Tag Archives: MAGA

crime news

Does ex-POTUS want prison time?

It is striking to listen to the bellicose blathering of the blowhard who once served as our commander in chief.

He’s been convicted by a jury of his peers of 34 felony counts. Donald Trump continues to insist he’s innocent of any wrongdoing. He says the jury was rigged. The trial was a sham. The judge is a crook.

Now … why is this important? Because in about a month, the same judge who presided in NYC over the hush money trial is going to hand down a sentence. It might include probation. It might include some time behind bars.

The judge is Juan Merchan, who’s thought to be a meticulous jurist. One of the things I’ve always heard about sentencing procedures is that judges look for contrition among criminal defendants. They look for some semblance of ownership that the defendant did something wrong.

Judge Merchan isn’t getting any of that from this defendant. He’s getting insults, invective, epithets and threats of violent reaction.

All of this makes me wonder if Donald John Trump actually is inviting some prison time.

Don’t you know that July 11 is going to be an extremely big day.

national news

Perfection: impossible to find

1 Comment

Those out there who seek to build the “perfect nation” in the mold, for instance, of the current Republican cult leader who’s heading for his party’s presidential nomination, need a serious lesson on what our founders intended for us.

These wise men knew from the outset that perfection was too steep a hill to climb. They wrote in the preamble to our cherished Constitution: “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union … “

There you have it in the second clause of our nation’s government framework. They knew that perfection was out of their reach, and out of the reach of those who would follow.

Indeed, the founders — as learned as many of them were — enacted a Constitution that over time has proved to be far from perfect. The men who wrote it didn’t grant women the right to vote; that constitutional amendment didn’t come into being until 1920, for crying out loud!

They didn’t grant the rights of citizenship to Black people, who were still enslaved in 1789. Freedom from human bondage didn’t arrive until 1863 and then it took another century to enact legislation guaranteeing Black citizens the full rights of citizenship.

The issue for me is the tone of the rhetoric I hear from those on the far right, the MAGA cultists who don’t understand what the founders intended when they sought to create a “more perfect Union.” They knew from the outset what has been lost on too many Americans who march to the cadence dictated by their leader.

It is that those of us who love this country must also understand a fundamental truth about it. It isn’t perfect and we are unlikely ever to make it so.

military news, national news, political news

What would Ike think?

2 Comments

Today and other days this week have my mind flashing back to the first president I remember during my tine on this Earth.

I was born in 1949, during the second term of Harry Truman’s administration. My initial memory of the president begins with Dwight Eisenhower.

I want to preface my brief remarks by reminding readers of these facts. Eisenhower led the World War II Allied forces to victory in Europe in 1945. The victory march began 80 years ago today when Ike ordered the D-Day invasion of northern France to begin. He achieved General of the Army status. He ran for the presidency in 1952 and won in a landslide; he would repeat the landslide victory four years later.

Ike was a Republican and today I am wondering: What in the name of all that is holy would President Eisenhower think of what has become of the party he once led to the pinnacle of power?

Ike wasn’t a career politician when he decided to run for president. He had spent his professional life in the military, arguably the least political job one can hold in service to the public. His concerns didn’t rely on political considerations.

Eisenhower led by example and was adamantly faithful to the oath he took to protect and defend the Constitution. He took the oath while wearing his uniform and then as president of the United States.

I cannot help but wonder what Ike would think of the great political party he once led in this era of fealty to one man. Gen. Eisenhower died in 1969, just eight years after leaving the presidency in the hands of the “next generation” led by President John F. Kennedy.

He warned us in his farewell speech of the dangers of the “military-industrial complex.” He knew those dangers better than almost any other living American in that moment.

This man was a leader. He wore his military uniform with pride and was far from the “sucker” and “loser” that one of his presidential successors has proclaimed others who choose that career to be.

That successor, himself a sucker and loser and now a convicted felon, would be unfit to carry Eisenhower’s briefcase. Yet here is, leading Ike’s once-great political party.

What has happened to the Grand Old Party?

Uncategorized

DOJ is the wrong target

2 Comments

Can we set the record straight while seeking to determine who is responsible for what cases? Sure, I’ll try …. not that it’ll do any good, given the numbskulls whose vacuous brains I need to probe.

