Althouse: At the Rusty Café...

June 12, 2018

At the Rusty Café...

... you can talk all night.

And please think of using The Althouse Portal to Amazon.

120 comments:

Henry said...: Love that image.; 6/12/18, 5:55 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Old metal shed?; 6/12/18, 5:57 PM
pacwest said...: I just saw that Rosenstien has threatened to go after all members of the investigation committee's phone records and emails. Wholly shit! Am I over reacting?? Holy holy shit!! What the hell is being hidden?; 6/12/18, 5:58 PM
Rob said...: Wake up Punchy! (No relevance to anything here, but it's my new all purpose go-to comment.); 6/12/18, 6:03 PM
Meade said...: Rusty gets his own cafe? What next -- the rhhardin Cafe? The Inga Cafe?; 6/12/18, 6:12 PM
madAsHell said...: Wholly shit! Am I over reacting??

I saw that. I don't understand it. The accuracy of first reports.; 6/12/18, 6:15 PM
Original Mike said...: The FBI has gone rogue.; 6/12/18, 6:17 PM
Original Mike said...: Apparently, Rosenstein has a history of making these threats.; 6/12/18, 6:18 PM
Unknown said...: Have we learned Kim Jong Un's true height?; 6/12/18, 6:21 PM
Birkel said...: madAsHell,

First reports happened in January. Accounts vary and there is one interpretation that is innocent.

"Nice place you got here. Be a shame if anything happened to it." -- another interpretation; 6/12/18, 6:26 PM
FullMoon said...: Rumor:
Trump is considering awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Dennis Rodman !!!

After watching CNN vid of Rodman talking about his interaction with Kim, I hope this rumor is true.; 6/12/18, 6:35 PM
Birkel said...: Mueller asked a federal judge in Washington for an order that would protect the handover of voluminous evidence to lawyers for Concord Management and Consulting LLC, one of three companies and 13 Russian nationals charged in a February indictment. They are accused of producing propaganda, posing as U.S. activists and posting political content on social media as so-called trolls to encourage strife in the U.S.

The threat of public or unauthorized disclosure of evidence would help foreign intelligence services, particularly in Russia, in “future operations against the United States,” Mueller’s prosecutors wrote in a filing Tuesday.

*****

We have to hide the evidence that we intend to use to prosecute the defendants from the defendants in order to preserve national security. And in no way does that violate the rights of the accused.; 6/12/18, 6:39 PM
YoungHegelian said...: @Birkel,

And in no way does that violate the rights of the accused.

First, Mueller's posse indicts a bunch of Russkies, thinking that it'll all come to nothing, but, hey, let's look like we're doing something other than wasting the taxpayers' money.

A couple of aforementioned Russkies decide that they want their day in court. Mueller's boys then say "Ohhhhh, wait! We need time to prepare a case." You mean, the case you should have had when you handed down the indictment?

Now, it's the evidence the Russkies need for discovery is national security sensitive, & we can't let them have it. Well, duh!

What choice will a judge have but to throw out the indictments?

What a clown car!; 6/12/18, 6:56 PM
pacwest said...: My bad on the previous comment, I jumped the shark. Birkel is right, it happened in Jan and could be attributed to an overheated argument. Still..; 6/12/18, 6:56 PM
Birkel said...: YoungHegelian,

The Mueller team was playing the odds. What were the odds they would draw an honest judge? 70-30 against.

What were the odds a Russian would defend himself? 95-5 against.

Those are good odds.

But sometimes a guy gets a running two-outer followed by a one-outer and the hand is bust.; 6/12/18, 7:00 PM
Jersey Fled said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/12/18, 7:03 PM
Original Mike said...: ”My bad on the previous comment, I jumped the shark. Birkel is right, it happened in Jan and could be attributed to an overheated argument. Still.”

Martha MacCallum reported tonight that he has done it more than once.; 6/12/18, 7:06 PM
Birkel said...: pacwest:

If you think the carefully chosen words of a veiled threat from the #2 in the FBI is anything other than a threat, I don't know what to say. He's a crafty lawyer and can be careful with his words. Rosenstein meant:

"Nice place you got here. Be a shame if anything happened to it."

But he maintained plausible deniability.; 6/12/18, 7:11 PM
Original Mike said...: ”The threat of public or unauthorized disclosure of evidence would help foreign intelligence services, particularly in Russia, in “future operations against the United States,” Mueller’s prosecutors wrote in a filing Tuesday.”

