Archive for February, 2024

Jews in Hollywood, It’s History, not Some Vast Conspiracy or Something we Can’t Mention

Posted: February 5, 2024 by datechguy in business, comedy, culture, entertainment
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German Woman talk show host: Mr. Williams, why do you think there is not much comedy in Germany?

Robin Williams: Did you ever think you killed all the funny people?

Today at Don Surber’s site he celebrates the contributions of various ethnic groups, starting with Blacks as it’s black history month and ending with the WASPS who founded this country making all those other contributions to America possible. He notes many people who might have been forgotten a few I had never heard of and in going through the list he has this section about Jewish Americans:

As for Jews, I can go on all day about them. They gave the country physicists, Irving Berlin and a host of comedians. Jews invented Hollywood by founding Columbia, Fox, Paramount, Universal and MGM. Even the Warner Brothers were Jewish. Could we kindly stop the anti-Semitism already?

Emphasis mine

That reminded me of this Dave Chappelle bit on Kanye & Jews:

Now the hesitancy to talk about Jews in Hollywood/Entertainment or bring it up is something I’ve never understood. When various ethnic groups come to a country and start a business you will see family coming over and joining in. There is a reason why so many pizza places were run by Italians.

If people start a business, especially people outside the dominant culture they tend to hire family and people from their same ethnic group, additionally people who come to a country looking for work tend to check first within their ethnic group, same culture, same language and once they assimilate they and/or their children & grandchildren branch out.

So see a lot of XXX and sons, but you very rarely see XXX and grandsons because by the time you reach that generation the kids are Americanized and go their own way.

So Thomas Edison not withstanding if Jews went all in on entertainment, if Jews founded Columbia, Fox, Paramount, Universal MGM and Warner Brothers why should anyone be surprised if.

  1. They tended to hire a lot of Jews when they started.
  2. A lot of Jews tended to gravitate to the entertainment business
  3. And a ton of Jews are still in the business today. 

This makes sense particularly if you consider that Jews historically have not been particularly loved or treated well through history. Why wouldn’t you get involved in an industry that is:

  • Profitable
  • Secure (meaning that it won’t disappear)
  • Has influence
  • And gives you the change to put the Jewish point of view out there

Alas because some were far leftists you had a leftist point of view pushed too but I digress.

Bottom line I’m not about to get my knickers in a twist because ethnic Jews took the risk to get into the ground floor of the entertainment business which provides comfort and joy to people all over the world and still reaping the rewards of that risk. If you have a problem with that then that’s your problem.

But neither am I going to deny that’s the case because people might feel upset about it being said openly. Frankly I think the reaction of of a Jewish person to the “Jews run Hollywood” business should be: ”Yeah Jews are big in Hollywood and I’m damn proud of it!”

It’s not a conspiracy, it’s just the way things went naturally.

I’ll leave you with the Robin Williams joke I started with, he delivers it better than I write it.

Equal Time , Belichick Letter & Son, Biden’s phony strike, Texas Shows how it’s done and my Keeper List: Under the Fedora

Posted: February 4, 2024 by datechguy in crime, Dynasty, dynasty baseball, election 2024, elections, gaming, middle east, nfl, online gaming, Sports
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The most interesting thing about Nikki Haley’s appearance on Saturday Night Live is this statement from sources concerning NBC via the Hollywood reporter:

NBC declined to comment, but sources told The Hollywood Reporter that NBC will comply with any equal time obligations for other presidential candidates across both parties.

If I’m Trump I jump all over this.

Bill Belichick took out of full page ad in the Sunday Boston Globe to thank Patriots fans for their support an excerpt:

“Nowhere in America are pro sports fans as passionate as in New England and for 24 years, I was blessed to feel your passion and power,” Belichick’s letter read. “The Patriots are the only NFL team representing SIX states but in reality, Patriots Nation knows no borders.

“You were undaunted by weather, attended scorching hot training camp practices and braved Foxborough’s coldest, wettest, snowiest, and windiest days.… Your thoughtful letters offered support, critique and creative play suggestions. You watched on TV, the internet and from your stadium seats.

It was a nice gesture that’s made easier by his lack of a coaching job.

