On November 2nd, official documents were released which stated Wu Tang Clan founders RZA and Raekwon (Real names Robert Fitzgerald and Corey Woods) were investigated by the FBI in 1999 for a revenge plot.
There is speculation the band members paid a powerful New York drug dealing dynasty run by brothers Anthony and Harvey Christian, to reportedly kill 17-year-old Boo Boo Estella and for robbing the band members’ families.
The other link to the Wu Tang Clan came from the Christian brother’s lawyer, Michael Gold, who speculated as such in an interview with the Staten Island Advance.
“These reports seem to suggest someone else was liable for those murders. I’m not suggesting that Wu-Tang committed these crimes. The FBI did,” Gold told the Staten Island Advance. “What I’m trying to ascertain is their stated belief in an official file that Wu-Tang ordered this homicide.”
The Christian Brothers were sentenced last October for their 20-year drug dealing empire in Staten Island’s, Clifton neighborhood. Their lawyer is demanding that any and all relevant police files be turned in immediately so that his clients may be exonerated before their trial.
Gold stated the reports will hopefully prove that Estrella was murdered “at the instruction of members of the Wu-Tang Clan, a rap group, as revenge for robberies” so his clients names will be cleared of any wrong doing.
A former member of the Bloods gang, informant, Brian Humphreys has mentioned in numerous interviews that Estrella robbed RZA’s little brother, which led to the Christian brothers being hired to murder him.
In an interesting turn of events, according to the New York Post, prosecutors believe that any possible Wu-Tang connection has no effect on whether or not the Christian brother are guilty and their trial is pending.
What will happen if RZA and Raekwon are tied to the murder? Well, that has yet to be seen.
READ: Wu-Tang Clan Court Filling (Uploaded by Staten Island Advance)
Wu-Tang Clan court filing by Staten Island Advance/SILive.com
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Heavy Smog Shuts Down Shanghai, Sparking Health Concerns
Heavy smog covering Shanghai Tuesday shut down school events, restricted construction and kept the elderly indoors with the highest air pollution levels in nearly a year. Reuters reported authorities issued a yellow alert — which is the third-worst on the environmental scale — once the air quality index reached hazardous territory. As of 6 a.m. local… Read More
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Yes, Porn Stars Can Be Raped Too
By Kelsey D’Auben
In late November, porn-actress Stoya accused her ex-boyfriend and fellow porn-actor James Deen, of rape via her twitter account.
She tweeted “That thing where you log in to the internet for a second and see people idolizing the guy who raped you as a feminist. That thing sucks” followed a few minutes later by a second tweet saying “James Deen held me down a fucked me while I said no, stop, used my safe word. I just can’t nod and smile when people bring him up anymore.”
That thing where you log in to the internet for a second and see people idolizing the guy who raped you as a feminist. That thing sucks.
— Stoya (@stoya) November 28, 2015
James Deen held me down and fucked me while I said no, stop, used my safeword. I just can’t nod and smile when people bring him up anymore.
— Stoya (@stoya) November 28, 2015
Since then, nine other women have come forward saying Deen had sexually assaulted them; one of whom is Farrah Abraham, former Teen Mom who co-starred with Deen in a pornographic video in 2013.
“Stoya knew that if she were to name one man who did, in fact, violate consent, then the entire industry would be assumed to be complicit.”
Once deemed “porn’s feminist sweetheart” Deen is now being called the “Bill Cosby of porn” and has recently been dropped by several major porn distributors.
Deen strongly denies the allegations and said in an interview with the Daily Beast that he was “completely baffled” by what the women were accusing him of.
In the time since her tweets were published, many women have rallied together in support of Stoya using the hashtag #soldarityforstoya.
Fellow porn-actress and co-founder of the pornsite TRENCHCOATx, Kayden Kross, had a personal essay published with Nylon Magazine titled “I am Stoya’s partner, and I stand with her.” In the essay she expressed her ultimate support of Stoya as a fellow porn-actress and woman.
She also shed light on the issues facing sex workers who are victims of sexual assault and abuse.
