Althouse: At the Sunrise Café...

July 2, 2026

At the Sunrise Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

Photo by Meade. I skipped the sunrise for a second day in a row. It was raining.

55 comments:

RCOCEAN II said...: great rewatch of TOS episode "Elaan of Troyius" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0-GOUflbII

In fact, this person does a good job on almost all the TOS rewatches. Incredibly, unlike almost all Strek Trek reviewers she cares about acting and writing. I know, its amazing.

I cant tell you how much I've come to loath Star trek critics and commentators. Dumb literal minded nerds, weird sexual freaks, and Leftwing idealogues. They are the worst. Oh, and obsessed with trivia and "plot holes".; 7/2/26, 8:13 PM
Indefinitely Extended Excursion™️ said...: Trump administration taking “owning the libs” more seriously than had been anticipated.

OpenAI proposes 5% stake to Trump administration to ease Washington pressure ~ CNBC

Bernie and Mamdani approve your plan.; 7/2/26, 8:28 PM
FullMoon said...: 2nd season "Deli Crime:". Woman sells four young girls.
to pimp..
Pimp sniffs their hair. Seems familiar but I don't know why.; 7/2/26, 8:30 PM
Original Mike said...: "Oh, and obsessed with trivia and "plot holes"."

IDK, plot holes seem worthy of avoidance.; 7/2/26, 8:36 PM
Vance said...: I thought well known leftist and proud Democrat IEE would be all over powerful people owning others. That's what the Democrat party was founded on, after all.....; 7/2/26, 8:53 PM
john mosby said...: Just came back from the new Minions and Monsters film. Highly recommend. Watch it in the theater, then watch it again, several times, when it comes out on streaming, to catch all the blink-and-you'll-miss-it bits you blinked and missed.

Overall, it is a love letter to cinema itself, mostly to Old Hollywood. Most of the action takes place in the 1920s, when the Minions accidentally become silent movie stars, then get fired when their lack of English makes them unsuitable for talkies. There are so many 2-second hommages to classic film scenes: Buster Keaton, Melies, even Citizen Kane. George Lucas is a good sport and voices himself.

All the Minion films are PG, but this one seemed more deserving of the rating. There are 2 or 3 items-up-the-ass gags, which I don't remember seeing in the previous films. The head Minion is named Dick, and of course there are some wink-wink-nudge-nudges about that. There is the very slight suggestion that the two Minion filmmakers, Henry and James (yes), are 'different' in more than just their cinematophilia. And of course, madcap toon slapstick.

PC quotient is still low: there are black humans integrated into all aspects of 1920's LA society in a way that they probably weren't, but it's not talked about. There is a deaf minion who uses sign language. One of the supporting characters is a suffragette, even though the movement had declared victory halfway thru 1920.

Pierre Coffin, the writer and voice artist for the Minions, is half indigenous French and half Indonesian. He constructed the Minionese language out of various Romance languages, with a helping of Bahasa Indonesia. This film adds some Japanese words, like 'kawaii' for 'cute,' and of course 'kaiju' for 'monster' (Minions already said 'kampai' for 'cheers').

It is interesting that the Minion films are probably 80% French productions. The Minions are on the whole so subversive of PC: dudes in yellow, jabbering at each other in an incomprehensible tongue, messing up the simplest of tasks. Go by a construction site or road crew and you'll see Minions.

On the whole, this is a great movie. Watch it many times. CC, JSM; 7/2/26, 8:54 PM
Jupiter said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/2/26, 9:22 PM
Eva Marie said...: Did you like the other Minion movies?; 7/2/26, 9:23 PM
Jupiter said...: The clan system depended upon kinship relations, and feud. If a MacGregor lad raped a MacKinnon lassie, he brought down feud upon his entire clan. This was a system that led to multiple murders attendant upon an ever more-distant provocation. But it was also a system that let a 16-year-old virgin take her yarn to market, and go home with the silver she traded it for, without being molested, because she wore a skirt with her clan tartan.

The modern State asks us to set aside this system, based upon kinship, and instead regard ourselves as members of single clan, "with liberty and justice for all". You don't need to rely upon the members of your kinship group. The State will protect everyone.

