The Heritage Foundation and its independent partner, Heritage Action for America, on Thursday launched what they describe as a $1 million campaign aimed at expediting Senate confirmation of President-elect Donald Trump’s second-term Cabinet appointments.   The campaign will officially start in the middle of January 2025 and will continue for the entirety of the Senate confirmation process.  The campaign will be twofold, according to a Heritage press release. First, the Heritage Foundation will focus on educating Americans on the importance and history of presidential authority on Cabinet appointments.   In the statement, Steve Bradbury, a distinguished fellow at Heritage and a former general counsel to the U.S. Department of Transportation in the first Trump administration, said the Senate’s “advice-and-consent” function should not “obstruct the president’s ability to put qualified appointees in place.”  “We’ll publish policy papers, give interviews, go on TV, etc., to explain how the constitutional process was designed to work, how it’s gotten abused, and how President Trump can work with Senate leadership to expedite the appointments of his Cabinet nominees and sub-Cabinet appointees,” Bradbury told The Daily Signal in an email.  Heritage Action will seek to fulfill the second part of the campaign—targeting the home states of senators who are on the fence about some of Trump’s Cabinet picks and whose votes could be the determining factor in the Senate confirmation process. Those states include Alaska, Maine, and South Dakota. Alaska and Maine are the home states of two moderate Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, respectively, while South Dakota is home to the new Senate Majority Leader-to-be John Thune.  The campaign’s ultimate aim is to get Trump’s Cabinet nominees confirmed by the Senate and to build unity among Republicans to vote to confirm them, according to Heritage Action Executive Vice President Ryan Walker.  “We’ll run digital ads,” Walker told The Daily Signal. “We’ll do a text-message campaign. We will target the Capitol building with all this content. We will do ‘patch-through calls’ to Congress, from grassroots like our Sentinels, to encourage them to vote ‘yes.’ But it’ll be a friendly pressure campaign to get these folks unified in support of these nominees.”   Walker added it’s important to note historical precedent in understanding the campaign. “In the first four years of the Trump administration [2017-2021], his nominees were under intense scrutiny, and the Senate failed to confirm them in a timely manner, so a lot of his nominees sat waiting for the Senate to take action, and government positions weren’t filled,” Walker told The Daily Signal.   The president of Heritage and Heritage Action, Kevin Roberts, said the American people gave Trump a mandate to take down the deep state.  (Gwengoat/iStock via Getty Images) “If [Trump] succeeds, it will cement his legacy as the president who confronted Washington’s unaccountable bureaucracy and restored power to the people,” Roberts said in the press release. “His Cabinet choices reflect a commitment to this mission, and now is the time for every conservative to quickly unite behind his nominees and get to work saving this great republic.”    Republicans should unite in support of Trump’s nominees and confirm them as quickly as possible, Walker said. “We want to get these people into place, into their seats, so they can start implementing the agenda,” he explained. “We [at Heritage Action] want to be flexible in our engagement, and we want to continue this effort through the entirety. We want to be helpful to the Trump administration on getting these nominees confirmed. So, however long that takes, we will be there to support them.”  The post Heritage Launches $1 Million Campaign to Expedite Senate Confirmation of Trump’s Cabinet Picks    appeared first on The Daily Signal.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A nonprofit drafted a plan to prosecute backers of Donald Trump under Arizona law nearly a year before the state’s Democrat attorney general secured 18 indictments related to Trump’s 2020 campaign. One of the nonprofit’s founders is a former Obama White House staffer who authored books targeting Trump. The organization, the States United Democracy Center, provided a 47-page memo to Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes on July 25, 2023.  The memo outlined the potential criminal case against Trump associates and made repeated references to “Trump himself” as part of what it called a criminal “false electors scheme.” Mayes recently said that her prosecution of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and former Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward—all among 18 Trump associates indicated—would continue despite Trump’s election to a second term.  Recommendations and Results The July 2023 memo from the States United Democracy Center called for bringing criminal charges under Arizona law for forgery, tampering with public records, criminal impersonation, presentation of a false instrument for filing, fraudulent schemes and practices, and conspiracy.  