Activist Cornel West criticized Gavin Newsom's mindset after his comments to black voters, saying he should not "play with us like that."
The post ‘Don’t Play with Us’: Cornel West Scolds Gavin Newsom for Comments to Black Voters appeared first on Breitbart.
A snowball-throwing mob was caught on video pelting New York City Police Department officers Monday afternoon in Manhattan's Washington Square Park, and multiple officers were injured as a result, WABC-TV reported.
Police told the station that officers responded to the park around 4 p.m. for a report of a number of people atop a roof.
'This is the environment that NYC police officers are up against.'
Police added to WABC that the officers were then hit with snowballs, and multiple officers were taken to a hospital with facial cuts.
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NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch on Monday night wrote on X that she's aware of the videos and that "the behavior depicted is disgraceful, and it is criminal."
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Tisch added that detectives are investigating.
The Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York called the incident "unacceptable and outrageous," WABC added.
"This is the environment that NYC police officers are up against. Our police officers are being treated for their injuries, but the case CANNOT end there," the PBA said in a statement on social media, according to the station. "The individuals involved must be identified, arrested, and charged with assault on a police officer. And all of our city leaders must speak up to condemn this despicable attack."
Scott Munro, president of the NYPD Detectives' Endowment Association, called on Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to ensure that those responsible are prosecuted, WABC reported.
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"No free pass. No get out of jail free card. Make no mistake: Detectives will do what they always do. They will identify those involved, and they will apprehend them," Munro said in a statement, according to the station. "Our men and women in blue deserve to be safe. They deserve to be protected. And they deserve to be respected. They earn it every single day."
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Americans are paying more for new vehicles — and it's not because of greedy dealers or temporary supply disruptions.
The real problem? The modern automobile has become a government-regulated platform.
This regulatory floor helps explain why many entry-level vehicles have disappeared. Automakers did not abandon affordable cars because Americans suddenly rejected them.
What once functioned primarily as personal transportation is now layered with federal mandates, compliance systems, and policy-driven technology. The cost of that transformation is embedded into every vehicle sold.
The average transaction price for a new vehicle now hovers around $48,000 to $50,000, according to Cox Automotive — nearly double what many Americans paid a decade ago. That figure is not driven primarily by dealership markups or consumer excess. It reflects a system in which regulatory requirements steadily raise the baseline cost of every vehicle before it reaches a showroom.
Dealers sell what they are allowed to sell. Consumers pay for what regulators require to be built.
Regulations stackUnlike market innovation, federal mandates rarely replace older requirements. They stack. Safety rules, emissions standards, cybersecurity protocols, and connectivity requirements accumulate over time. Each new layer raises the minimum cost of building any vehicle, regardless of brand or segment.
Automakers no longer decide which technologies to include based solely on consumer demand. They build to regulatory specifications — and those specifications grow more complex every year.
Driver-assistance: No longer optionalAdvanced driver-assistance systems are a clear example. Lane-keeping assist, automatic emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, cameras, radar units, and onboard processors were once optional upgrades. Today most are standard across model lines due to evolving federal safety expectations and liability pressures.
These systems require sensors, software calibration, processors, and constant updates. They also increase repair costs. A recent study by AAA shows that vehicles equipped with advanced driver-assistance features can cost 20% to 40% more to repair after collisions, in part because sensors must be recalibrated or replaced.
Whether buyers want every feature is beside the point. The technology is built in.
RELATED: Would you buy a car from Amazon?
Nicolò Campo/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Engineering complexityEmissions regulations add another layer. Even gasoline-powered vehicles now rely on increasingly sophisticated emissions control systems, specialized materials, and complex software calibration to meet tightening federal and state standards.
These systems improve measurable compliance outcomes, but they also increase engineering complexity and production cost. Manufacturers cannot legally offer simplified alternatives that fall outside regulatory thresholds.
Computers on wheelsModern vehicles are now rolling computer networks. Federal standards increasingly require data systems, cybersecurity protections, over-the-air update capability, and integrated monitoring infrastructure.
