On Tuesday, leaders of the United Methodist Church (UMC) voted to affirm the traditional position on sexuality, upholding the biblical definition of marriage as between one man and one woman and forbidding homosexual relationships among the clergy. As black African leaders united behind the traditional position, white American liberals accused them of bribery.
The Traditional Plan won by a vote of 438 to 384 (53 percent to 47 percent), while the "One Church" plan — which would have allowed churches to choose to affirm same-sex marriage and appoint clergy who are in homosexual relationships — failed by a vote of 374 to 449 (45 percent to 55 percent). The United Methodist Church is the second-largest denomination in America.
There's not only one right answer, there's only one conceivable answer. So any other answer can only be the result of evil doings.
"A point of order call to refer allegations of bribery for votes to committee on ethics passes, 417-388," the United Methodist News Service tweeted amid the United Methodist Church's General Conference.
The Reconciling Ministries Network, a pro-LGBT coalition that claims 900 churches in the United Methodist denomination, tweeted that the vote to refer the bribery charges to the ethics committee was "a victory for truth and ethics." The group praised the potential investigation into "rumors of bribery and paying for votes by anti-LGBTQ anti-UMC traditionalists."
Disagree with us and you hate Methodism? Got it. But hell, let's push all-in.
"Bribery for votes for the TP [Traditional Plan] has been an open rumor for ages.
I'll take "Methodist Fiction" for $2,000, Alex.
It is good that our youth are willing to call it out.
It's good to call out...a rumor. Okay.
Jesus had strong words for the money-changers in the temple," the Reconciling Ministries Network tweeted.
Public libel. Methodist lefties are great Christian examples.
This liberal group was so confident of bribery among supporters of the Traditional Plan that it baldly compared its ideological opponents to the people Jesus condemned for turning the house of God into a "den of robbers" (Matthew 21:13).
There you have it. The Methodist left is so determined to impose its "theology" on the rest of the denomination that it will quite happily resort to lying about and libeling fellow Methodists if votes don't go the way it demands that they go. One hopes the UMC keeps this in mind because these people are not going away any time soon.
If past performance is indicative of future results, the countdown to an "illegal" but "prophetic" Methodist homosexual ordination, homosexual marriage or both should begin any day now.
“That is, administratively, the simplest thing to do, but to convert to it? Thirty trillion dollars. Now, how do you pay for that?” Pelosi said of single-payer in an interview with Rolling Stone.
The roughly $30 trillion price tag over ten years of single-payer health insurance, sometimes referred to as "Medicare for all," has been one of the leading criticisms of the proposal.
Over 100 House Democrats this week introduced a single-payer bill. But Pelosi, while supporting hearings on the legislation, has not given her support to the bill itself.
She faces a balancing act given that many more-centrist House Democrats think single-payer goes too far, and instead want to focus on improving the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and perhaps adding the option for government-run insurance.
UPDATE: The inmates mean to run the Democratic asylum. Seems High School has, in the immortal words of Gilbert and Sullivan, got a little list.
"Sometimes you have to walk, and this was just one of those times," President Trump said Thursday after his second summit with Kim Jong Un abruptly collapsed. A working lunch and the signing of a joint agreement were scrapped after talks fell apart on the summit's second day, causing confusion among the press corps, the New York Times reports. "It was about the sanctions basically," Trump said at a press conference. "They wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety and we couldn’t do that." Trump said Kim had been willing to dismantle some of the country's nuclear infrastructure in return for sanctions being lifted, but wanted to leave other parts of the program intact, the Guardian reports.
If you want to know why, Google "Reagan, Gorbachev, Reykjavik."
The unnamed Belgian Malinois, a fierce breed of sheepdog known for its bravery, had been out on a routine patrol with a team of six crack soldiers from the SAS.
They had just entered a small village in a convoy of armoured vehicles when they got out to continue the recce on foot.
But soon after they left the safety of the convoy, they were attacked on all sides by waiting jihadis in what was described as a '360 degree ambush'.
The SAS men returned fire but the jihadis began closing in and tried to outflank them.
The animal was said to have leapt to the defence of the struggling British soldiers, tearing the throat of a gunman who was firing at the patrol.
It then turned on two other jihadis, leaving them seriously injured before the other six ambushers all fled.
When he was campaigning for the Illinois governor’s office, Democrat Jay Pritzker promised to confront the state’s many fiscal problems without cutting rich public-employee pension benefits or raising taxes on millions of residents. Now it’s clear how Pritzker planned to work this miracle. Last week, he released his first set of fiscal proposals for an “honest” budget, which relies on hundreds of millions of dollars of taxes that he’s not authorized to levy. The plan also resorts to a traditional Illinois budget maneuver—pushing pension payments further into the future, which will reduce the retirement system’s already-anemic funding status and raise the risk of insolvency. The governor’s long-term solution to the pension crisis, meantime, includes selling unidentified state assets to raise funds, a plan that one Chicago Tribune columnist described as “more smoke and mirrors.” Overall, it’s a budget that says to the average Illinois citizen: “Don’t worry, be happy. This won’t hurt a bit.”
Pritzker faces a $3.2 billion budget deficit, but he’s proposing little in the way of cuts to fill that hole. His biggest saving amounts to a fiscal maneuver to reduce the funding goal for the state pension plan from 100 percent to 90 percent and extends by seven more years the schedule for paying off the debt. Doing that will trim $878 million off next year’s pension payment. While 90 percent funding must sound reasonable to any Illinois resident (the system has only 40 percent of the money it needs right now), the lower goal is just a way of avoiding fiscal reality and, in the process, raising the risk that the system runs out of money.
The state can’t make any headway on its pension debt because nearly two-thirds of what it’s promising employees is supposed to come from investment returns on money that was never put away. Specifically, Illinois is missing about $135 billion, and that’s a whole lot of investment returns that the state isn’t getting when the market booms. The less money Illinois puts in now, the more investment revenue it forgoes, and the bigger the burden that falls on the taxpayer. There’s no evidence from around the country, where government retirement debt is piling up even in states that make their pension contributions in full, that Pritzker’s approach will end well.
Nevertheless, the governor refuses to amend the Illinois constitution so that the state can reduce the rate at which current government workers—whose unions heavily backed him—earn pension benefits. Changing the current system would slow down the accumulation of new pension obligations and channel the savings into paying off the debt. Without benefit cuts, the state will have to pay about $9 billion a year—nearly one-quarter of current revenues—to begin fixing the system. And it will need to make that kind of outlandish payment annually for about 30 years.
I'll admit that I wasn't too happy when Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley announced his candidacy for the US Senate. After all, Hawley had only been AG for two years. But so far, Hawley's been really impressive.
This week I’ve drawn fire from various quarters of the Washington establishment for daring to ask a simple question: whether a judicial nominee will follow what the Constitution says, not what they want it to say. You wouldn’t think that would be controversial but, well, it’s Washington. And I’ve got some news for Washington: I’m going to keep asking.
