Singer Miley Cyrus stoked the ire of the LGBT community for seeming to suggest that homosexuality is a choice in a recent video telling women they &#8220;don&#8217;t have to be gay&#8221; so long as they find the right man.
Needless to say, Cyrus has had a tumultuous year. After divorcing actor Liam Hemsworth less than nine months into their marriage, she embarked on a sexual fling with Brody Jenner&#8217;s ex-wife, Kaitlynn Carter, before finally settling down with model and singer Cody Simpson. Speaking to her 100 million followers on Instagram as Cody Simpson laughed along on Sunday night, Cyrus told women to keep themselves open to good men.
“There are good men out there, guys, don’t give up. You don’t have to be gay, there are good people with dicks out there, you’ve just got to find them,” Cyrus said, as reported by <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/miley-cyrus-women-gay-right-man_n_5dadb4f2e4b0f34e3a7965ae">HuffPost</a>. “You’ve got to find a dick that’s not a dick, you know? I always thought I had to be gay because I thought all guys were evil, but it’s not true. There are good people out there that just happen to have dicks. I’ve only ever met one, and he’s on this live.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
“Don’t give up, you don’t have to be gay, there are good dicks out there, you just have to find them”
“I always thought I had to be gay because all guys are evil but that’s not true”
&#8211; <a href="https://twitter.com/MileyCyrus?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MileyCyrus</a> what&#39;s good? <a href="https://t.co/y3yjUGpCSN">pic.twitter.com/y3yjUGpCSN</a>
&mdash; • (@bljcmie) <a href="https://twitter.com/bljcmie/status/1186107023500275712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 21, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The video message did not go over well with Miley&#8217;s fans, who immediately roasted her on social media. It should be noted here, however, that Cyrus came out as &#8220;pansexual&#8221; in 2015, which means somebody who swings all ways.
&#8220;Miley, this is so not it. Women don’t &#8216;have to be gay&#8217; because they &#8216;can’t find a good person with a d*ck,'&#8221; tweeted Rosie Percy. &#8220;Don’t use the queer community as a stop-gap because you couldn’t find a boyfriend. People aren’t queer because they &#8216;gave up&#8217; on men. This is so insulting.&#8221;
&#8220;Damn. In 30 seconds [Miley Cyrus] managed to burn up all goodwill she&#8217;d ever built with queer and trans people. Not all &#8216;guys&#8217; have dicks, Miley. Thought you knew better,&#8221; tweeted one user. &#8220;You &#8216;had to be gay&#8217; because men are bad? Do you not realize what an anti-lesbian trope that is? Gross.&#8221;
After enough backlash, Miley Cyrus clarified in an Instagram post on Monday that she does not believe that people choose their sexuality.
“Let me be clear,” she wrote on Instagram Stories, “YOU don’t CHOOSE your sexuality. You are born as you are. It has always been my priority to protect the LGBTQ community I am a part of. Happy Monday!”
Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth&#8217;s divorce reached a fever pitch in August when allegations surfaced that she cheated on him. In a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/miley-cyrus-says-she-never-cheated-liam-hemsworth-paul-bois">fiery post on Twitter</a>, she rejected that assertion.
“I can accept that the life I’ve chosen means I must live completely open and transparent with my fans who I love, and the public, 100% of the time. What I cannot accept is being told I’m lying to cover up a crime I haven’t committed. I have nothing to hide,” she said. “It is no secret that I was into partying in my teens and early 20’s. I have not only smoked, but advocated for weed, I’ve experimented with drugs, my biggest song to date is about dancing on molly and snorting lines in the bathroom.”

Glastonbury Festival 2019 &#8211; Day Five

WATCH: Miley Cyrus Tells Women ‘You Don’t Have To Be Gay’ After You Find A Good Man

LGBT

Miley Cyrus

Abortion propaganda has become so pervasive in the entertainment industry that the dialogue on TV shows is now starting to sound like &#8220;Fireproof&#8221; for abortion enthusiasts. Take the latest episode of NBC’s &#8220;Law &amp; Order: Special Victims Unit&#8221; for example – an episode that almost literally treats its characters like puppets to spout talking points that could have come from a Planned Parenthood pamphlet.
As reported by <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/lindsay-kornick/2019/10/18/law-order-svu-upholds-13-year-olds-right-abortion">Newsbusters</a>, the October 17 episode “The Burden of Our Choices” focuses on a 13-year-old girl from an evangelical Christian family in Ohio who escaped to New York in order to obtain an abortion after her stepfather rapes her. Since Ohio requires minors to have permission from family members in order to obtain an abortion, the girl&#8217;s case becomes a major court battle. At one point in the episode, members of the SVU debate the case and it&#8217;s hard not to see a Planned Parenthood executive writing the script where the showrunners left off.
From the transcript provided by Newsbusters:
<blockquote>Carisi: Appeals court just refused to hear Ohio’s case. Even some pro-life groups thought the charges were ridiculous.
Olivia: Well, they are.
Tamin: So you guys aren’t under arrest? What about the stay on the abortion?
Carisi: Family court didn’t want to make a ruling until Ohio’s arrest warrants have been dismissed. They’re still deliberating.
Tamin: For how long? She’s 12 weeks pregnant. Any day after the first trimester, it gets more complicated.
Olivia: And that’s part of Ohio’s plan, is to run out the clock.
Tamin: I’m sorry, what century is this? All these old white men trying to control women’s bodies? I mean, how far off are we from “The Handmaid’s Tale”?
Olivia: You grew up taking these rights for granted. My mother, there was a time when she considered abortion, and her only option was – was back-alley. The bottom line is, if you have enough money, there’s always a way. But it’s these poor women, these girls – in some states, they’re gonna see deaths. That’s where this is going.
Tamin: They think that’s what we’re going back to.
Carisi: Fundamentalists, Catholics – they see abortion as deaths.
Tamin: You’re Catholic, right? Is that what you think?
Carisi: What I think is what I think. But if a woman is the victim of rape or incest –
Tamin: I hear that, and it sounds like you’re saying that a woman has to be a victim in order to have control over her own body.
Olivia: That’s not what he’s saying.
Tamin: Good. Because it’s not a decision that should ever be made by a group of men or a prosecutor who’s never had to make that choice.
Olivia: Guys, guys, guys.
Carisi: J-just so we’re clear. My job is to uphold that girl’s rights, and that’s what I’m doing. But I’m sorry, I don’t see this as black-and-white. In my experience, no woman wants to have an abortion.
Olivia: Okay.
Tamin: Fair enough. But these laws that are getting passed, they are not the answer.
Olivia: No, they’re not.</blockquote>
Spoilers: The episode ends with the 13-year-old girl receiving the abortion.

Pro choice protesters picketed outside the church where anti

‘Law &#038; Order: SVU’ Episode Pushes Cringe-Worthy Abortion Propaganda

Abortion

Hollywood

Planned Parenthood

Legendary director Martin Scorsese appears to have no interest in the SJW agenda that says filmmakers must set quotas for certain demographics in order to tell their story.
Speaking at the Rome Film Fest on Monday while presenting his latest film &#8220;The Irishman,&#8221; a member of the Italian press asked the &#8220;Goodfellas&#8221; director why a majority of his movies focus on male protagonists. Scorsese was having none of it and instantly shot the question down.
&#8220;That’s not even a valid point. That’s not valid. I can&#8217;t. &#8230; That goes back to 1970. That’s a question that I’ve had for so many years. Am I supposed to?” said Scorcese, as reported by <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/rome-martin-scorsese-laments-young-peoples-understanding-cinema-1248997">The Hollywood Reporter</a>. “If the story doesn’t call for it. &#8230; It’s a waste of everybody’s time. If the story calls for a female character lead, why not?”
“Alice Doesn’t Live Here,” responded the reporter.
“Oh, that’s only one film. They don’t count that. Age of Innocence, they don’t count that,” Scorsese replied &#8220;Casino. Sharon Stone’s great in that. They don’t count that. Forget it. It’s all these men.  Sure, I’d like to do. But you know what, I’m 76 now. How am I going to have the time? I don’t know what’s going to happen. We don&#8217;t know. I don’t have time anymore.”
Director Quentin Tarantino faced a similar accusation from the press with the debut of his latest hit film &#8220;Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.&#8221; Like Scorsese, Tarantino largely dismissed a New York Times reporter pressing him about Margot Robbie’s alleged lack of screen time while speaking at a panel at the Cannes Film Festival.
&#8220;I reject your hypothesis,&#8221; Tarantino told the reporter.
Margot Robbie came to the director&#8217;s defense by saying her character had just the right amount of screen time.
“I think the moments that I got onscreen gave an opportunity to honor Sharon and her lightness,” said Robbie. “I don’t think it was intended to delve deeper. As Brad mentioned, I think the tragedy was ultimately the loss of innocence and to show those wonderful sides of her could be done quickly without speaking, and I did feel like I had a lot of time to explore the character event without dialogue.”
In response, TIME <a href="https://time.com/5645347/quentin-tarantino-women-dialogue/">published an article</a> in which two reporters actually watched all of Tarantino&#8217;s films to count the number of lines women characters spoke, accusing him of subtle misogyny.
In the same press conference at the Rome Film Fest, Scorsese expounded on his recent comments about Marvel movies not being cinema, arguing that he hopes movies return to a stronger narrative format.
“The key that I’m hoping for is for theaters to continue to support narrative cinema of this kind,” said Scorsese &#8220;But right now the theaters seem to be mainly supporting the theme park, amusement park, comic book films. They’re taking over the theaters. I think they can have those films; it’s fine. It’s just that that shouldn’t become what our young people believe is cinema. It just shouldn’t.”
“This is the world we live in. Our children are, I don’t know what they’re doing with those devices,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;They perceive reality differently. They perceive even the concept of what history is supposed to be [differently]. How are they going to know about WWII? How are they going to know about Vietnam? What do they think of Afghanistan? What do they think of all of this? They’re perceiving it in bits and pieces. There seems to be no continuity of history.”

