Althouse: At the Friday Night Café...

December 28, 2018

At the Friday Night Café...

... talk about whatever you like.

135 comments:

Original Mike said...: If only the Badgers had a quarterback...; 12/28/18, 6:52 PM
Unknown said...: Conservative writer Bre Payton, frequent writer at The Federalist, and contributor to a variety of talking head shows, just died today from, apparently, swine flu. She was just 26.

The left is actually celebrating her death and hoping it was agonizingly painful. People like Howard, Ritmo, and Inga, though I don't know about them specifically. Just people who sound a lot like them.

This, on the same day they are screaming about illegal children dying all while celebrating US citizen deaths.

--Vance; 12/28/18, 6:59 PM
Trumpit said...: I thought my generation was the non-reading, TV generation that sits on its duff and watches show after show on Netflix - to be drugged and numbed to reality. Wait a minute. Netflix didn't exist for most of my life. I must be talking about the current generation of fools. I'm worried for the country. Schlump is but a striking example of what the future holds for this country. It isn't a pretty sight even on a big flat screen TV made in China.; 12/28/18, 7:02 PM
rhhardin said...: When the internet goes down for a day you're thankful to have bought DVDs instead of cloud movies.; 12/28/18, 7:05 PM
bagoh20 said...: "Schlump is but a striking example of what the future holds for this country."

So you envision a big golden success story beyond what anyone would expect. I hope you are right. And the hot well-dressed wives for us guys is a nice touch, but maybe a bit too optimistic.; 12/28/18, 7:20 PM
Rusty said...: Ezra Klien has stated that the House of representatives is the most powerful branch of government and the rest of the government branches are conspiring to limit its power.
Trumpit. Have you met Ezra Klein? I think you two would get along.; 12/28/18, 7:22 PM
stephen cooper said...: trumpit i love you man I remember all those riffs back in the day when you pointed out that Obama did not love women because he had an ugly wife and did not like kids because he thought Roe v Wade were words he had to say every time he wanted to get laid - which was not often, as you pointed out when you called yourself Obamait, the little guy clearly lacks a normal set of human desires.

God bless you Trumpit, you are one of the funniest little satirists of our day! as long as this nation has satirists like you it will be a great nation, MAGA baby MAGA; 12/28/18, 7:23 PM
320Busdriver said...: Well they arrested the illegal immigrant killer of the legal immigrant cop.

Which side do you take?; 12/28/18, 7:29 PM
Wince said...: Everyone seems just itching for a fight.; 12/28/18, 7:35 PM
bagoh20 said...: "Everyone seems just itching for a fight."

I just spent a week with relatives and friends, nearly nonstop socializing. I'm ready to fuck someone up! Happy Holidays.; 12/28/18, 7:48 PM
Meade said...: "Everyone seems just itching for a fight."

Or it could be everyone has head lice.; 12/28/18, 7:54 PM
Chuck said...: Althouse; being the assiduous reader of the New York Times that I understand you to be, I was surprised that you didn't get around to blogging the Times' story concerning the Trump family's relationship (including leasing deals) with two Queens podiatrists who are likely to have facilitated Donald Trump's medical exemption from the military draft.

For my part, I was like all, "Wow, I didn't see THAT one coming. Because given Trump's record for personal honor and credibility and public service, I would have guessed that he really did have bone spurs in his feet for a short time in the late sixties that went away without any treatment or surgery. And that it was only natural that Trump forgot the details and lost all of the papers in question."

Actually, I prefer people who (served and) were captured.; 12/28/18, 7:58 PM
Meade said...: I could be wrong about the head lice.; 12/28/18, 8:05 PM
Original Mike said...: Blogger Chuck said..."Althouse; being the assiduous reader of the New York Times that I understand you to be, I was surprised that you didn't get around to blogging the Times' story concerning the Trump family's relationship (including leasing deals) with two Queens podiatrists who are likely to have facilitated Donald Trump's medical exemption from the military draft."

Sure you were, Chuck. Sure you were.; 12/28/18, 8:13 PM
Seeing Red said...: Via Insty:

WINNING: Trump Imposes Pay Freeze on Civilian Feds for 2019. “After months of speculation, President Trump followed through on a March proposal and instituted a pay freeze for federal civilian employees. In an executive order issued Friday, Trump confirmed that pay rates would remain stagnant next year for non-military federal workers. The news comes despite statements from the president in September that he would ‘study’ whether to provide feds with a pay raise after all. By contrast, members of the military services will receive a 2.6 percent raise in 2019.”; 12/28/18, 8:16 PM
Humperdink said...: I prefer conservatives who stick to their guns. Not quasi-conservatives who retreat at the first sign of trouble. I prefer conservatives who don't call other conservatives whacko-birds. I prefer conservatives who don't proclaim their admiration for Clinton (both of them).
I prefer conservatives who do not actively try to over turn a presidential election.; 12/28/18, 8:17 PM
Wince said...: Inside Facebook’s Secret Rulebook for Global Political Speech

MENLO PARK, Calif. — In a glass conference room at its California headquarters, Facebook is taking on the bonfires of hate and misinformation it has helped fuel across the world, one post at a time.

The social network has drawn criticism for undermining democracy and for provoking bloodshed in societies small and large.; 12/28/18, 8:19 PM
narciso said...: Don't ever change chuck, following this nothingberger of a story like a bloodhound.; 12/28/18, 8:21 PM
Narayanan said...: Speak of hot golden wife

https://jezebel.com/is-melania-wearing-leather-pants-or-are-those-her-barb-1831347548; 12/28/18, 8:23 PM
Narayanan said...: Can California recall their US Representative or Senator?
Obviously thing to do.
If Republicans have any brains or balls they should be initiating drives now.; 12/28/18, 8:30 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Not only does Melania look good and dress tastefully, she's 4.5 languages ahead of her predecessor!; 12/28/18, 8:33 PM
narciso said...: Ah Jezebel, you can see hear the heads exploding in their editorial board meeting.; 12/28/18, 8:33 PM
narciso said...: We're talking California here, they have no power to do anything over there.; 12/28/18, 8:35 PM
Chuck said...: Humperdink said...
I prefer conservatives who stick to their guns. Not quasi-conservatives who retreat at the first sign of trouble. I prefer conservatives who don't call other conservatives whacko-birds. I prefer conservatives who don't proclaim their admiration for Clinton (both of them).
I prefer conservatives who do not actively try to over turn a presidential election.

You're throwing lob-balls now.

