Daily Archives: June 18, 2021

Most people havent heard of the Aspen Institute. Others maybe recall some mention of their annual Aspen Ideas Festival. A few more might somewhat remember a minor political dust-up from 2020 when Michael Bloomberg, who was blowing money on a doomed bid for president at the time, had to grovel and beg forgiveness for simply stating the facts on crime at an Aspen conference five years prior.

The festival, which The Economist called a mountain retreat for the liberal elite and a corporate Never-Never Land, refused to release the video; its a safe space for the right types of people, and liberal billionaire technocrats are precisely the right type of people.

And you better believe the right types of people are sitting on the institutes Commission on Information Disorder. Behind the psychiatric name, the commission is a group of liberal activists, donors, journalists and tech executives, a disgraced foreign royal, and even a corporate senior vice president of social impact, who must be in charge of all the junior corporate vice presidents for diversity. For the past six months, this liberal Dream Team has been hard at work on their big report to help the federal government work with corporations to squash news they call disinformation.

So what will this disinformation be? A look at the commissioners hints strongly that it will be you, me, and anyone else who disagrees with Katie Couric and her left-wing friends.

Katie Couric specifically, because she sits on the commission. Once a household name for her long role on NBCs The Today Show, including nine years of smiling and bantering with serial creep and accused company rapist Matt Lauer, Couric was canceled in 2013 after failing to earn ratings on her own show, and slowly drifted into obscurity.

From her landing spot, an online show with Yahoo!, Couric ran a disinformation campaign against an investigator who had exposed Planned Parenthood for selling harvested body parts from aborted babies. Couric falsely claimed the videos were doctored, and ran puff pieces on the president of the countrys largest abortion clinic. In her spare time, Couric is an abortion activist, and says her activism is inspired by her mother, whose pregnancy she clearly survived.

Couric also used her internet show to falsify documentary interviews with gun owners. In that case, the deception was so embarrassing even her friends at CNN and The New York Times called it out, while The Washington Post said it falsely depicts gun supporters as idiots' and was just plain wrong. While the director took the blame and apologized, Couric defended her disinformation.

While at 64 years of age her television career is now largely relegated to trying to guest host a game show, Couric was invited on Real Time with Bill Maher in January, after Joe Biden had won the presidency. There, she lashed out at the half of the country who supported the conservative populist Trump administration, saying, The question is how are we going to really almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of Trump.

Couric is joined on the commission by Kathryn Murdoch, the wife of billionaire heir James Murdoch, Ruperts liberal son. Kathryns biography on the website of the company she founded claims she started her career as a marketing and communications executive in New York and Hong Kong before launching and selling a clothing design company. Corroborating information on her past is hard to come by, although an early 2008 mention of her in Vanity Fair might dispute her company bio, describing her as an Oregon-born model who met her rich husband at a yacht party in Sydney[, Australia].

Today, Kathryn and her husband are together among the biggest super donors in left-wing politics. In 2020 they gave roughly $12.2 million to federal committees, ranking 25th on OpenSecrets list of top donors, the donor transparency site reports. She also donated $540,000 to the Democratic Future Forward PAC, and $300,000 to Unite the Country, a pro-Biden PAC.

When not sitting on commissions to decide what conservatives should be permitted to say, Kathryn is a major donor to a notorious disinformation campaign. In the last election cycle, she gave $500,000 half a million dollars to PACRONYM, which works closely with ACRONYM, which was the lead example in an OpenSecrets expose on Dark Money, exploring how networks hide political agendas behind fake news sites.

Describing ACRONYM as one of the newer group heralding the new era of pseudo-news outlets, the report exposes it as being behind Courier Newsroom, a network of websites emulating progressive local news outlets.Courier, it continues, has faced scrutiny for exploiting the collapse of local journalism to spread hyperlocal partisan propaganda.

Her passion for crushing conservative disinformation stems from her severe dislike of scientists who doubt man-made global warming, as well as the scientists and news sites who in the first year of COVID lockdowns repeatedly warned we were being lied to. In the months since Biden became president, corporate media have come around to virtually every point dissenters made, including on the efficacy of masks, the source of the virus, the impact of novel treatments, and the failure of lockdowns.

