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Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

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LATEST NEWS

This year, the American press has suppressed news related to the near assassination of the Republican congressional baseball team by a Bernie Sanders supporter and the apparently brutal beating of Senator Rand Paul by a neighbor whose Facebook pages are filled with anti-Trump messages. In this environment, it is no wonder that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, who has rolled back many toxic climate change regulations, feels the need to direct his agency's dollars to his own security.

Shortly after Donald Trump was elected President, I noted that California Governor Jerry Brown essentially designated himself as President of the Left Coast. So it is with some amusement that I noted the headline in Politico discussing Brown's European "Climate Change" tour: Jerry Brown, President of the Independent Republic of California.
...In the raw balance of power between a governor and a president, Brown has almost no standing abroad. What he does have is a platform, and a proposition: Crusading across Europe in his Fitbit and his dark, boxy suit, Brown advances California and its policies almost as an alternative to the United States—and his waning governorship, after a lifetime in politics, as a quixotic rejection of the provincial limits of the American governor. In the growing chasm between Trump’s Washington and California—principally on climate change, but also taxes, health care, gun control and immigration—Brown is functioning as the head of something closer to a country than a state.

No, this isn't an Onion article.  Facebook has a new pilot program aimed at protecting users from having their nude bodies plastered all over Facebook . . . by requiring that you upload a photo of your nude body to Facebook. They will then "hash" your nakedness (turn it into a unique code); once this is done, your hashed image (now code, not a pic of you in all your glory) will then be flagged and refused upload permissions on Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram. Facebook's "intimate safety" pilot is currently only available in Australia. Facebook writes:
We don’t want Facebook to be a place where people fear their intimate images will be shared without their consent. We’re constantly working to prevent this kind of abuse and keep this content out of our community. We recently announced a test that’s a little different from things we’ve tried in the past. Even though this is a small pilot, we want to be clear about how it works.

Back in May, we wrote about a Students for Life group at Fresno State University. They had written some pro-life messages on a campus sidewalk in chalk. A professor approached them and argued they had no right to do so. He even took measures to remove the messages.

George Takei's condescending diatribes and holier-than-thou attitude make him absolutely insufferable.  He gives the impression that he sees himself as someone above all others and that from his lofty perch he has the proper perspective from which to judge and condemn we mere mortals.  It's this attitude that has made the sexual assault allegations of a former male model blow up the internet. It helps of course that the allegations themselves are somewhat shocking, but the social media Schadenfreude is palpable.

California's officials have been worried that tourists may contract Hepatitis A as a result of being exposed during the outbreak that has hit the state's homeless community. It appears that their fears have been realized, as two concert goers from Utah were struck with the disease that appears to have its origin in San Diego.
Three friends from Salt Lake City visited San Diego in early August for the Metallica concert at Petco Park. Two of them unknowingly brought home an unwelcome souvenir.

Double Amen....

A year ago almost to the day, we covered a dispute involving Oberlin College students and a local bakery, Gibson's Bakery. The Oberlin students, with the support of some faculty and staff, accused the bakery of racial profiling three Oberlin students who were arrested for shoplifting. Those three students eventually pleaded guilty, and police stats showed that Gibson's did not engage in racial profiling. Nonetheless, the turmoil has continued, and Gibson's is suing claiming a continuing campaign to strangle its business.

Embattled Alabama Republican Senate Candidate joined Sean Hannity's radio show Friday to defend himself against allegations that he had improper relationships with girls as young as 14 when he was in his thirties.

As Fuzzy noted when Alexandria's famous Christ Church removed the plaque honoring George Washington (a founding member of that institution):
First, they came for the Confederate flag, but I didn’t fly a Confederate flag, so I did not speak out.  Then they came for Confederate statues, but I didn’t feel strongly about Confederate statues, so I did not speak out.  Then they came for statues of George Washington...

In March, I blogged about a report in The Wall Street Journal, in which former CIA Director James Moosley claimed he attended a meeting with former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and Turkish Foreign Ministers to discuss removing Fehtullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric living in Pennsylvania. This meeting happened when Flynn worked on Trump's presidential transition team. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed Gulen for numerous "coups" that have taken place. Now that alleged plan between Flynn and the Turks has come under investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

The American Studies Association (ASA) passed an academic boycott of Israel in December 2013, along guidelines of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The ASA leadership backed the resolution, which was sent to the membership for a vote. Turnout for the online vote was low, but a majority of those voting voted in favor. Although the much smaller Association for Asian American Studies had passed the boycott the previous April, the ASA was the first major American faculty association to pass the boycott.

The House Ways and Means Committee passed its tax reform bill down party lines on Thursday after a week of markups. The House is the next step. The Senate has its own tax bill, which the two chambers will have to reconcile if each approves their own bill. From CNBC:
The House bill, called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, cuts the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent, while moderately reducing household income tax rates. It changes some popular provisions such as the mortgage interest deduction, but leaves others, like the 401(k) tax benefit, unchanged.

Last weekend, Saudi Arabia began an "anti-corruption" purge as a way to consolidate power for the future leader. While that received a lot of attention, something slipped through the cracks. Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri resigned from his post during a trip to Saudi Arabia, "citing the destructive role of Iran and Hezbollah in the Middle East." Now Saudi Arabia has demanded its citizens leave Lebanon immediately due to "a dispute over the influence of Iranian ally Hezbollah in a country that hs been a battleground in the rivalry between Riyadh and Tehran." Lebanon believes the kingdom is holding the prime minister, with some claiming Saudi officials forced him to resign and holding him under house arrest. Two other gulf states have also advised against traveling to Lebanon.