Blog 11/09/2022 - Cancel Culture China
Top 10 of the Cancel Culture!
10) Honorable (Un)Mentions – Oops Cancels:
Crime on the Vegas Strip: Eight people were stabbed, killing two, outside of the Wynn Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The Media initially focused on the fact that there were four showgirls attacked on the sidewalk. Then the alleged attacker, Yoni Barrios, 32, was reported to be a Guatemalan National in the U.S. illegally. An unnamed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) source said that Barrios who had arrived from California had a criminal record there. In another “blackeye” for Los Angeles as a sanctuary city, Barrios was charged with criminal domestic violence in 2019 but incompetence by LA DA Gascón’s prosecutors failed to bring the case to court on time so it was dismissed. Had Gascón done his job, Barrios would likely have been imprisoned and deported and would not have been free to commit the senseless slaughter in Las Vegas. Five days later, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into California law a requirement to seal all dismissed cases that would have protected Barrios if he returns to California.
Abortion Outrage: The Media ran with the story of a raped 10-year-old having to leave Ohio to get an abortion. It seemed an abortion story to be perfect for Democrat politicians. Even the liberal Washington Post heavily insinuated that the story was made up by anti-abortion activists in a ‘fact-checking’ column headlined “A one-source story about a 10-year-old and an abortion goes viral.” The Post’s Glenn Kessler wrote he took issue with the fact that the Indianapolis Star only cited one source for the story. The horrible story proved true, when a 27-year-old man was arrested for the crime and President Joe Biden immediately cited it at the White House as he slammed the Supreme Court & Republicans for sending abortion laws back to the states. The President's “ah-ha” moment was spoiled when the rapist Gershon Fuentes, was identified by ICE as an illegal alien from Guatemala who wouldn't have been in the U.S. to commit the crime without Biden's open border policy.
Luke “Most People Are Good” Bryan: Woke Liberals have vowed to 'cancel' country singer Luke Bryan, an American Idol TV Show Judge, after he brought out Florida Governor Ron DeSantis during a concert in Jacksonville, FL on 28 October for an event held to raise money for Hurricane Ian relief efforts to help the millions of victims of the hurricane. The surprise appearance saw the Republican governor showered with deafening cheers as he took the stage, a sentiment not shared by some woke haters online. “Luke Bryan just got crossed off the playlist,” said one wokester, “So Luke Bryan admits he hates women, LGBTQ people and immigrants,” another added. All the singer did was say that he and Governor DeSantis were working to fundraise on behalf of Florida, after Ian made landfall in Southwest Florida and left several parts of the state utterly unrecognizable. “The state of Florida had to deal with the major hurricane last month, and it's not easy to deal with. It's hurt a lot of people,” DeSantis said from the stage. He also thanked Bryan for his generosity in helping with recovery efforts, noting how he had already contributed money to his Florida Disaster Fund, to which the country star said that he planned to donate all proceeds from that show and a rescheduled show in Estero, FL, to the fund. So far, roughly a month and a week after Ian made landfall, DeSantis and his Florida Disaster Fund have successfully raised more than $50 million for rebuilding efforts. “Thanks for letting me crash the party last night, Luke Bryan!” DeSantis wrote on social media. Those who could care less about Floridians in distress indicated that a potential boycott could be on the horizon for Bryan who never previously disclosed whether he supports DeSantis' policies. It proved Luke’s song was right but some woke people aren’t.
