Trilobites that date back 508 million years have been found preserved in volcanic matter, revealing never-before-seen details in 3D form. Their fossilization was so rapid that tiny shells have been preserved in situ, and soft tissues including mouthparts and internal organs can still be seen.The trilobites were entombed in pyroclastic flow, which is the hot, dense material that comes hurtling out of volcanoes sometimes reaching speeds as high as 200 meters (656 feet) per second. Typically, it burns up any life in its path, but that can change in a marine setting.“The surface of the sea on which the ash flowed would have been lethally hot and, yes, would have incinerated animals at the shallowest depths,” study co-author Dr Greg Edgecombe of the Natural History Museum, London, told IFLScience. “The ash would have mixed with seawater as it picked up and entrained the trilobites, which were living on the sea bottom. This mixing through a column of seawater must have cooled the ash sufficiently.”Collected in the High Atlas of Morocco, the ancient wonders have been nicknamed “Pompeii” trilobites due to their remarkable preservation in the ash. They’re incredibly old, but they aren’t the oldest trilobites ever found.     At around 508 million years old, they’re younger than the oldest trilobites, which date back to about 521 million years old. There are also older trace fossils in the form of burrows, called Rusophycus, that are thought to be the work of trilobites and exceed 528 million years in age.However, the comparative whipper snappers are still remarkable for the degree of preservation they exhibit.“What makes our specimens unique, and indeed especially pristine, is three-dimensional preservation of their appendages,” continued Edgecombe. “The appendages are not flattened or reoriented or broken. They were preserved in close to life orientations. And because they are preserved as void space in the rock matrix, we can image them tomographically to see them in 3D.”Microtomographic reconstruction of the trilobite Gigoutella mauretanica in ventral view.Image credit: © Arnaud MAZURIER, IC2MP, Univ. Poitiers“Appendages preserved in shale can beautifully preserve their setae but the fossils are compacted to the point of almost being 2D and we have to use destructive sampling to mechanically excavate upper parts of an appendage in order to see lower parts. Our specimens are as perfect after study as they were before.”This never-before-seen detail means we are now seeing trilobites closer to real life than we have ever seen them before, complete with a slit-like mouth, and unique cephalic feeding appendages. Ain’t she a beauty?The study is published in the journal Science.

Choko José Luis Matos is a familiar face on the streets of Bucaramanga, Colombia, but his story is far from ordinary. Living homeless, Choko has found companionship and love in his two dogs, Shaggy and Nena. These loyal dogs are more than just pets to him—they are his family. Choko’s dedication to his furry friends... The post Homeless man throws a birthday party for his dogs unaware that doing so will change his life appeared first on Animal Channel.

Et tu, Elon? X restricted one of former President Donald Trump’s campaign accounts during the CNN 2024 presidential debate Thursday. X users reported finding warning labels when they attempted to view the “Trump War Room” account within 20 minutes of the first 2024 presidential debate between Trump and President Joe Biden. In response to this, Dan Schneider, the vice president of MRC Free Speech America, went so far as to say that “the radicals embedded within X fumbled worse than Joe Biden last night.” He added, “It is outrageous that a social media company would censor a political candidate, especially in the middle of one of the most important moments for voters to decide who they want to vote for.” Users who attempted to view the Trump War Room account were met with a warning label: "Caution: This account is temporarily restricted[.] You're seeing this warning because there has been some unusual activity from this account. Do you still want to view it?" It’s unclear exactly why the issue occurred, but it was reportedly resolved within an hour. Outrageous that Big Tech is censoring a presidential account in the middle of the debate!https://t.co/3FulImx6aH will take action for all candidates who are silenced by the tech thugs https://t.co/iZ59NhloiM — Dan Schneider (@Schneider_DC) June 28, 2024 Trump communications aid Bobby Levy posted a screenshot of the same notice appearing on his own account, asking: “Hey @elonmusk, what was this about literally the second the debate started?” Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using MRC Free Speech America’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.

