Author Archive: Ed Driscoll

March 13, 2025

FOR THOSE WHO MISS THE ‘80s, LASER ROT IS BACK, BABY! Hundreds of your Warner Bros DVDs probably don’t work anymore; UPDATED with response from WB.

It turns out that virtually every Warner Bros DVD disc manufactured between 2006 and 2008 has succumbed to the dreaded laser rot, where discs simply stop working due to a rotting of the layers. Once it happens, it can’t be undone. This was a frequent problem with laserdiscs back in the 80s and 90s, but it wasn’t a huge problem with DVDs. The issue comes down to the way the discs were authored. Many of the titles affected, which range from classics like The Wild Bunch and The Shawshank Redemption to TV collections like The Dukes of Hazzard, have been reissued on Blu-ray or digital HD. Some of the titles, such as many of the titles in the Looney Tunes Collections and many of the Golden Age of Hollywood movies, have not, making them, in a lot of cases, lost media.

So, what can be done about this? Nothing. As stated in this RetroBlasting video, we had ticking time bombs on our hands, and the only way around the problem was to rip our faves to something like PLEX, but it’s too late for the majority of discs. Warner Bros, of course, has yet to comment on this, so people like me have thousands of worthless discs cluttering our shelves. Here’s the most comprehensive list of titles available.

So far, Blu-ray Discs aren’t affected, although all HD-DVD discs put out by WB in this period are basically expensive coasters.

Note that “Warner Bros has reached out to us with a statement from their Home Video department offering to make good on the ruined DVDs – if possible.”

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 13th, 2025

FORTUNATELY FOR CNN, NOBODY’S WATCHING: ‘Fact-Check’ Lee Zeldin’s EPA Orders, and Holy Crap, Does It End in Embarrassment.

My absolute favorite part of this entire thing, though, is Collins sarcastically mocking Zeldin by saying “Oops,” even as it is her correspondent that is in the midst of getting the story completely wrong. That is the kind of arrogance that has led to the press suffering its worst approval ratings in history. Will she correct the record and apologize on her show on Thursday night? She should, but somehow, I doubt she does.

That’s a pretty safe bet, alas.

Related: Zelden in the Wall Street Journal: EPA Ends the ‘Green New Deal.’

Today is the most consequential day of deregulation in American history. Alongside President Trump, we announced that the Environmental Protection Agency will take 31 actions to advance the president’s day-one executive orders and power the Great American Comeback.

By overhauling massive rules on the endangerment finding, the social cost of carbon and similar issues, we are driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion and ushering in America’s Golden Age. These actions will roll back trillions of dollars in regulatory costs and hidden taxes. As a result, the cost of living for American families will decrease, and essentials such as buying a car, heating your home and operating a business will become more affordable. Our actions will also reignite American manufacturing, spreading economic benefits to communities.

The EPA will continue to protect human health and the environment while unleashing America’s full potential. That means reconsidering the regulations that have restricted every sector of the economy, such as the illegal Clean Power Plan 2.0, Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, and Particulate Matter 2.5 levels. Under President Trump guidance, the EPA also has ended the electric-vehicle mandate that threatened to destroy America’s auto industry and made cars cost more. Instead of forcing Americans to buy expensive vehicles they neither want nor can keep powered up, we are restoring choice to consumers and bringing automaking jobs back home in line with our Great American Comeback initiative. This commitment to our manufacturing base contrasts with Biden administration policies that shipped jobs overseas.

Energy dominance stands at the center of America’s resurgence. By reconsidering rules that throttled oil and gas production and unfairly targeted coal-fired power plants, we are ensuring that American energy remains clean, affordable, and reliable. This isn’t about abandoning environmental protection—it’s about achieving it through innovation and not strangulation.

For those who remember the heady days of 2019, it seems safe to say that “Sandy’s War” has entered its quagmire phase — bad news considering that by her highly scientific calculations in 2019, we now only have six years left before the end of mankind. What will the “farting cows and airplanes” do to cope?

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 13th, 2025

March 12, 2025

ED MORRISSEY: Disaster: Disney Downscales ‘Snow Woke’ Launch.

