November 12, 2020

At the Sunrise Café...


IMG_1174 

 ... you can talk all night.

IMG_1175

80 comments:

walter said...

Jim Clyburn called Trump Dick Tater.

rehajm said...

I wanted to watch The Masters and turned on ESPN for a few hours with surprisingly little BLM genuflecting. Either they think the stunt is no longer needed or they realize it was not producing the expected outcome.

walter said...

rehajm,
Significant layoffs at ESPN in last week...

stevew said...

As I have observed over the years, The Masters controls the broadcast, its theme and messaging. Quite closely and in accordance with their values. BLM, et al, is not of their concern.

Browndog said...

Going fishing tomorrow. It's been too long. A week is too long.

Sunday is the unofficial State Holiday in Michigan--opening day, deer season. I'm a bow hunter, so I don't partake. I wish them luck.

These things they can never take from us, though they try.

Find your balls, America. Live Free or Die isn't a bumper sticker. It happened, and it changed the world for the better for over 200 years.

Sebastian said...

Following up on Mr Wibble on Obama in the other thread, try this:

"I am not yet ready to give up on the possibility of my spouse."

mockturtle said...

Tiger played well today. And it's good to see Bernhard Langer still playing competitively. Mickelson looks like he's dropped a little weight.

Humperdink said...

@Browndog. I was in the woods, up a tree, this afternoon with my crossbow. I had a buck sneak up behind me. I heard him. Just as I turned and looked down, he looked up. Gone with the wind. Next time.

alan markus said...

Althouse got me watching TikTok (This is You Tube version).
Chinese Girl Eating Geoduck

Kyzer SoSay said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kyzer SoSay said...

"Find your balls, America. Live Free or Die isn't a bumper sticker. It happened, and it changed the world for the better for over 200 years."

If they come for me, my neighbors, or my town (and a few surrounding ones), they'll find out. "They" could be BLM rioters, Antifa arsonists, bungling Boogaloobaloo Bois, or feds trying to confiscate my sporting rifles. If a rioter in my town got popped after lighting a Molotov, no jury would convict the shooter. Of that I can damn near guarantee you.

And no, I didn't lose my guns in a boating accident. Not taking that way out. My way will involve watering the tree of liberty, because the words that founded this nation are more important than the whim of a senescent coot from the northeast.

Humperdink said...

Read an article about Melissa Francis being canned by Fox. She's been MIA for about a month. She had previously filed a gender discrimination suit.

The article stated: "Just recently the network was given a certification from the research firm Great Places to Work.... "

Say what? I wonder what that price tag was.

https://conservativebrief.com/fox-news-fires-pro-trump-host-shes-out-29121/

Browndog said...

Humperdink said...

@Browndog. I was in the woods, up a tree, this afternoon with my crossbow. I had a buck sneak up behind me. I heard him. Just as I turned and looked down, he looked up. Gone with the wind. Next time.


Next time indeed.

The woods are magical, whether you're hunting or just sitting on a mossy stump, listening to the silence.

Yancey Ward said...

Test comment.

Humperdink said...

I can only hunt afternoons due to work requirements. This past week has been the most beautiful days to be in the woods. And I must confess, I occasionally read the Althouse blog while 12' up.

Browndog said...

Yancey Ward said...

Test comment.


Pass.

Chuck said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Kyzer SoSay said...

seen on twitter


What’s the difference between a Dominion voting machine and Hunter Biden?

Nothing.

They both give 10% to the “big guy.”

Tommy Duncan said...

Blogger Browndog said...

"The woods are magical, whether you're hunting or just sitting on a mossy stump, listening to the silence."

A wise clergyman once told me that he'd rather I was in a deer stand thinking about God than in a church pew thinking about hunting.

gspencer said...

Wisconsin Supreme Court comes through for liberty.

What's outrageous is that 3 of the 7 think depriving citizens of liberty is just fine. Maybe they're enhancing the old resume for when Breyer packs it in.

J. Farmer said...

@Kyzer SoSay:

My way will involve watering the tree of liberty, because the words that founded this nation are more important than the whim of a senescent coot from the northeast.

It's ironic that Jefferson used that phrase in a letter to express his reservations about the Constitutional Convention and its proposals for an executive. He believed that the ruling class was overreacting to "the insurrection of Massachusetts" and were supporting a stronger central state as a means of protecting their interests against future rebellions. Rather, he believed, "Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two?"

Jefferson was very wary of a society dominated by merchant and financial interests. He thought a society of small family farms was necessary to produce civic republicanism. That's why he was so opposed to ALexander Hamilton's proposals.

