Elon Musk gives the Twitter barons even
more of the willies
Posted By: Magnante, 4/11/2022 9:27:09 AM
Elon Musk is quite a holy terror to Twitter's self-satisfied barons and satraps. (snip) Guys like Parag, who's "the Big Guy" now at Twitter as CEO now that @Jack has exited the picture, had hoped to effectively smother Musk and all his free speech ideas by locking him into a room with them where he could talk all he liked and they could ignore him. Board members, after all, have to be careful about what they say (and tweet) to the public (snip) Next thing we know, something happened (snip) Elon has decided not to join our board
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Magnante"
Why the South Lives On
22 replies
It was in this month, one hundred and fifty-seven years ago, that the Civil War ended. (snip) the 880,000, or higher, who went out to fight under the Stars and Bars were close to being all that was available to carry on Southern culture… and roughly one-third -- quite possibly more -- did not come back fit enough, or did not come back at all. Essentially, an intermediate generation came close to being wiped out (snip) This, more than anything else, more than racism -- though racism does exist in the South, as elsewhere -- explains why it will be impossible to wring Neo-Confederate sympathies out of many Southerners.
Pope Francis is at it again. Although it is traditional for papal podiums to depict the crucifix, during his recent visit to the island of Malta, Pope Francis ditched the cross lest he offend Muslim migrants. As the archdiocese of Malta openly admitted, “The podium will not be adorned with a crucifix, given that the majority of migrants are Muslim.”
Instead, the podium backdrop used by Francis consisted of recycled plastic bottles with red blobs meant to highlight the two primary reasons Francis was visiting Malta -- to defend migrants and the environment:
Elon Musk is quite a holy terror to Twitter's self-satisfied barons and satraps. (snip) Guys like Parag, who's "the Big Guy" now at Twitter as CEO now that @Jack has exited the picture, had hoped to effectively smother Musk and all his free speech ideas by locking him into a room with them where he could talk all he liked and they could ignore him. Board members, after all, have to be careful about what they say (and tweet) to the public (snip) Next thing we know, something happened (snip) Elon has decided not to join our board
Physicians in America go through many years of training before they are ready to practice independently, often a decade or longer. (snip) Those physicians attempting to use their autonomy to offer what in their opinion is the best care for their patients, have been ridiculed, castigated, and threatened with loss of license or job. Here is one example, “A Texas doctor who defended ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19 and criticized vaccine mandates has been suspended.” (snip) Psaki, speaking on behalf of the Biden administration, invoked physician autonomy for the first time in two years
In Chicago, an imperial federal government
wants to destroy its neighbors to feel
more secure 12 replies
wants to destroy its neighbors to feel
more secure 12 replies
Chicago, the city that invented the skyscraper and whose central business district is a living museum of the history of tall buildings drawing visitors from all over the world, is on the verge of losing two historic early twentieth century office towers. The two towers, designed by architects renowned for advancing skyscraper design. are imperiled because federal employees don’t feel safe (snip) The GSA owns the buildings and has been seeking the demolition since 2019, about two years after then-U.S. District Court Chief Judge Ruben Castillo told the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin his concerns that Century and Consumers sat close to the Dirksen’s eastern side.
For some time now, China has presented itself as a rapidly ascending nation that is completely in charge of its destiny and one that escaped COVID with little harm. However, that appearance may be illusory and China may be more unstable than the image it promotes to the world. (snip) You don’t have an effective Zero COVID policy when your largest city (Shanghai) has such an aggressive COVID outbreak that you lockdown all 26 million people. And you don’t have a stable regime when those 26 million people claim that, in service to that draconian lockdown, they’re beginning to starve to death.
Was there really a massacre at Bucha?
12 replies
Accepting the fake claims of a massacre is as bad as or even worse than denying a real one. (snip) The Russian military left Bucha, Ukraine on March 30, 2022. On March 31, Bucha mayor Anatoly Fedoruk triumphantly declared Bucha liberated. On April 1, a video shot from a moving car appeared on Twitter, showing 7 (maybe 8) dead bodies on the Yablonska Street in Bucha. By April 3, the number of bodies found on the streets of Bucha had grown to 20, and mass graves were shown. Kyiv claimed that the Russian military had executed between 280 and 410 civilians
Very often, when companies go woke, it turns out that the wokeness is a cover for changing market forces. That is, they're not alienating traditional demographics; they're reflecting that their money is coming from new demographics. When it comes to Hollywood and the NBA, for example, the big bucks are coming from China, not America. And when it comes to Disney, the main profit center isn't children; it's young adults who, Peter Pan–like, refuse to grow up.
