Here’s our Friday roll-up of the most ridiculous stories from around the world that are threats to your liberty, risks to your prosperity… and on occasion, inspiring poetic justice.
Russian Musicians Canceled, Dead or Alive
The Cardiff Philharmonic in Wales canceled a concert scheduled for tonight which was to feature Russian composer Tchaikovsky.
Although he has been dead for 129 years, two of his featured pieces celebrate Russian military victories. The 1812 Overture celebrates Russia’s defeat of Napoleon’s invading army, and Marche Slave commemorates Russia’s involvement in the Serbian-Ottoman War.
The orchestra’s director said they “were also made aware at the time that the title ‘Little Russian’ of Symphony No. 2 was deemed offensive to Ukrainians.”
Meanwhile in Canada, a living Russian pianist, Alexander Malofeev, was canceled just for being Russian.
The Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal canceled three performances by the young pianist scheduled for last week.
It said, “Considering the serious impact on the civilian population of Ukraine caused by the Russian invasion… OSM feels that it would be inappropriate to receive Mr. Malofeev this week.”
The baby-faced 20 year old even denounced Russia’s invasion, despite the risk to his family still in Russia.
Apparently just being Russian, whether 129 years dead or barely an adult, makes you guilty of Putin’s crimes.
Click here to read about Tchaikovsky and here for Malofeev.
White House Briefs TikTok Stars on Ukraine Crisis
The White House wants to make sure the public has “the latest information from an authoritative source” on the invasion of Ukraine.
So naturally, it gathered 30 top stars from the social media platform TikTok for an online White House briefing.
One TikTokker on the call said, “Those who have an audience can ideally set the tone for how others decide to assess and amplify what they see online.”
In other words, dancing teenagers are perfect for spreading government propaganda.
Simply make some young stars feel special with a White House briefing, and they can “amplify” the government’s preferred way that Americans will “assess” the situation.
But at least one TikTokker on the call was not impressed.
He said, “The energy of the call felt like a press briefing for kindergartners.”
Click here to read the full story.
Unvaxxed NBA Star Can’t Play in NYC, But He Can Watch
Now that New York City has dropped its vaccine mandate to attend public events, unvaxxed Nets player Kyrie Irving was allowed to attend his NBA team’s home game.
But he wasn’t allowed to play.
And the NBA fined the Nets $50,000 for allowing him into the locker room at half time…
The reason is that New York City still has in place a vaccine mandate for all employees of private businesses who show up in person for work in the city.
The Nets, as Irving’s employer, could allow him to attend the game as a spectator. But letting him into the locker room was akin to allowing an unvaxxed worker into the office.
The NBA fined the Nets for disobeying the local law.
Meanwhile, because of an exemption in the law, unvaxxed visiting players were allowed to play.
After the game, Nets player Kevin Durant expressed what many people are feeling: “Yeah, I don’t get it… it feels like somebody’s trying to make a statement or a point to flex their authority.”
Click here to read the full story.
Record 6.1 Million on Waiting List for UK’s Socialized Healthcare
The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is the government provider for socialized healthcare.
For years it has faced shortages of staff and resources, which has forced it to wait list patients who need care.
Now a record 6.1 million Brits who need healthcare are on waiting lists.
Almost 24,000 of those patients have been waiting for over two years for care.
And it is not just people with minor health concerns who are left waiting.
Over 60% of emergency room patients waited more than FOUR HOURS to see a physician— a record for the NHS.
And, for more than a THIRD of people who had URGENT cancer screenings, it took more than a MONTH for them to be given the results.
For those unfortunate patients who were diagnosed with cancer, 38% of those had to wait at least two months to start their first treatment, despite receiving an urgent referral.
Click here to read the full story.
Violent Crime Forces Amazon to Move Employees out of Seattle Office
An Amazon office in Seattle with 1,800 employees is located in an area experiencing a surge in violent crime.
The crime wave culminated in a 15 year old boy being shot to death in the street within sight of Amazon’s office building.
Now Amazon will move those employees to its main headquarters.
Amazon said in a statement, “We are hopeful that conditions will improve and that we will be able to bring employees back to this location when it is safe to do so.”
Click here to read the full story.
Ford Begins Shipping Explorers With Missing Part
With SUVs filling up factory lots, Ford has decided to ship incomplete Explorers to customers, with the promise to finish them within a year.
The missing part is a computer chip which controls the rear seat heating and cooling.
This isn’t the first time Ford has recently had to scale back manufacturing due to supply chain constraints.
Last year, and again last month, it cut production of the top selling Ford F-150 truck, and offered buyers a $50 rebate to go without the automatic start-stop that turns off the engine to save gas when the vehicle stops.
Other car manufacturers like GM and Tesla have had similar problems, delivering vehicles without all the features, and promising to install them later for free.
Turns out it’s a lot easier to shut down an economy than to turn everything back on.