Qwinn said...

Tomorrow, Friday the 13th, is National Facebook Exit day. If you're outraged about their straw man (or outright lying) "fact checks" and censorship directed squarely and only at conservatives, don't just deactivate your account, delete it. Move to MeWe. I actually like it better so far anyway, more granular control over what you see from and share with each friend.

Also, for that reason and also if you care at all about privacy and not having your personal data sold:

Dump Twitter for Parler.
Dump Google for DuckDuckGo.
Dump YouTube for Rumble.
Dump any other browser for Pale Moon or Brave.

Other recommendations welcome.

Fuck Big Tech. They have made themselves our enemies. Let's break their monopoly ourselves.

Rt41Rebel said...

@Quinn

I've been using Bing instead of Google for forever, but I'll give Duck a try. I created a MeWe account two days ago and invited a few contacts, but I only know one person there so far. I haven't had a FB account for 10 years but I do browse my fiancee's, I'm nudging her into making the switch.

Rt41Rebel said...

Also, WTF is Twitter? The only Twitter I've ever seen is when it's linked or presented in other media. Seems like a really stupid activity.

narciso said...

Oh


https://m.theepochtimes.com/pre-election-concerns-over-dominion-voting-systems-highlighted-in-georgia-lawsuit_3576863.html

narciso said...


Something to consider
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1326983120755826689.html

narciso said...



Well thats curious

https://www.breitbart.com/2020-election/2020/11/12/joe-bidens-transition-aide-helped-steer-3m-to-hunter-biden-linked-firm/

Wa St Blogger said...

Dump Twitter for Parler. Dump them both as a huge waste of time. :)

Dump Google for DuckDuckGo. I've used Duck for years. Like that it does not store your history. Never had a problem finding what I needed on searches.

Dump YouTube for Rumble. Unfortunately, Rumble's library is too small to make it worthwhile.
Dump any other browser for Pale Moon or Brave. Been using Brave for a couple of years (ever since FireFox ousted it's founder over Prop 8). Mostly works fine. Not 100% compatible, Never hear of Pale Moon. Might check it out.

Lawrence Person said...

"Every MSM Outlet: Postal Voting Fraud Whistleblower Recants! Whistleblower: No I Didn’t!"

boatbuilder said...

As one of the several dozen people who watched Monday Nights Pats-Jets showdown, I was struck by the absence of woke bullshit, including the opening with a very well done tribute to our military vets.
Maybe ESPN has learned something.
The game was poorly played on both sides but oddly compelling. Both teams seemed to be trying to lose while putting up a decent showing. The Jets demonstrated why they have a lock on that Lawrence kid by putting 12 men on the field for the field goal try, after stopping the Pats on Third down to essentially ice the game when they were up by 7 with 2 minutes left. First down I the penalty, Pats score, stop the Jets, get in FG range and win as time runs out. Beautifully done. Romneyesque, even.
The announcers really suck, though.

stephen cooper said...

You know, this all is turning out pretty well.

It is totally fucking amusing to watch the party of science try and explain away impossible statistical anomalies that all turned out to be, every single time, in favor of their senile little lying little sack of foolishness candidate.

If Trump is President next February, that will be great, if he is not, it will be so delicious to watch the Trump Network take down ALL the creeps in the mSm.

And trust me, it isn't just that one man Trump who is going to do it ----


They pissed all of us off by gas lighting us for way too long. They shouldn't have pissed us off, but they did.

That being said, let us be kind to senile old people. Don't take it out on poor old Biden. Trust me, he has the testosterone level of one of the lesser eunuchs in one of the lesser evil old tyrant-ridden civilizations of the ancient world. This is not his fault. He is beneath contempt, but still every human being, now matter how foul, deserves this: we should pray for them.

stephen cooper said...

And yes, if you had not noticed previous to this the resemblance of angry little senile dude Biden to Gollum, well maybe now you have noticed.

Like I said, they should not have pissed us off by gas lighting us for way too long.

Coup Leader Gollum versus people who care about this country.
It is not going to be a close contest.

chuck said...

Never hear of Pale Moon

Pale Moon is a Firefox fork. Brave hasn't worked well on Linux the times I have tried.

320Busdriver said...

This Osterholm guy is really a great infectious disease expert. Let’s hope they give him as much power as possible. He really thrives on it.

Opened my MeWe and Parler this week too. See you there!

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

ready to hear the hypocrisy/misandry re: I Hate Men?

