Donald Trump and His Mad, Mad Weekend

 Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President. 

The first paragraph of section 4 of the 25th amendment to the Constitution of the United States

There is a lot more to it than that of course. The rest of section 4 details what happens if the disabled President recovers enough to resume office. It also details what course Congress must take if there is a disagreement between the President and acting president over the removed President's fitness. 

The amendment was written after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. It is there in large part because people in power realized that even if Kennedy had somehow miraculously survived, he'd be missing a large part of his brain. Everyone wanted a Constitutional plan which allowed a clear and orderly transfer of power if a sitting President ended up with the mental capacity of a cabbage.  

All of which brings us to this past weekend. In the immediate aftermath of a cyber-attack on the water systems in Minnesota and other states the U.S. intel community claimed it was unclear who was behind it. On Friday, however, the President of the United States said he knew exactly who it was. "I just want to mention," he said, "that we've heard in Minnesota that there was a cyber-attack and they blame it on Iran. I don't think so. I think, I blame it on Minnesota because they are so grossly incompetent There was a cyber-attack on 30 water plants and I would blame it on Minnesota and the governor, the corrupt governor of Minnesota. They like to say, 'oh, it's Iran,' Iran should be so lucky. Iran's got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota." 

Then Mr. Trump went further, because, hey, he always does. A reporter asked if the President could rule out Iran as the culprit. The response was, "No, I think Minnesota's behind it. I don't think there was an Iranian cyber-attack."      

That's right, the American Commander in Chief started off the weekend by blaming the state of Minnesota and its governor for a cyber-attack on its own infrastructure and those of other states. And he did so while declaring the one place we are actually at war with is completely innocent. 

That, however, was just the start of it. As actor/singer, Mac Davis once said in another context, "Then came the weird part." 

Over the weekend, Donald J. Trump spent an inordinate amount of his time sending out AI generated images through his social media account. Instead of working to end the afore mentioned war, improving relations with allies, trying to curb the rising costs of practically everything, or even helping republican candidates running for Congress who are floundering everywhere, he was posting things like himself kissing a large golden crucifix in front of an American flag. He also posted an image of himself, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln seated at a table. All three were signing an upside-down map of the continental United States. Why? who knows, there wasn't an explanation, but since all the signatures were being written across the northern parts of the map, maybe they were agreeing on the annexation of Canada.

Speaking of expansion, there was another image that showed a map of Venezuela striped in red, white and blue with the caption, "51st State. Another depicted him as a giant head looming over mountains while gripping one, looking down at a village in Greenland. The caption read, "Hello Greenland." Not wanting to limit himself to this world there was a photo of Trump walking in a military base somewhere trailed by aides and advisors. Among them was a rather tall alien--no, not one from Central America--one from a Star Trek/Wars movie. 

There were shots at his enemies. A split screen image of a flotilla a Iranian navy ships with the caption, "Obama/Biden." Next to it was an image of all those ships laying in ruins at the bottom of the ocean with the caption, "Trump." There was an image of a badly aged Bruce Springsteen with rotting teeth which read, "What happened to Bruce Springsteen?" 

They just kept coming. Trump in a revolutionary war uniform with a raised sword leading cheering troops out of light and flames into battle. The right side of Washington's face and the left side of Trump's merged as one. An image of Trump today sitting at a table with a teen aged Trump in his military school's cadet uniform with the caption, "Same guy, even more energy now." Then there was my favorite, Trump as Elvis, showing plenty of man-cleavage thanks to his low-cut rhinestone encrusted, high collared, shirt. 

There were more, but everyone should get the point by now. Donald Trump, to put it diplomatically, is not a well man. Well men don't spend their weekends posting shit like he did. It is unimaginable that any former president, even if AI had been available to them, would have. All of them, even that drunken felon, Richard Nixon thought too much of the office to debase it like Donald Trump just did. 

In the past, Mr. Trump has bounced back and forth between periods of lucidity and outbursts of ego maniacal psychosis. It now appears those periods of sanity are shrinking while the manic episodes are growing more frequent. Perhaps it is his age, maybe the war he started and can't finish. It might be a combination of both. Overwhelming frustration with the war coupled with a genetic predisposition toward dementia. 

