President Donald Trump was asked about a possible pardon for Joe Exotic from the Netflix show &#8220;Tiger King&#8221; during the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing on Wednesday, and responded by indicating that he would &#8220;take a look&#8221; at the situation.
&#8220;One of the biggest rating hits of the coronavirus, aside from these briefings, has been a show on Netflix called &#8216;Tiger King,&#8217; and the man who’s the star of this is a former zoo owner who’s serving a 22-year prison sentence,&#8221; a reporter said to Trump. &#8220;He&#8217;s asking you for a pardon, saying he was unfairly convicted. Your son yesterday jokingly said that he was going to advocate for it. I wonder if you&#8217;d seen the show, and if you have any thoughts on pardoning Joe Exotic.&#8221;
&#8220;Which son?&#8221; Trump responded. &#8220;Must be Don.&#8221;
&#8220;It was,&#8221; the reporter responded.
&#8220;I had a feeling it was Don. Is that what he said?&#8221; Trump continued. &#8220;I don’t know. I know nothing about it. He has 22 years for what? What did he do?&#8221;
&#8220;He allegedly hired someone to murder an animal rights activist, but he said that he didn&#8217;t do that,&#8221; the reporter answered.
&#8220;You think he didn&#8217;t do it? Are you on his side?&#8221; Trump joking responded. &#8220;Are you recommending a pardon?&#8221;
&#8220;No, I&#8217;m not advocating –&#8221; the reporter said.
&#8220;As a reporter, you&#8217;re not able to do that, you&#8217;d be criticized by [these reporters],&#8221; Trump said.
After a brief moment of interacting with another reporter in the room, Trump responded the reporter who asked the question by saying, &#8220;I&#8217;ll take a look.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BREAKING</a> Video: Trump is ASKED by a reporter about <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TigerKing?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TigerKing</a> and how <a href="https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DonaldJTrumpJr</a> took issue with Joe Exotic&#39;s sentence and whether he&#39;d consider a pardon.
Smirks and says &quot;I&#39;d take a look&quot; before shaking his head. He also asked <a href="https://twitter.com/Acosta?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Acosta</a> if he thinks he should pardon him. <a href="https://t.co/Y7F9jxIj2t">pic.twitter.com/Y7F9jxIj2t</a>
&mdash; Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) <a href="https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1248013683969556480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 8, 2020</a></blockquote>
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US-HEALTH-VIRUS-BRIEFING

Trump Asked About Possible Pardon For ‘Joe Exotic’ From Netflix Show ‘Tiger King’: ‘I’ll Take A Look’

Coronavirus

COVID-19

Donald Trump

Joe Exotic

Netflix

Tiger King

Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic is not the only epidemic spreading through our country. There’s been another one spreading over the last several years with consequences that threaten Americans’ fundamental ideals of free speech and open inquiry as much as the coronavirus threatens Americans’ lives.
This attack on free speech and suppression of ideas has become so commonplace that, along with the brilliant comedian Adam Carolla, I have made a film, No Safe Spaces, documenting this alarming trend.
To continue the analogy, the college campus has become our Wuhan — the epicenter of idea-suppression. Once a marketplace of ideas, American colleges and universities have become infected with the idea that ‘If I don’t like what you say, you do not have the right to say it.’
This attitude has “gone viral,” spreading as rapidly and as widely as the coronavirus — to the arts, entertainment, news media, and tech industries, all of which have become carriers of the disease. Throughout America, people are silenced, punished, or “cancelled” if they say something that is deemed objectionable to the left — not to liberals, it should be stressed. Liberals have a long history of protecting free speech, but they are now so intimidated by the left, they have abandoned their historic commitment to free speech.
I’ve personally experienced this with my Prager University videos, as we continue to fight a legal battle with Google-owned YouTube over its suppression of our video content online. YouTube has placed about a hundred of our videos on its Restricted List, a parent/school/public library-activated option to filter what videos their child can access, as if they feature violence or pornography. Among those who present PragerU videos are four Pulitzer Prize-winners, three former prime ministers, members of European parliaments, professors from MIT, Harvard, and Princeton, and some of the most eminent thinkers of our time.
No Safe Spaces explores the state of free speech in America, featuring prominent figures on the on the left as well as on the right — progressives such as Van Jones, Cornel West, Barack Obama, and Bret Weinstein. After its successful theatrical run, as we prepared for the home entertainment release, a funny thing happened on the way to the living rooms of America: Mainstream Hollywood decided it didn&#8217;t want Americans to see the film.
When I agreed to be in the film, the producers assured me there would be no resistance to the film from distributors — because distributors’ only concern is whether the film was a success. And it was. No Safe Spaces was the #1 political documentary of 2019 at the box office, and it earned the highest audience score at Rotten Tomatoes.com of any film released in 2019 — 99%.
Distributors, of course, have the right to decide what content to place on their platforms — that’s free market capitalism. But when a movie is as successful as No Safe Spaces — in addition to being the number one political documentary of the year, it grossed $1.3 million at the box office — under normal circumstances, distributors would jump at the opportunity to offer such a film to the public. But they didn’t. This is an important thing for Americans to understand: Hollywood’s bottom line no longer drives their decisions; ideological purity is more important to them than money.
Take Netflix, for example. The streaming giant passed on No Safe Spaces months after it paid ten million dollars to acquire Knock Down This House, another political documentary which had not done any business at all at the box office. But that documentary features Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.
So, then, a movie with no track record was given piles of cash because it is acceptable to the left while a movie that reaches the top was passed over because it appeals to conservatives and liberals, but not to the left.
In most cases, distributors passed on No Safe Spaces without giving any reason for doing so. But one did. I won’t name them because I appreciate their honesty, but here’s an excerpt from their email to the film’s producers:
<blockquote>“If the film is as provocative in the marketplace as it was in our sales projection meeting, you&#8217;ve got a hit on your hands. That said, in the course of our discussions we discovered a line the majority of the team won&#8217;t cross and that is supporting anything that puts a spotlight on Dennis Prager. The essential message of the film, protecting free speech, is embraced here, but supporting free speech only compels us to permit it, not to spend our time and money promoting a film whose ‘hero’ is someone with some very troubling ideas.&#8221;</blockquote>
Not one of my “troubling ideas” was cited. I suspect they could not find any. I am as mainstream a conservative as there is. If I am “troubling,” what conservative isn’t? So the game is rigged, and it’s important for Americans to know this. The content studios and streaming services offer to viewers has been pre-vetted by people who disdain the most fundamental of American values — people who claim to support free speech while rejecting a film about free speech!
We have therefore looked elsewhere. Salem Media (which owns my radio program) has agreed to make No Safe Spaces available to home viewers on their streaming platform at <a href="http://www.nosafespaces.com/">www.NoSafeSpaces.com</a>. We are also working with another distributor that does value free speech to release No Safe Spaces on other home entertainment platforms later this summer.
Beyond (and predating) our current crisis caused by the coronavirus, we’re in the midst of an epic battle to preserve what is good and unique about America. On that front, good people are divided into three groups: those who fight, those who support the fighters, and those who do nothing. Unfortunately, the largest number of good people fall into the third category. However, those who support the fighters are just as important as the fighters themselves. That’s what conservatives (and liberals true to the liberal commitment to free speech) need to do: support the fighters by seeing No Safe Spaces. It’s as simple as that.
As you sit home during these difficult times, visit NoSafeSpaces.com, download and watch the movie. Buy downloads for all the young people in your life and share it with them. Aside from its critically important message, it is a powerful and entertaining film.
The coronavirus pandemic will pass. But the anti-speech epidemic will remain. No Safe Spaces is an effective vaccine.

