Althouse: Sunrise

December 7, 2025

Sunrise — 7:04.

Darkmonth has begun, so snuggle up and settle in for a long night of conversation on the topics of your choice.

And here's Meade's video of swans, ducks, and coots.

108 comments:

lonejustice said...: Great video. Thanks.; 12/7/25, 5:53 PM
Jaq said...: Falling rents. Rising wages. Perhaps stopping immigration works
Real living standards might grow if the UK replicates Trump’s mass deportation policies
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/12/06/falling-rents-rising-wages-stopping-immigration-works/; 12/7/25, 6:07 PM
Jaq said...: Just saying, if France, Germany, England, and Poland decide to have another war, we sit it out and deal with the winner.; 12/7/25, 6:10 PM
narciso said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/7/25, 6:21 PM
narciso said...: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/paris-is-a-city-afraid/; 12/7/25, 6:22 PM
john mosby said...: Prof: "Darkmonth has begun, so snuggle up and settle in for a long night"

I'll take those long nights, impossible odds
Keepin' my eye to the keyhole
If it takes all night to be just what I am
I'm gonna be a blue collar man!

https://youtu.be/CDM6v1XhWEg?si=09TloQ7d-Kg1Gzc2

CC, JSM; 12/7/25, 6:27 PM
narciso said...: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/12/the_eu_us_battle_line.html; 12/7/25, 6:36 PM
Jaq said...: “But we just have to get up. As long as we keep the faith, some hope and get back up and remember who in the hell we are — we are the United States of Amerigotit.” -Joe Biden who personally approved 10,000+ pardons just months ago.; 12/7/25, 6:44 PM
narciso said...: This is why they keep in the glass case; 12/7/25, 6:45 PM
Gerda Sprinchorn said...: Darkmonth! I was just wondering when that started.; 12/7/25, 6:46 PM
Aggie said...: "...Just saying, if France, Germany, England, and Poland decide to have another war, we sit it out and deal with the winner...."

Well... it worked the first two times.; 12/7/25, 6:50 PM
ALP said...: I missed the Spotify year-end wrap discussion and wish to revisit it. At 64, I was shocked when it told me I was "25"! That's not what raised my eyebrows. When it said I listened to "86 genres of music" - that was the WTF moment. My saved songs/albums are not that extensive. What number did others get in terms of # of genres?; 12/7/25, 6:50 PM
narciso said...: Thats way too many categories; 12/7/25, 6:55 PM
gspencer said...: No one is on my hate list. But I do have a Things I Hate List and entry #1 is the Month of January.

Getting through December is easy enough with the distraction of Christmas. But once that's over there's no getting around it. The bleakness of January, the long nights, the cold, the bills, the arrival of the tax forms, and more. I understand why suicides and alcoholism are high in Russia and Scandinavia.; 12/7/25, 6:55 PM
narciso said...: Its a fresh start to the year; 12/7/25, 7:03 PM
rehajm said...: Why did they need so many pardons?; 12/7/25, 7:12 PM
narciso said...: https://youtu.be/U5SUw4iJPP0?si=h7V5CADz3-U8hutZ; 12/7/25, 7:15 PM
Breezy said...: “Why did they need so many pardons?“

Prevailing possibility is money. You have something of value to someone? You sell. Same as it ever was.; 12/7/25, 7:16 PM
Achilles said...: Jaq said...

Just saying, if France, Germany, England, and Poland decide to have another war, we sit it out and deal with the winner.

None of them are capable of war. Out of all those countries only Poland could field more than 100,000 soldiers outside their country in any sort of organized and supported fashion.

The next war will probably be started over the 4 million or so Ukranians that fled to Poland. The Polish and Ukranians are not friends. Hungary and Romania will probably be involved.

But it is going to be a pathetic thing. Europe is old and tired.; 12/7/25, 7:28 PM
Jersey Fled said...: For the first time in a decade, not a single hurricane struck the U.S. this season.; 12/7/25, 7:37 PM
Flat Tire said...: That’s a great video, but it makes my feet cold.; 12/7/25, 7:40 PM
narciso said...: Yeah that was good news for us; 12/7/25, 7:43 PM
Humperdink said...: Jonathan Turley writes in The Hill:

“Today, there are roughly 1.3 million lawyers in the United States. Even if the ABA represented just half of that number, it would have 650,000 members. However, by 2015, it had fallen to 400,000. Last year it fell to 227,000 members, or just 17 percent of the bar.

