Oscars Will Now Require “Diversity”

By William Teach June 15, 2020 – 10:30 am

Why yes, the ubur-white elitists in Hollywood think that minorities, especially blacks, cannot succeed without their helpful hand

Want an Oscar? Better be inclusive. Academy to make diversity requirements part of awards eligibility.

On the heels of a historic election that saw a record number of women and people of color — including Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ava DuVernay — elected to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences board of governors, the organization behind the Oscars has announced new representation and inclusion initiatives for 2020 and beyond. The most striking and potentially most controversial: to be eligible for a future Oscar, contenders would have to meet some as-yet unspecified diversity requirement.

“While the Academy has made strides, we know there is much more work to be done in order to ensure equitable opportunities across the board,” Academy CEO Dawn Hudson said in a statement. “The need to address this issue is urgent. To that end, we will amend — and continue to examine — our rules and procedures to ensure that all voices are heard and celebrated.” (snip)

For the Oscars, the Academy will create a new task force — whose membership will include current Governor-at-Large DeVon Franklin — that will implement new representation and inclusion standards for Oscar eligibility. They are tasked with coming up with rules that will go into effect beginning with films released in 2021. Meanwhile, the number of Best Picture nominees will officially be set at 10, allowing for a greater range of titles to be in contention for the top prize. (The Academy made the move back to 10 nominees in 2009, but allowed the number to fluctuate in recent years.)

At the end of the day, it will become less about the quality of the movie and more about things other than the quality of the movie. Movies will have to give blacks and other “minorities” roles not because they are great actors and fit the role, but because they need to check off the Diversity Box. Tokenism. Being given a role, a position in the filming team, simply because of the color of their skin.

Might as well just give everyone a trophy for making a movie. What is funny is that this uber-leftist organization needs to set rules because they aren’t inclusive. What they’re going to do is end up ruining even more films. Seriously, everyone can tell when there is a token person in a film or TV show. I have zero problem with some of these mostly black movies and TV shows. Go for it. People want to watch what they identify with.

How is it an Oscar if it is based not on quality and content but on skin color? John Nolte notes

The Woke Taliban have been chipping away at artistic freedom for three decades, and now the actual death of artistic freedom will be enshrined by the Motion Picture Academy’s new “diversity requirements.”

Over the past three decades, the fascism of political correctness has only grown more oppressive and suffocating, but now, with the left-wing moral panic sparked by the tragic death of George Floyd while in police custody, the left is emboldened; and when the left is emboldened, cities burn, statues topple, careers and people are disappeared, good men are murdered, civil liberties are trampled, and the dual horrors of blacklisting and censorship reign supreme.

The left’s blacklisting rampage is already in full force, and only getting started. Classic movies and television shows that are not disappearing entirely are either under direct threat or face the desecration of a Big Brother Corporation instructing us on how to think and feel about art.

In a sane world, the one guardian against this vandalism and terror would be the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the keepers of the flame of artistic freedom. But the left are no longer sane and rather than rage against the Woke Taliban destroying and suffocating art and artists, the AMPAS has not only remained silent, it has joined the mob…

Read the rest.

Read: Oscars Will Now Require “Diversity” »

Posted in Film, Liberal World | 13 Comments | Trackback URL

Say, What Happens When Silicon Valley Goes Dark?

By William Teach June 15, 2020 – 8:15 am

Man, if only California used reliable energy

When Silicon Valley Goes Dark This Time, There Will Be No Refuge

Blackouts that hit millions of Californians in 2019 could be doubly calamitous this year with tech giants Google, Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. among the many companies keeping offices closed until the fall or later in response to the global Covid-19 pandemic.

If utilities cut power again, home offices set up during the pandemic could go dark and stay dark for days, and they’ll have no corporate offices to flee to for power. In October 2019, more than 3 million people were affected by a series of rolling blackouts over more than a week as PG&E Corp. and Edison International tried to prevent live wires from sparking wildfires.

Call it a collision of crises. Blackouts could limit California’s push to revive an economy largely paralyzed by stay-at-home orders this spring. The state, utilities and individual companies are all seeking ways to deal with blackouts before a wildfire season forecast to be worse than normal. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., for one, has “long contemplated this type of scenario,” according to spokesman Adam Bauer.

Neither Google, Twitter nor Facebook would comment on their plans. The state’s utilities and government officials, though, have said they’re working to minimize the threat.

California regulators last month adopted new shutoff rules that will require the companies to restore electricity within 24 hours after the weather clears, although the state’s wind storms can last several days. PG&E, the state’s largest utility, has set its own goal of 12 daylight hours after the winds ease, and has nearly doubled the number of helicopters it will use to look for downed lines.

