Breitbart – Discern Report

Texas Governor Orders Flags to Full Staff for Trump’s Inauguration Day

Breitbart — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 10:24:44 +0000

Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the flags on the State Capitol and other State buildings to be at full-staff on January 20 to celebrate the inauguration of President-Elect Donald Trump. The flags are currently at half-staff in memory of the late President Jimmy Carter.

“Texas continues to mourn with our fellow Americans across the country over the passing of former President Jimmy Carter,” said Governor Abbott in a written statement on Monday morning. “President Carter’s steadfast leadership left a lasting legacy that will be felt for generations to come, which together as a nation, we honor by displaying flags at half-staff for 30 days.”

“On January 20, our great nation will celebrate our democratic tradition of transferring power to a new President by inaugurating the 47th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump,” Abbott continued. “As we unite our country and usher in this new era of leadership, I ordered all flags to be raised to full-staff at the Texas Capitol and all state buildings for the inauguration of President Trump.”

President James Earl “Jimmy” Carter died at the age of 100 on December 29, 2024, Breitbart News’ Joel Pollak reported. His death left the former president with the record of being America’s oldest living president.

Flags nationwide were ordered by President Joe Biden to half-staff for 30 days of national mourning. Abbott’s order to raise the flags to full staff on inauguration day comes approximately two-thirds of the way through the period. […]

CNN’s Enten: ‘I Don’t Think Americans Are Making This Connection’ Between Climate, Wildfires

Breitbart — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 09:48:57 +0000

CNN senior political data reporter Harry Enten said Monday on “News Central” that Americans don’t understand the connection between climate change and wildfires.

Host John Berman said, “Just a few minutes ago, you heard FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell talking about the role that climate change has in helping create the conditions for these wildfires burning out of control, the most destructive in some ways that we’ve ever seen in and around Los Angeles. So how do Americans feel about climate change and the danger it poses? Do they feel the same way that they used to?”

Enten said, “I mean, look, I don’t think Americans are making this connection. And the way we can see this right here and now, take a look at the monthly change in Google searches. Look at the searches for wildfire up 2,400 percent. My goodness gracious. This is the most amount of people searching for wildfires ever, ever going back since Google Trends began back in 2004.”

He added, “But look at climate change. Look at the change. It doesn’t go hand in hand with wildfires. It’s actually down. It’s down 9 percent. And I also looked in California. There has been no increase in the number of searches for climate change. So the bottom line is this. Americans are definitely interested in learning about these wildfires. They’re interested in following the news about the wildfires, but they are not making that connection with climate change. That’s the bottom line here.” […]

DHS Chief Alejandro Mayorkas Seeks to Kill Laken Riley Act

Breitbart — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 05:28:34 +0000

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is reportedly attempting to kill the Laken Riley Act, a bill that requires the DHS to take illegal aliens who have been charged, arrested, or convicted for crimes such as theft, larceny, burglary or shoplifting into custody.

Pablo Manriquez, a news reporter, wrote in a post on X that “sources at DHS” were informing him that the cost of the Laken Riley Act was estimated to be between $20-$30 billion.

Manriquez added that the DHS sources had cited “a $7 billion figure just for beds BEFORE the mandate’s costs on local law enforcement.”

The post from Manriquez came in response to an article shared by Stef Kight, a political reporter with Axios. In the article from Axios, it was revealed that “federal immigration officials” had warned that they may need to detain roughly 60,000 people and require “billions of dollars and thousands more detention beds.”

As Breitbart News’s John Binder previously reported, at the beginning of January the House of Representatives passed the Laken Riley Act, despite receiving opposition from 159 Democrats. […]

Mel Gibson on Loss of Home to L.A. Fires: It’s All Just ‘Stuff’

Breitbart — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 04:33:08 +0000

Oscar-winning actor and director Mel Gibson has played down the loss of his $14.5 million Malibu home to raging wildfires, insisting in the end, it’s all just “stuff.”

