[Bee] BURBANK, CA — In what the United States Government hopes will be the start of a long and fruitful partnership, The Walt Disney Company has been awarded a lucrative Department of Defense contract after overtaking Lockheed Martin in the production of bombs.
"This is a momentous day for our company," said Disney CEO Bob Iger. "We now have a useful channel to funnel our bomb-making efforts. Though the fact that we have been producing bombs of immense scale for the last decade has previously only resulted in losing hundreds of millions of dollars, we can now actually make money with our bombs."
After awarding large defense contracts to industry mainstays like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and Honeywell, officials within the Pentagon were shocked and impressed to discover the long line of devastating bombs produced by Disney in recent years. "We thought we knew where to find the biggest bombs," said Gen. Richard Thornbody. "When we saw the trail of destruction Disney has been leaving in its wake with these bombs, we knew we had to forge a relationship with them."
Whereas Disney had been desperately looking for ways to stop making bombs, this government contract will serve as a new beginning for the House of Mouse. "We were all feeling the heat," Iger said. "Now, we can stop worrying about how to fix things and go back to focusing on cranking out bomb after bomb after bomb."
At publishing time, with tensions increasing overseas with Russia, China, and in the Middle East, the Pentagon was eagerly awaiting the release of the live-action remake of Snow White, which insiders speculate may be Disney's biggest bomb yet.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/29/2023 08:56 ||
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#2
On Monday, "The Marvels" got revenue of $110/theater (about 3k theaters).
"Wish" got about $190/theater.
Monday is typically a slow day but these attendance figures are truly awful.
Posted by: lord garth ||
11/29/2023 9:18 Comments ||
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#3
And Wish was done over a 5 day holiday too. Usually families flock to the theater to get a couple hour break from kids and family. Apparently the rug rats running around screaming and Aunt Hilda's ramblings about the far right trying to take over everything is preferable to seeing Wish.
[America Out Loud] We had a surprisingly intimate and personal conversation with Dr. Naomi Wolf for our America Out Loud Pulse episode this week. Dr. Wolf is doing a heavily scheduled virtual book tour, which involves being booked back to back with a half dozen or more media outlets in one day and jumping from one interview to the next. It can be a marathon of sorts, and we were happy for the half hour we were provided by her scheduler.
In the Zoom interview, Dr. Wolf was gentle, thoughtful, and intensely candid, just as she is in her written essays and books, including her new book, Facing the Beast, Courage, Faith, and Resistance in a New Dark Age. She describes herself as a refugee from another world of academia, culture, and governance.
We came to our interview agreeing that our entire world has been consumed for four years by the oppression that continues to this day and which began with the announcement of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cultures and ethnic groups all over the world have been oppressed—none except, perhaps, the highest elitists— have been spared the lockdowns, maskings, distancing, and bans from churches, synagogues, or mosques. None, except perhaps the most elite, have escaped being mandated to go to school, to come to work, to travel for business or pleasure, to play sports, to spend the afternoon with elder parents, to shop, dine, go to a concert or an opera, or attend a sports event.
More deeply, as Dr. Wolf so eloquently describes, we have not been allowed to attend to the births and deaths of children and elders, to gather for our most sacred religious and cultural events such as marriages, funerals, birthdays, Fourth of July celebrations, Christmas, Easter, Passover and Thanksgiving gatherings and all the other gatherings that mark the seasons and turnings of our lives and reaffirm connections and make new memories with the ones we love.
Early in her book, Dr. Wolf examines the multinational organizations that have coordinated this oppression and propagated it to a global level. In her book, Facing the Beast, she states that:
"...one source of the kind of global cruelty we observed so acutely in the medical fascism of the pandemic derives from a postwar stratum of power. Paradoxically, multinational organizations such as the European Union and the United Nations, agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and global corporate and investment communities founded after the carnage of the Second World War served to create a class of global elite policymakers, nonprofit leaders, and bureaucrats who are able to engage in cruel and oppressive policymaking precisely because they are no longer part of the communities whose lives are affected by what they have done."