Disgraced royalPrince Harry also sits on the commission. Just before his Aspen Institute glamour gig was announced, the duke of Sussex made news calling the First Amendment of the U.S. Bill of Rights bonkers while admitting free speech is a huge subject and one I dont understand.

Rashad Robinson also made the truth commissions cut, co-chairing Aspens effort from his perch as the president of Color of Change. That organization was founded by fired Obama green jobs czar Van Jones and a director of the left-wing activist organization MoveOn.org, and its claim to fame is intimidating conservative donors and corporations who donate to Republican and conservative causes by threatening them with public campaigns, effectively silencing opposition to Democratic initiatives.

Their commission colleagues also include Marla Blow, a senior vice president of social impact at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth; Democratic politician Aaron Ford;Democratic megadonor Craig Newmark, whose personal non-profit is fully funding the commission; Chris Krebs, who in his previous role overseeing 2020 election security infamously went above his paygrade when he called it the most secure [election] in American history; and Alex Stamos, a former Facebook executive who said the problem with tackling conservative television networks OANN and Newsmax is that these companies have freedom of speech and suggested that corporate cable providers should take it upon themselves to shut them down.

The 14-person commission includes one Republican, former Rep. Will Hurd. Hurds inclusion was characterized by American Principles Project President Terry Schilling as part of the typical progressive playbook of Lets pretend we arent biased, lets pretend were non-partisan, well include a token Republican whos not really conservative to say that its bipartisan.

Our sterling commissions interim report is reportedly due before June 19, but we already know whats coming, dont we.

Haley Stracks research contributed to this report.

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Behind The Aspen Institute's Upcoming Report On Silencing Dissent - The Federalist

Warmonger Rep. Liz Cheney is putting the forever in forever war by condemning her fellow congressional colleagues who voted to repeal the two-decade-old Authorization for Use of Military Force used by President George W. Bush to invade Iraq.

AUMF repeal without comprehensive replacement is dangerous, misguided, and ignores the security challenges facing our nation. This legislation removes a critical tool used by previous administrations Republican and Democrat to defeat terrorist threats originating in Iraq, the Wyoming representative who wasousted from House leadership wrote in a statement.

Despite her insistence that the repeal would send a message of weakness to our adversaries and allies alike and that it is not part of a comprehensive replacement providing adequate authority to combat terrorists or those who want to do our nation harm is a vote to leave America exposed to our enemies, the lower chamber voted 268 to 161 to remove the authorization.

The repeal comes after nearly 20 years of aimless military adventurism enabled by the authorization and multiple attempts to cut off the blank check to keep American soldiers overseas.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell echoed Cheneys concerns about repealing the funding but multiple Republican representatives voted in favor of getting rid of the measure and noted that it was no longer relevant.

The 2002 AUMF is no longer relevant and its repeal would not impact ongoing operations in the Middle East, Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin said in a statement calling the vote a matter of basic constitutional hygiene and a small but significant step forward in reasserting Congresss war powers authorities.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Representative Liz Cheney Puts The 'Forever' In 'Forever War' - The Federalist

A new survey indicates that although many have not heard of critical race theory, a mere 1 in 10 teachers have a negative view of it, while three times as many teachers hold a positive view of the effort to institutionalize anti-white racism.

The Heritage Foundations report, first obtained by The Federalist, displays the survey responses of 1,003 teachers and 1,012 parents on questions of civics education and critical race theory. Braun Research conducted the survey from Dec. 30, 2020, to Feb. 2, 2021.

Findings show a majority of respondents held a neutral, positive, or unsure view of critical race theory. More than half of teachers who have heard of critical race theory approve of it. And despite the flood of media attention to the subject, more than one-third of teachers have not heard of critical race theory, with 40 percent of parents in the same boat. A little more than one-quarter of parents and teachers, respectively, were unsure if they had heard of critical race theory.

