Talk about whatever you want in the comments. And support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.
December 19, 2024
Sunrise — 7:29, 7:48.
Talk about whatever you want in the comments. And support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
105 comments:
Clyde's Top 15 Favorite "New" Songs of 2024 - Part 5 of 16
#12 Willie Nelson - "Me and Paul" - Yesterday's Wine - 1971
In April 2023, luminaries from the world of music gathered for two nights at the Hollywood Bowl to help Willie Nelson celebrate his 90th birthday. In December, an album featuring the best of the songs played on those nights was released. One that caught my attention was Dwight Yoakam's cover of Willie's song "Me and Paul." It made me go looking for the original, which I wasn't familiar with. I must admit that I was listening to a whole different genre of music in 1971, and that I had no appreciation for country music at that time. Thankfully, that has changed over the years. This ended up being one of my favorite songs of the year.
Willie Nelson - Me and Paul
Yesterday's bill vs today's bill
Winning!
Trump and co president Musk shut down government Beautuful we know these repubs can't govern. Merry Christmas 37 repubs said hell no! ⁸
1547 page CR trimmed to 116 pages. Do you think the PBS News Hour story on this would mention that? Of course not!
And, they're dishonestly claiming the old bill had to pass to fund Hurricane disaster relief. The new bill has the same disaster funding.
They sure jumped for Musk as he tells them as richest man on planet he'll personaly have them primaried and trump plan failed by 38 of their own..This is gonna be a pip to watch.. The non governing group run by the co president ELON...Beautiful all bow down.and not to the old man
The shorter bill has everything needed to keep government open, STINKY. Those that vote 'No' are the ones responsible for shutting down government, not the influencers on the sidelines. The days of hiding out in chambers are soon going to be over.
Indeed.
So today i FINALLY got to watch the hit nature documentary: Hundreds of Beavers,
which was as good as they said!
I learned a LOT about ecosystems, And a lot about life in Door county Wisc, back in the olden days. The documentary is currently streaming on Amazon Pride (for free), and i'd recommend you ALL catch it!
"The shorter bill has everything needed to keep government open, STINKY."
Dinky, name some things in the old bill that must be saved. Bet you can't.
do Congress have enogh for Christmas cookies and New Year fireworks
My fear is that they only vote for the smaller bill because they figure they can get everything later when we aren't looking as closely.
Of all of the Russian generals to assassinate, it is pretty funny that it was the one investigating the biolabs we had in Ukraine that got whacked. Even as he had nothing to do with combat. Yeah, they accused him of being behind chemical weapons use, and yes the Russians used tear gas in Mariopol, but if they had actually used any banned weapons, the evidence would have gone to the UN, to undercut Russia's international support. No, this assassination was a brushback pitch on the biolab question. A favor to Joe Biden.
A general broadening of the legal meaning of "U.S. person" to include every foreign student, tourist, and illegal alien would have significant implications for immigration, law enforcement, and more. - What was in the CR.
Bizarre tale from France. A man has been found guilty, along with his 50 accomplices, of drugging his wife and having strangers he found on the internet rape her while she was unconscious. If the facts alleged are true, this went on for over a decade. Is it really possible that a woman was drugged and raped, hundreds of times, without suspecting?
The whole point of plonking down a bill totalling1500 pages a day or two before the vote, is to make it impossible to get through it - to spread out the critically important stuff and to hide the crap that shouldn't be there. Elon and Vivek used A.I. to read the bill and summarize the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. A page has been turned on a chapter in political strategy, and lots of formerly comfortable pols are squirming.
I remember you. Bugger off.
If only it were true.
This was a favor for someone, but not Joe Biden. No one is doing favors for Joe Biden any more. Ask Hunter how his paintings are selling these days.
Sundance lays it out...
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2024/12/19/the-insufferable-1547-page-continuing-resolution-bill-was-a-massive-omnibus-of-regulatory-effort-before-trump-takes-office/
House Rejects GOP Plan Backed by Trump as Government Barrels Toward Shutdown ~ WSJ
President Musk killed the US government spending bill. Be interesting to see how he runs the country.
The biggest client of all that federal spending is the US voting public. Good luck with narrowing the deficit by cutting spending. The spending wave predicted for decades about the huge Baby Boomer cohort retiring has arrived. Dear Feds -- keep those checks coming. (They clearly don't want to share any spending with freeloading immigrants because the Boomers know there's not enough to go around. It's all about ME!)
