Althouse: At the Thursday Night Café...

April 10, 2025

At the Thursday Night Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

55 comments:

Political Junkie said...: I finally watched My Dinner with Andre. Was a slog over 4 different viewings. For the first 70%, where Andre was most mostly talking, I thought it sucked. However, when Wally let rip that he disagreed with much of what Andre said and how he liked getting tasks done, a spark occurred in me. The last 25% felt better for me, as Wally was more vigorous. Will watch again.; 4/10/25, 6:53 PM
FormerLawClerk said...: I was told there would be chicken nuggets of optimism here, with gauzy, gooey encomiums sauce.

The f*ck is this dinner with Andre shit?; 4/10/25, 6:55 PM
DINKY DAU 45 said...: SCOTUS go get the kid you illegally and unconstitutionally sent to a foreign prison minus due process or fukking common sense. All the hump has to do is call the crime boss of el savador and get the maryland kid back,as that guy swoons over trump..Lets go man do it!!; 4/10/25, 7:08 PM
john mosby said...: Political Junkie: There's always the video game version:

https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/My_Dinner_with_Andr%C3%A9

JSM; 4/10/25, 7:24 PM
Kakistocracy said...: Now this is where the air starts to smell like burning brakes, denial and not Teen Spirit. You know it’s bad when all three pillars of modern portfolio theory, equities, bonds and the U.S. dollar drop in unison. That’s not a market. That’s a controlled demolition in a clown suit.

Welcome to Tariffpalooza 2025: Triple Black Diamond Edition.
Equities Down, because nobody wants to own companies that sell things in other countries when we just jacked tariffs to “North Korea with a bad attitude” levels. Apple drops like a rock. Tesla looks like it shorted itself. It’s not a correction, it’s a corporate mugging in broad daylight.

Bonds Down, normally there’s a panic trade, but not when the government just lit a fire under inflation, threw a rock at Jay Powell’s face and promised to run trillion-dollar deficits forever. Yields spike, bonds tank, and your “safe” money just pulled a hamstring.

Dollar Down, this is the most damning. When even the dollar, the final refuge of global capital and overconfident hedge fund bros, starts to slide? That’s the world saying, “Hey, Uncle Sam, your credit card is maxed out, your signature looks fake and we’re switching to store brand.”

What’s the Worst That Could Happen?

Capital flight.

Imported inflation with nowhere to hide.
Margin calls hitting at 2PM instead of 3:55PM.

The Fed boxed in, Congress posturing, Musk firing regulators out of a cannon.

And your neighbor just started a YouTube channel called “Buy the Dip with Chad.”

It’s not just a risk-off day, it’s a faith-off day. Faith in the dollar, the Fed, the government, the system. All of it got marked to market and the market said nah.; 4/10/25, 7:24 PM
Greg The Class Traitor said...: Ah, dinky, you are such a moron.

Here's the order: https://t.co/HIDIAlCu7f

I'll quote one part:
The intended scope of the term “effectuate” in the District Court’s order is, however, unclear, and may exceed the District Court’s authority. The District Court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.

That's what's known as a bench slap, and it's NOT directed at the Trump Admin.

This is what they have to say to Trump:
For its part, the Government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.

Translation: "What's that? He's shit out of luck? Oh, well."; 4/10/25, 7:26 PM
Greg The Class Traitor said...: Here's from the whine from Sotomayor:
The Government now requests an order from this Court permitting it to leave Abrego Garcia, a husband and father without a criminal record

Bitch, he's in America illegally, and been found deportable

https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title8-section1325&num=0&edition=prelim

(a) Improper time or place; avoidance of examination or inspection; misrepresentation and concealment of facts
Any alien who (1) enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers, or (2) eludes examination or inspection by immigration officers, or (3) attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the willful concealment of a material fact, shall, for the first commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequent commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18, or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.
(b) Improper time or place; civil penalties
Any alien who is apprehended while entering (or attempting to enter) the United States at a time or place other than as designated by immigration officers shall be subject to a civil penalty of-
(1) at least $50 and not more than $250 for each such entry (or attempted entry); or
(2) twice the amount specified in paragraph (1) in the case of an alien who has been previously subject to a civil penalty under this subsection.

Civil penalties under this subsection are in addition to, and not in lieu of, any criminal or other civil penalties that may be imposed.

