crime news

Trump’s list of vows sends chills

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Donald Trump’s return to the White House sends more chilling signals than I can possibly count, but surely a few of them stand out.

The mass deportation and separation of illegally documented immigrants is one; the desire to let Ukraine fall to the Russian invaders is another.

The one Trump promise that well could keep awake at night is the one that pledges that grant blanket pardons for the traitors who stormed the Capitol Building on Jan. 6 intending to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

I don’t know about you, but seeking those hideous videos of the mob smashing windows, beating cops with poles, yelling “where’s Mike Pence” while brandishing gallows from which they threatened to hang the vice president continue to make my skin crawl.

And for Trump to declare that the assault was full of “love” simply goes too far beyond the pale to even elicit an intelligent response.

He vows to fight crime, and yet he’s a convicted felon. Go figure that one for me … if you dare try. Trump’s anti-immigrant screeds only will increase once he is sworn in as POTUS. Yet two of his three wives were immigrants. Have they “poisoned the blood” of the nation? Trump cannot tell the truth about anything, no matter how significant or trivial the issue.

These all are points to ponder as we prepare for the second Trump administration.

I will circle back, though, to this idea of pardoning the frothing criminals who followed this man’s instruction to “fight like hell” to “take back the government” on Jan. 6.

If we have learned anything about the ex- and future POTUS, when he vows to do the outrageous, we should believe him.

local news

Changing perspective with age

This will come as no great flash to most — if not all — of you, but it is something I want to share anyway as the Thanksgiving holiday draws to a close.

It is that age allows us all to change our perspective on life, on living and on our surroundings.

When I was about 15 years or so of age, I once complained to Mom and Dad that I didn’t like being called “Johnny” by my relatives. I preferred “John,” I protested. “That’s what my friends call me,” I said. I don’t recall Mom and Dad’s response, other than they must have realized I was just a smart-ass teenager.

Sixty years later, on the eve of my 75th birthday, I know relish being called Johnny by those family members who are still around and who called me that name back in the old days. Now I realize why they did that. You see, I am my paternal grandfather’s namesake. I now realize my Papou was the original John Peter Kanelis and I was “Johnny” to avoid any confusion at family get-togethers.

Also around that time in my still-young life, I recall deciding that I didn’t want to live past the age of 55. I must have bought into the rock singers’ notion that “we shouldn’t trust anyone older than 30.”

Fifty-five seemed ancient to the 15-year-old who at the time didn’t realize he could still squeeze a lot of quality of life at that ripe old age. I barely remember 55 these days and, yes, I have enjoyed a fruitful life built on a family I helped produce with the woman I married when I was 21 and she was a 19-year-old hottie.

I have seen many wonderful places in my life, done some remarkable things in pursuit of the craft I enjoyed for nearly four decades as a print journalist.

Yes, age has brought it all home to me.

Sports news

Welcome back, rivals

Most of us who live in Texas realize that our state has some unusual cultural quirks, many of which revolve around football.

The term “Friday night lights,” for instance, was born in West Texas, in the city of Odessa, where Friday night has become a rite for all Texans to enjoy while cheering on their local high school football teams.

Accordingly, rivalries take on special meaning at the college level. To that end, a longtime college FB rivalry is being renewed this weekend, when Texas A&M University lines up on the same field as the University of Texas in a game to be played in College Station.

Trust me on this: the Kyle Field crowd, aka The 12th Man, will have cleared its collective throat and will be bellowing in ear-piercing fashion cheering on the Aggies as they seek to upset the Longhorns.

Hey, this is a big deal to ex-Longhorns and Aggies. I attend neither school, but I surely know my share of ‘Horns and Aggies. They revere their schools and root hard against the other guys when they suit up to play tackle football.

They used to play this game on Thanksgiving Day. This year, with both schools now competing in the Southeastern Conference — as the Southwest Conference no longer exists and as A&M bolted 13 years ago to the SEC — the game will take place on Thanksgiving weekend.

Hey, it’s all right. The game still will be a big … deal.

