Hollywood in Danger of Becoming "The Next Detroit Auto Industry" as Film Productions Flee the State

Hollywood is suffering a well-earned contraction.

The mantra has been "survive until 25."

But 2025 looks like another Grime Milestone.

Lately, creative workers are increasingly chasing their Hollywood dreams in production hubs far from Hollywood. LA continues to hold the lion's share of film and TV jobs in America, but after a long grind of jobs slowly slipping away, the exodus from the city has accelerated in recent years. A recent analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics figures conducted by Patrick Adler and Taner Osman of Westwood Economics & Planning Associates found that the figure was 22% in August, down from about 33% two years earlier.

...

The filmed entertainment industry's center of gravity is shifting further from Hollywood at a time of upheaval. The decadelong shift to streaming was exacerbated by the pandemic, which stalled, then boosted, production as people stayed inside and became couch potatoes. Peak TV came to a halt in 2022 when networks, studios, and streamers couldn't make the financial math for all those new streaming shows work. And filming was shut down once again in 2023 because of the Hollywood actors and writers strikes.

When projects slowly got back on their feet, fewer of them were turning their lights on in LA. FilmLA, which issues permits for production in the region, found that Greater Los Angeles' share of US-produced TV and film projects declined from 23% in 2021 to 18% last year. The number of people employed in the traditional entertainment industry in LA, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, hit a 30-year low in June. At the same time, jobs related to video gaming, live events, and the creator economy rose in the city as people's media diet shifted toward social video and away from traditional TV and movies.

That article is from late 2024.

Now some in the industry are warning that LA may see a collapse similar to the one Detroit suffered.

Hollywood At Risk of Becoming the "Next Detroit Auto." L.A. Production Insiders Voice Alarm

As a new tally shows plummeting shoot days in Los Angeles, organizers gathered to strategize on ways to get postproduction and music incentives included in California's bill to boost the industry.

The specter of Los Angeles becoming another Detroit, a city built on a specific industry that became a shell of its former self when that business moved out, loomed over a compelling film and TV industry town hall that tackled not only the calamitous drop in production in Hollywood and California, but also the fight to get the state to increase its entertainment production tax incentive.

The event on Monday night drilled down into a later stage of the entertainment production pipeline that is also currently in crisis: scoring and postproduction.

"This is not hyperbole to say that if we don't act, the California film and TV industry will become the next Detroit auto," said Noelle Stehman, a member of the "Stay in LA" campaign who spoke at the event.

California doesn't want to offer tax breaks to productions -- which other states have used to lure movies to film there, so that Alec Baldwin can satisfy his thirst for killing women -- because they see such incentives as "tax breaks for the rich."

...

"These jobs haven't vanished, they've moved," intoned ProdPro CEO Alex LoVerde, pointing out that the United States has seen a decrease in production of 26 percent since 2022. One beneficiary has been Australia, which has seen a gain of 14 percent.

...

The music and scoring panel was even more sobering. Music contractors and producers Peter Rotter and Jasper Randall, whose Encompass Music Partners hosted the event, pointed out how booked recording days for scoring stages in L.A. have collapsed, from a high during Peak TV in 2022 with 127 days to only a bleak 11 this year so far. They also explained that scoring work costs two-thirds less in Vienna, Austria, and 90 percent less in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Thanks to their own choices, a once-thriving American industry is collapsing. Writing jobs have fallen forty-two percent from last year.

Even with the 2023 strikes in Hollywood's rearview mirror, writers are still feeling the pinch.

On Friday, the Writers Guild of America released new job statistics highlighting recent declines in television-writing jobs across various levels of the hierarchy. Post-Peak TV, those at the peak of profession were the largest casualties (in numbers).

Of the 1,319 fewer TV writer jobs for the 2023-24 season (vs. 2022-23; pre-strikes), 642 jobs were lost -- a decline of 40 percent -- at the co-executive producer or higher (up to showrunner) level. Lower-level writers (staff writer, story editor, executive story editor) were the next most affected with 378 fewer jobs versus the prior season, down 46 percent. Mid-level positions (co-producer through consulting/supervising producer) declined by 299 (-42 percent).

All told, there were 1,819 television writing jobs last season, a 42 percent decline from the 2022-23 season. Last season's numbers are far fewer than even the COVID season of 2019-20, which employed 2,722 writers.

Cord-cutters and corporate greed are to blame, the WGA says.

"With an industry in transition -- cable TV subscriptions and cable programming declining, a massive run-up and then pullback in streaming series as Wall Street demands quicker streaming platform profits -- the number of TV jobs has declined," the WGA's latest jobs report reads.

