A cargo ship engineer in the clip below said ships get away with hiring foreign crews who don’t  meet the necessary requirements. He believes the Davi crash was due to a lack of proper maintenance by the crew. He said these ships are maintained on a shoestring and rarely meet Coast Guard regulations. They use […] The post Cargo Ship Engineer Explains Probable Cause of Davi Crash appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Last week‚ Democrats on Fairfax County‘s board of supervisors voted to designate Easter Sunday as Transgender Visibility Day. The proclamation goes far beyond the supposed intent of making transgender people and gender ideology activists visible. Chairman Jeff McKay‚ a Democrat‚ sarcastically said‚ “As an elected official‚ it should be our moral responsibility to stand up […] The post Fairfax County Declares Easter as Transgender Visibility Day appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Biden’s State Department denied a report that an official accused the IDF of “systematically” raping Palestinian women during their war in Gaza. The Jerusalem Post reported that IDF Brig.-Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi stated: IDF Brig.-Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi met with the holder of the Israeli-Palestinian portfolio at the US State Department‚ who accused Israel of “systematically” […] The post State Dept. Runs With Hamas Terrorists’ Allegations of Israeli Abuse appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and former President Donald Trump ripped NBC as “weak” and “an absolute disgrace” after the network dropped former Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel four days after announcing her hiring as a contributor. NBC announced on Tuesday that McDaniel was out after multiple hosts — including Chuck Todd‚ Joe Scarborough‚ Mika Brzezinski‚ and Nicolle Wallace — criticized the network’s decision to hire the former RNC leader. “There is no doubt that the last several days have been difficult for the News Group. After listening to the legitimate concerns of many of you‚ I have decided that Ronna McDaniel will not be an NBC News contributor‚” NBC News Chairman Cesar Conde said in a statement. “No organization‚ particularly a newsroom‚ can succeed unless it is cohesive and aligned. Over the last few days‚ it has become clear that this appointment undermines that goal.” Following the announcement‚ social media quickly flooded with posts slamming NBC’s decision. “NBC ‘News’ is an absolute disgrace‚” Speaker Johnson wrote in a post on X. Trump released a statement on his social media platform Truth Social‚ expressing his surprise at NBC’s move before calling for more “free and fair press.” “Wow! Ronna McDaniel got fired by Fake News NBC. She only lasted two days‚ and this after McDaniel went out of her way to say what they wanted to hear‚” Trump wrote. “It leaves her in a very strange place‚ it’s called NEVER NEVERLAND‚ and it’s not a place you want to be. These Radical Left Lunatics are CRAZY‚ and the top people at NBC ARE WEAK. They were BROKEN and EMBARRASSED by LOW RATINGS‚ HIGHLY OVERPAID‚ ‘TALENT.’ BRING BACK FREE AND FAIR PRESS – MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN 2024!” McDaniel accepted the NBC offer after she stepped down from her role as chair of the RNC following a private meeting in February with Trump‚ who tapped her to lead the party after his 2016 presidential election victory. CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP During a “Meet the Press” segment on Sunday‚ Todd — NBC News’ chief political analyst — discussed McDaniel’s hiring with journalist Kristen Welker‚ who recently sat down with McDaniel for an interview on the relationship between the Trump campaign and the RNC in the aftermath of the 2020 election. “Let me deal with the elephant in the room‚” Todd said‚ looking at Welker. “I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation because I don’t know what to believe. [McDaniel] is now a paid contributor by NBC News. I have no idea whether any answer she gave to you was because she didn’t want to mess up her contract.” “She wants us to believe that she was speaking for the RNC when the RNC was paying for her‚ so she has credibility issues that she still has to deal with‚” Todd added. “Is she speaking for herself or is she speaking on behalf of who is paying for her?” In his critique of NBC‚ Todd did not mention former RNC Chair Michael Steele‚ who has worked as a regular MSNBC contributor since 2011. Steele endorsed Joe Biden in his 2020 run against Trump and joined the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. In a follow-up post on Tuesday night‚ Trump continued to berate NBC executives for allowing Todd “to publicly scold them‚” and said he would’ve advised McDaniel to go by her maiden name Romney to secure the job at the Left-leaning network. McDaniel is the niece of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT). “What boss or executive would allow a man or woman‚ in this case Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd‚ who was fired for dismal performance coupled with horrendous television ratings‚ to publicly SCOLD them as to their weakness &; stupidity in hiring Ronna McDaniel[?]” Trump asked. “Actually‚ they should be scolded for hiring ‘Sleepy’ for Meet the Fake Press‚ and keeping him on so long despite his poor performing skills‚ bad ratings‚ and bias.” “The sick degenerates over at MSDNC are really running NBC‚ and there seems nothing Chairman Brian Roberts can do about it. Watching Chuck Todd‚ of all people‚ viciously giving Roberts a piece of his small mind‚ and then berating him for hiring Ronna without his‚ or the other lunatics‚ approval‚ was just a step too far‚” Trump added. “Brian’s great father would have fired Chuck Todd‚ and all the rest of these losers‚ on the spot. Perhaps Brian still will. If I knew Ronna was going to troubled MSNBC‚ I would have advised her to change her name back to Romney‚ she would have had a better chance!”