California is a state known for periods of very high winds due to where the state is located. It has always happened. So, instead of spending money fortifying the lines, burying them, and other measures, the state has wasted enormous amounts of money on barely viable “renewables”. Excluding hydrothermal, because they want existing dams torn down. California, and those Silicon Valley companies, should be more concerned with stable energy and power delivery than fairy tale anthropogenic climate change.

And, get this: since California is banning natural gas more and more, backup generators have to run on regular gasoline. With the push for battery cars, how do they charge them with no power? All those solar panels hooked into the grid won’t be providing power back to the homeowner when the power is out. Well, heck, these people voted for this insanity.

Read: Say, What Happens When Silicon Valley Goes Dark? »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Democrats, Global Warming | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

Elected Dem Bobby Rush Compares Chicago Police To KKK

By William Teach June 15, 2020 – 7:55 am

Bobby is going for the ultra-Hottake with this one

Bobby Rush: Chicago police union and KKK ‘are like kissing, hugging and law-breaking cousins’

Rep. Bobby Rush on Sunday likened Chicago’s largest police union to the Ku Klux Klan, saying the two organizations “are like kissing, hugging and law-breaking cousins.”

“The number-one cause that prevents police accountability, that promotes police corruption, that protects police lawlessness, is a culprit called the Fraternal Order of Police,” the Chicago Democrat said in an interview with POLITICO on Sunday. “They’re the organized guardians of continuous police lawlessness, of police murder and police brutality. The Chicago Fraternal Order of Police is the most rabid, racist body of criminal lawlessness by police in the land. It stands shoulder to shoulder with the Ku Klux Klan then and the Ku Klux Klan now.”

Rush’s searing remarks were the latest escalation between him and police after Chicago officers were caught on video lounging in the congressman’s Chicago office for hours while violent police protests roiled the city during the weekend of May 30-31. It adds fuel to unrest in Chicago and across the nation after the death of George Floyd, an African American man, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis on May 25.

Let’s unpack this: who does Bobby think runs Chicago? They haven’t elected a Republican mayor since 1927. They’ve essentially controlled the city council in full for the last 100 years. Brian Doherty, serving from 1991-2011, was the only Republican council member in recent decades. The Democratic machine is in charge of running the police force, hiring the chief, who controls the CPD. The people who overwhelmingly vote Democrat are the same ones joining the CPD. These are Bobby’s people.

Further, I love the part about him hating on the Fraternal Order Of Police, which is a union. I thought Democrats loved unions. Strange how the Chicago branch in a lock, stock, and barrel Democrat city is basically the KKK. Also strange how Bobby is less than concerned over the high shooting rate in Chicago, which primarily sees blacks killed and shot. No surprise, since Rush helped found the Chicago chapter of the Black Panthers. I hope the Chicago Police Officers are watching closely as to how much political support they have. Same with their voting family members and relatives. Same with any police officer and/or family member who manages to usually vote Democrat. Because they don’t have support, Democrats hate them.

Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar supports calls to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department: ‘you can’t really reform a department that is rotten to the root’

Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat, said Sunday she supported calls to defund and dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department following the police killing of 46-year-old George Floyd on May 25.

“You can’t really reform a department that is rotten to the root, what you can do is rebuild,” Omar told Jake Tapper during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

On one hand, I agree that the department may be rotten to the root (in a Democratic run city, don’t you know). How is it that Chauvin felt emboldened to do what he did, even knowing that people were taking videos of him? That 3 other officers stood there. Yes, two were on the job for just 4 days, and one was being trained by Chauvin, but none did a things. Speaking of training, how does an officer with so many complaints get to train? How is it that no one said a thing to superiors? How is it no superior in the precinct did anything? Is there a bad culture in the precinct? If the precinct is bad, what of full MPD leadership? Where was Internal Affairs? Maybe an investigation finds that Chauvin hid it well. Let’s wait and see.

On the other hand, let’s start with pulling the MPD out of Ilhan’s neighborhood, let it serve as part of the experimental group. You can’t just defund and dismantle the police department and think everything will turn out OK. She does show that the Talking Points about “when they say defund they don’t really mean they want to get rid of the police department” are bogus.

Read: Elected Dem Bobby Rush Compares Chicago Police To KKK »

Posted in Beyond Moonbat, Democrats | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

Who’s Up For Plastic Free Pints?

