Althouse: At the Sunrise Café...

March 21, 2021

At the Sunrise Café...

... you can talk about anything you want.

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59 comments:

Lawrence Person said...: Democrats Push “Drive Plastic Manufacturing To China” Act.; 3/21/21, 9:57 PM
Arashi said...: Wow - So continue to make this country dependent for energy and other vital items on the country that is our biggest enemy - China. I am sure it will work out really well for the globalist companies here in the US that are most likely to benefit and are most likely pushing this.

Still and all, that is one heck of a cool photo.; 3/21/21, 10:07 PM
walter said...: Hogg's pillow project seems to have collapsed.
Rumor has it he is considering marketing a bodywash..; 3/21/21, 10:38 PM
n.n said...: Democrats Push “Drive Plastic Manufacturing To China” Act.

Environmental and labor arbitrage through shared... shifted responsibility normalized through secular incentives and threats of diversity, litigation, and regulatory schemes. One step forward, two steps backward.; 3/21/21, 10:43 PM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: Democrats Push “Drive Plastic Manufacturing To China” Act.

What's the crisis going to be? Is it going to be no more snow in Britain by 2020? Siberian climate in Britain by 2020? Wait, neither of those happened. Dosh, Garn! Another Climate Crisis failure!

Next time some one tells you that we're doomed, ask them How? They won't know. It's all a scam.; 3/21/21, 11:02 PM
narciso said...: Locusts in europe and a scirocco that wipees out last vegas (that was from the national geographic special set in 2025); 3/21/21, 11:35 PM
Mutaman said...: The idiot Crenshaw just got his ass handed to him on MSNBC. So bad that its the #1 twitter subject.

https://twitter.com/search?q=Crenshaw&src=trend_click&vertical=trends; 3/21/21, 11:40 PM
Rt41Rebel said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/22/21, 12:30 AM
Rt41Rebel said...: "The idiot Crenshaw just got his ass handed to him on MSNBC. So bad that its the #1 twitter subject."

Who is Crenshaw, what is MSNBC, and what is twitter?

That link probably takes me to some diaper-porn site. *pastes link* Yep.; 3/22/21, 12:32 AM
Rt41Rebel said...: Diaper Porn Media. The DPM. You want to be treated and cared for like babies and have your Mommy/Daddy govt do nasty things to you.; 3/22/21, 12:41 AM
Mutaman said...: Rt41Rebel loves it when the first of the month comes on a weekend because then he gets his SSI check early. Don't have time to play with you anymore little buddy- some of us have to work for a living.; 3/22/21, 1:15 AM
Rt41Rebel said...: "some of us have to work for a living"

I respect that.

I don't qualify for SSI for another 5 years, if I take it at 62.5 and it's still available.

I do qualify for funemployment. But not stimmies. I make too much to qualify for stimmies.; 3/22/21, 1:23 AM
Rt41Rebel said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/22/21, 1:38 AM
Rt41Rebel said...: I'm starting to question why I've voted R all my life. I did my best working years under Reagan and Trump, but I've done just as well, actually better, just sitting on my ass lately.

I guess I can pin that kind of thinking, that questioning of my moral compass, on one thing: I don't have grandchildren.; 3/22/21, 1:51 AM
marwan said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 3/22/21, 4:32 AM
rhhardin said...: A common dream is reported to be showing up for a test in school that you've forgotten to prepare for.

Affirmative action blacks live that dream every day, owing to being in a school that has higher admission standards for everybody around them.

You could alleviate the dream by having useless courses that nobody else can do better at than you, or segregating yourself with other affirmative action admissions.

But the useful solution is attend the right school for your abilities.

Lots of blacks are smarter than most whites, just not the whites in the school that affirmative action puts them in.

