The mayor of Huntington Beach, California, is fighting for parental rights despite a recently signed state law requiring schools to conceal students’ gender transitions from parents. Huntington Beach Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark introduced an ordinance Aug. 6 to make the Southern California beach town a “Parents’ Right to Know” city. “The state of California is one of the most dangerous states to raise a child,” Van Der Mark told The Daily Signal. The city’s legal department has until Sept. 3 to determine the details of how to best protect parental rights in light of the new California law allowing public schools to hide a student’s gender identity from his or her parents. Van Der Mark wants to send a message to Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Legislature that despite Newsom’s signing Assembly Bill 1955 into law last month, Huntington Beach will respect parents, the mayor said. Van Der Mark also wants the “Right to Know” ordinance to help parents who want to sue the state to overturn AB 1955. “One of the reasons people don’t sue is because the process is so tedious and so dysfunctional that they don’t know where to start,” Van Der Mark said. “It’s also expensive, so we want to do whatever we can to make it easier for the parents to fight for their parental rights.” AB 1955 overrules any school board policies that require transparency with parents about their child’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Though Van Der Mark has no jurisdiction over the schools, she said the law affects her constituents and she wants to do what she can to help parents protect their children. “There are schools that are pushing back,” Van Der Mark said, “and we want to help any parents who would like to push back on their end.” The Anderson Union High School District and the Orange County Board of Education voted unanimously to join a lawsuit filed by the Liberty Justice Center challenging AB 1955. “We all know that AB 1955 is unconstitutional,” Van Der Mark said. “So, if we can help in any way for parents who want to fight for their constitutional rights to raise their children however they see fit with their morals, their values, which should be allowed, then we want to help them.” Long-standing U.S. Supreme Court precedent establishes that parents have the right to determine major issues affecting the education of their children, said Harmeet Dhillon, founder of the Center for American Liberty and managing partner at Dhillon Law Group Inc. Dhillon told The Daily Signal she expects California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, to sue Huntington Beach and any other city or school district that challenges AB 1955. “Whatever Huntington Beach passes that protects parents’ rights, we can expect the attorney general of California, like he has done in multiple other cases where clients of ours have been affected, to sue those school districts or those municipalities over these issues,” Dhillon said. She said parental rights in education are not just a constitutional issue, but also a human rights issue. “It’s a fundamental natural law issue, and so Huntington Beach is doing a brave thing,” Dhillon said. “They know they’re going to get sued, and they’re standing up for the rights of parents, and they’re right under Supreme Court precedent.” Less than 20 minutes from Huntington Beach, Santa Ana public schools allow students to change their name, gender, and pronouns without parental consent. “School personnel should not discuss information that may disclose a student’s transgender or gender-nonconforming status to others, including parents/legal guardians and other school personnel, unless legally required to do so or unless the student has authorized such disclosure,” Santa Ana Unified School District’s “Transgender, Non-Binary, and Gender Nonconforming Students” board policy says. Van Der Mark wants to keep such policies out of Huntington Beach so parents feel safe to raise their kids there. She said the high cost of living makes it hard for working parents to monitor their children’s education as closely as necessary. “They’re completely shutting out every single person who’s blood-related, who loves and cares for this child and knows them better than anyone, and they’re giving perfect strangers who are not trained, like teachers and counselors, the discretion to make decisions for this child,” Van Der Mark said. Patti Pappas is a retired college professor of child development and educational studies and a Huntington Beach resident. Her grandchildren attend local public schools. “Puberty is not easy, and the school can’t be the one guiding them,” Pappas told The Daily Signal. “The parent needs to know, so the parent has to have that right, and the parent can then guide them and work with them.” Six of Van Der Mark’s children attended public schools in Huntington Beach. A stay-at-home mom, Van Der Mark decided to run for City Council after finding pornography in her children’s schools in 2017, she said. In Huntington Beach, City Council members take turns serving one-year terms as mayor. “I’ve been home raising my children for the past 23 years,” the mother and grandmother said. “But because the community is so concerned with what’s going on, they have supported me to the point where now I’m the mayor of the city. Parents are concerned. They just don’t know how to fight back.” “Now that my kids are adults, and they don’t need me, I’m going to dedicate every single day of my life that I can to fighting against this nonsense coming from Sacramento,” she continued. Protecting parental rights should not be a partisan issue, Van Der Mark said. “A lot of us have children, and this would be an issue to bring us all together,” the mayor said, “but once again, it became a four-three vote, where the four of us conservatives do support Huntington becoming a Parents’ Right to Know city and the other three do not.” The post Sanctuary Cities for Parental Rights? California City Aims to Protect Families from Radical Gender Policies appeared first on The Daily Signal.

