He is 79. I am sorry to say I did not know he was alive. He has lost weight, looks good. He is a joy to listen too.
Paid off the loan after 30 yrs, a very expensive fiddle.
I was struck yesterday by the appearance of Bill Clinton. We are the same age (well he is 2 months older), but he does look old, and his voice has really aged.
Bill Clinton: U.S. Needs Migrants Because of Americans’ Low Birth Rate
[funny, they knew even back as far as Reagan this was going to happen. Too bad they didnt clue in the women and others who would destroy a million year familial line of life… everything that is alive, has a direct connection to the first thing that was alive… that is it… from bacteria slime, everything has endeavored to survive and go forward EXCEPT modern feminist women… now, do you think the people they are using to putty in replacements are going to hold the things that those harridan morons of self-extermination wanted for the future? or something more akin to a boot on a neck forever… ]
[first it was we had to import them to do the jobs we wouldnt do (after all, the dead people not born dont work and the idiots taking feminist studies dont really work either]
The United States needs more migrants to replace the children that Americans are not producing, former President Bill Clinton said at a press event on Sunday.
“America is not having enough babies to keep our populations up, so we need immigrants that have been vetted to do work,” Clinton said at a fish fry in Fort Valley, Georgia.
“We got the lowest birth rate we’ve had in well over 100 years. We’re not at replacement level, which means we got to have somebody come here if we want to keep growing the economy.”
[in less than 15 years near 60 million americans will leave… It was funny when a girl attacked me at my last job yelling at me that i was some conservative that wanted to roll back the clock. i pointed out its reactionaries that want to go back, and that all us conservatives wanted was things like smaller government and fewer loans… yeah, she yelled… but i said… you have two girls.. yes.. well, i am so glad that all us non conservatives that borrowed the money will die off and leave those kids with the bill… if you think the amount is large now… wait 10-20 years when the boomers are gone!]
However, mass migration into the United States makes it difficult for Americans to have enough babies because it drives down family wages, pushes up housing prices, and distracts national leaders from delivering policies that help Americans have more babies.
Clinton’s comment came as he tried to excuse the inflow of migrants, despite the inevitability that some migrants murder Americans, such as Laken Riley, a young, unmarried woman in Georgia.
[killing citizens by immigrants has happend for my whole life!! remember Adrienne Shelly??? Police initially said Shelly’s death in 2006 was a suicide. Her husband, Andy Ostroy, insisted on a re-evaluation, which resulted in a conviction of a construction worker. The man had been working in her office apartment building; he was convicted of first-degree manslaughter.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrienne_Shelly – that was November 1, 2006… She had just had a baby recently too… the minute you see her you will recognize her!!! Did Ronald Reagan regret 1986 immigrant ‘amnesty’ law? Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kelli Ward has made the point several times: President Ronald Reagan’s “biggest regret” was granting amnesty as part of 1986 immigration-reform legislation and then counting on Congress to secure the border
August report by CNN:
In 2023, the US fertility rate fell another 3% from the year before, to a historic low of about 55 births for every 1,000 females ages 15 to 44, according to final data published Tuesday by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. Just under 3.6 million babies were born last year, about 68,000 fewer than the year before.
Since 2007, when the fertility rate was at its most recent high, the number of births has declined 17%, and the general fertility rate has declined 21%, according to the new report.
…
A “package of demographic changes” – people getting married later and less often, spending more years in school and taking longer to get economically established in a steady job, to name a few – align with birth rate trends, said [Sarah Hayford, director of the Institute for Population Research at The Ohio State University].
[i wonder if the new residents will go up against the 30 million “extra” chinese in battle? our military is only 2-3 million… can it go up against a force 10 times larger?
if they are perfect shots, it will take 30 million bullets… think a reduced pop can even manufacture enough to compet with the production capacity of the new China?
“China’s growing high male-female sex ratio at birth has lasted for almost 30 years and the accumulative effects of this will lead to a 30 million surplus of men at marriageable age over the next 30 years,”
lets see… let in 1 million of them over open border… have them take lessons in weapons… get licenses… etc.. (they are doing that now!)… and like those pesky guys who took flight lessons without learning how to land………….]
“When the cost of housing rises, fertility falls … certainly that’s not really something that’s even necessarily debated anymore because it is so obviously the case,” demographer Lyman Stone told Breitbart News in November 2023.
The government could raise the Americans’ birth rate if it raised productivity by cutting migration.
[hey… we passed over it.. how can you have global warming if everyone is doing the depopulation tango?]
Clinton admitted the productivity alternative on Monday by saying “we’ve got to have somebody come here if we want to grow the economy unless one of you artificial intelligence geniuses has figured out how we can all grow with no work.”
But Clinton’s preference for migrants over American childbirths is the norm within the Democratic Party, mostly because the party is dominated by the alliance of pro-migration progressives who dislike borders and investors who gain from an inflow of cheap workers, government-funded consumers, and apartment-sharing renters.
[and not one mention of an ideology that has women kill their babies. put off birthts till its too late… save eggs for men that are not going to show up… being proud cat ladies who hate the future… and on and on… NOT ONE THING ON THE FEMINIST AGENDA LEADS TO ANYTHING OTHER THAN SELF EXTERMINATION. even funnier… if only hitler did this, he would still be a hero in their eyes… but he got caught.. but now, they have enough support they can sing from the river to the sea from the white towers of academia while accusing their opposition of being jew killing nazis, and they being innocent]
In November 2022, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) subordinated American families to the welfare of migrants:
We’re short of workers. We have a population that is not reproducing on its own with the same level that it used to. The only way we’re going to have a great future in America is if we welcome and embrace immigrants, the dreamers and all of them — because our ultimate goal is to help the dreamers [illegals who were brought in by their parents] get a path to citizenship for all 11 million — or however many undocumented there are here [Emphasis added].
[personally… i am making a fortune from investing towrads this… after DEI got everyone fired… and the place went to crap… and no one steering this any other way… the only thing that remained was to exploit it… i can even show my investments are up over 45% since november… ]
[you realize that there IS a way to make book on this given history.. eh?]
U.K.’s Guardian newspaper reported:
Campaigners have warned that “procreation has become a luxury item”, after it emerged that the fertility rate in England and Wales had fallen to its lowest level since records began in 1939.
Official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed “total fertility”, calculated based on the birthrate across different age groups, fell to 1.49 children per woman in 2022.
That is well below the rate of 2.1 needed to maintain a steady population without significant immigration. In total, there were 605,479 live births in 2022, according to the ONS, down 3.1% from a year earlier, and the lowest number since 2002.
Amid Justin Trudeau’s record-breaking migration in Canada, CBC reported in September:
Canada recorded its lowest ever fertility rate for the second year in a row in 2023, according to Statistics Canada.
The country recorded a rate of 1.26 children born per woman, according to the agency, with British Columbia having the nation’s lowest fertility rate at one child per woman.
“We can see that every single estimate of ideal or desired fertility, including our hardcore minimum estimate from adjusted GSS data, is way above actual fertility,” a 2018 report by the Institute for Family Studies said. The report added:
What this comparison makes clear is that no matter whether you use intended or ideal fertility, women report greater childbearing ambitions than they have achieved or are likely to achieve, and this has been the case for a long time.
Cut the data however you like, use whatever indicator floats your boat, and you’ll find the ship of American fertility sinking, steadily underperforming what women have been saying they want or intend.
