Althouse

Sunrise.

2026-04-16T19:27:00.001-05:00

Those are my pictures, and here's Meade's video of me taking them.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"A federal judge set new limits on President Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom, saying construction could proceed only on an underground portion of the project deemed necessary by the military..."

2026-04-16T11:49:00.000-05:00

"... and not on the 90,000-square-foot aboveground addition that Trump has eyed to entertain VIP guests. 'National security is not a blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity,' U.S. District Judge Richard Leon wrote Thursday. He said the Trump administration could also take steps to secure the construction site to make it safe for people on the White House grounds...."

WaPo reports.

"In contrast to the carved statues of monarchs and saints framing the entrance to the museum’s main building eight miles to the west, this towering sculpture depicts an anonymous young Black woman."

2026-04-16T11:13:00.005-05:00

"She holds a phone in one hand as she turns, in a twist reminiscent of Bernini’s 'David,' to look over her right shoulder with an intent gaze. Her hair is in two neat braids and the folds of her T-shirt drape luxuriously where they tuck into her jeans. She wears colossal Nike Air Rift sneakers."

From "A Huge Statue of a Black Woman Opens a New Door to London’s V&A/Thomas J Price’s bronze figures present anonymous Black people at heroic scale. After an installation in Times Square sparked a furor, his latest work welcomes visitors to a new museum outpost" (NYT).

What was the Times Square sculpture that "sparked a furor"? It was a similar anonymous generic black woman. According to the artist, "the messages I would get from women who look like her [were] saying she was disgusting." He said: "A lot of people, they’re not used to seeing people who look like them. And I mean that not just in terms of race or gender, but people just being people."

I wonder if most people, confronted with a colossal sculpture of a person who looked exactly like them — other than the size and the monotone color of bronze — would find it disgusting. But those 2 changes — size and bronzeness — are what we usually think makes a statue "heroic."

Or perhaps the "heroic" quality requires something more: a proud pose, idealized beauty, nudity (or a military uniform, a toga, or at least a business suit), some connection to glorious achievement (certainly not just standing around casually). But when's the last time elite art came out in favor of the heroic? That's so right wing. Like something Trump would do. Or try to do.

"Why art thou proud, O man? God for thee became low. Thou wouldst perhaps be ashamed to imitate a lowly man; then at least imitate the lowly God."

2026-04-16T10:18:00.000-05:00

Wrote Saint Augustine, quoted in "Imitation of Christ," a Wikipedia article I'm reading on the occasion of so much talk about that illustration of Trump in which he is depicted as Christlike.

The Apostle Paul wrote, in Ephesians: "Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you."

Thomas Aquinas wrote: "Religious perfection consists chiefly in the imitation of Christ."

Then there's the 15th century best-seller "The Imitation of Christ," by Thomas à Kempis.

Of course, I'm not saying Trump has been living up to this standard. I am only questioning those who seem to be saying that there is something blasphemous about equating a human being to Jesus Christ. The standard seems too high, and yet it has been tradition in Christianity to speak in terms of that standard. The name "Christian" contains the thought that we are called to be Christlike.

Here's a good C.S. Lewis passage, speaking of Christians as "little Christs":

“It is easy to think that the Church has a lot of different objects—education, building, missions, holding services. Just as it is easy to think the State has a lot of different objects—military, political, economic, and what not. But in a way things are much simpler than that. The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden—that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time. In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time.”

"... I made remarks that were inappropriate. I regret my hurtful comments. I have apologized to my colleague."

2026-04-16T09:37:00.001-05:00

Said Justice Sotomayor, quoted in "Justice Sonia Sotomayor issues unusual apology over 'hurtful' remarks about colleague Brett Kavanaugh/The liberal Supreme Court justice had criticized her conservative colleague while she was talking about an opinion he wrote last year in an immigration case" (NBC News).

Here's the statement for which she apologized: "This is from a man whose parents were professionals. And probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour."

You can see the context at the link. She didn't call the "man" by name — it was Kavanaugh — and she didn't even say he lacked empathy. She didn't even assert that he lacked experience with the working class. She didn't even say he probably doesn’t know anyone who works by the hour. She only said he probably doesn’t really know anyone like that.