~You prefer conservatives "who stick to their guns"? Like Trump's positions on health care? Abortion? China's currency manipulation, the Ex-Im Bank, Presidential time spent golfing? White House visitor log transparency? Congressional authority to attack Syria (He claimed Obama needed to get it, but then he attacked)? Et cetera, et cetera...

~You prefer conservatives "who don't call other whacko birds"? It isn't much of a complaint since I have never heard of a conservative calling another a "whacko bird." What I remember from the campaign was "Low Energy Jeb," "Little Marco," "That Face" Carly Fiorino, "Lyin' Ted Cruz," "1 for 38 Kasich," et cetera. President Bone Spurs has a way with nicknames.

~And I am with you about the Clintons. I don't like them now; I never liked them. I would have voted to impeach Bill Clinton had I been in the Senate at the time of the impeachment trial. And I would never have voted for Hillary for president. Most of all, I would never have invited them to my wedding, or made a donation to their foundation to get them to attend, and posed for happy pictures with them.; 12/28/18, 8:42 PM
walter said...: The IRC F*ck ICE Benefit Concert
January 6, 2019 @ 6:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Start your 2019 strong by telling ICE to go to hell and attending a benefit concert for the CDSA Immigrants Rights Committee and their efforts to combat ICE and stop deportations in and around Chicago.

We’ve got 5 great local bands on the docket for this show:
-AfterSound
-Bernie and the Wolf
-Dead Lucid
-The Braided Janes
-Lunar Hotel

Doors are at 6 PM, 7-11 PM show. Tickets are $10 at the door or at bit.ly/fuckiceshow

If you can’t attend the show but still want to donate, please do so at the following link: https://www.gofundme.com/cdsa-abolish-ice; 12/28/18, 8:44 PM
Chuck said...: Narayanan Subramanian said...
Can California recall their US Representative or Senator?
Obviously thing to do.
If Republicans have any brains or balls they should be initiating drives now.

No. Next question?

btw: California has 53 Congressional districts and 2 Senators.; 12/28/18, 8:45 PM
walter said...: Democratic Socialists of America
December 25 at 1:26 PM ·

This is barbarism.

We cannot reward murderous white supremacy with a border wall. #OpenBorders #LetThemIn
https://www.latimes.com/…/la-na-border-patrol-death-2018122…
About this website
latimes.com
An 8-year-old Guatemalan child died in U.S. custody on Christmas morning, the second such death in 3 weeks; 12/28/18, 8:50 PM
Jupiter said...: Blogger Unknown said...

"This, on the same day they are screaming about illegal children dying all while celebrating US citizen deaths."

Yeah, that sounds like the Left. That's who they are, and what they are like. I have to admit, I feel the same way about them, except I don't want them to suffer. I just want them to die. Or maybe that's lice.; 12/28/18, 8:51 PM
narciso said...: Yes the parents subjected their children to conditions that would enable influenza.; 12/28/18, 8:52 PM
narciso said...: Remember it was the al Kurdi incident in Turkey that prompted Merkel to open the gates to europe.; 12/28/18, 9:00 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: From Zerohedge:

“Nation states must today be prepared to give up their sovereignty”, according to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who told an audience in Berlin that sovereign nation states must not listen to the will of their citizens when it comes to questions of immigration, borders, or even sovereignty....

“In an orderly fashion of course,” Merkel joked, attempting to lighten the mood. But Merkel has always had a tin ear for comedy and she soon launched into a dark speech condemning those in her own party who think Germany should have listened to the will of its citizens and refused to sign the controversial UN migration pact:

“There were [politicians] who believed that they could decide when these agreements are no longer valid because they are representing The People”.

“[But] the people are individuals who are living in a country, they are not a group who define themselves as the [German] people,” she stressed.

Merkel has previously accused critics of the UN Global Compact for Safe and Orderly Migration of not being patriotic, saying “That is not patriotism, because patriotism is when you include others in German interests and accept win-win situations”...

On the plus side, this does show that walls CAN work.

Because if the Berlin Wall was still there she would be saying these things as an East German apparatchik on the other side.

As opposed to now, where she is an EU apparatchik, bringing the lost glories of East German discipline to today's Europe.

Maybe they need to build a new Berlin Wall.

But this one needs to follow the path of the English Channel.

I am Laslo.; 12/28/18, 9:04 PM
Etienne said...: First of all, illegal immigration has nothing to do with murder. It's the media playing their political issues against the public. "If we could build a wall, then murder will decrease exponentially." This is bullshit.

When you see a story like this, down-vote your news source. They are stealing your time.

"The Iraqi's have nuclear and chemical weapons." Therefore we need to do a Pearl Harbor on them. See how it works... 10 trillion later...

My advice is to start learning Spanish and become Catholic. The press is leading the white people to the Soylent factory.; 12/28/18, 9:04 PM
walter said...: "illegal immigration has nothing to do with murder."
Except, of course, when illegal immigrants commit murder..; 12/28/18, 9:17 PM
BJM said...: I'm reading through the Gilded Age, post reconstruction to WWI...here are a few excerpts from various sources...any of this sound familiar?

During the 1870s and 1880s, the U.S. economy rose at the fastest rate in its history, with real wages, wealth, GDP, and capital formation all increasing rapidly. By the beginning of the 20th century, gross domestic product and industrial production in the United States led the world.

Known as The Gilded Age it was also an era of abject poverty and inequality as millions of unskilled immigrants—many from impoverished regions—poured into the United States, and the high concentration of wealth became more visible and contentious.

NYC's The Four Hundred's summer cottages are a perfect example...on a par with Ellison's Woodside compound? or celebrity homes in LA? Contrast with the shanties in El Paso, legions of homeless or horrendous living conditions in our inner cities.

Investors in London and Paris poured money into the American financial market centered in Wall Street. By 1900, the process of economic concentration had extended into most branches of industry—a few large corporations, called "trusts", dominated. Through vertical integration these trusts were able to control each aspect of the production of a specific good, preventing other companies from being able to compete in the marketplace.

The political landscape saw two evenly matched parties. The dominant issues were cultural (especially regarding mass immigration, education, and ethnic or racial groups) and economic (tariffs and money supply). With the rapid growth of cities, political machines increasingly took control of urban politics. In business, powerful nationwide trusts formed in some industries.

The Bourbon Democrats supported a free-market policy, with low tariffs, low taxes, less spending and, in general, a laissez-faire government. They argued that tariffs made most goods more expensive for the consumer and subsidized "the trusts" (monopolies). They also denounced imperialism and overseas expansion. By contrast, Republicans insisted that national prosperity depended on industry that paid high wages, and warned that lowering the tariff would bring disaster because goods from low-wage European factories would flood American markets.

