A grand jury in Cook County  returned a 16-count true bill of charges against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett. The charges say that Smollett lied to a variety of police officials about the attack, filed a false police report, and there are also speculations that Smollett orchestrated a hate-letter sent to the “Empire” cast.  Last month, Smollett was charged with one felony.

Most cases in Cook County are settled out of court, and it is therefore extremely unlikely that Smollett will be convicted of all sixteen felonies. If he opts to go to court, he may be sentenced to up to three years of probation.

Several months ago, actor Jussie Smollett claimed to have been attacked by two white men wearing ski masks. According to Smollett, the men threw an unknown chemical on him, wrapped a rope around his neck like a noose, yelled racist and anti-homosexual slurs at him, and then shouted “This is MAGA country!” before fleeing the scene. 

The incident led civil rights activist groups to denounce the incident for its racism and homophobia, and to claim that America was still very racist and homophobic. The attack was the most recent in a series of allegedly racist and homophobic incidents perpetrated against cast of the show “Empire.”

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Michael Cohen is suing the Trump organization for $1.9 million. Trump’s company is allegedly backing out on a preexisting agreement to pay legal fees Cohen accrued as a result of investigations into Trump and his organization. Cohen is also suing Trump for another $1.9 million for legal penalties Cohen incurred for services he provided Trump. 

The Trump organization allegedly reneged on the payments after Cohen began cooperating with Mueller’s investigation into possible Russian collusion. The optics are bad: it looks as though Trump is unashamedly punishing Cohen for being a “rat.” Cohen is set to begin his three-year prison sentence in May, and as of last week he has been disbarred. 

The following is a statement from Cohen’s attorney: “This action arises from the Trump Organization’s failure to meet its indemnification obligations under a contractual agreement between the Trump Organization and Mr. Cohen, pursuant to which the Trump Organization agreed to indemnify Mr. Cohen and to pay attorneys’ fees and costs incurred by Mr. Cohen in connection with various matters arising from Mr. Cohen’s work with and on behalf of the Organization and its principals, directors, and officers. These matters included multiple congressional hearings, Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation, and others.”

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Since Jared Kushner took his place in the White House, critics have questioned his suitability. More recently, critics have questioned his trustworthiness. News broke last week that White House officials did not want to grant Jared Kushner security clearance due to his questionable ties to foreign entities. Trump overrode them. 

Almost immediately after that story broke, Kushner’s behavior in Saudi Arabia has been called into question. For example, U.S. embassy officials in Riyadh said that they did not receive details about Kushner’s trip or about his meetings with Saudi royalty––nor was anyone present for those meetings. 

Kushner is apparently closely connected to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, and even (allegedly) defended him when he was implicated in the death of Jamal Khashoggi. 

Military and intelligence officials say that Kushner’s behavior was “undermining US authority” in the region. There are also questions about potential conflicts of interest. The New York Times has reported that the Saudis “wooed” Kushner and now have him as an ally inside the White House––and inside the president’s family. Kushner allegedly gave the Crown Prince advice for how to weather the Khashoggi scandal, for example. The relationship raises troubling concerns about Kushner’s pursuit of financial gain and how that might impact his work for the government. 

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Private prisons have long been a target of criminal justice reformers. Critics find private prisons problematic for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the simple fact that such prisons are incentivized to get and keep people incarcerated. There are more complaints than that, though, outlined in a Fox News article. Essentially, the only people who win with this industry are the prison owners and investors. If beds aren’t filled, then the government (who use the prisons, of course) still has to pay for empty beds. Guess where that money comes from? Your tax dollars. You might even be funding private prisons without realizing it, since several banks (with whom you might do business) bankroll such prisons. 

But one bank has just left the ranks of those funders: JPMorgan has announced that it will no longer finance private detention centers. The Obama administration directed the Bureau of Prisons to phase out its use of private prisons in 2016, sending stocks plummeting. Within one month of Trump’s presidency, Trump reversed that policy. Stocks rebounded. 

When word got out that private prisons were participating in Trump’s crackdown on immigration by incarcerating inmates, protestors demanded that JPMorgan separate from such prisons. 

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A New Yorker recently revealed that, before the election, Fox News learned that Trump paid Stormy Daniels hush-money in order to keep their affair secret and killed the story. When a reporter brought the story to Fox news exec Ken LaCorte, he said,  “Good reporting, kiddo. But Rupert [Murdoch] wants Donald Trump to win. So just let it go.” The author of that bombshell piece has called Fox News “state-support, state-sponsored television.”

