37 counts

A democratic society such as our own, I think, is anchored to an idealistic mooring.

By that, I mean it's a society that we truly aspire to be: honest, caring, peaceful, thoughtful, secure. As such, we gave ourselves guidelines to follow, and labeled the document the Constitution of the United States. In the government that we set up for ourselves, our elected, military and law enforcement officials take an oath to protect and preserve the Constitution in order to help us continue our pursuit of happiness as we try to make this nation a more perfect union.

They take an oath to an ideal, not to an individual.

Since perfection can never be attained (except in baseball. You can have a perfect game in baseball), our quest for national perfection is called an experiment, because the quest is ongoing. It's never ending.

That's why this week's 37-count indictment of former president Donald Trump is so shocking, even when we knew it was coming. Never in the 234 years of our government (going back to 1789, when the Constitution was adopted) have we seen this. Maybe we've been lucky in our experiment up to this point.

But the Grand Jury (not President Joe Biden, as many Republicans wrongfully insist) that indicted Trump determined that there were 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information. This means that those hundreds of boxes of the nation's secret documents (that we know of), which should never have been removed from the end of Trump's term in the White House, should be returned to the National Archives.

All Trump had to do was return them, like Biden did when it was learned he inadvertently had acquired top secret documents, or like former Vice President Mike Pence did when it was learned he, too, had inadvertently taken possession of secret documents. Oops, my bad. Here, take them back. Please.

Not Trump. For some reason, he arrogantly thinks the documents are his. So he is stubbornly keeping them. Willful retention, under the law. 

It got him an indictment ... after 18 months of pleading by the FBI and the Department of Justice to get them back. 

All this was avoidable if he had returned the documents. Instead, he is being charged under the Espionage Act of 1917. If guilty, he becomes a traitor. He's already been found liable for sexual assault, which essentially makes him a sexual predator.

We now know that at least two unauthorized persons have seen the documents, some of which include top military secrets, some of which include nuclear secrets, some of which include government secrets. It's phenomenal that this is where we are in our ideal quest for a more perfect government.

In addition to those 31 counts, there is one count of making false statements, one count of conspiracy to obstruct (with cohort Walt Nauta, who Trump ordered to move the boxes at Mar-a-Lago to hide, believe it or not, from his own lawyers. Two of his lawyers quit on the day of the indictments. He's shedding lawyers like a dog sheds fleas); one count of withholding a document; one count of corruptly concealing a document or record; one count of concealing a document in a Federal investigation, and one count of a scheme to conceal.

Sweet Jesus. And to think that this guy – already a court-approved sexual predator – is considered by his Republican base to be one of our nation's best presidents. Can you believe it?

The evidence that special prosecutor Jack Smith has discovered appears to be overwhelming: audio tapes with Trump's own voice, videotapes, testimony from nearly everybody or worked or set foot in Mar-a-Lago could be damning for Trump. 

The fact that Trump did not return the documents makes him a security threat of the highest order. It also makes him a fool with one of the lowest political IQs in national memory, if not in our national history.

And just think: there are indictments looming in Washington D.C. for Trump's actions during the Jan. 6 insurrection, as well as indictments in Georgia for his actions in meddling with the 2020 elections asking for more votes.

It's astounding that the Republican Party still bows to this guy and rushes to his defense, as if this were the ideal government of which we are seeking. As if he were above the law.

Two indictments (so far). Two impeachments. He's already a confirmed national embarrassment.

The guys

We've done this for five straight years now, but I always look forward to catching up with the guys every season for a minor league baseball game at Truist Stadium in Winston-Salem.

The first thing I noticed when we gather is that we're all still here. I do a head count just to make sure.

We are Kevin Brafford, Jim Buice, Larry Lyon, Donnie Roberts, me and Neill Caldwell (as pictured). We are all former employees of The Dispatch – sports coverage guys – who probably didn't realize it during their overlapping employments but also who were creating a strong and lasting bond while putting in obscenely long hours and driving thousands of miles across the state to bring you the news.

At least, that's how I see it.

Two of us are in our 70s, and the others are at various stages of their 60s. While I don't mean for this to be a Last Man Standing Club, it's why I do the head count. Some of us have had replacement surgeries – or need to – and some of us have had nonessential internal organs sucked out of our bodies.

The guys.

  We talk about these things while the Dash are turning a double play. We talk about getting older while a .300 hitter homers to deep left field. We talk about our aches and pains. We talk about our families, where we go on vacations, how are the grandchildren. 

