June 4, 2020

At the First Light Café...

IMG_5846

... you can talk all night.

And I'll give you this bonus toad...

IMG_5880

... to highlight the availability of the Althouse Portal to Amazon.

58 comments:

Mark said...

So, have you noticed too how, after Trump laid down the law, the violence has died down in D.C.?

Rick said...

We had a "drive by" BLM protest a couple of miles away from us tonight starting at a community center and driving past a police station. One of the protesters intentionally rammed another car in the apparent belief anyone not participating in the protest is fair game for anything at all. I wonder where he got that idea.

Josephbleau said...

That picture really touches me, a small glimmer, a hint of an idea that is going to burst into the world.

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, you admit it's a toad and yet your tag says "frogs." Sheesh!

Big Mike said...

@Mark, DC is not the US. Man still has work to do.

narciso said...


Just like that


https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2020/06/04/abc-cbs-turn-their-backs-us-sailor-trump-freed-iran

YoungHegelian said...

I'm gonna spike the ball in the end zone & do myself a little victory dance. I posted this in the Althouse forum June 1st. I've bolded the important part for all you short-attention span TL;DR 'tards out there:

"I'm going into tin-foil hat territory here, but here's my analysis of the hard left's battle plan. The Hard Left, in the form of Antifa, BLM, etc, provides the brain trust & tactical planning for the insurrection (which is what this is). Disgruntled minorities provide the foot soldiers of chaos on the ground, lured by the offer of endless amounts of whitey's stuff. The only way to stop this is governmental violence, which the Democrats can't stomach because it's shooting their constituents. But, if the Democrats don't use violence, their local economies, already weakened by COVID, will collapse. The hard left is essentially extorting the Democratic leadership.

I'm sure that peace feelers have already gone out from the Democrats to the Hard Left as to what are the terms of surrender. It's going to involve more power sharing & a transfer of lots of money. Watch what happens in the next year or so among the Democrats. Look for lefty radicals to be quietly brought into government, foundations, think tanks & trusts set up for the radical leadership of the insurrection, and maybe even something as bold as Bernie getting named VP."

And what do I see today:

https://disrn.com/news/la-mayor-announces-city-will-cut-100m150m-from-lapd-budget-to-be-reinvested-in-black-communities-and-communities-of-color

Taah-Daaah! I called it! I called it! I wants me some mad props, muthafuckas!

Wince said...

Alex Berenson's coronavirus booklet hits Amazon after Elon Musk, others call out online retailer for 'censorship'

Amazon is selling former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson’s booklet on coronavirus after initially claiming it didn’t meet the online retailer’s guidelines – as help rolled in from the likes of journalist Glenn Greenwald and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who considered the move blatant censorship.

“Unreported Truths about COVID-19 and Lockdowns: Part 1,” which included an introduction and a section on death counts and estimates, was expected to hit Jeff Bezos’ Amazon on Thursday but Berenson said he woke up to an alarming email.

“They said, ‘we’re rejecting this,’” Berenson told Fox News. “It didn’t say, ‘you can appeal,’ it didn’t say, ‘here is who you should email if you have a question.’ It just said, ‘This is rejected.’”

rcocean said...

What great camaflouge. I wouldn't thought that was a rock, at first glance. Although, who eats Toads? I thought they were poisonous.

YoungHegelian said...

PS: Bonus Toad would be a great name for a Death Metal band.

Narr said...

Toad away,
Toad away.
Where do you go,
When you're toad away?

Narr
Drop your load on the giant toad

Marshall Rose said...

Bonus Toad is the best Toad.

My daughter always delights when I bring her a tree frog or toad that I find while doing yard work.

Mark said...

If the cause is really truly righteous and the protesters sincere and not merely engaging in prideful patting themselves on the back, then the demonstrations and marches will continue.

I foresee, however, the participants getting tired of it all and fading away.

And then what will have all the sturm and drang have gotten them?

Sprezzatura said...

I was hoping for another pic of Meade’s shirt with the dove.

It’s not at all a tell re how lame Meadehouse is that that thing keeps getting posts on this blog.

BTW, is there a tag for ‘supper cool and edgy and not at all boring t shirts’?

I’m just asking because city slicker hipsters want to know.

iowan2 said...

Yes, ran across several toads the last few days, and tonight a turtle was sitting in the driveway. Oh, and a tree frog.

Rick.T. said...

...or Chicago in flames as seen from the Indiana Dunes

pacwest said...

A bonus toad! How cool is that.

narciso said...


