As they carve their turkeys this year, Republicans can be grateful for Donald Trump, mapmaker. He’s redrawn America’s political geography — not only winning back the White House for himself but pointing the way to victory for his party four years from now. Before Trump, the major industrial states touching the Great Lakes were out of Republicans’ reach. Only Ohio was winnable for the GOP, but it was a battleground, voting twice for George W. Bush and twice for Barack Obama. Republicans dreamed of a “solid South,” yet that too eluded them: Florida was another battleground, one Bush came within a Supreme Court decision of losing in 2000. The brief window when a Republican like Bush could compete for the White House had closed by 2008. The problem was that even Bush’s one clear win — his 2004 reelection — depended on an electoral map his party couldn’t recreate, as states like Virginia, Colorado and New Mexico moved into the Democrats’ column, where they’ve stayed since 2008. Republicans were in a dire predicament, but few dared admit it. Instead of recognizing the flaws in their own strategy, GOP campaign gurus resorted to exaggerating the other side’s strength: They accepted the progressive myth of Barack Obama as a once-in-a-generation political genius. Who could blame the GOP for losing to a phenom like Obama? Donald Trump could and did. Instead of fighting his elections on the map Republicans had been using, and mostly losing on, since 2000, Trump drew his own. Nothing Republicans had tried since Ronald Reagan left office had succeeded in piercing the “Blue Wall” of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Even if some Republican other than Trump could have won Ohio and Florida in 2016 — when both were still hotly contested swing states — no one else had a clue how to win the Rust Belt, and those blue-since-the-‘90s states would have been enough, on top of what she did wind up winning, to make Hillary Clinton president. GOP nominees before Trump campaigned heavily in Pennsylvania to no avail. Mitt Romney had Michigan roots but couldn’t win there in 2012, just as his running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, was unable to deliver his home state. Trump, on the other hand, turned his adopted home of Florida from a battleground into a reliably red bastion. Thanks to Trump, Florida and Ohio aren’t swing states anymore. He won each three times, and neither seems like a realistic prospect for Democrats in 2028. To be sure, Gov. Ron DeSantis and others deserve credit for Florida’s red shift, too. But the Trump effect is unmistakable: He’s moved the old battlegrounds into the Republican column and made new battlegrounds out of formerly impregnable Blue Wall states. He’s also put in place the two things his party needs to win those Rust Belt battlegrounds again in 2028: a new attitude toward trade and labor, and a vice president named J.D. Vance. Just how far Trump will go in returning America to the kind of wide-ranging tariff regime the nation had in the 19th century remains to be seen, as does the effect his policies will have on the industrial workers he’s courted. But voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin have given Trump the benefit of the doubt twice now, and Vance — an Ohio native himself — is the kind of Republican they’re most likely to trust to keep pressing a pro-worker agenda. To counteract Vance’s appeal to the Rust Belt, Democrats may have to attempt in 2028 what the GOP tried in 2012: running candidates with regional ties. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro are the most plausible contenders. Anyone else — a California yuppie like Gov. Gavin Newsom or a semi-libertarian like Colorado Gov. Jared Polis — could find the Blue Wall has become a Red Wall. Democrats can ill afford to hope that Republican screw-ups will help them win in 2028, the way George W. Bush’s follies, culminating in the Great Recession and ensuing bailouts, propelled Obama to the White House in 2008. The Trump map was already put to the harshest of tests four years ago — when COVID, the recession triggered by the pandemic and the riots following George Floyd’s death created ideal conditions for Democrats, and in Joe Biden they had a candidate with Pennsylvania roots. Despite all that, Trump lost Pennsylvania by a little more than one point and Wisconsin by less than one. Without another pandemic, Democrats may have to reinvent themselves as drastically as Trump reinvented the GOP if they want to beat his map. Republicans shouldn’t be complacent, but they can give thanks that the great political cartographer of our age isn’t Barack Obama — it’s Donald Trump. Daniel McCarthy is the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review. To read more by Daniel McCarthy, visit www.creators.com.

