Althouse: The snowy woods in a dark sunrise.

November 26, 2025

The snowy woods in a dark sunrise.

Video by Meade, who went out when I said no. It was really windy!

Write about what you want in the comments.

54 comments:

rehajm said...: Man up! The morning looked to have a creepy vibe, I suspect some dogs said no, too…; 11/26/25, 6:37 PM
Saint Croix said...: ACOD (Adult Children of Divorce) is hilarious. A lot of humor is broad and aimed at young people. ACOD is aimed at us, I think. Very adult comedy, very funny, very cool. Way, way, way better than Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, which is lame.

trailer; 11/26/25, 6:42 PM
Original Mike said...: It was windy!; 11/26/25, 6:53 PM
Narr said...: Winter is icumen in,
All sing . . .; 11/26/25, 6:54 PM
narciso said...: Reminds of the intro to tales from the darkside,; 11/26/25, 6:59 PM
Whiskeybum said...: Ere the winter storms begin!; 11/26/25, 7:00 PM
Jamie said...: I hope all herein enjoy time with loved ones over the next several days! I've only ever known one of you IRL and he has met his Maker, but I'm glad to know you in Internet life as far as I do.; 11/26/25, 7:08 PM
tcrosse said...: Whose woods these are I think we know
But Althouse didn't want to go.; 11/26/25, 7:21 PM
Viva Maria said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/26/25, 7:24 PM
Viva Maria said...: See if this correction helps.

It’s Meade in ghost form, Eastwood, “High Plains Drifter,” scouting the ominous dark-sunrise treeline for anyone coming, to be painted “Hell.” What’s a little wind for those who come from, and return to the winds and waves of high plains drifters?; 11/26/25, 7:33 PM
Jaq said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/26/25, 7:34 PM
gspencer said...: When you come to the fork in the path, take it.; 11/26/25, 7:43 PM
gspencer said...: Another month before the shortest day arrives.; 11/26/25, 7:46 PM
Michael Fitzgerald said...: I have a recipe for banana bread in a 9" bread pan. I was out of bananas and wanted to see if it worked without them. Dropped the sugar from 3/4 cup to 1/3 cup, substituted a cup of milk for 3 cups of banana, added about a tablespoon of dill and a tablespoon of garlic powder, and it came out really good!; 11/26/25, 8:04 PM
Jaq said...: WWI was about protecting "poor little Belgium" from "the Hun" Britain gave security guarantees to Belgium, which had 7 million people. The leaders of Britain knew that the English people would never support a military alliance with France against Germany, but the English people would defend poor little helpless Belgium. Britain then got the war they wanted, and her population got dragged into a war in which 15 to 20 million people died. Many in the most horrific manner. Of course WWII also grew directly out of the "Peace to end all peace."; 11/26/25, 8:04 PM
BG said...: Happy Thanksgiving everyone! (I'll be too busy to be on the computer tomorrow.) No matter your circumstances, there are still blessings that can be counted.; 11/26/25, 8:06 PM
Gospace said...: 14 USC 637: Stopping vessels; immunity for firing at or into vessel
https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-2000-title14-section637&num=0&edition=2000

and 14 U.S. Code § 526 - Stopping vessels; indemnity for firing at or into vessel
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/14/526

are for smuggling vessels and stateless or pirate vessels. Virtually the same wording- yes, they can be fired upon. Now- who has jurisdiction over stateless vessels or smuggling vessels on the high seas? Answer- any nation that chooses to exercise jurisdiction. There is no nation, to my knowledge, that allow international transport of narcotics aboard vessels flying their flag. If they did- it would make all vessels flying their flag subject to the jurisdiction of every other nation as potential smuggling vessels.

There is no presumption of innocence on the high seas for a vessel's behavior. A refusal to stop when ordered by a naval or coast vessel or taking evasive action and/or fleeing from such gives reason to proceed with actions to stop, search, and seize the vessel. Or destroy it. Laws and treaties refer to disabling shots, which are, for all practical purposes, kill shots to a small boat.

The idiot argument that the vessels we've sunk so far couldn't be sunk legally because they were no threat to the naval vessels is idiotic- there is no such requirement in law or treaty.

Now the two laws posted above refer to having USCG personnel aboard the ship, and some USN ships engaged in anti-drug law enforcement operations have, indeed, had USCG officers, law enforcement personnel, aboard for search and seizure. The cartels have been declared terrorist groups making actions against them military operations, not law enforcement. The Navy doesn't need the Coast Guard aboard to carry out law enforcement in anti-terror operations.

