Althouse: At the Mourning Cloak Café...

July 2, 2024

At the Mourning Cloak Café...

... you can write about whatever you want.

***

The butterfly is "Nymphalis antiopa, known as the mourning cloak in North America...."

54 comments:

JRoberts said...: It’s amusing to watch the complicit MSM exclaim, “I’m shocked, shocked I tell you, to learn the Biden administration has been hiding Joes physical/mental condition”; 7/2/24, 7:36 PM
pacwest said...: I view Trump as a high risk/high reward President. Not a strategy my conservative nature generally endorses, but given the stakes it's a risk I'm willing to take. I'm more confident of the man and less confident of the inherited circumstances this go around.; 7/2/24, 7:51 PM
Joe Smith said...: It’s amusing to watch the complicit MSM exclaim, “I’m shocked, shocked I tell you, to learn the Biden administration has been hiding Joes physical/mental condition”

Carl 'CIA Asset' Bernstein goes on TV and says it's common knowledge in DC that Biden has had problems for years.

Here's an idea; how about fucking reporting on it then?

It would normally win you a Pulitzer except it goes against the narrative.

It's a real-life "This is fine" meme...; 7/2/24, 7:52 PM
JRoberts said...: I read that some members of Congress want to reduce the facilities budgets of the Department of Education and others due to less than 20% occupancy of many buildings post-COVID from workers wanting to continue to work from home.

Here’s a better idea: Shutdown or dramatically downsize many cabinet level departments and let the taxpayers keep more of their own money..; 7/2/24, 7:53 PM
Wa St Blogger said...: It’s amusing to watch the complicit MSM exclaim, “I’m shocked, shocked I tell you, to learn the Biden administration has been hiding Joes physical/mental condition”

The MSM has been (purposely) wrong about every major political and cultural issue for at least this century that to believe anything they say says far more about you than it does about them. And it tells us about our left leaning commenters than they probably want us to know.; 7/2/24, 8:03 PM
Joe Smith said...: 'Here’s a better idea: Shutdown or dramatically downsize many cabinet level departments and let the taxpayers keep more of their own money..'

No reason to send tax dollars to DC only to be laundered and sent back to the states with strings attached.

Let local education do their jobs. The more local the better...; 7/2/24, 8:03 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I'd like to know who convinced Joe to debate the Donald early, was a good idea.

It must've been someone influential.

Someone like Obama, who must know Biden's chances are slim.; 7/2/24, 8:05 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Headline: "White House Confirms Hunter Biden Prepped the President for Brief Primetime Address"

The one Joe reacted to the Supremes granting Trump impunity.; 7/2/24, 8:10 PM
imTay said...: So two thirds of the new French parliament are going to be voted in as members of parties who oppose France's involvement in Ukraine's civil war, one that had been going on for more than a decade since the US fostered coup there. It's going to be impossible to create a coalition in France that does not include parties opposed to France's involvement in the war, and Micron has been utterly repudiated by the voters of France, there is no other way to look at it, and he was an extremely vocal proponent of involving France directly in a war with Russia,

It looks like Le Pan might actually get a majority. That's right, France is a country of filthy "Putinists"! Actually, it's a country of people who don't think that who rules over a bunch of ethnic Russians in Ukraine is their fight, and they know that the sanctions the US pushed on them have wrecked their economy.; 7/2/24, 8:15 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: YouTube: Ivanka sits down with Lex for 3 hours.; 7/2/24, 8:16 PM
imTay said...: "Someone like Obama, who must know Biden's chances are slim."

Rumor is that Obama favors an open convention. But the whole information space is especially chock full of lies right now.; 7/2/24, 8:18 PM
Money Manger said...: Biden has clearly lost the NYT. The change in tone starting from last Friday is quite noticeable, both on the editorial and on the news side. I’m willing to bet their response to White House complaints is “give us what we’ve been asking for, for three years now: two unscripted hours with our senior editors”.

It won’t happen.

Start the countdown.; 7/2/24, 8:19 PM
Sebastian said...: "Start the countdown."