Schools should recommit themselves to teaching history and civics that educates students on the duties of informed citizenship, said Lindsey Burke, director of the Center for Education Policy at Heritage and one of the reports co-authors. They should also be maximally transparent to parents about the content taught between the four walls of the classroom. And most importantly, states should make sure every child can exercise education freedom, choosing a school or learning environment that is the right fit for them.

Angela Sailor, another report coauthor who is vice president of Heritages Edwin J. Feulner Institute, said, The next generation deserves strong partnerships between parents and teachers. This begins with curriculum transparency and policy solutions that protect the diversity of ideas in the classroom and restore a shared sense of equality under the law. All students no matter their race should be protected from being forced to affirm, adopt, or adhere to CRT through compelled speech and other practices.

One-fourth of Republican parents said current civics curriculum should stay the same, while more than half of Democrat parents said more civics instruction is needed. Among Republican teachers, a little less than half said civics curriculum should stay the same and more than 70 percent of Democrats said there ought to be more.

It is important to keep in mind that the term civics has been convoluted by a surge in schools and theorists framing critical race theory curricula as action civics or similar terminology. The findings echo this, showing more than one-third of parents and more than one-fourth of teachers view critical race theory and critical pedagogy as part of an ideal curriculum.

Half of parents and close to 60 percent of teachers indicated critical race theory should be included in civics curriculum. The report notes it wasnt clear if this response combined with the lack of knowledge about CRT indicates large numbers of people supported CRT in schools out of a desire to be inclusive without knowing what they were including.

The report alludes to the redefinition of civics, noting, Americans education of their history and founding is in crisis as radical activists push anti-American philosophies on students under the guise of civics education.

Given the overall lack of familiarity with the term, future surveys might do better to ask for reactions to specific tenets of CRT [critical race theory]. That said, the results do suggest that teachers are more positively inclined to CRT than parents, Stanley Kurtz, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told The Federalist. This is entirely unsurprising. What this survey shows is that we are at the beginning of the battle, and that the outcome is far from evident. Educating parents on the true nature of CRT will be a key determinant of end-result.

Other authors of the report are Anne Segal, founder of predictive market research group The Frontier Lab, and Adam Kissel, a senior fellow at the Cardinal Institute for West Virginia policy. There is a 95 percent confidence level in the survey findings.

Critical race teachings are reversing the immense progress this country has made in race relations and equality, as well as stealing major parts of history from students, beginning with small children, the report states. Young Americans are taught not to be proud of their country, but to see it as an oppressor. In order to reverse this destructive and dangerous trend, it is essential that schools teach Americas founding principles, while at the same time build strong relationships between parents and teachers.

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Three-Quarters Of Teachers Who Heard Of Critical Race Theory Support It - The Federalist

House Democrats blocked a GOP-backed bill on Monday night that would have stopped President Joe Bidens border crisis head Vice President Kamala Harris from taxpayer-funded international trips until she visits the U.S.-Mexico border and submits a report on the crisis to Congress.

In a 217-203 vote, House Democrats narrowly stopped the legislation, effectively preventing the legislative chamber from requiring that Harris visit any of the border counties that are trying to handle the skyrocketing number of people illegally entering the United States. Harris was tapped by the Democrat administration to lead the White House response to the border crisis more than two months ago.

Rep. Ashley Hinson, a freshman congresswoman from Iowa, first introduced the See the Crisis Act in May in an effort to prevent American taxpayer dollars from funding the vice presidents international frolicking while ignoring the U.S. border crisis.

During her presentation of the bill on Monday night, Hinson criticized Harris for failing the American people, failing law enforcement at the border, and failing the families who will suffer because of drugs coming across our border and falling into the wrong hands.

Vice President Harris was named as administrations point person on the illegal immigration crisis at our southern border 80 days ago. And this crisis is worsening by the day. Yet, the vice president has refused to go to the border herself and talk to the brave law enforcement officers, the men, and women who are fighting this on the frontlines, Hinson said on the House floor on Monday night. And this sends a clear message to the cartels that the U.S. government doesnt think it a priority to stop them.