President Trump was elected thanks to his pledge to put judges on the bench who respect life and won’t make stuff up in the Constitution. He has kept his word. I made the same commitment to the people of Missouri, and I’m going to keep my word too. That means vetting judicial nominees carefully to ensure they are qualified and ready to sit on the most important courts of our country.
I’ve been a judicial clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court, litigated there and in many other courts, and proudly served as Missouri’s attorney general. I know what a strong constitutional judge should do and say, and I’m not going to let other people, and certainly not the Washington establishment, do my thinking for me.
So I will be asking every appellate court nominee where he or she stands on the Constitution, and especially on the doctrine called “substantive due process.” That strange phrase stands for a dangerous doctrine in constitutional law that has allowed power-hungry judges to invent new “implied rights” out of thin air and usurp the will of We the People. It’s the doctrine used to justify Roe v. Wade and all manner of other judicial adventurism.
I want to know where nominees stand on this made-up doctrine. And I’m not going to vote for any nominee who would expand it. Lower-court judges are of course bound by Supreme Court precedents, including the bad ones. They don’t have any choice. But anybody willing to expand substantive due process won’t have my support for the federal bench.
As someone who believes deeply in the right to life and the equal dignity of every person, including the unborn, confirming judges who will resist the siren song of judicial lawmaking is especially important. All too often, lower courts have used substantive due process to stop states and local governments from protecting the unborn, even when Supreme Court case law would allow it.
Hawley's not up for reelection until 2022. But keep an eye on this kid. I've got a feeling that you're going to hear from him a lot.
I've only been to Eugene once in my life. In the early 70's, we went out there to visit my sister and her family. One evening, I decided to take in a baseball game so I walked over to Eugene's ballpark, a short distance from my sister's house, and saw the Eugene Emeralds play. At the time, the Emeralds played in the Pacific Coast League and were Philadelphia's top farm team.
If you've never seen a minor league baseball game, you owe it to yourself to go if you ever have the chance. The dynamic is completely different than the big leagues. It's a lot cheaper and you're going to be a lot closer to the action than you'll ever be able to afford in your average major league ball yard.
Plus, stuff like this happens. At one point in the game, I got hungry so I went and got myself a hamburger and a Coke. When I got back to my seat, a fellow next to me informed me that a foul ball had just hit right where I was sitting. "Son of a...," I thought to myself before sitting down and starting in on my burger which turned out to be...
Positively orgasmic, that thing was. It was perfectly cooked and it was gigantic; you needed two hands to hold it. And I couldn't quite figure out exactly what kind of sauce it had on it except that I had never before or since tasted anything so glorious.
The Senate on Monday rejected a bill making it a felony for a doctor to harm or neglect an infant who survives an “attempted abortion,” part of a Republican effort to squeeze Democrats ahead of the 2020 campaign.
The vote split mainly along party lines, 53-44. DemocraticSens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Doug Jones of Alabama and Joe Manchin of West Virginia crossed the aisle to vote for it; no Republicans broke ranks. Sixty votes are required for the bill to advance.
In a speech just before the vote, bill author Sen. Ben Sasse quoted campaign stump speeches by Democratic Sens. Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand and independent Bernie Sanders vowing to look out for society’s “voiceless and vulnerable” and accused them of hypocrisy for opposing his bill’s regulations for the care of newborns.
LORD? Considering how You felt about the practice of some of the nations surrounding Israel to sacrifice their children to their "gods," I wonder if I can prevail upon You to call me home some time soon since Your judgment on this nation will be horrible.
When the home of Nikki Joly burned down in 2017, killing five pets, the FBI investigated it as a hate crime.
After all, the transgender man and gay rights activist had received threats after having a banner year in this conservative town.
In the prior six months, he helped open the city’s first gay community center, organized the first gay festival and, after 18 years of failed attempts, helped lead a bruising battle for an ordinance that prohibits discrimination against gays.
For his efforts, a local paper named him the Citizen of the Year.
Authorities later determined the fire was intentionally set, but the person they arrested came as a shock to both supporters and opponents of the gay rights movement. It was the citizen of the year — Nikki Joly.
All five animals died: two German Shepherds and three cats.
Joly told them that, on the morning of the fire, he bought $10 of gas at a Marathon station so he could cut his grass. He began to mow, but it got too hot so he stopped with the backyard half done.
He went to work at the church and got a call from Moore at 1:02 p.m., said the report. Moore had forgotten to pack her lunch so asked Joly to bring it to her at work. The couple share one car.
Joly returned home, which was two miles away, went inside for a minute or two, and left, he told police.
The fire was reported by neighbors at 1:16 p.m.
The sequence of events would have made it difficult for anyone but Joly to set the fire, Grove said in the police report.
“The timeline shows a window of less than five minutes for another person to enter the residence, splash gasoline around, ignite the fire and then leave without being [seen],” wrote Grove.
This takes me back. An African Methodist decides that he'll stick with the Gospel the West proclaimed the first time around rather than the heretical crap white Westerners preach now.
As part of the lead-up to the United Methodist Church's special session, the Reform and Renewal Coalition Breakfast was held on February 23 in St. Louis. One of the breakfast's keynote speakers was Dr. Jerry P. Kulah, Dean of Gbarnga School of Theology at United Methodist University in Liberia. In his thoughtful, nuanced speech, Dr. Kulah held the progressive American Bishops' feet to the fire over their patronizing racism.
"And then please hear me when I say as graciously as I can: we Africans are not children in need of western enlightenment when it comes to the church’s sexual ethics. We do not need to hear a progressive U.S. bishop lecture us about our need to “grow up.”
Let me assure you, we Africans, whether we have liked it or not, have had to engage in this debate for many years now. We stand with the global church, not a culturally liberal, church elite, in the U.S.
We are grounded in God’s word and the gracious and clear teachings of our church. On that we will not yield! We will not take a road that leads us from the truth! We will take the road that leads to the making of disciples of Jesus Christ for transformation of the world!"
Inspiring words. One only hopes that Dr. Kulah realizes something. Fidelity to the Gospel may require him to do something that he may not wish to do. If the UMC follows the Episcopalians into heresy and anti-Gospel hostility, he and other African Methodists must be willing to cut loose from the Americans and go it alone, with whatever support Western parishes are able to provide.
If you call upon the name of the LORD, you can't share a church with those people.
A little over two years ago, I wrote an article for PJ Media about the United Methodist Church's initiative called "Praying our Way Forward." In the article, I explained that the UMC was "taking seventy-five weeks to determine if God's parameters for sexuality are going to be obeyed by the denomination or not." Well, it seems the 75 weeks are up because this Sunday (Feb. 23), the UMC kicks off a special General Conference in St. Louis. On the docket is a vote to decide if the UMC is going to officially ordain LGBTQ ministers and sanction same-sex marriages.
