Category Archives: Federalist

Late one Friday in July 2015, District Judge William Orrick of San Francisco issued a restraining order blocking the release of undercover videos at the National Abortion Federation (NAF) convention showing Planned Parenthood employees negotiating the sale of aborted fetus body parts. After nearly six years, more than 200 hours of that footage are yet to be seen by the public, but that is now up for deliberation.

Since the first undercover footage was released, The Center for Medical Progress and its founder, David Daleiden, have been fighting legal battles with both NAF and Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA). Luckily for both NAF and PPFA, the federal judge presiding over their cases against Daleiden is more than friendly to their pro-abortion causes.

Orrick was nominated to his position by former President Barack Obama and was a major donor to and bundler for Obamas presidential campaign. Both Orrick and his wife are longtime donors to San Franciscos Good Samaritan Family Resource Center (GSFRC), where Orrick was a board member and helped fund and open a Planned Parenthood clinic on its site. That clinic sold fetal tissue to StemExpress, a for-profit wholesaler exposed by CMPs videos and reporting.

Orricks wife is also an outspoken abortion advocate on social media, liking pro-abortion groups on Facebook and even liking posts calling CMP and Daleidens videos domestic terrorism.Suffice it to say, Orrick is not an impartial judge on abortion. Despite attempts by Daledien and CMP to have Orrick removed from their cases, Orrick has refused to step down or even disclose his relationship with the Planned Parenthood clinic.

Nearly six years later, Daleiden is still fighting both Planned Parenthood and NAF in court, and two cases in particular have put Orrick in an interesting, if not damning, position.

The first is Planned Parenthoods $16 million civil lawsuit in which Daleiden and CMP just recently filed an appeal in the federal Ninth Circuit, arguing it should be reversed on First Amendment grounds. Whats curious about this lawsuit, and more importantly, how it differs from NAFs case against Daleiden, is that Planned Parenthood sued Daleiden for fraud, trespass, unlawful recording, and breach of contract, but not defamation.

Planned Parenthood strategically avoided bringing up the issue of whether the content of the videos was false or defamatory. They never denied the truth of what was revealed in those undercover videos.

NAF is taking the opposite approach. They agreed to drop most of their claims, asking only for a summary judgment on its breach of contract claim and seeking a permanent ban on the videos solely because of the way it will harm their reputation. They believe Daleiden will deceptively edit the footage to lie about abortion practices. Unlike Planned Parenthood, NAF is directly putting at issue the truth or falsity of the videos.

At a recent hearing via video on Feb. 17, Orrick focused on whether he should make a preliminary injunction he issued in 2016 permanent. The real question Im interested in is the scope of the injunction, he said. I think the general arguments that the defendants have raised against injunctive relief arent persuasive.

In 2016, he justified blocking the release of the videos by claiming the safety of abortion workers (NAFs members) outweighs Daleidens First Amendment rights. Orrick also stated that he reviewed both transcripts and recordings of the videos in question, and determined that he found no evidence of actual criminal wrongdoing. But the addition of one of CMPs witnesses whose testimony was thrown out of the Planned Parenthood case may change that.

Dr. Forrest Smith, an OB-GYN in California who said hes performed at least 50,000 abortions, was retained by CMP and Daleiden to review their videos and testify that Planned Planned employees violated the medical standard of practice. He took the witness stand in 2019 at the trial of PPFAs criminal case against Daleiden, testifying that theres no question some of the induced abortions discussed in the videos were live births.

In the PPFA civil case, Orrick did not allow Smith to testify because, again, PPFA strategically did not put the veracity of the videos up for debate. Orrick deemed Smiths testimony unnecessary and his expert report was submitted but never used, and was recently unsealed in late January.

Daleiden and the CMP submitted another even more extensive expert report from Smith in the NAF case, in which he examines videos that have not been released. But because NAF has put the issue of what the videos show at the center of their case, Orrick is not going to be able to keep Smiths report out the same way he did in Planned Parenthood. Herein lies Orricks catch-22.