Longer hours, lower wages, less consistent employment, high childcare costs, poor access to credit, burdensome loans, all-too-few good husband candidates — take your pick of the problem — a growing number of women are simply lowering their expectations for their own family lives, even as they continue to believe that something like 2.3 kids would be ideal for them [emphasis added].
[This is why i say the average feminist is a victim… no one on that side told them what the outcome would be… anyone who did. like me. got attacked or ignored while there was still time… most just chatted their way, playing their lyre like nero, feeling suprior, and did NOTHING… so right now they have a front row seat to the carnage that will come if they survive long enough… if you dont think so, then look to the history you didnt want to learn!!!!!!!]
China Has Nearly 35 Million More Single Men Than Women
The population data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on May 11 showed the country now has 1.41 billion people, an increase of 0.53 percent from 10 years earlier. China has 723.34 million men
In China and India, men outnumber women by 70 million. Both nations are belatedly trying to come to grips with the policies that created this male-heavy generation
In China, there is a name for unmarried men over 30. Shengnan, meaning “leftover men” have yet to find a wife – and in a country with a growing gender gap, that’s a big problem.
the big problem is that the ladies dont want to marry, they want to be like american feminists…
CHAT GPT says
When a nation has a significant imbalance of men of war age several historical outcomes can occur:
Military Aggression: The entity with a surplus of fighting-age men may feel emboldened to engage in military expansion, potentially leading to invasions or territorial conquests. This is often seen in history when a state perceives itself as having a military advantage.
Internal Strain: A large pool of young men can lead to social and economic pressures if there aren’t enough opportunities or resources. This could result in unrest, as these individuals may seek purpose or fulfillment through military action.
Diplomatic Leverage: The imbalance can also provide a strategic advantage in negotiations, as the stronger military presence can deter potential conflicts or allow for more favorable treaties.
Alliances and Coalitions: Nations with fewer men might seek alliances with others to counterbalance the threat, leading to shifts in geopolitical dynamics and new coalitions forming.
Cultural and Social Changes: A large number of men of war age might influence the culture and societal structures, fostering a warrior ethos or militaristic society, which can affect everything from politics to gender roles.
you all have front row seats!!!
your going to LOVE all the things that are going to come for you to talk about
not very good stuff… but hey, you live in interesting times, and everyone did the feminist abdication of responsibility for the future… and really… should us old people fight the young we allowed to be corrupted to save them from themselves? fie no… their kids would finish the job we could not.
and if you think the birth rate is at the level of extermination, then you will understand the boost to the negative drafting women will bring…
and the song “how you going to keep them down on the farm” needs to be rewritten for how you going to get illegal immigrants and males in this country with no hope of families given hypergamy, to fight to save a country that did what to them and women who did what
ENJOY!!!
Gad Saad, in a nice video I came across this morning, brings up “the four stages of acceptance” (of a new theory) from the late biologist, J.B.S. Haldane, to wit:
1. This [new theory] is worthless nonsense,
2. This is an interesting, but perverse, point of view,
3. This is true, but quite unimportant,
4. I always said so.
Saad was trying to explain why it is so hard to change someone’s mind about a closely-held belief, even when the evidence against the belief is overwhelming. (These stages remind me of a series of “laws” enunciated by Michael Anton which describe how the Left denies something is happening, then, when the something is proven to be happening, their fallback position is, “it’s a good thing it is happening.”)
Saad’s video was prompted by the exchange between Martha Raddatz and J.D. Vance over the gangs of Aurora, CO. I think we might be witnessing, in Vance’s stance in that exchange, the creation of a “permission structure” that bridges a persuadable to the MAGA side. Vance loosens the network’s hold on the viewer, and reframes the question to allow a persuadable to see his own priorities and identify with them, against the will of the network. It should be tremendously effective, assuming there are any persuadables within earshot.
Here’s the video, cued to where Saad quotes Haldane:
Michael Millerman reads (and comments on) an article by Nicholas E. Low in the Harvard Divinity Bulletin (Spring/Summer 2024) entitled “Dreaming of Superhumans: New Reactionary Nietzschean Fantasies“, (1:13:57): https://www.youtube.com/live/BNJhzvpCyzw
Citations include but are not limited to Trump, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Mark Andreessen, BAP, Graeme Wood, Curtis Yarvin, Michael Anton, Palmer Luckey, Allan Bloom, Leo Strauss, Francis Fukuyama, Nick Land, Laurence Lampert, Alexander Dugin, as well as the usual Western suspects: Nietzsche, Plato, Hegel, Heidegger, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and etc.
There’s a “liberal’s” nightmare lurking about, perhaps needless to say. How not, what with so very many anti-liberals running loose and saying whatever they like?
A 30-year loan on a violin. Amazing.
I did take note of Bill Clinton expounding on why America needs a flood of immigrants. Oh, it’s all about the economy according to Bill. No mention of diluting the value of your vote or mine with votes they can buy, which is the Democrat’s primary motive.
I have to laugh that they (the Dems and mainstream media) keep trotting out that same tired old number, 10.5 or 11 million illegal immigrants currently in the US. Year after year, decade after decade… the same number.
But Clinton’s preference for migrants over American childbirths is the norm within the Democratic Party, mostly because the party is dominated by the alliance of pro-migration progressives who dislike borders and investors who gain from an inflow of cheap workers, government-funded consumers, and apartment-sharing renters. — ArtflDgr
When I first moved permanently to California in 1986, I got a subscription to the SF Chronicle (could have been the Examiner) because I thought I would be visiting frequently. In 1987 perhaps, they ran an extensive series of exposé articles on the wrangling between two ardent factions of people within the Sierra Club. Both left of center groups.
One group wanted a flood of immigrants, legal or illegal, for the political power. That is, vote dilution. They won the battle.
But the other group consisted of people who actually cared about the environment and had bought into the notion that human consumption was the key blight on poor mother earth Gaia. Their logic was that a human subsisting in Honduras had a much lower carbon or consumption footprint, than that same person would once they migrate to the US. That faction lost the battle.
“Failure to demonstrate a sustained commitment to implementing and maintaining these measures may have implications for U.S. policy under NSM-20 and relevant U.S. law,” the letter states.
The demands from Blinken and Austin focus on three categories: Increasing the supply of humanitarian aid by the start of winter; facilitating the aid delivery route through Jordan; and ending the “isolation” of northern Gaza.
That latter “demand” looks like a war-fighting measure Israel undertakes to prevent Hamas from returning into areas they’ve abandoned, hence (my surmise), the most probable crippling sticking-point to Israeli national security.
In any case, rest assured the actual situation for Gazan “civilians” is far less dire than Israel’s enemies in the Obama-Biden administration will portray.
That little skit of Walz as a hunter reminded me of something. A guy I know, Rob, runs an aircraft maintenance business and also rescues mistreated dogs…and trains some of them as hunting dogs. He said he was guiding a hunt once when a guy missed what should have been an easy shot and the dog turned around and looked at Rob…obviously thinking “Can you believe this guy?”
Maybe similar to the thoughts of the dogs accompanying the Walz expedition.
Clinton says we need more migrants to makes up for the birth rate going down….this from a guy whose party encourages the killing of babies. How clueless can they be?
@physicsguy:How clueless can they be?
Clueless like a fox.
