June 10, 2018

At the Allium Café...

P1170382

... talk about what you like.

And remember the Althouse Portal to Amazon

83 comments:

mockturtle said...

Chives are too pretty to not allow to bloom.

Sebastian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sebastian said...

Even the New York Times, ever so cautiously, now hints that the Merkel-sponsored invasion of young Muslim men into Germany might have some nasty consequences for German women.

What's a good prog to think--favor women or Muslims?

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Etienne said...

President Trump has stated his desire to allow Russia back in to the International Group of Leaders.

I think his reasoning is, that the current group is boring him to death. Fake eyebrows? Give me a break. Where's Putin?

After all, Russia only annexed the Crimea, and it was a shithole anyway. They shot down an airliner, but what the hell, we shot down one in the Gulf, so let's not get crazy. They invaded the Ukraine and tried to annex it - another shithole.

No, they need to be back in the club. Let's get Rocket Man in there too.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"I think his reasoning is, that the current group is boring him to death. Fake eyebrows? Give me a break. Where's Putin?"

Funny, a bit crazy, but, you know, not entirely out of the question. Trump seems to be happiest when he's punking someone, and Jeb Bush, Hillary, Merkel, and Trudeau, are all pretty much low-hanging fruit. But I think Putin prefers to reserve his Boris Badenov schtick for the Western Europeans, who are more easily frightened. He doesn't want Trump clowning on him on the world stage.

Etienne said...

Captain William Howard Hughes captured!

The idiot tried to get a Passport. He had been a deserter for 35 years. Hiding out in California. Maybe wanted to go visit Russia.

I hope he isn't allergic to Kansas and Fort Leavenworth.

Kevin said...

“I think his reasoning is, that the current group is boring him to death.“

Most of the G-7 leaders are a joke. They’re more on the level of US Governors. They can talk a good game but the US has most of the power.

Compare Trudeau to Jerry Brown and you get the idea. Trump is reuniting Korea and ridding the world of nuclear weapons. Trudeau gets to set the group’s agenda and wants to discuss plastic straws.

Trump knows Putin would never make himself or the group that small. He doesn’t love Putin. He just can’t stand small people who can’t see their smallness. To that end he probably sees his upcoming meeting with Kim as a relief. He’d never sit through the plastic straw meeting either.

Kevin said...

The G-7 as currently constituted is a progressive dream team. They stand for nothing and against everything. They’re everything Trump ran against and everything he loathes.

William said...

I've been rethinking my spirit animal. I'm not sure how souls are transpositioned when we pass over to the great beyond. Perhaps because of my primate heritage I've always been partial to tree dwelling animals. Bonobos look like they have a pretty good deal, but they're a little too hyper for me. Althouse in a previous blog post really blew the lid of squirrels. Nothing much to recommend their manic, futile lives......Of all tree dwelling creatures I'm most enamored of the sloth. They show an economy of effort in their struggles with existence, and their sad eyes demonstrate a zen awareness of the underlying futility of those struggles. I don't know how much say you're given in your choice for the next manifestation, but I would be comfortable with reincarnation as a sloth.

William said...

Why wait? The way that that Kafka guy became a cockroach, I have evolved into a sloth. I don't cling to a tree branch, but I spend a lot of time on my posturpedic mattress. You can changer the position of the bed without ever leaving it. In some ways it's slothier than a tree branch.

wwww said...


USA,

A "special place in Hell" for the Prime Minister of Canada? America spoke in public this way about its most steadfast ally. I know people who have done military exchanges in the last few years in America.

America does not talk this way about the leader of North Korea or Iran or China!

You do not have a fight with Trudeau. You have a fight with Canada. The opposition stands shoulder to shoulder with the Liberals against your aggression and bad behaviour.

Andrew Scheer: Leader of the Conservative Opposition of Canada:

"This G7 meeting shows that united support for free trade is at serious risk.

Canada’s Conservatives continue to support the Prime Minister’s efforts to make the case for free trade. Divisive rhetoric and personal attacks from the US administration are clearly unhelpful."

readering said...

I recommend Althouse devote a post to the funniest Trump news I read today. Apparently Trump continues a practice from his pre-POTUS days of tearing up many documents after he's through with them. To keep in compliance with federal law after failing to get Trump to listen to reason, a team of archivists armed with scotch tape reassembles them from the waste paper baskets. Making jobs for Americans!

wwww said...



Russia is a 2nd rate country. Germany is far more powerful.

The EU has allowed the USA to have quite a bit of soft power. That will now change.

Drago said...

