Category Archives: Federalist

Educators at a public high school in Illinois were astonished to learn when they showed up for work one day that everything from the color of their skin to snow shoveling indicates systemic racism.

On Feb. 26, Naperville 203 Community Unit School District hosted a systemic racism training for faculty and staff, bringing in antiracist coach Dena Simmons for a keynote speech. The Countywide Equity Institute featured 10 speakers lecturing on equity and inclusion practices for marginalized and/or underrepresented students, as well as implicit bias and microaggressions.

A whistleblower who reached out to The Federalist, a teacher at Naperville Central High School, claims Simmons told attendees that our education is based on a foundation of whiteness and that Americans are spiritually murdering students. Simmons also reportedly said that if you are not an antiracist you are a racist, even if you believe you are treating people with respect.

Simmons has delivered two TEDx talks on institutional racism. In one speech to educators that has more than 230,000 views on YouTube, the Yale University graduate said white supremacy is the outcome in all schools that do not embrace racial justice and antiracism training for students.

In an article titled How to Be an Antiracist Educator published in Oct. 2019, Simmons praises The New York Times 1619 Project as a comprehensive opportunity to learn and discuss history and race with colleagues and students. The 1619 Project claimed America is systemically racist and that all of modern society and injustices are directly linked to slavery. It has been the target of much criticism by scholars for inaccuracy.

The whistleblower said Simmons lecture was all over the place and hard to follow content-wise. Simmons reportedly said snow removal indicates systemic racism, presumably referencing a viral Feb. 3 column published by the Los Angeles Times in which the author condemned her Republican neighbor for plowing her driveway.

At one point she was talking even about how snow removal is affected by systemic racism. She totally lost me on that one. I even texted that to my [partner], said the whistleblower.

Its almost time for an amazing day of learning in @Naperville203! So excited for our lineup, discussions, reflections, and ACTIONS that will make us better together. #BeTheSpark @brightmorningtm @DenaSimmons @SaraKAhmed @pgorski @chrisemdin, the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction at Naperville, Jayne Willard, who organized the Feb. 26 antiracist training, tweeted that morning.

The Federalist contacted the district for a transcript or video of the training. An employee at the district office claimed Simmons did not permit any recording or redistribution of her discussion that day.

The Naperville Community School District 203 has given a platform to the toxic and divisive ideology of critical race theory. Ms. Dena Simmons is one of the many prophets of this cult-like ideology that looks at children by the color of their skin, not the content of their character, Asra Q. Nomani, a former Wall Street Journal reporter investigating critical race theory in education, told The Federalist. As parents, we need to ask the bottom line questions. How much was Ms. Simmons paid? Was there a competitive bidding process to get speakers on the topic?

Simmons is the founder of LiberatED, a group focused on developing school-based resources at the intersection of social and emotional learning (SEL), racial justice, and healing. She posts a reported speaking fee of $10,000 to $20,000 to essentially discuss the redistribution of wealth and social prestige by race.

A teacher at Naperville Central sent The Federalist several PowerPoint slides from the virtual training hosted by speaker Valda Valbrun, who presented on the topic Leading for Equity: Efficacy and Action in Schools. The PowerPoint image below obtained by The Federalist alludes to a broad conspiratorial network of interconnected systems of structural and institutional racism.

Below are additional pictures that teachers in the Valbrun training took, one of which depicts a pyramid graph that differentiates between examples of covert and overt white supremacy. Among the overt examples, the graph claims the phrase Make America Great Again is covert white supremacist language, nearly equivalent in context to the N-word and the Ku Klux Klan. Also, it claims denying the existence of white privilege makes you a racist. So does the celebration of Columbus Day, as depicted in the right-hand corner.

Another slide, depicted under the white supremacy graph, deceptively equates equal access with a vision of society in which the distribution of resources and power is equitable and all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure. Once more, equality of outcome is represented by the antiracist educators as synonymous with equality of opportunity.

Valbrun is the CEO of Valbrum Consulting Group, an organization that provides training and leadership development for schools and districts. In 2019, Valbrun presented at The Harvey B. Gantt Museum, Equity and Innovation Teacher Institute on equity and systemic racism in education. Valbrums lecture at Naperville overwhelmingly used identity politics to explain all disparities in society, according to sources.

Lets look at the children as individuals, a teacher said. They are saying that if you are white you are racist and have white privilege. Even if you say you are not racist, you are told you are.

On March 2, school district coordinator Sue Jim Striedl sent an email to all attendees at the Feb. 26 Valbrun training to provide a link to the Intercultural Development Inventory website. IDI identifies itself as the premier cross-cultural competence that is used by thousands of individuals and organizations to build intercultural competence to achieve international and domestic diversity and inclusion goals and outcomes.

Striedl forwarded a Google Drive link from Valbrun that contains documents she used in her lecture. One document called the Leading For Racial Equity glossary defines the terms white privilege, white fragility, white culture, whiteness, and systemic racism, among others. It also says that reverse racism does not exist, claiming white people cannot be discriminated against.

