Althouse: At the Thursday Night Café...

November 14, 2024

At the Thursday Night Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

(Photo by Meade/sunset/November 10th.)

85 comments:

Hassayamper said...: These are interesting, historic times with the potential for world-changing events. Society is typically oblivious to such epochal times until they are over, but I think we have a man among us who may end up as well known to our posterity as Julius Caesar is to us. Or Nero…

I wish I could be around in a couple of thousand years to see the verdict on the era of Donald Trump.; 11/14/24, 3:52 PM
planetgeo said...: The OrangeMan Cometh #2.; 11/14/24, 3:55 PM
Eva Marie said...: Can we please not have a traditional outside inauguration with every single government official there? Scott Adams talked about this today. Just a private quiet swearing in.; 11/14/24, 3:59 PM
rehajm said...: …order in some McDonald’s while were signing the pardons and EOs; 11/14/24, 4:07 PM
Democrats Love Waste Fraud Abuse/ Rachel Maddow = Lying Psycho said...: AGREE.; 11/14/24, 4:08 PM
One Fine Day said...: It occurred to me that all of those government employees who fancy themselves part of "the resistance" and are quitting X are giving the DOGEs a handy list of the first round of firings. If they're dropping X because of some anti-Constitutional "resistance" move, then they are most likely not ones we want in government employment.; 11/14/24, 4:12 PM
One Fine Day said...: Re: the Polymarket raid - my money is it's either child porn or some obscure money fraud thingy. Odds are the second one, but wouldn't dismiss the first option.; 11/14/24, 4:18 PM
Original Mike said...: Remember that Madison home with the giant Trump sign? I happened to drive by it today. It's still up.; 11/14/24, 4:24 PM
hawkeyedjb said...: Have the ceremony in Des Moines while announcing it as the new HQ of the Dept. of Agriculture. Or Fargo, the new home of the Dept. of Energy.; 11/14/24, 4:25 PM
rehajm said...: Did that house ever give the cake back?; 11/14/24, 4:31 PM
rehajm said...: Some a youz are still on your election night benders. Time to sober up as the real work hasn’t started yet…; 11/14/24, 4:42 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Headline: "Fulton DA Fani Willis indicates she’ll push ahead with election interference charges against Trump"

I'm going to need a bigger popcorn bag.; 11/14/24, 4:42 PM
Big Mike said...: Anyone besides me remember when Tim Walz (aka Sergeant Major Chickenshit) called JD Vance “weird”? Althouse even blogged about it. By Election Day it was pretty obvious that it was Walz who is weird, and. Vance who is normal, authentic, and authentically normal.

Note: if you don’t know how to put shells into your shotgun you probably shouldn’t have a photo op where you’re pheasant hunting.; 11/14/24, 4:49 PM
Jersey Fled said...: A Dukakis/Tank moment.; 11/14/24, 4:53 PM
Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of New York said...: A little while ago I noticed the full moon rising in a sky of that pale blue, which delicately outlined the bare limbs of trees to look like a kind of filigree; it looked like a paper moon.

Yesterday the moon shone down on the lake in full darkness, the mountains were black, and the sky a kind of dark silvery blue. The lake was flat calm and black, except for where little ripples reflected the silver moonlight, but what was really cool was that there were some ducks or geese out there swimming, and the little wakes that they make reflected the silvery moonlight in the black water.; 11/14/24, 4:55 PM
Quayle said...: "You can talk about whatever you want."

I want to talk about the experts - all the experts who all agree that the election outcome is bad, and who now scoff at Trump nominating non-experts to do jobs that only experts can do.

But the jig is up. They're finding out what happens when the thin blue line of experts (media, government, education, and entertainment) no longer holds sway. Isn't that what happened with this election? A major of people stopped listening to the experts and believed their own eyes and ears and bank accounts?