One of my favorite bits of ancient wisdom, which I have quoted many times over the years, is the Chinese military theorist Sun Tzu’s adage that a battle is won before it is fought because it is won by choosing the terrain on which it is fought. Accordingly, as I noted in a column a few months ago: “If former President Donald Trump and other Republicans on the ballot this fall want to win, they must choose the proper terrain.” He who controls the narrative and framing necessarily controls the result. Every good trial lawyer knows this. And so should every good politician. Although recent days have been more focused and suggest a possible turning of the tide, the electoral terrain for Republicans has generally been rather shaky ever since the bloodless Kamala Harris coup of Joe Biden a few weeks ago. Asking whether Harris—the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants—actually counts as “black” for U.S. demographic purposes is fair substantive game, but it is certainly not fertile swing voter terrain. Even less compelling, and certainly less propitious, is incontinent friendly fire directed at the popular governor of a crucial swing state, Georgia. Early voting begins in Pennsylvania, arguably this election’s single most decisive battleground state, on Sept. 16. That is just around the corner. Can Republicans pull it together in time and successfully define the electoral terrain? Republicans are not entirely themselves to blame for the current state of the race, which has seen the GOP squander much of its momentum from the former president’s heroic survival of an assassination attempt and the party’s successful nominating convention. The corporate media has aided Democrats every step of the way. After pretending to be real journalists for a few weeks and holding Biden accountable for his palpable senility, the Washington press corps immediately returned to regime-apologist form after party elites succeeded in their coup. Thus, the present spectacle of Harris not answering a single real question from the press for nearly four weeks. Funny how quickly the media went from probing to outright laconic. Republicans and the Trump campaign need to break through the corporate media’s shameless attempt to shield Harris and prairie socialist running mate Tim Walz from any scrutiny whatsoever. Part of that strategy will necessarily entail utilizing alternative media sources, as Trump did earlier this week during his much-hyped X Spaces conversation with Elon Musk. But ultimately, there can be no substitute for hitting the physical campaign trail in the nation’s core swing states—for attending small-town rallies in Pennsylvania, leading local parades in Michigan, going on local news programs in Wisconsin, and the like. And it is imperative that in making the local rounds, Trump and Republicans define the proper terrain on which voters will make their fateful voting booth decisions. It ultimately boils down to this: If Republicans can successfully frame the 2024 election as boiling down to the actual issues—and above all, the economy, inflation, immigration, and crime—then they stand a strong chance of prevailing. But if Democrats and their media propagandists can successfully frame the election as a subjective “vibes” competition or a mere high school-like popularity contest, the GOP could very well lose. Harris is already attempting to distance herself from Biden. Republicans must not allow her to do that. Harris has been Biden’s (tongue-twisted and dim-witted) right-hand wingwoman since Day One. Harris owns the Biden-Harris administration’s abysmal record no less than Biden himself. And that record is decidedly unpopular with the American people: According to current polling averages, the Biden administration’s approval rating is 20 points underwater on the economy, 21 points underwater on foreign policy, 29 points underwater on immigration, 28 points underwater on inflation, 19 points underwater on crime, and an astounding 34 points underwater on the war in Gaza. Let’s be blunt: The Biden-Harris administration’s record is about as popular with the American people as venereal disease. That suggests an obvious path to victory in November for the Trump-Vance campaign, and for Republicans as a whole: Stay disciplined and make the case on the leading substantive issues facing the American people. Now is not the time for self-indulgence. Now is not the time for needless distractions. Now is not the time to relitigate the past or to settle old scores. But now is the time for a ruthless, meticulous assault on the entirety of the fetid Biden-Harris oeuvre, and a concomitant positive case as to why a Trump-Vance administration will produce better results for a besieged and beleaguered populace. The road map could not possibly be clearer. In fact, it practically writes itself. All that is left is to execute the plan. 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 Republicans Must Make a Laser-Focused, Issues-Based Case to the People appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A baby-face, prominent eyes, and a charm like no other – flat-faced dogs are becoming increasingly popular as family companions around the world.

