Althouse: At the Sunflower Café...

August 3, 2023

At the Sunflower Café...

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... you can talk about whatever you want.

34 comments:

Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Orfalea YouTube: supercut of fraud claims from 2016 that when deployed after 2020 are now said to be criminal

On a related note check out Lee Fang’s Substack: How one Jan6 charge against Trump could end up criminalizing left wing protest

I don’t know as much American history as Al Sharpton, but this looks to me like unprecedented in the annals of throwing everything at the wall and hope something sticks.; 8/3/23, 7:56 PM
Mutaman said...: " No one has been stronger in condemnation of Charles Manson than National Review. We have condemned his drug use, his advocacy of “free love,” and his use of rock music and half-baked philosophy (strongly influenced, we must mention, by Marx and Dr. Benjamin Spock) to lure middle-class children away from the authority of society and their parents.

But Vincent Bugliosi’s reckless prosecution of Manson for the Tate-La Bianca murders — in which Manson was not, we must remind you, directly involved — strikes at the very heart of the rule of law.

It should be clear to everyone that this is a purely political prosecution engineered by Governor Jerry Brown to counter his low approval ratings, caused by the rise in crime under his leadership in the Golden State — which has come so quickly, and unnecessarily, after the tenure of Ronald Reagan, who reversed a surge in Black Panther violence by signing the Mulford Act.

Bugliosi argues that Manson created a “conspiracy” to commit these murders — or some murders, anyway; never, you will note, does he show Manson directed his followers to attack these specific victims by name. His language may have been extreme and intemperate, but it in no wise rose to the level of criminal conspiracy.

Also: While, as we have said, we have serious differences with Manson, we must acknowledge that he has a right to express himself — a right, that is, to be wrong.

We certainly do not believe in the “Helter Skelter… revolution” that Manson advocates. But hyperbole and even worse are still protected political speech. Bugliosi is prosecuting Manson simply for attempting to advance his cause through rhetoric — the very definition of political speech. Mendacious rhetoric in seeking to retain leadership in a cult is damnable — and, to be clear, punishable by public opprobrium and stern newspaper editorials — but it’s not criminal. "

Roy Edroso; 8/3/23, 7:58 PM
Kai Akker said...: The insurrection, Althouse.

https://thenationalpulse.com/2023/08/02/exclusive-capitol-police-chief-called-jan-6-events-a-cover-up-in-tucker-carlson-interview-hidden-by-fox-news/

“Everything appears to be a cover up,” says the decorated police chief, explaining that most things to do with his department were political, specifically because he reported to politicians including then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

“Like I said, I’m not a conspiracy theorist,” Sund explains, “…but when you look at the information and intelligence they had, the military had, it’s all watered down. I’m not getting intelligence, I’m denied any support from National Guard in advance. I’m denied National Guard while we’re under attack, for 71 minutes…”; 8/3/23, 7:59 PM
Eva Marie said...: I have a question:
It’s 110 degrees outside and I left my iPhone in the car - which you’re not supposed to do. If you leave your laptop/phone/tablet in your car long enough, you can fry it and then you need to buy a replacement. OK, so what about the computers in the car itself? And what about the screens that so many cars now have as part of the dash? Those are the equivalent of tablets. How come they never get fried? Is this a conspiracy by computer manufacturers to make money off of forgetful consumers or is there a legitimate reason for the difference?; 8/3/23, 8:02 PM
Iman said...: The first candidate that commits to outlawing the swinish louts of the Democrat Party will get my attention and perhaps my vote.

This may amount to a mass cancellation, but the world would be a cleaner, more honest place for it.; 8/3/23, 8:08 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: More shenanigans from Biden supporters: Biden allies are PHOTOSHOPPING images of the 80-year-old president to make him look younger

Isn’t that election interference? Misinformation? Disinformation?; 8/3/23, 8:09 PM
Gusty Winds said...: The new talking point is "Trump's family is falling apart" and "Joe was just a loving father".

Hilarious. College educated white women will eat up this narrative. All they need to hear.

