October 29, 2018

At the Moveable Feast Café...

"The people that I liked and had not met went to the big cafes because they were lost in them and no one noticed them and they could be alone in them and be together" ― Ernest Hemingway.

(Open thread.)

137 comments:

eric said...

My prediction for next Tuesdays election.

1) Democrats add approximately 40 seats in the House.

2) Republicans end up with 53 Senate seats.

This will be historically about right. It won't be a blue wave, but it also won't be good for Republicans.

The media take away will be Trump is done, no one likes him, Republicans should roll over and die and let the Dems run the USA now.

FIDO said...

I am not a fan of 'great' literature. My English teachers beat that out of me.

However perhaps I need to read more Hemingway. Thank you, Ms. Althouse. That was the perfect quote.

Tommy Duncan said...

"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." --Yogi Berra

Michael K said...

He wrote "The Sun Also Uses" at the deux magots.

Which still there, although full of tourists.

Michael K said...

Blogger eric said...
My prediction for next Tuesdays election.

1) Democrats add approximately 40 seats in the House.


Mine is ten, followed by riots.

jimbino said...

That's a good illustration of Ernest Hemingway's proclivity to run sentences together with "and". He seems never to have understood the idea of the subordinate clause or phrase.

"The people that I liked but had not met went to the big cafes because they were lost in them, with the result that no one noticed them and they could be alone in them while being together" ― a better Ernest Hemingway.

FIDO said...

If we are playing that game, I am guessing that the Dems come within two seats of taking the House...but can't seal the deal. Too many of them have been too violent and too crazy and every single Republican is going to ask 'What should we do about that Karavan (sic)?'

What answer can they have?

Anything that happens will be characterized as a defeat for Trump, even if the Republicans hold both houses "The Republicans will expect Trump to play ball now that they have so much power and legitimacy outside of his Aura" or some such rot.

rcocean said...

A movable feast is an amazing book. Hemingway is in Paris, and on a whim, asks if an old Trunk he'd stored in 1930. He gets the old trunk and finds notebooks from 1920s. He then spends almost the rest of life using the notebooks to write a memoir of 1920's Paris.

After his death, Mary Hemingway publishes it. And it becomes one of his most popular and best books.

n.n said...

You are crowded and alone in big cafes, big cities, in this big world. I wonder if this is what motivates us to have children, hoping that love and loyalty will transcend generations. You have to wait at least a decade for stimulating conversations, and it can be exciting to guide then infer her future.

rcocean said...

Hemingway seemed to have a canny ability to live and write about places that many people would loved to visited and lived.

Paris in the 20s.
East Africa in the mid 30s.
Key West in the early 40s
Venice in the late 40s
Cuba in the 50s.

rhhardin said...

The War between Men and Women (1972) Jack Lemmon and Barbara Harris, is a story about a Thurber-character.

The trouble is that the character starts out hating women and hating dogs. Presumably the woman gets him to change but I didn't watch that far.

The actual Thurber liked his bitchy difficult women and liked dogs, so it's difficult to watch the opposite as a premise. It would have been a much better start to do it right.

rcocean said...

"There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other. We always returned to it no matter who we were or how it was changed or with what difficulties, or ease, it could be reached. Paris was always worth it and you received return for whatever you brought to it. But this is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy.”

readering said...

The RICO complaint filed today against the Trump family makes for interesting reading. It can easily be found online (add pdf to your google search).

YoungHegelian said...

Can someone please put in a cork in actors & other retards in the public sphere saying shit like this?

Yoo-hoo, Jimmy! Do you think it's your team that owns 95% of those 300 millions guns in private hands in this country? Do you think you just so fucking lovable that all our first responders & military men are going to take a round just to save the likes of you? Actually, a sizable fraction of them, too, think that you & your ilk are loathsome every bit as much as the guys who own the 95%.

Don't start in on this stuff. It just doesn't go anywhere anyone wants to go.

rcocean said...

I like strong women. And I hate bitchy ones.

Tommy Duncan said...

In college I asked my freshman English instructor "why can't we read Hemingway instead of Updike?" I was made to understand quickly it was a poorly considered question and I was now viewed as a neanderthal.

I can't seem to escape that persona.

MayBee said...

I love A Moveable Feast.
It's a a fun way to do Paris.
As Michael K said, deux magots is still there. As is La Closerie des Lilas, Polydore ( I love this place, thought it's been discovered since Midnight In Paris), Shakespeare and Company book store. Polydore is great- it still has the old school squatter bathroom. His apartment he had with Hadley is gone, but there's one in Chicago I used to walk by to make up for it.

Hagar said...

Claire McCaskill runs ads in Missouri averring she id not one of those "crazy Democrats."

Xochtil Torrez Small, though otherwise a quite "liberal" Democrat, runs ads in southern New Mexico calling for securing the border and obeying the laws.

Ken B said...

“The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”

rcocean said...

"The War between Men and Women (1972) Jack Lemmon and Barbara Harris, is a story about a Thurber-character."

Jack lemmon - mixed feelings. He could be very good - Mr. Roberts. Glen Gary Glen Ross. Some like it Hot. But he could be very bad - Save the Tiger. Prisoner of 2nd Ave. The Great Race.

Too often he was a whiny willie.

Drago said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rcocean said...

"I was made to understand quickly it was a poorly considered question and I was now viewed as a neanderthal."

