I am subscribed to their channel and they are a really bad influence. I don’t need to gain more weight, damn it!

This is one of the Grammys I consider to be the best. It was 1987 and the Academy took a bold chance to allow some comedian be the host of the show: Billy Crystal. He was magnificent and came back twice more before being kidnapped to the Oscars.

There were many magnificent performances that year, but I think for what we have been talking about, this is the example I wanted to leave: Pure music played with heart my masters of their craft.

Crank it up, it is well worth it.

What I did not know at the time was that I was watching the last days of the award. In 1990,  Milli Vanilli won an award for Best New Artist and even gave a fake performance right before the truth about lip-synching exploded to the masses but it had been known in the business since the year before.

I don’t think they ever recovered from that one. Mistrust is an awfully hard stain to remove.

Did not watch it. I have not watched it for many moons because it stopped representing the musicians and the people working in the industry long ago and it became a long video clip to sell music.

I did keep an eye on Twitter and as expected, it was all a political fest with huge loads of hypocrisy. You would swear that no sexual harassment ever happened or happens in the music industry and that Left Wing Ideals are the best creative inspiration in the world.

And this was piss cherry on top of the turd:

Hillary won a Grammy – Best Spoken Word Recording in 1,997 for her book “It takes a Village.”  It is my opinion that year began the downfall of that category into an almost purely political award. Other winners after her were Obama (twice), Al Franken, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter with Bill Maher and Stephen Colbert nominated for awards. You still think I am joking? In 2006, Obama beat George Carlin, in what normal universe that happens?

The Music Industry is not doing well. Piracy did hit deep and things have literally flipped. When back in the dinosaur ages, a band or artist would tour to sell a record, now they hope that the record would attract people to come see the show and pay good money for the tickets and merchandise. Those who still hold to the old method will not survive, specially if the meddle with politics of any side.

Oh well, it is their funeral. It is not like I am listening much to anything produced after Dire Straits.

According to LBGTG Nation:

Less than half of Americans now accept LGBT people in a dangerous reversal of progress

According to The Daily Beast:

It’s Official: America Suddenly Isn’t Comfortable With LGBT People

For the first time in four years, GLAAD found that fewer non-LGBT adults are comfortable with their LGBT peers. The organization says Trump’s anti-LGBT agenda is partly to blame.

Both articles reference the same GLAAD study, and come to the same conclusion: TRUMP!

“This change can be seen as a dangerous repercussion in the tenor of discourse and experience over the last year,” Ellis wrote. “2017 brought heightened rhetoric toward marginalized communities to the forefront of American culture.”

In particular, Ellis cited President Trump’s attempt to ban transgender troops from the military via Twitter, Mississippi’s anti-LGBT law HB 1523, and the fatal violence against transgender people across the country as evidence that anti-LGBT rhetoric and sentiment was on the rise in 2017.

I have twice covered the fact that the transgender homicide issue is significantly overblown and the statistics do not indicate there is a unique problem of trans people being targeted for murder.

The popular wisdom was that 2017 was a uniquely awful year for LGBT Americans; the Accelerating Acceptance report is one of the first tangible signs of how bad it has been.

Unfortunately, the GLAAD survey also found that non-LGBT Americans may not have supported LGBT people as vigorously as they did in previous years—although they still technically support equal rights for LGBT people by a wide margin.

Why was 2017 such a bad year for LGBT?  Well, first there was Trump rounding up all the gay and trans people and having Reichsführer Pence electrocute the gay out of them.

Wait, no, that never happened.

I think this shift in opinion is not so much caused by Trump but caused by the same thing that created Trump.

In no particular chronological order:

The LGBT community has shot past bankrupting bakers who refuse to bake gay wedding cakes and is now destroying the livelihood of small business owners who answer hypotehetical questions abotu gay weddings.

The LGBT community has put a lot of effort into white washing the Pulse shooting.  The entire “Disarm Hate” movement and pop culture remembrance of Pulse is a collective delusion where a white, Christian, toxic male, shot a bunch of gays because he was asked to bake them a wedding cake, rather than a radicalized Muslim, inspired by ISIS.  These people go along with groups like Queers for Palestine and Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism, standing up for gay executing terrorists against gay friendly Israel.

The side effect of aligning with the Muslims is the growing radical anti-Antisemitism in the LGBT community, exemplified by the Chicago Dyke March kicking out Jewish supporters.

The LBGT community, which once fought the association of gay men and pedophiles is now going after the sexualization of children with gusto.    They have satanic drag queens reading to children at a public library.  They have made a 10 year old drag queen their hero.

The trans movement is having teachers read about transgenderism to children in kindergarten.  Then the Boy Scouts was forced to accept trans boys into scouts.

