Edward "Nick" Robinson, a former official in the United Auto Workers (UAW), pled guilty in federal court Monday to his role in a broader conspiracy to embezzle more than $1 million in union funds. According to the sentencing guidelines in the plea agreement, Robinson faces between 30 and 37 months in prison.

The plea deal means the noose tightens further around disgraced ex-UAW President Gary Jones, who finally resigned last November. Jones has been implicated but not charged in the embezzlement scheme. He resigned several months after his home was raided by federal investigators, but after passage of the new, pro-company, sweetheart labor contracts with the Detroit-based automakers were secured.

Robinson is the latest former top UAW official to be sentenced to a relatively lenient sentence for involvement in the wide-ranging corruption scandal. He is no doubt working with federal investigators to build their case against Jones and other top officials and is in a position to provide devastating evidence against them. At the courthouse Monday, Robinson could be seen smiling and "bear-hugging" federal agents after entering his guilty plea, according to the Detroit News .

Robinson was almost certainly the source of a wiretapped conversation in which Jones offered a no-work job to one of Robinson's relatives in exchange for him taking responsibility for the scandal while remarking they should have "burned the records" of their embezzlement scheme.

Taylor Swift's latest video is more "baby's first political protest" than anything resembling quality entertainment. The Man is basically a lyrical version of a 12-year-old's Twitter feed, not a deep critique of the patriarchy.

If the man Taylor Swift is portraying in her latest music video (unironically entitled The Man) is really how Swift perceives men, one really has to wonder what kind of men Swift has been hanging out with her entire life. The Man portrays toxic masculinity at its most cartoonish and stereotypical - so much so I'm surprised it didn't take a break in the middle of the song to "mansplain" its sophomoric message to the audience.

Indeed, this video has everything an aspiring pre-pubescent feminist who's struggling to pass her women's studies classes could want: female objectification, public urination, ageism, greed, all topped off with a healthy dose of "manspreading" for good measure.

In the video, Taylor Swift plays a "Wolf of Wallstreet"-type of male caricature that would seem more at home in a Brett Easton Ellis novel alongside yuppie serial killer Patrick Bateman than in a pop music vid for teens who've yet to discover what good music really is. In the video, the "male version" of Taylor Swift sets about acting like the most insulting version of a man possible, all to a song by Swift that is about how much better and easier her life would be if she were a man.

A provocative advertisement produced by a Swedish marketing firm has tipped its hat to "womanspreading" — purportedly a female-empowering knock-off of the much-derided male sitting position. The gimmick was not well received.

Swedish department store Hansa, which sells fashion items as well as food and drinks, enlisted Malmo Advertising Agency to stir up its brand image — and it seems the stunt worked. The agency rolled out a video showing a woman in a pink pantsuit spreading her legs wide as she sits on what appears to be a bus or train.

"Celebrate the womanspread," the ad reads.

Malmo Advertising Agency told Swedish media that the idea was inspired by the apparent lack of "woman-spreaders" — apparently paying tribute to the handful of courageous females who bravely spread their legs while sitting in public places.

Author and former Democratic candidate Marianne Williamson called it a "coup" that former candidates threw their support behind former Vice President Joe Biden.

In a since-deleted tweet, Williamson also went after pundits calling Biden's campaign a "resurrection."

She endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders in February and has been campaigning on his behalf at some events.

After performing poorly in Iowa and New Hampshire, Biden dominated South Carolina. Shortly after, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg dropped out and decided to endorse Biden.

Former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who also ran for the Democratic nomination, additionally threw his support behind the former vice president Tuesday night.

Financial writer and precious metals expert Bill Holter says forget about the relatively small sell-off in the gold and silver markets. The big worry shaking the markets is an enormous global credit problem. Holter explains,

"Your protection about the credit market coming down is asset money, if you want to call it that. Gold and silver have no liability. They are not issued by a central bank, and there is no promise that has to be kept for it to perform. . . . Dollars, euros, bonds or what have you, those are all liabilities of a central bank or sovereign treasury. They all carry liability, and that's what the problem is in today's world. It's a world completely awash in liability. . . . I think, ultimately, you are going to see a credit meltdown."

Holter points out the U.S. government "Plunge Protection Team" is not only trying to prop up the stock market, but also is suppressing gold and silver prices. Holter says,

"Friday's hit in the gold market (down $60 per ounce) is obviously an 'official' movement because they don't want people getting the idea that your safe haven is physical gold and silver. In other words, they tried to steer investment away from gold and silver by smashing it with paper contracts."