Watching the now-shattered blue line of experts attempt to reform and resume making unified 'authoritative' pronouncements, is rather comical. But they don't seem to know what else to do. The jig is up, but they can't help themselves.; 11/14/24, 4:56 PM
Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of New York said...: I have made this comment before, the Democrats have propaganda professionals who look at their own candidates with an unblinking eye, and whatever shortcomings they notice, they give the order to try to project this weakness onto the opponent. I truly believe that it is fully intentional, and that they have a manual, probably found among Goebbels's papers in Moscow, and smuggled here at the cost of many bribed hands.

So Walz calling Vance "weird" is just one example. Rich does this kind of thing all the time.; 11/14/24, 4:59 PM
Dixcus said...: Or Wasili, AK ... new home of the FBI. Just mail them their clothes.; 11/14/24, 5:26 PM
Dixcus said...: Can we just normalize executing traitors?; 11/14/24, 5:26 PM
Mickey said...: I want to debate who is more avuncular. Donald or Elon?; 11/14/24, 5:27 PM
Iman said...: I'm doing fine on Cloud Nine
Let me tell you about Cloud Nine
Votes are in, now the world can see
(Cloud Nine) Dems are gutted from liver to knee
(Cloud Nine) Harris/Biden swimming in the debris
(Cloud Nine) Nation’s looking at a new reality (Reality)
I'm gonna sail up, up, higher, up, up
Up, up and away
Cloud Nine!!!

h/t Norman Whitfield/Barrett Strong; 11/14/24, 5:28 PM
Dixcus said...: How's she gonna do that from Gitmo?; 11/14/24, 5:33 PM
Readering said...: With quite a few votes still to be counted Trump is at 75 million and Harris at 73 million, 50.1% to 48.1%. Three candidates share the rest. He could fall below 50% of popular vote after all.; 11/14/24, 5:34 PM
Dixcus said...: Tim "Jazz Hands" Waltz. I've never seen a gayer politician, including that guy who got it up the kiester in the Senate.; 11/14/24, 5:34 PM
Dixcus said...: Maybe Kamala can get to 81 millon. Like Joe "LOL" Biden did.; 11/14/24, 5:36 PM
narciso said...: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/14/doug-collins-va-trump-00189456; 11/14/24, 5:36 PM
Iman said...: I’m praying there’s a pony awaiting you in that steaming pile of BAD NEWS, Readering. Chin up!; 11/14/24, 5:40 PM
narciso said...: https://redstate.com/sister-toldjah/2024/11/14/vibes-baby-ny-times-interviews-late-deciders-who-broke-for-trump-and-the-left-simply-cant-deal-n2182011; 11/14/24, 5:44 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Headline: "Pelosi sets stage for 2026 reelection run to return as Trump antagonist"

She misses Trump calling at 3 am.; 11/14/24, 5:44 PM
Original Mike said...: Yeah, I don't recognize votes counted a week+ after the election. They could have come from anywhere.; 11/14/24, 5:53 PM
rastajenk said...: It will probably be up for a couple years or more now.; 11/14/24, 5:58 PM
Eva Marie said...: I looked up Jeff Sessions to see if he was still alive. Yes he is. 78 years old.
Such a disaster as AG. Such high hopes for him at first. I wonder what he thinks about all this - Trump’s election, etc.; 11/14/24, 5:59 PM
The Real Andrew said...: One thing I love about Trump is that he is already sucking all the air out of the room. The Dems, even the President and VP, seem utterly irrelevant. He is dominating the news cycle in a way no one can ignore. He’s not even inaugurated yet, but he’s already governing from a position of strength. It’s just remarkable.; 11/14/24, 6:06 PM
Mason G said...: Don’t Cry, Cryo! 😂 Need a Break from Trump’s Term? Freeze Yourself for 4 Years!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV6gvZ7OrZQ

Be sure to watch to the very end.; 11/14/24, 6:07 PM
Jim at said...: He could fall below 50% of popular vote after all.

