Movies & TV Agatha All Along Agatha All Along Brings the Witches’ Road to Its End What’s the truth behind the Witches’ Road? By Emmet Asher-Perrin | Published on October 31, 2024 Image: Marvel Television / Chuck Zlotnick Comment 0 Share New Share Image: Marvel Television / Chuck Zlotnick Who doesn’t love a good con? Recap Image: Marvel Television / Chuck Zlotnick “Follow Me My Friend / To Glory at the End” We see the end of episode five from a different perspective first as Alice “comes to” after her death and Rio is there to help her cross over. While Alice is dismayed over dying after breaking her family curse, Rio points out that she is a protection witch who died protecting someone. In the present, Jen is clawing at the door from the last trial, trying to get Lilia back. On the Road, Rio has a talk with Agatha, upset that she tried to hide Billy from her. Agatha realizes that Rio wants him because she views him as an abomination for taking over another’s body. But she can’t take him because he’d just reincarnate again—he needs to hand himself over. Agatha agrees to deliver him if Rio promises to leave her alone for a long, long life, and then not show her face when Agatha eventually dies. Rio agrees to the terms. Billy and Jen join Agatha on the Road and they come upon their shoes again. The Road is a circle and Agatha has no idea how to get off, so she suggests just running it again. Billy decides that taking their shoes off out of respect for the Road was a mistake and puts his shoes on. The trio wake up in body bags in an empty room. The lights are going out slowly to time the final test. Jen is determined to save them, and Billy points out that she’s already saved lives on this journey without magic. It’s revealed that Agatha is the one who bound Jen; she didn’t know it was her, she was paid to do it by the doctors. Jen takes a lock of Agatha’s hair and does the unbinding ritual, denying Agatha’s power over her. Then Jen vanishes, having received what she wanted from the Road. The next is Billy: Agatha knows he wants his brother back, so they need to find Tommy a body to occupy, like Billy did for himself. They sit together on the floor and Agatha encourages Billy to remember his life from before, at the moment they both “died,” and Agatha guides him to find a body for Tommy. They find a boy being drowned by his peers—it’s not in a good place, the boy has no family to love him, and Billy wants to know if he’s killing this boy so his brother can live. At the moment Tommy enters the body, Billy vanishes from the Road. Agatha assures the air that sometimes boys just die. She opens her locket containing a lock of her son’s hair and a seed. The lights are going out, but she suddenly has the idea to plant the seed in a crack in the floor using magic. When it grows, the lights come back and she rushes to the door insisting that she’s passed the trial. She emerges onto her lawn and Rio is there: Agatha didn’t bring her Billy, so she has to offer herself. They begin to fight, Agatha using Lilia’s advice to avoid a killing blow. Before Rio can kill Agatha, Billy shows up to aid Agatha. He asks her not to take all of his power and begins siphoning it to her. Agatha takes a great deal of it, but does manage to stop before she kills Billy. Agatha tosses Billy away to fight Rio properly, but she’s losing. Billy rushes to Agatha’s side, but she insists that it should be her to die. Billy won’t allow it and offers himself up to Rio… just as Agatha promised. She turns to go, but Billy projects his voice into her mind and asks if this is how her son died. Agatha stops, turns back to Rio, and kisses her—Agatha dies. Billy drives home to worried parents and insists he’s fine. He heads into this room and realizes that all the components of the Road journey are in there. Billy is the one who created the Witches’ Road, and the signs were there all the way through (mainly in Agatha’s commentary). He hears a voice behind him, turns, and screams. Image: Marvel Television / Chuck Zlotnick “Maiden Mother Crone” Agatha Harkness is in the woods in 1750. She’s pregnant and about to give birth when Rio shows up. Agatha insists that Rio leave her child alone, which Rio cannot do—all she can do is give Agatha time. She won’t say how much time, however, and Agatha has Nicholas alone. She uses him to get sympathy from other witches so that she can take their power and continue on. Six years on, Nicholas is part of the gambit more actively; he leads the witches to his mother so she can siphon from them. He’s beginning to question the plan, however, wanting to know why they can’t stay with the witches and survive alongside them. Agatha insists that the witches would try to kill them instead. Nicholas begins to sing to a tune he invented about the wind-y road. The song transforms over time into the Witches Road song, which Nicholas sings in taverns for coin. One night they’re sleeping in their camp by the woods and Rio appears to the boy. When Agatha wakes, Nicholas is dead. After Agatha buries him, a witch approaches asking if she knows how to get to the Witches’ Road because she heard her singing the song. Agatha realizes that she’s created the perfect con: She can tell witches that she’ll get them onto the Road; they can sing the song together. When the path doesn’t appear she can goad them into attacking her and steal their power, killing them all. She tried to do the same to the group with Billy, but his power created the Road for real. Back in the present, Agatha appears in Billy’s room as a ghost. He asks about the Road and Agatha explains that he’s the one who made it real. Billy panics because he believes this makes him a murderer. Agatha points out that she killed Alice, and Lilia made her own choice to face the Salem Seven, though she can’t say anything for Mrs. Davis. She points out that Billy did save one life, however: Jen is alive and well and has her power back. Billy heads back to Agatha’s house and tries to do a banishing spell for Agatha’s spirit over the door to the Road. Billy is using Agatha’s locket for the spell, and wants to know why she won’t just die. Agatha admits that she can’t face her son, and makes contact with the locket, taking it and keeping it on her person. Billy wonders if maybe it isn’t good for Agatha to be a ghost; Agatha thinks they might make a great team. They agree to be a coven of two while acknowledging that they both have a tendency to get their coven members killed. Billy closes the door he created to a Road and leaves the cement as a memorial to those they lost, and the duo leave