Another document is a Continuum on Becoming an Anti-Racist, Multicultural Institution, a six-step guide to becoming an antiracist based on the notion that everyone is implicitly bigoted. The third document included below is called the School Culture Equity Rubric and outlines various scenarios of racism, such as if a minority student is not greeted upon entering a classroom. Additionally, suspensions, detentions, and all zero-tolerance discipline policies are said to be racist.

In a tweet prior to the 2020 presidential election in November, now-Vice President Kamala Harris called for equity, saying equitable treatment means we all end up in the same place. Schools and companies are now ramping up partnerships with speakers espousing dangerous ideas, such as the elimination of meritocracy and the idea of judging people as racist or non-racist based on their biology.

In this intersectionality hierarchy, a white man is inherently racist simply because he is a white man; a transgender black pansexual person with the pronouns it/they remains oppressed because of his sectarian status in societys impermeable hegemony.

In February, a whistleblower said Coca-Cola was hosting antiracist training on LinkedIn for employees, which was subsequently removed from the website. The training videos instructed employees to try to be less white.

Brigham Young University, as reported by The Daily Wire, is developing a race-conscious curriculum. The BYU task force said the school should establish a dedicated, visible space on campus for underrepresented students and those who serve this population. In other words, segregation.

Were facing a national crisis in America today with a multimillion-dollar industry that I call Woke Inc., infiltrating our schools with hired guns, weaponizing our children, and indoctrinating them with toxic, divisive ideas that segregate, shame, and denigrate, Nomani said. As a parent, it breaks my heart. We have to stand up with moral courage and challenge and expose this nightmare.

According to teachers, Naperville Central had a building institute training a week prior on Feb. 22 where district learning coaches lectured on implicit bias and microaggressions. The topic of discussion was also equity and racism in educationand America at large. The whistleblower says that he believes the next session is scheduled for April 6.

The antiracist training at the high school comes on the heels of Illinois formally approving Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards. According to the new rules, teachers are required to embrace and encourage progressive viewpoints and perspectives, as well as assess how their biasesaffecthow they access tools to mitigate their own behavior (racism, sexism, homophobia, unearned privilege, Eurocentrism, etc).

In Illinois, the semi-official civics website tied to the implementation of the states civics law, illinoiscivics.org, has been heavily promoting critical race theory, the culturally responsive teaching philosophy that grows out of critical race theory, and the white fragility-style training sessions connected to culturally responsive teaching. I say semi-official because the illinoiscivics.org website is funded and run by a private entity, the McCormick Foundation, Stanley Kurtz, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told The Federalist.

The new rules in Illinois include an article on white fragility and form the basis for training sessionslike that at Napervillefor teachers to move past their whiteness. Educators are required to admit that there is systemic racism or that there are systems in our society that create and reinforce inequities, thereby creating oppressive conditions.

We need to oppose antiracism training because the training itself is more like racism than its opposite. This training attributes guilt and innocence, insight and blindness, to individuals because of their race. This training, and the critical race theory that inspires it, is fundamentally at odds with the classically liberal principles that form the foundation of our constitutional system, Kurtz added.

He noted that Joe Biden has repeatedly claimed the nation he leads is beset with systemic racism, a critical race theory concept, and one of his first acts as president was to reinstate critical race theory trainings for federal employees and contractors.

Ive had enough of this, the whistleblower said. Somebody needed to say something. I was raised with the idea that you try to see people as human beings and individuals. Instead of trying to create a society that works together, a society that has the values that our country was founded on, all systemic racism is doing is drawing attention to peoples races and differences. Instead of a society that works together, this is totally the opposite.

Assistant Superintendent Jayne Willard did not return several calls from The Federalist requesting for comment, nor did Assistant Principal Angela Ginnan from Naperville Central High School. Valbrun Consulting Group did not return any calls.An individual who handles inquiries for Dena Simmons responded to an email preliminarily but did not answer a follow-up with questions.

Update:A teacher who wishes to remain anonymous contacted the Federalist on March 6 and said the Naperville union representative, Dan Iverson, sent a letter to faculty and staff after the publishing of this article. Iverson said that it is vital America fosters a more equitable district and a more equitable society.

I appreciate your article as I too work at District 203. Sadly it is falling on deaf ears and they are ramping up pressure on us even more as conservatives. We just got this letter from our union rep (Dan Iverson). The thing he doesnt get is if we speak out we will get punished. Read below. [link], the anonymous educator messaged to the Federalist.

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Illinois Teachers Shamed For Color Of Their Skin In 'Antiracist' Training - The Federalist

Democrats in Congress passed President Joe Bidens $1.9 trillion COVID-19 spending bill on Wednesday without any votes from Republicans, costing taxpayers thousands of dollars more than they could potentially receive in a stimulus check.

The legislation, which Biden is expected to sign into law on Friday, contains a myriad of provisions ranging from extending unemployment benefits through September, expanding the child tax credit, allocating billions of dollars for small business loans through the paycheck protection program, designating billions more for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, expansions on Obamacare insurance subsidies even for those who may not need the financial help, paying the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) billions to help facilitate vaccine distribution and administration, grants for restaurants, money for schools which may or may not reopen, tax hikes, and much more.

Less than 9 percent of the total spending bill goes directly to combatting COVID-19 or vaccine distribution.

