Update (1000ET):

Several X accounts that posted videos and/or screenshots about the absurdities of the Olympics’ opening ceremonies have been hit with Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaints enforced by Elon Musk’s social media platform. 

Your account has been locked because X received a compliant Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) Notice for content posted to your X account. Under the DMCA, copyright owners can notify X claiming that a user has infringed their copyrighted works. Upon receipt of a valid DMCA notice, X will remove the identified material.

X maintains a repeat copyright infringer policy under which repeat infringer accounts will be suspended. Accruing multiple DMCA strikes may lead to suspension of your account.

FCK you Olympics pic.twitter.com/6ghSbrKUOI

— Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld_) July 27, 2024

“They’re now targeting anyone who dared to complain about the blasphemous woke agenda during the @Olympics opening ceremony,” X user Dr. Simon Goddek wrote. 

🚨JUST IN — They’re now targeting anyone who dared to complain about the blasphemous woke agenda during the @Olympics opening ceremony.

It’s as if they’re using “1984” as their instruction manual. pic.twitter.com/CRcejGo6CF

— Dr. Simon Goddek (@goddeketal) July 27, 2024

Other X users report being hit by DMCA complaints…

X is censoring my post regarding the 2024 Summer Olympics mocking the last supper pic.twitter.com/Pkg1988Y4i

— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) July 27, 2024

🚨WARNING🚨: ATHLETIA SPORTS on behalf of The International Olympic Committee is actively filing DCMA take down requests with X. I retweeted a series of videos in which I criticized the opening ceremony. I created one custom edit comparing the last supper and the opening scene. X… pic.twitter.com/lzZt7e3cM9

— @amuse (@amuse) July 27, 2024

Dear @elonmusk

I woke up this morning to learn that myself and many other accounts were locked out of their accounts for sharing clips of the Olympics. I’m sure some were suspended over this.

Someone named Jonathan Schmitz, a representative of ATHLETIA, on behalf of The… pic.twitter.com/47fk5Lk978

— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) July 27, 2024

Another X user said, “Lots of DMCA takedowns of Olympic opening ceremony footage. Weird, it’s almost like they don’t want you to see it now.”

Lots of DMCA takedowns of Olympic opening ceremony footage. Weird, it’s almost like they don’t want you to see it now.

— 9mmSMG (@9mm_smg) July 27, 2024

As we penned earlier, the opening ceremonies were just absolutely bizarre – and, in some cases, inappropriate for children to watch. 

Here’s what happened…

Macron’s special hobby. He took the opportunity of the Olympics to show off the French balls to the world.
#OlympicGames #Paris2024 #ParisOlympics2024 pic.twitter.com/3dA6rKP28s

— Alistair Pallesen (@yzimng2) July 27, 2024

Anybody see this disgusting pervert with his BALLS out at the Olympic opening ceremony?! pic.twitter.com/JfWQJ1ErXx

— Sponge (@Spongecoinbob) July 26, 2024

A company still sponsoring the Olympics come Monday is telling the world they’re ok with The Last Supper being lampooned by Papa Smurf in a Banana Hammock, a Wookiee in women’s lingerie, and a man with his balls exposed all while sharing the stage with a kid.

See also: Bud Light pic.twitter.com/Ub0ZjsY1rx

— Nobody Special (@JG_Nuke) July 27, 2024

No comment. 

NEW: The artistic director responsible for the Paris opening ceremony says he mocked 2.4 billion Christians with drag queens so “everybody feels represented.”

During an interview, Thomas Jolly opened up about the “beautiful responsibility” he has as an “artist.”

“How do you… pic.twitter.com/qOb5CD2tQs

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 27, 2024

To sum up, the Olympics can’t tolerate mockery and criticism of the “Woke Games,” so they resort to censorship.

*   *   * 

Sports spectacles like the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the Commonwealth Games and a host of other events have become increasingly political in their messaging and their pageantry in recent years.  Furthermore, the symbology on display during these performances has become more and more bizarre.

As we noted in May, the signs were not good for the Summer Games when it was revealed that drag queens and trans activists would be carrying the Olympic Torch in preparation for opening ceremonies.  Olympic torch bearers are supposed to be chosen from a list of people with significant contributions to their communities.  It’s hard to say what contributions trans activists have made to any community, but the announced “theme” of the Summer Games held in Paris helps to explain their presence.

The stated tenets for Olympics 2024 are: Community, Diversity and The Collective.  In other words, the theme of this year’s Olympic Games is woke.

The event was planned by “queer artistic director” Thomas Jolly (pictured below), who said he “wants everyone to feel represented.”  Yet another example of gay activists unable to control their impulse to project their sexual preferences on everything, even sporting events.

Opening Ceremonies have launched in France with much fanfare, though the rest of the world is not very interested.  In the US, the Summer Games in Paris are expected to hit record low ratings; even lower than the Winter Games in Beijing in 2022.  When you see what has become of the Olympics today, it’s easy to understand why.

