Society

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. We started the day with our annual Turley Turkey Bowl — running over 50 years of unbroken tradition. I have two turkeys cooking: a 24-pounder on the grill being smoked and a 27-pounder in the oven. We are, of course, watching the Bears play the Lions.

Our own Turkey bowl always features the Bears against Washington. Today, we were victorious and the Bears won 12-6. There were allegations, again, that the Bears coach rigged the game in the division of players and engaged in openly fraudulent play calls. It was a disgraceful attack given the fact that the Bears coach is a honest law professor and an officer of the court.

We are making our usual array of smoked and regular turkeys with an apple corn bread stuffing. We also have fresh made cranberry, gravy, baked spinach, Waldorf salad, mashed potatoes, and other dishes. We also have an assortment of freshly made pies, including my favorite pumpkin pie.

So best wishes for a wonderful Thanksgiving from my family to your family. Even with a tough couple years for all of us, we have a lot to be thankful for. So Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

43 thoughts on “Happy Thanksgiving!!!”

  1. When Biden is in Disney’s Hall of Presidents, he will say “C’mon man! You know the thing!” Contrast that to Lincoln.

    1. Yep!

      “Crazy Abe” said, “I’m gonna declare victory and a false mandate in the 1860 election with 38.9% of the vote, illicitly and fully abrogate the U.S. Constitution in defiance of the decisions of Chief Justice Taney, declare myself king and dictator, smash printing presses, summarily throw my opponents in prison, demolish much of the country without any legal basis, and, ultimately, kill a million Americans.”

      Hooah!!!

      You think comrade Disney will put real history on display?

  3. Thank you Jonathan. It’s unlikely tbat you and I will ever meet, so I’m just one of many thousands of others who would agree with me that you are a voice of sanity in these chaotic times. You give me (us) hope.

    I sincerely hope that you and yours thrive and prosper.

  4. Happy Thanksgiving Professor Turley! One of the many things that I am thankful for is having this site to turn to every day for affairs of law as they intersect with politics and our culture.

  6. Unfortunately, Prof. Turley does not deserve to have a Happy Thanksgiving for his false and misleading comparisons of the Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case to the Ahmaud Arbery case, as proven beyond any doubt in the following excellent article and analysis of the former case: https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/11/24/fox-news-legal-pundit-johnathan-turley-makes-false-comparison-between-trayvon-martin-and-ahmaud-arbery/#comments

    The only question is whether Prof. Turley made his false and misleading comparisons out of ignorance of the facts, with deliberate recklessness, or intentionally. It appears that Prof. Turley bought into the presstitutes’ lies hook-line-and-sinker, if we give him the benefit of the doubt. So, these cases can become a depraved, corrupt, Marxist-Racist-Leftist, whisper-down-the-lane game, where lies are passed down without any independent questioning. However, given Prof. Turley’s academic role and marketing tactic of positioning himself as an “independent” legal analyst and expert, his presentation of the Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case was completely irresponsible. An immediate apology should be forthcoming from him. Even the best of us make mistakes once in a while, and it’s time for Prof. Turley to confess his failure to know the actual facts of the case. If he doesn’t, Prof. Turley’s reputation should go down the toilet drain and he should be considered to be just another presstitute from here on in. This may sound harsh, but the egregiousness of his, at best, deliberately reckless errors supports this position.

    2. Only a liberal like Feldman (said in the Seinfeld voice saying Newman) would wish the good professor a bad Thanksgiving. See FELDMAN, as a person that is of a somewhat conservative bent if I don’t like a site, or a channel or a newspaper or a magazine I will avoid it rather than attack the writers or commentators of such sites channels, newspapers or magazines. I may read or watch them to learn a different perspective, but I won’t go there every day and then disparage what I am seeing or reading.

      The right will change the channel, the left will try to censor the channel…as they call it fascist?????

    3. JFeldman, I take it you’re not having turkey today. You’re just going to eat crow. Professor Turley you provide a great platform for the average person to speak their mind. God bless and be well.