You mean like Bill Clinton did? Twice?; 11/14/24, 6:22 PM
Tina Trent said...: Yancey: I answered your question, but Ann had blocked me from the thread, so you can find my suggestions at last night’s overnight comments and also an explanation of how Trump wants the Senate to suspend itself so he can just insert Gaetz with no hearings. But by law they will have to confirm him right before the midterms, which will destroy us. And I wasn’t calling Big Mike a fool. That’s just a function of how the thread works. Maybe once you read it you will see what really happened. But it’s hard to defend yourself when everyone is calling you pejoratives and you are blocked from responding with facts about the legislative process. Gail Heriot is my choice, but it would be funny as heck to insert Roger Stone and Ann Coulter. And Stone certainly meets the persecution/revenge status sought by otherwise reasonable people here … only he’s good at it.; 11/14/24, 6:26 PM
Big Mike said...: @Tina Trent, you called me a fool??? That’s classified information! Expect the FBI to pound on your door about oh-dark-thirty.; 11/14/24, 6:39 PM
narciso said...: We'll see what progress has been done by then, we saw what a great jobs sessions did right; 11/14/24, 6:49 PM
narciso said...: You think any of the dozen senators actually would vote for heriot,; 11/14/24, 6:51 PM
Enigma said...: This will be known as the "COVFEFE" era. It was when smartphones seduced most people and reduced functional intelligence by 25% in a very short period (2007 to 2016). The whole world stopped watching the outside environment like normal animals and began staring at their phones. Alone together.

Most people on Twitter in 2016 (i.e., Democrats) succumbed to the Woke mind virus because the infinite memory of the Internet forced defensive "good person morality," and many people developed social media anxiety disorders. Women became paranoid Karens and dogmatic bullies, while uncompetitive males gender swapped as passive-aggressive bullies and "winners." Trump developed the world's shortest attention span and lost control over his mouth as a bully too. But, perhaps because of his age, he reverted to the largely functional political strategies of his youth (i.e., the 1980s to 1990s).

In 2,000 years Trump's mugshot and assassination fist-in-the-air photos will still be iconic. He has transcended the ordinary several times over. There may be (golden) statutes of Trump in a few decades. Installed by Democrats!; 11/14/24, 7:00 PM
Gospace said...: I've never head of some Trump's nominees. But I'm certain I'll end up liking all of them. Why? The unhinged establishment reaction to all of them.; 11/14/24, 7:09 PM
Maynard said...: @Tina Trent

I have no doubt that what you have to say about Matt Gaetz is true. I once had an encounter with an Illinois congressman who was a blithering drunken idiot.

However, being a drunken creep does not seem to disqualify politicians from holding office.

Teddy Kennedy and Chris Dodd could not be reached for comment.; 11/14/24, 7:12 PM
Dixcus said...: Just remember ... Dana Bash's husband signed the infamous CIA-FBI 51-agent letter claiming Hunter Biden's laptop was Russia "disinformation."

Dana Bash then moderated Trump in the CNN debate.

Dana Bash's now ex-husband is telling CIA employees not to follow Trump's orders - to commit treason.

A lot of people are going to need to be erased soon. Expect what's coming.; 11/14/24, 7:16 PM
Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of New York said...: So the AfD is now polling 2nd in the German snap elections, so the left wants to ban it "to protect democracy." I wonder if Fred Mertz is still looking like the next Chancellor? If his wife is named Ethel, I will go along with banning AfD just to get him in power.; 11/14/24, 7:16 PM
Dixcus said...: CNN's Jim Acosta is claiming ... live on CNN ... that Trump didn't win the election.

https://x.com/NickFondacaro/status/1856725181328240814; 11/14/24, 7:29 PM
Tina Trent said...: I didn’t. But I was accused of doing so and blocked from saying I didn’t. I guess that was the FBI. All downhill since the Church Committee. They couldn’t prosecute Weathermen OR spy on Walter Mondale anymore. Though I guess they had to draw straws for the latter assignment.