Can empathy work if it needs a little system thinking beforehand? Probably not.; 3/22/21, 4:33 AM
stephen cooper said...: In one of Turgenev's stories, a beautiful young woman - who is being courted by several young men at a long evening party on one of those long twilight late night parties in the northern Russian summer - has listened to the poetical attempts of several of the men who want her to love them, and she says, late in the story - let's recite some of Pushkin's poetry, to cleanse the air ----
I am not Russian (well, maybe a little bit genetically and culturally, on my paternal grandfather's side) but, after reading the "news" or "the internet" for awhile, I sometimes turn to Proverbs 8 to cleanse the air (or similar passages in the Holy Book).
Anyway, they say Pushkin is difficult to translate, but that is true of all poems - even poems in our native language. And lots of his poems are lousy, but the best of his poems really are as good as the Russians think those poems are, from the point of view of truth and genius.
The Russians, like those other enemies of our deep state, the Chinese, are a good-hearted people, with a culture that, at its best, is wonderful.; 3/22/21, 4:50 AM
stephen cooper said...: I was going to put that comment on the "asexual thread" but I put it here.
Thanks for reading.
And Ann, thanks for the wonderful stream of photographs you post here. I miss the Wisconsin of my long-gone youthful days; 3/22/21, 4:52 AM
stephen cooper said...: (for context - One of the CAPITALIZED PHRASES in my 90-seconds-long-at-average-reading-speed comment in the asexuality thread from earlier yesterday is what translators call a free adaptation of one of Pushkin's best lines) - peredo mnoyoo yavilas' tii, kak genii chistoi krasotii (literal translation - you (tii) appeared (yavilas') before (peredo) me (mnoyoo) like (kak) a genius (genii) of pure beauty (chisoi krasoti).); 3/22/21, 5:06 AM
Humperdink said...: pResident Biden's official schedule for the week has been leaked to the press:

1) Rest .........; 3/22/21, 5:37 AM
Humperdink said...: "Hogg's pillow project seems to have collapsed. "

Resting in Peace?; 3/22/21, 5:41 AM
tim maguire said...: stephen cooper said...The Russians, like those other enemies of our deep state, the Chinese, are a good-hearted people, with a culture that, at its best, is wonderful

Same is true for the Iranians—the government is a threat. The people have the potential to be valuable allies.; 3/22/21, 5:45 AM
MadTownGuy said...: walter said...

"Hogg's pillow project seems to have collapsed.
Rumor has it he is considering marketing a bodywash.."

So...Hogg Wash?; 3/22/21, 5:51 AM
Humperdink said...: It would appear to me that Hogg's rise and fall mirror that of Michael Avenatti. That is, a new hero the left created out of thin air to take on a conservative, only to flame in a matter of months. Not to worry though, there is sure to be more in the lefty laboratory.; 3/22/21, 5:59 AM
Dan from Madison said...: Regarding the Good Pillow guy - as a business owner, I have been sitting back and enjoying the popcorn watching that guy twist in the wind as the reality of owning and running a business actually set in. When you run smack dab into the solid wall of regulatory agencies, establishing vendor relationships, OSHA, collecting sales tax for 50 states (and submitting it), FMLA, competition, and all of the rest you get a feel for what business owners go through on the daily. It isn't for everyone, especially a snot nosed kid who has done literally nothing his whole life besides bitch, as far as I can tell. I'm not surprised at the ending, but I am a little surprised that it ended so quickly.; 3/22/21, 6:21 AM
Humperdink said...: Michael Avenatti: "While in college, he worked as an opposition researcher for Rahm Emanuel's political consulting firm......"

In 2000, he graduated Order of the Coif and first in class with a Juris Doctor (George Washington University Law School). In 2003, his alma mater established the Michael J. Avenatti Award for Excellence in Pre-Trial and Trial Advocacy".

Avenatti was indicted in California and New York on federal counts including tax evasion, extortion, fraud, and embezzlement. On February 14, 2020, Avenatti was convicted of all charges against him in the New York court. ... His sentencing is set for May 2021." (Wiki)

The ultimate flame out.; 3/22/21, 6:24 AM
J. Farmer said...: @tim maguire:

stephen cooper said...The Russians, like those other enemies of our deep state, the Chinese, are a good-hearted people, with a culture that, at its best, is wonderful

Same is true for the Iranians—the government is a threat. The people have the potential to be valuable allies.

