Monthly Archives: January 2022

A large majority of Americans say they support restrictions on abortion, a new poll from the Knights of Columbus and Marist Pollsuggests.

In the survey of 1,004 adults, pollsters found that 71 percent of Americans think abortion should be heavily limited and only allowed in certain instances.

Of the Americans who favor more regulation on killing unborn babies in the womb, 22 percent think abortion should be illegal beyond the first trimester. Another 28 percent think abortion should be allowed only in cases of rape, incest, or to save the mothers life, while 9 percent say it should be allowed only when the mothers life is threatened.

81% of Americans believe laws can protect both the mother and her unborn child, the report states.

While only 12 percent of Americans believe abortion should be outlawed altogether, at least 49 percent of Democrats, 93 percent of Republicans, and 70 percent of independents say they favor more regulations protecting babies in the womb, not fewer.

The poll also found that the majority of Americans, 54 percent, do not agree with taxpayer-funded abortions in the United States despite the Biden administrations efforts to reinstate them. An even higher percentage, 73 percent, say the United States should not use tax dollars to fund abortions overseas. Of those who oppose or strongly oppose funding for abortions abroad, 59 percent self-identify as pro-choice.

Despite the fact that President Joe Bidens Food and Drug Administration just greenlit mail-order abortion drugs, 63 percent of Americans say they oppose the practice.

The overwhelming opposition to loosening abortion restrictions shows that despite Democrat and corporate medias efforts to convince the nation otherwise, most Americans do not want unfettered access to killing unborn babies. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, which evaluates whether Roe v. Wade still has a hold on the nation, by the end of the justices 2021-2022 term.

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire and Fox News. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordangdavidson.

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71 Percent Of Americans Want More Restrictions On Abortion, Not Fewer - The Federalist

Arizona Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly announced his support for eliminating the filibuster to allow House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to federalize elections on Wednesday.

[Kelly] will support a change to the filibuster rule, The Arizona Republic has learned, showing for the first time a willingness to bend on an issue that has tied the Senate in knots for a year as the Democratic legislative agenda has stalled, the state paper reported. Kelly, who is up for reelection this year, will back a talking filibuster rule only for the proposed voting rights legislation that he co-sponsors.

While branded as a voting rights bill by Democrats and the corporate press to shroud the legislation in the moral righteousness of civil rights, the proposed measure would impose sweeping regulations to take over election standards that open the door for mass voter fraud. The Freedom to Vote Act eliminates safeguards for election integrity by banning witness signature validation on absentee ballots and preventing election officials from independently verifying voter eligibility. The bill also requires states to offer same-day registration, enhancing the likelihood of fraud as officials lack sufficient time to ensure the accuracy of the information provided.

Kellys endorsement of the Senate rule change comes as congressional Democrats mount a crusade to pass major legislation to overhaul elections ahead of the November midterms. The Senate filibuster, which allows the minority party to block legislation short of 60 votes, stands in the way as an institutional roadblock to prevent a split 50-50 chamber from imposing radical reforms, with Democrats granted the majority by virtue of White House control.

The bill, co-sponsored by every Democrat in the Senate including Kelly, remains stalled as long as Senate rules remain unchanged. Two Democrat senators, however, including Kellys Arizona colleague Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, have refused to back the filibusters destruction. On Tuesday, Manchin dug in on his opposition to the rule change, even welcoming a primary challenge over the issue.

The majority of my colleagues in the Democratic caucus have changed their minds. I respect that, Manchin told Politico. They have a right to change their minds. I havent. I hope they respect that too. Ive never changed my mind on the filibuster.

Ive been primaried my entire life. That would not be anything new for me, Manchin added.

Kellys endorsement of the Democrats nuclear option to back President Joe Bidens agenda might spell trouble for the senator, who narrowly clinched the seat in the 2020 special election by less than 3 points and fewer than 100,000 votes.

In November, two months before Bidens nationwide approval rating reached the second-lowest of any White House occupant after one year in office, the presidents approval in Arizona was shown at only 42 percent, according to a survey conducted by OH Predictive Insights.

Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com.

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Mark Kelly Wants To Kill The Filibuster For Democrats' Election Takeover - The Federalist

Joe Biden has been in the Oval Office (or that weird set in the Eisenhower buildings South Court auditorium with the greenscreen windows) for a year now, and hes already managed to make his short presidency known for a long line-up of scandals, botches, and slip-ups.

Its too hard to narrow the list down to one top failure, although his disgracefully handled Afghanistan withdrawal may be the most sobering and inflation may be the one that played the biggest role in Bidens tanking approval ratings. Even though Bidens mess-ups tally up to far more than 12, its not hard to remember a Biden-enabled disaster for every month of the septuagenarians first year at the stern or in the basement.

On his first day in office, President Joe Biden signed a list of radically left-wing executive orders, including an order requiring that schools must ignore the biological differences between male and female students from the athletic field to the bathroom if they wish to continue receiving federal funding. In Bidens first week, Press Secretary Jen Psaki also signaled the administrations plans to reinstate federal funding for abortions around the world with the reversal of the Mexico City policy, and the new president canceled the Keystone XL pipeline.

