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DECEMBER 25-26,  2022

NO HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD:  The financial results for Hollywood in 2022 are in.  They tough and revealing.  Maybe it's true that getting woke means going broke.  From Breitbart: 

For Hollywood, 2022 was truly an annus horribilis.

Major studios, streamers, cable providers, and other media giants lost a combined $542 billion in market value in 2022, with left-wing studios the Walt Disney Co., Netflix, and Comcast accounting for the bulk of the bloodshed.

The Dow Jones Media Titans index, which tracks the performance of 30 of the world’s biggest media companies, shed 40 percent this year, with its total market value declining from $1.35 trillion to $808 billion, according to a Financial Times report.

The losses outpaced indices for other sectors, including banking, which saw a 14.5 percent drop for the year, and telecommunications, which fell by 11.2 percent.

Hollywood’s horrible year was the result of a one-two punch of a downturn in the streaming market coupled with consumers continuing to cut the cord by the millions. In addition, the advertising market has cratered as households cut spending as the costs of essentials like food and energy continue to skyrocket due to President Joe Biden’s disastrous economic policies.

Woke companies paid the highest price in 2022.

Disney — once an invincible brand and iconic American company– saw its stock plummet more than 40 percent this year as the company faces weak profitability for the foreseeable future, prompting the firing of CEO Bob Chapek and the return of old CEO Bob Iger.

Disney, whose stock is on course for its worst year since 1974, spent 2022 embracing radical LGBTQ activism and waging a calamitous political war with Florida Gov. Rob DeSantis (R) over the state’s anti-grooming Parental Rights in Education Law.

Netflix experienced an unprecedented two consecutive quarters of subscriber losses this year, which resulted in layoffs and cost-cutting across the board. For the year, the stock is down more than 50 percent.

Other big losers include Paramount Global, whose stock has dropped more than 40 percent, and Warner Bros. Discovery — the parent company of CNN — whose stock has tumbled more than 60 percent.

Leftist Hollywood continues to deliver woke dud after woke dud…and it's awesome to see their profits cratering as a result. https://t.co/m92ofruh6N
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) October 2, 2022

Comcast — the parent of NBC and MSNBC, as well as Universal — is down more than 30 percent for the year.

“It’s been a perfect storm of bad news,” Michael Nathanson, media analyst at SVB MoffettNathanson, told the FT. “I’ve been covering this sector a long time and I’ve never seen such a bad collection of data points before.”

COMMENT:  Another problem is that woke movies, planned two years ago, are still in the pipeline.  They will likely fail spectacularly.  Maybe Hollywood will learn that people don't go to the movies to be insulted or told how terrible they are.  They go to be entertained.

December 26, 2022       Permalink 

NEWSOM THE CHAMP, AT LEAST IN SOMETHING:  The California governor wishes to be president.  He has a record to run on.  He'd be advised to bury it.  From Frontpage: 

The escape from New York and California, not to mention Illinois, continues.

California’s population continues to dwindle. The state’s population declined by 114,000 people from about 39,143,000 in 2021 to 39,029,000 in 2020, new estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau show.

At this rate, California will fall out of the 39 million category giving it its lowest population since 2015.

It marks the third straight year that California has reported a loss.

Gov. Newsom took office in 2019. That’s a population loss for every full year that he’s been in office since.

That’s quite a record for an aspiring presidential candidate. Historic even.  Gov. Newsom and his merry band of harvesters accomplished what no one was able to do before. But it’s not wholly unique.

California wasn’t the only state to lose population in 2022. Data shows six of the 10 largest states in the U.S., including California, Illinois and New York, have had populations decline between 2021 and 2022. Florida and Texas had the largest population increases among large states, by 1.9% and 1.6% respectively.

The blue state model is really working. Time to celebrate with some drinks at the French Laundry.

COMMENT:  It will be unique to see a governor running for president while his constituents are running away from his state.  What does he say?  How does he explain it?  And newsfilm of the homeless in Los Angeles and San Francisco will not help matters.  I can see a race between lesser governor Newsom of California and greater Governor DeSantis of Florida.  A clear choice between failure and success.  And most of the press will probably back the lesser.

