The Brew: Trump Sending Rocky and Braveheart to Save Hollywood
Happy Friday!
And happy birthday to The Stream! Yup, The Stream turns 10 this weekend, a decade of delivering news, commentary, and insights to you all. More on that over the weekend.
Make Hollywood Great Again?
President-Elect Donald Trump has named Mel Gibson, Jon Voigt, and Rocky himself, Sylvester Stallone, to be special ambassadors to Hollywood.
Said Trump on Truth Social, “They will serve as Special Envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK— BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!”
Trump said, “These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest. It will again be, like The United States of America itself, The Golden Age of Hollywood!”
Recent statistics aren’t available, but a study done a decade ago indicated that more than half of Hollywood productions are filmed at least partially overseas, while over a quarter of Tinseltown’s movies are filmed entirely overseas. Plus, a study released by ProdPro last July shows that TV and film production in the U.S. has fallen by 40% since 2022. That’s twice as big a drop as the rest of the world has experienced in the same time frame.
Official Inaugural Portraits Unveiled
Inauguration Day is only three days away. If you are planning to go to D.C., be prepared to be C-O-L-D. The high that day will be about 25 degrees, with a low of 5 degrees, and biting winds will be whipping all the way down the Washington Mall. Suddenly, Michelle Obama’s decision to stay in Hawaii seems awful wise.
Accuweather says this will be the coldest Inauguration Day since 1985. Reagan’s second inaugural was moved inside, and the parade cancelled. The temperature was 9 degrees with a wind chill making it feel like -22 degrees. But so far, we are not hearing any plans to nix Monday’s outdoor ceremony.
Meanwhile, the official inaugural portraits have been unveiled.
Unlike his smiling 2017 portrait, Trump’s 2025 portrait looks much like his mugshot with his right eye in a Clint Eastwood-esque squint, telling our enemies, “Go ahead, make my day.” As for Vice President- Elect J.D. Vance, Young Blue Eyes looks like he’s about to pick up an acoustic guitar and play “This Land Is Your Land.”
Ceasefire Deal Delayed
A “last-minute crisis” has slowed Israel down from approving a ceasefire deal with Hamas. According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Hamas has been reneging on parts of the agreement in an effort to get more concessions. Also, there’s been some tension within the Israeli government over the deal, with hard-liners threatening to bolt from Netanyahu’s coalition government if he goes through with the deal.
The Knesset is not expected to vote on the ceasefire agreement until at least Friday.
Bananas: Nonbinary Councilmember Takes Month-Long Leave After Being ‘Misgendered.’ Or Was It Something Else?
I don’t care what their politics are; I don’t want someone in elected office who abandons their post for a month because they claim someone used the wrong pronoun in addressing them. (No more than I want a mayor who’s enjoying cocktails in a faraway country while his or her city is burning down.) But that’s exactly what’s happened in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Nonbinary city Councilperson-at-Large Thu Nguyen, who uses they/them pronouns, is taking a month’s leave after being misgendered by the mayor and another council member, claiming they’re guilty of “transphobia” and an Nguyen is “unsafe” in the resulting toxic culture.
Mayor Joseph M. Petty called baloney on Nguyen’s allegations, telling the Worcester Telegram that Nguyen true beef is his hardline stance on in-person attendance at council meetings. Petty admits that way back in 2022 he accidentally misgendered Nguyen, but apologized — and as best he knows, he hasn’t done it since. The council member says the same thing.
Getting Back on the Horse … or in This Case, Subway
If you were Daniel Penny, would you ever set foot on the New York subway again? Would you even set foot in New York? The former Marine is certainly made of tough stuff, not only surviving his odious persecution by District Attorney Alvin Bragg for stepping in to protect fellow passengers who were being threatened by a deranged gunman, but having the guts — the stomach — to actually take to riding the subway again.
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1879860281507225634
Do we have the courage to return to places that brought us pain? Be it a location, a relationship … the church?
Sometimes we have to suck it up. Because like the New York subway, it may not be where you want to be, but it’s where you need to be to get where you’re supposed to go.
Washington Post Changes Motto
The legacy liberal media is reeling.
The Washington Post, which has lost 90% of its digital readership over the past four years and has all the credibility of a Nigerian prince, is making another move to try to turn its fortunes around and appeal to more than elite liberals (and Commanders fans). The paper has dumped its old motto, “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” for a new mission statement: “Riveting Storytelling for All Americans.” (Who are they now? HBO?)
Meanwhile, WaPo has suffered another blow to its reputation. Pulitzer Prize-winning, Trump-bashing editorial cartoonist Darrin Bell has just been arrested on child porn charges in California.
House Passes Bill to Deport Illegal Immigrants Who Commit Sex Crimes. 145 Democrats Oppose
Do you think an illegal immigrant who is convicted of a sex crime should be deported? (If I only had a dime for every one of you who just said, “Well, duh.”) The House passed such a bill yesterday. However, 145 members of Congress, all Democrats, voted against it.
The bill was passed last year as well, but the Democrat-controlled Senate wouldn’t take it up. But with the Senate now in GOP hands, the bill is now expected to pass.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has changed her tune. The Daily Caller News Foundation reports that on Wednesday, Healey requested that the state limit its use of emergency shelters to U.S. citizens and legal immigrants. This came after several high-profile incidents involving illegals, including the rape of a 15-year-old girl.
Leftover Thoughts About Biden’s Farewell Address
I’m still thinking about Joe Biden’s farewell address to the nation the other night. It seems to me he had no idea what he was reading. He may as well have been reading an old script from The Golden Girls. He actually warned us about the dangers of billionaire oligarchs, just days after giving George Soros a Presidential Medal of Freedom. He warned about the “tech industrial complex” — the same one that helped rig the 2020 election for him. How ungrateful!
Clearly, Joe (or his handlers) wanted an IMPORTANT HISTORIC FAREWELL ADDRESS in the vein of Washington telling us to “steer clear of permanent alliances” or Eisenhower’s warnings about the “military industrial complex.” Biden would have been far better off listing some of his accomplishments (real or imagined) in office, then sharing warm and humorous tales of his half century in politics, friendships across the aisle, being an eyewitness to history, and the great, average Americans he met along the way. Leave with warm fuzzies, not warnings and darkness.
“I came to Washington a grieving young widower with two small boys,” he could have said. “I leave a happy old man with seven grandchildren and a brand-new great-grandchild. It’s been a great run, and I thank the great people of Delaware and the United States from the bottom of my heart for the opportunity to serve you.”
One big disappointment: He didn’t tell us who’s actually been running the country the past four years.
Along The Stream…
The Stream shares James O’Keefe’s expose of a plot within the defense industry to sabotage Trump’s new term. “Spooks Inside the Pentagon Are Already Planning to Subvert the People’s Will by ‘Resisting’ the Elected President.”
Meanwhile, Mat Staver tells us why the federal government must revoke Big Pharma’s free pass where vaccines are concerned in “People Over Profits: End Big Pharma’s Vaccine Immunity.”
Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.