Breana Rachelle Harmon, 19, has pleaded guilty to filing a false claim that she was kidnapped and raped by three black men Texas. The plea comes after being charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor following her arrest in March 2017.
Continue reading “Texas Woman Pleads Guilty To False Rape Claims”
Colton Haab, a survivor of last week’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., has appeared on national television to voice his allegation that CNN tried to get him to read a scripted question at the network’s recent Town Hall event with survivors and leading politicians. The allegation led President Donald Trump to tweet that CNN had been caught in an act of “fake news.” Now however CNN has posted the original email and accused Haab of “doctoring” the emails and lying about its exchange with its producer. If CNN is doctoring the emails (which is unlikely), Haab could sue for defamation. However, the network says that critical language was removed by Haab or his family.
Continue reading “CNN Accuses Florida Student Cited By President As Lying About Scripted Question”
We previously We discussed recent publications by academics arguing that math is a form of white privilege and male domination. Now, Marci Bianco, the communications manager of Stanford University’s Clayman Institute for Gender Research, has found a new manifestation of patriarchy: space exploration. In the article on NBC.com, Bianco declares that “the patriarchal race to colonize Mars is just another example of male entitlement.” The efforts reveals a “Columbusing attitude.” The movie The Martian will now be renamed “The Patriarch.”
Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens is now the state’s chief executive and its most famous accused felon. On Thursday, the Republican governor was indicted for felony invasion of privacy in a truly bizarre affair from 2015. Greitens, 43, is accused of involuntarily restraining a woman in an affair and taking pictures of her naked as leverage over her. The indictment occurs when nude pictures are also being raised in Nashville as possible evidence against the Mayor Megan Barry, who is also embroiled in a scandal over an affair.
Continue reading “Missouri Governor Charged With Felony Invasion of Privacy In Bizarre Affair”
Troy Miller, 46, has a curious defense when stopped as a suspected car thief. He claimed to be actor Matthew McConaughey. The problem is two fold. First, he looks nothing like the actor and second McConaughey is also not allowed to steal cars.
Continue reading ““Matthew McConaughey” Found In Car After Breaking Into Home”
You know you are on the outs with the President when he not only unleashes an army of citizen trolls on you, but demotes you from plural to singular. President Trump posted another controversial tweet this morning in asking why he is being investigated but not his predecessor or the Democrats. He tells supporters to Just “Ask Jeff Session.” Attorney General Sessions appears to still be the persona non grata and, if anything, diminishing by the day.
Continue reading “Singular Demotion: Trump Tells Citizens “Ask Jeff Session!””
I have previously written about the endless calls for impeachment from Democratic members for everything from Trump criticizing NFL players to comments made about protesters to his reference to “shithole countries.” The Framers saw the great abuses caused not only by tyranny of nobility, but tyranny of the majority. They sought to insulate our government from the transient impulses of politics. The danger has been repeatedly shown by members who see virtually any act or comment by Donald Trump as a case for impeachment. It is a trend toward what I have called “the no-confidence impeachment” option and it is not only an abuse of our constitutional standard but a dangerous trend for this country. The latest grounds for impeachment was stated by former Breitbart spokesperson Kurt Bardella who was also spokesperson for Rep. Darrell Issa, Rep. Brian Bilbray and Senator Olympia Snowe. It appears that the failure to take additional actions or “accept” the fact of Russian interference is now grounds for impeachment and removal from office. His article appears in USA Today entitled President Trump’s Russia Denialism Is Grounds For Impeachment. (For full disclosure, I also write for USA Today).
Call it the “shot never heard around the world.” Elk Grove, California has earned national ridicule by preventing the Elk Grove Historical Society from holding a Revolutionary War reenactment with vintage flintlocks. City officials ruled that the reenactment would violate a ban on firing a gun in city limits, defined as “Use, maintain, possess, fire, or discharge any firearm.” It does not seem to matter that the guns are black powder muskets used in a performance. Would the city take the same position with a Hollywood production?
