We have yet another example of how our government has thrown away billions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan without any discipline or repercussions for federal officials or contractors. The latest example is the “ghost hotel” of Kabul — a massive construction site for the Marriott Kabul that has never been completed but the taxpayer money has checked out without a trace. Just poof. It could be the perfect place for our ghost army to vacation at our ghost hotel.
There is an interesting controversy out of New York where Rutgers University lecturer Kevin Allred who was arrested and sent to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation for what he and his supporters say were political speech about the Second Amendment. In a tweet, Allred wrote “Will the 2nd amendment be as cool when i buy a gun and start shooting at random white people or no…?” The answer appears to be no.
We recently discussed how, within minutes of the loss on election night, Clinton aides began to spin the loss and entirely the fault of FBI Director James Comey — a spin picked up by Clinton herself the next day. Many of us have questioned that spin in light of Clinton’s long-standing low polls on truthfulness and her ranking as (with Trump) the most unpopular nominee of a major party for the presidency. Now, former Clinton campaign communications director Jess McIntosh has come up with a new culprit. Of course, it is not the Democratic establishment that engineered the nomination despite ample warning signs in the polls. It was not the campaign that preferred spin to honesty at every turn. And it was not the candidate herself. No, it was the self-loathing and inherent sexism of women.
Continue reading “Clinton Aide: Hillary Lost Because Women Suffer From “Internalized Misogyny””
We have been discussing the trend of firings and discipline for public employees who say or do controversial things in their private lives. We have previously seen teachers, students and other public employees fired for their private speech or conduct, including school employees fired for posing in magazines, appearing on television shows in bikinis, or having a career in the adult entertainment industry. Now there is an interesting twist on this trend out of India where two police officers — Dinesh Rathod and Tarkeshwari Rathod — have been suspended after police determined that they had lied. No, not about a crime scene or investigation. They lied that they had scaled Mount Everest.
Continue reading “Two Indian Police Officers Suspended For Faking Picture Climbing Mount Everest”
This is one that you might actually get, but it involves the curious response of Robert Scott, 78, to a 29-year-old woman who rejected his advances in Louisiana.
Continue reading “Can You Guess What This Person Was Charged With?”
For days leading up to the election, President-elect Donald Trump was pummelled (not without reason) for suggesting that he might not accept the results of the election. Now, many of the same people who were outraged, are protesting the results of the election. Some however have gone further and taken the rhetoric to violent levels. For example, Actress Lea DeLaria, right, (Big Boo on “Orange Is the New Black“) wrote on Instagram that she wanted to “take out” Republicans and Independents with a baseball bat. Likewise, Matt Harrigan, CEO of the network security firm PacketSled went on Facebook to say that he would kill Trump.They are only two of a chorus of liberals who have discarded any measure of restraint or principle in lashing out at the results of an election because it did not turn out the way that they wanted.
Continue reading “Bats Over Ballots: Anti-Trump Rhetoric Takes Violent Turn”
There is an interesting torts case out of New York where Cailey Fiesel, 24, has sued the Zara clothing store after she went to work in a new dress only to discover a dead rat sewn into the dress.
Continue reading “Rat-a-Porter: New York Woman Sues After Finding Rat Sewn Into Dress”
Florida lawyer George Vallario Jr., 76, has taken a case before a jury that could be a first of its kind. Vallario has alleged that his former friend and fellow lawyer Peter Lindley, 59, is guilty of a negligent handshake that left him seriously injured. Lindley apparently shook his friend’s hand at a child’s birthday party, but Vallario insists that the shake was “unexpected, unprovoked, uninvited, unauthorized, uncalled for, and most certainly negligent.”
