News Superman The First Teaser for James Gunn’s Superman Stuffs a Lot Into Two Minutes The dog IS pretty cute, you gotta admit By Molly Templeton | Published on December 19, 2024 Screenshot: DC Studios Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: DC Studios The gang’s all here, and then some. The first major release from the new and presumably improved DC Studios is, of course, Superman, which is (also of course) directed by James Gunn, who now leads DC Studios along with Peter Safran. It’s not the first overall release (that honor went to Creature Commandos), but it’s the big one, the reboot to reboot them all, yet another version of the man from Krypton and all his friends and foes and family. And it’s hard to get a lot from this first look, which has almost no dialogue: A painfully injured Superman (David Corenswet) begs Krypto the Super-Dog to take him home, and a little kid chants Superman’s name. Otherwise, the audio begins with an electric guitar version of the classic John Williams Superman theme, which shifts into a more traditional sweeping version—all of which feels very calculated to cash in on Super-nostalgia! (The film will have original music.) Superman also stars Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor; both make appearances here, Lois in a very ’70s outfit and Lex characteristically bald. But they’re not alone: This movie stuffs a lot of DC heroes and villains into the mix, and Gunn isn’t saving them for later. We’ve got glimpses of Edi Gathegi (For All Mankind) playing Mister Terrific; Nathan Fillion (Firefly) as Green Lantern Guy Gardner; Isabela Merced (Alien: Romulus) flying in as Hawkgirl; and Anthony Carrigan (switching DC cities from Gotham)as Metamorpho. Refreshingly, Gunn has said this is not an origin story. In a recent press event, he said, “We just start in the middle of the action … Superman’s already existing. Lois and Clark already know each other. Lex hates Superman’s guts from the beginning, although they don’t know each other personally.” Gunn also told Variety, “It’s about the basic kindness of human beings, and that it can be seen as uncool and under siege [by] some of the darker voices are some of the louder voices.” More, presumably, will be revealed in future trailers. Superman hits theaters July 11, 2025.[end-mark] The post The First Teaser for James Gunn’s <i>Superman</i> Stuffs a Lot Into Two Minutes appeared first on Reactor.

Movies & TV Holiday Cheer The Tick Had the Perfect Action-Packed Take on Santa 30 Years Before Red One They’re sugar plums, Arthur! And they’re DANCING IN MY HEAD! By Leah Schnelbach | Published on December 19, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share All right, yes, I’ve already written about how much I hated Red One, and why. But it’s frustrating to me that in order to criticize a film for being, to my mind, negative and cynical, I wrote a 4,800-word-long hatchet job. Isn’t that compounding the problem? Adding some extra hate-bacon to a towering cynicism BLT, as it were? In that spirit, and, dare I say, in the spirit of Christmas itself, I’m going to talk about why I HATE Red One—constructively. And I’m going to do that by talking about why I LOVE The Tick’s 1994 holiday episode, “The Tick Loves Santa!”. For the uninitiated: The Tick was created by Ben Edlund in 1986, the titular character in a comic series, cartoon, and two different live-action series—each of which has been, somehow, nigh-miraculously, hilarious, each in its own unique way. The Tick is a superhero, either a man dressed as a blue tick, or possibly a mystical being who IS a blue tick—it’s never made clear because we don’t really need to know. All we need to know is that he’s innocent, optimistic, enthusiastic, nigh-invulnerable, and absolutely dedicated to justice. He works in “The City” with a sidekick, an accountant named Arthur, who dresses as a moth. They’re the constants in the Tick universe, while side characters and villains change in each new iteration. The story I talk about below is the Christmas episode from animated series The Tick, which ran from 1994 to 1996 as Fox Kids show, and where Big Blue and Arthur are assisted by their friends in The Civic-Minded Five: Feral Boy, Sewer Urchin, Four-Legged Man, American Maid, and Die Fledermaus. The episode’s villain is a bank robber who gets zapped by an electrified cola billboard, and consequently transforms into “Multiple Santa”—basically an evil Santa and an army of Santa Clones who do his bidding.   Red One is a movie that stars Chris Evans as a hacker named Jack who has to help Callum Drift, one of Santa’s bodyguards, after Santa is kidnapped by Grýla (an Icelandic ogre, whom the film terms a “Christmas witch”) after Jack unknowingly hacks the North Pole’s security protocols. Red One is terrible. (To be clear, I love the concept of the film. I like Chris Evans and J.K. Simmons and Bonnie Hunt [she plays. Mrs. Claus], and I’m willing to tolerate Dwayne Johnson.) My purpose here is simply to point out the The Tick did a similar premise and vibe way better, and that we, the human species, deserve better Christmas movies. One of the things Red One is bringing to the Christmas Special Table is the idea of a hardcore, even militarized view of Santa’s mission to bring joy to the children of the world. Hence, you know, the title: “Red One” is Santa’s codename. And the film applies this Lockheed Martin sheen to everything: Mrs. Claus is codenamed Partridge for some reason, an organization called M.O.R.A (Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority) manages magical creatures, Callum Drift isn’t one of Santa’s elves, he’s the head of security for ELF (Enforcement Logistics and Fortification—the only other member of ELF we meet is an aggro polar bear unfortunately named Agent Garcia rather than Iorek Christmasson or something like that), and the North Pole is a gleaming high-tech city rather than a quaint village. It’s a lot. I think the film is trying to say that Santa’s operation has to be a well oiled machine if he wants to hit all those chimneys in one night, but it doesn’t really interrogate the idea enough for the audience to know if Santa’s happy about this, if this is a new innovation, if perhaps the ELF are a little over-the-top in their mission. The film introduces Santa as he visits a mall, which Cal treats like a tactical strike, physically intimidating one visitor and generally acting like Santa—who appears to most people as a normal department store Santa—has to be hustled from location