As Tristan Justice reported at the time, Bidens first 48 hours in office have launched the new administration with 17 executive orders, more than were issued in the first month of their presidencies by Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton combined.

In February, Bidens Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced strict reopening guidelines that would keep many schools around the country shut down. Only K-12 schools in cities and areas with low or moderate virus transmission can fully reopen for in-person learning, as long as physical distancing and mask-wearing is enforced, Jordan Boyd reported on Feb. 12. Any transmission rate beyond what is designated as moderate requires hybrid learning or reduced attendance, limiting which children are allowed in the classroom at the same time.

On the same day, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky admitted that far-left teachers unions that have worked to keep students out of school buildings over the course of the Covid pandemic had influence when the CDC created its school reopening guidelines.

As The Washington Post first reported, the Biden White House spent the month of March plotting with corporations to develop a vaccine passport system to force Americans to show their Covid papers in order to participate fully in society. The passports are expected to be free and available through applications for smartphones, which could display a scannable code similar to an airline boarding pass, the Post noted.

At the end of April, Biden announced his American Families Plan, a list of far-left spending priorities, many of which would become hallmarks of his struggling Build Back Bankrupt agenda. The goals of the proposed $1.8 trillion spending spree included extending government schooling fully into preschool and two years of taxpayer-provided community college.

Scandal follows President Bidens troubled son Hunter around, as the country learned when the New York Post published damning information recovered from a laptop the younger Biden allegedly left at a repair store in late 2020. But further revelations about Hunters exploits emerged in May of last year, adding to the pile of unsavory behavior that may implicate the president himself.

New emails from Hunter Bidens suspected laptop published on May 26 by the Post show that Joe Biden met with Ukrainian, Russian and Kazakhstani business associates of his sons at a dinner in Washington, DC, while he was vice president in April 2015.

Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent some time together, wrote executive Vadym Pozharskyi of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, where Hunter sat on the board.

Other emails published by The Daily Mail in May revealed that Hunter Biden bragged he smoked crack with [former D.C. Mayor] Marion Barry when he was a student at Georgetown University.

Bidens crisis at the Southern border has been setting records all year, but it was in June that apprehensions surged past 1 million for fiscal year 2021 and border crossings were at the highest levels since 2006. In May alone, 170,000 people were captured, marking a 20-year high, Gabe Kaminsky reported at the time. June also saw the border state of Texas declare an emergency over Bidens border crisis, which the president helped cause by reversing Trump-era stances like the Remain in Mexico policy.

As the crisis raged, Bidens border czar Vice President Kamala Harris couldnt be bothered to visit the actual U.S.-Mexico line, snapping I havent been to Europe when reporters pressed her on the topic. She finally caved and scheduled a trip, but only after former President Donald Trump announced his plans to visit.

In July, the Biden administration bragged about colluding with Big Tech to shut down perspectives with which the regime disagreed. In a press briefing on July 15, Psaki touted the administrations policy of flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation. A few days later, Psaki admitted there was nothing off the table in the effort to smear dissent as misinformation and have it removed from social media.

August saw the largest-scale disaster on Bidens watch so far, when the administrations disorganized withdrawal from Afghanistan left 13 American service members dead and thousands of American citizens and allies stranded under Taliban control.

From the administrations decision to vacate Bagram Air Base before evacuating Americans from the country, to leaving weapons and equipment to fall into the hands of the Taliban, to Biden taking an out-of-touch, hollow victory lap after the service members deaths and while Americans remained stranded, to the administrations ongoing decision to ignore the allies still behind enemy lines, every action taken by the Biden team was a disaster. In the same month, the administration carried out a drone strike targeted at ISIS operatives that actually killed at least 10 civilians, seven of whom were children.

Americans wont soon forget the harrowing images of desperate people trampling each other in the chaotic race to the Kabul airport, of people clinging to aircraft landing gear and falling helpless from the sky, or of a lone helicopter leaving the roof of the American embassy. There is blood on Bidens hands, and our allies wont soon forget it either.

After a photo of U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback was misconstrued by Democrats and their media allies to falsely accuse agents of whipping criminals, Biden promised to make his own CBP employees pay and the White House banned agents in Del Rio, Texas from using horses going forward.

It was horrible to see. To see people treated like they did? Horses running them over? People being strapped? Its outrageous, Biden claimed, even though the photographer who took the viral photo insisted hed never seen them whip anyone.

On Sept. 29, the National School Boards Association sent a letter to the White House asking Biden to use the FBI and other federal law enforcement to target parents using terrorism laws. A few dayes later on Oct. 4, in response to the letter, Attorney General Merrick Garland directed the FBI and federal attorneys to investigate and address a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.

As it turns out, however, Bidens own Education Secretary Miguel Cardona appears to have secretly requested the letter from NSBA, presumably to use as a pretense for the administrations push to target parents unhappy with public schools closures, mask mandates, and extremist LGBT and critical race theory curricula.