The report said the "studios' prolonged unwillingness to negotiate a fair deal in 2023" was also to blame as it shortened the 2023-24 TV season.

The strike itself didn't help, you know. The former customers found alternatives.

As usual, this post is just an excuse to pound on Disney.

Marvel is hoping that people will care about their new Thunderbolts* movie, consisting mostly of characters from their bad TV shows.

But the movie is looking at a $70 million opening. Or, $63 million to $77 million.

This is lower than what Captain America made in its opening ($88 million).

Idiot feminist Grace Randolf remarked that Hollywood likes to see the movie that opens the summer season open at $100 million or more, or else it's a "bad sign" for the summer overall.

Marvel's 'Thunderbolts*' Tracking for Fair $70M U.S. Opening

The superhero pic -- introducing a new team of antiheroes and villains to the big screen -- hopes to grow that number by the time it kicks off the summer box office season May 2.

It's a virtual given that the 2025 summer box office will get off to bigger start than last year when Marvel's Thunderbolts* flies into theaters over the first weekend of May. However, the antihero comic book pic still has its work cut out for it.

According to tracking, the tentpole is headed for a domestic debut in the $63 million to $77 million range, with a target number of $70 million. While a fair number in and of itself, that's on the lower end for a Marvel Cinematic Universe title opening in summer.

Disney insiders say there's plenty of room for growth, noting that the film's rag-tag team of antiheroes and villains are making their appearance on the big screen for the first time, so aren't a known property (advance ticket sales, which commenced earlier this week, are on the slower side so far).

...

Disney's well-oiled marketing machine has three weeks left to unleash the heart of the campaign for the movie, which stars Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Hannah John-Kamen and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, among others.

Barely anyone knows who those actors are, or what characters they play.

...

Marvel and Disney are leaning into the creative team's indie roots in selling Thunderbolts* as something other than the usual MCU title. The pic is directed by Jake Schreier, known for the A24-produced Netflix show Beef and 2012's Robot & Frank.

"It ended up becoming this quite badass indie, A24-feeling assassin movie with Marvel superheroes," Pugh told Empire magazine in a recent joint interview with the Thunderbolts* cast and crew.

Sounds like someone's preparing the explanation: "It's a great opening for an A24 independent movie!"

Per Google's AI, long-range predictions for Fantastic Four, which opens July 25th, aren't great.

Long-range projections for "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" (scheduled for July 25, 2025) suggest a potential domestic opening weekend range of $70M-$85M, with some predicting a more modest opening between $35M-$50M. The overall performance is expected to be in the range of $250M-$300M.

That would be a failure. These movies cost at least $200-250 million and that doesn't include marketing and it doesn't take into account that theaters take about half the box office.

Elaboration:

Opening Weekend:

Early projections for "Fantastic Four: First Steps" put the potential domestic opening weekend at $70M-$85M for a three-day weekend and $80M-$95M for a four-day weekend, according to a report from Boxoffice Pro [2]. However, another analysis on a YouTube video suggests a more conservative opening of $35M-$50M, with a potential 250-300 million dollar gross.

The animated Jesus film from Angel Studios is the second-biggest movie in America.

Christian movies are dominating the box office this week, led by the animated hit "The King of Kings," which is backed by the studio behind the controversial 2023 smash "Sound of Freedom" and is being promoted by right-wing influencers on social media, who have billed it as an anti-"woke" movie.

"The King of Kings" finished second behind blockbuster "The Minecraft Movie" at the box office this past weekend with $19.3 million, which is only about $200,000 behind the opening weekend of Angel Studios' "Sound of Freedom."

Four of the top 10 films at the box office this week are faith-based movies, according to Box Office Mojo's latest daily totals, including all three parts of the television series "The Chosen: Last Supper," which distribution company Fathom Entertainment released in theaters.

"The King of Kings" is an animated film featuring a star-studded cast that follows writer Charles Dickens as he teaches his son about the life of Jesus Christ, while "The Chosen: Last Supper" is the fifth season of the historical drama series that depicts Jesus's life.

"The King of Kings" had the biggest box office weekend for a biblical animated film, surpassing the Oscar-winning animated movie "The Prince of Egypt," which earned $14.5 million in its opening weekend in 1998.

Disney-financed Dr. Woke suffered its worst ratings of all time with its latest gay woke episode. Only 1.58 million watched the latest Dr. Who show per overnight ratings, an all-time low.

