Althouse: At the Peony Café...

June 17, 2018

At the Peony Café...

... bloom.

(And maybe shop Amazon (through the Althouse Portal)).

25 comments:

Big Mike said...: Peonies are really showy, are they not?; 6/17/18, 8:33 PM
mockturtle said...: Amazing World Cup match today with Mexico beating Germany, eh what?; 6/17/18, 8:34 PM
traditionalguy said...: Peonies really are chick flowers. Reminds us that the creative Holy Spirit has a strong female side.; 6/17/18, 8:37 PM
Inga...Allie Oop said...: Now that is either a wilted peony or a new type with those curled inner leaves, gorgeous either way.; 6/17/18, 8:41 PM
Sebastian said...: Here's what I haven't seen addressed thus far: what did the Russians actually learn from the Clinton (and O) emails and text messages they collected?

At the very least, they learned that the Dem elite did not give a damn about communication security nor about the laws that supposedly regulated it. They learned that the Dem elite was just as cynical about "laws" as the Russians themselves, and would do anything for their own political benefit. "They are just like us, except less savvy."

Perhaps the Russians were a little confused at first: since they must have quickly figured that O and Hill were too naive to deliberately create a record to mislead, were they and their immediate minions just incompetent fools or did they actually want to undermine their own government's security for the benefit of foreigners?

And what about the content of the messages they got from Hill and the ones from O on the server and intercepted during Hill's stay in Russia? Going by Hill's clueless public statements, I suspect the Russians found confirmation that they were dealing with laughable amateurs.

Of course, their dealings with Bill and the Clinton Foundation established that they were also dealing with political whores.

No wonder the primary form of direct collusion they pursued was to help Hill by feeding Steele and Fusion GPS anti-Trump kompromat disinformation to make her election just a bit more likely.; 6/17/18, 8:46 PM
Inga...Allie Oop said...: And the scent of a peony, my favorite of all aromatic flowers. A long time ago a commenter here, can’t recall his name, (he was an artist, gay) had a hobby of perfume making, told me that making peony perfume was the most difficult.; 6/17/18, 8:48 PM
Mike Sylwester said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/17/18, 9:05 PM
Mike Sylwester said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/17/18, 9:06 PM
Mike Sylwester said...: Lee Smith has written a new article titled "Tying Hillary’s Emails to the Russian ‘Collusion’ Probe", published by the American Greatness website.

During June 28-29, 2012, while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was visiting Russia, she exchanged e-mails with President Barack Obama by means of her private server. Because Clinton was in Russia, her e-mails were extraordinarily vulnerable to interception and analysis by Russian Intelligence.

Such analysis might have enabled Russian Intelligence to hack Clinton's private server.

https://amgreatness.com/2018/06/15/tying-hillarys-emails-to-the-russian-collusion-probe/; 6/17/18, 9:07 PM
Michael K said...: There was a row of unopened peonies at the RV park we stayed at in Idaho last week.

Early season there.; 6/17/18, 9:20 PM
narciso said...: Note the latest squirrel:

https://democratdossier.org; 6/17/18, 9:21 PM
Trumpit said...: Peonies have medicinal properties as mentioned in Wikipedia. The close-up photo is simply beautiful. We must respect nature and preserve habitats, and species. I thoroughly reject the paradigm that allows hunting and trapping for sport. It is sadistic, and barbaric. #Animals_Lives_Matter

Chemistry and biological activity

Over 262 compounds have been obtained so far from the plants of Paeoniaceae. These include monoterpenoid glucosides, flavonoids, tannins, stilbenoids, triterpenoids, steroids, paeonols, and phenols. In vitro biological activities include antioxidant, antitumor, antipathogenic, immune-system-modulation activities, cardiovascular-system-protective activities and central-nervous-system activities.[20]; 6/17/18, 9:26 PM
narciso said...: And as Muellers bete noire has pointed

https://mobile.twitter.com/SidneyPowell1/status; 6/17/18, 9:30 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: I had a nice Father's Day, and I hope the Dads on this blog did too.

My oldest kid - a small Alec- told me that I should actually be celebrating him today since he gave me the "gift of Fatherhood". It was well-delivered and generated a good laugh. We all spent the day in sunny, beautiful Napa where my 83-year old Father-in-law lives. Tough old bird. Served in the Army, at the tale end of the Korean War; served as as public high school teacher for over 40 years.; 6/17/18, 9:38 PM
Inga...Allie Oop said...: “stilbenoids”

Ah stilbenoids! I take an antioxidant called pterostilbene, chemically related to resveratrol but much more powerful.; 6/17/18, 9:39 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: https://fritz-aviewfromthebeach.blogspot.com/2018/06/did-affirmative-action-wreck-fitz.html

Strong females kill again so boomer cucks feel superior to their traditional dad.

