January 17, 2020

At the Snowfall Café...

2E7D7921-0816-451B-8147-DF36C1A0D682_1_201_a

... enjoy the conversation.

152 comments:

Big Mike said...

Animal tracks?

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Rep. Chris Collins, who was Donald Trump's first congressional supporter is sentenced to 26-months in jail for insider trading

Has anyone been unluckier in love than Trump?

Inga said...

“Has anyone been unluckier in love than Trump?”

Well, he still has his Trumpists.

narciso said...

Irony personified


https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/homenews/house/113309-house-ethics-committee-charges-waters-on-three-counts%3famp

narciso said...

And how about alcee hastings who craftedthr peach mint rules.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

first glance that pic looked like the scale model

... on The Friendly Giant show (channel 9, baby!!)

"Look up......waaaaay up!!"

dont get us started on George Pierrot, and what's-her-face with

her dog "Liebchen"

R C Belaire said...

Re the snowfall : headed to S.E. Michigan in the wee hours of Saturday morning! Lovely.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Defendants take on all the guilt of anyone who ever voted for them, right?

stevew said...

Winter asserts itself.

Had a customer meeting today with three other colleagues. Three of us are local Boston guys, one is visiting from Atlanta. 9am meeting, temperature was 15 degrees F, with minor wind. Two of us walk up in sport jackets, the other is in a light jacket, unzippered. Atlanta guy is in a heavy, calf length wool coat over his sport coat, buttoned up, scarf, and fleece lined leather gloves. We look him over, he looks at us, one to the other. Hilarity ensues. Warms everyone up.

narciso said...

Like jose baez, and his new client who hasnt killed anyone yet.

Michael K said...

Inga said...
“Has anyone been unluckier in love than Trump?”

Well, he still has his Trumpists.


You losers should be so lucky.

Birkel said...

We'll have to ask all of Trump's beautiful children and grandchildren to see, for sure, whether Trump has been unlucky in love.

When Trump wins in November let's all remember to call him lucky.
Again.

narciso said...


Indeed:


https://amp.dailycaller.com/2020/01/17/iraqi-refugee-running-against-ilhan-ambassador-chris-stevens-benghazi?__twitter_impression=true

Josephbleau said...

Trump has Malania and that is all a man needs. You fool who thinks he is lesser.

narciso said...



Well if you want to abuse civil liberties probably

https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/17/andrew-mccabe-overseeing-a-fair-fisa-process-is-really-hard/

narciso said...

Odd how he kept rising in the organization as more plots unfolded.

narciso said...



He keeos rising in the punditry

https://mobile.twitter.com/OptimisticCon/status/1218291281807364096

Ken B said...

Iranians refusing to walk on the US and Israeli flag.

https://lidblog.com/trump-effect-iran-regime/

Birkel refuted.

Mark said...

It began with the sneezes. Then came the sore throat which came and went a few times. And the non-stop, dripping runny nose and the congestion, both of which came and went a few times. And the lack of ability to sleep. Then the rough voice and then irritated/itchy throat triggering coughs. Now the 100-degree temp.

narciso said...

And dyer was in naval intel, details not elaborated.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Yay snow.
We are experiencing crazy cold wind.

narciso said...

Did you get a flu shot


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7889281/Iranian-minister-blames-arrogance-mayhem-Middle-East.html?ico=pushly-notifcation-small

Ken B said...

“Has anyone been unluckier in love than Trump?”

Well, he is still on good terms with his exes, who speak highly of him. That ain’t nothing. He ended up with Melania.

Did you know the same man, not a movie star or mogul, married both Gene Tierney and Hedy Lamar? I wouldn’t call him unlucky either.

walter said...


Bernie Sanders
‏Verified account @SenSanders
11h11 hours ago

250 pages.

37,500 words.

Not a single damn mention of “climate change.”

Trump’s NAFTA is a giveaway to the fossil fuel industry.

I voted NO because the future of our planet is more important than the short-term profits of Exxon Mobil and Chevron.

rehajm said...

John Cochrane reviewed an assessment of the disaster happening in Chile by Avel Kaiser...

The parallels to what's happening in the USA are chilling..

The free market didn’t fail Chile, whatever its politicians might say, and the state doesn’t lack the means to restore the rule of law. The central problem is that a large proportion of the elites who run key institutions—especially the media, the National Congress and the judiciary—no longer believe in the principles that made the country successful. The result is a full-blown economic and political crisis. Other nations should take note: This is what elite self-hatred can do for you.

Read teh whole thing...

Big Mike said...

God bless the Babylon Bee: "Governor Northam: 'Virginia Will Be Kept Comfortable While Lawmakers Debate Whether To Kill It'

'The state will be kept comfortable,' he said in an address, 'and the state will be resuscitated if that's what we desire. And then a discussion will ensue between us politicians over what course of action to pursue. It's really the most compassionate way to handle this kind of thing.'

'It's the government's constitutional right to choose.' "

narciso said...

Pinera was one of the chicago boys, he ahould know better.

JML said...

Has anyone been unluckier in love than Trump?

'Not the President' Hillary Clinton.

rehajm said...