Except, that's a filthy, stinking lie. Those who tell us, that the "Law" will protect us, are fools -- clowns -- credulous idiots. Or else they are complicit in our despoliation by animals imported specifically to prey upon us. Take your pick.; 7/2/26, 9:26 PM
Jupiter said...: The people you can trust are the people who share your genes. The more of your genes they share, the better you can trust them. This may well be the reason that there are visible markers for genes -- so you can know who you should trust. Don't trust anyone who doesn't look like you. You will live longer and have more progeny.; 7/2/26, 9:37 PM
Jupiter said...: Of course, the race traitors who sold two or three generations of working-class British girls into slavery were as Anglo as the children they sold out to Paki scum. You really need to have the tartan, if you want to know who you can trust.; 7/2/26, 9:40 PM
Jupiter said...: And the British politicians who imported those Paki scum were, in all probability, acting in support of some notion they had of the economic interest of "Britain", whatever that might be. They weren't traitors to Britain, and they can't be faulted as traitors to Britain. They were traitors to their race, and that is the crime they should be hung for.; 7/2/26, 9:43 PM
Jupiter said...: Note that the people who are telling us that kinship doesn't matter, and allegiance to kin is "racist", are the same lying vermin who tell us that sex is a "social construct". Although I must admit, allegiance to kin is racist. Which is why there is nothing wrong with being racist. Anyone who isn't racist is living in a fool's paradise, on borrowed time.; 7/2/26, 9:59 PM
Gospace said...: And more and more people are thinking like Jupiter. Just saying.

And to change the subject, strolled down the local bike/hike trail today. For the second day in row. Because of the heat index. If I walk for distance and go out and back, as I do from the other spots, I have to carry all my water with me. And with the heat index, I figured I would need more. Yesterday left my water in the car, walked about 2.2 miles to the trail end, then back, and drank about 3 pints of water. Then to the other end, and back to the end, and back to the car. And drank another quart. Overall 10.75 miles. Encountered no one else. Today only got in 8¼ miles. Temp was about the same, and I guzzled down ½ gallon before walking some more. And then drank some more. Saw 4 cyclists on the path. And one downed tree from a violent thunderstorm that rolled through last night. Even though the temp was near the same as yesterday, I was far more fatigued then usual and didn't push myself to the 10 miles I wanted. At 21,000 steps for the day, not as good as yesterday's 26,000, but respectable. As of this morning I'm down 13 lbs in a month. Diet the same, a lot, as in a LOT, of steps. My fitness tracker says I'm averaging 15,387 a day for the last 4 weeks. Now that I'm retired, I can do things like walk a lot and really pay attention to my health.

Supposed to rain most of the day tomorrow. Gonna visit the nearest big mall and just walk around and around until I get to 25000 steps. And- get a strawberry-banana-blueberry smoothie.; 7/2/26, 10:32 PM
Eva Marie said...: Mitch McConnell cardiac arrest episode
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/paramedics-responded-cardiac-arrest-mcconnells-home-day-hospitalizatio-rcna352660; 7/2/26, 11:36 PM
Eva Marie said...: Democrats respond to DSA
https://x.com/pauldmauro/status/2072550574394876367?s=46; 7/2/26, 11:39 PM
Saint Croix said...: The paranoid prophet of loserdom; 7/3/26, 12:25 AM
Saint Croix said...: Don't trust anyone who doesn't look like you. You will live longer and have more progeny.

I don't think you know how heterosexuality works. It's sex with your opposite. You're welcome.; 7/3/26, 12:26 AM
Saint Croix said...: PC quotient is still low: there are black humans integrated into all aspects of 1920's LA society in a way that they probably weren't, but it's not talked about.

Rewriting our past so that it's less racist is a very weird project. Making Hamilton black, for instance. I recently started watching a Jane Austen type thing, and the lead characters were African-Americans in wigs and hoop skirts.

I know we're supposed to "suspend our disbelief" in order to watch a movie. But I find the overt (and Marxist) rewriting of history to be so dishonest that every time it pops up, it takes me out of the movie.