Wwww: "You do not have a fight with Trudeau. You have a fight with Canada. The opposition stands shoulder to shoulder with the Liberals against your aggression and bad behaviour."

LOL

Oh, okay. So its perfectly cool to contimue allowing Canada to act as a NAFTA pass thru for Asian and European goods looking to avoid appropriate US tariffs/requirements.

Gee, Canada is likely to send their 3 canoes andca popgun to force the issue.

The threatened additional tariffs against US products are small compared to the current deficit.

And thats before we choke off Canadas NAFTA cheating.

We are in the drivers seat.

We will no longer be the worlds piggy bank.

Bay Area Guy said...

Justin Castreau!

wwww said...



The USA is becoming isolated from the free world. Germany, France, the UK side with Canada.

ALL appalled at the bullying and aggressive behaviour of the USA.

Drago said...

Wwww: "The EU has allowed the USA to have quite a bit of soft power. "

Literally, the funniest thing written on this blog today! And that is saying something given Inga, ARM, Ritmo and LLR Chuck have made an appearance.

Ken B said...

Where's the spem?

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kevin said...

“Russia is a 2nd rate country. Germany is far more powerful.“

So you’re all Canada is big, and Canada is important, and the minute you want to show Russia is nothing you switch to Germany?

OK I’ll play. How many nukes does Germany have? What size army? Does it make its own planes and tanks or is it utterly at the mercy of some other country?

Which country controls the energy which determines if the other country freezes to death?

You mention soft power because that’s all the EU has had for some time.

Henry said...

If it's not about fishing, it's not really a fight.

Kevin said...

“Germany, France, the UK side with Canada.“

And? On their own what power do they really have to do anything outside their own borders? Perhaps we should let them think about forming their own little group and seeing how it goes.

They could have important meetings to obsess over carefully-worded statements of agreement in French discussing the public’s use of plastic straws. They could issue proclamations about the latest temperature projections for 2060.

They could try to have joint military exercises and see if they could get a quorum.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

“Canada’s Conservatives continue to support the Prime Minister’s efforts to make the case for free trade. Divisive rhetoric and personal attacks from the US administration are clearly unhelpful."”

So Establishmentarians love a free lunch. Color me shocked.

Sebastian said...

"To keep in compliance with federal law after failing to get Trump to listen to reason, a team of archivists armed with scotch tape reassembles them from the waste paper baskets."

Even funnier news from the National Archives:

"the Obama administration itself engaged in the wholesale destruction and “loss” of tens of thousands of government records covered under the act as well as the intentional evasion of the government records recording system by engaging in private email exchanges. So far, former President Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Lynch and several EPA officials have been named as offenders. The IRS suffered record “losses” as well."

No word on whether scotch tape will suffice to recover the lost records.

Kevin said...

“Canada’s Conservatives continue to support the Prime Minister’s efforts to make the case for free trade.”

Oh please, what we had was not free trade. When your trade agreement runs 1,700 pages, your trade is anything but free.

Listening to US economists talk about how short-term tariffs are terrible but the previous longstanding ones were “free” reminds me why Trump got elected in the first place.

tim in vermont said...

No Canadian apologist will address the issue of pass through smuggling of Chinese steel because their position is indefensible. But it was poor form of Trump to point it out.

tim in vermont said...

China is doing the same thing with their steel overproduction that the US stands accused of doing with dairy. Canada abets the dumping in the US.

tim in vermont said...

Democrats aghast that Trump stands up for American labor!

Ken B said...

Trump is reacting to the implication that the US was pushing Canada around and brave Justin stood up to Trump. Trudeau has advisors who must have known this was a really stupid thing to say, but I bet Justin elbowed them aside crying get the fuck out of my way as he rushed for the mic in a hurry lest the other eyebrow slide off too.

Drago said...

The worlds parasites are aghast that an American President is determined to look after the interests of American citizens before others.

Literally aghast that the "US as Piggy Bank" and purposeful Trade Deal failures might very well be coming to an end.

LOL

It's enough to significantly raise eyebrows north of our own border....

Drago said...

Etienne: "Until the US removes all subsidies on food, such as milk, sugar, and rice, they can't argue effectively about another countries import policies."

Well, looky here!

Did you ever want to know where the 1980's "US DISARM FIRST" crowd went?

Well, here's one of the species now! LOL

And just in time........

And just like Reagan, Trump is sending the message to the "Europe Firsters" to lump it.

Seeing Red said...

