Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Shocking New Developments

I want to follow up on a huge story we featured here in 2007. I mean: huge. Ten years ago the world really was going to hell:

On the show, Fox News Crime Analyst Rod Wheeler told the world that a national network of lesbian gangs preys on young girls -- incredibly, a hundred fifty of these gangs, who are identified by their pink pistols, exist in the Washington, D.C. area alone.

Very quietly, the police departments of the nation scoured the streets arresting and jailing these predatory lesbian gangs, carefully arranging to keep it out of the news. Anyone who was attacked by a lesbian gang with pink pistols was sworn to secrecy for, y'know, national security reasons. It was big but very hush-hush.

That's why you never heard about it.

But that was nothing compared to this week's amazing proof that the Clintons have killed, by last count, thirty three people. Or maybe there have been more since that article came out, I can hardly keep track. Fox News has the scoop:
The family of the Democratic National Committee staffer who was gunned down on July 10 on a Washington, D.C., blasted reports that he was a source of emails leaked to WikiLeaks.

Rod Wheeler, a retired Washington homicide detective and Fox News contributor investigating the case on behalf of the Rich family, made the WikiLeaks claim, which was corroborated by a federal investigator who spoke to Fox News. Family of slain DNC staffer Seth Rich blasts detective over report of WikiLeaks link
You gotta love a news story where the story is that somebody is saying the story is untrue, but that gives them an opportunity to tell you what the story was, so you can make up your own mind about it.

... Rod Wheeler ... Rod Wheeler ... why is that name familiar?

I'm sure this will be the top story on page one of The Post tomorrow, I mean "the fake news Washington Post". It's been a slow news week, I bet this blockbuster will go right to the top.

Saturday, May 06, 2017

No Rape Charges in RHS Incident

It's not such a big story. Charges have been dropped, the police freed two prisoners. In fact, I am pretty sure this is not going to get much play on the news, though the initial arrest sure did.

Let's not try to guess what actually happened. I am not going to blame or deny that there is blame, because like you, I just don't know. Maybe something bad happened and maybe not. It appears that some teenagers had a sexual encounter in a high school bathroom. I don't know why the police were called, but the boys were arrested for rape and now the charges are being dropped.

The young men involved in the incident are undocumented immigrants, and the bigots played it up big when this hit the press. Citizens picketed outside the school, social media lit up with hateful rhetoric, it was a big deal. Everybody had an opinion about how horrible it was, what animals these boys are, ICE said they were going to deport them. Here it was, proof that rapists and bad hombres are being sent to our country to commit crimes and destroy our way of life.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer was asked about the case during a daily briefing and said “the idea that this occurred is shocking, disturbing, horrific,” Spicer said.

“Part of the reason that the president has made illegal immigration and crackdown such a big deal is because of tragedies like this … Immigration pays its toll on our people if it’s not done legally, and this is another example,” Spicer said. Rape charges to be dropped against immigrant teens in Md. case
I do not expect Spicer to apologize for his comments or take them back. The damage has been done and he will leave it as it is.

As news this story was engineered to fit the rightwing narrative that immigrants are inferior and dangerous people, a narrative that is not supported by evidence but only by prejudice. And now it turns out that not only was the spin wrong, the facts were wrong, too.
Defense lawyers for both defendants have said for weeks that the sex acts were consensual and that text messages and school surveillance videos did not substantiate the girl’s claims she had been pushed from a hallway into a bathroom at Rockville High School on March 16 where the suspects took turns assaulting her in a stall as she tried to break free.

Prosecutors had signaled in an early court proceeding in the case that they were having challenges corroborating events the girl described to Montgomery County Police detectives and that led to the arrests of Sanchez Milian and Montano.
There also does not need to be any outpouring of rage against the girl if it turns out some of her story was made up. They're teenagers, crazy stuff happens sometimes, if you have either been a teenager or raised one you know what I'm saying. We don't know what happened here, except that it was apparently not what we were initially told.

Actually, there is an outrage. The boys are going to be charged with child pornography.
The child pornography allegations, [defense attorney] Jezic said, involved lewd images on Sanchez Milian’s cellphone, which Jezic said had been sent by the girl to Montano who forwarded them to Sanchez Milian.
You have to agree, that is dumb. The law has not caught up with technology or human behavior.

In sum, this was a case where we learned just how hateful our own community can be, and where our local school provided red meat for the American public to display its prejudice and eagerness to turn a neighbor into an enemy. It is turning out to be nothing, but I am confident no lesson will be learned.

Wednesday, May 03, 2017

Something Every Decent Person Wants

You have probably seen this video already, Jimmy Kimmel talking about his son being born with a congenital heart disease. He cries through part of the monologue, takes a lot of time to thank doctors and nurses by name, shows pictures of his family. Of course he's got a sense of humor but it was not funny, it was a very emotional talk. Watch it all.

Quoting from NPR's story"
"President Trump last month proposed a $6 billion cut in funding to the National Institute[s] of Health," he said. "And thank God our congressmen made a deal last night not to go along with that. They actually increased funding by $2 billion, and I applaud them for doing that."

He went on to praise the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, for bringing access to health care to people who couldn't afford it.

"We were brought up to believe that we live in the greatest country in the world, but until a few years ago millions and millions of us had no access to health insurance at all," he said. "You know, before 2014 if you were born with congenital heart disease like my son was, there was a good chance you'd never be able to get health insurance because you had a pre-existing condition. You were born with a pre-existing condition and if your parents didn't have medical insurance you might not live long enough to even get denied because of a pre-existing condition. If your baby is going to die and it doesn't have to, it shouldn't matter how much money you make."

He finished with a plea for Americans to get past party lines and think of the greater good.


"Let's stop with the nonsense. This isn't football. There are no teams. We are the team. It's the United States. Don't let their partisan squabbles divide us on something every decent person wants. We need to take care of each other."
Right there at the end is the kicker. He uses a word: "decent." Something every decent person wants.

Can you imagine, decency has become political. Republicans have failed to pass a bill repealing health care for Americans because they cannot agree on exactly how harsh to make the law that will replace it. Some are afraid that they will lose votes if they drop the pre-existing conditions requirement, and some are afraid it will appear too "liberal" if they don't cut it. All of them are afraid of voter retailiation if they don't repeal the law, and all of them are afraid of backlash if they do.

Not one of them actually cares if someone is sick and needs a doctor. Here's a former Republican Congressman on Twitter:

Unbelievably, the debate is about economics and politics. What if we brought the concept of decency to the discussion? What if America did the right thing? Everybody knows what's right here. It isn't hard, other countries do it.