Althouse: Sunrise

February 16, 2025

Sunrise — 7:00.

Talk about anything you want in the comments.

48 comments:

RCOCEAN II said...: "Well, he was standing in a country where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide, and he met with the head of a political party that has far-right views and some historic ties to extreme groups. The context of that was changing the tone of it. And you know that, that the censorship was specifically about the right."

Margaret Brennan (CBS News) on why Nazis love free speech and caused the Holocaust.; 2/16/25, 5:56 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: Free speech also caused Lenin and the USSR which lead to millions of death and the Gulags. So I guess Putin's cracking down on Free Speech is a good thing. Right, CBS news?; 2/16/25, 5:58 PM
DINKY DAU 45 said...: SNL 50TH ANNIVERSARY RED CARPET NOWNot for teumpers as these liberals will leave you foaming. Show starts in an hour, you guys can turn on Dr Phil and fox comedy channel Been watching this show fit the 50 years and gotta love it!; 2/16/25, 6:07 PM
Leland said...: Wait until Margaret Brennan learns about the Nazis support of gun control laws for Jews.; 2/16/25, 6:19 PM
Leland said...: If I want to see Dave Chappell, I’ll turn on Netflix where he has freedom of speech.; 2/16/25, 6:21 PM
Eva Marie said...: RCOCEAN II said...(quoting Margaret Brennan)
"Well, he was standing in a country where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide, and he met with the head of a political party that has far-right views and some historic ties to extreme”
She may really be this stupid. But it may also be the effect of reflexively finding fault in anything team Trump says. If the VP said something, it must be wrong. He says free speech is good then I must say it’s bad. It’s done without thinking.
Also this has kind of been the leftie position these past 4 years. If we give people the freedom to say what they want to say, then Hitler.; 2/16/25, 6:36 PM
Eva Marie said...: Margaret Brennan also criticized the VP for meeting with a group “with historic ties to some extreme views”. Doesn’t that exactly describe the Democrat Party? What about the Civil War, the KKK, Jim Crow laws. In the 21st century, one of the leaders of the Democrat Party had belonged to the KKK. According to Groc, the Democrat Party has never formally disavowed the KKK - or offered reparations to the descendants of the slaves they fought to further enslave.; 2/16/25, 6:49 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: Eva Marie said...

She may really be this stupid.

Not stupidity, it's a willingness to ignore reality and facts that are inconvenient.; 2/16/25, 6:54 PM
hawkeyedjb said...: Can we survive without one fourth, one half, two thirds of America’s bureaucrats? I say we can do without two-thirds - what say ye? Send out grandma’s SS check, defend the nation, protect the borders, ensure justice.; 2/16/25, 6:54 PM
Ampersand said...: Through amazing political jujitsu, the progressive left has been forced into open advocacy for government waste, for government restrictions on political speech, and for employment discrimination based on race. That's before we even get to their positions on the border and transgenderism. How are they even above 40 percent?; 2/16/25, 6:57 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: YouTube's physics sensation Sabine Hossenfelder is very upset, very upset, that her fellow academia physicists appear to worry more about their tenure than the physics... the Science! (I'm having a Fauci flashback) 😆

She's tight lipped about naming names, but I take it at her word. She's telling her truth.; 2/16/25, 7:07 PM
Iman said...: Kid Rock was entertaining AND made a lot of great, common sense points on Maher’s latest show.; 2/16/25, 7:14 PM
pacwest said...: Hawkeye - I know Musk is pushing software as a huge cost savings. That would probably displace half the government workforce.; 2/16/25, 7:24 PM
Mason G said...: "I say we can do without two-thirds - what say ye?"

Grok says Musk let go of 80% of the workforce at twitter. I say we start there.; 2/16/25, 7:28 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Looking up an album by The Lightning Seeds called Cloudcuckooland, I came across the most interesting story behind the term Cloud_cuckoo_land.

From Wikipedia: "Cloud cuckoo land is a state of absurdly, over-optimistic fantasy or an unrealistically idealistic state of mind where everything appears to be perfect. Someone who is said to "live in cloud cuckoo land" is a person who thinks that things that are completely impossible might happen, rather than understanding how things really are.[1] It also hints that the person referred to is naive, unaware of realities or deranged in holding such an optimistic belief."

Btw. This blog contains two posts with the term "cloud cuckoo land." (fyi - no reference to commenters here 😉)

More from Wikipedia: "Aristophanes, a Greek playwright, wrote and directed a comedy, The Birds, first performed in 414 BC, in which Pisthetaerus, a middle-aged Athenian, persuades the world's birds to create a new city in the sky to be named Νεφελοκοκκυγία (Nephelokokkygia) or Cloud Cuckoo Land [2] (Latin: Nubicuculia), thereby gaining control over all communications between men and gods."