together. Commentary Image: Marvel Television / Chuck Zlotnick Normally I’d be mad that Agatha died, but in this instance it was so clearly done as a way to keep her attached to Billy’s hip to cause maximum chaos in the future, that I’m not sure I’m bothered? It’s a pretty clever way to keep her as a mentor to him, the way she was to Wanda in the comics. This finale is extremely weird in its pacing, and there have been rumors about a shuffle on the flashback stuff, so I’m curious as to whether or not that’s a part of it. That said, the show has won a personal award from me for being the only Marvel series not to end on an endless drag-out brawl that completely destroys the character and tone of everything that proceeded it. And, in fact, it resulted in far more emotional moments in episode eight than I was expecting, starting with Jen releasing herself from the binding Agatha (kinda unknowingly) put on her. There’s a bit of a Labyrinth-esque “you have no power over me” aspect to the unbinding, but the choice to linger on the repetition, to move through the stages with Jen as she realizes this curse is ending, was incredibly powerful. Sasheer Zamata really dug in there with her heels and drove it home. And I do appreciate that if anyone was going to make it out of the venture relatively unscathed, it was her. (Even if I still can’t deal with the show completely glossing over how old Jen is and how different her experience of the world would have been even compared to women much older than her, living as a Black woman in the United States.) That said, Billy’s journey to get Tommy back took things up a notch, and that’s largely down to the immediacy provided in the Road mechanics. (Which just twists that knife harder when you remember that it’s Billy making himself rush through this trial faster, according to his own imagined rules about how the Road should behave.) The result sees him leaving his brother in a comparative hell, nothing like the loving family that he received in taking over William Kaplan’s life. And because he did this retroactively, at the same time he took over William’s body, Tommy has now had years in that life with even less understanding of how he got there than Billy had. Then we have Agatha, who, mercifully in all of this, doesn’t become an antihero in search of a better purpose. I fully admit to being a sucker for a redemption arc, but Agatha is delicious exactly as she’s presented: A lying, scheming, con artist slash serial killer who’s in love with Death. Does she clearly have a super tragic backstory that makes sense of her proclivities? If her dear old ghost mom was anything to go by, absolutely. But having her renounce all her evil ways doesn’t make her a better character. (Also, it’s still rare enough for women to get the fun villains. Let us keep her.) There are so many things that are never explained, and I (mostly) like the fact that they don’t spell it all out. We have no idea how Agatha met Rio or why. We don’t know how she became pregnant or why she wanted a child. We never learn why Nicholas was marked for death ahead of time. We don’t find out much about Agatha’s power-draining abilities aside from what she insists and what we’re shown, so we have no way of knowing if there is (or was) any truth to her claim of not being able to control it. The thing I don’t like is that we get far less of Rio’s character once her identity is revealed, which feels like a mistake? The reveal doesn’t make her less interesting, but the show seems to think it does, or conversely seems to think that there’s no point in giving her much thought after that. My biggest surprise for the entire show was being pleased at how they handled the backstory with Nicholas, even if the placement of the flashback was off: The series managed to make motherhood important for Agatha without making it the reason for the majority of her actions. He matters to her in a way that feels consistent and meaningful, but most of her behaviors are clearly informed by much earlier events. Where Multiverse of Madness ruined that for Wanda’s character in a big way, Agatha is a great example of how to use motherhood as a piece that makes up an entire human being, rather than focal point being used because some writers can’t think of any other reasons for women to have motivation. But the lineage of this series with WandaVision is a straight line, when you come right down to it. Both shows are treatises on different types of grief, and also the ways grief often makes itself into a generational talisman: Billy and Tommy were created out of Wanda Maximoff’s grief, and both carry that grief with them. Billy literally uses the same tools his mother used to try and work through his own pain… and to better overall results, in fact. (Progress!) Whether or not a family reunion ever occurs, Billy and Tommy’s entry into this story comes from a markedly different place than any other characters in the MCU. I hope they use them well going forward. Tarot Readings and Witchy Thoughts Image: Marvel Television / Chuck Zlotnick Say it with me: It’s never Mephisto. (Yes, I will be pleased about this for a month.) I love that the Witches’ Road was a con, but I might love even more that Agatha’s abilities make her kind of like a vampire? The way she needs to be invited in, the way she drains people of their life-force. Also loved that they do the old-fashioned birthing method of just squatting up against a tree in the woods and bearing down onto a blanket. While I do enjoy Billy’s Labyrinth-y bedroom (Sarah’s bedroom also contains all the pieces of her adventure in the film, manifested from her imagination), the thing I enjoy most is that they’ve given Billy broad enough taste that I’m guessing some younger viewers might find new favorites by staring at his walls: Rocky Horror Picture Show, Buffy, Carrie, and so on. Also, they saw an opportunity to put up the largest Trans Lives Matter banner that they could, and went for it. Beats the random little pin in Multiverse of Madness by a stretch, I’ll say that. One thing I need to know: Does kissing Rio always lead to dying? Because… if so, that puts a very different spin on the moment earlier in the show where Agatha almost kisses her and Rio stops it from happening. They still went with the usual MCU Leather-and-Metal Special for Wiccan’s look, but I loved how bright his colors are? Maybe Wolverine’s yellow suit finally warmed the right people up. And that’s a wrap! Thanks for walking the Road.[end-mark] The post <i>Agatha All Along</i> Brings the Witches’ Road to Its End appeared first on Reactor.

