Author: photog

You Can Take it to the Bank

photog Current Events, Trump ,

If I need another reason to sing the praises of Donald Trump, here it is.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/trump-prepares-executive-order-fine-banks-dropping-conservative-customers-over-political-views

I have been hearing this for the last five years.  Banks and other financial institutions like PayPal and Stripe deny service to conservatives based on nothing but their political or social views.  In fact, this happened to Trump himself when Biden got into office.

And it’s not as if Bank of America would do this to someone and then the debanked individual could go to Chase Manhattan or another bank.  It was coordinated so that these people had no options.  They wouldn’t have a bank and they couldn’t do business.

“The issue arose earlier this year when Trump accused Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan in January of not offering banking to conservatives during the World Economic Forum.   “You’ve done a fantastic job,” Trump told Moynihan during a question-and-answer session, “but I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives, because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank – and that included a place called Bank of America… They don’t take conservative business.”

Moynihan did not respond to Trump’s remarks regarding fair banking for conservatives during the forum. A Bank of America spokesperson denied the bank has closed accounts for political reasons and said they “welcome conservatives.”

“We serve more than 70 million clients, and we welcome conservatives,” the spokesperson told FOX Business. “We are required to follow extensive government rules and regulations that sometimes result in decisions to exit client relationships. We never close accounts for political reasons and don’t have a political litmus test.””

Now some of this attention has to do with crypto-currency.  And Trump is heavily involved in crypto.  But his emphasis on people being de-banked for social and political beliefs means these banks will be forced to justify anyone they debank.  And for the next three years at least, any conservatives de-banked will get an attentive ear from the Trump administration and this should make all the difference in the world.

Of course this isn’t just an American problem.  I read a while ago that Nigel Farage was de-banked in England.  Here’s a guy who might end up the next prime minister of the UK and he’s not even allowed to bank in his own country.

But it just goes to show you that the corporate entities that supposedly adhere to the American Constitution really only believe in power and money (in that order).  When the George Floyd riots and COVID irrupted they bent the knee and served the interests of the Democrats and the Deep State because they knew that was where the power was.

The only way these institutions will ever live up to their responsibilities is if the occupant of the White House forces them to.  And that brings me back to my praise of Trump.  When W was in the White House conservatives were told they had a friend in him.  But the abuse from government agencies and corporations never even slowed down.  RINOs and Democrats don’t give a damn about us.  That we’ve learned.  Trump does.  And for that he has my gratitude.

Boola Boola

photog Current Events, Humor, Trump , , ,

Primativa Babullah – Welcome to the PBS NewsHour and I’m your host Primativa Babullah and tonight I will be interviewing President Donald Trump and will find out what new atrocities he plans to inflict on the people of this country and the rest of the world.  Good evening Mr. President.

Donald Trump – That was a very nasty introduction.  What foreign country are you from where they’re that rude?

Primativa Babullah – I’m from Westchester.

Donald Trump – Well, that explains it.  They have no class up there.

Primativa Babullah – Mr. President, the whole world is waiting to hear what new outrage you have waiting for us.  Yesterday you fired the head of the BLS.  The day before that you raised tariffs on India.  What’s next.

Donald Trump – I’m glad you asked Boola Boola.  I’ve had my DOGE crew looking into ways to get all those lazy useless bureaucrats to quit and save the tax payers a lot of dough.  And they came up with something really good.  What they discovered is that most of these people have become very fat from eating free government doughnuts.  Especially the ones with the chocolate coating and the sprinkles.  So today I signed an executive order banning the sale, manufacture and ingestion of sprinkles withing the District of Columbia.  That’s another name for Washington Boola Boola.

Primativa Babullah – My name is not Boola Boola, Mr. President.  It’s Primativa Babullah.

Donald Trump – Yeah okay whatever.

Primativa Babullah – But how will banning sprinkles from Washington help you to reduce the budget?

Donald Trump – I will let it be known that sprinkles will be available at one new government office site going forward.

Primativa Babullah – And that place will be?

Donald Trump – A new facility down in Florida.  Here it is on the map.

Primativa Babullah – But sir, that’s Alligator Alcatraz!

Donald Trump – No, no.  That’s across the lagoon.  This is called Crocodile Castle.  It’s a much classier place.

Primativa Babullah – You want government workers to work in a prison.