Variety reported last night, Disney has scaled back the film’s premier to … your average press briefing at the Burbank city hall:

The afternoon festivities will include a pre-party and screening at the El Capitan Theatre with titular star Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, who plays the Evil Queen, expected to attend. However, the red carpet will not include the dozens of media outlets usually invited by Disney to interview the cast and creatives at its premieres.

Instead, coverage will be limited to photographers and a house crew.

Some questions just answer themselves, no?

Unlike usual red carpets, “Snow White” stars Rachel Zegler, 23, and Gal Gadot, 39, will not be answering questions from dozens of different media outlets, as Disney has allegedly handpicked only a select few photographers and a house crew to cover the high-profile event.

Zegler plays “Snow White,” and Gadot stars as the Evil Queen. Both starlets are expected to attend the premiere next week.

Disney did not comment when contacted for comment. The Post reached out to Zegler and Gadot’s reps but did not immediately hear back.

Not hearing back seems to be the plan. The planned changes to the original story had already made Snow White controversial, but Zegler in particular spent the last couple of years pouring gasoline on the fire. Zegler insulted fans of the original, cheered the full-on woke revisionism of the new take on the fairy tale (as did Gadot), and infuriated nearly everyone who would normally want to go to a Disney film. After apologizing for her first round of publicity, Zegler then insulted people who voted for Donald Trump while agitating against Israel in their war against Hamas. The latter put Gadot — an Israeli — in an especially difficult position.

Does anyone wonder why Disney will only allow interviews now with a “house crew”?

And it isn’t just a PR debacle for the film’s debut in America: Disney won’t be having a Snow White UK premiere in an attempt to avoid anti-woke backlash to the controversial adaptation.

As one of the most anticipated and expensive films of the year, it would only be right for Disney to roll out the red carpet for its forthcoming Snow White.

But The Mail can reveal bosses are refusing to hold a star-studded premiere in the UK for the movie over fears of backlash over ‘woking it up’.

Despite the release date not being until later this month, the film has already been lambasted for having a Snow White played by Latin actress Rachel Zegler and not including the ‘seven dwarfs’ in the title.

What would usually be a big Leicester Square event full of lights and cameras for a £212million live action remake of the 1937 cartoon film, instead there will be no celebration on British soil in an attempt to avoid anti-woke backlash. Instead there will be a ‘handful’ of tightly controlled press events.

Including: The $270M Disney movie so woke its premiere is being held in SECRET: How backlash against Snow White remake — which dumped dwarf actors and ‘sexist’ romance — has forced producers to quietly relocate its opening to a remote Spanish castle.

The premiere for the Snow White remake has been relocated to a remote castle in Spain after Disney were forced to ‘scale back’ the promo amid backlash against its woke themes and stars Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot.

Film bosses had originally planned to stage a glittering Hollywood soiree worthy of the staggering $269.4million spent on making the movie – with events planned in Los Angeles, London and around the world.

Yet amid a series of scandals and PR nightmares surrounding the remake, Disney scaled back the planned lavish premieres to a ‘handful’ of tightly controlled Press events.

The biggest of these is now thousands of miles away from the media’s glare, with Zegler (Snow White) and Gadot (Evil Queen) jetting to the tiny city of Segovia, north-west of Madrid, which boasts a population of just 51,000.

Media outlets have not been invited to the event at Alcázar of Segovia, a medieval castle that rests on a rocky crag at the western end of Segovia’s Old City, which has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Earlier this month, an insider told the Mail: ‘Disney are already anticipating an anti-woke backlash against Snow White and have reduced the media schedule to just a handful of tightly controlled Press events.

‘That is why they have taken the highly unusual step not to host a London premiere for the film and are minimising the amount of Press questions that Rachel Zegler gets.’

Ed Morrissey writes, “I’m surprised the film will still get into theaters. Why not just Batgirl it and take the losses? Did Disney’s insurance not cover these contingencies?” Similarly, the Critical Drinker suggests, “At this point, it probably would have been better to just abort the theatrical release Al together, short it out onto Disney+ and take the financial hit. At least that way Disney could make up some obscure combination of viewing metrics to spin it into some kind of success: ‘This film had the most number of minutes viewed on a Thursday afternoon for any live-action remake of an animated film made in the first half of the 20th century,’ instead of being confronted by the raw box office numbers which, well, aren’t looking good.”

