Sunrise — 5:01, 5:21, 5:20, 5:27.

Talk about whatever you like in the comments. And please support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.

"Bono has stood by his decision to accept the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom, despite admitting to 'looking like a plonker' as President Biden placed it around his neck."

"The U2 frontman, who recently celebrated his 65th birthday, has no regrets keeping the award that he received in January for his humanitarian work in spite of claims that he was morally wrong to do so due to the former president’s track record over Gaza."

From "Bono has no regrets about accepting White House honour/The U2 frontman addresses backlash over accepting the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, citing his longstanding humanitarian work and collaboration with Joe Biden" (London Times).

According to the OED, "plonker" has meant "A foolish, inept, or contemptible person" since 1955. John Lennon muttered it on TV in 1964. "Plonker" also means "penis." Published examples go back to the 1920s: "Last night I lay in bed and pulled my plonker." I was amused to find that in the OED, but there it was. An older meaning of the word is "Something large or substantial of its kind." You can see how one thing leads to another.

"For at least two decades political leaders from both parties have dragged our military into missions — it was never meant to be— it wasn't meant to be."

"People would say 'Why are we doing this why are we wasting our time money and souls?' In some case they sent our warriors on nation-building crusades to nations that wanted nothing to do with us, led by leaders that didn't have a clue, in distant lands, while abusing our soldiers with absurd ideological experiments, here and at home. All of that's ended. You know that. All of it's ended. It's ended. Strongly ended. They're not even allowed to think about it anymore. They subjected the armed forces to all manner of social projects and political causes while leaving our borders undefended and depleting our arsenals to fight other countries' wars.... The job of the US armed forces is not to host drag shows, to transform foreign cultures, [or] to spread democracy to everybody around the world at the point of a gun. The military's job is to dominate any foe and annihilate any threat to America anywhere anytime and any place...."

Said Donald Trump, addressing the graduating class at West Point.

Comic timing.

During his closed press crypto event, Trump pretended to be hit in the ear after an unexpected loud sound was heard. pic.twitter.com/ZA4MmkXT3F

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) May 23, 2025

"About a year ago, Elon Musk quietly summoned a handful of Republican strategists and confidants to his sparsely decorated apartment overlooking downtown Austin."

"The Tesla CEO told the group that electing Donald Trump was essential to the country’s future, and he was willing to do anything — and pay any amount — to create a 'red wave' around the country. He did a lot... And this week, following a period of intense backlash against his political activity and his electric-vehicle company, he seemed to draw a line under all that work: 'I think I’ve done enough.'.... As Musk focuses on Mars and cars, his pullback from political spending could be a significant loss for the Republican Party...."

From "Tired of political attacks, Musk turns back to Mars and autonomous cars/As he retreats from Washington, Elon Musk says he will spend 'a lot less' on politics. Close advisers says he is eager to return to prior obsessions" (WaPo).

Who knows what Elon Musk is thinking or planning to do or what he will do? He likes to surprise and he's really good at that. Meanwhile, The Washington Post is rather flat-footed and obvious. I can see that it means to do what it always does — mix low-level hate with weak encouragement in the hope of keeping readers in the sickly embrace of the Democratic Party. 

"Of course, with a broadcast social network like X, everyone is both a patron and an owner of sorts."

"Followers can feel like a kind of currency, built up over years: Some people don’t leave the bar, because they’re invested and don’t want to dump their shares. Other people don’t leave, because the alternative hangouts aren’t enticing enough. Some simply don’t want to give the Nazis the satisfaction of successfully driving them out. There is plenty of commentary, even among users of other platforms, about how Threads is bloodless (and owned by Mark Zuckerberg), Mastodon is inscrutable, and Bluesky is humorless.... If a billionaire bought one of your local haunts... brought back many of the people who’d been banned for harassing other regulars, eliminated basic rules of decency... taking your business elsewhere would be perfectly rational. This is essentially what’s happened on X.... A critical mass of the nation’s politicians, news outlets, and major brands regularly post content for free... This platform is owned by the world’s richest man, a conspiracy theorizing GOP mega-donor who still holds a position in the Trump administration.... Let’s pause to sit with the absurdity of these facts...."

I'm sitting with the Atlantic article by Charlie Warzel, "What Are People Still Doing on X? Imagine if your favorite neighborhood bar turned into a Nazi hangout." 

Here's how I'd act when my favorite neighborhood bar turns into a Nazi hangout:

"People could never imagine that I would lack any confidence, or belief in the simple things about who I am."

"Everything was torn to bits. He leaves a trail of blood. I don’t think I’m saying too much earth-shattering stuff after we — there’s been enough out there. But it gave me the greatest gift, which is myself. It gave me the greatest gift of how much I needed to show up for myself and take care of myself."

Said Danica Patrick, on a podcast called "The Sage Steele Show," quoted in "Danica Patrick: 'Emotionally abusive' Aaron Rodgers relationship ‘wore me down to nothing'" (NY Post).

I saw that just as I'm in the middle of listening to Aaron Rogers on a new episode of Joe Rogan. Audio and transcript at Podscribe. I don't think Aaron talks about any of his relationships with women. Does he leave a trail of blood? He doesn't give a clue. He and Joe talk about vaccines, the pyramids, aliens, the Sean Combs trial, transwomen in women's sports. Juicy substantive topics.

Why are men's podcasts so different from women's and why do I only listen to the men's? Part of the answer is that I'm highly skeptical of female empowerment discourse — e.g., "the gift of how much I needed to show up for myself and take care of myself." It's not just that it's superficial and repetitious. I suspect that it's part of the subordination of women, not that it does men any good. 

"On May 14, the chatbot began responding to all kinds of unrelated queries by holding forth on the topic of 'white genocide' in South Africa, to users’ bafflement."