&#8220;The Irishman&#8221; Photocall &#8211; 14th Rome Film Fest 2019

Scorsese Asked Why His Films Have So Few Female Characters, Slaps Down Question: &#8216;Not Even A Valid Point&#8217;

Feminism

Martin Scorsese

In a time when children with Down syndrome are literally being exterminated in parts of the world, actor Shia LaBeouf is now crediting one individual with Down syndrome with saving his life.
Speaking with the United Kingdom&#8217;s <a href="https://www.channel4.com/news/actor-shia-labeouf-credits-co-star-with-downs-syndrome-with-saving-his-life" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cathy Newman of Channel 4</a>, Shia LaBeouf expounded on how his relationship with Zack Gottsagen – an actor with Down syndrome who starred alongside the former &#8220;Transformers&#8221; actor in the critically-acclaimed &#8220;The Peanut Butter Falcon&#8221; – literally altered his destructive habits.
“I had never worked with an actor like him,” said LaBeouf, as reported by <a href="https://www.liveaction.org/news/shia-labeouf-costar-down-syndrome-saved-life/?utm_source=dlvr.it&amp;utm_medium=facebook">Live Action</a>. “I’d never been involved in a project like this. It felt like it was going to be a really freeing experience, and to be quite frank, I was terrified. I knew that he’d be playing lead guitar, you know, and I’d be playing bass to him. If he went left, I’d have to go left. I’d never been in a situation where so much is dependent on staying open, and reacting, and listening to another performer. I’ve been quite selfish in my choices and my way of working before.”
&#8220;The kid in me died and I just got over all this,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;This roller coaster wasn’t fun after a while. You ride the same roller coaster, it just loses its appeal. Then you go on it with someone who hasn’t been on it before, and somehow, it sparks back up.”
LaBeouf recalled being arrested during filming for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct and how Gottsagen&#8217;s compassion and chastisement shook him out of his behavior.
“To hear him say that he was disappointed in me probably changed the course of my life,” LaBeouf said. “Cause I was still fighting. &#8230; Just on my defense-mechanism-fear garbage. And you can’t do that to him. He keeps it one thousand with you. &#8230; Zack can’t not shoot straight, and bless him for it ’cause in that moment, I needed a straight shooter who I couldn’t argue with.”
“The day after I got arrested, we were on a boat. I couldn’t really look at anybody in the eye,” he continued. “I was sitting next to him, and he put his hand on my shoulder, and like, nursed me back on a boat during the scene where we’re talking about the painful past. That stuff hurts; that stuff hurt to go through and to feel.”
Gottsagen recalled crying in the moment while resolving to give Shia a chance to recover. “I was sad. I cried,” he said. “But I’m still gonna take that chance for myself, to give Shia one chance to prove to himself never, never, never do this kind of stuff again.”
Europe has been leading the charge against babies with Down syndrome this past decade, signaling what the United States could possibly become if the abortion of such children becomes even more commonplace. In 2006, Denmark had just four babies born with Down syndrome. In Iceland, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/19726/speaking-nazis-iceland-disappearing-down-syndrome-john-nolte">abortion of babies with Down syndrome has reached near 100%</a>. France has gotten in on the race, too. Most recently, the country <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/11074/france-bans-ad-featuring-kids-down-syndrome-frank-camp">banned a television commercial</a> featuring children with Down syndrome because it upset mothers who previously aborted their own children with Down syndrome.
As unborn children with Down syndrome are quickly being exterminated across the globe, some states have stepped up efforts to protect them – such as Ohio, which passed the Ohio Right to Life’s Down Syndrome Non-Discrimination Act in 2017.

&#8220;The Peanut Butter Falcon&#8221; Press Conference

Shia LaBeouf Explains How Co-Star With Down Syndrome Saved His Life

Down Syndrome

Shia LaBeouf

Given all the heat being directed at the NBA for essentially placating China to keep the yuan flowing, the higher-ups at the NFL must be thanking the heavens for now being able to point across the pond and say, &#8220;See, we&#8217;re not as bad as those people.&#8221;
One NFL executive, who wished to remain anonymous,<a href="https://frntofficesport.com/nfl-nba-china/"> told Front Office Sports</a> last Friday that the NBA basically positioned themselves for this level of scorn given how much effort they have taken to appear &#8220;woke&#8221; – <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/reminder-the-nba-boycotts-states-for-trans-bathroom-policies">efforts that far exceed even the NFL</a>.
“I love seeing the ‘woke’ NBA hoisted by its own political petard,” the executive told the outlet.
Jeff Diamond, former NFL executive of the year with the Minnesota Vikings, had a different take and suggested he does not believe that the NFL stands to gain by the NBA&#8217;s controversy.
&#8220;I don’t know who in the NFL had a persecution complex about the NBA,&#8221; said Diamond.  &#8220;But I never felt that way when I was involved with the league. So I can’t necessarily speak to that issue.&#8221;
As noted by Front Office Sports, Andrew Brandt, a former Green Bay Packers executive, <a href="https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/10/16/nba-china-tweets-adam-silver-daryl-morey-nfl-roger-goodell?utm_campaign=themmqb&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com">wrote in Sports Illustrated </a>that the NBA will have a difficult time maintaining moral authority in the political arena so long as it appears to be favoring China over the free expression of Americans.
&#8220;The problem with the NBA is that it now presents as a company where players and coaches speak willingly on political issues when it is &#8216;safe&#8217; to do so, yet clam up when it is bad for business,&#8221; wrote Brandt. &#8220;The NBA’s and its coaches/players’ response to Morey has been something we would expect from the NFL, not the NBA, and LeBron’s comments are essentially saying that Morey should &#8216;stick to sports,&#8217; a different message than we have seen and heard from NBA leadership and players.&#8221;
&#8220;Even for the NBA, &#8216;staying woke&#8217; has its limits,&#8221; he added.
The NBA became the center of national controversy after Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey expressed support for Hong Kong-based pro-democracy protesters. Morey’s support angered China, which has a large NBA fanbase, prompting the NBA to immediately issue an apology for having offended Chinese sensibilities.
“We recognize that the views expressed by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey have deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable,” the statement said. “While Daryl has made it clear that his tweet does not represent the Rockets or the NBA, the values of the league support individuals’ educating themselves and sharing their views on matters important to them. We have great respect for the history and culture of China and hope that sports and the NBA can be used as a unifying force to bridge cultural divides and bring people together.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has since <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nba-commissioner-we-certainly-didnt-apologize-to-the-chinese-government">defended</a> the statement, insisting that the league was not specifically apologizing to the Chinese government.
“It bothered me that in saying we regretted upsetting hundreds of millions of Chinese fans while at the same time supporting Daryl Morey’s speech, it bothered me, I’d say, that it was interpreted as an apology to the Chinese government,” he said. “We certainly didn’t apologize to the Chinese government. We supported Daryl from the get-go in terms of his ability to tweet. We also made clear that there were consequences from that speech. And, I think that was no doubt frustrating to a lot of people in the NBA community because it was incredibly disruptive.”
“But, you know, we accepted that,” he continued. “Daryl knew we accepted that. There was not much we could do about that. But, I think it bothered me that somehow even though we – I felt were holding the line in a way that many companies haven’t been able to in China, meaning there was no discipline of our employee, there was never a suggestion that we weren’t supporting him. In fact, I spoke out in favor of freedom of expression. Somehow, there was a sense from some people that that was the equivalent of kowtowing to the Chinese government. I certainly didn’t see it that way, but people are entitled to their opinion.”

