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Home » Open thread 12/1/23

Open thread 12/1/23

The New Neo Posted on by

You’ve got to be kidding me – December already?

Then again, Christmas stuff has been displayed in the stores since right after Halloween.

Comments

Open thread 12/1/23 — 29 Comments

  1. NO. You got that wrong. The local Costco store started putting up some Christmas stuff while they were waiting for the end of Halloween!

    I remember it well!

  2. I’ve seen Halloween stuff in local stores start appearing as early as mid August. And Thanksgiving stuff (not that there’s typically much decoration for Thanksgiving) in mid September. And I swear I’ve seen some Christmas stuff as early as the beginning of October. I’ve seen “Black Friday” flyers and promotional material as early as mid August.

    In the retail world time gets compressed in Q4. It’s like some sort of temporal anomaly out of Star Trek or Doctor Who, blending descrete events into some sort of all encompassing purgatorial Holiday Season.

  3. I think retailers were/are expecting a very bad sales year so they were getting stuff out sooner hoping that the longer time frame would help sales.

  4. I was actually shocked this morning. I’ve been working on stuff (and watching a couple movies) for the last few and I hadn’t realized the calendar had flipped.

    As far as roll-over stuff, I just hope eggnog is still available two weeks from now. I got most but not all I need for the coming year for coffee.

  5. I love this song . ” Way Maker”. This is You Tube, so the adds may have nothing to do with the song. Noticed that the Mormons are running adds in front of non Mormon Christian groups songs. That Mormon Glenn Beck , whom I really like politically, is part of a sneaky crowd. Ha !
    https://youtu.be/iJCV_2H9xD0?si=Z3bePqrRpLX2IVw8

  6. Elon Musk tells major corporations to obscenity themselves!
    _______________________________________

    Elon Musk is sharing his thoughts on advertisers pulling their ads from X.

    The Tesla CEO, 52, sent a strong message at the 2023 DealBook Summit in New York on Wednesday after several companies, including Disney, recently pulled their advertisements from X, formerly known as Twitter, due to antisemitic posts he amplified on the platform.

    Musk’s response to the companies: “Don’t advertise.”

    “If somebody’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go f— yourself. Go. F—. Yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is,” he continued.

    https://people.com/elon-musk-tells-disney-other-advertisers-go-f-yourself-8408395
    _______________________________________

    Keep in mind that Big People are in the audience. Such as Bob Iger:
    _______________________________________

    The tech CEO then appeared to call out Disney CEO Bob Iger in particular, saying, “Hey Bob, if you’re here in the audience.” He then added, “That’s how I feel.”
    _______________________________________

    The government-media-complex is rather nakedly trying to take Musk out.

  7. The background to this story is that a few weeks ago Media Matters scammed up a collection of screenshots showing corporate ads juxtaposed with anti-Semitic tweets.

    Musk saw this as a direct, existential threat to his company, X, formerly known as Twitter. Hence his declaration of going “thermonuclear” on Media Matters via a lawsuit.

    Now, in Stage 2, all these big corps are pulling their ads from X. Hence, Musk’s blunt profane outrage.

    It’s fun to watch the talking head jaws drop as Musk drops his F-bombs:

    –“Drinker’s Chasers – Elon Nukes Bob Iger From Orbit”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HvI5cprxSE

    Go, Elon, go!

  10. What really annoys me is “Christmas music” in grocery stores. (1) It’s not even Advent yet. (2) The stores are afraid to play religious-themed Christmas music, so they’re running a new genre of modern seasonal music which is bland, entirely unrelated to the Christian holiday, and often awful musically. I may begin carrying ear plugs with me.

  11. Kate, that reminds me, I had said to myself a year or so ago that I would try not to go for groceries at certain stores when the “holiday” music was on their speakers. But now that I think about it, I haven’t heard any such in those places yet. It makes me wonder – has Price Chopper turned off its music completely?!

  14. The stores are afraid to play religious-themed Christmas music, so they’re running a new genre of modern seasonal music which is bland, entirely unrelated to the Christian holiday, and often awful musically.