There may be other laws on such operations. What anyone isn't going to find is a law in US Code prohibiting the current operations. Since there are laws saying it is, indeed, legal to fire upon smugglers/pirates/stateless vessels, saying the actions are illegal will require finding a law that says otherwise. Otherwise, nonsense is being spouted.; 11/26/25, 8:08 PM
Prof. M. Drout said...: I am curious about the history of the phenomenon of prosecutors, judges, police deciding not to enforce laws they don't like.
I understand the idea of prosecutorial discretion, but until very recently wasn't this something that was invoked on a case by case basis, not applied in a categorical way to a every person who has broken a law.
I'm not one of those people who can quote the Federalist papers from memory, so I may have missed things, but I can't recall any serious discussions about the executive simply ignoring laws passed by the legislature. How can that work?
Similarly, how can judges simply decide that they're not going to convict or sentence people who commit certain crimes (or who belong to certain groups)? I'm not talking about judges overturning laws they think are unconstitutional, but trial-court judges simply refusing to apply the law.
Again, I have zero expertise in this area--which is why I'd welcome comments by people who do know the law--but it seems to me that if the executive and the judicial can just ignore the laws passed by the legislature, the whole system breaks down completely.
Am I missing something?
Where did this come from?
More importantly, how the hell do we put this toothpaste back in the tube?; 11/26/25, 8:43 PM
Iman said...: Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!; 11/26/25, 8:44 PM
Aggie said...: Along these lines, today a judge overturned a jury verdict that she didn't like, freeing a Somali immigrant that had been convicted of fraud. The jury had taken only a few hours to deliberate, and was flabbergasted because they had thought the evidence presented was beyond a reasonable doubt.; 11/26/25, 8:48 PM
AZ Bob said...: Nice video.; 11/26/25, 8:49 PM
Kakistocracy said...: Only people who issue unlawful orders are this worried about videos that tell troops not to follow unlawful orders.

Trump’s own lawyers argued before the Supreme Court in the immunity case that the primary check on a president abusing immunity to order criminal acts was that subordinates would refuse to follow illegal orders. Now it’s supposedly a crime for lawmakers to remind servicemembers of that very duty?; 11/26/25, 8:49 PM
buwaya said...: WWI was already on before the first German set foot in Belgium. Belgium was not the cause of WWI, it was collateral damage. And the 15-20 million died all over Europe and the Near East, for all the myriad reasons and causes of the War. Jaq needs an education.; 11/26/25, 8:57 PM
Humperdink said...: Kaka before: All Epstein, all the time.

Kaka now: Unlawful orders. Should be good for two weeks anyway, eh?

I haven’t heard the term unlawful order Since Viet Nam. BTW, did Obama give an unlawful order to kill that American citizen overseas with that missile?; 11/26/25, 9:04 PM
Mason G said...: "Along these lines, today a judge overturned a jury verdict that she didn't like, freeing a Somali immigrant that had been convicted of fraud."

Well... why not? The purpose of the justice system is, after all, to arrive at the result Democrats prefer. I'm just surprised the judge didn't advise the jury of the appropriate verdict from the outset.; 11/26/25, 9:05 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Are those photos mirror images or not- inquiring minds want to know, right Kak?; 11/26/25, 9:08 PM
Kakistocracy said...: 👆You Sure got sucked into that squirrel 🐿️

You're welcome...; 11/26/25, 9:12 PM
Yancey Ward said...: So that is the next tactic, is it- pretend that you knew you were mistaken all along. You have surpassed the dumbassery level set by the late Chuckles, Bich. Everyone, even your allies here see just fucking stupid you are now.; 11/26/25, 9:18 PM
Yancey Ward said...: So, let me guess- you were just knowingly lying about Hegseth right from the start, right, Bich?; 11/26/25, 9:19 PM
Caroline said...: @Michael Fitzgerald 8:04: your banana bread improv sounds perfectly awful!; 11/26/25, 9:30 PM
FullMoon said...: Kirkland Signature Pecan Pie
Item: 15827
70 oz
Details
Flaky Pie Crust; Junior Mammoth Pecans; Apricot Glazed.

