The U.S. Department of Defense announced on Friday that it was deploying some additional assets to the Middle East and near the Middle East to increase force posture in the region amid an increased threat environment created by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The U.S. is replacing the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group, which has been deployed in the region, with the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group. The Pentagon is also sending “additional ballistic missile defense-capable cruisers and destroyers to the U.S. European Command and U.S. Central Command regions,” according to a statement. “The Department is also taking steps to increase our readiness to deploy additional land-based ballistic missile defense.” The U.S. is also sending an additional fighter squadron to the region. The news comes as Western intelligence officials believe that a large scale attack against Israel will be launched in the coming days after Israel killed Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s top military commander, on Tuesday and is believed to be behind the Wednesday killing of Ismail Haniyeh, the top leader of Hamas. Shukr was targeted after Hezbollah murdered 12 children inside Israel over the weekend and Haniyeh was targeted in response to the October 7 attacks. Officials believe that the attack will include Iran and its largest terrorist proxy group, Hezbollah, which is located to Israel’s north in Lebanon. The attack may also include other Iranian-backed terrorist groups, including the Houthis in Yemen, and various groups in Iraq. WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI President Joe Biden warned Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a private call this week “that he expects no more escalation from the Israeli side,” Axios reported, even though Israel was protecting itself against those who are responsible for killing large numbers of Israelis. “Biden also warned Netanyahu that if he escalates again, he shouldn’t count on the U.S. to bail him out,” the report added.

Flaming spokes-queer for the Olympics Thomas Jolly has issued an apology for an opening ceremony display in which drag queens ridiculed Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous depiction of Jesus Christ’s Last Supper. Jolly, who is gay, which also means jolly, who is totally gay, said in his apology, “I want to sincerely apologize to any far-right turds who are still stupid enough to believe in God and therefore may have felt all grumpy and offended when we spit on everything they hold dear. By way of making amends, let me explain to you ignorant buffoons that the drag queen imitation of the Last Supper was not a drag queen imitation of the Last Supper but instead was a tribute to the Greek god of wine Dionysus and was simply meant as a celebration of the fact of our being alive because we had drag queens imitate the Last Supper, instead of mocking Muslims who would have stopped us from being alive by throwing us off a roof.”  Flaming spokes-queer gay Jolly later amended his apology to say, “Okay, it had nothing to do with Dionysus and we were mocking the Last Supper but it was still a celebration of being alive because we were too chicken to mock Muslims.”  Now on a personal note, it may be true that some touchy, small-minded Christians were put out by having one of the most solemn moments in a faith centered on truth and morality ridiculed by a bunch of men in falsies and lipstick interrupting a life of self-degradation and the corruption of children in order to pervert a magnificent Christian work of art by turning it from a thing of beauty into a barely watchable display of homosexual narcissism, however I take a broader view.  When it comes to the Olympics, I know that dedicated young people have worked their hearts out with uncanny discipline and commitment in order to perform stunning feats of athletics that absolutely no one cares about. For two weeks, all over the world, people gaze in amazement at their television sets and think, “Is there really nothing more interesting on? Like reruns of “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo,” or “Australia’s Naughtiest Videos.” And of course, I’m generalizing here, so please don’t write in and say you’re offended. Obviously, beach volleyball can be tolerable if the girls are really built. And “Australia’s Naughtiest Videos” actually had some good episodes too. WATCH: The Andrew Klavan Show But for those of us who have standards or good taste or are sentient, the Olympics is like watching paint dry after it’s done a bunch of somersaults on the parallel bars and a group of corrupt foreigners hold up signs giving it a completely arbitrary score before awarding their country a gold medal for best drying paint.  And normally I and other people with sex lives don’t think about the Olympics at all except to wish that it was over because that would mean it’s almost football season. But all that changed this year, because of flaming spokes-queer gay Jolly’s mockery of a religion he won’t be able to comprehend until he stands before the throne of God wondering if the old Dionysus excuse will get him out of the eternal punishment he so richly deserves. But now, I can not watch the Olympics with a real sense of accomplishment. Instead of simply taking a walk or maybe reading a book to learn more about the brilliant artistry and symbolism of Da Vinci’s masterpiece so I can understand just how beautiful a work flaming gay Jolly was mocking when he managed to mix shallowness with cowardice by simultaneously snickering at the God who loves him while kowtowing to the God who would happily toss him off a roof… Where was I going with this sentence? Oh yeah, instead of just ignoring the whole thing by not watching it, I can not watch it with a new purpose and gusto, feeling that my natural unwillingness to be bored to death by people doing somersaults for some reason has been given fresh meaning by my deep desire to tell flaming gay Jolly that it would have been much better if he had actually participated in this year’s Olympic events by taking a flying jump. * * * Andrew Klavan is the host of “The Andrew Klavan Show” at The Daily Wire. He is the bestselling author of the Cameron Winter Mystery series. The third installment, “The House of Love and Death,” is now available. Follow him on X: @andrewklavan This excerpt is taken from the opening satirical monologue of “The Andrew Klavan Show.” The views expressed in this satirical article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire. WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI

