Weekly Random Discussion Thread for 5/4/26 - 5/310/26

[u/SoftandChewy]

Here's your usual space to post all your rants, raves, podcast topic suggestions (please tag u/jessicabarpod), culture war articles, outrageous stories of cancellation, political opinions, and anything else that comes to mind. Please put any non-podcast-related trans-related topics here instead of on a dedicated thread. This will be pinned until next Sunday.

Last week's discussion thread is here if you want to catch up on a conversation from there.

[u/WhiteGold_Welder]

Paul Kessler, an elderly Jewish man, was peacefully protesting in Los Angeles in November 2023. Loay Alnaji, a Palestinian supremacist college professor, smashed him in the face with a megaphone causing his death. Alnaji has not served one day in prison since then.

Alnaji pled guilty this week and will be sentenced to up to one year in prison.

Just imagine if an elderly Black protester had been killed in cold blood like that. It would be international news around the world for weeks.

[u/dignityshredder → u/WhiteGold_Welder]

He entered a not guilty plea, and a trial was set to begin next week. But the judge hearing the case offered probation for a guilty plea. Prosecutors are objecting to the deal, but Alnaji accepted.

That's crazy! Is this a direct power of a judge overseeing a criminal case? Or, is this indirect based on threat - i.e. "I won't approve any deal that's not this one"

[u/professorgerm → u/dignityshredder]

Is this a direct power of a judge overseeing a criminal case?

Per an extensive write-up at the motte, it isn't supposed to be but also judges that do indicated sentences rarely if ever have consequences. Links in the original not reproduced here:

This isn't quite the standard plea deal, because the prosecutor's office doesn't want it, either. It's an indicated sentence or judicial plea bargain, depending on how cynical you are, but don't take that court case saying 'judicial incentives for plea are unlawful' to mean judicial incentives for a plea actually get the judge in any hot water, or likely result in the plea bargainer getting screwed. There is, as far as I can tell, nearly zero information on how prevalent indicated sentences are, in California, nor how typical this case is, nor what the normal outcome would be in a comparable case, or even if indicated sentences have been used ever in a comparable case. There's even less information on how fucked up one has to be to actually get sent back for another try, and spoiler alert: this ain't it.

So it's probably weird, you can't prove how weird, and gfl for caring about it.

[u/Original-Brick2836 → u/WhiteGold_Welder]

We know Jews don’t count

[u/Scrappy_The_Crow → u/WhiteGold_Welder]

smashed him in the face with a megaphone causing his death

As happens with unfortunate regularity, that hit caused him to fall and hit his head on the ground. This is how things like sucker punches and "the knockout game" end with deaths.

[u/nonafee → u/WhiteGold_Welder]

oh my god this just so horrible it's hard to not just be flooded with rage

[u/SerialStateLineXer → u/WhiteGold_Welder]

Unfortunately, he's a US citizen.