to location like a head of state. (Santa, meanwhile, seems to think the whole thing is a lark.) Screenshot: Fox Children’s Productions Now in The Tick, a similar situation plays out. Tick and Arthur come home from patrol, arguing about whether Santa even exists. (I’ll come back to this.) Tick points out that Arthur said his childhood pop-gun was a gift from Santa, and Arthur replies that that’s what he believed when he was little, describing Santa as a “wonderful fantasy”. As they open the door, their apartment is crawling with elves checking under the couch, looking at the books on the shelves, peering inside trashcans. One elf, codenamed “Gingerbread”, introduces himself as a member of “Santa’s Little Secret Service”, and uses a wristwatch walkie-talkie to speak with “Candy Cane” and confirm the arrival of “Big Red”. In a few seconds the show has told us that Santa is real, and that his elves behave more like an elite intelligence agency than anyone who would be at home in the Keebler tree. But it goes further that that. While Santa is discussing Multiple Santa with Tick, Arthur digs up the aforementioned pop-gun. You see, Arthur, the skeptic, has kept the toy all these years, buried in a trunk in his small apartment. He runs out to show Santa that he still has it, and the SLSS spring into action. One yells “HE’S GOT A GUNNNN!!!” as three of them throw themselves on Arthur, slamming him to the floor and snapping the toy gun in half. Santa recognizes the gun and calls them off, instantly producing a gift-wrapped pencil set to replace it. But he’s also fully cognizant of the reality of the situation, telling Arthur: “Most people are nice, but every once in a while a naughty little boy loses it, and comes after Santa.” Screenshot: Fox Children’s Productions That one line is darker than anything in Red One. (Emotionally I mean—the film is not well lit.) The elves’ instantaneous response and Santa’s grim comment let us know that this scenario has happened before—and the weapon wasn’t always a nostalgic toy. Given the ad campaign and general tone, Red One seems dedicated to the idea that it’s giving audiences an “edgy” and “grown up” take on a family friendly holiday film. For instance, once Jack discovers that Callum has a device that can embiggen toys, he repeatedly ask the proprietors of the toy shops he and Cal visit if they have Wonder Woman figurines, presumably so he can embiggen them and embark on a relationship of some kind. So, the bad reading is that the character in a children’s film wants to create a human sized sex doll (and I guess the more complicated, meta joke is that Captain America is specifically attracted to a DC character), and the slightly better read is that the black hat hacker wants to be tied up with the Lasso of Truth—not my personal kink, but go off. It’s further complicated by the fact that when a pair of Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots are brought to life, they seem to have some form of consciousness before they’re destroyed. Would a theoretical Wonder Woman action figure come to life have sentience? Because the implications of that are even worse. In any case, this is kind of an icky running gag for a kids film! Screenshot: Fox Children’s Productions Now let’s look at how The Tick does it: At the Tick and Arthur’s holiday party, Die Fledermaus (The Tick‘s hapless parody of Batman) asks American Maid (their extremely competent Wonder Woman/Captain America mashup riff) to join him under the mistletoe and “make his Christmas”. This is slightly gross, but slightly joking, and at least ties in with a recognized Christmas tradition. American Maid responds by saying “Fieldmouse, get under a missile. Make everybody’s Christmas”. A great pun, a great putdown for the guy who lightly sexually harasses her all the time, and that’s it! It’s one gag, there’s no need to hammer it into the ground, it doesn’t affect their working relationship, all the other superheroes at the party laugh at American Maid’s quip, and everyone moves on. Both Red One and The Tick celebrate Christmas through the joy of action sequences, but only The Tick believes you should be able to see those action sequences, or have any kind of emotional investment in the stakes. Grýla comes to Red One with hundreds of years of lore, powers, and even her 13 sons, the Yule Lads. The lore? Ignored! The Lads? Under-yule-tilized! And the final showdown with Grýla takes place in darkness. I do not mean spiritual darkness, or the darkness of the void of space—I mean that the scene is so dim and blurry I’m still not sure what happened. I think I think Jack unhooks Santa’s hijacked sleigh to foil Grýla’s attempt to steal Christmas, and then she transforms from a small blonde human-looking creature into her monstrous persona—but since we’ve never seen her fight, and we have no idea how strong she is, and we can’t fucking see her final form because the fight is happening in the dark, it’s hard to feel invested. Even when Jack says: “For a guy like me, there are worse ways to go out than trying to save Santa Claus”, an objectively good line, there’s no weight to it. He says it, Cal nods, neither of them seem to be in any actual danger from the CGI creature that’s going to be animated onto the green screen at a later date, and the film hastens towards its ending. Screenshot: Fox Children’s Productions In contrast: each time the Tick or his compatriots fight Multiple Santa and his clones, we can see everything—a huge plus! The action is clearly choreographed. We understand who is punching whom, and why. After a fight between the clone army and the Tick’s friends in the Civic-Minded Five, we both hear Die Fledermaus saying that “everybody got creamed!” and we see that he’s bruised up, and that American Maid is in a neck brace carefully drinking a milkshake through a straw. We saw the fight, we saw that it was not going well, an we see the aftermath! Stakes! Later, when several of the clones accost Arthur and plan to throw him off the top of a dam, we both see him being swung by the clones, and hear him shrieking “Help!”