The Biden-Harris administration’s border crisis has had negative implications for all Americans, but one group that has suffered more than most—but received less attention than others—are American Indians living on reservations along the border. As part of their efforts to smuggle drugs and traffic human beings across the southern border, Mexican cartels have specifically targeted and devastated these reservations. Jurisdictional issues, insufficient law enforcement, and the open border all allow cartels to exploit tribal land and proliferate deadly substances like fentanyl on American Indian land. Testifying before Congress earlier this year, Verlon Jose, chairman of the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona, revealed his tribal police force spends nearly half its time tending to immigration, drug smuggling, and other border issues. Indian Reservation Drugs testimony_joseDownload In fact, the Tohono O’odham Nation spends $3 million of its own funds each year on border security. In 2020, the tribe’s drug-trafficking task force led an investigation into a cell of the Mexican Sinaloa cartel that seized 140 pounds of heroin and 20 pounds of fentanyl powder. Just three years later, in December 2023, thousands of newly arrived illegal immigrants camped out on the Tohono O’odham reservation, angering tribe members as the massive group left behind trash and chopped down local mesquite trees for firewood. That reflects a standard cartel tactic of funneling large groups of migrants across the border in one sector, distracting law enforcement while they smuggle drugs across elsewhere. The Tohono O’odham reservation has been uniquely vulnerable to such issues due to its location on the Mexican border. But they’re not the only American Indians suffering at the hands of the Biden-Harris administration’s border policies. Even tribes in far-flung Montana have felt the consequences of—and spoken out about—the border crisis. In February, the devastation the cartels had brought to the state and its reservations came to light. Montana’s isolation has resulted in drug prices 20 times higher than in major cities, attracting powerful cartels able to establish a monopoly on the trade. “Right now, it’s as if fentanyl is raining on our reservation,” said Marvin Weatherwax Jr., a tribal business councilman in the Blackfeet reservation and member of the Montana state House of Representatives.  “There is no doubt that the Mexican drug cartels are playing a major role in this crisis,” testified Bryce Kirk, a councilman for the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes of the Fort Peck, Montana, reservation. “They have found their way to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation and embedded themselves in our communities and our families.” Indian Drug testimony_kirkDownload Stacy Zinn, a former Drug Enforcement Administration official in Montana, testified before Congress in June that drug networks associated with both the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels had been discovered and dismantled on several reservations and across the state. Over the past few years, these discoveries led to the prosecutions of several dozen cartel affiliates. Furthermore, Zinn claimed her DEA office was seriously unequipped for the monumental drug problems in Montana, with only four officials covering the entire eastern portion of the Big Sky State. One of the reasons that cartels gravitate to Indian land is that it is more difficult to arrest them there. Tribal law enforcement officers only have the authority to arrest and prosecute fellow tribe members, while local and state law enforcement generally lacks jurisdiction on tribal lands without explicit permission from the tribes. That has forced reservations to rely on the slow work of the FBI and other federal officials to secure warrants and arrests for cartel members. The criminals can thus move in and out of Indian land without fear of quick law enforcement action. In an April congressional hearing, President Jeffrey Stiffarm of the Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana specifically blamed the crisis on the inaction of the federal government. testimony_stiffarmDownload “The FBI doesn’t do anything on the reservation unless we have a death or serious crime,” he said. “They are reactive, not proactive.” Fort Belknap’s chief of police in June called on the Biden-Harris administration to secure the southern border and asked Congress to enact harsher penalties on fentanyl and methamphetamine. “We are fighting a losing battle. The cartels are winning. The drug dealers are winning,” Stiffarm said. The post Drug Cartels ‘Are Winning’: Border Crisis Ravaging Arizona, Montana Indian Reservations appeared first on The Daily Signal.