After the uprising of the 17th of June
The Secretary of the Writers’ Union
Had leaflets distributed on the Stalinallee
Which stated that the people
Had squandered the confidence of the government
And could only win it back
By redoubled work [quotas]. Would it not in that case
Be simpler for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?
Israel Update, Mike and Gadi, the news and so on, “Is Hezbollah Regrouping?” (1:02:27): https://youtu.be/bzkkA4hzvF4
Perlman playing bluegrass. It’s fun to think that’s his Stradivarius. Love the laughter at the end….
Lifted from the comments:
This was taken from the TV show “Music and the Mountains”, an episode from 1981, hosted by John Denver and filmed in Aspen, CO
John Denver is playing a Gibson F-5 Carved Top Mandolin, circa 1940s.
Danny Wheetman on the second fiddle who later became a member of Marley’s Ghost ect .
Song is in the key of A.
The song is “Bill Cheatham” -It’s a classic fiddle tune that’s been used in fiddle contests as far back as the late 1800’s and has been part of the essential bluegrass repertoire since the early days of bluegrass. “Bill Cheatham” has been popular for much of the twentieth century in the Upper South, and it has been recorded periodically by country and bluegrass fiddlers as a fiddling set piece.
Thank Ruth. Just watched the video. I like Bluegrass, use to go to Rockygrass in Lyons, CO. I will note that Perlman is also wearing cowboy boots.
Art, could you please break the book into chapters, with a comment per chapter?
It’s like a mortgage loan for a multimillion-dollar house. I’m guessing if and when he sells it he’ll have made a tidy profit. I believe they go for $15-20 million dollars now.
Younger players often have wealthy patrons who own these violins and lend them out. Of course there are lots of great stories of these instruments being left in taxicabs, etc. I think one involved cellist Yo-Yo Ma. And Nina Totenberg of NPR notoriety was connected with one that had been stolen and missing for decades, but ultimately was recovered. I believe her father was a noted violinist.
Everything liberals are pushing drives our birth rate lower. Abortion. Mutilating women into infertile transmen. Destroy the family. It doesn’t take a village to raise a child, it takes a family.
The Library’s Music Division was established by 1896. From 1924 to 1935, aided by the philanthropy of two remarkable women, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge and Gertude Clarke Whittall, the mission of the Music Division included musical performance and music commissions. The unprecedented generosity and foresight of these two patrons furthered the Library’s musical activities. There were chamber music concerts (which included the legendary Gregor Piatigorsky, Artur Rubinstein, the Budapest String Quartet, the Beaux Arts Trio, and the Juilliard String Quartet), a broadcast series, commissions, lectures, festivals, and the gift of musical instruments, commencing with Whittall’s gift, in 1935, of a quartet of stringed instruments by Antonio Stradivari. This quartet of instruments, most likely the first such quartet held by a public institution in the United States, along with the subsequent addition of a fifth Whittall Stradivari violin, formed the cornerstone of the Library’s “Cremonese” collection, as it is now sometimes called.
These occasional performance concerts were “free” to the public, though required limited issue tickets to be obtained at an early hour at one location (a music store as I recall, though the name escapes me) in downtown DC back in the day (circa 1970-80 in my experience). I attended a goodly number of them, set in an intimate hall at the library. Sweet stuff. I don’t know whether they continue today, though they ought to do.
Caroline Glick Show, Caroline interviews Tony Badran on US Lebanon policy — and it’s insane: https://youtu.be/uppDoDW3VRc
sdferr, did you see Ben Franklin’s Glass Armonica at the Smithsonian? Why that instrument isn’t more widely known is a mystery. I got to hear it played in the summer of 1967 while attending The National Conference on Forced Service (to end the draft) sponsored by the Metropolitan Young Republican Club of NYC. To say that it is ethereal sounding is an understatement. Mozart among others composed music for it. Makes the hair on your neck stand up!
I’m certain I’ve seen that Franklin instrument, even probably heard it Other Chuck, but so long ago as to have deeply dimmed to memory. I used to kind of live in the Smithsonians as a 13 yr old kid; on weekends betimes my mom would drop me off at the opening hour and then pick me up at 3:00 after I’d wandered the various buildings as interest or curiosity moved me. Then many years later as it happened she went to work as S. Dillon Ripley’s assistant; betimes I’d drop her off in the morning and pick her up at the end of the workday. Heh. Turnabout as fair play!
…If Washington was merely telling Israel not to spike oil prices three weeks before an election—and offering to throw Israel a bone in exchange for the favor—we might be able to believe the U.S. posture was about domestic politics. What we’re seeing instead is a desperate, three-front American effort to protect Iran and its proxies from Israeli military pressure, while simultaneously trying to take retrospective credit for that pressure . It’s the Obama-Biden policy as it has been pursued consistently across two administrations, irrespective of public opinion or elections, and as it will no doubt be pursued under a potential Harris administration. The details change, but the story is always the same: The United States acts as a protector of Iran’s regional empire so that Tehran can serve as Washington’s partner in managing the Middle East. That Iran has thus far proved both inept and uncooperative has not dimmed American enthusiasm for the policy in the slightest. On the contrary, as with all utopian schemes, failure only proves we haven’t worked hard enough.
Israel would be smart to refuse to go along with this policy, regardless of the potential effect on the U.S. election, since it’s disastrous for Israel and bad for America, too. But if, by pursuing Israel’s own interests, Bibi could help deliver the coup de grâce to a tottering Obama-Biden regime … well, that would be the icing on the cake.
[Emphasis mine: Barry M.]
Continued…
I wouldn’t call “Biden”’s scheme “utopian”, though.
It’s anything but
Entirely evil, it’s malice aforethought; and its intention is to weaken Israel—for Israel’s benefit of course—to the extent that it can then be destroyed—for the benefit of the entire world.
I know you’re a fan of the arts, and while I’m not one to brag or plug anything, I thought you might enjoy my husband’s barbershop quartet. They won gold this year at the international competition. But my favorite song they’ve sung will forever be this one, from last year’s competition in which they placed 4th: https://youtu.be/32QPITy3F0c?si=Q700yv7FcmNiOnrN
When I decide to listen to Itzhak Perlman (which is not often enough, because he’s a treasure for humanity), I start with the last movement of Brahms’ Violin Concerto. Magnificent. That, not anything that Kamala Harris can offer or even conceive of, is joy. Joy in living, in great music, in being able to make it happen. When I listen to it, all I can think of is Perlman smiling all the way through.
Then I move on to Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, and Perlman’s smile stays with me.
I once owned a Stradivarius viola.
I was a sixth-grader and the fancy Marin school I attended had a school orchestra. My stepfather played bass in the San Francisco Symphony and I wanted to please him by taking up a string instrument. I chose viola because, well, everyone else picked violin. (I didn’t realize how boring viola parts usually were.)
Anyway. My stepfather bought me a viola, I assume from a pawn shop, for a modest sum. Then one day I looked through the f-holes and saw a label inscribed in Latin to the effect Stradivarius built this viola in Cremona in 1685.
Of course it was a fake, but it was pretty darn exciting for this sixth-grader.
Halcyon days.
I’ve always wanted to be a musician, but I got the classical thing put down on me young. I didn’t think I could live up to it. I was probably right.
So the electric guitar is an out-of-the-box solution, as well as an interesting one.
