'Some threshold below which continuing to run is a bigger risk'

'You have to do a little time in jail'

‘our aircraft came into contact with a boat'

'The organization would have operated at least from 2004 until August 12, 2022'

50 Of The Best Lyrical Moments In Rock And Pop Music is just that, it’s that moment in the song when the lyrics, the melody, the arrangement, the mood and the vocals all work together perfect to create a stanza that becomes legendary. It’s not just the lyrics, although that is the most important part, it’s the way the lyric is delivered and how you felt the first time you heard it and never forgot it. There are thousands of those moments in rock and pop history. Some of these are are just a couple of words while others are The post 50 Of The Best Lyrical Moments In Rock And Pop Music appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

Hunter Biden Trial Day Six: Hunter Doesn't Testify, Closing Arguments

Kamala Harris and Jake Sullivan Mourn Dead "Innocents" in Gaza after Heroic Rescue Mission

Over the weekend, Israeli Defense Forces soldiers put their lives on the line in a daring raid into a Hamas stronghold to rescue four of the October 7hostages. But during a moment of triumph for the forces of good, ABC host Martha Raddatz sided with evil during Sunday’s This Week. Throughout her interview with IDF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner (Ret.), Raddatz repeatedly interrupted, demanding to know why the soldiers decided to kill terrorists instead of letting themselves and the hostages be slaughtered. After Lerner recounted how Saturday “was a very, very jubilant day” in Israel with people “cheering on the beaches of Tel Aviv and dancing outside the hospital where the hostages were brought,” Raddatz attempted to kill that mood. Parroting unverifiable Hamas propaganda that 274 civilians were supposedly killed, Raddatz was less concerned about the lives of Israelis and more concerned with airstrikes on Hamas fighting positions. “Colonel, part of this mission were the air strikes we saw, buildings destroyed in a civilian area in broad daylight,” she huffed. Raddatz refused to admit the fact that Hamas chose to use human shields and Lerner schooled her on it. “Martha, every civilian life lost in this war is a tragedy,” he said. “Every civilian life lost in this war is a result of how Hamas has operated. Let's think about, just for a moment, where they were holding the hostages, within civilian houses, within people's apartments.”     As Lerner was explaining how Hamas was trying to kill the hostages in the midst of the rescue operation, Raddatz interrupted him again to demand an explanation for the air strikes as if saving the hostages wasn’t good enough: LERNER: And, indeed, when we extracted and snatched the hostages, Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, Shlomi Ziv – When we extracted them out, the forces came under extensive attack in an attempt to kill both them and the hostages. RADDATZ (interrupting): And is that the reason for the air strikes? Tell me why those air strikes were necessary, why buildings were destroyed in that attack. LERNER: The forces came under fire from a 360-degree threat. RPGs, AK-47s, explosive devices on the way, mortar rounds. “It was and is a war zone,” Lerner told her off. “And so, civilians in that -- the tragedy of civilians being caught up in this is precisely because of how Hamas is battling us on the battleground.” He tried to warn that Hamas couldn’t be allowed to survive because “they will” try to take innocent civilians hostage again and bring them to “places like Nuseirat in apartment buildings,” but Raddatz wasn’t having it. Interrupting him for a third time, Raddatz questioned the idea that the IDF ever thought about Palestinian civilians. “Again, again, Colonel, we are all grateful the hostages are safe, but just one final question. Would you carry out a similar rescue mission to get the other 116 hostages, no matter the cost to civilians in Gaza?” she pressed. “We would not have to be at war at all with Hamas and the war can be over today if Hamas lets the hostages free. Is that too much to ask?” Lerner pushed back. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: ABC’s Good Morning America June 9, 2024 11:07:36 a.m. Eastern MARTHA RADDATZ: I'm joined now by Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson and retired Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner. It is good to see you this morning, Colonel. We are also happy those hostages are safe. Give us a picture of the scale of this mission. We just heard James report with some of the detail, but the ground troops, the air strikes, how long this lasted. LT. COL. PETER LERNER (Ret., IDF spokesman): Martha, this was an effort conducted and planned over several weeks in order to get the best result. And indeed it came together with extensive intelligence, a map of intelligence that created a good grasp of how the enemy were holding the four hostages, and that then was translated into an operational plan to actually bring them out. There was so much that could have gone wrong in this rescue mission. We need to keep in mind that all of our war efforts is crafted and designed about bringing back the hostages, so for the success of this operation at this time, I believe that it was a huge feat from a professional perspective, but also on the level of morale and here in Israel. And it was a very, very jubilant day yesterday where people were cheering on the beaches of Tel Aviv and dancing outside the hospital where the hostages were brought later for their medical examinations. So, the operational side absolutely reflects and spills over into societal issues and there is a hope that we can continue to bring home the hostages either through negotiations or in special force operations like we did yesterday. RADDATZ: And, Colonel, part of this mission were the air strikes we saw, buildings destroyed in a civilian area in broad daylight, there were people on the street during this attack through the air. Did you factor in the loss of so many Palestinians in this operation? LERNER: So, we don't know how many casualties were caused in the strike in the release and rescue operation. And I would be very cautious at accepting any figures and numbers that Hamas are putting out. RADDATZ (Interrupting): But even the Israelis -- Hamas is putting out 274, but even the Israelis, another spokesman from the IDF, said there were fewer than 100. That's a significant amount of casualties. Did they come from those air strikes in broad daylight? LERNER: Martha, every civilian life lost in this war is a tragedy. Every civilian life lost in this war is a result of how Hamas has operated. Let's think about, just for a moment, where they were holding the hostages, within civilian houses, within people's apartments. In the same apartment they were being held were the families that own the apartments. This exemplifies specifically how Hamas are operating. And, indeed, when we extracted and snatched the hostages, Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, Shlomi Ziv – When we extracted them out, the forces came under extensive attack in an attempt to kill both them and the hostages. RADDATZ (interrupting): And is that the reason for the air strikes? Tell me why those air strikes were necessary, why buildings were destroyed in that attack. LERNER: The forces came under fire from 360-degree threat. RPGs, AK-47s, explosive devices on the way, mortar rounds. It was and is a war zone. And so, civilians in that -- the tragedy of civilians being caught up in this is precisely because of how Hamas is battling us on the battleground. Our responsibility, first and foremost responsibility, is to rescue the hostages, to bring them home, to create a better security situation for Israelis, and I would say for Palestinians alike. Hamas have to go. Hamas can't be trusted with the powers of government because that is what they will do, they will build a terrorist army, they will infiltrate into Israel and abduct partygoers from the nova party and hold them hostage in places like Nuseirat in apartment buildings. RADDATZ (interrupting): Again, again, Colonel, we are all grateful the hostages are safe, but just one final question. Would you carry out a similar rescue mission to get the other 116 hostages, no matter the cost to civilians in Gaza? LERNER: There can be a rescue mission like what happened yesterday, but there also could have been negotiations that create the opportunity. Our role is to create the conditions either way that Hamas realize that they should give back the hostages, they should set the hostages free. We would not have to be at war at all with Hamas and the war can be over today if Hamas lets the hostages free. Is that too much to ask? RADDATZ: We appreciate your time this morning. Thank you. LERNER: Good day.