"It’s a theory that holds that the country’s formerly ascendant White minority is being targeted for elimination by its Black majority — a claim the South African-born Musk has helped to popularize via his influential X account. The theory has been rejected as false by courts, government ministers and fact-checkers. Grok’s sudden obsession with it coincided with a push by the Trump administration to justify its controversial move to welcome White South African refugees at a time when the United States is turning away refugees of color from countries around the world.

I'm reading "How Elon Musk’s ‘truth-seeking’ chatbot lost its way/Grok has proved popular with X users. But a string of bizarre blunders threatened to turn it into a punchline" (WaPo)(free-access link).

"Screen time together is better than individual device time, experts say. Start playing multiplayer video games like Mario Kart on the same screen...."

"Pick a movie or TV show to watch together as a family, without checking a your phone. 'TV is underrated in the age of short form video, if you’re worried about their attention span,' says Devorah Heitner, author of 'Growing Up in Public: Coming of Age in a Digital World.' 'It’s an opportunity to connect, and it’s also an opportunity to have a shared vocabulary.'"

From "The White House is worried about kids’ screen time. Here are five things parents can do. A new MAHA-led report on childhood health has harsh words about screen time, but the reality is more nuanced" (WaPo)(free-access link).

Did you ever think it would come to this, that the situation with children would get so bad that watching more TV would come to be regarded as therapeutic?!

That's a free access link, so you can see multiple other issues, such as the painful dissonance for parents who want to get their kids off the devices but hate to be on the same page with Trump and Bobby.

"Who would have ever thought that honouring someone who has been exonerated in every single courtroom he’s ever walked into would be thought of as a brave idea?"

"The two-time Oscar winner went on to compare his exile from Hollywood to the blacklisting of screenwriters under Joseph McCarthy’s anti-communist witch-hunt in the 1940s and 1950s. “There are times when one has to stand up for principle,” Spacey said. “I have learnt a lot from history: it very often repeats itself. The blacklist was a terrible time in our industry, but we must learn from it so that it never happens again.”

Said Kevin Spacey, accepting a lifetime achievement award at Cannes, quoted in "Kevin Spacey won at Cannes — but Hollywood’s ‘sharia court’ finds him guilty/Industry insiders are conflicted as the Oscar winner, acquitted twice for sexual misconduct, plots a comeback" (London Times).

Also: "One senior producer said Spacey... deserved a second chance, but judgmental studios were still 'performing as a sort of odd sharia court, outside of judicial jurisdiction, pretending to be judge and jury on a hearsay whim.... So many lives have been ruined for no reason. Kevin Spacey received a not-guilty verdict.'"

"Dartmoor is the last place in England and Wales where the public have a right to camp on common land, thanks to the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985..."

"... which states: 'The public shall have a right of access to the commons on foot and on horseback for the purpose of open-air recreation.' Alexander Darwall, a City fund manager and Dartmoor’s sixth-largest landowner, tried to end that right by taking a legal case all the way to the Supreme Court, where he argued that camping was not 'open-air recreation' and the legislation meant that anyone caught sitting down to rest, picnic or paint on common land could also be sued by the landowner for trespass...."

I'm reading "Extend wild camping rights across England, says Dartmoor boss/After the Supreme Court secured the right to backpack camp on Dartmoor, the national park’s chief executive has urged other national parks to be allowed to follow suit" (London Times).

"Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the Open Spaces Society, said she would like to see a right to backpack camp in 'all open access country' in England, which is land the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 gives a public right to walk across, such as mountain, moor, heath, down and common land.... 'We want a right of access to woodlands and watersides, places that were defined as open country in the Countryside Act 1968 but then nothing ever happened with that. Access close to homes would help the government with their target for green spaces within 15 minutes of everyone’s home.'"

ADDED: I was reminded of this passage in Bill Bryson's "At Home: A Short History of Private Life" (commission earned):

"Their joke was about my 15-year-old son, 'Oh, how does he feel about minorities?' Like the idea that he wants to be a policeman, therefore he’s, he’s racist, my son."

"And like, you know, that was the big laugh. And then I got dragged in the comments and all that stuff and, and I thought to myself, 'This is why you fuckers are losing elections'.... He’s 15. He thinks about World War II and gaming and playing linebacker, that’s his world. You’re deciding he’s a racist because he wants to be a cop. And why does he want to be a cop? He wants to be a cop because he wants to help people, you know, and he thinks that’s the best way he can help people. And that’s how the Democratic Party talks to men, not just white men, but men."

Said Jake Tapper, quoted in "Jake Tapper Says Liberal Podcaster Made Racism Jab After He Revealed Son Wants To Be a Cop: 'This Is Why You F**kers Are Losing Elections'" (Mediaite).

Sunrise — 5:22, 5:29.

Talk about whatever you like in the comments. And please support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.

"I’ve been wanting to come for weeks and weeks and weeks. I’m excited that the spring is happening and she’s really activating the girls to touch some grass — literally — and get outside."

Said Lydia Burns, a model, quoted in "These New Yorkers Are Touching Grass" (NYT).

I'm a devotee of ritualistic nature walks myself, but I still laughed at:

This Sunday, at 10:30 a.m. sharp, a group of stylish, mostly 30-something New Yorkers gathered at the Hare Krishna Tree in the center of Tompkins Square Park. Despite a few complaints of hangovers, they had made it there on time for a plant and history tour of the park led by Olivia Rose, who handed out tote bags and forest green zines she had made for the occasion....

I loved the video snippet of the stylish, youngish folk walking quite slowly, each holding a disposable plastic cup of something brownish and milky. Plastic cups, tote bags, zines — zines! — nature is so great.