We talk about sports and how many games have we seen this year while the shortstop bobbles an easy grounder.

We talk about our years at The Dispatch while some bonus baby who makes more money in a single season than any of us did in an entire career hits a weak pop fly to right.

And before you know it, we've killed four hours at the ballpark.

It's perfect.

Shortly before we leave the stadium we ask an unsuspecting stranger in the stands if he'll take our picture. He agrees to take the shot. That's the picture you see here. It's the picture you may have seen on Facebook a couple days ago. It's a good picture, fairly well composed, focusing on six guys who did their jobs, did their jobs well (there are perhaps nearly 100 press awards between all of us), did it professionally and really, really liked what we did.

These guys.

 

Making progress

It seemed like a long time in coming, but when Stewart Rhodes, the leader and Cycloptic founder of the far-right extremist Oath Keepers, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Thursday for his seditious conspiracy role in the Jan. 6 (2021) insurrection at the Capitol, it felt like progress.

It felt like progress even though the sentence didn't seem long enough. But I guess we'll take what we can get at this point.

It felt like progress because even two years hence, this odious person has compared himself as a political prisoner in the mold of South African anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela.

Sweet Jesus.

Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy. He'll be 76 years old when he completes his full sentence if he isn't pardoned by some right-wing fascist president first.

Presiding U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta certainly wasn't impressed with Rhodes' "political prisoner" claim, explaining that seditious conspiracy "is an offense against the government (and) the people of the country. You are not a political prisoner, Mr. Rhodes."

Mehta then went on: "...You, sir, present an ongoing threat and a peril to this country and to the republic and to the very fabric of this democracy."

Slowly, but inexorably, it seems, far right conspiracies, violence, and ideology are unraveling and revealing themselves for what they are. Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio and several other Not-So-Proud Boys are awaiting sentencing for their part on Jan. 6 to block the congressional confirmation of Joe Biden as President. Hundreds of other Jan. 6 rioters have been charged and convicted, already serving well-deserved jail terms.

The whole concept of overthrowing the American experiment in democratic government seems ridiculous, since we change the government every four years with elections anyway. It's our baked-in revolution. Given that, doesn't a democratically elected government have the right to defend itself from insurrection and sedition? It's kind of what the Civil War was about, right? We've already been down this road once.

The charge of seditious conspiracy, interestingly enough, dates back to the post-Civil War era in an attempt to arrest Confederates who might still keep fighting the U.S. government. It's a difficult charge to prove because it requires evidence that can convict two or more people who conspired to "overthrow, put down or destroy by force" the U.S. government, or that they plotted to use force against the authority of the government.

Sentencing Rhodes to 18 years in prison is making progress. So far, so good. Only a few hundred more convictions and sentences to go, ranging from a former ex-president found liable for sexual assault to rioters pummeling Capitol police with the poles of American flags.

When did this happen?

I haven't quite finished with weeding my gardens and topping them off with a nice, rich hardwood mulch that ultimately makes the place look like it was professionally manicured.

The weeding requires me to bend over a lot. I don't have a motorized tiller, so I break the ground with either an adze or a mattock. I'll chop a little stretch of the garden that forms a horseshoe border around the perimeter of my backyard, pick out the churned weeds, then stand up straight to catch my breath.

Ouch. That was my lower back you heard protesting there.

After a moment to recover my resolve, I walk over to the pile of mulch, take my pitchfork and load up the wheelbarrow. I don't know if they make motorized pitchforks for this particular job, but I don't have one in any case. So I do it by hand.

Then I go to the area I just weeded and throw mulch over it. Looks good. Wears me out.

This was a job that once took just a couple of days. But I'm older now. In my 70s, if you must know. I suppose I could still finish the job in a couple of days, but I've gotten to where I work for just a few hours in the cool of the morning each day instead of the heat of the afternoon. I pat myself on the back for being smart about this.

And this coming from a guy who used to play golf in 90-degree weather. But playing golf and weeding are two different things. Most times, anyway.

One thing I've noticed is that when I do relax in the afternoon, everything that used to be flexible in my body now becomes stiff as a board. And it stays that way. For days. When did that happen? I used to be loosey goosey Brucie. Now I rise up out of chairs making strange guttural noises. I walk a lot slower. I take acetaminophen. I soak in water hot enough to melt wax. My back still hurts.

Hey, I really do enjoy piddling in the garden. It's mindless stuff, but it gives me time to be mindful, if that makes sense. Look, I'm not complaining. I'm just wondering.