Orrick must grapple with Smiths report in a way that he didnt have to before, Daleiden told The Federalist.

The problem for Orrick is that Smiths expert report directly contradicts what he said in his 2016 preliminary gag order, that he found no criminal wrongdoing.

Heres a 50-year experienced abortion doctor whos worked at Planned Parenthood before, who is saying Actually, your Honor, as a professional in this area, Im telling you this is extremely wrong, extremely unprofessional, extremely unethical, and extremely illegal,' Daleiden said.

In his recently unsealed report in the PPFA case, Smith found that PPFA abortionists violated standards in obtaining consent from women whose fetal tissue was donated, in the techniques they used to collect the fetus body parts, in the way the clinics accepted payment for the donations, and that their procedure resulted in infants being born alive. Although currently sealed, one can presume Smiths findings submitted in the NAF case are similar.

This pits Orrick, a well-known pro-abortion donor, against one of the countrys longest practicing abortion doctors.

Is he going to say that he, Judge Orrick, knows better than the abortion doctor, which would show hes on the side of Planned Parenthood, or is he going to start to liberate some of this footage, which may have consequences for his career as an Obama-appointed judge? Daleiden said.

During Februarys Zoom hearing, Peter Breen, Daleidens defense attorney, vice president, and senior counsel at the Thomas More Society, argued that the videos should be made available to police or lawmakers investigating Planned Parenthood, and on top of that, are a matter of public interest.

Theres nothing inconsistent with the court saying I dont see it but others do and certainly the court would not want to stand in the posture of a censor over something that has First Amendment value and public interest value, Breen said.

Orrick said he found Daleidens arguments unpersuasive, and seemed to think it was going to be a repeat of his 2016 preliminary injunction, but was also made aware of the issues at play, including Smiths testimony which previously he was able to avoid.

It remains unclear how, or even when, Orrick will make his decision.

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A Judge Has Hidden Footage About Abortion Atrocities For 5 Years - The Federalist

On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, former Governor of Wisconsin and current Young Americas Foundation President Scott Walker joins Western Correspondent Tristan Justice to discuss how college campuses are the new frontier for the culture war and how conservatives can harness the opportunities presented by young people to spark change.

One of the mistakes I think conservatives have historically made is that we think and talk with our head. The left thinks and talks with their heart. We should never concede the logic, but find ways to communicate from the heart. I think thats just powerful, Walker said.

College campuses, Walker noted, are often a breeding ground for leftist ideology and conservatives should be ready to provide pushback now.

This is just an opportunity we have to address in our society for sure, but to use it to wedge in much, much bigger issues that are about really changing who controls the economy, about changing who dominates the government, and those are things that change the direction of where America is headed going forward, Walker concluded. We can continue to be a great country, and to improve. We dont need to adopt Marxist or even socialist philosophies to do that.

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Scott Walker On The New Frontier Of The Culture Wars - The Federalist

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reportedly gave special COVID-19 testing privileges to his family and other well-connected figures in the state, raising eyebrows since state laws ban officials from using their positions to secure privileges for themselves or others.

While people around New York struggled to obtain coronavirus testing, Cuomo and his administration organized special access to state testing for those close to him, a new report from the Washington Post suggests. Cuomo reportedly gave the green light for a top state doctor and other health officials to swab those receiving the special treatment at their homes and immediately process the results marked only by initials or numbers in a state lab, sometimes delivering the specimens by state police troopers.

Initially, the lab was capable of running only several hundred tests a day for a state with 19 million residents, the Washington Post reported, noting that employees in the state health laboratory were kept past their shifts until late into the night to process results of those close to Cuomo.

One of the alleged beneficiaries of this Cuomo-orchestrated prioritization was infamous CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, who repeatedly ran interference for his brother in the early months of the pandemic by joking around on live television and refusing to ask him questions about the rising nursing home death toll that resulted from the governors deadly policy.

Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for the governor, maintains it was well within the administrations efforts to go above and beyond to test people including legislators, reporters, state workers and their families who feared they had contracted the virus and had the capability to further spread it.

