Category Archives: crime news

crime news

It’s the masks, man … the masks

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Of all the issues surrounding the deployment of federal goons disguised as immigration agents, one issue stands out as particularly troubling to this American patriot.

It’s the use of masks to hide the identity of these brutes as they arrest folks on suspicion that they might be here illegally or worse, up to no good at all.

I heard a Donald Trump administration official explain the reason for the masks, which generally are pullover cloths meant to cover all but the eyes. You’ve seen ’em, right? They cover the faces of heavily armed men who are packing guns, stun devices, cuffs and/or zip ties and are wearing flak jackets under their camo shirts. They wear the masks to protect officers against angry protesters,  the explanation goes.

They present a frightening profile of individuals on orders from the top of the federal chain of command to round up crooks, killers and assorted bad guys. Except too many of them have been law-abiding U.S. citizens. And, yes, a couple of them have died after being shot by these goons.

I am trying to square this method of policing by intimidation with what I see every day in the North Texas community where I live and in neighboring cities and towns throughout the area. I see officers engaging in what they call “community policing,” where police interact one-on-one with residents, building trust between taxpayers and The Man. Princeton police engage in a regular session that includes walks through neighborhoods with residents, giving them a chance to ask questions of the cops.

I want to draw that parallel because we are told that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are being deployed to “enforce the law.” Their tactics, though, run totally counter to the type of police work I see almost daily in the city where I live. We’re on a first-name basis with many of the police who patrol our streets. In places at this moment like Minneapolis, ICE agents are hiding behind masks … and presenting an image of intimidation and fear.

The ICE presence is, to say the least, an astonishingly bad look for the agency and the officers who now are feeling the rage of a community under siege.

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How can they deny the obvious?

I don’t why I am surprised, but the notion that Repuiblicans in Congress who fled for their safety on Jan. 6, 2021 are now denying what happened on the day of the insurrection does astound me beyond measure.

I cannot believe any of them when they say the attack on the Electoral College that day was no big deal, that Donald Trump did nothing wrong by refusing to call for the end of the traitors’ assault on the electoral process. Yet they did so again when special counsel Jack Smith offered testimony explaining the process that led his team to conclude beyond any doubt that Trump broke the law on that horrible day.

I will go to my grave without ever forgiving them for their betrayal of their oath to protect the Constitution and for allowing Trump to get away with the crimes he clearly committed.

 

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Impeachment: good for nation

If the midterm election produces the result many millions of us want, I am quite sure we are going to get a needed boost to our constitutional democracy … which has taken a battering for the past year under the heavy hand of Donald J. Trump.

The boost well could come in the form of an impeachment of Trump. Yes, it is going to produce plenty of vicious anger. But I am OK with it. Why? Because we are going to have what I hope is an open debate on the usurping of power we have witnessed in real time since Trump took office in January 2025.

That power grab is in itself grounds for impeaching a president who, in my view, has violated the oath he took when he returned to the Oval Office for a second time.

He wants to censure a sitting U.S. senator for speaking the truth about following — or not following — unlawful orders. Trump wants the Justice Department to investigate the Fed chairman on the pretext that he oversaw cost overruns on remodeling the Federal Reserve Board. Trump has sent military personnel into harm’s way against Venezuela without seeking congressional approval. Trump appointed a U.S. attorney unlawfully to launch investigations into a former FBI director and the attorney general for the state of New York.

And this just happened in 2025, the year that has just passed into history’s dust bin.

Democrats appear poised to regain control of the House. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that Senate control could flip, too, when they count the votes for the midterm election.

The debate over the charges that could come forth will be spirited. Probably angry. Maybe even vicious and personal. The Constitution will see us through the pending rough ride.

Our founders built a government that is resilient enough to bend a great deal … without breaking. It is strong enough to endure a presidential impeachment while allowing Congress to do the rest of the work to which the Constitution empowers it.

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Impeachment coming? Sure, bring it!

Let’s assume for a moment that the political smart money is telling us the truth, that the next Congress is going to flip to Democratic control and that the House of Reps is going to launch an impeachment against Donald Trump.

We all have heard that Democrats might gain 30 seats on the Republicans who now control Congress. I can’t say whether the pundits think the 30-seat gain is at the top of their projection, at the bottom … or somewhere in the middle. If Trump continues on his slap-dash course it well could exceed the 30-seat turnover by a significant margin.