A traditionalist public very narrowly (a minor pique not even rising to the level of a hissy fit) voted to defund the liberal DEI statism of the Democratic party. That was predictable everywhere except in the Democratic party establishment.
Strong economy? Upside problem. What if the best answer is to cut tariffs (increase supply) and raise upper-bracket income taxes (narrow deficits without cutting middle class consumption)? Just speculating, you know.
Raising debt ceiling? They will have DOGE and they need to borrow even more money? 😂
The non governing group run by the co president ELON
It's not even 24 hours and this asinine talking point is already stale. And stupid.
I don't recall you clowns getting the vapors over 'co-president' Hillary when she tried to upend the entire health care system.
President Musk killed the US government spending bill.
See what I mean? It's stupid. And it's all you have.
Tomorrow will be something else. And it will be just as pathetic.
Think it sucks for you now, Junior? Wait until Trump actually takes office.
Final tally on the Musk--Trump approved CR:
174 Yes, 235 No, 1 Present.
38 GOP nos. Which is a lot.
2 Dem yeses (Gluesenkamp Perez and Kathy Castor, who represents the Tampa area) and 1 Dem present (Marcy Kaptur).
The GOP doesn't have the votes for a bill they wrote.
Roll Call 516 | Bill Number: H. R. 10515
https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2024516
Clyde, this isn't your website. Bugger off!
EATING THEIR OWN non functioning as always 27 bills passed WTF? Roy responded to a Truth Social post from Trump, who accused Roy of "getting in the way" of a deal. Trump wrote that "Republican obstructionists have to be done away with," and that Roy should be "dismissed as being utterly unknowledgeable as to the ways of politics, and as to Making America Great Again."
"Chip Roy is just another ambitious guy, with no talent. By the way, how's Bob Good doing? I hope some talented challengers are getting ready in the Great State of Texas to go after Chip in the Primary. He won't have a chance!" Trump posted.
Roy opposes raising the debt limit, which Trump has come out in support of. The president-elect told NBC News eliminating the debt ceiling would be the "smartest thing it [Congress] could do."
The Democrats have said they want to get rid of it. If they want to get rid of it, I would lead the charge," he said.
Trump earlier said Republicans supporting the original CR proposed by House Speaker Mike Johnson this week should be primaried. ELON gonna FUK you up! sometimes you do get what you deserve and it only cost the co president $250,000,000 for the ownership of Congress and the old man trump..Nothing worse for the orange guy then to be upstage d and did they already fire JD? what the heck is he doing?
Rich, you moron: DOGE doesn't even START until January 21st. The debt ceiling limit expires January 1st. DERP
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3O9Z5ipbQO8
All Elon did was suggest Americans look at the bullsh!t in the bill. We looked and verified it was bullsh!t.
Really? You can look before voting on it? So- Nancy lied?
Nancy Pelosi: “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”
Sleeping pills, assumed it was her husband. Read the court transcript if you really want to know.
Anything.
Musk says: cut spending by raising the debt limit.
Mona Charen ka ka.
Squeeee, dinky, squeeeee!
Somehow we were told that this time it would all be different and the Trump team would start on day 1 with a disciplined dismantling of the institutions rather than the train wreck he produced last time. Instead it looks like they are going to be even more incompetent this time round and already start fighting each other even before 20th January.
One has to have some respect for people who reach this level of six sigma incompetence. It can’t be easy and many people couldn’t sink so low even if they tried.
Someone with deep pockets needs to run ads in 38 districts highlighting all the things their representative wants to fund with their tax dollars. I'd start with the football stadium in DC. And the pay raise for Congress. And the waiver from Obamacare for Congress. Etc. Etc.
https://x.com/SharylAttkisson/status/1869913284318519730
Hey Rich, why did you avoid the post where you were the center of attention?
They are mailing it in now. They can’t maintain enough interest to make cogent policy points. That’s how far down in the mud their flaccid daubers are.
Cheesy, mincing corksoakers of the left…
"Musk says: cut spending by raising the debt limit."
DOGE isn't going to balance the budget, and everybody knows it.
Try being serious for once.
Good grief, it's not the end of the world. Stop crying.
Take gilbar's advice and watch some beavers, it will make you feel better.
logs cannot roll anymore if DOGE bring the chainsaw
Only Q-tards and morons believe the Russian propaganda about biolabs in Ukraine. Wikipedia has a nice summary: link. And I've pointed out before, to deafening silence from 'Jaq', that Russia occupied roughly 30% of Ukraine in the first few weeks of the full-scale invasion. If there were 46 biolabs manufacturing weapons of biological warfare, they must have captured a few of them. Why have they not proven their accusations in the last 34 months? Because they're all bullshit, and projection.