It's too bad. For Trump and the GOP. Joe crashed too early.; 7/2/24, 8:24 PM
Dr Weevil said...: I've recommended Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews on Twitter) before: she translates all the latest propaganda from Moscow. Now she's written a whole article about Kanye West's visit to Moscow. Here are the first three paragraphs - the other nine are well worth reading, too (link):

Title: "Kanye West's Warm But Definitely Racist Bizarro Welcome to Russia
Subtitle: "The U.S. rapper attracted huge crowds of young fans but the rest of Russia did not know what to make of their first A-List celeb visitor in years."

"Kanye West reportedly went to Moscow to celebrate the birthday of Russian designer Gosha Rubchinskiy—the head of design for the rapper's fashion brand Yeezy. State media used to portray the performer and his wife, Bianca Censori, as symbols of decadent, degenerate Western values, but beggars can't be choosers. Since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-fledged invasion of neighboring Ukraine in 2022, West is the first major celebrity to visit Russia.

"Russia's fascist ideologue Alexander Dugin posted on his Telegram channel, 'By the way, ideologically, Kanye West is ours.' Perhaps he was referring to the comments West made one year ago on Alex Jones' InfoWars, praising Adolf Hitler for what he brought to the table. After the rapper departed Moscow, Dugin wrote, 'He will be back.'

"The American rapper was outwardly welcomed, but resentment was bubbling just under the surface. The Sorok Sorokov Movement, a Russian Orthodox-traditionalist organization, wrote a complaint about West, arguing that his lyrics should be considered propaganda of extremism and drug use. Traditionalist activists demanded that Kanye be banished from Russia and never allowed to return."; 7/2/24, 8:27 PM
imTay said...: Soccer matches in Ukraine used to be famous worldwide for their racist taunts at other European teams who had black players.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/4981613/2023/10/20/ukraine-racism-ban-fine-uefa/; 7/2/24, 8:43 PM
Breezy said...: Media and ruling class at odds, when have we seen this before? All going swimmingly as long as Joe could keep up the charade. But he couldn’t, shockingly, and is now bringing the whole house down.

Who’d have thought the Biden-MSM admin would offer up Trump’s greatest donation? Let’s see what happens…; 7/2/24, 8:44 PM
Original Mike said...: "Biden has clearly lost the NYT. The change in tone starting from last Friday is quite noticeable, both on the editorial and on the news side."

I wonder if the younglings in the news room have realized, for the first time, that they've been lied to by their side.

They're not on "your side", kiddies.; 7/2/24, 8:47 PM
Dr Weevil said...: And imTay desperately tries to change the subject! Did he even read the rest of the story I linked, with Russian professors complaining that they hadn't managed to get the rest of the white race to side with them against the non-whites?
As for "Soccer matches in Ukraine", I've heard that sort of thing happens all over Europe. Has imTay done a comparison, or does he just go looking for anything that appears to back up his stupid prejudices?; 7/2/24, 8:51 PM
Josephbleau said...: "I'd like to know who convinced Joe to debate the Donald early, was a good idea.
It must've been someone influential."

I think the democrats made a strategic break when Obama was nominated and the Carviles and Stephanupolises gave way to the 120 IQ red diaper baby Mao admiring remnants and the staff kids who thought that clearing the day's plate and heading to the afternoon party was effective political science.

Its great to be a staffer if you don't need to do smart things. You are having fun on the cusp of History. You can be like Monica.; 7/2/24, 8:52 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Via X : A joke that didn't bomb

Just the facts ma'am.; 7/2/24, 8:56 PM
AZ Bob said...: LA Times columnist: “With its ‘Chevron’ ruling, the Supreme Court claims to be smarter than scientific experts”

Shouldn’t Congress make the rules? Come on Congress, this is your job.; 7/2/24, 9:30 PM
Mason G said...: "smarter than scientific experts"

Would those be the "experts" that advised on the covid crisis?

