'I have a great sense of space and proportion'

'I'd love to get richer'

Born in 1946, Steven Spielberg would go on to become one of the founders of the New Hollywood era, establishing himself as one of the most respected and prolific directors of all time. In his youth, he worked in television while having a few minor film releases before becoming a household name with his film Jaws in 1975. The film went on to be called the first summer blockbuster... Source

Democrat mayors who initially advertised their cities as welcoming sanctuaries for illegal migrants have scrambled to scale back key shelter programs as they grapple with mounting costs and community backlash. New York City, Chicago, and Denver—all self-declared “sanctuary” jurisdictions for foreign nationals living illegally in the U.S.—have moved forward with policy shifts for their migrant shelters in recent months, as their local governments grapple with the financial impact of mass illegal migration. Altogether, their taxpayers have shelled out well over $1 billion to house and feed hundreds of thousands of migrants in the past several years, a review of their spending shows. “Never in my life have I had a problem that I didn’t see an ending to. I don’t see an ending to this,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said during a September 2023 town hall, bemoaning how the Big Apple was receiving up to “10,00 migrants a month” at the time. “This issue will destroy New York City,” he continued. “Every community in this city is going to be impacted. We have a $12 billion deficit that we’re going to have to cut—every service in this city is going to be impacted.” More than 200,000 migrants have overwhelmed New York City since the spring of 2022, according to city officials. The influx of migrants forced Adams to declare 5% budget cuts in September 2023 for government programs and services in order to pay for their housing and other services, and in August he said the city was reaching a “breaking point” from the sheer volume of migrants. Altogether, the Big Apple spent $1.45 billion on migrants in fiscal year 2023, according to the city. The financial burden finally forced New York City to tighten the grip on shelter stays. Migrants living in shelters were ordered to leave after 30 days with no ability to reapply, although some exceptions for medical conditions or “extenuating circumstances” were given, per a decree from Adams in March. Migrants under the age of 23 were given 60 days to remain in the shelter system, and exceptions were made for migrant families. When Texas initiatively began busing migrants into New York City in early 2022, the mayor appeared unbothered and welcoming when addressing the media. “This is a right-to-shelter state, and we’re going to continue to do that,” Adams said in August 2022. “New York is a city that has always represented the democratic values, and the values of our city, of showing our compassion, and that’s what we’re doing here today.” Adams proved to be the first of several big-city mayors to declare a shift in migrant shelter policy. “It is an unsustainable mission because we don’t have support from Congress,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said during a June press conference when defending his office’s decision to begin kicking migrants out of taxpayer-funded shelters. “Congress, of course, refuses to respond to President [Joe] Biden’s leadership and they refused to enact real substantive immigration reform policy, because that’s really what we need.” Chicago welcomed over 43,000 migrants since August 2022 and has so far doled out around $150 million to feed and house them, according to the Chicago Tribune. The financial situation became so dire, the city at one point faced a $538 million budget shortfall, with $200 million of it tied directly to the migration crisis. In response, the city enacted a new 60-day shelter policy for most adult migrants, forcing many of them to leave. Roughly 1,000 migrants had been kicked out of the shelter system by mid-June, according to local reporting. Chicago leaders also appear poised to keep the migrant shelter situation under control as the city prepares for the Democratic National Convention in August, according to local reports. A couple months earlier, Johnson had urged Biden to grant work permits to the roughly half million illegal migrants living in Illinois. The mayor also said at the time that Chicago was capable of welcoming another 400,000 to 700,000 illegal immigrants. The Denver metro area has accepted more than 42,000 migrants from Central and South America since December 2022, according to the Common Sense Institute. The organization estimates that Denver taxpayers and other local organizations have spent as much as $340 million to feed, clothe, shelter, and provide other services to them. Earlier this year, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston announced sweeping budget cuts in order to allocate enough money for migrant services, with an $8.4 million reduction from the city’s police department