Althouse: Sunrise — 7:07, 7:08.

February 10, 2023

Sunrise — 7:07, 7:08.

40 comments:

Mike of Snoqualmie said...: So lovely, Ann. Most of our sunrises are gray clouds. Maybe 1 in 20 are spectacular rose/yellow/purple banding. Most of yours are fabulous.; 2/10/23, 6:58 PM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: The view north (front yard) of our new house is low, evergreen-tree covered ridge, about 100-ft tall. It's trees from west to east. The sky is a fabulous blew when the clouds don't cover it. The ridge captures the light from the setting sun.

Beyond the ridge are the Cascade Mountains, but they're not visible due to the ridge. The snow on the Cascades is fantastic, with many avalanche chutes. Driving north on Snoqualmie Parkway presents a magnificent view of the mountains.; 2/10/23, 7:03 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Mark Stein quits, background story.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/02/09/katie-hopkins-explains-the-background-issues-of-gbnews-against-mark-steyn-departure/
Heavy Censorship, State and Corporate.; 2/10/23, 7:08 PM
Jaq said...: Locals are reporting multiple low-level helicopter flights out of Bakhmut. That's the same thing that happened right before Mariupol fell. Reportedly, at Mariupol, a couple of these helicopters were shot down, and the bodies of high ranking NATO officers were recovered.

https://www.youtube.com/live/ySNyAaw4VEI

In case anybody is interested, here is another take on the story of the US kiboshing the peace negotiations. It's a half hour video, so here are the main points.

Bennett only walked back his words after the initial interview went public, and he was undoubtedly placed under immense pressure by the United States.

Victoria Nuland, Jake Sullivan, Blinken, and Biden all have been working toward this war as a team since they engineered the coup in 2014, and they did not want the war that they had worked so hard to create to get nipped in the bud.; 2/10/23, 7:42 PM
Jaq said...: BTW, the US Military is the largest consumer of Russian oil in Europe.; 2/10/23, 7:52 PM
Original Mike said...: So Biden couldn't see his way clear to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon until it had collected all the data it could, but a cylindrical object of unknown origin and no discernible method of propulsion, THAT he shoots down.; 2/10/23, 8:10 PM
Drago said...: Disney laying off 7,000 wokies.

Facebook laying off 20% of its entire workforce, including 1,000 just this week.

Althouse lefties readering, Dumb Lefty Mark and LLR Chuck scrambling to figure out a way to blame Elon Musk.; 2/10/23, 8:17 PM
Drago said...: Tim Meads on Twitter re: Chris Sununu's pretend presidential campaign:

"Today, Sununu took a jab at Ron DeSantis, by saying, “I’m number one in personal freedoms. Sorry, Ron. You’re number 2.”

He also admitted he has no desire to fight the culture war and is moderate on social issues.

He likes to “manage” things. GOP needs a leader, not a manager."

Perfect GOPe-er....which means a democratical who also simply wants a few more capital gain tax cuts.

Hampton Prescott responds:

Hampton Prescott@hprescott1991
"Sununu running on a message of pretending that it’s 2004 is something that I’m skeptical will work; 2/10/23, 8:38 PM
Original Mike said...: "Reportedly, at Mariupol, a couple of these helicopters were shot down, and the bodies of high ranking NATO officers were recovered."

Recovered by whom?; 2/10/23, 8:47 PM
Narr said...: I read about the NATO (and French!) officers in Mariupol on another blog, but the story was memory-holed by the Nazilluminati Gnomes of Zurich.; 2/10/23, 9:19 PM
Dr Weevil said...: Original Mike (8:47pm):
Don't worry about it. It's the usual baloney that 'tim in vermont' copies from sources so obviously untrustworthy that he can't link them without revealing what bullshit they are. His 'reports' about helicopters fleeing from Bakhmut seem to be made up. I googled helicopters + Bakhmut and got nothing of the sort, just reports of 1 Ukrainian and several Russian helicopters being shot down there. Unlike Mariupol, which was entirely surrounded for weeks, and only accessible by helicopter, Bakhmut still has at least one road open, with people going both ways in vehicles, so no need for flights.

