If it had been up to Kasie Hunt, host of CNN This Morning, the rest of today's show could have been ditched, replaced by a non-stop loop of Trump making his claim, during last night's debate, that migrants are eating the pets of residents of Springfield, Ohio. She cited leftist late-night jester Stephen Colbert, and smirked at Trump "spouting baseless allegations about migrants eating pets." After playing it once, Hunt begged a show director: "Can we, can we just, Jimmy in the control room, can we play the pets bite one more time? Can we just watch that one more time?" Sadly for Kasie, Jimmy didn't have the bit cued up. Instead, they moved to a clip of a CNN post-debate focus group in Erie, Pennsylvania of supposedly undecided voters. Hunt said "we do have sound of undecided voters talking about this pet-eating conspiracy." The one participant who was shown was a self-described pastor. Saying Trump's pet comment turned him off, the pastor said: "What really bothers me about it is what the underneath message I get from that. As a pastor, I hear, kind of, the dismissing the other, keeping the other away, giving bad impressions about other people." On Monday, we noted the phenomenon of the left's creation of "lingo." High on that lingo list is "other/othering." And here, the pastor managed to get the phrase into his brief comment three times. If he was an "undecided voter," I'll . . . eat a cat! PS: Much is being made of Kamala's facial expressions in reaction toTrump's debate comments.  But as you'll see in the screencap, Kamala couldn't come close to topping Kasie's expression of dubiousness about Trump! Here's the transcript. CNN This Morning 9/11/24 6:17 am EDT KASIE HUNT: Late night host Stephen Colbert, weighing in on one of several eyebrow raising moments from Donald Trump's debate performance last night, from praising Hungary's controversial leader, to spouting baseless allegations about migrants eating pets. And then, the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Trump made a number of comments over the course of last night that, let's say, may be outside of the mainstream for many voters. DONALD TRUMP: Viktor Orban, one of the most respected men. They call him a strongman. He's a tough person, smart, Prime Minister of Hungary. He said the most respected, most feared person is Donald Trump. In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats, they're eating, they're eating the pets of the people that live there. I said during my speech, not later on, peacefully and patriotically, and nobody on the other side was killed. HUNT: So, that last bit there was about January 6th.  But can we, can we just, Jimmy in the control room, can we play the pets bite one more time? Can we just watch that one more time? Oh, we just have the VO [voice over] of it? All right, okay. Well, the laughter and the pets, guys.  The way that that moment played, we have, we do have sound of undecided voters talking about this pet-eating conspiracy. Because the way he talks about it, just like directly, they're eating dogs, they're eating cats, takes this very sort of complicated internet conspiracy meme and makes it very direct. Let's watch what voters had to say about it. FOCUS GROUP MEMBER: I'd not heard anything about it before, so I thought it was just another one of these kind of crazy things that he comes up with that kind of turned me off.  And what really bothers me about it is what the underneath message I get from that. As a pastor, I hear, kind of, the dismissing the other, keeping the other away, giving bad impressions about other people.

MSNBC’s Morning Joe is the kind of “news” program that laments that Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are supposedly portrayed as two equal candidates when, according to them, the latter is a lying liar who lies all the time and the former is just a normal candidate. However, for their Wednesday post-debate analysis, the assembled cast cheered Harris spreading fake news about pro-lifers, claiming the debate was “the most comprehensive beatdown” they’ve seen. Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson claimed, “It was just the most comprehensive beatdown I have ever seen on a debate stage and I'm including the Trump-Biden debate where Biden beat himself, really, Donald Trump didn't do it. But it was just, I mean, if there were a mercy rule, it would have been called after you got to the first half-hour, 45 minutes.”     Co-host Joe Scarborough agreed, “It would’ve been called very early.” Scarborough proceeded to introduce an extended clip of the debate’s abortion segment. In the clip, Harris claimed, “Pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to term, suffering from a miscarriage, being denied care in an emergency room because the health care providers are afraid they might go to jail and she's bleeding out in a car in the parking lot?” Additionally, Trump did not answer the question of whether he would veto a national abortion ban, as he argued Congress is too divided to pass any abortion legislation. Coming out of the clip, Scarborough and wife and fellow co-host Mika Brzezinski simultaneously tackled both angles. Scarborough declared, “He just wouldn’t answer that on the veto.” At the same time, Brzezinski ranted about Trump’s federalist abortion stance, “He keeps lying, and Kamala Harris just very plainly put out there, [BBC correspondent] Katty