News DC Studios DC Studios Is Developing a Bane and Deathstroke Movie Please let it be the Harley Quinn version of Bane By Molly Templeton | Published on September 30, 2024 Screenshot: Warner Bros. Pictures Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Warner Bros. Pictures Maybe it was inevitable, in the wake of Joker, and two Suicide Squad movies, and The Penguin: At The Hollywood Reporter, Borys Kit has the news that DC Studios is working up another Batman-villain movie, this one showcasing both Bane and Deathstroke. THR says the studio “is developing a script from Matthew Orton, a scribe on the upcoming Captain America: Brave New World movie.” Thanks to Christopher Nolan and Tom Hardy (pictured above), Bane needs little introduction: He’s big, he wears a goofy mask, sometimes he talks in a very memorable manner. He was created by Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan in the early ’90s, and is famous for breaking Batman’s back. He is also, on Harley Quinn, weirdly sympathetic and delightful. (And he loves the movie Up.) There have been a lot of other Banes, too, so much that “Bane in other media” is its own Wikipedia page. As for Deathstroke, who was created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, he hasn’t been around much longer than Bane in the DC timeline; he first appeared in 1980. Joe Manganiello briefly appeared as the eyepatch-wearing, armor-clad super-soldier in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, but I have a soft spot for the version Manu Bennett played on Arrow. More recently, Esai Morales played the character on Titans. No director is attached to this villain team-up.[end-mark] The post DC Studios Is Developing a Bane and Deathstroke Movie appeared first on Reactor.

Movies & TV the Penguin “Let’s dance” — The Penguin’s “Inside Man” Sofia struggles to get the family to take her seriously, while Penguin continues to play the Maronis and Falcones against each other. By Keith R.A. DeCandido | Published on September 30, 2024 Credit: Macall Polay/HBO Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Macall Polay/HBO While the notion of a crime boss in Gotham named Carmine Falcone came from Frank Miller & David Mazzucchelli’s seminal “Batman: Year One” storyline in four issues of the Batman comic in 1987, the extended Falcone family was developed by Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale in their two miniseries The Long Halloween (1996-1997) and Dark Victory (1999-2000). These two miniseries were very influential on screen adaptations of the Batman mythos, as elements were mined for Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins (the use of Falcone) and The Dark Knight (the alliance among Batman, Jim Gordon, and Harvey Dent until the latter becomes Two-Face), for the TV show Gotham (mostly in its fourth season), and both The Batman (in general the notion of a serial killer targeting corrupt Gothamites, in particular the plot points that Thomas Wayne saved Falcone’s life and that Catwoman is Falcone’s illegitimate daughter) and The Penguin. The Batman, like the “Year One” storyline, only gave us Carmine Falcone. Like the Loeb/Sale miniseries, The Penguin is making use of the rest of the family. In this continuity, the “holiday killer” from The Long Halloween was the Riddler (and the holiday theme was only used insofar as the first murder was on Hallowe’en), so Alberto instead gets to be the plot catalyst by getting his ass shot by the Penguin, rather than the bad guy. This week’s episode of The Penguin gives us some more of Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone. The comic book iteration of Sofia is revealed at the end of Dark Victory to be the “Hangman” murderer who kills various cops and others who were important to District Attorney Harvey Dent, who, after becoming Two-Face, killed her father. The Penguin has that as Sofia’s backstory: she killed multiple women and was committed to Arkham. We open with Sofia undergoing a kind of hypno-therapy with Dr. Julian Rush (Theo Rossi), in which she hallucinates herself still in Arkham