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Open thread 2/10/22 — 26 Comments

  1. This is really eye-opening:

    https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/what-the-truckers-want?

    Ostensibly, the truckers are against a new rule mandating that, when they re-enter Canada from the United States, they have to be vaccinated. But that’s not really it. The mandate is a moot point: The Americans have a similar requirement, and, anyway, “the vast majority” of Canadian truckers, according to the Canadian Trucking Alliance, are vaccinated. (The CTA represents about 4,500 truckers nationwide.)

    So it’s about something else. Or many things: a sense that things will never go back to normal, a sense that they are being ganged up on by the government, the media, Big Tech, Big Pharma.

  2. Related:
    “Trudeau Makes Bizarre Statements Showing No Self-Awareness Or Grasp On Reality”—
    https://blazingcatfur.ca/2022/02/10/trudeau-makes-bizarre-statements-showing-no-self-awareness-or-grasp-on-reality/

    While some cracks are beginning to show in Trudeau’s own party (reposted):
    “Dissent Begins To Snowball As Liberal MP’s Say No To Trudeau”—
    https://blazingcatfur.ca/2022/02/10/dissent-begins-to-snowball-as-liberal-mps-say-no-to-trudeau/
    (Keeping in mind that the Blazingcatfur blog is a right-of-center, and then some, blog….)

    On the other hand, Trudeau, minority-government PM that he is, may believe that as one of Schwab’s “boys”, he simply cannot back down (nor as “Obama Light”, can he be seen as disappointing that great tradition crafted so meticulously by both Obama and his accomplices in disaster…):
    https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/wef/schwab-admits-he-controls-trudeau-cabinet-of-canada-now-the-world/

  3. The world and “Reality” may be far stranger that we realize, or want to admit.

    Pondering all of the new information that has recently come to my attention about UFOs, I believe that Lou Elizondo’s point–that our five senses and biological hard-wiring only equip us to perceive a tiny fraction of the entirety of the Universe–is of central importance here, and this major limitation must always be kept in the forefront of our minds.

    We are confined by and live within a very small “perceptual box”–the hardware–and, moreover, we see the world and operate based on a very confining and relatively rigid “consensus reality”—the software.”

    To add to our perceptual/conceptual limitations, we are limited to living in and perceiving three dimensions (four if you count the addition of a time dimension).

    But, the Universe is vast beyond comprehension, and filled with forces that we are subject to but can’t perceive and, according to quantum physics, may have 11 or more dimensions to it.

    Thus, all sorts of things we cannot usually perceive–other Realities–may be taking place all around us, may be taking place in the same space we occupy, may occasionally and only partially intrude into our reality and, then, out of it again—think “Flatland.”

    It seems as if we are coming full circle, away from earlier ancient beliefs—a world in which everything was in some sense “alive” and animated by a spirit, believed in spirits, gods, and powerful godlike entities, a Reality composed of many levels, then, slowly—bit by bit–progressed to more “rational” beliefs, but are now discovering that those old, archaic beliefs might have, in essence, presented a truer picture of actual Reality.

  4. Just read the article at the Bari Weiss substack and came here to comment. Jimmy in the first comment already posted the link. Overall, a positive article. But ….

    False balance and false equivalence drive me crazy. The author mentions that a couple people were photographed with nazi and confederate symbols. The overwhelming likelihood is that they were false flag operations by enemies of the truckers. These kind of hoaxes are standard procedure for the Left. To even mention them in the article without any reference to the likelihood of their being hoaxes is “MISINFORMATION”.

    It’s irresponsible and knowingly participating in a likely slander.

  5. Problem is that Bari Weiss, for all her “traveling” still seems to be overly impressed by media reports.

    Even after everything she’s been through.
    (I guess it’s a tough habit to break.)

    Nonetheless, and in spite of everything, she does deserve quite a bit of credit….

    File under: “You’ve come a long way, baby (but there’s a fair ways to go”(?))

