Althouse: At the Sunrise Café...

February 21, 2022

At the Sunrise Café...

... keep your spirits up.

76 comments:

Jersey Fled said...: Per the Jerusalem Post Putin has ordered Russian tanks into the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.

"Biden will issue an executive order soon prohibiting "new investment, trade, and financing by US persons to, from, or in" the two breakaway regions, the White House said."

No sanctions against Russia itself. But maybe a strongly worded letter later.; 2/21/22, 7:45 PM
Moondawggie said...: Just checked out Flight Radar 24: Commercial flights are now diverting around Ukraine and Belarus airspace.

Only empty sky in that part of the world, but lots of zig-zag flight paths diverting into in nearby countries' airspace (including Aeroflot).

Looks like bad juju is about to go down.; 2/21/22, 7:49 PM
farmgirl said...: Well, at least you made it out there.
It looks awful. But- tomorrow will be better??; 2/21/22, 7:55 PM
Bender said...: Poland and the Baltics, and Taiwan at the other end of the world, should all be worried right now.; 2/21/22, 7:59 PM
Bender said...: As was noted here recently, Tucker Carlson is rather funny with lots of jokes.

On Ukraine, Carlson is the joke.; 2/21/22, 8:00 PM
Humperdink said...: At this point, it's a bit late for Biden's deterrent.; 2/21/22, 8:13 PM
Oh Yea said...: Al Jazeera has released footage of what it says are Russian soldiers arriving in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine; 2/21/22, 8:29 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: NYT enters the “misinformation” arena.

It claims our dearest “CDC isn't publishing a large portion of the data it collects.”

That’s been obvious to the de-platformed deplorables for a while now.; 2/21/22, 8:36 PM
Humperdink said...: Angela Merkel all but decommissioned Germany's nuclear power plants. The last three will be shutdown this year. The Fatherland now relies on wind, solar and Putin for their energy needs. What a plan!; 2/21/22, 8:40 PM
Original Mike said...: “Led by Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson, the GOP’s Trump wing appears to be throwing its weight behind Putin. If Putin opts to wage war on our ally, Ukraine, such ‘aid and comfort’ to an ‘enemy’ would appear to become ‘treason’ as defined by Article III of the U.S. Constitution,” Laurence Tribe wrote early Monday morning in a now-deleted tweet.

Treason? Can this report be true? What has happened to Tribe? Or has he always been this injudicious?; 2/21/22, 8:43 PM
Joe Smith said...: Went to a nice Mexican place yesterday for lunch. I did a rough calculation of the bill (paid at the counter) and was surprised when a $42 amount came to $54 instead.

I asked the cashier why the difference...I had just seen the menu.

'The boss raised all the prices this morning.'

Welcome to Joe's runaway inflation.; 2/21/22, 8:45 PM
Oh Yea said...: “If Putin opts to wage war on our ally, Ukraine"

Did I miss when the US signed and ratified a treaty with Ukraine to become allies?; 2/21/22, 8:48 PM
Jersey Fled said...: I'm about this close to moving Biden past LBJ to the top of my list of worst Presidents in my lifetime.; 2/21/22, 8:53 PM
Narr said...: Tribe is a pathetic hack, even when he is right on the law, which in this case he isn't.

All the quotes in the quotation are giveaways.; 2/21/22, 8:54 PM
Bender said...: It just got real.; 2/21/22, 8:58 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Could the unvaxxed be declared terrorists?

Link to video

The US government could make Trudeau’s power grab look like a viral tick-tock.; 2/21/22, 9:00 PM
Joe Smith said...: It's only a minor incursion.

But either way, not my business and far down on the list of things that I worry about.; 2/21/22, 9:02 PM
Joe Smith said...: @ Original Mike at 8:43pm:

Tucker doesn't give a damn.

Hannity seems to be all hepped up for war.

But he's at least 40 IQ points shy of Tucker...; 2/21/22, 9:04 PM
Original Mike said...: "Tucker doesn't give a damn."

