Monthly Archives: September 2021

The recent federal vaccine mandate is unconstitutional and is another example of President Joe Bidens horrific leadership, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday.

This is a guy who criticizes the state of Florida for protecting parents rights. He says school boards should be able to eliminate parents rights and force five-year-old kids to wear masks all day, DeSantis said at a veterans appreciation event at Ponte Vedra Beach. Thats what he thinks is appropriate government. Yet, here he comes from Washington, DC instituting an unprecedented mandate, which even his own people have acknowledged in the past is not constitutional. Thats not leadership.

The Biden administration announced Thursday that it will force employers with more than 100 employees to mandate the COVID-19 test or require that employees receive weekly testing. The mandate comes after countless administrative officials including White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Biden himself promised the federal government wouldnt mandate COVID-19 injections.

On Friday at a Washington, D.C. middle school, Biden said he was disappointed that some Republican governors have been so cavalier with the health of [kids], so cavalier with the health of their communities. Although Biden didnt mention specific governors, DeSantis has been advocating against vaccine mandates for months.

[Biden says] hes losing patience with people. At the end of the day, we dont live with a one-person rule in this country. We live in a constitutional system, which peoples rights are respected, but particularly in this juncture, their livelihoods and their jobs have to be protected, DeSantis said. Just think about what this mandate would do. Its going to drive people out of work, out of hospitals, out of all this stuff where you have a need for people. So its totally counterproductive, and I think it will ultimately lose in court.

DeSantis said the vaccine mandate would strip jobs and livelihoods from Americans and slammed Biden for a lack of responsibility for the already thousands of jobs lost by executive mandates.

I think the problem I have with Joe Biden, more than anything, this guy doesnt take responsibility for anything. Hes always trying to blame other people, blame other states, DeSantis said. This is a guy that promised when he ran for president, that he would shut down the virus. If you look now theres 300 percent more cases in this country today than a year ago when we had no vaccines at all so his policies are not working.

Biden has been pushing vaccines since he entered office, and the administration said the new vaccine mandate is essential to keeping schools open and helping working Americans.

We owe them a promise to keep their schools open as safe as possible, First Lady Jill Biden said Friday. We owe them a commitment to follow the science. We owe them unity so that we can fight the virus, not each other.

The expansive mandate will require that more than 80 million Americans accept the vaccine, including millions of health facility workers, executive branch employees, and federal contractors. Members of Congress and their staff are exempted from the mandate. The three COVID-19 injections do not prevent individuals from catching or spreading the virus.

DeSantis said he would fight Thursdays mandate.

We have the responsibility to stand up for the Constitution, he said, People should not be cast aside because they make a medical decision for themselves. They should not lose their job. They should not be unable to put food on their table just because they made a different decision than the powers that be are demanding that they make.

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DeSantis Blasts Biden: 'We Don't Have One-Person Rule In This Country' - The Federalist

Its a good thing Wendy Osefo of Bravos The Real Housewives of Potomac let her husband do most of the talking with their children on policing in America. If she had been the one to do it, she likely would have filled their heads with nonsense about cops everywhere shooting unarmed black people for sport.

Osefo told her husband Eddie on the latest episode that the two should talk with their young boys about police and relationships with police. The scene was apparently shot around the time the Derek Chauvin trial was taking place, which Osefo, who is black, said just made me wanting to shelter her kids.

I think its unfair that black parents have to break their childrens innocence to prepare them for the world that they live in, she said.

Fortunately, Eddie took the lead on that conversation and told their boys more or less that some cops are bad, but his wife apparently needs her own special lecture about police and race. She has bought into the media myth that black people, men in particular, are at constant risk of being gunned down by racist cops.

Its a lie, even though dishonest news outlets say things like negative experiences with the police are an unfortunate rite of passage for many Black Americans. That claim appeared in Politico back in June, but lets do something Politico didnt do lets look at data.

The Police-Public Contact Survey conducted every so often by the Justice Department asks respondents about their interactions with law enforcement. The latest surveyis from 2018. That year, just 6.5 million black people said they had any type of contact with police. Among those, just 251,000 of them said they experienced a threat or use of force by law enforcement. This doesnt take into account whether the threat or use of force was justified, but only that a respondent says it happened.

The total black population in the United States sits at 42,640,000, according to the Census. That would mean that barely above half of a percent of the entire black population claims to have experienced a threat or use of force when interacting with police.