Add another Musk conspiracy theory to the list. Musk is an Athenian reincarnated on a mission to gain control over all communications between humans and AI. 🤫; 2/16/25, 7:35 PM
Lash LaRue said...: I’m so old I remember when SNL was funny.; 2/16/25, 7:46 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: So, just what's so funny about Cloud Cuckoo Land? Somebody might ask.

YouTube: Why are cynical people so popular in the modern world? How does Michael Malice think we can bypass negativity?

Maybe we strive for a middle ground, some Middle Earth, with some... Emilia Pérez?; 2/16/25, 8:01 PM
MaxedOutMama said...: The weirdest thing about Brennan's jaw-dropping psychotic break in the middle of an interview is that what led up to Hitler's assumption of the chancellorship was a nearly two-year emergency government when the Reichstag was constantly dismissed, and the chancellors in power at the time governed under emergency powers granted by Hindenburg. This happened because neither the Nazis nor the Communists, who ended up as a majority, would support parliamentary coalitions. They both wanted to overthrow the system.

Whatever the AfD may be (most of its positions aren't far-right at all), it does want to participate in government. By blocking AfD's participation, Germany is slowly working itself into a failed parliamentary government again. AfD is the second largest party at this point.; 2/16/25, 8:38 PM
Maynard said...: RE: Margaret Brennan.

True believers are not stupid. They are fanatics.; 2/16/25, 8:59 PM
Disparity of Cult said...: Hakeem Jeffries "Temu Obama" is suddenly concerned about inflation...; 2/16/25, 9:04 PM
Peachy said...: The democratic Cult - the media edition - are now trying to equate free speech with Nazism. Margaret Brennan (D) of D-CBS News did just that.; 2/16/25, 9:24 PM
Jupiter said...: There is a meme, with a picture of one of the demonstrations/riots that have been taking place recently in many US cities, with the text, "Why are people who demand to live in the United States, waving the flag of a nation they left and refuse to go back to?". And I think this is more than just a cheap irony. There are a great many legal immigrants from Mexico, who are US citizens, and increasingly, they display American flags, they oppose unlimited immigration, and they voted for Trump.
Thus far, we don't have any illegals waving the Canadian maple leaf flag. But Trump's logic regarding Canada works equally well to the South. If Mexicans want an open border, it will be open in both directions. And that does not mean that the USA will turn into the 32nd Mexican state. The Canadian elites have been saying that Canada is a "post-nationalist state". Trump is just taking them at their word.; 2/16/25, 9:32 PM
Jupiter said...: It's kind of hilarious. The Left says that they are "Progressive", meaning that they favor the slow, relentless ratcheting of their ever-tighter chains on their helpless victims, justified by various utopian ideologies. Trump is showing them what actual "progress" might look like, based upon harnessing vast energies derived from political and economic imbalances. That is an edge they do not want to look over, an abyss into which they prefer not to peer. Close your eyes. Cover them with your little hands. Dye your hair purple, cut your nuts off and wear a dress. You may not be interested in "progress", ....; 2/16/25, 9:51 PM
Big Mike said...: I suspected that Margaret Brennan's unbelievable gaffe would be at least one of the topics of discussion in this cafe post, and I see that the Althouse commentariat have not disappointed. To me it's pretty simple -- when you live in an unreal world, as the Left has been trying to do since the corona..., pardon me, inauguration of Barack Obama, then you are going to say unreal things and then you will be bewildered when real people throw reality back in your face.; 2/16/25, 10:12 PM
Big Mike said...: @Jupiter, for well over a decade the Hispanic voters in this country have been jumping up and down waving their arms, and standing on the table to tell anyone who would listen that they are strongly opposed to open borders. Then along came the 2024 election, where Donald Trump did so well among Hispanic voters, and the white folks who lead the Democrats are staring at each other in slack-jawed amazement, asking how the Hispanics could have deserted them for Orangemanbad when they'd been given all that unlimited immigration from Latin America. Some day the DNC may deduce that listening is done with ears and not the mouth, but that day may be a long way off (I hope).; 2/16/25, 10:23 PM
Jim at said...: Not for teumpers as these liberals will leave you foaming.

You do realize if we don't want to watch something, we simply choose not to. It doesn't leave anybody foaming. We have other things to do and/or watch.

Stop projecting.; 2/17/25, 12:20 AM
TickTock said...: Jupiter, ... totally fun link.; 2/17/25, 1:29 AM
gadfly said...: pacwest said...
I know Musk is pushing software as a huge cost savings. That would probably displace half the government workforce.