Free speech

PRAGER: The Anti-Speech Pandemic

Adam Carolla

Free Speech

Distributed Bio co-founder and CEO Dr. Jacob Glanville told the Radio New Zealand program &#8220;Checkpoint&#8221; this week that he believes his team of scientists have developed a cure for the coronavirus.
&#8220;I&#8217;m happy to report that my team has successfully taken five antibodies that back in 2002 were determined to bind and neutralise, block and stop the SARS virus,&#8221; Dr Glanville <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018740956/pandemic-scientist-makes-breakthrough-on-covid-19-cure">said</a>. &#8220;We&#8217;ve evolved them in our laboratory, so now they very vigorously block and stop the SARS-CoV-2 [Covid-19] virus as well. This makes them suitable medicines that one could use once they&#8217;ve gone through human testing to treat the virus.&#8221;
Glanville is featured in a Netflix documentary called &#8220;Pandemic&#8221; that explores where viruses come from, how scientists and medical professionals look at pandemics, and how experts try to prevent them from happening.
&#8220;The new virus is a cousin of the old SARS. So what we&#8217;ve done is we&#8217;ve created hundreds of millions of versions of those antibodies, we&#8217;ve mutated them a bit, and in that pool of mutated versions, we found versions that cross them over,&#8221; Glanville continued. &#8220;So now we know they bind on the same spot as the new virus, Covid-19. It binds the spot that the virus uses to gain entry into your cells. It blocks that.&#8221;
&#8220;At this point we know it binds the same spot extremely tightly with high affinity,&#8221; Glanville added. &#8220;The next step is we send the antibodies to the military, and they will directly put those on the virus and show that it blocks its ability to infect cells.&#8221;
Glanville said that the antibodies are being sent to the military because he does not want the coronavirus or SARS in his laboratory and he wants &#8220;the stamp of approval of a government military.&#8221;
Glanville said that his group is not the first group to find the antibodies, but he thinks his group is moving faster than others because they used existing scientific data from the SARS virus as the foundation for their antibodies.
Glanville <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/dr-jacob-glanville-antibody-neutralize-coronavirus">told</a> Fox News&#8217; Martha MacCallum last month that the completed drug is going to go to the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.
He said that unlike a typical vaccine, antibodies can take effect almost immediately and can be used to treat those who are very sick. However, he cautioned that the antibodies would only provide protection for 8-10 weeks.
Glanville said that it would still take months before the antibodies could be available for the public to use.
&#8220;The next step, the big-time consuming part, is the GMP manufacturer,&#8221; Glanville said. &#8220;Traditionally, that takes nine to 12 months – obviously, we can&#8217;t wait that long. So we&#8217;ve worked with two different partners to try to accelerate that to take a few months, but that does take time, and there&#8217;s really no way around.&#8221;
&#8220;Assuming that we&#8217;re able to complete our study, at the end of summer… and it looks good, then we would use something called compassionate use,&#8221; Glanville continued. &#8220;This was used in the Ebola crisis, and it&#8217;s been used in other cases where if you have something that&#8217;s effective, and there&#8217;s no other good medicine, you can begin releasing it to the world for use prior to going through all the approval [processes].&#8221;
&#8220;That could be as early as September. Unfortunately, that&#8217;s also as far away as September,&#8221; Glanville concluded. &#8220;So, that&#8217;s as fast as we can conceive of having this medicine widely available.&#8221;
<iframe title="Covid 19 antibodies breakthrough made in San Francisco" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CDBVwqNOBXY?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Rio de Janeiro Federal University (UFRJ) Researchers Start Developing a New Coronavirus (COVID &#8211; 19) Testing Program Amidst the Pandemic

Doctor Featured In Netflix ‘Pandemic’ Documentary Claims To Have Found Coronavirus Treatment

The Netflix docuseries &#8220;Tiger King,&#8221; which chronicles the rise and fall of an eccentric zookeeper, has taken the world by storm in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Though its main subject, Joe Exotic, has yet to publicly comment on his portrayal, two of the doc&#8217;s peripheral subjects – Doc Antle and Jeff Lowe – have denounced it as shameless sensationalism.
According to <a href="https://people.com/tv/tiger-king-doc-antle-slams-salacious-documentary-lauren-and-jeff-lowe-call-portrayal-unfair/">People</a>, Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, who runs a famed exotic animal preserve in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, told <a href="https://www.tmx.news/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TMX.news </a>that &#8220;Tiger King&#8221; falsely portrayed him as a cult-like polygamist, asserting that the filmmakers misled him on the show&#8217;s subject.
“Remember, this is not a documentary,&#8221; Antle said. &#8220;This is a salacious, outrageous ride through a television show produced to create drama, to just tie you into some crazy train wreck of a story between the feud of Carole Baskin and Joe Exotic, and the meltdown that ensued between two people who both are far too close to murder themselves, and I think a little bit of madness thrown in on their parts.&#8221;
Antle said that the filmmakers had him believe the documentary was to focus on his wildlife conservation efforts, asserting that he was asked about Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin, Exotic&#8217;s bitter rival, on a few occasions.
“[I] worked with the director for two and a half years, saw him probably five or six times for several days in a row each time,&#8221; said Antle. &#8220;That endless portrayal of a program that he was doing with us was purely about a wildlife conservation show about our work that we’re doing in Sumatra [and] Africa, to save endangered species there. It was all about how the tigers that we have here have raised so much money that we’ve been able to go to Sumatra and create a new ranger station there … and that was the documentary that I worked on, and all of that stuff somehow found its way to the cutting room floor.”
“It was not mentioned in any capacity that this show that I was working on would portray anything about Carole or Joe,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Questions about Carole and Joe were a dozen or so thrown into hundreds of others, and I repeatedly told them I have no desire to be involved in some show where you’ve got the feud of Carole and Joe going on, it’s not my thing, leave me out of it. Over and over, that was the intention, and that’s what we worked towards.”
Though the documentary primarily focuses on the dangerous rivalry between Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin, Antle&#8217;s Myrtle Beach operation is extensively scrutinized in one particular episode to further broaden its themes on how the exotic animal world breeds a cult-like atmosphere centered around a charismatic figure. In Doc Antle&#8217;s case, he is portrayed as a New Age guru who employs harems of women who may or may not be his &#8220;wives.&#8221; Antle says this portrayal is complete hogwash.
“I’m a single guy. My wife died 25 years ago, the mother of my son and daughter, my youngest ones, and I’ve never been married since,&#8221; said Antle. &#8220;I have girlfriends, I’m a single guy. This massive judgmentalness [sic] of somehow I’m not supposed to have girlfriends or something is just off my rocker here with how they got to this point.&#8221;
Antle noted that half his staff members are men, which he claims the documentary explicitly did not show.
&#8220;They are just looking for something to be outrageous,&#8221; he added. &#8220;The girls that they are showing throughout the facility … these are the girls that are the wives of staff who live here, these are my grandchildren, these are my grandchildren’s fiancés, these are my son’s fiancée, this is a variety of ladies who devote their time here that are part of a team. The team is half men. Did you see any men in the series? They cut them all out to make it appear that this is a girl place.”
As to the documentary&#8217;s claim that he euthanizes tiger cubs the moment they cease being profitable, Antle flatly denied this. He also noted that the epilogue stating his compound was recently raided by the feds pertained to a separate case in Virginia and that he was only asked to share some of his lions’ DNA.
As noted by <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/tiger-king-doc-antle-jeff-lowe-salacious-outrageous-documentary">Fox News</a>, Jeff Lowe, Exotic&#8217;s infamous business partner, also told TMX.news that the documentary only got 10% of the story right and flatly denounced the allegation that he &#8220;stole&#8221; the zoo from Joe Exotic.
“We were being looked at by the feds just like Joe was, so we knew that and we had to protect ourselves. And if it means turning over a guy to the federal authorities that killed not just five tigers – five tigers was just the tip of the iceberg. You know, he’s killed a hundred tigers here that were not beneficial to him monetarily,” Lowe said. “And you know it’s just the five that they picked, we knew exactly where they were buried and we knew exactly how they died, so it was the five easiest to prosecute him and convict him on.”
The documentary also implied that Lowe involved himself in Exotic&#8217;s murder-for-hire plot against Carole Baskin only to use it as leverage against him. Lowe also denied this.
“It was a constant,” Lowe said. “Every day, it wasn’t about caring for the tigers, it wasn’t about taking care of your staff – it was about: ‘How do I eliminate Carole Baskin?’ We all knew it and it just got to the point where once Joe started making aggressive moves towards a plan, we knew we had to get out of here.”
Hardly anybody came away from the documentary looking clean, and Joe Exotic&#8217;s rival, Carole Baskin, is no exception. Regarding the allegation that she murdered her husband to gain his inheritance, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/tiger-king-star-carole-baskin-denies-killing-husband-don-lewis-slams-netflix-documentary">Baskin wrote a lengthy post</a> on her organization&#8217;s website denouncing that as false.
The filmmakers recently told the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2020-03-26/joe-exotic-tiger-king-netflix-burning-questions">Los Angeles Times</a> that they were entirely forthright with the documentary they were filming from the get-go, noting that they behaved as good storytellers.
“I would just say we were completely forthright with the characters,” said co-director Rebecca Chaiklin. “With any project that goes on for five years, things evolve and change, and we followed it as any good storyteller does. We could have never known when we started this project that it was going to land where it did.”