After issuing a September press release threatening a vaccine mandate for private businesses with 100 or more employees, Bidens Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released an emergency temporary standard on Nov. 4 that would require businesses to comply by Jan. 4 or incur fines of up to $14,000 per violation.

The Supreme Court struck this down in January, of course, and the Biden administration knew it was flagrantly unconstitutional all along but exploiting the delays of the judicial system allowed the administration to bully many corporations into compliance anyway. Never mind the fact that the Biden administration had promised during the campaign that it wouldnt mandate the Covid vaccine.

December saw the climax (so far) of Bidens joint inflation and supply chain crisis, dually caused by the administrations radical spending and Democrats Covid lockdowns. As Americans faced shortages and shipping delays during their Christmas shopping, the Department of Labor released its November figures revealing 6.8 percent year-to-year inflation, or the largest 12-month increase since the period ending June 1982.

Decembers inflation numbers were even higher, clocking in at 7 percent.

In a Jan. 11 speech urging the U.S. Senate to ditch filibuster rules in order to pass his radical and unconstitutional federalization of election laws, President Biden compared his agendas critics whichincludeDemocrat Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona to former Alabama Gov. George Wallace and Confederate leader Jefferson Davis.

Do you want to be the side of Dr. King or George Wallace? Do you want to be the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis? Bidensaid. Comparing his critics to notorious segregationists isnt a good way to start year two of the Biden era.

Who knows what new scandals and embarrassments await the Biden administration in 2022? For the sake of the country, we can hope for fewer than in 2021, but its clear the administration has a failed track record only one year in.

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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The Biggest Botches, Failures, And Mess-Ups Of Biden's First 12 Months - The Federalist

U.S. Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Sonia Sotomayor released a statement on Wednesday debunking a false narrative published by NPR claiming that the Trump appointee refused to wear a mask despite the leftist justices wishes.

Reporting that Justice Sotomayor asked Justice Gorsuch to wear a mask surprised us. It is false. While we may sometimes disagree about the law, we are warm colleagues and friends, the statement from the justices read.

One day prior, NPRs Nina Totenberg wrote a hit piece targeting Gorsuch and claiming that the conservative judge didnt mask despite Sotomayors COVID worries, leading her to telework.

This is not Totenbergs first time writing false stories to target conservative judges. As The Federalists Mollie Hemingway previously noted, Totenberg, easily NPRs most biased reporter, was the first person to amplify Anita Hills allegations of sexual harassment against then-SCOTUS nominee Clarence Thomas.

According to Totenbergs most recent report smearing Gorsuch, the rise of the omicron variant in the U.S. prompted Chief Justice John Roberts to ask the SCOTUS justices to mask up. While most of the justices complied, Gorsuch chose to proceed without a face covering.

Totenberg, who clearly holds a grudge against Gorsuch (she calls him a prickly justice), reported the justices choice as a slight to Sotomayor who has a myriad of underlying health issues including diabetes. She cited court sources to suggest that Sotomayor did not feel safe in close proximity to people who were unmasked.

His continued refusal since then has also meant that Sotomayor has not attended the justices weekly conference in person, joining instead by telephone, Totenberg claimed.

While it is true that Sotomayor has refrained from listening to oral arguments in person and instead chose to join virtually from her chambers, the justices statement clearly suggests that her decision to remain remote did not stem from a spat with Gorsuch.

Despite the justices statement, Totenbergs colleagues continued to defend her false story and even went so far as to claim that Gorsuch and Sotomayors words were engineered.

I surprised at how many Supreme Court correspondents I admire are passing along a statement from two justices that is at best false without any context whatsoever, NPRs David Gura tweeted.

Update:

Shortly after The Federalist published this article, Chief Justice John Roberts released a statement denying that he ever requested justices wear face coverings while the Supreme Court was in session despite Totenbergs report stating otherwise.

I did not request Justice Gorsuch or any other Justice to wear a mask on the bench, the statement read.

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire and Fox News. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordangdavidson.

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Gorsuch, Sotomayor Shame NPR's Report On Mask Feud That Wasn't - The Federalist

One year ago today, Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, and to commemorate the momentous occasion, youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman delivered a spoken word poem.

Unsurprisingly, the corporate media and celebrities fawned all over the young artist, whose poem, The Hill We Climb, addressed racism, the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, and Bidens unity pledge.

But as we look back just a year later, its more obvious than ever that the unity schtick was a sham and that the hill weve been climbing is less like a grassy knoll and more like a disastrous rocky cliff. And weve less been climbing up it, and more falling off of it.

To that end, heres a new tribute using some of Gormans words and ideas to capture Bidens inaugural year and inject a little reality into the inaugural poem.

When morning breaks on year two, we ask ourselves, where can we find warmth in this never-ending dark winter?

The dementia patient we elected. A cross we must bear.

We now see what we have done.

Weve learned that science can be personified, and that becoming the first female four-star admiral can include a Y chromosome.

Federal power was theirs before we knew it.

Somehow they grew it.

Somehow they lied, we complied, to become a nation that isnt sick, but is still masked and vaxxed.