It's nice that 'Jaq' now admits that "the Russian used tear gas" but they're still using it, chlorpicrin (first used by the Germans in World War I) is a lot nastier than ordinary "tear gas", and it's use is certainly a war crime. (So were the novichok and plutonium they used to poison dissidents in the UK.) I've asked before if anyone can name a war crime they haven't committed in Ukraine, and I'm still waiting for an answer.
Again, 'Jaq' repeats obvious Putinite propaganda. Why is that?
Genius can’t count I guess.
A super fair & simple bill was put to a vote and only 2 Democrats in Congress were in favor.
Therefore, responsibility for the shutdown rests squarely on the shoulders of
@RepJeffries ~ Elon Musk https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1869901448101904631.
"A super fair & simple bill was put to a vote …"
The democrats are free to explain why it wasn't fair (and so is Rich). But they won't. They don't do policy.
x
Nearly every House Democrat just voted against:
- Disaster relief
- Aid for farmers
- Keeping the government open
- Pay for the military
And they did it because it doesn’t contain 1,000+ pages of pork."
It's not about making sure people are taken care of - it's about making sure THEY get taken care of by passing their donors a bit of the federal pie.
This fox likes that banjo
Yep.
more Musk x (hack D Soviet Press to dump on Musk - right on Q)
ELON MUSK: "A super fair & simple bill was put to a vote and only 2 Democrats in Congress were in favor. Shame on @RepJeffries
for rejecting a fair & simple spending bill that is desperately needed by states suffering from hurricane damage."
I haven't read the transcript, but I read the account in the Guardian. It certainly was her husband, that's not in dispute. But hundreds of times, over the course of a decade? Look, is it possible that you have been getting raped in your sleep, regularly, since 2014? Is that like .... a maybe? Hey, maybe I've been getting raped in my sleep for the last ten years. How would I know? How could I possibly know? It could happen to anyone.
THe democrats are such a-holes. Wow.
A fine, clear night here in Eugene. To quote Frost,
"You know Orion always comes up sideways.
Throwing a leg up over our fence of mountains".
And here indeed he comes, as every Winter since long before I was born, although his eye is not so bright as it once was. Take the last star in his belt, and draw a line Westward through his eye (Betelgeuse), and there I am.
A musical fox
Traditionally, Betelgeuse is his shoulder. His head is the open cluster Collinder 69.
Ach! My mistake! I would still say that Betelgeuse is his eye, but the line I meant to draw is through his sword hand. If you draw a line from his belt through his eye, you will wind up somewhere west of Gemini. Which I always think of as Snake-Eyes.
Dink, I think you have solved the puzzle. You have penetrated the enigma. You have gotten to the bottom of the thing, at long last. It's all clear now. Thank you for your service, and you may stand down.
I do like Snake-Eyes, but I think of him as a Spring constellation. I recall, one fine night in the last century, my band played at Taylor's. It would have been in March. We got out of there at 3:00 AM. I tossed my guitar and amp in the back of the bass-player's van, and set out to walk home, a distance of maybe two or three miles. I was hammered, of course, and wandered along, lost in my thoughts, until I happened to look up through the trees, and see Snake-Eyes. The angles were such that they were horizontal, and I was astonished that I had never previously seen this bright pair of stars.
The next day, I consulted a star map, and realized that I was not the first person to recognize that they clearly belonged together.
I imagine you mean Castor and Pollux?
Maddie and a lot of other Republicans I respect also voted against the Trump supported bill. Further explanation needed.
We see the Universe in two dimensions, as a collection of lights on the Celestial Dome. This means that at times, stars that appear close to each other are actually far apart, because we cannot perceive the third, radial dimension of their separation. But most of the stars in constellations are bright stars, and that means they are close to us. Still, over thousands of years, they take their separate paths. The constellations are not eternal.
Yet, while their relations are not fixed, their trajectories can be determined, by observations taken over time. There is no subterfuge in those motions. As they have moved in the past, the stars will move in the future. There is no mystery in the heavens, nor any treachery. Only here, on the Earth, do we find that things are not as they seem.
Trump is King. He's not God. He has a mandate, but it wasn't 60/40, like Reagan.