The trans movement has decided its bigoted for a straight person not to be sexually attracted to a trans person, because “genital preference” is transphobic.  The rapper Ginuwine resisted an unwanted kiss from a transwoman on Big Brother UK and suffered internet backlash because of it.  Opining that not wanting to kiss a transwoman is not bigoted cost at least one comic book artist his job.

In general, the trans bathroom issue has made the entire national uncomfortable at addressing real problems, like what to do about creepy men in women’s bathrooms.

Then, there was the decriminalization of deliberately infecting people with HIV in California, in a measure pushed by a gay California representative.

It’s not that the LGBT community is under attack because of Trump, as much as it is that the LGBT community is now inseparable from radical, far Left leaning, progressivism.    Many Americans can’t stand politically correct, Liberal fascism.  they voted for Trump because he seemed to fight against that.  When the LGBT community seems to be on a seek and destroy mission against Middle American businesses, children, and honored institutions like Scouts, there will be push back.  If Trump had anything to do with this, it is that he has shown he’s not afraid to stand up to the PC fascism.

GLAAD is putting the car before the horse.

I don’t think Americans are more concerned about what two consenting adults do in the privacy of their own home as much as the defacto symbol of the LGBT community has become this.

Answer: Because soccer has a bigger worldwide TV following than tennis. He plays for the Real Madrid of Spain and the games are transmitted across the globe to hundred of millions of fans a year. And when in July 15, the 2018 World Cup ends and Cristiano Ronaldo played with his national team of Portugal, more three and a half billion people would have watched the games or an average of 116,000,000 people every day. The income in TV ads alone will be amazing.

Tennis? Not even in their wettest dream they can achieve that. But Equal Pay is the buzz term lately because “Feminism.”

Some businesses are more political than others.  Generally gun stores swing a certain way politically, but that is because the gun store clientele does too.  When your business is quite often the target of politicians, some political activism is warranted.  That said, there are gun stores that I have walked in and out of because they went over the top.  They have more bumper stickers than guns.  The staff looks like they just got done raiding a meth lab.

I remember one time going into a gun store and all the guy had for handguns were Glocks.  I asked if he had anything else and then got an angry lecture about how the ONLY handguns worth owning were Glocks and everything else would get me killed in a firefight, and what was my malfunction for not liking Glocks.  Needless to say, I didn’t buy anything from him.

When I think about micro-breweries and restaurants, I think of business that are apolitical.  Generally, people don’t want a heaping dose of partisan politics when the go out for a good time.  The steep decline in NFL viewership proves that.

The owners of Black Star Line Brewery didn’t get that lesson.

This is how they describe their business.

Black Star Line Brewing Co. is the FIRST Black, family, & woman owned brewery in Beer City, USA.  We don’t just make great beers, we believe in collective economics and the liberation of all people.  And we’re just crazy enough to believe that can happen, one brewsky at a time.

From the get go they focus more on they are a black, woman owned business than the beer.  This doesn’t bode well.

Black Star Line Brewery was featured in Vice.

This Craft Beer Forces You to Confront White Supremacy

At Black Star Line Brewing, racial uplift and intersectionality are entwined with every beer they brew, right down to their queer-farmed hops.

Oh shit.  I pint of beer and side order of white guilt.  That’s going to be bitter an unpalatable.

From the people who own craft breweries to those who frequent them, the craft beer scene is interminably, undeniably white. Which is why the North Carolina-based Black Star Line Brewing Company—one of the first black, queer and female-owned and operated craft breweries in America—is such a breath of fresh air.

I can’t enjoy a brewpup now because they are too white.

Named after legendary black nationalist and Pan-Africanist writer Marcus Garvey’s historic shipping line, designed to enable the flow of both money and people back to and through Africa, Black Star Line Brewing is a craft brewery that’s unmistakably political in an industry that’s all too often not. And that’s nearly as refreshing as the queer-farmed, proprietary blend of hops they use for their brews.

Fantastic.  They are named in honor of a black nationalist, black separatist, and his shipping line which was the basis of his conviction for fraud.

Do I now have to be concerned about the sexual orientation of the farmers who grow my food?  That’s going to get mighty tedious if my bacon and eggs are not sourced from sufficiently deserve growers.

Also, is there something special about gay hops?  I thought those are what was used to make Zima.

“Each of our beers has a story,” explained McCrae, and are named in the spirit of the black community—names that become “an act of resistance, an act of reclamation. We educate about our history with the names.” With brews like Assata Ale, Stokely Stout, Afro Pop Porter, The Lorde, and more, the goal is to spark dialogue as one imbibes.

Oooo… an ale named after a cop killer.  I’m never going to order that.  A stout named after a leader of the Black Panthers.  I’m not going to order that, either.  They want you to so they can beat you over the head with it.

