August 27, 2018

At the End-of-Summer Café...

IMG_2247

... linger.

And please use the Althouse Portal to shop at Amazon. Here's something I just bought: a Pilates ring. I've been taking Pilates lessons, so I actually know what to do with it.

82 comments:

JML said...

I just finished watching Darkest Hour. Good movie. Churchill was the right man at the right time.

stevew said...

We've got a bit of a late August heat wave here in the Boston (MA) area. My experience tells me this is the last gasp of summer. If history is a proper guide this will blow out later this week, the air will dry considerably, and the average temperatures, day and night, will drop 20 degrees or so. I'm a native New Englander so I very much look forward to the change in season. By now I'm done with hot and humid. Fall is my favorite season, until I tire of it and long for Winter, which becomes tedious around mid-February when I begin dreaming of Spring, then in mid-May the fantasies of languid days in t-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops arrive.

-sw

tcrosse said...

The groundhog saw his shadow, so we have another six weeks of summer here in the Southwest.

rehajm said...

I recall watching some McCain interview where he was sitting at his desk listening patiently to some person of ambition and ideas- good ideas of the kind we all know Washington needs to do. Sensible things. Obvious things. Anyways McCain listens patiently and when the person was through he thanked them and wrapped things up by dismissing both the ideas and the person with a not on your life in this town attitude.

He will always be the Senatorial equivalent of the sloth at the DMV- a lifer who relished in gumming things up. A sloth, not a maverick.

rehajm said...

I have to get the pine needles out of the gutters before the next monsoon later this week.

Mike Sylwester said...

Evolution of the Russian-Collusion Narrative

An article published on August 23, written by Richard B. Levine --

* Director of Policy Development on the NSC Staff under President Reagan

* former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Technology Transfer and Security Assistance

=======

.... Joseph Mifsud ... has been presented as a Russian spy; in fact, his connections to British and Italian intelligence and political operatives are very strong.

Claire Smith ─ Mifsud is associated with Claire Smith of the United Kingdom. They were both affiliated with Link Campus University in Rome, a school that confers degrees in strategic and diplomatic studies, and is known to be attended by professionals who are members of Italy’s intelligence and security services. Claire Smith was also associated with the now defunct London Academy of Diplomacy, which was co-directed by Mifsud. Smith, along with Mifsud, also taught at the University of Sterling.

For eight years, Smith was a member of Britain’s Security Vetting Appeals Panel, which examines cases for governmental employees in which security clearances were denied. She was a member of the United Kingdom’s Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), a panel with oversight over Britain’s intelligence services, including Defence Intelligence, the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), and GCHQ (signals intelligence). The CIA’s Chief of Station in the U.K. has, in the past, been a regular participant in the JIC’s weekly assemblies.

It is difficult to conceive of a person who would have attained more experience in the vetting of individuals to be entrusted with state secrets than Claire Smith. Yet, if the narrative of Mifsud’s being a Russian asset is to be believed, Smith was duped by this alleged spy for many a year.

Vincenzo Scotti ─ Mifsud’s ties to those involved with Italy’s intelligence services are conspicuous. Scotti, the President of Link Campus University, where Mifsud taught, was formerly Italy’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. From 1990 through 1992, Scotti was Italy’s Minister of Interior, a position whose responsibilities included the administration of the SISDE (Intelligence and Democratic Security Service), which, in 2007, became the AISI (Internal Information and Security Agency), one of Italy’s preeminent intelligence services. Scotti was involved deeply with Italy’s intelligence apparatus: Italy’s Court of Accounts ordered Scotti to pay €2,995,450 for an operation in which an Italian governmental account was used to purchase a building for an inflated price to create an off-book funding source for the SISDE.

[continued in my following comment]

rehajm said...

As a young child I remember seeing Rockwell walking around town or in the picture window of the studio and my mom making a deal out of it. He wore those aviators just like my grandpa’s.

Mike Sylwester said...

