'the original Border Czar'

Harris Quietly Trying To Cover Up Major Election Bomb That Could End Her Honeymoon

'I’ll pay you per class'

Our “10 Best Classic Rock Songs That Make You Want to Dance” article defines a list of songs that make you want to jump on the dance floor the second you hear the opening beat. That’s the power of a great dance song—you know it instantly. There’s no hesitation, no doubt; if you’re a person who likes to dance, these are 10 songs that will get your juices flowing instantly. Of course, there are hundreds of them, but we tried to stick with the rockers, and these 10 never fail. # 10 – Dancing With Myself – Billy Idol We The post 10 Classic Rock Songs That Make You Want To Dance appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

The scene outside Union Station in our nation’s capital that day was almost apocalyptic. Anti-Israel, pro-Palestine protesters arrived at Columbus Circle in front of the historic train station after first marching to the nearby U.S. Capitol. They were supposed to demonstrate peacefully and then disperse. They didn’t do that. In defiance of a permit granted to the ANSWER Coalition and obtained by the Washington Examiner, the protesters defaced the Columbus Fountain and other property and burned American flags shortly after arriving at Columbus Circle about 2:30 p.m. July 24.   Scene outside Union Station before U.S. Park Police revoked the pro-Palestine protestor's permit. @DailySignal pic.twitter.com/6IX4NTZc8Z— Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyJr1) July 24, 2024 The Daily Signal filmed three U.S. Park Police officers as they struggled to arrest a single individual. As they detained him, another pro-Palestine protester in the mob grabbed one officer’s collar and dragged him away. U.S. Park Police arrest protestors as pro-Palestine protestors lower U.S. flag outside Union Station. One protester tackled a U.S. Park Police officer.@DailySignal pic.twitter.com/4FZonVwUKp— Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyJr1) July 24, 2024 Organizers of this pro-Palestine rally at Columbus Circle had predicted that attendance would top 10,000. The ANSWER Coalition, an umbrella of anti-war groups formed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America, claimed that at least 5,000 protesters would show up. Why, then, were Park Police and other law enforcement agencies so overwhelmed? Officer Kenneth Spencer, chairman of the Fraternal Order of Police for U.S. Park Police, told The Daily Signal that 175 officers were detailed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the Capitol that day to address a joint meeting of Congress about the Israel-Hamas war. Of the 175 officers, 29 were deployed to Columbus Circle, which is just north of Capitol Hill. The jurisdiction of Park Police in the metropolitan Washington area stretches far beyond the National Mall to other parts of the District of Columbia, as well as the adjoining Virginia and Maryland suburbs and major commuter routes into and out of the nation’s capital. With Park Police officers spread everywhere from Glover Archbold Park in Northwest Washington to wherever Netanyahu’s motorcade happened to be, the law enforcement agency was “stretched thin,” Spencer said in an Aug. 1 interview. “We used to have far more sworn officers available to do large-scale events like this,” he said, referring to the Netanyahu visit. In 2006, U.S. Park Police had 601 sworn officers. Sixteen years later, that number had dropped to 494 officers, according to the FOP union. Why the officer shortage?Spencer blamed the Interior Department and the National Park Service, both parent agencies of the Park Police, as well as Congress. “We’re supposed to have a minimum of 650 officers,” the police union head said, but “the National Park Service, for some reason … [has] come up with some number that says … we need 639 officers.” But “they can’t tell me where they get that number from,” Spencer said, referring to the National Park Service. U.S. Park Police’s current strength is 515 sworn officers, he told The Daily Signal. Neither the Park Police nor the National Park Service responded to emails seeking comment from The Daily Signal last Thursday. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, sent a letter Friday to National Park Service Director Charles Sams asking for body-cam footage from Park Police officers deployed July 24 at Columbus Circle. Cruz said the request is an attempt to get answers explaining why Park Police appeared to be ill-prepared for a riot. Two political appointees of the Biden-Harris administration in the Interior Department, Lily Greenberg Call and Maryam Hassanein, resigned in May and July, respectively, citing the administration’s support for Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza. Israel went to war with Hamas, the elected government of the Gaza Strip, after Hamas terrorists slaughtered 1,200 and kidnapped about 250 in a rampage of rape, torture, and murder Oct. 7 in southern Israel. The Daily Signal asked Spencer what he thought, as a Park Police officer, about U.S. government employees who chose to publicly express sentiments similar to those espoused by anti-Israel protesters at Columbus Circle. “Nobody who’s appointed should be expressing their political views when you work for the federal government, especially at that level,” the union president for Park Police said. Interior Department spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz said in an Aug. 8 email to the Daily Signal that the two employees who resigned didn’t work for Park Police. Schwartz declined to comment on whether the Interior Department is concerned about the rise of pro-Palestine, anti-Israel protests in and around the nation’s capital and whether the Israel-Hamas war has politicized the government agency. The 29 Park Police officers deployed July 24 to Columbus Circle appeared to be overwhelmed as the protest rally turned into a riot and some officers were thrown around by protesters. U.S. Capitol Police officers were reinforced by 200 officers from the New York Police Department ahead of the D.C. protests. The Daily Signal asked Capitol Police whether its officers stepped in to assist Park Police at any point. Spokeswoman Brianna Burch said July 29 that Capitol Police officers responded to Union Station to assist Park Police during the riot. Their number didn’t include NYPD officers, she said. However, video from that day shows Capitol Police officers on the periphery of Columbus Circle, over 80 yards from where some anti-Israel protesters were assaulting police officers and burning U.S. flags. The mob continued to chase police officers to try to free protesters who had been arrested at Union Station. Pepper spray was eventually used to push the crowd back. pic.twitter.com/ztBvpxAVrU— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) July 24, 2024 Asked to clarify whether Capitol Police officers stepped foot inside Columbus Circle that day, Burch responded: “Other agencies made a bunch of arrests at Columbus Circle, while our teams were holding our police line firm in order to protect the joint meeting of Congress—our mission.” It is less than a mile’s walk from Union Station to the Capitol, where Netanyahu spoke to Congress. The Daily Signal asked Spencer whether Park Police officers stationed outside Union Station ever called Capitol Police for backup. Spencer, who was patrolling elsewhere at the time of the riot, said he didn’t know. He said he was confused why Capitol Police officers didn’t respond, considering that they could see the violence unfolding by anti-Israel protesters outside Union Station. Ultimately, he deferred to Capitol Police command staff. Capitol Police and Park Police officials didn’t respond to follow-up emails from The Daily Signal. D.C. Metropolitan Police spokeswoman Lee Lepe wouldn’t disclose when or how many D.C. police officers responded to Columbus Circle. But Lepe said in a July 29 email that they charged three protesters with crossing a police line and two others with assaulting a police officer. Capitol Police reported making six arrests that day, all within the Capitol building itself. The Washington Post reported that U.S. Park Police made eight arrests that day and was trying to identify six others who committed vandalism and related offenses. The day after the Columbus Circle violence and vandalism, House Republicans introduced a bill that would allow the deportation of noncitizens on student visas who publicly support Hamas or other foreign terrorist organizations. The post Questions Remain About How Pro-Hamas Mob Overwhelmed Park Police in DC appeared first on The Daily Signal.

