Gun Free Zone

Short and funny… probably true also.

Dogs be like ? pic.twitter.com/O1XvsaJuvV

— Khaleaf_da_don (@KingleafDaDon) August 2, 2020

From The Guardian:

China continues to exert damaging influence on Hollywood, report finds
A study from Pen America warns of the long-term effects of studios censoring content to appease the Chinese government

A new report has found that the Chinese government’s influence on Hollywood is posing a serious threat to free expression.

The 94-page study, from the literary and human rights group Pen America, details the many ways that studios and film-makers continue to change “cast, plot, dialogue and settings” in an “effort to avoid antagonising Chinese officials” in films including Iron Man 3, World War Z and the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick.

“The Chinese Communist party is increasingly shaping what global audiences see,” said James Tager, deputy director of free expression research and policy at Pen America, also a lead author of the report. “While we are all well aware of the strict controls that China’s government maintains over dissent, independent thought and creativity within its own borders, the long arm of Chinese censorship – powered by vast economic incentives – has also reached deep into Hollywood, shaping perceptions, inculcating sensitivities and reshaping the bounds of what can be shown, said and told.”

To put it bluntly, there are only 330 million Americans and 1.3 billion Chinese.

Hollywood knows on what side its bread is buttered in terms of numbers of ticket sales so would rather make movies that the CCP approves of than make movies that Americans really want to see.

The release of the report comes after the US government has openly criticised Hollywood for kowtowing to Chinese intervention, also blaming the studios for pre-emptively censoring or canning potentially difficult projects.

“Many more scripts never see the light of day because writers and producers know not to test the limits,” the attorney general, William Barr, said in July. “Chinese government censors don’t need to say a word because Hollywood is doing their work for them. This is a massive propaganda coup for the Chinese Communist party.”

This is nothing new.  Miguel wrote a fantastic post about Hollywood’s alignment with Hitler before WWII.

During the Cold War, Hollywood was filled with useful idiots for the Soviet Union.

That is covered exceedingly well by one of my favorite YouTube channels, Rageaholic.

Today, it’s Communist China that Hollywood seeks to appease.

I don’t know what it is about Hollywood, but it attracts people who hate this country and our freedoms and makes them exceedingly rich by taking advantage of our freedoms to appease dictators and tyrants overseas who hate this country.

First the Nazis, then the Soviets, now it is the Chinese that are turning America’s movies into generic shit.

[Debora] Juarez, Blackfeet, says she began receiving “really vile” messages July 10, after protesters shared her home address and contact information online.

“They put my personal cellphone number, my address and started putting pictures of my home and address on Twitter and Facebook, and then I started getting vicious calls,” Juarez said.

Protesters have showed up at her house by the dozens a few times, shining their car headlights into her windows at night and using a bullhorn to chant and hurl insults, she said. She stayed at a motel one night and warned family members to keep away.

People also spray-painted names such as “corporate bootlicker” and obscene messages on her street, and they continue to send her harassing and threatening texts.

Protesters threaten Indigenous Seattle council member

And she is not a conservative either, just the opposite. But apparently she did not vote the way the “peaceful protesters” wanted and/or held heretic thoughts which invalidated her stay at the political reservation and she became a bad revolutionary “injun,” a traitor in need of punishment.

Sorry, but I could not care about your problem. You are from the same group that created these bastards and swore they could be controlled and would never fear being on the receiving end of their  revolutionary pressure tactics. Your side was warned that history showed otherwise, but you all chose to ignore it. Now you get to enjoy it.

“This is my life. This is home. This is not Coachella. This is not City Hall,” Juarez said. “Also, I’m not the toxic dumping ground where you need to come talk about your white privilege and how you need to talk about Black lives, because you sure as f—k don’t care about my life.”

You selfish woman! Your life can and will be sacrificed in the altar of the Revolution if needed to advance the fight to liberate the “oppressed” and you better like it. You will either be a teaching moment or a martyr, it is up to you which and enjoy it.

Hat Tip ManNirf

However, if you are an American, you get the “Papier, bitte!” treatment.

And, of course there is the collection of cash needed to keep funding the upkeep of BLM graffiti in front of Trump Plaza

INSANE moment when guy drives through the barricade, almost kills a guy on a bike who tries to a top him and speed all the way through the crowd to the fence on the other side. Jesus! We’re lucky no one is dead. pic.twitter.com/lwaZFknEWJ

— Donovan “It was the blurst of times” Farley ?? (@DonovanFarley) August 5, 2020

The video was posted by Donovan Farley who I imagine is trying to say he is a writer and has done work for the publications he lists.

Now, a first time viewer, guided by the words of Mr. Farley would tend to agree about the aggressive and perhaps unnecessary conduct of the driver of the truck.  That is, of course if you do not get to see the whole video or at least one with all the relevant parts.

I cannot even apply the “Accurate but not True” standard. The bike driver came from one side, drove against the truck which stopped, then threw the bike in front of the truck to block passage. Then on foot, moved menacingly towards the driver’s side window, well away from the front of the truck. At that moment the truck driver floors the truck and provides a nice spark show for the crowd and those at home.

UPDATE: There is another video where is shows even better how the bike was the one doing the active contact plus somebody busted the windshield of the truck.

Once again, “Peaceful Protesters” are violently attacked by a White Supremacist Truck.

Why they call it a fence is beyond rational people’s understanding. At best it was a poor attempt of barricade.
It is just a word game: If they call it barricade or blockage, it has a negative connotation and makes them look bad. Calling it fence evokes a nice suburban image of a front garden with toddlers playing with puppies in a summer day.  White Supremacist in Evil Big pick up truck drives through a fence incites empathy for them (they think) while White Supremacist in Evil Big pick up truck drives through a barricade makes people wonder why was there a barricade to begin with and who put it there.

Pickup sped through crowd and rammed through the fence, sparks flying. pic.twitter.com/0zumuvzNKC

— Hannah Ray Lambert (@TheHannahRay) August 5, 2020

After that tweet, the author posted a couple of photos which are not the best thing that they could have done to bolster their call as “peaceful protesters”.

One of the complains they have been spouting is that the police and the Federal LEOs have been targeting their medics who do nothing else but provide first aid to those who are unjustly targeted by the munitions throw at them, by the Gestapo Law Enforcemen and horseshit like that.

I have found convenient that the “red cross” markings are done with appears to be electrical tape and not something more permanent. Two pulls of the roll and the bomb-thrower now becomes a peaceful healing man, right?

But when you actively become involved in the illegal protest by parking the alleged rescue vehicle identified with the red cross as part of a barricade to impede the peaceful traffic of civilians and rescue vehicles, you are no longer covered by the niceties of society and have become an active target of opportunity.

.@NYCMayor: I’m laying off 22,000 city workers if the feds don’t give us a bailout pic.twitter.com/iWkSh4N8yJ

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) August 4, 2020

I have a bit of bad news for the Mayor: We don’t give a damn. Whatever fountain of kindness Americans had for Gotham after 9/11 it has been dry long ago and by now we are kinda sick of hearing about your self-inflicted problems. Time to grow a pair and solve your own shit.

And you would be laying off only 6.75% out of the bloated 350,000 of your city workers payroll. Now you can be edgy, raise taxes and hashtag it with something like #DefundNYC or #DefundRedTapeNYC or #ICantMayorForShit or something imaginative other than #BlameTrumpBecauseISuck

Hat Tip PaulTheK