So, a few days ago, the website Ashley Madison was hacked and its 37 million customers could soon have their data leaked online by a crew calling themselves The Impact Team. Ashley Madison, for the uninitiated, is a site that lets spouses cheat on their partners — kind of like a match.com for adulterers. The Impact Team has threatened to release a … Read More
New Sandra Bland Revelations
This just came out: Sandra Bland, the black woman found hanging dead in a Texas jail days after a traffic stop, smoked or possibly swallowed a large amount of marijuana while in custody, her family’s attorney reported the district attorney as saying. Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis made the disclosure in a text message to attorney Cannon Lambert, who … Read More
Updates To Sandra Bland Death Including Possible Dash Cam Edits
Background is here — Unfortunately, not a new story. Black person gets pulled over in a southern town and dies in police custody. The person was Sandra Bland, a vibrant educated 28 year old woman from outside Chicago, who as down in Houston for a job interview, which she got. After a verbal exchange with police following a traffic stop … Read More
Gawker Is Imploding
More fallout from this debacle: Tommy Craggs, the executive editor of Gawker Media, and Max Read, the editor-in-chief of Gawker.com, are resigning from the company. In letters sent today, Craggs and Read informed staff members that the managing partnership’s vote to remove a controversial post about the CFO of Condé Nast—a unprecedented act endorsed by zero editorial employees—represented an indefensible … Read More
Another Jailed Black Person “Hangs Herself”
Are you buying this? According to authorities, an 18-year-old girl hanged her self in an Alabama jail. The inmate has been identified as Kindra Darnell Chapman by the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office. Chapman was arrested on a first-degree-robbery charge for allegedly taking a cellphone and booked at Homewood City Jail Tuesday around 6:22 p.m., AL.com reports. She was last seen alive at … Read More
Gawker Does The Right Thing . . . Too Little, Too Late Though
I was going to write about a certain story, but I didn’t want to promote it. Basically, the Gawker news site put a story up online about a certain person you have never heard. And it doesn’t matter who it is. But he is the brother of someone in Obama’s cabinet, and the CFO of a major publishing company. And … Read More
The Suspicious Death Of Sandy Bland
28-year-old Sandra Bland (also called Sandy). She was visiting Texas from Naperville, Illinois (a Chicago suburb) to interview for a college job at her alma mater of Prairie View A&M. She got the job. On July 10, she tweeted this: Hours before she was assaulted & arrested by police, #SandraBland posted about eating here & joked w/ friends online. pic.twitter.com/0zGKcZzAsb … Read More
2015 Emmy Nominations
I don’t watch a lot of television, virtually every show I watched this year (“Better Call Saul”,“Downton Abbey”,“Game of Thrones”,“Homeland”,“Orange is the New Black”,“Louie”,“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”,”The Newsroom”,”Orphan Black”,”Inside Amy Schumer”) was nominated. I won’t make predictions about who will win; but I will italicized my HOPES. OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES “Better Call Saul” “Downton Abbey” “Game of Thrones” “Homeland” “House of Cards” … Read More
RIP Confederate Flag (In South Carolina)
After a contentious and often emotional debate in the SC House, with a lot of political wrangling (and attachments of bill-killing amendments, all of which failed), Governor Nikki Haley signed the bill yesterday, and the flag came down today Well, that only took 5+ decades. Here in North Carolina, they took down the Confederate flag from inside the state capitol building … Read More
What The Judge Got Wrong (And Right) On Bill Cosby
WILL SOMEONE PLEASE GO OUT AND REPORT THE FUCKING NEWS?!?!? — Will McAvoy (@WillMcAvoyACN) 9:39 pm – July 7, 2015 That was a real tweet from a fictional person complaining about yesterday’s big story: Greece China The Presidential Election Bill Cosby. It’s all that the news outlets talked about: (CNN) Bill Cosby has admitted to getting prescription Quaaludes to give to … Read More
Rand Paul on Taxes and Slavery
Rand Paul recently spoke in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and to draw a line from taxes to slavery: “Now you can have some government, we all need government,” the Kentucky senator said while discussing Thomas Paine and the role of government at the local public library. “Thomas Paine said that government is a necessary evil. What did he mean by that?”Paul said … Read More
Roof’s Sister Asks For Donations
From a Charlotte TV station: The sister of the suspected Charleston church shooter, Dylann Roof, is asking the public for donations — but not for her brother. In a “Go Fund Me” post, Amber Roof is asking for $5,000 to pay for her and her fiance’s wedding, which was originally scheduled for June 21. They canceled the wedding after her … Read More
Ave Maria
Ouch. Maria is leaving Sesame Street. In the early 1970s, Sonia Manzano showed up to an audition on New York City’s Upper West Side, wearing a simple dress and “some cheap Indian sandals.” Manzano, then a 22-year-old drama student at Carnegie Mellon University, was asked to play a game that would one day become known by its lyrics: “One of … Read More