Blue state’s progressive experiment collapses after a decade
Certain 2024 election results in California took many by surprise.
The Golden State’s residents, for example, rejected another term for progressive Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, backed by billionaire George Soros.
They also overwhelmingly voted — at more than 70% — in favor of Proposition 36, the Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act, which seeks to undo portions of Proposition 47 from 2014 by increasing penalties for some crimes. The proposition, which took effect Dec. 18, will allow felony charges to be filed against those possessing certain drugs and those who commit thefts under $950. Additionally, people accused of those crimes could spend more time in jail.
In other words, the ballot measure aims to crack down on certain minor felonies that would not have been labeled misdemeanors and gone unpunished — or lightly punished — under Proposition 47.
INCUMBENT SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR CONCEDES TO OPPONENT AMID CONCERNS OVER HOMELESS, DRUG OVERDOSES
When Prop 47 passed in 2014, it downgraded most thefts from felonies to misdemeanors if the amount stolen was under $950, “unless the defendant had prior convictions of murder, rape, certain sex offenses, or certain gun crimes.”
Progressives criticized the measure as racist. The ACLU of Northern California described Prop 47 in a press release as “part of a broader conservative strategy in California and across the nation to roll back criminal justice reforms aimed at interrupting the cycle of mass incarceration of Black and Brown people.”
Others believe the new bill will bring positive change to the state, especially in areas that have been grappling with violent crime for years.
“We’re making theft a felony again.”
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said Prop 36 is “definitely going to make things better” in California. The proposition will help mitigate three big issues in California, he said, including drugs, homelessness and theft.
DRUG ARRESTS PROVE THIS CITY IS A ‘MAGNET’ FOR HOMELESSNESS, CRIME, ACTIVIST SAYS
“Being safe is not a Republican or a Democrat issue. Being safe is a human issue,” Bianco told Fox News Digital. “Being safe is an American issue. We have a lot of freedoms in this country. We’re the greatest country in the world. And with that comes a big responsibility of keeping the people that are going to victimize us out of our free society.”
Californians are “tired” of public safety laws not doing enough to protect the state’s residents and businesses from crime and homelessness, which is why Bianco believes Prop 36 got vast support among state voters.
“We can now force people into rehab, or they’re going to do jail time. So with that, we know that the majority of our homeless problem is drug addiction. Drug-addicted psychosis causes this mental illness that leads to most of the people that we deal with in the homeless crisis,” Bianco explained.
CALIFORNIA CITY EXPERIENCING ‘PERFECT STORM’ OF CRIME AND SCANDAL: ‘VACUUM OF LEADERSHIP’
Seventy percent of people in the state who voted for Prop 36 want people who commit crimes to be held accountable, Bianco said.
“If you have a child and you discipline that child to stop them from doing things, they stop doing it,” Bianco said. “You raise productive kids. It’s not different with juveniles or adults, when they repeatedly get away with things, human nature is: You push the limit.”
Bob Larkin, vice president of retail customers at security firm Allied Universal, said the passage of Prop 36 “should have a much needed positive impact on the safety of both residents and businesses in these cities as well as the entire state.”
“Over the past decade, California has encountered a number of challenges, including increases in crime and substance abuse, which have affected safety and the quality of life,” Larkin said. “As the largest security company in the world, with approximately 800,000 employees, including 57,000 employees in the state, Allied Universal team members at customer sites observe the realities of crime in California every day.”
CALIFORNIA CRIME CRISIS: DOZENS OF CRIMINAL DEFENDANTS HANDED ‘GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARD’ ON TECHNICALITY‘
Larkin believes Prop 36 will help businesses and communities by giving them “effective tools to hold individuals accountable.”
“Supporters of the measure worked with major businesses and organizations that all wanted to effectively improve community safety. Allied Universal was a supporter of the proposition,” Larkin said, adding his belief that California residents “overwhelmingly approved the measure because they were seeing their communities and all businesses statewide severely impacted by the crime crisis that grew exponentially over the last several years.”
“This measure was needed to help improve the safety of employees, businesses and communities in California.”
California-based criminal defense attorney Julia Jayne, of the Julia Jayne Law Group, told Fox News Digital in a statement that Prop 36 means “defense attorneys will have to work harder to keep clients out of jail and prison in instances where that might not be the best solution.”
“I think it reflects a shift in California overall, where district attorneys have been recalled and where citizens are voting for harsher penalties for criminal conduct,” Jayne said. “The post-COVID years left many citizens with the feeling that crime was getting out of control, whether or not the actual data and statistics currently support that conclusion.”
