<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cnn" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN&#8217;s</a> senior political data reporter Harry Enten slammed President Joe Biden&#8217;s assertion that he could have defeated President-elect Donald Trump in the 2024 election if he had stayed in the race, calling the claim &#8220;flat-out bonkers.&#8221;
In an interview with USA Today this week, Biden claimed he could have won the 2024 election had he not dropped out on July 21, saying, &#8220;It&#8217;s presumptuous to say that, but I think yes,&#8221; and adding that his view was based on polling he had seen, The Hill <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5075457-joe-biden-donald-trump-election-cnn/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
Biden ended his reelection campaign following a rough debate performance that raised questions about his age and ability to recapture the White House among fellow Democrats.
Enten countered Biden&#8217;s assertion by highlighting polling data showing Trump leading in key battleground states at the time Biden dropped out. &#8220;Donald Trump [was] ahead in all three,&#8221; he said, referring to Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. He noted that throughout the 2024 campaign, Biden &#8220;never led&#8221; Trump, emphasizing, &#8220;Zero! Nada! No days! No days was Biden ahead of Donald Trump,&#8221; according to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/cnn-data-guru-torches-bidens-flat-out-bonkers-claim-he-would-have-won-re-election">Fox News</a>.
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Based on the polling data, I categorize Biden&#39;s statement that he could have beaten Trump as &quot;flat out bonkers.&quot;
Biden was well behind Trump when he dropped out. Biden never led in all of 2024. And no incumbent president who was anywhere near as unpopular as Biden has ever won. <a href="https://t.co/lGk9h8pygU">pic.twitter.com/lGk9h8pygU</a>
&mdash; (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) <a href="https://twitter.com/ForecasterEnten/status/1877116122807280019?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 8, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Enten also pointed to Biden&#8217;s low approval ratings, <a href="https://x.com/ForecasterEnten/status/1877116122807280019?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1877116122807280019%7Ctwgr%5E560f9c3f5b0cd1820e29805b03bd2a2c5b093b8e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fmedia%2Fcnn-data-guru-torches-bidens-flat-out-bonkers-claim-he-would-have-won-re-election">stating</a> that &#8220;no incumbent president who was anywhere near as unpopular as Biden has ever won.&#8221; He concluded, &#8220;The bottom line is this: Joe Biden was behind, he had always been behind, and he most likely would have stayed behind.&#8221;
Biden&#8217;s remarks come amid ongoing introspection within the Democratic Party following the recent election defeat. The party has been grappling with concerns over leadership effectiveness and voter appeal, particularly in crucial swing states that shifted decisively toward Trump in 2024.
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Enten expanded on his analysis by highlighting Trump&#8217;s significant leads in various regions at the time Biden exited the race. &#8220;Just take a look here, the road to 270 electoral votes, Trump versus Biden based upon polling when Biden dropped out of the race,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Look at those Great Lake battleground states. You know the ones I&#8217;m talking about, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump ahead in all three.&#8221;
He continued, &#8220;How about here in the Southeast? North Carolina, Georgia, again, Trump leads. How about here in the Southwest? Nevada, Arizona, again, Trump leads.&#8221;
Enten emphasized that it wasn&#8217;t just that Trump was ahead, but that his leads were substantial in key battleground areas. &#8220;My goodness gracious,&#8221; he remarked, noting the extent of Trump&#8217;s advantage.
Regarding Biden&#8217;s claim that his view was based on polling he had seen, Enten pointed out that the former president did not provide specifics about the data&#8217;s origin.

Donald Trump And Joe Biden Participate In First Presidential Debate

CNN Data Expert Slams Biden’s ‘Bonkers’ Assertion He Could Have Beaten Trump In 2024

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Joe Biden

Kamala Harris

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle may be forced to evacuate their $29 million Montecito mansion this week as wildfires threaten the area and power companies consider cutting electricity.
According to a report by the New York Post, Southern California Edison (SCE) is <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/01/08/entertainment/palisades-wildfire-may-cause-prince-harry-meghan-markle-to-evacuate-cut-power-at-their-home/">considering</a> a &#8220;Public Safety Power Shutoff&#8221; in parts of Santa Barbara County due to the wildfire risk. The fire closest to the Sussexes&#8217; home is currently burning in the Malibu area, approximately 70 miles away. However, there is concern that the blaze could spread rapidly, with tree-toppling winds bringing the fire to drier areas. Emergency responders have faced additional challenges, reporting bone-dry hydrants hindering firefighting efforts.
The Sussexes purchased their 18,000-square-foot home in 2020 for $14.65 million. The property, located in a &#8220;high fire risk&#8221; area, has doubled in value to $29 million, according to Zillow.
An estimated 70,000 SCE customers were without power on Wednesday morning, with over 35,000 affected in Los Angeles County alone. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to evacuate their homes in Southern California as the inferno continues to spread via winds gusting over 100 miles per hour.
An additional 779 outages affecting up to 42,000 more customers have been scheduled by SCE. Impacted customers, including those in Prince Harry and Meghan Markle&#8217;s neighborhood, have been contacted by the power company. The potential power shutoffs are part of precautionary measures to prevent electrical equipment from sparking new fires in the dry and windy conditions.
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California has been experiencing increasingly severe wildfire seasons, with dry conditions and high winds contributing to the rapid spread of fires across the state. Montecito, an affluent community known for its luxurious properties and celebrity residents, has not been immune to these dangers. In recent years, wildfires have forced frequent evacuations and caused significant property damage in the area.
At least 30,000 people are currently under evacuation orders. The mass evacuations have led to traffic gridlocks, with some residents abandoning their vehicles to flee on foot. Among those <a href="https://pagesix.com/2025/01/08/royal-family/prince-harry-meghan-markle-face-evacuation-amid-palisades-wildfires/">evacuated</a> are Hollywood celebrities such as Ben Affleck and James Woods per Page Six.
The Sussexes&#8217; neighbors include high-profile figures such as Oprah Winfrey and, until recently, Ellen DeGeneres. Montecito has long been a haven for the wealthy and famous, but its location in a high-fire-risk area poses ongoing threats. In previous years, the community has dealt with both wildfires and subsequent mudslides caused by heavy rains following fires.
Representatives for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have not yet commented on the situation.

