The Netflix documentary Knock Down the House, which follows the campaigns of female Democratic hopefuls in the 2018 election cycle, and highlights Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), is so far thehighest rated filmof 2019, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
The documentary, which had its rights purchased by Netflix for a whopping $10 million, has a 100 percent approval rating among Rotten Tomatoes users, eclipsing the likes of Amazing Grace, Apollo 11, and Ash is the Purest White.
Knock Down the Housefollows the campaigns of female Democratic hopefuls Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Cori Bush, and Paula Jean Swearengin as they campaigned for Congress during the 2018 midterm elections.
“At a moment of historic volatility in American politics, these four women decide to fight back, setting themselves on a journey that will change their lives and their country forever,”notes Rotten Tomatoes. “Without political experience or corporate money, they build a movement of insurgent candidates challenging powerful incumbents in Congress. Their efforts result in a legendary upset.”
In February, the film won the coveted audience award at the Sundance Film Festival and a five-minute standing ovation. Ocasio-Cortez, who was the only one of the four women featured to win her election, was not in attendance but sent a message to the audience via video link.
“I’m just so glad that this moment for all four of us was captured and documented not just for the personal meaning of it but for everyday people to see that yes, this is incredibly challenging, yes, the odds are long but also that yes, this is worth it,” she said.
The film, which premiered on Netflix in May, also drew gushing reviews from left-wing critics. The Guardian‘s Jordan Hoffman wrote described it as “inspiring and a “classic David and Goliath scenario.”
“Everyone likes an underdog story, and when the underdog is as eloquent, passionate and righteous as these four women are, the final reels of this film feel like a Rocky movie,” he wrote at the time.
“I think there is heightened interest in this situation because it’s the mumps.”
By Tyler Durden
Approximately 5,200 adult migrants in US custody for illegally entering the country have been quarantined by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after being exposed to mumps or chicken pox, according to the agency.
An ICE official told CNN on Friday that of the quarantined individuals, approximately 80% (4,200) were exposed to mumps, 800 were exposed to chicken pox, and around 100 migrants were exposed to both. They will be quarantined for 25 days.
Just because individuals are quarantined doesn’t mean they have the mumps, but they’ve at least been exposed to it. From September 2018 to June 13, 297 people in ICE custody had confirmed cases of mumps, proven by blood test. –CNN
The agency began recording cases of mumps last September, with 297 cases for the period of time ending June 13.
“I think there is heightened interest in this situation because it’s the mumps,which is a new occurrence in custody, but preventing the spread of communicable disease in ICE custody is something we have demonstrated success doing,”said ICE executive associate director for enforcement and removal operations, Nathalie Asher.
“From an operational perspective, the impact is significant in the short and long termand will result in an increase in cohorted detainees’ length of stay in detention, an inability to effect removal of eligible cohorted detainees, and postponing scheduled consular interviews for quarantined detainees,” Ascher added.
According to the report, ICE staff has been put on alert.
“This week, the ICE Health Service Corps issued a reminder to senior field leadership reminding their staff to review vaccination records and take appropriate actions,”said CNN‘s source.
In May, almost 133,000 illegals were apprehended by Customs and Border Protection, the vast majority of whom were families and unaccompanied minors.
CBP employees are overwhelmed
This week, Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan said that employee morale among border officials is low.
“Their morale is impacted. They’re tired. A lot of them have gotten sick. They’ve been exposed to flu, chicken pox, measles, mumps — all kinds of challenges in terms of the medical care,” he said. “They’re spending time overnight in hospitals instead of patrolling the border.”
Late last month, the Department of Homeland Security inspector general released a report detailing some of the issues facing border patrol facilities amid the swell of migrant arrivals.
In particular, the IG found “dangerous overcrowding” and unsanitary conditions at an El Paso, Texas, Border Patrol processing facility following an unannounced inspection, according to a new report.
The IG found “standing room only conditions” at the El Paso Del Norte Processing Center, which has a maximum capacity of 125 migrants. On May 7 and 8, logs indicated that there were “approximately 750 and 900 detainees, respectively.” –CNN
“We also observed detainees standing on toilets in the cells to make room and gain breathing space, thus limiting access to the toilets,” according to the report.
We wonder how far along Trump’s wall would be by now if Congress had played ball on day one.
ROME — Pope Francis warned of disastrous consequences if humanity does not immediately react to the threat of climate change, since the world has reached a “critical moment” and there is no time to waste.
“Dear friends, time is running out!” the pope told a group of participants in a Vatican-sponsored conference on energy transition Friday. “We cannot afford the luxury of waiting for others to come forward or of prioritizing short-term economic benefits. The climate crisis requires decisive action from us, here and now.”
Despite the pontiff’s frequent denunciation of a “politics of fear,” he seemed determined to paint as frightening a picture as possible of an impending climate apocalypse in order to incite people to action.
