Category Archives: Federalist

Woke mobs latest attempt at cancellation came last week, when a seemingly innocent Instagram post by Guardians of the Galaxy actor Chris Pratt prompted outrage on Twitter. In the post, Pratt celebrated his current wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger, and the healthy, gorgeous daughter they had together.

In response to that post, readers remembered that Pratts first child, Jack, whom he fathered with his first wife, Anna Faris, arrived nine weeks prematurely, requiring several surgeries and leaving Jack with visual impairments and ongoing heart trouble. Given these circumstances, many viewed the reference to a healthy, gorgeous daughter as a slight towards both Pratts first son and his first spouse. Cue the manufactured and self-righteous outrage.

But celebrating the health of one child doesnt represent a slight on another, any more than celebrating one childs achievements in one areafor instance, an artistically gifted childdiminishes the talents of another with skills more suited to the classroom or sports field. Rather than spewing bile, hatred, and online shade, the people dragging Pratt on Twitter need some of the Christian grace that Pratt says he received with his unhealthy son Jack.

I used to get heartbroken when parents made a point to declare their newborn child healthy. It hurt because, by medical standards, my youngest daughter qualifies as unhealthy.

My daughter was born with meconium ileus, which meant thatlike Pratts son, Jackshe needed several surgeries as a newborn, and spent significant time in the NICU. While she thankfully recovered from those ailments, she still suffers from cystic fibrosis. That disease means she frequently contracts infections, often requires breathing treatments and regular check-ups, and could ultimately shorten her life span.

I will admit that, soon after the birth of my daughter, comments from other parents about their healthy children made me wince. Although I understood the emotions other parents experienced, I always felt as though my daughter should be celebrated equally. Then I realized that she is.

While individuals dont want to wish medical complications on anyone, a celebration of their childs health doesnt diminish the value of my daughters life. Regardless of our circumstances, we should all celebrate when a precious child does not face the pain and complications plaguing children like my daughter. That attitude reflects simple human compassion for the child, not to mention the mother and father.

Pratt has indeed shown compassion for his son over the years. In an interview conducted in 2016, Pratt gushed over Jack, calling him an extraordinarily intelligent [three]-year-oldnot the kind of language someone embarrassed by his child would use. He continued: Hes a smart and wildly cute, fun, and awesome kid.Theres nothing like it. I recommend anyone watching this who doesnt have childrengo have one.

His compassion stemmed in part from a deep and abiding faith. In 2014, Pratt told People magazine that he and his then-wife Faris prayed a lot in the weeks after Jacks birth, when their infant son lay in a NICU struggling for his life: It restored my faith in God, not that it needed to be restored, but it really redefined it.The baby was so beautiful to us, and I look back at the photos of him and it must have been jarring for other people to come in and see him, but to us he was so beautiful and perfect.

I dont know Pratt personally, so cant know his heart. But just because he celebrates the life of one of his children doesnt mean that he loves his son with health complications any less. I know that in my case, if I could trade places with my daughter and take on her diagnosis, I would. Id like to imagine that most parents, including Pratt, would do the same.

Instead of arriving at the snap judgments and hasty conclusions that our cultureobsessed with social media and hot takesdemands, we would do well to channel the Christian grace Pratt sought to channel during his sons illness. As the mother of an unhealthy daughter, I would suggest that we follow Christs advice and judge not, that we be not judged. Let compassion, not contempt, be the order of the day.

Mary Vought resides in Virginia with her husband and two children. You can follow her at @MaryVought.

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There's Nothing Wrong With Chris Pratt Celebrating His Newborn's Health - The Federalist

State Street Global Advisors, one of the largest investment firms in the world, is forcing its executives to snub white men in favor of hiring black, Asian, and other minority candidates to the company.

The decision comes as the company, whose head Boston-located parent company State Street Corporation employs 40,000 staff worldwide, strives to meet its 2023 goal of tripling the amount of racial and ethnic minorities in senior management positions. The new policy reportedly states that white men may only be hired after a panel of four or five people made up of at least one woman and people who arent white have evaluated a myriad of job candidates of all different races and ethnicities first.

According to The Times, executives in middle and senior management who do not comply with the race quotas will receive cuts to their bonuses.

This is now front and central for State Street its on every senior executives scorecard, Jess McNicholas, the companys head of inclusion, diversity and corporate citizenship in London told The Daily Mail. All of our leaders have to demonstrate at their annual appraisals what they have done to improve female representation and the number of colleagues from ethnic-minority backgrounds.

State Street denied that hiring teams needed special approval to hire white men but reaffirmed the companys goal of elevating certain races and ethnicities above others and hold ourselves accountable for strengthening black and Latinx owned businesses.

We work to ensure a level playing field for candidates of all backgrounds and ensure that our hiring decisions are well informed and not-biased in order to select the best candidate for every job, a spokesperson said in a statement. State Street is committed to inclusion diversity and equity, we believe it to be a critical component of our business success, as such; we expect our hiring managers to have the best possible slate of candidates for their open positions.

In 2017, State Street paid an advertising agency to erect the infamous Fearless Girl statue designed to stare down the iconic bull in front of the New York Stock Exchange and performatively suggest that more women should be hired to high corporate positions.

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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Global Investment Firm Forces Executives To Snub White Men In Light Of Race Hiring Quotas - The Federalist

The American publics opinion of Vice President Kamala Harris and her track record as President Joe Bidens supposed right-hand woman is tanking, a new poll from USA Today and Suffolk University found.

According to the survey conducted over the phone Nov. 3-5, 51.2 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Kamala Harris has done as Vice President. While its been months since Harris relented after scandalously refusing to visit the southern U.S. border despite a raging crisis, voters still do not hold her in high esteem. Harriss approval rating is hovering at just 28 percent, which is 10 points lower than the publics view of the president.