Help intelligence services make Facebook posts?

Yeah, he thought he could have the appearance of “discovering” a Russian threat without the accused fighting the charges. Mueller is a snake.; 6/12/18, 7:11 PM
Jersey Fled said...: Wonder how Mueller was planning to prosecute the case without presenting his evidence.

Answer: he wasn't. The whole thing was bs.; 6/12/18, 7:11 PM
Drago said...: Jersey Fled: "Wonder how Mueller was planning to prosecute the case without presenting his evidence."

Mueller is hoping he can delay this until after the election but 5 months might be a stretch, so he's actually putting forth the novel idea of prosecuting without allowing the defense to know what the evidence is!!

Now that is quite a turn of events.; 6/12/18, 7:16 PM
Quaestor said...: They are accused of producing propaganda, posing as U.S. activists and posting political content on social media as so-called trolls to encourage strife in the U.S.

What do dictators do first? Demonize the trolls, threaten speech that they don’t like.

Howdja like my Inga impersonation?; 6/12/18, 7:16 PM
Birkel said...: Althouse readers:

May I implore you all not to suffer the Gell-Mann Amnesia upon which the entire MSM and Deep State nonsense is built?

We can all see the lies Mueller is telling. He is a government functionary who happens to have the limelight. But the lies he tells are the lies government functionaries tell all the time. Mueller does not think his own lies are extraordinary. Mueller, et al, believe his actions are firmly within the Deep State SOP.

So don't believe for a second that future government actions are better founded than is Mueller's attempted BULL SHIT indictment.

It is a house of cards.; 6/12/18, 7:17 PM
Drago said...: Jeff Sessions coming on Tucker Carlson right now where Tucker has indicated he will ask Sessions about this story.

I'm sure that as soon as Tucker asks this question Jeff Sessionzzzzzz will lapse into deep REM sleep due to the hypnosis therapy delivered to Sessionzzzzz by Rosenstein.; 6/12/18, 7:22 PM
Quaestor said...: Mueller is hoping he can delay this until after the election but 5 months might be a stretch, so he's actually putting forth the novel idea of prosecuting without allowing the defense to know what the evidence is!!

Not novel at all if you think outside the box of Constitutional guarantees. Yet it is "novel" indeed, specifically this one. One might say it's Kafkaesque.; 6/12/18, 7:25 PM
Drago said...: Quaestor: "Not novel at all if you think outside the box of Constitutional guarantees."

Oh, we've been outside that box for about 10 years now in an intense way and clearly outside that box stretching back into the W administration.; 6/12/18, 7:28 PM
mockturtle said...: And please think of using The Althouse Portal to Amazon.

Just thinking of using it won't help much.; 6/12/18, 7:33 PM
Drago said...: In very interesting news, China has pulled SA (Surface-to-Air) missile systems from their manufactured islands in the South China Sea that the Chinese created during the hapless and feckless obama admin.

That is a very interesting move given the importance of those systems, the location and the timing.; 6/12/18, 7:34 PM
Drago said...: Mockturtle: "Just thinking of using it won't help much."

Yikes.

You just destroyed the obama admin operational framework!; 6/12/18, 7:35 PM
Ralph L said...: All morning, "argle bargle" kept going through my head. Thanks, Althouse.; 6/12/18, 7:36 PM
n.n said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/12/18, 7:40 PM
Ralph L said...: That isn't rust. This should be the flaky paint café.; 6/12/18, 7:40 PM
FIDO said...: A judge is demanding that Mueller turn over to Manafort the names of all his alledged co-conspirators so he is able to...I don't know...confront his accusers and offer alibis.

I know that Inga et al don't care about due process as long as Trump is gotten, but is anyone else tired of how fast and loose Mueller and the Dems are operating legally?; 6/12/18, 7:46 PM
Birkel said...: FIDO:
Mueller is breaking the canons of the legal profession. He should be sanctioned, fined, disbarred, and ultimately jailed.; 6/12/18, 7:51 PM
Birkel said...: With 15% reporting, RCP has Sanford (SC-1) losing to Katie Arrington. Arrington has more than 50% of the vote, which would avoid a runoff.

Trump endorsed Arrington this morning.; 6/12/18, 8:02 PM
Hagar said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/12/18, 8:07 PM
pacwest said...: Birkel,
Note I said "*could* be attributed to". What I was saying was it was new to me. I missed it earlier.