Geez, I thought working for Cliff Kincaid and being recruited by the Birchers would protect me from such perfidy.; 11/14/24, 7:30 PM
traditionalguy said...: It’s Slanders Time. The MSM propaganda army is getting its personal destruction narratives polished up. No reputations are safe for the next two years.; 11/14/24, 7:31 PM
Tina Trent said...: Louie Gohmert would make another great cabinet appointment to dismantle the DOJ, if he isn’t too retired. Cruz would be ideal, but the Senate can’t lose him. I see him on the Supreme Court. I hate to say it, having buried two immediate family members to the disease, but she has had type 1 diabetes for a long time, and from her face puffing as it does, I imagine she’s on dialysis or had a transplant and has steroid syndrome. I wish her health: it’s a horrible genetic disease. But Cruz would wipe the floor as a SCOTUS member.

OTOH, I wouldn’t care if anything happened to Elena Kagan, that woman-hating hag.; 11/14/24, 7:43 PM
Tina Trent said...: Elon shouts louder, jumps on more furniture, and is still pumping out babies. Does that count?; 11/14/24, 7:47 PM
Tina Trent said...: She’ll have a new boyfriend by then, hire him to massage her thigh in the courtroom, and it will never go away.; 11/14/24, 7:49 PM
Tina Trent said...: Well, they’ve done it before. Don’t underestimate her.; 11/14/24, 7:51 PM
traditionalguy said...: Doug Burgham is going to be Interior Secy said the Palm Beach billionaire. Oil and gas cometh back and inflation goeth away. Hurray.; 11/14/24, 7:52 PM
rehajm said...: This is the thing y’all wanna hang your hat on?; 11/14/24, 7:55 PM
Original Mike said...: Oh, for Christ's sake. Acosta is talking about the popular vote, not the electoral college.; 11/14/24, 8:06 PM
Original Mike said...: Amusing conjecture at the Conservative Treehouse. The Senate rejects Matt Gaetz's nomination. Ron DeSantis then sends him to the Senate to fill Marco Rubio's seat.; 11/14/24, 8:15 PM
gilbar said...: NY Post: Trump to nominate North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum as Department of the Interior secretary; 11/14/24, 8:23 PM
Rusty said...: The schadenboner will just not go away.; 11/14/24, 8:29 PM
gilbar said...: Reader dude? do YOU think that in order to "win" the "popular vote", you have to be over 50%? as opposed to having more votes than Anyone else?

What other things do you think?; 11/14/24, 8:29 PM
Jimmy said...: People on X, and many here, are upset big time with some of Trumps picks. I suppose they prefer the old school way. someone with years of experience being corrupt, and putting them where they can continue to enjoy the grift. It's early days for sure, but I prefer some new blood. people who don't understand the 'this is the way we do things' bull shit.
The entire edifice is so rotten it needs new people who can rip it apart, and try to rebuild what is worth saving.
Of course, if you think the whole things is just fine, then you voted for harris.; 11/14/24, 8:47 PM
walter said...: Less orange, more enraged.; 11/14/24, 8:49 PM
chuck said...: new people who can rip it apart

I think it likely that some will fail badly, but hey, that is how Musk develops his rockets. Let's see how it falls out. It's a wonderful world ...; 11/14/24, 9:27 PM
Bill Crawford said...: How are the Badgers going to do against the Ducks on Saturday?; 11/14/24, 10:34 PM
Readering said...: I've been listening for a week how Tump had well over 50 per cent and even a landslide. Just observing.; 11/14/24, 10:58 PM
Jim at said...: I've been listening for a week how Tump had well over 50 per cent and even a landslide. Just observing.

Considering your side - including leftists who are no longer posting on this blog - were convinced Trump was going down to ignominious defeat, you may want to consider what we were listening to (over and over and over and over again) and how it turned out.