NZEALAND-BRITAIN-ROYALS

CA Fire Puts Prince Harry And Meghan Markle’s $29 Million Estate At Risk

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Meghan Markle

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The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/federal-reserve" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Federal Reserve</a> hiked interest rates to the highest level in 22 years on Wednesday, despite easing inflationary pressures.
After two days of deliberation, the Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate from 5% to a target of 5.25% to 5.5%, explaining in a statement that “additional policy firming (rate increases)” will depend on economic and inflationary indicators allowing the Fed to both hit its 2% inflation goal while maintaining economic growth.
“The Committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2 percent over the longer run. In support of these goals, the Committee decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate to 5-1/4 to 5-1/2 percent. The Committee will continue to assess additional information and its implications for monetary policy,” the statement continued.
The hike received unanimous support from the Federal Reserve Board and is in keeping with the 11 hikes since March of 2022, despite a short pause in June, per <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/26/fed-meeting-july-2023-.html">CNBC</a>. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in late June that — despite the lack of a rate increase that month — inflation was still too high, and that its persistent rate above the target of 2% would likely lead to more “restriction” on monetary policy.
Inflation has been slightly cooling off in the past several months, with the consumer price index, according to CNBC, settling at 3% on a yearly basis in June, down from 9.1% in June 2022. Despite this, the Fed has maintained the most aggressive consecutive hike in interest rates since the 1980s, which featured even higher inflation rates.
Although inflation has relatively decreased since its meteoric peaks in the past three years, the Fed is committed to bringing it all the way down to the target of 2%, with the FOMC hinting at further rate hikes in the months of September and November to further bring down inflation.
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Greg McBride, senior vice president and chief financial analyst for Bankrate, concurs with the Fed’s sentiment, telling <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/interest-rate-hike-july-2023-how-much-higher-federal-reserve-rcna96210">NBC</a>, &#8220;Inflation remains stubbornly high.&#8221;
&#8220;The economy has been remarkably resilient, the labor market is still robust, but that may be contributing to the stubbornly high inflation,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So, Fed has to pump the brakes a bit more.”

Chairman Jerome Powell Holds A Press Conference At The Federal Reserve

Fed Raises Interest Rates To Highest Level In Two Decades

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Federal Reserve

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Climate activist Greta Thunberg is being charged by Swedish authorities for disobeying police following her refusal to leave a protest blocking oil tankers from entering a port.
Thunberg, 20, was arrested on June 19 along with several other insubordinate protestors after she “refused to obey the police command to leave the scene” of a climate change protest, according to a statement by Swedish prosecutors, per <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/06/europe/greta-thunberg-charged-sweden-climate-intl/index.html?utm_term=link&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twCNN&amp;utm_content=2023-07-06T14%3A30%3A11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN</a>. The report initially did not confirm that Thunberg was the woman in question, but Swedish Prosecution Authority spokeswoman Annika Collin later verified her identity. The protest was centered on the oil terminal of the port of ​​Malmö, Sweden, with activists stopping all oil tankers for six days straight, according to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/07/06/greta-thunberg-charged-for-blocking-oil-tankers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Post</a>.
“You have the freedom to demonstrate, but you must not demonstrate in such a way that it causes disturbances for others,” Swedish prosecutor Charlotte Ottosen said, according to local Swedish news outlet Sydsvenskan.
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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GALLERY?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GALLERY</a>: Greta Thunberg has been arrested following a climate demonstration in Malmo, Sweden.
The 20-year-old took to Twitter a day before being detained stating, “the climate crisis is a matter of life and death for countless people.&quot; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/9News?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#9News</a> <a href="https://t.co/bBdsMIp9RQ">pic.twitter.com/bBdsMIp9RQ</a>
&mdash; 9News Australia (@9NewsAUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/9NewsAUS/status/1671001627917172736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 20, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Thunberg boasted in an <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CtmZd76sycz/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram</a> post during the protest, “Today, for the third day in a row, young activists from @tatillbakaframtiden have blocked oil tankers in the Malmö oil harbour. The climate crisis is already a matter of life and death for countless people. We choose to not be bystanders, and instead physically stop the fossil fuel infrastructure. We are reclaiming the future.”
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The crime Thunberg is charged with could result in as much as six months in jail or just a fine, with the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sweden-greta-thunberg-climate-protest-f0aab9ffa2bac1031aed62a07cbb10d5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AP</a> reporting the latter as the more likely outcome. Thunberg is scheduled to appear in court along with three other protestors on July 24 to answer the disobedience charge. 
Thunberg became famous in 2018 for viral tirades berating world leaders for failing to act on the “climate emergency.” Her most <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAJsdgTPJpU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">famous speech</a> in front of the United Nations laments that the leaders of the world have “stolen my childhood and my dreams with your empty words.”
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Greta Thunberg

