'Our fries will now be cooked in an authentic way'

"Most persistent threat to the homeland"

'Returning home'

As Democratic senators attack Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth for alleged incompetence, Republicans are sounding the alarm on Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s repeated disappearances for medical treatment, which were allegedly in violation of federal law. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., has been a vocal critic of Austin in recent days. On Friday, the Alabama senator called out Austin for these repeated violations of the law. His criticisms are the latest in a salvo of attacks from Republicans on Austin, whom they view as the embodiment of the problem Hegseth must root out. On Wednesday, the inspector general of the Department of Defense released a report detailing two instances in which Austin delegated his role to a subordinate while he took time off for two cancer-related hospitalizations. The report details how he failed to alert Congress of his absence, an action which violates the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, requiring “the head of the executive agency to notify the Comptroller General of the United States and both houses of Congress ‘immediately upon the occurrence of [a] vacancy’” After the release of the report Wednesday, Tuberville posted on X that the report was “EXTREMELY DISTURBING.” I just read an EXTREMELY DISTURBING IG report.Last December, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was hospitalized and failed to follow the law by notifying the White House or Congress.Turns out, the same thing happened AGAIN in June. The Secretary of Defense went AWOL TWICE… pic.twitter.com/wJfXBFniW1— Coach Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) January 15, 2025 “I just read an extremely disturbing [Inspectoral General] report. In December 2023, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was hospitalized and failed to follow the law by notifying the White House or Congress,” said Tuberville in a video posted to X. “It is dangerous and deeply concerning that our secretary of defense left the United States vulnerable when he was completely out of commission twice—and didn’t feel the need to tell his boss either time.” Tuberville’s statements Wednesday are part of a renewed wave of criticism of Biden’s defense secretary in the midst of Pete Hegseth’s confirmation process. On January 10, Tuberville was one of a dozen Republican senators to sign a letter demanding answers from the Department of Defense on Austin’s absences. NEWS: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's failure to inform the executive branch, Congress, and the American people of his incapacitation is an intolerable breach of trust.I joined my @SASCGOP Republican colleagues in sending this letter to @SecDef demanding answers: pic.twitter.com/zE9iI378jW— Markwayne Mullin (@SenMullin) January 10, 2024 “We first want to wish you well, and we wish you a speedy recovery,” reads the letter. “However, we are deeply troubled by the apparent breakdown in communications between your office and the rest of the Department of Defense, the White House, and Congress over the past two weeks.” The senators proceeded to demand that “all relevant Department of Defense officials” brief Congress on Austin’s absences. Austin has received much negative attention in recent days from Republicans eager to confirm Hegseth. On Tuesday, Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., criticized Austin after Hegseth’s confirmation hearing. “[Austin’s] been a complete disaster, and we can’t repeat that,” Banks told The Daily Signal. “Pete’s immediately going to be so much better than what we have today.” The post Sen. Tuberville Calls Out Biden’s Defense Secretary for Alleged Violations of Federal Law appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The social media site Twitter now “identifies” as “X.” A different kind of “X” now marks the spot where radical gender ideology has trumped national security under the Biden administration. Over the past decade, encouraging people to be their “authentic selves” has left us with no clear and agreed upon terms for sex, gender, and so on. But in official matters, we still need a shared reality. Or let’s just call it “reality.” As of April 2022, the State Department’s U.S. passport application was changed to include options for three “genders,” Male, Female, and X. A year later, the Department of Homeland Security allowed applicants for immigration benefits “to mark their preferred gender identity without needing their other documentation to match.” Unaccompanied minors caught entering the U.S. illegally are also allowed to self-identify their gender to federal authorities as “female, male, or X (unspecified or another gender).” This will only complicate an already dysfunctional system. For one, the negligible number of foreign minors who might want to identify as X will be magnified by activist groups seeking to game the asylum process. Under President Joe Biden, the U.S. has encouraged immigrants to claim persecution in their home countries because of their “sex or gender identity” on their application for asylum although that is not one of the valid grounds in U.S. refugee law. Here’s another problem with “X”: When it comes to identifying someone, humans are either male or female—even self-proclaimed “nonbinary beauty influencers.” There are a small percentage of people with differences in sexual development, but biological sex can be determined for all human beings. “Nonbinary” is an assertion, not a verifiable condition. In addition, there is “a growing pile of evidence that there are inherent differences in how men’s and women’s brains are wired,” according to Stanford Medicine Magazine. You can change your outfit, but you can’t rewire your brain. “Gender” used to be a synonym for “sex.” Now, it is a catch-all for how a person wants to “identify,” with no correlation to verifiable fact. Gender ideology is full of contradictions. It holds that a person can identify as one of many genders or multiple genders, or can move between them. But it also says a person’s sense of their own gender is definitive and trumps observable, biological reality. The section of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations dealing with unaccompanied alien children says that “sex” “refers to a person’s biological status and is typically categorized as male, female, or intersex.” The code defines “gender” as something which “refers to the attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that a given culture associates with a person’s biological sex.” The code defines “transgender” as “a person whose gender identity (i.e., internal sense of feeling male or female) is different from the person’s assigned sex at birth.” A person’s “feeling” or “sense” cannot be proved or disproved, which makes it worthless for the purpose of establishing identity—which is a required element in applying for any State Department or Department of Homeland Security travel and immigration benefit. Feelings and attitudes don’t belong in official government documents—facts do. “Identifying” as male, female, or nonbinary is a nonrebuttable assertion subject to change. After seeing historically unprecedented numbers of cross-sex “transitioners,” we are now seeing increased numbers of detransitioners, too. Male and female sex, in contrast, are immutable. That’s why sex is a good data point to include in identity documents, and gender identity is not. Allowing applicants to self-identify markers for the purposes of a passport weakens its purpose. Markers must be things that can be verified. Like height and eye color, sex is a characteristic that can help identify one human being with reference to billions of others. Its presence on a passport or visa is only for that use—not as a personal statement. When used alone rather than as a modifying adjective, “gender” should be treated as a synonym for “sex,” which is a biological marker that has a purpose in documents used for identity and law enforcement. In the tragic event that Health and Human Services official Rachel Levine or swimmer Lia Thomas needed to be identified after an accident abroad, an accurate sex marker in their passport would be helpful. An X marker for nonbinary, a changed sex, or any supposed gender identity would not. Letting individuals self-identify their gender identity, change it at will, and privilege that over their natal sex in documentation is both a national security and fraud risk. We should never entrench in passports, nor require anyone to accept, solipsism as reality. “Gender identity” is an individual assertion irrelevant to the business of travel or identification. The BorderLine is a weekly Daily Signal feature examining everything from the unprecedented illegal immigration crisis at the border to immigration’s impact on cities and states throughout the land. We will also shed light on other critical border-related issues such as human trafficking, drug smuggling, terrorism, and more. Read Other BorderLine Columns: The Anglosphere’s Migration Mess Biden’s Border Legacy Is More Crime, Strained Cities When Can Government Deport Foreign Students for Pro-Hamas Protests? Could Biden Ignore the Law Yet Again to Bring a Million Gazans to the US? Sanctuary Cities—A Dangerous Game We All Lose The post Letting People ‘Self-Identify’ Gender on Government Documents Poses National Security and Fraud Risks: The BorderLine appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Detransitioned Student Prevented from Speaking About His Experience on Campus

