President Donald Trump has made a mantra of his “fake news” attack on journalists. However, he has repeatedly retweeted false stories and the most recent is particularly concerning. Trump shared an edited video made by a comedian that falsely portrayed Rep. Ilhan Omar dancing and partying on the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It triggered a chorus of objections. It was also entirely untrue.
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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has tried everything to jump start his presidential campaign which has wallowed a 0 in national campaigns. From promising to “tax the hell out of the wealthy” to free education to free health care, de Blasio has tried everything. One of this central themes has been to herald his own performance as the mayor of New York. However, a new Siena College poll shows that de Blasio is even less popular in New York city with 58 percent of New Yorkers holding an unfavorable view of him. Even more telling is the fact that his own city shows the same 0 percent support that he has nationwide for president. Even Billy Crystal mocked de Blasio in declaring “You are going nowhere. Come back and clean up this city.
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We have previously discussed cruel abuse of wild animals by people who then post their twisted achievements on the Internet. One such idiot is Robert Lee “Bo” Benac III who recorded the dragging of a shark to its death behind a high-speed boat. Benac was given a generous a plea deal and sentenced to only 10 days in jail. He is the third person to face charges for the disgusting videotape shoot near Egmont Key, Florida. Benac pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges of aggravated cruelty to animals and violation of Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission rules. This is what you get for an open and brutal case of torturing a wild animal to its death.
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Minnesota police are looking for a group of men who brutally attacked a man who was sitting outside of the Minnesota Twins stadium. The two minute videotape below shows the man savagely attacked by at least six young males who strip him, stomp on him, and rob him. It is the utter glee of the attackers that is so chilling in the film as they laugh at his suffering.
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For two years, I have written columns about why the Democratic leadership had no intention of impeaching Donald Trump despite winning back the House based in part on that expectation by voters. The problem is that voters still think that the party is serious about impeachment even as the leadership delayed any real moves toward impeachment proceedings. Even with the vote yesterday to commence . . . well . . . something, the Democratic members disagreed on whether impeachment proceedings have begun. The effort still lacks the necessary focus, urgency, and legitimacy to be taken seriously. That point was vividly brought home by Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a bizarre and arbitrarily short press conference yesterday.
Continue reading ““You Are The Only Ones Who Are So Into This”: Pelosi Walks Out Of Press Conference After Impeachment Is Raised”
The annual Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey is the latest chilling survey revealing the lack of knowledge of most Americans about their own system of government. While this country remains highly patriotic, most Americans are woefully ignorant of the details of their constitutional system. According to the survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, only 39 percent of Americans can name all three branches of government.
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Earnest Christopher Grant, 50, was celebrated by President Donald Trump at the White House for what Trump described as a heroic attempt to stop the shooter in the El Paso Walmart shooting. He was not present however because the Secret Service stopped him due to an outstanding warrant. Yet, Trump went ahead with his story and gave a commendation to his mother. It turns out, according to law enforcement officials, to be a false account. I have previously written about the steady flow of self-inflicted wounds and embarrassing missteps in this White House. This is one. Why would the President hold a national recognition ceremony featuring a heroic tale that was based solely on one person’s own account, particularly after he was just prevented from entering by the Secret Service?
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Sherry Tina Uwanawich, 29, has been sentenced to more than three years in jail in a novel case in Florida. Uwanawich was convicted of swindling a woman out of $1.6 million to lift a curse. A Gypsy healer, Uwanawich claimed to have a direct line to God. The case rekindles questions over the line between legitimate faith (and gifts to religious organizations) and faith-based fraud. Most of the major religions claim miracles as well as communications with God. Most receive large donations, including from people hoping to be healed or helped. The question is when such claims amount to fraud or just faith. We have previously discussed this issue over the liability of fortune telling and super-natural services (here and here).
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Police in London have released the videotape below of a vicious attack by a cyclist on a pedestrian after having run a red light. The cyclist almost hit the man, returning later to headbutted the 57-year-old pedestrian before fleeing.
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Judge V. Stuart Couch, an immigration judge, is under fire this week after he allegedly threatened a Guatemalan child that he would have a “very big dog” bite him if he did not keep quiet. Kathryn Coiner-Collier, a legal advocacy group coordinator, signed an affidavit accusing Couch of the repeated threat to the child.
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President Donald Trump has tweeted that he has fired National Security Adviser John Bolton. Bolton however pointedly contradicted Trump and said that he resigned. What is clear is that another high-ranking Trump official is out — an astonishing turnover of such officials in a single Administration. However, few are likely to object on this one given the unpopularity of Bolton in Washington, which viewed him as someone who has long advocated the use of military interventions and wars. Update: President Trump responded by saying that Bolton was indeed fired and he did not resign as he has stated.
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Sen. Kerry Roberts of Springfield has called for the end of higher education, which he dismisses as a “liberal breeding ground.” It is a curious view for a politician from a state with world-class universities which fuel the state’s burgeoning high tech industry and bring huge amounts of revenue in the form of tuition, support contracts and tourism. That includes Vanderbilt University, which is viewed as one of the world’s greatest universities. There is also the much beloved University of Tennessee with its statewide supporters of the Volunteers football team.
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Merriam-Webster seems to have found the bizarre controversy over President Donald Trump’s insistence that he was right that Hurricane Dorian was on a path to hit Alabama on September 1st. Trump continues to tweet about being right while the Washington Post is reporting that, despite Trump’s denial, he was the person who altered the hurricane path map with a Sharpie. So Merriam-Webster tweeted the definition of mumpsimus, or “A stubborn person who insists on making an error in spite of being shown that it is wrong.”
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Author, Rebecca Makkai, 41, is calling for people to stop wearing red hats. Any red hats. The reason is that she believes that “disenchanchised” people are being traumatized by the color due to its use in Make American Great Again (MAGA) hats. At first I thought that this was another example of derangement in the Trump era, but, as a fellow Chicagoan, I am just assuming that Makkai has found clever way to dissuade people from wearing hats for the Cincinnati Reds and the Nats.
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It is not uncommon for otherwise innocuous videotapes to take on a more sinister meaning with the appearance of a later notorious figure. That is the case of the rather bizarre discovery of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in an episode of a cheesy game show on Nickelodeon called “What Would You Do?” The show features Kathleen Manafort trying to win a prize by emptying out her purse, including her husband’s wallet The host notes the excessive number of credit cards for her husband, a problem that would later become a criminal matter for Manafort. Manafort was recently convicted of bank and tax fraud after his indulgent lifestyle led to mounting debt. To answer the shows question, “what he did” was fraud and the episode caught a laughing Manafort at the very time that he was courting some of the world’s more blood-soaked figures to pay for those cards.
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