This week, I had the pleasure of sitting down for a cordial debate with Sam Harris, host of the “Making Sense” podcast, to discuss the question of the hour: Donald Trump vs. Kamala Harris. The conversation was moderated by Bari Weiss of The Free Press. Sam Harris is, of course, an incredibly intelligent person. He’s also a person with a core set of values. He freely acknowledged his own discomfort with many of Kamala Harris‘ positions in the campaign. But in the end, he said that he would vote for Harris because of one dispositive argument: Trump could not be president, thanks to his antics surrounding Election 2020. I took the opposing view. While freely acknowledging that Trump’s behavior between Nov. 4, 2020, and Jan. 6, 2021, was wrong, I argued that the constitutional checks and balances had held and would continue to do so. What is more, I argued, Trump should be elected because his presidency was far more successful for America than her vice presidency. Under Trump, the economy boomed, inflation remained low, job growth was robust. Under Trump, the border remained relatively calm and became increasingly so over time. Under Trump, the Middle East was beginning to flower into actual peace, thanks to the Abraham Accords and a contained Iran. Under Harris, the economy had experienced the highest inflation rates in four decades; the border had been purposefully left wide-open, with at least 6.5 million illegal immigrants entering the country; Afghanistan had been handed over to the Taliban in the most cowardly and ignominious fashion possible, resulting in billions in lost military technology and 13 American service people killed; Iran had unleashed its proxies against Israel, beginning on Oct. 7, continuing through a wave of rocket fire from Lebanon via Hezbollah, and culminating in multiple Iranian attacks directly against Israel; the social fabric had been rent by intersectional wokeness, dividing Americans along racial and sexual lines; and the federal government had been weaponized against political opposition and militarized on behalf of friends of the Democratic Party. So, in short, Sam Harris argued against Trump; I argued for Trump and against Kamala Harris. You may notice an argument missing in this formulation: The argument for Kamala Harris. That’s because the argument doesn’t exist. You can argue against Trump; you can argue for him. But nobody can credibly argue in favor of Kamala Harris. Not even Kamala Harris. That’s been the story of her campaign—what she’s not. She’s not Donald Trump. Fair enough. She’s not Joe Biden. Fair enough. But she can’t answer how she would be different from Biden, other than not physically being Biden. She can’t answer what she would do to improve the country. Every time she’s asked, she resembles a 10th-grader informed there’s a pop quiz on a book she hasn’t read. And it is absolutely unclear whether Americans are willing to make Kamala Harris president just because they dislike Donald Trump. They tried that formula in 2020, and it resulted in the single worst presidency since Jimmy Carter’s. It turns out that this time, the American people might want to hear a convincing affirmative case in favor of the Democratic candidate for president—a candidate who, unlike Biden, did not win a single vote in the primaries, and who was shoehorned in at the last minute to prevent Biden’s impending collapse in the polls. Will Kamala Harris become president? If she does, it won’t be because of Kamala Harris. She’s a nothing, an empty vessel, a fresh coat of paint slapped on the beat-up jalopy of the Biden administration. And with the choice starkly before them, Americans might be able to answer the question between Trump and Harris quite simply: Were you better off in 2019 than in 2024? COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post ‘Final Argument’: An Open-and-Shut Case appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Florida’s Attorney-General Ashley Moody has been named in a federal lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida against a state law that blocks children from accessing social media. We obtained a copy of the lawsuit for you here. Tech trade groups Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and NetChoice are behind the filing, which alleges that the law – Florida House Bill 3 – violates First Amendment rights. The law has received bipartisan support (30-5 in the Senate and 109-4 in the House.) It allows 14 and 15 year-olds to sign up to social platforms provided they do it with parental consent, but bans those 13 and under. The lawsuit’s goal is to make sure the legislation does not go into effect as planned, on the first day of 2025. According to NetChoice and CCIA (their members include Google and Meta), the new state rules incorrectly accuse social media of representing a risk to children, and compare this stance to similar past accusations against books, music, video games, etc., and the internet itself. In other words, this time, Big Tech (via the groups suing on their behalf) take up for the First Amendment, arguing that this part of the US Constitution makes it clear the government should not get involved in “resolving” issues concerning social media – but add that the government, nonetheless, “should have a say in the debates over topics such as social media.” That’s an interesting way to carefully approach the overall massive and ongoing controversy that is the government involvement/collusion with Big Tech; but at least in this case, clearly with an eye – if not both eyes – on the bottom line, these companies want the First Amendment respected. “It (the law) covers only the websites that minors like to use regularly, effectively punishing those users – and their favorite websites,” the filing reads, and accuses the law of doing this “in a manner wholly inconsistent with the First Amendment.” In this case, it is the parents that should be able to decide what their children can access online, the lawsuit continues, adding that the plaintiffs believe that other ways to protect minors from online harms already exist. And, these are built into their apps by the Big Tech platforms themselves, the two groups claim, citing various forms of restrictions that can be imposed from the apps’ settings. Florida AG Moody’s office stated they are at this time reviewing the lawsuit – but that Moody will, “as a mother, fight aggressively in court to ensure the ability to protect Florida children.” If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Florida Faces Lawsuit Over Age Digital ID Verification Law for Social Media appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Washington Post: Michigan is Tied

New observations of merging galaxies show a pair of “blood-soaked” eyes.