“I’m looking at video of ruins of what was once your home. How are you doing?” asked NewsNation journalist Elizabeth Vargas, who interviewed Gibson by phone.

“I’m doing good, you know, it’s just a thing,” the Christian actor replied. “But it is obviously kind of devastating emotionally. You know, you’ve lived there for a long time. And you had all your ‘stuff’… Do you remember George Carlin talking about your ‘stuff’?”

“I had all my ‘stuff’ there and it’s like I’ve been relieved from the burden of my stuff, because it’s all in cinders,” he added.

Gibson was referring to a famous skit by comedian George Carlin, in which he asserted that “a house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it.” […]

California Utilizing Hundreds of Inmates to Fight Ongoing L.A. Fires

Breitbart — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 02:28:34 +0000

Over 900 prison inmates are among the more than 7,500 emergency personnel fighting the raging wildfires that are devastating portions of Los Angeles, California, state corrections officials said.

“As of today, 939 Fire Camp firefighters have been working around the clock cutting fire lines and removing fuel from behind structures to slow fire spread, including 110 support staff.,” California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) told NPR on Friday.

Though California has been utilizing incarcerated firefighters — and other laborers — for over 100 years, the practice is controversial and has been banned in Colorado, Vermont, Nebraska, Utah, Alabama, Oregon and Tennessee in recent years, according to Jurist News.

Inmates in states that allow it, including California, are often paid little to no money for hours of strenuous work, though the U.S. Constitution’s Thirteenth Amendment makes it clear that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude” is legal, “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”

According to the CDRC, inmates are part of the fire brigade program voluntarily, and are paid just $5.80 to $10.24 per day, with additional pay being supplied during emergencies. […]

Mark Wahlberg’s Wife Rhea Durham Blasts Newsom for ‘Standing Around Laughing’ During Cataclysmic Fires

Breitbart — Sun, 12 Jan 2025 22:59:50 +0000

Hollywood star Mark Wahlberg’s wife, Rhea Durham, has publicly called out California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) for “standing around laughing” amid the historic fires that are consuming large swaths of Los Angeles.

On Friday, Durham expressed her frustration in a since-deleted Instagram post — a photo of Newsom sharing a laugh with a group of people during what appeared to be a meeting near the Palisades fire.

“Why is the Governor of C.A standing around laughing like hes at a tailgate???” Durham wrote in the caption of her post, according to a Fox News report.

Her criticism is part of the mounting backlash against Newsom, much of it focusing on the state’s mismanagement of the water supply and other vital matters that are believed to have greatly exacerbated the destruction caused by the fires.

Other stars who have called out Newsom and other California leaders include Mel Gibson, James Woods, Zachary Levi, Sara Foster, Dean Cain, and Adam Corolla. […]

Waters: I’m Not Playing Politics on Fires, But We Need Rich to Pay Fair Share to Provide Services

Breitbart — Sun, 12 Jan 2025 01:22:51 +0000

On Friday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “Cuomo,” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) stated that she doesn’t want to get into politics about the fires in California, but “services cost money and we should be willing to get the richest people in this country, the richest 1% that is protected, make sure they pay their fair taxes so that we can have the money to provide the services. With that money and with those resources, the people who have been selected or elected to do the job should do the job.”

Waters began by saying, “I’m not into the blame game. I’m not into talking about whether or not Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is trying to protect himself and run for president, none of that.”

She added, “The first thing we’ve got to understand is, services cost money and we should be willing to get the richest people in this country, the richest 1% that is protected, make sure they pay their fair taxes so that we can have the money to provide the services. With that money and with those resources, the people who have been selected or elected to do the job should do the job. I don’t care who it is. It could be Democrat, it could be Republican, it could be whatever. But the fact of the matter is, we all should have heavy hearts right now, but we should have faith and we should be on point by making sure that we do everything to help the people that need us. Dammit, you can do the politics later. You can come and talk about Gavin Newsom later. You can talk about the Democrats later.” […]

Ken Cuccinelli: ‘Very Significant Logistical Undertaking’ to Deport One Million People

Breitbart — Sat, 11 Jan 2025 22:10:51 +0000

It is a “very significant logistical undertaking” to deport one million people, Ken Cuccinelli, former Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security said during an appearance on Breitbart News Daily.