Continued from my comment at 8:37 PM
------------

Franco Frattini ─ A reported friend and fellow professor of Mifsud’s at Link Campus University was twice Italy’s foreign minister; Frattini, from 1996 to 2001, was chair of Italy’s parliamentary committee charged with oversight of the nation’s intelligence services (COPACO, now named Parliamentary Committee for the Intelligence and Security Services and for State Secret Control). Such oversight specifically included SISDE and SISMI (Military Intelligence and Security Service).

Gianni Pittella ─ An elected member of the Italian senate, Pittella was the subject of a July 29, 2016 Time article whose first paragraph reads, “Gianni Pittella, a longtime Italian member of the European Parliament, hit the campaign trail this week. Sitting at the back of the Gran Caffe L’Aquila, he warned a group of local businesspeople and supporters of the evils of fascism. Except Pittella wasn’t touring Italy. He was sitting in Philadelphia, trying to convince American voters to oppose an American candidate: Donald Trump.”

Gianni Pittella stated to the Italian press that Joseph Mifsud was his “dear friend.” Simona Mangiante, George Papadopoulos’s wife (they married in March 2018), has stated that it was Pittella who introduced her to Joseph Mifsud in 2012; Mangiante went on to work for the professor. In a January 2018 interview with The Guardian, Mangiante stated that she “always saw Mifsud with Pittella.”

....

Link Campus University, Italy: Mifsud, Scotti, and Frattini were all employed by this Italian university. David Ignatius wrote in the Washington Post that, in 2004, the CIA organized a terrorism conference at Link Campus University. The event was entitled, “New Frontiers of Intelligence Analysis.” According to Ignatius, the conclave was the product of years of planning by the CIA Global Futures Partnership’s founding director, Carol Dumaine. ...

Attorney Andrew Bagley has been employed by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike since January 2015; this company was involved deeply in the Democratic National Committee (DNC) hacking debacle. In 2010, Bagley served as a visiting researcher at the Link Campus University in Rome; while there, his résumé notes that Bagley, “Conducted research and held discussions with Italian and American prosecutors, special agents, and intelligence officials about intelligence analysis, national security, cybersecurity, and counterterrorism policy.” According to Bagley’s online résumé, he served as the E-Discovery Technical Advisor to the FBI, conducting legal research, advising on technical issues, and drafting policy for the Discovery Coordination and Policy Unit within the FBI, from 2012 to 2015.

Mifsud’s connection with the Clinton Foundation: Mifsud is quoted to have said to the newspaper la Repubblica, “I am a member of the European Council on Foreign relations,” adding, “and you know which is the only foundation I am member of? The Clinton Foundation. Between you and me, my thinking is left-leaning.”

On November 1, 2017, The Sun published, [an article in which] Mifsud is quoted as stating, “I am a Democrat and a Hillary Clinton supporter.” ...

[continued in my following comment]

mockturtle said...

Hmm. I've been doing Pilates for years but didn't know about the 'ring'. After I get home I'll order one [through the Althouse Amazon portal, of course].

mockturtle said...

JML reports: I just finished watching Darkest Hour. Good movie. Churchill was the right man at the right time.

Indeed he was! Haven't seen the movie yet but I've read more about Churchill than about any other figure from history.

Big Mike said...

I've been taking Pilates lessons

@Althouse, good on you! Yesterday I used your portal to put in an advance order on a book not yet released.

Mike Sylwester said...

Continued from my comment at 8:44 PM
------

... when President Trump announced Papadopoulos as one of his then five national-security advisors in March 2016, Papadopoulos’s UK travel, coupled with his inexperience, made him an attractive target for a sting ....

Papadopoulos’s overseas address facilitated Section 702 incidental collection. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) targets non-U.S. individuals believed to be situated outside America, for the purpose of acquiring intelligence. Thus, to gather intelligence against the Trump campaign, Section 702 collection could have been targeted at Professor Mifsud, especially if Mifsud was an asset of U.S. or allied intelligence. ...