Greta Thunberg Charged For Disobeying Police After Blocking Oil Tankers

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In a stinging defeat for the Biden administration, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday that the COVID-era HEROES Act did not give the White House authority to unilaterally forgive federally subsidized student loans.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the 6-3 majority, <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/22-506_nmip.pdf">saying</a>, “The Secretary asserts that the HEROES Act grants him the authority to cancel $430 billion of student loan principal. It does not. We hold today that the Act allows the Secretary to &#8216;waive or modify&#8217; existing statutory or regulatory provisions applicable to financial assistance programs under the Education Act, not to rewrite that statute from the ground up.&#8221;
The decision was made along ideological lines, as Chief Justice Roberts was joined in the majority by Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barret, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas.
The first case was decided unanimously, with all justices ruling in Department of Education v. Brown that the two petitioners who were denied debt relief under the program did not have standing to sue the Department of Education. The second case, Biden v. Nebraska, upheld the right of the several GOP states involved in the lawsuit to sue the Biden administration, clearing the hurdle necessary to present their argument before the court. Roberts bluntly contended in the majority opinion, “Six States sued, arguing that the HEROES Act does not authorize the loan cancellation plan. We agree.”
Student loan forgiveness has been on many Democrats&#8217; wishlists for years, as 43 million Americans struggle to pay an average of $28,950 in student loans that can take decades to pay off, according to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/student-loans/average-student-loan-debt-statistics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Forbes</a>. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) rose to popularity in both the 2016 and 2020 Democratic presidential primaries offering to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2019/06/24/student-loans-bernie-sanders/?sh=780b2f083fc2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wipe out</a> all $1.6 trillion in student loan debt without any eligibility requirements, as well as making public colleges and universities free on a national level.
In a dissent joined by joined by Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Elena Kagan wrote,&#8221;[T]his Court today decides that some 40 million Americans will not receive the benefits the plan provides, because (so says the Court) that assistance is too &#8216;significant.'&#8221; Kagan claims that not only does the Biden administration have the right to cancel student debt en-masse, but that the six GOP states did not even have standing to challenge the plan in the first place, &#8220;They [the six states] oppose the Secretary’s loan cancellation plan on varied policy and legal grounds. But as everyone agrees, those objections are just general grievances; they do not show the particularized injury needed to bring suit.&#8221;
The Biden administration&#8217;s plan sought to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/blockbuster-supreme-court-decisions-student-loans-affirmative-action/story?id=100378197" target="_blank" rel="noopener">eliminate</a> $400 billion of student loans for roughly 40 million qualifying Americans making less than $125,000 or couples making less than $250,000. The Department of Education&#8217;s online form granted approved applicants up to $10,000 in loan forgiveness, and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/education/4068249-student-loan-debt-borrowers-brace-for-supreme-court-decision/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to The Hill. Approximately 26 million Americans filled out the form and 16 million were accepted prior to the plan’s termination by the Supreme Court and before the debt would be forgiven.
The administration argued in court that the plan was authorized by the HEROES COVID-relief Act passed in 2021 as well as a statute in the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003, which supposedly allows the Department of Education to waive and/or modify student loans in response to a national emergency, which in this case was the COVID pandemic.
In response to this claim, Roberts remarked that the Biden administration had modified the aforementioned statute “in the same sense that the French Revolution ‘modified’ the status of the French nobility — it has abolished them and supplanted them with a new regime entirely.” Roberts ruled that the statute had been stretched far too much and that a mass-cancellation program of this scale required specific congressional approval to move forward, per The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/30/supreme-court-decision-student-loan-forgiveness/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Washington Post</a>.
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This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

