Category Archives: Federalist

Well, weve seen the first Star Wars series on Disney+ in The Mandalorian, and now, were treated to the first Marvel series for the Mouse House streaming service: WandaVison. This homage to sitcoms of yesteryear is not your typical television show, and thats what makes it fun.

Each less than thirty-minute episode is a journey through a trippy, alternate reality version of Nick at Nite. The first episode is a nod to the classic 1950s television series like I Love Lucy and the 1960s mainstay The Dick Van Dyke Show. Wanda Maximoff and Vision live in an idealized suburban TV community, but dont seem to know how or why they are there.

Of course, if youre even a passing fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe you might be asking, Isnt Vision dead? Yes, yes, he is, which makes this entire situation all the weirder. Vision died during the events of Infinity War, so the fact that Wanda has recreated him or resurrected him and thrust the couple into this strange version of a sitcom life is all the more curious.

What makes all these odd references, homages, and peculiar situations work are the stellar acting chops of Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany. In the first episode, Bettany is buried in 1950s style physical comedy gags like broken plates on his head and moments at work when hes trying to figure out exactly what it is that his company does.

The other great episode-long gag is watching both Wanda and Vision figure out why their day is supposed to be special. Being a fake couple in what seems to be a fake world, theyre not sure why there is a heart on their kitchen calendar. Wandas neighbor, played by the great Kathryn Hahn, convinces her that it must be the couples anniversary and sets about planning a very 1950s era evening complete with candles, a seductive dress, and a fancy dinner. Meanwhile, Vision is at work and eventually realizes that the heart on their kitchen calendar was to remind them that his boss, Mr. Heart, and his wife, played by Fred Melamed and Debra Jo Rupp, were coming to dinner.

So, at the end of his workday, Vision arrives home, boss and wife in tow, only to find candles, romantic music, and his wife dressed in a negligee. Hilarity ensues with Wanda passing it off as being European and then scrambling to make lobster thermidor, chicken a la king, and steak Diane. As you would expect from a twenty-something superhero, she has no idea how to make a 1950s gourmet meal and instead settles on breakfast for dinner.

Once theyre sitting down to dinner the couple gets peppered with questions about when they got married, where they moved from, and who they are, none of which theyre prepared to answer. Indeed, a great thing about the series is that Wanda and Vision are sometimes just as lost and puzzled by the whole thing as the viewer is. When his boss starts choking on his dinner, Vision reaches into his throat, because hes a superhero and can do that, and plucks out the obstruction in his airway, saving the day and earning a promotion to boot.

By the time we get to the second episode, were in a tribute to Bewitched complete with the cheesy animations and a matching theme song. We also start to get a glimpse that something here is wrong.

In their idyllic suburban setting, Wanda and Vision are now concerned with participating in the town talent show to raise money for the children. Theyre going to do a magic act, the fitting being that shes the Scarlett Witch, and he can fly. Theyre also each trying to fit into this new environment theyre living in, Wanda by joining the local womens group and Vision by becoming part of the neighborhood watch.

While heading to the womens group, we get our first experience of someone trying to break through this comedic setting to get to Wanda. A red and yellow toy helicopter with the S.W.O.R.D. logo on it shatters the black and white esthetic of the episode when it falls into the front yard rose bushes with a loud thud. We get another clue that something is amiss at the womens luncheon when a radio playing The Beach Boys Help me Rhonda in the background suddenly says, Wanda can you hear me? Whos doing this to you, Wanda?

We also meet the adult version of Monica Rambeau, played by Teyonah Parris, who we first met as a kid in Captain Marvel. Here shes going by Geraldine, and shes not quite sure why shes here. In the comics, Monica Rambeau eventually takes over the moniker of Captain Marvel. Here she may be an agent of S.W.O.R.D., the intergalactic answer to S.H.I.E.L.D. Yes, Marvel, like the federal government, loves its acronyms.

We also get a series of great gags when Vision goes to the meeting of the neighborhood watch group at the local public library (remember those?). We get perfectly timed for the era jokes about mastication, communism, and Vision trying to deflect that he doesnt eat (because hes a robot superhero and all).

As an essentially drunk magician who has forgotten that he has to conceal his superhero identity from the town flies lifts a piano with one hand and leaves his wife scrambling to cover for him, making the assembled town folks laugh and keeping them off the scent that theres something quite different about this couple of newlyweds.

By the end of the episode, Vision and Wanda are back at home and Wanda has a visible baby bump. Standing in their living room theyre disturbed by a sound, which upon further investigation turns out to be a beekeeper in a S.W.O.R.D. outfit coming out of the manhole cover in the road. Wanda says No, and were rewound to the moment they realize shes pregnant. Suddenly the whole world is in brilliant Technicolor. As the show fades out, we hear again, Whos doing this to you, Wanda?

We dont know exactly who the big band guy is in this show yet, or how exactly it plays into the next phase of the MCU, but we do know that WandaVision leads us straight into the next Doctor Strange movie, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, followed by the third Spider-Man movie. There has been lots of speculation online as to which Marvel villain could be pulling the strings here, but I think we have to wait for a few more episodes before we get a clearer view of exactly whats happening. Until then, bring on the continuing tributes to classic American sitcoms!

