Column Anime Spotlight Frieren: Timeless Life Lessons From a Tired Mage A jaded, ancient elf gradually gains a new perspective on life as she travels with human companions, teaching (and learning) along the way. By Leah Thomas | Published on September 19, 2024 Credit: Madhouse, Inc. Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Madhouse, Inc. I’ll kick this one off with a question that has likely passed through more minds than just my own: do you remember the very last time you spent the night at a childhood friend’s house?  The final Saturday night you stayed up until 4 am playing GTA, or building a blanket fort and getting shushed by their mom for giggling in the waterbed an hour later? The last morning you woke up smelling like said mom’s cigarette smoke and got sent home at 1:30 pm, grumpy and exhausted and dreading school the next day? I may be getting oddly specific. The point is this: I don’t remember that final sleepover. Because of course, I did not know then that an era I had long taken for granted, a decade of whispered ghost stories and Doritos dust and fears confessed in the dark, had ended. Only in hindsight did I realize that a door had closed somewhere between my friend and me. We would never again share those little moments that had been a fundamental aspect of our lives. We would no longer be in each other’s lives at all, a thing once thought unfathomable. A human life is short in the great scheme of things, but anyone will tell you that time seems to accelerate as you age. What, then, must it feel like to live for a thousand years? For Frieren, the eponymous elven heroine of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, a day must feel incredibly brief.  Even a decade-long journey, culminating in saving the world, could hardly feel noteworthy to an immortal mage. By the time Frieren travels with Himmel the hero, Eisen the warrior, and Heiter the priest to the northern lands to slay the demon king, she’s already old as dirt. She doubts anything on the journey will surprise her. When we are young, every new experience feels sharp and overwhelming. Our first time getting stung by a bee seems agonizing, but we may forget our last ones.  In the anime’s first episode, Frieren attends the funeral of the human hero Himmel, her former traveling companion. She overhears human attendees remark that her lack of reaction seems truly coldhearted. Later, at his gravesite, the permanence of Himmel’s death finally dawns on her. “Why didn’t I try to get to know him better?” she asks, sobbing. That question pushes this whole gorgeous story forward. Too Much, Too Late Credit: Madhouse, Inc. Himmel’s death is far from the first or last loss Frieren has experienced, but it catalyzes her to start living again. She may not quite understand why, though to viewers it seems obvious. While journeying north with her new companions, Fern and Stark, Frieren claims that elves “lack romantic feelings and reproductive instincts.” Stoked as I am to embrace Frieren as another excellent example of ace/aro representation, I think it’s apparent that, in her way, Frieren fell in love with Himmel the Hero.  And who wouldn’t? Himmel is the sort of starry-eyed, truly good person whose real heroism lies in his tendency to help any person he comes across, be it a shepherd with an unruly herd or a village contending with a resident demon. Through Frieren’s recollections, we see Himmel as unusually charming and wise, despite his human faults. He can be vain and a bit too righteous, and he makes a few catastrophic decisions. He relishes adventure and cherishes sunrises. Every so often, he reveals his deep insecurities. “Helping people is the only way to be remembered,” he suggests, implying that his motives are not always selfless. Across their ten-year journey, Frieren hardly responds to Himmel’s moments of profundity. Frieren is old and jaded and odd to boot, and feelings have never been her strong suit. Just as starlight sometimes reaches Earth millennia after the star’s demise, Frieren realizes the weight of Himmel’s presence in her life only in the years after his death. However blatant Himmel’s unique affection for her is to viewers, Frieren has yet to come to terms with it, even eighty years after she knew him. When Frieren asks Himmel why he always poses for statues in the little villages they save, he tells her, “We aren’t a fairy tale. We really existed. But really… I pose for these statues so you won’t feel alone in the future.” Himmel is always aware of his mortality, and how humble a role he must play in the history of the world. Simultaneously, because Himmel is deeply empathetic, he understands that Frieren’s feelings for him, however slow-moving, may be stronger than she realizes. But he does not presume he can remain a part of Frieren’s long life, however much he may admire her. It is almost impossible for him to confess.  