Filing this one for CBS in the better-late-than-never category (or perhaps decades late), Sunday’s episode of 60 Minutes led with a lengthy profile of the upstart University of Austin (UATX) and its classical liberal education and commitment to free speech as a way of realizing that, for lack of a better term, American universities are not only hot beds of chaos (as exhibited by the aftermath of October 7), but exhibit little to no ideological and political diversity).     Correspondent Jon Weretheim had quite the amusing opening, telling the elite, far-left audience something long apparent to the rest of us These are not soaring times for higher education. Tuition costs rise unchecked. Contempt for today’s campus culture - the trigger warnings, safe spaces, microaggressions - helped swing the election, and this past week, President-elect Donald Trump nominated former WWE executive Linda McMahon to lead the Department of Education, an agency that each year distributes billions to U.S. colleges, some that Trump has vowed to tax and sue for their “wokeness.”  Wertheim made the pivot to University of Austin, calling the school’s launch this fall an example of “innovation” and “conceived largely frustrated professors at schools like Harvard, Princeton, and Brown” that “tout[s] open debate, a shout-nothing-but-say-anything philosophy, and, for now, free tuition.” “Will this be just another politicized campus swinging right? Or a true disrupter, resetting the marketplace of ideas,” he wondered. He then began the taped portion with by showing UATX’s humble beginnings in a downtown high-rise and specifically a former department store.  Wertheim had a group of students explain what it’s been like, including the welcome reality that isn’t seen on other campuses where students not only engage and disagree, but still respect each other (click “expand”): WERETHEIM [TO ATUNES] How would you describe members of the founding class? OLIVIA ANTUNES: Very outspoken. You’ll never enter a conversation and leave without something that you didn’t know before talking to someone. WERTHEIM: Olivia Antunes, Dylan Wu, Constantin Whitmire, Grace Price and Jacob Hornstein are among the 92 students in the inaugural class. If UT is built around Longhorn football, the focal point of UATX — MAN #1: Pursuing the truth. MAN #2: So you stop by telling the truth. KANELOS: In pursuit of truth. DYLAN WU: Fearless pursuit of truth to me is I have this kind of mentality that the best way that you should go about your life is to always assume that you’re wrong in some capacity. WERTHEIM [TO WU]: You’re prepared for that — WU: Right. WERTHEIM [TO WU]: — to be challenged and stress-tested and — WU: Not so — WERTHEIM [TO WU]: — confronted? WU: It’s not just even prepared. That’s why I’m at this school. I want them to be challenged because I know that I’m wrong in some way. WERTHEIM: What are some things that differentiate you guys? JACOB HORNSTEIN: We’re very intellectually diverse. I’ve met people of every political persuasion here from, like, far-left Democrats who are for Bernie Sanders or to the left of that even, to people who would make Donald Trump look like a liberal. WERTHEIM: Roughly half the students come from Texas, a third are female. They share academic strength, averaging in the 92nd percentile on the SAT. Some were accepted at schools like the University of Chicago and Georgetown but chose UATX for what it is and is not. CONSTANTIN WHITMIRE: I remember visiting a college in the northeast of the U.S. and the student guiding me there was like, “Ugh, we have different dorms for different student groups.” I didn’t want to go to a space that was like that. WERTHEIM: Why do you think it’s important to be at a college where differing views aren’t just accepted and tolerated, but welcome? WHITMIRE: We’re actually listening to the other side and understanding each other. And still, we’re friends with each other. I vehemently disagree with many of the things Jacob says. And I think you do, too. I don’t want to — HORNSTEIN: It’s likewise. WHITMIRE: We still get along pretty well, and it’s a beautiful thing. WERTHEIM: Not exactly the vibe on so many other campuses. Wertheim provided even more Captain Obvious statements about the decay of universities: Long before Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, colleges have been sites of protest and have leaned left, but the atmosphere has intensified over the past decade. Speakers shouted down...Professors canceled when students feel unheard...Then the reckoning this past year. Campus chaos led first to congressional hearings...Then to the resignation of the presidents at Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard. More truth-telling came from UATX co-founder and Hoover Institution senior fellow Sir Niall Ferguson, who said “it’s terribly important that the United States improves, reforms, revitalizes its universities” and that universities have moved dramatically “to stifle free expression” to create “a huge disconnect now between the academic elite and the average American voter” with rampant censorship and self-censorship.     