Arizona False Electors Scheme MemoDownload The grand jury indictment this past April included six counts of forgery; two counts of fraudulent schemes and practices; and one count of conspiracy. Trump was named as an unindicted co-conspirator. The organization’s memo singled out individuals as targets of prosecution, including Ward as well as Republican activists who were among an alternate slate of Trump electors that signed certificates in case Arizona’s election result was overturned. Most, but not all, were indicted in April. But the 2023 memo went on to note “others,” including Trump and then-Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. “As established in Section II of this memo, Trump campaign staff and advisers drove the scheme and propelled it forward in the key states, including Arizona,” the memo says. “Trump himself sought and obtained Ronna McDaniel’s help in furtherance of the scheme.” The center’s memo called for more investigation of the “actions, intent, and knowledge” of Trump and others.  The memo also stressed to Mayes, Arizona’s attorney general, that the 2020 case was not too old to prosecute.  “Statutes of limitations will not provide a barrier to prosecution, so long as the prosecution is brought within the next four years,” the memo says. “Generally, for crimes classified as class 2 through class 6 felonies, the statute of limitations is seven years. … In any event, the relevant statutes of limitations will not bar a timely prosecution. Nor should concerns about timing—given that several years have elapsed since the scheme—preclude prosecution now. Thorough investigations of complex cases take time.” Arizona’s previous attorney general was a Republican, and the memo notes: “In addition, the voters of the state of Arizona elected a new attorney general [Mayes] who took office in January 2023. Under these facts, the investigation has been diligent, without undue delay.” Before issuing its memo, the center enthusiastically posted on the social media platform X about Mayes’ plans to “ramping up” the investigation of the 2020 election in Arizona.  In August, the organization posted about one of the indicted Trump supporters who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge.  What Is States United Democracy Center? The States United Democracy Center was established in 2020 and initially called the Voter Protection Program, according to the Capital Research Center, a Washington-based investigative think tank that monitors nonprofits.  The group was established in anticipation that Trump would lose the 2020 election and challenge the outcome.  One co-founder is Obama White House ethics counsel Norman Eisen, who Obama later appointed as ambassador to the Czech Republic. Eisen was special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the first Trump impeachment in 2019 over Trump’s phone call with Ukraine’s president.  A Washington Post column said Eisen was a “critical force in building the case for impeachment” in the House. Trump eventually was acquitted in the Senate.  Eisen wrote three anti-Trump books: “A Case for the American People: The United States v. Donald J. Trump” published in July 2020; “Overcoming Trumpery: How to Restore Ethics, the Rule of Law, and Democracy” in 2022; and “Trying Trump: A Guide to His First Election Interference Criminal Trial” in 2024.  Eisen is now a senior adviser for the States United Democracy Center.  In fiscal year 2022, the Hopewell Fund, a nonprofit with services managed by the liberal philanthropy consulting firm Arabella Advisors, provided $1.6 million to the States United Democracy Center, according to Cause IQ, a database of nonprofit groups, as well as the Hopewell Fund’s 990 form.  Nonprofit organizations in the Arabella Advisors networks have been among the largest donors to left-leaning causes in recent years.  The Hopewell Fund was not the original source of funding to States United for Democracy Center. The Hopewell Fund previously served as the center’s fiscal sponsor while it was waiting for tax-exempt status. The fund also facilitated charitable contributions to the center as part of that administrative role. ‘Cabal of Powerful People’ When States United was known as the Voter Protection Program, the organization was mentioned in a Time magazine article as part of “a shadow campaign” in 2020. The magazine said it was part of a larger “cabal of powerful people ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information. They were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it.” Time’s article quoted Eisen as saying: “The untold story of the election is the thousands of people of both parties who accomplished the triumph of American democracy at its very foundation.”  Other co-founders of the center are former Massachusetts Chief Deputy Attorney General Joanna Lydgate, now CEO of the group, and former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, a Republican who was administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency during President George W. Bush’s first term. Whitman is now on the group’s bipartisan advisory board.   