Maddie should be Massie
Yes indeed! Castor and Pollux. Although I couldn't tell you which is which.
I went and listened to Dwight Yoakam’s version of me and Paul. Yoakam mentioned that the song referred to Paul English, Willie Nelson’s drummer and friend. I looked him up.
He died in 2020: English met Willie Nelson in the mid-1950s “and has been his drummer, protector, bookkeeper and most trusted friend for the last 60-plus years.
@Jupiter: What does your comment have to do with anything I wrote?
I see them as an instance of the symmetry mathematicians call "duality". As, for example, Octahedron and Cube, or Dodecahedron and Icosahedron. There is a transformation -- vertex --> face, face --> vertex -- that takes one to the other. And applied again, it takes it back. Thus, the square of that transformation is the Identity. That is the signature of duality; a transformation whose square is the Identity. The fifth Platonic solid, Tetrahedron, is his own dual. Except, upside down.
Here’s an explanation for Republican no votes:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/12/list-38-republicans-who-voted-against-trump-endorsed/
Umm. I took your comment to be a question (Further explanation needed) about the dynamics of this legislative struggle. My view is that Trump is, quite understandably, trying to establish his dominance, based upon his success in the recent elections. I was expressing my view, that I am happy to see Trump, and his allies, running roughshod over the denizens of the swamp. But I, and a lot of other people, are not happy to see him trashing a solid MAGA Republican like Chip Roy, and he needs to understand that we will not blindly follow him wherever he might lead.
Good point. Thx for the clarification.
There are other such pairs. alpha and beta Centauri in the southern sky is an exceptional example.
Steve McQueen said in the Magnificent Seven "We deal in lead, my friend." And DOGE Brothers could say: "We deal in AI, my friend." They've shown how to use AI to read legislative dumps like the 1500 page CR and then how to use AI to shape a new clean bill. This new approach matters almost more than the new CR - it shows that there is a way to get the Blob shaped and slimmed down into a republic again.
To further clarify (or obfuscate), it seemed to me that you were pointing out that a lot of Republicans felt that what Trump regarded as an acceptable compromise was not acceptable. I am inclined to agree with them, but I also recognize that Trump has a lot of balls in the air. I would hope that this can be resolved without turning into a circular firing squad.
Massie et al. need to stand down and recognize the unique opportunity before them.
I’m opposed to 1500 page bills but it is such BS that house members couldn’t read the bills. Vivek read the whole bill. Ok, so he’s super smart. But all these congress people have approx 15 staff members. That’s under 100 pages per staffer and congress person. What nonsense that they can’t read the bills placed in front of them. That’s their job.
I have never been South of the Equator, and if I had a bucket list, the Southern Cross would be on it. But, I was not referring to something about stars. Rather, I was thinking about Castor and Pollux, as an instance of duality.
Let us say, that this one is Castor, and that one is Pollux. Very good. But now, switch the labels. And, you now have a new designation of the stars in the heavens. But, you still have a constellation, called Gemini, made up of Castor and Pollux. Now, switch them again. And you are back where you started.
This is an example of a duality relation.
It is very difficult to see how a 1500-page "bill" could fail to be a vehicle of absolute corruption. Would you sign a 1500-page contract?
"Because they're all bullshit, and projection."
"projection"? Are you saying, that Russia has biolabs in Ukraine?
The Southern Cross is exquisite.
There was a clause which shielded the J6 committee members from talking with investigators.
I agree that 1500 pages is absurd but the excuse that they can’t read a bill with that many pages is stupid.
Cube:
8 vertices (corners)
6 faces
12 sides
Octahedron:
6 vertices
8 faces
12 sides
OK. Let's try this:
"I and my 6 congressional aides could, perhaps, read that bill in a day or two, provided we had nothing else to do, but it is utterly impossible that we might consider what it would mean in practice, and therefore, whether it was, on balance, a good thing or a bad thing. Whereas, if it were a bill consisting of six lines on one page, it would be much easier to assess its likely impact on my constituents, and the nation generally. Wherefore, it seems evident that the intention of the lying, Hell-spawned vermin who concocted this abomination, was, by concatenating a vast and bewildering assortment of unrelated legislative atrocities, to achieve by obfuscation what they could never hope to achieve by honest means".
That work?
Don’t forget that every other congress person also has a staff of 15. If they wanted to they could read and analyze it in the time Vivek was able to do so all by himself. They just want to use not being able to read the bill as an excuse.
