Thank God It’s FRIDAY!
June is “Pride Month,” which means politicians, Big Tech, and woke corporations have been busy virtue-signaling their support for the LGBTQ community everywhere you look. Those who live in Western countries can’t miss the rainbows and gay pride flags https://t.co/MIDmWZIWKo
— American Greatness (@theamgreatness) June 4, 2021
Our Woke Masters Are All About Pride—Except Where It’s Not Accepted
Via American Greatness
Turns out, America’s biggest brands are not so stunning and brave in certain countries abroad. Why might that be?
une is “Pride Month,” which means politicians, Big Tech, and woke corporations have been busy virtue-signaling their support for the LGBTQ community everywhere you look. Those who live in Western countries can’t miss the rainbows and gay pride flags companies have plastered all over their advertising and social media.
In the Middle East and China, however, it’s a different story. In those places, the pride of the oligarchs has faltered.
Critics on social media have been quick to point out the hypocrisy of our woke overlords, accusing them of failing to practice what they preach about gay rights.
In a bold move, the woke NFL, for instance, let their Twitter followers in the West know that they are down with the “LGBTQ+ community” by sharing its newly designed shield logo.
“Happy Pride Month! The NFL is proud to unveil our new NFL Pride shield to show our support and solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community,” NFL in a tweet featuring its new rainbow logo, along with new rainbow logos for all 32 NFL teams. “We stand with LGBTQ+ people this month and yearlong with a commitment to our players, our fans and our staff to live proudly and authentically.”
Happy Pride Month! The NFL is proud to unveil our new NFL Pride shield to show our support and solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community.
We stand with LGBTQ+ people this month and yearlong with a commitment to our players, our fans and our staff to live proudly and authentically. pic.twitter.com/oLaMQaXcpZ
— NFL (@NFL) June 1, 2021
Oddly enough, the NFL’s commitment to gay pride did not extend to the LGBTQ+ community in China, where gay rights are definitely frowned upon. There is no hint of the NFL’s support and solidarity with the “LGBTQ+ community” on its China Twitter page. And the NFL shield logo looks the same as always.
Disney is one of the wokest of the woke corporations, pandering to the gay community all year long. The family-oriented mass media and entertainment conglomerate goes into overdrive during Pride Month, hosting pride parades, selling Pride Month merchandise online, and offering a special Pride Month menu at its parks. Disney also, of course, altered its Twitter cover photo to a show its signature characters—Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Donald and Daisy Duck—marching in front of a gay pride flag.
“There’s room for everyone under the rainbow. Rainbow Happy #PrideMonth!” Disney Tweeted pridefully.
There’s room for everyone under the rainbow.
Happy #PrideMonth! pic.twitter.com/JvKE5WFbFu
— Disney (@Disney) June 1, 2021
It turns out, however, there’s not “room for everyone under the rainbow” in certain places.
In what some might call a homophobic display of intolerance, Disney removed a kiss between two female characters from Singapore screenings of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” Disney was more than happy to cut the scene out to conform to Singapore’s PG-13 rating guidelines. MORE.
Biden Promises To Fly Gay Pride Flags ‘Around The World,’ Except Where Homosexuals Are Being Persecutedhttps://t.co/expmp0oP3c
— The Federalist (@FDRLST) June 3, 2021
Biden Promises To Fly Gay Pride Flags ‘Around The World,’ Except Where Homosexuals Are Being Persecuted
Via The Federalist
Three days into Pride Month, the month commemorating the 1969 Stonewall riots and celebrating gay pride, rainbow flags line the streets of America, waving from restaurants and bars, grocery stores, malls, and, now, thanks to the Biden administration, many U.S. embassies around the world.
Unsurprisingly, rainbow flags only fly in countries where lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people already have rights — and unsurprisingly, the Biden administration has nothing to say about it.
A statement released by the U.S. Embassy in Nassau on Tuesday said the Bahamas embraced the Biden administration’s “worldwide effort” to “highlight the contributions of LGBTQI+ persons around the world,” and that each U.S. embassy was invited to “fly the Pride Flag or light up their embassies with rainbow colors this month.”