LAT: People Fleeing Dem-Controlled States May Be a Problem For Progs

Former conservative reporter-turned-liberal-media apologist Oliver Darcy spent the last few days leaking out news from his former employer about a new direction for the TV side of CNN that, while not radical in changing its liberal ideology, would be radical in personnel movement with Wolf Blitzer poised to host mornings and Jim Acosta being banished to midnight Eastern. In a year that’s slated to include hundreds of layoffs for the network whose ratings have cratered in recent years and accelerated after Election Day, Darcy said in his Status website Wednesday that the 76-year-old Blitzer has a new contract and would team with 11:00 a.m. Eastern hour CNN Newsroom host Pamela Brown for a two-hour show from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. Eastern. It’s unclear what its title would be and if Blitzer’s long-running, early-evening show title of The Situation Room would survive. Blitzer — who’s arguably the single most recognizable CNN anchor or even personality of all time — has had that show since 2005 and been with the network since 1990. The other major headline came Thursday night as Darcy shared Acosta “received a peculiar telephone call from CNN chief Mark Thompson” on “early Wednesday night” with what he described as “a sudden and strange proposal” of “move your show” from weekdays at 10:00 a.m. Eastern “to midnight and anchor it until 2am ET.” Yes, dear readers, Thompson wants to keep Fake News Jim on the sinking ship that is CNN, but stash him away in what Darcy dubbed the “Siberia of television news,” seen live only by cogent west-coast viewers, those stuck abroad with CNN as one of the lone English-language channels in your hotel room, and news junkies unable to sleep. Fitting considering this was what Acosta was up to on Thursday. Perhaps it was an act of defiance and middle finger to his bosses! Regardless, Darcy clearly spoke with either Acosta on background or someone close to him. Needless to say, the insufferable cartoon character isn’t happy (click “expand): The offer caught Acosta off guard. He had no reason to believe that his current show would be on the chopping block. In fact, his ratings have historically been some of the network's strongest, both when he was anchoring on the weekends and now at 10am during the weekdays. On some days, Acosta even out-rates some of CNN’s prime time programs. So why force him to move his show to the 12am hour, a time slot occupied by virtually zero other hosts in the cable news business? The move would effectively exile Acosta to the Siberia of television news. He'd be manning down a shift when much of the country is fast asleep and viewership is at its lowest. Darcy cynically chalked it up to Thompson “curry[ing] favor with Donald Trump, who very much despises the CNN anchor” and cited a “media executive” as believing this will be a peace offering or “throw[ing] a bone” to Trump.” The official reasoning, Darcy suggested, would be someone’s hour had to be sacrificed to make room for the new, two-hour show with Blitzer and Brown and still keep CNN News Central — which currently is helmed by John Berman, Kate Bolduan, and Sara Sidner. The midnight Eastern hour having live programming wouldn’t be unprecedented. In 2015, the network made an attempt with CNN Newsroom Live from LA, anchored by John Vause and Isha Sesay. A more minor change considered is another promotion for Kasie Hunt to take the 4:00 p.m. Eastern hour and bump Jake Tapper’s The Lead from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Eastern. It’d be ironic for Hunt as she was originally brought to CNN in August 2021 following eight years at NBC and MSNBC to host her own show in that very hour....on CNN+ (and we all know how that turned out). With CNN+ having been aborted after just 30 days in spring 2022, Hunt remained chief national affairs analyst and fill-in host and took over Early Start in August 2023. By February 2024, her show assumed the CNN This Morning title following the morning news debacle that was the trio of Don Lemon, Kaitlan Collins, and Poppy Harlow (and briefly resuscitated by Harlow and Phil Mattingly). As for who’d take Hunt’s two hours, Darcy’s speculation would be one of former NPR host (Hunt’s fellow CNN+ refugees) Audie Cornish and CNN International host Rahel Solomon.