Friday’s CNN This Morning attempted to make sense of President Biden’s porous performance in the network’s presidential debate on Thursday night with varying doses of cope, excuses, and even conceding reality. Even one White House reporter on-set blasted the administration’s years of denying reality about Biden losing a grip on reality. Axios’s Alex Thompson — who’s been one of the few in the regime’s press corps to repeatedly write about Biden’s age — lambasted Team Biden just after the top of both hours of the show (click “expand”): Well, listen, I've covered the Biden White House now for three-and-a-half years. And as someone that's reported on his age quite a few times, I can tell you that the White House’s response every single time has come up for three-and-a-half years has been to deflect, to gaslight, to not tell the truth, not just to reporters, not just other Democrats, but even at times to themselves about the President's limitations at his age. There's a reason why he has not done as many interviews and press conferences as any president in decades. There's a reason he does not do events almost ever before 10:00 a.m. and is rarely on camera after six p.m. And the reason is because he has limitations. He is 81-years-old, but the problem was they were not forthright with other Democrats. They weren’t forthright with themselves. (....) There is one good piece for Democrats is that there are still tens of millions of people in this country that would take Joe Biden at 110-years-old, then vote for Donald Trump. The problem is there's probably not enough of those millions of people. And part of the problem is someone that's covered, Joe Biden's age for the last 3.5 years is they deflect, they gaslight at times they have not told the truth about the limitations of his age, that he gets up late in the morning, that he does not appear on camera, usually late at night, that does not do interviews — more than — he's done less interviews than any president in decades. There are limitations on this present because he is old and he is not been forthright and addressing those in a way that Jamal was saying. And so that's why you have this collective freak out because now it's four months to election day. And you realize that maybe he does have some bad moments.     Host Kasie Hunt — yes, that CNN host — tried to suggest this was coming, wondering if there’s been a “level of angst and hand-wringing behind the scenes” that’s only “started to bubble up really aggressively in the last couple of months”. Thompson wasn’t having it and stated the simple truth that “Father time” remains undefeated and Democrats refused to grapple with Biden’s cognitive abilities after the 2022 midterms because it wasn’t far better for them than expected. CNN data guru Harry Enten tried to seem critical of Biden, but it was more genuine sadness (and despite his insistence of being “a nonpartisan analyst). He argued this “was like watching a great ball player in decline” compared to past debate performances. Later, faux Republican and former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan arrived to comically go through some on-air therapy about backing Biden despite what happened (click “expand”): HUNT: Look, you have been out front as someone who has been arguing in no small part because of what we saw there — the January 6 issue — but, of course, also the 11,000 votes he was hunting for here in Georgia — about the dangers of another Trump presidency. You have said that you are supporting Joe Biden. Are you still supporting him after the performance we saw last night? DUNCAN: You know, I'm one of those folks that I'm against Donald Trump because of — because of facts and details. You just mentioned them — him trying to bully his way here and lie, and conspiracy theories. My family has received death threats. My wife and kids have received death threats. I've watched him operate. I've watched him stoke the fires of January 6.We cannot afford Donald Trump to be back in the White House. And last night was — was difficult to watch, right? Joe Biden did not show up ready to go. Mentally and physically, he needed to cross a bar that was relatively low, and he didn't do it. I think he picks up additional headwinds from his own party and I think the folks in the middle, like me, that want anybody other than Donald Trump to be in charge of our country — I think the couch caucus got a little bit bigger last night. I think we're still trying to figure out how can we justify not voting for a Republican and figure out how we can vote for a Democrat. Joe Biden's got work to do. To start the second hour, even Hunt acknowledged the blatant issue in Biden’s competency that’s “sent his party scrambling” after having seen his “halting” “cadence” and “voice nearly inaudible at times as he struggled to finish some of his thoughts.” Yet after all of these critiques the conversation was capped off with even greater disillusionment thanks to chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny, who floated the idea Biden flopped because he was “overprepared”: So look, today's a new day, the President has to address this when he speaks to North Carolina today, it's — it would be unthinkable for him not to, but going forward from that, I think we need a few days to settle in to what is he personally, what is his family personally thinking about this. To me, he was over — he looked overprepared, completely tired, and he may have had a cold. That's probably the most charitable thing. But, Biden advisers know how to reach everyone, why didn't they alert people to his cold at say, 5:00 as opposed to 9:45 during the debate? (....) What about the stare? It wasn't just the cold, though. Let's be honest if you watched the debate, it was more than just his voice. It was how he carried himself and it was almost like he wasn't sure which camera luck through. But again, he was so prepared. Was he over-prepared? just look at that. And, you know, this is not the first time this has happened necessarily. We have covered many events with him this is actually the Joe Biden we see on most days, the State of the Union address was the outlier here, at least according to last night.   