Imagine what we could do

I did the math. And if you want to win the culture war, here is one way to go about doing just that, given the inflated price of Hollywood content.

The estimates on the cost of content that emerged from these interviews peg the typical range of the production budget for high-end cable and streaming dramas at $5 million-$7 million an hour, while single-camera half hours on broadcast and cable run from $1.5 million to more than $3 million. With the exception of HBO, which made its mark with lavish productions, that’s a significant increase, during just the past five years, over what had been $3 million-$4 million for cable dramas and around $1 million-$1.5 million for single-camera half hours.

And Netflix often exceeds the new, higher averages. The first season of its supernatural sensation “Stranger Things” was shot to look like a 1980s Steven Spielberg movie and came with a price tag of $6 million an episode for season one, rising to $8 million in season two. Netflix’s sumptuous period drama “The Crown” cost an estimated $10 million an episode.

Bigger, bolder production values aren’t the only expense; talent also costs a pretty penny.

Netflix raised eyebrows with a $2 million-per-episode guarantee to lure David Letterman back to TV for a six-episode interview series that’s expected to bow next year.

Clockwise from left: “The Get Down” – $11m per episode; “Legion” – $4m per episode; “Timeless” – $4.5m per episode.

There’s a pervasive fear among traditional TV players that Netflix’s spending binge on content is an effort to vacuum up market share and put a lot of old-school competitors out of business. That, industry veterans say, is the only explanation for the streaming giant paying $20 million to Chris Rock and Ellen DeGeneres for comedy specials — fees that are more than double the high end for that programming on HBO just a few years ago.

But Netflix is far from alone in its aggressive spending. All the streaming services are ponying up bigger upfront commitments and budgets, raising floor prices for all networks. Amazon is laying out $8 million on action drama “Jack Ryan” and $5 million per half hour for “The Tick,” the superhero comedy with lots of visual-effects shots that also films largely on location in pricey New York. Robert De Niro is getting approximately $775,000 an episode to star in a David O. Russell crime drama for Amazon.

Cable networks are stretching their wallets too. HBO’s VFX-heavy “Westworld” is in the same lofty budgetary stratum as “The Crown.” Season one of Starz’s “American Gods” came in at more than $8 million per episode. TNT’s one-and-done period drama “Will” required $5 million-$6 million an episode, even though it was shot in Wales with mostly up-and-coming actors. FX usually spends about $3.5 million-$4 million per hour on its dramas. Ryan Murphy’s “American Crime Story” franchise is closer to $6 million.
For broadcast networks, the high end is roughly $4.5 million (with most shows coming in about $1 million below that).

That’s about $3.4 million more per episode than is actually necessary in most cases.

Now consider this. Owen regularly gets 50,000 views per livestream. I regularly get 12,000 views per livestream. Even if we assume that fully half my views are Bears, that gives us 56,000 viewers. Next, imagine that all of those 56,000 viewers were willing to subscribe to a Basic subscription on Unauthorized. That’s the price of two Caramel Frappuccino Ventis at Starbucks per month.

That would be over $500,000 per month we could spend on producing original content for everyone. We estimate that we could do a Little House on the Prairie-caliber television show, a comedy starring Owen as one half of an urban couple who moves to the country, for about $50k per episode. In other words, if we can get five thousand more Basic subscribers before the end of 2019, we will create a high-quality half-hour television show that does not hate you or seek to destroy your faith, your family, and your country. We will create something that will not only entertain, but inspire, you and your family.

We can do it. Seriously. In fact, we’re currently putting together a professionally filmed comedy special that will be considerably funnier than Chris Rock’s – or Ellen’s, although that was obvious – for approximately one-tenth of one percent of their budgets. So, think about it. And then join Unauthorized.

The difference between power and influence

Russia is the latest nation-state to remind the large multinationals that we are not living in a post-national cyberpunk world. National sovereignty, militaries, and nuclear weapons trump money and media power every time.

Russia’s state communications watchdog has asked Google to stop advertising “illegal mass events” on its YouTube video platform, it said on Sunday.