Donald Trump – It’s not a prison.  It’s a cutting-edge office environment that utilizes various incentives and feedback mechanisms to get the maximum value out of the employees.  For instance, there is an exercise facility that also helps correct a slight flaw in the construction design.  The stationary bicycles that the employees operate while working are attached to the pumps that keep the water level below the containment wall that keeps out the local fauna; let’s see Burmese pythons, American crocodiles, Nile monitor lizards.

Primativa Babullah – Why that’s horrible!  These people have to pedal for their lives?

Donald Trump – Well, technically we can’t force them to keep pedaling.  But it’s probably a really good idea if they do.  And they can take turns.  They don’t have to pedal more than eighteen hours a day, on average.

Primativa Babullah – But this is obviously illegal.  It’s a form of slavery.

Donald Trump – No, actually it’s just the terms of their employment.  They can always quit.

Primativa Babullah – But why go through all of these elaborate machinations just to save some government salaries?  Surely there’s an easier way.

Donald Trump – Because it makes great television.  I’m going to put this on one of the cable networks and call it, “So You Wanted to be a Lazy Slug!”  We’ll rig it so every Friday a python will get in and chase the fattest worker around the bathroom or something.  It’ll be an instant hit.  We’ll make a fortune.

Primativa Babullah – Mr. Trump, you truly are a monster.

Donald Trump – Hey I don’t try to sell people crappy over-priced tote bags so don’t get all holier than thou with me Boola Boola.

Primativa Babullah – Dammit, it’s not Boola Boola, it’s just plain Boola.  I mean Babullah.

Donald Trump – Hey calm down lady.  You asked me for this interview.

Primativa Babullah – Well, I’m sorry I did.

Donald Trump – Alright boys let’s roll.  Find the closest McDonalds.  I’m hungry (leaves the set).

Primativa Babullah – Well folks, sorry for that fiasco.  As you heard, the President has become unhinged.  But thanks to PBS this is the kind of hard-hitting journalism you come to expect from us.  Make sure to stick around for our begathon, I mean telethon coming right up.  Stay tuned and enjoy an anti-depressed viewing hour.

Donald the Great Cuts the Gordian Knot

photog Current Events, Trump ,

President Donald Trump fired Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) hours after the agency released a jobs report that included substantial downward revisions for May and June, slashing a combined 258,000 jobs from prior estimates (May revised to 19,000 from 125,000, and June to 14,000 from 147,000).  Trump said McEntarfer, a Biden appointee manipulated the data to make him look bad.  He said on Truth Social that she would be replaced with someone “much more competent and qualified.”

It must be so much fun being Trump.  I think of how much fun it would be to fire the people who tick me off.  I’d fire the mailman when my mail was misdirected.  I’d fire the guy at the IRS who audited me.  I’d fire that cop who gave me the speeding ticket.  I’d fire the guy at the DMV who made me stand in the wrong line for a half hour.  I’d even fire that annoying woman who keeps sending me all that spam from my local politicians.  All these people would be fired and then I would crow about it and make them feel bad.  It would be so much fun.

But seriously, Trump is the guy who cuts through the nonsense and attacks problems as straightforwardly as can be imagined.  Base on the size of the revisions which are the largest such changes in sixty years he knows he’s being sabotaged by partisan operatives and he responds directly and effectively.  Something tells me the BLS is about to get a complete make-over that includes removing all the apparatchiks that were placed there by Obama and Biden and replacing them with a software program that gathers this data from the endless list of government statistics that already exist.  My guess is that it will streamline and optimize the process and it will also do it with a fraction of the number of employees and in a small percentage of the time currently taken to do it by abacus and cuneiform tablets.  I also imagine that there will be some BLS employees who will be willing to confess where the bodies are buried and whistle blow on McEntarfer and her cronies as to how they were cooking the books.

So, as we move past the six-month mark of the Trump administration the important thing to remember is that the fun is never really over.  At any time, Trump can descend from Mount Olympus and hurl a thunderbolt at some blasphemer among the denizens of Tartarus who still refuse to abase themselves at his feet.  Whether it’s the head of BLS or a climate scientist at the EPA or a college president or some state official in a “sanctuary community,” any of them are fair game for the “wrath of Don.”  And for me, the best part about it is the relish he seems to feel when he lowers the boom on these unfortunate targets.  They not only get fired or fined or audited he also mocks them mercilessly with deadly precision; replaced with someone “much more competent and qualified.”  I love that.

