It’s hard to ponder our education system for long and come away thinking it makes sense. This is especially true for our lack of choice in public education. Think about it: We aren’t assigned and restricted to specific grocery stores, hospitals, car dealerships, or churches based on where we happen to live. Even when tax dollars are involved, such as with food stamps or Medicaid, people can choose among a variety of private providers. Parents of children below the age of five choose where — even whether — to send their children to preschool. Likewise, young adults choose whether and where to receive post-secondary education. Even when vouchers or state grants are involved, no one is assigned to a preschool or college based on where they live. But when it comes to educating children in the 5-17 age range (give or take a bit depending on the state), it’s a completely different story. The government assigns kids in this age group to a school based on their home address. Sure, it’s easy to understand why the system was set up that way in the 1800s when transportation and communication were difficult. If it made any sense in 2024, wouldn’t we see people clamoring to assign people to providers in other sectors based on where they live? Happily, there’s growing recognition that children should be educated based on their needs, not their addresses. That’s the premise behind school choice, which is an umbrella term for a variety of programs that allow tax dollars to follow children to a variety of educational options. A voucher program created in 1990 to give lower-income families in Milwaukee access to private schools is considered the first modern school choice program in America. According to the advocacy group EdChoice, there are now 80 school choice programs on the books in 31 states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, with more than a million students participating. Much of the growth in school choice has happened post-COVID. School closures led to Zoom schooling, which gave parents a front-row seat to see what their children were — or were not — being taught in school. In some cases, this resulted in values clashes, especially around sex education, gender ideology, and how racial issues are discussed. School choice supporters responded to these clashes by pointing out that choice lets people avoid the winner-takes-all political battles that are part and parcel of government-run schooling. Media stories and union-led opposition campaigns often lump all school choice programs into one category called vouchers. However, there are several different types of programs that are quite distinct. Vouchers, such as the previously mentioned Milwaukee program, use state tax dollars and can only be used for private school tuition. Tax credit scholarships are funded with donations from businesses or individuals who receive a credit on their state taxes in return for their donations. Education savings accounts (ESAs) are funded with tax dollars, but they can be used for a wide variety of educational expenses, not just tuition. Tax credit ESAs are funded like tax credit scholarships, but they function like ESAs in terms of what expenses they can fund. Individual tax credits or deductions give parents a credit or deduction on their individual state tax returns based on their education-related spending. Historically, most school choice programs have been limited to specific populations — such as students with special needs, lower-income families, and students assigned to low-performing schools. Starting with West Virginia in 2021, there has been a growing push for programs with universal or nearly universal eligibility, which means all students, regardless of address, abilities, or income, would be eligible. 2023 was dubbed the year of universal choice, given that eight states either expanded programs to universal eligibility or created new ones that are heading toward universality. Unfortunately, funding hasn’t kept up, so some states that have universal eligibility on paper still have waitlists in reality. On the plus side, there was continued progress in 2024. Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Wyoming created new education savings accounts. Alabama’s and Louisiana’s programs will initially be limited to families below specified income levels before eventually being open to all students. The Georgia Promise Scholarship is targeted to students assigned to the bottom 25 percent of public schools in the state. Only students from families whose incomes do not exceed 150 percent of the federal poverty level are eligible for Wyoming’s new ESA. Several other states expanded eligibility and/or funding of existing school choice programs. However, 2024 also saw some setbacks. While political candidates who support school choice fared well in this year’s elections, pro-school choice ballot questions in Colorado, Kentucky, and Nebraska did not. As my colleague Neal