Who Killed Silicon Valley Bank? - WSJ - "That giant slurping sound on Friday was Silicon Valley Bank imploding. America’s 16th-largest bank had some $175 billion in deposits and disappeared by breakfast. It wouldn’t have happened if not for management mistakes... Everyone, except SVB management it seems, knew interest rates were heading up... In its proxy statement, SVB notes that besides 91% of their board being independent and 45% women, they also have “1 Black,” “1 LGBTQ+” and “2 Veterans.” I’m not saying 12 white men would have avoided this mess, but the company may have been distracted by diversity demands."
Vanity Fair went batshit insane about this, calling the WSJ white supremacists. Everyone Knows that diversity is good for business. So any questioning of the gospel means you are a Bad Person
SVB Pledged Nearly $74 Million To Black Lives Matter Causes - "Silicon Valley Bank might have been able to make good on $74 million promised to customers had it not pledged the money to leftist causes... Will Hild, the executive director of Consumers’ Research, told The Federalist that SVB’s failure on the heels of its left-wing activism “is yet another indication that SVB was focused on woke virtue signaling instead of protecting their customers’ deposits.” “Time after time we see the same pattern: companies that are the most concerned with ESG scores and woke politics do the worst jobs serving their customers,” Hild explained. “The rest of corporate America should learn from SVB’s failure now, before they are the next company to make headlines for comically poor management.” Public reports published on the company’s website offer a window into the bank’s leftist corporate apparatus that prioritized Wall Street’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards over its fiduciary duty to shareholders... Silicon Valley Bank’s report highlighted the fact that 67 percent of its total workforce checks a “diversity” box. Employees considered “diverse” included “any woman, any person of color, veteran, or person with disability.” When the report was published, half the bank’s senior leadership and 69 percent of board members met the criteria... A Corporate Responsibility Report in 2020 also highlighted SVB’s activist efforts in “supporting” people based on their race and sex... According to numbers emphasized in the report’s facts page, SVB spent $2.8 million on “gender parity innovation” and “diverse emerging talent.”"
Ryan Fournier on Twitter - "Silicon Valley Bank has been operating for 40 years. 3 years ago they hired their first “Chief Diversity, Inclusion and Equity” officer. Now they’re defunct. Get woke, go broke!"
Meme - Comfortably Smug @ComfortablySmug: "Who the hell was in charge of risk management at SVB and what the hell were they focused on??? Oh
Jay Ersapah. Head of Financial Risk Management & Model Risk Silicon Valley Bank UK Limited. The phrase 'you can't be what you can't see' resonates with me. As a queer person of color and a first generation immigrant from a working class background, there were not many role models for me to 'see' growing up. I feel privileged to co chair the LGBTQ+ ERG and help spread awareness of lived queer experiences: partner with charitable organizations, and above all create a sense of community for our LGBTQ+ employees and allies.
In 2021, we launched our first six Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). More than 1,150 SVB employees in the UK and other international regions participate in at least one ERG. Our ERGs raise the visibility of multiple dimensions of diversity in our global workforce and offer formal and informal development opportunities. Cheryl Bass, Chair of the Veteran & Military Community ERG, and Jay Ersapz Co-Chair of the EMEA LGBTQ+ Pride ERQ share their experiences."
SVB hired woke board obsessed with diversity, invested $5BN for 'healthier planet' - "Executives at Silicon Valley Bank focused on woke initiatives to increase diversity amongst its ranks and invest in startups promoting a 'healthier planet,' but failed to spot its glaring problems with investments as interest rates rose. The now-failed bank had an A rating for its Environmental, Social and Governance policies according to the MSCI index after creating its own initiatives to 'advance inclusion and opportunity in the innovation economy' and investing in clean energy solutions over the past few years. It even announced that it would invest a whopping $5billion by 2027 to support sustainability efforts, while its European offices held a monthlong Pride celebration and promoted 'safe spaces.' But for eight months last year, the bank did not have a chief risk operator, as it invested clients' money in low-interest government bonds and securities. Then when the Federal Reserve increased interest rates, the value of SVB's assets fell while customers tried to withdraw their money... by the time the bank collapsed on Friday, SVB's board included '1 black,' '1 LGBTQ+' member and '2 veterans.'... Will Hild, the executive director for Consumers' Research, said: 'The bank suffered from a combination of senior officers more focused on identity politics than risk management and investments in unprofitable virtue signaling boondoggles, like reportedly financing 62 percent of all US solar projects. 'It's also poetic that SVB would be the first bank to fail from "going woke," as the general business culture in Silicon Valley itself is notoriously far left and similarly out-of-step with the rest of the country,' he said. 'Let this be a warning, not just to other banks, but all of corporate America: Focus on serving your customers, not woke politicians.'"