Really? From what I've seen (admittedly, I don't watch regularly) is Tucker is adamantly opposed to any US involvement in Ukraine. Perhaps I missed your meaning?; 2/21/22, 9:08 PM
Narr said...: As Hitch might say, the news from Ukraine provides promising polarization of politics here. The pro-war bullshitters will have to explain how it is that

1) The population issues of the former USSR, and the borders left by its collapse, are more important than this country's border with the narcocracy to our south.

2) Americans should sacrifice the few rights that remain to them, in order to defend people who have lived without meaningful rights for centuries, and are unlikely to hold on to any they receive.

Make no mistake, the quickest way to the final elimination of American rights under the law is to embroil ourselves in quixotic foreign adventures against serious foes--especially under this feckless, reckless, callow and shallow crew of nonentities we call our elected leaders.; 2/21/22, 9:21 PM
Duke Dan said...: Remember. To contribute to any convoy protest, drive 30 miles out of town and buy gift cards with cash to use on the crowd funding site.; 2/21/22, 9:26 PM
Bender said...: Just as the consensus is finally coming around that isolation and quarantining are useless, we've got fools thinking that we can be isolated and quarantined from geopolitical-military diseases breaking out elsewhere in the world.; 2/21/22, 9:28 PM
Richard said...: Original Mike said...
“Treason? Can this report be true? What has happened to Tribe? Or has he always been this injudicious?”

You misspelled insane. And the answer is yes.; 2/21/22, 9:35 PM
Narr said...: Back about 1973 or so, some USSR assistant vice minister for foreign affairs (or the like) came to our campus to talk about Detente, its prospects and limits. One thing that he stressed, and that I have remembered ever since, is the idea that international treaties function *to express the objective power relations of the parties to the treaty*.

Read that again, and realize that it's just a simple truth about the world. And he was chivalrously (in his way) warning us that when conditions changed--when the balance of power changed--then that voided the treaty. Of course the USSR looked to be on a roll right then, so he was enjoying himself.

Fast forward, and the objective realities now are different than they were in 1991, or 2014. What hasn't changed is our weakness for mucking about where we don't belong on behalf of people who are always ready to fight to the last American.; 2/21/22, 9:36 PM
Moondawggie said...: Jersey Fled said...

"I'm about this close to moving Biden past LBJ to the top of my list of worst Presidents in my lifetime."

Dude! What about Carter? Or did Biden already surpass Jimma on your list?

;-); 2/21/22, 9:54 PM
Richard Dillman said...: Putin's recent angry speech to the Russian people on invading Ukraine is worth examining. It provides some insight into his thinking. He claims that Ukraine has always been part of Russia going back to the Kievian Rus and that it is an artificial state created by Lenin. He laments that Ukraine "decommunized," threatening to show them what "decommunization" really looks like, and he argues that Ukraine is a western colony controlled by Washington in Russia's sphere of influence. The Daily Caller, The Jerusalem Post and Reuters have decent coverage of this speech. I haven't been able to find a complete translation yet, however.

Here is a link. Don't know if it will work.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/extracts-putins-speech-ukraine-2022-02-21/; 2/21/22, 9:56 PM
rightguy said...: On vacation last week, I binge watched every feed or independent report I could find of the Ottawa demonstrations (@30-40 hrs.). Suffice it to say, every report served up by Canadian media, including the government funded CBC, was either patently false or grossly misleading. (They ran FOX out of Canada years ago.) The NYT article linked below and our non-FOX news outlets parrot these Canadian reports, all of which seem to follow closely what J Trudeau has publicly stated.

A few high, er low, points : Trudy accused a young Jewish woman, a conservative MP who is a descendant of holocaust victims, in parliament, of standing with those who fly the swastika. She repeatedly demanded an apology, with JT only repeating irrelevant talking points in reply. Never apologized. All the previously mentioned media outlets have reported swastika flags, etc. I have only seen one- it was a guy with his head covered that some legitimate members of the demo outed and ran off. Furthermore, in all these hours of viewing, I have probably seen 500-1000 Canadian flags. These truckers and their supporters repeatedly waved their flags and sang the national anthem (flatly) while the riot police pushed into them with their horizontally outstretched clubs. Very moving. Their only resistance was lock to arms and try to hold their ground.