Science played an important part in social thought as the work of Charles Darwin became known among intellectuals. This new concept justified the stratification of the wealthy and poor, and it was in this proposal that Spencer coined the term "survival of the fittest".

Joining Spencer was Yale professor William Graham Sumner whose 1884 book What Social Classes Owe to Each Other argued that assistance to the poor actually weakens their ability to survive in society. Sumner argued for a laissez-faire and free-market economy. Few people, however, agreed with the social Darwinists, because they ridiculed religion and denounced philanthropy.

The Norwegian American economist Thorstein Veblen argued in The Theory of the Leisure Class that the "conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure" of the wealthy had become the basis of social status in America.

In Looking Backward, (1881) the reformer Edward Bellamy envisioned a future America set in the year 2000 in which a socialist paradise has been established.

Missed it by "that" much.; 12/28/18, 9:18 PM
Big Mike said...: The sort of conservative Chuck is trying to imitate is th kind that drives real Republicans half crazy. Hard core lefties take what they can get and keep coming — they never, ever quit. The type of conservative Chuck is trying to imitate wants it all their way or they pack up and go home. And the lefties eat their lunch. And mine too, which is why I despise them so much.

At other times Chuck tries to pretend that he’s a conventional Country Club Republican.

But I don’t think he’s either. He’s as phony as a three dollar bill. On another thread I asked him who mows his lawn. He didn’t answer because he’d have to admit his father mows it while Chuck sits in his parents’ basement and expresses his spite at the most conservative president since Reagan.; 12/28/18, 9:23 PM
Chuck said...: Big Mike I saw your question and I thought it an unserious one for which no one really cared about the answer.

I take of my own lawn. I have a riding mower and two trim mowers.

so, as usual, you were wrong.; 12/28/18, 9:27 PM
narciso said...: The difference is many up thr upper class devoutly believe in socialism, I imagine a fair amount of the poor, it's probably under the lower middle class that snake oil doesn't sell; 12/28/18, 9:28 PM
Etienne said...: "illegal immigration has nothing to do with murder."

Except, of course, when illegal immigrants commit murder..

Should we blame couples having female children when a woman kills someone?

Should we blame General Motors making blue cars when a blue car runs over a pedestrian?

Does the existence of blue cars add to the news story?; 12/28/18, 9:29 PM
Gahrie said...: I bought an Instapot for Christmas for myself (through the Althouse Amazon portal of course)..am loving it so far.; 12/28/18, 9:30 PM
Tank said...: Caught the last 30 minutes of Smokey and the Bandit two nights ago. I had forgotten what a sweet, cute young lass Sally Field was. In the TCM commentary after the movie they said that Field, after reading the script, said it was the worst thing she'd ever read (prolly was). Reynolds told her, who cares, we'll have lots of fun filming it. And they did. You can see in the movie how much fun they're having. Plus the film made a bundle and led to two sequels.; 12/28/18, 9:33 PM
Etienne said...: The border wall is just another version of the: invade Iraq to save us from chemical weapons.

The object isn't our safety, it is federal contractor pimps raking-in money from their prostitutes in Congress.

Trump knows that billions can be made, but Schumer knows he has already promised these billions to San Francisco, LA, and NYC socialist programs.; 12/28/18, 9:33 PM
The Godfather said...: @BJM: The late 19th Century in the US was a very interesting period. Ideologues of the right and left have written flaming screeds condemning the period. Yet this was when a large portion of the American population (including recent immigrants) were able to raise themselves out of poverty to a substantial degree of security and comfort.; 12/28/18, 9:43 PM
stevew said...: The good thing, for me, about the relentless attacks on Trump by the usual media suspects and on the news is that by tuning it out I am choosing instead to spend more time in my wood shop, reading, and on various and sundry other activities. Cranked out a small cherry bowl this afternoon, read a few Tobias Wolff stories, replenished the wood pile in the garage (from the outside pile), and watched Bird Box on Netflix. Very relaxing and enjoyable. Feeling like I accomplished something worthwhile today.; 12/28/18, 9:44 PM
wholelottasplainin said...: Chuck:

~You prefer conservatives "who don't call other whacko birds"? It isn't much of a complaint since I have never heard of a conservative calling another a "whacko bird."
&&&&&&&&&&&

John McCain

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2013/03/08/mccain-calls-paul-cruz-amash-wacko-birds/?utm_term=.1d949a25c42a

But ok, ok...we know you will say Mccain wasn't "really" a conservative, so....; 12/28/18, 9:47 PM
wildswan said...: Advice today from commenters that I am not likely to take:

1. Pay to listen to the "Braided Janes." Their admirers "really dig the malevolent, grinding, noir-esque style" of the Janes.

2. Become Catholic and learn Spanish (done that already) IN ORDER to avoid being taken off to the Soylent Green factory. Why are these related?

I'm hunkering down waiting for a huge wave of stories all tripping over each other as every committee in the House screams like Acosta that X isn't answering their questions and Trump bad, Trump must go. No need to read even for the next month. THEN something will happen. A change event, I don't know what. THEN the House will keep on committee, committee, committee, keep on with X isn't answering their questions and keep on with Trumpman bad. But it'll have the status of daytime soaps. And we'll get on with living our lives as we have been doing and also with running the country led on by The Donald. And by good old Melania who, in a tough situation among the DC Mean Girls, is actually being as great as her looks.; 12/28/18, 9:47 PM
wholelottasplainin said...: Etienne said...
The border wall is just another version of the: invade Iraq to save us from chemical weapons.

The object isn't our safety, it is federal contractor pimps raking-in money from their prostitutes in Congress.

Trump knows that billions can be made, but Schumer knows he has already promised these billions to San Francisco, LA, and NYC socialist programs.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Yes, yes...of course!

Etienne can see beyond the obvious to a hidden reality the rest of us miss....and we know he can, so we're content to rely on his empty assertions as "proof"...Etienne don't need to produce no stinkin' evidence!!

Snort; 12/28/18, 9:50 PM
Etienne said...: Smokey and the Bandit movies kept drive-in theaters open for a couple more years.; 12/28/18, 9:50 PM
Inga...Allie Oop said...: “The left is actually celebrating her death and hoping it was agonizingly painful. People like Howard, Ritmo, and Inga, though I don't know about them specifically. Just people who sound a lot like them.”