The fallout of that piece is just beginning. The Democratic National Committee has announced that it will not allow Fox News to televise their primary debates. The DNC believes that Fox News will not be able to provide unbiased coverage of the debates. According to the president of the DNC, the New Yorker report cited above proved that Fox News was “not in a position to host a fair and neutral debate for our candidates.” He also called the relationship between Trump and Fox News “inappropriate.” 

Trump has already Tweeted in retaliation: 

“Democrats just blocked @FoxNews from holding a debate,” he said in a tweet Wednesday night. “Good, then I think I’ll do the same thing with the Fake News Networks and the Radical Left Democrats in the General Election debates!”

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The anti-vaccine movement has become dangerous. Unvaccinated children are causing outbreaks all over the world, especially of measles. The anti-vaccination movement is spurred by the (mistaken) belief that vaccines are tied to autism. Not that it will matter, but another study has just demonstrated with a respectable degree of certainty that there is no connection between autism and vaccines.

Over 650,000 children were observed in Denmark, 95% of whom were vaccinated between 1999 and 2010. The data revealed no increase of instances of autism among both children who were not at risk of it (based on genetics) and those who were at risk for it. There have been 17 studies that confirm the same thing, but the belief that the two are linked––which began in 1998––remains.

The belief is so strong, in fact, that a group of very vocal protestors harassed the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which met last week to discuss vaccination practices. Of the 165 open seats in the auditorium, at least 80 attendees were opposed to vaccines. The protestors waited through the technical presentations, and during the 75-minute comment period they unleashed.

One said, “I do not consent to handing over my God-given children to the government of the United States of America. How is a vaccine that caused my son’s intestines to fold in on itself and almost die safe and effective?” This woman’s child suffered a 1:100,000 side effect of a vaccine––though it may have been caused by the disease itself.

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It can be hard to get insight into the mind of a school shooter, for the simple and macabre reason that they often end up killing themselves as they enact their schemes. But, thanks to a very brave grandmother, we get a rare glimpse into the mind of a shooter without the fallout of a school shooting. 

Joshua O’ Connor, a nineteen-year-old former student of ACES alternative high school, reported feeling suicidal. He abusing drugs and alcohol, which undoubtedly distorted his perception of the world around him, making him angrier and more distant from the people around him. He wrote about this time in his diary. 

“I’m preparing myself for the school shooting. I can’t wait. My aim has gotten much more accurate. … I can’t wait to walk into that class and blow all those (expletive) away. I need to make this shooting/bombing … infamous. I need to get the biggest fatality number I possibly can. I need to make this count. … I’m learning from past shooters/bombers mistakes, so I don’t make the same ones,” according to the case file.” 

Though he was blinded by his own hatred––directed not only towards the people in his school, but also towards himself––O’Connor’s intellect was, interestingly, undistorted. He was able to think clearly and organize his thoughts towards his goal. He researched, practiced, and demonstrated a long-term commitment to his plan.

There are a few significant details we can glean from his story. First, O’Connor was in a very rough emotional state, one that anyone with close or regular contact with the boy should have noticed. His grandmother did, and she reported him to the authorities, stopping a potential disaster. Second, O’Connor’s plan didn’t crop up over night. He spent a significant amount of time planning and practicing. It was during this window that O’Conner’s grandmother could act. 

The takeaway is this: keep an eye on the people in your lives. If they’re experiencing tremendous pain, if they exhibit bitterness towards themselves or others––even in a subtle way––reach out to them. 

O’Connor will serve twenty-two years in prison for his plans. 

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The Republican Party loves Donald Trump. 

According to a NBC News and Wall Street Journal poll, Trump will face an uphill battle in the 2020 election.  The strong support of the Republican Party––nearly 90% of Republicans say they approve of the president’s job performance––means, however, that the 2020 race will be another very close one. 

While that short-term outlook for the presidency may not be that bad for the Republicans, the long term prospects for the whole party may not be that good. Case in point: Trump’s recent performance––that may be the best word for it––at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

One Republican strategist, Rick Tyler, expressed shock that other Republicans received Trump so well at the CPAC. “The people there talk about being pro-tariffs, anti-justice, anti-law enforcement, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, pro-Russia, pro-autocrat. It’s unrecognizable what Donald Trump has done to the party and what he’s done to the conservative movement.”