I've spoken to several conservative members of UMC churches and they assure me that if the vote goes the wrong way, their churches are planning on leaving the denomination. The denomination's liberals are aware of the conservative majority's beliefs and feelings on the matter, yet they are still working overtime to ensure that the vote goes the way they hope.
As tempted as I am to go down there and watch, I've seen this show before and I and other former Anglicans know how this movie will end. The vote on the measure, close or otherwise, will be against officially "ordaining" homosexuals and allowing homosexual "marriage."
The Americans will return home and do whatever they want. They'll "ordain" some homosexual somewhere or make a point of letting the press know that there will be a homosexual "marriage" at this Methodist church on that date. And the press will make a big deal out of it.
Since the American church is, as Willie Sutton might have quipped, where the Methodist money is, nothing much will happen. There will be expressions of condemnation all over the place but not much more than that. At a future General Conference, someone will push through some sort of "compromise" measure that will allow the Americans to remain Methodists in good standing.
And as we former Anglicans all know, that "compromise" will eventually be scrapped, sooner rather than later, in favor of making the American position mandatory, a Methodist law of the Medes and the Persians which altereth not. Whereupon Methodism flies apart and ends up with the same pseudo-Christian status that Episcopalianism currently enjoys.
Credit where it's due. Dianne Feinstein, of all people, explains to some environmentalist kids how the world works.
A group of children met with Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Friday, calling on the California Democrat to co-sponsor the Green New Deal and commit to drastic changes identified by scientists as necessary to fight climate change. But they got a cold hard dose of political reality when Feinstein, mincing no words, told the group she wouldn't be meeting their demands.
“I’ve been doing this for 30 years. You come in here and say it has to be my way or the highway. I don’t respond to that," she said in a video of the exchange. "I've gotten elected. I just ran. I was elected by almost a million-vote plurality."
So, since I can actually help pass legislation and you can't do anything other than complain...
The video was released Friday by Sunrise Movement, the activist group started by young people who say by fighting against climate change, they're fighting for their futures. Members have taken part in sit-ins to draw attention to the Green New Deal — a non-binding resolution of proposed economic stimulus programs to address climate change and other issues — and on Friday, about a dozen of Feinstein's constituents, aged 7 to 16, visited her office to personally ask for her support.
"I have been and I remain committed to to doing everything I can to enact real, meaningful climate change legislation," [Feinstein] said.
But certainly not Alexandria OhLord-PleaseShutHerUp's high-school-level "thinking."
Feinstein pointed to her own drafted resolution, which she said she believed had a better chance of passing Congress. But she said she couldn't support the non-binding resolution backed by activists and progressive lawmakers, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Since I know how economies actually work.
"There's no way to pay for it," Feinstein tells the boy.
Time to haul out one of Mommy's talking points.
"We have tons of money going to the military," a girl interjects.
Since the military serves an actual purpose, as opposed to this theoretical crap, what's you're point, sweetie? By the way, did you know you were adopted?
Over the next 10 minutes, the children advocated for taking ambitious steps against a massive problem. One girl pointed to the UN scientists who predicted the world has just over a decade to get climate change under control.
"Well, it's not going to get turned around in 10 years," Feinstein replied.
Al "WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE" Gore said we had ten years. And that was thirteen years ago. Also, there's no Santa Claus.
Another girl said Feinstein should feel accountable to the kids in the room as voters. But Feinstein asked her age, and pointed out she was too young to vote. Feinstein added it was necessary to find a compromise in the Senate to get anything done, since Democrats were in the minority.
[Pats stupid girl on head] Well aren't you just the sweetest thing? Get back to me when you turn eighteen and your opinions will mean jack. I'll probably be dead but you can try this garbage out again on whoever holds this office then. Head's up; we're still not going to be able to afford it.
"That resolution will not pass the Senate. And you can take that back to whoever sent you here," she said. "It doesn't have a single Republican vote."
"Why can't you try?" a young boy pipes up.
Because I'm not as delusional as you seem to be, kid. But I truly am sorry to hear about Thomas the Tank Engine's brakes going out and him slamming into the side of that Sodor mountain and turning into so much scrap metal. Real sad.
Senator Amy Klobuchar was hungry, forkless and losing patience.
An aide, joining her on a trip to South Carolina in 2008, had procured a salad for his boss while hauling their bags through an airport terminal. But once onboard, he delivered the grim news: He had fumbled the plastic eating utensils before reaching the gate, and the crew did not have any forks on such a short flight.
What happened next was typical: Ms. Klobuchar berated her aide instantly for the slip-up. What happened after that was not: She pulled a comb from her bag and began eating the salad with it, according to four people familiar with the episode.
Then she handed the comb to her staff member with a directive: Clean it.
Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, has been charged with soliciting prostitution, Florida police said Friday.
Kraft was one of at least 25 people arrested Friday as part of a months-long human trafficking investigation that police say spanned from China to Florida, Jupiter officials said.
Police say Kraft is facing misdemeanor charges on two counts of solicitation, and it seemed like he was "regular" at the spa. He is not charged with human trafficking.
Although police can't speak to the amount of time Kraft was at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, they said average fees for services range between $59 for a half-hour and $79 for an hour.
Jupiter police said there is video evidence of the alleged acts for all individuals involved, including Kraft.
What does this mean? Since I don't care about the NFL anymore, nothing to me. A lot is already being made about the fact that this perv is a close friend of Donald Trump so Trump will have to deal with that. Next season, the Patriots will also have to deal with the inevitable jokes and I don't imagine that Kraft will show his face at too many games, if any at all.
I can't wait to see the signs fans make for Patriot away games. And it will be interesting to see how Rodge and the rest of the official Shield handles it.
Jussie Smolett has no idea what the term "legal trouble" means. Strap in.
A Florida mayor, who is suspected of practicing medicine without a license, was charged with two counts of attempted homicide Thursday after shooting at deputies who were serving a search warrant at his home, police said.
Dale Glen Massad, mayor of Port Richey, fired two rounds at Pasco County Sheriff SWAT team members after they announced themselves while approaching his house Thursday morning, said Sheriff Chris Nocco.
He said his office used the SWAT team to serve the warrant because Massad, 68, is a known drug-user and weapons-owner with a history of violence.
Let's see. Mayor of Port Richey, Florida. Practices medicine without a license. Known drug user. History of violence. Opens up on a SWAT team. Two counts of attempted murder.
Aside from wondering how this person got his job in the first place and how this unfortunate incident will affect his reelection chances, I've got nothing. What is it with that state?
Chicago's top police officer expressed anger and frustration Thursday over what he called Jussie Smollett's "shameful" attempt to fabricate a hate crime for a "publicity stunt." The "Empire" actor's story that he was attacked Jan. 29 by masked assailants who yelled racial and homophobic slurs, poured bleach on him and hung a rope around his neck unraveled when two of Smollett's acquaintances, brothers Ola and Abel Osundairo, told investigators the actor paid them $3,500 to stage the attack, said Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson.