Bidens approval is also backsliding at an alarming rate, as Democrats grow more concerned about their partys performance in the upcoming 2022 midterms. The same poll that exposed the publics low opinion of Harris also found that a majority of Americans, 59 percent, disapprove of the presidents track record 11 months into his tenure in the White House.

Of those surveyed, 46 percent, including 16 percent who cast a vote for the Democrat, say Biden has underperformed at his job since getting elected. Among independents, 44 percent agree that Biden has done a worse job in office than they expected.

Biden told reporters last week, I didnt run to determine how well Im going to do in the polls, but his words are not convincing a majority of Americans, 64 percent, who say they do not support Biden running for a second presidential term. Thats a higher number than the 58 percent opposed to former President Donald Trump running again. Of that 64 percent, 28 percent identify as Democrats.

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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Poll: Only 28 Percent Of Americans Think Kamala Harris Is Doing A Good Job - The Federalist

At a moment when Hollywood tries to either one-up itself on stale leftist messaging or on over-the-top special effects, Hideout Pictures Old Henry stands out as understated, entertaining, and even compelling.

Following massive blockbusters like Marvels three-hour Endgame (which not only did I not watch, I then couldnt even remember whether I had watched it) and the Bond franchises almost-three-hour No Time To Die, Old Henry clocks in at only an hour and 38 minutes. Unlike the exhausting, make-your-eyes-glaze-over excess of movies like Marvels, Old Henry is old-school cinema, relying on a clever plot, compelling acting, and memorable characters.

Tim Blake Nelson stars as grizzled farmer Henry McCarty, who along with his son Wyatt (Gavin Lewis) finds a nearly dead man with a bag of money and takes him in. Both the stranger and a posse of men who show up looking for him claim to be lawmen from nearby Woods County, and accuse the other of being dangerous outlaws. The interactions that follow, and the twists they introduce, hold the audiences interest without exploding planets, otherworldly villains, unrealistic car chases, or steamy sex scenes (there isnt a single woman in the nine-person cast).

The movies simplicity makes it almost come off in the style of a play. Almost the entire movie takes place on the McCarty farm or in the surrounding fields, and the plot moves forward with only a handful of characters, making it seem easily adaptable to the stage. A stage version wouldnt require any high-tech gadgetry or greenscreens, just a few prop guns and the accouterments of a run-down cabin.

Set in 1906, Old Henrys style fits its era. Like an Ernest Hemingway novel, the main character is endearing without being full-blown likable. (I couldnt help thinking of Santiago from The Old Man and the Sea near the end of the film.)

As the movies of Hollywoods golden age assumed viewers would be intrigued enough by the plot to overlook the eras shortcomings in special effects, Old Henry assumes the plot is compelling enough that extensive special effects arent needed. If anything, they would detract from this simple story of a protagonist who appears to be a simple man.

The movies twists are simple yet clever, harkening back to the style of American film legends like Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcocks most iconic films are notoriously simple in style (think of Rear Window, filmed from a single room), which amplifies the brilliance of each plots unexpected surprises. I wont go so far as to say that Old Henry deserves a seat next to the Hitchcock classics, but it does appear to draw from Hitchcocks methods, and thats a strike in its favor.

One of the twists fair warning, spoilers from here on out reveals that unassuming farmer Henry is none other than outlaw Billy the Kid, trying to eke out a quiet living in retirement while the world assumes hes been killed. His late-born desire to settle down as an honest man is thwarted by the antics of random outlaws who just happen to show up and wont leave him alone, and Henry sees his since-repented life of crime catch up to him. Rather than being a single big twist that the film spends the rest of its time overselling, however, Henrys identity is one of several unexpected turns that crop up as the story plays out.

After a climactic scene in whcih Henry uses his larger-than-life prowess to fight his way out of hopeless odds, the movie leaves you relieved, only to throw one more twist that leaves Henry dying on his farmhouse floor. Its an ironic tragedy that has the audience waiting for the happy ending to work out until the very last minute, only to be disappointed by an ending thats still somehow profound evocative of 20th-century American greats like Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie or Victor Flemings Gone With The Wind (based, of course, on Margaret Mitchells novel of the same name).

Despite its serious material and drawing from a pantheon of classics, Old Henry doesnt take itself too seriously, unlike the painfully self-aware flicks that Hollywood has lately turned out. Tasteful cinematography combines idyllic autumn panoramas with gritty and even ugly realism Tim Blake Nelson is no charming, crooked-grinned John Wayne, but thats what makes him perfect for the role. Like the rest of the film, the soundtrack is understated, and winsome as a result.

Old Henry may not be an epic or a big box office moneymaker (it only aired at 30 theaters before moving to streaming platforms), but it isnt intended to be. And because it doesnt try to do too much, what it does is refreshingly good.

Elle Reynolds is an assistant editor at The Federalist, and received her B.A. in government from Patrick Henry College with a minor in journalism. You can follow her work on Twitter at @_etreynolds.

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'Old Henry' Is Old-School Cinema In All The Best Ways - The Federalist

This speech was given at the National Conservatism Conference on Nov. 2, 2021.

Conservatism is not a set of legislative goals like lowering taxes, school choice, or even border security. Its a set of principles or goods what Russell Kirk called the permanent things, like family, opportunity, order, faith, and freedom.

Conservatives enter the political arena with our eyes wide open, fully aware that these goods are often in tension with one another. Thats why different times and circumstances call for different prioritization of these goods.

Conservatism, properly understood, then, is always young, always evolving, its unchanging principles always supple enough to be reapplied to each new era and challenge. But people with eyes wide open must be able to see new challenges when they arise.