Brad Jackson is a writer and radio personality whose work has appeared at ABC, CBS, Fox News, and multiple radio programs. He was the longtime host and producer of Coffee & Markets, an award-winning podcast and radio show with more than 1,500 episodes. Brad covers all things edible and cultural for The Federalist. You can find him on Twitter and Instagram at @bradwjackson.

Photo Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany as Vision in Marvel Studios' WANDAVISION exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. Marvel Studios 2020. All Rights Reserved.

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Disney And Marvel's 'WandaVision' Is As Fun As It Is Weird - The Federalist

Most conservatives have settled on school choice as the solution to most, if not all, of todays education problems. It makes sense. In most of the country, public schools have a monopoly on K-12 education and therefore have little incentive to deliver quality instruction to students. They will receive funding whether or not students actually learn anything. In states with teachers unions, schools are even less accountableto the point that teachers can refuse to work for all kinds of flimsy pretexts.

While school choice would definitely help break up the public school monopoly and power of teachers unionswhich is why unions absolutely revile school choice advocates like Betsy DeVosthis alone would not immediately reform education. As fellow public school teacher Ryan Hooper notes in a recent column, content-based instruction and building character are also pressing issues, if not more pressing: if the Right wants to keep winning and improving education in the future, it must need to shift its focus from school choice exclusively to other areas primarily content and character.

On one level, Hooper is right. What most upsets parents about public school right now is mediocre teaching based on bad pedagogy along with leftist indoctrination that results in young adults who are unprepared for life after school and lack any capacity to think for themselves. Instituting school vouchers and allowing money to follow students will not mean much if charter and private schools end up offering more of the same thing.

Moreover, if choice alone is the one thing pushed by conservatives, and if by some miracle it happens, it is entirely possible to have charter and private schools that do little besides functioning as glorified test prep centers where uncertified teachers do drill-and-kill from 8 to 4 every day. Without any care for how instruction works or cultivating well-rounded adults, this is what school can become, as seen in many lower performing charter schools.

On a deeper level though, Hoopers argument doesnt go far enough, nor does it acknowledge the barriers that exist. To begin, changing to an emphasis on content would require a complete reversal of the reigning pedagogical theory (best represented by Common Core) that stresses skills over content. This means taking on nearly every entity involved in creating curriculum and instructional materials.

It also means explaining what is meant by content-centered learning. As Hooper suggests, it has to do with materials that will provide students with strongbackground knowledge. As opposed to curriculum that isolates skills and often bypasses lower-order thinking (memorization and literal comprehension) in favor of higher-order thinking (evaluation and analysis), content-centered curriculum works on building up a base of knowledge and puts more emphasis on lower-order thinking.

Wherever it has been tried, content-centered curriculum has proven more effective since, as I explain in another essay, higher-order thinking requires lower-order thinking. Evaluation and analysis become possible when the mind sufficiently grasps the basic details of a classic text that lends itself to deeper probing. Hence, even on tests designed to assess skills, students with a deeper background knowledge that comes from a content-centered curriculum will usually do better.

Even so, no one should discount the pushback of entrenched educrats and specialists who resist any change. Additionally, one must know that merely discussing content could threaten the leftist narratives that have emerged with more engaging, diverse, skills-based curricula. Facts would start mattering much more in subjects like science and history, English teachers would have to consider readopting the rejected Western canon, and math teachers would have to start asking students to do math without a calculator.

Concerning character training, Hooper and others need to clarify what they mean by this. Is this instituting a culture of excellence and charity that fosters virtue in students? Or is it just implementing therapy sessions on emotional wellness and building relationships?

If its the latterand his link to the Positivity Project suggest that it ismany public schools already include such things, and it doesnt improve matters much. In the wake of recent school shootings, many districts now include periodic advisory sessions meant to promote watchfulness and inclusivity while offering strategies to curb depression and suicidal and homicidal behavior. Students will usually watch videos, have discussions, and fill out surveys to prove they have participated in the lesson.

Despite the good intentions, these character lessons do little to build character (which means much more than positive thinking), nor does anyone really take them seriously. Teaching character and kindness in isolation is like teaching most subjects in isolationit is rarely applied in real situations and is quickly forgotten.

It would be better to define character building in terms of actual virtue, not self-esteem. This is effected by rigor (academic, moral, and physical) and personal discipline. When so many schools adopt policies that water down instruction and enable cheating, they also produce thin-skinned, dishonest students who never develop a work ethic. (This has been made all the worse with virtual learning.)

By contrast, full accountability and challenging work forces students to develop study habits, deal with failure, and take real ownership of their learning. In her book The Smartest Kids in the World, Amanda Ripley notes how the rigor in Finnish classrooms is worlds apart from that of most American classrooms and how this difference accounts for the Finnish system being the best in the world despite receiving far less funding.

As with attempting to change the focus of curriculum, pushing rigor would meet the same resistance from the same people. They would counter that pushing a culture of excellence and achievement would hurt student self-esteem, make classes less engaging, and strain teachers, who would endure much pushback from parents whose children have never earned any grade but A. True, what currently prevails disenfranchises students and may actually contribute to student depression, but the alternative is frankly unfathomable to most educators.