Meanwhile...Trump has between 40 and 50 million unwaivering voters behing him.

Good times.; 8/3/23, 8:49 PM
Jaq said...: Example of a dishonest fact check from Poltifact:

""So the Pennsylvania Supreme Court just ruled, in effect, that the 2020 Presidential Election was Rigged," - Trump

Politifact: The Pennsylvania Department of State said in a statement that it was reviewing the order, adding "the order underscores the importance of the state’s consistent guidance that voters should carefully follow all instructions on their mail ballot and double-check it before returning it. " The department issued new guidance to counties about segregating the undated or incorrectly dated ballots.

The two-page order published by the state Supreme Court does not negate or affect official results from the 2020 general election, as Trump falsely claimed. It applies to the upcoming election taking place Nov. 8.

Nowhere does Trump say that the PA Supreme Court overturned the election. He says that they found the procedures that PA followed were illegal and unconstitutional, which Politifact's own reporting admits is correct, but not in so many words. You have to deduce it yourself from the facts they prevented.<< Typo, but a good one! I meant to write "presented" What the PA Supreme Court did was to rule that despite the fact that the procedures followed were illegal, no harm, no foul, since it was Trump who was injured by it.

These are the kind of dishonest fact checks that appeared for years to attack Trump, as if they were impartial. Biden lied about being involved in his son's influence peddling business, but did Politifact check that whopper? No. Odd that, it's almost as if Politifact is a partisan Democrat outfit.; 8/3/23, 9:15 PM
Jaq said...: "How one Jan6 charge against Trump could end up criminalizing left wing protest "

Yeah, I am sure that left wing protesters are worried about a "Just Us" Department crackdown.; 8/3/23, 9:17 PM
Maynard said...: One of the interesting things about his blog is how it triggers lefties into positions that they cannot defend with any sense of intellectual honesty. No that intellectual honesty have been a feature of leftist politics in recent decades.

Some give it a fairly pitiful college try, like Cookie. However, most seem to just repeat DNC approved talking points (thought not as bad was the David Brock folks at the Turley blog).; 8/3/23, 9:26 PM
Birches said...: I managed to read this entire article and q and a on Obama. It's astonishing. The biographer and interviewer are Obama fans, which makes their views more believable. Obama has been the defacto President since 2016.; 8/3/23, 9:36 PM
Mark said...: DeSantis seems to be going for the murder metaphors. Interesting sound bites to put out there.

'We’re going to have all these deep state people. You know, we’re going to start slitting throats on Day One,' he said.

That came after a pledge about cracking down on Mexican drug cartels. 'At the border, they’re going to be shot stone, cold dead,'; 8/3/23, 9:46 PM
Jaq said...: "Politifact" rated Trump "Pants on Fire" for something that wasn't true, that Trump never said. Let. that sink in.; 8/3/23, 9:57 PM
Jaq said...: Trump opens Seinfeld

Fricken' genius.; 8/3/23, 10:05 PM
Jimmy said...: "Christian teenage boy was arrested in Wisconsin over the weekend as he read bible passages outside of an “all ages” Drag Queen Dance Party and Drag Storytime Hour. Police officers in Watertown, Wisconsin were captured on video pulling the boy’s microphone out of his hands and walking him away in handcuffs."
letting kids hear religion is clearly more dangerous than letting oldmen dressed as women flash their junk around the kids.
I'm sure the feminists and transactivists will blame Nazis and Trump for this.
At some point, do parents carrying baseball bats have to do what the law, and the democrats, refuse to do. protect children.; 8/3/23, 10:47 PM
gadfly said...: Chris Christie's interview with the Intelligencer:

Christie: Yeah. And I think that will be his problem. His problem’s going to be there comes a moment where he’s going to have to come eye-to-eye with the fact that he, more likely than not, is going to be convicted of one or more of these indictments. And if you take it to trial, especially on the federal level, there’s a presumption of jail. So he’s got to come to grips with that and make a decision about whether to try to make a deal or not, they’re trying to make a deal right now.