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—The cost of housing surged in July, accounting for nearly 90% of total inflation, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index data released Wednesday. Shelter costs rose 5.1% year-over-year and 0.4% month-over-month, after rising 0.2% in June, the bureau showed. The 0.4% monthly increase was greater than Bank of America economists’ expectations of 0.3%, according to investment research firm Morningstar. “The most disappointing aspect of this report was the shelter data,” Omair Sharif, founder of the research firm Inflation Insights, wrote in a note after the report, according to Yahoo Finance. 'Disappointment' came from shelter which contributed 90% of the July increase. OER up 0.36% after 0.27% in June. Still low compared to '22-23 but moving in the wrong direction. I suspect rising insurance and taxes are the culprits here, albeit indirect. https://t.co/rgjOEW6FB6— Benjamin M. Lavine (@benjaminMlavine) August 14, 2024 The July increase in shelter costs was comprised of a 0.5% increase in rent, a 0.4% increase in owners’ equivalent rent, and a 0.2% increase in lodging away from home, Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed. Rents are typically fixed for the duration of a lease, creating a lag between new lease prices and rental inflation data. As a result, despite cooling prices for new leases, overall housing inflation is expected to remain above pre-pandemic levels through the end of 2025, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. “Rents are up 22.3% since Jan ’21, but this metric suffers from large lags and will continue marching higher in the months ahead as it incorporates today’s price changes,” E.J. Antoni, a research fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Rental and owners’ equivalent rent costs have both increased nearly 24% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Cumulative inflation, meanwhile, is somewhat lower at 22%. Inflation measured 2.9% year-over-year in July, the first time the headline number has fallen below 3% in over two years. Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation The post Housing Costs Surge in July, Accounting for 90% of Total Inflation appeared first on The Daily Signal.