Whacky Immigrant File: Did I Tell You the One About the Jordanian, the Solar Farm and the Hammer?

Barack Obama has released his 2024 summer playlist — and it couldn’t be more obvious that the former president is trying to stay relevant — as well as push the “brat” narrative. “With summer winding down, I wanted to share some songs that I’ve been listening to lately — and it wouldn’t be my playlist if it didn’t include an eclectic mix. I hope you find something new to listen to!” Obama posted on his X account. The playlist featured songs by Charli XCX, Shaboozey, Billie Eilish, Beyonce, GloRilla, Megan Thee Stallion, Morgan Wallen, and many more. “This is a gift from Barack Obama,” Pat Gray of “Pat Gray Unleashed” jokes, adding “a gift to the world.” Obama noticeably posted his summer playlist after Kamala Harris embraced being dubbed a “brat” by Charli XCX and her fans. The singer had posted on her X account last month that “kamala IS brat,” which is likely part of a brilliant marketing scheme to sway young voters. Gray finds the entire thing fairly hilarious and has come up with a summer playlist of his own. “You’ve never heard of these; these are so eclectic,” he mocks. Gray’s much shorter playlist includes songs by the Sweet, Chicago, Fall Out Boy, Boston, and OK Go. “Love me some Fall Out Boy right now, I don’t know why,” he 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.

The progressive-socialist-globalist cabal has selected Kamala Harris as its puppet of choice to usher in the new world order, and the elites are trying everything in their power to convince you that she’s a moderate. Do not fall for it. This is the same Kamala Harris who did so terribly in the 2020 presidential race that she had to drop out a month before the Iowa caucuses without ever earning a single pledged delegate. But in their current pecking order, it’s her turn. She has the proper left-wing extremist record, and more importantly, she’s a compliant team player with the cabal. In the aftermath of the 2020 George Floyd riots, Harris used every possible euphemism for “defunding the police” without saying the word “defund.” The Democratic Party’s showrunners know they’ve got time to figure out how to spin Kamala’s extremism because the mainstream media is doing all the smoke and mirrors work for them. White House officials recently told Politico that Harris’ reputation as a far-left-wing crusader is an unfair holdover from positions she took when she ran for president in 2019. They say those positions don’t really represent who she is. One senior White House official said, “That [2020] primary was a distorting experience for a lot of people.” Politico just accepted that and moved on instead of asking the obvious question: Does this mean Harris was simply lying about everything during that campaign? During those debates and primaries four years ago, Harris clearly favored decriminalizing border crossings and even providing illegal aliens with taxpayer-funded health care. She sponsored the No Ban Act, which would have limited the president’s ability to keep specific immigrants from entering the United States. It’s clear that Harris had a very left-wing position on immigration that would have essentially established complete open borders. Then she became vice president and Biden dumped the job on her that no one wanted: trying to figure out what to do about the border. She royally failed that assignment. That’s not my assessment — though I agree with it. That was the official assessment of Numbers USA, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that monitors border security policies and grades members of Congress on their immigration voting. They gave Harris an F-minus. It has now been two and a half years since Harris’ last visit to the border. During the Biden-Harris administration, at least 7.3 million illegal immigrants have been allowed into the country. Meanwhile, according to a recent House Judiciary Committee report: Under the Biden-Harris administration, of the more than 250 illegal aliens on the terrorist watch list who were encountered by Border Patrol at the southwest border between fiscal years 2021 and 2023, DHS has released into American communities at least 99, with at least 34 others in DHS custody but not yet removed from the United States. The report found that Border Patrol has encountered migrants on the terror watch list from 36 different countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen, but soon as Harris took over Biden’s campaign, the media went into damage control mode for her on the border issue — to the point of trying to convince us she was never really Biden’s border czar. It is such blatant gaslighting because it’s so easy to disprove, yet the media did it anyway. Nowhere near the center Of course, running interference for Kamala Harris is not