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Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Perspective: The politics of tariffs, T-shirts and dolls
This article was first published in the Right to the Point newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each week. Democratic strategist James Carville is a reliable quote machine, and he didn't disappoint on last week's town hall hosted by Chris Cuomo on NewsNation. 'I have on six items of clothes: shoes, socks, jeans, skivvies, T-shirt, and sweatshirt. You know how many of these were made in America? None. None,' Carville said. 'And I don't want to live in a country that makes T-shirts. I can buy them from somewhere else.' Asked for clarification by fellow guest Bill O'Reilly, Carville dug in: 'We make airplanes, we make movies. We drill oil, we make all kinds of things. We don't need to make T-shirts.' It was one of the more provocative exchanges to occur throughout the tariff debate, on par with Donald Trump saying that children 'might have two dolls instead of 30 dolls' because of higher priced toys. Whether you're pro-tariffs or anti-tariffs or even a tariff agnostic, there's plenty to chew on here, starting with, what was Carville thinking? 'Buy American' has long been a patriotic motto, going back to the Buy American Act of 1933, which directed the federal government to give preference to domestic goods. Yes, the world is now flat, as Thomas Friedman told us, but if someone down the street is making T-shirts and selling them for $20, there's a whole wide world of reasons to buy them from your neighbors rather than have the $5 ones shipped from overseas. As Democratic leaders try to brand the GOP as the 'party of oligarchs' it was a surprisingly oligarchish thing for Carville to say. How many dolls is enough? Amid all the dire predictions about how much Christmas is going to cost this year — the worst being the guy who told The Wall Street Journal 'there will be no Christmas,' as if he never heard of Whoville — can Trump opponents at least concede that no American child needs 30 toys, let alone 30 dolls? Outside of the tariff debate, we are long overdue for a discussion of the Dollar Store-ization of America where everything is devalued when it only costs a dollar or two. And the cheaper stuff is, the more likely we are to throw it away, which is why, as journalist Alexander Clapp writes in his new book 'Waste Wars,' American trash is being shipped off to other countries. 'By the early 2000s, Americans' biggest export to China was the stuff Americans tossed away,' Clapp writes. China put a stop to it in 2018, but for three previous decades, 'China had been the recipient of half the plastic placed into a recycling bin anywhere on Earth.' What we don't throw away or stuff in self-storage units, we enthusiastically donate to Goodwill and other thrift shops, where, I am convinced, there is an ample supply of dolls and other plastic toys to supply Christmases through the next century. All of which is to say, there are many trickle-down conversations to be had about tariffs and their effect on global commerce. You can want to Make America Great Again and also not want to turn the planet into a dumping ground of plastic waste, and also believe that Christmas doesn't come from the Dollar General. And, for the record, what's the right number of toys that a child should have? According to one study, per four. (That's similar to advice I found when researching the best number of Christmas gifts a few years ago: many parents say three or four.) The child psychologist John Rosemond has said, '... if you want a child to play more independently and imaginatively, simply get rid of 90% of the child's toys, keeping those that were in production before 1955.' Quote of the Week 'It's like having the news reported by the Ghost of Christmas yet to come — you're not seeing the things that will be, you're seeing the things that might be.' — Author and podcaster Andrew Klavan on the Megyn Kelly Show, talking about negative news coverage of President Donald Trump. Recommended Reading Sarah Jane Weaver thoughtfully responds to an AI-generated photo of Donald Trump dressed as the pope that was shared by the White House: 'Many are saying the AI-generated photograph was a joke — and should not be taken seriously. (The late) Pope Francis, himself, I am sure, found time to laugh. Still, he also understood what should be reverenced." The Lessons of 3 Images — 2 From a Pope, 1 From a President Utah businessman Jeremy Barker makes the case for tariffs: 'Yes, tariffs may raise prices in the short term. But they also encourage smarter, more local production — something the pandemic proved we urgently need. When global trade stalled in 2020, companies relying on distant suppliers faced shortages and slowdowns." Why I Love Tariffs — And Why Utah Should, Too Naomi Schaefer Riley recently read a memoir by the actor Rob Lowe, who wrote about the experience of growing up with divorced parents. She connects his experience to the struggles of many young men today. 