The ceremony in Paris features strange performances from a horde of drag queens, including sexualized dancing and an LGBT recreation of The Last Supper.

Actual opening ceremony of the Olympics.

This isn’t parody.

RIP Olympics. pic.twitter.com/5gk1yObldB

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 26, 2024

Yikes.  That’s not the kind of thing most people want to sit down to watch on a nice summer evening with their kids. Another example of odd symbology was the display of a metal horse with a rider in white galloping across the River Seine.

The horse and rider, more disturbing than beautiful, were followed by 85 boats carrying almost 7,000 athletes from 205 countries down the River Seine.  The display came just hours after a sabotage attack on the high-speed rail networks caused travel chaos across France.  The opening ceremony was the first in Olympics history to be featured outside of the main stadium.

The metallic horse is oddly reminiscent of a performance at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in the UK, which featured “dreamers” worshiping and appeasing a giant metallic bull while commentators discussed the enslavement of women.

Make of this what you will, but it’s clear that major national and international games have changed dramatically in the past decade.  The spectacle is no longer meant to entertain, but to propagandize.  And, just as we have seen with woke theatrical entertainment and the collapse of the movie box office in recent years, audiences are dwindling for sporting events with political messaging. 

The world’s principal theater of evolving drone warfare has a new angle, as Russia is now using relatively cheaper unarmed drones to force Ukraine into revealing the location of its air defense assets. 

The deceptive new drones, built from cheap materials including plywood and foam plastic, have been used in five Russian strikes over the past two to three weeks, Reuters has reported, citing Ukrainian intelligence official Andriy Cherniak. One version uses a camera and a mobile phone SIM card to send imagery to its operator.  

In one of the foremost indicators of Russia’s strengthening military relationship with Iran, a principal weapon in Russia’s Ukraine-war arsenal is the Iranian Shahed kamikaze drone, which dives into ground targets and explodes.  

While the new drones are built to duplicate the look of Shaheds, they generally don’t carry explosives, though some are believed to have carried small charges. Unable to distinguish between the duds and the real thing, defending Ukrainian soldiers are compelled to open fire — revealing their positions to the camera-wielding drones, which are typically mixed into swarms of bona fide Shaheds. 

“They identify where our mobile groups are positioned, where the machine guns are that can destroy them. They’re trying … to get a picture of where all our air defenses are located,” said Cherniak.

Russian Shahed-136 terrorist drone goes down!💪💙💛 pic.twitter.com/jrMFIDLgST

— Kvist.P 🇩🇰🇺🇦 (@kvistp) November 17, 2023

The decoy drones are cheaper — relatively. Cherniak estimates that Russia’s probably spending as little as $10,000 for each one. That’s a fraction of the $30,000 to $50,000 that a real Shahed might cost. In addition to their value in revealing Ukrainian air defenses, the mock Shaheds also force Ukraine into expending precious ammunition. 

US-supplied Patriot air defense missiles cost about $4 million each. Shooting them at $50,000 drone is a horrendous trade-off of resources. While the US Department of Defense was happy to make that kind of lopsided exchange to knock down Shaheds launched by Iran at Israel in retaliation for the IDF’s attack on an Iranian diplomatic facility in Syria, Ukraine recognizes the need to economize — and emphasizes using mobile teams armed with older types of anti-aircraft weapons, including machine guns.  

Russia has been using drones to menace Ukrainian energy infrastructure. A Thursday night attack focused on two regions between Kiev and its Russian border, leaving more than 68,000 customers without power. The Ukrainian military claimed it knocked down 20 of 22 drones that night. Even if true, the math underscores the power of a relatively inexpensive swarm that can’t be entirely defeated. The strategy has significantly eroded Ukraine’s energy self-sufficiency, compelling it to initiate a major electricity import program from the European Union.   

Of course, Ukraine is deploying kamikaze drones of its own — as vividly illustrated last week, when Ukraine succeeded in its first successful drone attack on a major Russian refinery since mid-May. Dozens of drones were launched from Ukraine with the objective of crippling Russia’s energy infrastructure — and one of the impacts was captured in dramatic video:  

Ukrainian drones striking the Russian oil refinery in Tuapse in the Krasnodar region 2-3 hours ago

The oil refinery is on firepic.twitter.com/GbV0Tk00Qh

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) July 22, 2024

Authored by Zach Dean via OutKick,

For any great American Olympian reading this while you’re en route to today’s opening ceremonies, be warned: if you plan on sneaking a prostitute into your living quarters over these next two weeks, proceed with caution. 

According to industry sources in the European sex-worker game, Paris has cracked down this week on prostitutes and hookers trying to sneak into the Olympic Village. How serious are they? 

Police have told TMZ (shocker) that they’ve formed an anti-pimping brigade to combat the influx of sex-workers looking to make a quick buck off of horny athletes. 

Check and mate. 

“With an influx of visitors heading to Paris for the 2024 Olympics, French police are cracking down on prostitution … and we’ve learned an anti-pimping brigade is even leading the charge,” TMZ writes.