So, to amend what Hoopers argument somewhat, true reform will require an enactment of all three issues in the proper sequence: first, allow school choice, then use this opportunity to introduce a different educational model that employs content-based curriculum and builds character through rigor. As it stands, there are aspects of this in the top prep schools, but systematic change at the state and district levels could make such campuses mainstream.

Without school choice, conversations about content and character tend to go nowhere. Decades of mediocrity demonstrate that without the freedom and incentive to reform, there will be no reform. That said, Americans (of all political backgrounds) who have an interest in improving education through school choice should follow Hoopers lead and start considering exactly how to define improvement. Its not just about taking down education cartels, but about lifting up todays youth and making their dreams possible.

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Why School Choice Isn't Enough To Really Improve American Education - The Federalist

Joe Bidens inauguration is a sad day for those of us on the right, and its not just because either through actual votes or through deliberate election confusion we lost the Senate and presidency. Its because so many of us are deeply aware of what Democrat reign means.

It means the acceleration of mass murder and forcing taxpayers to pay for it. It means, as my boss Ben Domenech puts it, nuns are back on the menu. It means, as Ive pointed out, the increase of public schools destroying childrens innocence and facilitating minors access to drugs that enable HIV-positive sex. It means an entrenchment of the institutional racism of critical race theory in every institution possible, also pushed by taxpayer funds.

It means Democrats rig more structures of American life against those who disagree with them, possibly preventing us from ever having a meaningful voice in our own governance again. It means the proliferation of government spending that accelerates our nations likelihood of devastating economic collapse. It means frighteningly labeling half the country domestic terrorists, a label that prepares for stripping more of our rights. All this, in turn, makes us increasingly vulnerable to foreign enemies, propagandists, and demagogues.

This is a weight that is difficult for the perceptive to bear. Those of us who deeply treasure what makes America itself are again staring into the abyss of the genuine possibility that what we love about our country may be truly lost forever, as not just lambasted authors of Flight 93 essays but also highly studied, more tonally measured observers such as Charles Murray think is quite clear from the data.

While these losses do mean the increase of genuine moral evils and therefore deserve to be mourned, all is not lost. Yes, were forced to retreat, but let it be a strategic, orderly, cunning retreat, not a chaotic retreat that breaks into a rout.

There are now numerous strategic advantages and strategies available to the people who love America, if we choose to employ and enlarge them. With them we may begin, if not to save America, at least to enlarge some space for living more closely to Americas founding principles than we inhabit now and to mitigate the evils that are to come.

Those of us who have been paying attention are now highly aware that corporate media and corporate tech are a bicephalic propaganda monster. Weve learned through a 2020 of constant lies, information control, and gaslighting from COVID to Hunter Biden that the quickest way to guess the truth is, as in communist countries, to read what state media are saying and then assume the opposite.

While its frightful that corrupt, pedophile-enabling corporate media control our lives right down to the air we are allowed to breathe and whether we are allowed to honestly support our families, and that the majority of Americans either believe their outright lies or are heavily influenced by them, this knowledge is also highly useful. For it means that Americans are not necessarily supportive of socialism and baby murder and all the other things that Democrats do when in power. It means that our country still includes a lot of well-meaning people who love America but have been deeply deceived enough to turn it over to its worst enemies.

This means Democrats do not have, in any way, shape, or form, a mandate to perpetrate the policies upon which they are about to embark. Their empire is built on a throne of lies. And empires like that are weak and unstable, as Democrats fortification of the capitol and crazy accusations that U.S. soldiers who voted for Trump are traitors also projects.

This weakness means danger, but also opportunity. We must be ready to bind up the wounds and welcome to our ranks those the lefts culture war has devastated. We must do our utmost to dispel the lies that give the left power. Information warfare in education and media contexts, primarily should be a top priority.

Additionally, this means (metaphorical) war against corporate and tech media dominance is highly needed and will be effective. It has plenty of room and need for growth. It also means that citizens need to do more to combat media lies and provide the basic information Americans need and which big media takeovers have entirely hollowed out. Their lies need to not only be exposed, but replaced with truth.

Id start with forming local blogs focused on local information-sharing about basic entities like the school board, city council, election laws and procedures, and district attorney. Its not that hard to go to a meeting and write a 800-word summary of what happened. Get a dozen friends and divide up the job.

Ask DA and county sheriffs candidates their positions on the crazy things Democrats are doing like springing rioters and enabling opioid spread, and publish what they do or dont say. Stop railing on Facebook and start attending public meetings and writing about them on your own local group blog.

As a part of Democrats lack of awareness they lack a mandate other than dont be Trump, they are going to overshoot, big time. They are going to enact many extremist ideas. Even the propaganda media wont be able to entirely hide this from Americans. And there will be backlash.

This will heighten the contradictions between Democrat leadership and many current Democrat base voters who are staying with the party even though its priorities hurt them and the nation. The lack of Trump as an all-purpose leftist scapegoat will assist with this.

As has been widely noted, Trump was able to break through some of the racial stereotypes about what it means to be a Republican or Democrat and earn more nonwhite support. With him in retirement, those of us on the right have the opportunity to continue making his case without being saddled with his baggage.