It’s not just Obama. From Insty:

Every archive in the world suffers attacks, resulting in the theft of its records, the amending or destroying of them, and the archive has had five it knows of since Berger. Digital storage and authentication* will be a great help in securing all holdings.

[Sandy] Berger was supposedly reviewing records for a Clinton response to the 9/11 Commission’s considerations of mistakes made leading up to the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Dean Emeritus of Boston University Law School Ronald Cass wonders if there was telling marginalia by Clinton or others on some of these documents that were not on the file copies. The Clintons seemed to have a longstanding problem with records, since the disappearance in 1994 and reappearance in 1996 of the subpoenaed Rose Law Firm files in the Clintons’ private White House quarters.

Now the National Archives is faced with Hillary Clinton’s history-making assault on government records while secretary of state, which Cass describes as fitting a pattern of “destroy, deny and corrupt the process.” (This is no doubt why Harvard just awarded her the Radcliffe Medal citing her “transformative impact on society.”)

Robert Cook said...

"Trump is reuniting Korea and ridding the world of nuclear weapons."

Trump isn't reuniting Korea. If NK and SK complete their reunification, it is their own doing.

Trump also isn't ridding the world of nuclear weapons. Even if NK agrees to get rid of theirs--doesn't really seem likely--this still leaves nukes in the hands of many other countries.

narciso said...

Meanwhile carlos slims in a gibbonesque flair. Slanders christianity as being responsible for the fall of not only the roman empire. But western civ.

wwww said...



Vermont Tim,

Are you aware that Trudeau was in the process of working on that issue when Trump slapped the steel and aluminum tariffs? It surprised Canada, because people were under the impression that a deal was being worked out.

Are people aware that Canadian dairy tariffs were dropped under the TPP?

No one in the free world can negotiate with the USA under Trump. Positions are moving all over the place. There's no consistency.

Trump agrees to something and 2 seconds later tears it up. He's a shambolic mess with diplomacy. The free world was frustrated, but attempted to deal with him at the G-7. His inconsistent behaviour has made a strong impression on Germany, the UK, Japan, Canada, and France.

Rudeness is one thing. Diplomats and heads-of-states are willing to take a certain amount of it -- if they can get something done.

But inconsistency, erratic behaviour, and tearing up agreements 2 minutes after it's signed...that's not workable.

Birkel said...

wwww,

Hey, how about Canada just accept trade barriers be lowered to zero?

Seeing Red said...

In the process of working on that issue. And how long was he working on the issue? How long were we supposed to wait?

narciso said...

Thats why al ghuardian and james comey. To cite two examples are in favor.

Seeing Red said...

It seems it was agreed upon until Justine pulled a fast one after Trump left.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
traditionalguy said...

Trump is for Free Trade. Canada and their buds at the EU World Order Tyranny demand continuation of manipulated trade with tariffs and selective over regulation on products of the USA while they continue to subsidize their manufaturers.

And Putin laughs.

Etienne said...

Birkel said...Hey, how about Canada just accept trade barriers be lowered to zero?

It won't work unless Congress removes all subsidies.

$1 trade for $1 trade, pre-subsidy.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
wwww said...



Trump is not genuinely interested in 0% tariffs. That's obvious to anyone who isn't brain dead. He pulled out the TPP that fixed the dairy tariffs. He LOVES tariffs. He's wanted to do this for years. He will put more tariffs in place unless Congress stops him. Tariffs on German and Japanese cars are coming.

This weekend the world saw the uselessness of negotiating with the USA.

The free world will grit its teeth and continue to discuss things with the USA. There is no room for emotionality or indulging hurt feelings about the incredibly rude behaviour.

The response needs to be strong and measured. The free world will hit back hard with counter-tariffs.

The USA has become a Southpark character: Blame Canada.

Anonymous said...

Drago to wwww: "You do not have a fight with Trudeau. You have a fight with Canada. The opposition stands shoulder to shoulder with the Liberals against your aggression and bad behaviour."

LOL

Oh, okay. So its perfectly cool to contimue allowing Canada to act as a NAFTA pass thru for Asian and European goods looking to avoid appropriate US tariffs/requirements.


Remember the gay-cake thread? As 4-dub herself explained then, she wasn't interested in the legal aspects, or in engaging with anybody else's points, she just wanted to vapor on formlessly about her feelz about the "social dynamics" of wedding-cake baking and the repercussions of exposing people to "rejection" and "humiliation".