When something is experienced by half of a percent of all black people, we probably shouldnt be describing it as a rite of passage for many black Americans.

Now lets look at the worst-case scenario: A black person is shot dead by a cop. The Washington Post tries to keep track of that each year. For the last full year, 2020, the Post says a total of 18 black people died in police shootings. Again, this doesnt account for whether each shooting was justified, only that it happened.

Put another way, 0.00004 percent of the black population in 2020 was killed by cops with guns. For each year that the Post has been keeping track, the number of black people shot dead by cops never got higher than 38 and that was back in 2015.

Thats the devastating reality that Wendy Osefo has been wanting to shelter her kids from? Thats the unfair truth for black parents that break their childrens innocence?

Black kids, like all kids, need to learn about police and what it is they do. But dont let them learn it from Wendy Osefo.

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Don't Let Wendy Osefo Of 'Real Housewives' Explain Police To Your Kids - The Federalist

The show's new host departed the day after he taped the first five episodes of 'Jeopardy's' 38th season, leading to what will likely stand as its most awkward week ever.

On Monday, Jeopardy! began its 38th season in syndication with even more changes than when it started its 37th season last September but for entirely different reasons. Last year, lockdowns halted production of Jeopardy! and other TV shows in spring 2020 and forced new safety precautions, a spacing out of contestant lecterns and an audience-free soundstage among the most significant.

This year, by contrast, the turmoil at Jeopardy! comes from within rather than from without. Sony Pictures Entertainment named executive producer Mike Richards the shows host on August 11. He lasted but a week in that permanent role, giving up hosting duties on August 19, only to get fired from Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune entirely on August 31.

Sony made the right call in terminating Richards, who failed to inform company executives about boorish comments he had made on several podcasts years ago, even after details of several sexual discrimination lawsuits recently re-emerged. But his departure as host came one day after he taped the first five episodes of Jeopardys 38th season, leading to what will likely stand as Jeopardys most awkward week of episodes ever.

Because Jeopardy! tapes serially i.e., every show features a returning champion Sony cannot as a practical matter not air the Richards episodes. It also cant scrap the shows and re-tape with a different host, as a different contestant might win.

As a result, Sony remained stuck with airing this weeks episodes once. But suffice it to say these episodes likely will never air again, given that they serve as a reminder of how badly the company botched the process of selecting a host to succeed Alex Trebek.

Even though Sony has to air the episodes themselves, that doesnt mean it has to highlight Richardss role in them. Multiple videos released by Sony promoting this weeks episodes say not a word about Richards, and in one case show the Jeopardy! soundstage with contestants behind their lecterns, but no one at the hosts position.

One contestant, who will appear on Fridays episode, tweeted last week that, while he and his fellow contestants took two promotional photos a headshot and a picture with Richards Jeopardy! only sent him the former and not the latter. The omission makes sense on multiple levels; not only does Sony want to sever any reminder of Richardss association with the show, but his termination meant he could not autograph photos with contestants, as Trebek did.

That said, the Jeopardy! producers did not edit the opening segment of Mondays show. Whereas announcer Johnny Gilbert introduced last seasons guest hosts as such, he gave Richards the windup And now, here is the host of Jeopardy! he had heretofore given Trebek alone.

As to Trebek, his name made an appearance during the opening, as his wife and children helped dedicate Stage 10 on the Sony Pictures Studio lot in his honor. The nonagenarian Gilbert, who recorded most of his audio segments from a home studio last season for health and safety reasons, also made a brief on-camera appearance from his usual post in the studio.

But two individuals did not make an appearance. Ken Jennings and Buzzy Cohen, two former Jeopardy! champions who each guest-hosted episodes last season, attended the Trebek dedication ceremony but were reportedly kept off the soundstage during the days taping because Richards reportedly felt unnerved by their presence.

Amidst the awkwardness of this Jeopardy! drama, champion Matt Amodio has become almost an afterthought. On Monday, he won his 19th consecutive episode, spanning the hosting stints of Robin Roberts, LeVar Burton, David Faber, Joe Buck, and now Richards. His more than $600,000 in winnings ranks third-best ever, behind only Jennings and James Holzhauer, yet most stories about the program over the past month have focused on the failed host search.

In rolling out the shows 38th season, Jeopardy! has tried to emphasize its continuity and tradition with the hashtag #TheGameContinues. But the way Sony mangled its search for a new host badly damaged the shows goodwill in the press, with the public, and with regular viewers and alumni (including yours truly).

