Four Things We Learned This Week

So here are some of the things we learned this week.

1. Judge T.S. Ellis proved federal sentencing guidelines aren't really meant for people like Paul Manafort. Ellis sentenced the former Trump campaign manager to 47 months in jail after he was found guilty of eight counts of bank and tax fraud. Prosecutors said the guidelines carried a recommendation of 19 to 24 years.

On the other hand, last March a black woman in Texas was convicted on one count of voter fraud after she cast a ballot in the 2016 election while still on supervised probation. The judge in her case slapped Crystal Mason with five years in the joint. For those not mathematically astute, that is 13 months longer than Manafort got.

2. Donald Trump continues to hear things that have never been said. On the south lawn of the White House this morning, among other things, The Big Orange Guy said this about Manafort's sentencing, "...but if you notice both his lawyer, a highly respected man, and a very highly respected man, a judge, said there was no collusion with Russia."

Actually the judge didn't say there was, no collusion with Russia. He did say Manafort's entire trial wasn't about, "anything having to do with colluding with the Russian government." In other words no one ever said the trial was about collusion. That whole ball of sticky wax is being handled by Bob Mueller and it's an entirely separate affair.

3. Locally, if your 19 year old son, in the words of his sister, "...has not been in the right state of mind for a few years now," he shouldn't be allowed to carry a Glock 17. Monday, Eli Walker admitted to police he killed his parents with the gun. Walker told cops he, "...believed he did the right thing because they were sending him messages telepathically and they were Satan worshippers." Eli's brother, Isaiah told authorities his brother often carried the Glock around because he was, "paranoid." He shot his dad, "...anywhere I could hit him," then plugged his mother in the back as she tried to get away. Officers retrieved 19 spent shell casings.

For those wondering how Oklahoma handles nightmares like this, in November a new state law kicks in which allows anyone 21 and over to openly carry a firearm without a whit of training, or any certification. It goes without saying mental competency exams aren't required either. The gun crowd calls the new measure freedom. The rest of us have other names for it.

4. And last, but not least, don't get yourself chucked into the Oklahoma County Jail. The Oklahoman reported this morning, Charles Lemons was thrown into the county lock up Saturday, July 21 of last year after being accused of a probation violation. He sat there eight months without an attorney, or even an arraignment. Lemons, who is homeless, told Oklahoman reporter, Nolan Clay, "I was thinking, they forgot me. I really didn't know what to do."

Today a team of public defenders will conduct a court ordered inmate by inmate audit at the facility to see if anyone else has been, "forgotten." Sheriff, P.D. Taylor complained to the media the audit will take, "hours." At this moment his jail holds 1,650 prisoners--one less than it did yesterday. In addition the odds are overwhelming Charlie Lemons will finally get an attorney and he, or she will be a really good one.

Well, this sort of shit happens when, you're a black woman, a congenital liar, let your bat shit crazy son possess a gun, and don't have the sort of juice Paul Manafort does.

We even have a name for it. It's called, The American Way.

Ladies and gentlemen, as you've probably guessed, it is time to, once again, retire to the bar.


sic vita est


3-8-19