The Big Headline: A Manic Monday on Wall Street
Six weeks down, a couple hundred to go. It has felt like a rollercoaster since Inauguration day. A coaster that has you screaming “get me off this crazy ride.” With no emergency brake, we are left with no way to escape the chaos that is the Trump White House. Today the stock market took a big dive. The kind of dip that has people scared to check their stock portfolios and 401k plans.
Stocks took a notable leg down in afternoon trading following Trump’s reiteration that 25% levies on imports from Mexico and Canada would go into effect on Tuesday, dashing investors’ hopes of a last-minute deal to avert the full tariffs on the two U.S. allies.
Who is ready to pay more for avocados, cars, gas, construction materials, Apple products and more?
The other big headline of the day is unfortunately one from Elon Musk as he calls Social Security “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” Why take aim at a program that so many senior citizens rely on? USA Today columnist Rex Huppke writes, “Probably because he’s too rich to have an inkling of an idea how vital Social Security is to regular Americans and resents the idea of wealthy people like himself having to pay into a government program that helps the non-billionaire class. Musk is nothing if not myopic.”
Musk makes a big to-do about looking for government “waste and fraud.” But make no mistake, he’s the fraud. And he sees you, the Americans who need and are owed Social Security, as the waste.
Don’t say you weren’t warned.
USA Today columnist Rex Huppke
And finally… a plea to see movies in theaters
Sean Baker set a record at the Academy Awards this year, becoming the first person to win four Oscars, all for the same film. He won Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Director and Best Picture, all for “Anora.” While that is beyond impressive, what stood out most to us was his speech aimed at helping save movie theaters. Actor Wendell Pierce wrote, “The most important speech at the Oscars last night was Sean Baker’s warning that films are not in the theaters anymore. I went to an Oscar party and no one paid attention because the majority hadn’t seen the movies. The Academy must expand the time films have to be in theaters. One week is not enough.”
If you missed Baker’s speech, here is an excerpt:
“Where did we fall in love with movies? At the movie theater. Watching a film in the theaters with an audience is an experience. We can laugh together, cry together, scream and fight together, perhaps sit in devastated silence together, and in a time in which the world can feel very divided, this is more important than ever. It’s a communal experience you simply don’t get at home and right now, the theater going experience is under threat. Movie theaters, especially independently owned theaters are struggling, and it’s up to us to support them. During the pandemic we lost nearly 1,000 screens in the U.S. and we continue to lose them regularly. If we don’t reverse this trend, we’ll be losing a vital part of our culture. This is my battlecry.”
Watch the full speech here courtesy of the Oscars, then start checking movie times.