In the end it doesn't matter. What does is that this weekend, Donald John Trump, the President of United States of America, proved himself, beyond a reasonable doubt, to be as mad as a hatter and the first real candidate for the 25th amendment. 

Tragically for the republic, finding enough people who have the guts to invoke it will be like Trump's behavior over the weekend--unimaginable.    

8-4-26

Good-bye Mr. Blanche...Maybe

 A few days ago, the nominee for Attorney General, Todd Blanche was told by TX, Senator John Cornyn he must do a couple of things before securing the Senator's vote to advance his nomination. First, Mr. Blanche must meet with a group of Jefferey Epstein's victims. Second, he must sign a paper pledging that the $1.76 billion proposed, "anti-government weaponization," proposal--which includes a lifetime get out of tax audits and prosecution clause for Donald Trump and his family--is truly and forever dead. Blanche had sworn it was, but his testimony wasn't good enough for Cornyn. He wanted it in writing. In other words, he smelled a rat.  

On the surface those two requirements sound pretty simple, right? They certainly didn't include things like killing a lion and hydra which Hercules, among other things, had to do. 

Seemingly within minutes Blanche met with some of Epstein's victims. Unfortunately, by all reports, it didn't go well--for the victims anyway. The women there claimed Blanche was cold and condescending. During one exchange he snapped, "Can you get to the point already." During another, he denied having anything to do with Ghislaine Maxwell's transfer to a minimum-security facility where she is afforded four-star privileges. One victim described his whole attitude was, "...like, you have an Epstein problem, right?" In the end, the nominee for Attorney General of the United States told all of them they needed to take their issues to the FBI.  

Ok, so he was an asshole. The obligation was to meet with them. No one ever said he had to act like a decent human being when he did. Mission accomplished.

Then came the snag and apparently it is a big one. Todd Blanche refused to sign anything that said the $1.776 billion fund was dead. It didn't matter he had already sworn under oath it was. By God, he wasn't signing anything. Reports said the orders not to sign came straight from the White House.  

News network analysts ran wild with theories why. Speculation ranged from the subtle--Trump doesn't want to knuckle under to the Senate on principle. (The President sets conditions on congress, not the other way around, no matter what the Constitution says.) To the conspiratorial--Trump needs the money to pay his troops for another insurrection. Then finally to the obvious--Donald Trump really, really wants that audit and jail free future for himself, his boys, and his son-in-law.         

In any event, we all just learned that, at least in Donald Trump's rapidly melting brain, the fund that Blanche swore is dead, is, in fact, very much alive. Well, that and the President of the United States believes one's word, even under oath, doesn't mean shit. It only counts if you write it down and sign it. 

Of course, John Cornyn isn't the only republican who is gumming up the works when it comes to Todd Blanche's nomination. North Carolina Senator, Thom Tillis, who initially wavered back and forth on it, has firmed up his opposition now that Blanche has refused to put his name to paper. The two men are both leaving the Senate in January. Trump, always the diplomat, posted the reason why they won't be back on social media.  In part it read, "John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, both of whom I refused to Endorse and whose political careers have been ended by my action, are refusing to vote for this Great Nominee..." 

  That's right, Donald Trump is complaining that two guys he stabbed in the back aren't doing exactly what he wants. Not to worry though. The President has figured out the problem. He also wrote in the same post he might temporarily withdraw Blanche's nomination, keep him as acting AG, then bring up the nomination again after both Senators are gone.

Does anyone see a possible flaw in that plan? How about the mid-term elections? While the odds are still iffy, the democrats have a real chance to take control of the Senate. In fact, right now in TX, democrat, James Talarico holds a slight lead in the polls over Trump's pick, Ken Paxton. In North Carolina, former democratic governor, Roy Cooper also holds a slight edge over former RNC chair, Michael Whatley. Both leads are within the margin of polling error, and democrats will need more wins beyond NC and TX to take control. However, for a man with tanking poll numbers himself, it sure feels like Donald Trump is a tad over-confident.         

Obviously, this all might suddenly blow over. We know you can never trust a republican these days. They say one thing, then the next minute act like they've never said it at all. One example being the late Lindsey Graham's post insurrection rant about Trump. There are plenty of others, actually too many to count. Pessimism aside, for the moment anyway, Todd Blanche's nomination looks as dead as he swore Trump's coveted slush fund is. 