I saw no assaults on police as reported. I did see multiple beatings of protesters by police. A female Rebel News reporter, Alexa Levoie, was beaten with a stick & shot in the leg by a tear gas cannister. The (new) Ottawa police chief denied knowing anything about it today. And he has vowed to identify as many protesters and their supporters as he can in the coming weeks so he can punish them financially under the recently invoked Emergency Powers. 76 such people have already had their bank accounts frozen.

I viewed the trampling of a protester by a horse in real time- it was an elderly lady with a walker who was badly injured. Initial media reports were that a demonstrator had thrown a bicycle under the horse.

It is reported that the locals are against the demos. I have read only one interview with one such person, who was unidentified. Government worker ? I saw multiple interviews with locals who had enthusiastically joined the truckers.

There was an equally large demonstration Friday night at another location in Ottawa that police successfully fenced off from the center of town. Saturday, there were large demonstrations across Canada, including a large caravan of trucks that parked in Quebec City. Are they still there ? All of this is grossly unreported. But it is happening all across Canada and I think Trudeau could now playing whack-a-mole.

I strongly recommend viewing JP answering questions in parliament last week, while what I have described was occurring. It will give you some idea of what a vile, dishonest, cowardly,disingenuous, and stupid piece of work the Canadian PM is. This all could have been avoided by meeting with the truckers and negotiating a settlement. Multiple provinces have lifted the mandates anyway, as have multiple European countries. That he went straight to martial law, without trying to settle this peacefully, tells you what need to know.

I could go on and on. Trudeau would be facing a no confidence vote if all these events had been accurately reported. But the government's control of the media is strong. Scary, I would say. I have trouble believing the cited polls- my eyes tell me something different.; 2/21/22, 9:58 PM
Jupiter said...: The Canadian Parliament has voted for Fascism, 185-151.; 2/21/22, 10:01 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: Canadian Parliament votes to extend Emergencies Act for 30 days.; 2/21/22, 10:01 PM
Joe Smith said...: 'Really? From what I've seen (admittedly, I don't watch regularly) is Tucker is adamantly opposed to any US involvement in Ukraine. Perhaps I missed your meaning?'

Sorry if I was unclear...I meant that he is not mongering for war...; 2/21/22, 10:17 PM
Bender said...: Kayleigh McEnany has a new look. Her eyes are more relaxed now.; 2/21/22, 10:33 PM
n.n said...: First, a violent Western-backed coup. Then, threats to force Ukranians to take a knee and projections of diversity, inequity, and exclusion to minorities and Russians. Now, not NOW, peace keepers. 50 shades of Kosovo and an ethical precedent. Bidden et al believe they can abort the baby, cannibalize her profitable parts, sequester her carbon pollutants, and have her, too. Time will tell if the community will go along to get along with the son of Obama in another world war.; 2/21/22, 10:40 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Tomorrow will be Tuesday 2-22-22. I propose 2 minutes of silence at 2:22 &22 seconds AM and a 2nd 2 minutes of silence at 2:22 and 22 seconds PM.

Do I hear a second?; 2/21/22, 10:43 PM
n.n said...: The Canadian Parliament has voted for Fascism, 185-151.

Fascism and a Mengele clinical mandate to force a medical experiment with a non-sterilizing "vaccine", immediate and unknown forward-looking risk, and without consent. Even a woman, and man, have four choices, and a right to self-defense through reconciliation, and still a wicked solution (e.g. human sacrifice, clinical cannibalism) in Progressive Churches. One step forward, two steps backward.; 2/21/22, 10:47 PM
narciso said...: Carter is millard fillmore compared to biden, he was stridemtly anti anti communist but did turn somewhat starboard.; 2/21/22, 10:47 PM
narciso said...: Tribe has been nutz for a long time

Sanctions are on the most mineral rich provinces in ukraine thats not going to happen; 2/21/22, 10:48 PM
Gahrie said...: "I'm about this close to moving Biden past LBJ to the top of my list of worst Presidents in my lifetime."