Down to the last few days before the election, CNN's Kasie Hunt has dropped any pretense of even-handedness, and has let her pro-Kamala flag fly. Three days ago, we caught Kasie saying that Trump-hater par excellence David Frum's attacks on Trump were "correct." Today, Hunt was clearly worried by Trump's entertaining, attention-attracting moves of working in a McDonald's and riding shotgun in a garbage truck. She insisted instead that voters focus on Trump's history of election denial and hints that he might do it again this year. Hunt insisted that the garbage truck/McD's events were: "Designed to get us to look away from what we shouldn't ignore. To distract from what Trump is saying about what happens after polls close on Tuesday." Hunt then rolled clips of Trump responding to questions as to whether, if he lost, he'd recognize the results of the election. But whereas Hunt was surely trying to suggest that Trump would refuse to accept a defeat, his answers did little to support her hypothesis. To the contrary, Trump told one reporter that whereas there had been some "smaller" election misconduct in Pennsylvania, "I think it's been taken care of." And when another reporter asked if he'd accept the results of the election, he replied: "Sure. It's a fair election." Trump's response was in line with what Democrats are saying. Indeed, some of them are going even further, as Axios reports, suggesting that Trump is planning to cheat. Thus, Dem Rep. Jamie Raskin has said that if Trump "won a free, fair and honest election, then we would obviously accept it." However, Raskin said he "definitely" doesn't assume that Trump would use free, fair and honest means to secure a victory. Trump "is doing whatever he can to try to interfere with the process." Along similar lines, "Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, a senior chief deputy whip who voted to object to George W. Bush electors in 2005, said of Trump, 'I don't know what kind of shenanigans he is planning,' adding: 'We would have to, in any election ... make sure that all the rules have been followed.'" And House Rules Committee Ranking Member Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), who also objected to Trump electors in 2017, said Democrats would certify a Trump victory "assuming everything goes the way we expect it to." Funny how Hunt never mentioned the Democrats' statements. Instead, Kasie concluded on this ominous note: "When you're out on the trail, covering a political campaign -- I've done a number of them -- the job is to report what the campaign is doing. Sure. That's the part that they want you to see. "But it's also to make sure you're reporting what they don't want you to cover or pay attention to. Not to miss the forest for the trees." Translation: The "trees" that should be disregarded are Trump's photo-ops. The "forest" to which attention must be paid is Trump's 2020 election denial and his supposed threats to do it again. Note: Trump isn't known for self-deprecating humor. So his joking with a rally crowd that he took his aides' suggestion that he wear the orange vest he had worn in the garbage truck, because it would make him look thinner, was both unusual -- and perhaps a sign that he is in the good humor of a man who believes he's going to win. Here's the transcript. CNN This Morning 10/31/24 6:01 am EDT KASIE HUNT: Garbage in, garbage out. We are five days from election day in an incredibly tight race where anything could make a difference. Donald Trump, climbing into a garbage truck. Shall we say, striking visual designed to capitalize on President Biden's remark that Trump's supporters are garbage. DONALD TRUMP: How do you like my garbage truck? This truck is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden. HUNT: Trump even went onstage at his rally in that bright orange vest. TRUMP: And they said, it would be unbelievable if you could wear it on stage. I said, there's no way I'm wearing it onstage. They said, okay, sir. I said, get me my jacket.  But if you did, you know, it actually makes you look thinner [crowd goes wild.] I said, ooh. And they got me. I said, I want to  wear it onstage. HUNT:  Biden, of course, has said he was only referring to a single Trump supporter who called Puerto Rico garbage in a joke.  . . .  So, this garbage truck thing, not the first time that Donald Trump, the former president, but also the former reality TV star, has produced events to drive a message in a way that's hard to look away from. That's the point, right?  But here's the thing. These events are also designed to get us to look away from what we shouldn't ignore. To distract from what Trump is saying about what happens after polls close on Tuesday. MALE REPORTER: Can you imagine any circumstance under which you would be defeated, but not say that the election was stolen? TRUMP: If it was a corrupt election, that could happen. But so far we're doing pretty well. They found a lot of smaller things in Pennsylvania, as you know, and I think they've been corrupted. And they're taking care of it. They were corrupt. They were corrupted. But I think it's been taken care of. FEMALE REPORTER: Either way, will you accept the results of the election? TRUMP: Sure. It's a fair election. HUNT: IF it's a fair election, he says. So, does he think it's going to be a fair election? BRIAN KILMEADE: What worries you the most?  TRUMP: Cheating. KILMEADE: Which one, though? Which state? TRUMP: All of them. I mean, they cheat. All of them. HUNT: All of them, he says. ALL of them! So when you're out on the trail, covering a political campaign -- I've done a number of them -- the job is to report what the campaign is doing. Sure. That's the part that they want you to see. But it's also to make sure you're reporting what they don't want you to cover or pay attention to. Not to miss the forest for the trees.