“The Press Office for the Police Prefecture tells TMZ … authorities are doing what they can to combat illegal sex work in the City of Lights. A formal brigade – known as the BRP – has even formed … and we’re told they will make their presence seriously known in the area. 

“There is also a group in charge of surveilling night establishments, such as cabarets … where anti-sex work laws will be reinforced.”

French Police Cracking Down on Prostitution at 2024 Paris Olympics | Click to read more 👇 https://t.co/dC90uRahCV

— TMZ (@TMZ) July 26, 2024

Olympic athletes need to tread lightly when it comes to illegal sex

That last line gets me every time … where anti-sex work laws will be enforced. Don’t know why, but it makes me laugh. 

But wait … there’s more!! Buckle up, because this one is a doozy. 

Apparently, there’s a group across the pond that’s pushing BACK on this prostitution crackdown because it’s unfair to the illegal sex-workers. There’s always two sides to every story, you know. 

Several nonprofit organizations spoke out on behalf of sex workers ahead of the Olympics … as they believe the ‘repression first’ mindset has a negative impact on the sex workers’ health and safety,” TMZ added. 

The outlet also said that all of this may be for nothing, because the sex-worker scene has been somewhat thin for these Olympics because the accommodations are too expensive. 

Thanks, Biden! (I know, it doesn’t work like that, but it’s still funny)

What a way to start these games, huh? We’ve got opening ceremonies, where I assume someone woke will light the fire because it’s 2024, and then it’s off to the races for the next few weeks. Swimming, golf, rugby – you name it. Take your pick, and you’ll get it over the next few weeks. 

The biggest question in my mind, though? Who will be the first American caught with a hooker? 

I wanna see those odds, Draft Kings!

A series of disasters, including Gulf Coast hurricanes, California wildfires, Midwest flooding, and severe thunderstorms, combined with post-COVID construction cost increases, have severely impacted the insurance industry. 

As a result, according to Insurance Journal, companies like Church Mutual, GuideOne, and Brotherhood Mutual, which insure churches, have seen their reserves shrink and have dropped high-risk churches to cut losses.

And just think, that doesn’t even account for “activists” taking their rage to destroying churches…

Hundreds of United Methodist churches in the Rio Texas Annual Conference lost property insurance last November, leaving officials scrambling.

Over six months later, some churches found new insurance at higher costs, while others remain uninsured, said Kevin Reed, conference board of trustees president.

Reed noted the conference had about a month’s notice before their property insurance was canceled, which wasn’t enough time to secure new coverage, leaving local churches to fend for themselves.

“We have not found a good solution. It continues to be a significant problem for our churches,” he said. 

The report says that United Methodist churches in Iowa have also lost insurance following severe weather, according to the Iowa Annual Conference.

Rev. Ron Carlson, the conference treasurer, said both small rural and larger churches were affected. The conference urged churches to proactively check their insurance instead of waiting for renewal offers.

The UMC’s Book of Discipline requires full replacement and liability insurance for church buildings, which Carlson noted is not feasible for some. The conference is working to address what happens to these uninsured churches.

Finding new insurance is challenging since churches are a high-risk, niche market. They are open to the public, serve various age groups, run social services, and often have large, expensive buildings with little oversight, said Charles Cutler, president of ChurchWest Insurance Services.

“Because of the First Amendment and the separation of church and state, ministries are largely unregulated. And unregulated businesses are difficult to underwrite,” Cutler said.

The church insurance market, like the broader industry, has faced significant challenges recently, according to the report. 

Supply chain issues and rising construction costs post-pandemic have increased rebuilding expenses, leading insurers to hike rates. Natural disasters like hurricanes, wildfires, and severe thunderstorms have further strained insurance companies’ reserves, causing AM Best to review Church Mutual and downgrade Brotherhood Mutual’s ratings. GuideOne was only stabilized by a $200 million investment from Bain Capital.

The high-risk nature of insuring churches, combined with pressure from reinsurers to reduce coverage, has left many congregations struggling.

Churches, already dealing with declining memberships and donations, now face skyrocketing insurance costs. The situation has forced some to cut programs, delay essential maintenance, or even contemplate closing.

Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org,

The world’s first climate-related social rewards scheme came into being two weeks ago, when the city of Copenhagen officially launched it’s new “CopenPay” system.

Through the CopenPay scheme, tourists visiting the city will be rewarded for “green actions” – such as using public transportation or cycling – with access to “cultural experiences”, free meals etc.

For example, arriving at the CopenHill dry ski slope by foot or on a bike will get you 20 free minutes of ski time, while anyone who volunteers at an organic urban farm will get a free lunch (vegetarian, naturally).

The official CopenPay website describes the purpose of the system as follows:

…to encourage sustainable behaviour and enrich the cultural experience of visitors and residents in Copenhagen by transforming green actions into currency for cultural experiences.

