Category Archives: Federalist

President Joe Biden is failing miserably, but you wouldnt know it from the propaganda flooding your Twitter feed from dozens of seemingly normal Democrat accounts on Monday afternoon.

Within mere seconds of each other, dozens of accounts tweeted appreciation for Biden and Democrats in Congress for passing a $1.9 trillion spending bill that has definitively made already record-high inflation in the United States worse.

8.6+ million jobs under @JoeBiden didnt happen by accident. The American Rescue Plan got Americans vaccinated, helped schools stay open, and kept businesses hummingnot a single Republican in Congress voted for it, the accounts tweeted nearly simultaneously.

The barrage of pro-Biden lies came on Monday afternoon shortly after the Democratic National Committees main Twitter account thanked Biden for making the American job market the strongest its been since just after World War II, something Biden claimed in a speech this weekend.

This is, of course, a lie with no mention of rampant inflation and record-high gas prices that far outpace any job or wage growth. But that didnt stop the avalanche of copy and paste spin, copied from a DNC tweet posted on Saturday, from relentlessly plaguing anyone who searched American Rescue Plan on Twitter.

It is unclear who jumpstarted or funded the unsolicited Democrat messaging on Twitter feeds across the world. Even though the text was copied directly from the Democratic National Committee Twitter, the DNC did not respond to The Federalists request for comment.

What is clear, however, is that despite Twitters efforts to conceal its bot problem, users arent convinced that inauthentic accounts make up fewer than 5 percent of the companys users, as the Big Tech platform likes to claim.

Mega billionaire Elon Musk even threatened to derail his $44 billion offer unless Twitter shows definitive proof of <5% spam accounts.

My offer was based on Twitters SEC filings being accurate. Yesterday, Twitters CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5% [spam accounts]. This deal cannot move forward until he does, Muskwroteon May 17.

That was one day after Musk tweeted a poop emoji. at Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, who claimed that Twitter has a system designed to curb online bots.

More recently, on Monday, Musk requested data from Twitter and pledged to conduct his own analysis on the number of spam accounts on the platform since the Silicon Valley giant adheres to what the Tesla CEO has labeled lax testing methodologies. Musk claimed that Twitters stalling on bots is a clear material breach of Twitters obligations under the merger agreement and gives him the authority to back out of the deal.

In what appears to be a move inspired by Musks estimation that Twitter is made up of 20 percent bot accounts, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced he will be investigating the Big Tech company for potentially false reporting over its fake bot accounts in violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

Paxton said non-human accounts not only push deceptive and annoying activity but may also inflate the value of the company and the costs of doing business with it, thus directly harming Texas consumers and businesses.

Twitter has received intense scrutiny in recent weeks over claiming in its financial regulatory filings that fewer than 5% of all users are bots, when they may in fact comprise as much as 20% or more, a press release from Paxtons office stated. The difference could dramatically affect the cost to Texas consumers and businesses who transact with Twitter.

Paxton gave Twitter until June 27 to hand over data and evidence of Twitters user and advertising practices.

Texans rely on Twitters public statements that nearly all its users are real people. It matters not only for regular Twitter users, but also Texas businesses and advertisers who use Twitter for their livelihoods, Paxton said. If Twitter is misrepresenting how many accounts are fake to drive up their revenue, I have a duty to protect Texans.

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 @jordanboydtx.

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Who Is Paying For Twitter Bots To Spam With Stupid Pro-Biden Spin? - The Federalist

Sheryl Sandbergannounced last week that she is leaving her position as chief operating officer of Facebooks parent company, Meta the job that made her a billionaire and one of the highest-profile women in Silicon Valley. There is much to be said about her next venture as well as some unflatteringreportsabout the real reason for her departure, but its worth reflecting on how the end of her c-suite reign also marks a whimpering end to the Girlboss era.

Sandberg is of course known for her 2013 best-seller Lean In, in which she encourages women to defy sex roles and embrace ambition in the workplace by overcoming barriers that exist within ourselves.

We hold ourselves back in ways both big and small, by lacking self-confidence, by not raising our hands, and by pulling back when we should be leaning in, she writes.

While some feminists embraced leaning in as a rallying cry, others felt her advice failed to address issues of inequality like how not all women can afford full-time childcare so they can work late hours like Sandberg, nor do many women want to.

Society has moved on. We pay a lot more attention now to the structural disadvantages women have everything from sexual harassment to child care to no national paid maternity leave, feminist columnist Katha Pollitt told The New York Times.

I was a Sheryl Sandberg superfan. Then her Lean In advice failed me, another working mom wrote at Vox in 2018. Even the Girlboss icon herself, Michelle Obama, told a crowd on her sold-out book tour that, its not always enough to lean in, because that sh-t doesnt work all the time.

Some women felt empowered by taking a seat at the table or walking into their bosss office and demanding a raise. Still, others discovered that speaking up louder in meetings and working longer and harder hours did, in fact, notcatapult them to the top of male-dominated fields or, more importantly, make them any happier.

It turns out that after being given all the advice and tools needed to climb the corporate ladder, many women are outright rejecting Sandbergs vision of the corporate Girlboss life. Upon realizing that even if they did have the means to lean in, it wasnt actually what they wanted.

Although women have been waking up to the false promises of third-wave feminism since Sandberg hit the bestsellers list, Covid lockdowns were the nail in the coffin of the Girlboss era. As Ive written about before, nearly2 millionwomen have left the labor force entirely since February 2020 a 33-year record low.

