Years of relative peace in the Middle East went up in flames this week when Hamas, the Islamic terror group elected to represent Palestinian Arabs in 2006, fired rockets into Tel Aviv. Israel retaliated by killing two Hamas intelligence leaders. The violence does not show any signs of stopping. And to think, things had been going so well.
On August 13 of last year, Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed onto the Abraham Accords, the first public normalization of relations between an Arab state and Israel since statements made by Jordan in 1994 and Egypt in 1979. The Trump administration negotiated the deal, which was signed on the South Lawn of the White House. Bahrain signed onto the agreement less than a month later.
President Trump managed to double the number of Arab states that recognized Israel by pursuing a different strategy than his predecessors. For decades, the foreign policy establishment had considered Palestinian Arabs the key to peace in Israel. As recently as 2016, then-Secretary of State John Kerry insisted, &#8220;I can tell you that, reaffirmed within the last week because I&#8217;ve talked to the leaders of the Arab community, there will be no advanced and separate peace with the Arab world without the Palestinian process and Palestinian peace. Everybody needs to understand that. That is a hard reality.”
Then along came Donald Trump, who ignored “the Palestinians” and their national pretenses entirely. He dealt directly with the actual nation-states of the region, and the strategy worked. Kerry, it appears, did not understand the art of the deal. And Trump’s divergence from the foreign policy establishment extended beyond Israel to statecraft more broadly. While Kerry and his fellow establishmentarians sought peace by placating our enemies, Trump chose instead to defend our allies and punish our enemies.
In 2016, Kerry responded to the Iranian seizure of two U.S. naval vessels with groveling and pallets of cash for the mullahs. In 2020, President Trump responded to an Iran-backed attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad by killing Iran&#8217;s top general, Qasem Soleimani. Despite warnings from the establishment liberals that the assassination of Soleimani would set off World War III, Iran declined to mount any meaningful retaliatory attack. The mullahs had gotten the message, and Trump had achieved peace through strength.
As the novelist Rita Mae Brown observed in a line widely misattributed to Albert Einstein, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” President Biden has decided to return to the old foreign policy that failed for decades in the Middle East. Expect more explosions.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

US Vice President Joe Biden Visits Israel

KNOWLES: Israel, Hamas, And The Definition of Insanity

Biden Administration

Foreign Policy

Israel

John Kerry

Years of relative peace in the Middle East went up in flames this week when Hamas, the Islamic terror group elected to represent Palestinian Arabs in

description

noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1

robots

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/knowles-israel-palestine-and-the-definition-of-insanity/

twitter:card

https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/05/GettyImages-97574402-1.jpg

twitter:image

Chrissy Teigen

Hamas

Target

Candace Owens

Joe Biden

After the two special elections in Georgia last fall, Democrats gained control of the United States Senate. As President Joe Biden pushes through his agenda with full control of Congress, Republicans are hugely motivated to retake the U.S. Senate in order to slow Biden&#8217;s progress.
The 2022 election landscape, at a quick glance, appears to be favorable to Democrats, especially as five Republican senators — Rob Portman (OH), Richard Shelby (AL), Roy Blunt (MO), Pat Toomey (PA), and Richard Burr (NC) — announced that they will be retiring. Political pundits and the media are focused on those five seats, especially those in the battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, but there are also numerous Democrats up for re-election in 2022 who look vulnerable.
For Republicans looking for hope ahead of 2022, these are the key races to watch.
Mark Kelly (D-AZ)
Former astronaut Mark Kelly came out victorious in November when he ran against Sen. Martha McSally (R) to fill the remainder of Sen. John McCain&#8217;s term.
Although Democrats were successful in flipping this seat from red to blue, Kelly won by a slim margin of a little more than 2% — roughly 100,000 votes — according to <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Mark_Kelly">Ballotpedia.</a> That should be close enough to catch the attention of Republicans looking for a seat to flip.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee is already dedicating funds to hitting Kelly over his record on illegal immigration, which greatly impacts the Grand Canyon State.
&#8220;The NRSC argues that Kelly talks tough when it comes to the Biden immigration policy, but doesn&#8217;t vote that way, and accuses Kelly of not speaking up when Biden canceled the federal emergency declaration on border security,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/05/politics/senate-gop-ad-campaign-kelly-immigration/index.html">CNN</a> reported.
Polling data from <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/senate/az/arizona_senate_mcsally_vs_kelly-6801.html">Real Clear Politics</a> indicates Sen. John McCain (R) won his seat by 12.9%, compared to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema&#8217;s (D) win in 2018 with a narrow 2.3% victory. Mark Kelly won his seat in November 2020 with a similarly narrow 2.4% margin, even though <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/senate/az/arizona_senate_mcsally_vs_kelly-6801.html">polling data</a> showed him winning by over 5%.
Whether or not Republicans come out victorious in this race will depend on who runs against Kelly. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey (R), who is term-limited after this year, said he will not run for the seat. House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Biggs is <a href="https://www.rollcall.com/2021/04/22/its-still-really-early-gop-undeterred-by-democratic-fundraising-in-senate-battle/">reportedly</a> contemplating throwing his hat in the ring.
Raphael Warnock (D-GA)
Freshman Sen. Raphael Warnock ran against the Trump agenda during the 2020 election cycle, something that proved to be favorable in the Peach State. Now, he has to run on his record and President Biden&#8217;s agenda.
According to a poll from <a href="https://www.ajc.com/politics/ajc-poll-georgians-narrowly-back-biden-but-state-remains-polarized-on-many-issues/ZMTNUN5S2VHIDAX2VJJK27CCU4/">The Atlanta Journal-Constitution</a>, Georgians favor Biden&#8217;s COVID response but are divided on his economic plans and his failure to address the immigration crisis.
&#8220;Overall, only 38% of Georgians think the country is on the right track; 52% say it’s on the wrong one. The rest aren’t sure,&#8221; the poll concluded.
According to data from <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/senate/ga/georgia_senate_special_election_open_primary-7069.html">Real Clear Politics</a>, polls between mid-September through Election Day showed Warnock ahead of then-Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R) by as much as 19 points, with a 15.7% average. Although Warnock came out victorious, he only beat Loeffler by 7%, indicating that he&#8217;s not as popular as pollsters once thought.
If Biden and the Democrats continue with their radically progressive agenda — which has no signs of slowing down — Georgians may look to the Republican Party in the U.S. Senate. As of now, a handful of Republicans are looking at entering the race.
&#8220;Two military veterans — Kelvin King and Latham Saddler — quickly entered the race,&#8221; the <a href="https://www.ajc.com/politics/politics-blog/who-could-challenge-raphael-warnock-in-2022/ZPXXNMFLLNAEBCVD7QAX65CUJA/">AJC</a> reported. &#8220;And many other Republicans are considering a run, including Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter and former UGA football great Herschel Walker.&#8221;
Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV)
Freshman Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto has walked a fine line between supporting President Joe Biden&#8217;s radical agenda and alienating her constituents.
In April, the senator was forced to walk that line again when she applauded the Nevada Democratic Party&#8217;s new leadership that consisted of members of the Democratic Socialists of America. According to <a href="https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/cortez-masto-said-she-supports-capitalism-while-predicting-strong-campaigns-for-democrats-under-new-democratic-socialist-state-party-leadership">The Nevada Independent</a>, Cortez Masto said she &#8220;believes in capitalism&#8221; but supports raising corporate taxes.
Although she hasn&#8217;t come out publicly in support of eliminating the filibuster, she has also stated that &#8220;filibuster reform is important&#8221; to her.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has targeted her seat, primarily after North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee said he was leaving the Democratic Party because of their far-Left power grab.
&#8220;Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto is losing allies in her own party. Is she to blame?&#8221; the <a href="https://www.nrsc.org/press-releases/catherine-cortez-masto-loses-party-allies-2021-04-08/">NRSC</a> asked in a press release.
There also appears to be further contention between Cortez Masto and other members of her party. According to the <a href="https://www.nevadacurrent.com/2021/02/17/candidate-for-state-dem-party-chair-says-cortez-masto-asked-her-to-quit-race/">Nevada Current</a>, the senator allegedly asked Clark County Democratic Party Chair Judith Whitmer to bow out of her candidacy for state party chair, which appears to be part of a larger fight between progressives and the establishment Left.
The senator also faces a competitive race based on voters&#8217; views of Biden and Trump and their respective agendas. Biden snuck out a win in November with 50% of the vote, compared to Trump&#8217;s 47.7%.
Real Clear Politics&#8217; <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/senate/nv/nevada_senate_heck_vs_cortez_masto-5982.html">polling data</a> from 2016 showed Cortez Masto and her Republican opponent, Joe Heck (R), in a fairly close race through election day. Although a few polls had both candidates up 6-7% of the vote, the senator squeaked out a win by only 2.4%.
If Nevadans feel the Democratic Party moved too far to the Left, Republicans have a solid shot at flipping this seat.
Ron Johnson (R-WI)
<a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/wi/wisconsin_trump_vs_biden-6849.html">Polling data</a> from the 2020 election predicted Biden would win the Badger State by 6.7%, respectively. When everything was said and done, Biden took the state by a little more than half a percent. It&#8217;s the percentage Trump had when he carried the state in 2016.
Some strongly favor Sen. Ron Johnson (R) and the work he&#8217;s done, especially on demanding accountability for Hunter Biden regarding his business ties. Others, however, feel he lost his small-town charm and forgot about the &#8220;little guy&#8221; who elected him.
As of now, Johnson has yet to announce whether or not he plans to run for re-election. President Trump, however, has endorsed him anyway, the <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/04/08/donald-trump-endorses-ron-johnson-2022-u-s-senate/7142248002/">Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</a> reported.
Regardless of Johnson&#8217;s decision, this will be a race to watch in a notorious swing state.
Beth Baumann is a Political Reporter and Editor at The Daily Wire. Follow her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/eb454">@eb454</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Mark Kelly

GOP Look To Retake U.S. Senate In 2022: Here Are The Four Races To Watch

2022 Election

Readers Pass

U.S. Senate

After the two special elections in Georgia last fall, Democrats gained control of the United States Senate. As President Joe Biden pushes through his

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/gop-look-to-retake-u-s-senate-in-2022-here-are-the-four-races-to-watch/

https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/05/GettyImages-1228960583-1200x800.jpg