McCluskey and I explained recently, there are a lot of reasons why the anti-school choice side won these contests. Beyond that, we pointed out, “education choices should not be based on majority rule. It is simply wrong to compel families to pay for, and de facto attend, government schools — places intended to do nothing less than shape human minds — that they find subpar, or even morally unacceptable, even if the majority is okay with them.” Despite these losses, the march toward universal school choice continued through 2024. At the same time, there has been increasing attention paid to important issues such as ensuring families know these options exist, encouraging education entrepreneurship so families have a place to use their school choice funding, and working to increase funding so students don’t get trapped on waitlists while their education suffers. The spread of school choice and related policies is transforming the education landscape in America. Parents are increasingly being equipped to choose the best-fit education for their children instead of being compelled to attend a government-run school they happen to live near. And once families experience having a choice in education, they’re unlikely to want a return to the antiquated system of having their address determine their children’s education. Colleen Hroncich is a policy analyst at the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom. READ MORE: Churches Bring School Choice to Every State K-12 Parents Need Same Choices as College Athletes Scholarships Succeed in Pennsylvania Catholic School The post The Status of School Choice: Looking Back at Gains in 2024 appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Gladiator II (2024) is the next installment in failed historical fiction, disappointingly delivered by the director who once brought us Black Hawk Down (2001), American Gangster (2007), and Blade Runner (1982), among many others. It follows his previous lackluster historical fiction, Napoleon (2023). Despite plagiarizing its predecessor to an extent that would make President Biden blush, there’s little family resemblance between the two movies past crude nostalgia baiting. Lucius Verus (Paul Mescal), revealed to be the son of Maximus from Gladiator, was sent away by his mother Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) after the events of that film to protect him from assassins, as he is the grandson of one emperor and nephew of another, making him a potential rival to whoever sits on the Roman throne. Lucius lives with his wife in Numidia when their city is attacked by Roman legionnaires under the command of General Acacius (Pedro Pascal). Lucius’s wife is killed in the attack, he is taken as a slave and trained to be a gladiator, and he swears vengeance against Acacius. Unbeknownst to him, Acacius is tired of war and plots with his wife Lucilla to depose Rome’s corrupt twin emperors, Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger).  Now, not having a reason for existing does not a bad story make. Consider HBO’s The Penguin, for example. But a story that doesn’t need to be told does have a higher bar to meet when it comes to being told well. And here, Gladiator II doesn’t measure up. Despite being an almost shot-for-shot remake of the first film with the same character roles, it feels conventional and modern. There’s a certain kind of sequel that’s become more common over the last decade. It takes a completed story that doesn’t need anything more, fasts forward a few decades, and just repeats it with new characters and some minor tweaks. Ta-da, a reboot! Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the archetype of this kind of movie. Was it a bad film? Not necessarily. But it was a film that was cautious to the point of cowardice, a film that had nothing to say, and a film that seemed to have no reason to exist beyond making money. So too with Gladiator II. The only differences between the two are stylistic in nature — and are for the worse. Maximus’s character traits from the first film are broken up into the Lucius and Acacius roles, both of whom give thoroughly adequate but mediocre performances. The role of Commodus is given to the twin emperors, and to an extent Denzel Washington’s Macrinus, who is also this film’s version of the gladiator trainer Proximo. Macrinus definitely earns the superlative of the best character in the film, but that’s sadly not a high honor. The Roman emperors were finely acted and had the potential to be interesting antagonists, but they never got to really do anything and were just cartoon villains who twirl their mustaches and get manipulated by Macrinus. They capture a certain petulance that we saw from Commodus in the first film but lack his competence, humanity, and menace. For his part, Macrinus isn’t really a clear villain until the film decides he is at the end, and his conclusion is perplexing in light of his intelligence. Especially