9) The Empire Strikes Back - Gina Carano: The actress was fired from her leading role on Disney and Lucasfilm’s “The Mandalorian” after posting on Instagram that being a Republican in Hollywood during the current political climate was similar to being Jewish in Nazi Germany. The cancel culture was swift to verify it as her Hollywood agent dropped her and Hasbro scrapped her “Star Wars” action figures. Lucasfilm cut ties with the actress, writing in a statement, “Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future.” Carano’s fans pointed out her outspokenly leftist costar Pedro Pascal had shared a meme comparing the Trump administration’s immigration policies to Nazi concentration camps & compared all Trump voters to Nazis & Confederates. However, Disney found nothing wrong with that and allowed him to keep his job. Just a month ago Hillary Clinton, still bitter over her 2016 loss, compared former President Donald Trump's rally in Ohio to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's speeches and the attendees to Nazis. Her proof was those Americans she considers “deplorables” in the crowd extending their arms and index fingers in a #1 for “America First.” Hillary probably didn’t know that a Democrat Woodrow Wilson created “America First” in 1916, he was a Democrat that was actually elected president.
8) Magic to make her Disappear - J.K. Rowling: The famous author of the “Harry Potter” series has faced backlash for voicing her fears that the push for transgender rights will ultimately endanger women’s rights (see the NCAA Swimming controversy.) She’s since defended her comments on her website and joined 150 authors and academics denouncing “cancel culture.” These actions have only infuriated her transgender critics, who called for a boycott of her books and for her publisher to stop paying her royalties. In very strange extremist bedfellows, both transgenders are calling for “Harry Potter” book burning as has a Tennessee Pastor because of “demonic and witchcraft influences.” Press coverage noted one as being like Nazi Germany, the other a new TikTok trend. She didn’t appear on the HBOMax “Harry Potter” 20th Anniversary but “Potter” movie actor Ralph Fiennes defended her that she’s “not some obscene über-right-wing fascist.”
7) Use My Promo Code Cancel - Mike Lindell: The CEO of My Pillow said his company was dropped by nearly 20 retailers after he publicly questioned the electoral results of the 2020 presidential election and made his election fraud claims into a movie. Lindell is an unwavering supporter of former President Donald Trump. In November 2020, Lindell was among those who paid for the bail of the “Kenosha shooter,” 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse who shot three men, two fatally while protecting a service station from looting. One of the few alleged criminals given a high bail, the jury trial found him not guilty of homicide in shooting the two “peaceful” rioters. On September 13, 2022, the FBI served a search and seizure warrant for Lindell's phone with agents surrounded his car at a fast-food drive-thru in Minnesota. Not sure if he got his Hardee’s order.
6) The Final Rose - Chris Harrison: The longtime host of ABC’s “The Bachelor” franchise decided to “step aside” after defending a contestant when three-year old photos surfaced of (contestant) Rachael Kirkconnell attending a sorority “Old South Antebellum Party.” “While I do not speak for (her), my intentions were simply to ask for grace in offering her an opportunity to speak on her own behalf,” Harrison explained. Rachael who is white, infuriated the “woke police” who accused her of being a racist despite dating Bachelor Matt James, the first Black Bachelor who had the audacity to give her his final rose! Former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay (previously the only Black lead,) suggested Disney’s decision to cast James was a “knee-jerk reaction” due to racial pressure from what happened with George Floyd. Harrison has to live with being canceled and his 8-figure (10,000,000+) separation payment by Disney.
5) Comedy is Dead - Dave Chappelle: Chappelle’s most recent comedy special, “The Closer” on Netflix had some jokes about transgender people. Two now former Netflix trans employees complained about the special viewed by millions. The comic said canceling often turns into bullying, “It’s been said in the press that I was invited to speak with transgender employees at Netflix and I refused,” Chappelle said, “That is not true. If they had invited me, I would’ve accepted, although I am confused about what we’re speaking about. I said what I said and boy, I heard what you said,” he continued, addressing the trans employees at Netflix. After the company continued to defend “The Closer,” Chappelle was attacked by a man with a replica hand-gun on stage at the Hollywood Bowl. Comedian Marlon Wayans has come out against cancelling wondering why, “that society is in this place where we can’t laugh anymore.”
