Althouse: At the Night Snow Cafe...

January 17, 2019

At the Night Snow Cafe...

... you can talk all night.

53 comments:

tomaig said...: No word yet on the source for the claim that Valerie Jarret turned over all those gemstones to "the State Department". It wasn't a part of the quoted-from-her-book text.
Just wondering...; 1/17/19, 8:33 PM
Sebastian said...: Just saw a Dollar Shave Club commercial. Theme song: Sinatra, I Gotta Be Me. Coincidence?; 1/17/19, 8:33 PM
Seeing Red said...: Via Insty:

In the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released Thursday, President Donald Trump may have suffered some among Republicans overall, but he saw a huge point gain in a different demographic breakdown, and an unexpected one by conventional wisdom. In early December, the poll had Trump’s approval rating among Latino adults at 31%. The results from the poll released Thursday show the president’s job approval among Latino adults at 50%. That is an astonishing 19 point swing. Prior results had less variance, with Latino approval numbers at 36% in their November 1st findings. It was 27% in the pollster’s mid-October survey. The January poll was conducted during the government shutdown over border wall funding, most notably. So the big swing among Latinos was while Trump and Democrats faced off over funding for the wall.”; 1/17/19, 8:48 PM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: NPR's headline for the same poll:

Poll: Trump Approval Down, Slips With Base

There's a surprise.; 1/17/19, 9:10 PM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: Another surprise:

Federal Judge Strikes Down Lame-Duck Changes To Wisconsin Voting Laws; 1/17/19, 9:12 PM
Paddy O said...: Every hipster in Portland; 1/17/19, 9:13 PM
Big Mike said...: Of all the arguments for not building the Wall, the notion that we would be wasting 5.9 billion dollars on something that won't work is the most irritating. There are things in the budget that we have been funding for years, at a substantial multiple of $5.9B, and which are plainly not working. Yet we go on funding them.; 1/17/19, 9:22 PM
J. Farmer said...: Just finished Bob Kagan's The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World. While Kagan's foreign policy is about 180 degrees from mine, I have always considered him one of the more honest and informed interventionist. His book Dangerous Nation is a good general history of US foreign policy through the end of the 19th century and on the eve of the Spanish-American War.

When it comes to the "liberal international order," Kagan is one of its most eloquent defenders. And he gives it is all in his latest, but I remain as always unpersuaded. Kagan, like his Yale professor father, seems to love grand ideological battles between great powers. With none present for the last 30 years, Kagan and the rest of the interventionist crowd have been desperately seeking a new enemy. They were pushing for China in the 90s but settled on Islamic terror after the 9/11 attacks. More recently, "authoritarianism" in general seems to be the enemy de jure. See Bolton's ridiculous "troika of tyranny" and Pence's "wolf pack of rogue states" language.

The interventionist foreign policy is well typified by Kagan and is basically an inverse of John Quincy Adam's famous remarks: America must go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.; 1/17/19, 9:23 PM
Inga...Allie Oop said...: “Another surprise:

Federal Judge Strikes Down Lame-Duck Changes To Wisconsin Voting Laws”

Good news!; 1/17/19, 9:25 PM
narciso said...: The two headlines contradict each other, the first peace says trumps no longer polling at 50, when he is,

A tweet at Stephen mcintyres notes something very few observed about the attack in manbij, it's not anywhere near Islamic state territory; 1/17/19, 9:28 PM
Inga...Allie Oop said...: “Down significantly among suburban men, a net-positive approval rating of 51-to-39 percent to a net-negative of 42 percent approve, 48 percent disapprove. That's a net change of down 18 percentage points.

Down a net of 13 points among white evangelicals, from 73-to-17 percent approve to 66-to-23 percent approve.

Down a net of 10 points among Republicans, from 90-to-7 percent approve to 83-to-10 percent.

Down marginally among white men without a college degree, from 56-to-34 percent approve to 50-to-35 percent approve, a net change downward of 7 points.”