and helpless to stop her brother from being killed. After that, she spends the entire episode trying to get shit done and being shut down from all sides. Penguin’s task this week is to continue playing the Maronis against the Falcones. Sal Maroni, unsurprisingly, isn’t thrilled that he’s been framed for Alberto’s murder (though his parading around prison wearing the pinky ring is kind of a thing), but he’s willing to own it if Penguin makes good on his promise to get Maroni the supply of drops that the Falcones are taking out of the flood zone and moving to Robbinsville. Credit: Macall Polay/HBO The plan goes sideways when Johnny Viti insists that Penguin ride in the FEMA truck carrying the drops, not the follow car. (Using a FEMA truck—of which there would be many in Gotham following the flood—is a masterstroke.) Penguin’s entire plan rests on his being in the follow car, which Maroni’s people aren’t going to touch. In the end, the heist goes off as planned, but Penguin is able to bluff his way through it, convincing the surviving members of the Falcone gang that he wasn’t in on it, and killing a few members of Maroni’s gang to make it look good. However, the Maronis still get away with the drops. Nobody outside the Falcones knew about the FEMA truck and its use as a disguised drug courier, so the Maronis have to have someone inside the family. Here’s where Sofia tries to get shit done, but she’s shut down by her uncle Luca (the always-excellent Scott Cohen), who has taken over the business. (Luca was established, not in the Loeb/Sale miniseries mentioned above, but rather in the 2013-2014 “Zero Year” storyline that ran through Batman Volume 2 #21-33 by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Greg Capullo, Danny Miki, & Rafael Albuquerque.) Sofia, however, doesn’t take “don’t worry your pretty little head, let the men handle it” for an answer. She blows off Penguin when he tries to suck up to her, and makes use of a corrupt detective, Marcus Wise (Craig Walker) to find out who the rat is. Wise gives her one of Maroni’s thugs, Arvad, who got shot during the FEMA truck heist, having kidnapped him from the hospital. Wise, being a drugged-out idiot, brings Arvad to the Falcone manse the same day as Alberto’s funeral. The funeral itself is a dreary affair, livened up by the gaggle of protestors who are not thrilled that a mass-murderer (Sofia) is free in the world. Penguin finds Sofia hiding in a corridor smoking a cigarette, and they both agree that Alberto would have hated this solemn funeral. Penguin tries once again to suck up to her, talking about what it was like when his brothers died, and how his mother wouldn’t get out of bed for weeks. Then one day she got up, got dressed, and took him to a jazz club. It was his first time seeing live music, and he and his mother danced all night. Grief can cripple you, he warns her—sometimes it’s better to dance. It’s a lovely scene. Colin Farrell plays it with the same rough and raw charm that he has imbued Penguin with all along, while Milioti’s facial expression shows the wheels turning in her head, as she finds herself reevaluating him. (Tellingly, Penguin states overtly what was implied last week by how squirrelly he was when he visited his mother with Vic. He tells Sofia that his mother died a few years earlier, a lie that he’s obviously eager to maintain, and which you just know is going to bite him on the ass before this miniseries is done….) Penguin gets in trouble of his own, as Arvad’s capture is bad news for him. Maroni’s wife, Nadia (the magnificent Shohreh Aghdashloo) is ready to kill him, but Penguin saves his own ass by giving Nadia the blackmail material he got from Falcone’s safe last week of Johnny Viti sleeping with a woman—whom we now know is Luca’s wife. Penguin intended to give it to Luca at the funeral, but Luca blew him off. He gives it to Nadia to save his own skin—which works as far as it goes, but he needs to take care of business if he wants to keep Arvad from spilling the beans. Credit: Macall Polay/HBO The first thing he does is give Vic the jewels he lifted