Families with loved ones away on military deployment will tell you it’s extremely hard to be apart for long periods. Serving your country is a noble profession with plenty of personal sacrifice. Parents can be away from their children for years on deployment making their reunions even more meaningful. Jason Aldean is currently on tour. And he decided to make one of his stops extra special for a United States Army family. First Class Petty Officer Blake Darling had been on deployment for ten months. He and his wife, Brittany, wanted to surprise their kids with dad’s homecoming in a big way. She teamed up with Jason, who shared a video of the reunion on his Instagram. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jason Aldean (@jasonaldean) Jason Aldean Helped Create A Tearful Reunion For This Military Family In the video, Blake’s two kids are standing with Jason, who tells them he learned their dad was in the military and has a surprise for them. Blake’s son looks to his side and sees his dad walking up. And immediately, they embrace with tears in their eyes. The moment touched many people. A person wrote, “Such a class act! Love the patriotism that you and Brittany show our troops!” There was a lot of love for Jason, “As if I couldn’t love the Aldeans anymore. Thanks for always standing up for what’s right.” Surprise reunions are always a hit and this person can’t get enough, “I just love when surprises happen for military families.” Jason Aldean told Fox News he loves being an American and understands why people want to live in the United States. “But I think we live in the best country in the world,” he said. “I mean, we get the chance to go and still have the American dream. You can come from nothing and build something and make something out of your life, out of yourself and change your life, your family’s life. You can find the source of this story’s featured image here. The post Jason Aldean Helps Military Officer Reunite With Family In Touching Video appeared first on InspireMore.

'the current structure makes it possible for illegal immigrants and non-citizens to vote'

'One of the deepest failures'

‘We allege that the defendant made detailed death threats’

'Inches away from an American catastrophe'

'It started to rain and quickly got worse'

'My heart is broken'