U.S. Supreme Court

Supreme Court Strikes Down Biden Admin’s $430B Student Loan Forgiveness Scheme

Biden Student Loan Program Axed By Supreme Court 

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The Supreme Court vacated the conviction of a Colorado man accused of stalking a musician online, with the majority creating a new standard of “true” and “reckless” threats in order to protect freedom of expression while stopping actual threats.
The court <a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-true-threat-first-amendment-34dae41b15463a52b90f2b936fa3bb83" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ruled</a> 7-2 to vacate and remand the conviction of Billy Raymond Counterman in Counterman v. Colorado. The majority was formed by the court’s liberal justices along with conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and John Roberts, with justices Clarence Thomas and Amy Coney-Barret dissenting. The petitioner in this case, Counterman, was convicted by a Colorado trial court of stalking a musician in 2021, with his appeal being rejected by a Colorado appeals court the same year.
Elena Kagan wrote in the court’s majority opinion, stating, “The State must show that the defendant consciously disregarded a substantial risk that his communications would be viewed as threatening violence. The State need not prove any more demanding form of subjective intent to threaten another,” but clarified that “[t]rue threats of violence are outside the bounds of First Amendment protection and punishable as crimes.&#8221;
Counterman <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/27/politics/supreme-court-ruling-counterman-v-colorado/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sent</a> the Colorado musician hundreds of messages from several Facebook accounts in what his lawyers saw was a result of mental illness and a poor sense of humor. Counterman sent the musician, referred to by the court as C.W., everything from memes to threats, such as “You’re not being good for human relations. Die.” as well as “Was that you in the white Jeep?”
The musician was distraught, and after failing to stop the onslaught of new Facebook accounts Counterman made after his others were blocked, and hiring security, filed suit against Counterman.
In this case, the main issue at hand for the high court was whether Counterman’s statements constituted “true threats,” or whether his circumstances and intent or lack thereof protected him via the First Amendment. The justices struggled to balance the interests of protecting freedom of speech while simultaneously protecting Americans from true threats and their implications. 
Kagan recognized the fine balance the court has to strike between the two issues, concluding, “As with any balance, something is lost on both sides: The rule we adopt today is neither the most speech-protective nor the most sensitive to the dangers of true threats. But in declining one of those two alternative paths, something more important is gained: Not ‘having it all’ — because that is impossible — but having much of what is important on both sides of the scale.”
Much of the court’s decision was due to the fact that there was no evidence that Counterman ever physically interacted with the alleged stalking victim, with the only interaction being over Facebook messages. This further means that this decision does not affect any other laws relating to stalking but purely focuses on the intent of the speaker of threats relating to the First Amendment, per <a href="https://reason.com/2023/06/28/supreme-court-refuses-to-expand-the-true-threats-exception-for-free-speech/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reason</a>.
The outcome of the ruling led to many civil liberties and First Amendment groups expressing their approval on social media.
&#8220;We&#8217;re glad the Supreme Court affirmed today that inadvertently threatening speech cannot be criminalized,&#8221; Brian Hauss, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union&#8217;s Speech, Privacy, &amp; Technology Project, said in a <a href="https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-commends-supreme-court-decision-to-protect-free-speech-in-case-defining-true-threats" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>. &#8220;In a world rife with misunderstandings and miscommunications, people would be chilled from speaking altogether if they could be jailed for failing to predict how their words would be received. The First Amendment provides essential breathing room for public debate by requiring the government to demonstrate that the defendant acted intentionally or recklessly.&#8221;
&#8220;Today&#8217;s Supreme Court decision in Counterman v. Colorado is largely good news for the First Amendment because it sets a higher bar for punishing speech as a &#8216;true threat,'&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/TheFIREorg/status/1673735874117345281" target="_blank" rel="noopener">commented</a> the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression on Twitter. &#8220;Fewer prosecutors will be able to criminalize speech tomorrow than was possible yesterday.

Supreme Court Sets New Standard For ‘True Threats’

Supreme Court Sets New Standard For 'True Threats'

First Amendment

Freedom of Speech

A veteran Navy sub technician and contractor released a video Tuesday that detailed what he called the “ridiculous and unsafe” design decisions of the Titan submersible. 
Aaron Amick has spent more than 20 years aboard U.S. Navy submarines, according to his <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-amick-9538a4171/?challengeId=AQGAVYrMwUKBFgAAAYjpTPPp8CgdwQr9TDnkRYMYyUuuqmhsvk7z3HpIJNw-KjeiVEo0x4cJT9uzrtH9BSbSWuw4rJu_fdmPsw&amp;submissionId=f4392360-e259-6b17-ef68-27c3a5d4271f&amp;challengeSource=AgH_hGK9tAcnQgAAAYjpTR0ch2xVA44Hdj9eHk0mMHG4upoFpg5_2-X4FhLG1fg&amp;challegeType=AgGKB4wv9HzbrQAAAYjpTR0f36YSX3YhpSQu69ljzCvl8W79qfOZwzE&amp;memberId=AgES1UuhjSj7XAAAAYjpTR0ihWtviP9bVs6GPJeAdLIA-l8&amp;recognizeDevice=AgFRl_KaZyuhXQAAAYjpTR0mz_JzxKIRRIZMp51FnvOxhx0DqwWj">LinkedIn profile</a>. In the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dka29FSZac">video</a>, Amick analyzes every aspect of the vessel, from its launchpad to its control mechanisms, to discuss what most likely happened to the submersible during its final voyage. 
Amick has shared his knowledge of the technical aspects of submarines over the past four years on his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@SubBrief/featured">YouTube channel</a> “Sub Brief,” which has nearly 200,000 subscribers. His latest video “The Titan Tragedy” is nearing two million views.
Amick argues that the lack of ways to monitor and scrub the gases inside the vessel was &#8220;ridiculous and unsafe,&#8221; with the sub having no way to remove toxins without surfacing and unscrewing the 17 bolts that sealed the submersible.
 “In all the displays that I see from their public website, there&#8217;s no indication of oxygen levels and other toxic gas levels like CO2 and carbon monoxide … you need to be aware of those levels.”
Scrubbing CO2 and other gases from the atmosphere of the submarine is a critical part of designing a sub, according to Amick. “Did they just keep pumping oxygen into the capsule so they could keep the CO2 and oxygen levels in a proper ratio?&#8221;
&#8220;If they were just adding oxygen to the environment, that creates a high-oxygen environment. What happens when you&#8217;re locked inside a capsule with a high oxygen environment and you&#8217;re operating electronics? Well, you burn up,” he said.
Amick also argues that OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, despite claiming that aviation technology inspired his sub designs, forgot a key lesson from the Apollo 1 disaster. 
“Three astronauts lost their lives doing a systems check on the launch pad while they were bolted into their capsule,&#8221; Amick said. &#8220;There was a fire that started in there, and they were alive when the fire started, and they reported it to the control center, and said ‘Get us out of here, get us out of here!&#8217; Before they could get the bolts off, the astronauts had passed away. This is a very important lesson learned that apparently, Stockton didn&#8217;t learn from or at least forgot, because he&#8217;s locking people into this submarine with no way for them to quickly get out themselves in the case of an emergency.”
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Amick also suspects that the submersion depth of 4,000 meters advertised on the OceanGate website was probably most likely not properly tested and only tested theoretically with mathematical analysis, which although useful, could ultimately miss many crucial factors that manual tests would catch. 
If the advertised depth of 4,000 meters was indeed incorrect, Amick explains that the carbon fiber material that the sub as made out of would most likely have been “shattered,&#8221; with the sub being completely crushed by the high pressure of the deep sea.
This “construction defect” could have easily been a result of the “young, inexperienced technicians” that Rush desired. Rush said he wanted young college graduates, including surfers, rather than “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/boss-of-titanic-sub-company-didnt-want-50-year-old-white-guys-on-his-team">50-year-old white guys</a>” designing and constructing the submersible. Amick said, “You have to have subject matter experts at some point in the chain.”
Amick further critiques the controller used to pilot the submarine, explaining that the fact that it is a controller is not necessarily the issue, but the fact that it is wireless can lead to massive issues. “What happens if the batteries die? Do you have an extra set?&#8221; he asked. &#8220;Do you always put fresh batteries in on every dive? Did you bring extra batteries? Is there a USB port that in a pinch you could plug the controller into? Did you bring a spare and does that spare sync properly if the primary controller doesn’t work?”
Amick ends the video on a somber note, saying (before OceanGate announced the demise of the 5 passengers) that these design flaws most likely meant the death of the passengers and that he hopes that his video provides closure to the families of those lost in the submersible.

