Bill Maher mocks Ashli Babbit, Capitol rioters with parody “commemorative coins”

Bill Maher has released his new “commemorative coin” parody mocking the most infamous U.S. Capitol rioters. On Friday the late-night talk show host premiered the new clip during the latest segment of his HBO series “Real Time with Bill Maher.”

Maher began with a brief overview of Republicans’ evolution of explanations for the Jan. 6 insurrection.

“We’ve been chronicling on this show the different permutations that the right-wing has been going through to justify the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol,” Maher said, as he mentioned the flurry of “false flag” conspiracy theories that have also circulated to commemorate the rioters standing for their beliefs.

Now, according to Maher, “they’re basically saying these were brave patriots to the point where we thought we could make some money on this. So here at Real-Time, we’re partnering with the Franklin Mint, so take a look at what we’re going to sell.”

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Then, the parody airs with a quick flashback of the Capitol riots and angry Trump supporters storming the federal building as the voiceover says, “You watched it on TV. Now you can relive every moment with the Franklin Mint’s Heroes of the Coup commemorative coin collection.”

As the gold commemorative coins appear, infamous Capitol rioters are featured — starting with Babbitt, the woman who was shot by a U.S. Capitol Police officer after storming the Capitol.

“You’ll get Ashli Babbitt, Senator Josh Hawley, the guy who stole the podium, the guy bear-spraying a Capitol Police officer, the guy who attacked police with a crutch, hanging off the Senate balcony guy, the Camp Auschwitz sweatshirt guy. And of course, the Qanon Shaman,” the voiceover said.

The clip went on to offer other bonus commemorative items including a Rudy Giuliani syrup dispenser. The voiceover concluded saying, “Don’t miss your chance to own a piece of MAGA. History may not resemble actual history.”

Watch below via HBO:

“Beauty bias” is real, and devastating. I’ve felt it firsthand

When I was 17, I saw a “hiring” sign in the window of a local bakery, and decided to apply for the job. That afternoon, I put on my most professional outfit, and headed to the bakery to see if I could fill out an application. When I got there, however, the owner looked me up and down and told me all positions had been filled. But when another girl walked in behind me and requested an application, she was handed one immediately.

I knew better than to be surprised. By 17, I was accustomed to strangers treating me as if I were subhuman.

I have Crouzon syndrome, a craniofacial condition where the bones in the head don’t grow. I had dozens of operations to expand my skull and face. These surgeries saved my life but altered my appearance. I’m 30 now, and while my surgeries are behind me, my facial difference has impacted my income, opportunities, and how I’m treated by strangers in public.

My experience at the bakery was one of many similar ones. At 15, I worked at a pizza restaurant. I made $6.75 an hour, which seemed unreasonable when factoring in how customers made fun of me. “Quasimodo,” they sometimes called me. At 20, I applied for a legal internship and was told by the hiring attorney that he’d worked with my “kind” before and the work (filing and answering phones) would be too much for someone like me. After college, I applied for a copywriting position. The hiring manager was impressed with my work until she met me in person. Because of my appearance, she didn’t believe the resume and writing sample I’d submitted belonged to me and made me “prove it” — to show her I could actually write. My twin sister, Zan, who also has Crouzon syndrome, has had similar experiences. She was once asked during an interview to explain her medical history. Another asked if her appearance impacted her intelligence.

In the Western World, beauty is perceived through a narrow set of ideals: white, thin, able-bodied, and symmetrical. Thus, having a facial disfigurement meant having my humanity constantly called into question, which drilled into me a lesson I’ve spent my entire life learning: Pretty people are valued more. They also make more money.

Economists have found that “attractive” individuals who meet Western standards of beauty earn roughly 12–14 percent more than their unattractive coworkers. A 2021 study on physical appearance and income found that for men, greater stature meant a higher income, while for women, obesity meant lower income. There is also a racial pay gap. Black and Hispanic women make up a large share of Americans earning less than $15 per hour.

Though there is research related to the impact of race and gender on income, facial difference is often overlooked. This is surprising given that people with disabilities — including disfigurement — face numerous financial, institutional, and attitudinal barriers, causing people with disabilities across all age groups to be less likely to graduate from college and be employed.

According to Changing Faces, a UK organization devoted to face equality, over one-third of people have been discriminated against due to their appearance when applying for jobs. Their research reveals that for people with physical differences, getting a job is only half the battle. Their 2021 reported that 25% of participants had been stared at in the workplace and 19% felt uncomfortable around colleagues and/or received negative comments related to their appearance. 10% said they were ignored by colleagues and 12% struggled to make friends at work.

Unconscious bias goes beyond workplace exclusion and negatively impacts livelihood. Changing Faces reported that one in twelve people were given job assignments below their pay grade and were denied development opportunities due to their physical appearance. In addition, one in fifteen people were passed over for promotions and/or pay increases due to their disfigurement. Nearly half of people who experienced discrimination and harassment in the workplace didn’t even feel safe enough to discuss their experience with managers or colleagues.

While there isn’t data specific to the United States, America’s history of discrimination and normalization of ableist policies suggests that findings in the U.S. would be similar to the UK.

Discrimination against individuals with physical differences is rooted in centuries of dehumanization that has become embedded in our culture. In the 19th and 20th centuries, numerous cities had “ugly laws” where people who were “diseased, maimed, mutilated or in any way deformed so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object or improper person” were banned from being in public.

In Chicago during the 1800s, ugly laws were also known as “unsightly beggar ordinances”, and were used to prevent individuals from displaying their disabilities and keep beggars who had been cast aside by society due to their appearance off the street. These laws targeted people who were disabled, homeless, and poor, because in many cases, they were all of the above.

Disability was not only equated with homelessness and being poor, but it was also criminalized. In a 2016 Chicago Tribune article on the history of “ugly laws,” Elizabeth Greiwe wrote, “They worried that disfigured beggars would scare women. Community leaders settled on an idiomatic solution: out of sight, out of mind.” Those deemed “unsightly” were fined $1 to $50 — which today equates to up to $1100 — or sent to poorhouses.

Nina Renata Aron summarized the implications of these laws: “The emphasis on beauty and benevolence belied the true effect (and perhaps purpose) of these initiatives, which was to define the ideal citizen: one who was white, able-bodied, English-speaking, and sufficiently independent.”

Though ugly laws are no longer in effect in the United States (In Chicago, ugly laws were not repealed until 1974), people with visible differences continue to be treated as inferior. And those who meet Western standards of beauty are placed on a pedestal. This leaves many already-marginalized individuals desperate to adhere to arbitrary standards of beauty, or risk being further pushed into the margins.

This is partially why I wrote a book — “A Face for Picasso” — a memoir about what it was like to grow up with a facial difference. Because I want people to understand that treating individuals who do not live up to unrealistic standards of beauty as if we are subhuman impacts every aspect of life. I spent my childhood and adolescence in and out of the hospital. I had dozens of operations — some of which were medically necessary, others of which were for aesthetics. I struggled with whether or not I wanted more plastic surgery, because even as a child, I understood that conforming meant I wouldn’t be treated so cruelly by the world around me. I underwent over sixty surgical procedures before I graduated from high school. Not because I hated my face. But because the world did. And it still wasn’t enough.

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20 Thanksgiving desserts to make ahead (and freeze!) right now

It’s almost Thanksgiving! Have you signed up for our newsletter yet? Leading up to the big day, get all the best tips from Food52 editors right to your inbox. Today, we’re helping you get ahead with the one part of the meal that almost ASKS that you make it in advance: dessert.

While it may be news that you can freeze baked pies, it’s certainly not news that checking off elements of your meal — especially a big meal like, say, Thanksgiving — ahead of time is a really really good idea.

Dessert, in particular, lends itself to be making a week in advance. A spectacular failure in the twelfth hour (when guests are at the table, expecting something onto which to plop whipped cream), cakes, cookies, and cheesecakes come together with greater success when there’s less immediate pressure. You’ll have better desserts — and more energy (and oven space) to devote to more pressing matters.

Here are 20 desserts to make right now and pull out of your freezer the day before Thanksgiving (or Christmas!). Be sure to consult Alice Medrich’s Guide to Freezing Baked Goods for more specifics on freezing.

1. Chocolate Coffee Ice Cream Cake by Yossy Arefi

Make the entire cake ahead of time, but be sure to wrap it very well in plastic wrap and aluminum foil to prevent freezer burn.

2. Chocolate and Olive Oil Ice Cream Sandwiches by Yossy Arefi

Assemble the sandwiches, place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and wrap in several layers of plastic wrap. Thaw for a few minutes at room temperature before serving.

3. Brown Sugar Pound Cake by Yossy Arefi

Bake the cake and let it cool completely, then wrap it in plastic wrap and place in a freezer bag. Defrost in the bag, at room temperature.

4. Pierre Hermé’s and Dorie Greenspan’s World Peace Cookies by Genius Recipes

Shape the dough into a log as usual, wrap it well, and seal in a freezer bag. Thaw it in the fridge (in the bag) then let the dough warm up at room temperature for a few minutes until pliable enough to slice without cracking. Slice and bake as usual.

5. Viennese Sachertorte by Yossy Arefi

Make the cakes ahead and cool them completely. Wrap them in plastic wrap, then place in a freezer bag. Thaw the cakes in the bag, at room temperature. When you’re ready to serve, make the filling and ganache and assemble the cake.

6. Classic Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting by Yossy Arefi

Make the cake layers ahead of time, let them cool completely, then wrap in plastic wrap and seal in freezer bags. Whip up the cream cheese frosting when you’re ready to serve.

7. Almost Flourless Chocolate Cake by Kenzi Wilbur

Bake, let cool completely, wrap in plastic wrap…you know the drill.

8. Scoops Ice Cream Pumpkin Pie by Food52

This three-ingredient dessert is meant to be frozen. Just be sure to thaw it for 10 minutes before serving to prevent brain freeze.

9. Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust by Food52

Once the cheesecake has cooled completely, unmold the sides of the springform pan. Wrap the whole cake, along with the base of the pan, with several layers of plastic wrap, then cover with aluminum foil. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator.

10. Instant Pot Peanut Butter Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust

Not only can you make this cheesecake in advance — it almost asks that you make it in advance so the creamy PB filling can set. Also, since this is an Instant Pot cheesecake, it helps to not have to use the oven during the busy baking season, especially when you don’t have to. Win, win.

11. Oreo Dessert

This may be ice cream, but that doesn’t mean you should reserve it for summer. For recipe author EmilyC, it’s an all-year dessert. “We compare all other desserts against it,” she says, “and nothing, ever, has measured up.”

12. No-Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

This Big Little recipe from Emma Laperruque doesn’t ask you to turn on the oven — and it’s perfect for making ahead, as the gelatin-set pumpkin mousse filling needs time in the fridge to come to texture and temperature.

13. No-Churn Ice Cream with Vanilla Bean and Scotch

This ice cream couldn’t be easier to make, and is exactly what you need atop all your other pies and cakes and cookies. There isn’t a single egg in the custard, which is actually what makes it creamy as can be.

14. No-Churn Pumpkin Ice Cream

Or maybe pumpkin’s more your speed?

15. Brown Butter And Butternut Loaf

Whip up this original take on a seasonal loaf cake, cool completely, then wrap in plastic and place in a freezer bag. Make the glaze the day before or day of (while the cake is defrosting), and drizzle generously just before serving.

