North Korea’s tourism agency is launching a campaign to attract tourists with promises of surfing (and curiously rice planting) despite its murder of Otto Warmbier, 22, who was enticed to North Korea as a tourist and then arrested when he stole a hotel propaganda poster. He was tortured and return to his family years later in a coma (only to die shortly after his return).
Continue reading “North Korea: Come For The Surfing, Stay For The Beatings”
A new study has called for a concerted effort to cite academics of color and greater diversity to make from the hold of “white heteromasculism” on research. Geographers Carrie Mott (professor at Rutgers University) and Daniel Cockayne (professor at University of Waterloo in Ontario) has identified the reliance on research by white males as a “system of oppression” benefitting “white, male, able-bodied, economically privileged, heterosexual, and cisgendered.” Cisgendered refers people whose gender identity matches their birth sex.
The judges and court staff at Seattle’s King County Courthouse have been fighting to get something done about the disgusting conditions around the outside door. Homeless people left excrement and urine around the door — a stench that is deterring jurors and others from coming into the building. Judges have asked for the city to take action and clean up the unsanitary conditions with a simple power washing and better policing. That would seem a no brainer but objections were heard from city council members, including one who reportedly said that the use of hoses might be racially insensitive or traumatic.Continue reading “Seattle Court Request For Clean Up Leads To Controversy Over Race and Resources”
Washington was rocked last night by another scandal with allegations of collusion and a true cover up. As you can see in the above screenshot, I appeared on Fox News but my suit jacket did not. The reason, dear readers, was that my jacket was lifted from the green room at Fox News shortly before I went on with Martha McCallum. The culprit left a very small blue jacket in its place. With minutes to go live, I had to choose between looking casual in shirt sleeves and looking fat in an undersized jacket. Vanity won out over propriety. But there remained growing questions of who knew about the jacket switch and when did they know it. The culprit left the studio literally cloaked in the cover up that was once my jacket.
Continue reading “WASHINGTON ROCKED BY ALLEGED COVER UP WITHIN FOX NEWS”
We have hit another milestone today with over 32,000,000 views. We have continued to add viewers on the blog as well as a sharp increase on Twitter. We try to offer a place for civil but passionate discourse on legal and policy issues of our time (and perhaps a few wacky stories). We often use these milestones to look at the current profile of the blog and its supporters around the world.
As always, I want to offer special thanks for our weekend contributors: Mike Appleton, Larry Rafferty, Darren Smith, Kimberly Dienes, and Cara Gallagher. I particularly want to thank Darren who has continued to help manage the blog and help out folks who encounter posting problems.
I also want to thank our regular commentators and readers. We try to keep this blog as an open forum with as little interference or monitoring of the comments as possible. Given our free speech orientation, we try not to delete comments and, for that reason, we are deeply appreciative of how most people avoid personal or offensive comments in debating these issues. The success of this blog is due to the fact that we offer something more than the all-too-common troll-driven, angry, and insulting commentary of the Internet. Thank you for voluntarily assuming restraint over the tenor and content of your comments. Continue reading “RES IPSA HITS 32,000,000”
We have previously discussed how the Democrats lost the last presidential election when the Democratic establishment pushed through the nomination of Hillary Clinton — the least popular Democrat ever to run for the White House. There has been a concerted effort by Democratic members (who uniformly supported Clinton) to shift the blame to the Russians or Comey or others. Clinton herself has a long list of people responsible with the notable exception of herself. This includes her explanation (and her supporters) that it was not Clinton but self-hating, misogynistic women who could not vote for any woman for President. Now another poll shows just how unpopular Clinton is. Even with Trump showing record lows in polls as president, he would still beat Clinton. This is consistent with other polls showing that voters continue to view Clinton in a highly negative light.
Presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway gave an interesting interview this weekend where she objected to criticism of her performance in the White House as “gender-based.” The suggestion that sexism drives her critics has unleashed a new round of criticism that she is “playing the gender card.” I thought it would be an interesting question to debate on the blog.
Continue reading “Conway Objects That Criticism Of Her Performance In The White House Is Sexist”
Emily-Jo Banks, 23, has been sentenced to jail in a bizarre case where she framed a man for harassing her with abusive texts for months – texts that the police confirmed that she sent from August to September 2015.
Continue reading “English Woman Sentenced In Hoax Stalking Case”
The Saudi Kingdom is still leading the boycott of Qatar over its support for extremist Islamic groups. However, the Kingdom has not stopped pursuing threats at home with an attack launched against a historic fort. Saudi police are searching for this woman who has shocked the Kingdom by posting images of herself wearing a miniskirt in public. That’s right, the police are pursuing the case brought to them by the infamous Saudi morality police to bring the woman to justice. UPDATE: The Saudis have now arrested the woman in the miniskirt in the latest madness of Saudi extremist values.
Any time a family (like the one in Appleton, Wisconsin, this week) finds a burglar naked in one of their beds, it is noteworthy. However, one aspect of the arrest of Bradley Braxton, 40, caught my eye.