Johnson said Smollett, 36, choreographed the attack because he was dissatisfied with his salary. He castigated Smollett for putting the national spotlight on Chicago for something "that is both egregious and untrue," and said bogus police reports harm legitimate victims by wasting valuable police resources.
"When we discovered the actual motive, quite frankly, it pissed everybody off," Johnson said. He said police were treating Smollett like a victim until then.
Speaking on CBSN following the press conference in Chicago, CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds said he's covered Johnson for several years, and has "seldom heard him as angry as he was today."
"What he said was a mixture of contempt, disgust and basic anger," Reynolds said.
Seriously? Who does stuff like this? In what universe would anybody with a brain think that this was a good idea? Smollett knew, or should have, that THE COPS WERE GOING TO INVESTIGATE THIS. Right about now, teenaged girls everywhere are laughing their heads off.
My heart genuinely goes out to all the lefties who were played by this tool. And, Juss, if you're unsure of how to get started in the porn industry, Jim Rome used to say that all you need to do is to drive out to Chatsworth, California and lie down.
Have you ever known somebody whose ass you wanted to kick on general, perhaps even unnamable, principles? You may or may not know personally know them but you do know that your first reaction to the idea of actually encountering them is exactly where on his or her anatomy your fist will land first.
If you don't know anyone like that, I give you California Representative Eric Swalwell.
Couple things, Nancy boy. If you think that's "snowing," that sound you hear is every single person in Flyover Country, from infants on up to the elderly, laughing their asses off at you. Maybe your Callee friends will be impressed by the fact that you have a few snowflakes in your hair but trust me, nobody anywhere else in the country is, dingus.
Also, the insufferable public piety, the thanking God that you are not as other men are, is not a good look, Congressman. Particularly when you take a selfie of yourself in the act of doing it.
Look at it this way. Jussie Smollett will now have plenty of time to prattle on about being a "political prisoner" in Donald Trump's AmeriKKKa. And he'll spawn many a hashtag.
Empire actor Jussie Smollett was charged Wednesday with making a false police report when he said he was attacked in downtown Chicago by two men who hurled racist and anti-gay slurs and looped a rope around his neck, police said. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said prosecutors charged Smollett with felony disorderly conduct, an offense that could bring one to three years in prison and force the actor to pay for the cost of the investigation into his report of a Jan. 29 beating, per the AP. Police were trying to get in touch with Smollett's attorneys to "negotiate a reasonable surrender," Guglielmi said. That could involve Smollett turning himself in to a Chicago police station. He said he did not have a time frame for how long the actor would be given.
See, you’re really not Solzhenitsyn here. And as far as I can tell, although NeverTrumpers talk a lot about morality and principles, their actual beef seems to be a combination of aesthetic dislike of Trump’s messaging style, and resentment that he’s not hiring them, and never will hire them. I suppose a lot of people confuse their own social standing and economic prospects with morality, but color me unpersuaded.
Perhaps in 2016 you could imagine that Trump would be such an awful President that you had a moral duty to oppose him. But in 2019, it’s obvious that that’s not the case. In fact, he’s pretty darn successful.
I saw the Falcon Sex Hats open for the Ramones at Mississippi Nights back in the 70's.
TRUE FACT OF THE DAY: When falcon breeders want to breed falcons, they wear special falcon sex hats. The hat encourages the falcon to shag the breeder's head and collects the falcon sperm, which can then be artificially inseminated.
WARNING: There are pictures of falcon sex at the link.
The two brothers involved in the Jussie Smollett attack told police that Smollett was behind creating a racist letter that was sent to the actor on the set of his show, “Empire,” according to two sources with first-hand knowledge of the investigation.
And when that letter did not get a “bigger reaction,” Smollett orchestrated the attack a week later with the two men–Ola and Abel Osundairo, sources said. Also Tuesday, sources said the two brothers were seen on a ride share video camera before being dropped off near the location of the attack.
Smollett received a letter containing a white powder Jan. 22. The letter was mailed to Chicago’s Cinespace Studios, where the show “Empire” is filmed. The letter prompted a HAZMAT response. CPD says the “white substance” was later determined to be aspirin.
The note was crafted with letters apparently cut out from magazines to form words. The pieced-together message contained racial and homophobic threats directed at Smollett. A magazine is one of the pieces of evidence retrieved from the brother’s home last week during a search conducted by CPD. Investigators also recovered a book of stamps.
Letters cut out from magazines? Really? You have no idea how embarrassed I am for you, Juss. Don't they have computers where you live? Crap, man, just type up a letter in Comic Sans or something and print it out. You'd look a whole lot less stupid.
Great. On top of everything else, there's this HAZMAT call-out. I don't know what Chicago's going to end up doing about all this but Smollett's got to be looking at some serious time in the hole. Or, at the very least, porn roles out in Chatsworth or something because no legitimate movie or TV producer is going to want to get anywhere near this pathetic clown.
Oh and Brian Stelter? I don't know what CNN is about these days, no one does, but if you want people to once more respect you and whatever it is that CNN does, send your people out to Chicago and tell them to pay attention. Because Chicago is how actual journalism is done.
World War II veteran Edmund Rusinek turns 92 years old in a few days. To mark that milestone, he treated himself to a rather extravagant gift – the honor of buying some $1,500 worth of meals for military families who happened into the Rossmoor Chick-fil-A last weekend.
It wasn’t the first time Rusinek surprised active service people with his largess, nor will it be his last.
But it was his most generous.
“This tradition, so to speak, got started in 1945 when I was a draftee training in Little Rock, Arkansas,” Rusinek said. “To take a break from the GI food, some of my buddies and I left base for some good ol’ Southern food.
“At the restaurant, an elderly gentleman stepped up to us and asked, ‘Can you do me a favor? Will you let me buy your lunch? If you want to thank me, pass it down.’”
Rusinek, whose birthday is Feb. 19, has been passing it down ever since he landed his half-century career in engineering. “Someone did it for me, and I want to do it for others,” he said.
And he uses the same verbiage that so touched him all those years ago: “Can you do me a favor and let me buy you lunch?”
My father told me the story of when he got home from the war, got hungry and pulled into this Kansas City diner. I guess he hadn't even been home yet and was still wearing his uniform because the folks in that diner informed him that whatever he wanted was on the house.
If I know my old man, he pretended to bitch for a few moments ("Ah, you don't need to be making me any free meals..."). Then he told them, "You know what I'd love? I'd love a BLT." So they made him one and that was my dad's first home-cooked meal back from World War II.
An American woman captured by Kurdish forces after fleeing the last pocket of land controlled by Islamic State says she “deeply regrets” travelling to Syria to join the terror group and has pleaded to be allowed to return to her family in Alabama.
Once one of Isis’s most prominent online agitators who took to social media to call for the blood of Americans to be spilled, Hoda Muthana, 24, claims to have made a “big mistake” when she left the US four years ago and says she was brainwashed into doing so online.