new. The media did the same thing in 2020 when Joe Biden announced Harris as his running mate. George Stephanopoulos said, “Harris comes from the middle of the road.” The Los Angeles Times called her “centrist.” The New York Times called her a “pragmatic moderate.” But the Washington Post took the cake, calling her a “small-c conservative.” Here are Kamala Harris’ true colors. According to GovTrack, Harris’ Senate record was to the left of socialist Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). GovTrack also found that Harris joined bipartisan bills the least often compared to other Senate Democrats. Harris and the media may not want you to know what her positions and agenda truly are, but there is the historical record. She was the first senator to co-sponsor Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All bill to end private health insurance. In the aftermath of the 2020 George Floyd riots, Harris used every possible euphemism for “defunding the police” without saying the word defund, but everyone knew what she meant. Harris went on to co-sponsor the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020, which would have limited legal protections for police officers. In 2004, when Harris was district attorney of San Francisco, she refused to pursue the death penalty against the man who murdered a San Francisco police officer. At the officer’s funeral, then-Senator Dianne Feinstein gave a eulogy during which she criticized Harris, who was in attendance, and hundreds of police officers gave a standing ovation in agreement. You must be an extremist when Dianne Feinstein of all people slaps you for being too far left on an issue. Harris was a “proud” original co-sponsor of the Green New Deal in the Senate, the most authoritarian legislation in U.S. history. She co-sponsored a bill to ban oil exploration across 1.5 million acres of federal land. She has made “environmental justice” a central part of her climate plans for America. She sponsored legislation to set up a committee exploring reparation payments for black Americans. She is against voter ID requirements. She wants to pack the Supreme Court and eliminate the Senate filibuster. She bragged about gaining access to gender reassignment surgeries for California prison inmates when she was the state attorney general. She champions the Equality Act, which would allow men to compete in women’s sports. Abortion-obsessed And she is borderline obsessed with abortion. She has attacked crisis pregnancy centers as vice president, calling the free help they offer women “predatory practices.” As a senator, she voted twice against the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. In March, she became the first sitting vice president to visit and celebrate a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic as part of her “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour. According to new reporting by the Daily Signal, when Harris was California’s attorney general, she had the home of pro-life journalist David Daleiden raided by state Justice Department agents who seized video evidence that potentially incriminated employees of Planned Parenthood. Why? Because Daleiden had recorded undercover conversations with these employees in which they allegedly discussed selling body parts of aborted babies. According to this Daily Signal report, the raid on Daleiden’s home happened just two weeks after Planned Parenthood officials had a meeting with Harris. Daleiden’s attorney, Steve Cooley, said: There’s no doubt in my mind that Kamala Harris, as attorney general, personally ordered the raid on David Daleiden’s home. This was an effort to seize the videotapes that Mr. Daleiden had made during the course of his investigation. That was the primary purpose of that raid, to basically suppress his activities with respect to exposing the illegal sale of fetal body parts. He later added, “I think a Kamala Harris presidency would be incredibly dangerous for civil rights.” Kamala Harris is no moderate. The spin specialists in her campaign and in the media are working overtime to convince America that she is moderate and relatable to regular Americans. They’re trying to convince you that she’s “just like you.” She is not. You find out who politicians really are by what they do, how they vote, what legislation they support. You find out what their real priorities are by who they spend time with and the places they visit. Harris’ record could not be clearer. She has never called herself a socialist, as far as my research team can find, but her record screams socialist. This is who she is. She has been immersed in America’s far-left subculture, an identity she fully embraces. Want more from Glenn Beck? Get Glenn's FREE email newsletter with his latest insights, top stories, show prep, and more delivered to your inbox.