On Friday, The Department of Justice published a <a href="https://www.atf.gov/file/154586/download">115-page document</a> detailing a proposed rule change that would redefine what constitutes a firearm. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), the new definition &#8220;take[s] into account technological developments and modern terminology in the firearms industry, as well as amendments to the marking and recordkeeping requirements.&#8221;
The newly proposed rule would redefine a &#8220;ghost gun&#8221; or precursor firearm parts as a firearm under federal law.
As of now, a “ghost gun” is defined as any homemade firearm that lacks serial numbers, and are criticized by gun control advocates because they are difficult to trace. These are often machined from blocks of aluminum, although they can also be made using a 3D printer. Other types include 80%  lowers, which are a basic mold of a firearm which require additional machining.
Under current law, a person can manufacture a homemade firearm without serial numbers for their personal use. A serial number, however, is required if the firearm is sold or transferred to another person. This is <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/923">only applicable for hobbyists</a>, not those who are in the business of manufacturing, buying, and/or selling guns. These homemade firearms are currently regulated under the <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-82/pdf/STATUTE-82-Pg1213-2.pdf">Gun Control Act of 1968</a>.
The proposed rule change would classify 80% lowers and receivers that could be &#8220;readily completed&#8221; as a functional firearm, meaning a serial number and background check would be required at the time of purchase:
<blockquote>When a partially complete frame or receiver parts kit reaches a stage in manufacture where it may readily be completed, assembled, converted, or restored to a functional state, it would be considered a firearm “frame or receiver” that must be marked. Further, under the proposed rule, weapon parts kits with partially complete frames or receivers containing the necessary parts such that they may readily be completed, assembled, converted, or restored to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive would be “firearms” for which each frame or receiver of the weapon, as defined under this rule, would need to be marked.</blockquote>
Instead of shipping directly to a purchaser&#8217;s home, the incomplete frames and receivers would be serialized and sent to a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) — commonly referred to as a &#8220;gun dealer&#8221; — where a purchaser would fill out ATF Form 4473 and complete a background check.
According to <a href="https://thereload.com/biden-admin-rule-change-would-expand-atf-power-ban-ghost-guns/">The Reload</a>, the terminology used in the rules change is vague:
<blockquote>Under the current rule, a gun part can only be regulated as a receiver if it has several key components, including the trigger mechanism and breach. The proposed rule would change that to let the ATF regulate a part as a receiver if it includes just one of those components. It would also add language to the definition allowing the ATF to regulate anything that could be “readily” made into a firearm receiver as though it were a finished receiver.
The proposed rule does not provide a set of objective standards for what constitutes “readily” convertible. Instead, it relies on subjective measures of how long the conversion could take, how difficult it could be, and what tools could be required. The agency pointed to court cases for examples of what readily meant. In one example the agency said a part being completed during “an eight-hour working day in a properly equipped machine shop” qualified as “readily” convertible.</blockquote>
The rule change would also target various platforms including the AR-15, among the <a href="https://www.nssf.org/msr/">most popular</a> firearms sold today.
&#8220;Besides establishing a de facto ban on so-called 80 percent frames and receivers in the way they are in circulation today, it could also stand to regulate &#8216;split/multi-receiver&#8217; and &#8216;modular firearms&#8217; such as the AR-15 and P320 in ways that could require AR uppers and pistol slide assemblies to be a serialized firearm,&#8221; <a href="https://www.guns.com/news/2021/05/10/biden-justice-dept-issues-115-pages-of-proposed-new-firearm-definitions">Guns.com</a> reported.
In addition, the rule change <a href="https://www.atf.gov/rules-and-regulations/definition-frame-or-receiver/summary">would allow</a> FFLs and gunsmiths to &#8220;mark firearms for the maker or owner of a privately made firearm (PMF) and may be licensed to engage solely in that business.&#8221; They are not, however, authorized to make those modifications for &#8220;a licensed importer or licensed manufacturer because those firearms are for sale or distribution.&#8221;
Once the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register, the public will have 90 days to submit comments.
Why the rules are changing
The DOJ is cracking down on &#8220;ghost guns&#8221; because of the number of &#8220;un-serialized firearms&#8221; that have shown up at crime scenes across the nation. The goal, the agency says, is to &#8220;keep guns from being sold to convicted felons and other prohibited purchasers.&#8221;
“We are committed to taking commonsense steps to address the epidemic of gun violence that takes the lives of too many people in our communities,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-proposes-new-regulation-update-firearm-definitions">statement.</a> “Criminals and others barred from owning a gun should not be able to exploit a loophole to evade background checks and to escape detection by law enforcement. This proposed rule would help keep guns out of the wrong hands and make it easier for law enforcement to trace guns used to commit violent crimes, while protecting the rights of law-abiding Americans.”
Industry reaction
According to the <a href="https://www.nraila.org/articles/20210508/atf-proposed-rule-a-blatant-attack-on-american-gun-industry">National Rifle Association&#8217;s Institute for Legislative Action</a> (NRA-ILA), the proposed rule change &#8220;would give ATF arbitrary authority to classify firearms in a way that could make it difficult or impossible for the firearm industry to operate.&#8221;
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the firearms trade association is concerned about the &#8220;details&#8221; of the proposal.
“The details will matter,&#8221; Lawrence Keane, senior vice president and general counsel for the NSSF, said in a statement.
&#8220;We are fully aware of the impact that this proposed rule could have on the firearm industry and gun owners in general,&#8221; Keane explained. &#8220;NSSF will closely examine the proposed rule and seek input from our members on how this proposed rule adversely impacts their businesses, and whether the rule exceeds ATF’s legal authority under the Gun Control Act. NSSF fully expects to file robust public comments with ATF during the 90-day comment period.”
<a href="https://www.gunowners.org/goa-gof-continue-to-stand-for-homemade-firearms/">Gun Owners of America</a> (GAO) said the proposed rules change is &#8220;asinine.&#8221;
&#8220;The proposed rules by Biden’s Justice Department seek to add undue burdens on homebuilt firearms. Forcing purchasers of unfinished chunks of metal and plastic to undergo a background check from a broken NICS system is simply asinine,&#8221; GAO Senior Vice President Erich Pratt said in a statement. &#8220;Just as with other forms of gun control, these regulations will leave honest people with one less method for self-defense but will be completely ignored by criminals.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-is-the-left-so-quick-to-dispose-of-women">What Is A ‘Ghost Gun’ And How Are They Regulated?</a>
Beth Baumann is a Political Reporter and Editor at The Daily Wire. Follow her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/eb454">@eb454</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Numerous Assault Rifles Hanging On Wall.

The DOJ Released A 115-Page Rule Change To Redefine A ‘Firearm.’ Here’s What You Need To Know.

Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)

Ghost Guns

Second Amendment

On Friday, The Department of Justice published a 115-page document detailing a proposed rule change that would redefine what constitutes a firearm.

The DOJ Released A 115-Page Rule Change To Redefine A &#039;Firearm.&#039; Here&#039;s What You Need To Know.

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/the-doj-released-a-115-page-rule-change-to-redefine-a-firearm-heres-what-you-need-to-know/

https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/05/GettyImages-506220491-1200x800.jpg

Media coverage of China was more than twice as likely to be positive than negative in 2020, despite covering up the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic which <a href="https://covid19.who.int/">caused</a> 3,325,260 deaths, set off a worldwide recession that <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51706225">contracted</a> the global economy by an estimated 4.4%, and dramatically altered life for every single human being on the planet. More than half (56%) of journalists in a global survey said news stories about the People’s Republic of China had become more favorable during 2020, while only 24% said they saw more critical stories.
Such an upsurge seems surprising, since reports indicate that China deliberately <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-intel-report-suggests-china-intentionally-concealed-the-severity-of-pandemic-to-hoard-supplies">concealed</a> the extent of the pandemic in the early days of the Wuhan outbreak and <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/04/02/us-exports-masks-ppe-china-surged-early-phase-coronavirus/5109747002/">expropriated</a> more than $60 million in PPE from the United States. Then the CCP <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-allegedly-blocked-u-s-companies-from-exporting-medical-safety-gear-as-pandemic-exploded-report-says">barred</a> Western companies based in China from exporting PPE to the United States, while selling the West face masks produced by the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-forcing-uighurs-to-make-face-masks-sold-in-us-josh-hawley-wants-companies-held-accountable">slave labor</a> of the nation’s persecuted Uighur Muslim minority. Many of these Chinese exports proved useless or harmful. The Chinese company Crawford Technology Group <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/chinese-manufacturer-charged-exporting-defective-and-misbranded-masks-falsely-purporting">sold</a> the United States 140,400 defective KN95 respirator masks before the Trump administration filed charges last July.
8 in 10 journalists also said they had witnessed a spike in Chinese disinformation during 2020 — including every single journalist polled in North or South America.
The new <a href="https://www.ifj.org/fileadmin/user_upload/IFJ_-_The_Covid_Story_Report.pdf">report</a>, released this month by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), reveals how Chinese Communist officials overcame these issues to enjoy an adoring press. In short, they got it the old fashioned way: they bought it. More specifically, through exporting PPE and its &#8220;Sinopharm.&#8221;
The difference in media coverage between nations which received Chinese COVID-19 relief and those that did not is clear: 60% of stories in non-recipient countries focused on China’s culpability for the global pandemic, but 63% of stories in recipient nations highlighted how China’s “fast action against COVID-19 has helped other countries.”
This “medical diplomacy” gave the PRC leverage to fix the news in its favor. The IFJ notes that “57 percent of Chinese vaccine recipients said they had seen attempts by Chinese actors to shape media narratives regarding local politics in their countries, compared to 34 percent of nonrecipient countries.”
And often, the Chinese Communist narrative succeeded. Nearly two-thirds of recipient nations said their media’s image of China improved, and that they were more likely to see pro-Chinese presence on social media, during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Twitter later reported more than 173,000 accounts spreading CCP propaganda, particularly against Hong Kong.
“In some countries, China was also seen as the purveyor of the most accurate information about the new coronavirus, showing its growing influence over global narratives,” the report notes. That sometimes included U.S. legacy media outlets like NBC’s “Today Show,” which <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/rantz-nbc-news-is-actively-promoting-chinese-propaganda">regurgitated</a> CCP propaganda that Beijing had actually “delayed the arrival of the coronavirus” on U.S. shores. NBC’s Ken Dilanian also filed an article titled, “As U.S. struggles to stem coronavirus, China asserts itself as global leader.”
Often, China simultaneously improved its own image and harmed that of its host nation. The Chinese Communist Party targeted hard-hit Italy with “an aggressive Chinese disinformation campaign,” including deep-fake videos purporting to show Italians applauding Chinese medical aid while singing the Chinese national anthem. (The original video showed Italians applauding Italian medical workers.)
“They tried to say that the virus has in reality been born in Italy,” one Italian journalist told the IFS. “This was just outlandish, fake news.”
During the height of his cult of celebrity, Gov. Andrew Cuomo also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-544-the-european-virus">described</a> COVID-19 as a “European virus.”
In addition, China penetrated Western nations by offering Western media outlets state-run propaganda at no charge. Many of those surveyed admitted to printing stories, airing documentaries, or relying on the increasingly sophisticated outlets for key facts about China. “Wherever the readers are, wherever the viewers are, that is where propaganda reports must extend their new tentacles,” President Xi Jinping said in 2016.
The greatest surge of negative publicity for China came in North America, where President Donald Trump branded COVID-19 the “China virus,” highlighted Chinese human rights abuses, and launched a global trade war against the world’s second-largest economy (and the largest mercantilist economic power).
Former Pentagon intelligence analyst Dan Garrett <a href="https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/how-china-used-foreign-media-reset-image-during-pandemic">told</a> the Voice of America that the Chinese Communist Party exploited the pandemic “to promote the socialist system and the leadership of the Communist Party as superior to the Western system of democracy, universal values, and freedom.”
If China can improve its global image during a worldwide viral plague and recession that it caused, imagine what lies ahead — and how feckless legacy media outlets will amplify their message.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