“Well, you could say that it’s currently the law to detain everybody who is here illegally — that’s on the books. But at the same time, right now, ICE has the capacity to hold, I want to say, less than 30,000 people,” Cuccinelli explained.

“So while the Biden administration has let in over ten million illegally, we just don’t have the capacity to hold everybody. Now implicit in the Laken Riley Act is that they’re going to go ahead and expand that capacity. And you know, we’ve heard Tom Homan talk quite consistently about prioritizing security threats — not just national security threats, but neighborhood security threats. That means criminals and those who already have deportation orders,” he said, revealing that the total of those two figures together comes just below two million people.

Cuccinelli added further perspective, explaining just how much it would take to deport that many people, logistically speaking.

“So that’s a hefty number unto itself. To remove a million people a year would be about 50 jumbo jets full of deportees per day, every single day, 365 days a year,” he revealed. “It is a very significant logistical undertaking of everything that needs to be coordinated, including bringing those folks in, to catching them, identifying them … but then you actually have to have permission to land on the other end with them in their home country,” he said. […]

Venezuela Detains Top Opposition Leader, Who Reappears in Bizarre Video

Breitbart — Sat, 11 Jan 2025 22:06:47 +0000

The socialist regime in Venezuela briefly detained opposition leader María Corina Machado amid gunshots on Thursday after she made her first public appearance in months.

Machado, who leads Venezuela’s only mainstream center-right party, Vente Venezuela, remained in hiding for months facing threats of arrest after the socialist regime issued an arrest warrant against exiled opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González, forcing him to flee to Spain in September. Over the past year, dozens of Vente Venezuela members, including key staff members of Machado’s team, have been persecuted and arbitrarily imprisoned by the Maduro regime.

Machado publicly reappeared in Caracas on Thursday afternoon to participate in one of the nationwide peaceful protests that the opposition convened to protest against socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro’s new illegitimately obtained six-year term following his “victory” in the fraudulent July 28 presidential election.

González, a 75-year-old former diplomat, was recognized by the United States and other countries as the winner of that election after the opposition presented voter tallies obtained on the day of the sham election they claim could demonstrate Maduro lost in a landslide.

Maduro was sworn in as president by Jorge Rodríguez, the head of the regime-controlled National Assembly on Friday morning. González, who also planned to be inaugurated as president on Friday, is not in Venezuela at press time. The Venezuelan opposition reportedly insisted that González will be inaugurated as president in Venezuela on Friday despite his absence, but insisted it “cannot give up the strategies” it would use to make that happen. […]

Report: AOC, Seeking More Power, Tells Top Democrats She Has ‘Matured’

Breitbart — Sat, 11 Jan 2025 13:54:10 +0000

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), 35, reportedly told Democrat bosses that she has “matured” when she sought the top spot on the House Oversight Committee.

That was her closing pitch to party bosses, who worried Ocasio-Cortez was not ready for one of the most powerful posts in Congress, two sources told the Washington Post’s Leigh Ann Caldwell and Paul Kane.

Ocasio-Cortez’s pitch failed, and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) soundly defeated her to become a ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. The bitter defeat is a win for the establishment, which is tightly controlled by party bosses who are often at odds with the congresswoman’s anti-establishment views.

Ocasio-Cortez tried to become an accepted member of the Democrat establishment during the last cycle by vocally defending the Biden family from Republican probes into its business dealings, but her political tact did not appear to pay off. Democrat vote against her with a vote of 131-84 on the House floor.

Time is on the side of Ocasio-Cortez. She is only 35 while many of her colleagues are octogenarians, such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who recently broke her hip. If Ocasio-Cortez continues to plot a career in politics, and not exit for a lucrative venture in the private sector, her power will likely increase. […]