If this bill was about direct payments to people and putting shots in the arms and vaccines, you would have strong bipartisan support across this Congress and across this country, Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., said on NPR Wednesday morning.

One of the most popular measures included in the bill is direct payments of $1,400 to Americans who fall below a yearly income of $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 for couples who file jointly. An extra $1,400 will be distributed for each dependent an individual claims on their tax returns. Most of these payments, however, will not outnumber the price of the legislative spending that will eventually have to be paid by taxpayers, which amounts to approximately more than $5,000 each.

While at least $1 trillion sits unspent from the round of stimulus packages shoved through the legislature in previous months, other provisions unrelated to the pandemic were also tucked into the more than 600-page bill. It includes millions of dollars for libraries, public broadcasting, pollution mitigation, and abortion programs not subject to the Hyde Amendment, which is supposed to prevent taxpayer-funded abortions.

Republicans, all of whom voted against the bill, argue that it merely racks up the national debt and seeks to serve the people in power.

If you are a member of the swamp, you do pretty well under this bill, said House Minority Leader Republican Kevin McCarthy of California.

Others suggest it was a deliberate political move initiated by Democrat leadership and fed by Bidens rejection of a cheaper, Republican proposal last month.

This should be a targeted relief bill, but instead, this is an attempt by Speaker Pelosi to further promote her socialist agenda, said House Minority Whip Republican Steve Scalise of Lousiana.

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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Congress Passes Massive COVID Bailout Bill Which Costs Taxpayers More Money Than They Will Receive - The Federalist

News last week of a third approved COVID-19 vaccine should signal a move toward normalcy. But thanks to blue state and bureaucratic screwups and this weeks Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, giving the vaccinated masses limited freedom which is to say limiting their freedom there is little cause for excitement.

At the close of February, the Food and Drug Administration authorized the new single-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine, meaning tens of millions more doses will soon be pouring out into the population. Setting aside for a moment that this new vaccine is morally problematic for many Americans since it was developed using fetal line cells from aborted babies, it has proved to be very effective against COVID-19.

FDA scientists said the shot is 66 percent effective at preventing moderate to severe cases of the virus and 85 percent effective at warding off the most serious cases, and these rates account for new variants of the virus, unlike the Pfizer and Moderna clinical trials. Also unlike the other two vaccines, this one requires only a single shot instead of two.

For everyone unbothered by how the vaccine was developed, this should be incredible news. Getting your vulnerable loved ones and maybe eventually yourself moved faster through the vaccine line should be an exciting development. After a year of lockdowns, economic hardship, declining mental health, scarce education, deteriorating relationships, and stifled worship, many Americans are beyond ready to get back to normal.

Excitement about this new shot, however, depends on Americans confidence in the vaccine. And confidence in the vaccine is only possible when Americans are convinced of their governments competence and willingness to move forward as more of the population is vaccinated which is all to say, this news can only conjure up so much enthusiasm.

Consider first the governments demonstrable lack of competence during the vaccine rollout, particularly among blue states such as California.

While the media lambasted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for disregarding federal guidelines in order to prioritize vaccinating his states vulnerable elderly, doubtless saving many lives, blue states were embroiled in their own rollout disasters. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the same man whose nursing home policy contributed to the deaths of nearly 10,000 residents, instituted confusing rules and eligibility requirements that left precious doses of the drug thrown away, spoiled amid the failure. Under Cuomo, who is now embroiled in two separate scandals, prisoners were permitted to jump the vaccine line ahead of vulnerable populations.

Of the top four most successful states in the early days of vaccine rollout and administration, three were red: North Dakota, West Virginia, and South Dakota. Now North Dakotas mask mandate has expired and West Virginia has lifted its capacity limits on restaurants and other businesses. These types of actions instill confidence in a vaccine and move Americans toward normalcy but theyre few and far between and confined mostly to red states.

Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsoms vaccine failures, which mirrored New Yorks, have added fuel to the fire of his opponents recall efforts. Consider that while nearly 13 percent of the West Virginia population has received both doses of a two-dose vaccine, only 8.5 percent of Californians have been so fortunate.

But even if every state in the union were able to ramp up efficiency in distribution to look more like West Virginia or the Dakotas, will that change anything? While states like Texas and Mississippi have decided to reopen their businesses and stop requiring masks, most states havent shown nearly even that degree of commitment to freedom.

The Johnson and Johnson shot is 66 percent effective, they say? Well, thats not 100 percent, the COVID kings will say when they decide it serves their interests. Weve done this dance before. The same people who said you should double-mask because two are better than one will not be satisfied when you get a shot that is only 66 percent effective. So on the one-year anniversary of 15 days to slow the spread, do get your vaccine but also please remain six feet apart and make sure your mask is tight around your nose and chin.

Mondays much-anticipated CDC guidelines for people who are vaccinated say as much. According to the guidelines, vaccinated people should still wear masks and socially distance in public and do the same when theyre with at-risk people or with unvaccinated people from more than one household. The guidelines also say vaccinated people should avoid undefined medium and large gatherings and keep heeding CDC and health department travel requirements meaning even after youre vaccinated, dont travel if you can avoid it.

It isnt just the CDC. Lawmakers and bureaucrats have been sending the message for months that a vaccine does basically nothing in the way of helping us achieve any semblance of normalcy. Just as now-Vice President Kamala Harris turned the vaccine into a political football before winning the election, the opportunism continues.