and a $2.5 million reduction in funding to the fire department. In response to tight budget cuts and community backlash, Denver announced the closure of four different migrant shelters, saving the city tens of millions of dollars, according to Axios. The city is now enjoying record-low migrant numbers. Earlier this year, the mayor issued a how-to guide on how the city could be more welcoming to illegal migrants—individuals the mayor’s office refers to as “newcomers.” The policy reversals in New York City, Chicago, and Denver came despite all three jurisdictions being self-declared “sanctuary” cities, making them welcoming destinations for those living unlawfully in the country. The Center for Immigration Studies—an organization that advocates for tighter immigration levels and tracks sanctuary localities—identifies all three as sanctuary cities for enacting policies that inhibit federal immigration authorities’ ability to apprehend illegal migrants. “These hypocritical Mayors across the country were all too happy to tout their sanctuary city statuses until Texas bused over 119,000 migrants, collectively, to their self-declared sanctuary cities,” Andrew Mahaleris, press secretary for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “These cities are only dealing with a fraction of what our small border communities deal with on a day-to-day basis,” Mahaleris continued. Texas, which shares the largest portion of the U.S.-Mexico border by far, has endured an unparalleled impact of the ongoing migration crisis. In response to what he says has been a failure of the Biden administration to address the crisis, Abbott launched Operation Lone Star, which involves taking on border enforcement unilaterally, cracking down on illegal immigration within the state and busing migrants to self-declared sanctuary cities. Abbott’s office says the busing to these cities will continue until Biden makes a serious effort to control the southern border. “The real crisis isn’t in these major cities—it’s on our southern border, where President Biden’s open-border policies have allowed record-high levels of illegal immigrants, deadly drugs like fentanyl, and weapons to surge into our state and country,” Mahaleris said. “Until President Biden steps up and does his job, Texas will continue busing migrants to sanctuary cities to provide relief to our overrun and overwhelmed border towns.” Officials for New York City, Chicago, and Denver did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation. Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation The post Sanctuary Cities Crack Down on Shelter Programs After Rolling Out Red Carpet for Illegal Migrants appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The Biden administration has warned China against continuing to conduct armed attacks on the Philippines, but China has blatantly ignored the warning, repeatedly harassing Philippine naval vessels and severely injuring its sailors over the past several months. Beijing, for its part, has accused Washington of using the Philippines as a pawn and seems to have every intention of continuing to escalate the dispute. That dispute centers on the Second Thomas Shoal, a disputed reef within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, but also within China’s illegal “nine-dash line” maritime claim in the South China Sea. The dispute is not new, and China has used a wide array of tools to harass and intimidate the Philippines over the past several years. What’s new is the frequency of these incidents and the higher levels of force being employed by the Chinese coast guard against Philippine navy sailors. In March, the Chinese coast guard blasted water cannons and rammed into a Philippine patrol vessel, damaging it and injuring the vessel and crew. China called its move a “necessary measure” and accused the Philippines of violating China’s sovereignty for having resupplied the troops it keeps on Second Thomas Shoal. In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, based in The Hague, ruled in favor of the Philippines in the dispute, but China has rejected the ruling. A month later, in April, and within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, the Chinese coast guard rammed into, and again used water cannons against, Philippine patrol vessels on a mission to resupply fishermen. Chinese state media responded, stating that the operation was “reasonable, legitimate, and professional” and that the Philippine vessels were conducting dangerous maneuvers that justified the “forced use of water cannons to warn the vessel.” In June, a Philippine sailor suffered severe injuries as a result of the Chinese coast guard ramming into, blocking, and launching water cannons against Philippine resupply vessels. Just as in March and April, China justified the use of “control measures” and claimed that the Philippine resupply vessel caused the collision. In another June incident, the Chinese coast guard brandished axes and machetes at Philippine personnel in what the Philippine coast guard has labeled a “brutal assault.” Outnumbered by the Chinese, one Filipino had a finger cut off. The Philippine ambassador to Washington has warned that the conflict with China could engulf the Indo-Pacific. Deterring China across the Indo-Pacific is a key U.S. goal, but the dispute in the Philippines is particularly salient, as the U.S. has a treaty obligation to defend the Philippines from “armed attacks” pursuant to the U.S.