Yeah. There's always been people who didn't "get" Hemingway.

One of the most unintentionally funny things i ever read was a letter from one Hemingway's ex-wives dated 1970 - she states that "Poor Earnest" will be forgotten since "The Young people" just can't relate to his outdated "macho bluster"

Ken B said...

Rcocean
Ever see him in Branagh's Hamlet? Oyveh.

Drago said...

readering: "The RICO complaint filed today against the Trump family makes for interesting reading. It can easily be found online (add pdf to your google search)."

Another democrat RICO ploy. Another one! Laughable.

All funded by a non-profit run by a major democrat donor.

Duh. And gee, what swell timing!

Yeah, the only thing missing is Avenetti.

Ken B said...

Jimbino would improve Duke Ellington by adding reverb.

rcocean said...

Faulkner, Lewis, Hemingway, Buck, and Steinbeck all got Nobel Prizes for literature.

At least they got two right.

rcocean said...

"Ever see him in Branagh's Hamlet? Oyveh."

Yep. He's surprisingly bad in "Long Day's Journey Into Night" and "Twelve Angry Men".
too.


Ken B said...

YH
Blood in the nightclubs, in the synagogues, in the schools, in the plaza just isn’t enough for some people; they need blood in the streets fantasies to really get off. Cromwell is jonesing.

YoungHegelian said...

Another democrat RICO ploy. Another one! Laughable.

A question for the lawyers: I thought RICO statutes were criminal & thus could only be filed by governmental law enforcement agencies, not private entities.

Am I wrong about this? Please enlighten me on this matter.

Guildofcannonballs said...



This is a link purple.

Robert Cook said...

"'The people that I liked but had not met went to the big cafes because they were lost in them, with the result that no one noticed them and they could be alone in them while being together' ― a better Ernest Hemingway."

I'm not too bowled over by Hemingway's sentence as written, but this is less good. Hemingway's original sentence has a rolling flow absent in your revision. "...with the result that" is deadly here.

Francisco D said...

Here in Arizona, the Dems are spending money and running ads like crazy. They are mixing the warm fuzzies with dishonest attack ads. They seem really desperate to me.

I don't know the electorate here, but if Arizonans don't buy their bullshit, it may turn out much better than anyone expected for the Republicans.

It seems like the Battle of the Bulge, except we don't know if Patton will get there in time.

readering said...

Young Hegelian you are wrong. (google Sedima v. Imrex, US Supreme Court 1985).

readering said...

Drago, no comparison between Avenatti and Roberta Kaplan (although she is a publicity hound in her own way).

tcrosse said...

In "Fifty Works of English and American Literature We Could Do Without" (1967) Brigid Brophy called Hemingway a footnote to the minor art of Gertrude Stein.

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

YH: "A question for the lawyers: I thought RICO statutes were criminal & thus could only be filed by governmental law enforcement agencies, not private entities."

That is my understanding as well.

But then again, the precedent has been established that any contrived democrat complaints can be leveraged into govt spy operations on political opponents and intelligence service frame-up operations as well.

Humperdink said...

readering said: "The RICO complaint filed today against the Trump family makes for interesting reading.

RICO = Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. If you look that up in a dictionary, you will see several pictures. Bill, Hillary, Chelsea, the Clinton Foundation headquarters, Bill Clinton cashing his $500k check for speaking to the Rooskies for an hour or two, Hillary peddling U235 to the same, Loretta Lynch and Bill speaking on the tarmac, and maybe even a pic of the Rose Law Firm billing records.

Drago said...

readering: "Drago, no comparison between Avenatti and Roberta Kaplan (although she is a publicity hound in her own way)."

There is not a dimes worth of difference between any of them.

Birkel said...

I might read that court filing just to see what magnificent stretches the lawyers made to get past their standing problem.
I'd be impressed with the lawyerly skill if this survives to discovery.

JML said...

Hagar, the rest of that Southern NM add by Torres Small: “And instead of wasting billions on a new border wall or separating families, let’s actually fix the process for work visas and provide a pathway to citizenship for those without a criminal record.

I’m Xochitl Torres Small and I approve this message.

JPS said...

YoungHegelian, 8:06:

"Do you think you just so fucking lovable that all our first responders & military men are going to take a round just to save the likes of you? Actually, a sizable fraction of them, too, think that you & your ilk are loathsome...."

I usually agree with you but I don't think this one goes anywhere you want to go, to borrow your phrase.

Remember the Marine colonel who expressed his disgust for Mike Wallace and the on-second-thought Peter Jennings, riffing on the hypothetical in which, being journalists first, they don't warn an American unit of an imminent ambush:

"Two days later they're both walking off my hilltop...and they get ambushed. And they're lying there wounded. And they're going to expect I'm going to send Marines up there to get them. They're just journalists, they're not Americans. But I'll do it....And Marines will die, going to get a couple of journalists."

Should I ever have to protect Cromwell or someone like him, his lovability or my feelings on the matter don't enter into it. They must not - and if a critical mass of Americans ever think our defense of them is contingent on political agreement, we're pretty much fooked.

readering said...

The plaintiffs allegedly lost money based on misrepresentations, in which case standing not the issue. Statutes of limitation the most obvious potential hurdle. I assume they have an answer, but many impressive-sounding cases get dismissed on those grounds.

JML said...

