Donald Trump is not a rapist. But you already knew that.

 ABC and George Stephanopoulos settled Donald Trump's defamation lawsuit for $15 million to be paid as a donation to Trump's future presidential foundation. Stephanopoulos said Trump was found liable in a civil case for raping a woman, which wasn't true. 

In addition to the money settlement, Stephanopoulos and ABC will publish a statement expressing regret for the error and pay $1 million toward Trump's legal fees.

Donald Trump is a nationally known celebrity and political leader, and the U.S. Supreme Court has laid down rigorous restrictions on defamation lawsuits brought by public figures. To prevail on a libel claim, a public figure must prove that the defendant acted maliciously by knowingly publishing a falsehood or with reckless disregard for whether the statement is true.

George Stephanopoulos is not the only person who has labeled Trump as a rapist. That falsehood has repeatedly been alleged on social media and in the legacy press. However, those allegations have probably been scrubbed from the web in light of the ABC settlement.

Responsible journalists who have circulated this falsehood should follow George Stephanopolis's example and publicly admit they regret their error. And perhaps an apology is in order--whether or not it is sincere.

Photo credit: NY Times

Americans aren't healthy: Let's give RFK Jr. a chance as HHS Secretary

 My great-grandfather, Jonah Fossey, emigrated from England with his family in the 1880s. He landed in Halifax and died at the age of 96 in Nickerson, Kansas.

Jonah's son, William James Fossey, moved to Oklahoma Territory as a young man. He established a grocery store in Buffalo, Oklahoma, and a cattle-hauling business and died at 92.

James Fossey, my father, grew up in northern Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl years. He joined the Army Air Corps before Pearl Harbor, was captured by the Japanese, and survived the Bataan Death March. Dad died in a VA hospital in 1999 at the age of 81.

I'm 76 years old, have two stents in my arteries, and suffered a debilitating stroke in 2022. A cyst covers the entire right lobe of my thyroid gland, so the ol' thyroid's got to go. I will be fortunate to live as long as my father and have no chance of living into my 90s as my grandfather and great-grandfather did.

Americans aren't living as long as they did just a few years ago; my family is just one example. The U.S. spends more on healthcare than any other developed country, yet we don't live as long as the Europeans.

Donald Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services. RFK Jr. is fiercely critical of our nation's healthcare system and food industry. Trump haters claim Kennedy is "unhinged." Froma Harrop, a reliable shill for progressive Democrats, recently published an op-ed calling him a weirdo, an idiot, and a fruitcake.

I say let's give RFK Jr. a chance. We are not a healthy nation. One in three American adults is prediabetic, and 40 percent are obese. We gotta do better; we gotta live better.

Speaking of fruitcakes. I ate a lot of fruitcakes as a kid during my family's bleak Christmas celebrations. Is that why a cyst is taking over my thyroid gland?

RFK Jr. Photo credit: Politico.

Why do Ivy Leaguers commit crimes? The sad case of Luigi Mangione

 Luigi Mangione was valedictorian of his class at an exclusive Baltimore prep school and received two engineering degrees from Penn, an Ivy League university. He could look forward to a rich and fulfilling life. Then, he was charged with assassinating an insurance executive in New York City.

Several years ago, Brittany Smith, a Harvard undergraduate, pled guilty to criminal acts in connection with the killing of a drug dealer by her boyfriend, who had been living with her in her Harvard dorm room. Smith received a three-year sentence after pleading guilty to five criminal charges, including lying to a grand jury.

Colinford Mattis graduated from  Princeton University and New York University's law school and had a good job with a New York City law firm. Last year, he was sentenced to one year in jail for firebombing a police car. 

All these young people attended Ivy League universities and had their whole lies before them. Why would they commit crimes?

I can think of three explanations. First, some people who receive degrees from prestigious universities believe they have elevated moral principles that entitle them to commit crimes. What would make Mangione think he was committing a righteous act by allegedly gunning down the father of two children?

Second, some Ivy League criminals may think the rules of civilized behavior don't apply to them due to their heightened social status. Brittany Smith was living with her boyfriend in a Harvard dorm room in violation of Harvard housing rules. Perhaps she thought that her criminal acts would have no consequences.