16. Ginger Apple Torte

Ginger is thought to aid digestion, which makes this perfect for the end of a big Thanksgiving meal. Bake the cake, cool completely and wrap snugly in a few layers of plastic wrap, then wrap in a final layer of foil and stash in the freezer until the big day. Defrost at room temperature and top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

17. The Snake Bite

Favorite fall flavors Guinness and pear cider join forces to add flavor and moisture to this cocktail-inspired cake. Bake, cool, wrap in plastic frap, and freeze in a freezer bag, and make the cream cheese frosting the day before or day of.

18. Persimmon Walnut Bread Pudding

Introduce guests to this seasonal variation on a beloved classic by making it ahead of time (minus the demerara sugar on top), cooling completely, wrapping the dish tightly in plastic wrap with a final foil layer, freezing, defrosting thoroughly, sprinkling with sugar, and finishing in then oven to get that irresistable sweet, crispy crust.

19. Walnut Sage Financiers

Swap in rich, earthy walnuts for the almond flour in these delicious fall-inspired financiers infused with a hint of Thanksgiving-friendly sage. Cool the financiers, then store in an airtight container overnight before transferring to freezer bags. Defrost completely at room temperature, and reheat briefly before deserving (if desired).

20. Spiced Parsnip Cake

The basic formula for carrot cake translates wonderfully to fellow fall root vegetable parsnips. Cool the cake completely, then wrap in plastic and place in a freezer bag. The simple maple glaze comes together in no time at all — drizzle after thawing and bring your meal to a memorable end.

9 books Hunter S. Thompson never published

Hunter S. Thompson was one of the most famous writers of the 20th century, fusing fiction and non-fiction in an innovative style called Gonzo. His genre-bending work catapulted him to counterculture fame, but his notorious drug habits and lack of focus meant that many potentially great books went unpublished. Here are nine of his works that never saw the light of day.

1. “Prince Jellyfish”

Thompson’s first attempt at writing a novel was “Prince Jellyfish,” more a series of autobiographical tales than true fiction. He wrote the book while living in a cabin in the New York woods in 1959, and the style is an odd blend of his literary heroes at the time like Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, and J.P. Donleavy. The book was taken on by an agent; however, aside from a few excerpts in “Songs of the Doomed “(1990), it was never published.

2. “The Gun Lobby”

In the late 1960s, as Thompson’s counterculture star rose, he was hired by Esquire to infiltrate the NRA. Asked to write a 3,000-word article about the organization, the author baffled his editors by handing them an 80,000-word manuscript. Unsurprisingly, Esquire declined to publish a rambling, personal story that was nearly 30 times their stated word count, and Thompson, perhaps conflicted over his own love of firearms, never sought to publish the book.

3. “Guts Ball”

It is a little-known fact that “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” nearly had a sequel. After returning from the 1972 presidential campaign trail, Thompson had a drug-induced vision of a plane filled with Secret Service agents, Nixon staffers, and other assorted passengers, including Thompson’s alter ego, Raoul Duke. In an orgy of drugs and violence, the Secret Service agents forced every passenger to participate in a wild game of football in the aisles of the plane. Thompson worked on this “saga of madness & terror” for years before eventually admitting defeat, though you can listen to him talk about what he had in mind for the novel/screenplay on “The Gonzo Tapes.”

4. “The Silk Road”

Thompson was in Key West when the Mariel boatlift — a mass, legal emigration of Cubans to America — began. As journalists flocked to cover the story, Thompson headed to the bar, disinterested until Esquire paid him a cash advance — including $15,000 for expenses — to do a piece on it. Instead of covering the event, though, he blew through the money and began writing a novel called “The Silk Road,” offering an excerpt to his editors in lieu of the article. Thompson explained that “Silk Road” would be “A fast, strange & occasionally violent story” that would involve smuggling and scuba diving.

As with most of his attempts at fiction, he wanted the plot and characters to resemble those found in “The Great Gatsby,” but with plenty of his trademark sex, drugs, and violence thrown in. He actually wrote a substantial amount of the book, but it was rejected by the magazine, which took a loss on the advance. Only a few segments were ever published in “Songs of the Doomed.”

5. “The Night Manager”

For his next gig, Playboy paid Thompson to write an article about feminist pornography, and so he settled in and got to work at San Francisco’s notorious O’Farrell Theater, an X-rated movie theater and strip club. He quickly realized that a book would be more profitable than a magazine piece and began to spin the story into a novel on the subject called “The Night Manager.” Despite a year of effort and the patience of his editors at Playboy, neither the article nor the book was published.

6. “The Rise of the Body Nazis”

In 1983’s “The Curse of Lono,” Thompson, in part, explored what he perceived as a descent into masochism apparent from the rise of marathons and running culture. Editor Paul Perry suggested Thompson explore this social satire of so-called “fitness freaks” further in a book called “The Rise of the Body Nazis.” Thompson was enthusiastic, particularly about the title, but unfortunately, he owed his publishers so many books that they refused to pay him another advance and “Body Nazis” joined the ranks of doomed Gonzo ventures.

7. “99 Days: The Trial of Hunter S. Thompson”

In “Songs of the Doomed,” Thompson announced that he was working on a new title called “99 Days: The Trial of Hunter S. Thompson.” This was a reference to a court case brought against him by a porn actress who had accused him of assault (those charges were later dismissed). Instead of writing the book, though, he gathered reporting on his legal issues and crammed it into various other works, including the entire last section of “Songs of the Doomed” itself.

8. “Polo Is My Life”

In the 1980s, Thompson attempted to woo a wealthy woman, but she turned him down in favor of her ponies, telling him, “Polo is my life.” Thompson was smitten not just with her but with that line. So for many years, he worked on a book called “Polo Is My Life,” the story of a man who quits his job at a sex theater in San Francisco and flees to the mountains, where he falls in love. (He also apparently described it as a “finely muted saga of sex, treachery, and violence in the nineties, which also solves the murder of John F. Kennedy.”)

Friends, editors, and assistants all pushed him to finish it and his publisher even announced a release date, but it would never materialize outside of some excerpts in Rolling Stone.

9. “The Mutineer”

Thompson was lucky that his early writing was so brilliant and voluminous that it carried him through decades of failed assignments. In his old age, he was able to collect his early letters in two successful volumes, but the third installment, entitled “The Mutineer: Missives from the Mountaintop,” has not yet appeared, despite having been given a cover and an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) by its publisher nearly a decade ago.

Additional Sources: Hunter S. Thompson: An Insider’s View of Deranged, Depraved, Drugged Out Brilliance; Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist; Fear and Loathing: The Strange and Terrible Saga of Hunter S. Thompson

To beat back fascism, Democrats must harness the showbiz energy that helped win 2020

It was only a year ago that Donald Trump was defeated by Joe Biden by seven million votes. Yet many of the pundits and politicos who oppose Trumpism are gloomily quoting recent polls and reflecting on midterm disasters during recent Democratic administrations. That 2020 victory was helped by an unprecedented level of engagement by singers, actors, writers, directors and comedians. Although baby boomers like to romanticize the role of artists in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the ’60s, in those days progressive energy was limited to the counterculture. In 2020, much of mainstream culture was deeply engaged in the resistance.

When Jon Stewart began hosting “The Daily Show” in 1999, he was the only late-night comedy host who addressed politics on a regular basis. After Trump’s election, it was every such host, every night. Before Trump, most mass appeal pop artists were apolitical. After Trump, pop stars with tens of millions of fans like Taylor Swift were obsessively engaged. Cardi B’s videos with Bernie Sanders and later with Joe Biden were seen by more viewers than nightly newscasts. A “table read” of “The Princess Bride” raised $7 million for the Wisconsin Democratic Party, its best grassroots fundraiser ever.

In the weeks before the election, Mandy Patinkin and his wife Kathryn Grody did 18 social media videos in support of Democrats; Sacha Baron Cohen’s new “Borat” film eviscerated Rudy Giuliani; Ava DuVernay screened her film “Selma” at a California drive-in that was also set up for voter registration and reception of early ballots; Bruce Springsteen told the audience for his radio show, “In a few weeks we’ll be throwing the bums out,” and narrated one of Biden’s final TV spots; Taylor Swift’s song “Only the Young” was used in an anti-Trump ad that included scenes of Black Lives Matters protests; Bette Midler tweeted “Donald Trump is a parasite, a leech… Anyone supporting him is covered in shame”; and Bradley Cooper, Michael Keaton and Lady Gaga campaigned for Biden in the swing state of Pennsylvania.

In the past, artists were effective in adding saliency to issues marginalized by mainstream media, such as advocacy for LGBT rights in films like “Milk” and TV shows like “Modern Family” before same-sex marriage was legalized and the fight against racist policing, mostly in lyrics by hip-hop artists, during many years when most politicians avoided the subject. Yet there has often been skepticism about the political relevance of election activism from many Democratic pundits. In 2019, Chris Matthews fretted on MSNBC that many Trump voters felt that there had been “a great party going on with the liberal elite and their Hollywood buddies and they were left out of it.” But most pop-culture stars come from working-class or middle-class backgrounds and from disparate parts of the country. Although elite art forms like classical music are primarily supported by cosmopolitan audiences, mass entertainment, by definition, is popular in all 50 states, as are the tabloids that cover celebrities.

Even among those politicos who admire popular culture, the question is often raised about whether political art or celebrity activism actually make any difference. There is certainly such a thing as “preaching to the choir,” or repeating feel-good bromides to an audience that already agrees. In recent election cycles, however, the primary agenda of campaigns is to motivate maximum participation from those very audiences: “turning out the base.” Performers who have their own tribal fan bases can motivate some reluctant voters and make a difference in close elections.

Another role some artists played in 2020 was to help reunite the center and the left. In 2016, third-party candidates from the Green and Libertarian parties got 5.7% of the popular vote, allowing a united right-wing minority to seize power. In 2020, aided by a large turnout and a huge margin among younger voters (many of whom trust artists more than politicians or the political media), Biden clawed back most of those votes. The marginal parties were reduced to 1.7% of the total, which is what gave him an Electoral College victory.

Republicans know who their enemies are. In 2020, Breitbart News had three writers assigned to a daily entertainment section that attacked show business progressives. When Joy Behar was asked if she was planning on retiring from “The View,” she quipped that she couldn’t “because it would cause unemployment at Breitbart.” Laura Ingraham of Fox News wrote an entire book (“Shut Up and Sing”) that tried to delegitimize “liberal Hollywood.”

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Before casting his vote against impeachment, Rep. Ken Buck, a Colorado Republican, said that some who vandalized the Capitol and attacked police officers had been motivated by “the socialists in Hollywood … Robert De Niro said that he wanted to punch the president in the face. Madonna thought about blowing up the White House. Kathy Griffin held up a likeness of the president’s beheaded head, and nothing was heard and nothing was said by my colleagues at that point in time.” (As if holding up a Trump mask smeared with ketchup was in the same moral universe as violently trying to overturn a presidential election.)

One urgent need is for Democrats and their show business allies to educate their own base about the steepness of what poet Amanda Gorman described, at the Biden inauguration, as the “hill to climb.” Another is to find ways to maintain progressive aspirations and acknowledge the suffering that status-quo policies cause, while acknowledging partial victories and maintaining clarity about the effect that a resurgence of Trumpism would have on millions of vulnerable people.

Most importantly, the coalition that defeated Trump in 2020 needs to project a moral imperative that transcends the 24-hour news cycle. Andrew Breitbart famously said that “politics is downstream from culture.” In the libertarian cosmology of Ayn Rand and Donald Trump, the most important thing in life is to avoid being a loser. A contrasting philosophy can be found in the scene in “Casablanca” where Humphrey Bogart tells Ingrid Bergman, “It doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world,” and in Bruce Springsteen’s oft-repeated exhortation to his concert audiences: “Nobody wins unless everybody wins.”