NPR; 1/17/19, 9:29 PM
narciso said...: Furthermore it's in sdf territory, how did a presumed Sunni Islamist fit in over there.; 1/17/19, 9:29 PM
steve uhr said...: Jayme Closs is alive and safe. A good week for Wisconsin.; 1/17/19, 9:31 PM
narciso said...: You cant add and subtract either, sad

Of course the least surprising thing Mueller gave skadden arps the biggest law firm with Russian interests, a slap on the wrist; 1/17/19, 9:32 PM
narciso said...: Kagan's one size fits all interventionist ethos is concerning,; 1/17/19, 9:34 PM
Christopher said...: Since we're doing headlines:

"Federal appeals court lifts order blocking Texas from kicking Planned Parenthood out of Medicaid"

https://www.texastribune.org/2019/01/17/federal-appeals-court-/?utm_campaign=trib-social&utm_content=1547770657&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

The case was based around Texas' decision to remove Planned Parenthood from medicaid after they were caught selling the organs of dead children.; 1/17/19, 9:41 PM
narciso said...: The original decision was based on fusion GPS whitewash of planned parenthood.; 1/17/19, 9:43 PM
Seeing Red said...: He’s picking up Hispanics. If he can keep some of them and some of the AA vote, 2020 gets interesting.; 1/17/19, 9:47 PM
chickelit said...: Federal Judge Strikes Down Lame-Duck Changes To Wisconsin Voting Laws

The fact that Erich Holder is behind this tells me everything I need to know.

And:

Though Peterson's new ruling blocks the restrictions for now, the case is pending appeal before a federal appellate court.; 1/17/19, 9:55 PM
Hagar said...: The bubbleheads of Washington complain about the childishness of the Pelosi-Trump standoff, but Trump has managed to gain publicity for the fecklessness of Pelosi and her junketeers like no "adult" move could have done.

Pelosi is going to lose this.; 1/17/19, 9:56 PM
StephenFearby said...: narciso said...

"Of course the least surprising thing Mueller gave skadden arps the biggest law firm with Russian interests, a slap on the wrist."

Today, a much harder slap:

DC, Chuck Ross, 5:06 PM 01/17/2019

TOP OBAMA WHITE HOUSE LAWYER MADE FALSE STATEMENTS TO DOJ ABOUT MANAFORT-RELATED WORK

"The Justice Department is alleging that the former Obama White House general counsel made ‘false and misleading’ statements regarding consulting work done for Ukraine.

Greg Craig was lead partner for the law firm Skadden Arps on its Ukraine work, which was done in partnership with Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman.

Skadden Arps agreed Thursday to settle with the Justice Department by registering as a foreign agent of Ukraine and paying a $4.6 million fine.
Craig’s fate remains uncertain..."

https://dailycaller.com/2019/01/17/obama-lawyer-ukraine-justice-department/; 1/17/19, 10:06 PM
FullMoon said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/17/19, 10:20 PM
n.n said...: Federal appeals court lifts order blocking Texas from kicking Planned Parenthood out of Medicaid

The clinical cannibals will have to find another demographic to prey upon. That said, positive progress to a conservation of principles and principals.; 1/17/19, 10:25 PM
Fen said...: Shep on FOX mentioned the Charlie Palmer Steakhouse where the "poor" federal workers slum to eat lunch:

Prime Rib Platter $39
Ceaser Salad $17
(has quail egg and Spanish anchovy)
Grilled Spanish Octopus $21
Dry Aged New York Strip $54
add on Burgundy Truffels $22

Google their menu yourself
Charlie Palmer Steak House
101 Constitution Ave NW; 1/17/19, 10:29 PM
Fen said...: "people were finding their first comment made"

Mine was in defense of her Valenti post, Let's Take A Closer Look At Those Breasts.

But I fell out with the wretch for expressing boredom over her constant spotlighting of gay issues. My simple "yawn" was enough to get be front-paged as some kind of homophobe.