4) I Rode a Horse on a Carousel - Customs & Border Patrol: On 24 Sept, 2021, President Biden supporting his Open Border Policy said a photo of mounted U.S. Customs & Border Patrol (CBP) agents showed strapping of Illegal Immigrants and that they would pay. Later the same day, Vice President Harris, the Border Czar (who has never been to the border…unless we count the North-South Korea DMZ) while smiling maniacally & laughing about the event related it to historical Strapping/Whipping of Indians & Blacks. Paul Ratje, the photographer who snapped the pictures in question, said there was no whipping in an e-mail just hours after the President & VP said the agents on horseback would pay. Several hours later, Alejandro Mayorkas, the purported Head of the Department of Homeland Security, received an e-mail from his own press office that the Biden and Harris claims were false but instead of clearing his own CBP agents, he went ahead and further slandered them claiming it was true in front of a press conference. So, his CBP agents were falsely accused and persecuted for over a year. A normal leader with an ounce of character would resign after being caught in such an egregious lie. It raises the question was he responding on the orders of another deceitful leader. Mayorkas is now both the highest level and shortest statured “hate crime” hoaxer! Thankfully only 95% of the fentanyl flowing into our country comes across the “closed” southern border.
3) I Did That - OPEC+: The oil ministers from around the world didn’t honor President Biden’s request to not lower production until after the U.S. mid-term elections. They voted to lower production even after Biden had personally gone begging to the Saudi Arabia Royal Family which was incongruous after having called Saudi Arabia a 'pariah nation' during his 2020 election campaign. On 4 October, White House (WH) Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated that the Biden Administration would halt draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) before the mid-term elections to artificially bring down gas costs. Biden has ordered 180,000,000 barrels drained out of the SPR putting it at a 40-year low to try to bring down gas cost inflation also at a 40-year level but this one at the high end. After OPEC’s announcement, Jean-Pierre had to admit she had misspoken the day before & that more SPR oil would be siphoned off. The President warned OPEC+ that “there will be consequences” for them not helping him starve off his disastrous energy policy failures.
2) No Fear Factor - Joe Rogan: Rogan’s celebrity status came from decades as a comic, sitcom actor, TV Show (“Fear Factor”) host and mixed-martial arts fight commentator for the U.F.C. “You can never be woke enough — that’s the problem,” Mr. Rogan complained on his hugely popular podcast riffing on the perils of cancel culture suggesting that “it’ll eventually get to ‘straight white men are not allowed to talk.’” He was cast under the woke bus by Biden WH officials who admonished the comedian after he advised his younger listeners against getting the coronavirus vaccine. Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, condemned Rogan’s recommendation as self-serving and counter to the goal of stopping Covid-19’s spread. Rogan made the comments on “The Joe Rogan Experience” on Spotify, the audio streaming service. Two old ‘60s Canadian musicians (Neil Young & Joni Mitchell) quit the service in protest but just cancelled themselves without forcing the very profitable Rogan from the airwaves.
1) The Masters of Cancel Culture – China: They were powerful enough to rename the Chinese Coronavirus to COVID-19 so that everyone would forget that they allowed the spread of a virus that has killed 6.6 million worldwide.
The Chinese gave us a taste in 2002, an outbreak of the SARS coronavirus that originated in China spread around the world, killing 774 people and infecting more than 8,000. At first, China tried to conceal the problem. When that became impossible, it played down the severity, falsely claiming the epidemic was under control. Meanwhile, in two separate incidents in 2004, SARS accidentally leaked from a top laboratory in Beijing and led to mini outbreaks.