There's this fun show, Spider-Noir, that I've been watching. They've taken the Spider-man character and smuggled him into a Maltese Falcon rip-off. I'm watching it in black and white. It's a lot of fun. But of course, if you're doing a Maltese Falcon rip-off in our PC culture, you need to supplant some of these honkies with various non-white ethnic groups.

At one point, the private eye is wondering how the black G.I. got into a group photograph with the white G.I.s, since the army units were racially segregated. And I'm like, "Yeah, that is strange."

The best art is honest and true. Rewriting history to make it less racist, more feminist, among other ideological pursuits, is not really art. It's a political project masquerading as art.; 7/3/26, 12:45 AM
Saint Croix said...: Thanks for the Minions rec, John Mosby. I haven't seen any of them. But I'm going to watch this one.; 7/3/26, 12:49 AM
Saint Croix said...: The only thing in Star Trek that I really love is the cool sound the doors make when they open.

Other than that, I am totally on board with the J.J. Abrams secret agenda to make the Trek movies more like Star Wars.

Yes, that's right, do it!

Although I do get mad when people fuck with Star Wars. Han shot first. What the fuck is Leia doing floating in outer space?; 7/3/26, 12:54 AM
Saint Croix said...: The online mocking of The Odyssey for its PC casting decisions is reaching rogue wave proportions.; 7/3/26, 1:01 AM
Big Mike said...: “I skipped the sunrise for a second day in a row. It was raining.”

Should I tease you for being a wimp? Or reflect on the fact that I’d have stayed home out of the rain, too? Well kudos to Meade, anyway.; 7/3/26, 2:43 AM
tim maguire said...: Jupiter, if e a reader, may I recommend “The WEIRDest People in the World”?

The thesis (which he backs with mountains of data), is that the modern western world—the Enlightenment, human rights and liberty, mass literacy, the Protestant Reformation, the Industrial Revolution, the success of Europe over all other cultures—flows directly from the Catholic Church’s breakup of the clan system through its ban on cousin marriage.

Every clan-based society in the world is backwards, poor, violent, dysfunctional.; 7/3/26, 4:55 AM
Howard said...: After Ann skipped two sunrises in a row, Nina Totemberg reported that Althouse had retired from blogging.; 7/3/26, 4:58 AM
Howard said...: Keep up the good work, Gospace.; 7/3/26, 5:04 AM
john mosby said...: Eva Marie, I like all the Minion movies. More than I like the Despicable Me movies, in which the Minions are supporting characters. The Minion movies just unleash the writers into more and more ridiculousness, while the DM movies bind them into plots about Gru and his girls. And the Minion films are set mostly in recent historical periods - 60s, 70s, or here the 1920s - so it is fun to get those eras recreated in toon form.

Computerized animation also makes it easy to do what Disney used to do: pack the screen with detail. That's why I recommend multiple viewings. For example, the very first Minion movie is set in 1968, complete with Nixon campaign posters ("an honest politician, for once!"). But at one point the Minions get taken in by a family who rob banks. Their car has 1965 license plates. In other words, they are such crooks they don't even bother to renew their tags! Just another blink-and-miss-it detail. CC, JSM; 7/3/26, 5:22 AM
Tina Trent said...: Lie down, stay down. Best advice I've received.; 7/3/26, 5:22 AM
Big Mike said...: Do black eomen ever stop whining? I just read that WNBA’s Alyssa Thomas has the sadz because people are calling her a “thug.” All she did was punch white WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark in the throat while Clark was lying helpless on the floor. I mean, what’s the point of being black if it doesn’t give you carte Blanche to sucker punch a cracka in the throat because she’s got more talent and works harder at her craft than you do?; 7/3/26, 5:30 AM
Christopher B said...: That was a good one, Howard. :); 7/3/26, 5:30 AM
john mosby said...: Jupiter, as a Scoto-American, I must rebut some of your points. Like American Indian tribes, the clan system was not just based on genetics. It was basically the Scottish version of feudalism. You had ties to the clan just from working the clan leader's land or even just living in his jurisdiction. People frequently changed their surnames to the clan name even if they had no blood in common. Diana Gabaldon shows this in the Outlander books, even to the extent of slaves using their Scottish masters' surnames over here.