You had to know it
RCP8.5 as BAU makes an appearance (via citation) in the Juliana dissent
The apocalyptic language here is amazing
Have you seen any science saying the US might cease to exist due to climate change, much less that such an outcome is certain ...

Andrew said...

Is anyone else watching the PBS/Ken Burns documentary on country music? Tonight's episode has been focused on Hank Williams, who I knew very little about. Just great stuff. I wasn't planning on watching it, but I'm completely hooked, both for the music and the history.

William said...

Michael Moore was the guest of Margaret Hoover on The Firing Line. It wasn't a particularly interesting interview but it held my attention. The years haven't been kind to Michael Moore (but then they never were). His face looks like it's melting. Too much estrogen or something. Anyway, he never went Hollywood and had a face lift or went on a diet. I guess you could say that his slovenliness is a kind of authenticity..... Margaret Hoover is strikingly attractive, both in her appearance and mannerisms. I bet her personal hygiene is much better than Michael Moore's. She's not what you'd expect in Herbert Hoover's great granddaughter. If Harvey Weinstein--who is also kind of authentic--ever met her, I bet he would be happy and proud to rub one out....In the interview, Margaret brought out the fact that both she and Michael Moore were descended from the same early 19th century Hoover ancestor. Margaret really lucked out when it came to the Hoover genes...Michael Moore said he was disappointed to be descended from Hoover. He would have preferred Kennedy. Margaret stuck up for her great grandfather. She said that some estimate that his relief work might have save almost a third of Europe's population from famine. Moore wasn't impressed. It's all very well to save people from starvation, but what does it matter if they don't have Medicare.....I wonder how long it will take for Hoover to be more known for his relief efforts than for his unsuccessful Presidency. History is unfair. Too much of it is written by people like Michael Moore and Howard Zinn.

Ken B said...

Why should a trade treaty mention “climate change”?

Bernie would have voted no on the Bill of Rights too; no mention of climate change there either.

Ken B said...

Big Mike
That’s an example of why Althouse loathes the Bee. It's a spectacular and hilarious goring of an ox — but it's Althouse’s ox, and goring her ox is never funny.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan unreasonably wrote...

Rep. Chris Collins, who was Donald Trump's first congressional supporter is sentenced to 26-months in jail for insider trading

Has anyone been unluckier in love than Trump?

D'yall remember a guy named Tony Rezko? Rod Blagojovic?
Howzabout Bill Ayers?
ARM is showing us why normal folks consider the Trump haters to be figures of ridicule: they have fooled themselves into believing that they have integrity, that they hate Trump for his dishonesty or his lies. But it's obvious that they have a weird fixation with Trump, and they hate him, not for anything he may have done, but because he is Donald J. Trump, and the people they hate and fear put Trump in a position over them. They are supposed to judge the kind of people who voted for DJT, and tell them what to do. They are not supposed to be judged by and told what to do by Trump voters!

traditionalguy said...

Love is a second hand emotion. Good luck to all with it. But what Trump is lucky at is building Iconic game changing monuments like Trump Tower, The Apprentice TV Show, and the colossus of a Great Again America.

pacwest said...

"The parallels to what's happening in the USA are chilling"

Thanks for that. It's scary how fast the decline is. We are one election away from it. Given the parallels in the educational systems it seems inevitable we're on the same path.

stephen cooper said...

I really disliked Trump about 15 years ago.
Hear me out.

Back in the day - 15 years ago or so - he went on the Harold Stern show and, while he constantly mocked Harold and was a negging alpha male to Robin, bless her heart, whom I like despite her deep stupidity on social issues - the poor woman is pro-choice while recognizing that her parents would have aborted her in a second if they had thought of it - well, while Trump did all right on the Harold Stern show, well, 15 years ago, there were two sorts of people in the world, and trump, by going on the Harold Stern show, was in the second group, the group of people who treat Harold with gross flattering respect. The evidence is readily available.

But something had happened somewhere around 2002 or so. My theory is that Trump watched Bush, who should have been a great president, make a cuck fool of himself again and again.

I think that was when Trump reassessed his goals in life. Unfortunately for us, Trump was - from the point of view of politics - sort of a late-starting loser until he was in his late 50s, had he been less of a loser in those years it would have been Trump v Obama in 2012 instead of poor Romney v Obama that year.

Well better late than never.

J. Farmer said...

@traditionalguy:

Love is a second hand emotion. Good luck to all with it. But what Trump is lucky at is building Iconic game changing monuments like Trump Tower, The Apprentice TV Show, and the colossus of a Great Again America.

Even though I am a hard materialist and an atheist, I am very much inclined to favor the so called traditional American life. I am probably the only American in history who moved to Thailand and became a monogamist. And while I voted for Trump fully aware of his checkered past, I find it hard to imagine what so many evangelicals see in Trump. The guy is obviously an opportunistic Christian, and I would think that Christians, above all, would find that especially distasteful. If I was a Christian, I would. But, in all sincerity, why do you think they haven't?

narciso said...

Diana oughton well she blew herself up, she was sort of played by sissy spacek in rebel.

FullMoon said...

Say it ain't so Joe.


ABC: Isn't it curious how Frank Biden got rich?

narciso said...

The enemy of my enemy,

J. Farmer said...

@rehajm:

The parallels to what's happening in the USA are chilling..