The [DoD] Office of Net Assessments [which paid Stefan Halper, has a] long interaction with various parts of the CIA ....

Therefore, did CIA Director John Brennan work through this Pentagon office to compensate or to position Halper in opposition to members of the Trump campaign? The Office of Net Assessments’ role, if any, in the Russian-collusion maelstrom must be investigated ....

Guildofcannonballs said...

Ive proved "the troll don't care" all those many decades ago.

Thrust or not, it is upon us. To act of American, by American grace, for America.

Knowing I've a rock-solid supporter on my blog-wise, hearts hearenting.

Mike Sylwester said...

The Missing Papadopoulos Meetings, written by Jeff Carlson, author of the blog The Markets Work.

The article includes the following passages.

=====

.... There are two legal versions of events relating to [George] Papadopoulos.

* One from the July 28, 2017, affidavit signed by FBI Agent Robert M. Gibbs, and

* one from the Oct. 5, 2017, Statement of the Offense “signed” by Robert ["The FBI Whitewasher"] Mueller ...

To the casual eye, these documents provide a relatively similar version of events, although there are some differences ....

After June 1, 2016, the Mueller version suddenly becomes vague, in relation to direct foreign contacts by Papadopoulos ....

The Gibbs version contains a bit more information for this period, listing four separate contacts with Timofeev in July 2016 and one belated contact with Mifsud in October 2016. [i.e. meetings not mentioned in Mueller's report]

....

One other meeting also ignored in the two legal documents —- the May 10, 2016, meeting between Papadopoulos and Alexander Downer. That’s the same meeting the FBI used as justification in the opening of their Counterintelligence investigation into an opposing candidates political campaign.

Andrew said...

I've seen a few Althouse commenters refer to people on Twitter (Twitterers?) who are like-minded about the Russia collusion conspiracy. These people include Thomas Wictor, "drawandstrike," "Imperator Rex," Larry Schweikart, "Tracybeanz," and others. I've been reading them fairly often for the past few months.

To summarize, these people believe that the Russia collusion investigation is basically an intelligence operation that is being used by Trump to trap the Democrats. That is, the politicization of the intelligence community by Obama, and its illegal coup attempt against Trump, is the real subject of the investigation, not only by Mueller, but by Rosenstein, Horowitz, Sessions, and Huber (et al). The proponents of this theory disagree on the details (for example, is Mueller a "white hat" or not). But for the most part they are in alignment that many details of the collusion investigation, along with Trump's reactions, are contrived to cover up what is basically a sting operation. Trump is using tactics akin to "The Art of War" to gradually expose the duplicity of the Democrats to public opinion. Many peculiar features, such as the ongoing public spat between Trump and Sessions, are a smoke screen to hide what is actually going on behind the scenes. And many details are going to emerge before the midterm elections in such a way that will completely crush the Democrats. Trump is basically orchestrating a plan that will reveal the corruption of the Obama administration and the Hillary campaign for all to see. But for the time being, Trump and his allies continue to distract everyone with "kabuki theater," waiting for the right time to strike.

Some of this, by the way, overlaps with "Q," but I don't follow Q and don't have much of an opinion about his accuracy.

So having said all that, how many of the commenters subscribe to this theory? I'm genuinely curious. If you do agree with it, what do you think is going to happen next? If you don't agree with it, what are your expectations as the investigation continues?

Tank said...

Part of McCain's "final statement": "Ten years ago, I had the privilege to concede defeat in the election for president."

Trump: The Happy Warrior.

McCain: The Happy Loser.

Trump was right about McCain. He was a loser, and proud of it.

Andrew said...

I should add that I think this theory is plausible, but I'm still uncertain about it. I definitely think Trump has some cards up his sleeve, but I don't know if the collusion investigation is some kind of master plan.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

I should add that I think this theory is plausible,

Nope. Too many people, too many moving parts. Remember the Feds who are supposed to be able to manage Top Secret data lost the SF-86 database to the Chinese. No way a a bunch of normal civil service guys could keep what you're talking about away from the Deep State members larded in there.

stephen cooper said...