Notably, the American Medical Association — which also been accused of becoming increasingly political — has experienced the same drop from a high of representing 75 percent of the nation’s doctors to just 15 percent in recent years.”

No mystery as to why. Both organizations went hard left.; 12/7/25, 7:44 PM
narciso said...: Moar selective audience; 12/7/25, 7:44 PM
Old and slow said...: In Ireland, December is a fantastic month. Everyone is happy and busy and there is a long Christmas break to enjoy. After new year's eve, the mood changes altogether. People are broke, the days are short and miserable, and there is little to feel good about. Then one day when you are driving home from work, you notice that it is not dark anymore, and people are standing out in the street having a pint. It's late February and life is good again! I miss that feeling.; 12/7/25, 7:53 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: YouTube: Tim Dillon says Ariana Grande needs to have a meal ...in front of UN observers. (That last line was actually mine); 12/7/25, 8:06 PM
Chest Rockwell said...: Things may be changing at the NY Times. After that fantastic Minnesota Fraud article they've published a piece about Biden's disastrous immigration policies and the comments are fantastic.; 12/7/25, 8:12 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Variety : "Kristen Stewart Says Acting Is ‘Unmasculine’ and Asks: ‘Have You Ever Heard of a Female Actor That Was Method?’"; 12/7/25, 8:18 PM
Rocco said...: Jersey Fled said...
“For the first time in a decade, not a single hurricane struck the U.S. this season.”

I credit the name change to Gulf of America. It’s part of our border security now.; 12/7/25, 8:31 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I had install iOS 26 on my phone. That numerical jump is highly irregular, Jim. Anyways. I had to delete a bunch of stuff because the new iOS juggernaut needed more memory than i had available in my meager iPhone 12.; 12/7/25, 8:33 PM
Chest Rockwell said...: How long can this go on? With most of Europe mired in economic malaise and political turmoil, a tipping point may soon be reached in Brussels. In country after country, EU efforts have proven increasingly ineffective under a growing sense that revolutionary change is imminent. Let’s tour the Old Continent, highlight the hot spots, and ponder the odds that sweeping political change will unravel the current regime.; 12/7/25, 8:33 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: The new iOS got something called "liquid glass". I'm not impress. Any old AI could be prompted to do it in a jiffy.; 12/7/25, 8:38 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Knowhutimean? Jiffy Lube. Oil change.; 12/7/25, 8:40 PM
Achilles said...: The EU is dead.

Germany is being crushed by the Nordstream pipeline destruction. Their industrial base is leaving the country. It will be a race to leave the EU after they are gone.

If you want civilizations to die just make it so they don't have to think about defending themselves and they will kill themselves for you.; 12/7/25, 8:41 PM
James K said...: "I had install iOS 26 on my phone. That numerical jump is highly irregular"

Apparently they are numbering their versions by years now (i.e. 2026). How bad is it? My iPhone 14 has not updated yet, but it will soon if I don't take preventive action.; 12/7/25, 8:41 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Now, after the "liquid glass" splash I don't know if I have enough memory for Spotify. Unless I can ditch iTunes and go with Spotify? Will my iPhone even let me do that? The ideal would be for a music app to be installed in the car audio 'console' directly. Leave my phone for my business.; 12/7/25, 8:48 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: How bad is it?

Every app I tried so far is in working order. No surprises.; 12/7/25, 8:52 PM
Jupiter said...: Gal working at Cinnabon in Michigan got all she needed of some Somali "migrants". They recorded her telling them where to go and what to do when they got there. Of course, the owner fired her, and issued a spineless whinge about "not what we stand for", as if he stood for anything at all.