Protesters using Lebron James pictures as masks during the

NFL Executive: &#8216;Woke&#8217; NBA &#8216;Hoisted By Its Own Political Petard&#8217;

China

LeBron James

The feud between lovers of cinema and Marvel fanboys heated up over the weekend when legendary director Francis Ford Coppola &#8212; the man who gave us &#8220;The Godfather,&#8221; &#8220;The Conversation,&#8221; &#8220;Patton,&#8221; and &#8220;Apocalypse Now&#8221; &#8212; backed Martin Scorsese&#8217;s assertion that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is not cinema, even going a step further to denounce those movies as &#8220;despicable.&#8221;
Speaking at a press conference in Lyon, France, where he was slated to receive the Prix Lumiere for his cinematic contributions, Coppola flatly agreed with his longtime friend Scorsese that Marvel movies are essentially formulaic theme park rides with no heart or soul.
“When Martin Scorsese says that the Marvel pictures are not cinema, he’s right, because we expect to learn something from cinema, we expect to gain something, some enlightenment, some knowledge, some inspiration,&#8221; said Coppola. &#8220;I don’t know that anyone gets anything out of seeing the same movie over and over again. Martin was kind when he said it’s not cinema. He didn’t say it’s despicable, which I just say it is.”
Earlier this month, Scorsese stoked the ire of millions of Marvel fanboys when he said the MCU movies were more like theme park rides than cinematic experiences.
“I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema,” Scorsese <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/martin-scorsese-shreds-marvel-movies-says-theyre-not-cinema">told Empire Magazine</a>. “Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”
Neither Scorsese nor Coppola are alone in their belief about the Marvel movies, and are joined by director James Cameron — one of the highest-grossing blockbuster directors of all-time — who once said that the films lack a heart.
“I’m hoping we’ll start getting ‘Avenger’ fatigue here pretty soon,” Cameron <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/james-cameron-right-about-superhero-movies-enough-paul-bois">told IndieWire</a> in 2018. “It’s just, come on guys, there are other stories to tell besides hypergonadal males (men who produce too much testosterone) without families doing death-defying things for two hours and wrecking cities in the process. It’s like, oy!”
Naturally, the comments from both Scorsese and Coppola have prompted severe backlash online with virtually no nuance in between.
&#8220;Francis Ford Coppola spent 14 months on principal photography for &#8216;Apocalypse Now,'&#8221; said Charlotte Clymer. &#8220;He made ‘The Godfather.’ He’s an insufferable genius. I can’t believe anyone cares that he hates Marvel movies. It’s apples and oranges. Some of y’all take this Marvel s**t way too seriously.&#8221;
&#8220;People older than Coppola said the same thing about much of his work when he first emerged. This seems like a generational thing, artists age,&#8221; Hilluminati tweeted. &#8220;The world changes. They feel like their passions are being replaced by ‘lesser’ things. Cycles happen. I-ching, feng shui, roll with it.&#8221;
&#8220;Scorsese and Coppola are on the cinematic Mt. Rushmore,&#8221; tweeted Robliefeld. &#8220;They have more than earned their views on cinema and their opinions should not surprise or ignite. They won’t affect the creation of comic films or your enjoyment of them.&#8221;
&#8216;&#8221;How dare Coppola say mean things about Marvel movies when he made [random bad movie]&#8217; is a weak sneer,&#8221; tweeted Mark Harris. &#8220;Every filmmaker with a real body of work makes some bad movies. Stop whining, nobody&#8217;s gonna take your precious two-and-a-half-star superhero films away.&#8221;

&#8220;La Sortie de l&#8217;Usine&#8221; &#8211; 11th Film Festival Lumiere At The Louis Lumiere Institute

Francis Ford Coppola Backs Scorsese: Marvel Movies Are ‘Despicable’

Marvel

The feud between Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has quickly caused a divide in the Democratic Party between the establishment partisans and the principled believers.
Over at CNN, none other than left-wing commentator Van Jones came to Gabbard&#8217;s defense in the wake of Clinton referring to her as a &#8220;favorite of the Russians,&#8221; arguing that the former first lady is playing a &#8220;very dangerous game.&#8221;
“If you’re concerned about disinformation … that is what just happened, just throw out some information, disinformation, smear somebody,” Jones said, as reported by the <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/van-jones-on-tulsi-gabbard-russian-asset-claim-hillary-clinton-is-playing-a-very-dangerous-game">Washington Examiner</a>. “She is Hillary Clinton. She’s a legend. She’s going to be in the history books. She’s a former nominee of our party, and she just came out against a sitting U.S. congresswoman, a decorated war veteran, and somebody who’s running for the nomination of our party with just a complete smear and no facts.&#8221;
Jones added that he is deeply disappointed in Hillary Clinton for “playing right into the Russians’ hands.”
<iframe title="Van Jones on Tulsi Gabbard ‘Russian asset’ claim: ‘Hillary Clinton is playing a very dangerous game’" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FNC3BvptVIg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The feud between Gabbard and Hillary erupted into a social media firestorm on Friday when the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tulsi-gabbard-lights-up-hillary-clinton-for-suggesting-shes-a-russian-asset-the-queen-of-warmongers">former first lady said</a> that Russia is grooming Gabbard for a third-party run during an appearance on the podcast “Campaign HQ.”
“I think they have got their eye on someone who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate. She is the favorite of the Russians,” Clinton said. “They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far.”
“That’s assuming Jill Stein will give it up, which she might not because she’s also a Russian asset. Yeah, she’s a Russian asset — I mean, totally,” she continued. “They know they can’t win without a third-party candidate. So I don’t know who it’s going to be, but I will guarantee you they will have a vigorous third-party challenge in the key states that they most needed.”
Refusing to toe the party line that suggests kissing the power ring of establishment cronies in order to get ahead, Gabbard immediately took to Twitter to blast Clinton as &#8220;the queen of warmongers.&#8221;
“Great! Thank you [Hillary Clinton],” Gabbard said. “You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally come out from behind the curtain.”
“From the day I announced my candidacy, there has been a concerted campaign to destroy my reputation. We wondered who was behind it and why,” she continued. “Now we know — it was always you, through your proxies and powerful allies in the corporate media and war machine, afraid of the threat I pose.”
Van Jones is not the only prominent Democrat to defend Tulsi Gabbard against Hillary&#8217;s smear campaign. Jumping into the fray on Saturday was <a href="https://rising.substack.com/p/tulsi-vs-hillary-whos-the-real-threat">former MSNBC host Krystal Ball</a>, who agreed with some of Gabbard&#8217;s points about warmongering.
&#8220;One served as an Iraq War Medic mending and caring for her wounded brothers and sisters,&#8221; wrote Ball. &#8220;The other was an integral part of sending our brothers and sisters off to fight and die in a war with catastrophic consequences for our nation and the world. One calls out the immoral Saudi regime and the unprincipled nature of our transactional &#8216;alliance&#8217; with them. The other is happy to take $10 million from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia into her family foundation.&#8221;

&#8220;The Redemption Project With Van Jones&#8221; Atlanta Screening

CNN’s Van Jones: Hillary Clinton ‘Playing A Very Dangerous Game’ With Tulsi Gabbard

Hillary Clinton

Tulsi Gabbard

Van Jones

As the NBA and a majority of the entertainment industry cater to China&#8217;s censorship demands in order to make a quick buck, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is now refusing to recut his hit film &#8220;Once Upon a Time in Hollywood&#8221; to appease the tyrannical regime.
&#8220;Quentin Tarantino will not recut “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” to placate Chinese censors,&#8221; reports <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/news/quentin-tarantino-once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-china-1203375792/#article-comments">Variety</a>. &#8220;The decision likely means that the Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt buddy dramedy and ode to late sixties Tinseltown won’t be making an appearance in China — at least in non-pirated form.&#8221;
Though &#8220;Once Upon a Time in Hollywood&#8221; is being distributed by Sony Pictures, Tarantino has final cut, meaning no alterations can be made to the movie without his approval. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) praised Tarantino for standing up for artistic freedom:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
If, contrary to the initial article, Tarantino is standing up to China &amp; refusing to be censored, BRAVO. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MoreOfThis?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MoreOfThis</a> <a href="https://t.co/rdASUsJao9">https://t.co/rdASUsJao9</a>
&mdash; Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) <a href="https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1185415615516950528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The stall over his film&#8217;s release in China reportedly happened because Bruce Lee&#8217;s daughter, Shannon Lee, filed a complaint with China’s National Film Administration about the film&#8217;s negative depiction of her father.
In the movie, actor Mike Moh hilariously portrays kung-fu screen legend Bruce Lee as an arrogant braggart who talks a bigger game than the one he plays. Despite the fact that most Bruce Lee biographers agree that Lee did indeed have a haughty side to go along with his sweet side, Tarantino got slapped with accusations of racism for supposedly portraying the film’s lone minority character so disparagingly. Tarantino maintained, however, that Lee&#8217;s own wife even admitted he had a bit of an arrogant side.
“The way he was talking, I didn’t just make a lot of that up,” Tarantino said, as reported by <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/tarantino-responds-bruce-lee-once-a-time-hollywood-criticism-1231125">The Hollywood Reporter</a>. “I heard him say things like that, to that effect. If people are saying, ‘Well he never said he could beat up Muhammad Ali,’ well yeah, he did. Not only did he say that, but his wife, Linda Lee, said that in her first biography I ever read … She absolutely said it.”
Despite not being released in China, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” has already grossed $366.8 million worldwide on a $90 million budget. Regardless of whether or not the film will grace Chinese audiences, the controversy represents yet another example in a string of ongoing examples of China’s grip on Hollywood, which has become so insidious that American movie studios have been censoring creative content to make a few bucks off the backs of a totalitarian government. In fact, The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/18/world/asia/china-movies.html">New York Times</a> cited several instances in a detailed article on how movies have changed whole storylines and characters in order to appease China’s state media:
<blockquote>Hollywood’s embrace of China has not come without strings attached.
So when the creators of “Pixels” wanted to show aliens blasting a hole in the Great Wall of China, Sony executives worried that the scene might prevent the 2015 movie’s release in China, <a href="https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/">leaked studio emails</a> show. They blew up the Taj Mahal instead.
But in the 2016 movie “Doctor Strange,” the Ancient One is Celtic, played by the white actress Tilda Swinton. Moviemakers decided to change the character’s ethnicity early in the process, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/27/world/asia/china-doctor-strange-tibet.html">reportedly</a> to avoid offending the Chinese government.
As recently as two decades ago, major Hollywood movies were sharply critical of China. “Seven Years in Tibet,” which depicts Chinese soldiers brutalizing Tibetans, was one of the top 100 grossing movies of 1997. Also that year, Disney released Martin Scorsese’s “Kundun” — a sympathetic portrayal of the Dalai Lama’s early life in Mao-era China and his subsequent exile in India — despite <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/27/movies/disney-will-defy-china-on-its-dalai-lama-film.html">objections from the Chinese authorities</a>.</blockquote>
Beyond that, movie studios have gone to great lengths to appeal to Chinese audiences by presenting the country as a technologically advanced superpower, as in the cases of “The Martian,” “2012,” “Gravity,” and “Looper.”
Most recently, social media went abuzz with Chinese censorship speculation when the &#8220;Top Gun: Maverick&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/top-gun-maverick-trailer-blasted-seemingly-paul-bois">trailer revealed</a> that the Taiwanese and Japanese flags had been removed from Tom Cruise&#8217;s iconic jacket, presumably to appease Chinese sensibilities.