Insert web porn joke here.
Speaking from al-Hawl refugee camp in northern Syria, while her 18-month-old son played at her feet, Muthana said she misunderstood her faith, and that friends she had at the time believed they were following Islamic tenets when they aligned themselves to Isis.
“We were basically in the time of ignorance […] and then became jihadi, if you like to describe it that way,” she said. “I thought I was doing things correctly for the sake of God.”
Muthana says her family in Alabama were deeply conservative and placed restrictions on her movements and interactions, factors she claims contributed to her radicalisation. “You want to go out with your friends and I didn’t get any of that. I turned to my religion and went in too hard. I was self-taught and thought whatever I read, it was right.
So you were a Democrat?
“I look back now and I think I was very arrogant. Now I’m worried about my son’s future. In the end I didn’t have many friends left, because the more I talked about the oppression of Isis the more I lost friends. I was brainwashed once and my friends are still brainwashed.”
Muthana said she had not been in contact with US officials since her capture. “I would tell them please forgive me for being so ignorant, and I was really young and ignorant and I was 19 when I decided to leave. I believe that America gives second chances. I want to return and I’ll never come back to the Middle East. America can take my passport and I wouldn’t mind.”
A myth about World War II in Europe is that it was everybody against Nazi Germany. While that's mostly true, it's not entirely true. Nazi-occupied lands all over Europe, countries like France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway and others, contributed SS units to fight the Allies.
Believe it or not, there was even an SS unit consisting of British prisoners of war. Called the British Free Corps, its membership only numbered around 200 or so and it never did any serious fighting although some BFC members may have died in Berlin after the Russians got there.
What happened to all these men after the war? A few were executed while others emigrated anywhere that would take them. Many got prison terms, some short, others long. Those who made it out of prison probably led miserable lives, shunned for the rest of their days. What would you think of anyone who intentionally chose to join the occupiers of your country?
So what should be done with an American who deliberately joined forces with a group that encourages people to butcher her fellow citizens?
Is magnanimity called for? Should we let this young woman back in the country? I say sure. As long as she's told that she'll need to get used to the idea of losing her son since she'll be spending most if not all of the rest of her life inside a cell in one of our fine US prisons.
If she doesn't get that, Syria's as good a place to die as any.
"NO FAIR," wails the New York Times. "The Republicans are gonna be...sniff...MEAN to us."
In the 116th Congress, if you’re a Democrat, you’re either a socialist, a baby killer or an anti-Semite.
That, at least, is what Republicans want voters to think, as they seek to demonize Democrats well in advance of the 2020 elections by painting them as left-wing crazies who will destroy the American economy, murder newborn babies and turn a blind eye to bigotry against Jews.
If it walks like a duck, takes all your stuff like a duck, kills full-term infants like a duck or hates Jews like a duck...
The unusually aggressive assault, which Republican officials and strategists outlined in interviews last week, is meant to strangle the new Democratic majority in its infancy.
Ralph Northam, call your office. But don't worry, we'll be sure and make the Democratic majority comfortable while we discuss what to do next.
It was set in motion this month by President Trump, who used his State of the Union address to rail against “new calls to adopt socialism in our country” and mischaracterize legislation backed by Democrats in New York and Virginia as allowing “a baby to be ripped from the mother’s womb moments before birth.”
In other words, Trump merely stated what the Democratic ultra-left has advocated.
Then last week, Republicans amped it up, seizing on a Twitter post by a freshman representative, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, which even some Democrats condemned as anti-Semitic, and ridiculing the “Green New Deal,” an ambitious economic stimulus plan unveiled by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a self-described democratic socialist. Suddenly even Jewish Democrats were abetting anti-Semitism and moderate Democrats in Republican districts were Trotskyites and Stalinists.
See above.
“Socialism is the greatest vulnerability by far that the House Democrats have,” Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in an interview, adding that he had also instructed his team to spotlight “all the extreme wild ideas” that Democrats espouse, “on a daily basis, on an hourly basis if it’s available.”
Let's hope so. But it's great to see this Republican aggressiveness. This article is proof that the Democrats are scared to death that it will work. Because if Alexandria OhCrap-She'sTalkingAgain and her ilk thinks that crap like hers will sell in places like Texas, Kansas or Missouri, she is the greatest indication yet that any idiot can be elected to the US Congress.
Jussie Smollett is an actor on the television program Empire which concerns a fictional record company. Or something like that; I never watch that show. Mr. Smollett has hit the cultural trifecta, identifying as black, gay and a passionate hater of Donald Trump.
Anyway, Jussie was in Chicago, his home town, a while back and was out very late one night. According to him, he was attacked by two men who punched him once or twice, poured bleach over his head and put a noose around his neck, all the while verbally abusing him with racist and "homophobic" slurs, one of which may have been the F-word and his connection with Empire. "This is MAGA country," one of the attackers allegedly yelled.
Celebrities everywhere rallied to his cause, tweeting support and denouncing American racism and "homophobia" while Democratic political blowhards like Cory Booker, Kammi Harris and Nanner McBotox did the same. Clutching its pearls, "American journalism" basically decided that this "attack" really happened, end of story, and isn't it awful?
Aware of all this, the Chicago Police Department performed an unusually thorough and professional investigation. And as it did so, it slowly began to come to what must have been an extremely uncomfortable realization. The longer the CPD peeled this onion, the faster it was dragged, kicking and screaming, to the conclusion that this "hate crime" shared a trait with a great many "hate crimes" reported in this country.
Two law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation tell CNN that Chicago Police believe actor Jussie Smollett paid two men to orchestrate an assault on him that he reported late last month.
Smollett denies playing a role in his attack, according to a statement from his attorneys.
The men, who are brothers, were arrested Wednesday but released without charges Friday after Chicago police cited the discovery of "new evidence."
The sources told CNN the two men are now cooperating fully with law enforcement.
Smollett's attorneys were outraged at the suggestion.
Smollett's attorneys, Todd S. Pugh and Victor P. Henderson, issued a statement to CNN Saturday night saying Smollett was angry about these latest developments.
"As a victim of a hate crime who has cooperated with the police investigation, Jussie Smollett is angered and devastated by recent reports that the perpetrators are individuals he is familiar with," the statement read. "He has now been further victimized by claims attributed to these alleged perpetrators that Jussie played a role in his own attack. Nothing is further from the truth and anyone claiming otherwise is lying."
For what it's worth, those two brothers are Nigerians, one of whom appeared on Empire.
From the start, there were holes in this story big enough to drive a semi through. The evening of the attack, the temperature in Chicago was somewhere around 0 degrees. So we're asked to believe that two Chicagoans, who presumably know how Arctically cold Chicago can get this time of year, decided to take a noose and some bleach, waitoutside and hope that some black and gay guy came around, preferably before they froze to death.