As the Drinker concludes, “Oh well, just like those guys in the lookout tower watching that Iceberg drift closer [to the Titanic], there’s not much more for us to do now except sit back, crack open a couple of cold ones, and wait for impact. Something tells me it’s going to be an entertaining couple of weeks.”

Posted at 8:45 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 12th, 2025

MATT WALSH: Watch Sam Seder Embarrass Himself As He’s Unable To Answer Basic Questions (Video).

Related: Leftist actor Sam Seder faced off with this Christian debater on the role of religion in society (it didn’t go well for Sam).

UPDATE: With the above video as a background, check out this related Twitchy post: Business Insider Columnist Brilliantly Details the Difference Between Conservatives and Leftists.

Yes, of course. We’re all just white supremacists who want a theocracy. Well argued, Mr. Seder.

Or, you know, not at all well-argued. You just proved [Matt] Walsh’s point about name-calling being your only refuge.

The entire segment begs the question of why the left is always so inept at countering conservative arguments (or, at least, why they have become so in recent years).

The answer to that question was brilliantly explained by Business Insider columnist Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry in an outstanding thread he posted on Twitter yesterday.

In describing his ‘Ideological Turing Test,’ Gobry explains that the reason is quite simple. Conservatives understand liberals very well, while liberals do not understand — or even try to understand — conservatives at all.

Gobry smartly includes a screenshot in his first tweet showing that the favorite counter-argument from the left to conservatives is, ‘Well, they’re just stupid.’

He could have included any number of other tweets from the left that dismissed conservatives as ‘Nazis,’ ‘fascists’, ‘racists,’ or ‘bigots.’

They would all mean the same thing: nothing.

The left doesn’t get us, and it is a big reason why they are failing to reach Americans outside of their small echo chamber anymore.

The above Twitchy post is just for Salem’s VIP members; please use the discount code LOYALTY if you’ve been thinking of becoming a supporter.

Posted at 8:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 12th, 2025

RUBIO EXPLAINS IT TO DEMS LIKE THEY’RE FIVE: Here’s Why Khalil and His Ilk Aren’t Welcome in the US.

Right on cue, Khalil’s detainment and likely deportation back to Algeria brought out the histrionics from Democrats and their lefty-loon base. How dare the Trump administration detain one of their own? Since the left is always ready to agitate, they merely removed their antisemitic slurs from their protest signs and replaced them with their boilerplate, anti-Trump sentiments. Remember, these are the people who can’t summon the will to applaud for a young cancer patient, but they’ve got all the energy in the world to advocate for a terrorist sympathizer who, as it turns out, has no right to be in the United States.

And this is something Secretary of State Rubio laid out beautifully on Wednesday, explaining to the left like they’re five years old that Mr. Khalil has more than earned his one-way ticket home.

Meanwhile, chutzpah alert:

Related:

Posted at 8:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 12th, 2025

JEFF DUNETZ: Purim In A Year Of Hate (Video).

Hate speech and Antisemitic incidents across the world have grown to frightening levels. The holiday of Purim offers lessons about how to fight the hatred facing the Jewish world today.

On Purim, every Jew is commanded to listen to the reading of the Megillah Esther—literally, the scroll of Esther. The Megillah is a first-hand account written by Queen Esther and her cousin, Mordechai, who raised her; each is Jewish.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 6:54 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 12th, 2025

REPORT: According to German Intelligence, Corona came from a Chinese lab – government has kept files secret for five years.

For five years, the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has assumed that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese laboratory. The BND classifies the laboratory theory as “probable” and is “80 to 95 percent” certain. Since then, the German government has kept secret the BND’s findings that the virus originated in the biolab in Wuhan . This is reported by NZZ, Zeit, and Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Found via Canadian molecular biologist Alina Chan; translation of the above Berliner Zeitung article by Google Translate. Hans Mahncke of the Truth Over News Substack explores the ramifications of the above report:

Flashback: Washington Post Flips on Coronavirus Origin; When Does Tom Cotton Get His Apology?

UPDATE: Here’s a Reuters summary of the German newspapers’ findings that (hopefully) isn’t paywalled:

Germany’s foreign intelligence service in 2020 put at 80%-90% the likelihood that the coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic was accidentally released from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, two German newspapers reported on Wednesday.