Hemingway writes the way a lot of people talk. Going on about someting and this and that without pause or rhyme or reason, often until the sun sets and then onto the rising of the moon, turning night into monochrome grey...

Michael K said...

if Arizonans don't buy their bullshit, it may turn out much better than anyone expected for the Republicans.

I was making calls for Lea Marquez/ Peterson today., Driving home I heard on the local station that 59% of Arizonans have voted already. 29% plan to send in absentee ballots and 12 % plan to vote at the polls.

The people I called today, who answered, all but two said they had voted. One didn't know where her polling place was and I tried to help her find it. One said she doesn't care and doesn't plan to vote. A Democrat, I assume.

YoungHegelian said...

@JPS,

Should I ever have to protect Cromwell or someone like him, his lovability or my feelings on the matter don't enter into it. They must not - and if a critical mass of Americans ever think our defense of them is contingent on political agreement, we're pretty much fooked.

But, JPS, you ignore one yuuuge fact --- Cromwell & his ilk are in revolt against the administration of your CiC.

I submit to you that short of Trump being publicly denounced for unconstitutional action by the two other branches of government, i.e. in constitutional breach of his office, that the majority of American troops in such a situation would unite their cultural & political sympathies with their oaths to support the Constitution & support the Trump administration against any sort of armed action from the Left, be it armed insurrection on a local basis or a state like California attempting to secede.

JML said...

I just noticed that I misspelled “something.” I think it works in this case.

I triggered a SJW today. I pointed out that Trump’s approval rating was as good or better as Obama’s at this same time in the first two years of his presidency. He started out reasonable, said, “I doubt it!” Then, turning red, said Trump was a Nazi and while there are a few nice Republicans around they elected an evil wife abuser...etc....

God help him if the Republicans keep the house. Poor guy may well have an aneurism.

Birkel said...

Oh, I thought the theory was RICO against the U.S.
Did they use RICO to bootstrap the statute of limitations?

readering said...

Trumps are sued for their actions as private citizens before the presidency. RICO used mainly because the statute trebles damages. Can also be basis for federal jurisdiction but there appears to be diversity between plaintiffs and defendants anyway.

YoungHegelian said...

@readering,

Oh, Jesus Christ on a cracker, readering! You send me out on a google trek to actually have to read a fucking legal decision in the raw & you fail to mention this major tidbit:

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961-1968, which is directed at "racketeering activity" -- defined in § 1961(1) to encompass, inter alia, acts "indictable" under specific federal criminal provisions, including mail and wire fraud -- provides in § 1964(c) for a private civil action to recover treble damages by any person injured in his business or property "by reason of a violation of section 1962." Section 1962(c) prohibits conducting or participating in the conduct of an enterprise "through a pattern of racketeering activity."

So, readering, Mr Legal-Eagle WizBang, we have just exchanged one legal question for another equally obvious one: The Petiononer in Sedima had standing. They were directly harmed by the felonious RICO activity. In what fashion does a fucking non-profit never in business with the Trump Corporation have standing?

All you Lefties reading this take heed -- shit like this is why you're no fun at parties.

YoungHegelian said...

Here's the link to Sedima.

FIDO said...

and if a critical mass of Americans ever think our defense of them is contingent on political agreement, we're pretty much fooked.


There has not been actual penetration...but there has been an awful lot of foreplay recently. Mostly with the Left Hand.

Ken B said...

JML
In 2016 I said I wasn’t sure we wanted President Trump, but that we really needed President-elect Trump. I'm not sure we need 2 years of single party rule, but we do need to cause some aneurysms. To me the big upside of a GOP wn would be the meltdowns, and the resulting internecine wars.

steve uhr said...

As long as we are making predictions -- by next Monday night the Soros funded caravan will be on the Wisconsin southern border causing mass suicides and hysteria around the country. Marshal law will be declared and all elections will be cancelled for the indefinite future.

Ken B said...

Uhr
It's rude to post your wet dreams. Just sayin'.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

James Cromwell saves his own shit to use as fertilizer. Given his expressed opinions, he probably produces enough to fertilize every farm in Iowa.

All I can remember seeing him in is "Babe" and all I can remember him saying is "That'll do, pig."

The pig was cute.

Mike Sylwester said...

A surprisingly good argument that the White House was bugged when Donald Trump occupied the White House

Guildofcannonballs said...



Look, when Hardin brings it...

This is a link Boyle.

Bill Peschel said...

The one thing I can't forgive the left for is their habit of inserting Trump into everything.

Yes, I can understand writing his latest book in a white-hot heat because he's so pissed with Trump. He's a lefty idiot, even if I did like "Motherless Brooklyn," so I assume this will be a terrible book. (I have it on hold at the library, so we'll see.)

And I expected to see Trump in the Sherlock Holmes-turned-black-lesbian "A Study in Honor" because it's set in the near future during a civil war sparked by something-something Democratic president after Trump's terms in office. (Since it was started under a Democratic administration, I figured it was because the election was so riddled with vote fraud that the red states decided to secede, but the author was too chickenshit or lazy to come up with an actual reason, so she mumbled over her future history.)

I especially enjoyed "A Study in Honor" because it was a pretty good recasting of Holmes and Watson as black lesbians, but also because the author is a good liberal white writer from Cambridge, Conn., doing her share of cultural appropriation the black experiences.