'If we want to understand why so many young men are so at sea trying to figure out their place in the world and how they should relate to the opposite sex, it is worth understanding what they miss when they grow up separated from their fathers.' The 'Manosphere' Can't Give Boys What They Need the Most Endnotes I have been trying to ignore the Bill Belichick-Jordon Hudson story for months, but it finally boiled over to the point where ignoring it wasn't an option anymore. Hence, this op-ed entitled 'We Are Living in a Sea of Cringe.' After it was published, a reader took me to task for the last line, which reads 'Andy Reid has never looked so good.' He said I should have written 'LaVell Edwards has never looked so good,' and that's a fair point. The legendary BYU coach should have been a contender along with my second choice, which had been Notre Dame's Lou Holtz. So here's your chance to edit the editor. What would you have written when trying to compare Bill Belichick with any other coach? What was the best ending to that column, in your book? Let me know at Jgraham@ or send me a DM on X, @grahamtoday. And don't forget that Sunday is Mother's Day. As always, thank you for reading and being part of the Right to the Point community.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Perspective: The uprising has come to '60 Minutes'
This article was first published in the Right to the Point newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each week. Earlier this month, a New York Times columnist argued that the unconventional presidency of Donald Trump merits a national civic uprising. 'People throughout history have done exactly this when confronted by an authoritarian assault,' David Brooks wrote. … 'These movements used many different tools at their disposal — lawsuits, mass rallies, strikes, work slowdowns, boycotts and other forms of noncooperation and resistance.' One of those 'other forms' is on display at the long-running television show '60 Minutes.' The venerable show, which debuted in 1968, has won more Emmy and Peabody awards than any other show, and for many people, it has been 'must-watch' TV across decades. Its access to newsmakers and its in-house investigations have long made it a show that didn't just report news, but made news. That's happened again with the recent resignation of the show's executive producer, Bill Owens, followed up by an extraordinary segment on Sunday in which correspondent Scott Pelley paid tribute to Owens while sharply criticizing his employer. In his remarks, Pelley insinuated that CBS and its parent company are caving to Trump. As NBC reported, 'CBS News' parent company, Paramount Global, is in the midst of a merger with Skydance Media that needs the approval of the Trump administration. Trump has sued '60 Minutes' for $20 billion, saying it unfairly edited a Kamala Harris interview last fall to her advantage. Owens and others at '60 Minutes' believe they did nothing wrong and have opposed a settlement.' Owens had been at '60 Minutes' for 26 years when he resigned, saying in a memo to staff, 'Over the past months, it has also become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it. To make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience.' The resignation was, according to an article in The New Republic, 'akin to a soldier pulling the pin on their last grenade.' On Sunday, however, Pelley threw another grenade, saying in his tribute to Owens that Paramount had been 'supervising' show's content. 'None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires. No one here is happy about it, but in resigning, Bill proved one thing: he was the right person to lead '60 Minutes' all along,' Pelley said. On the one hand, if none of the show's stories have been axed by Paramount, this reaction can seem overblown, as can Owens' description of '60 Minutes' as being an essential part of the national dialogue. ('The show is too important to the country, it has to continue, just not with me as the executive producer,' he wrote in the memo.) '60 Minutes' draws an average of more than 8 million viewers — more than the top rated cable news shows, of which the leader in the first quarter of 2025 was Fox News' 'The Five,' with viewership above 4 million. '60 Minutes' is an important show, to be sure, but much of that importance derives from its history, not necessarily its future. Like all news shows today, it is caught up in a rapidly changing media landscape with no guarantee of future relevance. Also, it's not even the top-rated show on CBS, but third, behind 'Tracker' and 'Matlock.' In their defiance, the '60 Minutes' journalists will be lauded by other journalists and opponents of Trump, much like Harvard University is winning fans for its resistance to the administration. They are pieces of the uprising that Brooks wants. But Brooks' column brings to the fore difficult questions, not the least of which is this: Trump is the president, having won the 2024 election with both the popular and electoral vote. Shouldn't he get to be president without calls for uprising and resistance within his first 100 days? Also: Is all this talk of uprising unfair to the Americans who elected Trump and who are happy with what he is doing? And, is the language of 'uprising' dangerous in ways we don't yet foresee? Perhaps the most sensible response to Brooks' column was in the comments of The New York Times. A Bronx resident wrote: 'I have two words that solve the uprising problem: midterm elections.' That is, after all, the democratic way. It's been a week of insufficient apologies, starting with the 21-year-old who called a top NFL draft prospect and pretended to be the general manager of the New Orleans Saints with a job offer. Jax Ulbrich later said on Instagram that his action was 'completely inexcusable, embarrassing and shameful' — but then misspelled Shedeur Sanders' name in his public apology. Full story here. Meanwhile, Nike was forced to apologize for a billboard along the route of the London Marathon that said, with the Nike logo, 'Never again. Until next year.' 