Is an impeachment necessary? I will allow my bias to peek through the haze and declare: Damn right it’s necessary! I will offer this caveat: I want Democrats to assure us that they can more than one thing at a time, that they can proceed with impeaching Trump and resume their constitutional role of making laws.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York is likely to be elected speaker and he ought to take a page from the book followed in Texas by then-Speaker Pete Laney. The West Texas cotton farmer said he always simply allowed “the will of the House” to have its way. And so it went during the years that Laney served as the Man of the House.

The will of the U.S. House should be allowed to play the hand it is dealt. If most members believe — as I do — that Trump has committed an impeachable offense or three, then it should act. It also should not allow the legislative process to get caught in a political vise that will clamp down around the White House.

We’ve all heard them say that lawmakers can “do more than one thing at a time.” Impeaching a president is serious business. So is legislating.

crime news

Hold it, masked men!

Ask yourself this question, which I believe is pertinent to the issues discussion we are having these days in the U.S. of A.

How would I feel if I were stopped by a burly dude, armed to the teeth, wearing a flak jacket, with the word “ICE” emblazoned on his chest … and all the while he is hiding his face behind a pullover mask that only reveals his eyes?

My first response? I would be scared feces-less at the sight. I wouldn’t know what to say to any question this fellow might pose.

Now, look, under normal circumstances I couldn’t care less what a law enforcement professional is wearing. These days it’s different, so I am going to comment briefly on the public relations image these ICE agents are presenting to a public that has grown angry at their presence.

ICE stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It has become a stand-alone word, kinda like MAGA and FUBAR.

These agents charged with finding undocumented immigrants, arresting them and then deporting them present a frightening image not just to those on their target list but to anyone, even those with nothing to fear.

It’s the masks, man, that give these guys their intimidating image.

I guess it must be the type of image Donald Trump wants to project, given his own stated admiration for world leaders who govern with an iron hand. He wishes he could do so in the United States, except for the Constitution that limits the power of the president.

As one of millions of Americans who are paying for this dog-and-pony show, I just have to declare my own disgust at the image these ICE agents are projecting while terrorizing fellow human beings. Those who are being terrorized deserve to see the faces of those who are bullying them.

crime news

What and when did Trump know about Epstein?

Donald Trump’s refusal to release for public view all the files contained about Jeffrey Epstein — the late sex trafficker and abuser of underage girls — compels me to circle back to a point I have made on this and other issues.

Which is this: If the president of the United States is as clean as Trump says he is, then he should release the files untouched by redactions and allow the public full access to information that can answer a key question about Trump. What did POTUS know and when did he know it?

I do not believe Trump was involved directly in the crimes for which Epstein was convicted and jailed. I am one American patriot who wants to know if the future president knew in real time whether Epstein and his girlfriend, Gyslane Maxwell, were rounding up girls and subjecting them to Epstein’s desire to be pleasured by them.

Trump says there’s nothing to see in those files. Really, Mr. Liar in Chief? Release the damn files and let us determine whether you’re right, that there’s nothing in them that implicates Trump. Fine … but Trump and Epstein once were besties. Therefore, did Trump know about the hideous crimes Epstein was committing?

Trump eventually would run for president. He won in 2016 and in 2024. It would have been important for Trumpkins to know whether their guy was hobknobbing with a sex trafficker. That’s kind of important, don’t you think?

Trump and the Justice Department are refusing to let us see those files. That leads to believe the files contain something in there that is going to cause the POTUS some serious grief.

I believe we might be witnessing a White House coverup.

crime news

Trump denigrates Reiner’s memory

ruth be told, I cannot bring myself to offer any analysis of the hideous message Donald Trump posted on the deaths of Rob and Michelle Reiner.

It was ghastly, profoundly boorish, stated in the worst taste imaginable. I will share it here. You be the judge: “Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME. He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!”
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Bombing boats: self-defeating ‘strategy’

A whole lot of top U.S. military brass is weighing in on Donald Trump’s decision to order missile strikes on speed boats that allegedly are carrying lethal drugs into the United States of America.