WonderfulCopenhagen.com adds:

There is a need to change the mindset of tourists and encourage green choices […]Through CopenPay we therefore aim to incentivize tourists’ sustainable behaviour while enriching their cultural experience of our destination. It is an experimental and a small step towards creating a new mindset […] The hope is not only to continue the pilot project, but also to inspire other cities around the world to introduce similar initiatives.

Now, complimentary organic meals and free windsurfing lessons might seem benign enough, but any talk of “changing mindset” and/or “encouraging behaviour” makes my brain itch.

It’s pretty easy to see through the happy-clappy tone of the promotion to the heart of the issue, it’s right there in their own words: Transforming green actions into currency.

This is climate change based behavioral modification. This is a social credit system. Small scale and optional, sure, but there’s no denying that’s what it is.

For now it’s optional and only for tourists. They are testing the waters. Barring a catastrophic failure it won’t stay that way for long. They likely won’t ever make it mandatory to take part, rather – like bank accounts and cellphones – opting out will simply be too difficult for most people to bother with.

Eventually “rewarding green actions” will segue into “punishing non-green actions”. The currency of “cultural experiences” replaced with actual currency.

This isn’t guesswork.

We don’t have to guess where this leads, because we know. They told us.

They laid out the world they want to build, and this is just one of the first bricks.

Authored by Andrew Lowenthal via The Brownstone Institute,

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

– George Orwell, 1984

For years the media, “fact-checkers,” and “anti-disinformation” initiatives told the public there was nothing wrong with Joe Biden. A few weeks ago, in the space of five minutes, they flipped. Rapid-onset dementia had struck the President and it was time for change.

The people who claim they can sort truth from fiction spent years lying despite the crippling obvious. What is more baffling is why so many people went along with it for so long. Was it fear? Complacency? Cowardice? An incredible level of discipline was enforced – that has thankfully now unraveled.

Rather than debunking “misinformation,” Biden’s protectors often spread it.  

In August 2020 the Aspen Institute coordinated a Hunter Biden laptop pre-bunk exercise that sought to suppress a true story to protect Biden’s wayward son and shield the President from major corruption allegations. A swathe of major media and Big Tech participated in that exercise, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Twitter, Facebook, and many more. Claire Wardle, former director of “anti-disinformation” NGO First Draft (now the Information Futures Lab at Brown University) also participated.

In a letter allegedly organised by Anthony Blinken, 51 former intelligence agents claimed the Hunter Biden laptop was a “Russian information operation” and Facebook, Twitter, and others suppressed the story on their platforms. Almost everyone now admits the laptop was real.

Or take Biden’s claim that “You’re not going to get Covid if you have these vaccinations.”

PolitiFact thought that may have been an “exaggeration” but reassured us that cases of the vaccinated getting Covid are “rare.”

The Party told you to reject the evidence not just of your eyes and ears, but your whole body.

However, perhaps the biggest lie was the years-long campaign to “debunk” suggestions that Biden was growing incapable of commanding the highest office in the land. PolitiFact was very diligent in “fact-checking” “cheap fakes” and other stories that alleged Joe Biden was senile, reassuring us that everything was fine.

The term “cheap fake” was coined by Britt Paris and Hunter Biden laptop denialist Joan Donovan. Donavan has long been a darling of the “anti-disinformation” field. 

In the words of Aspen Hunter Biden laptop pre-bunker Claire Wardle, the Biden cheap fakes are “the weaponization of context. It’s genuine content, but the context changes via minor edits. Anyone can be vulnerable with the right edit.” In fact, as recently as June 21 Wardle was carrying water for Biden. In a New York Times article that sought to debunk “misleading videos that play into and reinforce voters’ longstanding concerns about his [Biden’s] age and abilities,” Wardle explained that “This isn’t a new narrative, it builds on an existing one, which tends to be much more effective.” Yes, adding more true information to other true information tends to make an argument more convincing.

Or take Rebekah Tromble, Associate Professor of Media and Public Affairs and the director of the Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics at George Washington University. According to Tromble “Biden became a main target of deceptive edits.” “These clips draw on a common trope about President Biden that’s popular among his detractors: He’s old, bumbling, and senile, meaning he’s incompetent and incapable of doing this job.” His gaffes and inability to speak clearly are unrelated to his cognitive ability, and are instead because “Biden grew up stuttering.”

PolitiFact is a project of the Poynter Institute which coordinates the biggest network of fact-checkers in the world, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). IFCN is funded largely by Facebook but also by the “Craig Newmark Foundation, the Koch Foundation, the Knight Foundation, the Omidyar Network, the National Endowment for Democracy, Microsoft, and the Washington Post.” This is not a small fringe “fact-checking” outfit; it is one of the leading organizations in the sector. 

Perhaps the name makes it clear – it is Politi(cised) Fact-checking. 