Whether it was a welcome change or not (Looking at you, teachers unions), lockdowns gave many women the freedom to work less and not feel ashamed about it. The normalization of remote work and flexible schedules made it easier for many moms to reject the false choice of work and family, but also the freedom to choose only family.

Recently released data from the Centers for Diease Control that show a 2021 spike in birth rates may affirm this shift in womens lifestyle choices. Lyman Stone, at the Institute for Family Studies, surveyed 3,000 American women ages 18-44 to determine if this spike may have something to do with expanded access to remote work. Stone found that women with remote work capability or women who do not work at all show higher rates of family satisfaction than women who are employed but have no remote work option.

Institute for Family Studies/Lyman Stone

This happiness might be caused by an expectation of soon having a wedding or a new baby, or the improved family circumstances could possibly lead to more willingness to take the next step in relationships, Stone concedes. But taken together, these results do point to one possible explanation for the rapid rebound in births: expanded remote work.

This new frontier of remote work could not look more different from the vision Sandberg lays out in her book: a single woman taking a seat at a table full of male coworkers and bosses, secretly pumping breast milk with the door closed while on conference calls, and hiring extra help around the house to make up for late hours at the office.

Of course, Sandberg is a working mom herself and her book was careful to not admonish working moms or stay-at-home moms, but much of her advice now seems laughable post-Covid. Raising hands and taking a seat at the table doesnt quite translate on Zoom calls. One whole chapter of the book titled, Dont Leave Before You Leave, is spent instructing women to not lean back or step back at work when anticipating having children. Now, many young women are choosing jobs based on their conduciveness to family even before they accept the position.

Sandberg billed herself as charting a way for women to fight forbig corporate leadership roles they deserved, but instead, she aided in creating the feminist veil by which big corporate often justifies exploiting their labor by trying to prevent family formation (ergo, happiness). When big corporate competes with families for a womans attention, instead of cooperating withfamilies to help them provide for themselves, everyone loses, but especially women.

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The 'Lean In' Era Is Over, And That's Good For Everyone - The Federalist

Stop me if youve heard this story before: Leftist elites push a radical and damaging change on society. Pro-family conservatives object and try to fight back in politics. Leftists accuse conservatives of starting a culture war. Finally, Republicans surrender in the name of compromise.

Over and over again, this process has played out, to the point where many in the pro-family movement have despaired of ending the cycle. But it doesnt have to be this way. There is a simple solution to this problem: we must make Republicans fear us again by getting involved directly in elections.

Thats the goal of my organization, American Principles Project PAC, which just launched a six-figure ad campaign to defeat surrender-minded GOP Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., in her primary on June 14. Well be delivering digital ads like this one directly to voters in order to educate them about Maces dangerous record as an advocate of capitulating to the transgender agenda.

Last year, along with 22 other House Republicans, Mace signed on to the erroneously named Fairness for All Act (FFA), a GOP-led bill that supposedly seeks to draw a truce between religious conservatives and the woke lefts demands on gender ideology. But the so-called compromise, unsurprisingly, is really just a wave of the white flag.

FFA would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the Civil Rights Act, unleashing the federal government to punish objectors to leftist gender ideology as it does race discriminators. It mandates that nearly all institutions, public and private, allow men who claim a female identity into womens activities and private spaces. The few exemptions it contains are restricted mostly to churches and explicitly religious organizations, and its conscience protections are absurdly vague FFA leaves it to activist judges, for example, to decide if a doctors refusal to perform a sex change on a child constitutes illegal discrimination.

Last year, FFA seemed to have some momentum. Rumors were swirling around Capitol Hill that a Republican might even introduce it in the Senate. But fortunately, things have begun to change since then.

The conservative movement united in opposition. Academics such as Professor Robert George of Princeton University and Ryan Anderson, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, savaged the bills legal flaws. Organizations including the Heritage Foundation, Family Research Council, and Concerned Women for America detailed some of the bills most ridiculous impacts, highlighting the importance of Republican lawmakers opposing the bill.

FFA is now rapidly losing its existing support in the House. Of the 23 Republicans who previously signed on to the bill, two have already left Congress, two have announced they arent running for re-election, and an additional four Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., Rep. Chris Jacobs, R-N.Y., and Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. have bravely pulled their support.

Much of this has to do with the political environment. After a slew of national news stories demonstrating the disastrous consequences of policies that allow men in womens sports, changing rooms, and bathrooms and an uprising among parents against radical gender ideology in schools, especially after a highly publicized sexual assault that took place due to a transgender bathroom policy in Loudoun County, Virginia support for the bill started to look bad for Republicans.

FFA would have mandated all these policies and more nationwide. Polling from our organization and others have shown that voters as a whole, including Democrats and independents, absolutely hate that idea.

Still, some sponsors, such as Mace and Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., remain sponsors of the legislation. Its hard to know exactly why. Perhaps its legislative incompetence maybe they have no idea what the bill would do. Perhaps its a complete ignorance of or disregard for the opinions of their constituents.

But in Maces case, the most likely explanation is that she has truly bought into leftist gender ideology. She has been outspoken in her defense of the bill, essentially describing it as a common-sense requirement of basic justice.

Our strategy here is simple. We want to replace Mace with a stronger Republican, and her primary challenger Katie Arrington, who signed American Principles Projects Big Family Pledge, would certainly be an upgrade.

But we also hope to do more than just remove a subpar legislator from Congress. Were trying to demonstrate that there are political consequences to betraying the pro-family movement. We aim to show other weak-kneed politicians that these mealy-mouthed capitulation tactics dont work, and may even cost them their seats.

