June 18, 2023

At the Sunday Night Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

UPDATE: I screwed up this post and deleted comments — I thought I was writing in an empty window when I was writing the first post of Monday morning —  but fortunately I had a window open and preserved them. So here they are:

15 COMMENTS:

Trump is leading Biden by 6 points in latest poll by Harvard - Harris. They are going to have to imprison him.

Spiros Pappas said...

If the Supreme Court reverses affirmative action, it will also have to end qualified immunity for admissions offices at state universities. 

Gusty Winds said...

I like RFK Jr. He is making a certain amount of leftists, liberals, and feminists wake up who had their ears and minds closed during the pandemic and the 2020 election, for their own self-preservation.  

Remember how The Fonze could never say he was wrong? He finally, barely admitted in one episode of Happy Days, I was...."wr, wr, wrooo...oooo....nnngg..."

Same with the mRNA shots and the 2020 election fraud. Who is The Fonze of the feminist matriarchy that will now come forth and lead the pussy-hatted women to the light of truth? At least for the protection of the children. 

wildswan said...

Marketeering has gotten too far away from its roots. It isn't people knowing how to sell a product because they understand the customers and share their likes; it's people selling themselves because they understand their employers and share their outlook. It's people willing to sell EV cars in California while being willing to support continual reductions in the California electrical supply. The ones who can see the contradiction are Republicans who don't get hired or don't get promoted and move to Florida or Tennessee. The ones who can't or won't see the contradiction are Democrats who call pointing out facts "divisiveness" or "being white supremacists." And when all the "white supremacists" have left California and the abandoned EV cars are being stripped by the homeless in the dark and it's Donner party time in downtown SF, it's very possible that todays Dems will still be there saying the same things. It's very possible that they are now so behaviorally conditioned by years of repetition which they, even now, are too dulled to resent, that they will still be repeating "ACAB" when the last light goes out and the Reapers ... 
(see Firefly for the conclusion.0) 

wildswan said...

Marketeering has gotten too far away from its roots. It isn't people knowing how to sell a product because they understand the customers and share their likes; it's people selling themselves because they understand their employers and share their outlook. It's people willing to sell EV cars in California while being willing to support continual reductions in the California electrical supply. The ones who can see the contradiction are Republicans who don't get hired or don't get promoted and move to Florida or Tennessee. The ones who can't or won't see the contradiction are Democrats who call pointing out facts "divisiveness" or "being white supremacists." And when all the "white supremacists" have left California and the abandoned EV cars are being stripped by the homeless in the dark and it's Donner party time in downtown SF, it's very possible that todays Dems will still be there saying the same things. It's very possible that they are now so behaviorally conditioned by years of repetition which they, even now, are too dulled to resent, that they will still be repeating "ACAB" when the last light goes out and the Reapers ... 
(see Firefly for the conclusion.) 

gadfly said...

Yesterday, on MSNBC, John Bolton noted the unobvious, when he said:

"I think the party as a whole is risking falling into the trap of Caesarism, that this leader gets deference regardless of our political principles. And I think we've got to follow our principles . . .."

What the fudge is Caesarism? Confusedly, it is a concept based on Bonapart, not Caesar. Some summary stuff follows but the whole article, written by Prof. David Bell is here.

According to former CIA director Michael Hayden, “There is a bit of autocrat envy in terms of [former president Trump's] attitude toward the President of the Russian Federation.” Trump shares Putin’s disdain for restrains on executive power and craves the same sort of direct, unmediated connection with the population. The [August 2020] decision by the Republican National Convention . . . to dispense with a party platform and simply support whatever Trump wants is a Caesarist move. The decision to have half the lead speakers at the Republican Convention come from Trump’s own family recalls the way Napoleon Bonaparte made his extended empire into a family business staffed in large part by his brothers and sisters.

Still, Trump also differs from Putin and historical Caesarists in several respects. He has no military victories to his credit, even if he claims to have won several trade wars, and routinely treats foreign countries (especially allies) with bumptious hostility. While he offers boilerplate praise for democracy, he rarely presents himself as the people’s servant (he can’t bear, after all, to see himself in a subordinate position). Most significantly, the hyper-partisan Trump barely even gestures towards the idea of national unity. He did do so during the 2016 presidential campaign when he seemed to challenge the mainstream of his party over foreign military action and also cutting federal spending. . . . But in office, he has shown nothing but disdain for his political opponents and their supporters.

To me, the rise of a nominally democratic strongman in America in the years ahead seems no more unlikely than the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte would have seemed in France in 1794 — or the election of Donald Trump at the beginning of the 2010s. The conditions, and precedents for it, exist. It isn’t an American fascist we have to fear — it’s an American Caesar.

A 71-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly starting a devastating massive forest fire in Yosemite National Park that was previously thought to have been caused by climate change.