She added, however, that she also believes the increase in felony charges will likely increase the prison population, and it’s “unclear” to her whether the measure will have a positive impact on California residents long term.
Zack Seyun, founder and CEO of Cartha AI, an L.A.-based mental health platform, told Fox News Digital that the passage of Prop 36 hit close to home for him, both professionally and personally.
LOS ANGELES DA GEORGE GASCON DEFENDS RECORD ON CRIME: ‘I KNOW HOW TO KEEP COMMUNITIES SAFE’
“As a business owner in the mental health space in Los Angeles, I am profoundly affected by California’s approach to crimes that concern the business sector, as well as the well-being of our communities—like retail theft and drug-related offenses,” Seyun said in a statement. “These are challenges I face in my business because they undermine the safety and security that my patients need to have the kinds of mental health conversations that will allow them to thrive again.”
But the proposition will have “complicated effects,” he added. On one hand, it may bring “a necessary, common-sense return to punishing thieves and some drug users more harshly—especially since what’s being reversed here are the reforms from the supposedly ‘reformative’ Prop 47 of 2014,” Seyun said.
On the other hand, Seyun said, he worries about the impact the new measure will have on incarceration rates in California, which are already high.
NEW PRISON DATA BLOWS UP NARRATIVE THAT LOW-LEVEL DRUG OFFENDERS ARE FILLING UP US PRISONS: EXPERTS
“I favor anything that will help reduce crime, but I also worry about the kind of society we are building. Higher prison populations can lead to overcrowding,” he said. “We can’t keep a certain number of individuals above ground in a certain amount of space without a serious potentially toxic allocation of local resources — the kind of allocation that redirects funds from essential community services… straight to the penal institution.”
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The business executive noted that the overwhelming support for Prop 36 from voters “speaks to the abundant public sentiment around crime and the perceived lack of adequate safety measures.”
“I’ve discussed the issue with storefront acquaintances who’ve had the same unfortunate brush with criminality that I have. When you get right down to it, business in the state feels vulnerable. Meeting that vulnerability with a sense of law is what Prop 36 is all about,” Seyun said.
The lesson Americans are teaching Dems with heavy election loss — just like Obama
“A shellacking.”
That is how President Barack Obama referred to the results of the midterm elections on November 2, 2010. Two years after winning the White House, Obama and the Democratic Party were soundly trounced, with Republicans regaining control of the House of Representatives (the largest turnover of seats since 1948), snagging a number of Senate seats, adding a half dozen gubernatorial seats, and achieving other assorted victories.
Such a resounding defeat would be humbling for any elected leader, even a president as fundamentally chill and confident as Obama.
DNC FUNDRAISER ROASTS PARTY’S ‘DELUSIONS’ ABOUT A KAMALA HARRIS POLITICAL COMEBACK: ‘NOT WHAT AMERICA WANTS’
But Obama took the loss with sensitivity and sober reflection.
“This is something that I think every president needs to go through,” Obama observed the day after his loss. “[B]ecause the responsibilities of this office are so enormous and so many people are depending on what we do, and in the rush of activity, sometimes we lose track of the ways that we connected with folks that got us here in the first place.”
“[N]ow, I’m not recommending for every future president that they take a shellacking like they — like I did last night,” Obama added with rueful humor. “I’m sure there are easier ways to learn these lessons. But I do think that this is a growth process and an evolution.”
The very American process of learning to accept defeat began during the early days of the Founding Fathers, continued within the tense framework of the Civil War, and moved onward amid the propulsions of the modern era.
For decades, United States voters have shuttled back and forth between the extant two major parties, rewarding them alternatively with victories and punishing them with defeats, carefully crafting a corrective balance of pragmatism, philosophy and harmony that has seen the parties sharing and exchanging power.
For both the Democrats and Republicans, therefore, sustaining long-term strength and clout has not been dependent on maintaining a permanent grip on power, but on a disciplined self-examination after electoral failure. Assessing errors and making changes in policy and presentation, the “growth process,” as Obama put it, has been an essential component of the American experiment.
Obama’s “shellacking,” George W. Bush’s 2006 midterm “thumping,” Richard Nixon’s narrow but decisive 1960 loss to JFK. These have been classic wake-up calls from the U.S. citizenry to chastened leaders.
“[O]ne of the great features of America is that we have political contests,” said Nixon when he conceded in 1960. “[T]hey are very hard fought, as this one was hard fought, and once the decision is made we unite behind the man who is elected.” Nixon, of course, came back to win the presidency in 1968.