The Sessions recusal = Rosenstien = Mueller = partisan witch hunt is too obvious for anyone to miss. This was in place as soon as Clinton lost and went off like clockwork. I wanted Hillary in jail from day one (before that really). My problem is that I just don't want to believe this is happening. Not in America. I'm not naive enough to think that politics isn't a dirty business, but this is magnitudes beyond. I'm afraid I'm a bit like Inga in that I don't want to believe it, I just don't have her ability to close my mind to the evidence.

Aside, you've been bringing up the GDP growth. About 6 months ago ARM said he would be willing to revisit his stance that Obama was responsible for the growth and he would credit Trump if growth was above 3% after 4 quarters.

ARM...Bueller...ARM?; 6/12/18, 8:07 PM
Hagar said...: Whatever is going on between the DoJ and Congress, it is unseemly for them to be threatening to subpoena each other in public.; 6/12/18, 8:10 PM
Birkel said...: Hagar,
What option does Congress have in its legally mandated oversight function if the FBI/DOJ is recalcitrant? If I were Speaker I would order people held in contempt in the jail under Congressional chambers. And I would order them held until they complied.; 6/12/18, 8:15 PM
Birkel said...: pacwest,
In no way am I picking a fight. Sorry if my passion gives a different impression. The current situation is untenable and I worry about the institutions that should protect us from the experiences the rest of the world experiences.

The FBI/DOJ is currently out of bounds.; 6/12/18, 8:17 PM
pacwest said...: One more thing:
"This was in place as soon as Clinton lost and went off like clockwork."

The reason Hillary didn't show her face the night and days after she lost wasn't because she was drunk, or moping. She was 'taking care of business'.; 6/12/18, 8:25 PM
Charlie Eklund said...: The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.

~ Sun Tzu; 6/12/18, 8:31 PM
pacwest said...: Birkel,
No worries, I didn't take it as such. My passions run pretty high too. The news (to me) that Rosenstien had threatened Congress crossed a line for me.; 6/12/18, 8:33 PM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: pacwest said...
Aside, you've been bringing up the GDP growth. About 6 months ago ARM said he would be willing to revisit his stance that Obama was responsible for the growth and he would credit Trump if growth was above 3% after 4 quarters.

This is, of course, not what I said. As I pointed out at the time there were many quarters during Obama's term where GDP was above 3%. I said that for there to be a clear difference Trump would need a string of four quarters above 3%. Last quarter growth was an anemic 2.2%, so still some way to go.; 6/12/18, 8:40 PM
Big Mike said...: @Althouse, when will you have Big Mike’s cafe?; 6/12/18, 8:42 PM
Birkel said...: ARM,

Are we going to talk about the 1.5% GDP growth Obama managed for his eight years?; 6/12/18, 8:47 PM
Birkel said...: ARM,

Are we going to talk about the 4.8% Q2 GDP growth projections?
The average of 2.2 and 4.8 = 3.5% growth for the first half of 2018.

Be the first Leftist to engage on the economic front. But do it honestly, eh?; 6/12/18, 8:52 PM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: Are we going to talk about the Great Recession that threw the developed world's economy into a global recession? I am happy to talk about that debacle. We could talk about how that recession wiped out the savings of vast numbers of working people. We could talk about how the Bush's ran up a property bubble and destroyed the property market. Or we could talk about how Bush's unpaid tax cuts impoverished the government, making it difficult to respond adequately in a time of crisis. Or would you prefer to discuss the Iraq war, $3 trillion down the drain. And you voted for the clown, twice.; 6/12/18, 8:53 PM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: Birkel, you do know that you are quoting the highest of the current projections and that many are quite a bit lower? Is this what you call honesty?; 6/12/18, 8:57 PM
Original Mike said...: Let’s roll the dice.; 6/12/18, 8:57 PM
Birkel said...: ARM,
Your misuse of the possessive makes reading what you typed much harder.; 6/12/18, 8:57 PM
Birkel said...: ARM,
I have quoted a number of different projections over the last week.
The Atlanta Fed is at 4.8%.

I welcome this discussion and will wipe the floor with you at a whim.; 6/12/18, 8:58 PM
Jaq said...: ARM is a font of clever rhetorical rationalizations fueled by gaping omissions and thesame level of confirmation bias as led Norman Bates to believe his mother was still alive.

That is all.; 6/12/18, 9:04 PM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: You couldn't wipe the floor with your drool. You are one of the dumbest people to comment here on a regular basis.; 6/12/18, 9:04 PM
Birkel said...: Of course I am, ARM. And I take it personally when you say such nasty and un-substantive things. If only you would start to introduce numbers to the discussion you would have me at a loss.