'Never again,' of course, is a somber vow associated with the Holocaust, and the use of the phrase in this manner provoked outrage on social media. As my colleague Kelsey Dallas noted, the reaction included Bill Ackman writing on X, 'It is hard to imagine that there was no one at Nike, on the marketing team, at their advertising firm, banner manufacture etc. who didn't know or who didn't think to Google the words 'Never again'.' Nike's response? A statement provided to Louis Keene of The Forward that said, in part, 'We did not mean any harm and apologize for any we caused.' It's hard to imagine a weaker response, but Nike has a history of blowing past controversy without any significant harm to its balance sheets. In fact, the company seemingly courts outrage, using Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong and Colin Kaepernick in ads at the height of controversy swirling around these athletes. But these apologies were topped by a more jaw-dropping one, published after Christianity Today ran an article — on Holy Week — saying that Jesus might not have been nailed to the cross, but bound with ropes. An editor's note later added to the piece said: 'This article has been revised to clarify that Scripture, including the Gospel of John, indicates that Jesus was crucified with nails and that Christianity Today, along with Christian scholars and theologians throughout church history, affirms that account.' The magazine also published an apology from the author, Daniel Silliman, who said he just intended to explore ideas that had been put forth in the journal Biblical Archeology Review. On X, Silliman wrote simply, 'I clearly messed up. I'm sorry.' Which perhaps is what Nike should have said. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, responding to a question from Elizabeth Dias of The New York Times about his prospects for succeeding Pope Francis: 'I got a better chance of batting cleanup for the Yankees than I do being pope.' Law professor Asma Uddin looks at the Supreme Court's challenge in Mahmoud v. Taylor, the Maryland case involving parents who don't want their children exposed to books about gender and sexuality in public schools. 'Some see the case as an attack on inclusive education. Others view it as a necessary defense of religious liberty in the public school system. But the truth, as is often the case, lies somewhere in the middle.' How the Supreme Court Could Respect Religious Families Without Undermining Public Education Everyone knows society is less civil, right? But Naomi Schaefer Riley wonders if that's really the case after she witnesses an episode of tennis-court rage. 'Are there surveys in the past where people have responded that civility is improving? I'd be surprised. There's always a little bit of a 'hell in a hand basket' kind of response when you ask these questions." Is Incivility Really Getting Worse? Scott Lincicome of the Cato Institute takes a deep dive into all the fuss about reciprocal tariffs and concludes Trump's version of this concept is a 'catastrophically bad idea.' 'Regardless of whether you think the United States needs higher or lower tariffs, the decision should be based on what's best for most Americans and the economy as a whole, not what some random government official in some random country decides (often for political, not economic, reasons).' Reciprocity Done Wrong Fresh off my conversation with Franklin Graham and getting ready to write about NewsNation personality Brian Entin, I'm wondering if there is anyone in particular you'd like to see featured in a Deseret profile. If so, drop me a note at Jgraham@ or reach out on X, which will always be Twitter to me: @Grahamtoday. Thank you for reading and being part of the Right to the Point community.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Perspective: If a prominent conservative speaks at an Ivy League school, will students show up?
This article was first published in the Right to the Point newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each week. NEW HAVEN, CT. — When Megyn Kelly was the featured guest at fellow Fox alumni Tucker Carlson's live show in Kansas City last year, thousands showed up, including Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker. Carlson, like Jordan Peterson, has shown that he can draw a paying crowd, and Kelly herself is used to speaking before a multitude, whether it's on her eponymous podcast or at a Trump campaign rally. But she arrived on the campus of Yale University April 16 to find an auditorium with plenty of vacant seats, even though the event had been advertised as open to the public. There were no protestors of the kind that Charlie Kirk always seems to attract, and there seemed to be one law enforcement officer for about every 10 people in attendance — which may be why everyone was so well-behaved. The Buckley Institute, which sponsored the event, says its mission is 'to promote intellectual diversity and freedom of speech' at Yale while providing a home for 'enlightened conservative thought.' Given that, the liberal students