You know what they say about lies — they only breed more lies. Take the “insurrection” that happened on January 6, 2021, as an example. We still don’t know the full truth about what happened that day, but we do know with certainty that we were lied to — repeatedly. To cover these lies, more lies were needed. Those came in the form of the corrupt January 6 Committee — “the Stalinist Pelosi committee,” Mark Levin calls it. This committee, we were told, was formed to investigate the events of January 6, but actually the opposite was true — it was formed to cover the events of January 6. That’s why Pelosi appointed Trump-hating “reprobate Republicans” Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger to the board, Levin explains. For starters, the committee “sent recommendations with a report to prosecutors at the United States Department of Justice to urge the criminal indictment of Donald Trump on a number of issues,” he recounts. “That is not covered by the Speech and Debate Clause [of the Constitution], in my view.” According to Levin, the committee members can be prosecuted and charged for this because “it's not [their] official congressional duty to be pushing for criminal charges against somebody in the other branch of government.” “That is not what the framers considered speech and debate on the floor of the House or the Senate,” he says. On top of that, the committee “destroyed a ton of data and information.” “If there's exculpatory information for Donald Trump or anybody else who's been charged and you don't provide it and you have it as a committee, or you destroy it … you've committed a crime; you've committed obstruction,” says Levin. As Oversight Committee Chairman Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) pointed out in his report, “that obstruction statute is 18 USC 1512,” which is ironically “the same obstruction statute that [the committee] tried to use against Donald Trump and the January 6ers.” “Liz Cheney and every member of that committee … need to answer for this,” says Levin. There’s only one reason you “destroy mountains and mountains of data” — “it’s called a cover-up.” To hear more of Levin’s analysis, 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.

The Paradise Spa condominium complex in Las Vegas, Nevada, that used to be visited by celebrities such as Elvis Presley and the Rat Pack is now falling victim to homeless meth pipe fires. Paradise Spa Homeowners Association president Dennis Snapp told KVVU-TV that a homeless man told him that his girlfriend started a fire at a complex building over a fight about a meth pipe. The man said the woman used a torch to start the fire and referred to the man as a 'motherf***er' because he did not want to give her the meth pipe. Snapp mournfully explained the glamorous past of the institution and the terrible history that led to its current state. “Don’t make me cry. It’s tragic. It is absolutely tragic,” Snapp said to the station. He said the complex had been sold to a developer in 2006, but the 2008 market crash imploded plans to renovate, and the money for repairs has dried up since then. Snapp says there have been numerous building fires that he suspects are due to vandalism from homeless people. KVVU was able to find the homeless man who told Snapp a meth pipe feud led to one fire. "What started the fire was a tweak pipe," said the unidentified man."A tweak pipe? A meth pipe?" asked the reporter. "Yeah, a meth pipe. And then I didn't give it back to someone that wanted it back. And so, they burned it up," he added. "How did the pipe start the fire?" the reporter asked. "Basically, I held it from someone. And I wasn't gonna give it back. So, she uh, she set it on fire," he explained helpfully. "She set the building on fire because you wouldn't give the pipe back?" the reporter asked. "Yes," he answered. The man said the woman used a torch to start the fire and referred to the man as a "motherf***er" because he did not want to give her the meth pipe. "And then 20 seconds later, the whole f***in' building was up in flames!" he added. The man said he gave a statement to police about the incident and that they had released him afterward. KVVU said they were unable to locate the woman accused but that her family claimed she wasn't anywhere near the area when the fire started. Snapp told KVVU that no one had died in the alleged meth pipe fire but that at least two people had died in other fires at the complex. He said there are efforts to relocate 110 low-income families from the complex after it was sold to another developer. The video of the interview with the homeless man can be viewed on KVVU's YouTube channel. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!