But do I have to read a fucking time travel novel by Australian John Birmingham, to see his characters dropped into dystopian America where Trump unleash Homeland Security against domestic "rebels"? This is not a political thriller. This is supposed to be entertainment. He self-published it.

Authors. I swear they're NPCs now.

But that wasn't what I wanted to talk about.

I love Hemingway. I read "The Sun Also Rises in college. Recently, I discovered "Reading 'The Sun Also Rises'" a book that annotates the whole novel.

It's freakin' amazing. Harry Robert Stoneback has apparently reading Hemingway all his life. He knew and worked with Carlos Baker, his first biographer. He lived in Paris. He's walked its streets. And I think he's also Catholic, like Hemingway.

That's an important point, because much of TSAR is steeped in Catholic doctrine, and once you understand that, you get a deeper appreciation of the novel.

Best of all, there's a whole series of "Understanding" books from Kent State University Press, and now I have something to look forward to.

http://www.kentstateuniversitypress.com/category/series/read_hemingway/

Bill Peschel said...

Somehow, I missed inserting Jonathan Letham's name into the opening of my rant. Apologies.

steve uhr said...

Speaking of basketball, the 7-0 bucks are the last remaining undefeated team after easily beating the only other undefeated team the Toronto Raptors. And they did it sans the Greek Freak.

Phil 314 said...

Finished Season 3 of “Man in the High Castle”. Still trying to figure out how much I like it.

Decided to start watch “Breaking Bad”. I’ve never seen any episodes. So far, so dark ( including some dark humor.)

Roughcoat said...

The first five paragraphs of "A Farewell to Arms" are absolute pure genius, the best beginning of a book ever written. I get chills every time I read it.

Roughcoat said...

"In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains."

And so it begins. And builds and builds and builds ...

JPS said...

FIDO, 9:24 - Well put, and thanks for the chuckle.

YoungHegelian, 9:10 - I get the sense we're envisioning different scenarios here, so maybe I was too quick to argue.

I agree that what Cromwell said was stupid, irritating and, to the extent that people care what he says, irresponsible.

But your "I submit to you", in response to my comment, invokes the oath, which is what it all comes down to. I can imagine a situation in which I'd have to protect a rich lefty jerk like Cromwell from civil unrest he or others on his side helped unleash. If that's what following lawful orders from above required, well, that's what I'd do. Don't have to like it.

I didn't mean I'd defend people actually engaged in trying to overthrow the Constitutional order. Which as far as I can tell he's not. He's talking shit, being an asshole....eh, another one self-identifies.

Anyway, all this is really hypothetical as I am subject to Posse Comitatus. I just have a self-serving interest in having as few Americans as possible thinking I'm a tool for the other side.

JML said...

Ken B. I agree.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Bill Peschel said...
The one thing I can't forgive the left for is their habit of inserting Trump into everything."

In the 20's and 30's writers tended to lean left, just as they do now. Indeed some leaned very far to the left indeed. But Hemingway had enough sense not to insert overt attacks on contemporary politicians in his novels. Imagine "The Sun Also Rises" with the characters all making snide remarks about about Harding and Coolidge and say, the Teapot Dome scandal.


Back in the '60's, there was a popular and clever antiwar play that parodied LBJ, "MacBird." Who would perform it now? How many people in the audience would understand the references? Indeed, was it ever performed after LBJ left office?

Nothing becomes dated more quickly than political writing.




JPS said...

Roughcoat, re "A Farewell To Arms,"

I can't read that wonderful opening without thinking of Matt Young's cautionary parody to the aspiring technical writer,

"At that point in time, a house in a village was lived in that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains, in the bed of which one could see pebbles and boulders."

Churchy LaFemme: said...

Hmm, surprised about John Birmingham. His Axis Of Time series was pretty good, and his After America series started well and was pro-sanity, though he kind of wandered off into the weeds in later books.

I read The Man In The High Castle years ago and never understood all the fuss. This* won the Hugo?, but then I don "get" PK Dick in general.

In some ways I think de Camp's Lest Darkness Fall is still the best "go back in time and change things for the better" book.

narciso said...

A young stacey keach was in that, that tells you how far back that goes, it preceded the dezinforma behind jfk.

mockturtle said...

It's a relief that most people have already voted so the big 'Caravan Surprise' will have little or no impact on the election. But the MSM will be in thrown into a confused narrative not knowing which is the more important story. Should be entertaining.

narciso said...

Radio free albemuth features a Nixon who wasn't Nixon, ferris fremont (the fellow from the walking dead, played that part, in alt reality world soth aliens.

narciso said...

Charles stress laundry series (bond meets lovecraft) was amusing for a while, but then he let his Scottish anarchist flag fly.

Guildofcannonballs said...



God Forbis I hwE you hangin/ 940.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Of course he didn't know the people he knew. Duh.

huh.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Iffin' he done did darn daggum know'em...

Iffin' only.

readering said...

The plaintiffs in the new Trump RICO case are individual victims. I thought I wrote that clearly before. A non-profit is financing their case. Unusual but legal just like the Christian baker in Colorado.

readering said...

I have spent as much time litigating civil RICO as anyone you will meet, both sides. Have discouraged plaintiffs using it because judges hate it. But Supreme Court stuck, can't read statute one way for prosecutors and another way for contingency fee lawyers.

Francisco D said...

The plaintiffs in the new Trump RICO case are individual victims. I thought I wrote that clearly before. A non-profit is financing their case. Unusual but legal just like the Christian baker in Colorado.