from Falcone’s safe along with the blackmail photos. Vic’s instructions are simple: put the jewels in Viti’s car. Penguin bitches to Viti about Arvad being captured and not being told, only to “discover” that Viti (and Luca and the rest) don’t know about it. Predictably, they go to Sofia to bitch about it, leaving Arvad alone in the basement. Penguin convinces Arvad to finger Viti as the inside man, after which Penguin says he’ll smuggle Arvad out and back to the Maronis. But then Vic screws up and gets caught breaking into Viti’s car. He was unable to plant the jewels. So Penguin goes with a hastily conceived Plan B, which is to kill Arvad. He then plants the knife he used on Sofia’s right-hand guy, Castillo (Berto Colón), also having Vic plant the jewels in Castillo’s apartment. Luca then helps Penguin’s plan along by shooting Castillo in the head before Sofia can deal with him in any way, further isolating her from the rest of the family. (Luca afterward suggests she go to Italy for a vacation to get away from it all. Sofia does not take kindly to this notion.) And so, just as Penguin was hoping, Sofia asks Penguin to come in on her plan to take over the family, using the new drugs that Alberto was planning to bring in. They can even use the jewels that she found in Castillo’s apartment to finance it! Watching Sofia’s frustrations in dealing with a family that refuses to take her seriously is very compelling. She has two strikes against her: she’s a woman and she’s tainted goods thanks to her stint in Arkham. The most spectacular scene in the hour is at the post-funeral gathering at the Falcone mansion. It’s set up first with a room full of people and a susurrus of noise that goes completely silent as soon as Sofia walks into the room. Then she starts sloppily eating the finger-food, which she’s obviously doing to troll the family. Then she walks in on home movies of her and Alberto as kids. Then the scene itself: Carla Viti, Sofia’s cousin (Aleksa Palladino), approaches. They engage in ridiculous small talk that obviously makes Sofia uncomfortable, with Carla even suggesting they take a “girls’ trip” to Italy, like they used to do when they were younger. Then Carla’s daughter Gia (Kenzie Grey) comes over, and the entire tenor of the scene changes. Sofia kneels down to say hi to Gia, and Carla tenses, wraps an overly protective arm around her daughter, and says, “Gia…” in a strained voice. At that point, Sofia knows she has stripped away all the artifice of their earlier conversation, and forces Carla to admit that she’s scared to death of Sofia and is only making nice for appearances. Sofia deliberately fixes a barrette that’s loose in Gia’s hair, sending Carla into a virtual panic. It’s a tour de force, brilliantly put together by Milioti, Palladino, Grey, scripter Erika L. Johnson, and director Craig Zobel. Credit: Macall Polay/HBO Penguin lays out one of the episode’s major themes in a lecture to Vic, who once again is mainly serving his purpose of Guy Penguin Talks To In Private Moments So We Know What He’s Really Thinking, since when he talks to other people he’s working an angle. You have to adapt, you have to think on your feet, you have to adjust. Throughout the episode, Penguin’s plans are messed up by unexpected events, whether it’s being forced to ride in the truck or giving Nadia the blackmail photos of Viti or rearranging who to frame once Vic fails to plant the jewels in Viti’s car. Each time, he pivots and adjusts. It’s a lesson he’s trying to teach to Vic. For Vic’s part, we get two hints as to stuff happening in his life, about which we know nothing so far beyond the fact that he’s newly homeless after the flood. His eye is caught by a “missing” poster on a lamppost, and he gets a text from someone named Graciela wondering where he is. One hopes that will be dealt with soon…[end-mark] The post “Let’s dance” — <i>The Penguin</i>’s “Inside Man” appeared first on Reactor.

Tesla's German Factory Has a Sick Leave Problem

'Biblical Devastation': Helene An Appalachian Katrina in the Making? UPDATE: FEMA's Job 1 Is ...