Politicians, especially those whose sympathies naturally lie with the left, often dont change their tune due to a genuine change of heart. They change because they think theyll be punished at the ballot box if they dont. If we want Republicans to stop surrendering to the woke left on all sorts of issues, weve got to show there are serious consequences for doing so. Defeating Nancy Mace on June 14 and obtaining an important scalp for the pro-family movement would be a good first step.

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Defeating This Gender-Bending Republican Will Help Protect Women - The Federalist

Imagine picking up a copy of the Washington Post (as if you ever would) and reading the headline, Why White people are afraid of crazy Black people. Setting aside the obvious reasons that would come to mind, youd immediately realize you were dreaming and wake up, because the Post would never run such a thing.

But it would and did publish the inverse in a column this week by the thickly spectacled Jonathan Capehart. Black people are not afraid of White people, he wrote. Were afraid of crazy White people.

Capehart, who is black, went on to say he and other People of Color have come to live in great fear of whites who profess to believe in the so-called great replacement theory, wherein Americas political leaders are deliberately remaking the countrys electorate via mass immigration. (Up until recently, Democrats and plenty of Republicans simply referred to this as default policy.)

He cited a recent survey claiming that 75 percent of blacks are at least somewhat worried that they or someone they love will be assaulted because of their race.

And its all because the number of crazy White people in America fearing replacement appears to be growing, wrote Capehart, and they seem ready to do whatever it takes to stay at the pinnacle of American life.

Anyone can be somewhat worried about anything for any reason at all. Im often somewhat worried that the airplane Im in wont properly lift off. Similarly, that fear isnt based on the reality that such a thing pretty much never happens.

That whites at large have become blood-thirsty savages ready to violently attack blacks or other minorities isnt born out by any data. In 2020, the most recent year for which FBI data is available (and what a fun year that was!), the race of the offenders of all violent crime which includes homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault is split evenly between blacks and whites, 44 percent each.

What should cause Capehart to blush a little is that blacks make up just 13 percent of the U.S. population. In other words, almost half of the nations violent crimes that year were committed by members of a race that only comprises one-tenth of the people who live in that nation. Whats more, the victims of those crimes in 2020 were more likely to be white (56 percent) than black (38 percent).

Go back the previous two years, and the numbers are just the same. Theres also the fact that interracial violent crime, at least as far as homicide goes, is fairly rare. Blacks are usually the victims of other blacks, and the same is true for whites. (To that, Capehart said Wednesday on MSNBC, Thats not the point!)

So, tell me again who has more reason to be afraid of the crazy who?

Trick question. Dont be afraid of people based on their race. Although if you really wanted to make Capehart blush, youd point out that his husband is white. Hopefully not a crazy one.

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WaPo's Capehart: Black People Should Be Scared Of 'Crazy White People' - The Federalist

Members of the House Select Committee on Jan. 6, vice chaired by Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, are preparing to launch a major assault on the Electoral College as part of the probes end proposals.

According to Axios on Monday, members of the House panel are split on ideas for electoral reform, which now appears to dominate the committees talk of legislation that will emerge from the politicized probe designed to persecute political dissidents.

Axios reported that the panels far-left members, including Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Adam Schiff of California, have endorsed exploiting the committee to pursue their long-desired destruction of the Electoral College. In contrast, Cheney, who represents the least populated state in the nation with the most to lose, thinks the committee will burn its credibility if it pushes for radical changes like abolishing the Electoral College, according to a source with direct knowledge.

She also has joked to her colleagues on the committee that theres no way the single at-large representative for the tiny state of Wyoming would support abolishing the Electoral College, Axios added, citing another source with direct knowledge of internal committee deliberations.

With fewer than 580,000 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Wyoming is home to fewer people than the District of Columbia. The Electoral College, however, guarantees the state three electors to cast votes in presidential elections. While one elector represented 712,000 people in California in 2016, the last time the victor lost the official popular vote but captured the White House, one elector in Wyoming represented 195,000 people. The system at the foundation of the republic offers Wyomings rural residents influence that would otherwise be erased by the abandonment of the Electoral College.

Cheneys Trump-endorsed primary challenger, attorney Harriet Hageman, blasted the three-term incumbents championing of the J6 Committee, which is now on a path to dismantle the institution that guarantees Wyomings too-often-overlooked constituents a voice in their government.

The Electoral College ensures that states with lower population still have a voice in electing the president, Hageman told The Federalist. If the Electoral College were abolished, presidential elections would be decided by liberal voters in California and New York, leaving states like Wyoming voiceless and disenfranchised.

This is the reality that Liz Cheney has created by entering into a partnership with the radical Democrats on the January 6 Committee, Hageman continued. The Democrats have always been using the committee as a political campaign weapon, and their true goal is unchecked, never-ending power. Cheney has pursued her own personal war on President Trump while the Democrats have used her to try to legitimize their illegitimate witch hunt and power grab. Liz Cheney has now gone beyond her failure to represent Wyomings interests and is now complicit in Democrat plans to permanently silence the people of Wyoming.

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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Liz Cheney's J6 Committee Wants To Nuke The Electoral College - The Federalist

A former Democrat congressman, who was expelled from the House of Representatives in 1980 after getting caught taking bribes in what turned out to be an FBI sting, pleaded guilty to multiple election fraud charges this week after the U.S. Department of Justice charged him with bribery, falsifying voting records, stuffing ballot boxes, and more election crimes in Pennsylvania.