This is a huge opportunity. Without Trump to use as an excuse for everything, Democrats are going to provide clarity to many more voters that they are actually the totalitarians they project onto the right. They are going to harass nuns, foster parents and agencies, Christian camps, and minorities who disagree with them. They are going to be more obviously the party of the rich and corrupt.

Its a bad look. And it will turn voters away. Again, we need to be ready to welcome these voters even if they are not ideologically pure. Id rather have a wasteful social welfare state that murders fewer babies, supports free speech, and doesnt harass nuns than a corporate welfare state that harasses the poor and religious. If that is the tradeoff we get, Ill take it.

In the wake of the capitol riots that werent perpetrated by Black Lives Matter, big corporations and chambers of commerce have pulled their high-dollar donations from many Republicans and Republican political funds. Good.

For years, elected Republicans offered lip service and placebos to their base voters and did what big corporate donors actually wanted, which hurt their voters and structurally undermined their long-term support, such as through mass illegal immigration. This has rightly fueled the public perception that Republicans care only about money and rich people, rather than an equal playing field for all and the common good. Now without those donations, they have no reason to offend and harm large numbers of voters to suck up to a small number of donors. This will make them more competitive and less corrupt.

Behavior like the below, for example, will erase the financial incentive for Republican officeholders to provide special breaks and bailouts for businesses that pay politicians big money to slant the legal playing field in their favor. Trump has made for a GOP that is far more competitive in the small-dollar online donor space. This will further help low-information voters see that Democrats are the party of the corrupt at the expense of the people, and make the GOP less so.

COVID shutdowns with no end in sight are a violation of our natural, constitutional, and human rights. However, as with a Biden administration coming to power, this evil also will cause damage to those who attempt to wield it against their enemies.

It will mean a quicker downfall of many corrupted institutions, from churches that dont proclaim orthodox theology losing parishioners who will never come back from virtual church to the death of higher education institutions that have been colluding with corrupt politicians to scam gullible young people out of their futures.

Our country is populated by people who fail to the top. But the more of them there are, the more enemies they make and the weaker their rigged systems become. And the more aware their opponents and the people caught in the middle become of their decay.

This will mean more cultural, theological, and philosophical refugees. Ready the lifeboats for them now.

The Trump era has revealed the complete corruption of Americas ruling class to many more people. This stress test gives us an excellent template for what to target for fixing or elimination.

Let every locale where it is possible create the most secure voting systems in the world. Let every locale where it is possible elect and support sheriffs who will not allow a Biden administration to crush Americans Second Amendment rights. Let every Republican governor and member of Congress who has lost corporate support now make a ruthless plan to eliminate corporate favors from the entire legal code over which they have jurisdiction.

Let every single town board and town council put Comcast, Verizon, and all other ISPs and broadband providers on notice that if they do not adhere to First Amendment protections for all customers, these local governments will be finding another business to profit from the public infrastructure in their towns. Let every single legislature controlled by Republicans ban the institutional racism of critical race theory in every single public workplace in their state, including universities and public schools. If every elected Republican will not support this, they should be put on record explaining why not, by citizens and their local news blogs.

If the United States is to live under neo-feudalism, in which our rights are subject to the whim of whoever is in power and shift with every election instead of being protected forever equally for all under the Constitution, then let these neo-feudal lords begin to stake their territorial claims and protect their citizens as best they can, severing the levers the abusers of our rights deploy against us (such as federal funding).

Let sanctuary cities and states no longer be only for California. It will be a good thing for the federal government to have more difficulty forcing its schemes on states and local governments.

All this will only accelerate the migration from blue to red states that is already underway.

The sheer extent of the degradation of Americas founding principles and the citizenry who once had the character to live under them clarifies what is at stake. No longer can we pretend that identity group antidiscrimination rules are compatible with equal protection or the First Amendment. No longer can we pretend that a government that can dole out unfathomable amounts of money can do so without corrupting both those who give and those who receive this false charity.

We now live among the real-world results of implementing leftist ideology, and its not pretty. And no one can really deny it. This is why Democrats take refuge in the culture war, the cult at the core of their secular religion they have nothing left to offer the masses but bread and circuses.

This is pushing people to make significant life changes towards a more meaningful and integrity-filled way of life, and to seek other people to join this journey. It is also pushing the truly awake people and a few of our lawmakers to reach down into the well of first principles to find water in a parched land.This well is an abundant source of life and renewal that many people would not seek if life stayed comfortable.

This is precisely the time for we anti-wokesters to coalesce around principles on which we can all agree. This may be our only hope of survival, in fact. As in the Cold War era, to defeat our common foe we need a broader coalition that is necessarily going to include a lot of people who disagree on a lot of particulars.

To work out our strategies and points of agreement to fight not against each other but against our common foe in the ideology of the totalitarian left, we need to encourage more speech, not less. We need to engage more points of view and be willing to let more people speak, not fewer. We need to not be primarily attacking and tone-policing people of good will who love our country, but primarily facing outward at the barbarians who control the gates and want to destroy our country.

This doesnt mean there are no morals, that people should be relieved of the burden of proving their assertions, or that we should elevate the voices of people who believe things that have been soundly proven to be wrong (such as Holocaust deniers). It means, however, that instead of banning them from the Internet or refusing to allow them to air their ideas, we should listen with empathy and try to understand their points of view. Our primary orientation should be persuasion, conversion, discussion, and openness, not eradication.