Democratic strategist James Carville has finally admitted that he didn't want President Joe Biden to run for re-election.For months, Carville has warned the Democratic Party may lose to Donald Trump in November. Not only has Carville said that his party needs to "wake the f*** up" because Biden is a weak candidate, but he believes the far-left exerts an unreasonable amount of influence on the party, which has caused Democratic leaders to focus on the wrong issues.'I've got to live in the world that I’ve got to live in, not the world I wanted to live in.'On Sunday, Carville's criticism reached a climax.In a radio interview on WABC's "The Cats Roundtable," Carville revealed that he didn't want Biden to run for president this year."We have a choice to make in November. It isn't the choice I was crazy about," Carville said. "I thought that President Biden should not run for re-election. But he did — it's him and Trump — and that's where I am."His opposition to Biden's decision aside, Carville revealed that he is supporting Biden's campaign against Trump "1,000%" and will vote for Biden on Election Day.To bolster his position that Biden should not have run for re-election, Carville said "the under-appreciated thing about the current state of the Democratic Party" is a deep bench of talent.Specifically, Carville listed: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D), Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D)."There's so much talent, and a lot of it is young and vigorous and energetic," he said. "I thought that President Biden should consider not running for the election, but that's not the choice that he made. I've got to live in the world that I’ve got to live in, not the world I wanted to live in."Still, Carville is embracing this world.Last week, Carville argued that media outlets have a duty to become activists for Biden's campaign, advising they bias coverage to hurt Trump because the "Constitution is in peril.""I don't have anything against slanted coverage. I really don't," Carville said. "I would have something against it at most other times in American history, but not right now. F*** your objectivity. The real objectivity in this country right now is we're either going to have a Constitution or we're not."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