Most Americans do not watch TV news or read op-ed articles like this one. Republicans have right-wing talk radio, along with a set of social media algorithms and well-funded bloggers who help them spread their daily (and sometimes hourly) talking points to the masses.

The Democrats have the White House, but Biden is not a TV star like Trump was, and in any case he has a very full plate. Neither the president nor Democratic congressional leaders have personalities that can transcend political media and educate and motivate “low information” voters. Like politicians and pundits, the world of art and entertainment include characters with outsized portions of the seven deadly sins, but also those who can reach millions of voters who are impervious to conventional political sales pitches.

The right-wing echo chamber will try to gaslight Democrats into keeping populist messengers on the bench. They demonize AOC and Kamala Harris and “liberal Hollywood,” in part to motivate their own base but also to gaslight Democrats. The artists of the resistance of 2020 should fully re-engage, and they need to be coordinated with the Democrats even if they don’t always agree with them. It’s time to put the band back together.

More from Salon on the intersection of pop and politics:

Newsmax announces upcoming vaccine mandate for all employees

Newsmax has announced its into to follow President Joe Biden’s aggressive vaccine distribution plan by requiring its employees to get vaccinated for COVID-19.

On Thursday, November 4, the conservative news network released a statement to its employees it that email, the network referenced the COVID mitigation rules under Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) to explain its reason for implementing a vaccine mandate.

“To ensure that we are in compliance, we require that all vaccinated employees submit a copy of their vaccination card,” the network said in the email obtained by Mediate.

Under the COVID vaccine mandate, all Newsmax employees will be requiring to be fully vaccinated by January 4, 2022. Those who refuse to do so will be required to take weekly COVID tests.

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The Newsmax vaccine mandate announcement comes after months of COVID opposition from many of the network’s hosts.

For months now, the network has also circulated right-wing conspiracy theories that have raissd questions vaccine safety and efficacy.

Many of Newsmax’s viewers are anti-vaxxers who have condemned mask mandates and touted unproven drugs like hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin. Based on the type of rhetoric the network has featured over the last several months, is highly unlikely that the right-wing network’s audience will be receptive to the idea of enforcing Biden’s vaccine mandate

In fact on Thursday, Newsmax host Steve Cortes railed against vaccine mandates yet again. Describing Biden’s vaccine mandate as a “dictatorial rule,” Cortes claimed no one is obligated to get vaccinated.

“There is zero, and I mean zero, moral or ethical obligation for anyone to be compelled to get vaccinated,” Cortes said as he claimed that work-related mandates are “insane workplace discrimination.'”

At this point, it is unknown whether or not employees will protest against the vaccine requirement.

More on Newsmax:

Multi-level marketing companies shower Kyrsten Sinema with cash, in apparent bid to kill labor bill

What do Amway, Isagenix, Nu Skin Enterprises and Herbalife have in common?

For starters, they’re all multi-level marketing businesses, engaged in the oftentimes-disparaged industry of convincing their customers to become salespeople. They’re also all recent donors to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the iconoclastic Arizona Democrat whose campaign donations, in lieu of direct statements on her political priorities, have become scrutinized in recent months as tea leaves of sorts for the Washington set interested in swaying her powerful vote in the evenly-divided chamber.

All four of the above companies gave Sinema $2,500 at various points this year, as did USANA Health Sciences and the executive chairman of Mary Kay, Richard Raymond Rogers, according to POLITICO, which first reported the donations.

The outlet notes that Sinema is one of the only national-level politicians the companies, all connected to the trade group Direct Selling Association, have made donations to.

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It’s perhaps not all that surprising, given Sinema’s direct connection to the industry — her mother was involved in multi-level marketing at various points in her own life.

When asked by POLITICO, the Direct Selling Association deflected, saying, “contributions to candidates from DSA’s political action committee are based on a variety of factors.” But it would appear the donations have at least some connection to Sinema’s labor organizing stance — specifically, her position as the only Senate Democrat hostile to the union-friendly Protecting the Right to Organize Act, better known as the PRO Act.

The bill would restrict businesses’ ability to classify workers as independent contractors, which presents a challenge for MLM businesses that rely on non-traditional employees.

Sinema’s recent enthusiasm for bucking the Democratic Party’s consensus has earned her a number of allies across a number of industries, raking in more than $1.1 million in the third quarter of this year, according to POLITICO. Most recently, her blockbuster campaign donations from the pharmaceutical industry have come under fire after she jockeyed to kill a prescription pricing reform bill that proved wildly popular in opinion polls across nearly every demographic.

More on Sen. Kyrsten Sinema:

Tamron Hall, TV host and now mystery novelist, created a heroine to be “the reporter I wish I was”

“I was terrified to write this novel,” Tamron Hall said of “As the Wicked Watch,” published by William Morrow in late October. “What was I thinking? I should’ve wrote a beauty book.”

Watch the full “Salon Talks” video conversation with Tamron Hall and D. Watkins here.

On the set of Hall’s daytime talk show, produced by Disney-ABC and airing across the country in national syndication, the Emmy Award winner is in a different element. Before the cameras roll, she greets everyone on the set with her warm, glorious smile before switching into full business mode in an instant –– directing the crew, checking the shot and shifting her plan before shifting it again. Hall has a way of commanding all of her surroundings with ease. She trades jokes with her staff. She makes her guests feel relaxed. Her audience isn’t here just to be entertained; they’re like extended family, proudly calling themselves the Tam Fam.

Hall makes hosting her own show for more than a million viewers look easy. In 2014, she made broadcasting history becoming the first African American woman to co-host NBC’s “Today,” but this show, the one with her name on the door, is what she calls “the hardest version of TV that I’ve done.”

As the show’s host and executive producer, Hall says she feels a great responsibility for her guests, who trust her with telling their life stories. With her writing, which she is sharing publicly for the first time, it’s about trusting herself.

Hall wrote “As the Wicked Watch,” the first in a series of mystery novels, during the height of the pandemic. The novel introduces us to Jordan Manning, a savvy crime reporter from Texas, who relocates to Chicago for a job at a television station. While dealing with the challenges of acclimating to the big city, the murder of a 15-year-old girl named Masey James changes Manning’s life and career forever. “It was inspired by a real part of me, something that I wanted to reconcile and write about,” Hall said.

What does Hall have to say on the page? For starters, Hall did not give us the tell-all memoir viewers may be expecting or hoping for. In a memoir, she could have documented the details of her childhood, the loss of her sister to a violent abuser and the fact that the case remains unsolved, the drama behind her exit from “Today,” including how the ratings dipped after Megyn Kelly took her place and then soared as soon as Kelly was terminated. That memoir would undoubtedly be a great read.

Fifty-one-year-old Hall, who grew up in the small town of Luling, Texas, has a story ripe for telling. During childhood, her father pointed at the television to a Black woman anchor named Iola Johnson — a trailblazer in Dallas-Fort Worth network news — and said to his daughter, “That can be you one day if your get your C’s up.” Young Tamron rode that dream all the way to Temple University, where she studied broadcast journalism. She spent her early career as a camera operator at Wade Cablevision in Philadelphia, then worked as a general assignment reporter back in Texas at KBTX Channel 3 and KTTV where she covered the Brazos Valley and Fort Worth for six years before landing a position as an anchor on “Fox News in the Morning” in Chicago.

Hall’s memoir could detail her rise to the MSNBC anchor chair and her history-making position at “Today.” She could revel in that accomplishment and what it means symbolically, before unloading the details of her 2017 departure, dishing dirt and inviting us to ride the emotional waves with her. She could take us behind the scenes of her personal life, including her relationship with husband Steven Greener and their struggles to conceive son Moses.

Hall could end the book in 2019, the first day “Tamron Hall” aired. Readers would leave extremely satisfied, motivated even. But what about Hall? Could she truly open up about everything?

While her show has quickly enjoyed success, it’s only in its third season. Hall is 30 years into her career as a journalist, but her tenure as a daytime talk show host is young. Many of the relationships that led to this opportunity, this moment, are still new and developing — and way too fragile to slash with the kind of brutal honesty that has the potential to crush feelings, dismantle friendships and, well, makes a great memoir. The story of Tamron Hall is still being written. Writing no book at all would be the easiest option, but Hall chose the even greater challenge of writing a novel.

“Jordan is inspired in some ways by my real life as a reporter for 30 years, but she’s also someone I wish I could have been in newsrooms when I watched and heard things said that made me anxious or uncomfortable,” Hall says. Through this fictional character we see the ups and the downs of the media business that Hall may not be able to talk about yet. Through Manning’s story we see Sunny Hostin, April Ryan, Joy Ann Reid and other Black women leading in the journalism field today. “As the Wicked Watch” gives a real glimpse of what successful Black women journalists must have endured to obtain and maintain their positions.

Hall calls her relationships with other Black women in the industry “a beautiful infrastructure of solidarity that didn’t always exist because you were one for one.”

“When I was going through all of the Donald Trump stuff, Tamron was whispering ‘Keep going, you’ve got this’ in my ear,” recalled Ryan, White House correspondent for The Grio, referring to 2018 when President Donald Trump called her nasty and threatened to revoke her press credentials. “She also offered a lot of great advice about how to handle this industry from a strategic standpoint, by taking the emotion out of situations as you carefully plan to make your mark.”

Hall writes early in her novel that her heroine Manning is in a business “where independent, successful women still kept secrets about gender bias and sexual harassment while reporting on these very matters.” Through the character of Manning, readers witness the fear that comes with taking a leap of faith – and relocating to a big city alone as a single woman in pursuit of a dream, coupled with the reality of being a Black woman in an industry where both racist and sexist stereotypes are readily accepted. It’s a perspective Hall doesn’t have to imagine — she’s lived it.

“Tamron is at the highest level. We are Black women in a white, male-dominated industry who don’t have the pedigree of Yale or Harvard, yet we are still rising,” Ryan said. “We are still doing exactly what they do. We are working hard, breaking stories and rightfully claiming our seats at the table.”

And Hall has her own experiences as a young crime reporter to tap into when writing about the struggles, too.

“I stood up for myself against a cop who was being very derogatory toward us about getting off of a crime scene,” Hall recalled. “I said, ‘Look you know you can’t talk to us like that. We are within the lines. I’m a reporter.'”

When Hall and her white, male producer got back to the newsroom, he took the liberty of telling the story in an animated way that he thought was complimentary to Hall, but instead leaned on every Black woman stereotype available. The producer swung his neck and hips, wagging his finger left to right, rolling his eyes like a character from the sitcom “Martin” in an attempt to imitate Hall standing up for herself. One would think he would have had her back on the crime scene where he remained church-mouse quiet in front of the disrespectful cop, while his coworker, a woman, was being disrespected. But no, he could only move his lips when it was time to mock the Black lady.

Hall wanted to unleash on that insensitive producer, right in the newsroom, in front of the laughing faces he carelessly entertained, putting him in his place and calling him out on his racism, but she couldn’t. That would have proven him absolutely right, playing into the stereotypes he was so happy to imitate. It might have kept Hall from moving up to the next level. So she said nothing. Years later, Hall approached the producer to tell him how horrible his actions were. He did not remember it. A horrifying, unforgettable day for her was apparently just another day at the office for him.

Manning, however, doesn’t have to stay silent. When writing a fictional character, Hall has the luxury of dictating what she wants Manning to get out of any situation in a way that Hall could not do for herself in real life, while offering multiple teachable moments. That, along with how Hall uses Manning to the address the trauma — rarely talked about — many beat reporters endure, is why this character is important.