Good times.; 1/17/19, 10:34 PM
chickelit said...: Fen said...
Shep on FOX mentioned the Charlie Palmer Steakhouse where the "poor" federal workers slum to eat lunch:

Just another fabulous lunch date in the Capital of Panem. Does Stanley Tucci eat there?; 1/17/19, 10:37 PM
narciso said...: So Manafort goes to jail, remember they went after a junior associate, who was the Dutch son in law of an oligarch, and then nothing; 1/17/19, 10:37 PM
narciso said...: That seems a little pricey, of course if they aren't currently being paid.; 1/17/19, 10:45 PM
JackWayne said...: Your consolation is that there is a Fen’s Law. Never heard of Althouse’s Law.; 1/17/19, 11:19 PM
Fen said...: "of course if they aren't currently being paid"

That's the thing though. Wifey is Dept of Labor. Every year for the last decade her org prepares for possible government shutdown.

So... if you live below sea level in New Orleans and don't have a backup plan for Hurricane season, how can you expect sympathy?

Worse, wifey is Essential Personnel, which means she shoulders the burden of 6 others during a shutdown. And they ALWAYS get their pay caught up. Which means most federal employees are on the 4th week of what will literally be a paid vacation for them.

We're supposed to feel sorry for them for not planning ahead? For something they are warned of every fricken year?

...

Jack: "Your consolation is that there is a Fen’s Law."

Heh. Hat tip. Thanks.; 1/17/19, 11:38 PM
Fen said...: Inga: NPR poll

I forget, did NPR have Hillary at 90% to win or 95% ?; 1/17/19, 11:45 PM
Fen said...: I see there are still some sharp minds here at Althouse, sharper than mine. So, something for you to chew on, something I've been working through my head. I'm close to walking away from Conservativism. I've already left the Republican party. And I'm interested in your take on what's been bouncing around in my head these last few years:

I've come to the conclusion that passivity and timidity are features of conservative philosophy, not bugs. We are always reacting to the latest Leftist poke. When we do finally get our fists up, we are on our heels trapped in our corner. We rarely take the field, and when we do we don't go for the ball (might incur a foul).

When was the last time we overplayed our hand? I'm not saying that's good to do, but all of our mistakes err on the side of caution. We play a prevent defense for 4 quarters and are surprised that we lose to 3 field goals.

We need a plan for the Post-Trump era. Under no circumstances can we go back to the Failure Theater, Groveling Apology Tour, Not This Hill, Surrender Gracefully IMPOTENCE of McCain and Romney.

Otherwise, this is all just a waste of our time. Let it burn. I've got a log cabin I could be building, fish to fry, classics to catch up on. Like Gibbons.; 1/17/19, 11:54 PM
eddie willers said...: Well Fen,

My plan is to die before they take over.
Doable, but you youngsters are on your own.; 1/17/19, 11:59 PM
Drago said...: THIS JUST IN: Trump attorney Michael Cohen to admit traveling to Prague after all under orders from svengali-like boss Trump in an attempt to bribe known gypsy fortune Teller/Pinkerton Man/Mr Peabody & Shermie Stand-in who possessed "hard" evidence of Trump involvement in the time-travel (Way-Back Machine) assasination of Abraham Lincoln by an under-cover Russian czarist group posing as confederacy sympathizers.

According to 374 federal agents with close ties to 17,592 other federal agents with close ties 1,943,656 UN IPCC "scientists" directly involved in the investigation.

Reports include tales of cash payments made in duffel-bag proportions during potemkin meetings in potempkin Trump Towers located in multiple potemkin villages.

Adam Schiff (D-North Mexico), is quoted as saying "At long last, we finally have the smoking gun evidence of murder by time travel to go along with the clear dossier-backed evidence of collusion in the 2016 election to demand a revote on Brexit as well as WW2 "do-over"'

----Buzzfeed, LLR Chuck and the DNC all contributed to this report; 1/18/19, 12:22 AM
Fen said...: Inga reports BREAKING NEWS. Bombshell. This is the turning point for Trump. The beginning of the end! Walls closing in!

https://youtu.be/qjUvfZj-Fm0

Hehe. Well met Drago. Been awhile.; 1/18/19, 1:38 AM
Fen said...: The Leftists are going nuts all over the net. Trump's play really got to them. Haven't seen them this hysterical since the NPC meme came out.; 1/18/19, 2:04 AM
Roy Lofquist said...: @J. Farmer,

Kagan is substantially correct in his analysis. The problem is, just like Friedman who blurbs the book, his solutions don't work well. My sense, too early to call it an analysis, is that Trump sees the world in much the same way but has opted to use economic rather than military leverage. I cite his recent statement that if the Turks attack the Kurds that he would ruin Turkey's economy.