Pretty low bar, there.; 7/2/24, 9:40 PM
Saint Croix said...: Biden's campaign plan, according to Politico was to keep everybody's eye on Trump while nobody paid attention to Biden.

“The fact is, there wasn’t an open dialogue about whether he should run except for the people who would benefit from him running,” said a Democratic operative close to the campaign. They described the inner circle, Donilon especially, as convinced “that this was going to be about Trump, not about Biden, and at the end of the day, people just wouldn’t vote for Trump. But here we are, we’re sitting in July, and the race is about Biden, and it’s about a trait you can’t fix.”

That's why the prosecutions were so important. It was an integral part of Biden's campaign strategy. Make Trump look bad. Keep all the negativity on Trump. Meanwhile, Biden hides from the media, and nobody would be allowed to see how bad his Parkinson's had become.; 7/2/24, 9:42 PM
Saint Croix said...: Here's Carl Bernstein on Biden's condition.

"These are people, several of them, who are very close to President Biden, who love him, have supported him. Among them are people who have raised a lot of money for him. And they are adamant that what we saw the other night, the Joe Biden we saw, is not a one-off. There have been 15 to 20 occasions in the last year and a half when the president had appeared somewhat as he did in that horror show that we witnessed."; 7/2/24, 10:10 PM
Drago said...: It's possible Hunter Biden's art "career" (wink wink) could come to an abrupt end in the very near future.

Perhaps a group of LLR's could pool their resources to acquire a few of these "masterpieces" as a diversification investment strategy now that its clear shorting Tesla was less than a stellar business decision.; 7/2/24, 10:18 PM
Drago said...: What I like most about Carl Bernstein is his consistency in coming out at least once per quarter to announce whatever republicans are doing at that time is "worse than Watergate".

These announcements by Bernstein are inevitably followed by John Dean rushing out and screaming Me too! Me too! I think (insert whatever is happening here) is worse than Watergate too! I really do!

LOL; 7/2/24, 10:22 PM
walter said...: "Perhaps a group of LLR's could pool their resources to acquire a few of these "masterpieces" "
--
They might enjoy his rare but revered mixed media Scratch N Sniff series.; 7/2/24, 10:48 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Remember when 51 former CIA/FBI said that Hunter's laptop was "a hallmark of Russian dis-info"
Then the entire media industrial complex complied and the New York Post Story about Hunter was squashed. Talk about election interference.

(btw - the NY Post was started by Alexander Hamilton); 7/2/24, 11:00 PM
Mary Beth said...: I am predicting that the news will report that Biden suffered a stroke, sometime in early to mid August. They'll say it happened while he was whitewater rafting or free climbing. He will survive, but won't be able to talk. It will be that gape-mouthed, dead-eye face all of the time. Fortunately, Hunter will be able to translate Joe's grunts and dribbles.

People will start to catch on that it's not really Joe's instructions when Hunter says that Joe wants the border closed EXCEPT for attractive young women between the ages of 16 and 26. And maybe coke dealers.; 7/2/24, 11:24 PM
Saint Croix said...: Democrat officials are now upping the pressure on Biden. They're going from private worrying to saying things in public. Internal polling must be getting worse.

Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (up for re-election):

"Your honest reaction to the debate?"

"I think, uh, like a lot of people, I was pretty horrified..."

Preference cascade?; 7/3/24, 12:04 AM
Saint Croix said...: "the dam is breaking"; 7/3/24, 12:39 AM
Saint Croix said...: I don't know what's funnier,

I'm going to CNN for news

Or that CNN is now part of the vast right-wing conspiracy

“There is a pattern, a discernible pattern, of Democratic officials seemingly trying to convince you, the public, to not believe what you saw and what you heard with your eyes and with your ears on Thursday night..."

Oh shit, the party is lying and the party is Democrats!

hey, if you live long enough, you see everything

Hillary Clinton was right!

(If you substitute Joe Biden for Bill Clinton and Parkinson's for Monica Lewinsky)

It's all falling apart!

Reality! Reality at the TV networks!

