US Army Shuts Down Comments on ‘Woke’ YouTube Videos After Barrage of Mockery

The US Army has turned off the comment sections for their “woke” recruiting videos, including the one featuring a female soldier with two moms.

One of the sappy and pandering recruitment videos in their “The Calling” series features Corporal Emma Malonelord from California. It had 61,000 dislikes and only 3,400 likes as of Saturday morning.

Sen. Ted Cruz has been attacked by the left for pointing out that the Army is being “emasculated.”

“Perhaps a woke, emasculated military is not the best idea….” Cruz tweeted on Thursday in response to the ad.

The Texas senator refused to apologize, adding in a subsequent tweet that “we have the greatest military on earth, but Dem politicians & woke media are trying to turn them into pansies.” Leftist outlets, including Mediaite, subsequently feigned outrage by claiming that “pansy” is a homophobic slur.

After the poor reception, the Army shut down comments for the “safety and wellbeing” of our soldiers — ridiculously implying that they are delicate and need to be protected from words.

“Beginning May 12 we started noticing a significant uptick in negative commentary,” Laura DeFrancisco, public affairs chief for the Army Enterprise Marketing Office, told the Army Times. “The comments violated our social media policy and were not aligned with Army values. Out of respect for the safety and wellbeing of our soldiers and their families, we have disabled the comments.”

DeFranco claimed that they are not pandering to the left with these videos, but rather attempting to “close the relatability gap between Gen Z and the Army by offering a rare look at the people behind the uniform.”

“It is important that the soldiers featured in the campaign reflect the incredible diversity of both the Army and the American public – and not just ethnic diversity, but diversity of influences, upbringings, and experiences,” she continued. “Each soldier in ‘The Calling’ has their own unique background and story to tell. The Army is its people and is made up of soldiers from all walks of life with diverse upbringings and experiences. Providing an honest, unfiltered account of those experiences is essential to this effort.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/05/us-army-shuts-comments-woke-youtube-videos-barrage-mockery/

Unpaid Student Loans Top $435 Billion

As President Joe Biden considers forgiving $10,000 in student debt per borrower and ending tuition for many students at public colleges, it is worth noting that college graduates already have not paid $435 billion back to the federal government.

That’s right, of the government’s $1.4 trillion student loan portfolio, almost one-third is unpaid.

That $435 billion is comparable to the $535 billion that private lenders lost on subprime mortgages during the 2008 financial crisis.

The figure comes from FI Consulting, hired by the Department of Education, and whose work was checked by accounting firm Deloitte, and is a total of losses over the life of the loans in the federal government’s portfolio.

People in income-based repayment programs pay the loans based on how much they earn, and the government forgives loans that haven’t been paid back after 10, 20 or 25 years.

The findings estimated that on average, borrowers in income-driven repayment plans will repay 51 percent of their loans, while those in other repayment plans will repay 80 percent.

As the debate over implementing free college tuition and canceling student debt continues, policy experts, journalists and the public should keep this $435 billion figure in mind.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/unpaid-student-loans-top-435-billion

WATCH anti-lockdown protesters clash with police in Berlin at rally banned by authorities

Riot police have been deployed in Berlin to forcefully disperse hundreds of protesters. Demonstrators have taken to the streets of the German capital denouncing the Covid-19 lockdown measures.

Coronavirus skeptics gathered and marched through the streets in central Berlin on Saturday. The rally has been banned by authorities, but despite that, hundreds took to the streets, as seen in footage from RT’s video agency Ruptly.

Many protesters were not wearing masks and not maintaining social distancing. Police have set up cordons and have been making loudspeaker announcements asking people to leave. The skeptics tried to break through cordons, and officers used pepper spray and had water cannons at the ready, Berliner Zeitung reported. Some of the protesters have been arrested, according to local media.

Ahead of the popular Whitsun or Pentecost holiday celebrated this weekend, Berlin, together with some other German federal states, has eased lockdown measures. For the first time in months, people could visit museums and swimming pools under certain conditions. Restaurants and bars have been allowed to open outdoor terraces, including the famous beer gardens.

However, authorities warned that the country should be moving toward pre-pandemic life at a slow pace. “We must not go too quickly or we’ll have to go back, and we want to avoid that,” Germany’s Health Minister Jens Spahn said.

https://www.rt.com/news/524551-berlin-coronavirus-skeptics-protest/