-Philippines defense pact. China’s repeated instances of aggression against the Philippines should serve as a warning to the entire Indo-Pacific. The post China’s Aggression Against Philippines Is Increasing appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The Republican National Committee’s Platform Committee has adopted former President Donald Trump’s 2024 Republican Party platform, the Trump campaign announced on Monday. The Trump campaign described the party platform as a “pro-American agenda that stands in stark contrast to the record of weakness, failure, and dishonesty created by [President] Joe Biden,” promising that Trump’s platform “serves as a contract with the American voter that makes clear what we can and will deliver under a President Trump administration with the Republican Party leading the country for the next four years.” In a joint statement, Trump campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said that the platform articulates Trump’s vision to “Make America Great Again in a way that is concise and digestible for every voter.” “While Joe Biden and Democrats argue about who will be at the top of their ticket and have implemented policies that have raised prices on everyday families, opened the floodgates to migrant crime via wide-open borders, shackled American energy with red tape forced by Washington bureaucrats, and sown chaos across the world through weak foreign policy, President Trump will Make America Great Again through these America First principles,” they added. The Fiserv Forum is being prepared for the upcoming Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. (Tannen Maury/AFP/Getty Images) RNC Chairman Michael Whatley and RNC Co-Chair Lara Trump similarly described the platform as a “bold road map that will undo the devastating damage that Joe Biden’s far-left policies have done to this country, power President Trump to a historic victory in November, and Make America Great Again.” The platform begins with “20 promises” that Trump intends to accomplish “quickly” when he gets back into office. Those promises focus on immigration, inflation, the economy, the Second Amendment, ending the weaponization of government, and more. SEAL THE BORDER, AND STOP THE MIGRANT INVASION CARRY OUT THE LARGEST DEPORTATION OPERATION IN AMERICAN HISTORY  END INFLATION, AND MAKE AMERICA AFFORDABLE AGAIN MAKE AMERICA THE DOMINANT ENERGY PRODUCER IN THE WORLD, BY FAR STOP OUTSOURCING, AND TURN THE UNITED STATES INTO A MANUFACTURING SUPERPOWER  LARGE TAX CUTS FOR WORKERS, AND NO TAX ON TIPS DEFEND OUR CONSTITUTION, OUR BILL OF RIGHTS, AND OUR FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS, INCLUDING FREEDOM OF SPEECH, FREEDOM OF RELIGION, AND THE RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS PREVENT WORLD WAR THREE, RESTORE PEACE IN EUROPE AND IN THE MIDDLE EAST, AND BUILD A GREAT IRON DOME MISSILE DEFENSE SHIELD OVER OUR ENTIRE COUNTRY—ALL MADE IN AMERICA END THE WEAPONIZATION OF GOVERNMENT AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE  STOP THE MIGRANT CRIME EPIDEMIC, DEMOLISH THE FOREIGN DRUG CARTELS, CRUSH GANG VIOLENCE, AND LOCK UP VIOLENT OFFENDERS  REBUILD OUR CITIES, INCLUDING WASHINGTON D.C., MAKING THEM SAFE, CLEAN, AND BEAUTIFUL AGAIN. STRENGTHEN AND MODERNIZE OUR MILITARY, MAKING IT, WITHOUT QUESTION, THE STRONGEST AND MOST POWERFUL IN THE WORLD KEEP THE U.S. DOLLAR AS THE WORLD’S RESERVE CURRENCY FIGHT FOR AND PROTECT SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE WITH NO CUTS, INCLUDING NO CHANGES TO THE RETIREMENT AGE CANCEL THE ELECTRIC VEHICLE MANDATE AND CUT COSTLY AND BURDENSOME REGULATIONS  CUT FEDERAL FUNDING FOR ANY SCHOOL PUSHING CRITICAL RACE THEORY, RADICAL GENDER IDEOLOGY, AND OTHER INAPPROPRIATE RACIAL, SEXUAL, OR POLITICAL CONTENT ON OUR CHILDREN KEEP MEN OUT OF WOMEN’S SPORTS DEPORT PRO-HAMAS RADICALS AND MAKE OUR COLLEGE CAMPUSES SAFE AND PATRIOTIC AGAIN SECURE OUR ELECTIONS, INCLUDING SAME-DAY VOTING, VOTER IDENTIFICATION, PAPER BALLOTS, AND PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP UNITE OUR COUNTRY BY BRINGING IT TO NEW AND RECORD LEVELS OF SUCCESS “When America is united, confident, and committed to our principles, it will never fail,” the Trump campaign release said. “Today and together, with Love for our Country, Faith in our People, and Trust in God’s Good Grace, we will Make America Great Again!” The 2024 Republican National Convention will take place next week in Milwaukee. It is closed to the public except for politicians, delegates, the media, and volunteers. The post ‘Road Map to Make America Great Again’: RNC Announces 2024 GOP Platform appeared first on The Daily Signal.