The brilliant Daniel Greenfield makes this point in an article entitled "Disney's Business Model is Turning Kids into Dysfunctional Adults: Its customer base isn't kids. It's messed up adults."
Convention of States gaining ground
32 replies
America’s Founding Fathers at the Constitutional Convention knew any form of government they created would become corrupt. (snip) known abuses that would arise were the reason for the Amendment process being able to take two distinct routes. One through Congress, before proposed Amendments reached the states. The other was strictly through the states, giving Congress no role other than calling for a Convention of the States.
The Founders, in essence, gave a third option they did not have when rebelling against Britain. The power of the states to curtail governmental abuse.
I recently took my twelve-year-old for his annual check-up. The process was rather routine, except for two distinct differences. First, he needed three vaccinations, all of which he received and second, I wrote “No” across a form that the nurse handed him without my permission.
You see, the nurse bypassed me and handed my son two pieces of paper and a pen. She asked him to answer two questions on one and then the entirety of the next. She then proceeded to leave the room. Not once did she ask me to look at the forms prior to handing them to my son
Obama’s bloodless coup
33 replies
Isn’t the Democrat Party the party of empathy, love and inclusion? Oh wait, that’s what they say, not exactly what they do.
No putsch here. Oh no, this Svengali is way too cool to actually show his fangs as he destroys his former vice-president, Joe Biden. Forgetting also that Joe Biden was the man who made him. (snip) But, have you ever watched any politician, or ex-president no less, more narcissist than Obama’s televised bloodless coup at the White House? Clearly the overthrow was devised, written, directed, and implemented by the former president.
Barack Obama was at the White House yesterday, making it clear, as did others at the reception held in Obama’s honor, that Biden’s presidency is over. Watching Obama suck the oxygen out of the room made me wonder if Obama is planning a comeback, something he can easily do. (snip) The reception in Obama’s honor, though, hinted that the event’s real purpose was to signal to Democrat apparatchiks that Biden is now shark chum.
The chumming process began when Obama referred to Biden as the “Vice President,” adding, after a long pause, “that was a joke.”
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Ted Cruz attacked his fellow Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee, during a taping of his podcast on Monday night hosted by a Yale University student group, accusing them of not going harder on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during her Supreme Court confirmation hearing because they did not want to be seen as 'modern-day Klansmen.'(Snip)While taping The Verdict with co-host Michael Knowles in New Haven on Monday night, Cruz claimed 'you’ll be called a racist, you’ll be called a sexist, you’ll be demonized' for criticizing a black female judicial nominee. 'Among the Republican senators, most went into this nomination afraid of their own shadow,' Cruz said
The majority of voters are blaming increased prices at the pump on Russian President Vladimir Putin and oil companies more than energy policies from President Biden and Democrats, according to a new poll. An ABC News/Ipsos survey released over the weekend showed that 71% of voters placed a great deal or good amount of blame on Mr. Putin for his invasion of Ukraine and 68% said the same for oil companies. The majority of respondents still placed some degree of blame on Mr. Biden (51%) and Democratic policies (52%). Although most voters still blamed the president and his party, the vast frustration among Americans toward Mr. Putin and energy companies
Thank Pence for Biden's Trainwreck
37 replies
There can be little doubt that former Vice President Mike Pence thought he was doing the right thing. There are certainly many pragmatic reasons for his decision to not intervene in the electoral processes during those fateful days in January 2020. We’re a year and a half into the geriatric Biden regime and those pragmatic reasons are quickly losing their luster. The nation is suffering—not from the constitutional crisis feared by the establishment
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) says he hasn’t decided whether to run for reelection in 2024, when he could be on the same ballot as Donald Trump if the former president seeks another bid for the White House.
