Althouse: At the Thursday Night Café...

April 13, 2023

At the Thursday Night Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

32 comments:

Drago said...: Just as predicted, lefty billionaire Reid Hoffman right in the middle of funding E. Jean Carroll's totally "legit" lawsuit against Trump.

Hoffman you will recall is also funding so many of those "true republican" FakeCons.; 4/13/23, 7:31 PM
wendybar said...: "Why and how, in just two years, have a confused and often incoherent Joe Biden and his team created such global chaos?"

https://amgreatness.com/2023/04/12/the-biden-10-step-plan-for-global-chaos/; 4/13/23, 7:31 PM
Dave Begley said...: More crying and yelling on the NE Unicam floor today. The Jacobins are upset that they keep losing. The vast majority of Nebraskans agree with the NYT and the UK that it is wrong to mutilate children and pump them full of experimental drugs.

It really is fascinating to hear the moral depravity and crazy talk from the Left. Insanity unbounded.; 4/13/23, 7:43 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: We want to warn our viewers. This is extremely disturbing. Discretion is advised.

"Looks like Twitter actually is full of hate speech"

Hint: r/walkaway post; 4/13/23, 8:11 PM
Joe Smith said...: Has your stock portfolio improved?

Are interest rates down so you can better afford a home?

How about inflation? Do your groceries cost less?

Do you pay less for gas at the pumps or for electricity/gas to heat your home?

Are we spending less money to engage in proxy wars?

Is the military better prepared to face potential threats?

Is speech more open and less censored?

Are schools and universities doing a better job of educating children?

Can you name a single thing that has improved under the current administration?

Please, enlighten me.; 4/13/23, 8:29 PM
Mark said...: Llano,Texas, where today they decided not to close all Publix libraries in the County due to challenges about a book on the KKK.

Keep going, GOP. Nothing could go wrong with your strategy.; 4/13/23, 9:20 PM
Joe Smith said...: Funny how the media cares only about the leaker and not what was leaked.

U.S. Boots on ground in Ukraine?

Russia winning the war despite U.S. billions?

Yawn.

They all work for Uncle Sam...; 4/13/23, 10:37 PM
Jupiter said...: I have been reading about the fall of the Soviet Union, arguably the most astonishing event in a century of astonishment. During Stalin's reign, the Soviet ideology held that if you were tasked with torturing someone, to elicit a confession of anti-Soviet actions, and you came to suspect that your helpless victim was actually innocent, and felt inclined therefore to stop torturing her, you were succumbing to "bourgeois morality". That is, your victim's innocence or guilt was irrelevant. Her torture served the Soviet project, and was therefore not only justified, but necessary. Any qualms you might feel were evidence that your own grasp of doctrine was shaky. Perhaps you needed to have a towel shoved in your mouth, and used to tie your feet behind your neck. Then you could be left alone, on your belly, in a dark cell, to contemplate Soviet truth for a day or two. Just as you had done so often to your victims. Pravda!

It might seem that a regime capable of inflicting this level of terror upon a nation would be invincible. Who would dare to oppose such a state? And yet, two generations later, it collapsed. Apparently, people can be made to act like that, but they can't be made to like it.; 4/13/23, 10:50 PM
Jupiter said...: Apparently, there is such a thing as human nature. And it is a good deal more benign than any of those who decry it.; 4/13/23, 10:56 PM
DINKY DAU 45 said...: Oh Clarence" there's someone on the phone wants to know if you reported that estate you sold your rich pal there, what's his Name? You want me to tell them you just forgot? Oh Clarence, your such a jokester the cream really rises to the very top doesn't it dear? Do you think John and the rest of your collogues up in that office you run will find out? Oh dear not more scrutiny, the nerve. Why don't you give Donnie a call and see what he knows ok. Your so silly!; 4/13/23, 10:56 PM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: I'm having a real problem believing a 21-yo Mass. National Air Guardsman got a hold of a TS(severe damage to national security) document. What was his need to know? Access to such a sensitive document should have been highly restricted. How did he get access to it?

