McCrae Dowless, a political operative working for Republicans in the North Carolina congressional race, has been arrested after a grand jury accused him of felonies related to voter fraud. Interestingly, however, the accusations are not related to the 2018 elections, but instead to the 2016 elections. Dowless is accused of the same kinds of voter frauds in both elections, though.

Early this month, evidence emerged of vote tampering in the still-undecided 2018 North Carolina state congressional race. According to recent testimony by Lisa Britt, she was instructed to fill out uncompleted ballots in favor of Republican candidates. Britt said that Dowless, working for the Mark Harris campaign, directed her to do so. Dowless allegedly has gone through great lengths to cover up the absentee ballot scheme.

Britt’s testimony may had profound impact on the election in North Carolina. Mark Harris’s seat has been occupied by a Republican for the past fifty years, but in this election he only received 905 more votes than his rival, Democrat Dan McCready. There will be a new race, and Mark Harris will not run, citing health problems. 

The entire election has been a black eye for Republicans in the state, who have long used voter fraud as an excuse to purge voter registries of unwanted voters. 

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Earlier this month, President Trump declared a national emergency, enabling him to fund his border wall without congressional approval. His end-run around the legislative branch ensured that Trump could avoid being blamed for another government shutdown but still appease his base by building the wall. Although it may have seemed to him either, 1) a savvy political move (lol), 2) a middle finger to the Democrats (more likely), in reality the move represented such a dramatic instance of executive overreach that, for many, it threatened a constitutional crisis.

That crisis is now one step closer to be averted. The House of Representatives voted to block Trump’s emergency border declaration. Speaking to House Republicans, “Is your oath of office to Donald Trump or is it to the Constitution of the United States?” Thirteen Republicans joined the Democrats in blocking the declaration. 

The Senate will now vote on the law to block Trump’s border declaration and, as CNN points out, Senate Republicans have a “math problem.” Two senators have so far promised to vote in favor of blocking the wall, and the political tide is turning against it at a quickening pace. If just one more Republican votes to overturn, the jig is up.

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Michael Cohen, former attorney and “fixer” for President Donald Trump, is set to testify against his former boss in front of Congress. He will accuse Trump, under oath and publicly, of criminal conduct while in office. That criminal conduct is related to the hush money Trump paid to Stormy Daniels, a porn star with whom Trump allegedly had an affair. Cohen brokered the exchange. Because this information is coming from an unnamed source familiar with Cohen’s planned testimony, it is not yet clear the exact nature of the criminal conduct. 

Cohen will also give details about Trump’s finances and what it’s like to work under Trump. He also claims to have evidence of Trump’s “lies, racism, and cheating.”

At least one Republican congressperson, perhaps in a Stockholm-induced stupor, has jumped to Trump’s defense. Florida Representative Matt Gaetz tweeted, “Hey @MichaelCohen212 – Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot.”

Gaetz’s tweet has started a small firestorm on Reddit. The top comment on the thread has been removed, though users are reposting it faster than moderators can remove it:  

Matt Gaetz is a licensed attorney in Florida. His Bar Number is 48962. He violated 18 U.S.C. § 1512. He could be charged with a felony for witness tampering but this is also grounds for disbarment. Feel free call the Florida Bar and file an official complaint. The number is 1-866-352-0707.

This is all public information but I figured it would be helpful to provide it for others.

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Facebook is one of the largest and most widely used websites on the planet. It also offers users a variety of ways to share media, such as posting stories, videos, or live streams. 

In the early days of the Internet, observers thought the web would make the world a better place. If they were to hear about Facebook, they would probably guess that it brought people from around the world together, bridging cultural and geographical gaps and leading to a better, happier world. 

If they spent twenty seconds doing Chloe’s job, they would run screaming from the room––and probably into a therapists’ office. Chloe is a content moderator––one of the many interviewed in this Verve report––and that’s exactly what she did. She began having panic attacks after she watched a man get brutally murdered as part of her content moderation. Other moderators smoke weed during breaks, exhibit signs of acute or chronic anxiety, have sex on the job, or demonstrate other behaviors indicative of PTSD. 

Chloe works for a company called Cognizant, and she––like all moderators––signed a non-disclosure agreement. Ostensibly, that NDA protects them from Facebook users who disagree with the moderators’ choices. But in practice, that NDA keeps the horror-show that is Facebook media sharing hidden. The Verve report linked above exposes that horror show, and there will inevitably be fallout. 

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Earlier this weekend, hip-hop artist and producer Robert Kelly turned himself in after being charged with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. A judge set bond at one million dollars. In order to post that Bond, Kelly would need to front ten percent of it, in cash. That means he would need to come up with $100,000. For most of us, that’s obviously a lot of money. But for an internationally famous music-maker and producer with a long career, no problem, right? 

Actually, it was quote the problem. R. Kelly had to spend the night in jail because he couldn’t come up with that kind of cash. He also apparently owes $161,000 in back child support and he’s behind on rent. His attorney said, “I don’t even think he owns the rights to ‘I Believe I Can Fly.'”

The Associated Press graphic details of the women’s accusations against Kelly.

Kelly’s attorney said that he believes all four women who accuse Kelly are lying. If Kelly is convicted, he will face three to seven years in prison for each count aggravated sexual assault.

Homeland Security is also investigating Kelly, but there are no details yet about that investigation.

The recent Lifetime’s documentary called “Surviving R. Kelly” initially led Chicago authorities to open an investigation into Kelly. In that documentary, several women reported that Kelly sexually assaulted them when they were underage.

