Althouse: At the Sunday Night Café...

March 27, 2022

At the Sunday Night Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

75 comments:

Beasts of England said...: Trump’s lawsuit v. Clinton, et al., must be serious. Strzok just tweeted: ‘I’m the innocent bystander. Somehow I got stuck between the rock and a hard place. Send lawyers, guns, and money - the shit has hit the fan.’; 3/27/22, 8:13 PM
wild chicken said...: I guess the Oscars are on but husband is watching Call the Midwife again.

He's funny that way.; 3/27/22, 8:22 PM
Joe Smith said...: 'I guess the Oscars are on...'

Haven't watched in a decade or more and won't start now.; 3/27/22, 8:24 PM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: Watching 'Locke & Key' on Netflix
Good but very dark. Magic keys and demons.; 3/27/22, 8:29 PM
wild chicken said...: Yeah no I can't stand awards show speechifying.

Eww ick cringe.; 3/27/22, 8:32 PM
Kai Akker said...: We saw a yellow-capped heron down our driveway this evening. Never seen one before in my life; just great blues. This guy is a little smaller and has distinctive yellow stripe for a cap. I didn't notice him until I was about 12 feet away and yet he hadn't moved an inch. He stayed around to show off to my wife, too. Then he unfolded and flapped up into a dense evergreen another 10 feet away. A cool encounter. I wonder if he was separated from pals and wondering what he was doing in this backyard. "They told me there was water. They told me there would be water!"; 3/27/22, 8:35 PM
Lurker21 said...: Viva la libertà is an Italian film about a politician who runs away from his handlers, who then get his twin brother, who has just been released from a madhouse, to impersonate him. So it's sort of an Italian Dave. The movie's not really my thing, but it seems very relevant to America today. Unfortunately, in our case the politician and the lunatic are the same person.; 3/27/22, 8:49 PM
Narr said...: Our owls are getting loud, and there's a very busy woodpecker or two, too. Nice wildflower crops too, and soon the oaks will start crapping ("tassels" is too nice a word).

My wife is following the long-form time-travel blended family epic "Outlander" season seven. Eight? Hard to recall, but if it makes her happy . . .; 3/27/22, 8:50 PM
Scott Patton said...: vanilla milquetoast namby-pamby wussy pussy stuff; 3/27/22, 8:55 PM
Humperdink said...: With a fire in the fireplace, watched Gone With the Wind with mrs. dink tonight. Even commercial free, it's a long movie. Good night to stay inside. Nineteen degrees and snow blowing sideways.; 3/27/22, 8:55 PM
narciso said...: Global thermonuclear war is the end game,

Yes sneering on someone who was prescient about putin 14 years ago, when she predicted an all out invasion of ukraine.; 3/27/22, 9:06 PM
Danno said...: Hinderaker at Powerline is excerpting from Althouse-

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/03/chaos-in-the-white-house.php; 3/27/22, 9:08 PM
Rt41Rebel said...: Seen on Small Dead Animals...

http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2022/03/27/the-most-interesting-man-in-the-world-3/#comments

Hunter Biden’s Laptop Contained Defense Department ‘Encryption Keys’; 3/27/22, 9:09 PM
tim in vermont said...: I used to love the Oscars, they seemed important. Now I just know that they are going to be about the mockery and derision of the lower income and prestige classes, what are the odds that they get through this without mentioning how much they hate Trump?; 3/27/22, 9:14 PM
narciso said...: As opposed to the rocket surgeons that deemed this unpossible

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/world/sarah-palin-predicted-in-2008-that-putin-would-invade-ukraine-if-obama-was-elected-9167833.html%3famp; 3/27/22, 9:21 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: Beasts of England said...

Trump’s lawsuit v. Clinton, et al., must be serious. Strzok just tweeted: ‘I’m the innocent bystander. Somehow I got stuck between the rock and a hard place. Send lawyers, guns, and money - the shit has hit the fan.’

Well...that's what he gets for gambling in Havana and taking home those Russian waitresses!; 3/27/22, 9:21 PM
tim in vermont said...: " when she predicted an all out invasion of ukraine."

