I accidentally got ready for Thursday night’s debate between Ron DeSantis and Gavin Newsom. Driving around the Los Angeles suburbs on Wednesday afternoon‚ I turned on one of our news radio stations in time to hear an entire interview with the director of a downtown homeless shelter. You can listen to it here‚ and be sure to pay close attention to the exchange that happens around the 2:40 mark. The reporter notes that Newsom has been bragging about how many homeless people California has managed to get off the streets‚ framing it as a policy win that makes his state more successful than Florida. The shelter director annihilates the premise as if from a great height: Florida’s largest homeless population is in Miami‚ he says‚ with around 3‚800 people on the street‚ while Los Angeles has 70‚000 homeless people. Seventy thousand. We treat political debates as a meaningful activity‚ or we’re supposed to. Sorry‚ I can’t do it. The Christian Bale character we have for a governor in the formerly Golden State is a quick‚ aggressive‚ and sociopathically shameless liar. But 3‚800 to 70‚000? Good night‚ and thanks for coming. The whole state has closer to 170‚000 people on the streets‚ by the way‚ while Florida has a little over 27‚000‚ with almost 15‚000 of those in shelters. Go walk around San Francisco if these numbers are feeling too abstract. The most important way we’re reducing California’s homeless population is through a miserable‚ ugly‚ constant march of deaths: “The mortality rate among homeless people in Los Angeles County has increased by 55% in recent years‚ according to the latest county public health report. In 2019‚ 1‚289 people experiencing homelessness died. This number increased to 1‚811 in 2020 and 2‚201 in 2021.” The real debate is written in the streets‚ in tents and bodies. It’s written in the tax codes‚ in the U-Haul rentals‚ and in the prices at the gas stations. What's to debate? How important is it to get in some really deft zingers? Newsom has better timing‚ better delivery‚ better teeth‚ and a lot more death and misery in tents on the sidewalk. Congratulations. Ron DeSantis isn’t a show pony‚ and it’s increasingly obvious that he can’t even play one on TV. He got in a great line‚ early in the debate‚ about Newsom's father-in-law fleeing California for Florida‚ and then he stepped on it. He rushed past the punch line‚ diving into his next sentence with a remarkable inability to find the pause that lets the other guy writhe on the hook for a moment. One beat‚ two beats‚ audience gets the joke‚ audience starts to laugh‚ boom‚ next line to slam it home. DeSantis doesn’t have that. Ladies and gentlemen‚ I am sorry: DeSantis will never have that. It just isn’t in him. Here's my full analysis of that moment‚ which perfectly demonstrates how poorly DeSantis performs the silly ritual of "debating": Who cares? Who could possibly care? Gavin Newsom’s father-in-law actually fled California for Florida. He did so because California is poorly governed and Florida is well governed. Reality goes on‚ no matter how anyone performs the lines their consultants scripted for them. As a Californian‚ I “watched” the “debate” in the way I'm accustomed to watching my governor‚ which means that I hit pause a lot to shout obscenities at the screen‚ fast-forwarded through several waves of nausea‚ and paced around the living room trying to unclench my fists. Only Larry Flynt would publish a transcript of me responding to the sound of Gavin Newsom speaking‚ and Larry’s dead. Most obviously‚ against a clear record of relentless and astonishing decline‚ Newsom smirked and performed loud acts of clumsy misdirection. Yes‚ a massive number of people have fled the state‚ and here's the Public Policy Institute of California saying it: California is in the midst of an unprecedented demographic period: the state’s population is declining for the first time since records have been kept. Between January 2020 and January 2023 California lost almost 800‚000 residents‚ according to estimates by the state’s Department of Finance. Newsom’s response is to shout that we dominate‚ we dominate! We have biotech! We have important universities! He answers any question but the one you asked him‚ because he’s Gavin Newsom. In the Canadian House of Commons this week‚ opposition leader Pierre Poilievre asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the astonishing increase in the cost of living for Canadians and the resulting insecurity in food and housing. Trudeau responded‚ in large part‚ by leaping to his feet and shouting in a state of performative rage that Canadian conservatives no longer stand with Ukraine. This style of “debate” … Question: Why is food so expensive? Answer: YOU LOVE PUTIN?!?!?!? ... is constantly‚ infuriatingly in evidence any time Gavin Newsom stands on a stage somewhere. Newsom and Trudeau‚ separated at birth. The real debate is written in the streets‚ in tents and bodies. It’s written in the tax codes‚ in the U-Haul rentals‚ in the prices at the gas stations ($3.16 in Florida to $4.85 in California as I write this)‚ in the faces of the families that moved to Florida during the pandemic because they could feel freedom there. The thing on television was the echo of the debate‚ not the thing itself. There are no mysteries about the identity of the winners and the losers.

