media news

Trump has ‘murdered’ ’60 Minutes’

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At this very moment I am thinking of some of the titans of American broadcast journalism, men and women who sought the truth and told it to us without fear of recrimination.

You know who they are: Mike Wallace, Ed Bradley, Leslie Stahl, Bob Simon, Harry Reasoner, Morley Safer, Diane Sawyer, Dan Rather and now … Scott Pelley.

They all worked for “60 Minutes,” the premier TV news show that exposed everything — good and bad — about the government for which we pay. Pelley, a West Texas native, recently spoke aloud about the dangers of censorship and government overreach being inflicted by the Donald J. Trump administration, which seeks to control the news that’s being reported.

Pelley has lost his job at “60 Minutes,” along with reporters Cecelia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi. This is a dark time for American journalism.

Pelley’s ouster hits me in a vaguely visceral way. I don’t know him, but I am good friends with a fellow West Texan who attended Texas Tech University with Pelley. My friend is now retired from journalism and he has told me a story or two about Pelley’s journey into the spotlight.

The First Amendment is supposed to guarantee a free and unfettered press. Congress “shall make no law” that seeks to control the media, the amendment declares. Trump has engineered the takeover of CBS News by MAGA-friendly execs. They have executed the removal of journalists they deem as threats to the POTUS. We are witnessing a disgraceful flouting of the very rights the First Amendment guarantees to maintin our representative democracy.

I just might join that movement to boycott CBS News.

crime news, legal news

Clown show adds another player

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Legal scholars need not apply for any position within the Trump administration that requires knowledge of the U.S. Constitution. All you have to be is a pal to Donald J. Trump.

Todd Blanche, who once served as Trump’s criminal defense lawyer, appears to be POTUS 47’s latest pick to be attorney general. He replaces the disgraced Pam Bondi, another dedicated Trumpkin who got canned a few weeks ago.

This is what it’s come down to, as Trump seeks to find “the best people” to fill these posts.

Blanche has been acting AG since Bondi got the boot. I’ll give him credit for reportedly persuading Trump to scrap the $1.8 billion slush fund that POTUS sought to set up to pay rewards for many of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists.

That’s not good enough, however, for Blanche to assume the role as the “people’s lawyer.”

I am left to breathe a heavy sigh of disgust.

local news, media news

Trump’s mind is officially a goner

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You might want to write this down if you’re inclined,  but just keep it in mind as you ponder the future of Donald J. Trump’s political career.

It’s now as clear as it gets that the 45th and 47th POTUS has lost what used to pass as what was left of his mind. Why? Because the dimwit in chief wants to unilaterally pull the broadcast license of ABC News because it has the temerity to broadcast “negative news” about his administration.

Holy … moly, man!

Scott Pelley, a West Texan known as the voice of “60 Minutes,” a CBS News program, spoke recently in quoting one of our nation’s founders, James Madison. The fourth president said in 1800, Pelley recalled, that a “free press guarantees the rights of all the civil liberties we enjoy.” That is why the First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the existence of a “free press.”

No matter their political party — be they Democratic-Federalist, Whig, Republican, Democrat — every U.S. president has accepted the role of a free press in holding our government accountable to the people they serve.

That’s every president until this one.

No president likes all the coverage they get from the free press. No matter their party affiliation, they hve griped aloud that the media are unfair. One could argue, indeed, that the media went too far in covering President Clinton’s impeachment, or that it labeled President George W. Bush a dim bulb during his time in the White House. Did any of our presidents seek openly to revoke the license of a media outlet just becausse they don’t shade the news coverage to suit their shallow-skinned egos? Nope!

Trump is an idiot disguised as a martyr for the MAGA movement he created and is now leading toward history’s trash heap.

local news

Our crook? Pfffttt!

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A letter to the editor that appeared in today’s Dallas Morning News dredges up an old saying that seeks to dismiss crooked politicians’ seedy behavior.

The writer refers to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s behavior since taking office in January 2015. “Paxton may be a crook,” the letter writer suggests, “but he’s our crook.” The writer sought to draw a parallel between Paxton’s shenanigans and those that bedeviled President Nixon in the 1970s, and how the GOP then sought to unify itself behind the wounded pol.

