Author: HP McLovincraft

Seeker of rabbit holes. Pessimist. Libertine. Contrarian. Your huckleberry. Possibly true tales of sanity-blasting horror also known as abject reality. Prepare yourself. Veteran of a thousand psychic wars. I have seen the fnords. Deplatformed on Tumblr and Twitter.

Maine Dem Sara Gideon Killed Child Abuse Bill

Maine Democratic Senate candidate Sara Gideon killed an anti-child abuse bill backed by health officials just days after a Democratic legislator resigned for allegedly having sexual relationships with high school girls.

Gideon, who has served as speaker of the Maine House of Representatives since 2016, mobilized her caucus to vote against legislation that would have attached criminal penalties to those who knowingly fail to report child abuse. Just 10 days before the Aug. 30, 2018, vote, Democratic state legislator Dillon Bates resigned after allegations surfaced that he had sex with multiple high school students that he taught. Former Maine legislator Deborah Sanderson said it was the height of hypocrisy for Gideon to kill child abuse legislation at a time when she also had to contend with an alleged child sex offender in her caucus.

“You can’t say you care about children and … at the same time, not be willing to put in stricter and stronger regulations for someone who knowingly or intentionally does not report child abuse,” Sanderson said. “Not only are the people who don’t report culpable, but those who wouldn’t pass that legislation are culpable.”

Gideon’s decision to rally votes against the mandated reporting law put Maine out of step with the rest of the country. More than 40 states currently consider it either a felony or a misdemeanor for mandated reporters to not report suspected abuse, according to a federal government report. Maine law currently imposes only a civil penalty for mandated reporters—a class of people which includes teachers, doctors, and other professionals who regularly interact with kids—that do not report child abuse. The lack of criminal consequences motivated some reporters to shirk their responsibilities, according to a testimony by the state’s Department of Health and Human Services.

“It is the Department’s position that adding consequences for failing to report child abuse and neglect will remind mandated reporters of the gravity and importance of this duty and therefore increase the safety of the children in Maine,” said Bethany Hamm, the then-acting Maine HHS commissioner.

Gideon did not respond to request for comment.

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CNN airs photo of Biden and son with Washington Redskins logo removed from son’s hat

CNN appears to have altered a widely-seen photograph of Joe Biden with his young son to remove the logo of the Washington Redskins.

The Democratic nominee and former vice president initially shared the photo in June to commemorate Father’s Day.

However, when CNN featured the photograph in its Monday night special “Fight for the White House: Joe Biden’s Long Journey,” the Redskins logo was removed from the hat.

CNN did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.

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Los Angeles bans Halloween trick-or-treating due to COVID-19 risk

Traditional Halloween activities like trick-or-treating, parties, festivals and haunted houses won’t be permitted throughout Los Angeles this fall due to the risk of contracting or spreading COVID-19, health officials announced.

“Door to door trick or treating is not allowed because it can be very difficult to maintain proper social distancing on porches and at front doors especially in neighborhoods that are popular with trick or treaters,” the new guidance reads.

Also banned this year is so-called “trunk or treating,” where children get candy and other treats from cars instead of doorsteps, as well as gatherings or parties with non-household members and live entertainment like haunted house attractions, county officials said.

“Since some of the traditional ways in which this holiday is celebrated does not allow you to minimize contact with non-household members, it is important to plan early and identify safer alternatives,” county health officials said in a statement.

To that end, those who wish to celebrate Halloween amid the pandemic with safer alternatives can host or attend online get-togethers, costume contests or pumpkin carving parties.

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Oscars Announce New Diversity and Inclusion Standards for Best Picture Eligibility

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced new diversity and inclusion standards for Oscars Best Picture eligibility.

For films to be considered for Best Picture, they must meet criteria that includes two of four standards: Standard A “Onscreen Representation, Themes and Narratives,” Standard B “Creative Leadership and Project Team,” Standard C “Industry Access and Opportunities” and Standard D “Audience Development.” Each standard has criteria requiring the inclusion of people in underrepresented groups, including women, people from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group, LGBTQ+ people, and people with cognitive or physical disabilities or who are deaf or hard of hearing.

