'Free from fear'

Now Minnesota schoolchildren and taxpayers are devastated. 

A flying instructor in Alaska, has taken on a second gig as manager of an “airplane amusement park” complete with luxury accommodations built out of old, decommissioned aircraft. John Kotwicki says there’s little red tape interfering with getting old airplanes up to his flight school and converting them into Airbnbs to use as a base […] The post Plan a Trip to Alaska and Stay in These Classic Airplanes Converted into Luxury Accommodations – (LOOK) appeared first on Good News Network.

News Vision What is This? James Spader to Voice Ultron for Vision Series The series is meant to be the third part of the trilogy after WandaVision and Agatha All Along. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on August 23, 2024 Credit: Marvel Studios Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Marvel Studios It looks like the new Marvel series based on a version of Vision will have Paul Bettany’s character deal with an old Marvel Cinematic Universe foe. According to The Hollywood Reporter, James Spader will be reprising his role in voicing Ultron for the coming Vision series spearheaded by Picard showrunner Terry Matalas. We met Ultron in 2015’s Avengers: The Age of Ultron. In that movie, the titular character is an artificial intelligence created by Tony Stark who turns and tries to kill humanity. In its process of attempting to do so, it creates a high tech body that Tony, Bruce, and Thor imbue with J.A.R.V.I.S., Tony’s AI system, and the Mind Stone. The upcoming Vision series centers on the other version of Bettany’s character (aka White Vision) we met at the end of WandaVision. It’s not clear how Ultron, who presumably died at the end of the 2015 movie, will appear in the series. Several options are possible, of course, given this is the MCU. Perhaps he’ll be another variant from the multiverse. Or perhaps it’s the OG timeline Ultron who managed to survive somehow. Whatever the case may be, we’ll get an answer of some sort whenever the Vision series makes its way to Disney+. THR also reported that the show will be the last part of a trilogy, with WandaVision and the upcoming Agatha All Along comprising the first two installments. No news on when the Vision series will premiere, but the show is targeting to film in England in early 2025.  Agatha All Along premieres on Disney+ on September 18, 2024. [end-mark] The post What is This? James Spader to Voice Ultron for Vision Series appeared first on Reactor.