Hardware, antennas, processors, software validation, and compliance testing all add cost. None of it is optional at scale. Once these systems are embedded into vehicle architecture, they become permanent cost centers.
'Kill-switch' costsOne of the least discussed provisions of the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act requires the installation of advanced driver monitoring systems designed to detect impairment in future vehicles. Critics have labeled this a “kill-switch” mandate because the rule requires technology capable of preventing operation under certain conditions.
Regardless of terminology, implementing such systems requires additional hardware, sensors, software integration, validation, and certification. Even before activation or enforcement details are finalized, the design and compliance costs are already being built into pricing structures.
When every manufacturer must comply, there is no competitive pressure to eliminate the expense.
Tariffs and supply chainsTariffs compound the issue. Import duties on vehicles and automotive components affect not only foreign-built cars but also vehicles assembled in the United States that rely on global supply chains. Steel, aluminum, semiconductors, and specialized materials all move through international networks.
When tariffs raise component costs, those increases flow downstream. Automakers do not absorb them indefinitely. Dealers do not control them. Buyers ultimately pay.
Extinct entry-levelThis regulatory floor helps explain why many entry-level vehicles have disappeared. Automakers did not abandon affordable cars because Americans suddenly rejected them. They exited those segments because compliance costs made lower-margin models difficult to sustain profitably.
When the baseline cost of meeting regulatory requirements approaches what buyers can reasonably pay for a basic vehicle, the product becomes economically unviable.
Shrinking used-car marketThe used-car market offers limited relief. As new vehicles become more expensive, consumers hold onto existing cars longer. According to S&P Global Mobility, the average age of vehicles on American roads has climbed to nearly 13 years, an all-time high.
Fewer late-model trade-ins tighten supply. Prices rise. Regulatory-driven cost increases in the new-car market ripple outward and affect every segment.
EV expensesElectric vehicles illustrate the same dynamic. Federal incentives, emissions targets, battery sourcing rules, and manufacturing credits shape production decisions and model availability. While battery costs have declined over time, compliance requirements and policy alignment continue to influence pricing and product mix.
For many households, the upfront cost of EVs remains significantly higher than comparable gasoline models — even after incentives.
Fixed costsThe expectation that prices will fall once supply stabilizes misunderstands how regulatory-cost structures function. Supply constraints can ease. Compliance costs rarely do.
As long as vehicles are treated as platforms for policy implementation rather than purely consumer goods, the floor price will continue to rise.
High vehicle prices are not simply a market fluctuation. They are, to a significant degree, a policy outcome.
And until policymakers reckon with the cumulative cost of regulatory layering, the $50,000 vehicle will increasingly become the norm — not the exception.
Democrats never miss an opportunity to don costumes, throw tantrums, and protest while President Donald Trump is addressing Congress.
For instance, some of the Democrats who refused to clap for Trump during his Jan. 30, 2018, State of the Union address also signaled their protest by wearing Kente cloths — the garb of a slave-trading African tribe. At the February 2019 SOTU, some Democrat women wore white to protest the president's support for the unborn and other positions congressional feminists apparently find intolerable. At the president's joint address to Congress last year, some Democrats wore pink in protest and/or booed the president.
While Trump derangement syndrome might still be colorfully displayed Tuesday evening, at least 30 Democrat lawmakers are planning to take their circus outside — which might make for a more peaceable State of the Union.
'I don’t think that what we saw in Congress last year was particularly helpful.'
The leftist organizing group MoveOn and the propaganda outfit MeidasTouch are hosting a "counterprogramming" rally at 8 p.m. on the National Mall.
Democrat Sens. Ed Markey (Mass.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Tina Smith (Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (Md.), Ruben Gallego (Ariz.), and Adam Schiff (Calif.) are planning to attend, along with a horde of House Democrats including Reps. Yassamin Ansari (Ariz.), Becca Balint (Vt.), Greg Casar (Texas), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), and anchor-baby Rep. Delia Ramirez (Ill.).
Merkley suggested that attendance at the SOTU would serve Trump's supposed effort to "tighten his authoritarian grip."