However, just prior to Richardss removal as executive producer, Sony sources said that, as the Wall Street Journal put it, the ratings for Jeopardy! are holding steady, an indication that while the drama behind the scenes is big among industry insiders and social media, the audience will keep watching the show.

In other words, the same group that offered a business-school case study in poor succession planning over the past few months said they essentially take the shows audience for granted. As for Jeopardy!, yes, the game continues for now. But if the corporate rot that caused the Richards debacle persists, the popular quiz show may find itself pardon the pun in jeopardy.

Read more:

'Jeopardy's' Weirdest Week Ever Begins. Will Audiences Stay For It? - The Federalist

As the numbers of COVID-19 cases in Florida spike, Republicans are blaming immigrants and Black citizens to distract from their own malfeasance managing the pandemic. While Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick are the latest politicians to stir up anti-minority sentiment for political purposes, they are not the first. In 1793, Federalists adopted a similar tactic and blamed a yellow fever outbreak on immigration. Seven years later, the Federalist Party was soundly defeated in national elections largely because of their anti-immigrant policies.

History suggests the same fate could await Republicans.

In 1793, a particularly deadly outbreak of yellow fever broke out in Philadelphia, the nations temporary capital. Five thousand people, or roughly 10% of the citys population, died during the outbreak. The city was so overwhelmed that officials placed coffins in nearby alleys so that they would be available when patients died.

READ MORE: Long before coronavirus, Philly ran a quarantine center for another deadly contagion

Yellow fever is caused when an infected mosquito bites a human. In the 18th century, the disease existed year-round in warm-weather regions, like parts of Africa, the Caribbean, and New Orleans. As a result, many residents developed immunity and mothers often passed down the required antibodies to their children. However, in Northern cities like New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore that experience deep freezes, the disease emerged only sporadically and as a result often swept across the susceptible population, killing thousands.

Eighteenth-century Americans didnt understand the science behind the disease, but that didnt stop them from developing hypotheses. Two competing theories developed to explain the outbreak, with supporters often choosing sides based on their political identity. Federalists accused people arriving from the Caribbean and Africa of bringing the disease from foreign shores, whereas Democratic-Republicans blamed the unhealthy conditions in cities for spreading the pandemic.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, these arguments reflected the partisan views of each party. Federalist support congregated on the coast and in urban areas where merchants and banks flourished, whereas farmers in the western regions and recent immigrants from France, the Caribbean, and Ireland voted for Democratic-Republicans. Each side attacked the others voter base to explain the outbreak.

Both were right to some degree. Outbreaks were often triggered when ships carrying infected mosquitoes arrived from the Caribbean to trade in eastern ports. Once the mosquitoes arrived, they happily bred and multiplied in the standing water that lingered on unpaved streets without sewers, and in the filthy water around the crumbling wharves in the Philadelphia port.

While Federalists concerns about the physical import of disease in the 1700s at least had some factual basis, the same cant be said for DeSantis and Patrick. Florida doesnt share a border with Mexico, rendering DeSantis claims entirely without merit. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine, dismissed DeSantis argument: Given the extensive transmission already in the U.S., the immigration contribution is akin to pouring a bucket of water into a swimming pool. In the Texas case, Patrick has blamed the recent outbreak on unvaccinated Black Americans. The facts resoundingly disprove Patricks claim, as unvaccinated white Texans outnumber unvaccinated Black Texans 3-1.

But the Federalists too spread xenophobia, and actively pursued policies and legislation that undermined immigrants rights. In 1798, Federalists in Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which increased the number of years of residence required for citizenship from five to 14 years, permitted the president to detain and export alien residents of enemy countries, and made it a crime to print, utter, or publish . . . any false, scandalous, and malicious writing about the federal government.

Federalists defended these bills as necessary to prevent political violence and anarchy that they feared would be sparked by lies printed in partisan newspapers. In reality, the bills made it harder for immigrants to become citizens, and therefore harder for immigrants to vote. The Sedition Acts targeted the most outspoken and critical newspaper editors, many of whom were also immigrants.

The backlash against the bills was immediate and sustained until the election in the fall of 1800. Both Democratic-Republican candidates, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, beat Federalist John Adams in the presidential election. Democratic-Republicans also took control of the House of Representatives and the Senate for the first time. The losses were so significant that the Federalist Party would never again control the presidency or either house of Congress.