CNN did not respond to The Federalists request for comment by press time, but a blanket statement from network spokesman Matt Dornic released on Wednesday night suggests the network also didnt think the testing prioritization was a big deal.

We generally do not get involved in the medical decisions of our employees. However, it is not surprising that in the earliest days of a once-in-a-century global pandemic, when Chris was showing symptoms and was concerned about possible spread, he turned to anyone he could for advice and assistance, as any human being would, the statement concluded.

The revelation of these potential ethical violations adds to a growing list of scandals pitted against Cuomo and his administration.The Democrat previously refused to resign, even after calls from Democratic leaders to step down, despite weeks of backlash over not only his concealment of approximately 15,000 COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes as a result of a policy from his office but also ongoing sexual harassment allegations from multiple former female aides, a current aide, and a fellow guest at a wedding.

Im not going to resign. I work for the people of the state of New York. They elected me, and Im going to serve the people of the state in New York, Cuomo told reporters. Im going to do the job the people of the state elected me to do.

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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Cuomo Gave Special COVID Treatment To Brother And 'Well-Connected Figures' - The Federalist

Even the most casual reader of history knows that rule by progressivism involves a powerful federal government controlled by elite experts who know better than the rest of us how America should progress.

Dr. Tony Fauci is the most glaring and recent example of this philosopher king rule from Washington. The problem for leftists, or self-proclaimed progressives, is that too many Americans have no interest in being ruled by Washington, so they rarely gain the political power to enact their left-wing agenda.

Even when progressives gained political power, the judiciary checked their plans. That worked until President Franklin Roosevelt threatened to pack the Supreme Court by adding justices who agreed with his view of the Constitution. Thereafter, progressives began their long war to transform America. The key to that transformation was to kill federalism, as progressives knew successfully run conservative states would serve as beacons of freedom undermining their push for control.

With Donald Trumps election in 2016, the counterattack against the Washington swamp swung into action. The Trump administration took an ax to the regulatory administrative state that had arisen over the previous 80 years, thereby lessening the burden on businesses and individuals and unleashing the economy. With three Supreme Court justice appointees in four years along with 200 appellate and district court appointees, Trump hopefully reinvigorated the judiciary to once again at least somewhat check the federal government.

Equally important, Trump rescinded the California exemption on emissions that allowed that state to set energy policy for the rest of the country. Because of its population size, Californias emission standard functionally served as a national standard since automakers would manufacture cars compliant with it, which made cars more expensive for consumers in the rest of the country.

With Trumps loss, however, and despite the razor-thin outcomes in the House and Senate, leftists didnt waste any time in assailing the gains Trump made. As of now, they gavent killed the filibuster in the Senate, so their plans to pack the Supreme Court and ram through their full agenda on simple majorities is on hold. Still, their mission to rein in well-run red states is in high gear.

Within hours of being sworn in, President Joe Biden issued executive orders repealing as many of Trumps policies as possible, easily breaking the record for executive orders issued in the first months of a presidency.

By passing the $1.9 trillion blue-state bailout, leftists have neutered any fiscal advantage red states had over their poorly run blue state brethren, who stayed locked down to hurt the economy and weaken Trumps reelection effort. Blue states now will able to rescue gold-plated government pensions and cover budget deficits incurred by their economic bloodletting. By restricting the ability of recipient states from cutting taxes, progressives have ensured high-tax blue states wont lose even more competitive ground to low-tax or no-tax red states.

This free money also will tempt states that held out on expanding Medicaid under Obamacare to reverse course. Doing so will only mean Medicaid will swallow an increasing amount of state budgets and limit their fiscal options going forward, which is what the progressives want. Ohio is case in point: Medicaid spending now eats up more than 50 percent of the state budget and its spending has jumped by 70 percent since before expansion in 2013.

Next up on the agenda is the passage of the Protect the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act), which the House recently passed. While supporters will tout other provisions of that bill, its real purpose is to kill right-to-work in the 27 states that have passed such laws since 1947.