Dude! What about Carter? Or did Biden already surpass Jimma on your list?

Both Biden and Carter are among the five worst U.S. presidents, but the absolute worst was James Buchanan.; 2/21/22, 10:50 PM
narciso said...: Russia invaded georgia with 70,000 troops wel that was a dozen years ago; 2/21/22, 10:50 PM
narciso said...: Population has gone up 10% in the intervening years; 2/21/22, 10:53 PM
narciso said...: That war involved troops deployed from the sea and across two other countries; 2/21/22, 10:58 PM
narciso said...: Would you trust twitter general of the 82ns milley vannili perhaps that regimemtal commander for the 4th id not really.; 2/21/22, 11:05 PM
narciso said...: I know its small fry relatively speaking

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10537361/Kyle-Rittenhouse-plans-sue-Whoopi-Goldberg-celebrities-politicians-athletes.html; 2/21/22, 11:07 PM
narciso said...: As for those planes

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/02/air-force-went-woke-its-planes-wont-fly-daniel-greenfield/; 2/21/22, 11:17 PM
narciso said...: Maybe it made them crazy

https://emeralddb3.substack.com/p/mike-pence-comes-out-as-a-never-trumper?utm_source=url

James patterson suggested such subterfuges one in alex cross novel one before; 2/21/22, 11:21 PM
narciso said...: That would discount chandler who was 'anonymous' and the ringer who was on the covid task force; 2/21/22, 11:37 PM
narciso said...: Nothing to see here

https://mobile.twitter.com/ColumbiaBugle/status/1495934887081172995?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet; 2/21/22, 11:40 PM
narciso said...: Council of crazy
https://mobile.twitter.com/SallyMayweather/status/1495928778169724928; 2/21/22, 11:45 PM
Joe Smith said...: @narciso

Might I suggest the decaf?; 2/21/22, 11:49 PM
narciso said...: Whats the fun in that,?; 2/21/22, 11:51 PM
narciso said...: Apropos of nothing

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=msBNXwNlN4g; 2/21/22, 11:56 PM
walter said...: rightguy said...It is reported that the locals are against the demos.
--
Yeah..the folks who live off the largesse of the capitol, similar to Madison, don't want to deal with disgruntled, smelly Walmart shoppers with 18 wheels, horns and those damn bouncy castles!; 2/22/22, 12:07 AM
gadfly said...: Apparently, Narciso and Emerald Robinson don't know what a "Never-Trumper" is. I am a real "Never-Trumper" in case you haven't figured that out.

Mike Pence acted as Trump's toady for four years, getting kicked in the balls every time he displeased "your favorite president." Life was a constant grovel after he signed on with Trump.

That all changed when Trump asked Pence to do something illegal in order to win the presidential election he lost by having the VP refuse to verify the Electoral College vote counts. So Trump lost whatever mind he had left and put the word out to to his Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to take Pence out on January 6 but they failed thanks to the Secret Service. As for Marc Short, I think he always disliked Trump which makes him a good man.; 2/22/22, 12:08 AM
Joe Smith said...: 'Mike Pence acted as Trump's toady for four years, getting kicked in the balls every time he displeased "your favorite president." Life was a constant grovel after he signed on with Trump.'

Pence is a country club republican...everything that's been wrong with the party for the past many decades.

If you polled Rs, he'd get maybe 2% who'd want to see him as POTUS.

You can have him.; 2/22/22, 12:14 AM
walter said...: Gadfly,
Put aside your fantasies re 1/6, pull your fevered brain cells together in a pseudo decisive fashion and share with us your favored choice to lead the Republican party..and why.; 2/22/22, 12:25 AM
walter said...: (To others reading, I'm trying not to invoke Gadfly's dreaded word v*te); 2/22/22, 12:28 AM
gadfly said...: According to the Providence Journal, A recently released FEC filing mentions Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The investigation determined that “[the GRU] hacked the computers and email accounts of various organizations related to the 2016 U.S. election, including the [Democratic National Committee] and [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee], and disseminated stolen materials through fictitious online personas, including Guccifer 2.0,” the filing said.