Dear Elon‚ I appreciated your words at the New York Times DealBook Summit on Wednesday. Keep fighting the system. It is corrupt‚ and you are right about Media Matters for America. I have worked at CNN and Fox News. You would not believe how many “journalists” base not only their stories but also their worldviews on Media Matters’ emails and posts. While you’re at it‚ take a look at the rat’s nest that is the Poynter Institute. They have been practically demanding that journalists tell “a story” as opposed to reporting the facts. What they preach‚ teach‚ and fund is straight-up propaganda. Now‚ I know how Media Matters works. Sharyl Attkisson wrote a great book called “The Smear” about how all of this works. She explained how groups like Media Matters developed their current strategies — the ones they’re now using against X — when they tried to destroy my voice. Let me introduce you to Angelo Carusone‚ the chairman and president of Media Matters. I knew him when he was just a loner in his mom’s basement. He was the guy who started the first advertiser boycott of my show (he even brags about it in his Media Matters bio). Media Matters latched on to him‚ and today he runs the place. Many times‚ Carusone and his comrades gathered a list of names of advertisers that never advertised on my program and demanded that they promise never to advertise. A great example is when Media Matters announced that Mercedes-Benz would not advertise on my program. Well‚ at the time‚ my radio show had been on air for 30 years‚ and Mercedes-Benz had never advertised with me. Media Matters tried to make it look like Mercedes-Benz rejected me because I was some kind of Nazi. Meanwhile‚ the world has pictures of Adolf Hitler riding around waving while in Mercedes’ product. I welcomed the fight with Mercedes over who really loved Nazis. You said at the DealBook Summit that what you are experiencing is “blackmail.” It is closer to economic terrorism. Many times‚ companies go with Media Matters’ demands not because they agree with them but rather because they are told‚ “If you don't‚ then we'll let our radicals loose on you‚ too.” If that isn’t economic terrorism‚ I don’t know what is. But Media Matters only exists because a well-funded network of radicals and far-left donors continue to prop it up. Keep following the money. Look at George Soros. Act Blue. Arabella Advisors. The Sixteen Thirty Fund. The New Venture Fund. The Hopewell Fund. In 2021‚ Soros-associated groups gave hundreds of thousands to Media Matters‚ and they have provided millions in total since David Brock founded the organization in 2004. In 2010‚ for example‚ Soros personally donated $1 million to Media Matters. The Ford Foundation‚ another financier of radical causes‚ gave $4 million to Media Matters between 2010 and 2015. Other far-left organizations behind Media Matters include the Tides Foundation (Soros)‚ MoveOn (Soros)‚ and the Democracy Alliance (Soros). Together‚ those foundations and nonprofits have funneled billions to left-wing groups over the past decade. Oh‚ and let’s not forget Hillary Clinton. In 2007‚ she bragged that she “helped to start and support” Media Matters. Media Matters is a mouthpiece for the far left masquerading as a watchdog. Its business is built on lies and money from dangerous people like Soros. If X wins its lawsuit‚ Media Matters may not survive. Good. It doesn’t deserve to.

