Along came Pete Hegseth to blow them all away

The 2024 presidential election shattered two monopolies the Left had counted on for decades. One was the lock it had over that section of Americans labeled as “Hispanics” and the other one was over the media. In this column, I will deal with the second one. Breaking the leftist monopoly on Hispanic Americans, the subtitle of a book I wrote in 2014, shatters a long-standing strategy by the Left to win power. But seeing the legacy media crumble after decades of watching them snootily dictate to all of us is not just equally monumental but also more gratifying because it is to many such well-deserved retribution. It’s not just that the voter has now said the press have no clothes. More importantly, President-elect Donald Trump was able to use an online ecosystem that now far outstrips anything the legacy media have to offer. Conservatives have a right to be excited about this brand-new development. Part of the reason people have been flocking to nonlegacy media sources, including the many podcasts Trump went out of his way to appear on over the course of his campaign, is that the legacy media long ago shed all semblance of impartiality. Newspapers such as The Washington Post and The New York Times, broadcasters such as NPR and the three major TV networks, as well as wire services such as The Associated Press and Reuters have behaved as though it were up to them to prevent a Trump victory. And they didn’t care if it was obvious. The Media Research Center, a conservative outfit that has performed invaluable service studying the media for years, confirms that this year’s coverage, in particular, was the worst of any election in history. Its analysis of how the two candidates were treated in the networks’ evening news showed that Vice President Kamala Harris received 78% positive coverage, while Trump’s share of positive coverage was only 15%. That was a Democratic advantage of +63, compared to +58 in 2020, +35 in 2008, and +22 in 2004. The public knew it. A YouGov poll revealed that only 7% “trust the media to tell the truth.” As a former journalist of almost 20 years, I experience no schadenfreude in writing this. Jeff Bezos, the owner of The Washington Post, himself lowered the boom by writing a column that defended his decision not to have the paper endorse Harris in this context. It began thusly: In the annual public surveys about trust and reputation, journalists and the media have regularly fallen near the very bottom, often just above Congress. But in this year’s Gallup poll, we have managed to fall below Congress. Our profession is now the least trusted of all. Something we are doing is clearly not working. … Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose. Reality is an undefeated champion. Writing in The Hill, Becket Adams correctly observed before the Nov. 5 election that this extreme partisanship by journalists who are supposed to be objective showed they were panicking about a possible Harris loss. “A confident team doesn’t resort to these types of desperate measures,” he wrote. Underlining this panic was the media infighting, always a sign that things are internally coming apart, that accompanied the decisions by The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times owners not to endorse Harris.  And post-election, the media are still stuck between denial and anger. There is no self-reflection, repentance, or even taking stock. There is no plan. But if you are a media outlet lacking credibility, you need a plan because consumers are abandoning a stultifyingly sectarian product and flocking to podcasts, YouTube channels such as the NELK Boys, X accounts, TikTok, and other internet-based platforms on which speech is freewheeling. As mentioned before, Trump made ample use of them. On this score, members of the media are paying attention, but only to decry that it is happening and call for regulation (read censorship). “So here’s how we got beat,” commentator Van Jones said on CNN. “We got beat because the Republicans and conservatives built a different media system that has to do with online, that has to do with podcasts, that has to do with streaming platforms.” Over at MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” an equally despondent Anand Giridharadas had a meltdown. “What they have done in their online media ecosystem is build a radicalization engine,” he said. “It’s an elaborate, multibillion-dollar infrastructure, and there is nothing like it on the pro-democracy side. … We don’t have the equivalent of Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson to move that man in a feminist direction.” It is comically unself-aware that Giridharadas calls his side—which believes in censorship, lawfare, and running a presidential candidate who didn’t get a single primary vote—the “pro-democracy” side. But put that aside, and the analysis is spot on.  There isn’t a liberal Joe Rogan or Jordan Peterson. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Joe Scarborough certainly aren’t. The “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast has 14 million Spotify followers and 17.9 million YouTube subscribers, making Rogan the most listened to U.S. podcast, according to Newsweek. Over at The Washington Post, there was the same need for smelling salts, as writers decried that Trump’s use of these platforms meant that men “between the ages of 18 and 29 swung enormously for Trump.” “Trump’s staggering showing among this demographic was the culmination of a yearslong effort to reach young men devoted to the beacons of American machismo: pranks, combat sports, stand-up comedy and the often-misogynistic online fringe known as the ‘manosphere,’” the authors of an analysis agonized. So, even if they know they are facing competition, don’t expect media companies to do anything about it. With Trump in power, their hopes of government censorship likely won’t materialize. As Vince Coglianese said in his popular radio showmon WMAL, the media’s reckoning, at least for the moment, has been limited to crying that “our spells don’t work anymore. The magic’s gone.” Or, as Elon Musk put it to his followers on X, which he owns: “You are the media now.” Originally published by the Washington Examiner The post The Election’s Second-Biggest Loser? Legacy Media. appeared first on The Daily Signal.