Did the voices in your head tell you this?; 12/28/18, 9:52 PM
Drago said...: It appears that our LLR Chuck is never going to be able to get over Trump exposing his heroine Pelosi for the dope that she is regarding the Wall funding in the House.

Tough luck Chuck, particularly coming on the heels of Trump embarrassing your boy Durbin as well!

Not to worry though. You and your lefty pals can always keep hoping that your open borders policies and agitation will lead to that permanent dem majority that you and your lefty allies dream of.; 12/28/18, 9:54 PM
Drago said...: Inga is back, and it's not a moment too soon.

Perhaps she will address the cancellation of the horrendously anti-semitic Women's March collective (which Inga vigorously defended) having their Chicago event cancelled over....(wait for it)......rampant and virulent anti-semitism!!

Almost as funny as LLR Chuck's lefty hero Sheriff Israel in Broward County being completely exposed for the complete dirt-bag he is and even lefty papers calling for his removal!!

And to think it wasn't that long ago LLR Chuck, in near perfect Durbin-cuck mode, was using that little CNN/Israel show to attack the NRA.

LLR Chuck: too far left for even the lefty papers on Florida.

Unexpectedly!

LOL

LLR Chuck and Inga hardest hit.; 12/28/18, 9:58 PM
Inga...Allie Oop said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/28/18, 9:59 PM
Inga...Allie Oop said...: Anti Semitism has no place in any event liberals attend. Drago, put your tongue back in your mouth and wipe your chin.; 12/28/18, 10:02 PM
Drago said...: What is it about lefties and their hatred for anything related to Israel (the nation, not LLR Chuck's heroically heroic hero Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel)?

"You can be gay, intern in the Obama White House, work on Barack Obama’s reelection campaign, and serve as the Silicon Valley fundraising director for the Clinton presidential campaign in 2016, but if you also happen to be Jewish and support the existence of Israel, hard leftists want you gone, as 29-year-old Manny Yekutiel found out the hard way when he opened a café/bookstore in San Francisco’s Mission District."

https://www.dailywire.com/news/39751/leftists-target-their-own-leftist-jewish-cafe-hank-berrien

That sounds about right. The lefties/LLR's despise Israel, and given Trump's moving the embassy to Jerusalem (which every previous establishment republican and democrat president lied thru their teeth about despite their promises), I imagine it can only get worse.; 12/28/18, 10:03 PM
Inga...Allie Oop said...: “I bought an Instapot for Christmas for myself (through the Althouse Amazon portal of course)..am loving it so far.”

Instapots are the bomb. Have you made yogurt in yours yet? So easy, then strain it for the best Greek yougurt you’ll ever eat.

I got a Breville Air Smart Oven from my kids, omg, this appliance is even better than an Instapot. Between the two I got rid of my toaster, slow cooker, yogurt maker and won’t be using my big oven very much anymore; 12/28/18, 10:03 PM
Inga...Allie Oop said...: “What is it about lefties and their hatred for anything related to Israel...”

Huh? I have in laws who live in Israel, I don’t hate them or the country they live in, my late husband, or my children. Sometimes your generalizations and exaggerations are just odd.; 12/28/18, 10:06 PM
Drago said...: The Purposefully Ignorant Inga: "Anti Semitism has no place in any event liberals attend."

LOL

"Chicago chapter of Women’s March cancels 2019 rally amid national org’s anti-Semitism controversy"

https://thehill.com/homenews/news/422869-chicago-chapter-of-womens-march-cancels-2019-rally-amidst-national-orgs-anti

"The cancellation takes place against a backdrop of controversy, as leaders of the national Women’s March have come under fire for their ties to Farrakhan, whose Nation of Islam is considered an anti-Semitic hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In a February speech in which he praised Women’s March co-founder Tamika Mallory, Farrakhan said that “the powerful Jews are my enemy.” The national movement denounced the comments in March but faced criticism for waiting too long. Mallory has also applauded Farrakhan on social media.

Teresa Shook, a co-founder of the national movement, in November called for national leaders to step down, after having “allowed anti-Semitism, anti-LBGTQIA sentiment and hateful, racist rhetoric to become a part of the platform by their refusal to separate themselves from groups that espouse these racist, hateful beliefs.”

The Washington state chapter announced earlier in December that the group would dissolve in protest, and the Rhode Island chapter declared it is separating from the national movement."

OUCH!!

Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan were unavailable for comment....; 12/28/18, 10:07 PM
Jaq said...: Anti Semitism has no place in any event liberals attend.

That's only because liberals get to define it. If you have a problem with Soros? Anti-semitism, if you have a problem with Israel? Not anti-semitism. So basically if any Jewish person is involved in a liberal project and you oppose that project, you are an anti-semite. In this way, no liberal can ever be accused of anti semitism. It's a very neat system.; 12/28/18, 10:07 PM
Drago said...: There are many many things you have to purposely "not know" to be a good lefty/LLR.; 12/28/18, 10:08 PM
Jaq said...: It's kind of like the system where Roy Moore is a total creep unworthy of the Senate, but Bob Menendez - D NJ is one of our Democrat betters even though he was accused by underage girls who were being trafficked on Lolita island.

It is a wonderful system, same as Trump can get recorded privately talking about consensual sex? Disqualified for president, Bill Clinton can have evidence of forcible rape piled up against him that would send anybody not a powerful Democrat to prison, no problem!

It all works by definitions that protect Democrats from even the appearance of hypocrisy.; 12/28/18, 10:11 PM
Drago said...: Inga: "Huh? I have in laws who live in Israel, I don’t hate them or the country they live in, my late husband, or my children."

tsk tsk

"39 JEWISH LEFT-WING GROUPS PEN LETTER SUPPORTING BDS
Strategic Affairs Ministry: “Israel, like many other countries in the world, including the United States, France, the UK and Germany, recognize the antisemitic undertones of the BDS movement."

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/39-Jewish-left-wing-groups-pen-letter-supporting-BDS-562843; 12/28/18, 10:13 PM
walter said...: Menendez was engaging in international youth outreach.
How is that Keith Ellison investigation going?; 12/28/18, 10:19 PM
William said...: On Netflix there's a biopic drama on Trotsky. It was produced by a Russian studio. It takes a lot of liberties with the facts and it's not especially good, but it's worth seeing. This Russian series shows how the Russian people wish to remember Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin. Not well. There's nothing admirable or sympathetic about any of them, and that's a Russian production saying it.......Trotsky said that history would exonerate him. Hardly. Well, on the plus side history will not soon forget him. He has achieved lasting fame as one of Frida Kahlo's lovers.; 12/28/18, 10:21 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: One American News has had a field day replaying Chuck the Schmuck Schumer's many speeches promoting the prevention of illegal immigration. Bill Clinton, Barack and Schumer All speaking in favor of prevention. "Not knowing" is certainly required of today's democrats. Willful ignorance is rampant.; 12/28/18, 10:21 PM
gadfly said...: "Shutdown Leaves Government Contractors Without Work And Likely No Back Pay" reads the Huffpo headlines.