Christie: I think there’s no doubt in my mind that more nights than not, whether he is in Bedminster or in Mar-a-Lago, he lays down in bed, the lights go out and he’s staring at the ceiling thinking — “I could go to jail.”

And should Trump go to prison on several convictions, he will surely die in "easy time" FCI Butner Low Security in Eastern North Carolina, which is within the Mid-Atlantic region where he did the crimes.; 8/4/23, 4:03 AM
wendybar said...: So, what else is new??? Things like THIS are why I am NOT proud of our Country anymore.

Dissent lambasts his colleagues inconsistency: “The Biden administration’s ‘Pathways Rule’ before us in this appeal is not meaningfully different from the prior administration’s rules that were backhanded by my two colleagues…. My colleagues, who made all that precedent, should not be able to now just elide it. It’s hard to shake the impression that something other than the law is at work here….”

https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/08/ninth-circuit-reinstates-biden-asylyum-rule-pending-appeal-dissent-notes-similar-trump-rules-stricken-by-same-judges/; 8/4/23, 4:12 AM
Narayanan said...: but this looks to me like unprecedented in the annals of throwing everything at the wall and hope something sticks.
========
nice surprise would be if wall falls down!! and let in fresh air; 8/4/23, 4:22 AM
wendybar said...: Libs of TikTok
@libsoftiktok
·

But I was reliably informed by the media that child sex trafficking is a QAnon conspiracy…

NBC News
@NBCNews
The FBI found 200 sex trafficking victims and more than 125 suspects during a two-week child exploitation operation in July, federal officials say.

https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1686519758542233600?s=20; 8/4/23, 4:28 AM
Narayanan said...: Isn’t that election interference? Misinformation? Disinformation?
=======
Idol-worship ?; 8/4/23, 4:47 AM
rehajm said...: Lots of Trump hats in Nevada. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Biden hat…; 8/4/23, 5:13 AM
Mark said...: Jimmy, when someone reserves a park for an event, you do not have the right to yell at them via powered speaker. Especially when amplification in the park requires a permit they do not have.

And also recall that these same protesters were joined by armed buddies in Nazi regalia.

If you watch the video of the police asking one of those arrested to leave the reserved area with his sign, it's not hard to see why after being trolled by this punk they later arrested him for his soundsystem harassment.; 8/4/23, 5:40 AM
Mark said...: "At some point, do parents carrying baseball bats have to do"

One step away from a lynching.
Yeah, the other side is the problem with lawlessness.; 8/4/23, 5:42 AM
MadTownGuy said...: Wisconsin Supreme Court chief justice accuses liberals of ‘raw exercise of overreaching power’

"MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The conservative chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court accused her liberal colleagues of a “raw exercise of overreaching power” after they flexed their new majority Wednesday and fired the director of the state’s court system.

The four liberal justices, on just their second day as a majority on the court after 15 years under conservative control, voted to fire Randy Koschnick. Koschnick held the job for six years after serving for 18 years as a judge and running unsuccessfully as a conservative in 2009 against then-Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, a liberal.

“To say that I am disappointed in my colleagues is an understatement,” Chief Justice Annette Ziegler, now a member of the three-justice conservative minority, said in a lengthy statement after Koschnick was fired.

Ziegler said the move undermined her authority as chief justice. She called it unauthorized, procedurally and legally flawed, and reckless. But she said she would not attempt to stop it out of fear that other court employees could be similarly fired.
“My colleagues’ unprecedented dangerous conduct is the raw exercise of overreaching power,” she said. “It is shameful. I fear this is only the beginning.”

