Sean Penn May Face Real Trouble for El Chapo Interview

Actor and Leftist social activist Sean Penn traveled to the jungles of Mexico to meet with the notorious Sinaloa  Cartel fugitive Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.  The day after Guzman was re-apprehended by Mexico authorities, Rolling Stone published an article online of Sean Penn's interview.

This encounter was supposed to have been a win-win.  Despite his fugitive status after escaping from Mexican prison last spring, El Chapo can still act like a billionaire by rubbing elbows with a Hollywood star.  Meanwhile, Penn gets free media for his close encounter with a drug lord, burnishes his progressive credentials and plays the part of a journalist.

Well, the secret meeting between El Chapo and Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, did not work out exactly as planned.  Now Penn has more to worry about then brief vulnerability of his body parts. 

 Penn's meeting aided authorities in the capture of Guzman. Oops. It is unclear if Penn was the willing dupe of Mexican and American law enforcement or if his activities just tipped off the federales. 

Some might argue that Penn has nothing to fear from the government, because he was being a journalist.  Not so much.  Rolling Stone gave final editorial authority to El Chapo. Remarkably, the drug kingpin did not require any changes to the piece.  An independent journalist pursuing the truth does not give the editorial right of first refusal to a interviewee.  

But this is a dual jurisdiction situation. The Mexican authorities are not constrained by notions of First Amendment freedom of the press. 

Consider the complication about concealing or harboring a fugitive. Per criminal defense attorney Page Pate, one must do more than have a clandestine meeting with a fugitive for 18 USC 1071 harboring or concealing a fugitive to apply.  However, if Penn gave money to El Chapo for security or shared contact to evade authorities then he would be criminally liable.  There might be complications in Mexican law.  So Penn should not play on vacationing in sunny Mexico anytime soon.

Yet even if Penn may not face the pen for his El Chapo interview, Mediaite points out that G-men may want to debrief Penn based upon issues raised during his interview, like how El Chapo told him of companies which accept illegal investments, details about El Chapo's security (as Penn was not blindfolded in transit to his close encounter) and insight on El Chapo's drug operation. 

Considering how Penn's pen led the police to El Chapo, Penn may be safer in the pen rather than exposed to retaliation from Sinaloa sympathizers.  But then there is Mexican prison gangs to worry about. 

In that case, Penn may reprise his role as Spicoli: "Dude, that's my skull-- I'm so wasted". 

But this time, the stoner line might take on an entirely new context. 

h/t: Mediaite

Sean Penn Projects Climate Cult Shame

Sean Penn is a progressive activist actor who of late has been championing the cause of Climate Change.   Penn's pontifications about cult-like thinking that he associates with those who oppose the campaign to combat anthropogenic climate change calls for some consideration.

Firstly, Penn referred to Fox Network Thinking.  Oh, really? (Not O'Reilly).  This may be news to Sean but the sensibilities and dispositions vary between various channels, even those owned by News Corp.  The Fox broadcast network, which Penn cited, will be launching a series next year called "Lucifer".  That is not a show to which most viewers of the Fox News Channel (FNC) would cotton.   It would be fair to characterize the Fox Business Channel as being more libertarian leaning, whereas Fox News Channel has shifted from a right center news organization in 2012 to more of an establishment Republican (ala Karl Rove) oriented network with some patches of Populism (namely O'Reilly and to some extent Sean Hannity). Factor that (sic).

Penn seems to think that anyone who disputes Climate Change consensus does not care about quality of life in any sense.  Obviously, Penn is oblivious to the Skeptical Environmentalist, Bjorn Lomborg who buys into man-made climate change, but believes that it is more effective to solve other world health issues, like clean water and malaria.

It is hard to claim that the Société de Calcul Mathématique has been brainwashed by "Fox network thinking." But Penn seems to know better. 

So many Climate Change activists rely on the myth that man-made CO2 Driven Climate Change is settled science.  When they are challenged, such eco-activists flail and invoke 97% scientific consensus, as was infamously implied by Sierra Club President Aaron Mair's embarrassing episode before the Senate Environment Committee.  At the Paris Climate Change Summit, President Barack Obama claimed that consensus was 99.5% of scientists.  These figures seem as fungible as the East Anglia hockey stick model which drove Climate Change science in 2010. 

Considering the Alinsky-like tarnishing of targets by painting them as Fox network cultists, fascistically condemning anyone who does not tow the party line and zealously refusing to engage in scientific exchanges makes inquiring minds wonder if Penn is projecting his cult charges. Wonder what really is in Penn's cocktail cup.  Hey Kool-Aid!

Perhaps Penn should not have wasted time in Mr. Hands class during Fast Times at Ridgemont  High (1982).

[C] Sean Penn as Spicoli and [R] Ray Walston as Mr. Hand in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

Sean Penn Cruz-ing for a Political Bruising (sic)

That Maui Wowie from 1982 must have been pretty chronic to inspire such pearls of wisdom to seek the to commit Congress-critters with whom Penn disagrees into insane asylums.  And to suggest that the Executive Branch has such authority makes Mr. Hand's one-on-one history tutoring moot.

Of course, Fast Times on Richmond High was a 1982 movie, and Sean Penn was play acting a stoner surfer there who had delusions of grandeur.  This recent appearance on Piers Morgan was meant to be taken seriously and Sean Penn was playing himself.

Penn was promoting his activism for Haiti.  But in the same breath of supporting his altruistic cause, he chooses to insult the electorate and the Tea Party while slandering Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).

 [T]he way peoples perception of political positions are, is a direct reaction to their lack of, of their education which is a huge problem that we're dealing with in the country.

and between of an uneducated people and the solipsism of people like Ted Cruz and their party.
 It's a poisonous thing and these things with what we talked about with, you know, this is why this period of time, this is one of the things that's so fascinating to me in Haiti.

Penn's political pronouncements with Piers Morgan do not sound very coherent.  But he was not on a script and TOTUS (Teleprompter of the United States) was otherwise occupied.

But I hate to break it to the activist/actor but if you are trying to raise funds for Haiti, you are insulting many of the people who AEI's Arthur Brooks argues are the most charitably inclined as individuals.  But maybe after Penn's  J/P HRO group received $8.75 million from the World Bank for Haitian relief, maybe he does not need more friends.

After Penn's "Crazy" diatribe on Piers Morgan Live,  people can figure out who got wasted.  Res ipsa loquitur-- the fact speaks for itself.