    Kate:

    I get you, but I would offer two favorite not-really-Christian Christmas songs which I won’t stop loving:

    –Frank Sinatra, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Remastered 1999)”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvA7-EjaSPI

    –Mel Tormé. “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiT1lZ6pkK4

    I’m sure you understand.

  15. huxley,

    I tried to watch the Zeihan video. Couldn’t get through it, but in the 20 or so seconds I did see fast forwarding; I’m not impressed with his reasoning. I’m glad Musk is calling the media and big corporations out. Ace, Babylon Bee, Libs of Tik Tok and many others have been pointing out the rank hypocrisy of the companies pulling their advertising.

    Now that media megaliths* no longer have the monopoly they had, their nefarious narrative shaping is more and more transparent. They don’t seem to want to voluntarily relinquish their power and control.

    We live in interesting times.

    *I should have wrote, “Nattering nabobs of negativism” to continue the alliteration in the latter part of the sentence, but that seems too obvious to an erudite audience like this one.

  16. Kate et alia,

    Regarding holiday music; I’m a big fan of Christian Carols (“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” is my favorite), but some of the secular stuff is great too and some of my absolute favorites were written by Jews. I think Kenny G still holds the record for biggest selling Christmas album.

    Christmas Joy can come from many sources.

  18. I’m not impressed with his reasoning

    Rufus:

    Zeihan didn’t offer much beyond agreeing with the MSM talking points.
    _______________________________________

    It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

    –Upton Sinclair
    _______________________________________

    It’s a problem.

  22. Having said that, I really dislike the commercialization of Christmas and when I am Queen of the World, there will be no decorations or music allowed until after Thanksgiving!

  23. @ Your Royal Highness > “when I am Queen of the World, there will be no decorations or music allowed until after Thanksgiving!”

    I’ll vote for that!

    Not too surprisingly, the gradual down-playing of Thanksgiving to just another excuse for bureaucrats to have a paid vacation seems to have a strong correlation with the generational loss of moral compasses.
    Now TG is a back-drop for the Marxist hordes to spout their oppressor-of-the-week garbage.

    Make Thanksgiving Great Again.

  24. @ huxley > “Go, Elon, go!”

    Works for me.
    Also from that interview, the foundation of his tirade appears at the end (long excerpt because I enjoyed seeing him twist Sorkin’s nose):

    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2023/11/30/elon_musk_lets_see_how_earth_responds_to_advertisers_trying_to_blackmail_twitter.html

    MUSK: Absolutely, totally, look. Actually, what this advertising boycott is going to do is it’s going to kill the company. And the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company and we will document it in great detail.

    SORKIN: But those advertisers, I imagine, they’re going to say, we didn’t kill the company.

    MUSK: Oh, yeah. Tell it to Earth.

    SORKIN: But they’re going to say — they’re going to say, Elon, that you killed the company, because you said these things and they were inappropriate things and they didn’t feel comfortable on the platform, right? That’s what they’re doing to say.

    MUSK: Let’s see how Earth responds to that.

    SORKIN: Something — okay, this goes back to —

    MUSK: We’ll both make our cases and we’ll see what the outcome is.

    SORKIN: What are the economics of that for you? You have enormous resources. You can keep this company going for a long time. Would you keep it going for a long time, if there was no advertising?

    MUSK: I mean, if the company fails because of an advertising boycott, it will fail because of an advertising boycott and that will be what bankrupts the company and that’s what everybody on Earth will know.

    SORKIN: What do you think, then of the — it goes back to the idea of trust.

    MUSK: It will be gone because of an advertising boycott.

    SORKIN: But you recognize that some of these people are going to say they didn’t feel comfortable on the platform, and I just wonder, I ask you, think about that —

    MUSK: Tell it to the judge.

    SORKIN: But the judge is going to be —

    MUSK: The judge is the public.

    SORKIN: And you think that the public is going to say that Disney is making a mistake?

    MUSK: Yes.

    SORKIN: And they’re going to boycott Disney?

    MUSK: They already are.

    SORKIN: Well, there are some that are for lots of different reasons, but you think this is going to — that you have the — this goes to actually the interesting thing of power and leverage.