Churchy LaFemme: said...

Pale Moon was forked before Firefox changed a bunch of stuff in ways I didn't like, so I ran it for a while. Unfortunately the main guy in the project had a falling out with the BSD folks, so it stopped being available on FreeBSD and I had to drop it.

So I'm back on firefox, and I swear, everytime I update it, I spend hours undoing all the stupid stuff they have done to it until it works as I want again.. (I don't know how many times they have broken "tabs on the bottom").

narciso said...

Except oesterhold was against lockdowns the, ron klein and irwin redleiner were openly dismissive at the start.

Andrew said...

I took an Uber today to a medical appointment. The driver was a Ukranian woman. I asked where she was from because her online radio had what looked like Russian on the screen. We made small talk for awhile. She started driving Uber fulltime when her previous job was destroyed by the virus lockdown. Our conversation turned to politics. I wish we could have talked all day long.

Here are some of her opinions:

"Biden is a tired, sad old man. His family should be ashamed. The Democrats are only running him because he is so corrupt. They know which buttons to push."

"Kamala is an angry and aggressive woman. She's smart enough to get to where she is, but she has no real wisdom. She's unbalanced. She scares me."

"I voted for Obama the first time, but didn't make that mistake a second time. His platform was good, but he was a liar. That's when I started becoming a Republican."

"What have the Democrats ever done for real, working people? They raise your taxes, and then they want to control your life. Now I think that they will start to listen to our phone calls."

"Trump did the best he could do for the people, and now they're stealing the election away from him."

"The news media here is worse than where I'm from. Non-stop lies and propaganda. They taught this country to hate the President. They care nothing for the truth, or what's best for the country."

If immigrants are like this, I'm happy to welcome them.

Joe Smith said...

"Pale Moon is a Firefox fork."

I attended classes once at a university that focused on the culinary arts with a concentrated focus on table etiquette.

It was known as 'Fork U.'

Try the veal...

stephen cooper said...

Cornell?

Bruce Hayden said...

“I 've been using Bing instead of Google for forever, but I'll give Duck a try.”

DuckDuckGo has a couple of idiosyncrasies. One of the more frustrating is that it is too literal - meaning that it searches its database of Web content whenever you key inything into it - no matter how ridiculous. In particular, if you key in an IP address, it searches for that search string. Why would you be entering an IP address, instead of a domain name? For me, it is inevitably to get access to my router (you can find it looking at your network status, and using the Gateway IP address). Typically, if you don’t change DHCP values in your router, the Gateway (Router) IP address is 168.192.0,1 (I use my October birthday, since all IP addresses starting with a “10” are non routing, as are those starting with 168.192.0), and when you key it into DuckDuckGo, you get a bunch of screen shots and the like of various other people’s router interface. Unfortunately, the one thing that you don’t get is what you really want, which is to load the specified IP address. I have to switch the search engine for the browser I a using to get access to my router. I refuse to use Google which typically means Bing - I don’t trust Microsoft any more, overall, but I still prefer to trust them over Google.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

That's one of the many things I change back in Firefox. I just want a url bar that accepts urls, not one that does searches. If I want a search, I'll type it in the search box..

eddie willers said...

More than half of the commenter's Avatars are now showing a "broken link" symbol instead of the normal picture. If I click on "open image in new tab" it tells me this:
*****************
403. That’s an error.

Your client does not have permission to get URL /zFdxGE77vvD2w5xHy6jkVuElKv-U9_9qLkRYK8OnbDeJPtjSZ82UPq5w6hJ-SA=s35 from this server. (Client IP address: 76.17.33.234)

The image was not shown due to the following reason(s):

The photo has been removed due to Google's content policy.
**************

Is that a problem on MY end or is there another explanation?

J. Farmer said...

Trivia question: In 2009, BBC Radio 2 compiled a list of the most played songs in the UK for the past 75 years. The top two songs were by British bands, and the lyrics both use a relatively unusual word. What is it?

effinayright said...

J. Farmer said...
Trivia question: In 2009, BBC Radio 2 compiled a list of the most played songs in the UK for the past 75 years. The top two songs were by British bands, and the lyrics both use a relatively unusual word. What is it?
******

sussed?

mccullough said...

Fandango

Yancey Ward said...

Mccullough nailed it. Whiter Shade of Pale and Bohemian Rhapsody.

I really had no clue, but with Mccullough's comment, knew instantly which two songs.

Kind of surprising, the first one, not the second one.

Yancey Ward said...