According to a joint report by publications Die Zeit and Sueddeutscher Zeitung, Germany’s spying agency BND had indications that the institute had conducted gain-of-function experiments, whereby viruses are modified to become more transmissible to humans for research purposes.

It also had indications that numerous violations of safety regulations had occurred at the lab, the papers said.
The spy agency assessment’s was based on an unspecified intelligence operation code-named “Saaremaa” as well as on publicly-available data. It had been commissioned by the office of Germany’s chancellor at the time, Angela Merkel, but never published, the report said.

BND declined to comment. When asked about the report in a press conference, outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz also declined to comment on Wednesday.

The papers reported that the assessment was, however, shared with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in the autumn of 2024.

A CIA spokesperson said in January that the CIA has assessed that the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely to have emerged from a lab than from nature.

The CIA said at the time it had “low confidence” in its assessment and that both scenarios – lab origin and natural origin – remain plausible.

China’s government says it supports and has taken part in research to determine COVID-19’s origin, and has accused Washington of politicizing the matter, especially because of efforts by U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate.

That last paragraph is throat-clearing by Reuters because they desperately want to keep reporting from Beijing.

Posted at 5:45 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 12th, 2025

RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS DESTROY RAINFOREST TO SAVE PLANET: Amazon rainforest cut down to build highway for climate summit.

A new four-lane highway cutting through tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest is being built for the COP30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belém.

It aims to ease traffic to the city, which will host more than 50,000 people – including world leaders – at the conference in November.

The state government touts the highway’s “sustainable” credentials, but some locals and conservationists are outraged at the environmental impact.

The Amazon plays a vital role in absorbing carbon for the world and providing biodiversity, and many say this deforestation contradicts the very purpose of a climate summit.

To be fair, that’s not the craziest thing being done in the name of environmentalism right now:

Earlier: “It’s like Musk is some kind of evil genius who figured out how to separate lefties from billions of their dollars by appealing to their idiotic climate religion…and then made them despise themselves for doing it. He should get a Nobel Prize for that.”

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 12th, 2025

ROCK STAR EPATERS LES BOURGEOIS! Gwen Stefani has enraged liberal fans after reposting a Tucker Carlson interview about Christianity:

The former No Doubt frontwoman, 55, has been hit with a backlash after she praised the sit-down between the right wing commentator and actor Jonathan Roumie.

Roumie, a devout Catholic, spoke to Carlson for almost an hour and a half about Lent, his role playing Jesus in his crowd-funded TV show and prayer app Hallow, which Stefani has also promoted.

‘Wow Jonathan Roumie, you are a powerful inspirational human, what an enlightening intelligent beautiful interview thank you for being you gx,’ Stefani wrote on X.

Roumie is known for playing Jesus as well as evangelist Lonnie Frisbee in the 2023 film Jesus Revolution.

But Stefani’s support for him has left some fans furious and accusing her of becoming a ‘right wing grifter’.

‘Gwen is in her Trump era,’ one person wrote under the post.

‘I love you but I hope you know that your faith and Tucker Carlson’s platform full of hate are completely opposite of each other,’ another added.

She’s certainly shocking the bourgeois better than this aging punker: Punk Rocker Jello Biafra’s New Tune? Defeat MAGA Nazis.

The [66 year old] rocker’s veritable silence over recent free speech infringements stains his commentary. And his concert-based tweak feels like partisan politics.

Period.

Then again, maybe he no longer resembles the free speech warrior of yore.

This year-old video finds him pining for The Fairness Doctrine. Its removal led to an explosion of new voices in media, including Fox News.

Here’s how Brittanica described the Doctrine’s critics:

The fairness doctrine was never without its opponents, however, many of whom perceived the equal airtime requirement as an infringement of the right to freedom of speech enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution….In 1985, however, the FCC decided that the doctrine had a “chilling effect” upon freedom of speech.

Rock stars are often nostalgic for their youthful glory days, but why does a punk rocker want to go back to the days of three television networks and a handful of national wire services — even as he posts his cri de coeur on the comparatively wide-open YouTube?

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 12th, 2025

FIERY BUT MOSTLY SELF-IMMOLATING: Trump Hater Sets Himself Ablaze While Torching Tesla Charging Station in South Carolina.