—thus creating a sense of imminent danger—and having seen the previous fight, we know that they might actually chuck him to his death. Or well, we know that won’t happen because it’s a children’s cartoon, but Arthur the character doesn’t know that. He thinks he’s in mortal danger. Emotional investment! Screenshot: Fox Children’s Productions Red One‘s other big action setpiece is between violent sentient snowmen and Jack and Cal. (Again, why not send the Yule Lads and have them do something in keeping with their lore? Why not send the Yule Cat, or even Mari Lwyd, since Krampus is also in the movie, and we’re not just restricting their story to Icelandic stuff? Should I just shut up and be glad no one looked up Zwarte Piet?) But OK, so they’re fighting evil snowmen in a Caribbean resort. Neither the bright sunshine, nor fire, nor even a sizzling grill can melt them. If I squint I can almost see a joke there. But want to know how you defeat an evil sentient snowman in this movie’s universe? You pull its carrot nose out. What? W H A T ? This makes no sense—why is a nose the key to sentience? And in what lore, ever, is a sentient snowman’s nose important? If they wanted to do a sentient snowman gag, shouldn’t it have been a magical hat or scarf of some kind??? MAKE IT MAKE SENSE. Here again, The Tick shows us a better way. Since his clones are born of an electrical current, Multiple Santa is defeated when an overload of static electricity overwhelms them and essentially shorts them out—or as Tick puts it, “their Achilles heel is the ‘noogie’!” This not only makes sense (I mean, kinda) but it’s also visually satisfying to see multiple Multiple Santas rubbed together, the way a kid might gently rub a balloon on his cat’s fur—it’s not inherently violent or upsetting, but since the Multiple Santas are villains, watching them go poof is fun. Red One gestures toward a subversive take on Santa. Rather than a jolly, bearded elder, jiggling like a bowlful of jelly and twinkling at everyone, he’s a lean, ropy, carb-loading J.K. Simmons, who seems extremely intense and kind of bro-y. He does, however, love being Santa. He loves the kids, he loves going undercover to visit malls, he loves—well, he loves everyone, actually, even his estranged brother Krampus, and even Jack, who’s been on the Naughty list since forever. So it’s kind of a fake out faux subversion, because J.K. Simmons’ Santa is actually as kindhearted as you’d hope Santa would be. Unfortunately the film barely uses him, because he spend 80% of the movie in a Grýla-induced magical coma, in a sort of giant snowglobe, whose glass is as smudgy as all the terrible CGI. He’s dispatched so quickly that we never get to know his thoughts on Grýla’s plot, or on Jack’s growth, or Cal’s grudging attempts to get Jack to be Nice. We’re supposed to be invested in Jack and Cal’s mission to save Santa, but, aside from one long conversation with Cal about Cal’s resignation from ELF, the film never shows us who this Santa IS. Screenshot: Fox Children’s Productions In “The Tick Loves Santa!” the bank robber who eventually becomes Multiple Santa is terrible. He steals a Santa suit from a man collecting for charity, he’s gleeful not only in his pursuit of larceny, but he seems to revel in the desecration of Santa. He happens to break into a store just as two security guards are discussing seasonal depression and terrorizes them—he rips the head off an animatronic St. Nick and hurls it at one guard, bellowing “YOU TELL THE WORLD, MULTIPLE SANTA’S COMIN’ TO TOWN!” After the Civic-Minded Five are attacked, Tick laments: “Odds are it wasn’t the real Santa… but how can you ever be sure?” to which Die Fledermaus replies: “If he jumps up, and kicks you in the stomach, it’s probably not Santa!”—which tells you all you need to know about Multiple Santa’s underhanded fighting style. When he plots world domination via Clone, he screams: “The streets will run RED with Santas!” When he hijacks the hydroelectric dam (re-terrorizing those same two poor security guards) he snarls at them to connect the power to clone him, saying: “Hook me up fuzzball. it’s time to get my jollies!” In other words, everything he does, he does knowing he’s ruining Christmas and traumatizing children. And he doesn’t care even a little. Screenshot: Fox Children’s Productions But the writers of The Tick know that we have to see him being, well, Naughty, to show just how terrible he is, and to underscore Santa’s Niceness as a contrast. And the writers trust their audience—kids and nerds—to come with them as they drag Santa through the mud a little, and to get a little subversive joy from seeing an Evil Santa. They trust the kids to know both that some people have lost it “and come after Santa”, and also the Santa is a powerful mythical being who doesn’t really need a human to save him. When we meet the Real Santa, we’ve already seen a skinny Charity Santa, Multiple Santa, an army of Santa Clones, and an animatronic Santa. And yet, Real Santa has a sort of glow of SANTA-ness that overshadows all the others. His voice is deeper and more authoritative, while also being warm. He dispenses a constant stream of wrapped gifts—tellingly, his gifts are small and functional (pencil sets, travel alarm clocks, in-the-egg egg scramblers) where Multiple Santa instructs his Santa Clones to go after stereos and TVS that are “strictly top-of-the-line!” This Santa actually feels like a centuries-old quasi-deity who wants the best for everyone.  Screenshot: Fox Children’s Productions I think the key here is that Santa is a main character. While Santa’s Little Secret Service is hilarious—with earpieces, wristband walkie talkies, toothpicks sticking out of their mouths, and posture of either slouched boredom or coiled fighting stance—it’s Santa who’s always in control. It’s his idea to ask the Tick for help. He remembers exactly who Arthur is. He knows where Multiple Santa has gone to enact his nefarious plot, and he’s not in a coma for most of the runtime. And at the heart of the episode he’s trying to stop Multiple Santa not for his own safety—there’s no indication that Santa’s in any real physical danger—but because kids are crying themselves to sleep after seeing Santas wreaking havoc on the news. He needs Tick’s help to save Christmas, not to save himself. Both Red One and “The Tick Loves Santa” are meditations on belief in Santa. When we meet young Jack, he’s already a non-believer who wants to disabuse other kids of their faith in Santa. We never learn why, exactly, he stopped believing in Santa, or if he wants to believe, or why he feels the need to enlighten other kids. His dad is AWOL, and his mom leaves him to the care of his aunts and uncles fairly often, but also the one uncle we meet is caring and kind, so if the film is trying to paint him a Tragic Backstory, it falls way short. But with that set-up, you’d think that his arc would be about learning that Santa is real, then learning out