I take your point, but a state cannot have an alliance or really any kind of diplomatic relationship with a "people." The easiest way to make Iran "valuable" to us is to stop attacking them, acknowledge the Islamic Republic as the internationally-recognized government, and move towards normalizing relations, which Iran has with China, India, South Korea, Germany, Japan, France, Russia and Italy.

Unfortunately, US foreign policy is particularly vulnerable to getting suck to the "carcass of dead policies." Look at the countries we're currently sanctioning: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela. These are not major powers, and they do not pose any significant threat to American security interests. The most common reason cited in justifying the sanctions is "human rights abuses."

We spent half a century building a global security apparatus to contain a threat that hasn't existed for 30 years. When you create a giant bureaucratic organization with enormous budgets, it will always find reasons to exist, like upholding some vague "liberal international order" or "rules-based system", overestimating threats, and underestimating costs.; 3/22/21, 6:36 AM
stevew said...: @Dan from Madison: That surprises me too because he had a pretty good and long list of benefactors to prop him up.; 3/22/21, 6:38 AM
Dan from Madison said...: @stevew - Yes he did. My best guess is that he didn't want to do the work, plain and simple. It's a LOT of work owning a business.; 3/22/21, 6:39 AM
tim maguire said...: J. Farmer said...a state cannot have an alliance or really any kind of diplomatic relationship with a "people." The easiest way to make Iran "valuable" to us is to stop attacking them,

Your thinking is too narrow. Not sure why you jumped to "diplomatic relationship with a people" when I never said it and you yourself recognize that it's not a thing. Also, by taking "valuable" as a stand-alone term, you have changed my use of it, and I have the think you understand that too.

A people can be valuable allies without formal agreements because of practical reality--we have similar goals. And it is in both parties' interest to take actions that advance the other party's interests.; 3/22/21, 6:45 AM
Mr. Forward said...: Marshal Dillon‘s vest, Josh Randall’s sawed off rifle, the Lone Ranger’s horse Silver, John Wayne’s Stetson, and Hopalong Cassidy boots.; 3/22/21, 7:23 AM
J. Farmer said...: @tim maguire:

A people can be valuable allies without formal agreements because of practical reality--we have similar goals. And it is in both parties' interest to take actions that advance the other party's interests.

Without a formal agreement or some form of coordination, I don't see any way that we can determine what another people's "goals" or "interests" or what "actions" they support in an effort to realize them.; 3/22/21, 7:26 AM
Jersey Fled said...: I grew up before the Salk vaccine. We called our municipal swimming pool the "polio pit" and I wasn't allowed to go there. The March of Dimes ran ads with kids on crutches or in an iron lung. We collected dimes for our cards as grammar school kids.

But I don't recall the over the top panic that we've endured now for over a year re: Covid.; 3/22/21, 7:41 AM
Jersey Fled said...: "By the 1950s, polio had become one of the most serious communicable diseases among children in the United States. In 1952 alone, nearly 60,000 children were infected with the virus; thousands were paralyzed, and more than 3,000 died. Hospitals set up special units with iron lung machines to keep polio victims alive."

Yet the schools were not closed and no one wore masks.

We dealt with it like the health crisis that it was. But the country was run by adults back then.; 3/22/21, 7:50 AM
Jersey Fled said...: But the country was run by adults back then.

And "science" meant something different than it does now.; 3/22/21, 7:54 AM
narciso said...: The iranians have cheated in every agreememts as with the soviets before them, the thanks for recognizing them in 1934 was the ware and pressman spy rings; 3/22/21, 8:00 AM
Jersey Fled said...: According to the CDC, 226 children ages 0-17 died of Covid between 1/1/20 and 3/13/21.

