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Open thread 4/6/23 — 24 Comments

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_D%C3%B4me_Caf%C3%A9
    Cafe du Dome. I find it amazing that it and the other cafe are still there. Maybe this Sept I might try to find this one.
    The people are so well dressed. So much of Paris is not a pleasant nor a safe place to be. But that is like so many cities the world over.
    Mike K, did you find these cafes by accident or design? Did you enjoy them>

  2. Can’t help but notice the attention to dressing nicely in public. At a time when washers and dryers were not individually available. Today….the opposite.

  3. And about 15 years later they were all at war yet again; quelle dommage.
    For the French it was three major wars within 75 years.
    The Franco-Prussian War in 1870 (whose result was a contributing cause of WWI); WWI in 1914 and WWII in 1939.

    Yep, leave it to the elites within governments; those highly educated, knowledgeable, experienced “servants of the people” to guide us all into peace and prosperity.

    Speaking of Paris (or really anywhere in France), in the several times I visited there I never had a bad meal. They sure know how to prepare meals.

  4. Sharon,

    Only the wealthy. A middle class person would have, at best, one suit to be worn to church or court. His wife might have one nice dress and several every day dresses that she wore daily to do physically demanding housework.

  5. despite the jibes in monty python, I did attempt prousts swann’s way, the symbol of a confident culture, like the best aspectos of art music et al,

  6. Ooobh — I recall Hemingway, the “A Moveable Feast” years.

    The next countermove after the Trump indictment appears to be some creative legal charge against Biden. The NYPost does a roundup. The possibility of Texas AG Paxton getting involved is raised. Specifically, related to law and gas.

    Also, county DAs in strongly R states like Kentucky or Tennessee might go there. The issue of jurisdiction, however, may be insuperable.

    This inspired me to search online, because the Bragg deal is so patently election interference. Specifically, “intimidation” of Trump voters, which is specifically named. Intimidation… “the purpose of interfering with the right of such other person to vote or to vote as he may choose, or of causing such other person to vote for, or not to vote for, any candidate for the office of President….”

    ISNT THIS AS BLATANT of a violation of Federal law AS IT GETS?

    This gets legal discussion here in print and on a podcast with Jay and Jordan Sekulow
    https://aclj.org/government-corruption/election-interference-next-trump-court-date-is-right-before-2024-votes-begin

    Here’s statutory law:
    18 U.S. Code § 594 – Intimidation of voters
    U.S. Code
    Notes
    prev | next
    Whoever intimidates, threatens, coerces, or attempts to intimidate, threaten, or coerce, any other person for the purpose of interfering with the right of such other person to vote or to vote as he may choose, or of causing such other person to vote for, or not to vote for, any candidate for the office of President, Vice President, Presidential elector, Member of the Senate, Member of the House of Representatives, Delegate from the District of Columbia, or Resident Commissioner, at any election held solely or in part for the purpose of electing such candidate, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

  7. miguel on Proust. Daring to read “Swann’s Way.”

    Somehow, my parent’s had a copy of this in their library, unread of course.

    As I recall, it’s the French Parisian cafe answer to “Ulysses.” But longer, and broader. Both are paeans to hyper-conscious meditation.

    It could not hold a candle to a different French author, Alexander Dumas. The difference being the point – naturally. But, perhaps, untranslatable into English?
    Nah…. That’s a dodge, Idecided.

    PS. In podcast ABOVE, One of Sekulow points out that emails by IRS Administrator Lois Lerner were headed to “fund the crime” by Tea Party groups, during the Obama years. With Bragg, they finally did what Lerner wanted to achieve: Weaponization of Fed, unleashed against political and election dissent.

    A firm reminder that all this began over a decade ago — the Deep State throttling campaign First Amendment Civil Rights!
    SHEER EVIL.

  8. I recently received an e-mail from Senator Patty Murray, asking what my top three concerns are.
    Here’s my reply:

    “Dear Senator Murray,
    You recently e-mailed me asking about my top three concerns. I have more than three, but here is my top concern with suggestions for solving it.
    My top concern is INFLATION.
    Food prices – UP
    Utilities (gas, electricity, and water) – UP
    Gasoline – UP
    Car Insurance – UP
    Home owners insurance – UP
    Property taxes – UP
    Long Term Care Insurance – UP
    Medical and dental costs – UP

    I used to be able to pay my bills with my retirement income. No longer. I must dip into savings each month.

    The FED is fighting inflation with higher interest rates that will eventually crush the economy and tame inflation. However, those high interest rates have already put pressure on our banks. What other economic problems are lurking out there because of the high interest rates? When the economy is crushed, markets fail, people lose jobs, houses, savings, and businesses. Then it all has to be rebuilt.

    There is a better way. Inflation is caused by too much money chasing too few goods.

    Solution: Decrease the money supply by reducing Federal spending by at least 5%. More would be better.

    Increase the supply of energy by unleashing our oil and gas industry. The price of energy is in nearly every good or service we consume. Increasing the supply will bring down prices on a wide front.

    Call in logistics experts from the military and private enterprise to find ways to unclog the supply chain and get more goods to market on time. When supply and demand become balanced, inflation will subside.