The transcript is below, click “expand” to read: CNN This Morning  06/28/2024 05:03 a.m. Eastern ALEX THOMPSON: Well, listen, I've covered the Biden White House now for three-and-a-half years. And as someone that's reported on his age quite a few times, I can tell you that the White House’s response every single time has come up for three-and-a-half years has been to deflect, to gaslight, to not tell the truth, not just to reporters, not just other Democrats, but even at times to themselves about the President's limitations at his age. There's a reason why he has not done as many interviews and press conferences as any president in decades. There's a reason he does not do events almost ever before 10:00 a.m. and is rarely on camera after six p.m. And the reason is because he has limitations. He is 81-years-old, but the problem was they were not forthright with other Democrats. They weren't, at times, forthright with themselves. KASIE HUNT: Mmhmm. THOMPSON: And that is why Democrats sorry, I'm full freak out mode because what they saw is finally what they have been obscuring HUNT: Alex, how much of this is relatively recent because it does seem like there has been a – the level of angst and hand-wringing behind the scenes has started to bubble up really aggressively in the last couple of months — THOMPSON: Yes. HUNT: — in particular, is there something that happened? Was — was there a turning point — THOMPSON: I mean, its Father time– HUNT: – that crossed? THOMPSON: — I mean, it's father time. I think the thing is you have to remember, take us back to 2022 and it was supposed to be a red wave. There wasn't, and sort of the exuberance of victory, or at least not doing as, you know, proceed victory, not doing his bad they hoped there was this — there was a sense that, hey, we can do this. And thing is that when Joe Biden, you look at Joe Biden even like late 2022, the fact is that he has — you know, his public performance has slipped considerably over the last year, and that's why you saw basically a lot of Democrats get angsty. Now, Joe Biden was able to put off some that angst in the State of the Union address, but he was on a teleprompter there and now he wasn't a teleprompter. It was 90 minutes. And this is what happened. (....) 05:06 a.m. Eastern HARRY ANTON: As a nonpartisan analyst, it was tough to watch. It was like watching a great ball player in decline. I went back and watched his debate performances during the 2008 Democratic primary season or in the vice presidential debate in 2008. And the market difference between the man that I saw back in 2008 and the one that I saw on that stage last night, it was almost as if I was looking  at two completely different human beings. (....) 05:34 a.m. Eastern HUNT: Look, you have been out front as someone who has been arguing in no small part because of what we saw there — the January 6 issue — but, of course, also the 11,000 votes he was hunting for here in Georgia — about the dangers of another Trump presidency. You have said that you are supporting Joe Biden. Are you still supporting him after the performance we saw last night? GEOFF DUNCAN: You know, I'm one of those folks that I'm against Donald Trump because of — because of facts and details. You just mentioned them — him trying to bully his way here and lie, and conspiracy theories. My family has received death threats. My wife and kids have received death threats. I've watched him operate. I've watched him stoke the fires of January 6.We cannot afford Donald Trump to be back in the White House. And last night was — was difficult to watch, right? Joe Biden did not show up ready to go. Mentally and physically, he needed to cross a bar that was relatively low, and he didn't do it. I think he picks up additional headwinds from his own party and I think the folks in the middle, like me, that want anybody other than Donald Trump to be in charge of our country — I think the couch caucus got a little bit bigger last night. I think we're still trying to figure out how can we justify not voting for a Republican and figure out how we can vote for a Democrat. Joe Biden's got work to do. (....) 6:01 a.m. Eastern HUNT: [L]ast night, one candidates performance sent his party scrambling. Good morning, everyone. CNN This Morning is live here in Atlanta, where it is 6:00 a.m. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us this morning. “We are f***ed”. That reaction from a Democratic source after watching president Biden's performance in last night's CNN debate, other Democratic insiders telling me Biden looks and sounds terrible that he was simply “horrific”. All those comments coming from party operatives who found moments like this incredibly difficult to watch. (....) 6:02 a.m. Eastern HUNT: With so much on the line last night, the president's performance was alarming to many who support him. His cadence was halting, his voice nearly inaudible at times as he struggled to finish some of his thoughts. (....) 