Sigh …

I must ask, though, when does a crooked politician ever seek to benefit his constituents with lawless behavior? Nixon sought to save his hide by covering up his involvement in the Watergate scandal of 1972-74. It didn’t work out well for the president.

Paxton has been alleged — or actually caught — to have done a number of seedy things. They involve marital infidelity, securities fraud, payoffs to political pals, bribery. None of it helps the people who he served as AG. Several highly experienced lawyers blew the whistle on much of that nonsense — and they lost their jobs as a result.

This “our crook” BS reminds me of what they used to say about a crusty ol’ Democrat who represented Southeast Texas in Congress until 1995, when he got voted out in the Contract With America election. They used to say of the late Jack Brooks, that he was a “son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch.” Brooks actually liked that description of himself. But he continued to deliver the goods to the labor union and Black families who supported him no matter what.

The DMN letter writer seems appropriately skeptical of Paxton’s history. However, I consider him a plain ol’ crook.

political news

Paxton didn’t get a mandate in that GOP runoff

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Before the MAGA morons who supported Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Republican runoff victory over John Cornyn get too full of themselves, allow me to briefly put a this victory into some perspective.

Yes, the AG scored a decisive victory, beating the U.S. senator by 27 percentage points in the runoff. However, Paxton only tallied about 12,000 more votes in the runoff than he got in the GOP primary.

The runoff turnout fell into the basement compared to the already low primary turnout. That, by itself, is not unusual. Republicans, though, do not appear to be too enthused by someone topping their ticket who is so heavily damaged by political and personal scandal as Paxton.

Paxton’s wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, is divorcing him on “biblical grounds,” which is a sort of shorthand for all extramarital affairs he’s had. His top legal aides blew the whistle on him for alleged unethical behavior. A Collin County grand jury indicted him on charges of securities fraud. Texas Republicans impeached him in the Texas House.

And so, Texas Democrats are licking their chops waiting for the fall campaign to begin. Their Senate candidate, state Rep. James Talarico, is a choir boy compared to the AG.

As for Sen. Cornyn, do you really believe he is going to campaign for the MAGA dipshit who defeated him?

Uncategorized

Interest grows in wanting Iran war to end

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I have an interest in seeing the Iran war come to an end and it has nothing to do with whether I would be called up or whether my sons would face the same future.

Hey, they’re both too old as I certainly am.

My interest in the war’s end is rooted in my retirement account. I read just a few minutes ago that consumers are now bracing for the biggest monthly decline in oil prices in six years, that June might signal a stellar month for retirement accounts across the land. The war that Donald Trump launched has cost us all a ton of money. Why launch a war remains the question of the day … and Trump appears none too ready to explain a damn thing about why he did it.

When word leaks out that negotiators are getting close to a deal, the market goes bonkers. When we hear from Trump about plans to bomb the hell out of Iran, markets tank dramatically.

The rumor mill now is grinding out reports of a deal in the works. If it’s true, then I will be among the first to offer Donald Trump some qualified praise. Ending the Iran war will allow me to breathe more easily as I look farther down the retirement road. The only qualification I will have will be in learning why in the hell we went to war with Iran in the first place.

It had better be worth it.

Donald Trump, national news

Judicial system stands tall

Before you declare the death of our system of representative democracy, allow me — please — to offer these words in the form of a pre-rebuttal.

The federal judiciary.

The court system has stepped up and performed its constitutionally mandated duty in reigning in the overreach of the executive branch of government … precisely as the nation’s founders said it should.

Federal judges have ruled this week that (1) Donald Trump has no constitutional authority to create a $1.8 billion slush fund to spend at his discretion, and (2) there is no way the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts can have Donald Trump’s name installed without a constitutional approval.

On top of all that, the D.C. rumor mill has kicked into hyper-high gear with reports that Trump might have to vacate his office with worsening health conditions and the stress of an agenda that is getting the better of him.

I don’t know about you but my head is spinning. I cannot begin to keep pace with what I see and hear coming from the nation’s capital.