Now that the Russia Hoax has collapsed, it's time for Tom Steyer to fund a new hoax.

I guess this means that the Blue Wave has turned into a trickle.

By Any Means Necessary, Eh?

Freeman Hunt said...

I saw a boat of Hemingway's last weekend.

walter said...

So..Meadhouse have no interest in posting about Baldwin vs Vukmir.
I mean..year of the women, women's "rights", Medicare(Medicaid) for all...etc.
Nah...

wholelottasplainin said...

rcocean said...
"The War between Men and Women (1972) Jack Lemmon and Barbara Harris, is a story about a Thurber-character."

Jack lemmon - mixed feelings. He could be very good - Mr. Roberts. Glen Gary Glen Ross. Some like it Hot. But he could be very bad - Save the Tiger. Prisoner of 2nd Ave. The Great Race.

Too often he was a whiny willie.
******************

You understand, of course, that being an ACTOR he was required to portray characters that others had created, with scripted lines he was expected to say.

And IIRC in Glen Gary Glen Ross he was in full-whine mode: "not enough leads", and all that.

Yeah, maybe he should have rejected some scripts, but.....that's a different kettle of fish.

James K said...

Interesting discussion at Rex Parker's Crossword Blog regarding this horrible clue in Sunday's puzzle (3 letters): "Hero interred in Santa Clara, Cuba." Even NYT readers (at least the crossword fans) did not take kindly to that. See the comment by Gill I., especially. I mention this here because I think I was reintroduced to the Rex Parker blog through this blog.

William said...

Fitzgerald wrote the great book of that era. In A Moveable Feast, Hemingway let it be known that he had a bigger penis than Fitzgerald. Hemingway could be petty and jealous but in a manly, understated way........Anyone hear of Juan Robles. Robles was a minor poet and a Spanish professor at John Hopkins. He was also a committed Communist who went to Spain to fight for the Republicans. Robles was something of a linguist. He worked as the translator for the Russian General who was in charge of distributing Russian aid to the Spanish forces. That general fell afoul of Stalin and was liquidated. Robles, his translator, was also liquidated..... Americans are not so soluble as Russians. Robles was a friend of John Dos Pasos, the American writer. When DosPasos raised a stink about his disappearance, the Soviets released a cover story that he Robles had been a spy for the Fascists and was executed for that crime. This enraged Dos Pasos even further. He went to Hemingway and Lillian Hellman to enlist their help in publicizing this scandal. They refused. The cause of anti Fascism was too important to raise a fuss about a hill of beans...... Dos Pasos wrote a book about the tragedy of his friend, it was not reviewed and didn't sell. It was the end of Dos Pasos' career. Hemingway's book about the Spanish Civil War was a huge success. Horseman pass by.

rcocean said...

"And IIRC in Glen Gary Glen Ross he was in full-whine mode: "not enough leads", and all that."

Actually, Lemmon is NOT a whiny willie in Glen gary. He's full of disgust at Alec Baldwin, and when he thinks he scored a big sale, does a little victory dance in front of Kevin Spacey. He's sympathetic - but he's not a whiner.

In save the tiger and prisoner of 2nd avenue he is.

rcocean said...

"Dos Pasos wrote a book about the tragedy of his friend, it was not reviewed and didn't sell. It was the end of Dos Pasos' career. Hemingway's book about the Spanish Civil War was a huge success. Horseman pass by."

Hemingway was a terrible friends and a bad husband. And a commie. In many ways, he was a complete shit. But he could also be charming, lovable, courageous, interesting, intelligent, etc.

Despite being a one time KGB agent, you could read all his books and never know it. He makes the hero of 'For Whom the Bell Tolls" a commie, but he's basically just Gary Cooper.

Achilles said...

Early voting results in Arizona.

Results separated by party.

Compare to 2016 Arizona voter registration.
Republclican Democrat
2016 34% 31%
2018 43% 33%

Trump won by 3.7% with a 3 point lead in voter registration. Republicans in Arizona will be just fine with a 10% lead.

3.5% growth, growing wages, and commitment to defending our borders are going to be popular in Arizona.

Achilles said...

Early voting in the Panhandle of Florida is down 66%. Even these numbers understate how grim this is for democrats because the panhandle is very much Red and this will only get better for republicans.

Florida early voting returns 2016.

STATE TOTAL
Affiliation Republican Democrat Other No Party TOTAL
Vote‐by‐Mail Provided (Not Yet Returned) 201,144 265,120 14,089 135,532 615,885
Voted Vote‐by‐Mail 1,108,053 1,049,809 69,318 504,895 2,732,075
Voted Early 1,425,309 1,580,003 89,990 779,627 3,874,929

Current 2018 Florida early voting totals.

2018 General Election
Stats Type Republican Democrat Other No Party Total
Vote-by-Mail Provided (NYR) 601,460 717,862 11,481 399,576 1,730,379
Voted Vote-by-Mail 725,309 661,539 9,283 297,946 1,694,077
Voted Early 433,585 441,889 7,897 171,647 1,055,018

BudBrown said...
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BudBrown said...
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The Crack Emcee said...

I'm sick of seeing Paris being used as a stand-in for France - or anything else, really. In Hemingway's time, Paris may have been traveling, but today? I get a bigger thrill driving through the fields of wildflowers outside Austin, Texas than landing in that ashtray of a city again. I'd rather go to Quebec, any day:

Everything sold is printed half in english, so they don't get a chance to insult your French.