The Pogues classic "Fairytale of New York" isn't the only Christmas song to express the disillusionment and despair the season often brings — Tom Waits' "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" comes to mind. Nor is the way it finds modest hope in the midst of squalor and dysfunction unique — Robert Earl Keen performs a similar trick in "Merry Christmas from the Family." But as far as I know it's the only Yuletide staple to do these things while gently mocking America's cherished‚ sentimental notions of the "immigrant experience." Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan‚ who died yesterday at 65‚ portrays an Irishman living in New York City tossed into the drunk tank on Christmas Eve. Hearing his cellmate sing the Irish ballad "The Rare Old Mountain Dew" prompts him to imagine a conversation with his former girlfriend‚ also an immigrant‚ portrayed by the late English singer Kirsty MacColl. Like him‚ she came to America with big ambitions she never managed to realize. Their pugnacious duet is a sympathetic portrait of those who bet on a new life and lose‚ and yet it doesn't entirely let them off the hook. Failure has exposed their delusions ("You promised me Broadway was waiting for me‚" she complains) and viciousness (he calls her a "slut"; she calls him a "faggot.") In the end what do they have to offer their adopted country apart from public intoxication and an additional burden on taxpayer-funded methadone clinics? You might say Ireland isn't sending its best. If this doesn't offend as much as Trump's infamous crack about Mexicans‚ it's because we've long ago learned to think of Irish-Americans as "white." And white people inflict racism rather than suffer from it. It takes some effort (at least for sheltered‚ historically illiterate Americans) to imagine a time when the Irish fled conditions just a brutal as any faced by our modern-day refugees‚ only to meet with discrimination just as harsh as that endured by formerly enslaved black people. Also‚ earlier immigrants to America — be they European or Chinese or Indian — tended to arrive with the assumption that their new home owed them nothing. At the very least this realistic attitude allowed them to conserve time and energy that would otherwise have been wasted on self-pity and resentment. Some of this is reflected in the atmosphere of cheerful resignation that keeps "Fairytale of New York"' from slipping into bathos. But in Ireland some remain painfully conscious of the shame at the heart of leaving home in search of a better life. MacGowan himself was the child of immigrants: His parents were Irish‚ but he was born in England. It was as part of London's flagging punk scene that he first had the inspiration to draw from Irish folk music. His distinctly irreverent approach angered many in Ireland‚ as did the way he seemed to perpetuate the worst stereotypes of the Irish diaspora. Even as Irish leaders celebrate MacGowan as a national treasure‚ misgivings about what he represents linger. Writing in the "Irish Times" three years ago‚ Michael O'Loughlin noted "an element of dismissiveness and distaste" whenever some of his countrymen discussed the singer‚ chalking it up to a kind of national repression: "MacGowan in all his flawed glory is a constant reminder of the guilt and trauma of an episode we have yet to fully confront." The value of the wonderful music MacGowan leaves behind is obvious. But what of this complicated legacy? Pondering it might help us see the current wave of immigrants vexing us more clearly‚ neither as ravenous hordes nor saintly victims but as flawed fellow humans who want the same things for themselves and their children as anybody else. With this clarity comes the necessary acknowledgment that this crisis‚ however we may be bungling it at the moment‚ is not of our making. Even the most opportunistic‚ benefits-seeking immigrant of conservative nightmares would be unlikely to undergo the risk and inconvenience of illegal immigration if conditions at home weren't sufficiently dire. Every non-native U.S. citizen‚ of course‚ owes his life here to ancestors who fled somewhere else. But the economic‚ social‚ and spiritual coherence that once allowed for the seemingly limitless assimilation of newly minted Americans is not what it once was. If we have a moral obligation to compensate for the failures of another country‚ surely we also have an obligation to ensure the success of our own.

Sandra Day O'Connor‚ who broke the glass ceiling and became the first woman to hold a seat on the Supreme Court‚ died Friday morning. She was 93 years old.The Supreme Court said O'Connor died from "complications related to advanced dementia‚ probably Alzheimer’s‚ and a respiratory illness." O'Connor disclosed her diagnosis in 2018‚ saying she planned to withdraw from public life."We at the Supreme Court mourn the loss of a beloved colleague‚ a fiercely independent defender of the rule of law‚ and an eloquent advocate for civics education. And we celebrate her enduring legacy as a true public servant and patriot‚" Chief Justice John Roberts said in a statement.O'Connor graduated from Stanford Law School in 1952 and worked tirelessly to overcome disadvantages for women in American society at the time. For three years beginning in 1954‚ O'Connor served as a civilian attorney in the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps while her husband‚ John Jay O'Connor‚ was deployed to Germany.Upon returning to the U.S.‚ O'Connor opened her own law firm. She took a several-year hiatus from practicing law after the birth of her third child before returning to work as an assistant state attorney general in Arizona. In 1969‚ O'Connor was appointed to fill a vacant seat in the Arizona State Senate‚ where she served until 1975 as a Republican. During her tenure as a lawmaker‚ O'Connor became the first woman in U.S. history to hold a majority leader post in a state legislature.From January 1975 to December 1979‚ O'Connor served on the Maricopa County Superior Court before becoming a judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals.In 1981‚ then-President Ronald Reagan nominated O'Connor to serve on the Supreme Court. Reagan described O'Connor as "truly a person for all seasons‚ possessing those unique qualities of temperament‚ fairness‚ intellectual capacity‚ and devotion to the public good which have characterized the 101 brethren who have preceded her."The Senate unanimously confirmed O'Connor's nomination to the court‚ where she served until her retirement in January 2006.On the bench‚ O'Connor was a moderate conservative justice who was not afraid to side with her liberal colleagues. O'Connor was often the "swing vote‚" having cast the deciding vote in a whopping 360 Supreme Court cases that were ultimately decided by a 5-4 vote.Her court legacy includes her opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992)‚ which upheld the "essential holding" of Roe v. Wade‚ and Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)‚ a landmark decision upholding affirmative action. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors‚ sign up for our newsletters‚ and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

