My Sunday Feeling

As most everyone knows by now, Dominion Voting Systems settled its libel suit against Fox News last week.  Check that.  Make that most everyone that that gets their news content from virtually anybody other than Fox.  Because I’m guessing that none of the fair-minded journalists over there have mentioned a peep of this to their viewers.  Fox tends to eke out facts-or “true facts” as folks around here say- on damn near a “need to know” basis. And its audience doesn’t need to know much.  

Anyway, many people both inside and outside of the straight up media expressed some measure of disappointment at this outcome.  The Judge had ruled earlier that the stuff Fox put out about Dominion’s machines allowing the 2020 Presidential election to get stolen was not just false but “clearly false.”  All Dominion had to do was prove that the false claims made by Fox were made with “actual malice” or “in reckless disregard for the truth.”  

Generally, as I understand it, this last prong of the test is hard to prove.  However, Dominion’s lawyers had access to a trove of emails from not only Fox talking heads like the odious Tucker Carlson, certain producers and Rupert Murdoch himself in which doubts were expressed about the truth of the crap that they were putting out for their rabid customers. 

Which brings me to this quick aside.  It has never been particularly clear to me just who the hell was supposed to have been behind the grand heist of 2020.  Biden?  Hillary?  The Chinese?  The Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church? Hunter Biden? The Scientologists?  

Did Dominion’s machines acquire sentience and flip their own switches against Donald Trump?

Every theft requires a thief.  Maybe it’s just big dumb me (as Uncle Howard used to put it) but I never could quite suss out who the mastermind behind all this supposedly was.  

But I ramble.  

As I alluded to earlier, many folks were disappointed that the case didn’t go to trial.  I admit the prospect of Sean Hannity and Carlson being forced to testify under oath was pleasing to even me.  

But you know what?  Dominion and its crackerjack legal team (and it must be said that both sides were ably represented) are not obligated to litigate for our amusement.  They sued for 1.6 billion.  They settled for $787.5 million.  Which ain’t bad when you consider that Dominion was worth-at the time it filed the lawsuit-@ 50 million. 

Besides, Fox isn’t out of the woods yet.  Another manufacturer of voting machines-Smartmatic-is suing it for 2.7 billion.  Smartmatic says it’s not settling.    

And Dominion has other cases pending against such luminaries as Mike Lindell (the money burning “My Pillow” guy) and Rudy Giuliani.  The prospects for amusement remain high.  And now Dominion has got a pretty fat litigation fund to play with going forward.  

But no.  The lawyers for Dominion did one hell of a job.  It was a good settlement.

It just wasn’t very much fun to watch.  And it remains to be seen whether having to cough up over the lies of 2020 will operate as a deterrent to Fox going forward.  

Probably not.  It will just pick different shots from now until 2024.  Like trans kids and bathrooms.  Trump’s various legal problems.  Hunter Biden’s laptop. Kids having access to porn at the local library.  Subjects its gullible audience will continue to eat with a spoon but are pretty risk free from a litigation perspective. 

After all, the show must go on.      

My Sunday Feeling

 A 32 year old teacher at Bryant High school turned herself in to the Saline County Sheriff yesterday.  Make that former teacher.  She was charged with sexual assault on a minor in the first degree.  The story is that she had improper relations a male student.  A football player.

I am by no stretch of the imagination a perfect man.  I’m not even a particularly good man.  There are even some criminal acts I can understand.  Stealing I understand.  Selling drugs I understand.  Thefts of property I understand.  And not only do I understand most white collar crimes  I could probably perform some of them if I put my head to it.  While I understand in general doing crimes that doesn’t mean that I would do them.  

And not because my morals are in such fine tune.  I can’t do time.  Not only that I can’t lose my license to practice law.  I have no other useful skills other than the ability to sing.  And you how many singers are waiting tables?  

What I do not understand for the life of me are crimes involving children.  Not for one minute do I understand it.  The depth of this feeling struck really home with me years ago when I was administering a test over at Mount Saint Mary Academy which is a Catholic High School for girls down the street from here.  The girls were sprawled all over the classroom.  Sitting or lying in the floor.  Some actually sat at their desks.  

And it occurred to me as watched these kids take the test that one would need to have many screws loose in the headgear to want to have a sexual relationship-forget romance-with a minor. Even seniors in high school are still basically children.  What sane person would have that kind of desire? 

And if there’s a higher degree of “I do not for the life of me understand” it is reserved for adult females who carry on with boys. I used to be a boy.  I can’t imagine any adult women during that era wanting to have the first damn thing to do with me.  Hell, most girls my speed sensibly had no interest in me.

Having said that, I would be remiss if I didn’t remind myself and Gentle Reader that the former teacher is entitled to the presumption of innocence until such time as she is not.  But what kind of a damn fool gets herself or himself into this kind of fix?

I swear to God.  I just do not understand it.