This was a widely predicted invasion, most recently by Putin in his annual press conference in December, where he said that if Ukraine insists on becoming part of Nato, it was going to happen. You don't have to go beyond looking at a map to have predicted it, well looked at a map with empathy for Russia's position, but empathy for Russia is treason, better to fight this useless, needless war, then give Putin what Russia needs without first stacking up huge piles of dead Ukrainians.; 3/27/22, 9:21 PM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: I had a TS/SAP clearance. The computers we used never left the SCIF. The unclassified computers would have DOD public keys on them, but never the private keys.

Why did the Nose-Candy scion of Two Scoops have any DOD keys on his computer, private or public? Maybe Nose-Candy was a back channel emissary for Burisma and Ukraine so the mullah that Nose-Candy collected could go directly to Two Scoops without any of that bothersome red tape required for international money transfers over $10,000. When moving big bugs, that red tape just gets in the way!; 3/27/22, 9:24 PM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: bucks, not bugs.; 3/27/22, 9:25 PM
gpm said...: I posted this late in the Biden/Ukraine thread. It was in response to another comment but really off-topic. More appropriate here.

>>Stephen A. Douglas used to have a park named after him in Chicago. The world turned a few times, and the park was renamed for Frederick Douglass.  

Well, his tomb is still there, on east 35th Street in a little park not too far from the lake (IIRC, he had a large farm/estate in that area at one point). I was vaguely aware of the tomb but stumbled on the actual site by accident a couple of years ago when I was driving to Greektown from Hyde Park to return a Zipcar in late December. I didn't stop, however, because the weather was crappy, it was getting dark, there was no obvious place to park, and I had already spent a long afternoon at the Oriental Institute and the Robie House (another location I was aware of but whose site I had also discovered by accident earlier in the day).   

The stupid iPhone map app wanted me to just take a boring route on Lake Shore Drive, but if there's one thing I still know how to do, even after living in Boston for 50 years, is to get around on the South Side. Free, on-street parking near the Oriental Institute and Robie House was also a breeze.   

--gpm

  P.S. I just looked it up and the park renaming was less than two years ago. It was not in my bailiwick, but I was aware of the existence of Douglas Park (and probably drove past it a couple of times), but I had never given any thought to who it was named for. Probably still just mostly "Douglas Park" unless you are pursing the issue.; 3/27/22, 9:26 PM
narciso said...: Well if cofer black company supergrade green badger extraordinaire was involved in metabio well that might explain it; 3/27/22, 9:29 PM
Rollo said...: WTF? Biden now says he wasn't calling for regime change in Russia after all.; 3/27/22, 9:30 PM
tim in vermont said...: "Why did the Nose-Candy scion of Two Scoops have any DOD keys on his computer, private or public? "

Why did Facebook employees have read write access to official voter rolls in Wisconsin? "It's a big club, and you ain't in it."; 3/27/22, 9:32 PM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: About 22 years ago, King County was renamed. The original King was William R. King, the V.P. for President Pierce (Pierce County is just south of King County). Since WRK was a slave holder, the county was rename for MLK, Jr. They changed the logo from a crown to a portrait of MLK, Jr. Of course, they had to pay royalties to the King family for using MLK, Jr.'s likeness.; 3/27/22, 9:33 PM
Beasts of England said...: Thanks, North - I was beginning to doubt the musical erudition of this crowd! :); 3/27/22, 9:40 PM
narciso said...: This chatacter

https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-figures/us-vice-president-william-rufus-devane-king-cuba.htm; 3/27/22, 9:40 PM
Narr said...: "Supergrade Green Badger" sounds like primo stuff to me.; 3/27/22, 9:41 PM
narciso said...: Supergrade is a general rank in intelligen ce, green badger means special access; 3/27/22, 9:43 PM
narciso said...: Do i need to annotate everything?; 3/27/22, 9:55 PM
Beasts of England said...: ’Do i need to annotate everything?’

Please don’t, narc - it’s part of your charm…; 3/27/22, 10:01 PM
narciso said...: But yes i see the irony, in high school they were all absolutely sure the gipper would start world war 3 in fact the top dem poobahs assured the soviets so, now its like totes fine as they contemplate a war on the russian steppes.; 3/27/22, 10:08 PM
Rollo said...: No class, Will Smith. No class.; 3/27/22, 10:09 PM
narciso said...: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10657469/Turkish-president-Erdo-calls-ceasefire-Russia-Ukraine-phonecall-Putin.html; 3/27/22, 10:35 PM
Mike Smith said...: Looks like a very active tornado season ahead. If you are interested in things weather:

http://www.mikesmithenterprisesblog.com/2022/02/interested-in-all-things-weather.html; 3/27/22, 10:42 PM
madAsHell said...: Trump’s lawsuit v. Clinton, et al., must be serious. Strzok just tweeted: ‘I’m the innocent bystander. Somehow I got stuck between the rock and a hard place. Send lawyers, guns, and money - the shit has hit the fan.’