The organization stresses its work has never been about partisanship, but is about the rule of law and free, fair, secure elections. Its advisory board includes Republicans such as Whitman; former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, who challenged Trump for the 2020 GOP presidential nomination; two former George W. Bush administration homeland security secretaries, Michael Chertoff and Tom Ridge (also a former Pennsylvania governor); former U.S. Rep. Tom Coleman, R-Mo; and former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele. States United has noted that it has filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of former Califronia Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, as well as Weld, Whitman, and former Justice Department officials who are Republicans. Richie Taylor, spokesperson for the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, told The Daily Signal that the office doesn’t comment on ongoing investigations.   States United Democracy Center didn’t comment specifically about the memo for this report.  The Hopewell Fund did not comment for the record. Arabella Advisors did not respond to inquiries. The post EXCLUSIVE: Arizona Indictments of Trump Supporters Mirror Nonprofit’s Suggestions appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Democrats Are Fighting Over How to Respond to Effective GOP Ads on Trans Issues

The hosts of "The View" derided Joe Rogan as just a guy "who believes in dragons" while furiously decrying his audience on Thursday, and he responded hilariously. Joy Behar cited Rogan's incredibly successful podcast as an example of an unreliable news outlet that has led to the balkanization of Americans. 'So, this is the type of really, really bad information going out there.' "I think that's why people like our show because they know that we are checked by ABC News," said Joy Behar. “We went from Walter Cronkite, basically, to this guy Joe Rogan who believes in dragons! I checked it!" "He believes in dragons?" asked Sunny Hostin. "He believes in dragons! And he also thinks that they, dragons, I guess like dinosaur-type of animals, roamed the earth when people did! So, this is the type of really, really bad information going out there," she added. Prior to her comments, Sara Haines opined that part of the problem was misinformation spread by foreign countries aiming at causing chaos in the free elections of the U.S. "People want us divided, and they aren't just here in this country. There are foreign adversaries who are infiltrating our social media because it is prudent for us to stay that way," said Haines. "So when you see something that really pisses you off [on social media], you should triple-check that one!" Rogan responded to the intended insult by changing his profile to add, "Dragon believer." "That’s my new official X description," he wrote on social media. Rogan has 14.5 million followers on Spotify and 16.4 million followers on YouTube. "The View" meanwhile garners about 2.6 million total viewers. Video of the comments were widely circulated on social media: Joy Behar is very upset about Joe Rogan: “We went from Walter Cronkite to this guy Joe Rogan who believes in dragons! He thinks dragons roamed the earth when people did! This is really bad information going out there.” pic.twitter.com/iFi0pVs7gX— TheBlaze (@theblaze) November 21, 2024 Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Tom Homan, tapped as President-elect Donald Trump's border czar, suggested taking a hardline approach with Mexico to stop the wave of immigrant caravans racing toward the United States border ahead of Inauguration Day.During a Wednesday interview on Fox News' "Ingraham Angle," Homan was asked about a 1,500-strong immigrant caravan headed toward the country.'Let me give you a word of advice: If you impede us, there's going to be consequences.'Homan stated, "I think President Trump needs to make a phone call down there and tell them they are going to stop that caravan, or they're going to have consequences."During a rally earlier this month, Trump said that he would tell Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo "on day one or sooner" to help the U.S. stop the mass immigration crisis spilling over the border or he would impose a 25% tariff."If that doesn't work," Trump said, "I'll make it 50%; if that doesn't work, I'll make it 75%. Then I'll make it 100%."One of the many immigrant caravans that have taken off from southern Mexico shrunk in size after Trump secured the presidential victory, with some foreign nationals believing it would be substantially more difficult to enter and remain in the U.S. after President Joe Biden leaves office. Nevertheless, other groups of immigrants are continuing their journey, hoping to slip into the country ahead of Inauguration Day.Several leaders in sanctuary jurisdictions across the U.S., including in Los Angeles, Denver, and Boston, have pledged to protect illegal aliens in their communities from Trump's mass deportation efforts.Homan had a message for those city officials. "Those people who say they're going to stop us from what we're doing, they will not," he told Fox News. "Let me give you a word of advice: If you impede us, there's going to be consequences.""It is a felony to knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien," Homan warned. "For any governor or mayor who doesn't want public safety threats taken out of their communities, you should resign your office because your number one responsibility is [to] protect those communities," he added.Trump's border czar was also asked about the more than 1,400 acres of land along the southern Texas border that was offered to the incoming administration to facilitate the mass removals. Earlier this week, Dawn Buckingham, a medical doctor and the commissioner of the Texas General Land Office, offered the land to Trump "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."Homan said the Trump administration "absolutely will" use the land.