Credit: Madhouse, Inc. Every episode of Beyond Journey’s End includes a caption that describes the setting as follows: (fantasy town or region), # of years after the death of Himmel the Hero. However many years Frieren may live, however long subsequent journeys will take, Himmel fundamentally changed her world and story for eternity. What a bittersweet tragedy that he knew it and did not say it, and that she would only come to know it later.  Every Life is a Montage Credit: Madhouse, Inc. There are many brilliant strokes that set Frieren apart, but chief among them is the genius of the pacing. From episode one onward, the audience experiences life at the same uneven tempo as Frieren herself. In the pilot, fifty years pass in two minutes as Frieren travels around the world indulging in her hobby of collecting spells. If she is taken aback when, returning from her travels, she finds her friends old and withered, the audience (however unsurprised) can empathize with her sense of displacement. We have seen seasons and years pass in a gloriously animated little montage. This storytelling tactic of alternating between snapshot montages that cover years and years and real-time chronicling of single moments would seem clumsy in a poorly written novel. Frieren delivers these alternating bouts of pacing with superb care. The moments at which we pause and the moments passed over are always deliberately chosen. Frieren’s life accelerates when it is less remarkable and slows when events force the old mage to focus on the present.  When Heiter, the priest Frieren and Himmel traveled with, asks Frieren to take on an orphan girl, Fern, as an apprentice, Frieren refuses but agrees to stay with them for a while to research a grimoire. Heiter knows Frieren will lose track of time, and under their combined care we see Fern grow from an angry child to a practical young mage in a single episode. By the time Heiter dies, Fern has long since become Frieren’s apprentice. She and Fern hit the road together, and Frieren has no choice, now, but to live life at a much more human pace. When Frieren shows worrying signs of hunting for a wildflower for three years straight, Fern puts her foot down. Credit: Madhouse, Inc. As the story progresses, the montages become shorter and farther between. The show goes from chronicling years in minutes to stretching the events of a few hours over four different episodes. If this seems like a negative, it isn’t. Fern’s company forces Frieren to be present and react in real time to the needs of the mortals around her. In one town, Fern insists Frieren get up early to see the sunrise. Frieren is not a morning person, and when Fern sits her in front of the horizon, at first she expresses confusion. “It’s just a sunrise like any other.” But then she sees the wonder on her apprentice’s face and understanding dawns. “I see. I wouldn’t have been able to see this sunrise if I’d been on my own.” Initially, Frieren believes that the brevity of human life means their days are longer. But a day is still twenty-four hours, a week is still seven days. Just because Frieren’s life is long does not mean her time actually passes more quickly. The passage of time is more about perspective, about actively choosing to make the most of individual moments. Frieren is happy to waste her own time, but she’s uncomfortable wasting her student’s. She is far too great a teacher for that. To Those Who Teach Credit: Madhouse, Inc. I did not expect Frieren to be an ode to teachers, but it absolutely is. In her youth, Frieren was mentored by one of the greatest human mages of all time. Flamme, a sorceress who essentially invented humanity’s magic, never thought less of Frieren for being unambitious. She understood that trauma can impact people in different ways, and Frieren’s apparent lack of compassion need not be a failing. There is great power in being unassuming and quietly skilled, and Flamme also planted the seeds of caring in Frieren. Flamme loved magic and wanted it to be accessible to all people. She wanted the future to be a time of peace, and trusted that, however long it might take, her oddball elven student was the right person to make that future a reality. When Frieren takes Fern on as an apprentice hundreds of years later, she is just as confident in her student. Nothing makes someone as objective as immortality, and Frieren is honest with Fern from the start. She sees that Fern, too, lacks purpose, especially after the demise of her caretaker. But that is no reason not to teach her. They ask each other whether they love magic and fail to answer with conviction. Frieren knows they might stumble into conviction as they travel. Hers is a lesson in appreciation. Frieren is never sparing with her compliments. When she meets Stark, the young warrior who becomes the third member of her traveling party, he has deeply internalized the message that he is a worthless coward. He came from a village of warriors but fled as a boy and has never forgiven himself. He confides in Fern that even though he trained hard, he was never once praised by Eisen, his former master. Credit: Madhouse, Inc. Frieren doesn’t know this and she does not care. She tells him to fight a dragon because she is certain he can do it despite his own doubts; Stark slays the