This follows the first episode of the season, which got the worst-ever ratings for a season's debut episode, at 2.0 million overnight viewers. I think the previous low was 2.6 million (from the previous season).

Also note that the last episode of the prior season received the worst ratings ever for a Dr. Who finale.

I saw someone speculating that Disney encouraged Dr. Who to go as woke as possible so it would absolutely collapse and they could then buy the IP from the BBC at firesale prices. I don't think that's true. Not because Disney isn't a dirty company, but because Disney's reason for encouraging the BBC to go as woke and gay as possible is just their corporate mission statement.

Disney is going to have serious competition for its Orlando park this summer. Universal's Epic Universe opens May 22, and Disney's cutting ticket prices to draw crowds.

Universal Epic Universe opens in Orlando, Florida in 46 days.

The park is currently testing out operations for team members, their families and the media. On Saturday, FOX Business got a sneak peek at the massive attraction that features portals into "five immersive worlds" that offer shopping, dining, new rides and experiences.

Park guests' first portal entry takes them into Celestial Park, also called "the heart of Universal Epic Universe" in a media release. It features gardens with lush foliage, pathways and walkways to bring back the "park" element of a theme park.
...

Universal Destinations and Experiences, a unit of Comcast NBCUniversal, is fourth in the top 10 theme park operators worldwide, according to the 2023 TEA/AECOM Theme Index and Museum Index, which provides some of the most recent data. Disney Experiences is number one, and the two mega-entertainment operators have parks in proximity in central Florida.

The two companies are prepared for a scorching-hot summer of competition, with Disney offering deals on tickets, stays and opening new shows featuring "The Little Mermaid" and "Disney Villains."

Disney is trying to blunt the impact of Epic Universe by offering $99 per night rates at one hotel.

Epic has five different parks. One is all about Nintendo/Mario and related characters, one's about How to Train Your Dragon. Another one is a big (new) Harry Potter ride.

The one that I'm the most interested in is their Universal Monster Park. The animatronics look pretty good. More of Frankenstein here.

If you saw that Jenny Nicholsen video, you may remember that one of her big complaints about Disney's Star Wars park is that they promised free-ranging robots, but delivered none. Well, one, sometimes -- sometimes you can see an R2-D2 rolling around, but she dismissed that, claiming that was just the same remote-controlled R2-D2 they sell in their store, so it's really more of a product demo than an attraction.

But apparently Epic Universe does have free-ranging baby dragons wandering around. (We'll see how long they work for before they start breaking down.)

Under its skin, it's one of those Boston Dynamics dog-bots.

A couple of "Is This Something?" trailers. "Warfare" is getting good reviews. Chris Gore and Alan Ng of Film Threat says it's not political, except in the way every war drama is political -- isn't war terrible? It's about urban combat in, I think, Fallujah.

There's a Japanese samurai movie called 11 Rebels that looks good, too.

Posted by: Ace at 04:10 PM | Comments (483) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Is It Time to Outlaw NGOs?

Glenn Reynolds wrote this week about so-called "non-governmental organizations," which the leftwing globalists employ to impose their unelected "shadow government" on the country. (And the world, if that matters.)

I'm often darkly amused by common examples of inherently false nomenclature: "Jumbo shrimp." "Government ethics." "Unbiased news media."

And one of our society's biggest falsehoods-in-a-name: "Non-governmental organizations."

Until recently these groups have been widely seen as international, idealized versions of domestic non-profits.

We thought of them as do-good organizations set up by people who really care -- about the environment, or poor people, or children, or freedom.

We imagined they raise money, help the downtrodden, send out press releases and engage in other private activities to promote the causes they favor.

They're not government entities, we thought -- the very name says that -- but a species of private charity whose good intentions deserve the benefit of any doubt.

Perhaps some NGOs do operate in that way.

But as we've learned recently, partly as the result of Department of Government Efficiency digging, many "non-governmental" entities are really just fronts for government activities that Americans would never stand for if Washington attempted them directly.

For example, America's border crisis was funded in large part by Joe Biden's government, which sent large sums of money in the form of grants to various NGOs that helped train migrants on how to get to the United States -- and how to claim asylum when they arrived.

NGOs helped the illegal immigrants with expenses on their way, and then provided legal resources and more than $22 billion worth of assistance for them -- including cash for cars, home loans and business start-ups -- once they got in.

This was US taxpayer money, laundered through "independent" organizations that served to promote goals contrary to US law, but consistent with the policy preferences of the Biden administration.

Under President Donald Trump, this funding halted -- and, unsurprisingly, the flow of illegal immigrants did, too.