    4. I didn’t see Turley’s video, but this is a quote from his website comparing the Aubery/Zimmerman cases, w
      https://jonathanturley.org/2021/11/24/georgia-defendants-convicted-in-the-ahmaud-arbery-case/
      “The Arbery case is also an example of the impact of videotape evidence. It is the latest such case where legal arguments could not overcome indelible film images. That was the case in the George Floyd trial. It was also the case in Rittenhouse. The two cases resulted in different verdicts but both verdicts were propelled by videotapes at the scene. The jury could not see a legitimate police function in the actions taken by Officer Derek Chauvin.  Conversely, they could see a legitimate claim of self-defense in the action of Kyle Rittenhouse. All of the lawyering in the world could not get a jury to unsee what they saw in those videos.
      There are also notable comparisons to the trial of Trayvon Martin where there was no such videotaped evidence. The underlying defense claims were strikingly similar. Both George Zimmerman and the Georgia defendants claimed that they pursued a suspected felon and that the shooting occurred only after the deceased grabbed the weapons.  In the Martin case, there were only two witnesses to the shooting and only one could testify: Zimmerman. Whether a videotape would have supported either Zimmerman or Martin will remain a matter of intensedebate. However, a videotape has the ability to cut through legal arguments to bring clarity as to the question of intent.”

      I believe the main thrust of Turley’s argument is that video evidence can be very convincing than to a jury, making them the equivalent of virtual eyewitnesses. The reality is that both videos and eyewitness testimony are subject to incomplete and/or false versions of the truth. For example, eyewitnesses have been known to lie and video tapes can be edited to provide a distorted view by taking a snapshot in time and ignoring off-camera activities. The original smearing of Nicholas Sandmann is one example of that.

    5. Pathetic — on two counts: 1) Not the appropriate time or place, and 2) A boneheaded analysis. (See my comment under “Georgia Defendants . . .”)

  7. Thank you, Professor Turley! I hope that you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

  8. Happy Thanksgiving – albeit belatedly. Thank you for your continuous commentary, it is needed, please keep it up. Thank you.

  10. Happy Thanksgiving all…

    Third time is the charm. Previous posts simply disappeared into the ether.

  12. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, Professor Turley! Waldorf salad is a favorite ours, too.

    Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, Darren! The last pictures you posted were beautiful, particularly the one with the brilliant blue sky.

    Happy Thanksgiving to everyone on the blog. I am thankful for you and this venue to converse about important and interesting (and sometimes even amusing) matters.

  13. Despite still being in the midst of the Civil War, President Lincoln issued his Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863 thusly:

    I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

    1. I hope that it was your intention to suggest that the same words could be said today or that his words could have some meaning for us today. His words had great meaning back then and for today.

  14. Happy Thanksgiving, JT! We’re having a blast in Pennsylvania and dining on some prime rib and lasagna. Best to you and yours (even the Bears).

    2. After decades, myself and my family are turkeyed out. I BBQed a brisket w/ Gates BBQ sauce from KC. Had green bean casserole and sweet potatoes so we abide some tradition. Happy Thanksgiving to all the folks here. May giving thanks and having gratitude be part of every day.

        1. I’m glad you two are still around. Been reading comments (and articles) since around 2012. Love to see your rational discourse, and ‘Christmas Truce’ mentality You’re one side of the coin, which is the side which contains hope and goodness, kindness and wonder. Keep it up, good fellows.

          1. Steg:
            Thanks for the high praise. Nick and I have buried any hatchets and agree on a lot these days. He says I’ve grown and I say he’s right. New information does that to people.Hobgoblins of little minds, you know. We were destined to fight like wolverines, come together over food and generally enjoy each other’s company and life experiences. It is, after all, the Italian way!

  15. Happy Thanksgiving. Paul Rahe wrote a column on Thanksgiving ‘AMERICA’S FIRST SOCIALIST REPUBLIC’ in 2009.

    Worthwhile reading the full column but here are two paragraphs.

    William Bradford, Governor of the Plymouth Colony, reports that, at that time, he and his advisers considered “how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in misery.” And “after much debate of things,” he then adds, they chose to abandon communal property, deciding that “they should set corn every man for his own particular” and assign “to every family a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number, for that end.”

    The results, he tells us, were gratifying in the extreme, “for it made all hands very industrious” and “much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.” Even “the women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.”

    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/11/americas-first-socialist-republic-7.php

    HAPPY THANKSGIVING ALL. Now time for the turkey!

  16. https://founders.archives.gov/?q=Washington%20proclamation%20thanksgiving&s=1111311111&sa=&r=8&sr=

    Thanksgiving Proclamation, 3 October 1789
    George Washinton

    By the President of the United States of America. a Proclamation.

    Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor—and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

    Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation—for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war—for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed—for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted—for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

    and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions—to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually—to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed—to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord—To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us—and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

    Given under my hand at the City of New-York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

    Go: Washington

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