    My local grocery store used to have fully stocked shelves. No more. They have much empty shelf space and have had for the last two years. Other merchants have the same problems. They cannot get enough of the goods they could sell. Covid caused a lot of this disruption but there is now no excuse for not getting our supply chains filled up again. Covid is over.

    This is the United States of America. We can get this done and get back to being a place where the average citizens can afford to live on their monthly income and save some money too. Having to dip into savings or use credit cards to meet monthly expenses is going to ruin the middle class.

    I urge you to make inflation your number one priority until we get back to normal.”

  9. TJ,

    “With Bragg, they finally did what Lerner wanted to achieve: Weaponization of Fed, unleashed against political and election dissent.

    A firm reminder that all this began over a decade ago — the Deep State throttling campaign First Amendment Civil Rights!
    SHEER EVIL.”

    nah. If Trump would just disappear, we’d be back to the good ole days of Tip and Ron where differences about policy didn’t keep good people from having a beer together. Damn that Trump for screwing it all up. [sarc]

  10. Ahhhh….Paris–how I love Paris in the springtime! 🙂

    I have also been to those cafes.

    Re: Patty Murray–there is nothing legal about Murray’s election, or any other election in Seattle. They have been working with an election system that is completely corrupted for a very long time! The women who run Seattle are the ones who were responsible for choosing Obama to nominate and then elect. They are also the ones who are working tirelessly for a time when “women run the world”. I don’t know about the rest of the readers, but I would like to think we come back to a time when merit is the dominating decider–not sex.

  11. Rufus T., thank you, sir. We agree on some important things and that’s a plus.

    Anne, how right you are about Patty and the women of Seattle. I expect this e-mail to her may result in another audit by the IRS. Sigh. 🙁

  12. Hey, JJ, I’m taking that protein powder for my hip bursitis, and it’s definitely helping. Thanks for the recommendation!

  13. JJ explains the INFLATION tax to an old ex-school teacher. But WHY are Senators like her concerned with the threatening conseq7ences of de-dollarisation?

    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2023/04/06/tucker_carlson_rapid_worldwide_de-dollarization_is_happening_no_one_in_washington_seems_aware_or_concerned.html

    THIS IS COMING, and the upside of neglect will be to constrain ou5 of control Federal spending. But there’s more, MUCH MORE.

    Our military will have to shrink a great deal, and people like JJ and me will have to spend a lot less — and the American Credit Card for National and global emergencies will be toast!

    Good Times, everybody!

    PS thanks for humor, Stan.

  14. I so love the romance of Paris in the 20s. Some of it was true… My heart skipped a beat during the video.

    For anyone sharing that love, I recommend Alan Rudolph’s under-rated “The Moderns.” Aside from knock-out performances by Keith Carradine, Linda Fiorentino, Genevieve Bujold, John Lone and Wallace Shawn, it has a wonderful satire of Hemingway trying out aloud all the permutations of “The Moveable Feast” as the “The Variable Picnic” among others.

    –“The Moderns — Trailer” (1981)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeAA89cqyHg

  15. For the art patrons on the thread, Hunter Biden’s “artwork” is on display as of this afternoon at a fancy NYC gallery: three paintings at the bargain price of $85,000 apiece. One assumes the “big guy” will get his 10%. The gallery owner says that “Biden’s struggles have made him a better artist. He puts his whole life experience in his work… I think that’s why his story is important, and his art is important.”

    Photo of one of the “artworks” at the link: note the red paint dripping from the two horizontal bars in the lower half: https://nypost.com/2023/04/06/hunter-bidens-latest-art-exhibit-debuts-at-nyc-gallery-including-3-pieces-at-85k-a-pop/

    As one commenter remarked, “It’s good that Hunter’s developed a skill that can be done in prison.”

  16. Thanks for the feedback, Kate. I feel like the My Pillow Guy. “You’re feeling good, I knew you would.”
    🙂

    TJ, the problem with the dollar is real. It’s primarily a self-inflicted wound.

    The U.S. and the E.U. are trying to force other countries to go off of fossil fuels. Russia and China are not going along, and other countries – India, Brazil, Venezuela, South Africa, etc. are following the lead of Russia and China. They see what n the U.S is doing as economic suicide. They’re throwing in with the side they believe in. And the oil sheikhs are getting on board. They see their chance to give the U.S. and the E.U. the middle finger after all these years of kowtowing to and being dependent on them.

    Additionally, the profligate spending since 2020, along with years of QE, has convinced many people that the dollar is no longer a store of value. I well remember years past when in a foreign country – any foreign country – a $20 bill was like gold. It could talk louder than the local currency.

    We have many problems and most of them stem from the stupid policies of the Obama/Biden years.

  17. For those who haven’t listened to NPR for decades, Tucker Carlson offers a painfully thorough update. And yes, it’s even worse than it used to be.

    NPR has always been kind of awful

    Of course there are more shades of dreck to the story than just “kind of awful”, such as …kind of unbearable, kind of cringey, as they say, but now you can’t even listen to it because the people who work there are deranged. The derangement could be described as a mix of hardcore race and gender ideology blended with heavy doses of narcism. That’s how NPR rolls these days.

  18. PA Cat: Art is in the eye of the beholder, evidently. My eyes don’t see art. Wallpaper, or a color collage.

  19. Kate–

    A couple of lessons from Bob Ross might have improved Hunter’s “style,” if you can call it that.

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