I am not sure why you find this so chilling. This is a perfect example of how the commentariat/establishment class works. When left-wing dictators use oppression and mass murder, the right is ready to jump on them. But Augusto Pinochet is a hero among many right-wingers, which proves a point to me. People, by and large, don't care about bloodbaths so long as they support their side. Therefore, the left don't care about left-wing bloodbaths and the right don't care about right-wing bloodbaths.

Noam Chomsky made a similar point in the early 1970s when he distinguished between "benign bloodbaths" (the ones we don't really care about), "constructive bloodbaths" (the ones we like and support), and "nefarious bloodbaths" (the ones carried out by official enemies that we formally protest).

narciso said...

1.5-2 million dead that chomsky out right denied, versus say 3,000 dead at the time of the coup,

J. Farmer said...

The enemy of my enemy,

The poor religious right. They have been jerked around for 40 years and given nothing. Consider the rise of the so called "religious right," as exemplified by Falwell's "moral majority." Since their rise to prominence in the late 70s/early 80s, they have seen abortion rights given super precedence under the Supreme Court, the massive and expansive idea of gay rights, and nearly every other kind of left-wing social policy. The religious right have been losing for 40 years, and I can't imagine that Trump, a licentious man who's personal history shows very little in the way of religiosity, delivering for these people. But the religious right are like the battered women of the Republican Party. No matter how many times they get slapped in the face, they keep coming back for more.

J. Farmer said...

@narciso:

1.5-2 million dead that chomsky out right denied, versus say 3,000 dead at the time of the coup,

You don't have to agree with everything Chomsky says to agree with some of the things he said. Yes, Chhomsky tended to downplay the Cambodian genocide as a tool of western propaganda. But considering what he went through a decade earlier, could you really blame him?

narciso said...

El proceso probably was a bigger butchers bill, it was decided that no half measures be taken. The urban oaramilitaries arose from a notion batista was too lackadisical, they wouldnt let that happen again.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Watchdogs, whistleblowers, and lone-wolfs.

Is use of metaphor by "news" writers increasing? Or am I just noticing it more?

I wondered this again while reading the wretched NYT article in earlier posting about unspecified "Members of numerous armed militias and white power proponents" who "vowed to converge on the city..."

Seriously? Vowed? Like stomp on goat testicles while swearing to show up in Richmond poor, chaste, and driving a car?

Yeah, the death at the 2017 Charlottsville event was due to an automobile accident. If a "rerun" of that is the worry, would make more sense to ban cars than to ban guns.

narciso said...

What horror did this professor ofl inguistics suffer, no chomsky is like grover furr, holomodor apologist.

walter said...

Re Evangelicals: Port in the storm, Farmer. (and some results)
What brought you to Thailand?

J. Farmer said...

@walter:

Re Evangelicals: Port in the storm, Farmer.

I understand why the lesser of two evils would leave you to vote a certain way. But I don't see the evengelical community treating Trump like the lesser of two evils. More like the second coming. But I am biased. I generally find the intersection of politics and religion to be a rather unsavory one.

What brought you to Thailand?

I did a year of pro bono work for an anti-human trafficking operation in the so called "golden triangle," at the junction of the Mekong and Ruak rivers, where the borders of Thailand, Burma, and Laos come together.

J. Farmer said...

@narciso:

What horror did this professor ofl inguistics suffer, no chomsky is like grover furr, holomodor apologist.

Similarly, what horror did Pinochet's backers suffer in Operation Condor?

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Hmmmm. Not seeming to google up reference to that testicle stomping thing, but I swear (!?) to have seen/heard it somewhere. Likely in Tom Holland's "Persian Fire" audio-book. Supposedly the practice was a metaphor (!?) for "may my sons be castrated and my lineage end if I fail to...."

Anybody familiar with that?

Arashi said...

So now that Avenatti has been moved to the same federal prison where Epstein didn't kill himself, is Avenatti going to not kill himself as well?

Also, how many of the dem voters will actually vote for Hillary when she wins the brokered convention and runs against Trump in the general?

walter said...

Farmer, consider the opposition from their POV.

narciso said...

The farther the left keeps pushing their antireligious and antiamerican agenda, avenatti is near beer, not like eostein whose fate involved many players

narciso said...

Or take howard zinn, but like jacob marley he haunts academia. Theres also william ayera who decided gramsci is more effective than marighela.

walter said...

Victor Davis Hanson
‏ @VDHanson
Jan 8

A weaker Iran foolishly positioned itself into the role of aggressor, at a time of a shot economy, eroding military strength, waning terrorist appendages abroad, and little political leverage or wider support:
ttps://www.nationalreview.com/corner/iranian-analytics/

J. Farmer said...

@walter:

Farmer, consider the opposition from their POV.

As I said, I understand voting for Trump from that perspective. From my point of view, the single greatest thing about the Trump presidency is that it prevented a Hillary presidency. But again, while I understand and appreciate the concept of holding your nose and voting for the lesser of two evils, that does not seem to be what evangelicals are doing. They are embracing Trump forthrightly, despite the fact that his pro-life bonafides are likely a con, and his personal life has been marked by libertinism.

etbass said...

