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Team USA Advances in the World Cup
In a nail-biter of a second half, the U.S. men’s soccer team has earned their way to the knockout rounds of the 2022 World Cup. They’ll take on the top seed from Group A, the Netherlands. The team earned that advanced after a 1-0 win over Iran. The lone goal came from a near-sacrificial play by Christian Pulisic.
The Right-Wing Cult of Diet Coke
I kid you not, the media is trying to gin up this idea that Diet Coke is the drink of tyrants and deviants. It all began when Elon Musk tweeted out a picture of his bedside table, just to keep screwing with the left.
Well now there are a few news pieces out there from various left-wing outlets trashing Musk for his choice in beverage. The Washington Post, however, took it a step further.
Diet Coke’s profile has ebbed and flowed since it was introduced in 1982. It has survived the four decades since, from its designation as the “in” quaff of Hollywood, through the rise of bottled water, past its association as a “mom drink.” Even now, its packaging defies the trend away from products labeled as “diet” (the currently preferred nomenclature is “zero sugar”) and concern about its health effects (a New York Times story last year about a former addict was titled “I Was Powerless Over Diet Coke”). Its can was briefly slenderized to better appeal to millennials; now it’s back to its regular shape.
In 2018, the New Yorker stuck a fork in the Diet Coke phenomenon, citing as evidence its unsavory acolytes, including former president Donald Trump and Harvey Weinstein. It is, the magazine declared, “the elixir of soft-bodied plutocrats desperate to shed their shady pasts and, possibly, a few pounds.”
On its face, the piece is relatively harmless… but look at the attempt to tie Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein, and Elon Musk together, and at the expense of a drink that is undoubtedly better than the classic version.
Now, sure, caffeine-free is a questionable choice. I personally don’t understand the appeal of caffeine-free, but I have members of my family who drank it quite a bit, and they certainly weren’t evil.
But the media is just angry that Musk has bought and is changing their preferred medium of communication. They used to be the dominant voice and perspective of the website, and now they are furious that they can’t be that anymore as Musk is granting more power and access to the average user.
But keep in mind that Musk has also done more in weeks to combat the rampant child porn and child trafficking on the website than the old Twitter overlords did in years. The trade has been hurt and the hashtags that signaled it for buyers and sellers alike have been obliterated.
The Coming Railroad Strike
My RedState college Brittany Sheehan has a great piece on Joe Biden’s call for Congress to force through an agreement between railroad companies and unions. The whole thing is worth reading, but here’s the key bit.
If this was an illegal strike, it would be adjudicated by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), but it is indeed the right of the bargaining unit to strike, fully legal and codified, and other rail unions would likely join in solidarity. There is no fault on the workers or unions whatsoever, they have a vote in the matter and voted against the agreement. They are all acting appropriately per the rules of the game (laws and regulations) and per the last roughly 100 years of labor dogma. In short: we knew they were going to strike, they have cause and legal ground, and they would probably get their sick days, too.
What is hyper-irregular is for the government (specifically Congress) to act in forcing a private contract. Under the Rail Labor Agreement (RLA), courts can enjoin a strike under specific circumstances. Instead, both the executive branch and Democrat Congressional leadership are pre-emptively derailing a right to strike and making up their own private contracts with the force of federal law.
This has huge implications, some unfathomable at first blush.
It means that private contracts are subject to the preferences of lawmakers and executive attitudes. It means that collective bargaining is a mere veneer for what would be best for those in Washington at any given time. It means private commerce and agreements are at the pleasure of the crown and are in reality public/private “partnerships”. It’s… some form of neo-feudalism.
Here’s what’s happening right now:
Four of the 11 unions at the negotiating table with the railroad companies outright rejected Joe Biden’s negotiated terms. What’s more, a large segment of the unionized workforce opposes them, and they feel betrayed by Joe Biden, who believes himself to be the most pro-union president in history. As well as those workers, many Democrats oppose the idea of forcing unions to accept terms through the use of legislation.
Headlines of the Day
Congress Looks to Intervene in Rail Dispute as Strike Deadline Looms (New York Times)
Another Big Celebrity Denounces Cancel Culture and Defends J.K. Rowling (RedState)
Iran Threatened Families of National Soccer Team with ‘Violence and Torture’ (National Review)
RNC commissions ‘review’ of party tactics after disappointing midterm (Politico)
Netherlands to close up to 3,000 farms to comply with EU rules (The Telegraph)