Biden/Harris: No More Aid for Hurricane Victims

On Friday's The ReidOut, MSNBC host Joy Reid ridiculously claimed that there are currently fewer illegal border crossings on the southern border than there were during the Trump administration as she hosted a segment that repeatedly compared a second Donald Trump presidency to Nazi Germany, complete with concentration camps. As she led her show recounting that Trump is making immigration a central issue in the campaign, she declared: And now we have Donald Trump, who has decided to make fearmongering about immigration the center of his entire campaign with fascistic rhetoric like promising the largest mass deportation operation in history and promising that it would be a bloody story; spreading racist lies about immigrants eating people's pets; and even talking about giving immigrants serial numbers Nazi style. Ironically, on the same day she ignored a report that ICE estimates there are over 400,000 illegal aliens living in the U.S. who have avoided being deported despite being convicted of crimes, with over 14,000 murder convictions, Reid tried to downplay crimes committed by illegal aliens: And just to remind you as we talk about this, border crossings are actually down to the lowest levels in four years. Violent crimes also way down across the country. And everything you hear on right-wing media to suggest otherwise is a lie. There is no migrant crime wave. Immigrants actually commit fewer crimes than people born in the U.S. Before bringing on her guests, Reid invoked Adolf Hitler to conclude her opening commentary: Recent polling has shown a majority of voters say they trust Trump more when it comes to dealing with the border -- a man who doesn't know the difference between political asylum and an insane asylum, and whose plans to deport every immigrant or anyone that looks like an immigrant would send our economy into a freefall because fear, whether real or irrational, can be an effective political tactic. The question now for America is: Have we gotten to the point where we would destroy our own economy and walk willingly into a Hitlerian dictatorship because of the fear Donald Trump and his MAGA cronies are perpetuating solely for their own political benefit? Responding to a clip of a voter arguing in favor of how Trump handled illegal immigration when he was in office, Reid wrongly claimed that illegal border crossings are lower now than when Trump was President: The only things that we saw in terms of immigration -- as you talked about with Stephen Miller, were taking babies out of the hands of their moms at the border and separating them and sending them off in two different directions and losing track of them. You saw a lot of cruelty -- you saw a lot of talk about s-hole countries. He didn't build a wall, and border crossings are lower now than they were then. What are people seeing? What reality are they living in? In July 2024, the number of apprehensions documented by CBP was 104,101, and in August it was 107, 503. By contrast, the last year Trump was in office -- which includes part of FY21 -- the number of apprehensions per month never reached 80,000. And out of the entire 48 months that Trump was in office, the number of apprehensions only exceeded 100,000 four times. She and her Republicans for Harris guest, former Pence aide Olivia Troye, went on to predict concentration camps of illegal aliens if Trump is elected, the MSNBC host concluding: "Well, I'll tell you what it will look like. It will look like concentration camps in Germany in the 1930s because that's what you call it when you put somebody in a camp with means to separate them from society. It's called a concentration camp." Transcript follows: MSNBC's The ReidOut September 27, 2024 7:01 p.m. Eastern JOY REID: And we begin tonight with just 39 days to go until Election Day with early and absentee voting already under way in some states. And while Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are barnstorming the country talking about what they call an opportunity economy and making things more affordable for Americans -- including housing, food and starting a business -- Donald Trump has forced another issue into the center of the campaign with a lot of help from right-wing media, including Fox -- his running mate's admitted lies, the internet and social media and conspiracy theories cooked up by literal white supremacists. That issue of course is immigration. Donald Trump knows he can't win the election based on the crappy job he did as President or his frankly crazy ideas for another administration like spiking the cost of everything we buy through tariffs. So instead he's going with fear of immigrants. (...) And now we have Donald Trump, who has decided to make fearmongering about immigration the center of his entire campaign with fascistic rhetoric like promising the largest mass deportation operation in history and promising that it would be a bloody story; spreading racist lies about immigrants eating people's pets; and even talking about giving immigrants serial numbers Nazi style. (...) And just to remind you as we talk about this, border