According to U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams, 79-year-old Michael Ozzie Myers admitted to bribing Philadelphia election judge Domenick J. Demuro, who already pleaded guilty in 2020, during the 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 state elections for $300 to $5,000 per election and then telling him to lie about falsely inflating votes.

Demuro, who was responsible for overseeing the entire election process and all voter activities of his Division in accord with federal and state election laws, then manipulated the voting machines in his respective ward and division in a way that satisfied Myers desire to illegally add votes for certain candidates of their mutual political party in primary elections, especially those clients who paid him consulting fees.

Some of these candidates were individuals running for judicial office whose campaigns had hired Myers, and others were candidates for various federal, state, and local elective offices that Myers favored for a variety of reasons, the DOJ noted in a press release.

Myers pulled the same stunt with another South Philadelphia election judge Marie Beren, who also pleaded guilty in 2021 to her role in the fraud.

Myers acknowledged in court that on almost every Election Day, Myers transported Beren to the polling station to open the polls. During the drive to the polling station, Myers would advise Beren which candidates he was supporting so that Beren knew which candidates should be receiving fraudulent votes. Inside the polling place and while the polls were open, Beren would advise actual in-person voters to support Myers candidates and also cast fraudulent votes in support of Myers preferred candidates on behalf of voters she knew would not or did not physically appear at the polls, the DOJ stated.

The pair also used cell phone communication to notate in real-time how many votes they faked versus how many were real.

If actual voter turnout was high, Beren would add fewer fraudulent votes in support of Myers preferred candidates. From time to time, Myers would instruct Beren to shift her efforts from one of his preferred candidates to another. Specifically, Myers would instruct Beren to throw support behind another candidate during Election Day if he concluded that his first choice was comfortably ahead, the press release continued.

Much like Demuro, Beren then falsified poll books by recording the names, party affiliation, and order of appearances for voters who had not physically appeared at the polling station to cast his or her ballot in the election and balanced the list with the ballots recorded by voting machines before certifying the tainted results.

Myers guilty plea adds to the long list of systemic voting issues and election law violations already plaguing Pennsylvania, where voters recently waited weeks to hear the results of the U.S. Senate Republican primary.

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 @jordanboydtx.

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Former Dem Congressman Pleads Guilty To Rigging Elections In PA - The Federalist

This should have been Disneys time in the sun, basking in the rays from happy fans. The House of Mouse just released its biggest Star Wars project in years, Obi-Wan Kenobi, a show featuring its most popular Star Wars characters, only to have it land with a thud.

Most companies would analyze what went wrong and try to fix it, but not Disney. Instead of trying to understand fans distaste, Disney took the nuclear option and blasted their viewers as racists.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is the latest expensive and disappointing entry in Disneys cavalcade of streaming content. The story follows Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi as he suffers a midlife crisis while trying to save a tween-age Princess Leia from the Empire. At best, its OK. At worst, its painful.

The selling point of a show like this is to bring back beloved characters from the admired Star Wars prequels. You would think traditional positive marketing and welcoming back those lifelong fans would be the smart play, but thats not what Disneys marketing department had in mind.

Just three days before the May 27 premiere, The Independent released an interview with actress Moses Ingram, who plays the tone-deaf antagonist Reva, telling interviewers Disney warned her to be ready for racist attacks from fans. She also said Director Deborah Chow went to lengths to put proper systems in place to protect the crew from feared fan racism. From the beginning to Disney, they were making clear that the real enemies werent the inquisitors but the fans.

Then just as the first reviews were coming in, Disney issued viral posts on Instagram and Twitter. We are proud to welcome Moses Ingram to the Star Wars family and excited for Revas story to unfold. If anyone intends to make her feel in any way unwelcome, we have only one thing to say: we resist, Disney wrote on their official social media.

Youd think that would be enough, but Disney isnt anything if persistent in advertising. The Mouse then grabbed Obi-Wan Kenobi himself, Ewen McGregor, in what looks like a hostage video, saying: if youre sending her bullying messages, youre no Star Wars fan in my mind.

At no point during this or later parts of this debacle, did credible evidence surface of a racist attack on Ingram, neither from Disney nor the media. Nevertheless, that didnt stop them from going on the hunt for their favorite targets: the nerds.

As if the Mouse had waved his magic wand, every mainstream and lefty outlet joined forces to attack the fandom. At first, the attacks either were unskeptical reports of the Ingram story, attacks using clips and quotes from celebrities like Trevor Noah, or claims of review bombing; meaning fake reviews put up by bots or trolls. However, this pretext quickly devolved as journos felt they had been given permission to bully.

A headline from NPR reads, Racist Star Wars fans arent new. Why doesnt Disney do more to protect its actors? The Week went with the trite The Star Wars fandoms racism problem. Other outlets, usually more left-wing, like Mother Jones, skipped the on-ramp entirely. Why Cant the Star Wars Nerds Imagine a World With Black People?

Everyone from local news outlets to national papers like The Guardian, to popular magazines like Wired, to blogspam like Screen Rant, to more hoity-toity fare like Fast Company, and everything else in between got in on the orgy of media violence. Leading to my personal favorite, from Mel MagazineTheres No Bigger Loser Than A Racist Star Wars Fan.

In response to this media bombardment, the Babylon Bee pithily retorted: I Wish They Had Made This Black Character More Interesting, Says Star Wars Fan Who Is A Racist.

This isnt the first time the media piled on Star Wars fans. After The Last Jedi debuted, a popular hate article topic circulated, created by Rian Johnson calling fans manbabies and blaming fans for bullying Kelly Marie Tran off social media. On Twitter, you find Last Jedi haters next to GamerGate for being partially responsible for everything from politics to mass shootings. Whats different now is the scale of the attack, and that its Disney leading the charge.