Despite the infamous Wuhan Wet Market origination story, the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), staff in November 2019 wrote a memo about rushing to the front line to defend against viral dangers. Fallout arrived from Beijing seven days later in the form of an Dr. Ji Changzheng, CAS Director of Technology Safety and Security. His visit chronicled in a two-page summary uploaded on 21 November to the WIV website appears to have been “out of the ordinary and event driven.” Ji told the assembled group that he had come bearing “important oral remarks and written instructions” from Communist China’s General Secretary, Xi Jinping and Premier, Li Keqiang, to address a “complex and grave situation.” When China’s senior leaders receive written reports on a worrying or important issue, they will write instructions in the margins, known as “pishi,” to swiftly be executed by lower-level officials. Ji arrived that day with pishi that appeared to have come directly from Xi Jinping, China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. It suggested that Xi himself had been briefed on an ongoing crisis at the WIV. Despite the World Health Organization’s (WHO) immediate denial of any viral leaks from the WIV and Dr Fauci’s early support of the Wet Market story labeling a lab leak a conspiracy theory despite knowing what virus strains the WIV was working on. The Chinese has made the WIV a black box refusing to cooperate with international probe requests. U.S. Senate researcher’s assessment that a lab accident was “most likely” responsible for the pandemic forced the WHO on 22 June 2022 to recommended more investigation into the theory that Covid-19 leaked from the WIV. This is a reversal after WHO scientists working alongside Chinese health officials to published a study in February 2021 saying the lab-leak theory was “extremely unlikely.” “The lack of transparency from government and public health officials in the [People’s Republic of China] with respect to the origins of SARS-CoV-2 (the Chinese Coronavirus) prevents reaching a more definitive conclusion.” the Senate report states.
[Update on 2/27/23: The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) first reported on the new assessment from the Department of Energy that the coronavirus was released by the WIV. A senior US intelligence official told the WSJ that the lab release update to the intelligence assessment was conducted in light of new intelligence, further study of academic literature and in consultation with experts outside government (some within China.) National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said President Biden had directed the national laboratories, which are part of the Department of Energy, to be brought into the assessment. In May 2020, researchers at the government-backed Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory issued a classified report that found it was possible that the coronavirus escaped from a lab in Wuhan, which came at a time when that line of inquiry would get you blocked on social media as Elon Musk unmasked after his purchase of Twitter. The US began exploring the possibility that the coronavirus spread in a laboratory as early as April 2020, though the intelligence community has noted repeatedly that a lack of cooperation from Beijing has made it difficult to get to the bottom of the question. Hmm, as one comedian noted maybe it was Chinese Fentanyl injested by a Panda Bear and spread through the wet market...China should produce the sequel to “Cocaine Bear” with “Fentanyl Panda!”]
MHT restarted China Marines Tour after the 2002-4 China SARs pandemic. These tours brought back the relatives of the original pre-WWII Marines that served in Tientsin (Tianjin), Shanghai, Peiping (Beijing) and Chinwangtao (Qinhaungdao) including those trapped in China when war broke out in 1941. It included the more recent China Marines (1st & 6th Marine Divisions (MarDiv)) that went to China from Okinawa after the war ended in 1945.
Operation Beleaguer was a major military operation led by MajGen Keller E. Rockey, USMC. He commanded 50,000 men of the III Marine Amphibious Corps (IIIAC) that deployed to northeastern China's Hopeh and Shantung Provinces between 1945 and 1949. The operation’s main objectives were the repatriation of more than 600,000 troops of the Imperial Japanese Armies and their support Koreans, who remained in China after the end of WWII, and the protection of American lives and property. During the course of nearly four years, U.S. forces engaged in several small battles with the Communists, and when the successful in repatriating and evacuating thousands of foreign nationals. The U.S. government also attempted to mediate a peace treaty with the opposing Nationalist and Communist forces, but the effort was unsuccessful.
Marine Infantrymen & Author E.B. Sledge who saw heavy combat with the 1st MarDiv in the Pacific was diverted to China after the fighting on Okinawa. He wrote in his book "China Marine": The First MarDiv's three infantry regiments, the First Marines, the Fifth Marines, and the Seventh Marines, were stationed in Tientsin, Peiping, and Chinwangtao respectively. If the Communist Armies defeated the Nationalist, the Communists could attempt to seize the important cities, combat-weary Marines would be under fire again.
