Posts Tagged ‘Mike Lindell’

A fresh look at the movie Hillbilly Elegy

Posted: July 21, 2024 by John Ruberry in culture, election 2024, elections, entertainment, media, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

With the nomination of Sen. J.D. Vance as Donald Trump’s running mate, of course there is renewed interest in his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, and the Ron Howard movie based on it.

I’ve yet to read book, but I saw the movie in 2020 on Netflix, which distributed the film, and I thought it was a captivating look at Vance’s life. 

Both the book and the movie draw on Vance’s upbringing in the southwestern Ohio post-industrial city of Middletown. His maternal grandparents were from Jackson, Kentucky–in the Appalachian portion of the state, which is where Hillbilly Elegy begins. The young Vance (Owen Asztalos) gets a quick lesson in the importance of family loyalty after losing a fight. The Vances, unfortunately, are quite the dysfunctional family, particularly his drug-addicted mother, Beverly (Amy Adams). Eventually, Vance ends up in the care of his grandmother, Bonnie “Mawmaw” Vance (Glenn Close), a chain-smoking, cussing, mean, but ultimately loving authority figure.

The movie contains many flashbacks as the adult J.D. (Gabriel Basso), a US Marine veteran who is a Yale law student, finds his promising future tangled up with his troubled past. His girlfriend, Usha (Freida Pinto), provides him much needed emotional support.

As I said earlier, this is a captivating film, and Howard, a gifted director, makes skilled used of imagery, including perhaps his favorite, water, and a stunning symbolic use of the Middletown rail bridge tunnel.

However, by 2020, Vance was vocal about his conservative beliefs, and he had moved from the Never Trump camp of the Republican Party to being a supporter of the 45th president. Which, in my opinion, led to movie critics, a group which politically consists mostly of leftists, to offer a large dose of negative reviews of Hillbilly Elegy. The Chicago Sun-Times’ Richard Roeper was a notable exception, he gave the movie a four-stars-out-of-four review.

An even worse response came from the 2021 Golden Raspberry Awards, better known as the Razzies. The bad movie answer to the Academy Awards nominated Hillbilly Elegy for three Razzies: Worst Director (Howard), Worst Adapted Screenplay (Vanessa Taylor), and Worst Supporting Actress (Close). However, Close, was also nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the same role, and Hillbilly Elegy also garnered a Best Makeup and Hairstyling Oscar nomination.

Was this hatred was triggered by Vance’s politics?

I am certain of that, because also that year, Razzie “winners” included the documentary Absolute Proof, which questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election. Mike Lindell of My Pillow fame “won” Worst Actor for his role in that movie, and Rudy Giuliani “won” for Worst Supporting Actor for his brief role in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.

Voters for the Razzies are not required to see the movies they vote on. Other “winners” of Razzies, not surprisingly, include other conservatives, among them are Ronald Reagan, Dinesh D’Souza, and Jon Voigt.

I apologize for that brief diversion, but the Golden Raspberry Awards needs a serious and prolonged slapping around.

To summarize, don’t believe the critics. Unless you are an unhinged leftist suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, Hillbilly Elegy is well worth your time.

The lessons from Hillbilly Elegy are conservative ones. Family bonds, hard work, and perseverance, while not a guarantee of success, make success more likely. 

I suspect that left-wing critics will have one more group lash-out at Hillbilly Elegy.

And from the only presidential term of Joe Biden comes another lesson: Don’t believe the media. Even movie reviewers can’t be trusted.

Hillbilly Elegy is available for streaming on Netflix, where as of this writing is ranked #4 in the movie category. It is rated R for violence, drug use, and foul language.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Under the Fedora: Dangerous Pillow Makers, Trusted Russians Manufacturers, Less Lucky Russians, Metal Detectors and Don Bolduc

Posted: September 14, 2022 by datechguy in business, elections, internet/free speech, News/opinion, opinion/news
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The FBI decided to go after that well known dangerous fellow Mike Lindell the pillow maker at a Hardee’s Drive-Thru.

Well I suppose he is dangerous to the Biden Administration in the sense that despite the loss of millions in business by places like Bed Bath and Beyond (now folding like a cheap suit) ridicule and attacks he steadfastly refuses to compromise on his opinion (which I share) that the last election was stolen and continues to produce evidence to support said claim.

That’s the thing about devout Christians, they have an affinity to the truth and they tend to not abandon it even when the emperor siccs their lions on them.

However there are apparently some things that the FBI totally approves of: Headline:

Wait — the Steele Dossier’s discredited source became a paid FBI informant?

Ed Morrissey being an honest and honorable man is flabbergasted:

There must be an explanation for this plot twist, which appears to have come right out of a James Bond film. Maybe Casino Royale … the David Niven version, not the straightforward Daniel Craig reboot. According to a court filing from John Durham, the FBI turned Steele dossier source Igor Danchenko into a paid informant.