Kay, the bitter truth, that what Trump has done to women's health in America is monstrous, and she very eloquently, but very clearly put out there what is happening in doctors' offices and emergency rooms across the country thanks to him.” There is absolutely nothing in pro-life laws that states women should be denied miscarriage care, but Kay nevertheless agreed, “Yeah, I thought on a night of strong answers that was her strongest and when I was listening to it at the time, I marked that one down. She started with a policy. She took it to the personal and turned it back to Donald Trump.” Kay was most disappointed in, not Harris’s falsehood, but the fact she was unable to repeat it, “I would’ve loved for her to have the opportunity to push him again on his response to those women who are bleeding out in emergency rooms or who are the victims of incest or the young kids who've had to be moved across borderlines and he managed to duck that, but it was a very powerful moment. Some of my colleagues with swing voters and several said where they felt the moment they would turn for Kamala Harris.” It seems fact-checking only goes one way at the Morning Joe table. Here is a transcript for the September 11 show: MSNBC Morning Joe 9/11/2024 6:15 AM ET EUGENE ROBINSON: And looking right at him. He wouldn't look back. It was just the most comprehensive beatdown I have ever seen on a debate stage and I'm including the Trump-Biden debate where Biden beat himself, really— MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Yeah. ROBINSON: -- Donald Trump didn't do it. But it was just -- I mean, if there were a mercy rule-- JOE SCARBOROUGH: Yeah. ROBINSON: -- it would have been called after you got to the first half-hour, 45 minutes SCARBOROUGH: It would’ve been called very early. Let’s play a clip right now on abortion. … SCARBOROUGH: He just wouldn’t answer that on the veto. BRZEZINSKI: Okay, so he keeps lying and through that, he keeps lying, and Kamala Harris just very plainly put out there, Katty Kay, the bitter truth, that what Trump has done to women's health in America is monstrous, and she very eloquently, but very clearly put out there what is happening in doctors' offices and emergency rooms across the country thanks to him. KATTY KAY: Yeah, I thought on a night of strong answers that was her strongest and when I was listening to it at the time, I marked that one down. She started with a policy. She took it to the personal and turned it back to Donald Trump.  I would’ve loved for her to have the opportunity to push him again on his response to those women who are bleeding out in emergency rooms or who are the victims of incest or the young kids who've had to be moved across borderlines-- BRZEZINSKI: Right. KAY: -- and he managed to duck that, but it was a very powerful moment. Some of my colleagues with swing voters and several said where they felt the moment they would turn for Kamala Harris.

Venture into the life of a failed prospector named Cable Hogue (Jason Robards) as he scrambles through the last remnants of the American frontier. Hungry, he growls at a lizard, which explodes right as Cable is about to nab him. From the shadows, Cable’s partners, Taggart (L.Q. Jones) and Bowen (Strother Martin), played target practice with the lizard. For all the biblical imagery, there are equal parts raunch and bawdy humor, darting camera shots from face to cleavage. When they emerge from the dust, he points his rifle at them. They laugh. Cable responds: “I appreciate humor, boys, but I’m beginning to think you’re cuttin’ it a mite thin.” But he hesitates to shoot them. So they clobber him and steal his gun and his water. “Cable is yella!” they taunt as they glide away, leaving Cable to die. So he talks to himself. (A lot. Throughout the whole movie.) Watching them fade into the dust, as he grits his teeth: “Yellow!” he exclaims. “Call me yellow! Leave me to dry and blow away! SING A SONG ABOUT IT! Laugh at old Cable Hogue, huh? I'll get out! I'll get out! Don't you worry none about that! You just ... worry about when I get out.” He keeps hollering until he has no choice but to abandon his humiliation, for now, and wander into the rocks of Arizona red. He’s halfway to hell and looking for help. And he’s thirsty. In that picturesque landscape, the sunlight never ends. Two days without water. So he talks upward, to God. He promises to sin no more if he can just get a drop of water. “I mean that, Lord.” Nothing. No water. Second day: No water. Just more blistering. He continues to beg for God’s mercy. Then, on the fourth day, the sunlight is replaced by a sandstorm, total dryness. He collapses into a growing dune: “Lord, you call it. I’m just plain done in. Amen.” And on this cruel deathbed, water begins to pool up from the ground. Then, he does something that recurs throughout the film in countless ways by every character, even the extras without lines: He abandons high ideals without pause. In this case, he ambiguously taunts the Lord, taking credit for his survival: “Told you I was gonna live. This is Cable Hogue talking. Hogue. Me. Cable Hogue. Hogue. Me. Me. I did it. Cable Hogue. I found it. Me.” It’s a comically bleak and cathartic way to open a film. Like everything else we encounter, it’s slippery and ever-changing and impossible to pin down. As Cable puts it later, “I found water where it wasn’t.”The president’s man Jason Robards, who