National conservatism has arisen in part out of that foresight, in contrast to an institutional conservative movement that is clinging to old assumptions about left versus right politics that have spawned solutions that once worked but are now woefully inadequate to address our present peril. Im talking about the Reagan coalition loosely described as the political coalition between social conservatives, defense hawks, and economic libertarians.

National conservatives understand what many of DCs conservative institutions do not. And that is that the Reagan coalition is dead. In Reagans time, the great threats to America and the West were the expansionism of Soviet communism and the strangulation of the entrepreneurial economy by top-down federal policies. But today, both the Soviet Union and the 70 percent income tax rate are history.

The fatal hubris of much of DCs conservative intellectuals is to treat that coalition and the policies it spawned as if they are still vital and alive; to take what was temporal and treat it as though it were eternal. If we are to move forward as a movement, we must confidently move on from the specific priorities Reagan advanced and toward a more sophisticated understanding of the new threats which have arisen.

One threat in particular, the elites cult of wokeness, today represents a greater danger to the permanent things, to the American way of life, than any of the problems still-Reaganite Washington Republicans prioritize.

In a moment when almost-trillion-dollar corporations wield the power to silence dissent, when colleges and universities subordinate fact and truth to politics, when school boards, and apparently the libertarians at Reason magazine, cover up sexual assaults in girls bathrooms to hide the predators gender identity, when generals, while losing yet another war, conspire with political activists to subvert civilian control of the U.S. military, and when public health officials lie to the country about secretly financing illegal bio-weapon experiments that turn into a global pandemic when all of this is sitting on our doorstep, the capital gains tax rate doesnt matter all that much.

The power and the ambition of this countrys woke elite class really is an existential threat to the future of our nation. They hate us. They hate America. They hate the values of the Constitution, and the power it vests in We the people, whom they view with sneering contempt.

This is what the Republican establishment and leading conservative institutions fail to understand about this moment and this fight. They pretend conservatives and progressives still want the same things, and just disagree about how to achieve them.

But woke elites increasingly, the mainstream left of this country do not want what we want. What they want is to destroy us. Not only will they use every power at their disposal to achieve their goal, they have been for years by dominating every cultural, intellectual, and political institution the right has made a choice to abandon. They have done this without hesitation, and without having to pass a single law.

But its important to unpack what elite wokeness really represents. Its proponents smugly present themselves as representing an emerging coalition of the ascendant. But in reality, its just an old boys club, another frat house for entitled rich kids contrived to perpetuate their unearned privilege. Its Skull and Bones for gender studies majors.

For all its gooey rhetoric and high-minded rationalizations, at the bottom, woke-ism exists solely to insulate entitled mediocrities from accountability for the relentless disasters that have befallen the country under their incompetent leadership.

But the innate insincerity of wokeness is what makes its inquisitors so dangerous. There is no principle they are actually advancing, just their own material interests, and their sense of superiority over uppity commoners who dare question their anointed status.

It is a totalitarian cult of billionaires and bureaucrats, of privilege perpetuated by bullying, empowered by the most sophisticated surveillance and communications technologies in history, and limited only by the scruples of people who arrest rape-victims fathers, declare math to be white supremacist, finance ethnic cleansing in Western China, and who partied, a mile high, on Jeffrey Epsteins Lolita Express.

Failure to appreciate the power and amorality of the woke elite should be seen as a disqualifying flaw in anyone seeking to lead our communities, our institutions, or our country. Giving woke elites any benefit of the doubt or waiting on the free market or Republican judges to save us is indistinguishable from surrender.

That is why, however popular Reagan-ism was in the 1980s, conservatives must move on from his priorities. They were right for his time. They are wrong for ours. And priorities is the correct word here. In the 1980s, America needed more economic dynamism and global assertiveness. Today, we need other things more. National conservatives dont have to repudiate or transcend traditional conservative principles. We simply have to reorder them.

This approach is not a repudiation of conservatism reprioritizing principles to meet changing times is what conservatism is.

The first step is dropping forever the false narrative that America is split down the ideological middle and that Republicans should focus on turning out our base to win 50/50 elections. National conservatives can aim much higher.

Just consider the groups that woke elites have already alienated or outright canceled: black, white, Latino, and Asian Americans who know woke-ism is fundamentally racist. Jewish Americans who know it is antisemitic. Mothers who know it is misogynistic. Parents who know it hates kids. Churchgoers who know it hates God. First-generation Americans, and blue-collar workers who know it is fundamentally elitist and exploitative.

This is not anyones silent majority. They are loud, ticked off, and sick of being treated like second-class citizens by performance artists who pretend riots are peaceful, men can get pregnant, and that Saturday Night Live is funny. But just because Americas proud, broad, diverse, middle class has been betrayed by woke elites doesnt mean they have any reason to trust Republicans either.

So this is our second step. Rather than hoping for all these potential new voters to turn to us in some future election, we need to turn to them now.If we really believe the country is facing an existential threat, as I do, then we have to be able to work, and communicate, and govern creatively to forge a national coalition to defy, defund, and defeat the cult of wokeness from Capitol Hill to Harvard Yard to Silicon Valley.

Finally, step three is to figure out what national conservatives would actually do with a mandate to lead. What should our priorities look like?

First of all, let me say this. Whatever our policy goals, they should, to a great extent, be laws, passed by Congress not temporary tweaks by the administrative state, which can be undone. Not court rulings by unelected judges, however good they might be.

For all its shortcomings, the heart of our federal system is and will always be the Congress the branch with the truest imprimatur of the people. It currently finds itself weak and feckless, and undoing that is a central part of strengthening both our movement and the country.