Andrew - "Q" is of course not an accurate historian of the future. Rather, the purpose of "Q" is to artfully and persuasively indicate that most of the accounts you hear from the major networks and most political celebriities are lies - up to and beyond 90 percent. That is where the accuracy of "Q" is found.

There are real conspiracies, and about one big one a year is exposed - this year, it is poor Pope Francis, who thought of himself as a more or less nice guy but did not realize what he was getting into with his powerful friends, who were not all that nice; last year it was Strzok and his pals, the year before it was the masher Weinstein, the year before that it was somebody else. "Q" is more or less a guy who riffs on what a real conspiracy would be like in a world where real conspiracies existed, and I guess it is nice to think that we live in such a world, because then there would be the hope that the conspiracies will all be exposed and we will all, at last, be completely free of them. Nah, that tis childish. We live in a world where people think that they are good because they take care of people they care about, and forget that in doing so they often oppress those without power, whom they have not though worthy to be cared about. The complicated way the smart but Godless rich people among us who are willing to lie and oppress each other is the complex but ultimately boring - albeit at first interesting ( but sin is often at first interesting, sad to say) ---- background to the stories that "Q", God bless her little heart, tells.

Ralph L said...

How is that one boat so far off parallel?

Big Mike said...

Part of McCain's "final statement": "Ten years ago, I had the privilege to concede defeat in the election for president."

Some political careers end by dying in office, and a tiny, fortunate, handful end with retirement. For 95% it's "The people have spoken -- God damn them."

Jon Ericson said...

Think for yourself.
Research for yourself.
Trust yourself.
Clickbait opinions are designed to attract reader to subscribe and/or follow and/or shape a pre-designed narrative.
FOLLOW THE FACTS.
SHEEP NO MORE.
Q

Ralph L said...

From his history, there's just no way Mueller is a white hat.

etbass said...

“how many of the commenters subscribe to this theory?”

Interesting theory. But it gives way too much credit to what seem clearly off the cuff twitters, reactions and comments of Trump that are in character with his past pre-potus behavior. And just too good to be true, as well.

richard mcenroe said...

wHITE HATS DON'T LEAVE INNOCENT MEN TO DIE IN PRISON.

buwaya said...

Search for the blog by Aldo Maria Valli, and use google translate on it (its in Italian). Its his (Valli the blogger) story of several meetings with Carlo Vigano and his receipt of the now-famous statement.

Vigano seems, there, to be a man well aware of his own mortality, with no personal ambitions (I suspect he understands that he hasn't long to live) and grimly convinced of the satanic nature of the corruption he is revealing. Go read it, a story of private, unofficial meetings and a great deal, I think, implied in what else Vigano told Valli. What other things did Vagano told Valli?

It reads like something out of a novel.

narciso said...



Something out of Malachi martin:

https://dailycaller.com/2018/08/27/source-fbi-congress-leaked-stories-spy-warrants/

traditionalguy said...

@Andrew... You are not alone in studying Q posts tied into Trump at every turn. The disclosures are clearly legitimate and are a blow by blow announcer of the games as it is being played. I think of it as Trump treating near dead patient with every bone and organ needing repair or replacement.He has to stabilize the patient and then do one operation at a time over years. Exposing all the corruption they have proof of at once would never be believed. So it dribbles out. But a mass disclosure of true high crimes is coming. That is why the 46,000 sealed Indictments and the 200 million was spent on Gitmo facilities construction. Ask the Pope how it happens.

We live in interesting times.

readering said...

You shall know them by their judgments.

buwaya said...

I believe Q is a semi-official and wholly deniable propaganda operation by people in the administration, or very close to it. Its a brilliantly conceived and executed approach in selling a narrative in the internet, which attracts aficionados and commenters to amplify the message, crowdsource the broadcast.