that creatures he’d never even heard of before, like Grýla and Krampus, are also real, and dealing with how that shatters his view of reality, and lead to him reassessing his own Nice and Naughty behavior. Instead he rolls with all of it very easily, and doesn’t really ask any follow-up questions beyond how much M.O.R.A. will pay him to help find Santa. This ends up being fine, because Jack’s character arc suddenly jumps tracks to focus on what a terrible dad he’s been. His big revelatory moment has nothing to do with Santa’s existence—Santa’s not even there—it’s an apology to his son that is somehow so transcendently Nice that it frees both of them from Grýla’s trap. Even though apologizing to your kid when you’re wrong seems more um, “Baseline Decent” than “Nice”—but again, the movie never defines any of these concepts in any way. The other element here is that Cal has decided to quit the ELF, because, as he repeatedly says, he “can’t see it any more”—the film doesn’t let us in on what this means until the last few minutes, withholding it as a sort of twist that the harshness of the human world means that Cal can’t see people as the children they used to be. Now, once Grýla’s been defeated and Santa’s restored to consciousness, Red One invites Jack and his kid to join them on the Christmas Eve gift run—this non-believer who learned Santa was objectively real without ever having to believe in him, and a kid whose relationship to Santa is never made clear at all, get to go on this magical journey. And somehow, for some reason, Cal looks at Jack and sees his kid-self, and this restores Cal’s belief in Christmas or whatever and he rescinds his resignation. Voila! All the plots are tied up, except there was never any serious consideration of Jack’s belief or lack thereof, of the idea of Objective Naughtiness, of Jack’s son’s thoughts about anything, or about the fact that it took Jack almost sacrificing his life for Santa for Cal to be able to see him as a child. Is he just gonna quit again next year when a different grizzled adult fails to meet his impossible standards? Compare this with The Tick. The episode opens with Tick boggled by the sugar plums that are, literally, dancing around his head. (Arthur: [deep sigh] “…I don’t know, maybe they’re plums dipped in sugar, maybe they’re made out of sugar—I just don’t know, I’ve never had one.”) After they see the bank-robber-who-will-soon-be-Multiple-Santa get electrocuted, Tick is, understandably, despondent, and his dancing sugar plums have vanished. At their Christmas party, Arthur tries to tell Tick that it’s OK, because there is no Santa. When the Tick protests that there isn’t a Santa because “He got fried”, Arthur gently says, “No, this is bigger than that…” and that “there is not now, nor was there ever, a Santa.” Tick, being Tick, responds thusly: “I’ve heard about people like you! Are you saying… you don’t believe in Santa Claus???” The rest of the Civic-Minded Five agree with Arthur, leading Tick to yell in shock: “AND YOU CALL YOURSELVES SUPERHEROES???” They table the theological conversation to go caroling, but they don’t drop it. Tick’s belief in Santa is integral to the plot—he realizes that even when he’s pretty sure it’s a Clone Santa pummeling him, he can’t bring himself to fight back, which means that all the heroes get their asses kicked by Santa Clones. And later, when discussing Arthur’s pop-gun, Arthur tells his friend, “It’s a wonderful fantasy, I know, but it’s just not real.” Screenshot: Fox Children’s Productions It’s important to note that the cartoon, in the midst of all its silliness, takes this question of belief completely seriously. Arthur doesn’t mock or deride Tick for believing in Santa, but he feels a responsibility to help his friend see the truth. As with a lot of kids’ holiday media, de-mystifying Santa can be seen as a gentle nudge out of the magical thinking of childhood. But to its credit, the show, which is about superheroes, and whose view of reality is, shall we say, flexible, throws that crap right out the garland-festooned window. When Tick and Arthur open their apartment door and discover the Santa’s Little Secret Service, Tick is overjoyed. His face is split in an even bigger grin than usual. Arthur, meanwhile, goes to pieces. His expression is not that of a person who had a secret faith confirmed, but rather one whose whole worldview just got snapped in half. His legs shake. He can’t speak. And then when he does try to show Santa that long-cherished toy, it’s taken away and broken. Encountering the numinous has changed him. Meanwhile, the show once again underlines that most people do (and should?) step into a more grounded reality, when Santa tells Tick: “Tick, I love ya like a son. You’ve kept the faith longer than any sane adult could. But get a grip on yourself!” Screenshot: Fox Children’s Productions Their fight against Multiple Santa now sanctioned by Big Red himself, Tick and Arthur head off to deal with “epic naughty” while Santa begins his Christmas Eve flight. And then a beautiful exchange takes place: Santa doesn’t give Tick and Arthur a ride on the sleigh or anything—he’s got gifts to deliver, and defeating supervillains is their job—but he does sail past the moon (still sporting the phrase “HA” courtesy of Chairface Chippendale) and bellows out a festive “SPOOOON!” But even that isn’t festive enough for The Tick! As the episode returns to the two chums on the roof of the hydroelectric plant, we see that Tick’s sugar plum visions are back, and they’re DANCING. But even better, Arthur has them, too. In one (literally) sweet, simple image, The Tick found a way to visualize a holiday epiphany without resorting to treacly sentiment or top-heavy religious messages. Rather than having Santa reward the heroes directly, and publicly, with a ride on the sleigh, the sugar plums are a private, personal sign that Tick and Arthur’s Christmas spirit been restored. The episode isn’t really about Multiple Santa, or Santa being in any actual danger. It’s about Tick having Christmas Spirit, and losing it, and Arthur going through the rituals of a holiday he hasn’t felt connected to since childhood—if then. (“I don’t know, I’ve never had them.” ) In the end, both with sugar plums dancing in their heads, they’ve defeated an external villain, and more important, they’re sharing the holiday in a new and profound way.[end-mark] The post <i>The Tick</i> Had the Perfect Action-Packed Take on Santa 30 Years Before <i>Red One</i> appeared first on Reactor.