I guess this is all part of the inexorable slide down the hill. Muscles lose mass. Bone density decreases. It doesn't seem to matter that I still go to the gym every morning. I ride a recumbent bicycle for 90 minutes, and it's about the only time of the day I feel myself getting loose.

Then I go back to working in the garden.

 

What a week

For a moment there, a thought crossed my mind immediately after former President and pocket insurrectionist Donald Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation in the civil trial brought against him by 79-year-old writer E. Jean Carroll last week.

Trump, of course, is seeking a second term as President of the United States in his continuing effort to wreck American democracy while at the same time enriching himself and trying to stay out of prison. He's not even attempting to hide his arrogant ambition. It's right there in front of our eyes for all to see. 

If you want to see.

Anyway, after he was ordered to pay Ms. Carroll nearly $5 million in damages for an incident that occurred decades ago, I wondered if he would be put through a vetting process by the Republican National Committee as primary season nears and candidates begin to bob to the surface like moldy detritus from a shipwreck.

Surely, I whispered to myself because I didn't want anyone to hear my naivety, no political party would promote a candidate for President of the United States who is a sexual abuser. What woman could actually vote for a person like this knowing how he assaults women (a fact which has now been acknowledged in court by a jury of Trump's peers)? What man who loves and respects the women in his life – his wife, his daughters, his sisters – could vote for such a malignantly flawed person like this?

Then reality hit. Ahhh, those days are gone. Those were the days, weren't they?

Trump won't be vetted, of course. Consequently, the GOP will be as liable for sexual abuse as Trump, if for no other reason than by association. It's mind boggling that Republicans continue to defend this guy.

As if things couldn't get any gloomier, Trump suddenly appeared on my TV screen in a "town hall meeting" later in the week that was hosted by a revamped CNN, now leaning a little more to the right (one CNN shareholder, billionaire John Malone, said he wanted CNN to be more like Fox. Would that be the Fox that just settled a defamation suit by Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million?). It took only 30 seconds in for Trump's lies to start flowing: that the (2020) election was rigged; that he didn't ask Georgia officials to find the votes he needed to win the state (he did ask – it's clearly on audio tape), or that the violence of Jan. 6 was the fault of then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The familiar playlist of lies is too extensive to go on.

But even more appalling was the audience, purported to be invited New Hampshire Republicans. They mocked Ms. Carroll and clapped and hooted when Trump defamed her again (he never learns) by calling her a "whack job." They hooted and cheered when he said if elected, he would pardon many of the convicted Jan. 6 rioters now serving time in prison for sedition. They cheered and clapped when he labeled moderator Kaitlin Collins as "nasty." Sheesh.

In my view, this is clearly repulsive behavior from Americans presumably raised with principles of fairness and respect for one's fellow man. Those principles were nowhere to be seen Wednesday night.

The audience reactions to Trump, in a word, were deplorable.

We live in strange times. We live in a country that takes away abortion rights when it has no business interfering with a woman's bodily autonomy (it's called control); we live in a country awash with gunfire, where you have to register for a license if you want to drive a car but where there are no effective regulations for citizens to purchase military-style weapons; we live in a country where gerrymandering and voter suppression passes for Constitutional precedent; we live in a country based on an ideal that all men are created equal, but evidence of racism and religious persecution are increasing exponentially, it seems; we live in a country where even the Supreme Court, influenced by the outrageously wealthy donor class, is ridiculously out of step with the majority of the nation.

We live in a country given Constitutional directions on which way to go by the Founding Fathers, yet we appear to be so incredibly lost. We just can't seem to find our way.

Gerry and Mander

If you blinked your eyes, you might have missed this one. But on Friday, the GOP leaning North Carolina Supreme Court reversed itself on a decision it rendered a year ago to control partisan gerrymandering. At the same time, the court said it was wrong to invalidate photo ID requirements at the polls, which the then-Democrat controlled court did in 2018.

Gerrymandering, by definition, is when a political group tries to change a voting district to create a result that either helps them or hurts the group that is against them. It's a loophole (or maybe a rabbit hole) in the U.S. Constitution that seems to have no remedy. At least, not in North Carolina. Not now.

It sounds illegal. It should be. It isn't.

Anyway, because of the reversal, the GOP can return to the old legislative maps that were clearly drawn on partisan lines and which could give them at least four more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. In other words, the court, and not the voter, is deciding issues. It also takes away a tool that basically gives the voter the ability to censure legislators. 

Currently, North Carolina has 14 representatives, seven from each party. After the new/old maps return, the GOP could have an 11-3 advantage. Democracy is wobbling.