More than 3000 died of polio in 1952 alone. The population of the U.S. then was 163 million, a little less than half what it is now.; 3/22/21, 8:13 AM
CWJ said...: stephen cooper's mentioning Pushkin reminded me. Can anybody recommend a particular translation of Pushkin's poems? I know I know, but there must be at least one that does the least damage. Every Russian speaker I've ever met is gah gah for poetry and Pushkin in particular. I feel I owe it to them, and myself, to give him a try.; 3/22/21, 8:22 AM
Humperdink said...: Fredo Hogg going to Harvard to learn the pillow business.; 3/22/21, 8:28 AM
gilbar said...: Jersey Fled said...
According to the CDC, 226 children ages 0-17 died of Covid between 1/1/20 and 3/13/21.

now, for the bonus round!
How many children died of GUNSHOT wounds last year?; 3/22/21, 8:28 AM
gilbar said...: oh Bonus Bonus Round!
How many Children, died IN school, in 2019?; 3/22/21, 8:30 AM
tim maguire said...: J. Farmer said...Without a formal agreement or some form of coordination, I don't see any way that we can determine what another people's "goals" or "interests" or what "actions" they support in an effort to realize them.

Then perhaps you should sit out this conversation.; 3/22/21, 9:26 AM
Gospace said...: Jersey Fled said...
I grew up before the Salk vaccine. We called our municipal swimming pool the "polio pit" and I wasn't allowed to go there. The March of Dimes ran ads with kids on crutches or in an iron lung. We collected dimes for our cards as grammar school kids.

And IIRC, pools were found not to be a cause of polio spread.

I was kindergarten age when whichever vaccine came out that was put on a sugar cube. When the mass vaccination event came, my family was first in line at the local school- that's one my earlier childhood memories. Not near the front, but first in line. I found out a few years back that my oldest cousin was preceded by an older brother- who died in infancy. I suspect there is a reason why my father made sure we were there that early.; 3/22/21, 10:36 AM
DavidUW said...: According to the CDC, 226 children ages 0-17 died of Covid between 1/1/20 and 3/13/21.

now, for the bonus round!
>>
How many died in car accidents?
Why do we allow children in the death machines?; 3/22/21, 10:53 AM
J. Farmer said...: @tim maguire:

Then perhaps you should sit out this conversation.

Or perhaps you could share your source for knowing what the Iranian people's goals and interests are, or what they consider the "practical reality."; 3/22/21, 10:53 AM
DavidUW said...: As an added bonus, in the county of Alameda, more children died WALKING to/from school than from the 'Rona.; 3/22/21, 10:53 AM
Michael K said...: Or perhaps you could share your source for knowing what the Iranian people's goals and interests are, or what they consider the "practical reality."

Some of us watched the "Green Revolution" that Obama ignored and some of us have Iranian friends who fled.; 3/22/21, 11:24 AM
Lewis said...: Tested.

I’ve tested it then,
The hollow sound of a world
Like the end of a journey
Whose expectations proved true.

Or, discovered, the enormous futility
Of the scheme, workers slouch
In a grubby tavern,
Take their pay.

It is the night, ponderous echo
Swelled in a worlds dizzy stream,
Large and warm,
Makes Jonah’s burning cry

Or charred the soul
A twitch of wings
Pinned by your image
A great black butterfly.; 3/22/21, 1:49 PM
Lewis said...: A Winter Poem

i

My right hand in her left hand – so they say.
Those best word we had and yet neither
God nor man could join us. But this
Is pointless, to see one smile and break and be angry
Because you could never tell what it meant.
To want the resurrection, now – why disturb
The dead? We only joked because we enjoyed
The others pain. Or guilt

ii

If I see you again and every night
Am I then better? Will I become good?
Will I love their souls, even broken?
Or laugh in a new birth? I am a bitter, bitter man,
A hollow world that falls away, a sun
That has left me in darkness, the vision
Of even others happiness I must decry.
O god, O world, , O woman – if one smile
Could disturb these stone why not
Again and again and again?

iii

Ten thousand cuts, ten thousand blows, a beating
And then to stand all night, to stare at a corner,
To joke, maybe, with your friendly betrayers
And then watch them march into death, your left
With a word, like a photograph, which says “This face is harmless.”
I don’t wish to be in this world. You wish to be
Unhappy, don’t you? You have no right to that.

iv

Dirty and unshared and in a miserable room
Winter has written our desire upon this wall
Because I am what you, perhaps, must want,
This writer. A liar, true, a thief, also, a pornographer,
A self-hater, a wanter of mans destruction,
All these things and more.
Love which bringeth understanding.