Go.; 6/12/18, 9:07 PM
traditionalguy said...: Trump is being accused of being too nice to our enemy. Abraham Lincoln was also challenged by radicals who wanted Abe not to say anything nice to Confederate enemies but to defeat those enemies. Abe's response was, " If I have made my enemy into my friend, have I not destroyed my enemy?"; 6/12/18, 9:11 PM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: You already are at a loss, selectively quoting projections and then talking about honestly. Comedy gold.; 6/12/18, 9:11 PM
Inga...Allie Oop said...: “The Inga Cafe?”

Why yes, what a good idea! Please use a nice pic of a woman with a pussy hat on, or a tight wet T shirt, or a sexy grandma, no fat Wisconsin cheese curd types. Thanks.; 6/12/18, 9:13 PM
pacwest said...: "We could talk about how the Bush's ran up a property bubble and destroyed the property market."

Dammit ARM. Birkel asked you for an honest discussion and the first thing you come up with is this crap? I'm going to assume you are not stupid, so, you want to tell us why the property bubble occured? Don't lie. I'd like to go into economic numbers and Trump policies with you, but if what I can expect is correcting a endless string of misstatements and outright lies it isn't worth the effort. Hint - BOA.; 6/12/18, 9:14 PM
Birkel said...: ARM,
You have me on the run. Now just introduce some substance. I will give up. I might go fetal.

Imagine the fireside tales you could share with Inga, Ritmo, and Chuck!

Go.; 6/12/18, 9:17 PM
Birkel said...: Sorry.

Royal ass Inga, Ritmo, and Chuck, fopdoodle extraordinaire.; 6/12/18, 9:18 PM
Birkel said...: ARM,
That's the substantive comment I expect from you.; 6/12/18, 9:19 PM
Inga...Allie Oop said...: Hahahahaha,
Kim looks like he ate a whole village. I doubt any photograher could make the kind of magic Trump was asking for.; 6/12/18, 9:22 PM
pacwest said...: No? Another time then.; 6/12/18, 9:38 PM
Birkel said...: Trump tweets for Katie Arrington, running against incumbent Mark Sanford (R-SC1) and she wins. She will win in a walk in November.

Anybody know how many votes have been cast for Republicans so far this 2018 primary season? And how many for Democrats?

Does ARM want to answer numbers on that question or run away like a feckless ....?; 6/12/18, 9:50 PM
Michael K said...: you want to tell us why the property bubble occurred?

Do you seriously think he is going to talk about the CRA and ACORN ?

About Barney Frank and Maxine Waters and her felon husband ?

How the Bush housing guy testified and they tried to rein in Fannie and Freddie?

About Franklin Reines and Jim Johnson ?

Then of course, there is Peter Wallison's explanation of the bubble.

There is very little doubt that the underlying cause of the current credit crisis was a housing bubble. But the collapse of the bubble would not have led to a worldwide recession and credit crisis if almost 40% of all U.S. mortgages--25 million loans--were not of the low quality known as subprime or Alt-A.

These loans were made to borrowers with blemished credit, or involved low or no down payments, negative amortization and limited documentation of income. The loans' unprecedentedly high rates of default are what is driving down housing prices and weakening the financial system.

The low interest rates of the early 2000s may explain the growth of the housing bubble, but they don't explain the poor quality of these mortgages. For that we have to look to the government's distortion of the mortgage finance system through the Community Reinvestment Act and the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac .

In a recent meeting with the Council on Foreign Relations, Barney Frank--the chair of the House Financial Services Committee and a longtime supporter of Fannie and Freddie--admitted that it had been a mistake to force homeownership on people who could not afford it. Renting, he said, would have been preferable. Now he tells us.

Do you really want to go there, ARM ?

Or are you just going to brazen it out like usual.; 6/12/18, 10:04 PM
Ralph L said...: Pluto TV is streaming Bourdain episodes this month.; 6/12/18, 10:09 PM
narciso said...: Not to mention Obama's special contribution may making Citibank, but it was govt policy like that Gretchen morgenstern noted, that created the people and it was govt policy 're high interest rates that helper olopo it.; 6/12/18, 10:14 PM
Jaq said...: Shorter Justin Trudeau: Canada First!; 6/12/18, 10:17 PM
narciso said...: Greenspan turned me into a fed skeptic almost as readily as rand paul.; 6/12/18, 10:26 PM
pacwest said...: "Do you seriously think he is going to talk about the CRA and ACORN ?"

