[FrontPage] The recent controversies over politically correct rewrites of James Bond novels and Roald Dahl’s children’s books highlights just how dependent a woke culture industry is on the works of dead white men, like Dahl, Fleming and Tolkien, who were anything but politically correct.
Or even living, but currently politically incorrect white women, like J.K. Rowling.
Woke culture has filled every school with graphic sexual books like Beyond Magenta and Lawn Boy which describe 8 and 10-year-olds having sex, but can’t generate any of its own classics. That’s why Netflix bought the Roald Dahl Story Company for $686 million, Amazon paid $8.5 billion for MGM, whose crown jewel is James Bond, and has spent over $1 billion to make its own woke version of Tolkien’s mythos. (New woke Lord of the Ring movies are also coming.)
Disney built an empire churning out woke versions of everything from Marvel comics to its own classic cartoons, including Peter Pan and Pinnochio, and other works by dead white men. The rest of the culture industry is frantically trying to conglomerate and amass enough intellectual property of its own to also cannibalize, denounce, bowdlerize and then cash in on every year.
Woke culture is the parasitism of the creatively untalented and politically authoritarian. It runs on monopolies reprocessing the works of all the retroactively canceled talented artists and writers, blending the splendid feasts of the past into differently branded cans of woke cultural spam.
The massive intellectual properties that serve as the profit engines for woke companies are the works of the unwoke. And the woke haven’t figured out how to replace them. Boycott efforts of Hogwarts Legacy, a new Harry Potter game, failed miserably with sales currently approaching $1 billion, despite a systemic campaign of intimidation and reviews condemning the author.
What’s the woke counter to Harry Potter? Mr. Felker-Martin’s ‘Manhunt’: a transgender fantasy novel that kills off Rowling. All the men in ‘Manhunt’ turn into zombies, and the trannies hunt them down along with the feminist ‘TERFs’ who refuse to believe that they’re women. Despite heavy promotion by the media and its publisher, Tor, it currently ranks in 40,382th place.
Woke culture industries are busy rewriting and censoring the works of Fleming, Dahl, Tolkien, and for that matter Dr. Seuss, who was a liberal stalwart of his day, because they can’t equal them or even come close to doing so. There’s even a “diverse” and “inclusive” rewrite of Shakespeare. Unable to create their own work, they’re reduced to censoring classics.
Totalitarian leftist regimes have a history of this sort of thing. Both the Soviet Union and Communist China removed any mention of the bible from Robinson Crusoe. Still unsatisfied with the result, Soviet censors rewrote Crusoe more broadly to emphasize that individuals need to be part of a collective society. Woke rewrites are not a new idea and reflect the same issue.
#1
Oh yes they can. And last I checked the scoreboard, they've quite the substantial lead. And to add to that misery, I see no gameplan to turn things around in the 2nd half. Wish I could say YMMV, but we're in this shitpot together and we're all gonna be slurpin'.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/16/2023 14:15 Comments ||
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#2
I thought it was me, but it's not!
America's growing quite hot
For us Mercers and Urkels
Who're stirring in circles
Around our great cannibal pot.
by Daniel Greenfield
[FrontPage] You may remember Guillermo del Toro from The Shape of Water, one of the worst movies to ever win an Oscar, or the almost equally bad Blade II, or the recent Netflix campaign for Pinnochio that makes him seem like the next Walt Disney. But you may not realize that Del Toro, born to a Spanish automobile pioneer in Mexico was a victim of… racism.
After offering his support to animators, del Toro opined about the racism that he has faced at various points in his career as a Mexican filmmaker.
I didn’t realize Mexican filmmakers were a race.
Guillermo del Toro is a white Southern European with blue eyes. Like a lot of members of the conquistadors, he’s a white guy who through the addled identity politics of the Left is somehow a minority.
While del Toro said he’s happy that some progress has been made, he called on the Latin filmmaking community to stick together to fight the racism that they still face. He reminded minority filmmakers that, when one artist from a marginalized group achieves something great, they all benefit.
How exactly have Indian-descended Mexican crew benefited from Del Toro making millions of dollars?
This is the hoax of identity politics in a nutshell.
[WashingtonExaminer] Fallout from the Silicon Valley Bank collapse has directed attention to a $620 billion ticking time bomb in the banking system that has the potential to spell doom for the financial system.
SVB's meltdown was partly caused by a chasm between its assets and what they were worth in the market. Eventually, SVB sold some of those assets, spooking investors and triggering a run on the bank. But SVB isn't alone, as banks across the United States were sitting on $620 billion in unrealized potential losses at the end of last year, per the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
That hole illustrates why authorities at the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department, and the FDIC were so eager to stave off contagion or panic spread from SVB's demise across the banking sector.
The reason for this predicament is that banks compiled a plethora of bonds and treasuries during times when interest rates were hovering near zero. But now, the Federal Reserve has begun jacking up rates in an effort to combat inflation, which has caused many of those assets to plunge in value. Read the rest at the link
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank will leave early-stage biotech companies in a funding dearth, experts said this week. But big-name biotech stocks will emerge largely untouched.