Wertheim seemed shocked when he said 60 Minutes “came across some data that less than three percent of the Harvard faculty identifies as conservative” and “[m]ore than 75 percent identifies as liberal,” which is “[w]ildly out of proportion with the American public.” After Ferguson said this is reminiscent “of the bad old days of Stalin’s Soviet Union,” he added a rotten university system means “something is bound to go wrong for the society as a whole” with “ideas that start on campus pretty quickly spread to corporations, to media organizations” and thus a “screw[ed] up America[.]” Once he ticked through other founders (including Bari Weiss) and its $200 million raised by private donors to get it off the ground, he spoke with UATX president and Palantir co-founder Pano Kanelos and then explained the school functioning off of Chatham House rules (click “expand”): KANELOS: Our work is to stir up settled ideas. WERTHEIM: He says that to the detriment of learning, colleges have become echo chambers. [TO KANELOS] What is going on, on campuses — KANELOS: Yeah. WERTHEIM [TO KANELOS]: — that are leading you to draw this conclusion? KANELOS: It’s as if people have come to expect that there are just sort of two versions of everything. And therefore, there’s a right version and a wrong version, and depending on which side you stand. But the truth is that one opinion meeting another opinion shouldn’t leave us with two opinions; it should leave us with better opinions. MAN #4: Like me ask, what do you mean by that exactly? MAN #5: The Christian values that we have — WERTHEIM: To combat fears of saying the wrong thing in class, UATX comes armed with a weapon. [TO FERGUSON]: Tell an American audience, what do you mean by Chatham House Rule? FERGUSON: The Chatham House Rule is a great British invention. And it says that if you are a participant in a discussion and you hear an interesting thing said, maybe a controversial thing, you can refer to the information that you’ve gleaned, but you can’t attribute it to a person. People fear that the thing they said that was not right, was politically incorrect, ends up on X or, for that matter, on Instagram. And that which happens in the classroom should stay in the classroom. WERTHEIM: At UATX, classes are small, seminar-style, and based in Western civilization, the Bible; Greek classics. Faculty includes a former Navy captain, a Greek orthodox priest, Father Maximos, teaches a class on chaos and civilization, and a tech entrepreneur. WOMAN #2: You’re trying to play the Steve Jobs role here, right? WERTHEIM: There are no on-campus science labs, but founders chose Austin for its booming start-up culture, linking students with companies like Elon Musk’s Neuralink — WOMAN #3: How do you take this cutting-edge research — WERTHEIM: — and helping the kids sharpen their tech skills, and even fund their own ideas.  WOMAN #4: We have both a non-profit and a start-up side. WERTHEIM: To stem the scandalously high costs of higher education, the UATX campus is bare bones...No dorms. The students live in apartments next to UT undergrads, and no meal plan. Cook for yourselves, kids. The closest thing we found to a college rager? Students learning the Texas two-step.  Wertheim explained UATX also came up with a remarkable replacement for DEI, “swap[ping] DEI, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, for what some call MEI: Merit, Excellence and Intelligence” for its admissions process. He finally provided slight push-back: “Critics attack UATX as a right-wing university, simply wearing the cloak of free speech.” In response, Kanelos argued “[p]olitics should be studied at a university,” not used as “the operating system.” Sure enough, Wertheim himself proved Kanelos’s point by pointing out another UATX adviser includes “liberal, legal scholar Nadine Strossen,” who “was president of the ACLU for nearly 20 years” and her declaration that campuses are not fostering real debate about public policy. Strossen even responded to Wertheim invoking the predictable opposition to free speech with screeches about hate speech: “My concern is to try to eliminate the underlying discriminatory attitudes. You don’t do that by punishing expression. You do that through education, through more speech, not less.” To see the relevant transcript from November 24, click here. 