READ MORE: Gov. Wolf isnt pulling harmful COVID-19 stunts like Floridas Ron DeSantis. But hes also not doing enough. | Editorial

DeSantis and Patrick are making the same calculations as the Federalists in 1798. They know that nonwhite voters are more likely to support Democrats, and they are hoping to avert attention from their own failures by fear-mongering and ginning up racist sentiment. Its a gamble. Both Florida and Texas have growing minority populations with ties to the Black and immigrant communities. Hopefully voters in these states will reject the hateful rhetoric, just as voters did in 1800.

Lindsay M. Chervinsky, Ph.D., is a presidential historian and senior fellow at the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. She is also the author of The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution. @lmchervinsky.

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Todays Republicans can learn from how their brethren handled yellow fever | Opinion - The Philadelphia Inquirer

By Allen C. Guelzo, Ph. D., Gettysburg CollegeThe Federalists had to accept certain conditions when Virginia assembly passed the ratification. (Image: Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Gwillhickers/Public domain)The Vitriolic Attacks of the Anti-Federalists

The long prelude to the Virginia ratifying convention was a gift to Virginias anti-FederalistsRichard Henry Lee, George Mason, and of course, Patrick Henry. Richard Henry Lee took the lead as a writer, publishing a 64-page pamphlet of extracts from the Constitution along with vitriolic attacks on them; Edmund Randolph published another. Patrick Henry shrewdly frightened those Virginians who had unpaid pre-war debts to British merchants or who had occupied confiscated Tory properties, with the specter of being dragged into faraway federal courts for a shaking down. No speech of Henrys in the assembly, no matter what the topic, ended without some swipe at the Constitution.

Elections to the ratifying convention became fiercely competitive, and in March, Madison, who had been urged by George Washington to stand for election to the convention, had to break off his collaboration with Alexander Hamilton in producing The Federalist in New York. He had to come back to Virginia to stave off a challenge from an anti-Federalist convert, Thomas Barbour, in Orange County. Madison won easily, 202 votes to 56.

This is a transcript from the video series Americas Founding Fathers. Watch it now, on Wondrium.

The real test, however, would come in the ratifying convention itself, which assembled on June 2, 1788, in Richmond. The convention was gaveled to order by Edmund Pendleton after George Wythe, the greatest of Virginias lawyers and judges and on a motion from George Mason, they agreed to begin a full discussion, clause by clause.

But the convention was waiting for Patrick Henry, and on June 4, he announced solemnly: I conceive the republic to be in extreme dangera proposal to change our governmenta proposal that goes to the utter annihilation of the most solemn engagements of the states.

Who authorized them to speak the language of We, the People, instead of We, the States? States are the characteristics andthe soul of a confederation. If the states be not the agents of this compact, it must be one great consolidated national government.

George Mason was quick to follow Henrys line of attack. Mason asked whether a national government could supervise a nation as big as the United States without becoming tyrannical by necessity. Was there ever an instance of a general national government extending over so extensive a country, abounding in such a variety of climates, et cetera, where the people retained their liberty?

Learn more about William Pattersons dissent.

Speaking briefly at the end of the June 4 session, Madison paved the way for Henry Leethe famed Light-Horse Harryto go on the attack. Lee said the expression, We the People, had not been foisted on the Constitutional convention by cunning schemers. In fact, what could be more proper than to begin a constitution by appealing to the people whose sovereignty it embodied?

But it would fall to Madison on June 6 to deliver a resolute dissection of Henrys alarm. Was Patrick Henry fearful for a loss of liberty? Upon a review of history, Madison coolly replied, he would have found that the loss of liberty very often resulted from factions and divisionsfrom local considerations, which eternally lead to quarrelshe would have found internaldissensions to have more frequently demolished civil liberty than consolidated government.

Madison said that the new Constitution had createda middle ground between a disconnected heap of states and a singleconcentrated government. Madison said that the government was not completely consolidated, nor is it entirely federal. Who are parties to it? The peoplebut not the people as composing one great bodybut the people as composing thirteen sovereignties.

Should all the states adopt it, it will be then a government established by the 13 states of America, not through the intervention of the legislatures, but by the people at large. In this particular respect, the distinction between the existing and proposed government was very material and would be found to exclude the evils of absolute consolidation, as well as of a mere confederacy.