Silicon Valley Bank, under the SVB Financial Group (SIVB) umbrella, was the bank of choice for many early biotech companies. Its failure shows the cracks in the fundraising model for early-stage biotech companies, says Robert Cote, founder and chief executive of Cote Capital. Now, many of those companies are on the brink of defaulting on their loans, he said in an interview.
Mina Tadrus, founder and chief executive of Tadrus Capital, says these firms will need to find alternative sources of cash — all while competing against other companies in the same straits.
"The increased competition for funding could lead to higher valuations and more stringent terms, making it harder for smaller startups to access capital," Tadrus said in an email to Investor's Business Daily. "The fewer investment opportunities could mean fewer exit opportunities (initial public offerings or acquisitions) and lower returns for investors in venture-backed businesses."
Meanwhile, biotech stocks are trying to claw back from a dive last week amid SVB's demise. On the stock market today, IBD's Medical-Biomed/Biotech industry group closed 1.3% higher after a 2.1% jump on Monday. Read the rest at the link
#4
I encourage Mike Lindell to buy the bank for pennies on the dollar. No real reason for him to do it. I just want to see some heads explode.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/16/2023 12:04 Comments ||
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#5
"unrealized potential losses"
This is double weasel-wording. "Unrealized"--which means that they will be un-unrealized as soon as interest rates start back down again and their bond portfolios stabilize. Panicking over monthly or quarterly swings is just dumb.
"Potential" means that it may never happen (see above comment on the interest rate cycle.) 'Nuff said.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/16/2023 13:47 Comments ||
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#6
btw, turns out there was a lot of China Commie money in SVB - above the $250k limit
they will get their $$ back
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/16/2023 18:13 Comments ||
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[NewAmerican] Once again the impact of Supreme Court justices nominated by former president Donald Trump is being felt, this time on the illegal, unconstitutional so-called fourth branch of government. Often referred to as “the administrative state,” it encompasses the vast array of federal agencies operating outside constitutional constraints and utilizing powers illegally and unconstitutionally granted to them by the legislative branch.
The “major questions doctrine,” which says that if an agency seeks to decide an issue of major national significance its action must be supported by clear congressional authorization, is already being used to clip the wings of those agencies.
Well done, guys! And once again, all credit to President Trump, who did not accomplish all that he and we hoped, but what he did manage is nonetheless impressive. Credit also to Senator Mitch McConnell, who enabled the judge thing, despite adamantly refusing to support almost all the rest of President Trump’s efforts.
For example, in June 2022 the high court struck down the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, using the doctrine as the scythe: “both separation of powers principles and a practical understanding of legislative intent” required the EPA to point to “clear congressional authorization” for its action.
The agency’s Clean Power Plan called on states not only to improve the efficiency of coal-fired power plants, but also to shift energy production from fossil fuels to natural gas, and ultimately to wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources. More at the link
#3
^ you credit them with too much awareness other than their own petty self interests and lust for power. Cancer only goes into remission. It doesn't disappear.
[PopularMechanics] The F-4 Phantom was neither pretty nor elegant. But it did its job when so many other aircraft in history couldn’t.
Flying Brick. Lead Sled. Rhino. Double Ugly. If nicknames are destiny, then the F-4 Phantom II fighter was cursed at birth.
Even its official name was ironic. "Phantom" evokes an image of stealth and subtlety, a supernatural nemesis that strikes without warning. But the F-4 was anything but stealthy or subtle; it was a big fighter that muscled its way through combat.
Continued on Page 49
#1
....I never had the chance o work on the Phantom, it was pretty much retired from the active duty force by the time I finally got to the tactical side of the house. But the author gets it right - it inspires a respect and affection among its fliers and handlers that will last forever.
#2
I'll never forget being in a Pilatus Porter as two F-4s took off side by side at Danang Airbase. The pilot fought like hell to control the little plane as the roar and wash of the F-4s so nearby made the hair on one's head stand at attention. They were indeed amazing phantoms.
#4
The opposite of the F-35: start out with a need for a carrier interceptor and put powerful enough engines to make a brick fly. For years the F-4 Phantom held many supersonic airspeed records. For more years to serve many roles such as interceptor, fighter, fighter bomber and recon ...like the A-10 it was a powerful brute that was handsome in its ugly.
#5
It could out climb and out accelerate any plane during its time. Combine that with a state of the art radar and targeting system it was lethal at all ranges of engagement. I knew it as a wild weasel platform and man it was good at that.
#6
Let's just cut it with the "badass". It's done. The only time that term is used is when referring to a 90 lb female that just beat up Chuck Norris. No one uses it...except for Pop Mech and Sci Ameri. Screw that.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/16/2023 14:12 Comments ||
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#7
Dude only Chuck Norris can beat up Chuck Norris
#8
^ Dude, that's so Vanilla WoW. Used to be one could get a whole flame war goin' by just typing the name. These days it's, "who?". Exhibit #42 on Why We Can't Have Nice Things.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/16/2023 14:58 Comments ||
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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.
[NewAmerican] Once again the impact of Supreme Court justices nominated by former president Donald Trump is being felt, this time on the illegal, unconstitutional so-called fourth branch of government. Often referred to as “the administrative state,” it encompasses the vast array of federal agencies operating outside constitutional constraints and utilizing powers illegally and unconstitutionally granted to them by the legislative branch.
[PopularMechanics] The 