dragon with ease. The very first thing she does is praise Stark for his efforts. “Well done. You exceeded my expectations.” It isn’t flattery; Frieren is far from deceptive (with one major demon-related caveat). It’s the truth, imparted to a young boy by an ancient creature. Frieren is an excellent teacher not only because she is experienced and honest, but because she remains a good student. Despite her well-worn habits and flaws, she revises her previous beliefs when she learns new information. Even at a thousand years old, she is still willing to learn. We can all only hope to age so gracefully. Humble Joys are Joys All the Same Credit: Madhouse, Inc. “Frieren struggles to understand emotions,” the priest Heiter tells Fern, shortly before his death. “But there’s no teacher better than her.” Though this might be interpreted as a unique elven trait, the other elves we meet in the series, though few, do seem more passionate than Frieren. It is possible that Frieren has always been an odd duck, even among her own people. But there are elements of Frieren’s social dysfunction that feel like textbook depression. Being disaffected rather than sad or angry is a coping mechanism, as many of us know. In the very earliest flashback into Frieren’s life, she is the sole survivor of an attack on her village, and she failed to save her people. We do not know who she was before that; perhaps she was the same, or perhaps she was more compassionate. It doesn’t matter. Frieren can only be who she is now. Flamme encouraged Frieren to value the humblest of spells and smallest of treasures. Flamme knew that joy, however fleeting, is still joy. For the long swathes of Frieren’s life when she lived in isolation in what may have been a centuries-long slump after Flamme’s death, Frieren’s hobby of collecting folk spells, magical herbs, and grimoires was enough to give her long life purpose. It is this sense of wonder that keeps her living, that keeps her warm, that keeps her amusing.  Credit: Madhouse, Inc. Himmel cemented this vital lesson. During their ten-year journey, he never took fun for granted. In one recollection, Frieren remembers learning a spell for making shaved ice, much to Heiter’s delight. The dwarf, Eisen, asks Himmel whether spending time on such things during their important quest isn’t a waste of time. Himmel has a different mindset. “I’d rather enjoy a ridiculous and fun journey that we can laugh about when it’s over.” Just because a journey is long doesn’t mean it must be miserable.  At a thousand years old, Frieren frequently gets swallowed by Mimics, monsters that imitate treasure chests. Because what about that one percent chance that this time, the Mimic is an actual treasure chest? She never learns her lesson, and she keeps opening those chests, and Fern keeps pulling her out of them. The appeal of a potential discovery is just too powerful. At some point, Frieren’s little magic-collecting hobby became something akin to a calling. Across twenty-eight episodes, Frieren becomes a little more expressive, prone to genuine smiles and true exclamations of affection for others. She begins, again, to have fun. It’s as though traveling with Fern and Stark allows her to emerge, at last, from another long winter.  Wisdom Takes Empathy and Practice, Not Time Credit: Madhouse, Inc. We could all learn from this tired, clumsy, all-powerful elf to be more gracious with our compliments. From Himmel, we learn that helping others is the best way to matter in the world. From Stark, we learn that being afraid does not mean being weak. From Fern, we learn that practicality can solve most problems and that living without purpose does not mean a purpose will never be found. And from the series? We are reassured that anime as a medium can still be wildly ambitious, powerful, and beautiful. On the whole, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is the very definition of bittersweet. It is affecting, philosophical, charming, clever, and features a protagonist that is among the most brilliantly characterized I have ever seen. It also feels especially timely here in Japan, a nation grappling with an aging population.  I teach pudgy-faced toddlers in some of my ESL classes, and last week after we all sang the Alphabet song, one little boy was inconsolable when it was time for him to put his maracas away. He screamed as though I had burned him, pounding the carpet with his furious fists, and clutched at the maracas as his mother handed them to me. Clearly, he had rarely experienced such devastating loss. What a monstrous thing, to lose not one, but two maracas, stolen by the devilish sensei! Yesterday, when we sang the put-away song, the same boy held on only briefly, his sadness fleeting, and put the maracas away by himself.