plays Cable Hogue, is a fascinating guy. He discovered the work of Eugene O’Neill in the library of the USS Nashville, and this set him toward his Hollywood career. Robards played Jamie Tyrone in the film rendition of Eugene O’Neil’s dour stage play “Long Day's Journey into Night.” Robards was married to Lauren Bacall for most of the 1960s, until the marriage collapsed under the weight of his alcoholism, much like the character he played in O’Neill’s masterpiece. As for Westerns, there’s his portrayal of Doc Holliday in “Hour of the Gun” (1967) — and who could forget his menacing performance in “Once Upon a Time in the West” (1968)? He won an Oscar for his portrayal of Washington Post managing editor Ben Bradlee in “All the President’s Men” (1976), then another for his hard-nosed depiction of detective-novelist Dashiell Hammett in “Julia” (1977). His final credit was “Magnolia” (1999). When Robards died, then-President Bill Clinton issued a statement of condolence. Clinton had awarded Robards both a National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors award. His talent is largely why “The Ballad of Cable Hogue” stands as such a thematically and emotionally complex film, humourous and oddly relaxing, with a soft tone and leisurely pace. The Bad Samaritan"The Ballad of Cable Hogue" has Slim Pickens and the legendary Kathleen Freeman, who barked her way through “The Blues Brothers” series as well as appearances in a ton of blockbusters. You’ll also recognize Strother Martin, whom we discussed in the entries about “True Grit” (1969) and “The Sons of Katie Elder” (1965). Also R.G. Armstrong, who played Kevin MacDonald in “El Dorado” (1967). But perhaps most of all, the film is known as a creation of Sam Peckinpah. Peckinpah is a legendary figure in cinema history, wild even by Hollywood standards. We’ll spend quality time with him in the entry for “The Wild Bunch.” “The Ballad of Cable Hogue” was the unexpected love child that followed it. Over the course of the 19 days of filming, he got hammered and rowdy. At one point, he fired three dozen crew members. Inclement weather shuttered the set, and the cast rushed to a nearby bar. By the end, the tab had grown to $70,000. The film itself went $3 million over budget. The whole mess cost him his job with Warner Bros.'Ten cents, you pious bastard, or I’ll bury you' God plays a tremendous role in Cable’s journey, but so does the devil. Many of the characters quote Bible verses with ease, conversationally, although this habit is also used as device to unmask hypocrisy, like the impatient banker in the stagecoach. The Christian message is strong but also playful and, often, unclear. Until, of course, it isn’t. Like our introduction to Rev. Joshua Sloan, who spooks Cable enough that Cable shoots the reverend’s hat off. “Peace and goodwill, brother,” Rev. Sloan pleads. “l come as a friend.” Waving a white handkerchief: “Careful, son, I’m a man of God.” Cable, squinting: “Well, you damn near joined him.” The sudden appearance of water is reminiscent of Jacob’s well and the outpouring of Psalm 107:35, “He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water.” After shooting at the “reverend” again later in the film, Cable snarls: “What a blessing religion must be, preacher. It touches my heart.” This ironic theological undercurrent is a useful way to embolden the ungodly elements that add sparkle to the story, which in turn elevate a reciprocity between the sacred and the profane. Like the way Hogue sadly mutters to the banker, “I’m worth something, ain’t I?” A sadness, of course, motivated by his desire to visit Hildy, the most prized prostitute in Dead Dog.The optics are all askew, a slapdash rendition of heaven. Hogue’s pale horse is spotted like a Dalmatian. Death is life; life is rowdy. He and the preacher talk about life from a grave-like hole. The preacher, in his clerical suit with white collar, oversees a “congregation” consisting of photos of naked people, women presumably. Or how about the way he handles Frank’s death? That entire scene is both uncomfortable and hilarious. Together, Cable and the preacher get drunk in the grave, then ride to Dead Dog, with visions of Hildy. After falling off the horse, the preacher loosens his collar: “If I cannot rouse Heaven, I intend to raise hell.”The twist Fluctuations like these are a hallmark of postmodern film. Nothing is what it appears to be. Irony abounds. Up is down … and over and under. Then — all at once — you land in a reality so crisp that it almost hurts to experience. “The Ballad of Cable Hogue” is bursting with these moments and guided by this artful little surprise maneuver. For all the biblical imagery, there are equal parts raunch and bawdy humor, darting camera shots from face to cleavage. The implication of prostitution, in “Stagecoach” (1939) for instance, is a thing of the past. “Cable Hogue” takes us into the stink of the henhouse. But right as the steam is about to boil, we cut to a scene full of clergymen and crosses amid a sermon: “The devil seeks to destroy you with MACHINES! Ask me how I know! ... Inventions are the work of Satan!” This interplay is constant. The entire fight scene between Hildy and Hogue is swamped with it. A choir sings “Shall We Gather at the River" as Hogue sprints away from his dine-and-dash with Hildy, ducking into the sign for the big tent revival that says, “BE SAVED. SINNER REPENT.” And of course Hogue deflates the tent, whiskey bottle in hand, pants half on, fleeing from his backroom mischief. The townsfolk chase him out of Dead Dog. And more than one of them think it’s the funniest thing they’ve ever seen. Then the movie can take a sudden turn, and you crash into these beautiful embraces, moments that knock you over because they’re so powerful. As we fall into the love story, all the irreverence fades away. Or better yet, it becomes purified. And there’s that moment, halfway through the movie, when Ben (Slim Pickens) dutifully hands Cable the American flag. You can feel each person’s emotions. And suddenly, you’re right there with them, smack dab in the middle of a treacherous desert, and you’re sweaty and you’re worried, but you’re safe and you’re free.