The news that Special Counsel Jack Smith was dropping his cases against President-elect Trump left the Cackling Coven of ABC’s The View less than enthused, Tuesday morning. It had co-host Joy Behar bemoaning that karma would not get Trump. Meanwhile, co-host Sunny Hostin was trying to defend Smith and the Justice Department from the radical leftists condemning them. Moderator Whoopi Goldberg opened the segment laughably asking for a refund for the money wasted on the case. “So, after all that time and money, are we going to get a rebate? We're not getting any money back?” she asked as the audience laughed. “It shows you there's no such thing as karma, doesn’t it? It's like the Easter Bunny and affordable housing. It doesn't exist!” decried Behar. She did allow herself to express some hope in that “eventually, I think we will get him out but it's going to take a while and let's hope there's not too much damage that he does.” Behar was still expressing shock that Vice President Kamala Harris’s message of trying to bribe voters with houses didn’t stack up against Trump’s, which she mischaracterized as just about “cats and dogs in Ohio.” She then demanded that Republicans in Congress “step up” to oppose Trump’s agenda despite his mandate from voters; bizarrely, she hoped that Republicans would step up to stop Trump’s purported agenda to allow dengue fever to sweep across the country: I feel like some of the Republicans in Congress are going to have to step up. Especially when you have somebody like Robert Kennedy Jr. – You send me a thing the other day that said that dengue fever is on the rise. I don't think these Republicans want to get dengue fever. I don't think that they want to get COVID. I don't think that they want their kids to not gets polio shot, so when it comes right down to them, maybe they will step up because it will affect them.     Soon, it was Hostin’s turn to start spewing conspiracy theories. Without evidence or explanation, she claimed one of the reasons Trump ran for president again was to “milk money out of the government, which is what he did the first time.” But that didn’t make sense because he received the same paycheck every president received and he donated every check. She also stated that “he was running to stay out of jail.” Hostin also used up a lot of good oxygen to defend Smith, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and the Justice Department from those on the left who were denouncing how they took too long to go after Trump in the first place (Click “expand’): Let me say, the other thing I want to say is a lot of people are blaming Merrick Garland and saying ‘why did he take so long?’ and blaming the Department of Justice, ‘why did they take so long?’ As an alum of the Department of Justice, I want to make it clear that these cases generally take between two and four years to prosecute. I know that sounds crazy, but think about how many witnesses including yourself who testified in front of that House committee, 1,000. When you are a prosecutor like jack Smith and receive that case, you now have to re-interview those witnesses. You're not going to just take the paperwork and say, ‘okay, Alyssa said this so that's fine.’ You've got to do the work yourself. So, between the House committee report being released, that was in 2022 they were gearing up against all of this pressure from the other side, appeals, motions. Behar wondered about the future of any charges and Hostin had bad news. “What that means is you can bring them again, but the problem is, because he's the sitting president you can't continue the prosecution and the statute of limitations will likely run out when he's done,” she lamented. Still trying to make race a major facet of the 2024 election cycle, Hostin bloviated about how black women were the good voters because they cared about January 6, compared to those who voted based on the economy. “But when the exit polls were taken the 92 percent of black women that voted for the vice president said that the number one issue for them was January 6 and the fall of democracy,” she boasted. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: ABC’s The View November 26, 2024 11:03:10 a.m. Eastern (…) WHOOPI GOLDBERG: So, after all that time and money, are we going to get a rebate? [Laughter] We're not getting any money back? Okay, well -- JOY BEHAR: Nothing. GOLDBERG: What do you think of it? BEHAR: It shows you there's no such thing as karma, doesn’t it? It's like the Easter Bunny and affordable housing. It doesn't exist! I mean, I feel like eventually I think we will get him out but it's going to take a while and let's hope there's not too much damage that he does. So, if you think about what happened in the past – how long is it since election day? SUNNY HOSTIN: It's been about two – three --- It’s been about three weeks. SARA HAINES: About two years. [Laughter] BEHAR: It feels like a decade, doesn't it? HAINES: Yeah. BEHAR: The idea that Kamala Harris says to American people, ‘I'm going to help you buy a house,’ that did not resonate as much as they're eating cats and dogs in Ohio. I mean, it's weird, isn't it? We're in a weird sort of state right now. But I feel like -- I also think even though everybody has been talking about how awful these picks are for the cabinet, I feel like some of the Republicans in Congress are going to have to step up. Especially when you have somebody like Robert Kennedy Jr. – You send me a thing the other day that said that dengue fever is on the rise. GOLDBERG: Yes. BEHAR: I don't think these Republicans want to get dengue fever. I don't think that they want to get COVID. I don't think that they want their kids to not gets polio shot, so when it comes right down to them, maybe they will step up because it will affect them. (…) 11:07:42 a.m. Eastern HOSTIN: You know, listen, that was always the plan. I firmly believe that the reason that he was running again to be president was partially because he wants to sort of milk money out of the government, which is what he did the first time, he was running to stay out of jail. BEHAR: That's right. HOSTIN: That's what he was doing. [Applause] If we're being honest, okay. BEHAR: And it worked. It worked. HOSTIN: Let me say, the other thing I want to say is a lot of people are blaming Merrick Garland and saying ‘why did he take so long?’ and blaming the Department of Justice, ‘why did they take so long?’ As an alum of the Department of Justice, I want to make it clear that these cases generally take between two and four years to prosecute. I know that sounds crazy, but think about how many witnesses including yourself who testified in front of that House committee, 1,000. When you are a prosecutor like jack Smith and receive that case, you now have to re-interview those witnesses. You're not going to just take the paperwork and say, ‘okay, Alyssa said this so that's fine.’ You've got to do the work yourself. So, between the House committee report being released, that was in 2022 they were gearing up against all of this pressure from the other side, appeals, motions. BEHAR: What can jack Smith do now? HOSTIN: Well, now, what he has done now is he's withdrawn the cases. The judge has said they are withdrawn without prejudice. What that means is you can bring them again, but the problem is, because he's the sitting president you can't continue the prosecution and the statute of limitations will likely run out when he's done. So, he did what he wanted to do. But the last final point I'll make, you know, I know that people are trying to – most people are saying, ‘well, this was a kitchen table issue. This was about the cost of eggs.’ Donald Trump never talked about the cost of eggs. He tried to commit a sex act on a microphone. He talked about, you know, pets being eaten. BEHAR: Yeah. HOSTIN: But when the exit polls were taken the 92 percent of black women that voted for the vice president said that the number one issue for them was January 6 and the fall of democracy. So, there were some voters that felt that that was very, very important. (…)

On Tuesday, Republican state Sen. Randy Fine of Florida announced his bid to replace Republican Rep. Mike Waltz after securing an endorsement from President-elect Donald Trump. Fine is running to replace Waltz after Trump tapped the outgoing congressman to serve as national security adviser in the upcoming administration. Waltz confirmed Monday that he would resign from his post on Inauguration Day. 'It is my belief that President Trump is our nation's last, best chance to right the ship.'“I’m proud to announce that I’m going to be running for the 6th Congressional District of the state of Florida,” Fine told Fox News on Tuesday. “Whether it’s fighting inflation to make America affordable again, closing the border to make America safe again, or standing up for Israel and standing up to China, I’m ready to go.”Trump also endorsed Fine on Monday ahead of his official announcement, noting his allegiance to the MAGA movement. "A Harvard Educated, Successful Businessman, and Highly Respected State Legislator, Randy has been an incredible Voice for MAGA, and the Great People of Florida," Trump said. "In Congress, Randy will be an INCREDIBLE Fighter who will work tirelessly with me to Stop Inflation, Grow our Economy, Secure the Border, Champion our Military/Vets, Restore American Energy DOMINANCE, Protect our always under siege Second Amendment, and Restore PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH."In response, Fine praised the president-elect and pledged to work alongside him. "Clearly