Yes, it was Warren Zevon. Did Strzok really commit this to text??.......because he starts sounding like Jussie Smollett.

I'm not sure if this is real, or sarcasm.; 3/27/22, 10:43 PM
gspencer said...: Maybe Trump's lawsuit won't get to discover, but the motions for the R.12b6 will provide a lot of entertainment. But it strikes me that the complaint alleges sufficient facts that he will prevail on the R.12b6 challenge. Then the real fun with discovery.; 3/27/22, 10:43 PM
PM said...: Hey, Academy, had enough? We have.; 3/27/22, 10:53 PM
narciso said...: Strzok should crawl under a rock and stay there, if he were a russian agent would he have done anything different in crippling this country for four years; 3/27/22, 10:53 PM
Bender said...: Speaking of the Oscars, High Noon is an excellent allegory for social behavior.

And yet, too many people, it seems, think that the townspeople are the heroes of the piece, not Will Kane. In any event, they are sure acting like them.; 3/27/22, 11:02 PM
madAsHell said...: Wow!! The Oscars has become "Empire" on FOX.

I really can't believe that Will Smith didn't just walk-out.......which tells me it's a stunt.; 3/27/22, 11:07 PM
Yancey Ward said...: I didn't get the joke Rock made about Smith's wife- is she going bald? If so, then the joke was in really bad taste. The thing I was thinking about, though, was Obama's secretary of defense standing on the stage while Joe Biden fondled the guy's wife openly. I guess I kind of respect Will Smith just a little bit more tonight if Rock's joke really was about her going bald.; 3/27/22, 11:09 PM
Gahrie said...: If I was Chris Rock, Will Smith would be spending the night in jail.; 3/27/22, 11:21 PM
Readering said...: Who knew Palin followed this blog?; 3/27/22, 11:37 PM
Readering said...: If I was Chris Rock I'd be contacting a lawyer. You can't have comics getting battered from making jokes about public figures. I'd sue Will Smith in civil court and make him confess judgment. Otherwise, comics will need bodyguards. And Will Smith needs to come up with some real acting if he wants to present best actress next year.; 3/27/22, 11:42 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: madAsHell said...

I'm not sure if this is real, or sarcasm.

Then you're not drunk enough. Keep working on it and check back later.; 3/27/22, 11:52 PM
gadfly said...: Beasts of England said...
Trump’s lawsuit v. Clinton, et al., must be serious. Strzok just tweeted: ‘I’m the innocent bystander. Somehow I got stuck between the rock and a hard place. Send lawyers, guns, and money - the shit has hit the fan.’

You need to find a better source for fomenting lies, Beasty.

Lawyers, Guns And Money Lyrics
(Written and recorded by Warren Zevon in 1978)

Well, I went home with the waitress
The way I always do
How was I to know
She was with the Russians, too

I was gambling in Havana
I took a little risk
Send lawyers, guns and money
Dad, get me out of this

I'm the innocent bystander
Somehow I got stuck
Between the rock and the hard place
And I'm down on my luck

Now I'm hiding in Honduras
I'm a desperate man
Send lawyers, guns and money
The shit has hit the fan; 3/27/22, 11:57 PM
StephenFearby said...: London Times

A former US Marine’s view from Ukraine

Technology and tactics can only get you so far in battle. Ukrainian fighters get their greatest edge from superior motivation, writes Elliot Ackerman

'...As "Jed" sat across from me in the empty hotel restaurant he explained that since arriving in Ukraine at the end of February, he had been fighting as a volunteer along with a dozen other foreigners outside Kyiv. The past three weeks had marked him. When I asked how he was, he said the combat had been more intense than anything he’d witnessed in Afghanistan. He began to discuss the technical aspects of what he’d seen, explaining in granular detail how the outmanned, outgunned Ukrainian military had fought the Russians to a standstill.'