In other words, we have every right to rub it in your face ... yet are being very restrained in not doing so.; 11/14/24, 11:09 PM
Readering said...: I didn't predict defeat for Trump. Certainly not against Biden, and not against Harris when she failed to get a bump out of the Convention. Besides, you're not rubbing anything in my face. It's the internet.; 11/15/24, 12:05 AM
Original Mike said...: It is shameful that they are still counting votes. What ineptitude.; 11/15/24, 12:13 AM
Original Mike said...: "“We take pride in the fact we are not rushed,” said California Secretary of State Shirley Weber at a virtual press conference. “We make sure every person who is eligible to vote gets a chance to vote.”"

So do the other states that were done counting 10 days ago. What a joke.; 11/15/24, 12:19 AM
Readering said...: Pray for frigid weather. Reagan 1985 inside for that reason.; 11/15/24, 12:27 AM
Big Mike said...: @Tina Trent, FWIW I’m pretty skeptical of Mr. Gaetz myself. We Republicans won the House ten days ago despite the debacle of trying to select a new Speaker following Gaetz, Mace, and six other nincompoops joining with the Democrats to oust McCarthy. My fullest respect is reserved for people who evaluate consequences before they engage in activities.; 11/15/24, 1:08 AM
Jerry said...: "Even the folks who we think shouldn't have ought to have a voice!"

"Um... no? No, they shouldn't."; 11/15/24, 1:48 AM
Jerry said...: The world exists beyond our petty concerns.

A thousand years from now, what we're going through may be remembered... or it may not be much more than a historical footnote. (WW2 may be remembered as a time when several countries ganged up on one, and only the historians will really remember who did what to whom.)

We need to learn that no matter who gets elected, the world will still keep turning, things will go on, and in a hundred years it's not going to matter much. In a thousand, we'll be forgotten except by historians - and in ten thousand years we'll be... nothing.; 11/15/24, 1:52 AM
Derve Swanson said...: But it’s hard to defend yourself when everyone is calling you pejoratives and you are blocked from responding with facts...
-----------------
Welcome to althouse.
Where the commenters must affirm the host's infomration or... You're Out!

meade is the enforcer, I think, but these rules were in play years before annie met her commoner here...
I think she collects more in tips if her "take" dominates, or maybe it's just that strong ego, which is unused to being challenged after years lecturing, with tenure, and rewarding the good student who parrot back her points.; 11/15/24, 3:00 AM
Derve Swanson said...: Are the only good men left men who advocate sleeping with teenagers? I get desire, and fantasies and even May-October love stories, but...

Sleazy is sleazy.
You get in bed with that, you lose a good chunk of the people who voted for you thinking you valued putting the job first, not serving your personality. Gaetz is not in this for the team. Nothing in his background shows he can lead or get the job done...

He's like Ted Cruz of the House, or used to be. Alexandra Petri's father, a Wisconsin rep, pulled the same thing: resigned under ethical pressures from the House when it was found he had enriched himself in the stock market just a bit too much, all those years his daughter was growing up in DC where the family lived full time whilst he allegedly represented Wisconsin...

If ann were sharper, she'd know about those tales of Wisconsin politics, but I think it was more in the years she was playing America's Got Talent judge or whatever that song competition is called. Raising two boys as a single mom too, nttawwt.

It was hard for the Wisconsin law profs to keep the Wisconsin Idea going and their eyes on the state as a while. There concerns were and are primarily with Madison, which is Democrat captured. Always watch and see if what a person says matches how they live... She likes her safe place in a BluePlace, and oddly meade continues to choose to live there too, despite all this anti-lib talk you see here...
Walk the walk vs talk the talk... for tip. lol.; 11/15/24, 3:07 AM
wendybar said...: Citizen Free Press
@CitizenFreePres
Megyn Kelly explains why Trump appointed Matt Gaetz.