The Crack Emcee said...

In 1590, Starving Parisians Ground Human Bones Into Bread

They do love their bread.

dustbunny said...

I read somewhere (I think it was in ‘We All Went To Paris’ by Stephen Longstreet), cafe life was so popular back then because people had no heat in their apartments but cafes were heated, one could sit for hours with a cup of coffee or a beer. I recently reread ‘The Sun Also Rises’ and thought the descriptions of a black jazz musician would never make it past the PC gatekeepers.

David Begley said...

Report from Axios and CNBC: Trump considering an EO terminating birthright citizenships.

I read a law review article on this issue and this is legit.

The Crack Emcee said...

dustbunny said...

"I read somewhere (I think it was in ‘We All Went To Paris’ by Stephen Longstreet), cafe life was so popular back then because people had no heat in their apartments but cafes were heated, one could sit for hours with a cup of coffee or a beer."

You might remember 2003, when 15,000 old people died because no one had air conditioning, so the president (who didn't want to quit his vacation for such an inconvenience) told everyone to go to the movies, because they were air conditioned. That's the France I know after living there. It is the nation of "We do not have" as far as I'm concerned.

"I recently reread ‘The Sun Also Rises’ and thought the descriptions of a black jazz musician would never make it past the PC gatekeepers."

I know they lied to my face, so I can only imagine what they said behind my back.

Marcus said...

Finished Season 3 of The Man in the High Castle. Lead actress ponderous and boring. Plot moves along but you wait a long time for anything to happen except for the portions devoted to the villains, who are excellent. Shot in the DARK it seems. Not a single bright day and is every interior so poorly-lit (when the Germans and Japanese win WWII)? This last season was a slog. I am trying to recover with a binge of Longmire made possible by recovery from a DVT.

As to Papa, I tried, I really tried to read him years ago, but I never found interest in his plain style. YMMV

tim in vermont said...

In French they call it "Paris is a Feast" because "Moveable" means "furniture" in French. Here is a free video course in French for anybody interested: French In Action I am halfway through it. I have taken French in the past, and could read French, but only understood maybe 40% of what I heard. This course has increased that number a lot. There is a cute scene in Cafe des Lilas.

Michael K said...


Blogger David Begley said...
Report from Axios and CNBC: Trump considering an EO terminating birthright citizenships


He knows this will be challenged and will go to the USSC. Time to thrash it out.

RNB said...

YoungHegelian (8:06) -- James Cromwell: Cromwell gave a speech at my older son’s graduation from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Instead of talking about life or the future or any of the things commencement speakers usually do, he treated us to a ten-minute tirade about voter suppression in Florida and “the One Percent.” (He’s a millionaire.)

My wife was of the opinion that if he had just said, “That will do, graduates. That will do,” they would have loved him forever. But no.

tim in vermont said...

but I never found interest in his plain style. Oy vey! Yesterday it was "Baseball is boring" and today it's this! There is a lot going on in that "plain style."

Michael K said...

Yeah, maybe he should have rejected some scripts, but.....that's a different kettle of fish.

I know of one conservative writer who had a script he thought would be great for Lemon. Lemon would not look at it because of the writers's politics.

My wife went to a funeral in Tucson of some local guy. It was at the Episcopal church downtown. The priest spent part of his funeral sermon bashing Trump.

Robert Cook said...

"In some ways I think de Camp's Lest Darkness Fall is still the best 'go back in time and change things for the better' book."

The Man In The High Castle is not a "go back in time" book. It presents an alternate world. In the book, the titular character, Hawthorne Abendsen, writes a novel, "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy," which depicts/reveals the alternate world in which the Axis powers did not win WWII, as they have done in Dick's book, (but it is not our reality, as in Abendsen's book, Hitler is captured and tried for his crimes.)

Dick spent much of the 1950s writing non-science fiction books, none of which sold. (The first of them to be published was Confessions of a Crap Artist, published by a private press in 1975. The rest were later eventually published posthumously.) After failing to sell these books in the 50s, Dick took a sabbatical from writing, and his first novel upon returning to writing was The Man In The High Castle. This timeline is important, as it explains why TMITHC is so un-science fictionish: it's essentially a mainstream novel, with the only SF element being that the world it depicts is an alternate world. In every other respect, it depicts a naturalistic world.

tim in vermont said...

My daughter bought me Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy and I am enjoying it, he was heavily involved with the commies and there is a lot of insight from letters into the kinds of pressures the left puts on writers. Hemingway was able to resist it. He was threatened once that if he didn't portray communism more positively, he would stop getting such good reviews. He said something like "Writers who write politics die just like any other writer, it's just that their corpses stink more."

Milnius, who had hit after hit in Hollywood, including Apocalypse Now and Red Dawn, but was banned in Hollywood after Red Dawn. So these aren't empty threats that they make.

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

I'm getting to be like the people Hemingway refers to. For coffee or a meal, I'd rather be in a restaurant--a bit crowded, but not too crowded, with a buzz of voices--than be at home.

Michael K said...

was banned in Hollywood after Red Dawn. So these aren't empty threats that they make.

I read that book and it is good. Red Dawn was remade, I thought. At least there was talk of it. Also, the DVD version that was released a few years later had a different ending than the theatrical version which had a wimpy ending. It was interesting to see that change.

