When former President Barack Obama comes to Pittsburgh on Thursday to campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris in the home stretch for next month’s election, he will be returning to a very different western Pennsylvania from the one he won robustly in 2008 and less so in 2012. In 2008, Obama ran on a message of aspiration, using a slogan of hope and change to create a coalition of working-class white people long part of the New Deal Democrats, minorities, young people and educated professionals. In that race against Republican John McCain, he won 18 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. Here in the west, he won Cambria and Erie and came within 100 votes in Fayette, and he earned a whopping 57% in Allegheny. Overall, in Pennsylvania, Obama earned 3,276,363 raw votes, or 54.47%, over McCain’s 2,655,885, or 44.15%. By the time he ran in 2012, Obama’s hope and change were gone, replaced by a more ideological Democratic Party built around climate change, expansive government, internationalism and a move toward eliminating fossil fuels. His new coalition of ascendant demographics, minorities, young people, college-educated white elites and women, was his focus. Left in the dust were New Deal Democrats. But it worked. Just enough New Deal Democrats stayed with him. However, his slippage in support should have been a warning sign to Democrats that this dismissal of working-class interests might not work for the next Democratic candidate. When Obama won Pennsylvania and the presidency in 2012, he did so by being the first president in modern political history to win his second term with fewer voters than in his first run for president. That was no more evident than here, where the erosion of support was noticeable if you were paying attention. Obama lost five counties that year, slipping to a narrow 13 of 67. He lost a percentage point here in Allegheny County, lost Cambria, lost Fayette significantly, and counties like Beaver, where the race had been much closer in 2008, all shifted right. In Pennsylvania in 2012, Obama earned 2,990,274 votes, or just over 51%, meaning nearly 300,000 people who voted for him before just didn’t show up. Now, the interesting thing about that is those missing voters did not show up for GOP candidate Mitt Romney, who won just 2,680,434, or 46%, of the vote. In short, Romney gained just over 24,000 voters over McCain in Pennsylvania that year, while Obama lost nearly 300,000 statewide, with many of those voters coming from western Pennsylvania. Obama lost around 20,000 voters in Allegheny County, a county he won, but the diminishing support in Beaver was around 3,000 votes, Westmoreland 8,000 votes, Fayette 4,000 votes, Cambria 8,000 votes, and Butler around 4,000 votes. So where did the former Obama voters go if they didn’t go to Romney? For the most part, it appears they stayed home. They liked the promise of Obama in 2008 and generally liked him personally, but they did not like his policies, and they saw Romney not as the guy who brought jobs back but as the guy who came to your desk with a box to escort you out of the building after he politely fired you. The Obama coalition of the ascendant promised to pay dividends for his party for years to come. For former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, that was not the case. She lost a state her husband, former President Bill Clinton, won. Then-candidate Joe Biden, because of his past relationships with unions, was able to glue on just enough of the working-class vote here in 2020 to win the state narrowly. That working-class vote, white, Black, Hispanic and Asian, is now decidedly in the Republican camp. That party has now become the party of work. A part of the coalition that was always relegated to the sidelines is now in the driver’s seat. There are scant details out so far for the Oct. 10 visit. It will be interesting to see who comes to the event. The young people who were out blocking traffic in front of the University of Pittsburgh Thursday evening will probably not be there. It is unclear what the energy is for Harris, or Biden, among the Left’s youth vote. The suggestion is that Obama is the strongest surrogate Democrats could draw here four weeks leading up to Election Day. The suggestion eight years ago was that it was Bill Clinton who would be the best surrogate for Hillary Clinton. Both came, but both were unsuccessful. Working-class voters had a candidate they would actually turn out for in the man of Trump. Obama’s speech in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention this year was not of hope and change. It was mocking and slick, very reminiscent of the 2012 Obama who lost support here and across the state. Case in point: When Obama was last in Pittsburgh, during the 2022 midterm elections for then-Senate candidate John Fetterman, he said Republicans “make us angry and afraid of one another … so they can take power.” Of all the campaign stops made by Democrats here in Pittsburgh, including Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., the one that will be the most telling in terms of message and who shows up will happen here Thursday. COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM The post Obama Returns to a Different Western Pennsylvania appeared first on The Daily Signal.