Fellow conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley blasted the move in a social media post, saying, “Political purges of court employees are beyond the pale.”; 8/4/23, 6:23 AM
Scott Patton said...: Eva Marie said...
" I have a question:
It’s 110 degrees outside and I left my iPhone in the car - which you’re not supposed to do. If you leave your laptop/phone/tablet in your car long enough, you can fry it and then you need to buy a replacement. OK, so what about the computers in the car itself? "

I'm not sure if this is *the* answer, but...
Electronic components are designed and manufactured to different specifications depending on their intended use (the extreme being military, aeronautics, space, etc.). Components that can operate at, or withstand higher temperatures are more expensive to produce.; 8/4/23, 6:31 AM
Jamie said...: So, according to the long Manson(!) excerpt posted above, it would seem that the American Right has been on the side of free speech even when it's truly horrible speech and prosecutorial rigor for a long time.

I'm glad Manson went to jail even though I have to say I agree that the conspiracy charge was pretty weak (I first read about the murders in detail when I was a young teen and I remember thinking, "What? I always thought Manson was the biggest bad guy but he never killed anyone?") and I wish the prosecutor had been able to come up with something stronger. I'll give Mutaman the benefit of the doubt by assuming that he's using this particular example because it's the only one he could find that he thought sounded analogous to the Trump indictment, rather than because he is explicitly comparing Trump to Charles Manson.

Might be worth remembering, though, that in that case Manson indubitably had the actual murderers directly and personally in his thrall. It's also the case that Manson was present for the LaBianca murders and, according to one of the murderers, pointed out the victims through the window, which sounds pretty directive to me. And, of course, the murderers and the driver were indicted and convicted, at least some of them receiving the same death sentence (commuted) as Manson.

Can the same be said in the latest Trump indictment? Are his "co-conspirators," the ones who actually did the deed - except that they didn't do any deed - going to be on the hook? Did Trump have the Capitol rioters under his personal spell? Did he send them to the Capitol? Why yes, he kind of actually did do that, in his speech rather than in anything actually directive of action - and to protest peacefully, not to riot violently.

I think that about covers it. So - is it possible for a conspirator who keeps his hands clean to be legally guilty of a crime actually committed by co-conspirators? Apparently yes, since it was so ruled in the Manson case. Is that the situation with regard to the conspiracy charge against Trump? It doesn't look terribly similar to me.; 8/4/23, 7:08 AM
Rusty said...: Eva Marie.
There are huge aluminum heat sinks protecting all those things. Aluminum is really good at dissapating heat.; 8/4/23, 7:11 AM
Rusty said...: Mutaman
So. John Gotti was innocent?
Hitler never killed one Jew.; 8/4/23, 7:14 AM
wendybar said...: Where's AOC with her fake posing and crying now?? This shows what hypocrites the left are...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12367443/Border-Patrol-migrants-cages-Arizona-Biden-surge-Tucson-heat.html; 8/4/23, 7:51 AM
wendybar said...: Birches said...
I managed to read this entire article and q and a on Obama. It's astonishing. The biographer and interviewer are Obama fans, which makes their views more believable. Obama has been the defacto President since 2016.

8/3/23, 9:36 PM
An excerpt...

"The rise of monopoly internet platforms. The normalization of government spying on Americans. Race relations going south. Skyrocketing inequality. The rise of Donald Trump. The birth of Russiagate. It all happened with Obama in the White House."

The Fundamental Change of America. Thanks for bringing it to my attention Birches.; 8/4/23, 9:43 AM
wendybar said...: gadfly, Christie is too busy hugging and kissing Obama to worry any of us. We laugh at the fatman.; 8/4/23, 9:45 AM
Eva Marie said...: Scott and Rusty thank you. I had tried to google the answer before and never had any luck. As soon as I looked up heat sink, I started to get the kind of answers I was looking for. (I also didn’t know how common heat sinks were.) And yes, computer components in cars have completely different manufacturing specifications.; 8/4/23, 12:09 PM
wendybar said...: gadfly-

Your Boyfriend, the White Lizzo is cheating on you with Zelensky now...

https://twitter.com/RosannaM1970/status/1687476434418233344?s=20; 8/4/23, 12:17 PM
rhhardin said...: Listening to Clay and Buck replaying a Rush Limbaugh commentary reminds me how tedious Rush was in the last decade. He lost his sense of humor and prankster instincts and went moral expert.; 8/4/23, 1:14 PM