We have previously discussed the uncertain standard applying to teachers and professors who are subject to discipline for social media postings. It often seems that any termination or discipline is based upon subjective or majoritarian views of the content of postings. The latest such case is out of Catholic University of America where adjunct professor John Tieso has been suspended after tweets ridiculing Barack Obama and Kamala Harris after working for the school since 2013. Tieso told the site The College Fix that he is considering legal action.
Category: Politics
For years, many of us who have long supporteded the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have grown alarmed by its abandonment of core principles in the support of civil liberties in favor of support what seems a more political agenda. Under the leadership of a President Susan N. Herman and Executive Director Anthony Romero, the ACLU has dropped support for unpopular causes while aligning itself more closely with the Democratic Party’s position on issues ranging from immigration to sexual harassment. I have spent my life supporting the ACLU and speaking at its conferences. It has been very painful for many of us in the “Old guard” as these political advocates have taken over the board and organization. That has been evidenced as the ACLU moved to develop a more nuanced approach to “hate speech” after criticism following the Charlottesville protests. Free speech protection was once the touchstone of the ACLU which was fearless in its unpopular advocacy. It is now an area of open retreat for the organization as the leadership seeks to appease irate donors. Despite the right to carry being a constitutional right, the ACLU has indicated that it will not vigorously support the right to lawfully carry weapons at protests. That is no more evident than in the truly shocking filing of the ACLU to oppose due process rights for students at our colleges and universities, particularly in the imposition of a higher and more consistent evidentiary standard. While I found aspects of the brief to raise compelling points, the thrust of the brief is an attack on basic evidentiary protections that would have once been viewed as a position fundamentally at odds with the organization’s mission.
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on how the media seems confused by polls that not only fail to show former Vice President Joe Biden surging but some showing Trump pulling ahead with voters. The problem is that the media has never shown any real interest in understanding Trump voters, preferring to stereotype them as racists, as done in a recent Washington Post column. The truth might be found in a famous Stanford experiment called “Bobo the Clown.”
Here is the column: Continue reading “Bobo The Clown’s Revenge? How The Media Is Reelecting Donald Trump”
For weeks, we have discussed how the media, Democratic members, and a wide variety commentators have adopted a different standard in dealing with the allegation of sexual assault against Joe Biden. As soon as the presumptive Democratic nominee was accused, the rallying cry from the Kavanaugh hearing that “all women must be believed” was dropped. This week, the question may not be the applicability of the Kavanaugh standard but the Sessions standard. The recent declassification of documents shows that United Nations ambassador Samantha Power sought to unmask Michael Flynn’s name not once but on at least seven occasions. Yet, Power insisted that she had no recollection of even a single such request. When former Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that he had “no recollection” of meetings or other details, Democrats called for his prosecution for perjury. Will the Sessions’ standard apply to Power, or is this another example of standards changing with the affiliation of the accused? Continue reading “Did Samantha Power Commit Perjury? It Depends If The Sessions Standard Applies.”
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the contradictions revealed in recent disclosures, including the list of officials seeking to “unmask” the identity of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. There seems a virtual news blackout on these disclosures, including the fact that both former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden followed the investigation. Indeed, Biden’s name is on the unmasking list.
Here is the column: Continue reading “The Unmasking of Joe Biden”
On Friday night, President Donald Trump fired the State Department’s Inspector General Steve Linick in a troubling and potentially unlawful act. We previously discussed the President’s firing of then-Inspector General for the Intelligence Community Michael Atkinson for his role in the whistleblower complaint that prompted the Ukraine probe — a move that I criticized. He also fired the inspector general overseeing pandemic relief, Glenn Fine. The firing of Linick when his office was reportedly investigating the alleged misuse of public resources by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is arguably in violation of federal law and in my view worthy of investigation by both houses. The Inspector General system plays a vital role in combatting corruption and abuse. The President’s actions against multiple inspectors general constitute one of the greatest challenges to that system since its founding.
Continue reading “Trump Fires The State Department’s Inspector General [Updated]”
We have previously discussed how the media and many Democrats have struggled to address not only their largely muted response to the sexual assault allegation against former Vice President Joe Biden but also the support shown Bill Clinton who was accused by a long list of women for everything from sexual harassment to rape. Many have noted that the Clinton allegations were before the “MeToo” movement as if rape allegations were shrugged off in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Many insist that they would oppose him today based on the accounts of these women. The media however continues to contradict these claims by featuring Clinton prominently. Today CNN will feature Clinton as role model for young people across the country as part of a graduation special. A+E Networks Group President Paul Buccieri has announced that the company has given Clinton a series on how presidents show leadership in times of crisis. Clinton was also featured as part of the “Call to Unite” special with Oprah. Thus, despite the spin on the Biden allegations, it really does not matter how many women come forward or a proven case of an affair with a young intern in the White House. Clinton remains someone that the media feels should be emulated by young and old alike.By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor.
Last week several parents on behalf of themselves and their minor children filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of the State of Washington seeking injunctive relief and for the Court to declare the closures unconstitutional as the governor’s proclamations violate the “paramount duty on the part of the state to make ‘ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders.”