There are three main reasons why stocks are falling hard.

1. Uncertainty. It's impossible for investors to gauge the economic impact of the rapidly-spreading coronavirus or its effect on stock prices. Investors buy stocks with the expectation that their investment will grow over time. In periods of crisis, when the environment becomes unfamiliar and opaque, expectations are crushed under the weigh of uncertainty. When expectations dampen, investors sell.
2. The Fed. Although investors have not faced a challenge like the coronavirus before, confidence in the Fed has remained surprisingly high. For the last 10 years, investors have seen multiple interventions by the Fed that were aimed at keeping Wall Street happy and stock prices high. Only recently have investors begun to doubt the Fed's ability to stop the market slide by slashing rates or increasing liquidity. As more investors realize that the Fed does not have the tools to address a supply shock, the selloff is likely to accelerate.
3. Stock buybacks. In the last few years, stock prices have not been driven higher by institutional buyers or Mom and Pop investors. The rise is almost entirely attributable to share repurchases or stock buybacks as they are called. According to the Harvard Business Review, "In 2018 alone, with corporate profits bolstered by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, companies in the S&P 500 Index did a combined $806 billion in buybacks, about $200 billion more than the previous record set in 2007." Coronavirus is dramatically impacting corporate earnings projections and many analysts are predicting recession. Shrinking revenues and profits will put a damper on the jet-fuel that had been pushing stocks higher.

The hanging of four death row convicts behind the brutal gang rape and murder of a young woman in 2012 has been delayed by an Indian court for the third time, prompting scores of netizens to vent anger toward the legal system.

A court in Delhi again deferred the convicts' execution "until further orders" on Monday, pushing the date indefinitely into the future following a long series of delays in a case nearly eight years in the making. Though the Delhi government has already recommended the rejection of convict Pawan Gupta's final remaining plea, according to PTI, many online were up in arms over the hold-up regardless, arguing it made a joke of the law.

With 90% of the votes counted in Israel's 3rd-election-in-a-year, the big surprise is Netanyahu's Likud lead over centrist rival Gantz's Blue White. The count is 36 for Likud and 32 for Blue White. For some months Likud was mostly lagging behind, and only in the past two weeks polls started showing a slight edge for Likud over Blue White. Absolutely no poll had predicted this level of victory before election day yesterday.

Still, the count appears to leave Likud's right wing bloc short by 2 seats - at 59 mandates — of reaching a right-wing governing coalition without Blue White, and without Lieberman's seven seats in the Yisrael Beitenu party. For Lieberman has long declared that a unity government without the religious parties, which won 17 seats and are a key part of Netanyahu's bloc, is the only option.

So although this is not yet a decisive victory for Likud and Netanyahu, it's still a major victory, symbolically at least. Netanyahu has already hailed the victory as "the biggest win of my life".

Four years ago I cast a vote for Bernie Sanders in the Virginia Democratic Primary. It was a triple protest: against a Republican party that I was certain would cheat Donald Trump out of the nomination; against Trump's own waffling on torture and foreign policy; and against Hillary Clinton, the hawkish liberal who at that time seemed the inevitable next president of the United States.

I am, obviously, a moderate swing voter. Since turning 18 my presidential votes have included a Republican nominee (Bob Dole), a third-party nominee (Pat Buchanan), a Democratic nominee (John Kerry), two write-ins (Ron Paul and Rand Paul), and another Republican nominee (Trump). Add my 2016 primary vote for Bernie, and you have an obvious pattern: I'm a NeverClinton, NeverBush voter. McCain and Romney were Bushes in everything but the blood; Obama was not enough of an anti-Clinton even in 2008. (Kerry was lousy, to be sure, but had the advantage of running directly against a Bush.) Bernie and Trump, by contrast, represent a break with the establishment politics of the past 30 years, or at least a serious attempt at one. Whatever their other faults, that is a great virtue.

The sudden resignation of longtime MSNBC host Chris Matthews live on air resulted in a spate of theories, with some saying he was chased out by scorned Bernie Bros or Warren fans, while others hail this as another #MeToo victory.

"Tonight, I'm retiring. This is the last Hardball on MSNBC, and obviously this isn't for lack of interest in politics," Matthews said on his show on Monday, explaining that his past "compliments" to female colleagues were "never ok."


While Matthews' on-air mea culpa was enough to explain the decision for some viewers, many theorized there was more going on behind the scenes, suggesting the pundit became the latest target of the #MeToo movement.