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This has been the spring for violent weather.  Another thunderstorm blew through about 6 last night bringing torrential rains, winds and hail.  Our power has been out since then.  Entergy has sent me an email adding me to “don’t worry” because help is on the scene.  That was about 30 minutes ago.  

I can’t complain.  My house is still standing and I have places to go to charge up my devices if I need to.  Yesterday I drove past the Walnut Valley subdivision that was directly in the crosshairs of the twister that blew through Little Rock en route to the Delta a couple of weeks ago.  

God almighty.  The neighborhood looked like a bomb got dropped on it.  Never have I seen such devastation with my own two eyes live and in person.  It will take those poor folks forever to rebuild.  

Me?  I got no complaints.  The power will come back on and coffee shops in the neighborhood are open.  At least as far as I know.  

But I am really over the spring of 2023.

Stay safe.  There could be more to come.  

My Sunday Post Apocalypse Feeling

These are truly amazing times.  Former President Donald Trump was indicted Thursday by a grand jury in New York State.  The Indictment that was handed up supposedly contains 34 counts.  Given who we know has testified, the grand jury was empaneled to explore whether moneys paid to the beloved entertainer Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair she had with Trump ran afoul of New York’s business record laws and by extension Federal campaign funding laws.

The State’s theory, as I understand it, is that Donald Trump, then running for President against Hillary Clinton in a tight race, funneled money through the Trump Organization to his then lawyer Micheal Cohen to repay Cohen for fronting the hush money to Daniels.  The payments to Cohen were carried on the Trump Organization’s books as legal fees paid to him.  This mischaracterization on the books is allegedly a colorable violation of the said business laws.  The other theory, which has caused commentators on both sides of the spectrum to scratch their heads, is that payments to Stormy were made so that they would not become an issue in the campaign, thus making them an illegal campaign contribution that was never disclosed until after the election.

Trump, for his part, denies that he carried on with Stormy.  Which he really needs to do seeing as how his wife Melania had recently given birth to their son Barron.  Not only was such alleged horsing around on his part during this time unseemly in the extreme, there is the part to keep in mind about Hell having no such fury and all that.  

He just thinks two other grand juries getting up his hindquarters with flashlights are his problem after Stormy takes the stand.  Which I assume she will do.  He better have an iron clad “pre-nup.” If there is such a thing under these tawdry circumstances.    

I know a lot of people who are delighted by this turn of events, by the indictment.  The emotions seem to run the gamut between plain old schadenfreude and a feeling of “He’s finally getting his just rewards” and that “Justice is being served.”

Just like lawyers everywhere, lay people have been asking me what I think.  As an attorney and officer of the court, I feel compelled to throw cold water on any expressions of jubilance that I hear.  Here’s why.

Like it or not, Donald Trump is entitled to the same presumption of innocence as you and I.  Secondly, I have no particular problem with believing that Trump and his associates cooked up a way to get money to Stormy in exchange for her silence. What guilty spouse wouldn’t try to keep this safely under the rug if he or she could?  If that’s a violation of NY record keeping laws so be it.  What I’m less comfortable with is viewing this scheme and device (as the Indictment will undoubtedly say) as a violation of Federal campaign finance laws.

Why is this important?  Because while the Statute of Limitations for the campaign laws stuff is 10 years, the state charges only carry a 2 year SOL.  Accordingly, if there’s no violation of Federal law, the case goes away.  You can bet that the lawyers for both sides have researched this issue to a fare-the-well.  We shall see what we shall see.  

So let’s not get carried away just yet.  If ever.

Secondly, should the State get around the Motion to Dismiss that will most assuredly be filed, trial of this matter will be an absolute nightmare.  There will be protests and counter-protests.  Courtroom security will be Uber-jumpy.  The poor jurors will most certainly have to be sequestered for their own protection.  And if a guilty verdict is returned you can expect riots in the streets.  

This will be a terrible experience for our country and I do not look forward to it.  Trump has summoned the mob once.  He will do it again.  If he hasn’t done so already.

And yet, and yet, the rule of law must prevail.  Guilty or not guilty the process must play out with out fear or favor and without intimidation.  

I will undoubtedly write more about this, apart from the attempted insurrection on January 6, 2021, being the most seminal event of my life.  And there may be more to come out of Georgia and DC.  

What an amazing time.

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Since writing the above post Little Rock was hit by a monster tornado last Friday afternoon.  Tornadoes around here are nothing new, God knows.  But usually they are small and hop around.  This SOB was more like a hurricane in that it was huge and stayed on the land for a straight line from Little Rock to the delta.  

Our house and surrounding neighborhood are fine even though the damn thing crossed the river about two miles from us.  Way too close for comfort.

Much of west Little Rock looks like a bomb went off.  No telling how long it will take to restore power, remove debris and return folks to some semblance of normalcy.  So far, the death toll seems remarkably small.  So far.  

The Deacon and I are beyond lucky and are likewise grateful.  And we are equally grateful that none of our people died or have suffered grievous injury.  At least not that we know of.

Please keep those who were not so fortunate in your thoughts and prayers.