04AUG2025 – Quote of the Day

photog Quote of the Day ,

Ulalume

…

And we passed to the end of the vista,

But were stopped by the door of a tomb—

By the door of a legended tomb;

And I said: “What is written, sweet sister,

On the door of this legended tomb?”

She replied: “Ulalume -Ulalume—

‘Tis the vault of thy lost Ulalume!”

 

Then my heart it grew ashen and sober

As the leaves that were crisped and sere—

As the leaves that were withering and sere;

And I cried: “It was surely October

On this very night of last year

That I journeyed—I journeyed down here!—

That I brought a dread burden down here—

On this night of all nights in the year,

Ah, what demon hath tempted me here?

Well I know, now, this dim lake of Auber—

This misty mid region of Weir—

Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber,

This ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.”

Edgar Allan Poe

Long, Long Ago in a Studio Far, Far Away

photog Current Events, Movie Reviews, Reviews, Science Fiction / Fantasy, SF&F Movie Reviews , , , , , , , ,

As the tent-pole summer movies of July fade into August obscurity and dinosaurs, Superman and lesser Marvel superheroes get rated and dissected by the movie critics I think it has been established beyond a shadow of a doubt that the failure of Hollywood to replicate the billion-dollar paydays from earlier versions of Star Wars and the Avengers franchises can now be definitively explained.  They forgot that a superhero movie (or even just a plain hero movie) requires a hero.  And the requirements of a hero (whether in book or on a screen) include that we like the hero.

And that seems to be where Hollywood has gone off the rails.  They’ve managed to make a bunch of movies where the heroes are unlikeable.  For the most part these unlikeable heroes have tended to be of the type currently known as the “girl-boss.”  The prime example of this category is Rey, played by Daisy Ridley in the Star Wars movies.  The type includes the following traits:

  • Although small and thin she is completely capable of defeating men many times her size.
  • She hectors male characters about their obvious shortcomings compared to her.
  • Completely humorless.
  • Has no flaws.
  • Has no setbacks.

Now, this sort of character fits perfectly into the social messaging of all modern Hollywood films.  It allows older franchises with male protagonists to be replaced with the girl-boss.  Examples include Rey in Star Wars replacing Luke Skywalker, Helena Shaw replacing Indiana Jones and Captain Marvel basically replacing all the Avengers.

The problem with these replacements is that the producers think that just saying that their new characters are just as good as the originals (if not better) is enough.  For some reason they didn’t think it would be necessary to hire good writers and directors to make the movies exciting and entertaining.  But as it turns out they are extremely important if you don’t want your movies to be unwatchable crap.  And that is the thing that all these movies share.  They’re awful.  And unfortunately for Disney they’ve been making these “better” movies and television series in the Star Wars and Marvel series for about ten years and they’ve completely dissipated the enthusiasm and good will of their legacy audiences that paid billions of dollars to see the older movies that actually were well written, exciting and entertaining.

Over the last six months it has finally dawned on Disney (and the other studios) that they’ve killed the goose that lays the golden eggs.  They’ve alienated about 70% of their audience and destroyed a machine that printed cash.  From what I’ve read, the most recent Marvel movie “Fantastic Four” went to lengths to not go down the girl-boss lane and even had a decent script that could be enjoyed as an adventure movie.  The problem is that most of their old audience didn’t bother to give it a try and so the movie while not a complete bomb is struggling to become profitable.

Regardless of whether “Fantastic Four” makes money I think we may be at a turning point in the fantasy-adventure genre.  It has finally dawned on the studios that social messaging for the woke agenda is box office poison that has a tiny audience.  As the recent purchase of Paramount by Skydance Media demonstrates, entertainment that doesn’t make money ends up on the auction block and then the chopping block where the unentertaining and unprofitable components get sliced off and thrown in the garbage.  And similar things are happening all over the media and entertainment world.  CNN, MSNBC and CBS are all finding out that woke ideology doesn’t equal profitability and if they can’t adapt to a world that isn’t amused by it, they’ll be out of work.  I guess I’m an eternal optimist but maybe, just maybe, in a year or two decent fantasy adventure may be produced in Hollywood again.  At least it could happen!