Someone should tell John "But you can call me Robert" Durham.; 2/22/22, 2:44 AM
Big Mike said...: Both Biden and Carter are among the five worst U.S. presidents, but the absolute worst was James Buchanan.

Not anymore. I’ve moved Biden past Buchanan into all-time worst. Then Carter, LBJ, Fillmore, Grant, the other Johnson, and Wilson. After that it gets pretty tough because that are many that were mediocre but not truly bad.; 2/22/22, 3:10 AM
madAsHell said...: When did COVID positive become a Red Badge of Courage?; 2/22/22, 3:30 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Gung Ho Bender! Sign up and go! My barber is from Ukraine, self identifies as Russian Jew, NOT Ukrainean. You seem to think America can field an effective counter force. Who else in Europe has their tank corps warming up? Dems love sending others kids to die.; 2/22/22, 6:03 AM
tim in vermont said...: "The investigation determined that “[the GRU] hacked the computers and email accounts of various organizations related to the 2016 U.S. election, "

Did they ever look at the computer? Or was it just looked at by a Democrat controlled firm, similar to the one that cooked up the Alpha Bank lie? Basically, the data was. exfiltrated so fast, that it had to have gone to a thumb drive. The data lines to get that stuff to Russia in that kind of time frame simply do not exist. Or didn't at the time, anyway. But if Mueller and the FBI actually examined the server, we all love to hear about it.; 2/22/22, 6:30 AM
Jersey Fled said...: Dude! What about Carter? Or did Biden already surpass Jimma on your list?

Biden passed Jimma a couple of months ago.; 2/22/22, 7:16 AM
Iman said...: “Vlad, you know it's true
Ooh, ooh, ooh, I don’t love you”

—- General Milley Vanilli; 2/22/22, 7:25 AM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: Woke up to a little snow on the ground (1/2-in). It's a nice toasty 29 deg F.; 2/22/22, 7:58 AM
Narayanan said...: good or sacre-bleu : was this automatic in the showroom?; 2/22/22, 9:02 AM
MadTownGuy said...: Hundreds of drivers planned to 'takeover' Richmond. Then the police showed up.

"Richmond Police said hundreds of drivers met up at various locations throughout the city beginning at 9 p.m. The drivers intended to engage in various illegal activities, such as burnouts and doughnuts in intersections, police said."

This kind of thing is not new - smaller groups have been doing this in Southern CA near where I used to live, and roving bands of ATV riders have been menacing traffic in DC and its environs for at least 5 years - but something on this scale is new to me.; 2/22/22, 9:31 AM
Narayanan said...: edumahistory me
what did/not Buchanan .... ?

... Both Biden and Carter are among the five worst U.S. presidents, but the absolute worst was James Buchanan...; 2/22/22, 10:25 AM
TheOne Who Is Not Obeyed said...: It's fascinating, the comments here sound exactly like the op-ed pages of American newspapers in 1937 and 1945, as America debated how much it was "our problem" when angry dictators made speeches claiming some fallacious ancient rights to lands and peoples near their borders.

In the 30s American isolationists didn't want to fight Hitler and Mussolini - that wasn't America's problem and hey, they're probably not bad as bad of chaps as reported.

Late in WWII and into the late 40s, American Reds didn't want to fight Stalin - that Eastern Europe business wasn't America's problem and hey, we need to finish off the war against those Japs, and wasn't Stalin our ally anyhow?

Both turned out to be completely wrong. A general rule is available to us: When a European dictator starts making angry speeches using fallacious history to forcibly occupy Eastern European countries and peoples, eventually it becomes America's problem.

Maybe this time will be different. Maybe not. Guess we'll wait and see.; 2/22/22, 10:59 AM
Narr said...: Bierce defined "cannon" as "a scientific instrument employed in the rectification of boundaries."

