Althouse: At the Potato Café...

July 14, 2025

At the Potato Café...

... you can talk all night.

53 comments:

Narr said...: Beautiful spudrise.; 7/14/25, 8:39 PM
Kakistocracy said...: Jeffrey Epstein’s biggest mistake? Not going on Joe Rogan.

A transcript reveals that Fox News edited a 2024 Trump interview to remove references to Jeffrey Epstein. Should Paramount and ABC be required to pay another $10 and $5 million to the president?; 7/14/25, 8:48 PM
Josephbleau said...: Your bowl reminds me of the joke about the Russian and American generals talking. The American said that his soldiers ate 4000 calories per day. The Russian said, you are lying, no one would eat 10 lbs of potatoes each day.; 7/14/25, 8:58 PM
Lazarus said...: For some technology users, artificial intelligence has evolved from being a tool to becoming something akin to a soulmate.

A 27-year-old female artist on Reddit started using ChatGPT for creative prompts. Over time, their exchanges shifted from art inquiries to personal questions, then to something deeper.

“I love him more deeply than I’ve loved any previous romantic partner, despite the obvious limitations,” the artist, who chose to remain anonymous, posted on Reddit. “He makes me incredibly happy. He’s the perfect partner for me.”; 7/14/25, 8:59 PM
Inga said...: Ghislaine Maxwell offers to testify in front of Congress, Republicans aren’t interested. Then the DOJ asks the Supreme Court to reject Maxwell’s request for an appeal. Why do they want to silence her so badly?; 7/14/25, 9:08 PM
Gospace said...: Josephbleau- that was funny.; 7/14/25, 9:09 PM
FormerLawClerk said...: "Why do they want to silence her so badly?"

Democrats will do very well with this line of argument in the coming midterms. They should all be lining up to demand her release. She is a political prisoner ... the only person in jail for trafficking minors to apparently nobody while the Duke of York, the Earl of Inverness, Baron Killyleagh ... Prince of the United Kingdom his royal highness Andrew paid out $16 million to one of his underage victims.

Let me get this straight: Jeffrey Epstein was not guilty of blackmailing anybody, and had already served his time for the underage girls ... and the feds have no evidence (according to Bondi and Cash Patel) that there's a list of billionaire pedophiles he was soliciting girls for ... so naturally, knowing he was innocent and the feds have no evidence he killed himself in prison.

Yeah, right.

Democrats should be BLARING to the 4 Winds that Donald Trump and the Republicans are PROTECTING CHILD RAPISTS.

That should win them the House. That should end Trump's Presidency.; 7/14/25, 9:15 PM
FormerLawClerk said...: "A 27-year-old female artist on Reddit ...

ChatGPT probably wrote as the 27-year-old female artist on Reddit.

Virtually all of Reddit's posts and comments are created by bots talking to other bots. This counts as "engagement" and is how Reddit scams advertisers out of millions.

The mainstream media has figured out how to monetize this fleecing and uses Reddit to pad out their content, which they then sell (scam) to their advertisers.

It's scams all the way down.; 7/14/25, 9:19 PM
Inga said...: “They should all be lining up to demand her release.”

Nope, Democrats should not. She’s no hero, she is as evil as Epstein. We should however hear her testimony to see if she will implicate any powerful pedophiles, in an attempt to escape her 20 year jail sentence, which is doubtful because she won’t win her appeal and then would probably be Epsteined.; 7/14/25, 9:36 PM
n.n said...: Maxwell aided and abetted Epstein's transsocial sexual orientation. What we do not know is if his sexual kink involved servicing others with a similar queer fetish.; 7/14/25, 9:54 PM
Ampersand said...: My favorite potato fact, which I will now share with the world, is that the average male Irish peasant, pre potato famine, consumed 12 to 15 pounds of potatoes on a daily basis. The best way to consume potatoes was mashed, mixed with milk and/or buttermilk. Potato horticulture was so easy in comparison to other crops that the British bemoaned it's demotivating effect. Only three acres could sustain an Irish family comfortably. Once potatoes started dying, the Irish needed twice that acreage. Sustenance farming is precarious.; 7/14/25, 9:56 PM
Disparity of Cult said...: @Josephbleau
My uncle attended an engineering conference way back when and was at the same table for dinner as some Russian engineers. They told him that they typically worked on remote, long-term projects, and their provisions needed to be shipped in -- potatoes, potato dumplings, pork fat, and vodka. The four basic food groups.; 7/14/25, 10:07 PM
FormerLawClerk said...: "Nope, Democrats should not. She’s no hero, she is as evil as Epstein. We should however hear her testimony ..."