Likewise, the weird wave of sudden global enthusiasm for "trans rights" and novel ideas about gender turns out to have been largely funded by the US government through USAID grants.

...

As data expert Jennica Pounds ("DataRepublican" on X) put it, "Over the last few months, we've come to a realization that should have landed much harder: NGOs weren't just adjacent to government."

They were tools of government, "the parallel government," Pounds wrote, specifically doing things that Washington bureaucrats knew full well they couldn't easily do themselves.

He mentions that the government pours money into supposed NGOs, which then kick back the money to... the same DC politicians who send them taxpayer money.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), for example, voted to award $14.2 million to Ocean Conservancy since 2008, Fox News reported -- and the NGO, in turn, paid his wife Sandra Whitehouse and her firm $2.7 million for consulting work.

No wonder the Washington establishment went crazy when Trump and DOGE started cutting off such funds.

He also notes that foreign countries use NGOs to stamp out domestic opposition to the Davos set.

Xer @amuse has a simple proposition: Let's ban NGOs.

@amuse
@amuse

End the Gravy Train: Why Public Money Should Not Fund NGOs

There is a moment, common to many political awakenings, when a veil is lifted. What once seemed benign now appears suspect, even sinister. For some, this moment arrived with the realization that NGOs, those supposedly nonpartisan charities bearing names like "Global Relief" or "Justice Now," were not simply operating beside government but often as the government. Not elected, not accountable, yet flush with your tax dollars.

Why does this matter? Because it represents a fundamental evasion of the structure and safeguards of constitutional democracy. The Founders designed a system of checks, balances, and electoral accountability. No power without representation, no authority without transparency. But in recent decades, and particularly under the Biden administration, a parallel architecture has emerged. This architecture is built not of departments and agencies, but of foundations, non-profits, and NGOs. It is a second state, answerable not to the people, but to donors.

What precisely are NGOs doing with public funds? Everything from facilitating migrant influxes at the border, to administering social justice programs abroad, to writing and distributing model legislation domestically. The problem is not only the content of their actions but the structure in which they occur. NGOs are not subject to FOIA requests. They are not answerable to voters. They are rarely audited. Yet they regularly execute the very programs that would be politically toxic or legally suspect for the government itself.

Let us speak plainly. In theory, the state exists to serve citizens within a lawful and constrained framework. When the executive branch wishes to pursue a policy, it must secure funding from Congress, survive judicial scrutiny, and face the judgment of voters. But NGOs allow for a sleight of hand. The executive can partner with an ideologically aligned NGO, give it taxpayer funds, and let it carry out controversial operations at arm's length. It is both an end-run around constitutional limits and a backdoor laundering of political will.

...

Who benefits from this arrangement? Not the American public. The real winners are the architects of ideological influence: men like George Soros, whose Open Society Foundations have pumped over $32 billion into a sprawling latticework of NGOs across the globe. These NGOs, seeded with private money, use their alignment with progressive causes to secure government grants. Once federally funded, they expand their operations, amplify their messaging, and become the default executors of soft power.

...

Here the absurdity becomes structural. The taxpayer, often unknowingly, is subsidizing the political opposition. Conservative voters in Texas may wake up to find their taxes supporting NGOs that lobby for transgender curricula in schools, the defunding of police departments, or the relocation of foreign nationals into their communities. This is not charity. This is policy, outsourced.

...

The appeal of NGOs to progressive administrations is not mysterious. They provide plausible deniability. They can test radical policies, stir public sentiment, and run propaganda campaigns under the guise of humanitarian work. They can sue the government in one circuit while receiving funds from it in another. They are unregulated proxies in the battle for the soul of the Republic.

At bottom, the use of NGOs to circumvent constitutional governance is not just a fiscal or administrative concern. It is a moral one. The essence of republicanism is deliberative legitimacy: laws made by elected bodies, executed by accountable officials, within a transparent structure. NGOs subvert this. They represent a fusion of elite philanthropy and bureaucratic ambition, insulated from both market discipline and democratic consent. In some cases, the subversion is formalized in statute.

...

They are neither wholly public nor truly private, and they answer to neither Congress nor the citizenry. They exist in the gray zone, where political agendas thrive without oversight.

The remedy is not complicated. First, federal funding to NGOs should be halted. Where services are needed, the government can contract private firms through open bidding processes, with strict oversight. Second, all existing grants should be reviewed for compliance, effectiveness, and political neutrality. Third, Congress must assert its power of the purse and demand justification for any non-governmental expenditure. Finally, all existing NGO-related appropriations should be placed on a firm legislative sunset schedule. This would force transparency, restore congressional control, and begin the process of dismantling the permanent infrastructure of taxpayer-funded activism.