comical are the animals. Gladiator used horses and tigers tastefully, in a way that never broke your immersion that this was a realistic thing you were watching. In Gladiator II, one scene in particular features gratuitous CGI baboons in an incredibly important moment to establish Lucius’s martial prowess… and it’s impossible to take seriously. Equally absurd are the sharks. While the Romans did fill their arenas with water to reenact sea battles, sea creatures like sharks were beyond their capabilities. The trade of story immersion for a cheap “wow” factor was not well considered. It felt more like Sharknado than Gladiator. To be fair, the original Gladiator did more than its fair share in taking creative license, especially with the life of Emperor Commodus, and Maximus is entirely fictional as well. And while the first film leaves the events after Commodus’s death vague, the movie seems to end on a hopeful note. However, in Scott’s fictional Rome, Commodus’s death ushered in a period of chaos and civil war called The Year of the Five Emperors. More of a Roman nightmare than a Roman dream, really. But what the original Gladiator lacked in historical accuracy it more than made up for in plot, characters, and emotional resonance.  If you’re looking for the kind of vibes Gladiator II is marketing, you would be better served rewatching the first one. The sequel is dull, pointless, and worst of all, soulless. At the risk of taking the obvious layup, no, I was not entertained, and I don’t think you will be either. READ MORE: Is the New York Times Shaking Off Woke? Three Movies to Watch This Holiday Season “The Things We Do For England”: Watching Netflix’s Churchill at War The post Thumbs Down on Gladiator 2 appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

from BANNED.VIDEO:  TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/

by Brandon Smith, Alt Market: The term “False Flag” gets thrown around rather haphazardly these days and it’s important to recognize that a real false flag requires a particular end result – The public blaming the wrong culprit for an event that someone else (usually our own government) perpetrated. When it comes to the increasing […]

At a recent cardiology meeting in Auckland, New Zealand, a striking admission was made: the spike protein generated by mRNA COVID-19 vaccines is now being recognized as a cardiotoxin — a substance capable of causing direct harm to the heart. According to the cardiologist who made the admission, this toxic protein is the root cause of the alarming increase in heart-related illnesses seen in both young and old patients since the vaccine’s rollout. As cardiology waiting rooms and cardiac wards fill to capacity — especially with young patients suffering from previously rare conditions — many healthcare professionals are beginning to speak out about a growing public health crisis that the government and health authorities seem determined to ignore. Article by Lance D. Johnson, republished with permission from Naturalnews.com Cardiologists have never seen heart damage like this in young people The evidence of vaccine-related heart damage is overwhelming, according to various reports from within New Zealand’s hospitals. Cardiac surgeons are quietly advising patients who have undergone procedures like coronary bypass surgery to “refuse future vaccine boosters,” as their risk of further heart complications could be exacerbated. One cardiologist noted that the rise in heart disease cases — especially in younger, previously healthy individuals — corresponds directly with the introduction of the mRNA vaccines. The surge is described as “unprecedented,” with waiting rooms across New Zealand’s hospitals increasingly full of “young patients” suffering from conditions such as myocarditis, pericarditis and other heart issues previously uncommon in this demographic. As this reality becomes more widely understood, many doctors are growing increasingly concerned about the future health consequences for vaccinated individuals. Furthermore, cancer experts such as James Royle, a UK-based oncologist, have pointed out that there has been an increase in the incidence of “aggressive, stage 4 cancers” — also known as “turbo cancers” — especially among young people. These cancers display “novel biological characteristics” that are not typically seen in the general population. Royle suggests a “causal link” between the mRNA vaccines and this disturbing trend, citing evidence of 13 bio-molecular mechanisms through which the vaccines could trigger cancer growth. New Zealand medical establishment refuses to release data on heart damage and cancer incidence in the vaccinated The official narrative promoted by Health New Zealand has long held that the vaccines are “safe and effective,” but front-line doctors are increasingly aware that the evidence does not support these claims. Despite mounting concerns, officials have been delaying