US China

How China Bought Positive Media Coverage During COVID-19, According To Damning Report

China

Chinese Communist Party

COVID-19

Fake News

Media coverage of China was more than twice as likely to be positive than negative in 2020, despite covering up the outbreak of the global COVID-19

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/how-china-bought-positive-media-coverage-during-covid-19-according-to-damning-report/

https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/05/GettyImages-85871016-1200x800.jpg

Could it be the Gina Carano effect?
In a second quarter earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Chapek <a href="https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2021/05/14/walt-disney-dis-q2-2021-earnings-call-transcript/?source=iedfolrf0000001">revealed</a> that earnings came in stronger than anticipated for the fiscal period that ended on April 3, with most divisions, including theme parks, outperforming expectations. Yet despite this good news, the stock tumbled more than 4% in after-hours trading on Thursday. 
Why? Because one key sector underperformed forecasts by an alarming degree: Disney+’s subscription rate.
Chapek announced that the service currently claims 103.6 million paid subscribers. Given that the platform had already crossed the 100 million mark by March, analysts had expected that number to be closer to 109 million.
Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy said that estimate was always overly optimistic and stressed that the company hit its internal goal of 100 million subscribers for the period. “We reached that milestone in early March, so we added subs at a faster pace in the last month of the second quarter than we did in the first two months,” McCarthy told investors, adding, “and that was despite no major market launches, a price increase in [Europe, the Middle East, and Africa], and a domestic price increase per the end of the quarter.”
But Disney’s current trading price suggests Wall Street isn’t buying the spin.
The streaming service’s numbers look particularly bad considering it costs much less than its competitors. Disney+ charges $7.99 a month compared to Netflix&#8217;s $13.99 and HBO Max’s $14.99 for a plan with equivalent features. Investors are also likely factoring that this period saw the launch of the first two series in Disney’s massive Marvel brand — “WandaVision” and “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” — and then failed to draw a significant number of new viewers.
Financial news outlets like <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/disney-earnings-blow-away-estimates-as-theme-parks-return-but-streaming-slowdown-sends-stock-lower-11620937341">Market Watch</a> and <a href="https://www.investors.com/news/disney-stock-disney-earnings-q2-2021/">Investor’s Business Daily</a> aren’t tying the lower-than-expected subscription rate to the company’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/disney-fires-actress-gina-carano-after-post-comparing-hating-someone-over-politics-to-nazi-germany">decision</a> to fire popular “Mandalorian” actress Gina Carano in February for her conservative views. But they offer little explanation for why the service underperformed forecasts so significantly for the last quarter.
Back in January, Disney+ looked set to become a subscription juggernaut, with “The Mandalorian” <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/entertainment/news/the-mandalorian-finally-beat-the-office-as-the-most-watched-streaming-series-in-the-us-according-to-nielsen/articleshow/80273484.cms">handing</a> the platform its first major win over giant Netflix when it overtook “The Office” as streaming’s top-viewed series. But that was before Carano’s ouster sent #CancelDisneyPlus trending on Twitter and other social media platforms.
The strong fan reaction reportedly took Chapek by surprise — so much so, he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/disney-ceo-asked-about-gina-carano-firing-says-company-isnt-left-leaning-or-right-leaning">addressed</a> the matter during a shareholder’s meeting in early March. Asked if Disney plans to employ a “black list” to punish conservative performers, the CEO insisted the company isn’t Right-leaning or Left-leaning, but stands for the “universal values of respect, values of decency, values of integrity, and values of inclusion.”
It also probably didn’t help matters that Disney was hit with another political scandal just before the second quarter earnings call when insiders <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/disney-quietly-removes-anti-racism-training-from-website-after-insider-leaks-documents-to-reporter">leaked</a> the company’s antiracism training program to journalist Christopher Rufo.
It would be hard to overestimate just how crucial a role the Walt Disney Co. expects Disney+ to play in its future profitability, but a research note analysts MoffettNathanson sent to <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90636892/disney-stock-price-takes-a-hit-after-disney-plus-subscribers-grow-slower-than-expected">Fast Company</a> on Friday summarizes the situation well: “Previous [key performance indicators] that would swing the stock in years past like ESPN-affiliate fees, domestic-park profitability or global box office are accidental details in a market that is laser focused on Disney’s direct-to-consumer pivot,” the financial firm stated.
The future of Disney’s success depends on Disney+’s success. So they might want to give the next conservative actress a break.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Gina Carano

Disney Stock Tanks As Subscription Numbers Plummet In Second Quarter

Disney

Could it be the Gina Carano effect? In a second quarter earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Chapek revealed that earnings came in stronger than anticipated for

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/disney-stock-tanks-as-subscription-numbers-plummet-in-second-quarter/

https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/05/GettyImages-1187547992-1200x800.jpg

President Joe Biden and his appointees use “a pernicious, insidious, awful practice” to “control” media coverage of his administration, according to Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/white-house-press-corps-handed-143944696.html">The New York Times</a>, as the Biden administration regularly demands the right to revise, rewrite, or remove any quotation made by its officials before it appears in a news story.
Numerous journalists confirmed the practice and admitted they often agreed to the Biden team’s terms, even while covering the 2020 presidential campaign.
The condition, known as “background with quote approval,” works as follows. The Biden administration (or, until seven months ago, its campaign) would speak to reporters on “background,” which lets a reporter use the information provided by someone in the administration without naming the official. But stories credited to a nameless functionary carry less weight than those with the speaker’s name and title. If the reporter wants something more authoritative than an anonymous-sounding source, he or she had to give the Biden administration officials (or campaign managers) the ability to approve the exact wording of the quotation before publication — even if their revision in no way resembles what they originally said.
The administration could also “veto” the inclusion of any quotation, <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/west-wing-playbook/2021/05/10/this-email-is-on-background-with-quote-approval-492792">according</a> to Politico.
Suppose, for instance, that White House spokesperson Jen Psaki inadvertently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/psaki-calls-situation-on-the-border-a-crisis-later-walks-it-back-when-reporter-points-out-her-remark">called</a> the ongoing Southern border imbroglio a “crisis.” She has studiously <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/05/how-the-white-house-polices-language-in-washington.html">avoided</a> that term to avoid getting “pulled down in the muck of right-wing-driven arguments about word choice” that would only “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jen-psaki-says-americans-only-think-theres-a-border-crisis-because-of-the-media">feed into this issue</a>.” So, when the reporter asks for her sign-off, she simply changes the word “crisis” to “challenge,” and her original, truthful, candid assessment of the uncontrolled immigration emergency goes down the memory hole.
While these conditions are not new, the frequency of their application has reportedly exploded under the Biden administration. “The practice allows the White House an extra measure of control as it tries to craft press coverage,” reported Politico.
“The White House realized: ‘Hey … we can now control what is in [journalists’] stories by refusing to allow them use anything without our approval,’” said Peter Baker. “It&#8217;s a pernicious, insidious, awful practice that reporters should resist.”
Politico confirmed the prevalence of “quote approval” with five White House reporters who work for other outlets. They say that they find the editorial request stifling and of questionable integrity — but they have a problem: They also want access to the administration.
“The only way the press has the power to push back against this is if we all band together,” a reporter said. But that leaves reporters subject to a Prisoner’s Dilemma: If some aspiring journalist buckles to the pressure, the rest lose readership, credibility, and market share.
The White House has done all it can to stoke paranoia about this possibility. When asked about this questionable practice, Jen Psaki did what she does best: release a carefully worded statement.
“We make policy experts available in a range of formats to ensure context and substantive detail is available for stories,” she said. “If outlets are not comfortable with that attribution for those officials they of course don’t need to utilize those voices.&#8221;
Translating that into English, Jen Psaki told the press: Play by our rules or buzz off.
The story contains a gem worth appreciating: The reporters agreed that President Donald Trump’s administration used this muzzling practice — which they consider “pernicious, insidious, awful” — “less frequently than Biden’s team,” which “also used the tactic during the campaign.”
The Obama administration also employed this tactic more frequently than Trump. Yet the media treated Obama’s successor as a uniquely hazardous threat to freedom of the press. After Trump’s election, The Washington Post updated its masthead by fusing the words, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” (We can’t help but wonder who approved that quotation.)
The Washington Post’s claim to “speak truth to power” while being owned by the world’s richest man and slanting its coverage in favor of the most powerful man in the free world always sounded dubious. Knowing that the president’s handlers edit the words that appear on its pages should make readers question its ability to speak the truth at all.
The views expressed in this piece are the author&#8217;s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe"> member</a>.