Right-to-work states have dominated private-sector job growth for decades. Since 1990, right-to-work states have more than double (52.8 to 21.3 percent) the private-sector growth as forced unionization states. As with taxes, progressives know that right-to-work renders heavily unionized blue states uncompetitive in the job market. There is a reason Boeing announced it was shifting even more work from Seattle, Wa. to Savannah, Ga.

Critically, the advantage right-to-work states have even extends to the recovery of job losses during the pandemic. Specifically, 18 out of 20 of the states with the strongest jobs recovery over the last year are right-to-work states, while 18 of the 20 worst are forced-unionization states. By eliminating right-to-work, progressives can keep their union boss buddies well-fed and kill more competition between the states so laggard blue states can compete.

There is a reason leftists and their media allies belittle Gov. Ron DeSantiss successes in Florida as they hide Gov. Andrew Cuomos failures in New York.

Conservatives like to refer to states as laboratories of democracy. A more accurate way to describe them is laboratories of competition. Leftists get that distinction, so they will do whatever it takes to kill ways for states to compete on policies, thereby ending federalism in practice. With federalism out of the way, elites in Washington can more easily put in place their leftist ideas.

Americans love to compete. Conservatives must fight fiercely to ensure states retain their freedom to compete. Our countrys very future depends on winning that fight.

Matt A. Mayer is president of Opportunity Ohio.

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How Leftists Consolidate Their Power In Washington By Killing Federalism - The Federalist

CNN described the horrific Washington, DC murder of an UberEats driver by two teen girls as an accident after graphic footage of the incident went viral Saturday.

Mohammad Anwar, who is 66 years old and from Springfield, Va., died after two girls aged 13 and 15 dragged him while he gripped the car they were stealing. The minors eventually flipped the vehicle, flinging Anwar to the sidewalk on Tuesday. The minors are from the DC area, according to police.

The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department declared in a press release Wednesday the two girls have been charged with felony murder and armed carjacking. Anwar was assaulted with a Taser amid the carjacking, the police say: The Detectives investigation on the scene revealed that the suspects assaulted the victim with a taser while carjacking the victim which resulted in a motor vehicle accident.

A GoFundMe page set up for Anwars family described the deceased as a hard-working Pakistani immigrant who came to the United States to create a better life for him and his family.Below is how CNN described the carjacking that led to Anwars death.

The post garnered mockery online. Some pointed out the same outlet remained fixated on race when it fit the leftist narrative of white supremacy. The two teenage girls charged by police are black. Anwar was Pakistani, according to his family.

The capital district has seen a sharp increase in carjackings, many by minors, over the past three months.

On Sunday, D.C. Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser published a video offering residents tips to avoid falling victim to vehicular theft.

Auto theft is a crime of opportunity, Bowser wrote.

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CNN Describes Horrific Murder Of UberEats Driver As An 'Accident' - The Federalist

Ensemble is a new to-go food hall in Bethesda that is opening on Wednesday.

Ensemble, a food hall only selling items for contactless pickup and delivery, is scheduled to open Wednesday at 4856 Cordell Ave. in Bethesda.

Ensemble is the latest concept by Salis Holdings, a Washington, D.C., company that operates multiple restaurants including Teds Bulletin, Federalist Pig and Sidekick Bakery. It also owns the future restaurant Honeymoon Chicken.

At Ensemble, customers can order items from four separate menus for each restaurant using a mobile application.

Federalist Pig, a barbecue restaurant, includes offerings on its Ensemble menu such as a pulled pork sandwich ($13.50) and a brisket sandwich ($15.89). It has sharable entrees such as smokey chicken wings ($7).

The Teds Bulletin offerings include a cheeseburger ($15.29) and a crab cake sandwich ($16.29), as well as all-day breakfast items such as French toast ($11.99) and chopped brisket hash ($14.89).

Honeymoon Chickens menu includes both a fried and spicy chicken sandwich, for $13.49 and $13.95. It also has a shareable hot honey cauliflower dish for $6.50, in which the cauliflower is fried and tossed in the restaurants signature hot honey.

