Show me the money
Former President Barack Obama will speak at a Denmark university on Sept. 28, but he doesn't want you to know how much he's being paid.
Representatives for the 44th president threatened to cancel his speech last week if the details of his contract are revealed to the public.
Obama perhaps was thinking of the outcry about how much people paid Hillary Clinton for her speeches before her 2016 run for president. Since he served two terms, though, it's not like he'll be asking voters to elect him again.
A Denmark media outlet estimated the amount could be up to 2 million kroner or $312,000.
The country's Kolding Municipality, facing a deficit of 100 million kroner in its next budget, is already having to provide 750,000 kroner ($117,000) in taxpayer money for the appearance, titled "A Conversation With Barack Obama." Its mayor has called it a marketing opportunity for the town.
"At this event," Mayor Jørn Pedersen said, "current and future leaders will have an opportunity to experience President Obama first hand. Everyone can expect to be inspired. And we have every reason to be proud."
Even, it appears, if it breaks the bank.
Candidacy watered down
If political candidates today did it, invested in it, said it, wrote it, bought it - perhaps even thought it - somebody will find out. But a Democratic congressional candidate in Iowa running on a pledge to tackle climate change looks particularly hypocritical because she invested in companies that contaminated drinking water.
That's not good because Cindy Axne is running in a competitive district Democrats would like to turn in their effort to control the U.S. House.
The one-time kindergarten and education activist has touted her past work in promoting the wind industry and has received an endorsement from the League of Environmental Voters action fund, a liberal advocacy group. She also supported an Obama-era water policy opposed by local farmers.
But apparently Axne doesn't put her money where her mouth is. Her financial disclosure forms reveal she has invested in Goldcorp Inc., Barrick Gold and Agnico Eagle Mines Limited, all of which are Canadian mining companies found to have spilled toxic chemicals into the water and ground. Goldcorp released mercury, lead and arsenic into waters in Honduras, Barrick Gold spilled cyanide into an Argentina river, polluting a source of drinking water for locals, and Agnico was fined $50,000 in 2017 for spilling oil into a lake in Nunavut, Canada.
Both the National Republican Congressional Committee and incumbent U.S. Rep. David Young quickly pounced, the former saying her "disregard for the environment is alarming" and that her "investments speak louder than her words" and the latter noting she was "personally profiting and getting rich off of big oil and foreign mining companies that have repeatedly poisoned drinking water."
Mexican-Jewish-white power?
How deranged was the left during last week's hearings on U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh? They accused a woman of Mexican-Jewish descent in the audience of making a "white power" sign.
"This alone should [dis]qualify [Kavanaugh]," activist/author Amy Siskind said, referring to Zina Bash, a former law clerk for the nominee and a member of his confirmation team.
"They literally want to bring white supremacy to the Supreme Court," Twitter user Eugene Gu wrote.
Bash's husband, U.S. attorney John Bash, let loose his fury on Twitter, where he said references even had been made to their baby daughter.
"Zina is Mexican on her mother's side and Jewish on her father's side," he wrote. "She was born in Mexico. Her grandparents were Holocaust survivors. We of course have nothing to do with hate groups, which aim to terrorize and demean other people - never have and never would."
He later added, "I hope that people will clearly condemn this idiotic and sickening accusation."
It's likely they're still waiting for any apology.
Resisting the resistance?
A national men's group has filed a Title IX complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights against Northeastern University after the chairwoman of its Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department wrote an op-ed saying it "seems logical" to feel hatred toward men.
The complaint by the National Coalition for Men says the article by Suzanna Danuta Walters "offers circumstantial evidence that the current ideology/composition of the [department] creates an overall hostile effect against male participants" and is representative of a more deep-seated bias in the department, where all "political links" and "academic and professional sources" on the department's website mention women and LGBT groups, but not men.
"Walters' openly hateful behavior is reprehensible, disgusting, and irresponsible," organization President Harry Crouch told Campus Reform. "She should not be allowed to promote her misandry in an educational institution with impressionable minds."
The Boston regional office of the Office of Civil Rights now will decide whether to investigate. Yale University, Princeton University and the University of Southern California are all currently under investigation by various regional offices of the department, all due to similar complaints.