If the "Empire F-word" blast is accurate, that basically cuts the ground completely out from under this story. Smollett only got into town that day which means that two guys who Smollett didn't know somehow knew he would be in town AND that he would be out very late that night.
Right.
Oh, and Chicago, a town more Democratic than the Vatican is Catholic or Mecca is Muslim, is "MAGA country?" Please. There's such a thing as adding too much detail.
This story's been all over Twitter more than any story I've seen since the last time "American journalism" wanted to take another rip into Donald Trump. A month ago, say. So was this actually all about Trump?
Did Smollett arrange this charade to prove to America what a piece of crap Donald Trump is? It's hard to conclude otherwise when alleged "conservative" and fanatical NeverTrumpster S. E. Cupp can tweet this.
The giddiness among Trumpsters over the Smollett news is gross. This story is awful. He allegedly abused police resources, exploited raw divisions in this country, and made it harder for every victim of a hate crime to report. This is sad no matter your politics.
Trumpsters just proving my point all night. I comment - for the first time- on Smollett, lamenting his awful, inexcusable exploitation of hate and division, and call out their giddiness over this awful, inexcusable exploitation. And they respond with... giddiness.
You can argue all you want that the Jussie story is vindication for Trump. That’s part of the story. But what he actually did is set a movement back. If you’re worried about race, gender, sex, trans threats...this imperils them all. That’s the important takeaway, not politics.
Actually, Scupp, the "important takeaway" from this story is people like you desperately trying to figure out some way to throw just a little blame on Trump supporters. Maybe Juss lied, basically libeled millions of people and imperiled a lot of important goals but don't you dare be happy about the fact that a liar was exposed.
Because it sure is a tragedy, isn't it, and shouldn't we be looking at the big picture here? No. Actually, considering all the man-hours the CPD put into investigating Smollett's ludicrous scam, it's nowhere near a tragedy at all.
It's a crime.
End of story, Scupp.
Should Smollett be prosecuted? Chicago can do whatever it wants. But I don't really care too much since Lisa Boothe gets it.
The Covington Kids and Jussie Smollett stories are the same. The media chose to believe the narrative that was most damaging to Trump supporters, even in the absence of facts or logic. This is why there is animus towards the media and why #fakenews resonates.
Personally, the only thing I'm "giddy" about, Scupp, is that you can no longer say that "American journalism," including the joke that currently pays your salary, has zero credibility. "American journalism's" credibility is now measured in negative numbers.
UPDATE: Credit where it's due. Unlike the rest of "American journalism" which covered its ears and yelled, "LA, LA, LA, LA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU," the Chicago news media has been all over this story from the beginning. Here's a local account.
Jussie Smollett paid two brothers to stage an attack against him, directed them to buy items used in the alleged assault and actually rehearsed it with them, sources say.
Sources say at least one of the brothers bought the rope used in the incident at Smollett’s request. The sources also say the “Empire” actor paid for the rope, which was purchased at the Crafty Beaver Hardware Store in the Ravenswood neighborhood the weekend of Jan. 25.
The brothers, who were questioned by police this week before being released, were paid $3,500 before leaving for Nigeria and were promised an additional $500 upon their return.
They left for Nigeria later in the day on Jan. 29, after the attack.
Sources said one of the brothers held the rope and poured bleach while the other wore a plain red hat and yelled slurs at Smollett.
The sources say the red hat was bought at an Uptown beauty supply store and that the attack was supposed to happen before Jan. 29. The brothers told detectives the three men rehearsed the attack days prior to it happening.
Sleazier and sleazier.
UPDATE: Harmeet Dhillon knows from experience what actual hate crimes are.
President Donald Trump's announcement Friday that he was declaring a national emergency wasn't received well by all Republicans, none more vocal than Ann Coulter.
The conservative commentator had for weeks been bashing Trump for what she said was him caving to Democrats over his demands for additional funding to construct a wall along the southern border, even calling him the "biggest wimp ever to serve as President of the United States".
On Friday, the bickering made its way into a nationally televised news conference where Trump announced his plans to use executive powers to declare a national emergency to free up billions in funds for the proposed wall.
"Ann Coulter. I don't know her. I hardly know her. I haven't spoken to her in way over a year but the press loves saying Ann Coulter, probably if I did speak to her, she would be very nice," Trump said, adding that she is "off the reservation."
Remember when Amazon.com announced that it wanted to establish a second headquarters and every locality in the United States, from New York City to Country Life Acres, Missouri, fell all over themselves to try to attract Amazon? New York City eventually got the thing.
Amazon abruptly dropped plans Thursday for a big new headquarters in New York that would have brought 25,000 jobs to the city, reversing course after politicians and activists objected to the nearly $3 billion in incentives promised to what is already one of the world’s richest, most powerful companies.
A lousy $3 billion? That's a US governmental rounding error.
The stunning move was a serious blow to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, who had lobbied intensely to land the project, competing against more than 200 other metropolitan areas across the continent that were practically tripping over each other to offer incentives to Amazon in a bidding war the company stoked.
Laughing? I'm not laughing. I just joined a Yoko Ono tribute band. But get out the popcorn, kids, because it's time for Lefty Smackdown.
Cuomo lashed out at fellow New York politicians over Amazon’s change of heart, saying the project would have helped diversify the city’s economy, cement its status as an emerging tech hub and generate money for schools, housing and transit.
“A small group (of) politicians put their own narrow political interests above their community,” he said.
That they did. Jobs? Who needs 'em? I'm working. But who's Cuomo referring to? Guess.
But Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York City’s new liberal firebrand, exulted over Amazon’s pullout.
“Today was the day a group of dedicated, everyday New Yorkers and their neighbors defeated Amazon’s corporate greed, its worker exploitation, and the power of the richest man in the world,” she tweeted, referring to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Miss Occasionally-Coherent calls herself a socialist and believes that it's the responsibility of "rich" people to give "poor" people as much money as "poor" people want, no questions asked, so stupidity like that should surprise no one. Mayor Bill de Blasio, who LUVS it when companies offer to bring thousands of jobs to his town, fired this volley at Alex OhmyGodshe'sa-Nitwit.
It’s a progressive civil war.
A hot-under-the-collar Mayor Bill de Blasio tore into Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Friday as he blistered both the online giant and local politicians who opposed bringing it to Queens.
“As a progressive my entire life — and I ain’t changing — I’ll take on any progressive anywhere that thinks it’s a good idea to lose jobs and revenue because I think that’s out of touch with what working people want,” the mayor said on WNYC radio.
“I came up watching the mistakes of progressives of the past, unfortunately what happened in this city when it almost went to bankruptcy in the 1970s,” said a boiling de Blasio. “I saw all the times progressives did not show people effective governance and all the times progressives made the kinds of mistakes that alienated working people.”
“Working people are very smart and very discerning. They want jobs, they want revenue, they want the kinds of things that government can do for them,” he added. “They understand they have to be paid for.”
The New York Times is thoroughly embarrassed.
