'Trump endured a barrage'

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A massive new marine protected area (MPA) has been established in the eastern Atlantic off the coast of the Azores. Covering 287,000 square kilometers of ocean makes it the largest MPA network in the North Atlantic—the size of Virginia and Georgia combined. 15% of Azorean waters are now designated as fully protected and 15% as […] The post Azores Protects Whales and Corals with Marine Preserve as Big as Virginia and Georgia Combined appeared first on Good News Network.

News Mass Effect Amazon MGM Studios to Make Mass Effect TV Adaptation From the writer of F9: The Fast Saga… By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on November 7, 2024 Credit: BioWare Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: BioWare Another adaptation of a popular BioWare video game is in the works. This time it’s Amazon MGM Studios, and the franchise is the Mass Effect series, a game I confess I know little about other than that both N.K. Jemisin and Catherynne M. Valente have written novelizations set in the sci-fi world. Sadly, neither Jemisin nor Valente will be penning the scripts for the television adaptation. According to Variety, that job has gone to Daniel Casey, whose previous credits include making Vin Diesel look too fast and too furious in F9: The Fast Saga. Yes, that’s the one where the gang goes to space (kind of), which I presume makes him well-equipped to bring the military sci-fi game to the small screen. We don’t have any details on the plot yet, but the first three games in the franchise center on Commander Shepard, a soldier from the 22nd century who, after a fight to stop an army of sentient robots, battles an alien species called Reapers. The first three games came out in 2007, 2010 and 2012 respectively. In 2017, the franchise jumped forward in time with Mass Effect: Andromeda. Several spinoff games also exist, and a fifth main game is in the works. In addition to Casey, the project is driven by executive producer, Karim Zreik, who used to work on the now-defunct Marvel Television group that oversaw all the Netflix shows, and Ari Arad, who has also produced adaptations like Borderlands, Uncharted, and Ghost in the Shell. Michael Gamble from EA, who now distributes the games, is also an executive producer. No news yet on casting or when the series will go into production. While we wait for more info, perhaps we can play the games, or even read one of the novelizations by Jemisin or Valente.[end-mark] The post Amazon MGM Studios to Make <i>Mass Effect</i> TV Adaptation appeared first on Reactor.

While it isn’t what every American wanted, the election did deliver something every American needed: clarity. The results that handed Donald Trump his second term supplied exactly what this weary and fractured country had to have to move forward—an unambiguous winner. A straightforward path. A fresh chance to be the nation its people, and the world, deserve. But none of that will matter, some are pointing out, if we don’t seize the reprieve God has granted. “We can’t squander this moment,” former Rep. Jody Hice said emotionally. “Underneath all of this, God is giving America a window of mercy. This has to be a moment that the body of Christ responds with gratitude and repentance. We cannot throw away this time of grace that God has given us.” Yes, there were tremendous victories that took place, he acknowledged, “but may we respond humbly and steward this moment appropriately going forward—and in greater reliance upon Him.” What happened Tuesday was incredibly significant, he underscored. “It does restore hope in the American people that they realize the direction our country was going—and they rejected it. They don’t want the woke policies. They don’t want all this misunderstanding of gender and of loss of parental rights and a horrible economy and an open border and on and on and on. … [T]hey want more commonsense government. They want authentic leadership around the world, as well as right here in our own country. And I believe that message came through loud and clear.” But to those conservatives who think they can just sit back and coast for four years now that Republicans have a firm grip on key levers of power, think again. “Regardless of how this election goes,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins wanted people to know, “our work has just begun.” We shouldn’t think that Trump’s election means game over in the political arena, Family Research Council’s Owen Strachan insisted. “No, it means game on.” Obviously, there’s enormous relief at this opportunity to close our borders, restore biological sanity, make life affordable again, and become a respected voice on the global stage—and that’s worth celebrating. But if the disappointments of the GOP platform are any indication, there will be some uncomfortable times ahead. And those times must be met with our unbendable conviction that biblical principles matter—regardless of their political expedience. “Let me tell you something … we can learn from [Democrats],” Princeton professor Robert George explained. “Something I admire about them [is] they do not let their politicians deviate. They do not let their politicians adopt a view for the purposes of [winning an election]. They do not accept the argument that, ‘Well, our view is now in a minority and it’s electorally dangerous for us to come out in favor of that view.’ … The Left understands that that doesn’t work in the long run to the advantage of the causes that they believe in.” Whatever the narrative may be about this election—whether the GOP’s disconcerting step back from the life issue helped or hurt—it’s the Christians’ job to cut through that noise to the truth. And frankly, if the church had engaged from a point of moral clarity sooner, we might not have gotten to the point where fundamental values like this one are suddenly negotiable. The bottom line is, we can’t vote and walk away. “Part of being a disciple,” Pastor Jack Hibbs wanted people to know, “is getting involved in this remarkable republic that the Lord has given us.” We aren’t Minutemen like they had in the Revolutionary War, Perkins stressed. “They would drop their pitchforks, grab their rifles, and they would run to the battle. And then they would go back home, and they would pick up their pitchforks. You know, I always thought, ‘Well, we just kind of respond, and we take a pro-life stand, and then it’s over and we go back to our life as it was before.’” But that’s not our calling as Christians, he insisted. “This is our life. This is what Ephesians 6 talks about [when it explains] the battle that we’re in and [urges us] to continue to stand. So the battle is never done this side of heaven. We have to continue to perpetually stand for the truth.” The good news is that there’s unbelievable momentum right now to do exactly that. If the sea of red from Tuesday is any indication, Americans are energized as never before to put this country back on the right track. As Family Research Council’s Mary Szoch said after voters knocked off three radical pro-abortion ballot initiatives, this is the opening believers have been waiting for. On Tuesday, “Americans … reelected the most pro-life president in the history of America,” she emphasized. “Now is the time for us to work together to promote strong, faith-filled marriages, strengthen families, and create a society that values every single person from the moment they come into existence. The opportunity to build a culture of life in America is great, and we cannot waste it.” Pro-lifers saw what could be accomplished when they pushed back on Trump’s reluctance to challenge the Left’s abortion agenda in Florida: He listened. Where would the amendment be today if conservatives hadn’t held the former president accountable? Fortunately, we’ll never know.  We also need to remember, Hibbs said on Pray Vote Stand: Decision 2024, “The church needs a revival. We will still wake up tomorrow [knowing that the church needs to turn] back to Scripture—and pulpits … [need to address] through the Scripture the issues that shape our congregants and their life, their worldview. And so, we need a revival. We pray that this election is a little part of that, but the bottom line is the answer is really in God’s people stepping up. And that’s what we hope we see tonight, is God’s people getting involved.” Another thing Christians need to realize, former Rep. Michele Bachmann said, is that “we have a lot to be grateful for.” The Trump campaign is in a “good place,” she acknowledged, “[but that’s] in the natural. I felt like the Lord was saying to me early on in this campaign that this [race] won’t be won in the natural, it will be won in the supernatural. And I truly believe that we need to just keep leaning in [with] prayer and what we’re [doing]. Where Scripture has taken me this week is [to Exodus] where Moses is standing when the Israelites are battling with the Amalekites—and then Hur and Aaron are holding up Moses’s arms—all while Joshua was on the field at the battle. And so it’s both: It’s prayer and it’s action.” When the church does both, she explained, “then we see victory.” “ … But we can never, ever take it for granted.” The reality is, Bachmann pointed out, “four years is going to go fast. And again, we only have two years until the next midterm, so … we’ve got to get to work. … It’s like there was a party and the furniture is all broken and the drapes are torn down from the windows, and we’ve got to get America’s house back in order fast and do what the American public believes that Donald Trump and a Republican Senate and a Republican House can do.” That takes work, it takes commitment, and it takes an army of men and women determined to pay the price to speak up—and stand up. Whatever happens from here, Perkins urged, “Election 2024 must not be the finish line for Christians in America; I pray it is a starting point. It’s time for the church to arise. Our hurting nation needs a revival that only God can provide.” Originally published by The Washington Stand The post Trump’s Win ‘Isn’t the Finish Line—It’s the Starting Point’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Donald Trump turned Michigan red in the 2024 presidential election, defeating Kamala Harris there and paving his way back to the White House. As one of the most hotly contested swing states, carrying 15 Electoral College votes, some political observers predicted that Michigan would be a determining factor in the outcome of the election. It turned out that, when it was counted, Michigan’s vote added to Trump’s already-sealed victory. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., said Michiganders asked themselves Ronald Reagan’s famous question: “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” “The inroads made in nontraditional Republican areas and constituencies is huge,” Huizenga told The Daily Signal of the Michigan results. At the end of the day, the Democrats had a deeply flawed candidate in Harris, vice president to President Joe Biden, said Steve Mitchell, a Michigan pollster who is president of Mitchell Research & Communications Inc. “If you look objectively at where America was for four years under Trump in terms of foreign affairs, in terms of domestic issues, in terms of the cost of living, it was better under President Trump than it was under President Biden,” Mitchell told The Daily Signal, “which is why President Trump was reelected.” Here are three big reasons Trump won Michigan by 95,000 votes in his sweep of all three “Blue Wall” states for Democrats, which also include Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.  Trump Picked Up 35,000 More Votes in 2 Key Counties To win Michigan, Trump needed to perform better in two swing counties, Kent and Oakland. Harris ultimately triumphed in Michigan’s liberal counties, but Trump picked up 30,000 more votes in Oakland County than he got in 2020 and 5,000 more votes in Kent County. Oakland and Kent counties have undergone major demographic changes over the past two decades. Both used to be Republican strongholds, but growth in the Detroit suburbs and the city of Grand Rapids turned the counties from red to blue in 2020. About a third of Trump’s margin of 95,000 votes in Michigan came from doing better in Kent and Oakland than he did when he barely won the state in 2016 over Hillary Clinton, 47.6% to 47.4%.  “This is only the second time that a Republican has carried Michigan since 1988,” Mitchell said, referring to Trump’s win in 2016. “The first time was by about 10,000 votes, and this time it’s by almost 100,000 votes. So it is a significant victory.”  Mitchell, no relation to this correspondent, had predicted that if Trump did well in Kent and Oakland, he would win Michigan.  “If they go very heavily for Harris, then that probably portends well for Harris,” Mitchell told The Daily Signal before the election. “If, on the other hand, for some reason it’s within two or three points in Kent County and within maybe six or eight points in Oakland County for Harris, then probably Harris is going to lose.” Huizenga said Trump was able to pull off a win of this scale through hard work and staying on message.  “I think that’s a testament to staying on message and having Kamala Harris be a, shall we say, identifiably unqualified candidate,” the West Michigan congressman said.  Although some Republicans were hesitant to support Trump in 2020, Huizenga said he noticed people were more willing to publicly support the former president this year.  “The prosecutions, all the harassment, the lawfarethat went on with Trump, it brought some of those wandering Republican votes back into the fold,” he said.  Harris Failed to Perform Big With Racial Minorities Trump picked up two percentage points with black Michiganders to earn 9% of the black vote, compared with 7% in 2020.   “He has clearly done something that no Republican candidate has done,” Mitchell said, “and that is to motivate African Americans to vote for a Republican candidate.” Minorities in Michigan saw their “purchasing power diminish” during the Biden-Harris administration, Huizenga said.  “They’re seeing the cost of groceries, the cost of running a small business, the cost of pulling up to the gas pump,” the Michigan Republican said. “They felt the impact, and I think that’s why that message that was out there, about even the border, it ties into a law-and-order narrative that clearly has gotten out of control under the Biden-Harris administration.” “I think that Trump held true to the economic message,” Huizenga continued, “as well as the safety and security message. And here in Michigan, all that the Dems wanted to talk about was abortion.”  Because Democrats were so focused on abortion, which already is legal up to birth in Michigan, they didn’t sufficiently address the economy, foreign policy, energy policy, and other issues that actually affect Michiganders, Huizenga said.  “Donald Trump has sort of become counterculture,” he said, “and I think there’s a certain appeal to that.”  