A masked man vandalized a Tesla charging station  and attempted to burn it down using molotov cocktails in North Charleston, South Carolina, ultimately setting himself on fire in the process. The maniac spray-painted “Long live Ukraine” next to a vulgar message aimed at President Trump at the scene.

The Post and Courier reports that in a bizarre incident that unfolded in North Charleston, South Carolina, a masked Trump hater vandalized and attempted to set fire to Tesla charging stations, only to end up setting himself ablaze in the process. The incident, which took place near a Mellow Mushroom pizzeria at 4855 Tanger Outlet Blvd., has left the community stunned and authorities searching for answers.

According to witnesses, the masked individual, wearing a gray jacket or hoodie, spray-painted the message “(expletive) TRUMP LONG LIVE UKRAINE” near the bank of Tesla charging stations before proceeding with his ill-fated attempt to destroy the electric vehicle chargers. The man reportedly used beer bottles as makeshift Molotov cocktails, setting them on fire and hurling them at three charging stations. However, during this act of arson, the man inadvertently set himself on fire, with witnesses reporting flames spreading across his back.

Related: Flashback: When Media Adored ‘Jesus Christ of Our Era’ Elon Musk and his ‘Glorious’ Rockets.

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 12th, 2025

OUR LONG NATIONAL NIGHTMARE IS OVER: Rosie O’Donnell Confirms Move to Ireland, Will Return to U.S. ‘When It’s Safe for All Citizens to Have Equal Rights.’

I’m not sure how much of that she’s going to find that in Ireland. While “In 2015, Ireland became the first country in the world to introduce same-sex marriage through a national referendum vote,” that worldview has to coexist with other Irish values:

● The truth about Ireland’s hatred for Israel.

● Antisemitism has made life in Ireland unbearable, say Israelis.

● Ireland Goes Fascist: “Urgency to pass the anti-free speech bill increased after a Muslim immigrant stabbed three children in Dublin, and fed-up working-class Irishmen rioted.”

● Subway removes ham and bacon from nearly 200 UK & Ireland stores and offers halal meat only after ‘strong demand’ from Muslims.

UPDATE:

Posted at 1:55 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 12th, 2025

UNEXPECTEDLY: The Media Is Having Another ‘Fiery But Mostly Peaceful’ Moment.

Liberal activists have pooled their post-election furor into “Tesla Takedowns,” protesting Elon Musk’s leadership in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by attacking Tesla showrooms across the United States.

What is a member of the mainstream media to do when confronted with a politically unflattering reality? (RELATED: Several Charging Stations Set On Fire As Backlash Against Musk Intensifies Around World, Turns Violent | The Daily Caller)

The answer is easy: Simply consult the Summer of Love handbook, memorialized in this infamous clip of CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez:

Since January, criminals have assailed Tesla facilities with Molotov cocktails, graffiti reading “Nazi” and “F– Musk,” bullets, and fire. Just three days ago, five Manhattan protesters occupying a Tesla showroom were arrested for disorderly conduct, and another for resisting arrest.

But VOX’s characterization of “very spirited peaceful demonstrations” practically drips with delight. The outlet gestures at reports of violence, making little effort to confirm or condemn such actions.

NRO’s Charles Cooke notes that “Usually, a Car Is Just a Car:”

At Semafor, David Weigel asks Senator Adam Schiff, “How do you feel right now about owning a Tesla? What do you plan to do with it?” Schiff responds, “I sure as hell wouldn’t buy one now. If I’d have known what a selfish and destructive human being he would be, I never would have bought one to begin with. I’d be happy to unload it.”

I find this attitude bizarre. Does Schiff like the car? If so, has that car changed for the worse in the last year? The purpose of a Tesla — or of any car — is to be a car. It’s not a charity donation, or an affinity tattoo, or a T-shirt with a political slogan on it. It’s a car. Scouring the market for products made by companies whose founders or executives you like is a silly, unwinnable game that, ultimately, deprives you of the core benefits of capitalism. I understand that Adam Schiff is a political person — he’s a U.S. senator, after all — but is he really so political that he intends to sell his car because he dislikes the owner of the company that produced it?

