There is an interesting lawsuit in Oregon where Tyler Watson is suing Dick’s Sporting Goods for age discrimination after the store (and Walmart) declared that they would no longer sell guns to people below 21 years old. Since he is entitled to buy guns under state law, he is claiming that the store policy discriminates against him on the basis of age in refusing to sell him a .22 caliber Ruger rifle.
Category: Society
Yesterday, there was a troubling story in the New York Times that President Donald Trump had two conversations with witnesses in the Mueller investigation about matters touching on their statements to investigators. Both former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and White House CounselDonald F. McGahn II reportedly were the subjects of inquiries by Trump that raised concerns over witness tampering and, in McGahn’s case, eliciting a false public statement. As I explained this morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program, I do not view the accounts as establishing witness tampering violations but the conversations were clearly inappropriate and ill-advised. Moreover, they can be legitimately pursued by the Special Counsel and fit a narrative that is being advanced by critics. The failure to respect legal and ethical boundaries has been a constant and continuing problem for this White House. Nevertheless, there is an obvious defense to such charges and, as I explained on MSNBC, people are again ignoring the actual criminal elements to this offense. Putting that aside, there should be concern that this is yet another tripped wire that should have been avoided.
Continue reading “Report: McGahn Refused To Issue Statement Denying Trump’s Desire To Fire Mueller”
I previously wrote about how the payments to both a former porn star and a former Playboy bunny could prove a greater threat to President Donald Trump than the still unsubstantiated collusion allegations that led to the appointment of the Special Counsel. Now, one of those woman is formally in court after Stormy Daniels (AKA Stephanie Clifford) filed an action against President Trump. I have previously criticized counsel for both Trump and Daniels for bizarre actions in this controversy and this lawsuit is no exception. The lawsuit introduces new facts including the allegation that President Trump’s lawyer used a fake name for the President, David Dennison, as part of this effort to pay what the complaint calls “hush money.” After differing accounts by Daniels, she has not only stated that she did have a year long affair (something Trump’s counsel has denied) but stated it in a court filing as opposed to a tabloid newspaper.
Continue reading “Stormy Daniels Sues Trump Over “Hush Money” Agreement”
We previously discussed the complaint filed by Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics against White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway for violating the Hatch Act. At the time, I discussed my view that the statements of Conway concerning the special Senate election in Alabama were clear violations of the Act. The new report by OSC special counsel, Henry Kerner found two violations in Conway’s making highly political statements in her “official capacity” in November and December of last year in supporting Alabama candidate Roy Moore. Kerner, a Trump appointee, in a letter to President Donald Trump, called on President Trump to take “appropriate disciplinary action.” However, the White House issued an almost immediate dismissal of the findings. That was a mistake in my view. The President can justify not firing Conway but, particularly for an Administration fighting what it considers politicized actions in the Executive Branch, the President should reaffirm the need to comply with the Hatch Act, Some have criticized the act, but it remains federal law.
Continue reading “Conway Found In Violation Of The Hatch Act By Special Counsel”
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”
On Tuesday, March 6, at noon, I will have the pleasure of speaking as part of the screening of Democracy’s Messengers: The Never-Before-Told Story of Young Americans on Capitol Hill at the National Archives. Narrated by Cokie Roberts, the film Democracy’s Messengers tells the story our page system. I was a House page in 1978-79 and eventually served as a House Leadership Page. I will be part of a panel discussing our experiences ij the program. Register to attend online. You can also watch the program live streamed on the National Archives YouTube channel.
Below is my column in USA Today on the legislation proposed to combat Russian trolling and Internet campaigns. There is a serious threat to free speech in these measures, which mirror efforts from (ironically) countries like Russia and China. The serious threat is not a handful of Russians playing on our deep divisions, but rather the hacking operations and attempt to interfere with voting systems.