“We are in a unique position to have a conversation that most likely wouldn’t take place in most other breweries,” they said. “It’s like this, when people say: ‘What’s a Stokely?’ Well, let me tell y’all about Stokely Carmichael. Let’s talk about why he’s important to Black history. Let’s talk about why there’s an entire brewing industry out there designed for the palette of white folks.”

That sounds exactly like the sort of welcoming attitude you want in a brewpub.  Order a beer and get a lecture.

As someone with a dramatic student loan debt to income ratio, McCrae said they’ve yet to qualify for traditional loans. So they do what excluded folks have always done: be resourceful. That means that L.A. and their team frequently travel to local and regional beer and food festivals to hawk their wares and build community. And to date, Black Star Line’s capital is completely donation-based, from what McCrae calls their “#grassrootsreparations initiative.”

Oh for fuck’s sake.  It’s not a business loan, it’s “reparations.”  Now I’m definitely not going to give a penny.  I’m happy to support a small business.  I hope one day to start my own and I’d like support.  But calling it reparations, that’s a massive turn-off because it’s supported to guilt me out of my money.

It should come as no surprise as to what came next.

Owner of Queer, Black-Owned Brewery Says ‘White Supremacy’ Led to Its Closure

During its six-month tenure, Black Star Line Brewery faced death threats, numerous break-ins, and complicated financial woes.

Really?  I mean I get the closure and financial woes, but the excuse seems far fetched.

“Less than 72 hrs after celebrating King Day with a group of radical POC queers and community members, #BSLB was shut down and police were called to a community space that center [sic] being and liberation for all people. White loan officers called the police on a group of 8 POC Downtown Hendersonville. Why?”

In its own words, Black Star Line Brewing Company fought for social justice for “marginalized, disenfranchised people… through collective economics” (which was, in the brewery’s case, beer). 

“Collective economics” is the the death of everything it touches.  Back in 2016 a Marxist, vegan sandwich shop folded after sucking in customer service.  Before that, the tech startup that decided everyone was worth a minimum wage of $70,000, flopped.

Almost immediately after opening its doors in Hendersonville, a small community (with a population that is more than 80 percent white) in the western region of the state, the brewery started receiving threats. McCrae (who uses they/them pronouns) shared screenshots of profanity-laced emails with the public.    

Seems that when you business exists to guilt 8/10 locals, it’s not going to do so well.

I spoke with McCrae a few days after the brewery’s eviction. They recounted the numerous struggles they faced from day one, describing their shutdown as “intentional” and “systematic.” It started with an inability to secure traditional funding, forcing them to turn to a community development financial institution called Mountain BizWorks, from whom they procured a $50,000 loan, which McCrae says was insufficient from the start, as the brewery had requested a loan of at least $100,000 to get up and running.

According to its website, Mountain BizWorks’ mission is “to build a vibrant and inclusive entrepreneurial community in Western North Carolina by helping small businesses start, grow, and thrive… We have a particular focus on working with businesses unable to access financing from banks and other traditional sources, as well as low-income, minority, women, and immigrant entrepreneurs, and businesses that operate within the local food system.” McCrae describes a much different experience than the one Mountain BizWorks promotes.

So the progressive business incubator wasn’t sufficiently progressives for the queer, gender nonconforming, black, intersectional business founder.

 Between the hateful messages, numerous break-ins (“we stopped reporting the break-ins because the police didn’t care,” McCrae says), accusations of illegal operations (which were deemed false), an overdraft fee with the brewery’s supplier, and what McCrae describes as an inability to get in touch with Mountain BizWorks despite repeated attempts, McCrae reached a point wherein their landlord told Black Star Line that “our mission no longer matches their vision for the building.” MUNCHIES has reached out to Mountain BizWorks for comment, but has not yet received a response.

The cops were out to get them too.  It’s  damn conspiracy I tell you.

McCrae believes that Black Star Line wasn’t just another small business failure statistic. They point to a larger conspiracy, naming it “externalized cultural effects of white supremacy.” In their eyes, it was a setup from the very beginning. Hope for the future of Black Star Line Brewery still exists among its founders and fans, but morale is another story.

“They’ve criminalized us. Dehumanized us,” says McCrae. “Even the detective assigned to the investigation of another break-in after we were unlawfully evicted was quoted saying that he’s 90 percent sure that we did this to ourselves for sympathy on our way out. How can we trust him?

Holy shit, I was being facetious, “they” are being serious.

Even Google was in the hate.

Making weak beer and then calling customers racist is a surefire way to make it rich and successful.

Welcome to progressive economics.  They go with ideas that have failed every time they have been tried before, but when they try them again and fail, it’s because the “white supremacy” was out to get them.