The following is an edited transcript of a Daily Wire interview with Bill Whittle on his new‚ in-depth docuseries on the rise of the Soviet Union: “What We Saw: An Empire of Terror.” Daily Wire: Bill‚ you’ve now produced multiple “What We Saw” documentaries for The Daily Wire: “Apollo 11” and “The Cold War.” Why did you choose the rise of the Soviet Union as your next project? Bill: Shortly after the invasion of Ukraine I received a call from Jeremy Boreing at The Daily Wire. I just finished covering a fair amount of Russia with “The Cold War” series. Given the research for “The Cold War‚” and my previous readings‚ I’ve always been kind of morbidly fascinated with the mechanisms of the Soviet Union — fascinated and disgusted and appalled and intrigued by governments that have to terrorize their people in order to remain in power‚ antithetical to the American system. And no matter how bad we think things get here‚ there’s nothing that’s happened or is happening now in this country that even approaches this scale. DW: Why is it important to remember Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution? Bill: Several years after World War I‚ Winston Churchill said that the Germans had transmitted a “Bacillus” into Russia in the form of Lenin. I think he got that exactly right. It (Lenin) was a biological weapon. And it was designed to destroy Russia as a great power in World War I. That’s why the Germans not only allowed Lenin to travel through Germany during the height of the war‚ but in fact paid his expenses for many‚ many years afterwards. This regime is interesting to me for two reasons: the main reason is how intellectual it was — and I have a very low opinion of intellectuals. Intellectualism is for people who think they are intelligent and are so certain of themselves and so certain of what they believe that they feel the right to enforce their theories on other people. What fascinated me about this horrific system was the theoretical aspect of everything. There was nothing about the system that was practical. There was nothing based on common sense‚ experience‚ reason‚ kindness‚ decency — nothing. It was all based on the theory of a German philosopher named Karl Marx. His writings appealed to people looking for some sort of justice‚ but they also appealed to people who had any sort of envy for the people in power but didn’t want to do any work in order to achieve it. WATCH: “An Empire of Terror” on DailyWire+ The other remarkable quality about all of the Soviet leaders is just how useless they were. Prior to finding themselves in the middle of the system‚ none of them had jobs. Lenin’s only job was as a failed attorney‚ very briefly. As a lawyer he lost‚ I think‚ 13 out of 14 cases and never really worked a day in his life. Prior to the revolution‚ he sat around for 16 years‚ sitting in cafes in safe places like Berlin and Munich and London and Zurich‚ sipping tea and discussing theory.  He developed in his massive forehead this idea of how a society should work and there was no real world evidence that would change his mind. If it turned out that there was a difference between the map he had in his head and reality‚ then the reality had to be well‚ he would then go about doing whatever he had to do with the lovers of state power to beat reality into line with the theory. And this is why the Soviet state was a terror state. They never had legitimacy.  The Bolsheviks were a minority every single time they held a so-called “election;” they were a tremendous minority. And you can’t even accuse the Nazis of that. DailyWire+ DW: In “An Empire of Terror” you mention the leader of Russia’s provisional government‚ Alexander Kerensky. Why wasn’t he able to mount a good defense against the growing Bolshevik threat? Bill: Someone once wrote that Lenin was “lucky with his enemies.” And that was exactly the case. I have very high regard for Alexander Kerensky’s principles and for what he wanted for the Russian people. But as an actor‚ Kerensky had two qualities that actors often bring to the world: First‚ he was spectacularly naive when it came to the real world. And second‚ he was tremendously vain. These two blind spots led him to believe he was in control when in fact‚ Lenin was ready to do everything up to and including murder when Kerensky was simply looking out the window at the daisies. He was a good man and history was kind to him but he was no match for Lenin’s ruthlessness. This is the thing about the Soviet state — it’s designed in such a way that you have to keep the population under control through terror. The people that end up running the machine‚ by definition‚ become the most ruthless and terroristic of the bunch. DailyWire+ DW: What were some of the challenges you faced making this new series? Bill: All roads lead back to Lenin. When I began to realize the magnitude of the crimes that these people committed‚ I began to feel a tremendous sense of historical responsibility to the people who disappeared without photographs. 