See the post for more.

Posted by: Ace at 03:01 PM | Comments (307) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Woke Chinese-Slavery Exploiter Nike Is Funding a "Study" To Figure Out What Hormones to Inject Into Young Boys So They Can Pretend to Be Girls and "Compete Meaningfully" in Girls' Sports

Jennifer Sey
@JenniferSey

Buried deep in today's article in @NYTmag about Blaire Fleming and @SJSU
women's volleyball team, is the fact that @Nike is funding a study to understand how much they can hamper male advantage in pre-pubescent boys to allow for "meaningful competition" despite those advantages.

1. why is @Nike funding research (yes we knew this already but here it is in the @nytimes) about how to disfigure and sterilize little boys sufficiently such that they retain male advantage but not so much that it would be unfair to girls?

2. Girls/women are not hampered or impaired males. It's never ok. The mere debate about how much impairing is the right amount is demeaning and degrading to women.

3. @Nike -- just make sneakers and focus on bringing your business back to life. This is, at best, a distraction from your fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders and divisive for your consumer base. At worst, it is criminal. It is most certainly grotesque and unethical and outside the scope of business goals to be in the business of destroying the bodies and sexual function of little boys.

Posted by: Ace at 01:50 PM | Comments (307) | Trackbacks (Suck)

New Mexico Judge Resigns After Feds Arrest "Man" In His Home

The Albuquerque Journal hides the actual news here: The feds didn't just arrest a "man" he was keeping in his home.

And not just an Immigrant Man, either.

ICE came to arrest a Tren de Aragua man this judge was keeping in his home.

Doña Ana County judge resigns after feds arrest man at home

LAS CRUCES -- Doña Ana County Magistrate Judge Joel Cano has resigned from the bench where he has sat since 2011.

Although his resignation letter, dated March 3, did not state his reason for stepping down, it followed shortly after a man awaiting deportation proceedings, accused by federal law enforcement of being affiliated with a Venezuelan gang, was arrested at Cano's home.

Cristhian Ortega-Lopez, 23, faces federal firearm charges after Homeland Security Investigations executed a search warrant on Feb. 28 at a Las Cruces residence owned by Cano and his wife, Nancy.

"Working with each of you has been a very rewarding experience for which I will remain eternally grateful," Cano wrote in a letter addressed to 3rd Judicial District Chief Judge Conrad Perea and court staff. The letter declared his last day as March 21, which dockets show was also the last day he had hearings scheduled in court.

was first elected as a magistrate judge in 2010 and ran unopposed in three subsequent elections, winning his fourth term in 2022.

I suppose that was pretty obvious.

The details of Ortega-Lopez's arrest and prior relationship with the Cano family are addressed in federal court motions seeking Ortega-Lopez's detention. In New Mexico federal district court, prosecutors argue that Ortega-Lopez is a flight risk and a danger to the community due to an alleged criminal history, including alleged ties to the Tren de Aragua gang in Venezuela.

Court filings state that agents recovered four firearms from a neighboring home owned by April Cano, who is identified in court filings as Nancy Cano's daughter. A criminal complaint alleges Ortega-Lopez admitted to possessing and firing them, as seen in photos and videos posted on Facebook last December.

Ortega-Lopez was taken into custody along with other individuals described as roommates in court filings.

For some reason the judge introduced this guy to his daughter.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter or Pesach.

Posted by: Ace at 12:27 PM | Comments (407) | Trackbacks (Suck)

THE MORNING RANT: Could Ranked Choice Voting Allow the GOP to Snatch Some Prominent Seats in Blue States?

Ranked choice voting (“RCV” has proven to be an effective tool for Democrats to win elections in red states and congressional districts, most famously in Alaska. Naturally, we Republicans stand in principled opposition to this electoral gimmick which has cost us the loss of otherwise safe seats in Congress.

Are we perhaps so indignant about how this is being used against us that we are forsaking the opportunity to deploy this same tactic against Democrats?

The specific gimmick with ranked choice voting is that it serves as an instant runoff. When voters cast their ballots, they also indicate who their second choice is in each race, and if their chosen candidate is not one of the top two vote getters, their backup vote gets counted. The reason Democrats have been effective in using RCV is that it generally also replaces party primaries with a “jungle primary” in which all candidates of both parties compete. RCV then sorts out the winner. Democrats have generally had the discipline to only run one candidate while Republicans split the vote with multiple candidates who might otherwise have been narrowed down to one candidate in a Republican party primary. Above all else, RCV inserts chaos and confusion into the election of what would normally be a reliable Republican seat.

