Hollywood

Open Thread

Mark Noonan57 Comments

Social media can be a bit of a treasure – sometimes what passes through your TL is amazing.

A little earlier today I came across a USA Today thread discussing how we need to differentiate between pedophiles and those who abuse children. No, I’m not kidding. What this is, of course, is an attempt to start normalizing pedophilia. They have to, you see? That is, they have to do this before they all get caught. They are going to “love is love” their way into legalizing the sexual abuse of children.

Then I came across a Financial Times article written by a member of the American Enterprise Institute – you know, the libertarian think tank – which asserted that the government needs to engage in psy-ops against us to protect us from political radicalization. This article, naturally, is because the pys-ops are being exposed and they are now trying to get out in front and claim it was all for our own good.

Then a guy pointed out that at this time in 2008 Obama was saying that marriage is something between a man and a woman while here in 2022 we’ve got people seriously asserting that refusal to date a trans person is bigotry.

We are moving very fast.

They sent Pudding Brain to Georgia to give a voting rights speech – given that the Dawgs won the national championship last night you can rely on it that nobody in Georgia was paying any attention. Doubt that anyone else is, either. And key Georgia Democrats begged off from the event as they have crucial things to do…the most crucial being staying the hell away from the politically toxic Joe Biden.

So far, Manchin and Sinema are standing firm against nuking the filibuster. And Senator Kelly is also saying he has his doubt about it. Amazing what running for re-election in a purple State will do for some Democrats, huh? Some say that Schumer doesn’t even have 44 Democrat votes to kill the filibuster…it is just that they are keeping a low profile and hoping that Manchin’s opposition keeps them from having to take a stand on it. OTOH, Schumer is making noises about forcing a vote on the rules change – which is dumb on two levels. One: without Manchin and Sinema, its pointless. Two: by holding the vote he’ll force purple State Democrats to choose between giving ammo to their GOP opponents or infuriating the base. And the far left base of the Democrats is furious that they haven’t jettisoned the filibuster. My only question here is how many filing deadlines have passed: Schumer pulls the trigger too soon and a half dozen Democrats could end up drawing a far left primary opponent who will be massively funded by Blue State leftists.

Sucks to be Schumer.

Long and very good article about the opposition to paleogenetic research. This is research carried out to find DNA markers on ancient remains to see how human beings moved around. A great deal has been learned in this field and, as it turns out, humans have moved around a lot. So, why should anyone be opposed to finding this out? Because the Narrative of native tribes it that the land they were on when the crackers first showed up had always been their land. Their sacred spaces, polluted by the cruel and rapacious white man. Yeah, turns out that is all bull. The Natives moved around as much as anyone else in a fierce competition for resources. Some tribes didn’t arrive in their “ancestral” lands until after the Europeans arrived…as tribes desperately sought contact with the Europeans for trade opportunities. Often, Native tribes would fight each other for access. So, there’s your reason – we’re going to kill off this valuable and interesting science because some people who are financially invested in a garbage story about pre-Columbian North America don’t want their meal ticket taken away. Side note: the author expresses sympathy for the basic concept of respecting Native traditions. For me, I’ll respect the people living by their ancient traditions but this idea that because you have X percent pre-Columbian blood you get veto power over science is drivel. People are people; always have been, always will be. Nobody is all good. Nobody is all bad. And we should find out all about everything, if we can.

Our man Matt lays out the failure of Biden’s Covid policies.

Hollywood is burning itself alive on the altar of political correctness. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving of creeps.

I have no sympathy at all – not for any of them working. I hope they all go bankrupt and have to panhandle on the street. But, that said, there is still a market for movies – we on the right should seriously consider raising some billions of dollars and starting a movie studio. Not in Hollywood! Not in California or any of the traditional entertainment area. Maybe Tulsa or some such place. A complete new start. Now, do we go and make preachy, rightwing movies? No. But we make movies. You know: fantasy entertainment designed to divert people away from their daily lives. I can easily think of a dozen movies which range from fantasy to love story to war movies to western which, well made, would be highly successful and, perhaps, even spawn a few franchises. And I’m not just talking about my books! Though that would be cool. But here’s an example: Ann Bassett. She was an Old West rancher and some time associate of Butch Cassidy. Her basic story was fighting off other cattle barons to protect her late father’s ranch. It just screams “make a movie out of me”. Heck, imagine a top flight female star and then your supporting male role is a guy playing Butch Cassidy. Blockbuster all over it. That’s the kind of movie we should make – what hasn’t been done but which can be made fun and interesting. If it can be done, all that entertainment money stops flowing Left and starts flowing Right. Think of the possibilities.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan39 Comments

Secret Service is saying that $100 billion in Covid relief has be stolen. Rely on it: it is orders of magnitude higher than that. We do have to fault Trump a bit here as well – as this thing came in, the money spigot was turned on full blast. Pudding Brain has put that into overdrive, but we have to admit where it started.

Of course the money was going to be stolen. The primary purpose, for those in the know, was to steal. We didn’t really need to spend much on this – we did, after all, have a perfectly functioning economy and health care system when this started. At most we just needed a slight boost in what we were already spending. But the bonanza of cash simply thrown out the Treasury windows was and is the opportunity of a life time. Couple years from now and we will see a few indictments – people who stole beyond their station or who didn’t divvy up the way the bosses wanted. But my bet is that half, at least, of what has and will be spent was nothing but graft.

The dirty little secret of our government is that it spends so much money that nobody really knows what is going on. How can anyone keep an eye on trillions of dollars being spent? Do you realize how easy it is to divert hundreds of billions when you’ve got a flood of money that large?