The U.S. Department of State’s official message of pride month is: “You are included.” Many nations, however, have decided to forego Biden’s call to wave the flag high.
Seventy-one foreign nations criminalize private same-sex sexual activity, and 70 of those countries have a U.S. embassy or consulate. Saudi Arabia actively executes people accused of same-sex sexual activity, while killings of sexual minorities take place in at least 11 countries. Five countries implement the death penalty for same-sex activity, and the death penalty is a possible punishment in six more.
Despite the Biden administration’s efforts, none of those nations appear too prideful this month — at least on their flag posts.
Several U.S. Embassies in the Middle East, including in Jeddah, Riyadh, Dhahran, Logos, and Islamabad did not respond to The Federalist’s request to know if each respective embassy will hang a pride flag this month.
In May, Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued authorization for U.S. diplomatic outposts to raise the pride flag, according to a cable obtained by Foreign Policy. Blinken’s cable also noted that a pride flag outside some embassies — such as the ones in countries that criminalize same-sex activity — could do more harm than good.
“Posts should support efforts to repeal [criminalization] legislation, while ensuring that ‘do no harm’ remains our overarching principle so U.S. efforts do not inadvertently result in backlash or further marginalization of the LGBTQI+ community,” the cable read.
Contrary to Bliken’s message, the White House released a statement on June 1 announcing that the Biden-Harris administration would “ensure pride flags fly on U.S. Embassies around the world,” demonstrating that “the United States will lead on LGBTSI+ human rights around the world.”
The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See announced its decision to wave a pride flag right outside the Vatican, and numerous U.S. embassies in Western Europe are now flaunting the rainbow flag. Though Biden will wave the flag in the Vatican’s face or hoist it in Germany and Brazil (where the Trump administration previously denied requests from both embassies to fly pride flags), that’s not the case in nations where persecuted LGBT people could stand to benefit.
According to the statement, “The Biden-Harris Administration is a consistent and reliable partner in the fight for equality at home and abroad.” But actions speak louder than words.
The only places the Biden administration is comfortable raising the pride flag are where LGBT folks are most protected, but confining pride to areas where it’s already accepted is just another example of hypocritic virtue-signaling from the Democrat executive. MORE.
California launches first-in-nation taskforce to study reparations for Black Americans https://t.co/UIl16ZI7u8
— Guardian news (@guardiannews) June 2, 2021
California launches first-in-nation taskforce to study reparations for Black Americans
Via The Guardian
A first-in-the-country taskforce to study and recommend reparations for African Americans held its inaugural meeting in California on Tuesday, launching a two-year process to address the harms of slavery and systemic racism.
The meeting of the first state reparations committee in the US coincided with a visit by Joe Biden to Oklahoma, during which the president marked the centenary of the Tulsa race massacre and commemorated the hundreds of Black Americans who were killed by a white mob in a flourishing district known as the “Black Wall Street”. It also comes just over a year after the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minnesota.
A federal slavery reparations bill passed out of the House judiciary committee in April, but it faces an uphill battle to becoming law. The bill was first introduced in Congress in 1989 and refers to the failed government effort to provide 40 acres (16 hectares) of land to newly freed slaves as the civil war wound down.
California’s secretary of state, Shirley Weber, who as a state assemblywoman authored the state legislation creating the taskforce, noted the solemnity of the occasion as well as the opportunity to right a historic wrong that continues today, in the form of large racial disparities in wealth, health and education. African Americans make up just 6% of California’s population yet were 30% of an estimated 250,000 people experiencing homelessness who sought help in 2020.
“Your task is to determine the depth of the harm, and the ways in which we are to repair that harm,” said Weber, whose sharecropper parents were forced to leave the south. MORE.
Do Global Elites Use These 3 Giant Financial Companies To Control 88% Of S&P 500-Listed Firms? https://t.co/pcsu1eXqDV
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 3, 2021
Do Global Elites Use These 3 Giant Financial Companies To Control 88% Of S&P 500-Listed Firms?