  6. Thanks for the duet. One of the reasons I keep reading this blog is that you have so many interesting videos–music, history, etc.. Thanks.

  7. I’ve recently discovered the unlikely but magical duo of Robert Plant (of Led Zeppelin) and Alison Krauss (bluegrass artist with voice of an angel). They released their album Raising Sand over a decade ago. It won a slew of Grammys. They recently released a second album, Raise the Roof, which is equally good. They have done a couple of incredible covers of Everly Brothers songs, including The Price of Love and Stick With Me Baby. Both versions are wonderful and very different from the original songs.

  8. Joe and Hunter Biden to get Olympic Gold Medals…
    (Or at least they really ought to…but the IOC will have to create a new sport just for that extroardinary pair—synchronized skimming, maybe…)

    “New Emails Corroborate Biden-China Love Affair.”
    https://instapundit.com/502708/

  9. @stan, @Barry Meislin:

    The guest author at Bari Weiss’s Substack page is Rupa Subramanya, and her brief noting of a few swastikas and Confederate flags occurs in the same sentence as her mention of GoF*Me’s cancellation of the Freedom Convoy’s fundraiser–as things that “didn’t help.”

    I have little doubt that the swastikas and Confederate flags were displayed by infiltrators. But I can’t prove it, and neither can Rupa Subramanya without running down an investigative rabbit hole that has nothing to do with the actual topic of her article.

    By the way, the featured photographer, Dan Aponte, should win a Pulitzer. He won’t.

  10. neo,

    Have you watched any of ‘The Charismatic Voice’ channel on YouTube?

    She has a wide range of reaction/analysis video from acapella to jazz to pop to grange to metal to progressive rock and her personality and love for music is very infectious.

    Here is ‘Unchained Melody’ by the Righteous Brothers.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyXfCq1ix3g

    But this may be my favorite Post Modern Jukebox ‘Creep’

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HXICT_NA4Y

    She even reacted to her own opera performance from about ten years ago.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TONPtYZeOSQ

  11. MollyG, thanks for the correction.

    Yes, that false flag operation sounds right to me.
    Swastikas(!) is just what those truckers need, isn’t it?—Now where have we seen that before? Oh yeah: a dirty-tricks operation “inspired” by Trudeau’s pals south of the border….
    And if there were no swastikas to be had, then the CBC and affiliates would most probably have had to invent them, kinda like the “RUSSIA’S behind it all” mantra that is so, so popular these days…

    (Yep, neo-nazi, white supremacists together with Putin! Now there’s a pair!!)

    At the moment, the authorities are trying to categorize the truckers who’ve brought their kids along for the ride (i.e., historical moment) as “abusive”, or whatever the officialese might be in Canada (seems that Canadians can be “creative”, too).

    Whatever happens, Canada’s back in the news—it’s not just freezing weather, hockey, curling, flooding and train accidents—and those truckers are proving to be inspiring in a major way (and far more popular than the Olympics)…

    Wishing them well and hoping it doesn’t turn ugly.

    P.S. What are the chances that Canada’s govt. (such as it is) will declare “VICTORY” over Covid (a la “Biden”) and use this “VICTORY’ to initiate a climb-down, whereupon they’ll tell the truckers that they got what they wanted (but YOU were going to get it anyway YOU idiots/Deplorables/ruffians/terrorists/neo-nazis/etceteras, SEE! YOU didn’t have to pull all this crap in the first place)…and should JUST GO HOME…?

  12. Griffin,

    Postmodern Jukebox do some great, really imaginative, creative stuff, but that link you posted… I found it very lackluster, like they phoned it in. The singer may have a good voice, and the musicians may be talented (probably are, but they’re hardly stretched by that song and arrangement), but they basically did a cover of the song substituting horns and piano for guitars, upright bass and drum. It seems to be the same tempo, the mood isn’t even that different. Visually it’s different, but there’s not much else going on. There’s a lot of feigned emotion by the singer, but that’s also a component of the original.