Jen Psaki

‘A Pernicious, Insidious, Awful Practice’: How The Biden Administration Is Editing Our News

Media Bias

Politico

President Joe Biden and his appointees use “a pernicious, insidious, awful practice” to “control” media coverage of his administration, according to Peter

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/a-pernicious-insidious-awful-practice-how-the-biden-administration-is-editing-our-news/

https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/05/GettyImages-1316303676-1200x800.jpg

Those Who Wish Me Dead may be, thematically, a lesser work in the impressive canon writer/director Taylor Sheridan has been building over the last few years, but it’s no less entertaining for that. In fact, it might be more so.
As with previous Sheridan films, we have a tale of violence and bad men told against the stunning backdrop of one of the last remaining wild places in the American west — the mountains of Montana. Big Sky land, though beautiful, holds nearly as many terrors for the citizens as the two hitmen (Game of Thrones’ Aidan Gillen and X-Men’s Nicholas Hoult) who roll into the region one clear, blue day in search of a man and his son.
Nothing bogs down a thriller like explanations, so Sheridan keeps the details streamlined. A forensic accountant has the goods on some dirty-dealing government elites. When his superior dies in a convenient gas explosion, he packs up his 12-year old son and high tails it out of the city where he figures he’s an easy target. Turns out, he’s a pretty easy target in the country also. Soon enough, the boy is an orphan, miles from civilization and desperate for help from someone he can trust. Fortunately, even a vast, empty forest requires a few people to keep an eye on it, like Hannah (Angelina Jolie), who’s a specially trained firefighter known as a smokejumper
Sheridan, who also gave us Sicario and Wind River seems to gravitate to stories of strong women surrounded by men in dangerous jobs. That’s a common conceit these days, and audiences have seen Jolie kickbox men twice her size too many times to count. Sheridan, however, respects the audience’s intelligence enough not to pretend a woman, much less one as slight and fragile-looking as Jolie, is a physical match for a man. She may play like she’s just one of the toxic guys, matching them dangerous stunt for dangerous stunt, inappropriate joke for inappropriate joke. But when the chips are down, her only hope for survival if a man wants her dead is a weapon in her hand.
At times, Jolie takes her tough girl act too far — even the most world weary first responder wouldn’t read a father’s note about assassins tracking his son without batting an eye or asking a question. But Sheridan restrains her scowlier moments and tempers them with a natural maternal softness. The result is one of Jolie’s best performances in years.
Unlike other Sheridan films, Those Who Wish Me Dead (rated R for language and violence) is based on a novel by another writer, so it doesn’t explore class conflict or bureaucratic ineptitude the way his past projects have. This is pure adrenaline, baby. Albeit smart adrenaline. Yet for all that the story focuses on taking the audience from action piece to action piece, underneath the thrills, we still find a serious theme: No matter how much our culture has tried to call good, evil and evil, good, at our core, we all know what a hero looks like and how he or she behaves. Save for the protection of another, they don’t hurt people. They don’t burn things.
There’s a moment in the midst of an inferno that acts as a quietly devastating indictment of every recent series or film centered on the emotionally tortured anti-hero, the criminal with the heart of gold. “I think I might be fading here partner,” one of the assassins says after suffering a serious wound. “Yeah, I know,” the other answers before blithely turning back to his business.
There’s no pity, let alone honor, among thieves.
<iframe title="Those Who Wish Me Dead - Official Trailer - Warner Bros. UK &amp; Ireland" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kciXOTguPCs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Angelina Jolie

‘Pure, Smart Adrenaline.’ Angelina Jolie Stars In ‘Those Who Wish Me Dead’

Movies

Those Who Wish Me Dead may be, thematically, a lesser work in the impressive canon writer/director Taylor Sheridan has been building over the last few

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/pure-smart-adrenaline-angelina-jolie-stars-in-those-who-wish-me-dead/

https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/05/GettyImages-871906164-1200x800.jpg

In recent months, lumber prices have surged by an unbelievable 308% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to a record high of $1,459 per thousand board feet.
As <a href="https://fortune.com/2021/05/12/lumber-prices-cost-shortage-covid-housing-market-construction-costs-mortgage-rates/#:~:text=That%2050%25%20decline%20in%20inventory,lumber%2C%20thus%20exacerbating%20the%20shortage.">Fortune</a> noted, the “scarcity of a formerly plentiful and cheap commodity” has further constrained the much-needed construction of new homes as “Homebuyers across the nation are up against one of the tightest housing markets in modern history.”
But why is there a lumber shortage in the first place? Here is a brief overview of some of the compounding factors.
Sawmill capacity struggling to catch up
In a similar fashion to other industries, sawmills saw widespread layoffs as they worked to massively scale down production in the early months of the pandemic. According to Fortune, U.S. wood production was down 16% by April 2020, compared to January 2020.
While wood production recovered to above pre-pandemic levels by the summer, it was still “far behind the boom on the demand side.” With the limited capacity of existing sawmills, the ability to keep up with demand has fueled the surge in lumber prices.
Canadian softwood, beetles, and climate change
Fortune also added that softwood lumber from Canada is “a favorite among U.S. homebuilders,” and is “particularly constrained” for a wide variety of reasons.
CEO of Deacon Lumber, Stinson Dean, said that “Canadian softwood production is limited by factors including British Columbia forest fires, beetle infestations, and the slow growth rate of spruce trees,” according to Fortune.
“If the production factors remain that are limiting log supply, I find it hard to believe we return to historical price ranges,&#8221; Dean said.
According to <a href="https://qz.com/1985276/america-is-running-short-of-wood/">Quartz</a>, part of the reason behind the shortage of lumber from Canada is the changing climate and its impact on a beetle species which infests forests in British Columbia.
Dendroctonus ponderosae is a mountain pine beetle, “a quarter-inch insect with a shiny black exoskeleton,” which is usually kept “in check by cold winters.”
“But in the late 1990s, the beetles started to live longer and reproduce quicker — an outcome, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature06777">scientists</a> believe, of a warming climate. They swarmed through the pines of British Columbia, attacking more than 44 million acres of forest, an area four times the size of Switzerland,” noted Quartz.
Americans turned to DIY during lockdown
According to Fortune, the “do-it-yourself” market surged during the pandemic.
“Essentially from the start of the COVID crisis, do-it-yourself projects boomed. Americans were spending a lot more time at home and finally got around to knocking out projects,” reported Fortune. “During the first two months of the recession, home-improvement sales shot up 13%.”
This rapid rise in demand had an impact on the price, with home-improvement spending still high, up 29% in March 2021 compared to pre-pandemic levels.
Record-low mortgage rates
During the pandemic, mortgage rates fell to record lows, with Fortune reporting that “fixed 30-year rates [bottomed] out at 2.65% in December.” Fortune also noted that this was partnered with a “five-year period when people born between 1989 and 1993, the biggest birth years for millennials, will turn 30 — entering the all-important first-time homebuying years.”
While housing inventory usually increases during a recession, these factors combined to cause a rapid decrease in the availability of homes. This only drove the demand for new housing, which requires lumber.
According to the <a href="https://www.nahb.org/news-and-economics/industry-news/press-releases/2021/04/skyrocketing-lumber-prices-add-nearly-36000-to-new-home-prices">National Association of Home Builders</a>, “Soaring lumber prices that have tripled over the past 12 months have caused the price of an average new single-family home to increase by $35,872.”
Ian Haworth is an Editor and Writer for The Daily Wire. Follow him on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/ighaworth">@ighaworth</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Lumber Shortage

Four Reasons Lumber Prices Are ‘Skyrocketing’

Economy

Lumber

In recent months, lumber prices have surged by an unbelievable 308% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to a record high of $1,459 per thousand board

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/four-reasons-lumber-prices-are-skyrocketing/

https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/05/GettyImages-461907976-1200x800.jpg

twitter:creator

Since the news broke that Ellen DeGeneres would be ending her eponymous talk show after 19 seasons amid a drumbeat of accusations alleging a hostile work environment on set, there’s been no shortage of entertainment and media insiders celebrating.
But given that DeGeneres’ downfall comes almost entirely at the hands of anonymous accusers, conservatives should at least pause and ask why so many in Hollywood are happy to see her go before joining the “na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye” chorus.
As The Daily Wire previously<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ellens-head-writer-executive-producers-accused-of-sexual-harassment"> reported</a>, the most serious charges against DeGeneres involve, not her own actions, but those of her senior executives. Executive producer Jonathan Norman is alleged to have “groomed” an underling with gifts and concert tickets before attempting to perform oral sex on him. (I have some skepticism over applying the term grooming to an adult who accepts said gifts and outings, but that’s a topic for another time.)
One unidentified junior staffer claims head writer Kevin Leman propositioned him in a bathroom at a company Christmas party. Others, also anonymous, say they saw Leman grope an assistant and heard him make inappropriate sexual comments.
Finally, five female former employees say executive producer Ed Glavin made them uncomfortable by “rubbing their shoulders and back, as well as placing his hand around their lower waist.”
All three men deny the claims, but following an internal investigation, Warner Bros, which distributes the syndicated show, fired them.
There’s no evidence as yet that DeGeneres knew of these incidents or witnessed any harassment herself, and, if the employees didn’t register complaints with HR or another superior, little reason to expect she should have known.
The rest of the accusations fall under that easily abused, amorphous term “toxic.” Like a black employee complaining of unspecified microaggressions and charging racism when she was denied a raise (Isn’t it possible there was some other reason her employer didn’t want to pay her more?). Or an unnamed staffer saying Ellen giggled and quipped, “Well, I guess every production needs their dog,” after witnessing an executive yell at the crew. If we learned nothing else from the Covington Catholic episode, we learned that there’s more than one way to read an expression of mirth. It’s entirely possible DeGeneres’ comment and chuckle were an awkward attempt to break the tension and issue a subtle rebuke.
When it comes to the entertainment industry, you can’t overestimate the power of sour grapes. Suddenly, every minor unpleasant encounter with a superior is spun into evidence of a toxic work environment. This isn’t to suggest that DeGeneres actually is the warm, fuzzy figure she plays on TV — the preponderance of cold fish anecdotes suggests she isn’t. (Though, if Hollywood were to empty of every demanding, uptight celebrity, the place would suddenly become a ghost town).
And it isn’t to say that schadenfreude is the certain motivator for everyone jumping on the anti-DeGeneres’ bandwagon. But conservatives should be the last people to pile on without proof and the first to take disgruntled former employees’ words with a grain of salt. Because if you look closely, there seem to be other reasons some are thrilled her time on our TVs has come to an end … like her willingness to make friends across the political aisle.
“Ellen is retiring to spend more time with George W. Bush,”<a href="https://twitter.com/davidmackau/status/1392490756414312451?s=20"> sneered</a> Buzzfeed News’ Deputy Director David Mack when the news broke Wednesday. Bridget Todd, leftwing iHeartRadio podcast host, also signaled that her joy stemmed from the Bush connection,<a href="https://twitter.com/BridgetMarie/status/1392496421144862724?s=20"> tweeting</a>, “It will NEVER not be funny to me that Ellen&#8217;s public downfall started when she lied about not being invited to Dakota Johnson&#8217;s party, when in reality she couldn’t come because she was at a football game with her good friend George W. Bush.”
Make no mistake, whatever wrongdoing may or may not have occurred behind the scenes on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” the reason many in the industry are happy to see her career in tatters is because she refused to apologize for making pleasant conversation with a former president and fellow football fan. Even worse, she boldly called him a friend.  
“Here’s the thing: I’m friends with George Bush. In fact, I’m friends with a lot of people who don’t share the same beliefs that I have,” DeGeneres<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vanity-fair-scolds-ellen-degeneres-for-friendliness-with-george-w-bush"> said</a> at the time, adding, “Just because I don’t agree with someone on everything doesn’t mean that I’m not gonna be friends with them. When I say, ‘Be kind to one another,’ I don’t mean only the people that think the same way that you do. I mean be kind to everyone. It doesn’t matter.”
And she’s not just willing to befriend Republicans, she’s willing to employ them as well. One of her staff writers, Adam Yenzer, has made no secret of his conservative identity, or his comedy <a href="https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2Fpaul-amanda-prestigiacomo&amp;data=04%7C01%7C%7C73ea87afc2604827957708d91649bfc3%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637565328261734122%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&amp;sdata=u%2FXh%2FRnxkelPjZWWQBzDwLavl0yGD%2FtteOj%2BZjHimGs%3D&amp;reserved=0">partnership</a> with Daily Wire reporter, Paul Bois. Yet he still has a job. So I guess you can mark DeGeneres down as more tolerant than Disney.
We also must not forget how much ire DeGeneres earned from her industry when she showed grace to comedian Kevin Hart, inviting him on her show and assuring him she was in his corner after he’d been dismissed from hosting the Oscars over ten-year-old jokes.
Variety’s Senior Entertainment Writer Adam B. Vary spoke for plenty of his peers when he<a href="https://twitter.com/adambvary/status/1081121826707693568?s=20"> fumed</a> at DeGeneres for daring to tell Hart not to let people like Vary win: “First, the people who brought up Kevin Hart&#8217;s past tweets — like me — were not, as Ellen characterized, ‘haters.’ The host of the Oscars had made anti-gay jokes, and LGBT people who love the Oscars were legitimately startled to see just how harsh his words were.”
There is a<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/ellen-backlash-kevin-hart-interview-1173135/"> side</a> that doesn’t want those who’ve violated their speech codes to hear that anyone is in their corner. They don’t want someone as influential as DeGeneres telling the world it can ignore them as “haters.” 
This isn’t to say conservatives need to be Ellen fans. I’m not and never have been. Her soft shoe, sunshine routine always struck a false note for me, and I certainly don’t care for her politics. But I’m not going to do a little Ellen dance on her grave. Given that she represents an old guard that at least preached kindness and tolerance for other views, even if she didn’t always practice it, I don’t believe other conservatives should either.
Megan Basham is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic and the entertainment reporter for The Daily Wire. In her previous role as an entertainment editor and podcast co-host for World Magazine, she interviewed numerous A-list celebrities. She has also written for The Wall Street Journal, National Review, and Townhall. Her book, Beside Every Successful Man, was published by Random House.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