It’s worth noting his son is still employed as a defensive coach on the Patriots but I suspect Kraft was just waiting for Bill to get hired but as he was not it will be interesting to see how much longer he lasts.

The telegraphing of the Biden administration of counterstrikes against Iran giving the enemy time to evacuate and remove any important material is a function of a person who needs to seem to do something when actually he is not.

It reminds me of the old movie the American President. Michael Douglas’ characters insists on hitting back at the command center at night to decrease causalities and cries over the janitor who will be killed instead of hitting at the time when the actual people who were in charge of the attack where there.

Basically that janitor dies so he can feel better about himself. The Biden admin is all about false appearances.

Speaking of appearances new figures from the Border are demonstrating that Texas’ approach to you know actually enforcing the law has results:

A key stat:

Notably, the numbers in TX’s Del Rio sector, which includes Eagle Pass, have fallen off a cliff. In December, the sector saw days of 3,000-4,000 illegal crossings per day. Over the last week, it has averaged around just 200.

I know that California has no intention of enforcing the law the real question is what direction will New Mexico & Arizona go?

Finally while we still have one opening in our 1972 Dynasty League (Chicago Cubs if interested comment here) I have submitted my keeper list for our 1972 season. They are:

  1. LHSP Ken Holtzman
  2. LHSP Al Downing
  3. RHSP Mike Torrez
  4. RHRP Jerry Bell
  5. CF Ken Berry
  6. RF Pete Rose
  7. LF Gene Giles
  8. 1b Ron Fairly
  9. 2B/3B Ron Hunt

There were some really tough calls. Darryl Porter will be a monster in 1973 and Jim Slanton has a huge future ahead of him but they are only part time this year, Likewise Dave Conception is a killer defensive outfielder that I carried for two years but I’m heavy in the OF so he’s the odd man out, Bob Miller is a solid reliever and Bill Parsons eats up innings as a starter but I can’t justify them over any of the keepers. Finally Mike Jorgenson was picked up in a trade because he has a long and solid future ahead of him and while he is a better first baseman than Fairly this year and will soon be one of the best defensive 1B available by 1973, Fairly is going to have a monster year next season and except against lefties is still solid.

Maybe these guys will be available later in the draft but what I need to pick up is:

  • 3 RHSP at least one of Ace qualify
  • A solid power hitter (3B or C)
  • A starting shortstop
  • A Closer
  • 2 Catchers
  • Middle Relief

Fortunately thanks to trades with the Mets (Daytraders), Orioles, and Royals I have 3 1st round picks and two picks in the 3rd, 5th and 6th rounds so filling those spots should be a tad easier.

Journalism’s “extinction event” will lead to new and better choices for news

Posted: February 4, 2024 by John Ruberry in blogs, business, culture, internet/free speech, media, News/opinion, opinion/news
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By John Ruberry

Big News is having a bad time of it. Paul Farhi, who accepted a buyout from the Washington Post, asked in the Atlantic–a magazine that is propped up by billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs–“Is American Journalism Headed Toward an ‘Extinction-Level Event?'”

With massive layoffs not only at the Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, but also the Los Angeles Times–and with Sports Illustrated being probably as dead as the Detroit Lions’ Super Bowl dreams–the answer may be a loud “Yes.” 

Meanwhile, in Democrat-controlled Illinois, the Illinois Local Journalism Task Force, created by legislation in 2021, is betting on the dinosaurs, that is, traditional media. Last week, the task force issued its recommendations for journalism in the Prairie State.

“Its proposals are mostly about getting taxpayers to pony up and putting government in control,” Mark Glennon says in Wirepoints, “[with] no mention of journalism’s own failures.”

Indeed, there are many failures. The glaringly obvious one–unless you work in mainstream media–is that journalists are pushing a narrative to score love from the 20 percent of the population who are far-leftists. Even in Illinois, a blue state, there are not many ultra lefties–they might make up 25 percent of the populace here.

Among the recommendations from the tax force include a whole slew of tax credits for local news sources, including for subscriptions, businesses who advertise with them, as well as for local news providers hiring reporters.

Every one of the recommendations from the task force are wretched ideas that I could eviscerate easily one by one, but to save time, I’ll move on. But not yet. Besides these tax credits, the task force recommends exempting local news sources from Illinois’ corporate income tax. 