Some people still deny that wokeness had anything to do with it. Clearly humans have unlimited time and energy, so more spent on one pursuit doesn't mean less on another
Meme - "This is Silicon Valley Bank's Investment committee in 2023. Never let anyone tell you women aren't making progress!!!
THE INVESTMENT COMMITTEE
BRYN TALKINGTON, KAREN FIRESTONE, SHANNON SACCOCIA, JENNY HARRINGTON
First they're crashing cars, now they're crashing markets. #progress #femaleexcellence"
Opinion: The woke, still going broke, slip-sliding down the Silicon Valley - "woke companies like Disney, Netflix, Google, Facebook, Twitter and crypto-creep Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX all tanked. All those companies terribly underperformed while pushing their self-serving agenda onto gullible shareholders who accepted the companies' self-aggrandizing virtue-signaling instead of financial performance. Part of the reason universities and companies talk so much about their woke agendas is that they are relieved of real accountability for the quality of education they provide or their financial performance. If you can keep pointing to all the woke things you can say you did, you can divert attention from the things that are hard, like accountability metrics: "Yes, we lost market share and profits are down, but the accounting department just hired our first Albino-African American-Transgendered head of auditing. Aren't we cool?"... The reality is that if you act woke and donate to Democratic causes, the deep state regulators look the other way. It has been true from Madoff until now. This bank got the highest ESG ratings and did not even have a chief risk officer... on a ski trip during International Women's Day, bank executives celebrated themselves as trailblazers. I guess they should vote themselves beauty queen titles, too: Miss Management."
Rings of Power's Collapse Explained: Did Execs and VIPs at Amazon IGNORE Warnings from Focus Groups? - YouTube - "Rings of Power was a flop. Not only was it snubbed almost entirely during award season it turns out that a mere 37 percent of people who started the show actually ended up finishing it... I don't remember many YouTubers out there even reviewing each episode. It seems like they would have to be masochists to do so... being Amazon they were always testing projects at every single stage of the process... Amazon essentially began ignoring the market research and the results that were coming back... they all use third-party marketing firms because they want an unbiased third-party opinion to come in and give them proper research analytics... this major consultation group that was brought in was given three objectives from Amazon. Those being one minimize risk by figuring out what were going to be major issues that could be smoothed out during production. two to identify on a spectrum which properties were likely to be Diamonds in the Rough and as well which properties were likely to be disasters, and then third find places and ways that expenditures could be reduced... this case the consumer works seemed to have no impact whatsoever on any decision making at Amazon... many of the projects that clearly uh peaked with interest were seen as totally marginal and many of the many of the projects which were not gathering any steam were seen as big deals. These marginal items were produced and aired with zero changes for the better based on the research and the responses that were given to Amazon, in some cases the worst points that were given to Amazon to try to help be fixed were not only avoided and not smoothed over but even emphasized rather than shifted for the audience... we told them this these things were bad ideas and they took the things we said that consumers hated and they made them even more hated... they paid huge amounts of money to bring in a consultation group at every stage you know and spend the maximum budgets on this and then once the consultation group came in and said hey I don't think this is going to work here's what our analysis with uh and I'm sure this was done with with groups brought in to watch ,you know they hate this and then the Amazon VIPs and VPs came back and said oh no we're setting up our own criteria now... the marketing research firm it sounds like from what you're saying told them this is not going to work well and they said yeah but this is our chance to use this as a vehicle for social whatever... Amazon VIPs truly hated the results of the research but their hatred skyrocketed when we applied our what if templates to a concept. A what if template is when we take a character from a show and we modify that character in particular ways without changing the general concept and then find out how the audience responds... almost without fail the Project's potential appeal increased and sometimes shot through the ceiling as we removed people of a certain orientation... removing women for men... all moderators that I know agree that there is a real audience revolt against girl bosses right now... African-American and Latino men reject particularly quickly as a whole... they just reject something I can't say it um and then more pale skin guys tend to hang in a little bit longer but then we'll also walk away once there is no real end in sight to the divisive and uh overtly diverse content ... showrunners, some of whom decided they only wanted to attend West Coast groups then which by the way is a huge mistake because that skews the results greatly to the point that many people don't even do West Coast groups anymore. They use the West Coast groups then to blame the methodology used all over the rest of North America... the data that was being followed would have led them to having to filter away the ultra diverse and rebalancing gender uh agenda that they had for many of their projects but one project in particular"