Lisa Murkowski, a Democrat in elephant’s clothing who was bequeathed her Senate seat by her daddy, had previously lost a Republican Senate primary in Alaska, and stood no chance of ever again winning a Republican primary there. So to help her retain the Senate seat, the Alaska political establishment implemented RCV in 2022. Instead of a primary, there was an open RCV election. The real Republican, Kelly Tshibaka, received 43% of the vote, the same vote total as Ms. Murkowski, who despite running as a Republican gathered most of the Democrat vote. The actual Democrat candidate got just 10% of the vote, as his role was simply to ensure that neither candidate got 50%, kicking in the “second choice” option to push the liberal Murkowski over the top. Democrats also won Alaska’s sole seat in the House of Representatives in 2022 thanks to RCV, with Mary Peltola defeating Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich.

The good news is that Republicans took back Alaska’s House seat in the 2024 election. The bad news is that RCV remains in place there, which Murkowski will need to keep winning re-election.

Let’s forget about RCV for just a moment and think about all the political ground we conservatives have sacrificed out of noble principles. For years, we mocked political boycotts of companies as being something our sacred principles wouldn’t allow. But Democrats had no problem letting corporate America know that they’d boycott businesses if those companies didn’t engage in the culture war on the left’s behalf. So corporate America took the easy path, choosing to accommodate the left’s political agenda so as not to lose their business, while we conservatives piously refused to counter-boycott. How’d that turn out for us? Corporate America became an enforcement arm of woke culture. It was only when we started boycotting in response to woke advertising campaigns such as those from Gillette and Bud Light that corporate America started to back off from left wing politics.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (300) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

L'abandon
Guillaume Seignac

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (349) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 4/ 21 /25

Good morning kids. Hope you all had a blessed Easter Sunday. And of course the big news this morning is that Pope Francis has died.

I want to be very careful what I write and how I phrase my thoughts because the last thing I want to do is offend my dear Catholic brothers and sisters. Regardless of the background, and it is a very checkered background indeed of this Pope, he was the head of the Catholic church, and his death coming as it does at the end of the Easter holy week, makes writing this column all the more problematic.

Yet, that said, His life and background defined who he was. And by looking at this summary of his words and actions from the invaluable Discover the Networks makes it crystal clear, and this excerpt is just the bullet point intro:

*Calls on America to welcome illegal immigrants fleeing persecution in their homelands
*Characterizes capitalism as an economic system “where the powerful feed upon the powerless,” and which leads inevitably to “the greedy exploitation of environmental resources”
*Asserts that the “inequality” inherent in capitalist economies constitutes “the root of social ills” and “eventually engenders … violence”
*Believes that “the bulk of global warming” is due to “the great concentration of greenhouse gases” generated by “human action”
*Opposes the death penalty and life-in-prison

From my perspective, until the very end he was essentially the same unreconstructed Argentinian Communist he always was. It's not that he embraced and promoted secular political causes, it's that the causes he embraced were at the forefront of a movement that sought the dismantling of the Church he was supposed to lead and antithetical to his stated beliefs about humanity, inclusiveness, justice and the lofty ideals he supposedly championed.

Most horrendous was his embrace of Islam, as Islam ramped up its ongoing 1,500-year war against infidels, including the Church all over the world and most brutally in one of the last major bastions of Catholicism and Christianity in general in the world, central Africa.

As he welcomed and embraced the most radical imams to the Vatican he made no mention of their bloody rampage, and yet insisted that the Western world and Catholics commit societal suicide by erasing their borders, destroying the greatest engine of prosperity the world will ever know, free market capitalism, and accepting the global warming/climate change lie as the excuse.

Also, his views on homosexuality and transsexualism in service to that dissolution were not merely the echoing of the sentiment of loving the sinner and hating the sin, but also as yet another assault on the Church from within. Perhaps if the Pope spent less time on demanding the faithful accept teachings antithetical to traditional Catholicism, he would have better served the faithful in defending them instead of defending the forces of darkness and evil seeking their destruction.

So an extremely flawed man who held the title of Pope has passed, and it will be up to the Lord to render His final judgement.

I certainly hope and pray that the next Pope is someone, who like John Paul II not only understands but perhaps like him at one point actually lived under the boot of and then stared down the face of evil. It would be most appropriate that Francis' successor be his diametric opposite. Given what's going on in the world today, it would be a Divine blessing, and I would be thrilled to see the cardinal from Nigeria or any from that part of Africa , whose flock has and continues to be decimated by Boko Haram and its allies be elected.

