Today's Tids Issue 4,791
Beneath the cold sea:
I spoke about today earlier in the month. It is one of the world’s saddest days of inhumanity. It is never far removed from my memory because it is days like today that we should never forget. Maybe it’s the old, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” thing. Or maybe it was because I was a tyke and heard about it often in those years when young minds accumulate information. Or maybe it is solely because it was so vicious. So maybe it is just because it was what it was. A sneak attack on innocents. On a Sunday morning. On a generally accepted day for peace. Maybe we never forget because we are remembering those killed, those thousands killed. Those humans, who one minute were alive and smiling, and in the next a global terrorist mowed them down. Maybe I never forget because I just can’t forget the dead and the relatives who loved them dearly, left behind to mourn.
There’s just gotta be more to life than Netflix.
“I’d kill to win the Nobel Peace Prize.” --Stephen Wright (Happy 65th Birthday to Stephen!)
I’ve been watching a lot more college football games this year because more of them are actually meaningful. Covid has eliminated so many of those clone style games nothing more than assorted colorful unirons running around with no purpose other than to fill up Saturday TV, so caches can earn Kings ransom salaries. The remaining Covid games today games actually have relevancy. It used to be a channel changing b lur, but now I try to learn more about the good teams remaining. And perhaps find some good players for my flailing Patriots.
The Question:
Give me two other well known “History repeats itself…” quotes.
The Headlines:
--America Remembers Pearl Harbor.
--Stocks Taking Steps Back From Historical Highs (Duh);
--Rhode Island Leads Nation In New Covid Cases Per Capita; LA (Cal) County Smashes Thought Previous One Day New Case Record With 10,500; South Korea Warns Of Medical Collapse As It Races To Control CV Surge.
--JP Morgan Says We Are Only In Middle Of Bull Market; Apple Hits New Buy Point.
--Jill And Joe Looking At Debt Free Community Colleges As Part Of Their New White House Push.
--Georgia Senate Campaign; Repub Loeffler Labels Dem Foe Warnock “Radical Liberal”; Repub Perdue Attacked By Dem Ossoff For His Alleged Appearance of Insider trading, Despite Lack Of Real Evidence.
--Iran Still Talking Retaliations For Assassination Of Nuke Chief.
It’s tough to be a long-time celebrity on TV with audiences now armed with immediate reaction tools like Twitter et. al.’ A twist of words or an unintentional slip brings an immediate digital barrage of comments almost all negative. Or at least national media always seems to focus on the negative because of ratings’ wars, or because they like to see nice guys finish last. And the poor generally decent celeb has to stand up and apologize for an average human mistake.
“I almost had as psychic girlfriend. She left even before we met.” --SW
Today is one of those days when I repeatedly tried to backspace to eliminate a comma only to discover it was a speck of dirt.
I just gotta hope that Trump doesn’t pull a stunt on Joe’s Inauguration Day to take TV eyes away from DC’s every four-year demonstration of USA stability. The rumor is that he will take Airforce One to Florida and hold an opposing rally at the exact time of the inauguration. Some Dems and many women’s movements were small minded when Trump was inaugurated. Let’s hope vying rally is only a rumor and that “President” Trump has the inner courage to reach reach down, to rise above school boy animosity for the good of the country.
There is no truth to the rumor that the statue abolition crowd want to remove the Arizona memorial from Pearl Harbor because it is unfair to Japan. No, it’s a rumor I made up, but I can imagine that somewhere somebody is thinking about it.
So far this Christmas season I have received 243 “Free” return address labels from various charities looking for my money. Last year I mailed two letters. Digital technology giveth and digital technology taketh away.
“If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all evidence that showed you tried.” –SW.
My idea of hell is being hired by a tech company as a writer and finding that I have to write internet app “Privacy Statements” and “Terms Of Usage” declarations. Where can I find a fast-acting painless poison. New Flash: Twitter apologizes for all the typos in their latest privacy statement. Writer missing.
The Stock Market is an excellent economic indicator. It is also a critical economic engine permitting small investors to invest in the economy, helping Savers beat inflation over time, and for what it has always done, helping businesses fund growth. Obviously, the markets can have an immense positive or negative impact on confidence in the economy.
But the stock market is not the economy. There are many examples over the years (History repeating itself again?) where the economy collapses well before the emotional buying of stocks ceases. Which only exacerbates any crash. We have a weird economy now where stocks are roaring mainly by looking at a future where Covid hopefully slows due to vaccines. But job creation is diminishing and the prospects for a fast turn-around are dimming as a Covid Winter halts business activity, as the prospects grow for defaults on loans and mortgages. So that’s about it. It feels warm and fuzzy to me, but the economy is struggling for sure. The markets are holding their breath hoping for an infection slowing, but it may be too long before the Covid peak arrives. Wooooooosh!
Interesting dichotomy in the economy right now. While millions are facing the dire prospects of no government supported income due to the ending of Covid stimulus style plans, other millions are spending like there is no tomorrow! People have under spent this year just because of the CV restrictions and now are pouring money into Internet retail (And some downtown shopping too) so that Christmas purchasing seems to be exploding. exploding. The other side of this boom is trying to find enough healthy employees to fulfill the employment needs in manufacturing, distribution and retail locations. There’s always something.
I heard an interview with a local BLM activist who was saying they haven’t really moved the needle much on reforms. Duh! Maybe it’s because it’s a bad idea.
“The hardness of butter is directly proportional to the softness of bread.” --SW
The Answer:
#1: “History repeats itself, the first time as a tragedy, and then as a farce.” – Karl Marx. (Note: A guy named James Barnes added to that with, “No, that’s too grand, too considered a process. History just burps, and we taste again that raw onion sandwich it swallowed years ago.”) #2: “History repeats itself, but in such a cunning disguise that we never detect the resemblance until the damage is done.” –Sidney Harris. That quote about history repeating in the opening Tidlet is by George Santayana. Here are a couple of more: “Silence ensures that history repeats itself,” –Erin Gruell. “History is never antiquated because humanity is always fundamentally the same.” –Walter Rauschenbusch. “History repeats itself. Historians repeat each other.” Phillip Guedalla. “If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.” George Bernard Shaw. “Those who don’t remember the past are condemned to repeat the eleventh grade.” James Loewen. “The past does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.” Mark Twain.
The bitter cold is back this morning, but never as cold and bitter as the dark days of December 7, 1941.
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