Finally, I think some people with Ivy League credentials delude themselves that a criminal episode is thrilling and won't affect their career projectories. It was probably fun to throw a firebomb into a police car. What could go wrong?

On average, people who graduate from elite colleges commit fewer crimes than the general population. Most are highly intelligent and acutely aware that their educational advantages behoove them to live by high moral standards.

Nevertheless, we should not assume that everyone who attended an Ivy League school is brilliant with stellar scruples. Some of them, like the rest of us, go astray and throw away all the opportunities that their college degrees afforded them.

Luigi Mangione

More Biden pardons may be coming. Don't be afraid to ask for one.

 Many progressive Democrats recoiled in horror when President Biden pardoned his son Hunter for every crime he might have committed going back to 2014. Old Joe took a lot of heat from the legacy media for breaking his promise not to let Hunter off the hook for his various high jinks, but Whoopie Goldberg of  The View stood by him--which is what's important.

In fact, the Hunter-pardon caper went so well that Biden staffers are thinking about getting the President to issue preemptive pardons to other Biden cronies to protect them from President Trump's vengeance. Biden's people floated the names of three people who might need pardons for the things they did to thwart Trump's agenda: Liz Cheney. Anthony Fauci, and Senator-elect Adam Schiff.

I have two problems with this notion.  First, pardoning someone for misdeeds because they might be vigorously prosecuted reminds me of the proverbial man who killed his parents and then begged the court for mercy because he's an orphan. 

Second, I don't think Biden has the power to pardon people for theoretical crimes for which they haven't been charged or convicted. It is true, for example, that Liz Cheney is an asshole, but that's not a federal crime for which she can be prosecuted.

I don't think Biden will issue preemptive pardons to political figures who haven't been charged with a crime. Doing so would only embarrass the people who receive such pardons, and accepting a blanket pardon would be an implicit admission of criminal wrongdoing.

On the other hand, I believe President Biden will seriously consider pardoning family members who have been credibly accused of profiting from a money laundering and influence-peddling scheme while Joe was serving as Vice President. If proven, these accusations could lead to serious jail time.

However, pardoning the Biden clan for unspecified hypothetical crimes would be risky. Millions of people would wonder why Doctor Jill and Joe's brother James need a pardon, which might prompt honest district attorneys to investigate.

Long Live the Gingerbread People!

 Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that Trader Joe's grocery stores sell all kinds of delectable snack foods. 

Yesterday, I returned from Trader Joe's with a box of gingerbread cookies. The box's cellophane window revealed traditional little gingerbread figures—just like the gingerbread men I devoured as a kid.

As I tore into the contents, I was pleased to see that the box was labeled "Mini Gingerbread People," not "Mini Gingerbread Men." That's good, I thought to myself. Trader Joe's is woke and fully invested in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

However, as I bit into my first cookie,  I was horrified to see that all the little gingerbread figures were covered with white icing. I could discern no Latinex gingerbread people, no BIPOC people, no cookies that represented the LGBTQX community.

Indeed, as I spread the confections on a plate, I realized I was looking at a pile of cleverly disguised cis-gendered, white Christian nationalist cookie men. I spat out this despicable little symbol of racism, sexism, and homophobia. I immediately took my box of gingerbread people back to my local Trader Joe's store and demanded a full refund.

Not surprisingly, the store manager profusely apologized and assured me that all boxes of gingerbread people were being recalled nationwide and would be off Trader Joe's shelves by sundown.

Whew! That was close. Now, I can devote all my time to persuading the municipal road maintenance department to change the name of manholes to person holes, maintenance holes, or inspection chambers.

Racism, misogyny, and homophobia have contaminated America's food supplies.

President Biden pardons Hunter. What about Jill?

 The legacy media, in a frenzy of mendacity and hypocrisy, claims to be disappointed by President Biden's pardon of his son Hunter. After all, old Joe said repeatedly that he wouldn't give his wayward child a get-out-jail-free card.