OceanGate

Sub Veteran Details Titan’s Possible Catastrophic Design Failures In Viral Video

Sub Veteran Details Titan's Possible Catastrophic Design Failures In Viral Video

Disasters

Rescue

submarine

Submersible

Titanic

YouTube

A multi-millionaire was very close to joining his fellow adventurers on OceanGate&#8217;s now-missing Titan submarine, but got cold feet over fears that the company was “cutting too many corners.”
Sixty-one-year-old British digital marketing magnate Chris Brown initially paid a $10,000 deposit alongside his good friend — and one of the currently missing passengers — Hamish Harding, according to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/06/21/thrill-seeker-quit-titanic-trip-over-corner-cutting-fears/">New York Post</a>. Brown said he and Harding agreed to go on the expedition in 2016 after having a “few beers” on billionaire Richard Branson’s private island. 
However, he “decided the risks were too high in this instance, even though I’m not one to shy away from risk&#8221; due to concerns about the vessel&#8217;s design.
One of Brown’s main concerns was that the submersible would be operated by a customized $40 video game controller released in 2010. The use of video game controllers is actually relatively common in operating high-tech machinery, with many U.S. military drones being <a href="https://taskandpurpose.com/tech-tactics/us-military-video-game-controllers-war/#:~:text=The%20Navy%20has%20adopted%20the,for%20more%20than%2015%20years.">piloted</a> by repurposed Xbox 360 controllers. However, Brown noticed that much of the sub seemed to be haphazardly put together, with “old scaffolding poles for the sub’s ballast.”
“Eventually I emailed them and said, ‘I’m no longer able to go on this thing,&#8217;” Brown said, fearing that the submersible’s design was “cutting too many corners.”
“I asked for a refund after being less than convinced,” he added.
Brown still holds out hope for the passengers of the sub, saying, “Hamish isn’t the sort of fellow to panic. He’ll be extremely calm and will be processing plans, schemes, and ideas through his enormous brain. I fully expect he’ll be a calming influence on the others in the sub, and will be giving them hope.”
The search for the sub is becoming more desperate by the hour, as the Coast Guard <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/coast-guard-estimates-missing-titanic-sub-has-40-hours-of-breathable-air-left">estimated</a> on Tuesday afternoon that the sub had less than 40 hours of oxygen left. Rescue crews are <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/government-officials-hear-banging-sounds-underwater-near-where-sub-disappeared">investigating</a> “underwater noises” heard in the search area that could be the sub’s crew banging the craft to alert rescuers to their location, although nothing can be confirmed as of now.

Titanic tourist submersible disappear on an expedition to explore the famed shipwreck