Canadian journalist Andrew Lawton’s “A Political Life” examines the life and career of Pierre Poilievre, a rising conservative star in Canada who is the odds-on favorite to become that country’s next prime minister. Focusing on a politician who is relatively new on the national scene—Poilievre just turned 45—and little known outside Canada, Lawton’s biography does an outstanding job of recapping Poilievre’s personal life and political career. Lawton concludes by contemplating what the future of Canada could be should Poilievre become prime minister.  Donald and Marlene Poilievre adopted young Pierre when his biological mother couldn’t care for him. Otherwise, he had a fairly normal childhood, but his parents separated when he was 20 and his father came out as gay. Poilievre makes it clear that he loves both his parents as well as his father’s gay partner. By this time, Lawton writes, Poilievre knew he wanted to be involved in politics. In fact, he knew this since age 14 and he sought to impress his fellow Western Canadians rather than the so-called elites. Poilievre officially expressed his political ambitions at age 20, when he wrote an essay for a contest held by Magna International, the Canadian auto parts manufacturer, on the topic: “As prime minister, I would … ”  He ended up as a finalist, receiving a cash prize and an internship with Magna International. His essay’s title: “Building Canada Through Freedom.”  Although Lawton notes that Poilievre prefers to keep his family life private, his book he gets into personal detail about how the conservative politician met his wife Anaida—also called Ana—as well as when the couple found out their daughter was autistic. In introducing the reader to Poilievre, the author explains Canada’s political system and contrasts its parliamentary system, in which the party with a majority in parliament chooses its leader as prime minister, with that of the U.S., in which the president and Congress are elected separately.  Poilievre’s wife Ana has supported his political races, which made him a member of Parliament for nearly two decades before he became leader of the Conservative Party of Canada in 2022 and thus the leader of what Canadians call the Official Opposition. The Canadian media sometimes refers to Poilievre as the “Canadian Donald Trump” despite many tangible differences on the issues as well as style.  One cause with which Poilievre was identified closely is the so-called Freedom Convoy of early 2022. Canadian truckers were fed up with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates and chose to protest in the capital city of Ottawa to send a strong message to Trudeau. Poilievre took to the highway to cheer on the truckers as they made their way to Ottawa to protest. He even gave coffee to them. There was already a Conservative Party leader with whom a growing number of party activists were getting fed up: Erin O’Toole. O’Toole described himself as a “true blue” conservative rather than a progressive conservative, and many thought him to be former Foreign Minister Peter MacKay’s rival for the party helm. O’Toole narrowly won the Conservative Party’s leadership post over MacKay, but those on the right dominated the party and increasingly thought O’Toole wasn’t serving them as they expected. One issue on which grassroots conservatives were particularly upset was COVID-19 vaccine mandates, and they said O’Toole didn’t respect their view. Instead of doing what many Canadians wanted, they argued, O’Toole followed what others in the Trudeau government wanted—continuing imposition of government restrictions on the unvaccinated. Lawton’s biography of Poilievre goes into rich detail about his rise to power, his disposing of O’Toole as party leader, and his chances of becoming prime minister. The author concludes by envisioning Canada under a Prime Minister Poilievre and just what he would do with a majority in parliament to change domestic and foreign policy. (His slogan, “Bring It Home,” refers to making Canada a great country once again.) How and when Pierre Poilievre gets the opportunity to try to make Canada great again remains to be seen. For now, though, readers inside and outside Canada have a good guidebook to his thinking. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post A Good Look at Canada’s Future Prime Minister: Pierre Poilievre’s ‘Political Life’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Learning isn’t necessarily cumulative. Human experience over the centuries provides lessons, some clearer than others. But each generation has to learn lessons anew, and some do not. The lessons about economic growth taught over the long run of history are clear. Growth is not inevitable, and while riches may be accumulated, or appropriated, by the few in high positions, the lives of the very large majority throughout the centuries have been nasty, brutish, and short. The exception, the Great Enrichment, began some three centuries ago around the North Sea in the Dutch Republic and in England, according to economic historian Deirdre McCloskey, in societies when people began respecting and encouraging commerce rather than resenting and scorning it. They discovered that when people exchanged goods and services in free markets, with property rights secured by limited government and the rule of law, economies could grow in ways that improved the lives of not just the few but the many. Suddenly, and not just for a moment, the great masses of people went from living on $3 a day, just barely subsistence—and in times of famine or war, not even that—to $130 a day. The 20th century proved full of lessons for how to produce extended and widely distributed economic growth—and how to squelch it. Growth occurs when free markets are allowed to operate in societies with high levels of trust and the rule of law. It ceases, and living standards plummet, in societies where governments flood the economy with currency, try to control wages and prices, impose centralized economic planning, and outlaw voluntary market transactions. Governments sometimes impose such measures temporarily in wartime, with various results depending on the course of the war. In peacetime, the results are destructive—in Weimar Germany, the Soviet Union, Mao Zedong’s China, and, most recently, oil-rich Venezuela. And, perhaps, in Kamala Harris’ America. Since President Joe Biden ended his candidacy for reelection four weeks ago, the vice president has said remarkably little about what policies she would pursue as president. Her website has had no issues section. She has taken almost no questions and has undergone nothing like an intensive interview from the press—most members of which, in their enthusiasm for her candidacy, have shown no discomfort at her neglect. Only last Friday did she begin talking issues, announcing “the first-ever federal ban on price gouging”—she read the word as “gauging”—on food and groceries. Presumably, this was an attempt to address an obvious vulnerability for any candidate with a Biden-Harris pedigree, the fact that administration policy, by showering money on consumers already flooded with lockdown-accumulated cash, stoked inflation that no voter under 60 had experienced as an adult. But of course, this made no sense. The grocery business is highly competitive, with low profit margins. If one firm “gouges” consumers too much, they can go elsewhere. “It’s hard to exaggerate how bad this policy is,” wrote The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell. “At best, this would lead to shortages, black markets, and hoarding.” Rampell has since taken a different view after Harris’ actual speech backpedaled from her campaign’s fact sheet, but her initial take remains persuasive and in line with historic experience, including with the price controls imposed by former President Richard Nixon 53 years ago this month. Similarly economically illiterate is Harris’ proposal to give first-time homebuyers a $25,000 government subsidy. Just as colleges and universities have vacuumed up government-subsidized college loans for their own purposes, so obviously developers and home sellers are going to raise their asking prices by $25,000 and pocket the subsidy. As Jason Furman, head of former President Barack Obama’s second-term Council of Economic Advisers, said of the price gouging announcement, “This is not sensible policy, and I think the biggest hope is that it ends up being a lot of rhetoric and no reality.” Is it fair to argue that Harris has learned nothing from the dismal history of price controls on the basis of just one proposal? Yes, if it’s just the only thing she has proposed in a whole month as the de facto and de jure Democratic nominee for president. And yes, as she has never personally renounced the similarly outlandish promises she made in 2019 in her campaign for the 2020 nomination—a ban on fracking, defunding the police, abolishing private health insurance, “snatching” drug company patents. Tweets from anonymous staffers ditching these policies don’t count. The delicious irony here is that the party favored by college graduates, many of them smugly confident of their knowledge and wisdom, is nominating a candidate who has shown no sign of learning from the dismal history of economic ukases. Learning isn’t necessarily cumulative. COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post The College Graduates’ Presidential Candidate Doesn’t Know Economic History appeared first on The Daily Signal.