My friends and I used to play a game pre-internet- name the song from a lyric. I am pretty sure we have used both of those songs at some point in the deep past, though probably not either use of Fandango.

Yancey Ward said...

Which one was #1 and which one was #2, Farmer?

chuck said...

If immigrants are like this, I'm happy to welcome them.

As one immigrant put it, they have seen plan B.

StephenFearby said...


Just the News

Rod Blagojevich thinks there is a 'treasure trove of fraudulent ballots'

The former governor of Illinois believes there will be "hundreds and thousands" of fraudulent ballots, particularly mail-in ballots

Great video. Blagojevich comes across as a very personable & knowledgeable mensch.

After all, he's an expert in the way corruption in Illinois works.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/rod-blagojevich-thinks-there-treasure-trove-fraudulent-ballots

Churchy LaFemme: said...

Procul Harum in 2006 -- fantastic live version of WSOP.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

CISA and DHS and NCSWIC! Oh My!!

"I'm very proud of the work that CISA has done this year," Ware told CyberScoop. "And I think against significant odds, the work we did on [protecting] elections is really a testament to what this agency can do."

"heck of a job", Bryan.
no wonder you [and hopefully more] get the boot


Jennifer Franco
@jennfranconews
· Nov 12
NEW: Department of Homeland Security statement on 2020 election security:

“The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history.”

“There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”

(the statement is not from the Department of Homeland Security?
written by "members of" various agencies and organizations?
ie https://www.democracy.works/blog/insolidarity)

StephenFearby said...


Town Hall

Ex-Clinton Aide Details the 'Stealthy Road' to a Trump Victory That's Being Overlooked

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2020/11/12/former-clinton-aide-offers-another-take-on-stealth-route-to-a-trump-2020-win-n2579988

Citing portions of this very-well documented article published on 11/6 in the National Interest:

Donald Trump's Stealthy Road to Victory
by Graham Allison

(Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy and Plans in the Clinton Administration.)

'As the counting of votes in Arizona, Georgia, and especially Pennsylvania continues, most of the press and punditry have concluded that Vice President Biden has won the 2020 election. Certainly, a substantial majority of the rest of us are suffering from “election fatigue” and eager for this drama to be over. Without disagreeing with the conventional wisdom about the final tally when all the legal votes are counted, I believe the current consensus is missing the fact that Trump has a second, viable stealthy road to victory.'

I’m reluctantly betting that the debate about who won will continue until at least January 6 when slates of electoral college members are opened in Washington, and most likely beyond that as whatever is decided then is appealed by the loser to the Supreme Court. My conclusion reflects the analysis of my colleague in the Applied History Network at the Belfer Center which is below. '

As he notes, this stealthy road follows in the footsteps of a number of previous contested American elections, especially the 1876 election that pitted Tilden v. Hayes. Then as now, each state must decide on a group of electors to meet with a joint session of Congress on January 6 where the winner of the presidential election is declared. The normal practice in a state where Biden won the popular-vote total would be for state election officials to certify the results and send a slate of electors to Congress. But state legislatures have the constitutional authority to conclude that the popular vote has been corrupted and thus send a competing slate of electors on behalf of their state...'

"...As the analysis below notes, these issues are even more complex. But to repeat the bottom line: both the words of the 12th Amendment, and historical precedent offer a credible, stealthy, winding road that could lead to Trump’s victory and a second term. Or as the saying goes: the opera ain’t over till the fat lady sings."

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/donald-trumps-stealthy-road-victory-172235

Yancey Ward said...

I am kind of in favor of Annie Lennox's version these days.

J. Farmer said...

@Yancey Ward:

Which one was #1 and which one was #2, Farmer?

"A Whiter Shade of Pale" was #1 and "Bohemian Rhapsody" was #2.

I am kind of in favor of Annie Lennox's version these days.

Completely agree. First time I heard it was during the end credits of the Sandra Bullock film The Net. Sat through the end credits to hear the whole thing and then walked to the Sam Goody and bought her Medusa album. Most of the tracks weren't that good, but her cover of The Lover Speaks' No More I Love You's is bizarre and incredible.

FullMoon said...

eddie willers said... [hush]​[hide comment]

More than half of the commenter's Avatars are now showing a "broken link" symbol instead of the normal picture. If I click on "open image in new tab" it tells me this:
*****************
403. That’s an error.

Your client does not have permission to get URL /zFdxGE77vvD2w5xHy6jkVuElKv-U9_9qLkRYK8OnbDeJPtjSZ82UPq5w6hJ-SA=s35 from this server. (Client IP address: 76.17.33.234)

The image was not shown due to the following reason(s):

The photo has been removed due to Google's content policy.
**************

Is that a problem on MY end or is there another explanation?