The Sidekick Bakery menu features a selection of tarts and cookies, each for $4.

Nick Salis, the senior vice president of operations for Salis Holdings, said in an interview on March 20 that the idea for Ensemble came from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the fact that pickup and delivery have become such popular dining options.

Salis said Ensemble consolidates many of Salis Holdings restaurants under one roof by letting people order food for pickup and delivery from a central point.

The dilemma when youre sitting at home is, Well, I want ribs from Federalist Pig and I want a breakfast burrito from Teds Bulletin and we have to order from separate places. Well, were here to solve that problem, he said.

When youre stuck at home and you think about the experience of cuisine and the ordering process, we really wanted to fill a gap in that.

When a customer orders food through the app, an employee enters the customers contact information into a database, Salis explained. He said the food will be ready in about 15 minutes. Customers are notified on the app that their order is ready.

When customers come into the restaurant, they retrieve their order from a locker by placing their phone under a scanner outside the lockers. The scanner then reads a code that the customer received from the app, and the locker containing their meal opens.

Salis said the contactless experience is ideal for the pandemic, when customers dont want to interact with employees. Alternatively, Ensemble delivers within a three-mile radius, he said.

All of the food is made in house, in a kitchen where an executive chef from each of Salis Holdings brands is working, he said.

Salis explained that different parts of the kitchen are designated for preparing different foods from each of the brands. Then, all items in a particular order are packaged on a table in the center of the kitchen.

Lets say youre ordering ribs from Federalist Pig and French toast from Teds [and] a crispy chicken sandwich from Honeymoon. Itll all come in [to the table], [well] package the order here and then go to the lockers for guests to pick up, he said.

Dan Schere can be reached at daniel.schere@bethesdamagazine.com

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To-go food hall opening Wednesday in Bethesda - BethesdaMagazine.com

Stock car racing is about to get very dirty.On Sunday, NASCARs Cup series will race on a dirt track created at the famed Bristol Motor Speedway.

While the sports truck series ran one dirt race a year from 2013 to 2019 (lockdowns canceled last years event), Sundays feature represents the first time the sports premier series has raced on dirt since September 1970 a race won by stock car racings king, Richard Petty.

The race this coming weekend, as well as a series of invitational races run last week as a precursor to Sundays big show, required an extensive transformation of Bristol Motor Speedway. Over several weeks, workers laid more than 2,000 truckfuls of dirt over the tracks usual concrete surface (with a 2-3 inch layer of sawdust separating the soil and clay from the concrete).

The dirt race could give new life to an event, and a sport, suffering from existential questions well before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Two years ago, this same March event at Bristol featured wide swathes of empty seats for reasons having nothing to do with social distancing.

The novelty of a dirt track race and its frequent promotion on NASCARs network partner Fox has prompted newfound interest in this weekends event. Tickets for Sundays race sold out, albeit at lower capacity due to the pandemic, in early January.

The return of dirt racing prompted NASCAR to publish a primer and glossary about dirt racing. Unlike most paved tracks, cars that run on dirt tend to slide their tires in the turns, requiring a unique set of car control skills by drivers. The engine package the Cup series will run at Bristol will magnify this dynamic, as the 750-horsepower engines should produce a great amount of wheel spin.

The dirt track spectacle hearkens back to the origins of NASCAR moonshine runners attempting to outrun the law in rural Appalachia, often on slick dirt roads that might resemble the Bristol dirt track. Those efforts ultimately led to the 1948 founding of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, which attempted to professionalize informal racing amongst moonshiners.

Ironically, the winningest driver in NASCARs Cup series takes a dim view towards the return to dirt racing, for much the same reason. Asked about the Bristol race last fall, Richard Petty, who won 199 other Cup series races in addition to the last one run on dirt in 1970, viewed it as a potential step backward.

While admitting the Bristol dirt race would be exciting for fans, Petty said he looked at it from an old-time deal because we spent years and years trying to become a professional sport. Having fought for so long to overcome that stigma, Petty worried that dirt-track racing is not professional, so were going backward. It would be like taking a professional football team and going back to play at a high school field.