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno &#8211; Season 9

‘Tiger King’ Subjects Doc Antle, Jeff Lowe Slam Netflix Documentary As Salacious Sensationalism

entertainment

Joe Exotic, the central figure in the hit Netflix true crime program, &#8220;Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness,&#8221; is asking the White House for a presidential pardon, allowing him to walk free from a Florida prison where he&#8217;s serving 22 years for a murder-for-hire plot that forms the central storyline of the seven-part docuseries.
Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage (or Joe Schreibvogel, depending on legal filing), &#8220;posted the public plea on his Facebook page on Wednesday, urging Trump &#8216;for a special investigation or a Presidential Pardon from the Conviction I have Just received,'&#8221; <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/netflix-tiger-king-joe-exotic-president-trump">according to Fox Business</a>.
The letter, which goes on for more than a thousand words, suggests that Joe is the victim of a coordinated persecution by both his archnemesis Carol Baskin, who is never named in the letter, and a &#8220;seasoned con man&#8221; &#8212; likely Las Vegas, Nevada, playboy Jeff Lowe who, according to the Netflix series, became an informant on Joe Exotic&#8217;s activities, eventually leading to his arrest for an abortive murder-for-hire plot against Baskin and for five counts of &#8220;violating the Endangered Species Act for killing five tiger cubs,&#8221; per Fox.
&#8220;In November 2017, Maldonado-Passage paid a zoo worker cash to kill Baskin,&#8221; according to Fox Business. &#8220;Instead, he took the money and ran. In a second attempt, he hired another hitman who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent, prosecutors said.&#8221;
Joe Exotic says he isn&#8217;t responsible.
&#8220;Here in America we use to take the swearing of Oath seriously to tell the truth,&#8221; Joe Exotic writes. &#8220;These days it means nothing to anyone, not even the Department of Justice or the U.S Attorneys office. My trial was not about the truth, it was about the win for the prosecutors. Why do I say this? Because I can prove every lie and the U.S Attorneys office had that proof to serve real justice and they ignored using the evidence both sides had to present to the jury.&#8221;
He then claims he has evidence that the &#8220;seasoned con man&#8221; engaged in human trafficking, the drug trade, identity theft, internet fraud, and other crimes.
&#8220;Mr. President, I am pleading with you to please have this looked into,&#8221; he continues. &#8220;I am currently incarcerated at the Grady County Jail in Oklahoma and facing 20 &#8211; 50 years in prison for doing the same thing every zoo and sanctuary owner has had to do at one time or another.&#8221;
His petition may be complicated by a separate filing &#8212; a $94 million lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Interior, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and other &#8220;government agents,&#8221; that Joe Exotic filed late last week.
In it, Exotic, identified as Joe Maldonado-Passage, says he&#8217;s &#8220;seeking nearly $74 million in loss of personal property, 18 years of research, and the full care of 200 generic tigers and crossbreeds, which he claimed he conducted at the boarding rate of $60 per day, per animal,&#8221; <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/tiger-king-joe-exotic-files-94m-lawsuit-report">according to Fox News</a>. &#8220;Furthermore, Maldonado-Passage is asking for $15 million for false arrest, false imprisonment, selective enforcement and the death of his mother, Shirley.&#8221;
He also accuses Fish and Wildlife Service agents of knowingly accepting false statements.
&#8220;Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness,&#8221; is currently the most watched program on Netflix&#8217;s behemoth streaming network.

Tiger

Star Of Netflix’s Hit Show ‘Tiger King,’ Joe Exotic, Asks Trump For Presidential Pardon

Hey all you cool cats and kittens, are you ready to dive into one of the strangest true crime docuseries ever produced?
Big cats, wild outfits, gunfire, greed, and murder-for-hire. Yeah. You might think you’ve seen it all, but I can near-guarantee you haven’t experienced anything like Netflix’s “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness.”
Meet Joe Exotic, the gun-toting gay polygamist owner of Oklahoma’s G.W. Zoo, around which the series revolves. Exotic, a troubling mix of chaos and charm, wrangles tigers while talking to the camera as if his life is anything but unusual.
Sure, the tigers, lions, and bears (oh my) at the G.W. Zoo are fascinating, but the real attraction isn’t the animals, it’s the madcap antics and intense personality of showman/owner Joe Exotic, who drives the documentary’s narrative forward like a freight train, even when the series seems like it might be carrying too much cargo for just one story.
From the very beginning, Exotic’s boiling feud with Big Cat Rescue owner Carole Baskin drives the primary plot of “Tiger King.” Did Exotic hire a hitman to take out Baskin? Does Baskin have any skeletons hidden away in her own closet? Does either really care about the welfare of the animals they claim to fight for?
Any and all detours, engrossing and disturbing as they may be, inevitably lead right back to the nexus of the narrative, and that’s Exotic versus Baskin.
Though consistently captivating in a watching-a-car-wreck sort of way, some might have a difficult time downloading the enormity of “Tiger King.” It’s main plot becomes obscured, even lost, somewhere within the middle portion of the docuseries, potentially leading viewers to wonder if the producers forgot how they began this sordid tale, and if they can ever manage to find their way back.
That said, the detours and rabbit holes mostly serve a larger narrative purpose, which is to paint a dynamic and sometimes damning portrait of Joe Exotic, Carole Baskin, and the half dozen other supporting characters in this peculiar tragicomedy.
Anchoring the docuseries are Exotic and Baskin, but those interviewed along the way – friends, partners, producers, a zookeeper who lost an arm to one of Exotic’s tigers – offer compelling commentary about the two leading figures in this saga. And the series isn’t just a two-hander, as the narrative is stretched to encompass not only Exotic and Baskin, but several other key players who are only slowly revealed as the series unfurls, and who provide crucial context to the larger story.
It all comes to a head in a way that will likely leave viewers conflicted and asking themselves who to stand behind when all is said and done. Can you even choose a side when there isn’t an archetypal “hero” or “villain” in the story? Perhaps that’s the central question the makers of “Tiger King” are asking, eschewing typical true crime trappings, and asking viewers to simply watch as this utterly bizarre story plays out before them.
Through the twists and turns you never see coming, all the way to the somewhat disconcerting final moments, this true crime docuseries from Netflix will leave many viewers satisfied and genuinely curious as to what will happen after the final credits roll.

REVIEW: Netflix Docuseries ‘Tiger King’ Is A Bizarre And Fascinating True Crime Tale

documentary

True Crime

So, you’re stuck at home because of the coronavirus, practicing “social distancing” from all your friends. Well, what if you could all watch Netflix together online without having to do something annoying like counting down and making sure you all click “play” at the same time so you’re all watching the show or movie at the exact same time?
The Netflix Party Chrome extension can make things easier by automatically synchronizing video playback and adding a group chat to your browser while you all watch what you want on Netflix together. Though Netflix is in the name of the extension and is the platform used by the extension, the company has nothing to do with it, CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/22/us/netflix-party-chrome-extension-coronavirus-trnd/index.html">reported</a>.
“Disclaimer: A Netflix spokesperson told CNN the Netflix Party extension is not affiliated with Netflix. Netflix representatives are instructed not to try to troubleshoot it or attempt to answer questions about it,” the outlet reported.
The extension only works for Chrome, so you would need to download that first. Then you can <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/netflix-party/oocalimimngaihdkbihfgmpkcpnmlaoa?hl=en">download</a> the Netflix Party extension from the browser’s web store.
Once you have it installed, find what you and your friends want to watch on Netflix, then select the extension from the top right area of your browser (it will be next to the place where you type in URLs).
“When you click on the Netflix Party extension, it will give you the option of being the only person with control over the player &#8212; meaning only you can rewind, forward, or add subtitles to the video,” CNN explained. “Once you&#8217;ve decided, you can then copy the URL and share it with your friends. Make sure to check the box ‘show chat’ if you want a chat box to appear alongside the video. With the box, everyone watching the video can send each other messages while watching.”
Your friends who will be watching with you will also have to download the extension. After that, have the click the URL you were provided, which will allow them to join the video and the chat. When you’re all done watching, simply click on the extension in the top right corner and select “disconnect.”
The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tips-for-those-now-working-from-home-due-to-coronavirus-quarantines-with-or-without-children">reported</a> tips for those who have been forced to work from home due to the coronavirus and for those who now must also homeschool their children as school’s across the country have been closed down to stop the outbreak.
While watching Netflix together is a great way to stay connected with your friends when it’s not safe to meet publicly, the tips explained in the article above are helpful for what to do when you’re not getting a moment to enjoy yourself.
For those suddenly finding themselves working from home, I suggested taking micro-breaks to give your brain a rest. This could be reading an article for fun or, for me, playing a few minutes of a simple video game to take your mind off work and allow you to then refocus and be more productive.
As for parents, multiple writers with children provided tips for how to keep your children occupied so you can work, including doing your most focused work when they are napping.

This Chrome Extension Will Help You Watch Netflix With Online Friends During Coronavirus Quarantine

On Friday, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos <a href="https://media.netflix.com/en/company-blog/emergency-support-for-workers-in-the-creative-community">announced</a> the creation of a $100 million fund to help those in the entertainment industry who have lost their jobs as a result of production delays and shutdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a press release, Sarandos states:
<blockquote>The Covid-19 crisis is devastating for many industries, including the creative community. Almost all television and film production has now ceased globally – leaving hundreds of thousands of crew and cast without jobs. These include electricians, carpenters, drivers, hair and makeup artists and more, many of whom are paid hourly wages and work on a project-to-project basis.
This community has supported Netflix through the good times, and we want to help them through these hard times, especially while governments are still figuring out what economic support they will provide. So we’ve created a $100 million fund to help with hardship in the creative community.
Most of the fund will go towards support for the hardest hit workers on our own productions around the world. We’re in the process of working out exactly what this means, production by production. This is in addition to the two weeks pay we’ve already committed to the crew and cast on productions we were forced to suspend last week.
Beyond helping workers on our own productions, we also want to support the broader film and television industry. So $15 million of the fund will go to third parties and non-profits providing emergency relief to out-of-work crew and cast in the countries where we have a large production base.</blockquote>
The CCO then states that Netflix will be donating millions of dollars to several entertainment job-related funds, including the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Covid-19 Disaster Fund. Additionally, because Netflix produces content around the world, the streaming giant is attempting to set up similar charitable endeavors in other regions.
Numerous films and television shows have had to halt production as the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps the globe. Netflix alone has been forced to stall production on season two of “The Witcher,” season four of mega-hit “Stranger Things,” and the last season of “Grace and Frankie,” among many others.
Films that have been forced to temporarily shut down include the “Avatar” sequels, the new “Matrix” movie, “Mission: Impossible 7,” and others.
COVID-19, which originated in China’s Hubei province, has infected nearly 330,000 people worldwide, and led to more than 14,300 deaths, <a href="https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6">according to data</a> from Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) Global Cases map. 97,846 people have recovered.
As several states have initiated orders to close non-essential businesses and have asked that people stay in their homes barring necessary trips, movie theaters have shuttered and major films have been pulled from their original release dates.
In New York alone, COVID-19 has infected more than 15,700 people, which amounts to approximately 48% of all cases reported in the United States, and 117 deaths have been reported in the state, which amounts to 28.6% of total U.S. deaths related to the virus.
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gov-cuomo-blasts-new-yorkers-not-taking-covid-19-seriously-its-insensitive-its-arrogant">Gov Cuomo Blasts New Yorkers Not Taking COVID-19 Seriously: ‘It’s Insensitive, It’s Arrogant’</a>