But the primary work of national conservatives must be to rescue the American people from the unearned, unaccountable power that anti-American woke elites wield over them. And putting the authority of running this country back into the hands of the sovereign individuals, families, and communities to whom it rightfully belongs.

The first thing we do? Lets kill all the monopolies.

The Big Tech corporations, in particular, must be broken up. Period. Spare me platitudes about consumer choice or pearl-clutching about needing our own anti-American mega-corporations to compete with Chinas. Silicon Valley has had decades to prove themselves corporate patriots, and they are obviously content to be the opposite.

Businesses like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple exert state-like monopoly power over Americas minds and markets, and they simply cannot be allowed to endure. The scale at which they exist is incompatible with a free society. In America, we integrate innovation into our values and traditions; we are not content to be re-formed in the image dictated to us by mega-corporations.

Second, we must extricate the United States from multilateral institutions and trade agreements that hand over our national sovereignty to anti-American, globalist apparatchiks. In the U.N., the WTO, the WHO, and others, America is just one of several voting members. America does not wait around to submit to the diktats of some globalist organization whose members hate us. We want out. Bilateral trade agreements are the future.

Domestically, national conservatives should focus on family and community formation as intensely as we ever focused on business and market formation.

Forty percent of American children today are born out of wedlock 70 percent of black children. Everyone knows the intergenerational damage this does to families and neighborhoods, to moms and their kids, especially young black men. And lets be very clear: woke elites do not care.

Federal social policy is written almost exclusively by rich, white, progressive, elites who attended the right schools, watch the right Netflix comedy specials, and park their hybrid cars next to their Black Lives Matter yard signs. But their true values are expressed in laws that intentionally punish young, low-income couples for having kids, getting married, getting jobs. That is, for doing things that would help them rise in America, and maybe challenge the elites privileged status one day.

Never forget: intergenerational poverty is good for the woke elite and their kids. Remember that the next time they dismiss welfare work requirements.

Those same policymakers and their woke capital donors also write Americas immigration laws, with the prime objective of delivering to corporate America cheap, powerless immigrant labor to indemnify themselves from having to pay decent wages to actual American citizens, be they black, white, brown, or rainbow-colored.

It is a sin, what Americas globalist elite has done to low-income Americans for the last three generations. National conservatism, if it means anything, must mean emancipating working Americans of every race from the high-tech overseers keeping them down.

In this toxic environment, national conservative priorities can be very simple: Every child in America, born and unborn, deserves to grow up with both parents, married, rooted in a safe, bonded neighborhood, where mom who can choose her own work-life balance, and dad can support his family with a job that Wall Street, K Street, and Pennsylvania Avenue cant give away to China!

With that as our vision, the agenda writes itself.

Seal the border. Deport illegal immigrants, and prosecute businesses who exploit them. Break up the Big Tech monopolies, and while were at it, the Big Banks too. Bring the critical supply chains home and upend the multilateral trade deals and institutions.

End both abortion and the laws tolerance for deadbeat dads. End federal marriage penalties, parent penalties, and work disincentives.

Cut the Gordian Knot woke elites have tied around education policy: get the masks off the preschoolers, get Critical Race Theory out of our classrooms, and ask the campus socialists where they would like us to redistribute their universities endowments.

These fights wont be easy. To truly engage them requires some relinquishing of Bill Buckleys old adage that conservatives must stand athwart history yelling stop. As my friend David Marcus says, a movement dedicated simply to digging trenches is no longer adequate, nor is it acceptable.

This new threat, the global woke elite, have proven they will tyrannize every election, every policy, every institution, every family, every inch of our souls if we let them. To fight it effectively requires us to fix our bayonets and advance.

No longer can we cling to ideological trees while the entire forest burns. We have to use our wits and our self-government to actively cut down the forces of decay that seek to destroy every meaningful and beautiful tradition our countrymen have died to defend.

Our courage is what is now required. And our duty to the ancient bonds that exist between the dead, the living, and the yet unborn demands that we now give our full measure of it.

Rachel Bovard is The Federalist's senior tech columnist and the senior director of policy at the Conservative Partnership Institute.

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What The New Right Must Do Next Time It Earns Power - The Federalist

In todays fragmented media landscape, with theaters still suffering post-pandemic and multiplying streaming services each producing their own exclusives, it has become more difficult to weed through the dreck that Hollywood produces to find anything worthwhile.

To be sure, the big studios know how to shotgun awareness campaigns for their largest franchise releases; audiences can hardly avoid ads for the next Spider-Man and Matrix entries, or the next Disney animated feature. But finding family fare, biopics, and other hidden gems can be challenging.

Come along on a treasure hunt for on-screen stories that arent simply remakes or sequels (no, Home Alone 6 didnt make the cut). At its best, entertainment serves as a means to laugh, imagine, provide respite, and see the world through different eyes. Perhaps a few of these may fit the bill. Keep in mind the ratings listed (when available), as not all are appropriate for families with young kids, and that most titles have not been pre-screened.

Being the Ricardos (dramatic biopic, Prime Video, Dec. 21)

Groundbreaking sitcom I Love Lucy has sparked laughs for generations and inspired creators of iconic hits like Seinfeld. Since this flick was announced, fans have debated whether Nicole Kidman can pull off Lucille Ball, to the point that the icons daughter weighed in. Current actors portraying Ricky, Fred, and Ethel are also co-stars in this ensemble behind-the-scenes dramedy helmed by writer Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network, The West Wing).

The Beatles: Get Back (three-part docuseries, TV-14, Disney Plus, Nov. 25)

In January 1969, the Beatles entered a London recording studio to record their twelfth studio album, Let It Be. Sixteen months later, the iconic band announced their break-up. What happened in that span of time has never been fully recounted until now. Director Peter Jackson, acclaimed for his World War I doc They Shall Not Grow Old, was given unprecedented access to more than 60 hours of in-studio footage never before seen to create this six-hour docuseries.