    Not sure what they were going for there, but it really missed for me.

  13. Rufus,

    I liked it but maybe I’m biased by the fact that I don’t much care for Radiohead and the original did nothing for me.

    Cover songs are always a dicey endeavor with very wide ranging results. They did a cover version of ‘Seven Nation Army’ by the White Stripes that I didn’t care for but I love the original version.

  14. Neo – I know you’ve told me you’d already written about Mark Knopfler but your seeming surprise at the quality of Mark’s and Emmy-Lou’s harmony compels me to recommend all the videos and soundtracks from their two tours together. Great ballads written by both them sang together and solos. What really strikes me is Mark’s knowledge and access to our culture and history in his writing. NASCAR, prairie weddings, Mason-Dixon Line, the list could go on. While I like his voice, Mark’s tone disguises much of the stories he tells in his ballads. Whenever I first listen I have a copy of the lyrics in front of me. The man is a poet and historian as well.

  15. Doug Martin:

    I absolutely love Knopfler and I love his unusual voice. I just wouldn’t have thought it would blend so well with Emmylou’s very different voice. That’s all.

    In addition, I’ve been very familiar with the Everly Brothers version of this song, with its more conventional similar harmonizing voices.

  16. So . . . later this month, at the Munich Security Conference, the US will be represented not by Joe Biden but by Kamala Harris. Unusual, no?

    It’s difficult not to speculate on whether this trip abroad will serve as the occasion for Harris to be, shall we say, desaparecida in some fashion and then replaced (by whom?), after which Biden succumbs, let’s say, to a nasty case of COVID, which he’ll undoubtedly catch from The Unvaccinated.

    The latter development would be terribly sad, with the attendant ceremonies compensating in circuses for what the populace lacks in bread while also creating (in Democratic fever dreams) the level of support for the presidential successor that LBJ enjoyed after the unexpected exit of JFK.

    Just a thought.

  17. I’ve recently discovered the unlikely but magical duo of Robert Plant (of Led Zeppelin) and Alison Krauss (bluegrass artist with voice of an angel).

    CV:

    Big thumb’s up for Plant and Krauss! I loved that album. “Stick With Me Baby” haunts me.

    It also lead me to Alison Krauss, who is ungodly talented in her own right. I caught on in 2001 with her album, “New Favorite,” but she has plenty of good ones before and after.

    Readers may recall her from “O Brother Where Art Thou?” One of the purest songs to reach the public I can think of.

    –“Down To The River To Pray – Alison Krauss:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSif77IVQdY

    She and her brother Viktor Krauss did an incredible cover of Plant’s “Big Log,” which was even more atmospheric and hypnotic than the original. Plus one isn’t distracted from the mood by hey! that’s Robert Plant singing.

    –“Big log Alison Krauss Robert Plant Viktor Krauss”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmrdh8jO5lc

  18. MollyG,

    I had the same reaction to photographer Dan Aponte’s compelling portraits of Canadian truckers (with article on Bari Weiss’ substack). Pulitzer quality.

  19. I will add to the praise for Rupa Subramanya’s story, and kudos to Bari Weiss for hosting it.
    The portraits are in the same league as the old Life magazine at its best.
    Stunning.

    Her story is great too; along the lines of Salena Zito’s quest to get out in the country and actually talk to the people that most pundits only opine about.

  20. I love the music posts and your comment on this one surprised me a bit. I’ve always known this as a Dire Straits song. But, then, “Brothers in Arms” was a favorite album of mine my last year in HS and was, among a couple others, a major part of the soundtrack to that memorable year.

  21. Burton M:

    Glad you like the music posts.

    As far as “Why Worry” goes, there’s a pretty simple explanation. I knew the song from the 80s Everly Brothers cover. I’ve followed the Everly Brothers since I was little. But I only got into Dire Straits maybe 10 years ago at most. I know their biggest songs and some of their more obscure ones, but hardly all of their output.

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