Newsguard, a “disinformation” ranking service that can punish a news site’s advertising revenue through its rating system, has also been active. Power Line, a conservative online news outlet, alleges they were contacted by Newsguard in 2021 about their claims of Biden’s cognitive decline. In an email, Newsguard asked:

We’ve noticed that the site has repeatedly stated as fact in its article[s] that Joe Biden has dementia, both during the 2020 election cycle and since he became president. Why does the site make this claim without providing credible evidence that he has dementia?

Newsguard’s approach is particularly concerning because of its ability to impact the revenue of media outlets, and due to its strong links to the State Department and intelligence agencies – its board includes former CIA Director Michael Hayden.

If all that fails you can always blame the Russians. EUvsDisinfo, a European Union project to “forecast, address, and respond to the Russian Federation’s ongoing disinformation campaigns” claimed reports of Biden being “senile” are “false” and are part of “pro-Kremlin disinformation.”

Mainstream media have also been a critical part of the lying machine, claiming recent videos that show Biden wandering off at a G7 event were “misinformation” or “cheap fakes” and are part of a concerted effort to “hammer the narrative that Biden is too old to be president.” PolitiFact also “fact-checked” the story with the usual line.

The list could go on and on and on but Matt Orfalea’s amazing “sharp as a tack” compilation puts the nail in the coffin. More “out of context” clips and “cheap fakes” according to the “anti-disinformation” “experts” no doubt.

What is the lesson?

On one hand, censorship and suppression only work for so long. Reality will eventually catch up with you. However, it also tells us that a lot of people can pretend the emperor does have clothes, even when he is stark naked and half the court is screaming and pointing at the top of their lungs – also known as “spreading misinformation.”

It seems there is an endless supply of “fact-checking” and “anti-disinformation” sycophants ready to bow and scrape before the mad king.

Ultimately it tells us just how corrupt the “fact-checking” and “anti-disinformation” industries are. Whilst there are an increasing number of people on the outside speaking up, internally cowardice and the silencing of critics have allowed a prolific level of corruption to grow. This is an across-the-board problem in the liberal and progressive spheres where pious bullies have shut down dialogue. This corruption has led progressives and liberals down a disastrous dead end. Barring a miracle, Trump is coming.

If there is any justice a reckoning is also coming for the “fact-checkers” and “anti-disinformation” “experts.”

*  *  *

Republished from the author’s Substack

The participation of major corporations in the molding of cancel culture should not be overlooked.  While many people assumed that companies were “bending the knee” to progressive activists, the opposite was actually true.  Woke movements are a minority within western populations and have no boycott power.  There’s never been any reason for businesses to be afraid of them.

In fact, without the support of companies like Blackrock, Vanguard, Google, Facebook, Twitter and many others the cancel mob would have little to no power.  The situation seems to be changing, or the damage seems to be minimized.  One corporate entity reflects this shift more than any other, and that’s Disney. 

A lot has happened in the US in the past several years, so much in fact that it might be hard to remember how close the country came to total disaster under the dictates of the progressive hive.  The political left had been accumulating social influence with the aid of international corporations, NGOs and government officials since at least 2016.  However, after the Biden Administration took office and pandemic hysteria went into full swing, the activists sought to flex their cancel culture muscle in a big way.

The result was a dystopian frenzy in which mass censorship was rampant and speaking out in any way against official narratives might get you booted from social media and even fired from your job.  Leftists called it “consequence culture” as a way to justify their behavior, but the consensus was that this was thought-policing on an Orwellian scale.  The assumption by leftists being that they are the virtuous arbiters over what words and beliefs should be punished.  No one voted for them to do this job.

The smell of blood was in the water and, as with all dystopian societies, certain non-compliant people were made into examples to frighten everyone else.  

UFC fighter and actress Gina Carano was one of those people.  Carano says she was harassed by Disney management to add “pronouns” to her social media bio to “prove her support for trans lives”.  After the actress made an online joke by listing her “pronouns” on Twitter as ‘beeb bop boop’, the company brought pressure to bear in an attempt to force Carano into silence. 

Her eventual removal by Disney was heralded by the political left as a great victory and a display of the cancel mob’s power.  If they could destroy the career of a Hollywood celebrity then there was a good chance they could destroy the life of almost any average conservative.

Disney then engaged in a slow boil of the theater-going public with DEI propaganda.  Many suspected Disney was removing white, straight and male characters from the majority of their productions on purpose.  As it turned out, that’s exactly what they were doing.

The pendulum appears to be swinging back on Disney, however.  With the help of Elon Musk, Carano has pursued an effective civil suit against the company and a recent court decision blocked attempts by Disney lawyers to have the case dismissed.  The lawsuit will be going to trial.

The vast majority of Disney content from films to streaming series have been met with box office failure and audience disinterest.  In 2023 alone, Disney had only one film that made a significant profit (Guardians Of The Galaxy) while spending a billion dollars on multiple box office flops (not counting marketing costs).  Not one Disney+ series was met with audience acclaim.  Streaming subscriber numbers sank.   

Disney has consistently used its immense corporate power to legitimize the woke mob. Are they finally getting hit with the karma they deserve?