Psych 3: This Is Gus (comedic mystery, TV-14, Peacock, Nov. 18)

Hilarious psychic-but-not-really detective Shawn Spencer (James Roday) teamed up with Burton Gus Guster (Dule Hill) for eight seasons on Psychand they keep coming back for more. All the cast returns for their third reunion film This Is Gus, as Gus gets married but first he and Shawn must investigate the disappearance of someone close to Guss fiancee. Count on laughs and intrigue aplenty in a rare show that wears its heart on its sleeve.

14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible(documentary, R, Netflix, Nov. 29)

Despite Netflix doling out nine-figure budgets for two films, early takes indicate would-be blockbusters Red Notice (starring Gal Gadot, Ryan Reynolds, and Dwayne Johnson) and Dont Look Up (starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence) are unlikely to have enduring appeal. For those seeking thrills grounded in real-life, check out the top streamers climbing doc 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible. In it, the Oscar-winning team behind Free Solotracks the journey of a Nepali mountaineer to conquer all 14 summits worldwide higher than 8,000 meters including Everest and K2 in just seven months.

Marvel Studios Hawkeye (action/superhero limited series, TV-14, Disney Plus, Nov. 24)

The least-super Avenger hands off his bow and takes a bow in this six-episode event, set in New York City a few days before Christmas. As family man Clint Barton, Jeremy Renner looks like hes having a blast in this previewwhich takes more than a little inspiration from Die Hard. Sharpshooter Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) joins the MCU fold as she trades quips and tips with the OG Hawkeye.

American Underdog (inspirational biopic, Dec. 25)

In the tradition of Rudy and Invincible, the true story of Kurt Warners remarkable debut NFL season arrives just in time for a family Christmas outing. Zachary Levi (Shazam) stars as Warner and Academy Award winner Anna Paquin (The Piano) as love interest Brenda, in events that reveal determination and grit both on and off the field.

King Richard (dramatic biopic, PG-13, also on HBO Max, Nov. 19)

We got champions in the other room, says Richard Williams (Will Smith), trying to convince tennis club owners and sponsors of his daughters athletic abilities. The father of Serena and Venus Williams was right, as the world would see years later.

Was King Richard overbearing in his rigorous training? Or did he foster his girls dreams? Smith portrays a complex real-life figure in a role thats already getting serious Oscar buzz.

West Side Story (musical, PG-13, Dec. 10)

In more than five decades of moviemaking, director Steven Spielberg has never tackled a musical until now, as he remakes this loose adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Sixty years after the silver screen debut of the original Sondheim-Bernstein Broadway hit, West Side Story retains its 1950s setting with new dance choreography brought to life by an ethnically diverse cast.

The Chosen: The Messengers(biblical drama, Dec. 1)

Recounting the first-century ministry of Jesus Christ, loosely based on the gospels, The Chosen has become a worldwide phenomenon. The crowdfunded TV seriescreated by Dallas Jenkins has racked up more than 300 million views for its 16 episodes released so far (free onlineand via TV apps). Now its coming to the big screenvia Fathom Events.

All-new episode The Messengers not to be confused with the series low-budget 2017 pilot, also Christmas-themed retells the Nativity story with grit and heart, reminding viewers what theseholy days really mean.

Belfast (drama, PG-13, Nov. 12)

Audiences will have to wait til next year to enjoy Death On the Nile, another star-studded ensemble murder mystery from Kenneth Branagh. In the meantime, the celebrated filmmaker presents this partly autobiographical film that celebrates his roots in Ireland revealing one boys formative years against the backdrop of violent social tumult in the 1960s.

A Journal for Jordan (war biopic, Dec. 22)

While hes starred in dozens of hits, Denzel Washington has only directed a handfulincluding this heartrending story of a young dad who answered the call to serve his country. U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Charles Monroe King (Michael B. Jordan) pursues his partner Dana (Tamara Tunie) prior to being deployed to Iraq in 2005. To prepare their son for life ahead, King wrote 200 pages of advice from the frontlines, as chronicled in an award-winning article and now this love story.

When Hope Calls: A Country Christmas (period drama, TV-PG, GAC Family, Dec. 18)

Set to premiere its ninth season on Hallmark next spring, family period drama When Calls the Heart from producers Michael Landon Jr. and Brian Bird has inspired a spin-off series called When Hope Calls. (Oddly, the spin-off airs on another network, GAC Family.) This Christmas, season two of When Hope Calls will find Lori Loughlin who left the original show after being charged in the college admissions scandal reprising her role as Abigail Stanton.

Robin Robin (animated holiday special, G, Netflix, Nov. 24)

In a time when loud, CGI-heavy animated flicks dominate, its a wonder that the exacting art of stop-motion animation still has a champion in British studio Aardman. Over this half-hour tale families will meet Robin, whose egg rolled out of her nest and led her to an unexpected family. It looks to be a fun story full of heart and light humor from the team that created Chicken Run.

The Waltons Homecoming (family drama, TV-PG, The CW, Nov. 28)

Fifty years after the Depression-era story of a large familys struggles and triumphs in Virginias Blue Ridge Mountains premiered, their debut TV movie is getting the remake treatment. Richard Thomas, John-Boy in the original show, takes over narrating duties from late series creator Earl Hamner Jr. (1923-2016), as a new cast dramatizes the story of patriarch John Sr. trying to make it home for Christmas during a storm. While its not terrible as a TV flick, the original 1971 version better captures 1930s period details and families would be wise to seek out that one.