The report about high-rankind NATO officers' bodies seems to be a lie, too. Surely the Russians would have identified them by now and made a big deal about returning their bodies. So who are they?

By the way, Googling that, I found many sites, all of them obviously untrustworthy, claiming that 1 American and 1 Canadian 3-star generals had been captured at Mariupol. The American (Roger Cloutier) soon popped up on the web to prove it was false. The Canadian (Trevor Cadieu) was in Mariupol a month before it fell, but was no longer a Canadian soldier: he resigned his commission the year before, just as he was about to be named commander of the Canadian army, when a woman accused him of raping her in 1994 (interesting timing). Wikipedia says he was not captured in Mariupol, but doesn't seem to know where he is now. Avoiding the rape charge? Hiring lawyers? But there is zero evidence that he is in Russian hands.

What's particularly interesting is that the sites pushing these stories are so stupid: at least one says Trevor Cadieu is the US general, and several talk about 'Roger Cadieu', mingling the two names. In short, obvious Russian trolls.

So, 'tim in vermont': if you want to talk about Ukraine, either provide links or be damned as a lying piece of crap. Your choice. But don't ask us to waste our time checking your statements, since they are almost invariably not only false but obviously false. You owe me $60 for the time I've spent checking your latest lies.; 2/10/23, 10:39 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I thought this might be happening.

Rise in fetal demise after receiving the jab

Hint: whistleblower; 2/10/23, 10:42 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Glenn Greenwald: When he (Sam Harris) said anything and everything is justified to help Dems win - lying, censorship, disinformation - he was conveying what most in media and left-liberal politics believe.

"Anything and everything"; up to and including election theft?

link; 2/10/23, 10:50 PM
gadfly said...: Donald Trump’s own attorney, Evan Corcoran, spent several hours in January testifying to Jack Smith’s grand jury against TFG.; 2/11/23, 1:31 AM
n.n said...: Recovered by whom?

bin Laden. We never saw his corpse. al-Gaddafi? Seriously, what difference, at this point, does it make? A world war... a Spring over there. It doesn't affect us. Forward! Human rites for human rights, lust wins, and don't block access to the chambers... clinics. Reactionaries to progress are religious/moral/ethical/legal extremists.; 2/11/23, 2:39 AM
n.n said...: figure out a way to blame Elon Musk

Musk is African-American, a Person of Color, but not on the Rainbow spectrum, and not politically congruent ("="). A "burden" to the established religious paradigm. Abort him if you can. Impeach him if you can't. What difference, at this point, does it make? Just do it!

Oh, and he's is known to be an extreme reactionary that supports age of consent and other models of social conservativism. Liberate your children, Musk and female-adjacent companion. #NoJudgment #LabelsAreRegressive #LustWins; 2/11/23, 2:48 AM
Jaq said...: "Recovered by whom?"

We saw a picture of a "retired" American colonel marched out of Mariupol, he was so skinny compared to earlier photos, he looked like he was approaching starvation. But if you believe that there are no NATO officers in Ukraine, go ahead and believe it.; 2/11/23, 5:20 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Somewhere there is sunshine! Good to see!; 2/11/23, 5:32 AM
Jaq said...: There are also rumors in Europe that Sholz is not talking to his Foreign Minister, the one who claimed that "Germany is at war with Russia," and speculation is because she was briefed on the plan to blow up the pipeline, and that she worked behind Sholz's back with the US and UK to trick Sholz into sending tanks. Sholz said that Germany would not send tanks unless the US did the same, so the US promised to send Abrams tanks, but after Germany made the commitment, the US has started making excuses and put off the delivery of tanks for at least a year, while strongly hinting that the M1 Abrams is unsuited to Ukraine, anyway.

Now Germany has sent, along with a couple dozen Leopard IIs, over a hundred outdated Leopard One tanks, with easily pierced armor, he may as well be sending coffins and cyanide pills.

Maybe it's all a psy-op, and this war is a good idea, and we are going to win and liberate the Russians from the chains of Putinism, and after we collect the 72 trillion dollars in mineral wealth to be divvied up between the Clintons and the Bidens, and I am sure the Bush and Cheney family will be cut in, move on and save the Chinese, once Hunter is president, forcing Iran and North Korea, and even Cuba, to fold their hands. Then we will be cracking the champaign.