Well after all he was willing to spread falsehood in order to aid and abet the left’s political ambitions. If that’s not worth a paycheck to the FBI I’d like to know what is?

Prediction: In my lifetime we will see FBI agents and bureaucrats who are taking part in and/or enabling the Biden Administrations efforts to intimidate their political foes & the citizens who support said foes will be sitting in a witness chair arguing:

I was only following orders!

Rather disgusting.

While that Russian apparently did OK a lot of Russians are not doing so well in Ukraine as a counter offensive seems to be gaining ground to the point where some are wondering if they should push into Russia proper and risk overextending their lines of supply.

For the record assuming these reports are correct I’d go deep enough to neutralize logistic centers that the Russians would need for any counteroffensive

In theory the Russians have the power to bring and use overwhelming force if they so choose (although it would take time to raise an deploy said force) against Ukraine, what the real question is, do they have the will?

And the bigger question is this. If this results in the fall of Putin, what replaces him?

Yesterday when I got to the warehouse where I work I was surprised to see metal detectors had been installed and that we from now on we will have to pass through them to enter.

I asked the chief of security who was there for the first day of them why, he said the company’s new owners decided on it. He suggested that given what’s been going on in the country it’s better to get ahead of such things.

Well considering that the new owners have stores and such in blue states and cities that have seen first hand what Democrat rule does and that I work in a deep blue state that is likely to replace a moderate Nevertrump republican with a radical democrat and put a DA who will do their best to turn Massachusetts into California in charge I’d say it might be prudent to be prepared for what is going to come.

Finally General Don Bolduc has won the GOP primary in NH to challenge Maggie Hassan for the US senate:

I interviewed General Bolduc at the Carenet dinner in NH last year it’s available both on Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiqtwfKLHgU

and Rumble

https://rumble.com/v1d5nqu-general-don-bolduc-nh-us-senate-candidate-interview.html

I really think this election in NH will determine if that state can be saved. If Hassan can win in this environment over a vet who has served in combat than any Massachusetts conservative who wants out of the state before it becomes California had better head to Montana, Wyoming or somewhere south, heat and bugs be damned.

Given his outspoken support for President Trump I’m sure he can expect an FBI raid any day now.

This should be the Easiest Five Million a Leftist Techie Ever Made

Posted: July 22, 2021 by datechguy in elections, politics
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A decade ago Andrew Breitbart offered 100,000 for evidence to support democrats claims accusing the Tea Party of public racism toward members of Congress at the time. The media had made a big fuss but Andrew was having none of it:

He said he emphasized with AP writer Jesse Washington that he was not relying on the one video for proof but rather that it was the mainstream media’s responsibility to offer proof of a racist attack before they published their report. That is why Andrew is offering reward money to anyone who will come forth with video that shows a racist attack actually occurred.

Andrew also wondered why the Capitol Hill police did not intervene if this incident actually happened. If the n-word was screamed 15 times… If there was “a chorus” of racist hate… And, if the tea party protesters looked like they were going to throw rocks at the Congressmen, as one of the members suggested, why would the Capitol Hill police stand back and not intervene?

Andrew added that the Democrats now claim that they want dialogue but that is not what they said when they accused the tea party protesters of a hate crime. It was only after representatives were confronted by Big Government and Andrew Breitbart that they suddenly want to hold a civil dialogue.

Needless to say despite a plethora of cameras and recording devices on the scene no such evidence was ever produced and Andrew Breitbart died with that $100,000 unpaid.

Now history is about to repeat itself;

My Pillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell announced on Wednesday he was offering $5 million to any “cyber guys” who can prove the election data he’ll present at his upcoming “cyber symposium” is not valid.

Lindell appeared on the War Room podcast and said that he’s offering $5 million to any “cyber guy” who shows up at his symposium and demonstrates that the data doesn’t actually prove Donald Trump won the election

Now think about this for a moment. For months we’ve been told that all of these claims are BS, we’ve seen big tech, which employs an army of techies insist that this is all disinformation.

The colleges are full of liberals taking tech courses, silicon valley is full of liberals in the tech field, Facebook, twitter, Instagram, tic-toc etc etc etc have thousands if not tens or hundreds of thousands of tech experts who worship at the altar of the left who would I suspect love an extra 5 mil in their pocket, not to mention hundreds of techies dreaming of financing their startup companies who would love five million dollars seed money.

All they have to do is demonstrate that Lindell is advancing a conspiracy theory, and since all the “smart” and “elite” people are insisting this is the case it should be really easy shouldn’t it?

If they do it will be a triumph for the left, every media outlet will hail them, every cable show will feature them and perhaps Hollywood will even do a movie about them. Their debunking of Lindell would be amplified all over the world.

But as loud as that might be, if they fail, their failure while ignored by the press, censored by the tech companies will speak oh so much louder.

Which is why you will not see them even try.

I suspect that like Andrew Breitbart Mike Lindell will go to his grave with his challenge money still in his pocket.

Unexpectedly of course.