Mitchell said the Democrats lost some of the minority vote because of illegal immigration.  “Illegal immigrants were taking jobs that many African Americans might otherwise have gotten,” the pollster said, “and I think they were fed up with the Biden-Harris administration for allowing this just incredible number of immigrants into the country. And that door is going to be slammed shut by the Trump administration.”  Harris Didn’t Appeal to Michiganders of Faith This time out, Trump picked up 20 percentage points with Michigan Catholics, according to Fox News exit polling.  Fox News exit polling on Catholics by state. These numbers are eye popping:PA +14MI +20WI +16FL +29AZ -1NV +6GA +7NC +17— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) November 6, 2024 Huizenga said he has seen this party realignment with Irish Catholics in his own family in Michigan. He attributes it to the Democrats’ positions on social issues, abortion, and the economy.  “They’re small business owners, they’re union members, they’re the firefighters and the police officers,” Huizenga said of the Catholic vote. “I’m not surprised that people of faith have felt that the Democrats long ago abandoned them, and in fact, it’s gotten so bad they feel rejected.”  In mid-October, Harris didn’t go to the Al Smith Dinner, an annual fundraising event for Catholic charities traditionally attended by presidential candidates. Many older Catholics saw that as a slap in the face, Mitchell said. “She basically gave the highway straight to the Catholic vote to Donald Trump by her actions,” the pollster said.  The former president also had a net gain of 16,000 votes in Dearborn, the largest concentration of Muslim Americans in the nation.  The Biden-Harris administration tried to play both sides in the Israel-Hamas war, losing both Jewish and Muslim support, Mitchell argued.  “I think what they recognized is, [Trump] will settle a war right away and [Israel] will quit killing Arabs, and that’s what they want, and they were not getting that,” Mitchell said of Muslims. The post 3 Reasons Trump Won Battleground Michigan appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Today, Nov. 7, is Victims of Communism Day, and this day of remembrance should be a regular part of K-12 school calendars. Legislators in a growing number of states are adding the recognition to state law, and more may be coming. Parents have been worried about the culture of K-12 schools in recent years, and the election this week also signaled Americans are concerned about foreign policy, which includes the nation’s relationship to communist nations, such as China. Policymakers should not consider it a given that all Americans share that concern, however. A YouGov survey released in October found that nearly 1 in 5 respondents had a “very or somewhat” favorable or neutral opinion on communism. A 2021 survey found that millennials and members of Gen Z have the same positive feelings for capitalism and socialism. That helps explain why communist ideas, such as critical race theory and critical gender studies, have made inroads in K-12 schools, and why young people—including teachers fresh out of college, and elementary and secondary students—are not able to distinguish between free markets and socialism. And make no mistake, critical race theorists and gender theorists have communist roots and trace their ideas directly back to Karl Marx in their writings. The culture wars in education still represent a struggle between socialist ideas and democracy. The Civics Alliance—a collection of conservative researchers, educators, and advocates—is helping educate and inform students with a model resolution for K-12 school boards. The resolution calls on boards to designate Nov. 7 as a memorial and use resources from the Victims of Communism Foundation’s K-12 curriculum in classrooms. Former Virginia state Delegate Mark Cole, a Republican, sponsored a version of the resolution that delegates adopted in 2018. Lawmakers in Arizona, Florida, and Texas are among those in nearly a dozen states that have adopted similar resolutions, with officials in seven other states considering the provisions, according to the foundation. The Victims of Communism Foundation also has teacher training programs that many parents would find a welcome change from DEI trainings. It also held a conference for educators in the summer of 2023 that included presentations from dissidents from communist countries. DEI trainings, meanwhile, are unpopular and ineffective at the trainers’ goals of promoting what they call tolerance, and as an application of critical theory’s ideas, DEI has obvious socialist sympathies. Recognizing the ahistorical and biased content that many educators are using, conservative families and teachers are no longer relying on colleges of education or state departments of education to provide school officials with quality instructional tools. The nonpartisan group 1776 Unites has created a K-12 curriculum for teachers to use to counter racially biased content such as The