Even perennial Republican favorite, Ronald Reagan, crashed in the 1982 midterms. “You ain’t seen nothing yet,” he said after roaring back to victory with his 1984 reelection and cementing his place in history as a party leading light.
Politics ain’t beanbag, and elections have huge consequences, personally for the losers, and nationally for the losing party. A little wound-licking and finger-pointing is to be expected.
But political comebacks for both parties nearly all have been marked by three distinctive elements: an honest appraisal of the party’s shortcomings, from the nominee on down; a respect for the victor, no matter how rancorous the contest; and a solid plan to generate fresh ideas, engage new voters, regain the confidence of the base and the wider electorate, and ensure internal change.
For the Democratic Party in 2024, this elemental process of recovery won’t be so simple.
First off, many Democrats remain in the grips of Trump Derangement Syndrome, which makes introspection and accommodation impossible. A week after the election, President Joe Biden graciously hosted the incoming POTUS for a conversation and a photo-op, but for some in the party, budging an inch on deeply held resentment and recrimination is a nonstarter.
Second, the Democratic Party has spent years in denial, which is a hard habit to break.
Pretending Biden was not suffering a severe loss of acuity, and engaging in a full-throttle effort to conceal, contradict, threaten and gaslight, was not only exhausting, but also implanted a knee-jerk defensiveness and hostility in everyone involved.
Furthermore, refusing to acknowledge that Vice President Kamala Harris was not a strong presidential candidate also has impeded the Democratic Party’s recovery process.
Top aides and party leaders have insisted that Harris was a great candidate who ran a “flawless” campaign, offering her credit for raising (rather than squandering) $1.5 billion in campaign contributions, and encouraging her to contemplate a return to the presidential arena in 2028.
A flawless campaign is not a losing one. Despite a strong opening few weeks in August, the vice president never ventured to outline her vision for a Harris administration, never risked a Sister Souljah moment, and never dared to forge her own path separate from the troubled Biden tenure. “There is not a thing that comes to mind,” she famously told the ladies of “The View” when asked what, “if anything,” she would have done “differently than President Biden during the past four years,” wasting an easy opportunity to define herself on her own terms.
To make matters worse for the Democrats, disgruntled factions have formed and solidified, some blaming Biden (for running again, for running at all, for dropping out, for not dropping out sooner), and just a few privately blaming Harris (for disloyal machinations, for a poor work ethic, for hijacking the nomination, for letting down the party), creating a sour but quiet din that serves no one.
A few Democrats even have doubled down on widely unpopular election issues such as a broad support of transgender rights and open-border policies.
In previous cycles, Democrats in distress have received backup from certain major media outlets such as MSNBC, CNN and the New York Times. But those agencies, damaged by their own cover-ups and complicity, and struggling to retain ratings and authority, are no longer available to provide much help.
Furthermore, refusing to acknowledge that Vice President Kamala Harris was not a strong presidential candidate also has impeded the Democratic Party’s recovery process.
The 2024 election revealed the depth of the party’s fractures. Without a coherent and unified theory of the case, it is now difficult for the Democrats to choose a path or foster rising talent. Instead, they are mired in internal resentments and conflict, tossing accusations that their fellows are too woke or too conservative, or wrong on foreign and domestic policy positions, while sticking with a reckless culture of vilification, cancelation and hypocrisy.
The Democrats have a few bright lights. Rising stars such as Rep. Ro Khanna of California and Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York have both been forthright about the realities and lessons of 2024. They have been explicit about how the Democrats have veered off course, yet optimistic and creative about the future of the party.
Torres has been especially critical of the woke fringe of his party. “Donald Trump has no greater friend than the far left, which has managed to alienate historic numbers of Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and Jews from the Democratic Party with absurdities like ‘Defund the Police’ or ‘From the River to the Sea’ or ‘Latinx,’” Torres posted on X. “There is more to lose than there is to gain politically from pandering to a far left that is more representative of Twitter, Twitch, and TikTok than it is of the real world. The working class is not buying the ivory-towered nonsense that the far left is selling.”
Khanna has argued that Democrats have to venture beyond their comfort zones and reach new ears. “I’m confident we’re going to rebuild in 2026 and we’ll win back the White House in 2028,” he stated. “We’ve got to listen.”
There also have been subtler signs that some Dems recognize the need for a more flexible approach. Even the brash and rigid lightning rod Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (who recently lost a bid for the House Oversight Committee’s leadership position), has been reading the tea leaves.