On the latest episode of “The Tony Kinnett Cast,” we watch with morbid fascination as the Harris/Walz campaign flips from a basement strategy to a strut through a media tour (well, a tour of the media that sings its praises). Vice President Kamala Harris horrifies Americans on friendly interview shows as hurricane survivors attempt to prepare for a second major storm. The least the media could have done was refrain from editing her worst answers, as a very friendly “60 Minutes” did with her answer on Israel. Thank goodness we have the recordings of both cuts of the interview and we play them for you on the show. We also examine the phenomenon of “poll delay” and why it could cost both campaigns severely in the presidential elections. How long do serious regional and national events take to affect poll numbers? How can you tell? Friend of the show and assistant professor Nick Dwork of the University of Colorado stops by to analyze the plateauing of artificial intelligence and to explain where the future of the field is (fantasy-horror dystopian future not included). Catch the live radio show and livestream weeknights at 7 p.m. EDT on The Daily Signal’s YouTube, X, or Facebook—and subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode or exclusive interview! The post The Kamala Harris ‘Media Blitz’ Is a DISASTER appeared first on The Daily Signal.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A group of family therapists learned that denying so-called gender-affirming care to children is an example of “implicit bias” in a Zoom call recorded Monday and obtained by The Daily Signal. The Zoom-based training, titled “Recognizing Bias: Avoiding Pitfalls in Gender-Affirming Care,” was hosted by family psychologist Dr. Shawn Giammattei, who identifies as a transgender man. Giammattei’s training teaches marriage and family therapists to overcome their “unconscious bias” toward transgender children. Pamela Garfield-Jaeger, a self-described “anti-woke” social worker and author of “A Practical Response to Gender Distress: Tips and Tools for Families,” attended the Zoom training call Monday and shared the recording of it with The Daily Signal. “A lot of ageism that comes up is about kids’ ability to know themselves and what age they can actually make informed decisions about their medical care,” Giammattei said during the training call, “and that we have this idea actually that trans people can’t know it no matter how old they are.” COMING SOON: Denying ‘gender-affirming care’ to children Is ‘ageist’, family therapists learn in virtual training, recorded by @truththerapist "A lot of ageism that comes up is about kids' ability to know themselves and what age they can actually make informed decisions about… pic.twitter.com/AHCcUdoUOJ— Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell (@TheElizMitchell) October 8, 2024 The training call came shortly after medical nonprofit watchdog Do No Harm launched a database of 225 hospitals that provide sex-change surgeries, puberty blockers, and/or hormone therapies to children. Nearly 14,000 American children underwent sex-change interventions of some type between 2019 and 2023, according to Do No Harm. Minors who received transgender medical procedures increasingly have been detransitioning after regretting that they took hormones and/or had healthy body parts surgically removed. Chloe Cole says she started identifying as a boy at 12 years old and went under the knife at just 15, only to regret it a few months later. Giammattei uses the “gender-affirmative model” of counseling, which assumes that “the kid is the expert on their own identity.” A slide titled “Understanding Your Gender Web” is part of Shawn Giammattei’s training for counselors. (Pamela Garfield-Jaeger) Giammattei is the founder and CEO of three gender counseling organizations: the Gender Health Training Institute, Quest Family Therapy, and TransFamily Alliance. Giammettei is a psychology professor and associate director of mental health at the Child and Adolescent Gender Center Department of Pediatrics at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco. Giammattei