[end-mark] How nice it is to watch another series that lives up to all the hype. It seems like an excellent time for fantasy anime! Next time, I’ll be writing a retrospective on one of my favorite series of all time, Natsume’s Book of Friends, to celebrate the arrival of its seventh season this October. After that, we’ll be getting into some spooky anime in time for Halloween. A piece on Junji Ito? A yokai appreciation bit? A Mushishi revisit? An investigation into body horror in anime? Feel free to leave comments and suggestions! In this article: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Madhouse 2023-2024) Available via Crunchyroll and Netflix. Up Next: Natsume’s Book of Friends (Brain’s Base 2008 – 2012; Shuka 2016 – ongoing) The post <i>Frieren</i>: Timeless Life Lessons From a Tired Mage appeared first on Reactor.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. A citizens’ council – established by Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser to help combat what she sees as “fake news,” has come up with a number of recommendations, including criminalizing whatever the authorities decide to consider to be the “spread of disinformation.” The proposal is in line with Faeser’s own policies, which opponents see as strongly pro-censorship (and that includes trying to ban a magazine critical of the government). No surprise also that Faeser’s ministry is open to the suggestions – a statement said it would be “analyzed.” Furthermore, the Interior Ministry will “examine the extent to which (the recommendations)” can be incorporated into its work. All this is already being interpreted in the context of the previous conduct of Germany’s government, which critics say is not only free speech and media freedom-unfriendly – but is also, while declaratively fighting disinformation, giving a leg up to those media outlets that actually spread disinformation (the implication being, the kind of disinformation that suits the government.) In a world where war is peace, freedom is slavery, etc., Faeser’s council’s full name is, “Forum against Fakes—Together for a Strong Democracy.” But it’s questionable how German democracy could benefit from an even more draconian clampdown on speech than what is currently happening. 91 percent of those participating in Fraser’s council (and that’s reportedly more than 420,000 people) have recommended that the ministry look into the possibility of “examining criminal prosecution and/or sanctioning the spread of disinformation.” The council can be seen as a form of “policy laundering” – where a politician’s own ideas are put through a body said to represent citizens, to then be accepted as supposedly (all) citizens’ proposal. In order to start prosecuting and punishing people for disinformation, there was no way of avoiding “defining” what it was. The attempt, however, is poor. “Targeted false information that is spread in order to manipulate people. The aim is to influence public debates, divide society, and weaken cohesion and democracy.” That’s the “definition,” which is alarmingly broad and open to interpretation and manipulation. Another point that the council’s recommendations make is that punishing people found to be “weakening cohesion” and such is to, basically, subject them to reeducation. “Deter” and “increase awareness of wrongdoing” is how this is worded. However, observers are not sure such measures can coexist with Germany’s Basic Law and its provisions meant to protect freedom of expression. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post German Citizens’ Forum Proposes Criminalizing “Disinformation” appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Kamala Is Very Fragile

Many physicists thought this would be impossible.

"If this is confirmed, it would be a major discovery."

The object is record-breaking and it has implications well beyond its beauty.

Unlike the countless grainy, out-of-focus, or poorly captured images that often accompany reports of unidentified flying objects, this particular image is remarkable for its striking clarity. The photo, taken over the bustling city of Xiamen in China, by a photographer known only by the pseudonym “Cirenim,” showcases a distinct, disc-shaped metallic object hovering high in the sky. What makes this sighting so remarkable is the sheer detail of the object. The smooth, silvery surface of the UFO is clearly visible, set against a backdrop of clouds glowing in the soft light of the sun. The contrast between the object and its surroundings makes it stand out in a way that few other UFO photographs do. Objeto Volador No Identificado captado ayer Lunes por un fotógrafo chino en la ciudad de #Xiamen #Uap #ufo #china pic.twitter.com/HbV0WKCvNi — Nelson Valdez (@nelvaldez) September 17, 2024 As with all such sightings, the question on everyone’s mind is: what exactly is it? Some suggest that it could be a man-made object, such as a sophisticated drone or even a high-altitude weather balloon. However, the sleek, saucer-like shape and the almost otherworldly appearance of the object have led others to wonder if this could be evidence of something far more mysterious—perhaps visitors from another world. Is this image just another example of an ordinary object misidentified, or does it provide a glimpse into something far more extraordinary? The post UFO Sighting Over China: The Clearest Image Yet appeared first on Anomalien.com.