Republican vice presidential nominee Senator JD Vance (Ohio) slammed the media for not caring about the Biden-Harris administration's self-inflicted immigration crisis until Republicans began sharing cat memes online.After Tuesday evening's debate between former President Donald Trump and current Vice President Kamala Harris, CNN's Kaitlan Collins attempted to corner Vance about allegedly false statements he and Trump made about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, slaughtering and eating wildlife and residents' pets.'Nobody cared about this until we raised this issue, which is disgraceful.'Collins claimed she was "surprised" that Trump "brought up this misleading, false claim" during the debate with Harris."Trump just amplified it to tens of millions of people who were watching. Why push something that's not true?" Collins asked Vance."Well, first of all, city officials have not said that it's not true. They've said they don't have all the evidence, but we've heard from a number of constituents on the ground ... both firsthand and secondhand reports saying this stuff is happening," Vance replied. "So they, very clearly — meaning the people on the ground dealing with this — think that it is happening, and I think that it's important for journalists to actually get on the ground and uncover this stuff for themselves when you have a lot of people saying, 'My pets are being abducted,' or, 'Geese at the city pond are being abducted and slaughtered right in front of us.' This is crazy stuff."Vance continued, "Whether those exact rumors turn out to be mostly true, somewhat true, whatever the case may be, Kaitlan, this town has been ravaged by 20,000 migrants coming in. Health care costs are up. Housing costs are up. Communicable diseases like HIV and TB have skyrocketed in this small Ohio town. This is what Kamala Harris' border policies have done."The senator then slammed the corporate media for failing to take the administration's border crisis seriously until the GOP began creating comical posts about it. "I think it's interesting, Kaitlan, that the media didn't care about the carnage wrought by these policies until we turned it into a meme about cats, and that speaks to the media's failure to care about what's going on in these communities," Vance added. "If we have to meme about it to get the media to care, we're going to keep on doing it because the media should care about what's going on."Collins argued that the "media does care about it," pointing to a recent "lengthy" New York Times article and a PBS NewsHour story.Vance turned the tables on Collins, noting that her examples proved his point, claiming the reports were released as a result of the memes."Caused by us talking about it and bringing it up. Nobody cared about this until we raised this issue, which is disgraceful," he stated.Collins attempted to corner Vance with a "gotcha" moment by asking whether he would believe residents' reports if they had claimed to see Bigfoot. "It's a totally fair point, but nobody's calling my office and saying they saw Bigfoot. What they're calling and saying is, 'We're seeing migrants kidnap our dogs and cats and city officials aren't doing anything about it,'" he replied.Vance added, "I have a responsibility as a United States senator. I think the media has a responsibility as an institution that cares about truth to actually take people seriously when they say their lives have been ruined by this migrant crisis."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Sony Interactive Entertainment embarrassingly shut down its new adventure shooting game Concord just 14 days into its release despite a reported eight years of production. One month before its August 23, 2024, release, Concord, which Blaze News reported on, was officially canceled by Sony just two weeks after its debut on PC and PlayStation 5. Sony said in a blog post that certain "aspects of the game" didn’t "land the way [they were] intended" and that Concord would be pulled from the shelves immediately. The publisher is also offering refunds to all customers. Despite pulling the plug and offering reimbursement, Sony said it is still determining the "best path ahead" for the game. However, Concord's return seems highly implausible at this time. If the game was going to be patched or significantly changed, the studio would likely only issue a partial refund or none at all. 