It's clear to me now that she's doing the same thing here. She isn't interested in engaging with you or anybody else about the legal and technical aspects of trade (about which she knows nothing). She just wants to let you know that CANADA IS VERY ANGRY, blather disconnected talking points (muh TPP! lol), and repeat hoary recycled shitlib tropes about STUPID AMERICA DESTROYING THE CIVILIZED WORLD ORDER BECAUSE [non-Dem American president] IS STUPID AND DUMB AND CRAZY AND ALSO STUPID.

You know, just as the other day she wanted to bliss-ninny on about social rejection. She just seems a lot pissier and more substance-enhanced this time around. Who knows why. Best to just let her just sleep it off.

wwww said...


Good Lord, now there's a psychological discussion about a commenter about which you have no connection in life? Why waste that time.


If interested engage.

If not interested, ignore.

Comments are easy to skip over.

Ignore my comments if they bore you.












Seeing Red said...

The free world can pay off the Iranians. The Germans really really want to sell machine made things to them. Like they did to Iraq. Remember the super gun?

Original Mike said...

”Apparently Trump continues a practice from his pre-POTUS days of tearing up many documents after he's through with them.”

Has he not heard of Bleach Bit?

Seeing Red said...

Trump is not genuinely interested in 0% tariffs.

We know. We laugh. Time to make a deal.

We also know about the milk. It’s the lawsuits. That’s what a safe, stable society becomes. You want low-no risk, taste sometimes is a casualty. Didn’t Obama want to control private gardens?

narciso said...

Like droopy dogg. Hans doesnt rsally intimidate.

Seeing Red said...

US population over 315 million

Canadian population? Does it pass California yet? There is no fight with Canada.

Seeing Red said...

Even if NK agrees to get rid of theirs--doesn't really seem likely--this still leaves nukes in the hands of many other countries.

Yeah, Cookie, but as pointed out by Rantburg, this might make it harder for the Pakistanis And Iranians. They can’t use North Korea as a testing ground.

“Nobody seems to clue into Pakistan and Iran losing a deniable nuclear and missile testing ground.” cd3

Seeing Red said...

BTW, I’m all for cutting farm supports. I’ve always wanted to start with the gentlemen farmers like some in Congress and Ted Turner.

Anonymous said...

4-dub: Good Lord, now there's a psychological discussion about a commenter about which you have no connection in life? Why waste that time.

Because it's psychologically interesting to me, and therefore not a waste of a few minutes of a Sunday evening's leisure.

[...]

Ignore my comments if they bore you.

They don't bore me in the least. You're going full-on batshit crazy regarding a subject you obviously didn't know the first thing about before a few days ago, you are declaiming on it a comically portentous, pompous tone that is getting more portentous and pompous every day, and you are showing yourself to be an extreme specimen of the sort of citizen who is very easily manipulated and riled up by the standard tabloid-grade deflective boilerplate always put out by governments and their media lackeys regarding things like G7 meetings.

That's interesting.

Michael K said...

www said...

The USA is becoming isolated from the free world. Germany, France, the UK side with Canada.

ALL appalled at the bullying and aggressive behaviour of the USA.


I agree. Four dub is going a bit nutsy. I suspected s much before today.

"Fog in Channel; Continent cut off !" That's about what it sounds like.

Michael K said...

Blogger Seeing Red said...
BTW, I’m all for cutting farm supports. I’ve always wanted to start with the gentlemen farmers like some in Congress and Ted Turner.


Yes, my wife was talking today about how expensive corn has gotten.

The ethanol lobby needs to shrink considerably. Maybe restrict subsidies to family farms of less than 500 acres.

FullMoon said...

The response needs to be strong and measured. The free world will hit back hard with counter-tariffs.

So what? Then, we raise ours higher. They need us, we don't need them.

wwww said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
wwww said...

So what? Then, we raise ours higher. They need us, we don't need them.



Yeah your supply lines do need them. Canada is your largest trading partner. Supply lines in the US are highly integrated with Canada. And the EU, Japan, Mexico. It's gonna screw with the supply lines in a major way.

There's been no time for manufacturers or farmers to make adjustments. Brewers need aluminum. Pork farmers need to sell to Mexico. All the new tariffs are gonna hit them hard.

narciso said...


Jyst category error all around:


https://pjmedia.com/trending/never-trump-and-

FullMoon said...

Robert Dinero at Tony Awards:FUCK TRUMP.
Standing ovation

narciso said...

Thats how you get more trump. Bobby.

Seeing Red said...

How many years do you see this going on?

wwww said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mockturtle said...

WWWW, Canada needs the US more than the US needs Canada. So don't start getting delusions of adequacy.

Bay Area Guy said...