on campus failed themselves in not taking the opportunity to hear, and to challenge, one of the most prominent voices in conservative media today. Kelly was invited to speak on the subject of 'The New Media Revolution' and she talked about why she believes that 'legacy' media is gasping its last breaths, replaced by long-form podcasts and a new form of media in which people get news from individuals that they trust, rather than media conglomerates like the ones she used to work for, NBC and Fox. It might not be the sexiest of topics — and certainly was not as controversial as Ben Shapiro's speech last year on 'How Oct. 7 broke America's college campuses.' About a thousand people were turned away from that event, the Yale Daily News reported. In contrast, the student newspaper didn't even cover Kelly's conversation with Buckley Institute president William Barbee, even though the topic was equally important, having arguably influenced the results of the 2024 election and upended how Americans consume news, possibly forever. 'It had to happen, because the old system was so corrupt and so broken. And the people demanded alternate options,' said Kelly, who has moderated six presidential debates. The revolution began, she said, with the success of Fox News and radio commentators like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin, and exploded with the advent of social media, streaming and podcasting. Digital media, Kelly said, is the future of news. 'Young people do not sit in front of cable news hour after hour the way we used to, the way my mom will. They just don't consume news that way. And so the future's going to be digital. It's going to be a direct relationship between you and a trusted few who you believe will tell you the truth.' Kelly argued, as she did in a recent interview with The New York Times, that the old way of the media, with journalists and media companies presenting themselves as objective, is untenable because it's unbelievable — so often, bias creeps out in reporting. In new media, she says, 'You will know their political biases, and you will factor that into what they're telling you. ... It's just such a more useful, truthful, honest way of getting your news.' She also told the audience that Trump didn't deliver a fatal blow to legacy media by repeatedly calling out 'fake news,' a strategy which she said was necessary. 'Trump didn't kill cable news, but he was like a Kevorkian. They killed themselves, but he helped. He set them up, gave them the machine, and they were like, let's press the button,' she said, adding that Trump 'had no choice but to try and undermine the credibility of all these news organizations' because of their relentless negative coverage of him. It was a 'brilliant strategy,' she said. It was also a dangerous one. Now that some in the media have tried to course-correct and be more representative of conservatives, they face a subset of Americans who are openly hostile to anyone who identifies themselves as a reporter. (Ask me how it went when I tried to interview people at a Ron DeSantis campaign rally in the deep South. I might as well have been selling timeshares.) But Kelly is smart and influential, and Yale students can't understand America as it is without listening to, and engaging, with people like her. You can watch the full conversation here. I recently traveled to Boone, North Carolina, for a conversation with Franklin Graham, the eldest son of the famed evangelist, who now heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the international humanitarian organization Samaritan's Purse. Here's a tidbit that didn't make it into my story. When Billy Graham first invited Franklin to be on his board of directors, the father told the son, 'Franklin, don't say anything. Just sit there and listen — for the first 10 years, I don't want you to say nothing. Then you can speak.' It wasn't hyperbole, or at least Franklin Graham didn't perceive it as such. He obeyed. 'I sat there quiet for 10 years,' he told me. 'But I watched. And I learned. He set the example.' You aren't learning anything when you're talking, President Lyndon Johnson and others have said. Billy Graham seemed to know that, too. Here's the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say. The prodigal son no more: Inside the world of Franklin Graham Diversity, equity and inclusion programs have often focused on race. But they have value in exposing people to religious diversity as well, writes Jazmin Kreimer. 'People of faith may also play meaningful roles in shaping DEI programs that transcend these concerns and which can be appreciated across the political spectrum. Believers bring distinct capacities to these conversations.' Want to Make DEI Programs More Effective? Focus on Religion Jay Evensen has a funny and interesting take on the Great Penny Debate: what are the unintended consequences of doing away with that coin? 'The Federal Reserve lost $85.3 million last year by minting pennies. But without pennies, experts say it would need to begin producing more nickels, because it would be the least valuable form of currency.' Forget Pennies; Do We Really Need Nickels? As the battle between the Trump administration and Harvard University intensifies, Jacob Hess looks at the religious schools that have long been reluctant to receive federal funds. 