US-ENTERTAINMENT-TELEVISION-STREAMING-NETFLIX

Ellen’s Exit and Why Conservatives Should Pause Before Rejoicing

Entertainment

Hollywood

Since the news broke that Ellen DeGeneres would be ending her eponymous talk show after 19 seasons amid a drumbeat of accusations alleging a hostile work

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/ellens-exit-and-why-conservatives-should-pause-before-rejoicing/

https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/05/GettyImages-1179869189.jpg

A New York man is facing 90 days in prison after he refused to wear a mask at his kid&#8217;s outdoor baseball game.
Chad Hummel of Rochester, New York, was arrested last week and charged with criminal trespassing after he refused to mask-up at his son&#8217;s East Ridge High School baseball game in accordance with Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo&#8217;s controversial and inconsistent COVID-19 rules.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated that outdoor COVID-19 transmission stands at just 10%. But even that low estimation is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cdc-misleading-public-with-outdoor-virus-transmission-figure-report">misleadingly high</a>, according to a report from The New York Times. Still, Cuomo is forcing New Yorkers to comply with the mandate.
Hummel, a lawyer, spoke to News10NBC this week and suggested he was being targeted with the arrest and criminal charge, noting that he&#8217;s spoken out against critical race theory and COVID-19 restrictions, even involving himself in lawsuits for the school district.
&#8220;Someone who has fought critical race theory at the school, someone who has fought the COVID regulations at the district, someone who has been involved in lawsuits for the school district, someone who has done all that is a target,” Hummel <a href="https://www.whec.com/coronavirus-schools/irondequoit-dad-charged-with-trespassing-after-refusing-to-wear-a-mask-at-baseball-game/6106132/">told</a> the news station.
&#8220;Hummel sent a nine-page cease and desist letter to the school’s athletic director in response to the COVID-19 guidelines on masks at games,&#8221; News10NBC reported.
The father has been met with support from folks in the community fed up with the masking mandates, particularly the outdoor mandates that do not jive with the science.
Local county health commissioner Dr. Michael Mendoza, for example, says CDC guidelines should not mandate masks outdoors at all.
&#8220;Except for those close conversations, those gatherings we&#8217;re still a little on the fence about football games where everyone is yelling but casual settings, but I&#8217;ve been seeing and the evidence is there that it&#8217;s incredibly more safe outside than it is indoors,” Mendoza said, according to News10NBC.
The East Irondequoit School District acknowledged in a statement that they called the police on Hummel while his son was playing baseball over the mask issue, adding that their mask guidance was implemented as part of their reopening plan and is &#8220;reinforced by NYSDOH (New York State Department of Health)&#8221; guidance.
&#8220;The school district adopted a policy in August 2020 as part of reopening its schools for students five days a week,&#8221; the district said. &#8220;This policy and plan required students, staff and visitors to wear a mask when on school grounds. This policy was reinforced by NYSDOH recent guidance which requires that masks be worn while on all New York State public school properties. The children and staff have complied with the policy all year.&#8221;
&#8220;Mr. Hummel chose to violate the school mask policy,&#8221; the statement added. &#8220;He was asked to wear a mask. He refused. He was asked to leave the property. He refused. The police were called to assist. The police removed him from the school property.&#8221;
Hummel is set to be back in court on June 2.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Andrew Cuomo

Father Facing 90 Days In Prison For Refusing To Wear Mask At Son’s Baseball Game

New York

Rochester

A New York man is facing 90 days in prison after he refused to wear a mask at an outdoor baseball game.

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/father-facing-90-days-in-prison-for-refusing-to-wear-mask-at-sons-baseball-game/

https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/03/GettyImages-1227407522-1200x800.jpg

A constitutional republic is fragile — but according to the legacy media, democracy has been hanging on Liz Cheney’s position as chair of the House Republican Conference. To hear hyperventilating talking heads tell it, democracy has now been obliterated.
Some have even presented this morning’s voice vote to oust Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) from her position as the House’s third most powerful Republican as the death knell of democracy, part of the GOP’s “clear agenda” to make sure “the next coup doesn’t fail,” a self-hating act of misogyny by Republican women, and an act of courage that makes Liz Cheney the next Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Joan of Arc rolled into one.
Here&#8217;s a breakdown of the most absurd reactions.
A plan to steal the 2022 and 2024 elections
Salon scribbler and <a href="https://twitter.com/AmandaMarcotte/status/1392295199754293248">CNN</a> “expert” Amanda Marcotte gave the most extreme opinion (as usual). “Cheney&#8217;s ouster should make it clear to anyone on Capitol Hill that Republicans aren&#8217;t kidding about their clear agenda to end democracy as we know it,” she <a href="https://twitter.com/AmandaMarcotte/status/1392534492854751233">tweeted</a>. “The GOP is coalescing around a plan to steal the 2022 and 2024 elections and purge any party members who dissent. This is a hair-on-fire emergency, but Democrats aren&#8217;t even treating it like a priority,” <a href="https://twitter.com/AmandaMarcotte/status/1392535013086973957">continued</a> Marcotte, who <a href="https://www.salon.com/2007/02/16/marcotte/">lost</a> her job on John Edwards’ 2008 presidential campaign because of <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=2871447&amp;page=1">anti-Christian/anti-Catholic</a> comments. “Big picture here: Trump attempted a coup just a few months ago. Now Republicans are lining up their ducks so the next coup doesn&#8217;t fail. And Democrats are&#8230;.not doing anything to stop them. This is super bad. We are super f***ed,” she <a href="https://twitter.com/AmandaMarcotte/status/1392536720906801156">concluded</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Cheney&#39;s ouster should make it clear to anyone on Capitol Hill that Republicans aren&#39;t kidding about their clear agenda to end democracy as we know it. So why are the filibuster addicts still burying their heads in the sand? <a href="https://t.co/UBJSLNjdqW">https://t.co/UBJSLNjdqW</a>
&mdash; Amanda Marcotte (@AmandaMarcotte) <a href="https://twitter.com/AmandaMarcotte/status/1392534492854751233?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 12, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 An act of sexism, perpetrated by Republican women
NBC News ran an article accusing Rep. Elise Stefanik and her colleagues of committing a “ruthless violation of the Woman Code” for preparing to replace one woman in leadership with another. “This coup against the last honest Republican woman in Congress was engineered by several powerful men (among them Trump, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise),” <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/know-your-value/feature/liz-cheney-elise-stefanik-gop-s-ruthless-violation-woman-code-ncna1266920?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma">wrote</a> Sophia A. Nelson in a feature article posted on NBC News&#8217; website. “But it was endorsed and enabled by dozens of compliant women.” (Apparently, only women who vote according to NBC’s party line are rebellious.) As such, “The Republican women of Congress” are denying that “[e]very woman who walks this Earth, no matter her race, religion or politics, has value.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Sophia A. Nelson: The coup against Rep. Cheney was engineered by several powerful men (among them fmr. President Trump, House Minority Leader McCarthy, and House Minority Whip Scalise). But it was endorsed and enabled by dozens of compliant women.<a href="https://t.co/Ks2vb0e1Pu">https://t.co/Ks2vb0e1Pu</a>
&mdash; MSNBC (@MSNBC) <a href="https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1392524485170012166?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 12, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Existential for democracy
CNN’s Dana Bash said the 2,500-year-old notion of Athenian democracy itself hangs in the balance after the Cheney vote. “This is existential, not just for the GOP; it is existential for democracy,” said Bash, the network’s chief political correspondent. She added that “[t]his country needs a viable, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/msnbc-guest-al-qaeda-terrorists-have-got-nothing-on-the-republican-party">two-party political system</a>, at least, to exist, and that is on the brink and in danger of collapsing.” Far from being a calculated strategy to become the next Republican media darling, Cheney’s outspoken anti-Trump speech on the House floor “reads to me like someone who is facing a political public execution and wants to be heard before that political execution happens,” said Bash.
Democracy dies in lies
The Daily Beast implied that democracy has already collapsed in the <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/coward-kevin-mccarthy-bows-before-the-big-lie-axes-liz-cheney-and-begs-trump-to-eat-him-last?via=desktop&amp;social=Linkedin">sub-headline</a> to an opinion piece posted shortly after this morning’s vote. “Democracy dies in lies, and so may the minority leader’s dream of ascending to the speakership,” it said. Writers do not usually headline their own stories, but we can credit Margaret Carlson with her own words: Her opening sentence blamed Republicans for “the crime of banishing Liz Cheney” from leadership.
 Liz Cheney, the next Ronald Reagan
Joe Scarborough, the morning anchor of ultra-liberal MSNBC’s programming schedule, said that “as a conservative” he recognizes Liz Cheney’s ouster as “a piece of history.” He added that Cheney’s floor speech, in which she said those who question the 2020 election “feed Communist propaganda,” marks her as a conservative leader in the mold of a Reagan or Thatcher:
<blockquote>As a conservative, you look back to those moments where somebody steps into the limelight and leads a movement. I think about Reagan in 1966. I think about Margaret Thatcher in 1975 in Britain, and her address before the Conservative Party; she sort of sweeps away the lectern and shows everybody who&#8217;s in control there. Liz Cheney could well be that person in 2021.</blockquote>
 Liz Cheney, virgin martyr
Cast members of ABC’s “The View” likened Liz to a literal martyr, the Catholic saint Joan of Arc. Joy Behar canonized Cheney as “the Joan of Arc standing up to the heretics” of “the QAnon party.” Co-host Sara Haines agreed that Cheney has greater spiritual purity than other Republicans, because “they will sell their souls for political gains.” (Surely, that’s a first in politics.)
Ben Johnson is the Media Reporter at The Daily Wire. He previously worked at the Acton Institute, FrontPage Magazine, and LifeSiteNews. He’s the author of three books, including Party of Defeat (2008, with David Horowitz). 
The views expressed in this piece are the author&#8217;s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