Next Stop, Christmas (romantic comedy, TV-PG, Hallmark Channel, Nov. 6)

Hallmark Channel, which is built on holiday movies, this year has 41 new (if entirely predictable) Christmas flicks coming. In a wall-to-wall holiday marathon, one of the first entries Next Stop, Christmas tells a time-travel yarn featuring two stars from Back to the Future: Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson.

Those seeking similar holiday fare will find Netflix getting in on the game, as A Castle for Christmas brings together 1980s stars Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride) and Brooke Shields (Sahara). The rom-com lands Nov. 26 on the streamer.

Josh Shepherd covers culture, faith, and public policy for several media outlets including The Stream. His articles have appeared in Christianity Today, Religion & Politics, Faithfully Magazine, Religion News Service, and Providence Magazine. A graduate of the University of Colorado, he previously worked on staff at The Heritage Foundation and Focus on the Family. Josh and his wife live in the Washington, D.C. area with their two children.

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13 Movies To Watch In Theaters Or At Home This Holiday Season - The Federalist

The campaign against "critical race theory" was started by conservative activist Ian Prior and now right-wing billionaires have adopted the idea as a legitimate wedge issue to perpetuate a race debate and enrage their supporters to vote Republican.

The Daily Beast revealed the anti-CRT movement has been propelled by Fox News personalities while it was the billionaire Koch family who invested in the astroturf campaign against it.

The report found "eight recently created anti-CRT groups which operate at local levels across the country but bear ties to ideological right-wing aristocrats and political operatives. Their backers include former officials in Donald Trump's administration, an executive at a notorious D.C. lobbying firm, as well as Koch entities and The Federalist Society."

The issue isn't taught outside of law schools, but it has become a catch-all for teaching history that triggers white families to feel uncomfortable.

The 2021 elections in Virginia saw conservatives adopt the fake scandal to generate rage at school board meetings, launch city council measures and ban the teaching of Dr. Marthin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks in public schools.

Prior, who spurred the campaign, previously worked as the "press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee, Justice Department official during the Trump administration, communications director for the Karl Rove super PAC American Crossroads, and now, a GOP operative behind two organizations that have inflamed attacks on so-called critical race theory in Virginia's public schools."

The groups are "Fight for Schools," which works at the state level to go after education in the Democratic stronghold of Loudoun County, Virginia. One protest at the end of June turned violent, with two parents being arrested. It's unclear if those two parents are aware they were manipulated by Republican campaign operatives.

"The candidate [now Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin] turned to Prior's group for fundraising and voter outreach efforts, and state election disclosures show that the organization raised hundreds of thousands of dollars during the campaign," said the Beast.

The children appearing on Fox News to talk about their schools are actually Prior's children. They've been on Fox at least 15 times, according to an analysis by Media Matters. The so-called "Loudoun County parent" and a "father" who went "from concerned parent, like many of you, to legal activist," is a long-time Republican operative, and always has been.

His Virginia group also scored funding from 1776 Action, which the Beast described as "a dark money nonprofit led by former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson." They were working with groups like The Heritage Foundation.

Another group, pretending to be run by parents and families, the Parents Against Critical Theory, is another astroturfed group that has "incorporation documents with the state of Virginia show Prior as its signatory."

Read the full report by the Daily Beast.

Originally posted here:

Virginia parents manipulated into CRT astroturf campaign by right-wing billionaire Kochs and the Federalist Society - Raw Story

You dont have to like Aaron Rodgers to pump your fist when he drops COVID truth bombs on a hit sports talk show.

The Green Bay Packers quarterback, who is currently under fire from the COVID scolds for being secretly unvaccinated and contracting the virus, joined The Pat McAfee Show to discuss his situation. And lets just say he didnt hold back. Here are the top nine most based things Rodgers said.

The idea that unvaccinated people are the most dangerous people in society, is the medias propaganda narrative, Rodgers said.

That is what the media has been trying to do, theyre trying to shame and out and cancel all of us non-vaccinated people, call us selfish, he continued. I mean thats the propaganda line too now: Youre selfish for making a decision thats in the best interest of your body.

Personal health decisions, in my opinion, should be private, Rodgers said after going after the media for taking shots at him. And they should havent to be over-scrutinized by, you know, people who are only pushing their own propaganda.

The media went berserk this week after the quarterback tested positive, writing long screeds and ranting on air about how Rodgers had lied about his vaccination status back in August by saying he had been immunized.

For the media out there taking shots at me, you dont know my story. Now you do. So quit lying about me, Rodgers said.

Rodgers took a straight shot at President Joe Biden and all who carry water for his narrative by obliterating the talking point that COVID-19 is now a pandemic of the unvaccinated, something the federal government continues to double down on with its sweeping vaccine mandate.

This idea that its a pandemic of the unvaccinated, its a just a total lie, Rodgers said before refuting the falsehood. If the vaccine is so great, then how come people are still getting COVID and spreading COVID and unfortunately dying from COVID? If the vaccine is so safe, then how come the manufactures of the vaccine have full immunity [from lawsuits]?

Theres a lot we still dont know about the shot, he continued, saying that its wrong and reckless to market it as a cure-all.

The problem with this is it is so political, and health shouldnt be political, Rodgers warned.

We all should have been a little hesitant. When Trump in 2020 was championing these vaccines that were coming so quick, what did the left say? Dont trust the vaccine. Dont get the vaccine, he continued. What happened? Biden wins and everything flips. Shouldnt that give you a little bit of pause? Isnt this about health, not politics?

If this is really about health instead of politics, Rodgers probed, why havent any of the health experts been talking about diet, exercise, or vitamins?

Rodgers said that because he is unvaccinated, he is required to undergo COVID testing every day, while all the vaccinated players do not have to, despite their ability still to contract and transmit the virus.