A Chicago-area Democratic official was arrested for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol, and police said she was "not compliant" during the arrest, which was captured on body cam video. According to the Chicago Police Department, 45-year-old Samantha Steele was arrested at 8:49 p.m. Nov. 10 and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol.'Ma’am, if you don’t exit the vehicle ... I’m going to help you to exit, and you don’t want that.'Police discovered Steele — the Democratic commissioner for the Second District of the Cook County Board of Review — lying on the sidewalk, according to the arrest report. Police said they found significant front-end damage to a Honda Accord and a Dodge Charger near Steele's vehicle. Steele reportedly told officers she had been driving south on Ashland Avenue when the car crash occurred. The officer said Steele was "involved in an accident."Police said they noticed a half-empty bottle of red wine near the front passenger seat of Steele's vehicle. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the police body cam video showed the officers joke that the cabernet sauvignon was “good stuff” and that breath mints they also found "didn’t help" cover up the "strong odor of [an] alcoholic beverage" on her breath.Officers also allegedly noted that her eyes appeared "bloodshot and glassy."When officers asked how much she had drunk, Steele reportedly refused to answer and deflected by saying, "I want my lawyer, and I am not talking to you."One of the officers is heard saying, "She smells like alcohol; she's been drinking."She is seen on police body cam video refusing to exit her car; initially, she wouldn't provide her driver's license to officers.An officer is heard on body cam video telling Steele's alleged friend, "So she's not exiting. We're going to have to make her exit. She is not compliant right now, as you can see."An officer told her, “Ma’am, if you don’t exit the vehicle ... I’m going to help you to exit, and you don’t want that.”Steele shot back at the cop, "You don’t want that! I’m an elected official.”The officer asked, “Elected official of what?” Steele said she was an elected official in Cook County but would not provide the officer with her job title. When the officer asked for her name, Steele held out her hand for a handshake and said, “I’m Sam.”The cop responded, “Sam who?” Steele refused to provide her full name to the officer. Steele refused to get out of the car until the arrival of her alleged attorney — Democratic Cook County Commissioner Scott Britton of Glenview.Britton allegedly advised Steele, “Don’t say anything. Don’t say anything.”Police said Steele was "swaying front to back" during questioning.Steele reportedly refused to do a field sobriety test at first.Body cam video shows police handcuffing Steele. Steele allegedly agreed to a field sobriety test after being handcuffed, but then she claimed to have hit her head in the crash and needed medical treatment. The police report stated that she was handcuffed again, placed in an ambulance, and taken to a local hospital. She was later discharged from the hospital. The arrest report noted that Steele made lewd remarks to the arresting officer.Steele allegedly asked a cop, "Is your penis really that small?"Police impounded her vehicle.Cook County Commissioner Sean Morrison called for Steele to resign from the Cook County Board of Review for her "aggressive behavior" during her arrest. "This incident raises serious concerns about her conduct and judgment as an elected official," Morrison said in a statement. "If an elected official does not respect our dedicated police officers, then how can we expect the citizens to respect the police?"Steele was first elected to the Cook County Board of Review in 2022. Steele is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 27. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