House Republican Leadership Speaks To The Media After Conference Meeting

‘A Hair-On-Fire Emergency’: Leftists React To Liz Cheney’s Ouster

Dana Bash

Joe Scarborough

Joy Behar

Liz Cheney

MSNBC

NBC News

The View

A constitutional republic is fragile — but according to the legacy media, democracy has been hanging on Liz Cheney’s position as chair of the House

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/a-hair-on-fire-emergency-leftists-react-to-liz-cheneys-ouster/

https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/05/GettyImages-1227725986.jpg

CNN’s ratings post-Donald Trump have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnns-ratings-are-plummeting-post-trump-more-than-two-thirds-of-the-audience-gone">imploded</a> by 65%, barely scraping together 800,000 average primetime viewers, down from 2.4 million in January. But why would Trump’s departure from the limelight be so devastating to the Left’s anchor cable news outlet?
I admit, I hold no degree in either the social sciences or journalism. But I have been in the commodities markets since 1990. Markets are, as any trader will tell you, very human constructs. Thus, the understanding of psychology plays a key role in market analysis. I’ve been doing this for many years, in both a sales and principal capacity, and so I think I’ve developed a pretty good handle on human nature.
For this reason, I was not surprised in the least that as so went Donald Trump, so went the ratings for CNN. The reason is that so many of their viewers are lost without the &#8220;Bad Orange Man.&#8221; Hating Trump was their raison d’ȇtre. Their sheer, unbridled, utterly bizarre animosity for this man is what gave them a purpose, an identity, and defined their social circles and who was friend and foe. Trump hatred, to them, was like an intravenous feed. They hauled their I.V. stand with the bag of Trump Derangement steadily drip-drip-dripping into their veins everywhere they went. And news outlets like CNN were the Big Pharma that supplied them with the constant dose of the &#8220;Orange Man Bad&#8221; solution.
Those sad people, whose otherwise empty lives were so driven by their Trump obsession, were the junkies to whom CNN pushed a steady supply of anti-Trump narcotics. And the network kept upping the dosage to keep them tuning in, no matter how implausible, dead end, or banal the stories seemed to the rest of us — Trump Jr.’s Trump Tower dud, years of Russia collusion, Comey’s self-serving escapades, John Brennan’s embittered sniping, James Clapper’s dour mendacity, Carl Bernstein’s “this is worse than Watergate”, the build-up to “Mueller Time”, Trump the “racist”, Trump the “misogynist”, Trump the “xenophobe”, Stormy Daniels and her sleazy lawyer Michael Avenatti (who appeared on CNN some 65 times before going to prison), Trump’s taxes, the fake dossier and Russian “pee tape”, Michael Cohen’s bumbling, the Japan fish food crime that wasn’t, Trump’s fast food diet, an unhappy Melania, the Officer Sicknick lie, the “threat to Democracy” themes, and so on. It never ended. One I.V. drip after another crafted especially for their core audience of the Trump Deranged…written not to cure them of their affliction, but rather pump more unhinging pathogens into their systems.
But now the drug has been cut off. Thanks to Big Tech’s unprecedented and dangerous banishment of a former president from the de facto public square, the addicts have been forced to quit cold turkey. And so they no longer need to tune in to the pharmacy window.
For five years, CNN has been, as Joe Biden might say, a “one-horse pony.” All Trump, all the time. Between June 16, 2015 and January 20, 2021, if you played a drinking game whereby you drank a shot every time CNN said “Trump”, you’d be unconscious before breakfast.
But now Trump is gone. And CNN suddenly finds itself in the unfamiliar position of having to be a news organization. But what else is there but Donald Trump? Their entire news apparatus was geared towards taking down this one man. How do they re-calibrate? What will they talk about now? Joe Biden? Even the most partisan hack will candidly admit the man is a feeble, empty vessel who’s led out to read from this or that piece of paper, or sit at a desk and sign here, and here, and here. Yawn. As far as CNN&#8217;s needy viewers are concerned, the drug store is closed. Time to move on.
On a deeper level, what does this abandonment of the all-Trump-bashing-all-the-time network say about its former viewers? To swing back to psychology for a moment, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) lists a mental disorder as: “a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior.”
I have tried on occasion to discuss Joe Biden’s policies with someone who is otherwise brilliant in his scientific field, and yet I truly believe suffers from a mental disorder as defined by the DSM-5 which is directly the consequence of his obsession with Trump. While I could take the &#8220;good Trump&#8221; or leave the &#8220;bad Trump&#8221; (of which there were both) this man cannot go a paragraph of conversation or line of text without pivoting to excoriating the Donald, even though he has been out of office for over 100 days. Needless to say, his two sources of news over the years have been The New York Times and CNN. But, like some 1.6 million others since January, he no longer tunes in to CNN. What’s the point? As far as he is concerned, if Trump is not in the news there is no news.
My friend is no different than the mainstream press whose constant stream of anti-Trump vitriol he so eagerly devoured for half a decade. As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/study-media-gives-biden-less-negative-coverage-than-any-president-on-record">The Daily Wire</a> reported, a recent Pew study shows that Joe Biden has received less negative coverage from the legacy media than any president in 30 years. That is hardly surprising. The mainstream media is now, for all intents and purposes, an extended press office of the DNC. What is more revealing is that half of all stories about Biden or his administration also mention Donald Trump. They simply cannot let him go.
One must think that CNN head Jeff Zucker is quite upset with Jack Dorsey for effectively de-platforming the man their viewers loved to hate. At least if Trump were still the mad tweeter, CNN’s writers would have something to write about every day. But now, with Trump gone, they are stuck just being another news outlet again. The Election of 2020, whose outcome they worked so tirelessly to influence for Joe Biden, effectively shattered their business model. Perhaps they should not have tried so hard to kill their golden-haired goose.
CNN’s ratings implosion is what happens when you become nothing more than an enabler for a feedback loop with your viewers that is based on the relentless destruction of one man. Because, when that man is gone, the gravity that held your viewers captive is gone, and they will scatter to the winds. In CNN’s case, by the hundreds of thousands. Live by the orange sword, die by the orange sword.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe"> member</a>.

Donald Trump

The Psychology Behind CNN’s Implosion

CNN’s ratings post-Donald Trump have imploded by 65%, barely scraping together 800,000 average primetime viewers, down from 2.4 million in January. But

The Psychology Behind CNN&#039;s Implosion

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/the-psychology-behind-cnns-implosion/

https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/05/GettyImages-1191859182-1200x800.jpg