After Disney publicly declared war on the state of Florida and conservative efforts to stop gender identity indoctrination in public schools, the company was put on notice.  They have since been exposed in numerous cases participating in far-left propaganda efforts including implanting LGBT messaging in children’s content. 

Disney was also exposed by a VP on hidden camera for DEI practices and race discrimination against white male actors and corporate employees.

Disney’s secret agenda is not so secret anymore.  They have been thoroughly defeated by the state of Florida and Ron Desantis in civil court and the company has lost their Reedy Creek autonomy.  Disney stock has been hovering near 5-year lows since 2023.  Their brand is essentially destroyed and their content is treated by most consumers as radioactive.  The sheer size of Disney and their holdings means that they have the capital to survive for years without public support, but the company has already started cutting employees in mass layoffs, including 14% of Pixar in May.  Not a good sign.   

Is the karmic hammer finally swinging back to hit Disney in the face after nearly a decade of woke bullying?  It seems that way.  But the bigger question is, does Disney’s decline reflect a larger national move away from the woke mob and cancel culture in general?  Are Americans finally fed up with progressive pearl clutching and DEI?  This seems to be the case.  Disney fueled cancel culture for years only to find themselves canceled in return.   

Authored by Beige Luciano-Adams via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

In the scrubby Mojave desert north of Los Angeles, a sprawling encampment of decrepit RVs sits just off a dirt road separating the city of Lancaster from Los Angeles County’s unincorporated expanse.

In every direction, garbage spreads out like an algae super bloom—beyond that, endless sand and brush, baking in the summer sun.

“Keep your head on a swivel for dogs,” a member of the city’s public safety and emergency response unit tells us. Through the haze, we see two pit bulls and a German Shepherd under a tarp, but they are tethered, too hot to move.

Freddy, a resident, seems only moderately bothered by the 110 degree temperature. “I don’t have a car anymore, so I can’t get my own water,” he says, when asked how he survives out here. 

“Someone brings me water every two weeks,” he said, referring to a nonprofit. 

Pointing down at his legs, scaly and engorged beneath black shorts, he adds, “And I’m sick, too. They bring me medicine.”

There is no grid here, no power or water. RV residents dump their raw sewage in the desert, either right outside their vehicles, or sometimes with a hose that carries it a little farther out.

Such encampments, which are also a magnet for illegal construction dumping, appear as clusters on satellite maps, dotting the rugged terrain just past the county line. Officials say they stretch out as far as 10 miles into the desert, but most stay closer to town.

Freddy is one of thousands without housing in the northern part of the county, according to data released last month by the Los Angeles Homelessness Services Authority (LAHSA). 

On any given night, an estimated 6,672 people are homeless in the Antelope Valley—a 42 percent increase over the year prior. But only 1,057 of the region’s homeless people live in its two main cities, Lancaster and Palmdale, leaving the remaining 5,615 in smaller towns and the region’s rural unincorporated areas.

It’s surprising that so many people could be living in tents, under tarps, inside of old RVs, out in the middle of the high desert with no water or infrastructure.

But those familiar with the situation say the population was already high, and the dramatic jump simply represents a more thorough count this year.

“The count went up this year because the count was done wrong in previous years,” said a city official, who asked not to be identified by name. “This year we utilized a drone, and our teams went out to remote areas and did the count,” he said, estimating the actual increase over last year might be closer to 25 percent.

L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose 5th District includes the Antelope Valley, also suggested the increase may not be as straightforward as it looks.

“The Point In Time Count is not a perfect science and it’s rightfully evolving,” she said in an email to The Epoch Times, expressing uncertainty over whether the number reflects an increase or a better count. 

“Regardless, we will use those results to draw down more federal and state funding so that we can deliver more local housing and shelter options. The need in the region is real.”

Either way, the uptick is an outlier in 2024, when the county overall and most city homeless populations are either remaining stable or shrinking slightly.

The City of Lancaster’s overall homeless count went down in 2024, to 520 people from 590 the year prior, with fewer unsheltered homeless and more sheltered homeless individuals. Palmdale’s, meanwhile, rose from 177 to 537.

Inquiries to Palmdale city officials, including the mayor and city councilmembers, were not returned.

LAHSA also did not respond to a request for comment on the increase in the homeless population in Antelope Valley.

While many municipalities across the West stopped clearing homeless encampments after a series of Ninth Circuit Court decisions determined anti-camping laws violated the Eighth Amendment, Lancaster bypassed those restrictions with procedural caveats, by offering shelter before moving people. 

Since the Supreme Court reversed the lower court rulings earlier this month, officials say, enforcement is easier.

Critics of such enforcement, such as the ACLU, have long argued Lancaster is pushing people who have nowhere to go into dangerous, extreme conditions. But officials say there are beds available, and enforcement is attended by offers of services and shelter.

So why are thousands of people homeless in the desert?