50-Year DC Insider Cries: The Elites Want Me Out!

Fox Business anchor David Asman went after President Joe Biden’s tyrannical electric vehicle (EV) mandate, absolutely devastating Pete “Racist Roads” Buttigieg, Biden's smug and clueless transportation secretary.  During the July 5 edition of Kudlow, Asman brought the receipts, showing that Americans were refusing to be bribed or cajoled into abandoning combustion vehicles. “The bottom line is — however they think they can work it out — their mandates are based on fantasy,” he said.  Asman provided two key examples of how “Americans are slamming the brakes on the Democrats' forced push for electric vehicles.” First, the Fox Business anchor pointed to collapsing EV startup Fisker Inc. slashing prices by “80%” in an attempt to get rid of their cars.  A second brutal blow came from McKinsey & Company, an ESG defender and publisher of debunked DEI studies. Asman cited a February study from McKinsey to show that even Americans who have purchased EVs are not sold on them: Nearly half of them “want to switch back to gas-powered vehicles.” With these two examples, Asman skewered Buttigieg, a former McKinsey & Company employee, for arguing that Americans were inexorably marching towards an all-electric vehicle future in 2050. “You’re not going to meet a whole lot of people who ever go back after they’ve gone electric and I think that really tells you something,” he said.  In the present, Asman mocked Buttigieg for presuming that Americans would fully embrace EVs when “even EV owners don’t.”  Asman’s guest, Alex Epstein, the founder of the Center for Industrial Progress, also pointed out that both the mandate and generous federal subsidies had failed to push the public to embrace EVs. Epstein argued that subsidies for electric vehicles went beyond what was allocated by the Inflation Reduction Act and could be as high as $20,000, $30,000 or $40,000 per car: “There’s all sorts of these crazy credits behind the scenes that allow automakers to lose billions and billions of dollars on EVs but make them up from the sales of gasoline-powered vehicles. Imagine they weren’t getting $30,000 plus and yet even when they're getting $30,000 plus in subsidies, they are still having trouble winning over Americans and the reason is just because for most people at this point in time, they are not the most cost-effective option.” Epstein warned that since this very expensive carrot had failed, the Biden administration was likely to continue using a stick. Epstein said, “Unfortunately, Biden's policy is government-dictated green energy and they think that ‘if we want people to want EVs and we put enough pressure on them, they’ll get them.’ And they’re holding a gun to our head partially but even that's not enough, so I guess they think they just have to totally dictate us or throw us in jail. That’s probably the only way it’s going to really work.”  Conservatives are under attack! Contact ABC News at 818-460-7477, CBS News at 212-975-3247 and NBC News at 212-664-6192 and demand they hold Biden and his cronies accountable for attempting to restrict fossil fuel production and Americans’ choices.