AOC removed her pronouns from her social media handle, indicating a pull-back from performative signals. Older leaders, such as Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, not to mention Joe Biden, will soon make way for younger blood, some of whom will attract attention for good or ill, but will at least offer new stories and different perspectives.
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Indeed, in America, for every party and every citizen, there is always a place for hope.
In 1992, the man from Hope himself, Bill Clinton, decided to challenge the Republican incumbent, President George H. W. Bush, who was serving his first term after eight successful years as Reagan’s vice president.
To be sure, the 1992 campaign was a complex affair. Independent Ross Perot tossed his Stetson into the game, while Bush experienced intra-party backlash and was haunted by his “Read my lips: no new taxes” pledge.
But Clinton, who had a feel for both history and the pulse of the American voter, steered his campaign along a moderate path, embracing the most popular of classic Democratic values while deliberately breaking with the party line on key issues (the death penalty, welfare reform, right-to-work laws, and more). He seized his own Sister Souljah moment — with the original Sister Souljah herself. He made it clear he would be a president for all Americans, not just those who were Democrats or those who agreed with him or those who fell in line. For all his controversies, Clinton painted a winning picture of competence, patriotism, optimism, and unity.
Bill Clinton, of course, is a singular political and policy genius, with a confidence in his own strength, talents and legacy so absolute that he was able to withstand a torrent of scandal, beat an incumbent and an eccentric billionaire, walk through fire, and emerge victorious in the Oval Office for eight wild, dazzling years.
Even perennial Republican favorite, Ronald Reagan, crashed in the 1982 midterms. “You ain’t seen nothing yet,” he said after roaring back to victory with his 1984 reelection and cementing his place in history as a party leading light.
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So that, therefore, is history’s lesson for the Democrats: simply find another once-in-a-generation politician, equally gifted as a policymaker and a political candidate, who can talk the owls down from the trees, cherry-pick winning issues, and face down the Trump Empire and the MAGA monolith.
Barring that historical find, the Democratic Party is going to have to comeback the hard way. They can simply wait for the pendulum to swing back. Or those members of the opposition who are brave enough to speak the truth wherever it exists, honest enough to call out the failures of the recent past, and visionary enough to see into the future can begin to do what Kamala Harris calls the hard work.
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See the uncovered photos casting doubt on Biden’s denial of discussing Hunter’s business
President Biden is seen in newly uncovered photos meeting with Hunter Biden’s Chinese business associates in China while he served as vice president, bringing further scrutiny to his claim he “never” discussed business with his son.
The photos, obtained by conservative-leaning America First Legal through litigation against the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), appear to show then-Vice President Biden introducing his son to Chinese President Xi Jinping and then-Vice President Li Yuanchao. Other photos show Joe Biden posing with Hunter’s business associates from BHR Partners, including Jonathan Li and Ming Xue.
“These images shed light on the connections between then-Vice President Biden, Hunter and his Chinese business associates, and Chinese government officials including President Xi Jinping,” America First Legal said in a press release this week. “Lawyers and representatives for President Biden and President Obama delayed NARA’s release of these photographs, as they did with other records, until after Election Day.”
“These photos corroborate the House Oversight Committee’s investigative findings that Hunter Biden arranged for his father to meet with Jonathan Li and other BHR executives during the 2013 China trip, where ‘Mr. Li sought— and received — access to Vice President Biden’s political power, including, for example, preferential access to then-U.S. Ambassador to China Max Baucus … a condition of Hunter Biden and his associates participating in the BHR deal,’” America First Legal wrote.
HUNTER BIDEN: A LOOK AT HOW THE SAGA SPANNING OVER SIX YEARS UNFOLDED
America First Legal also wrote that, according to the committee’s investigation, “the Biden Family benefited from their business dealings with BHR.”
Hunter Biden was asked earlier this year by the House Oversight Committee about his meetings while traveling to Asia with his father.
“When we returned from an event to the hotel, there was a rope line, and Jonathan Li was in the lobby of the hotel where I was going to meet him for coffee,” Hunter Biden said at the time. “In that line, I introduced my dad to Jonathan Li and a friend of his, and they shook hands and I believe probably took a photograph. And then my father went up to his room, and I went to have coffee with Jonathan Li.”
Hunter Biden added that he didn’t tell his father “anything” about who Li was.
Joe Biden has repeatedly denied any role in his son’s businesses.
HUNTER BIDEN WAS PAID $100K THROUGH JOINT VENTURE WITH CHINESE ENERGY FIRM, EX-ASSOCIATE TESTIFIED
“I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings,” Joe Biden said on the presidential campaign trail in 2019.
