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In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, February 5, 2018

Author SymphonyPosted on

Machines are trying to take over. They aren’t winning. And, they aren’t mechanical machines made of steel and iron alloys—or in GM’s case also aluminum. These are machines of “big money”. Some of them are political, some of them are from the entertainment industry, others are in the business world.

Ultimately, the machines run round and round by creating problems, then solving them.

Nestle has been taking water from Springhill in Osceola County, Michigan for nearly two decades. Locals have battled with the water-relocating giant almost as long; the State often comes to Nestle’s defense. We’ll see how much longer that lasts. The current battle seems to include no third-party scientific research, only claims by locals that water levels are lowering vs claims by Nestle that Nestle isn’t hurting anything and that local water costs would rise without Nestle—which is at the same time accused of causing the water shortage in the first place. It’s almost a self-inditing argument in Nestle’s defense. Now, Nestle wants to take more water.

Then, there’s Uma. Perhaps “Kill Bill” should have been renamed to include something about a guy named “Harvey”, at least if the title reflected the emotions of “what the movie advertisements called a ‘roaring rampage of revenge'” from what happened on set and behind the scenes. To this point, Symphony has not focused on Weinstein stories because, so far, they didn’t seem to include news. Uma’s story in the New York Times, however, introduces the video of her injury during a stunt she was intimidated into doing. After 15 years, she finally got her hands on the video. Uma just might mark the beginning of Vol. 2 in brining down scandal-filled Hollywood.

Then, there’s the machine that’s after Trump. According to the president, it’s a disgrace, people should be ashamed, and Congress will do what Congress will do, which is fine. Bias against Trump is “yuge”. In one man-on-the-street video by Campus Reform, people react negatively to State of the Union comments—until they realize they were made by Obama. Democrats and the mainstream media can’t halt the assault against Trump as long as that widespread bias against Trump exists in such a large segment of the voting population. But, that bias is driving the anti-Trump machine to uncover more and more dirt—not on Trump, but dirt—on Democrats.

While Nestle seems to solve problems it causes, the Left caused the problems it’s solving. As for Hollywood, the movies describe it best.

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In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, January 29, 2018

Author SymphonyPosted on

The biggest problem with analyzing Trump’s next move is speculation. Talk is talk, nothing more. America seems to be obsessed with talk far before action can confirm, acquit, deny, indite, prove, or disprove. We don’t know what Trump will sign into law on Immigration until he signs it. But, he seems to be wise to America’s priorities where talk and action are concerned. Once again, he plays the rhetoric-obsessed section of society like a harp. He makes an offer, he sends a Tweet, he proposes a bill, and everyone gets up and sings in concert.

Take the removal of Taiwan’s “ROC” flag from the US government website as an expanded example. By not having any flag there, the flag can’t be wrong. The original ROC flag has the symbol of the KMT-Nationalist party in the upper corner—the same party that lost both the presidency and the legislature for the first time in history during the last general election. Many have called for the flag to change. So, removing the flag from the website could mean that the US no longer supports the KMT-Nationalists. If Taiwan were to declare independence from the mainland, the US government wouldn’t have the “wrong” flag on the website, nor if China were to attempt an invasion. While China may be thrilled and Taiwan may be angry, much more was involved by replacing the flag with pure white. Maybe “surrender” was the message, though it remains unclear to whom the word would be directed, even if that was the direction. What does remain clear is that the US government website is more important than anything else.

Once again, this time in the international sphere, the Trump administration won the war of words, this time without using any. What will happen, however, always remains yet to be seen until it happens.

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In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, January 22, 2018

Author SymphonyPosted on

The Russianewsgategate scandal is turning out even better for Republicans than was first anticipated. GOP members pretend to not be as excited and more surprised than they actually are—and they are also pretending to be quite angry, aghast, and indignant. In truth, Republicans finally found a way to go after some long-neglected corruption since they now have the socio-political wherewithal without starting a cycle of post-election political persecution.

Corruption is abundant. Even Amazon faces backlash after a suspicious settlement while contractors pass the buck. The biggest scandal of all: the lie that government shuts-down during a so-called “government shutdown”. Some entitlements may be interrupted, but that’s about all. A true shutdown of the government only exists in the most radical Conservatives’ wildest dreams.

The tradition of panic over a rumored government shutdown dates back to the Clinton era when Bill vetoed the budget. Before then, no one dared touch a spending bill as it made way through the murky aisleways of Washington. It has since remained a threat politicians dangle over each other’s heads in attempt to hold the American people captive to their petty partisan playbook. That myth, also, is being exposed.

Then there is immigration. Sanctuary cities are making themselves unpopular with flyover country. Administrative action to merely enforce existing law should soon be heard by the Supreme Court where Justice Kennedy will once again rule in favor of Justice Kennedy being the deciding swing vote who takes orders from no political party. Remember, Supreme Court justices always vote for the supremacy of the Supreme Court. The best guess is that his ruling will be half-and-half, mixed with a few doses of seemingly off-topic “surprise”.

The American people are being played once again, from confronting corruption to budgets and bills. Washington could do much more, it’s just waiting for the people to get all excited first. But, the Democrats may have overplayed their hand this time.

The premise behind Republican support for amnesty and programs like DACA was to gain votes by gaining new voters. The memo leaked from the Center for American Progress rallies the call that DACA is ‘critical’ to Democrats’ ‘future electoral success’. That basically suggests that Americans don’t support Democrats—that Democrats don’t serve their current voters.

Republicans spoke the same way during the Bush years; Jeb has piped in just to make sure the world knows that the Bush family still thinks that way. But, today’s Republicans are starting to step away from all that rotgut and even push back on the “shutdown” threats.