As America braces for a wild 2024 election after the second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, voters should be reminded why they shouldn’t trust legacy media talking heads like ABC’s The View co-host Ana Navarro who downplayed it. Many of the prominent figures in the media are explicitly connected to Democrats. MRC Business took a trip down memory lane and compiled a list of 13 media figures who hold (or who have held) top positions in shaping America’s news diet in recent years across legacy outlets like ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, MSNBC and the taxpayer-funded NPR. The personalities range from anchors, to correspondents, to media executives, to analysts and TV hosts whose connections to the Democratic Party clearly decimate any veneer of objectivity their networks have ridiculously tried to convey to the general public. But these same individuals either continue to or have previously worked for media organizations while feigning impartiality. As former CNN flunky Chris Cillizza ludicrously bleated in a 2016 tweet: “Let me say for the billionth time: Reporters don't root for a side. Period.” Cue the gut-wrenching laughter.  Let me say for the billionth time: Reporters don't root for a side. Period. https://t.co/dhH8eherOR — Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) October 16, 2016 George Stephanopoulos. ABC This Week host and Good Morning America co-anchor George Stephanopoulos is notorious for being the White House Communications Director under President Bill Clinton. In the 1993 documentary The War Room, Stephanopoulos, then the communications director for the Clinton campaign, is depicted as a fierce partisan Democrat salivating over his boss’s ascendancy to political prominence. Stephanopoulos has repeatedly undermined his objectivity as a journalist as a result. In 2015, The New York Times reported that Stephanopoulous gave $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation over a three-year period while covering the Clintons, which sparked major backlash for violating journalistic ethics.   Gayle King. CBS Mornings’s most notable co-anchor Gayle King has a history replete with deep connections to Democrats. In fact, she has donated at least $33,000 to the DNC and at least $7,300 to former President Barack Obama between the years 2008 and 2011 just before joining CBS News. She also donated $1,000 to Democrat Harold Ford Jr. If that wasn’t telling enough, King also had a particularly cozy relationship with the Obamas in particular. She has even vacationed with them on their yacht in 2017, drawing ire from her colleagues. “The ‘Capital J’ journalists are pissed and raving mad that she was on a yacht with the Obamas over the weekend. The old-school people were talking about it. She shouldn’t be doing that. She’s an anchor of a news program that covers the White House,” a source told New York Post’s Page Six at the time.   Jake Tapper. CNN’s The Lead host Jake Tapper’s connections to Democrats is also a case in point. Before his media role, he previously served as press secretary for Rep. Marjorie Margolies (D-PA). But that doesn’t exhaust his connections to Democrats. Tapper became embroiled in controversy in 2015 while at CNN when the Clinton Foundation listed him as a “speaker” for a Clinton Global Initiative event in June of that year on its website. After USA Today reportedly reached out about the event, Tapper’s name was scrubbed from the Clinton Foundation site. Tapper’s journalistic scandal occurred while Hillary Clinton was running for president.    Jen Psaki. Most know MSNBC Inside host Jen Psaki for her role as top propagandist for President Joe Biden’s White House as his press secretary. Previously, Psaki showcased her radical leftist bona fides when she served as court packing advocacy group Demand Justice’s senior advisor prior to her appointment to the Biden-Harris administration. Her connections to both the Biden-Harris administration and Demand Justice yielded dividends, as it was Demand Justice that would be responsible for putting massive pressure on the U.S. Senate to confirm its preferred judicial nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court after Psaki was elevated to the White House.   