Of course they will receive "back pay" for time worked, but not yet paid - and if they are paid vacation and holiday pay as part of their contract, that will be paid as well to the extent permitted under the contract.

The criminal aspect here is that Federal employees are simply filing for all those freebies given as part of their employment - 6+ weeks of pay for vacation and Lord knows how many holidays at year end . And when the shut down is over they will be paid again for taking their vacations.

And the liberal press keeps saying that these bureaucrats "not getting paid."; 12/28/18, 10:22 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakahn and Bill Clinton chumming around at Aretha's funeral. The women's march anti=semite core are well known items but under reported.; 12/28/18, 10:27 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: I would also wager most Americans don't remember Soros's function at the death camp.; 12/28/18, 10:30 PM
gilbar said...: the cool thing is; people like Igna practice willful ignorance, to such an extent, that they don't even know they're doing it!
Since 'some of Igna's best friends' are jews (well, secular jews, anyway); and SHE doesn't 'hate' THEM, that means that any mention of the left's hatred of the state of Israel, is:'odd'; 12/28/18, 10:30 PM
Chuck said...: Well, hey I had forgotton about that 2013 quote from the late Senator John McCain.

And I have to say that I cannot condone calling Rep. Justin Amash a "wacko bird" even though McCain was right about the debate of that moment. Because Justin Amash has become one of the funniest and most fearless Trump critics in the entire House Republican Caucus.; 12/28/18, 10:33 PM
chillblaine said...: Does anyone here like to practice visualization? I just imagined this super star of a young woman before me, and, like, what would I say to her, to get her to consider marrying me. So, I got down on a knee, and contemplated, and then finally looked up and asked. It felt cool. This is the power of intention.

I did have the honor of meeting Dr. Wayne Dyer in person, and this experience completely changed my life.; 12/28/18, 10:48 PM
chillblaine said...: Unknown, yes, this is true, unfortunately. The left is demons, they demonize. Even Fox called her a "conservative writer." She was a writer who made staff at The Federalist at 23.; 12/28/18, 10:51 PM
Darrell said...: Trump issued an executive order Friday to allow for active management of forest and rangelands, including thinning and removing debris from millions of acres of federal lands.

The order also calls on federal officials to streamline regulations and permitting processes to allow the harvest of at least 3.8 billion board feet from U.S. Forest Service lands and 600 million board feet from Bureau of Land Management lands.

That represents a massive increase in timber sales from federal lands. For example, loggers harvested 2.9 billion board feet from Forest Service lands in 2017, according to federal figures. But even Trump’s increased allowance for loggers is still about one-quarter of what was harvested in 1973.

Trump also asked federal officials to do more to maintain roads into hard-to-reach areas where fires can spread.; 12/28/18, 10:51 PM
chillblaine said...: Unknown, it sounds like you care about Bre, and I'd be honored to invite you to look at my twitter TL. We lost a super star with her.; 12/28/18, 10:53 PM
walter said...: Justin Amash
‏Verified account @justinamash
Dec 22

The wall funding amount—whether a few billion or a few billion more—will have little practical effect on whether and how it’s built.

One day, we’ll all wake up to realize that we allowed—encouraged—our government to bankrupt America because we couldn’t see past our partisanship.
126 replies 288 retweets 1,131 likes; 12/28/18, 11:00 PM
walter said...: Justin Amash
‏Verified account @justinamash
Dec 20

You are right on Syria, @POTUS @realDonaldTrump. The same senators complaining they weren’t given advance notice were perfectly content when @POTUS44 introduced U.S. forces into Syria without advance approval from Congress as the Constitution requires. Their concern is backward.; 12/28/18, 11:09 PM
Mary Beth said...: Althouse; being the assiduous reader of the New York Times that I understand you to be, I was surprised that you didn't get around to blogging the Times' story concerning the Trump family's relationship (including leasing deals) with two Queens podiatrists who are likely to have facilitated Donald Trump's medical exemption from the military draft.

The story where two women who are "both Democrats, [and who] say they are not fans of Mr. Trump" assert something but provide no evidence? Cool story. I bet it's a hit at cocktail parties, but when did gossip like that become "news" worthy of being published in the NYT? (Sadly, the obvious answer is, when Trump became a viable candidate.)

You think it's a story worth giving attention to? Are you that gullible or just that biased?; 12/28/18, 11:11 PM
chillblaine said...: Cope Land - Mom Calls In; 12/28/18, 11:13 PM
narciso said...: Well actually 30 years earlier, when Dowd imported kitty Kelley gossip but as a standalone you're right.

Meanwhile that big McClatchy scoop was based on third hand gossip and that's being charitable.; 12/28/18, 11:17 PM
narciso said...: Furthermore Robert Ford Obama's ambassador to Syria who pushed the Syrian rebels is in favor of trump's plan. Mind you the Syrian Kurds know the smart play is to team up with Assad against Erdogan; 12/28/18, 11:18 PM
narciso said...: So real news is few and far between
https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/28/michael-cohen-prague-mcclatchy/; 12/28/18, 11:22 PM
walter said...: Honestly,
Despite my doubling of Amash's online presence, not on his payroll.; 12/28/18, 11:23 PM
narciso said...: Fwiw:

https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/28/obama-syria-ambassador-trump-syria/; 12/28/18, 11:23 PM
Lydia said...: At CBS News -- "Trump lowers demand for border wall funding":

On the seventh day of the partial government shutdown, President Trump on Friday threatened to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border if Democrats refuse his monetary demands to build his long-promised wall. Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said he expected the shutdown to go on for a while, but revealed the president has come down from his initial demand of $5 billion to build the wall.