Thrill-Seeker Reveals Why He Backed Out Of Missing Titanic Sub Voyage

Adrenaline Junkie Details Why He Bailed On Missing Titanic Sub Last Minute

Atlantic Ocean

General

Dr. Jordan B. Peterson sat down for a lengthy <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/tbd-lindsay" target="_blank" rel="noopener">discussion</a> with author and mathematician Dr. James Lindsay, where they delved deep into how each of them has seen firsthand the woke takeover of the American university.
Lindsay described how he began his career aspiring to become a math professor, only to have his shiny view of the university system shattered by the realization of how much power the bureaucracy had in what is supposed to be a student’s education. At the University of Tennessee, where Lindsay first taught, he was appalled to learn he was only permitted to fail one student at a time, he said.
The experience left Lindsay disillusioned, but determined to expose the American education system and restore it to its roots as an intellectual hub of debate and discovery. Following a brief stint as a massage therapist, Lindsay, his wife, and a friend hatched an ingenious plan to prove just how perverted the university ecosystem had become.
“[We] had this wild-brained idea to write as many fake academic articles for feminist theory, gender studies, you know, all of these kinds of woke postmodern journals that put them in the highest ones we could get and see how many we could get published,&#8221; he told Peterson.
Lindsay’s experiment had a remarkable success rate, with the group writing 20 fake papers using various “woke” jargon, with seven being published in highly accredited peer-reviewed journals.
Lindsay detailed one particularly memorable pseudo-intellectual paper he wrote that developed the concept of the “progressive stack” in education. The idea was that the more privilege that a student had, the worse they were to be treated by their more historically oppressed classmates.
“We&#8217;re going to rank all the kids and we&#8217;re going to put, you know, your roster for the class will be ordered according to privilege,” he said.
The paper suggested humiliating the &#8220;privileged&#8221; students by ignoring their questions, segregating their seating, and even requiring them to wear chains. Lindsay&#8217;s team pretended to justify such measures by saying it was “critically compassionate” of the “privileged” students to accept this fate.
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Not only was the paper published and peer-reviewed, but to Lindsay’s surprise, he was told that he did not take the twisted concept far enough.
“And the peer reviewers wrote us back and they said, &#8216;Don&#8217;t use compassion,'&#8221; he recalled. &#8220;They said it would threaten to &#8216;recenter&#8217; the needs of the privileged if you&#8217;re compassionate with them.”
Peterson responded, “They figured you were on their side, and they showed their true colors.”
Lindsay and Peterson, a clinical psychologist, longtime educator, and current professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, traded stories about their experiences in witnessing the decline of the university system. Lindsay recalled his utter shock at a supposedly respectable scientific institution he said was corrupted by progressive messaging to the point it lost sight of the goal of scientific advancement.
In 2016, four professors from the University of Oregon, a school with half a million dollars in funding from the National Science Foundation, rather than focusing on their field of glaciology and climate change, wrote “about needing to bring feminism into the science of glaciology in order to successfully combat climate change,” according to Lindsay.
“They went on to say that unless we take paintings done by women of glaciers and study those as well, besides the satellite photographs, then it&#8217;s not a comprehensive science,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It shuts out all these other perspectives, other means of knowing, that if we don&#8217;t include indigenous perspectives and mythologies about why ice is the way that it is and why it moves, then we are obviously being colonialist and masculinist.”
Peterson noted that 75% of the research papers in the University of California state system go unread due to their not meeting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion criteria.
“That’s an astonishing number,” Lindsay replied.
The entire discussion is available on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/tbd-lindsay" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DailyWire+</a>.

Jordan Peterson/James Lindsay

Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, James Lindsay Give Inside View Of American Universities’ Woke Decay

American Universities

interview

Jordan Peterson

Podcast

Woke Culture

The Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision Thursday to uphold a lower court finding that the GOP-drawn Alabama congressional map violated the Voting Rights Act (VRA), marking a departure from decades of rulings shrinking the scope of the law.
Chief Justice John Roberts was <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-blocks-gop-drawn-alabama-voting-map-challenged-by-black-voters-33f10297" target="_blank" rel="noopener">joined</a> by fellow conservative Brett Kavanaugh and the court’s three liberal justice in the majority, requiring the Alabama state legislature to redraw the map to add an additional black-majority district in accordance with the Voting Rights Act, according to the Wall Street Journal. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett dissented. 
Alabama’s current 7-seat congressional map is <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/08/politics/supreme-court-alabama-voting-rights-milligan/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">represented</a> by six Republicans and one Democrat, according to CNN. Many challengers of the map contend that the state is racially gerrymandered, packing black voters into the 7th congressional district to reduce the impact of their votes in other districts.
Many progressives were initially concerned that the court would further gut the VRA in its decision, with Roberts himself <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/25/shelby-county-anniversary-voting-rights-act-consequences" target="_blank" rel="noopener">joining</a> the court’s majority in the 2013 decision Shelby v. Holder, which struck down parts of sections four and five of the Voting Rights Act that required that states with a history of discrimination to clear their maps with the federal government before they went into effect. 
Section two of the Voting Rights Act was cleared by the majority decision, with Roberts writing, “It simply holds that a faithful application of our precedents and a fair reading of the record before us do not bear them out here.&#8221; Alabama’s argument “runs headlong into our precedent.”
“A district is not equally open, in other words, when minority voters face – unlike their majority peers – bloc voting along racial lines, arising against the backdrop of substantial racial discrimination within the State, that renders a minority vote unequal to a vote by a nonminority voter.”
Justice Neil Gorsuch penned a rebuke of the court’s decision, calling out the majority’s “flawed understanding” of past precedent. “Today’s decision unnecessarily sets the VRA on a perilous and unfortunate path.”
Clarence Thomas concurred with Gorsuch, claiming that the VRA should not apply to redistricting, “At the outset, I would resolve these cases in a way that would not require the Federal Judiciary to decide the correct racial apportionment of Alabama’s congressional seats.” Thomas added that he believed the VRA instead focused “on ballot access and counting.” 
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Further in his dissent, Thomas wrote that even if the VRA did apply to redistricting, Alabama should have won the case. “Indeed, any benchmark other than a race-neutral one would render the vote dilution inquiry fundamentally circular, allowing courts to conclude that a districting plan &#8216;dilutes&#8217; a minority’s voting strength on account of race’ merely because it does not measure up to an ideal already defined in racial terms,” Thomas’ dissent said.