“Already our industry battles the constant din of claims that the women, simply by showing up to work, are victims,” Kross wrote in the Nylon Magazine piece. “Already we battle the claims that porn is rape, that consent is questionable, that no woman given a fair choice would engage in it. Stoya knew that if she were to name one man who did, in fact, violate consent, then the entire industry would be assumed to be complicit.”
These incidents have sparked a lot of conversation on the Internet asking many forms of the same question- “can a sex worker be raped?” The answer is quite obvious- yes.
Any person can be raped. Non-consensual sex of any kind is rape. We as a society have a hard enough of a time grasping this seemingly concept on it’s own. But when sexual workers fall victim to sexual violence, especially when their work is involved.
Take for instance a case in Philadelphia in 2007, which was also referenced in Kross’ essay.
A 20-year-old woman agreed to have sex with a man she met through Craigslist for $150.
When she went to meet the man, she was gang-raped at gunpoint by him and three other men. A judge later charged the men with “theft of services” because, according to the judge, “she consented (to only the first man) but didn’t get paid.”
Women working in sex need protection from instances such as these. Sex workers face many dangers on a day-to-day basis. Not only because of the dangerously unregulated line of work, but also because of the negative public perceptions of prostitution and pornography.
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It Doesn’t Matter That Ted Cruz Broke The “Pledge”
If you paid attention to the news in any amount whatsoever during the Republican national convention, you are probably aware that on the third night (July 20), Ted Cruz gave a speech where not only did he decline to formally endorse Donald Trump, but implicitly told voters not to vote for him if it violated their conscience.
Not surprisingly, this speech prompted much outrage from the party.
He was booed offstage.
Former allies such as Sarah Palin said that his career was over.
Rick Perry and Dan Patrick (the lieutenant governor of Texas) have been mentioned as possible primary opponents against Cruz when he runs for re-election in the Senate in 2018.
Donald Trump is reportedly so embittered that not only does he not want Cruz’s endorsement should he change his mind, and has talked about funding SuperPACs against him and John Kasich, who also refused to endorse, in future elections they run in.
Ted Cruz himself has since explained his reasoning behind his decision to not endorse Trump, saying that he is “not in the habit of supporting someone who attacks my wife and attacks my father.”
That, in his opinion, invalidated the pledge that all the candidates signed to support the eventual nominee back in September.
Or did it?
I am a Republican who supported Ted Cruz for the nomination prior to him dropping out on May 3.
As I saw many of my fellow Cruz supporters turn into former supporters over his decision not to endorse, I struggled to figure out whether I should do the same.
I sympathized with the content of his speech (so much, that the Trump-sponsored vicious reaction to his statements, which included emphasis on the importance of preserving the Constitution and the idea that voters must vote according to what they believe is best for our freedoms, prompted me to decide to vote third party even though I’m a registered Republican), but I wondered whether he should be judged for apparently failing to keep his word.
I eventually decided that he should not be judged regarding the so-called “pledge.” Why? Because the pledge was invalidated into non-existence in deed. Not by Cruz, but by Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican Party.
As I thought about how to respond, I remembered an event that took place on March 29, 2015, when Donald Trump also renounced the pledge at the CNN Town Hall event that evening.
According to Time, Trump’s decision to renounce the pledge violated the terms that would have made him eligible to be on the ballots in states that required a loyalty pledge.
This could have caused him to forfeit his delegates in such states that had already voted at the time, such as South Carolina.
That didn’t happen, and the question is, why?
Why didn’t Reince Priebus follow through with his own rules, especially considering that as a leader of the GOP establishment, Trump’s downfall perhaps would have benefited him?
I can’t say for sure, but I would not rule out the idea Priebus’ decision not to penalize Trump was related to his belief that Trump can make deals.
After all, he and Trump had no problem making deals (abeit, indirectly via a coalition of Trump supporters and establishment figures in the Republican National Committee) that threw out proposed amendments to the convention rules that would have limited the power of the party chair, and redistributed it in the hands of lower-ranking members who could have affected the outcome of the development of the party platform, if not the convention itself.
Regardless of Priebus’ motivations, his actions do not reflect kindly on the reputation of the party, which, based on them, has been attacking Cruz based on a false premise.
A pledge that is not enforced is not a pledge. It is a joke.
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