Last week, Harris defended her refusal to visit the U.S.-Mexico border, where an illegal crossingcrisisrages on, by comparing it to her lack of presence in other foreign countries in Europe.

You havent been to the border, interviewer Lester Holt noted.

I havent been to Europe, Harris said, shrugging off the implications of the question. And I dont understand the point that youre making. Im not discounting the importance of the border.

She also used her visit to Guatemala, one of the Northern Triangle countries, as an excuse to claim that it would give her insight into the root causes of the influx of illegal border crossings. During her time on the trip, however, she ignored Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammatteis pleas for the U.S. administration to do something about the rise in illegal aliens, instead blaming border problems on climate change and the economy.

According to thenewest monthly data, U.S. Customs and Border Protection apprehended more than 180,000 people at the southern border in May 2021 alone. That is 14,000 more captures than the last record number of May border crossings in 2000.

In addition to a rise insingle individuals crossing the border, not families, Border Patrol agents also saw a significant increase in drug trafficking. In May alone, officials seized at least 18 percent more drugs than they did in April, with seizures of methamphetamine increasing by 53 percent, heroin by 7 percent, and fentanyl by 9 percent.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Democrats Block Bill Forcing Kamala Harris To Visit The Southern Border - The Federalist

On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, Political Editor John Daniel Davidson joins Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky to discuss his most recent trip to the Southern U.S. border and why people from far-flung places like Haiti, Venezuela, Africa, and even Uzbekistan are choosing to cross in remote and historically less-busy areas.

A lot of the people that are crossing arent necessarily impoverished farmers like you see at the Rio Grande Valley from Honduras and El Salvador and Guatemala, Davidson said. They are people of means in their home country and theyve been waiting and saving and picking their moment so they are not showing up with nothing. They are showing up with means and they have a plan and theyve been thinking about this for a long time.

Davidson said people will continue to pour across the border because the Biden administration is encouraging them to come.

If you signal that the border is open and then it really is, it doesnt matter what you say in terms of what you would like people in Central America to do Unless you actually turn them back at the border, they are going to come because they know that they have a chance now, Davidson said.

[Read Davidsons latest dispatch: On A Remote Stretch Of Texas Borderland, The Whole World Is Crossing The Rio Grande]

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The Truth Behind The Surge At The Southern Border - The Federalist

From promoting a body mass index so low that all 12 ribs are showing to advancing a plus-size campaign that teaches women its ok to be unhealthy, Victorias Secret has culturally defined what it means to look like a woman. Although VS has re-defined that image countless times, the company couldnt have gotten it more wrong than their most recent campaign.

The lingerie brand just announced its more inclusive rebrand campaign that hopes to positively impact the lives of women through new products. Heading the initiative are changemakers who make up the VS Collective, including U.S. womens soccer star Megan Rapinoe, actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas, model Adut Akech, and plus-sized model Paloma Elsesser. VS first openly transgender model, Valentina Sampaio who respected the female body so much that he morphed his own to look like one will also represent the brand.

The VS Collective will aim to empower women through a series of collaborations, business partnerships and cause-related initiatives. Many of the new VS representatives have echoed similar sentiments: Rapinoe is thrilled to be creating a space that sees the true spectrum of ALL women, and Chopra Jones said shes excited to shape the evolution and future success of a heritage brand like Victorias Secret.

Victorias Secret has never supported ALL women what makes the company think theyll be able to start now?

The brand is best known for its annual Victorias Secret Fashion Show, where 60 Victorias Secret Angels wear skimpy lingerie and large 30-pound Angel wings. VS built a brand from having the skinniest, most fit and sexy women walk down its runway, but the promoted body standard is unsustainable: models must be five foot nine, have a waist of 24 inches or less, and a body fat percentage lower than 18. The average adult woman has a waist size of 38.2 inches and a body fat percentage of 29.6.