To really know someone... that takes a lot. That's a high standard! She apologized for only saying that he probably didn't meet a high standard. Why apologize then?

Perhaps it's an effort to appear especially virtuous herself, but perhaps the motivation is to stop Kavanaugh supporters from getting lots of attention coming forward with accounts of his interactions with working class people. Kavanaugh has volunteered to serve the poor through Catholic Charities, he's done tutoring, and he's coached youth basketball in the Catholic Youth Organization league. This was widely reported during the confirmation hearings but that was years ago. It could all be laid out again, in detail, and with hooting at Justice Sotomayor. Some might ask whether Justice Sotomayor has done equivalent charity and service to the poor and working class. Better to apologize.

Can we talk a little bit about beauty filters?

2026-04-16T08:49:00.003-05:00

I'm told this is Rosie O'Donnell, inviting us to "talk a little bit about Eric Swalwell. If she's actually ready to get serious about the interests of women, why is she presenting herself like this?

Rosie O’Donnell speaks out about her past support for Eric Swalwell.

“It’s heartbreaking to me. And I wrote him a little message. And I said ‘Bill Clinton broke my heart and you did too.’ The conclusion I’ve come to- men suck.” pic.twitter.com/QP1nBuQDUc
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) April 16, 2026

She's used some kind of filter that makes her look like a little girl. That actually fits the substance. She's posing as an innocent girl whose "heart" was broken when men she supported revealed themselves to be abusers of women. She wants us to be angry at them because they hurt her — they broke her heart. First Clinton and now Swalwell. Her conclusion is babyish: "Men suck."

Then she takes on a believe-the-science attitude: "The way that [men] are physiologically, they can't, sort of, control their sexual urges." After saying that, she touches her nose and cheek in a way that makes me think she knows she's bullshitting.

Notice that it's basically the same bullshit theory we were talking about 2 days ago in "The problem is less a 'boys will be boys' tolerance than a sense of resignation among politicians, staff and other members of official Washington that powerful, ambitious men are built differently." That post title is a quote from a NYT column. The columnist, Michelle Cottle did not detail this "built differently" hypothesis, so I paraphrased it: "the idea is if we want truly great men in our positions of power, we need to accept the component of their psyche that is a drive for sex — a lot of sex, with young, beautiful women."

"Former Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax shot and killed his wife inside of their home and then shot and killed himself."

2026-04-16T08:46:00.004-05:00

So say local police, quoted in "Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax kills wife, self amid divorce proceedings, police say/Fairfax served as lieutenant governor from 2018 to 2022 and previously ran for governor of Virginia" (NBC News).

The former lieutenant governor, who was 47, served in the role from 2018 to 2022 under Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam. In 2019, two women accused Fairfax of sexual assault years earlier, prompting Virginia Democrats to call for his resignation....

When he ran in the Democratic primary for governor in 2021, Fairfax, who was Black, said during the gubernatorial debate he was treated like George Floyd and Emmett Till when Democrats immediately called for his resignation after the women made the allegations.

The city looked like it was sinking into the lake this morning.

2026-04-15T18:44:00.006-05:00

7 minutes later:

Those are my pictures. Here's Meade's point of view at the same time:

Write about anything you want in the comments.

The Trump-as-Jesus meme rages on.

2026-04-15T18:25:00.008-05:00

These 2 gems came up on my for-you feed on TikTok today. Don't watch if you're actually appalled by this sort of thing. Watch if you think it can be funny/intriguing/worth keeping track of:

@systaim3 One image. And everything spirals. Donald Trump portrayed as Jesus. Generated by AI. Posted on Truth Social. Then suddenly erased. But deletion doesn’t erase impact. The reaction is immediate. Religious outrage. Accusations of blasphemy. A symbolic line has been crossed. Then comes the explanation. Not Jesus, he says. A doctor. “I heal people. I heal people a lot.” The shift is almost surreal. From messiah to medic. From icon to narrative adjustment. In this moment, the image stops being an image. It becomes a tool. A strategy. A performance. Because today, images don’t need to be true. They need to circulate. Power no longer controls reality. It controls perception. And AI accelerates everything. Who creates the image? Who controls the meaning? Who decides what we see? The post is gone. The story remains. ⸻ #DonaldTrump #AIart #ArtificialIntelligence #PostTruth #MediaManipulation ♬ son original - Systaime