I’ll give my opinion to Farmer on the evangelical right’s attitude about Trump.

Trump is not a messiah, and he will not be America’s savior. Farmer, you are right. America is doomed. It is doomed because righeousness exalteth a nation. But America has thrown righteousness under the bus and will suffer the consequences. The invasion of our southern borders and from the middle east will be one of the means of judgment wreaked on America. It is too late for America without a major heartfelt revival of righteousness. The corruption is too deep and too widespread.

Trump is supported by Americans because he is the first President in decades who has done things that evangelicals support. But he will not save America. It is too late.

walter said...

narciso,
Avenatti just might petition for a respectable suiciding.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"For No Reason, In Both Cases"

check out this pic

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EOhTpd5VAAAXHs7.jpg

narciso said...

Thats likely, circumstance in fact according to the Book its foreordained, and the judgement will be sure although not necessarily swift.

Mark said...

It is rather curious that Erin was considered "the pretty girl" on the show, but I heard that in real life, she didn't get many dates.

I'd have been happy to ask her out if I was there back then.

narciso said...

No one cares him, hes a,lowly griftee who bit on more than he can chew

Drago said...

Admiral Inga: "Well, he still has his Trumpists."

Still upset that Trump has shoved your islamic supremacist allies in Iran back into a corner, eh?

Gee, that World War was so very very very close you could almost taste it!!

And darn that Trump for being so good that no one was killed at the embassy or in the rocket attacks!!

And then Iran had to go and de-escalate right when Inga told us all hell was going to break loose!!

And then we had to learn that this operation and the planning behind it and the orders given by Trump had literally been months and years in the making and not a last minute/unthinking action after Inga had been telling us for 3 straight days it was a rushed and rash decision!!

And then those darn European allies had to agree to go along with America's actions and even Boris called for a new "Trump Deal" to replace the hack obama Iran deal after Inga spent an entire week telling us Trump's actions had isolated the US!!

Darn it darn it darn it darn it darn it!!!

Poor Inga. Poor, pathetic Inga.

J. Farmer said...

A weaker Iran foolishly positioned itself into the role of aggressor, at a time of a shot economy, eroding military strength, waning terrorist appendages abroad, and little political leverage or wider support:
ttps://www.nationalreview.com/corner/iranian-analytics/


Ugh. Victor Davis Hanson is a neoconservative stain on traditional conservative politics. This is a guy who attended UC Santa Cruz, one of the biggest party schools in California in the 70s, did a thesis on Greek warfare and agriculture (Hanson's true area of specialty), spent the next 20 years teaching undergrads how to speak Greek and Latin, and then reinvented himself as some kind of "military historian" just in time to be the court historian of the George W. Bush administration. Hanson is the newest incarnation of Donald Kagan, the famed Yale classicist. However tenuous and ephemeral the connections are, you can always count on VDH to tell us how some conflict the US faces is just like what the Athenians faced and how better off we'd be if we acted as the Athenians did. For folks like Hanson, everything important that will happen in the world already happened in 5th century Athens.

narciso said...


Heh


https://mobile.twitter.com/alimhaider/status/1218370651519705088

Mark said...

And, NO, I do not like the new look for google search results.

walter said...

You scoff, Drago. But she will get the last laugh when she ops her Trump punching bag park come the convention.

narciso said...

No hes not a neocon, thats a misreading of him. Probably more a jacksonian than anything else.

narciso said...

Now the athenian/delian narrative likely describes the us/eu relationship.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

Has anyone been unluckier in love than Trump?

"President Trump, how do you sleep at night?"

"Naked, with a supermodel."

J. Farmer said...

@etbass:

Trump is supported by Americans because he is the first President in decades who has done things that evangelicals support. But he will not save America. It is too late.

Yes and no. I think we need to differentiate between Trump the idea and Trump the man. On the campaign trail, Trump (probably unbeknownst to himself) was cobbling together a new political coalition that transcended "right" and "left." For years now, I've been saying that conservatives need to soften their fiscal stance and harden their social stance. That is, present themselves as "fiscally liberal and socially conservative." Trump had the capacity to form this new alignment but squandered it because he's simply too inept to see it through. He has spent most of his time in office governing as a moderate Republican.

So many of the Republican class are eating what Trump does up with a silver spoon. They're the kind of people who say "winning!" unironically. They spend most of their time trashing the Dems and "libtards." They have failed to understand that regardless of whatever small battles Trump may have wone, he (and they) is still losing the war.

walter said...

Tell us how you really feel, Farmer...ad hominem and all.
And address quotes from his article.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"You can have any color Dem candidate you want,
...as long as they're White" -- Henry Ford

--Elizabeth Warren Takes Credit for Sponsoring Bills She Voted Against

https://freebeacon.com/politics/elizabeth-warren-voting-record/

--Rainbow Cake Girl: The True Story

It seems to me that this is a situation much like the Covington Catholic smear campaign one year ago — when the media read what it wanted to read into a story involving a conservative Christian school, and slandered them in the name of progressive values.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/the-rainbow-cake-girl-what-the-media-are-hiding/

-- A Tale of Two Whistleblowers: One Protected, One Not:
Dems say Ukraine/Trump whistleblower protections are sacrosanct while Trump appointee whistleblower forced out w/o due process
Lawyer: What they did to Trump appointee is 'shady as hell'

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/01/17/a_tale_of_two_whistleblowers_one_protected_one_not_142183.html

J. Farmer said...

No hes not a neocon, thats a misreading of him. Probably more a jacksonian than anything else.