'...During a failed night assault on his trench, Jed said a group of Russian soldiers got lost in the nearby woods. “Eventually, they started calling out,” he said. “I couldn’t help it; I felt bad. They had no idea where to go.” When I asked what happened to them, he returned a grim look.

Instead of recounting that part of the story, he described the advantage Ukrainians enjoy in night-vision technology. When I told him I’d heard the Ukrainians didn’t have many sets of night-vision goggles, he said that was true, and that they did need more. “But we’ve got Javelins. Everyone’s talking about the Javelins as an anti-tank weapon, but people forget that the Javelins also have a CLU.”

The CLU, or command launch unit, is a highly capable thermal optic that can operate independent of the missile system. In Iraq and Afghanistan, we would often carry at least one Javelin on missions, not because we expected to encounter any al-Qaeda tanks, but because the CLU was such an effective tool. We’d use it to watch road intersections and make sure no one was laying down IEDs. The Javelin has a range in excess of a mile, and the CLU is effective at that distance and beyond.'

There's a great deal more very interesting information in this article, but it's behind a Times of London paywall. That difficulty may be overcome because "This article first appeared in The Atlantic" with this provided link:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/03/american-volunteer-foreign-fighters-ukraine-russia-war/627604/; 3/28/22, 12:11 AM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: If I was Chris Rock, Will Smith would be spending the night in jail.

Jomboy has the best blow by blow… strike that… the best breakdown of the Oscar Night Punch.

copy pasta to your browser 👉🏽 https://youtu.be/Zo6s3IrVOZw

My sense is that it was real.; 3/28/22, 12:12 AM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: Yancey Ward said...

I didn't get the joke Rock made about Smith's wife- is she going bald?

No, she's just buzzed it down really close. The Smith family are just a bunch of pompous, low class assholes, that's all.; 3/28/22, 12:18 AM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: Lem said...

My sense is that it was real.

Based on the uncensored clip, I think you're right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myjEoDypUD8&t=82s; 3/28/22, 12:20 AM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: And of course it occurs to me that Will Smith has ruined any chances of ever getting a lead role in an action film again. That punch didn't seem to face Rock one bit.; 3/28/22, 12:22 AM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: No class, Will Smith. No class.

Did Will Smith payed homage to The Violent Blackman Stereotype?

Kanye stage stock just went way up btw. Holy Cannoli.; 3/28/22, 12:29 AM
Readering said...: Trump v Clinton is a sprawling mess of a complaint against many defendants, with many causes of action and much verbiage. Just to focus on Strzok....

I doubt Trump has personal or subject matter jurisdiction over Strzok, who has no connection to Florida, and is not sued for RICO or any federal cause of action.

He is sued for two state law claims, malicious prosecution and conspiracy to commit mp. Not sure what law governs since Trump was not a Florida resident at the time of the allegations, but if the forum statute is shortest the defendant can usually avail himself of it, and Florida's is just one year for mp.

One year from what? That's another problem. "Malicious prosecution" has specific elements, and is for pursuing a suit without foundation, and can only be filed after the end of that suit. Too messy otherwise. But here there has been no civil suit by Strozk (and no criminal proceeding relating to allegations in the complaint filed against Trump for that matter). You can't sue someone for what you consider his involvement in a malicious investigation and call it malicious prosecution. Oops.

That analysis of "bystander" stuff may give you a taste of the problems with this complaint. More likely that Trump could be sued for malicious prosecution when it ends for each defendant. Or for abuse of process now. No need to wait for this suit to be over to file that cause of action.

So yeah, I think Strzok being sarcastic. But also probably vexed he has to hire a lawyer. Maybe he can join up with other defendants in a similar situation. Like Page.

PS Strzok not sued for civil RICO, but that's the heart of the complaint--and judges hate civil RICO. Its appeal for plaintiffs originally was treble damages and nationwide service of process, but in the 5 decades since first enacted courts have created a lot of doctrines to make life miserable for civil plaintiffs, while allowing expert prosecutors to use the criminal provisions to go after actual bad guys. Trump retained lawyers who are far from expert at anything.; 3/28/22, 12:30 AM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Rock needs to take Smith to court. And if I remember his last comedy special correctly, the one he talked about what it was like to be in divorce court, where everybody was there because his ex-wife was going to take some of his money… what would it be like for CR to be on the other side of that predicament… the one where he gets to take some of Will Smith’s money?