Even after COVID-19 case numbers plummeted and vaccines began ramping up, so-called infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said it is possible well still be wearing masks in 2022. Likewise, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters last month, Even after youre vaccinated, social distancing, wearing masks are going to be essential.

Meanwhile, the president of the United States is instilling no confidence either. Commenting on when America might return to normal, Biden said, My hope is by this time next year but that theres a lot we have to do yet. Despite being fully vaccinated, the commander in chief is also doubling-masking, something the CDC began recommending as case numbers continued to plummet.

This terrified mentality will never propel America toward anything resembling normal. A rejection of this fearmongering, however, leads blue states and blue checks to lose their minds, declaring anyone who discards fear and bureaucratic orthodoxy to be murderous and selfish.

Just look at what happened when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced last week he was lifting his mask mandate and opening the state to 100 percent, and Mississippi followed suit. Abbotts actions were deemed criminal, absolutely reckless, and a racist death sentence.

Our ruling class has no desire to resume normal life. Our personal decisions are now perpetually decided for us, according to the fears and desires of the most risk-averse among us, sometimes for nothing more than political capital.

If the vaccine is effective and we should all get it, as our political leaders insist, there is no reason not to pursue normalcy as shots are increasingly administered and cases plummet. The ruling class can keep pretending as they have for a year that there are no costs associated with social distance, lockdowns, and masking in perpetuity, but that doesnt make those costs go away.

As long as our leaders continue to drop the ball on vaccine administration or undermine the drugs effectiveness altogether, theres no reason to believe our country will begin dusting itself off. COVID cases arent keeping Americans in a state of perpetual limbo; those are plunging. Its blue states and bureaucrats.

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Vaccines Should Mean A Return To Normal, But Blue States And Bureaucrats Are Ensuring That Doesn't Happen - The Federalist

It broke my heart to hear about Dr. Seuss Enterprises decision to stop printing some of his classic childrens books at the behest of outraged leftists. It was even more horrifying to witness so many people in power, from President Joe Biden to the executives at eBay, willingly comply with a small mobs demands. Maybe it is easy to obliterate something valuable when you have never lived without it before.

The first time I read Dr. Seusss books was when I was pregnant with my son. Ever since I knew his existence, I began to read to him every night. I bought Dr. Seusss books in both English and Chinese to read each story to him in two different languages. I wanted him to become familiar with my voice. Like all mothers, I wanted him to have a much better childhood than mine, including having things I never had, such as great childrens literature.

I grew up in China. At the time, adults had nothing else to read other than books written by Mao Zedong. A collection of Maos books was a typical wedding gift for the newlyweds. Naturally, there werent many choices for childrens books either. The few childrens books I read had no adorable characters, nor did any convey a sense of humor or wit. There wasnt much color in the books either. Most of the drawings were black and white, just like our colorless, dull life under socialism.

One story I still remember was The Rooster Crows at Midnight. It was about an evil landowner, Zhou, who was very cruel to laborers who worked for him. The story said the Chinese Communist Party liberated laborers and distributed land and livestock formerly owned by Zhou to these poor laborers.

One night, children patrolling the village caught Zhou as he was trying to steal a chicken. I still remember the picture in the book that depicts the scene when Zhou got caught: he knelt on the floor, head dropped, back bent, and hands tied back; the children who surrounded him all pointed their shining spears at him, with an indignant look on their faces.

The author of the book disclosed in an interview later that this book was based on a true story. In real life, Zhou confessed his crime in a struggle session and was beaten to death.

Thats the story I remember from my childhood. I had many nightmares after reading it. The Chinese Communist Party even turned this story into a movie. The CCP wanted people to believe owning private property and having more wealth than other people is evil. This propaganda campaign was effective. Zhou, the demonized landowner, soon became synonymous with evil.

In a totalitarian regime, childrens books arent meant to bring any joy or inspire a healthy imagination. Instead, their sole purpose is to instill the correct political ideology in young minds so we would be prepared to become devoted soldiers of Communism.

Like everyone else, I despised Zhou, the evil landowner, until years later I learned that my great-grandfather had been a landowner also. My great-grandfather was always kind, generous, and hardworking. He earned his land inch by inch through sweat, tears, and even blood.

The CCP took all his land and livestock away in the name of land reform. He had to endure many cruel struggle sessions, but miraculously, he survived. Learning the truth about my great-grandfather made me feel that the CCP had cheated me out of my childhood twice. Not only did I not have a normal childhood, but also I fell for the CCPs lie that landowners like my great-grandfather were terrible people.

When I was reading Dr. Seusss books to my unborn son, I was not only introducing him to my voice, but also filling in a missing chapter in my own life. I learned that it was never too late to read great childrens literature.

Green Eggs and Ham may sound like nonsense, but Dr. Seuss reminded us that nonsense wakes up the brain cell. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. If more of us think like children, if more of us are willing to open our eyes and explore different things and ideas, the world would be a much better and happier place. As Dr. Seuss said: Youll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.