When Hall was working the graveyard shift, she would sometimes arrive at crime scenes before the police, like Manning does. On one occasion, Hall stumbled upon a lifeless male victim at a salon, lying across the ground speckled with blood. The sight of the body caused Hall to freeze. Nothing in her life had prepared her for that moment. Police arrived shortly after and were taping the area off when the victim’s wife exploded onto the scene from a gray Lexus. She had heard there was a robbery at the salon her husband owned and wanted to make sure he was OK. Watching the wife fall apart in real time upon learning of her husband’s demise, Hall stood by her car with Toni Braxton’s “Unbreak my Heart” spilling out of the speakers. “For a very long time I couldn’t hear that song,” Hall said. “If I heard that song it was triggering.”

Manning, who has a reputation for arriving at crime scenes first, takes us home with her too, as Hall carefully shows how the stories reporters cover don’t just disappear when the workday ends. These tragedies can affect your mood, the way you think and your relationships. TV journalists, people who are often dismissed as talking heads, are often tasked with telling us the terrible stories of our cities. We never really consider how they have to interact with people who are directly connected to the pain and tragic events that shatter communities.

If Hall would’ve been as assertive, as forthcoming, as emotionally in-tune as her character Manning — “the reporter I wish I was,” as Hall puts it — then she might never have made it to where she is today. Hall checked every box as a broadcast journalist. She joined “Today” in 2014, becoming the first Black woman to host the show, and still was replaced by Kelly in 2017. The tag team of Hall and Al Roker was extremely successful; however, Fox News was No. 1 in cable news, and by bringing Kelly on, NBC signaled it wanted some of that audience, to gain viewers and align, in a way, with America’s shift into the Trump era. That plan backfired; personalities with strong political views are niche, and normally aren’t going to flourish in apolitical spaces like mainstream network TV.

Salon’s TV critic Melanie McFarland commended Hall for how she handled being fired and turned it into something bigger. “Unlike Megyn Kelly, Hall doesn’t make it all about herself,” McFarland said. “Tamron Hall is the conduit, while Megyn Kelly is this personality who needs to insert and say, ‘This is me, and this is me presenting my view of the world to you in this space.’ And that was never going to work on the ‘Today’ show.”

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Hall occupies a uniquely independent space. She can deliver the news with great credibility and an intellectual authority that some daytime hosts don’t have while also connecting with a diverse group of daytime viewers. “When I lost a job,” Hall said, reflecting on “Today,” “I laugh about it on air now because there was something in that moment where I decided, maybe unbeknownst to me, that I wasn’t going to let that weigh me down.

“The thing that I am most proud of is that I didn’t let it make me bitter,” she added. Instead, Hall saw an outpouring of support online and from fans as an opportunity to create the show. “To see it succeed gave me the confidence to write this book.”

More “Salon Talks” with D. Watkins:

Margaret Cho on her favorite “fifth Beatle” and finding the beauty and humor in everything

Comedian, actor and musician Margaret Cho joined host Kenneth Womack to talk about her start in the entertainment business, lifelong journey learning about the Beatles, making “useable art” and more on “Everything Fab Four,” a podcast co-produced by me and Womack (a music scholar who also writes about pop music for Salon) and distributed by Salon.

Grammy and Emmy award-nominated Cho, known for her roles in many popular TV shows and movies including “30 Rock,” “Sex and the City,” “Face/Off” and, more recently, “Awkwafina is Nora from Queens” and “The Flight Attendant,” started doing stand-up comedy in San Francisco in the 1980s when, she says, “it was easy to slip into” (her first comedy partner was actually Academy Award winner Sam Rockwell, when they were both students). Then in the ’90s she starred in her own sitcom, “All-American Girl,” and in the 2000s she produced several comedy collaborations with previous “Everything Fab Four” guest John Roberts. But her career really began in childhood.

As the daughter of two musicians, she was singing and playing piano at a very early age. “I was fired from my first band at five,” she tells Womack. Her parents, who were classically trained, didn’t keep many rock ‘n’ roll albums around the house, but they did own the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” which was fascinating to young Cho.

At the time, she wondered if all the people on the album cover were in this band and, though funny in retrospect, she’s come to realize how many “other” people were actually instrumental in the Beatles’ story, such as Stuart Sutcliffe, Astrid Kirchherr, Pattie Boyd, Sir George Martin, Harry Nilsson (with whom our season opener guest Ed Begley, Jr. shared an incredible night out in NYC) and more.

The ones that stand out the most to Cho, though, are artist Yoko Ono (for whom Cho wrote an as-yet unreleased song called “I’m the One and Ono,” which she’s shared with her friend, Ono’s son Sean Lennon), and Beatles manager Brian Epstein. Cho, who has long been a queer icon and part of the LGBTQ community, says that “because [Brian] was gay, and because he was invested and enamored with their male beauty” he was able to package the band “in a really beautiful way.”

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As for the Fab Four themselves, Cho has met surviving members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, but says George Harrison remains her favorite Beatle. And she says that all four (especially John Lennon) had an uncanny sense for “making music out of anything.”

Listen to the entire conversation with Margaret Cho on “Everything Fab Four” and subscribe via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google or wherever you get your podcasts.

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“Everything Fab Four” is distributed by Salon. Host Kenneth Womack is the author of a two-volume biography on Beatles producer George Martin, the bestselling book “Solid State: The Story of Abbey Road and the End of the Beatles” and “John Lennon, 1980: The Last Days in the Life.”

More “Everything Fab Four” conversations:

Astronomers plan to double-down on the search for extraterrestrial life

Just as God handed down the ten commandments to Moses at Mt. Sinai, astronomers are having their ten commandments moment this week — in the form of a much-anticipated 614-page report, handed down from a committee assembled by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

That report — called the Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020 (informally, Astro2020) — determines the top three priorities in the field of astronomy for the next ten years. The once-in-a-decade visionary blueprint will shape the future of astronomy research, and perhaps even the trajectory of human civilization given the potential for astronomers to soon discover life on other worlds.

Indeed, while the report is chock full of proposals, one prominent one stands out: confirming that life exists on an Earth-like planet beyond our solar system.

The proposal calls for a massive space-based observatory to be launched in the mid-2040s as the first of three “priority scientific areas” regarding where investments in astronomy should be made within the next decade. The second priority is to further investigate the nature of black holes and neutron stars, and the third is to improve our understanding of the early universe.

Previous decadal surveys have included monumental endorsements that led to breakthrough scientific projects like NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, which was a top priority in a survey in the 1970s. The priorities are determined after surveying professionals in the field, which is then organized by a 20-person panel.

Nikole Lewis, assistant professor of astronomy and deputy director of the Carl Sagan Institute who contributed to the report, told Salon the process for determining the top priorities was all about what would “push the field forward.”

“We’re really asking ourselves ‘What’s really hard to do?’ and ‘What would be transformational?'” Lewis said. “And so exoplanets and searching for life on other worlds is really both hard and transformational, so that is a good focus area for the future of astronomy.”

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This hypothetical space observatory would essentially be a more advanced version of a collection of telescopes similar to the Hubble Space Telescope, but its main priority would be to search for biosignatures on the 25 habitable zone exoplanets that have been deemed “Earth-like.” The process of creating and launching such an observatory is explained in great detail in the report.

First, the report recommends that NASA establishes a new Great Observatories Mission and Technology Maturation program, which would essentially change the way major projects are developed. This newly structured program would provide an opportunity for the field to make early investments in the development of smaller versions of bigger projects to make sure they are feasible before they become too large and costly.

After the program has been established, the first mission would be developing an infrared, optical and ultraviolet telescope significantly larger than the Hubble Space Telescope. Scientists would build this telescope to observe planets 10 billion times fainter than their star, which is key to identifying signs of life on exoplanets in their star system’s habitable zones. Lewis explained the main difference between the proposed space observatory and the James Webb Telescope — which is planned to replace the Hubble Space Telescope in December 2021 — boils down to the technology used to observe the fainter planets and provide spectroscopic data to scientists.

“In order to access planets that are in Earth-like orbits around sun-like stars, so at the same distance from the same type of star, we need a different technology,” Lewis said. “You need some way to block out the starlight in order to see the relatively faint planet next to it, and so that’s a lot of what’s driving this technology development towards this flagship mission.”

Lewis added that while the James Webb Space Telescope is going to study exoplanets, it will only be able to look at exoplanets that are very close to their stars, due to its physical constraints.

“These are typically planets that are much closer to their stars than say Mercury is to the sun,” Lewis said. Yet a close-orbiting planet does not necessarily imply a barren hellscape, like Mercury; some stars are far cooler than ours, and thus even a close-orbiting planet can be habitable. In other words, the James Webb Telescope might still image habitable worlds, but not habitable worlds anything like Earth.

“The Webb telescope will really only be able to look at those types of planets that are really not around sun-like stars in Earth-like orbits, but we’re going to learn a huge amount about those potentially habitable worlds,” Lewis added.

Hence, while the James Webb Telescope will aid our current understanding of exoplanets, it will in some ways be limiting. However, the next proposed generation of telescopes would be able to identify biosignatures on these Earth-like planets in other star systems.

If this space observatory were able to launch in the mid-2040s, with an estimated cost of $11 billion, does that mean we would finally be able to know if there is extraterrestrial life in the universe? The short answer is yes.

“It’s an exciting time because in searching for life we’re going to actually discover a whole bunch of really interesting things about how planets work, and as we get to the point where we think, ‘Okay, this planet we think really has life,’ and we start to build a statistical sample,” Lewis said. “It’s really going to put in context how unique Earth is, which is important for us as humans, right?”

“Are there a bunch of Earth twins out there? Or maybe those planets that don’t look like us also harbor life, and so it will be a mind-expanding moment in contextualizing our place in the universe, our uniqueness, and also our potential to think about how life might have formed outside of the context of Earth and around another star.”

Lewis said the proposed plan puts astronomers and scientists in a position to have answers to these questions in our lifetime. Indeed, astronomers whose careers have been dedicated to search for extraterrestrial and microbial life in the universe are excited about this proposal.

Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), told Salon he’s “excited,” but is managing his expectations.

“If this new observatory or even James Webb finds a planet that has oxygen in its atmosphere, we’ll think ‘oh, photosynthesis, the aliens have salads to eat.’ Okay, that’s interesting, but keep in mind that the Earth has oxygen in its atmosphere for about 2 billion years,” Shostak said. “And not too many humans were walking around with the radio transmitters 2 billion years ago, 1 billion years ago, or even 100 years ago. So it doesn’t necessarily improve your immediate chances, but what it does is it gives you a reason to keep looking at this category of objects.”

Shostak said it is invigorating to be so close to having answers about extraterrestrial microbial or intelligent life.

“It’s fortunate to think that we might be alive when it happens,” Shostak said.

Trumpism in a fleece vest: GOP’s new gambit scored a big win — but here’s how to beat it

The victory of smooth-talkin’ Glenn Youngkin over Terry McAuliffe on Tuesday has Democrats wringing their hands and looking under the couch cushions for excuses. After all, the entire Republican Party and anyone running under its banner should have been deeply wounded by now. They remain, after all, the party of Donald Trump, the single most unpopular political figure in our time. They were the party in charge when the pandemic hit and took 400,000 lives. They are the party that has pushed misinformation about COVID for nearly two years, including loud and repeated lies about vaccines and mask-wearing, causing countless additional deaths. They are the party that has persistently countenanced an attempted coup after the last election and spread the corrosive lie that Trump didn’t actually lose.