06:08 a.m. JEFF ZELENY: This goes beyond Democratic bedwetting. This is a very different thing and it was more a sense of concern, alarm, pain. I was in the spin room last night after the debate sort of looking around and boy, talk about not a single Biden person could be found for quite awhile. Finally, Governor Gavin Newsom came in. Senator Rafael Warnock came in and yes, they did, you know, talk about the policy, but very little talk about the performance. So look, today's a new day, the President has to address this when he speaks to North Carolina today, it's — it would be unthinkable for him not to, but going forward from that, I think we need a few days to settle in to what is he personally, what is his family personally thinking about this. To me, he was over — he looked overprepared, completely tired, and he may have had a cold. That's probably the most charitable thing. But, Biden advisers know how to reach everyone, why didn't they alert people to his cold at say, 5:00 as opposed to 9:45 during the debate? HUNT: I told — I had — I got a text from someone that said, “They should have lied and said he had COVID, if this — if they knew this was the guy that was gonna show up.” (....)   6:10 a.m. Eastern THOMPSON: There is one good piece for Democrats is that there are still tens of millions of people in this country that would take Joe Biden at 110-years-old, then vote for Donald Trump. The problem is there's probably not enough of those millions of people. And part of the problem is someone that's covered, Joe Biden's age for the last 3.5 years is they deflect, they gaslight at times they have not told the truth about the limitations of his age, that he gets up late in the morning, that he does not appear on camera, usually late at night, that does not do interviews — more than — he's done less interviews than any president in decades. There are limitations on this present because he is old and he is not been forthright and addressing those in a way that Jamal was saying. And so that's why you have this collective freak out because now it's four months to election day. And you realize that maybe he does have some bad moments. JAMAL SIMMONS: Yeah and it raises the question, why do you go to Europe twice, right? You seem like there's sort of over-working him to show this mode, this movement, and what you're talking about that somebody is at home, I mean, it's working, but he is 81-years-old. Let him them stay home on one of those trips. Let the vice president go on one of those trips, so that he could be focused on his job. And it does raise questions about staffing. If he had a cold, I would've liked to have known as somebody who's been out talking on behalf for Democrats because at least that way when we heard the raspy voice at the beginning of the beginning of the debate, we would have had a moment and say, oh, he's got a coal, let's give them a chance — like, gain his footing, but that's not what happened. ZELENY: What about the stare? It wasn't just the cold, though. Let's be honest if you watched the debate, it was more than just his voice. It was how he carried himself and it was almost like he wasn't sure which camera luck through. But again, he was so prepared. Was he over-prepared? just look at that. And, you know, this is not the first time this has happened necessarily. We have covered many events with him this is actually the Joe Biden we see on most days, the State of the Union address was the outlier here, at least according to last night.

Unlike Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel Live! guest host Martin Short did not react to Thursday’s Trump-Biden debate live, and from the perspective of ABC’s liberal audience, maybe that was a good thing because Short’s previously recorded rendition of Cranky Doodle, mocking Trump, would help them cope with Biden’s bad performance. Short hosted as his character Jiminy Glick and mocked some Trump supporters’ priorities, “Why does Jimmy Kimmel have to be so one-sided? Why not talk about the issues that really matter? Like Hillary's emails, Benghazi, deep state Pizzagate. And where is Hunter? I'll tell you where! Having a threesome with Antifa and Taylor Swift.”     Keeping with the sarcasm, Short pretended to lament, “Jimmy's always punching down on Mr. Trump. But tonight, I want to lift him up—with a musical salute to a man whose only crime is trying to make America great again, again.” Short then launched into a parody of Yankee Doodle complete with an Uncle Sam hat, on screen lyrics, and related images: Cranky Doodle went to town to call the news a phony. Stuck white letters on red hats and called it MAGA-roni. Cranky Doodle you're so tan, Cranky Doodle Dandy. Stop the steal and lock her up and with the girls be handsy. Cranky Doodle won't concede ´cause they rigged the election so they stormed the Capitol ´twas hardly insurrection. Cranky Doodle you're so smart, windmills do cause cancer, you're a stable genius and a very sexy dancer. Cranky Doodle went to court to fight a crooked system, is it really Donald's fault that Stormy can't resist him. Cranky Doodle drained the swamp, got rid of all the leakers, built a mighty border wall in glitzy golden sneakers. Cranky Doodle make us great, be the one who frees us, you're our bigly Burger King, our sweet Orange baby Jesus.  Cranky Doodle has our vote, by your side we're standin' go and take the White House back and we'll shout let's go Brandon. Go and take the White House back and we'll shout let's go Brandon.  