School closures had a deleterious impact on at least one generation of American children. Not only did kids' academic capabilities suffer during what became the longest interruptions in schooling since formal education became the norm; they also faced spikes in mental illness, suicide, obesity and diminished immune systems. It turns out that the kids whose initial experience of public school was limited to those fleeting moments classrooms weren't shut down at the behest of teachers' unions are not all right. According to the Education Week State of Teaching survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,500 pre-K through third-grade teachers, kids are struggling with social-emotional skills and basic motor function. The use of scissors, pencils, and crayons, as well as the practice of tying shoelaces, are apparently far more challenging tasks for kids today than they were for students of the same age five years ago. 94% of teachers indicated that listening and following instructions are now much or more challenging for their students. 77% said that students had difficulties using basic tools and writing instruments. 69% of respondents said kids were struggling to tie their own shoes. 85% of teachers said they saw a massive difference between the new and old cohorts when it came to "sharing, cooperating with others, and taking turns." The National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University found that whereas other emotional and social issues have improved since the pandemic, kids' difficulty making friends, sharing, and getting along with their peers has worsened. While pandemic kids are having trouble making friends, they appear to be really good at making enemies. Another survey by the EdWeek Research Center revealed in April that 70% of educators observed students in their schools misbehaving more than compared with the fall of 2019. Steven Barnett, the senior co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research, told Education Week that the pandemic precluded some parents from enrolling their children in preschool and kindergarten, which may have had an effect. Even if they had enrolled their kids, the union-supported school closures — which reportedly did not prevent community spread of COVID-19 — and the corresponding push toward remote learning would likely have had the same result. Barnett suggested that poor kids may have been disproportionately impacted in terms of functionality. "There is a concern that low-income kids did not come back to preschool as quickly as other kids," said Barnett. According to the State of Teaching survey, 79% of teachers who reported kids having trouble tying their laces worked in schools where the vast majority of students received free and reduced-price lunch. Challenges with shoelaces were also more pronounced in schools where the majority of students were black. Khy Sline, supervisor of curriculum development at KinderCare Learning Companies, told The Hill, "It definitely doesn't surprise me. I think that we all anticipated that the pandemic would have implications far beyond lockdown for not only young children but all children." Sline indicated that such is the fallout of "losing that much time of connection while we were locked down and spending time primarily in our homes and just not necessarily having the same experiences and exposures to other children." 'I can imagine that that would be a very draining experience on a daily basis in the classroom.' As during the pandemic, teachers have found a way to make this problem about them. Education Week noted that children stunted by school closures and deadly containment protocols might be disruptive to the classroom environment. "As a teacher, if I feel that none of the children are listening, I can imagine that that would be a very draining experience on a daily basis in the classroom," said Sarah Duer, director of the Hollingworth Preschool at Teachers College. Alex Gutentag, a former public school teacher, recently assigned blame for the fallout of the school closures in an article for Tablet magazine: "School closures were a yearlong exercise in anti-solidarity. Teachers expected essential workers to deliver food for them, pick up their trash, and literally keep the lights on — all while the union withheld real education from these workers' children." 'It is this fealty — not labor principles or educational concerns — that currently drives the union's actions.' Gutentag suggested that teachers' unions' "fixation on 'safety' was a mania that amounted to the psychological abuse of children, and it has had lasting effect. This mania had little to do with actual safety and more to do with signs of fealty to the Democratic Party. It is this fealty — not labor principles or educational concerns — that currently drives the union's actions." Blaze News previously reported that American Federation of Teachers boss Randi Weingarten called the Trump administration's proposal to reopen in-person learning in 2020 "reckless" and "cruel." While the AFT resisted a return to real work, union affiliates joined in, staging sickouts and going so far as to call reopening schools racist. The National Education Union called for all schools to be shut down in spring 2020, even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had exempted them. The union's president, Becky Pringle, reportedly made over $500,000 while fighting to keep schools closed between September 2020 and August 2021. According to researchers at Stanford University and Harvard University, millions of the kids whom the AFT, the NEA, and like-minded groups successfully kept out of the classrooms have not yet made up for their academic losses. "Over the course of the 2022-2023 school year, students in one state (Alabama) returned to pre-pandemic achievement levels in math," the Harvard Center for Education Policy Research team said in a release. "Despite progress, students in seventeen states remain more than a third of a grade level behind 2019 levels in math: AR, CA, CT, IN, KS, KY, MA, MI, NC, NH, NJ, NV, OK, OR, VA, WA, and WV." As for achievement levels in reading, students still showing up for class in Illinois, Louisiana, and Mississippi returned to 2019 achievement levels in reading. The same could not be said of students in dozens of other states, who remain more than a third of a grade level behind. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!