Republicans should be so knocked back on their heels that they still can’t manage to get up, and yet this blow-dried “businessman” running on a platform of transparent lies was able to win the governorship of Virginia. Why? Was it the Democrats in Congress and their failure to pass two incredibly popular bills before Election Day? Was it because McAuliffe carried the baggage of reminding Virginia voters of the Clintons and ran a boring, clueless, inept campaign? Or was his loss simply the predictable product of off-year politics and the bad luck of being the party in power in the White House?

Pundits are ganging up all these reasons and coming up with even more, but I think it’s easy to get if you consider a political fact of life, for which Democrats have failed to account for decades. Democrats don’t get to choose the issues Republicans run on. There may be many reasons Democrats did so poorly in Virginia on Tuesday, voter turnout among them, but there’s one reason Youngkin took the win. He did what Republicans have gotten away with for decades. With his harping on critical race theory (CRT), he practiced dog-whistle politics with a wave and a smile.

He was also the beneficiary of Democrats selling Trump short for the umpteenth time. He’s a pumpkin-skinned buffoon and a contemptible fascist asshole, but he’s a crafty politician. In case you haven’t noticed, Trump’s new strategy is to continue to feed red meat to his base at his rallies, which may as well be taking place under glass domes as far as non-Fox News America is concerned, while quietly not saying anything bad about other Republicans — other than Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, that is. Those who simply abide by the cardinal rule of not talking trash about Trump get a pass.

Call it the wink-and-a-nod strategy. Trump didn’t have to loudly endorse Youngkin because, just as everybody knew that “Let’s go Brandon” meant “Fuck Joe Biden,” Virginia Republicans knew that Trump’s apparent distance from Youngkin meant that they should vote for him.

Youngkin picked up critical race theory and ran with it like a fumbled football. Every time he opened his mouth and those words came out, it was like Richard Nixon’s dark warnings about “inner cities” or Ronald Reagan’s imagined “welfare queens.” Virginia Republicans could hear a dog-whistle like CRT a mile off, and it left independents free to embrace it as a serious issue without bothering to learn what it meant. Republicans knew what Youngkin was saying without him coming out and saying it: I’m going to keep “them” in their place for you.

It was classic modern Republican politics: racism without racist invective, Trumpism with a wink. Democrats are going to run into these smiling-faced Republicans with their shirt sleeves rolled up again and again as we get closer to the 2022 midterms. They’re going to camouflage their insurrectionist beliefs with fleece vests and suburban mom-friendly pablum, and Democrats had better be ready for them. But what do you do about the Republican lies about critical race theory?

Democrats have to take away Republican slogans before they can come up with them. Biden’s slogan, if he runs in 2024, should be “Joe Biden: President of the Greatest Country in the World.” Congressional Democrats and others should run on “Protect Our Children.” Democrats have got to learn to play fill-in-the-blanks politics. We can understand that “protect our children” means teach them the truth about racism and slavery, but please! Leave that out of the slogan. Let voters decide what “protect our children” means. Youngkin got away with his bullshit about CRT by lying about it and by letting his voters fill in the blanks. Same with his silence about “stop the steal.” He didn’t have to praise Trump out loud to let voters know he’s on his side. They filled in the blanks for him.

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What does “protect our children” really mean? Well, what did “Make America Great Again” mean? Trump let his voters fill in the blanks, and Democrats should let voters fill in the blanks when they say “protect our children.” What’s there to argue about with that slogan? Don’t make the mistake of trying to combat the lies about CRT — for example, by saying that it portrays accurately America’s history with slavery and race and besides, it isn’t taught in schools anyway. Don’t argue it, finesse it.

The Republican Party isn’t a political party anymore. It’s a safe deposit box filled with grievance and anger and hate. But because the Republican Party is the only other party on the ballot and their candidates — especially when they’re blown-dry and fleece-clad — present independent voters with a place to register their frustration and impatience (see the NBC News poll finding that 71 percent think America is “on the wrong track”), and express their annoyance with “divisive” and “negative” politics. Don’t bother pointing out who is actually being divisive and negative. Accept that in this political climate, facts like that don’t matter. Independents need a place to use their votes to tell the party in power what they think, and Republicans, bless their black little hearts, are it.

Democrats don’t have to worry about their own voters, other than turning them out. But Democrats have to become the place where they can vote for something. It’s been said again and again that all the separate elements of the Build Back Better bill are very popular with voters. Polling shows overwhelming support for some of it. So take those elements everybody loves and shout them from the rooftops. You want lower middle-class taxes? That’s us! You want free universal pre-K (read: child care for many parents)? Here we are! You want good roads and bridges that don’t fall down? We’ve got them right here!

Republicans are going to show their true stripes when the infrastructure bill finally comes up for a vote in the House. It will be a big surprise if more than a dozen vote for it. So clobber them with it. How can they be the party of blue-collar workers — a big talking point for Republicans, when they’re not cutting taxes on billionaires — when they’re against the biggest blue-collar jobs bill since the Interstate Highway Act?

Democrats have to learn to be for the stuff voters like — and to finesse the rest of it. If Youngkin could run a campaign by finessing his stand on “stop the steal” and Donald Trump’s attempted coup, Democrats can finesse CRT.

Don’t argue with provable lies — nobody wants to hear your proof. Don’t pick at Trump like he’s an issue you can run on. He’s a scab that won’t come off, and he doesn’t bleed. Come up with slogans that take a positive stand. Tell voters who you are and what you stand for. They’ll fill in the blanks.

More on the Democrats’ angst and the Virginia debacle:

How ants get promoted: A social interaction is all it takes to transform from worker to queen

Let’s say you’re an Indian jumping ant — but an ambitious one. For your entire life, you have used your massive mandibles and surprisingly tall jump to thrive as a hunter and gatherer for your colony. You are second to none in one-on-one combat with potential invaders, your reddish-brown exoskeleton glistening in the sun as you slay enemies. Even better, while most ant colonies maintain very strict differences between the queens (who rule and reproduce) and workers (who kill prey and forage), you are a Harpegnathos saltator. The difference between a queen and worker is much more slight, so if a queen dies or is removed, you can enter a dueling tournament with other workers until a handful of winner become reproductive individuals known as gamergates.

Pull that off and congratulations, your ambition to becoming a colony leader has been fulfilled! The only question, as far as scientists were concerned, was exactly how your body was able to transform from “food provider” to “baby maker” just because of a social interaction. Ants, after all, have very different types of bodies based on their functions in the colony. How can adults simply make such a radical change merely through socialization?

A new study published in the scientific journal Cell has the answer. And It all comes down to a single molecule, a protein known as Kr-h1 (Krüppel homolog 1). Switching that around completely changes the ant’s biology.

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It turns out that this one protein is a multitasker, regulating various genes in both gamergates and workers to make sure that they only perform their “socially appropriate” roles. By turning certain genes “on” or “off,” Kr-h1 maintains the ant caste system by dictating that the ants will behave in the ways appropriate to their class (such as foraging for workers and governing for reproductive ants).

“We had not anticipated that the same protein could silence different genes in the brains of different castes and, as a consequence, suppress worker behavior in gamergates and gamergate behavior in workers,” Roberto Bonasio of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine said in a Cell press statement on the study. “We thought that these jobs would be assigned to two or more different factors, each of them only present in one or the other brain.”

This makes sense because, if nothing else, gamergates experience a major change in their job responsibilities once they stop being workers.

“Gamergates abandon worker tasks such as foraging, lay eggs, and exhibit dominant behaviors toward workers,” the scientists explain in the study. “This behavioral transition is accompanied by a 5-fold lifespan extension, a reconfiguration of gene expression and cellular composition of the brain, and neurohormonal changes.”

Because scientists already know that animal brains are plastic (that is, capable of adapting to their environment), this insight into the inner life of Indian jumping ants could one day shed light into human brains.

“It is tempting to speculate that related proteins might have comparable functions in more complex brains, including our own,” Bonasio added in the statement. “Discovering these proteins might allow us to one day restore plasticity to brains that have lost it, for example aging brains.”

From Striketober to the Great Resignation: Pandemic pushes workers to rise up

As the nation slowly recuperates from the brunt of the pandemic, American workers — many of whom were lauded as “essential” only months ago — are making it clearer than ever that enough is enough.

Last year, as the U.S. economy wrestled with an unprecedented supply shortage that saw panicked masses hoarding toilet paper, millions of workers who were previously left out of national conversation were suddenly christened as “essential” to the nation. Workers in healthcare, food service, agriculture, and transportation were asked by their employers to continue performing vital services, putting both their physical and mental health on the line. Though their role in buoying the economy was undoubtedly essential, their sacrifices in many cases went unacknowledged beyond symbolic gestures.

For instance, employers routinely denied essential workers raises that took into account the added risks of working in close contact with one another. Managers also flouted common sense public health guidelines and failed to provide paid sick leave as the virus ran rampant. Even now, after nearly two years of the pandemic, only a handful of states have committed to using funds from the American Rescue Plan to lift essential workers out of financial straits.

Since October, thousands of workers spanning multiple industries nationwide have been leading strikes for better pay and improved working conditions. They dubbed their national movement “Striketober.” Among their employers are agricultural machinery company John Deere, along with food producers Frito-Lay, Kelogg, and Nabisco. Major work stoppages have also been organized by healthcare workers at hospitals, graduate students at Harvard and Columbia, and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), which represents roughly 150,000 artisans, technicians, and craftspersons in the film and television industry.

Corrina A. Christensen, Director of Public Relations & Communications of the BCTGM International Union, which represents workers at Frito-Lay, Kelogg, and Nabisco, told Salon that workers are capitalizing on a “newfound sense of leverage” as the employers reckon with the consequences of the pandemic.

“All of our strikes in 2021, beginning with Frito Lay, then Nabisco and now Kellogg, have everything to do with workers being fed up with employers bent on disrespecting their work and demanding take-aways in wages, benefits, forcing overtime…after they were upheld as ‘essential,'” Christensen wrote over email.

The unrest is something of a statistical anomaly for this year, according to an analysis conducted by the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, which found the number of worker strikes has skyrocketed in recent weeks. In October alone, Cornell’s Labor Action Tracker recorded 57 strikes across the nation – more than double the monthly average from January to September. The number of workers on strike in October likewise leapt to 25,000 – a far cry from the preceding three-month average of 10,000.

To be sure, the scale of demonstrations is not record-breaking against the backdrop of American labor history. For instance, during the U.S. post-war period from 1945 to 1946, when the country’s labor market was struggling to accommodate an influx of soldiers from World War II, over 5 million workers in coal mining, automobiles, and public utilities organized strikes in protest of poor pay and substandard working conditions.

That said, the timing of Striketober is unique, particularly since the labor market had already been hemorrhaging workers at record levels in the months prior.

Back in April of this year, economists observed a staggering exodus from the labor market now colloquially known as the “Great Resignation.” The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 4 million workers left their jobs in July. In August, this number reached 4.5 million. According to a Morning Consult poll from mid-September, about 46% full-time employed adults are looking for or considering a different job. Other surveys have estimated this number could be as high as 70%. And while the phenomenon has had an outsized impact in food service, healthcare, and hospitality – all sectors in which workers are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 – it has touched virtually every American industry.

Experts have entertained a great number of explanations for the Great Resignation – namely that workers have reshuffled their priorities amid the pandemic, especially with the rise of remote work. Whatever the reason may be, it’s given workers substantially more bargaining power than they usually have in the private sector, said Joseph McCartin, Executive Director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University.