Yes, the remake was released in 2012. I didn't see it.

Hagar said...

JML said...
Hagar, the rest of that Southern NM add by Torres Small: “And instead of wasting billions on a new border wall or separating families, let’s actually fix the process for work visas and provide a pathway to citizenship for those without a criminal record.

I’m Xochitl Torres Small and I approve this message.


Yes, indeed, but that is light-years away from the "We don't need no steenkin' laws!" that the current party leadership promote.

Hagar said...

Likewise, Michelle Lujan Grisham is running for governor (and will likely win) on a traditional NM Democrat platform - you would never guess she had ever even heard of the Democrat celebrities in the national news and their issues.

Earnest Prole said...

"She got to look like a Roman emperor and that was fine if you liked your women to look like Roman emperors."

-- Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

tim in vermont said...

If you can find this anywhere, it's worth a watch to get some insight into the way the commies in Hollywood aren't against blacklists, they just want to be the ones making them. Milnius (2013)

Trumbo was a study in how to overcome blacklists, and Trump took a lesson from it, since the fascist prigs in Hollywood are now on the left.

FIDO said...

Wow! Trump says he is going to end birthright citizenship. No more anchor babies.

But in as diverse a nation as we currently have, what does he replace it with? One presumes 'birth by established citizens'.

It is a bold move, but how does he do it? And do I really approve?

On the whole, I don't think I do, but I don't feel terribly strongly either way.

Symbolically, it has always been a very strong image for American immigrants that while THEY were not able to become President, their kids born here could. And as a Conservative, do I want to tinker with that?

That being said, I also know which side I am on and since Inga and her ilk have shown no hesitation for norm destroying and will happily use any hesitation to try to destroy Trump, I'm not about to be a tool for her idiotic machinations.

One day, the Left will argue in good faith once again. Maybe even in my lifetime but I am not counting on it.

tim in vermont said...

I am not interested, BTW in a politically correct remake of Red Dawn, which is what the remake probably is. The left really hates that movie. But then again, The Guardian really hates both movies, so maybe it's worth a look.

This has to be the year's most pointless remake: a boring and badly acted reboot of John Milius's gung-ho red-scare actioner from 1984. A bunch of gutsy college kids held out against an invasion of the US by Soviet forces, forming a guerrilla army that kept the flame of patriotism alive. Now, in 2013, the invading forces are North Korean. And does the story reflect the Barack Obama era? Well, the town mayor is African-American, and he really is a weak fellow, who cringingly advocates collaborating with the enemy. Was this guy born in Kenya, or what? - The Guardian

Andrew said...

"My wife was of the opinion that if he had just said, “That will do, graduates. That will do,” they would have loved him forever. But no."

Oh that would have been great. No one would have complained.

I loved Cromwell in Babe, and especially in L.A. Confidential (with one of the greatest shockers in all of cinema). But I was sad to see him get all political. He referred to America as a police state.

If I were famous enough to do a commencement speech, I would simply say, "Graduates, get your f'g eyes off your f'g phones, and keep your f'g eyes on the f'g road. Literally and metaphorically. Thank you and God bless."

Michael K said...

I wonder what the Guardian thought of the German invasion threat?

Of course, it depended on when the question arose as I suspect they followed the communist line which flipped on 22 June, 1941.

Some Hollywood communists got whiplash that day.

Andrew said...

The only Hemingway I liked was The Old Man and the Sea. I read it in high school. I found it mesmerizing, even though almost nothing happened. Everyone else in my class thought it was boring.

FIDO said...

Hmm.

Instapundit had a link to an article. GOP headquarters have been attacked in Florida, California, Wyoming Illinois, Kentucky (three times), New York, and North Carolina (I am probably forgetting a few).

Which is more than that 'black church' epidemic that Bill Clinton lied about...but this is true.

Inga could not be reached for comment because Inga is unable to concede a point.

FIDO said...

Epidemic of black church arsons.

tim in vermont said...

There's no Hollywood communists Mike! Just ask Robert!

Andrew said...

@Phil,
"
Decided to start watch “Breaking Bad”. I’ve never seen any episodes. So far, so dark ( including some dark humor.)"

I watched it after the fact also (a couple years after the finale was aired). The only show I've ever binge watched. One of the best things I've ever seen. Truly a masterpiece.

While it stays dark, there is a lot of comic relief, especially when Bob Odenkirk arrives (end of season 2 if I recall correctly).

Gahrie said...

But in as diverse a nation as we currently have, what does he replace it with? One presumes 'birth by established citizens'.

You start enforcing the wording of the amendment: "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof". Illegal immigrants have explicitly failed to submit themselves to the jurisdiction of the United States by violating our immigration laws.

Bruce Hayden said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bruce Hayden said...


“Hagar, the rest of that Southern NM add by Torres Small: “And instead of wasting billions on a new border wall or separating families, let’s actually fix the process for work visas and provide a pathway to citizenship for those without a criminal record.”

One problem is that of the modern Amrtican welfare state. You give everyone who wants citizenship an automatic pathway to citizenship, and we are likely to find a significant proportion of Mexico and Central America moving up here to live in the style that they would love to be accustomed to. The only thing keeping CA from almost immediate bankruptcy is that a significant number of their recent immigrants could be removed upon detection. And some forms of welfare depend upon at least legal residence here.