I think you're right that Trump is not a neocon. But I also think it's equally foolish to label him a "Jacksonian." As best I can tell, that is merely a matter of Walter Russell Meade trying to shoehorn everything into his model of US foreign policy outlined in Special Providence.

Walter Russell Meade, like Tom Friedman and Francis Fukuyama, is basically someone who makes a a career selling books to the Doha set at major international airports. The guy is a conventional wisdom echo chamber.

J. Farmer said...

@walter:

Tell us how you really feel, Farmer...ad hominem and all.
And address quotes from his article.


What ad hominem? And whose quotes from whose article do you want me to address?

narciso said...

No hanson, i think trump is a pragmatist but sometimes hes a sentimentalist the aur strikes in syria as an example. Some might say that involves trade policy as weml.

narciso said...

You really dont understand these people at all, have you read mortal splendor, that will tell you where russell mead started out circa 1990, the lectures hanson gave on september 11th showed his jacksonian bent.

narciso said...

But the left argument is we should never have been in afghanistan or iraq, we can bribe our way to acceptance and genuflect for the other half.

J. Farmer said...

@narciso:

No hanson, i think trump is a pragmatist but sometimes hes a sentimentalist the aur strikes in syria as an example. Some might say that involves trade policy as weml.

I was hoping at the onset that Trump would be a pragmatist and businessman when it came to foreign policy, but sadly he has demonstrated himself to be a mound of clay, capable of being molded in any direction in which the person who has direct intention wants to mold him. As best I can tell, most of Trump's foreign policy has been driven by his own ego insecurity. The Saudis seemed to have grasped this, which is why they welcomed Trump with one of the most embarrassingly obsequious spectacles I've seen. But of course it worked. Trump has pretty much given the Saudis a blank check. About Putin, Trump once said, "He called me a genius. I like him so far." So while I think Russiagate is total bullshit, it is alarming how foreign leaders have learned how quickly and easily they can get Trump on their bandwagon merely by flattering and sucking up to him.

walter said...

Welcome to the blog format, Farmer.
You'll figure it out.

J. Farmer said...

@narciso:

You really dont understand these people at all, have you read mortal splendor, that will tell you where russell mead started out circa 1990, the lectures hanson gave on september 11th showed his jacksonian bent.

Mortal Splendor is probably my favorite of Meade's works, though I have some issues with it as well. But I am not so much concerned with where they "started out" as I am where they ended up.

But the left argument is we should never have been in afghanistan or iraq, we can bribe our way to acceptance and genuflect for the other half.

It is my argument also that we should never have been in Afghanistan or Iraq, but I see no reason to label something a "left argument" except to discredit it. Arguments stand or fall on their own merits, not on the basis of who is making them.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"The guy is obviously an opportunistic Christian, and I would think that Christians, above all, would find that especially distasteful. If I was a Christian, I would. But, in all sincerity, why do you think they haven't"

I doubt Trump's a Christian at all, in any meaningful sense. He probably believes in God in a vague sort of way, fuzzily tied up with concepts of Luck and Fate.
What he also isn't, is in any way hostile to Christians or their right to practice and live their beliefs. He doesn't want to dictate to them, ridicule them, force his worldview upon them. Given that the Left has made no secret of their desire to do all those things, it's hardly surprising that Christians see him as their champion, however flawed.

walter said...

Berno, who can't even handle Fauxcohantas awaits..

J. Farmer said...

@walter:

Welcome to the blog format, Farmer.
You'll figure it out.


I genuinely did not understand what you were referring to. You could've aided our conversation by clarifying my confusion but instead chose to be an asshole. Whatever.

narciso said...

Left being american power is ill intentioned rather than right, american power is unworthy of the world.

Hes my much like reagan in terms of strong military but sparing use, like signature strikes

walter said...

J. Farmer said...Arguments stand or fall on their own merits, not on the basis of who is making them.
--
Ahh. Try running that beside your VDH broad brush above.

J. Farmer said...

@The Cracker Emcee Refulgent:

I doubt Trump's a Christian at all, in any meaningful sense. He probably believes in God in a vague sort of way, fuzzily tied up with concepts of Luck and Fate.
What he also isn't, is in any way hostile to Christians or their right to practice and live their beliefs. He doesn't want to dictate to them, ridicule them, force his worldview upon them.


Good point, and I think you are right. If Trump is not a crusading ally, at least he is not an enemy.

J. Farmer said...

@walter:

Ahh. Try running that beside your VDH broad brush above.

My critique of Hanson was not based on attacking him as a person. I wrote: "However tenuous and ephemeral the connections are, you can always count on VDH to tell us how some conflict the US faces is just like what the Athenians faced and how better off we'd be if we acted as the Athenians did. For folks like Hanson, everything important that will happen in the world already happened in 5th century Athens."