"Robert DeNiro at Tony Awards:FUCK TRUMP.
Standing ovation"

How many of those applauding entertainment fuckheads knew about Harvey Weinstein, I wonder?

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"So what? Then, we raise ours higher. They need us, we don't need them.



Yeah your supply lines do need them. Canada is your largest trading partner. Supply lines in the US are highly integrated with Canada. And the EU, Japan, Mexico. It's gonna screw with the supply lines in a major way.

There's been no time for manufacturers or farmers to make adjustments. Brewers need aluminum. Pork farmers need to sell to Mexico. All the new tariffs are gonna hit them hard."

You honestly don't see how you're arguing against your own Chicken Little predictions? Those "supply lines" go two ways, with eager exporters on your end who are going to suck it up or close shop.

wwww said...

You honestly don't see how you're arguing against your own Chicken Little predictions? Those "supply lines" go two ways, with eager exporters on your end who are going to suck it up or close shop.



What makes you think I don't know this? Trade wars and tariffs hurt all parties. They hurt the US before any other nations slapped on counter-tariffs. Wisconsin and Michigan supply chains are interrupted by Trump's original tariffs on aluminum and steel.

I'm pointing out that all the tariffs will hurt manufacturing and farmers in mid-western swing states.

Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Pennsylvania. The states Trump needs to hold to be reelected in 2020.

Original Mike said...

When this started I bought the line pushed by the media (that should have been my first clue) that Trump was disrupting free trade. Since then I’ve seen a list of existing tariffs, some of considerable size. Turns out trade wasn’t so free in the first place. I suppose I should have known.

readering said...

Good to know there's a place to go for Chuck Schumer's trade policies.

Francisco D said...

Kevin is on fire tonight.

He only got a single kibitzing response from our resident commie cookie man and a few similar ones from the usual half thinkers..

Nice going.

Quaestor said...

Vampires can breathe easy.

Jon Ericson said...

Quaestor:
Judging from the timing, I think you have a stalker.
I compute it to be an ionic directional probe searching for receiving outlets.

Ann Althouse said...

"Ignore my comments if they bore you."

You followed that with a big space, which is something I've often said is cause for deletion! Do not do that again. The deletion will be for a purely formal offense. I am leaving your comment up only because you were responding to an attack and it might seem like a viewpoint-based deletion, which it absolutely would not be. I'm leaving it in to avoid that impression, but please, everyone, do no put anything more than one extra space between or after paragraphs!

Birkel said...

wwww distilled:

1a) Tariffs are bad and hurt people. 1b) That is why other countries have so many tariffs on US exports and why the US has fewer. 1c) Therefore, those other countries are consistently hurting somebody.

The above cannot be made internally consistent unless we assume those who implemented the tariffs in Canada and other places know less about the results than newly minted expert wwww.

2a) The US runs trade deficits, or other countries send more here than the US sends elsewhere. 2b) Canada has a trade surplus with the US and a much smaller economy than the US. 2c) America will be hurt first and worst if tariffs are raised.

The first two are true statements. Together, they make the third statement impossible. A greater percentage of Canadian economic activity depends on access to the US markets. A greater percentage of Canadian GDP, likewise.

As AD-AB writes, wwww is only interesting as an internet phenomenon and knows nothing beyond talking points.

Robert Cook said...

"Yeah, Cookie, but as pointed out by Rantburg, this might make it harder for the Pakistanis And Iranians. They can’t use North Korea as a testing ground."

Iran doesn't have nukes.

tim in vermont said...

Iran doesn't have nukes

Yeah, they said so. And they promised Obama they would never seek them again! Except they sure had their program up and running again right quick. It's almost as if they had their fingers crossed when they signed that nuke deal!

You need a testing ground when you don't have nukes but want them, Robert.

tim in vermont said...

There's been no time for manufacturers or farmers to make adjustments.

The whole point of renegotiating trade deals is for adjustments to happen. And yes, Mexico and Canada can take positions in a negotiation too!

Birkel said...

See, the way testing works, is you test on the way to nukes.

Robert Cook has given a perfect non sequitur.

Robert Cook said...

"Yeah, they said so. And they promised Obama they would never seek them again! Except they sure had their program up and running again right quick. It's almost as if they had their fingers crossed when they signed that nuke deal!"

Nope. And it wasn't just them who said so and say so.

Robert Cook said...

"See, the way testing works, is you test on the way to nukes.

"Robert Cook has given a perfect non sequitur."


I have no idea what you're saying here.

Birkel said...

Robert Cook: "I have no idea..."
On that, we agree.