How long would it take to write, install and debug all that code, and to retrain the last half of the government workforce to use it only to have the next administration tear it all down?

Bureauacracies will be bureauacracies after all!; 2/17/25, 2:47 AM
wendybar said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/17/25, 2:58 AM
wendybar said...: THIS is exactly why we laugh at these fools. WHO the HELL does she think SHE is?? This is when you point and laugh your ass off at them.

So much drama over a hunter cap with an American flag on it. You would think the guy was wearing a swastika!!

https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1891129806135198155?; 2/17/25, 3:04 AM
Clyde said...: Yesterday, I wrote about listening to The Who's 2023 box set 'Who's Next | Life House' Super Deluxe. Then, I went looking for one of the songs that I hadn't heard before, "Greyhound Girl." Besides the Pete Townshend demo version on that album, I found a version by The Who off their album 'Endless Wire' (Live At Lyon/2006) and three versions with the same album art. It turned out that those all came of a 2024 box set 'Pete Townshend: Live 1985-2001.' I listened to all three versions, then went and looked at the album and discovered that it was a 14-CD box set, seven concerts of two discs apiece. The last two concerts were in June 2001 at the La Jolla Playhouse and had similar set lists. I listened to the first concert, which was Pete on acoustic guitar or piano until the final encore version of "Won't Get Fooled Again," with electric guitar. Then I listened to the February 2000 concert from Sadler's Wells Theatre in London, which turned out to be as close to a full live performance of Townshend's 'Life House' concept as you will find, with his band accompanied by the London Chamber Orchestra. I enjoyed both concerts and if you are a fan of The Who in general or Pete Townshend in particular, they are worth looking for.

Here is the demo version of "Greyhound Girl" from the first album I referenced:

Greyhound Girl (Lifehouse Chronicles / Demo / Remastered 2022)
https://youtu.be/JNd3NqDc88I?si=0H7bpM4eJYGa51ea; 2/17/25, 3:50 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Jupiter said... FAFO
Sounds like Five Finger Death Punch, A favorite!; 2/17/25, 6:25 AM
Tina Trent said...: Free Tommy Robinson. Castrate the mass Pakistani pedophiles, then send them home. With their multiple wives and scores of children. Have you had the guts and intellectual decency to watch the videos of what they did to thousands of actually British girls? It is as imperative as Holocaust stories.

That will send a message. Free England of slavers and pimps and torturers and vile killers of England's daughters.

The Pakistani offenders are hate criminals too, targeting white girls exclusively. Of course, they get an extralegal pass on that. Gee, maybe history has also been officially cleansed of the last outbreak of these savages. Execute a few of the killers and send the rest home obviously lacking their genitals.

The Pakistani women and children ululate praise for their men doing this in the streets of Manchester. The Pakistani offenders celebrate their crimes publicly. The same is happening in The Congo. Crickets from the international justice agencies. It's just women and girls, after all. Abe Foxman erased us as equal humans before the law in 1997. He became what was done to his own family.; 2/17/25, 6:26 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Speaking about songs that resonate today......Anyone here old enough to remember Bob Dylan (the prophet of those times) in the 60's will know the lyrics to this song....The Times They Are A'Changin' .... I woke up this morning thinking that the song which was about the great revolutionary social changes of the Vietnam and Hippie era also pertains to the MAGA/Populist movement around the world...not just in the US.

Many of those of this age participated and welcomed the changes. Now those Old Crusters in Congress are a'fighing the changes. Others just blindly go along with the official talking point of the day.

What happened to us?

Verse 1]
Come gather 'round, people, wherever you roam
And admit that the waters around you have grown
And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth saving
And you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone
For the times, they are a-changin'

[Verse 2]
Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide, the chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon, for the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who that it's namin'
For the loser now will be later to win
For the times, they are a-changin'

[Verse 3]
Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin'
Will soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times, they are a-changin'

[Verse 4]
Come mothers and fathers throughout the land
And don't criticize what you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand
[Verse 5]
The line, it is drawn, the curse, it is cast
The slow one now will later be fast
As the present now will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin'
And the first one now will later be last
For the times, they are a-changin'; 2/17/25, 7:03 AM
Jersey Fled said...: It makes me proud to know that my country used more than 100% of the income taxes I will pay in my lifetime to fund sex change operations in Guatemala.; 2/17/25, 7:05 AM
Jersey Fled said...: Note: According to Grok a very rough estimate of what the average American pays in federal income taxes over their lifetime is $450,000. So actually those sex change operations in Guatemala cost not only all of the taxes that I will pay over my lifetime but also those of three of my friends.; 2/17/25, 7:29 AM
Drago said...: Soy boy-Ct Lady gadfly: "How long would it take to write, install and debug all that code, and to retrain the last half of the government workforce to use it only to have the next administration tear it all down?