did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment. Giammattei started the Zoom session with a “land acknowledgment” before stating the purpose of the training: making listeners aware of the “types of bias that arise in even the most gender-affirming providers.” “So there’s a lot of internalized transphobia that we all end up with, or homophobia, or all the rest of those things,” the psychologist said. The training aimed to help therapists consider “your own personal and cultural gender narratives and their influence on potential negative and positive biases” by covering “your own gender development and its impact on your understanding of gender for yourself, your kids, and your expectations for clients and their families.” A slide outlines topics in Giammattei’s training for counselors. (Pamela Garfield-Jaeger) The most common form of implicit bias against transgender people, the transgender instructor said on the Zoom call, is “parents not supporting their kids.” “The difference between kids who are supported is that about 4% of them are suicidal,” Giammattei said. “It’s about on par with the rest of the population. For those who are not supported by their parents, 54%.” Giammattei’s statement is in line with what critics call a common lie told to parents: that they have to choose between a living son and a dead daughter. The psychologist also argued that there is a “relationship between anti-trans laws and suicidality.” After discussing suicide rates for trans youth, Giammattei said that “people who were able to get access to gender-affirming care were doing a lot better. They were much happier.” Giammattei admitted that many family therapists are “child-centered,” ignoring the parents or guardians of minors. “We tend to do collateral work with parents, and we don’t include them on the journey,” Giammattei said. “We expect them to just show up and get it. And they have a whole process that they need to go through that’s part of this. And so I think that it’s frustrating. It’s like, why do I have to work with you?” Therapists are often “unaware of the beliefs we have that may impact our clients,” Giammattei said, adding: “I have these negative biases, and I can feel them in my body.” Giammattei told therapists in the Zoom call that they all have biases. (Pamela Garfield-Jaeger) Giammattei refers to herself as a “man” with “white privilege” who constantly needs to go through “the cisgender privilege checklist.” “I stand here before you as a very privileged man,” Giammattei said. “I’ll put it that way. Even though I have a transgender experience, I’m privileged in the fact that my family was affluent, although I ended up homeless.” Holding “the idea that sex outside of your marriage is infidelity” is an example of bias, the psychologist said, describing asking clients about their “take on consensual nonmonogamy” and “polyamory.” Therapists are biased if they believe those things are wrong, Giammattei said. “I may push more for people to try things that they may not have thought of,” the psychologist said. Transgender individuals are victims of transphobia and the cure to their struggles is “expressing one’s authentic gender.” Giammattei prefers the “Gender Affirmative Model” for counseling kids who say they are transgender. (Pamela Garfield-Jaeger) “Gender variations are not disorders,” one slide read by the presenter says. “Gender presentations are diverse and varied across culture, requiring cultural sensitivity/humility.” Giammattei advertised a two-day training session later this month titled “Unpacking and Contextualizing Gender: Managing Bias in the Therapeutic Relationship.” Such awareness training is an “ongoing, never-ending process” about “becoming fully aware of what’s happening in our biases and how they impact the work that we do,” Giammattei said. The post EXCLUSIVE: Denying ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ to Children Is ‘Ageist’, Family Therapists Learn in Training appeared first on The Daily Signal.

TikTok Gets Sued for Harming Children's Mental Health

Will These Storms Corrupt the Election Results?

