The New Coffee Room

It could be a head fake to get Saturday’s ultimatum off the news cycle.

eta: posted this before seeing bach’s last

Was Israel at the table or on the menu?

It’s easier to imagine them promising whatever they need to in order to get the bombs to stop than to actually give up their proxies and their ballistic missile program. Or even “civilian” nuclear. But we’ll see.

Wow.

Paywalled piece in the Economist summarizing Trump’s 4 options, but the tweet summarizes them nicely.

I wonder if the first Trump post about it blame democrats in general or Chuck Schumer in particular? Off to polymarket….

Wow.

Sweet. Congratulations!

Thanks. I’ll try the David. I found a bar I’m ok with (‘Pure Protein Chocolate’ at 21g) but it’s only less meh than the others. It would be nice to find one I actually craved.

Yeah I agree with that also he’s probably better than by potential replacement would be. I think I had a thread called ‘Poor Scott Bessent’ or something, it could have gone there.

@Mik said:

They are willing to put travelers through this to try to force their will. Shameful.

Trump calls and raises them.

Trump told NewsNation in a one-on-one phone call that he’s prepared to have ICE at airports for “as long as it takes.” He also says Democrats “want to make a deal” on DHS funding, but he doesn’t “think any deal should be made on this until they approve save America.”

With apologies to St Anselm of Canterbury...

As "he than whom no shittier pianist can be conceived," Klaus’s existence is a logical necessity.

Suppose, for contradiction, that Klaus exists only in our imagination and not in reality. It is clear that a pianist who is that bad in reality - audibly mangling tempo, dynamics, and basic human dignity at the keyboard - would be even worse than one who is merely imagined. That would mean "he than whom no shittier pianist can be conceived" is "he than whom a shittier pianist can be conceived," a logical inconsistency. Hence, Klaus must exist in reality, banging away with metaphysical necessity, his dropped notes providing proof not just of his existence, but of the limits of human musical failure.

Note that this conclusion holds a priori, independent of empirical verification. Though, regrettably, empirical verification is both abundant and unavoidable as many here can attest.

jon-nyc said:

I think there’s a good chance he calls it off and says it’s in deference (not the word he’d use) to the dissidents.

Or not.

Damn that's talent.

I'm guessing they're actually not willing to do so and it'll be resolved in a couple days.

Yeah, genius in its simplicity. And that's one that everyone can use. Not everyone needs to tie a rope around a trailer hitch.

I've thought about that too. A couple of ideas:

• Maybe they game out actual physical closure due to mines, fast boats with guns, etc, which largely hasn't happened. This closure seems to be caused by insurance markets refusing to paper the crossings.

• Maybe the countermeasures require ground forces that Trump just hasn't approved yet.