Bureauacracies will be bureauacracies after all!"

LOL

What an embarrassment!

Gadfly demonstrating a pure 1985-level of "understanding" for software development and implementation!

Not surprising really. Gadfly is the same buffoon that wanted SpaceX cut out of space ops for the US so the "real rocket scientists" at Lockheed and Boeing (Boeing!) and NASA (yes, he actually thought NASA still did "stuff"!) could handle it all!

Too funny.; 2/17/25, 7:32 AM
Jaq said...: "Stop projecting."

What are you going to tell them next? "Stop breathing"?; 2/17/25, 7:42 AM
Rusty said...: Jupiter. Outstanding.; 2/17/25, 8:08 AM
Jaq said...: Ukraine's military is crumbling. It's the kind of process that first happens quite slowly, then quite quickly. Trump recognizes that Russia has won, and it's all over but for the needless death and destruction that will make it clear to even the Ukrainians in power, just as anybody with any knowledge of military matters knew that Hitler was doomed after the Battle of Kursk. Germany kept fighting, though, until the Red Army got right to Hitler's bunker; this is universally recognized today as evil stupidity and a massive waste of life.; 2/17/25, 8:38 AM
Jaq said...: I think that if Trump thought there was any realistic chance of defeating Russia, he would take it.; 2/17/25, 8:40 AM
Big Mike said...: @DBQ, yes, I’m old enough to remember hearing that song, and even singing it. I was a freshman in college and the administration would be accepting more black students and integrating the dorms. Vietnam had not yet started to heat up, but it was there. Birthday #79 is coming up this summer.

Academic elitists had their chance at world-building. Now it’s really time for “change we can believe in.”; 2/17/25, 9:07 AM
Kakistocracy said...: Hemisphere deal of the century. You get Ukraine, we let China have Taiwan, we let you have more of Europe if you really want to, and you let us have Greenland and Panama. Canada is technically ours anyway.

I think that is exactly how Trump is thinking.; 2/17/25, 11:08 AM
Rusty said...: That must be why, little coprophile, Marco Rubio took out the part of out or our written relationship with Taiwan that it was part of China.
You just keep thinkin' though.; 2/17/25, 11:36 AM
h said...: https://www.brookings.edu/events/denied-no-more-a-conversation-with-john-boyd-president-of-the-national-black-farmers-association/?utm_campaign=Events%3A%20COMM&utm_medium=email&utm_content=347595334&utm_source=hs_email.

Denied no more: A conversation with John Boyd, Jr., president of the National Black Farmers Association
Thursday, February 20, 2025, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. EST

In July 2024, the National Black Farmers Association, helmed by President John Boyd, Jr., secured a $2.2 billion payout for discrimination in farm lending by the United States Department of Agriculture. This historic victory marks official acknowledgement and restitution for Black farmers, who have faced unrelenting discrimination in the farming industry for generations.; 2/17/25, 12:16 PM
Gospace said...: "Jaq said...
Ukraine's military is crumbling."

Likely true. Also Likely true- Russia's military is crumbling. Along with their entire transport system.

Who get's there first?

Both were already headed for demographic collapse. The war between them is speeding up the process. Especially in Russia; 2/17/25, 12:19 PM
DINKY DAU 45 said...: Now heres a grat idea from the King and his Court on immigration.There are approx 3.8 million backlogged cases because not enough judges to hear the cases,so the solution is from the King, fire more judges! Brilliant and looks like they also lost the nuclear site employees after they fired em,erased their contact info and then found out they were needed,kind of like the kids they lost on child separation same thing didn't keep records of contact info..These guys are sharp(NOT) EGGS 8.9 5 for large at Publix and Costco Coffee plugs ,120count $29.00 BUCKS TWO WEEKS AGO,MY LATEST PURCHASE $37.00.. So like the nominee said first day prices go down and we see that aint happening in fact goin up,,was their miscommunication on the stump or just regular lies? And the war is still going way past 24 hours the sad thing is all the trumpers believed what the fella said..naive,clueless,mesmerized ? One is born every minute :(; 2/17/25, 2:18 PM
Tina Trent said...: H, you're ignorant. That was one of the most racist and abused federal programs of all post-war times. The vast majority of cash gimmies were not to farmers, never had been farmers, and most of the land declared as farms were single-home urban properties that had never been farmed. Maybe they had a little garden. Meanwhile, millions of white sharecroppers, many still farmers, received nothing for decades of fiscal servitude and actual financial crime against them.

Learn some fucking history.; 2/18/25, 5:07 AM