Obviously I have no future as an electric guitarist. It’s something I’m doing for my own joy and satisfaction.
No expectations.
@ The Other Chuck > “Ben Franklin’s Glass Armonica at the Smithsonian”
I had the opportunity to see that marvelous instrument some 40 years ago (I don’t remember exactly when, sometime in the 1980s I think).
Everything you said is so true.
Israel vs the US continued, specifically the claims in the Free Beacon post that Biden Inc. threatened to withhold arms unless Israel increased “humanitarian” aid to Gaza (also known as supplying the Hamas black market).
Israeli forces stationed along the border with Lebanon continue to discover Hezbollah tunnel systems, used to store weapons, medical supplies, and move militants into Israeli territory. Inside these bunkers, Israel has found “new weaponry” from Russian and Chinese sources, suggesting that Iran’s top global allies are helping to fuel Hezbollah’s war, according to the New York Post.
Videos from one of around 700 Hezbollah weapons depots discovered in southern Lebanon also showed items supplied by the United States Agency for International Development and the United Nations World Food Programme.
The appearance of these items indicates that, like Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah is diverting international humanitarian aid to fuel its war effort.
The Scroll post also mentioned this recent story, validating their warnings about and actions to thwart this anti-Semitic group.
The sanctions, unveiled on Tuesday, describe Samidoun as “a sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.” They mark the most severe action to date against the group, cutting off its ability to fundraise across North America.
All U.S. citizens are now barred from doing business with Samidoun, and the group must forfeit any properties held in the country. That could prove costly for the U.S. activist groups that have embraced it.
Samidoun, for example, has maintained a strong relationship with anti-Israel student groups, most notably Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which invited Samidoun to teach a March lecture on “Palestinian resistance” and the “fight for liberation.” During the event, Samidoun leaders Charlotte Kates and her husband, Khaled Barakat, explicitly endorsed terrorism against Jews. The United States also slapped sanctions on Barakat for engaging in “fundraising and recruitment” efforts for the PFLP’s “terrorist activity against Israel.”
Samidoun, as a legal subsidiary of the left-wing nonprofit Alliance for Global Justice, is also part of an American dark money network funded by progressive billionaires, the Free Beacon reported last year. Liberal dark money behemoths such as the New Venture Fund, the Tides Center, and the Tides Foundation gave the alliance more than $9 million in 2021.
The new sanctions leveled against Samidoun should put those groups on notice, said Anne Herzberg, a human rights lawyer and NGO Monitor legal adviser.
The Samidoun supporters will just start over with a new name.
Does anyone really believe that all of the anti-Israel protests since 10/7 (and before) are some kind of organic expression of legitimate popular sentiment?
Like Occupy Wall Street, Antifa, BLM, the enviro-nuts, Code Pink, most of the Floyd-era riots, and probably every left-wing cause in the US, they are well funded and professionally organized.
If the people participating in the protests are nonetheless often willing believers, well, there’s a reason for the cliche “useful idiots.”
Also h/t The Scroll (they run a “round-up” of current news after the “main feature” of the post).
Excellent description and analysis of the Democrat agenda, in service to the Global Left.
What has changed in America that brought us here? For most of the past century, the country was governed through a system of distributed rule wielded by local parties, individual voters, civic institutions, independent power centers such as the press, and competing regional elites. Over the past two decades, this system has been replaced by one that is highly centralized and dominated by a party of concentrated wealth, state-corporate collusion, and progressive monoculture. Recognizing the long-term trends in digital technology and economic globalization, President Barack Obama and other progressive leaders built a new kind of vertically integrated, national political organization. The key was unifying America’s professional-managerial class and federal bureaucracies with its progressive billionaires, especially those in Silicon Valley, in the mutually supportive structure of a party-state.
In this new approach, the state initiates “whole of society” campaigns, a term popularized in Obama’s second term. That is, the state enacts policies and then “enlists” corporations, NGOs, and even individual citizens to enforce them—creating a 360-degree regulative power made up of the companies you do business with, the civic organizations that you think provide your communal safety net, and perhaps your neighbors. Any group or individual violating those policies faces censorship, social cancellation, and even denial of access to banking, credit, and other essential services.
The might of this system was publicly unveiled in the 2016 whole-of-society attack on Trump. Every aligned institution in America, from the New York Times to the CIA, lent its credibility to unfounded claims that Trump was an agent of Vladimir Putin, or a fascist leading an American Nazi movement, or some other heinously disqualifying label. The details were less important than justifying a state of emergency, in which Trump and his supporters could be treated as national security threats and denied constitutional protections. Despite ultimately failing to prevent Trump’s election, the 2016 exercise validated the potential and organizational structure of the whole-of-society playbook. It fueled the funding and growth of a vast network of nonprofits dedicated to “protecting democracy” and “election integrity.”
These organizations now occupy a quasi-permanent space in the U.S. political and electoral infrastructure. Using this network, the party-state seeks to control elections. A comprehensive review of all the groups, techniques, and actions involved in this endeavor would require an encyclopedia-length book. The aim here is to provide an overview of some of the main lines of effort. These roughly fall into four categories: lawfare, censorship, institutional interference and targeted policy, and information operations.
Most of the foundational information is not news to political junkies, but some of their conclusions are worth pondering.
For instance:
They use lawfare because it works.
McCarthy attributes the alleged failure of lawfare to the backlash it engendered “because it violated our instinctive American sense of fairness,” and to the “overzealousness of the prosecutors” that left their cases vulnerable to legal remedies. This assumes that the American political system of 2024 is the one that existed before the rise of the progressive party-state. Whatever the ultimate disposition of the cases against Trump, his opponents have succeeded in branding him a felon, tying him up in the courts (thus hindering his campaign), and demonstrating that they will wield the power of false arrest against their enemies. The correct measure of lawfare’s defeat is not what happens to Trump now but whether progressives continue to utilize it in the future.
…
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington D.C. has an overall conviction rate at trial of about 70 percent, according to William Shipley, a former federal prosecutor now representing many of the J6 defendants; as of August 1, the office is running a 100 percent conviction rate at J6 trials.
Often alluded to in the Twitter Files and by conservative reporters, but not well known by the followers of the Regime Media:
The coordinating hub of the censorship industrial complex was an organization called the Election Integrity Partnership.
The seeds of the EIP were planted on January 6, 2017, when the head of the Department of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, unilaterally placed control over the entire U.S. electoral system, formerly run by 8,000 local election jurisdictions, under the DHS. This extraordinary power grab, little noted at the time, except by state electoral officials who objected to having their authority usurped, applied to more than just voting machines. With just days left in office, amid an atmosphere of Russia-panic, the Obama administration effectively deputized a federal agency to oversee all online speech on national security grounds.
The effects of this takeover are still not widely appreciated, but one result was the establishment in 2018 of a new agency inside the DHS called the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Its mission: to defend America’s infrastructure from foreign attacks—now including the Internet as a component of its election systems. But having adopted the censorship of disinformation and misinformation as its goal, the agency faced legal obstacles to carrying this out, starting with the First Amendment. To overcome this hurdle, it helped launch the EIP in July 2020 as a consortium of private and nongovernmental groups, empowered to police the Internet for supposed disinformation. In an internal briefing, later leaked to the public, EIP director Alex Stamos noted that the group was created “to try to fill the gap of the things that the government could not do themselves,” as the government “lacked both kinda the funding and the legal authorizations.” The EIP’s officials would repeatedly claim that theirs was an independent body, not a government cutout.