As Short concluded, Kimmel’s sidekick, Guillermo Rodriguez, joined him on stage waving an American flag in a bald eagle costume while confetti streamers fell from the ceiling. Unfortunately for Short and his viewers, voters are more likely to make their decisions based on the debate than a parody song, and the sugar high of such a song will quickly wear off. Here is a transcript for the June 27 show: ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live! 6/27/2024 11:41 PM ET MARTIN SHORT [AS JIMINY GLICK]: Why does Jimmy Kimmel have to be so one-sided? Why not talk about the issues that really matter? Like Hillary's emails, Benghazi, deep state Pizzagate. And where is Hunter? I'll tell you where! Having a threesome with Antifa and Taylor Swift.  And Jimmy's always punching down on Mr. Trump. But tonight, I want to lift him up —with a musical salute to a man whose only crime is trying to make America great again, again.  Cranky Doodle went to town to call the news a phony. Stuck white letters on red hats and called it MAGA-roni. Cranky Doodle you're so tan, Cranky Doodle Dandy Stop the steal and lock her up and with the girls be handsy. Cranky Doodle won't concede ´cause they rigged the election so they stormed the Capitol ´twas hardly insurrection. Cranky Doodle you're so smart, windmills do cause cancer, you're a stable genius and a very sexy dancer. Cranky Doodle went to court to fight a crooked system, is it really Donald's fault that Stormy can't resist him. Cranky Doodle drained the swamp, got rid of all the leakers, built a mighty border wall in glitzy golden sneakers. Cranky Doodle make us great, be the one who frees us, you're our bigly Burger King, our sweet Orange baby Jesus.  Cranky Doodle has our vote, by your side we're standin' go and take the White House back and we'll shout let's go Brandon. Go and take the White House back and we'll shout let's go Brandon. 

Matt Taibbi, independent journalist and Twitter Files author, revealed the origins of the expansive government censorship enterprise working with social media to censor Americans. Taibbi recounted his findings from the Twitter Files in a new interview with Tucker Carlson released Thursday. During the 2-hour long interview, Taibbi revealed the origins of the Global Engagement Center, a State Department initiative first implemented overseas to combat jihadist terrorists that is now being used to target US citizens. Taibbi described the scope of his findings revealing that the US government was working hand in glove with social media companies to violate the Bill of Rights. “There was a group of us and for about three months, we got to look through the internal correspondence of one of the world’s biggest communications companies, and the big thing that we found was that there was this nexus of communication between government enforcement and intelligence agencies and the internet platforms,” Taibbi said. “And they had a very sophisticated and organized bureaucracy that was involved with controlling content in a variety of different ways.” Taibbi’s team was shocked at what they uncovered and were very curious as to how such a sophisticated apparatus could be implemented at home seemingly under the nose of the American public.  “First of all, this was shocking to us seeing all these documents that said, ‘Flagged by FBI,’ ‘Flagged by DHS’ … But we had to figure out, ‘Where did this come from? Like, ‘How did this start’” Taibbi told Carlson. “And when we started asking questions, it turned out that a lot of the programs that were now targeting domestic speech began as overseas, counter-terrorism sort of messaging programs, right?” Eventually, Taibbi discovered that this vast censorship enterprise had been originally started as an effort by the State Department and other agencies to combat international Islamic terrorism. “So, the State Department, for instance, has a thing called the Global Engagement Center, which is now very much interested in speech both abroad and at home. But they were once exclusively a sort of counter-ISIS platform.” Taibbi concluded by talking to industry insiders that after the surge of global populism around the world culminating in the 2016 election of Donald Trump, the foreign policy elite decided that populism was a grave danger to the established world order and must be dealt with. “One phrase really stuck out,” said Taibbi of his discussions with industry insiders. “It was ‘CT to CP,’ so that’s ‘counter terrorism to counter populism.’ And the idea was the whole mission abroad of countering ISIS or countering AL-Qaeda, contracting-wise, it was kind of drying up, right? Because those threats had been somewhat neutralized.”  The foreign policy establishment needed fresh prey, and populism was the perfect target. “But populism was now… was viewed as a very serious threat after Occupy Wall Street, the Tea Party…then there was Brexit and then I think Trump was the last, you know, the last stand for a lot of these folks. ” Taibbi’s comments come in the wake of dramatic developments that could determine the future of free speech in the United States.  This Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Murthy v Missouri that the federal government could continue to collude with social media companies to censor online content. In his dissent, Justice Samuel Alito described the Court’s decision as setting a precedent allowing the federal government to circumvent the First Amendment. “Officials who read today’s decision together with Vullo will get the message,” Alito wrote. “If a coercive campaign is carried out with enough sophistication, it may get by. That is not the message this Court should send.”  Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.