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Crossfire Hurricane was a federal investigation that began with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her unsecured illegal home server. “Not only did it have our nation’s most classified secrets, it also had evidence of the Clinton Foundation’s illegal pay for play foreign bribery schemes, where the Clinton Foundation was taking tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments, foreign entities,” Trump transition team member Mike Davis tells Liz Wheeler of “The Liz Wheeler Show.” “When she was the secretary of state, she was doing favors in return for these donations. She got caught with her illegal home server, she took hammers to the devices,” he continues. “She destroyed the evidence. Obstruction of justice.” Davis explains that her illegal home server was “almost certainly hacked by our adversaries.” “What they were worried about with the Clinton campaign, with the Obama White House, with Joe Biden, was that this server would get leaked before the 2016 election by the Russians. And so, what did they do? They made up the Steele Dossier at Perkins Coie, a national law firm.” “They used that Steele Dossier, just made up corrupt evidence, they gave it to the intel agencies, the Justice Department. They used that to get illegal spy warrants from the FISA courts on President Trump on his campaign, they continued to spy on him as the president of the United States, they hobbled his presidency, and they did this Crossfire Hurricane for the purpose of this,” he adds. Had the evidence come out before the 2016 election, Davis explains that Clinton could have claimed it was a “dirty trick by the Trump campaign” in collusion with the Russians. “And you say, ‘Oh, Mike, that sounds crazy, how can you be such a conspiracy theorist?’ Well, they did the same thing in 2020 with Hunter Biden’s laptop of the Biden family corruption,” he tells Wheeler. Wheeler is impressed with Davis’ knowledge and assessment of the matter. “This is why I want you to be attorney general,” Wheeler says. “I’m paying you a sincere compliment right now. I’m not just joking around about it. That’s the kind of understanding of the lawfare that has been targeting President Trump — and President Trump by the way is representative of us — this is the kind of understanding we need if we’re actually going to untangle this and reform these institutions.” Want more from Liz Wheeler?To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

President Joe Biden, whom Cardinal Wilton Gregory of the Archdiocese of Washington deemed a "cafeteria Catholic" on Easter Sunday, has awarded the nation's highest civilian honor to Cecile Richards, a woman who made millions of dollars helping snuff out millions of American lives. Pro-life critics have suggested a society that valued life would arrest, not award, Richards. "With absolute courage, she fearlessly leads us forward to be the America we say we are — a nation of freedom," wrote Biden. "Through her work to lift up the dignity of workers, defend and advance women's reproductive rights and equality, and mobilize Americans to exercise their power to vote, she has carved an inspiring legacy." 'We've been very good at getting heart, lung, liver.' According to the White House, the award is "presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public, or private endeavors." Richards, the daughter of the late Democratic Texas Gov. Ann Richards and a former deputy chief of staff for Nancy Pelosi, served from 2006 to 2018 as president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America — an organization founded by the infamous eugenicist Margaret Sanger, who stressed the need to "apply a stern and rigid policy of sterilization, and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is already tainted or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring." The abortion tallies in Planned Parenthood's annual reports indicate that under Richards' leadership, the organization slaughtered over 3.87 million babies. In her final year, when the organization killed 332,757 babies, Richards' salary was $1,033,274, having fallen short of seven figures the previous fiscal year by roughly $42,000. The organization under Richards reportedly created the super PAC Planned Parenthood Votes and expanded its lobbying arm, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, lining the coffers of Democratic lawmakers on the one hand and pushing for increased access and federal funding to abortion services on the other. Leftists have also credited Richards with seeing the organization through the scandal that arose over pro-life citizen