Here's her GiveSendGo, it's at 86K. I think she'll be alright.; 12/7/25, 9:01 PM
Jupiter said...: Oh, I should mention, she used the N-word! She used it! And she's white! The horror!; 12/7/25, 9:02 PM
Dr Weevil said...: Germany’s economy is being crushed, but not so much by the loss of Nordstream as by the idiotic shutdown of all their nuclear power plants. They even blew up the cooling towers, so the people can’t just elect a sane government that would reopen them. It could have been done in weeks or months, but now it will take years.; 12/7/25, 9:28 PM
Jupiter said...: A recent contributor to her GiveSendGo account is aperson named "Nate Higgers". $10.
Huh.
"Heinrich Himmler" gave $10.
Have you got any idea how sick and tired real humans are of these fucking apes? "N-word"? We're looking at D-word. Like, "Adios! Be sure to write!"; 12/7/25, 11:07 PM
Jupiter said...: Just to record the current state of affairs, we have a white woman, working for a living, at a Cinnabons restaurant in Michigan. We have a pair of parasitical Somali vermin, one clad in a burka, demanding special treatment. These worthless parasites have been trained in the techniques of destroying the lives of any white people who oppose them in any way. These filthy, stinking parasitical worms have deployed these techniques against a white woman working for a living in Michiganistan.
Vote here.; 12/7/25, 11:32 PM
Jupiter said...: Distaste, and contempt, are the emotional responses appropriate to things that are not helpful, and contribute nothing. Hatred is reserved for those things that are actively dangerous to ourselves, and more importantly, our civilization, and our progeny, to whom we hope to leave that civilization. Warts and all, it is vastly preferable to anything that could be produced using monkeys.; 12/7/25, 11:44 PM
gadfly said...: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday he sold his soybean farm last week and acknowledged farmers still need federal help ($12 billion) despite a trade deal with China. The long-pending sale, which Bessent was required to complete under an ethics agreement when he took office, comes as soybean futures sit near their highest levels of the year.

BESSENT: I run a soybean farm

BRENNAN: You don't own one. You invest in it

BESSENT: People in my family go out and work on it

Scott Bessent is openly gay and has been married since 2011 to John Freeman. Their two children, Cole and Caroline, who were born via surrogacy, are too young to work, and they don't live in North or South Dakota.; 12/8/25, 2:53 AM
Eva Marie said...: Now the warriors of winter
They gave a cold triumphant shout
And all that stays is dying
And all that lives is getting out
See the geese in chevron flight
Flapping and racing on before the snow
They got the urge for going
And they got the wings to go
They get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
Summertime is falling down and winter’s closing in; 12/8/25, 3:06 AM
Old and slow said...: I would have fired that stupid woman at the Cinnabun place in an instant if I were the owner, as would anyone with any sense. So what if she felt aggrieved? She went a viral racist rant while she was at work. You would be a fool - at best - if you kept her working there. Looks like she was pulling a stunt for fools who would donate online. I wouldn't even be shocked if she was in cahoots with the people she was yelling at. It looked a bit contrived, as are most things you see online these days.; 12/8/25, 5:18 AM
Jaq said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/8/25, 5:34 AM
Jaq said...: "but not so much by the loss of Nordstream as by the idiotic shutdown of all their nuclear power plants."

So why have they moved their large chemical manufacturing plants to China? Because they got cut off from the natural gas feedstocks in Germany. You can't make chemicals out of pure energy, not yet anyway.; 12/8/25, 5:37 AM
Jaq said...: "Europe is old and tired."

400 years of world domination has earned them a lot of enemies, and like the Goths with the Romans, the people who were subjugated at the height of imperial power, followed the Roman roads right back to Rome itself, and took over... Well I leave the application of this history to modern Europe as an exercise for the reader.; 12/8/25, 5:44 AM
Inga said...: “Scott Bessent is openly gay and has been married since 2011 to John Freeman. Their two children, Cole and Caroline, who were born via surrogacy, are too young to work, and they don't live in North or South Dakota.”

How interesting. After seeing and hearing all the homophobic comments about Pete Buttigieg, his partner and their two children, the “chest feeding” slurs from rightists, we have not heard the same type of commentary about Bessent, his partner and their two children. I guess their lifestyles are now acceptable to conservative people, which is a good thing, no?; 12/8/25, 5:53 AM
Dave Begley said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/8/25, 6:01 AM
Dave Begley said...: People in his family aren’t limited to Bessent’s young children.

As to his sexuality, I don’t care. He’s a great Secretary of Treasury; the best in my lifetime.