December 25-26, 2022      Permalink

DECEMBER 23-24,  2022

LET US RESOLVE TO ELIMINATE THIS STUFF IN THE NEW YEAR:  FROM CITY JOURNAL: 

For years, two administrators at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) have been withholding notifications of National Merit awards from the school’s families, most of them Asian, thus denying students the right to use those awards to boost their college-admission prospects and earn scholarships. This episode has emerged amid the school district’s new strategy of “equal outcomes for every student, without exception.”

School administrators, for instance, have implemented an “equitable grading” policy that eliminates zeros, gives students a grade of 50 percent just for showing up, and assigns a cryptic code of “NTI” for assignments not turned in. It’s a race to the bottom.

An intrepid Thomas Jefferson parent, Shawna Yashar, a lawyer, uncovered the withholding of National Merit awards. Since starting as a freshman at the school in September 2019, her son, who is part Arab American, studied statistical analysis, literature reviews, and college-level science late into the night. This workload was necessary to keep him up to speed with the advanced studies at TJ, which U.S. News & World Report ranks as America’s top school.

Last fall, along with about 1.5 million U.S. high school juniors, the Yashar teen took the PSAT, which determines whether a student qualifies as a prestigious National Merit scholar. When it came time to submit his college applications this fall, he didn’t have a National Merit honor to report—but it wasn’t because he hadn’t earned the award. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation, a nonprofit based in Evanston, Illinois, had recognized him as a Commended Student in the top 3 percent nationwide—one of about 50,000 students earning that distinction. Principals usually celebrate National Merit scholars with special breakfasts, award ceremonies, YouTube videos, press releases, and social media announcements.

But not at TJ. School officials had decided to withhold announcement of the award. Indeed, it turns out that the principal, Ann Bonitatibus, and the director of student services, Brandon Kosatka, have been withholding this information from families and the public for years, affecting the lives of at least 1,200 students over the principal’s tenure of five years.

Recognition by National Merit opens the door to millions of dollars in college scholarships and 800 Special Scholarships from corporate sponsors.

I learned—two years after the fact—that National Merit had recognized my son, a graduate of TJ’s Class of 2021, as a Commended Student in a September 10, 2020, letter that National Merit sent to Bonitatibus. But the principal, who lobbied that fall to nix the school’s merit-based admission test to increase “diversity,” never told us about it. Parents from earlier years told me that she also didn’t tell them about any Commended Student awards. One former student said he learned he had won the award through a random email from the school to a school-district email account that students rarely check; the principal neither told his parents nor made a public announcement.

COMMENT:  Please read the whole thing.  This is a disgrace and a scandal.  I don't know if any laws are being broken, but this horror calls for a major investigation.  Virginia is now governed by Republican Glenn Youngkin, who ewas elected largely by the parents' revolt against mediocrity and wokism in education.  I would expect that Youngkin will be heard from on this monstrosity.

You look at this mess and say to yourself, "This is how nations die."  We are being warned,

December 24, 2022       Permalink

OH, I'M SO GLAD THEY DECIDED TO TELL US THIS:  From WBBM:

With a winter storm bearing down on the Midwest, Triple A has some advice for motorists, including drivers of electric vehicles.

It’s common sense to a lot of drivers in the Chicago area, but it bears repeating: If you must venture out during a winter storm, keep an emergency kit in your car. It should include items like your cell phone, jumper cables, food, water, blankets, hats and kitty litter or sand in case you get stuck in snow and need traction.

And for owners of electric vehicles, says Molly Hart, spokesperson for AAA, the auto club group, be advised that cold weather decreases your driving range almost by half.

“When it dips to 20 degrees and the HVAC system is being used to heat the inside of the vehicle, the average driving range is decreased by 41 percent,” Hart says.

That means instead of getting 100 miles of combined urban and highway driving, the range at 20 degrees would be reduced to 59 miles.

COMMENT:  How long have we been told that electric cars are the future?  And just now the AAA is telling us how miserable they are in the cold?  Did the government know?  Did Kamala Harris know? 

I'm sure some people in the great journalism universe knew, but why damage the green dream by telling the public?

The green dream increasingly seems like the green nightmare.   Too many asterisks.  Too many explanations.

December 23, 2022       Permalink

DECEMBER 21-22,  2022

GOOD MOVE:  UTAH TAKES A CREATIVE STEP FORWARD.  WE HOPE OTHER STATES WILL DO THE SAME.  FROM COLLEGE FIX: 

"Instead of focusing on demonstrated competence, the focus too often has been on a piece of paper," Utah governor says.