Instead of shutting people up because we disagree with their conclusions, we should ask them to prove their assertions and explain what led them to their stances, as James Lindsay and Peter Boghossian recommend in their excellent book.If it works with Ku Klux Klan members and people in divorce counseling, it can help our country too.

As regarding the capitol rioters, the propaganda narrative depicts us and Trump making a cacophonous, beaten-puppy exit. But in fact, as this weeks impeachment vote and more prove, we are highly unified. The outliers are given outsized voices by corporate media to deceive and demoralize us.

We are not like these rioters in any way, including in making an ignominious exit. Yes, were headed for the wilderness circuit that befalls a party out of power, but the truth is, weve been out of power this whole time. Trump was undermined and lied to continuously by every branch of the government he was elected to command. The past four years have made this and many other truths much plainer to see. Seeing clearly makes it possible and necessary for us to act prudently.

Being in the wilderness also has its advantages. They include loyalty not sycophancy, but loyalty of the kind that only arises amid brothers and sisters in arms under constant attack. It teaches us to sacrifice, to become tougher, leaner, smarter, more agile. These are all great assets that may or may not give us a political advantage here in this temporal life, but absolutely make us better fit for eternal life. And the left can never truly command people whose souls are free, no matter how strong they appear to be.

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8 Strategies For Exiting The Biden Years Stronger Than The Right Went In - The Federalist

With Old Hollywood sensibilities and contemporary writing, Mank is truly the best of both worlds. David Finchers new Netflix film, following Herman Mank Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) as he writes the screenplay of Citizen Kane is a stunning piece of cinema and a must-watch for anyone who loves old movies.

Along with the sequences of Mank struggling to write the script while combatting his alcoholism, the film contains many flashbacks to his time as a successful writer, his friendships with William Randolph Hearst (the ultimate inspiration for Kane) and Hearsts mistress Marion Davies, and their subsequent fallout surrounding Upton Sinclairs bid for governor of California.

If youre searching for a wholly factual depiction of Mankiewiczs life or the making of Citizen Kane, then you should look elsewhere, and stop believing that biopics will ever be historically accurate. However, what it lacks in accuracy is more than made up for by the films capturing of the feel of classic movies.

Fincher is one of the most talented and engaging directors working today. His meticulous shots and enthralling storytelling draw you in, making what could have been an isolating tale of 1930s political power brokers and their Hollywood connections into a character study of fascinating and relatable individuals.

Every technical aspect of the film is exemplary, with the cinematography, lighting, costume, hair, editing, and score all contributing to the potent atmosphere. I regret not having been able to see the film in a theater, to fully enjoy the visuals. They were gorgeously detailed without becoming overly busy or distracting.

An especially exciting Easter egg was the presence of cue marks, the black dots that briefly appear twice in the top right corner of the screen, to indicate a film reel would soon require switching (now unnecessary due to the switch to digital).

Those who grew up when digital had already replaced film myself included were first introduced to the existence of these cigarette burns in the cult classic that launched a thousand dorm room posters, Fight Club, also directed by Fincher, adding to the meta excitement as well as the period accuracy.

To clarify the timelines, due to the nonlinear narrative structure employing many flashbacks, the year is given at each era transition, in the form of a screenplay. While announcements such as time and location can be frustrating and lazy, the framing as part of the script allows the narrative cheat to add to the film.

Yet none of this style is empty spectacle. It serves to augment a compelling story led by interesting characters. The cast is exceptional, with nearly no weak links. They play off each other exceptionally, with the lived-in chemistry of longtime associates. One scene midway through the film sees most of the main characters at a dinner party, laughing, drinking too much, and talking politics, all scored live by a pianist using his instrument to punctuate the conversation.

Watching the scene transported audiences directly into the party, watching jokes, subtextual tensions, and complications in relationships ebb and flow through fabulously witty dialogue and well-realized characters. I could have watched an entire film set just at that party.

The only misstep in the cast was Bill Nye as Upton Sinclair, an uninspired bit of stunt casting gone awry. The childrens entertainer and scientist does not have the acting chops to make anything of the mercifully small role. Sinclairs failed gubernatorial race is a notable subplot, due to Hearst and Louis B. Mayers fears of his socialist past contrasted with Manks sympathies.

Gary Oldman is predictably brilliant as the eponymous writer. He is fun and charming, but the cruelty of his alcoholism always lurks beneath the surface (except when it explodes in a powerful and climactic scene). Charles Dance is likewise charismatic yet dangerous as communications magnate Hearst, upon whom Charles Foster Kane is based.

However, by far the high point in a cast filled with highs was Amanda Seyfried as Hearsts lover, actress Marion Davies, giving the performance of both the film and her career. Seyfried brings depth to the seemingly vapid woman, subtly indicating a complicated woman underneath the flighty, fun surface.When award season eventually arrives, Seyfried ought to be a major contender for the supporting actress statue.

She likewise effortlessly handles the period slang naturally strewn throughout the dialogue, earnestly exclaiming words like Jeepers as if they were staples of her vocabulary. Often in period pieces, actors stumble over an antiquated lexicon, calling undue attention to the outdated words. The entire cast, but Seyfried in particular, breezes through the dialogue with grace.