She refused to make a spectacle about her private visits to patients

'We’ve seen him struggling despite having the best medical team by his side'

'It didn’t feel real'

Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election through a successful tripartite subterfuge. One, Biden never really campaigned. His handlers rightly assumed that the more the public and the media saw a debilitated Biden in the flesh, the less they would want him as president. So, the Biden campaign used the COVID-19 lockdowns to ensure that Biden stayed safe in his basement office. Biden strategically distanced himself from disinterested journalists, using COVID-19 as an excuse to avoid public appearances. It allowed him to run a 19th-century, front-porch sort of virtual campaign. In his place, the liberal media, Democratic grandees, and the billionaire donor class served as Biden campaign surrogates—vastly outspending, out-advertising, and out-lawyering the underfunded incumbent Trump. Second, again using COVID-19 as a pretext, well-funded Democratic legal teams altered the voting laws during early 2020 in key swing states to encourage non-Election Day voting. For the first time, majorities in many key states voted by mail-in/absentee ballots and during weeks of early voting. We now know why the Left was so motivated to push through radical balloting changes that were otherwise impossible before 2020 but have been mostly institutionalized since. Non-Election Day ballots outnumbered Election Day ballots. These ballots were far more likely to be cast by Democrats. And as the number of such ballots soared, the traditional rejection rate of non-Election Day ballots before 2020 fell—even as registrars were swamped. Once obscure terms such as ballot harvesting and ballot curing became mainstream. Ballot deadlines were extended. There was lax enforcement of incorrect ballot names and addresses or auditing the registrars’ rolls. Rich liberal entities, such as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his $419 million in 2020 cash infusions, sought to absorb the work of state registrars. His aim was to “improve” voter turnout through partisan “assistance”—from funding drop boxes to monitoring non-Election Day ballots. Three, in 2020, the enervated left-wing Joe Biden was reconstructed as a vigorous moderate “ol’ Joe Biden from Scranton.” Biden’s stealth script was to provide a temperate veneer to the new hard-Left Democratic Party. His 2020 campaign claimed Joe was for “unity” and “moderation”—even as it camouflaged an otherwise extremist neo-socialist agenda to be implemented after November. Can the Democrats repeat that winning formula for Kamala Harris in 2024? Only partly. Even without the excuse of COVID-19, Harris certainly will not agree to unscripted, ad hoc interviews with nonpartisan journalists. She is unable to speak extemporaneously and off the teleprompter without appearing childish. Her handlers will ensure few opportunities for Harris to burst into cackling or to stream her puerile musings about yellow school buses or kindergarten geography. Yet the third element of Biden’s 2020 strategy will be difficult to replicate. The Bay Area leftist Harris—unlike the Biden of the 1980s and 1990s—never had any reputation, feigned or not, of being a “centrist” or “moderate.” Her entire political career was one of pandering either to leftist Democrat voters in 2020 or ultra-liberal Californians in her statewide races. She is on record for opposing fracking and off-shore drilling, private health care, border enforcement, and the traditional close U.S. relationship with Israel. She proudly promoted the radical New Green Deal, defunding police forces, mandatory buybacks of private guns, and mass amnesties. She gratuitously championed the swindler Jussie Smollett and the TV actor’s fraudulent claims of being a victim of systemic racism. During the horrendous riots of 2020, she sought to raise bail for violent rioters and looters who had been arrested. On CBS News, she egged on the 2020 protests that had already turned violent with deaths, law enforcement injuries, arson, and mass looting—despite the pathetic efforts of partisan fact-checkers to claim otherwise. Harris gushed of the turmoil: They’re not going to stop. This is a movement, I’m telling you. They’re not going to stop, and everyone beware, because they’re not going to stop. They’re not going to stop before Election Day in November and they’re not going to stop after Election Day. They’re not going to let up and they should not, and we should not. What did Harris mean by “beware?” Was the Black Lives Matter- and Antifa-led mayhem really just a “movement?” Why boast that the turmoil might be endless—both before and after Election Day? And why connect the massive disruptions to the upcoming Election Day—unless she believes that unrest in the streets could weaken the election chances of the then-incumbent president? In sum, Harris, like Biden, is certainly capable of running a remote stealth campaign. She will surely take advantage of 2020’s revolution in non-Election Day balloting. Yet, unlike Biden, Harris has no credible moderate veneer—only an unapologetic radical past and a corpus of hard-Left boasts. So, 2024 will hinge on whether Republicans will expose Kamala Harris’ lifelong, hard-Left ideology and extremist agendas. She is a poor substitute for the successful bait-and-switch 2020 con of “ol’ Joe Biden,” the fake moderate “uniter” from Scranton. (C) 2024 Tribune Content Agency LLC We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Harris Recycles the 2020 Democrat Campaign appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Who Will Let the Children Think for Themselves?