Welcome back to the way it used to be.

local news

Many reasons to give thanks

I have done this many times over the years I have been writing this blog.

I set aside some time to give thanks for the blessings with which I have been bestowed. This year, as in 2023, is different in one important way. I am celebrating my bride’s favorite time of the year without her.

During most of our married life, Kathy Anne was like the Looney Tunes character the Tasmanian Devil. whirling through the house, decorating it with secular and religious decorations to celebrate Christmas … and along the way she would throw in some Thanksgiving do-dads to commemorate this particular holiday. And all the while she would complain how she wasn’t “very good at decorating.” Which, of course, was nonsense.

I have tried my best to adorn my North Texas home with holiday decor. I fall far short. But … my heart is still full of thanks.

Thanksgiving Day will include some time with immediate family. My sons, my daughter-in-law and my granddaughter will be here to have dinner that — drum roll, please — I will have prepared! I will have some help from my precious daughter-in-law who is preparing a couple of side dishes and dessert.

So, for that I am thankful on this holiday.

We’ve all been through a trying and tempestuous election season. It didn’t turn out the way I wanted, but I learned long ago to accept decisions that go the “wrong way” simply by dealing with it.

We still live in the greatest nation on Earth. I am grateful for all that it gives me, such as the freedom it grants for me to vent, for instance, on our government. And I will do plenty of venting for sure in the years ahead.

Life is good and will continue to be good.

media news

Sharpton goes too far

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I have remained silent about Al Sharpton for too long … therefore, recent disclosures about him compel me to speak out.

Sharpton, an MSNBC commentator, has been revealed to have received $500,000 for the National Action Network — an organization he leads — in advance of an interview he conducted with Democratic Party presidential candidate Kamala Harris just days before the Nov. 5 presidential election.

I’ll get to the point, which is that I do not accept the description of Sharpton as a “civil rights champion” or “activist.” He burst onto the national scene in the late 1980s when he led a crusade on behalf of a young Black woman who claimed to have been beaten and raped by several white New York City police officers.

The case eventually was tossed when authorities learned the woman made it up. The cops didn’t beat and rape her. Yet Sharpton continued to accuse the officers of this egregious conduct. The cops eventually sued Sharpton for defamation and slander … and won!

Has Sharpton ever apologized to the officers? Hell no! He’s gone on to pad his notoriety by forming the NAN and landing the gig on MSNBC.

Sharpton is a strong Democratic partisan. I am fine with that. I favor Democratic policies as well. However, his failure to disclose the payment to NAN from the Harris campaign only demonstrates the fraudulent nature of his standing as a “civil rights champion.”

He is a loudmouth who does not deserve the phony respect he has harvested over these many years.

I am going to catch hell for these remarks. I don’t mind. Just know that I stand on the principle that public figures must earn the public’s trust. Al Sharpton, in my view, fails to meet that standard.

 

national news

Will senators grow some courage?

Matt Gaetz is gone from Donald Trump’s newborn Cabinet, as he was toast from the moment the new POTUS announced him as attorney general.

Trump, though, still is far from finding his way into the clear.

He’s got Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, Robert Kennedy Jr. as head of health and human services, Pete Hegseth as defense secretary and maybe a half-dozen others with skeletons in their closets.

Senators have the right to confirm these picks. Trump, though, also has the right to grant recess appointments if the Senate is adjourned. It’s fair to ask: Will the Senate allow Trump to launch a political flea-flicker by denying them the right under the Constitution to debate and then vote on these nominees?

Something is whispering in my ear that senators won’t take kindly to being denied that right by a president who just might try some razzle-dazzle, particularly with the remaining troublesome appointees whose names are still under discussion.

That’s my hope, anyway. The other option would be for them to roll over and allow Trump to flatten them on his way to the Oval Office.

We’ll see what our senators are up to doing … and whether they have stiffened their spines.

International news

Hell freezes over!

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Dare I declare that hell has frozen over with the announcement that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to a ceasefire with Hezbollah?