Here's the Wikipedia article on Tompkins Square Park, where I learned that the park is the namesake of Daniel D. Tompkins, who was once Vice President of the United States.

The Presidents go head-to-head in my "For you" feed on X.

Obama, perhaps representing the Democratic Party, sticks to a minimalist position: Republicans might take some of your money. Trump is effusive, lists a lot of things that will benefit some of us, and ends with an exciting but vague and weird attack on Democrats: They've lost control of themselves! They are aimlessly wandering around! They've got no grit! They are warped in the past! They think they're going to bring their insane policies back, but it's never going to happen! Meanwhile, Obama merely wafts anxiety about health insurance coverage. 

"The most extreme end of the promortalism movement is 'Efilism,'which takes its name from 'life' spelt backward..."

"... and argues that all sentient life should be extinguished to prevent suffering. Gary Mosher... one of its most prominent proponents... endorses violence towards women, even claiming he will murder any woman he gets pregnant who refuses an abortion. 'The end goal is for the truth [Efilism] to win, and once it does, we can finally begin the process of sterilising this planet of the disease of life,' he wrote in an online manifesto. But after the IVF clinic in Palm Springs was bombed, he distanced himself from the violence. 'The fact is that there’s people in the world who are lonely, and some that are crazy, and this, that and the other thing,' he said on [YouTube]. 'They have some reason to be despondent, and they have low investment in their existence, and those are dangerous people.'... [I]t is not hard to find members recommending various methods for killing oneself, or using the term 'CTB' — or catch the bus — for suicide...."

From "Inside the ‘strangest terrorist movement the US has ever seen’/Guy Bartkus tried to destroy an IVF clinic to save the embryos the pain of existence. Alarmingly for national security, his ‘promortalist’ philosophy does not die with him" (London Times).

"In my 22 years as a Harvard professor, I have not been afraid to bite the hand that feeds me."

Writes Steven Pinker, in "Harvard Derangement Syndrome" (NYT)(free-access link).

My 2014 essay “The Trouble With Harvard” called for a transparent, meritocratic admissions policy to replace the current “eye-of-newt-wing-of-bat mysticism” which “conceals unknown mischief.” My 2023 “five-point plan to save Harvard from itself” urged the university to commit itself to free speech, institutional neutrality, nonviolence, viewpoint diversity and disempowering D.E.I. Last fall, on the anniversary of Oct. 7, 2023, I explained “how I wish Harvard taught students to talk about Israel,” calling on the university to teach our students to grapple with moral and historical complexity. Two years ago I co-founded the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard, which has since regularly challenged university policies and pressed for changes.

So I’m hardly an apologist for my employer when I say that the invective now being aimed at Harvard has become unhinged.

"The book has also amplified debate about whether more blame should be placed on Democratic leaders, Mr. Biden’s staff and the press for not revealing more about the former president earlier...."

"Intentionally or not, by being an author of a major book on the subject, Mr. Tapper has allowed himself to become a symbol of the establishment press that conservatives have long accused of hiding the former president’s frailty from the public. [Megyn] Kelly, the former Fox News star, subjected Mr. Tapper to intense grilling on her popular podcast in an interview that went viral online. 'You covered the Biden presidency aggressively throughout the four years, and you didn’t cover mental acuity, hardly at all,' Ms. Kelly said at one point. 'I mean, time and time again when issues came up, you seem to be running cover for the president.' Mr. Tapper denied the charges. 'Conservative media absolutely has every right to say, "We were hip to this, and the legacy media was not,"' he said later in the interview. 'Now, I do not accept that I was part of a cover-up. I do not accept that I was just providing cover for Joe Biden.'"

From "Everyone Now Has an Opinion on Jake Tapper/A book the CNN host co-wrote has received positive reviews and appears to be a sales hit. But it has also generated intense scrutiny of him and his work" (NYT).

So... you weren't "hip to this."

Why not? And why would I read a book written by such an out-of-touch, unobservant, slow learner? Or should I ask why would I read a book written by such a liar?

"There wasn't, like, a moment in the '80s that wasn't super cool to be me. And then dark music."

"Bum, bum, bum, bum... I lost control of my anonymity, and it was devastating. I don't want to come off like a victim in some way...."

"I went to Columbia for grad school. I saw the same thing in his eyes as I saw in the eyes of all the protestors at Columbia."

WOW. INCREDIBLE RESPONSE👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

CNN Reporter: “You said you looked the shooter in the eyes can you tell us what you saw in him? “

Eye Witness: “I went to Columbia for grad school. I saw the same thing in his eyes as I saw in the eyes of all the protestors at Columbia.”

CNN… https://t.co/yxURFVj4Hr

— Jeremy Kamali (@JeremyKamali) May 23, 2025

"But they did not create this horrific shooting"/"They gave it permission. They have called for intifada revolution, which is the same thing he (the shooter) yelled last night.”

"The Prompt Theory."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Hashem Al-Ghaili (@hashem.alghaili)

At the Thursday Night Café...

 ... you can talk about anything you like.

"After watching the whole course of the accident, the respected comrade Kim Jong-un made [a] stern assessment..."

"... saying that it was a serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism which is out of the bounds of possibility and could not be tolerated.... He warned solemnly that the irresponsible errors of the relevant officials… responsible for the accident that brought the dignity and self-respect of our state to a collapse in a moment would have to be dealt with."

So it said in The Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the Workers’ Party of Korea, as quoted in "North Korea warship launch accident leaves Kim Jong-un furious/Supreme leader says the damage suffered by the 5,000-tonne naval vessel, which was launched sideways, was a disgrace to the country’s 'dignity and self-respect'" (London Times).

I'm perplexed by the degree of openness from the government and in the press in North Korea. Over here in America, I don't even know who was President in the last few years.