Continue reading “Shaky Case: Florida Lawyer Sues Friend For Negligent Handshake”
We have previously discussed how students and faculty are stripping away the names and quotations of Founding Fathers and presidents from schools because they were slave owners or due to proven prejudices or biases. I have been critical of the trend at schools like Princeton where the faculty and students have discussed the removal of the name and images of former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson from buildings and school programs under a deal signed with protesters who objected to Wilson’s support of segregation, which was legal at the time. The move adjacent Wilson who is credited as one of Princeton’s most important figures and past presidents was shocking to many academics. Now, the University of Virginia is experiencing the same debate with its founder, Thomas Jefferson. University President Teresa Sullivan is under fire for simply quoting Jefferson in an email to students and faculty on the presidential election. Faculty have written her a letter denouncing any use of any quotation by Jefferson due to his ownership of slaves.
There is an interesting free speech case brewing in Traverse City, Michigan where officer Michael Peters was suspended Sunday with pay after he was seen off-duty driving a pickup truck bearing a Confederate flag. He was seen near a group protesting Donald Trump’s election as president. The case raises, again, the right of public employees to engage in protected speech in their personal time and private lives.
Trisha Meyer’s attempt to sell a kitten revealed a virtual Noah’s Ark of animals in her Houston home. You might however be surprised over which animals proved legally problematic for Meyer.
Continue reading “Can You Guess What This Person Was Charged With?”
As I discussed over the weekend, the Democratic leadership appears to be spinning its snatching of defeat from the jaws of victory this electoral season. Various Democratic leaders have been blaming the results not on their engineering Hillary Clinton’s victory over Bernie Sanders but FBI director James Comey. Now Clinton herself is advancing that same spin despite every objective measure to the contrary. It is precisely why Clinton was never able to seriously improve the overwhelming view of being less than honest. Her campaign would continually spin events and scandals rather than deal directly with obvious problems. In the meantime, Clinton’s controversial friend and close advisor Sidney Blumenthal is raising yet another vast conservative conspiracy theory — that it was not the candidate but a cabal of secret agents directed by Rudy Giuliani that caused the defeat.
Shacara McLaurin, 23, from Brooklyn, New York, is described as the “anti-bullying ambassador” but that designation is in doubt after, according to police, she was arrested on Thursday night for pushing an elderly Trump supporter to the ground in a fight outside Trump Tower in Manhattan. The 74-year-old man, James Durkan, required medical attention after hitting his head on the concrete.
Continue reading “Anti-Bullying Advocate Charged With Assaulting Elderly Trump Supporter”
Let’s just say that Johnny Mullins, 21, has curious way of seeking a job as a weatherman . . .
Continue reading “Can You Guess You What This Person Was Charged With?”
For even the armchair political commentator, the results of this election were not surprising. The voters made two things clear from the outset of the election: they wanted a change from the establishment and they did not like Hillary Clinton. The Democratic leadership responded by engineering the selection of perhaps the greatest establishment figure in politics and someone with a record level of unpopularity with voters. On election day, voters followed through on every poll: they voted against Clinton and the establishment. Only the mainstream media and democratic insiders seemed bowled over by the news — shocked that the voters would reject their sage advice and lopsided coverage. Indeed, as someone who contributed to the coverage that night, I was shocked how shocked everyone was. While the odds favored Clinton, her low popularity with independent voters and high polling figures on dishonesty made the election uncertain at best. As we began to discuss years ago, the “remaking” of Clinton seemed disconnected from voters who continued to view her and the Clinton family as the personification of the establishment. It showed how entirely out of touch the core Democratic leadership (and media) has become. Now, that thick cloak of denial appears firmly in place as Democrats blame FBI Director Comey for the loss despite the fact that Hillary was declining in the polls before his late disclosure to Congress and the fact that Hillary set records on dishonesty in poll after poll. Two stories this week have brought this home. One was the rallying behind Donna Brazile by DNC staff last week with the notable exception of one man who confronted both Brazile and his colleagues. The second is the report that Democratic leaders immediately turned form Hillary Clinton’s historic defeat to start grooming Chelsea Clinton for political office. The problem it seems was that the public was not given enough Clintons. Faced with a populist uprising, the Democratic leadership seems to be offering more of the same like an actor who cannot move beyond one script and one role.