I tested over 300 times before finally testing positive. Like I said, it was probably from a vaccinated individual, Rodgers said. I dont think that many of the policies are rooted in the science.

The only time I havent worn my mask is when Im around all vaccinated people, he added.

Health is not a one-size-fits-all for everybody, Rodgers announced, adding that he was allergic to an ingredient in the mRNA vaccines. Enough said.

Im going to have the best immunity possible now, Rodgers said, citing the study from Israel on the robust immunity acquired from COVID infection and recovery.

The facts support this. Epidemiologist and biostatistician Martin Kulldorff, who was a professor at Harvard Medical School for a decade, recently published an analysis breaking down the methodology of different studies on natural immunity. He demonstrated how the Israeli study, the one Rodgers cited, is superior in its methodology and precision of its findings than the prevailing study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Theres a lot to natural immunity, and natural immunity has not been a part of the conversation, Rodgers added.

Some of the rules to me are not based in science at all, Rodgers said of the many rules he had already illustrated that were not based in science. Theyre based purely in trying to out and shame people, like needing to wear a mask at a podium when every person in the room is vaccinated and wearing a mask makes no sense to me.

Bodily autonomy is a right, and the shaming and the outing that, you know, people seem to get off on so much of finding these people who, you know, Oh my God, can you believe these crackpots who are not vaccinated? Everybody has their own story and their own reasons for doing things. But this shaming cancel society is wrong.

Its a virus of health, and the most important thing would be educating people on how to live a healthier life, Rodgers said regarding the pandemic that was exacerbated mightily by comorbidities and especially obesity.

Early data showed that obesity tripled a persons risk of hospitalization, and 78 percent of those hospitalized with the Wuhan virus were overweight or obese.

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9 Truths From Aaron Rodgers' Vaxx Interview You Aren't Allowed To Say - The Federalist

Were spiking the football because its long past time for the political establishment to pay attention. Culture is a kitchen table issue, just as much as health care bills and taxes, despite years of smug assurances otherwise from consultants and pundits. We were right and they were wrong. They are not good at this, and their incompetence is hurting the cause of conservatism and, more importantly, the country.

In the wake of Glenn Youngkins blue-state culture war upset, CNN panelists pondered their echo chamber. Sen. Joe Manchin tried to pump the brakes on President Joe Bidens massive social spending plan. James Carville unloaded. Others doubled down on the false and toxic narrative that dissenters from the lefts cultural dogma are motivated by bigotry.

While radical illiberalism crept from academia to the so-called real world, the establishment assured us it was a non-issue. Republicans boasted of their brilliant strategy to moderate on social issues, a theory that earned them Twitter follows from Very Serious People and airtime on cable news.

It was all wrong. All of it. The culture war is not only a moral battleground for conservatives, its a politically advantageous one. It animates voters. People care, not because theyre racist or unsophisticated, but because an unhealthy culture affects their everyday lives just as immediately as a higher tax bill. Its not a distraction from the issues, it underlies all of them.

The culture war is here and has always been here because its the pivot point that determines what the nation has been and will become. The other side has understood it from day one, and has been cleaning up on it in a leftist blitzkrieg that has gone on for generations.

The years since have seen an explosion of controversy over political correctness, with battles over safe spaces, speech codes, and the assertion of privilege spreading from academia into the broader culture.

[S]ince 2012, the nation has changed, Ben wrote in early 2016. [Mitt] Romney ran the last campaign of the pre-gay marriage era. The years since have seen an explosion of controversy over political correctness, with battles over safe spaces, speech codes, and the assertion of privilege spreading from academia into the broader culture. The flashpoint in this new phase of the culture war is the issue of speech: what our culture and politics will allow you to say, and where you are allowed to say it.

Congratulations to the American left, he concluded. You asked to win the culture wars and evangelicals are giving you Donald J. Trump.

At the Texas Tribune Festival in 2018, Ben was the only voice on a skeptical panel insisting, We have a radicalized culture war that is here now, its here tomorrow, its here forever as far as the eye can see, and its not going away, echoing sentiments he expressed long before Trump entered politics.

In 2019, before George Floyds killing, Ben warned that the left may be turning into the culture war white walkers.

That same year, we both wrote that Big Tech censorship was a kitchen table issue, in the face of staunch disagreement from thinkers on the establishment right who dismissed concerned voters as a rounding error. Why? Because censorship, as Ben wrote long before, had become a key element of the lefts culture war. Heres an excerpt from The Transom at the time:

If you want to know why, just consider this: Internet activists hear about people like Steven Crowder. What you dont hear about is the local realtor who put a Trump sign in their lawn, and because of that, the neighborhood listserv and Nextdoor app filled up with people campaigning to nuke their Google mentions, respond to their Facebook page with constant harassment, and deface their ads in the neighborhood, calling them a white supremacist. That is not a major story. It is not even a minor story. But it is the sort of story that radicalizes a church, a community, a group of likeminded people and then you start looking for politicians who take this issue on.

On the same subject, Emily explained in 2019 why it was significant that Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., was waging war on both the regulatory and cultural fronts when it came to Big Tech. When Hawley and a handful of other GOP candidates ran on culture war issues in 2018, she reported on the wisdom of their strategy, writing, As populist sentiments against coastal elites run high among conservatives bolstered by Trumps strategic media baiting [they] are casting themselves as the authentic representatives of their states, and their opponents as the pawns of wealthy outsiders.

Earlier this year, Emily argued, The political discourse is not a zero-sum game limited by time and space, noting, economic distress and the immediate destruction of free expression are not mutually exclusive. Heres an excerpt from that essay, which explained why normal people are animated by cancel culture.