If one ever needed a case study in how the liberal media use their clout to push government spending ever higher, there’s the example of the Affordable Health Care Act, aka ObamaCare. Seven years ago this month, liberal talking heads emotionally denounced a Republican plan to repeal-and-replace ObamaCare, proposing a bill that would have saved an estimated $473 billion over ten years, according to the final Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate. Yet as the bill moved through Congress, the media offered no deep investigations of whether ObamaCare had succeeded or failed in controlling health costs (as many in the media had wrongly claimed as they pushed the original bill in 2009-10). Nor did the media host debates about whether broadly regulating health care was an appropriate function for the federal government, vs. something better left to the states, or to individuals and their employers. Instead, viewers heard a stream of emotional claims about “real people with very real problems” who would be “hurt” by a partial rollback in law enacted only a few years earlier. Republicans were “monsters” like the “Zodiac killer” who would have “the blood of a lot of innocent people” on their hands, the liberal media narrative insisted. Comparing a new bill’s proposed spending level to a fast-growing baseline amount is a dishonest Washington budget trick employed to make any reduction from the baseline seem like a devastating cut. Yet instead of exposing such trickery, reporters appropriated the dishonest language as their own. George Stephanopoulos, for example, lashed out at White House advisor Kellyanne Conway: “I don’t see how you can say more than $800 billion in savings is not cuts.” (ABC’s This Week, June 25, 2017). In fact, the Republican bill would have merely held the increase in Medicaid spending to the rate of inflation; the government’s spending on this program would have increased every year, just not as much as the current law (that they were trying to fix) had allotted. When journalists demonize such efforts to responsibly restrain government spending, while cheerleading for every new benefit proposed by politicians, they contribute to the dysfunctional policies that have pushed the U.S. government’s total debt to a level even larger than the entire U.S. economy (122.3% as of June 27, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis). The media’s protective attitude toward government spending will certainly be an issue if a new Trump administration in 2025 moves to re-set policy priorities after the big-spending Biden years. So, from the NewsBusters’ archives, here’s a sample of how the media trashed the GOP effort to (modestly) curtail health care spending back in June 2017): ■ Fill-in co-host David Muir: “One quick question, Matt, on health care today. Millions of Americans finally learn what’s in the Republican senators’ plan. Why the secrecy?”Political Analyst Matthew Dowd: “Well, you obviously have the secrecy because they think they’re doing something that the American public doesn’t want. It’s as if you walk in your living room and your kids are trying to hide something under the cushion. You know they did something wrong. And I think that’s a real problem.”— ABC’s Good Morning America, June 22, 2017. ■ “On Capitol Hill, police are currently removing protesters in wheelchairs outside of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office....[It’s] a brutal image for Republicans and supporters of this bill, frankly....The power of these kinds of images is not to be discounted in this kind of debate.”— Host Andrea Mitchell over images of a small number of left-wing protests being moved out of a corridor, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, June 22, 2017. ■ “I’m so angry about this ridiculously stupid piece of legislation that is honestly nothing more than a tax cut and a political agenda disguised as a health care bill...There are over 125 million of the 312 million Americans who right now suffer from a chronic illness. Out of that 125 million, 70 percent of them suffer from two....This 125 million people as of today will be as high as 140 million by 2020. And in 2020, they are going to be looking for somebody to give them medication and health care. And what this bill does is sends them all to death.”— Talk show host Montel Williams on CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin, June 23, 2017. ■ “Paul Ryan has been dreaming about cutting this program [Medicaid] since he was sitting — hanging out at keggers in college — he’s told that story. What kind of a monster is he? Who dreams of cutting Medicaid? They act like people are merely takers — they don’t act like they understand hardship of any kind....I mean, the cruelty....it’s the only word we can use — the cruelty of this bill is beyond belief.”— MSNBC political analyst Joan Walsh on MSNBC’s The Last Word, June 23, 2017. ■ “The Senate unveiled their super-secret health care bill....Everybody’s saying it was unveiled. Unveiled? Unveiled is not the right term. You unveil a sculpture. Nobody goes, ‘Behold, a turd.’ This is more likely something that was excreted. I mean, health care bill? More like a manifesto from the Zodiac killer. They should have published this by cutting out letters from the newspaper.”— Host Bill Maher on HBO’s Real Time, June 23, 2017. ■ “If I were him [Paul Ryan’s Wisconsin Democratic challenger], I would tie this health bill...I would tie it to Paul Ryan....I would just bring out what a heartless, soulless Washington creature he’s become. I don’t think the district knows. You’ve made some good points about, ‘It’s nice to have somebody in leadership,’ but if you have somebody in leadership who’s devoted their life to hurting people in the district, let’s think twice about that.”