BTW, Hunter's old boss at Burisma had his home raided on suspicion of corruption by Zelensky's government, can you imagine?; 2/11/23, 5:37 AM
Jaq said...: "In view of the report, the AfD called for open questions about the explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea to be clarified by a committee of inquiry in the Bundestag. It is about the question of whether "NATO's leading power in European waters perpetrated an attack on our country's vital critical infrastructure," said AfD$ parliamentary group leader Tino Chrupalla. Should this be the case, US troops could no longer remain in Germany: "The consequence would be the withdrawal of all US troops." The Bundestag has "a right to know what knowledge the federal government has". - German newspaper, Tagesschau

https://www.tagesschau.de/faktenfinder/nord-stream-usa-hersh-101.html

They have to lie now. This is just like the Hunter laptop, the story is suppressed in the US, same as the story of us killing the peace talks. Joe Biden is a reckless old fool.

*The AfD is the third largest political party in Germany, populist, and of course smeared as "neo-fascist" because they oppose supporting the fascists in Ukraine.; 2/11/23, 6:00 AM
Jaq said...: OK, last one from the German press

" After careful consideration, the Federal Government has come to the conclusion that the questions cannot be answered for reasons of public welfare." Even the environmental catastrophe caused by escaping methane gas is apparent The FDP had already said not to really interest the Greens .

https://www.freitag.de/autoren/sebastianpuschner/wer-profitiert-von-seymour-hershs-enthuellung-zu-den-nord-stream-anschlaegen; 2/11/23, 6:05 AM
rhhardin said...: Radio Derb has taken the time with a recording of Biden's state of the union speech to figure out what Biden will veto any increase in the price of : Srisizhiumjubs.

No need to hoard it.; 2/11/23, 6:25 AM
Humperdink said...: It has been revealed that Yoel Roth, Former Head of Trust & Safety at Twitter, met with the FBI on a weekly basis. Sweet. Scratch a liberal, find a tyrant.; 2/11/23, 6:58 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Cancel?
https://twitter.com/i/status/1622716178798968840; 2/11/23, 7:37 AM
Rusty said...: Original Mike said...
"So Biden couldn't see his way clear to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon until it had collected all the data it could, but a cylindrical object of unknown origin and no discernible method of propulsion, THAT he shoots down."
Hey! You know. If they're not paying the ,"Big Guy", they don't get an over flight.; 2/11/23, 8:15 AM
Original Mike said...: I just hope the aliens aren't pissed.; 2/11/23, 8:56 AM
Original Mike said...: "The report about high-rankind NATO officers' bodies seems to be a lie, too. Surely the Russians would have identified them by now and made a big deal about returning their bodies. So who are they?"

That's why I asked who recovered them. If Putin, he'd be shouting it from the rooftops. So either someone else recovered them, or it's not true. A legitimate question to Tim's vague post, but all I get in return is deflection.

You're not making it easy to believe you, Tim.; 2/11/23, 8:59 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I deleted a post that had a lot of extra paragraph breaks. You can republish it without the extra space. It was a problem of form, not substance.; 2/11/23, 10:08 AM
Jaq said...: "Surely the Russians would have identified them by now and made a big deal about returning their bodies."

Believe what you will, you can make an inference that it's a lie. "My country right or wrong," isn't that solid a basis for arriving at the truth of a situation. You can imagine that NATO has no operatives in Ukraine. maybe you can even explain why the Pentagon is requesting a renewal of funding for the operation of US Special Forces in Ukraine.

Here is a "fact check" from a well funded global news source that, BTW, didn't manage to contact the retired Admiral for comment.

https://observers.france24.com/en/europe/20220523-no-this-photo-doesn-t-show-an-american-admiral-captured-by-russians-in-mariupol

No, he wasn't captured at Mariupol, but this person looks like him, he was a Navy Seal, and doesn't seem to have been heard from since the photo was taken of this captive, that I can find anyway, If somebody can provide "proof of life back here in the USA," I would consider that a much more convincing refutation. Instead we get the old, "No Hunter Biden didn't molest a young woman with red hair at 4:23 PM, April 12, 2011." type refutation.; 2/11/23, 10:22 AM
gilbar said...: North Carolina considers requiring all absentee ballots to arrive by Election Day
Good Christ! What's Next? Requiring that Only Citizens be allowed to send in absentee ballots?
Requiring that Only LIVING Citizens be allowed to send in absentee ballots?
Requiring that Only ONE ballot per voter be allowed?