DA Gascon Retaliated Against Prosecutor Who Revealed a Defendant Was Pretending to Be Trans

NYT: Kamala to Deliver Economic Plan on Friday. Sorta.

New York Times White House correspondent Zolan Kanno-Youngs joined CNN’s Dana Bash on Wednesday’s Inside Politics to discuss why some black men are not so quick to jump aboard the Harris 2024 bandwagon. Kanno-Youngs arrived at the conclusion that they are sexists who have been informed by “gender roles” instilled in them from “colonialism.” Bash began by gushing over the article that served as the basis for the segment, “This is so fascinating, and you do such an amazing job of really giving the nuance of this to people who read your story, and I encourage people to do that, and I’m lucky you can give it now. So, you call it the elephant in the room. Can you broadly explain what that is when it comes to black men and Kamala Harris or other black women who are running for office?”     Kanno-Youngs recalled that just as there were White Dudes for Harris and White Women for Harris Zoom calls, there was one for black men: And what I found interesting about this was that it wasn't just a story of, you know, thousands of black men rallying for the vice president after the switch on the ballot. But they also were, sort of, confronting, multiple officials, were confronting what we call the elephant in the room, and that's that there is a history where not all black man, it's not a monolith, we’re not a monolith, but there has been a slice of the electorate that historically has not thought that being a strong black man leader and that, that is somehow at odds with standing behind a black woman leader. He further lamented, “And that has translated to sort of a lack of black women in some leadership positions, sort of, in the community. This dates back to, we went in the congressional archives and saw that Shirley Chisholm, at one point, was criticizing her peers for not standing with her, black male peers as well, as well as white male peers. We saw that also Stacey Abrams was struggling to gain support with the black man electorate as well.” Kanno-Youngs then stretched so far for an explanation that it is a wonder he did not hurt himself, “This has a history that, look, dates back to the history of gender roles that were specified in, through colonialism as well and the start of this country, but I think what's key is that it's also those black men that seem to be trying to overcome this sort of uncomfortable truth.” So much for “nuance,” a reporter thinks gender roles and colonialism are why some black men refuse to back Harris, not that Democrats have been steadily losing ground with black men regardless of who their candidate is. Here is a transcript for the August 14 show: CNN Inside Politics with Dana Bash 8/14/2024 12:43 PM ET DANA BASH: This is so fascinating, and you do such an amazing job of really giving the nuance of this to people who read your story, and I encourage people to do that, and I’m lucky you can give it now. So, you call it the elephant in the room. Can you broadly explain what that is when it comes to black men and Kamala Harris or other black women who are running for office? ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS: Sure. Sure. We know that there were multiple of these calls happening. You know, there was a white dudes call, there was a white women call, and then there was a black men call too. And what I found interesting about this was that it wasn't just a story of, you know, thousands of black men rallying for the vice president after the switch on the ballot. But they also were, sort of, confronting, multiple officials, were confronting what we call the elephant in the room, and that's that there is a history where not all black man, it's not a monolith, we’re not a monolith, but there has been a slice of the electorate that historically has not thought that being a strong black man leader and that, that is somehow at odds with standing behind a black woman leader. And that has translated to sort of a lack of black women in some leadership positions, sort of, in the community. This dates back to, we went in the congressional archives and saw that Shirley Chisholm, at one point, was criticizing her peers for not standing with her, black male peers as well, as well as white male peers. We saw that also Stacey Abrams was struggling to gain support with the black man electorate as well. This has a history that, look, dates back to the history of gender roles that were specified in, through colonialism as well and the start of this country, but I think what's key is that it's also those black men that seem to be trying to overcome this sort of uncomfortable truth.