&#8216;Once Upon a Time In Hollywood&#8217; Premiere In Tokyo

BRAVO: Quentin Tarantino Refuses To Censor ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’ For China

Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino&#8217;s &#8220;Once Upon a Time in Hollywood&#8221; will have to wait a while to see those Chinese dollars due to the country halting the film&#8217;s release over its depiction of Bruce Lee.
&#8220;The film was originally set to hit theaters in the Middle Kingdom on Oct. 25 after having received approval from Chinese censors,&#8221; reports <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/news/quentin-tarantino-once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-china-release-halted-1203375052/">Variety</a>. &#8220;But an exhibitor source told Variety that the movie has been &#8216;temporarily put on hold&#8217; because the daughter of Bruce Lee has filed a complaint to China’s National Film Administration about the on-screen depiction of her late father, a hero to many Chinese.&#8221;
The source told the outlet that the film should be approved so long as Tarantino can make some cuts.
In the movie, actor Mike Moh hilariously portrays kung-fu screen legend Bruce Lee as an arrogant braggart who talks a bigger game than the one he plays. Despite the fact that most Bruce Lee biographers agree that Lee did indeed have a haughty side to go along with his sweet side, Tarantino got slapped with accusations of racism for supposedly portraying the film’s lone minority character so disparagingly.
“They didn’t need to treat him in the way that white Hollywood did when he was alive,” Shannon Lee told <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/bruce-lee-daughter-mockery-once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-shannon-lee/">TheWrap</a>. “He comes across as an arrogant a**hole who was full of hot air and not someone who had to fight triple as hard as any of those people did to accomplish what was naturally given to so many others. It was really uncomfortable to sit in the theater and listen to people laugh at my father.”
After enough criticism mounted, Tarantino eventually defended his portrayal of Bruce Lee during a press tour for the film in Russia, citing Lee’s own wife as a source.
“The way he was talking, I didn’t just make a lot of that up,” Tarantino said, as reported by <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/tarantino-responds-bruce-lee-once-a-time-hollywood-criticism-1231125">The Hollywood Reporter</a>. “I heard him say things like that, to that effect. If people are saying, ‘Well he never said he could beat up Muhammad Ali,’ well yeah, he did. Not only did he say that, but his wife, Linda Lee, said that in her first biography I ever read … She absolutely said it.”
Variety <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/news/bruce-lee-quentin-tarantino-shannon-lee-interview-1203302850/">reports</a> that the quote referred to by Tarantino, however, may not be directly attributable to Lee’s wife:
<blockquote>The passage in his wife Linda Lee Cadwell’s book, “Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew,” that Tarantino appears to refer to is a quote from a critic, who wrote that “Those who watched [Bruce] Lee would bet on Lee to render Cassius Clay senseless,” and not from the author herself (Clay was later known as Muhammad Ali).</blockquote>
Though Tarantino has not commented on China stalling the release, he has in the past <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jan/14/quentin-tarantino-chinese-china-movies-illegally-pirate-censorship-downloads">encouraged his Chinese fans</a> to watch his movies illegally if they so choose. In fact, 2012&#8217;s &#8220;Django Unchained&#8221; received virtually no money in China after a successful bootlegging campaign in response to a similarily stalled release.
“We didn’t make any money on [Django Unchained] but at the same time people saw it all over the place because they see it on bootleg out there and everything,” he said in 2016. “I have a lot of Chinese fans who buy my movies on the street and watch them and I’m OK with it. I’m not OK with it in other places, but if the government’s going to censor me then I want the people to see it in any way they can.”

China Stalls ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’ Release Over Bruce Lee Depiction

Just a little over a week after Chick-fil-A opened its first location in the United Kingdom, the restaurant will be closing because the shopping center will not extend the restaurant&#8217;s six-month lease in response to the protests of LGBTQ activists.
&#8220;Gay rights campaigners called for a boycott of Chick-fil-A, which opened its first branch at The Oracle shopping centre in Reading on 10 October,&#8221; reports the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-berkshire-50094551">BBC</a>.
A spokesperson for The Oracle shopping center told the BBC that &#8220;the right thing to do&#8221; was to prevent the fast-food chain from doing business in response to the LGBTQ outcry.
&#8220;We always look to introduce new concepts for our customers, however, we have decided on this occasion that the right thing to do is to only allow Chick-Fil-A to trade with us for the initial six-month pilot period, and not to extend the lease any further,&#8221; said the spokesperson.
Reading Pride expressed delight over the &#8220;good news,&#8221; saying the six-month period was &#8220;reasonable request &#8230; to allow for re-settlement and notice for employees that have moved from other jobs.&#8221; Reading Pride did, however, promise to keep haranguing the restaurant with protests until it officially left the shopping center for good.
Chick-fil-A told the BBC that the organization has donated to Christian groups for youth and education, noting that they serve as home to a diverse number of employees. &#8220;There are 145,000 people – black, white; gay, straight; Christian, non-Christian – who represent Chick-fil-A,&#8221; said a spokesperson.
Speaking with <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/18/chick-fil-as-first-uk-location-will-close-after-pressure-from-lgbtq-rights-group.html">CNBC</a>, a Chick-fil-A spokesperson said that the chicken empire will continue expansion into international markets.
&#8220;Chick-fil-A is always evaluating potential new locations in the hope of serving customers great food and award winning service. This six month pilot licensed location in Reading, UK is part of our exploration in international markets,&#8221; the spokesperson said.
The hate toward the chicken sandwich empire began in 2012, when company president Dan Cathy expressed support for traditional one-man/one-woman marriage, prompting boycotts across the country from LGBTQ activists.
“I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,&#8217;” Cathy <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/chick-fil-a-president-says-gods-judgment-coming-because-of-same-sex-marriage-78485/#SUuZKIURo5MhCW2p.99">said at the time</a>. “I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about.”
Just last year, two major publications wrote scathing articles begging people to boycott the business: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/29418/new-yorker-columnist-chick-fil-evil-and-must-be-ben-shapiro">The New Yorker</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/31789/huffpost-if-you-really-love-lgbtq-people-you-just-joseph-curl">HuffPost</a>. “If You Really Love LGBTQ People, You Just Can’t Keep Eating Chick-fil-A,” wrote Noah Michelson of HuffPost. When Chick-fil-A wanted to set up shop in New York City, Dan Piepenring of The New Yorker called it a “creepy infiltration” of the city. Following that, multiple universities and two city airports have banned Chick-fil-A from doing business.
Despite the efforts to harm the business, with college campuses and two city airports banning the chain from opening up shop, the chicken empire’s sales continue to climb and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chick-fil-sales-have-doubled-face-leftist-paul-bois">have only doubled</a> since the boycotts launched in 2012.
“Chick-fil-A’s annual sales have more than doubled since LGBT and liberal groups began calling for a boycott of the restaurant in 2012, according to a new analysis,” reported <a href="https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/chick-fil-a-s-sales-have-doubled-since-lgbt-boycott-began-in-2012.html">Christian Headlines</a> last month. “In 2012, when controversy arose over the CEO’s comments about same-sex marriage, <a href="https://www.wsbradio.com/business/chick-fil-keeps-growing-despite-uproar/9Qtv5hIeJUc59lFUfxZQ3L/">sales totaled</a> $4.6 billion, up from $4.1 billion the year before. In 2018, sales <a href="https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/chick-fil-a-with-a-mission-to-glorify-god-is-now-3rd-largest-restaurant-in-u-s.html">totaled</a> $10.46 billion, making it the third-largest restaurant in the United States behind McDonald’s and Starbucks.”