Trump also is reportedly going to offer pardons to several convicts who were tried and found guilty of crimes involving the Jan. 6 assault on the government, the attack that injured several DC police officers. Such a pardon, according to the courts, would be an arrogant flouting of constitutional law.

I am not a constitutional scholar. I have no law degree. I know, though, what the document declares about government finances. It puts that authority solely in the hands of Congress. Trump doesn’t seem to get that fact. Article I, Section 7, says this: “All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives … “ Throughout Article I, there isn’t a single word that reveals any wiggle room on the issue of congressional authority on budget matters. Congress owns it exclusively … full stop!

Keep standing tall, federal judges. Keep doing your job. Our founders gave you the power that never ends.

national news, political news

How’d we go from best to worst?

This point deserves to be repeated, so … therefore I will do so.

I will go to the Great Beyond never understanding how the American voting public could stop insisting on selecting the best among us for high office and settle for the worst among us.

Our values have been turned on their ears. We no longer care if our president is a serial philanderer, or that he is a convicted felon, lacks any semblance of a moral compass, or mocks war heroes, disabled Americans.

We set aside his lies as long as he tells us what we want to hear.

I am not going to give up on the idea that our quest for the best of us is a lost cause. It can return. Indeed, it did briefly with the election in 2020 of President Biden. Then he was gone. We got the nimrod he defeated in 2020 back for a second term after he pledged in plain English that his next term would be run with a vengeance.

Many of us said, “Hey, that’s OK! As long as he delivers the goods.” Donald Trump hasn’t delivered a damn thing!

Uncategorized

Candidate will be gone, ideology will remain

One day quite soon, I am confident that our American political system will rid itself of the poisonous MAGA founder, Donald Trump.

He’s been elected twice as president. The Constitution says two terms is enough. No more. He’ll be gone and on Jan. 20, 2029, someone new will take office.

I will be glad to send Trump packing. I fear, however, that the movement he founded will linger for a good while longer. It will lurk in the shadows. It will present itself on occasion when the right candidate feels comfortable enough to run on the MAGA notion … whatever the hell it is.

I say this provide some counsel to those who are looking forward to Election Day 2028 when Trump’s name won’t be on the ballot for the first time since 2012 when Barack Obama won re-election as president. The 2016, 2020 and 2024 elections all had Trump’s name on ballots.

This imbecile has poisoned the presidency. His corruption is utterly breathtaking. So is his vengefulness. His lack of empathy, his grace, his collegiality all are MIA. Trump’s poison will take time to cleanse itself.

Trump’s exit is welcome. I won’t be cheering too loudly, knowing that what he has built will remain.

national news

GOP finds its spine

Great day in the morning … as it appears the congressional Republican caucus has discovered its spine and perhaps even grown a collective set of stones.

What prompted this late-blooming coming of age for the GOP caucus? It’s the slush fund founded by Donald J. Trump, the lame-duck POTUS who has found a way to potentially reward the traitors who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Trump settled a $10 million lawsuit he filed against the Internal Revenue Service claiming the IRS violated his rights by demanding he release his tax returns. But he also managed to squirrel away nearly $1.8 million for a slush fund he can use for whatever purpose he wants.

This act has actually enraged congressional Republicans. They seem sincerely angry about it, avoiding milquetoast terms like “unacceptable” or “disappointing.” Oh, no. Sen. Thom Tillis, the retiring GOP member from North Carolina, calls it “stupid on stilts.” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who lost his primary bid for re-election to a MAGA fanatic, predicts this act is going to push the House and Senate into Democratic hands this November. GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas predicts that millions of Republican voters will cast their ballots for Democrats, ensuring a flip of congressional power.

It’s futile to ask, “What the hell took ’em so long?”

What is remarkable, though, is that the GOP is speaking out even as Trump continues to flex his muscle and doom otherwise faithful GOP candidates’ chances against even more radical foes. Indeed, Cornyn might face that fate tonight in his runoff race against scandal-ridden Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

I don’t know where all this is heading. I hope it produces a congressional result that suits my bias. Time will tell on that matter. Still, it does make me smile at the thought of Republicans finding their voice as it relates to the shameless corruption that continues to flow from the White House.

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