These Crazy Tarheels are out to DESTROY our democratic (party) ideals!!; 2/11/23, 10:26 AM
n.n said...: Surely the Russians would have identified them by now and made a big deal about returning their bodies.

Not necessarily. Unlike their Western activist counterparts, the Russians have not demonstrated a need to indulge narcissistic bias, let alone prejudice.; 2/11/23, 10:44 AM
Jaq said...: On March 29, 2022, General Eric Vidaud, director of French military intelligence, was dismissed. No official explanation was given. It seems that in reality, General Viaud had deployed men on the direct instruction of President Macron’s private staff, in 2021 when he was commander of special operations, to supervise the Azov Banderites regiment. Immediately, five Ukrainian helicopters tried to flee Mariupol, the stronghold of the Azov regiment. Two were shot down on March 30. The survivors were taken prisoner by the Russian army. They spoke immediately. The soldiers of the Special Operations Command are placed for all logistical matters under the orders of the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, General Thierry Burkhard, but they take their orders directly from the head of the armed forces, President Emmanuel Macron.. - Thierry Meyssan

This appears to have been a rumor, the guy above is accused of being a "conspiracy theorist." I don't know, I know that's a convenient label for people who get too close to the truth, but he has written a whole book on 9-11, and maybe has gone off the deep end, IDK. I won't vouch for him.

I write this stuff from memory some of it. It's a complicated matter and I make mistakes, but it's not a rumor that helicopters were shot down in the final days of Mariupol, evacuating high value personnel. It is a rumor that these same kinds of helicopters were seen flying low out of Bakhmut.

Why would Putin not make a big deal of having the bodies of NATO personnel? Maybe it was a personal favor to Erdogan, Erdogan is famous for being a wheeler dealer, and covering up French involvement in Mariupol would be a high value favor to Macron. I am not saying that is what happened. I don't know, I am just trying to sort through the lies. Motivations are not always obvious, ever, but especially in wartime. At the time, Putin was still in the kid gloves stage of this war, and was allowing "humanitarian corridors" for people to escape. They don't do that anymore, and such should not be expected at Bakhmut.; 2/11/23, 11:13 AM
Jaq said...: Well, I have admitted I have been misled, and repeated an unverified rumor as fact, thank you for nailing me on it I don't like to be wrong, and let me leave you with this little fact, Erdogan has kept Finland and Sweden out of NATO, thus far, anyway. It seems like that act would be worth a lot of back-scratching by Putin, including hiding NATO bodies. But that is *pure speculation*. Only to make the point that Russian motivations are not necessarily obvious.; 2/11/23, 11:23 AM
Jaq said...: Well, I have admitted I have been misled, and repeated an unverified rumor as fact, thank you for nailing me on it I don't like to be wrong, and let me leave you with this little fact, Erdogan has kept Finland and Sweden out of NATO, thus far, anyway. It seems like that act would be worth a lot of back-scratching by Putin, including hiding NATO bodies. But that is *pure speculation*. Only to make the point that Russian motivations are not necessarily obvious.; 2/11/23, 11:24 AM
Original Mike said...: You have a problem answering a simple, straightforward question, Tim.

I didn't say "My country right or wrong," I didn't say "NATO has no operatives in Ukraine", and I didn't say the other stuff your putting in my mouth.

You said "Reportedly, at Mariupol, a couple of these helicopters were shot down, and the bodies of high ranking NATO officers were recovered." and I simply asked "Recovered by whom?". The Russians? The Ukrainians? Somebody else? I can't form an opinion on the veracity of this "report" without this simple fact.; 2/11/23, 12:17 PM
Narr said...: Why, Tim, would the Ukrainians let the French (of all people!) take command (supervision) of Uke units that had been fighting the Russians for years?