But emails sent to and from Hunter Biden have cast doubt on that, including a 2017 email obtained by Fox News that shows Hunter requesting keys for Joe and Jill Biden, along with his uncle, Jim Biden, for space he planned to share with an “emissary” to the chairman of a now-bankrupt Chinese energy company.
In another 2017 email also obtained by Fox News, Biden wrote to the same Chinese energy company’s chairman extending “best wishes from the entire Biden family,” and urging the chairman to “quickly” send a $10 million wire to “properly fund and operate” the Biden joint venture with the company.
JOE BIDEN SAYS HUNTER HAS DONE ‘NOTHING WRONG.’ REALLY? LET’S COUNT THE WAYS
Devon Archer, a former business partner and longtime friend of Hunter Biden, sat for hours before the House Oversight Committee in a closed-door hearing last year and contradicted the president’s claim, saying Hunter put his father on speakerphone while meeting with business partners at least 20 times.
Archer described how Joe Biden was put on the phone to sell “the brand.”
The photos drew strong criticism on social media in light of President Biden’s frequent claims he never discussed business with his son.
“Astonishing,” Red State writer Bonchie posted on X.
“These photos are incredibly damning and speak volumes,” author and journalist Peter Schweizer posted on X.
“It is such a disgrace that only through litigation, and only at the conclusion of the Biden administration is its corruption by ties to the Chinese Communist Party fully coming into focus,” Real Clear Politics editor Benjamin Weingarten posted on X.
“The Biden Crime Family Christmas card just dropped,” GOP Rep. Eric Burlison posted on X.
“China has the Bidens in its back pocket,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton posted on X.
The newly unearthed photos of the Bidens meeting with Hunter’s Chinese business associates renews scrutiny of an email exchange previously reported by Fox News Digital. The 2014 email exchange reveals Hunter Biden once said he would be “happy” to introduce his business associates to a top Chinese Communist Party official to discuss potential investments after that official allegedly sat at Hunter’s table during a 2013 dinner in Beijing to welcome his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden.
Hunter’s 2014 email exchange with James Bulger referred to the same China trip referenced in the America First Legal press release.
Bulger, who goes by “Jimmy,” served as the chairman of Boston-based Thornton Group LLC, a firm that joined forces with Hunter’s now-defunct Rosemont Seneca to launch its joint venture with Chinese investment firm Bohai Capital to create BHR Partners shortly after the Bidens traveled to China. BHR Partners is controlled by Bank of China Limited.
In the 2014 email, Bulger asked Hunter to introduce BHR CEO Jonathan Li and Andy Lu, who was a BHR committee member, to “Mr. Tung,” which refers to C.H. Tung, a former governor of Hong Kong and billionaire who served as vice chairman of the CCP-linked Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, to discuss “BHR investment targets” and “fundraising.”
The email alleged Hunter sat next to Tung at the December 2013 dinner welcoming Vice President Joe Biden to Beijing. Fox News Digital previously reached out to the White House multiple times requesting the seating chart for the Beijing dinner, specifically Hunter’s table, but it did not respond.
“It is my understanding that during the trip to Beijing that you made with your father, President Xi hosted a welcome dinner,” Bulger wrote. “[A]t that dinner, you were seated right next to Mr Tung, therefore J and Andy believe it would be very helpful if you could please send a brief email to Mr Tung laying out that you are a partner and Board Member of BHR and that You would be grateful to Mr Tung if he could meet your local partners to discuss the Fund.
“Please let me know if you can introduce these two to Mr Tung by email it is very important to our BHR intiative [sic] at this moment.”
Hunter responded that he was “happy” to fulfill the request but said he couldn’t recall the names of the gentlemen who sat next to him at the dinner.
It appears that the Beijing “welcome dinner” hosted by President Xi that Bulger was referencing in his initial email occurred during the evening of Dec. 4, 2013, after then-Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao met with Joe Biden earlier in the day to discuss strengthening U.S.-China relations.
President Biden pardoned his son earlier this month for any crimes potentially committed dating back to 2014.
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“Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter,” Biden wrote in a statement at the time. “From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.
“There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution,” the 82-year-old father wrote. “In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”
Fox News Digital has previously reached out to the White House about why the pardon was so broad but did not receive a response.
“Even while President Biden has pardoned his son, Hunter, for anything and everything ‘he has committed or may have committed or taken part in’ going all the way back to the year 2014, more evidence comes out each day showing how his family leveraged Joe Biden’s even longer career in public office for private gain,” America First Legal Counsel Michael Ding said in a statement.