Tens of thousands of Russians staged what observers called the country’s biggest political protest for eight years on Saturday, defying a crackdown to demand free elections to Moscow’s city legislature. Multiple YouTube channels broadcast the event live.

The watchdog, Roscomnadzor, said some entities had been buying advertising tools from YouTube, such as push notifications, in order to spread information about illegal mass protests, including those aimed at disrupting elections.

It said Russia would consider a failure by Google to respond to the request as “interference in its sovereign affairs” and “hostile influence (over) and obstruction of democratic elections in Russia”.

If the company does not take measures to prevent events from being promoted on its platforms, Russia reserves the right to respond accordingly, Roscomnadzor said, without giving details.

More and more states are learning that it’s not worth permitting these soulless artificial creatures to operate freely and as they see fit in violation of national laws.

They’re all yours, Richard

Matteo Salvini demonstrates why he is going to be the first Prime Minister of an independent and sovereign Italia.

Golden Globe winner Richard Gere visited a boat with 121 migrants on board in international waters near the Italian island of Lampedusa. Gere was pictured delivering food supplies to the migrants on board, who have been rescued by Spanish NGO Open Arms. In a barb to Italy and his own leader President Trump, he said: ‘Demonizing people has to stop everywhere on the planet. What most people refer to as migrants, I refer to as refugees that are running from a fire.’

The right-wing League leader Matteo Salvini, whose party topped the polls in the recent European elections, hit back. Salvini said: ‘Given this generous millionaire is voicing concern for the fate of the Open Arms migrants, we thank him: he can take back to Hollywood, on his private plane, all the people aboard and support them in his villas. Thank you Richard!’

Hilarious. And effective. Grazie, Richard!

He’s got a point

Then again, consistency has never been a strong point of the establishment media:

The BBC is facing accusations of “hypocrisy” for describing Kashmir as “Indian occupied,” with people asking why it doesn’t apply similar descriptions to Northern Ireland.
The query was first put to the British broadcaster on Sunday by British-Indian film director Shekhar Kapur and it quickly went viral.

“Hey @BBCWorld.. each time you call Kashmir ‘Indian Occupied Kashmir’ I keep wondering why you refuse to call Northern Ireland ‘British Occupied Ireland’?” Kapur asked in a tweet that rapidly racked up more than 20,000 retweets and over 50,000 likes. Other responses to Kapur’s message accused the state-owned media company of applying the “occupied” tag to other regions including Tibet, Hong Kong and Balochistan. It also prompted the creation of the #BritishOccupiedIreland hashtag, which also picked up retweet traffic. 

Either Northern Ireland is British-occupied or there is no reason to complain about the New Kashmiri immigrants, who despite being Hindu are every bit as genuinely Kashmiri as the Muslims who preceded them.

There’s no way

A former MCC convict says it is absolutely impossible for Epstein to have killed himself.

There’s no way that man could have killed himself. I’ve done too much time in those units. It’s an impossibility.

Between the floor and the ceiling is like eight or nine feet. There’s no way for you to connect to anything.

You have sheets, but they’re paper level, not strong enough. He was 200 pounds — it would never happen.

When you’re on suicide watch, they put you in this white smock, a straight jacket. They know a person cannot be injurious to themselves.

The clothing they give you is a jump-in uniform. Everything is a dark brown color.

Could he have done it from the bed? No sir. There’s a steel frame, but you can’t move it. There’s no light fixture. There’s no bars.

Remember, the one thing we know is that the Official Story – which in this case is that Jeffrey Epstein killed himself – is not true.

It’s not “disinformation” when it’s true

The New York Times attempts to disinform the informed:

That nativist rhetoric — that immigrants are invading the homeland — has gained ever-greater traction, and political acceptance, across the West amid dislocations wrought by vast waves of migration from the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. In its most extreme form, it is echoed in the online manifesto of the man accused of gunning down 22 people last weekend in El Paso.

In the nationalists’ message-making, Sweden has become a prime cautionary tale, dripping with schadenfreude. What is even more striking is how many people in Sweden — progressive, egalitarian, welcoming Sweden — seem to be warming to the nationalists’ view: that immigration has brought crime, chaos and a fraying of the cherished social safety net, not to mention a withering away of national culture and tradition.