Hope springs eternal.; 6/12/18, 10:29 PM
Chuck said...: I think that the Rosenstein story is very big.

My understanding from the news; it wasn’t some bland threat from Rosenstein. Rosenstein was threatened by members of Rep. Nunes’ House Intel committee with a contempt of Congress citation if he didn’t turn over documents that they wanted. In response, Rosenstein said that if he were subjected to such a citation, he’d defend himself. And in doing so, he’d subpoena House internal documents and emails.

I saw the way that Martha MacCallam (sp?) reported the story in Fox first, and she made it sound like a nasty Rosenstein fishing expedition with an edgy threatening posture. Only after I heard a print reporter on MSNBC did I get a full understanding of even the fundamental basics of the story.; 6/12/18, 10:34 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Coincidences fun and recent:

I came across for the first time and read an article about robots taking over more duties while a robot vacuum hummed away at my feet.

A friend sent me a link to a video of an orchestra playing the theme to "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" on a day that I was wearing a t-shirt for that movie, a t-shirt I rarely wear.; 6/12/18, 10:41 PM
readering said...: In the coming days hawks in the administration are going to leak details of the negotiations exposing how threadbare the so-called deal with Kim is.; 6/12/18, 10:43 PM
Gretchen said...: So let me see if I understand, Obama had stellar economic ideas, but for all 8 years of his term they didn't work, all because of Bush, but growth due to Obama's policies kicked into gear when Trump was elected?

Drop in unemployment
Drop in food stamp usage
Stock market up
GDP growth
Foodstamp enrollment down

Are all of these due to Obama's Policies? If so, which policies were these? Do you think tax cuts encouraged businesses at all?; 6/12/18, 10:44 PM
Mike Sylwester said...: Asia Argento posts and deletes bizarre pic before Bourdain’s death was reported

Asia Argento posted — and later deleted — a bizarre message on social media just before her boyfriend Anthony Bourdain committed suicide, according to reports.

Three hours before his death was first reported, the Italian actress posted an Instagram story that showed her wearing a ripped, black T-shirt that read, “F–K EVERYONE” — with the cryptic caption, “You know who you are,” in an image obtained by People.

The T-shirt appeared to be of Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols. Bourdain has been referred to as the Sid Vicious of the culinary world, according to MSN.

After news of Bourdain’s suicide in a French hotel room emerged, Argento deleted the post, according to The Blast. ...

-----

https://pagesix.com/2018/06/08/asia-argento-posted-then-deleted-bizarre-pic-before-bourdains-death/?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_2987129

https://theblast.com/anthony-bourdain-asia-argento-instagram-story-message/; 6/12/18, 10:52 PM
Fabi said...: "Only after I heard a print reporter on MSNBC did I get a full understanding of even the fundamental basics of the story."

Craig couldn't have said it better.; 6/12/18, 10:56 PM
Mike Sylwester said...: Birkel at 7:00 PM
The Mueller team was playing the odds. What were the odds they would draw an honest judge? 70-30 against.

LOL; 6/12/18, 10:56 PM
Mike Sylwester said...: The threat of public or unauthorized disclosure of evidence would help foreign intelligence services, particularly in Russia, in “future operations against the United States,” Mueller’s prosecutors wrote in a filing Tuesday.

This might refer to the potential weaponization of MySpace.; 6/12/18, 10:59 PM
narciso said...: You saw her in the film xxx with diesel and Jackson, she's crazy.; 6/12/18, 11:00 PM
narciso said...: Lol, chuck don't ever change!; 6/12/18, 11:01 PM
narciso said...: That judge was William Jefferson's lawyer 10 years ago.; 6/12/18, 11:02 PM
bagoh20 said...: After all these years and all the evidence and study, there are only two explanations for blaming Bush for the recession: dishonesty or stupidity on the subject. Take your pick.; 6/12/18, 11:21 PM
Sebastian said...: "And in doing so, he’d subpoena House internal documents and emails."