Amazon Studios: Big Swings Hampered by Confusion and Frustration - "Data from Nielsen on minutes watched reveals that when it comes to original shows generally, Amazon has lagged. In 2022, Netflix hoovered up the top 10 spots for original streaming series, with Amazon’s The Boys in 11th place — ahead of The Rings of Power at No. 15. Using the same measurement, none of the top 15 originals of 2021 came from Amazon. (Netflix again took all the slots except for Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale in 10th place, Apple’s Ted Lasso at 12, and Disney+’s WandaVision in the 14th spot.)... Another complaint is that Sanders relies heavily on feedback from focus groups, which tend to favor broad and less inclusive programming. Several Amazon insiders say the reliance on testing and data led to a clash late last summer, when an Amazon executive said in a marketing meeting for the series A League of Their Own that data showed audiences found queer stories off-putting and suggested downplaying those themes in materials promoting the show. Series co-creator Will Graham became greatly concerned about bias built into Amazon’s system for evaluating shows, which multiple sources say often ranked broad series featuring straight, white male leads above all others. One executive calls A League of Their Own “a proxy for how diverse and inclusive shows are treated.” Graham launched into an interrogation of the system, questioning multiple executives about it. Amazon took the issue seriously and dropped the system of ranking shows based on audience scores... several Amazon veterans believe the system remains too dependent on those same test scores. “All this perpetuation of white guys with guns — it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy,” says one. And another: “Relying on data is soul crushing … There’s never, ‘I know the testing wasn’t that great, but I believe in this.'” Graham declined to comment. One executive says it was different when Salke first took charge at Amazon. “She shot from the hip, she went with her gut, and she didn’t let data overrule her”"
Ben Dreyfuss on Twitter - "So to be clear: someone whose job was to help get a show higher viewership relayed an uncomfortable but data-born fact. This was not listened to & the entire system was dropped. Then the show bombed. And the lesson is…Amazon is not doing enough of that?"
Amazon Studios: Big Swings Hampered by Confusion and Frustration - "While Amazon, like other streamers, provides only limited data — and internally, it held information even more closely than usual on the series — sources confirm that The Rings of Power had a 37 percent domestic completion rate (customers who watched the entire series). Overseas, it reached 45 percent. (A 50 percent completion rate would be a solid but not spectacular result, according to insiders). The show has not been a major awards contender, either, overlooked by the major guilds with the exception of one SAG-AFTRA nomination for stunt ensemble. But according to Salke, the series has worked"
Amazon's The Rings of Power Has Reportedly Lost Almost Two-Thirds of its Domestic Viewers Despite Mammoth $60M Per Episode Cost - "After the third episode, the viewership dropped to 1.203 minutes. The following week saw a further decline, accumulating 988 million minutes viewed. The downward trend persisted in its fourth and fifth weeks, with the minutes viewed dropping to 977 million and 966 million, respectively. However, the show did experience a temporary surge after the final episode, raking in 1.137 billion minutes of viewership. The immediate week following the finale, viewership for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power took a significant hit, dropping to 570 million minutes viewed. Not just that! The series also lost its spot in Nielsen’s Top 10 charts in the subsequent week, with the numbers plummeting below 354 million minutes viewed."
Meme - "In letter 190 Tolkien responds to a request to give feed back on the dutch translation of LotR. Tolkien made it clear that he was very displeased with how various names had been changed to better fit with dutch culture and language. LotR is he wrote, an English story, and any translation should reflect this, not try to change it into something else. How do you think Tolkien would feel about Rings of Power changing things to appeal to a broader, international audience?"