In my life, I’ve owned two Fords and two German cars. Or, per the Schiff approach, I’ve owned four antisemitic cars, two of which were historically associated with the Nazis. Naturally, I did not buy those cars for that reason, and, as such, I’m not going to sell them for that reason, either. My wife likes her car. I like my car. The rest is a distraction.

Jeff Blehar adds, “I don’t care if people decide they don’t want to buy Teslas anymore because they think Elon Musk is a cartoon supervillain. Fine. But I hope the people vandalizing Tesla dealerships and random cars get it with both barrels of the law. Otherwise, this will only escalate.”

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 12th, 2025

COVID FIVE YEARS AGO TODAY: After Utah Jazz Abruptly Walk Off Court, NBA Announces Player Has Coronavirus and Suspends Season.

The NBA took an unprecedented step on Wednesday night of suspending its season after a Utah Jazz player tested positive for the coronavirus.

Prior to the start of the Utah Jazz-Oklahoma City Thunder game at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, players and officials abruptly walked off the court, leaving stunned fans to wonder what was happening.

There was a lot of that going on five years ago today:

● NASCAR to run Atlanta, Homestead races without spectators.

● Major League Baseball planning to shut down, delay regular season amid coronavirus worries.

● All Broadway theaters are closed, effective today.

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 12th, 2025

DISNEY’S SNOW WOKE EXPECTED TO TANK AT BOX OFFICE AS PROJECTIONS KEEP FALLING:

Disney has its abrasive woke non-star Rachel Zegler on lockdown, almost certainly because they know she’s a toxic person who will hurt the film’s prospects even further if she’s allowed to publicly run her giant yap.

With just days to go before the release of its live-action Snow White remake, Disney is drastically reducing its usual Hollywood premiere spectacle. The studio is still hosting an event on March 15 at the El Capitan Theatre, but it won’t include the extensive red carpet and media presence typically associated with a major Disney release. Instead, only photographers and a house crew will be allowed to cover the event, with no traditional press interviews taking place.

Disney has not commented on this shift, but even Variety acknowledges that this decision comes amid ongoing controversy surrounding the film. The move follows months of backlash and marketing missteps, making it clear that Disney is playing defense as the film nears its March 21 theatrical release.

In the past, Disney has gone all-out for live-action remakes, with elaborate red carpet events, numerous interviews, and a media blitz to build hype. The decision to scale back this aspect of Snow White signals a lack of confidence in the film’s reception.

For context, even underperforming Disney films have received full red carpet treatment.

…

This premiere downgrade aligns with Disney’s broader approach to limiting Snow White’s exposure. As we previously reported, lead actress Rachel Zegler has been noticeably absent from American press appearances. Instead, Disney sent her on a scripted, highly controlled press tour in Japan, where she was unlikely to face tough questions about her past comments or the film’s creative direction.

This is a stark contrast to how Disney promotes its other high-profile films. Usually, the lead star is front and center in talk shows, interviews, and press junkets leading up to the release. The decision to keep Zegler largely away from the American media suggests the studio is trying to prevent further controversy.

Here are some of Fair Rachel’s greatest hits:

She mocked the original film as being dated and creepy.

She said that is about Snow White being a leader.

The “Fairest of them all” doesn’t mean beauty but who is most fair and just.

She posted “Free Palestine” while her co-star, Gal Gadot, is Israeli.

She said she should be paid if she has to wear a Disney princess dress for several hours a day.

She wished “No peace” to Trump supporters.

The media keeps trying to blame racism, but there are many other reasons fans are upset.

But industry trade publication Variety, which as a Louder with Crowder co-blogger noted in 2022, “Shames Ezra Miller’s Alleged Victim Because She Used The Wrong Pronouns For Ezra… Who Attacked Her,” wants its readers to know there’s another “controversial” star attached to the Snow White remake:

As Ace of Spades wrote at the first link, “As we suspected: Only about 20% of the country favors this constant woke propaganda. Unfortunately, it turns out that it’s the woke propaganda enthusiasts who control all the media.” Including the woke Variety staffers who appear to be permanently stuck in a 2020 worldview.

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 12th, 2025

JAMES LILEKS’ WEDNESDAY REVIEW OF MODERN THOUGHT:

I was looking at the posters put up by the students who barged into Barnard the other day, and was intrigued:


It flows so easily: from Hamas to Hezbollah to Destroy America. But take a look at that picture.

