We have previously discussed how Saudi princes and princess routinely flee debts and criminal investigations (here and here and here and here and here). Now France has issued an arrest warrant for the sister of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman after she allegedly ordered her bodyguard to beat up a contractor in her Paris apartment. Princess Hassa bint Salman (aka Hussat ben Salmane) is named in a warrant.
Category: Bizarre
United Airlines is under fire after a flight attendant ordered a pet dog to be placed in a passenger’s overhead bin on a flight from Houston. When United Flight 1284 arrived in New York, the French Bulldog “Kokito” was found dead. The horrific scene could well result in a tort action for negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and other claims. As a common carrier, United is subject to a high standard of care in the treatment of passengers.
In a story that is likely to resonate in the national debate over President Donald Trump’s push to get teacher’s armed in school, a teacher at Seaside High School in Sand City, Ca. injured a student when his gun discharged in a class. Even more embarrassing is that the class was on gun safety.
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the effort of the Trump legal team to reach deal to have the President sit down with the Special Counsel in exchange for certain conditions or concessions. The problem is a matter of timing. As has been a repeated problem, the Trump team seems a couple steps behind the unfolding controversy.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “Trump Offers To Meet With Mueller, But Is It Too Late For Damage Control?”
We have previously discussed how Clinton has compiled a long list of people responsible for her loss to Donald Trump with the notable exception of herself. This includes her explanation (and her supporters) that it was not Clinton but self-hating, misogynistic women who could not vote for any woman for President. Despite the criticism over her past statements and additional polls showing that she remains hugely unpopular with many voters (and would still lose to Trump), Clinton continues to blame others for her loss. In a speech at the India Today Conclave, Clinton repeated her view that white women are under the thumb of their husbands and vote as they dictate.
Like many people, I was highly critical of the awarding of the Nobel Award to President Barack Obama in 2009 before he had done anything as president. Now the ex-Secretary for the Nobel Prize Geir Lundestad has admitted that Obama did not deserve the prize but rather they thought the award would strengthen Obama. It is a maddening admission that the committee bypassed a list of worthy candidates with proven contributions to humanity to give a boost to someone that the Committee simply liked. That would seem grossly unethical but Lundestad merely acknowledged that it did not seem to work.
Continue reading “Ex-Nobel Secretary Admits Obama’s Prize Was A Mistake”
My alma mater University of Chicago was the scene of a curious event recently. Students held a “Rally for Reparations” to demand money for African Americans to pay the unpaid debt from the use of slave labor at the founding of the University of Chicago in 1856. Activists denounced the school as “drenched in the blood of enslaved African Americans.” The only problem is that University of Chicago is not related to the University of Chicago, which was founded in 1890. That did not seem to matter as part of the event.
We previously discussed the bizarre case of Rachel Dolezal, the former NAACP leader who claimed to be African-American yet turned out to be white. She later insisted that she chose to be black. Now she has a Netflix special (doesn’t everyone?). In the final irony, the company giving Dolezal a special has been denounced as promoting “white privilege.”
Continue reading “Rachel Dolezal Special Declared “White Privilege””
According to Hartford police, Jonathan Rivera, 25, has curious way of contesting charges of car theft. Rivera is accused of driving in a stolen vehicle to Superior Court.
Continue reading “Accused Car Thief Is Arrested After Driving To Court In Stolen Car”
The Texas Eighth Court of Appeals in El Paso has thrown out the conviction of Terry Lee Morris after Judge George Gallagher ordered him to be shocked with a stun belt to induce him to “follow the rules.” Gallagher’s actions were a disgrace and constitutes at a minimum assault upon a defendant. He should be removed from the bench for his actions in the 2014 trial. It is astonishing that he remains on the bench after such abuse of a criminal defendant. I have been a long critic of stun belts in court.
Nashville mayor Megan Barry has resigned and pleaded guilty to felony theft as part of her affair with her police bodyguard. We often debate whether a politician should give a smiling mugshot (and risk looking non-contrite) or a frowning mugshot (and risk looking guilty). Barry went with the smiling option. She will now face three years probation and a criminal fine.
Continue reading “Nashville Mayor Resigns And Pleads Guilty To Felony Theft”
In Illinois, the Des Plaines Police Department has arrested three employees of the Kiddie Junction day care facility after allegedly discovering that the women gave children gummy bears laced with the sleep aid melatonin without parental consent. Ashley Helfenbein, 25, Jessica Heyse, 19, and Kristen Lauletta, 32, were charged with endangering children and battery. The battery charge is clear since the parents thought that they were paying for Kiddie Junction, not Kiddie Junkies. The endangerment charge could result in some challenges.
It was another breathless bombshell evening last night as media proclaimed that a “Former Trump Aide” said that he believed Trump “may very well have done something during the election with the Russians.” CNN carried a series of bizarre interviews with Sam Nunberg who was refusing to comply with a subpoena from Special Counsel Robert Mueller to produce documents and appear before a grand jury. Nunberg spouted off a series of accusations against Carter Page and others that were immediately picked up as potential confirmation of collusion. However, each CNN interviews made it more and more clear that the network had a virtual freak on a leash. Soon Nunberg denounced Sarah Huckabee Sanders as a “fat slob” and telling her to shut her “big fat mouth.” Nunberg was clearly neither credible nor under control but he drove the coverage for hours as a former aide supporting Russian collusion theories. It was part of our new media: NASCAR journalism where media rushes figures like Nunberg in front of cameras and viewers watch for the inevitable crash. Update: Nunberg now is saying that he will cooperate after all.
Continue reading “Sam Nunberg and Last Night’s NASCAR Press Pileup [Updated]”
Chris Bourg, director of libraries at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has issued a prime directive that “Star Trek” posters and nerdy cultural images should be removed to create a more welcoming workplace for women: “Replace the Star Trek posters with travel posters, don’t name your projects or your printers or your domains after only male figures from Greek mythology, and just generally avoid geek references and inside nerd jokes. Those kinds of things reinforce the stereotypes about who does tech; and that stereotype is the male nerd stereotype.” It is not clear if the MIT seal is also problematic as a male dominated (and fairly geeky) cultural icon.
Continue reading “Prime Directive: MIT Librarian Declares Star Trek Posters To Be Male”