crossings are actually down to the lowest levels in four years. Violent crimes also way down across the country. And everything you hear on right-wing media to suggest otherwise is a lie. There is no migrant crime wave. Immigrants actually commit fewer crimes than people born in the U.S. They also don't eat pets. (...) Recent polling has shown a majority of voters say they trust Trump more when it comes to dealing with the border -- a man who doesn't know the difference between political asylum and an insane asylum, and whose plans to deport every immigrant or anyone that looks like an immigrant would send our economy into a freefall because fear, whether real or irrational, can be an effective political tactic. The question now for America is: Have we gotten to the point where we would destroy our own economy and walk willingly into a Hitlerian dictatorship because of the fear Donald Trump and his MAGA cronies are perpetuating solely for their own political benefit? (...) It's hard, I think, for people who probably watch this show and watch MSNBC to understand how voters look at Donald Trump, and they look at the failures, and they also look at the successes. Let me show you. Illegal border crossings fell in July -- they're at the lowest level they are in four years. That's just a fact. And so the reality that people are seeing on Fox -- this idea that immigrants are running through the country murdering people -- it's just not true. (...) ALEX WAGNER: Do you feel like Donald Trump's going to be better on that issue? UNIDENTIFIED MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: Based on what we've seen in his first four years, I do believe that he will be better on that. Yeah. WAGNER: Do you -- are you leaning towards Trump right now? UNIDENTIFIED MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, ma'am. (...) REID: Olivia, "Based on what we've seen in his first four years, I do believe he will be better on that." Based on what? The only things that we saw in terms of immigration -- as you talked about with Stephen Miller, were taking babies out of the hands of their moms at the border and separating them and sending them off in two different directions and losing track of them. You saw a lot of cruelty -- you saw a lot of talk about s-hole countries. He didn't build a wall, and border crossings are lower now than they were then. What are people seeing? What reality are they living in? OLIVIA TROYE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF 97 PERCENT: Well, therein lies the problem, Joy. I think it's just because the fearmongering and all of these narratives, they work when the right-wing media machine is coming together and pushing that, and that's all they're seeing. And so this is a product of disinformation that they're continuing to push devoid of policy or facts. (...) What he says is resonating in communities. Now, the problem with that is that, "What does Donald Trump's immigration proposal actually look like in the future?" It's going to look like encampments. What is it going to look like when they're, like, putting people in encampments on the borders or in these cities where they're shipping them around? What's it going to look like when they're targeting just anyone who looks potentially like a minority in general and taking these kids out of schools and corralling them? (...) REID: Well, I'll tell you what it will look like. It will look like concentration camps in Germany in the 1930s because that's what you call it when you put somebody in a camp with means to separate them from society. It's called a concentration camp.

Since October 7, CBS foreign correspondent Imtiaz Tyab has flaunted his sympathies for the genocidal and anti-Semitic groups besieging Israel, as NewsBusters has documented. But after spending his Monday report bemoaning that Israel had eliminated the entire leadership of the Hezbollah terrorist organization and was seemingly preparing to invade Lebanon, CBS Morning co-anchor Tony Dokoupil dropped his own bomb by saying Hezbollah got what was coming to them. “It was in these massive Israeli air strikes on Friday night that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated. Triggering a major escalation of violence. All weekend, Israel has been relentlessly pounding sites across Lebanon's south and east,” Tyab lamented while beaming in from Lebanon. Without questioning why Hezbollah’s command buildings were there to begin with, Tyab huffed that residential buildings were damaged in the strikes: “But mainly the southern Beirut suburb of Dahia where entire residential buildings have been flattened. We went to the aftermath of one Israeli strike on the end of Dahia which was still smoldering.” Tyab also called the decapitation of the Hezbollah a “rapid escalation of violence” from Israel, while omitting the fact Hezbollah has been launching rockets at Israeli civilians for almost a year: Over the past week, Israel has assassinated at least five Hezbollah commanders. 19 in the past few months, decapitating the Iranian-backed group's leadership. But this rapid escalation of violence has also killed at least 1,000 others in just the past two weeks. 