Category Archives: crime news

crime news, legal news

Patel to take FBI reins … God help us!

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, once revered and venerated for its professionalism, is now being run by a guy who thinks the agency has become a clown show staffed by crooks, charlatans and crackpots.

Kash Patel won Senate confirmation today by a 51-49 vote, hardly the type of mandate that previous FBI directors have traditionally received. The past three FBI directors were confirmed with at least 92 Senate votes.

Patel is about as unqualified and unfit as anyone I’ve ever seen for the job as head of the nation’s premier crime-fighting outfit. It is staffed with thousands of public servants who are dedicated to doing their job and fulfilling their mission to keep us safe from those who wish to do us harm.

Patel once said he intended to close the Hoover FBI Building and turn it into a museum of the “deep state.” He vows to hunt down and prosecute anyone who opposes Donald Trump. What the hell? He has declared war on the media, the only privately held institution in this country granted protection from government influence and interference in the U.S. Constitution.

And this is the dipsh** Trump selected to lead the FBI?

Of the handful of troublesome Trump picks to lead the executive branch, I declared Kash Patel to be the worst of the bunch. I stand by my earlier assessment of this moron’s world view.

Now I will merely pray he chickens out on his threats to weaponize his department.

crime news, national news

Explain this to me … please

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Almost every aspect of today’s political climate requires an understanding that I apparently do not possess.

We used to seek and expect the best among our political leaders. Today we are settling for, well, clowns, misfits, felons and numbskulls. How can this happen to us? Why are we letting it happen?

Donald Trump, the felon in chief, is close to getting a Cabinet he selected that fits the description I have just laid out there. Americans elected this guy despite the felony convictions, two impeachment trials, multiple scandals, a defeat at the polls four years earlier and litany of lies that cannot be compared to any other in U.S. political history.

I will concede this point. Which is that we have witnessed the most astonishing political comeback in recorded history … in my view.

I just cannot fathom how this guy managed to pull this off.

And now he is setting about doing what he vowed to do and then some. He seeks to dismantle the federal government and has brought on board an unelected zillionaire guru to take the government apart piece by piece.

I am seriously frightened.

crime news, legal news

No moral equivalence here

Right-wing MAGA fanatics need to take great care when attaching moral equivalence to two vastly different actions taken by two equally vastly different men.

In one of his final acts as president, Joe Biden issued pre-emptive pardons to members of his family, believing they would spare them from the hassles of being harassed by federal officials loyal to the incoming POTUS.

Those pardons were, shall we say, weird and kind of bizarre. As it has been said many times, innocent people do not need to be pardoned. The family members pardoned by President Biden hadn’t even been charged with any crimes.

Then came the horrendous blanket pardons issued by Donald Trump, freeing about 1,500 traitorous mobsters from punishment for their role in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection against the government. They sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election results and attacked with all-due violence the Capitol cops seeking to protect members of Congress from the hysterical mob.

Some right-wingers have sought to attach the Biden pardons with the Trump pardons. Not a chance! There isn’t a scintilla of moral equivalence to be found!

One of the pardoned traitors, by the way, got into an altercation with Indiana police over the weekend and was shot to death by the cops. History seeking to repeat itself? Well … go figure.

What Trump did in pardoning all the convicted mobsters was send a clear signal that the president had their back in the event they might try to do something similar in the future. The president also gave the middle finger to cops who had suffered grievous injury in defense of our government.

Trump has taken the same oath twice to “protect and defend the Constitution.” He tossed that oath into the crapper the first time and there’s not a thing that I can detect that will prevent him from doing it again.

Therefore, let us end the idiotic attempt to equate the pardons issued by the departing president with those given by the individual who succeeded him.

crime news

Trump sets dangerous precedent

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Donald J. Trump’s pardoning this week of 1,500 or so mobsters who stormed the Capitol Building four years ago sets a precedent that sends chills up my spine … and should frighten you, too.

Many of those pardoned by Trump were involved in violent crimes against Capitol cops, against security officials and against bystanders.

What this idiot has done by pardoning the worst among the insurrectionists is send a message to anyone who, in the future, decides to do the very same thing in his defense that the president has their back. They will not have to pay for the crimes they commit.