I also don’t care about Pete’s sexuality, but he was horrible. He did nothing to fix the air traffic controller shortage and the ancient systems they work with.

It’s about merit and competence.; 12/8/25, 6:03 AM
Old and slow said...: Bessent behaves in a dignified way. His sexual preferences are not even secondary to his ability to do the job, they are immaterial. You don't see him striking ludicrous poses in a hospital gown pretending he just gave birth. This seems like a meaningful distinction.; 12/8/25, 6:03 AM
Leland said...: It is not homophobic to point out the silliness of taking paternity leave to “breastfeed” your adopted child while a town deals with a horrible hazardous train wreck that your department mishandled.; 12/8/25, 6:04 AM
Meade said...: I'll ply the fire with kindling now, I'll pull the blankets up to my chin
I'll lock the vagrant winter out and I'll fold my wandering in
I'd like to call back summertime
Have her stay for just another month or so
But she's got the urge for going so I guess she'll have to go; 12/8/25, 6:05 AM
Inga said...: “It is not homophobic to point out the silliness of taking paternity leave to “breastfeed” your adopted child…”

“The claim that he took the leave to breastfeed his children is false and originated as a mocking comment by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who quipped: "Paternity leave, they call it, trying to figure out how to breastfeed". This was a homophobic and misogynistic attack that was widely fact-checked and debunked.”; 12/8/25, 6:12 AM
Inga said...: “…while a town deals with a horrible hazardous train wreck that your department mishandled.”

“ No, Pete Buttigieg was on paternity leave for his newborn twins in late 2021. The Norfolk Southern train derailment happened in East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023, not during his leave.”; 12/8/25, 6:21 AM
Meade said...: “The Norfolk Southern train derailment happened in East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023, not during his leave.”

When did Buttigieg show up in East Palestine? 2024?; 12/8/25, 6:26 AM
Derve said...: Fuck Ohio, ammirite you Hoosier?
Or have you shape shifted again, silly boy meade??
lolol. You men with dual loyalties have no committment except to those who are paying your bills...

Summer done long gone, asswipe. Autumn's ending. Winter has come. Go chop some wood to keep your kin warm... in Wisconsin, right? You don't know where you are anymore. Just a kept boy like that. Nothing to do but bitch about the queers and brag about how big your lady thinks your cock is, comparatively....

Hurry hurry! Get out there and take some pics of the waterfowl now. No more doggies, your a bird man now, ammirite? You silly boys change your "hobbies" like you do your underwear, it seems...

Fuck off already?; 12/8/25, 6:30 AM
Derve said...: I'll lock the vagrant winter out and I'll fold my wandering in
-----------
Plenty of real men live out of camper vans in winter.
No need to "fold your wandering in" and put on the fuzzy slippers and stay under the blankets, asshole.

What kind of a man cribs poetry and puts it on his wife's blog to humblebrag how he's living in the Cohen house being kept for... how many years now?

Can't you get a job shoveling snow? Her driveway is pretty short, and you sure do brag on that...; 12/8/25, 6:34 AM
Breezy said...: There is a pic of Buttegieg with some sort of contraption on his chest that allowed him to mimic breastfeeding. This is a fact that is the basis for the mockery. Therefore, not debunked.

