Category: Society

NAACP Calls On NFL To Protect Kaepernick’s Constitutional Right To Protest

Naacplogo300px-National_Football_League_logo.svgThe NAACP’s interim president Derrick Johnson is requesting  a formal meeting with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to the failure of any team to pick up Colin Kaepernick and how the NFL will honor his “constitutional rights” and those of other NFL players.  I have said previously that I strongly disagree with the decision of Kaepernick and others to refuse to stand during the national anthem.  However, I fully accept the first amendment right to carry out such protests.  However, the question is far more complex when moved into the realm of employment and demonstrations at work.  The question becomes less a constitutional matter than an employment matter.

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Fire Fighters Rescue Pigs From Fire . . . Farm Thanks Fire Fighters With Sausage Made From The Rescued Pigs

_97483266_sausagestwoA drift of rescued piglets (yes, that is what a group of pigs is called)  is at the center of a controversy between animal rights advocates and the Wiltshire fire department.   After fire fighters pulled 18 piglets and two sows from a fire, the farmer, Rachel Rivers, wanted to thank them so the farm butchered the pigs, made them into sausage, and served them to their rescuers.

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Maryland Removes Statue Of Roger B. Taney In Midnight Operation: Will Other Supreme Court Justice Monuments Follow?

Roger_B._Taney_statue,_Mount_Vernon_Place,_Baltimore,_MDWithout much notice or debate, Maryland officials ordered the removal of the statue of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney due to his authorship of the Dredd Scott decision.  At midnight, workers quietly dismantled the statue in response to the violence in Charlottesville.  Taney’s statue stood for 145 years on the Maryland State House and his removal follows calls for the removal of statues not simply of confederate figures but founders like George Washington and others associated with either slavery or segregation.  I have cautioned against the wholesale removal of historical images and monuments and names at universities.  The flaws and failures of historical figures are often as more important than their triumphs.  The Taney removal reflects a widening array of figures who are now subject  to call for removal — beyond confederate statuary.   It is not clear what Maryland will do with the US Coast Guard Cutter Taney which currently is part of the Baltimore Maritime Museum.  It is last surviving active ship from the Pearl Harbor attack of December 7, 1941.  I have spent nights on the Taney with the Cub Scouts. While this is not on state lands, it is not clear if there will also be a demand that the ship be removed given its namesake or how far this movement to remove historical references will do.

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ESPN Pulls Robert Lee From Virginia Game To Avoid Association With Confederate General

downloadRobert E. LeeIn a move that frankly reads like it came out of The Onion, ESPN pulled its sportscaster Robert Lee in coverage of University of Virginia football game — because his name is the same as the Confederate general.  The company believed that having a sportscaster named Lee for a Virginia game could be painful for some after the protests in Charlottesville.  It does not matter that the sportscaster is Asian or that such an association is facially absurd.

 

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Columbus Statues Protested In Detroit And Damaged In Baltimore

220px-Christopher_ColumbusProtesters are mounting a widening movement against statues to historical figures across the country. What began with protests of confederate statues after the Charlottesville protests has expanded to include Supreme Court justices, presidents, founders, and now explorer Christopher Columbus.  In Detroit, protesters gathered around the Columbus statue to demand removal as a symbol of “white supremacy.”  In Baltimore, the Columbus statue was vandalized.

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Poll: Majority Of Americans Oppose Removal Of Confederate Statues

Wreath_laying_at_Confederate_Memorial_Day_services_-_Confederate_Memorial_-_Arlington_National_Cemetery_-_1922-06-05The push to remove confederate statues has been spreading across the country after the protests in Charlottesville, Virginia.  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other leading Democrats have been making the removal of such statues a priority issue.  Pelosi has called for statues to be removed in the Capitol even though those statues were there when she was Speaker of the House of Representatives.  A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll, however, has found that 54 percent of adults said Confederate monuments “should remain in all public spaces.”  Only 27 percent said they “should be removed from all public spaces” while 19 percent had no opinion.