"We haven't seen a pardon this sweeping as Hunter Biden's in generations," Politico said in a breathless headline. Moreover, Politico pointed out, "The starting date of Jan. 1, 2014, in the Biden pardon was surely not chosen randomly." 

Indeed, the date was undoubtedly chosen to cover Hunter's time on the board of Burisma Holdings. Burisma, you may recall, is the Ukrainian gas company that lavishly paid Hunter while his dad was Vice President.

A New York Times story, in a touching display of naivety, reported that Joe Biden changed his mind about pardoning his crack-sniffing offspring based partly on the fear that President Trump would wreak vengeance on his beloved son. The Times journalists overlooked the far more plausible explanation for Joe Biden's flip-flop-- that our gasbag president was simply lying. 

Other outlets worried that the Hunter pardon would tarnish Joe's presidential legacy, which is laughable. What legacy? 

Joe was cognitively diminished the day he took office. His extravagant spending triggered rampant inflation. His bumbling machinations in Ukraine damn near started a nuclear war with Russia, and his administration's retreat from Afghanistan was a disaster. 

Joe Biden's legacy is simply this: He was a demented grifter who significantly reduced our nation's standing as the leader of the Free World. I'm sure the curators at the Biden Presidential Library will explain all this with instructive dioramas and pre-recorded lectures.

I predict that Joe Biden isn't through issuing pardons. Several friends and family members have been credibly accused of participating in an influence-peddling and money-laundering scheme. Surely, he will pardon Dr. Jill and his brother James.

When Biden issues more pardons to his cronies, his media fans will be further dismayed.  However, the legacy media will melt down into apoplectic rage when President Trump pardons all the January 6th protesters, which Trump has promised to do. 

That day is coming. When those pardons are issued, I'll enjoy reading what the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Politico will say about Trump's merciful gesture--not to mention the wizened sages on The View.

The Times is shocked, shocked, about the Hunter pardon.
Photo credit: Judicial Watch and Politico

Moving the Nation's Capital Out of the District of Columbia. An Idea Whose Time Has Come?

People's Republic, Kurt Schlichter's post-apocalyptic novel, posits a breakdown of the American Republic as the Blue States collapse under the weight of woke politics and break off into a separate country.

 Schlichter labels the new nation-state the People's Republic of North America, which he envisions as being georaphically divided. The western segment is comprised of California, Oregon, and Washington. The eastern portion encompasses the East Coast states stretching from Maine to northern Virginia and the Rust Belt states of the upper Midwest.

Sandwiched between these breakaway regions, the old United States of America is now reduced to the Southern states, the Plains states, and the Rocky Mountains West. The new capital city is Dallas.

I thought about Schlichter's novel as I pondered President Trump's proposal to close the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., and move the agents out into the real world, where they could revive the FBI's original mission of arresting the bad guys.

Why the hell not? It makes sense to separate our nation's premier law enforcement agency from the bureaucratic morass in the District of Columbia, where the FBI morphed itself from a crime-fighting agency into stormtroopers for the Democratic Party.

Nevertheless, the FBI will need a new headquarters. I suggest Dallas as the location of the new FBI central office. 

Dallas is a sober, common-sense city where citizens are discouraged from defecating on the sidewalks. Unlike Minneapolis, where disgruntled dwellers are free to burn the town down, or Los Angeles, where shoplifting has become a competitive sport with varsity and JV divisions, most Dallasites obey the law. Doesn't it make sense for the FBI headquarters to be in a law-abiding town?

Indeed, Trump should pursue a broader vision than simply relocating the FBI. Why not move the entire capital from the District of Columbia to a new location as yet unsullied by corruption, incompetence, and venality? 

Let's move all the federal bureaucrats to a new capital in Dallas, Omaha, Pocatello, Bakersfield, or perhaps Fargo, North Dakota. 

Such a move would force our bigoted and provincial coastal elites to stop referring to America's Heartland as Flyover Country. More importantly, it would give the denizens of the Deep State an opportunity to fumigate the pesthole on the Potomac where our nation's capital now resides.