Just like the zealous Chinese Communists in the 1960s to 1970s, todays leftist mob is bent on smashing the old world so it can build an ideologically purified new world on the carnage of the old. Their destruction usually begins with annihilating the most problematic aspect of our society. Few people can find reasons to object to it.

The initial acceptance then empowers the mob to target more for elimination, no matter the historical context. Within three years, we went from removing Confederate statues, which most Americans supported, to pulling down statues of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington and renaming their namesake schools and buildings.

But todays leftist mob wont stop their destruction of our world until it gets all of us. No one is safe because none of us are flawless. They can always find faults with everyone and in everything. In an extreme circumstance, as we learned from Chinas Cultural Revolution, some sin of ideological impurity eventually may be washed away by blood.

Such ideology-driven destruction will only stop when there is nothing valuable left to be eliminated: all the statues of flawed historical figures have been pulled down; all the problematic books have been burned; all the history has been rewritten; all dissenting voices have been silenced, and people who survive tremble in fear.

In such a new world where ignorance is power, future generations of Americans probably will have a childhood like mine: they may never read any books by Dr. Seuss nor hear of Beethovens music.

If thats not the kind of world you want to see your children and grandchildren live in, you need to act now. Let the cancellation of Dr. Seuss become a call to action. Refuse to comply with the woke mobs demand.

Here is something all of us can do: build a freedom library in your home or among friends. Let the cancel cultures demand become your shopping list.

Since Big Tech companies like Amazon have sided with woke mobs and used their market power to help enforce the cancel culture, do not rely on their services or servers to fill your shelves (and childrens minds). Stock your freedom library with physical copies of books, movies, music, even statues (if you have enough space) that have been or about to be deemed problematic. As T.S. Eliot said, The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man.

The more each of us can do to preserve truth, beauty, wisdom, and diverse ideas of our civilization, the better hope there is that our future generations wont have to live in a colorless, dull, ignorant, and illiberal world.

Link:

Stopping The Next Cultural Revolution Starts With Your Home Library - The Federalist

78-year-old President Joe Biden is nowhere to be seen, aside from sporadic television appearances through a black mask the size of a Rawlings baseball mitt, or appearing to be on the verge of collapse from dehydration in social media videos.

On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced Bidens name will not appear on the $1,400 COVID-19 stimulus direct payments being sent out to millions of Americans this month. This is not about him, Psaki said. This is about the American people getting relief.

While Psaki claims this action is due to the federal governments efforts to expedite the relief process, it is a strikingly on-cue representation of Bidens reclusive campaign and presidency. Bidens name missing from the checks is an avatar of him going missing from campaigning and now the presidency. The man has repeatedly and noticeably avoided the public eye since deciding to run for the president for the third time.

According to a final count of 2020 presidential rallies, Biden hosted a total of 53 compared to former President Trumps 86. Biden canceled public speaking events in advance, notably all rallies prior to his debate with Trump in October.

Dozens of Bidens supposed rallies were performed digitally, presumably out of fear of contracting COVID or perhaps in desperation for another Botox shot to keep the facade going that he is actually in fine mental and physical condition to be the president. In a virtual town hall back in April 2020, Biden seemingly fell asleep on camera with Hillary Clinton. In October 2020, he claimed to voters in Toledo, Ohio he was running for the Senate.

The Biden gaffes just kept on coming. They still do.

This and other factors fueled a lack of enthusiasm for Joe. According to an Associated Press-NORC Center For Public Affairs survey taken in July 2020, 42 percent of Trump supporters were excited heading into the election, while only 31 percent of Biden supporters could say the same. In March 2020, the same sentiment showed; strong enthusiasm for Biden rested at 24 percent, the lowest of any Democratic presidential candidate in the last 20 years, while Trump rode the ship at 53 percent in the ABC/Washington Post poll.

Weve got the most energy in the history of politics, and hes got the least, Trump yelped in October 2020 to a crowd in Janesville, Wis.

There was another glaring discrepancy between the Trump rallies and the Biden rallies. For one, Trumps rallies were electric and fun and hip. Billie Jean, All Right Now, We Are The Champions, Macho Man, and other songs energized crowds of Americans wearing MAGA hats and waving flags. God Bless The U.S.A. continues to be the song Trump comes out in front of crowds, including his February speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla.

Bidens rallies attracted an average attendance of 38 people, with only 1,996 attendees in total from August to November. Trumps rallies had an average of 13,024 people and attracted a total of 1,120,070 (not including his many rallies leading up to 2020). Trump did even not allow contracting the virus to stop him from speaking to the American public face to face. He outperformed his 2016 rally digits by about 50 percent, which at the time outmatched Hillary Clinton in total by 853,935 attendees combined.

Biden may have captured the presidency, but he did so by raking in votes from Democrats and Independents more focused on removing the mean orange man than electing a senile career politician. It appears voters did not care if a man is unfit, so long as he is running against what the left hyperbolized as a tyrant in Trump.

Now each day, Psaki sanctimoniously tries to clarify Bidens positions of the day. Whether these are his actual positions, or that of radical puppetmasters in the administration, who knows.