Think about that for just a moment. That’s all the time you’ll need to process what this means. It means that Donald Trump has legitimized violence against police; it means the POTUS has decided that it’s OK to desecrate public property — even defecate on the floor — as long as you are defending whatever numbskull policy the president decides to enact.

You want an existential threat to our way of life? Donald J. Trump has just delivered it to us in the form of that blanket pardon of the mobsters who stormed the Capitol at his behest.

Moreover, do not tell me or anyone else that the pardon only affected the non-violent participants. Some very bad actors are walking free today because their MAGA chieftain defied the rule of law on their behalf.

crime news

He stands as a convicted felon!

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Donald J. Trump’s list of “firsts” to be included in his obituary already comprises an unbelievable litany of disgraceful episodes in this man’s truly bizarre life.

First president to be impeached twice by the House of Representatives.

First president to boast about his martial unfaithfulness.

First president to be accused of seeking to overthrow the government.

And now this: First president to enter his second non-consecutive term in office as a convicted felon.

New York District Judge Juan Merchan today issued a sentence that finalizes Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts of paying a porn actress $130,000 to keep quiet about a tryst the two of them had … but that Trump denies ever occurring. Merchan could have sent Trump to prison. He didn’t. He chose instead to issue what they call “unconditional discharge,” meaning that Donald Trump is free to take the oath of office in 10 days.

He will, though, be indelibly stained by the felony conviction on his record. Not that it matters a bit to this narcissistic sociopath who doesn’t exhibit a scintilla of contrition for the verdict delivered by a jury of his peers.

He plans to appeal the conviction.

I am going to accept the judge’s decision to take the action he took. I won’t do so gleefully. I am saddened by the reality that Trump was elected this past November after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden. Voters “fired” Trump from his first job as president, only to send him back … even after he promised to pardon many of the Jan. 6 mobsters who stormed the Capitol that day to stop the certification of the election that Trump lost.

We have just witnessed a dark day in our nation’s rich and varied history.

crime news

We’re going to get a felon as POTUS

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Thanks to a narrow ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, it now is a cinch that on Jan. 20, a convicted felon is going to take the office as the next president of the United States of America.

Donald John Trump won’t do any time in prison, but his conviction on 34 felony counts will stand. The judge in the case involving the hush money that Trump paid to an adult film actress is going to sentence Trump on Friday morning. He won’t send Trump to the slammer. At this point, though, Trump’s incarceration is a side issue.

He will take office as a convicted felon.

Trump had sought to delay the sentencing. SCOTUS voted 5-4 to reject Trump’s appeal. Conservatives John Roberts and Any Coney Barrett joined the court liberals in telling Trump: It’s time to suck it up, big fella.

As they say, it only takes one vote.

And so …. Donald Trump will avoid slammer time, but he’ll still carry the label of felon.

crime news

Ex-Rep. Gaetz: Serial lawbreaker?

OK, here is what we now have learned about a fellow selected by Donald Trump to be the nation’s next attorney general.

The House Ethics Committee report has issued a scathing report of former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., engaging in sex with underage girls, of paying women for sex, illicit drug use, receiving improper gifts and granting special favors to personal associates … and for obstruction of justice.

The dude no longer will be attorney general, as he pulled out of consideration for the chief law enforcer’s post. But you know what? Many, many questions remain about what in the name of careful analysis was Trump thinking when he tossed Gaetz’s name into the hopper?

Good … grief, man!

The ethics panel chose to not file a criminal referral on Gaetz. It surely should have done so. The report suggests that the bipartisan committee found substantial evidence of Gaetz violating Florida’s statutory rape laws. Still, no charges? What the hell … ?

Let’s look briefly at the cavalier attitude Trump exhibited in nominating Gaetz in the first place. The POTUS-elect chose to forgo any criminal background check of his Cabinet nominees, choosing instead to rely on his own, um, instincts. Well, those instincts have revealed plenty about the individual who’s about to become the next president.

And they aren’t good.

Gaetz won’t be AG and for that we all can breathe easily. We still will have Donald Trump sitting in the Oval Office, making decisions affecting our lives.