Here is the column:
I recently criticized the new Polish law criminalizing any statements attributing the genocide of Jews to Polish forces or actions. The legislature approved a bill making it a crime to use statements suggesting Poland bears responsibility for crimes against humanity committed by Nazi Germany. You could receive up to three years in prison for calling Auschwitz-Birkenau a “Polish death camp.” USNews is reporting that the first target of this abusive law has now been announced: the Argentine Pagina 12 daily. The newspaper was accused of breaching a new law by suggesting that Poland was complicit in the Holocaust.
Continue reading “Controversial Polish Holocaust Denial Law Takes On Its First Media Target”
With South Africa’s poor economy showing slight improvement and a major credit decision looming, the new government of President Cyril Ramaphosa would be expected to chart a careful and conservative approach. However, its new leaders are turning to two measures that have historically triggered utter disaster for African nations: land expropriation without compensation and the even more dangerous plan to simply print more money and give it to the poor. I have long admitted to have a Chicago School bias from my undergraduate days, but this does not seem promising for this struggling country.
Continue reading “South Africa’s New Economic Plan: Expropriation of Land and Printing Money”
There are moments in life that are so perfect and magical that one can only sit back and just bask in its glory. That moment came for Ardsley High School basketball player Julian McGarvey who intercepted a pass with only 2.4 seconds left to play and won the championship for his school in an incredible 70 foot throw.
Continue reading “Taking The Shot: Julian McGarvey And The Self-Defining Moment”
The head of Harvard’s massive endowment, Jane Mendillo, has reported a staggering loss of roughly $1.1 billion in its holdings — an amount larger than the total value of most academic endowments. It is an astonishing loss coming only six years since Mendillo took over the endowment and is being attributed to her heavy bet on natural resource investments.
Continue reading “Harvard Writes Off As Much As $1.1 Billion In Endowment Losses”
We recently discussed the cancellation of a Princeton class on oppressive language when the professor used the n-word. I was strongly critical of actions in the controversy and the ultimate cancellation as an attack on both academic freedom and a reflection of the loss of objectivity on our campuses. Now, law students have made a similar complaint to DePaul University. Professor Donald Hermann is under fire for using the word in a hypothetical. It is particularly distressing to see law students objecting to the use of this word, which arises often in legal cases and was used for a legitimate purpose by Professor Hermann.
As we approach the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx, the state of socialism is not especially encouraging. The socialist reign of Hugo Chávez and successor Nicolas Maduro have reduced oil-rich Venezuela to pre-historic conditions with 4000 percent inflation and near starvation levels of food supply. In Cuba, the socialist government continues to limp by with an economy frozen in the 1950s. Indeed, there is only one real success of socialism in the world: the National Football League. When Marx said that “Democracy is the road to socialism,” he could easily point to the 32 owners of America’s football teams. It turns out that socialism works really well for billionaires in a small group with an effective monopoly on an industry.
Continue reading “THE NFL MOVES AGAINST JONES FOR THE ULTIMATE OFF-SIDES VIOLATION”
Below is my column in the Washington Post on the question of whether a president can be indicted while in office. Many academics believe that there is an implied immunity from such indictments in Article II of the Constitution. I do not agree as explained in the column below. Once again, I have stated that I do not see compelling evidence of any prosecutable crimes against President Trump. However, if such evidence did arise and satisfied a grand jury, the Special Counsel could indict even before any impeachment.
Continue reading “Yes, A President Can Be Indicted While In Office”
I have previously expressed my surprise that people enjoy shooting animals in the wild. As an avid hiker and animal lover, I go to great lengths to see animals in nature but I fail to see why it is exciting or fulfilling to shoot some animal with high-powered rifle. These trophy hunters seem to want to collect these animals. Australian businessman, Nick Haridemos, appears to go further and pose with dead animals. A series of photos like this Twitter image were posted on social media and led to Haridemos being hounded out of Hellenic Club.
Continue reading “Australian Hunter Under Fire For Photos With Dead Animals”