The Auberge du Soleil, a five-star hillside hotel and spa with a panoramic view overlooking the vineyards of Napa Valley, appears to be first-rate in all ways but one. While the glamorous resort, an hour’s drive from San Francisco, fills rooms that routinely go for $2,000 a night with A-list celebrities and tech titans, financial records suggest it did not provide much of a return to at least two of its investors—Rep. Nancy Pelosi and her husband, Paul. That changed when it received millions in congressionally authorized COVID-19 relief in 2020 and 2021. The Auberge du Soleil investment, held for decades by Paul Pelosi, has rarely turned a significant profit, according to Nancy’s financial disclosure forms. In some years, he has recorded a loss or a profit of between $50,000 to $100,000. But the year of the bailout money stands apart. In 2021, Pelosi’s ethics forms show that her family’s income from the resort surged to a range of $1 million to $5 million.  The French Riviera-themed resort may not be most people’s idea of a struggling business in need of a government bailout, yet the Auberge du Soleil—which shuttered briefly at the outset of the pandemic before swiftly rebounding—received about $9 million from a series of special taxpayer-funded emergency relief programs. The previously unreported windfall is among several COVID bailouts that flowed to Pelosi-backed restaurants, hotels, and properties, including several Courtyard Marriott hotels. A RealClearInvestigations analysis found that Pelosi’s profits spiked from a variety of holdings that won significant government rescue funds—which amounted to $28 million, a total more than previously known. For their family’s stake in the Auberge du Soleil, the Pelosis received more income in 2021, when bailout funds channeled to the resort, than any other time over the last 10 years. Pelosi is hardly alone among lawmakers whose businesses reaped awards from pandemic-era financial programs designed for small businesses. Rep. Greg Pence, R-Ind., the brother of the former vice president, received $79,441. Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., who briefly campaigned in the Democratic presidential primary, is an investor in a small event production company, Geniecast, that received two forgivable loans that totaled $373,185. Other members with investments in car dealerships and restaurant companies also received scrutiny over COVID rescue funds. Yet Pelosi’s personal stake in the unprecedented taxpayer gusher has never been fully explored. Pelosi, during her previous stint as leader of the House of Representatives, shepherded all federal COVID stimulus measures, which totaled about $5.5 trillion—one of the largest domestic spending efforts in U.S. history outside of wartime. “These Republicans seem to have an endless tolerance for other people’s sadness,” said Pelosi at a press conference in December 2020, admonishing her opposition for delays in passing additional pandemic spending programs. The programs were touted as disaster measures designed to save the economy and help needy businesses and families. The exact amount of Pelosi’s profits from the Auberge Du Soleil is unclear. The hotel is a privately held company, and the lawmakers file ethics reports that show a range of income and assets rather than a precise amount. Her office did not respond to a request for comment. The former House Speaker has gained notoriety over her husband’s well-timed stock trades. Her husband, Paul Pelosi, 84, is an investor who has long dabbled in real estate. Fortune magazine, among other outlets, has reported on his unusually high gains from trading call options for technology-related stocks. The Pelosi household earned over 65% on trades last year, according to an analysis from Unusual Whales, one of several sites that track congressional trading activity. That record outshines even the most successful hedge fund managers.  Pelosi’s wealth has surged over her time in office. Disclosures show her net worth went from approximately $18 million in 1991 to nearly $250 million last year. “The Speaker has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transaction,” Pelosi’s spokesperson has told outlets in the past over questions about the trades. Her office did not respond to RCI’s request for comment. The COVID-related relief lavished on the Pelosi family’s private investment holdings has gone largely unnoticed.  Early in the pandemic, there were scattered reports about lawmakers from both parties who stood to gain financially from the initial Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The small business rescue fund, reporters at Roll Call noted in July 2020, awarded forgivable loans to Piatti, an Italian chain, and a firm tied to the El Dorado, a small hotel in Sonoma County, both owned in part by Pelosi. The Pelosi-linked PPP loans disclosed by the media totaled around $2.4 million. That figure scratches the surface. Newly discovered government disclosures show that Pelosi’s private holdings, such as the Auberge du Soleil resort, received upwards of $28 million in pandemic-related taxpayer funds, including the PPP, the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan, and a special grant program for restaurants. Much of the additional funding came from the second and third wave of pandemic stimulus legislation, passed in December 2020 and March 2021, that authorized an additional $2 trillion in cash and forgivable loans for needy individuals, businesses, and local governments. The additional rounds of spending effectively doubled the initial $2.1 trillion of CARES Act funds that began in March 2020. The new legislation authorized a second wave of PPP loans, along with billions of dollars in grants to theaters, restaurants, and travel companies impacted by the crisis. After the initial outcry over lawmakers reaping financial awards from the bailout programs they had authorized, Congress tightened the eligibility standards. These rules included a prohibition on PPP loans extended to companies in which lawmakers or their spouses owned a “controlling interest,” which the Small Business Administration has defined as an ownership stake of at least 20%. It is not clear if Pelosi violated any of the ethics rules. None of her family’s holdings in businesses that received PPP loans is mentioned in her ethics disclosures—suggesting the family’s stakes fell below the reporting threshold. Nevertheless, the Pelosis profited handsomely from the bailout funds she advocated for as speaker of the House. The Restaurant Revitalization Fund, one of the additional programs launched by the new round of pandemic spending, provided $5 million to the Auberge du Soleil in June 2021. The funds were not restricted by congressional ownership of the underlying business entities. The resort also won a second PPP loan that totaled about $2 million in 2021. The first PPP loan, awarded the previous year, provided $2.9 million—helping the Pelosis earn millions on an investment that has rarely turned a significant profit, according to Nancy’s ethics disclosures.  