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Earlier this week, there was a major (and real) wardrobe malfunction in a college basketball game. After only thirty seconds of game time, Zion Williamson’s Nike sneaker broke. As a result, he sprained his knee. Williamson is rising star in the world of college basketball, so this was a major event in the night’s sports show recaps. President Obama was even at the game, and you can clearly see him mouth the words, “His shoe broke” after Williamson’s Nike split clean in half. 

Unsurprisingly, that is a serious level of bad publicity. The stock market reacted accordingly. Stocks fell nearly two-percent, equating to a little over a billion dollars in lost value. 

But the accident lays bare more than just Williamson’s foot. It also exposes the structural problems of college basketball. Nike pumps millions of dollars into the Duke basketball program, ensuring that the athletes wear only Nikes. The athletes are thus forced to be living, breathing advertisements for Nike. College basketball is, in short, a huge business––a business that the athletes themselves cannot profit from. Thanks to a recent policy change, the NBA no longer recruits straight from high school, forcing players to engage in the NCAA profit machine for free, risking injury for no pay and then no professional prospects.

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Robert Kelly, the famed musician and producer, has been charged Friday with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse in Cook County, Illinois. The judged approved a no-bail arrest warrant.

These events are the direct result of Lifetime’s release of a documentary called “Surviving R. Kelly,” which led Chicago authorities to open an investigation. In that documentary, several women reported that R. Kelly had sex with them while they were underage, and what’s more, they claimed that he kept them against their will. 

Months later, Michael Avenatti, the attorney who represented Stormy Daniels in her suit against Donald Trump, claimed that there was video evidence of R. Kelly engaging in sexual activities with underage girls. He claimed to have turned that tape into authorities, though authorities did not initially confirm this. These charges against R. Kelly are the result of this video, in which Kelly is seen having sex with a girl who was fourteen years old at the time. Three of the four women involved in these charges were between 13 and 16 when Kelly forced them to engage in sexual activities. 

Kelly, through his attorney, maintains his innocence. The number of victims speaking out against him, however, means that his defense will be challenging. 

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Lt. Christopher P. Hasson was a seemingly mild-mannered, 49-year-old Coast Guard officer. He worked at the Coast Guard headquarters, behind a desk––a desk where he allegedly used illegal drugs and attempted to start a race war. He was arrested last week on drug and gun charges. He also allegedly had planned to attack House Speaker Nanci …

The following story is no #pizzagate hoax, unfortunately. There really does appear to be an organic, yet widespread, pedophilia ring on YouTube. The video below broke the story wide open––but it’s twenty minutes, so we forgive you if you don’t want to watch it. Here’s the summary: YouTube’s algorithm shows you more videos like the videos you tend to watch, so if you watch a few videos of, say, little girls doing gymnastics, YouTube will show you more videos like that. But it gets much, much worse.

There’s an error in the algorithm, and once you click on a few of those kinds of videos, that’s all you’ll see. And if you look in the comments you’ll find pedophiles timestamping parts of the videos with girls in compromising positions. Many of these videos were taken and re-uploaded by the pedophiles themselves. Of course, these videos all contain advertising. So basically, YouTube is making pedophilia profitable. 

This video has led to massive fallout. It started when Disney pulled out their advertising money. Then Nestle. Now, AT&T and Hasbro have pulled out, too. “Until Google can protect our brand from offensive content of any kind, we are removing all advertising from YouTube,” an AT&T spokesperson said. The fallout for this is bound to continue.

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In late, “Empire” 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.”

But Wednesday, Jussie Smollett was charged with felony disorderly conduct for filing a false police report. Smollett will appear in court on Thursday. If convicted, Smollett could face probation or up to three years in prison.

Journalist Andy Ngo has pointed to a number of such false claims of hate crimes on his Twitter feed.

Ngo claims that the Southern Poverty Law Center––an organization that has come under fire for its obvious liberal bias––is stoking panic against Trump and Republicans. This could be a political ploy amongst Democrats, a way of bringing attention to causes, or any number of things. Ngo’s Twitter feed compiles a list of hoaxes long enough to convince anyone that these hoaxes are occurring with increasing frequency. Why is anyone’s guess.

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There is growing evidence of vote tampering in the still-undecided 2018 North Carolina state congressional race. According to recent testimony by Lisa Britt, she was instructed to fill out uncompleted ballots in favor of Republican candidates. Britt testified that she was hired to collect absentee ballots, and instructed that, when she found unsealed and uncollected ballots, …

Late last week, President Trump declared a national emergency, which enables him to fund his promised border wall without congressional approval. This end-run around the legislative branch ensured that Trump could avoid being blamed for another government shutdown but still appease his base by building the wall. 

But, as many observers anticipated, the use of emergency powers for funding the wall will not go unchallenged. So far, sixteen states have formed a coalition challenging Trump’s ability to allocate funding for the wall. The suit alleges that, per the Constitution, only Congress can allocate funding. 

Xavier Becerra, California’s attorney general, said that the president himself proved that there was no emergency when he said “I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster.” The suit alleges, therefore, that Trump manufactured a “crisis” in order to avoid getting Congress’s approval for the money. The lawsuit would stop Trump from acting on his plan to build the wall while the issue is in court.

When Congress returns from recess, the Democratic-controlled House may take its own measures to stop Trump from using emergency powers to build the wall. 

While the ultimate fate of the wall is uncertain, one thing seems clear: it will be quite some time before the matter is settled for good.

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