Supreme Court Voting Rights Protest

Supreme Court Blocks Alabama Congressional Map As Discriminatory

Alabama

Racial Discrimination

CNN was in turmoil in the early months of 2022, with CEO Jeff Zucker <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnn-blasted-after-zucker-resigns-over-relationship-with-colleague-industry-insiders-suggest-more-to-story">posting</a> his shocking resignation after nearly a decade of leading the company, admitting to not disclosing his relationship with senior CNN executive Allison Gollust.
CNN’s ratings had tanked following the 2020 election, with scandals involving Chris Cuomo advising his accused-brother Andrew Cuomo despite his journalistic credentials and an increasingly alienated viewership becoming exhausted with what they perceived as partisan hosts and panels.
It was in this vein that Discovery CEO David Zaslav, the parent company of CNN, recognized the need for a course correction in leadership, and chose &#8220;Late Show&#8221; executive producer Chris Licht to be the next head of the deteriorating company. 
Initially, both CNN anchors and even conservatives alike rallied behind Licht’s message of reeling in the sensationalism and partisanship that CNN had become associated with under the leadership of Jeff Zucker. 
However, little more than a year into his takeover, Zaslav had become impatient, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ceo-chris-licht-out-at-cnn-after-tumultuous-year-controversial-trump-town-hall">announcing</a> to CNN staff the CEO’s departure on Wednesday morning, “For a number of reasons things didn’t work out, and that’s unfortunate,” Mr. Zaslav said, according to a recording of his remarks, per The New York Times. “It’s really unfortunate, and ultimately that’s on me. And I take full responsibility for that.” 
“This job was never going to be easy, especially at a time of great disruption and transformation,” he continued. “Chris poured his heart and soul into this job. Like all of you, he was in the line of fire and he’s taken a lot of hits. We appreciate his efforts, his passion, his love for journalism, and his love for this business.”
Here is a timeline of the events that ultimately led to the fall of one of the more promising leadership changes in media:
<h2>CNN+ Failure</h2>
CNN+ was a streaming service first <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/24/business/media/cnn-plus-discovery-warner.html">announced</a> by then-CNN CEO Jeff Zucker in July 2021 as a foray into the world of subscription-based streaming services, as the network, like many others, saw a decline in demand for cable TV. The venture was backed by CNN’s parent company of Time Warner, but with a deal to merge with Discovery, this backing would be complicated further down the line.
In all, the company hired hundreds of people to work on the service, recruited media figures such as Chris Wallace to be featured exclusively on the platform, and planned to have 8-12 hours of live programming every day, at a total cost of $300 million.
After a massive media blitz promoting CNN+ on every platform, the end result was fewer than 10,000 live viewers at any given time just two weeks after the service had gone live, fewer than many middle-of-the-pack live streamers on platforms such as Twitch and YouTube, who did not require $300 million to break 10,000 viewers.
Discovery was skeptical of CNN+ from the beginning and left Chris Licht to pick up the pieces before he was even officially CEO in April of 2022. After the leak of the dismal viewer count, the service was shut down, and despite his lack of early involvement with the venture, it was Licht who had to break the news to hundreds of CNN+ hosts and employees that they had upended their lives to move over to CNN+ for nothing, already souring his image in the company.
<h2>Trump Town Hall Debacle </h2>
CNN hosted a town hall with former President Donald Trump for the first time since 2016, bringing in the best ratings that CNN had had in years along with scathing criticism from many Left-wing pundits and outlets, including <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnn-scorched-inside-and-out-by-leftist-backlash-over-trump-town-hall">inside</a> the company. 
The town hall was hosted by Kaitlan Collins along with 300 mostly Trump-enthusiasts in the audience cheering him on as Trump hit all the beats that alienate many CNN employees and executives alike; from recounting the 2020 election fraud claims to lambasting the “fake news media,” it <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnn-scorched-inside-and-out-by-leftist-backlash-over-trump-town-hall">seemed to many</a> on the Left that CNN simply lost control of the town hall.
“CNN should be ashamed of themselves. They have lost total control of this ‘town hall’ to again be manipulated into platforming election disinformation, defenses of Jan 6th, and a public attack on a sexual abuse victim,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tweeted, referring to writer E. Jean Carroll, who is suing Trump in civil court over an alleged sexual assault.
This repulsion to what had occurred at the town hall seemed to have been echoed by many at CNN, who thought Licht did not take the necessary precautions to prevent Trump from going on a supposedly unfiltered rant and spreading “misinformation” to the 3.3 million people who watched the town hall. 
Many at CNN saw Licht as putting Collins in an impossible situation, tasked with corralling answers out of a bombastic Trump surrounded by hundreds of loyal supporters who cheered his every retort, further reducing confidence in Licht’s leadership. 
<h2>Firing Of Key Hosts</h2>
Several months after his takeover, CNN’s ratings and coinciding profits were continuing to decline (with a $300 million hit from CNN+), and Licht was forced to bring out the hatchet; laying off about 440 of CNN’s 4,400 employees. However, cost-cutting was not the only reason for many of Licht’s restructuring or firings, with longtime host Brian Stelter, perceived by many on the Right as heavily biased towards Democrats, being <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/brian-stelter-torched-after-being-ousted-by-cnn-contemptible-vapid-and-unbearably-smug">fired</a> last August as a part of Licht’s push to cleanse the network of partisan hosts.
Stelter had been at the network for years, hosting the show “Reliable Sources,” which had the goal of highlighting lies and misinformation in the news media and presenting the audience with “reliable” information that showed what was truly relevant to the country. This firing came as a shock to many at CNN, with Licht forced to respond following a panic at his company:
“I want to acknowledge that this is a time of significant change, and I know that many of you are unsettled,” Licht reportedly told staffers on an editorial staff call in late August. “There will be more changes, and you might not understand it or like it.”
More changes did indeed come, with primetime hyper-partisan host Don Lemon being <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnn-blasts-don-lemon-over-statement-claims-its-false">ousted</a> in April following his comments that 2024 GOP Presidential Primary candidate and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley was “past her prime.” This unsavory comment combined with his backlog of alleged workplace mistreatment of women since 2008 led to Lemon’s firing. 
Despite this immense turnover, many at Discover and inside CNN were becoming impatient with Licht, and he seemed to have made nobody happy with his myriad of changes.
<h2>The Atlantic Profile</h2>
Most major news outlets seem to agree that The Atlantic profile on Licht <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2023/06/cnn-ratings-chris-licht-trump/674255/">published</a> last Friday was likely the last straw for Discovery executives. Licht inexplicably gave The Atlantic near-unlimited access to his daily life in and outside CNN, showing seeming overconfidence that he could simply gloss over the aforementioned turmoil at the company. 
The Atlantic’s 15,000-word article shows that Licht has clearly lost the confidence of many CNN employees and Discovery executives interviewed in the piece, becoming isolated from the company’s average employee, as well as &#8220;projecting this persona of a bulletproof badass because that’s what Zaslav wants to see. &#8230; Licht’s circle was small and getting smaller &#8230; Whereas he was guarded with CNN employees, our many hours of conversations began to feel like therapy sessions for Licht, safe spaces in which he vented grievances.&#8221;
The profile also features some strange and embarrassing moments from Licht. Author Tim Alberta asks Licht why he was skipping a meal, and Licht responds, “I&#8217;m a f***ing machine.” Alberta observed the CEO’s workout routine, Licht &#8220;squatted down to grab a long metal pole lying flat on the ground. &#8216;Zucker couldn’t do this s***,&#8217; Licht said through clenched teeth, hoisting the pole with a grunt.&#8221;
These factors combined to lead David Zaslav to pull the plug on Licht’s short-lived tenure at CNN, leaving the company’s future up in the air as it struggles to get past its myriad of financial and interpersonal challenges that put it in this position, to begin with.