Even the Angels cant sustain the harsh standards: Seasoned Angel Adriana Lima doesnt eat solid food nine days before the show, many models abstain from drinking water, and starvation diets are expected and encouraged. How empowered can a woman feel when shes starving herself?

VS has since canceled its live fashion show, but its brand still embodies the same message: To be a beautiful woman, you must accept our version of femininity.

The VS Collective campaign hasnt changed that message at all its just warped what femininity looks like even further. Now, the message will just be promoted by woke, radical feminists who dont even believe in real females at all.

In an op-ed, Rapinoe said lack of funding is a bigger threat to sports than allowing transgender children to compete with whatever gender they identify as.

When we tell transgender girls that they cant play girls sports, they miss out on these important experiences and opportunities, Rapinoe said, adding that adults who feel otherwise lose the right to say we care about children.

Hear that, VS lovers? If you think girls should play with girls and boys should play with boys, the face of the VS brand doesnt think you have a say. Nothing is more dangerous to femininity than denying biological differences between the two genders except exploiting young children to do the same.

Despite her loud feminist cries for more women supporting women, Chopra Jonas publicly bullied social influencer Ayesha Malik. When Malik called United Nations Goodwill ambassador Chopra Jonas a hypocrite for congratulating the Indian Air Force after the Balakot strike in Pakistan, Chopra Jones patronizingly said: Whenever youre done venting. Got it? Done? Okay, cool The way you came at me right now, girl, dont yell. Were all here for love. Dont yell. Dont embarrass yourself.

Malik wasnt trying to make an overly political statement she was making the point that as an advocate for women, Chopra Jones has the responsibility to be neighborly and loving And instead she tweeted out in favour for nuclear war.

But the jewel on top of the Fantasy bra is Valentina Sampaio, who made headlines as Victorias Secrets first transgender model. Rapinoe previously blasted VS for promoting a message that was patriarchal, sexist, viewing not just what it meant to be sexy but what the clothes were trying to accomplish through a male lens and through what men desired yet biological male Sampaio will be heading an effort to reshape the brand. I prefer women representing my womanly interests. And Im not alone.

VS new woke representatives have ostracized a large base who dont agree with their re-definition of womanly standards. Women were made to be women where are the feminists who praise our natural, inherent beauty as uniquely made females?

Sexuality is beautiful and should be treasured. Women should be lauded for their sexuality in the right way, not by hyper-sexualizing their bodies or stripping femininity away completely, but by being honored. Women like conventional beauty, pretty clothes, and bras that fit, and yes, we even like being desirable.

Despite what woke corporations tell you, we dont all want to reject what it means to be feminine not in our clothes, or our brand representatives. The future of Victorias Secret wont be skin-and-bone Angels, but it might be bedazzled jockstraps. Im not ok with either.

Haley Strack is an intern at The Federalist and a student at Hillsdale College studying politics and journalism.

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Victoria's Secret Never Empowered Women And Their Latest Marketing Ploy Won't Change That - The Federalist

Googles YouTube has stepped up its draconian censorship of a sitting U.S. senator.

The powerful video-sharing company removed a video of a speech given by Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and banned him from uploading new videos for at least seven days. The action took place several months after YouTube removed two videos of testimony given at a hearing he hosted of the Senates Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on the topic of early treatment of COVID-19.

In the video YouTube censors are prohibiting the public from viewing, Johnson took bureaucrats in the Trump and Biden administrations to task for not only ignoring but working against robust research [on] the use of cheap, generic drugs to be repurposed for early treatment of COVID.

While large pharmaceutical companies and their allies in government bureaucracies and the World Health Organization have focused their research and funding on new treatments for the novel coronavirus, some doctors and studies have argued for the use of drugs that have been on the market for decades. The patents for the drugs have expired, meaning they are now manufactured by multiple companies who would share in the profit. Therefore trials involving the drugs have to be funded by the government and private donors.

Johnson noted that he held two hearings on early treatment for COVID-19. He said one of the people testifying at one of the hearings talked about the four pillars of pandemic response, those being prevention of the spread of the virus, early treatment, treatment in the hospital, and vaccines.

