Marjory Stoneman Douglas teacher who said he would carry his gun in school arrested for leaving it unattended in men's room.

Courtesy of The Miami Herald:

Not the most normal sight: a gun left in the bathroom stall. 

But that's exactly what went down on Sunday in a men's room at the Deerfield Beach Pier. 

The circumstances of how the Glock 9mm got there are unusual. 

According to the Broward Sheriff's Office, the weapon was left by Sean Simpson. If his name sounds familiar, he's the teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas who said he'd be willing to arm himself while on duty. 

According to the sheriff's office report, Simpson told deputies he'd left his gun by accident. By the time the chemistry teacher realized his mistake, the Glock was already in the hands of a drunk homeless man who had picked it up and fired. The bullet hit a wall. 

Simpson was able to grab the gun away from the vagrant, Joseph Spataro, who was charged with firing a weapon while intoxicated and trespassing. 

As for the MSD teacher, he was arrested and charged with failing to safely store a firearm, a second-degree misdemeanor. Simpson posted a $250 cash bond and was released.

Gee, just imagine if this had been in a high school bathroom, and it was a student instead of a homeless man who picked up that gun.

Guns do not keep us safe.

Guns endanger us.

ALL of us.

Florida congressional candidate claims that she has been on a space ship. Oookay then.

Courtesy of the Miami Herald:

Three blond, big-bodied beings — two females, one male — visited her when she was 7 years old and have communicated telepathically with her several times in her life, she says.

Rodriguez Aguilera, 59, a Republican who is running to replace retiring Miami Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, recounted her experience with the ETs during a 2009 television interview.

She described “going up” inside the spaceship — though whether it went into space or just hovered around town was left unclear. 

“I went in. There were some round seats that were there, and some quartz rocks that controlled the ship — not like airplanes,” Rodriguez Aguilera said.

Rodriguez also claims that she learned some stuff from the blond aliens, such as that there are 30,000 skulls — “different from humans” — in a cave in the Mediterranean island of Malta, the world’s “energy center” is in Africa, the Coral Castle, a limestone tourist attraction South Miami-Dade, is actually an ancient Egyptian pyramid, and that God is universal energy.

Believe it or not when reached for comment Rodriguez did not deny any of this, and in fact doubled on down.

The Miami Herald asked Rodriguez Aguilera about her experiences Friday. She responded with a statement that waxed astronomical but failed to mention close encounters of any kind. 

“For years people, including Presidents like Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter and astronauts have publicly claimed to have seen unidentified flying objects and scientists like Stephen Hawking and institutions like the Vatican have stated that there are billions of galaxies in the universe and we are probably not alone,” she said. “I personally am a Christian and have a strong belief in God, I join the majority of Americans who believe that there must be intelligent life in the billions of planets and galaxies in the universe.”

Well you know I also am open to the idea of extraterrestrial life and the possibility of intelligent life beyond the stars, but my mind kind of slams shut hard when anybody talks about joyriding around with ET.

I wonder if this lady is any relation to the one on the SNL skit?

Seems just as plausible to me.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller applies increasing pressure on Paul Manafort.

Courtesy of the Miami Herald:  

Paul Manafort’s place in the crosshairs of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into the Kremlin’s attempts to sway the 2016 presidential election seems to be growing more uncomfortable. 

Two sources familiar with the inquiry tell McClatchy that investigators are working to confirm information indicating that Manafort and the consulting firms he led earned between $80 million and $100 million over a decade from pro-Moscow Ukrainian and Russian clients. 

Mueller’s expanded focus on Manafort’s complicated financial picture is zeroing in on whether he may have evaded taxes or engaged in any money laundering schemes, the sources say, and the hunt for his financial records through a labyrinth of offshore bank and business accounts has become an important prong of the investigation. 

Given his pro-Kremlin connections and his closeness to the campaign, Manafort was uniquely positioned to play a role in any collusion between the campaign and operatives working on behalf of the Russian government to help elect Trump. 

Whether Manafort can be squeezed depends in part on whether he failed to report foreign income and overseas bank accounts annually to the Internal Revenue Service as required by law. The volume of money said to be involved and the time elapsed could put him at significant risk.

The IRS is involved? Well Manafort is screwed now.

There is some evidence that Manafort is already cooperating with the investigators, but whether he has flipped or not the existence of this increasingly bad information now being leaked to the press means that he may have little choice but to cooperate or face a rather lengthy prison term. 

All in all this should have Trump shitting bricks.

Father of soldier slain in Yemen raid refused to shake Donald Trump's hand, wants investigation.

Courtesy of the Miami Herald:  

Owens’ father, Bill, had learned only a short time before the ceremony that Trump was coming. Owens was sitting with his wife, Marie, and other family members in the solemn, living room-like space where the loved ones of the fallen assemble before they are taken to the flight line. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t want to see him,’’ Owens recalled telling the chaplain who informed him that Trump was on his way from Washington. “I told them I don’t want to meet the President.” 

It had been little more than 24 hours since six officers in dress uniform knocked on the door to Owens’ home in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. It was not yet daylight when he answered the door, already knowing in the pit of his stomach what they had come to tell him. 

Now, Owens cringed at the thought of having to shake the hand of the president who approved the raid in Yemen that claimed his son’s life — an operation that he and others are now calling into question. 

“I told them I didn’t want to make a scene about it, but my conscience wouldn’t let me talk to him,” Owens said Friday, speaking out for the first time in an interview with the Miami Herald. 

Not only was Mr. Owens repulsed by the idea of meeting the man whose carelessness resulted in his son's death  (He was not even in the Situation Room during the raid.), he wants an investigation.

“Don’t hide behind my son’s death to prevent an investigation,” said the elder Owens, pointing to Trump’s sharp words directed at the mission’s critics, including Sen. John McCain. 

“I want an investigation. … The government owes my son an investigation,” he said. 

I don't support using this man's tragedy as a political tool, nor do I want this to turn into some Benghazi style witch hunt, but the man DOES deserve a little closure.

And he also deserves the right not to be exposed to the toxic personality of Donald Trump.

Can you even imagine how inappropriate he would be in a situation like this?