It combines truth, exaggeration and lies. Who knows in what combination.

stephen cooper said...

buwaya - poor Pope Francis has already lost, in every possible way. He may scuffle out a few worldly triumphs, but he has lost, and he knows it. Just look at him in the recent pictures....

Vigano wants us to pray for him (for Francis) (and for Vigano too, of course)....

Like Vigano, I am aware of my mortality.

The story of sin will go on for a long time, but I now know this - no matter how long I live, I will never have to see the indecent spectacle of poor Francis being canonized. (And, as much as I admire Pope Benedict, I do not want to see him canonized in my lifetime - he was not compassionate enough for the victims, he was prayerful but apparently not prayerful enough ...)

Well Bergoglio would not want that either (his own canonization, or, I guess, the canonization of Benedict, whom, I guess, Francis does not all that much care about ... ) . I like him (poor Francis) more than most of his critics - he is a sad little man who thought he had love in his heart ... but did not pay attention to his own words, to all the times he insulted others in the most tawdry and .... God forgive him ... obscene way he could. No, he did not have the love in his heart he thought he had. Sad!, but there is always tomorrow for anyone who has not said, in a final way, to God, "Non Serviam" , as if such a statement even made sense .... but so many of us are clueless ....

Yancey Ward said...

Well, CNN has egg on it face again.

What a corrupt news organization!

Yancey Ward said...

For those not willing to click through, Davis admits to being the "anonymous source" for the July 27th CNN story claiming Trump had advance notice of the Trump Tower meeting in June of 2016 with Veselnitskaya. In the same story, the CNN reporters wrote that Davis was asked for a comment and declined, leading readers to believe that Davis was not the anonymous source. Davis told Buzzfeed tonight that he, Davis, was CNN's anonymous source.

So, you have two options here- either the CNN reporters didn't even know the identity of their anonymous source but ran with the story anyway, or they deliberately lied about Davis' "no comment". Either or, you cannot choose both options.

buwaya said...

The thrust of all the revelations is that all these centralized institutions are compromised and hopelessly corrupt. The MSM, intelligence agencies, the Federal bureaucracy, and of course, perhaps as fallout from the zietgeist, the Church, at least its hierarchy.

That their official leadership is not to be taken at their word, that the powers that be are malevolent.

buwaya said...

Benedict was apparently a poor administrator and lacked the force of personality to impose his will on his willful bureaucrats. Perhaps old age hit him very badly.

Francis, I don't know. I suspect his vice is vanity and susceptibility to flatterers. Its the usual case with those who cooperate with liberal corruption.

narciso said...

He had the reputation of the popes enforcer, it appears it was overstated.

Jon Ericson said...

Lavender Mafia, no?

Jimmy said...

Wictor and the rest are an interesting read. They all seem to be against Q. Wictor says he researches all his stuff from open source infor available to anyone. He is very optimistic about the future with Trump.

stephen cooper said...

Buwaya - I like to think of Benedict (Joseph) and Francis (Jorge) as they were when they were young. As much trouble as they have caused the rest of us, they were both, once, young people with goodness and hope in their hearts ...., and they would both have been horrified, at the age of 20 or so, to hear all the criticisms that they have brought down on themselves, all these years later .....

I never had any desire to be a successful Christian high-ranking cleric (and if I were Jewish or Muslim, I sure would not have wanted to be a great rabbi or a great imam), and I cannot imagine what it is like to want to do what poor Francis wanted to do (I think he basically wanted to make the church something it had never been, nice and popular and --- well, he did not know this - unaware of the true love that Jesus calls us to .... many of us just want to be comfortable and nice, without really caring about others, I get that, many of us just want to be liked, whether or not we have to suffer in order to love others ...)... and because i am humble that way, and because I have seen, again and again, the poverty of basic "niceness", I want God to show the most mercy that is possible to those who have sought advancement in a church, "because they are nice", and who have failed to be kind and just.