&#8220;Chick-Fil-A Is Anti-Gay!&#8221; PETA And The LGBT Community Protest

Chick-Fil-A Closing First U.K. Location After Pressure From LGBTQ Activists

Chick-fil-A

United Kingdom

Proving himself once again to be a master troll artist, President Trump ripped into Hollywood while speaking Thursday night before an uproarious crowd at his Dallas rally, scolding the industry for attacking conservatives and Trump supporters.
First, the president attacked television networks for their low ratings as they allegedly push fake news onto the American people, which then segued into blasting the Oscars for generating poor ratings while attacking his political supporters.
“Don’t worry. I won’t say anything bad about your network,” Trump told reporters, as reported by <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/donald-trump-oscars-ratings">Fox News</a>. “Because a lot of the times, I get ready to do a number on these phony networks and you know, you see those red lights go off off off off. They don’t want their viewers to see it. But that’s OK, I’m not going to say it tonight. I’m going to say, ‘You’re legitimate media.’ I don’t actually mean that.”
“But look at all those cameras,” Trump continued. “That’s like the Academy Awards used to be before it failed. You know why it failed? You know why it failed? Because they came after us. That’s why it failed. It failed because they had stupid people saying horrible things about us. Stupid, stupid people. They are stupid people, and their ratings have dropped like a rock, and I love seeing it, I’m telling you. Love it. But no matter how hard they try, they will fail because the people of Texas and the people of America will never surrender our freedom to those people right there.”
While the Oscars saw a small uptick in viewership this past year, the noted award ceremony has arguably been declining both in quality and in popularity since the 2016 election. In 2018, the year that host Jimmy Kimmel essentially delivered a purely political rant in his opening monologue, the Academy Awards had their worst-ever television ratings. As Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ratings-oscars-stunk-again-theres-one-very-simple-ben-shapiro">stated at the time</a>, the poor showing could only be due to the prevalence of far-left politics:
<blockquote>Since the end of the first Bush term, then, Hollywood has decided that Americans are rubes. If Americans like a product, that’s because the product must be too bourgeois. Hollywood must use its special night to demonstrate to Americans just how gauche they really are.
And so, each year, that’s what Hollywood does. They live off the profits of Thor: Ragnorak while bragging at the cocktail parties about Call Me By Your Name. They cash the checks from Star Wars: The Last Jedi while handing statuettes to The Shape of Water. And they fill their shows each year with lectures on intersectionality and “important” messages.
There’s a reason the ratings keep dropping at the Oscars. And it’s not merely because people haven’t been seeing the movies that win. It’s because Hollywood specifically chooses to reward movies that aren’t big hits so they can point out to the rubes just how ignorant they truly are.
And when Hollywood does approve a film that Americans like (see, e.g., Wonder Woman or Black Panther), Americans are told that something historic has happened — even though Americans have routinely enjoyed films that carry virtuous messages. Americans just don’t like being patronized. And Hollywood’s entire sense of value rests in their belief that Americans are worth sneering at — even when Hollywood is attempting to move beyond one of the worst scandals in its history.</blockquote>

Donald Trump Holds &#8220;Keep America Great&#8221; Campaign Rally In Dallas

Trump Trolls Hollywood: Oscars ‘Failed’ When ‘They Came After Us’

Donald Trump

Actress Elizabeth Olsen, known for her role as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch in &#8220;The Avengers&#8221; franchise, announced her excitement to see the superhero genre to become more inclusive regarding racial and sexual diversity.
Speaking with <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/avengers-elizabeth-olsen-superheroes-hollywood">Fox News</a>, Olsen said that &#8220;now more than ever&#8221; is the time to see representation in the superhero genre.
&#8220;I think it&#8217;s important to have all representations of superheroes on the big screen, now more than ever,&#8221; said Olsen. &#8220;I feel like we are moving and we are making changes. And &#8230; I&#8217;ve always just felt it&#8217;s hard for me to say I have been treated so and so way because I&#8217;m a female at work because &#8230; I&#8217;ve always had a lucky experience.&#8221;
Olsen added that people of color and sexual minorities have not had the same lucky experience as her, which makes sense when considering she is the younger sister of twin duo Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen – two of the biggest child stars of the 1990s.
&#8220;But I do believe that, that I know and I understand that that&#8217;s not the universal experience,&#8221; said Olsen. &#8220;I feel like it&#8217;s women, it&#8217;s women of color, it&#8217;s men of color. I feel like it&#8217;s representing different sexualities. I just feel like now people are listening, people are paying attention. So now it&#8217;s the opportunity.&#8221;
The Marvel universe has faced criticism recently for not including enough LGBTQ characters or superheroes, though producers Kevin Feige and Victoria Alonso <a href="https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-gay-character-in-avengers-endgame-was-not-supposed-1835665347?utm_source=io9_twitter&amp;utm_medium=socialflow&amp;utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">have promised</a> they will be arriving soon. The latest “Avengers” installment, however, did break new ground with the inclusion of Grieving Man (played by co-director Joe Russo), who was seen at the very beginning telling Steve Rogers about a man he was dating. However, LGBTQ activists took the character as Marvel’s cheap attempt at diversity.
“As disappointing as [previous] missed opportunities for queer representation were, none of them stung anywhere nearly as much as the Grieving Man’s introduction inadvertently does, because his presence comes across like an inconsequential afterthought, and it doesn’t help matters that the Russos and Marvel appear to be quite pleased with the creative decision,” wrote Charles Pullman at <a href="https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-gay-character-in-avengers-endgame-was-not-supposed-1835665347">Gizmodo</a>.
“Spider-Man” actor Tom Holland also recently told <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tom-holland-interview-robert-downey-jr-avengers-billy-elliot-spider-man-v8963l3kx?wgu=270525_54264_15620633691442_0df4b3c34c&amp;wgexpiry=1569839369&amp;utm_source=planit&amp;utm_medium=affiliate&amp;utm_content=22278&amp;wgu=270525_54264_15621805969014_d627b67eb5&amp;wgexpiry=1569956596&amp;utm_source=planit&amp;utm_medium=affiliate&amp;utm_content=22278" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:2;elm:context_link;itc:0">Britain’s Sunday Times</a> that he would be open to his character being openly gay in the future.
“I can’t talk about the future of the character because honestly I don’t know and it’s out of my hands,” Holland told the outlet. “But I do know a lot about the future of Marvel, and they are going to be representing lots of different people in the next few years.”
“The world isn’t as simple as a straight white guy,” he continued. “It doesn’t end there, and these films need to represent more than one type of person.”
Actress Tessa Thompson, who plays Valkyrie in “Thor: Ragnarok” and &#8220;Avengers: Endgame,&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tessa-thompson-valkyrie-could-be-marvels-first-paul-bois">said recently</a> that her character could become the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first LGBTQ superhero.
“As new king [of Asgard], she needs to find her queen. That will be the first order of business,” said Thompson at Comic-Con.
In “Avengers: Endgame,” the character Thor declared Valkyrie the new queen of Asgard. Ever since her character appeared in “Ragnarok,” Thompson has pressed the point that Valkyrie’s sexuality swings both ways. In fact, the hit movie had a deleted LGBTQ scene in which Valkyrie was shown to be bisexual when a female lover leaves her bedroom. Thompson said the film’s director Taika Waititi wanted to keep the scene, but was forced to cut it.
“He kept it in the film as long as he could; eventually the bit had to be cut because it distracted from the scene’s vital exposition,” Thompson explained to <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/features/how-tessa-thompson-went-from-indie-actor-to-thor-ragnarok-badass-w510485" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:11;elm:context_link;itc:0">Rolling Stone</a>.

Celebrities Visit Build &#8211; October 8, 2019

‘Avengers’ Star Elizabeth Olsen: We Need ‘All Representation Of Superheroes’