“Previous periods following great national crises and mobilizations have been the periods that…upend the status quo and they transform people’s expectations,” McCartin told Salon in an interview. “Workers can have power that they didn’t have. The combination of the Great Resignation and the strike wave in the context of emerging from the pandemic is really crucial.”

Some economists have broadly posited that the Great Resignation is its own form of a general strike.

“People are using exit from their jobs as a source of power,” Thomas Kochan, an MIT professor of industrial relations, told The Guardian. “They’re empowered because of the labor shortage.”

Thus far, Striketober has seen differing levels of success. On Saturday, John Deere and the United Auto Workers (UAW) – a union that represents 10,100 production and maintenance strikers protesting across 12 company facilities – reached a tentative agreement that ensures increases to hourly wages and preserves the employee pension program, according to The New York Times. The deal, which was apparently the company’s last offer, proposes a 30% pay increase over six years – an improvement from an earlier proposal. However, this week, a majority of workers voted the contract down, arguing that the company could afford to extend a better offer.

“It seems general membership feels emboldened by this current political moment of labor power. They’re pushing things further than the union leadership apparently wants to go,” Victor Chen, a sociologist at Virginia Commonwealth University, told ABC News. “It’s a gamble, but the economic wind is against their backs, given widespread supply chain problems and the current worker shortage.”

Kellogg workers appear to be facing similar roadblocks in the negotiation process. Since October 4, roughly 1,400 workers from all of the company’s plants across the country have been organizing work stoppages over complaints of mandatory overtime and 84-hour workweeks, according to The Washington Post. At the crux of the conflict, however, is Kellogg’s “two-tier pay system,” reports MLive, which assigns different pay rates on the basis of workers being “legacy” or “transitional” employees. In addition to a $10 pay gap between the two groups, transitional employees are not offered pensions, paid holidays, and health care coverage, BCTGM claims. Though Kellogg in 2015 reportedly pledged to facilitate the promotion of transitional employees to legacy status, BCTGM said, the company hasn’t made good on this promise.

In Kellogg’s latest proposal, officially deemed its “Last Best Final Offer,” the company would apparently eliminate the company’s two-tier pay system, ensure wage increases for transitional workers, enhance all employee benefits, and increase all employee pensions. On Wednesday, however, BCTGM struck the offer down, suggesting that the company could bring more to the table for its workers.

“Many battles have been fought and won in the dead of winter. This is no exception. BCTGM Local 50 will hold the line for a fair and equitable contract for all of our brothers and sisters,” said the union’s president this week.

Of all the present union negotiations, IATSE’s may be closest to the finish line. On November 12, IATSE will hold a ratification vote on a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, a trade organization that bargains on behalf of employers in the entertainment industry. The contract culminates weeks of negotiations around rectifying the industry’s history of exploiting crew members, who have long struggled with unlivable wages, excessive working hours, and deficient time off, according to AP News.

After months of stalling negotiations, IATSE early last month threatened to have its workers strike if a better contract wasn’t reached. The strike was narrowly avoided on October 16, when both parties agreed on a contract that, among other provisions, ensures at least a 10-hour turnaround time between shifts and 3% wage annual wages hikes over the next three years. IASTE’s leadership has encouraged workers to accept the terms of contract, but according to Variety, union members are far from unanimous in their feelings.

Emotions within entertainment unions are running especially high in light of the Rust shooting incident, in which IATSE cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot on set by actor and producer Alec Baldwin, who was allegedly unaware that a prop gun was loaded with live bullets. According to The Los Angeles Times, in the hours leading up to the mishap, seven Rust crew members staged a walkout from set over gun safety negligence.

“The game has changed with this accident, and it can no longer be business as usual,” David Feldman, a member of IATSE 700 (Motion Picture Editor’s Guild), told The Hollywood Reporter. “I feel a gut feeling to vote no. [IASTE’s] leadership has been stressing a yes vote, and I’m not sure that a yes vote under these circumstances is the right response.”

While Striketober has brought about a staggering level of labor unrest, it comes at a time when union participation has long been at a historic low in the U.S. According to a 2015 analysis by NPR, in 1965, roughly a third of the American workforce belonged to a union; now, that number is closer to 10%. By the Reagan Era, which ushered in a series of neoliberal policies designed to deregulate Big Business, public support for unions dropped from 71% in 1865 to around 55% in 1984, according to Gallup.

Today, 68% of the American public backs union participation – a sentiment explicitly shared by the White House. Back in December, President Biden promised to be “the most pro-union president” in American history. And during the Amazon organizing effort back in March, where warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama sought to form the company’s first union, Biden, without naming the company, said “there should be no intimidation, no coercion, no threats, no anti-union propaganda.”

More promising, however, is the fact that a large swath of the public appears to support Striketober. According to a survey by the AFL-CIO labor federation, 87% and Democrats and 72% of Republicans back the demonstrations.

“I think it’s because the public is also frustrated,” Kate Bronfenbrenner, Director of Cornell’s Labor Education Research, told Salon in an interview. “The public is frustrated with corporate America. They don’t like the greediness that they see. They are frustrated with the economy. They see prices going up, they don’t see things changing enough in terms of COVID.”

“And so they feel the strikers,” she added, “are expressing the same frustration they are.”

Florida professors can testify in voting rights lawsuit after university backs down

Professors at the University of Florida will now be able to testify against Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration after having been previously been blocked by their employer from doing so.

The Washington Post reports that the University of Florida backed down on Friday and “should not be barred from testifying in a voting rights lawsuit against” DeSantis’s administration.

The initial decision to block the three political science professors from testifying drew an uproar from both faculty and alumni, who accused the university of bowing to political pressure and of suppressing their professors’ freedom of speech.

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Kenneth Nunn, a law professor at the university, welcomed the school’s reversal and said that “it’s great that the president saw the university’s reputation was being damaged by their unfortunate decision to restrict those three faculty members from testifying in their case.”

The professors will now be testifying in a lawsuit against a Florida law passed earlier this year that places new restrictions on mail-in voting and ballot drop boxes.

Trump officials allowed tens of thousands of dollars worth of gifts to go “missing”: IG report

Officials in former President Donald Trump’s State Department allowed tens of thousands of dollars worth of gifts to become missing and unaccounted for, according to a new report from the agency’s inspector general.

The missing gifts were either purchased with taxpayer money to give to foreign leaders, or received by senior State Department officials, the New York Times reports.

“The report said that the missing gifts include a 30-year-old Suntory Hibiki bottle of Japanese whiskey given to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo worth $5,800; a 22-karat gold commemorative coin valued at $560 given to another State Department official, and monogrammed commemorative pewter trays, marble trinket boxes, and leather portfolios,” the newspaper reported. “The New York Times reported last month that in January, as Trump political appointees at the State Department were cleaning out their offices, career officers saw their departing colleagues leave the building with the gift bags meant for foreign leaders at the summit.”

According to the inspector general’s report, after political appointees resigned from the State Department at the end of the Trump administration, career officials took over the Office of the Chief of Protocol, which oversees the exchanging of gifts with foreign leaders.

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“On January 20, the Acting Assistant Chief of Protocol for Visits entered the gift vault accompanied by other career officials and found it in a state of disarray,” the report states, adding that they “then began an inventory of the vault and compared it with a list of gifts … and identified several items that were not in the vault.”

The report did not determine whether the items were stolen or simply lost, the Times reports.

“The inspector general said that record keeping was poor, there was no security camera footage to review and that many individuals who had access to the vault have left government,” according to the newspaper. “For example, the inspector general said, between August 2020 and January, the vault was entered over 3,000 times by at least 77 people.”

Although the inspector general has no power to “compel” Trump officials to answer questions about the missing gifts, the report recommends that the State Department adopt a more rigorous property management system and enhance the security of the vault.

The report focuses only on the State Department and doesn’t address gifts given to White House officials, including Trump.

House passes $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill — a major victory for Biden’s agenda

The House late Friday approved a roughly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill in a major victory for President Joe Biden’s agenda.

The bill, which has already been approved by the Senate, now heads to Biden’s desk.

“The funding package, which passed 228 to 206 and relied on Republican votes to get across the finish line, will ramp up government spending on roads, bridges and airports, as well as funding for public transit, water and broadband,” NBC News reports. “The vote hands Biden a victory on a major bipartisan bill, but one that took months to get through Congress and revealed deep divisions in the Democratic Party.”

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The bill had been held up since August — when it passed the Senate by a 69-30 vote.

“Democrats had wanted to pass the infrastructure bill and a social spending bill at the same time,” Scripps reports. “However, moderates and progressives spent months going back and forth over the price and scope of the bill, known as the Build Back Better Act. The two wings of the Democratic party said they entered into a commitment to vote on the Build Back Better Act no later than Nov. 15, which will provide enough time for the Congressional Budget Office enough time to score the bill.”

Infrastructure Bill(BIF) passes the House 228-206 pic.twitter.com/lsN7SFgyfy

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 6, 2021

FBI raids homes of Project Veritas associates as part of probe into theft of Ashley Biden’s diary

Federal agents carried out at least two search warrants at locations associated with the conservative media company Project Veritas as part of a larger investigation into the theft and subsequent public disclosure of a diary written by President Joe Biden’s adult daughter, Ashley Biden, according to reports.

The probe originally began under Attorney General Bill Barr, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, after the Biden family reported a burglary in October 2020.

Following a report in The New York Times on the matter, Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe confirmed in a video statement that both current and former employees of the organization had their homes searched Thursday. He also said Project Veritas received a grand jury subpoena — though he denied any wrongdoing.

According to O’Keefe, employees at the organization had been in talks with a source regarding the diary, but chalked up the situation to responsible journalism.

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“It appears the Southern District of New York now has journalists in their sights for the supposed crime of doing their jobs lawfully and honestly,” Mr. O’Keefe said. “Our efforts were the stuff of responsible, ethical journalism and we are in no doubt that Project Veritas acted properly at each and every step.”

He also claimed that Project Veritas attempted to orchestrate the diary’s return, though he said the Justice Department and a lawyer for the Bidens ultimately refused to take it.

Project Veritas never actually published the diary itself, though excerpts from it were posted on another right-wing website in the weeks leading up to last fall’s election and the story failed to gain much traction outside conservative media.

The far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, however, wasn’t so discerning — he brought up the diary on an episode of the wildly popular “Joe Rogan Experience,” according to the Times.

More on Project Veritas:

Glenn Youngkin’s 17-year-old son tried to vote in Tuesday’s election — twice

Virginia governor-elect Glenn Youngkin’s teenage son tried to vote in Tuesday’s election — twice — despite being clearly too young to legally cast a ballot, election officials said Friday.

The statement released by Fairfax County said the 17-year-old, who is not being identified because he is a minor, did not break any election laws and will not be charged with a crime.

He apparently walked into a voting site at the Great Falls Library in Great Falls, Virginia, and handed over his drivers’ license to election officials when asked for identification, according to a precinct captain who spoke with the Washington Post.

It didn’t take long for the woman, Jennifer Chanty, to notice who the teen was — after which she informed him that Virginia law stipulates that voters must be at least 18 years old on election day in order to legally vote. The only time a 17-year-old may cast a ballot is in a primary election, and even then they must provide proof that they will turn 18 before the general election.

Chanty told the Post that she offered to register him for the next election, but he refused and left the polling place.

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Then, roughly 20 minutes later, Youngkin’s son returned to insist that he be allowed to vote, citing another 17-year-old friend who had done so earlier in the day.