I find it interesting - and somewhat frustrating - the left is screeching about 'co-president Musk' bringing attention to a massive, piece-of-shit, omnibus behemoth (which members were given, what? a day to read) as if it's a bad thing.
It's not.
We cannot continue down this path of fiscal ruin. Eventually, the bill will come due.
Pull your heads out of your partisan asses and recognize he's doing the nation a favor.
This shit's gone on far too long. By both parties.
And if it leads to a government shutdown? So be it.
Maybe the Biden Adminstration (you know, the people still occupying the Executive Branch) will block off scenic overlooks and barricade DC memorials like another president did when he didn't get his way.
Exquisite? Michener imagined, in his novel Hawaii, what the Polynesian navigators who first saw the North Star might have made of it. It would have been something unprecedented, a star that never set. The Southern Cross is merely a constellation that cannot be seen from this side of the Equator.
But, yeah. I have spent -- spent, used, exhausted -- my life on this side of the Equator. And I have never looked upon the Southern Cross.
Funding for Keybridge rebuild eliminated: https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/key-bridge-collapse-congress-funding-continuing-resolution-maryland/
For the cafe posts, Althouse specifically says, "Talk about whatever you want in the comments." This is what I choose to talk about at this time of year. If you don't like music in general, or my taste in music in particular, that is your prerogative. Other people have found the songs that I discovered during the year to be of interest, so I'm sharing with them. If you don't like my comments, scroll on by. Merry Christmas.
That is a good performance by Yoakam. The album has just the music from the concert without the stage patter, so watching the video adds context to the song. If you have access to streaming music, the whole album of that concert is worth a listen (Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90). I didn't know that Willie made a reggae album, so I was surprised that there was a reggae performance by Ziggy Marley. Having Willie and Keith Richards perform "Live Forever" was very appropriate!
38 House Republicans defied Trump/Musk, making a government shut diwn in less than 20 hours likely. Something tells me Senators weighing executive branch nominees will see a lesson here.
Tom McDonald dropped a new Christmas song. "Screw the Woke."
https://x.com/IAMTOMMACDONALD/status/1869436470874034207
Don’t forget these CR-omnibus vehicles are not the required budget process. There’re supposed to be 12 or so separate bills to fund the various govt parts. Glomming them into one makes it harder to vote against. Speaker Johnson must get back to regular order - these 12 separate bills - his life will be simpler.
I am generally opposed to raising the debt ceiling too, so would like to understand why this is needed. $5T is a lot….
Also why couldn’t this CR actually cut spending in a few areas as a sign that Congress understands the Nov 5 outcome? It was dumb that it didn’t.
They tossed the guy who worked hard for regular order, not because Tina didn’t like him…
Real winning will be if they successfully counter the media spin that the shut-down is the Republican’s fault. If the media successfully convinces people that it’s a big deal and it’s the Republican’s fault, that will kill Trump’s momentum.
Speaking of “duality,” I see on (e.g.) X an occasional posting asserting that the number 0 (the integer 1 less than 1) is not a “real” number—not a “natural number,” unlike (say) 1—which everybody (supposedly) agrees is such a “natural number.” However, in this connection, one might note that in the history of “counting” and numbers—as mathematical historians Carl B. Boyer and Uta C. Merzbach point out in their intriguing History of Mathematics (2nd Edition, 1991)—originally the “number line” began not with 1, but with at least duality—that is: 2. Even the number 1—much less 0—wasn't originally considered a “natural number” historically.
They're facing a bare majority, yet MAGA is eager to start throwing their own under the bus and promise to primary them.
This is going to be entertaining.
How long will the current DNC-MSM talking points (Musk is POTUS) be active? It is clear that the marching orders have been made and the lefties are following it like good soldiers.
As a party, Republicans need to demonstrate to a possibly skeptical public that they can govern this country. Yesterday’s spectacle does not help.
Instapundit reports that the Baltimore bridge was allocated $8 billion for its repair in the now defunct funding resolution—reportedly 4x what it ought to cost. Of course we know where all that extra money was going—to “progressive” cronies! So much for all the Democrat tears and hand-wringing (that we see right here!) over the horrible delay in repairing that bridge.
Maybe your government job will be impacted Dinky, but the rest of us......eh, not so much.
"Funding for Keybridge rebuild eliminated"
Eliminated? You didn't read your own link, did you?
The last photo reminds me of overnight camping while duck hunting.
Post a Comment