Escort with close ties to Russian oligarch claims to have video evidence of Russian meddling in America's election.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

A Belarusian escort with close ties to a powerful Russian oligarch said from behind bars in Bangkok on Monday that she had more than 16 hours of audio recordings that could help shed light on Russian meddling in United States elections. 

The escort, Anastasia Vashukevich, said she would hand over the recordings if the United States granted her asylum. She faces criminal charges and deportation to Belarus after coming under suspicion of working in Thailand without a visa at a sex-training seminar in the city of Pattaya. 

Ms. Vashukevich, who described herself as close to the Russian aluminum tycoon Oleg V. Deripaska, said that audio recordings she made in August 2016 included discussions he had about the United States presidential election with people she declined to identify. 

Mr. Deripaska, a billionaire with close ties to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, also has business ties to Paul J. Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman. Mr. Manafort is under investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel looking into the campaign’s connections to Russia. 

“If America gives me protection, I will tell everything I know,” Ms. Vashukevich said on Monday. “I am afraid to go back to Russia. Some strange things can happen.”

Now you may want to discount such an outlandish claim out of hand, but then you have to keep this in mind:  

Her assertion could be easy to disregard were it not for a 25-minute video investigation posted last month on YouTube by the Russian opposition figure Aleksei A. Navalny, which relies heavily on videos and photographs from Ms. Vashukevich.

That was the YouTube video that you may have heard about which the Russian government kept trying to get taken down, and has now received more than 6 million views.

Now that does not automatically mean that Vashukevich should be taken at her word about all of this, but it also means she cannot be discounted entirely.

Of course the problem is that Vashukevich is seeking asylum in America. And since Donald Trump is currently in charge of our government there is no way that he wants this kind of proof made available to the press.

I would think it might be smarter for Vashikevish to reach out to some of our allies, like Canada, Britain, or Germany and ask them for asylum.

Once she arrives in one of those places, she can tell her story without fear she will wind up suffering the same fate as former Russian spy Sergei Skripal.

Melania Trump files lawsuit against news outlet for alleging she was an escort because...get this...it prevented her from profiting off being the First Lady.

"Allo, do you like this outfit? It can be yours. Do you like me? Make me an offer."

Courtesy of the WaPo: 

An attorney for first lady Melania Trump argued in a lawsuit filed Monday that an article falsely alleging that she once worked for an escort service hurt her chance to establish “multimillion dollar business relationships” during the years in which she would be “one of the most photographed women in the world.” 

The suit — filed Monday in New York Supreme Court, a state trial court, in Manhattan — against Mail Media, the owner of the Daily Mail, said the article published by the Daily Mail and its online division last August caused Trump’s brand, Melania, to lose “significant value” as well as “major business opportunities that were otherwise available to her.” The suit said the article had damaged her “unique, once in a lifetime opportunity” to “launch a broad-based commercial brand.” 

“These product categories would have included, among other things, apparel accessories, shoes, jewelry, cosmetics, hair care, skin care and fragrance,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed on Trump’s behalf by California attorney Charles Harder. 

Neither Harder nor the White House responded to requests for comment late Monday. Harder has represented several high-profile clients, including wrestler Hulk Hogan, who won a $140 million invasion of privacy verdict against Gawker last year.

So she is not suing because she feels she was personally defamed, and that her image as First Lady has been unduly tarnished, but instead because she cannot turn a profit while serving her country?

So to be clear Melania Trump is upset that allegations that she was once a prostitute are preventing her from continuing to prostitute her name and image for money?

Do these people even hear themselves?

Teacher harassed on Facebook and at her school for her work as an abortion clinic escort.

Courtesy of Cosmopolitan:  

Shana Broders has been an elementary school teacher for over two decades. For the last year and a half, she has spent her downtime as a clinic escort, helping patients at a nearby North Carolina abortion provider navigate their way past the protesters and into the building for services. For that, a group of extreme anti-abortion activists wants to get her fired from her job. As a new school year begins, they have escalated their efforts, harassing her school by phone and threatening to picket. Broders tells Cosmopolitan.com how her school has responded and why no threats will make her give up supporting a person's right to a legal, safe abortion procedure. 

Ms. Broder explains in the article how her world got turned upside down:  

I have very strong and passionate beliefs and views on bodily autonomy and women's rights. I was following something on Twitter and I saw a video clip of protesters at a clinic in another city. I tweeted or made a comment, "Wow. That's so horrible. I'm so glad that doesn't happen where I live," in my ignorance. Then someone commented back, "Oh, yes it does, right down the road." I was like, "What? Where? Can I be an escort?" They said, "Yes and let me hook you up," so I got hooked up though Twitter with an escort group in Raleigh, North Carolina. That's how it started. 

I'm not sure how I was targeted for this. All I can tell you is that I got [one activist] called out for trespass, me personally. It was July of 2014, and I was escorting, and he went behind our building and another building, and he hid in the bushes waiting for the doctor. I was afraid if he jumped out of the bushes at him, someone could get hurt. I called the police for that reason. I think that made it personal. He learned my name fairly early on and he calls me by name. "You know, Shana, you were nice when you first started." I have him on video saying, "You were nice. What you were doing was evil but you weren't a bad person when you first started this but the darkness is taking over you." 

He called me out. He told me he would come to my school. He named my school. Another man who is in this group, AHA [Abolish Human Abortion], who lives in my town — that scares me — he has told me he's going to come to my school and tell all the parents that I'm a baby murderer. Pure intimidation tactics.

At first nothing happened, but then the next year the anti-choice folks followed up on their threats and the school started receiving harassing phone calls referring to her as a "baby murderer." And then they took to Facebook and started sharing the graphic at the top of the page, until it was essentially everywhere.

Now this poor woman, a teacher of small children, feels threatened and under siege in her own community.

Fortunately her school has rallied around her and she has support from her fellow teachers, and of course she is in no danger of losing her job.

However the question remains how long will it be before the people making these threatening accusations are no longer simply happy using words to cause her harm?

Because as we have seen time and time again, this kind of illogical hatred can often take the form of physical violence and even murder.

Dr. George Tiller.

Personally I think this woman is incredibly courageous and hope that she serves as an inspiration for others to consider volunteering at their local clinics as well.