“America First Legal will not stop fighting to uncover the full story of the Biden Family’s corruption.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House, Hunter Biden’s legal team and the Chinese businessmen in the photos but did not receive a comment.
Elon Musk sounds off on boosting America’s hypersonic missile power
Business titan Elon Musk asserted that the U.S. needs a significant stockpile of hypersonic missiles and long-range air and sea drones.
“America needs a large quantity of long-range drones (air, surface water & submarine) and hypersonic missiles. Anything manned will die very fast in a drone war,” Musk declared Thursday in a post on X.
The comments complimented comments he made in a tweet last month: “Future wars are all about drones & hypersonic missiles. Fighter jets piloted by humans will be destroyed very quickly,” he opined.
ELON MUSK COMBATS ANTI-IMMIGRATION SENTIMENT IN POSTS DECRYING ‘DIRE SHORTAGE’ OF TECH TALENT
Musk has specifically targeted F-35 fighter jet, calling it “a s— design.”
“The F-35 design was broken at the requirements level, because it was required to be too many things to too many people. This made it an expensive & complex jack of all trades, master of none. Success was never in the set of possible outcomes. And manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones anyway. Will just get pilots killed,” he declared in a post in November.
In another post last month, he exclaimed, “Some US weapons systems are good, albeit overpriced, but please, in the name of all that is holy, let us stop the worst military value for money in history that is the F-35 program!”
AMERICA NEEDS DRONES AND THE F-35 TO WIN THE NEXT WAR
President-elect Donald Trump tapped Musk, along with former presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, to spearhead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an unofficial effort to expose government waste and advocate for spending cuts.
Musk has been sounding the alarm about the nation’s profligate spending.
“Terrifying [to be honest],” he wrote last month regarding America’s massive national debt.
RAND PAUL SUGGESTS REPLACING MIKE JOHNSON WITH ELON MUSK AS SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE
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The national debt exceeds $36.1 trillion, according to fiscaldata.treasury.gov.
“We either fix this or go de facto bankrupt,” Musk warned in a post on Thursday.
‘Miracle therapy’ offers life-changing hope for parents fighting to save their children
Renowned visionary English physician William Harvey wrote in 1651 about how our blood contains all the secrets of life.
“And so I conclude that blood lives and is nourished of itself and in no way depends on any other part of the body as being prior to it or more excellent,” he wrote. “So that from this we may perceive the causes not only of life in general … but also of longer or shorter life, of sleeping and waking, of skill, of strength and so forth.”
Dr. Kevin Watt, team leader of the Heart Regeneration and Disease Laboratory at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) in Melbourne, Australia, understands this concept deeply.
STEM CELL RESEARCH SHOWING NEW POSSIBILITIES FOR TREATING INFANT HEART DISEASE
He lives it every day, as he and his fellow researchers study and reprogram the potential of the blood to treat disease, specifically heart failure in children.
Building on the work of Dr. Shinya Yamanaka of Japan, who discovered that specialized cells could be reprogrammed back to immature stem cells, Watt and his collaborators have taken this work several steps further.
They have used small molecules to turn these new stem cells from the blood into heart cells.
Small heart organoids are developed in the lab — which can then be injected into the failing hearts of children.
BOY FACING BLINDNESS GETS LIFE-CHANGING EYE SURGERY: ‘SUCH A BLESSING’
Relying on the philanthropic support of the Murdoch Institute, the work is progressing rapidly and has been shown to be effective already in mice, pigs and sheep.
“The vision of our research is to develop new therapies that can transform the lives of children with heart failure.”
Clinical trials in humans will be starting soon, and as Dr. Watt told me in an interview from Australia, “Large sheets of heart tissue will be stitched into the failing heart.”
Congenital heart failure as well as side effects of chemotherapy in children will be targets for this miracle therapy. Millions of children around the world suffer daily from these conditions.
Watt said that certain chemotherapy (anthracyclines) have a higher risk of heart failure – up to 15% of the time – and this treatment may be useful to protect the heart.
Watt said, “Heart failure remains an urgent, unmet clinical challenge across the world. While we have made significant advances over several decades in managing the disease, we lack targeted therapies to treat these devastating conditions.”
FAMILY OF CHILD WITH DOWN SYNDROME WENT FROM SHOCK TO GRATITUDE: ‘LOST THE AIR IN MY CHEST’
He added, “More than 500,000 children around the world live with advanced heart failure that requires transplantation. The vision of our research is to develop new therapies that can transform the lives of children with heart failure.”