In this way he avoids giving our adversaries a casus belli while offering the opportunity for a face saving win-win. It's the same carrot and stick, of course, but it's a kinder, gentler stick.; 1/18/19, 4:48 AM
Humperdink said...: " I've got a log cabin I could be building, fish to fry, classics to catch up on."

Funny you should mention a log cabin. I visited an Amish acquaintance last night who builds them on his lot. Delivers them in two halves. He had one on site 16' x 24' with an 8' x 16' front porch. $12,500. A complete shell with windows and doors. One large open room.

He makes them out of red pine. I have several acres of red pine he is interested in.; 1/18/19, 4:57 AM
gadfly said...: narciso said...

Of course the least surprising thing Mueller gave skadden arps the biggest law firm with Russian interests, a slap on the wrist.

CNN reports that about six months ago, the Mueller team handed over their case against former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig, an ex-partner at Skadden Arps law firm to the DOJ investigators at the Southern District of New York. Skadden Arps led by Craig produced a report that whitewashed the pro-Putin Ukrainian government of Viktor Yanukovych for jailing Yanukovych’s anti-Kremlin predecessor.” Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort previously did consulting work for Yanukovych’s political party. Ask Michael Cohen if the SDNY lawyers give wrist slaps.; 1/18/19, 5:14 AM
Saint Croix said...: Okay, I have some thoughts on the conception of a human being.

Conception is an amazing thing. That's the moment that a sperm fertilizes an egg, and a human DNA is created. I consider this a miracle of creation. We can't do this without God. We can't write DNA. We can barely read it. I remember when some damn DNA scientist somewhere said (and I paraphrase) that 90% of human DNA seems to have no purpose whatsoever, it's junk DNA. And then some other DNA scientist says (I paraphrase again) oops, never mind.

We can sorta read human DNA. Maybe we can even copy (clone) human DNA. But really that's just admiring the work of somebody else. We didn't write that, and we have no idea how to write it. We make babies the way dogs and cats make babies. So let's not go around bragging about how we made life in a test tube. Uniting a sperm and an egg in a test tube is just a less fun way of uniting a sperm and an egg. I mean, it's a nice discovery but you have not actually created a human being from scratch.

So let's all take a step back and think about how amazing it is to create a human being from scratch. It's more amazing that any work of art. More amazing that a Monet or a Picasso or a Van Gogh. Imagine some asshole putting his foot through a Monet on purpose. That's the sort of hostility I have for an abortion clinic--for a society--that has no regard for art, no regard for the creation of a human being. You are violent, stupid animals, and there's nothing impressive about you.

Having said all that, I wish pro-lifers would stop saying, "life begins at conception." It's a spiritual way to talk, and that's fine, but it's useless as a legal point, and it lets people off the hook when we are talking about homicide. Homicide is a serious charge and "life begins at conception" does not speak to that.

For instance, consider the fact that nobody knows when conception happens. Except God. God knows. The rest of us have no idea. Doctors often talk about "last menstrual period" because you can kind of know when that happened. And (maybe) conception happened two weeks after that point. Maybe it was three days, maybe it was twenty-seven days. We don't know.

The pregnancy test that you can buy at a drugstore measures a change in a woman's body that happens when the zygote implants in the walls of her uterus. When that moment occurs, that's when we can tell if a woman is pregnant. That happens 7 to 10 days after conception. Imagine trying to prosecute somebody for killing a baby when you can't even prove a baby existed. The whole idea is a due process nightmare.

I would beg pro-lifers to start talking about our death statutes and brain activity. That is the legal standard for life and death for all human beings (except the unborn). This is why we don't prosecute doctors for murder when they do a heart transplant. Beating hearts are wonderful! We all need a beating heart. But a brain dead person with a beating heart is not alive, and it's not a homicide to take out his heart and give it to somebody else. If you have zero brain activity, and you haven't had any for several hours, you're not coming back.