Some states have no corporate income tax.

News should be a mass market product, not a niche offering, but the liberals in charge have turned it into that. Again, I’ll be brief. Most Americans–and yes, most Illinoisans–believe there are only two genders, and most had doubts about the COVID propaganda of 2020-21. And most of them are fed up with the lamestream media minimizing the ongoing crisis with rampant crime.

Yeah, I get it, the internet has hurt local news providers. But they didn’t adapt. The same with Big News.

Let’s talk about extinction events. Real ones. Extinction is usually portrayed as mass death, yet it’s also a mass life event. 

Following the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, the lystrosaurus, a runt buck-toothed freak reptile, thrived, along with many other emergent species. Soon, geologically speaking that is, came the dinosaurs. After the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, different small animals, mammals and birds among them–as well as fungus–prospered.

There’s never been more media–or more information–than there is now. Print newspapers are sometimes called dinosaur media.  I believe they should always be named as such. Among the new media are of course blogs such as this one, YouTube and Rumble video channels, streaming services, podcasts, and so much more. A consumer of information is now faced with a daunting challenge. Because finding enough time to sift through all of the choices–let alone absorb all of them–is impossible. 

Last Thursday, Chicago Tribune reporters held a one-day strike against its owner, Alden Capital, a hedge fund firm. “We often say, ‘Newspapers are not dying, they’re being killed,'” Gregory Pratt, a committed left-wing Trib journalist, told WGN-TV. 

Wrong, Pratt. Newspapers are being killed because journalists are emitting an unpopular product and looking down on their customers.

Let’s return to the Illinois Local Journalism Task Force. 

In its rancid report there is a map of Illinois. Counties with few media choices are marked in that map in different shades of red. One of those is McHenry, which is northwest of Chicago. I know of two great news sites reporting about McHenry County: Cal Skinner’s McHenry County Blog and the Lake and McHenry County Scanner–a suburban answer to the phenomenally successful CWB Chicago. I’m certain that the task force didn’t include these sites in their elitist media tally. 

Another fabulous Illinois news source is the aforementioned Wirepoints.

Big creatures usually don’t survive natural mass extinction events. Small ones, nimble animals, find opportunities in an altered world.

Remember, lystrosaurus made way for larger and grander beasts, such as the Tyrannosaurus rex. Today’s blog may become tomorrow’s News Corp–the parent company of Fox News, Dow Jones, HarperCollins, and so many more.

Humans will always crave information–it’s in our DNA–it is just a matter of how it’s delivered to us. We’ve come a very long away from when the evening news was a caveman squatting in front of a bonfire telling whoever was sitting in front of him how that day’s hunt went. If that prehistoric anchorman delivered fake news–“I killed six mammoths today with my bare hands!”–his audience simply walked away. Kind of like what consumers of Big News are doing now.

The dinosaur media–and the Illinois Journalism Task Force–doesn’t get it.

John Ruberry blogs regularly from the Chicago area at Marathon Pundit.

The future is cheap drones

Posted: February 3, 2024 by navygrade36bureaucrat in Uncategorized
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With all the dumb headlines and conspiracy theories surrounding Taylor Swift, you could be forgiven for missing a far more important headline: that the Ukrainians sank the Russian corvette Ivanovets using unmanned surface vessels.

The Ukrainians continue to use cheap drones to hit Russian troops on land and now attack vessels at sea. When you lack the money and infrastructure to build high end tanks, aircraft and ships, and you have to counter such units, cheap drones are going to be the best selection.

Right now we’re seeing wave attacks of guided drones, which require a human in the loop. This will last until electronic weapons become good enough that having a command link to guide the drones becomes too big of a risk. At that point we’re going to start seeing autonomous drones launched on one-way missions that will strike targets without ever calling back to home.

This isn’t to say that drones make ships, aircraft and troops obsolete. Drones can’t occupy land (at least, not until Skynet has its way) and they can’t run airports and seaports. Drones will act as a way of denying the use of these facilities, sea lanes or land. The opposing side will have to develop cheap ways of responding, because its not economically feasible to use a million dollar missile to shoot down a $10K drone every time you are attacked. The United States would do well to develop these methods now before we have to develop them in a hurry in the Red Sea.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.

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