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a government agency, previously predicted in May that this year, the country would experience "above-normal hurricane activity in the Atlantic basin."The agency's National Weather Service forecasters at the Climate Prediction Center reported earlier this year that the 2024 hurricane season, stretching from June 1 through November 30, had an 85% chance of an above-normal season, only a 10% chance of near-normal, and just a 5% chance of below-normal.'Extremely dangerous, life-threatening storm.'NOAA estimated that this year's hurricane season would likely see "17 to 25 named storms" with wind gusts of 39 mph or more. Of those storms, it predicted that eight to 13 of them would become hurricanes with winds of 74 mph or higher. It also forecasted that there would be four to seven "major hurricanes" that would reach Category 3, 4, or 5, with winds of 111 mph or more."Forecasters have a 70% confidence in these ranges," NOAA reported.The agency claimed that several factors contributed to the above-normal season, including warm temperatures and fewer trade winds and less wind shear in the Atlantic Ocean, as well as La Nina conditions in the Pacific.FEMA Deputy Administrator Erik A. Hooks commented on the NOAA report at the time, stating, "Severe weather and emergencies can happen at any moment, which is why individuals and communities need to be prepared today.""Already, we are seeing storms move across the country that can bring additional hazards like tornadoes, flooding, and hail," Hooks continued. "Taking a proactive approach to our increasingly challenging climate landscape today can make a difference in how people can recover tomorrow."Despite the federal government and, more specifically, FEMA having knowledge of the above-normal prediction at least since May, the Biden-Harris administration seemed ill-prepared to handle the devastation of Hurricane Helene. Many reports from those on the ground who volunteered to help stranded individuals in need claimed that FEMA's response was slow at best.In the wake of Helene, Florida residents are once again bracing themselves for the oncoming Hurricane Milton that is set to barrel through the peninsula this week. The storm is expected to reach landfall as a Category 3. Over 1 million Floridians are under evacuation orders.The United States Department of Labor posted on X Tuesday afternoon, "[Milton] is an extremely dangerous, life-threatening storm. LEAVE NOW if you are in an evacuation zone; there will not be time to leave on Wednesday."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Grant Cardone is undoubtedly among the top entrepreneurs in our country, with several businesses under his belt and millions of Americans tuning in for his advice on financial management. And Cardone has some extraordinarily important input for Americans under the current Biden-Harris regime. “We were actually looking at buying a half a billion dollars worth of the real estate in New York City when in February they put the judgment on Trump,” Cardone tells Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report.” “My wife’s like, ‘You need to start a GoFundMe account for Donald Trump.’” “And I’m like, ‘No, no, I need to pull out of all these New York deals. You start the GoFundMe account.’ She did, and we pulled out of those deals, about half a billion dollars. Have since placed it in Fort Lauderdale, in Miami, just because of that judgment,” Cardone explains, adding, “Now, you can see today what they’re doing with the mayor. They eat their own.” Cardone, like many others, has ditched other states like California due to financial interests. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris has been championing her plan to give $25,000 to first-time homebuyers as well as build three million new homes across the country — which Cardone is incredibly concerned by. “That’ll crash the housing market,” Cardone says, adding, “It’s going to immediately inflate the cost of housing across the country.” While Cardone believes a Kamala presidency represents a bleak financial future for Americans, he does have an idea of where to invest no matter the outcome. “Where do you see kind of greener pastures? If people are trying to figure out where to buy something,” Rubin asks. “Florida, anywhere in Florida. The panhandle is going to be a boom. Miami and Fort Lauderdale will be winners,” Cardone answers. “Texas is going to be great, Dallas will be a super city, Austin will be one of the great boom cities of the next 30 years.” “It’s going to take a second, some of these cities are very soft right now. Houston has no housing stock there, they haven’t built anything in the last two years. That’ll be a boom here over ‘26 and ‘27. Nashville will be great, the Carolinas is going to be awesome, parts of Georgia, not all of it, but Atlanta. Savannah will be a great city. Myrtle Beach, all that,” he adds. 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.