@thedailydrag Trump’s spiritual advisor said he is just like jesus. #democrats #uspolitics #jesus #republicans #whitehouse ♬ The Little Drummer Boy - 1965 Version - The Harry Simeone Chorale

AND: You may wonder if I'm being inconsistent with what I said yesterday, in "Why do people read this illustration to represent Trump depicted as Jesus rather than Trump with the miraculous power of the laying on of hands?" That was about the image Trump shared, which I didn't think was specific enough that it was necessarily Trump as Jesus. It showed the power of prayer and the laying on of hands. It definitely combined religion and politics. But it was not squarely Trump = Jesus. The videos I've embedded above were not shared by Trump. I don't know who created them or why, just that TikTok saw fit to serve them up to me, but from my point of view, this shows what happens when you put the idea out there. Everyone's excited about portraying — or seeming to portray — Trump as Jesus? Then some people are going to portray Trump as Jesusly as possible.

"Investors appear to be treating an end to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran as a foregone conclusion, as the S&P 500 closes above 7,000."

2026-04-15T18:18:00.002-05:00

The NYT reports.

Morning fog.

2026-04-15T10:25:00.005-05:00

Video by Meade.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"Bob was inspirational. I always just think: ‘The vandals took the handles.' Just that little phrase out of everything. It’s so sort of corny but brilliant."

2026-04-15T09:51:00.003-05:00

Said Paul McCartney, quoted in "Bob Dylan and the Beatles: When the Fab Four Became the Fab Five/Jim Windolf’s new book, 'Where the Music Had to Go,' traces the influence of Dylan on the Beatles and the Beatles on Dylan" (NYT).

You might think I'd read that book, but I actively don't want to read it.

"Please don’t write about this immediately. I know how you work, and that you will. But please, just not right away."

2026-04-15T09:11:00.008-05:00

Said the "Girls" showrunner, Jenni Konner, to Lena Dunham, quoted in "In 'Famesick,' Lena Dunham Diagnoses Celebrity, Illness and Herself/This unusually unfiltered memoir takes us to the hospital, to therapy and to the sometimes hostile set of 'Girls'" (NYT).

The book reviewer, Alexandra Jacobs, adds: "Maybe, contra Dunham’s mentor Nora Ephron, not everything is copy? Or at least … everything needs a copy editor? The Keebler elf makes a second, sexualized appearance; 'Harold and the Purple Crayon' is invoked twice; and Jack and Lena share soup from a 'terrine.'"

Points if you know the difference between a terrine and a tureen.

I know "tureen" because I know "Alice in Wonderland" — "The Mock Turtle's Song":

Beautiful soup, so rich and green,
Waiting in a hot tureen!
Who for such dainties would not stoop?
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!

Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
Beau--ootiful Soo--oop! Beau--ootiful Soo--oop!
Soo--oop of the e--e--evening, Beautiful, beautiful Soup

How could Dunham not know about the Mock Turtle's beautiful soup? Especially since the book's cover seems like an allusion to Alice:

Dunham is nearly 40 years old, so you tell me why she portrays herself like that.

***

If you want to buy the book, here's the commission-earned link.

"'It shows you that there are people interested in stuff beyond just living and existing,' Bridges said, chatting with fellow residents over Golden Oreos and cranberry juice after her virtual trip to Santorini. 'It’s an escape from reality.'"

2026-04-15T07:08:00.005-05:00

From "How Older Adults Are Using V.R. to Counter Social Isolation/New tools tailored for use in senior living communities allow for shared experiences and social bonding" (NYT).

I'm not using a gift link for this one, so you'll just have to picture old people with a big VR device strapped to their face. And imagine many paragraphs puffing the joys of VR — and the joys of travel.