Plus, Buttigieg is a man. How can mocking him be misogynistic?; 12/8/25, 6:35 AM
Derve said...: Hurry hurry... get out there and report if the sun came out today with little orphan annie? Make sure you take a picture of the madison skyline with the ugly smokestacks to document the daily changes in construction so you can study the pics and see the workers' progress...; 12/8/25, 6:35 AM
Derve said...: Plus, Buttigieg is a man.
---------
Oh I'm sure his mother thinks he's just as masculine as chrissy, who likes to penetrate from behind, I believe she's said... Real Men those types. No women, just masculine. Lolol.; 12/8/25, 6:36 AM
Derve said...: This is a hate blog now.
I don't remember the prof being a hate hostess until her little insecure parasite with nothing in his own life to do came into the picture. He ran out on his wife and family remember...; 12/8/25, 6:37 AM
Derve said...: Hoosier hate.
It's his brand... until he shapeshifts into being a badger, or something. The uneducated are stooopid like that. Cheering America's demise. Fuck em.; 12/8/25, 6:38 AM
Derve said...: Old and slow said...
Bessent behaves in a dignified way. His sexual preferences are not even secondary to his ability to do the job,
-------------------
Somebody's crushing on a man with money.
Funny what these non-independent types will do to get in under somebody else's pension to be kept cozy in blankets and fuzzy slippers all winter...; 12/8/25, 6:40 AM
Derve said...: Germany is being crushed by the Nordstream pipeline destruction.
-----------
Some say the Jooos were behind that.
Time will tell...
Hamas will avenge their women and children. Silly boys run out on theirs. That's america today. We're all jooos now? Lol. Not.; 12/8/25, 6:41 AM
Inga said...: “There is a pic of Buttegieg with some sort of contraption on his chest that allowed him to mimic breastfeeding. This is a fact that is the basis for the mockery. Therefore, not debunked.”

“The picture of Pete Buttigieg wearing a device on his chest to "breastfeed" is fake. The image is a digitally altered photo that has circulated on social media to criticize his decision to take paternity leave after he and his husband, Chasten, welcomed twins in 2021.”; 12/8/25, 6:42 AM
Derve said...: I also don’t care about Pete’s sexuality,
------------
Lol. All the Begley money and all you have to do with your time is try to take away civil rights from others and judge...

God is going to have a field day with your types. Wait and see... You're fucked.; 12/8/25, 6:43 AM
Derve said...: I also don’t care about Pete’s sexuality,
------------
Lol. All the Begley money and all you have to do with your time is try to take away civil rights from others and judge...

God is going to have a field day with your types. Wait and see... You're fucked.; 12/8/25, 6:43 AM
Derve said...: Give it up, inga.
They all want to be hateful bigots but pretend to be noble caring outstanding Christian Americans as the ship sinks...

We see them and know their brand of "masculinity". Gaza and the deaths of so many unarmed women and children taught us who Americans are today... Silly fucked boomers. They want to burn it all down before they die.; 12/8/25, 6:45 AM
Derve said...: Meade should do stand in the woods "hiding" with his hands upstretched like a monster whilst his bonny bride takes photos of whomever is sharing a private moment with their lovers. Takes pictures of the flowers they leave behind too... nothing like intruding on private moments to make themselves stars of the show...

Look at me. Look at me. I'm a monster hiding behind a tree! Grrrrr.... (like m' poem?) Silly fuck.; 12/8/25, 6:47 AM
Kakistocracy said...: In Europe, the liberal democratic order faces its sharpest threats from far-right parties that the US is boosting and from a Russian state that the Trump administration is courting. Small wonder the Kremlin senses an opening.; 12/8/25, 6:48 AM
Jaq said...: "far right" = "not interested in having the globalists financialize my job and send it overseas and then bring in millions of foreigners to drive down the wages of the lower skilled jobs that are left after the financialization hurricane lays waste to the manufacturing sector, and drive up the cost of housing to boot!"

Oh yeah, and after they send our manufacturing base off to China in search of short term profits, they ask us to go to war with a neighboring country, with whom we, the people, have no quarrel, because their territory is laden with valuable resources, and the globalists can do to them what they just did to us.

That's "far right" in a nutshell. If there is one thing that globalists like Kak hate, it's people who don't want to submit to globalism and the destruction of their way of life.; 12/8/25, 7:07 AM
Jaq said...: "widely fact-checked and debunked"

I don't know anything about this case, and don't care, but I know that the "fact checkers" we have today probably would have worked in the same department at the Ministry of Truth as Winston Smith in 1984; 12/8/25, 7:10 AM
Derve said...: Kept Americans hate the independent men.
It's why meade struts like a peacock then goes home to sleep with another man's wife in the house/community he didn't help build...

They're lazy.; 12/8/25, 7:11 AM
Jaq said...: High US wages for skilled labor is economically inefficient, and Kak hates economic inefficiency, and anybody who is for keeping high skilled manufacturing jobs in the US is "far right."