What’s that tag Althouse uses in cases like this? “lawsuits I hope will succeed”… I’m praying will succeed.; 3/28/22, 12:42 AM
Readering said...: Perhaps since Strzok sued for stuff done as FBI employee DOJ will defend him and others like him. Page, Comey, etc. Not my area.; 3/28/22, 12:45 AM
The Vault Dweller said...: Slap looked fake to me. It looks like a stage slap, where the whole point is to make it look like a slap without actually slapping. Also, there was no slapping noise on impact.

I suspect Trump's motivation for the suit is lawfare and to make Strozk endure the pain of a lawsuit. I think the use of the court system to punish people by mere exposure to the process is a real thing that litigants go in hoping for. It is bad for the system. But it has happened long before this and will happen after it as well, and Strozk is a snake so I hope he squirms. I also hope he gets an STD that rots off his genitals.; 3/28/22, 12:48 AM
Rt41Rebel said...: I still say that the GI Jane slap was staged. If you think it was genuine, consider that this isn't the Nobel Prize of Physics, it's a self promotional event for professional actors and other wizards of media.; 3/28/22, 12:54 AM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: The punch was real.

Here’s Will Smith crying, realising his monumental error. The crying is genuine. And the crying was not about the role he won the Oscar for.

👉🏽 https://youtu.be/xe-CTh9Sbr0; 3/28/22, 12:59 AM
n.n said...: Turkish-president-Erdo-calls-ceasefire-Russia-Ukraine-phonecall-Putin

After eight years, it is past time to end the war in Ukraine. After two years with Zelensky, better late than never. Farewell to Spring, welcome summer at the edge of civilizations. #HateLovesAbortion; 3/28/22, 12:59 AM
Rt41Rebel said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/28/22, 1:12 AM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: We’ll find out soon enough if the Oscar night punch was real or not.

If nobody sues… it was fake.; 3/28/22, 1:20 AM
Gahrie said...: If I was Chris Rock, my comment tomorrow morning would be: "Apparently it's perfectly OK for me to fuck Jada, I just can't mention her hair."; 3/28/22, 1:23 AM
tcrosse said...: Everybody Hates Chris.; 3/28/22, 3:47 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Well, I'm here from powerline... what'd Biden do now?; 3/28/22, 4:23 AM
Clyde said...: Marked Safe From

Getting Bitchslapped By Will Smith

Today; 3/28/22, 4:35 AM
Clyde said...: Black-on-black crime is out of control in California.; 3/28/22, 4:41 AM
Clyde said...: That was a "mostly peaceful" bitchslap.; 3/28/22, 4:42 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: This is odd...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-13/inside-the-mariupol-base-of-ukraines-azov-battalion/6306242; 3/28/22, 5:00 AM
Breezy said...: I dunno…. Seems Will Smith was protecting his family and felt he did the right thing. He’s had enough of having to turn the other cheek when he or his family is attacked in some way.

But the line he got from Denzel - that in your highest moment is when the devil comes for you - is ceding that he may have been out of line.

LOL - All those Oscars handed out, yet this is what people are talking about…. We do love our drama!; 3/28/22, 5:04 AM
Beasts of England said...: Rock’s lawsuit v. Smith, et al., must be serious. Will just tweeted: ‘I’m the innocent bystander. Somehow I got stuck between the rock and a hard place. Send lawyers, guns, and money - the shit has hit the fan.’; 3/28/22, 5:08 AM
tim in vermont said...: Wait wut? Nazis in Mariupol occupying the Russian speaking area for the Ukraine regime... in 2015 you say? Aren't these the same Nazis that Lindsay Graham, Amy Klobuchar, and John McCain were promising weapons to on that video, so that they could go on offense and mop up those still resisting the American coup?; 3/28/22, 5:20 AM
wendybar said...: "Non-Violent" Progressive Will Smith punches Chris Rock over words. Just goes to show who the violent people in America really are.; 3/28/22, 5:24 AM
wendybar said...: Gahrie said...
If I was Chris Rock, my comment tomorrow morning would be: "Apparently it's perfectly OK for me to fuck Jada, I just can't mention her hair."

3/28/22, 1:23 AM

Perfectly said!!!; 3/28/22, 5:29 AM
Christopher B said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/28/22, 6:26 AM
Rollo said...: Oscar® may finally have figured out how to get viewers back.; 3/28/22, 8:08 AM