In America, we'd like to think that we have a news media but, in fact, what we have is captured corporate propagandists passing themselves off to the public as news media. Anyone needing proof of this need look no further than ABC News Chief White Correspondent Mary Bruce’s interview, if we are to call it that, with Vice President Kamala Harris. But before getting to the interview, which led off ABC World News Tonight, one must first endure another one of David Muir’s long-winded introductions- which have increasingly become the verbal equivalent of a bridge toll. In this case, Muir’s intro is a vehicle with which to promote an outright lie meant to prolong the ongoing grievance narrative over the “garbage” joke at the Madison Square Garden rally: Proving why there is zero trust in the Regime Media, ABC presidential debate moderator and @ABCWorldNews anchor @DavidMuir jumps from giving fake fact checks to attributing fake quotes to @TonyHinchcliffe. pic.twitter.com/JlYJH4qUxq — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) October 31, 2024 DAVID MUIR: And after days of backlash over that comedian at the Madison Square Garden rally calling Puerto Rico a “floating pile of garbage.” Shortly thereafter, Muir tosses to Mary Bruce for her one-on-one, which basically featured five questions. To wit: Reaction to Joe Biden’s “garbage” remark? Does she need secret Republicans in order to win? What is her top legislative priority? What is the plan if Trump declares early victory? “What do you think about when you envision the history you may make?” Par for the course questions for the Reporter Formerly Known as Biden’s Chief Apple Polisher. But let’s be clear: none of the questions were geared so as to force Harris to answer anything or expound on policy. These were the friendliest of questions in the friendliest format (at a Harris rally), intended to create for viewers the illusion of a candidate who is comfortable answering questions from the media: even if this is not actually the case. I know this to be true because Bruce allowed Harris to skate by with a changed response to the policy priority question. Here is what Harris told Bruce when asked the question: MARY BRUCE: You mentioned that to-do list. You’ve made clear, you're going to be armed with that list if you get into The Oval Office.  KAMALA HARRIS: Yes. BRUCE: But you haven't made clear what is at the very top of that list. HARRIS: Oh, but I have made it clear. My highest priority is to bring down prices and bring down costs. It's one of the biggest issues that is affecting the American people. I've been traveling the country. They know the price of groceries is still too high. I know it's still too high. Bringing down the cost of housing, bringing down taxes for middle class families so they can not just get by but get ahead. Those are my highest priorities. Bruce didn’t even stop to catch a breath before moving on to the election question. Had she done some research, perhaps, she would have discovered that Harris gave another response to CBS’s Norah O’Donnell when asked the same question: Kamala Harris finally (and predictably) articulates to Norah O'Donnell what her first legislative priority would be, if elected: ABORTION. Given her refusal to name any restrictions on abortion, Harris likely seeks to pass some form of the "Women's Health Protection Act". pic.twitter.com/X7lfenS4WN — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) October 27, 2024 Harris told CBS that enacting unrestricted abortion was her top legislative priority. So, which is it? With the election less than a week away, the Regime Media thought better of having that stand as Harris’s final response. What other narratives will the media try to reset in these next 5 days? Only time will tell. Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on ABC World News Tonight on Wednesday, October 30th, 2024: ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT 10/30/24 6:32 PM DAVID MUIR: Good evening and it's great to have you with us here on a Wednesday night. We begin tonight with the race for The White House, just six days from tonight, Election Day, we'll be on the air right here with our Election Night coverage. We hope you'll be right here with us. Tonight, more than 57 million Americans already casting their ballots. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump holding dueling rallies in North Carolina and Wisconsin. And tonight, Vice President Harris in Pennsylvania. Vice President Harris and her message of unity in these final days but tonight, Harris forced to respond to what president Biden said last night about Donald Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden. Our Mary Bruce one-on-one with the vice President. What she said about Biden's comments. And tonight, right here, Vice President Harris and her promise to Republicans and independents, and Mary asking her what her number one priority will be if elected. Tonight, Harris on what's at the top of her list. And after days of backlash over that comedian at the Madison Square Garden rally calling Puerto Rico a “floating pile of garbage.” Tonight, Trump seizing on Biden’s words. But Trump getting a warning of his own from Republican Nikki Haley. We have it all covered tonight with Mary Bruce leading us off from Raleigh, North Carolina, her one-on-one with Vice President Harris. MARY BRUCE: Tonight, in the must-win battleground of Pennsylvania, Vice President Kamala Harris promising to unite the nation if she's elected. KAMALA HARRIS: We know we have an opportunity in this election to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other. That is who he is but Pennsylvania, that is not who we are.  (AT THE ELLIPSE) Good evening, America! BRUCE: It is her closing message. And last night, with 75,000 people there to hear her speak on the Ellipse where Donald Trump gave his speech on January 6th, Harris instead reaching out to independents, and Republicans, too. HARRIS: Unlike Donald Trump, I don't believe people who disagree with me are the enemy. He wants to put them in jail. I´ll give them a seat at the table. BRUCE: But as Harris was speaking, President Biden sparking controversy with his reaction to the speaker at Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden who denigrated Latinos and Puerto Rico. TONY HINCHCLIFFE: I don't know if you guys know this, but there's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah, I think it's called Puerto Rico. BRUCE: Biden lashing out. JOE BIDEN: Well, let me tell you something, I don't -- I don't know the -- the Puerto Rican that- that I know, or Puerto Rico where I’m fr- in my home state of Delaware, they're good, decent, honorable people. The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters, his -- his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it's un-American. BRUCE: Tonight, The White House insisting the president wasn't calling Trump supporters garbage. But his words creating a headache for Harris. And I asked her about that today, when we were given a one-on-one with Harris in the key battleground of North Carolina, with less than a week until Election Day.  What did you think when you heard president Biden make those comments? HARRIS: First of all, I think that the president has explained what he meant, but I said it earlier. I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for, and I've made that clear throughout my career, including my speech last night before I think this all happened. Which is- I intend to be a president for all Americans, and- including those who may not vote for me in this election. I take very seriously my obligation and my oath to concern myself first with the needs of the American people and put them before whatever might be my selfish issues. BRUCE: Now, we know this election is going to be extremely close. Liz Cheney is out there campaigning for you. She's urging Republicans to vote for you. She says they don't have to tell anybody. Do you need Republicans to do that in order to win? HARRIS: Here's how I think about it. I- I really want to bring our country together. We've had about a decade of this Trump Era that has been all about -- you know, there's so much about it that's been about dividing people and having Americans point their fingers at each other, and I think people are exhausted by it. And it's not empowering. And we're going to all have our differences. We're a democracy. That's what we love about being American. You know, we have those differences, and we have those debates at the Thanksgiving table. It's our nature, but not to the point that we're turning our backs on each other and calling each other “the enemy within” because we disagree. BRUCE: Harris says Trump would bring an enemies list to The White House. She would bring a to-do list.  You mentioned that to-do list. You’ve made clear, you're going to be armed with that list if you get into The Oval Office.  HARRIS: Yes. BRUCE: But you haven't made clear what is at the very top of that list. HARRIS: Oh, but I have made it clear. My highest priority is to bring down prices and bring down costs. It's one of the biggest issues that is affecting the American people. I've been traveling the country. They know the price of groceries is still too high. I know it's still too high. Bringing down the cost of housing, bringing down taxes for middle class families so they can not just get by but get ahead. Those are my highest priorities. BRUCE: You know, in 2020 we saw Donald Trump come out and prematurely claim victory on Election Night. I know you've got a whole team of lawyers standing at the ready.  HARRIS: Yes. BRUCE: But what is your plan? What are you going to do if he does that again? HARRIS: Well, we are, sadly, ready if he does. And if- if we know that he is actually manipulating the press, and attempting to manipulate the consensus of the American people based on fiction instead of fact. We're prepared to respond. BRUCE: You are promising to bring people together, even people you disagree with, you say will have a seat at the table. How do you convince Trump supporters of that, though, when you're calling their candidate a would-be dictator, a petty tyrant? HARRIS: I am talking to everyone as an American, regardless of who they voted for in the last election. BRUCE: And one last question. I know you have said that this is a campaign about substance, not identity, but I'm sure it's crossed your mind. What do you think about when you envision the history that you may make? HARRIS: I'm fully aware of my gender and race. Let’s start there. And I- and I know that it will be very significant, in terms of the glass that will be broken. But I do not expect that anyone is going to vote for me because of my gender or race. It has to be because I earn their vote with a plan to make their life better. BRUCE: Harris is now taking this closing message and her pitch for unity on the road, hitting multiple battleground states a day after events a day after events today in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Tomorrow, she heads out west to Arizona and Nevada. David, tonight Harris telling me she isn't taking anything for granted. David. MUIR: Mary Bruce, leading us one on one with the Vice President today. Mary, thank you.  