v

The eloquence a persuasion of God –
To ‘believe’, I suppose, was what I meant.
Or not to believe but to know. Because an Angel
Pressed against me. I felt his lips.

vi

No joy talking to oneself, being alone,
No joy, again, in sex, no joy in delight
Over a face seen again, no morning
Waking because you had kissed me,
No love in tears or smiles or that said “I love you.”
No love for me or you or this morning,
Just damnation, the coldest fire that could ever burn.

vii

If the streets were colder, only colder,
I could force back a time when hand in hand
I caught something of your smile.
Extremes, they say, can produce illusion
Which I could grasp, never let go
Of your presence, however mad.

viii

Chalk on the pavement
Water is a sore destroyer
Whatever trace people leave
The city will illuminate
The very same world
Even on the last day
The pavement will be laid
Sorrow or joy do not counter
What is permanent
This the same rain
That rained before; 3/22/21, 2:01 PM
Lewis said...: Water is a sore decayer
Of your handsome dead corse.

The grave digger, Hamlet; 3/22/21, 3:34 PM
Lewis said...: How to love.

Epithalamium
(For Oliver and Barbara)

The rails of fate which run assuredly on
You think mechanical until, rusty turns
Of metal, they suddenly end, the grass
Stands tall, the flowers are indifferent
And what’s left of a forest creeps up:
But, no, you’re not alone, the main station
Ushered you to a seat and a stranger
Who became a friend. And now, as the driver
Has nothing to do and cannot turn back,
Beneath all your discomfort, you find

You’re holding her hand. A miracle!
Was it you who unconsciously fumbled for safety,
Unsure of direction and afraid of derailment
(yet you knew you would end here, were happy
And loved it) or was it an accident of grace,
Perhaps that bit of sunlight deifying
An ugly day, suddenly some word (which you later
Realise you misunderstood) made the Other not so far
Or you were just thinking of your mother?
Never mind how or why, it became

And now lasting for ever – and who knows whether
She be that especially designed one or is it
Only the forced meeting that makes us dear,
That all of us (not being lunatic or bad)
Could love all of us of which marriage is a token?
Such questions we leave to philosophers,
Analysts and other buffoons – for us the effort
And the pleasure of a good deed done, of a
Love and a fidelity that makes us happy,
Of that constant light we can steer by,
Turn to and call a home. And if scoffers

Insolently shout that fidelity and all good things
Are dead, that childhood is hell, that mother
Is always beating us and daddy always
Turning away, that the one you love always
Loves another and will leave you for him and that,
Anyway, life ‘ain’t perfect’, it would be silly
To disturb them by a reply. A happy smile,
Maybe, and, long after one has stopped listening,
The thought recurring of the love and the marriage,
Wholesome, good, that’s Barbara and Oliver.; 3/22/21, 3:39 PM
wildswan said...: What was said at Anchorage by the Chinese rejects the entire Biden and US foreign policy going back to Nineties. Here are quotes
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/US-China-tensions/How-it-happened-Transcript-of-the-US-China-opening-remarks-in-Alaska

Yang
China is the new model for the world to follow:
"What China and the international community follow or uphold is the United Nations-centered international system and the international order underpinned by international law, not what is advocated by a small number of countries of the so-called rules-based international order. And the United States has its style -- United States-style democracy -- and China has the Chinese-style democracy. It is not just up to the American people, but also the people of the world, to evaluate how the United States has done in advancing its own democracy.

US Launches Wars:
The wars in this world are launched by ... other countries [than China], which have resulted in massive casualties. ... we have asked ... other countries, ... to follow a path of peaceful development, and this is the purpose of our foreign policy. We do not believe in invading ... or to topple other regimes through various means, or to massacre the people of other countries, because all of those would only cause turmoil and instability in this world. ... [and] would not serve the United States well."

US Does Not Have Democracy:
"So we believe that it is important for the United States to change its own image and to stop advancing its own democracy in the rest of the world. Many people within the United States actually have little confidence in the democracy of the United States, ... the leaders of China have the wide support of the Chinese people."