This conference “takes place at a critical moment,”Francis said. “Today’s ecological crisis, especially climate change, threatens the very future of the human family, and this is not an exaggeration. For too long we have collectively ignored the fruits of scientific analysis, and catastrophic predictions can no longer be viewed with contempt and irony.”
The pope’s words Friday went beyond sounding a general alarm and scorning climate-change skeptics. They also urged specific political action, most notably regarding penalties for carbon usage such as a carbon tax.
“A carbon pricing policy is essential if humanity wants to use the resources of creation wisely,” he said. “The failure to manage carbon emissions has produced a huge debt that will now have to be repaid with interest from those who come after us.”
The cost of carbon usage must be paid here and now by those who use it, and not deferred for future generations to cover, he proposed.
“Our use of common environmental resources can be considered ethical only when the social and economic costs of their use are recognized in a transparent manner and are fully sustained by those who use them, rather than by other populations or future generations,” he said.
The pope reiterated the popular belief that “the effects on the climate will be catastrophic if we exceed the 1.5ºC threshold outlined in the Paris Agreement goals,” for which we have “only a little over a decade.”
“In the face of a climatic emergency, we must take appropriate measures, in order to avoid committing a grave injustice towards the poor and future generations. We must act responsibly well considering the impact of our actions in the short and long term,” he said.
“Future generations are soon to inherit a very ruined world,” the pontiff stressed. “Our children and grandchildren should not have to pay the cost of the irresponsibility of our generation.”
Appearing to take a page from AOC’s Green New Deal, Francis expressed his conviction that an energy transition from fossil fuels to a low-carbon society “can generate new employment opportunities, reduce inequality, and increase the quality of life for those affected by climate change.”
Today “a radical energy transition is needed to save our common home,” he warned. “There is still hope and the time remains to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, provided that there is prompt and resolute action.”
What is going on with the unending Brexit drama, the aftershocks of Donald Trump’s election and the “yellow vests” protests in France?
What drives the growing estrangement of southern and eastern Europe from the European Union establishment? What fuels the anti-EU themes of recent European elections and the stunning recent Australian re-election of conservatives?
Put simply, the middle classes are revolting against Western managerial elites. The latter group includes professional politicians, entrenched bureaucrats, condescending academics, corporate phonies and propagandistic journalists.
What are the popular gripes against them?
One, illegal immigration and open borders have led to chaos. Lax immigration policies have taxed social services and fueled multicultural identity politics, often to the benefit of boutique leftist political agendas.
Two, globalization enriched the cosmopolitan elites who found worldwide markets for their various services. New global markets and commerce meant Western nations outsourced, offshored and ignored their own industries and manufacturing (or anything dependent on muscular labor that could be replaced by cheaper workers abroad).
Three, unelected bureaucrats multiplied and vastly increased their power over private citizens. The targeted middle classes lacked the resources to fight back against the royal armies of tenured regulators, planners, auditors, inspectors and adjusters who could not be fired and were never accountable.
Enlarge ImageA Yellow Vest Pro-Brexit Protestor seen with an EU flag modified with a Swastika during a rally at Trafalgar Square.Getty Images
Four, the new global media reached billions and indoctrinated rather than reported.
Five, academia, rather than focusing on education, became politicized as a shrill agent of cultural transformation — while charging more for less learning.
Six, utopian social planning increased housing, energy, and transportation costs.
One common gripe framed all these diverse issues: The wealthy had the means and influence not to be bothered by higher taxes and fees, or to avoid them altogether. Not so much the middle classes, who lacked the clout of the virtue-signaling rich and the romance of the distant poor.
In other words, elites never suffered the firsthand consequences of their own ideological fiats.
Green policies were aimed at raising fees on, and restricting the use of, carbon-based fuels. But proposed green belt-tightening among the hoi polloi was not matched by cutbacks in their second and third homes, overseas vacations, luxury cars, private jets and high-tech appurtenances.
In education, government directives and academic hectoring about admissions quotas and ideological indoctrination likewise targeted the middle classes but not the elite. The micromanagers of Western public schools and universities often preferred private academies and rigorous traditional training for their own children.
Elites relied on old-boy networks to get their own kids into colleges. Diversity administrators multiplied at universities while indebted students borrowed more money to pay for them.
In matters of immigration, the story was much the same. Western elites encouraged the migration of indigent, unskilled and often poorly educated foreign nationals who would ensure that government social programs — and the power of the elites themselves — grew.
The champions of open borders made sure that such influxes did not materially affect their own neighborhoods, schools and privileged way of life.
Elites masked their hypocrisy by virtue-signaling their disdain for the supposedly xenophobic, racist or nativist middle classes. Yet the non-elite have experienced firsthand the impact on social programs, schools and safety from sudden, massive and often illegal immigration from Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia into their communities.
As for trade, few still believe in “free” trade when it remains so unfair. Why didn’t elites extend to China their same tough-love lectures about global warming or about breaking the rules of trade, copyrights and patents?