What she is describing are the collections of globalists who have appointed themselves to be in charge of the world and the management and future of all eight billion souls who inhabit Earth. We call these people the Global Predators and document their takeover of formerly free nations as well as the rest of the global community in our book, COVID-19 and the Global Predators: We are the Prey. A subset of these self-appointed "Masters of the World" are the intellectuals in academia and the movers and shakers in media, Hollywood, federal and many state governments, and industry who have been invited to be part of the globalist ruling class, justifying and enforcing the rules of globalism.
[Jpost] The problem of modern antisemitism, will not go away as long as there is a large number of academics around the world who insist on fueling incitement and promoting the anti-Israeli narrative.
[REGNUM] Representatives of the Swedish Jewish community are trembling - the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the country has sharply increased, and people fear for their lives. The Swedish government rather vaguely promises to protect its Jewish citizens, but they do not really believe these promises and are actively discussing emigration plans. There is a fait accompli - Sweden, which until recently was considered perhaps the safest and most comfortable country in Europe, is rapidly turning into a social “cesspool”, unable to offer its residents anything other than a sense of fear and instability.
Salting the earth, or sowing with salt, is the ritual of spreading salt on the sites of cities razed by conquerors. It originated as a curse on re-inhabitation in the ancient Near East and became a well-established folkloric motif in the Middle Ages. The best-known example is the salting of Shechem as narrated in the Biblical Book of Judges, 9:45.
[Gateway] Conservative historian and professor Victor Davis Hanson has released a new video and it is basically a warning for America.
The essence of Hanson’s message is a reminder of how far the left went to stop Trump last time and that people should be prepared for them to do anything this time.
It’s an ominous warning but it’s important to think ahead and be mentally prepared for anything, because that’s what is on the table.
[DAWN] FINALLY, there is a twist in the tale and we have some new political stuff to discuss. And for this, one has to thank Asif Ali Zardari (AAZ), whose candidness will allow us to spend a few days away from the usual conjecture over the PTI’s fate and PML-N’s honeymooning and what it will bring for different members of the Sharif family.
In a surprise interview to Hamid Mir on Geo, which stretched on for two hours, the former president spoke about all things politics, which ranged from the coming election to economic miracles that sugar and agriculture policies can bring.
But as I know very little about the latter, all I could focus on was the political stuff, especially his remarks about his heir and co-chairman, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari (BBZ). The 30-something, who has been heading this party for 15 years and has travelled the world as foreign minister, needs more training said the father.
The party can try and spin it as much as it wants, but this is a snub, BBZ will not find easy to recover from.
Indeed, in those remarks lay the basic dilemma of both Maryam Nawaz and BBZ, struggling to grow in the shadow of their respective parents. And it appears the growth simply means being sunflower-like and to keep turning their gaze in the direction of their fathers.
So Maryam blows hot when her father is in trouble and is silent when he is basking in the glory of a fourth victory. That politics and public opinion do not allow for periods of fiery leadership followed by dutiful shadowing, is lost on all political parties.
It was a snub that Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will not find easy to recover from.
BBZ has been through similar phases of ‘now you see him now you don’t’, so much so that it has been hard for people to view him as an independent player, even when he gave up his part-timing for full-time politicking. And this image refuses to change because the party continues to treat him like a poster boy rather than the man in charge.
And I say this not because of his father’s assertion during the interview that he (AAZ) was the one who would decide the party tickets including the one given to Bilawal but also the manner in which the vote of no confidence played out in 2022.
Bilawal led a long march to Islamabad from Sindh, which was to culminate in the overthrow of Imran Khan ...aka The Great Khan, who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker, maybe not even among the top five... . However, once he reached Islamabad, the big three (Shehbaz Sharif, AAZ and Maulana Fazlur Rehman) held a press conference and announced filing the no-confidence motion. And once that was done, few were interested in the speech BBZ gave as his rally reached the capital.
The attention and focus had shifted; if BBZ was really the man around whom the party revolved, this would not have happened.
The more public and direct snub by the father in the Geo interview is simply more of the same, in a way. And as South Asia happens to be a place where the children rarely ever break away from their parents, chances are BBZ will not defy this tradition (the Mughals proved an exception).