    MUSK: Let the chips fall where they may. Let the chips fall where they may.

    SORKIN: Can I ask why that is the approach? and I ask it, because you’ve been —

    MUSK: What’s the other approach?

    SORKIN: You’ve been very particular about, I mean, the approach to Tesla, when you think about the engineering involved in that, the approach to SpaceX, the approach to some of the stuff you’re doing with AI has been very specific, right? There’s not, a “let the chips fall where they may” approach to those businesses, I don’t think.

    MUSK: No, we focus on making the best product. And Tesla’s gotten to where it’s gotten with no advertising at all… Tesla currently sells twice as much in terms of electric vehicles, than the rest of all the electric carmakers in the United States combined. Tesla has done more to help the environment than all other companies combined. It would be fair to say that as the leader of the company, I’ve done more for the environment than everyone — any single human on Earth.

    SORKIN: How do you feel about that?

    MUSK: How do I feel about that?

    SORKIN: No, I’m asking you personally how you feel about that, because we are talking about power and influence —

    MUSK: I’m saying what I care about is the reality of goodness, not the perception of it. And what I see all over the place is people who care about looking good while doing evil.

    John Hinderaker stands with Elon, who fesses up to committing the faux pas that triggered the faux-offended.
    Sometimes brevity is the soul of misunderstanding rather than wit.

    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/12/elon-isnt-perfect-but-hes-right.php

    Musk subsequently described his tweet as “foolish” and “literally the worst and dumbest post that I’ve ever done.” Nevertheless, it, together with a smear by Media Matters that purported to show prominent advisers that their ads were showing up adjacent to neo-Nazi content (they were, but only on Media Matters’ computers, having twisted the X algorithm), prompted a major exodus from the platform by advertisers like Apple, IBM, Comcast, Disney, Sony and others. What was striking to me about the advertiser exodus was how easily it was achieved. One tweet and a fake study by a far-left smear outfit, and one company after another was out the door. I think this says a lot more about big business’s hostility to conservatism than it does about Twitter or Musk.

    But was Musk’s tweet anti-Semitic? It grew out of his running battle with the Anti-Defamation League, which is a left-leaning organization that poses as a neutral defender of Jewish interests. Musk recently returned from a trip to Israel, and he has banned tweets that include sentiments like “from the river to the sea” from his platform. So, however ill-advised that one tweet might have been, there is zero reason to think he is anti-Semitic.

    The editors of the Free Beacon have taken up the case:

    Hinderaker linked this post, which goes back to the X-Tweet that kicked off the entire brouhaha:
    https://freebeacon.com/culture/elon-is-right-about-the-jews/

    Elon Musk is right about the Jews.

    Well, not all the Jews. But many of the Jewish leaders, who have repeatedly lined up behind the most noxious progressive causes, only to stand there, mouths agape as the boomerang soared right back and crashed into our faces.

    Here is what the pro-capitalist, pro-colonialist Musk told Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times Dealbook conference:

    “The Jewish people have been persecuted for thousands of years. There is a natural affinity, therefore, for persecuted groups. This has led to the funding of organizations that essentially promote any persecuted group or any group with the perception of persecution. This includes radical Islamic groups.” He continued, “Everyone here has seen the massive demonstrations for Hamas in every major city in the West. That should be jarring. Well, a number of those organizations receive funding from prominent people in Jewish community.”

    Musk used his appearance on stage to clarify a controversial tweet earlier this month that he conceded was “foolish,” and said, “What I meant to by that … is that it’s unwise to fund organizations, to support groups, that want your annihilation.”

    Norman Podhoretz couldn’t have said it better.

    Mr. Musk, fresh off his solidarity trip to Israel, has received endless abuse from Democrats, who insist he is not just an anti-Semite, but a racist, sexist, and all the other things leftists like to call people. The same people who would counsel Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to break bread with Hamas, like the editor-in-chief of the left-wing Israeli newspaper Haaretz’s English edition, Esther Solomon, assailed him for spending time with Musk.