THE DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Democratic governors and other liberal elected officials have lined up to declare that they will fight back against President-elect Donald Trump’s hardline agenda against illegal immigration. Trump, who won the Nov. 5 election, has promised to conduct mass deportations across the country and withhold federal funding from sanctuary cities, along with a slate of other hawkish enforcement proposals. However, Democratic governors in Massachusetts, California, and Illinois—all seen as potential 2028 presidential contenders—and other elected leaders have said they will use their authority to push back against the upcoming second Trump administration’s agenda. “I think that the key here is that every tool in the toolbox has got to be used to protect our citizens, to protect our residents and protect our states, and certainly to hold the line on democracy and the rule of law as a basic principle,” Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said to MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell after Trump’s victory. Healey confirmed that Massachusetts State Police would “absolutely not” help the Trump administration’s deportation plans. The entire state of Massachusetts is already described as a “sanctuary” haven by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based group that supports enforcement of immigration law and tracks sanctuary laws and policies. Healey’s reluctance to help the incoming administration’s enforcement efforts follows her state’s struggles with the ongoing border crisis, having publicly asked illegal immigrants not to go to her state and offered plane tickets for them to leave. California Gov. Gavin Newsom called Nov. 7 for a special session of the state Legislature to “protect California values” from the incoming Trump administration. “The special session will focus on bolstering California legal resources to protect civil rights, reproductive freedom, climate action, and immigrant families,” a statement from the governor’s office reads. “On immigrant protection, California has advanced policies that support immigrant families and is investing in their protection. Like Massachusetts, the entire state of California is also deemed a “sanctuary” jurisdiction for statewide policies that forbid cooperation between local law enforcement officials and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Newsom’s office told The Associated Press that the special session for lawmakers will help “Trump-proof” the state’s laws. In addition to conducting the “largest deportation program in American history,” Trump has also said he would end birthright citizenship for those born on American soil by illegal migrant parents, bring back the “Remain in Mexico” program, hire more Border Patrol agents, and establish a compensation fund for victims of what he calls migrant crime. The president-elect announced late Sunday that he was picking former ICE acting Acing director Tom Homan to be the border czar in the new administration, making clear the upcoming administration will be adopting a tough stance on enforcement. The president-elect announced late Sunday that he was picking former ICE Acting Director Tom Homan to be the border czar in the new administration, making clear it will adopt a tough stance on enforcement. “To anyone who intends to come take away the freedom and opportunity and dignity of Illinoisans, I would remind you that a happy warrior is still a warrior,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said during a press conference after Trump’s victory. “You come for my people, you come through me.” Pritzker said Illinois would remain a sanctuary state and vowed to take the second Trump administration to court if it attempts to withhold federal funds over the issue. The president-elect has pledged to force sanctuary cities and jurisdictions to cooperate with immigration authorities by stripping them of federal public safety grants. Numerous local Democratic elected officials have also signaled that they will do what they can to stymie Trump’s agenda on illegal immigration, with several members of the Los Angeles City Council saying that they will fast-track passage of a sanctuary city ordinance, according to the Los Angeles Times. The LA legislation, still under review by city attorneys, would prohibit federal immigration enforcement officials from accessing Los Angeles databases. A spokesperson for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, did not immediately respond to a request for comment when asked by the Daily Caller News Foundation if she would support the bill. Many liberal organizations have also declared they are ready and waiting to fight the Trump administration tooth and nail, including the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU has filed over 400 legal actions against Trump and his previous administration since 2016, a large portion targeting immigration directives from Trump’s first term. “Starting on Day One, we’re ready to fight for our civil liberties and civil rights in the courts, in Congress, and in our communities,” the ACLU said after Trump’s election victory. “We did it during his first term—filing 434 legal actions against Trump while he was in office—and we’ll do it again.” Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation The post Democrat Governors, City Leaders Pledge to Shield Illegal Aliens From Trump appeared first on The Daily Signal.

About That Hegseth Guy and the Pentagon He's Walking Into

Our children are under attack like never before. From leftist indoctrination in schools and drag queens in libraries to obscene LGBTQ+ “family-friendly” parades and the relabeling of sexual predators as minor attracted persons, the agenda to sexualize and destroy our children is blatantly obvious. And now we have another atrocity to add to the list: Mattel’s new line of “Wicked” Barbies based on the up-and-coming movie starring Ariana Grande feature a link to a porn website on the back of the boxes. Mattel is claiming that it was “just a giant mistake,” says Allie Beth Stuckey skeptically. “If they are targeting kids — little girls ages 4+ — I think it is of utmost importance to get the link correct on the back of the box,” she says. Although Mattel has issued a statement calling the incident an “unfortunate error” and promising the company is “taking immediate action to remedy this,” it’s hard to believe that this wasn’t intentional. “I cannot imagine something like this slipping through the cracks at a place like Mattel. You've got so many hands and so many eyes that a product like this has to go through,” says Allie, pointing out that this “misprint” has major consequences. “It's not just like it got sent to some unpurchased domain and it was just, you know, a letter off. … This was an entire word off, and you would think that there would be someone employed at Mattel or someone on the ‘Wicked’ production end of things that would have tested the URL,” she criticizes. Currently, the products are “no longer available” or appear to be “out of stock” on vendors’ websites. Mattel has also advised that consumers who have already purchased the product “discard their packaging.” Even still, many are not convinced that this was actually a misprint. Libs of TikTok certainly isn’t. In a tweet posted last Sunday, the account expressed its skepticism. Allie agrees and recalls the semi-recent Balenciaga scandal when the company created a line of bondage/BDSM teddy bear handbags. Some of the advertising included children. One ad also featured the documents for “a Supreme Court decision that involved child sex abuse material.” Like Mattel, Balenciaga claimed it was “just a giant mistake.” While she hopes she’s wrong, Allie thinks that there are people at these mega corporations who are “sick and twisted and nefarious.” To hear more about the scandal, watch the episode above. Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Fabled Lands is one of those games that’s really hard to classify. On one hand it’s a narrative RPG version of a series of ‘90s gamebooks by authors Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson, similar to titles like Sorcery or The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. Then on the other side of things it’s full of deep turn-based hex tile combat like Heroes of Might and Magic 3 or For The King 2. It straddles these genres smartly, and it just got even smarter thanks to a brand new update. Continue reading Tough old-school RPG Fabled Lands just got even tougher with this big update MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best RPGs, Best turn-based strategy games, Best open-world games

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