…
Less than two weeks after Election Day in 2020, CISA director Christopher Krebs declared the vote “the most secure in American history,” and was promptly fired by President Trump. Just two months later, in January 2021, the EIP’s Stamos partnered with Krebs to open a new cybersecurity consulting firm.
…
Continuous ideological curation is now the norm throughout most of the media and Internet. Sometimes it gets carried out indiscernibly, for instance by filtering search results and artificial intelligence “answer bots.” In other cases, it operates through the guise of nominally objective bodies, such as the modern fact-checking industry. …Traditional fact-checking was typically an entry-level job, paid for from within a publication’s editorial budget. It provided an internal audit to make a publication more reliable, and thus more valuable to readers. Modern fact-checking, by contrast, was constructed over the past decade through centralized institutions like the International Fact Checking Network to police public debate.
Second, the army of fact-checkers now embedded in U.S. news outlets don’t concern themselves with the accuracy of their own publications. Instead, they use a facade of scientific objectivity to play the role of truth cops, arbitrating disputes on politically contentious matters. On matters of significance, their rulings inevitably align with the interests of progressives. With a massive infusion of funding from left-wing billionaires, fact-checking has emerged as one of the only growth fields in a journalism industry that faces cratering revenues.
The record of the modern fact-checkers proves that, for progressives, it has been money well spent.
(continued in next comment)
City Journal post continued.
Iowahawk’s “skinsuit” analogy is developed at length, including Zuckerbucks in 2020, Biden Inc. enabling non-citizen voting, DNC blocking candidates from the 2024 ballot, and a particularly disquieting example.
Institutional interference and targeted policy, the third line of effort, is the broadest and shares the most with traditional electoral politics. It differs, however, by co-opting institutions and processes whose neutrality is key to civic peace into the realm of partisan politics. The category encompasses actions taken by nominally independent institutions, and by astro-turfed organizations operating under the auspices of neutrality.
…
The “whole-of-society” approach leaves no institution outside the party-state’s reach. Thus, even doctors and hospital patients are being mobilized to drive votes. Records recently obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reveal the progressive nonprofit Vot-ER’s role in helping to draft a 2021 White House executive order on “promoting access to voting.” Technically, IRS rules require voter registration groups to be nonpartisan. But, as Park MacDougald writes in The Scroll, Vot-ER “has all the trappings of a Democratic get-out-the-vote effort.” The group was founded in 2021 by “Biden White House fellow Alister Martin with seed funding from Tides and Arabella,” two of the largest donor funds channeling money to party-state causes. In practice, Vot-ER “partners with local federally qualified health centers—which this year received an additional $4.4 billion from the Biden administration—to register low-income Medicare and Medicaid recipients to vote.” Martin, who now sits on a Department of Health and Human Services advisory panel responsible for outreach to “minority and underserved communities,” explained Vot-ER’s approach in a 2023 interview with the Aspen Institute. First the group tries to channel federal funds “directly into the pockets of low-income patients,” and “then we can have a conversation with them in six months, nine months about voter registration.”
The Washington Free Beacon recently revealed a particularly macabre Vot-ER scheme, in which doctors at the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute register their mentally disturbed patients to vote, claiming that voting is “a therapeutic tool.” Schizophrenic and suicidal patients are among those being pushed to register. The effort is not exclusive to psychiatric facilities. The Beacon’s Aaron Sibarium reports that Vot-ER has provided its voter-registration toolkit to “cancer hospitals, emergency rooms, substance abuse clinics, palliative care departments,” and “neonatal intensive care units.”
I don’t think Republicans can even imagine such an abusive GOTV strategy!
The most elusive of the party-state’s strategies, information operations are also the most characteristic of its distinctive approach to politics. These are the continuous manufacturing of pseudo-events and “current things” that define the contemporary psychic atmosphere and distinguish it from earlier epochs in America’s political life. Using trusted government sources to plant stories in newspapers, injecting tropes online by seeding them into the digital networks of social media influencers (isn’t J. D. Vance, like, so weird), shadow-regulating search-engine algorithms to determine what kinds of stories appear in a person’s feed, pressuring social media firms to amplify certain stories, thereby generating network effects—all fall under the broad banner of information operations.
Information operations are not simply a method of spreading particular messages. The constant stream of narratives also conditions the public to accept an indefinite state of emergency, in which it relies on “trusted sources” to warn it of the latest danger.
…
The party-state’s ability to replace Joe Biden with Kamala Harris in a matter of weeks, and with the support of Democratic voters (in effect, disenfranchising 15 million primary voters who had overwhelmingly endorsed the president’s reelection bid) and most of the media, signals that it now has the power to make more or less anything seem normal.
Jacob Siegel’s conclusion is generally true, but the last sentence is rather a vapid coda to an otherwise excellent argument:
Is such an approach to politics sustainable? The progressive party-state’s coalition is held together by two binding forces—the distribution of federal largesse, including entitlements and contracts, and the constant manufacturing of crises, victims, and enemy groups—that require extraordinary effort to maintain. The party-state has acquired unprecedented power, in other words, but the system it oversees is fractious and likely to prove brittle.
But the damage the party-state is inflicting to the republic in the meantime is massive and should worry all Americans, regardless of their partisan identifications… Support for the legitimacy of our political institutions is eroding. Neither party retains even the pretense of believing that the other will play fair. … It’s hard to conceive how either side will accept the other’s victory this November.
Still, the race has already undergone two dramatic shifts in less than two months—once after Trump survived the July 13 attempt on his life, and again when Harris revived her party’s flagging fortunes. American voters may yet have their say.
Didn’t start voting until midterms of 2002 and I’m 78+ yo. Probably learned more about the Republican party this year than all the previous years. Presidential elections definitely bring out the worst in many people. ‘Who was worse – Hitler or Stalin’?
Both parties Lie. Both parties can’t believe how the other party is unable to ‘accept hard evidence’ (that one is too 🙂 in this election year). Both parties seek to use the Government to force their beliefs down the other’s throats.
Anyway, I will be Down-ballot Voting this year since can’t stand either presidential candidate. Don’t know the breakdown mentioned in the following article, but lots of others will be voting for either Harris or Trump…
If the 2024 election cycle is proving one thing, it’s that nothing sells like uncertainty – except maybe chaos.
The election, which in the last three months alone has seen two assassination attempts and an incumbent president forced out by his own party, is polling ‘too close to call’ in every battleground state.
*****
‘Whoever runs against Donald Trump will have endless money,’ said Louis Perron, a political consultant based in Switzerland. He said for many campaign donors, ‘the driver is emotional.’
Article has a chart showing “Federal election spending for 2024” adjuster for inflation. 2024 has like $15,901,068,285 v 2020 @ $15,142,462,235; however, when adjusted for inflation 2020 works out to $18,339,583,484.
Other years are not even close…$16-billion could buy “The NY Yankees, LA Dodgers AND NY Mets” claims the article. “24 Air Force Ones or 160 Trump Force ones.”
AF, thanks for those posts.
The short version would seem to be:
“Everything You Were Afraid to Ask about How the Democrats Hijacked the Country in 2020 and 2022, and Expect to Do So Again in 2024”….
(But then we already knew that…i.e., most of us…)
I don’t think learned means what he thinks it means.