'We, the gaming community, don't want DEI bulls**t in our games!' The diversity-driven product appeared to be doomed from the start; early images showed morbidly obese character models who had their pronouns displayed on-screen. As That Park Place reported, one of the characters was an obese woman named Emari with "she/her" pronouns. Another character named Lark had "undecided" in the location where the other characters' pronouns were displayed. "I mean, even the robot has pronouns," gamer Kabrutus, owner of DEI Detected, said in a review. The writer showed off an image of a robot in the game that had "he/him" pronouns on the character select screen. After the cancellation, the writer encouraged gamers to "keep the pressure" on game studios that encourage the diversity, equity, and inclusion mantra. "Let's make sure that they'll ALWAYS be aware that we, the gaming community, DON'T WANT DEI BULLS**T IN OUR GAMES!" he added. Concord was developed over eight years by Firewalk Studios, which operates out of Washington state. Sony acquired the studio in 2023. Sony and Firewalk never publicly released figures regarding the development costs of Concord, but as CNET reported, estimates have ranged from $100-$200 million based off budgets Sony has given to its previous first-party games. Sony has an official commitment to DEI on its Sony Interactive website. It features at least nine internal employee diversity groups at the company. These include groups surrounding "Pride," "Representation," and "well being." There are also ideological camps for veterans, women, and black employees. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Last night, ABC hosted the first and highly anticipated debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. According to Stu Burguiere, “there’s a lot of room to be critical” of everyone. Although it’s certainly not what we had hoped for, “[Kamala] did clear those hurdles,” says Stu. “I don't think she's a good candidate, but I think she was able to convince people who want to be convinced,” he admits. Unfortunately, “it wasn't the best night for Donald Trump. I don't think he achieved all the things he wanted to achieve, but I also say it was a tough night. He really was going up against three people,” says Stu, noting that in Trump’s debate against Biden, “both Bash and Tapper were fair,” but in last night’s debate, the moderators were clearly Team Kamala. Stu points to how David Muir and Linsey Davis were “blatantly biased” by “not even letting him respond to the accusations.” Harris’ performance multiplied by the moderators’ obvious bias likely resulted in “the number of people who were definitely Kamala … [increasing].” Despite the debate, Stu still holds that Trump is likely to continue to be “favored” as “he has the better arguments” overall. “If he can run a disciplinedcampaign, he can win,” he says. To hear Stu’s full debate analysis, watch the clip above. Want more from Stu?To enjoy more of Stu's lethal wit, wisdom, and mockery, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Americans thirsting for decency and comity during a turbulent political season found such a moment as the presidential candidates stood near each other at the 9/11 memorial in New York City. Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris engaged in a warm handshake Wednesday that appeared to be mediated by former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg.'That’s what leadership is.' Also in attendance at the ceremony were President Joe Biden, Ohio Sen. JD Vance (R), and two of Trump's sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. The moment was praised by many for offering some decorum after a contentious presidential debate reflecting the fractious state of the nation. "Makes you wonder how great this nation could be if we weren’t so divided," remarked David Harris of Newsmax. "Such a chivalrous handshake," said another X user. "Thank you." "Refreshing to see them be cordial during this somber event," replied another viewer. "There’s nothing wrong with being diametrically opposed politically, but having mutual respect and being civil," read another tweet. "That’s what leadership is."Video of the moment garnered more than 2.3 million views in one example on the X platform. The two presidential candidates also shared a handshake before the debate but that appeared awkward to some as Harris walked right up to Trump's podium for the brief interaction. Many noted that the debate was also the first time Harris and Trump had met in person since the former president had avoided attending the 2021 inaugural ceremony as he was actively denying the official results of the election. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Bill Gates has evidenced, both directly and through his foundation, an intense desire to shape public health, the news landscape, education policy, AI, insect populations, American farmland, the energy sector, foreign policy, and the earth itself. He recently hinted that he would also like to see free speech and engagements online shaped to his liking. CNET asked Gates about what to do about "misinformation" — a topic explored in his forthcoming Netflix docuseries and some of his blog posts. The billionaire answered that there will be "systems and behaviors" in place to expose content originators. The online environment Gates appears to be describing is some sort of digital ID-based panopticon. Gates suggested that the "boundary between ... crazy but free speech versus misleading people in a dangerous way or inciting them is a very tough boundary." "You know, I think