For example, Standard A requires at least one of the lead actors or significant supporting actors to be from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group; the general ensemble cast must include 30 percent of actors from at least two underrepresented groups; and/or the main storyline(s) theme or narrative of the film is centered on an underrepresented group(s).

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SAN FRANCISCO IS PAYING FOR JAMAL TRULOVE’S WRONGFUL CONVICTION. WILL KAMALA HARRIS?

After a jury convicted Jamal Trulove, then 25, of first degree murder in February 2010, then-San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris praised the “brave witness who stepped forward from the crowd.” Harris was then running for attorney general of California and in her campaign bragged about her high conviction rates as the San Francisco DA. Harris echoed what her deputy prosecutor Linda Allen said repeatedly to the jury: Priscilla Lualemaga, the only eyewitness to testify at trial about the July 2007 homicide of Seu Kuka, did so at great risk of retaliation. “She’ll never get her life back,” Allen said, adding that Lualemaga testified knowing that “maybe [she’ll] get killed over being a witness because she saw someone else kill someone.” 

Lualemaga’s identification of Trulove as the shooter who killed Kuka on a sidewalk in San Francisco’s Sunnydale housing project was the critical evidence against him. For prosecutors to win, the jury had to believe Lualemaga’s claim that just before 11 p.m. on July 23, 2007 she saw the shooting from a second-floor window when the street below was shrouded in darkness. 

The jury also had to believe Lualemaga saw the shooter despite a poor vantage point of the crime scene; her failure to pick Trulove from a photo wall she had viewed with police for hours; her evolving memory of the shooting over time; and the benefits the prosecution provided to Lualemaga and her family that would eventually total over $60,000 in living expenses. Yet the prosecution argued that Lualemaga’s testimony was credible because it came at profound personal risk. 

But there was no evidence corroborating the prosecutor’s suggestion that, as a court of appeal later described it, there were “assassins lurking on defendant’s behalf.” 

There was also no physical or forensic evidence that inculpated Trulove, and no other witnesses said he was the shooter. Trulove insisted from the beginning that he was innocent.

The case’s glaring flaws didn’t matter: in October 2010, Trulove, then a young father, aspiring actor, and hip-hop performer who had appeared on the VH1 reality television show “I Love New York 2,” was sentenced to 50 years to life.

Four years later, in 2014, a California Court of Appeal overturned his conviction based on the prosecutor’s repeated attempts to exaggerate Lualemaga’s credibility. The state’s claim that Lualemaga risked retaliation for testifying in the Trulove case was, the court said, a “yarn … made out of whole cloth.” The prosecution “did not present a scintilla of evidence at trial that defendant’s friends and family would try to kill Lualemaga if she testified against him,” the court said, and that misconduct, combined with Trulove’s trial counsel’s failure to object, gave him the right to a new trial. 

In 2015, the same prosecutor at the San Francisco DA’s office retried Trulove, but he was acquitted and walked free for the first time since his 2008 arrest. In April 2018, a federal civil jury awarded Trulove $10 million, finding that San Francisco police officers fabricated evidence against him and withheld exculpatory evidence. In March, the city’s Board of Supervisors approved a $13.1 million payment to settle the suit.

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Disney Thanks Chinese Labor Camp Authorities in Mulan Credits

The new Mulan movie is facing a barrage of criticism—and promises to boycott—for filming near Chinese concentration camps and then thanking the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for the privilege.

The film—a live-action version of the 1998 Disney cartoon by the same name—is based on Chinese folklore about a young woman (Hua Mulan) who pretends to be a boy so that she can fight in her father’s place when he is conscripted into the Chinese army. In a sense, it’s a tale about cleverness, bravery, and familial love helping to overcome hardships brought about by a violent and overbearing government.

That’s makes Disney’s filming location—Xinjiang—an extra slap in the face. Xinjiang is where China has been holding Uighurs in concentration camps and subjecting them and other Muslim minorities to horrible human rights abuses.

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