800‚000 people were killed in one of the gulags called Kolyma. 800‚000 people. That makes it second on the leaderboard from hell: Auschwitz is first‚ Kolyma is second‚ and Treblinka is third. So‚ more than anything‚ I wanted every single episode to have as many photographs of the faces of individual people. And most importantly‚ we can never use the same face twice. I just wanted faces because‚ as Stalin said‚ “One death is a tragedy‚ a million deaths a statistic.” So my biggest challenge was to find a way to try and personalize this. Make people understand that this could just as easily be you or your family‚ and then try to give them some idea of what the size of 20 million people looks like. For example‚ about 100‚000 people attend the Super Bowl every year. Imagine that everybody had to exit the stadium‚ single file‚ through one gate and you had to stand there and look at every single face as they left the stadium. When you were finished‚ hours and hours and hours later‚ you would have only 199 more Super Bowls to look at before you reached 20 million and saw the face of every person killed by this “idea.” And if it’s killed that many people‚ maybe it’s not such a good idea. DW: Did you come across any surprises in your research? Bill: The most astonishing story in “An Empire of Terror” is a true story. I’ve worked exceedingly hard and long to make sure that not only everything I wrote was true‚ but that I also had the receipts for everything. But the most astonishing coincidence in the entire series is this: Lenin and Stalin were both known to be extremely paranoid‚ and very‚ very private people. They kept a very tight circle and they were constantly on the lookout for assassination and betrayal. So when Lenin finally arrives in Moscow from St. Petersburg‚ and eventually gets himself a little mansion‚ he is living with his sisters‚ his wife‚ and two secretaries. He also has four bodyguards and a private cook named Comrade Spiridon. Comrade Spiridon went from being the only person that lived with Lenin‚ who was not related to him‚ to becoming the only person who lived with Stalin. And he lived with Stalin for the duration of Stalin’s reign in the Soviet Union. The only person who shared the insight into the entire thing — from the rise from agrarian peasantry to nuclear superpower. Comrade Spiridon was the only man who was on the inside. He would serve dinner to people who were the heads of the secret police one night and then the next night they were gone. They’d been killed and replaced. The genuinely remarkable part of this story is that Comrade Spiridon’s last name was Putin. This was Vladimir Putin’s grandfather. Vladimir Putin learned about the Soviet Union on his grandfather’s knee. And so the perspective Vladimir Putin received of the Soviet Union was the most elevated inside perspective that was possible to obtain. No one else in the entire history of the Soviet Union‚ ever‚ got that close to both of those men. And to think that it was possible for Vladimir Putin to turn out any other way is insane. DW: In light of the upcoming presidential election‚ do you see elements of communism at play in our politics? Bill: Well‚ the first thing I think that stands out about the upcoming election is the lawfare that’s being conducted against Donald Trump. If these people who are committing these atrocities against him genuinely believed in democracy‚ if they genuinely believed that their democratic values were better than Republican values‚ they wouldn’t be trying to lock up Trump. They’d be doing everything they could to get him to keep talking. If you feel like your only way to win an election is by having your opponent put in jail‚ you are well on your way to this kind of totalitarian empire of terror. That’s number one. Number two is cancel culture. The Left is using cancel culture as a strong-arm tactic to get people to shut up. And we all know the way it works: “You’re racist” or “we’re going to call your boss” or “we’re going to boycott your product” or whatever. But the point is that the only people who feel they need to shut up the opposition are people who know that their opposition has a better argument. And if they don’t shut them up‚ they’re going to win. One of my favorite sayings is that liberals want conservatives to shut up and conservatives want liberals to keep talking. And that’s the essence of the difference between these two parties. I have seen a concerted effort in America over