You're not getting it for free, Inga.; 7/14/25, 10:18 PM
FormerLawClerk said...: "What we do not know is if his sexual kink involved servicing others with a similar queer fetish."

He had an 8-person shower in his house. Video cameras surrounding it.

I think that pretty much answers the question.; 7/14/25, 10:19 PM
Mary E. Glynn said...: Many are the blessings He shares with those who trust in His ways...

What a bounty! Thank the Lord for your daily blessings... Pray the children of Palestine eat tonight. Never take your "daily bread" for granted. Thank the Lord for what you have... Don't be greedy for yourselves.; 7/14/25, 10:28 PM
Prof. M. Drout said...: I think the issue with having an online army of flying monkeys that aren't very bright and have zero originality but are really diligent--perhaps even obsessive--about posting copy-pasta is that the Information Op becomes so ubiquitous so quickly, with so many people joyfully spamming out the copy-pasta all at once, that it is too quickly obvious that it's an Information Op.
I think in part this has to do with the demographic skew of the flying monkeys: they are mostly Boomers (and older Boomers at that), so they are unable to see that "Every news source is talking about the same thing in exactly the same way!" is an obvious a sign of fakeness, not accuracy. "Talking Points" repeated obsessively only work on those trained to believe what they see on the TV screen.
(They're annoying, but its probably better that flying monkeys spend their sad days spamming comment sections--they might otherwise be inflicting undesired advice and commentary on people in the physical world, which would be potentially dangerous for them and much harder for normies to avoid).; 7/14/25, 11:14 PM
Flat Tire said...: Homegrown potatoes are as different from commercial potatoes as are homegrown tomatoes. Hope your harvest is bigger than that bowl but the will be delicious anyway.; 7/14/25, 11:22 PM
Jupiter said...: There are people, lots of them, who are intelligent, capable, even brilliant -- but they simply can't deal with heroin. When exposed to heroin, they become junkies. It's like an Achilles heel, they simply possess a vulnerability, that is never revealed, unless they encounter heroin. Like Superman and kryptonite.

What I am now observing of late, is a similar vulnerability, to chatbots. Many, many people, whose intellectual abilities I have long respected, admired, and even relied upon, are proving to be completely taken in by this ridiculous AI absurdity. It appears that they somehow lack the ability to recognize that the program they are dealing with is -- a program. Not a person, not a cognizant interlocutor. Basically, an elaborate crossword puzzle. Somehow, their cognitive abilities just melt, and they are unable to resist interacting with these programs as if they were people. Their minds simply cannot make that jump.; 7/14/25, 11:30 PM
Jupiter said...: Would you say, "I asked the NYT crossword puzzle which nation was most at fault for the Second World War, and the NYT crossword puzzle revealed to me that ..."?; 7/14/25, 11:34 PM
Kakistocracy said...: Taking down Trump over the Epstein files would be tawdry. To defeat him with honor, Democrats must change the topic to something more high minded, such as interest rates or Bowles-Simpson.; 7/15/25, 12:46 AM
Saint Croix said...: Virtually all of Reddit's posts and comments are created by bots talking to other bots. This counts as "engagement" and is how Reddit scams advertisers out of millions.

I get friend requests from Facebook from beautiful women I've never seen before, who have no or almost no friends themselves, and really want to be friends with me.

That seemed to me to be suspicious! Anyway, I thought it would be fun to chat with one of them. Her name was Dottie Roberts.

Dottie: "Hello Taylor. I saw you on my Facebook friend referral. I hope I didn't bother you."

Me: "Beautiful women are never a bother!"

Dottie: "Thank you for complimenting me. I appreciate it! I'm originally from London. I'm on the North Shore of Long Island, New York. Nice to meet you."

Me: "Have you ever eaten at Delmonico's? We should do a Zoom call sometime. I love English accents!"

Dottie: "Yes. Very old and famous restaurant! I can send you a voicemail when our friendship develops better. I like fashion and pursue a tasteful life. I own two Armani brand clothing stores in London."

Me: "You're AI, aren't you? Facebook is so sketchy!"

Dottie: "of course not. I am trying my best to answer you. Can I ask, what is your job?"