Comedy Central’s weekly host of The Daily Show, Ronny Chieng, reacted on Wednesday to President Joe Biden calling Donald Trump supporters “garbage” by claiming that the White House’s excuse that he really meant “supporter’s” means that the election is now “Nazis versus grammar Nazis.” After a couple of clips of Biden, including the “garbage” one, Chieng sought to make sense of the remarks, “Oh. I see. This guy's too [bleep] old and his brain is a floating pile of garbage, of course. Now the Dems don't want to admit that the president of the United States should not be using a computer unsupervised, so they went with this explanation.”     In a clip, CNN’s Arlette Saenz recalled, “The White House very quickly tried to argue that when he used the word 'supporters,' he wasn't talking about Trump supporters writ large, but that there was an apostrophe in there that is what is included in the official transcript. They tried to argue that he was specifically referencing the comments from that comedian at the Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday.” Chieng responded, “That's right. In the last week of the campaign, Republicans are calling for a roundup of immigrants and Democrats are like, 'You have to put the apostrophe in the right place!' This election is really coming down to Nazis versus grammar Nazis and if Democrats are relying on Americans to understand how apostrophes work, this election is [bleep].” Beyond the absurdity of tying immigration enforcement to Nazism, Chieng tried to use Biden’s remarks to claim Republicans are too dumb to even know what an apostrophe is: Because have you ever seen a sign outside a bar? I mean, they basically use the apostrophe to mean ‘Here comes an S’ and look, Republicans aren't accepting any of these excuses because they don't know what an apostrophe is, and they think it's intentional that Biden called them garbage, and they could not be more excited because Republicans have been under fire for their garbage thing, and now they're like, ‘Yes! Biden's garbage thing cancels out our garbage thing, and so we're back to neutral!’ ‘Our Garbage Thing’ refers to remarks made by a comedian, and whatever one thinks of the political wisdom of having a roast comic at your rally, comedians like Chieng who rely heavily on race-based roasts, should hesitate before throwing fellow roasters under the bus lest something get lost in translation. Here is a transcript for the October 30 show: Comedy Central The Daily Show 10/30/2024 11:03 PM ET RONNY CHIENG: Oh. I see. This guy's too [bleep] old and his brain is a floating pile of garbage, of course. Now the Dems don't want to admit that the president of the United States should not be using a computer unsupervised, so they went with this explanation. ARLETTE SAENZ: The White House very quickly tried to argue that when he used the word "supporters," he wasn't talking about Trump supporters writ large, but that there was an apostrophe in there that is what is included in the official transcript. They tried to argue that he was specifically referencing the comments from that comedian at the Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday. CHIENG: That's right. In the last week of the campaign, Republicans are calling for a roundup of immigrants and Democrats are like, "You have to put the apostrophe in the right place!" This election is really coming down to Nazis versus grammar Nazis and if Democrats are relying on Americans to understand how apostrophes work, this election is [bleep].  Because have you ever seen a sign outside a bar? I mean, they basically use the apostrophe to mean "Here comes an S” and look, Republicans aren't accepting any of these excuses because they don't know what an apostrophe is, and they think it's intentional that Biden called them garbage, and they could not be more excited because Republicans have been under fire for their garbage thing, and now they're like, "Yes! Biden's garbage thing cancels out our garbage thing, and so we're back to neutral!"

One thing the left is really good at is misinterpreting something Trump said or did and using that twisted lie to bolster their "Trump is racist, sexist, fascist, etc." narrative. For example, CNN’s Van Jones took a section of Trump’s Agenda 47 that laid out plans to combat the rampant crime the Biden administration has allowed to escalate and turned it into Trump is “locking up all the black men.” Dave Rubin plays the clip of Jones explaining why fighting crime is wrong to Bill Maher. “This is what’s on his website. He says he’s going to ‘require local law enforcement to do stop and frisk,’ which 80% goes against black people,” Jones began, reading from Agenda 47. “He says he’s going to ‘instruct the DOJ to dismantle every street gang’ — in other words, the feds are going to be in your neighborhood trying to figure out which one of your kids should go to federal prison.” “He says he’s going to ‘indemnify all cops,’ so you can't sue cops basically,” Jones continued, adding, “Black men are about to get conned.” “The best con artist in the world is going to tell black men, ‘I'm going to lift you up.’ In fact, he's going to lock you up. He's going to lock you up for the stuff that Kamala Harris is trying to decriminalize,” he ranted. Dave points out some irony in Jones’ words. “Van, why do you think that all black men are in street gangs?” he asks rhetorically. Further, “They don’t do these things to lawful people,” he says. “Now, that doesn’t mean that there can’t be a bad cop that might do a stop and frisk unfairly or unjustly — and that should be dealt with.” “What Donald Trump is talking about there is that in cities — like in the city [Van Jones and Bill Maher] shot that very video right there, Los Angeles — the mayor of L.A. is no longer doing proper policing. You can trespass and jump over people's fences and set up a tent and they won't do anything; you can smoke crack outside of city hall,” says Dave. As for Jones’ insinuation that Donald Trump is racist against black men, it’s easily debunked considering “Trump literally had lowest all-time black unemployment.” To hear more, watch the clip above. Want more from Dave Rubin?To enjoy more honest conversations, free speech, and big ideas with Dave Rubin, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.