President Joe Biden's administration officially came out to say officials do not support House Republicans' proposal to have a voter ID law for elections to prevent illegal immigrants from voting, as the border crisis has gone on for the entirety of Biden's presidency.Introduced by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act would require states to obtain proof of citizenship in person when registering an individual to vote and require states to remove anyone who is in the country illegally from existing voter rolls.'This bill would do nothing to safeguard our elections.'"Radical progressive Democrats ... are using open-border policies while also attacking election integrity laws to fundamentally remake America. That's why I am proud to introduce the SAVE Act with Speaker Johnson and my Republican colleagues, along with the invaluable support of citizens and organizations that recognize we must end the practice of non-citizens voting in our elections," Roy has said about the bill.The Biden White House said the bill is not needed since there is already a law on the books disallowing non-citizens to vote and that requiring voter ID will hinder Americans from voting."The alleged justification for this bill is based on easily disproven falsehoods. ... This bill would do nothing to safeguard our elections, but it would make it much harder for all eligible Americans to register to vote and increase the risk that eligible voters are purged from voter rolls. The evidence is clear that the current laws to prevent noncitizen voting are working as intended — it is extraordinarily rare for noncitizens to break the law by voting in federal elections," the statement says.The statement then blames House Republicans for not voting for the Senate bill that had some strict measures at the border but was also filled with items that would have codified into law some of the worst aspects of the border crisis. — (@) "81% of Americans want ID verification to vote. It’s pretty straightforward. Democrats are assulating American Citizenship on a daily basis — elections, open borders, fiscal health, welfare to noncitizens. It’s time to stand up for AMERICANS and pass the SAVE Act," Roy posted 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!

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is pushing forward with a new depiction of a classic character.The game was released in May 2024 by Rocksteady Studios, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Games, and was a $200 million disaster. The studio later said revenues for the entire parent company went from a reported $607 million in Q1 2023 down to just $184 million in Q1 2024, a 70% decrease.However, the studio has seemingly taken zero cues from its audience.Shortly after the game's freefall, Warner Bros. Games launched a leadership program for women and non-binary individuals aimed at making the video game industry less male. Announced by startup and tech community Built In, the Women and Non-Binary Leadership Program had the stated goal of upending the gaming industry's allegedly male-dominated characterization.'They perceive femininity and female anatomy as threats to society.'Weeks later, the Suicide Squad game is moving forward with Season 2, despite fewer than 500 people currently playing the game on the Steam platform, according to PC Gamer. These concurrent gaming stats are absolutely abysmal figures for a project of such a magnitude.It seems at least one new character is ready for launch in the new season, and it is Mrs. Freeze — not Mr. Freeze — but his wife, whose character name is Nora Fries.Mr. Freeze was typically portrayed as a bald man with varying degrees of scientist looks and was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1997's "Batman & Robin."At the same time, there exist near limitless depictions of Mrs. Freeze as a classically beautiful blonde woman. The character was played by model Vendela Kirsebom in the aforementioned 1997 flick.It seems the video game studio decided not to go with anything in the vicinity of the usual portrayal of Mrs. Freeze. In previous iterations, she was cryogenically frozen by Mr. Freeze in hopes of finding a cure for her illness. Now, she is seemingly portrayed as taking over her husband's role.One gamer even took it as far as to describe the new character as looking like a "non-binary Karen they/them."The same account, with over 20,000 followers, suggested the studios sees feminine attributes as a threat."I predicted this before the game's release, and the backlash was intense. They perceive femininity and female anatomy as threats to society."The short-haired depiction is actually so far off that outlets have theorized it must be from an alternate/timeline or universe. — (@) The character art follows the recent revelation from a video game artist that it is very difficult get studios to depict beautiful women in modern games.Del Walker, an artist who has worked on Star Wars and Batman games, said that "after 10 iterations the concept or model comes back without a speck of the original beauty I pitched."Walker added that it wasn't only the faces of the characters that have been changed but their entire likenesses, ages, and attitudes.Gamers have pointed out the many examples of dampening beauty, such as Star Wars Outlaws character model Humberly González.A recent remake of the classic Perfect Dark video game was also dragged for hardening the jawline of beloved hero Joanna Dark.This appeared to be a similar instance with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, as the studio has seemed unwilling to depart from the diversity, equity, and inclusion parameters it set for itself during its production by involving diversity consulting company Sweet Baby Inc.The game has faced significant backlash and calls for boycotts throughout its time on the market.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!