Short and excellent clip.

https://x.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1857317292238852434; 11/15/24, 3:23 AM
Mickey said...: Yes, I agree.; 11/15/24, 3:48 AM
Howard said...: The setting waxing gibberish moon this morning produced a beautiful halo and a sundog through the haze.

Life is beautiful 💪🤪🤙; 11/15/24, 3:58 AM
effinayright said...: Huh. You say our Blogmistress and/or Meade are blocking you, yet your snotty comment here aimed at them managed to get through. Explain that. Are they playing mind games with you??? Why would you be worth the trouble?; 11/15/24, 4:20 AM
Dixcus said...: Trump should order the construction of a gallows placed in front of his podium as he takes the Oath of office.

Get the attendee's attention.; 11/15/24, 4:34 AM
Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of New York said...: "Trump developed the world's shortest attention span..."

Or consider the possibility that he has low tolerance for fools and rapidly rejects nonsense arguments. You know that Dunning Kruger works both ways, right? In other words, I will need a lot more evidence before I accept your attention span hypothesis.; 11/15/24, 4:41 AM
Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of New York said...: John Bolton said that Trump had the "attention span of a gnat" when what probably happened is that Trump showed zero patience for his arguments that the only way the US could ever be safe is by starting wars all over the globe to try to make sure that no power ever arose that could rival us. Inevitably, just as happened against Hitler, the other countries will put aside their differences and align against us. You know, like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea might form a defensive alliance, which the neocons will call an "offensive alliance," because that's how their propaganda works, but the global south will cheer this alliance on.

Hey, wait a minute! Isn't that exactly what is happening? Not just that, but populist resistance to Bolton's plan for endless war will rise throughout the West. I heard an interesting comment about Wisconsin in 2016 election. It seems that the counties that Trump flipped were also counties that had experienced high losses of their young men in these endless wars that Bolton loves so much. It makes sense as conservatives see defending their country as a core value, and used to be more likely to sign up, but now... joining the army isn't about defending our country, it's about wrecking other countries. That's John Bolton's strategy, keep rivals from arising, keep the global south poor, it leaves us master of the ruins. Trump rejects it.; 11/15/24, 4:58 AM
Enigma said...: @Now is the winter...:

The attention span argument follows from Trump's constant tweets in his early administration. All evidence comes directly from him. COVFEFE in the middle of the night. No one has ever been able to interpret it. This, plus his knee-jerk reactions to any slight, even from allies or semi-allies. He was not unlike cranky old Parkinson's Biden.

From 2007 to the Trump administration, smartphones made many people very very very dumb but few noticed or cared. Too much brain time was spent downloading apps, checking Facebook, tweeting, posing for selfies on cliff tops, playing pretend farmer, or buying jewels to advance in a game. Trump inadvertently drew attention to a massive cultural crisis -- but TDS projection put the blame on him.

Computer scientists, engineers, and introverts were unaffected by smartphones because they invented them and lived in their own heads already. In contrast, the extraverts or socially-focused people who recently called computer users nerds and geeks were unprepared and slammed.

See the very different normie attitude toward computer geeks prior to the smartphone:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088000/; 11/15/24, 5:01 AM
Dixcus said...: Yes. That's correct. He's LYING LIVE ON TV about who won the popular vote for President, otherwise known as "THE ELECTION."; 11/15/24, 5:23 AM
effinayright said...: I think you mean "gibbous" moon. "Gibberish" is what Inga sends us.; 11/15/24, 5:40 AM
Christopher B said...: I hope somebody over there consults a history book because banning a certain party and even throwing its leadership in jail back in 1923 didn't work out all that well just a few years later.; 11/15/24, 5:41 AM
Dixcus said...: Just remember: The people who last week were chanting "Genocide Joe Has Got To Go" are this week shaving their heads, quitting Twitter and promising not to pollute the gene pool with their offspring.

These would be the so-called "lamentations" that Conan was explaining are best in life.; 11/15/24, 5:42 AM