They, too, were once young and innocent and full of a divine gift, the gift we feel when we care about someone else. Benedict and Francis were not the first to proudly be led astray, and they likely will not be the last. Both of them have caused many people to suffer, but God forgives everything, when we repent, because God loves us, and because God knows that we make mistakes. Repentance is not so much what we think when we think we did something wrong, it is what we think when we think it was just sad that we forgot, sometimes through our own fault completely and sometimes just partially, when we forgot how easy it is to do what God wants us to do, for the love of others and for the love God has for us.

Howard said...

Desmond Llewelyn died nearly 20-years ago, yet people still revere his name.

narciso said...

Well I think it was once, when it was starting in the first few centuries before Constantine, but it was faith in the word that made it so powerful.

buwaya said...

I dont think Benedict was corrupted by wanting to be loved - but who knows, JP II was a hard act to follow. His career shows a hard-headed man, in a theoretical, intellectual sense. Benedict was above all an academic.

But the qualities of a manager and leader are amoral. There are lots of good men that can't organize a hot dog stand. Old age doesn't help. Conversely there are tons of moral monsters that can get things done. You learn a lot in the management game.

traditionalguy said...

Could the Roman Catholic institution's evils be rooted in that old devil called the love of money and earthly power. The donations from a billion suffering and dying believers amounts to a huge fortune that puts the caste of top clerics into Count of Monte Cristo Fortune territory. A tithe from a 1000 communicants comes to 100 times the income one family lives off, or 10,000 communicants comes to 1,000 times a normal family's income. Hmmm.

buwaya said...

All of these clergy take vows of poverty, that is, the wealth is not theirs.
To be sure they live reasonably well, but they mostly have a fairly spartan existence, albeit often in magnificent quarters. That is, they sleep on cheap sheets inside baroque palaces. Or whatever the local architectural heritage has provided.

Power and position are something else. The satisfaction of telling peoole to do this and that, the automatic respect, and the immediate entry into the company of notables, thats a thing, as it is for any other man in power. The Archbishops clothing may be threadbare (other than the only occasionally worn "uniforms"), and his car is likely to be unimpressive, but he fits in at the table with the billionaires.

Conversely he is probably very busy with bewildering secular management problems he is ill equipped to solve. Its a stressful job. And he can rarely afford to hire competent staff.

chickelit said...

Pilates ring reminds me of onion rings.

What are you firming there in Madison?

Jon Ericson said...

This is why

rcommal said...

Audible Althouse #44.

rcommal said...

Also, Audible Althouse #62.

Theranter said...

Buwaya, I read that earlier. Had no idea Viganó left the country after delivering his Memorial:

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aldomariavalli.it%2F2018%2F08%2F27%2Fcosi-monsignor-vigano-mi-ha-dato-il-suo-memoriale-ed-ecco-perche-ho-deciso-di-pubblicarlo%2F&edit-text=

Another interesting read:
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/author/fr-william-dailey/

exhelodrvr1 said...

The underlying primary goal of virtually all bureaucracies, and of the subsets within the bureaucracy, is to survive, and if possible, to grow. That is true in all types of organizations, including religious. So you hide the poor decisions/corruption.

BUMBLE BEE said...

That Lanny! Clinton's inner circle are pretty remarkable bunch, No?.

exhelodrvr1 said...

"That Lanny!"

Who could have ever seen that coming?!

tim in vermont said...

Either or, you cannot choose both options.

You are talking about a Clinton insider here and the company once known as the Clinton News Network, except they have rebranded it to the Clintons’ current project, which is to destroy Trump. Anybody wondering why people still talk about the Clintons, when, after all, as the party’s most recent nominee and the only viable alternative to Trump, Hillary is ancient history...

tim in vermont said...

refer to people on Twitter (Twitterers?)

I call them “useless Tweeters.” As for the rest of your comment, I find it implausible at a minimum.

stlcdr said...

I should add that I think this theory is plausible,

Concur with Unknown. Not at all likely. Trump is very good at pulling the right strings - he knows what pushes the (D)democrats buttons. This whole two years of government debacle shows a distinct lack of discipline and competency. Are there people behind the scenes? Wagging the dog? No. There are too many people who are not competent outside of their specific government task for anyone who would be capable of pulling of a conspiracy-like stunt to be even remotely effective.

stevew said...