Via Zero Hedge
There is no question that large corporations absolutely dominate our society today. They control what we eat, they control what we watch on television, they own most of the stores that we shop at, they provide the energy that our nation depends upon, and they make almost all of the products that we use. Tens of millions of Americans make a living by serving these colossal firms, and at this point some of the biggest corporations are larger than many small countries. But of course the corporations aren’t the top of the food chain. They have owners, and there are 3 giant financial companies that the global elite use to control 88 percent of the corporations that are currently listed on the S&P 500.
The three financial companies that I am talking about are BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street.
According to CNN, those companies have a combined 15 trillion dollars in combined assets under management…
BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street manage a stunning $15 trillion in combined assets, equivalent to more than three-quarters the size of the US economy.
But that is actually an old number.
I wanted to come up with a newer number, and so I started digging.
According to Wikipedia, BlackRock had $8.67 trillion in assets under management as of January 2021…
BlackRock, Inc. is an American multinational investment management corporation based in New York City. Founded in 1988, initially as a risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager, with $8.67 trillion in assets under management as of January 2021.[citation needed][6] BlackRock operates globally with 70 offices in 30 countries and clients in 100 countries.[7]
Vanguard is nearly as big. According to Wikipedia, Vanguard had $6.2 trillion in assets under management as of January 2021…
The Vanguard Group, Inc. is an American registered investment advisor based in Malvern, Pennsylvania with about $6.2 trillion in global assets under management, as of January 31, 2020.[5] It is the largest provider of mutual funds and the second-largest provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the world after BlackRock’s iShares.[6] In addition to mutual funds and ETFs, Vanguard offers brokerage services, variable and fixed annuities, educational account services, financial planning, asset management, and trust services. Several mutual funds managed by Vanguard are ranked at the top of the list of US mutual funds by assets under management.[7]
While not as large as the other two, State Street had $3.1 trillion in assets under management as of the first month of this year.
So adding those numbers up, the “big three” had almost 18 trillion dollars in assets under management in January 2021, and that number is almost certainly quite a bit higher by now.
That is a giant pile of money that is almost impossible to imagine.
Sometimes people forget just how much money a trillion dollars is. If you were alive when Jesus was born and you spent a million dollars every single day since then, you still would not have spent a trillion dollars yet.
Collectively, the “big three” represent the largest ownership blocks in 88 percent of the companies that are currently listed on the S&P 500…
Combined, BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard are the largest owner in 88% of the S&P 500 companies, according to a paper published Tuesday by the American Economic Liberties Project, a group that launched in February taking aim at what it sees as excessive corporate power. For instance, the Big Three hold leading stakes in companies including Apple (AAPL), JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Pfizer (PFE).
Being the largest owner of a publicly traded company doesn’t mean that you can do whatever you want, but it does give you enormous power. MORE.
Democratic lawmaker calls for 'gender equality' in crash test dummies https://t.co/YGVamKh26U
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) June 2, 2021
Democratic lawmaker calls for ‘gender equality in crash test dummies
Via The Blaze
Democratic Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.) introduced legislation Tuesday that requires automobile companies to test car safety using crash test dummies modeled on both male and female bodies.
In addition to enhancing the safety of female drivers, the non-voting delegate representing the nation’s capital argued the move was necessary to advance “gender equality.”
What did she say?
In a statement regarding the bill, Norton, who chairs the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, argued, “Women have achieved equality on the road when it comes to driving, but when it comes to safety testing to keep them safe on the road, they are nowhere near achieving equality.”
“Crash test standards are incredibly antiquated, and we must update these standards now, especially as more people return to their daily commute in the next few months,” she added.
In a news release release, Norton’s office lamented the fact that the federal government only uses male crash test dummies and that private car companies are often not required by law to test safety using female models.
In addition to height and weight differences, the news release noted that “there are also other biological differences in anatomy, such as average neck strength and posture, that affect how female and male bodies react in a crash.”
“Since cars are not required to be tested with the safety of women in mind, women are at higher risk of injury and death in car crashes,” the release concluded.
Notably, the progressive lawmaker acknowledged both the gender binary and the consequent biological differences in her appeal for an update to federal regulations, two things many Democratic lawmakers are resistant to affirm as it relates to other policy issues. MORE.
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