the release of critical health data on the subject, claiming “patient confidentiality” as the reason. Of course, it wasn’t long ago, when no one’s health information or medical decisions were confidential or private. Patients were routinely forced to take the COVID-19 vaccine under the duress of unlawful mandates and the threat of travel restrictions and segregation from careers and societal functions. A recent request filed under the Official Information Act (OIA) sought to obtain data on the rise in chest pain presentations to accident and emergency departments, but the request was blocked. Dr. Guy Hatchard, a former director of the New Zealand Natural Health Society, lambasts the current medical establishment’s refusal to confront the growing evidence of vaccine harm, describing their actions as “criminal folly.” Hatchard argues that “delaying the release of health data” — especially data related to the alarming rise in heart disease and other chronic conditions — is not only unjust but detrimental to the well-being of the New Zealand public. The ongoing culture of fear created by the New Zealand Medical Council, which has been actively prosecuting doctors who speak out against the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines, must come to an end. The intimidation of medical professionals has only served to stifle open dialogue and delay the necessary response to this growing crisis. Sources include: Expose-News.com Nature.com Youtube.com HatchardReport.com RELATED REPORT: https://wltreport.com/2024/06/30/confirmed-dr-peter-mccullough-how-nattokinase-could-counteract/ CONFIRMED: Dr. Peter McCullough On How Nattokinase Could Counteract Spike Protein Damage! While Fauci was lining the pockets of big pharma by peddling dangerous and experimental mRNA vaccines, Dr. Peter McCullough has been hard at work determining safe, scientific ways to combat spike protein effects. As the nation’s preeminent cardiologist, and one of the most trusted medical voices during the pandemic, Dr. McCullough is dedicated to determining what are – and what are not – effective ways to overcome COVID19 and COVID19 vaccine injuries. And now, this research is bearing fruits. The ingredient that Fauci and big pharma don’t want you to know about is – Nattokinase. Nattokinase is one of the key ingredients in The Wellness Company’s Spike Support formula (plus, ordering through this link and the links below benefits We Love Trump). In recent articles, Dr. McCullough highlighted the safety of nattokinase in counteracting spike protein and potential cardiovascular damage: “Approximately 15% of Americans who took a COVID-19 vaccine have some new medical illness and regret the shot. Many are looking to nattokinase in formulations of Spike protein support supplements. Chen et al reviewed human studies before the pandemic on the use of nattokinase with this introduction: ‘Natto, a cheese-like food made of soybeans fermented with Bacillus subtilis, has been consumed as a traditional food in Asian countries for more than 2000 years. Natto consumption is believed to be a significant contributor to the longevity of the Japanese population. Recent studies demonstrated that a high natto intake was associated with decreased risk of total cardiovascular disease mortality and, in particular, a decreased risk of mortality from ischaemic heart diseases. Before the 1980s, very little was known about the mechanism by which natto consumption led to overall cardiovascular health. In 1987, Sumi et al discovered that natto contained a potent fibrinolytic enzyme called nattokinase. Since then, a considerable amount of NK research has been performed on NK in Japan, Korea, China, and the United States, and these studies confirmed that NK, an alkaline protease of 275 amino acid residues with a molecular weight of approximately 28 kDa, is the most active ingredient of natto and is responsible for many favourable effects on cardiovascular health. First, nattokinase has potent fibrinolytic/antithrombotic activity. In addition, in both animal and human studies, NK also has an antihypertensive, anti-atherosclerotic, lipid-lowering, antiplatelet/anticoagulant, and neuroprotective actions… The most unique feature of nattokinase is that, as a single compound, it possesses multiple cardiovascular disease preventative and alleviating pharmacologic effects (namely, antithrombotic, antihypertensive, anticoagulant, anti-atherosclerotic, and neuroprotective effects). There are no other drugs or drug candidates with multiple pharmacologic properties similar to nattokinase. In addition, nattokinase is a natural product that can be administered orally, has a proven safety profile, is economical to use, and provides distinct advantages over other pharmaceutical products.’ In summary this review is reassuring that the ever-increasing use of nattokinase in post-COVID-19 and after COVID-19 vaccine injuries is safe and reasonably well tolerated. There may be additional benefits on the cardiovascular system.” If you or someone you love would like to try nattokinase, Dr. Peter McCullough and his team of doctors on the Chief Medical Board of The Wellness Company designed a non-GMO “Spike Support Formula” that contains nattokinase plus other extracts. In The Wellness Company’s Spike Support Formula you will find: – Nattokinase (dissolves spike protein) – Selenium (aids in helping the body repair itself and recover) – Dandelion root (acts as a detoxifying agent supporting better liver function) – Black sativa extract (may facilitate cellular repair) – Green tea extract (provides added defenses at the cellular level through scavenging for free radicals) – Irish sea moss (could help rebuild damaged tissue and muscle) Here is Dr. Jen VanDeWater talking about all the elements of The Wellness Company’s Spike Support Formula: People are saying about The Wellness Company’s Spike Support Formula: “I saw Dr. McCullough talk about the product and decided to give it a try. A month and a half later, I feel sooo much better. I also have recommended the product to family members to help them detox from the painful side effects of the vaccine.” “I feel like I have had brain fog for the past 18 months and after taking this supplement noticed the fog lifting finally. I plan to buy more for myself and now a friend suffering from heart issues.” “I am grateful for the Wellness Company and for you coming out with this spike protein vitamins. I am a big believer in natural healing and not pharmaceutical drugs. Thank you for doing what is right and for speaking truth in a world that is so dark.” According to The Wellness Company, purchasing all the separate ingredients of the Spike Support Formula would be over $100 – you can save 36% with the unique formulation in The Wellness Company’s Spike Support Formula. Click here to order the Spike Support Formula today! (Note: Thank you for supporting businesses like the one presenting a sponsored message below and ordering through the links below, which benefits WLT Report. We appreciate your support!)

Pennsylvania’s 60th Electoral College convened on Tuesday. After voting, they handed 19 electoral votes to President Donald Trump, confirming his win. The ceremony  brings Trump’s Pennsylvania victory officially to a close. What’s next? Now, the results head to Congress for final approval on January 6, 2025. Will there be any bumps in the road before then? Our enemy isn’t going down without a fight so keep a watchful eye and keep firing off those prayers. Great day for President Trump and the USA. I am proud to cast my electoral college vote today in the PA Capitol ! pic.twitter.com/JLOfzzfJ8C — Curt Coccodrilli (@Curcodrilli) December 17, 2024 It was my incredible honor to cast my ballots as one of 19 Presidential Electors representing the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania today at the Electoral College vote in Harrisburg, PA. God bless @realDonaldTrump and @JDVance! pic.twitter.com/IjwXgZ1bPh — Val Biancaniello (@luckyvalpal) December 17, 2024 A historic moment in Pennsylvania. Big change is coming for the better and it can’t be stopped. Today, at the 60th meeting of the #ElectoralCollege for Pennsylvania, the members of the Electoral College met in our State Capitol building in Harrisburg to officially cast their votes for Donald Trump and JD Vance for President and Vice President. Our #BucksCounty Chair Pat… pic.twitter.com/nVL8Vk03QN — Bucks GOP (@BucksGOP) December 17, 2024 Fox News reports: HARRISBURG, Pa. — Members of Pennsylvania’s 60th Electoral College gathered at the State Capitol on Tuesday to submit their votes for the 2024 Presidential Election. The process will help certify Donald Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris on Election Day. “Today was a very nice occasion to celebrate America and democracy,” said Lawrence Tavis, the president of Pennsylvania’s 60th Electoral College. “People have accepted the results and are looking forward to the new administration, and President Trump leading our nation at this point.” Nineteen people were selected by the Trump campaign to serve on the Electoral College, representing the 19 votes being given to the president-elect for winning Pennsylvania. Trump won Pennsylvania over Vice President Harris by a margin of 3.5 million votes to 3.4 million votes. The votes for president and vice president will now be sent to Washington to be certified by Congress on January 6, 2025. Th 60th Electoral College convenes on floor of PA House. A constitutional formality as 19 Trump-selected electors will sign off on Trump’s victory and make it official. ⁦@abc27News⁩ pic.twitter.com/1hDjz8p5tf — Dennis Owens (@Owens_abc27) December 17, 2024

Post-hardcore heroes Fugazi have been on indefinite hiatus for more than 20 years

Every song on Frank Stallone's self-titled debut album is an AOR throatpunch with a credit roll