Far too many movies about making movies become either self-indulgent odes to the importance of Hollywood, such as La La Land and Netflixs miniseries Hollywood. Mank, in contrast, is clearly a love letter to the films, not the industry. Every frame is imbued with a passion for cinema, which is infectious to the audience. In exploring the creation of an exceptional film, Fincher has created one himself.

Paulina Enck is an intern at the Federalist and current student at Georgetown University in the School of Foreign Service. Follow her on Twitter at @itspaulinaenck

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In Modern Storytelling, 'Mank' Is A Beautiful Blast From The Past - The Federalist

On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, former MMA fighter and The Mandalorian star Gina Carano joins host Ben Domenech to discuss her role in the Star Wars series and explain how she approaches ideological diversity and wokeness in Hollywood.

The whole reason I started speaking out is 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, Carano explained. No matterwho you voted for, no matter who you are, I want to create a platform where everybody can have an opportunity. Everybody.

In the interview, Carano also admitted that she hasnt watched the second season of The Mandalorian.

I dont like to watch myself. I feel like I get in my head a little bit, Carano explained. Ill watch it eventually just to see how I can grow from it. The more fascination for me was seeing the other Star Wars fans enjoy it.

With a franchise, I think somebody has to be such a fan, they have to be a big fan of what they are doing, or else I dont think it works as well, Carano said.

Excerpt from:

'Mandalorian' Star Gina Carano Takes Us Behind The Scenes, Explains Her Politics - The Federalist

President Donald Trump is on his way to becoming the most cancelled man in America.

On Friday, Twitter pulled the plug on the presidents account in a move that was a long time coming after a horde of Trump supporters rampaged about the U.S. Capitol in protest of the Electoral College certification. The move followed Facebook and Instagram doing the same on Thursday, sparking a leftist purge of online voices dissenting from the dystopian world order of big tech oligarchs ruling from Silicon Valley.

Google, Snapchat, Spotify, Shopify, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit, and Twitch have each now banned or restricted an outgoing president now facing not only corporate banishment from the online public square but a second impeachment by Democrats seeking to bar the outgoing commander-in-chief from ever holding office again. The presidents exile, however, coming from top government officials and big corporate exposes not only the faade of Democrats call for unity but a deep obliviousness to the underlying issues that sparked the Capitol unrest.

Below is one of the final posts retweeted by Ashli Babbitt, the 35-year-old woman who served 14 years in the military and was shot to death while attacking the Capitol building.

People I trust in Washington DC 1) President Trump the end, the post reads.

While video of Babbitts shooting calls into question the officers use of a deadly weapon, her presence at the Capitol cant be excused. Nor could any other persons. Americans were killed in the attack, dozens others were injured. The imagery of a riotous mob overwhelming the Capitol put another scar on a fractured country.

Condemning the rioters and understanding their presence, however, are not mutually exclusive. Each are equally important.

Babbitts endorsement of the post above, along with the more than 22,000 others who liked it, is emblematic of the worldview shared by millions as institutional leaders have failed them, lied to them, and even mocked them for decades.

As my colleague, Federalist Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky, points out, while their views of mistrust might be misguided, theyre hard to blame, because the corporate media has lied to them about the big stuff time and time and time again. So have their elected officials. So have scientific institutions and leaders in academia.

Theyve watched their mayors and governors violate their own regulations for the sake of leisure or personal convenience or politics, crippling business and workers while they eat crabs. They then watched the medias nakedly unbalanced coverage of it all, wild bias from bonus-pocketing journalists purporting to be arbiters of fact and undisputed occupants of the moral high ground.

Their lives, like all of our lives, have been upended in just over a decade by products tech oligarchs promised would make us happier. Those same billionaires now join the chorus of elites who treat them as irredeemables and deplorables because they disagree with full-throated progressivism.

So when Trump stood down the street from the Capitol and blasted the election being certified in the Democrats favor as an illegitimate process, his thousands of followers believed him, ransacked the Capitol, and gave leftists ammunition to declare them deplorable.

Last weeks unrest has now been capitalized on by Democrats and their allies in big media and big tech to implement a corporate-government crackdown that was absent in the aftermath of routine riots last year from far-left militants.The onslaught has offered Democrats the political momentum to achieve the top policy item of their Trump-era agenda: the presidents impeachment, even after hes out of office.

Impeachment, however, only serves to inflame divisions by rooting out a man who was always a symptom of deep problems that promise to persist even long after his departure. Worse, Trumps post-presidential impeachment reinforces the convictions of the presidents supporters who believe Trump is the only figure they could trust. Thats what led them to riot in the first place.

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A Divisive Impeachment Will Only Make Trump A Martyr - The Federalist

The Democrat chair of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security wants Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley put on the federal No Fly list due to the actions they participated in when the U.S. Capitol was ransacked by Trump supporters on Jan. 6.

When asked by SiriusXM host Joe Madison whether the no-fly sanction should be applied if Cruz and Hawley are found liable for the capitol unrest, House Homeland Security Committee Chair Rep. Bennie G. Thompson said, Theres no question about it.

Theres no exemption for being put on the no-fly list, said Thompson. Even a member of Congress that commits a crime, you know, theyre expelled from the body. There are ethics charges that can be brought against those individuals. And people are looking at all of this.