The sad reality is that a significant proportion of the illegal immigrants entering this country are functionally illiterate peasants. 3rd or 4th grade educations, often without even Spanish as a native language, makes them effectively unemployable for most jobs in this country, given the technical nature required (the best jobs here require maybe a 20th grade education, while decent ones are increasingly requiring a 16th grade education. 12th grade may get you a job working at 7/11 or McDonalds). Sure, they can work as maids or landscapers, but those markets are quickly glutted, as we see here in AZ. Factor in the push to significantly increase the Minimum Wage to a “Living Wage”, which everyone who hires them would have to pay, and their marginal cost as employees rapidly dwarfs their marginal utility to employers, rendering them unemployable even in those areas. If they aren’t citizens, and are not on a path to citizenship, they can be told to go home at that point. This option disappears when they become citizens, because they are home. Which leaves our welfare state to keep them housed, fed, and alive. We don’t need the number of 3rd world functionally illiterate peasants we already have, and giving tens and maybe hundreds millions more around the world a road to citizenship is a guarantee of national bankruptcy.

Orly said...

@rcocean
Idaho in the 60’s sadly.

Robert Cook said...

"I am not interested, BTW in a politically correct remake of Red Dawn, which is what the remake probably is. The left really hates that movie. But then again, The Guardian really hates both movies, so maybe it's worth a look."

Maybe they're hated because they're bad movies.

Michael K said...

The sad reality is that a significant proportion of the illegal immigrants entering this country are functionally illiterate peasants. 3rd or 4th grade educations, often without even Spanish as a native language,

For ten years, I reviewed workers comp claims in California. About half were Hispanics and more than half of those were illegals. They would claim "second grade" education and most were from the southern Mexico states and were illiterate in Spanish, let alone English.

I knew a guy through sailing who was a SCIF inspector. SCIF is the state workers comp carrier. He told me that many of those illegals were hired by contractors for dangerous jobs, like roofers, with no or defective safety gear. That may be why we saw so many claims from them.

Michael K said...

Maybe they're hated because they're bad movies.

The first one was hated because it had communists as villains. I didn't see the second.

I expect you would hate it too. After all.....

narciso said...

For the resident nazguls



https://reason.com/volokh/2018/10/28/has-there-been-a-surge-of-anti-semitism

Robert Cook said...

"'Maybe they're hated because they're bad movies.'

"The first one was hated because it had communists as villains. I didn't see the second.

"I expect you would hate it too. After all....."


I never saw either film. The first looked cheesy as hell to me, and the second got terrible reviews. As I said: bad movies.

(BTW: Too many dots at the end above. An ellipsis is three dots, and, followed by a period, you would type only four dots.)

Michael K said...

The first looked cheesy as hell to me,

Of course it did. It had communists as villains.

I'll bet you loved "Truth," a movie about a lie that was too good to check.

tim in vermont said...

Red Dawn was a hit. I liked it at the time. The original review made no bones about deploring the politics in it.

Michael K said...

The theatrical ending of "Red Dawn" was to deplore the kids' actions and suggest it was futile.

The DVD version has a different ending with the "Wolverines" memorialized on a cliff.

Bill Peschel said...

"gung-ho red-scare actioner"

This was typical of the reviews I remember back then.

I didn't see that "Red Dawn" until recently.

It's nothing like that. Yes, high schoolers turn guerillas. But they're dealing with an occupation force that's literally putting their parents into concentration camps.

Plus, there's dissension within the group. Some don't want to attack the enemy. One of them is an actual turncoat, and they have to execute him.

This does not go well.

At the end, most of them are killed, not really knowing if their actions had any effect on the overall war.

And on the commie side, there's even a humanistic officer who wonders what the hell they're doing there, and empathizes with the kids. Not that it kept him from doing his duty.

I'm sure I'm misremembering specific plot points, but this was not "Rambo" by a long chalk. It was not gung-ho, and when people get shot or killed, you feel it.

This is why I no longer rely on reviewers. Sometimes, it seems like we're watching two different movies.

tim in vermont said...

You could easily make a Red Dawn that valorizes the Mujahedeen. Same with Star Wars

Rusty said...

I don't know how they're connected, but I have a photo of my fathers one time business partner with Mary and Earnest Hemmingway.

Michael K said...

I'm sure I'm misremembering specific plot points, but this was not "Rambo" by a long chalk. It was not gung-ho, and when people get shot or killed, you feel it.

I thought it was pretty good and it was pretty obvious there was political pressure to make the kids antiheroes.




Churchy LaFemme: said...

obert Cook said...

"In some ways I think de Camp's Lest Darkness Fall is still the best 'go back in time and change things for the better' book."

The Man In The High Castle is not a "go back in time" book. It presents an alternate world.


Yeah, I know that. I was reacting to the John Birmingham mention, and folding in a reaction to somebody's TMITHC video reaction.

Jim at said...

Red Dawn was the first movie to receive a PG-13 rating.

Saw it in a theater. Wasn't cheesy at all. Far-fetched to be sure - simply because of the logistics - but it wasn't bad.

The only leftists who didn't hate were those who fantasized about it. From the other side.

Michael K said...

Far-fetched to be sure - simply because of the logistics - but it wasn't bad.

The Cuban guy who realized they were making mistakes was pretty good, too.

I guess he was Nicaraguan.