Warner Bros. Discovery Upfront 2023

Inside Chris Licht’s Tumultuous Run At CNN

Inside Chris Licht's Tumultuous Run At CNN

Chris Cuomo

Jeff Zucker

Media Bias

Readers Pass

Scandals

The PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf have signed an agreement to merge into an as-of-now unnamed company, squashing more than a year of lawsuits and attempts by both organizations to court the world’s most esteemed golfers.
The deal combines the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, along with DP World Tour, into one for-profit company, CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/06/pga-tour-agrees-to-merge-with-saudi-backed-rival-liv-golf.html">reported</a>. Specifics of the merger have yet to be disclosed, but the deal will end all pending litigation between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. 
“After two years of disruption and distraction, this is a historic day for the game we all know and love,” said PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan. “This transformational partnership recognizes the immeasurable strength of the PGA TOUR’s history, legacy and pro-competitive model and combines with it the DP World Tour and LIV – including the team golf concept – to create an organization that will benefit golf’s players, commercial and charitable partners and fans.”
The PGA Tour’s decades of dominance were challenged in June 2021 after retired golfer Greg Norman, with funding from the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF), hosted LIV&#8217;s first tournament. The PGA tour initially dismissed LIV out of hand, not allowing any golfer who participated in LIV to continue in the PGA tour. 
LIV slowly began picking off some of the biggest stars in golf to join their league. The PIF gave CEO Greg Norman a reserve of $2 billion that proved to be enough to pick off stars like <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/06/06/phil-mickelsons-deal-with-saudi-backed-liv-is-around-200-million/">Phil Mickelson</a> ($200 million), Dustin Johnson ($100 million), and Bryson DeChambeau ($100 million) without having to win or even qualify for a single tournament, leaving even more money on the table.
The PGA Tour <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/06/09/1104000196/pga-tour-suspends-17-players-for-their-participation-in-saudi-backed-golf-tourna">suspended</a> 17 golfers from the tour for participating in LIV Golf, kicking off a year of lawsuits between the two golf juggernauts. Eleven pro-golfers sued the PGA for allegedly stifling competition in a monopolistic manner. However, all 11 plaintiffs left the lawsuit by May of this year after LIV got involved as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, souring the public image of the golfer’s stated principled stand against the PGA. 
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The PGA filed a countersuit in September, alleging that LIV golf and, importantly, the PIF had unlawfully aided the 17 golfers in violating their contracts with the PGA by offering them separate contracts to play for LIV. The implication of the PIF is an international debacle, as stars such as Phil Mickelson have desperately tried to separate the LIV organization from the Saudi theocratic monarchy, with Greg Norman <a href="https://www.si.com/golf/news/greg-norman-stance-on-saudi-arabia-liv-golf-mistakes">saying</a> of Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations and the murder of WaPo reporter Jamaal Khashoggi that “we’ve all made mistakes.” 
With the merger, all lawsuits have been dropped, and the only remaining threat is a DOJ antitrust investigation into the PGA, which will be complicated by the merger. The PGA Tour commissioner said the deal will push golf into the future and give fans the best experience.
“Going forward, fans can be confident that we will, collectively, deliver on the promise we’ve always made – to promote competition of the best in professional golf and that we are committed to securing and driving the game’s future,” Monahan said.

LIV Golf Invitational – Miami – Day Three

PGA Tour Agrees To Merger With Saudi-Backed LIV Golf

PGA Tour Agrees To Merger With Saudi-Backed LIV Golf After Two Years Of Lawsuits

Golf

LIV Golf

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Nathan Gay