Even though &#8220;Sex and the City&#8221; instilled the values of carefree, loveless sex into a whole generation of women, the show&#8217;s creator has one regret: not ensuring more diversity.
Speaking with <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/darren-star-iconic-tv-characters-at-2019-mipcom-1247631">The Hollywood Reporter</a> (THR) in Cannes recently, Darren Star said, in retrospect, he should have included more minority characters.
“That&#8217;s the one thing I probably would have liked to have done differently,” said Star. “Hopefully it transcended that, but looking back, wow, that would have been another way to make it feel more groundbreaking.”
“The show is very much a product of its time and I think the show is a time capsule. You can only think about shows as representing the time that they are being made,” he continued. “TV has evolved in being much more inclusive, and I think that people do now think about series that way.”
In the same interview, Star expressed feeling quite drawn to stories about female characters due to their openness. “I feel like they&#8217;re emotionally very open, they&#8217;re very expressive, they&#8217;re funny. I just think of the female characters as people,” he said. “If you put men in the same situation you just wouldn&#8217;t be able to tell the same kinds of stories.”
Though &#8220;Sex and the City&#8221; has a loyal fanbase, as THR noted, the show has indeed faced criticism for a lack of diversity. The show&#8217;s star, Sarah Jessica Parker, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sarah-jessica-parker-says-sex-city-looks-tone-deaf-20-years-1141149">even said that the show looks &#8220;tone-deaf&#8221; 20 years later</a>.
&#8220;You couldn&#8217;t make it today because of the lack of diversity on screen,&#8221; she said in 2018. &#8220;I personally think it would feel bizarre.&#8221;
“I don&#8217;t know that you could do it with a different cast,” she said of a possible reboot. “I think that&#8217;s radical and interesting, but you can&#8217;t pretend it&#8217;s the same. It wouldn&#8217;t be a reboot as I understand it. If you came back and did six episodes, you&#8217;d have to acknowledge the city is not hospitable to those same ideas. You&#8217;d look like you were generationally removed from reality, but it would be certainly interesting to see four diverse women experiencing NYC their way. … It would be interesting and very worthwhile exploring, but it couldn&#8217;t be the same.”
&#8220;Sex and the City&#8221; also made headlines recently when the original author, Candace Bushnell (upon whom the character of Carrie Bradshaw was based), admitted that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sex-and-city-author-regrets-not-having-kids-i-felt-paul-bois">she regrets not having kids</a>.
“When I was in my 30s and 40s, I didn’t think about it,” Bushnell said earlier this year. “Then when I got divorced and I was in my 50s, I started to see the impact of not having children and of truly being alone. I do see that people with children have an anchor in a way that people who have no kids don’t.”
Bushnell and her husband, ballet dancer Charles Askegard, divorced in 2012 after 10 years of marriage – which she said caused her to go without sex for five years. “It’s not that long when you get to my age. I know women who have gone longer,” she said.
Bushnell&#8217;s latest book already has a television deal on the table and will focus on a group of single, middle-aged women from New York City who move to the Hamptons in order to start anew. Similarly autobiographical like “Sex and the City,” the novel was inspired by her own experience as a childless, single woman in her 50s.
“We’re all single women without children. And you think about, what are you going to do when you get old?” she said. “If you don’t have kids, you realize, ‘Who is going to take care of me?’ Your girlfriends.”
“It was a weird, great communal living where your best friends who are like your family are right across the street and you can run and see them any time and you’re there for each other,” Bushnell said. “We live within walking or biking distance [of each other]. We get together usually for Sunday brunch. And sometimes we have a paddle-boarding lunch.”

PaleyFest New York 2016 &#8211; &#8220;Younger&#8221;

‘Sex And The City’ Creator Laments Show&#8217;s Lack Of Diversity

Diversity

Sexuality

NBA commissioner Adam Silver now claims that the league never apologized to China in the wake of Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey tweeting in favor of the Hong Kong protesters.
Speaking with <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2019/10/17/adam-silver-nba-china-lebron-james-daryl-morey-trump/">TMZ Sports</a>, Silver said that even though the NBA appeared rather conciliatory towards the Chinese government, the league never directly apologized.
&#8220;I&#8217;d hate to see this relationship end over this incident,&#8221; Silver said. &#8220;We do need to reset with the Chinese government and everybody has to establish what the rules of the road are going to be going forward.&#8221;
The original statement issued by NBA chief communications officer Mike Bass in response to Morey&#8217;s &#8220;stand with Hong Kong&#8221; tweet expressed regret for having offended Chinese fans.
&#8220;We recognize that the views expressed by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey have deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable,” the statement said. “While Daryl has made it clear that his tweet does not represent the Rockets or the NBA, the values of the league support individuals’ educating themselves and sharing their views on matters important to them. We have great respect for the history and culture of China and hope that sports and the NBA can be used as a unifying force to bridge cultural divides and bring people together.”
Silver told TMZ Sports that it &#8220;bothered&#8221; him people viewed the statement as apologetic to the Chinese government, arguing that he walked a tight-rope by speaking out in favor of free expression.
&#8220;It bothered me that in saying we regretted upsetting hundreds of millions of Chinese fans while at the same time supporting Daryl Morey’s speech, it bothered me, I’d say, that it was interpreted as an apology to the Chinese government,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We certainly didn’t apologize to the Chinese government. We supported Daryl from the get-go in terms of his ability to tweet. We also made clear that there were consequences from that speech. And, I think that was no doubt frustrating to a lot of people in the NBA community because it was incredibly disruptive.&#8221;
&#8220;But, you know, we accepted that,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Daryl knew we accepted that. There was not much we could do about that. But, I think it bothered me that somehow even though we – I felt were holding the line in a way that many companies haven’t been able to in China, meaning there was no discipline of our employee, there was never a suggestion that we weren’t supporting him. In fact, I spoke out in favor of freedom of expression. Somehow, there was a sense from some people that that was the equivalent of kowtowing to the Chinese government. I certainly didn’t see it that way, but people are entitled to their opinion.&#8221;
While the initial statement appeared to apologize to the Chinese government, Silver told reporters shortly thereafter that the NBA would not stand in the way of players and coaches expressing themselves.
“It is inevitable that people around the world &#8212; including from America and China &#8212; will have different viewpoints over different issues,” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dennis-rodman-believes-he-can-fix-the-nba-china-situation">Silver said</a>. “It is not the role of the NBA to adjudicate those differences. This is about far more than growing our business … values of equality, respect and freedom of expression have long defined the NBA — and will continue to do so. As an American-based basketball league operating globally, among our greatest contributions are these values of the game.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/la-clippers-coach-doc-rivers-morey-right-in-saying-support-hong-kong">LA Clippers Coach Doc Rivers: Morey ‘Right In Saying’ Support Hong Kong</a>

Attendees Arrive For Allen &amp; Co. Media And Technology Conference

NBA Commissioner: ‘We Certainly Didn&#8217;t Apologize To The Chinese Government’

Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama are now Hollywood power players, according to the latest top 100 list from <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/thr-100-hollywood-reporters-powerful-people-entertainment-1246527/item/thr-100-2019-dick-wolf-1246575" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a">The Hollywood Reporter</a>.
Clocking in at number 50 ahead of top names like Jeffrey Katzenberg and James Cameron, THR said that the Obamas are soaring into Hollywood with deals from every corner:
<blockquote>Who wouldn&#8217;t take their call? The former president, 58, and first lady, 55, kicked off 2019 with a Sundance acquisition — doc American Factory, which premiered to strong reviews on Netflix in August en route to an awards-season run. Tonia Davis and Priya Swaminathan, co-heads of Obama banner Higher Ground, are steering projects under the couple&#8217;s deal with the streamer — including adaptations of David W. Blight&#8217;s Frederick Douglass bio and Michael Lewis&#8217; Fifth Risk, and Bloom, a post-World War II-era show about fashion — plus podcasts under a new deal with Spotify.</blockquote>
Earlier this year, the Obamas&#8217; production company, Higher Ground, announced an impressive slate of content for Netflix and Spotify. Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos hailed their slate as a symbol of their commitment to “diverse creators and unique voices.”
“President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, and the Higher Ground team are building a company focused on storytelling that exemplifies their core values,” Sarandos said. “The breadth of their initial slate across series, film, documentary, and family programming shows their commitment to diverse creators and unique voices that will resonate with our members around the world.”
In a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/here-are-seven-projects-barack-and-michelle-obama-paul-bois">statement announcing the projects</a> at the time, former President Obama said that Higher Ground is proud to use the power of dramatic narrative to explore social justice issues. “We created Higher Ground to harness the power of storytelling,” he said. “That’s why we couldn’t be more excited about these projects. Touching on issues of race and class, democracy and civil rights, and much more, we believe each of these productions won’t just entertain, but will educate, connect and inspire us all.”
Michelle Obama said the projects will offer something “for everyone” that will likely generate conversations. “We love this slate because it spans so many different interests and experiences, yet it’s all woven together with stories that are relevant to our daily lives,” she said. “We think there’s something here for everyone — moms and dads, curious kids, and anyone simply looking for an engaging, uplifting watch at the end of a busy day. We can’t wait to see these projects come to life — and the conversations they’ll generate.”
In May of 2018, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/28789/netflix-names-former-obama-ambassador-susan-rice-paul-bois">Netflix announced</a> it would be adding to its board of directors former Obama administration United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice.
“We are delighted to welcome Ambassdor Rice to the Netflix board,” said Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings at the time. “For decades, she has tackled difficult, complex global issues with intelligence, integrity and insight, and we look forward to benefiting from her experience and wisdom.”
Former Ambassador Rice said she was “thrilled” to be joining the “cutting-edge” company. “I am thrilled to be joining the board of directors of Netflix, a cutting-edge company whose leadership, high-quality productions, and unique culture I deeply admire,” she said at the time.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama Portraits  &#8211; Washington, DC