Dear sweet Lord, what the networks are saying and what I believe and actual damn reality are all uniting into a unified chorus

Something's wrong with Joe Biden.; 7/3/24, 3:42 AM
Saint Croix said...: Orwellian.; 7/3/24, 3:47 AM
Saint Croix said...: Deep Fake
Deep Fake
Deep Fake
Cheap Fake
Deep and Cheap Fake

no, wait

it's true!; 7/3/24, 3:48 AM
Saint Croix said...: new business model at CNN

hey, maybe if we do journalism

fair!

impartial!

honest!

journalism!

we'll get some of our viewers back; 7/3/24, 3:52 AM
Saint Croix said...: Biden campaign wonders if it might have been a bad idea to blame Jake Tapper for losing the debate.; 7/3/24, 3:57 AM
imTay said...: “ hadn't managed to get the rest of the white race to side with them against the non-whites?”

Africa, China, Brazil, Iran, North Korea, now the voters in France, and they better not hold a vote in Germany, seem to be supporting Russia. Maybe non-white support for Russia is the target of this propaganda and this “professor” sounds like a nut job, and he oddly fits in with the CIA strategy of trying to break up Russia along lines that caused us to fund Navalny’s candidacy. The last thing Putin wants is the kind of ethnic strife in the Federation that this professor is pushing, makes you wonder where his funding comes from. probably the CIA, just like ISIS. Wikileaks is very instructive on these things. Funny how ISIS is attacking Russia now, kind of working hand in glove with the propaganda you are pushing.

And Kanye just made an appearance on the same Ukrainian kill list that Dugan , the Russian Hannity, was on, the guy whose daughter was killed by Ukraine. On the one hand you say she had it coming and the other you say that the Russians did it, like blew up their own pipeline.; 7/3/24, 4:23 AM
JRoberts said...: Once again, the Democrats have shown their complete contempt for democracy - and the voters.

How many Presidential primary seasons in a row has the “Party of the People” placed their thumb on the scale to prevent a fair opportunity for the voters to select their candidate?; 7/3/24, 4:30 AM
wendybar said...: Check out the date of this tweet that was in the article by Professor Jacobson...The Progressive always knew, and they have been lying to us over and over and over again......

Jake Tapper
@jaketapper

We’re starting to hear more Democrats publicly expressing doubts like this one about Biden. He’s been gaffe-prone for much of his career so presumably they think this is something else.
Adam Jentleson
@AJentleson
Biden and his team owe it to voters to put him run a real, rigorous public campaign schedule, like everyone else. If he can hack it, great. If not, better to know sooner rather than later. Keeping him under wraps except for big events while trying to skate by is just sketchy.
9:11 AM · Aug 9, 2019

https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/07/flashback-bidens-cognitive-problems-were-raised-in-2020-including-by-fellow-democrats/; 7/3/24, 4:37 AM
wendybar said...: Of course, the rest of us could see it with our own eyes, but they kept on telling us we weren't seeing what we were seeing. Talk about delusional!!!; 7/3/24, 4:38 AM
wendybar said...: Furious, Progressive, ugly lesbians are threatening violence because they aren't getting their way. What else is new?

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/07/unhinged-actress-orange-is-new-black-calls-biden/; 7/3/24, 5:10 AM
Breezy said...: “I know how to tell the truth,” Biden said, during a Friday campaign rally.

“The Big Lie” baton has been passed.; 7/3/24, 5:48 AM
Humperdink said...: Two lefty programs have merged in Seattle. Letting thieves walk the streets undeterred and the proliferation of EV charging stations. Turns out thieves have discovered EV stations are rich in copper.

"In the last 12 months alone, thieves have stolen at least 100 EV charging cables across the city in pursuit of the small amounts of copper within that can be sold as scrap."

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/seattle-thieves-targeting-ev-charging-stations-has-reached-epidemic-proportions; 7/3/24, 5:51 AM
Christopher B said...: Sebastian said...
"Start the countdown."

It's too bad. For Trump and the GOP. Joe crashed too early.