He's a known criminal; 4/10/25, 7:28 PM
Kakistocracy said...: ⬆️ Were there any dissenting Justices?; 4/10/25, 7:34 PM
Eva Marie said...: I loved My Dinner with Andre. I saw it with Babette’s Feast and I always think of those 2 movies together. The first movie focuses on the conversation and the second one showcases the food. Both movies highly recommend.; 4/10/25, 7:34 PM
Original Mike said...: All Hail the First of Hopefully Many Maritime Focused Executive Orders. Change.; 4/10/25, 7:35 PM
Original Mike said...: One of our biggest vulnerabilities is the pharmaceutical supply chain.

Europe’s Big Pharma Companies Threaten Commission President von der Leyen, Change Trade Situation Quickly or We Go To America

"President Trump is on the cusp of announcing a big change in tariffs against foreign pharmaceutical companies in an effort to get the manufacturing of medicines brought back to the USA. Details are soon to surface.

In a proactive move, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), went to the European Commission (EC) yesterday to hold talks with von der Leyen, calling for radical change and holding the threat of an exodus to the U.S. over the EC president’s head."

Pharma CEOs alert President von der Leyen to risk of exodus to the US; 4/10/25, 7:53 PM
Mason G said...: "He's a known criminal"

Democrats support the rewarding of criminals.; 4/10/25, 7:57 PM
Lem Vibe Banditory said...: A Tik Talker, a Ted Talker and a Toast Master General walk into a Firing Line studio.; 4/10/25, 8:05 PM
Original Mike said...: "He's a known criminal"

You'd think a Supreme Court Justice wouldn't make such a mistake. {/sarc}; 4/10/25, 8:11 PM
gilbar said...: remember the anti-Semites here?
That kept going on and on (and On (and ON (and ON!)))
about all the poor women and children being killed in Gaza?
turns out, it was just a bookkeeping error!
https://www.yahoo.com/news/hamas-terror-outlet-quietly-cuts-151507783.html
Hamas has revised its casualty figures from the Gaza war, removing hundreds of names from its official list of war fatalities, and revealing that 72% of those killed between ages 13 and 55 were males – a demographic largely composed of combatants. The updated figures contradict Hamas' earlier claims that most casualties were women and children.
The head of the statistics team at Gaza’s health ministry, Zaher Al Wahidi, told Sky News that names submitted via the form had been removed as a precautionary measure pending a judicial investigation into each one. "We realized that a lot of people [submitted via the form] died a natural death," Wahidi said. Some families submitting false claims, Wahidi said, may have been motivated by the promise of government financial assistance.

whoopsie!; 4/10/25, 8:19 PM
Narr said...: My fiction reading (serious fiction, not entertainments like most of what Philip Kerr or Alan Furst put out) pretty much ceased at Barth and Pynchon, and not even all of their books.

Is anyone here familiar enough with Eugenides or Vollmann to comment on their output? Especially their re-plowings of the history of Europe in the 20th C?; 4/10/25, 8:31 PM
Narr said...: I think I've squeezed out my last gooey nugget for the night.

See you in the morning.; 4/10/25, 8:35 PM
Greg The Class Traitor said...: Kakistocracy said...
Were there any dissenting Justices?

There's a Court order that says "hey, District Court judge: dear moron, you can't order the Executive Branch to bring someone back to the US. That said, hey President Trump, would you pretty please with sprinkles on it think about getting this guy out of El Salvador?"

There's teh 3 leftists crying hard tears and stamping their cute little feet about how upset they are that the guy will never come back to the US.

So I guess you could say it's 6-3. 3 wanted to really humiliate themselves and SCOTUS by giving Trump an order that would be ignored. The other 6 accept that Trump isn't going to do anything, and they're stuck; 4/10/25, 8:46 PM
FullMoon said...: So, how's that insider trading investigation going?
Anybody notice the "convicted felon" descriptor not as popular as it once was?; 4/10/25, 8:49 PM
Kakistocracy said...: “There’ll be a transition cost,” Trump says

Translation?

We just took a blowtorch to the global supply chain, handed the matches to Wilbur Ross’s ghost and now we’re calling it a “beautiful thing.” That’s not policy, it’s economic Munchausen by Proxy.

A 145% Tariff? That’s Not a Trade Strategy. That’s a Divorce Settlement with China.

When the White House says it’s a “reciprocal tariff,” what they mean is:

We’re punishing them for sending us stuff we’re addicted to, while pretending we still manufacture anything other than outrage.