Romney has cast several high-profile votes putting him at odds with the GOP base — including two votes to convict Trump on impeachment charges. He became the first senator in history to convict a president of his own party in an impeachment trial in 2020.
Just last week, Romney was one of only three Republicans to vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.
SEATTLE – Seattle’s Link Light Rail is a freeloader’s paradise. There are no turnstiles, so passengers are supposed to either buy a ticket or tap their pre-paid card. But so few riders are paying, fares are currently covering just 5% of the system’s operating costs, a fraction of the 40% mark Sound Transit set as a requirement. At a recent Sound Transit Board meeting, the outgoing CEO summed up the situation. "Our fare collection system relies overwhelmingly on an honor system," Peter Rogoff said, "and our increasingly acute problem is that our riders aren’t honoring the system." By one measurement
President Joe Biden's administration tried to get ahead of more dire inflation news, as the March consumer price index report will be released Tuesday.White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during Monday's briefing that the White House expected 'headline inflation to be extraordinarily elevated due to Putin's price hike.' Last month the same report showed a price incresae of 7.9 per cent in February, marking the highest spike in 40 years.
Atlanta—The National Urban League released its annual report on the State of Black America on Tuesday, and its findings are grim. This year’s Equality Index shows Black people still get only 73.9% of the American pie white people enjoy. While Black people have made economic and health gains, they’ve slipped further behind white people in education, social justice and civic engagement since this index was launched in 2005. A compendium of average outcomes by race in many aspects of life, it shows just how hard it is for people of color to overcome systemic racism, the civil rights organization says.(Snip)The index shows not only that the median household
California's Democratic-led Legislature wants to mandate a three-day weekend for all workers at large companies in the state. A new bill being discussed in the state assembly would see the official working week reduced from 40 hours to 32 for companies with 500 employees of more. Any work carried out beyond the 32-hour limit would run into overtime and be paid at time-and-a-half, while those working more than 12 hours a day or for more than seven days a week would be paid double their normal wage.(Snip)Employers would also be forbidden from reducing the workers' current salaries simply because they are working less.
Canceling Beethoven: Who's Relevant to Whom?
24 replies
“Joy, immortal incandescence
Daughter of Elysium!
Breathing fire from your presence
To your temple ground we come.”
This is the invocation of joy that begins Friedrich Schiller’s great Ode, whose first three stanzas were set by Beethoven in the final movement of his 9th Symphony. Baltimore Symphony conductor Marin Alsop has replaced them with doggerel from a local rapper. She explained to Baltimore magazine:
You know, the [Friedrich] Schiller poetry is phenomenal, but it’s not relevant for us today. (Snip) Alsop also inserted African drumming and a jazz ensemble between movements of Beethoven’s symphony.
This is idiotic in more ways
Pope Francis is at it again. Although it is traditional for papal podiums to depict the crucifix, during his recent visit to the island of Malta, Pope Francis ditched the cross lest he offend Muslim migrants. As the archdiocese of Malta openly admitted, “The podium will not be adorned with a crucifix, given that the majority of migrants are Muslim.”
Instead, the podium backdrop used by Francis consisted of recycled plastic bottles with red blobs meant to highlight the two primary reasons Francis was visiting Malta -- to defend migrants and the environment:
MSNBC contributor political professor Jason Johnson said Monday on MSNBC’s “The Beat” that the MAGA movement is a “terrorist organization” that no longer believes in democracy.Johnson said, “I used to always say, Ari, with any sort of political conflict — I was saying this during Ferguson — the country can’t heal if we can’t agree on the diagnosis of what got us sick. At the end of the day, you have a certain segment of the population that has told the Republican Party we do not believe in a multicultural democracy. So anything that you have to do to make sure the country stays in the hands of straight
Juneteenth is now a paid city holiday in New York City.New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced the decision on Monday, noting that it is "long overdue" and will take effect "immediately" this year on June 19. “Juneteenth is a time for reflection, assessment, and self-improvement," Adams said in a statement. "People across the country of all races, nationalities, and religions unite on this day to truthfully acknowledge the stain of slavery and celebrate the countless contributions of Black Americans. It’s time for our city to finally do what’s right and officially designate Juneteenth as a city holiday."