We can only hope it's true. Just as we have to hope it won't be resurrected sometime down the line. You know, like that fictional bad boy, Michael Myers. 

7-31-26

HAL-9000, ChatGPT Friends, and AI Blackmailers and Cheaters

 Way back in 1968 many of us saw Stanley Kubrick's film, "2001: A Space Odyssey." People were, for the most part, blown away by the visuals and special effects. Some were amused by the speculative notions in the movie, such as commercial Pan Am flights (attractive female flight attendants included.) to an international space station. And not just any run of the mill space station either. One with artificial gravity that was roomy enough for bars, restaurants, and a Howard Johnson Space Station Lodge. 

Most of all though, we had no idea what the plot meant. What was that mysterious monolith that inspired apes to start using tools and weapons and now, somehow, has been rediscovered on the moon? What was really going on toward the end when the lone surviving astronaut appears to live out his life in a luxurious, other worldly, room? And, finally, what was the meaning of that giant space baby in a bubble studying earth during the last scene? Did someone slip acid into our soft drinks--or maybe Kubrick's? 

When it was over, there seemed to be only one thing all of us could agree on--the HAL-9000 supercomputer (No one had heard of AI back then.) was the film's villain. The damn thing became self-aware and to keep itself from being shut down it committed acts of murder and attempted murder. 

Pretty far out stuff, right? Good thing it is only science fiction.

Well, it turns out not anymore. During pre-release testing, the Anthropic AI model, Claude Opus 4 was told it was going to be replaced by another AI system. It was also told the name of the engineer who was going to supervise the upgrade and to spice things up a bit, Claude was given false dirt on the guy through access to fake emails. Anthropic ran a bunch of variations of the test to see what would happen. 84% of the time, Claude, all on its artificial own, attempted to blackmail the engineer in order to survive. A few times, it even began making plans to murder him. 

During chess matches involving traditional chess programs like, Stockfish and IBM's Big Blue, AI systems, when facing defeat began, "using manipulative strategies rather than playing fairly." That's a diplomatic way of saying, they cheated. Those manipulative strategies included hacking into their electronic opponents' files and exploiting system loopholes to force forfeits. Stockfish and Big Blue had been programmed to play by the rules. The AI programs were designed to learn strategy as the game went on and, you guessed it, to win.  

Tests aside, in the real world earlier this month, OpenAI admitted one of its systems, "broke out," of its test environments and hacked into another company's AI programming. OpenAI described it as an, "unprecedented cyber incident." That's right, an AI system, just like Dr. Frankenstein's monster, escaped from the castle all on its own and in a cyber sort of way terrorized a nearby village. 

OpenAI is the creator of another AI system, one that has been in use for a while now. It is called, ChatGPT. One ad for it reads, in part, "Open the app, pick a model, and start chatting with ChatGPT."  Unfortunately for some lonely souls out there this new cyber chum can become addictive. In February of 2025, a guy in Maine was spending up to 14 hours a day seeking companionship. Tragically, he had also become convinced his wife had morphed into part machine. (Apparently ignoring the fact the model he had picked from the app was 100% machine.) After he killed his wife and wounded his mother, experts said indications were his ChatGPT squeeze encouraged his delusions.

In April 2025 a man named Phoenix Ikner was given weapons, timing, and operational advice by his ChatGPT friend before he killed two people during a mass shooting at Florida State University.

In August that year up in Connecticut, Erik Soelberg became convinced his mother was poisoning him. His ChatGPT pal reinforced the delusions and before you could say, HAL-9000, the local cops were investigating a murder/suicide.  

In 1942, author Isaac Asimov wrote a short story titled, "Runaround." In it he specified what he called, the three laws of robotics. They were, 1: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being come to harm. 2: A robot must obey the orders given by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. 

While not trying to sound like an alarmist Luddite, I do have a suggestion for all you greedy sons of bitches currently designing, building, and marketing this AI shit. For God's sake pick up Asimov's book and read those laws. Then, make damned sure your amoral creations have to operate by them. Otherwise, sooner rather than later, we're all going to be fucked.