Just more peaceful protesters

https://mobile.twitter.com/hollandcourtney/status/1268677119078330369

rehajm said...

From Politico: Police groups break with Biden
“Police are shaking their heads because he used to be a stand-up guy who backed law enforcement,” one top official said.

rehajm said...



Thao Nguyen
@helloitsthao
·
21h
new emerson poll

looting and destroying property as a means of protest
17% approve
76% disapprove

minneapolis police precinct being burned down
22% justified
65% not justified

iowan2 said...

My intellectual and moral betters have decided to defund Police. Which, if you think this through makes sense, because the politicians have not the balls to let the police, actually police.

Anyway, tonight I saw a few minutes of Tucker. I cant remember if I have ever watched a full prime time show on FOX. Tonight, Tucker talked about defunding the police. He made a great observation. You can eliminated the police, but you have not eliminated authority. Authority is ALWAYS present. Nature abhors a vacuum. You will not like the authority, that fills the void once occupied by law enforcement.

Michael K said...

Segregation is back.

Kathryn51 said...

One day, perhaps Althouse will educate on the difference between toads and frogs. I'm not sure, but as far as I know, we only have frogs here in Seattle area. Tree frogs (little, bitty things), bull frogs (big boys) and regular frogs Maybe I'll look it up myself someday.

Meanwhile, on FB was this sick little comment: "Call them out [name redacted]. Everyone. Being silent now is an act of violence by condoning racism."

White suburban lady who is all "woke" in the safety of her mostly white suburban life.

Jon Ericson said...

Ginger toad

Josephbleau said...

Do any of you know the difference between a turtle and a terrapin?

Josephbleau said...

Conan, What is best in BLM?

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"—thou art a traitor,
False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father,
Conspirant 'gainst this high illustrious prince,
And from th' extremest upward of thy head
To the descent and dust below thy foot
A most toad-spotted traitor.
"

The president of the Minneapolis City Council says the city’s Police Dept. will be dismantled and replaced with a “transformative new model of public safety.”

Andrew said...

Question for the room. I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

Suppose, after Trump, comes the deluge. Suppose everything gets dialed up to 11. More left-wing violence, more economic upheavals, more cultural decline, more governmental usurpation of freedoms, etc. And suppose you decide that America is over, and it's time to leave for a better place.

Where would you go, if you were to leave the U.S.? Where do you think is the best place to live that grants some semblance of safety, freedom, peace, and prosperity? Where would you look for what has been lost in this country?

I haven't decided on a place yet, were I to leave, because I'm aware that my views of other countries are probably unrealistic and romanticized. The countries I have actually visited are either just as likely to go down the same road (in Western Europe) or would be a culture shock to live in as an expatriate (in Southeast Asia).

I'm curious what other commenters here think, especially those that have actual experience in other countries that they consider an option to return to permanently. If America were over, where would you go next?

stephen cooper said...

Lots of people on these comment threads read the Bible frequently.

Over the years, I have learned that a traversal of the Book of Proverbs is one of the great aesthetic experiences available to humans, and almost every one of the Psalms is worth reading and rereading and reflecting on (well, you can't read the Bible all the time, you have to work and live your life, I am talking about those precious moments when we can do what we want with our time): recently, I discovered that the last 12 chapters of Isaiah (55-66) reflect, in their way, the lives, as remembered over the years, OF EVERYONE I HAVE EVER CARED ENOUGH ABOUT TO PRAY FOR, to the extent that I can recall, with loving memory, either their actual lives, or their conversations about their lives.

Btw, people born in 1920 were no better than people born in 1960 or 2000. I knew a lot of people born in 1880 when I was young, but i was still a child and they all seemed fairly nice to me, I had little judgment then and no ability to read the heart of even those who were unkind (that is, people who are shameless in their willingness to show their lack of concern for others. we all have met many such people, God bless the little rascals). If you are reading this and you do not have any idea about how much you remember and how many people you have known well enough to remember fondly, well, what can i say. next time i comment maybe i will go back to discussions of where the larger fish in Lake mendota are hiding out, the STURGEONS (I would never eat a sturgeon YOU SHOULD NEVER EAT A FISH THAT MIGHT BE OLDER THAN YOUR GRANDPARENTS), the large happy catfish, the elusive bass, and the temperamental but kindly muskies, the Oscar Madisons of their midwestern domains.

YMMV.

Anyway, something to think about next time you see a Bible, no matter where. Isaiah 55-66. 12 chapters that represent A gentle country in a large country where not everything is always gentle.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

what is up with these zombies lately?? TDS taking it's toll?

take a look:
Ambassador Kaidanow becomes 5th Pentagon official to resign in 7 days

Sprezzatura said...