“You have to be tough to make it in New York City,” Mayor Bill de Blasio boasted, choosing to jeer at Amazon as it canceled its plans on Thursday to build a new headquarters in Queens, after some local officials angrily criticized its proposal.
What a strange thing for the mayor to take pride in. It’s certainly true that you have to be tough these days. But that’s because the subways don’t work, the streets are gridlocked, the housing is unaffordable, the shelters are overcrowded, and the schools are segregated and often inadequate. Now think how much tougher it’ll become for the typical citizen — not the ones who ride in chauffeured government cars — if New York gets a reputation for the smugness of its politicians and their hostility to business.
Last week, the State Senate majority leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, nominated a critic of the deal, Senator Michael Gianaris, to a state board that had veto power over it. Mr. Gianaris, who represents the district where the campus would have been located, had legitimate concerns over the arrangement and wanted more investment from Amazon in the city. Though his staff was engaged in discussions with Amazon, he refused even to meet with anyone from the company. His appointment could only have helped Amazon decide to call New York’s bluff. The governor seems to think so.
“The New York State Senate has done tremendous damage,” Mr. Cuomo said in a statement on Thursday. “They should be held accountable for this lost economic opportunity.” He’s got a point.
Despite battling accusations of anti-Semitism, Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) is due to speak this month at a fundraising event alongside a senior charity official who has published social media posts praising the killing of Jews.
Islamic Relief USA is hosting a fundraising dinner for aid to Yemen on February 23. Rep. Ilhan Omar is due to speak alongside senior Islamic Relief USA official Yousef Abdallah, who was widely criticized in 2017 after the Middle East Forum found he had expressed violently anti-Semitic ideas on his social media accounts.
Abdallah, who serves as Islamic Relief USA's "operations manager," shared a "very beautiful" modernized version of a Palestinian folk story about a 'resistance hero' named Zharif al-Tawl, who took revenge against Jewish "gangs" - which had purportedly attacked a Palestinian village - by providing guns to "kill more than 20 jews" and "fire rockets at Tel Aviv."
Other posts referred to Jews as "stinking," and claim "the Jews put the outside wall of Al Aqsa [the mosque in Jerusalem] on fire." Abdallah also 'liked' a comment on his Facebook post that calls on God to wreak "revenge on the damned rapists Zionists. O God they are no challenge for you . Shake the Earth beneath their feet and destroy them as you destroyed the peoples of ʿĀd, Thamud and Lot."
Freshman Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota is defending her controversial views on Israel as they come under scrutiny in Washington, telling CNN that "it's not surprising" her positions are generating attention and that she finds it "exciting" to be sparking debate.
"It's not surprising. I think it is actually exciting because we are finally able to have conversations that we weren't really willing to," Omar told CNN on Tuesday. "It is really important for us to get a different lens about what peace in that region could look like and the kind of difficult conversations we need to have about allies."
Omar along with Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress, are indeed changing the conversation on Capitol Hill over the United States' long-standing relationship with Israel by speaking out critically against the Israeli government over its treatment of Palestinians.
Future Slate article: "Can We Please Get Over Our Irrational Fear Of The Swastika?"
UPDATE: At least Ilhan and Rashida have important allies.
An attorney representing Nick Sandmann, the 16-year-old Covington Catholic High School student who was smeared as a bigot when he was, in fact, the victim, will be suing Nathan Phillips, the Native American activist who lied about his encounter with the teen.
Justin E. Fairfax’s refusal to resign as lieutenant governor of Virginia in the face of two allegations of sexual assault has presented Democrats with an excruciating choice: whether to impeach an African-American leader at a moment when the state’s other two top leaders, both white, are resisting calls to quit after admitting to racist conduct.
Less than a week after Gov. Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark R. Herring said they wore blackface as young men, Mr. Fairfax on Friday faced a second assault accusation in three days. On Saturday night, Mr. Fairfax called on the F.B.I. to investigate the allegations, and asked that “no one rush to judgment” and for “due process.” But he is now under intense pressure to resign or face impeachment, transforming what had been a crisis for Virginia Democrats into a searing dilemma for the national party.
To be perfectly honest, I have to admit that I'm enjoying the hell out of this dumpster fire. All we heard during the Clinton Administration was that Bubba strapping on the ol' presidential milking machine in the Oval Office was "just sex."
Guess what. The meaning of the phrase "just sex" loses something every single time you use it. Pretty much everything can and probably will eventually be "just sex" at some point.
Lefties? You really have to draw a line somewhere.
Ralph Northam says he "doesn't live in a vacuum," and he's aware of calls for his resignation and he's "thought about resigning." But he tells CBS This Morning that "Virginia also needs someone who is strong, who has empathy, who has courage, and who has a moral compass. And that's why I'm not going anywhere."
You do you, doc. Maybe you'll get to kill a baby or two down the road.
The evidence against Fairfax is much stronger than the evidence against Kavanaugh. Two women with similar stories, did not know each other. One has witnesses that she described the incident immediately after. The other has witnesses that she told the story more than a year ago.
Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar is considering a presidential run which, according to quite a few people who used to work for her, is most emphatically not a good idea.
Amy Klobuchar has laid the grounds for a presidential run on an image of “Minnesota nice.”
But behind the doors of her Washington, DC, office, the Minnesota Democrat ran a workplace controlled by fear, anger, and shame, according to interviews with eight former staffers, one that many employees found intolerably cruel. She demeaned and berated her staff almost daily, subjecting them to bouts of explosive rage and regular humiliation within the office, according to interviews and dozens of emails reviewed by BuzzFeed News.
That anger regularly left employees in tears, four former staffers said. She yelled, threw papers, and sometimes even hurled objects; one aide was accidentally hit with a flying binder, according to someone who saw it happen, though the staffer said the senator did not intend to hit anyone with the binder when she threw it.
“I cried. I cried, like, all the time,” said one former staffer.
In the emails seen by BuzzFeed, often sent between 1 and 4 in the morning, Klobuchar regularly berated employees, often in all capital letters, over minor mistakes, misunderstandings, and misplaced commas. Klobuchar, in the emails, which were mostly sent over the past few years, referred to her staff’s work as “the worst in ... years,” and “the worst in my life.”
When staffers made mistakes, the emails show, she reamed them out — and sometimes, emails show, threatened to fire them — over threads that included many of their colleagues.
The House ethics committee today released three charges of ethical wrongdoing against Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California. The charges relate to whether Waters gave inappropriate assistance to a bank to which she had personal connections in getting federal bailout money.
The committee says Waters organized a meeting in 2008 between Treasury officials and executives from OneUnited Bank, where her husband was once a board member and had large investments. The bank received $12 million from the federal government's Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Virginia Democratic Congressman Bobby Scott was made aware of allegations of sexual assault against now-Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax over a year ago by the alleged victim herself, ABC News has learned.