[Biden] has replaced in-person meetings with video calls. He allows only a limited number of people in the building even staff that normally would have been in the West Wing are working from home or in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door, Politico reported in February on Bidens daily routine. He doesnt leave the White House often. He isnt planning any foreign or domestic trips for now. And until this week, when he invited senators of both parties to talk about Covid-19 recovery legislation, he was not asking visitors to the White House.

Words from this president are rarely long and in-depth, contrary to the page-turner executive orders Biden has pushed through. A glimpse at content on Bidens Twitter feed is like going to BrainyQuote.com. Each post is an orchestrated catchphrase fit for a bumper sticker hanging off the side of a woke upper-middle-class suburban mothers minivan. But Biden isnt writing the tweets, of course. A man named Brendan Cohen is his social media manager.

While Trump would call friends and allies seemingly at random, Biden has a list of phone calls scheduled for him, Politico continued. While Trump didnt mind aides and outside allies wandering into the Oval Office, Biden has a handful of gatekeepers who control access to the room.

At the Republican National Convention in August, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetzs speech foreshadowed what would become of the Biden presidency. Im speaking to you from an auditorium emptier than Joe Bidens daily schedule, Gaetz said. By this time, Trumps coined sleepy Joe phrase to define Biden was a fan favorite for the conservative base.

Welcome to the race, Sleepy Joe. I only hope you have the intelligence, long in doubt, to wage a successful primary campaign, Trump tweeted in April 2019 upon Biden announcing his run for the presidency. It will be nasty you will be dealing with people who truly have some very sick & demented ideas. But if you make it, I will see you at the Starting Gate.

For a commander-in-chief so detached from the American public, Biden signed the most executive orders out of any president in history on his first day of office 15. As of writing, he has signed close to 50 orders, whereas during the same time in their respective presidencies, Barack Obama had signed 28 and Donald Trump 27.

David Keltz, a former speechwriter for the executive branch, brilliantly captured in The American Spectator Bidens bleak shadow presidency. What a difference from our new basement president. Perhaps no song better sums up Bidens first two weeks as commander in chief than the Beatles tune: Nowhere Man,' Ketz writes.

Hes a real nowhere manSitting in his nowhere landMaking all his nowhere plans for nobodyDoesnt have a point of viewKnows not where hes going to.

We are living in a weird time, in a weird place, led by a senior citizen who remains silent while his minions appear to run the show.

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Joe Biden Is The Commander In Hiding - The Federalist

Big tech overreach is growing by the day. Not only is the former president of the United States banned from using social media platforms but businesses, nonprofits, and other individuals are also subject to censorship of all kinds daily on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and more.

While Republican lawmakers toyed with the idea of reforming regulations such as Section 230 to curb some of these blatant partisan blackouts while they still had control of the Senate, the 2020 election and other distractors occupied their time. Instead of waiting for Congress to act, states are now making plans to act on their own, introducing and passing legislation aimed at Big Techs power-grabbing and authoritarian suppression of certain speech.

The first state to pursue holding Big Tech liable for its blatant censorship was North Dakota, where lawmakers introduced a bill that would allow users whose speech is curbed by Silicon Valley giants to seek civil action and damages. The bill, which passed the statehouse and awaits action in the state senate, specifically states that the law would only apply to websites with over 1 million users but would ensure liability to the person whose speech is restricted, censored, or suppressed, and to any person who reasonably otherwise would have received the writing, speech, or publication.

Shortly after, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican state legislators announced in early February the introduction of theTransparency in Technology Act which condemns and penalizes big tech companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Google, and Apple for their power abuses including censorship, de-platforming, and election interference. In addition to enacting more transparency and privacy mandates, the proposal suggests imposing a daily $100,000 fine on any tech company that chooses to deplatform a candidate running for office in Florida during an election cycle. It also would ensure that tech oligarchs record their promotions of certain candidates as campaign contributions with the Florida Elections Commission.

Big Tech has long since abdicated the protection of consumers for the pursuit of profit, DeSantis said. We cant allow Floridians privacy to be violated, their voices and even their livelihoods diminished, and their elections interfered with.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who recently followed in DeSantiss footsteps lifting his own COVID-19 mandates in the state, took another hint from the fellow Republican governor and announced a bill prohibiting Big Tech companies from censoring Texans based on the viewpoints they express. Joined by Republican state legislators, Abbott explained the bill will allow any users in the state who are banned from platforms such as Facebook and Twitter for their political or religious views to sue those companies.

Too many social media sites silence conservative speech and ideas and trample free speech. Its un-American, Un-Texan, & soon to be illegal, Abbott stated.

Just last week, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed the Consumer Data Protection Act, meant to give users the choice to opt-out and be notified of Big Techs plans to sell their personal data to advertisers. Similar to the California Consumer Privacy Act passed in 2018, the legislation applies to all businesses that control or process the proposal data of at least 100,000 consumers, derive more than 50 percent gross revenue from the sale of personal data or process the personal data of at least 25,000 consumers. The law, however, wont go into effect until 2023 and leaves the option for legal action up to the states attorney general, not the affected users.

In Utah, Republican legislators introduced the Electronic Free Speech Amendments Bill with the hope of curbing Big Tech companies censorship and provide users with more transparency. If passed, the bill would require Silicon Valley giants to notify users of their moderation practices, announce when they ban or censor a user in Utah, provide access and opportunity for users to appeal the decision, be subject to an independent review of their moderation policies, and allow people to file complaints against social media companies with the Utah Division of Consumer Protection. These complaints will be subject to action by Utah Attorney General if necessary.

