We recently discussed the growing concerns over academics using “progressive stacking” where teachers like Stephanie McKellop avoid calling on white males in class. One of the most cited supporters of progressive stacking is Professor Jessie Daniels at the City University of New York’s Hunter College. Daniels is back in the news with highly disturbing comments about white people and their families.
Continue reading “Hunter College Prof: White Families Foster White Supremacy”
Two universities this month were embroiled in alleged racist incidents that led to campus alerts and national controversy. It turns out however that the “victims” at both the Air Force Academy and Kent State were actually the aggressors in the creation of racist hoaxes. The incident at the Air Force Academy led to an angry speech by Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria, who ordered all 4000 cadets to stand at attention as he railed on the racist or racists in their ranks.
Below is my column in the Hill Newspaper on the allegations against Hillary Clinton and her campaign. Yesterday, the controversy surrounding the Russian dossier deepened after it was disclosed that the co-founder of Fusion GPS (the company hired by the Clinton campaign to do the dossier) met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya before she met with Donald Trump Jr. Indeed, she met with the Fusion officials shortly before and shortly after she met with Trump Jr. in Trump Tower. Just hours before on June 9, 2016, Fusion co-founder and ex-Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Simpson was with Veselnitskaya in a Manhattan federal courtroom. Simpson and Fusion GPS were hired by BakerHostetler, which represented Russian firm Prevezon through Veselnitskaya.
Here is the column:
Below is my column in the Hill Newspaper on the highly controversial move of Special Counsel Robert Mueller to use Paul Manafort’s own lawyer as a witness against him. What is most striking about this move is that it was entirely unnecessary given the other evidence of alleged violations of federal law governing foreign agents. The case against Manafort is strong but the denial of attorney-client protections in the case should be a matter of great concern for all citizens — regardless of your view of the underlying merits of the Russian investigation.
It has been something of a nightmarish week for the Democratic National Committee (DNC). First, former DNC head Donna Brazile revealed in her book that Hillary Clinton effectively bought the DNC before the primary by assuming its towering debts in exchange for control over critical parts of the organization. In addition to the emails showing the DNC favoring Clinton, the book seems to confirm that Clinton and her allies took over key financial decisions for the DNC before the primary. The deal would show that a variety of Democratic leaders, including most notably Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, openly misled the public in the primary. The disclosure in the book came right after the DNC moved to push out Sanders supporters and bring back Clinton allies into key positions last month.
While this scandal was brewing this week, an email surfaced showing that a DNC official told staff not to share employment opportunities with straight white men — a clear effort to discriminate in access to job opportunities. I (and many others) tried to get the DNC to confirm the email. The DNC has largely stonewalled all inquiries beyond a belated and ambiguous statement.
Below is my column in USA Today on the Rick Gates indictment and his potential as a witness for the prosecution in the Mueller investigation. The other obvious concern for the defense should be General Michael Flynn. It is curious that there was no indictment of Flynn given his similar alleged violations involving work as a foreign agent. Flynn would also be a natural target for prosecutors in seeking cooperative witnesses. With George Papadopoulos’ plea and cooperation, other witnesses will start to consider whether they will get a chair when the music stops. The President’s attack on Papadopoulos certainly sends a chilling message for those who might follow his lead, but these are heavy potential charges for potential targets.
Here is the column:
An official at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has posted a help wanted ad for its technology department that seeks the best candidates unless they are heterosexual white males. The alleged email from Data Services manager Madeleine Leader was express and open about her prejudice against straight white males but neither the DNC nor Leader felt obligated to respond to the controversy. The story was reported from the Daily Wire.
I have written to the DNC to try to get a comment but have not received a response. I will update with any response from the DNC.
We have previously discussed how President Donald Trump has repeatedly been used by federal courts as the most important witness against his own policies due to his ongoing and ill-advised tweets. Indeed, in all three rounds of the immigration litigation, Trump’s tweets and comments were critically important to courts in ruling against his Administration, including the most recent injunction rulings of the third travel ban order. Now a judge in Washington has relied on Trump’s tweets to rule against him on his ban on transgender military personnel. Judge Colleen Kollar Kotelly of the US District Court for the District of Columbia in Jane Doe v. Donald Trump (pdf), found that the plaintiffs were “likely to succeed” on their claims that the ban is discriminatory. The court decision, again, features a Trump tweet.