It always baffled me that there was such a concerted effort to deny the American public the type of robust exploration research into early treatment early in this pandemic, Johnson said, explaining why he wanted to bring more focus to that topic. He noted that studies have shown that both hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin are incredibly safe drugs.

Both drugs have been on the market for decades and are recommended for various uses, such as Lupus and scabies. Currently, the National Institutes of Health recommends against the use of hydroxychloroquine for treatment of COVID-19, after a study showed it did no harm but did not provide benefit. NIH is currently neutral on the use of ivermectin for COVID-19, a shift from a previous recommendation against its use.

While most pharmaceutical companies and countries funding research arent evaluating the two drugs for robust study, some recent studies have buttressed defenders hope in the treatment. See, for example, this study awaiting peer review on positive outcomes associated with multi-drug treatment including hydroxychloroquine, and this similarly not-yet-reviewed study out of Argentina on ivermectin.

YouTube said it was censoring discussion of the drug as part of its policy against medical misinformation, which says it wont allow anything that contradicts local health authorities or the World Health Organizations (WHO) medical information about COVID-19.

WHO scientists and other local authorities have changed their position on whether masks are ineffective or need to be doubled up, whether a vaccine could be developed in a few months, whether asymptomatic spread was a problem, whether spread occurred via infected surfaces, whether children were at significant risk from the virus, whether the economic lockdown would require only 15 days to flatten the curve or more than a year, and whether the novel coronavirus appeared naturally or accidentally leaked out of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

YouTubes position is that content on the site must parrot whatever comes from its narrow set of authorities, even though their positions change frequently and dramatically as more is learned about the novel coronavirus.

YouTube has left uncensored a lengthy video chat between Bret Weinstein and Dr. Pierre Kory, a prominent advocate of treating COVID-19 patients with ivermectin. The duo discussed the topic of the censorship of debate and discussion on effective treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Weinstein said, There is something about the mindset of the moment in which its all about peer review and these published peer-reviewed papers and its all about the official guidance from the WHO and the CDC. Its basically a kind of intellectual authoritarianism that is so bizarre in the context of a complex system like medicine, especially in the context of a brand new disease that were all not experts in. There are no experts that we can simply default to. Everyone is a novice.

In the censored video, Johnson said he supports Operation Warp Speed, which fast-tracked vaccines, but that more is needed with regard to early treatment for COVID-19 patients. I thought it was brilliant the way the Trump administration squeezed all of the economic efficiencies out of producing the vaccine, but I think were still going to need early treatments since the coronavirus isnt going away, he said.

He noted that some world-renowned experts have come to a different conclusion than our health agencies and that the health agencies had pretty well sabotaged the ability for many doctors to even consider hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, or other of these multi-drug generic repurpose drug approaches here.

When YouTube censored videos of Senate testimony, Johnson wrote for the Wall Street Journal about it. The censors at YouTube have decided for all of us that the American public shouldnt be able to hear what senators heard. Apparently they are smarter than medical doctors who have devoted their lives to science and use their skills to save lives. They have decided there is only one medical viewpoint allowed, and it is the viewpoint dictated by government agencies. Government-sanctioned censorship of ideas and speech should frighten us all, he wrote.

In April, Google pulled a video of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on March 18 discussing COVID-19 with medical scientists Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Dr. Sunetra Gupta, Dr. Martin Kulldorff, and Dr. Scott Atlas, who all hail from elite institutions Stanford University, Harvard University, and Oxford University.

For science to work, you have to have an open exchange of ideas, Bhattacharya said of the censorship. If youre going to make an argument that something is misinformation, you should provide an actual argument. You cant just take it down and say, Oh, its misinformation without actually giving a reason. And saying, Look it disagrees with the CDC is not enough of a reason. Lets hear the argument, lets see the evidence that YouTube used to decide it was misinformation. Lets have a debate. Science works best when we have an open debate.

Kulldorf weighed in as well, saying at an April press conference, Im very worried about the future of science because science is dependent on free exchange of ideas and it has been for 300 years now. So if this continues, this kind of attitude, the censoring of scientific views, then I think we have reached the end of 200 years of Enlightenment.