On Tuesday, Texas expanded its previous offer to provide land to President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration to aid with its sweeping deportation plan.Last week, Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham sent a letter to Trump, informing him that the state would like to provide his administration with 1,400 acres of land near the Mexico border in Starr County, Texas, "to allow a facility to be built for the processing, detention, and coordination of the largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation's history."'My office has identified several of our properties and is standing by ready to make this happen on Day One of the Trump presidency.'Buckingham wrote in her letter, "I am committed to using every available means at my disposal to gain complete operational security of our border."Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, stated that the administration "absolutely will" use the land.On Tuesday, Buckingham told the New York Post her plans to extend the land offer further. She noted that it will be called the "Jocelyn initiative," named in honor of Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old Houston girl who was brutally raped and murdered, allegedly by two Venezuelan nationals with suspected ties to Tren de Aragua. "The new project that the general land office is gonna embark on that I have created is the Jocelyn initiative, in which we will locate appropriate land under my jurisdiction to lease for the construction of violent criminal deportation facilities," Buckingham stated.Nungaray's family, who has backed Trump and his mass deportation plan, also supports Texas' plan to provide the land to the federal government.The child's grandmother stated, "We're taking back power, we're taking back our peace, and we're taking back hope so that no other families have to go through what our families go through [because] this should've never happened.""Those monsters should've never been here," she added.Buckingham told the Post that Texas aims to "be a good partner" with the Trump administration to see to it "that these violent criminals that are hurting our sons and daughters that are here illegally are off our soil."She said she is committed to doing "everything in our power to ensure no other parent has to feel the pain" Nungaray's family has experienced."My office has identified several of our properties and is standing by ready to make this happen on Day One of the Trump presidency," Buckingham declared.Homan told Fox News on Tuesday that he was in Texas meeting with Gov. Greg Abbott (R)."We're not waiting until January 20th. We're already planning what we're going to do to lock down the state of Texas," Homan said. "Bottom line, it's about saving lives."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Democratic strategist James Carville gave the failed Harris campaign a tongue-lashing over what he saw as two "huge f***ing" errors leading to the election loss. Thought leaders of the Democratic Party have formed a circular firing squad after the devastating election losses for which the party lost control of the Oval Office, the U.S. Senate, and narrowly missed retaking control of the U.S. House. 'I'm really not interested in your uninformed, stupid, jacka** opinion!'The 80-year-old opined that the campaign erred by following the advice of young, inexperienced staffers and in pushing progressive policies that alienated many Americans. In particular, he focused on the decision for Vice President Kamala Harris to reject an invitation to appear on Joe Rogan's incredibly popular podcast. "The vice president was thinking about going on the Joe Rogan show, and a lot of the younger, progressive staffers pitched a hissy fit," Carville said. "When you put a campaign together and you hire young people to do work, let me tell you exactly what you tell these people, what I would tell 'em: 'Not only am I not interested in your f***ing opinion, I'm not even gonna call you by your name. You're 23 years old. I don't really give a s*** what you think!" He also said the campaign gave in to pressure to appease the progressive wing of the party. "Let me tell you another huge error, another huge f***ing error is when people said, 'Campaigns need to reflect progressive values.' No, they don't! No, they don't! Campaigns are authoritarian by their nature!" Carville said. "If I were running a 2028 campaign and I had some little, snot-nosed 23-year-old saying, 'I'm going to resign if you don't do this,' not only would I fire that motherf***er on the spot, I would find out who hired them and fire that person on the spot," he continued. "I'm really not interested in your uninformed, stupid, jacka** opinion as to whether you go on Joe Rogan or not!" Video of his comments was posted to social media.Carville has previously opined that Harris herself doomed the campaign when she was unable to articulate why her presidential tenure would be different from that of President Joe Biden. "'How would you be different than Biden?' That’s the one question that you exist to answer, all right? That is it. That’s the money question. That's the one you want. That’s the one that everybody wants to know the answer to," Carville said. "And you freeze!" he added. "You literally freeze and say, ‘Well, I can’t think of anything.’"Carville gained prominence as the lead strategist for Bill Clinton's presidential victory in 1992 and is notorious for his expletive-filled rants against the far-left fringe of his party. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

In recent months, Riot Games has been upping the ante when it comes to super-premium skins in League of Legends. For its new Jinx skin, which is inspired by and coinciding with Arcane Season 2, LoL has created a whole new rarity tier called Exalted and a gacha-like mechanic for obtaining it that can make it a very pricey addition to your collection. That concept alone has already irked many in the community, but now Arcane Fractured Jinx is getting hammered all over again. Continue reading League of Legends’ pricey new Jinx skin arrives to a frosty reception MORE FROM PCGAMESN: League of Legends ranks explained, League of Legends Mythic shop rotation, League of Legends tier list

Humble Bundle's latest offering is another doozy, with the Sci-Fi Shooters collection packing in seven dark and futuristic titles and one discount coupon for as little as $19 / £15.04. Among the games included is 2023's System Shock remake, which will provide a healthy dose of nostalgia for fans of the 1994 original, while giving newcomers a chance to try it.  Continue reading Grab System Shock remake and 6 more great sci-fi shooters for as little as $19 MORE FROM PCGAMESN: System Shock remake review, System Shock system requirements, Best space games

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