Keep it up cuckboys, you'll get that forehead tap from some grateful female some day.; 6/17/18, 9:52 PM
narciso said...: This is who was running inteference for mccabe

https://www.federalpay.org/employees/offices-boards-and-division; 6/17/18, 10:51 PM
mockturtle said...: Narciso, I'm unable to open your links.; 6/17/18, 11:29 PM
narciso said...: The first is about the background of this new plant with Roger stone, the second is,about wray and the Enron taskforce the third is,about the new player 're the weiner tapes Tauscher gaushina.; 6/17/18, 11:52 PM
Mike Sylwester said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/18/18, 1:38 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: The Daily Caller website has published an article titled Russian Who Claim FBI Ties Offered to Sell Clinton Dirt, Trump Associates Claim, written by Chuck Ross, who has been one of the best journalists writing about the RussiaGate hoax.

The article includes the following passages:

[quote]

Two Trump campaign associates say they were approached in May 2016 by a Russian national who offered to sell damaging information about Hillary Clinton for $2 million. But the Russian, who went by the alias Henry Greenberg, also worked for years as an FBI informant, say the former campaign associates, Michael Caputo and Roger Stone.

The outreach by Greenberg, whose real name is Gennadiy Vasilievich Vostretsov, took on new significance for Caputo and Stone after revelations that the FBI used an informant named Stefan Halper to contact three other Trump campaign associates.

“Mr. Stone believes it is likely that Mr. Greenberg was actively working on behalf of the FBI at the time of their meeting with the intention of entrapping Mr. Stone and to infiltrate and compromise the Trump effort,” Grant Smith, a lawyer for Stone, wrote in a letter Friday to the House Intelligence Committee. ...

Greenberg, who lives in Florida, first contacted Caputo in May 2016 through one of the Trump aide’s business partners. Caputo says he handed the inquiry off to his friend Stone, who also lives in Florida.

... Stone and the 59-year-old Greenberg met in late May 2016 at a cafe in Sunny Isles, Florida. Stone says that Greenberg, who was wearing a Trump t-shirt and “Make America Great Again” hat, claimed to have “access to non-specific, damaging Clinton information which he wanted to sell.”

“Mr. Greenberg was emphatic that his asking price was $2,000,000. Mr. Stone immediately replied that he did not have $2,000,000 and even if he did, he would never pay for political information,” ...

Greenberg has a lengthy criminal history in both Russia and the U.S. under several aliases, including Henry Oknyansky. ... Greenberg has been charged in California and Florida with assault with a deadly weapon, theft, assault, DUI, and domestic violence.

He has also been charged in Russia with stealing a total of $5 million in two separate scams.

Greenberg revealed his links to the FBI in an Aug. 19, 2015, court filing related to an immigration case filed by the Russian.

“I cooperated with the FBI for 17 years, often put my life in danger. Based on my information, there is so many arrests criminal from drugs and human trafficking, money laundering and insurance frauds,” wrote Greenberg, who sued the government in order to avoid deportation.

“Wherever I was, from Iran to North Korea, I always send information to [the FBI].”

Greenberg also listed 14 separate documents that showed that he was granted visas under what’s known as a Significant Public Benefit Parole (SPBP). The visas are granted to foreigners who are working as informants for the U.S. government.

The documents list an FBI special agent as Greenberg’s point of contact. ...

[end quote]; 6/18/18, 2:07 AM
Michael K said...: David Brock is running another nuisance lawsuit against Trump trying to use the emoluments clause again. It was previously dismissed but it sounds like they found another left wing judge who is letting it proceed for now.

Obama and Reid did a good job packing the courts with lefties.; 6/18/18, 6:02 AM
Darrell said...: Harvey Weinstein used emollients when he was saying "Hi!" to the ficus.; 6/18/18, 6:19 AM
Rick.T. said...: The various pronuciations I've run across over the years are interesting. So far:

PEE-o-knee (northern)
Pay-O-knee and PAY-o-knee (southern)
PINE-knee (grandma from Arkansas, single instance)

Deer don't eat peonies. I collect the species and am up to around ten so far. Tree and intersectional peonies are well worth having in the garden as well. They don't bend to the ground in bloom with the rain BUT you can count on rain the day they are in best bloom.; 6/18/18, 9:06 AM
Trumpit said...: This flower reminds me of ambrosia salad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrosia_(fruit_salad); 6/18/18, 11:03 AM