Radio talk-show host and podcaster Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent, predicted another “incident” with the Secret Service, claiming that the agency is worse off today than it was before the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania. After Congress began to ask then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle about the assassination attempt, Cheatle resigned, leading Ronald L. Rowe Jr. to step in as interim director. Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., asked Bongino, “Is the Secret Service in a better spot today with Director Rowe in charge?” “No, it’s worse,” Bongino replied. He predicted that “something else” will happen, although he added, “I pray to my Lord and savior Jesus Christ that I’m wrong.” “[If] you think this is the last incident, you’re out of your mind,” he said. The former Secret Service agent said Rowe represents more of “the same people” in charge on July 13. “Kim Cheatle, the director, wasn’t even fired. She was allowed to resign,” Bongino noted. “She’ll go get some cushy job somewhere, and her deputy” got promoted. Bongino said whistleblowers within the Secret Service told him that Rowe “was concerned about the tie color of the agents on the detail because it seemed to imply they supported President Trump. This is the kind of stuff the Secret Service was actually wasting their time with.” “If you can explain it, then good luck, because that’s not the agency I worked for,” he quipped. ?Secret Service is "WORSE" than before July 13, Dan Bongino says. “[If] you think this is the last incident, you're out of your mind,” he warns. Bongino says interim Director Ronald Rowe represents more of “the same people” in charge when Thomas Crooks opened fire on President… pic.twitter.com/eHVzW5PNJ2— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) August 26, 2024 Seeking Answers Bongino spoke at a forum on the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump, responding to questions from five Republican members of Congress: Andy Biggs and Eli Crane of Arizona, Matt Gaetz and Cory Mills of Florida, and Chip Roy of Texas. Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL and founder of the private military contractor Blackwater, and Ben Shaffer, a Washington regional SWAT operator who assisted in security on July 13, also answered the lawmakers’ questions. Speaking at The Heritage Foundation near the U.S. Capitol, the congressmen presented video clips from July 13, showing that members of the crowd at the Butler speech had attempted to alert police to the presence of Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old man who opened fire at Trump—an hour before the shooting. Mills asked Shaffer a series of questions clarifying how poorly Secret Service had prepared for a potential threat. Shaffer confirmed that Secret Service “didn’t take the communication platform that was given by local forces,” that the agency “didn’t take the surveillance drone offered by local forces,” and that agents “didn’t show up for the morning briefing to ensure that last-minute planning could be accounted for.” He also confirmed that Secret Service “did not access the water tower that has the highest vantage point.” ?Ben Shaffer, a Washington regional SWAT operator who took part in the security in the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump, goes through all the ways Secret Service did NOT accept help from the police forces on the ground. Secret Service: didn't take communication, didn't… pic.twitter.com/M46jU18DT6— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) August 26, 2024 Biggs noted that rallygoers had first attempted to alert police to Crooks at 5:10 p.m., fully an hour before the shooting took place at 6:11 p.m. Shaffer said pictures of the shooter came across his text chat at “approximately 5:38 p.m.” He learned “within minutes” that Crooks had a range finder, which would have “automatically escalated” Crooks from a “suspicious person to a person of interest,” the level right below a “threat.” Crooks’ position lay outside Shaffer’s sector of responsibility and outside his visual range, the SWAT operator said. Jill Biden Comparison “President Trump was definitely deprived of resources that day,” Prince noted. The Secret Service “had one-third the amount of agents covering him as were covering Jill Biden in the same region at an indoor event,” he said. “She had 12 post-holders covering her, again no statutory or constitutional authority for the first lady. Donald Trump had four Secret Service agents assigned.” ‘Point-Blank Range’ Prince noted “140 yards is point-blank range” for a sniper. “Thank God that 20-year-old aimed for a headshot at President Trump, because if he had aimed center-mass, President Trump would probably be dead.” “A Hezbollah team, or ISIS, or you name the terrorist organization that actually knows what they’re doing, would have been successful that day,” the former SEAL added. “The Secret Service was nearly defeated by a 20-year-old, and we all, including Donald Trump, dodged a bullet that day.” ?Erik Prince notes that a Hezbollah or ISIS team would have likely succeeded in taking out President Trump had they been in the place of Thomas Crooks on July 13. "The Secret Service was nearly defeated by a 20-year-old, and we all—including Donald Trump—dodged a bullet that… pic.twitter.com/7paBmGrSWE— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) August 26, 2024 ’Grade School-Level Politics’ Gaetz asked Bongino why it seems that Trump, “one of the most threatened people on the planet earth,” deals with “limited protection.” Bongino emphasized that Secret Service “was definitely not a political enterprise” when he worked there. Yet he suggested that politics likely played a motive in the Secret Service decreasing Trump’s protective detail. “I absolutely believe Donald Trump and an enhanced security posture he should have had would have made him look more presidential, would have facilitated the logistical operation of him traveling,” Bongino said. “I think they were concerned about optics and making him look like a bigshot or whatever word you want to throw out there.” “They were making some of these decisions based purely on grade school-level politics,” he lamented. “I don’t want to believe that,” Gaetz responded. “I didn’t want to believe it with the FBI, either. … A lot of these agencies that have been, I think, subject to political capture. We want to think of them as above that.” ?'CONCERNED ABOUT OPTICS': Dan Bongino suggests the Secret Service understaffed Trump's protective detail because more personnel would have made him "look more presidential," more "like a bigshot." “They were making some of these decisions based purely on grade school-level… pic.twitter.com/sSf4Ast35y— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) August 26, 2024 Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., announced Monday that members of Congress launched the Bipartisan Task Force to Investigate the Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump. “On July 13, 2024, the American people witnessed a catastrophic security failure that nearly resulted in the loss of President Trump’s life,” Lee said in a press release. “The United States Secret Service has a no-fail mission to protect America’s leaders, and unfortunately, they failed at their core mission that day.” The task force, which consists of seven Republicans and six Democrats, aims to understand what went wrong on July 13, to ensure accountability, and to prevent such an agency failure from happening again. The post Dan Bongino Predicts Another Security ‘Incident,’ Says Secret Service Is Worse Today Than Before Trump Assassination Attempt appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A federal district court ruled Thursday that pro-life pregnancy centers in New York may inform women “that the abortion pill reversal (‘APR’) protocol is safe and effective for a pregnant woman to use, with her doctor, to reverse the effects of a first chemical abortion pill and thereby, help to save the life of her unborn child.” District Judge John L. Sinatra Jr., a Trump appointee, granted a preliminary injunction because the pregnancy centers are “likely to succeed on the merits of their First Amendment Free Speech claim, and they are suffering irreparable harm each day that their Constitutional freedoms are infringed.” New York State Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, had initiated a civil enforcement action against 11 faith-based, pro-life pregnancy centers that were part of Heartbeat International to censor their speech, alleging that informing women about the APR protocol was “misleading advertising.” In response to James, Alliance Defending Freedom challenged the constitutionality of her enforcement action in federal court, on behalf of National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, a pregnancy center network with 51 locations in the state, and two of its members, Gianna’s House and Options Care Center. “Women in New York have literally saved their babies from an in-progress chemical drug abortion because they had access to information through their local pregnancy centers about using safe and effective progesterone for abortion pill reversal,” said Caleb Dalton, Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel. “But the attorney general tried to deny women the opportunity to even hear about this lifesaving option.” Elected abortion activists have sought to restrict pro-life pregnancy centers from offering the APR protocol, which literally reverses the work of a chemical abortion. In April 2023, the Colorado Legislature banned APR on similar grounds that it was ineffective. At first, the state agreed not to enforce that law, but a federal judge eventually enjoined the law in October on religious exercise grounds. However, studies show that the APR protocol has saved the lives of over 5,000 unborn babies and has a success rate of up to 64%-68%. “Many women regret their abortions, and some seek to stop the effects of abortion drugs before taking the second drug in the abortion drug process. Taking supplemental progesterone may give them a chance to save their baby’s life,” Dalton added. “Women should have the option to reconsider an abortion, and the pro-life pregnancy centers we represent in this case truthfully inform them about that choice.” This is not the first time National Institute of Family and Life Advocates has gone to court over attempts by pro-abortion politicians to police its speech. Eight years ago, the pro-life network of pregnancy centers challenged a California law that would have required it to refer women for abortion, something that went against its deeply held religious beliefs. NIFLA’s opponents in the case were California Attorney General Kamala Harris and later California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, both Democrats. In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in NIFLA v. Becerra that the California law did unconstitutionally compel the speech of the pro-life pregnancy centers. Sinatra quoted NIFLA v. Becerra in his opinion. “Government, even with the purest of motives, may not substitute its judgment as to how best to speak for that of speakers and listeners; free and robust debate cannot thrive if directed by the government,” the judge wrote, citing another case. “And this is particularly true ‘in the fields of medicine and public health, where information can save lives.’ Nat’l Inst. Of Fam. & Life Advocs. V. Becerra.” “Indeed, the ‘very purpose of the First Amendment is to foreclose public authority from assuming a guardianship of the public mind through regulating the press, speech, and religion,’” wrote Sinatra. “The First Amendment protects Plaintiffs’ right to speak freely about APR protocol and, more specifically, to say that it is safe and effective for a pregnant woman to use in consultation with her doctor.” Originally published by The Washington Stand The post Free Speech Victory for New York Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers appeared first on The Daily Signal.

'It Feels Lawless': Only Half of Bus Riders in NYC Pay the Fare