Cruz and Hawley did not participate in any violent actions. The senators have both publicly condemned any rioting that occurred on Jan. 6. Democrats are angry because Hawley and Cruz led a legal objectionto counting some Electoral College votes. For wanting to ensure the integrity of U.S.elections, Democrats are callingfor the senators to resign or beremovedfrom office.

Hawley and Cruz have been smeared by the left as violent insurrectionists and threats to our democracy. President-elect Joe Biden last FridaycalledHawley and Cruz Nazis who should be flat beaten the next time they run.

Following the capitol riot, Simon and Schuster said last Thursday that it has canceled the publication of Hawleys upcoming book The Tyranny of Big Tech.

Thompson is leading the charge to punish all the rioters who entered the capitol. First of all, these folks, in my opinion, can be classified as domestic terrorists because of the actions they participated in on Wednesday, said Thompson. Now under normal circumstances international terrorists are out on no-fly lists. These are domestic terroristssame thing. A terrorist is a terrorist, no matter who you are.

Apparently, however, it does matter who you are. The Mississippi representative never characterized the Black Lives Matter and Antifa thugs, who looted and vandalized American cities all summer including the U.S. capitol, resulting in mass chaos, destruction, insurance payouts of up to $2 billion, and the death of at least 30 people, as terrorists. Nor did he rally to have the left-wing rioters placed on the no-fly list. Actually, he publicly supportedthem.

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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Democrat Wants To Put Josh Hawley And Ted Cruz On The No-Fly List - The Federalist

If Andrew Yang wants to be mayor of New York, he needs to live here.

Andrew Yang wants to be the mayor of New York City. Its an attractive job opportunity given that the current mayor, Bill de Blasio, is so awful that anyone in the city over the age of 5 would do a better job than he has. The problem, however, is that Yang is not in the city. Instead, Yang and his family have been residing in the tony Hudson Valley town of New Paltz. He explained why that is to the New York Times, and its a doozy.

We live in a two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan. And so, like, can you imagine trying to have two kids on virtual school in a two-bedroom apartment, and then trying to do work yourself? Yang asked.

Well, yes, Mr. Yang, I can imagine that. In fact, I dont have to imagine it because I am living it. Even as I write this, my son is in his room in my two-bedroom apartment doing virtual school while I work. This has been a reality for millions of New Yorkers for almost a year now. And most of us arent even millionaires. Yang cant imagine it? He cannot conjure in his mind what it is like to live under the current conditions in New York City? And he wants to be my mayor?

Beyond Yangs degree of tone-deafness, his comment also makes New Yorkers question his basic knowledge of Gotham. His two-bedroom in Manhattans Hells Kitchen neighborhood might not be spacious enough for his current needs, but if space is the issue, there is no reason to flee to New Paltz. Someone might want to tell him about the outer boroughs.

Parts of Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx have stand-alone homes and breezy backyards. In Staten Island, there are so many deer that the city has a Deer Impact Management Plan. It also has some of the finest pizza in all the land. The point is that if space is Yangs hang-up, New York City offers a ton of options. What New York City does not offer, however, is indoor dining or movies. For those, one must go to a place we refer to as Upstate, which is actually the entirety of the rest of New York.

In a city that produced both de Blasio and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Yang might wind up being the most rational and reasonable electable candidate, notwithstanding his goofy universal basic income proposals. Former Democratic Rep. Max Rose, something of a moderate who ran ads featuring himself with Donald Trump, has declined to run, leaving the centrist lane open. But this is not a good start for Yang. Telling people you want to govern the city but cant imagine living there sounds like something someone from Jersey would say.

Yang is right though that conditions in Americas largest city right now are pretty horrible. Thats one reason why its losing residents faster than a gun shot victim loses blood and it also has near-record numbers of those. Many of the people leaving are moving to Florida, which is weird since most people in the media think the Sunshine States governor, Ron DeSantis, is the living embodiment of evil.

If Yang wants to reside in Gracie Mansion, he cant hide out in New Paltz while the city suffers. He has to be here with us. He has to be able not just to imagine but to experience the brutal effect that lockdowns are having on our communities.

Andrew Yang has a shot, but he has to step up his game. Be our neighbor, feel our pain, Mr. Yang. You cant lead New York City from New Paltz.

David Marcus is the Federalist's New York Correspondent. Follow him on Twitter, @BlueBoxDave.

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Andrew Yang Can't Imagine The Reality New Yorkers Face - The Federalist

AR15.com, the biggest gun forum in the world, was deplatformed on Monday by web hosting company GoDaddy.

ARFCOM IS DOWN. Weve been booted from GoDaddy and are looking for an alternative solution, the site announced Monday afternoon on Twitter.

The swift termination by internet host GoDaddy forced AR15.coms leadership to think on their feet and quickly create a temporary URL so freedom lovers and firearm enthusiasts could continue to access the information and resources on the site.

Instead of offering specifics about kicking the gun site off the internet, GoDaddy merely claimed that AR15.com violated its terms of service, which resulted in instant termination.