Elijah Wood Does About Face On New 'The Lord Of The Rings' Adaptations, Shares Hope That New Adaptations Are Done "With Reverence For Tolkien's Material" - "Wood previously joined what appeared to be an organized campaign to accuse Tolkien fans of racism and harassment for simply demanding respect for Tolkien’s legendarium in Prime Video’s The Rings of Power series... One of the biggest critics was YouTuber Just Some Guy, who opined in one of his videos criticizing The Rings of Power saying, “he point of Tolkien’s stories is to be English in design and effect. And Middle-earth reflects that in its cultures, languages, and the appearance of its races. To change this, to remove the Englishness, or really the whiteness from Tolkien’s stories is to undermine the very purpose of his works.” “It should be obvious that this will result in the backlash, but for some reason after watching fans reject every attempt at playing politics with major franchises like Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, and the MCU, Amazon decided to inject progressive politics into their show along with playing loose and fast with the lore. And we’re shocked when fans gave them the one finger salute,” he added."
'The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power' Actor Ismael Cruz Córdova Doubles Down On Accusations Of Racism, Still Doesn't Provide Any Evidence - "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power actor Ismael Cruz Córdova doubled down on accusations that he’s been the victim of racism, bullying, and harassment for portraying Arondir in the show... “And if somebody could withstand the wave of bullying, and harassment, and racism that came afterwards I knew it could be me But for the better. We needed to tilt this. We needed to break it open.” Later in the interview, he bragged, “I was not going to take no for something that I believe so strongly in and I wanted to be apart of that change. And I’m very proud to say we really stamped on the ant’s nest. I didn’t just step on it, I was doing some tap dancing on that thing.” However, he then claimed, “It hurt. It had a psychological and mental health impact. That’s something that I’m very, very open about so that people understand that what they do and say online really hurts people, really has an impact on us.” “But that price that I was ready to pay, I paid it with all the knowledge and the pride. And at some points when I was already over the hill of that thing, I was sipping my tea, seeing everybody tear their hair out, and I was just sipping my tea, scrolling and chuckling. Scrolling and chuckling,” he added. Still later in the interview, Córdova admitted taking on the role was political to him, “It’s a privilege to go into a job and not have to pioneer and not to think about this, but I don’t have that privilege in that sense. Everything, I am very conscientious that what I do is always political in the sense of the impact. So I take that. A lot of actors don’t want to take that. I get exhausted by it, but I also feel that I have a calling for it. And that my story and where I come from asks for it.” “I’ve been in this journey from voicelessness to voicefulness, you know,” he added. Córdova would then reveal he’s been working with a therapist for three years to deal with comments criticizing him and his character online. Not only did he reveal he has a personal therapist, but he detailed that Amazon hired a therapist to be present on the set... This isn’t the first time he made such claims either. Earlier this month he attended a FYC event in Hollywood to promote the Prime Video series and claimed he was the victim of racism and received death threats."
So much for "white fragility"
More evidence that Hollywood is slowly learning wokeness is toxic, from D&D movie interview : KotakuInAction - "The directors and writers of this movie bend over backwards to convince readers the movie isn't woke"
Target loses $9B in week since boycott calls over 'PRIDE' collection - "Target has lost $9 billion in market value since angry social media users called for a boycott of the Minneapolis-based retailer over its rollout of the “PRIDE” collection featuring LGBTQ-friendly clothing for children... That amounts to a 12% drop... Target said on Tuesday it was removing some items from its stores and making other changes to its LGBTQ+ merchandise nationwide ahead of Pride month after intense backlash from some customers who confronted workers and tipped over displays... That was just days after Target CEO Brian Cornell had defended the LBGTQ-friendly merchandise, saying it was “the right thing for society.” Target declined to specify Wednesday which items it was removing but among the ones that garnered the most attention were “tuck-friendly” women’s swimsuits that allow trans women who have not had gender-affirming operations to conceal their private parts... Target confirmed that it has moved its Pride merchandise from the front of the stores to the back in some Southern stores after confrontations and backlash from shoppers in those areas."
These are not liberal protests (e.g. the BLM riots), so they are not okay
Target thinks babies (not even toddlers) can be queer, so
'Boycott Target' Song Reaches Number One on Billboard Rap Charts - "A hip-hop track aimed at retail giant Target has hit number one on the Billboard charts in the genre, as the campaign to boycott the company continues. Pro-Trump rappers Jimmy Levy and Forgiato Blow created the song "Boycott Target" in response to the retailer's Pride Month merchandise and transgender-friendly clothing in its collection... He claimed the song was being hidden from the search on Apple's iTunes store, and Instagram demanded he remove the link from his account bio "so that people can't get a copy of the track.""