Pettys concerns notwithstanding, professional teams have gone back to play at a high school field sort of. Shortly after NASCAR announced its dirt race at Bristol last fall, Major League Baseball publicized its Field of Dreams game for this August.

The game, originally scheduled for last summer, will feature two pro baseball teams competing in the same Iowa cornfield popularized in the 1989 Kevin Costner movie. MLB teams have also previously competed at the site of the Little League World Series and at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, New York, baseballs apocryphal home.

Of course, Major League Baseball wont compete every day in Cooperstown and Iowa cornfields, just like NASCAR wont compete on dirt tracks much. For one thing, regular dirt racing would require teams to create custom-built cars for dirt tracks an expensive proposition at an economically uncertain time.

Still, for one day a year, the sport can honor its roots in a way that gives fans cause for excitement. NASCAR hopes that Sundays race will do just that.

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NASCAR Returns To The Dirt With Sold-Out Sunday Race - The Federalist

In an interview that aired Wednesday with ABC News George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America, President Joe Biden stated that it would be tough to withdraw U.S troops currently stationed in Afghanistan by the scheduled deadline of May 1.

Im in the process of making that decision now as to when theyll leave. The fact is, that was not a very solidly negotiated deal that the president, the former president, worked out, Biden said. So were in consultation with our allies as well as the government, and that decisions its in process now.

Last year, then-President Donald Trump negotiated with the Taliban to yank U.S. military forces from Afghanistan and Iraq. The Afghan government agreed to release as many as 5,000 Taliban prisoners in a trade for 1,000 Afghan prisoners held hostage by the Taliban. The historic peace deal came after nearly two decades of war in Afghanistan.

Out of the troops that have not yet been withdrawn, 3,500 remain. According to The New York Times, more than 1,000 Special Operations forces remain in Afghanistan, of this number. The peace agreement has not yet been authorized by the Afghan government.

I dont think a lot longer, Biden told Stephanopoulos on the length of sustaining troops in the middle east. [It] could happen, but it is tough, he added on making the May 1 deadline that Trump put in place.

To date, 3,500 troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan is the lowest number since the conflict initiated. Bidens decision comes just a month after he put a freeze on Trumps decision to withdraw troops from Germany in July. About 11,900 troops were relocated to the U.S. or other parts of Europe.

We dont want to be the suckers anymore, Trump said to reporters in July. The United States has been taken advantage of for 25 years, both on trade and on the military. Were protecting Germany, so were reducing the force because theyre not paying the bills. Its very simple. Theyre delinquent. So were reducing the force. Now if they start paying their bills I would think about it.

Bidens interview aired a day prior to a meeting in Moscow between leaders from Russia, China, the United States, Pakistan, top Afghan officials, and opposition leaders, as well as Taliban representatives. The Taliban continues to deny that al-Qaida terrorists are responsible for the attacks on Sep. 11, 2001.

This week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to display urgent leadership in talks to craft a peace plan with the Taliban.

In reaction to Bidens indeterminate stance on the withdrawal of troops, a spokesperson for the Taliban said that there would be consequences if Trumps agreement was not abided by. The threat is a warning to resume attacks on U.S forces.

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Biden: It Will Be 'Tough' To Pull US Troops Out Of Middle East By May Deadline - The Federalist

If you are like mehandsome and coolyou love a great action movie. You love the superhero archetype because the character development, if done properly, can reveal what is best about us as a species. You love watching attractive people with amazing physiques do impossible things in impractical clothesunless your name is Martin Scorsese, who famously hates the genre.

People who cant get past the dazzle of science fiction plot devices just dont have the creativity to achieve suspension of disbelief. They have lost their childlike sense of wonder for the wonderful.

If you love your sense of wonder, you likely love Wonder Woman. If you love the supernatural, you love Superman. If you love oceanic, robotic, and fast action, you love Aquaman, Cyborg, and The Flash. If you love all of these characters and their flaws in one film, you are a true fan and your name might be Zack Snyder.