We, the residents of a country where a bused black girl can dream of becoming president, only to fail miserably campaigns are hard and land in the vice presidents office on Democrats race card.

And, yes, she is far from polished, far from pristine, but can power through with a cackle and progressive dream. Root causes are hard to find when its your turn to step up.

And though shes never been to the border, its fine, because shes also never been to Europe.

So the dream teams committed to all cultures but ours, colors but white, characters but Rs, and conditions of man (he/him).

And so we lift our gaze, not to what stands before us, but what stands between us.

We widen the divide because we know to put equity first, we must put equality aside.

We lay down our arms because ammunition is impossible to find.

We seek harm to none except parents.

Because theyre domestic terrorists.

Let the globe, if nothing else, say what we know:

That if it isnt left-wing, it must be Jim Crow.

That even as we worked, we got fired.

Supply shortage, staff shortage, and no one to hire.

That well forever be paying more for gas, inflation.

Although shelves are as empty as our pocketbooks, and even our soul belongs to the CCP, the refrain remains: Cmon, man! Unity!

Scripture tells us were all made in Gods likeness.

But thats not important, like combatting whiteness.

This is the uphill climb we never asked for.

Because learning from our past is never enough.

We must rage against history, tear it all down, snuff it out.

And commit to delusion no matter the stretch:

Jan. 6 insurrection, sedition, Border Patrol whips, and the climate apocalypse.

Weve seen a force that would shatter our nation, rather than share it.

Would destroy our country if they could call it democracy.

Big Tech, corrupt media, Democrats rigging in 2020, they succeeded.

But now in the midterms, they will be defeated.

In God (then on family and country) we trust, for while we have our eyes on 22 and 24, the FBI has its eyes on us.

This is the era of the ruling class, basking in the self-important swamp of alphabet soup: CNN, CDC, CRT and CYA.

They turn mountains to molehills and molehills to mountains, and to point out this fact is to be censored to no end.

But within this we find the power to take our lives back, in trusting the science, we take off our masks.

So rather than do like Jen Psaki, lets not circle back to the problems of yesteryear and instead recognize: If the president cant prevail over a complete sentence, how could he prevail over us?

We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be: a people governed by consent, not OSHA; following the example of Florida, not Fauci.

A country where men provide for the women of their house, not seek housing in womens prisons.

A country where women can run for office and on a girls-only track team.

We will not be turned around or interrupted by federal intimidation because, as some important person said, Its time for us to do what we have been doing and that time is every day.

Let us restore our country from the 2021 disastrous trip around the sun.

But after just one year of four, weve barely begun.

And so we have learned, we must move where its sane.

Blue cities are psycho, so move to red plains.

We must rise from Washingtons District of Vaccine Passports.

We must rise from the poop-littered streets of San Francisco.

We must rise from the bullet-holed Chicago skyline.

Out of the White House correspondence dinner and into the salt mine.

But memory-holing is all the rage, so Biden and friends are turning the page.

Forget blunders and borders and lost education, Afghanistan, Hunter, COVID threats to the nation its all good.

The defund-police commander in chief can backtrack and build back and insist nothing to see here and for the effort, youve got to hand it to him.

But it wont work; we wont forget the past year.

Lets go, Brandon.

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A Tribute To Biden's Inaugural Year And The Poem That Kicked It Off - The Federalist

Theres a scene in 1994s Pulp Fiction in which Uma Thurman describes Fox Force Five, a pilot she appeared in, to John Travolta. In Thurmans words, the show was Fox, as in were a bunch of foxy chicks. Force, as in were a force to be reckoned with. Five, as in theres one, two, three, four, five of us. There was a blonde one, Somerset ONeal, she was the leader. The Japanese fox was a kung fu master, the black girl was a demolition expert, the French foxs specialty was sex

Why Thurman is playing Arianna Huffington instead of revisiting her fictional pilots character in the film The 355 is a question well never get an answer to, although its probably because they already had two white girls one of whom was the producer and in Fox Force Five 2022, you need three women of color.

For this, the star and producer Jessica Chastain went with Penlope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, and Lupita Nyongo. Diane Kruger plays the part of the other white girl and the second main protagonist. The antagonists, all males, are also diverse, thanks in part to the globetrotting nature of the story.

This isnt to say The 355 is about that sort of identity politics. Its not. Its about a quaint form of identity politics, one from way back in, I dont know, say 2018, a time when things were simpler and focused more on sex. Blessings of liberty, I suppose.

But identity politics isnt The 355s problem. Its a feature, because the producers, and the producer (ahem), had a chance to make a really awesome movie with a predominantly female cast, with lots of fighting and explosions, and all she/they had to do was greenlight a film with a semi-coherent plot and a plausible storyline.

On those points, she/they failed. As a man, this bothers me. This doesnt bother me from a Seinfeld perspective, but from my perspective as a father of daughters. They deserve better. It doesnt even have to be that much better.