The Hill on Twitter - "Target stores in at least five U.S. states had to be evacuated over the weekend after receiving bomb threats."
Auron MacIntyre on Twitter - "For some reason they forgot to tell you in the headline that the threat came from a pro-LGBTQ source angry that the store backed down on Pride month"
Proof that dangerous far right extremists need to be detained without trial
Target Received Bomb Threats From the 'LGBTQ+ Community.' The Media Told a Different Story. - "The Washington Post, USA Today, and others buried or simply left out the nature of the emailed threats, all of which were false alarms, while prominently mentioning conservative backlash over Target's LGBT Pride merchandise"
Someone claimed that left wing media bias was "inclusiveness and equal rights", so I cited framing articles about Target receiving bomb threats to make it sound like they came from the right, when in reality they likely came from LGBTQ+ extremists, reporting on "banned books" by using the wrong photo to mislead readers about what book was "banned" as well as not telling readers that it's sexually explicit books that are being banned (plus the framing - one could also question the term used - these books aren't "banned": it's just linguistic manipulation to spread disinformation) and spreading fake news about the Steele Dossier as examples. Naturally, he claimed that this was from "the Homophobie News". Shame on the Washington Post!
'Top Gun: Maverick Did Well Because It's Not Woke': Fans Claim Tom Cruise's Film Surpassed Infinity War at Box Office Because It's Not Pushing 'Unnecessary Rainbow Agenda'
Of course the media ran pieces claiming this isn't true. When you have rants about "crypto-fascist propaganda surrender " you know they've lost the plot
Exclusive: Walt Disney's Pixar targets 'Lightyear' execs among 75 job cuts - "“Lightyear,” released a year ago with a reported budget of $200 million, brought in a modest $226.7 million in worldwide ticket sales and received a mixed critical reception. By contrast, Pixar's "Incredibles 2" in 2018, which was reported to have had a similar production budget, had worldwide box office sales of $1.2 billion. “Lightyear” could not be shown in 14 Middle Eastern and Asian countries because of its depiction of a same-sex relationship. This had an impact on its box office performance."
Disney's Pixar unveils historic first ever non-binary character - "Disney’s Pixar division has introduced its first ever non-binary character – Lake Ripple – in the studio’s latest feature release, Elemental."
Elemental's Box Office Is One Of Pixar's Lowest Debut In 3 Decades Since Toy Story
Disney's new $200-million Pixar film did a belly flop on opening weekend. How can this be, since it features a non-binary character and talks about racism and xenophobia?? - "It could be the worst flop ever for a Pixar film... Even Variety had to admit the woke movie flopped"
Some are cheering the international box office now, but still it barely broke even
Grease goes woke: New TV reboot of 70s classic will explore 'gender expression and racial identity' - "Iconic 1970s flick Grease is set for a woke TV re-boot that will see the classic musical center itself around a multicultural, all-female lineup to explore 'sexual orientation, gender expression and racial identity'."
‘Grease: Rise Of The Pink Ladies’ Cancelled — Read Cast Reactions
Financial Analyst Speculates The Walt Disney Company Has Lost Nearly $900 Million At The Box Office In The Past Year - "Financial and box office analyst Valliant Renegade recently shared his speculation and calculations that The Walt Disney Company has lost nearly $900 million at the box office in the past year... typically 55% of domestic grosses, 43% of international grosses, and 25% of the Chinese box office come back to the studio... this is just the loss at the box office for the past year and does not factor in the economic opportunity costs that The Walt Disney Company has brought upon itself by launching its Disney+ streaming service and refusing to license its films to other streaming services and companies such as Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, Prime Video, Paramount, or Comcast. Valliant Renegade explains, “One of the things that we always talk about here, that is the perfect time to remind everybody, is that Disney consumes all of its own content post-theatrical. Meaning that Disney that used to license their big content out like the entire MCU to places like Netflix for years, those were billions of dollars worth of third-party contracts that have now been taken off the table.”... while the company has been able to support these losses in the short term with revenues from their theme parks and linear TV mainly due to live sports, it won’t last forever... The company’s CEO Bob Iger recognized the ballooning costs and the diminished returns at the box office during the company’s Q1 FY23 Earnings Results webcast... Not only is the company losing out big at the box office, but they’ve racked up massive costs at Disney+. Iger noted he’s attempting to massively cut those costs and that many of the programs they funded were not actually driving anyone to subscribe to the streaming service."