'Action Trump takes against schools like Harvard and Columbia is being eyed warily by conservative campuses — aware that similar steps could be taken by future Democratic administrations against their own schools.' It's Not Just the Religious Conservative Schools Wondering Now If They Need to Forgo Federal Funding When Jordan Peterson launched his online university, with annual tuition set at $500, Princeton University's Robert P. George told me that was an 'astonishingly low fee' given the quality of professors and the courses Peterson Academy offered. But then again, many online courses, including some at Princeton and Stanford, are available for free, and $500 can be a heavy lift for young Americans struggling to make rent. Not sure how much it helps, but Peterson Academy just lowered tuition to $399, saying it's because of 'incoming funding' that won't compromise its mission. They're promising four new courses a month, in addition to 43 offered now, as well as live events in the future. Maybe stay away from New Haven? Just a suggestion. As always, thank you for reading and being part of the Right to the Point community. You can reach me at Jgraham@ or on X, @Grahamtoday.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Perspective: What should we make of the rapid rise in conservative media?
This article was first published in the Right to the Point newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each week. In a lengthy interview published Saturday in The New York Times, Megyn Kelly was asked if she was 'caving' to Donald Trump when she endorsed him last year despite their famously contentious relationship. 'I don't think it was me caving. It was me rising,' she said, and indeed, 'Megyn Kelly rising' has been her trajectory over the past five years. Since launching her eponymous podcast in 2020 after 12 years at Fox and 2 years at NBC, Kelly is more popular than ever, with more than 3.5 million subscribers on YouTube (that's slightly more than Tucker Carlson averaged in his last month at Fox), a SiriusXM show and a newly added morning update. Kelly also announced last week the launch of a podcast network that will feature shows from Mark Halperin, Maureen Callahan and Link Lauren. For consumers of conservative media, this news could be exciting — or not. The explosive growth of conservative offerings in the past few years — both in news sites, Substacks, television, streaming, podcasts and even films and live shows — has already surpassed the amount of free time that most working Americans have, not to mention the demands on their disposable income. The Free Press this week announced a new slate of writers to augment what Bari Weiss calls 'America's most important home for the politically homeless.' Even Gavin Newsom is competing for conservatives' attention these days. It all amounts to a kind of abundance agenda in media that was unfathomable a decade or so ago when conservatives were begging for representation. But at the same time, it raises the question, is it all too much, too fast? Daily Wire fans have watched recently as the conservative media company founded by Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing announced a change in Boreing's role, amid reports of layoffs and downsizing. Writing on the changes, Will Sommer at The Bulwark — yet another conservative media outlet come to prominence in recent years — suggested that The Daily Wire might not fit in with the 'energy on the young right-wing internet' and said 'the digital-media economy favors individual personalities.' It remains to be seen if conservative media has gotten too big for its britches or if there is still room for growth. All I can say is that there are several podcasts that I've subscribed to in recent months that I've never found the time to listen to, even as more and more personalities contend for my attention. But there's one in particular that conservatives should cross off the list, according to Kelly. She recently said, of conservatives like Charlie Kirk and Michael Savage going on the Gavin Newsom podcast, 'We're supposed to be helping Rocky, not Drago.' A few weeks ago, after Kelly appeared at a Semafor conference about rebuilding trust in media, she was sharply critical of the questions asked by Semafor's Ben Smith, so I was curious as to whether she would have the same response to The New York Times conversation with Lulu Garcia-Navarro, who also conducted a pre-election interview with JD Vance. Although Kelly seemed to bristle at points during the conversation, she later called it a fair interview, writing, 'I liked Lulu. I feel like she and I actually plowed new ground to have somebody from the legacy media talking to somebody like me, who was of that world but now is in the new. It was an interesting conversation because she was open minded and honest about where she was not getting it. That allowed us to advance the ball. That is how interviews should be done.' The same could be said of the conversations that Newsom is having with conservatives — or at least, was having, as his most recent guests were Tim Walz and Ezra Klein. Elon Musk, speaking at a rally in Wisconsin: 'I will die in America, I'm not going anywhere. Well, I might go to Mars, but that will part of America.' Kevin Brown is the president of Asbury University, the Kentucky school that, two years ago, saw a routine prayer service turn into a 16-day-long event attracting worshipers from across the country. He wrote about what has