For example, during the previews, I was treated to Michael Bays latest upcoming film, Ambulance, a totally fresh idea with no resemblance to 1994s Speed. During that short preview, I was provided with backstory, motive, and suspense.

After sitting through some two hours and four minutes of The 355, I cannot say the same. In fact, I cannot even recapture it. If you want a fairly charitable summary of what it is to watch this movie, the Critical Drinker has you covered.

When I say that his review is charitable, its because the Critical Drinker could have dunked so much harder. Theres basically zero plot, the McGuffin a high-tech doomsday device is just ridiculous, and theres almost nothing compelling about the plot. All they had to do was make it slightly compelling.

And they (she) couldnt do that. They (she) instead offered two hours and four minutes of a three-year-old telling a story. If you like all exposition and lots of jumping around with basically no backstory or purpose offered at any point, The 355 is there for you.

In a nutshell, Jason Flemyng is some sort of supervillain who, naturally, wants the doomsday device. Chastain, working for the CIA, and Kruger, working for Germanys BND, are on separate, competing missions to get the device.

They fight a lot before realizing the Colombian operative who had the device and was supposed to give it to Chastain had instead given her a dummy bag. They continue trying to shoot one another for a few minutes, then team up and go off in search of the Colombian operative together, along with Nyongo, a British agent and surveillance/tech genius.

Cruz, a psychologist with Colombias DNI, ends up with a cell phone that can track the device when one of her patients, the Colombian operative, gets double-crossed by the Colombian government and killed. Just before dying, he grabs Cruzs hand and sets the fingerprint password on his phone to hers, making her crucial to the mission. Shortly thereafter, the tracker is removed from the doomsday device as other bad guys get it and Cruz continues to be in the movie for some reason, despite desperately wanting to return to her husband and children and not having any experience with anything thats going on.

At this point, the doomsday device begins changing hands a ton, although none of these characters are identified. Flemyng, one of the few non-generic bad guys, finally gets it. Chastains former bestie, Sebastian Stan, whom she slept with just before the failed mission to retrieve it from Cruzs patient and who was killed in the process, ends up being not dead and working for Flemyng. Bingbing shows up, rescues the other four foxes, and they all team up together to get it back.

There are a lot more explosions and gunfights and fistfights, Cruz shoots Stan but doesnt kill him, and the team gets the doomsday device back and destroys it. Two months pass. Stan is now in a leadership position in the CIA, they team up again to help Chastain get revenge on him, and then wrap things up by teasing a sequel.

I have bad news for Chastain: that sequel is not going to happen. This is a shame, because I kind of pine for that quaint form of identity politics.

Do I think most women, foxes or otherwise, yearn to go out and get in gunfights and save the world? No, and I live with four women, three under the age of 18. While their fights are vicious and mean boys call each other a stupid name, slug one another in the shoulder, and get over it while girls go straight for one anothers souls none have expressed any desire to get into demolition. Well, none have expressed a desire to get into professional demolition. They are all pretty into freelance demolition inside the house.

Nevertheless, they do enjoy watching women on the screen. Weve watched WandaVision and Black Widow together. Weve watched Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984, which, while terrible and not anywhere close to the previous three female-led offerings, wasnt as bad as The 355.

In short, you cant just take a stupid movie, possibly written by Philip J. Fry under a pseudonym, stick a bunch of foxes in it, and call it a success. You still have to tell a compelling story, otherwise you just end up with a less diverse iteration of The Eternals.

Our wives and daughters and female friends are not one-dimensional characters, defined solely by their sex. Theyre complex creatures with different strengths, talents, and weaknesses. And for entertainment designed to celebrate them, they deserve better than The 355 offers.

However, if youre looking to score what is likely to be virtually a private screening of a movie for under $10, then The 355 is an option. Its a solid 3.7 film thanks to its depiction of the CIA as totally corrupt. Plus, while youre there, you might see the preview for Michael Bays remake of Speed, which clocks in at 8.5.

Richard Cromwell is a senior contributor to The Federalist. Husband. Father of three rambunctious daughters. Arkansan. Fan of whiskey and whisky. Originally an English major, Rich earned a degree in music business from Belmont in 2002. By day he produces shows and events for a local museum with a focus on giving back to the community. His writing can also be found at Pocket Full of Liberty. Follow him on Twitter, @rcromwell4.

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Women Deserve Better Representation Than They Get In 'The 355' - The Federalist

In whats now being called the Great Resignation, a record number of employees have quit their jobs since the lockdowns started. Month after month since 2020, the number of people leaving jobs voluntarily has broken historical records. All told, some 36.3 million people quit in 2020. Through November of 2021, some 43.1 million Americans quit their jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Thats approximately one-quarter of working Americans.

In the inimitable words of country songsmith Johnny Paycheck, employees are saying, Take this job and shove it! Employers are left holding the bag, with some 10.6 job openings against only 6.8 million unemployed Americans looking for work.

Some of the quitters are walking out of one job into another, others are retiring, stepping back to part-time, or leaving the workforce entirely. Industries losing the most employees include leisure and hospitality, with 15.8 million quitters, and retail with 7 million leaving their ranks. In professional and business service firms, 7.5 million employees walked off the job this year.