Consider that these attacks began before Obi-Wan Kenobi was even released. Disney knew it might have an expensive turd on its hands, and it needed some way to justify the rumored $25 million per episode budget. So, what do you do in this year of our Lord 2022? You go with woke anti-marketing, enlisting the media to save your show and protect it from any potential criticism both from reviewers and fans alike.

More frustrating is that this strategy might actually work, at least in the short term. Obi-Wan is getting talks of a second season, and while the audience score for the show on Rotten Tomatoes is middling around 59 percent, the review scores remain a high 87 percent. Disney knows if the media puts out 500 articles about a show, then the project is staying on top of the Google search results for a good long time.

But is Disney eating its own tail? Are they expecting new fans to appear after digesting their programs and forgetting about their newest streaming bore-fest? Can you tell me what happened in Captain Falcon: Winter Soldier? Because I know I cant.

These shows are lackluster, boring, generic, and forgettable. As seen with Johnny Depp and Amber Heards death blow to Me Too, people are sick of false prudish wokeness. People may defend woke Disney, but few like it. It isnt Rey Skywalker that fans want to be, but Luke.

Peter Pischke is a journalist and health and disability reporter. He can usually be found manning the Happy Warrior Substack and Podcast, providing commentary on news and nerdery of the day. You can find him on Twitter: @happywarriorp.

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Disney Relies On Cries Of Racism To Boost 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' Series - The Federalist

Disney is going all-out in joining leftists June celebration of Pride Month, making same-sex themes central to a new Toy Story feature film spin-off and adding more than 100 hours of LGBTQ titles to family-targeted streamer Disney Plus.

After advance screenings, critics say animated space adventure Lightyear opening in theaters on June 17 takes queer representation to infinity and beyond, to quote USA Today, highlighting that a lesbian couple at one point [greets] each other with a kiss on the lips.

Following backlash over Disney creative executives discussing their ongoing efforts at queering childrens entertainment, it seems Disney has decided to dismiss the concerns of many conservative parents. That collective shrug in Hollywood could be missing the big picture. A Harris Poll released in late May ranking the nations Top 100 brands found that The Walt Disney Company dropped from 37th to 65th place in reputation just since last year.

Disneys about-face shows the reputational hit that comes when the public perceives you as being calculating rather than clear in what you believe in and stand for, said Harris Poll CEO John Gerzema. Disney also recently reported less-than-stellar streaming subscription growth.

Entertainment critic for faith-based outlet Crosswalk Michael Foust says the clash of cultural mores between Hollywood and faith-driven families has been building for years. Disney does not operate from a biblical worldview, so it is no surprise that it keeps offering content that frustrates many in the faith community, he stated via email.

Melissa Jacobs and her husband, Jeremy, raising seven children in St. Louis, canceled Disney Plus this spring. While the family has enjoyed shows like Bluey, along with Star Wars and Marvel films, she stated that the direction Disney was leaning prompted their decision.

Many of their programs no longer have a traditional family and instead highlight and celebrate queer, transgender, and homosexual characters, she stated. In many shows, kids are openly disrespectful to their parents. Its all contrary to what we are trying to teach our children.

The first Pixar production to hit theaters in more than two years, Lightyear is tied loosely to beloved Toy Story films. Its billed as young Andys favorite movie, the one that compelled him to cast aside his cowboy Woody in the original 1995 film.

Reading between the lines of some critics effusive praise, families get the plots general drift.Sent on a peacekeeping mission, space ranger Buzz and his co-pilot Alisha face off against aliens on a strange planet. When subsequent damage to their ship maroons them for years, stranded Alisha meets a female romantic interest and the two start a family together.

For the Jacobs family, fans of past Toy Story films, Lightyear wont be a summer outing to the multiplex. The mother of seven is author of Livin the Dream, which includes their story of adopting a daughter. She says the Bible guides their views on sex, marriage, and family.

As a mom, I can see clearly that there are needs my children have that only I can fill, stated Melissa. Meanwhile, there are needs they have that only their dad can fill. She added that single-parent friends of their family seek out support so their kids have both a mother-type figure and father-type figure involved in their lives.

Similarly, Foust, who is raising four kids with his wife in rural Illinois, observed cultural trends run counter to Chrisitan theology on marriage and sexuality. Hollywood may consider us strange for even questioning the content of Lightyear, but that shouldnt surprise us, said Foust. After all, 2,000 years ago the Apostle Peter reminded us that we are strangers and temporary residents in this world.

Two of the filmmakers behind Lightyear director Angus MacLane and producer Galyn Susman are Toy Story franchise veterans who say theyre eager to make something exciting and awesome. MacLane says they didnt want the LGBTQ plotline to be a superfluous thing but an accurate representation.

If anyone is puzzled by this being the flick supposedly referenced in 1995s Toy Story, while reflecting cultural mores far left of the mainstream in that era, producer Susman explained: Though its the film Andy saw, we were still making it for todays generation.

Will many families forgo a much-hyped movie featuring favorite spaceman Buzz? For those who are Disney Plus subscribers, its merely the start of new additions to navigate during Pride Month.

In June, six seasons of Glee, three seasons of Love, Victor, and LGBTQ-themed Trevor: The Musical will be added to the streamers Pride Collection. (Last year, Pixars short Out with similar themes premiered.) Such a deluge of titles involving same-sex romance among minors could prompt some to readjust parental controls or bail on Disney Plus altogether.