Netflix Creates ‘$100 Million Fund’ To Aid Workers Hit By Entertainment Industry Shutdown

In response to a &#8220;likely&#8221; case of coronavirus, entertainment giant Netflix has shut down its Los Angeles offices.
&#8220;An employee in the Sunset Blvd offices of the streamer looks &#8216;likely&#8217; to have COVID-19, I’ve learned,&#8221; <a href="https://deadline.com/2020/03/coronavirus-netflix-infection-staffer-lockdown-los-angeles-1202881859/">Deadline</a>&#8216;s Dominic Patten reported Thursday. &#8220;The individual was identified in the past day after coming in close contact with a confirmed case. That confirmed case is the spouse of a Netflix staffer.&#8221;
Patten notes that many of the employees at the streaming company were already working out of office before the &#8220;likely&#8221; case triggered the full shutdown.
&#8220;Though a number of employees were already out of office and working from home in the last week, the Reed Hastings-run company has emptied out one of its Sunset Blvd buildings in immediate response to around 1000 employees being at varying degrees of risk,&#8221; Patten explains. &#8220;Additionally, in what is clearly becoming the norm in Hollywood and around the world, City of Angels staffers have been recommended to absolutely work from home until further notice.&#8221;
Patten also points out that the news comes after Netflix decided to delay the production of one of its new project, &#8220;The Prom.&#8221;
Thursday saw a series of shutdown and cancellation announcements, including from the biggest entertainment company in the world: Disney, which first <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-disneyland-shuts-down-because-of-coronavirus">announced</a> the closure of Disneyland in Anaheim Thursday, which, as <a href="https://variety.com/2020/biz/news/disney-theme-park-closed-coronavirus-1203531795/">Variety</a> noted, is only &#8220;the fourth time in history that Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., has fully suspended operations.&#8221;
In a press release Thursday explaining its decision, Disney underscored that there have been &#8220;no reported cases of COVID-19 at Disneyland Resort&#8221; but that it determined that closing until the end of the month was the safest course of action. Disney explained that it would continue to pay cast members during the shutdown and would work with customers to provide refunds. The release read in part:
<blockquote>While there have been no reported cases of COVID-19 at Disneyland Resort, after carefully reviewing the guidelines of the Governor of California’s executive order and in the best interests of our guests and employees, we are proceeding with the closure of Disneyland Park and California Adventure, beginning the morning of March 14 through the end of the month.
The hotels of Disneyland Resort will remain open until Monday march 16, to give guests the ability to make necessary travel arrangements; Downtown Disney will remain open. We will monitor the ongoing situation and follow the advice and guidelines of federal and state officials and health agencies. Disney will continue to pay cast members during this time.</blockquote>
Shortly after the Disneyland announcement, Disney <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-disney-world-closing-down-due-to-coronavirus">announced</a> that it was also closing down Disney World in Orlando, Florida as well as Disneyland Paris. &#8220;In an abundance of caution and in the best interest of our guests and employees, we are proceeding with the closure of our theme parks at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disneyland Paris Resort, beginning at the close of business on Sunday, March 15, through the end of the month,&#8221; a spokesperson said in a statement.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/stocks-surge-as-trump-pelosi-near-economic-relief-deal">Stocks Surge As Trump, Pelosi Near Economic Relief Deal</a>

Netflix Locks Down Its L.A. Offices

Actress Millie Bobby Brown, who plays Eleven on Netflix&#8217;s hit show &#8220;Stranger Things,&#8221; turned 16 on Thursday. In a lengthy post to Instagram, the young actress lamented the &#8220;sexualization&#8221; and &#8220;insults&#8221; she has endured over the past few years while hoping that a change can happen for the next generation.
&#8220;16 has felt like a long time coming,&#8221; began Brown. &#8220;I feel like change needs to happen for not only this generation but the next. Our world needs kindness and support in order for us children to grow and succeed.&#8221;
&#8220;The last few years haven&#8217;t been easy, I&#8217;ll admit that,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;There are moments I get frustrated from the inaccuracy, inappropriate comments, sexualization, and unnecessary insults that ultimately have resulted in pain and insecurity for me. But not ever will I be defeated. I&#8217;ll continue doing what I love and spreading the message in order to make change.&#8221;
The Instagram post included a montage video of Brown throughout the years intercut with various media clips and Twitter hot takes that were critical of her.
&#8220;Let&#8217;s focus on what needs changing, and I hope this video informs you on the things that go on behind the scenes of the headlines and flashing lights. Don&#8217;t worry, I&#8217;ll always find a way to smile,&#8221; she concluded.
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</a> 
 <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tv/B8v7J8YH_ZR/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">16 has felt like a long time coming. i feel like change needs to happen for not only this generation but the next. our world needs kindness and support in order for us children to grow and succeed. the last few years haven&#39;t been easy, I&#39;ll admit that. there are moments i get frustrated from the inaccuracy, inappropriate comments, sexualization, and unnecessary insults that ultimately have resulted in pain and insecurity for me. but not ever will i be defeated. ill continue doing what i love and spreading the message in order to make change. let&#39;s focus on what needs changing and I hope this video informs you on the things that go on behind the scenes of the headlines and flashing lights. dont worry I&#39;ll always find a way to smile 😉 leggo 16 ♡.</a>
<p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/milliebobbybrown/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> mills</a> (@milliebobbybrown) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2020-02-19T12:49:27+00:00">Feb 19, 2020 at 4:49am PST</time>
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Millie Bobby Brown has been subject to bizarre press coverage at times throughout her youth. At age 14, for instance, outlets like People and Page Six felt it somehow necessary and newsworthy to report on her breaking up with her boyfriend at the time, as if the relationships of 14-year-olds deserved any level of attention.
“Millie Bobby Brown Splits With Singer Boyfriend,” announced <a href="https://pagesix.com/2018/07/31/millie-bobby-brown-splits-with-singer-boyfriend/">Page Six</a>. “Millie Bobby Brown and Jacob Sartorius Split After Seven Months of Dating,” lamented <a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/millie-bobby-brown-jacob-sartorius-split-after-seven-months/">US Magazine</a>. “Millie Bobby Brown and Jacob Sartorius Break Up After 7 Months of Dating,” decried <a href="https://people.com/tv/millie-bobby-brown-jacob-sartorius-break-up/">People</a>. “Millie Bobby Brown just broke up with her boyfriend in the most mature way possible,” wrote <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/08/01/milly-bobby-brown-just-broke-up-with-her-boyfriend-in-the-most-mature-way-possible/">The Mercury News</a>.
As reported by <a href="https://people.com/tv/millie-bobby-brown-reflects-scrutinity-16th-birthday/">People</a>, Millie Bobby Brown faced a scolding on social media when someone told her to &#8220;act your age&#8221; when she posted a photo of herself in a form-fitting dress. “[I know] everyone on my last pic wants me to ‘act my age,’ but, quite frankly, it&#8217;s my Instagram and if I choose to post that picture and you don’t like it… scroll past it,&#8221; she said in response.
Millie Bobby Brown&#8217;s birthday post was largely met with positive responses from her fans and followers.
&#8220;Happy bday, Millie. This year is gonna be your year. AGAIN. Here’s to 16 years old!&#8221; wrote Brown’s &#8220;Stranger Things&#8221; co-star Noah Schnapp. 
&#8220;I love you, Millie, happy birthday baby girl,&#8221; wrote Bella Hadid.
&#8220;You’re showing tremendous poise in this business that has such built-in scrutiny! Enjoy every facet of being 16. Trust me, it doesn’t stop even when you’re 35 like me. Ok, I’m NOT 35. But hang in there sweetie,&#8221; wrote actress Octavia Spencer.
&#8220;Send you so much love, angel!! Happy Birthdayyy!! Keep thriving and being exactly who you need to be,&#8221; wrote singer Lauren Jauregui.