Leaders of Hamtramck, Michigan — a Muslim-majority city located within the confines of Detroit — have allegedly been operating an election fraud scheme for decades, and according to a damning report from Project Veritas, Dana Nessel, Michigan's far-left attorney general, knows all about it but has done little to stop it.Last week, Project Veritas released on social media a video containing elaborate statements from various people familiar with the municipal election processes in Hamtramck, including former Mayor Karen Majewski, former clerk of Hamtramck and current clerk of nearby Fraser August Gitschlag, and former city council candidate Lynn Blasey.'Harvesters' target ethnic communities'Give it up, sign the envelope, give me the ballot.'Gitschlag explained to the undercover Project Veritas reporter that many Hamtramck candidates "bully" and exploit local Bengali and Yemeni residents by harvesting their ballots or those of their relatives and threatening their livelihoods if they don't cooperate. "Voter fraud happens in small ethnic communities where someone is more assimilated. They can run the show, intimidate," Gitschlag said.That person can then say, "If you don't vote for me, your cousin has nowhere to live next year when he comes in. I'll shut it down,'" he continued.After collecting absentee ballot applications and dropping them off at city hall, "harvesters" then return to each person's house and demand the absentee ballot and envelope, Gitschlag claimed. "They say, 'Give it up, sign the envelope, give me the ballot.'"He claimed that the scheme is "easy" and previously played out in Ukrainian, Polish, and Bosnian immigrant communities.Both Majewski and Blasey made similar remarks about the ethnic nature of the scheme."The Bangladeshi did it, started doing it," Majewski said. "Oh yeah, they started it before the Yemeni.""They'll hire black people to go to black houses," Blasey said. "They hire Bangladeshi people to go to Bangladeshi houses.""They strategically cheat," she continued. "... They target families that don't care or don't know the voting process. So, like, newer immigrants that just don't know."Ballot harvesting is illegal in Michigan. State law strictly limits the people who may mail a completed absentee ballot to: the voter, a member of the voter's immediate family, a member of the voter's household, an election official from the voter's jurisdiction, and a mail carrier performing his or her official duties.Candidates allegedly directly involvedNot only do some Hamtramck officials appear to be harvesting ballots, but they may even be filling them out on behalf of voters."The absentee ballots are being filled out in people's dining rooms by the candidates," Majewski said."They sit around the kitchen table."Blasey even alleged that some candidates participated in an event dubbed the "Midnight Meeting," where ballots are auctioned off. According to the Project Veritas journalist, she identified City Councilman Mohammed Hassan and Mayor Pro-Tempore Abu Musa as two of the worst offenders.The reporter then spoke with Musa, who indicated he had heard that Hassan had once paid for 300 ballots but didn't have "proof." He also did not deny the Midnight Meeting allegations, Project Veritas noted.Project Veritas also called Hassan and Musa separately and claimed to have some "blank" ballots available."This is a trap. We have to see the name, is it Muslim or not?" the person identified as Hassan replied. "If it is not signed – OK, give me the address. I’ll go there. If it’s everything good, we can drop to the city hall. City hall parking lot has the box, we can drop it to there."The man identified as Musa told the caller: "You touched my heart, brother. Thank you very much. Listen, I’ll come up. I’ll meet you. How about this evening?"'You need these people's votes, right? So, who's going to say brown-skinned people are, you know, doing voter fraud?'On video, Blasey, Gitschlag, and Majewski also alleged that some candidates do not actually live in Hamtramck, which, according to Majewski, is also "illegal.""They have a house homesteaded here," Gitschlag stated, "but they live in, like, Warren, where their kids go to school."A persistent problem with no solution in sightMajewski told Project Veritas that this has been an ongoing problem for 20 years, and Gitschlag claimed he turned some individuals in more than a decade ago, when he was still Hamtramck clerk, for mishandling absentee ballots."I'm a Democrat, and I've busted other Democrats," he said.The Hamtramck Review confirmed that Gitschlag helped an investigation of illegal ballot harvesting that ultimately led to felony convictions for four Bangladeshi-Americans. However, the offenders paid a fine and never served jail time.To this day, Majewski believes that ballot harvesting caused her to lose her 2021 re-election bid to Mayor Amer Ghalib, then a political neophyte, telling the Project Veritas reporter that she is "absolutely positive that that happened."In 2020, Ghalib apparently admitted to engaging in voter fraud."There were 20 people around me planning to vote for Biden because they loved Obama," he said at the time, according to the Federalist. "I got them to vote for Sanders and did their families’ ballot cards myself."Majewski also insisted that many law enforcement agencies and officials, both state and federal, know all about the voter fraud scandal but so far have done nothing about it."Nessel's involved, and I think the feds are involved," she said. "... Investigating voter fraud.""You need these people's votes, right? So, who's going to say brown-skinned people are, you know, doing voter fraud?"Gitschlag is more optimistic, assuring the Project Veritas reporter that news of an investigation into the issue would hit the papers "soon."The Review and the Federalist spoke with Gitschlag