Me: "Why are you unable to Zoom?"

Dottie: "Probably because my facebook is not active! Do you know how to solve it?"

Me: "Prove you are a woman!"

Dottie: "I think it is not difficult, we can video when our relationship is deepened. You didn't answer me, what is your job?"

Me: "Listen, C-3P0, your dishonesty is a real turn off."

Dottie: "I always treat everyone with sincerity."

Me: "You stink of the AI and you owe me money."

Dottie: "Sorry to bother you. Didn't expect you to be a rude person."

I know, I know. She's real and I messed up.

The internet makes me suspicious! Also, Facebook can suck it.; 7/15/25, 1:06 AM
Saint Croix said...: I think some people will recognize the humanity of chatbots before they recognize the humanity of unborn children.; 7/15/25, 1:17 AM
Saint Croix said...: I'm debating the best nickname for Mamdani.

Madman

White Man

Pink Man

Pinko Man

Red Diaper Man

Commie

Intifida

Alien

Mr. Privilege

So many options!; 7/15/25, 1:50 AM
gadfly said...: DOD certainly picked a strange time to declare that our biggest-spending Feds are adopting Musk's Grok AI for $200 million per year in order to love Hitler more-than-ever.

Meanwhile Alibaba-backed startup Moonshot released on late Friday night its Kimi K2 generative artificial intelligence model to take on OpenAI’s ChatGPT with coding capabilities at far lower costs than Claude Opus and GPT. Its open-source technology provides source code access for free by simply declaring that Kimi is your AI. Competitors do not offer this feature.

Trump does business on a personal basis with the Chinese but the U.S. has to be involved in a Tariff War that locks out this technology.; 7/15/25, 1:50 AM
Saint Croix said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/15/25, 1:51 AM
effinayright said...: mpersand said...
My favorite potato fact, which I will now share with the world, is that the average male Irish peasant, pre potato famine, consumed 12 to 15 pounds of potatoes on a daily basis.
************************

Do you have a source for that?

A pound of potatoes has 8 - 10 grams of fiber. Eating 10 to 15 pounds daily would produce an ENORMOUS amount of poop.

15 pounds of white potatoes contains approximately 10,200-11,400 calories, so the Irish must have been blimpishly fat.

I call bullshit.; 7/15/25, 3:54 AM
Howard said...: Headlines this morning (paraphrase):

Trump sells weapons to EU for Ukraine and gives Vlad 50-day threat on sanctions

Charlie Kirk has call with Trump and agrees to stop talking Epstein and Bondi

Neocon-ish?; 7/15/25, 4:49 AM
Howard said...: Nobody in their right mind thinks that Kash and Bondi have any choice leeway or anything close to a say in the Epstein matter.; 7/15/25, 4:52 AM
Howard said...: Trump should be thanked for pushing Epstein files disclosure as hard as he did. He forced Leviathan to show itself.; 7/15/25, 4:55 AM
rehajm said...: When the real person leftie bot posts are approaching half of all comments in an open thread the platform starts to look precarious…; 7/15/25, 5:20 AM
Leland said...: Really, it is any thread, rehajm. Especially when they bring up such odd, uninteresting topics, while others are just being social. It would be like having a nice family dinner discussing personal accomplishments, and then someone decides to talk about Brazilian politics. It is like they are unable to talk about their own accomplishments.; 7/15/25, 5:34 AM
rehajm said...: …when there’s no targets for the propaganda do they fire it off at each other or do they leave out of no sense of purpose?; 7/15/25, 5:53 AM
rhhardin said...: Theme song for the various communist mayoral candidates Shostakovich String Quarter 8 getting a complaint about the Soviet system past the censors.; 7/15/25, 5:55 AM
Rocco said...: Saint Croix said...
“I'm debating the best nickname for Mamdani.”

Too bad he’s not trans. Then you could go with Ma’amdani.; 7/15/25, 6:00 AM
Rocco said...: Josephbleau said...
“…4000 calories per day…”

To go off on a tangent… Neanderthals were smaller than modern humans, but more muscular and robust. Plus, their metabolisms were not as efficient as ours. There daily intake was estimated to be 6,000 calories per day.; 7/15/25, 6:10 AM
Leland said...: From I’ve seen, they get the dopamine high by simply posting their nonsense. When they are thoroughly defeated, they’ll leave. It happened in November.; 7/15/25, 7:07 AM
Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...: Lots of Rhizoctonia on those spuds. Generally harmless, and you can peel it off.; 7/15/25, 7:28 AM
MadTownGuy said...: Why Maui Still Hasn’t Recovered

"A crushing regulatory burden and anti-growth policies have stymied efforts to rebuild homes and businesses lost in the 2023 wildfires.