the last several years to silence people. This whole idea of cancel culture is as close as we’ve come so far to taking people out to the Gulag and shooting them in the back of the head. But there are people who do want other people silenced. And the one thing I did realize is that there comes a tipping point when too many people are too quiet for too long. The social proof is to be quiet. The longer everybody is quiet‚ the harder it is to speak up. Eventually‚ it will lead to a situation like the Soviet Union‚ or the Nazi state. With “An Empire of Terror‚” I was determined to do my best to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Eva Mendes says putting acting on hold after having children was not a difficult decision at all.  The 50-year-old actress has been dating fellow movie star Ryan Gosling since 2011 when they met on the set of “The Place Beyond the Pines.” The couple has two daughters‚ born in 2014 and 2016. Mendes mentioned her career pause during an interview that aired Tuesday on NBC’s “Today” show. “It was like a no-brainer‚” the “Training Day” star said of leaving acting behind. “I’m so lucky. And I was like‚ if I can have this time with my children – and I still work‚ I just didn’t act‚ because acting takes you on locations‚ it takes you away‚” Mendes explained. “It was almost just like a non-verbal agreement that it was like‚ okay‚ he’s going to work and I’m going to work. I’m just going to work here‚” she said. Mendes has been focused on projects off the camera‚ including launching a cleaning product line and providing voiceover work for the popular animated series “Bluey.”  Gosling also took a break from acting beginning in 2013 but has since returned and was nominated for an Academy Award for playing Ken in the summer blockbuster “Barbie.”  Mendes’ statements come just after a source confirmed the pair had moved away from Hollywood to shield their children from “celebrity kids.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP “For them‚ the most important job is their girls‚” the source told People earlier this month‚ as The Daily Wire previously reported. “Everything else comes second. And their girls are thriving. They left L.A. to live a bit further north‚ away from Hollywood.” “They didn’t want the girls to grow up around other celebrity kids‚” the source continued. “Eva and Ryan love their life. It’s admirable how they’ve been able to create balance and boundaries. They care so much about their marriage and just want their girls to live a happy life.” Other Hollywood moms have struggled with their decision to balance work life and family. During a recent podcast interview‚ actress Christina Ricci said her relationship with her toddler daughter was affected by her filming in another country. “Last year I was commuting back and forth to Vancouver for ‘Yellowjackets.’ [my daughter Cleo] didn’t know me. We had no bond. So that was very upsetting‚” Ricci said.

You can’t judge a book by its cover… though‚ Kenny would argue that’s not always the case‚ at least when it comes to fruit. At 81 years old‚ this Navy veteran is incredibly popular on TikTok with over 2.6 million followers. Here‚ you’ll find him going on all sorts of adventures. In doing so‚ he proves that you’re never too old to try something for the first time — for Kenny‚ this includes dragon fruit. From the moment Kenny spots the unusual-looking fruit‚ he doesn’t like it one bit. In fact‚ he can’t even guess what it is‚ first calling it a turnip or pineapple. No matter what it is‚ though‚ he’s sure of one thing: “It’s ugly looking!” @patriotickenny Traumatized is one way to describe it #dragonfruit #seniormoments #patriotickenny #patriotickennyfoundation #keeptiktok #seniors #fyp #fypã‚· #newfood ♬ Nice and Easy – Louis Adrien Dragon fruit‚ also known as pitaya or the strawberry pear‚ is certainly not everyone’s cup of tea. They grow from cactus and have a particularly odd appearance both inside and out. They’re said to taste light a cross between a kiwi and a pear. But for Kenny‚ no amount of sweetness can mask the visuals of this polarizing fruit. Hilarious 81-year-old Tries Dragon Fruit For the First Time… and Does Not Approve TikTok “It looks like ants or bed bugs or whatever. They’ll be crawling out of their pretty soon‚” Kenny says‚ later adding‚ “I don’t want no part of that.” Even though the caption of his video jokes that he’s “traumatized‚” it’s clear that Kenny has fun with these videos. No matter your age‚ it’s incredibly inspiring to see him try new things‚ even at 81 years old! You can find the source of this story’s featured image here! The post 81-Yr-Old Has Hilarious Reaction To Seeing‚ And Eating‚ Dragon Fruit For The First Time! appeared first on InspireMore.