105 on Sunday alone, according to the country's prime minister who also said nearly one million people have been displaced.     In wrapping up his report, Tyab warned that “Israel is preparing for some kind of ground invasion, something that has the potential of being far deadlier than anything we've seen so far.” In an apparent response to Tyab’s framing of the situation, Dokoupil proclaimed that Hezbollah messed around and found out: “If Hezbollah thought that Israel was going to graciously take a year full of rockets, Hezbollah miscalculated.” Tyab could be seen reacting to colleague’s statement with a head tilt and a grimace (pictured above). With Tyab unable to respond since his segment was over, Dokoupil pivoted to former National Security Advisor, Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster for analysis. The CBS anchor piled it onto Hezbollah with multiple quotes about how terrible their former leader was: You know, in the aftermath of Hassan Nasrallah’s killing on Friday, you've got statements from Vice President Kamala Harris and Biden calling him a terrorist, saying he's got innocent blood on his hands. John Kirby said it's good for the region and good for the world that he's dead. For Americans who are confused by those statements, explain then. Why is Hezbollah's leader's death a positive? McMaster reminded viewers that Hezbollah that was global terrorist organization that k9illed innocent people around the world while taking part in other heinous crimes (Click “expand”): In the 1990s they really went global with assassinations in Europe, remember they shot down an airliner in Panama, they destroyed a Jewish community center in Argentina. And in recent years, they've been the shock troops in Syria that have really contributed to half the Syrian population being dead, wounded, or displaced. So, there's tremendous blood on the hands of the organization. They're also a criminal organization. They hold the Lebanese people hostage. They're one of the biggest narcotics trafficking organizations in the world and human trafficking organizations in the world. The Lieutenant General why what Israel was doing was “a required response” by paraphrasing theologian and philosopher G.K. Chesterton: “hey, war's not the best way of settling differences, but sometimes it's the only way to ensure they're not settled for you.” The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: CBS Mornings September 30, 2024 7:05:59 a.m. Eastern (…) IMTIAZ TYAB: It was in these massive Israeli air strikes on Friday night that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated. Triggering a major escalation of violence. All weekend, Israel has been relentlessly pounding sites across Lebanon's south and east. But mainly the southern Beirut suburb of Dahia where entire residential buildings have been flattened. We went to the aftermath of one Israeli strike on the end of Dahia which was still smoldering. Well, this was once a five-story building, and it's pretty much all but obliterated. [Explosion in the distance] Okay. We don't know exactly what that was -- that clearly -- a very loud strike in the distance. And it really just underscores the situation across southern Beirut as Israel continues to strike it heavily. Over the past week, Israel has assassinated at least five Hezbollah commanders. 19 in the past few months, decapitating the Iranian-backed group's leadership. But this rapid escalation of violence has also killed at least 1,000 others in just the past two weeks. 105 on Sunday alone, according to the country's prime minister who also said nearly one million people have been displaced. At Beirut's iconic Blue Mosque, some families, many with young children, have come here desperate for safety. Well, this place of worship has really become a refuge for those who have fled Israel's bombing, telling us that they would rather sleep here out in the open than go back to their neighborhoods until they know it's safe. Like Samar al-Attrash and her three children, who left their home in Dahia with little more than the clothes on their backs. "I told my kids it's scary and that we can't go home," she says. "I'm only telling them a little at a time so I don't traumatize them." [Cuts back to live] Now, President Biden has said an all-out war must be avoided. But look at this video from CBS News Chris Livesay and his team who were on the northern Israeli border with Lebanon, where tanks and armored vehicles have been massing; in what's being described as the clearest sign yet Israel is preparing for some kind of ground invasion, something that has the potential of being far deadlier than anything we've seen so far. Tony. TONY DOKOUPIL: Yeah. If Hezbollah thought that Israel was going to graciously take a year full of rockets, Hezbollah miscalculated. Imtiaz Tyab in Lebanon. Imtiaz, thank you so much. Let's bring in CBS News contributor and former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. General, thank you so much for being here. You know, in the aftermath of Hassan Nasrallah’s killing on Friday, you've got statements from Vice President Kamala Harris and Biden