An intruder allegedly broke a window in his attempt to enter a North Carolina home Wednesday night and ignored verbal warnings — so the homeowner opened fire on the intruder‚ sending him to a hospital.What are the details?Knightdale police said the incident occurred around 11:20 p.m. in the 1300 block of Redwood Valley Lane‚ WTVD-TV reported.The homeowner told the police the suspect broke a window to get inside the house and ignored verbal warnings before the homeowner shot him‚ the station said.Police said they found 35-year-old Juan Acevedo of Knightdale with a gunshot wound when they arrived at the scene‚ WTVD said‚ adding that he was taken to WakeMed Trauma Center. The station said information on his condition hasn't been released.No charges have been filed against the homeowner‚ investigators told WTVD‚ although officials are consulting with the district attorney's office to discuss the case. The station said no details have been released regarding what charges Acevedo may face.Anyone in the area with video or information about the incident is urged to contact police at 919-217-2281‚ WTVD said.How are folks reacting?Folks commenting underneath WTVD's Facebook post about the incident seem decidedly supportive of the homeowner's actions:"Well he F’ed around and found out‚" one commenter wrote."THE GUY WAS BREAKING IN. Charge him with breaking and entering and tell the homeowner thank you for doing what they are supposed to do‚" another commenter said. "End of story.""Need to read a feel-good story every day‚" another commenter noted."Only mistake is that he's at the hospital!! Not the morgue!!" another commenter opined."Good for him!!!! So glad he got him‚" another commenter declared."He won't break into another house for a while‚" another commenter observed.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors‚ sign up for our newsletters‚ and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Foreigner continues its farewell with a co-headlining tour that also includes special guest John Waite The post Styx and Foreigner Set 2024 Tour‚ ‘Renegades &; Juke Box Heroes’ appeared first on Best Classic Bands.

Despite an incurable muscular disease‚ the popular singer‚ songwriter and guitarist has extended his return to the stage The post Peter Frampton Continues Return to Performing With 2024 Tour appeared first on Best Classic Bands.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is absolutely packed with amazing characters in every corner of its vast world. Yet as a Dungeons and Dragons RPG game‚ a big part of the appeal is player creativity‚ so it’s beautiful to see one of the most popular BG3 characters that wasn't made by developer Larian Studios recognized in an official in-game capacity as part of BG3 patch 5. Continue reading Baldur’s Gate 3’s new epilogue makes fan favorite character canon MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Baldur's Gate 3 builds‚ BG3 mods‚ Baldur's Gate 3 classes

What are the best Sims 4 CC creators? Since its release way back in 2014‚ the iconic life sim community has been working tirelessly to produce a near-endless supply of custom content to complement the game. Creators have even gone as far as creating whole packs of content‚ akin to the official Stuff Packs released by EA. It can seem impossible to even know where to begin‚ so we've done the heavy lifting for you to find the best custom content you can download for one of the best free PC games right now. Most of the best Sims 4 CC packs featured here are Maxis Match CC‚ meaning it’s been designed to fit the art style of The Sims 4 and should blend in seamlessly. We recommend reading our how to install Sims 4 CC guide before attempting to apply these custom packs to your game. Continue reading The best Sims 4 CC creators December 2023 MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best Sims 4 mods‚ Best Sims 4 sex mods‚ The Sims 4 cheats

What are the best auto battlers? The auto chess and auto battler genre may have been a flash in the pan‚ but it's been a fascinating one. It all started with Dota Auto Chess‚ a custom game mode for Dota 2 which then spun off to do its own thing‚ simply called Auto Chess. Valve took notice‚ and decided to create the ill-fated Dota Underlords. If you're interested in auto chess games‚ our list of the best auto battlers available to play will steer you in the right direction. Underlords has sadly stopped receiving support since the end of 2020. However‚ while there aren't too many decent contenders for the crown of 'best' auto battler‚ the entries on this list all do something a little different‚ representing the best PC games the scene can offer. Continue reading The best auto battlers and auto chess games 2023 MORE FROM PCGAMESN: How to play Teamfight Tactics‚ Best Teamfight Tactics items‚ How to upgrade Teamfight Tactics champions