“You will not like the authority, that fills the void once occupied by law enforcement.”

Except this doesn’t apply to corporations. Human nature via market forces will naturally take care of oversight, laws and enforcement are not needed re companies.

Duh!

Also, gov agencies w/ unions are bad and they result in a lack of accountability and the employees influence the employers via elections, but not for law enforcement. In that situation the more that a union and laws can empower the unaccountability of the employees = the better. What’s the worst that can happen? Sure they can kill you and get away with it, but it’s not like your mail could be mixed up w/ your neighbor’s mail.

Logic is tricky.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

...you're pulling my Lego!

LEGO pulled over a dozen play sets that include police, firefighters, and other emergency vehicles. Included on the list was "Donut Shop Opening" and "Burger Bar Fire Rescue" ??

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZsuPyIWkAMVbq4?format=jpg&name=medium

bagoh20 said...

I just can't believe Trump's luck or stable geniosity. The study published in The Lancet that claimed Hydroxychloroquine was ineffective and dangerous, and which was used wide and far to criticize Trump was withdrawn today by the authors due to the data not being provided for peer review. I described the Potemkin village nature of the source of the data last night in the cafe. Completely bogus study, once again promoted by the media without any skepticism or investigation of where it came from. The media is worthless and The Lancet is a fraud. If Trump says oceans will rise this week, I'm buying a boat.

Now it may turn out that the drug is not effective, but that's not the point. How many times has the media jumped on bad info to attack Trump only to be proven wrong later. The thing is they keep repeating the lie, as I'm sure they will with this. People I know who hate Trump never find out the media told them bullshit. They keep piling it up in their hate trunk, and spew it out unaware of it being a lie. When you tell them they are wrong, they just dont beleive it.

NCMoss said...

A Hillary presidency would have met with BLM leader long ago to work out terms of surrender. With Trump, we're stuck with Mr. Toads wild ride.

Yancey Ward said...

"Mark said...
So, have you noticed too how, after Trump laid down the law, the violence has died down in D.C.?"


I thought about commenting this earlier today (Thursday), but decided to wait another night. I noted that Mayor Bowwow was trying to get the guard units removed today, which suggested she knows how the political optics are going.

Big Mike said...

The last bluestone slab in the front walkway of my old house had taken on a pronounced downward tilt where it met the porch. I assumed settling so I lifted it up ready to add gravel. But what I found was a huge toad, as big, or maybe bigger, than my clenched fist. He looked at me as though to say “How about some privacy here?” I shooed him off, filled in the burrow and two entrances, tamped it down, and levered the slab back into place. A week or so later holes and dirt piles on either side of the same slab told us he had moved back in. We decided not to bother him further, and named him “Hoppity J. Toad, resident bug catcher.” Heck, toads were around on this continent before people arrived from Siberia, and it’s not as though he was hurting anything.

StephenFearby said...

Toads

In the late 1970's I stumbled across a new girlfriend at a series of lectures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on ancient literary masterpieces. She edited bodice-ripper pulp fiction when she wasn't doing her artist thing and writing poems. I kept this one, which also has amusing illustrations.

TOAD ODE

My true love came from a toad farm
On the plains of South Dakota
To woo me with her warty charm
And a web-footed dance, staccato

For years they called me mad fool
When the forest I'd wander
To peak beneath each toadstool
In a frenzied hope to find her

When August came I worried
That I'd not find my mate
Unaware that a green love scurried
Down the bittersweet path of fate

When into my arms she jumped, I swooned
Her trek had been long and dirty
She needed many a bath and perfume
To restore her toadly beauty

...My kisses caressed her sea green slime
Since the glorious day we were wed
'Til mad dog Bruno committed the crime
Of eating her. Now she's dead.

Alas, the pain and rage I vent
Over a moldy wart -
T'was all Bruno left the the day he rent
My Toadlove from my heart!

Yet knowing that I must find another
As sweet and pert, and full of song
As she who was torn asunder
And then one day my wish came true
I've nothing more to fear
I found a wife -- a portly gnu
That Bruno won't come near!

© LKI 1978

Then she joined some weird spiritual cult, dumped me and married someone else.

But we're still friends.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

All toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads.

Now you has been toad!

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Any woman holding an ACAB sign needs to get AIDS-raped up the ass.

walter said...

Sitter's just pissed that Meade has the balls to wear Trump threads in Madistan.
Kneel to it.

narciso said...