Not only you, and not only this site. Probably fix itself by tomorrow, Trumps fault, no doubt.

gadfly said...

Shucks! Benford's law didn't pass the smell test here.

So Trump will now have to come out of his hidey hole and cry in his near-beer that he lost the election to Sleepy Joe and so he will have to leave the country as he speculated before the election. But like General Douglas MacArthur, he will return to run again as he has done continuously since 2015 for the presidency in the year 2024 - if the man is still alive and his followers have survived.

Marcus Bressler said...

When I was five years old, we moved from Lynbrook, Long Island, to W. Redding, CT. I loved"the woods" and enjoyed walking and exploring them. My mother didn't worry about me getting lost or abducted BTW. We moved to Blue Bell PA and we had some woods and farmer's fields to travel. Then the status-hungry Cherry Hill, NJ, where every scrap of undeveloped land became a new development. When I moved to South Florida, even though I LOVE the ocean, I miss the woods. The wooded areas here are NOT the woods. I plan to travel soon to each of my childhood homes to reminisce and where there are woods, I plan to walk them alone, in solitary appreciation.

THEOLDMAN

tim maguire said...

alan markus said...Althouse got me watching TikTok (This is You Tube version).
Chinese Girl Eating Geoduck


Maybe it tastes great, but that was gross. And way less sexual than I thought it was going to be.

tim in vermont said...

"I was struck by the absence of woke bullshit, “

Election’s over, no need for more unreported in-kind contributions to the Democrats, they need their viewers back now. I hate the way that ESPN forces itself into ever deal you try to make to get video content. If it was so great, people would be demanding it, not having it forced on them like castor oil.

tim in vermont said...

"I was struck by the absence of woke bullshit, “

Then again, given what happened in the House and Senate, maybe elections do have consequences.

Rusty said...

Humperdink said...
"@Browndog. I was in the woods, up a tree, this afternoon with my crossbow. I had a buck sneak up behind me. I heard him. Just as I turned and looked down, he looked up. Gone with the wind. Next time."
LOL. I hunt public land and go pretty far into the woods so a deer stand is impractical. So I have a ghillie suit. The running joke is just follow me into the woods and face in the opposite direction I've chosen. I try to get time off on a weekday so it's not too crowded.

Rusty said...

gadfly said...
"Shucks! Benford's law didn't pass the smell test here.

So Trump will now have to come out of his hidey hole and cry in his near-beer that he lost the election to Sleepy Joe and so he will have to leave the country as he speculated before the election. But like General Douglas MacArthur, he will return to run again as he has done continuously since 2015 for the presidency in the year 2024 - if the man is still alive and his followers have survived."
Looks like Dominion software switched 2,700,000 votes from Trump to Biden nationwide. Shucks! Indeed. In trying to decide whether you're stupid or dishonest, I've concluded you're both. A person of low character. Not to be trusted.
Is that last line a threat? Please don't go there.

rehajm said...

Roberts could create a curious precedent: he saved the ACA in 2012 by declaring the individual mandate essential to the survival of Act and then may save [it] again in 2020 by declaring that the individual mandate is not essential to [its] survival

tim in vermont said...

“I went to an anti-Trump rally, started shouting “Fuck Trump! Fuck Trump! Fuck Trump!” and people started joining in, and after a while a cute girl joined us, and later that night....”

https://youtu.be/q-jgc1L4ZAM

It’s almost like the idea of fucking Trump turns some girls on.

tim in vermont said...

Daddy issues.

iowan2 said...

@12:32

You can tell the propaganda dnc/media is lying by the fact they keep framing their stories about a vote lead that cannot be overcome by a recount.
But that is not the path.
Tossing out a couple of corrupt states results, and having the legislature step in and select a slate of Electors, has always been the path. The courts would have to do their job. Most likely they will ignore the constitution in favor of "reconciliation!"

tim in vermont said...

Benford’s is a busted flush, like Mueller, like impeachment. If you keep putting it up there as proof of fraud, when it fails, dishonest people like gadfly are going to use its failure as proof that there was no fraud, which is also bullshit, but people will find it compelling. I think that this whole Dominion thing is also going to be a huge distraction and dead end. A simple hand recount will ferret out any real issues there.