Because, after all, in a democratic Republic like ours, the people's representatives are accountable to second-tier executive branch appointees..; 6/12/18, 11:25 PM
William said...: I wonder what the inside story is on Kim's haircut. It really emphasizes his ugliness. Has no one ever told him that it is a mistake? I suppose when you're an all powerful dictator that you don't get much feedback on bad haircuts. Still, he only has to look in the mirror to see that it doesn't work. If his judgement about such a patently bad haircut is so bad, I wonder about his judgement on other things........Someone will undoubtedly mention Trump's bad haircut, but Trump,at least, recognizes that it's not the beau ideal of haircuts. He is doing the best he can with what was left after the tide went out.......Trump's haircut is not the best argument for supporting him, but Kim's haircut is in another dimension of awful.; 6/12/18, 11:26 PM
narciso said...: Well the narrative in sorkin nocera ferguson to name just three conventional scribes doninates what will end up in textbooks; 6/12/18, 11:26 PM
JackWayne said...: Now we know why Trump left so early. They agreed to have a meeting in each county. Sometime. I think Trump is pressuring Un and it’s working. There’s gotta be some reason (China?) Un wants a deal. So far, Singapore is a meeting about having a meeting.; 6/12/18, 11:32 PM
Yancey Ward said...: On the case Mueller was trying to bring against the Russian companies:

Mueller never thought the case would be challenged by any of the defendants, so probably never really had much of a case to begin with, and only asked for the indictments to keep the collusion story relevant. One doesn't make the argument his team made today if you really ever intended to bring a case to court- Mueller's team itself would have to disclose the evidence publicly just to make his own freaking case.

So the fallback position is pretty damned obvious to me after today- force the judge, a Trump appointee by the way, to dismiss the charges because the government won't turn over the evidence in discovery. There really is nothing else the judge can do since due process won't allow anything else, but as soon as she does it, it becomes fodder for the media claiming a coverup of collusion. Mueller and his team are dispicable.; 6/12/18, 11:38 PM
narciso said...: There is That, but the challenging atty dubelier, apprenticed at the sdny,; 6/12/18, 11:43 PM
Yancey Ward said...: On the Rosenstein story (an old story by the way- I remember reading about this months ago)- the threat to subpoena the House's internal e-mails is amusing. I don't doubt for a second it was a veiled threat and attempt to intimidate the House committee, but it won't work and hasn't. The House is going to have to impeach him, not cite him for criminal contempt if it wants compliance with its oversight responsibilities, and I don't think Ryan will do that now that he is leaving the House- so Rosenstein is safe until next year at the very least.

Rosenstein is hiding something- you don't relentlessly hold back this sort of information unless is is personally embarrassing and damaging, or damaging to the institution you are leading. Were the evidence really supportive of the DoJ's and FBI's handling of this case, it would have forced into Congress' lap for public disclosure, not hidden like this.; 6/12/18, 11:48 PM
narciso said...: Oh guess who is,Watkins atty:

https://mobile.twitter.com/alimhaider?lang=en

He also defended the server guy for hillary; 6/12/18, 11:50 PM
Michael McNeil said...: From an earlier thread…
@ARM said…
Kings are just dictators, with a patina of religious justification.

The above displays a real misunderstanding of kings vs. “dictators” in history. Kings historically are (or usually become) basically constitutional monarchs — even before we think of constitutions per se coming into existence (around the 17th century). As such, monarchs must obey the law of the land. Dictators, contrariwise (as their title suggests), “dictate” — and their word is the law.

An amusing instance from English history: After Elizabeth I, the last of the Tudor dynasty, died without direct heir, her closest living relation, who was then King James VI of Scotland, was awarded the English throne, becoming additionally King James I of England.

Winston Churchill describes what happened in his terrific History of the English-Speaking Peoples (quoting…):

James was proclaimed King James I of England without opposition, and in April 1603 began a leisurely journey from Holyrood to London. He was a stranger and an alien, and his qualifications for governing England were yet to be tested. “So ignorant,” says Trevelyan, was James “of England and her laws that at Newark he ordered a cut-purse caught in the act to be hanged without a trial at a word from his royal mouth.” The execution did not take place.

(/unQuote)

In the case of England, James I's principal institutional opponent, of course, was Parliament — the House of Commons in particular. Quoting Churchill's History once again:

“The House of Commons,” [James] once told the Spanish Ambassador, “is a body without a head. The Members give their opinions in a disorderly manner. At their meetings nothing is heard but cries, shouts, and confusion. I am surprised that my ancestors should ever have permitted such an institution to have come into existence. I am a stranger, and found it here when I arrived, so that I am obliged to put up with what I cannot get rid of.”

