Monthly Archives: January 2022

Aaron Rodgers superstar quarterback of the Green Bay Packers continues to cause fits among leftists far and wide.

From the moment he called out hypocrite politicians who don't obey their own COVID-19 mandates a year ago to his more recent takedowns of the "woke mob" and "cancel culture" particularly with regard to vaccines and his revelation that he consulted with podcaster Joe Rogan for COVID-19 treatment after contracting the virus a few months ago, the free-thinking Rodgers has been rising fast on the left's most-hated list.

And on Monday night, he gave them another reason to froth at the mouth.

Rodgers was a guest on Monday Night Football's "ManningCast" during which brothers and ex-NFL quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning discuss the game at hand and the subject of what Rodgers reads came up.

The quarterback, who led the Packers to the top NFC playoff position with their Sunday win over the Minnesota Vikings, told the Manning brothers he reads "a lot of French poetry" and then pointed at a bookshelf behind him and said he's "got 'Atlas Shrugged' by Ayn Rand over here."

Rand and particularly "Atlas Shrugged" increasingly over the last decade or so have become favorite targets of the militant left, who say the author and her famous book espouse a me-first ideology. But fans counter that Rand's writings inspire and uphold individual freedom.

And just like clockwork, leftists jumped all over Rodgers for what's on his reading list.

Philadelphia Inquirer sports columnist Marcus Hayes appeared to lead the charge as he mocked the QB:

The Palmer Report offered the following brutal take:

Others followed suit in bashing the quarterback:

But not every observer agreed with the left-wing talking points.

See the article here:

Leftists completely lose it after Aaron Rodgers says Ayn ...

Being without cable and internet for several days gave me the opportunity to dust off some of my old DVDs and watch them. Three were parts I, II and III of Atlas Shrugged, based on Ayn Rands seminal 1957 novel. Rand was born Alissa Rosenbaum in St. Petersburg, Russia on Feb. 2, 1905, a mere 11 days after the infamous Bloody Sunday massacre of Jan. 22, 1905. Her father was a pharmacist and she grew up in a middle-class Jewish family. After the Communists came to power in November 1917, they confiscated her fathers business and the family fled to the Crimea, many miles to the south.

She emigrated to the United States in 1926 when she was 21 years old, changed her name to Ayn Rand and set out for Hollywood. Her most well-known works are We the Living (1936), The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957). So-called professional literary critics did not like her books, but they were popular with the public, sold thousands of copies and remain in print today. Ayn Rand was both a novelist (a writer of fiction) and a political and economic theorist; she has been aptly called a philosophical novelist.

Having seen her family and society destroyed by Communist collectivism and terror, it is not surprising that she strenuously opposed them and advocated individualism and its economic manifestation, capitalism. Neither is it surprising that she thought the best place to find these virtues was the United States. And, likewise, it is not surprising that, when she saw those virtues under attack in the United States, she defended them with her powerful pen.

Marx and Lenin divided the world into two groups: (1) the bourgeoisie were the industrial and commercial owners and managers, few in number but great in power; and (2) the proletariat were the workers and farmers, great in number but weak in power. The solution was for the proletariat to rise up in a great revolution, overthrow and destroy the bourgeoisie and establish a dictatorship of the proletariat that governed by the motto, From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

Rand anticipated and then recognized the disastrous consequences of the poverty, tyranny and social disintegration the communist ideology created where it was implemented and was very alarmed by the collectivism she saw progressivism creating in America. She saw two groups one small, one large. The first was the people who provide the motor of the world, ... those who produce the goods and ideas that keep the society going, be they industrialists, engineers, artists, scientists, or philosophers that is, the creative individualists. The second was everyone else.

The latter permit, and even demand, the suppression of freedom because they do not value it because they hate the fact that liberty allows some to achieve things others cannot, thereby violating the collectivist ethos of equity. It is not the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about but the alliance between the industrial, academic, entertainment, mass media and political institutions which endlessly attack like stinger bees those who provide the motor of the world with so many rules, regulations, taxes and fees in the name of first one and then another silly cause that the movers and shakers simply quit and disappear, thereby depriving society of the benefits of their work.

The rest are unable or unwilling to engage in creative and productive labor, so the economy collapses, money becomes worthless because there is nothing to buy with it and society degenerates into roving gangs of lawless thugs.

If Ayn Rand could write like this in the 1950s, we can only imagine what she would think of our society, our economy and our politics today. If she, by a miracle, were alive today, she would have seen the Soviet Union collapse, she would have seen China discard the failure of rigid communism in favor of authoritarian mercantilism, she would have seen the failure of the clown regime in North Korea and she would have seen Fidel Castro destroy Cuba and Hugo Chavez destroy Venezuela all examples of collectivism.

Then she would say, Have you Americans completely lost your minds? Have you gone crazy? Why do you want to go down this awful road?

If you want to know who John Galt is, read the 1,168-page book or watch the movies on DVD or by streaming them from YouTube or Prime Video. Itll be time well spent.

Winfield H. Rose taught political science at Murray State University for 39 years and is now retired. He is active in the Calloway County GOP, but speaks here as an individual and not as a representative of either of these organizations. He can be reached at winfieldrose@gmail.com.

Editors Note: Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the editorial opinion of the Murray Ledger & Times.

Read more:

Who is John Galt ? | Opinion | murrayledger.com - Murray Ledger and Times

Its a Fed day of sorts, with minutes of the last Federal Open Market Committee the one where they doubled the pace of the taper and released a new dot plot set for release.