Israel continues to fight for its right to exist as Iran’s proxies — Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis — press on in their pursuit of the total elimination of the Jewish nation. What is the Biden administration, or in the words of Mark Levin, “the Biden-Harris regime,” doing in response? It’s withholding a long list of weapons from Israel, including: 120mm tank ammunition 120mm mortar ammunition Medium tactical vehicles Medium air-to-air missiles F 15s F-135 engines Joint direct attack munition MK-84 bombs Rifles from Israeli national police forces .338 medium machine guns Guided missile systems Biden & Harris are Withholding Weapons for Israel www.youtube.com This list was provided to Levin by “one of the most important individuals in the know,” he says. “Now keep something in mind: All the appropriations for these weapon systems and the ammunition and so forth have already taken place (passed by Congress, signed by the president), but [Biden] is either withholding it or slow walking it,” Levin explains. “In other words, he's impounding funds,” which is “unconstitutional.” According to Levin, Israel desperately needs the MK-84 bombs, for example, to “destroy the tunnels” and “to take out the Iranian nuclear sites.” “But Biden doesn’t want them to take out those sites,” he sighs, pointing to the president’s hypocrisy in claiming that he’s withholding weaponry because “it might escalate things” while happily allowing Iran to build its nuclear armory. The Biden-Harris regime has given “tens of billions of dollars to Iran ... authorized Iraq to continue to sell electricity to Iran,” and “authorized the laxed enforcement of the oil sanctions,” all of which have played a significant role in Iran’s GDP doubling since the Trump administration. Further, Biden has paved the way for Iran’s “alliance with China and Russia and North Korea.” To hear more of Levin’s analysis and commentary, watch the clip above. Want more from Mark Levin?To enjoy more of "the Great One" — Mark Levin as you've never seen him before — subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