Smart phones can accomplish so much nowadays that it appears their functionality as actual phones, although a foregone conclusion, is beside the point. Their ever-expanding offering of apps and abilities evidently appeals to those who grew up corded and using party lines — those for whom old-world conditioning sustains excitement over such novelties. There appears, however, to be a contingent of smartphone users who have grown tired of the constant promise of something slightly better — consumers keen instead on something radically different, even if that change means regress.It is not just schools that have realized the appeal of dumb phones' limited features. Some parents have provided their children with the technologically lesser phones in hopes of sparing their children from distractions and the mental ravages of social media. So-called dumb phones are apparently on the ascent as an alternative, no longer just the go-to for geriatrics, drug dealers, and others whose lifestyle choices might precipitate the need for a cheap, basic, and possibly disposable cellular device. Brian Roemmele, the president of Multiplex Magazine, recently noted that the "rise of the massive popularity of 'dumb phones' and flip phones with the 14-25 age group has taken off. So much so that they are on back order at many stores." "It is not at all a fashion trend but a boredom of the NEW stagnant smartphones of their parents and grand parents," tweeted Roemmele. Pascal Forget, a Canadian tech columnist, has echoed this suggestion, telling Canadian state media, "The smartphone is not a source of enjoyment anymore." For Gen Z and millennial users, the smartphone "used to be fun, but now they're addicted to it, so they want to go back to simpler times using a simpler device." The Economist indicated earlier this month that dumb phones account for roughly 2% of phone sales in the U.S., but that demand — to Roemmele's suggestion — is growing. This phenomenon is not limited to America. North of the border, there was reportedly a 25% increase in dumb phone purchases last year, accounting for over 98,600 sales. The subreddit r/Dumbphones defines "dumb phone" as a cellular phone with less or no 'smart' features as a smart phone. It's actually called a "feature phone' but it's commonly referred to as a dumb phone because it's seen as the opposite of a smart phone. Dumb phones lack the advanced technology of smart phones and typically only have core tools like calling, text messaging, maybe a calendar or notes, and typically do without feature-rich apps like social media and maps. While boredom might prompt some young people to buy dumb phones, there are various factors at play. Smartphones and the social media apps thereon have been linked to various mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, and, perhaps paradoxically, loneliness. Their routinized use also impacts cognitive ability. A study published last year in the Nature journal Scientific Reports revealed that smartphone use results in a loss attention — that "even the mere presence of one's smartphone consumes cognitive resources, without willingly shifting attention or actively using the smartphone." Cognizant of the fallout of smartphone use, the Economist indicated that some schools such as the esteemed British school Eton are providing their students with dumb phones and barring the use of the more capable alternatives. It is not just schools that have realized the appeal of dumb phones' limited features. Some parents have provided their children with the technologically lesser phones in hopes of sparing their children from distractions and the mental ravages of social media. "When there's a smartphone or screen, you don't practice guitar, you don't read a book, you don't just be bored," Leigh Tynan told Canadian state media. "I just thought I really don't feel comfortable with her being online all the time.... I'm trying to protect her from it for as long as possible." According to Roemmele, the most popular flip phone he had observed among the "youth cohort" was the TracFone TCL Flip 2, even though Nokia's flip phones come frequently recommended as the best dumb phones. Although I have greyed out of membership in the youth cohort, I sought out the TCL Flip 2 for under $40 to see what the fuss was all about. Upon acquiring the dumb phone I was immediately reminded of why decades ago, Blackberries — with their QWERTY keyboards — were preferable to those of us with limited patience as well as to those loathe to learn how to speedily text using number keys assigned triads and quads of letters. For the Luddites comprising the dumb phone movement, that's apparently part of the appeal: to make texting and web browsing so vexatious as to preclude users from trying in the first place. In the case of the Flip 2, mission accomplished. Texting was so arduous a process that I abandoned the effort altogether. Fortunately, the TCL Flip 2 also operates as, yes, a phone, meaning I could effortlessly speak to someone on the other end. For this purpose, the phone works beautifully. Sound through the earpiece is crisp and my voice was well-received on the other end. Since the phone is not devoting computational power to ad-trackers and other background processes, but is rather serving a singular purpose, its battery life is excellent especially when compared with my supposedly smart Samsung Galaxy. The phone also survived its handling by a toddler presently keen on investigating the inner-workings of the various electronics around our house. The tag line for the r/Dumbphones is, "Join the revolution and enjoy the simple life!" Simple life indeed. Without social media apps and with a camera so useless it seems a waste of parts, the Flip 2 does serve to liberate. After all, while the reflex may remain to idle on the phone, there is virtually nothing worth doing on the phone apart from calling a loved one. Time will tell whether the dumb phone movement has legs to run the distance, but there's certainly something to it. Freed from the obligation to take photographs or doom scroll, you're left only to live in the present. If that's boring, then you only have yourself to blame. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!