26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards &#8211; Arrivals

‘Stranger Things’ Star Millie Bobby Brown Turns 16, Laments ‘Sexualization’ And ‘Insults’

Hollywood

Millie Bobby Brown

Stranger Things

The first Netflix film produced by former President Obama and Michelle Obama&#8217;s production company won an award on Sunday during the Oscars and, while accepting the award, the filmmakers recited Karl Marx&#8217;s Communist manifesto.
Julia Reichert of &#8220;American Factory&#8221; received the award and said: &#8220;Working people have it harder and harder these days – and we believe that things will get better when workers of the world unite.&#8221;
The term &#8220;workers of the world unite,&#8221; comes directly from the communist manifesto and was widely noticed by media critics.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
How woke! How Hollywood!
Producer Julia Reichert cites the Communist Manifesto because&#8230; well, we all know why. 
“Workers of the world unite.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/kl64TC0uNh">pic.twitter.com/kl64TC0uNh</a>
&mdash; (((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) <a href="https://twitter.com/jasonrantz/status/1226701801820282880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Obama praised them, writing on Twitter, &#8220;Congrats to Julia and Steven, the filmmakers behind American Factory, for telling such a complex, moving story about the very human consequences of wrenching economic change. Glad to see two talented and downright good people take home the Oscar for Higher Ground’s first release.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Congrats to Julia and Steven, the filmmakers behind American Factory, for telling such a complex, moving story about the very human consequences of wrenching economic change. Glad to see two talented and downright good people take home the Oscar for Higher Ground’s first release. <a href="https://t.co/W4AZ68iWoY">https://t.co/W4AZ68iWoY</a>
&mdash; Barack Obama (@BarackObama) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1226696870292008960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Communism is an ideology of evil and was estimated to be responsible for the deaths of 100 million people last center.
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/100-years-of-communismand-100-million-dead-1510011810">reported</a> in 2017:
<blockquote>Such convictions set the stage for decades of murder on an industrial scale. In total, no fewer than 20 million Soviet citizens were put to death by the regime or died as a direct result of its repressive policies. This does not include the millions who died in the wars, epidemics and famines that were predictable consequences of Bolshevik policies, if not directly caused by them.
The victims include 200,000 killed during the Red Terror (1918-22); 11 million dead from famine and dekulakization; 700,000 executed during the Great Terror (1937-38); 400,000 more executed between 1929 and 1953; 1.6 million dead during forced population transfers; and a minimum 2.7 million dead in the Gulag, labor colonies and special settlements.
To this list should be added nearly a million Gulag prisoners released during World War II into Red Army penal battalions, where they faced almost certain death; the partisans and civilians killed in the postwar revolts against Soviet rule in Ukraine and the Baltics; and dying Gulag inmates freed so that their deaths would not count in official statistics.
If we add to this list the deaths caused by communist regimes that the Soviet Union created and supported—including those in Eastern Europe, China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia—the total number of victims is closer to 100 million. That makes communism the greatest catastrophe in human history.</blockquote>
Responses varied online with the far-left praises the speech and everyone else either mocking it or expressing shock or outrage.
Far-left activist Adam Best responded: &#8220;The Obamas now have a movie that won at the #Oscars and Trump is still mad over never winning an Emmy. Imagine he’s having a hissy fit right about now.&#8221;
Daily Wire podcast host Michael Knowles responded to Best by writing, &#8220;Do the Obamas also get credit for the filmmaker&#8217;s quoting the Communist Manifesto in her acceptance speech?&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Do the Obamas also get credit for the filmmaker&#39;s quoting the Communist Manifesto in her acceptance speech? <a href="https://t.co/KtbN5VUG1m">https://t.co/KtbN5VUG1m</a>
&mdash; Iowa Caucus Winner Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) <a href="https://twitter.com/michaeljknowles/status/1226701895961460736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Commentator Jordan Schachtel wrote: &#8220;The 100 million victims of communist regimes would like to have a word.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The 100 million victims of communist regimes would like to have a word.<a href="https://t.co/aKTBr4VrjA">https://t.co/aKTBr4VrjA</a>
&mdash; Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) <a href="https://twitter.com/JordanSchachtel/status/1226702366386380800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Columnist Jonah Goldberg wrote: &#8220;I love that most of my twitter feed thought the big game away from her speech was &#8216;go Buckeyes&#8217; not the opening line from the f***ing Communist Manifesto.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I love that most of my twitter feed thought the big game away from her speech was “go Buckeyes” not the opening line from the f***ing Communist Manifesto. <a href="https://t.co/zHiHVfuoCE">https://t.co/zHiHVfuoCE</a>
&mdash; Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) <a href="https://twitter.com/JonahDispatch/status/1226692767079858178?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
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92nd Annual Academy Awards &#8211; Press Room

Obama-Produced Film Wins Oscar, Producer Quotes Communist Manifesto In Acceptance Speech. Obama Praises.

Barack Obama

Oscars

After bravely bearing the cruel slings and arrows of the woke scolds that launched a cancel campaign against him for old jokes that offended some members of the LGBT community, Kevin Hart has now apologized for how he handled the situation, which culminated in him <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/kevin-hart-steps-down-from-oscar-hosting-gig-after-past-staments" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stepping down as host </a>of the Academy Awards in 2019.
Though Hart recently expressed regret for being immature at the time in the Netflix documentary “Kevin Hart: Don’t F**k This Up,” he doubled-down on that sentiment in an interview with Men&#8217;s Health.
“With the whole Oscars thing, there was a big gap between what I thought the problem was versus what the problem really was,” <a href="https://www.menshealth.com/trending-news/a30469053/kevin-hart-car-accident-recovery-interview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hart told the magazine</a>. &#8220;I got 10 years where I made sure not to joke or play in the way that I did back then because it was a problem. I don’t care if you’re gay or not gay. I’m a people person. I’m going to love you regardless.”
Hart, however, feels that he should have become an ally to the LGBT community by speaking up about violence.
“It wasn’t until close friends like Wanda Sykes, Lee Daniels, and Ellen talked to me and explained what they didn’t hear me say that I understood. Then I was like, ‘Oh, s*** — I did f*** up.’”
Kevin Hart had been slated to host the 2019 Oscars but stepped down within 48 hours of accepting the gig after the Academy demanded he apologize for his past jokes.
“I’m not going to continue to go back and tap into the days of old when I moved on, and I’m in a completely different space in my life,” Hart said in a video on Instagram at the time. “I’m going to be me; I’m going to stand my ground.”
Hours later, Hart stepped down from his dream of hosting the Oscars and apologized to the LGBTQ community for his “insensitive words.”
“I have made the choice to step down from hosting this year’s Oscars … this is because I do not want to be a distraction on a night that should be celebrated by so many amazing talented artists,” he wrote on Twitter. “I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past.”
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kevin-hart-regrets-how-he-handled-oscars-controversy-i-was-immature">Netflix documentary </a>explored how the comedian disregarded the advice of his publicists and other members of his team at the time, leading him to eventually conclude that he was acting “immature.”
“What I thought was going to blow over ended up becoming a bigger mess than I expected,” Hart says in the documentary.
“You need to learn how to stop and think,” Hart’s publicist tells a team member in the documentary. “He’s not used to being the person that’s not loved and cherished. He needs to just shut up and put his head down for the next few weeks. &#8230; What he needs to remember is he’s feeding 50-60 people. When he takes a sh***er, everybody takes a sh***er and that’s a big issue now.”
Nine days after his stepping down, Hart then told members of his staff at an emergency meeting that he had no desire to keep addressing the controversy, fearing he would be “making it okay to go backward.” Looking back, Hart now feels that he “missed an opportunity.”
“I missed an opportunity to say simply that I don’t condone any type of violence in any way, shape, or form to anyone for being who they are,” Hart now says. “I f***ed up. &#8230; Instead, I said, ‘I addressed it.’ I said, ‘I apologized.’ I said, ‘I talked about this already.’ I was just immature.”

2020 Winter TCA Tour &#8211; Day 3

Kevin Hart Caves, Apologizes Over Oscars Controversy: ‘I Did F*** Up’