Fueled by an immigration backlash — Sweden has accepted more refugees per capita than any other European country — right-wing populism has taken hold, reflected most prominently in the steady ascent of a political party with neo-Nazi roots, the Sweden Democrats. In elections last year, they captured nearly 18 percent of the vote.

To dig beneath the surface of what is happening in Sweden, though, is to uncover the workings of an international disinformation machine, devoted to the cultivation, provocation and amplication of far-right, anti-immigrant passions and political forces.

It’s remarkable to see how those who manipulate opinion with their words assume all opinions are derived by someone manipulating words. They don’t seem to be capable of grasping that people also form opinions on the basis of what they see happening right in front of them.

The rise of nationalism is a direct response to the mass migrations inspired by the neoliberal world order. It is the neoliberal wizards who have created the very monster they fear.

Everyone is a conspiracy theorist now

Allahpundit finally breaks:

Me before Epstein’s death: Conspiracy theories are facile misdirections favored by people who crave simplistic explanations to soothe their own feelings of powerlessness.

Me now: The Illuminati whacked Epstein.

Everything’s on the table.

Conspiracy theory is the only credible theory of history.

They got to Epstein

Or perhaps they managed to disappear him. Regardless, it appears that Jeffrey Epstein will not be naming any more names:

Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced millionaire who was facing federal sex trafficking charges, died by suicide Friday night in his Lower Manhattan jail cell, three law enforcement officials told ABC News.

The exact timing and circumstances were not immediately clear.

Still dubious about the reality of the Gate that shall not be named? It’s also a salutory lesson to those who are tempted to serve evil in return for massages, lollipops, and fancy pants. Once you have no further utility to the god of this world, once he is done with you, he won’t hesitate to cast you aside and send you to Hell.

Keep in mind, however, that he may already have been interrogated and the material that he had amassed over the years may already be in the possession of the good guys. So, don’t feel let down about this. It is always an occasion for celebration when the wicked fall.

The Lord watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.

UPDATE: According to a prison officer, Epstein was being kept in a special unit with additional security, but he was not being actively surveyed by officials at the facility.  

UPDATE: The billionaire had been taken off suicide watch before taking his own life on Saturday morning.

Sounds likely, doesn’t it? As I have stated in the past, the Official Story is the one scenario we can be certain did not happen.

Generation Zyklon rises

No wonder the neoliberals and the neoclowns are terrified of the rising nationalism across the West. As I have repeatedly told you, the youth of Europe have no sympathy for them or their false ideals of “progress”, “equality”, or even “democracy”.

A poll has revealed that two-thirds of young people want a strongman as leader, while more than one-quarter would be happy with the military leading the country, revealing that younger generations are turning their backs on decades of liberalism.

The poll of 5,073 people conducted by Hanbury Strategy between the 21st and 28th of June and published on Thursday by conservative think tank Onward found that across all age groups, 58 per cent of people think that having “a strong leader who does not have to bother with Parliament” would be a good way to run the United Kingdom.

Let’s face it. If the men who fought WWII for the Allies could see what has resulted from their sacrifices, they would have laid down their arms and refused to fight. Even nuclear devastation is less destructive than immigration and immorality.

Nearly 400,000 Britons died. Millions more were scarred by the experience, physically and mentally. But was it worth it? Her answer – and the answer of many of her contemporaries, now in their 80s and 90s – is a resounding No. They despise what has become of the Britain they once fought to save. It’s not our country any more, they say, in sorrow and anger.

Curious about his grandmother’s generation and what they did in the war, he decided three years ago to send letters to local newspapers across the country asking for those who lived through the war to write to him with their experiences.

He rounded off his request with this question: ‘Are you happy with how your country has turned out? What do you think your fallen comrades would have made of life in 21st-century Britain?’

What is extraordinary about the 150 replies he received, which he has now published as a book, is their vehement insistence that those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the war would now be turning in their graves.

Reject Satan and all his devices and servitors.