changed in the past two years and why young adults, as desperate as many of them are, are the future of faith. Gen Z is starved for spirituality. That's reason for hope Dr. Stephen Wilkinson, a cardiologist at Utah Valley Hospital, recalls being in Ghana on a medical mission trip and coming across life-saving equipment emblazoned with a sticker that said 'USAID from the American people.' You could not see this, he writes, without being 'profoundly proud to be an American.' Are the consequences of cutting USAID worth it? When John Sailer started looking into DEI policies, he was working from his home in North Carolina for the National Association of Scholars. I wrote about him last year, and caught up with him recently (he's now at the Manhattan Institute) to talk about the sea change in DEI since Trump took office. 'What's happened over the past few months is a huge deal, it's earth-shattering,' he told me. The state of DEI, 10 weeks after Trump took office If you've ever watched 'I've Got News for You,' a CNN comedy show based on a similar series in the UK, you've likely seen Amber Ruffin, the comedian who was set to host the White House Correspondents Dinner later this month, and then was disinvited, reportedly because of remarks she recently made on a podcast. Here's the story. Why a comedian won't host the White House Correspondents Dinner this year It's hard to imagine, but Abby Hornacek has made an even bigger star out of her celebrity dad Jeff Hornacek through her 'Park'd' show on Fox Nation. 10 questions with Abby Hornacek: What the Fox Nation star says about national parks, her greatest fear and growing up with her famous dad As always, you can reach me at Jgraham@ or find me on X. Thank you for reading and being part of the Right to the Point community.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Perspective: Mia Love, theater kids and the math lesson America needs
This article was first published in the Right to the Point newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each week. In a moving Deseret News essay that has been referenced globally, Mia Love memorably said that some of us have forgotten 'the math of America — whatever you divide you diminish.' But Love, the former Utah congresswoman who died Sunday of brain cancer at age 49, believed that America is better at multiplication than division. She went on to say: 'What I know is that the goodness and compassion of the American people is a multiplier that simply cannot be measured. The goodness and greatness of our country is multiplied when neighbors help neighbors, when we reach out to those in need and build better citizens and more heroic communities.' Her message could not have been more poignant, or timely, coming as some conservatives on social media are blaming 'theater kids' for the state of the country while others blame President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. 'Theater kids' has lately become a dismissive term for young progressives who display a certain theatrical flair in in their politics. But before she became the first Black Republican in the House of Representatives, Love herself was a 'theater kid,' and she wasn't a garden-variety one, either. She earned a degree in fine arts at one of the most competitive schools for musical theater majors in New England, the University of Hartford in Connecticut. And she famously turned down a chance to audition for a lead role in 'Smokey Joe's Cafe' on Broadway because it would have forced her to postpone her wedding. In other words, she was a nascent star, who chose to shine on different kinds of stages. In her elegant essay, 'My living wish for the America I know,' Love stood between two snarling sides of the partisan divide and appealed to all of us to be better, to stand more in the overlap of our national Venn diagram and not gravitate to the bitter edges. To embrace the 'our' of America and not the 'them.' 'The America I know isn't just my story and it isn't just your story. It is our story,' Love wrote. 'It is a story of endless possibilities, human struggle, standing up and striving for more. Our story has been told for well over 200 years, punctuated by small steps and giant leaps; from a woman on a bus to a man with a dream; from the bravery of the greatest generation to the explorers, entrepreneurs, reformers and innovators of today. This is our story. This is the America we know — because we built it — together.' Love gave us those stirring words with the passion of a theater kid, but also with the conviction of a daughter of Haitian immigrants who loved this country deeply and felt a responsibility to it, and to all of us. She often said that, as a Republican, she wanted 'bigger people and less government,' a mantra that should challenge anyone advocating only for the latter half of that equation. I didn't know Love, but I will take that to heart, as well as her call for all of us to do the math. Another kind of theater was in the news over the weekend, as Disney's much-maligned, live-action update of 'Snow White' finally made its box-office debut. Before the movie even opened, people were posting screenshots of available seating at theaters across the country, and let's just say, no one was worried that they might not get a seat if they didn't buy in advance. I'm not sure I've ever seen so much animosity toward a film before its opening. That's partly because there