‘The Tompkins County, N.Y., District Attorney’s Office announced Monday that it is reopening its investigation into an alleged gang-rape involving Cornell University fraternity members. The victim in the case says they were drugged and raped by multiple members of Chi Phi fraternity at Cornell University in 2024. … [Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew] Van Houten noted in his statement that the victim’s original statement did not appear to require criminal charges to be filed as she ‘described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious, and consensual.’ However, in the decision to reopen the investigation, Van Houten said he recognized ‘the reality that it can take years of therapy and healing for victims of sexual assaults to fully process and understand what happened to them.'” [editor’s note: When something isn’t rape shortly after it happens and suddenly becomes rape years later, that’s pretty much the definition of “reasonable doubt” – TLK] (09/28/26)
“Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman famously said, ‘Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.’ Friedman’s statement, clear and to the point, is supported by a mountain of evidence. From extended unemployment and crop insurance to deposit insurance and mass income tax withholding, these are but a few ‘temporary’ programs that traded their provisional status for permanency. Each of these examples, as well as many others, has something else in common. That is, each was born because of crisis. From economic recessions to war, policies and programs begun in the name of combating today’s threats have a unique way of staying long after the crisis has passed. This phenomenon is not a relic of centuries past, but one that remains wholly relevant today.” (09/28/26)
“British police said on Monday they had released on bail five men who were arrested on suspicion of terrorism and explosives offences near a British airbase used by the U.S., although they remain under investigation. Officers arrested the men in the early hours of Sunday after a tipoff that three large white vans were heading to the military airfield in west England. … The British government had given authorization to the U.S. to use bombers based at Fairford to strike Iranian missile sites that were attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had warned Britain in July not to allow U.S. bombers to fly from Fairford, saying any base used to launch attacks would be a legitimate target. … Iran has repeatedly denied involvement in attacks or plots in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.” (09/28/26)
“Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is a singular figure in U.S. history. If he remains on the bench for the next two years, he will be the longest-serving justice in American history. But his singular place in history is now tragic. First, he is at the heart of a historic decline in public trust in the Supreme Court. Second, as the most powerful Black Republican in national politics, he has damaged trust in Black conservatives as a source of innovative thinking for dealing with racial problems. … several Democrats running in the midterms appear focused on Thomas as they propose ethics codes, term limits and even adding more seats to the court to restore ideological balance. That political push began after investigative reports showed Thomas accepted, without disclosure, luxury vacations, help with tuition for a relative and real estate funding for his mother from a wealthy Republican.” (09/28/26)
“Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Monday unveiled a final regulation that seeks to restore a rule on how sexual misconduct is investigated on college campuses. The final rule, which is expected to officially publish Tuesday, comes after federal courts vacated a Biden administration regulation that sought to strengthen discrimination protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The rule ‘clears the Biden Administration’s illegal rewrite of Title IX’ from federal regulations and ‘restores the commonsense language’ of the rule adopted during the first Trump administration, which the second Trump administration has been enforcing, McMahon said in a statement.” (09/28/26)
“A number of critics scoffed at the notion of the SAVE program being used responsibly (‘Used responsibly?? HAHAHA as if. This will be abused as much as it can be to disenfranchise voters wherever possible.’) I get it. There are valid reasons to be concerned this election season. But the opportunity for abuse isn’t specific to the SAVE program. There are many tools election administrators have that, if used properly, improve voter list accuracy, but if abused, could lead to adverse actions against registrants. For example, election officials receive reports from the United States Postal Service’s National Change of Address portal (‘NCOA’) indicating when a registrant has moved, thereby prompting list maintenance activity. That tool could be abused just as easily as the SAVE program. That’s why it’s important for voter registration offices to have internal controls.” (09/28/26)
“Of the many ridiculous, counterproductive, and outright harmful things that Donald Trump has done, his effort to create a ‘Golden Fleet’ of ‘Trump-class’ battleships is far from the worst offense. But it is absolutely typical of the personalistic and processless state into which American national security decision making has fallen in his second term.” (09/28/26)