20 bucks, delivered; 11/26/25, 9:30 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: If you come to a fork in the road, you better have goodyear tires.; 11/26/25, 9:48 PM
Aggie said...: Happy Thanksgiving to the Althouse blog and all those that partake here. I'm always grateful for Ms. Althouse's passionate efforts here. There's the family that you're born in, and the family that you find. Find time to devote your gratitude to both tomorrow, and enjoy the day to its fullest.

Lots of Christmas lights are up now in this community, I dunno, so of the crazier ones had them up before Halloween. Giant inflatable Christmas figures are big this year. So I'm leaving out some milk and cookies tonight, just to be on the safe side.; 11/26/25, 10:01 PM
wildswan said...: Wisconsin November

She looked out the window
And she said:
"Oh, dearie me."
And went back to bed.

Then he went out,
And suddenly turning
And turning and turning
Found nothing around:
No Althouse
No sun.; 11/26/25, 11:04 PM
effinayright said...: Kakistocracy said...
Now it’s supposedly a crime for lawmakers to remind servicemembers of that very duty?
************
Not a crime, but damn close to seditious.

The POTUS is the Commander in Chief. Through his military subordinates and statutes passed by Congress HE has the sole authority to inform his soldiers and sailors of their duty to obey only lawful commands.

THEY have no standing, no authority to do so---especially when they act in concert, speaking as members of the legislature. They have no "oversight" role wrt to the President's plenary Powers as CINC.

Imagine if some poor schmuck , of whatever rank, acts upon their urgings, and refuses to obey a lawful order because he disagrees with it.. Do you think those grand-standing Dems will come to his defense when he's court-martialed, reduced in rank or imprisoned?

Not a chance.; 11/26/25, 11:09 PM
Jim at said...: Another month before the shortest day arrives.

Bite your tongue. It's 24 days. Don't be throwing an extra week on this crap.; 11/27/25, 12:09 AM
Michael Fitzgerald said...: Caroline said...
@Michael Fitzgerald 8:04: your banana bread improv sounds perfectly awful!
11/26/25, 9:30 PM

LOL! No, Caroline, it was delicious! Remember, it isn't meant to be a sweet bread like banana bread, but an experiment to see if I could make a decent bread from that recipe without the bananas. Basically, I needed to make a bread without yeast which I didn't have, and every other bread recipe I looked at started with yeast, that's why I went with the banana bread recipe.
I ate it with KerryGold butter in the morning, and with soup at night. The crust came out firm but not crispy, the texture was a little airier than banana bread, not so airy as Wonder Bread but still soft, and the taste was excellent!; 11/27/25, 12:15 AM
Inga said...: The shooter was granted asylum in April of 2025 by the Trump administration. Time to take responsibility Trumpists.

“Asylum Application and Approval: He applied for asylum in “December 2024 (during the Biden administration), and the application was approved in April 2025 (during the Trump administration). Some sources indicate he may have overstayed his initial parole, which was set to expire in September 2025, but the asylum grant gave him legal status at the time of the shooting.”; 11/27/25, 12:17 AM
Inga said...: Gemini; 11/27/25, 12:17 AM
TeaBagHag said...: Happy Thanksgiving to all, including all the haters and DELUSIONAL PURPOSFULLY IGNORANT MAGAt LUNATICS embracing FASCISM who are looking to DESTROY OUR GREAT NATION.; 11/27/25, 1:03 AM
buwaya said...: The (Democrat) mayor of Chicago -
https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/11/chicago-mayor-incarcerating-violent-criminals-is-racist-immoral-and-unholy/; 11/27/25, 1:58 AM
buwaya said...: Chicago is the third-largest US city. It is significant that its leadership is so obsessed with ethnic strife and resentment that it is willing to adopt absurd policies that benefit, at best, a tiny % of criminals. And the larger Democratic party is willing to go along with such absurdity.; 11/27/25, 2:18 AM
rhhardin said...: Trump's Strategy Of Hiring Lawyers Based On Bust Size Not Working As Well As Anticipated - Babylon Bee

There must be a back story. There's Two Weeks Notice abut hiring a lawyer

Bullock: There's some interesting prospects for my replacement. Let's see. Richard Kelly from Yale.
Grant: No, it's gotta be a woman.
Bullock: What a surprise. I suppose a certain bust size would help. Maybe some bathing-suit shots?
Grant: It will annoy Howard if it's a woman. Bullock: Oh.
Grant: Thank you. Tell you what. All I want is someone as intelligent as you... but a little less tense and argumentative. A sort of Katharine Hepburn figure.
Bulock: You don't deserve Katharine Hepburn.
Grant: Audrey Hepburn.
Bullock: Also too good. Just stay away from the Hepburns.; 11/27/25, 3:46 AM
rhhardin said...: Trump seems to have wiped out Hoover Institution's Richard Epstein (and John Yoo) podcasts, without updates in over a year.