The underlying information alleged within the lawsuit presents facts that Plaintiffs assert demonstrate that the current state of the COVID-19 virus’ threat no longer credibly constitutes an actual emergency and that the governor’s Proclamations as a result lack a foundational basis to remove children from schools. The suit further states the governor applied a wide brush to declare all Washingtonians as being at risk when the epidemiological evidence shows that the COVID-19 infection and death rate mirrors that of Influenza and Pneumonia infection rates of past years yet no public emergency was declared then. Furthermore, the illness and death rate for those less than twenty years in age is non-existent in the state and nearly everywhere else sampled. Plaintiffs proffer that the failing of the governor to limit the scope of application of the Proclamations to those actually vulnerable to the virus, the elderly and sick, infringed upon the constitutional rights of the plaintiffs and other children who have physiologically shown no significant vulnerability to the virus yet suffered the violation of their right to education resulting from an overly-broad inclusion under the declarations of state of emergency.
The complaint also mentions the sub-par nature of the education provided the minor Plaintiffs by the state, equating in one example only an hour of education and that much of what is expected is for grade school children to self-initiate and self direct their own education. One child, resides at times with a parent who has no Internet service at his residence and thus cannot facilitate an ample accomodation to meet the child’s special educational needs.
Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin is being ridiculed for a column in which she claims that the “walls are closing in” on President Donald Trump. Critics have noted that in May 2017 Rubin declared the “walls are closing in” on Trump due to his firing of FBI Director James Comey. Then last October, she declared the “walls are closing in” due to impeachment. Now the walls are back as if this is one long struggle of transferred claustrophobic anxiety.
The more important aspect however is not the fear of moving walls but the misrepresentation of the recent ruling of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. We previously discussed how some have misrepresented the ruling, but Rubin, again, appears entirely untethered by any editorial (or ethical) requirements of accuracy. Rubin’s column is based on another misrepresentation of the underlying facts.
I recently criticized the calls of Democratic leaders like House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff for greater censorship of the Internet and social media. Such calls have been growing for years but leaders like Schiff are citing the pandemic as a basis for speech monitoring and censorship. That opportunity has not been missed by countries like China which has used “fake news” on the pandemic to arrest dissident scientists trying to share suppressed information. Most recently, Hungary has started jailing people for up to five years, which political dissidents say is targeting political critics.
Continue reading “Hungary Shows How Fake News Is The Rallying Cry Of A New Generation Of Censors”
New polling shows President Donald Trump rising in battleground states. The polling has frustrated some, particularly at CNN where viewers were told not to put much stake in its own polling. CNN conducted a poll that showed that Trump had a seven-point lead over Joe Biden in some battleground states with 52 percent over 45 percent for Biden. On “CNN Newsroom” John King cautioned viewers not to “overinvest” in CNN’s own polling. The polls do not fit the narrative of a president who is tanking due to his mishandling of the pandemic. Other polls are showing Trump rising and even leading in states like Ohio. I actually agree with King that we should be leery of all polls as demonstrated by 2016. It is just the caution on this poll that seems a tad out of the norm.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has rejected the effort by President Donald Trump to dismiss a lawsuit alleging a violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution due to his accepting foreign government money through his luxury Washington hotel in Washington. I have been highly skeptical of these lawsuits, a view shared by other courts. The 9-6 opinion, below, however has been misrepresented or misunderstood by some. It is not a ruling on the merits but rather the technical standard for what is called an interlocutory appeal. It essentially blocks a Hail Mary play to shutdown the lawsuit. Nevertheless, the dissenting judges denounced the lawsuit as based on a “wholly novel and nakedly political cause of action.”
Continue reading “The Fourth Circuit Rejects Trump Appeal To Dismiss Emoluments Case”
Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan has issued a couple of extraordinary orders in the case of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn after the Justice Department moved to dismiss the case. Sullivan has not only decided to allow third parties to argue against an uncontested motion in a criminal case, but he has appointed retired judge John Gleeson to argue against dismissal and address whether Flynn should face a perjury charge from the Court itself. I have practiced in front of Judge Sullivan for many years. I have repeatedly praised him and expressed my respect for his demeanor and directness. However, these orders raised deeply troubling questions of judicial overreach and enmity. Despite my admiration for Judge Sullivan, I believe he is moving well outside of the navigational beacons for judicial action and could be committing reversible errors if he denies the unopposed motion or moves forward on this perjury claim.
Continue reading “Judge Sullivan To Consider Perjury Charge Against Flynn”
In a tweet that reflects a common spin in the media, MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell yesterday dismissed the importance of the disclosure that former Vice President Joe Biden requested the “unmasking” of former national security advisor Michael Flynn. Mitchell called Biden’s action “routine” and the story “gaslighting.” What is striking about this spin is that ignores the fact that Biden, only the day before, denied any involvement in the Flynn investigation or more than passing knowledge of its existence. It also adopts a misleading statistic on the occurrence of such unmasking requests. (I had to share this cartoon entitled “The Blessed Effects of Gas Lights” from London in 1813 on the perceived dangers of gaslighting. It appears the danger remains much the same in the 21st Century).
Continue reading ““Please Stop Trying To Gaslight Us”: MSNBC Host Dismisses Biden “Unmasking” Story”
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is the latest high-profile inmate to be a beneficiary of the pandemic. Manafort was released from prison today due to the danger of his contracting the virus. He will now be serving his 7.5 year sentence in the considerable luxury of his residence. That is hardly hard time but Manafort, who is 71 with a history of liver and respiratory issues, is clearly a high-risk for a lethal exposure of the coronavirus.
Continue reading “Serving Like The One Percent: Manafort Released From Prison Under Pandemic Order”