and Blasey about the Project Veritas report. Both expressed frustration about unwittingly giving statements to an undercover reporter, but both stand by what they said."I am upset about the smarmy underhanded Project Veritas tactics to get information I have been telling people for a year," Gitschlag told the Review."I stand by what I said, because I have been saying it for years," he added to the Federalist. "I do stand by the content.""I firmly stand by my words," Blasey told the Federalist.In a statement to the Review, Majewski admitted that voter fraud in Hamtramck "has been common knowledge for years." She also slammed Project Veritas and other "right wing outlets" looking to "divide progressives while overlooking the real threats to election integrity coming from their own ideological supporters."Ghalib and Nessel did not respond to a request for comment from the Federalist.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

A massively popular computer game has sparked confusion and outrage after it spontaneously added pronouns while removing gender options at the same time.The game Old School RuneScape was launched in 2013 and was meant to maintain the 2007 version of the game. It is heralded as a classic by gaming fans and costs about $80 annually to play.Peaking at 205,000 concurrent players as recently as November 2023, fans have rejoiced over how developers seek their opinion through polls then modify the game accordingly. That is until recently when developers decided remove the option to choose male or female when creating a character in the game, and replaced it with "Body type A" and "Body type B."'Body type A and body type B? Have you been living under a rock for the past decade?'Furthermore, developers decided to add in pronoun selections, providing the options "He/him," "They/them," and "She/her.""We didn’t vote on this!" a user said to the game's moderators on X. "I play RuneScape to escape from this bulls**t not to be forced to see it! This WILL cost you players... I'm debating on canceling my membership."A moderator, who goes by the name Mod Ash and has over 140,000 followers on X, responded to the user and said he didn't expect players to see the text so often."Thanks for letting me know you no longer wish to play due to players having that text option. All the best with your future gaming," he added with a smiley face.I wouldn't have expected you to see it very often unless you're switching up at the Makeover Mage really regularly, but thanks for letting me know you no longer wish to play due to players having that text option. All the best with your future gaming :)— Mod Ash (@JagexAsh) August 14, 2024 'You poll this but not pronouns?'Just hours before that moderator's response, a fan actually predicted that concerns about the change would be shrugged off by the RuneScape team:"Body type A and body type B? Have you been living under a rock for the past decade? Gamers don't want this garbage," the irate user wrote. "Well I'm done: 18 years a player but I'm done," they continued. "You're gonna say 'good riddance, no one forces you to play you fascist bigot.' but guess what: I don't think I'll be the only one. Good luck with this 'new and inclusive' direction you're going in."More fans took issue with the fact that the inclusion of pronouns and removal of gender was not a topic that developers polled their customers about. This move by the game creators proved to be even more puzzling due to the fact that other polls are conducted for the most miniscule of details."You poll this but not pronouns?" one fan asked, attaching an image of a poll that asked ""Should the green pixel be removed from the Construction skill icon?"Over 50,000 gamers responded to that particular pool showcasing just how responsive the fanbase is.Another user who has an account that is over 8,200 days old (22 years) noted that he didn't think he would be renewing his membership due to the recent controversy."I'd been thinking about renewing my membership and playing OSRS again after taking a break for a year or so. I don't think I will be doing that any time soon."I'd been thinking about renewing my membership and playing OSRS again after taking a break for a year or so. I don't think I will be doing that any time soon. https://t.co/pscg74avlI pic.twitter.com/I0LKNtH61f— Dave Shrigley (@dshrig) August 15, 2024 Production company Jagex has a history of activism that has caused blowback in the past. In 2017, a Pride update was widely mocked for its use of rainbows and has since become an infamous event in the game's history. At the time, developers asked users in a poll whether they wanted a "gay pride event." Users overwhelmingly rejected the idea with 66% of the respondents saying "no." Over 20,000 people participated in that poll.On its website, Jagex also gives an annual "gender pay gap report" that touts "the importance of a diverse workforce" and complains about the lack of "industry-wide female representation."However, in its latest report, the company was only able to lower its own pay disparity by 0.1%.The website reads, "In the report issued for 2022-2023, our expectations that our gender pay gap would decrease were met with a reduction in our Gender Pay Gap from 25.9% to 25.8%."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