With all this turmoil in the employment scene, record numbers of Americans are discovering what the Wall Street Journal calls their inner entrepreneur as they pursue their personal American Dream.

Many of these corporate-American quitters are joining the gig economy. More than nine million Americans are classified as self-employed unincorporated workers by the BLS, but that number vastly underestimates the total number of people doing freelance gig work.

Some 51.1 million Americans participate at some level in the gig economy, a 34 percent increase over 2020. While the majority (34.1 million) are occasional or part-time freelancers, another 17 million are full-time independents, according to MBO Partners State of Independence in America report.

Of these freelancers, about half are highly skilled knowledge professionals working in computer programming and IT, marketing, and business consulting. They are attracted not just by the flexibility of freelancing, but because they can make as much or more working for themselves. An Upwork survey found 75 percent of full-time freelancers said their earnings are on par or even higher than when they were employed. Upwork is an online freelancer-employer matchmaking service.

Further, Upwork expects the number of freelancers to increase as employers demand employees come back to the office. Some 20 percent of people working remotely during the pandemic said they planned to leave their full-time jobs for freelancing.

Emboldened by success in the gig economy, some will use it as a springboard to form their own companies and eventually hire people to work for them. A recent survey by Digital.com found that nearly one-third of people who quit their jobs post-Covid did so to start their own businesses.

On the flip side of the Great Resignation are record numbers of new businesses being formed. Some five million entrepreneurs have applied for a federal tax-identifier number in 2021, the largest number on record since the Census Bureau began tracking it. This followed a previous record set in 2020 when 4.4 million startups were registered.

To put the record-setting new business numbers in context, consider that over the last decade, an average of 2.9 million businesses were started each year from 2010 through 2019. By comparison, some 50 percent more new businesses were formed in 2020 and the number of startups grew over 70 percent above the decade average in 2021.

Only three industries out of 19 accounted for 40 percent of all startups in both 2020 and 2021. Retail made up 20 percent, making it the top industry gainer, and number two ranked professional services and third-ranked other services at 10 percent each. In 2021, more entrepreneurs stepped in to tackle the many challenges in the nations supply chain, with the number of new businesses in the transportation and warehouse services sector up nearly 40 percent over 2020.

It is reasonable to assume that all those entrepreneurs starting retail, professional services, other services, and transportation companies came out of and know those industries well enough to bring new perspectives and innovative solutions to each. Its just what the U.S. economy needs after the blow its taken from the lockdowns and the Biden administrations failed economic policies.

Writing in Harvard Business Review, Ian Cook, vice president of people analytics at Visier, reported the most significant increase in corporate resignations is among those in mid-career, between 30 and 45 years old. The number of mid-career resignations rose by 20 percent from 2020 to 2021. Workers aged 45 to 60 years also resigned at elevated levels in 2021.

Specific times in peoples lives are predictive of major career moves, like starting a company. Milestone birthdays, work anniversaries, the birth of a child, and children leaving the nest correspond to times of personal reflection that become the catalyst for major life changes.

With the lockdowns came more time to reflect on life goals and ambitions. Many have found their current careers and employers wanting. After being housebound for many months while corporate offices were closed, mid-career professionals discovered they liked the flexibility of working from home on their own schedules. They could accomplish more in less time without all the office distractions.

Any number of reasons explain why people quit their jobs to go solo or form companies, but a few stand out. The first is the control and autonomy that comes with being your own boss. Being in control of ones work and time is a compelling motivation to pursue an entrepreneurial journey. While an entrepreneur still has people to answer to, whether clients, customers, or investors, self-employment is a way to get out from under a boss thumb and do your thing.

The second is the ability to pursue a job with meaning and purpose. Meaning is deeply personal and inwardly focused. Research has shown the meaning behind the work is more motivating than any other aspect of work, including pay and rewards, opportunities for promotion, or working conditions.

Purpose is how ones personal meaning is expressed outward into society, or how ones job is making a difference in the world. A McKinsey study found that the uncertainties caused by the pandemic response have turned peoples attention toward more purposeful work. Those who find it are better for it, with those who say they are living their purpose at work reporting five-time greater levels of well-being compared with those who are not.

The third reason Americans are risking it all on their own is to create more wealth. Achieving greater financial means and the social status that goes with it is another motivator to start a business, although it is probably the weakest reason to do so.

The statistics dont favor startup businesses. More than 20 percent of startups dont make it into their second year, yet few people get wealthy working for someone else. And if one builds a successful business, the business itself becomes a valuable asset.

As the new year dawns, the resignation trends weve seen throughout 2020 and 2021 can be expected to continue, and even accelerate if Bidens vaccine mandates go through. Many Americans also find themselves at cross purposes with the woke agenda of much of corporate America. Their consciences wont allow them to support businesses that promote causes they cant, so theyll take their chances going out on their own.

Since its founding, even before, the United States of America has been a country of dreamers, people driven to escape the tyranny of kings and rigid hierarchical social structures to forge a better life free of those constraints. Its the dictionary definition of the American Dream: The ideal that every citizen of the United States should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.