That is not an ad hominem. That is a stylistic critique.

walter said...

i.e. port in the storm.

narciso said...

He followed norman vincent peale so probably, and that understanding shaped his first 70 years, but being in the heartland gave him a new perspective, as he was banished in his own environment.

Hes done business with much of the world and has seen the double game they play.

J. Farmer said...

@narciso:

Hes my much like reagan in terms of strong military but sparing use, like signature strikes

Eh...yes and no. I can see the comparison to Reagan on certain fronts but not on others. For one, Trump, unlike Reagan, ran on reducing America's security commitments to the Middle East. And yet, Trump has escalated every conflict he inherited, and there are more US troops in the Middle East now than when Trump took office.

narciso said...

We are a settler state (a notion mead impressed upon me) as if syracuse had becomr the major party in the region. Like detocqueville we were destined to have a power clash the question was with whom.

J. Farmer said...

i.e. port in the storm.

Again, there is a difference between holding your nose and picking the lesser of two evils and treating someone like the second coming. The reason I have never taken the religious right so seriously is the same reason I (by and large) don't taking ethnic minorities seriously when they vote for a Democrat. It's practically a reflex reaction. I imagine they'd be equally enthused by any candidate who isn't Hillary.

Drago said...

walter: "You scoff, Drago. But she will get the last laugh when she ops her Trump punching bag park come the convention."

True, true.

narciso said...

Weve been over this, vote for sanders hell not only withdraw completely, hell disarm and force you into one of hillsboroughs more diverse burgs because reasons.

J. Farmer said...

@narciso:

We are a settler state (a notion mead impressed upon me) as if syracuse had becomr the major party in the region. Like detocqueville we were destined to have a power clash the question was with whom.

You could certainly make the argument that we were bound to have a power clash with the British to the north, the Spanish to the south, and the native tribes in the western frontier. But that does not mean were "destined to have a power clash" with Germany, Russia, or Japan.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

That is a stylistic critique.

Which reminds me of this classic Dilbert panel.

J. Farmer said...

@narciso:

Weve been over this, vote for sanders hell not only withdraw completely, hell disarm and force you into one of hillsboroughs more diverse burgs because reasons.

I am not sure what "he'll disarm" means, but Bernie won't be able to force me into anything. Emigration is already my long-term strategy.

narciso said...

Yes we were, because they were grasping for territory but they were late to the game.

narciso said...

That will be the urban policy, you think you'll be allowed to emigrate, lol.

Drago said...

Very interesting: Boris Johnson and Trump admin both very anxious to begin bilateral trade talks BEFORE Boris returns to negotiations with EU.

Its been long rumored Trump wants to cut a deal with Boris that would make Britain the most advantageous european trading hub with the US, thus directly attacking the coming EU hardball play against Britain in those negotiations.

This would give Boris complete and total leverage over the EU economically with the only tricky remaining issue being status of UK citizens working in the EU and EU citizens working in Britain.

Should be very interesting.

Gee, the lefties keep telling me Trump is a complete idiot and failure who cant even read yet he keeps defeating our global competitors on economic and trade and foreign policy fronts.....almost as if instead of being an idiot who doesnt know anything he actually does know more than our competitors.

Could it be our lefties/LLR-lefties have been lying to us all along???

Well, I never.....

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"HOW olD ARE YOU!"?!?

9th Circuit Court Tosses Junk Global Warming Lawsuit By Brainwashed Children

walter said...

Perhaps ad hominem isn't the most precise terminology..yet:

"Ugh. Victor Davis Hanson is a neoconservative stain on traditional conservative politics. This is a guy who attended UC Santa Cruz, one of the biggest party schools in California in the 70s, did a thesis on Greek warfare and agriculture (Hanson's true area of specialty), spent the next 20 years teaching undergrads how to speak Greek and Latin, and then reinvented himself as some kind of "military historian" just in time to be the court historian of the George W. Bush administration."
vs VDH:
"We are now in an election year. Iran yearns for a return of the U.S. foreign policy of John Kerry, Ben Rhodes, Susan Rice, and Samantha Power, the naïveté that had proved so lucrative and advantageous to Iran prior to 2017.

Yet it is hard to see how Trump, if he is careful and selective in his responses to future Iranian escalations, will be damaged politically. His base, of course, and all Americans, quite rightly do not want another war even remotely resembling endless Middle East conflicts perceived as fought for great game dramas. But disproportionate one-off air responses in response to Iran’s future attacks would not require U.S. ground troops or likely not risk a general Middle East war. And they would do Iran’s assets real damage.

The current exchange is surreal in that it may be the first Middle East crisis in modern history in which neither oil nor the fury of the Arab world at U.S. military action is at least for now an overriding strategic consideration. The world has adjusted to Iran’s oil being off-market. The U.S. is nearing energy independence. Our rivals like China are the most concerned over tensions in the Strait of Hormuz. If Hezbollah strikes Israel, the counter-response would be overwhelming — and quietly also quite welcome in most Arab capitals.

There are no more neoconservatives of influence in Washington. Despite claims otherwise, they have zero influence over Trump."a

etbass said...