(/unQuote)

“Kings” (the constitutional head of state and government) in various societies have been subject to constraints of such kinds all through history

It wasn't always true, of course. There have been the odd historic “king” who really was a totalitarian dictator, with almost no political constraints on his or her whims: stages of the historic Russian Czarist monarchy come to mind — whose fundamental system, as German diplomat Georg Herbert zu Münster (1820-1902) once put it, was “despotism tempered by assassination.”

But such wasn't the norm (though even that is a kind of a constitutional constraint on the chief of state).

Even in the case of, say, the historic (Achaemenid) Persian Empire, however, in which haughty talk of “oriental despotisms” might have led one to suppose that the power of the Persian King of Kings was truly absolute — that proves not to be so.

Interestingly, the Biblical tales of Daniel and Esther, involving as they do the Persian Emperor, make clear that even this “King of Kings” — this Monarch standing above all ordinary Monarchs — though he could on his own authority proclaim a law which might decree, e.g., the massacre of thousands — but after lawfully declaring and publishing such a law, even the King himself could not afterward repeal or abrogate it!

So held the Persian constitution, which was utterly binding on their so-called “king.”; 6/13/18, 12:37 AM
Seeing Red said...: he’d defend himself. And in doing so, he’d subpoena House internal documents and emails.

Aren’t those on DWS laptop? Does Rosenstein really want to go there and dig up Awan?; 6/13/18, 12:37 AM
Quaestor said...: Why yes, what a good idea! ... no fat Wisconsin cheese curd types.

In other words, an Inga café without the Inga.; 6/13/18, 12:59 AM
Jaq said...: Waffle House, for some reason, is better at this time of night.; 6/13/18, 1:45 AM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: Of course "Dictator" was a constitutional position in the Roman Republic just as much as "King" is a constitutional position in England. Dictators had powers well beyond those of the Consuls, and were not subject to the normal collegial limitations (the co-appointed "Master of Horse" was a subordinate position). They were however strictly term & task limited.

The modern usage kind of drops those naunces..; 6/13/18, 1:48 AM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: This cartoon (sfw) is my favorite take on Waffle House. It is very true.; 6/13/18, 1:50 AM
Ray - SoCal said...: Obama did inherit a recession, but his actions seem to prolong it.

And use it as an excuse to get a whole bunch of changes done.

Reminds me of Roosevelt.

I’m amazed what Trump has done so far with the economy.; 6/13/18, 2:17 AM
Ray - SoCal said...: Rudy’s going thru a Nasty divorce.

Wonder how this effects his work for Trump?

What a crazy world...; 6/13/18, 2:22 AM
Ray - SoCal said...: Asia and Bourdain had an open relationship supposedly.

Pictures were taken with her and a reporter being intimate and were in European papers.

Bourdain had been suicidal in the past after his first marriage broke up.

Asia seemed to have a lot of stress from her Weinstein accusation.

As mentioned above, the Sid Vicious tweet.

What could he imagine being more worse than suicide? To be more worse, than killing himself?; 6/13/18, 2:29 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Bordain reminds me that the conspiracy theorists are going a bit wild right now. The red scarf that Kate Spade used is a supposedly significant, and has been used by others in some elitist cabal to off themselves. They are supposedly involved in pederasty, or pediphilia, or some such (but, of course, Spade was a woman, so pederasty is out). This may all be tied to the Podesta brothers pediphilia ring that we heard about during the election. And there is apparently little overlap, in the real world, between pederasty and pediphilia, since the former involves (make) adolescents, and the latter prepubescents. I saw mention today about the Illuminati, supposedly a shadowy group that I haven't heard about for several decades (showing, of course, how good they are at hiding in plain sight).; 6/13/18, 3:07 AM
rehajm said...: Cross subsidies and how they break competitive markets.; 6/13/18, 5:27 AM
Clyde said...: I think that Mueller's "Trump nickname" ought to be "Cotton". As in Cotton Mather, the guy who ran the Salem Witch Trials. Cotton Mueller has a nice ring to it. It's short and punchy. Speaking of which, now De Niro has finally arrived! You know you've made it when the President of the United States gives you a nickname. Congratulations, Punchy! Now get back on your meds, dude.; 6/13/18, 5:41 AM
Clyde said...: @ Michael K at 10:04 p.m.

I believe that's called a TKO. I think ARM is still down on the canvas after that one. De Niro isn't the only one who's punch-drunk! Of course, after writing something that oblivious, he deserved that knockout.; 6/13/18, 5:52 AM
Chuck said...: Following my earlier post on the Rosenstein/House matter; I have since seen Catherine Herridge's original report on the story. Her original reporting is actually a bit better, than the Trump toadies of Fox's evening opinion programming.