every country's struggling to find that boundary," said Gates. "The U.S. is a tough one because, you know, we have the notion of the First Amendment. So what are the exceptions? You know, like yelling 'fire' in a theater." The billionaire has previously hinted at the kinds of speech he finds troubling. For instance, in a January 2021 MSNBC interview, Gates took issue with content encouraging "people not to trust the advice on masks or taking the vaccine." When fear-mongering about potential "openness" on Twitter following its acquisition by Elon Musk, Gates intimated the suggestions that "vaccines kill people" and that "Bill Gates is tracking people" were similarly beyond the pale. Gates, evidently interested in exceptions to constitutionally protected speech, complained to CNET that people can engage in what others might deem "misinformation" under the cover of anonymity online. "I do think over time, you know with things like deep-fakes, most of the time you're online, you're going to want to be in an environment where the people are truly identified," continued Gates. "That is they're connected to a real-world identity that you trust instead of people just saying whatever they want." The online environment Gates appears to be describing is some sort of digital ID-based panopticon. Gates has backed various efforts to tether people to digital identities. Gates' foundation has, for instance, been pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into a program called the United Nations Development Program-led 50-in-5 Campaign, which features a strong focus on digital ID. The UNDP said in a November 2023 release, "This ambitious, country-led campaign heralds a new chapter in the global momentum around digital public infrastructure (DPI) — an underlying network of components such as digital payments, ID, and data exchange systems, which is a critical accelerator of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)." Return previously reported that the Gates-backed Gavi, also known as the Vaccine Alliance, Mastercard, and NGOs in the fintech space have been trialing a digital vaccine passport in Africa called the Wellness Pass. This vaccine passport, characterized as a useful way to track patients in "underserved communities" across "multiple touchpoints," is part of a grouping of consumer-facing Mastercard products aimed ostensibly at bringing people into a cashless digital ID system that both automates compliance with prescribed pharmaceutical regimens and fosters dependency on at least one ideologically captive non-governmental entity. Extra to funding research into biocompatible near-infrared quantum dots indicating vaccination status, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation backed the World Health Organization's 2021 "Digital Documentation of COVID-19 Certificates: Vaccination Status" guidance, which discussed the deployment of a vaccine passport "solution to address the immediate needs of the pandemic but also to build digital health infrastructure that can be a foundation for digital vaccination certificates beyond COVID-19." Whereas there remain ways online by which people can interact anonymously — including whistleblowers and persons whose employment situations might otherwise preclude them from freely expressing their views publicly — largely free from government or private clampdowns, Gates fantasized in his CNET interview about "systems and behaviors that we're more aware of. Okay, who says that? Who created this?" According to CNBC, Gates is "sensitive" to concerns that restricting information online could adversely impact the right to free speech. Nevertheless, he still wants new rules established, though he did not spell out what those would entail. However, he has, in recent years, given an idea of where he thinks the government crackdown should start. Gates told Wired in 2020 that the government should now permit messages hidden with encryption on programs like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Some games have a name and visual style that, heard once, are hard to forget. This is definitely the case with Gold Gold Adventure Gold. Made by a studio with the similarly repetitive name of Can Can Can a Man, Gold Gold Adventure Gold is an upcoming building game that takes as much inspiration from the fantasy setting of Against the Storm, the godlike overview of Black and White, and the population management of Rimworld, as it does the colorful, cartoonishly macabre visual style of Cult of the Lamb. Continue reading Gold Gold Adventure Gold is a wildly unique new fantasy city builder

Satisfactory appears to be offering fans of management, building, and simulation games exactly what they've been looking for. After a period spent expanding and improving in early access on Steam, it launched in 1.0 yesterday, bringing with it a sci-fi inflected, open-world spin to the subgenre of automation or factory strategy games popularized by Factorio and Dyson Sphere Program. Creator Coffee Stain Studios' hard work is now paying off in spades as, within a single day, its full version has been rocketing up Steam's charts and garnering rave reviews from those digging into what it has to offer. Continue reading Smash hit factory sandbox game Satisfactory obliterates Steam records MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best building games, Best sandbox games, Best open-world games