If entrepreneurship is the foundation of Americas economic success, then America is headed for even greater greatness in the years ahead as growing legions of enterprising entrepreneurs turn their talents, energy, and experience to new businesses. The American Dream is alive and well in America in 2022.

Pamela Danziger is a market researcher specializing in the study of consumer behavior and motivation. Author of ten books, she shares insights as a senior contributor on Forbes.com. And as a Christian, she is co-founder of Faith Underground. She holds an M.L.S. from University of Maryland and B.A. in English Literature from Penn State.

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A Record Number Are Quitting Their Jobs And Starting Businesses - The Federalist

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin took a break from punishing his colleagues by toggling his joystick at work on a Zoom call to opine on who he thinks President Joe Biden might nominate to the Supreme Court in the event Associate Justice Stephen Breyer steps down at the end of the term.

The media and other Democrat Party activists are re-upping the campaign they ran last Supreme Court term to bully Breyer into retiring. Because the Democrat Partys policy failures at home and abroad have become so disastrous that not even the corrupt corporate media can cover them up anymore, the Republican Party has a chance to re-take control not just of the U.S. House, but also the U.S. Senate, which handles all presidential judicial nominations. As a result, getting Breyer to retire so Biden and Senate Democrats can select Breyers replacement has become something of an existential necessity for the left.

Toobin offers the conventional wisdom with his first two suggestions. Jackson and Kruger are both established judicial activists so political that radical group Demand Justice has them on their list of suggested Supreme Court nominees.

But Toobins longshot suggestion is silly.

Harris is simply not a serious pick. Remember that anyone Biden nominates would have to get through the Senate. Currently the Senate is tied with 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. Harris, as the president of the Senate, is tasked with breaking tie votes.

Its not entirely clear Harris would even be allowed to vote for her own nomination. But if she were allowed to do so, and she voted to confirm herself to the Supreme Court, that would leave a vacancy in the vice presidency, meaning the Democrats would no longer have a Senate majority since there would be no Democrat vice president to break a tie. The 25th Amendment holds that presidents may nominate a replacement in the event the vice presidency is vacated, one who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

Would putting Harris on the Court be worth losing the Senate and having no leverage in who becomes vice president?

Thats where the argument gets really silly. If it wasnt obvious to everyone before 2020, it is certainly difficult to hide now that Harris is not the most incandescent bulb in the intellectual chandelier. Her performance in the Kavanaugh trial, er, confirmation, did receive the accolades of sycophantic media fans, but was completely unbecoming. In one memorable scene, she attempted to lay a perjury trap against Kavanaugh relating to whether he had ever had a conversation on the Democrats Russia collusion hoax with anyone at one particular large law firm. He successfully avoided the trap, but it would not have been allowed in a court of law.

In her public appearances, Harris reminds observers of a completely unprepared high school student asked to answer a question. One recent interview included the following memorable line.

One media outlet mocked her comments in a rip-off of Saturday Night Lives Deep Thoughts with Jack Handey.

And thats the real reason Harris wont be nominated. She simply isnt up for the job. In 1970, President Richard Nixon nominated G. Harrold Carswell of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Florida for the seat left vacant by Abe Fortas resignation. Carswells Democrat opponents tried to castigate him as unqualified.

Conservative Sen. Roman Hruska of Nebraska replied, Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, arent they, and a little chance?

Even if its true that mediocrities deserve representation, some might argue that they got it when Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed to the Court under Obama. The New Republics legal affairs editor brutally questioned her capabilities ahead of Obamas nomination of her in a blistering 2009 piece The Case Against Sotomayor:

They expressed questions about her temperament, her judicial craftsmanship, and most of all, her ability to provide an intellectual counterweight to the conservative justices, as well as a clear liberal alternative.

The most consistent concern was that Sotomayor, although an able lawyer, was not that smart and kind of a bully on the bench, as one former Second Circuit clerk for another judge put it. She has an inflated opinion of herself, and is domineering during oral arguments, but her questions arent penetrating and dont get to the heart of the issue. (During one argument, an elderly judicial colleague is said to have leaned over and said, Will you please stop talking and let them talk?)

Rosen went on to say her opinions were not especially clean or tight, and sometimes miss the forest for the trees and Some former clerks and prosecutors expressed concerns about her command of technical legal details. That the criticisms came from the political left were indicative of concerns the liberal judicial movement had about whether she would be able to move the Supreme Court in the direction they preferred. Harris would likely only compound the problem.

Fortas, incidentally, resigned after he was unable to survive multiple conflict of interest scandals. President Lyndon B. Johnson had gotten Chief Justice Earl Warren to step down, to be replaced by Fortas. But the Senate blocked the elevation of the associate justice to chief. Nixon won the presidency, during which Fortas resigned from his associate justice seat. Nixon nominated Clement Haynsworth, who was not confirmed. The allegedly mediocre Carswell also was not confirmed. In the end, Nixon nominated Harry Blackmun. Blackmun was succeeded by Stephen Breyer.