Democrat politicians are now known to believe that a permanent class of voters dependent on government handouts is necessary to their future. DACA held a flickering hope of offering that. But, by shutting down the government to save DACA, the Democrats have alienated current voters dependent on those handouts. Their chances in 2018 look to be turning downward. It almost seems as if the Democratic party is self-destructing on purpose. And, that raises deeper questions.

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In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, January 15, 2018

Author SymphonyPosted on

This was the week of rouses and houses. Trump called a bipartisan meeting from Congress at the White House and, to the surprise of many, much of the meeting showed on video. Everyone seemed to get along. Viewers could see real, actual video of leaders in real, normal conversation. It was somewhat unusual and not the least bit jarring.

Then began the rouse and purported fake news. The Wall Street Journal is accused of reporting that Trump claims a good relationship with Kim Jong Un rather than that he would have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un. This was one of the more obvious misreports. Another included Trump speaking vulgarly about unfortunate nations in his bipartisan meeting at the White House.

While there is no recording of his comments to members of Congress, there is a recording of what Trump said to the Wall Street Journal, which so far has refused to change the disputed quote.

Whether Trump actually spoke the dirty word as reported is left up to a whosaidhesaidit argument on Capital Hill. The big change: Republicans actually spoke in Trump’s defense, that he didn’t use such words. That should be notoriety enough, when someone receives support from his own enemies.

Then, there was the rouse in Hawaii with a false invasion alarm. Don’t worry, Hawaii will think through what any Product Manager worth half of his salt would have drawn-up for a product roadmap well in advance. They will make it harder to press the “panic” button and equip their system with a “cancel” button to turn off the panic. Of course, it was all an accident and a big misunderstanding, nothing anyone needs to lose a job over.

In fact, the slew of rouses that trailed after the video of the president getting along with leaders in Washington was all a complete and coincidental “aligning of the planets”, such a celestial event that does happen in nature, such as blue moons and Halley’s Comet, except that the unusual string of rouses itself doesn’t seem to be worth covering in the press—at least not elsewhere.

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In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, January 8, 2018

Author SymphonyPosted on

American news has a culture of rhetoric. People in that culture rehearse the “I’m really serious about this” tone, mannerisms, and gestures. They genuinely believe that “serious” delivery and well-distributed reports are the primary cause of public opinion. They think Trump was elected by mere propaganda and so they fight back with mere propaganda as if mere propaganda was the problem and its own solution. Now, it’s more apparent than ever.

Since Trump announced, about 18 months ago, members of the “opinion class” have lived in a dream world that could not foretell the approaching train and cannot acknowledge the cause of the wreckage left when they wouldn’t get off the tracks. And now, it seems that they think maintaining that dream will cast some magical, mind-control spell on the public.

Disassemble Wolff’s comment, just as an example: “The economy is booming possibly because you’ll have someone who’s not capable of actually implementing any policies or regulation…” Since when did anyone in mainstream media believe that reducing government would help the economy? Then again, for people who think that rhetoric “trumps” results and that propaganda pulls rank over proof, such statements don’t seem like a contradiction.

Take Jake Tapper’s comment as he interrupted his guest, Stephen Miller: “I get it. There’s one viewer that you care about right now and you’re being obsequious… in order to please him.” That video has been reposted and shared across the Internet, being viewed thousands of times just in the last day. No way was Miller speaking to only one audience member. Some may remember the incident for using big words many in the audience don’t know, salacious and obsequious. But, few will notice that Tapper set a much more powerful precedent. By saying, “him,” Jake Tapper is on well-viewed and -documented record as believing that it is not insulting to use the masculine pronoun when referring to an individual who could be of any gender. That also is a reversal from the mainstream mass media.

Then, low ratings in the NFL are being blamed on having too many games for fans to watch, even though the NBA has more games than people can watch and it’s ratings are up through the roof. Since, as Wolff reports, the 25th Amendment is in discussion in so many places, perhaps it’s time to speculate the hypothetical that the NFL protests could have been part of some conspiracy to raise NBA ratings. Merely discussing hypotheticals is all that matters for something to be worthy of reporting, right?

While the Left takes their turn objecting in their own way to the opposing agenda pushing through the White House, the Right are more interested in the mass media meltdown. At least that’s how some people view it, but not everyone.

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In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, January 2, 2018

Author SymphonyPosted on

Terrorist talk didn’t wait as the New Year arrived. Protests in Tehran have drawn two kinds of buzz: the first is that “keeping quiet” is the best way to respond, the second is that “economics” is the reason for the protests.

Taking the obvious first, people don’t protest and riot merely over economics. This is a clear attempt by de facto pro- status quo pundits and media personalities to diminish the matter. Iranian people object to their government for the same reason everyone else does: it’s a tyrant and terrorist-sponsoring regime. Reporting that the cause and headline-worthy DNA of the protests in Iran are merely about the “economy” is an insult to both the protesters and the protest victims.

The more complex buzz—claiming that the best response is to “keep quiet”—has several levels of “irony”. Keeping quiet didn’t work with getting Otto Warmbier back from North Korea—a friend of Iran—when Obama instructed the same tactic with Otto’s family. So, “keeping quiet” has already proven to not work. Supporting protests discredits the protests and therefore gives more power to the current regime?—people in the press actually expect Americans to believe that? But, the largest of all contradictions coming from the Left relates to Trump himself. If “keeping quiet” is the way to win, why doesn’t the Left try “keeping quiet” about Trump, since they don’t seem to be stopping him with their constant heckling?

Reactions and spin aside, the US is in “tyranny-crackdown” mode. Perhaps the Iranian people are taking to the streets because they finally believe that when America speaks something will actually happen. That has been the evidence of the last year, anyway.

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