And that math formula? Trade deficit ÷ export volume = tariff rate?

That’s not arithmetic. That’s a wet napkin theory invented by a man who thinks GDP is a vitamin.

This entire trade structure was cooked up in a casino bathroom during a Red Bull bender with a Sharpie and a dream.

Markets Tank, Trump Claims Victory, Staff Spins Like Ceiling Fans in a Meth Lab.

Stocks plunge 6%, the VIX has a panic attack and Trump is still bragging about “yesterday’s big day” like a kid who just won a stuffed animal at a county fair the day before it burned down. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says, “Up two, down one, what’s the big deal?”

Great. We’re running the global economy like a degenerate blackjack strategy.

You couldn’t write this as satire because no one would believe the script:

Giant placards with made-up numbers,

Tariffs adjusted after they’ve already gone into effect,

Exemptions granted mid-interview, and

A president who’s “flexible” on enforcement because he doesn’t know what the hell is going on

It’s not strategy. It’s a live-action roleplay of mercantilism performed by a man who thought NAFTA was a coffee drink.

What’s the Worst That Could Happen?

Your IRA melts like a wax figurine of Milton Friedman,

Imported inflation goes feral, and

The dollar gets curb-stomped by the yuan.; 4/10/25, 9:13 PM
Jersey Fled said...: “ Democrats support the rewarding of criminals.”

That’s because they know so many of them.; 4/10/25, 9:38 PM
Eva Marie said...: @narr: thanks for the author recommendations. I’m going to try Philip Kerr. Alan Furst seems to be more spy vs spy so I’ll save that for later.; 4/10/25, 10:24 PM
Gospace said...: On 6 Apr $1000 the exchange rate was $1.000 USD = ¥7.282
Today $1.000 USD = ¥7.346.
We can buy more ¥ to the $. Almost the exact opposite of a curb stomping for the dollar.; 4/10/25, 10:56 PM
Maynard said...: Eva Marie wrote: I loved My Dinner with Andre. I saw it with Babette’s Feast and I always think of those 2 movies together.

Absolutely wonderful movies - sophisticated without being pretentious. I sound like an old person by complaining that they don't make movies like that anymore.; 4/10/25, 11:14 PM
Original Mike said...: "We can buy more ¥ to the $. Almost the exact opposite of a curb stomping for the dollar."

We've been traveling in NZ and Oz, so have been watching their currency against the US dollar. No curb stomping here either.

As usual, Kaka is full of shit. You have to check everything he says. Or ignore him.; 4/10/25, 11:15 PM
Original Mike said...: "A 145% Tariff? That’s Not a Trade Strategy. That’s a Divorce Settlement with China."

Now you're getting it.; 4/10/25, 11:29 PM
Original Mike said...: 𝐌𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫 𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲.

Compare and contrast with the Biden Administration. Night and day.; 4/10/25, 11:38 PM
Readering said...: The Maryland District Court has set a hearing for 1 pm Friday and ordered a supplemental declaration from the US to answer its questions in light of the USSC per curiam order.; 4/11/25, 12:01 AM
Original Mike said...: Road to Nowhere: China’s Debt Trap and Lies under the BRI

"According to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), with the BRI, China seeks “to develop new trade linkages, cultivate export markets, boost Chinese incomes, and export China’s excess productive capacity.” Latin America is experiencing firsthand China’s industrial overcapacity as it currently battles an avalanche of cheap Chinese steel and unfair trade practices with serious impacts on local industries."

and

"More than a year prior, in December 2023, Italy withdrew from the BRI, citing that it had not yielded economic benefits and voicing concerns about the economic and political implications of the project, as well as fears about inappropriate technology transfer. In joining the BRI, Italy hoped to boost exports of Italian goods to China yet those remained a very small share of Italian exports, while import from China grew disproportionately, think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies indicated in a report."

Chinese trade practices are predatory. Divorce is the best course.; 4/11/25, 12:47 AM
Saint Croix said...: My Dinner With Andre is anti-cinema, in the sense that it's not a motion picture at all. Of course, it's captured on film. So technically it qualifies as cinema. But it's not really a "motion picture" because there's so little movement in it. The whole show is two people having dinner and a conversation.

Tarantino once suggested that the real motion pictures always show us violence or dance. Movement on the screen. Even in shows like House, they like to do the walk-and-talk, because that's more movement than just sitting around and talking.