Van Hollen, among the Democrats who stuck to a similar script, claimed, "Trump is marching America towards fascism, and I refuse to normalize his shredding of our Constitution & democracy."
Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
"He uses his speeches to pillory his political enemies and spread lies — not to mention they're long and boring," complained Smith.
Schiff recycled similar talking points and added, "This isn't business as usual."
The organizers for the "counterprogramming" event hinted that Democrats will concern-monger about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents' execution of their duties, the termination of public health workers, rising costs, and other matters.
"Trump wants the attention and the ratings, but we cannot treat this year’s State of the Union like business as usual," said MoveOn program chief Sara Haghdoosti. "That’s why MoveOn is hosting the People’s State of the Union, where we will hear directly from the people facing the consequences of Trump’s disastrous administration."
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) may be relieved that his colleagues are planning to rage remotely on Tuesday.
After all, their booing and incivility were so bad at Trump's address to the joint session of Congress last year that one lawmaker, Rep. Al Green of Texas, was later censured. Most Democrats also remained seated while Trump honored a cancer-stricken Texas boy, Devarjhaye "DJ" Daniel, and announced his deputization as a U.S. Secret Service agent.
Jeffries made clear last week to his fellow Democrats that they had two options — and more ugly protests in Congress aren't one of them.
RELATED: Watch the State of the Union tonight on BlazeTV's YouTube channel
"The two options that are in front of us in our House [are] to either attend with silent defiance or to not attend and send a message to Donald Trump in that fashion, which will include participation in a variety of different alternate programming that is going to take place in and around the Capitol complex," Jeffries said on Wednesday, reported The Hill.
Jeffries is not alone in wanting his colleagues to exercise some restraint.
"I don’t think that what we saw in Congress last year was particularly helpful. I think it made us the story," Rep. Sarah McBride (Del.), the cross-dressing Democrat formerly known as Tim McBride, told NOTUS. "I think this president's unpopular policies should be the story, not sort of gestures from our side."
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Transgender individuals commit "disproportionate shares of mass public and active shooting attacks," a Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) report shows.
The post Study: Trans Shooters Commit ‘Disproportionate Shares of Mass Public and Active Shooting Attacks’ appeared first on Breitbart.
The House Appropriations committee holds an oversight hearing to review the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) on Tuesday, February 24.
The post Watch Live: Oversight Hearing for the National Endowment for Democracy appeared first on Breitbart.
California Governor Gavin Newsom is being touted as the Democratic Party’s next presidential hopeful, but political commentator Kevin Dalton points out that his abysmal track record might be an issue.
“Obviously, leaving severely mentally ill, drug-addicted people on the streets to their own devices isn’t working. So, two or three years ago, Gavin Newsom came up with this great idea,” Dalton tells BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere on “Stu Does America.”
The idea is called CARE Court, which is meant to address homelessness and mental illness by offering those suffering things like free housing, medication, and job training.
“So, flash forward two years, we finally get some numbers from CARE Court. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, of course, are gone. And Gavin Newsom promised that this would get around 50,000 people into the system, off the streets a year,” Dalton explains.
“I can’t even remember the exact numbers, but I think a few thousand ended up signing up, and then most of those were just kicked by the courts. ... It finally spiraled down to, 22 people ended up being forced into CARE by the CARE Court,” he continues.
“This is such a perfect example of millions of dollars, hundreds of millions of dollars, just going away and no results. And then Newsom just moves on to the next thing,” he adds.
Stu points out that the number spent was around a quarter of a billion dollars.
“Twenty-two people, almost a quarter of a billion dollars, absolutely amazing, even by California’s standards,” Stu says.
Meanwhile, the California wildfires have wiped out thousands of homes — and left thousands of families waiting for their permits to be approved to try to build new ones.
“In the meantime, their bills are adding up, and they’ve got these people, the corporate buyers are coming in, trying to scoop up their land now because it’s just easier. It’s just an absolute mess,” Dalton says.
“For somebody who wants to run for president, you’d think, maybe start to address the homelessness, maybe try to get people back in their homes from this apocalyptic fire,” he adds.
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