— MSNBC political analyst Joan Walsh on MSNBC’s AM Joy, June 25, 2017. ■ “How do [Republicans] justify the fact that it [ObamaCare repeal] will hurt the people that supported them most enthusiastically during the election?”        — Co-host Charlie Rose on CBS This Morning, June 27, 2017. ■ “You just see the numbers and they are just devastating. There’s no attempt to hide the fact that Donald Trump is breaking every promise he made and that they will have a disproportionate impact hurting older, middle-income Americans.”— Co-host Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, June 27, 2017. ■ “[If] you slash $750 billion, Mike Barnicle, from Medicaid, after you’ve already slashed another $300 or $400 billion in an underlying budget, over $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts, that destroys health care in rural America, in Trump America. We’ve said it again, let me say it again, not just for the poor. For the middle class and the upper middle class, their parents in nursing home, their children in NICU units, you name it, it devastates health care for half of America.”— Host Joe Scarborough on Morning Joe, June 28, 2017. ■ Correspondent Adrian Diaz: “The opioid epidemic claimed 4,100 lives in Ohio last year, 308 here in Akron. What would you say to the folks in Washington who are talking about cutting back on Medicaid?”Addict Leah Kohen: “Please, don’t do it. You’re going to have the blood of a lot of innocent people on your hands.”— CBS Evening News, June 29, 2017. For more examples from our flashback series, which we call the NewsBusters Time Machine, go here.                       

Bill Ackman, the billionaire founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, admitted in January that while registered to vote in the Democratic primary, he was "no longer a Democrat." At the time, he had sunk donations into the ill-fated Republican campaigns of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy and had also financed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s campaign. While Ackman indicated in subsequent months that he might support Trump, the first presidential debate Thursday night evidently sealed the deal. Trump "is going to win in a landslide," Ackman wrote hours after the debate, which he said was an "indictment of the Democratic Party." "The country should rally around Trump and help him succeed," added Ackman. Ackman suggested that when Trump won in 2016, the outcome had been so unexpected that "he was totally unprepared. The lack of preparation, the Russian investigation and the ensuing chaos interfered with his ability to execute." 'They outright lied to you.' This time around, the billionaire indicated that Trump "knows he is going to win. So does everyone else." Accordingly, the Republican has the luxury of time to "assemble a first class team." In the meantime, the former Democrat recommended that the country unify around Trump, stressing, "The best thing we can do as citizens is support our next president. We need to align the country around our nation's leader. We have grave global threats we need to deal with and challenging economic times fast approaching." When pressed on whether California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) might stand in for Biden, Ackman minced no words: "Newsom would be a disaster. Just look at what has become of the great city of San Francisco. Exhibit A in how not to run a city or a state." Besides imploring other Americans to join him in supporting Trump and understanding that the top Biden alternate is a nonstarter, Ackman also laid into the Biden administration and the liberal media for lying about Biden's decrepitude. "Left wing media have had total and complete access to the president, his staff, and his administration. They all knew, but they told you otherwise. They outright lied to you," wrote Ackman. "People very close to me, my closest family and friends, trusted the media on Biden until the @CNN commentators finally owned up to the truth about Biden last night. For months I have been accused by many friends and family of being misled by an @X-based 'right wing echo chamber,'" wrote Ackman. "The sad reality is that one of our most important institutions, the so-called 'Fourth Estate,' fourth only after the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners, has destroyed any remaining credibility it has." In the wake of its gross distortions of Biden and Trump alike, Ackman underscored, "The media can no longer save itself." He intimated further, referencing a video of White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre hyping Biden's supposed mental acuity, that the administration officials "covering for their boss" have demonstrated disloyalty and and willingness to lie to the American people. Ackman has joined the ranks of numerous other Wall Street executives who, tired of the chaos unfolding under the current administration, have thrown in their lots with Trump. Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwarzman, among them, distanced himself from the Republican in 2021, insinuating in a statement that the Jan. 6 riot was linked to the president's remarks. However, he closed the distance last month, telling Axios that the "dramatic rise of anti-Semitism has led me to focus on the consequences of upcoming elections with greater urgency." Schwarzman noted, "I share the concern of most Americans that our economic, immigration, and foreign policies are taking the country in the wrong direction. For these reasons, I am planning to vote for change and support Donald Trump for president. In addition, I will be supporting Republican Senate candidates and other Republicans up and down the ticket Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