In that sense, My Dinner With Andre is like a sit-down drama. Without any drama. It's just a really interesting conversation. I remember it as one of the coolest conversations I've ever heard.

It's very much like My Talk With Joe Rogan, if you cut it off at 90 minutes. It's an idea movie, not a movie movie.; 4/11/25, 1:22 AM
Michael Fitzgerald said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/11/25, 1:27 AM
gadfly said...: Greg got his facts wrong. Abrego Garcia was accused in 2019 by local police in Maryland of being an MS-13 gang member, but he was never charged with a crime and no hearing was ever conducted for any illegalites in 14 years in Maryland..

Abrego Garcia long ago denied the gang allegation. And Trump could have him back in Maryland in a NY minute.; 4/11/25, 3:19 AM
gadfly said...: US Manufacturing Revival Plan

https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/04/10/13/97120205-14591545-The_footage_shows_Trump_senior_adviser_Elon_Musk_and_JD_Vance_wo-a-17_1744287963329.jpg; 4/11/25, 3:31 AM
Original Mike said...: Is Abrego Garcia here illegally? Sincere question.; 4/11/25, 3:46 AM
Readering said...: At the time he was taken to El Salvador a court order prohibited it on the ground be was at risk of harm and persecution. He had been in the US since 16.; 4/11/25, 3:54 AM
Original Mike said...: He came here when he was 16, but he's at risk of persecution?; 4/11/25, 4:03 AM
Original Mike said...: No, a 50-percent tariff doesn’t mean a 50-percent price hike

"a tariff applies to the transaction value, not the final retail price. The transaction value is what the importer pays the exporter, plus freight and insurance. That cost is just the first step in a long supply chain."

"The National Bureau of Economic Research analyzed the 2018–2019 U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. They found that for every 10% tariff, retail prices rose 1–2%. So even a 50% tariff, if applied, might cause retail prices to edge up 5–10% — not 50%. That’s a far cry from the alarmist headlines."; 4/11/25, 5:30 AM
rehajm said...: Yes Original Mike, great explanation. Especially this: But here’s the kicker: tariffs are not always fully passed on to the consumer. ‘Importers and retailers know they can’t raise prices beyond what the market will bear. Sometimes they absorb part of the cost, cut expenses, renegotiate contracts, or shift to different suppliers. The market reacts; it doesn’t just lie down and take it.’

Economies are dynamic, not static…and people respond to incentives…; 4/11/25, 5:48 AM
Jaq said...: I was just streaming a Michael Keaton movie, I like him as an actor, and it was called "Knox Goes Away" and it seemed kind of interesting, I was enjoying it, when an Asian actress comes on, playing a detective, and she immediately launches into what was pretty close to a Shakespeare soliloquy in terms of flirting with breaking the fourth wall, and dumping a character's thoughts, but having little to nothing to do with the plot, it was about racist white perceptions of Asians and how "white people" would miss important clues at the crime scene. —Click.; 4/11/25, 5:58 AM
rehajm said...: That cost is just the first step in a long supply chain. How’s about we pull off a few links inat one maybe?; 4/11/25, 6:10 AM
Tina Trent said...: Narr, I couldn't stand William T. Vollman, though I never read his big European book. The only non-genre modern novelists I like are T.C. Boyle and Connie Willis, especially her Doomsday Book and Blackout.; 4/11/25, 6:40 AM
Christopher B said...: Legal Insurrection has a good explainer and comments on Garcia TLDR Gadfly is lying (what else is new). Dude is a gangbanger who doesn't want to go to El Salvador because he faces arrest or rival gangs attention. The lower court order only specified he not be deported *to El Salvador*. Nobody in the US has any authority to order *El Salvador* to do anything.

https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/04/supreme-court-rules-trump-to-facilitate-return-of-man-mistakenly-deported-to-el-salvador/; 4/11/25, 7:22 AM
Christopher B said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/11/25, 7:22 AM
rehajm said...: Our alumni association will hound you for the next 50 years, as we need money for our admin officers and to cover the salaries of the tenured professors who've done nothing for decades.

…does this means they stop hunting me down after 50 years? They’re relentless…clearly they paid a service to locate me and the wife. The angle of the last few years is the institution taking credit for us meeting and our marriage…and that we owe them for it…; 4/11/25, 7:24 AM
Kakistocracy said...: China Raises Retaliatory Tariffs on U.S. Goods to 125% ~ WSJ

The bond market and China increasingly 'have the cards'.