I think Farmer is basically right about Trump and that is partly why I don’t think Trump is a savior of America. But he is so far better than the alternatives out there, especially on the Democrat side, that cheering him on is such a cathartic vs suffering under what we have been subject ed to from Democrats and establishment Republicans. It’s short term. When Trump passes on, it will be back to destruction of America full time.

J. Farmer said...

@narciso:

That will be the urban policy, you think you'll be allowed to emigrate, lol.

Yes, I know I will. First, Bernie will not have the Congress on his side and will be stymied there. Second, I cannot imagine the US passing a law to prevent emigration that would past Constitutional muster. And even if they were able to, I'd just leave illegally. I already have a home in Thailand, though the long-term plan would be Singapore. Eastern Europe and East Asia will be the last refuges of the white man.

walter said...

How many homes have you as a counselor?

etbass said...

And when the Democrats get power again, it will be over. They will never surrender power again.

J. Farmer said...

@walter:

My critique of Hanson was not confined merely to his thoughts on Iran but rather his 20-year oeuvre in terms of US foreign policy. In terms of pure classics, I think Hanson is very good, and I loved his book Who Killed Homer. I also think that he, as a multi-generational Californian, has been very good on immigration. His book Mexifornia: A State of Becoming is also very good. But I see nothing about learning how to speak ancient Greek and Latin that gives anyone any special perspicacity into modern US military affairs. His whole gimmick is to take some battle from antiquity and then tell us what "lessons" that battle has for modern American statecraft based on the most tenuous of connections. I see it as little more than a gimmick that Donald Kagan started years earlier.

J. Farmer said...

How many homes have you as a counselor?

I'm not sure if this was directed at me, but if so what do you mean?

narciso said...

You dont see the pattern, grewcw has a more sparce settling than say rome which was a republuc which died out of over expansion

narciso said...

You really havent paying attention to their designs, you may not be interested in them but they are interested in you.

narciso said...

Republic, the proposed taxes alone will probably cause a crash even before inaugural day.

narciso said...

Youre too old to be this naive 25 or 30 maybe.

walter said...

Farmer,
"Ugh. Victor Davis Hanson is a neoconservative stain on traditional conservative politics. This is a guy who attended UC Santa Cruz, one of the biggest party schools in California in the 70s, did a thesis on Greek warfare and agriculture (Hanson's true area of specialty), spent the next 20 years teaching undergrads how to speak Greek and Latin, and then reinvented himself as some kind of "military historian" just in time to be the court historian of the George W. Bush administration."
HTF do you not see your broadbrush in that tripe?
Restrain your impulse for rapid response and read a bit in thread.
Good fuckin' night.

narciso said...

Scratch that you're too stubborn, maybe you think the golden triangle would have bee pristine without the us involveme

Guildofcannonballs said...

It id no small thig:

http://americandigest.org/the-little-beetle-that-could-ad-readers-remember-their-first-vw/

Above all is what the Dickens story conveys.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Through no fault of her own, remember tha, t, through no faur our host Althouse, she ait a featured here as it were.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

...a journey of a thousand miles...

Justice! The first career parasite swamp rat has been convicted and is heading to prison

https://powderedwigsociety.com/natalie-edwards/

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Muslim Whose Last Name is ‘Islam’ was About to Miss His Flight,
So He Called in a Bomb Threat to Delay It

... was his first name "Radical" ???

https://dailycaller.com/2020/01/17/islam-bomb-threat-flight-london

Crazy World said...

I refuse to feel anything but happiness for supporting this President of the United States if America.

Crazy World said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Manu R. --CNN Fake News reporter

...Manu R. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJAkJn3rHRY

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

some refreshment ...from la peche-menthe

when you consider the other choices, 'Manure' is actually pretty refreshing"
--G. Costanza

J. Farmer said...

@walter:

HTF do you not see your broadbrush in that tripe?

Well, I certainly painted him with a broad brush, though I qualified my critique in other comments. But a broad brush is not an ad hominem, which is what you accused me of. I made my critiques of Hanson pretty clear, and they all had to do with his work, not his character as a person.

J. Farmer said...

@narciso:

Youre too old to be this naive 25 or 30 maybe.

Let's try a novel approach. Instead of you telling me what's wrong with me, how about if you tell me what's wrong with my argument. What factually incorrect claim did I make? Where is my logic faulty? What wrong conclusions am I drawing from history?

Jon Ericson said...

I'll open a window.

walter said...

"I made my critiques of Hanson pretty clear, and they all had to do with his work, not his character as a person. "
vs
"this is a guy who attended UC Santa Cruz, one of the biggest party schools in California in the 70s"
Fuck off you verbose distracttion.

Mr. Forward said...

" ...one of the biggest party schools ... in the 70s"
Now, thanks to Trump, I can put my education to use.

J. Farmer said...

Fuck off you verbose distracttion.

Saying that somebody attended a 70's party school is not an ad hominem.

J. Farmer said...

p.s. Walter can't defend Hanson on the merits, so he calls people who criticize him verbose distractions. Uhh...facts don't care about your feelings, Walter.

rhhardin said...

Derbyshire notices Althouse being played as a woman:

I found myself thinking [dullness] was kind of the point. We republicans are the Stupid Party. The democrat Party is not stupid. The people running things over there know what they have to do, to win.