Utah will no longer require a bachelor’s degree for about 98 percent of its civil servant jobs, according to a recent decision by the state’s Republican governor.

“The state executive branch has 1,080 different classified jobs. Of those, 98% – or 1,058 – do not require a degree,” according to a news release shared with The College Fix by Governor Spencer Cox ‘s media team. “Instead, the state’s hiring managers and hiring committees consider comparable experience as equal to educational qualifications at every step in the evaluation and recruiting process.”

The College Fix reached out on December 16 to Emma Williams, Cox’s public information officer, to ask whether the governor expects a reduction in degree-seeking high school students as a result of the policy and whether it expects other Utah government entities to advance similar initiatives. Williams responded by directing The Fix to the governor’s December 13 news release.

“Degrees have become a blanketed barrier-to-entry in too many jobs,” Cox (pictured) stated in the release. “Instead of focusing on demonstrated competence, the focus too often has been on a piece of paper. We are changing that.”

“The state executive branch has 1,080 different classified jobs. Of those, 98% – or 1,058 – do not require a degree,” according to the release.

Cox pointed to projected improvements in employee productivity, recruitment of talent and expanded opportunities “to attract diverse candidates, including underrepresented groups.”

The governor also highlighted the need for more state-sponsored apprenticeships and on-the-job training programs as alternatives to traditional four-year degrees during his press conference on December 13. His administration will support private sector efforts with taxpayer dollars.

State funds will be used to “reimburse employers who cover customized training” and to support “apprenticeship programs in functional areas such as IT, healthcare, electrical, and others,” Cox said.

COMMENT:  Utah follows other states, like Maryland, in this common-sense approach.  For too long we have worshipped the college degree.  If most American colleges gave true, disciplined, liberal educations, that would be one thing.  But many have become mediocre, over-politicized, glorified high schools.  Many employers caught on a long time ago, and realized those college degrees often represented less than the paper they were printed on.  The Utah move, joined by other states, sends a warning to colleges that their party days are over.  They may even have to prove their worth.

December 22, 2022     Permalink

I'M TELLING YOU, THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS HAVE BEGUN.  THE USUAL SUSPECTS ARE ALREADY GIVING ADVICE, AND SOME OF IT IS GOOD.  FROM DEMOCRATIC SUPER-GURU DOUG SCHOEN AT THE HILL: 

Let me describe a Republican presidential candidate for you. 

The governor of a swing state, this candidate has built a strong reputation as a firebrand conservative culture warrior. He has used his position to raise his national profile, campaigning for like-minded candidates in other states and speaking to conservative groups across the country. 

His comfortable reelection win has elevated him to frontrunner status in his party’s upcoming presidential primary contest at a time when the party itself is in need of a new direction and fresh leadership. The clear establishment favorite, this candidate leads in early polling and has become a top-tier fundraiser. 

Many reading this column may assume I’m talking, of course, about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), whose barnstorming of his state and the nation over the last four years have made him the darling of Republican activists and donors. 

While DeSantis certainly fits this description, it also applies to an individual who embodies a political cautionary tale about the perils of peaking too early: former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R). Walker was an early front-runner for the 2016 Republican nomination whose star quickly flamed out once the primary got underway. 

Make no mistake, the same thing could happen to Ron DeSantis in 2024. 

To be sure, in two recent Republican voter polls, from Suffolk University and the Wall Street Journal, DeSantis has emerged as the front-runner for the 2024 nomination. In a 2024 general election matchup, DeSantis is also polling ahead of President Biden, who is slightly favored in a head-to-head against Donald Trump.  

DeSantis’s reelection campaign also amassed a $200 million war chest, and he is currently sitting on more than $60 million that he is expected to redeploy into a federal super PAC if he decides to run for the nation’s highest office. GOP mega-donors such as Blackstone CEO Steven Schwarzman and Citadel leader Ken Griffin have pledged to either not support Trump, or have committed to backing DeSantis. 

That being said, Ron DeSantis is vulnerable for many of the same reasons that Scott Walker was in 2016, and there is a very real chance that DeSantis, like Walker, flames out quickly once the campaign begins. 

COMMENT:  Please read the rest.  It's the best political analysis I've seen recently, from the pen of a first-class professional.  Nothing is ever certain in presidential politics, as President Dewey learned in 1948.

December 21, 2022       Permalink