The worst kinds of fraud have to do with approving ballots to go in the counter that didn’t meet tests for whether they were legal votes. Once they have jumped that hurdle, all a recount does is run the same bad ballots through the counter. What needs to be done is the ballot covers be re-examined.

hawkeyedjb said...

"The worst kinds of fraud have to do with approving ballots to go in the counter that didn’t meet tests for whether they were legal votes."

Exactly. A precise recount of illegal ballots yields the same result as a sloppy count of illegal ballots. Once you've agreed that the count is the problem, you've lost sight of the issue.

Kai Akker said...

Wikipedia of all places reminds visitors that today is the Byzantine feast day of St. John Chrysostom. The great bishop's life overlapped St. Augustine, and to listen to Elaine Pagels tell it, one can only conclude it was an unfortunate accident of history and politics that Augustine's version of Christianity came to dominate over Chrysostom's. Pagels is far from 100% in her conclusions, but she makes a good case. Chrysostom means "the golden-mouthed," and his simple Collect in the Book of Common Prayer always stood out, to me.

The Prayer of St Chrysostom from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England

ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee; and dost promise, that when two or three are gathered together in thy Name thou wilt grant their requests; Fulfil now, O Lord, the desires and petitions of thy servants, as may be most expedient for them; granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth, and in the world to come life everlasting. Amen.

rehajm said...

“I went to an anti-Trump rally, started shouting “Fuck Trump! Fuck Trump! Fuck Trump!” and people started joining in, and after a while a cute girl joined us, and later that night....”

OMFG that's funny- the stuff I used to find at Althouse. The woke fisherman, fishing for woke. Pipe, Irish sweater, yellow waterproof pants....HA!

rehajm said...

Kim Strassel has good rundown of the Democrats intent to destroy election integrity

Professional lady said...

Andrew, my cleaning lady and her husband are from Poland. She is in her 50s probably and used to to do clerical work - but she likes to be her own boss and enjoys cleaning. Her husband is an electrician. They are both appalled at what is going on - they know what it's like to live under socialism.

MadisonMan said...

Not too long ago the sun came up at the Power Plant. Is the spot from which you take pictures the same each morning? It seems like a lot of motion for the rise point for not much time.

Andrew said...

@chuck and @Professional lady,
If only we could make a trade: bring over more immigrants who love this country, in exchange for removing (with their permission) the citizens who hate it. I think we should give a one-year stipend and an all expenses paid one-way trip for leftist Americans to find a less-racist and less-oppressive country of their choosing.

Professional lady said...

Andrew, when my husband and I visited Poland two years ago, we were really surprised by how prosperous it was. We were not expecting it. There were lots of new and newer houses that were really lovely and well kept - this was especially noticeable in the lovely countryside. We commented on this to our Polish driver/translator/guide. She said "well, it didn't used to be like this." She told us how no one would invest anything in their home because it wasn't really theirs. The state could take it away on any pretext and give it to someone else with better political connections or for whatever reason. You couldn't get any building materials to improve it anyway without either bribing someone or finding someone who was willing to trade with you. Even then, you had no choice, you had to take what you could get. I would love to go back and see more - it was safe, inexpensive, clean, and beautiful. The food was fantastic.

mockturtle said...

No one appreciates America more than former Eastern Europeans. Andrew, I like your idea. Send the malcontents to whatever country is stupid enough to take them. Unfortunately, the inmates indeed will be running the asylum and we may be the refugees of the future.

Andrew said...

I would love to visit Poland. Please bring me on your next trip! I'm glad to hear the country is thriving in its post-Communist stage.

"Unfortunately, the inmates indeed will be running the asylum and we may be the refugees of the future."

I'm afraid that might be true. For the first time in my life, I've started wondering what countries I would choose to flee to. I prefer to be discrete about my politics, but if the entire society keeps saying that 2+2=5, about a hundred different topics, I don't know if I will remain quiet. Ironically, Russia and the former communist bloc countries might be a safer place. "No joke," as Biden would say.

Narr said...

A lot of The Woke have been to Europe on high-school and college trips and study-abroad programs. There, they interacted with young people much like themselves in their privilege, sense of entitlement, and general animus toward the USA and its history, without actually learning much about European history and culture.

Of course there's a gradient from W to E. The peoples who have only recently emerged from "really existing tyranny" see the US and the world much more clearly than the lefty lotus-eaters that infest the big cities of the West.

I posed my idealistic veteran friend the question: The populations of Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Rep., who are refusing (last I checked) the quotas of Muslim refugees that the Federasts and Brusselsnouts demand they take-- justified or not?

Narr
I raise both hands in favor of justified.