Netanyahu is considered widely to be a warmonger, that he prefers violence to a negotiated settlement with a known and dreaded terrorist organization.

I don’t buy into the pejorative view of him. The man’s country is surrounded by nations that wish Israel’s destruction. Hezbollah governs Lebanon and has been at war with Israel after launching a missile attack that killed hundreds of Israelis.

Israel has the right to defend itself.

Still, I am surprised to hear today of the Israeli agreement to call a halt to the bloodshed in Lebanon. Netanyahu hasn’t agreed to a permanent peace and the hope now should exist that the warring sides can breathe deeply and get the wheels turning toward a settlement that can end the bloodshed over the long term.

I do not want hell to thaw.

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Tariffs will hurt us … not them!

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My head is about to explode as I try to figure out the logic behind Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 30% tariff on all good imported into the United States of America.

Indeed, whoever is advising the incoming moron in chief needs to have his or her head examined. Maybe a bug has eaten part of their brain, too … if you get my drift.

What no one is telling Trump is that these tariffs won’t be felt in countries such as China, Mexico, Canada and Japan, all nations from which we import billions of dollars of goods annually.

The 30% tariff will hit U.S. consumers straight in the pocketbook. We will pay more for these items. The tariffs will hit us hard, not the producers who make these items.

You want to see inflation run wild? Let’s just see how this plays out when the Commerce Department starts releasing Consumer Price Index data in the coming months.

Trump keeps bellowing how he wants to “put America first” when he returns to the White House. This notion he has pitched to the gullible among us will do nothing of the sort.

crime news, legal news, national news

Trump: Slipperiest man alive

Donald J. Trump has just earned a new title that smacks of royalty.

I hereby crown this guy King Donald, The Slipperiest Man Alive. The dude received this unofficial title when special counsel Jack Smith announced today he would move to dismiss all the federal charges leveled against Trump.

They include his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on our government as well as his keeping of classified documents at his Florida estate.

What happened to force Smith to make this decision? Near as I can tell, it was the Supreme Court ruling that granted Trump immunity from prosecution while he sits in the Oval Office.

So, the two federal charges appear headed for the dustbin. All that’s left to prosecute is the Georgia case alleging that Trump sought to pressure state officials to “find” enough votes in Georgia to swing that state’s total in 2020 to Trump’s column.

The feds have no authority over DA Fani Willis’s right to prosecute that case as an elected state official. Then again, that case appears to be sucking wind at this stage.

Here we stand. A man who was impeached twice during his first term in office, convicted of 34 felony counts in New York on a hush-money payment to an adult film actress and then was charged in multiple cases on state and federal felonies has been re-elected to the nation’s highest office.

He now wears the crown awarded to the Slipperiest Man Alive.

Stunning … simply stunning.

national news

Biden shows his class

Joseph R. Biden Jr. is a much better man than I am … and he’s a damn sight better man than the nimrod who will succeed him as president of the United States at noon on Jan. 20.

I was frankly moved by the demonstration of class and grace that Biden showed toward Donald J. Trump in the Oval Office the other day when the two men met to discuss policy matters and the transition of power from one administration to the next one.

This was the sort of photo op media event that Trump denied Biden four years ago after Biden defeated Trump’s bid for re-election to the presidency. Accordingly, after what Trump did on Jan. 6 and after all the phony claims of being robbed of victory by unproven voter fraud, I would have expected Biden to say something crass to his successor. He didn’t go there … to his enormous credit!

I am going to say something nice about Trump, too. He accepted Biden’s hand and said that “politics is tough” and “not always nice,” and added that he looked forward to a smooth transition of power. As with almost everything that Trump declares out loud, it good to question his sincerity. I won’t do so — just yet!

Biden’s reverence for the institution of the presidency steered him toward the show of grace and dignity. To be honest I do not know what guided Trump’s demonstration in response to the president.

I want the new president to turn the page and act like a man who reveres the office he will inherit. Wanting it and expecting it, however, remain distant possibilities.

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