Foust, an evangelical Christian, says believers uphold the dignity and worth of every person. Its praising sin to children that is problematic. We are to love our neighbors unconditionally while not being conformed to this world by the entertainment we consume, he stated.

Disneys leftist drift seems to be accelerating. As part of an initiative called Reimagine Tomorrow, Disney outlines its association with LGBTQ advocacy groups like GLAAD. Reporting on this initiative, the Los Angeles Times linked to a letter by current Disney employees who have chosen to remain anonymous.

As much as diversity and inclusion are promoted, the tomorrow being reimagined doesnt seem to have much room for religious or political conservatives within the company, state these Disney cast members. This politicization of our corporate culture is damaging morale and causing many of us to feel our days with [Disney] might be numbered.

Several players in family entertainment, such as Angel Studios and GAC Family, are working to produce and distribute films and shows that appeal to families who object to Disneys direction.

This all reflects how entertainment continues to splinter to reach varied audiences, said Foust. More and more, it is obvious that if the faith community wants entertainment framed within a biblical worldview, the faith community alone must produce it.

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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Disney Doubles Down On LGBTQ Focus With 'Lightyear,' Others - The Federalist

FAIRFAX, Va. Inside Courtroom 5J here in Fairfax County Circuit Court, actress Amber Heard walked out of the courtroom alone last week, grim and stone-faced, after a jury delivered a stinging verdict. In a statement posted on Instagram, her ex-husband Johnny Depp wrote: Veritas numquam perit. Truth never perishes.

The verdict wasnt just against Heard for defaming Depp. It was a searing indictment of a sorry chapter in American justice: the illogical, unjust Believe Her industry that made Heard a poster girl for a corrupt movement determined to crush men and stamp out a keystone of our civil liberties.

The movement has other names, such as Me Too, Believe Women, Believe All Women, Believe Survivors, and Times Up. The defamation verdict exposes this multimillion-dollar industry of nonprofits, lawyers, corporations, lobbyists, and publicists who have weaponized victimhood and pithy jingles to destroy the fundamental concept of due process and foment injustice by exploiting the noble cause of womens rights.

This trampling of the rights of the accused has been carried out with the complicity of irresponsible media outlets that have included the Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Vogue, and Glamour. They have littered their pages with lopsided narratives, character assassinations, andnow a jury confirmslies.

In the third row of the spectator gallery last week, Italian-born producer Giuseppe Mercadante, a local father, said the principle of innocent until proven guilty won. Over the past few years, he told me, Something else has prevailed that took us back to pre-Medieval times when the law was a mob chasing the accused.

Media outlets, including NBCs Today Show, CNN and CBS, continued their complicity in Me Too injustice, however, giving the microphone to Heard attorney Elaine Bredehoft as she did a shameless media tour, smearing Depp and the jurors. In addition, media outlets like The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Rolling Stone pressed a narrative that the verdict is a chilling symbol of misogyny that sickened survivors of abuse. Heards publicity team didnt return a request for comment.

In trying to understand how we got here as a society, I analyzed how the American Civil Liberties Unions PR, legal, fundraising, and artist engagement staff and Washington Post editors functioned as co-conspirators with Heard, publishing the 2018 op-ed with Heards defamation. Then, after staying overnight to witness Day 20 of the courtroom dynamics and leaving convinced that Heard had defamed Depp, I followed the breadcrumbs that a Hollywood agent, Claire Best, tracked after she noticed an abuse of power by Believe Her advocates. People are finally waking up to the victim entrepreneurship industry, Best said after the jury verdict.

Here are four phases in the Believe Her industry that brought us to this point. You can see the phases in more detail on my Substack.

In 1981, as women were dismantling barriers in the workplace, the National Womens Law Center, started as an initiative a decade earlier, was reorganized as a 501(c)3 to fight sex discrimination and sexual harassment. Heard was born into this new era in 1986.

In 2012, the law center registered a political lobbying group and in 2018 it launched the Times Up Legal Defense Fund with a powerful Democratic public relations firm, SKDK, to offer legal representation and public relations assistance to survivors of harassment and abuse. It attracted big bucks: The law center and its affiliates had $64.7 million in revenues and $101.7 million in assets for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021, according to its 2021 financial statement.

An SKDK official declined comment. The National Womens Law Center didnt provide comment.

In June 1990, then-Sen. Joe Biden introduced the Violence Against Women Act, later described as a landmark piece of legislation. It may have been written with good intentions, but the legislationand billions of dollars doled out in grants by the U.S. Justice Departmentlaid the groundwork for the fundamental flaw that led to the Depp v. Heard defamation: the false binary of women as victims and men as abusers.

In 1991, in my first years in the newsroom, Anita Hill accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, breaking new ground for accusing men without a legal finding.

While training in 2003 as a volunteer for a domestic violence shelter, I was shocked by the anti-male narrative of the work. As a feminist who has advocated for womens rights in my Muslim community, I know as a woman, a survivor of domestic violence, and mother of a son that humanity is not served if defeating sexism hinges on demonizing men and boys.

Influential people in powerful positions developed strong ideas about how womens rights could be parlayed for votes. In 1993, while Heard was riding horses outside Austin, Texas, Democratic operatives including a future Biden consultant Anita Dunn cofounded SKDK. It became a PR machine for multimillion-dollar enterprises like Times Up, Black Lives Matter, and LOral (which later made Heard an ambassador).