Given your previous postings, I'd say your analysis of the situation is kinda sus.

Yes, the earlier in the process that Biden withdraws, the better the situation is for the Democrats. In a hypothetical where Biden withdrew in, say, January there would have been ample opportunity to select a nominee through the normal primary process. Biden could even quite logically have remained in office with few questions of his fitness until 2025.

On the other hand, withdrawal after he is officially nominated (if he doesn't voluntarily withdraw prior to the convention, either real or virtual, by the current Democrat Party rules he *will* win the nomination) is less challenging in some respects. The path to selecting a replacement is clear cut. By party rules, the DNC, and only the DNC, is empowered to select a replacement. There could, and likely would, be a honeymoon period during which the replacement faces almost no criticism from other Democrats and the media (BIRM) which could lead to a boost in support, and that could conceivable extend through Election Season (as it is now).

Replacement that late in process will run into issues with which name appears on ballots and how those votes will be counted. There's no standard for how that is handled at the state level, and some critical states have very stringent replacement requirements. Especially at the Presidential level there's very little information about how that process would play out but I think it is unreasonable to assume the replacement candidate would be denied Electoral Votes because of the switch.

The situation as it stands now seems to be the one that would cause (and is causing) maximum chaos for the Democrats. There is uncertainty over whether Biden will withdraw at all, and the exact timing of the announcement if he does. The role of the upcoming convention is uncertain, if it will be open or if the PTB will try to manage the delegates into rubber-stamping their own selection. The Democrats were already under deadline pressure because of the late date of their convention and that plan is in the dumpster fire, too. If he had already had one reasonable debate performance it would have been easier to dismiss his performance as a one-off bad night.

If these issues had arisen a bit later but still before the convention there would have been greater time pressure on the Democrat response but I suspect there would have also been a greater investment in Biden as the nominee and more rallying to his cause. At that point it comes down to a determination if Trump is only capable of beating Biden and not any other Democrat but most polls indicate there is no plausible Democrat candidate who clearly beats Trump. If there was the Democrats would be rallying around that candidate.; 7/3/24, 6:14 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Beau Biden Infomercial...
Elder Abuse...

https://x.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1807389473774420090; 7/3/24, 6:17 AM
Enigma said...: @JRoberts: I read that some members of Congress want to reduce the facilities budgets of the Department of Education and others due to less than 20% occupancy of many buildings post-COVID from workers wanting to continue to work from home.

Indeed. After the COVID lockdowns the occupancy rates were as low as 7% in some federal buildings.

There is a push by the leftwing DC government (Mayor Muriel Bowser) and Republicans to get people back in the office. This combines desires to (1) fund the local economy with additional service jobs, mitigate the commercial real estate depression, and pay for the very expensive Metro rail system with (2) Republican concern that many federal employees are literally paid to do nothing and now don't even need to come to work. See the federal employee unions.

I think the Republicans are taking the wrong tack, and should push for more remote workers and locating federal employees outside DC. This would have a double purpose of (1) weakening the hegemonic (i.e., incestuous Deep State) power of federal employees in the DC area and (2) increasing the odds that non-establishment, not-left people would be hired by federal agencies.

