Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

May 2016

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 20, 2016 17 Comments
My wife and I walked into a pizza place in Boston near the hospital one of my daughters has been in (*) when my wife noticed this poster about getting paid to protest. The poster promised pretty good summer money, that certainly would be attractive to otherwise unemployable SJW's. The poster was by "Grassroots Campaigns." Sounds pretty grassrooty, doesn't it? Grassroots Campaign poster cropped logo The poster had the type of tear-off strips so common on posters on or near campuses:

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 20, 2016 20 Comments
The liberal MSM is quickly losing patience with the Bernie Sanders campaign for reasons which are fairly obvious. First, Bernie is starting to affect Hillary Clinton's ability to pivot to the general election, a problem that's already hurting her in polls. Second, rather than getting in line behind Hillary, his supporters are becoming increasingly aggressive as we saw in the mayhem of the recent Nevada Democratic Convention. Liberals in media had no problem with Bernie Sanders supporters disrupting Trump events, but now that it's affecting Hillary it's a big problem.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 19, 2016 7 Comments
The last time we looked at Flint, the courts arraigned three bureaucrats over their roles in allowing lead-infused water to contaminate the municipal drinking water supply. Now, in an apparent bid to regain some relevancy, one national group is filing a lawsuit over the water-crisis.
Another big name has surfaced in the tsunami of Flint water lawsuits: the NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People], which is suing several state officials and two engineering firms, alleging they poisoned a city with toxic drinking water by failing to detect that something was wrong, pretending a problem didn't exist and ignoring numerous red flags. "Just the color of Flint's water should have led any reasonable engineer to the conclusion that Flint's pipes were dangerously corroded," the 103-page lawsuit states. The NAACP announced the lawsuit today, though it was filed on March 31 in U.S. District Court, where at least two dozen other Flint-related lawsuits are pending. This one blames Gov. Rick Snyder, several state officials and two engineering firms for the crisis, claiming they engaged in "gross negligence" and "outrageous conduct" that harmed many. Not only did officials fail to detect a water problem, the lawsuits says, but they made the problem worse by not properly treating the water. And even when they knew the water was tainted, the suit says, public officials repeatedly maintained that it was safe to drink, despite a deadly Legionnaires' disease outbreak linked to the water. "All the while — despite public assurances of safety — government officials in Flint quietly switched to bottled water while the citizens and businesses of Flint continued to drink dangerously contaminated water,” the lawsuit states.

Posted by Andrew Branca on May 19, 2016 41 Comments
Today the prosecutors and defense presented their closing arguments in the “Freddie Gray” trial of Baltimore Police Officer Edward Nero. Naturally, nothing much new emerged, and each side simply summarized their theory of the case. There was one unusual facet of these closing arguments, however. Normally, closing arguments are presented as monologues to a jury, and the jury must simply sit and listen. In this bench trial, however, trial Judge Barry Williams is serving as the jury, and has the opportunity to ask questions of the lawyers as they close. It appears from news reports in the Baltimore Sun that Judge Williams took full advantage of this opportunity, particularly with respect to the prosecution’s closing.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 19, 2016 37 Comments
Elizabeth Warren is not Native American, but she played one for the law professor directory used for hiring in the 1980s as she was climbing the ladder to Harvard Law School. After she got tenure at HLS, she stopped filling out her forms that way. In 2014, Warren signed a letter to the NFL Commissions, along with dozens of other Democratic Senators, calling on the league to take action against the Washington Redskins for using the name "Redskins":
The NFL can no longer ignore this and perpetuate the use of this name as anything but what it is: a racial slur. We urge the NFL to formally support and push for a name change for the Washington football team.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/225634644/Letter-to-NFL-commissioner I understand why some people may view the name as offensive. But according to a Washington Post poll just released, almost all actual Native Americans don't oppose the use of the name:

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 19, 2016 8 Comments
Veterans at the Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital have demanded action to clean the black mold in their housing complex, which has built up for the past 10 months. From Fox News:
Veterans Affairs documents indicate officials at Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital knew about the black mold infestation in August 2015 but conducted no testing until mid-April 2016 and have yet to clean up the problem – though they are promising to act soon. The mold is contained in two rooms of the Residential Care Facility (RCF), a separate building housing 30 residents for indefinite stays. “I was going by the hallway and the door was open. The back wall was all moldy black,” 81-year-old resident Raymond Shibek told FoxNews.com. “I went and told the director of nursing. She said, ‘How did you see that?’ I said, ‘The door was open.’ She said, ‘You weren’t supposed to see that.’” Shibek said the mold covered an entire wall measuring roughly 10 feet-by-10 feet.

