Archive for 2020
September 8, 2020
TENET IS BAD: IT’S JUST THAT SIMPLE. “Friends, if Tenet is the film that’s supposed to save Hollywood from the pandemic, well, say goodbye to Hollywood. Say goodbye, my baby. Tenet is one of the most sheerly arrogant movies ever made, and a cautionary reminder of what can happen when a writer-director proves so successful that a studio basically figures he has a golden touch and should be allowed to do whatever he likes.”
Read the whole thing.
WHO? BidenWatch for September 7, 2020. “Dueling Kenosha visits, Biden’s polls fall, 2016 all over again, and more Chinese shenanigans.”
“Now, she also said earlier that Trump had no sense of humor, therefore it couldn’t be a joke. To which I pointed out that he is the most successful stand-up comedian in the history of humanity. His rallies with gigantic audiences are literally stand-up comedy. He does it to entertain. He literally says funny things and his audience laughs. And they go because he will say funny things that will make them laugh. He’s literally the most successful stand-up comedian in the history of civilization if you look at the numbers of people who go in person,” Adams revealed. “You have to admit the reason the crowd is so big is because he brings entertainment and humor.”
“So how can you be an informed voter like [this person] says she is without knowing the president is not only someone who knows what a joke is, recognizes them, and is the most successful humorist of all time? (In terms of stand-up comedy in front of a large audience.)”
“So when you catch someone off guard? Do they change their mind when they get new information? Well, I’ve never seen it happen.”
I have, but rarely.
COME SEE THE ANTISEMITISM INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM: Senior BBC producer admits sharing ‘inaccurate’ pro-Palestinian propaganda on Twitter.
If you’re asking yourself, “who’s Cardi B?” be thankful for living such a sheltered life: Joe Biden, President Of Cardi B(abylon). Biden gave Cardi B (whose real name is Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar) an interview (of sorts) that was published by Elle magazine on the first day of the Democratic National Convention Last month:
The host asked them about the mega-hit “WAP” by Cardi B. and Megan Thee Stallion. I wrote about it here last week. Here are some of the lyrics that I posted:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, you fu*kin’ with some wet-a*s pu*sy
Bring a bucket and a mop for this wet-a*s pu*sy
Give me everything you got for this wet-a*s pu*syThose are among the cleanest lyrics in the entire song. Here is a link to lyrics for the whole thing.
If you don’t want to read them — and I don’t blame you — you should at least know that the two women who sing it talk about how they want to be forced to perform oral sex until they are gagging and choking. They portray themselves as whores (their word) who have sex for money. And
I’m a freak bitch, handcuffs, leashes … You can’t hurt my feelings, but I like pain.
There’s even dirtier stuff, but you get the picture.
This song debuted at No. 1. It was streamed a record 93 million times in the US in its first week of release, and the video was seen over 60 million times within 48 hours of its release. Cardi B., who once worked as a stripper, and has spoken of how back then, she would invite men to hotel rooms to drug and rob them, instagrammed about being so grateful that “I want to hug the LORD.”
OK, so that’s “WAP”. It is the cultural mainstream. If you haven’t heard of it, then that just shows how far out of the mainstream you are in 2020. How mainstream is Cardi B.? Elle magazine, which put her on the cover, had Cardi B. do a live Zoom interview with the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.
Joe Biden told her that:
“One of the things that I admire about you is that you keep talking about what I call equity—decency, fairness, and treating people with respect.”
Right. Nothing says “respect” like rapping about how you want a man to put his genitals in your mouth until you choke.
What a sick joke this culture is. I’ve said before that I believe Donald Trump is a morally repulsive man. But I don’t want to hear anyone talk about how Joe Biden is such a moral exemplar when he is willing to embrace someone who stands for the things that Cardi B. does. This is something I do not understand about the progressive elites. On NPR this morning, the guests on 1A (here, just past the 13:00 mark) were talking about “WAP” and the reaction to it. A writer for Billboard lauds “the sexual freedom of this song,” and laments the double standard that lets male rappers get away with sexually explicit songs without criticism. He adds that — “Cardi and Megan have huge young fan bases,” the writer said. He believes that the fact that women rappers have triumphed with such a sexually explicit song is therefore “really remarkable as a cultural shift.”
What he means in context — listen to it yourself to understand — is that Cardi B. and Megan Thee Stallion are teaching young girls that they can be just as raunchy as boys, with no apology.