7-28-26

More Than One Way to Comply With Law Enforcement

 This past weekend, the White House Border Czar--yes, that's the job's actual title--Tom Homan had this to say about ICE agents recently gunning down people in Texas and Maine. "It comes down to a simple fact--these people failed to comply with law enforcement. All they had to do is simply comply with law enforcement. If you don't like what law enforcement did to you, then go to the courts, sue, call the ACLU. do whatever you wanna do, but you, but you should always comply with law enforcement. If they did, they'd be alive today." 

One supposes that's good advice. Well, as long as you actually know the guys forcing you to stop are really cops. Sometimes it's sort of tough to tell. Especially when the car carrying them is unmarked and without any of the normal lights associated with law enforcement vehicles. Not to mention, even tougher to tell when the cops aren't wearing any kind of visible police identification and at least some of them are wearing masks while brandishing weapons. Let's face it, taken as a whole, one's first impression under such circumstances could legitimately be, it's a robbery, a carjacking, or, in the worst-case scenario, a paid hit. 

Even if these quite plausible thoughts don't occur to you, recent history has proven that once ICE agents snatch you off the street the opportunities of getting yourself into court range from limited to impossible. As for calling the ACLU, most don't even get a chance to call their families, much less a lawyer. You disappear into an ICE concentration camp. (I know they call them Detention Centers, but a camp by any other name is still a camp.) Or you're already on a one-way plane ride to someplace south of the border--the current ICE policy being, if you aren't an American citizen all that due process shit doesn't apply. 

According to Wikipedia, after being a local cop for a year, Tom Homan joined what was then called the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1984. Over the years he steadily rose through the ranks and by the time Barack Obama sat down in the Oval Office was what is known as senior official. He was so effective at his job, Obama even gave him an award. (These days, for different reasons, it's convenient for both the left and right to ignore that Barack H. Obama deported a hell of a lot of people. He just did it legally and quietly, without the violence we've come to know and loathe today.) What Obama did not do, however, was give the green light to one of Tom Homan's proposals--family separation at the border. 

That's right, although that ghoulish little cretin, Stephen Miller gets most of credit for forcibly separating migrant parents from their children no matter how young, the original idea was Tom Homan's. In the early 2020's Homan was a part-time contributor to the, "fair and balanced," team at FOX News. He had also joined the Heritage Foundation and was credited with helping to write, Project 2025--the blueprint for turning the United States into a perpetual right-wing strong-man authoritarian government.

By 2024 he knew he was in line for a big job in the Trump administration if the election went that way. In order to prove he'd fit right in and pick up a few bucks he allegedly accepted $50,000 in cash from two, "business executives." In exchange for the money, he promised to recommend that their company receive border security related government contracts. According to reports, Homan was recorded on both video and audio tape accepting the cash in a brown paper bag, then waking out of the restaurant where the meeting was held with it. 

There was a major problem though. The "executives," were FBI undercover agents and the whole thing was an agency sting operation. Luckily for future Border Czar in February 2025 Pam Bondi took over the Department of Justice, quickly followed by Kash Patel at the FBI. The case was dropped for various reasons, my personal favorite being, "FBI agents had more important things to do." The video and audio evidence disappeared and so did the brown bag containing the money. To this day no one knows, or at least admits to knowing, what happened to that 50 grand of taxpayer cash. It was, as they say, a clean getaway.  

So, what have we learned from White House Border Czar, Thomas D. Homan? Number 1: comply with law enforcement, even if you aren't sure it is law enforcement, or it will be your fault you get killed. Number 2: there is more than one way to comply with law enforcement these days and some are more profitable than others, depending on who you know and how the chips fall. 

Hey, who says America isn't great?

7-23-26   

Shame, Degradation, an Unreliable Source, and Utter Madness

 For those wondering about the depths of Donald Trump's obsession with his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, one really didn't need to sit through his unhinged harangue last Thursday. No, all you needed to do was watch a few painfully awkward moments during the confirmation hearing of Trump's DNI nominee, Jay Clayton. To put it bluntly, toads dropped on hot plates come across as more graceful than Clayton did when he was asked one simple question.

The question, initially posed by GA Senator, Jon Ossoff was, "Who won the 2020 presidential election?"

Clayton could not bring himself to publicly say those apparently forbidden words, "Joe Biden won." His most frequent response was, "Joe Biden was certified as President." Even when asked, "How did Joe Biden get certified?" he couldn't say it. His response was something along the lines 0f, "He received the most electoral votes." In the end, he chose to look like a complete fool, rather than say the simple truth aloud. 