"If a human being did not exist then the absence of bad would be good... but the absence of good would not be bad because nobody was deprived."

Said David Benatar, quoted in "Antinatalist philosopher: The Palm Springs bomber proves my point/We should stop having children, says David Benatar — whose beliefs were reflected in Guy Edward Bartkus’s manifesto written before he blew up an IVF clinic" (London Times).

He firmly rejected the notion that painful experiences offer perspective or meaning, or that life’s fleeting pleasures make its fundamental wretchedness worthwhile. He said nothing would be lost if babies stopped being born.... He writes in his book that “while good people go to great lengths to spare their children from suffering, few of them seem to notice that the one (and only) guaranteed way to prevent all the suffering of their children is not to bring those children into existence in the first place.” His advice to those who do exist is to do no harm to other human beings or animals, and to “get the joy you can and give the joy that you can give.”

"White, college-educated voters shifted to the right, and by significantly more than White, noncollege voters did."

So it says here in "The 2024 election was even weirder than we thought/An expansive new report challenges early theories about how Donald Trump won" (WaPo).

That's a free-access link, so you can read the details and form an opinion over whether to trust this rather than all that other polling and poll analysis that found a "continued leftward march of White, college-educated voters," supposedly "the only major racial subgroup shifting left," which "reinforced existing fears among Democrats that they were increasingly appealing to educated White voters with their policies and message at the exclusion of other groups."

Other headings at that link: "The gender gap was real," "Democrats held up better with rural voters than with urban voters," and "Democrats gained ground with engaged voters."

I don't trust any of this material. The Democratic Party has a big problem and must rebuild itself, but how? By increasing its appeal to white, college-educated voters, because that's actually where the problem is? 

"One theory is that he had an abnormally 'quick eye,' capable of isolating moments in time that almost anybody else would miss."

"That might have included the subject of the Mona Lisa just beginning to break into a tentative smile, or the asynchronous beating of a dragonfly’s wings. Jesse Ausubel, a co-founder of the Leonardo da Vinci DNA Project, said: 'We think he saw things that you and I can’t see.'"

From "Leonardo da Vinci was a genius. New DNA tests could finally explain why/An international team of researchers believe the Renaissance master’s DNA could help to explain his extraordinary gifts" (London Times).

If you want to see that he saw things that other people can't see, I think you will.

"The event in Washington DC where two Israeli embassy workers were shot dead was aimed at alleviating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, in 'brutal and tragic irony'....

"... according to an Israel-based aid group. 'All participants came together to find practical solutions to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,' IsraAid, an Israel-based international emergency response group said in a statement. The event was a reception for young Jewish diplomats and foreign policy professionals, and was hosted by the American Jewish Committee at the Capital Jewish Museum. The event 'focused on delivering aid to Gaza through Israeli-Palestinian and regional co-operation. It was driven by humanitarian values and a belief that collaboration is the only path forward for all people in the region,' IsraAid said."

The London Times reports.

Was the murderer misinformed? It seems more likely that he — along with many others —  opposes "practical solutions," "regional co-operation," "humanitarian values," and "collaboration" as "the only path forward." 

Look at the hopeful faces of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, who are now dead. Perhaps they were smiling so beautifully because they believed in humanitarian values.

The arrested man, Elias Rodriguez, "had been waving a red keffiyeh, which is often associated with the Marxist–Leninist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)."  He asked for the police to be called, and, as you can hear, in video at the link, he shouts "Free Palestine! Free Palestine!" after he is handcuffed. 

"The early-morning vote was 215 to 214, mostly along party lines. It was a crucial victory for what President Trump and Republicans are calling the 'big, beautiful bill.'"

"Trump Administration Live Updates: House Passes Bill to Deliver President’s Domestic Agenda" (NYT).

House Republicans jumped to their feet to applaud Speaker Mike Johnson, who announced the vote tally as he presided over the floor. But members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus did not join in and largely stayed in their seats.

At the Wednesday Night Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

"The book is a very, very harsh critique of Jill Biden and the first couple’s top aides....The book does not explore in much detail Kamala Harris’s role in the cover-up."

"If anything, it reveals how little Biden’s inner circle trusted or respected the former vice president — and how much she was insulated from the Oval Office as a result. According to Tapper and Thompson, she was seen by members of Biden’s inner circle as lazy and rude. 'Several quietly expressed buyer’s remorse,' they report, to the point where some believed he should have picked Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to serve as vice president instead...."

From "A Damning Portrait of Joe Biden’s Loyal Inner Circle" (National Review).

"President Donald Trump pressed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to protect White Afrikaner farmers from violent attacks in an extraordinary Oval Office conversation..."

"... in which Trump made no mention of the African nation’s long-standing epidemic of violence against both White and Black people, nor its violent and discriminatory history of White rule. Trump amplified false claims that White Afrikaners have been victims of a genocide, even showing video of crosses and earthen mounds that he said represented more than 1,000 grave sites of murdered farmers. The mounds were in fact part of a protest against the violence, not actual graves. Ramaphosa stared straight ahead, wiping his face and occasionally moving in his seat and looking over at Trump, who wouldn’t make eye contact as a clip played of crowds repeatedly shouting, 'Kill the Boers,' a reference to White farmers descended from colonists who built and led the nation’s racist apartheid regime...."

WaPo reports.

"Five people were running the country, and Joe Biden was at best a senior member of the board. I’ve never seen a situation like this before..."

"... with so few people having so much power. They would make huge economic decisions without calling [Treasury] secretary Yellen."

Said an unnamed member of Biden's Cabinet, quoted in "Meet the Biden 'politburo' accused of running the country in secret/There was the aide who demanded $4 million to advise the re-election campaign. There was the enforcer who 'cast out heretics.' And there was Jill Biden" (London Times).