Some rumors that Team Hillary is in Durham’s crosshairs. Hope so, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

Cocaine Mitch, talking with Hugh Hewitt, basically said he’s asking Manchin to switch to the GOP – adding that he’s discussing whether Manchin would keep his chairmanship of Energy. I’m a bit surprised – not that it might be happening, but that it would happen now. I’d have thought Mitch would wait until well into 2022. OTOH, the Democrats are already a toxic brand and McConnell back in the Majority Leader spot shuts down all Democrat legislative programs. We’ll see how it comes out.

Donald Trump says he’ll hold a press conference on January 6th. A lot of people are downright frightened of this – I’m not. What better way to take the entire spotlight away from whatever the DNC/MSM will be doing that day? If he calls for the release of the 1/6 detainees, then I’ll figure its for sure that he’s running in 2024.

Since Covid hit, 5 million Americans obtained firearms. The people are arming in a replay of the Great Fear of 1789 in France. America is a tinder box right now – keeping in mind that our side is mostly made up of people who just want to be left alone. The problem – for the Left – is that if such people ever decide it is time to fight or die, then they tend to be quite brutal in settling accounts.

China bought Hollywood and then helped Hollywood destroy itself. It is the Chinese business model. China merely wanted to get itself going – so that it can provide pop-culture product on the global market…not so American pop-culture could come to dominate China. Now that China has got what it wanted, the Hollywood dreams of releasing American movies in the Chinese market have faded away. Hopefully this will force American studios to start making product designed for specifically for the American market. No more Superman who refuses to fight for the American way, as it were.

Kavanaugh, TDS and Open Thread

Mark Noonan23 Comments

The Democrats seeded the audience for the Kavanaugh hearing with people who would deliberately try to disrupt the proceedings. The Democrat Senators all went on tirades against Kavanaugh. It was the most un-American, anti-democratic performance I’ve ever seen. I was disgusted and angered. I can only imagine the Democrats were trying to placate their base because they can’t in any way stop Kavanaugh from being confirmed. But I think what they did will turn off ever larger numbers of people.

To top it all off, one Progressive spied an anonymous lady sitting behind Kavanaugh and claimed that the position of her fingers amounted to a secret white power signal. Rather than having everyone laugh at him over it, bags of Progressives ran with it – they were seriously saying that this was the proof they needed that Trump is trying to secure white power fanatics for the Court. When it came out that she’s part Mexican and part Jewish (and descended from Jews who had to flee the Holocaust) that still didn’t stop the Progressives from claiming she’s a secret agent of white power! These people are certifiable!

OTOH, The Resistance set up a Twitter poll about Trump and 2020 and as of this time, with >214k votes cast, Trump is winning with 54% of the vote.

Bob Woodward wrote a book about Trump and made some claims some are finding unbelievable – especially General Mattis. Woodward has had a long-standing reputation as being a guy who can get White House staffers to talk. As for me, I’ve never really believed it. No White House staffer, of any President, is going to talk to Woodward unless he or she has permission to do so…and, so, will only say what is pre-approved. There’s no way a famous guy like Woodward can actually get a scoop. Its why guys like him aren’t workaday reporters…no one would go to such a person and spill it unless someone wanted it spilled. Woodward’s books have probably had some real insights into events, but to think he’s ever unearthed something in his books is absurd. My thinking is that no one who mattered in the White House spoke to Woodward – at least, not off the record. Woodward, at best, was only able to glean whatever Obama hold-overs could get…which was likely mostly second-hand stuff.

Britain’s Labour Party has a growing anti-Semitism problem. Lots of people complain about it, and their complaints are valid. Nothing, however, will be done about it. Labour’s future electoral health is based upon pleasing the rapidly growing Muslim population of Britain…Britain’s small Jewish population just won’t matter to Labour. I figure over the next decade Britain’s Jews will abandon Labour…and I wonder how long America’s Jews will continue to lend their support to the Democrats?

Liberals just don’t like America – nor the fact that the first man on the Moon was an American. They really don’t like their nation – First Man is just another symptom of it. Think about even some good movies – like, for instance, “Saving Private Ryan”. It was great – wonderfully done movie. But, still, think about it: the movie isn’t about the bravery of the troops or the magnificent victory they won: it was merely about who lived and died, who suffered and how much. We’re not supposed to be proud of the Army Rangers, but sorry for their plight. Even though most of them were double volunteers (volunteered for the Army, then volunteered for the Rangers; same thing for the Paratroopers).

Most of the real fighting in WWII wasn’t done by draftees – not in the sense of men who had to be forced into the fight. Even if they were particularly drafted, it was likely because they were told to wait for call-up as the military couldn’t take them when they presented themselves for service (the late William Manchester explained this about himself in his autobiographical “Goodbye, Darkness“). As Morrison put it, we had tough guys eager to fight against the enemy. And tough they were. And we should be proud of them. They weren’t lambs lead to slaughter, but lions who grabbed the enemy by the throat and slew them without remorse. But you can’t say that any more in the movies…it would offend liberals, and hurt ticket sales in China

Nike picked Kaepernick as their new model. Using the ridiculous tag line of “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” Hate to break it to ya, Nike, but Kaepernick didn’t sacrifice his career for his cause…if was any good, he’d still be playing; and the fans would even put up with kneeling, if he could at least get better than 4-12 on the year. But to be an overpaid second-rater and then complain about America? That just pisses people off.