If you are wondering if this film came out in 2017, you are mostly right. Snyder had a family tragedy that cut short his ability to finish this film, and Joss Whedon was tapped to complete it. Snyder had set up his own vision for the DC cinematic universe in 2013 with Man of Steel, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

This would have been an Avengers-esque team-up to launch more films and a vehicle to introduce new characters to the screen. Whedon basically came in and crapped all over that vision and delivered a disjointed, half-baked CGI, dryly performed, and meandering film that was only mildly enjoyable.

Snyder fixes all of that. The Snydercut was demanded by the fans, who made it happen, and the payoff is worth it. In a way, the fans were Snyders own Justice League who brought him back like Superman to vanquish Whedons evil spawn.

There is character development, beautiful cinematography, better banter, and more emotional sinew in the performances. The score is better, the colorization is better, Snyders desaturated and almost film noir grit really works to cement this fantasy into reality and to blend the CGI with the live action.

Speaking of CGI, it is light years ahead of the 2017 version. The bad guys look better, scarier, and more threatening. Steppenwolf is given a character arc that comics fans will recognize. Even though he seems more threatening (spoilers ahead) he is heralding an even greater evil to comea really well done Darkseid.

Darkseid-Thanos comparisons will be made, and I like the Darkseid CGI treatment better than Thanoss. He seems more tangible and real. For the record, he also came first as a character.

We are treated to battles from time past. A Green Lantern makes an appearance alongside the old Greek gods, Amazonians, Atlanteans, and early men. This backstory was important to set up the struggle to get our heroes to unite.

A fractured Earth led to distrust between the peoples, and that reflects in the main characters. The idea of uniting to defeat a common foe should resonate today. In addition to new and better battles, we also get to see new and revamped characters in Martian Manhunter and Jared Letos Joker, who seems more menacing and developed in this film, although his frames are few.

All of the characters seem more deftly acted. Was that better editing, alternate takes, or reshoots? The world may never know. Superman looks cool in his back in black super-suit and his return seemed even scarier than in the 17 version, even though the scenes seemed very close to the same.

The slow-motion scenes will seem superfluous to some, but to me they really drove home the idea of how fast the action was and how insanely fast The Flash is. In fact, his power is expanded from the first film, as is his heroism.

The score is more epic and tender, and the pop music in the soundtrack gives us well-timed emotional connection. Batman totally fell in love with guns!

This was a great film; not without flaws, but Im comfortable calling it great. It is worth viewing maybe even twice. That brings me to some of the flaws.

Four hours. Four hours in 4:3 aspect ratio! If you have an older plasma widescreen or even LED, it could burn black bars into the sides of your screen (just kidding, but if it happens I want to hear about it). To me, this was the worst choice Snyder made. It made the film seem less expansive.

I mostly ignored it once the film was going for a bit, but I have the good fortune of viewing on a 120-inch 4K Dolby Atmos projection system with audio to match. I imagine this film was envisioned for IMAX screens, which are giant 4:3. The sidebars would have annoyed me more had I been watching on the 75-inch downstairs.

Some of the pacing seemed slownot painfully slow, just slowenough to make you think a 3.5-hour version might be just as good. Thats all I have for flaws, but those may prove too massive for some to overcome. Now, back to the good.

The fact that this film was available to stream and to view in theaters was really great. I think this COVID model will stay long after we have burned our masks.

I cant think of another filmmaker who was ever given a chance to recover his or her vision. It is an extraordinary occasion and well worth the effort. As I mentioned earlier, the fandom that made this happenthey demanded it and thus ensured a return on the investment. It gave them some ownership, and the fandom should take a bow.

This film is an example of what movie-making should and can be when producers and execs arent given too much control over content. When you have a master visual storyteller like Snyder, you turn him loose.

One cant help but wonder if the results would have been better had they just shelved it until he had gotten past his tragedy in the first place. We wouldnt be watching this film with the bad taste of the first still in our mouths. Still, I am thankful for this palate-cleanser.