But VR and travel are touted as a means to an end, and the end is the all-important social connection: “When V.R. is done well, you get mentally transported to a place,” said Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University.... A few minutes together on a virtual hike or sunset cruise can change a silent dinner to a lively conversation about past travel experiences...."

"My voice is hoarse because I've been screaming at Iranians all day."

2026-04-15T06:47:00.003-05:00

Said Trump, just now, in an interview on Fox Business.

"Androgenic Reacts After Reports Of Clavicular Suspected Overdose."

2026-04-15T05:53:00.003-05:00

A Newsweek headline. Can you even read it?

I know Clavicular is a person, and I've got to presume Androgenic is also a person. By their names alone, I would have guessed they were corporations or health-care products of some kind. But in the context — reacting, overdosing — I can see that they are human beings. Sad.

Clavicular is only 20, and he's gotten far too much attention for a young person. Yes, he's been asking for it, but don't give young people everything they ask for.

Sample paragraph from his Wikipedia page: "On December 27, 2025... [Clavicular] described Vice President JD Vance as 'subhuman' for his "recessed side profile' and for being 'obese,' asking, 'How are you fat and expected to lead a country?' He agreed with [a] criticism of California governor Gavin Newsom as both a 'degenerate' and a 'liar' but said that, in a potential 2028 United States presidential election in which Newsom ran against Vance, he would vote for 'Chad' Newsom for 'mogging,' or being more attractive than, Vance."

"He likes to do whatever I want him to do.... He is always looking at me and smiling.... I wanted him to dig, and he just did exactly what I told him to do."

2026-04-15T05:40:00.001-05:00

Said Barbara Collins, quoted in "Woman, 96, enlists 150-pound dog to plant spring flowers: She points, he digs/A video of Barbara Collins and Chewy gardening together has amassed millions of views on social media" (WaPo)(gift link, so you can see the pictures of the tiny old woman with the gigantic dogs).

This is another one of those mainstream media reports on what's in social media. Here's Chewy's TikTok, account, with much better coverage of the old lady and what is her granddaughter's dog.

Sample video:

@chewythenewfie
He knows exactly what she's saying 🥹❤️
♬ Anyone Else - Diamonds And Ice

Chewy has been covered by mainstream media before. Here's Newsweek 2 years ago: "Moment Dog Realizes Kids Are Going on Vacation Without Him: 'His Eyes.'"

"Colleagues in the operating room 'had concerns that Dr. Shaknovsky did not have the skill level to safely perform this procedure'...."

2026-04-15T04:42:00.008-05:00

"After Dr. Shaknovsky removed the organ, 'The staff looked at the readily identifiable liver on the table and were shocked when Dr. Shaknovsky told them that it was a spleen,' the state documents said. 'One staff member felt sick to their stomach.'"

From "Surgeon Who Removed Wrong Organ From Patient Is Charged in His Death/Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky tried to persuade his colleagues in the operating room that the liver he removed from a 70-year-old patient was a spleen, according to Florida’s Health Department" (NYT).

At the Sunrise Café...

2026-04-14T18:10:00.000-05:00

... you can talk about whatever you want.

The morning puddle.

2026-04-14T16:15:00.003-05:00

That crane video is by me, emphasizing the puddle. Here's Meade's crane video, stressing the freneticism of the feeding:

"These proceedings improperly threaten an open-ended, freewheeling inquiry into executive branch decision-making on matters of national security..."

2026-04-14T14:06:00.004-05:00

"... that implicate ongoing military and diplomatic initiatives. This judicial intrusion into the autonomy of a coequal department cannot be remedied by a later appeal from a contempt conviction."

Wrote Judge Neomi Rao, for the majority, quoted in "Appeals Court Ends Contempt Inquiry Into Deportation Flights/A federal judge’s nearly yearlong effort to investigate whether the Trump administration had violated his order had become a point of contention in the president’s battles with the courts" (NYT):

Here's the opinion, from the District of Columbia court. The judge below was James E. Boasberg.

Why do people read this illustration to represent Trump depicted as Jesus rather than Trump with the miraculous power of the laying on of hands?