On Monday, January 11, 2021, I received notice from our site registrar that AR15.com had violated their terms of service and that AR15.com would be shut down immediately, President and Co-Founder of the gun site Juan Avila told The Federalist in a statement. The registrars decision to de-platform AR15.com was final and no method to appeal was offered.

It remains unclear specifically what content allegedly violated the registrars terms of service, he added.

When asked by The Federalist about the decision to remove AR15.com, GoDaddy claimed that the site both promotes and encourages violence, but did not offer any specific examples. Instead, they offered AR15.com 24 hours to relocate its business.

The decision from GoDaddy follows of series of bans and contract terminations by big tech companies such as Amazon, Google, Apple, Twitter, and Facebook targeting conservatives and supporters of President Donald Trump. In addition to using their acquired power to ban and distance themselves from the president and his supporters, many have also engaged in what some have labeled anti-competitive behavior, encouraging and pushing each other to nuke alternative sites such as Parler.

Despite the abrupt change in AR15.coms site domain and traffic, Avila said that AR15.com already found a new, First Amendment-friendly site registrar that will accommodate the forum during its transition, which may take a few days.

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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The Biggest Gun Forum Just Kicked Off The Internet Without Explanation - The Federalist

It is time to move on.

Donald Trumps utility for conservatives is expiring along with his presidency. The Senate runoffs are done, the stunts objecting to the electoral results have come to nothing, and it is time for those who supported the soon-to-be former-President Trump for reasons of policy, not personality, to bid him farewell.

For those whose support for Trump was transactional, this is an easy decision, like replacing a broken tool. We got on the Trump train at different times and for different reasons judges, tax cuts, a chance to shake up the Republican Party, the Democrats being awful but its time to exit.

He was a means to an end, and we do not need to stick with him when he can no longer serve our ends. Those who wanted Trump to, say, appoint Federalist Society judges and disrupt Zombie Reaganism should take our wins and cash out.

A prudential deal to support Trump in exchange for results is not an oath to be Forever Trump. Indeed, wanting Trump to remain the face of the Republican franchise, or perhaps to pass the mantle down to his children is an awful idea.

Although Trump helped clear the way for the future of the GOP as a party more focused on working families, he was often more talk (or tweet) than action let alone results. His personality was so toxic that a record number of voters came out against him. Thus, Trump will soon be one more former politician scrambling to retain his political influence.

Republican candidates may still want Trumps endorsement and fundraising help, but he will have nothing to offer to voters. His devoted fans may pine for him to run again in 2024, but Republicans should look for someone better.

That we can do better is presumed in the justification frequently offered for supporting Trump, which is that he was the lesser evil. Now that it is no longer a choice between Trump and the Democrats, an array of options has opened up and we should look them over with a fine-toothed comb. To be sure, we can move beyond Trump without returning to the decadent status quo he disrupted.

Trumps flaws are still there, but the favors he can offer us are gone unless he wins another election. Furthermore, Trumps flaws were often politically self-sabotaging, making the odds of him ever winning again slim.

Consider Trumps behavior since the election. He claims that he lost due to massive election fraud but his lawyers have not substantiated his claims in court (even in front of judges that he selected), and his ideas for challenging the results were increasingly unconstitutional.

His threats to campaign against Georgia Republicans he deemed insufficiently supportive of these schemes during runoff elections to determine control of the Senate! reveal Trump to be a malicious man who puts his wounded ego before the good of the party he leads.

In politics, winning can cover a multitude of sins, but Trump is not a winner anymore, in part because his response to his own loss led to more Republicans losing. Trumps egotistical insistence that Georgia was rigged against him may well have been what cost Republicans the Senate. It is no surprise that Republican turnout was down, especially in the most Trump-friendly areas: why should voters bother to turn out for another rigged election?

Trump ended his time in office by betraying his own voters and by selling them conspiracies about how their votes had not been counted in the last race, which presumably means they would not be counted in the next one. Ultimately, his ego and lack of discipline were crucial in giving Democrats unified control of the elected branches.

It will be a hard two years of legislative defeats, and a bad four years of executive orders, all of which will rachet up the culture war battles ever further. Nonetheless, conservatives should not despair. The margins the Democrats have to deal with are slim, which will exacerbate their own internal tensions. Republicans can win the next elections if they can unite, but Trump is not the leader for that task.

Although the policy concerns of dedicated Trump voters should be addressed, it would be folly for the party to remain in thrall to a defeated politician who unites and motivates Democrats while alienating enough Republicans to lose.

They may not like it, but the populist and establishment wings of the GOP need each other to win. They must work together as a coalition, rather than trying to raze each other to the ground both Trumps most ardent GOP fans and foes share a penchant for threatening to burn the party down if they dont get their way. Trumps propensity for assailing Republicans who displease him adds fuel to this fire, especially given his mercurial and sometimes impossible demands.

Trump is too unstable to build and sustain a winning Republican coalition. If the GOP is going to become a viable populist party, it needs someone more competent and moral than Trump to lead it. He is going out as a conspiracy-theorist loser who stoked riots attacking the capitol. This should be the end of Trump; the auditions to replace him begin now.

Nathanael Blake is a Senior Contributor at The Federalist. He has a PhD in political theory. He lives in Missouri.

Photo Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian

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To Win In The Future, Republicans Need To Move On From Trump - The Federalist