By William Teach June 14, 2020 – 3:43 pm

I’ll admit, when I first ran across this I was like “oh, goodness, these climanuts are ruining beer yet again,”, but, the environmentalist in me kinda agrees

PLASTIC-FREE PINTS ARE THE SOCIALLY DISTANCED FUTURE OF BEER

With pubs still closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Brits have been getting their beer fix with takeaway pints instead. But could this be fuelling a different kind of crisis?

The UK government has started to relax lockdown restrictions, so people have begun flocking to public spaces. To provide much-needed refreshments for those venturing to local parks or beaches, restaurants and pubs have come up with innovative ways to serve customers – while maintaining social distancing.

In order to keep things safe and sanitary for takeaway orders, single-use packaging has made a significant comeback, meaning plastic waste is filling up in parks. Environmental charity Surfers Against Sewage reported that in Brighton, UK, an influx of visitors using takeaway services had led to a build up of plastic pollution on the city’s beaches.

Why not glass bottles?

Two UK-based organisations have started a campaign called Plastic Free Pints to deal with the “massive problem of post-lockdown litter.” The project aims to encourage people to bring their own drinking vessels instead of relying on single-use plastic. They say that after the positive effects lockdown has had on the health of our planet, it’s important that we don’t slip back into pre-pandemic habits.

They have a point. You’ve seen my opinion on plastic pollution previously, and my consideration of environmental policies.

“As pubs reopened, we were seeing a lot of litter and thought, given the success of coffee KeepCups, that the solution was pretty straightforward,” says Florence Wildblood, co-founder of Ours to Save, a crowdsourced environmental news platform. Wildblood created Ours to Save during the pandemic after noticing “how people also seemed to be developing sustainable habits and taking the climate crisis more seriously in lockdown”.

Ugh. Leave the climate crisis scam out of it. Stop screwing up real issues like plastic pollution.

Also, yes, I know how bad the beer in the picture is.

Read: Who’s Up For Plastic Free Pints? »

Posted in Environment | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach June 14, 2020 – 1:00 pm

…is horrible pavement for fossil fueled vehicles, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Never Yet Melted, with a post on today’s world being run by dolts.

It’s skateboarding week!

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

By William Teach June 14, 2020 – 9:22 am

Edward Runci Patriotic Pinup

Happy Sunday! Another gorgeous day in America. The sun is shining, the bunnies are everywhere, and people are coming back to work. This pinup is by Edward Runci, with a wee bit of help.

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. Jo Nova notes how many times Britain’s Open Borders allowed Coronavirus in
  2. Adrienne’s Corner covers how much money WalMart gave to looters
  3. American Elephants notes that History is what happened in the past
  4. American Greatness wonders who will protect us from the lawlessness of Democrats
  5. Blazing Cat Fur covers a Baltimore church being fined while thousands protest in the streets
  6. Brass Pills says you can’t fix people
  7. Congrats to Bustednuckles on 8 years of not being an alcoholic
  8. Chicks On The Right covers the cops searching a 5th grader’s house over a BB gun
  9. Datechguy’s Blog notes the BLM surcharge
  10. Free North Carolina says that the Left’s war on cops is a war on black people
  11. Geller Report News notes truck drivers saying that won’t deliver to cities with defunded police
  12. IOTW covers moonbats looking to create an autonomous zone in Tennessee
  13. Jihad Watch notes that Christian religious leaders around the world are praising Trump’s religious freedom orders
  14. Moonbattery wonders if leftists will cancel Gandhi
  15. And last, but not least, neo-neocon notes that people are afraid, and rightly so, about disagreeing in academia

As always, the full set of pinups can be seen in the Patriotic Pinup category, or over at my Gallery page (nope, that’s gone, the newest Apache killed access, and the program hasn’t been upgraded since 2014). While we are on pinups, since it is that time of year, have you gotten your “Pinups for Vets” calendar yet? And don’t forget to check out what I declare to be our War on Women Rule 5 and linky luv posts and things that interest me.

Don’t forget to check out all the other great material all the linked blogs have!

Anyone else have a link or hotty-fest going on? Let me know so I can add you to the list. And do you have a favorite blog you can recommend be added to the feedreader?

Read: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup »

Posted in Patriotic Pinup | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

CancelCulture Alligator Demands More From Target, Other Stores

By William Teach June 14, 2020 – 8:03 am

Target, which had nothing to do with the killing of George Floyd, saw one of its Minneapolis stores pillaged and heavily damaged. Other stores nationwide saw looting. So, what do they do?

Target Commits $10 Million and Ongoing Resources for Rebuilding Efforts and Advancing Social Justice

Today, our next steps include announcing a $10 million commitment and ongoing resources to advance social justice and support rebuilding and recovery efforts in local communities.