Here's the .url for Herridge:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/06/12/rosenstein-threatened-to-subpoena-gop-led-committee-in-chilling-clash-over-records-emails-show.html

CNN now adds that Rosenstein is going to be asking the House for an investigation of certain staffers:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/12/politics/rod-rosenstein-house-investigation/index.html; 6/13/18, 6:07 AM
Humperdink said...: LLR said: " Only after I heard a print reporter on MSNBC did I get a full understanding of even the fundamental basics of the story."

Unexpectedly.; 6/13/18, 6:15 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: Michael takes a very narrow view of both 'kings' and dictators. The vast majority of 'kings' weren't constitutional monarchs and dictators typically have constraints placed on them from their power base. More than one person benefits from a dictatorship.

Monarchists, like Michael, love their kings.; 6/13/18, 6:46 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: Michael K should read the 'Big Short', or really any book on the topic, before he starts spouting conspiracy theories.; 6/13/18, 6:50 AM
Patrick said...: A raccoon inn my city climbed a 23 story building yesterday. It reached the to early this morning.; 6/13/18, 6:52 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: "CNN now adds that Rosenstein is going to be asking the House for an investigation of certain staffers:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/12/politics/rod-rosenstein-house-investigation/index.html"

I think that would be just fine if the goal was nailing leakers of classified, or at least confidential information. We know that the Dem side of some of these committees have been leaking like sieves. The problem is that Rosenstein appointed Mueller to investigate Russian collusion, and has testified that he supervises Mueller fairly closely (to get around the principal officer problem), but Mueller and his band of Dem operative prosecutors have been anything but nonpartisan and unbiased in their investigation, completely ignoring the well documented collusion between Crooked Hillary and the DNC, and Russian intelligence, via Michael Steele and Fusion GPS.right now Rosenstein has little credibility with the Republican leadership in the House, as he has done a lot more obstructing (or at least facilitating obstruction) than helping in their oversight attempts. Even the White House brokered document production has seemingly in vane, as Rosenstein continues to obstruct Congress, by supporting his Deep State operatives working for him who slow roll document production, while redacting like crazy, and then refusing to make specific employee tees available to tests fly before Congress. We shall see.; 6/13/18, 6:58 AM
narciso said...: well if one reads say wolf hall, one sees past the hagiography that Shakespeare drew from tudor sources, to slander the plantagenets, a little like those Plutarch drew on to support the house of Caesar.; 6/13/18, 7:14 AM
Ralph L said...: What other sources did Shakespeare have? He couldn't very well read Chapuys' reports.; 6/13/18, 7:37 AM
rehajm said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/13/18, 8:36 AM
rehajm said...: Michael K should read the 'Big Short', or really any book on the topic, before he starts spouting conspiracy theories.

This is just stupid. You should listen to the facts presented to you before you spout off recommending a revisionist book.; 6/13/18, 8:42 AM
narciso said...: well Thomas Morton was notoriously bad, but you're right about chapuys, just like guistiani and il macchia, re Borgias,; 6/13/18, 9:41 AM
Michael K said...: Blogger Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...
Michael K should read the 'Big Short', or really any book on the topic, before he starts spouting conspiracy theories.

More ARM whining. I read it years ago. What chapter did you like best ?

Did you read "After the Fall," by Nicole Gelinas ?

Here's my review of it on Amazon. Still rated #1 by readers.

Come on ARM, you can do better than this. You're not Inga.

How about "The Formula that Killed Wall Street?" Did you read that?

Up your game ARM.; 6/13/18, 10:18 AM
Michael K said...: the hagiography that Shakespeare drew from tudor sources

Richard III never recovered his reputation.

Of course, he's dead and didn't care.; 6/13/18, 11:31 AM
Ralph L said...: The British pop historians are working on it. A couple years after his bones were discovered, Richard III came out first (IIRC) in a BBC poll of notable Brits, beating Churchill.; 6/13/18, 12:12 PM
Rusty said...: Blogger Meade said...

"Rusty gets his own cafe?

If nominated I will not run.If elected I will not serve.
Sounds like a lot of work and correct spelling is involved.; 6/13/18, 1:11 PM
Jim at said...: Or we could talk about how Bush's unpaid tax cuts impoverished the government, - ARM

It's not the government's money.; 6/13/18, 1:33 PM