End of the Line

Lancaster Mayor Rex Parris, an outspoken critic of what he says is the county’s neglect of the region, allows there are various factors that might contribute to an increase in homelessness—former inmates at California State Prison, in Lancaster, who end up in the community without services, along with a small percentage of people losing housing or falling on hard times.

Lancaster has always been a far more affordable bedroom community, but median rent is currently $2,595 a month—only about $200 cheaper than Los Angeles, according to real estate website Zillow.

But the main reason, Mr. Parris told The Epoch Times, is L.A.’s systematic tendency—not a conspiracy, exactly, more like a default setting—to send its problems north.

“I think it’s tied to the L.A. area pushing them up here,” he said of the homeless count increase. “They tend to push all of their problems up here, if they can. And now you’ve got the World Cup, and you’ve got the Olympics coming, and they’re in a mad rush to get rid of their homeless, and so they encourage them to come here.”

Mr. Parris says his teams are “constantly interviewing people who were given a ticket and told, “go to Lancaster, we’ll feed and take care of them,” but did not specify by whom. 

“It’s at the end of the Metro line, literally. This is not unusual.”

The county’s transit system, plagued by violence in recent months, has its own problems. Used as a de facto shelter by thousands during the day, its buses and trains are emptied for cleaning each night, which some end-of-line cities say has resulted in sharp increases in their transient homeless populations.

Lancaster, 60 miles north of Los Angeles and at the very end of the Metro transit system, is far more remote than other such cities.

Lt. William Kitchin, who oversees the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s (LASD) homeless outreach team for the entire county, said he has not personally seen evidence to support the idea that people are being directed to the region, but has observed migration to end-of-line cities.

However they end up there, once in Lancaster, civil rights groups say, authorities have routinely pushed homeless people out into the desert.

In a study based on interviews with 53 unhoused people in and around Lancaster from February 2019 to October 2020, the ACLU claimed the LASD “banished” people to remote county areas, combining the threat of criminal and civil sanctions with “suggestions” to leave town.

Such claims, the lieutenant said, are easily disproved by body cameras that record deputies’ interactions when enforcing local ordinances.

Lt. Kitchin’s team works with LAHSA to resolve encampments of more than five people, and he said such operations are always done with advance notice and offers of services and housing.​​

“We can’t dictate or tell people where to go. We just say you can’t be here. We prefer you take the services that were provided, so you can go inside and get your life started on the right track, but we can’t force them into it,” he said.

Starting on July 22, his team plans to clear desert encampments in an area north of Lancaster and place an estimated 40 people in hotels as part of the county’s “Pathway Home” program.

“Prior to the pandemic,” the lieutenant said, “what we used to see is that people who were homeless in that area either grew up there or had roots there, parents or family. Now we’re seeing more people from out of state.”

Officials who asked not to be identified by name said they see a constant influx of new faces in Lancaster and the surrounding area. “We know everyone here and everyday we’re seeing new people. It’s not people losing their homes, there’s some of that, but mostly it’s not. They came from somewhere else, they moved here,” one said.

The city’s team has access to five beds for immediate shelter. After two weeks, they move people to Kensington, Lancaster’s sprawling homeless housing campus—so those five beds always stay open for people who might need them, officials said.

Mayor Parris told The Epoch Times that beds remain open at Kensington throughout the year, except when extreme weather drives occupancy up.

Opened in 2019, the campus has 153 interim beds and 150 permanent supportive housing beds, and receives more referrals than it has availability, a representative for A People Concern, the organization that operates the campus, told The Epoch Times in an email.

The representative said they are currently “nearing capacity,” with a “fluctuating occupancy as individuals may choose to transition between programs.”

Mr. Parris draws a hard line between what he characterizes as a minority of the homeless population in his city, who have fallen on hard times or been pushed out of housing—and an overwhelming majority, who refuse housing and choose the streets and drug abuse as a lifestyle.

“I was a drug addict, and I have been homeless. And I have been in jail,” Mr. Parris, a lawyer, said. “So none of this is foreign to me. You know, I think I probably have a better understanding of it than most. But I know the difference between a looter and someone who needs help—and wants help.”

Read more here…

Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old resident of Bethel Park, PA who allegedly tried to assassinate Donald Trump may have had an account on social media alternative website Gab.  He apparently used the platform to spread messages in support of President Joe Biden, indicating a progressive political leaning.  Gab CEO Andrew Torba says he has received “an emergency disclosure request from a law enforcement agency” pertaining to a specific account linked to Thomas Crooks.

The account @epicmicrowave  (which the CEO stressed he has been “unable to confirm” was definitely Crooks’) “posted on the site nine (9) times total,” Torba tweeted just 30 minutes after getting the law enforcement request.

🚨Approximately 30 minutes ago, Gab learned that Thomas Crooks, the deranged Joe Biden supporter who attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump, may have had an account on our platform. We are unable to confirm that the account in question actually belonged to him.

