By Frederick A. Hurst

“THE PRESIDENT WHO STOOD STILL”
If you haven’t yet heard about the above-titled editorial in The Wall Street Journal trashing former President Donald J. Trump, you should look it up on the Web and read it. It is the first major departure of a Ruppert Murdoch organization media outlet from the Trump “Big Lie” that has left so many foolish Trump acolytes convinced that he actually won the 2020 election and that President Joe Biden is an illegitimate president. It seems that the Journal’s departure resulted from the disclosures made by the January 6th Committee’s recent revelations about Trump’s behavior during the 187 minutes the U.S. Capitol was under siege by a violent group of White Supremacists. Not only did Trump sit in the West Wing dining room of the White House watching the violence on television and doing nothing to stop it, at one point during the insurrection, he tweeted a message saying that Vice President Mike Pence “didn’t have the courage” to stop the electoral count, which only added to the rioters’ frenzy. The Journal introduced its editorial with the following: “No matter your views of the Jan. 6 special committee, the facts it is laying out in hearings are sobering. The most horrifying to date came Thursday in a hearing on (former) President Trump’s conduct as the riot raged and he sat watching TV, posting inflammatory tweets and refusing to send help.” As we all now know, Pence fulfilled his Constitutional obligation by completing the electoral count in the late hours after the rioters left the Capital. The Journal concluded its scathing article against Trump by concluding: “Character is revealed in a crisis, and Mr. Pence passed his Jan. 6 trial. Mr. Trump utterly failed his.” (Saturday/Sunday, July 23-24, 2022)

“EMPOWERMENT IS NOT POWER”
I am not about to become a judge of the feminist movement but I was intrigued by an article in Time Magazine (July 25/August 1, 2022) that was particularly insightful and that may have answered some questions that have lingered unanswered in my mind. In response to the recent Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the author, Charlotte Alter, wrote: “…somewhere along the way, many in the mainstream feminist movement convinced themselves that soft power of cultural representation was as important as the hard power of seats and votes. Empowerment became not a means to an end, but the end in itself. Many feminists – particularly rich white well-educated ones – assumed that changing hearts and minds was the difficult part. In a functioning democracy, winning seats and writing laws would inevitably follow.”
And in opposition to the feminist movement as she describes it, Alter makes a contrary argument writing: “But that’s not how our democracy works. Nearly 60% of Americans did not want to see Roe overturned including more than 30% of Republicans. The number of Americans who identify as “pro-choice” reached a record high in the weeks after a leaked draft opinion showed the Supreme Court was poised to upend a half century of constitutional precedent…yet two recent Republican Presidents who lost the popular vote…appointed four Supreme Court Justices who voted to overturn Roe.”
Then Alter explained how the anti-abortionists managed to overturn Roe, writing: “While fourth-wave feminists focused on cultural empowerment, anti-abortion activists and policymakers better understood how power truly works in this country. They didn’t rely on inspiring movies or heartfelt Oscar speeches or Twitter hashtags to advance their cause. Instead, the anti-abortion movement has been extraordinarily successful at getting conservative lawmakers elected at the state level, where they slowly chipped away at abortion rights.”
Charlotte Alter had much more to say that I urge you to read including one of her closing observations. She wrote: “Inspirational narratives are great, so long as they inspire people toward building real political power.” I couldn’t help but think of the many other groups as well as feminists that could benefit from her message.

THE CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST TRUMP
Interestingly, multiple former prosecutors from both political parties say Trump may now be vulnerable to at least five federal charges including conspiracy to defraud the U.S., attempt to obstruct an official act of Congress, inciting an insurrection, attempt to intimidate a U.S. government official, and most seriously, seditious conspiracy. (Time, July 25/August 1, 2022) And that doesn’t include the Georgia or New York charges. If Trump avoids them all and becomes president again, his middle name should become Houdini especially since it only requires a felony conviction on one to take him down.