How long before Trump starts writing checks to agriculture again? Wash-rinse-repeat....

At which point does Congress and, perhaps more importantly, Trump's megadonors get involved? The latter, thanks to insider trading, have made their money back and more. I can't image any of them want a global depression, no matter how much they rictus grin for the cameras.

Trump just needs an offramp that makes him look like he's won. Some sort of trophy saying "Best President Ever" would do it. Maybe throw in a parade.; 4/11/25, 9:15 AM
Narr said...: Thanks, Tina. Boyle never resonated with me, and I don't know
Willis at all. May take a gander.

Eva Marie, you're right about Furst being almost all spies; Kerr had a wider range, including scifi like A Philosophical Investigation, The Second Angel, or Esau, and contemporary crime/thrillers like Research.

His best work is probably in the Bernie Gunther series, although some of them are pretty sketchy. I think he (or his ghosts) got lazy near the end.; 4/11/25, 9:16 AM
Kakistocracy said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/11/25, 9:21 AM
Tina Trent said...: Narr: I think you would like her time-travel series, which is unique in that genre. She really captures the essence of Black Plague Europe and World War II Britain. I admire the Blackout/All Clear duo, plus what I mentioned above. T.C. Boyle is interesting to me because his leftist settings (communes, global warming dystopias) are sometimes suffused with strange regret about the choices made by the leftist characters.; 4/11/25, 11:50 AM
DINKY DAU 45 said...: How about all the trumper serfs up in here, did you get yours in? A video clip of U.S. President Donald Trump openly boasting about enriching his billionaire friends is drawing outrage as the administration faces growing scrutiny for possible market manipulation and insider trading in the aftermath of his partial tariff pause.
"He made two-and-a-half billion today," Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday, just hours after announcing the pause, "and he made $900 million." NAH no insider trading going on here right! Wake up man you aint in the loop..; 4/11/25, 12:07 PM
Greg The Class Traitor said...: gadfly said...
Greg got his facts wrong. Abrego Garcia was accused in 2019 by local police in Maryland of being an MS-13 gang member, but he was never charged with a crime and no hearing was ever conducted for any illegalites in 14 years in Maryland..

I'm curious, Gadfly, are you stupid, ignorant, or just dishonest?

An immigration judge found him to be a member of MS-13. The review panel agreed with the determination

Nothing else matters on that front.

While the presence of a criminal conviction should pretty much always get an alien deported, it's absence is irrelevant.

Abrego Garcia long ago denied the gang allegation

So what?

And Trump could have him back in Maryland in a NY minute.
But he never will.

There's a valid order of deportation. Even if for some weird reason Tump actually decided to get the guy out of El Salvador, they'd just dump him in Gitmo, or someplace else.

Garcia will never come back to the US while there's a Republican President; 4/11/25, 12:42 PM
Greg The Class Traitor said...: Readering said...
The Maryland District Court has set a hearing for 1 pm Friday and ordered a supplemental declaration from the US to answer its questions in light of the USSC per curiam order.

Because that judge really is an idiot.

She's been blown off, with this response by the Trump Admin, as she deserves.
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.578815/gov.uscourts.mdd.578815.59.0_1.pdf

It's less than 1 page of text, large font, and it's lit. Read it everyone who wants a laugh; 4/11/25, 12:44 PM
Rusty said...: That's the thing about gangs, Gadfly, et al. When asked you always deny your in a gang. No matter what the tattoos imply.; 4/11/25, 2:26 PM
Original Mike said...: "Narr: I think you would like her time-travel series, which is unique in that genre."

IDK. I tried once to get into it and failed. Plan on trying again, though.; 4/11/25, 3:29 PM
Original Mike said...: So, Garcia is a gang member AND here illegally.
Thank, everyone.; 4/11/25, 3:30 PM
Greg The Class Traitor said...: Gang member, here illegally, found deportable, THEN he came up with the cock and bull story about how he feared the 18th Bario gang in El Salvador, because they wanted to recruit him.

So a different judge than the one who found him deportable ruled he could be deported to any country except El Salvador.

And that ruling was after Biden took over, so he just wasn't deported until Trump got back into office.

Then, oops! Silly me! He was sent back to El Salvador, where he belongs; 4/11/25, 5:40 PM

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