That’s my town.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll on Mar 12th, 2025

March 11, 2025

JUST ANOTHER DAY AT ABC NEWS: Whoopi Doesn’t Include Republicans as People, Slotkin Insults America.

The liberal ladies of ABC’s The View seemed to be having a rough week and were in a pretty sour mood during Tuesday’s episode. Moderator Whoopi Goldberg was so irked by Republicans calling out the Biden administration’s bad economy that she seemed to suggest Republicans weren’t people. The lashing out also came from their Democratic guest Senator Elissa Slotkin (MI), who compared America to “angry” suicidal teenagers without “fully form[ed] brains.”

That’s a curious metaphor coming from a show produced by ABC News, since that was pretty much the late Peter Jennings’ reaction when the GOP won the House and Senate for the first time in decades in 1994:

To hear the big news media tell it, Nov. 8 was Armageddon, Doomsday and the end of civilization as we’ve known it. And there has been no let-up in the three weeks since the election.

ABC’s Peter Jennings slandered the voters, comparing them to toddlers throwing a fit. “It’s clear that anger controls the child and not the other way around,” said the Canadian-born Jennings in a radio commentary. “The voters had a temper tantrum. . . . The nation can’t be run by an angry 2-year-old.”

Why do liberals such as Jennings refuse to believe it was their failed ideas — not voter anger — that did them in?

—Cal Thomas, “The Big News Media’s Temper Tantrum,” the Orlando Sentinel, November 27th, 1994.

If we go by ABC “logic,” if voters were “angry two year olds” in 1994, they’d be 32 today, not teenagers. But let’s run with Slotkin’s metaphor for a moment, anyway:

When I wrote up my review of September 5, the recent movie about the 1972 Munich Olympics Palestinian terrorist attack, I pointed out the the film’s Mad Men-style approach to the primitive technology that ABC used to cobble together a live television broadcast. But that film is also a reminder that while presumably everyone depicted working for ABC in 1972 was either a JFK or McGovern-style Democrat, they were still grownups who understood the gravity of their jobs as broadcasters. The same cannot be said for today’s version of ABC News.

Posted at 9:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 11th, 2025

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Let Them Fight.

However inevitable [Kamala] Harris may be once she gets into the race [to be California’s next governor], she hasn’t done that yet. And “the end of summer” (Harris’s announced decision deadline) sits many long months away at this point. That’s why, mere hours after this piece went to press, we got news that Kamala had not, as it turns out, preemptively cleared the field: Former Democratic Representative Katie Porter has decided to pip the entire field and announce her candidacy to replace Gavin Newsom in office as governor. Porter, for those unaware, is a thoroughly unpleasant “moderate” Democrat from Orange County, an emblematic representative of how that once-bulwark Republican stronghold demographically shifted into Democratic-leaning territory as educated elites shifted left nationwide. She left office in 2024 to run for Dianne Feinstein’s vacant Senate seat, and was unsurprisingly trounced among Democratic voters in California’s open primary by rival Representative Adam Schiff, who now simpers uselessly in the seat with his “Resistance” brand.

Harris hasn’t even decided whether she’s getting into the governor’s race or not yet, but now I actively hope she does, if only because I’m desperately eager to see which of my two least favorite politicians will survive the bloodsport to lead America’s most cursed state to doom over the next decade.

It is a time of choosing for California; pick your fighter! On the left: Kamala Confuses Crowd at AI Conference With Doritos-Based Word Salad.

And on the left: Holy impeachment! Democrat Katie Porter is slammed on social media for dressing up as Batgirl in Congress on same day as historic inquiry vote.

And for holding up a self-help book she’s clearly never read — because she would benefit greatly from having done so: Katie Porter Reads the Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck During Speaker Vote:

Gooder and harder, Golden State.

Posted at 8:46 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 11th, 2025

THIS MUST HAVE BEEN PAINFUL FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE TO PUBLISH: ‘The lockdowns were never really effective:’ New research shows COVID stay-at-home orders did more harm than good.

Sumbul Siddiqui remembers every detail about the morning of March 10, 2020. She remembers feeling anxious as she walked into a Somerville conference room packed with masked-up mayors from around Boston. She remembers grim-looking doctors from Italy appearing on a big screen, describing the horrors of people collapsing and dying from a mysterious respiratory illness.