A social media mistake might have revealed the highly anticipated pick for the vice presidential candidate and spoiled the surprise. 'Why are they so bad at their job.' A post on X from the mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, said that the state's governor had been chosen to join Kamala Harris on the Democratic presidential ticket. "Proud to be back with so many leaders from across our region supporting @KamalaHarris for President and @JoshShapiroPA for VP! We are One CITY, One REGION, and ONE Commonwealth United!" read the tweet from the official account for Mayor Cherelle Parker in part. The campaign has not confirmed the pick. The leak, with a video confirming Shapiro for vice president, was widely mocked on social media. "Did @KamalaHarris’ pick for Veep just fall out of a coconut tree?" responded Pennsylvania state Rep. Martina White. "Who is running comms for our mayor and why are they so bad at their job," asked another user. "Leave it to an intern from philly to mess up like this man lmaoooo," replied another critic. "I did not have on my bingo card that the mayor of Philadelphia would be the person who announced that Governor Josh Shapiro is running for president. Then again I didn’t have a lot of things on my bingo card that has happened this year so far. Maybe I need a new bingo card," said journalist Salena Zito. Prior to the leak, speculation spiked Wednesday when the Harris campaign scheduled an event in Philadelphia on Aug. 6 and added that the vice president would join Harris. Choosing the Pennsylvania governor would help Democrats win the electoral votes in the contested state, but it would also anger the anti-Israel contingent of the party. Some have noted the criticism against the Jewish politician has veered into anti-Semitic territory. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The U.S. Secret Service failed to do a canine sweep of the bushes at the Democratic National Committee building on Jan. 6, 2021, did not have an explosives ordnance disposal team on site, and failed to use two “key explosive-detection capabilities for the security sweep,” a Department of Homeland Security inspector general report concludes.The long-awaited, 82-page report by Joseph Cuffari is a stinging new indictment of the Secret Service that comes fresh on the heels of the agency’s historic security failure that led to the near-assassination of former President Donald J. Trump on July 13.Thomas Matthew Crooks shot Trump in the ear, killed retired fire chief Corey Comperatore, and seriously wounded James Copenhaver and David Dutch. The rooftop he used as his sniper nest wasn’t guarded by police before Trump’s speech began just after 6 p.m. on July 13.“Inspector General Cuffari’s report is damning and reveals a culture of failure at the Secret Service," said U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), whose office has conducted an extensive investigation of the Jan. 6 pipe bombs."The Secret Service’s inability to spot the pipe bomb on January 6th is part of the same pattern of incompetence that nearly led to the assassination of President Trump," Massie said. "The agency needs serious reform before another one of its protectees pays the ultimate price for its ongoing negligence.”Two pipe bombs were discovered in Washington on Jan. 6: one in an alley between the Capitol Hill Club and the Republican National Committee building and the other in the bushes on the southwest side of the DNC headquarters. Despite a 43-month federal investigation and a $500,000 reward, no arrests have been made.Cuffari submitted the report to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in April after it was reviewed by then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned her post on July 23. Cuffari's investigation began in February 2021.Congressional sources told Blaze News both Mayorkas and Cheatle sought to suppress the report in its entirety. Blaze Media asked the Secret Service and DHS for comments on the report — and the allegation they sought to suppress it — but did not receive a reply before press time. Among the biggest mistakes cited in the redacted report was what the Secret Service failed to do."The area where the pipe bomb was located should have been swept, given its proximity to the garage driveway ramp," the report said.Ronald L. Rowe Jr., acting director of the U.S. Secret Service, did not mention the OIG report during an Aug. 2 press briefing, nor was he asked about it by reporters. Kamala Harris was at DNC when "Explosive Device" Discovered. Why? | The Truth About January 6th youtu.be Delivered to House and Senate oversight committees on Aug. 1, the report said Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris' motorcade drove within feet of the pipe bomb that had been placed in the bushes alongside the DNC building. Harris arrived at 11:25 a.m. Jan. 6 and remained in the building for 1 hour and 50 minutes — nearly 10 minutes after the bomb was discovered by U.S. Capitol Police. The OIG report said Harris' trip to the DNC was put on the schedule two days prior, on Jan. 4, 2021. It does not identify the subject of Harris' meeting or mention others in attendance.“The officer responsible for sweeping exterior areas said that the exterior sweep included the garage entrance ramp and some other areas near the garage entrance, including a storm drain, but did not include the bushes where the pipe bomb was located.”The report said the Secret Service did not use two "key" explosive detection capabilities on Jan. 6. The agency didn't have a specialized site coordinator available, a person whose job is to manage technical assets and bomb countermeasures. Nor did it have an explosives ordnance disposal team at the DNC.The agency told the inspector general it believed it needed to abide by a 72-hour notice when requesting an EOD team for a security sweep. Cuffari wrote that he found no evidence of such a requirement.Revelations loom largeThe shocking revelation that two Secret Service teams with bomb-sniffing dogs failed to find the DNC bomb and prevent Harris from entering a building that was ostensibly at risk of a catastrophic explosion looms even larger in light of the July 13 Trump assassination attempt at a fairground in Butler, Pennsylvania.Multiple investigations have been launched to determine how 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to climb to the roof of the American Glass Research Building 6 without being stopped and get off eight shots from an AR-15 before being killed by a law enforcement counter-sniper. Jan. 6, 2021 DNC Pipe Bomb Discovery youtu.be The Secret Service violated policy by not designating the evacuation of the building where Harris was located on Jan. 6 as an "Unusual Protective Event," the OIG report said. An Unusual Protective Event is defined as "any occurrence, episode or incident that interrupts the normal protective activities of the Secret Service." Cheatle told the inspector general that Harris' evacuation from the DNC was "without question" an Unusual Protective Event and should have been so designated.Massie disclosed in January that the DNC bomb was discovered by a plainclothes Capitol Police officer at 1:05 p.m. on Jan. 6, confirming the story Blaze News first broke Jan. 17.Massie released Capitol Police security video in July 2023 showing the nonchalant reaction of Secret Service agents after the discovery of the pipe bomb. Their demeanor was puzzling, considering the FBI considers pipe bombs to be weapons of mass destruction.Politico first reported in January 2022 that Harris was at the DNC when the bomb was discovered. In the intervening months, Harris has never been asked by the media for her reaction to what could be considered an assassination attempt. Harris has also never addressed the topic publicly.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!