To achieve this, he said, “we use a technology called induced pluripotent stem cells, where we can convert blood or skin cells of patients with heart failure into stem cells that we then turn into heart cells … or even make engineered heart tissues that can be stitched onto the patient’s heart to help it pump.”
The cells that are targeted in the blood are known as peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs).
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They are “pushed back in time to an earlier time before they became differentiated into heart or kidney cells,” he said.
Then they can be pushed forward to become healthy heart cells or mutations — or other abnormalities can be corrected.
While the team at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute is making heart cells from stem cells in the blood for clinical use, it’s also using these stem cells to figure out new drugs to treat heart failure directly.
Said Watt, “Using stem cells from patients with heart failure caused by chemo, we are actively developing new drugs and cell-based treatments that we believe will transform the lives of patients with these conditions … Our research group has pioneered methods to turn these stem cells into miniature heart tissues that can be used to model disease-in-a-dish, to identify new drug targets for the development of new therapies.”
These treatments are personalized and highly expensive, but they’re also highly effective.
Correcting heart failure in young children is only a few years away from becoming a reality.
It’s a Christmas miracle that relies on the kind of philanthropic support that MCRI is famous for arranging.
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“Philanthropic support plays a critical role in accelerating the development of these new, transformative treatments,” said Watt, “and this support will be essential as we work toward bringing stem cell-based precision therapies for heart failure to every child who needs it.”
Visit go.fox/MCRI to donate or to learn more about MCRI’s important research.
It happened again. Another passenger was able to sneak on a Delta flight without a ticket
An unticketed airline passenger in Seattle managed to bypass security and airline officials before boarding a flight bound for Honolulu earlier this week – only to be apprehended as the aircraft taxied out, according to Delta Air Lines and the Transportation and Security Administration (TSA).
The fare-dodger, who has not been identified, got on Delta Air Lines Flight 487 at Seattle/Tacoma International Airport (SEA) on Dec. 24, which was headed to Hawaii’s capital just before Christmas.
But before the Airbus A321neo could take off, the freeloader was spotted and removed from the aircraft. The incident caused the flight to take off about two hours and 15 minutes behind schedule.
AMERICAN AIRLINES LIFTS NATIONWIDE GROUNDSTOP DUE TO ‘TECHNICAL ISSUE’ ON CHRISTMAS EVE
“TSA can confirm an individual did go through standard screening and did not possess any prohibited items,” a TSA statement provided to Fox Business reads. “The individual bypassed the identity verification and boarding status stations and boarded an aircraft at Seattle/Tacoma International (SEA) without a boarding pass.”
It is unclear how the unticketed passenger was able to evade the checkpoints and get onto the aircraft.
“TSA takes any incidents that occur at any of our checkpoints nationwide seriously. TSA will independently review the circumstances of this incident at our travel document checker station at Seattle/Tacoma International,” the TSA statement continues.
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The agency says that it opens a civil case against any passenger when there is evidence that TSA regulations may have been violated.
Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines says that the individual was apprehended by law enforcement when the aircraft returned to the gate and the TSA conducted additional security checks, including customer rescreening.
“As there are no matters more important than safety and security, Delta people followed procedures to have an unticketed passenger removed from the flight and then apprehended,” a Delta spokesperson said. “We apologize to our customers for the delay in their travels and thank them for their patience and cooperation.”
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The airline says an investigation is ongoing, but early indications are that the unticketed passenger boarded the flight at the gate without presenting a boarding pass. The Airbus A321neo typically seats around 180 to 220 passengers, according to Airbus.
The incident comes just weeks after a person allegedly sneaked onto a Delta Air Lines flight that departed John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City and wasn’t noticed until the aircraft was close to touching down in Paris.
She was caught after a flight attendant deduced she had been staying in the plane’s bathrooms for unusually long periods of time.
‘Home Alone’ director settles a long-standing mystery from the iconic movie
“Home Alone” is a holiday classic that has left viewers with many questions over the years.
During a recent interview on The Hollywood Reporter’s “Awards Chatter” podcast, the film’s director, Chris Columbus, answered one of the internet’s most burning questions: What did the McCallister parents do for a living?
In the film, not only does the family live in a mansion in Chicago, but the parents, played by Catherine O’Hara and John Heard, are able to pay for a trip to Paris, for 15 people, including both their immediate and extended family members. Many fans of the film have been wondering, since the movie’s 1990 release, how the couple were able to afford everything.