In 2009, when Heard met Depp filming The Rum Diary, NPR and the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit (where I worked at the time), started publishing investigative pieces on college sexual assault. The project included a package on allegations of rape from a woman, Laura Dunn, at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

In April 2011, as The Rum Diary was released, the Biden administration issued a Dear Colleague letter with the support of the activists in the industry, including Dunn and Michele Dauber, a Stanford University law professor. The letter advocated for preferential treatment for women making accusations on campuses under Title IX of the national Education Amendments of 1972 law. Dauber didnt return a request for comment.

New nonprofits emerged, like Know Your IX, in 2013. That year, a PhD student, Holly Jacobs, started Cyber Civil Rights Initiative to fight nonconsensual porn. That year another woman, Andrea Pino, alleged sexual assault at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her claims covered the airwaves yet were years later noted to have included implausibilities and inconsistencies. Pino couldnt be reached for comment.

In 2014, the White House released a report, Rape and Sexual Assault: A Renewed Call to Action, with one mention of men and boys as victims. That year, Laura Dunn founded nonprofit SurvJustice Inc.

In an interview, Dunn, now an attorney, recognized, The gender narrative is very harming. I feel deep pain for male survivors who feel like they have been ignored. I dont gender survivors. She noted: I do believe in the public policy of believing survivors because we have to take it seriously when we have reports of domestic violence and rape. Our system is broken.

She said: Im supportive of due process as an attorney. Sometimes, justice cannot be achieved through the legal process.

In January 2015, a shocking case grabbed the headlines when Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner sexually assaulted a young woman, first called Emily Doe, then self-identifying as Chanel Miller, whose family friend was Dauber. Turner was convicted of felony sexual assault.

The next month, thousands of miles away, Depp married Heard.

By November 2015, the new mantra was becoming a political slogan, with Hillary Clinton posting a message on Twitter: Every survivor of sexual assault deserves to be heard, believed, and supported. The issue would become a galvanizing theme in Clintons race against Donald Trump in the next year.

In 2017, feminist scholar Christina Hoff Sommers wrote a seminal article, The Media is Making College Rape Culture Worse, chronicling the sloppy narrative of serial predators roaming free on college campuses and the policy changes that had enabled this hysteria.

It was into this backdrop that Heards marriage with Depp was falling apart. At one point in a recording played in court, Heard told Depp, I did not deck you. I f-cking was hitting you.

In May 2016, Heard filed for a temporary restraining order against Depp. She catapulted to a new role as a darling of the Believe Her industry. Depps lawyer, Camille Vasquez, said: Amber Heard took on the role of a lifetime. That of a victim of domestic abuse.

Heard landed on the June 2016 cover of People magazine with her eyes downcast and alleged injuries to her face, behind this headline: INSIDE THEIR TOXIC MARRIAGE. Jealous fights & accusations of violence.

In mid-November 2016, Heard read the victim statement from Emily Doe at the Glamour Women of the Year awards, posing for a selfie with honoree Dauber, the Stanford law professor, and actress Lena Dunham, another future lightning rod in the Me Too movement. Days later, Heard released a public-service announcement against domestic abuse, with ENews writing that Heards abuse allegations against ex-husband Johnny Depp made headlines earlier this year.

There were skeptics of this new justice, with Sommers taping a video about the death of the due process. A high-profile case also raised Believe Her doubts: a jury ruled that Rolling Stone engaged in defamation with a 2014 article on an alleged rape victim at the University of Virginia, who fabricated her story.

But now the Believe Her industry had a new political enemy: Donald Trump. Then, in October 2017, a culprit emerged: producer Harvey Weinstein. Me Too took off.

With the start of 2018, the Times Up movement launched, with none other than SKDK and its bevy of Obama and Biden administration supporters aiding its PR. The National Womens Law Center Fund LLC announced it would run the Times Up Legal Defense Fund, with SKDK partner Hilary Rosen a cofounder.

In its 2020 IRS 990 filing, Times Up Foundation posted $18.4 million in revenue, spending $1.9 million on the legal defense fund. Former Obama staffer Valerie Jarrett served on its board and former Michelle Obama chief of staff Tina Tchen received $721,744 from the organization and related groups, according to the 990.

In September 2018, the Believe Her juggernaut found momentum with rape accusations by Christine Blasey Ford against Supreme Court appointee Brett Kavanaugh. Kendra Barkoff Lamy, a former Joe Biden press secretary working at SKDK, advised Ford.

Ironically, Heard shared a column on Bidens disastrous Anita Hill hearing in 1991, with the message: and we wonder why victims choose to remain silent.. #BelieveWomen #BelieveSurvivors. Who showed up in D.C. for Kavanaugh protests? Heard, who shared a photo with the hashtag #BelieveWomen.

On Nov. 6, 2018, ACLU communications staffer Gerry Johnson pitched an op-ed to Heard and her publicist, Gottleib, about what else? How survivors of gender-based violence, or GBV, were less safe under the Trump administration. Among the talking points: the alleged evil of Trumps attacks on Ford, Trumps Title IX policies, Congresss failure to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, and, of course, Heards personal story, saying how painful it is as a GBV survivor to witness these setbacks.

That month, Heard landed on the cover of Glamour, with the headline, Heard is Nobodys Victim. In one photo, Heard held the book White Fragility. Then, on Dec. 12, 2018, Heard PR man Sean Walsh wrote to her, clearing the op-ed: I say send it off and damn the torpedoes ahead!

Six days later, the Washington Post published the fateful op-ed, with comments on Title IX, the Violence Against Women Act, and, of course, Heard as a domestic violence survivor. The ACLU hyped the piece, By Amber Heard, ACLU Ambassador for Womens Rights. In its 2020 IRS 990 filing, ACLU Inc. reported $170.9 million in revenues.

