Category Archives: Symbols
Big Tech Lends a Tentacle to Progressives
Big Tech is putting the squeeze on free speech. And it’s being embraced by progressives, as long as someone else’s speech gets the squeeze. Early progressive’s battled trust octopi. But no more.
Big Tech
In the 19th century, “progressives” sought to curb the power of monopolies and trusts on the logic that the proverbial people had only the railroads or telegraphs to travel or communicate, and should be freed from their octopus “tentacles.” The railroad argument, “Ride a horse if you don’t like us,” never washed.
Now progressives enlist social media monopolies to ensure that they alone can control, censor, and cancel incorrect communications over the publicly owned airspace. “Just email or use your cell phone, if you don’t like us” won’t wash either. Progressives are no longer the watchdogs breaking up trusts. They are the trusts breaking up watchdogs.
Victor Davis Hanson, American Greatness Jan 10,2021
What do You get for not Playing Your Music
I got this “what do you get for not playing?” idea from a WSJ piece by Gregg Opelka, a musical-theater composer-lyricist.
We’re all Marxists now. Not Karl, Groucho. There’s a famous sketch in “Animal Crackers” (1930) in which Groucho (as Captain Spaulding) quizzes Chico (Signor Emanuel Ravelli) on how much money the band gets paid. “What do you fellas get an hour?” Groucho asks. “For playing we get $10 an hour,” Chico replies.
Groucho presses: “I see. What do you get for not playing?” “For not playing we get $12 an hour. . . . Now for rehearsing, we make special rate. That’s $15 an hour.” Groucho: “That’s for rehearsing? And what do you get for not rehearsing?” Chico: “You couldn’t afford it. You see, if we don’t rehearse, we don’t play. And if we don’t play, that runs into money.”
Then he goes on about his real life friend.
I have a musician friend, Jim. He plays the bass. Jim is a talented man, and his gigging takes many forms—studio recording as well as live performance. As has happened to so many, his entire livelihood dried up overnight in mid-March. After filing for unemployment relief, he was grateful to receive the bulk of his lost weekly income but equally surprised by the unexpected $600-a-week bonus.
Without auditioning for it, Jim has become an unofficial member of Signor Ravelli’s Animal Crackers orchestra. He recently complained, only half ironically, that he doesn’t know how he’ll make ends meet once he can work again.
Gregg Opelka, Wall Street Journal
Threat to Our Democracy Biden vs Trump
“Threat to our Democracy” is the Never Trump Resistance’s battle cry. The president is a very stable genius but he says weird things, like claiming that women let him grab them by the pussy. So his opponents deemed him unfit for office and pitched removing him under the 25th amendment. Failing that, and unable to find evidence President Trump is a Russian double agent, they tried a different approach. The House impeached him for a phone call asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden. But the Senate acquitted him.
Threat to Our Democracy
Now the Democrats hope to remove Trump by other means – an election. But their chosen candidate, Joe Biden, says weird things too. He also got a Ukrainian prosecutor fired. And he’s been accused of grabbing a woman by the.. well, you know.
Economy Not Sheltering in Place
The economy isn’t sheltering in place. It’s heading down. Fast.
Goldman Sachs forecasts 15% unemployment and a 34% decline in GDP in the second quarter. And the stock market just finished its worst quarter since 2008.
Goldman Sachs is still predicting a “V-shape” recovery, however, meaning the steep drop-off will lead to a bigger bounce of 19 percent in the third quarter.
The Hill
Economy Not Sheltering
The election is seven months away. Can Trump pull the economy out of its Corona nose dive by then?
Scott Brennan, an Iowa Democratic National Committee member and a former state party chairman, said, “If the economy pops back … it’s hard to know what people are going to think.”
Politico
Stock Market Coronavirus Crater Fear
The Dow cratered over 1,000 points on Monday. The stock market appears to have declared a Coronavirus pandemic.
Stock Market Coronavirus Crater
The girl in the picture isn’t any more real than the bull. They’re both statues. But she does have a name. It’s Fearless Girl.