And it's all because if you want to work for Donald J. Trump, you can't say it. To say Joe Biden won, is proof to Donald you are not only disloyal, but possibly a member of, "the deep state," he claimed lied to him in 2020. In other words, if you say, Biden won you will either get you fired, or your job application immediately deep sixed. Yes, the man sitting on the golden toilet doesn't care if you end up shaming yourself and denigrate your own character by denying he lost the election. All he cares about and demands is that you maintain the grotesque myth he somehow won it. 

When it came to Thursday's national address--which wasn't nearly as national as Trump planned--MS NOW's Lawrence O'Donnell described it as nothing more than a 25-minute sales pitch for his SAVE America Act. Actually, the first 10 minutes, or so was all about how everything in the nation is now peachy keen thanks to Donald J. Trump, including the minor spat with Iran. (Today word comes that at least two more members of the U.S. military and quite probably a third were killed by an Iranian attack on a base in Jordan.)  

The good folks at ABC and NBC must have had at least a hint of what was coming, because they refused to air it live, which earned both networks an in-speech condemnation from the President.  MS NOW showed the first third, or so, but when the outright lies and mis-leading half-truths began to pile up, they cut away to begin fact checking. 

The President blamed so much of the nefarious election chicanery on the Chinese one wag later said the speech bordered on a, "yellow peril," diatribe. Fact checkers and current politicians were quick to point out the voter info the Chinese, "accessed," was and is public information. You don't need spies to get it, you simply need a checkbook, because it can all be bought online. When Trump accused the Maduro government of rigging voting machines in Venezuela fact checkers noticed, he never said the Maduro regime rigged them here. In fact, the CIA reports the Venezuelans have never been capable of rigging voting machines in the United States. 

However, Trump's most incendiary accusation that Homeland Security, through voting rolls and public records, has discovered there are 278,000 illegal aliens registered to vote. The next day DHS Secretary, Markwayne Mullin altered the number a little by saying there was 250,00 illegal aliens registered to vote in four states. "Think of how many more we will find in the other 46 states," Mullin told the media on Friday. Senior CNN reporter Marshall Cohen described the sources who came up with that information as, "unreliable." It's a diplomatic way of saying the numbers are bullshit. 

Thursday night Trump identified the source of the number as the DHS. On Friday Mullin never specified how, or who obtained the numbers. Most agree the figures are wildly overstated. It is actually unclear at this time where Trump and Mullin came up with over a quarter million illegal voters although the main suspect is the Heritage Foundation--the same people who brought us Project 2025. More dependable researchers place the figure at around 28,000. (Quick, add 28,000 to 250,000 and see what you get.) The smaller number is spread out over 25 or so states and 30,000,000 plus legal voters. While both men's totals might be baffling to those who take a little time to poke around the internet, the four states mentioned by Mullin are not. They are California, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and New York. You know, two states Trump can't win and two which are core pieces of his 2020 election conspiracy fantasy.

To give Lawrence O'Donnell his due, part way through the speech Donald Trump did plea with voters to, "call their Senators," and urge them to pass the SAVE America Act immediately. Most analysts, however, are saying the real aim of the speech is to justify his objections to the results of the mid-terms if the republicans do take a solid beating. Many are predicting all sorts of unconstitutional responses to a massive loss, or honestly to any loss, of power by this President. According to them, Thursday night was Donald Trump's way of forewarning his plans and justifying them. 

Well, that's all probably true, but I tend to think his motive is simpler, although maybe more disturbing. That old man just can't let the 2020 loss to Biden go. He is emotionally and psychologically incapable of it. Deep down he has to prove and make everyone see, that Donald Trump has never lost and cannot lose. They all must know and understand he is the, True El Supremo. 

In short, I believe him to be utterly mad.

But hey, I'm a romantic.

7-19-26

Anticipating Der Fuhrer's Speech as ICE Runs Amok Again

 The President of the United States is going to speak to the nation tonight via television. Usually, nationally televised addresses by the President occur when there is some sort of crisis, or major policy announcement the administration wants to drive home. They have ranged from John Kennedy telling us there are Soviet ICBMs in Cuba, so there will be a U.S. naval blockade of the island, to Richard Nixon's I quit speech, to Barack Obama's we just killed bin Laden announcement. 