The Five: Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti, Ron Klain, Bruce Reed, Anthony Bernal. Plus: Jill Biden, Hunter Biden.

"I really do think that social solidarity is destroyed when you have too much migration too quickly."

"And so that's not because I hate the migrants or I'm motivated by grievance, that's because I'm trying to preserve something in my own country where we are a unified nation. And I don't think that can happen if you have too much immigration too quickly."

Said JD Vance on the new episode of Ross Douthat's "Interesting Times" podcast — audio and transcript at Podscribe.

Douthat was challenging him to coordinate his political thinking with his Catholicism. To quote a bit more of what Vance said:

Megyn Kelly corners Jake Tapper, who only apologizes for supposedly not noticing Joe Biden's decline...

... but it looks far more likely that he saw but chose to be part of the coverup:

"Of course, I've said I I look back at my coverage with humility and and uh I wish I did cover the issues of age and acuity but I wish I had covered them much more and I wish I mean of course..."

Watch the whole video, please, and see how Jake Tapper treated Lara Trump when she was a guest on his show on October 18, 2020. Kelly shows the video clip in which Lara Trump called attention to Biden's lack of mental acuity — the subject of Tapper's new book — and Tapper accused her of mocking Biden's stutter.

Watch Tapper's face and listen to his voice as he berates her for her lack of empathy. That's very effective on many women. Not on Lara Trump, but on many women, including many viewers of Tapper's show, and I presume he knows it. You can do a lot of subordinating of women by stimulating our fear that we may be regarded as unkind. 

"How much empathy can the country muster for Biden? In both red states and blue ones? In the well-lit spaces on social media and in the darkest corners?"

"Among his supporters and those who voted for his rival? Biden doesn’t have the benefit of having been out of office for years. And while he has been on a redemption tour of sorts, only history can define his presidency. Nostalgia hasn’t had a chance to cast him in a warm glow. The scars of a political dogfight haven’t even begun to scab over. The old ones are still raw and weeping, even as the country accumulates new ones. Vice President JD Vance argued that it was possible to have two thoughts about Biden at once: to wish him good health while also, essentially, calling him a terrible president in the same breath."

Writes Robin Givhan, in "Biden was empath-in-chief. Can a divided country offer him empathy? In the face of Biden’s cancer diagnosis, does the country have the capacity for empathy despite the political rancor, distrust, alternative facts and lies?" (WaPo).

Shame on us for wanting to know the truth about what happened? Who was President these past few years? We're supposed to sink into a pool of respectful silence and not demand to know? We're not supposed to be skeptical about the timing of the cancer news, which seems so perfectly aimed to shut us up about Tapper's book and the Hur recordings?

And what is this "redemption tour of sorts"? I had not noticed. I had to ask A.I., which pointed me to his "paid speeches, interviews (e.g., his appearance on The View), and international trips (e.g., attending Pope Francis’ funeral in Rome)." He wasn't waiting for years to pass, wounds to heal, and nostalgia to set in. He and his enablers were doing positive propaganda. Why should we shut up? Answer: because he has an aggressive cancer. Of course, we feel the silencing power.

What ugly people we are to still want the truth! Who was President these past few years?!

At the Tuesday Night Café...

... you can talk about anything you want.

Meet the new boss.

Happy birthday Pete. Who’s the new boss? Is he like the old boss? Have you met him yet? Say hello to Roger.

— Bob Dylan (@bobdylan) May 19, 2025

"I don't even know what the hell that is. Get yourself a real job."

TRUMP: Who do you work for?

REPORTER: NOTUS

TRUMP: I don't even know what the hell that is. Get yourself a real job. pic.twitter.com/pzyw54LAB5

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 20, 2025

What's NOTUS? Not us??? It's — as distinguished from SCOTUS and POTUS — News Of The United States. 

"I used to read like a fiend, but I’ve given it up because it took up my time. I paint and draw all the time now..."

"... and watch films and read reviews in the paper. The last book I read was Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks, 15 years ago."

From "Rose Wylie: I haven’t read a book in 15 years/The artist on why she had to put down Ulysses, the films that make her cry— and the fellow artist she would invite to dinner" (London Times).

Reading a book takes up time, so it's something to do if you have time that needs filling. You can fill time with other things too. How is reading a book different from those other things, and why do so many people seem to think that it's better than those other things? It's refreshing to hear Rose Wylie announce without shame that she hasn't read a book in 15 years. She prefers other things.

Here's her favorite poem.

"But there was also strong social fabric in his Harlem neighborhood. It wasn’t just Ms. Brown but his downstairs neighbor, Teddy, a retired seaman..."

"... who had moved into the building in 1936, who stridently guarded Mr. Levy’s parking spot while he was at work. 'He was retired and sat in the window. When people tried to park in front of the building, he would scream at them, "No, no, no. That’s Mr. Levy’s place."'"

I'm reading "A Long Life in Harlem, Made Possible by an Affordable Apartment/Owen Levy says the social fabric has remained strong in the often-tumultuous 46 years he has lived in the neighborhood" (NYT).

Times have changed. You can't get a big apartment near Central Park for $300. And anyone who thinks they can enforce a moral right to a public parking spot is going to become a figure of fun on TikTok:

"It is impossible to avoid slop these days. Slop is what we now call the uncanny stream of words and photos and videos that artificial intelligence spits out...."