The globalists have laid waste to the German economy with their war with Russia, and now they have removed the limits on borrowing there, so that they can squeeze a few decades out of the ruin of that country, almost certainly finding ways to get rich beyond mortal comprehension, through graft, arms sales, and not the least, shorting German companies as they wither on the vine, starved of reasonably priced raw materials by the new iron curtain that the West put up.; 12/8/25, 7:16 AM
Ronald J. Ward said...: Dave says; “ It’s about merit and competence.”

But of course. Merit and competence are at the top of the list for any of Trump’s picks. Nobody knows more about merit and competence than Donald Trump. Many people say this.; 12/8/25, 7:18 AM
Jaq said...: I would rather have amateurs with a lot to learn than the "seasoned experts" who have led us into endless unnecessary wars since 1992.; 12/8/25, 7:22 AM
Old and slow said...: Previous government experience does not equal competence. Not all of Trump's picks are great, but many are spectacular. You are free to disagree.; 12/8/25, 7:26 AM
Jaq said...: Not only have the "seasoned experts" led us into war after war, they stripped our economy of the industrial base to fight the new ones they want to fight at the same time. This is because they were so competent.

Joe Biden was so competent that he sent Blinken to threaten Putin with NATO nukes in Ukraine, 200 miles from Moscow, when Putin's troops were on the border, and Biden's war has gotten, by estimates that seem to fit with the facts on the ground, over a million Ukrainians killed in a war he could have prevented. That's competence!

All the while he has made Russia's military far more formidable than it was at the beginning of the war, and driven Russia and China into each other's arms. Xi and Putin know that the only winner of disputes between Russia and China is the US.; 12/8/25, 7:28 AM
Rusty said...: Meade said...
"I'll ply the fire with kindling now, I'll pull the blankets up to my chin
I'll lock the vagrant winter out and I'll fold my wandering in
I'd like to call back summertime
Have her stay for just another month or so
But she's got the urge for going so I guess she'll have to go"

What a beautiful sentiment.
And because of it I'm moving my birthday from today to June 8th.; 12/8/25, 7:29 AM
Kakistocracy said...: Trump says that price of beef is down. The receipt from my last trip to the grocery store says it is up. For busy shoppers, it can be hard to know who to trust.; 12/8/25, 7:30 AM
Beasts of England said...: ’The next war will probably be started over the 4 million or so Ukranians that fled to Poland. The Polish and Ukranians are not friends.’

My girlfriend is a Polish citizen, living there until she was in her twenties. Saying they’re not friends states it mildly. She hates Ukranians worse than the Germans and Russians. And the former put her Jewish great-grandmother in Majdanek.; 12/8/25, 7:34 AM
narciso said...: Yes the oun killed polish officials before the war killed 50,000 in galicia; 12/8/25, 7:37 AM
narciso said...: Congratulations beasts; 12/8/25, 7:44 AM
Jaq said...: The Russians claim that the foreign language they hear most on their battlefield interecepts is Polish. A lot of people assume that the reason that Poland is sending these "contractors" is to have forces on the ground in their former territory, that the OUN (Ukrainian fascists) ethnically cleansed of Poles, burning their farms and farmhouses, sometimes with the Polish farmers and their families in them, when the Ukrainian army collapses.; 12/8/25, 7:44 AM
Ronald J. Ward said...: Old & Slow @ 7:26, I can go along with “spectacular”.; 12/8/25, 7:46 AM
Kakistocracy said...: Trump is projecting abroad the failing theses of his immigration policy which now has rapidly declining negative approval ratings among US voters and is likely to be a top tier source of broad public dissatisfaction leading to a Republican rout in the 2026 elections.

The principal strategic strength behind American economic exceptionalism is the breadth, depth, and resilience of its open and flexible labor markets--something no other major country or regional economy in the world has. It is the biggest crippling handicap that both the Far Eastern and European economies have vis a vis the Americans. All that capital American capital markets raise and concentrate? It is quickly and effectively matched with appropriate labor to generate new game-changing economic output. Wrecking and disrupting the US labor market is an even larger strategic mistake than Trump's tariff policy.

All advanced and advancing economies worldwide have to organize their labor markets first and foremost to generate increases in future economic output to support higher social service loads for larger retirement segments while flowing increased real resources into adapting and hardening economic systems for adverse climate change. Expanding output is the single most critical future success factor.