Learn more about the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

For nine days, the arguments swayed back and forth, including a powerful speech by Patrick Henry on June 24. On June 25, after three weeks of wrangling, the question was called for, and on a roll call vote demanded by George Mason ratification won 89 to 79.

But the Federalists had not won their victory without conditions. The ratifying resolutions required that any imperfections in the Constitution be remedied by amendments which would guarantee that no right of any religious denomination can be cancelled, abridged, restrained or modified by the Congress, by the senate or House of Representatives, acting in any capacity, by the president, or any department or officer of the United States. Among other essential rights, liberty of conscience and of the press could not be canceled, abridged, restrained or modified by any authority of the United States.

Madison and his fellow Federalists had obtained themost important of the state ratifications and only at the price of pledging themselves to add a bill of rights. The anti-Federalists of New York narrowly followed suit on July 26 after they got the news of Virginias ratification. The Constitution had arrived at last.

On June 25, the question was called for, and on a roll call vote demanded by George Mason ratification won 89 to 79.

James Madison said that it would be a government established by the 13 states of America, not through the intervention of the legislatures, but by the people at large.

Elections to the ratifying convention became fiercely competitive, and James Madison had to come back to Virginia to stave off a challenge from an anti-Federalist convert, Thomas Barbour, in Orange County.

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The Anti-Federalists and the Virginia Ratifying Convention - The Great Courses Daily News

The long-awaited return of Bravos Real Housewives of Salt Lake City underscores the creeping true-crimeification of the networks popular reality fare. Like this fan-favorite season of the Beverly Hills housewives, RHOSLC promises to document in painful detail the legal drama surrounding one of its stars. Its great television.

The trend also emphasizes the salience of a major question dogging our pop culture: What is it with women and true crime?

One of the biggest problems with Only Murders in the Building is that two of its three main characters are men. In a Spotify article probing why women are so obsessed with True Crime, social psychologist Amanda Vicary said, My research suggests that women are drawn to true crime because of the information they can learn from it, even if they arent aware that that may be the reason they are listening! A Mother Jones article last year noted, The podcast Wine and Crime reports that women make up 85 percent of its audience, which lines up with a 2018 study that found that 73 percent of true crime podcast listeners are women.

The conflicts on Bravo are often centered around mysteries: Does Brooks actually have cancer? Did Lisa plant the story? What did Teresa know? Is Aviva really asthmatic? But Jen Shah, Mary Cosby, and Erika Girardi find themselves in the middle of allegations they committed serious crimes, allegations that played out as cameras were rolling. (Erika claims, often convincingly, to have had no knowledge of her husbands alleged financial crimes.)

In the case of Shah, RHOSLCs second season premiere starts out with a flash-forward to the day of her arrest, promising a season thick with drama and intrigue. The episode then allows Shah to display her riches, seemingly unaware or unconcerned with the optics and legal implications. For viewers, most of whom are likely female, the unsolved mysteries gives each episode an added layer of immediacy and a sense of higher stakes as they scan cast members behavior for clues and evidence.

Shah, according to the indictment against her and her assistant, allegedly generated and sold lead lists of innocent individuals for other members of their scheme to repeatedly scam. None of her aggressively luxurious lifestyle adds up, something the producers subtly emphasize throughout the premiere episode. Even subtly, shes an incredible character.

The allegations against Cosby, stemming from former members of the church she oversees, are equally if not more compelling. All the rumors are that Mary is a cult leader, says one of the women.

I always think of the Housewives as docuseries as much as reality series (the good franchises, at least). Theyre incredible commentaries on American decadence, and incredibly funny too. True crime, then, makes for a seamless genre merger.

It should also be a wake-up call to the network and its super fans that reality television is about antiheroes. Viewers dont need them to be protagonists and social justice activists; they need them to be authentic and interesting and thats just fine. By bringing Shah and Cosby back to the series, Bravo seems to concede this at least when the crime isnt political incorrectness. Its also always worth reiterating that its fine for TV stars to be bad people so long as their platforms serve as commentaries on their immorality, which is exactly what Bravo does.

This season of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is riveting wherever you stand on Girardis innocence. With two accused criminals, one currently battling charges, RHOSLC is off to an enormously promising start. Were all wondering exactly how guilty Shah is, but another question to ponder is why are women currently so hooked on true crime? Bravo is bringing us closer to an answer.

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'Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City' Propels Bravo's True Crime Trend - The Federalist