Are there Western military forces in Ukraine? Of course there are, to some degree, or the Western aid wouldn't be as effective as it apparently has. Are they in command of operations? Doubtful IMO.

The Erdogan-Putin-NATO corpse coverup theory is Rube Goldberg, regardless of how non-obvious Russian motivations are. So instead of Russian motivation not to trumpet NATO/French nefariousness, what is the Russian goal in doing so?

Finally, eastern Ukraine is a MAJOR GUCKING WAR ZONE. Helicopters are moving every day, whether it makes the news or not.; 2/11/23, 12:44 PM
gadfly said...: Those of us who followed the Pittsburgh Pirates in their golden years are stunned that Governor Ron DeSantis, who was not even born when Roberto Clemente died in a tragic plane crash on 12/31/72, would ban a book written about the greatest Puerto Rican ever to have played baseball in the bigs.

Burn those books, Governor, but you should withdraw from running for President. We don't need four more years of fake conservatism.; 2/11/23, 1:09 PM
MadTownGuy said...: Ftom Blaska's Policy Werkes blog:

Fear and loathing on the University campus (UW Madison, of course)

It includes a chart showing categories of students by political bent and the percentages of them who are afraid to express their views.

One 'astute' commenter said "Interesting chart. One other thing it shows is a direct correlation between being conservative and the feeling of being a victim. A MAGA trait that runs deep." Pretty much his usual modus, whereby he makes statements with no factual basis, with the obligatory oblique Trump reference.; 2/11/23, 2:25 PM
320Busdriver said...: why there isn't going to be a covid vaccine

https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/why-there-isnt-going-to-be-a-covid

Enjoy; 2/11/23, 5:33 PM
Dr Weevil said...: Yesterday, in the SpaceX post, 'tim in vermont' alleged that the Kyiv Independent, which I'm quite sure he has never read, was an organ of propaganda with "a job of keeping up morale in wartime". I'm pretty sure he read my reply "that they have in fact been severely criticized for running stories that are damaging to morale but true. There was a multi-part one about accusations that the leaders of the international volunteers fighting in Ukraine were mistreating their soldiers and lining their own pockets by stealing contributions and selling weapons." If he did, he made sure not to admit it.

Today there's another piece of evidence. The top story in today's K.I. is headed:

"New media law: Tool to fight Russian propaganda or censorship attempt?"

Here is how it begins:

"Ukraine’s new media law, signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky in December, has triggered a major controversy.

"The law expands the powers of the media regulator, the National Council for Television and Radio. Specifically, it gives it the authority to block some media outlets without a court ruling.

"Its supporters argue that Ukraine needs a strong regulator to fight Russian propaganda and resist Russian aggression.

"But critics say that the media law can be used to censor pro-Ukrainian media critical of the incumbent government.

"The National Council for Television and Radio is fully controlled by Zelensky and cannot be considered an independent regulator, opponents of the law argue."

You can read the whole thing at the link without registering or accepting cookies, unlike the site 'tim' just linked. Is that pro-Zelensky propaganda? Or an honest journalist with an unfortunate name (Sukhov, pronounced 'Sukhoff') giving both sides of an important story and strongly suggesting that he's on the anti-Zelensky side, confident that he lives in an imperfect democracy where he can speak the truth?

Another examples of non-propaganda in the Twitter accounts I follow that 'tim' has dismissed as propaganda, also from yesterday:

@IntelCrab links to an 8-part Twitter thread about a partially successful Russian strike on a bridge that is the only connection between Odessa and the far southwest of Ukraine. It used a sea-drone or undersea-drone - an unmanned remote-controlled ship or submarine loaded with explosives. This is very bad news for the Ukrainians, since the Russians hadn't previously done that, and the Ukrainians had done it a couple of times, but (a) probably can't now, without Musk's satellites to guide them, and (b) may not be able to prevent more such attacks, for the same reason. Like the other Twitterers I've recommended, @IntelCrab reports the good and bad news from Ukraine, though he obviously likes the good news a lot better.

Do I need to link to more examples, or will honest people admit that my sources are not in fact propagandists (=liars) but honest pro-Ukrainian reporters doing their best to tell the truth?; 2/11/23, 5:59 PM