Ana Navarro. CNN commentator, ABC The View co-host and pseudo “Republican Strategist” was exposed twice for contributing to Democrats during the 2020 electoral cycle. She donated to both then-Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and then-former Vice President Joe Biden. Navarro was belligerent on Twitter upon being called out for potentially violating ethics. “Damn right, I donated to @JoeBiden. I want a President who believes in science and doesn’t suggest Americans ingest Lysol. Let me remind you, the so-called 'Republican President' donated to many Democrats, including Pelosi & Hilary, a guest at his wedding...3rd one. #Hypocrites.” Navarro — the “Republican Strategist” — also gave a speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, praising Harris while denigrating Trump. FEC records suggest that Navarro contributed at least $250 to Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign. It should be no surprise then that Navarro would publicly scoff at elected officials who decried the ongoing violence against Trump. Watch: Katherine Maher. NPR President and former head of the Soros-funded Wikimedia Foundation Maher became notorious for peddling vile tweets against former President Donald Trump in addition to tweets justifying the rampant looting during the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots. She also has a checkered history of donating cash to radical Democrats like failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Adams, Tom Perriello (unsuccessful run for VA governor), Matthew Brown (unsuccessful run for RI governor), Jennifer Carroll Foy (unsuccessful run for VA governor) and Maya Wiley (unsuccessful run for NYC mayor).   John Lansing (former NPR President). Just before National Public Radio President John Lansing assumed his role at the leftist taxpayer-funded radio giant, MRC Business uncovered that he had just contributed cash to prominent Democrats Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) challenger Amy McGrath (D) in 2019. The records indicated that Lansing made his contributions while he was still CEO of the similarly taxpayer-funded U.S. Agency for Global Media. Lansing would lead NPR’s leftist news coverage for roughly three years before retiring at the end of 2023.   John Avlon. CNN’s infamously belligerent senior political analyst John Avlon left the network to run for Congress as a bona fide Democrat in the 2024 election, linking himself to the party permanently. He won his primary in June 2024.    Symone Sanders Townsend. MSNBC’s The Weekend co-host Symone Sanders Townsend’s Democratic bonafides are extensive. She served as press secretary for socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) 2016 Democratic Party presidential campaign, became a spokesperson for the Biden-Harris 2020 campaign and worked as Vice President Kamala Harris’s chief spokeswoman.   Jeff Shell. When it was announced that NBC Universal film and Entertainment Chairman Jeff Shell was set to become CEO of the entire NBC empire, including its news divisions in 2019, MRC Business uncovered that Shell was a prolific donor to Democrats, giving tens of thousands of dollars spread between the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and 2020 presidential candidates Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO). Shell led the NBC Universal empire until he was ousted in 2023 following an internal investigation of inappropriate conduct.   Chuck Todd. NBC News’s Chief Political Analyst Chuck Todd’s connections to the Democrats is no secret, and that haunts his coverage every time he goes on one of his on-brand rants against the right. Todd’s wife, Kristian Denny Todd, is a Democratic campaign consultant and founder of Maverick Strategies and Mail. Her profile openly boasts how she “created and designed the direct mail program” for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) presidential campaign in Iowa during the “Democratic Presidential Primary.” Open Secrets records indicate that she’s also contributed thousands of dollars to former Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA).    