US Is Attacking China:
"China the US and the world need] to abandon the Cold War mentality and the zero-sum game approach. ...It's important for all of us to come together to build a new type of international relations, ensuring fairness, justice and mutual respect. ... the problem is that the United States has exercised long-arm jurisdiction and suppression and overstretched ... national security through the use of force or financial hegemony, ... [and] created obstacles for normal trade activities, ... [and] the United States has also been persuading some countries to launch attacks on China. "; 3/22/21, 6:04 PM
wildswan said...: Part 2
What was said at Anchorage by the Chinese rejects the entire Biden and US foreign policy going back to Nineties. Here are quotes: Part 2
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/US-China-tensions/How-it-happened-Transcript-of-the-US-China-opening-remarks-in-Alaska

Do not interfere in what China does to Taiwan or the Uighurs:
" ... Xinjiang, Tibet and Taiwan,... are an inalienable part of China's territory. China is firmly opposed to U.S. interference in China's internal affairs. We have expressed our ... opposition to such interference, and we will take firm actions in response."

The US record on human rights is now and always had been bad:
"we hope that the United States will do better on human rights ... the challenges facing the United States in human rights are deep-seated. They did not just emerge over the past four years, such as Black Lives Matter. It did not come up only recently. [Don't try] deflecting the blame [for the bad US human rights record] on somebody else in this world."

Our goal is China First:
... we hope to deliver a better life for our 1.4 billion Chinese people. This is the goal of China's diplomacy...

If you confront us you losers will lose as always:
"... we've had confrontation in the past, and the result did not serve the United States well. What did the United States gain from that confrontation? ... the only result was damages done to United States."

The US is not the world leader it thinks it is:
"... when talking about universal values or international public opinion ... the U.S. does not represent the world. It only represents the government of the United States. ... I don't think the overwhelming majority of countries in the world would recognize ... the universal values advocated by the United States [and the overwhelming majority of countries in the world don't think] the opinion of the United States ... represents international public opinion."

The US rules-based international order is rejected by the world:
"[the overwhelming majority of countries in the world] would not recognize that the rules made by a small number of people would serve as the basis for the international order."; 3/22/21, 6:06 PM
wildswan said...: Part 3
What was said at Anchorage by the Chinese rejects the entire Biden and US foreign policy going back to Nineties. Here are quotes:
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/US-China-tensions/How-it-happened-Transcript-of-the-US-China-opening-remarks-in-Alaska

Wang
Abandon your futile attempts at continued US hegemonic diplomacy aimed at China; you are actually extremely weak:
"China certainly in the past has not and in the future will not accept the unwarranted accusations from the U.S. side.... China urges the U.S. side to fully abandon the hegemonic practice of willfully interfering in China's internal affairs. This has been a long-standing issue, and it should be changed. It is time for it to change... on the 17th of March, the United States escalated its so-called sanctions on China regarding Hong Kong, and the Chinese people are outraged by this gross interference ... this is miscalculated and only reflects the vulnerability and weakness inside the United States."; 3/22/21, 6:07 PM
wildswan said...: In response to Anchorage Biden is taking a nap. In response to the border crisis, Biden is also taking a nap. Taking the same nap for two different crises is energy-saving so Biden is taking the energy crisis. Biden is good on energy questions.; 3/22/21, 6:10 PM
Lewis said...: My stomach wants to wretch - a failure to do so would mean certain death. How does one smile at oneself - one just laughs.; 3/23/21, 6:52 AM
Lewis said...: Everything is just stupid - as if one could be without consequence - one knows the future, it's bullying already felt. It's here, you know that.; 3/23/21, 8:01 AM
Lewis said...: How to dream, to think, to be optimistic? Well, reconcile yourself to what is obvious - the stink, the smell of oneself. You rationalise what is bad in you and you fear what is good. You are terrified of yourself. Which is pathetic.; 3/23/21, 8:09 AM
Lewis said...: I meant 'myself', not you.; 3/24/21, 3:11 AM