Edward Fredrick Wackerman of Mariposa, Calif., was busted Friday on suspicion of arson for allegedly igniting the Oak Fire, which destroyed 127 homes, caused thousands of people to evacuate and ravaged nearly 20,000 acres of vegetation in July 2022.


Hmmm. 

rehajm said...

6 Reasons DOJ ‘Get Trump’ Case is Seriously Flawed

…the analysis legal scholars everywhere find too boring to acknowledge

Ahem! Don't you think you should search the archive of this blog to make sure I didn't post this link? Or was that too boring?

 

wendybar said...

"In a number of real ways, Donald J. Trump is today’s version of one of those 56 Signers to the Declaration. In 2015, he had billions of dollars; a life of luxury, and the guarantee that his life of privilege and power would continue for both him and his family.

But then, he paused to look at an America being destroyed from within by the dictates of the far left and the corrupt elites and decided he had to step up and speak out."

https://townhall.com/columnists/douglasmackinnon/2023/06/19/i-like-desantis-but-i-am-voting-trump-to-save-our-nation-n2624658

Humperdink said...

I follow my senator John Fetterman pretty closely, but somehow I missed him saying I-95 in Philly was a "major eatery". 

Clyde said...

@ tim in vermont

Wackerman: L'climate change, c'est moi!

Mr. Forward said...

My favorite part at a Biden rally is the balloon drop.

Maybe I should read Brave New World again. Aldous Huxly called it. 

"Aldous Huxley predicted a form of dictatorship that would rely not on force, but propaganda—and addiction."

https://twitter.com/bfcarlson/status/1670751438715367429

The first sign I noticed was when Al Gore started talking about the amygdala of voters instead of relying on evidence and logic to push his global warming crapola. This is the fatal flaw of democracy. Honestly, nobody but the rubes believes in it anymore.

Clyde said...

@ gadfly

Isn't it funny how the RINOs and the leftists are bleating about Trump and "Caesarism" while the Big Guy in the White House is at least ten times the "Caesarist" that Trump could ever dream of being, with his lawless "disdain for restraints on executive power." Projection, bigly.

farmgirl said...

Is there unseasonable weather of too wet/too dry- too hot/too cold… anywhere else out there?
It’s f/king wet and cold up here in the NEK- I do hear a hot spell is headed our way. 

25 comments:

wendybar said...



Solid points here that the Republicans SHOULD do, but won't...because to many of them will cave to the left...

"The Education bill might be a good place to start.
Put the bill in a fancy box. Start at the Capitol steps, then walk down the halls with cameras running and present it to the Majority Leader. Then go back to the steps of the Capitol and loudly proclaim that the House has done its duty to fund Education.

Now comes the hardest part of all: doing nothing. When the Senate screams, simply repeat: “We funded the Department of Education.” When the Senate sends a different bill back, ignore it. We don’t need the DOE. It’s positively harmful. So, if it gets zero funded by the Senate’s disagreement, what do we care? We funded it. The Senate refused to go along. And the leftist indoctrination establishment just got dumped on its ass."
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/06/the_republican_house_must_make_the_senate_offers_it_cant_refuse.html

alanc709 said...

We live in a gulag, and the left pretends the right built it. Happy Juneteenth to all you abortion survivors.

NKP said...

My favorite part at a Biden rally is the balloon drop.

Could this not be improved by a WKRP-style "Turkey Drop"?

Whiskeybum said...

farmgirl - NEK: I had to look that one up. My whole family is traveling from WI to VT (Burlington) to visit my wife's sister's family over the July 4th week. Please have some warm weather by then - we want to go sailing!

wendybar said...

"I'm a huge fan of Ron DeSantis and hope he becomes president someday. But we need an encore election of President Trump in 2024. It's important for America that the overthrow of a duly elected president fail. That is what the Deep State has attempted to do — overthrow the elected Trump and deny him any return to office. America is experiencing a multi-year coup, to deny us our choice of leadership. But that coup fails when Trump returns to office."

THIS!! THIS!!! THIS!!!^^^

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/06/have_trumps_tribulations_been_a_blessing_in_disguise.html

wendybar said...

STILL think it is a conspiracy theory?? Their plan is nearing completion, and the American public are too stupid to realize it, because they are afraid to be called conspiracy theorists...

Progressives did this. They are selling out America as fast as they can.


https://twitter.com/PvanHouwelingen/status/1668248070440603648?

Dave Begley said...

Was there a vote on declaring today a national holiday? If so, I missed it.

Old and slow said...

Ireland is having very unusual weather this summer. Very hot (for Ireland, that is, mid 70's) and sunny interspersed with heavy thunderstorms. More usual would be cool, overcast, and drizzly weather.

Whiskeybum said...