Also, the rough justice of clan feuds held Scotland back. As an independent country, it has always been a white Third World nation. See, eg, all the crap in Mary Queen of Scots's story. Bound into Great Britain, with English-like law and order, the Scottish entrepreneurial energy gets channelled into productive efforts.

I don't think you need common wetware to have a free and orderly society. But you do need common software. Culture, not blood. CC, JSM; 7/3/26, 5:32 AM
Humperdink said...: An appeals court has upheld the NY state ban on gas stoves. Neighboring PA producing natural gas out the wazoo (including me). Go ahead New Yorkers, enjoying your sky high electric rates.; 7/3/26, 5:35 AM
Big Mike said...: I see that David Hearn, a former Olympic canoeist has been charged with a felony for yanking away part of the sealant on the bottom of the Reflecting Pool. His story about finding a loose piece of sealant has been contradicted by eye witnesses and the Park Police caught him red-handed — or at least wet-handed.; 7/3/26, 5:45 AM
rehajm said...: …yah Mike you weren't supposed to notice after the lefties put out their ‘where’s the evidence?’ and ‘but he’s an olympic canoe-er!!!’ talking points…; 7/3/26, 5:53 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Do or do not the Park Police have bodycam footage of this arrest? I’ve heard both stories. Seeing it would settle this.; 7/3/26, 5:58 AM
Humperdink said...: I suspect you’ll see the left back off a bit criticizing Elon Musk, especially Ro Khanna, “Fat Tony” Pritzker, and Zo Mamdani. Why? They earned their millions the old fashioned way - they inherited it.; 7/3/26, 5:58 AM
Jamie said...: Yesterday was our first full day in the outer environs of Montreal, at a cottage overlooking the Rivière Richelieu - what a welcome change from the smelly grunge of the Junction area of Toronto, fun as our month there was!

My husband speaks French - he says poorly right now because he hasn't dusted it off with real people in at least five years, but I expect dramatic improvement over the course of this month. Me - I've been working on the basics, just through Duolingo, for a couple of months, and am at the "sitting quietly and smiling brightly, trying to translate by sheer force of staring at people" stage.

Our only forays into the world of the quebecois patois (my husband says the accent is a little challenging, not nearly as hard as Guadaloupe, though) so far have been one microbrewery and a grocery store, but we have not been frozen out at all, as our new Toronto friends warned us to expect when not actually IN Montreal. The girls behind the bar at the brewery were lovely, very curious about what brings a couple of Texans to rural Quebec, and super impressed that my husband spoke French at all. The grocery store lady was simply matter-of-fact but friendly, and the bag boy cheerfully broke from French to wish me a nice day in English.

Similarly, before we arrived in Toronto, we were warned by many that Canadians don't like us so we should be prepared for glowering and grunts - but what we got instead was tons of great conversation, hugs, and exchanges of phone numbers.

The World Cup has been a boon.; 7/3/26, 5:59 AM
Jamie said...: Whoa, a seaplane just landed like half a football field from where I'm sitting with my coffee!; 7/3/26, 6:03 AM
rehajm said...: …an niece drove to see us in her new model y. She’s hooked and so enthusiastic about it and fsd. A fresh new ev preacher of the kind we had to suffer a decade ago. While she was giving the wave of the future speech at the dinner table I pointed out all the ev programs the automakers killed at the same time- stellantis, ford, volkswagen, gm…tens of billions of writedowns. I didn’t have the total dollar amount do I tried to ask the AI. It is really really mad the ev subsidy was stopped and blamed all the problems on no more subsidy. Communist…; 7/3/26, 6:03 AM
rehajm said...: a beaver jamie? I love a beaver…; 7/3/26, 6:04 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Several AzI asked confirmed that Park Police released video of the arrest yet not one would link to it no matter how I phrased the question the only videos listed were 100% from AUSA Pirro’s press conference yesterday.

It feels like news suppressed.; 7/3/26, 6:05 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: AzI = AI; 7/3/26, 6:05 AM
rehajm said...: I learned early there is a significant correlation between the friendliness of a québécois and the willingness of an American to pay for the bill with US dollars at face value.; 7/3/26, 6:10 AM
Jamie said...: No beavers yet, but we're keeping our eyes peeled!