Steven Brill. The co-CEO of website traffic cop NewsGuard already leads one of the most notorious, leftist censorship enterprises on the internet. However, Brill has not taken care to make sure that there’s no paper trail leading back to the Democratic Party. In fact, Brill is a Democrat donor. The Washington Post reported in 1998 that Brill and his wife “donated $2,000 to the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign and $4,000 to three Democratic congressional candidates.” In fact, according to a 2018 analysis by MRC Business, Brill personally doled out at least $23,190 as of 2018 to Democrats like Hillary Clinton, Obama, Bill Clinton and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), dwarfing the just over $5,250 he contributed to GOP candidates. Brill became especially notorious for falsely labeling the Hunter Biden laptop bombshell story by the New York Post a Russian “hoax” during the 2020 election.  Watch:   Kristen Welker. NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker is notorious for overseeing presidential debates for the network despite her family’s deep connections to Democrats. During the 2020 presidential race, the New York Post reported that Welker “comes from an established Democratic family — who have poured cash into party coffers, and to Trump opponents, for years.” Specifically, according to the Post, Welker’s parents “have donated tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates and close to $20,000 to Barack Obama alone.” In addition, “There was also $3,300 for Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign and $2,100 for Hillary Clinton’s doomed 2016 presidential effort against Trump. Another $7,300 was contributed to the Democratic National Committee between 2004 and 2020,” the Post reported. To add insult to injury, the Post also noted that Welker and her family even spent the 2012 Christmas celebration with the Obamas at the White House. Welker herself reportedly was also a registered Democrat during that time.  The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics states that journalists should “Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived. Disclose unavoidable conflicts.” The problem is that ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN and NPR have a dirty track record of violating that principle over and over again by hiring people who have shown clear affinities for Democrats and the left’s pet causes. These biased media giants have constantly peddled to the public that they’re somehow still objective sources of news.  MRC’s News Analysis Division took another recent dive into the past and unearthed statements from still-active media figures that still make people with functioning prefrontal cortexes scratch their heads in confusion. Here are a few: “I have never witnessed a concerted effort by any news organization to take a stand one way or the other on a political issue, to damage one particular party or help another.” — CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta in a June 11, 2019 Publishers Weekly interview. “One of the mistakes we in the mainstream media made during when these false allegations against us for being biased for 40 years happened is we started believing, ‘Oh, maybe we are biased. And wait we can’t look biased.’ So we created a lot of false equivalency issues.” —Then-Host Chuck Todd on MSNBC’s MTP Daily, August 30, 2018. “Our President is often loose with the truth but this is the thing at CBS, what we pride ourselves on is giving you the news and letting you make your own decisions....So when I hear him say ‘fake news,’ I just sit there and go, ‘Oh, is he not talking about us.’ I never feel that.” — CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King on CBS’s The Late Late Show with James Corden, June 11, 2020. “It disgusts me when we are referred to as ‘fake news.’....We are the people who tell the truth!...Anyone who is dumb enough to confuse the occasional media mistake with media bias would be dumb enough to confuse today’s weather with the climate. We report the facts.” — Dallas, Texas ABC affiliate WFAA sports host Dale Hansen accepting Lifetime Achievement Award at Radio Television Digital News Association dinner, March 13, 2019. Americans would do well to detox from the leftist propaganda mill that gets recycled week-to-week under the false pretense of unbiased news, especially as they get ready to head to the polls. Conservatives are under attack. Contact ABC News (818) 460-7477, CBS News (212) 975-3247 and NBC News (212) 664-6192, MSNBC at (800) 952-5210, CNN at 404-827-1500 and demand they stop being mouthpieces for the Democratic Party. Also contact your representative in Congress and demand they #DefundNPR.  