"We sat down with (Chuck) Schumer and gave him a number below five. I am not going to tell you what it is," Mulvaney said.; 12/28/18, 11:25 PM
narciso said...: Amash has some good ideas about budget but hes seriously naive about implementation.; 12/28/18, 11:26 PM
narciso said...: Well the dems didn't want to revisit the use of force resolution, for reasons profound and silly.; 12/28/18, 11:30 PM
narciso said...: So the gordian net must be cut:

https://t.co/68gE56Ewe8; 12/28/18, 11:32 PM
narciso said...: Knot, well Pelosi is willing to lounge on a Hawaii resort, that is the extent of her due diligence.; 12/28/18, 11:36 PM
narciso said...: Trotskyist created the Red army, after dzerzinskis cheka the second of stalin tools of oppression.; 12/28/18, 11:39 PM
narciso said...: The left are like those angler like creatures from the trench in aquaman, they are feral at base,; 12/28/18, 11:46 PM
Darrell said...: Obama didn't even register for Selective Service until he had a phonied-up record created just before his presidential run. The code on the form showed it was printed after the date on the form. His "angels" apparently couldn't get ahold of the correct one or didn't think that anyone would notice. Of course nobody checked the electronic records or backups for an post-hoc insertion.; 12/29/18, 12:06 AM
chickelit said...: You think it's a story worth giving attention to? Are you that gullible or just that biased?

Chuck? Our Chuck, biased??; 12/29/18, 12:41 AM
Big Mike said...: Huh? I have in laws who live in Israel, I don’t hate them or the country they live in, my late husband, or my children.

Sure comes across as Inga trying to tell us her very best friends are Jewish.; 12/29/18, 2:47 AM
Humperdink said...: Chuck blathered:"~You prefer conservatives "who don't call other whacko birds"? It isn't much of a complaint since I have never heard of a conservative calling another a "whacko bird."

Why am I not surprised you never heard this being uttered by one of your heroes.; 12/29/18, 5:36 AM
Lewis Wetzel said...: Blogger tim in vermont said...
. . .
That's only because liberals get to define it. If you have a problem with Soros? Anti-semitism . . .
Bring the Koch Brothers, ever-hated figures of conspiracy theories on the Left (they supposedly conspired with Walker to sell WepCo's power generating capacity to them so they could raise the rates on the Wisconsin Goyim -- and destroy the planet at the same time!).; 12/29/18, 5:44 AM
Ann Althouse said...: On that podiatrist thing: 2 daughters of a dead man say -- with no documentation -- that he did something for Donald Trump 50 years ago. They refer to another podiatrist, who is also dead, who had Trump's father as his landlord. I don't understand why the NYT published such a thing, other than to get clicks — which I'm not going to give — or to feed the hungry Trump haters. I'd say it's evidence of something: That the NYT has nothing better to serve the hungry, hungry haters.; 12/29/18, 5:44 AM
Ann Althouse said...: But Chuck is surprised I didn't blog about it, because I do read the NYT. I blog less than 1% of what's in the Times. Why would I blog that? What can be inferred from failure to blog? I'll flip that question: What can be inferred from failure of the mainstream media to report, until now, about the dead podiatrist?; 12/29/18, 5:46 AM
Ann Althouse said...: As for draft dodgers in the 1960s: I assume that every man I knew was a draft dodger. If you didn't live through Vietnam and the draft, don't assume you'd step up and go to Vietnam willingly to serve your country. I didn't see a single young man who did that.; 12/29/18, 5:49 AM
Humperdink said...: Chuck later said: "And I have to say that I cannot condone calling Rep. Justin Amash a "wacko bird"........"

How quaint of you to forget your hero also directed this slur at Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, two conservatives who take differing positions on many issues.

This is why people on the right held McCain in disdain. McCain attacked all things right of center, but claimed to be one of them (read: us). Just like you Chuck.; 12/29/18, 5:50 AM
Ann Althouse said...: When I was in college, I heard young men talking about the different ways to do it, with moving to Canada the last ditch plan. Guys talked about knowing psychiatrists would could write a letter and the low weight they'd have to achieve to be rejected. There were activists who would advise you how you could resist the draft, and these people were proud of their work. We hated the war and thought resisting it was for the greater good. And these people were aware that if they didn't go someone else would be drafted. That was the significant moral question to us. I heard much discussion of that. The standard answer was that it was better for the government to struggle to carry out that draft than for everyone to submit.; 12/29/18, 5:53 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: Listening to NPR they called Sec. Neilsen "cursed Jen" which is as biased as you can get.

Like I experienced when my sister "sissy" Lee and I went to Sicily to read "Mirror Christianity" by the sea.; 12/29/18, 6:39 AM
HT said...: “In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. . . . Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow.”
Hannah Arendt; 12/29/18, 6:40 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: I worked with a group of combat vets back in the 70s and 80s. All branches of the services. The only guys who enlisted, (to my knowledge), were Marines. Generally proud to carry on the family tradition of service. They spoke of fathers, uncles and grandfathers whose military service examples they carried forward. All the vets were better than average folks, and great workers too.; 12/29/18, 6:46 AM
Big Mike said...: We hated the war and thought resisting it was for the greater good.

Right about the war. Wrong about the “greater good.”; 12/29/18, 6:47 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: "As for draft dodgers in the 1960s: I assume that every man I knew was a draft dodger. If you didn't live through Vietnam and the draft, don't assume you'd step up and go to Vietnam willingly to serve your country. I didn't see a single young man who did that."

I agree with Ann 100% there. I was a year ahead of her in college. Opposing the war was like being woke is now, only maybe more so. One of the things that the guys did freshman year (68-69) was sit around in the hall on our wing and plot how to get out of the draft. Our wing draft advisor was, of course, a CO, with a Canadian backup. We had 2S (college) deferments,but everyone was plotting for four years out, for when those deferments expired. Everything was discussed with great vigor. One guy got out by eating cigarettes before his physical. Another, Long Island royalty, got off with tennis elbow. Of course, in real life, by then, they had effectively quit drafting. What we didn't know, because the press didn't tell us, likely because they had an agenda, was that the worst year in Vietnam for casualties was the year before (67) when we were still in high school, and our new President, Nixon, was going to fight the war to win, and did. I was one of the few I knew who were going to accept his their fate without trying to cheat it. I didn't want to go, but thought it immoral to cheat to get out of it. So, I got my 1A in June 1972, when they were barely drafting, and in September Nixon formally suspended it. Expecting to be drafted right out of college was one big reason that I didn't go straight to graduate school, but went skiing for a year or two.