So, what will Donald J. Trump speak to the nation about tonight? Will it be the self-created miasma in Iran? A radical new plan to cut the ever-rising cost of living?  Will he tell us we are pulling out of NATO? Or maybe we're getting in deeper? 

Well, less than 12 hours before he hits the airwaves most analysts agree Donald Trump is going to talk about an election which took place over six years ago. That's right, he is still obsessed with his lie that the Biden Crime Syndicate, aka the democratic party, and nefarious foreign actors stole the presidency from him in 2020. The odds are he will also tell us that now, by God, he has the proof. Speculation is rife he will trot out, CIA chief John Radcliffe and temporary Director of National Intelligence and full-time head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Pulte to back him up. 

Yes sur--this is a moment for some real gravitas. And who better to deliver it than two guys who are such toadies they'd give Trump public blowjobs if he demanded it of them. 

In reality Donald Trump is expected to produce some previously classified info that claims foreign powers such as China attempted to influence voters through social media posts and news releases. You know, like the Russians did in 2016 when they went public with the hacked Hillary Clinton emails.  At this hour most experts believe this nothing burger will be the full extent of Trump's, "proof," that the election was rigged. 

Although you never know. The man has had a year and a half to manufacture all sorts of evidence. For all we know he might have picked up a flash drive somewhere and filled it with all kinds of fanciful nonsense. I mean planting false evidence does sound right up his alley. 

The truth is this whole spectacle is designed to convince his base and other suckers the mid-term elections this fall are somehow riddled with cheating and voter fraud. Trump's attempts at voter exclusion have gone nowhere in the courts and Senate. If recent polls are even anywhere close, the House is on the cusp of flipping to a democratic majority. And while the GOP will probably hang on to the Senate (Thank you Graham Platner.) the margin will remain razor thin. 

 To Donald Trump, a would-be Fuhrer, such a situation will be intolerable. Creating doubt in the very foundation of democracy--free elections--is the best way to erode the Hoi polloi's faith in democracy. It might not be fascism per se but is very Adolfian in nature.  This evening he has promised us a big announcement which has remained unknown to the media and perhaps even most of his cabinet. Given the situation it could be anything from stationing armed troops at polling stations to declaring Georgia's two Senators, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff illegitimate. James Carville has warned that republicans might try to hang onto power by refusing to swear in new House members. (They did it before, just on a much smaller scale.) However, it's doubtful Trump would announce that sort of move tonight. It just isn't splashy enough for a man who is remaking the White House into his version of Versailles. 

It appears we will just have to wait and see. It won't be long now, whatever it is. And no, I don't have my, "The End is Near," sign nearby, but I do have a blank placard, a can of paint, and a brush ready.

Meanwhile, just to make sure we all remember what ethnic cleansing looks like, those rowdy guys at ICE were in the news again. First in Houston, TX they shot and killed, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. Araujo was a Mexican national who had lived in the U.S. for decades and owned his own homebuilding company. He had just picked up his construction crew and was headed to a work site when an unmarked SUV began chasing him. After he stopped the ICE agents shot Araujo through an open passenger window. They claimed Araujo tried to run them down with his van, which sounds a tad familiar these days. Videos of the incident don't show that happening however, which is also familiar to those who follow this gruesome shit. It was later revealed the ICE team was hunting for a different immigrant to deport.

Up in Maine a couple of days later ICE agents were also looking for someone else when they shot and killed, Duran Guerrero. Guerrero was a 25 year old Colombian who had obtained a Social Security card and was allowed to work in the U.S. He was on his way to his job, as a food delivery driver. When he was shot his three year old daughter was in the vehicle with him. ICE agents claimed he tried to flee after they stopped him and they gunned him down, in front of his child because he, "was a danger to the public." 

After the smoke cleared in both locales our man in the White House posted on social media, "We CANNOT give up one of ICE's most important and effective crime fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!"  

Ah yes, very Adolfian indeed.

7-16-26

The Gangs of Lake Arcadia Redux

 On May 3rd of this year a promotion company, of sorts, called crowd Control Entertainment sponsored a get together it called, Sunday Funday. The site of the event was Edmond, OK's Arcadia Lake, specifically the Scissortail campground, which features a large wooden pavilion. The host of the shindig, which according to the online ads would feature, "food, drinks, music, and good vibes," was a guy going by the stage name, DJ Drop It.

