Home » Open thread 5/24/22

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Open thread 5/24/22 — 29 Comments

  1. The White House should provide a translator so Biden can understand himself.

  2. Just a quick comment that for the last week it looks like the latest covid case wave may be peaking. So many states now on weekly or biweekly reporting so not certain, and with Holiday weekend coming up which will disrupts data even more. Deaths never did really rise with this wave.

  3. Deaths never did really rise with this wave.

    The ICU census increased 1.5-fold while the case count increased 3.5-fold. The death count has continued to decline.

  4. Art Deco,
    That’s cool. The most amusing or ridiculous segment in Neo’s video for me, was the piccolo trombone. He played a jazzy riff very nicely, but that high pitch is so incongruous.

  5. The amount of air volume required to play some of those sub-contrabass instruments is another reason you don’t see some of these outside of novelty performances. I couldn’t imagine trying to keep a piccolo clarinet, or especially a piccolo French horn in tune.

    That sub-contrabass sax was playing in a higher register. If he went into the lower register, the reed would probably shred his tongue, lol.

    The bass trumpet almost sounded like a euphonium, but most resembled a valve trombone to my ear.

  6. Dave Harsanyi has rejoined The Federalist, so now I will be able to read his commentaries without going to NRO.

  7. That piccolo trumpet was really something.

    Anyone know where one might find a subcontrabass kazoo?….

  8. I’m guilty of having played most of the clarinets you saw in this at one time or another. The contrabass clarinet seen was a Leblanc (this one in Bb I think – also available in Eb) and is known as a “paperclip” type for obvious reasons if you look at it. Playing the big ones is more fun than playing the tiny ones for a lot of reasons.

    The bass trumpet player sounded lovely.

  9. Except for one location where State Farm did not underwrite policies I have always purchased my home and auto insurance from State Farm.

    I will be changing companies now.

    Their mission to distribute books confusing grammar school-aged children on the subject of gender is harmful and completely unnecessary.

    This is a fairly easy thing for me to do (the timing is actually rather convenient) and losing a customer of 30(?) years will hopefully send a message. I’m not even sure why I used them. Maybe my parents did when I started driving?

    I cancelled Netflix two days ago. Actually very easy to do. I credit Netflix on how easy they make the process. Most companies make it much more difficult.

    I was a lifelong Gillette razor customer up until a year or two ago when they decided to produce ads attacking me. I quickly found another razor that was cheaper and shaves better. I’m fairly confident I’ll save money through my insurance switch, also.

    Companies with established products that have huge, entrenched customer bases take immense risk when venturing into divisive areas. Why do it? It’s difficult to fathom how billion dollar businesses can be so dumb. Maybe it’s easier to make a billion dollars than I think.

    (Oh, and Scott the Badger, State Farm is headquartered in Bloomington, IL. Not Minneapolis.)

  10. Rufus:
    State Farm has terminated their relationship with GenderCool, which had been set up by some guy below decks.

  11. The contrabass clarinet in particular bore an unfortunate resemblance to an especially vigorous “breaking of wind”. Which may account for its exclusion from orchestral performances. Though connoisseurs of potty humor such as very young children would undoubtedly find it amusing.

  12. Flutes are hard enough to play without making it a subcontrabass. The guy was a pro and still had a hard time getting a note out.

  13. I was a lifelong Gillette razor customer up until a year or two ago when they decided to produce ads attacking me. I quickly found another razor that was cheaper and shaves better.

    Rufus:

    Do tell!

    I wanted to dump Gillette myself, but fell into a quandary about the alternatives. I was considering Harry’s, then they went woke enough for me to forget them:

    https://www.outkick.com/harrys-razor-goes-after-daily-wire-conservatives-after-random-account-complains-about-2019-clip/

    What razor did you switch to?

  14. RE; The “Wilson Notes” cont’d

    When introducing these Notes into the Record Representative Gallagher said that he was not saying whether they were true or not, and there has been a lot of argument over their authenticity.

    According to what I understand, Admiral Wilson has denied that this conversation ever happened, and Dr. Erik Davis, who supposedly wrote these notes after listening to the Admiral vent, has said, when questioned directly, “no comment.”