How much of that money is legal or ethical see ftx or svb they looted those dry
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He is 79. I am sorry to say I did not know he was alive. He has lost weight, looks good. He is a joy to listen too.
Paid off the loan after 30 yrs, a very expensive fiddle.
I was struck yesterday by the appearance of Bill Clinton. We are the same age (well he is 2 months older), but he does look old, and his voice has really aged.
Bill Clinton: U.S. Needs Migrants Because of Americans’ Low Birth Rate
[funny, they knew even back as far as Reagan this was going to happen. Too bad they didnt clue in the women and others who would destroy a million year familial line of life… everything that is alive, has a direct connection to the first thing that was alive… that is it… from bacteria slime, everything has endeavored to survive and go forward EXCEPT modern feminist women… now, do you think the people they are using to putty in replacements are going to hold the things that those harridan morons of self-extermination wanted for the future? or something more akin to a boot on a neck forever… ]
https://www.breitbart.com/2024-election/2024/10/14/bill-clinton-us-needs-migrants-because-low-birth-rate/
[first it was we had to import them to do the jobs we wouldnt do (after all, the dead people not born dont work and the idiots taking feminist studies dont really work either]
The United States needs more migrants to replace the children that Americans are not producing, former President Bill Clinton said at a press event on Sunday.
“America is not having enough babies to keep our populations up, so we need immigrants that have been vetted to do work,” Clinton said at a fish fry in Fort Valley, Georgia.
“We got the lowest birth rate we’ve had in well over 100 years. We’re not at replacement level, which means we got to have somebody come here if we want to keep growing the economy.”
[in less than 15 years near 60 million americans will leave… It was funny when a girl attacked me at my last job yelling at me that i was some conservative that wanted to roll back the clock. i pointed out its reactionaries that want to go back, and that all us conservatives wanted was things like smaller government and fewer loans… yeah, she yelled… but i said… you have two girls.. yes.. well, i am so glad that all us non conservatives that borrowed the money will die off and leave those kids with the bill… if you think the amount is large now… wait 10-20 years when the boomers are gone!]
However, mass migration into the United States makes it difficult for Americans to have enough babies because it drives down family wages, pushes up housing prices, and distracts national leaders from delivering policies that help Americans have more babies.
Clinton’s comment came as he tried to excuse the inflow of migrants, despite the inevitability that some migrants murder Americans, such as Laken Riley, a young, unmarried woman in Georgia.
[killing citizens by immigrants has happend for my whole life!! remember Adrienne Shelly??? Police initially said Shelly’s death in 2006 was a suicide. Her husband, Andy Ostroy, insisted on a re-evaluation, which resulted in a conviction of a construction worker. The man had been working in her office apartment building; he was convicted of first-degree manslaughter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrienne_Shelly – that was November 1, 2006… She had just had a baby recently too… the minute you see her you will recognize her!!! Did Ronald Reagan regret 1986 immigrant ‘amnesty’ law? Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kelli Ward has made the point several times: President Ronald Reagan’s “biggest regret” was granting amnesty as part of 1986 immigration-reform legislation and then counting on Congress to secure the border
August report by CNN:
[i wonder if the new residents will go up against the 30 million “extra” chinese in battle? our military is only 2-3 million… can it go up against a force 10 times larger?
if they are perfect shots, it will take 30 million bullets… think a reduced pop can even manufacture enough to compet with the production capacity of the new China?
“China’s growing high male-female sex ratio at birth has lasted for almost 30 years and the accumulative effects of this will lead to a 30 million surplus of men at marriageable age over the next 30 years,”
lets see… let in 1 million of them over open border… have them take lessons in weapons… get licenses… etc.. (they are doing that now!)… and like those pesky guys who took flight lessons without learning how to land………….]
“When the cost of housing rises, fertility falls … certainly that’s not really something that’s even necessarily debated anymore because it is so obviously the case,” demographer Lyman Stone told Breitbart News in November 2023.
The government could raise the Americans’ birth rate if it raised productivity by cutting migration.
[hey… we passed over it.. how can you have global warming if everyone is doing the depopulation tango?]
Clinton admitted the productivity alternative on Monday by saying “we’ve got to have somebody come here if we want to grow the economy unless one of you artificial intelligence geniuses has figured out how we can all grow with no work.”
But Clinton’s preference for migrants over American childbirths is the norm within the Democratic Party, mostly because the party is dominated by the alliance of pro-migration progressives who dislike borders and investors who gain from an inflow of cheap workers, government-funded consumers, and apartment-sharing renters.
[and not one mention of an ideology that has women kill their babies. put off birthts till its too late… save eggs for men that are not going to show up… being proud cat ladies who hate the future… and on and on… NOT ONE THING ON THE FEMINIST AGENDA LEADS TO ANYTHING OTHER THAN SELF EXTERMINATION. even funnier… if only hitler did this, he would still be a hero in their eyes… but he got caught.. but now, they have enough support they can sing from the river to the sea from the white towers of academia while accusing their opposition of being jew killing nazis, and they being innocent]
[personally… i am making a fortune from investing towrads this… after DEI got everyone fired… and the place went to crap… and no one steering this any other way… the only thing that remained was to exploit it… i can even show my investments are up over 45% since november… ]
[you realize that there IS a way to make book on this given history.. eh?]
U.K.’s Guardian newspaper reported:
Amid Justin Trudeau’s record-breaking migration in Canada, CBC reported in September:
“We can see that every single estimate of ideal or desired fertility, including our hardcore minimum estimate from adjusted GSS data, is way above actual fertility,” a 2018 report by the Institute for Family Studies said. The report added:
[This is why i say the average feminist is a victim… no one on that side told them what the outcome would be… anyone who did. like me. got attacked or ignored while there was still time… most just chatted their way, playing their lyre like nero, feeling suprior, and did NOTHING… so right now they have a front row seat to the carnage that will come if they survive long enough… if you dont think so, then look to the history you didnt want to learn!!!!!!!]
China home to 30 million men in search of a bride, census shows
Of the 12 million babies born last year there were 111.3 boys for every 100 girls, once-a-decade study says. Shortage of single women mostly a result of China’s one-child policy that ran for almost four decades
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3133656/china-home-30-million-men-search-bride-census-shows
China Has Nearly 35 Million More Single Men Than Women
The population data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on May 11 showed the country now has 1.41 billion people, an increase of 0.53 percent from 10 years earlier. China has 723.34 million men
In China and India, men outnumber women by 70 million. Both nations are belatedly trying to come to grips with the policies that created this male-heavy generation
In China, there is a name for unmarried men over 30. Shengnan, meaning “leftover men” have yet to find a wife – and in a country with a growing gender gap, that’s a big problem.
the big problem is that the ladies dont want to marry, they want to be like american feminists…
you all have front row seats!!!
your going to LOVE all the things that are going to come for you to talk about
not very good stuff… but hey, you live in interesting times, and everyone did the feminist abdication of responsibility for the future… and really… should us old people fight the young we allowed to be corrupted to save them from themselves? fie no… their kids would finish the job we could not.
and if you think the birth rate is at the level of extermination, then you will understand the boost to the negative drafting women will bring…
and the song “how you going to keep them down on the farm” needs to be rewritten for how you going to get illegal immigrants and males in this country with no hope of families given hypergamy, to fight to save a country that did what to them and women who did what
ENJOY!!!