“Back then, John and I had a conversation about it, and we decided on what the jobs were,” Columbus said. “We thought the mother, at the time, because we used mannequins in the basement — I do remember having a conversation — she was a very successful fashion designer. The father could have, based on John Hughes’ own experience, worked in advertising, but I don’t remember what the father did.”
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Columbus also dispelled the popular belief the dad worked in organized crime, explaining that “even though there was, at the time, a lot of organized crime in Chicago,” the father was definitely not involved.
The movie focuses on a large family who leave for a vacation to Paris, only to realize they have left behind their youngest son, Kevin (Macaulay Culkin). Kevin must then reconcile with being left behind, while also defending his home from burglars, played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern.
“We thought the mother, at the time, because we used mannequins in the basement — I do remember having a conversation — she was a very successful fashion designer.”
While “Home Alone” went on to become the movie child star Culkin is most known for, Columbus shared he wasn’t sold on casting him as the lead when he first signed on to the project. In the end, he conceded that Culkin “was obviously the right kid,” but that he had to get over “the ego” he had as a director to recognize it.
“This is why John Hughes was a great producer for a director, and I learned a lot from him,” Columbus explained. “He said, ‘Will you take a look at meeting Macaulay?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’d like to meet Macaulay, but I’d like to meet everyone else, too.’ I ended up meeting 300 other kids, too. Total colossal waste of time, because then I met Macaulay again, and it was magical.”
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Culkin, of course, would go on to be the ultimate child star of the 1990s, going on to star in the film’s sequel, “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” “My Girl,” “Richie Rich,” “The Pagemaster” and many others.
When it came to casting the other characters, Columbus said he knew the moment he saw Pesci and Stern onscreen together that they were the perfect duo. He also confirmed the rumor that legendary comedian Chris Farley was also up for a role in the movie.
“Farley was just starting out at the time,” Columbus said about inviting Farley to an audition. “This guy came in at 7 a.m. for our first reading for the guy who played Santa Claus in the movie. He was not in any particularly great shape. He had just come out from all night being in Chicago.”
Ultimately, Columbus said, “We had to say, ‘Well, not this time.’” He also shared that later in life, he and Farley became good friends and would often discuss his audition for the film.
In the interview, Columbus also shared how he came to direct the classic movie, explaining he was supposed to helm another Christmas classic, “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” but his interactions with star Chevy Chase led him to pass on the opportunity.
“I’m asking him all these questions, and he was just dead and not interested and distracted,” Columbus said on the THR podcast. “I thought, ‘Wow, this is weird. For an actor who’s committing to this movie, he really doesn’t want to talk about it.’”
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He continued: “Then, 40 minutes into the conversation, he says the most surreal thing I’ve ever heard in a meeting, before or since. He said to me, ‘Wait a second, you’re the director?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ And he said, ‘Oh, I thought you were a drummer.’ I don’t even know what the hell that meant.”
A second meeting with the actor didn’t help persuade him, as Columbus shared that Chase ignored him throughout the dinner and “was like I wasn’t even involved in the film.” “Every time I brought up the film, he changed the subject,” he explained.
It was then that Hughes presented him with the opportunity to direct “Home Alone.” He also famously directed “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” “Gremlins” and “Mrs. Doubtfire.”
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Chiefs great vows to pay Travis Kelce’s fine after record-breaking touchdown and tribute
Tony Gonzalez is a man of his word.
Travis Kelce surpassed the Hall of Fame tight end to break the Kansas City Chiefs’ franchise record for touchdown receptions in the team’s Christmas Day win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Kelce hauled in his 77th career receiving touchdown in the fourth quarter to put his name in the record books alongside Gonzalez. Paying tribute to the Chiefs’ great, Kelce then dunked the ball over the goal post.
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The celebration drew a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, but it didn’t make a difference to veteran kicker Harrison Butker, who nailed the extra-point attempt.
During Prime Video’s pregame broadcast, Gonzalez vowed to pay Kelce’s fine in the event that he emulated his famous touchdown celebration.
“I am so happy for him. He is one of the best tight ends to ever do it on [and] off the field,” he said. “I’ve been following him since he was a rookie, and I’m not surprised by it. He is one of the greatest tight ends of all time.
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“If he dunks it, I will pay that fine.”
Kelce responded to Gonzalez’s post on X celebrating the accomplishment and reminded him of the offer he made prior to the game.
“You know I had to show love to the greatest of all time,” Kelce wrote. “You did mention you’d help me with the fine tho.”
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Gonzalez obliged, happily.
“I got you!”
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