    Of course both these men—possessing security clearances, and perhaps having signed Non Disclosure Agreements (NDAs)–have a lot of reasons to deny this conversation ever happened, and the Notes content.

    It would be instructive if both men were called before the Intelligence Committee, given immunity from prosecution, and had to answer some very pointed questions under oath, and the penalty of perjury.

    A lot is riding on these Notes, for if these Notes are authentic, and what the Admiral says in them is true, then they are the key to bringing these deeply buried secret SAP programs studying crashed UFOs/Alien technology into the light of day.

    P.S. In a recent interview Lou Elizondo reacted to the Notes being entered into the Record in a way that made me believe that he thought they were authentic, and reflected reality.

  15. tcrosse,

    I am aware, but the employee responsible has a corporate position with the company and sent a statewide (Florida, may have also been done in other states) email on January 18th(!) and State Farm did not cancel the program until May 23rd, when an internal whistleblower leaked the email to the media.

    It took State Farm over 1/3 of a year to reverse the policy and then, only after the policy was made public.

  16. @ huxley > “What razor did you switch to?”

    Did you miss this story when it came out a few months ago?

    https://www.dailywire.com/news/jeremys-razors-surprises-harrys-with-advertisements-directly-across-from-company-headquarters

    “On Tuesday, The Daily Wire released its first featured ad for Jeremy’s Razors, a new company launched by The Daily Wire in response to Harry’s razors pulling their ads from The Daily Wire in 2021 over “inexcusable” comments made by a Daily Wire host about gender identity.”

    The ad is outstanding.

  17. I’ve stopped using a lot of products due to their woke activism. I always try to go to their websites and send a message telling them why.
    Been using BIC razors since I dropped Gillette.

  18. Here’s an encouraging note for creative types about odds for success, and how to increase them into the 1 in 200, 1 in 100 ranges.
    https://infovores.substack.com/p/dont-trust-your-gut?s=r

    One key point is to have lots of output.
    Another is to put your stuff out in many ways. Infovores, only recently starting on substack, was not talking about blogging – but the lessons for success seem similar.

    Neo would be more successful – money & readers metrics – on substack. Also with a book (or 17).
    .
    .
    I liked the sound of the contrabass flute.

    I’ll be buying more BIC razors. Conservatives & Christians need to be developing a parallel economy, which Gab is trying to do – but is not yet definitively successful; certainly not yet a failure.

    From the Jeremy’s razors article:
    “So, to win, we have to rip the economy in two. We have to give conservatives their own companies and their own products to buy. We have to build actual market alternatives that, in success, will force the Left to take real losses if they don’t compete for our business,” Boreing warned.

  19. For Rufus T Firefly, State Farm agents nationwide apparently were not aware of the “Gender Cool” program and flooded SF headquarters in Bloomington with complaints. State Farm is know as a conservative insurer and agents were outraged:

    https://redstate.com/jenvanlaar/2022/05/25/exclusive-state-farm-exec-apologizes-to-angry-agents-says-we-made-a-mistake-with-our-involvement-with-gendercool-n569149

    The program in question was initiated at a relatively low level, and at $40,000 of funding. State Farm is now said to be closely reviewing all its philanthropic budget, which totals $60 million.

  20. Kate,

    Exactly. Why is State Farm acting now? Precisely because of those repercussions.

    And other companies are watching. If State Farm loses a measurable amount of business over this then other companies will be pro-active about “closely reviewing” their extracurricular initiatives.

    Why did State Farm even employ a Corporate Responsibility Analyst? And why did that gentleman think State Farm’s corporate responsibility extends to educating grade school children on transsexuality? I imagine in the past few days a lot of insurers have started similar, internal investigations.

    I’m not sure what a Corporate Responsibility Analyst does, but if I were one I think I’d begin each workday reciting, “No matter what I accomplish today make sure it doesn’t result in my employer’s name in the national media associated with distributing pamphlets on sex to minor children.”

    In the words of that great philosopher, Walter Sobchak, “Eight year olds, Dude.”

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