“Target stands with Black families, communities and team members. As we face an inflection point in Minneapolis and across the country, we’re listening to our team, guests and communities, committed to using our size, scale and resources to help heal and create lasting change,” says Brian Cornell, chairman and CEO, Target.

Having fed the Cancel Culture Gator already, it is still hungry

People Are Calling On Stores Like Target And Whole Foods To Take The 15 Percent Pledge

The internet is full of ways to support black-owned businesses, but when visiting your favorite major retailer, it can get a lot tougher to find their products. A new campaign is calling on stores to make space for more of these businesses in something called the 15 Percent Pledge.

The campaign was created by Aurora James, a fashion designer and founder of the label Brother Vellies, and she is calling on major retailers like Target, Whole Foods, and Sephora to take the pledge. The campaign gets its name, as The Takeout pointed out, because 15 percent of Americans are black, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Retailers who take the pledge would be promising 15 percent of their shelf space to black-owned businesses, which would make their stores’ space at least proportional to the U.S. population. This would not only help to create more equity in the products consumers purchase, but it would also help put $14.5 billion back into black communities, according to the site.

Technically, they would need to reserve just under 13% of space, since that is the population. But, what products would they be? And should we do the same with Latino products? We don’t have to worry about Asian, since they’re already a glut of products from China, Vietnam, and other Asian nations.

In an Instagram post, Aurora explained her mission and why this is a chance for companies to make a real and positive change toward diversifying the brands they have in stores and combatting systemic racism that keeps them from landing these placements.

Or, perhaps there aren’t products that will sell that much in that area. Personally, I don’t look at who makes them, and usually not where from. I do like that a ton of produce at my WalMart comes from NC farmers, and particularly those within the area. It’s easy to say regarding 15% products from black own businesses, but, what are they? Aurora mentions farmers. What if there aren’t any in the local area? There’s a lot of produce that comes from large, large agro companies, while smaller farmers sell a lot of their product at farmer’s markets, to smaller stores, and to big companies for use in their food products.

What about the local customers? Do they want products that may not be needed in the area? What if the products do not sell? Personally, I would consider it demeaning if the only way to get my products on the shelf was to show my skin color. Retail puts products on shelves that sell. Make products that sell and they’ll stock them. Once you make them as inexpensive as China, of course.

Anyhow, this is what feeding the alligator looks like. They will keep demanding even more once you have surrendered. And when dealing with SJWs, if you offer to help you have surrendered.

Meanwhile, black activists are questioning the roles of all these white folks who came out to support them with the George Floyd protests

While the diverse crowds have made for good television, some activists are skeptical that the show of support will produce long-term commitment among many white people, and they question whether surface-level activism and how it plays out on social media does more harm than good.

Ernest Owens, a 28-year-old black journalist, questions the concept of whites as “allies.”

While many have good intentions, he said true allyship — supporting black businesses, deeply exploring personal bias and ferreting out ways that white privilege contributes to persistent racism — must happen in order to genuinely stand in solidarity with the marginalized and oppressed.

You cannot satisfy SJWs of any race. They will always want more.

True commitment means calling out your boss when he routinely mixes up your two Indian colleagues, or taking on a racist relative, Phillips said. It also means acting with your wallet, asking friends about their experiences of racism and sincerely listening.

“You can’t just say stuff,” she said, “and tick your activist box.”

The gator will not excuse you just because you are an SJW activist, either.

Read: CancelCulture Alligator Demands More From Target, Other Stores »

Posted in Barking Moonbats | 17 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach June 13, 2020 – 1:00 pm

…is a world flooded because Other People drive fossil fueled vehicles, you might just be a Warmist

IAYS

The blog of the day is 357 Magnum, with a post on life without police.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 22 Comments | Trackback URL

Cancel Culture Comes For Law And Order, Along With Star Character Olivia Benson

By William Teach June 13, 2020 – 10:30 am

See, even though the character is a “good cop”, all cops are bad in the eyes of these nutters. Remember when Rolling Stone used to be counter-culture and about music?

Sorry, Olivia Benson Is Canceled Too

Cancel Culture AlligatorA few days ago, I was scrolling through TikTok and saw one featuring Olivia Benson, the beloved star of Law and Order: SVU played by Mariska Hargitay. The TikTok is captioned “#when I say ACAB,” and the audio is from Fergie’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry.” “I hope you know, I hope you know/That this has nothing to do with you,” the woman in the TikTok lip-syncs, as if pained to even be mentioning Olivia Benson and anti-cop sentiment in the same breath.