Where are these wrong-headed ideas coming from? Mostly from Stephen Miller, the powerful deputy chief of staff in the White House and probably the most extremist political personality to serve at the highest levels in decades. The Homeland Security cabinet minister, Kristi Noem, is a Miller wind-up toy; she is leading this powerful security department to once-in-a-generation organizational failure, which would be even more noticeable if Pete Hegseth were not leading the Defense Department from failure (the Red Sea campaign against the Houthis) to ever greater failure (a colossally mismanaged military adventure in gun boat diplomacy in the Caribbean)

Europe must think, not overreact.; 12/8/25, 7:49 AM
Jaq said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/8/25, 7:49 AM
Jaq said...: That's a theory, I suppose. It would be a lot more convincing if it weren't so intertwined with sending US manufacturing overseas seeking lower wages, and the seemingly inherent need to constantly fight wars.

We must make the US economy more efficient by driving down labor costs to support the crushing social services load of bringing in millions of foreigners who don't have the level of education required for this advanced economy that you are imagining is going to happen magically.

This also drives up the cost of housing. Drives up waits for medical care, not just driving down wages. But the people at the top, the ones who fly to Rome to get their suits tailored, well, the tailor is Italian, but the suits are sewn by the Chinese, well they do fine in this economy.

Kai's vision is brought to you by the famous "one handed economist" that Harry Truman wanted, the one who never says "on the other hand" and he counts our future wealth, should he get his way, in one sided coins.; 12/8/25, 7:56 AM
Lazarus said...: Buttigieg took two month's paternity leave during a major transportation crisis. He also posted cutesy photos on social media. He's the kind of guy who rides most of the way to work and then takes out a bicycle to pedal the last mile or couple of blocks for the cameras. Bessent has been businesslike and responsible. Rather than base responses on party affiliation, ask what would you think of Buttigieg if he were in the party that you oppose and what you would think of Bessent if he were in your party and favored what you favor?; 12/8/25, 8:03 AM
Beasts of England said...: Thanks, narc. She got her U.S. citizenship a few years ago and is very proud of it. Now if I can only get her interested in college football, we’ll be set. lol; 12/8/25, 8:07 AM
Old and slow said...: I would count Lutnik, Bessent, and Sacks as great staff picks. Some of the others are weird at best, but then I'm not the one making the picks.; 12/8/25, 8:08 AM
Breezy said...: LOL. My bad re the Buttigieg photo. I guess it’s one of those fake-but-real situations.; 12/8/25, 8:28 AM
Jaq said...: "labor flexibility" That's an interesting term that Kak has used. Let's think about what it means in practice.

We shut down the auto plant which paid decent wages, good benefits, and had a retirement plan, and we will ship the jobs to Mexico, and you can show your "labor flexibility" by becoming a gig worker, or you could work in high tech! What? You struggled in pre-calc in high school and probably won't be able to land one of those academically demanding jobs, so it's gig work for you, delivering take out in your aging car. BTW, to keep your salary in line, we have imported millions of scabs, err, I mean migrants, who are willing to split their rent ten ways, to compete with you on the issue of wages. So do your patriotic duty to the billionaires at the top and accept these wages!

Now that this pain has been inflicted on this worker, have cars gotten cheaper? Who said anything about "cheaper"? We will make them more "affordable." How does that work, making cars affordable while they get more expensive? Why, we let you take seven years to pay the car off! I know your grandpa looked at three year car loans with suspicion, but hey, he was old fashioned! Not to mention, a well-tuned economy needs people paying high interest rates to the banks! A lot of such people!

So now the high paying jobs available to the vast majority of workers have flown overseas, so if he wants a new car, he enthralls himself to the banks for seven years, and his son starts looking at the military as a job opportunity.

Everybody is happy!; 12/8/25, 8:29 AM
Jaq said...: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
— Hamlet, Act I, Scene 5; 12/8/25, 8:39 AM
Ronald J. Ward said...: Jaq @ 8:29, I agree with a lot of the damage you describe—globalization with no worker protections devastated industrial communities. I just don’t see how blaming immigrants or electing Trump solves what corporations and trade deals caused. The real answer seems to be rebuilding union bargaining power, enforcing domestic production, and stopping companies from offshoring while taxpayers subsidize the results.; 12/8/25, 8:51 AM
Jaq said...: " The real answer seems to be rebuilding union bargaining power, enforcing domestic production, and stopping companies from offshoring while taxpayers subsidize the results."