    He is, as best we can tell, not an anti-Semite, a racist, a sexist, or anything or the sort. And on most of the Jews, alas, he is absolutely right. Jewish organizations spent millions of dollars supporting Black Lives Matter, the Women’s March, and many other faddish hotbeds of bigotry. They did so because they believed that by standing with anyone who claimed to be oppressed, they could prove themselves to be allies and progressives in good standing.

    The strategy has failed miserably, with many of those same progressive organizations now openly supporting Hamas.

    Luckily, Jewish donors and community leaders are wising up. They’re cutting financial support for elite madrassas, er, universities. They’re using lawfare to fight anti-Semites across the country. They’re marching in the streets against anti-Semitism.

    While they’re at it, they should get off Elon’s case too, and take heed of what he has to say. He’s right.

    I do think it’s ironic for the Leftist minions currently parading their pro-Hamas credentials to be fauxfended that Musk “is an anti-Semite.”

    Ben Shapiro, who does not shy away from calling out Jew haters, doesn’t feel that way.
    https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1725702681530945687

    A story I missed from September, when I was still cutting back on my internet addiction. Hinderaker alluded to the ADL vs Musk situation.

    https://www.jewishpress.com/news/jewish-news/antisemitism-news/live-elon-musk-ben-shapiro-jewish-leaders-meet-on-x/2023/09/28/

    Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, Neuralink, SpaceX and the ‘X’ social media platform (formerly Twitter), met Thursday evening for a two-hour discussion with conservative talk show host Ben Shapiro and his co-host, Ari Lamm, along with prominent Jewish leaders to discuss “X, antisemitism and what it all means for free speech.”

    Joining Musk and Shapiro were Natan Sharansky, Prof. Alan Dershowitz, Rabbi Menachem Margolin (chair of the European Jewish Association), Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Rabbi Manis Friedman, former Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, and Jewish public relations executive Asher Gold and others.

    There have been multiple claims in recent months, including from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), that antisemitism on X has increased since Musk took over the company. Musk has said the ADL has unfairly accused him of antisemitism, and has threatened to sue the organization, saying X has lost advertisers due to pressure from ADL.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the issue with Musk in their meeting on artificial intelligence during the prime minister’s visit to San Francisco, broadcast live on X on September 18. During their discussion, Netanyahu said he hopes Musk finds a way to roll back antisemitism on the site.

    “All I can say is I hope you find within the confines of the first amendment, the ability to stop not only antisemitism or roll it back as best you can, but any collective hatred of a people that you know that antisemitism represents, and I know you’re committed to that. I hope you succeed in it. It’s not an easy task…” he said.

    “I know you’re an advocate of free speech, and I am as well. It’s a foundation of democracy. Still, I hope you can find a way to curtail antisemitism and hate speech online, as you’ve condemned it in every possible way,” Netanyahu added.

    “Condemn it, yes, but to actually remove it from the platform is harder,” Musk explained. “Controversy is what keeps the X platform alive and vibrant, and ultimately is what drives civilization. What I can say is that we are trying to remove millions of bot accounts, so it will no longer be the one who pays the most who gets heard.

    “Free speech does mean that at times, someone you don’t like is saying something you don’t like. Otherwise, it’s not free speech … Our overall goal for X platform is to maximize unregretted user time,” he added.

    Lotta people at that conference who ought to know if Elon is anti-Semitic or not, and are perfectly capable of calling him out if they do.

    https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-745296
    Dershowitz: Jews shouldn’t be defending George Soros against Elon Musk – opinion
    No single person has done more to damage Israel’s standing in the world, and especially among so-called progressives, than George Soros. (2023-06-06)

    Too long to summarize, but Musk has been consistent about free speech, and the left hates that. The posting date is dark irony.
    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20022/musk-dershowitz-free-speech
    Alan Dershowitz and Elon Musk on Free Speech and Anti-Semitism
    by Alan M. Dershowitz October 6, 2023 at 5:00 am

    There is a bit of context missing from this one. No surprise.
    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/26/elon-musk-israel-president-isaac-herzog-benjamin-netanyahu
    Elon Musk to meet Israeli president amid antisemitism accusations on X
    Isaac Herzog’s office says president will emphasize the ‘need to act’ against rising anti-Jewish hate during tech billionaire’s visit

    https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-11-28/elon-musk-greeted-in-israel-as-a-head-of-state-the-geopolitics-of-big-tech.html

    Israelis don’t seem to be overly concerned about Elon’s admitted faux pas.