What happened to last night's open comments? I had just posted something there, but when I went back, the 'Weekend' topic was posted, and the open comments topic had disappeared... all of the comments from the open post seem to have transferred over to the new Weekend topic.

planetgeo said...

Ann, I think you could have gotten more comments on your intended subject if you had trolled us like you did with Father's Day and said something like, "I think we should just get rid of weekends because of the senescence of the concept."

NKP said...

Had my "Juneteenth" moment a day early at Sam's Club yesterday.

Went in looking for something. Turned out to be a too-big something. So, I turned back to return the empty shopping cart to the store entrance.

Being Sunday, the place was packed. No biggie. If people in the long check-out lines see you coming, they move aside to let you pass. If the don't see you coming, saying "excuse me" will get you a pass and often a smile.

The person standing in the line I wanted to pass knew I was coming but turned her head the other way. When arriving at the solid line, I politely said "excuse me". She slowly turned to look at me and said, "You can't get by here, you'll have to go back and around all the registers." At least she was gracious enough to not include "White Boy" in her response.

I left the cart right there beside her. My wife was so pleased that I walked away without a word.

Where is the "Juneteenth" for all the other ethnic groups who were horribly mistreated when arriving on our shores to escape worse conditions in their home country.

Where's the celebration of the Japanese who lost everything when sent to camps? The Chinese who built our western railroads? The Mexicans who harvested our crops? The Vietnamese, the Poles, the Italians, the Irish?

All these people endured and many prospered. If there had been a land bridge or available shipping that allowed Africans to voluntarily come to America, would they have come? Would they have seen a brighter future here after initial sacrifice?

It's a shame so many Asians worked so hard that they now must give up their place to the perpetual victim class.

Make no mistake I recognize that many people so-labeled are hard-working, honorable people and many of them brighten my days with a smile, a word or a generous offer of assistance. So sad that their own leaders work so hard to hold them back.

Ann Althouse said...

Please observe the subject matter of this post.

Sorry to delete so many comments, but people were treating this like an open thread. There is an open thread just below this. Sorry if you lost your way, but let's get on track here.

There are 5 or 10 topics in this post. If you don't like any of them, go back to the open thread.

Michael said...

I get 7 paid holidays during the year. My daughter, a government employee, gets 13. That's an entire extra work week off.

Old and slow said...

This post was linking directly to the open thread comments page. That is why so many (including me) were posting open comments to it. It wasn't that everyone was confused.

Old and slow said...

In fact, the open thread comments are now all gone (as is the post).

john said...

What is a week end? I hope this is on topic, professor.

Rocco said...

The Boomtown Rats, I don't like Mondays: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yteMugRAc0

One of the little not necessarily true pieces of wisdom that used to float around the car market was "Don't buy a car made on a Monday or a Friday." The logic behind the truism was that workers would be hung over or sluggish from the weekend and would not be doing their best work that day. The same way, they would be rushing things on a Friday in anticipation of the weekend.

Wince said...

"Sounds like somebody's got a case of the Mondays."

Ann Althouse said...

Uh... that was my mistake.

Sorry!

Rocco said...

gadfly said...
"Yesterday, on MSNBC, John Bolton noted the unobvious, when he said: 'I think the party as a whole is risking falling into the trap of Caesarism, that this leader gets deference regardless of our political principles.'"

I agree with that sentiment. I noticed it started to ramp up when they defended Bill Clinton's perjury under oath (for which he was disbarred). It took a giant step forward when they defended Obama ramping up the worst policies of Bush II. And did a whole bunch of other bad things they would have criticized a Republican for. The process was complete by the time they defended Hilary's blatantly illegal server and destroying evidence. And they've descended from tragedy into farce defending the administration of the current occupant of the White House.

Rocco said...

Humperdink said...
"I follow my senator John Fetterman pretty closely, but somehow I missed him saying I-95 in Philly was a 'major eatery'."

The Roadkill Cafe

Ann Althouse said...

I have made this mistake before and vowed (to myself) never to make it again. What happens is I open a window but don't use it, so it looks new. Then later, looking at a page that collects all the post, I see this window represented as a yet-unused page and I click on it, so that now there are 2 open windows for the same page. I write a post on one of those pages and publish it. But then later, I see the blank page and think it's a place to write a new post, but writing on that and publishing it replaces the other post.

I usually figure out I've made the mistake again when I see all the comments from an old post mysteriously appearing on this new post. But somehow this morning, instead of realizing I'd made that mistake again, I thought 15 commenters had — in a really short time — mistaken my new post for an open thread.

I need to wake up!

farmgirl said...

Funny, sleepy lady lol.

Rusty said...

I think we'll get over it.

walter said...

Wackerman, appropriately a donor to the perverse Lincoln Project.