And, Ann, I seriously resented back then that the women that we were going to college with did not have this hanging over them for their entire undergraduate college careers, like the guys did. All because we had a Y chromosome and you didn't. You could plan for the future, while ours appeared to lead through rice paddies in Vietnam. (Not discovering until decades later that the MSM of that time had been spinning the status of the war for political purposes as hard as they could).; 12/29/18, 6:49 AM
Jaq said...: That phone pings in Prague from Michael Cohen's phone is pretty odd. For one thing, and while I am now retired, I know a thing or two about cellular signalling (one tell is that I still can't help spelling it with two 'l's the way it's spelled in so many written standards.) . If he did turn on his phone there, instead of, for example spending 30 Euros on a throwaway at the airport or a tobacco shop, like Mohammed Atta probably did. The pings would have come back to the US for the simple reason that, well, they aren't going to let you make a call if you don't have a paying account, which would be back in the US. At the time I worked in the field, govt interception of signalling (This is not call interception, it's the proverbial "reading envelpes") had just started, but 2016? The NSA would have seen the ping come home, the Brits most likely would have seen it go through their network, or the French, or the Germans.

So while it's possible, I'm calling bullshit without more evidence. Cloning phones is child's play, If they cloned his IMEI, that proves little, if they cloned his IMEI and his IMSI, which is generally encrypted except when you turn on your phone, that sounds a little more convincing. But it's not that hard to set up a device in Manhattan and collect a ton of IMEIs and if you got lucky and caught someone turning on their phone, some IMSIs. Then dump them to some auction site on the dark web.

I guess I will look into it further. But if they aren't more forthcoming, this smells a lot like bullshit. Not as much like bullshit as the Trump Tower server to Alpha Bank, which was portrayed as paying for the Wikileaks and the hacks of Demcrats when really it was email spam about Trump luxury properties. But that's probably because there are so few actual facts.; 12/29/18, 6:57 AM
Jaq said...: I lived in a working class neighborhood. I was too young to go, and my older brothers all had deferments, it's hard to tell what would have happened if they had got out of college before the war ended, We were the only family in the neighborhood that sent kids to college though, and guys from the neighborhood went, and their only real strategy to avoid it was to cross their fingers for a good number in the draft. One guy drew a 366 in a leap year, and yeah, he was a happy fella, another guy went and came back a heroin addict but sort of a hero to the guys because he was a helicopter door gunner.; 12/29/18, 7:01 AM
Jaq said...: then again, there's a lot of stuff I never heard about. I just found out last year that we were on food stamps.; 12/29/18, 7:02 AM
AllenS said...: Draftees vs. Volunteers: 25% (648,500) of total forces in country [Vietnam] were draftees. (66% of U.S. armed forces members were drafted during WWII.) Draftees accounted for 30.4% (17,725) of combat deaths in Vietnam.

FACT VS FICTION.....THE VIETNAM VETERAN - VvOF.ORG

https://www.vvof.org/factsvnv.htm; 12/29/18, 7:13 AM
AllenS said...: Bruce Hayden said...
And, Ann, I seriously resented back then that the women that we were going to college with did not have this hanging over them for their entire undergraduate college careers, like the guys did.

None of us draftees felt that way.; 12/29/18, 7:15 AM
Jaq said...: And, Ann, I seriously resented back then that the women that we were going to college with did not have this hanging over them for their entire undergraduate college careers

I can’t wrap my head around that as a thought.; 12/29/18, 7:43 AM
Jaq said...: First of all, illegal immigration has nothing to do with murder. It's the media playing their political issues against the public. "If we could build a wall, then murder will decrease exponentially.” This is bullshit.

Sure, what you said about “exponentially” is bullshit, but I am pretty sure that if we had control over who came into our country and could screen out those with criminal records, we would let in fewer murderers, but what’s it like to be that stupid? Is it like being high all the time?; 12/29/18, 7:54 AM
Jaq said...: The college deferment was the end of America as. we know it. Few professors were willing to flunk kids out when the consequence was a ticket to Viet Nam. Standards were destroyed, communist professors who opposed a war against communism were there to manipulate the self interest of the students to align with the interest of international communism. College should have been a reward for service for those who wanted it, like the G.I. bill.; 12/29/18, 7:57 AM
Ralph L said...: The college deferment was the end of America as we know it

More importantly, it divided the nation in a new, irreversible way. Less black/white, more elite/deplorable.; 12/29/18, 8:08 AM
narciso said...: Well there's also the problem that it would be the Russians phone who would be pinging the signal not Cohen's. Of course it's just fusion claptrap.; 12/29/18, 8:14 AM
Jaq said...: Well there's also the problem that it would be the Russians phone who would be pinging the signal not Cohen's. Of course it's just fusion claptrap.

Certainly such a fraud would not be beyond the capabilities fo the foreign spies that Hillary was paying to dig up dirt on Trump.; 12/29/18, 8:24 AM
Jaq said...: Or failing that, to manufacture dirt.; 12/29/18, 8:25 AM
narciso said...: No it was the adversarial academic and social culture that did it,; 12/29/18, 8:39 AM
Meade said...: Shhh... be vewy quiet. Chuck is twying to be a war hewo in the Gweat Twump Wesistance. Someone hand him a pussy hat.; 12/29/18, 8:51 AM
Chuck said...: I'm confused, Althouse; are you saying that the story that Donald Trump's medical exemption from the draft is a fake story concocted by members of the media who hate Donald Trump? Or are you suggesting that young Donald Trump's use of a bogus medical opinion was part and parcel of a principled opposition to the Vietnam War?

This reminds me of your mystifying position on the "shithole countries" story. I was never sure whether you thought that Trump really did say the phrase and was right to have said it, or if you were blaming a hostile media for concocting the whole thing.

I asked to take a definite position on that and own it. You never did it. I stated that it was part of the general sloppiness in thinking on your part and on the part of many Trump supporters. It is so often a matter of weasel words, with Trump and his supporters. And it is also so often a matter of some after-the-fact explanation of convenience.

I am laughing at you now, Althouse, when you are making an argument for Trump that Trump would never, ever, make for himself. Can you imagine Trump stepping up and talking about his experience with the Vietnam era draft in the terms that you just set forth? Imaginary Trump: "Well I hated the war and thought that my resisting the draft with a fake medical exemption was for the greater good... as a matter of morality, I thought it best to make the U.S. government work extra hard to try to implement the draft, and that my resistance would help in that cause..."

LMFAO! Trump would never utter those words. In fact, in our current times and with the military draft so faded in living memory, that sounds more like someone from the illegal immigration "resistance," than a draft resistor.

I can't answer for the sorts of people whom you knew back in those days, Althouse, but I do know of someone, inspired by a friend who was killed by small arms fire in Vietnam, who did volunteer, served as Marine lieutenant leading a platoon on the ground and who won a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for bravery and gallantry in rescuing a wounded comrade in combat. That man was Robert S. Mueller III.