Dmitry Shubov has finally finished a determined and prolonged effort of self-destruction. Shubov is a disbarred lawyer and founder of LegalMatch.com who has now been arrested for a sexual relationship with a minor. His site pairs older “sugar daddy” or “sugar momma” adults with younger people. In this case, the girl proved to be 14 years old.
Continue reading “[Not-So] LegalMatch: Disbarred Lawyer Facing Charges Of Sexual Assault On A Minor”
I have previously written about my concerns in the removal of statues and names from public buildings due to contemporary views of historical figures like George Washington. For that reason, it should come as little surprise how I view the decision of the current congregation of Christ Church in Alexandria to a memorial plaque to George Washington. I once lived near the church and occasionally went to services there. including the funeral of our late Associate Dean Admiral John Jenkins. It is a thrill to sit in a church that once served Washington and others. It is deeply disappointing to see the congregation now reject that long history in the removal of a plaque placed on the church in 1870. The reason offered below by church leaders is that the plaque made people feel unwelcomed or threatened because Washington was a slave owner.
Emory Philosophy Professor George Yancy has attracted considerable attention this week over his writings and comments on race and his suggestions for teaching white students. Yancy is under fire for telling his students that he believes not only in “safe spaces” for non-white students but “dangerous spaces” for white students. It is part of his view of “white privilege” and his effort to prompt students “to acknowledge their inherent racism and fight actively against it.” Yancy insists that all white people are inherently racist and all men are inherently sexist.
Last night, the media was thrown into a frenzy with news that special counsel Robert Mueller has secured the first charges in his investigation into Russian election interference. Despite the fact that the name or names of those indicted have not been released and the specific charges were not disclosed, the report was heralded as a breakthrough moment in the Russian investigation. CNN contributor David Gergen stated “Well, it certainly looks like the dam is starting to break now.” It could be and then again it might not be. Again, the breathless desire among some commentators is out-stripping the available information. For months, many of us have been saying that it was extremely unlikely that Mueller would assemble this huge prosecutorial team and spend millions without charging someone on something. The core question is whether he is going to move on the two primary allegations in the Russian investigation — collusion and obstruction — that might implicate Trump or his family. In other words, we may have to wait for the arrest or surrender to know if Mueller has unveiled a mountain or a molehill.
University of Illinois math professor Rochelle Gutierrez has triggered a national controversy over her recent anthology for math educators entitled, “Building Support for Scholarly Practices in Mathematics Methods.” Gutierrez suggests that mathematic tends to perpetuate white privilege that must be actively addressed in classrooms. For many, math is one subject that was viewed inherently objective and unbiased in its emphasis. Albert Einstein and others saw beauty in math. He stated “Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.” Yet, Gutierrez appears to see the “politics that mathematics brings” and white privilege. Continue reading ““Mathematics Itself Operates As Whiteness”: University of Illinois Professor Triggers Controversy In Calling For Professors To Recognize Math As Privilege”
We have been watching an extraordinary shift in public opinion over the last decade on the legalization of marijuana. With millions of citizens now using marijuana either medically or recreationally, the public appears ready to see nationwide legalization. The huge tax benefits from legalization and the rapidly expanding market appears to have adding to the support for legalization. This polls is just a few percent lower in support than a recent Harvard poll showing 68 percent support for legalization.
Continue reading “Poll: 64 Percent Of Americans Now Want Marijuana Legalized”
Clinton campaign lawyer Marc Elias is under fire today after the Washington Post ran an extensive story on how the Clinton Campaign and Democratic National Committee hired controversial research firm Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on Donald Trump in Russia in the “Russian Dossier” matter. Reporters at the New York Times have accused Elias of lying in past categorical denials of any connection to Clinton or the DNC. The reports indicate that not only did the Clinton team fund the opposition research but that Elias may have been the person handling much of the arrangements. Update: Brian Fallon, former spokesperson for the Clinton campaign, has said that this was “money well spent.” On CNN, Fallon said that the “sensitive nature” of the project meant that it was kept to a small number of people that did not include him. Fallon’s expression of satisfaction with the work however conflicts with what reporters say Elias told them. He notably sounded a lot like Trump in saying “opposition research occurs all the time.” Christoper Steele is a foreign national who was seeking information from foreign sources to use against Trump.