College students across the state of Arizona received a text message from the Harris campaign, prompting questions about student privacy and possible violations of federal law.On Sunday, the College Republicans of Arizona State University took to social media to share a text message that many students on campus apparently received. The message, signed by Kamala Harris, encouraged students to register to vote."Tim Walz and I are the underdogs in this election," said the message from Harris, who has been vice president for nearly four years. "We need your support to win.""Your vote is your voice and your power," the message continued, according to a screenshot. "You must not let anybody take your power from you."The ASU CRs appeared to be incensed by the text, claiming it may amount to "election interference." They also indicated that the Harris team accessed student information that should otherwise be "confidential."Republican state Sen. Jake Hoffman was likewise concerned that laws may have been broken and accused Harris of "exploit[ing] private student data" to benefit her campaign."It is ILLEGAL for political campaigns to access personally identifiable information (PII) of public university students within AZ," Hoffman continued. "This is a MAJOR security breach!"Hoffman then called for "a full [state] Senate investigation immediately."'Under federal law, directory information is not considered private unless students opt to withhold it from public disclosure.'The law in question is called the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, better known as FERPA, and it regulates the information to which students' family members are entitled, especially once the students become legal adults.So far, all three affected Arizona schools — Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Arizona — have stated emphatically that the information is a matter of public record unless a student deliberately chooses to "withhold" it and that the Harris campaign did not violate FERPA in accessing it.The following are statements that these schools submitted to the New York Post:A representative from ASU said: The contact information of enrolled students (including their cell phone numbers) is a matter of public record. This is not ASU policy. Under FERPA, it is considered 'directory information,' along with other basic information like the student’s major, dates of attendance and enrollment status. It is common for entities that want to advertise to ASU students to request this publicly available contact information — everything from apartment complexes, to credit cards, to political candidates.A spokesperson from NAU wrote in an email: "We receive these types of requests many times throughout the year and the requestor must pay for data they ask for."A UA spokesperson added:Organizations can request directory information through the University of Arizona Office of Public Records. Under federal law, directory information is not considered private unless students opt to withhold it from public disclosure. Students can make this election at any time through their online student portal.The UA spokesperson also denied that the Harris campaign had been the party that requested the information. The Post indicated that such "directory information" may have been given to a third party.In response to social media chatter about possible FERPA violations, Democratic strategist Tony Cani became snarky. "I know Republicans in AZ are ages behind when it comes to modern campaigning, but their ignorance doesn't excuse this absolute lie that a text message like this asking students to register to vote is 1) election interference and 2) somehow against the law," he wrote.Cani also suggested that Republicans may simply be laying the groundwork for contesting another election. "Instead of doing the work themselves to reach potential voters, the Trump world is ... playing victim so if they lose, they can ... spread conspiracy theories that claim the election was stolen," he added.The ASU College Republicans did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Senior journalist Andrea Mitchell was excoriated online by the left after she said Vice President Kamala Harris (D) was not being taken seriously and could ease the problem by taking more interviews. Mitchell made the comments on MSNBC while discussing the Democratic candidate's polling problems and chalked up a lot of the lack of support to misogyny among voters and especially men. 'I think that there's misogynation in all of this, black and white men, big problem.' "They've got to double down on doing more interviews and serious interviews, because what I'm hearing from Democratic and Republican businesspeople, and a lot of men, and she's got such a big problem with men," said Mitchell. "I think there's an undercount of the Trump vote. I think that there's misogynation in all of this, black and white men, big problem. But also the business world, they don't think she is serious. They don't think she's a heavyweight," she continued. "And a lot of this is gender, but she's got to be more specific about her economic plan."A 30-second clip of Mitchell's comments was posted to social media, where many on the left reacted with fury and anger. "Calling a female presidential candidate unserious while trump’s talking about sharks and hannibal lecter is so blatantly misogynistic. Come on," read one popular response. "Who the f*** cares what this tragic corpse thinks?" read another response. "Andrea Mitchell needs to retire with her old, ignorant ass. No one takes Andrea Mitchell serious. She says this stupid s*** and talks about people not thinking Kamala is 'serious' or a 'heavyweight,' and she says this while Kamala Harris's opponent is Donald Trump," responded another critic. "Andrea Mitchell hates women so much. She did the same thing to Hillary Clinton when she ran. It's a mark of shame that @MSNBC keeps her on," read another reply. The video of Mitchell's comments garnered over 3.1 million views. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