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YouTube Bans Sen. Ron Johnson For Discussing Treatment Of COVID-19 - The Federalist

Former Philadelphia 76ers star Charles Barkley has to table the fat jokes, thanks to heightened social sensitivities and looming cancel culture.

They wont even let me talk about San Antonio anymore! You know, when Im always talking about them big ol women down in San Antonio? Barkley told Grant Paulsen and Danny Rouhier on Mondays Grant and Danny show on 106.7 The Fan. The comments came after Turner Network Television (TNT), Barkleys network, put a stop to his jokes about San Antonio women, he said.

Barkley has been criticized formaking jokes about overweight women in San Antonio in the past. To be fair, San Antonio was ranked among the fattest cities in the U.S., and Barkley routinely makes jokes about his own weight as well. But as he pointed out on Monday, Barkley hasnt called anyone personally fat. Nevertheless, TNT has stifled Barkleys jokes, to create a more mindful presence on the show.

Theyre coming for your head, and a lot of our bosses are cowards, Barkley said. I said, Context matters. Theyre like, Context doesnt matter. I said, Thats total B.S. Context always has to matter. But now, if you crack a joke the wrong way, theyre like, Oh, no, no, no, no. You crossed a line.

Barkley has a long track record of being a controversial yet hilarious figure. The NBA analyst regularly makes jokes about women, health, medical conditions, and more jokes that cancel culture usually viciously attacks. According to Barkley, he has to watch what he says, or else.

Thats all we ever talk about behind the scenes now, like, be careful of going in this direction, Barkley said. Im like, yo man, we cant even have fun anymore. Weve had fun all these years and now all of a sudden in the last year and a half everybody is trying to get everybody fired and it really sucks.

In 58-year-old Barkleys many years of unfiltered controversial comments, hes never been canceled. But the pressure from politically correct people and the cancel culture mob could ruin his NBA on TNT show by stripping the fun from it.

You cant even have fun nowadays without these jackasses trying to get you canceled and things like that, Barkley said. Im trying to hang on for another couple years until Im 60 and then they can kiss my ass.

Haley Strack is an intern at The Federalist and a student at Hillsdale College studying politics and journalism.

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Charles Barkley's Fun Is Over, Thanks To Cancel Culture - The Federalist

President Joe Biden told reporters following his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday that he thinks theyre the smartest people in the entire country.

You all are some of the brightest people in the country, Biden said. I mean it, Im not being solicitous. But it makes no sense for me to negotiate with you!

Bidens fawning came just minutes after he lashed out at CNN White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins for asking why he was confident Putin would change his behavior following the meeting.

Im not confident, Biden yelled as he turned around to face the press pool. What the hell, what do you do all the time? When did I say I was confident? Lets get this straight. I said what will change their behavior is if the rest of the world reacts to them and it diminishes their standing in the world.

He also claimed the reporter was in the wrong business if she couldnt understand his claim the meeting with Putin was constructive despite the Russian presidents downplaying of human rights abuses.

Biden later apologized to Collins for being a wise guy but not without throwing another round of criticism at the White House press pool.

To be a good reporter, youve got to be negative. Youve gotta have a negative view of life, ok, it seems to me, the way you allyou never ask a positive question, Biden said.

Biden and his Vice President Kamala Harris both have a history of snapping at their Democrat cronies in the corporate media. The media cheerleaders offer the administration a wide berth, with hard-hitting coverage of the White House on topics like Harris Timberland boots, Bidens dogs, Bidens hangouts with his grandkids playing Mario Kart at Camp David, and more. But that doesnt stop Biden from being quick to criticize reporters for going too hard on him.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Biden Tells Sycophantic Press They're The Smartest People In America - The Federalist

We were treated to what at first appeared to be rare mea culpa this week as reporters read the Department of the Interior inspector generals report on the riots and police response in Lafayette Park last summer and appeared shocked to find that the Park Police and Attorney General Bill Barr and even President Donald Trump were telling the truth when they said the crowd was going to be dispersed before police knew the president was thinking of coming down there.