On social media, where defunding and abolishing the police has become an omnipresent rallying cry, a similar sentiment also reigns. “The only cop I have any respect for is Olivia Benson,” one tweet reads. “nOt AlL cOpS…you’re right, Olivia Benson from SVU would NEVER,” reads another. Even as fictional cops ranging from The Wire‘s Det. Bunk Moreland to Chase from Paw Patrol come under the microscope, Olivia Benson is in another class altogether. She is the minority, the exemption, the special case. She and she alone, it is generally agreed, is allowed to cloak herself in the mantle of Good Cop.

(lots of paragraphs about how great the character is and how great Hargitay is)

But not everyone who watches Law and Order: SVU interacts with it on those terms. A not-insignificant number of police officers have credited the show with their deciding to enter law enforcement, and it’s safe to assume that an even larger number of viewers watches the show and believe that police officers like Olivia Benson are fundamentally on the side of the vulnerable and disenfranchised. And this trope has significant real-life implications: according to a report from Color of Change (which features a screen grab from SVU) on the cover), crime series “make heroes out of people who violate our rights” and “do not depict the reality, causes, or consequences of [racial disparities in the criminal justice system] accurately.”

See? Even good cops bad

The truth is that, if you agree that the system is broken and great changes need to be made on all levels to fix it, you can’t pick and choose what needs to be changed. No matter how much you love Olivia Benson, you have to be willing to grapple with the fact that she plays a major role in perpetuating the idea that cops are inherently trustworthy and heroic, and that many viewers are unable to distinguish between the gossamer fantasy of how justice should be handled, and how it actually is. If cops are canceled, that means all cops are canceled, up to and including the strong and pretty ones we like to watch break down pedophiles in interrogation rooms. Revolution can’t be built on the backs of the exceptions, and those who perpetuate toxic systems can’t be deemed immune to critique just because we like them. It’s the simplest equation there is: if all cops are bastards, and Olivia Benson is a cop, that means she’s — kind of — a bastard. (Mariska is cool, though.)

Nothing is safe from Cancel Culture.

Read: Cancel Culture Comes For Law And Order, Along With Star Character Olivia Benson »

Posted in Unhinged Tools | 9 Comments | Trackback URL

Climate Worst Case Scenarios May Be Worst Than Modeled Or Something

By William Teach June 13, 2020 – 7:13 am

Members of the Cult of Climastrology are upset. They’ve mostly been ignored since the start of the world wide Bat Soup Virus pandemic. Even though they tried to hijack it and subsume it and link it and say that the world needs a Green recovery, the news media very much ignored the Warmists, even media darling uber-Warmist St. Greta of Stockholm. So, what to do? Be unhinged and say everything is worse than imagined!

Climate worst-case scenarios may not go far enough, cloud data shows

Worst-case global heating scenarios may need to be revised upwards in light of a better understanding of the role of clouds, scientists have said.

Recent modelling data suggests the climate is considerably more sensitive to carbon emissions than previously believed, and experts said the projections had the potential to be “incredibly alarming”, though they stressed further research would be needed to validate the new numbers.

Modelling results from more than 20 institutions are being compiled for the sixth assessment by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is due to be released next year.

Compared with the last assessment in 2014, 25% of them show a sharp upward shift from 3C to 5C in climate sensitivity – the amount of warming projected from a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide from the preindustrial level of 280 parts per million. This has shocked many veteran observers, because assumptions about climate sensitivity have been relatively unchanged since the 1980s.

“That is a very deep concern,” Johan Rockström, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said. “Climate sensitivity is the holy grail of climate science. It is the prime indicator of climate risk. For 40 years, it has been around 3C. Now, we are suddenly starting to see big climate models on the best supercomputers showing things could be worse than we thought.”

Who’s surprised? The CoC always needs to push bigger and bigger scares.

“The more we learn, the more fragile the Earth system seems to be and the faster we need to move,” he said. “It gives even stronger argument to step out of this Covid-19 crisis and move full speed towards decarbonising the economy.”

Let’s start with CoC members. Let them be the experimental group and give up all uses of fossil fuels. Meaning they cannot even purchase any goods that are linked to fossil fuels, cannot live in an abode that was made with fossil fuels, can only cook with “renewables”, can only heat and cool their abodes with renewables, and cannot use fossil fueled transportation. Let’s see how they enjoy this life, and if it makes any difference in “global heating”.

Read: Climate Worst Case Scenarios May Be Worst Than Modeled Or Something »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 4 Comments | Trackback URL
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