My security level as a newbie engineer at Boeing was Confidential, later raised to Secret about 6-mo later, after I filled out the paperwork and the background check was conducted. A Top Secret clearance requires a lot more information and checking. They're expensive to process, so they're not handed out like candy. Why did this NAG get a TS?

Security training for a SCIF includes the penalties for spilling classified info and the prohibition of cell phones. Didn't the security officer teach this NAG about these things?

This NAG is a fall guy. There are too many holes in the story.; 4/13/23, 11:01 PM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: The Soviet Union was a dictatorship. Unless the guy at the top (Stalin) demanded to know both the good and the bad news, all he'll get is the good news. Telling the boss the bad news is likely to result in the message becoming suddenly dead. Same for all the levels below the top guy. The boss would then believe all is going well when in fact the latest 5-year plan was a total disaster. Or the military readiness was not 100% but only 5% because the endemic corruption means half of the troops are phantoms and the diesel fuel is not in the depots, but sold to Uncle Petrov's Fine Tractors Emporium.

Dictatorships are solid and resilient until stress of incoherence starts a quick cascade failure. Then they're toast.; 4/13/23, 11:15 PM
Joe Smith said...: 'Llano,Texas, where today they decided not to close all Publix libraries in the County due to challenges about a book on the KKK.'

You mean the books about Democrats?; 4/13/23, 11:31 PM
gadfly said...: With apologies to F. Scott Fitzgerald: “They were careless people, [Clarence and Ginni] - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”; 4/14/23, 12:58 AM
Gospace said...: Joe Smith said...
.....
Can you name a single thing that has improved under the current administration?

Please, enlighten me.

No mean tweets! Isn't all the rest worth that?; 4/14/23, 1:21 AM
gadfly said...: The part of Jeannie Carroll's non-profit financial support that Drago omitted:

“It is facially absurd for Trump to insist that Reid Hoffman, who has never met or communicated with Carroll, possesses evidence bearing on the truth or falsity of Carroll’s battery and defamation claims.”

Just another Trump delay tactic.; 4/14/23, 1:24 AM
lonejustice said...: Interesting take on what voters think of the Trump indictment:

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/04/what-do-voters-make-of-the-trump-indictment.php; 4/14/23, 1:27 AM
Narayanan said...: Blogger Dave Begley said
... The Jacobins
========
what is meaning of Jacobins? anybody know? is it special jargon?; 4/14/23, 2:42 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Matt Taibbi - The Crackdown Cometh:
On a flight, reading about the FBI’s arrest of Jack Texiera, already dubbed the “Pentagon Leaker.” A quick review reveals multiple media portraits already out depicting him as a dangerous incel who shared his wares on Discord, a social media app where “racist memes” and “offensive jokes” flourish.

The New York Times summarized key points in the secret defense documents, which among other things suggested “Ukrainian forces are in more dire straits than their government has acknowledged publicly.” Reading what’s out there, it’s not easy to parse what’s a legitimate intelligence concern in reaction to these leaks and what’s mere embarrassment at having been caught lying, to the public, to would-be U.S. allies the documents show we’ve been spying on, etc.

You’ll read a lot in the coming days about the dangers of apps like Discord, or of online gaming groups, which counterintelligence officials told the Washington Post today are a “magnet for spies.” The Leaker tale will also surely be framed as reason to pass the RESTRICT Act, the wet dream of creepazoid Virginia Senator Mark Warner, which would give government wide latitude to crack down on “communication technology” creating “undue or unacceptable risk” to national security.

The intelligence community has itself been massively interfering in domestic news using illegal leaks for years. Remember the “Why Did Obama Dawdle on Russia’s Hacking?” story by David Ignatius of the Washington Post in January of 2017, outing would-be Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn as having been captured in intercepts speaking with a Russian ambassador? That was just the first in a string of leak- or intercept-based news stories that dominated news cycles in the Trump years, involving everything from conclusions of the FISA court to supposedly secret meetings in the Seychelles.

When civilians or whistleblowers like Edward Snowden, Julian Assange (in jail for an incredible four years now), Reality Winner and now the “Discord Leaker” bring leaked information to the public, the immediate threat is Espionage Act charges and decades of jail time. When a CIA head or a top FBI official does it, it’s just news. In fact, officials talk openly about using “strategic leaks” as a P.R. staple. In a world where media currency is becoming the ultimate power, these people want a monopoly. It’s infuriating.