I linked yesterday to Niall Ferguson’s “‘Weimar America?’ The Trump Show Is No Cabaret. Detractors have been equating the U.S. with 1920s Germany for 85 years, and they are still wrong.” As far as the notion that the US is about to be partying like it’s 1939, I agree. Or as Tom Wolfe famously wrote, “The dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe.” But in terms of pop culture, and its intersection with politics, it’s been Weimar America for quite some time. Joe buddying up to the singer of “W.A.P.” is no different than his former boss meeting with rapper Kendrick Lamar before delivering his last State of the Union address:
Obama announced that Lamar’s hit “How Much a Dollar Cost” was his favorite song of 2015. Obama announced that Lamar’s hit “How Much a Dollar Cost” was his favorite song of 2015. The song comes from the album To Pimp a Butterfly; the album cover shows a crowd of young African-American men massed in front of the White House. In celebratory fashion, all are gripping champagne bottles and hundred-dollar bills; in front of them lies the corpse of a white judge, with two Xs drawn over his closed eyes. So why wouldn’t the president’s advisors at least have advised him that such a gratuitous White House sanction might be incongruous with a visual message of racial hatred? Was Obama seeking cultural authenticity, of the sort he seeks by wearing a T-shirt, with his baseball cap on backwards and thumb up?
To play the old “what if” game that is necessary in the bewildering age of Obama: what if President George W. Bush had invited to the White House a controversial country Western singer, known for using the f- and n- words liberally in his music and celebrating attacks on Bureau of Land Management officers?
Meanwhile, back in 2020, the Biden campaign continues to take a wrecking ball to feminism’s recent obsession with #metoo: Kamala Harris Told Jacob Blake She Was ‘Proud’ of Him, Lawyer Says. However, “For every Jacob Blake, there are millions of Jacob Blake’s victims,” Tiana Lowe opines in the Washington Examiner: “This story is a tragedy, and it’s being ignored. That is the story of a woman subjected to repeated domestic abuse and sexual assault at the hands of an intimate partner. But unlike the overwhelming majority of the millions of people who suffer some sort of domestic violence or sexual assault per year, Blake’s victim nearly got justice. Consider, it was already exceptional that Blake’s victim reported the crime to the police — just one in four victims does. Of the cases that do get reported, just one in five will lead to an arrest. Even then, the odds were overwhelming that Blake would never spend a day in jail. Of the 5% of alleged rapists who do get arrested, just one in ten will wind up incarcerated. The conviction rate is about as awful for general domestic abuse cases, though the number of victims each year are likely orders of magnitude greater than those of rape.”
WELL, SHE WORKS FOR THE ATLANTIC, WHICH IS PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE OF BEING A HORRIBLE PERSON: Jemele Hill plans to get back at country singer Travis Tritt for blocking her by lying about him to ‘make him seem like a huge a**hole.’
VITAMIN D UPDATE: Association of Vitamin D Status and Other Clinical Characteristics With COVID-19 Test Results. At this point, the evidence looks pretty strong that having healthy Vitamin D levels reduces both the likelihood of being infected, and the severity of any infection. Given that Vitamin D is cheap and safe, I don’t understand why governments everywhere aren’t recommending it as strongly as they’re recommending, say, masks.
WOEING: Another popular Boeing plane is reportedly being investigated by the FAA after newly discovered production errors ground 8 aircraft. “After Boeing notified airlines in late August of manufacturing issues with some of its 787 Dreamliner aircraft stemming from quality-control issues during production, eight planes were grounded as a result. Now, the Federal Aviation Administration is stepping in to investigate potential defects in the aircraft program’s production.”
BRAVE SIR ROBIN BRAVELY TURNED AND FLED: The Atlantic Editor In Chief Jeffrey Goldberg Says Anonymous Sourcing Is ‘Not Good Enough’ After Backlash Over Trump Story.
XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT: Disney remake of Mulan criticised for filming in Xinjiang.
After the film’s release last Friday, observers noted another controversial element: in the final credits Disney offers “special thanks” to eight government entities in Xinjiang, including the public security bureau in Turpan, a city in eastern Xinjiang where several re-education camps have been documented.
The film also expresses thanks to the “publicity department of CPC Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomy Region Committee”, the Chinese Communist party’s propaganda department in Xinjiang. Disney has been approached for comment.
China has faced international scrutiny over its treatment of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, where it is estimated at least 1 million residents have been detained in extrajudicial internment camps. Uighur women have reported forced sterilisations and birth control as part of a government campaign to suppress birthrates, in what experts have described as “demographic genocide”.