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GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE CALL FOR THE REMOVAL OF STATUES OF SLAVE-OWNING FOUNDERS

Gilbert_Stuart_Williamstown_Portrait_of_George_WashingtonBelow is my column in the Hill Newspaper on the call for the removal of the statue of George Washington in my hometown of Chicago.  This is not the first such call to remove statues of confederate figures or those who supported segregation. The most recent such removal was the removal of the statue of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney due to his authorship of the Dredd Scott decision.  There have been demands that monuments and the names of slave-owning founders be removed.

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Wreckage of U.S.S. Indianapolis Found

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“Payback Time”: “Unite The Right” Organizer Denounces Heather Heyer As “Fat, Disgusting Communist”

14xp-heather-master315An entire country mourned the death of Heather Heyer, a paralegal, who went to Charlottesville to protest the hateful march of neo-Nazis and clansmen — only to be murdered when James A. Fields, 20, allegedly rammed his car into protesters.  Now the organizer of the racist march has sent out a tweet calling her a “fat, disgusting Communist” — a tweet he later blamed on being drugged out of his gourd.  Jason Kessler explained that he has been doing some heavy drugs and drinking lately.

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DisruptJ20: The Justice Department Demands 1.3 Million IP Addresses and Other Information On Trump Critics

YC_kStF9US-DeptOfJustice-Seal_svgBelow is my column in USA Today on a troubling warrant issued by the Justice Department to force the disclosure of visitors to an anti-Trump site.  The DisruptJ20 case raises very serious questions regarding political speech and associational rights.

Here is the column:

 

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Pronoun Prison? California Moves Toward Criminalizing The Refusal To Use The Correct Pronoun For Transgender People

California flagThe California State Senate is considering a bill that would make it a crime to  “willfully and repeatedly” refuse “to use a transgender resident’s preferred name or pronouns” in a public health, retirement or housing institution.  State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) has introduced  SB 219  with a variety of transgender protections but the pronoun controversy is likely to get the most attention.  Violators face a year in jail and a potential $1000 fine.  The criminalization of pronoun misuse however could raise serious free speech and other constitutional concerns.

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Trump Administration Demands Information On Over A Million Visitors To Anti-Trump Website

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“Cafeteria Classism”: Florida Middle School Under Fire For Offering $100 Front Of The Line Food Passes

56-3688899-oliIt appears that the Lawton Chiles Middle Academy in Lakeland, Fla. is teaching its students a bit about living as the one percent.  The middle school sent out a  fundraising form to parents stating that for a $100 donation a student would be granted a “front of the lunch line pass.”   According to ABC Action News, the PTSA promised that the “last name or company logo feature on the website, as well as PTSA events AND front of the lunch line pass.”  The ad should be “Name logo sponsorship: $100; PTSA promos: $100; Lording over the unwashed: priceless.”You can imagine the response from parents to what they called “cafeteria classism.”

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Intimidation By Salutation: Trump Accused Of New Form Of Obstruction For Sending His Appreciation and Greeting To Mueller

440px-Director_Robert_S._Mueller-_III-1donald_trump_president-elect_portrait_croppedBelow is my column in the Hill newspaper on the most recent suggested crime committed by President Donald Trump or his family.  This allegation focuses on a greeting sent through President Trump’s attorney, John Dowd, to Special Counsel Robert Mueller.  It appears that Trump is obstructing if he voices criticism or appreciation of Mueller.    Dowd was in the news again yesterday in taking it upon himself to object to pre-dawn raid on the home of Paul Manafort.

Here is the column:

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Bloomberg: Manafort Alerted Authorities About Russian Meeting

New_Bloomberg_Logo.svgBuried in a new article out of Bloomberg is an understated but potentially significant statement: “In fact, Manafort had alerted authorities to a controversial meeting on June 9, 2016, involving Trump’s son Donald Jr., other campaign representatives and a Russian lawyer promising damaging information on Hillary Clinton, according to people familiar with the matter.”  That would be a huge development in this controversy if true, particularly if the notice occurred before the Russian meeting occurred.

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Res ipsa loquitur – The thing itself speaks