Homosexuality

Kevin Hart

LGBT

Political Correctness

In response to pop star Taylor Swift bashing her in the documentary &#8220;Miss Americana,&#8221; which chronicles the singer&#8217;s ascent into political activism, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) took the high road by praising Swift for the issues they have in common — namely, protecting artists from censorship and theft.
&#8220;Having apparently gotten wind of her unflattering appearance in the film, Blackburn took time out from the president’s impeachment trial to issue a conciliatory statement Thursday, suggesting that she and Swift could find some common ground despite their monumental differences on social issues,&#8221; reports <a href="https://variety.com/2020/music/news/senator-marsha-blackburn-issues-statement-taylor-swift-documentary-miss-americana-1203487711/">Variety</a>.
Referring to Swift as an &#8220;exceptionally gifted artist,&#8221; Blackburn hailed Taylor Swift for helping to influence legislation that protects artists from &#8220;censorship, copyright theft, and profiteering.&#8221;
“Taylor is an exceptionally gifted artist and songwriter, and Nashville is fortunate to be the center of her creative universe,” said Blackburn’s statement. “While there are policy issues on which we may always disagree, we do agree on the need to throw the entertainment community’s collective influence behind legislation protecting songwriters, musicians, and artists from censorship, copyright theft, and profiteering. The Music Modernization Act was a huge win for creators, and the BOTS Act for fans. Growing support behind the AM-FM Act will close loopholes blocking compensation for radio play. I welcome any further opportunities to work with Tennessee’s and the nation’s creative communities to protect intellectual property and ensure appropriate compensation for their creations. On that note, I wish Taylor the best — she’s earned it.”
In many ways, Marsha Blackburn&#8217;s run for the Senate prompted Taylor Swift&#8217;s political activism after she remained silent during the 2016 election, angering leftists everywhere at the time. The documentary chronicles her eventual decision to start endorsing Democratic candidates for office — specifically, over the GOP&#8217;s support of what she referred to as the &#8220;slate of hate bills&#8221; in her home state, which would, among other things, allow religious adoption agencies to prefer children go to married heterosexual couples over same-sex couples.
“Companion bills HB 1151 and SB 1297 expand the state’s indecent exposure law to apply &#8216;in a restroom, locker room, dressing room, or shower, any of which are designated for single-sex, multi-person use, and the person is a member of the opposite sex than the sex designated for use,&#8217;” reported <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/slate-hate-advocates-decry-anti-lgbtq-bills-introduced-tennessee-n979116">NBC News </a>in 2019. “Advocates say that since transgender Tennesseans cannot legally change their sex on legal documents, this bill unfairly targets them for criminal prosecution.”
Speaking with Variety, Swift said she was &#8220;really upset&#8221; with the way Tennessee was going regarding social issues and wanted to use her influence to shift its direction. In an Instagram post way back in 2018, Swift characterized Marsha Blackburn as an enemy of &#8220;human rights&#8221; while speaking of the &#8220;systemic racism&#8221; that people of color experience in this country.
“In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now,” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/f-that-i-dont-care-taylor-swift-gets-political-in-new-doc-dunks-on-trump">she wrote</a>. “I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country. I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent. I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin color, gender or who they love.”

blackswift

True Class: Sen. Marsha Blackburn Praises Taylor Swift After Singer Bashes Her In Netflix Documentary

Marsha Blackburn

Taylor Swift

With the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/22/netflix-is-feeling-the-pressure-of-the-streaming-wars.html">slowing</a> of its subscriber growth, the streaming giant Netflix has now changed its definition of &#8220;views&#8221; to include a watch time as short as two minutes.
According to <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/netflix-changes-its-view-on-views-which-will-boost-its-numbers-by-35-2020-01-21">MarketWatch</a>, Netflix originally counted a view if the person watched at least 70% of the program, but by lowering that to as short as two minutes, Netflix will be able to increase its reported viewership by 35%.
“The new metric is about 35% higher on average than the prior metric,” Netflix executives said in the company&#8217;s first quarterly earnings report of 2020. “For example, 45 [million] member households chose to watch ‘Our Planet’ under the new metric vs. 33 [million] under the prior metric.”
That means a simple rollover into the next program if the viewer either fell asleep or went to the bathroom for several minutes could be counted as a view. However, Netflix claims that the two-minute metric can determine if a viewer &#8220;chose to watch and did watch for &#8230; long enough to indicate the choice was intentional.”
A Netflix spokesman told Market Watch that the metric would better determine a product&#8217;s popularity as opposed to viewership. Take, for example, the hit fantasy series &#8220;The Witcher,&#8221; which the streaming giant said was its “biggest series one TV series ever,&#8221; since “76 million member households chose to watch [it].&#8221; Netflix compared this model to YouTube and the BBC iPlayer.
“Our new methodology is similar to the BBC iPlayer in their rankings based on &#8216;requests&#8217; for the title, &#8216;most popular&#8217; articles on The New York Times, which include those who opened the articles, and YouTube view counts,&#8221; the quarterly letter said. &#8220;This way, short and long titles are treated equally, leveling the playing field for all types of our content including interactive content, which has no fixed length.&#8221;
As reported by <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/netflix-views-definition-changed">Fox News</a>, in response to this radical definition of views, critics on line have unanimously blasted the streaming network for openly inflating its numbers.
&#8220;Netflix thinks this is a more fair way to compare content of different lengths. To be fair, everyone has a different viewership metric. Still, two minutes feels terribly short,&#8221; Recode senior data reporter Rani Molla <a href="https://twitter.com/ranimolla/status/1219748931535613953">tweeted</a>.
Writing at <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/netflixs-new-ratings-math-sacrifices-clarity-flashy-numbers-1272214">The Hollywood Reporter</a>, Rick Porter argued that Netflix sacrificed &#8220;clarity for flashy numbers.&#8221;
Netflix&#8217;s viewer count strategy has been called into question before, going all the way back to the tail-end of 2018, when the company said that the original film &#8220;Bird Box&#8221; garnered a whopping 45 million viewers. Skeptics felt the numbers were either inflated or at least not an accurate representation of the exact number of people watching the film from start to finish — with<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39807/netflix-claims-45-million-people-watched-bird-box-paul-bois"> CNN Business arguing</a> that Netflix has no third party verifying the numbers.
FX CEO Jon Landgraf <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fx-ceo-john-landgraf-blasts-netflix-ratings-system-paul-bois">decried this mechanism</a> of counting viewers as a &#8220;winner-take-all&#8221; mentality in the streaming world.
“What I don’t tend to like about Silicon Valley is how the search ecosystem is Google, the social media ecosystem is Facebook. I don’t think that ‘winner-take-all’ mentality is good for the world. I don’t think it’s good for America,&#8221; he said. “One way or the other, the truth will always come out — as it always does.&#8221;

Netflix : Illustration

Netflix Radically Changes Definition Of ‘Views’ To Boost Numbers; Critics Blast Them

Earlier this month, Netflix premiered a new show co-created and starring famed drag queen RuPaul, called &#8220;AJ and the Queen.&#8221;
In the show&#8217;s second episode, drag queens relate inappropriately to a 10-year-old gender-confused girl named AJ brought around the performers by RuPaul. One of the men dressed in drag is admonished by RuPaul for &#8220;tucking&#8221; his &#8220;junk&#8221; in front of the girl. Another drag queen refers to the child as a &#8220;top,&#8221; a sexual term for the person on top during sexual intercourse.
The disturbing commentary exchanged before the boy doesn&#8217;t stop there. One drag queen suggests AJ&#8217;s character is a product of closed down Planned Parenthood abortion clinics.
The show, according to the <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/elise-ehrhard/2020/01/13/sick-rupauls-netflix-show-calls-10-year-old-child-sexual-top">Media Research Center</a>, &#8220;is about a 10-year-old child who accompanies Robert (RuPaul), a gay male drag performer who goes by &#8216;Ruby Red,&#8217; as he travels across the country performing in drag shows at mostly gay bars.&#8221;
&#8220;The child, AJ (Izzy G.), is the daughter of a drug-addicted prostitute,&#8221; the outlet explains. &#8220;She wants to be a boy &#8216;because people leave boys alone.&#8217; She hides her long hair under a boyish hat and does her best to look and act like a 10-year-old boy instead of a girl. The show is one long exposure of this child to sexualized adult situations in which she does not belong, all under the guise of the drag queen and the child &#8216;bonding&#8217; cross-country.&#8221;
Below is a transcript of the alarming exchange in episode two, via the Media Research Center (emphasis added):
<blockquote>Magda: Well, look what the p***y dragged in. And you have a child. I knew closing those Planned Parenthood clinics would create a problem. [Laughs.]
Magda and Robert: Mwah. Mwah.
Robert: Girl, this is AJ. AJ, this is Magda. One of Pittsburgh’s finest queens.
Edie: Which tells you a lot about the Pittsburg scene.
Robert: Uh, maybe don’t tuck in your junk in front of a minor.
Edie: There are no miners in Pennsylvania, no matter what the president promised.
Robert and Edie: Mwah. Mwah.
Robert: AJ, this is Edie. She used to be pretty.
Magda: I’m still pretty thought, right?
Robert: Well…
Alma Joy: Wait till you…
AJ: What’s his problem?
Robert: That’s Alma Joy and, trust me, she may have a couple of nuts, but there is no joy&#8230;
Robert: Good to see you, Alma.
Alma Joy: Have we met?
Robert: Oh, okay. No high road. Michelle Obama taught us nothing?
Alma Joy: Surprised to see you all the way out here in the sticks, Ruby. Wasn’t that what you called us? I guess she’d know all about sticks. She has that big one stuck up her a**.
Magda: You say that like that’s a bad thing.
Alma Joy: What are you even doing in Pittsburgh? I thought you were opening your own New York club.
Robert: Oh, I am. We’re in the middle of huge renovations and it is going to be major.
Man: Here you go, Edie.
Edie: Oh, Ruby, girl, there are burgers at the bar. Are you hungy?
AJ: I am. Take me. Come on. Let’s go.
Edie: Okay. Follow me. First kid I ever met that’s a top.</blockquote>
WATCH:
<iframe title="MRC TV video player" src="https://www.mrctv.org/embed/546290" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

RuPaul

Drag Queen ‘Tucks Junk’ In Front Of ‘Trans’ Child, Refers To Her As Sexual Term ‘Top’ In New Netflix Show