I have no idea what the internal politics are of the Vatican and college of cardinals. Given the twisted politics of far too much of the Western and putatively Christian world, insofar as the infection known as Wokism, Perhaps the best we can hope for is not another Pope Fiction, communist in Papal drag. I don't think they'll have the stones to elect someone who will be as vocal in calling out Islam as Francis was in apologizing for Islam while denouncing the advancement of Western civilization over the past two millennia.

And lastly, a quick shout-out and thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know. 

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• Pope Francis, who rose from janitor to the Catholic Church’s most powerful leader by proving equally at ease with intellectuals as society’s most downtrodden, has died at age 88, the Vatican confirmed.
  POPE FRANCIS DEAD

• Clarice Feldman: The broad scope and speed of the administration’s actions have knocked the sense out of the media, the Democrats, and the judiciary. They cannot seem to process the swift and expansive range of change without making themselves look ridiculous.
  Is it Time to Ignore the Judiciary?
  
• Victor Davis Hanson: Elite universities push for federal funding while ignoring legal and ethical obligations, fueling public distrust as they prioritize ideology over academic rigor and free speech.
  Do Elite Universities Really Wish to Fight the Federal Government?

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:25 AM | Comments (443) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 21 April 2025

Top Story

• Discord is deploying age verification systems recently made mandatory in fascist dystopias. (Soap Central)
  
  Like Britain. And Australia.
  
  Fortunately they're being a lot more sensible about this than the governments that enforced the rules. The verification pops up - once - when you want to see adult content.
  
  Which is not something I want from Discord, ever, so I don't see this as a huge problem. And you can pass the verification check with a face scan by the app and not have to upload government ID.
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (163) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Easter Sunday Overnight Open Thread - April 20, 2025 [Doof]

(Mystery Click dedicated to the Son)

Howdy Hordelings! Happy Easter / Resurrection Sunday. Hope you were able to enjoy the day with family, friends, loved ones, candy, eggs, good food and drink - or whatever it is you did today. If you celebrate today's calendar date, go grab yourself some munchies and a large beverage. Now step inside the ONT and drop something witty in the comments!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (414) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: Easter Bunny Edition!

A Gunthread Easter favorite!

Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!

Holy Shitballs! Happy Easter everybody! Has everyone bitten the head off their chocolate bunny yet?

With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?

Posted by: Weasel at 07:00 PM | Comments (306) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: Chocolate Bunnies And Crawfish?

That was from the third batch of our neighbor's crawfish boil. Delicious! The first two batches were pretty damned tasty too. He uses the same boiling liquid for each batch, so it gets more intensely flavored as the day goes on. Yesterday was his fourth Crawfish boil, and the guy is getting really, really good at it! Controlling the amount of spice for each batch is a bit of an art, and this guy is an artist!

Luckily it coincided with a brief return home for us, because I would have been very disappointed to miss it. The Corn Hole tournament though was a bit much for our jet lag.

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (208) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First World Problems...

Weasel is up to his old tricks...causing trouble with his catastrophic choice of container closing system.

I know, I know, the choice is obvious. The clip is the only way to go, because the twist-tie fails spectacularly when reused. Look at the one he uses... the damned thing could take out an eye!

But real men...men who think John Moses Browning was an effete poseur because he didn't design a .50 ACP... use binder clips!

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (147) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Women's Safety Is A Red Herring

Obviously the Maine Attorney General is a booger-eating retard if he thinks that there is no danger to women and girls when they compete against men and boys. Can he be that dumb? Possibly! Just read the two sentence statement and you will notice a conspicuous lack of communication ability: Crap sentence structure, run-on, fragments, no parallelism, and that weird affectation that politicians and other worms use -- "The participation?" What... he can't even recognize that there are actual humans involved? And of course, the sheer idiocy of failing to recognize what most people with seven seconds of experience in the real world understand... Men and boys are bigger, stronger, faster, and more aggressive than women and girls. They shouldn't contend in physical competition.

But he's not that much of a retard...he is an apparatchik. He is dutifully following his marching orders to blur the lines between men and women, to destroy the concepts of traditional relationships, to subvert our culture with ahistorical, ascientific nonsense like transgenderism.

Maine AG Feels 'No Concerns of Safety' For Girls Playing Against Trans-Identifying Athletes

After the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against Maine on Wednesday, state Attorney General Aaron Frey claimed there are “no concerns of safety” about female athletes competing against transgender-identifying males.