The… pic.twitter.com/BcJrZJ4Yhk

— Andrew Torba (@BasedTorba) July 24, 2024

Torba noted in the post that:

“We are disclosing this information at significant personal and business risk. If the past is any guide, defying the D.C. consensus by publishing the first definitive evidence that the shooter was a Biden supporter – something Democrats and their media allies have tried to cover up and deny at every turn – has a high probability of resulting in significant political and media backlash.”

“We have saved the account data pending receipt of a search warrant,” he stated.

Comments made by @epicmicrowave defend Biden policies including his Covid lockdown policies and immigration policies, while attacking those critical of illegal immigration. 

The poster wrote:

‘Biden executive orders don’t incentivize human trafficking as human traffickers aren’t interested in citizenships, likewise the majority of illegal immigrants are not criminals and in fact some studies (such as the one linked below) show lower rates of crime committed by these individuals.’

In related developments, the FBI did confirm that Crooks had searched for information about both Trump and Biden before the assassination attempt on July 13th. The FBI disclosed that the 20-year-old had looked up dates for Trump’s appearances and the Democratic National Convention (DNC), where Democrats are now expected to nominate Kamala Harris for president.

The FBI noted that Crooks also researched information on the Kennedy Assassination, including “how far away was Oswald from Kennedy.”

It has been nearly two weeks since the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, PA and there is still very little personal information available on Thomas Crooks.  The info that has been released is often contradictory.  Most suspicious of all is the utter lack of social media and web traffic related data.  For a 20-year-old in America, this seems impossible.

Reports of Steam and Instagram accounts in the Crooks’ name have proven to be fake.  The Gab announcement, if accurate, would be the first solid indication of a political motive behind the shooting.  It may be years before any facts are released by the FBI and other agencies giving the public a better picture of who Thomas Crooks really was. 

Authored by Ken Silva via Headline USA,

President Joe Biden said in a recent speech that the infamous gallows built on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021, were “erected to hang Vice President Mike Pence.”

That’s a strong claim coming from the sitting—at least for now—leader of the free world. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., asked FBI Director Chris Wray about Biden’s claim during a Wednesday congressional hearing, and Wray surprisingly debunked the president’s false characterization of the “gallows.”

Biden recently alleged that “gallows” erected on January 6th were intended to assassinate Vice President Mike Pence.

But today the @FBI Director disagreed with that assessment. pic.twitter.com/Yg5w5pKy6g

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) July 25, 2024

“I’m not aware of any physical gallows … It might have been a replica or symbol,” Wray told Massie.

The congressman agreed: “It looks like a prop. The construction doesn’t look like it would lend itself to hanging somebody. If the president were correct, that would be a very serious allegation.”

Massie asked Wray whether anyone has been arrested or even identified as the builder of the gallows. He also asked whether the gallows builders were FBI informants.

Wray said he had no knowledge of informants being involved, and that he didn’t know whether the gallows-makers have been arrested—but the answer is almost certainly no. As Headline USA reported in February, the FBI still doesn’t know who built the gallows.

“Three years later, the FBI still has no suspects. Additionally, the Select Committee on January 6th seemingly did not review the USCP CCTV footage to identify the culprits behind the gallows, or if they did, they never released information about when the gallows were built and who built them—which can all be seen on CCTV footage from early in the morning on January 6,” Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., stated said in a February press release.

According to Loudermilk, the gallows builders arrived at approximately 6:30 a.m. on January 6, 2021, in a white full-size van parked north of Constitution Avenue. There, three passengers unloaded a large bundle of lumber with wheels.

After unloading, the group walked the bundle across Constitution Avenue and onto the grass at Union Square, according to Loudermilk. They were then joined by two more people arriving by cab at the corner of 1st and C Streets NW, Loudermilk said.

Between 6:30 a.m. and 7:15 a.m., the group constructed the platform and two main pillars of the gallows, only leaving off the crossbeam, he said. During this time, the apparent group leader along with one other person, left the group and walked down 3rd Street, heading north. They returned a few minutes later with coffee, and the entire group left the scene, according to Loudermilk.

“Despite the leader’s distinctive clothing—he was wearing a long trench coat, long white scarf, fedora-type hat, and walking with a cane—he has never been identified publicly,” he said.

“At approximately 1:00 p.m., the group of five returned to the scene and the presumed leader, now wearing a baseball cap, installed the final crossbeam and added the noose made of bright orange rope. Shortly after construction was complete, all five men left the grounds.”

Loudermilk noted that the construction of the gallows violated the Capitol Police Guidelines for Conducting an event on United States Capitol Grounds, which prohibit temporary structures from being built on Capitol grounds. He asked why Capitol Police allowed the gallows to remain intact throughout the morning of Jan. 6.

“It is inconceivable that a gallows could be constructed on U.S. Capitol property and left up all day,” he said.

“These men arrived early in the morning, several hours before the rally even started or anyone had gathered, to construct the gallows platform, yet this structure was allowed to stay intact for all to see. These actions raise more serious and troubling questions. Why didn’t the U.S. Capitol Police take down the gallows once it was seen on Capitol property, and why have the individuals never been identified?”

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.