CBS’s Stephen Colbert might as well rename The Late Show to The Kamala Harris Fan Club because on Wednesday he and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow marveled about how supposedly everyone from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Dick Cheney and from the military to Scientific American loves her. Colbert began with the questionable assertion that “One thing that we’ve seen this year that, again, is also unprecedented as far as I know is the enormous support publicly that Harris has gotten for Republicans.     Maddow agreed that it is “unusual,” but Colbert took it one step further, “And that's a sign of desperation, actually. Because we are a partisan country and people do pick their own teams and people tend not to leave their teams, but people are endorsing her in droves who used to be members of previous Republican cabinets and that has to be, like, no other choice but to do this.” Insisting that Republicans for Harris is “a thing,” Maddow responded, “She’s got lots of, like, retired flag officers, so senior officers from the military endorsing the Democratic candidate, endorsing Harris. There was a group of Reagan Administration officials just a few days ago who endorsed Harris.” The duo is probably referring to a list of over 100 former GOP officials that endorsed Harris, but the list has a few problems. First, it includes people like William Cohen and Chuck Hagel who were Secretaries of Defense under Presidents Clinton and Obama, respectively, so the idea that Donald Trump is what drove them from the GOP is not accurate. Second, it includes people whose credentials are that they held important military posts in a GOP administration, not that they were a Republican civilian official. So, some admiral endorsed Harris. Who cares? Third, it includes a lot of deputy assistant secretaries of this, that, or the other thing that most people simply don’t know enough about to care. However, Maddow continued, “So, you definitely have the staff of Scientific American for the second time in the history of Scientific American just made a presidential endorsement of Harris, and they endorsed Harris. So, you are seeing not your typical endorsements. You’re seeing what I think is a very, very broad Harris coalition. I mean, a coalition that includes like Dick Cheney and AOC is a big coalition. Like most Americans see themselves somewhere between AOC and Dick Cheney and if you are between AOC and Dick Cheney on the number line, you’re in the Harris coalition.” Two can play this game because Trump has a coalition ranging from Tulsi Gabbard to Nikki Haley. As for Scientific American, Maddow mentions that this is only their second endorsement, but omits that it is their second in a row, and in 2020, their endorsement of Joe Biden was not strictly scientific. Likewise, this year, Scientific American’s endorsement of Harris reads like a left-wing manifesto, promoting everything from Obamacare to abortion to gun control because Scientific American has devolved into just another woke, left-wing publication. Here is a transcript the September 18-taped show: CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert 9/19/2024 12:15 AM ET STEPHEN COLBERT: One thing that we’ve seen this year that, again, is also unprecedented as far as I know is the enormous support publicly that Harris has gotten for Republicans— RACHEL MADDOW: Yeah. COLBERT: -- in previous administrations. MADDOW: Yeah. COLBERT: That's heartening. MADDOW: And its unusual too. I mean— COLBERT: And that's a sign of desperation, actually. Because we are a partisan country— MADDOW: Yeah. COLBERT: -- and people do pick their own teams and people tend not to leave their teams, but people are endorsing her in droves who used to be members of previous Republican cabinets and that has to be, like, no other choice but to do this. MADDOW: Well, we got lots of Republicans for Harris. That's a thing, Republicans for Harris. She’s got lots of, like, retired flag officers, so senior officers from the military endorsing the Democratic candidate, endorsing Harris. There was a group of Reagan Administration officials just a few days ago who endorsed Harris.  So, you definitely have the staff of Scientific American for the second time in the history of Scientific American just made a presidential endorsement of Harris, and they endorsed Harris. So, you are seeing not your typical endorsements. You’re seeing what I think is a very, very broad Harris coalition. I mean, a coalition that includes like Dick Cheney and AOC is a big coalition. Like most Americans see themselves somewhere between AOC and Dick Cheney.  COLBERT: Right. MADDOW: And if you are between AOC and Dick Cheney on the number line, you’re in the Harris coalition. COLBERT: Wow. MADDOW: And if you like JD Vance, you are in the Trump coalition. COLBERT: That’s a big tent. That's a big tent. MADDOW: It's a different sized tent. COLBERT: And he’s the clown.

Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris ruffled a lot of feathers. Not because your average conservative cares what Swift thinks — but because her platform has the power to sway many young, impressionable minds. However, an ABC News/Ipsos poll shows that Swift’s support actually won’t matter much — as 81% of voters say it won’t influence them, and only 6% are now more likely to vote for Harris. And 13% said they’re now less likely to vote for Kamala after Swift’s endorsement, which is why former president Donald Trump’s response to it probably wasn’t his best move. In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” “What is the point of that?” Pat Gray of “Pat Gray Unleashed” comments. “After the story was breaking in his favor, the support was going his way, not Kamala’s way after Taylor Swift’s endorsement,” Keith Malinak agrees. Gray believes there’s also “so much Kamala policy that is vulnerable” that there’s a never-ending stream of damaging material for Trump to highlight, rather than the political opinion of a pop star. “You don’t have to do that; there’s no reason for it,” Gray says. Want more from Pat Gray?To enjoy more of Pat's biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.