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.

environmental news

Heroes emerge to battle fire

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Where does someone far from the action weigh in on a catastrophe unfolding in one of our 50 states?

Fires have consumed tens of thousands of acres of land in southern California. At least six people have died in the inferno. The federal government has declared the area to be a major disaster requiring the government’s full effort.

And yet we hear rumblings that the new presidential administration might be getting set to scale back dramatically the work of the Federal Emergency Management Administration, which was established in the Carter administration to facilitate federal response to disaster.

This cannot happen. And yet the new administration is being led by an individual who believes climate change is a “hoax,” that doesn’t really exist. He is tragically wrong.

I want to concentrate this brief blog post on the heroes who have rushed to the aid of California’s beleaguered firefighters. They have descended on California from throughout the western United States; some have traveled even farther to lend their aid.

The wind has raged across the mountainous region, sending embers many miles to ignite more fire. Entire communities are destroyed, reminding many observers of what occurred in 2024 in Maui. Indeed, I once lived in a region — the Texas Panhandle — that in recent years suffered through the largest wildfire in Texas history, killing thousands of livestock and at least a couple of residents of the region.

The California fires are hard to watch even from some distance.

Is climate change a factor? I believe it is. Thus, we must double-down on our efforts to arrest the conditions that continue to contribute to the changing climate.

Meanwhile, I am going to do what a pastor friend of mine described as “the most we can do” … which is to pray for the well-being of those affected by the unfolding tragedy.,

national news

Carter gets loving sendoff

As far as presidential state funerals go, today’s event honoring the life and legacy of the late President Jimmy Carter was one for the ages.

I don’t generally choose to sit through a televised funeral from start to finish. Today, I did precisely that.

I was struck by several images. One was of Donald J. Trump chatting amicably with Barack H. Obama. Another was the sight of all the living former vice presidents and their wives in the row behind the two presidents. Still another was of the huge Carter family sitting across the aisle, with Amy Carter wiping tears from her eyes.

Steve Ford, son of the late Gerald Ford, and Ted Mondale, son of the late Walter Mondale, read their fathers’ eulogies to Carter, thinking they would outlive the former president who died at age 100.

One family, though, was notably absent from the proceeding today. Nor was there any mention of the patriarch’s name. Former President Ronald Reagan didn’t get a mention that I heard. I saw no evidence of any of Reagan’s three surviving children at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Ronald Reagan, of course, defeated Carter’s re-election bid in a near-historic landslide in 1980.

That there would be nothing stated about Carter’s immediate successor, though, seemed odd and a bit bizarre.

All told, President Carter received a well-earned tribute to his humility, his Christian faith, and the great work he did in the four decades of a full life he lived since the presidency.

national news

How will next POTUS respond?

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I harbor some reluctance to bring this up, but I am going to do so anyway and risk some blowback from MAGA cultists who read this blog.

It is to wonder how the POTUS-elect is going to respond verbally to the tragedy that is unfolding in Los Angeles County, Calif. The worst wildfires reportedly in southern California history are ravaging entire cities, forcing the evacuations of hundreds of thousands of people.

We have heard how Donald Trump has responded before to disasters affecting communities that did not support him politically. He scolds their leadership for alleged incompetence. He does so instead of offering the government’s full support.

California suffered serious damage during Trump’s first term in office. He responded by lecturing leaders on how to keep the brush clear. Why did he do that? Because California is a “blue” state where most voters cast their ballots for Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2016, Joe Biden in 2020 and Kamala Harris in 2024.

I am one American patriot who wants to hear whether the president-elect can exhibit some semblance of compassion and grace. I fear he won’t … and that he will make me angry all over again.

legal news

Finally … a jury summons!

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Nearly six years into my Collin County, Texas, residency and I finally — finally! I am telling you — received a jury summons.

Call me a glutton for punishment, but I want to be selected to serve on a trial jury.

I came close once to getting selected for a trial jury. It occurred in Amarillo back in the late 1990s. I got the summons, reported for duty, then got herded into a jury pool waiting room where we cooled our jets for most of the day.

Then the judge who managed the jury selection, 47th District Judge David Gleason, excused us. I must have been the only juror wannabe who expressed disappointment at that moment.

You see, I long have been fascinated by the criminal justice system. I have wanted to serve on a jury since the time I first became eligible, which I guess was when I turned 21 years of age.

I never received a jury summons when I lived in Oregon. I have received several of them since moving to Texas in the spring of 1984. Except for the near-selection in Randall County, my other summonses ended with a “don’t report” order, meaning the court system didn’t need me that day.

I suppose I could seek an exemption based on my age; I am 75 years old now and I do not have to report. I won’t do that. I want to serve on a jury.

My reporting time is about a month away. I am going to hope for the best and hope they need me to do my duty as a citizen. Hey, it’s the least I can do.

national news

‘L’ word doesn’t exist

Donald Trump wallowed today in the “L” word to describe the 2024 presidential election.

In Trump’s universe, the “L” word is shorthand for “landslide.” He kept saying during a rambling, nonsensical presser with reporters in Mar-a-Lago, Fla., that he defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in a “landslide.”

Let me be crystal clear — again! No, he did not ride a landslide of votes to victory in 2024!

He made some remark about winning the popular vote by “millions of votes.” Let’s see, he pulled in fewer than 2.3 million more votes than Harris. Let’s also note that more than 155 million ballots were cast. Now, when you say “millions of votes” separated them, my own perspective tells me it’s more than what Trump rolled up against the VP. Yes, he won more votes than any Republican presidential candidate in history, so I’ll give him that.