Continue reading “Wisconsin Family Find Naked Burglar In Bedroom”
Eric Trump once dismissed objections to his father’s use of nepotism by saying that “nepotism is kind of a fact of life.” That is true. It is also a part of presidential history, but it is not a good part. I have long been a critic of nepotism in government. What is interesting is how costly the practice can be. The current controversy involving Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner are illustrative of those costs. Absent the family connection, neither Trump Jr. nor Kushner would likely have been able to avoid a separation from the White House (as was the case with Manafort and Flynn). Instead, Trump has had to double down and his defenders belittle the fact that Donald Jr. not only took the bait of this meeting but said that he would “love” to get information directly from the Russian government to help in the election. As I stated this weekend on NPR, while the collusion was not successful, there was clearly as willingness, if not an eagerness, to collude with the Russians in their seeking to influence the presidential election.
Below is my column in USA Today on the subject:
![](https://jonathanturley.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/hc-trinity-campus-closed-threats-20170621-003.jpg?w=600" alt="hc-trinity-campus-closed-threats-20170621-003" width="300" height="169" />There is a new controversy involving an investigation of a professor for statements made on social media. Trinity College Professor Johnny Williams has fled Connecticut after receiving death threats over his postings, including an inflammatory reference to people considered bigots and how we should "Let Them. F**king Die." Williams teaches classes on race and racism and clearly wanted to get others to read this hateful screed.</p><!--more-->As we have previously discussed (<a href="https://jonathanturley.org/2016/12/26/oregon-professor-causes-firestorm-over-black-face-costume-worn-at-party-off-campus/">including the recent controversies involving an Oregon professor</a> and a <a href="https://jonathanturley.org/2016/12/27/106981/">Drexel professor</a>), there remains an uncertain line in what language is protected for teachers in their private lives. The incident also raises what some faculty have complained is a double or at least uncertain standard. We have previously discussed controversies at the <a href="https://jonathanturley.org/2014/11/10/miller-young-and-university-of-california-sued-over-campus-assault-on-pro-life-advocates/">University of California</a> and <a href="https://jonathanturley.org/2015/05/22/news-calls-for-termination-of-saidi-grundy-after-disclosure-of-prior-criminal-impersonation-of-another-woman/">Boston University</a>, where there have been criticism of a double standard, <a href="https://jonathanturley.org/2014/11/10/miller-young-and-university-of-california-sued-over-campus-assault-on-pro-life-advocates/">even in the face of criminal conduct</a>. There were also such incident at the University of London involving <a href="https://jonathanturley.org/2015/10/07/university-of-london-diversity-officer-charged-with-threatening-communications-after-racist-and-sexist-comments/">Bahar Mustafa</a> as well as one involving a University of Pennsylvania professor.As is well known on this blog, I tend to favor free speech rights in all of these cases. In my view, this view does seem to be satire — bad satire but satire all the same. However, the standard remains entirely uncertain for academics as to whether their conduct or comments outside of school will be the basis for discipline. As a private institution, Drexel falls under a different standard than schools like the University of Oregon. Yet, free speech demands a bright line to avoid a chilling effect on those who want to challenge the status quo or popular views. Academics often write to challenge students and the public in exploring the edges of norms and beliefs.As you might expect, I view this latest controversy through the same free speech lens. The reaction to the social media posting in my view was overblown, including closing the entire campus by President Joanne Berger-Sweeney.<p class="column small-12 medium-10 medium-offset-1 large-offset-2 text size-1x-large line-height-large _10M0Ygc4"><img class=" size-full wp-image-119295 alignright" src="https://jonathanturley.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/300px-trinity_college_connecticut_seal-svg.png)
We previously discussed the controversy surrounding Trinity College Professor Johnny Williams and his posts against white people, including an inflammatory reference to people considered bigots and how we should “Let Them. F**king Die.” Williams teaches classes on race and racism and clearly wanted to get others to read this hateful screed.. As I am mentioned in the earlier post, I do not believe that Williams should have been punished for his postings as a matter of free speech and academic freedom. The College has now reached the same conclusion but the question remains whether the College will take a similar principled position for academics espousing such views about other races.
Columbia University has reached a settlement in one of its most controversial cases of alleged sexual assault. Paul Nungesser, who was accused of raping a fellow classmate who became known as “mattress girl,” will receive a settlement. Emma Sulkowicz carried around a mattress on campus in protest, even taking the mattress to graduation. She received college credit for the protest as a form of performance art. Nungesser had lost twice over motions of dismissal and was pursuing an appeal
Today, Chris Wallace (who continues to make a strong case that he is the best interviewer in news today) crossed swords with President Donald Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow on who is paying his fees to represent the President. Sekulow said that he does not know since he bills the law firm of Marc E. Kasowitz. The question was legitimate and the answer does not resolve concerns. It is common to confirm the source of fees to confirm that there is no conflict of interest or other concerns raised by such fee payment. However, there is another report that confirms one source of fees . . . for Donald Trump Jr.
Below is my column in The Hill Newspaper exploring the legal liability for Jared Kushner. While new media reports that some documents may have been turned over to the Trump aides in the infamous meeting with the Russian lawyer, there is no evidence of any prior or later conspiracy to commit a crime. There is no specific crime of “collusion” and the meeting did not constitute prima facie evidence of any collateral crime. That does not take away from the fact that Donald Trump Jr. wanted to collude. He agreed to go to a meeting with the understanding that the Russian government was sending over a lawyer with incriminating information. He should have called the Justice Department. Moreover, only a click-bait chump would have gone to that meeting. Now the Trump Administration will have to maintain the only thing that it has long eluded it: a consistent and coherent narrative.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “Jared Kushner and The Precarious Line Between Inconsistency and Criminality”