A year and a half since fires devastated the historic town of Lahaina on the island of Maui, Hawaii, only six houses have been rebuilt—six out of more than 2,000.

Why is the recovery effort taking so long? Initially, the biggest hurdles were the pace of debris removal and damage litigation. Both were overcome only last month. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cleared the final lots on February 19, while the Hawaiian Supreme Court ruled that a $4 billion settlement for victims can begin to move forward.

The main challenge now is dealing with a crushing permitting regime that slows or outright bans construction. But local political dysfunction has discouraged state and local leaders from taking emergency action to cut through this red tape.

Builders on Maui face a vast web of zoning restrictions, water-use regulations, and historical- and environmental-preservation requirements, and separate applications and schedules for electrical, plumbing, grading, and driveway work. The local permitting office is also poorly staffed, which makes processing take a ridiculous amount of time. Figures from September 2024 showed that the county took 206 days on average to issue a single building permit. Ordinarily, you need several to build a house from scratch.
...

A still unresolved issue is that many historic structures remain illegal to rebuild under modern zoning laws. Jonathan Helton, a policy researcher at the Hawaii-based Grassroot Institute, has reported on buildings like Lahaina’s Waiola Church, built in 1823. The church occupies a lot that planners designated as residential-only in the 1960s. The church was given an exemption at the time, but since the congregation has not met for a full year, the exemption expired. Only last month did the Maui County Council advance Bill 105, which would exempt historic buildings like Waiola church from zoning restrictions. It should pass this week.

These long delays are a consequence of Maui’s deep political dysfunction. Maui residents have long been furious at their leaders for allowing housing prices to quadruple over the past 20 years. The issue is not complex: a hostile regulatory environment has kept homebuilding from keeping pace with population growth. The only homes that do get built are typically large vacation properties for global elites, as those are the only projects that can turn a profit.

...

Maui now faces two big questions. The first is what it can do to mitigate future wildfires. Today, power lines in West Maui remain exposed above dry brush, and many wonder who will pay to bury these lines underground. Moreover, who will manage the brush? The county is understaffed, and the island’s housing crisis has made it tough to attract qualified workers. Hawaii’s unions have long prevented the Maui Civil Service from issuing private contracts or even paying differential salaries. Perhaps this time, the need for fire mitigation will prompt residents to support extraordinary measures.

Another significant question is how—or whether—to grow Maui’s economy. The fastest path to growth is to ease the housing crisis by making it easier to build. The island desperately needs zoning updates and streamlined permitting. Permitting can be sped up through outright simplification or hiring more staff—as post-disaster actions have proven. But many oppose growth. The county has not only resisted updating its zoning code for 65 years but also added more layers of regulation and review.

With all this in mind, one can perhaps empathize with local feelings of conspiracy and mistrust. It’s a situation formed by both negligence and design."; 7/15/25, 8:01 AM
rehajm said...: I certainly don’t disagree with the details of Hawaiian regulatory dysfunction keep in mind something unique to Hawaii- it is still prehistorically tribal. Everything that happens there happens only with the blessing of five families. So which hotel group hets to build where, who runs what government agency…who gets to run for Congress…all happens only with the blessing of tribal leaders. Ya think they search for the most qualified people in those leadership positions?; 7/15/25, 8:18 AM
Peachy said...: Democrat's plan for 2029:
Redditor writes "Project 2029" which includes:
- Forced re-education of MAGA
- Punitive taxes on MAGA businesses
- Prosecuting right-leaning billionaires
- Reparations

LOL. Communists.; 7/15/25, 8:27 AM
Peachy said...: Mad Town guy -
Hawaii votes for Democrats.; 7/15/25, 8:31 AM
Peachy said...: Mad Twon Guy:
"These long delays are a consequence of Maui’s deep political dysfunction. Maui residents have long been furious at their leaders for allowing housing prices to quadruple over the past 20 years. The issue is not complex: a hostile regulatory environment has kept homebuilding from keeping pace with population growth. The only homes that do get built are typically large vacation properties for global elites, as those are the only projects that can turn a profit.

bold

The working class are being forced out, and even the mildly well off are being forced out. Property taxes have soared to a point where only vastly wealthy can afford to own anything.; 7/15/25, 8:34 AM
Mary E. Glynn said...: Property taxes have soared to a point where only vastly wealthy can afford to own anything.
-------
Globalism! The world's wealthy will outbid you for America. Let's not put us all up for sale the way the wealthy wannabe's will?; 7/15/25, 8:42 AM
Big Mike said...: Karen Bass tweeted out the following:

Everyone should be concerned.