The narrative was set. One detail was missing: a conviction. This Believe Her industry could only come tumbling down if someone emerged to challenge it boldly. Depp became that person.

The hypocrisy of the Believe Her industry emerged in summer 2021, when Times Up chairwoman Roberta Kaplan who had stepped down as Heards attorney in the Depp case resigned after the New York attorney general alleged that she assisted New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as he faced sexual harassment charges. The National Womens Law Center announced it wouldnt be using SKDK any longer as its PR team.

Back in Courtroom 5J, after the court clerk read the verdict, the spectator gallery broke into audible support for Depp. The ethnically diverse jury revealed that in the pursuit of justice, due process cannot be suspended.

The Believe Her industry wont let go easily of its darling, however. After the verdict was announced, Stanford lawyer Dauber, who has mocked Depp as a drunken, drugged fake pirate, shared a photo from the 2016 Glamour awards that launched Heard in the #BelieveHer industry, writing: #istandwithamberheard and with all survivors, without exception, period@LeaveHeardAlone.

Of course, to the Believe Her industry, there is an exception: Depp and any who defy their presumption of guilt. Fortunately, the verdict is in. Believe Her lost. Due process wins.

Originally posted here:

Johnny Depp's Victory Deflates The Massive 'Believe All Women' Industry - The Federalist

Democrats rhetoric on guns doesnt match reality. The common sense gun control policies they say they want would just tinker around the edges of the problem of gun violence in general, and not stop mass shootings in particular. Even giving a generous benefit of the doubt to proposals such as an assault weapons ban and closing the gun show loophole, they would at best marginally reduce the number of mass shootings and their casualties.

For all of their rhetorical Sturm und Drang, such as accusations that Republicans have childrens blood on their hands, Democrats proposals would do little to nothing to stop, or even slow down, most mass murderers. Thus, unless they are stupid or faking their moral outrage, the lefts actual gun control agenda is much more radical than they usually claim.

They will use whatever outrage they can gin up to take what they can get now, then push for more. They are not, of course, the only political movement to employ this sort of incremental approach, but they are especially dishonest about it.

Charles Blow of the New York Times recently took the gun control movement to task for this duplicity, along the way admitting what we all know, which is that Democrat efforts to sound moderate on guns are lies. He acknowledges that what they (and he) want is a nonstop parade of laws, with new ones passed as they are deemed necessary, ad infinitum.

So yes, theyre coming for your guns. Fortunately, they will likely fail because Americans know we cannot trust the left to protect our families and communities.

Gun control is all about displacement. It seeks to scapegoat rural conservatives for the violence that is overwhelmingly a problem of Democratic-supporting urban areas. As Kevin Williamson recently observed:

The gun-control debate is first and foremost a culture-war issue for Democrats. There is a great deal of violent crime in the United States, and that crime is concentrated in big cities over which Democrats enjoy an effective monopoly of political power. The people who commit most of the murders in the United States and the people who most often die in those murders check a lot of Democratic-voter demographic boxes.

Gun control is also about blaming the disorder, violence, and nihilism of American life on guns, rather than on a corrupt culture. Having encouraged almost every policy and cultural change that has made America less virtuous and more violent, the left has no idea how to make America peaceful, other than piling more restrictions on guns. Violent crime thrives in Democratic-run cities, and the seeds of nihilistic terrorism perpetrated by mass shooters are most commonly cultivated in the soil of family and social decay.

It is the left that is letting violent criminals out on low, or no, bail. It is the left that excused and even cheered the riots of 2020. It is the left that refuses to secure our borders as lethal rivers of drugs flow into our communities. It is the left that rejoices in the destruction of the traditional family, even as family breakdown leads to more children being poor and abused, and as fatherless boys turn to crime.

It is the left that has torn down the moral wisdom of the ages, and is now trying to build a new morality out of half-baked race and gender theories rooted in third-hand Marxism. It is the left that is more interested in teaching children about gender than geometry.

The obvious political response to this deliberate cultural and social destruction is to vote Republican, warts and all. Parents and working families of all races are indeed fleeing the Democratic Party, which has been captured by leftist ideologues.

The next practical personal response to rising crime and cultural disintegration is to prepare to protect yourself, your family, and your community. The 2020 riots sold a lot of guns to normal people who realized their government might not protect them. And many gun owners decided to become dedicated to training for the same reason.

The obvious step after that is to organize. It is possible, even likely, that we are going to see continued increases in both general crime and targeted political violence. Democrats have shown themselves unwilling or unable to restrain crime in general, and the 2020 carnage showed that Democratic leaders will permit rioting left-wing paramilitary groups to destroy neighborhoods and rule cities at night. One need only compare the aggressive prosecutions of those involved in the Capitol riot to the lenient catch-and-release treatment of Antifa thugs to see how the left uses the power of the state to punish its enemies and reward its friends.

Furthermore, the response to the impending Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization decision has shown that Democrats are happy to sic mobs on their enemies, from Supreme Court justices to churches to crisis pregnancy centers. In response, conservatives should talk with friends and neighbors they can trust about how they might protect each other. Churches, I am sorry to have to say, need to step up their security plans. So do schools, crisis pregnancy centers, and other Christian ministries.

The more the left allows and encourages crime and social disintegration, the more the rest of us must prepare to defend ourselves, our families, and our communities.

Nathanael Blake is a senior contributor to The Federalist and a postdoctoral fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

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It's Past Time To Get A Gun And Prepare For Self-Defense - The Federalist