You know the drill. We have sent an aircraft carrier strike force into the Caribbean Sea to look for boats that the Trump administration says are loaded with fentanyl. They’re killing people at sea, basing their actions on the aim of protecting U.S. citizens against the drug horror that allegedly is coming to this country from the speed boats.

The brass is saying: What a minute. Let’s rethink this nonsense!

What I am hearing is that retired general-grade officers are saying the better strategy is to board the boats, seize what they’re carrying, take the operators into custody and then interrogate them to get information on the drug networks for which they are working.

But … no-o-o-o-o! Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth want to shoot first and ask questions later. What they are doing is destroying evidence they could use to prosecute the drug runners!

We have this ridiculous strategy that also has encountered allegations that the administration is committing a war crime by launching these “double-tap” air strikes to kill survivors of the initial missile strikes against the speed boats. And, get this: Donald Trump — who claimed to have bone spurs to avoid service in the Vietnam War — is talking openly about sending U.S. troops into Venezuela to launch a ground combat operation to root out the drug dealers. What the hell … ?

This fraudster in chief is out of ever-lovin’ control!

crime news, local news

Museum always breathtaking

DALLAS — It doesn’t matter how many times I have come to this exhibit — or how many times I will see it in the future — every visit fills me with awe about one of this country’s most profound tragedies.

I came here this week with a dear friend to tour the Sixth Floor Museum, which commemorates the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963. Sixty-two years have passed since that horrifying day and I continue to be struck by how that single senseless act sent a great city’s emotional psyche spiraling into the sewer.

I saw for the first time on this visit a copy of the Dallas Morning News editorial page published on the day of JFK’s visit. The editorial referred to the city’s “partisan cleavage” that would disappear hopefully that day as it welcomed the 35th president of the United States. Indeed, there had been fear that right-wing activists might protest the president’s visit, accusing him of being “soft” on the Soviet Union.

Well, it turned out the world was looking in the wrong direction. Lee Harvey Oswald turned out to be an avowed Marxist who two days later met his own end when a night club owner, Jack Ruby, shot him in the gut as he was being transferred from the city jail to the county lockup.

I continue to be struck by the quietness of the large crowd of museum-goers who were milling around the sixth floor, looking at the artifacts, reading the text on the walls explaining JFK’s legacy, his record, his accomplishments and even where he fell short during the 1,000 days of his presidency. I found myself whispering information into the ear of my friend; I didn’t want to make any sort of unwanted noise. I felt as though we were in a church sanctuary.

I likely won’t ever buy into the notion that John Kennedy should rank among the nation’s great presidents. One thousand days doesn’t give anyone much of a chance to carve out a lasting legislative legacy. He had some success and he fell short a time or two during his time in office.

He did bring a huge wellspring of hope to a nation that needed it in the moment. That hope was blown to bits by the gunman aiming his rifle from the sixth floor of a building that reportedly was destined to be torn down.

I’ll be back again someday. I cannot get enough of that exhibit.

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Closer to the tipping point?

Every day, it seems, we appear to be creeping closer to the tipping point in which Donald J. Trump says something that will spell the end of his failed presidency.

He crossed another huge line this week by saying out loud and in public that six Democratic members of Congress are guilty of sedition, a crime that carries a punishment of death. That’s right. The POTUS has declared that six opposing members of Congress should be executed for speaking out against the orders that Trump is issuing.

What in the world is happening to this nation? Why are we allowing this moron to get away with these sorts of idiotic pronouncements? Here’s the worst of it: Not even a president of the United States who calls for the execution of political opposition could be convicted by a Senate controlled by members of his own political party … because they are in tacit agreement with this dipshit!

Public opinon polling suggests that Trump’s support among Americans is collapsing as he continues to scarf up more power for the executive branch. The polls aren’t “fake,” as Trump contends. They are real and they suggest that Trump’s MAGA base is shrinking before our eyes. When the likes of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, D-Ga., turn on Trump then you know you are witnessing a sea change.

Suppose there was a chance to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which contains a clause about removing the president who is deemed incompetent. Does anyone believe that a majority of this executive branch comprising diehard Trump loyalists is going to sign a document declaring the boss to be unfit for the office? It won’t happen.

That’s why I believe we’re only getting a lot closer to some tipping point that will spell the end of this moron’s time in office.