The first thing they have to do is to purge the overt craziness out of their own candidates' bench. So no more Cory Booker with his weirdly swiveling eyeballs. No more Beto O'Rourke skateboarding onto the stage. No more Kamala Harris telling us we should empty out the jails. No more Marianne Williamson offering to meet us on the field of love.

Things on the democrat side had gotten too weird. A two hour boreathon was just the ticket to get their presidential campaign back on course, so that's what we got.

The weirdness component of the democrat field has been shrunk down to just Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the least weird of the weird. The party bosses are dealing with them one at a time. First Bernie, who, with all his money and sturdy poll numbers, is the bigger threat. Then, when Bernie has been seen off, they'll turn on Warren. You heard it here first.


https://vdare.com/radio-derb/the-guest-workers-president-disparate-impact-western-va-and-taiwan-etc

rhhardin said...

The objective here is a presidential ticket that looks like a safe pair of hands, capable, experienced, dull. It's Trump who's the crazy one, see? Had enough of craziness? Vote democrat! Let's get things back to normal. That will be the pitch.

tim maguire said...

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...
Rep. Chris Collins, who was Donald Trump's first congressional supporter is sentenced to 26-months in jail for insider trading

Has anyone been unluckier in love than Trump?


I assume your next post will be on the Clinton Death List. Or is that Inga’s thing?

Either way, I think you’re nuts. The Clintons know a large number of active people and from time to time one of them will die. It’s just statistics and I think it’s really shitty of you to pretend that this somehow reflects badly on the Clintons.

tim maguire said...

Blogger J. Farmer said...For years now, I've been saying that conservatives need to soften their fiscal stance and harden their social stance. That is, present themselves as "fiscally liberal and socially conservative."

You think conservatives need to abandon classical liberalism—the traditional and philosophical heart of American conservatism? The thing that most separates them from the European right and instead become that which they are smeared as being?

Seems like a bad idea to me.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Treasure trove of photos from indicted Lev Parnas reveal his extraordinary access to the Trump family, including a signed card from Melania and Donald - who still INSISTS he does not know him

The Trump family seems to have known Lev Parnas unusually well for someone they didn't know.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Text messages reveal that Lev Parnas had extensive contact with a Devin Nunes aide about Ukraine - pulling the top Republican at the House Intelligence Committee deeper into the impeachment scandal

Devin Nunes. What a piece of work.

tim maguire said...

My father had a Christmas card from Richard Nixon. So, obviously, they were bestest buddies.

tim maguire said...

ARM, are you really as dumb as these posts make you sound? Are you really so ignorant of the lives of public figures? Or are you hoping we’re so ignorant?

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

tim maguire said...

dumb


Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Jeffrey Epstein's 'first victim' says he introduced her to Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in the 1990s when she was 14 and the pedophile said 'she's a good one, right?'

Some nice pictures of Trump and Epstein together. Probably didn't 'know' each - at least in a biblical sense.

tim maguire said...

tim maguire said...ARM, are you really as dumb as these posts make you sound?

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...dumb


Well, that clears that up.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Trump again denied knowing Lev Parnas. So Parnas' lawyer posted more robust proof.

Trump is such an obviously committed Christian, that when he uses the word 'know' he means 'I didn't actually fuck Parnas'. And, thanks to the Christian Loophole, even that may be true.


rhhardin said...

I just used up the last of the "Sell by Nov 06 2004" cinnamon tins that I got on sale for a negative price at Kroger. Sixteen year supply of cinnamon, it turned out.

Short-dated markdown plus attached coupon on each tin made the price negative.

Michael K said...

ARM is really stoked this morning. That impeachment farce got his juices flowing, hopefully not all over your pajamas.

rhhardin said...

My 50 foot flexible backyard antenna is all bent over from the weight of ice. I sent out a ten second test message and 13 robot spotters across the US posted it. Maybe it's a good antenna shape.

Ralph L said...

Short-dated markdown plus attached coupon on each tin made the price negative.

The Harris-Teeter cashier screwed up my discounted turkey purchase so badly, the manager decided it was easier to pay me $3 net to take the turkey than to correct it in their system.

tcrosse said...

Which Twin has the Toni?

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Trump Stays Up All Night with Sharpie Crossing Out Lev Parnas in Photos with Him

Drago said...

Michael K: "ARM is really stoked this morning. That impeachment farce got his juices flowing, hopefully not all over your pajamas."

Shhhhhhhhhh.

Lets let ARM have his fun for a bit before it all crashes down around him like all the other "bombshells".

As with Mueller and Avenatti and Cohen and Comey etc there are those lefties screaming at the others to not jump on this latest mirage Get Trump bandwagon but you know the crazies just wont listen.

Better to just close the door while the kiddies play and come back later when its quiet.....

gadfly said...

Central Iowa Postal Workers endorse The Bern: “He will fight for postal banking that would bring in revenue to the Postal Service and stop the legalized loan sharking of check into cash and payday loans that feed on the working poor.”

Now that's a piece of work. How many postal workers are likely being scammed by check cashing stores since the Feds avoid check-writing like the plague.? And why would the "working poor" sign up for a Postal Bank but will not open an account at the regular financial bank already operating down the street?