calling him a terrorist, saying he's got innocent blood on his hands. John Kirby said it's good for the region and good for the world that he's dead. For Americans who are confused by those statements, explain then. Why is Hezbollah's leader's death a positive? H.R. MCMASTER: Yeah. Hezbollah's a devastating terrorist organization that has an impact obviously on Israel, who they have vowed to destroy and to kill all the Jews. But they're a global terrorist organization. In the 1990s they really went global with assassinations in Europe, remember they shot down an airliner in Panama, they destroyed a Jewish community center in Argentina. And in recent years, they've been the shock troops in Syria that have really contributed to half the Syrian population being dead, wounded, or displaced. So, there's tremendous blood on the hands of the organization. They're also a criminal organization. They hold the Lebanese people hostage. They're one of the biggest narcotics trafficking organizations in the world and human trafficking organizations in the world. So, it's a good thing for the world that he's dead as well as those 20 or so plus other top leaders who Israel's killed in the last week. DOKOUPIL: So, there's two ways of looking at Israel's stepped up attacks on Hezbollah and Lebanon. You could say it's escalation and it’s going to lead to further war, or it’s a kind of deterrence to say, don’t even try it, stop it now, go no further. How do you view what they’re doing? MCMASTER: I see it as a required response. Right? The -- The English theologian and philosopher G.K. Chesterton said ‘hey, war's not the best way of settling differences, but sometimes it's the only way to ensure they're not settled for you.’ And so, the Israelis – Just think about it from their perspective, they have 80,000 people displaced from the north, 10 percent of their territory is evacuated. They want to get their own people back. But really importantly, on October 8th, right, one day after those heinous attacks, Hezbollah started these rocket attacks back onto Israel in solidarity, you know, with Hamas. But really they are a proxy force for the Iranians, as well. And I think when October 7th Iran really activated what they call the Ring of Fire around Israel. So, Israel has been in the most precarious security situation they've been in since 1948. (…)

After the weaponization of Biden’s DOJ — where peaceful pro-life activists and attendees of January 6 were jailed — it should come as no surprise that Democrats want to crack down harder on American citizens. Recent comments made by Virgin Islands delegate Stacey Plaskett on the weaponization of the federal government couldn’t have made that more obvious. “It’s necessary for the public and the media to try and provide cover for the eradication of the Department of Justice and the FBI,” Plaskett said, claiming without these agencies there would be no checks “against white nationalism, great replacement theorists, Christian nationalists, white fragility, fascists, and the twice-impeached convicted felon former President, and would-be dictator, Donald Trump.” FBI whistleblower, Steve Friend, believes Plaskett reflects “entirely what they’re all interested in.” “They’re sending the new agents to the academy and teaching them that, basically, the only thing they’re going to be focusing on is white supremacy,” Friend tells Jill Savage and Matthew Peterson of “Blaze News Tonight.” Friend notes that the Christian nationalism label is “a trap” and that the FBI “has found the hack around the First Amendment” and “your ability to worship as you see fit.” Savage is concerned that if Kamala Harris does get elected, this could get worse. “What would happen if Kamala Harris gets elected as president and they can even push this further?” she asks Friend. “A Kamala Harris presidency will only further weaponize the FBI. They have their targets,” Friend explains. “The narrative now is that half the country are domestic terrorists,” he continues, warning, “and now you’re going to have a Kamala Harris presidency, God forbid, in the next couple of months if she is elected, where she will take the FBI, the teeth on this attack dog, against her political enemies — and not hesitate.” Want more from 'Blaze News Tonight'?To enjoy more provocative opinions, expert analysis, and breaking stories you won’t see anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