WHAT WE HAVE IN THIS COUNTRY IS MUCH MORE THAN A POLICE PROBLEM
How many bullets does it take to kill a Black man who may have committed minor traffic “equipment violations?” The answer, of course, should be “none.” Yet, five Akron Ohio police officers fired 90 bullets at an unarmed Jayland Walker leaving him dead with 60 wounds. The county medical examiner recovered 26 bullets from his body. She found 41 entry wounds and five wounds from bullets that grazed him and five wounds in his back. Walker had injuries that would cause death to his heart, lungs and arteries. The medical examiner also found that Walker was unarmed and had no drugs or alcohol in his system.
“Minor traffic violation?” Black folks know what that means! It’s a license for police to harass, interdict, sometimes arrest, and too often kill us for the culturally invented “crime” of driving while Black.”
There is not an explanation in the world that could justify such a violent death at the hands of the police, who claimed Walker fired a gun out of the window of his car as they pursued him. Police claimed they found a gun on the seat of his car after they executed him. And there will be those (likely many) White folks who will accept this explanation as a justification for such an unwarranted gross over-reaction by the police while most Black folks will justifiably question whether Walker ever fired a shot while suspecting the gun police claimed was Walker’s was planted to cover for their absolutely unjustifiable, gross overreaction.
To start with, why initiate a police chase involving multiple officers rather than simply writing down his license plate and summonsing him to court? Reasonable people should agree that adding a charge of “failure to stop” beats firing 90 bullets and executing Walker or even creating the circumstances under which it might happen.

JYNAI MCDONALD FILES FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMPLAINT
Jynai McDonald, who is challenging 11th Hampden District incumbent state representative Bud L. Williams in the September primary, has filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) against Springfield Technical Community College for allowing Williams to host a weekly radio program on its WTCC radio station. McDonald notified the station in May but Williams was not removed until after his last program on July 8th. The complaint raises some interesting questions. If STCC was notified in May, it was probably obligated by FCC rules to either remove Williams immediately or to allow McDonald equal time when she notified them in May. But STCC has a standing rule that persons hosting WTCC programs and running for office must stop hosting only two months before elections. Which means that STCC rules conflict with FCC rules. Any first-year law student or anybody with a functioning brain can correctly guess which rule governs. Right? But we shall see. But a few peculiarities about the situation still puzzle me. Williams was not a party to McDonald’s FCC complaint, which seems proper. But he might be vulnerable to a campaign fundraising complaint based on the argument that he knew or should have known the FCC rules and their conflict with the STCC rules that he benefited from during the two months he was allowed to remain on the air. Just saying! And another strange thing is that Jynai McDonald is an STCC trustee who probably deserved a bit more attention. What’s that about?! Somebody at STCC wasn’t minding the store.

THE OPTICS OF LEADING WITH THE CHIN
Any rooky who watches boxing or mixed martial arts knows full well that leading with your chin is never advisable and most often terminable. Somebody should advise Mayor Domenic Sarno to stop leading with his chin. His greatest strength is the abundance of money flowing into the city that he had no part in making happen. His was pure luck that evaded at least the last four mayors before him who had to struggle through tight financial times, most of whom (probably all) possessed a much more robust intellectual capacity. But this unanticipated abundance of wealth seemed to have swelled Sarno’s brain and narrowed his scope because, time after time, he has exposed himself to unnecessary turmoil like the most recent dust up over ARPA funds (American Rescue Plan Act) that arrived in city coffers months ago. Councilor Tracye Whitfield pointed out in a news release that of 1,586 ARPA applications, only 79 had been granted. Of that number, 472 senior applicants and 293 household applicants are still waiting to hear something about their requests for funds since as early as November 2021 while more powerful people, often wealthier, received funds. As Councilor Justin Hurst related to The Republican, “For some seniors, it’s been a year since they put in their applications. Our frustration is that we’ve heard this song and dance about doing “everything we can.” If this is everything we can do, then there’s going to be a lot of people who are left out, discouraged and are going to stop applying.” (July 12, 2022) Wouldn’t Sarno’s pals love that! Even more significant, if Sarno is not more careful, voters are going to remember his promise to eliminate the trash fee imposed by his predecessor that got him elected. Not only did he not keep his promise but he increased the fee for many, especially small businesses who he forced to use a private vendor at a substantially inflated fee. What many don’t realize is that Sarno has been leading with his chin from the beginning but, now, it seems to be catching up with him.

NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED
By now President Joe Biden must be recalling the old saying that “No good deed goes unpunished.” He brought sanity to government generally, brought the pandemic response under control, released a torrent of money into the economy including unheard of direct payments to households in a period of pandemic-related unemployment, financed the airlines to withstand their pandemic losses, presided over an economy that has more jobs in the shortest period of time ever and that resulted in the lowest unemployment rate in decades, bailed out states and municipalities and much more. And the money is still coming. And his reward? Popularity ratings well below 40% and declining while those who he helped out of a crisis clamor for more. Woe is Joe! ■