When I talk about conservative-friendly entertainment, I don’t mean films starring Kevin Sorbo as a Christian professor who debates his atheist students or a TV series that consciously build storylines around Republican-favored policies. Whether from the right or left, this type of entertainment rarely entertains.
What I mean are movies and series that are fundamentally conservative in their outlook (whether the writers, directors, and cast realize it or not) because reality is fundamentally conservative. As much as Hollywood may pay lip service to progressive preoccupations, when it’s time to get to work, many creators still care more about telling an honest story or a funny joke than signaling their left-wing bona fides. It just sometimes takes a little work to find these productions when left-wing critics are so happy to lavish mediocre liberal morality tales with praise  (looking at you Aaron Sorkin).
Of course, the following list isn’t a promise that every entry will live up to my fondest red-state hopes, but they do offer the best bets for conservative-friendly entertainment over the next few months.
<a href="https://youtu.be/sV6VNNjBkcE">Those Who Wish Me Dead</a> (Release date May 14): Since writer/director Taylor Sheridan first hit the scene with 2015’s “Sicario,”<a href="https://slate.com/culture/2018/06/sicario-day-of-the-soldado-reveals-taylor-sheridan-is-the-new-nic-pizzolatto.html"> Slate</a> and other left-leaning media have dismissed his films, sneering at them as “memos from Trump Country.” Though they mean it as an insult, these outlets have a point. Sheridan’s films like “Hell or High Water” and “Wind River” capture populist grievances that defy party. His characters recognize that they’ve been sold out by elites on both the right and the left, and they’re understandably angry that the priorities of our cultural gatekeepers (BLM! transgender rights!) do nothing to improve the lives of everyday Americans of any color.
In fact, Sheridan himself has been happy to point out how his themes help explain the Trump presidency. He’s been clear that 2016’s “Hell or High Water” was about respect for the individual, telling<a href="https://www.thewrap.com/taylor-sheridan-on-how-hell-or-high-water-explains-trumps-election/"> The Wrap</a> of his industry’s tendency to sneer at the blue collar class, “We sit there and talk about diversity, but we’re going to lump people in an entire region together and sit there and attack them and assign beliefs to them in counties where the average income is $33,000 and we’re going to align them with the top one percent,” he said. “We attach all this stuff conveniently to people that have absolutely no connection to it. It’s unfair.” Indeed.
Though Sheridan’s screenplay for “Those Who Wish Me Dead” was based on another writer’s novel, the story about a fire jumper (Angelina Jolie) in the Montana wilderness has all the hallmarks of his previous work. Given his track record, there’s a strong chance it will square with a conservative worldview.
<a href="https://youtu.be/BpdDN9d9Jio">A Quiet Place 2</a> (Release date May 28): Some legacy film critics were so bothered by the underlying affirmation of faith, family, and strong fathers (who sometimes carry guns) in 2019’s “A Quiet Place,” they accused it of having a secret conservative agenda.<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-silently-regressive-politics-of-a-quiet-place"> The New Yorker’s</a> longtime critic Richard Brody expended an embarrassing number of words describing how white the cast was, calling the film “the whitest since the release of ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’” and accusing it of being the regressive antithesis of “Get Out.”<a href="http://filmfisher.com/2018/04/the-quiet-place-the-most-republican-film-hollywood-has-made-in-years/"> Film Fisher</a> called the movie, “The Most Republican Film Hollywood Has Made In Years.”
Of course, skin color had nothing to do with “A Quiet Place’s” deeply-affecting themes that would have worked whatever race the main characters were. Writer/director/star John Krasinski understandably denied Brody’s claim. But his review was right about one thing — the central conceit of the film, a society where speech may result in destruction, is a powerful conservative symbol. So powerful, it likely explains why Brody was so determined to label it as white supremacist.
If the second film respects its predecessor’s compelling story of a nuclear family trying to survive monsters in a post-nuclear world, it should provide a fine viewing experience.
<a href="https://youtu.be/lXl6KtP9TFw">Mythic Quest, Season 2</a> (Release date May 7, Apple TV+): Think of “Mythic Quest” as a kinder, gentler “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” except set in Silicon Valley with successful characters. While the jokes aren’t as raunchy as “Sunny’s,” the humor is still blissfully un-woke. The show routinely skewers Gen Z anxieties over sexual — and gender — identity and lampoons how disconnected politically correct HR training is from reality. Even the lesbian character admits she isn’t sure what the Q in LGBTQ stands for and sheepishly claims she “had a thing that day” when asked why she didn’t attend a company seminar on sexual harassment.
Middle-aged white guy, Ian (“Sunny” veteran Rob McElhenney), founded and created the wildly successful video game company of the show’s title. Naturally, his younger, female head designer, Poppy (Charlotte Nicdao), wants to dismiss him as privileged and out-of-touch, yet he continually confounds her with his competence and charisma. Worse, she constantly realizes she needs his insights to compete in the cut-throat world of gaming. With a bit of “30 Rock’s” Liz Lemon-Jack Donaghy vibe, Mythic Quest may wear progressive trappings, but a testosterone-fueled, right-wing heart beats underneath.
Yellowstone, Season 4 (Likely release in June): Another Taylor Sheridan creation, “Yellowstone” scored big ratings when it first debuted, ranking as the second most popular basic cable show of 2018 (just behind “The Walking Dead.”) So much so,<a href="https://www.tvguide.com/news/yellowstone-paramount-network-conservative-prestige-tv/"> TV Guide</a> wondered if Paramount Network had stumbled on to a brilliant new concept: “prestige viewing for conservatives.”
The series does exemplify a right-leaning worldview, but not because it offers over-simplified political answers to problems in a mirror image approach to so much liberal entertainment. Instead, it trusts viewers to understand moral complexity and allows them to reach their own conclusions.
Lead by patriarch John (Kevin Costner), the Duttons are a family of ranchers who constantly contend with claims to their land from Native American tribes, developers, and the federal government. The show is smart enough to make the best argument for each group.  In the most conservative sense, “Yellowstone” poses questions that can’t be solved with the bumper-sticker platitudes of the AOCs of the world.
<a href="https://youtu.be/mYfJxlgR2jw">Luca</a> (Release date June 18): Pixar is the only major studio with Christians in significant leadership positions (Chief Content Officer Pete Docter and Creative Vice President Andrew Stanton). So perhaps it’s not surprising that while the company has recently made a superficial show of affirming progressive fixations (namely, a casting call for a transgender character and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference to a gay cop in 2020’s “Onward”), its films have continued to focus on deeper truths. From “Toy Story 4’s” Forkie learning that you are what your creator says you are (something that directly contradicts that casting call) to “Soul’s” deeply pro-life ethic, Pixar’s themes continue to champion traditional family and the dignity of every individual as an individual rather than as a member of an identity group.
Thus, it’s a decent bet that their next big film, “Luca,” will be a win for families. Written and directed by Italian animator Enrico Casarosa, the man behind the lovely 2011 short “La Luna,” the story centers on two rambunctious boys who share a secret — they’re both sea monsters. And they’re out to find a summer of adventure with a human girl in an Italian village.
With beautiful simplicity, “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Luna_(2011_film)">La Luna</a>” illustrated how new generations can honor the traditions of the past while still finding their own, innovative paths. Here’s hoping “Luca” carries some of that same spirit.
<a href="https://youtu.be/auxeLrtk7tk">Ted Lasso, Season 2</a> (Release date July 23, Apple TV+): If I could summarize the themes of Ted Lasso in two words, they would be forgiveness and optimism. The half-hour comedy about a Kansas football coach who takes a job running a U.K. soccer team offers the antithesis of cancel culture. Rather than searching out the worst in people, then figuratively crucifying them when he finds it, Coach Ted (Jason Sudeikis) looks for the best in even his most arrogant, entitled, and bitter players. And when someone doesn’t live up to his upbeat, can-do expectations? He immediately gives them a break and, sometimes with a dose of tough love, an opportunity to do better next time.
Ted, the white, male Midwesterner with the Southern drawl and corny aphorisms should be a prime exhibit of the ugly American in Europe. He hates tea, spits out that bubbly Continental water, and routinely mangles the local lingo. Yet even the cynical U.K. press can’t resist his consummately American charm. If Ronald Reagan had been a sitcom football coach, he would be Ted Lasso. Thus, soon enough, Ted’s players adopt his cheerful meritocratic views. “Did you know J.K. Rowling has more money than the queen?” a Nigerian player exclaims. “I like the idea of someone becoming rich because of what they gave to the world, not just because of who their family is.”
Even the left-wing outlet<a href="https://slate.com/culture/2020/09/ted-lasso-jason-sudeikis-apple-tv-review.html"> Slate</a> had to admit that the show showcases the best of U.S. exceptionalism, saying it “vends a soothing vision of a red state-coded American as a kindly, gentle internationalist, as well as a world in which American soft power still works and does good, and an underestimated, know-nothing American can teach a bunch of foreigners a thing or two about the Beautiful Game and the game of life. On Ted Lasso, American innocence, humility, and heroism are all alive and well.”
“Maybe that’s why Republicans from Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker to Fox News anchor Dana Perino have been singing “Ted Lasso’s” praises.”
Megan Basham (<a href="https://twitter.com/megbasham">@megbasham</a>) is the entertainment reporter for The Daily Wire. She’s a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic who was previously an entertainment editor and podcast co-host for World Magazine. 
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

2016 Steve Nash Foundation Showdown

The 6 Best Bets for Conservative-Friendly Entertainment this Summer

When I talk about conservative-friendly entertainment, I don’t mean films starring Kevin Sorbo as a Christian professor who debates his atheist students

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/the-6-best-bets-for-conservative-friendly-entertainment-this-summer/

https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/05/GettyImages-542251474.jpg

Pastor Artur Pawlowski will not genuflect before the high priests of public health, and so Canadian police dragged him on his knees down a highway and threw him into the back of a squad car. The cops did not arrest Pawlowski at his church — the last time they tried that, the pastor and his congregation chased them out with cries of &#8220;Gestapo&#8221; and &#8220;Nazi&#8221; — but rather waylaid him on the street as he returned from leading the religious service.
“Law enforcement recognizes people&#8217;s desire to participate in faith-based gatherings,” the Calgary police insisted, &#8220;However, as we find ourselves in the midst of a global pandemic, we all must comply with public health orders in order to ensure everyone&#8217;s safety and wellbeing.&#8221; Canada recognizes the people&#8217;s &#8220;desire&#8221; to practice their religion, but not their right. When Christianity comes into conflict with the cult of secular progressivism, the state will side with the lab coat-clad bureaucrats over the cassock-clad priests.
Canada continues to disguise its persecution of Christians in the language of science. Officials in the United Kingdom, on the other hand, have admitted the fundamentally religious character of the conflict. In late April, police arrested a street preacher in London for causing “alarm and distress&#8221; by quoting allegedly &#8220;homophobic&#8221; verses from the Book of Genesis. And the putatively Christian Trent College near Nottingham recently fired its chaplain, the Reverend Dr. Bernard Randall, for discussing the differences between Christian and leftist sexual ethics.
&#8220;When ideologies compete, we should not descend into abuse, we should respect the beliefs of others, even where we disagree,” Reverend Randall explained. &#8220;Above all, we need to treat each other with respect, not personal attacks.&#8221; But Randall found himself the subject of just such personal attacks when he defended freedom of conscience against the sexual orthodoxies of the modern Left. &#8220;You should no more be told you have to accept LGBT ideology than you should be told you must be in favor of Brexit or must be Muslim — to both of which I&#8217;m sure you would quite rightly object.&#8221; The ideologues did not agree.
After Randall gave his sermon, Trent College&#8217;s &#8220;designated safe guarding lead&#8221; reported him not only to school officials, who fired him, but also to the British government&#8217;s anti-terrorism unit, which exists to protect young Brits from &#8220;radicalisation.&#8221; In the United Kingdom, the transgender ideology, which holds that men can become women simply by wishing it so, is considered common sense; the notion that men and women are different, radical.
But what happens when protected victim groups come into conflict? If a Muslim student quotes the Qur’an, which instructs, “Punish both of those among you who are guilty of [sodomy],” does he thereby victimize or stigmatize homosexuals on the basis of their sexual orientation? If the Muslim student faces criticism or punishment for quoting the Qur’an, has he been victimized or stigmatized on the basis of his religion?
Religious tolerance has limits, as liberals and leftists throughout the Anglosphere prove more clearly every day. Contrary to popular and hysterical fears of “theocracy,” all regimes necessarily recognize and pursue some conception of the good. Political correctness has promoted various slogans as euphemisms to just such an effect. Most recently it has exalted “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” and it has installed deans and vice presidents of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” on campus, in government agencies, and throughout corporate America to perform the sorts of religious and ethical functions once reserved for chaplains and the episcopacy.
Christianity has long been the most persecuted religion in the world, as the Pew Research Center demonstrated in 2018. That trend, once largely confined to places such as China and the Arab states, appears to be spreading to the West. Perhaps Christendom will stand up to defend the faith of its fathers. In the meantime, the religion of the martyrs returns to its roots.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Santa Fe, New Mexico

KNOWLES: The Limits of Religious Tolerance

Christianity

Religious Freedom

Pastor Artur Pawlowski will not genuflect before the high priests of public health, and so Canadian police dragged him on his knees down a highway and

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/knowles-the-limits-of-religious-tolerance/

https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/05/GettyImages-834747684.jpg