President Joe Biden crumbled in his debate Thursday with former President Donald Trump in Atlanta, prompting even his biggest boosters at allied news outlets to eulogize his campaign. While Biden's garbled answers, bouts of confusion, and departures from reality were damning enough for the 81-year-old Democrat, his wife found a way to make matters worse. Footage captured by CNN shows former President Donald Trump confidently stride off the CNN debate hall stage following the ordeal. His opponent, however, would not exit unaided. Jill Biden can be seen carefully taking the president's hand and slowly leading him down roughly three steps. The juxtaposition of the brutal debate with Biden's subsequent need for direction and a crutch prompted some critics to speculate about the first lady's real role as well as her silence in the face of the president's unmistakable decrepitude. 'Shameful actions as a wife.' Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) responded to the video, "Who is the Commander in Chief?" Conservative commentator Laura Ingraham noted, "She did this. Embarrassed him, his party and destroyed the country's border and economy by letting him run. Horrible." Former ESPN host Sage Steele tweeted, "Shame on Jill Biden for allowing this to go on for so very long. Shameful actions as a wife. Shameful actions as a human being." Some critics asked whether CNN had accidentally broadcast one of the so-called "cheap fakes" its talking heads previously joined the White House in concern-mongering about. A video went viral earlier this month of Obama having to escort Biden off the stage at a fundraising event after the president locked up in front of an audience. "They are cheap-fakes video," said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. "They are done in bad faith." Jill Biden did not promptly escort Biden back home Thursday, but rather to a watch party, where she would humiliate him again, this time in front of a crowd of supporters. Joe Biden spent over a week at Camp David preparing for the debate. With the help of over a dozen current and former aides, the New York Times indicated he engaged in multiple strategy sessions and practiced on a mock debate stage. According to the suggestion Thursday by CNN's Erin Burnett, he might also have received the questions to run through in advance. In light of the investment of time, money, and energy in debate preparation, there was likely some expectation of a passable showing. Jill Biden indicated, however, just how low the bar had been set. When introducing the leader of the free world, Jill Biden said, "Joe, you did such a great job. You answered every question." "And let me ask the crowd: What did Trump do? Lie!" added the first lady. While many critics suggested Jill Biden's commendation of the president for the satisfaction of the bare minimum was condescending, others suggested it was indicative instead of a deluded sense he might actually have done all right — a sense anchored in a desire to hold on to power. Late Thursday night, Jill Biden released a video claiming, "He's the president we need — the president you deserve." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

“Dr. Who” has been a fan favorite for the 60 years it’s been on air, but with its recent record low ratings on Disney Plus — that’s all changing. “Not only is the show absolutely not doing well, but it is failing spectacularly. Like it is doing so poorly,” Lauren Chen of “Pseudo-Intellectual” comments, noting that the “show has been on the decline for a while now.” Since the first episode of the season, fewer and fewer people are tuning in for more. The issues began with the portrayal of Dr. Who — who is now a crossdressing black man — and went downhill from there. “They were so focused on trying to pander to black people and queer people and get them interested in the show, they forgot about welcoming, like, just actual Dr. Who fans to watch the show,” Chen says. “In fact, sometimes, they did the exact opposite. They told those fans to not watch the show if they weren’t happy with being force-fed progressive propaganda, and I’m not even kidding,” she adds. The main actor has told people to not watch the show, addressing his critics in an April 2024 interview with Variety’s Ellise Shafer by saying, “Don’t watch. Turn off the TV. Go and touch grass, please, for God’s sake.” This same sentiment was shared by a drag queen who plays a villain in the show. “I know a lot of people might not even watch this season of 'Dr. Who' because it’s taking such a decisively queer step. However, if they watch, I think they’ll see that we’re just actors playing characters. And if they don’t watch it, then who needs ‘em? I truly believe that for every fan we lose to transphobia, we’re going to have two to three more coming in because they’re excited for trans representation,” Jinkx Monsoon said. “How is that prediction working out for you?” Chen laughs. Want more from Lauren Chen?To enjoy more of Lauren’s pro-liberty, pro-logic, and pro-market commentary on social and political issues, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.