George Saravelos, global head of currency research at Deutsche Bank, says the market is too focused on dots, which get to the question of how much the Federal Reserve lifts interest rates this year. He says the market instead should be focused on the balance sheet, which has more than doubled in two years, to an end-of-year reading of $8.76 trillion.

How quickly the Fed decides to unwind it will have a big bearing on how financial conditions tighten, says Saravelos. A rapid QE unwind would be worse for long-end bonds, EM and equities and potentially slow down the hiking cycle. A very slow unwind would keep long-end yields contained but require more interest rate hikes, in turn with a bigger impact on the [U.S. dollar].

Saravelos also says the market might be misreading the impact of the omicron coronavirus variant by focusing too much on how the U.S. and Europe are responding, and not enough on China. In the worlds biggest port, Ningbo, theres a partial lockdown. We highlighted signs of an easing in supply bottlenecks last month, but some benchmark container indices are making new record highs again. Chinas persistence and success in containing omicron over the new few weeks will be critical for the supply side of goods in 2022, he says.

Another point with respect to omicron is the impact on supply of labor. In London, for instance, nearly 8% has COVID and is stuck at home. The real freedom day, Saravelos says, is when the isolation period is zero, not five days.

ADP reported a big 807,000 pop in private-sector payrolls in December. At 2 p.m., the minutes from the FOMCs last meeting will be released.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention amended its new five-day isolation guidance but didnt add a testing requirement. U.S. President Joe Biden doubled the order for the Pfizer PFE, +1.60% pill treatment Paxlovid, as French President Emmanuel Macron said his governments strategy was to piss off the unvaccinated. Hong Kong banned flights from the U.S. and seven other countries.

A new coronavirus variant has been found in France that could possibly be more transmissible than the omicron variant.

Beyond Meat BYND, +2.18% shares surged in the premarket, after the company said its plant-based, fried chicken product is coming to Yum Brands YUM, -1.15% KFC locations in the U.S. next week.

Sony SONY, +0.97% jumped in Tokyo trade, after it announced a new electric-vehicle unit and rolled out a prototype sport-utility vehicle.

Citi hiked its year-end S&P 500 SPX, -0.41% price target to 5,100 from 4,900.

U.S. stock futures ES00, -0.01% NQ00, -0.07% were a bit weaker before the Fed minutes.

After a 17 basis point surge over two days, the yield on the 10-year Treasury TMUBMUSD10Y, 1.767% edged back to 1.65%.

Here are the most popular stock-market tickers on MarketWatch, as of 6 a.m. Eastern.

A new word game has surged in popularity in just a few months.

The novel Atlas Shrugged was trending after star Green Bay Packers quarterback, and noted vaccine refuser, Aaron Rodgers revealed its on his bookshelf.

Floorboards from the home of Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton have been turned into a violin.

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Excerpt from:

Wall Street is looking at Fed and the virus the wrong way, analyst says - MarketWatch

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers responded to Pro Football Weeklys Hub Arkush, who as one of the 50 voters for the Associated Press said he wouldnt be voting for Rodgers because of his actions this offseason and his personal opinion of the Packers quarterback.

Heres the full quote from Rodgers that opened Wednesdays media availability:

I think hes a bum. I think hes an absolute bum. He doesnt know me. I dont know who he is. Nobody knew who he was, probably, until yesterdays comments. I mean, and I listened to the comments, but to say he had his mind made up in the summertime, in the offseason, that I have zero chance of winning MVP, in my opinion, should exclude future votes. His problem isnt with me being a bad guy or the biggest jerk in the league, because he doesnt know me. Doesnt know me. Doesnt know anything about me. Ive never met him, Ive never had lunch with him, Ive never had an interview with him. His problem is Im not vaccinated. So if he wants to go on a crusade and collude and come up with an extra letter to put on the award just for this season, and make it the Most Valuable Vaccinated Player, then he should do that. But hes a bum. And Im not going to waste any time thinking about that stuff. He has no idea who I am. Hes never talked to me in his life, but its unfortunate that those sentiments its surprising, that he would even say that, to be honest. But yeah, I know this was possible, I talked about it on (Pat) McAfee weeks ago. But crazy.

Rodgers also had this to say:

Like I recommended the book that I recently read, you can guess how many you know whats I give about that subject. Ive enjoyed immensely my time with Pat, I feel like it gives an insight into my personality and whats important to me. We talk about a lot of football, we talk about some life stuff, life lessons, learning, mistakes, failures, positivity, manifestations, things that are important to me. I enjoy that show, just like I enjoyed working with Jason for so many years. Those opportunities gave me windows to let people in, to let people see the kind of person I am, so people wouldnt think Im the biggest jerk in the NFL. But theres obviously a faction, based on the response when I tested positive, that want to demonize me for my decision to be unvaccinated and want to adjust facts around that. Any time something comes up with me, me mentioning the largest book on my bookshelf, Atlas Shrugged, triggers people. Thats the environment were living in. There is not room for dissenting opinions or individual freedoms or informed consent ideas or people to have a different view than you. Im someone who has an allergy to the mRNA vaccinations. Thats not even good enough to have a question about things. Pat joked about it on the show a while back, I knew he was serious. I think we were both serious at the time. Obviously, Ive made it a little more difficult by the way Ive played the last six weeks. I think the MVP should be about the most valuable player on the team. A lot of times it goes to the best player on the best team. And were the best team. So, if voters want to use the offseason or dont like my stance being unvaccinated, thats their prerogative, I dont think its right, but thats their prerogative.

Coach Matt LaFleur defended Rodgers and the MVP vote earlier on Wednesday.

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Here's Aaron Rodgers' strong response to one NFL MVP voter - Packers Wire