Archive for 2022

DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY: Jennifer Lawrence Makes Bizarre Claim, Takes Credit for Work of Female Actresses Before Her.

Did you know that before “The Hunger Games,” there were no female leads in cinema?

That’s what Hunger Games actress Jennifer Lawrence is claiming, at least.

In a recent conversation between Lawrence and actress Viola Davis, the lead actress in the movie “The Woman King,” Lawrence claimed that before her famous movie, women in lead roles in action movies were effectively unheard of because “girls and boys could both identify with a male lead, but boys cannot identify with a female lead.”

This is a ridiculous sentiment, seeing as how women in lead roles did indeed happen before Lawrence showed up on the scene. This includes:

  • Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver): Alien (1979)
  • Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton): Terminator (1984)
  • Natalie, Dylan, and Alex (Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu): Charlie’s Angels (2000)
  • Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie): Tomb Raider (2001)
  • Alice (Milla Jovovich): Resident Evil (2002)
  • Selene (Kate Beckinsale): Underworld (2003)
  • The Bride (Uma Thurman): Kill Bill (2003)
  • Aeon Flux (Charlize Theron): Æon Flux (2005)
  • Elektra (Jennifer Garner): Elektra (2005)

And this is hardly an exhaustive list.

Diana Rigg, Stefanie Powers, and Monica Vitti would also like to put in a word as well from the 1960s.

UNEXPECTEDLY! House Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters doesn’t plan to subpoena Sam Bankman-Fried to testify at hearing on FTX collapse.

Bankman-Fried’s fall from grace was swift and unforgiving after spending years as the crypto “darling” on Capitol Hill. He donated almost $40 million toward the 2022 congressional midterm elections, with much of it going to Democrats.

Nishad Singh, who became FTX’s lead engineer in 2019 following a stint at Bankman-Fried’s trading firm Alameda Research, has donated more than $13 million to Democratic Party causes since the start of the 2020 presidential election.

Ryan Salame, the co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, donated another $23 million, with most of his contributions benefiting Republicans.

So no SBF this month. Starting next month, things could be very different: For the banks, a ‘more hostile GOP.’

THEY JUST WANT TO DATE HER: AOC under investigation by House Ethics Committee. “A spokesperson for AOC expressed confidence the matter, whatever it is, would eventually be dismissed: ‘The Congresswoman has always taken ethics incredibly seriously, refusing any donations from lobbyists, corporations, or other special interests,’ said Hitt. ‘We are confident that this matter will be dismissed.’ The fact that the new Republican congress will be the one making the decision on this makes me wonder if a dismissal is really a given.”

COLLEGES HELPED CAUSE THE ENROLLMENT CRASH.’ In myriad ways. Like all of our other institutions, higher ed is cashing in all of its built-up goodwill and credibility just to make the racket last long enough for the current folks to cash out.

FIGHTING THE WAR CHINA STARTED: Time to Rid the World of China’s Trojan Horse Communications Gear.

For two decades we’ve had evidence that equipment manufactured by several Chinese corporations are potentially “dual use” systems.

At one level their equipment does what it’s supposed to do: connects communications systems like phones and computers. However, the systems have “backdoors” that give Chinese spies access to steal classified government secrets and your personal email.

Conceivably, the Chinese systems are offensive weapons: Trojan horses with intercontinental power. The CCP could use these pseudo-civilian systems to launch a cyber-Pearl Harbor attack on an adversary possessing them. The attack could damage the adversary’s economy (e.g., shut down banking). If executed quickly and pervasively, the sneak attack could disrupt military communications channels and disable high-tech sensors.

Check it out.

AFTER LAST NIGHT: Scott Johnson at Powerline assesses the Georgia Senate election.

According to the left-wing media, a star is born. Warnock for president! According to me, Warnock is a ludicrous, America-hating figure with the gift of gab. He’s a Jeremiah Wright kind of guy whose time has come…

Read all of Scott’s commentary.