But there is a second aspect to the notion that the father and son are not always on the same page. Indeed, it is not a new phenomenon. Back in 2013, it was reported that BBZ had stormed off to Dubai because he didn’t see eye to eye with his father and his aunt, Feryal Talpur on ticket distribution.
This time around, it appears AAZ’s comments about his son needing more training were partially due to the latter being aggressive and vocal about the facilitation being provided to the PML-N and Nawaz Sharif. While the jury is still out on whether this is a serious rift or simply a good cop bad cop routine (which Hamid Mir brought up), this has to be seen in the larger political context.
The PPP has two distinct views within; while most of those from Sindh are satisfied with the party’s focus on palace intrigues, those who were part of the party in Punjab — and the few who continue to still be around — felt it needed to be more aggressive, especially in confronting the PML-N, the dominant power in the province.
However, this never became party policy and as a result, the entire anti-PML-N space was captured by the PTI, as Imran Khan proved indefatigable in taking them on. Be it voters or politicians who are not in the PML-N camp, they flocked to the former sportsman and his party.
This lack of aggression is a major reason the PPP stopped being a contender in the province.
However, the voices within the party which wanted BBZ to play a role closer to Khan’s were never completely silenced; especially as the party also saw the utility of using this opposition to PML-N whenever needed.
What we witnessed in recent days was perhaps a mix of both the subdued voices within the party plus the cynicism the party has become known for. And for reasons only he is aware of, AAZ decided it was a good moment to send a message to the right quarters by pooh-poohing his own party’s stand, embarrassing his son in the process.
That this snub will simply add to the struggles of Bilawal in the eyes of the voters, perhaps does not bother those who think palace intrigues and jorr-torr are easier ways of doing politics.
Politics is a ruthless game but who would know this better than the Bhutto family, which has paid a very high price for this.
If the past is any guide, the rift will be addressed and the family will soon be crooning ‘hum saath saath hain’. The picture Bakhtawar Bhutto tweeted of herself along with the father and son was a step in this direction — it is to be noted, however, that the picture included the former president’s sister and not the former prime minister’s sibling, who is also in Dubai if reports are to be believed.
Blood is not thicker than power. And who knows this better than the dynastic families of Pakistan.
[Federalist] Ultimately," contends Sen. Chris Murphy, the next Israeli government "is going to have to put us back on a path to have a Palestinian state. That’s not easy, but it is the only way forward for Israel, is the only way forward for long-term peace."
Well, it’s not the only way forward, right? Israel could clamp down on Palestinian autonomy until the violence against innocent Jewish civilians stops, and residents start living peacefully with their neighbors and begin accepting history’s outcomes. That’s another option.
While the situation today is appalling, creating a three-front Iran-backed terror state on the borders of a nation the size of New Jersey would make things significantly worse. No sane citizenry would sign off on such a suicidal policy. No genuine ally would pressure a friend to do it.
But that is exactly what a new country called "Palestine" is destined to be: an Islamic autocracy and, more than likely, a proxy of Iran (who may well have nuclear weapons at some point).
Perhaps Murphy is unaware that the last time Israelis handed autonomy of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority in 2005 — ejecting thousands of Jews who would otherwise have been murdered by the only "ethnic cleansers" in this conflict — it quickly lost power. Does any sentient person believe that Hamas or the Islamic Jihad or Muslim Brotherhood-proper wouldn’t end up running a Palestinian state again? Does Murphy want to send in American troops to Gaza when they do? Because Israel, compelled to act on the inevitable provocations from this freshly created nation with unfettered access to weaponry, surely would. The resulting war would be deadlier than the one going on now.
And, rest assured, when Hamas runs a state in the West Bank that bumps right up against major civilian Jewish populations, it won’t be "us" — certainly not a Connecticut politician’s home — that are targeted by missiles.