Scott learned of the allegations directly from Dr. Vanessa Tyson, who on Wednesday released a statement detailing the alleged 2004 assault, which took place at the Democratic National Convention in Boston.
When I was a kid, my family and I lived in a house at the corner of East Rose Avenue and Drayton Court in Webster Groves, Missouri. My address was East Rose but I always considered Drayton to be my neighborhood.
I loved that house and that neighborhood. I literally sobbed when we left it for a bigger house on Selma Avenue, also in Webster Groves. But my maternal grandmother had gotten senile and had to move in with us so we needed more space.
I always wondered how my old man felt about that move since Grandma lasted about a year. One Sunday morning, he had to drive us kids to church (he had pretty much stopped going by then) because Grandma suffered a serious stroke and Mom had to stay home, do what she could for her mom and deal with the emergency people.
Grandma was dead by Tuesday.
Anyway, back to East Rose and Drayton. One of my best friends there lived a house or so north on Drayton and across the street. His name was Art.
Artie and I didn't go to the same school. He attended the Catholic school at Annunciation parish, a little bit up the road, while I attended Washington Park, a tiny school that the Webster Groves School District operated for some reason.
But the rest of the time, we did what neighborhood kids everywhere have always done from time immemorial. Games, sports, the odd overnighter, whatever. We had our arguments now and then, some of them rather fierce, but what kids anywhere never have those?
I really regret losing track of Artie and I always wondered what happened to him in the years since I left East Rose and Drayton. Particularly because of his last name.
The lawyers representing Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann and his family said Friday they have sent letters to media outlets, individual journalists, celebrities and Catholic organizations as the first step in possible libel and defamation lawsuits.
The list includes 50-plus names of organizations or individuals: from presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren to actress Alyssa Milano; individual journalists including Maggie Haberman, Ana Cabrera and David Brooks; national media outlets like the The New York Times, CNN, GQ and TMZ; and the dioceses of Covington and Lexington as well as the archdioceses of Louisville and Baltimore.
Some turd named Corbin Smith has a post up at Tina Brown's Complete Waste Of Time that is literally one of stupidest things I've ever seen anywhere. I'm not going to quote from it because each paragraph will rob you of ten IQ points that you'll never get back so read it at your own risk (language warning). But if you want a quick summary, the mentally-challenged Smith thinks that present-day New England and early 60's Mississippi are basically the same thing.
Virginia governor and infanticide enthusiast Ralph Northam is in trouble again. Here is his profile page from the Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook.
And here's how Dr. Mengele tried to explain himself.
Yesterday I took responsibility for content that appeared on my page in the Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook that was clearly racist and offensive.
Actually you didn't but more on that shortly.
I am not and will not excuse the content of the photo. It was offensive, racist, and despicable. When my staff showed me the photo in question yesterday, I was seeing it for the first time. I did not purchase the EVMS yearbookand I was unaware of what was on my page.
I've got no idea how that picture got there.
When I was confronted with the images yesterday, I was appalled that they appeared on my page.
By the way, that's not me.
But I believed then and now that I am not either of the people in that photo.
"Then and now," Governor? Really? You just got done saying that you didn't originally purchase the book, you were unaware of what was on your page and you only recently saw that picture for the first time. Sounds a smidge contradictory, Governor.
The photo appears with others I submitted, on a page with my name on it.
Hang on. Back then, you submitted a picture that you just got done claiming that you only recently saw? And are you claiming that you contributed a picture of a guy in blackface and another guy in a Klan costume? Because that sounds like you're lying, Governor.
Even in my own statement yesterday, I conceded that, based on the evidence presented to me at the time, the most likely explanation, that it was indeed me in the photo.
So you admit that it's you? Not at all.
In the hours since I made my statement yesterday, I reflected with my family and classmates from the time and affirmed my conclusion that I am not the person in that photo.
Why do you think that? Obviously, people are confusing this with that time I appeared in blackface in a dance contest in San Antonio.
But in addition to denying that he’s in the photo, the governor admitted, “I did participate in a dance contest in San Antonio in which I darkened my face as part of a Michael Jackson costume.”
Sounds plausible.
If there was ever a more disastrous political press conference than this one, I can't for the life of me think of what that could be. Which may be why Democrat after Democrat is running for the tall grass, demanding that Northam resign. Hell, even Planned Parenthood, for God's sake, wants Northam to hit the bricks and he's basically Murder Inc.'s perfect politician.
Which also brings up a couple of questions. Some Democrat might say something to the effect that the lion's share of the left wants Northam out yesterday but you Republicans stood up for Brett Kavanaugh almost to a man. Aren't you the hypocrites here?
Not at all. Because our hypothetical Democrat is comparing apples and oranges or Michael Avenatti and a competent lawyer or CNN and what's left of actual American journalism. Since the American legal standard is and has always been "proof beyond a reasonable doubt," there was absolutely no basis for the charges against Kavanaugh.
The proof against Northam is sitting at the top of this post.
Another question. When are we going to stop pronouncing anathema on people for really stupid stuff they did when they were young, drunk, stupid or all three? In an ideal world, we never would have started. But the Democrats changed that rule a long time ago and are now going to have to live with the consequences of their greed.
What goes around, comes around. You made your bed, you lie in it. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Take up the sword, perish by the sword.
If your black friend ever finds a picture of you in blackface or learns that you regularly used to drop N-bombs when you were a kid, your friendship is over. Likewise, your Jewish friend had better never see the picture of that Halloween when you dressed up as an SS officer complete with death's-head pin and swastika arm band, extending your right arm in front of you at a 45-degree angle, or he or she will never talk to you again.
Plaintively claiming that you were "young, drunk, stupid or all three" won't fix it.
Is that reasonable? Kids will be kids? Don't look at me, I'm neither a woman nor black nor Jewish. But people claim to be "offended" by just about everything these days. That they do and that's nothing more than a leftist political tactic. And there is a GIGANTIC difference between what leftist people consider offensive and trivializing personal betrayal, racism or genocide.
Anyway, as of now, Dr. Mengele intends to stick it out.
The reporter who exposed Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s racist yearbook photo said a “concerned citizen” led him to the story that has prompted widespread outrage and calls for the Democrat’s resignation.
Patrick Howley, editor in chief of the website Big League Politics, first reported Friday the existence of a photo on Northam’s page of his medical school yearbook depicting a figure in blackface standing next to another person in a Ku Klux Klan hood.
“It’s very easy to explain,” Howley, 29, said in an interview Saturday. “A concerned citizen, not a political opponent, came to us and pointed this out. I was very offended [by the photo] because I don’t like racism.”
The tip came after Northam’s comments on Wednesday about late-term abortions, he said. Howley declined to give any further information about his source, citing a confidentiality agreement. But he said it took him just a few hours to confirm that the photo was authentic.
The source of the tip appears to have been a medical school classmate or classmates of Northam who acted as a direct result of the abortion controversy that erupted earlier in the week, according to two people at Big League Politics, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