Continue reading “California City Bars Revolutionary War Reenactment From Using Muskets”
We have repeatedly discussed how Great Britain has been in a free fall from the criminalization of speech to the expansion of the surveillance state. The alarming rollback on free speech rights in the West, particularly striking in England ( here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here). Now, a new case shows how ambiguous laws are being used to criminalize conduct that was once viewed as simply rude or obnoxious. A woman has been arrested for leaving a furious note on an ambulance of the West Midlands Ambulance Service for parking in a reserved space during an emergency call. The note is disgraceful, but the arrest shows how England has plunged head-long into the waters of speech criminalization and regulation.
This could be a case for Angela Lansbury on Meldonium, She Wrote. There has been considerable coverage of Aleksandr Krushelnitckii, a bronze medalist in mixed doubles curling (with his wife), who tested positive for a doping drug. Many of us immediately wondered why a curler would need to dope. The sport is not viewed as the most intensive physical challenge. Yet, after the comprehensive cheating by Russia (leading to the banning of their flag and identifications at these games), the doping allegations seemed all-too-believable for many. Now, however, officials are looking at the possibility of sabotage.
For a year, we have debated the foundation for criminal allegations against President Donald Trump and others in the continuing investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller has indicted individuals for crimes far removed from the Trump campaign, but has remained silent after the singing of the national anthem (I think it was the national anthem) by Fergie at the All-Star NBA game.
Sergio Palomares-Guzman, 28, is accused of a truly bizarre crime of force feeing a goat a combination of whisky and cocaine. The abuse was captured on a videotape as Palomares-Guzman and another man can be heard laughing. He is charged with aggravated cruelty to animals and also faced deportation.
Many of us were critical of the decisions of Evergreen State College in not just its holding of it “Day of Absence” event were whites were expected to leave campus but its treatment of Biology professor Bret Weinstein who was hounded out of the college (and later received a $500,000 settlement for his mistreatment). The school has also been criticized for racial exclusions of authors in the school newspaper. Now there is a report that Evergreen could be heading in the same direction of the University of Missouri, which has seen a massive drop in applications in the wake of controversial decisions in race-related controversies. Evergreen reportedly expects a 20 percent decrease in admissions even as it replaces its “Day of Absence” event. There is now a proposed “inclusion” course. The Administration and faculty were remarkably slow in adjusting its course, which seemed to abandon Weinstein and embrace racial exclusionary principles. It is still early to determine if Evergreen will experience the disastrous “Mizzou Effect.”
In Rathdrum, Idaho, Brett K. Anderson, 47, does not appear to have seriously thought out his criminal scheme. Anderson is accused of stealing 40 foot sections of irrigation pipe and then driving down the highway with the pipes sticking out the car windows. He proceeded to hit other cars with pipes before being pulled over by police.
I recently discussed the highly problematic statement of Michael Cohen, the personal lawyer for President Donald Trump, that he paid off porn star Stormy Daniels (aka Stephanie Clifford) out of his personal funds. This admission did not necessary end the controversy over possible campaign finance violations but did add some thorny ethical questions. One of the possible costs was to void the 2016 agreement itself. Both sides reportedly agreed not to speak publicly about the details of the agreement, but Cohen has now done so in media interviews. In response, Daniels is declaring herself free of any limitations and promising to tell her full story. There is also a story that Daniels has a dress that might have forensic evidence linking her to Trump (sound familiar?). She is reportedly shopping her story. What a mess. This is the result of a combination of bad lawyering, publicity seeking, and what appears strikingly dishonest public statements. Non-disclosure agreements are tricky things since the parties will often dance around a breach in the hopes that the other party will trip the wire in response.
The danger for Trump is that Cohen, as previously described, has left him open to an allegation similar to the one that resulted in criminal charges against John Edwards — the use of a third party to conceal an affair as a circumvention of campaign finance laws. Mueller could conceivably ask about such payments as a possible crime — putting Trump in the same position as Bill Clinton.