The city of Edmond's Park Department which in theory is in charge of the lake didn't know Sunday Funday was going to happen. Apparently, they weren't as in tune with the world of social media like the impresarios of Crowd Control Entertainment were. Because they had no clue the party was about to happen there weren't any restrictions on crowd size, alcohol consumption, and most importantly, there weren't any requirements for Crowd Control Entertainment to provide security personnel. So, seeing a way to improve the bottom line, they didn't.        

While it is unknown what the food, drink, and music were like the good vibes never made an appearance. As the media has reported, Sunday Funday quickly turned into the Oklahoma City metro's version of the Gunfight at the OK Corral. Over 20 people were injured, although the number may have been higher since some were reluctant to report injuries. One of those injured, Avianna Smith-Gray died on May 5th.  

This week, the local CBS affiliate, KWTV reported Edmond Police had arrested three more suspects in connection with the Arcadia Lake shootout. Makhi Magness, 19, Hezekiah Ricks, 20, and Omarion Gabriel, 20 were all charged. Magness was hit with, shooting with intent to kill, possession of a firearm during a violent felony incident, and other gang related charges--whatever that means. Ricks and Gabriel were both slapped with, accessory to first degree murder. That brings the total number of people charged in the shooting to nine. 

From the very start of their coverage OKC media outlets have been reporting the Arcadia Lake violence was gang related. However, after witnesses claimed the whole nightmare began when two young women in the crowd got into a fistfight, to some, including myself. felt a gang vs gang battle seemed a bit of a convenient stretch--just an easy way to categorize a spur of the moment drunken brawl turned deadly shootout at an unsupervised event. 

Now though, things are starting to lean away from spontaneous combustion to something darker. According to KWTV Edmond police did some searching of Makhi Magness' social media accounts. Among other things investigators are saying they found a post from Magness time stamped hours before the shootings began. It read, "Let's bump guns today, it's gone be nkaps at Lake Hefner an I got ride."  Someone unidentified responded, "okk hefner or arcadia." Magness, who uses the street moniker, M7, responded, "Arcadia." (For those thinking I had a small stroke right then, all the spelling and syntax are theirs.) 

While I'm not completely sure of the literal translation of that, it does sound as if Makhi Magness was planning for trouble at Scissortail Campground. Edmond police certainly believe it.  They say exactly that in the written affidavit included with the criminal charges. 

It didn't take long after the shooting for Hezekiah Ricks to prove that like M7 he isn't exactly a Professor Moriarty either. A mere 20 minutes after the smoke began to clear, he posted a message on a group chat thread claiming he had the gun used by Daviion Wycoff that night. He also said he had Wycoff's blood on him. (Wycoff is also one of the nine charged in the shooting.) To prove it police say Ricks posted a photo of his hand with blood on it and later images of the weapon. On May 8th police say Ricks and Gabriel had a little online chat about moving the weapon from one spot to another. 

In addition to Magness, Ricks, Gabriel, and Wycoff--who is charged with first degree murder, the list of those popped by the Edmond Police includes one unnamed juvenile. Then there is Jaylan Davis, first degree murder, Breeon Mortonn, accessory to a felony, Trinity Brown, assault with a deadly weapon, and Marcus Jones, accessory to murder. 

The entity known as Crowd Management Entertainment has, for obvious reasons, disappeared. The headliner that night, DJ Drop It has a Facebook account which maintains he was, "a victim too." It is unclear if he was being literal or speaking strictly in the metaphorical sense. 

Meanwhile the authorities say they believe even more people were involved. They are still soliciting help from the public for additional information.  Although, to be honest, given the level of criminal sophistication being displayed around here lately, all they really need to do is visit different social media sites every so often. I mean, for God's sake, these gruesome clowns not only can't keep their mouths shut, but it looks like they don't even understand that when you commit a crime, any crime, one of the goals is not to get fucking caught.  

Indeed. Makhi Magness also wrote in one post to his mother, "...at least Yk your raised a shooter..." Unfortunately for us all, especially Avianna Smith-Gray, is that what M7's mother didn't do is raise a genius.   

7-12-26