Watch this film, make lots of popcorn, and plan to pause for bathroom breaks at the chapter slates. Oh, and if you talk about this movie with your fanboy friends, make sure you know the names of all the characters, no matter how small, or prepare to be nerdured.

If you are friends with Mr. Scorsese, just pretend you hated it.

Chris Loesch is the owner of creative concept company Intuation Studios.

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'Justice League' Is Zack Snyder's Trimphant Return To Big Heroes - The Federalist

More than 2 million signatures were submitted to California state election officials Wednesday on the final day to reach the 1,495,709 needed to secure a recall for Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom on the calendar this year.

The state will now conduct a monthlong review to validate the signatures. If valid, a recall election expected to be scheduled for sometime between August and December.

Were gonna take this extremely seriously were gonna get ready and fight like hell, Newsom senior strategist Sean Clegg told Politico Wednesday, labeling the referendum on Newsoms leadership a partisan Republican recall with a capital R.

Anne Dunsmore, however, who runs the recall committee, RescueCalifornia.org, told The Federalist that more than a third of the signatures are independent and Democratic voters. Dunsmore emphazied the bipartisan nature of the movement triggered in large part by the governors aggressive and hypocritical lockdowns. Fifty-eight percent of those who signed the petition were women, Dunsmore said.

On Tuesday, Newsom complained the recall effort was motivated by racism, a routine accusation foisted by Democrats on any criticism from political opponents.

Look at the petition, look at the actual reasons they themselves listed. It has to do with immigration. The browning of California, Newsom told reporters.

Dunsmore called Newsoms comments an insult to the two million people who signed the petition with a very strong showing from people that were no party preference and Democrats.

Newsom said on the ABCs The View Tuesday that he is worried about the effort to remove him from office.

Of course Im worried about it, Newsom told the daytime panel. The nature of these things, the up or down question, the zero-sum nature of the question is challenging so were taking it seriously.

The recall ballot gives voters a yes-or-not vote on whether Newsom stays in office, followed by a list of candidates competing for Newsoms replacement if Californians vote in favor of removal.

While five recall attempts on Newsom failed in the past, the sixth effort picked up momentum in December, about a month after the governor was caught enjoying indoor dining at a three-star Michelin restaurant in Napa Valleys wine country. Photos of the scene showed Newsom, who had just prohibited gatherings of more than three households before the Thanksgiving holiday, at a dinner party with a dozen others with no masks, and no social distancing.

Newsom tightened statewide restrictions after he apologized for getting caught.

Californians have been subject to some of the harshest lockdowns in the country provoking an exodus to business-friendlier states such as Texas and Arizona. Families have also fled the state in search of better education for their children as many California schools remain closed despite overwhelming evidence that in-person instruction is safe.

A new poll out Monday shows more than 58 percent of California voters believe its time for someone new in the 2022 election. Only 42 percent said they would vote to keep Newsom in office in an upcoming recall.

While Newsoms lockdowns, implemented with little transparency, have fueled the governors recall movement, California Republican Congressman Darrell Issa told The Federalist Newsoms problems stem far beyond aggressive COVID-19 restrictions.

Rolling blackouts caused by insensitivity to the transition from fuel, Issa said, gripped the state last year with an energy crisis which has left Californians relying on imported power from other states at peak periods.

Issa, the wealthiest member in Congress who bankrolled the states last recall in 2003 when voters replaced incumbent Democrat Gray Davis with Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, told The Federalist the stakes are higher in this years contest than they were nearly 20 years ago.

Weve got to turn around the direction of the state in a much more meaningful way, Issa said, who cited the states fleeing population putting California on track to lose a congressional seat for the first time in its history.

Issa said he is committed to supporting the effort however he can, though he wont be running as a candidate himself.

While no prominent Democrats have come forward to challenge Newsom in the recall, several Republicans have already declared their candidacies including former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and former Republican Congressman Doug Ose.

Former President Donald Trumps former Director of National Intelligence, Ric Grenell, has also hinted at a run but has not yet announced any decision.

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Californians Gather More Than 2 Million Signatures To Recall Gavin Newsom - The Federalist