Gad Saad, in a nice video I came across this morning, brings up “the four stages of acceptance” (of a new theory) from the late biologist, J.B.S. Haldane, to wit:
1. This [new theory] is worthless nonsense,
2. This is an interesting, but perverse, point of view,
3. This is true, but quite unimportant,
4. I always said so.
Saad was trying to explain why it is so hard to change someone’s mind about a closely-held belief, even when the evidence against the belief is overwhelming. (These stages remind me of a series of “laws” enunciated by Michael Anton which describe how the Left denies something is happening, then, when the something is proven to be happening, their fallback position is, “it’s a good thing it is happening.”)
Saad’s video was prompted by the exchange between Martha Raddatz and J.D. Vance over the gangs of Aurora, CO. I think we might be witnessing, in Vance’s stance in that exchange, the creation of a “permission structure” that bridges a persuadable to the MAGA side. Vance loosens the network’s hold on the viewer, and reframes the question to allow a persuadable to see his own priorities and identify with them, against the will of the network. It should be tremendously effective, assuming there are any persuadables within earshot.
Here’s the video, cued to where Saad quotes Haldane:
https://youtu.be/1KnLElyF2hM?si=PH0c0_PJT_kt5p8f&t=180
Michael Millerman reads (and comments on) an article by Nicholas E. Low in the Harvard Divinity Bulletin (Spring/Summer 2024) entitled “Dreaming of Superhumans: New Reactionary Nietzschean Fantasies“, (1:13:57): https://www.youtube.com/live/BNJhzvpCyzw
Citations include but are not limited to Trump, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Mark Andreessen, BAP, Graeme Wood, Curtis Yarvin, Michael Anton, Palmer Luckey, Allan Bloom, Leo Strauss, Francis Fukuyama, Nick Land, Laurence Lampert, Alexander Dugin, as well as the usual Western suspects: Nietzsche, Plato, Hegel, Heidegger, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and etc.
There’s a “liberal’s” nightmare lurking about, perhaps needless to say. How not, what with so very many anti-liberals running loose and saying whatever they like?
A 30-year loan on a violin. Amazing.
I did take note of Bill Clinton expounding on why America needs a flood of immigrants. Oh, it’s all about the economy according to Bill. No mention of diluting the value of your vote or mine with votes they can buy, which is the Democrat’s primary motive.
I have to laugh that they (the Dems and mainstream media) keep trotting out that same tired old number, 10.5 or 11 million illegal immigrants currently in the US. Year after year, decade after decade… the same number.
But Clinton’s preference for migrants over American childbirths is the norm within the Democratic Party, mostly because the party is dominated by the alliance of pro-migration progressives who dislike borders and investors who gain from an inflow of cheap workers, government-funded consumers, and apartment-sharing renters. — ArtflDgr
When I first moved permanently to California in 1986, I got a subscription to the SF Chronicle (could have been the Examiner) because I thought I would be visiting frequently. In 1987 perhaps, they ran an extensive series of exposé articles on the wrangling between two ardent factions of people within the Sierra Club. Both left of center groups.
One group wanted a flood of immigrants, legal or illegal, for the political power. That is, vote dilution. They won the battle.
But the other group consisted of people who actually cared about the environment and had bought into the notion that human consumption was the key blight on poor mother earth Gaia. Their logic was that a human subsisting in Honduras had a much lower carbon or consumption footprint, than that same person would once they migrate to the US. That faction lost the battle.
ToI, “US warns Israel that weapon supply at risk if Gaza aid crisis not addressed in 30 days“: https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/us-warns-israel-that-weapon-supply-at-risk-if-gaza-aid-crisis-not-addressed-in-30-days/
That latter “demand” looks like a war-fighting measure Israel undertakes to prevent Hamas from returning into areas they’ve abandoned, hence (my surmise), the most probable crippling sticking-point to Israeli national security.
In any case, rest assured the actual situation for Gazan “civilians” is far less dire than Israel’s enemies in the Obama-Biden administration will portray.
That little skit of Walz as a hunter reminded me of something. A guy I know, Rob, runs an aircraft maintenance business and also rescues mistreated dogs…and trains some of them as hunting dogs. He said he was guiding a hunt once when a guy missed what should have been an easy shot and the dog turned around and looked at Rob…obviously thinking “Can you believe this guy?”
Maybe similar to the thoughts of the dogs accompanying the Walz expedition.
Clinton says we need more migrants to makes up for the birth rate going down….this from a guy whose party encourages the killing of babies. How clueless can they be?
@physicsguy:How clueless can they be?
Clueless like a fox.
Israel Update, Mike and Gadi, the news and so on, “Is Hezbollah Regrouping?” (1:02:27): https://youtu.be/bzkkA4hzvF4
Perlman playing bluegrass. It’s fun to think that’s his Stradivarius. Love the laughter at the end….
https://youtu.be/Tk2eR1epPMs?si=0x5hlT-BYAEKbFm4
Lifted from the comments:
This was taken from the TV show “Music and the Mountains”, an episode from 1981, hosted by John Denver and filmed in Aspen, CO
John Denver is playing a Gibson F-5 Carved Top Mandolin, circa 1940s.
Danny Wheetman on the second fiddle who later became a member of Marley’s Ghost ect .
Song is in the key of A.
The song is “Bill Cheatham” -It’s a classic fiddle tune that’s been used in fiddle contests as far back as the late 1800’s and has been part of the essential bluegrass repertoire since the early days of bluegrass. “Bill Cheatham” has been popular for much of the twentieth century in the Upper South, and it has been recorded periodically by country and bluegrass fiddlers as a fiddling set piece.
Thank Ruth. Just watched the video. I like Bluegrass, use to go to Rockygrass in Lyons, CO. I will note that Perlman is also wearing cowboy boots.
Art, could you please break the book into chapters, with a comment per chapter?
It’s like a mortgage loan for a multimillion-dollar house. I’m guessing if and when he sells it he’ll have made a tidy profit. I believe they go for $15-20 million dollars now.
Younger players often have wealthy patrons who own these violins and lend them out. Of course there are lots of great stories of these instruments being left in taxicabs, etc. I think one involved cellist Yo-Yo Ma. And Nina Totenberg of NPR notoriety was connected with one that had been stolen and missing for decades, but ultimately was recovered. I believe her father was a noted violinist.
Yes, here’s the story: https://www.npr.org/2015/08/06/427718240/a-rarity-reclaimed-stolen-stradivarius-recovered-after-35-years
Everything liberals are pushing drives our birth rate lower. Abortion. Mutilating women into infertile transmen. Destroy the family. It doesn’t take a village to raise a child, it takes a family.
https://www.loc.gov/collections/musical-instruments-at-the-library-of-congress/about-this-collection/
These occasional performance concerts were “free” to the public, though required limited issue tickets to be obtained at an early hour at one location (a music store as I recall, though the name escapes me) in downtown DC back in the day (circa 1970-80 in my experience). I attended a goodly number of them, set in an intimate hall at the library. Sweet stuff. I don’t know whether they continue today, though they ought to do.
