Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the effort of the Trump legal team to reach deal to have the President sit down with the Special Counsel in exchange for certain conditions or concessions. The problem is a matter of timing. As has been a repeated problem, the Trump team seems a couple steps behind the unfolding controversy.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “Trump Offers To Meet With Mueller, But Is It Too Late For Damage Control?”
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, used the annual SXSW festival in Austin to join other European leaders in calling for tech companies to censor hate speech and be subject to government regulations for fines for violations. Khan read hateful messages against him to support the need for a crackdown — ignoring the free speech implications of such government regulation.
Continue reading “London Mayor Joins Call For Censoring and Fining Internet Companies”
We have previously discussed how Clinton has compiled a long list of people responsible for her loss to Donald Trump 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. Despite the criticism over her past statements and additional polls showing that she remains hugely unpopular with many voters (and would still lose to Trump), Clinton continues to blame others for her loss. In a speech at the India Today Conclave, Clinton repeated her view that white women are under the thumb of their husbands and vote as they dictate.
Like many people, I was highly critical of the awarding of the Nobel Award to President Barack Obama in 2009 before he had done anything as president. Now the ex-Secretary for the Nobel Prize Geir Lundestad has admitted that Obama did not deserve the prize but rather they thought the award would strengthen Obama. It is a maddening admission that the committee bypassed a list of worthy candidates with proven contributions to humanity to give a boost to someone that the Committee simply liked. That would seem grossly unethical but Lundestad merely acknowledged that it did not seem to work.
Continue reading “Ex-Nobel Secretary Admits Obama’s Prize Was A Mistake”
Today is an important anniversary for former intelligence chief James Clapper. No it is not his marriage anniversary or conventional milestone. Clapper can celebrate the running out of the statute of limitations on his alleged perjury before Congress — five years and Clapper is now beyond the reach of the law.
We have been following the controversy over the claim of Native American ancestry by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and the continued criticism from President Donald Trump who continues mock her as “Pocahontas”. Recently, we discussed Warren’s surprise speech doubling down on her claim and whether Warren would simply take a DNA test to put the matter to rest. The suggestion was echoed by the media in Massachusetts like the Berkshire Eagle For $100, the question is why let the matter simmer. Warren answered that question this weekend and the answer is no.
The rollback on civil liberties and press freedoms continues in Egypt where our close ally is arresting journalists for insulting the government or police. Now even pro-government media figures are being arrested. The arrest of prominent television host Khairy Ramadan is an example of how, once censorship and the criminalization of speech starts, the appetite for speech control becomes insatiable.
Continue reading “Prominent Egyptian Television Host Arrested For Disrespecting The Police”
We recently discussed the criminal case against three day care workers accused of giving drugged Gummy Bears to children. They are unlikely to take much encouragement from the case of January Neatherlin, 32, who was just sentenced to 21 years and four months for drugging kids at an illegal day care facility in Bend, Oregon so she could go tan and do Cross-Fit training. Neatherlin pleaded guilty to 11 counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment and a count of third-degree assault.
My alma mater University of Chicago was the scene of a curious event recently. Students held a “Rally for Reparations” to demand money for African Americans to pay the unpaid debt from the use of slave labor at the founding of the University of Chicago in 1856. Activists denounced the school as “drenched in the blood of enslaved African Americans.” The only problem is that University of Chicago is not related to the University of Chicago, which was founded in 1890. That did not seem to matter as part of the event.
We previously discussed the bizarre case of Rachel Dolezal, the former NAACP leader who claimed to be African-American yet turned out to be white. She later insisted that she chose to be black. Now she has a Netflix special (doesn’t everyone?). In the final irony, the company giving Dolezal a special has been denounced as promoting “white privilege.”
Continue reading “Rachel Dolezal Special Declared “White Privilege””
Hong Kong movie star Jackie Chan has long been known to harbor authoritarian and anti-free speech views. Now, the action movie star is calling for other artists to be arrested for art that is deemed insulting to China, particularly in advancing favorable images of the Japanese. Chan and his 37 other members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference called on then government to punish fellow artists who insult “national integrity and dignity.” The call follows Chinese artists who wee criticized for showing the Japanese in World War II in a positive light. This by the way was part of the propaganda issued by the U.S. government against the Japanese. The racist elements are quite evident and shocking. Hollywood was a critical part in our propaganda efforts during the war. Now, over 50 years later, Chan and other artists and authors however are seeking to criminalize speech that is viewed as sympathetic or favorable to the Japanese.
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.
According to Hartford police, Jonathan Rivera, 25, has curious way of contesting charges of car theft. Rivera is accused of driving in a stolen vehicle to Superior Court.
Continue reading “Accused Car Thief Is Arrested After Driving To Court In Stolen Car”
While people of good faith can still debate whether Hillary Clinton and her staff received considerably deference in the criminal investigation into the email scandal, there remains troubling cases where the Justice Department has shown no such deference or restraint told less powerful individuals. The most glaring example was the ridiculous treatment of former Navy sailor Kristian Saucier. Saucier was sentenced to a year in prison for simply taking pictures on a nuclear submarine without any intention of compromising national security. Last week,