Mom wasted no time once she made it upstairs," Fine said. "Mr. President, G-d saved you on that day in Butler so that you could save the world. It would be the honor of my life to be one of your footsoldiers." Fine resigned from his state Senate seat on Tuesday amid his campaign launch, just one month into his term. His resignation will go into effect beginning March 31. "It is my belief that President Trump is our nation's last, best chance to right the ship," Fine said in his resignation letter. "And with his statement this weekend, he believes I can help. I owe it to those same children that I entered office to serve to join that fight. While I am sorry that my service in the Senate will be abbreviated, it seems that my path will return me to a People's House where I will fight for Floridians under the familiar title of Representative."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

New York City council member Robert Holden (D) is encouraging his fellow Democratic peers to support the termination of the city's existing sanctuary policies that are "shielding" criminal illegal aliens from federal immigration officials.On Wednesday, Holden sent a letter to Mayor Eric Adams (D), Governor Kathy Hochul (D), and other city and state legislative leaders, urging them to reconsider their support of sanctuary policies prohibiting local law enforcement officers from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.'The president actually could say to the governor and to the mayor, "Cooperate with us, or we're going to charge you with felonies."'"I write with grave concern about the continued impact of New York's sanctuary state and city policies, which not only violate [federal law] but also put New Yorkers in harm's way," Holden stated. "Federal statute explicitly prohibits the harboring, shielding, or concealing of illegal aliens, particularly those engaged in criminal activities."On Monday, Holden appeared on "Fox & Friends," where he applauded President-elect Donald Trump's incoming border czar, Tom Homan, for his recent warnings to political leaders who attempt to hinder ICE's deportation efforts.Holden told Fox News, "I love Tom Homan, the new border czar, who came last week on Fox and said, 'We're going to hold these mayors and governors accountable.'"He explained that some Democratic leaders are violating the law by using sanctuary policies to block federal immigration officials. "It's a felony," Holden said. "We're like shielding [illegal immigrants]. The governors, the Democratic governors, and the mayors of these sanctuary cities are shielding criminals and terrorists."He expressed national security concerns about local law enforcement agents being prohibited from communicating with their federal counterparts. Holden called it "unbelievable" that his fellow Democratic council members want to keep criminals and terrorists in the country.Kenneth Genalo, the director of ICE's New York City's field office, stated on Friday that "it would take a lifetime" to deport the criminal illegal aliens currently residing in the city.Adams has also expressed interest in rolling back the city's sanctuary status, claiming that his hands are tied unless city council members vote to repeal some of the policies.When asked what Adams could be doing to help get criminal illegal aliens off New York City's streets, Holden told Fox News that he could petition Hochul and call on the city council to negotiate amendments to the policies. "I'm looking to President Trump," Holden continued. "I think President Trump could say, 'You know what, if you're going to violate the laws, … it's a felony to shield and harbor illegal aliens who have committed crimes.'""The president actually could say to the governor and to the mayor, 'Cooperate with us, or we're going to charge you with felonies,'" he added.He mentioned that Homan had previously warned that local leaders could face federal charges for harboring illegal immigrants.Last week, Homan told Fox News, "Those people who say they're going to stop us from what we're doing, they will not.""Let me give you a word of advice: If you impede us, there's going to be consequences," he continued. "It is a felony to knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