Andrew: that is too much n-th dimensional chess even for the purported master Trump. And as others have said, Mueller's history argues against being a white hat. If it were all true though, I would be disgusted, more than I am already, at the treatment of Manafort. Sacrificing him to maintain some level of secrecy of the real purpose of the FBI/DOJ Russia investigation is obscene.

-sw

Tommy Duncan said...

Heavy rain last night in Western Wisconsin and SE Minnesota. The average seems to be about 5 inches.

Water in my basement. I live on a hill, but the moles have tunnels along the basement walls. Using the wet/dry shopvac to cleanup. Many buckets of water have been hauled up the stairs.

Heavy rain predicted this afternoon and evening.

Tommy Duncan said...

Lingering summer? No thanks. We're ready for cool, dry fall weather here.

Ralph L said...

I'm so glad there's a drain in the floor of my cellar. It's actually the original sewer line from 1922. The house was moved 19 feet in 1939 and the cellar expanded.

The Crack Emcee said...

10 out of 10, Bitches - how'd you do?.

Ralph L said...

Crack's been hitting the Femail again!

rehajm said...

This whole two years of government debacle shows a distinct lack of discipline and competency

This assumes the goals are as advertised but the real goal has been and is to hoist and maintain a word cloud of suspicion and negativity over Trump's head to Watergate (verb) him or failing that to close the enthusiasm gap between a strong economy and the turds Democrats are floating in November. Win back the House and the Alinskyites will have something to work with besides the deep state.

The Crack Emcee said...

Instapundit, AUGUST 27, 2018: ”The Insta-wife and Insta-daughter,...like group activities like barre or yoga.”

The Crack Emcee, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2011: ”Instapundit And Dr. Helen Can't Spot Quackery”

Because this nonsense started in the 60s, everyone, readers are led to rely on, is already *somehow* part of this cult (or a cult practice) they should be investigating, because - as I've pointed out - the science is either bad or almost non-existent. They can't be trusted to inform us about stuff if they're already doing it and are already part of the evil cultural zeitgeist that produces it.

We're in a bad way.

Andrew said...

Just a note of thanks to those who responded to my question/theory. Lots of good stuff to mull over.

The Crack Emcee said...

The Right is determined to get blamed for something the Left has dibbs on, and they aren't going to let it go.

That's how desperately insecure they are.

MadisonMan said...

Some political careers end by dying in office

If I were King, any politician older than 75 who died in office would forfeit their entire pension to the State.

(Glances in Fred Risser's direction)

Linda said...

I have been doing Pilates for years - it is by far the most important aspect of my fitness regime, allowing me to run, bike, ski and keep up with those far younger than myself. Glad you found it and I hope you are enjoying it. FYI, my favorite piece of apparatus is the chair. I use to hate it but I have now grown to love it.

The Crack Emcee said...

If you're into scientific studies, and scientific people who are into scientific studies, then you keep running across the same science question:

ARE THERE ANY CONDITIONS FOR WHICH YOGA DEMONSTRABLY GENERATES MORE GOOD THAN HARM?

Not that anyone cares about facts - just ask tim "It Works For Me!" in vermont - or Glenn Reynolds, or Donald Trump, or anybody else who currently makes a living by convincing those of you (who apparently only read rah-rah NewAge shit) into thinking they're smarter than reality.



The Crack Emcee said...

"Nobody joins a cult. You join a self-help group, a religious movement, a political organization. They change so gradually, by the time you realize you’re entrapped – and almost everybody does – you can’t figure a safe way back out."

– Deborah Layton, survivor of Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple cult

Cultists love those "group activities" - and nobody questioning anything.

Andrew said...

Crack:
Lighten up, Francis.

JOB said...