The middle classes became nauseated by elites’ constant trashing of their culture, history and traditions, including the tearing down of statues, the Trotskyizing of past heroes, the renaming of public buildings and streets and, for some, the tired and empty whining about “white privilege.”
If Western nations were really so bad, and so flawed at their founding, why were millions of non-Westerners risking their lives to reach Western soil?
How was it that elites themselves had made so much money, had gained so much influence and had enjoyed such material bounty and leisure from such a supposedly toxic system — benefits that they were unwilling to give up despite their tired moralizing about selfishness and privilege?
In the next few years, expect more grass-roots demands for the restoration of the value of citizenship. There will be fewer middle-class apologies for patriotism and nationalism. The non-elite will become angrier about illegal immigration, demanding a return to the idea of measured, meritocratic, diverse and legal immigration.
Because elites have no answers to popular furor, the anger directed at them will only increase until they give up — or finally succeed in their grand agenda of a nondemocratic, all-powerful Orwellian state.
The International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank do not want Trump to make America great again.
by Shane Trejo
Two of the most powerful international bankers in the world are teaming up in a joint effort to halt President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ trade policies.
Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank (ECB) and Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), are urging Trump to abandon his trade war and return to the status quo preferred by globalist financiers.
“We meet at a moment when support for global cooperation and multilateral solutions is waning,” Lagarde said at the 8th ECB conference for the central, eastern and south-eastern European (CESEE) nations on Wednesday.
“Global growth has been subdued for more than six years and the largest economies in the world are putting up, or threatening to put up, new trade barriers. And this might be the beginning of something else, which might affect us all in a more broad way,” she added.
Lagarde also warned: “These troubling developments will create headwinds for all, but certainly for the CESEE growth model, a model that has relied on openness and integration.”
Draghi also forecast doom unless Trump submitted to China, abandoned his nationalistic policies, and let he and his fellow bankster cronies go back to running the global economy.
“Global trade has faced headwinds in recent years as trade-restrictive measures have outpaced liberalising measures,” Draghi said.
“The central and eastern European business model has become vulnerable to shocks to international trade and financial conditions,” he added, warning of potential ill effects of Trump threatening to hike tariffs on European autos.
“The effect of tariffs could be amplified, as a large share of goods cross borders multiple times during the production process,” Draghi said.
“The main long-term challenge is moving towards a more balanced growth and financing model, which is more reliant on domestic innovation and on higher investment spending than it has been so far,” he added.
Regardless of the fear-mongering of the international bankers, President Trump remains undaunted in his resolve to cut China down to size and approve the standing of the U.S. in the world.
A compilation of Obama-era scandals that Sleepy Joe Biden claims didn’t happen
JUNE 13, 2019
2020 Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden has been touring the country lying to the American people, claiming he and President Barack Obama ran a scandal-free administration.
Left-wing anti-Keystone pipeline protesters accosted a group of National Guard soldiers at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Rapid City, South Dakota, the National Guard confirms to Big League Politics.
In response, the National Guard has warned its service members not to wear their uniforms in public while they are off duty, as the anti-pipeline protests intensify.
“I can confirm that the incident took place, and that there were National Guard soldiers that were involved,” National Guard lieutenant colonel Anthony Deiss confirms to Big League Politics. More than 80 people protested outside the Rapid City courthouse as the battle over the Keystone pipeline heads to court. The ACLU’s lawsuit against South Dakota governor Kristi Noem over a law seeking criminal penalties for “riot boosting” made its way to court Thursday.
“We’ve made National Guard soldiers and service members aware of the incident and what had happened and to maintain awareness when out in public in uniform, and if they see something out of the ordinary or suspicious to report that through the chain of command,” Deiss stated.
“While off duty is what we recommended,” Deiss said, confirming that the National Guard recommended that its soldiers not wear their uniforms in public while off duty.
“When they are off-duty, we make recommendations on what they should wear, but most service members when they’re off duty usually wear civilian clothes anyway,” Deiss said.
Shad Olson, South Dakota broadcaster and activist, first learned about the incident and wrote the following:
“It was an ugly lunchtime scene at a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in Rapid City Wednesday as a group of Army National Guard soldiers were accosted, insulted and attacked by members of a large group of militant leftist oil pipeline protesters who have traveled to Rapid City to disrupt federal court proceedings regarding a new law that provides enhanced penalties for pipeline protesting on private property.
Witnesses say that police were called and that the restaurant manager was attempting to forcibly remove members of that protest group after their screaming chants of “Babykiller, Babykiller,” and profanity against the soldiers disrupted an otherwise peaceful meal for customers. As she was leaving, one woman set off a smoke device that triggered fire alarms and caused an evacuation of the restaurant.
Army National Guard soldiers stationed at Camp Rapid in Rapid City have now been instructed to avoid wearing their uniforms out and about in public until the conclusion of the federal court proceeding that has drawn more than a thousand leftist protesters to the Black Hills of South Dakota.”
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