2026-04-14T13:50:00.003-05:00

Trump shared this image, then took it down when he was attacked. The image was said to represent him as Jesus. He denied that he had seen it that way. He said the image showed him as "a doctor making people better and I do make people a lot better." Many observers hooted "Doctor!" What kind of doctor wears a robe and applies small orbs of light to the patient's forehead!?

But what is Jesus-y about handheld balls of light? What is Jesus-y about an American flag, the Statue of Liberty, the Lincoln Memorial, a bald eagle, fighter jets, soldiers ascending upward, and a medical worker with a stethoscope?

You can see what you want here, and maybe if you're genuinely concerned about blasphemy you'll want to err on the side of not jumbling up worldly images with things that might be sacred. But is there any serious Christian iconography there? I see nothing other than the white tunic and red mantle. What about the healing itself? But healing with the laying on of hands is not something limited to Jesus. Whether it is effective or not, it has been a widespread practice through human history, and it is a way to express the idea of profound healing.

There is healing through the laying on of hands in the Old Testament and, in the New Testament, it is not limited to Jesus. And in Western history, there was also the "royal touch" — "a form of laying on of hands, whereby French and English monarchs touched their subjects... with the intent to cure them of various diseases and conditions."

American Presidents are frequently portrayed as healers — spiritual healers — and the use of exalted imagery is common, not some freakish new thing special to Trump. It might be a bad idea — because it's trashy art, because politics and religion should be kept strictly separated, or because propaganda is deceptive and distracting — whatever. That image may be bullshit, but the outrage over it is also bullshit. When I think of all the times Barack Obama was portrayed as a Christ figure! Ridiculous. Grow up.

And here are The Thompson Twins:

Oh, lay your hands on me/(Lay your hands) woo-hoo/(Ooh, lay your hands) oh, lay your hands on me/(Lay your hands) oh, oh-oh-oh....

Sunrise.

2026-04-14T09:50:00.004-05:00

Meade's videos of the morning.

Which U.S. Presidents have been called "The Antichrist"?

2026-04-14T09:26:00.005-05:00

I wondered, on seeing the Wired article "Staunch Trump Supporters Are Now Asking if He’s the Antichrist/The Iran war and a series of social media posts, including one depicting Trump as Jesus Christ, have some conservative commentators and fans suspecting the president may be the antichrist."

Of course, it's a long tradition in American discourse. If I can trust Grok, it goes back at least to FDR.

Grok cites a 2011 Slate article: "How Many Presidents Have Been Accused of Being the Antichrist?/Hint: It’s not just Obama."

I remember why the topic came up in 2011. I blogged about it in "Obama does a great job reacting to a heckler who calls him the Antichrist" ("Obama has the presence of mind to say — responding to the heckled 'Jesus Christ is God, Barack Obama is the Antichrist!' — 'I agree. Jesus Christ is the Lord. I believe in that'").

There's also Ronald Reagan. A man who broke into his home in 1990 told Secret Service agents that Reagan was the Antichrist and "he must be killed and I must kill him." From the contemporaneous NYT article: "Mr. Gordon later told a Los Angeles police officer that he had gone to the estate to strangle Mr. Reagan. But he also said that if he could have talked to the former President privately, he would have simply shaken his hand and told him to help the homeless."

And then people said that electing JFK was like electing the Antichrist. Because he was Catholic.

It's always end times in America.

Meanwhile, in Russia, in the 19th Century, Tolstoy had the Antichrist in the second sentence of "War and Peace":

"Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes. But I warn you, if you don't tell me that this means war, if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that Antichrist — I really believe he is Antichrist — I will have nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend, no longer my 'faithful slave,' as you call yourself!"

Trump is wowed by himself.

2026-04-14T08:01:00.003-05:00

"Wow!"

ADDED: At the link, which goes to a Trump post at Truth Social, there's video animating a series of photos of Trump, in chronological order, beginning with him as an angelic toddler. We get the sense of Trump through the years, but there is one glaring problem, and it's funny that he chose to share this video anyway. There is only one photo where he is shown with one of his wives, and that wife is Marla Maples.