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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These 5 States Are Cracking Down On Big Tech Censorship And Overreach - The Federalist

Anthony Fauci, one of President Joe Bidens top COVID-19 advisers, admitted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not always rely on scientific data and evidence to inform its coronavirus mitigation guidelines.

Fauci conceded the fact on Wednesday after a CNN anchor pressed him on why the Biden administration and public health organization are still advising people who have received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine not to travel.

Theyre being careful, understandably. They want to get science, they want to get data, and then when you dont have the data and you dont have the actual evidence, then youve got to make a judgment call, Fauci explained.

While Fauci said he believes youre going to see little by little more and more guidelines getting people to be more and more flexible, the CDCs evaluation multi-step process and newly released guidance only address one issue at a time as they see fit.

The first installation of this is what can vaccinated people do in the home setting? Obviously, the next one is going to be what youre asking: What about travel? What about going out? What about getting a haircut? What about doing things like that? Thats all imminently going to be coming out, Fauci said.

The newly released CDC guidelines for people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 suggest they still socially distance, avoid crowds and poorly ventilated spaces, delay travel plans, and still wear a mask unless theyre with other vaccinated people or around low-risk individuals stemming from one household.

The CDC website claims the institution is still learning how effective the vaccines are against variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, how well COVID-19 vaccines keep people from spreading the disease, and how long COVID-19 vaccines can protect people.

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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Fauci Admits Science Doesn't Drive All Of The CDC's Decisions - The Federalist

Results from anational pollreleased Friday found 65 percent of Americans think corporate America is taking political correctness too far.

Thestudysurveyed 1,098 adults about their thoughts on a range of high-profile actions corporations have taken recently to appease left-wing activists, including Hasbro dropping the Mr. from its Mr. Potato Head toy, Disney closing down popular rides at its theme parks that activists claimed were racist, and Lucasfilmsfiring of actress Gina Carano. On Thursday, eBay began banning the sales of Dr. Seuss books.

The study was conducted by Survey Monkey and Public Opinion Strategies and commissioned by The Daily Wire between Feb. 26 and March 3, following a storm of recent cancel mob moves, such as Disney placing warning labels on The Muppets.

Nearly 80 percent of respondents believe toymaker Hasbros changing Mr. Potato Head to Potato Head is silly.

When initially asked, 58 percent of respondents said they opposed Disneys decision to fire Carano over social media posts. After being shown the actual post that resulted in her termination, however, 72 percent said they didnt agree with the firing, including a majority of liberals and Democrats and 70 percent of Disney fans.

During aninterview with The Federalist, Carano said she first became vocal about reportedly touchy or taboo subjects because I feel like there is a large group of people that were being silenced this year and being forced to play this game of wokeism or whatever it is. The cancel mob made sure to punish her for daring to speak freely and challenging the status quo.

Pushing back against toxic cancel culture, The Daily Wireannounced last month after herfiring that Carano will produce and star in a film for them.

Participants reported being less likely to consume Disney products after hearing of the companys politically biased actions. Nearly half also said they believe Hollywood is biased against conservatives.

Sixty-four percent, including 60 percent of Disney fans, oppose the companys decision to close down or re-theme rides such as Splash Mountain just because activists claim they have racist origins and messages.

Corporate Americas lunge into wokeness and cancel culture might hit a bump in the road given public reaction to Disneys recent actions, said researcher Neil Newhouse of Public Opinion Strategies who oversaw the study. This data clearly shows that actions like the ones Disney has taken recently definitely have the potential to negatively impact its bottom line.

Evita Duffy is an intern at The Federalist and a junior at the University of Chicago, where she studies American History. She loves the Midwest, lumberjack sports, writing, & her family. Follow her on Twitter at @evitaduffy_1

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Poll: Two-Thirds Of Americans Think Corporate Wokeness Has Gone Too Far - The Federalist

Amid Gov. Andrew Cuomos sexual harassment allegations, and the scandal over his administration hiding the disgustingly high number of nursing home and group home deaths, few are talking about the elephant in the room. The big scandal isnt that Cuomo is a creep, because everyone knew that already. The scandal isnt even that Cuomo lied aboutnursing home deaths.

The real scandal is what lay behind the high nursing home deaths in New York and a handful of other states led by leftist governors such as Michigans Gretchen Whitmer, Minnesotas Tim Walz, and Pennsylvanias Tom Wolf. It is the story of how grandpa and grandma got tossed aside for money.

The high nursing home deaths were the direct result of policies that quickly discharged elderly or disabled COVID-19 patients from the hospital when they were still COVID-positive and then put them back in group or nursing homes. The hospital lobby directly engineered this approach, and these governors obliged.

The stated reason for the policy was concern about hospital capacity, but these states kept the policy well after COVID hospitalizations peaked in April. In states like Minnesota, the policy remained in place even though the health-care system never faced the strain that was initially feared.What you dont hear is that hospitals didnt want to keep Medicare and Medicaid patients (especially Medicaid patients) in hospitals for too long, because longer stays with such patients are less profitable.