On January 6, 2021, Capitol Police officer Michael Byrd shot and killed Ashli Babbitt, who was unarmed. Despite the lawsuit Babbitt’s family filed against Byrd and an eyebrow-raising disciplinary track record, Byrd has been repeatedly rewarded. Not only was he given a “$36,000 retention bonus, more than $21,000 in security upgrades at his personal residence, and instructions that [he] not sit for a fitness-for-duty evaluation after Jan. 6, 2021,” Byrd was also “promoted from lieutenant to captain in 2023,” according to a recent article by Blaze News investigative journalist Joseph Hanneman. Now Hanneman and fellow Blaze News investigative journalist Steve Baker join Jill Savage and Blaze News editor in chief Matthew Peterson on “Blaze News Tonight” to break it down. Byrd has “a history of carelessness with weapons,” says Hanneman. The most notable of these is the incident when Byrd “fired his service weapon at fleeing vehicles near his home while his neighbor was in the line of fire,” which was recently reported by a congressional oversight committee. Byrd also “left his service weapon on the toilet tank in the Capitol Visitor Center.” However, there are “three more case files” on Byrd, but these have magically “disappeared.” “The records are missing,” says Hanneman, adding that from what he understands, the contents of these missing reports make the incidents we already know about “look rather tame.” But Byrd’s incomplete record isn’t the only mystery. There’s also the conundrum of Frick and Frack — “the unidentified men near Ashli Babbitt when she was shot.” To learn more about the scandals surrounding the death of Ashli Babbitt, watch the episode above. Want more from 'Blaze News Tonight'?To enjoy more provocative opinions, expert analysis, and breaking stories you won’t see anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Republican Caitlyn Jenner reacted positively to suggestions on social media the transgender activist run for governor of California. Jenner said that a run for governor might be in the cards after President-elect Donald Trump was able to push nearly every county to the right, including many in California. The activist previously ran for governor of California in a recall election in 2021 but garnered only 1% of the vote. 'MAKE CA GREAT AGAIN!'"Should we do it again? Have been getting a lot of calls with a lot of strong opinions," Jenner posted on social media. "Newscum is out in 2026," Jenner added, referring to current Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will be term-limited out of office. "The MAGA / America First movements are not nearly as bigoted as the intolerant left. If I were to run it would be proudly as a Republican. We are the big tent party and movement of common sense, for ALL!" read a second tweet from Jenner. Jenner also addressed the possibility being floated that Vice President Kamala Harris might run for California governor after her disastrous presidential campaign. A Politico report said Harris told allies and aides to prepare while she contemplated another campaign. "If I ran, and it was ultimately against Harris, I would destroy her," Jenner posted. Caitlyn Jenner was born Bruce Jenner and had been celebrated as a national hero after winning the gold medal in the decathlon in the 1976 Olympics. In 2015, Jenner stunned the world by identifying as a woman and asking to be called Caitlyn. Jenner has been excoriated by the transgender lobby for continuing to identify as a Republican and defending President-elect Donald Trump. "MAKE CA GREAT AGAIN!" Jenner posted. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

From Baldur’s Gate 3 to Metaphor ReFantazio, turn-based RPG fans have been spoiled rotten over the last couple of years. While many are big-budget blockbusters, here’s a newcomer that looks to be punching well above its perceived weight and won’t set you back 60 or 70 bucks. New Arc Line has just arrived on Steam in early access, and with a gorgeous world that blends steampunk with arcane fantasy magic, it feels like it could give some of this year’s biggest new RPGs a run for their money. Continue reading Stunning turn-based RPG New Arc Line arrives on Steam in early access MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best RPG games, Best story games, Best upcoming PC games

How do you complete Jinx Fixes Everything Act 3? The explosive finale of the League of Legends in-client minigame sets Jinx up for success ahead of the show’s final episode, and we’ve got the complete rundown on how to seamlessly navigate its trials and tribulations. Jinx needs a meaner, pinker gun to save her friends and family in the big battle ahead, bringing her to Ekko’s workshop. With but a Fishbones head and Pow-Pow to her name, the League of Legends wizz is going to need to push her ingenuity to the absolute limit to make some of the MOBA game’s most iconic weapons into something capable of pulling off the unimaginable. Continue reading Jinx Fixes Everything Act 3 guide - complete walkthrough MORE FROM PCGAMESN: League of Legends ranks explained, League of Legends Mythic shop rotation, League of Legends tier list

ARGLE BARGLE RAR! Angry Staffer Shrieking Over Trump Discharging ELEVENTY BILLION TRANS Totally Hilarious

PURE NIGHTMARE FUEL: We Saw Joy Reid's Latest TikTok Video, So Now You Have to See It (Watch)