The First Marine in Tientsin and the Fifth in Peiping lived in considerable comfort, billeted in steam-heated buildings. It was a comfort broken only by occasional patrols and railroad-escort details through a countryside roamed by bandits, warlord’s troops, guerrillas, or bona fide Communist units. The men of the Seventh Marines weren't so lucky in Chinwangtao, down where the Great Wall of China meets the sea. The Marines bivouac in pup tents in the snow, particularly miserable to the Marines, many of whom had lived in the steaming tropical heat of the South and Central Pacific islands for as much as three years. Furthermore, the "unfriendly troops" in the Seventh's area were more aggressive than they were around Peiping or Tientsin."
After the disarming and shipping of the Japanese was completed, the Marines were tasked with releasing Nationalist troops from guarding railways and assuming responsibility for guarding all rail bridges over 100 meters long between Tangku (the port for Tientsin) and Chinwangtao, a distance of approximately 135 miles. Coal shipments guarded by the 1st MarDiv were vital to the Chinese people. LtGen Albert Wedemeyer, USA, Commander of all U.S. forces in China ordered that it was "a military necessity that at least 100,000 tons of coal reach Shanghai every month," and his orders to IIIAC were to ensure that this coal reached its destination. Without it, the public utilities and factories needed to keep the economy of China alive would cease to operate, and the lack of coal would mean starvation for thousands of people. Perhaps the average Marine standing his turn on guard and huddling atop a train against the biting winter wind that was blowing out of the Mongolian desert was not aware of this, but his superiors were, and they lived under the constant pressure of that knowledge.
Even before this new task was added to the extensive security commitments of the 7th Marines, IIIAC had recognized the need for additional troops in the regiment's zone of responsibility, which extended from Tangku to Chinwangtao, and on 30 October, the corps had ordered the 6th MarDiv that had landed in the port of Tsingtao (Qingdao) to provide a reinforced infantry battalion for duty in the Chinwangtao area. The Commanding General 6th MarDiv, MajGen Lemuel Shepherd, USMC sent the 1st Battalion, 29th Marines, from Tsingtao on 6 November, and it landed the next day at Chinwangtao. They soon were plagued by incidents involving blown tracks, train derailments, and ambushes, which were to be the lot of Marines on duty in the midst of the Chinese civil war. While American casualties amounted to only a handful compared to the toll from an island assault, these China dangers were particularly distasteful because the war was supposed to be over, and the slowly rising casualty list loomed large in the eyes of the men who manned the isolated guard posts and rode the dusty coal trains.
China duty had been coveted in the prewar Marine Corps, and, for the men who garrisoned the major cities in 1945, a China assignment still had much of that appeal with the value of the dollar. Marine commanders set up a system to rotate troops on dangerous and exposed outposts, and to grant liberty in Peiping and Tientsin to the men on rail guard duty. Rest from the constant strain of watching and waiting was brief, however; in a few days, the Marines again were standing guard along the rail line.
The China Marine Tour started in Tientsin and we headed to the street site where the Imperial Japanese Army surrendered to IIIAC’s CG MajGen Rockey. The building at the site was the IIAC Headquarters. The head Curator of the Library that was in the building denied the MHT Group entry as he said the U.S. marines had never been in Tientsin and that the Communist Chinese had accepted the surrender of the Japanese. When he was shown the multiple pictures of the surrender ceremony out in the street in front of his very recognized building, he had a loss of face and immediately brought in a Communist party official. There was a seismic Orwellian knowledge awakening that everything in his books and school was totally false as the Communist Chinese had cancelled history. He was given an 8” x 10” set of the photos and after some years even the Tientsin Museum had added some 1945-47 Marine history at the end of the 1900 Boxer Rebellion and Siege of the International Legations Section when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded North China to relieve the Peking Legations. We felt good that he wasn’t banished to a reeducation camp as the British had been there since 1860 and their Country Club was used as an officer’s club by the Marines. It is unique in that large metal springs were placed under the ballrooms wooden floor that made it one of the most unique dance floors in the world. The original brass bar foot rail is still in place.