Posted by Miriam Elman on May 19, 2016 6 Comments
In an unexpected move, the United Methodists decided on Tuesday to call on the church’s mission agency to withdraw its membership in the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (USCEIO). Based in Washington, D.C. the USCEIO is a vehemently anti-Israel umbrella organization for the boycott, sanctions, and divestment (BDS) movement. Its main goal is to end “all U.S. support and aid” for Israel. USCEIO logo The plenary vote on Petition 60198 (End Coalition Support) came during the church’s leading policy-making event.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 19, 2016 5 Comments
EgyptAir Flight 804 disappeared over the Mediterranean Sea on its way to Cairo from Paris with 66 people onboard. Not much is known at this time, but Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sharif Fathi has mentioned terrorism without any proof:
"We do not deny there is a possibility of terrorism or deny the possibility of technical fault," Fathi said at a Cairo news conference. "I will continue to use the term missing plane until we find any debris." Later at the same news conference, he indicated that while there were "no known security issues" with passengers aboard the plane, the probability of terrorism downing it is higher than the likelihood of a mechanical cause. "I don't want to go to speculation. I don't want to go to assumptions like others. But if you analyze this situation properly, the possibility of having a different action aboard, of having a terror attack, is higher than having a technical problem," Fathi said.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on May 19, 2016 5 Comments
China will play a greater geostrategic role in the Middle East and Africa thanks to the construction of the new transnational corridor. The 2,500 km-long network of highways, railways, pipelines and ports will connect the Western Chinese city of Kashgar with Pakistan's deep-sea port of Gwadar. China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), as the project is officially called, comes at an initial cost of $46 billion within the next 10-15 years. The corridor reduces China’s dependence on its main Malacca route. Presently 85 percent of the China's oil imports pass through the single chokepoint of the Strait of Malacca, located between Indonesia and Malaysia. With Pakistan's ports Gwadar and Karachi under control, Beijing would have direct access to resources and markets in Middle East and Africa. China already operates several ports in Africa, including its first overseas naval and military base near Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa.

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 19, 2016 5 Comments
If the video below is indicative of a nationwide trend, Hillary Clinton has a serious problem with college aged voters in the upcoming election. Campus Reform visited George Washington University and asked students how they felt about the Democratic front runner and not only do they not seem to like her, they don't trust her. The reactions of young women were particularly interesting:
VIDEO: Millennials reject ‘woman card,’ say they don’t trust Hillary Millennials just don’t trust Hillary Clinton, and they’re sick of being told they should support her simply because she’s a woman.

Posted by Andrew Branca on May 18, 2016 21 Comments
The defense in the “Freddie Gray” trial of Officer Edward Nero rested today, the trial’s fifth day. Closing arguments are anticipated tomorrow, and trial Judge Barry Williams has announced that he expects to return a verdict on Monday, May 23. There hasn’t been much substantive reporting on the defense’s case the last two days, and of course there aren’t cameras in Maryland courtrooms, but the following is based on live-“tweeting” of the trial by the Baltimore Sun.

Trial Day #4

The defense primarily brought as witnesses police officers who either were somehow involved or a witness to Gray’s arrest and transport, who trained Officer Nero, or who otherwise are experts on police procedure.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 18, 2016 25 Comments
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, released a short-list of potential SCOTUS nominees Wednesday. Senate Republicans have thus far, made good on their promise to block President Obama's nomination of Judge Merrick Garland. Should that hold, the task of replacing the late Justice Scalia will fall to the next Oval Office occupant. According to ABC News, Trump's SCOTUS list includes:

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 18, 2016 18 Comments
The courts in Johnson County in Iowa have decided not to charge a University of Iowa student for lying about a hate crime committed against him. Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness said:
"If we were going to charge him, we could charge a variety of other people with disorderly conduct or different things (concerning this incident). And it seemed more important to the community to get the information out on what had happened."

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 18, 2016 3 Comments
Israel has debuted a sea version of their successful Iron Dome to provide more protection from Hamas and Hezbollah. https://twitter.com/LTCPeterLerner/status/732941770280013825 The sea Iron Dome will also protect the natural gas fields off the coast of Israel. The discoveries led to a $15 billion deal to supply Jordan with natural gas.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 18, 2016 1 Comment
A civilian fighter in Nigeria has rescued one of the 276 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014. The fighter with the Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) recognized Amina Ali Nkek in the Sambisa Forest, located near the Cameroon and Nigeria border. Officials believe the radical Islamic group has held the girls in the forest since the kidnapping. The kidnapping launched the #BringBackOurGirls campaign across the world and social media, including First Lady Michelle Obama.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 18, 2016 37 Comments
We have seen this picture many times before. Zero tolerance insanity taking political correctness out on school children: The latest is from Brighton, Colorado, Kindergartner suspended for bringing bubble gun to class:
MORE POSTS
Accessibility by WAH