Sexual Abuse

Sexual Harassment

Sexuality

Transgender

Prince Harry has not only pitched Meghan Markle&#8217;s voiceover work to Disney CEO Bob Iger, but also to top Disney director Jon Favreau ( of &#8220;The Mandalorian&#8221; fame).
Released on Saturday, new footage obtained by the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7903455/Moment-Prince-Harry-tells-Lion-King-director-Jon-Favreau-wife-available-work.html">Daily Mail </a>shows the duke and duchess of Sussex touting Meghan Markle&#8217;s acting chops while speaking with high-profile celebrities Jon Favreau, Beyoncé, and Jay-Z at a premiere for Disney&#8217;s &#8220;The Lion King.&#8221;
&#8220;If anyone needs any extra voiceover work,&#8221; Harry could be heard beginning to tell Favreau just as Meghan jokingly interrupts to say, &#8220;That&#8217;s really why we&#8217;re here — it&#8217;s the pitch!&#8221;
&#8220;Just not Scar,&#8221; Harry jovially says in reference to the villainous character in &#8220;The Lion King.&#8221;
<iframe title="&#039;She&#039;ll tackle any voiceover just not Scar&#039;: Moment Harry tells Lion King director Jon Favreau" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pUAp9-E3Im8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The recently released footage follows a report from last week which showed Prince Harry speaking to Disney CEO Bob Iger at the same event about Meghan Markle&#8217;s voiceover work.
“You know she does voiceovers,” Harry told Iger at &#8220;The Lion King&#8221; premiere in July.
“Oh, really?” responded Iger.
“Did you know that?” Harry added. “You seem surprised. … She’s really interested.”
“Sure,” said Iger. “We’d love to try.”
Conservative commentator Mark Steyn called it &#8220;the absolute lowest point of the monarchy in the last 100 years.&#8221;
&#8220;I think of all the pathetic things that the Duke of Windsor did after he abdicated when he entertained wealthy Americans and gave them a sort of pseudo glimpse into Royal life,&#8221; Steyn <a href="https://video.foxnews.com/v/6122347498001">told Fox News</a>. &#8220;That&#8217;s nothing like actually touting your wife as available for Lion King 7 or whatever it is.&#8221;
Meghan Markle was hired by Disney to do some voiceover work in exchange for a charitable donation to Elephants Without Borders. Just over the weekend, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/netflixs-ted-sarandos-interested-prince-harry-meghan-markle-deal-1271376">expressed interest</a> in collaborating with the duke and duchess of Sussex for a project.
Over the weekend, Queen Elizabeth II<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/prince-harry-meghan-markle-give-up-royal-titles-1270934"> unveiled the rather strict terms</a> that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be under as they split from the royal family to pursue a more &#8220;progressive role&#8221; in North America — an act that bars them from being referred to by &#8220;her majesty&#8221; and &#8220;royal highness.&#8221; They were also ordered to repay the money British taxpayers had spent on remodeling their Frogmore Cottage.
&#8220;The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are grateful to Her Majesty and the Royal Family for their ongoing support as they embark on the next chapter of their lives,&#8221; the statement from Buckingham Palace read. &#8220;As agreed in this new arrangement, they understand that they are required to step back from Royal duties, including official military appointments. They will no longer receive public funds for Royal duties.&#8221;
&#8220;With the queen’s blessing, the Sussexes will continue to maintain their private patronages and associations,&#8221; it continued. &#8220;While they can no longer formally represent the queen, the Sussexes have made clear that everything they do will continue to uphold the values of Her Majesty. The Sussexes will not use their HRH titles as they are no longer working members of the Royal Family. The duke and duchess of Sussex have shared their wish to repay Sovereign Grant expenditure for the refurbishment of Frogmore Cottage, which will remain their U.K. family home.&#8221;

Duke and Duchess of Sussex statement

WATCH: New Video Shows Prince Harry, Meghan Markle Pitching Voiceover Work To Disney Director Jon Favreau

Disney

Meghan Markle

Prince Harry

Kathy Griffin, the comedian and Hollywood actress who shocked the world when she staged a photo holding the decapitated head of President Trump, revealed to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/01/14/you-kathy-griffin-season-2-cameo-life-after-trump-scandal/4431253002/">USA Today</a> on Tuesday that in the aftermath of the notorious public relations fiasco, she resorted to literally &#8220;begging&#8221; people for acting roles. 
“I straight up was just begging for five lines on something that would be seen by people that had nothing to do with Trump &#8212; nothing that was controversial,” Griffin told the news agency, revealing that she finally got a break from Greg Berlanti, executive producer of the show “You” on Netflix, who gave her a 90-second cameo. 
Griffin also acknowledges that after the photo, she tried messaging producers on social media websites to land jobs. &#8220;I&#8217;m certainly learning how to do more things, as they say &#8216;in house,&#8217; and (it&#8217;s) one of the things that I became proactive about after the Trump scandal because it&#8217;s kind of like Hollywood feels like I have something that they&#8217;re going to catch &#8230; People don&#8217;t want to get Kathy Griffin-ed,” the comedian told the news agency. 
Hollywood wasn’t the only place trying to distance itself from Griffin during the photo backlash. 
In May 2017, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/squatty-potty-drops-kathy-griffin-after-trump-photo-shoot-2017-5">Business Insider</a> reported that Squatty Potty, the children’s toilet training company, had to clarify that Griffin was not, in fact, their spokesperson. 
&#8220;Kathy Griffin is not, nor ever has been Squatty Potty&#8217;s spokesperson,&#8221; announced the company in a statement, according to the news organization. &#8220;She was hired to make one commercial. Squatty Potty has pulled said commercial as well as other promotional and marketing content featuring Kathy Griffin.&#8221; 
Griffin also lost her gig on CNN co-hosting New Year’s Eve with Anderson Cooper, the news organization said in a <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2017/05/31/media/cnn-kathy-griffin/">statement</a> at the time. Cooper has continued to host New Years without Griffin, and the result has been weird to say the least — in the past two broadcasts, Cooper has directly and indirectly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-anderson-cooper-live-on-cnn-who-has-the-biggest-c-in-hollywood">referenced</a> his late-mother’s sex life. 
After the photo was released, both President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump issued statements condemning the stunt. 
“Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick,” the president said in a tweet. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/869874798087819264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2017</a></blockquote>
&#8220;As a mother, a wife, and a human being, that photo is very disturbing,&#8221; said the first lady in a statement at the time, reported <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2017/05/31/donald-trump-kathy-griffin-should-be-ashamed-herself-over-decapitation-photo/102340236/">USA Today</a>. &#8220;When you consider some of the atrocities happening in the world today, a photo opportunity like this is simply wrong and makes you wonder about the mental health of the person who did it.&#8221;
After the backlash, Griffin apologized for the photo, saying that in retrospect, it was “disturbing.”
&#8220;I sincerely apologize,&#8221; said Griffin in a video statement amid the backlash. &#8220;I’m just now seeing the reaction of these images. I’m a comic, I crossed the line. I move the line then I cross it. I went way too far&#8230;the image is too disturbing, I understand how it offends people. It wasn&#8217;t funny. I get it.&#8221;

2019 SXSW Conference And Festival &#8211; Day 5

Kathy Griffin Describes ‘Begging’ For Roles To Distance Herself From Trump Fiasco

Kathy Griffin

[WARNING: Spoilers for Netflix’s “Don’t F**k With Cats”]
On December 18, when most Americans were preparing to spend the joyful Christmas holiday with family and friends, Netflix dropped one of the most disturbing true crime docuseries in quite some time.
“Don&#8217;t F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer” is a three-part docuseries dealing with a cat and mouse game that played out between a group of internet sleuths and a deranged man who uploaded a video of himself killing two kittens in a vacuum bag.
Well, that’s how it started.
From the very beginning, an electric horror pulses through the veins of “Don’t F**k With Cats.”
A mystery man uploading an anonymous video to the internet in which he sweetly pets two kittens before placing them into a sealed vacuum bag and suctioning the air out until the kittens have died is the starting gun to this docuseries that explores evil, viral infamy, and complicity.
Shortly after the video goes viral, a small cadre of internet “nerds” decide to find the man responsible for the sickening footage – but the task is more difficult than they imagined.
Just when they feel like giving up, clues, seemingly from the killer himself, begin to arrive in the form of Facebook notifications. Has the kitten killer infiltrated their vigilante Facebook group? Has he been watching them toil away this entire time? The cat might have had the the mouse by the tail all along.
But this is only the beginning. Two more videos have been posted – one in which a kitten is fed to a python, and another in which a kitten is tied to a broomstick and drowned in a bathtub.
As if these sickening videos weren’t enough, the killer ups the ante by sending the group a photo of himself lounging while holding a kitten. The killer has blurred his own face in the image, but just enough to be maddening to his seekers.
Tips come flooding in about the identity of the mysterious kitten killer, but the alleged sicko is difficult to track down as he travels the world. The sleuths now know who the killer is, but ache as they are able to accomplish nothing material.
The game takes an even more heinous turn (if that’s possible) when the killer uploads a new video of himself stabbing a human to death with what appears to be an ice pick. The internet sleuths know who perpetrated this crime, but their pleas for officials to listen seemingly fall on deaf ears.
Now that the kitten killer has tuned into a murderer, officials begin investigating. The twists and turns come fast and furious in the final episode, and are so unbelievable and unthinkable, one might be forgiven for wondering if this docuseries is scripted.
In the end, the internet sleuths are left to wonder if they helped advance the narrative of this vile, fame-seeking killer; if they fed the animal-slaughtering beast who would eventually graduate to murder. It’s a question that cannot be fully answered.
Altogether thrilling and sickening, pulse-pounding and horrifying, “Don;t F**k With Cats” is a docuseries for the ages. If you’re fascinated by true crime tales, this is a must-watch.
“Don’t F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer” is available to stream right now on Netflix.

