is for the truth (Efilism) to win, and once it does, we can finally begin the process of sterilizing this planet of the disease of life," it reportedly read. "Life can only continue as long as people hold the delusional belief that it is not a zero sum game causing senseless torture, and messes it can never, or only partially, clean up.""I think we need a war against pro-lifers," it added.The alleged manifesto also encouraged viewers to "download the recorded stream of my suicide & bombing of an IVF clinic."RELATED: War on faith: How anti-Catholic violence is exploding almost unnoticed On Sunday, KTLA spoke with Bartkus’ father, Richard Bartkus, who claims he had not spoken with his son for over a decade.He claimed that his son had a history of setting fires, including burning down their family home at 9 years old. “What my [former] wife, what my daughter knows, I really don’t know. But they had to see a change in him. They don’t just go off like that and nobody sees a change,” he told KTLA.U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi stated that she had been briefed about the attack. “We are working to learn more, but let me be clear: the Trump administration understands that women and mothers are the heartbeat of America. Violence against a fertility clinic is unforgivable,” she wrote in a post on X. — (@) Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!