But, there are many right-leaning real estate developers and landlords. They need profitable leases to avoid bankruptcy. [We've got de facto fascism with a Woke paint job...economic transgenderism...]; 7/3/24, 6:21 AM
tim maguire said...: IMO, the best time for the Democrats for Biden to withdraw is at the convention. That way, the party elites can do what they really want--completely ignore Democratic voters--and nominate their favorite without any of the messiness. That was their mistake with Harris in 2020--they put her before the voters and the voters said no. They won't make that mistake again any time soon.; 7/3/24, 6:42 AM
West TX Intermediate Crude said...: How can the Ds decide that Biden is unfit to be nominated for another term (in agreement with Mr Hur), yet competent to remain in office for another 6 months?
Is this not what the 25A was intended to fix? Ds can't allow that- it would push VP Harris into the spotlight too soon.
The Big Lie worked for Hunter's laptop, and they thought it would work again re Biden's mental capacity. Too bad for them. Biden himself messed up by challenging Trump to an early debate- no way that any of his advisors signed off on that- it's a typical and successful Trump move to call bluffs as he did when he released the phone transcript re Ukraine. Biden is the only one in DC who really believes that he is competent to rule; the others support him so they can stay in power and/or collect paychecks.
At some point, Mr and Mrs America are going to realize that the media have been gaslighting them about Biden's competence for the past couple of years. It's not gonna be pretty for them.; 7/3/24, 7:47 AM
Aggie said...: You know what's weird? I don't have any YouTube paid subscriptions, which means I get subjected to a lot of advertising when I try to open a YouTube link. I use a couple of ad & pop-up blockers, the 'free' ones, and they work OK - but I still have to manually filter or suffer annoying ads before I get to my content.

Anyway - for the past week or so, every time I open up a YouTube video guess who greets me? The Chosen One, good old Obama, full head frame, mouth open and nose in the air, getting ready to tell me something super important. I've managed to not hear the message so far, just like I did for 8 years, but the timing. Dude. The timing and full-screen Big Brother imagery. No election influencing, here, nope. Just a little ol', neutral YouTuber, your partner in the best selected infomercials.; 7/3/24, 8:21 AM
Narr said...: Have you read the 25th Amendment lately? On the slim chance that it is used, every step will be contested and litigated, at great cost and delay to American voters and great advantage to Swampite lawyers.

IANAL but I don't see it as a realistic option.; 7/3/24, 9:30 AM
Captain BillieBob said...: Biden should use this chorus as his theme song.

" They're coming to take me away
Haha, they're coming to take me away
Ho ho, hee hee, ha ha
To the funny farm
Where life is beautiful all the time
And I'll be happy to see
Those nice young men
In their clean white coats
And they're coming to take me AWAY
HA HAAAA"; 7/3/24, 10:07 AM
Dr Weevil said...: imTay (4:23am) just can't stop lying. Of course, he's a guy who states as 'fact' (not just a sinister possibility, but established fact!) that the intelligence community killed JFK, with the complicity of LBJ, which means he's a lunatic, a moron, a clown, or some combination of those three. It does fit his usual pattern of making excuses for Russians and other enemies of the U.S.: blaming the CIA or FBI and LBJ would get Krushchev and Castro off the hook for their encouragement and support of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Of course, I never said that Darya Dugina "had it coming" or that Russia did it. I said that we don't know who did it, or whether she (rather than her father) was even the target of the bomb, and that anyone who says Ukraine (or any specific agent) did it is therefore a liar. I pointed out that Shoigu would have had far better motivation than Ukraine to kill her, but that's all: the point is that we don't know.

Of course, only a lunatic, a moron, or a clown could write
a. that the CIA can put Russians on Moscow TV to embarrass Russia with their racist ravings,
b. that there's an official "Ukrainian kill list" out in the open where anyone can read it, or that Kanye West could possibly be on such a list. (I imagine he's on a list of personae non gratae who would not be allowed to visit Ukraine, but that's a very different thing from a "kill list".)

Why does imTay lie so obviously and pathetically?; 7/3/24, 10:08 AM
Rusty said...: Are those Hickory nuts?; 7/3/24, 10:28 AM
wendybar said...: Clinton butt licker to the rescue!!

Mollie
@MZHemingway

Wise comms professional notes that aside from this Biden "interview" being conducted by noted Dem operative George Stephanopoulos, it's not even being aired live, so it can be edited, sliced, and diced to help Biden.

Katherine Faulders
@KFaulders
ABC News Announces George Stephanopoulos Has Exclusive, First Television Interview With President Joe Biden Since the Debate https://dgepress.com/abcnews/pressrelease/abc-news-announces-george-stephanopoulos-has-exclusive-first-television-interview-with-president-joe-biden-since-the-debate/
2:44 PM · Jul 2, 2024; 7/3/24, 10:29 AM