U.S. SUPREME COURT – Page 2 – When The Abuser Goes To Work…

Kyle Rittenhouse and Violent Video Games

What possessed Kyle Rittenhouse, a baby-faced 17-year-old, to pick up an AR-15 style rifle and head to Kenosha, Wisconsin in the first place?

There has been a lot of discussion about the harm caused by social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms to American youth but very little discussion about the role of violent videogames, where teens arm themselves with massive weaponry to maim and kill.

Rittenhouse claims he and a friend volunteered to go to Kenosha to protect a car dealership that was set upon by rioters the night before. Rittenhouse, who is now a nursing student, wore a medical kit and said he intended to provide medical care. At one point he also carried a fire extinguisher.

It all seems hopelessly naïve, but not altogether implausible for a 17-year-old teenager, especially one who testified Wednesday to playing violent video games.

Rittenhouse ended up killing two men and grievously wounding a third. He’s claiming self-defense. Cell phone videos of the action that evening in Kenosha show Rittenhouse lying on the pavement, while protesters/rioters attacked him and attempted to wrestle the gun away from him. The only reason they didn’t succeed is because it was strapped on his shoulder.

A few decades years ago, a teenager like Rittenhouse might be working to become an Eagle Scout.

Healthline reports that more than 90 percent of kids play video games and more than 90 percent of popular games portray violence.

Can Melinda French Gates Revive The Lagging Women’s Movement?

Suddenly, women and girls seem to be invisible.

Women are no longer the top priority even at the Women’s Sports Foundation, which is championing the rights of biological males who identify as female or trans women to participate in women’s sports. This despite science that clearly shows trans males have an unfair advantage over girls and women.

State legislatures are making it impossible for women to obtain abortions that are legal under the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade.

Millions of women are struggling in the aftermath of the pandemic, when they disproportionately lost jobs and now face pressure to return to work despite the lack of affordable child care.

So it is more than encouraging that Melinda French Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation, is championing a new $2.1 billion initiative to “to advance women’s economic empowerment, strengthen women and girls’ health and family planning, and accelerate women’s leadership.”

Using The Legal System To Suppress Dissent?

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell filed a federal lawsuit Thursday in Minneapolis claiming that electronic voting machine companies are “weaponizing the litigation process” to silence political dissent over the 2020 election.

A few hours later, Lindell’s Minneapolis attorney Alec J. Beck , a respected 30-year litigator, was dumped from his white shoe law firm, Barnes & Thornburg LLP. The web site Law & Crime quoted a Barnes & Thornburg spokesperson as stating Beck failed to obtain prior authorization from the firm before filing the Lindell lawsuit.

Social media erupted with insults aimed at Lindell, who claims the 2020 election was stolen from GOP Pres. Donald J. Trump, calling him a conspiracy theorist, delusional, insane, “a loser crack head,” source of baseless information, etc.

Most of the national media ignored Lindell’s lawsuit but Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ anti-Trump newspaper, The Washington Post, took the opportunity to declare Lindell’s claims are not only false but ridiculous.

A Loophole For Sexual Harassers In The U.S. Judiciary

Alex Kozinski on The Dating Game in 2006.

An upcoming book chronicles a loophole that allows federal judges to not only evade accountability for sexual harassment and bullying but to go on to enjoy a full salary for life and future professional acclaim.

Martha C. Nussbaum, in Citadels of Pride, to be published May 11 by W. W. Norton & Co., explores the tainted career of a former appellate judge who was celebrated for his brilliance, Alex Kozinski, a one-time chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco.

Nussbaum, a professor of law and ethics at the University of Chicago, says the Kozinski case shows the “structural weaknesses” of judicial codes of conduct. “E]van an egregious abuser can survive for twenty years if he is bright, flamboyant, well-connected and shameless,” she writes.

The loophole that worked for Kozinski – and others – is that he was permitted to resign in 2017 after more than a dozen women accused him of sexual harassment. Because he was retired, he was eligible to receive his pension – which was his full salary – for the rest of his life.

Federal Judge Calls One-Sided Media ‘Dangerous’

Senior Judge Laurence Silverman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Friday launched a full-frontal attack on the state of the American media today, calling it “dangerous.”

Judge Silverman bemoaned the “economic” and “ideological” consolidation of traditional and social media into a megaphone for the Democratic Party.

Judge Silverman warned the power of the press is “dangerous” today because America is “very close” to one-party control of the media.

He observed the first step taken by a potential authoritarian or dictatorial regime is to control communications, particularly delivery of news. “It is fair to conclude, therefore, that one-party control of the press and media is a threat to a viable democracy,” he said.

His comments were made in a dissent in a defamation case, wherein he expressed doubt the U.S. Supreme Court today would approve the landmark 1964 decision that protects the press from lawsuits by public figures. He said the case, New York Times v. Sullivan, effectively “allows the press to cast false aspersions on public figures with near impunity.”

Democratic Party Broadsheets

Judge Silverman, who was nominated to the bench by late GOP President Ronald Reagan, referred to the notorious McCarthy era, when Congress engaged in a vicious hunt for Communists in government and Hollywood. “As one who lived through the McCarthy era, it is hard to fathom how honorable men and women can support such actions,” he said.

He called the repression of conservative political speech today by large institutions with market power is “fundamentally un-American.”