Caroline Glick Show, Caroline interviews Tony Badran on US Lebanon policy — and it’s insane: https://youtu.be/uppDoDW3VRc
sdferr, did you see Ben Franklin’s Glass Armonica at the Smithsonian? Why that instrument isn’t more widely known is a mystery. I got to hear it played in the summer of 1967 while attending The National Conference on Forced Service (to end the draft) sponsored by the Metropolitan Young Republican Club of NYC. To say that it is ethereal sounding is an understatement. Mozart among others composed music for it. Makes the hair on your neck stand up!
I’m certain I’ve seen that Franklin instrument, even probably heard it Other Chuck, but so long ago as to have deeply dimmed to memory. I used to kind of live in the Smithsonians as a 13 yr old kid; on weekends betimes my mom would drop me off at the opening hour and then pick me up at 3:00 after I’d wandered the various buildings as interest or curiosity moved me. Then many years later as it happened she went to work as S. Dillon Ripley’s assistant; betimes I’d drop her off in the morning and pick her up at the end of the workday. Heh. Turnabout as fair play!
“…it’s insane…”
Related (from “The Scroll”):
“Oct. 15, 2024: Biden Is Still Protecting Iran“
https://thedailyscroll.substack.com/p/oct-15-2024-biden-is-still-protecting
H/T Powerline blog.
Concluding grafs (RTWT):
[Emphasis mine: Barry M.]
Continued…
I wouldn’t call “Biden”’s scheme “utopian”, though.
It’s anything but
Entirely evil, it’s malice aforethought; and its intention is to weaken Israel—for Israel’s benefit of course—to the extent that it can then be destroyed—for the benefit of the entire world.
I know you’re a fan of the arts, and while I’m not one to brag or plug anything, I thought you might enjoy my husband’s barbershop quartet. They won gold this year at the international competition. But my favorite song they’ve sung will forever be this one, from last year’s competition in which they placed 4th:
https://youtu.be/32QPITy3F0c?si=Q700yv7FcmNiOnrN
When I decide to listen to Itzhak Perlman (which is not often enough, because he’s a treasure for humanity), I start with the last movement of Brahms’ Violin Concerto. Magnificent. That, not anything that Kamala Harris can offer or even conceive of, is joy. Joy in living, in great music, in being able to make it happen. When I listen to it, all I can think of is Perlman smiling all the way through.
Then I move on to Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, and Perlman’s smile stays with me.
I once owned a Stradivarius viola.
I was a sixth-grader and the fancy Marin school I attended had a school orchestra. My stepfather played bass in the San Francisco Symphony and I wanted to please him by taking up a string instrument. I chose viola because, well, everyone else picked violin. (I didn’t realize how boring viola parts usually were.)
Anyway. My stepfather bought me a viola, I assume from a pawn shop, for a modest sum. Then one day I looked through the f-holes and saw a label inscribed in Latin to the effect Stradivarius built this viola in Cremona in 1685.
Of course it was a fake, but it was pretty darn exciting for this sixth-grader.
Halcyon days.
I’ve always wanted to be a musician, but I got the classical thing put down on me young. I didn’t think I could live up to it. I was probably right.
So the electric guitar is an out-of-the-box solution, as well as an interesting one.
Obviously I have no future as an electric guitarist. It’s something I’m doing for my own joy and satisfaction.
No expectations.
@ The Other Chuck > “Ben Franklin’s Glass Armonica at the Smithsonian”
I had the opportunity to see that marvelous instrument some 40 years ago (I don’t remember exactly when, sometime in the 1980s I think).
Everything you said is so true.
Addenda to Barry’s post from The Scroll.
Has any other country been as blatant and profligate as the Democrats’ US in funding both sides of wars?
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/irans-illicit-oil-revenue-swells-to-nearly-200-billion-since-biden-harris-took-office-latest-figures-and-estimates-show/
https://freebeacon.com/israel/biden-harris-admin-puts-israel-on-double-secret-probation-until-just-after-the-election/
On the other hand, the Israelis just keep taking care of business.
https://freebeacon.com/israel/idf-takes-out-hezbollah-anti-tank-missile-commander-responsible-for-killing-innocent-israelis-in-rocket-attacks/
Israel vs the US continued, specifically the claims in the Free Beacon post that Biden Inc. threatened to withhold arms unless Israel increased “humanitarian” aid to Gaza (also known as supplying the Hamas black market).
https://freebeacon.com/israel/idf-takes-out-hezbollah-anti-tank-missile-commander-responsible-for-killing-innocent-israelis-in-rocket-attacks/
The Scroll post also mentioned this recent story, validating their warnings about and actions to thwart this anti-Semitic group.
https://freebeacon.com/israel/the-us-sanctioned-an-anti-israel-group-for-backing-terrorists-months-ago-its-leaders-were-hobnobbing-with-columbia-university-students/
The Samidoun supporters will just start over with a new name.
Does anyone really believe that all of the anti-Israel protests since 10/7 (and before) are some kind of organic expression of legitimate popular sentiment?
Like Occupy Wall Street, Antifa, BLM, the enviro-nuts, Code Pink, most of the Floyd-era riots, and probably every left-wing cause in the US, they are well funded and professionally organized.
If the people participating in the protests are nonetheless often willing believers, well, there’s a reason for the cliche “useful idiots.”
Also h/t The Scroll (they run a “round-up” of current news after the “main feature” of the post).
Excellent description and analysis of the Democrat agenda, in service to the Global Left.
https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-plot-to-manage-democracy
Most of the foundational information is not news to political junkies, but some of their conclusions are worth pondering.
For instance:
They use lawfare because it works.
Often alluded to in the Twitter Files and by conservative reporters, but not well known by the followers of the Regime Media:
(continued in next comment)
City Journal post continued.
Iowahawk’s “skinsuit” analogy is developed at length, including Zuckerbucks in 2020, Biden Inc. enabling non-citizen voting, DNC blocking candidates from the 2024 ballot, and a particularly disquieting example.
I don’t think Republicans can even imagine such an abusive GOTV strategy!
Jacob Siegel’s conclusion is generally true, but the last sentence is rather a vapid coda to an otherwise excellent argument:
Didn’t start voting until midterms of 2002 and I’m 78+ yo. Probably learned more about the Republican party this year than all the previous years. Presidential elections definitely bring out the worst in many people. ‘Who was worse – Hitler or Stalin’?
Both parties Lie. Both parties can’t believe how the other party is unable to ‘accept hard evidence’ (that one is too 🙂 in this election year). Both parties seek to use the Government to force their beliefs down the other’s throats.
Anyway, I will be Down-ballot Voting this year since can’t stand either presidential candidate. Don’t know the breakdown mentioned in the following article, but lots of others will be voting for either Harris or Trump…
Staggering $16 BILLION in donations spent on the 2024 election smashes records – and it’s still too close to call:
Article has a chart showing “Federal election spending for 2024” adjuster for inflation. 2024 has like $15,901,068,285 v 2020 @ $15,142,462,235; however, when adjusted for inflation 2020 works out to $18,339,583,484.
Other years are not even close…$16-billion could buy “The NY Yankees, LA Dodgers AND NY Mets” claims the article. “24 Air Force Ones or 160 Trump Force ones.”
AF, thanks for those posts.
The short version would seem to be:
“Everything You Were Afraid to Ask about How the Democrats Hijacked the Country in 2020 and 2022, and Expect to Do So Again in 2024”….
(But then we already knew that…i.e., most of us…)
I don’t think learned means what he thinks it means.
How much of that money is legal or ethical see ftx or svb they looted those dry