Whats the point of freaking out over Dr. Seuss? Isnt it just a culture war fomented by Beltway MAGA cynics and their Fox-guzzling fans? After all, most of his beloved books are still for sale. This is actually an instructive example, although I hardly expect the left to give their angle any pause.

To the vast bipartisan coalition of normal people annoyed by cancel culture, news of backlash against Dr. Seuss means norms have quickly shifted even more out of alignment with their fundamental values. It also makes people feel as though theyve been implicated in gross moral wrongdoing. It creates anxiety that these rapid and unpredictable shifts will soon catch up with them or their loved ones, and that reading a simple childrens book could land them in hot water with enforcers of these new norms in their communities.

That, of course, was smugly mocked. (As were questions like this one, posed to Ronna McDaniel.)

In a piece that could have been written after Youngkins win, Emily analyzed data on suburban voters collected in the run-up to the 2020 election, arguing the numbers showed Democrats would be much less well-positioned in suburbia after Trump is out of office, forced to defend their radicalized agenda instead of merely opposing the president.

For them, she added, Trump-era victories could be one step forward and two steps back, as the presidents overpowering presence convinces suburbanites to vote Biden while also allowing Democrats to transform into a party that will look a lot less appealing when the lights come on. Thats exactly what ended up happening in Virginia. (She wrote about this in the context of the 2020 RNC as well.)

Weve covered this constantly in popular culture and news media too, highlighting how demand for heterodox alternatives to Hollywood and corporate media are empowering new platforms and revealing massive, widespread distaste for cultural leftism. (See our series on the New Contras.)

If Youngkin had lost, all of this would still be true. His narrow margin against a Democratic giant in a blue state, with the entire media aligned against him, would have been equally telling. It would not, however, have shaken any awareness out of the chattering class of the strategic avenue offered by the culture war focus.

Its true that many of our so-called experts are now doubling down on their nonsensical narrative that everyone who voted for Youngkin is a racist. But establishment Democrats are starting to notice the conundrum theyve created for themselves, and establishment Republicans are starting to notice they can lean into it. (Or pounce, as The New York Times put it.)

An apocryphal remark credited to Alexander the Great by Winston Churchill applies: The Right, at long last, has learned how important it is to vocalize, at the top of your lungs, over and over: No.

The culture war has for years been considered dirty by the same secular, socially liberal elites who were waging it. Stop listening to them, whether youre on the left, center, or right. Their bad ideas are metastasizing in echo chambers, protected from debate. They are wrong, and their power is waning.

The left has understood the power of the culture war for half a century. They know its power and have deployed their forces accordingly. But something happened leading into Tuesday: The right figured it out too. Its a bell that cant be unrung.

Read the original here:

At Long Last, The Right Has Joined The Culture War - The Federalist

Ohio lawmakers are scheduled to hold hearings next week on a pair of maps drawn up in the redistricting process ahead of next years midterms after the state lost a seat in the last census.

One map proposed by Republicans in the GOP-controlled Senate chamber is raising eyebrows by adding urban Democratic strongholds to U.S. Rep. Jim Jordans rural conservative district. Jordan is the states most prominent House member.

This Ohio Senate GOP map would gerrymander Rep. Jim Jordan, a leading Trump ally and the top R in the House Judiciary Committee, out of his district, wrote New York Post reporter Juliegrace Brufke. He would be put against Dem Rep. Joyce Beatty.

But will he? The new map shown below side-by-side with the existing map on the right shows a shift in Ohios 4th district from including several counties in the north to half of Delaware County and portions of Franklin County, home to the capital of Columbus.

The districts core counties of Allen, Auglaize, Shelby Logan, Champaign, and Union would remain the same, home to nearly 345,000 people. About another 107,00o in the district would come from suburban Delaware, and 331,000 from Franklin. Communities in Franklin County, including Clintonville and Linden, are large Democratic neighborhoods currently represented by Rep. Joyce Beatty, a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

While population puts the new Fourth Congressional District in jeopardy of a 50/50 race at first glance, electoral margins across each county still put the race in Jordans favor. Looking at last years results in the presidential contest, as opposed to congressional since Delaware and Franklin voted for different candidates, President Donald Trump carried Allen, Auglaize, Shelby Logan, Champaign, and Union together three-to-one.

Delaware County went for Trump by seven points, despite many of the countys densely-populated precincts flipping for Joe Biden by double-digits. Democrats carried Franklin by 31 points, although Jordans district would only adopt at most a third of the county. In order to overcome vote totals in the seven GOP-dominated northwest neighboring counties, the Democrats margins would have to be far higher.

As written, the new district outlined by Ohio Senate Republicans appears as if it had an R+10 advantage, although is far less safer than surrounding districts as shown by the Gannett map below:

A race could also become more competitive than Republicans might like in a hostile year over the next decade if the Delaware suburbs continue to experience the same demographic changes that flipped Georgia and Virginia blue. Tuesdays results in Virginia look promising for a suburban reversal, but nothing is certain in American politics one year out.

The swing suburbs possibly adopted by Jordan include communities such as Westerville, routinely at the center of presidential campaigns, which are also home to a different brand of Republican. Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who lives in Westerville, represented Delaware County in both Congress and the state Senate before a temporary retirement from office in 2001.

Both maps proposed by lawmakers in the House and Senate give Jordan and Rep.-elect Mike Carey in the 15th district portions of Franklin County, although the House gives Jordan far less territory. Any map that would forfeit the entire county would either land Democrats another seat in the lower chamber or violate gerrymandering reforms passed by voters ahead of the 2020 census.

We believe our proposal is constitutional and compliant and we look forward to hearing the process continuing next week, Ohio Senate Majority Caucus Spokesman John Fortney told The Federalist.

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Are Republicans In Ohio Trying To Oust Jim Jordan With Redistricting? - The Federalist