CAMP: Netflix Docuseries ‘Don’t F**k With Cats’ Is A Twisted Ride For True Crime Fans

Don’t F**k With Cats

Based on a popular collection of fantasy novels and stories by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrzej_Sapkowski">Andrzej Sapkowski</a> and an even more popular video game trilogy, Netflix’s “The Witcher” seemed primed to be a possible heir to “Games of Thrones.” At least, that’s the hype Netflix hoped for. Instead, the show comes across more like “Hercules” a la Kevin Sorbo sharing ale with “Xena: Warrior Princess” at some dimly lit tavern on the outskirts of <a href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Winterfell">Winterfell</a>.
The fantasy series builds around the character Geralt of Rivia, played by Henry Cavill. Essentially, Geralt is a “witcher” who wanders a land known as The Continent fighting monsters for money. Witchers are apparently superhuman mutants forged by science and magic imbued with special powers.
Sadly, all that science and magic could not afford a better wig for poor Geralt. That mop was forged in the fires of The Hair Club For Men before being gussied up by a local taxidermist. Honestly, it should be registered as a service animal, but I digress.
Hairpieces aside, Cavill does a fine job as Geralt. The actor is a huge fan of “The Witcher” universe, and it shows. Apparently, Cavill <a href="https://bgr.com/2019/07/31/the-witcher-netflix-new-details-henry-cavill-interview-geralt/">hounded Netflix</a> for the lead role. He nails the stoic, gruff disposition of Geralt and remains the most compelling and entertaining aspect of the new series.
Two other characters remain the focus of “The Witcher” as well. Anya Colatra plays Yennefer, a sorceress mired in bitter existential ruminations and Geralt’s budding love interest. Ciri, played by Freya Allan, is a teenage princess on the lam desperate to find her potential savior in Geralt. Their character arcs are quite uneven so far, though maybe that’s to be expected in the first season of any show.
Given author Sapkowski’s Polish origins, it’s not surprising that “The Witcher” draws from a fair amount of<a href="https://time.com/5753369/the-witcher-history-folklore/"> European and Eastern European folklore</a>. The creatures that infest The Continent are often directly inspired by centuries of myth and legend. With that in mind, some of the multicultural castings of characters seem a tad bit odd. On one hand, it’s a fantasy series, so who really cares. On the other hand, Netflix is so <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cancel-cultures-failure-james-baldwins-famous-essay-exposes-the-lefts-flawed-logic">desperate to appear “woke”</a> it feels like they are trying to fill some <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test">silly quota</a>.
As for the plot, complexity does not benefit the show at all. The odd timeline in “The Witcher” is more confusing than clever, and creates a somewhat incoherent brand of storytelling. The show simply works best as a <a href="https://geekandsundry.com/procedural-versus-serialized-television/">fantasy procedural</a>. As much as “The Witcher” wants to wow us with unusual narrative schemes, the show is at its best when it sticks to a more episodic monster-of-the-week formula. It&#8217;s far more entertaining and Cavill’s charm shines through when the show doesn’t take itself too seriously or try to compete with shows like “Game of Thrones” or “Westworld.”
Also, showrunner Lauren Hissrich seems to think that gratuitous nudity lends seriousness and sophistication to the show. Instead, it comes across as garish and trite – not to mention that if a man had been at the helm of “The Witcher,” he’d be <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shapiro-no-leftists-critics-of-cancel-culture-dont-hate-democracy">burned at the stake</a> for some idiotic variant of toxic masculinity with all those bared breasts.
Finally, it must be said that the theme song, “Toss A Coin To Your Witcher,” is simply insufferable. Sung by Geralt’s bard and sidekick, Jaskier, it runs through most of the first season and continues on in your head for days like some neurotic tick. The song sounds like some noxious mashup of Panic! At The Disco and Engelbert Humperdinck. <a href="https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a30360114/netflix-the-witcher-song-toss-a-coin-lyrics-bard-jaskier-joey-batey/">Sadly, many consider it epic</a>. Rest assured, it’s going to be played to exhaustion at Renaissance Fairs throughout the land this summer amid clouds of patchouli and rank body odor.
Countless mixed reviews aside, “The Witcher” remains a bona-fide hit for Netflix at the moment. It’s certainly watchable and entertaining on the level of, say, binging frozen pizza and ice cream. You will more than likely enjoy it, but you might feel a bit ill afterward.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/review-the-mandalorian">REVIEW: ‘The Mandalorian’</a>

&#8220;The Witcher&#8221; Netflix Premiere

REVIEW: ‘The Witcher’

Netflix has caused controversy by streaming a &#8220;comedy&#8221; special that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/netflix-christmas-special-that-features-gay-jesus-weed-smoking-mary-sparks-backlash">depicts Jesus</a> as a homosexual and his mother as God&#8217;s pot-smoking mistress. This comes to us from a &#8220;comedy&#8221; group with a history of sacrilegious content of this sort, including, <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/christians-are-dumping-netflix-over-blasphemous-gay-jesus-comedy">reportedly</a>, a skit that portrays Christ as a homicidal sadist.
There is part of me that thinks we should ignore this idiocy and go on with our day. It&#8217;s so utterly stupid and witless — just provocation for provocation&#8217;s sake — that I fear we dignify it by responding with exactly the outrage that the creators of the special were banking on. In the end, what they&#8217;ve produced is the intellectual equivalent of making a fart noise in our faces. Why pay it the respect of getting angry about it?
But ultimately it&#8217;s this — the total lack of any creative value — that makes its existence on Netflix all the more worthy of condemnation. If this was some dumb skit on YouTube, it wouldn&#8217;t warrant our attention. But Netflix, a multi-billion dollar media conglomerate, decided to lend it the support and credibility of its massive platform. What reason is there to stream this tripe, other than as a blatant &#8220;screw you&#8221; to its Christian customers? Netflix has &#8220;The Last Temptation of Christ,&#8221; too, which is equally sacrilegious, but at least it&#8217;s a legitimate film created by one of the best filmmakers in cinema history. This gay Jesus thing, on the other hand, serves no artistic purpose other than to desecrate what Christians hold dear, just for the fun of it.
<iframe title="Netflix Doesn&#039;t Want Your Business | The Matt Walsh Show Ep. 392" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ttdhNKLHtcM?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I won&#8217;t dwell on the obvious point that many have already made. It goes almost without saying that Netflix would never play host to a whimsical comedy special that portrays the Prophet Mohammed as a homosexual. In fact, the skit goes out of its way to avoid including Muslims in the mockery. From The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/netflix-christmas-special-that-features-gay-jesus-weed-smoking-mary-sparks-backlash">report</a>:
<blockquote>At other points in the special, Mary smokes marijuana, Melchior, the oldest member of the Magi, hires a sex worker, and Jesus gets high off “special tea.” Hallucinating himself — he meets with Buddha, Krishna, the Rastafari god Jah and an alien deity for Scientologists, the Post writes.</blockquote>
Buddha, Krishna, even the Rastafarian god and the galactic lord Xenu of Scientology fame. It seems that the deity of one major world religion is missing. These oh-so-bold comedians wouldn&#8217;t dream of heaping the sort of contempt upon Islam that they heap upon Christianity, and they certainly wouldn&#8217;t spit on Islam&#8217;s prophet like they spit on Jesus Christ. For one thing, they would be condemned by everyone as bigots. For another, they&#8217;d be taking their lives into their hands. Not to mention Netflix wouldn&#8217;t have picked it up. The company that has publicly <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-bostson-straight-pride-parade-netflix-cease-desist-heterophobic-20190718-nqyh5tfa65au7ckaurr6lhucgq-story.html">condemned</a> &#8220;hatred&#8221; and &#8220;bullying&#8221; only makes an exception where Christianity is concerned.
And so for that reason, Christians should oblige and cancel their Netflix subscriptions. This isn&#8217;t a boycott. It isn&#8217;t even a statement on our part. Netflix is the one that made the statement. That statement is clear: If you&#8217;re a Christian, we don&#8217;t want your business. What else are we supposed to do but oblige? If you show up to someone&#8217;s house party and they immediately scream in your face and call you a piece of garbage, you probably aren&#8217;t going to stay very long. You aren&#8217;t welcome. And it&#8217;s not your house. Fine. Why would you want to stick around anyway? Well, we aren&#8217;t welcome at Netflix&#8217;s party. That&#8217;s fine, too. We can take our collective millions of dollars in subscription fees and go elsewhere.

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