There would be something humorous about the seat once denied to Carswell on the grounds he was mediocre going to Harris after all.

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No, Jeffrey Toobin, Biden Is Not Putting Harris On The Supreme Court - The Federalist

Well before the Supreme Court struck down the Biden administrations authoritarian Occupational Safety and Health Administration vaccine mandate, I quit my professionally and financially rewarding c-suite position after my company issued this coercive edict to its U.S. employees. I am vaccinated against Covid-19, so theorder would not affect my employment, but I toldthe company that if I, as a top executive, were expected to cheerlead for such an immoral and anti-science imposition of brute economic force by the powerful upon the weak, I would have to resign.

I tendered my resignation from the pharma company Insmed Incorporated, headquarteredin Bridgewater, New Jersey. It was accepted. In so doing, I forfeited what could amount to millions of dollars over the coming years.

That said, my decision was easy. I can comfortably afford to be unemployed. Other colleagues at Insmed I spoke to are not so fortunate. Some would even have to sell their homes. The economically weak are hurt by these mandates imposed by the economically strong.

The edict waswholly optionalon the companys part, as it was issuedbeforethe federal government announced its OSHA mandate. Thus, even though the mandate is now history, the edict still stands. And my company went even further than the government.

Under the OSHA rule, employees had the option to get tested regularly instead of vaccinated. There is no such option in Insmeds fiat. Barring an exemption, the choice is to get vaxxed or get fired, with no testing alternative.

Nor is there any consideration of natural immunity, which compelling data from Israel and elsewhere suggest provides superior protection. When asked about natural immunity at a Town Hall meeting, the company said, inresponse to an employee question and without supportingdata, that even those who have had the virus should be vaxxed. This is from a company that claims to follow the science.

The stated rationale for the mandate? To keep our employees and customers safe. However, we know with certitude despite what certain Supreme Court justices heard on CNN that both the vaxxed and unvaxxed can acquire and transmit the virus. How then, does sending a vaxxed but infected sales representative to visit a customer keep everyone safe, but sending out an unvaxxed yet virus-free sales rep does not? It belies both scientific and common sense.

Even more egregious is the fact that the get vaxxed or get fired order applied only to U.S. employees. Local laws prohibit such mandates on the companys employees in Europe and Japan.

In Japan, the company may not even inquire as to a colleagues vaccination status. So U.S. employees are targeted while non-U.S. employees are protected. Thus is created a Covid caste system, under which those in the lower caste, American employees, enjoy fewer rights.

The attitudes and views of my fellowexecutives towards the unvaxxed were patronizing and factually erroneous. They took the pronouncements of Anthony Fauci and the Centers for Disease Control as the Gospel Truth, and anyone who dissented was derided as a science denier.

Before the vax mandate was issued, the company polled employees about their opinions. I was present when severalof my colleagues mocked the responses of their fellow employees who expressed reservations about vaccines and mandates. They howled withderision when reading the response of one employee who cited the Nuremberg Principles prohibiting drug experimentation on non-consenting subjects. Even though I thought the response was a bit over the top, the sneering condescension irked me.

Otherexecutives bubbled with anticipatory glee about the coming prospect of getting their kids under 12 vaccinated. When I asked them if they knew the data concerning Covid risks to this age group, one retorted: You sound like an anti-vaxxer! In a private moment, away from the others, one of the executives, an M.D., quietlyconceded that the risk to kids was very low.

After Insmed publicly announced I resigned because of the vax mandate, numerous employees contacted me. Some had health reservations; others objected on religious grounds. Still, others objected simply on personal autonomy grounds.

All expressed profound anxiety over how they would support their families if they were fired. They told me how much they admired me for taking a principled stand. I was deeply embarrassed by this,as I could easily afford to stick by my principles. They could not. They were the brave ones, not me.

Even before the Supreme Courts decision, I learned that Insmed had, at least temporarily, granted all requested mandate exemptions. Although the edict is still in force and can be invoked at any time, no one has yet been fired based upon their vax status. That is great news, as the company has thus recognized that the health and safety of its employees and other stakeholders can be protected through less coercive and draconian means than mass firings.

Perhaps the seeming omnipresence of omicron among the vaxxed moved the needle on the mandate. Perhaps my resignation led to introspection about its nonsensical nature. And now that the Supreme Court has ruled, maybe the exemptions will be permanent; or better yet, the mandate will be reversed.

It is lamentable, though, that my former employer reached this rather obvious conclusion only after its get vaxxed or get fired edict, absent any government requirement whatsoever, caused the roiling anguish and distress that former colleagues shared with me. What a shame.

Mr. Soriano, a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, started his professional life at New York's Simpson Thacher & Bartlett before working in law and compliance in Corporate America, most recently as Chief Compliance Officer at Celgene Corporation and Insmed Incorporated, both pharmaceutical companies. Follow him on Twitter and GETTR @sorianojohnd.

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I'm A Triple-Vaccinated Executive Who Quit Over A Vaccine Mandate - The Federalist