Disney’s reliance on China as a filming, distribution, and theme park location also explains their soft news coverage of the Communist nation:
Flashback: Biden Sold Out America To China While Working For Hollywood.
IN THE MAIL: Treat Your Own Back.
VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: Minneapolis Hypocrites Arrest #DefundThePolice.
Insanity Wrap needs to know: When you use a smear to prove something that turns out to be a lie, is the smear true?
Answer: It is when you’re Atlantic smear artist Jeffrey Goldberg.
Before we get to the sordid details, a quick preview of today’s Wrap.
When did John McAfee become our nation’s voice of sanity?
The Left loves the workingman (and other lies).
#DefundThePolice hits a roadblock.
And so much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.
MR. GOLDBERG, THERE’S A MR. RATHER ON LINE ONE: Atlantic Editor Concedes Central Claim Of Trump Hit Piece Could Be Wrong.
Meanwhile, about the living generals: What wars have they won?
ANOTHER UPDATE: From the comments:
The point of the lie isn’t the substance, it’s the attention.
This week there was a spectacular jobs report, an incredible diplomatic triumph, peace in Kenosha the moment the national guard arrived (proving the President’s point), and a nasty anonymous rumor about something the President is supposed to have said two years ago. Three of these are newsworthy. The fourth is what the news professionals are talking about.
The biggest power the biased media has isn’t the lies they spread, it’s choosing what we talk about.
Well, that’s certainly their game.
MORE: A friend writes:
My two cents: the reason none of the “sources” will go on the record for the “Trump hates Troops” lie is because not one of them was even on the trip in question, or not in the room.
The microsecond a name drops it will be obvious they could never have heard the supposed line with their own ears. This is hearsay (if not an outright lie) at one or two removes.
Very likely correct.
WELL, GOOD: U.S. Coronavirus Cases Fall Below 25,000. “The U.S. reported fewer than 25,000 new coronavirus cases, the lowest daily total in nearly 12 weeks, while outbreaks on some college campuses have forced students to return to online learning.” Deaths are down, too, though that’s a lagging indicator. No graph here for hospitalizations.
MOLLIE HEMINGWAY: The Media Are Lying About The Election Again.
Incredibly, both NBC News and the Cook Political Report continue to rate Florida as “Lean Democrat” according to their “experts.” No offense, but do they think people are stupid? [Think it? They’re counting on it. –Steve]
Trump won Florida by more than one point four years ago and a state Democrats were unable to carry in 2018, when they lost both the governor and senate races. That year, the RCP polling average predicted Florida Democrat Andrew Gillum would win by 3.6 points. He in fact lost narrowly to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. The RCP polling average predicted Democrat Bill Nelson would win by 2.4. He lost to Rick Scott narrowly. Those polling averages were less off than the final result mostly because Trafalgar called the race correctly.
The latest Quinnipiac poll shows a 10-point momentum in Florida toward Trump, where he trails within the margin of error, and where Trafalgar has the president ahead by three points. (For what it’s worth, Trafalgar was the only pollster to correctly poll key states in the 2016 and 2018 races.)
The media and the Democrats may not like it, but this race is clearly different from where it was at the end of June, where Trump’s job approval had been going down for three straight months and he bottomed out at 41 percent in the RealClearPolitics average. Today Trump’s job approval is on a three-month upswing and is over 44 percent in the RealClearPolitics average. Three points may not seem like a lot, but in the real world where the critical battleground states will likely be decided by less than that amount, three points are the difference between winning and losing.
It isn’t that Mollie Hemingway is wrong about anything in this column, it’s just that this is no time to get cocky.
WHY IS BLM SO RACIST? Anti-cop U. Chicago activists allegedly target provost with anti-Asian graffiti.
DECOUPLING, GOOD AND HARD: Chinese chip giant SMIC ‘in shock’ after US trade ban threat.
Related: U.S. ban worries cloud China’s hopes for chip self-sufficiency.
Faster, please.
YES. NEXT QUESTION? Is Critical Race Training Illegal?
More here. “Someday, the federal courts may drive a stake through the harassment of, and discrimination against, white and male employees that have become common in today’s workplace. (Of course, that isn’t likely to happen if Joe Biden wins in November.)”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, ELIMINATIONISM EDITION: The Washington Post is concerned about how many ‘white men’ are mentioned in science textbooks.