After that, Siddiqui, then mayor of Cambridge, did what she never imagined she would have to do: She called top city administrators and the school superintendent to begin the process of shutting down every school and municipal building in the state’s fourth-largest city.

“We all left that meeting terrified,” she said. “I remember saying, ‘OK, we have to shut things down. We have to stop the spread. I don’t want people to die.’”

Five years later, Siddiqui is still torn about the implications of that decision. On that same day, Governor Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts and, within days, suspended in-person learning at public and private schools and banned on-site dining at bars and restaurants across the state.

Knowing what we know now, she wonders, did public officials react appropriately? Did they adequately consider the trade-offs among competing values, including the devastating costs of closing schools, businesses, and places of worship?

No. Next questions?

Found via Jordan Schachtel, who tweets:

Posted at 8:15 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 11th, 2025

DOUGLAS MURRAY MISREADS MAGA’S UKRAINE STANCE:

Murray spends much of this time whistling past the graveyard, obliquely conceding but never dwelling on the sources of populist discontent. He laments that the infamous Trump-Zelensky phone call that led to the first Trump impeachment created in the populist consciousness a sense “that Ukraine was simply a corrupt country” which was full of “‘literal’ Nazis” and “which had enriched and cooperated with its own political opponents.” Unfortunately for Murray, there are large measures of truth to those charges. Ukraine has consistently been ranked as one of Europe’s most corrupt countries (behind only Russia). Its military does have among its ranks far-right militias that proudly display Nazi regalia. And, yes, Ukraine’s patrons in the United States, such as NGOs and arms manufacturers, benefit from American aid.

As unsettling as these facts are, their validity does not change because they are narratively inconvenient or because populist opponents dwell on them. They have, however, provided additional rhetorical ammunition to populists who also cite the corrupt nature of American clients during the Global War on Terror, the U.S. government’s propensity to arm extremists during that conflict, and burgeoning congressional stock portfolios as notable parallels. Populists, like many Americans, have noticed a pattern here.

Murray attempts to elide these charges with a classic false choice presented to observers of a foreign war: Excusing the excesses of an alleged ally by juxtaposing them with those of an even worse aggressor. Murray asks, “Think Ukraine is cruel in forcing draft dodgers into the army? Consider Putin’s army recruitment processes. Dislike Zelensky for not holding an election during a total war? Have you noticed Putin’s electoral habits?”

The beauty of America First is that one does not have to choose between either side. Perhaps this is the real source of Murray’s torment.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 11th, 2025

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 11th, 2025

UNEXPECTEDLY: Facebook was ‘hand in glove’ with China, BBC told.

In her memoir, Careless People, Ms [Sarah] Wynn-Williams paints a picture of what she alleges working on Facebook’s senior team was like.

Mr Zuckerberg, she says, did not get up before midday, loved karaoke and did not like to be beaten at board games, such as Risk. “I didn’t realise that you were supposed to let him win. I was a little naive,” she told us.

However, Ms Wynn-Williams says her allegations about the company’s close relationship with China provide an insight into Facebook’s decision-making at the time.

“China is Mark Zuckerberg’s white whale,” meaning a goal that he obsessively pursued, says Ms Wynn-Williams.

The country is the world’s biggest social media market, but access to Facebook remains blocked there, alongside the likes of X and YouTube.

“It’s the one piece on the board game that he hasn’t conquered,” she says.

Ms Wynn-Williams claims that in the mid-2010s, as part of its negotiations with the Chinese government, Facebook considered allowing it future access to Chinese citizens’ user data.

“He was working hand in glove with the Chinese Communist Party, building a censorship tool… basically working to develop sort of the antithesis of many of the principles that underpin Facebook,” she told the BBC.

Ms Wynn-Williams says governments frequently asked for explanations of how aspects of Facebook’s software worked, but were told it was proprietary information.

“But when it came to the Chinese, the curtain was pulled back,” she says.

As Jim Geraghty wrote in October of 2019, when the CCP-NBA connection gave us a small sneak preview of what was to come the following year: We’re Not Exporting Our Values to China — We’re Importing Theirs.

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 11th, 2025
« Previous Entries
Next Entries »