More in the vein in which I think rehajm's comment was probably intended, the very first tv commercial we saw upon our arrival two nights ago was for some UTI medication. It featured one woman after another squirming or plucking at the crotch of her pants to upbeat music, a sort of twerk-with-a-purpose. Used to be, you could just show a young woman talking with an older woman: "The discomfort is really affecting my work/enjoyment of something or other!" "Well, my doctor recommended this stuff, and I haven't been troubled since!" "Thanks, Aunt Marge - I'll talk to my doctor!" This commercial leaves the viewer in no doubt as to what kind of discomfort these women are experiencing.

French people...; 7/3/26, 6:14 AM
Humperdink said...: News from my podunk local paper regarding SNAP (food stamps) benefits:

“ Pennsylvania’s error rate is 9.21% in 2025, with 8.03% of errors coming as overpayments and 1.18% being underpayment errors. New York had an error rate of 13.18% – 12.06% were overpayments and 1.12% were underpayments.”

If the states do not get their error rates under 6%, they must pony up. Watch them squeal.; 7/3/26, 6:14 AM
rehajm said...: …and half a football field classic canadian or US? He’s at the 40, the 50, the C, the 50…; 7/3/26, 6:16 AM
Jamie said...: I have no idea, rehajm - is this like that pint vs (imperial) pint thing? All I know was, the plane was *right over there*! An engine roar too loud to be a boat, and suddenly through the trees that constrain my view of the river I catch a flash of white fuselage too high off the water to be a boat, then then there it was, like twenty feet off the surface, going thataway!; 7/3/26, 6:28 AM
Humperdink said...: Commie Mayor Mamdani insisted on setting AC at 78 degrees.

From the NYPost: “Sweaty Post reporters armed with an infrared thermometer tested 20 spots within City Hall and other municipal offices and buildings they were able to access — and all but five of them were below 78 degrees.”

Sweat for thee peons, but me? Not a chance.; 7/3/26, 6:32 AM
tim maguire said...: **Humperdink said...An appeals court has upheld the NY state ban on gas stoves....Go ahead New Yorkers, enjoying your sky high electric rates.**

Mamdani is asking New Yorkers to cook their food at 125 degrees.; 7/3/26, 6:40 AM
tim maguire said...: **Jamie said...Yesterday was our first full day in the outer environs of Montreal,**

I recommend a trip to Quebec City--it's only a couple hours from Montreal; it's the most European city in North America and well worth seeing.

If your experience is anything like mine, don't waste your time on Duolingo. It doesn't prepare you for real world interactions. It's enough to get yourself out there and within a few days you'll know enough to order a coffee and ask for the bathroom. Which is 90% of what you need.; 7/3/26, 6:45 AM
john mosby said...: I find Quebec French easier to understand than standard French because it sounds like French with an American accent- ie like me. In fact I find almost all extra-hexagonal French easier to understand: Caribbean (not creole - regular French spoken by islanders), African, etc. CC. JSM; 7/3/26, 7:28 AM
Jess said...: Jamie, my experience in southern Quebec is that the québecois will cut Americans a lot of slack if they are trying to speak French, much more than they would for English Canadians. I spent the second half of my childhood in the Montreal exurbs and when I speak French it is with a Quebec accent.; 7/3/26, 7:59 AM
Jamie said...: Duolingo is ok for building vocabulary and for learning a certain amount of grammar, but I know that the key is talk, talk talk, listen, listen, listen. (It's just that I hate talking when I know I'll sound stupid!)(And French - what is the deal with the not pronouncing half of every word?! It's so intimidating even to try, after a lifetime of hearing how snooty they are about people *trying* to speak French - even though I've even been warmly treated in Paris itself when I've made the effort.); 7/3/26, 8:10 AM
tcrosse said...: When dealing with a snooty Francophone, I like "Est-ce que je corrige votre anglais ?"; 7/3/26, 9:31 AM
Jersey Fled said...: “ Pennsylvania’s error rate is 9.21% in 2025, with 8.03% of errors coming as overpayments and 1.18% being underpayment errors.”

Imagine if your bank had a 9.21% error rate. Or the engineers who designed our bridges had a 9.21% error rate.

Only government can get away with that level of incompetence.; 7/3/26, 4:18 PM