The Republican Party as Tyler knew it, in short, is dead. “Rest in peace,” he said, “The problem is that the Republican Party has no grounding governing philosophy anymore because they’ve signed on to all these things as I just mentioned that were antithetical to the conservative movement.” The party is now, Tyler believes, the Trump Party. 

It’s unlikely that Tyler would claim this is the first steps to autocracy, but others certainly do.

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“Sex slavery” and “human trafficking”––those phrases call to mind the third world, war-torn countries, or the primitive past. Sadly, human trafficking not only still happens, but it is also happening in our very backyard. In your backyard, actually. Think of your local strip mall. Is there a vaguely Asian spa? Thousands of those spas, all around the country, are keeping women against their wills and forcing them to have sex with clients. 

The women are often from outside the United States. Searching for a way to get out of debt, they answer an ad for high paying work. Before they know it, they’re being shipped to the United States, taught the trade, and sent to a massage parlor somewhere. Some go to New York, others go to Texas, and so on. 

Thanks, in part, to the recent incident with Robert Kraft, more attention is being paid to this $3-billion industry. It’s not so easy to find these places, let alone shut them down. Owners and managers can feign ignorance and say they had no idea that women were having sex with clients. So if there are busts, it’s often the case that the women themselves get arrested and then returned to their enslavers.

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Michael Cohen used to be Donald Trump’s “fixer,” that is, the guy Trump would turn to to solve his problems. Cohen would lie, bribe, threaten, or cajole people into doing Trump’s bidding. But now Cohen is going to jail, and Trump is on the market for a new fixer. 

Coincidentally, Cohen’s appearance before Congress might have revealed who that new fixer is: the Republican Party itself. Two major news outlets have speculated that the Party has stepped into the role of fixer.

The Guardian compared the whole situation to a mob movie. Cohen is the former underling turning on his mob boss. Trump, the boss, has called Cohen a “rat”––just like a mobster would in a movie. Matt Gaetz attempted the threaten Cohen––for which Gaetz is under investigation and might get disbarred. Rather than seek the truth in Cohen’s testimony, the “Republicans decided to run interference for Trump and commit to dying on a decrepit orange hill.” 

The New York Times takes a more subtle approach. They point out the litany of accusations Cohen made against Trump, and then they ask if any single Republican addressed those accusations or tried to find out if they were true. The answer was, of course, no. The Republicans in the hearing focused entirely on discrediting Cohen and smearing his name as thoroughly as possible. 

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U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un met this past week to reach an accord over North Korea’s nuclear program. Three president’s before Donald Trump have tried to get North Korea––through threats, through bribes, and through every possible medium––to abandon its nuclear programs, and obviously all have failed. Like them, Trump has also failed. 

This past meeting collapsed when Kim Jong-un offered to dismantle its most significant nuclear facility under the condition that the United States lift all sanctions against North Korea. That, at least, is according to Donald Trump and the United States. The North Koreans say that they only asked for some of the sanctions to be lifted. 

The New York Times points out that this failure represents the risk of one-on-one diplomacy. When the negotiations began to break down between Trump and Jong-un, there was no one else to step in, no other way to escalate, and in short, no way to salvage the mission. 

 Joseph Yun, the former State Department special envoy for North Korea, blamed the Cohen testimony for the talks’ failure: “Trump could have had a small deal. Close a few sites, and lift a few sanctions. But because of Cohen, the president needed a big deal.” 

The BBC chronicles the minute-by-minute drama of the Trump-Jong-un talks, if you want to see the breakdown. 

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Michael Cohen’s testimony may not have changed a lot of minds at the moment, according to one New York Times piece. Many Americans, it seems, saw the Cohen testimony as just one more spectacle in a long series of ridiculous moments. But the long-term impact of the testimony may not be seen for quite some time. But the fallout is beginning to emerge now. Thanks to Cohen’s testimony, the House Oversight Committee is now seeking interviews with Donald Trump’s children.

Chairman Elijah Cummings said  said, “All you have to do is follow the transcript. If there are names that were mentioned or records that were mentioned during the hearing, we want to take a look at all of that. They have a good chance of hearing from us — at least an interview. We’ll go through it, we’ll figure out who we want to talk to, and we’ll bring them in.”

The committee is also expected to call some of the top executives at the Trump organization for interviews. Perhaps the most significant of whom is Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg. Republicans are, unsurprisingly, contesting the potential interviews with the Trump family, especially Trump’s eldest son.

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