"'Slop bowl'  is the term many use for the nebulous mash of ingredients served up at fast-casual restaurants.... TikTok feeds, meanwhile, are overtaken by streams of 'fast fashion slop.' Thousands of users have embraced the genre of the 'Shein Haul' reveal.... Kyla Scanlon, an economic commentator who coined the term 'vibecession,' notes that across different kinds of consumption... people are choosing to minimize thought and maximize efficiency, even when the outcome is a little less expressive (your outfit is the same as everyone else’s), a little less satisfying (your lunch bowl tastes just like yesterday’s) or a little less human.... Some psychiatrists say it makes sense that being confronted with nonstop online slop comes with cognitive downside.... So now some posters and shoppers are trying to edge away from it...."

Writes Emma Goldberg, in "Living the Slop Life/Slop videos. Slop bowls. Slop clothing hauls. When did we get so submerged in the slop-ified muck?" (NYT).

Sometimes a word helps us perceive and understand and react to a problem. A word can shape or change the problem. Is "slop" accurate? Is it propaganda?

What are the words that have worked like that?

We need everyone to do their part, first, by being "truthful."

Santa Ono, the sole finalist for University of Florida president, claims that "systemic racism is embedded in every corner of any institution," and says that "the only way to solve it" is for everyone to admit their complicity in racism and engage in BLM-style self-criticism. pic.twitter.com/T3KtRrvdyw

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) May 19, 2025

The best part is the background music. It really helped me experience the angst of the perfect blend of sincerity and insincerity. It felt like an excellent satire.

"Everybody has implicit, um, bias."

That "um" is important. He was doing his part by being truthful. Maybe it's not a big part, but it's a part. These parts may add up. If everyone would just exhibit a tiny twinge of discomfort....

"Don't news people have to tell you what they know when they find it out?"

"Isn't that the difference between news and a secret?"

.@jonstewart is getting whiplash watching CNN pivot from promoting Jake Tapper's "bombshell" book to lamenting Joe Biden's cancer diagnosis pic.twitter.com/pShybi5F6e

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) May 20, 2025

A bubble-wrapped President protected by a chimera in a mirage in an alternate universe.

I'm trying to read "The Tragedy of Joe Biden" by Maureen Dowd:

By the end, when he was bubble-wrapped in 2024, he trusted only his family and his closest aides. And they protected him with a damaging chimera. Sugarcoated interpretations of polls that were not reflected elsewhere. Extreme efforts to redesign the presidency to adapt to his ever more fragile state. Trashing Robert Hur for telling the truth. Refusing to do the cognitive testing that might have established a diagnosis....Tapper and Thompson show how Biden and his inner circle created an alternate universe that they tried to sell to the media and the public — the sort of corrosive mirage of unreality that Trump excels at building....

Trump! How did Trump get into that metaphorical mishmash?

I do like this part, which names names:

It was not just Joe and Jill who wanted to hang on to power, with all the perks and trips and, for Jill, glamorous Vogue covers. It was also their advisers, Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti, Anita Dunn, Anthony Bernal, Ron Klain and Annie Tomasini. The “palace guard,” as Chuck Schumer derisively dubbed top Biden advisers, slid from sycophancy to solipsism. The more Biden was out of it, the more his hours and responsibilities were curtailed, the more of a vacuum there was at the top, the more power the advisers had...

They bubble-wrapped the President, put him in a mirage in an alternate universe, and set up a chimera to do whatever it is chimeras do. So they fooled him and they also fooled us, they being Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti, Anita Dunn, Anthony Bernal, Ron Klain and Annie Tomasini... and who else? Where was Maureen Dowd and the rest of the press — among the foolers or the fooled? And she's saying Joe Biden is a tragedy? Too many fools. Too many villains. It's a comedy. 

Instead of "The Tragedy of Biden," write a column titled "The Comedy of Biden." Use Shakespeare as your model of tragedy and comedy and tell me why we, the audience — we the People — experience Trump as Falstaff and — for all his faults — love him.

Sunrise — 5:14, 5:23, 5:34, 5:35.

Talk about whatever you like in the comments. And please support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.

Man versus beast stories of the day.

1. "Man 'jumped' by coyote saves himself by strangling it for 10 minutes: 'Either him or me'" ("He jumped on me and I caught him in the air, he was biting me, and so when I threw him down and I’m trying to slide out of the way, he just kept coming.... I had to rip my left hand out of his mouth, and when I got my left hand out, I just choked him all the way till the police got there....")

2. "Man dies in bee attack despite frantic escape attempt that had him drive through neighbor’s yard" ("Stephen Daniel... frantically jumped into his vehicle to get away, but the bees followed him inside and continued to sting him until he crashed into Chrishae Cooper’s property...").

"President Trump’s tone after the call with President Putin was once again emollient."

"Rather than punishing Russia with the 'bone-crushing' sanctions some had hoped for, he hailed an 'excellent' call and said Russia had a 'tremendous opportunity' to do business with the US if the war ended. Even better for Putin, he also appeared to backtrack from US involvement in talks, speculating that they could be hosted by the Pope in the Vatican and saying it would be 'negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be.'"

The London Times reports.

What role have popes played in bringing about peace? Some examples, here, at Grok.

"Supreme Court Lets Trump Lift Deportation Protections for Venezuelans/A federal judge had blocked the administration’s plan to remove the temporary protected status of more than 300,000 immigrants."

The NYT reports.

The court has been inundated with applications arising from President Trump’s blitz of executive orders, many of them seeking to pause or limit trial court rulings blocking the administration’s aggressive agenda, notably in immigration.... The Temporary Protected Status program, enacted by Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush, allows migrants from nations that have experienced national disasters, armed conflicts or other extraordinary instabilities to live and work legally in the United States. Mr. Trump has tried to end protections under the program as he seeks to make good on his campaign promise to deport millions of immigrants. His efforts aimed to terminate the protections for nearly 350,000 people in early April, and for hundreds of thousands more later this year.

"I have the same cancer that Joe Biden has... that has also spread to my bones.... My life expectancy is: maybe this summer...."