#2
FFS, can we possibly, ever get past rhetorical BS? It serves no purpose other than to stagnate the any discussion of an actual solution. At this point it's on the same level as enemy action.b
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
11/29/2023 12:35 Comments ||
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#3
"Israel Pushes USA to establish independent state of Atzlan" to solve oppression of Chicanos ...now how would that sound? Or "Free the Oppressed Cajuns! Support the Arcadian Liberation Front! Louisiana must be Free!"
I can do this all night and try out the blue plate special ...steps away from the stage microphone.
[JPost] No one is waiting for the end of the Israel-Hamas war to lay blame for the failure to anticipate Hamas’s horrific October 7 invasion and slaughter of 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians.
The Jerusalem Post has been provided multiple insider accounts of what went wrong in IDF Intelligence that contributed to the failure.
But before delving into the malaise which has enveloped IDF Intelligence in recent days, it should be noted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ran the country from 2009 to the present, absent an 18-month hiatus from mid-2021 to the end of 2022, when it was run by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid.
#2
/\ Security officials privy to the details of the intelligence emphasized that in no way was there mention of a strategic alert for war, a widespread offensive on multiple fronts, or an intention to penetrate multiple settlements simultaneously.
Warnings & Indications ignored. Signals, Imagery, Human intelligence reporting (other non-IS intelligence reporting).... where were they ?
#3
If I had to guess, imagery is useless agasint massive subterranean logistics and support systems, intercepts useless against paper and courier transmissions, complex information exchanges through air-gapped electronics via physical delivery, and alert fatigue for HUMINT sources through endless monitoring of Hamas/Hexbollah activities/leadership and media/electronic/OSINT systems. Tough to I&W above ground invasion preps when it is nothing more tangible and cars and motorcycles in the dense urban chaos of Gaza.
#4
Could it be that the officials who were supposed to be keeping track of warning signals were too busy demonstrating against the Netanyahu government and the prospects of reforming the all-powerful leftist dominated Supreme Court to bother with such trivia?
Hamas must have thought the left-right conflict in Israel which brought furious demonstrations by the left, was more serious than it was. It targeted left wingers in kibbutzes and peace rallies, perhpas thinking Netanyahu wouldn't mind.
Hamas was wrong.
Or perhaps Hamas believed that all those reservists who swore they wouldn't fight for Israel as long as Netanyahu was in power really meant it.
They didn't.
Posted by: By now ||
11/29/2023 14:08 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Easy for me to armchair quarterback from thousands of miles away, but the Center For Lessons learned at Leavenworth must be burning some midnight oil.
#6
Could it be that the officials who were supposed to be keeping track of warning signals were too busy demonstrating against the Netanyahu government and the prospects of reforming the all-powerful leftist dominated Supreme Court to bother with such trivia?
I think that must be at least part of the problem, too, By now. In which the case the head ought indeed to take responsibility.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Bee] BURBANK, CA — In what the United States Government hopes will be the start of a long and fruitful partnership, The Walt Disney Company has been awarded a lucrative Department of Defense contract after overtaking Lockheed Martin in the production of bombs.
[America Out Loud] We had a surprisingly intimate and personal conversation with Dr. Naomi Wolf for our America Out Loud Pulse episode this week. Dr. Wolf is doing a heavily scheduled virtual book tour, which involves being booked back to back with a half dozen or more media outlets in one day and jumping from one interview to the next. It can be a marathon of sorts, and we were happy for the half hour we were provided by her scheduler.
[DAWN] FINALLY, there is a twist in the tale and we have some new political stuff to discuss. And for this, one has to thank 
So Maryam blows hot when her father is in trouble and is silent when he is basking in the glory of a fourth victory. That politics and public opinion do not allow for periods of fiery leadership followed by dutiful shadowing, is lost on all political parties.
...aka 
This time around, it appears AAZ’s comments about his son needing more training were partially due to the latter being aggressive and vocal about the facilitation being provided to the PML-N and 
What we witnessed in recent days was perhaps a mix of both the subdued voices within the party plus the cynicism the party has become known for. And for reasons only he is aware of, AAZ decided it was a good moment to send a message to the right quarters by pooh-poohing his own party’s stand, embarrassing his son in the process.