What has been revealed about Trump’s selection process for a key Cabinet post should make all Americans very afraid of what’s to come when the huckster takes his oath of office.

ABC News reported: In its report, the committee concluded that it did not find substantial evidence that Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws, finding that while Gaetz “did cause the transportation of women across state lines for purposes of commercial sex,” investigators did not find evidence “that any of those women were under 18 at the time of travel, nor did the Committee find sufficient evidence to conclude that the commercial sex acts were induced by force, fraud, or coercion.”

But … Trump surely knew about this behavior and still he picked him to be AG.

Disgusting.

crime news

Another shooting, another yawn from those in power

I am acutely aware that the words from this brief blog post will go unnoticed by those who prowl the halls of power in Austin and Washington.

I’ll offer them anyway.

Another school shooting has claimed the lives of young people who attended class never thinking today would be their final day on this Earth. The shooter, also a juvenile, then turned the gun on himself, according to authorities in Madison, Wis., where the tragedy occurred.

It happened at a Christian school in Wisconsin’s capital city.

At last report, two people — a student and a teacher — died in the gunfire, six were injured.

OK, so what is the question we need to address? I suppose one should be how the young shooter obtained the weapon that I suppose was purchased legally. Did he get it from Mom and Dad’s dresser from an unsecured place? Did the parents do enough to keep the firearm out of the kid’s hands?

Well, too many questions remain to be asked and to be answered.

My concern about those in power deal with their reluctance to even debate these issues openly. Texas has two U.S. senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, who blithely dismiss any legislative remedies to strength anti-gun legislation. North Texas U.S. Rep. Keith Self of McKinney is cast in the same hands-off mold as Cornyn and Cruz.

These men are Republicans, and they follow the mantra muttered by Donald Trump, who actually bragged during the 2024 presidential campaign that he was “proud” to do nothing to stem gun violence in the wake of another recent shooting.

And so, our alleged “leaders” likely will offer their “thoughts and prayers” for the loved ones of those who died or who are recovering from their wounds.

And then nothing will happen.

Shameful.

crime news

Patel to weaponize FBI

Let me see if I have this straight: Donald J. Trump has accused the Biden administration of “weaponizing” the Justice Department to go after Trumpkins and other MAGA goons, yet the new president has selected a guy, Kash Patel, to run the FBI with the expressed purpose of finding political foes and prosecuting them for unknown reasons.

Talk about weaponization!

Patel, of course, has no business running the nation’s top police force. He is a Trump loyalist and so far has spoken the words the boss wants to hear. I use the term “boss” with caution, because in reality you and I are the bosses. Patel doesn’t see it that way. He sees the president as the boss, is answerable only to him and therefore must be held accountable only by the nimrod sitting behind the Resolute Desk.

Not true, not by a long shot.

Patel is likely to get picked apart by Senate Judiciary Committee members, maybe even some of his fellow Republicans.

I’m tellin’ ya, Donald Trump’s next term as president is going to be one for the books … likely the comic books.

crime news

Portland, still alive and vital

PORTLAND — I am happy and proud to report that my hometown’s demise as an urban center full of joy and laughter has been greatly exaggerated.

I took a spin through the city’s downtown district and noticed a couple of things I didn’t quite expect to see. One was that the widespread damage caused by the “Black Lives Matter” riots of 2020 doesn’t exist. The other is a noticeable disappearance of homeless havens scattered throughout the city of my birth.

The MAGA goon squad wanted to infuse the nation with the idea that this urban paradise had gone straight to hell with riots in reaction to George Floyd’s murder at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. I didn’t see any evidence today of Hell on Earth making an appearance in one of the country’s most beautiful cities.

Also missing were the clusters of tents occupied by homeless families along Interstate 5 that I saw the previous time I visited Portland, which was not long after the Minneapolis cop choked the life out of George Floyd. I don’t know what specific action Portland took, but whatever it was it seems to have had a positive impact on the city.

Portland appears to have survived the worst of the reactions that ignited in cities across the land. I drove quickly past Powell’s used book store — the renowned readers paradise along West Burnside; the place was buzzing. I saw plenty of activity along Broadway. Downtown Portland, in a word, was a happening place.

This makes me feel good about the city where I came of age.