journalist and Center for Medical Progress founder David Daleiden's undercover videos in 2015 showing Planned Parenthood officials callously talking about butchering, playing with, and trafficking baby parts. The CMP posted a video on July 14, 2015, showing a senior director of medical services at Planned Parenthood, Deborah Nucatola, state matter-of-factly over wine and lunch, "We've been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that 'I'm not gonna crush that part, I'm gonna basically crush below, I'm gonna crush above, and I'm gonna see if I can get it all intact.'" "I'd say a lot of people want liver. And for that reason, most providers will do this case under ultrasound guidance, so they'll know where they're putting their forceps," continued Nucatola. "The kind of rate-limiting step of the procedure is calvarium. Calvarium — the head — is basically the biggest part." Richards stressed in the aftermath of the video's release, "Our donation programs — like any other high-quality health care providers' — follow all laws and ethical guidelines," reported the New York Times. After 12 years making money off death and sterilizations, Richards co-founded Supermajority, a leftist female-led PAC that quickly netted millions of dollars from George Soros. Richards was diagnosed in 2023 with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain tumor with an average survival time of just over a year. 'Scary place to be.' "Cecile Richards presided over the abortions of 3.9 million babies as president of Planned Parenthood," tweeted Live Action president Lila Rose. "She belongs in jail. Not in the White House receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom. "She is literally a merchant of death," wrote Dan McLaughlin of National Review. "Hard to think of a living person who has killed more Americans." Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro noted, "Her legacy is millions of dead unborn children." 'This honor marks a dark chapter in the late stages of one of the darkest presidencies in American history.' Kristan Hawkins, presidents of Students for Life, tweeted that with Richards at the helm, some of Planned Parenthood's victims' bodies were "dissected and sold to the highest bidder. Planned Parenthood representatives haggled over prices for livers and brains. Planned Parenthood’s abortions skyrocketed under Richards even as the organization’s number of total clients plummeted year after year. Cecile Richards is anything but honorable. What a disgrace." Pro-Life Wisconsin pointed out that "ironically, the babies aborted under Cecile Richards' watch will never have freedom. Their rights were stripped as they were killed in ... what should have been the greatest place of safety — their mother's womb." Edward Feser, a Catholic professor of philosophy at Pasadena City College, suggested Biden conferring the medal upon Richards showed his true colors: "The 'personally opposed, but …' Catholic Democrat line on abortion was always rank dishonesty, but to commend a ghoul like this is to drop even pretense. Biden's effectively using the last days of whatever cognitive clarity he has left to destroy his conscience. Scary place to be." Blaze News previously reported that Cardinal Raymond Burke, a canon lawyer and former prefect of the Catholic Church's highest court, said in 2020 that Biden "is not a Catholic in good standing and he should not approach to receive Holy Communion." "This is not a political statement," continued Burke. "I don't intend to get involved in recommending any candidate for office, but simply to state that a Catholic may not support abortion in any shape or form because it is one of the most grievous sins against human life and has always been considered to be intrinsically evil and therefore to in any way support act is a mortal sin." Biden reiterated that he is a "practicing Catholic." "This honor marks a dark chapter in the late stages of one of the darkest presidencies in American history when it comes to protecting mothers and unborn children," Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, told the Washington Times. "Planned Parenthood has used billions of taxpayer dollars to profit from the tragic extermination of millions of children, while exploiting the health and well-being of countless women." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

From Blasphemous to Hollow Knight, there are some truly brilliant action platformers out there for you to play - however, South Korean studio Newcore Games is aiming to "rejuvenate" the genre with its new game The Devil Within: Satgat. With soulslike combat and dark fantasy samurai, it’s certainly got all the ingredients to be a terrific and challenging experience. After showing promise during early access, the day has finally arrived for Satgat to hit 1.0, and it’s out right now on Steam. Continue reading Stunning samurai soulslike The Devil Within Satgat hits 1.0 MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best soulslikes games, Best platform games, Best Metroidvania games

Mayor of Dearborn, Michigan Will Have Netanyahu Arrested If He Enters the City

'You'll See Things Our Way': Jaguar DOUBLES DOWN on Cringe Ad With Vaguely Threatening Reply to Critics