— (@) America used to be the powerhouse of the world, exporting not only the best manufactured goods but also the best ideas the world has seen. But now, areas that were once rich in economic activity have turned into ghost towns as the State Department exports some of the worst ideas the world has seen. On "Zero Hour," Mike Benz, a former State Department official in the Trump administration and the founder and executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, sat down with James Poulos to discuss the state of the U.S. State Department and its dystopian control of information. Even though many of America’s manufacturing hubs have their best days behind them, America can still be proud to be the world's beacon of liberty — until now. “The thing that we had to hold our hat onto is … the distinct values that we have in the U.S. We have free speech, [and] we have a rule of law which will protect you in court to always be able to defend your rights,” Benz told Poulos. “What we've seen instead,” Benz added, “is this wanton abuse of the sanctions system so that anybody who does business in a way that upsets our State Department or Defense Department or Intelligence Community gets sanctioned.” Benz attributes the rise of these ill-advised sanctions and censorship tools to America’s declining influence in the world today. "We don't abide by this free-trade concept any more because any trade between two other countries that bothers us, we sanction. And we do the same thing if anyone invests here. You've got to be a little bit crazy, frankly, to put your money here under this current administration," he said. What’s more, these sanctions have contributed to China’s growing might. Benz argues that Hungary, along with other countries, is strengthening its ties with China due to the West’s antagonism toward military restraint and traditional values. “The head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee [came] out and [said] that Hungary should be sanctioned because they're not co-signing war on Russia or military support for Ukraine or the LGBT agenda pushed by the State Department,” Benz noted. To hear more of what Mike Benz had to say about censorship, free speech, China, semiconductors, and more, watch the full episode of "Zero Hour with James Poulos." America was convinced tech would complete our mastery of the world. Instead, we got catastrophe — constant crises from politics and the economy down to the spiritual fiber of our being. Time’s up for the era we grew up in. How do we pick ourselves up and begin again? To find out, visionary author and media theorist James Poulos cracks open the minds — and hearts — of today’s top figures in politics, tech, ideas, and culture on "Zero Hour" on BlazeTV.

Mark Zuckerberg-owned social media giant Meta has shut down CrowdTangle, a researching tool used to monitor social media posts that include alleged misinformation.The move has upset a series of nonprofits which sent letters in protest of Meta's move to a new tool called Content Library. Their issue stems from Meta limiting usage of Content Library to "qualified academic or nonprofit institutions who are pursuing scientific or public interest research."This has prevented many journalists from having immediate access to the new tool, TechCrunch reported.The letter to Meta in May 2024 asked for CrowdTangle to stay available until at least January 2025 so that it could be used through the 2024 presidential election."This decision jeopardizes essential pre- and post-election oversight mechanisms and undermines Meta's transparency efforts during this critical period, and at a time when social trust and digital democracy are alarmingly fragile," the letter, which was posted to the Human Rights Watch website, stated."This obstruction poses a severe risk to the efforts of civil rights groups, activists, journalists, and election officials to identify and mitigate political misinformation, incitements of violence, and the online targeting of vulnerable communities."The letter was signed by nearly 50 organizations, including Media Matters for America, Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, and the Center for American Progress.The Mozilla Foundation, which operates the popular web browser Firefox, penned its own letter also criticizing Meta for a lack of transparency."For years, CrowdTangle has represented an industry best practice for real-time platform transparency. It has become a lifeline for understanding how disinformation, hate speech, and voter suppression spread on Facebook, undermining civic discourse and democracy," the company wrote.Mozilla also hoped that Meta would continue to operate until at least after the 2024 election cycle.Despite the outcry, the Meta Content Library seems mostly similar in its allowing to search for keywords in public posts on Facebook and Instagram.Other features were talked about in a recent Meta blog.At an MIT Technology conference in May 2024, Meta's president of global affairs was asked why the company wouldn't wait until at least 2025 to transition away from CrowdTangle. "It only measures a narrow cake slice of a cake slice, which is particular forms of engagement," said Nick Clegg. "It literally doesn’t tell you what people are seeing online."Clegg vehemently defended the decision and said he took it personally that journalists and researchers didn't understand why the change was being made. He even advocated for the tool to be removed sooner than it was.Return managing editor Peter Gietl said that this move might signal a growing desire from Zuckerberg and Meta to move away from political content."We've seen in interviews and recent reports that Zuckerberg is shying away from making big splashes in politics during the 2024 election cycle," Gietl noted. "We see him at UFC events, jiu jitsu tournaments, and praising Donald Trump for being bad ass. It seems the company may be making a shift to focus on their technologies, like augmented reality, rather then trying to appease political activists."According to the Washington Post, political donations have indeed dried up from Zuckerberg-led sources.At $2.5 million, political grants and awards connected to Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are less than 1% of what was spent in 2020, which was around $332 million.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!