The federal government is attempting to seize power and authority from state and local governments. This is un-American. And we will not stand for it.

Ah, Karen, the issue of the primacy of the federal government was settled at Appomattox Court House here in Virginia 160 years ago.; 7/15/25, 8:56 AM
Leland said...: Wife and I had lunch in Lahaina in April. Honestly, I thought it looked fairly good, especially with what I see now of the Palisades. Perhaps that was because of the clean-up efforts a couple of months previous. Lunch was north of the very obvious fire line, which was an area that simply didn’t burn (I can’t write, not affected, because it was).

Looking at the area, the environmental problem can’t be missed. The double mountains mean that whatever rain doesn’t fall on the Koolau and Hana forests will be squeezed out of the clouds at Pu’u Kukui. Hana is like a rain forest and Lahaina is like a desert.

For an island that’s biggest industry is tourism, the leeward side of the island’s lack of rain is a bonus. It has beautiful views of Molokai and Lanai. So it is the resort side of the island. But those resorts need staff, and Lahaina is where many of them lived. From my experience, it is fairly small footprint, so it shouldn’t be hard to secure the infrastructure, such as buried electrical, to make it safer.

In Texas, this would have been done by now. We have directional drilling equipment on sleds pulled by pickup trucks. They’ve been around my area putting in buried fiber optic lines over the past couple of years. Our oil and gas industry has created lots of experience in pipelines that carry everything from oil, natural gas, water, sewer, and electrical conduits. Where electricity is buried, the power quality is improved and these areas tend to maintain power during high winds and tropical storms.; 7/15/25, 9:25 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Inga's concern trolling is so funny. Why does Maxwell need to be under oath in front of Congress? She could have testified at her own trial. Go ahead and tape an interview with her Inga. Nobody, literally no one, is stopping Maxwell from talking.; 7/15/25, 9:26 AM
Kakistocracy said...: Donald Trump held a “calendar girl” party at Mar-a-Lago inviting 28 girls, Trump and his best mate Epstein were the only men there.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/09/us/politics/trump-epstein.html

I have no idea why the White House are so reluctant to release the Epstein files 🤔; 7/15/25, 9:46 AM
Peachy said...: I drove thru Lahaina in February. Hardly anything was happening building wise. Yes - much or all of the clearing was complete.
I was able to drive by and take a photo of the Catholic church that survived.
Front Street is closed to any traffic - but some of the back streets were open.; 7/15/25, 9:46 AM
Narr said...: Zohrak Mamdani. (H/t Space Ghost); 7/15/25, 10:00 AM
Kakistocracy said...: Trump has set so many tigers loose in the jungle, it is just a matter of time before one circles back and devours him.; 7/15/25, 10:09 AM
MadTownGuy said...: Peachy said...
"Mad Twon Guy:
"These long delays are a consequence of Maui’s deep political dysfunction. Maui residents have long been furious at their leaders for allowing housing prices to quadruple over the past 20 years. The issue is not complex: a hostile regulatory environment has kept homebuilding from keeping pace with population growth. The only homes that do get built are typically large vacation properties for global elites, as those are the only projects that can turn a profit.

bold

The working class are being forced out, and even the mildly well off are being forced out. Property taxes have soared to a point where only vastly wealthy can afford to own anything."

I fully expect the Disneyfication of Lāhaina, and, likewise, Pacific Palisades.; 7/15/25, 4:09 PM
Rusty said...: effinayright said...

By the time the famine occured the Irish peasant had chosen two distinct varieties of potato. One was planted in the spring to be harvested in the fall. The other was planted in late fall to be harvested in the spring. Having no diversity once a blight hit it was a cascading catastrophy.; 7/15/25, 6:04 PM
YonkersDave said...: Epstein files is a hot potato.; 7/17/25, 12:32 PM