This was also the case for the Piatti Restaurant Company, the California-based pizza and Italian restaurant chain owned in part by Pelosi, which ended up receiving about $15 million in a mix of PPP and Restaurant Revitalization Funds grants and forgiven loans. The Pelosi household, in turn, received up to $1 million in partnership income distributions from their investment in the restaurant in 2021, the year that the company received the bulk of the government assistance. The investment return that year from Piatti was also the highest in over a decade for the Pelosis. In previous years, they typically earned less than $50,000 from their stake in the pizza chain.The taxpayer assistance to the Pelosi-backed resorts and restaurants may have come at the expense of other struggling businesses. In total, the Auberge du Soleil and Piatti won over $14.2 million in Restaurant Revitalization Fund grants, money that was shepherded through Congress by Pelosi and authorized by President Biden’s signature American Rescue Plan legislation. Most applicants were not as fortunate. Less than a third of the eateries, pubs, and diners that sought funding from the program were approved, and the fund was quickly depleted after it opened. The billions of dollars in COVID money was cast as a targeted measure to save the economy. More recent analysis has found the rushed programs were poorly designed and were a significant factor in the high levels of inflation experienced over the last four years. Estimates of how much government money was misspent widely vary. The Associated Press reported that fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion from the assorted pandemic relief programs. A Senate report noted that wasted and abused pandemic funding ended up in the form of “Lamborghinis, luxury vacations, extravagant jewelry, and even an alpaca farm.” “The sheer amount of taxpayer losses due to pandemic relief fraud and abuse,” noted Craig Eyermann, a fellow at the Independent Institute, was on the “order of hundreds of billions of dollars.” There is no indication that the Pelosis did anything illegal. But Eyermann and other ethics experts argue the funds posed conflict of interest issues. He’s not surprised that wealthy lawmakers tapped COVID-related largesse. “To even pursue it,” he added, “they put themselves ahead of those who truly needed it.” Originally published by RealClearInvestigations The post Nancy Pelosi Profited as Luxury Napa Resort Won COVID-19 Bailout appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Amid the uproar over the spending bill, some are suggesting it’s time for a new House speaker. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, suggested on X that Republicans should replace Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., with Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, who will head President-Elect Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency. House Republicans should hire either @elonmusk or @VivekGRamaswamy as their next speaker— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) December 19, 2024 Rep. Rand Paul, R-Ky., floated Musk as speaker, pointing out that the speaker of the House doesn’t have to be a member of Congress. The Speaker of the House need not be a member of Congress . . .  Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk . . . think about it .  . . nothing’s impossible. (not to mention the joy at seeing the collective establishment, aka ‘uniparty,’ lose their ever-lovin’…— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 19, 2024 Musk has been critical of Johnson’s 1,500 page continuing resolution to fund the federal goverment. The billionaire owner of X started his Wednesday by posting a photo of the spending bill in Congress with this question: “Ever seen a bigger piece of pork?” By the afternoon, Trump declared his opposition. And within hours, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., pulled the bill he had unveiled just a day earlier. Elon just became the most powerful person in Washington, D.C., today,” social media influencer Wall Street Mav told The Daily Signal. “He proved he can flip enough votes in Congress to halt a spending bill.” The continuing resolution, which would fund the government until March, was supposed to be lawmakers’ final vote before heading home for Christmas. Instead of a “clean” bill, however, Democrat and Republican negotiators loaded it with a hodge-podge of unrelated policy and additional spending, including a pay raise for members of Congress. That caught the attention of Ramaswamy, whose video Musk shared with his followers. “Congress is about to pass a bill that blows away your taxpayer money, but they made it over 1,500 pages long so you wouldn’t read it,” Ramaswamy said. “And the worst part is, they didn’t want you to know about any of it. That’s why they made this a last-minute jam job.” Trump and Vice President-Elect JD Vance threw another curveball into the government spending fight. They said in a statement they want the continuing resolution to address the debt ceiling and to “call [Democrats] bluff” on a shutdown. If Congress doesn’t pass a spending bill by Dec. 20, the government will shut down. “Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH. If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF. It is Schumer and Biden who are holding up aid to our farmers and disaster relief,” the statement says. Trump and Vance just threw a MASSIVE curveball into the government spending fight. Trump wants the continuing resolution (CR) to address the debt ceiling (suspension ends 1/1/2025) and to "call [Democrats] bluff" on a shutdown. This is where things stand right now. (Thread)— Bradley Devlin (@bradleydevlin) December 18, 2024 Rob Bluey contributed to this report. The post Musk, Ramaswamy Floated as Next House Speakers appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Now They Tell Us Joe Biden's Not Up For This Job

The paper had been cited nearly 3,200 times.

In pursuit of a mate, bucks can run into trouble.

Leave it to a show as woke as CBS’s FBI: Most Wanted to come up with a fall finale where an entire “sundown town’s” police force is a “racist” “gang” of murderers out killing innocent black people to supposedly clean up the county’s drug problem. But it gets even worse. The episode was titled “The Electric Company” because the police are using tasers to murder their victims and proudly call themselves by that name. Yes, seriously. The episode opens in Archer County, Maryland, where two, white intruders attack a black man, Emanuel “Manny” Birdsong (Apollo Levine) in front of his wife and child and tase him to death when he won’t tell them where his supposed drug stash is. They dump his body in a Virginia swamp where other bodies from the same county end up being found. When FBI Agent Ray Cannon (Edwin Hodge), who is black, learns the victim is from Archer County, he remarks, “Archer County was once referred to as a ‘sundown town.’ Probably still is. It's home to the Eastern Shores' most rabid bigots. My father said they were burning crosses there till the early '70s.” The team sets out to investigate and first attempts to question Manny’s wife, who is white, but she flees. When Ray catches her and asks why she ran, she tells him, “I don’t like cops.” “I get that,” he replies. The team eventually learns Manny was killed with a Taser which they trace to Archer County Deputy Eli Nelson (Andy Favreau). They interview Sheriff Blake (John Bedford Lloyd) who turns out to be a perfect caricature of a corrupt, racist cop covering for his team of equally corrupt officers: Sheriff: Look, we got a lot of bad actors in this county who would like nothing more than to pin a charge on one of my boys. Nina: Well, let's just take a look at your Taser logs, then. You know, I'd like to see if Eli used his device on the night that's in question. Sheriff: We don't keep logs on our Tasers. Nina: How come? Sheriff: Because I trust the men who work for me. Nina: Convenient. Remy: Electric Company. What's this? Sheriff: Well, that's kind of an inside joke around here. That's my anti-crime unit. They collared a murderer who, you know, eventually got the chair. Nina: So, who's everyone in the picture with you? Sheriff: That's Dobbs, Harvey, and Eli Nelson. So, now that we have cracked the case of the missing Taser cartridges, I'll be taking over this murder investigation. We like to clean up our own garbage here in Archer County, so you guys can just go home. Remy: Take a look at these faces, because we're sticking around here for a while. Sheriff Blake can barely stand being in the same room with us. That means we're onto something. Nina: Yeah, but it wasn't his department that requested our assistance. It was Virginia. So, do we need to run this by Isobel? Remy: Already did. By the way, no one's ever gotten the chair in Maryland. That whole "Electric Company" story? Bunch of caca. Nina: Okay. Update from Quantico Forensic Lab. All three victims in the Virginia swamp died of cardiac arrest. Remy: Consistent with being lethally tased by the Electric Company. Nina: There's also evidence of blunt-force trauma on all three victims, and Manny Birdsong had fractured ribs and a broken jaw. Remy: They roughed him up and electrocuted him before they dumped him in that swamp. This profiles as renegade cops who believe they're doing the right thing by taking matters into their own hands- judge, jury, and executioner. Let's deconflict with the county D.A. before we track them down. I don't want this dumbass sheriff mucking things up. The county D.A., also white, ends up defending the cops because the county’s lowered drug crime rate reflects well on her. Meanwhile Eli and his partner, Deputy Logan Dobbs (Shane Patrick) boldly plant the Taser used in Manny’s murder in the car of another innocent black man, Ronnie, who they refer to as “a real piece of trash.” They then force a black, male teen to call in a “tip” about the Taser’s location by threatening to arrest him for the pot he’s smoking. Logan chastises the teen’s white, female friend, who was also smoking pot, for hanging out with a “loser.” “You should know better,” he admonishes her. FBI agents Sheryll Barnes (Roxy Sternberg) and Ray Cannon (Edwin Hodge), both black, get pulled over in the county for speeding, and the scene is astoundingly absurd, even for a woke Hollywood drama: Ray: Is there a problem, Officer? Sheriff: Hands on the wheel, son. Ray: First of all, I'm not your son. Sheryll: Ray. Just so you know, we're both FBI agents, and we're here on official business, and we're both carrying sidearms. Sheriff: Is that so? Does that give you the right to do 80 on a 45? Ray: This is an emergency vehicle. I'm authorized. Sheriff: Not in Archer County, you don't. Ray: Right. Look, we'll slow it down, all right? Sheriff: All right. Why don't you exit the vehicle? You too, ma'am. Sheryll: Is that really necessary? Deputy: Are you telling us how to do our jobs? Sheryll: No, I'm not telling you how to do your job. Deputy: Get out of the car! Ray: Well, I need you to de-escalate. Sheryll: Ray, let's get out the car. Ray: I'm not getting out the car, Sheryll. Sheryll: Let's get out the car. Ray: I'm not getting out the car. Sheryll: Ray, let's get out the car. Come on. Deputy: Move. Ray: What is this really about? Sheryll: I am moving. Don't tell me to move. Ray: We've already identified ourselves, all right? Sheryll: I'm moving, okay? So, you don't need to tell me to move. Ray: This ain't right. Deputy: Turn around. Ray: Don't tell me to turn around, man. Sheryll: I don't need to turn around. I didn't do anything. Deputy: You really wanna do this right now? Sheryll: Do I wanna do what? Deputy: Turn around! Ray: Get your hands off of her! Deputy: Stay back! Sheryll: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! Hey, what the hell are you doing? He didn't do anything! Deputy: Stay down! Stay down! Sheryll: He didn't do anything! Deputy: Stay down! Sheryll: He didn't do anything! Sheriff: Welcome to Archer County. I mean, technically, they weren’t following orders and Ray lunged at the officer, but yeah, it was obviously targeted racism knowing they were FBI agents. Agents Remy (Dylan McDermott) and Nina (Shantel VanSanten) meanwhile interview Ronnie’s son James (Denzel Rodriquez) who warns how deep the county’s corruption runs: James: All right, the night that guy Manny got killed, I was at home with my pop watching the Wizards play on the West Coast. Remy: Wizards fan. Woof. That's rough. James: Not as rough as being framed for murder. Thing is, I crashed out on the sofa after the game. My pop never left the house. Nina: So, that's a strong alibi. Does his public defender know? James: Yeah, I told him, but that doesn't matter. Nobody's gonna believe us. Nina: Why not? James: It's just the way it is out here. Remy: Why are you so worried, James? James: My father wouldn't do something like this. Never. Everybody I know thinks that Manny was killed by the Electric Company. Remy: And? James: Word on the street was that Manny was dealing. Whether that's true or not, I can't say. But Sheriff Blake and his Electric Company crew, that's how they roll with that situation- Tasers and beat-downs. They say that they're cleaning up the drug problem in this county? Yeah, maybe. But there's a trail of dead and broken bodies along the way. Last year, I got stopped by Nelson and Dobbs. Said they were looking for meth. They tore apart my car and they tased me. Nina: Did you tell anybody about this? James: You kidding me? The last person to complain to Sheriff Blake disappeared. Yeah, that was him sending a message. You open your mouth, The Electric Company crew will bust down your door in the middle of the night on some anonymous tip. Remy: Like what happened to Manny. James: Yeah. I know five, six people. Same thing. Look, I can't talk to you anymore. I gotta get back to work. Remy: This whole damn county is going to the dark side. We need to talk to the U.S. Attorney in Baltimore. As the episode’s end nears, the U.S. Attorney thankfully believes the FBI’s suspicions and takes them seriously: Attorney: I’ve heard rumors of law enforcement corruption in Archer County from time to time, but nothing we could verify. Remy: Corruption is one thing, but this is a systematic policy of intimidation, brutality, and murder. There's an entire community living in fear of a handful of deputies who operate like a street gang. Hana: And a county DA who turns a blind eye in the name of a drug