Watch how this thing will be spun. It’s going to get ugly fast.; 4/14/23, 3:49 AM
Humperdink said...: As the Chi-Coms in DC push the country headlong into EV's, a question popped up. Are EV's less expensive to insure than ICE vehicles? We know EV's, on average, cost more than gas vehicles to purchase. Auto insurance for EV's? Why of course it cost more to insure an EV. In some cases 50% more. Thanks Brandon!

https://www.moneygeek.com/insurance/auto/electric-vehicle-insurance-costs/#:~:text=On%20average%2C%20electric%20vehicle%20models,costly%20electric%20vehicles%20to%20insure.; 4/14/23, 5:19 AM
Humperdink said...: Can any of the pro-Ukrainian war commenters on this site, of which they are (were) legion, advise when the US's $100 billion investment is going to payoff? Or more importantly, when will the war come to a conclusion? 2023? 2045? 2055? Never? Another question, how many US troops are on the ground in Ukraine? Inquiring minds want to know.; 4/14/23, 5:46 AM
wendybar said...: lonejustice said...
Interesting take on what voters think of the Trump indictment:

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/04/what-do-voters-make-of-the-trump-indictment.php

4/14/23, 1:27 AM

ABC poll?? The people who watch the VIEW??? And you think this is how normal people think?? You really are competing with Chuck.; 4/14/23, 7:05 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: US Gain Of Function = Biden Inc?

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2023/04/13/the-biden-crime-family-was-all-in-on-gain-of-function-research-n1686944; 4/14/23, 7:30 AM
ngtrains said...: Narayanan said...
Blogger Dave Begley said
... The Jacobins
========
what is meaning of Jacobins? anybody know? is it special jargon?

never had a history course?
Too bad, you missed a lot.

obviously, u have a computer
try wikipedia sometime; 4/14/23, 7:59 AM
Rusty said...: gadfly said...
With apologies to F. Scott Fitzgerald: “They were careless people, [Clarence and Ginni] - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
You keep voting for them, gadfly. All this current mess is on you. The rest of us who actually understand how the how and why things are made will have to vote for a Trump to just to begin to clean up your mess.; 4/14/23, 8:16 AM
Rusty said...: My guess, Hump, is that the democrats and GOPe will keep this thing running for as many election cycles as they can get away with. If they can get another Dem in the Whitehouse look for this fiasco to be funded for another ten years.; 4/14/23, 8:21 AM
Drago said...: The Poor Man's LLR-democratical Chuck, gadfly: "
The part of Jeannie Carroll's non-profit financial support that Drago omitted: “It is facially absurd for Trump to insist that Reid Hoffman, who has never met or communicated with Carroll, possesses evidence bearing on the truth or falsity of Carroll’s battery and defamation claims.”

Just another Trump delay tactic."

LOL

Are you trying to outdumb Double Dumb Lefty Mark? If so, congrats.

Does Reid Hoffman need to have met with or spoken with Carroll to have financial backed her transparently false lie-filled politically driven lawfare and grifter driven lawsuit against Trump?

Spoiler: No.; 4/14/23, 8:33 AM
Drago said...: lonejustice: "Interesting take on what voters think of the Trump indictment:..."

Nice try Chuc...er, "lonejustice".

Try again.; 4/14/23, 8:39 AM
Gahrie said...: what is meaning of Jacobins? anybody know? is it special jargon?

It's a reference to the French Revolution. The Jacobins were the ones who instituted and ran the Reign of Terror and executed thousands of people.; 4/14/23, 8:41 AM
Gahrie said...: They were careless people, [Clarence and Ginni]

Now do Bill and Hillary.; 4/14/23, 8:42 AM
Iman said...: Prediction: Joe Biden will resign before the end of 2023.; 4/14/23, 8:51 AM
Kai Akker said...: ---what is meaning of Jacobins? anybody know? is it special jargon?

French Revolution. It has all happened before like this. So good.; 4/14/23, 9:00 AM