“I told him, ‘I don’t know what occurred with your friend, but you are not registered to vote today. You’re welcome to register, but you will not be voting today,’ ” Chanty said.

Making the situation even more strange was the fact that the Youngkin family was registered to vote at a different election site.

“It was just weird,” Chanty added.

A Youngkin campaign official, Devin O’Malley, released a fiery statement following reports of the incident being made public, calling them “opposition research” pitched by his “political opponents.”

“It’s unfortunate that while Glenn attempts to unite the Commonwealth around his positive message of better schools, safer streets, a lower cost of living, and more jobs, his political opponents — mad that they suffered historic losses this year — are pitching opposition research on a 17-year old kid who honestly misunderstood Virginia election law and simply asked polling officials if he was eligible to vote; when informed he was not, he went to school,” O’Malley wrote.

For months, a key pillar of Youngkin’s campaign was “election integrity” — the now governor-elect went so far as to promise an “election integrity task force” that would monitor elections for fraud and advocated several times for audits of election machines, something that is already mandated under Virginia law.

Still, Chanty told the Post she believes the incident was simply a mistake.

“Teenagers do stupid things,” she said. “I’ll chalk it up to that. I’ll believe that first before anything else.”

Contempt charges “on the table” for Jeffrey Clark after stonewalling Jan. 6 committee

Former Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division Jeffrey Clark, a key figure in former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, apparently refused to answer questions during his Friday testimony before the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th Capitol riots.

Politico reports that Clark cited attorney-client privileges and former President Donald Trump’s assertions of executive privilege as justifications for refusing to answer the committee’s questions.

However, as Politico notes, “any such privilege lies with the client to assert, and even if Trump were Clark’s client under these circumstances, the former president has already declined to block Clark’s testimony.”

Select Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) tells Politico’s Kyle Cheney that criminal contempt charges against Clark are “on the table” after his refusal to cooperate.

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The House of Representatives last month referred criminal contempt charges against Trump ally Steve Bannon after he completely refused to comply with its subpoena.

The committee subpoenaed Clark last month on the grounds that he was “reportedly involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and interrupt the peaceful transfer of power.”

According to the subpoena, Clark “proposed delivery of a letter to state legislators in Georgia and others encouraging to delay certification of election results” and he also “recommended holding a press conference announcing that the Department was investigating allegations of voter fraud despite the lack of evidence that such fraud was present.”

More from Salon’s coverage on the aftermath of Jan. 6:

The dazzling star power of “Eternals” is both its triumph and its undoing

Expectations were high from the start for “Eternals,” the latest installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s explosive fourth phase, and not just because the movie has been widely marketed as “different” from the usual fight scene and explosion-heavy Marvel flick. The hype around “Eternals” also benefited tremendously from the allure of Chloé Zhao as director, fresh off her Oscar win for “Nomadland” earlier this year, and with her well-earned reputation for magically bringing to life the stories of everyday people. It also didn’t hurt that the cast of “Eternals” was stacked, featuring big names ranging from hunky “Game of Thrones” alums to Hollywood titans like Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek.

To that end, “Eternals” certainly lives up to the promise of being unlike other Marvel projects — but it falls short of living up to the rest of the hype.

Picking up shortly after the events of “Avengers: Endgame,” a group of supernatural beings known as Eternals must reunite to confront a new threat to humanity after spending hundreds of years apart. The Eternals were originally brought to Earth thousands of years ago by even more powerful, god-like, intergalactic beings known as Celestials, with the purpose of hunting down reptilian-like monsters called Deviants. Furthermore, the Eternals were instructed to never interfere with human affairs — including the recent battles against Thanos..

But even after destroying all Deviants, the Eternals remain on Earth, waiting for their next orders from their Celestial master Arishem (voiced by David Kaye), and trying to blend in as ordinary people along the way. Over the course of their time on Earth, spent periodically traveling to new civilizations to avoid suspicion about why they don’t age, they bear witness to some of the most defining moments of human history, from landmark innovations like irrigation and the wheel, to devastating wars and disasters. Zhao’s cinematography takes us on a resplendent, brightly colored journey through time, space and human civilization, all while delivering what Instagram influencers might call golden hour-galore: sunlit shots over pyramids, rivers, mountains, fields and charming little ancient villages.

The Eternals comprise Ajak (Hayek), their leader and maternal figure; Sersi (Gemma Chan), who has the ability to manipulate cosmic energy and change matter; Ikaris (Richard Madden), the strongest of the Eternals; Thena (Jolie), the beautiful but troubled goddess of war; Gilgamesh (Don Lee), who has what can only be described as super-strength, and acts as Thena’s protector; Druig (Barry Keoghan), who has the power to control people’s minds; Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), who can shoot lasers from his hands and takes on the lofty task of providing much of the movie’s comedic relief; Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), who has super speed and, like Ridloff, is deaf; Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), a literal tech wizard and the MCU’s first openly gay superhero; and Sprite (Lia McHugh), a tricky illusionist trapped in an adolescent girl’s body.

Some of the Eternals have adjusted to life among humans more smoothly than others. Sersi in particular develops a deep love and kinship with humanity and Earth, as a teacher at London’s National History Museum. Thena, on the other hand, begins to suffer from an existential sort of mental illness that can come with being an immortal being. But when Deviants mysteriously reappear on Earth, the Eternals must reunite for the first time since a devastating event pushed them apart hundreds of years ago, for a race against time to save the planet they’ve grown to love.

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In many ways, what it means to be human is the central question that drives “Eternals,” as our heroes struggle to reckon with what makes this planet worth saving, and who and what they really are beyond soldiers sent by the all-powerful Celestials. But the movie’s dizzying star power and twisty backstories render it too clunky and overstuffed to concisely answer said central question.

The Eternals watch as over time, humans commit shockingly atrocious and shockingly gracious acts, and come to understand that humanity’s mistakes, bonds, and ability to evolve are what make them human. It’s a beautiful message, especially as the exciting diversity of the cast speaks volumes about the breadth and range of humanity in its own way. Unfortunately, this uplifting message about humanity gets lost, somewhere between trying to remember who has what superpowers, what the Deviants want, and the chronologies of varying flashbacks.

None of this is to say “Eternals” doesn’t have its bright spots. In some ways, the movie draws its strengths and weaknesses from the same source: its large, brilliantly talented cast. Henry’s Phastos may not be the main protagonist of “Eternals,” but his cynicism and heartbreak with the ways humanity has weaponized innovation ground the movie in reality more deeply than many other Marvel projects. From Hiroshima to Facebook’s role in elections, we continue to witness and struggle with the devastating pitfalls of technology every day. As Phastos, Henry’s alternating performances of intense emotion and subdued pessimism mirror our own conflicting feelings about living through what feels at times like the end of days.

Chan’s Sersi is decisively the main protagonist of “Eternals,” and stands out as a promising and triumphant new leader in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Her devotion, compassion and uncertainty with her own leadership and powers make her one of the most relatable members of the MCU’s growing roster of feminist superheroes.

But while Sersi is the heart and emotional core of “Eternals,” she’s well supported by other immortal scene-stealers. As Kingo, Nanjiani begins to fill the void of humor, wit and charisma left by the late Tony Stark, with the zesty, added twist of plentiful Bollywood references, and a dazzling Bollywood dance number that joyfully reminds us the age of all-white superheroes is over. Kingo’s banter and charming obsession with image and self-promotion help “Eternals” along as it suffers at times under the weight of its heavy, existential themes.

Opposite Kingo, Jolie’s resonant performance of Thena offers a convincing portrayal of mental illness and guilt. Those who struggle with trauma and loss can relate to Thena’s simultaneous aloofness and intense vulnerability, stemming from distrust of herself and her own power.

Ridloff as the charming, witty and determinedly independent Makkari is destined to be a new MCU fan favorite. Makkari’s deafness is neither treated as unimportant, nor made into a focal point that otherizes and dehumanizes her, as many well-meaning portrayals of characters with disabilities often do. Her deafness is instead treated as a beautifully normal part of who both Makkari and Ridloff are.

Ultimately, brilliant performances from a dynamic cast can’t save “Eternals” from its rushed, almost claustrophobic conclusion, during which a number of characters’ actions and decisions either feel illogical or inconsistent with everything else we’ve seen from them. It’s not unusual for MCU films to end with cliffhangers or direct setups for sequels and future Marvel projects, but the conclusion of “Eternals” hardly feels like a conclusion at all — it’s more like a rapid, congested sequence of awkwardly choreographed fight scenes, and revelations that leave audiences with more questions than answers.

Since “Avengers: Endgame” marked the end of the road for some of the most beloved heroes of the MCU, Phase 4 has focused largely on exploring who will fill the voids they’ve left. “Eternals” stands out as a triumph for diverse storytelling and representation, but its depth and pace are severely hindered by the same cast and outstanding star power that give the movie its spark. Still, “Eternals” lays exciting groundwork that hints at just how enormous and unexplored the rapidly expanding multiverse is, and also introduces us to some of the MCU’s most charming and nuanced new heroes yet.

“Eternals” is now playing in theaters. Watch a trailer for it below, via YouTube.

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From chicken parm to spaghetti and meatballs, plan an Italian feast with these recipes

It’s been one of those weeks where, by Tuesday, I looked at my boyfriend and said solemnly, “At least it’s almost the weekend.” When he had to inform me that, in fact, it was not, I wanted to just crawl into bed and sleep for a few days straight.

Or, alternatively, I wanted to slowly make my way to the kitchen and cook some Italian comfort food.

Michael La Corte, one of our regular writers here at Salon, leans on his heritage and culinary expertise to put together recipes and culinary shortcuts for better, easier Italian food. I always learn something from his recipes — whether it’s how to avoid soggy breaded chicken or the surefire method for more flavorful meatballs.

Here are five of Michael’s best recipes for Italian dishes that are both weeknight-friendly and impressive.

Make the best Italian-American spaghetti and meatballs dinner

Michael is not a proponent of using stale bread soaked in milk, sometimes called a panade, in his meatballs.

“I don’t find anything appetizing about that,” he wrote. “To that end, I’ve actually never been a fan of especially tender meatballs. I find a ‘mushad,’ soft meatball rather unappealing. I know that’s probably bizarre for many to hear, but I’m more committed to the deeply crisped, incredibly browned exterior — and a properly seasoned inside.”

To achieve the perfect meatballs, Michael doesn’t recommend baking them or tossing them raw into a cauldron of bubbling sauce. Instead, he prefers to saute them.

Put together an A+ antipasto platter

As we’re heading into entertaining during the holiday season, check out Michael’s breakdown of the ideal antipasto platter, from picking the perfect cheese to special add-ons.

“Be sure to sprinkle some flaky sea salt on the majority of the components, just adding a final note to really amp up the flavors, and maybe a light drizzle of high quality olive oil,” he wrote. “There should be distinction and diversity within the color, temperature, texture and flavor profiles of the ingredients presented.”

Upgrade weeknight chicken by making pollo al marsala

Chicken Marsala was originally created in 1800s Sicily. The primary ingredient is, unsurprisingly, marsala wine. Michael’s recipe calls for butter, mushrooms, thyme and a bright flash of parsley. The sauce reduces until it becomes “rich, glossy and luminous” and is then used to cover crispy, pan-sauteed chicken.

Use this foolproof recipe for perfect pesto

According to Michael, standard, classic pesto includes: Fresh basil, Parmigiano-Reggiano, pine nuts, garlic, salt, freshly cracked black pepper and a generally high-quality EVOO. However, using his “pesto matrix,” you can substitute in a variety of cheeses, nuts, oil and greens, including broccoli rabe, escarole, spinach or even cilantro.