From a perspective of prosecuting doctors for homicide, brain activity is the key. It is a way more specific point than conception, which is a mystical point that we can't identify and can't enforce. And brain activity has the additional benefit of bringing our abortion laws into agreement with our homicide laws for the rest of humanity. Arguing that homicides happen at the microscopic level is a bad argument, and I wish pro-lifers wouldn't try to make it. You're not doing the unborn any favors that way.; 1/18/19, 5:26 AM
Birkel said...: Fen,
I understand your disgust with Republicans. I share it. And I understand that the number of fake conservatives on Capital Hill is far too high. But I don't think that's a problem with conservatism, per se. Rather, I think the problem with conservatism are two:

1) Conservatism offers little in the way of incentives to individuals, despite its much greater value to society, and
2) Conservatism does not emphasize uplifting, forward-looking benefits to the citizenry - and that is a fatal flaw.

Trump beat problem #2 by emphasizing how hard he would work for American interest, both individual and societal. And he pointed to problem #1 by saying 'those other people are not working for you.' Even now he is fighting those other people and demonstrating his commitment to his voters.

#2 makes people complacent.
#1 guarantees a committed foe on the other side.

But I have yet to find a system better than conservatism. Almost every other road leaves to misery and deprivation. YMMV; 1/18/19, 6:19 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Just saw a Dollar Shave Club commercial. Theme song: Sinatra, I Gotta Be Me. Coincidence?"

Don't you mean Sammy Davis Jr.?; 1/18/19, 6:27 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Every hipster in Portland"

That might be good enough if "Portlandia" didn't already exist.; 1/18/19, 6:31 AM
Mark said...: "Just saw a Dollar Shave Club commercial. Theme song: Sinatra, I Gotta Be Me. Coincidence?"

Don't you mean Sammy Davis Jr.?

How about Steve Lawrence. Commercial released last summer.; 1/18/19, 6:46 AM
Jersey Fled said...: As to what Big Mike said earlier re: government programs that dont work and cost way more than $5.9 billion, I submit Head Start.

Study after study has shown that there is no discernable benefit to the program beyond 1st or 2nd grade. That is, you can't see any difference between kids that attended Head Start and those from the same demographic who did not by 2nd or 3rd grade. Not in academic performance or in social skills, or behavioral issues.

Yet we fund Head Start to the tune of hundreds of billions PER YEAR.

Build the wall.; 1/18/19, 7:31 AM
Birkel said...: Jersey Fled,
Bus as a jobs program for otherwise unemployable college grads with no skills who will vote for Democrats, Head Start is quite successful.
You can only measure success if you know the goal.; 1/18/19, 7:37 AM
narciso said...: So crack addicted fantasist (by his own admission) Jason Leopold says he found a nut from Glenn simpsons nest; 1/18/19, 7:41 AM
Paddy O said...: That might be good enough if "Portlandia" didn't already exist.

That's like saying Eddie Murphy might have been good enough if Richard Pryor didn't already exist. Or that hamburgers might be good enough if steak didn't already exist.

Or not very much like those, but they're useful analogies.

Portlandia was brilliant early, then wandered a lot. Making it more like someone who is doing an impression of Dana Carvey's version of George Bush.

I got that link from Portland region friends, so they laughed at it.; 1/18/19, 8:05 AM
Paddy O said...: Or, that scene with the destruction of New York might be good enough except for that other movie. Wait, every action movie destroys New York. Why can we keep destroying New York twelve times a year but only have one way of making fun of Portland hipsters?; 1/18/19, 8:06 AM
narciso said...: Avengers Independence Day, meteor, that's kind of an obscure one from 1979.

Apparently the Islamic state bomber had a Turkish passport; 1/18/19, 8:10 AM
narciso said...: Fwiw:

https://mobile.twitter.com/kurdistannews24/status/1086202184788631552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw; 1/18/19, 8:14 AM
gahrie said...: And brain activity has the additional benefit of bringing our abortion laws into agreement with our homicide laws for the rest of humanity

I used to argue this point for exactly the same reasons. The Left will never accept this however, because it would cut off access to abortion by day forty of the pregnancy.; 1/18/19, 1:55 PM
Rusty said...: Arrived yesterday. Thank you Meade/Althouse.; 1/18/19, 5:30 PM