Its rare to see what looks remotely like self-reflection in our self-obsessed corporate media, so it would be nice to nod and smile and move on, but is it an acknowledgement of error or is it even basic self-reflection if the sin isnt addressed all all? As in, if the problem isnt admitted? Because on June 1, 2020 (and what followed), corporate media didnt simply get it wrong, they flagrantly and shamelessly lied to Americans in order to hurt the president.

But first, a quick montage of the coverage.

Not all of these anchors or reporters were in Washington (and a lot of them didnt think it safe to travel in June unless you were going to a protest or a riot or one of George Floyds funerals), but many were in D.C., and all have correspondents in the city. Thats important, because to get in front of the cameras at the White House press briefing, as Jim Acosta did every chance he had, or to pose for the live camera shots on top of the nearby Chamber of Commerce, these reporters and pundits had to walk through the streets and the mob that controlled them.

That means they heard the drumming and the curses and the threats and the screams and the howls of the mob whenever confronted by police or close enough to the White House to vent their rage.

That means they saw the shattered windows and empty businesses and spray painted profanities and revolutionary threats and burned church and smashed cars and trash-strewn streets of the city.

That means they maybe even saw the rioters trying to pull down the beautiful statue of Lafayette, or maybe at least saw the empty and defaced pedestals nearby of those statues the mob successfully claimed.

That means they maybe even dodged the occasional projectiles when bricks and glass bottles and full soda cans and fireworks were thrown into police lines after the sun went down.

And all that means they knew full well what this peaceful protest was about, and they had to walk past its rich, poor, and working-class victims every day they went to get on camera.

That means they heard this, and they saw it, and they chose to lie to you about it.

I know this because Ive lived here in Washington for 17 years now. I work here, Im lucky enough to own a home here, and I care about this city, and my friends, our neighbors, our churches, and our businesses, and the bartenders who served us beer, and John who still walked us to our lunch table long after he could have retired, and the policemen who kept the streets clean then stood there each night under an assault of abuse and a violent barrage of hurled objects.

I love this city, so I walked those streets before and just after the riots and in the months that dragged on afterwards all the way until Donald Trump was defeated and our local businesses could go back to not being afraid of the mob.

I saw the spray paint on the office my friend was proud to buy for his company, and on the restaurants and hotels and coffee shops. I saw the shattered windows and the wooden barricades and the young and old men trying to clean it up with power hoses and sponges. And I saw the elderly couples being walked from their cars to the hotel they were staying in by doormen who knew the peaceful protesters in the park smoking pot and banging on drums and threatening passersby and police werent peaceful at all.

White House reporters knew all of that too.

Little better exemplifies the combination of Washingtons self-obsessed nature with its complete lack of self-reflection like Politico Playbook, which Thursday morning the morning after the IG report that upended a full year of media lies began its newsletter with the must-read of the day.

That story, a Bloomberg story, was called Welcome To The Trump Coast, and was all about the alternate universe and denial of the former presidents life and friends down in Mar-a-Lago.The Playbook excerpt attacked the presidents insular feedback loop, which they said was amplified by his worship of validation from reporters he agreed with, and which doesnt appear to likely to diminish in the coming years.

Only 17 paragraphs (and an advertisement from Google) down did the reader learn anything about that embarrassing Lafayette Park business in the IG report. The report, and the fake acknowledgment, got one paragraph before it was onto CNNs Secret Fight With The Justice Department.

The president may have moved down to Florida, but there is an insular feedback loop in Washington that is indeed amplified by a worship of validation from reporters it agrees with, and which truly doesnt appear likely to diminish in the coming years. For corporate media to see that would take a little self-reflection and a true apology for lying to the entire country.

And it isnt coming.

Photo The riot in Lafayette Park the night before June 1. Screenshot/MSNBC.

Link:

The Federalist The Media Didn't 'Get It Wrong' On Lafayette Park, They Lied To America - The Federalist