Frey made the comment during an interview on CNN, continuing his state’s defense of letting males play on female sports teams because of their claimed “gender identity.” The DOJ is suing Maine over its refusal to comply with President Trump’s executive order, which interpreted Title IX to prohibit the inclusion of men in women’s sports.

“We’ve been working though to understand what, if any, problem exists with the participation. If some of the harms that are being alleged really are of some concern and what we’ve identified, there really are no concerns of safety,” Frey said.

He is tipping his hand though... the idea of physical danger to women and girls if they are forced to compete with men and boys can be massaged away almost completely. Rule changes, better officiating, high-level committees, weight classes...and on and on and on. They will flood the zone with that sort of bullshit, trying to hide the real issue.

That real issue is that men and boys are biologically and psychologically distinct from women and girls, and no amount of post-modern, Freudian/Marxist bullsh*t can change that. They want to make the issue simply one of safety, when the reality is that it is a cultural and biological issue. Denial of the damage to our culture is one step, and denial of biological reality is another. By focusing on safety they ignore the profound issues.

There are many sports in which physical safety isn't an issue. Swimming comes to mind, and Riley Gaines has been a staunch defender of the traditional concept of Men and Women without resorting to the important but secondary "physical safety" issue. That is not to say that there are no safety issues in non-contact sports. The psychological and cultural damage being done to women and girls by forcing them to compete with an objectively unfair set of rules can't be overstated. And forcing the use of the same locker rooms is a perversion that is breathtaking in its evil.

But the primary evil is the Marxist conceit that Man is malleable and perfectible. And in their twisted world, the innate differences between men and women can be changed with a new birth certificate, a handful of hormone pills, some makeup, and long hair.

Yes, safety is a significant issue, but letting them focus on that is a tactical error. Never let go of the real issue...Men and Women are simply different, and no amount of Marxist/Freudian gobbledygook can change that.

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (146) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 4-20-2025 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

Today's Sunday Morning Book Thread is dedicated to the memory of jewells45, who went to be with the Lord this past week. I will always remember her as a smiling, laughing woman who danced with me at a TXMOME.

Prayers for NaCly Dog and his wife this morning.

"He is not here. He is risen, just as he said."

--Matthew 28:6 (NIV)

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (271) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 20 April 2025

Top Story

• Vendors have voted to reduce the duration of SSL certificates from one year to 47 days. (Computerworld)
  
  Fuck vendors.
  
  This is mostly driven by Apple, because... Because nothing, really. It's a bad solution to a non-problem.
  
  Apple has been pushing for this for some time. Previously certificates were valid for up to five years, and then Apple got involved.
  
  And the certificate vendors have just committed suicide, because nobody is going to pay them for a certificate that has to be manually refreshed every few weeks, and if you are deploying an automated solution you might as well go all the way and implement a free automated solution using Let's Encrypt.
  
  So good work, assholes.
  
  
  
• It's true that SSL providers are stupid but you still can't use the certificate without hacking DNS. (Bugzilla)
  
  And it's true that SSL is intended to be resilient to this sort of attack, but if you care about security you need to care about who is providing your DNS, and if you do then this attack doesn't work anyway.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (248) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Night "Club ONT" April 19, 2025 [The 3 D's]

Welcome to Club ONT! A collaboration of your Sunday through Wednesday ONT Crew - The Disco, The Doggo, and The Dino. Two D show tonight as the Doggo jumped the fence and is roaming the neighborhood - if you get a message from him about canned meat, don't open it. It's Spam.

Top photo: Easter baskets at Club ONT may be a little different than those the Easter Bunny leaves for the kiddies.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:55 PM | Comments (258) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Open Thread

You know the drill...

Posted by: CBD at 08:57 PM | Comments (216) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hobby Thread - April 19, 2025 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies(TM) the weekend off because Peter Cottontail has taken over. Let's talk Easter!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (180) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, April 19

Courtesy Misantropic Humanitarian

* * *

Good afternoon and welcome to the almost world famous Ace of Spades Pet Thread. Thanks for stopping by. Kick back and enjoy the world of animals.

Would you like a treat?

Let's relax a little with the animals and leave the world of politics and current events outside today.

Posted by: K.T. at 03:37 PM | Comments (71) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, April 19

Sakura blossoms, JR, Japan

Happy Easter Weekend! What could be nicer than some blossoming trees?

Posted by: K.T. at 01:30 PM | Comments (51) | Trackbacks (Suck)