The Democrat-controlled Federal Communications Commission has officially given leftist billionaire George Soros what he wanted: effective control and foreign ownership of over 200+ American radio stations ahead of the 2024 election — including stations that presently run shows from Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, Erick Erickson, Sean Hannity, and Dana Loesch. While some initially cast doubt on whether Audacy will be actually controlled by Soros, the FCC's Monday memo reveals a Soros entity will hold a "controlling, attributable interest in the reorganized company, holding 57% or greater" of Audacy. All three Democratic appointees on the FCC supported the final decision both to approve the assignment of licenses previously under the control of a Texas bankruptcy court to the reorganized Audacy and to spare the company from having to comply with Section 310(b)(4) of the Communications Act, which prohibits foreign owners from having a stake in a radio station license exceeding 25%. Trump-appointed FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said in his dissenting statement, "The Commission’s decision today is unprecedented." "Never before has the Commission voted to approve the transfer of a broadcast license — let alone the transfer of broadcast licenses for over 200 radio stations across more than 40 markets — without following the requirements and procedures codified in federal law," continued Carr. "Not once." Carr previously told nationally syndicated radio host and Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck, "Foreign company ownership of U.S. radio stations is not supposed to exceed 25%. But Soros took foreign investment to make his bid, and then he asked the FCC to make an exception to the usual review process." 'Who controls FPR? Well, Google it.' "We have a very clear process at the FCC that we set up — it could take six months, it could take a year — to go through to [the national security] review the foreign ownership at issue here," Carr told Beck. "But for reasons that are not sort of plain to me, the FCC ... for the very first time ever, has skipped that process for the benefit of this Soros-backed group." — (@) Carr noted in his statement of dissent Monday that the applicants have provided the FCC with "virtually no information at all about their plans to wall off the unvetted foreign interests." Commissioner Nathan Simington, the other Republican appointee on the FCC, like Carr, was shocked by his Democratic peers' willingness to fast-track the deal without bothering to investigate which foreign interests are involved, writing: A Commission eager to fast-track a billion dollar broadcast media reorganization, disregarding foreign ownership concerns, is the same Commission that has gone back to the well several times to impose and re-impose foreign sponsorship identification rules on our smallest independent broadcast license holders every time they place local church content on the air. Just saying. Despite years of concern-mongering about foreign interference, Democrats do not appear the slightest bit bothered. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, among the three commissioners who green-lit the takeover, suggested that everything was above board and business as usual, adding that "to suggest otherwise is cynical and wrong." Simington, apparently in the cynical minority who still value longstanding laws and FCC conventions, pointed out that the reorganized Audacy will be controlled by Laurel Tree Opportunities Corporation and that LTOC will own and control a majority (57% or more) of the voting stock of the reorganized company. "Who controls LTOC? It's not a particularly complicated structure: Fund for Policy Reform. And who controls FPR? Well, Google it," wrote Simington. The Fund for Policy Reform, founded in 2009 and affiliated with George Soros' Open Society Foundations, holds 100% of the voting and equity interest of FPR Capital, which is the sole voting shareholder of LTOC, according to the FCC's Monday memo. 'This reckless, unprecedented move will impact radio stations reaching millions of listeners across the U.S.' Fund for Policy Reform is governed by a four-member board of trustees: Alexander Soros, the apparent heir to the Soros empire and chair of Open Society Foundations; Leonard Banchon; Maryann Canfield, asset manager for OSF; and Michael Vachon of Soros Fund Management, a longtime mouthpiece for the leftist billionaire. A week ahead of securing the power of greater narrative control over American airwaves, Alexander Soros hosted Kamala Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, at his New York City apartment. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) office said of the news, "This reckless, unprecedented move will impact radio stations reaching millions of listeners across the U.S. — handing off our airwaves to foreign interests." Roy, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-N.Y.) were among the only lawmakers in the nation's capital who actually spoke out in recent months about Soros' apparent strategic play for narrative dominance. Roy personally noted that this FCC action underscores why the November election "matters so much. We need [President Donald Trump] to put the right people on FCC and stop this takeover!" Dana Loesch, among the conservative voices whose voice on the radio might soon be silenced, wrote, "Being a rich Democrat means Democrats will exempt you from laws regulating sales to foreign entities. Marxists never follow the laws they demand others follow." Mike Davis of the Article III Project suggested, "The federal courts must immediately enjoin this illegal fiat." Like Blaze News? 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‘Not all cultures are equally valid,’ said Kemi Badenoch. Is there anyone currently enjoying the freedoms of the West who can refute this claim?