war. Attorney: Other than the case you're working, is there any criminal activity you could substantiate? Remy: We just spoke with someone who might be willing to break the ice. He has a list of other victims. Nina: Plus, we may have eyewitnesses and medical records to corroborate his story. Attorney: And why might this brave soul be willing to come forward now? Remy: His father is being framed for murder committed by these cops. Attorney: So, he has a bone to pick? Remy: No, no, no. This young man is absolutely credible. Attorney: If that's the case, I'm on board. Give me the name of your targets, and I'll have arrest warrants within the hour. Then I'll need to talk to your informant myself. Remy: It's not gonna be easy to round up these hooligans in their own back yard. They have a network of co-conspirators and nothing to lose. Nina: We need to speak with James Mccaffrey. We need to make sure that he's willing to cooperate with us before things get ugly. Remy: Barnes and Ray will scoop him up at his job and bring him here. The FBI attempts to persuade James into becoming a witness, but as he steps into his car, it immediately explodes. You can probably figure out who the culprit was: Ray: This has the Electric Company written all over it, Remy. Look, he was innocent, and they lynched him! Nina: Look, somebody had to have found out that he was talking with us, Remy. Hana: We can use this to get justice for James Mccaffrey's father. Sheryll: Well, how's that gonna work now that they murdered his son? Remy: We still have the arrest warrants, and the U.S. Attorney can convene a grand jury. Let's go round up these sons of bitches. Hana: I've got bolos on their personal vehicles. Sheryll: What the hell does he want? What the hell does he want? Sheriff: Hey! Why wasn't I notified about this? Remy: You know exactly why. Sheriff: Oh, you think I had a hand in this? Remy: Damn right, I do. Sheriff: Oh, I should have put down your candy ass when I had the chance. Now, clear your people off of my crime scene so I can get to work here. Remy: Your deputies murdered a witness in a federal prosecution. They have 24 hours to surrender. In the meantime, if you don't turn around and get back in your vehicle, I'm gonna arrest you for obstruction, you racist pig. That's right. You heard me. Get him out of here! Deputy: Come on, boss. Sheriff: Let's go home! Remy: We're not waiting until tomorrow. Let's split up and get these dirtbags before they rack up even more bodies to cover their tracks. In the end, the FBI gets enough evidence against The Electric Company to take them all into custody, minus one who shot himself. It seems quite unfair that one hit CBS procedural drama that always respected blue lives just aired their series finale after being canceled by the network while this woke garbage of a show gets to continue on. But that’s Hollywood’s priorities for you, sadly.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) held a briefing Wednesday about state and local efforts to increase safety within the New York City subway system. Although Hochul did her apparent best to put a positive spin on the state of play, a reporter took some of the wind out of her sails with unfavorable facts. Hochul noted that in March, she and NYC Mayor Eric Adams promised to make the city's subways safer. In hopes of curbing crime, the governor deployed 250 members from the New York State Police and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department to help with "enhanced" baggage checks at heavily trafficked areas and 750 members of the New York National Guard to supplement such efforts. The previous month, Adams ordered an additional 1,000 officers to join the law enforcement presence in the subway following a 45% spike in major crimes in January as compared with the same time last year — a year that reportedly saw 570 reports of felony assault on trains or in stations, the highest number in over 20 years. Extra to increased manpower, Hochul announced that the MTA would accelerate the installation of security cameras inside trains and train stations to aid law enforcement in apprehending criminals transiting the system. The New York City subway reportedly now has cameras on every subway car. 'Murders are up 200%.' The governor's office noted Wednesday, just hours after a maniac reportedly stabbed a straphanger aboard a Brooklyn train, that Hochul's safety plan "has laid a strong foundation for enhancing the safety and protection of transit workers across New York City." "A lot of people didn't think we'd make a difference," Hochul told reporters. "Thanks to our five-point plan to improve public safety, subway safety, subway crime is down 10% just since last March. In only two years since the year 1970 have we had fewer subway crimes than we had this past year." The presence of additional law enforcement officials and members of the National Guard appears to have made some difference. After all, the New York Police Department observed a 15.8% reduction in overall crime last month and a year-to-date decrease in crime of 6.3%. "This crime reduction directly reflects the relentless effort and dedication of our hardworking women and men in uniform, and I look forward to further successes across all crime categories," NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a Dec. 3 statement. While similarly optimistic, Hochul noted Wednesday, "You'll never hear me say, 'Mission accomplished.' We'll never declare victory because if there's a single crime on the subway or anywhere, it's a crime too many." During the subsequent question period, WABC-TV's N.J. Burkett noted, "You can say a lot of things with statistics, and I see the percentage that crime is down 42% since 2021. But if you look back to pre-pandemic — and I know you like to say that overall, crime is down 12% since the pandemic — but murders are up 200%, felony assault is up 55%, and burglary is up 140%." "So are you saying that this is progress?" asked Burkett, clarifying he was referring to crime in the transit system. Hochul punted the question, leaving MTA chairman Janno Lieber struggling to provide a satisfactory answer. "The numbers that we're talking about in the individual categories of crime are, you know, small or ... you know, very, very, very low double digits, so they do move around," said Lieber. "We're not saying there's — there's nothing you heard from me or the governor, not just today but ever, that suggests that we think that crime is not a problem. What you did hear is significant indicators of progress, which is overall crime, way down, and we're seeing passenger comfort levels as reflected in surging ridership way up." Hochul indicated that during the Christmas season, an additional 250 National Guard members will patrol the subway, deterring crime and generating a sense of security. The governor's office noted in a statement, "The MTA Police Department, New York Police Department (NYPD) and the National Guard will work together to monitor the city's busiest stations and prevent security threats within the subways. Protecting the subway system and its passengers is the only way to keep New York moving." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!