Following Facebook&#8217;s Oversight Board&#8217;s decision to uphold former President Donald Trump&#8217;s ban from Facebook and Instagram, Republicans reignited calls to revoke Section 230 protections for Big Tech corporations. The Board did, however, say that if a permanent ban is instituted, the company needs to clarify its standards surrounding bans.
“As Facebook suspended Mr. Trump’s accounts ‘indefinitely,’ the company must reassess this penalty,” the Board said, according to a report from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mark-meadows-break-up-of-big-tech-is-on-the-horizon-in-congress-following-facebook-upholding-trump-ban">The Daily Wire</a>. “It is not permissible for Facebook to keep a user off the platform for an undefined period, with no criteria for when or whether the account will be restored.”
Shortly after the decision, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mark-meadows-break-up-of-big-tech-is-on-the-horizon-in-congress-following-facebook-upholding-trump-ban">said</a> that a “breakup of Big Tech” is likely to take place. Although Congress could focus on regulation, it would make more sense to pass legislation to address the issue, Meadows explained.
“When you look at Google and Facebook, they have more power over what we read and what we see than any in the media,” Meadows said. “Google and Facebook and YouTube actually control much of what America sees, whether it’s you and I talking right now and it gets reposted on any of those platforms, they have the ability to actually raise that profile or lower it. And so, it is time that we break up Big Tech, not just regulate it.”
Other Republicans, such as Rep. <a href="https://twitter.com/RepJimBanks/status/1389942124406198277?s=20">Jim Banks</a> (R-IN) and Rep. <a href="https://twitter.com/RepLisaMcClain/status/1389961977515155470?s=20">Lisa McClain</a> (R-MI), are in agreement with Meadows that Section 230 protections need to be reformed.
But what exactly is Section 230 and how does it protect social media platforms?
About the law
Section 230 of the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/230">Communications Decency Act of 1996</a> protects Internet service companies that &#8220;offer users a great degree of control over the information that they receive, as well as the potential for even greater control in the future as technology develops.&#8221;
The original goal was to protect small startup companies from being held liable for what content their users post, including any content deemed &#8220;obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected.&#8221;
&#8220;No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider,&#8221; the law states.
This section of the law has allowed social media platforms to flourish, as the<a href="https://www.eff.org/issues/cda230"> Electronic Frontier Foundation</a> explains:
<blockquote>This legal and policy framework has allowed for YouTube and Vimeo users to upload their own videos, Amazon and Yelp to offer countless user reviews, craigslist to host classified ads, and Facebook and Twitter to offer social networking to hundreds of millions of Internet users. Given the sheer size of user-generated websites (for example, Facebook alone has more than 1 billion users, and YouTube users upload 100 hours of video every minute), it would be infeasible for online intermediaries to prevent objectionable content from cropping up on their site. Rather than face potential liability for their users&#8217; actions, most would likely not host any user content at all or would need to protect themselves by being actively engaged in censoring what we say, what we see, and what we do online.</blockquote>
Why it&#8217;s controversial
According to some conservatives, Big Tech companies like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google are no longer deemed &#8220;internet service providers&#8221; when the companies regulate what speech is acceptable. In their opinion, deleting specific content or suspending certain users makes those platforms &#8220;publishers,&#8221; and should therefore not be protected in the same way.
Last fall, the Department of Justice — at President Donald Trump&#8217;s direction — reviewed Section 230 and issued a number of potential reforms, with one such area being the issue of content moderation, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/file/1286331/download">explained</a> under the title, &#8220;Promoting Open Discourse and Greater Transparency.&#8221;
<blockquote>A fourth category of potential reforms is intended to clarify the text and original purpose of the statute in order to promote free and open discourse online and encourage greater transparency between platforms and users.
a. Replace Vague Terminology in (c)(2).  First, the Department supports replacing the vague catch-all “otherwise objectionable” language in Section 230(c)(2) with “unlawful” and “promotes terrorism.”  This reform would focus the broad blanket immunity for content moderation decisions on the core objective of Section 230—to reduce online content harmful to children—while limiting a platform&#8217;s ability to remove content arbitrarily or in ways inconsistent with its terms or service simply by deeming it “objectionable.” 
b. Provide Definition of Good Faith.  Second, the Department proposes adding a statutory definition of “good faith,” which would limit immunity for content moderation decisions to those done in accordance with plain and particular terms of service and accompanied by a reasonable explanation, unless such notice would impede law enforcement or risk imminent harm to others. Clarifying the meaning of &#8220;good faith&#8221; should encourage platforms to be more transparent and accountable to their users, rather than hide behind blanket Section 230 protections.
c. Explicitly Overrule Stratton Oakmont to Avoid Moderator’s Dilemma.  Third, the Department proposes clarifying that a platform’s removal of content pursuant to Section 230 (c)(2) or consistent with its terms of service does not, on its own, render the platform a publisher or speaker for all other content on its service.
</blockquote>
Although the subject of reforming Section 230 is one both sides of the aisle can get behind, change, at least for now, remains unlikely, especially with President Trump as the focal point.
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/facebook-board-upholds-trump-ban-demands-platform-clarify-standards">Facebook Board Upholds Trump Ban, Demands Platform Clarify Standards</a>
Beth Baumann is a Political Reporter and Editor at The Daily Wire. Follow her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/eb454">@eb454</a>.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

In this photo illustration, the Facebook logo seen displayed

What You Need To Know About Section 230 And Potential Social Media Reforms

Big Tech

Facebook

Following Facebook&#039;s Oversight Board&#039;s decision to uphold former President Donald Trump&#039;s ban from Facebook and Instagram, Republicans reignited calls to

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/what-you-need-to-know-about-section-230-and-potential-social-media-reforms/

https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/05/GettyImages-1232387557.jpg

April’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-unemployment-rate-increases-numbers-way-worse-than-expected-talk-of-inflation-grows">dismal</a> employment report drives home the fact that an extra $300 a week in unemployment benefits effectively <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-struggles-disastrous-jobs-report-shows-america-is-on-the-right-track">pays</a> workers to stay at home, making it more profitable for them to remain out of work than to pursue a job. In response, a number of Republican governors have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-is-about-as-close-to-socialism-that-ive-seen-5-gop-governors-reject-bidens-increased-unemployment-benefits">canceled</a> the unemployment bonuses in their states, while the Biden administration and its defenders have concocted dubious-sounding stories about how these extra unemployment benefits are necessary in the midst of a hiring boom.
CNN host Chris Cuomo elevated the UI bonus to the status of life-saving necessity on his program this week.
“People are literally starving” even with the additional government boost, he said on Monday’s “Cuomo Prime Time”:
<blockquote>People are literally starving in this country, still. Look at the numbers. They are starving in a way we&#8217;ve never seen since we&#8217;ve been alive. That&#8217;s the impact of $300 a week. It can keep you out of that.</blockquote>
“That money matters for Americans, OK?” said the youngest Cuomo. “It&#8217;s a reflection of need, and also a reflection of how few people are paid well”—previewing the elitist argument that mom-and-pop stores which cannot afford to pay their employees $15 an hour deserve to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/msnbc-terrible-jobs-report-is-the-pressure-we-need-to-pass-15-minimum-wage">go out of business</a>. But let’s take one argument at a time.
Is this true? 
In a word, no: $300 a week in additional unemployment benefits isn’t keeping anyone from starvation.
America is the leading food <a href="https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-american-food-giant-the-largest-exporter-of-food-in-the-world.html">exporter</a> in the world. Food banks and soup kitchens reach into every community. And Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) income guidelines <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/recipient/eligibility">allow</a> a family of four to earn up to $34,068 a year and still be eligible for food stamps — and the extra $300 a week in unemployment benefits <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/19/latest-stimulus-bill-expands-increased-food-stamps-through-september.html">doesn’t count</a> toward that limit. Joe Biden’s “American Rescue Plan” saw to it that those food stamps are increased by an extra 15% until September.
So few Americans die of hunger every year that the government essentially stopped tracking it. The World in Data records that 0.69 Americans per 100,000 <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/malnutrition-death-rates">die</a> of malnutrition. This is less from lack of access to food than mental health issues, abandonment, or abuse.
Food is so abundant in America that we <a href="https://www.ifco.com/countries-with-the-least-and-most-food-waste/">throw away</a> more food than any nation in the world. “In the United States, food waste is estimated at between 30–40 percent of the food supply,” <a href="https://www.fda.gov/food/consumers/food-loss-and-waste">according</a> to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “Wasted food is the single largest category of material placed in municipal landfills and represents nourishment that could have helped feed families in need.”
“Each year, the food we waste costs the North American economy US$ 278 billion and could have fed 260 million people,” <a href="http://www.fao.org/north-america/news/detail/en/c/1311537/">said</a> Armando Yáñez Sandoval of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation.
That is not to say everything is well. The COVID-19 global pandemic brought insecurity to millions of families’ kitchens — and every other area of life. The GDP <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-economy-implodes-shrinking-at-record-breaking-33-rate-last-quarter">shrunk</a> at an annualized rate of 33% during the second quarter of 2020 due to the pandemic and its associated lockdowns. Extra unemployment benefits, originally of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jobless-claims-rise-after-weeks-of-decline-as-states-lock-down-again">$600</a> a week, were meant to combat the fact that the government stopped an economic boom and told workers to “stay home.”
But the April jobs report shows that the bonuses have become counterproductive. In March, there were a record-breaking <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/job-openings-jolts-8-1-million-highest-level-on-record/">8.1 million</a> open jobs available, yet millions went unfulfilled because the government had essentially given them a better job.
That’s bad, because employment teaches skills, meets needs, serves others, builds wealth, increases national security, and helps a person use his or her God-given talents to support a family. Before the 2020 election, our national leaders used to talk about the benefits of work openly and proudly.
“A job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It&#8217;s about dignity. It&#8217;s about respect. It&#8217;s about being able to look your kid in the eye and say everything will be okay,” <a href="https://twitter.com/joebiden/status/1317623931914813444?lang=en">said</a> presidential candidate Joe Biden in 2020.
“Too many people today can&#8217;t do that — and it&#8217;s got to change.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
A job is about a lot more than a paycheck.
It&#39;s about dignity. It&#39;s about respect. It&#39;s about being able to look your kid in the eye and say everything will be okay.
Too many people today can&#39;t do that — and it&#39;s got to change.
&mdash; Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1317623931914813444?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 18, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

WarnerMedia Upfront 2019 – Arrivals

Fact Check: Chris Cuomo Says Americans Are ‘Literally Starving’ Without $300 Unemployment Benefits

Chris Cuomo

Fact Check

Jobs

Unemployment

April’s dismal employment report drives home the fact that an extra $300 a week in unemployment benefits effectively pays workers to stay at home, making

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/fact-check-chris-cuomo-says-americans-are-literally-starving-without-300-unemployment-benefits/

https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2021/05/GettyImages-1149280628.jpg

Menu