So lower the supply of scabs. You can't repeal the law of supply and demand as it applies to anything, including labor.

A good way to enforce domestic production and stop companies from offshoring is ...wait for it... tariffs.

You seem to have been emotionally manipulated into opposing policies that support what you purport to be your goals.; 12/8/25, 9:33 AM
Jaq said...: "ebuilding union bargaining power, enforcing domestic production, and stopping companies from offshoring while taxpayers subsidize the results"

BTW, all of this flies in the face of Kak's call for "labor flexibility." Stability is one of the foundations of a good life, a good home life, a good family life, and Kak is arguing that it's "economically inefficient" and that anybody who doesn't believe what he believes, wants a stable home life and community for their kith and kin is "far right."; 12/8/25, 9:35 AM
Jaq said...: Spot the difference between a border and a picket line. Both provide protection to labor, and the globalists want to erase both, and anybody who opposes this is "far right."; 12/8/25, 9:43 AM
Meade said...: Rusty, great idea. Happy birthday!; 12/8/25, 9:45 AM
Ronald J. Ward said...: Jaq, I don’t disagree at all about rebuilding union strength or curbing offshoring—those are goals I’ve argued for consistently. Where you and I part ways is the assumption that tariffs automatically achieve that. Historically, tariffs haven’t revived domestic production; they usually raise prices here and shift supply chains elsewhere (Vietnam, Malaysia, etc.) rather than bring factories back to the U.S.

And from a practical standpoint, manufacturers aren’t going to invest billions building U.S. plants based on a tariff that can be reversed by the next administration. Corporations think in decades—tariff politics change every 4 years.

Meanwhile, the cost of tariffs falls hardest on American consumers, not corporations. Tariffs are functionally a tax—just one that shows up in higher grocery, appliance, and car prices instead of on a tax bill. So yes, it “protects” corporate taxes while shifting the burden downward.

If the goal is domestic production, the more proven tools have actually been things like long-term industrial policy, stable procurement commitments, and strengthening collective bargaining—not episodic tariff wars. Even the EV and chip manufacturing we’re seeing now are happening because of direct incentives and industrial investment, not tariffs.

I’m absolutely for rebuilding American industry. I just want a method that actually works rather than one that makes everything more expensive while hoping corporations behave differently this time.; 12/8/25, 9:45 AM
Jaq said...: "And from a practical standpoint, manufacturers aren’t going to invest billions building U.S. plants based on a tariff that can be reversed by the next administration."

So your problem with tariffs is that they need to be made into firm laws that cannot be changed on a whim, like the tariffs that turned the United States into a world industrial power in the 19th century. I agree with you.

This is just false: "Historically, tariffs haven’t revived domestic production"

Tariffs and the Rise of American Global Power
By the late 19th century, tariffs had helped the U.S.:
Build domestic industrial dominance
Accumulate capital internally
Compete with British and German manufacturing
Transition from an exporter of raw materials to an exporter of finished goods
By 1900, the U.S. had surpassed Britain in:
Steel output
Industrial production
Railroad mileage

Of course everything comes with an "on the other hand" argument, and consumer goods did cost more but it created a lot more good American jobs. And there wasn't an income tax, because tariffs funded the Federal Government.; 12/8/25, 10:13 AM
Jaq said...: Sorry, that quoted passage came from ChatGPT.; 12/8/25, 10:14 AM
Jaq said...: Chat went on to say, and it's important, I think, that the tariffs benefited the Union states and harmed the agrarian Confederate states, whose economies depended on exports of cotton, which was a global commodity whose price was set globally. Basically the northern states were choking the southern states economically, long before the war broke out.; 12/8/25, 10:22 AM
Ronald J. Ward said...: Jaq, in the 1900s, how were things working out for those running tabs at the company store?; 12/8/25, 10:37 AM
Jaq said...: Well, they gave manufacturers the pricing power to accommodate unionization.; 12/8/25, 10:43 AM