Coffee With Scott Adams 5/19/25 https://t.co/miG4jySdsD

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) May 19, 2025

"Weirdly, since it's old news for me, I've just sort of processed it.... And I have to say, you know, everybody has to die... and it's kind of civilized that you know about how long you have...."

"So, but [Jolly] West himself said, oh, I never experimented on a human being, just the elephant. He would even make jokes about the elephant..."

".... because it was the one thing people knew. And he would say, oh yeah, it, it would sort of, it was his calling card and he used it as kind of a jokey thing. But he always denied any connection to this CIA.... You know, even in the Church Committee, you could see the connection because they revealed that the University of Oklahoma had been receiving CIA money. And West had a special office for him built there. He was hired there mysteriously when they wanted to move at what he wanted to build what he called this free zone of experiment, where he could give LSD, hypnosis, and sleep deprivation in combined doses, you know, in whatever increments he wanted to adjust. He was gonna build that out at the Air Force base. And he was all set to go. And I even had receipts and papers and a lot of correspondence in his files about this...."

Great episode. Full transcript here. 

You can buy Rebecca Lemov's book "The Instability of Truth: Brainwashing, Mind Control, and Hyper-Persuasion" at Amazon (commission earned). The audiobook is free at Spotify Premium.

"[Guy Edward] Bartkus was said to have identified with 'pro-mortalism,' a philosophy that claims death is preferable to being born in the first place."

"His extremist beliefs, which he recorded in manifestos, included being against bringing babies into the world without their consent to spare them from future suffering. The suspect attempted to live-stream the explosion, although authorities said the video failed to upload.... Bilal Essayli, the US attorney for Los Angeles, wrote on social media that Bartkus appeared to be 'anti pro-life.'"

From "Terrorist bombed fertility clinic ‘to spare babies suffering’/Guy Edward Bartkus was the only fatality in the explosion at a facility in Palm Springs, California" (London Times).

I don't think there is an organized "anti pro-life" movement (to be distinguished from the pro-choice opponents of the pro-life movement). Here's the L.A. Times article about Bartkus's manifesto:

"I learnt to paint looking at my own photographs; I used to love looking at a photograph with a magnifying glass and getting ideas about how to put paint on."

"I just simplify and use the shapes. I would never paint a whole house, for instance; I would paint part of one, something that tells a little story but not the whole story."

From "Gretchen Dow Simpson obituary: Artist for The New Yorker/Creator known for the rigid geometry of her depictions of staircases, beaches and exteriors of New England houses, dies aged 85" (London Times).

You can view her work at her website, here.

And check out her mural in Rhode Island:

"When she tried to call her other dog, 'I couldn’t speak,' she said. As she walked downstairs to let them into the yard, 'I noticed that my right hand wasn’t working.'"

"But she went back to bed, 'which was totally stupid.... It didn’t register that something major was happening,' especially because, reawakening an hour later, “I was perfectly fine.' So she 'just kind of blew it off' and went to work."

From "A Ministroke Can Have Major Consequences/So-called transient ischemic attacks can eventually lead to cognitive declines as steep as those following a full-on stroke, new research finds" (NYT). 

Message: seek immediate treatment. 

"I hope Grounded in the Stars will instigate meaningful connections and bind intimate emotional states that allow for deeper reflection around the human condition and greater cultural diversity."

Says the sculptor Thomas J. Price at his website, linked at the New York Times in "Times Sq. Sculpture Prompts Racist Backlash. To Some, That’s the Point. A 12-foot bronze statue of an anonymous Black woman has become a lightning rod in a fraught American debate about race, representation and diversity."

Wow! That headline says so much about "meaningful connections," "intimate emotional states," and "deeper reflection around the human condition."

What could be more meaningfully connected, intimately emotional, or more deeply reflected upon than to call you a big old racist if you scorn a monumental statue of a casually dressed black woman?

Price's hopes are dashed. And the Times doesn't even tell us the title of the statue — "Grounded in the Stars" — until the 7th paragraph. After the headline calls it "Times Sq. Sculpture" and "a 12-foot bronze statue of an anonymous Black woman," the text calls it "the bronze sculpture," "the 12-foot statue," "the sculpture," and — quoting others — "a statue of an 'angry Black lady,'" "a D.E.I. statue." 

Shall we just have a cigarette on it?

"This is, like, utter chaos that Trump started. Utter chaos. I understand that you want to make product in your country, but you also need to trade."

Said Pauline Ridley, the union chairwoman at KB components, quoted in "Canadians Fear Trump’s Tariffs Will Create a ‘Ghost Town’ in Ontario/President Trump’s tariffs on auto parts are already causing job losses in Windsor, Ontario, the heart of an industry that makes components for vehicles bound for the United States" (NYT).

The privilege of white — le privilège du blanc.

The Queen of Spain was the opposite of "disruptive":

Why did Queen Letizia of Spain wear all white in the presence of Pope Leo XIV, while all the other women wore the traditional black? Many media outlets praised the Queen's 'disruptive' all-white style.

They are, unfortunately, ignorant of the tradition of Le privilège du blanc.… pic.twitter.com/5czbpkq3k8

— Dr Taylor Marshall™️ (@TaylorRMarshall) May 18, 2025

Who are the dummies Marshall is pushing back? Is he simply imagining other people getting it wrong to add spark to his assurance that the Queen got it perfectly right? 

Sunrise — 5:15, 5:38, 5:40.

Talk about whatever you like in the comments. And please support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.

A post that belongs at this time stamp was taken down by Blogger.

 Go here to read about what happened.

The continuity of my 20+ year archive is important to me. I know I'm vulnerable to this outside intrusion, and it hurts. The post you are reading — put up on the morning of June 4, 2025 — is a monument to my dismay. I want to be clear that this post is going up at a time that is different from the time stamp you see below, because it is central to blogging, as I understand it, that the posts go up when the time stamp says they go up. 