Summer Mansion

Coy silence beckons like an open window
Would a suicide, even as the last weary
Conversation slips into mere weariness.
The party, lurching into dull afterglow,
Fools itself into thinking it was all that fun –
Irritated at the time for being the time it is
And at time in general for not being more.
And so, after sangria and afternoon showers
And thorough cigarette smoke, sandflies
Getting the better part of it all, the party
Wandered off in several ways at once,
Some scattered like piles of driftwood
Wrapped in seaweed on the beach
Some renting bedrooms at the back of the big
House, on the sly, strangers and lovers
Simultaneously penetrating each others’
Shadows. Some lingered on the porch,
Stabbing out their final points of gossip-logic
In ashtrays, and one alone thinks to stay
Put at the bar, to listen to noise fade with sun-
Light, to pour another drink and to wait
For the windows to sigh ajar and fill with
Decadent bodies falling like silence
Through an open and unsuspecting ear.

walter said...

An obsession with attempting to dovetail all things into one thing is very cult-y.
To wit: Crack and (white)racism.
It's Crack's crack.

The Crack Emcee said...

Can the Pope be considered a cult leader?

Asking "for a friend."

The Crack Emcee said...

walter said...

"An obsession with attempting to dovetail all things into one thing is very cult-y."

I didn't dovetail anything - you're already there.

You forget: I've been saying this for over a decade. Y'all are just noticing it's true - or is Trump's hiring of Dr. Oz to NO PUSHBACK WHATSOEVER (after he's been reprimanded by the Senate as a quack and when Oz's wife is a known cult leader) not a sign you're all part of it? "Oh yes, we care about science - UNLESS WE DON'T!"

I'd say, as crazy as y'all are, you "dovetailed" long before I got involved in this.

walter said...

"I guess cultism is now like white racism: it exists - but no one's going to admit to doing it."
Keep on Crackin'

chickelit said...

Remind me why are you so against yoga pants, Crack.

Anonymous said...

TCE: If you're into scientific studies, and scientific people who are into scientific studies, then you keep running across the same science question:

ARE THERE ANY CONDITIONS FOR WHICH YOGA DEMONSTRABLY GENERATES MORE GOOD THAN HARM?


Once again, I'm impressed by Man of Science Crack's inability to critically evaluate the content of articles whose headlines appeal to his cargo-cult understanding of science.

From the article:

"The authors concluded that the results of this large-scale survey demonstrated that approximately 30% of yoga class attendees had experienced some type of adverse event. Although the majority had mild symptoms, the survey results indicated that attendees with chronic diseases were more likely to experience adverse events associated with their disease. Therefore, special attention is necessary when yoga is introduced to patients with stress-related, chronic diseases."

Truly a stunning exposé of all yoga classes as a dangerous cult.

Crack, there's plenty of good stuff out there exposing how so much "complementary" and "alternative" medicine is money-wasting hoo-ha at best and dangerous at worse and worst. That you keep posting links to things that don't demonstrate what you're claiming, and that raise obvious questions about methods or conclusions (in this case, "isn't this very likely to be true of *any* exercise program undertaken by similar populations?"), in any reader with minimal skills in critical evaluation, leads one to the conclusion that you don't really understand what you're reading.

walter said...

Lovely:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jacksonville-florida-shooting-suspect-madden-tournament-history-of-mental-illness-2018-08-27/

mockturtle said...

Lovely:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jacksonville-florida-shooting-suspect-madden-tournament-history-of-mental-illness-


It seems that the parents disagreed about the level of--and need to treat--the mental illness and divorced over the issue. As usual, it was Mom who had to deal with the daily dramas, not Dad, and it was she who sought treatment for her son. The father worked for NASA, BTW.

walter said...

That's a pretty simplistic rendering of that article, mock.

mockturtle said...

That's a pretty simplistic rendering of that article, mock.

I didn't even read that article but I did read several others.

stephen cooper said...

buwaya abd traditionalguy - thanks for the interesting and thoughtful comments (from 11:35 yesterday to 12:42 today).