President-elect Donald Trump has richly rewarded his campaign’s CEO, Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon as chief strategist and senior counselor.
That has created a firestorm of controversy. Critics say his right-wing news site, Breitbart, spreads hate, bigotry and anti-Semitism.
Bannon himself has also been accused of bigoted rhetoric in his personal life, and has a history of hatred toward many, especially women, LGBT people and Jews, who now feel less safe due to the president-elect’s appointment. Bannon’s violent posture toward women includes charges of misdemeanor domestic violence, intimidation against a witness and battery of his wife.
His ex-wife, Mary Louise Piccard, said during divorce hearings in 2007 that Bannon had choked her and had refused to let their daughters go to schools with Jewish students, whom he deemed “whiny brats.” (Bannon has denied her claims.)
Ben Shapiro, a former editor-at-large at Breitbart, described him as a “vindictive, nasty figure, infamous for verbally abusing supposed friends and threatening enemies.”
Civil rights groups and hate speech watchdogs reacted with outrage to Bannon’s appointment atop the White House hierarchy.
The Southern Poverty Law Center called Breitbart under Bannon’s leadership a “white ethno-nationalist propaganda mill,” and sent out several tweets reminding readers that Breitbart.com had mandated stories about “immigration, ISIS, race riots, and what we call ‘the collapse of traditional values,’” and that Bannon himself had written a piece for the site defending the Confederate flag shortly after the Charleston shootings. (“Hoist it high and proud,” read the headline.)
Groups like the Anti-Defamation League and the Council on American-Islamic Relations denounced Bannon’s hire, worried about his proximity to the president. I agree with the concerns poised by civil rights leaders nationally.
Bannon is a white nationalist who essentially will be running a Trump White House. I believe it is critical that we all denounce President-elect Trump’s selection of Bannon and demand that he withdraw this appointment, which sends a horrible signal of his intent to terrorize and commit acts of violence against our communities.
Bill Cosby’s repeated efforts to get criminal sexual-assault charges against him thrown out were dealt another blow Nov. 16, when a Pennsylvania judge denied two of his motions to dismiss.
In documents filed in Montgomery County outside Philadelphia, Judge Steven O’Neill denied Cosby’s motion to dismiss the charges based on “deprivation of due process rights.” Cosby argues his rights have been violated because a previous district attorney promised years ago he would not be prosecuted.
O’Neill also denied Cosby’s motion for a hearing during which his lawyers planned to question the “competency” of other women who have accused him of sexual assault over the last five decades. And O’Neill said no to Cosby’s request for a behind-closed-doors hearing to question those potential witnesses.
But Cosby’s effort to suppress a damaging 2005 deposition, in which he acknowledged obtaining drugs to give to women he sought for sex, is still up in the air. O’Neill said in the documents that his findings on that point will be issued in advance of more hearings in the Cosby case set for Dec. 13 and 14.
Stay tuned. A lot of people say the O.J.Simpson trial was the trial of the century.
But if Bill Cosby stands trial I predict that this will be the most watched and talked about trial in history, especially now that we have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media sites that seem to cover every facet of our lives.
And finally, Los Angeles City Commissioner Dallas Fowler, who has been active as an activist and at the forefront of several important community issues in recent years, has announced that she is running for the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees Seat 4. Fowler, whose opponent is a Republican, has a great shot at winning this seat and ensuring our young people and others who are in community colleges get the best chance at an education or trade. Stay tuned.
For news tips, email Brothernajeeali@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter@Najeeali.
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