High Drama: Canadian Gov Says Railroads Back to Work, Arbitration to END Strike That Fidelito...Caused?!

BREAKING: RFK Withdraws, Endorses Trump in Court Filing; UPDATE: RFK Speaks

For the late night comedy shows, the week of the Democratic National Convention provides the hosts with an opportunity to prove that they can make fun of Democrats in the same way they attack Republicans. However, a new MRC study shows they failed to do so this past week. In terms of quantity, the comedians hold 113 fewer jokes than they did during the RNC and 60 fewer jokes about Kamala Harris than Donald Trump. For the purposes of this study, analysts examined 20 episodes of CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, and ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live! guest hosted by RuPaul throughout all four nights of the DNC. Analysts looked at jokes told about Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, and everything else related to the convention. We also analyzed what type of jokes were told and who the hosts brought on as guests to help them make sense of the proceedings. Finally, we compared the findings to July’s RNC. Who Was Joked About Throughout the week, there were seven jokes told about Harris, 13 about Walz, and 124 about everything else related to the DNC, for a total of 144. The Daily Show led all shows with five jokes about Harris and 45 about the rest of the convention. Colbert topped the count with six about Walz. To put those numbers in context, Trump was targeted with 67 jokes over four days, Vance had 28, and everybody else had 162 for a total of 257 RNC-related jokes. What Was Joked About It was not unexpected that during the week of the DNC, comedians would joke about Democrats. However, to identify themes, jokes were divided into ten categories: policy, character, personality, physical appearance, age, names, gaffes and bloopers, nonsensical statements, impressions, and polls. For a detailed definition of each, check the methodology section below.  Jokes about speakers' personalities or individudal quirks topped the list at 38. Jokes about age, mainly about President Biden, were second at 19, while impressions rounded out the top three with 18. The top three categories the comedians found interesting about the RNC were physical appearance, character, and personality, the last being the only constant between the two conventions. Jokes about physical appearances provided the biggest gap at 47 more jests about Republicans. There were 41 more jokes about Republican character flaws or moral failings, as well as 23 more jokes about GOP policy. Guests Unlike during the RNC, Colbert and The Daily Show took their shows on the road. While the RNC ratio of liberals-to-conservatives was 4:1, during the DNC it was 11:0 for a total of 15:1. The DNC Week guests were as follows: COLBERT: Hillary Clinton, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Nancy Pelosi, Hakeem Jefferies, Pete Buttigieg, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez THE DAILY SHOW: J.B. Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, Lauren Underwood, Wes Moore SETH MEYERS: Ramin Setoodeh Conclusion Even after President Biden dropped out, late night would rather tell “Joe Biden is old” jokes than ones about Kamala Harris or Democratic policies. While Republicans were lampooned as bad people, Democrats got the “you tease the ones you love” treatment. Gone were the concerns of overheated rhetoric and lack of national unity. The comedians, espicially Colbert and The Daily Show, also highlighted that when trying to understand Republicans, they bring on Democratic guests, and when seeking to understand Democrats, they also bring on Democratic guests. This week, the comedy shows took "Late Night DNC" a little too literally. *** JOKE METHODOLOGY: Policy: Ideas, stereotypes, or the party platform. Character: Moral failings, real or perceived, including scandals and showing excessive amounts loyalty to the nominee. Personality: Individual quirks, tendencies, hobbies, or other non-political traits. Physical Appearance: Includes things such as clothes, bad hair days, and unflattering photos. Age: How old someone is, including whether they’re too inexperienced. Names: Puns or other creative uses for proper nouns. Gaffes/Bloopers: Any flub, technical difficulty, or physical embarrassment. Nonsensical Statements: A statement that is not a mistake, but nevertheless deemed to be confusing or weird. Impressions: Voice imitations or the mimicking of signature mannerisms Polls: Popularity