New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project. The teacher- and parent-led organization Freedom in Education is collecting classic books to provide to schools to meet the growing influence of activist gender organizations. Groups such as the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network regularly send books promoting transgenderism to schools and claim to be active in 33 states. By providing teacher training programs and curriculums, the Victims of Communism Foundation is meeting a need and giving school personnel resources to counter communist ideas. School board members can demonstrate leadership in their communities by considering the resolution. Choosing curricular materials is part of school board members’ and district leaders’ responsibilities, and officials can send a clear message to educators and students by making the Victims of Communism Foundation’s materials readily available. President-elect Donald Trump’s first administration displayed a commitment to quality civics instruction through programs such as those of the 1776 Commission, a collection of academics and researchers the administration assembled to study and report on the need to improve civics instruction. But educators don’t need Washington’s permission to teach historically accurate lessons about America’s founding ideals. Americans’ choice on Tuesday demonstrates that voters are more aligned with policies like the 1776 Commission’s than teaching students they can change their “gender.” Lawmakers and educators should take note and make the Victims of Communism Memorial Day an annual reminder of America’s commitment to freedom and equality. The post On Victims of Communism Memorial Day, Here’s What Parents, Teachers Should Know appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Congresswoman Yvette Clarke made one of those last-ditch efforts ahead of the US elections to persuade her audience that things like deepfakes, as vehicles for “misinformation,” are capable of “subverting the democratic process.” Equally, this kind of narrative that’s permeated the campaign season, tirelessly repeated, is likely to continue after this year’s ballot, since the overall goal now is to introduce new laws that would “regulate the field.” It’s worth noting that this line of thinking has been treating even obviously humorous and/or satirical AI-generated memes as “dangerous misinformation” that can “disrupt an election.” As of the time she made the statements, Clarke sat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee as its vice-chair, and on the House Homeland Security Committee. Related: AI Watermarking Is Advocated by Biden’s Advisory Committee Member, Raising Concerns for Parody and Memes In order to fight what she considers “manipulated content,” one of the congresswoman’s demands for social platforms – who she said are publishers – is to use disclaimers or watermarks branding content as manipulated. There’s also the focus on new legislation, which, according to Clarke, should make those platforms “responsible” in making sure that what she refers to as their “customers” are not deceived. Clarke spoke about something called “Real Political Ad Act” which she said she introduced early in the election cycle that just ended on Tuesday. It concerns deepfakes, in terms of how they can be “weaponized to deceive” Americans. Naturally, the congresswoman was not referring to her own statements about the effects of the technology but was simply repeating some of the key campaign mantras. “You can disrupt an election, you can disrupt voting. There are a whole host of ways in which this technology can be used to subvert the democratic process, and we have not protected ourselves in time for this election cycle,” Clarke said in September. This legislator also shared she was not convinced that “enough Americans” are able to draw their own conclusions – where one she would like them to draw is that, “our ecosystem is the Wild West and within that is false information, deceptive information.” Clarke went on to declare that social media platforms are publishers who should be operating under the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules. And that means they must make sure “there’s either a watermark that makes it possible for the public to know that this has been manipulated content or a disclaimer that says that the information that is being received is either for entertainment purposes or it’s fake news.” That sounds like more work for the by now thoroughly discredited “fact-checkers.” Clarke also lamented the fact a growing number of Americans rely on the internet to get their news instead of “traditional cable broadcasting” (she somewhat disparagingly – and confusingly – refers to this shift as “adopting sort of virtual lives”). If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Rep. Yvette Clarke Urges Social Media to Label “Manipulated” Content and Combat “Misinformation” appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Crazy Liberal Women Choosing Plan 4B