And guess what? You can expect the Republican-controlled legislature to continue its onslaught on democracy with an assault on voting rights in North Carolina, perhaps targeting voting and same-day voter registration next.

We could become the next Florida. Book banning is getting closer. So is suppression of human rights.

There is currently a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Moore v. Harper, waiting a decision. The Republicans are arguing that only state legislatures have the power to write election rules, based on a resurrected and broad legal argument known as Independent State Legislature Theory. The outcome could have national implications for our democracy.

And when did the courts become to politicized? I thought they were supposed to follow the law and not partisan politics. Even the U.S. Supreme Court rules on party lines, reversing decades-old decisions based on severely flawed opinions. Plus, it has an ethics problem to boot.

I'm not a lawyer. All of this is confusing enough to me and I hope I'm getting this correct. But it seems to me the key word here is "theory." Why are we dealing in theory and not common sense? All of this strikes me more as a power grab than a vote for democracy and the people.

If we are a nation trying to form a more perfect union with our experiment in democracy, why are we trying to make voting more difficult? We should be making it easier.

Blame Gerry and Mander.

 

Fox follies

I worked as a professional newsman (sports writer at a daily newspaper) for nearly 40 years before retiring, and through all of that time, I was always conscious of upholding the highest of journalistic standards whenever I wrote something for publication.

I still do, even as I write my blog. Old habits, I guess.

The very ultimate standard, of course, is to tell the truth. That would seem obvious, although there are times when one person's version of the truth can be another person's perceived disinformation. Not necessarily a lie, perhaps, but maybe an alternate truth? How do you distinguish between the two?

Malice could be a way. Malice is the intention to do harm or evil. And that's essentially what happened when Fox News settled its defamation case this past week with Dominion Voting Systems for a whopping $787.5 million. Without going into detail, Fox basically claimed Dominion committed fraud (with doctored voting machines, so they said) in the 2020 election that put Joe Biden and not Donald Trump in the White House.

In the lead-up to the trial, in the discovery phase, it was revealed that many Fox commentators (Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, et al) knew the elections were fair and honest, but reported fraud instead. They told their viewers lies, and the defendants knew they were lying. Some, like Carlson, said through email, texts and deposition transcripts, that he hated Trump "passionately." Other damning behind-the-scenes evidence was also revealed.

That makes Fox and company hypocrites and liars and vandals of American democracy, which is dependent upon a free press that reliably tells the truth.

I myself was waiting for an actual trial. The weight of the evidence against Fox seemed overwhelming. As difficult as it is to prove defamation, it was clear Fox didn't want to take its dirty laundry to trial. So it settled.

But it settled without a clear-cut apology for lying to its viewers. On the day of the settlement, Fox offered a statement that said, in part: "We acknowledge the court's rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false."

There it is. Fox admitting culpability. That's the best you're going to get from them.

And then this: "The settlement reflects Fox's continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards."

Wait. Didn't they just admit to lying to their viewers? An action which they now claim to be "the highest journalistic standards."

So they're still lying to you. There are no high journalistic standards at Fox.

The question now is how Fox viewers will absorb this settlement. Fox has hardly mentioned the settlement to its viewers. Some Fox viewers might not even be aware a defamation suit was filed against the network. Sometimes it's not just about the lies they tell you, but often it's about the truth they don't tell you. That's how pernicious Fox has become.

How dangerous is that? Ask yourself how many Jan. 6 rioters were Fox viewers who unwittingly consumed the Big Lie? We'll never know, but we can guess. Some of them have plenty of jail time to think about it.

Now, a second defamation suit filed by Smartmatic, another voting system corporation, is in the works. The discovery phase is in its early stages, so you can expect even more revelations about Fox's cynicism in the near future. Unless Fox is smart enough to settle early.

This is what I hope: This time I hope when Fox settles that Smartmatic forces Fox to make on-air apologies about lying to its viewers. I hope Fox begins each broadcast hour for a full year with a court-ordered disclaimer: "We at Fox lied to you about Smartmatic committing voter fraud. We lied to you about Dominion. We lie to you about everything."

That won't happen, of course. Dominion and Smartmatic are private corporations seeking compensation for damages, not the salvation of American journalism or democracy.

But it's a start. Dominion, for its part, has filed suit against other right-wing news organizations like Newsmax and OAN for similar damages. It's also filed defamation suits against individuals who lied on Fox, such as Rudy Giuliani, Sydney Powell and Mike Lindell.

I don't know. Maybe these viewers just like being lied to. They like being told what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear.

The truth is out there.