TheOneWINO remarks, "Guess we'll wait and see."

Until it can be shown that Putin represents to us anything remotely resembling the threats of Nazi and Soviet dominated Europe, wait and see sounds reasonable to me.

Especially since we are a far poorer and weaker country now than we were in 1939 and 1945, and the issue is some fringy areas of eastern Ukraine where notions of democracy and human rights have never really taken hold anyway.

And there is another general rule available to us: not all European dictators are equal in capability and intent.

Yet another: when a regime, with the approval of many citizens, deliberately erases and nullifies its own border, it is simply absurd to whine about border changes thousands of miles and a whole mental universe away.

I don't think I've ever suggested a topic for the Prof to post or poll, but it would be interesting to get a breakdown of commenters and lurkers here.; 2/22/22, 11:27 AM
gahrie said...: Buchanan interfered in the Dred Scott case, and promoted and protected slavery, especially in Kansas during racial violence there.

He was such a shitty president, he pissed off both Republicans and Democrats. His meddling led to the fragmentation of the Democratic Party, which led to the election of Lincoln even though he didn't even appear on the ballot in many states.; 2/22/22, 11:27 AM
TheOne Who Is Not Obeyed said...: "Especially since we are a far poorer and weaker country now than we were in 1939 and 1945"

I would suggest that we are far, far richer and stronger now - both absolutely and relatively compared to other countries of similar size - than we were in 1939.

Not sure about 1945. Guess I'll have to go down that rabbit hole later today as time allows.; 2/22/22, 3:04 PM
TheOne Who Is Not Obeyed said...: "Until it can be shown that Putin represents to us anything remotely resembling the threats of Nazi and Soviet dominated Europe..."

Some think that may be too late. Russia still has its nukes, so it's probably as much of a threat as the USSR was. And keep in mind that Putin's stated objective is to rebuild the strength and power of the USSR that was lost after the collapse in the 90s.

So, do we wait until he's rebuilt the Warsaw Pact to actively oppose him?

If he starts a genocide with one of the many minority population groups, will that be the time to actively oppose him?

So many possibilities.; 2/22/22, 3:09 PM
Narr said...: In 1939 we were beginning, slowly and with little credit to the New Deal, to turn the corner on the Depression. The real recovery was the hyperdrive wartime economy, resulting famously in the fun fact that by 1945 the US had something like 50% of the world's manufacturing economy--and very high percentages of world raw material and food production.

The American Century and so-called Pax Americana proved to be a short ones--even if you start at 1919 it was over by 2008 or so, when the hollowness of the various crusades on behalf of Muslims began to be obvious.

That said, there are no correlates now to the circumstances of 1945 in demographics, economics, and raw military power. Not against a nuke-armed foe on his own doorstep.

And that said, if the Euros were serious about stopping Putin from matching the NATO emanations and penumbras clause (heretofore unknown to me) with some goofy claims of his own, their economies, and potentially their militaries, dwarf his even leaving ours aside.

But they are short-sighted at best, and I'm beginning to think La Merkel was a malevolent Red at heart, and ultimately will prove to have been more dangerous to the West than Putin can hope to be.; 2/22/22, 3:28 PM
tim in vermont said...: Russia, unlike Nazi Germany, doesn't have the industrial base to win a major war. He just wants the Perkins-Coie installed satrapy off of his border.; 2/22/22, 7:11 PM
Narr said...: Genocide? Man, things move fast here.

Rebuilt Warsaw Pact? Who will join up? The original only existed because of the overwhelming power of the USSR over countries who had already been weakened by years of war and Nazi exploitation, and most of whom had not been very democratic anyway.

There are indeed many possibilities, some more in touch with reality than others. One is that he bites off more than he can chew and his not-rock-solid domestic support evaporates.

As Prof van Creveld has observed recently, there is no deception without self-deception. Putin, who now seems old and in a hurry, may find that he has, in spite of himself, created some nationalisms in his neighbors that are stronger than Russian lust for conquest (to the extent that exists today).; 2/22/22, 8:16 PM
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