Barack And Michelle Obama Make List Of Hollywood’s ‘Most Powerful’ People

Barack Obama

Michelle Obama

Netflix

As LeBron James refuses to &#8220;shut up and dribble&#8221; over the NBA&#8217;s China controversy, Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers said that Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey was &#8220;right in saying&#8221; that Americans should support the Hong Kong protesters.
&#8220;I don’t know. I didn’t pay much attention to it other than what [Daryl Morey] said. And he was right in saying that. But there’s consequences to every action. I’ve been saying that as well &#8230; It’s a tough issue, clearly,&#8221; Rivers said, as reported by Jovan Buha of The Athletic.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Doc Rivers on the NBA’s situation with China: “I don’t know. I didn’t pay much attention to it other than what (Daryl Morey) said. And he was right in saying that. But there’s consequences to every action. I’ve been saying that as well. &#8230; It’s a tough issue clearly.”
&mdash; Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) <a href="https://twitter.com/jovanbuha/status/1184259288857923585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Contrast Rivers&#8217; statement with that of LeBron James on Monday night, when the superstar said that Morey was uneducated about the situation in Hong Kong and should have waited before tweeting support for the protesters.
&#8220;We all talk about this freedom of speech, yes, we all do have freedom of speech but at times there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you’re not thinking about others and you’re only thinking about yourself,&#8221; James told reporters on Monday. &#8220;I don’t want to get into a … feud with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand and he spoke. So many people could have been harmed, not only financially, but physically, emotionally, and spiritually.&#8221;
The controversy only deepened for James when reports surfaced on Thursday that he had pressured NBA commissioner Adam Silver to punish Morey for supporting the Hong Kong protesters.
&#8220;Nearly a week ago today, in a Shanghai hotel room, or Shanghai hotel ballroom, Adam Silver got up and addressed the players, and LeBron James is one of the players who got up and spoke and said, &#8216;Hey, what are we doing here? Daryl Morey made these statements,'&#8221; Dave McMenamin of ESPN said, as reported by <a href="https://theathletic.com/1281993/2019/10/14/charania-inside-what-went-on-among-nets-and-lakers-players-on-the-ground-in-china-amid-the-nba-china-conflict/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://theathletic.com/1281993/2019/10/14/charania-inside-what-went-on-among-nets-and-lakers-players-on-the-ground-in-china-amid-the-nba-china-conflict/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571419475326000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEL9P1gMhZVfNJQQZ7Km97v1x9ZEg">The Athletic</a>. &#8220;You know damn well if a player made the same statements and caused such poor ramifications for the league, there would be some sort of league recourse.&#8221;
&#8220;There would be repercussions the player has to pay,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;You know, potentially this tweet could cost the NBA hundreds of millions of dollars. That could come out of the players’ pockets, and so that’s the double standard that was being addressed in that meeting.&#8221;
Other members of the NBA have expressed support for Daryl Morey while taking tacit swipes at James for throwing Morey under the bus. Enes Kanter of the Boston Celtics, for instance, said that professional athletes should speak out about these important issues, citing his own fight against the Turkish government.
&#8220;Professional athletes have an enormous opportunity to be a source of inspiration for the younger generation, lead by example, and prove to them that as long as you stand up for what you believe in, everything is possible,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2019/10/10/enes-kanter-will-not-silenced-over-turkey/J8RsHZo2qlu7zzOw6OcYSJ/story.html">wrote in an op-ed for the Boston Globe</a>. &#8220;I am looking forward to giving my best to the Boston Celtics and enjoying this new chapter of my NBA career with people in this great city who have welcomed me warmly.&#8221;
&#8220;I have a prominent platform and I want to use it to promote respect for human rights, democracy and personal freedom,&#8221; Kanter continued. &#8220;For me, this is bigger than basketball. Being a champion of tens of thousands of voiceless people back in my home country carries a risk that includes death threats and arrest warrants.&#8221;

Los Angeles Clippers Media Day

LA Clippers Coach Doc Rivers: Morey &#8216;Right In Saying&#8217; Support Hong Kong

Free of the chains that come with the pursuit of Chinese profits, the ever-so-fearless &#8220;South Park&#8221; took basketball superstar LeBron James to the woodshed for his denunciation of Houston Rockets General Manager (GM) Daryl Morey&#8217;s support for Hong Kong protesters
According to <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/south-park-episode-mocks-lebron-james-china-comments-1248405">The Hollywood Reporter</a> (THR), Wednesday&#8217;s episode of the hit show centered around the school implementing healthy options on the school lunch menu, prompting anger from character Eric Cartman. Later, when Cartman confronts the students protesting in favor of healthy lunches, the protestors cite free speech as their reasoning. His reply nearly echoed the words spoken by LeBron James on Monday night.
&#8220;Their protesting is ruining my lunch. Yes, we do have freedom of speech, but at times there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you are not thinking about others and only thinking about yourself,&#8221; Cartman said. &#8220;They’re trying to change peoples’ lunch. They don’t realize it harms people financially, physically, emotionally, spiritually.&#8221;
&#8220;South Park&#8221; has taken a no-nonsense stand against China after the government banned the show from airing in the country in response to an episode criticizing American big business for catering to the Chinese censors to make a quick buck. &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/south-park-trolls-china-after-country-bans-the-show-f-the-chinese-government">F*** the Chinese government</a>,&#8221; the show said in response.
Wednesday&#8217;s episode came in response to LeBron James saying that Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey was uneducated about the situation in Hong Kong, arguing that he should have waited to send out a tweet in support of the protesters.
&#8220;We all talk about this freedom of speech, yes, we all do have freedom of speech but at times there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you’re not thinking about others and you’re only thinking about yourself,&#8221; James told reporters on Monday. &#8220;I don’t want to get into a … feud with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand and he spoke. So many people could have been harmed, not only financially, but physically, emotionally, and spiritually.&#8221;
As backlash quickly mounted on social media, James dug himself an even deeper hole when he attempted to clarify his remarks by somehow casting the National Basketball Association as the victim.
&#8220;My team and this league just went through a difficult week. I think people need to understand what a tweet or statement can do to others. And I believe nobody stopped and considered what would happen. Could have waited a week to send it,&#8221; James <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/disaster-lebron-tries-to-explain-china-remarks-digs-deeper-hole">said immediately after on Twitter</a>.
Further sinking himself into a hole, James then said on Tuesday that only politicians should comment on the China situation, even though he has been hyper-political throughout his basketball career.
&#8220;I’d be cheating my teammates by continuing to harp on something that won’t benefit us trying to win a championship because that’s what we’re here for,&#8221; James told reporters on Tuesday. &#8220;We’re not politicians. I think it’s a huge political thing but we are leaders and we can step up at times. But … you don’t feel like you should speak upon things you shouldn’t have to.&#8221;
After the election of President Trump, James referred to Trump voters as &#8220;<a href="https://www.excaliburnews.com/lebron-james-ridiculed-after-calling-trump-supporters-uneducated/">uneducated</a>.&#8221;

Los Angeles Lakers v Brooklyn Nets &#8211; NBA China Games 2019

‘South Park’ Trolls LeBron James Over China Stance

Communism

South Park

Comedian Bill Maher of HBO&#8217;s &#8220;Real Time&#8221; took serious aim at the far-left on his show last night, deriding the extremism as &#8220;bulls***&#8221; while  denouncing the candidacies of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
Speaking with radio shock jock Howard Stern, Maher said, &#8220;&#8230; [Y]ou and I are the last sane people because we&#8217;re liberals but we don&#8217;t go for all the bulls*** on the far-left.&#8221;
As reported by <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/bill-maher-touts-amy-klobuchar-as-the-dark-horse-candidate-rips-bulls-on-far-left">Fox News</a>, Maher also said that Warren and Sanders were too &#8220;far-left&#8221; to win 2020 and proposed running Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) as a possible &#8220;dark horse&#8221; candidate due to former Vice President Joe Biden&#8217;s current troubles. He made his point during a one-on-one interview with the candidate.
&#8220;Obviously this is a fight between two wings of the party, which is almost every election. There is a center in the Democrat, a center-left wing. You&#8217;re plenty liberal. You&#8217;re plenty progressive,&#8221; Maher told Klobuchar. &#8220;And then there is a far-left which I think would be represented by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.&#8221;
Playing it diplomatically, Klobuchar only pushed her moderate-left platform while criticizing their far-left agenda.
&#8220;I want to win big and if someone is looking to kick one hundred forty nine million Americans off their current health insurance in four years then I&#8217;m not your candidate,&#8221; Klobuchar said. &#8220;If you want to use a bunch of hardworking people&#8217;s money to send rich people&#8217;s kids to college for free and I&#8217;m not your candidate. And just because people say ideas are bold doesn&#8217;t mean they&#8217;re bold. They may be bad.&#8221;
Maher later said Klobuchar would have a slight advantage as a woman.
&#8220;I&#8217;m saying it&#8217;s a lot easier to be on the center side of things, as Obama was, if you are not a white man,&#8221; Maher said. &#8220;If you&#8217;re a white straight man.&#8221;
&#8220;I want to make clear and I am excited to be one of several women in this race. But I&#8217;m not just running on that,&#8221; she responded.
&#8220;I think your moment is to come,&#8221; Maher said.
If Klobuchar were to actually become a &#8220;dark horse&#8221; candidate, she would surely face a serious challenge to her reputation. Earlier this year, as rumors of Klobuchar’s 2020 announcement loomed, the Huffington Post released a scathing report in which former staff members said the Minnesota senator was prone to “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43203/report-dem-2020-hopeful-amy-klobuchar-losing-staff-emily-zanotti">bursts of cruelty</a>.” She also reportedly has the highest turnover rate of staff in the Senate.
“Several former staffers reportedly told the Huffington Post that Klobuchar is prone to ‘bursts of cruelty’ and to sending strings of abusive and belittling emails to staff in the middle of the night,” reported The Daily Wire’s Emily Zanotti. “Others said that Klobuchar ‘tasked them or their co-workers with performing personal errands, such as making her personal appointments, washing dishes at her home or picking up her dry cleaning’ — duties senate staff members are prohibited from doing.”
Klobuchar has denied all accusations of cruelty.
“Senator Klobuchar loves her staff ― they are the reason she has gotten to where she is today,” a Klobuchar spokesperson told the Huffington Post. “She has many staff who have been with her for years ― including her Chief of Staff and her State Director, who have worked for her for 5 and 7 years respectively ― and many who have gone on to do amazing things, from working in the Obama Administration (over 20 of them) to running for office to even serving as the Agriculture Commissioner for Minnesota. She is proud of them and the work they have done for Minnesota.”