In New York, Michigan, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania, nursing homes were required or encouraged to admit COVID-positive patients. The COVID-positive patients then spread the disease to the rest of the residents, and group and nursing homes became epicenters for COVID-19 cases and deaths. Leftists try to brush this logic aside, but a report found a direct correlation between patients discharged by hospitals and COVID-19 cases.

In Cuomos New York, at the height of the pandemic on March 25, the State Health Department compelled nursing homes to accept patients who had tested positive for coronavirus. The policy was pushed by the non-profit hospital association, the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA). New York had recently cut Medicaid funding due to budget issues, and given Medicaid is already chronically underfunded, it is possible that hospitals were losing money or at best barely breaking even on poor and indigent COVID-19 patients.

Later, Cuomos aides inserted a measure into an annual budget bill creating the nations most generous and explicit COVID lawsuit protections for health care and industry officials. One study claims that COVID-19 deaths were 7.5 times higher in states with such corporate legal immunity.

The GNYHA is one of the most influential forces in New York politics. Cuomo received $1 million from GNYHA in his reelection campaign, and the donation was engineered to remain secret until after his inauguration. Overall, during Cuomos second term his campaign and his state party committee raked in more than $2.3 million from hospital donors.

That makes the attacks on Cuomo about sexual harassment especially interesting. Certainly, this behavior deserves investigation and condemnation. Yet one might notice that it hides the true story swampy far-left Democrat governors tied to the all-powerful health-care lobby.

Sexual harassment by powerful men is bad. So is the falsification or concealment of information relating to a deadly infectious disease and government wrongdoing. But far, far worse is using political and legal authority to cause the agonizing deaths of a large number of elderly and other vulnerable people confined to nursing homes, and to do that as a cynical favor to monied corporate donors.

The media is obsessing over the first charge. Maybe it gives some coverage to the second. But it is distracting attention away from the third and worst. That leaves us with four takeaways.

First, the nations high-profile leftist governors put hospital profit ahead of the most vulnerable. For all progressivisms platitudes, it was all about the money in the end. This is naked, quid pro quo corruption: You finance my campaign, I offload your sick patients who dont pay.

Second, this is an easy story to tell the American people: Hospitals dont make money on poor and elderly COVID-19 patients, so they pushed Democrat governors to have these patients placed back in nursing and group homes too soon, which made nursing and group homes hubs for COVID-19 deaths.

So why doesnt the Republican Party tell this story? Maybe Republicans dont talk about this angle because they are beholden to big health care too (although Democrats are certainly more entangled than Republicans).

Third, the medias focus on harassment doesnt just change the narrative from one about Cuomos sordid corruption (although it does do that). It also reinforces leftist codes about the proper relations between the sexes.

This ought to be a story that reveals the heartlessness and cynicism of prominent leftists and the corporate interests that finance them. Instead, it is transformed into a story that tracks a standard leftist script. You thought you were paying attention, but the sleight-of-hand caught you unawares.

The final takeaway is that this story tells us a lot about the overall failures of our health-care system, which neither party is willing to address. Thats worth a whole separate article, if not entire books, yet it suffices to say that this is yet another issue on which our political discourse fails to get to the heart of the matter and fix real problems faced by the American people.

The Democratic Party is both corrupt and dangerous. The current Republican Party is also too captured by corporate interests to effectively speak for the American people.

How do we break out of this death spiral? A new GOP platform is in order, which breaks the chains of corporatism and builds on what is best in Trumpism.

The case is growing for Republican renewal, which started but doesnt end with the presidency of Donald Trump. That comes down to good rhetoric led by good policy that breaks the standard mold of timeworn GOP remedies that cater to corporate donors instead of the partys voters.

Willis L. Krumholz lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is a JD/MBA graduate from the University of St. Thomas, and works in the financial services industry. Robert J. Delahunty is a professor of law at the University of St Thomas and has taught Constitutional Law there for a decade.

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The Real Nursing Home Scandal Is Why Cuomo, Other Democrats Did It - The Federalist

The new chief technology officer at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), Erica Joy Baker, once called upon her followers to erupt into nationwide anarchy, burning every cop precinct to the ground, if she were ever killed by a police officer.

If the cops kill me, burn every cop precinct to the ground, Baker wrote on Twitter in September just one month after militant social justice warriors ravaged the Wisconsin city of Kenosha over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, who was armed with a knife. If the cops kill me, shut down the highways and throw the teargas back at em when they try you.

In another post, published in June days after George Floyds death in Minneapolis, where court documents show Floyd had a lethal dose of fentanyl in his system, Baker called police officers giant pieces of sh-t.

We have an epidemic in sf: giant pieces of sh-t walking around killing sf residents, Baker wrote. You can try to re-form a piece of sh-t, but what youre left with is still a piece of sh-t. #DefundPolice.

The posts were first reported by the Daily Caller. The DCCC did not immediately respond to The Federalists request for comment.

Fox News reported on more tweets Tuesday. In 2016, Baker wrote, I hate the police, vilifying law enforcement as a farce.

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Top Democrat Staffer Tweeted 'Burn Every Cop Precinct To The Ground' - The Federalist