Even more important to my concept of blogging: I don't delete posts. 

"A large number of animals were also removed from the home, including four Great Danes, three other dogs, a lizard, snakes, several birds, two hamsters and 29 chinchillas..."

"... according to Chief Harkins. Ms. Spencer’s social media is filled with love notes to Mr. Mosely, interspersed with images of her in sundresses posing with Great Danes at dog competitions."

From "Couple Imprisoned Girl for 7 Years and Kept Her in Dog Cage, Police Say/Investigators, who did not identify the teenager, now 18, said they believed she had been sexually abused by her stepfather" (NYT).

I know cruelty toward non-human animals correlates with cruelty toward human beings, but I wonder if an effusive, over-the-top love for non-human animals correlates with cruelty toward human beings. Are there not people who see dogs (or cats) as purer and better than humans and more deserving of loving care? Of course, one's dog will give unconditional love and never utter a word of criticism. Compare a teenager to a dog and — if you are incredibly stupid or deranged — you may descend into a Great-Dane-and-chinchilla-infested hell of the sort devised by Ms. Spencer and Mr. Mosely.

"It is often said that the fact that Trump was not seen to have won in 2020 was a blessing in disguise."

"Why? Because had he been allowed to take office in January 2021, he would have still been surrounded by swamp creatures. His great liability when he first took office was that he did not understand how Washington worked. ... how deeply embedded... the self-serving, globalist, neo-con mentality really was. It took his rustication in 2020 and the unhinged, unremitting tsunami of lawfare that washed over him for four years to school him in the ways of official Washington.... Impeachments, indictments, subpoenas, trials, convictions, and fines.... When none of that worked and he was on course to seal the GOP nomination, they tried to kill him—literally.... He learned how the octopus moved. He got to know what made the swamp habitable. He mastered its strategies, its tactics, and its weapons.... My main question at this point is when a large-scale Gestalt shift will take place.... I predict he will end his days as one of the most celebrated presidents in American history."

Writes Roger Kimball, in "Trump in Riyadh: A Rejection of the Globalist Gospel/Trump’s Riyadh speech rejected nation-building and globalist dogma, marking him as a bold champion of sovereignty over interventionism."

"When asked why he removed classified material on Afghanistan, Biden admitted 'I guess I wanted to hang on to it for posterity’s sake.' That is precisely..."

"... what critics on CNN and MSNBC accused Trump of doing: removing material as types of keepsakes or trophies. One president was indicted for that and one was sent along his way to a second term in office. The real indictment that comes out of these tapes is a type of political racketeering enterprise by the Washington establishment. It took a total team effort from Democratic politicians to the White House staff to the media to hide the fact that the President of the United States was mentally diminished. If there were a political RICO crime, half of Washington would be frog-marched to the nearest federal courthouse...."

Writes Jonathan Turley, in "'For Posterity’s Sake': Why the Biden-Hur Tapes is a Virtual Racketeering Indictment."

But there is no "political RICO crime," Turley assures us. It's a conspiracy to do politics. In short, politics. Do you agree?

"A lot of people really like him, so you’ll have a lot of people going, 'This is really cool.' And then you’ll have some people that’ll be like, 'What the fuck is he doing here?'"

"But hopefully the people who say, 'What the fuck is he doing,' when they realize why he’s here they’ll give him a second chance."

Said the producer of Kevin Spacey's new film, quoted in "Kevin Spacey to Make Surprise Appearance in Cannes to Accept a Lifetime Achievement Award" (Variety).

For the annals of Things I Asked Grok: "Tell me about the idea of a 'second chance.'"

From Grok's answer: "Christianity... emphasizes redemption through forgiveness, like the parable of the Prodigal Son. In Buddhism, the cycle of rebirth offers chances to correct past karma.... In stories, the 'second chance' trope is a classic—think redemption arcs in movies where the villain turns hero or the underdog gets a shot at glory. It’s compelling because it mirrors real-life struggles and the hope for a do-over."

In some of those second-chance stories, the second-chance getter goes on to do good things — Jean Valjean, Scrooge, etc. — but in other second-chance stories...

Every man for himself.

In the comments to the previous post, about the Cuauhtémoc disaster, Old and slow said: "They could see the collision coming. I don't understand why the sailors stayed up on the yardarms."

I asked Grok, "Were they courageously holding their formation? Were they waiting for a command?" and guessed that no such command was given because the men could not have scampered down all at once. Grok observed: "Staying in place, secured by harnesses, may have been safer than attempting to climb down without clear instructions.... Naval operations prioritize collective action over individual initiative in emergencies.... The sailors likely held their positions to avoid creating additional hazards, trusting their officers to issue appropriate commands."

My inclination was to credit the sailors with courage, but Grok thought it was more likely a matter of "duty and discipline." If adhering to duty and discipline doesn't count as courage, are we systematically lying to ourselves and others and engaging in sentimentalism and propaganda when we speak of courage in the military? And why would it be less courageous to unclip the harness and attempt to descend?

In writing my question for Grok, I thought of the expression "Every man for himself." Is that a command ever given in the navy? Grok said — full Grok answers here — that's not a formal command in the naval tradition. But then why do I know that phrase? Where does it come from?

Mexican tall ship hits Brooklyn Bridge.

Sailors seen dangling from the Top Masts of the Mexican navy vessel that collided into the Brooklyn Bridge. It appears that several people were hanging and/or clutching on to objects several hundred feet in the air in an attempt to avoid falling.pic.twitter.com/Y3Bt145IxF

— Noteworthy News (@newsnoteworthy) May 18, 2025