Celebrity Sightings In Los Angeles &#8211; January 18, 2017

Bill Maher: ‘We Don’t Go For All The Bulls*** On The Far Left’

Amy Klobuchar

Bill Maher

During the CNN LGBTQ town hall on Thursday night, 2020 presidential hopeful Beto O&#8217;Rourke openly stated that he would <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dys-beto-orourkes-liberty-is-no-liberty-at-all">seek to strip religious institutions</a> of their tax-exempt statuses if they opposed same-sex marriage. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) immediately denounced this policy as &#8220;bigoted nonsense.&#8221;
&#8220;This bigoted nonsense would target a lot of sincere Christians, Jews, and Muslims,&#8221; <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/sasse-condemns-beto-orourkes-bigoted-call-to-strip-churches-of-tax-exempt-status/">wrote Sasse in a statement</a> released Friday. &#8220;Leaders from both parties have a duty to flatly condemn this attack on very basic American freedoms. This extreme intolerance is un-American. The whole point of the First Amendment is that … everyone is created with dignity and we don’t use government power to decide which religious beliefs are legitimate and which aren’t.&#8221;
During the CNN town hall on Thursday night, O&#8217;Rourke not only stated that he would support stripping churches of tax-exempt status — he also earned a round of applause and cheers from the audience for saying so.
&#8220;There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break, for anyone or any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us,&#8221; O’Rourke said. &#8220;And so, as president, we’re going to make that a priority, and we are going to stop those who are infringing upon the human rights of our fellow Americans.&#8221;
Writing for <a href="https://theweek.com/articles/871115/why-beto-orourkes-gay-marriage-idea-collapses-under-scrutiny">The Week</a>, Bonnie Kristian said O&#8217;Rourke&#8217;s proposed policy is simply a &#8220;bad idea&#8221; and that it does not &#8220;hold up to scrutiny.&#8221;
&#8220;In the broader polity, it simply doesn&#8217;t hold up to scrutiny,&#8221; wrote Kristian. &#8220;Whatever one thinks about gay marriage — and tax exemptions for religious institutions, for that matter — this is a bad idea. It&#8217;s flagrantly unconstitutional content discrimination. It&#8217;s a shortsighted political strategy that will not play so well in the general election. And, realistically, it could do serious harm to vulnerable people being served by the religious institutions whose finances O&#8217;Rourke would assail.&#8221;
&#8220;The Supreme Court has come down hard on federal efforts to manipulate religious institutions&#8217; internal decision-making processes; in 2012, for example, the justices unanimously struck down an Obama administration attempt to interfere in church hiring for ministerial roles,&#8221; Kristian continued. &#8220;This means that whatever O&#8217;Rourke says about making his proposed change &#8220;a priority,&#8221; he would face a steep uphill legal battle. That legal reality isn&#8217;t debatable, and it turns O&#8217;Rourke&#8217;s position into empty grandstanding. It&#8217;s also a safeguard that works both ways: If a President O&#8217;Rourke can strip nonprofits of tax exemptions based on their beliefs, so can a President Trump.&#8221;
Brad Polumbo of <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beto-orourke-basically-wants-to-bankrupt-churches-who-dont-believe-in-gay-marriage">The Washington Examiner</a> was even more direct, arguing that Beto wants to crack down on churches that do not support same-sex marriage.
&#8220;The candidate just spat in the face of the First Amendment. Whether you support gay marriage or not (I certainly do), this amounts to a pernicious form of government viewpoint discrimination,&#8221; wrote Polumbo. &#8220;O’Rourke wants to use the weight of the government to punish religious groups he disagrees with. It’s bizarre, immoral, and shameful.&#8221;
Some openly gay commentators, such as Dave Rubin of &#8220;The Rubin Report&#8221; and Chad Felix Greene, also blasted Beto&#8217;s call to have the government effectively regulate churches based upon their religious beliefs.
&#8220;There are many churches and temples in the United States which perform same-sex marriages. There are no mosques that do. Beto is obviously an Islamophobe. Someone call the Cancel Club!&#8221; said Dave Rubin.

Ben Sasse

‘Bigoted Nonsense’: Sen. Ben Sasse Condemns Beto’s Call To Strip Churches Of Tax Exempt Status For Opposing Same-Sex Marriage

Beto O'Rourke

Homosexuality

Religion

Same-Sex Marriage

In yet another instance of an institution refusing Chick-fil-A due to the Christian views of the company&#8217;s founding family, a high school in New Orleans declined a free catered lunch from the fast-food restaurant due to opposition to the company&#8217;s alleged anti-LGBTQ stances.
&#8220;On Oct. 10, Steven Corbett, principal of Lusher High School, said that he had recently declined a free lunch from the chicken-centric chain for his employees, provided through the College Football Playoff Foundation (CFPF), explaining that the restaurant’s values do not align with those of the school,&#8221; reports <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/high-school-decline-chick-fil-a">Fox News</a>.
In a statement to <a href="https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/local/lusher-high-school-turns-down-free-chick-fil-a-lunch-over-companys-anti-lgbtq-history/289-70b1156b-2c39-4285-9692-1d186d161594">WWL-TV</a>, Corbett said the school would be offending its LGBT employees and students if it permitted Chick-fil-A on campus.
&#8220;Out of respect to our LGBTQ staff, we have chosen to not serve Chick-fil-A at an employee lunch. The number one rule at Lusher is to &#8216;be kind&#8217; and we live this motto every day,&#8221; Corbett said. &#8220;Chick-fil-A has been politically outspoken about its views, and we feel it is not part of Lusher’s culture of kindness and community. Anytime an organization is anti-LGBTQ, and has efforts to infringe upon their rights, we thought it was important to support and stand up for their community at this time.&#8221;
A spokesperson for CFPF said that the organization respects Lusher&#8217;s decision and announced that lunch from another restaurant would be served instead.
&#8220;[We are just] glad teachers will have a good lunch tomorrow,&#8221; spokesperson Tony Fay said.
A spokesperson for Chick-fil-A told Fox News that the business has no political or social agenda when it comes to serving food.
&#8220;We are a restaurant company focused on food and hospitality and have no political or social agenda. Our priority is on providing a welcoming and respectful environment for our guests and team members,&#8221; the spokesperson said.
The hate toward the chicken sandwich empire began in 2012, when company president Dan Cathy expressed support for traditional one-man/one-woman marriage, prompting boycotts across the country from LGBTQ activists.
&#8220;I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, &#8216;We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,'&#8221; Cathy <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/chick-fil-a-president-says-gods-judgment-coming-because-of-same-sex-marriage-78485/#SUuZKIURo5MhCW2p.99">said at the time</a>. &#8220;I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about.&#8221;
Just last year, two major publications wrote scathing articles begging people to boycott the business: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/29418/new-yorker-columnist-chick-fil-evil-and-must-be-ben-shapiro">The New Yorker</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/31789/huffpost-if-you-really-love-lgbtq-people-you-just-joseph-curl">HuffPost</a>. &#8220;If You Really Love LGBTQ People, You Just Can’t Keep Eating Chick-fil-A,&#8221; wrote Noah Michelson of HuffPost. When Chick-fil-A wanted to set up shop in New York City, Dan Piepenring of The New Yorker called it a &#8220;creepy infiltration&#8221; of the city.
Despite the efforts to harm the business, with college campuses and two city airports banning the chain from opening up shop, the chicken empire&#8217;s sales continue to climb and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chick-fil-sales-have-doubled-face-leftist-paul-bois">have only doubled</a> since the boycotts launched in 2012.
&#8220;Chick-fil-A’s annual sales have more than doubled since LGBT and liberal groups began calling for a boycott of the restaurant in 2012, according to a new analysis,&#8221; reported <a href="https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/chick-fil-a-s-sales-have-doubled-since-lgbt-boycott-began-in-2012.html">Christian Headlines</a> last month. &#8220;In 2012, when controversy arose over the CEO’s comments about same-sex marriage, <a href="https://www.wsbradio.com/business/chick-fil-keeps-growing-despite-uproar/9Qtv5hIeJUc59lFUfxZQ3L/">sales totaled</a> $4.6 billion, up from $4.1 billion the year before. In 2018, sales <a href="https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/chick-fil-a-with-a-mission-to-glorify-god-is-now-3rd-largest-restaurant-in-u-s.html">totaled</a> $10.46 billion, making it the third-largest restaurant in the United States behind McDonald’s and Starbucks.&#8221;

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Paul Bois

Articles by Paul Bois

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