Want impossibly crisp chicken parmesan? Try this simple sheet pan layering trick

Why take the time to render a perfectly crispy piece of pan-fried or deep-fried chicken, just to then slather it with an explicit amount of sauce and cheese, rendering it soggy and devaluing all of the work you put in to ensure its crispness?

“In order to counteract this, you just need to change up your typical technique a little bit,” Michael writes. “Instead of topping the crispy cutlets with sauce and cheese before going into the oven, instead layer the sheet tray with sauce and cheese and place the chicken atop it.”

FBI releases secret recordings of white supremacist group “The Base” plotting terrorist attack

Another white supremacist group is working to spark a civil war, according to a video captured by the FBI.

WABC reported Friday that for months the FBI watched the group “The Base” as they plotted a terrorist attack using a pro-gun rights rally in Richmond, Virginia. The men were sentenced in late October to nine years in prison, but ABC just obtained the 2019 audio from the secret recordings at their Delaware home.

The extremist group has been recruiting members since 2018 in the U.S. and around the world. They’ve used “online chat rooms, private meetings, and military-style training camps” that prepare them for a new civil war.

The recordings cite the men plotting acts of terror around the rally that would ultimately bring down the U.S. government.

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“Patrik Mathews, a former Canadian Army reservist illegally in the U.S., and Brian Lemley, a Maryland resident and self-described white nationalist, fantasized about the brutal murders they’d soon carry out against law enforcement and Black people, all with the goal of bringing about the ‘Boogaloo,’ or the collapse of the U.S. government in order to prop up a white ethno-state,” the report said citing the recordings.

“We need to go back to the days of … decimating Blacks and getting rid of them where they stand,” Mathews said in a recording. “If you see a bunch of Blacks sitting on some corner you f*cking shoot them.”

“I need to claim my first victim,” Lemley explained in a different recording. “It’s just that we can’t live with ourselves if we don’t get somebody’s blood on our hands.”

“You wanna create f*cking some instability while the Virginia situation is happening, make other things happen,” Mathews said. “Derail some rail lines … shut down the highways … shut down the rest of the roads … kick off the economic collapse of the U.S. within a week after the [Boogaloo] starts.”

“I mean, even if we don’t win, I would still be satisfied with a defeat of the system … and whatever was to come in its place would be preferable than what there is now,” Lemley said. “And if it’s not us, then you know what, we still did what we had to do.”

When the men were arrested in January 2020, ahead of the Richmond attack, law enforcement discovered tactical gear, 1,500 rounds of ammunition, along with cases of food and supplies ready for the war. They also built their own assault rifle they were testing at a gun range in Maryland.

U.S. district judge Theodore Chuang went above the sentencing guidelines, including the terrorism enhancement to the crimes to ensure the men got at least 9 years in prison.

In briefings to Congress over the past year, FBI Director Christopher Wray has warned leaders that the biggest threat to the United States is far-right terrorism.

Read the full report at ABC.

Kristen Stewart stuns in the moody “Spencer,” a gorgeous yet superficial biopic of Princess Di

“Spencer,” about Diana, Princess of Wales, is billed as “a fable from a true tragedy.” This striking but heavy-handed film, relentlessly depicts the asphyxiation of Princess Diana (Kristen Stewart) experiences over Christmas Eve through Boxing Day in 1991 — when she makes her decision to leave Charles (Jack Farthing). Director Pablo Larraín (“Jackie“), working from a script by Steven Knight (“Serenity”), captures the attitude of — and attitudes about — the late member of the British royal family. But it does not provide much in the way of insight. Yes, Diana is sympathetic — but when is she not?

Stewart’s performance is all moodiness and despair. Diana is supremely unhappy. She is lost and scared young woman who feels constantly under the microscope. She is bulimic. She has an impulse to rebel and takes every opportunity she can to do so. This includes being late to dinner; being late to the Royal Family photo; keeping the curtains open; wearing the wrong dress; raiding the kitchen; wandering the grounds at night; as well as other transgressions, such as giving her children presents to open on Christmas Day (when Christmas Eve is the custom). A look the Queen (Stella Gonet) gives Diana during a meal is colder than the chilly and sterile Sandringham Estate where most of the action takes place.

The film is composed with the utmost precision, and viewers will marvel at the rarified air, however stifling. The art direction is exquisite. The costumes are divine. Everything is so impeccable that even if the plot is one-note, “Spencer” is gorgeous to look at.

Larraín emphasizes mood over story. He uses Johnny Greenwood‘s discordant score to not only to indicate how unsettled Diana is, but also how audiences should feel. At times, the film is excruciating, albeit deliberately, and that works it its favor.

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But less would be more. Everything in “Spencer” is repeated to ensure Diana’s predicament is felt deeply. She is asked to be weighed upon entering Sandringham, as per tradition. She resists. She finds a book about Anne Boleyn in her bedroom, and starts having hallucinations, seeing the late beheaded Queen from time to time. This provides one of the campier bits in “Spencer,” the other is an over-the-top scene of Diana breaking a gift of pearls Charles gave her — in part because he gave Camilla the same — over her soup and then eating them. Watching Diana crunch the pearls with her teeth may have some viewers clutching their pearls.

Larraín does best when he is subtler. There are some terrific exchanges, such as those with Maggie (Sally Hawkins), her dresser and confidante. Diana has a charming private moment with her sons, William (Jack Nielen) and Harry (Freddie Spry) where they talk about what they like about Christmastime. Another encounter, with Darren (Sean Harris), the head chef, suggests that while everyone is scrutinizing Diana, many of them are rooting for her. In addition, two pointed exchanges, one with the Queen in which they discuss “currency,” and another with Charles, to talk about their relationship and her behavior, get at the root of Diana’s issues without cudgeling viewers — even with a symbolic billiard ball being dropped.

But much in the film is unnecessary. Along with the aforementioned flights of fancy involving Anne Boleyn, there are flashbacks to Diana’s childhood that suggest an independence she longs for now that she is trapped. Diana’s obsession has with her former home (nearby) and a scarecrow in the field — another freighted symbol — feel empty and uninteresting. A scene of Diana dancing as a means of self-expression is revealing, but a montage of Diana dancing in different dresses is just gilding that lily. Curiously, an episode that features Diana self-harming is potent, but when the wound she creates is gone in the next scene it feels superfluous. Arguably the most on-the-nose moment has Diana wearing an O.P.P. baseball cap to underscore her status as “other people’s property.”

“Spencer” may be trying to highlight the suffocation Diana feels, but the film is best when it just breathes. On Boxing Day, Diana and Maggie steal away for a moment on the beach where Maggie tells Diana that she needs “Love, shock, and laughter.” It is a beautiful scene, and Hawkins effortlessly steals the film with her warm performance. A note Maggie leaves Diana is quite touching.

Diana also has a pair of curious encounters with Major Alistar Gregory (Timothy Spall, excellent as always). He tries to keep Diana in line, gently at first, then more aggressively, hoping she will conform to what is expected of her. As Diana is told, she must do the things she hates for her country. That tension is felt throughout the film, and keeps the action engaging, when the film sags, especially during a subplot involving William going on his first hunt for pheasants. Diana’s final act of disruption is meant to be liberating, and for her, it is. But even when Diana secures a moment of personal freedom, it feels oddly underwhelming.

Diana is repeatedly told to “be beautiful.” “Spencer” is certainly beautiful to look at, but it also feels skin-deep.

“Spencer” is in theaters Friday, Nov. 5. Watch the trailer below via YouTube:

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In anti-vax rant, Aaron Rodgers reveals he consulted pal Joe Rogan about COVID, identifies with MLK

It’s been quite a week for Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, since it was revealed the reigning MVP deceived reporters about his vaccination status, got COVID shortly after dressing as John Wick at a Halloween party, and seems to have broken several rules for unvaccinated NFL players. Rodgers had reportedly petitioned to get the “homeopathic treatment” he’d been taking to supposedly prevent COVID approved by the NFL, even presenting his own “research,” but was denied. Still, he answered “yes” to a question about being vaccinated back in August.

Now, as of a Friday appearance on the “Pat McAfee Show,” Rodgers is doubling down. The all-star quarterback, who will miss Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs and isn’t allowed at the Packers team facility for at least the next 10 days, aggressively defends both his position against the COVID vaccine and his choice to lie to the press about his vaccination status.

According to Rodgers, he’s just “a critical thinker” who believes “strongly in bodily autonomy,” though we’ve yet to see him march in the streets against abortion bans. Still, Rodgers refuses to be called an “anti-vaxxer” or a “COVID-denier or any s**t like that,” and is just opposed to the massive “witch hunt” that is the NFL’s COVID vaccination policies.

Rodgers’ conversation with McAfee really only spirals further from there. In a Fox News-esque rant about being pursued by the liberal “woke mob,” Rodgers continues to try to defend his behavior, and even seems to blame his catching COVID . . . on the vaccine itself.

“Before my final nail gets put in my cancel culture casket, I’d like to set the record straight on so many of the blatant lies out there,” Rodgers said. “I tested for COVID over 300 times before testing for possible positive and I probably got it from a vaccinated player.”

Rodgers then seems to address the “woke mob” directly, as he asks a series of questions that public health experts have spent the past months answering: “If the vaccine is so great, how come people are still getting COVID and spreading COVID and unfortunately dying from COVID? If the vax is safe, how come the manufacturers of the vaccine have full immunity?”

To be clear, people who are vaccinated can still get COVID and transmit it, but they’re also significantly less likely to die or experience severe symptoms. The effectiveness of COVID vaccines is also impacted by the amount of people in a community who are vaccinated. Considering how much “research” Rodgers has supposedly done, you’d think he would have read about this at some point.

Rodgers then doubles down again (does this count as a fourth down?) on his claims to be protecting himself from COVID, despite not being vaccinated and literally catching COVID. Specifically, Rodgers said he’s been taking ivermectin, a medicinal paste that treats threadworms and other parasites, often in horses, and hasn’t been approved by the FDA as a treatment for COVID. Where might Rodgers have gotten this idea, you ask?

“I’ve consulted with a now-good friend of mine, Joe Rogan, after he got COVID, and I’ve been doing a lot of the stuff that he recommended in his podcasts and on the phone to me,” Rodgers says. He then lists some of these “treatments” as “monoclonal antibodies, ivermectin, zinc, vitamin C and D, and HCQ.” While Rodgers recounts feeling symptoms from COVID over the past few days, at the time of recording the podcast, Rodgers says he feels “incredible.”

As if citing his friendship with Rogan, who’s been a leader in spreading COVID misinformation and often devotes his podcast to right-wing conspiracy theories, weren’t enough, the cherry on top of Rodgers’ dumpster fire of an interview is his comparison between himself and Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The great MLK said, ‘You have a moral obligation to object to unjust rules and rules that make no sense,'” Rodgers says, equating his flouting of basic public health policies with the legendary civil rights leader’s historic activism.

Ultimately, Rodgers emphasizes that he’s feeling “really good,” and claims that if he were sick with the flu and not COVID, he “would be playing on Sunday” against the Chiefs, but he’s excited to see his backup, Jordan Love, at the helm of the Packers this weekend.

Packers fans are still hoping Rodgers will be able to rejoin the team by the day before Packers’ Nov. 14 game against the Seahawks. But this will only be possible if he tests negative and is asymptomatic at the 10-day mark by Nov. 13 next week. And despite Rodgers’ positive attitude about his health following his testing positive for COVID, he and Green Bay remain under investigation by the NFL for violations of league rules for unvaccinated players