Donald Trump is now a convicted felon. A jury of 12 of his peers delivered a stunning unanimous decision convicting him on 34 counts associated with his hush money payment to Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels. She and the former POTUS had a fling in a hotel room in 2006 and Trump paid her to keep quiet about an event he denies even occurred.

The jury believed her and not him. What does Trump do in response? He blames President Biden for bringing the case against him. He and his allies blame the Justice Department for “weaponizing” its resources to “get” the former POTUS.

He calls Judge Juan Merchon everything but the spawn of Satan. He says the judge is corrupt.

Let’s hold it for a moment. This case was brought by the state of New York. He was prosecuted by an elected district attorney who does not answer to the DOJ, let alone the president. This case was handled under the rule of law. It was done properly. The jury heard the evidence and then delivered its verdict.

I cannot help but wonder whether the former Liar in Chief is cutting his own throat by trashing the very judge who, on July 11, could sentence him to prison. The judge vows to follow the law.

However, he is a human being.

crime news

Mooch: Trump will ‘implode’

1 Comment

Anthony Scaramucci served briefly as communications director during Donald Truomp’s term as POTUS … so he professes, I presume, to have some sort of inside knowledge on the state of what passes for the former Liar in Chief’s mind.

The Mooch said this weekend that the former Philanderer in Chief is going to “implode” before the Nov., 5 election.

Someone will have to explain what occurs when someone implodes. I don’t know that Scaramucci, a lawyer by profession, can answer that medical/psychological question.

However, it does present an interesting scenario to ponder while the legal system continues to do its work on the former POTUS.

The 45th POTUS is playing the tough-guy card, telling us he’ll appeal the conviction handed down this week in the hush money case. Jurors deliberated about nine hours and then return a verdict that convicted the defendant on all 34 felony counts.

The ex-POTUS is entitled to appeal. I certainly don’t begrudge him from exercising his constitutional right to appeal this duly constituted decision by a jury of his peers.

But what does an implosion look like? He might begin spouting nonsense. He could physically attack a reporter who dares question him about how he feels being the only ex-president ever convicted of a crime, let alone multiple felonies.

The one-time big man seems considerably smaller now that he joins other convicted felons facing the prospect of jail time.

Does that cause an implosion? I’m willing to wait for it.

crime news

Conviction changes the game

2 Comments

A 34-count felony conviction of a former president of the USA enables us now to take a fresh look at the political depths to which this nation has sunk.

Donald Trump was found guilty this week — unanimously, by a jury in New York City — of illegally paying an adult film actress hush money to keep quiet about a tumble the two of them took in 2006. He said the event didn’t occur; she said it did. The district attorney’s office provided proof of a payment to the Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels.

So, the man seeking the Republican Party presidential nomination for the third election cycle in a row will seek that nod as a convicted felon. The party is likely to do little more than blink, wink and shrug at the prospect before anointing him as the party’s 2024 nominee.

The former moron in chief called the verdict “rigged.” He called the judge corrupt. He said he did nothing wrong but did “everything right.”

His supporters call the trial a “sham.” Let us remember one critical point: The jury of seven men and five women was cleared to hear the case by legal counsel on both sides. Yes, Trump’s team OK’d the 12 jurors selected for this historic task. That it delivered a decision not to their liking, though, gives them zero license to challenge the criminal justice system’s integrity.

Republican convention delegates will gather soon in Milwaukee to nominate their next presidential candidate. He’s the same individual who has denigrated a Vietnam War hero, a Gold Star family. a reporter with a physical handicap, who has admitted to committing sexual assault, who was impeached twice by the House and now is a convicted felon.

GOP delegates don’t give a damn about their candidate’s (lack of) character. If this idiot returns to the Oval Office, we are in far greater danger than many of us ever imagined.

crime news

Run, felon, run!

Two dates are staring the next Republican Party presidential nominee in his orange-hued face.

July 11, 2024 is the first date. New York District Juan Merchan has set that date as the start of a sentencing hearing for the former POTUS, who on Thursday was convicted on all 34 felony counts related to the hush money payment he made to an adult film actress.