Epstein has always been unable to read Trump and the political reaction to him, and as an expert on the principles of law became unable to predict anything intelligent about the courts since they started misbehaving.

He's still great on principles but lacks an application.; 11/27/25, 3:54 AM
buwaya said...: My daughter looks rather like Audrey Hepburn, but (thankfully) she's not a lawyer.; 11/27/25, 4:01 AM
Marcus Bressler said...: Althouse is usually very concise in her writing. Instead of "...when I said no.", I thought "...when I declined" might be preferable. Oh, well. Happy Thanksgiving to A. and M. and the people who comment here. Gratitude is SO important, it can make everything else seem insignificant.; 11/27/25, 4:13 AM
gadfly said...: Wednesday's shooting near the White House should never have happened. Guard troops were sent to D.C. over the summer as a stunt by Republican governors wanting to make Trump happy. They have been on litter patrols, Metro station patrols, standing around Dupont Circle and the National Mall, walking up and down 14th Street, and so on. There is nothing that they have done that D.C. Metro, Park, and Transit cops, or, more simply, people in the neighborhoods, couldn’t have done just as well. Yet, these National Guard troops have been put in the position of quite literally being the faces of Trump’s authoritarianism. (This is all the more so given the hidden faces behind the masks so often worn by this administration’s immigration enforcers.) Now, Whiskey Pete, at Trump's direction, is adding 500 more targets to the 2,000 soldiers already standing around in the nation's capital, despite a new court order to the contrary.; 11/27/25, 4:17 AM
john mosby said...: Prof Drout: "I can't recall any serious discussions about the executive simply ignoring laws passed by the legislature. "

There are just too many laws. Not only can prosecutors use discretion - they have to.

The US Attorney's Offices used to write a Blanket Declination letter, distributed to their own personnel and to federal LE agencies in their districts. The letter was prefaced with weasel words like normally/usually/most-of-the-time, and then would launch into a list of statutes the office would not prosecute, or at least not under certain conditions. For example, federal fraud laws usually have very low minimum amounts, since they were passed years ago. Credit card fraud is $1000. The declination letter set a minimum of $30K before the office would look seriously at a case. Drug and gun statutes that overlap with state laws would not be prosecuted unless there was some specified extra sauce, such as a repeat federal offender or some gigantic amount of the stuff. At least back then, most of it made sense from an efficiency perspective.

Nowadays, the USAOs still have the guidelines, but they don't put them in writing. And of course under certain parties the guidelines aren't just for efficiency. CC, JSM; 11/27/25, 5:04 AM
Humperdink said...: Only a Commie Lib (Senator Pocahontas) would mock Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s call for air travelers to upgrade clothing choices.; 11/27/25, 7:12 AM
rhhardin said...: Among amusing weather alarm channels is Max Velocity with always zero information (it depends on how things come together) and longest possible watch time sought. The plus is that he has a crooked mouth. Tone of urgency.; 11/27/25, 8:31 AM
Yancey Ward said...: Dingabat trying to absolve Biden for letting the guy into the country in the first place. No one is fooled by you, Dingabat.; 11/27/25, 9:33 AM
FullMoon said...: "effinayright said...
Kakistocracy said...
Now it’s supposedly a crime for lawmakers to remind servicemembers of that very duty?
************
Not a crime, but damn close to seditious."

The officious, stern attitude of the video and the follow-up strongly insinuates Trump has been issuing Trump is unlawful orders . The left may already have military primed to disobey orders in order to tie up stuff in the courts, again.; 11/27/25, 10:10 AM
Rusty said...: buwaya said...
"Chicago is the third-largest US city. It is significant that its leadership is so obsessed with ethnic strife and resentment that it is willing to adopt absurd policies that benefit, at best, a tiny % of criminals. And the larger Democratic party is willing to go along with such absurdity."

It's because it is the most hopelessly corrupt city in America. Everybody from the mayor on down is making money off of this crisis.; 11/27/25, 2:16 PM
Rusty said...: Ona cafe' note. There was a huge flock of cranes overhead when I went out to bring in the herbs. Very high. Still no ducks.; 11/27/25, 2:17 PM