After pleading guilty to theft by a public servant, Gilberto Escamilla, 53, was sentenced to 50 years in prison after being convicted of stealing $1.2 million in fajitas with county funds. Given where the fajitas were heading, he may have less than a warm welcome in prison. He worked at the Cameron County Juvenile Justice Department.
Category: Bizarre
We recently discussed the bizarre statement from D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8) that Jewish bankers controlled the weather. White’s stupefying stupidity became an international sensation, which he did not help with his apology: “I have spoke [sic] to leader and my friends at Jews United for Justice and they are helping me to understand the history of comment [sic] made against Jews.” Putting aside the need for a refresher, White sought to mollify his critics with a visit to the Holocaust Museum which has made the situation only worse with bizarre questions and an early departure.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had a curious moment this week when he announced “I’m undocumented. You want to deport an undocumented person, start with me because I’m an undocumented person.” Putting aside the bravado and drama, there was on aspect of Cuomo’s comments that caught me eye as an Italian-American (I am half Sicilian). Cuomo declared “You know what wop stood for? Without papers.” That is news to me.
I have always marveled at the relativism of the most extreme voices in our public discourse. As shown just yesterday, I have regularly criticized the failure of schools to discipline or expel students who prevent conservatives from speaking on campuses. This included my criticism of Howard University students who stopped former FBI Director James Comey from speaking. Yet, Laura Loomer, a conservative activist, believed it was her right to stop others from hearing from Comey at an event promoting his book in New York City. I felt Comey handled it well but it is beyond me how people like Loomer believe that they can prevent others from speaking or listening to opposing views. While I have been highly critical of Comey, including a column out this morning, he has every right to be heard and these people came to hear him — not Loomer.
Continue reading “Conservative Protester Shouts Down Comey At Book Event”
Below is my column in USA Today on the rapid demise of James Comey and Andrew McCabe, who have fulfilled the very stereotypes drawn by President Donald Trump. Comey continues to spin the controversy over his book as fulfilling what he saw as a need for ethical leadership (i.e., Comey himself). Comey acknowledged that he never asked Mueller if he should wait on the book. Why? If you are so committed to the FBI and this investigation, why would you not ask about the possibly deleterious effects of a tell-all book (which discussed both public and nonpublic evidence). Clearly the book was not helpful to the investigation, but that did not matter to Comey who saw the greater need as advancing himself as the personification of virtue and ethics — while cashing in on the first tell-all book from a former FBI Director.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “Comey and McCabe Leap From The Moral High Ground Into The Trump Abyss”
Texas attorney Mark Benavides will spend the rest of his life in jail for coercing female clients to have sex him in exchange for legal services. A jury has now sentenced him to 80 years in prison. Benavides was running for a judgeship as a Democrat when he was arrested. He was disbarred in 2016.
I have been a long critic of Michael Cohen, who has a reputation of a reckless and unprofessional lawyer. Cohen could not have taken a more disastrous course for his client, Donald Trump, and he has maximized the potential costs for both himself and his client. Now, as a judge was holding a hearing on his motion to protect his files, Cohen took upon himself to not only skip the hearing but sit outside in New York smoking a cigar. He even joked that he wanted the pictures snapped by the awaiting reporters. The judge in the meantime was reportedly irritated by his absence at this critical hearing over his allegedly confidential files.
McKinley cannot catch a break. First, they took off his name from Mount McKinley during the Obama Administration on what is now known as Denali. Now towns like Arcata, California are moving to remove his statue as offensive to Native Americans. The use of Denali as the name for the mountain is understandable given its long usage by natives. However, the action in Arcara is the latest example of cleansing public areas of any historical images or figures deemed offensive by any group instead of placing these monuments into historical context.Continue reading “California Town Votes To Remove Statue Of William McKinley As Offensive”
A twelve-year-old video has surfaced showing Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood saying that it is better to kill suspects than wound them because it is a cheaper for the county to just pay off the families for a death. Since Kern County had one of the highest (if not the highest) per capita shooting rates in the country for police departments, the words were particularly chilling. Continue reading “Sheriff Youngblood: Cheaper To Kill Than Wound Suspects”
President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, yesterday sought to elicit a modicum of sympathy for his position after a raid upon his office, home, and hotel room. However, Cohen is not known for such empathy in his treatment of others in his controversial career. Cohen is known as a bully who threatens to ruin anyone who he deems to be a threat or impediment to Trump. A new example of such allegations surfaced this week where a Harvard student said that Cohen threatened to have him expelled from the university over a successful prank orchestrated by the Harvard Lampoon.
Andrew Jackson Higdon III may be unique among accused felons. While burglars and thieves have been known to take a variety of novel items, how many are accused of actually carting away the actual roof?
Continue reading “Louisiana Contractor Charged With Carting Away Woman’s Roof”
Florida police apparently did not buy Kennecia Posey’s explanation that the cocaine found in her purse may have been due to the unusually windy day in Fort Pierce. As Bob Dylan sang, “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.”
My son Aidan ran across this item below on the website for Fairfax schools in signing up for its economics course. Aidan has come face to face with, as he noted, “proof that there really is no free lunch.” He has now learned the first central tenet of economics.
Continue reading “No Such Thing As A Free Lunch? Fairfax County Schools Offer $14 “Free Lunch””
I recently discussed Stone’s recent posting on Instagram where he warned against anyone “taking him seriously” (in reference to his former protege Sam Nunberg) obviously could apply with equal, if not greater, force to Stone. A long-time associate of President Donald Trump, Stone appears perfectly unhinged at times. Stone appears to relish notoriety to the point that he maintains a notorious persona. That was evident this weekend where Stone first told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that his earlier claims of having prior work of WikiLeaks disclosures were untrue and then, with another reporter, seemed to contradict the contradiction in saying that he did have prior disclosure. I wrote a recently column on why Stone makes for a dubious basis for criminal allegations despite the recent press coverage.