Well then:


https://mobile.twitter.com/Oilfield_Rando/status/1267978871187615750?ref_src

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

priceless Slo-Jo vid on The View

...and the looks of "You gotta be effing kidding me" from the crones

BUMBLE BEE said...

Airborne units returning from Nam rolled into the East Side of Detroit in 67'. Clashes persisted, but the rattling of .50 cals through the night changed a lot of minds very quickly. Snipers found they could not hide from Ma Deuce. Black Day in July... Gordon Lightfoot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCQmx_wJH6o

stevew said...

As I discovered yesterday, toads are a type of frog, thus the "frog" tag is correct, in a non-specific, high level sort of way.

The lesson of yesterday, given to me by BLM: Silence is Violence. Catchy, but total bullshit.

For every 10,000 black people arrested for violent crime, 3 are killed.
For every 10,000 white people arrested for violent crime, 4 are killed.

Our systemic racism machine isn't performing very well.

The Truth About Police Violence and Race
Meanwhile, the protests have fizzled a bit, have become almost entirely peaceful (during the day), and the nightly violence has been controlled. All the saccharine sweet words of support and kneeling seems to have mollified the protesters. The rioters and looters have become bored and don't like tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets.

Back to the Covid crisis? Not yet. The latest news here is well off the front page. Will we see a spike in cases a couple of weeks from now?

Fritz said...

One toad over the line, sweet Jesus . . .

Howard said...

Rippled glass

Ann Althouse said...

StephenFearby, that was great! I really enjoyed that. Meade read it out loud to me.

It made me think back to that old poem "Evolution" by Landon Smith that Jean Shepherd read many times on his old radio show:

When you were a tadpole and I was a fish
In the Paleozoic time,
And side by side on the ebbing tide
We sprawled through the ooze and slime,
Or skittered with many a caudal flip
Through the depths of the Cambrian fen,
My heart was rife with the joy of life,
For I loved you even then.

Mindless we lived and mindless we loved
And mindless at last we died;
And deep in the rift of the Caradoc drift
We slumbered side by side.
The world turned on in the lathe of time,
The hot lands heaved amain,
Till we caught our breath from the womb of death...

(full text here)

Jersey Fled said...

The study published in The Lancet that claimed Hydroxychloroquine was ineffective and dangerous, and which was used wide and far to criticize Trump was withdrawn today by the authors due to the data not being provided for peer review.

It was worse than that. The data was not only unverified, but unverifiable. It was written by a company with 6 employees who claimed to have reviewed more than 96,000,000 cases in less than a month. The company also has a dubious history regarding prior "studies".

Yet the Lancet published it. I wonder why.

If I had a better memory I would start a list of all of the things the press and Inga jubalently trumpeted to "prove" that Trump was a dangerous liar and idiot, but only proved that THEY were the liars and idiots.

Fernandinande said...

Althouse, you admit it's a toad and yet your tag says "frogs."

Toads are frogs.

LEGO pulled over a dozen play sets that include police, firefighters, and other emergency vehicles.

Snopes says "false" (because Trump's campaign manager said it) then says it's kinda true because they stopped advertising them, but Lego did far worse than that:

Lego: "As we’ve been saying since the protests started, we stand with the black community against racism and inequality.

Yesterday, we announced a US $4 million donation to organizations in the United States dedicated to non-profits that support black children and others that educate all children and families about tolerance and racial equality."

Got that, you uneducated racists?

exhelodrvr1 said...

"Where would you go, if you were to leave the U.S.? Where do you think is the best place to live that grants some semblance of safety, freedom, peace, and prosperity? Where would you look for what has been lost in this country?"

You would be better off spending your time learning to speak Chinese

wildswan said...

Toads have ugly bumps, like pebbled mud moving.
Frogs are kind of slick.

Big Mike said...

@Fernandinande, toads are not frogs. Your high school diploma needs to be revoked.

wildswan said...

"Where would you look for what has been lost in this country?"

Look in your heart for a little courage and loyalty.

gerry said...

Bonus toad.

LOL.

Narr said...

This place here--the USofA--for all its faults is still the last best hope . . . for the foreseeable future anyway.

Narr
IMHO

Big Mike said...

@Fernandinande, my apologies. I see that Wikipedia agrees with you. My answer was marked correct by Mr. Sanders on my high school biology exam, a mere 60 years ago. Times change.

Ann Althouse said...

I knew toads were frogs. I have checked this point before. I don't like to have extra tags. I also know tortoises are turtles.

Yancey Ward said...

You should have picked it up and kissed it. It might have been an upgrade on Meade.