But the landslide he said he scored does not exist.

I just want to be clear on that point.

I won’t go into the rest of the idiocy that flowed from this fellow’s mouth. Doing so would mean I would miss something critical.

Landslide? It did not occur in 2024.

national news

Electoral certification? Nothing to it … this time!

Just as some of us had predicted, Jan. 6 came and went today without a hitch. Congress met to certify the results of the 2024 presidential election and the vice president … who came out on the losing end of it, declared it official.

The deal was done, just as the U.S. Constitution prescribes it.

A point of context is in order, of course. Four years, another Congress and another vice president gathered in the Capitol to do that very thing. The nimrod who lost the election, Donald Trump, had other ideas. He said the result was rigged. He sent the mob to the Capitol to stop the process.

The attack on our government has relegated Jan. 6, 2021, to a list of infamous dates: Dec. 7, 1941, and Sept. 11, 2001, come immediately to mind. We now just refer to the latter date as “9/11” and we know what it means.

When you say “Jan. 6” these days, we know what you mean there as well.

It’s not supposed to be remembered in that fashion. It’s a routine event, conducted peacefully, orderly and in keeping with what the founders envisioned. It is the hallmark of our democratic republic.

Vice President Kamala Harris made me proud today when she declared that Donald Trump had been duly elected president. Not that Trump had won by defeating Harris, but that she did her constitutional duty without fear of an uprising.

It is how our government is supposed to work.

Uncategorized

Getting old is OK, however …

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Forgive me for reneging a little on a promise I made regarding this new nutrition and weight-management program I have just begun.

I said I wouldn’t bore you with nitty-gritty details I take at every step along the way. I want to share one item with you. So … bear with me.

The Veterans Administration has a program that teaches us how to control our meal intake and change our lifestyle. I have gotten far too heavy for my own liking. My dear bride’s passing from cancer nearly two years ago sent me into an eating frenzy I didn’t realize was occurring in the moment. But it was.

I am working my way out of that former life. I have just started that long journey. I have decided that my older age — I just turned 75 a little while ago — has robbed me of the discipline I was able to employ many years ago.

Once, in my mid-20s, I had gained a lot of weight. I decided to join my wife, who had just given birth to our first son, in a weight-loss program. It worked famously. I peeled off 52 pounds. If I may sound a bit conceited, I was proud of myself.

Those days are long gone. I have put even more weight on this aging body. I need professional help. I sought it out at the VA and the agency has responded by putting me on this program.

I am entering the program with an abundance of confidence, although I cannot yet declare whether it will bear the fruit I seek.

I can declare — therefore I will do so — that I need the help from the VA nutritionist with whom I am working. Just maybe she will keep me focused sufficiently to reach the finish line after completing my stated goal.

Uncategorized

Give it a rest, wackos!

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Right-wing wackos have been pissing me off for decades, but by golly they have stretched my tolerance past the breaking point this past week.

President Biden rewarded 19 deserving individuals the Presidential Medal of Freedom. They range from Bono, the U2 front man, to the late Sen./Attorney General/and probable president Robert F. Kennedy.

Among those honored were two people who have drawn the ire of the right-wing cabal, former U.S. Sen./Secretary of State/first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and progressive political activist George Soros. Why, the right-wingers just can’t tolerate the idea of these individual being honored with the nation’s highest civilian award.

What did they do to disqualify them? Clinton ran for president twice, in 2008 and in 2016. She was nominated by Democrats to run against Donald J. Trump; she lost the 2016 election. However, during her many decades in public life, Clinton became a champion for the underserved, for women’s rights, for children and for democratic principles.

And Soros? He came to this country from Hungary to build a better life for himself and his family. He has been a progressive political activist, giving tons of money to fellow progressives running for office and for causes they support.

The right-wingers don’t like either of them. That is just too … damn … bad!

Sure, they have made some mistakes. Who in the hell hasn’t?

They have earned the recognition that the president has bestowed on them. The right-wing kooks need to shut the hell up.

legal news

‘Yes’ on judicial election reform

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Nathan Hecht has called it a career, stepping down from his post as chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court.

He didn’t exactly leave completely on his own terms. State law forced him. to retire at age 75. So, he did.

I want to join others who have saluted his 35 years on the state’s highest civil appellate court and his lengthy legal career.

Hecht is a reformer. He sought to make the legal system more accessible to lower-income Texans. It’s a fascinating goal for a man thought to be a rock-ribbed conservative Republican jurist. Which brings me to a fundamental point I want to echo.

Judge Hecht also favors judicial election reform. He doesn’t like the way Texas chooses its judges. We elect them on partisan ballots. In this day, if you’re a Republican, you have a built-in advantage simply because you belong to the predominant political party. It used to be that Democrats held that kind of power.

Hecht doesn’t like the current system. He wants to see judges elected as non-partisans. As the Dallas Morning News noted in an editorial saluting Hecht’s tenure: “He also wisely used his high-profile and strong reputation in Austin to push the Legislature for a new system for selecting judges. Partisan elections, he said, put judges in the unfortunate position of becoming political. He famously told the Legislature in 2019: ‘A judicial selection system that continues to sow the political wind will reap the whirlwind.'”

And it has. I have seen too many good judges turned away — at the state and county levels — simply because they belong to the party out of power.

The current system too often turns jurists into potential political hacks.

I hope Judge Hecht continues to use his voice to seek needed change in Texas’s political system … by removing judges and judicial candidates from the partisan cesspool.

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