An all-volunteer group run by military veterans set up operations in Swannanoa, North Carolina, immediately following the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene to provide humanitarian aid and emergency services to those impacted by the storm.Last week, Blaze Media was on the ground with that volunteer group, which has dubbed itself the "Redneck Air Force." Blaze News' Julio Rosas provided firsthand accounts of the team's efforts, explaining that the group set up its forward operating base in a Harley-Davidson dealership that was previously flooded by the hurricane. The volunteers worked quickly and efficiently, establishing a well-oiled machine that ran communications, delivered supplies, and allocated personnel to help those in need. Image Source: Blaze News'We flew almost nonstop sunrise to sunset.'Former Green Beret Adam Smith recruited several men and women to assist with coordinating and flying out critically needed supplies to those in the impacted area after they observed a lack of assistance from the federal government. Many of the volunteer emergency responders providing aid in the region have expressed similar frustrations regarding the Biden-Harris administration's response, or lack thereof. The Blaze Media team also joined Mercury One, a charity founded by Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck, which has partnered with the United Cajun Navy, a nonprofit organization, to deliver supplies and perform search-and-rescue operations in the affected zones."Blaze News Tonight" host Jill Savage told Blaze News, "Our day in North Carolina was one none of us will ever forget. The military veterans and others jumped into action and started to organize all the incoming supplies. Your donations through Mercury One have been the lifeline for these communities when they have nothing else. When the government was nowhere to be found, we were blessed to see neighbors helping neighbors."Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) was on the ground with the Redneck Air Force and Mercury One over the past week to participate in providing disaster relief. Savage told Blaze News, "Congressman Cory Mills has gone above and beyond every day making numerous runs for supplies runs and medical calls. He isn't there just to get his picture taken and leave. He has rolled up his sleeves and made a huge impact in the community." Glenn Beck and Congressman Cory Mills (Image Source: Blaze News)While on the ground in Asheville, Rosas spoke with John H. Kinard III, a Tennessee pilot and veteran with Aeroluxe Aviation, a helicopter tour agency based in Nashville that saw the devastation in North Carolina and decided to use its helicopter fleet to help.Kinard told Rosas there has been "a complete and utter lack of federal government response," noting that he has "seen nobody on the ground."As we begin to approach the winter season and many in the rural, mountainous areas remain without power, volunteers running supplies via helicopter are placing an even greater priority on delivering generators, fuel, and portable stoves to isolated individuals. The volunteer team's efforts to help those in need were halted for at least a couple of hours last week when President Joe Biden visited days after the hurricane swept through the area. Operations to rescue stranded individuals and deliver supplies were put on hold due to the president's visit, which placed a temporary flight restriction within a 30-mile radius. The helicopter Mills and the Blaze News team were on was grounded for two hours, waiting for the restriction to pass. Biden previously claimed that his visit would not interrupt operations. Image Source: Blaze NewsAeroluxe Aviation provided Blaze News with an update on Tuesday afternoon. "We flew almost nonstop sunrise to sunset with our three helicopters on missions delivering medical supplies, insulin, other medications, oxygen, perishable foods and dry goods. We finally pulled out of the area yesterday as we were seeing more military helicopters in the area and our missions were becoming less frequent," Aeroluxe Aviation stated, noting that one of its helicopters sustained some minor damage while in North Carolina. The helicopter tour agency explained that its workers were "met with resistance from local police in Chimney Rock when attempting to land last week, which was perplexing.""We were unable to land to drop supplies and were waved off," Aeroluxe Aviation said. "All other areas welcomed the assistance when we landed, and we made every effort to contact each area before landing to determine need and safe LZs [landing zones]. Not all local fire/police departments had comms so our operations manager on the ground from Aeroluxe, Anthony Velasquez, was scrubbing social media for people asking for help or looking for loved ones. He would direct our resources with supplies or wellness checks to those areas in conjunction with Savage Freedoms."The company noted that it plans to help again should the need arise. Kinard also provided an update to Blaze News, stating that the operations out of the Harley-Davidson shop were "going great when we left." He noted that he recruited friends with Blackhawk helicopters to relieve his team."The federal government is definitely trying to keep the volunteers from helping!" he stated. "We aren't considered 3rd party approved vendors so they won't give people FEMA money.""I want the rest of the United States to know and understand we have to take care of ourselves!!!" he added. "STOP RELYING ON THE US GOVERNMENT!!!" — (@) Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!