Now about the bloggability of this NYT story; I had thought that if you believed that the New York Times had gotten something wrong, you would have blogged that angle. You do that every week of the year. What the Times put into the story were some new facts. My understanding is that Trump could never come up with the name of the doctor who gave him his medically-exempting opinion. (Or was deliberately withholding it.) The Times came up with two likely doctors, and interviewed the daughters of one, who confirmed that he told them that the condition was faked. The Times laid out, with some documentation, that Fred Trump owned the building in which the office was housed, and that Fred Trump owned an apartment building which was home to another podiatrist who may have been involved in Donald Trump's draft processing.

I think that the reason that you didn't blog the story was because it was a story that you didn't like in terms of substance. And that while you could have blogged it as a matter of New York Times reporting errors or excesses (if that is what you thought), you didn't want to give the issue any more clicks/eyeballs via your blog.; 12/29/18, 8:55 AM
narciso said...: There was no substance, kids cant even forge their fathers signature like in rathergate.; 12/29/18, 9:01 AM
Jason said...: Oh look! Chuckie’s on it like a pecan pie!; 12/29/18, 9:11 AM
narciso said...: Furthermore unless there was a tasking order, why would the NSA be tracking Cohen's phone among all the others in the greater Prague area, the fisa warrant didn't even get issued until October so we are told.; 12/29/18, 9:16 AM
narciso said...: Yes Prague is a big bratva redoubt, but it's a place with millions of people.; 12/29/18, 9:27 AM
Etienne said...: tim in vermont said......if we had control over who came into our country and could screen out those with criminal records...

Impossible. All of the borders around the USA are impossible to wall off. It's very easy to take a boat from Mexico and land in Biloxi and melt into the landscape.

Bottom line: the wall is about welfare for government contractors. It has nothing to do with wetbacks.

What Pelosi and Schumer want, is that money to be spent in the inner cities where millions live.

It's not that hard to figure out. Stop being a moron.; 12/29/18, 10:47 AM
Darrell said...: John Kasich--Chuck's candidate of choice in the Michigan primary was born in 1952. Somehow he was never drafted either. Could deferments have something to do with that? Or did he inherit his father's fallen arches from being a letter carrier? Or did he know a used-car dealer with political clout, like Bill Clinton? We'll never know. Chuck might be able to tell us because this issue is so important to him, he probably spent month researching it.

Btw, Trump's bone spurs were a temporary problem and he eventually entered the draft--getting a draft number of 356. That number was never called.; 12/29/18, 10:51 AM
Etienne said...: The education deferment to the draft also applied to Union apprenticeships. So if you got an apprenticeship in the printers union, then you got essentially a 4-year deferment. Other apprenticeships might be shorter.

It had nothing to do with wealth.

Many professors were WW2 veterans. It's not like today where you can get a degree just on attendance. You had to do college-level work.; 12/29/18, 10:54 AM
Rusty said...: "Impossible. All of the borders around the USA are impossible to wall off. It's very easy to take a boat from Mexico and land in Biloxi and melt into the landscape."

An assertion that can be easily disproved.

The Berlin wall was very effective at keeping people in east Berlin. Or for that matter in all of eastern Europe.
Israels' wall has proved to be very effective and they have beaches too.
I don't think you understand what walls/fences actually do.; 12/29/18, 12:05 PM
Chuck said...: Darrell, I don’t think that it is true, that Trump was draftable at all after his phony bone spur exemption.

Kasich — younger than Trump — really did have a high lottery number and was not drafted.; 12/29/18, 12:33 PM
Etienne said...: Rusty said......The Berlin wall was very effective at keeping people in east Berlin.

Part of our training was to know how to escape and evade from East Germany. Suffice to say there was a lot of holes.

...Or for that matter in all of eastern Europe.

I used to fly with a Navigator from Bulgaria. His family escaped in the 60's. If there is a will - there is a way.

...I don't think you understand what walls/fences actually do.

The only places that need walls or fences is shithole countries.; 12/29/18, 1:34 PM
Jim at said...: Sometimes your generalizations and exaggerations are just odd.

Inga wrote that. Without the slightest hint of self-awareness.; 12/29/18, 2:11 PM
Rusty said...: Blogger Etienne said...
Rusty said......The Berlin wall was very effective at keeping people in east Berlin.

"Part of our training was to know how to escape and evade from East Germany. Suffice to say there was a lot of holes."

And this proves what? There were a lot of holes that the citizens didn't know about? Again. made my point,

...Or for that matter in all of eastern Europe.

"I used to fly with a Navigator from Bulgaria. His family escaped in the 60's. If there is a will - there is a way."

The exception that proves the rule. Not every one in Bulgaria was massing at the boarder. Very few people escaped to the west.

...I don't think you understand what walls/fences actually do.

"The only places that need walls or fences is shithole countries."

Isreal is a shithole country? Hungary? S. Korea?

Why don't you get back to us when you have a cogent argument.; 12/29/18, 3:22 PM
Meade said...: "Kasich — younger than Trump — really did have a high lottery number and was not drafted."

Trump and Kasich both had the opportunity to volunteer. Neither did. And neither broke the law.

Chuck, I'll offer you the same advice many of us offered LBJ in 1967: Declare victory and go home.; 12/29/18, 4:39 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "And, Ann, I seriously resented back then that the women that we were going to college with did not have this hanging over them for their entire undergraduate college careers, like the guys did. All because we had a Y chromosome and you didn't. "

Many of us women, including me, had men whom we cared about very much and we vicariously experienced the anxiety and disruption in thinking about the future. I listened to the announcement of draft numbers with great trepidation and was incredibly relieved when the man I loved got one of the best draft numbers.; 12/29/18, 4:46 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "You could plan for the future, while ours appeared to lead through rice paddies in Vietnam."

How could I plan for the future if the man I wanted to marry went to Vietnam.

Remember, another sex difference, back in those days, was that many of us women had not grown up thinking we were going to have big, independent careers. I know I didn't.; 12/29/18, 4:48 PM
Etienne said...: Rusty said...Why don't you get back to us when you have a cogent argument.

Do you have a turd in your pocket, or have you been elected althouse blog watchman?

P.S. I don't do cogent on weekends. Sorry.; 12/29/18, 7:30 PM
Rusty said...: "P.S. I don't do cogent on weekends. Sorry.".
Nor during the week either.; 12/29/18, 8:00 PM