Jon Stewart wrapped up The Daily Show’s week of coverage of the Democratic National Convention with a live episode on Comedy Central on Thursday where he promoted the idea that Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech proves “she doesn’t faintly resemble the caricature that's been painted.” Later in the program, actor Jason Bateman would narrate a promo video for Harris, where he argued she would simply be “a normal [bleep] president.” Stewart began his analysis, such as it was, of Harris’s speech by sarcastically claiming, “This is great, we finally get to meet Communist Kamala, the radical that we have heard so much about.”     That began a series of Harris clips, followed by brief bits of Stewart. First, Harris was shown declaring that “I believe everyone has a right to safety, to dignity, and to justice [jump cut] A harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us!” After Stewart mocked conservative criticisms, “Okay-- Stalin!,” Harris was seen recalling, “This is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor. To protect people.” Again, Stewart mocked the idea she could be on the far-left, “Das vedanya, comrade?” A third clip had Harris claiming, “I stood up for women and children against predators who abuse them. [jump cut] I fought against the cartels who traffic in guns and drugs and human beings, who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities, and I will tell you, these fights were not easy.” The faux-frustrated Stewart wailed, “Why aren't you doing the thing that they told us you were going to do? With the hammer and the sickle and the banderillos with the Jell-O shots in, why are you doing this?” In the final clip, Harris began, “On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth, I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America.” As the cheers from the convention transitioned into cheers from the audience, Stewart waited an extended moment before claiming, “By the way, how funny would it have been if at the end she was like, but seriously though "Not for me. This has all been great, but I’ve been thinking it over.” By the way, if I was Donald Trump right now, I would just be tweeting nonsensical shit to distract from the fact that she doesn't faintly resemble the caricature that's been painted. By the way, that is what he was doing.” It is a convention speech, Harris was not going to say, “I was ranked the most liberal member of the Senate and even liberal Washington Post columnists are claiming I’m giving credence to the ‘communist’ allegation” because that would scare off independents, but both things are true. Later, during Bateman’s ad, the subject of Harris’s policies came up only for him to dismiss the concerns, “What are Kamala's actual policies? Just the vague ones you'd expect from a normal Democrat trying to get elected.”     After a snippet of Harris claiming, “Our fight is the fight for the future and it is a fight for freedom,” Bateman continued, “Yeah, great, sounds good, but at least they’re going to be normal policies, you won't have to learn about Project 2025 or Great Replacement Theory, or whether a president can serve his term while in prison. What the hell are we doing here, gang? I’ve been episodes of Ozark less stressful than this.” As for Harris-isms, Bateman, added, “Super kooky, right? So what. America has presidents with fun and energy all the time. What about Abe? He wore the big hats. FDR, stamps. Reagan, jelly beans, pounded fistfuls of them, and they were all presidents who didn’t cause Americans to shit themselves every five minutes, and that is a promise of a Kamala Harris presidency.” He concluded by declaring Harris “won't clear up after COVID with horse dewormer and a spritz of Clorox and one that can stay up past eight. A president who will eventually leave office, a president who won't have to flee to a non-extradition country if she loses. In other words, Kamala Harris will be a normal president. Just a normal [bleep] president.” What about having just a normal comedy show and not one that actively roots for one side? Here is a transcript for the August 22 show: Comedy Central The Daily Show 8/22/2024 11:34 PM ET JON STEWART: But this is great, we finally get to meet Communist Kamala, the radical that we have heard so much about. KAMALA HARRIS: I believe everyone has a right to safety, to dignity, and to justice [jump cut] A harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us! STEWART: Okay-- Stalin! HARRIS: This is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor. To protect people. STEWART: Das vedanya, comrade? HARRIS: I stood up for women and children against predators who abuse them. [jump cut] I fought against the cartels who traffic in guns and drugs and human beings, who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities, and I will tell you, these fights were not easy. STEWART: Why aren't you doing the thing that they told us you were going to do? With the hammer and the sickle and the banderillos with the Jell-O shots in, why are you doing this? HARRIS: On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth, I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America.  STEWART: By the way, how funny would it have been if at the end she was like, but seriously though "Not for me. This has all been great, but I’ve been thinking it over.” By the way, if I was Donald Trump right now, I would just be tweeting nonsensical shit to distract from the fact that she doesn't faintly resemble the caricature that's been painted. By the way, that is what he was doing. … JASON BATEMAN: What are Kamala's actual policies? Just the vague ones you'd expect from a normal Democrat trying to get elected. HARRIS: Our fight is the fight for the future and it is a fight for freedom. BATEMAN: Yeah, great, sounds good, but at least they’re going to be normal policies, you won't have to learn about Project 2025 or Great Replacement Theory, or whether a president can serve his term while in prison. What the hell are we doing here, gang? I’ve been episodes of Ozark less stressful than this Of course like any person, Kamala has her personality quirks and her time as vice president brought them all front and center. HARRIS: I love Venn Diagrams. You know, the three circles? Who does not love a yellow school bus? You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? BATEMAN: Super kooky, right? So what. America has presidents with fun and energy all the time. What about Abe? He wore the big hats. FDR, stamps. Reagan, jelly beans, pounded fistfuls of them, and they were all presidents who didn’t cause Americans to shit themselves every five minutes, and that is a promise of a Kamala Harris presidency. A president who will not fall in love with the North Korean dictator or have a family member whose dick pics end up on a Congressional hearing. A president who won't clear up after COVID with horse dewormer and a spritz of Clorox and one that can stay up past eight. A president who will eventually leave office, a president who won't have to flee to a non-extradition country if she loses. In other words, Kamala Harris will be a normal president. Just a normal [bleep] president.