Then it gets even hairier for the former Philanderer in Chief. On July 15, 2024, Republicans are likely to nominate the felon as their party’s next presidential candidate.

It has come down to this. Republicans now are relying on a man convicted of 34 felony counts to carry their party banner in the next election against an incumbent who defeated him four years ago. The defeated GOP nominee never had the good grace to accept defeat and to pledge cooperation with the new president … which Barack Obama did in 2016 when the ex-Liar in Chief won the election.

Do we live in a topsy-turvy world … or what?

I suggest we all hang on with both hands, because the ride is going to get seriously wild.

legal news

Alito’s wife is the boss?

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has acknowledged that he flies an upside-down Old Glory at his home. It’s an international symbol of distress.

Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t mind one little bit about the flag. However, and this is important: Alito sits on the nation’s highest court that might have to decide whether POTUS No. 45 is immune from prosecution or whether he broke the law by pilfering classified documents away from the White House.

What we have here is a perception problem.

Alito said he and his wife co-own the house they share and that he cannot dictate to her whether she can fly the flag in that manner. He said he told her to take it down, but she refused. Really?

Why in the name of good husbandship doesn’t he just take the damn thing down himself? I guess the rules in the Alito household prohibit such ballsy behavior.

To be fair, I have to hand it to Justice Alito at least for recognizing there could be a perception problem, given that he asked his wife to remove the flag. What astounds me to no end, though, is why he didn’t act on it in a more, um forceful manner.

As for Mrs. Alito, she is making a political statement that has a direct impact on how her husband might be asked to do his job.

Chief Justice John Roberts has refused to meet with congressional Democrats to discuss the matter. Alito says he won’t recuse himself from any future action involving POTUS No. 45.

And as a friend of mine said in a social media meme earlier today, it’s more than a little weird that a man who cannot control what his wife does in his house feels compelled to dictate to millions of women how they must handle reproductive rights.

We live in a bizarre political environment.

crime news, legal news

Verdict is in: guilty!

Before we dance too far into the weeds of what Donald Trump’s conviction on all 34 felony counts of illegal campaign funding, I want to share a quick thought or two.

I accept the jury’s verdict. Second of all, the 45th POTUS — as predicted — called the trial a sham, a farce and said the fight is “far from over.”

Third, and this is most critical, the seven men and five women who today delivered their decision were all approved by the prosecutors and by Trump’s legal team. They were vetted carefully in accordance with New York state law,

For the 45th POTUS to suggest the trial was rigged against him means he doesn’t accept what I have just laid out … which is that his legal team approved the jurors right along with the prosecution.

So, there you have it. We have a convicted felon running for president of the United States.

Well done, jurors.

media news

Media are supposed to be at odds with government

As followers of this blog know, I enjoyed a modestly successful career as a print journalist, which I pursued with great joy and dedication.

Never once during my nearly 37 years on the job did I ever consider myself anyone’s “enemy.” Certainly not the readers I served while working for newspapers in Oregon and Texas.

The climate today is vastly different than the one I entered in the 1970s. I came out of college intent on changing the world, a la journalists who had done their parts toward that end. I didn’t want to change it to fit my own description of what the world should resemble.

My intent was to report on issues I saw developing and seek remedies to bring changes to flaws I recognized and identified. I don’t believe that’s a nefarious motive.

I just watched a 90-minute documentary on Dan Rather, the former TV news anchor who, in his words, always sought the truth and tried to tell it the best he could. One of the principals quoted in the Netflix piece alluded to the natural tension between government and those who report on it via the media.

The tension was natural, and it was precisely as the nation’s founders intended. Media representatives are assigned the task of rooting out wrongdoing, of reporting on what government is doing well, of telling the human stories that affect every community … and of offering commentary that provides leadership and guidance to a community that seeks it.

I want to take a moment to express my pride in the craft I still pursue and of those who are pursuing full time to this very day. They are facing some ferocious headwinds from those who seek to run our government and therefore set policy on our behalf.

Those of us who know about those forces resisting our best efforts understand fully the need for journalists to keep moving forward. Are we perfect? Do we get it right every single time?

Hell no! We are human beings! We do, though, answer to what I believe is a high calling.