  25. Dersh’s op-ed at the Jerusalem Post revealed something I didn’t know, which connected a lot of dots for me.
    https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-745296

    No single person has done more to damage Israel’s standing in the world, and especially among so-called progressives, than George Soros. Without his support, the two major organizations that have done the most to shift the left-wing paradigm against Israel, would not have the pernicious influence they currently possess.

    Human Rights Watch was founded by publisher and human rights advocate Robert Bernstein. For years it critiqued the denial of human rights by all countries based on two criteria: the seriousness of the human rights violations in any particular nation; and the inability of the citizens of that nation to protest and remedy such violations. Then a Soros-funded radical anti-Israel zealot named Kenneth Roth took over the organization and turned it into an organization that specialized in demonizing Israel without regard to the previously outlined criteria.
    …
    After that, matters got even worse.

    Roth deployed “human rights” as a weapon targeting Israel. Its one-sided “reports” were used as primary justifications and excuses for selective condemnation of Israel by the United Nations and its various committees. They were also circulated on university campuses around the world. Despite their obvious anti-Israel bias, supporters pointed to the fact that Roth too is of Jewish heritage, thus purporting to lend credibility to his anti-Israel accusations.
    …
    Soros contributed $100,000,000 to Roth’s organization. (The Guardian, September 7, 2010) And since he has been funding this organization, its priorities have shifted even more to singling out Israel for demonization and applying a double standard to the nation-state of the Jewish people. The impact of this demonization cannot be overstated: HRW has done more to turn the international community and progressives against Israel than any other organization. This is ALL Soros’s fault, and Soros is justly condemned for shifting this paradigm against Israel.

    The second most influential organization in turning progressives against Israel is another Soros-funded group: J Street. Despite its claim to be a progressive pro-Israel and pro-Palestine organization, J Street has done much to turn most progressive and some liberal Democrats – especially members of Congress, as well as academics and media pundits – against Israel. Soros contributed a million dollars to J Street, which, according to Haaretz is “20 times larger than any previous donation J Street Action Fund received” (August 23, 2022). J Street now lobbies Congress against Israel and supports candidates who are virulently anti-Israel, as does Soros.
    …
    I, TOO, have been a strident critic of Soros, and his pernicious influence not only on Israel but on American domestic issues, such as his funding of progressive candidates for district attorneys, such as Alvin Bragg and Chesa Boudin, who have politicized law enforcement. My criticism of Soros did not include comparing him to “Magneto,” who, like Soros, survived the Holocaust. I would not make that comparison because I had never heard of this super-villain, but I agree with Musk that Soros’s acts, contributions and motivation do contribute to the erosion of the “fabric of civilization.”
    …
    Musk himself has shown no hostility toward Israel or the Jewish people. He is not an antisemite, and what he said is not antisemitic.
    …
    Even so, every Jew should condemn antisemitic and illegitimate misuse of Soros’s Jewish heritage. But this misuse should not prevent or deter legitimate criticism of Soros’s individual influence on the world, not as a Jew but as a super-villain in his own right.

  26. Now to see if the Left can apply its standards (cough) equitably.
    https://ace.mu.nu/archives/407247.php

    Libs of TikTok @libsoftiktok
    4h

    Literally shaking. The same day a report comes out that TikTok is the main driver of antisemitism on social media, I get a @Disney ad on TikTok.

    .@RobertIger since we know you’re very concerned with your ads appearing near antisemitic content, I thought you would want to know about this.

    .@mmfa feel free to reach out to me for comment when you write up this story about @Disney’s ads on TikTok urging them to stop advertising on the platform.

  27. huxley, Rufus, if they were playing Sinatra and Tormé I wouldn’t be using my earplugs. The stuff I heard in the store yesterday was more or less tuneless, and just plain awful.

  28. AesopFan:

    Great job filling out the background to the Musk story. I like the way you bold the particularly relevant bits.

    I’m not sure you ever stopped being a researcher!

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