The Tour headed North along the rail route to the huge coal producing region that even today is still providing coal to the new Chinese push for coal-fired power plants despite their green energy goals. We brought a 7th Marines infantryman to the Chinese Coal Factory in Linsi that his platoon had guarded. Our bus arrived at the current gate he guarded, as our local guide explained why 10 Americans had showed up way-way off the normal tourist path, three different police cars arrived at the gate. Again, we were greatly aided by pictures of the coal mine in 1945 and ’46 with Ed Finnstrom in front of the gate with the coal movers in the background. The mine company administrator had originally denied that US Marines had been there and was the reason for the local police interest.
After getting back on the bus we headed for Peitaho (Beidaihe) that had been the English engineers that had built the Chinese railroads also built summer homes on the Bohai Sea that are now in the hands of the Politburo members. The Marines built firing ranges here for training and it was also a good Rest & Recreation site that units were rotated through. It became a favorite of Chairman Mao. My favorite story was I was running down to the shore in the early morning dark when I spied a cigarette burning in front of a fish-store. There in the familiar Chinese squat was an old man wearing the full Mao hat & jacket outfit who looked up at me running towards him and then looked back up the street to see if anyone was chasing. It was too dark to see if there was any disappointment.
We made a day trip to Chinwangtao where the Great Wall of China reaches the Sea. On one tour we had to take the bus west to track the Great Wall as two brothers were tracking a training march their father had made as an Executive Officer of a battalion in the U.S. Army ‘s 15th Infantry Regiment. Again, they had an old photograph of their father sitting on an old Great Wall tower in the mid-1930s. We drove through miles of coal dust covered roads until we found the slope that looked like the right spot & climbed the slope to get a photo to match 65 years later.
After seeing the sites in Beijing & the Terracotta Soldiers in Xian, the tour hit Tsingtao where the 6th MarDiv Vets and their family members were interested in seeing the sites where they served. One of the most interesting was Marine Bill Van Court who came ashore from the heavy cruiser USS New Orleans (CA-32) 10 days before the 6th MarDiv arrived to guard the Navy Yard. We found the guard shack he served at with his Thompson submachinegun. We took 22nd Marines veteran back to the Bismarck Barracks built by the Germans when they colonized Tsingtao and started brewing the beer with the same name. Robert Wichser was there for the USMC Birthday 10 November football game against the 29th Marines and we were able to see his room at what is currently using the barracks as part of the university. Bill also attended a promotion at the Edgewater Mansions and I was also interested to see it as my father as a USMC 1stLt had come down and stayed there to attend a meeting. The Edgewater Mansions opened on July 14, 1934 as an art deco beachfront hotel, which had 88 rooms and cost of $850,000 to build. The hotel was mentioned in L. Hainrdava's memoir "The Charmed Beyond" describes the quibbles of a dancer who is invited to work at the luxury resort Edgewater Mansions in Tsingtao. When this hotel opened in summer 1934, many hospitality professionals, as well as musicians and entertainers from Shanghai came to work there.
"My contract with Casanova (Shanghai venue) is ending. I have an offer to dance at the Farren's, upstairs, but I don't want to work there. Their main number is striptease, which means I'll just be a filler. In our business, it's important to keep up the brand. Once you undersell you can never be center stage again."
"So, what are you going to do?"
"I have two more offers, outside of Shanghai. One is Edgewater Hotel in Tsingtao, which is very tempting, but the job is only for the summer. Come September I'll be looking for work again.”
The Edgewater is very interesting and again we were lucky to have the photos of Marines at the Officers Mess and the Bachelor Officers Quarters. China was a fun tour but that was before Chairman Xi has cracked down and as the rest of Asia reenters the tourist industry China remains cancelled and closed.