were so many aspects of the film that had made people angry during its production — from the casting to the CGI dwarves to the political statements made by the lead actresses. Then there are those of us (my hand is raised here) who simply get grumpy about beloved animated classics, whether it's 'Snow White' or 'The Lion King,' getting the live-action treatment. The film, which some have dubbed 'Snow Woke,' earned an estimated $43 million in the U.S. last weekend, an opening that The Hollywood Reporter called 'near disastrous,' adding that 'Snow White has found itself in potential bomb territory because of its hefty production budget of $270 million before another $100 million or so in marketing costs.' That makes it sound like 'Snow White' got 'Bud-Lighted.' But The Hollywood Reporter went on to look at movie-going habits in red and blue states and found something interesting. Citing polling from EnTelligence, senior film writer Pamela McClintock wrote, 'Cinemas in blue states generally account for 67 percent of all ticket sales, while red states account for 33 percent. In the case of Snow White, blue states came in behind the norm at 60 percent of all sales, while red states accounted for 40 percent.' In other words, people in red states showed up at higher rates than usual for this film, leading EnTelligence founder Steve Buck to conclude that there's no evidence of a conservative boycott. People just had no interest in the film, generally. They did, however, have interest in the comments that have been made about the trailer and film, and these were compiled into an amusing music video making the rounds on social media. Hating on 'Snow White' is a team sport, it seems, and much of the vitriol is likely driven by people who were never the market for the film anyway. Still, it's near impossible to hear the Wicked Queen say to Snow White, 'You know, I really don't remember you being this ... opinionated,' without thinking the same about the Walt Disney Company. (You can see the clip in the film's trailer here.) If Elon Musk weren't so aligned with Donald Trump, there might have been more celebration about SpaceX bringing the stranded astronauts home last week. It was an extraordinary moment, particularly for those of us who remember how big a deal it was when astronauts returned to Earth in a time when people could only watch by gathering around a TV. The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan remembers, and wrote beautifully about the aesthetics of the splashdown: 'The capsule, the uniforms—and here I must have a happiness freak-out about the parachutes that eased the capsule down. They were gorgeous as physical objects and beautifully designed, like high art, like a Christo installation, with their red and white and deep-hued, elegant markings to enhance visibility. At certain points before and during splashdown they moved like huge jellyfish in the sea. They were made with new stitching method and with a specialized polymer called Zylon, developed by researchers at Stanford. It is a hard thing in life to do something so difficult and technical, so demanding of expertise and boldness, and still pay attention to beauty. It matters that this is done. Beauty can be natural (the rings of Saturn, a baby's ear) or man-made (the rising view of Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge), and we must take it where it presents itself, and enjoy. And tip our hats.' Jay Evensen looks at what life is like for Tesla owners in the age of a partisan Musk: 'The cars are rolling metaphors for the societal ills of whichever end of the spectrum is opposite Tesla CEO Elon Musk.' When your car changes sides in politics Jenna Carson, the first Latter-day Saint chaplain in the federal prison system, has an inside view on the violence that takes place there, threatening not just the staff, but inmates: 'Nearly a year into my time in the prison, one guard bragged that he and other guards punished incarcerated men beyond what the courts assigned. They did this in the isolation unit, where cameras were scarce.' Abuse in our prisons is killing our humanity BYU's Jeremy Pope explains the hullabalo over 'executive overreach' and what's really at stake: 'What is really getting lost at this moment is that it is not possible to create an institutional check when you only care about executive overreach from the other side. Democrats who cannot be stirred to wonder if Biden really has the power to simply appropriate billions for student loan forgiveness did not leave themselves in a strong position to object to Trump's overreach today.' The problem with calling policy disagreements 'executive overreach' There's been a lot of anger on the right this week about the Tesla torching, with Republicans noting that they just stop shopping at, say, Target, if there's something about the company they don't like. Then there are those of us — or maybe it's just me — who make decisions about shopping based on the product, not the politics of company selling it. Which is why I've had ice cream at the Ben & Jerry's in Burlington, Vermont, and enjoyed every bite, even though it felt a bit like crossing some invisible conservative picket line to walk in the door. Here's a look at what's going on with the brand these days, and why it's in the news. As always, thank you for reading and being part of the Right to the Point community. You can reach me at Jgraham@
